Apple donates 100 iPODS......

So there you are, a kid who just lost his entire house in the recent
Southern California wildfires. What would be at the top of your
wishlist? A new house? Returning to a sense of normalcy? All your old
possessions that are now irretrievably torched? Sorry, no can do. How's
about we just give you a free iPod nano and use you as a PR tool, would
that help? No? Just take the damn Nano kid, and smile for the cameras.
There we go. Good luck with that whole house thing.
Yes, Apple has donated 100 nanos to a group of kids who were victims of
the recent fires, which was nice of them. Sure, it wasn't completely
selfless, but it's not like it's their job to get them new houses or
whatever. It wasn't a random donation, either, but rather a request
that they fulfilled. Poway resident Steve Boyack emailed King Jobs
asking for them, saying that "iPods are an accessory most kids like and
can't live without." See, I would have said a bed is an accessory most
kids like and can't live without, but that's just me. In any case, soon
after shooting off the email, 100 nanos arrived into the hands of a
bunch of confused, homeless kids. Thanks, Apple!

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NYC Council to Consider Banning Horse-Drawn Carriages

NEW YORK (AP) --
The horse-drawn carriages that clip clop around Central Park could be
banned under City Council legislation to be introduced at the urging of
animal advocates who say the horses are treated inhumanely.



Councilman Tony Avella, who plans to introduce the bill next Wednesday,
said the horses that have entertained tourists and New Yorkers for
decades are exposed to cruel conditions and are at risk of injury or
death as they weave through city traffic.



In September, a horse died after it was spooked by street musicians
with drums and bolted down Central Park South. It was the second such
incident in less than two years.



"This situation is only getting worse -- the animals are not being
treated properly, and enough is enough,'' Avella said. "Horses are
incompatible with traffic -- especially midtown traffic.''



It is not clear how much support his bill has in the 51-member council,
and Mayor Michael Bloomberg said last week that the horses are cared
for and should stay as a New York City fixture.



"These are things that the tourists like and New Yorkers like and they define a city,'' he said.



The Horse & Carriage Association of New York issued a scathing
statement in response to the proposal, stating that the city's carriage
horses are in excellent health and Avella ``is the one who should be
put out to pasture.''

Technorati Tags: TONYLIMO, NYC, HORSES

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West 14th Street Apple Store

On Friday night at 6 p.m., the doors will formally open to the third and largest Apple retail store in Manhattan,
at the northernmost end of the Meatpacking District (it's on the corner
of West 14th Street and 9th Avenue, to be more specific). Unlike its
Fifth Avenue sibling, the West 14th Street Apple store won't be open
24/7--it closes at midnight, which might as well be the Meatpacking
District equivalent of three o'clock in the afternoon. It's probably
for the better. Steve Jobs has enough on his hands; he doesn't need to
have to deal with dubious lawsuits from drunk girls in stilettos who've
tumbled down that three-story glass staircase while trying to go hit on
the guys behind the Genius Bar (they get way cuter after four cosmopolitans!)

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Congress Wants Starbucks To Spy On You

The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday approved the SAFE Act,
a bill saying that anyone offering a Wi-Fi connection to the public
must report illegal images including “obscene” cartoons and
drawings–or face fines of up to $300,000.

The bill covers individuals, coffee shops, libraries, hotels,
government agencies, social-networking sites, domain name registrars,
Internet service providers, and e-mail service providers, and may
require that a complete record of a user’s activity be recorded
and saved.

In other words, the bill gives companies like Starbucks and your ISP a financial incentive to spy on you.

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Each Subway Line May Have a Manager

Transit officials plan to experiment with running New York's massive subway system like 24 separate railroads.



New York City Transit President Howard H. Roberts Jr. told The New York
Times each subway line could have its own manager, with authority to
make decisions ranging from fixing leaks to setting schedules.



The reorganization is set to start Monday with the 7 and L lines. It
could spread throughout the system over three years if officials like
what they see.



Roberts says he thinks decentralizing the management of the 660-mile
system will make it more responsive to rider complaints. The new
managers will be able to deploy more cleaners and special repair crews.



Almost 5 million passengers ride the subways on an average weekday.

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After 46 years on job, man is crowned Upper East Side's best doorman

Upper East Side doorman Steven Keschl has been voted the
neighborhood's best doorman - and after an amazing 46 years on the job,
it's well-deserved.

At 81, the big-hearted Hungarian native still happily greets residents, hails cabs and carries luggage on a daily basis.

"Good afternoon, my friends," a spry Keschl cooed as residents walked into 460 E. 79th St., where he has worked since 1961.

"There
isn't another doorman like Steve, and we're keeping him," gushed
apartment owner Rena Fafalios. "The building would close if he left."

"He's
part of the family here," agreed resident Argyro Pantazopoulos, 80, as
Keschl, dressed in his crisp green uniform, escorted her to a taxi.

Even
on the upper East Side, famed for its well-tailored and efficient
doormen, Keschl's devotion to the job is legendary: He has never missed
a day of work.

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10 Brooklyn restaurants Zagat praises

Zagat's guide to Brooklyn Looking

for somewhere to eat after a long day of Brooklyn shopping? Check out
this list of top Brooklyn restaurants, as listed in the Zagat guide.
For further information about New York dining, go to http://www.zagat.com.

Al Di La (Italian) 26 18 22 ($45)
Park Slope 248 Fifth Ave. (Carroll St.) M/N/R to Union St. 718-783-4565 www.aldilatrattoria.com
"Al-di-lightful",
this "really special" Park Slope Venetian showcases Anna
Klinger’s "superlative" cuisine, offered at "hard-to-beat" prices
and served by a "caring" crew in a "cozy" "communal" dining room; the
"no-reservations policy" leads to "painful waits", though, so "get your
gondola there early" - or try their "wonderful" "around-the corner"
wine bar.

Di Fara (Pizza) 27 4 7 ($13)
Midwood 1424 Ave. J (bet. 14th & 15th Sts.) Q to Ave. J 718-258-1367
It
"looks like hell" and waits can be "timed with a calendar", but at
"old-school artisan" Dominic De Marco’s "legendary" circa-1963
Midwood "mecca of pizza", the "heavenly" pies are "all they’re
cracked up to be" - i.e. No. 1 in NYC.

River Café (American) 26 28 26 ($111)
Dumbo 1 Water St. (bet. Furman & Old Fulton Sts.) A/C to High St. 718-522-5200 www.rivercafe.com
"Sheer
bliss from start to finish", Dumbo’s "classic stunner" under the
Brooklyn Bridge "wows visitors" with "top-notch" New American fare, a
"flower-laden" interior and "glorious" river/skyline views (it’s
"the place to propose - no matter what the proposition"); just remember
to "dress sharp" (jackets required) and prepare for a "wallet busting"
($95 prix fixe-only dinner); N.B. they do spectacular parties.

Blue Ribbon (American) 25 19 22 ($50)
Park Slope 280 Fifth Ave. (bet. 1st St. & Garfield Pl.) M/N/R to Union St. 718-840-0404 www.blueribbonrestaurants.com
A
first "prize" destination in Park Slope, this "welcoming" New American
from the Bromberg brothers stays "energized" into the "after hours"
with an "interesting", "attractive" crowd; the cost runs "high" and
waits "long", but "there’s a reason" so many "love this place" -
"astounding" food; N.B. the long front bar is a "favorite" stop for
champagne and "super-fresh oysters."

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First snow in NYC

t was a white Sunday morning for many
New Yorkers and New Jerseyans, as a storm that socked the Midwest with
moisture left snow on parts of the area. Crews were out across the area
salting the roads and plowing roadways, but folks are still being
advised to stay home if they can and drive slowly if they're on the
roads.
FIRST SNOW OF THE SEASON

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Corvette Speed boat is coming....

If Ben Heck modded speedboats, I like to think it'd turn out similar to
Malibu's Z06 Corvette Speedboat, which is Frankensteined with a 505-HP
LS7 Corvette Engine. Every aspect of the boat, from the hull right down
to the trailer it rides on, is influenced by the design of the
Corvette. Looks like that Ferrari-powered boat from One Crazy Summer finally has some competition in the water. More photos over at [Jalopnik].

Technorati Tags: tonylimo, boats, corvette

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Don Imus Returns to Airwaves Monday

Will Don Imus be defiant or contrite? Will he mock his skeptics while making his triumphant return or muzzle his mouth?
``That question is part of the drama of his reemergence,'' said Michael
Harrison, publisher of Talkers magazine, an industry trade journal.
``Imus faces some choices.''

It's anybody's guess. Imus isn't talking. His handlers aren't talking.
But it's safe to say radio's best-known curmudgeon will have lots to
say when his show kicks off at 6 a.m. on WABC-AM, ending his 8 month
banishment from radio.

There's going to be plenty of room for him to stumble or thrive. The
show will be simulcast on weekdays from 6-9 a.m., rebroadcast in the
evenings and carried on Citadel Broadcasting Corp. stations around the
country. He'll also be broadcast on RFD-TV, which is owned by the Rural
Media Group Inc.
Monday's premiere will last four hours and be held at Town Hall in
Times Square, where $100 tickets are being sold to benefit the Imus Ranch for Kids With Cancer.

After its debut, the Imus spectacle will move to a studio across the street from Madison Square Garden.
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Holiday Traffic at 30 ROCK !!!

Xmas in NY again, its that time of the year.A little sneak peak on what goes on at the real 30ROCK.

Google -- A Wireless Service Provider?

Google Inc. plans to bid for wireless spectrum in an upcoming
government auction, raising the possibility the Internet's leading
search engine will become a wireless service provider.

The Federal Communications Commission is auctioning the 700 megahertz
spectrum to increase bandwidth for mobile phone and Internet services.
Television stations will be giving up that coveted section of the
airwaves -- it is extremely powerful, adept at going through walls --
when they switch to digital transmission in February 2009.

"Consumers deserve more competition and innovation than they have in
today's wireless world,'' said Google CEO Eric Schmidt in a statement
Friday.

Google will apply to bid for the "C Block'' of the spectrum -- which
carries a reserve price of $4.6 billion -- because regulators
stipulated that whoever operates it must allow its users to download
any software application they want to a mobile device. Google's bid was
not unexpected, as it played a leading role in lobbying the FCC to open
the spectrum.

"Regardless of how the auction unfolds, we think it's important to put
our money where our principles are,'' wrote Chris Sacca, Google's head
of special initiatives, in a company blog.

Mobile phone companies now force subscribers to use proprietary
software to operate handsets on their network, but Google has indicated
it plans to challenge that business model. The company announced
several weeks ago that it will develop software for mobile devices.

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Bobby Van, Former Hamptons Restaurateur, Dead at 64

Bobby Van, a Juilliard-trained pianist who founded a landmark Hamptons
"gin-mill'' frequented by artists Willem De Koonig and Roy
Lichtenstein, along with literary giants including Truman Capote, Kurt
Vonnegut and Willie Morris, has died.



Robert Craig Van Velsor, known as Bobby Van, died of a staph infection
on Tuesday, said his ex-wife, Marina Van. He was 64 and had been
receiving dialysis treatments for about the past year for a failing
kidney, she said.



Although he sold the restaurant in 1986, for nearly two decades Van
played host to nightly gatherings by some of the world's greatest
writers and artists drawn to the mahogany wood decor and Tiffany lamps
in the saloon in the middle of downtown Bridgehampton.



"These were different days,'' Marina Van said. "Everybody cared about
what you wrote and what you painted. No matter where folks went to
dinner, at the end of the evening, you knew everyone was coming to
Bobby's. That was the in-crowd.''



Other writers frequently seen hanging out at "Van's'' included George
Plimpton, Irwin Shaw, Winston Groom and James Jones, she said.

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Apple 14th st. store in NYC to open soon.

Let the waiting line begin! Multiple sources have pointed to December 7th as the grand opening date for the 14th Street
(NYC) retail store, a spectacular, two-story corner space in the
city’s Meatpacking District. From the Friday opening day, it will
most likely open at 6 p.m. The store will be the third in Manhattan,
and will match the SoHo and Fifth Avenue stores in architectural uniqueness.

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Copy Video From Your PC, and Then Watch It on Your TV

SanDisk’s Sansa TakeTV is aimed at people who want to take digital video from their computers and watch it on their TVs, without getting too high-tech about it

The heart of TakeTV is a U.S.B. flash drive that can store videos copied from your computer’s hard drive. There is also a docking station and player that connects to your TV. You plug the flash drive into the docking station and the video is available for viewing. A kind of carrying case for the flash drive turns into a remote control when the drive is removed.

The provided cables handle component or S-Video output; TakeTV can’t handle high-definition video. The device comes in two sizes, 4 gigabytes ($100) and 8 gigabytes ($150), and is available from www.take.tv and major electronics outlets.

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End to Broadway Strike

End to Broadway Strike Coming into Sight?
Broadway
stagehands and theater producers are inching their way toward a
settlement that could end a strike that has kept most Broadway theaters
dark for more than two weeks. Union spokesman Bruce Cohen said the
wage issue is the last item on the table and talks will go round the
clock if necessary.

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Tree Lights up at Rockefeller Center

Tree Lights Up Midtown
The Rockefeller Center Christmas tree lights are on, officially begining the holiday season in the city. Thousands of holiday revelers attended Wednesday night's 75th formal tree lighting ceremony in midtown Manhattan. This year's 84-foot-tall Norway spruce from Shelton, Connecticut is covered with 30,000 multicolored energy-efficient bulbs known as light emitting diodes, or LEDs.

Technorati Tags: tonylimo, news, NYC

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Google has announced two new features for Google

Google has announced two new features for Google Maps that mimic
features in Google Earth, begging the question: is Google Earth on
borrowed time?

The first new feature is the additional of terrain in Google Maps. The terrain fly over feature
has long been available in Google Earth, but now you can fly over a map
and see the contours of the land, all without the need to download
Google Earth.

The second new feature mimics the community contribution feature of Google Earth. “Our Maps”
brings wiki-style collaboration to Google Maps, with users able to
annotate places and share those notes with friends or the greater
public.

Google acquired Keyhole in October 2004
and it was immediately obvious as to why: Google wanted the satellite
imagery to support their move into serious mapping. Keyhole provided
Google Earth, a downloadable program that gave a then unprecedented
view of the earth through the use of satellite imagery, but Google
isn’t a software company, Picasa and a few small efforts aside.
Google has integrated many of the functions from Keyhole into Google
Maps whilst continuing to sustain Google Earth, but for how much
longer? As Google Maps takes on more and more of the functionality of
Google Earth the appeal of Earth must diminish. It also makes sense
that Google would rather grow and sustain a web product over a software
download. Google Earth will still be with us for some time to come, but
how long is now up to Google, and I’m betting that Google is
already looking at ending support sometime in the next year or two as
Google Maps becomes everything Google Earth now is, but online and
without the download.

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YANKS MUST UP ANTE, AS METS, BOSOX, ANGELS, DODGERS GET IN GAME

November 28, 2007 -- The Yankees badly want Johan Santana. Here is
a problem: So does just about every other big-market team in the
majors.

Yet the complications hardly end there. The Yankees have
learned in the past 24-48 hours that the initial asking price by the
Twins is exorbitant, well beyond just the Phil Hughes/Melky Cabrera
level that had been generally anticipated.
SHERMAN: Johan Deal Would Be Painful And Pricey...But Worth It

And if the Yankees and every other interested club do not know
yet, Santana has a complete no-trade clause and will only waive that
provision if he receives an extension for at least six or seven years
at more than the $126 million that Barry Zito was bestowed last year.
The Mets are said by rival executives to badly want Santana,
but they have taken Jose Reyes and David Wright off the table and there
is serious doubt if they have the wherewithal to make a deal unless the
Twins have a particularly high regard for Carlos Gomez and Mike
Pelfrey. A young center fielder such as Gomez or Cabrera is a must in
this trade as the Twins look to replace Torii Hunter, who recently
signed with the Angels. The Red Sox (Jacoby Ellsbury/Coco Crisp), the
Dodgers (Matt Kemp) and the Angels (Reggie Willets) are all expected to
vie for Santana, and an NL executive said to watch out for the Cubs
(Felix Pie) and perhaps the Mariners (Adam Jones).

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Verizon Plans Wider Options for Cellphone Users

In a major shift for the mobile phone industry, Verizon
Wireless said yesterday that it planned to give customers far more
choice in what phones they could use on its network and how they use
them

While there are technical
limitations involved, the company’s move could lead to an
American wireless market that is more like those in Europe and Asia,
where a carrier’s customers can use any compatible phone to
easily reach a wide array of online services — and take their
phones with them when they switch companies. The move, which surprised
industry watchers because Verizon Wireless is known to be highly
protective of its traditional business, is part of a larger shift in
the communications world.

With the introduction of the iPhone from Apple, one of the first mainstream multimedia devices, and Google’s plan to make the software that runs cellphones, the industry is being pushed toward a more open approach.

Carriers like AT&T and Verizon Wireless, which is a joint venture between Verizon and Vodafone,
have spent billions on cell towers and other infrastructure, and
traditionally they have tightly controlled what happens on their
networks

They decide what phones subscribers can use and then
steer them toward ring tones, television shows and other products they
can buy

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