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- Crazy summer Steam sale includes some fantastic Mac games
Filed under: Gaming
The PC gaming community has long enjoyed the ridiculously awesome Steam sales Valve loves to break out during holidays and at other fun times of the year. The sales deliver game bundles for crazy cheap prices, even on AAA current titles. Steam's summer sale kicked off a couple of days ago. For the first time, Mac gamers get to join in on the fun thanks to Steam's recent adoption of OS X.
While there are hundreds of Mac & PC titles on sale through July 4th, most of the best deals are found on a few select games featured each day. Today's sales have two good selections that Mac gamers may want to check out. For strategy fans Paradox Interactive's deep historical real-time strategy game Europa Universalis III lets the player control a European nation and rewrite history between 1453 and 1820 AD. For adventure gamers, a bundle of all five episodes of the previously mentioned Telltale Games' Tales of Monkey Island is also available at a great price. The clock is ticking -- but thankfully Valve offsets the time for most US timezones so you can get a chance to pick them up in the morning.
If those two games don't belong to any of your favorite genres, there are a bunch of other titles included in the full sale. Right now is a great time to pick up any of Valve's growing list of games released for OS X with first-person shooters Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike: Source, Portal and Half-Life 2. Better yet, grab the Valve Complete Pack for all of them so you're ready to go when Left 4 Dead 2 arrives on OS X.
TUAWCrazy summer Steam sale includes some fantastic Mac games originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 28 Jun 2010 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Apple - Steam - Paradox Interactive - Personal computer game - World War II
Переслать - How do you hold your iPhone?
Filed under: iPhone
With all the talk about the Death Grip, we've been discussing how we hold our iPhones. Most people, right-handed or left, have their own preference. Additionally, each person has several positions: One-handed carry, while not using the phone; one-handed swipe and tap with a thumb; two-handed touch type (usually the same for gaming/using apps) and the position used during a phone call.
We want to see how you hold your iPhone. Take a picture and add it to our Flickr pool with the tag "iphonehold." I chose to photograph myself holding my 3GS in the "one handed swipe and tap" position, as that's how I hold it most often. But you can photograph any position you like.
If you don't have an iPhone 4, post a picture anyway. We'll review them during the week and offer a round-up later.TUAWHow do you hold your iPhone? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 28 Jun 2010 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - Apperang pays users for app installs
Filed under: iPhone, App Store
The App Store is a busy place -- there are lots and lots of apps out there, and almost all of them need attention. Some developers are apparently willing to pay for that attention, so enter Apperang, a new service that purports to pay users to install certain apps on their iPhones. MobileCrunch has the breakdown -- Apperang has a verification system running that will check if you've installed apps in their system (including Booyah's MyTown and Flixter's Movies -- I saw nine apps on the service, but that may be limited by location), and then will pay out a few cents, both for installing the app yourself, as well as referring it to other Apperang users.
Is it kosher? Pretty much -- lots of app developers already pay for advertising that's targeted towards app installation, and this deal isn't any different. Rather than pocketing all the profit, Apperang is just passing it on. A video on the site shows that Apperang is promising US$.25 per app install (if the app isn't free, they'll reimburse you the purchase price), and their FAQ says that the minimum payout is $1. Payout appears to work through Paypal -- that's the only option I can see so far. For some companies, it's just easier to pay a quarter for a new user rather than gamble on advertising or word-of-mouth.
I do question how scalable it is from Apperang's perspective, and of course, as a user, there are much better ways to make some pocket changeTUAWApperang pays users for app installs originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 28 Jun 2010 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - Icons and World Clock created with CSS3 magic, courtesy of Webkit
Filed under: Graphic Design
Recent versions of Webkit, the browser engine that Safari and Chrome are based on, have allowed for extensive use of CSS3, as well as some proprietary CSS tricks. The result has been some very innovative art created entirely using CSS. Take, for example, Louis Harboe's set of iOS icons created using some CSS3 properties such as rounded corners, shadows and gradients (among others). The finished set is stunning. Of course, the demo will only display properly in a compatible browser, so if you're using something other than an up-to-date version of Safari or Chrome (or Webkit, of course), you won't see much.
If you're not a web designer, this might not look like a big deal. What you're seeing, though, are images created entirely without images; they're built using nothing but code that defines shapes, gradients, colors, etc. You can hit View Source on the page to see the code that defines these things -- it's nothing but divs and the CSS to color and shape them.
If you are using a browser that can render these designs, you'll also want to check out Jeff Batterton's iPhone world clock, rendered in pure CSS3. Considering the rectangles that CSS has left designers stuck in for years, this is some pretty exciting stuff. I can still recall the first wave of people doing really innovative tricks with CSS2, and the push that they provided to the general web design community. I hope to see web design taking great strides forward as these new standards become accessible to an increasingly wider range of the web-surfing public. Modern browsers are pushing new limits ... we just have to wait for certain other browsers to finally be put to rest.
TUAWIcons and World Clock created with CSS3 magic, courtesy of Webkit originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 28 Jun 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - Chrome now beating Safari in the US also
Filed under: Software
StatCounter's US browser share page shows that Chrome has now overtaken Safari in these United States, moving up into third place for browser share, behind Internet Explorer and Firefox. Astute TUAW readers among you will remember that Chrome already beat Safari once, but that was for the global browser share -- now Google's browser is bigger than Apple's right here among the amber waves of grain.
You have to wonder how much Apple actually cares about this. Lately, the company has called itself a "mobile device company," focused on iOS devices, and of course on those, Mobile Safari reigns supreme. Then again, if Apple does care, maybe Chrome's big surge will start up another browser war, which means we customers will win again anyway.
[via GigaOm]TUAWChrome now beating Safari in the US also originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 28 Jun 2010 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - iSuppli: iPhone 4 parts cost $187.51
Filed under: iPhone
Update: As pointed out below, our original analysis here did not highlight the difference between the subsidized pricing (what consumers pay with a 2-year contract) and the much higher unsubsidized price (what carriers pay Apple for each phone). The unsubsidized price of the 16 GB iPhone 4 is not disclosed by Apple but is likely to be about $599, the same as the original pricing on the 3GS. iSuppli's pricing methodology has been criticized in the past for inaccuracy. We apologize for the error.
iSuppli has done its usual thing with the16GB iPhone 4's components, calculating the raw cost of each of them, and the total comes to: US$187.51. The most expensive thing in the phone is the retina display screen, which is supposedly running Apple $28.50 per unit. The A4 processor adds $10.75 to the unit price, and the gyroscope adds $2.60, as compared to the accelerometer's estimated 65 cent cost.
You may remember that the iPhone 3GS was estimated to have components costing $179 last year at release -- the price on those parts has dropped to $134, even though the phone itself is being sold at $99(but Apple is probably just selling off inventory -- an unsold phone isn't worth anything to them). [Since carrier subsidies still hold for the 3GS, it's presumably still priced well above that number for the transaction between Apple and AT&T. -Ed.]
The 3GS was also $199 at launch [presumably $599 unsubsidized], which means that Apple is making $10 less per phone with the iPhone 4, but maybe they're making up the costs elsewhere, maybe in advertising or R&D. Of course, these are all estimates -- there are all sorts of other factors going into this cost equation, both internally at Apple and in the manufacturing industry. But iSuppli has been doing this for a while now, and if they say the screen is the priciest component in your new iPhone, they're probably right.
[via BGR]TUAWiSuppli: iPhone 4 parts cost $187.51 originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 28 Jun 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - Amazon's Kindle app adds video, audio support
Filed under: iPhone, App Store
I've just recently started making the transition to ebook reading with my iPhone's Kindle app -- after a little hesitance about reading a screen rather than ink on paper, I've gotten used to the form, and really appreciate the convenience of always having my reading with me (and the free ebooks help too -- I definitely recommend His Majesty's Dragon). The Kindle app is seeing some good support from Amazon, too -- the most recent update not only enables the Retina Display on the iPhone 4, but adds both video and audio to the offerings in certain titles. If the books are created for a "Kindle Edition with Audio/Video," you'll be able to play other media right next to the text in the app.
Of course, the actual Kindle can't play this media, which probably means a few things. One, Amazon realizes how important the Kindle app is to their overall strategy -- even though the iPad is a competitor to their own hardware, Amazon is fine with running both horses in the race, so they have a better chance of grabbing a larger audience. Two, Amazon is most likely working on another version of the Kindle. They probably can't compete with the iPad on quality (given Apple's experience at this point at making and selling beautiful hardware), but they may still aim to compete on price. Which shouldn't bother consumers -- more competition means more choices, and that's always good for us.
[via Apple Insider]TUAWAmazon's Kindle app adds video, audio support originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 28 Jun 2010 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - iPad 101: Conserving your 3G data use
Filed under: iPad
Since I brought home my 3G + Wi-Fi iPad a little over a week ago, I've been running in Airplane Mode with Wi-Fi enabled to avoid using cellular data. Otherwise I kept getting a prompt (shown here) asking me if I wanted to setup an account, which I didn't want to do.
Fortunately, there is another way. Go into the Settings application and tap on "Cellular Data." This brings up an on/off switch for Cellular Data and Data Roaming. Turn both "off" and you will not be prompted to sign up for a data plan when Wi-Fi is unavailable.
Airplane mode disables not only the cellular data, but also Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and the GPS. If you are only trying to avoid using cellular data, there's no need to use Airplane Mode.
If you have upgraded your iPhone to iOS 4 then you also have the ability to disable cellular data under Settings » General » Network » Cellular Data, which may come in handy if you have a metered account with AT&T.
TUAWiPad 101: Conserving your 3G data use originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 28 Jun 2010 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - Hands on with Poker Smash for iPhone
Filed under: iPhone
I recently had the opportunity to spend time playing Drew Card's Poker Smash game. Built for iPhone, this application offers standard matching game strategy (think "Bejeweled" or "Tetris") mixed with a bit of Poker savvy. With Poker Smash, you can eliminate cards by matching 3 of a kind, but you can also go for straights, flushes, full houses, and so forth. That adds a pleasant layer of complexity to what would otherwise be an ordinary game.
As time progresses, cards move up the screen -- first slowly, and then as the game proceeds, much faster. You can slide cards left and right, but not up and down. Your goal is to create winning poker hands, allowing those cards to be eliminated from the stack. Better hands receive better special effects -- a straight or a flush produces in-game minimalist fireworks.
Poker Smash is not a terribly deep game but it's an amusing one, and one that's perfect for short times when you just want to play a little when sitting in a waiting room or caught on a bus. I found that it quickly engaged my interest and that I was disappointed to hear my name called or my stop approach. Selling for just two bucks, it's a good value too.
Poker Smash was originally developed for the Xbox 360 LIVE Arcade. Games that can make the leap from another platform to the iPhone tend to include strong offerings, having been worth the extra development costs needed to create the port. I enjoyed playing Poker Smash and can unreservedly recommend it as a nice little addition to your iPhone gaming arsenal.TUAWHands on with Poker Smash for iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 28 Jun 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - Found Footage: Synergy on iOS
Filed under: Hacks
Are you familiar with Synergy? It's an app that lets you share your keyboard and mouse between many computers -- and we at TUAW have been fans of the app for a very long time. We were delighted to learn over the weekend that Matthias Ringwald, otherwise known as the "King of BTstack," has built a BTstack Synergy Client. It works with Synergy to accept remote events and synthesize them on your jailbroken iPad or iPhone.
As this preliminary footage shows, you can use your Mac-based mouse to tap on your iOS screen. Keyboard support is not yet available; Ringwald says he intends to add that. When complete, this is going to be an absolutely brilliant tool for debugging.
As an aside, Sorin Sbârnea and Nick Bolton started a Synergy+ branch of Synergy last year. The plus branch provides a Synergy maintenance fork, implementing a variety of bug fixes.The original Synergy has not had source updates or releases since 2006, according to Bolton's write-up. Synergy+ implements "many significant bug fixes such as support for Windows services on Vista and Windows 7, and a brand new GUI (based on QSynergy)."TUAWFound Footage: Synergy on iOS originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 28 Jun 2010 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - Reports: Issues with iPhone 4 and car stereos
Filed under: iPhone
We've received several tips over the weekend from iOS 4 users who are having trouble connecting to their car stereos. A search of Apple's discussion boards revealed that they're not alone.
Here's what's going on: A number of stereo units from Pioneer, JVC and others are giving a "device incompatible" message when connected to an iPhone running iOS 4. Note that the 3G and 3GS phones in question worked fine with these stereos when they were on iOS 3.1.3. Of course, the iPhone 4 only runs iOS 4, but since the older phones are also affected it seems likely that this is a software issue, not a hardware one.
Others aren't getting the incompatibility message, but are seeing weird behavior. For example, everything works fine until a call comes in and then finishes. The song that was playing at the time starts over from the beginning, instead of picking up where it left off. Others report that the iPod app will play music for about 10 seconds and then go silent, even though it says music is still playing.
The issue is spread across manufacturers, so it's reasonable to point the finger at iOS 4 (unless all these stereo makers missed the same fine print in the iPhone compatibility specifications). If you've had the same trouble -- or better yet, found a fix -- let us know. Here's hoping a future update takes care of the issue.
TUAWReports: Issues with iPhone 4 and car stereos originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 28 Jun 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - DIY white iPhone 4 has a few rough edges
Filed under: iPhone
Engadget just couldn't wait to get a white iPhone 4, so they took a page from Dr. Frankenstein and whipped up their own using a couple of "spare" white components. Unfortunately the mod now lacks a white Home button, the tiny mesh grille in the earpiece and covers on the camera and LED on the back, but it's as close as you're going to get to a white iPhone 4 this week. Unless you work at Colorware, I guess. One interesting note: the white of the parts they bought is a little warmer than the 4's dock, so Engadget (and I) guess Apple is getting that just right before they release the thing into the wild. Yes, Apple and resident chief designer Jon Ive are that particular about color.TUAWDIY white iPhone 4 has a few rough edges originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 28 Jun 2010 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - Thirty years of Apple in two minutes
Filed under: Apple History
Here's a great video compiled by Gary Katz of Mac M.D. Inc. Using photos of Apple machines in his own collection, Gary's video highlights the major design changes that have taken place over the past 30 years. Old timers (like me) will recognize some familiar hardware, including the 7200 (how I tore my hands up on that computer's insides), the fabled Lisa and the beloved/infamous Cube.
The most jarring jump is when the iMac is introduced, breaking the cycle of beige. It's also amazing to see the enormous Mac Portable. What a beast!
Thanks to Gary for sharing this video. We enjoyed the trip down Memory Lane.TUAWThirty years of Apple in two minutes originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 28 Jun 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - hacksugar: iPhone 4 jailbreak accomplished but not ready for public release
Filed under: iPhone, Jailbreak/pwnage
When we talk about "jailbreaking" the iPhone, that means opening up the underlying file system on the phone for full read/write access; on a vanilla iPhone, only the 'userland' data is accessible to users and apps. The term is derived from Unix jargon, where a "chroot jail" is the limited section of the file system that an underprivileged app can access.
A jailbreak allows third parties to install and run any software they want, rather than the subset of iPhone apps approved by Apple and distributed through the App Store. Before Apple's official SDK was released, jailbreak apps were the only native (non-web) apps on the platform aside from the built-in apps that shipped with the device.
As TUAW has posted about in the past, the jailbreak software community is a hotbed of innovation and creativity. Many iPhone technologies debuted first in the hobbyist jailbreak community before ever appearing in official Apple firmware. Jailbreak-first features included copy and paste, spell checking, application folders, rotation inhibition, multitasking, find-my-iPhone, and more. In terms of iPhone possibility and expression, the jailbreak community has led the way.
Over the weekend, Redmond Pie announced that the iPhone 4 was successfully jailbroken. This proof-of-concept jailbreak showed that the new iPhone model could be opened for general file access. It is not, however, a "production" jailbreak; because the proof-of-concept used proprietary Apple code, it will not be released to the public. There is no word yet as to when a more intellectual-property-friendly version will be finished, but one guesses "soon" -- with no rush for the all-volunteer development team.
Screen shots of the new jailbreak follow in the gallery below, to provide you with a sneak peek at what's coming up.
TUAWhacksugar: iPhone 4 jailbreak accomplished but not ready for public release originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 28 Jun 2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - Apple highlights third party iPad apps with walkthrough videos
Filed under: iPad
Apple has posted a
newweb page highlighting some third-party apps made for the iPad, complete with their own Apple-produced demo videos. Each highlighted app gets a description, App Store link and demo clip.
The clips are short and to the point while showing off an app's main features. Among 'The Chosen Apps' are Things for iPad, Popular Science+ and Epicurious (a favorite of yours truly).
There's also a great feature on Bonnier, the publisher of Popular Science. It describes a brief history of Mag+, the sub-group created to bring Popular Science to the iPad, with interviews and a slideshow of the app's development process. It's quite interesting.
Congratulations to the developers whose apps got featured. We hope to see more features like that one from Bonnier.
[Hat tip to David Chartier]
TUAWApple highlights third party iPad apps with walkthrough videos originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 28 Jun 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - iPhone 4 takes great pictures, breaks up robbery
Filed under: iPhone
There are many iPhone 4 photos already populating the Interwebs, but relatively few of those galleries end with law enforcement activity.
Fox & Friends weekend anchor Clayton Morris (also the host of the Gadgets and Games Web show, where I'm pleased to be an occasional guest) was heading home from his early shift on Sunday, and he decided to avail himself of the fine morning light to snap a few 5 MP shots with the new and improved camera.
He produced a nice gallery of pictures (especially the downstairs shot of the Broadway Apple Store), but the last three are a little bit oddly composed. It kinda looks like a guy running away from something, and that's exactly what it was; Morris happened to walk by a store robbery in progress (!) and snapped a few pictures of the suspect fleeing the scene. He also used his iPhone to call 911 and followed the perp long enough to guide the police in for an arrest.
It's likely that these are the first iPhone 4 photos of a crime -- but if you've got one-of-a-kind iPhone pics to share, let us know in the comments!TUAWiPhone 4 takes great pictures, breaks up robbery originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 28 Jun 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - Tale of the tape: iPhone 4 sales top 1.7 million
Filed under: iPhone
Even with the lines, the preorder confusion, the crazy mixed-up Thursday chaos and the weekend madness, there's a new high-water mark for Apple product launches. The company announced via a press release today that it sold over 1.7 million iPhone 4s through the end of Saturday 6/26, including those shipped to customers directly earlier in the week.
Chairman Jobs is pleased and apologetic, according to the release: " This is the most successful product launch in Apple's history.... Even so, we apologize to those customers who were turned away because we did not have enough supply."
Nice work, Apple. Now, about those death grip and proximity sensor issues... based on our unofficial listener survey in last night's extended-remix talkcast, there's still some work to be done on this blockbuster-yet-quirky phone.
TUAWTale of the tape: iPhone 4 sales top 1.7 million originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 28 Jun 2010 10:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - Around the world with Geo Walk
Filed under: App Review
Geo Walk is a clever little iPhone app from Vito Technology, the developers who produced the breathtaking Star Walk astronomy app for the iPad and iPhone.
Geo Walk doesn't explore deep space; it explores our own varied planet. You start with a 3D globe and spin it to any part of the world you want to explore. Little bubbles appear, and you can click on them to get interesting info on places, historical figures, flora, and fauna. Think of Geo Walk as a world fact book at your fingertips.
There are 300 entries in the app, each with photos and text. You can filter the objects displayed, so if you are only interested in visiting places, you can do that.
TUAWAround the world with Geo Walk originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 28 Jun 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - TUAW's Daily App: Leap Sheep! HD
Filed under: App Store
I'm actually writing this post very, very, very late on Sunday night. I was up far too late working and playing video games, so a game like Leap Sheep! HD turns out to be perfect for this time of day. Leap Sheep is the first iPhone game from Turtle Rock Studios, a company that's worked with Valve in the past on titles like Counter-Strike and Left 4 Dead, and their past experience shows up here; this one is polished and dripping with charm and atmosphere. The actual gameplay is very simple -- you have a set of sheep leaping over a fence, and you tap once to help them jump and tap again to make them do tricks. It quickly gets chaotic, though, as the three lanes fill out and the sheep start piling up.
The graphics are colorful and bright, and the game runs well. It's also Plus+ enabled, and half the fun is getting achievements for jumping three sheep at a time or using a ram to clear out a stuck flock. It's a Canabalt-sized thrill rather than an epic title, but for just 99 cents in a universal iPhone and iPad package, the price is more than right. If you find yourself up late and trying to sneak a little more gaming into your day, try counting these guys for a while.TUAWTUAW's Daily App: Leap Sheep! HD originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 28 Jun 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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