WATCH | ‘PPAP’ singer Pikotaro unveils extended version of viral song

Japanese social media star Pikotaro unveiled a new, extended version of his internet hit “Pen-Pineapple-Apple-Pen” (PPAP) on Friday.

The original video quickly went viral after being uploaded in early September, with Canadian singer Justin Bieber helping boost viewing numbers by labeling it his “favorite video on the internet” in a Twitter post on Thursday.

“Yesterday my head was full of white hair, but now it has all turned black,” said Pikotaro, overwhelmed by the attention he has received, including a Guinness World Record for the shortest song to make it into the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Pikotaro, whose real name is Kazuhito Kosaka, wore a gold animal print outfit complete with scarf and sunglasses as he performed the new two-minute version of what was a 45 second song to journalists in Tokyo.

The video — which has racked up over 131 million views on YouTube — features Pikotaro miming the joining of an imaginary apple and pineapple with an imaginary pen, lyrics he said were inspired by items he found on the table when he began writing.

Watch the long version of “Pen-Pineapple-Apple-Pen” here:

source: interaksyon.com

Dwyane Wade fined $25,000 for throat-slash gesture

Chicago guard Dwyane Wade apologized Friday for making a throat-slashing gesture after hitting a game-clinching basket, but that didn’t prevent the NBA from fining him $25,000.

Wade made the gesture with his right hand after sinking a three-pointer with 26.3 seconds remaining in the Bulls’ season-opening win over the Boston Celtics on Thursday.

“I wanna apologize to my young fans on my gesture at the end of last nights game,” Wade wrote on Twitter. “I was caught up in the emotions of my first game at home.”

Wade scored 22 points with six rebounds and five assists in his debut with the Bulls, who beat the Celtics 105-99.

“To be able to make a shot like that and help us get this win, it’s like the perfect storm,” Wade said after the game.

“When I released it, I’m not going to say I knew it was going in, because anything could happen, but I felt very good about the shot, and there was just a lot of emotion running through me. I had an out-of-body experience after that.”

Despite his contrition the episode was a costly one, with NBA executive vice president of basketball operations Kiki VanDeWeghe announcing that Wade “has been fined $25,000 for making an inappropriate gesture”.

That matched the $25,000 that Kevin Durant was docked in April 2013 for a throat-slash gesture when he was with the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Wade, 34, inked a two-year deal worth some $47 million with the Bulls in an off-season move that stunned the Miami Heat, who thought they would hang onto their free agent star.

The move brings him back to his hometown of Chicago, and he has spoken about wanting to combat violence in the city.

Wade played 13 seasons in Miami, scoring more than 20,000 points and earning 12 all-star team selections.

source: interaksyon.com

Scarlett Johansson turns popcorn girl in Paris

PARIS | Hollywood superstar Scarlett Johansson swapped the red carpet for a turn behind the counter at her new popcorn shop in Paris on Saturday.

The “Lost in Translation” actress — decked out in a classic French blue and white striped top — dished out the crunchy treat to punters at the launch of the Yummy Pop store she and husband Romain Dauriac have opened in the city’s trendy Marais district.

The couple hope their unusual twists on the classic cinema snack — including the 31-year-old “Avengers” star’s favorite truffle, parmesan and sage flavour — will wow customers in the gastronomic capital of the world.

Ahead of the launch, Johansson’s spokesman in Los Angeles said the she was passionate about popcorn, adding that it was cooked and mixed fresh on the spot with seasonal ingredients.

After Saturday’s soft launch, an official grand opening is planned for a later date.

source: interaksyon.com

Microsoft opens fourth Transparency Center to cater Latin America

BRASILIA — Microsoft Corp, still stung by accusations that it installed “back doors” for the U.S. government to access customers’ communications, opened a center in Brazil on Wednesday where officials will be able to inspect its programming code, in an attempt to allay suspicions in the region that its software programs are vulnerable to spying.

Behind reinforced walls and with strict security settings, the world’s biggest software company showed off its fourth ‘Transparency Center’ in Brasilia, where experts from Latin American and Caribbean governments will be able to view the source code of its products.

The effort to build trust follows heightened suspicions in the region after former U.S. National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden leaked documents in 2013 that showed the agency was capturing massive amounts of data from emails handled by major U.S. technology companies, including Microsoft.

The leak, in addition to another Snowden disclosure that the United States had been spying on communications including those of former Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, prompted Brazil and other governments around the world to reconsider how much they could trust U.S. technology companies not to install back doors at the request of U.S. intelligence agencies.

At the new site, visited on Wednesday by officials including the speaker of Brazil’s Congress, no electronics will be allowed into the secure viewing room.

Microsoft prevents anyone from copying the massive amount of coding on display – as much as 50 million lines for its email and server products. Viewers inspect copies of source code on computers connected only to local servers and cut off from the internet. The copies are later deleted.

Viewers can use software tools to examine the code, Microsoft said, but it was not immediately clear whether experts would be able to run deep code analysis necessary to uncover back doors or other bugs.

It is by no means certain the effort by Microsoft will diminish concerns about spying, but Brazil’s reaction to the generally secretive software company opening up its code was initially positive.

“This center is aimed at showing that there are no traps, it is a good step,” a Brazilian government official, who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak about cyber security, told Reuters.

The Brasilia facility is Microsoft’s fourth transparency center after the NSA scandal. It set up the first one at its Redmond, Washington headquarters in the United States in 2014, one in Brussels last year and one in Singapore earlier this month. It will soon open another in Beijing.

The centers allow for face-to-face discussions between government experts and developers. “Governments can verify for themselves that there are no back doors,” said Mark Estberg, senior director of Microsoft’s global government security program.

source: interaksyon.com

China launches longest manned space mission

China launched its longest manned space mission on Monday, sending two astronauts into orbit to spend a month aboard a space laboratory that is part of a broader plan to have a permanent manned space station in service around 2022.

The Shenzhou 11 blasted off on a Long March rocket at 7:30 am (2330 GMT) from the remote launch site in Jiuquan, in the Gobi desert, in images carried live on state television.

The astronauts will dock with the Tiangong 2 space laboratory, or "Heavenly Palace 2," which was sent into space last month. It will be the longest stay in space by Chinese astronauts, state media reported.

Early on Monday, Fan Changlong, a vice chairman of China's powerful Central Military Commission, met astronauts Jing Haipeng and Chen Dong and wished them well, state news agency Xinhua reported.

"You are going to travel in space to pursue the space dream of the Chinese nation," Fan said.

"With all the scientific and rigorous training, discreet preparation, and rich experience accumulated from previous missions, you will accomplish the glorious and tough task... We wish you success and look forward to your triumphant return."

Shenzhou 11 is the third space voyage for Jing, who will command the mission and celebrate his 50th birthday in orbit.

In a manned space mission in 2013, three Chinese astronauts spent 15 days in orbit and docked with a space laboratory, the Tiangong 1.

Advancing China's space program is a priority for Beijing, with President Xi Jinping calling for the country to establish itself as a space power.

China insists its space program is for peaceful purposes.

Shenzhou 11, whose name translates as "Divine Vessel", will also carry three experiments designed by Hong Kong middle school students and selected in a science competition, including one that will take silk worms into space.

The US Defense Department has highlighted China's increasing space capabilities, saying it was pursuing activities aimed at preventing other nations using space-based assets in a crisis.

China has been working to develop its space program for military, commercial and scientific purposes, but is still playing catch-up to established space powers the United States and Russia.

China's Jade Rabbit moon rover landed on the moon in late 2013 to great national fanfare, but soon suffered severe technical difficulties.

The rover and the Chang'e 3 probe that carried it there were the first "soft landing" on the moon since 1976. Both the United States and the Soviet Union had accomplished the feat earlier.

China will launch a "core module" for its first space station sometime around 2018, a senior official said in April, part of a plan for a permanent manned space station in service around 2022.

source: interaksyon.com

Tom Hanks calls Donald Trump ‘self-involved gasbag’

ROME | Movie star Tom Hanks took a shot at U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump Thursday, branding him “a simplistic, self-involved gasbag of a candidate”.

Hanks, in Rome to receive a lifetime achievement award at the eternal city’s film festival, joked with the press ahead of the ceremony about similarities between Trump and Italy’s ex-prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.

“Why the Trump?” he said, imitating one of the many Italian journalists who had asked him the same question, before quipping: “You’re Italian. Why the Berlusconi?”

The star attended the world premiere of his new film “Inferno” last week in Florence.

“Every four years, the circus comes to town in the United States. Every four years, we decide who’s going to be the leader,” he added.

“It’s always at some form of crossroads. Often there is a fever pitch of fear and anxiety. Sometimes it’s warranted, and other times it’s manufactured.”

The two-time Academy Award winning actor said “without a doubt the world is going through something quite profound in which the future is shaky, in which the future is mysterious, in which great parts of the world are dealing with problems that seem as though they have no solution”.

However, “when America has faced those circumstances and times, we have never turned to a simplistic, self-involved gasbag of a candidate,” he said.

source: interaksyon.com

Women accuse Trump of groping, forcibly kissing them; Donald denies

Washington, United States - A flood of newly published accusations that Donald Trump groped or inappropriately kissed women rocked the race for the White House Wednesday (Thursday PH time), with the Republican nominee angrily denying the reports and his campaign branding them "character assassination."

Claims by five women, whose accounts were reported by The New York Times, The Palm Beach Post, NBC, People Magazine and Yahoo News, came to light after he said in Sunday's presidential debate with rival Hillary Clinton that he had never kissed women without their consent.

Trump's denial came as he tried to set his campaign back on track after a video recording from 2005 surfaced Friday in which the 70-year-old real estate mogul is heard making lewd boasts about how his celebrity meant he could grope women with impunity.

"When you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything... Grab them by the pussy'."

When he meets beautiful women, he added, "I just start kissing them."

Trump has apologized for the comments, dismissing them as "locker room" banter.

With just 27 days until the November 8 election, and Democrat Clinton in the driver's seat with national polls in her favor, the embattled Republican nominee had sought to get back on the offensive.

But the series of explosive new allegations of sexual misconduct put Trump's behavior with women in the spotlight once again.

'Like an octopus'
Former businesswoman Jessica Leeds, 74, told The New York Times that Trump groped her on a flight in the early 1980s as they sat next to each other in first class.

About 45 minutes after takeoff, Trump lifted the armrest and began grabbing her breasts and tried to put his hand up her skirt, she said.

"He was like an octopus," she told the daily. "His hands were everywhere."

"It was an assault," she added.

Rachel Crooks said she was a 22-year-old receptionist at a real estate company in Trump Tower in 2005 when she encountered Trump outside an elevator in the building one morning.

She introduced herself and shook his hand, but he would not let go. Trump began kissing her cheeks and then "kissed me directly on the mouth," she told the daily.

"It was so inappropriate," Crooks added. "I was so upset that he thought I was so insignificant that he could do that."

"None of this ever took place," Trump angrily told The New York Times, calling the reporter a "disgusting human being."

'I was startled'
Also on Wednesday, the Palm Beach Post published an exclusive on its web site in which Mindy McGillivray, now 36, alleged that Trump grabbed her at his Mar-A-Lago resort in Florida in early 2003.

"It was pretty close to the center of my butt," she said of the incident that happened as she was working as a photographer's assistant at an event. "I was startled. I jumped."

None of the women reported the incidents to law enforcement.

The New York Times and Palm Beach Post spoke with friends and family of the women, who corroborated their accounts and knew of the incidents before the "hot mic" video was released last week.

Former Miss Utah Temple Taggart McDowell told NBC on Wednesday that Trump kissed her on the lips when she was a 21-year-old contestant in his Miss Universe beauty pageant in 1997.

Asked about last week's leaked tape, she suppressed tears, saying, "I have a daughter now and it's really hard because you think of sending your little daughter out there with men like that who think like that."

More sordid allegations came from Miss Washington 2013, Cassandra Searles. Yahoo News reported that she had called Trump a "misogynist" in a Facebook post, and said in a comment that he had "continually grabbed my ass and invited me to his hotel room."

People Magazine also published an account late on Wednesday by a staff writer who said Trump forced himself on her when she interviewed him at his residence at Mar-a-Lago in 2005.

"We walked into that room alone, and Trump shut the door behind us," Natasha Stoynoff wrote. "I turned around, and within seconds he was pushing me against the wall and forcing his tongue down my throat."

'Character assassination'
The Trump campaign quickly fired back, calling The New York Times article a political attack and demanding a retraction.

"This entire article is fiction, and for the New York Times to launch a completely false, coordinated character assassination against Mr Trump on a topic like this is dangerous," senior communicators advisor Jason Miller said in a statement.

ABC News reported three senior-level sources as saying Trump is drafting a lawsuit against the newspaper for defamation.

"Your article is reckless, defamatory and constitutes libel per se," Trump lawyer Marc Kasowitz wrote in a letter to the daily.

"It is apparent from, among other things, the timing of the article, that it is nothing more than a politically-motivated effort to defeat Mr Trump's candidacy."

Trump traveled to Florida Wednesday for two rallies, where he ramped up his attacks on the 68-year-old Clinton, calling her a criminal who "has to go to jail" for endangering national security by using a private email account while secretary of state.

He also took aim at Republican leaders, including House Speaker Paul Ryan, who have abandoned him in the wake of the hot mic revelations.

source: interaksyon.com

Samsung PH urges Note 7 owners to return the mobile device, now

MANILA — Samsung Philippines is now urging owners of the combustible Galaxy Note 7 to exchange their units for a Galaxy S7 or ask for a full refund from their place of purchase.

In a statement, Samsung Philippines said they are now “working closely with local telco partners and authorized dealers to urge consumer to take the next steps” which is as follows:

1. Exchange your Galaxy Note 7 for a Galaxy S7 edge or Galaxy S7, with the store to reimburse any price difference. Or,
2. A full refund.

Customers who purchased through Globe or Smart were also advised to contact their telco operator to exchange their units.

In an earlier advisory, Smart also urged their subscribers to contact their hotline *888 or to visit any of their nearby stores for the appropriate assistance. Globe likewise said they will facilitate the replacement of the device for their subscribers.

In a similar gesture, Globe said in a statement that they will discontinue selling Samsung Note7 and will no longer issue same device replacements to customers.

The telco has implemented a process to retrieve Note 7 units from customers and replace them with a device of equivalent value.

“We will be in touch with our customers within the next 4 days,” Globe said.

In an October 11 statement, Samsung global has advised its owners of Note7 to power down their units after reports of supposedly safe replacement units of the Note7 also caught fire. Samsung also announced that they are coordinating with their carrier and retail partners to stop sales of the Note7.

“Consumers with either an original Galaxy Note7 or replacement Note 7 device should power down and stop using the device and take advantage of the remedies available,” Samsung said.

source: interaksyon.com

Samsung suspends production of recalled Note 7: report

SEOUL, South Korea — Samsung Electronics has suspended production of its Galaxy Note 7 smartphone, a report said Monday, a month after a recall prompted by battery explosions and a day after two major overseas distributors halted replacements.

Samsung, the world’s largest smartphone maker, declined to comment on the report by South Korea’s Yonhap news agency, which was sourced to an unidentified official with an unnamed Samsung supplier.

The official told Yonhap the decision to temporarily halt production was taken in cooperation with consumer safety regulators from South Korea, the United States and China.

Samsung decided on September 2 to halt the sale of the Galaxy Note 7 and recall those sold after complaints that its lithium-ion battery exploded while charging.

With images of charred phones flooding social media, the unprecedented recall was a humiliation for a firm that prides itself as an icon of innovation and quality.

The recall process initially stumbled with some mixed messages, but seemed to be on track until last week when reports emerged of similar problems with some of the replacement phones.

On Sunday, US telecommunications firm AT&T and German rival T-Mobile said they would halt exchanges of recalled Samsung Galaxy Note 7s pending further investigations.

The announcement saw Samsung’s share price plunge by as much as four percent in early morning trade on Monday — even before the Yonhap report came out.

At midday, Samsung shares were trading at 1.65 million won — down 3.2 percent from Friday’s close.

AT&T said it would still offer customers the option to exchange Galaxy Note 7s for another Samsung smartphone or other device of their choice.

T-Mobile said it was halting sales of the smartphone, as well as the exchanges.

Samsung has so far declined to confirm any problem with its replacement phones.

The South Korean conglomerate’s handling of the Note 7 recall has placed a spotlight on management at a time when it is navigating a tricky generational power transfer within the founding Lee family.

Industry experts have criticised the Lee dynasty for controlling the vast group through a complex web of cross shareholdings, although they only directly own about five percent of total stocks.

Samsung on Friday issued a stronger-than-expected operating profit forecast for the third quarter despite the impact of the recall that, according to some analysts, could cost up to $2 billion.

source: interaksyon.com

Security tight as Kim Kardashian leaves New York after robbery

NEW YORK | Flanked by multiple security guards, Kim Kardashian and her family on Thursday left the Manhattan apartment where they have been closeted since she was robbed at gunpoint in Paris, amid reports that the reality star was planning to take some time off.

News video and photos showed Kardashian, her face partly hidden by a hoodie and baseball cap, getting into a car with her two young children and rapper husband Kanye West.

It was the first time she had been seen since returning to New York after masked robbers held a gun to her head and stole some $10 million worth of jewelry in Paris early on Monday morning.

Kardashian’s personal bodyguard, Pascal Duvier, who was protecting Kardashian’s sisters at a nightclub at the time of the robbery, was among a handful of security staff keeping media at bay and helping stash suitcases into waiting cars. The family were thought to be heading to their southern California home.

The celebrity family, whose lives are chronicled in the TV show “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” and on their busy social media accounts, has been uncharacteristically quiet since the robbery. No arrests have been made.

Celebrity website TMZ and magazine Us Weekly reported on Thursday that a badly shaken Kardashian was taking about a month’s break from work.

“She has canceled everything for the next several weeks and will not be working,” Us Weekly quoted a source close to the star as saying.

TMZ, quoting an unidentified source close to Kardashian, said that when she does return she will cut down on her use of social media and displays of her wealthy lifestyle.

Kardashian’s representatives declined comment on the reports.

Kardashian, 35, has come in for criticism that she made herself vulnerable by posting photos of her $4 million dollar engagement ring and other jewelry, in the days before the attack.

“If you are that famous and you put all your jewelry on the net, you go to hotels where nobody can come near to the room,” fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld told reporters in Paris this week. “You cannot display your wealth and then be surprised that some people want to share it with you.”

The Kardashian family was not filming for their reality show at the time of the robbery, a spokeswoman for the show said on Thursday.

“Our focus right now is entirely on Kim’s well-being,” the spokeswoman said in a statement.

source: interaksyon.com

Google takes on Apple, Amazon with new hardware push

SAN FRANCISCO — Alphabet Inc’s Google on Tuesday announced a new “Pixel” smartphone and a suite of new consumer electronics products for the home, planting itself firmly in the hardware business and challenging Apple Inc’s iPhone at the high end of the $400 billion global smartphone market.

The string of announcements – including the $649 Pixel, a smart speaker for the living room dubbed “Home,” a virtual reality headset, and a new Wi-Fi router – is the clearest sign yet that Google intends to compete head-to-head with Apple, Amazon.com Inc and even manufacturers of phones using its own Android mobile operating system.

Company executives, echoing Apple’s longstanding philosophy, said they were striving for tighter integration of hardware and software.

“The thinking is that if we can work on hardware and software together, we can innovate much better,” Google hardware chief Rick Osterloh said in an interview with Reuters, citing a recent reorganization that united once-disparate hardware teams.

Under the new structure, the company has begun to take a much more integrated approach to things like supply chain management and design, added Mario Queiroz, a vice president of product management.

“The learnings from one product are benefiting another product,” he said.

Unlike earlier Google phone efforts under the Nexus brand, the Pixel devices are designed and developed by Google from the start, although Taiwan’s HTC Corp will serve as the contract manufacturer.

Swipe at Apple

Taking another page from the Apple playbook, Google said it would work exclusively with a single carrier in the United States, Verizon Communications Inc, on the Pixel, emulating Apple’s agreement to launch the original iPhone with AT&T Inc. That deal gave Apple unprecedented control over the look of the phone and how it worked.

Shares of Alphabet closed up 0.3 percent, while Verizon fell 1.2 percent.

The phone comes in two sizes, and its high-end camera is one of few distinguishing features, analysts said. The phones come in black, blue and silver and will be able to get up to a seven-hour charge in 15 minutes. Pre-orders begin on Tuesday.

“Aside from the camera, the new Google Pixels are pretty undifferentiated compared to Samsung and iPhone seventh generation phones,” industry analyst Patrick Moorhead said.

While the new phones are clearly aimed at competing with the iPhone – Google executives took several swipes at Apple in their on-stage remarks – analysts said Android rivals like Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) could be the biggest victim if the Pixel takes off.

Google’s strategy of licensing Android for free and profiting from embedded services such as search and maps made Android the dominant mobile operating system with some 89 percent of the global market, according to IDC.

But Apple still rules the high end of the market, and Google has long been frustrated by the emergence of many variations of Android and the inconsistent experience that has produced. Pushing its own hardware will likely complicate its relationship with Android licensees, analysts said.

 All-purpose assistant

Google Kicked off the event Tuesday by touting the Google Assistant, the company’s voice-activated artificial intelligence system and its answer to Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa. The presenter showed how a customers could make a restaurant reservation with a few phrases spoken into the phone.

The assistant will be embedded into the Pixel and Home products and is being positioned as the central feature in a family of integrated hardware and software products.

It is one of a handful of similar assistants that are vying for supremacy as more people search the web and make purchases online using voice commands, which may eventually supplant keyboards and touchscreens as the primary means of controlling digital devices.

While Google is often cited as the leader in artificial intelligence, Amazon stole a march on the company with its Alexa-powered Echo home speaker system, a surprise hit. The Home device and the Echo have many of the same features.

Google’s “Daydream View” virtual reality headset, meanwhile, puts the company in competition with Facebook Inc, owner of Oculus. The device, which works with an Android phone, is far cheaper and simpler. It will be available in November for $79, in time for the end-of-year shopping season.

Home will also be available in November for $129, including a six-month trial of ad-free YouTube.

Google also unveiled a new version of its Chromecast digital media player and a router dubbed Google Wifi, both boasting the same sleek, minimalist design as the Home product.

“These look like products from a single company,” said Queiroz, the Google executive.

source: interaksyon.com

Trump's 1995 tax records suggest no federal taxes for years: New York Times

NEW YORK - Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump declared a $916-million loss on his 1995 income tax returns and the large tax deduction may have allowed him to avoid paying federal income taxes for up to 18 years, the New York Times reported on Saturday.

The Trump campaign, in a statement responding to the Times report, said that the tax document was obtained illegally and that the New York Times is operating as an extension of the presidential campaign of Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.

The Times said it had obtained Trump's 1995 tax records and that they showed he received the large tax benefits from financial deals that went bad in the early 1990s.

The newspaper quoted tax experts it hired to analyze Trump's records as saying that tax rules which are especially advantageous to wealthy filers would have let Trump use his $916-million loss to cancel out an equivalent amount of taxable income over an 18-year period.

The Times said that although Trump's taxable income in subsequent years is as yet unknown, a $916-million loss in 1995 would have been large enough to wipe out more than $50 million a year in taxable income over 18 years.

Trump has declined to release his tax records, unlike previous presidential nominees in modern history, saying his taxes are under a federal audit. Experts say he could still release them publicly if he wished.

"Mr. Trump is a highly-skilled businessman who has a fiduciary responsibility to his business, his family and his employees to pay no more tax than legally required," the Trump campaign statement said.

"That being said, Mr. Trump has paid hundreds of millions of dollars in property taxes, sales and excise taxes, real estate taxes, city taxes, state taxes, employee taxes and federal taxes, along with very substantial charitable contributions," it said.

source: interaksyon.com