The XtremeMac Tango TRX can dock/charge your iDevice, but it also supports Bluetooth audio from just about any device.
(Credit: Woot)
When it comes to choosing a bookshelf speaker, you're often forced to decide between one with a dock and one that supports Bluetooth.
Thankfully, you can have the best of both worlds. Today only, and while supplies last, Tech.woot has the refurbished XtremeMac Tango TRX Bluetooth speaker with 30-pin dock for $39.99, plus $5 for shipping. It originally sold for $179.99, and the best price I've seen elsewhere (for a new unit) is $99.
As you can see in the photo, the Tango TRX sports a dock that can accommodate nearly any iPhone, iPod, or even iPad (exceptions being late models with the Lightning connector). That not only gives you the best possible audio quality from your iDevice, but also charges its battery.
If, on the other hand, you don't have a dock-compatible phone or tablet (or simply don't feel like docking it), the speaker supports wireless music streaming via Bluetooth. Listen to your playlists, your Pandora, your movie audio, whatever. There's also a line-in jack if you want to connect an old-fangled audio source.
The Tango comes with a remote, but there's also a free Tango TRX app for iOS that gives you even more controls, including a five-band equalizer.
CNET hasn't reviewed this model, but it received a B+ rating over at iLounge, and 74 Amazon customers rated it 4.2 stars out of 5 on average.
Because it's a refurb, it comes with a 90-day warranty. But I wouldn't let that stop me from grabbing this versatile, slick-looking speaker.
Bonus deal: Game time! (Lots of incredible game deals of late, no?) Gamersgate has the following today-only offer: EA's blistering FPS Battlefield 3 (PC) for $9.99. Price if purchased directly from EA: $39.99. The only hitch is you'll need an Origin account to activate the game.
Deals found on The Cheapskate are subject to availability, expiration, and other terms determined by sellers.
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SOUTH BEND, Ind. Notre Dame said a story that star Manti Te'o's girlfriend had died of leukemia — a loss he said inspired him all season and helped him lead the Irish to the BCS title game — turned out to be a hoax apparently perpetrated against the linebacker.
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Manti Te'o
Notre Dame Fighting Irish Athletic Director Jack Swarbrick held a press conference late Wednesday about the apparent hoax Wednesday after Deadspin.com said it could find no record that Lennay Kekua ever existed.
"This was a very elaborate, very sophisticated hoax perpetrated for reasons we can't fully understand," Swarbrick said.
CBS News and its morning program, "CBS This Morning," were among the many news outlets that reported on the "hoax" girlfriend's death. "CBS This Morning" will have an update on the report Thursday.
The Notre Dame athletic director insisted "several things" led him to believe Te'o did not create the girlfriend himself after the university's investigation into the situation, led by a private investigative firm.
"Manti was the victim of that hoax. He has to carry that with him for a while. In many ways, Manti was the perfect mark because he's the guy who was so willing to believe in others," Swarbrick said. "The pain was real. The grieving was real. The affection was real."
By Te'o's own account, she was an "online" girlfriend.
"This is incredibly embarrassing to talk about, but over an extended period of time, I developed an emotional relationship with a woman I met online. We maintained what I thought to be an authentic relationship by communicating frequently online and on the phone, and I grew to care deeply about her," he said in statement.
"To realize that I was the victim of what was apparently someone's sick joke and constant lies was, and is, painful and humiliating."
"In retrospect, I obviously should have been much more cautious. If anything good comes of this, I hope it is that others will be far more guarded when they engage with people online than I was."
The linebacker's father, Brian Te'o, said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press in early October that he and his wife had never met Kekua, saying they were hoping to meet her at the Wake Forest game in November. The father said he believed the relationship was just beginning to get serious when she died.
Notre Dame Fighting Irish Athletic Director Jack Swarbrick at a press conference on Jan. 16, 2013.
/ CBS News
Swarbrick likened the situation to the 2010 movie "Catfish," in which "young filmmakers document their colleague's budding online friendship" with an allegedly young woman that turns out also to be a hoax.
The university said its coaches were informed by Te'o and his parents on Dec. 26 that Te'o had been the victim of what appeared to be a hoax.
Someone using a fictitious name "apparently ingratiated herself with Manti and then conspired with others to lead him to believe she had tragically died of leukemia," the school said.
Swarbrick said the investigation revealed "several" perpetrators, although the exact number is unclear. He said the university became convinced of the hoax based on "the joy they were taking...referring to what they accomplished and what they had done."
Te'o talked freely about the relationship after her supposed death and how much she meant to him.
In a story that appeared in the South Bend Tribune on Oct. 12, Manti's father, Brian, recounted a story about how his son and Kekua met after Notre Dame had played at Stanford in 2009. Brian Te'o also told the newspaper that Kekua had visited Hawaii and the met with his son. Brian Te'o told the AP in an interview in October that he and his wife had never met Manti's girlfriend but they had hoped to at the Wake Forest game in November. The father said he believed the relationship was just beginning to get serious when she died.
The Tribune released a statement saying: "At the Tribune, we are as stunned by these revelations as everyone else. Indeed, this season we reported the story of this fake girlfriend and her death as details were given to us by Te'o, members of his family and his coaches at Notre Dame."
The week before Notre Dame played Michigan State on Sept. 15, coach Brian Kelly told reporters when asked that Te'o's grandmother and a friend had died. Te'o didn't miss the game. He said Kekua had told him not to miss a game if she died. Te'o turned in one of his best performances of the season in the 20-3 victory in East Lansing, and his playing through heartache became a prominent theme during the Irish's undefeated regular season.
"My family and my girlfriend's family have received so much love and support from the Notre Dame family," he said after that game. "Michigan State fans showed some love. And it goes to show that people understand that football is just a game, and it's a game that we play, and we have fun doing it. But at the end of the day, what matters is the people who are around you, and family. I appreciate all the love and support that everybody's given my family and my girlfriend's family."
Manti Te'o #5 of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish reacts after beating the Michigan State Spartans 20-3 at Spartan Stadium Stadium on September 15, 2012, in East Lansing, Michigan.
/ Gregory Shamus/Getty Images
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2013 BCS National Championship
Te'o went on the become a Heisman Trophy finalist, finishing second in the voting, and leading Notre Dame to its first appearance in the BCS championship.
He was asked again about his girlfriend on Jan. 3 prior to the BCS title game, saying: "This team is very special to me, and the guys on it have always been there for me, through the good times and the bad times. I rarely have a quiet time to myself because I always have somebody calling me, asking, `Do you want to go to the movies?' Coach is always calling me asking me, `Are you OK? Do you need anything?'"
Te'o and the Irish lost the title game to Alabama, 42-14 on Jan. 7. He has graduated and was set to begin preparing for the NFL combine and draft at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla., this week.
Four days ago Te'o posted on his Twitter account: "Can't wait to start training with the guys! Workin to be the best! The grind continues! (hash)Future"
Te'o's statement also said: "It further pains me that the grief I felt and the sympathies expressed to me at the time of my grandmother's death in September were in any way deepened by what I believed to be another significant loss in my life.
"I am enormously grateful for the support of my family, friends and Notre Dame fans throughout this year. To think that I shared with them my happiness about my relationship and details that I thought to be true about her just makes me sick. I hope that people can understand how trying and confusing this whole experience has been.
"Fortunately, I have many wonderful things in my life, and I'm looking forward to putting this painful experience behind me as I focus on preparing for the NFL Draft."
Notre Dame's athletic director and the star of its near-championship football team said the widely-reported death of the star's girlfriend from leukemia during the 2012 football season was apparently a hoax, and the player said he was duped by it as well.
Manti Te'o, who led the Fighting Irish to the BCS championship game this year and finished second for the Heisman Trophy, said in a statement today that he fell in love with a girl online last year who turned out not to be real.
The university's athletic director, Jack Swarbrick, said it has been investigating the "cruel hoax" since Te'o approached officials in late December to say he believed he had been tricked.
Private investigators hired by the university subsequently monitored online chatter by the alleged perpetrators, Swarbrick said, adding that he was shocked by the "casual cruelty" it revealed.
"They enjoyed the joke," Swarbrick said, comparing the ruse to the popular film "Catfish," in which filmmakers revealed a person at the other end of an online relationship was not who they said they were.
"While we still don't know all of the dimensions of this ... there are certain things that I feel confident we do know," Swarbrick said. "The first is that this was a very elaborate, very sophisticated hoax, perpetrated for reasons we don't understand."
Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images
Tale of Notre Dame Football Star's Girlfriend and Her Death an Alleged Hoax Watch Video
Notre Dame's Athletic Director Discusses Manti Te'o Girlfriend Hoax Watch Video
MTV's 'Catfish' Series Pulls Back Curtain on Online Profiles Watch Video
Te'o said during the season that his girlfriend, Lennay Kekua, died of leukemia in September on the same day Te'o's grandmother died, triggering an outpouring of support for Te'o at Notre Dame and in the media.
"While my grandma passed away and you take, you know, the love of my life [Kekua]. The last thing she said to me was, 'I love you,'" Te'o said at the time, noting that he had talked to Kekua on the phone and by text message until her death.
Now, responding to a story first reported by the sports website Deadspin, Te'o has acknowledged that Kekua never existed. The website reported today that there were no records of a woman named Lennay Kekua anywhere.
Te'o denied that he was in on the hoax.
"This is incredibly embarrassing to talk about, but over an extended period of time, I developed an emotional relationship with a woman I met online," Te'o said in a statement released this afternoon. "We maintained what I thought to be an authentic relationship by communicating frequently online and on the phone, and I grew to care deeply about her."
Swarbrick said he expected Te'o to give his version of events at a public event soon, perhaps Thursday, and that he believed Te'o's representatives were planning to disclose the truth next week until today's story broke.
Deadspin reported that the image attached to Kekua's social media profiles, through which the pair interacted, was of another woman who has said she did not even know Te'o or know that her picture was being used. The website reported that it traced the profiles to a California man who is an acquaintance of Te'o and of the woman whose photo was stolen.
"To realize that I was the victim of what was apparently someone's sick joke and constant lies was, and is, painful and humiliating," Te'o said.
ALGIERS (Reuters) - Four foreign hostages were freed on Thursday by Algeria's armed forces, the official APS news agency said, giving no further details.
A local source has told Reuters six hostages were killed when a vehicle was fired upon by the military. A separate source, in the security services, said earlier that 25 foreigners had escaped. Gunmen said they were initially holding 41 foreign hostages after they stormed a gas plant in the remote Algerian desert on Wednesday morning. (Reporting by Lamine Chikhi; editing by Philippa Fletcher)
SINGAPORE : Singaporeans planning to buy insurance products can look forward to paying lower costs.
This comes after the Financial Advisory Industry Review Panel made a slew of recommendations to raise the quality and efficiency of the financial advisory industry.
They include proposals aimed at lowering the distribution costs of insurance products.
The panel reviewing the financial advisory industry has recommended measures that include raising the minimum education qualification of new financial advisers.
They also propose that a website be set up to make it easier for consumers to shop for financial products.
Lee Chuan Teck, assistant managing director for Capital Markets at the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), said: "The panel recommends that MAS work with the industry to develop a web aggregator that allows consumers to easily compare pricing, benefits and other features of similar products offered by different insurers."
A survey by MAS found that 80 per cent of Singaporeans are not prepared to pay an upfront fee for financial advice.
This led the panel to focus on how to lower distribution costs for insurance-based products.
It has proposed the introduction of a direct channel for consumers to buy basic insurance products directly from the insurers.
Tan Hak Leh, president of the Life Insurance Association, Singapore, said: "Any measures that lead to greater transparency would increase competitiveness and each player would then need to find ways to stay competitive in the market."
However, the financial adviser's role will not be displaced.
A financial adviser's services would still be required to sell some products.
Augustine Lee, president of the Association of Financial Advisers (Singapore), said: "Insurance (products) normally are sold and not bought, so you still need to have independent financial advisers to help you in terms of decision making and choosing the right product."
The Consumers Association of Singapore has welcomed the latest recommendations.
It said the main beneficiaries would ultimately be the consumers.
Seah Seng Choon, executive director of the Consumers Association of Singapore, said: "The issue about under insurance for Singaporeans may be addressed, now that the distribution costs can be lowered through competition."
MAS said it will consult the public on these recommendations and then decide on their implementation.
Nintendo's current corporate structure separating consoles and handhelds will be replaced, according to a new report.
Japan-based news outlet Nikkei is reporting today that Japan plans to combine its handheld and console divisions by February 16. The combined team will have 280 employees, made up of 130 employees from the console side and 150 from handhelds.
According to IGN, which was able to access the entire story behind a paywall, the team members will be organized by their specialties, including circuits, design, and others. Engadget claims to have spoken to a Nintendo spokesperson, which confirmed the news.
Nintendo has faced some trouble over the last few years as its latest hardware launches -- the 3DS and the Wii U -- have failed to generate the kind of interest and sales of its previous releases. During December, for example, Nintendo could only muster 460,000 Wii U unit sales in the U.S., according to the company. NPD DisplaySearch, which releases game sales data for the U.S., said "sales of the Wii U were lower on a unit basis when compared to the original Wii in December 2006."
It was a similarly troubling launch for the 3DS in 2011, when that device proved too expensive for consumers. After slashing the handheld's price, sales started to creep up.
By combining its handheld and console divisions, Nintendo believes that it will be able to deliver better products, according to Nikkei. The news outlet said that the combined effort will help Nintendo build next-generation hardware "that will turn heads." It's not clear what that means for the Wii U, which only launched a couple of months ago.
CNET has contacted Nintendo for comment on the Nikkei report. We will update this story when we have more information.
CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. A U.S. Marine was set to face court martial Wednesday for urinating on the bodies of dead Taliban fighters in Afghanistan and then posing for photos with the corpses.
Staff Sgt. Edward W. Deptola is accused of the desecration of remains and posing for unofficial photographs with human casualties. He also is accused of failing to properly supervise junior Marines and not reporting the misconduct.
Deptola and another Marine based at Camp LeJeune, N.C., were charged last year after video surfaced showing four Marines in full combat gear urinating on the bodies of three dead Afghans in July 2011. In the video, one of the Marines looked down at the bodies and quipped, "Have a good day, buddy."
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Political fallout over Marines video
As CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reported after the video's disclosure last January, the Marines in the video were members of a 1,000-man battalion that had completed a combat tour in Afghanistan and returned to Camp Lejuene, where they apparently started showing the video around as a war trophy.
Staff Sgt. Joseph W. Chamblin pleaded guilty to similar charges last month. Chamblin was sentenced to 30 days confinement, reduced in rank, fined and ordered to forfeit part of his pay for six months. Three other Marines were given administrative punishments for their roles in the matter.
Marine's punishment scaled back in urination case
The urination video surfaced amid a string of embarrassing episodes for U.S. forces in Afghanistan. American troops were caught up in controversies over burning Muslim holy books, posing for photos with insurgents' bloodied remains and an alleged massacre of 16 Afghan villagers by a soldier.
The Marine Corps said the urination took place during a counterinsurgency operation in the Musa Qala district of Helmand province, located in the south of the country.
After the video garnered international attention on YouTube, senior military officials sternly condemned the behavior of the Marines involved.
The United States now has 66,000 troops in Afghanistan. The U.S. and its NATO allies agreed in November 2010 that they would withdraw all their combat troops by the end of 2014, but they haven't decided on the scope of future missions in the country and the size of any residual force remaining after that.
As the White House prepares to unveil a sweeping plan aimed at curbing gun violence, the National Rifle Association has launched a preemptive, personal attack on President Obama, calling him an “elitist hypocrite” who, the group claims, is putting American children at risk.
In 35-second video posted online Tuesday night, the NRA criticizes Obama for accepting armed Secret Service protection for his daughters, Sasha and Malia, at their private Washington, D.C., school while questioning the placement of similar security at other schools.
“Are the president’s kids more important than yours? Then why is he skeptical about putting armed security in our schools, when his kids are protected by armed guards at their school?” the narrator says.
“Mr. Obama demands the wealthy pay their fair share of taxes, but he’s just another elitist hypocrite when it comes to a fair share of security,” it continues. “Protection for their kids and gun-free zones for ours.”
The immediate family members of U.S. presidents – generally considered potential targets – have long received Secret Service protection.
The ad appeared on a new website for a NRA advocacy campaign – “NRA Stand and Fight” — that the gun-rights group appears poised to launch in response to Obama’s package of gun control proposals that will be announced today.
An NRA spokesman said the video is airing on the Sportsman Channel and on the web for now but may appear in other broadcast markets at a later date.
The White House had no comment on the NRA ad.
In the wake of last month’s mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, the Obama administration has met with a cross-section of advocacy groups on all sides of the gun debate to formulate new policy proposals.
The NRA, which met with Vice President Joe Biden last week, has opposed any new legislative gun restrictions, including expanded background checks and limits on the sale of assault-style weapons, instead calling for armed guards at all American schools.
Obama publicly questioned that approach in an interview with “Meet the Press” earlier this month, saying, “I am skeptical that the only answer is putting more guns in schools. And I think the vast majority of the American people are skeptical that that somehow is going to solve our problem.”
Still, the White House has been considering a call for increased funding for police officers at public schools and the proposal could be part of a broader Obama gun policy package.
Fifty-five percent of Americans in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll say they support adding armed guards at schools across the country.
“The issue is, are there some sensible steps that we can take to make sure that somebody like the individual in Newtown can’t walk into a school and gun down a bunch of children in a shockingly rapid fashion. And surely, we can do something about that,” Obama said at a news conference on Monday.
“Responsible gun owners, people who have a gun for protection, for hunting, for sportsmanship, they don’t have anything to worry about,” he said.
ABC News’ Arlette Saenz, Mary Bruce and Jay Shaylor contributed reporting.
This post was updated at 9:32 am on Jan. 16 to reflect include comment from an NRA spokesman.
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian armed forces launched a renewed offensive in the northern city of Aleppo on Wednesday, state media said, a day after 87 people were killed in explosions at the city's university.
The state news agency SANA said the military had killed dozens of "terrorists" - a term Damascus uses for rebels trying to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad - in the new fighting.
Reuters cannot independently verify reports due to media restrictions in Syria.
"The Armed Forces carried out several special operations against the mercenary terrorists in Aleppo and its countryside, inflicting heavy losses upon them in several areas," SANA said.
Aleppo is split roughly in half between government and rebel forces. SANA said dozens of "terrorists" were killed in the rebel strongholds of Sukari, Bab al-Hadeed and Bustan al-Qasr.
Government forces also killed militants in al-Laramon, a area of Aleppo from which Damascus says two rockets were fired into the University of Aleppo on Tuesday, it added.
If confirmed, the government's report of a rocket attack would suggest rebels in the area had been able to obtain and deploy more powerful weapons than previously used.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group, said 87 people were killed and dozens wounded in the explosions, but it could not identify the source of the blasts. It said the toll could rise to more than 100 as there were still body parts that were unaccounted for.
State television showed a body lying on the street and burning cars. An entire facade of a multi-story university building had crumbled and cars were overturned. An interior shot of a corridor showed that the ceiling had caved in.
Amateur video footage showed students carrying books out of the university after one of the explosions, walking quickly away from rising smoke. The camera then shakes to the sound of another explosion and people begin to run.
Syria has been plunged into bloodshed since a violent government crackdown in early 2011 on peaceful demonstrations for democratic reform which turned the unrest into an armed insurgency bent on overthrowing Assad.
Each side in the 22-month-old conflict blamed the other for Tuesday's blasts at the university, located in a government-held area of Syria's most populous city.
Some activists in Aleppo said a government air strike caused the explosions, while state television accused terrorists of firing two rockets at the university. A rebel fighter said the blasts appeared to have been caused by surface-to-surface missiles.
The nearest rebel-controlled area, Bustan al-Qasr, is more than a mile away from the university.
The Observatory said rebel sources on the ground reported they were fighting with government forces in the early hours of Wednesday around Bustan al-Qasr, implying a renewed push by government forces to expel the insurgents.
(Reporting by Oliver Holmes; Editing by Jon Boyle)
SINGAPORE: A corporate shoot out over Fraser & Neave is expected on January 21.
The Securities Industry Council (SIC) has said the final time by which TCC Assets or OUE Baytown can revise its offer is 5.30pm on January 21. Each party will either announce any revision to their current takeover bids or walkaway from the deal.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, SIC said that "given that neither TCC nor OUE Baytown has declared its offer final, the council considers that the company's shareholders should be provided with certainty to make their investment decisions in respect of the competing offers."
If either TCC or OUE makes a revised offer on January 21, then an "auction procedure" will kick-in.
TCC Assets on Tuesday extended its S$8.88 per share offer for F&N for the seventh time to January 21, the very same day that rival bidder OUE's offer expires. A consortium led by OUE made a S$9.08 per share bid for F&N in November 2012.
This, after a first bid by Thai tycoon Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi through his investment assets, TCC and Thai Beverage, in September.
But given that the tug-of-war has been ongoing for several months, some experts said that the Securities Industry Council will not allow for an indefinite period of market uncertainty.
Shares of F&N have been trading above the offers made by TCC Assets and OUE, indicating that shareholders are expecting higher bids.
Fraser & Neave shares ended Tuesday up 0.1 per cent at S$9.70.
