Garmin Nuvifone:cellphone GPS with

Garmin, one of the world’s leading GPS manufacturers announced their Garmin Nuvifone – their first attempt at mobile phone production.
The Garmin Nuvifone is entirely touch-controlled and offers some very nice features. The main focus is of course the built-in GPS and GPS navigation software. The software is the same as the one of the leading stand-alone GPS navigation systems on the market GPS Nuvi. According to Garmin the Google local search is also seamlessly implemented to allow quick searching of points of interest near your current location.

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Mobile Phone reading Software for the Blind

K-NFB Reading Technology, a developer of assistive technologies, introduced what it claims to be the first mobile phone software that reads to the blind and the disabled.
K-NFB, a joint venture between Kurzweil Technologies and the National Federation of the Blind, is making its reading software available on the Nokia (NYSE: NOK) N82 mobile phone. It will be the smallest text-to-speech reading device to date, the company said.

The software is part of a new product line called Reader Mobile that includes the knfbReader and the kReader, which allow a person to take pictures using the N82's built-in camera and read printed materials. This is enabled through image processing software developed by Kurzweil.

"So many people already carry cell phones. This innovation is exciting because it puts all of the functions that users need into one product, eliminating the need to carry multiple devices. The Reader's simple user interface makes it ideal for the growing number of blind seniors," said James Gashel, VP of business development at K-NFB, in a statement.

The software reads text out loud to the blind. While those with disabilities can use the software to enlarge, track, and highlight content in documents directly on their mobile phone. Documents stored in a phone can also be transferred to and from Braille desktop programs.

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Herry:A robot bowling ball thrower

United States Bowling Congress (USBC) has started a two-year study of bowling ball motion. USBC engineers have used a seven-foot tall robotic ball thrower nicknamed ‘Harry’ to test about 60 particle and reactive resin bowling balls in more than 150 tests. They’ve also used the ‘Super C.A.T.S.’ (Computer Aided Tracking System) to record the velocity of the bowling balls as they were rolled down the lane. The Super C.A.T.S. system is made up of 23 small electronic sensors installed on the lanes. USBC engineers will give their conclusions about the balls next month.

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Amazon.com announces to add MP3 Music store to international web sites

Amazon.com will start selling MP3 music files through its international Web sites this year, the company said Sunday. But details of the company's plans to expand its digital music service remain scarce.

"We have received thousands of e-mails from Amazon customers around the world asking us when we will make Amazon MP3 available outside of the U.S.," Bill Carr, Amazon's vice president of digital music, in a statement.

Amazon began selling MP3 files without digital rights management technology on its U.S. Web site in September 2007, at prices ranging from US$0.89 to $0.99 per song, and $5.99 to $9.99 per album.

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Sony Ericsson S500i :Review

Sony Ericsson is known for its elegant and beautifully designed phones, and the S500i is no exception. Its sleek and sexy slider design sports a unique aesthetic that makes it look like it belongs in a high-end boutique rather than a cell phone store. And even though it's not a Walkman-branded phone, it comes with an onboard music player, as well as stereo Bluetooth, a 2.0-megapixel camera, a wireless Web browser, e-mail, and more. The S500i is available in Mysterious Green, Spring Yellow, Ice Purple, and Contrasted Copper. Since the S500i isn't offered via U.S. carrier, you'll have to purchase it unlocked at a rather steep price of $359.

Design
As we mentioned, the S500i is a very stylish and eye-catching handset. It has a classy and sophisticated appearance, and there are even glowing LEDs along the sides whenever it's activated, making it appear extra sparkly. Not only is the S500i sleek, it's also compact, measuring only 3.9 inches by 1.8 inches by 0.5 inch and weighing about 3.3 ounces. The S500i is one of a few phones that Sony Ericsson has manufactured in a slider design, the others being the W580i and the W850i. We like the slider mechanism quite a bit--the movement was smooth yet sturdy, and didn't feel too loose at all. There is a slight sloping curl along the chin of the phone that you can use to push the phone open, and to close it, you can slide your thumb down on the raised toggle--making the entire sliding process completely one-handed.

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World`s thinnest laptop by Apple

Apple finally has entered the subnotebook market, introducing a lightweight laptop meant to please road warriors. But, typical of Apple, the company took a different approach from its competitors. The result is a beautiful, amazingly thin computer, but one whose unusual trade-offs may turn off some frequent travelers.

The new aluminum-clad MacBook Air, which I've been testing for several days, is billed as the world's thinnest notebook computer. Its thickest point measures just three-quarters of an inch, which is slimmer than the thinnest point on some other subnotebooks. And it employs some innovative software features, such as fingertip gestures for its touchpad that are similar to those on Apple's iPhone.

Apple refused to make the most common compromise computer makers employ to create their littlest laptops. Other subnotebooks -- a category generally defined as weighing three pounds or less -- have screens of just 10 to 12 inches and compressed keyboards. The three-pound MacBook Air, by contrast, features a 13.3-inch display and a full-size keyboard.

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Missing iphones?

Shortly after Apple and its iPhone partner announced their financial results, the analysts noticed that there could be a little bit of problem. It seems like there are few hundreds of thousands iPhones roaming unaccounted on the market. Let’s see what happened!

Earlier this week, Apple announced that is has sold 3,7 million iPhones until the end of 2007. On the other hand AT&T, the exclusive distributor of iPhone in the US, revealed during its earnings conference call that it has ended the last year with “just at or slightly under 2 million iPhone customers”.

As you can imagine, the analysts immediately noted the discrepancy and has started to search the missing iPhones and some explanations. iPhone is available also in Europe, but there are no precise estimations of how many mobile phones have been sold so far.


were sold in UK, Germany and France or in other European countries. Orange, France Telecom’s mobile division, confirmed that the French users have bought 70,000 iPhone during the first month of availability, instead of 100,000 forecasted. The iPhone was launched in France on November 29. In UK, Telefonica’s O2 said that on track to sell 200,000 iPhones by early January. There no estimations for the iPhone sales in Germany, except a statement made by an official back in November. He said Apple sold 10,000 iPhone in the fist day.

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Canon's EOS Rebel XSi Camra with SD memory card

Canon faced some modest compatibility risks when it chose to design its new EOS Rebel XSi camera with SD flash-memory cards rather than the CompactFlash cards it's used for all its SLR cameras until this point, but I think the move is smart overall.

It's a drag for consumers that there's such a profusion of flash card formats. Customers often must pay extra when moving from one camera maker to another just to replace flash cards. And indeed, owners of Canon's existing Rebel, Rebel XT, or XTi cameras will find their CompactFlash cards useless if they upgraded to an XSi.

But the reality is that Rebel XSi (also called the 450D and Kiss X2 in various parts of the world) customers are more likely to be upgrading from a compact camera, a market where SD dominates. And from a technical perspective, SD performs fine, takes up less critical room in the camera, and in the newer SDHC incarnation can match CompactFlash's 32GB capacity.

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Microsoft earns record revenue in 2nd-quarter

Microsoft Annouces its fiscal second-quarter profit climbed 79 percent, buoyed by rising sales of Windows-based personal computers.

For the quarter ended Dec. 31, profit increased to $4.71 billion, or 50 cents per share, from $2.63 billion, or 26 cents per share in the same period last year.

Results topped Wall Street's expectations. Analysts polled by Thomson Financial forecast a profit of 46 cents per share.

Revenue rose 31 percent to $16.37 billion from $12.5 billion in the year-ago quarter, ahead of analysts' prediction of $15.95 billion in sales.

The quarter was particularly strong when compared with a year ago, when Microsoft deferred more than $1 billion in revenue due to delays in getting Windows Vista, its newest operating system, to consumers.

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40% share Of Mobile Phone Market goes to Nokia

Nokia remains the leading phone maker in the world, but its increase in market share from 36% in the fourth quarter of 2006 to 40% in the fourth quarter of last year is due to because of substantial growth in the Middle East and Africa, and modest growth in Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Latin America, the phone maker said.

In North America, Nokia's market share dropped to 5.1% in the fourth quarter, compared with 5.9% in the same period in 2006. The phone maker recently said it will roll out six to 12 new phones specifically for the U.S. market this year in order to regain its North American market share. For example, Nokia already announced that it will begin selling the 8-GB version of its N95 multimedia phone in the United States.

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Samsung introduces two new phones for ladies

Samsung announces two new hand sets for fashion-conscious ladies.

Samsung L310 is a black-and-gold clamshell. It has a rather uncommon S-shaped hinge that should be able to make it stand out in a crowd. The tri-band phone comes in the compact dimensions of 93.4 x 44 x 17.9 mm and has a number of Female applications - Shopping list, Fragrance type and Calories consumption. The phone sports a 1.8" TFT display with a resolution of 176 x 220 pixels. It has 20MB of internal memory that can be expanded through the built-in microSD card slot.


The second announced phone is Samsung L320, which offers rounded clamshell design and is supposed to come as a successor of the rather popular Samsung E570. It comes with a 1.9" TFT LCD main display with a 176 x 220 resolution and an external OLED 176 x 16 pixel one. The 2 megapixel camera should take care of the user's photography needs, while USB v1.1 and Bluetooth v2.0 are to assure connectivity.

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Sony Ericsson unveils Sony Ericsson R306 Radio

Sony Ericsson announced the Sony Ericsson R306 Radio. It is the only clamshell among the announced models by sony ericsson. It will have an AM/FM radio with RDS and will sport a 1.9" 65K color display with a resolution of 128 x 160 pixels. In addition to it there will be a secondary monochrome screen, sporting a resolution of 96 x 32 pixels. Sony Ericsson R306 Radio will feature 5 MB of internal memory and will have stereo speakers to enhance the radio listening experience. Those add for rather portable radio player looks - great for taking it with you on family outings. A 1.3 megapixel camera with video recording capabilities is the final feature of the handset.

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BlackBerry Pearl 8110 with GPS released in spian

The BlackBerry Pearl 8110 has the typical BlackBerry looks and has GPS navigation functionality to aid users on the move no matter if they are on foot, or on transport. The Blackberry 8110 is not the most feature-rich device around but will surely please the Blackberry addicts.

The Blackberry Pearl 8110 main selling point (beside the almighty email service) is obviously the integrated GPS receiver. Combined with the Vodafone GPS navigator service, it becomes a nifty little gadget. The Pearl 8110 comes with a one-year free subscription to the service, which based on the Telmap Navigator solution offers turn-by-turn voice-assisted navigation, real-time map updates and a rich catalogue of businesses and points of interest. There are two packages - “Iberia” and “Europe”.

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Nokia 2600 classic is unveiled

Nokia unveils Nokia 2600. Nokia 2600 classic is targeted at emerging markets and make the most out of features such as multiple phone books, calls cost tracking, prepaid credit tracking, etc.
Nokia 2600 classic is a dual-band GSM/GPRS phone measuring some 12 mm in thickness and weighting 73 grams. It will be offered in several colors with Xpress-on covers to suit consumer preferences.
The Nokia 2600 classic has a 65K color TFT display with 128x160 pixels resolution. The budget phone is not scarce on functions at all - it sports VGA camera with video recording, FM radio, WAP 2.0 web browser (xHTML), as well as Bluetooth v2.0.

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Smartphones getting More Popular

According to the latest industry research, mobile handset customers -- in the U.S. and abroad -- have been snapping up smartphones at dizzying rates. The NPD Group says that the percentage of smartphones sold during the third quarter increased to 11 percent of all handset sales in the U.S., up from just 4 percent one year earlier. The growth is equivalent to a stunning 163 percent rise from prior-year figures.
"The mobile phone market is not only growing, it is growing smarter," said NPD director Ross Rubin. "The nearly three-fold increase in smartphones shows that this once negligible niche is becoming a more influential force in the consumer market -- attracting entrants such as Apple and the Open Handset Alliance."


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New Photo Messenger by Ality

washingtonpost report that The Wireless PIXXA by Ality is an 8-inch, Wi-Fi-enabled digital frame with an innovative new sharing option. Users can send photos from a computer to a frame, or from frame to frame, using Ality’s new Photo Messenger, which works like an instant messenger service. Using the touch screen, users can drag and drop photos to send to friends, and can add a message to each batch of photos.

“It works a lot more efficiently [than other Wi-Fi digital photo frames]," said William Wong, founder and CEO of Ality. “With the instant messenger, friends get photos in one second.”

Users can also sync the frame to online-sharing sites Flickr and Picasa, and can access Google Calendar via the digital frame’s screen. News, weather, and sports can be streamed across the frame’s LCD, and , of course, it also displays your favorite pictures. The Wireless PIXXA has 128MB internal memory, features a rechargeable battery, and supports CF/SD/MMC/MS/xD media. It will retail for $299 when it’s released in March.

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WND Wind DUO 2200:Two sims in One phone

The Wind Duo 2200 is a robust second generation innovation designed to deliver enhanced synchronized solutions in one versatile handset. By incorporating two screens, two keypads and two SIM cards, the Wind Duo 2200 lets you streamline your life, bringing personal and business needs together in ultra convenient and sleek style.

• Synchronize personal and business life in one handset


• Use seamlessly across continents


• Built-in 2.0 megapixels camera on each side


• Share data between both sides in a snap

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Sony Ericsson signs Maria Sharapova as global brand ambassador

Sony Ericsson announced that they have signed four-year sponsorship agreement with the highly popular tennis player Maria Sharapova, to become their first "global brand ambassador". Sharapova is going to take part in Sony Ericsson consumer brand campaigns.

Sony Ericsson have been involved in women's tennis for quite some time and they also have signed a 6-year global title sponsorship of the WTA Tour back in January 2005. Sony Ericsson had an ad campaign for Sony Ericsson K800 known as "Never miss a shot" as well as the tennis-inspired ad of the sporty Sony Ericsson W710.

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Fastest supercomputer unveiled in uk

CNET News reports that Hector--or the High-End Computing Terascale Resource--can handle 63 trillion calculations per second, which is the equivalent processing power of 12,000 desktop systems and four times faster than its predecessor. The amount of calculations the system can handle is equivalent to every person on earth simultaneously carrying out 10,000 calculations per second.
The super computer is based at the University of Edinburgh's Advanced Computer Facility near the Scottish capital and will cost $221.3 million (113 million pounds) over six years. The facility will be operated by the Edinburgh Parallel Computing Center (EPCC).

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iRiver to launch thier 1st GSM phone:Similar to iphone

PMP manufacturer iRiver planing to enter the cell phone market with their first GSM phone, showcasing a prototype of ala-iPhone-device with a full touchscreen navigation.
The iRiver GSM phone doesn't have any name so far and is due for the end of 2008. This phone runs on Linux-based user interface and has a large 3-inch touchscreen display with a resolution of 480 x 272 pixels. There is no keypad and the navigation and text input is done solely by tapping on the large screen - just like on iPhone. But the similarities with Apple's iphone don't end here. Not only user interface of the iRiver phone is too smimilar with the Apple iPhone one -but also the unlocking slider, the phone application, the icons structure and the icon graphics and the media player is suspiciously identical to the iPhone.

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Samsung unveiled F490:The Black Beauty

South Korean handset manufacturer officially unveiled Samsung F490, a rich multimedia mobile phone with all-over 3.2-inch display, no hardware keypad and 5 megapixel camera running on the award-wining Croix UI.
The tri-band HSDPA/EDGE-enabled Samsung F490.It has only 11.8mm thickness with rounded corners and glossy surface, loaded with some nice features on board.
The extra large 3.2-inch TFT touchscreen with 240 x 432 pixels resolution occupies almost the entire front panel, leaving only a small space bellow for the call and end keys, which are also touch sensitive.
The haptic feedback further facilitates the phone handling, offering tangible assurance that the touchscreen has accepted your command. The 16:9 widescreen ratio of the display benefits picture, video and internet browsing, too. The video player supports WMV, MPEG4, H.263, H.264 file formats in up to VGA resolution at 30fps.

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Sony sells 1.2M PS3s during holiday season

Sony has announced that PlayStation 3 game machine sales totaled 1.2 million in North America during the key holiday season, boosts the strength of the company's Blu-ray video format because the console also works as a Blu-ray player.
Competition is tough among the latest video game machines, pitting Sony against Nintendo's popular Wii and Microsoft Corp.'s XBox 360.
But the rivalry between the two of the latest video formats — Blu-ray and HD DVD — appears to be tipping toward the former after Warner Bros. Entertainment, formerly a supporter of the Toshiba-backed HD DVD format, defected to the Blu-ray side over the weekend.

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Sony, Skype calling gamers

The consumer electronics industry has for many years now tried to shoe-horn a game (some would say game-like) experience on the mobile phone device, but this year, Sony swims upstream in the same waters. It has taken the PSP handheld game platform and turned it into a mobile phone -- albeit with limitations. But the value proposition for consumers is win-win.
Sony has partnered with eBay's Skype division and developed a portable version on the VoIP service for the PSP, effectively turning the gaming handheld into a Skype phone -- with the same functionality, as well its limitations.
Here's what we know:
In about 1-2 months, owners of the newer PSP model (the P-2000) will be able to download a firmware update and secure a free application that will allow users to make free PSP-to-PSP and PSP-to-PC calls so long as both parties are in a WiFi hotspot. PSP owners with the Skype firmware update can also make calls to conventional land lines (or cell phones) off the Skype network, however, a per-call charge will be assessed.

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Panasonic and Google plan to develp Internet TVs

Google and Matsushita's Panasonic unit are developing televisions that display Internet content such as videos and photos.
This spring Google and Matsushita's Panasonic plan to launch the TV.This TV will allow users to directly browse and access videos from YouTube, a video-sharing Web site owned by Google, and view Picasa Web Albums, a free online photo-sharing service from Google.
Panasonic Consumer Electronics Vice President Merwan Mereby said in the statement that"Panasonic's cooperation with YouTube and Google's Picasa Web Albums exemplifies our commitment to leading the natural evolution of the Internet and extending it to the high-definition television,"

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Microsoft apologizes Office 2003 'mistake'

I found a very interesting news and wanted to share one article on it.
Microsoft has acknowledged it made a mistake over a security advisory it released concerning Office 2003.The advisory, posted in December, told users that dozens of file formats had been blocked in the latest service pack for Office 2003--Service Pack 3 (SP3)--because they were insecure. It provided a workaround for users who wanted to unblock the formats, but made the process complicated, requiring changes to the registry which could have made users' PCs inoperable if they were applied incorrectly.
On Friday, Microsoft admitted that the information it had provided was wrong, and that it had underestimated how many users had been affected. It now says that, instead of the file formats themselves being insecure, it is the parsing code that Office 2003 uses to open and save the file types that is less secure.
Speaking to ZDNet.co.uk on Friday, Reed Shaffner, worldwide product manager for Microsoft Office, confirmed that the advisory provided by Microsoft was incorrect, and that manual registry fix which Microsoft had provided had been difficult to implement by end users.
Asked why Microsoft had not made the fix easier to implement, Shaffner said: "We thought it would not impact many users. And the messages we have been receiving are that it hasn't affected many users. But it was a mistake on our part."

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Apple made a deal with movie studio

According to BusinessWeek Apple is close to signing distribution deals with one of the top movie studios that would give Apple access to newly released films.
The Financial Times has reported that Apple has already signed an agreement with Twentieth Century Fox. The company is nearing deals with Warner Bros., Paramount Pictures, and Lionsgate BusinessWeek said. Magazine reported that some of the deals may be announced at the Macworld conference, which will start on January 14.
While Apple has dominated music, it's been slow going in video.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs has had to overcome fears in Hollywood that the movie industry could end up like the music industry: handing over too much control to Jobs. Maybe the best known example of this is the music industry's inability to get Jobs to allow flexible pricing for songs.
But according to BusinessWeek, Jobs is winning over the studios by sweetening the pot. Jobs once capped the price he was willing to pay for each movie sold through iTunes at $14, the magazine reported. He has now agreed to pay closer to the $17 wholesale price that Wal-Mart and other physical retailers pay.

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Sony Ericsson launched Bluetooth headset for woman

Sony Ericsson has launched Bluetooth headset HBH-PV712 Style Edition specifically for women.
The headset will be a welcome relief to active, fashion-conscious women across the globe, and comes after huge research by the company to figger out exactly what the active, modern woman wants.
The headset can be combined with three accessories including three Style-up(TM) covers, designed to detach from the headset in one step so that the user can quickly change the cover to fit his/her mood and outfit.

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Sony Ericsson unveils W760

Sony Ericsson has unveiled a new phone Sony Ericsson W760 .Its nickname is "Global Walkman". The phone is surely up to this title as it features quad-band GSM and tri-band UMTS network support, allowing it to be used anywhere in the world. The handset will also support HSDPA for faster data transfers. In addition to the Walkman functionality the handset will pack a 3.2 megapixel camera with built-in accelerometer allowing screen auto-rotation and Shake control.

The Sony Ericsson W760 will feature a relatively large 2.2" display with QVGA resolution and will be capable of showing up to 262K colors. The phone will also have 40 MB of internal memory expandable through the Memory Stick Micro card slot. According to the manufacturer there will be a 1GB memory card included in the retail package.
The most exciting feature of Sony Ericsson W760 is the built-in GPS with Wayfinder Navigator application. Unluckily a paid subscription will be needed for the program to work. Packed in the relatively small dimensions of 103 x 48 x 15 mm and weighting 103g the Sony Ericsson W760 will also feature Bluetooth with A2DP support and FM radio with RDS.
Sony Ericsson W760 will be available in three color versions (Rocky Silver, Fancy Red and Intense Black) in selected markets from Q2 2008. However, there is no information about its price at this stage.

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Google has filed for image text patent

The application, made in June 2007, was published on Thursday and covers "methods, systems and apparatus including computer program products for using extracted image text," according to Google.
"In one implementation, a computer-implemented method is provided," reads the abstract for the application. "The method includes receiving an input of one or more image-search terms and identifying keywords from the received one or more image search terms. The method also includes searching a collection of keywords including keywords extracted from image text, retrieving an image associated with extracted image text corresponding to one or more of the image-search terms, and presenting the image."
Google, which is already the proprietor of not only the most widely used image search facility on the Internet but also the leading video site, YouTube, has much to gain from being able to correctly interpret text held within images and video. Such a capability could, for example, be used to create more accurate keywords or for the automatic tagging of files and the identification of where a picture was taken based on signage in the background.

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