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Smokin Joe Dies At 67
Boxing great Joe Frazier died late Monday night in Philadelphia after a brief battle with liver cancer.
Frazier, 67, was most famous for a series of classic fights vs. the great Muhammad Ali, who was his rival in and out of the ring for most of his career and after it came to an end.
The pair came to have a grudging respect for each other over the years, and Frazier even indicated he forgave Ali for hurtful comments he made about Smokin Joe in an apparent effort to hype their fights.
His family asked to be able to grieve on its own and would have more on our fathers homecoming celebration at a later time.
HBO fight analyst Larry Merchant, who became friendly with the ex-champ, said Frazier will be dearly missed.
This is a body blow to me because I knew him personally as well as professionally, Merchant told ESPN.coms Dan Rafael. I thought he was as honest and as real a fighter as there ever was. He followed in a tradition of (Jack) Dempsey and (Rocky) Marciano as the Warrior King.
Frazier, who hailed from Beaufort, South Carolina but lived mostly in Philly, was 32-4-1 with 27 knockouts in an outstanding career.
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Added:
08/11/11
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Westlife To Split After Tour
Pop act Westlife are to split after a final farewell tour next year, the band has announced.
The Irish group, who have been performing for 14 years and chalked up 26 top 10 hits, said they are now looking forward to new ventures.
In a statement last night the four-piece said: Over the years Westlife has become so much more to us than just a band. Westlife are a family.
The group for many years managed by Louis Walsh survived the departure of one of its founding members Bryan McFadden, and continued seamlessly as a four-piece.
Singer Mark Feehily also won admiration for announcing he was gay when the boy band were at the peak of their success.
Over the years Westlife achieved 14 number one hits, including the singles Swear It Again and Flying Without Wings.
Many of their successful tracks were cover versions and they capitalised on a swing revival by recording a Rat Pack-style album Allow Us To Be Frank.
Members Feehily, Kian Egan, Shane Filan and Nicky Byrne are due to release a greatest hits album shortly.
They said they had countless memories that we will forever cherish from their years together.
In a statement posted on their website, they said: We today announce our plan to go our separate ways after a greatest hits collection this Christmas and a farewell tour next year.
The decision is entirely amicable and after spending all of our adult life together so far, we want to have a well-earned break and look at new ventures.
We see the greatest hits collection and the farewell tour as the perfect way to celebrate our incredible career along with our fans. We are really looking forward to getting out on the tour and seeing our fans one last time.
They said their run of success had been a dream come true.
The band have notched up 11 top five albums seven of which have gone to number one which have together sold 44 million copies around the world.
They began life in July 1998 as IOU, headlining an annual Irish radio roadshow, and soon went on to land a record deal with RCA.
Prior to a support tour with Boyzone, the group changed its name to Westside, a name which Walsh had apparently seen written on the side of a bin.
But as a result of legal wrangles over the groups name they were renamed Westlife and released first single Swear It Again with instant success.
An uninterrupted run of consecutive number one singles followed, including their collaboration with Mariah Carey on the ballad Against All Odds.
They recorded and toured relentlessly until shortly after a triumphant show in 2008 at Dublins Croke Park selling out 82,000 tickets in a day when they decided to take a year off.
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Added:
20/10/11
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Free WI FI In London
Nokia has switched on a trial of a free wi-fi service in central London.
From today until the end of 2011, the public will be able to use the high-speed service in certain parts of the city courtesy of the phone firm.
If the two-month trial is deemed a success, the Finnish company plans to turn it into a fully fledged free wi-fi service early in 2012.
The initiative is one of many that will eventually see London dotted with hotspots offering free net browsing.
Trial run
Nokia has set up 26 hotspots to support the service and these are largely concentrated around West End shopping areas. Victoria, Marylebone and Westminster will also get access points. The firm said people would not need to register or sign in to use the wi-fi.
The offer is the largest such project Nokia has set up. It said it was considering repeating the exercise in cities in Africa and India where telecoms infrastructure is poor.
The hotspots will be located on phone boxes owned and operated by project partner Spectrum Interactive. It said that the full service would involve using many more of its 1,000 sites in London.
The hotspots are built around web links that run at 20 megabits per second but download speeds will be limited to a maximum of 1 megabit per user to ensure others can get at the service.
The trial is going to help us understand what people are using it for so we can improve it in the future, said Craig Hepburn, Nokias director of digital and social media.
Free wi-fi is widely already widely available in London. In particular, Londons financial district, the Square Mile, has had free wi-fi provided by The Cloud for years.
In Central London free wi-fi is available generaly via solitary access points in shops, hotels, pubs and bars. In addition some ISPs, such as BT, give their subscribers free wi-fi via their own-brand wireless services.
The fragmented nature of existing services has led the Greater London Authority to encourage boroughs to set up free wi-fi along the busiest streets. Projects for wi-fi in Westminster, Kensington Chelsea as well as Hammersmith Fulham and other regions are believed to be in the closing stages of negotiation.
There are also ongoing talks to put wi-fi on London tube stations so passengers can browse the web while they wait for a train.
There is also a plan to provide free wi-fi in and around London for the 2012 Olympics to help visitors and tourists find their way around and to make it easier for the sights and sounds of the games to be shared.
BBC News
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Added:
01/11/11
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Xoom 2 Nov Release
Weve seen the leaks and the rumours, but now Motorolas new Android Honeycomb tablets are finally with us. They today unveiled the Xoom 2 and Xoom 2 Media Edition. Turns out there were two separate products after all!
The Xoom 2 is a 10.1 tablet running Android Honeycomb 3.2. Spec wise youre looking at a 1.2Ghz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, 1280x800 display covered with Corning Gorilla Glass, 5 megapixel camera with LED flash on the back with 1.3 megapixel camera on the front. It all comes in at just 8.8mm thick and weighs 599g. Battery life is said to be around 10 hours if youre surfing the internets, or a month on standby.
The Xoom 2 Media Edition meanwhile looks to be used in portrait mode as we saw in leaks with the Motorola branding. Spec wise its the same as the Xoom 2, but at 8.2 instead, and the display has been optimized for wide viewing angles (IPS, anyone?). The Media Edition comes in at 8.99mm thick, and weighs 386g. Battery life is a little lower, rated for around 6 hours of surfing.
Motorola are also bringing the same business enhancements that we saw on the RAZR, with enterprise-grade security, as well as MotoCast and an HD Multimedia Station for your HDTV.
The Xoom 2 and Xoom 2 Media Edition will be available in the UK from mid-November, and you can pre-order with the Carphone Warehouse.
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Added:
03/11/11
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