Senator John McCain in particular was quite abrupt, calling Apple as one of America’s largest tax avoiders.The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations released this Monday a report that accused Apple of having employed dubious methods to shit profit offshore and avoid paying due tax to the US government. The company’s offshore financial practices were avidly debated and investigated, after Apple’s main subsidiary failed to pay tax or declare income for the duration of three years. Things got even more interesting when the report took an in-depth look at Apple’s tax rate in Ireland, which turned out to be a special deal that gives the company preferential treatment.

Panel members did not waste time with polite statements. In fact, Senator John McCain was not only aggressive in highlighting Apple as the worst of the worst, but also had quite some challenging questions to ask. “Apple claims to be the largest US corporate taxpayer, but by sheer size and scale, it is also among America’s largest tax avoiders” McCain argued whereas subcommittee member Carl Levin added that the “complex web of offshore entities” Apple has used in its tax evasion gimmick is the “Holy Grail of tax avoidance”.

The news that Apple cut a special deal with Ireland on their corporate tax did not sit well with Senator McCain. “My question is, couldn’t one draw the conclusion that you and Apple have an unfair advantage over domestic based corporations and companies”, McCain asked Tim Cook during the hearing, “in other words, smaller companies in this country that don’t have the same ability that you do to locate in Ireland or other countries overseas?”

To all of these, Tim Cook kept his calm and grin, and did not waste the opportunity to pitch his own intellectual property law reform as well as to consistently argue that Apple is a job creator, a proud American company that is “equally proud of our contribution to the American economy”.

It is obvious that Apple is using some tax loopholes. And for good reason. The US corporate tax is 35 percent, the highest in the world. Compare that to the incredibly advantageous tax rate of less than 2 percent that Apple had agreed for with Ireland.

The competition is meant to offer developers the possibility to assert themselves and to win an incredibly big sum of money. On the other hand, the smartphone maker will have a lot to win due to the competition, as well, considering the attention that its Galaxy S 4 model will receive from the public. The company expects developers to be intrigued by the competition and to do their best to contribute to the revival of the apps.

Several requirements have been imposed for the competition that will run between June 20 and August 31. Developers will have to create apps that utilize group communication functionality in interesting ways. The apps must leverage the Samsung Chord SDK as Samsung wants to produce content-sharing apps that do not require users to be familiar with networking. No limitations were imposed in relation to the age and the nationality of the participants as developers from all over the world are free to take part in the contest.

The contest gives many developers the possibility to win as the South Korean company announced that the 10 best apps will receive a total of $800,000 in prize money, in addition to other facilities. They will also have the opportunity to get their app evaluated and promoted by Samsung. The biggest prize ($200,000) will be handed to the first winner, whereas the runner-up will receive $100,000. The following six winners nominated by Samsung will take home $50,000.

The contest will take a long period of time until the name of the winners will be revealed. Samsung told the press that the evaluation period will take place between October and November. The winners will be announced at the end of the year, more specifically, in December. Developers, who want to take part in the competition, will have to submit applications in English on Samsung’s proprietary app store after May 1 and sign up on the App Challenge website starting June 20.

Whether her battery will be adopted by mobile communications companies or not, is still debatable, but the fact that Eesha Khare deserved an award was undisputable. The 18-year-old student was one of the two winners of the Young Scientist Award during this year’s edition of the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. She told the press that she will use the money she received with the award to fund her college education at the Harvard University.

The senior at the Lynbrook High School in Saratoga told the press that she was surprised to see the jury decided to hand her the award. She, then, described the device she created which could be used to recharge mobile phones in just 30 seconds. The gadget she designed is a black, rectangular supercapacitor, which is only one inch long. The supercapacitor can hold a lot of energy, even though its size is very small, Khare further revealed. Although the device was introduced as a mobile phone battery, the same technology could be adopted for the automobile industry.

Khare has always been passionate about science, which is why Eesha was over the moon when she found out that she won the competition. She will use the $50,000 she received as an award to fund her college education. The Californian high-school senior has great plans for her future; she revealed that she will follow the science courses of the Harvard University and the award will, therefore, come in handy. The teen concluded her declaration with a joke by saying that she will “be setting the world on fire” after she starts her college education.

Game players have all been excited about the arrival of the new Xbox console from Microsoft, but the company made a new announcement a day before the official launching. According to the information disclosed by the software company, the game console will not reveal itself completely to its future buyers at the first event, namely, the presentation that was programmed on Tuesday, at the Microsoft Campus in Redmond, Washington. Customers will get to know all there is to know about Xbox during the Electronic Entertainment Expo which will be held in June.

Microsoft's interactive entertainment chief of staff Aaron Greenberg explained that the release of the Xbox console was programmed for two separate events because “We have so much goodness that there's no way we could have packed it all into one event”. He further stated that during the event that was programmed for the 21st of May, the staff will reveal the most important aspects of the new generation of Xbox and the company’s vision for “the future of games, of entertainment”.

Even if the launching was expanded over two events, Greenberg reassured the media that there will be plenty of news to present. He promised fans and customers that they will get “plenty of surprises” during the first meeting as organizers will do their best to help them “get a great inside look at the making of the new platform and the team that brought it to life”.

The first event will only set the foundations for the new generation of Xbox, introducing customers to the main features of the product. The E3, which will be held after a couple of weeks, will present all innovations related to software and games.

Jolla was born when the former Nokia employees, Sami Pienimäki, Jussi Hurmola, Marc Dillon, Stefano Mosconi decided to part ways with the famous Finnish mobile maker to continue the development work that they have started with MeeGo OS. The company is but a small fish in the infinite ocean of the smartphone market, but their new device could help raise market shares. The phone that the company revealed at the beginning of the week is the first to feature the Sailfish software that they have developed until now.

The smartphone has promising technical specifications, being powered by a dual core processor and featuring a 4.5-inch screen. The model comes with an 8-megapixel camera and 16GB storage capacity which can be expanded with the help of an SD card. Jolla developers are not new to the 4G technology, either; therefore, they have made their first Sailfish-based phone compatible with the new wireless communication technology.

The technical specs are not the only ones that matter, according to the Finnish startup producer; it is the Sailfish operating system, which has been provided with sufficient features to convince customers to take distance from competing platforms and opt for theirs instead. Jolla developers have intuited that smartphone users are looking for operating systems that can be enriched with as many apps as possible, so they have made Sailfish compatible with all Android apps, in addition to the ones that were purposefully designed for this operating system.

Jolla is not the only startup company that it’s trying to make it big on the smartphone market. Firefox OS, Ubuntu and Tizen have also revealed their intentions to launch their first smartphones this year. Despite their good intentions, the prices that these companies practice represent major setbacks; Jolla plans to sell the Sailfish-based smartphone for €399 (US$510), EU taxes included.

You Tube has decided to celebrate comedy by opening a special channel featuring funny performances during 19 – 25 of May. The event was announced by actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who declared himself a fan of comedy, even though his muscly looks would never let us suspect it. The “Terminator” star told You Tube viewers they should expect to see many videos from comedy actors like Vince Vaughn, Andy Samberg, Sarah Silverman and many others. The Comedy Week clip is full of many references to social networking trends, such as, planking or Harlem Shake. Hints to “Terminator” lines are not absent from the clip, either, as Arnold mocks his own character.

You Tube will post spoofs and funny rap battles videos the entire week, but viewers will be able to watch performance of great Hollywood actors. Owen Wilson has confirmed his participation at the Comedy Week, while Ricky Gervais has already posted the first guitar lesson of one of his alter egos, David Brent, which will be followed by other similar videos. David Mitchell and Jamie Oliver – the famous British cook – will also take part in You Tube’s celebration of the Comedy Week.

Personally, I find Ricky Gervais’ You Tube performance very weak compared to his previous standup comedy shows. The other videos posted haven’t managed to bring a smile on my face, either, but I’m assuming comedians are just getting started. The channel is definitely worth keeping an eye on, even for staying in touch with the latest comedy news.

Switzerland and Italy have joined the small group of countries that will commercialize Microsoft’s tablet by the end of this month, according to the company’s declaration. UK, Germany, the Netherlands and Portugal have been the first to confirm the release date and the prices that local stores will practice.

The tablet will be launched on the same day in Switzerland and Italy, namely, on May 30th. Euronics, Expert, Media World, Saturn and Unieuro are the retailers that will commercialize the tablet in Italy, but interested buyers will be able to purchase it from the company’s online store microsoftstore.com, as well. In Switzerland, the local branches of Fust, Interdiscount and Media Markt will be responsible with the commercialization of the tablet, but the device will also be available on the company’s online store.

Prices will differ from one company to another, according to the announcement that the company has made on Monday. While the 64GB Pro will cost €899 and the 128GB version of the tablet will be €999 at retailers in Italy, Swiss buyers will only have to pay CHF 959 (€770) for the 64GB Surface and CHF 1,059 (€850) for the 128GB. The Touch and Type covers will be sold separately at Swiss retailers in exchange of CHF 130 (€104) and CHF 140 (€112), respectively.

Even though Microsoft has disclosed that prices will be slightly different from one country to another, the software company reassured customers that local prices and release dates will remain fairly consistent. Except for UK, where the tablets will be available on May 23rd, the majority of the European countries will launch Surface Pro on 30 or 31 May.

A close source to the matter revealed on Monday that Yahoo has agreed to pay $1.1 billion in order to purchase Tumblr, a company that is not very productive in point of profit, but has, nevertheless, managed to gather 100 million users since it was first founded six years ago. Tumblr has captured the attention of the Internet giant, Yahoo, due to the large community users that access it every day. The veteran has, therefore, decided to purchase the weblog in order to expand their services and to keep up with the evolving online habits of Internet users.

The decision to buy Tumblr has been approved by Yahoo’s board at the end of the week, so the companies could be announcing the deal in the following week. Tumblr, the other company involved in the deal, has also agreed to become part of Yahoo, even though the news has not yet been confirmed by the spokespersons of the two companies.

Although Yahoo has been struggling lately to keep afloat, the company has nevertheless managed to become a member of the group of companies who have made proficuous deals. Google and Facebook represent the best examples of companies that have spent more than $1 billion apiece to buy startup companies. Yahoo’s Chief Executive, Marissa Mayer told the press that the deal could cover many of the holes that they have in comparison with other Internet companies. By welcoming the weblog Tumblr aboard, Yahoo could finally be able to offer its users the social networking and communications services they have been lacking. The move could also expand the users’ profile to younger generations and, it could, hopefully, guarantee an access to the smartphone market, Mayer concluded.

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The comprehensive guide of the 17 Cheat Foods That Burn Fat has got all our attention due to the interesting and very useful pieces of information it contained. Since we are not dieticians or fat loss gurus, we had to make sure that Joel Marion and Brett Hall's book is based on genuine information. Based on the research we have performed, the two authors have indeed grounded their alimentary diet on medical material.

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According to them, leptin – a hormone existing in our bodies that is responsible with the regulation of the energy intake and expenditure – influences our body's response to caloric intake. Unfortunately, the unhealthy food habits that people have practiced for centuries have lowered the leptin levels in our body and have slowed the leptin response to energy intake. As a consequence, our body does not make it in time to burn fat before it is stored in our system.

Marion and Hall have, nevertheless, found a method to improve the leptin levels and response due to the research they have performed during their careers. The great part about this method is that it is entirely based on natural products and ingredients, so those who decide to follow this diet won't have to resort to artificial medicines. All you have to do is introduce a “cheat day” in your regime each week to determine your body to increase leptin levels. In addition, it is recommended that you eat one-ingredient products (products that have not been processed with other ingredients or spices, such as, fruits and vegetables) to get faster leptin response.

Brett Hall's contribution to the 17 Cheat Foods That Burn Fat guide consists in a special bonus that buyers receive when placing the order. He has designed a special, 100% natural supplement that stimulates leptin levels and leptin response, so people could obtain better results in a shorter period of time.

All in all, the 17 Cheat Foods That Burn Fat guide is an amazingly informative book, so we strongly recommend it for people who want to learn more about the human body and the influence of hormones on our well-being. The diet may seem rather difficult to understand; therefore, it should be followed under the close guidance of a personal nutritionist.