Consumer Reports Ranks Nook Over Kindle

Consumer Reports has ranked Barnes & Noble’s recently launched Nook ereader over Amazon’s latest-generation Kindle for the fi…

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U.S. Trade Commission Gives The Green Light To Microsoft?s $8.5 Billion Cash Takeover Of Skype

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission said today that it has approved Microsoft's $8.5 billion cash takeover of voice and video-over-IP provider Skype. Microsoft officially announced its intent to acquire Skype back on May 10 and, since then, users have been taking to Twitter to blame Microsoft for Skype's intermittent service. The criticism, at least in that sense, has been a bit preemptive. At least, it seems, until today. Now, with Reuters report that there has been antitrust approval of the deal, users shall soon be able to turn to Microsoft when asking questions of Skype's sometimes-spotty service.

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The Legend Of Zelda: A Generation?s Awakening

I was trying for a few weeks to write a review of the remake of Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time on the 3DS and I couldn't do it. It was too hard. I was lost to the experience of the thing and knew that I'd simply gush over the new graphics and old storyline and have little to say about the quality of the thing. Then, like a porcine Robert Pirsig, I began to think about the quality of the thing and why Zelda plays such an important part in my life and the lives of an entire generation. The Legend of Zelda came out at a crucial point in history. Launched in August, 1987, the game appeared on the cusp of the Iran-Contra hearings and its launch coincided with a major LA earthquake. To children of the 1970s who were just coming into their own (I was 12 then), it was a frightening and confusing time. I was too young to understand the world, yet old enough to be afraid of it. I don't want to conflate world events with the launch of a game, but I think it's accurate in this case and, at the very least, helps explain some of the world as we (or I) saw it.

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Facebook PR: Tonight We Dine In Hell!

There's currently something going on in the outskirts of the tech world that's a bit sensitive, so no one really likes to talk about it: we (journalists, bloggers, etc) are at war with the PR industry. That sentence alone will throw the PR flacks into a tizzy. "Hyperbole!" "Sexy statement, no substance!" "Don't believe everything you read!" And all the other bullshit they typically spew to blunt interesting concepts into dull, gray PR-friendly dribble. We are at war. And no, this isn't about dumbass embargoes (though that remains a huge problem that the PR industry doesn't seem to have any real interest in solving). This goes deeper.

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Google Talk Guru answers questions via your IM app

Bots -- like the kind which automate IRC rooms and Google Wave -- are a good thing to know about. There are plenty of useful bots worth knowing about, too, including the Google Talk Guru.

Just add guru@googlelabs.com to your GTalk buddies, and you can start firing off questions. Lifehacker suggests that the same types of queries supported by Google SMS will work, though we didn't have any luck getting a response out of the Guru with phrases like "score detroit red wings" or "sushi R3N 1Y1."

Still, Guru does answer a good variety of questions and it works right within your favorite IM app. It's well worth adding to your friend list, especially for getting answers on the go on your mobile device of choice.

Google Talk Guru answers questions via your IM app originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 30 Mar 2011 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Indians Defeat The Pirates 5-1

CLEVELAND (AP) — Carlos Santana homered and the Cleveland Indians opened a six-game interleague homestand with a 5-1 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Friday night.

Josh Tomlin (8-4) earned the win, bouncing back from three consecutive rocky starts. He gave up six hits but no walks over 6 2-3 innings, striking out five.

Vinnie Pestano struck out Michael McKenry with two on to end the seventh, then worked a perfect eighth. Tony Sipp pitched the ninth.

Santana broke a 2 for 26 slump by hitting his eighth homer of the season. With two outs in the fourth, he connected for a solo shot off Kevin Correia (8-6) that made it 2-0. He added a bases-loaded RBI single in a three-run eighth.

Pittsburgh had a four-game winning streak snapped and failed to move three games over .500 for the first time since being 40-37 on July 1, 1999.

Travis Hafner returned to Cleveland's lineup and had an RBI double in the eighth. Manager Manny Acta argued for a three-run homer and the umpires used TV replay, which showed the ball hitting the yellow line atop the right-field wall. It must go over the line to be a homer.

Hafner had been out since May 18 with a strained right oblique muscle. Cleveland went 10-18 without him, including 5-11 in June.

Cleveland scored an unearned run in an odd third inning, when Indians first baseman Matt LaPorta left with what the team announced as a right lower leg injury.

LaPorta was hurt when caught in a rundown between second and third base. He was helped off the field by third-base coach Steve Smith and assistant trainer Rick Jameyson.

LaPorta reached on a bizarre play to open the third. Pirates shortstop Ronny Cedeno leaped to catch his line drive, but the ball bounced off his glove to second baseman Neil Walker, whose low throw skipped past first baseman Lyle Overbay for an error.

Orlando Cabrera followed with an easy grounder to Cedeno and LaPorta tried to go to third.

Jack Hannahan singled and Grady Sizemore walked to load the bases. After Michael Brantley lined out and with Asdrubal Cabrera at bat, Correia was called for a balk, scoring Orlando Cabrera.

In the Pirates' sixth, Cedeno hit a leadoff double and scored on a one-out single by Xavier Paul, who was out trying for second.

Correia dropped to 7-2 on the road, allowing one earned run and four hits over 5 2-3 innings. Chris Resop bailed him out of further damage by coming on with the bases loaded in the sixth and getting Adam Everett to ground into a force out.

Notes: Pittsburgh leads the series, 15-13. It was the first time the teams met with both above .500. ... The Pirates' first appearance in Cleveland since 2006 drew 36,549 fans. ... Correia has allowed two earned runs or fewer in eight of nine road outings ... OF Travis Buck was optioned to Triple-A Columbus to clear roster space for Hafner, who hit .345 with 22 RBIs in 32 games before being hurt. ... Valerie Bertinelli, star of the TV show "Hot In Cleveland" delivered the ceremonial first pitch in a unique way to Indians first-base coach Sandy Alomar Jr. Wearing an Indians jersey, she took a big windup, then ran the ball to home plate and placed it into Alomar's glove. ... Cleveland signed six more draft picks, including third-round choice RHP Jake Sisco. ... The Indians are 4-0 in interleague games this season. They swept three games from Cincinnati in May.

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See Also:

• The Angels Edge The Mets 4-3
• McCourt Divorce Settlement Reached: Jamie To Receive $650,000 A MONTH In Spousal Support*
• Doug Davis Baffles Yankees, Cubs Take Game One

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Blog Post: Get high on vacation

There’s more than one way to get high on vacation. You can ascend physically, spiritually or even chemically as your adrenaline levels go through the roof.

Here at Bing Travel, we’ve picked 16 destinations that allow you to physically rise above it all, which can of course lead to other kinds of ethereal heights. Our new slide show, Get High on Vacation, gives you a chance to enjoy a virtual, earthbound visit before you ascend to a higher plain.

Take Meteora in central Greece, for example. Monks have lived in monasteries atop the 1,800-foot-high rocky outcroppings here since the ninth century. In 2004, I huffed and puffed my way up the stone stairs to reach the Holy Monastery of Great Meteoron. It is the oldest and largest monastery in Meteora and provides a dazzling view of the surrounding plain.

Years ago, I drove to the top of Mauna Kea, a dormant volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii, where silvery observatories have an unobstructed view of the cosmos. It is odd indeed to be able to drive up a volcano, and your body lets you know this the minute you step out of your vehicle. If you’re not lightheaded from the sudden rise to 13,796 feet, you will surely be breathless watching the giant shadow that Mauna Kea casts on the ocean at sunset.

Piz Gloria in Switzerland is another place to elevate. This revolving restaurant at 9,744 feet on Schilthorn Mountain near Mürren starred in the James Bond movie “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.” Bond skied down the mountain to escape from his arch enemy Blofeld, but I chose instead to simply enjoy the top-of-the-world view over the Swiss Alps.

What’s your favorite place to get high on vacation? Post a comment for other travelers below.

Robin Dalmas is a travel writer, editor and producer for Bing Travel. She is the former Travel Editor for MSNBC and looks forward to getting high again soon.

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