Microsoft to unveil new streaming music service at E3

A new streaming music service from Microsoft is in the works, according to The Verge. It will replace the current Zune media service and is set to debut next month in Los Angeles, at E3 2012.

There is no name for the new service as of yet. For the time being, it's being referred to by its codename, "Woodstock." It looks to be part of Microsoft's continued effort to build the Xbox brand as the centerpiece of digital media consumption and management.

Because it's debuting at E3, presumably during Microsoft's Xbox-focused presentation, the new platform will likely find a prominent home on the game console. But it's ultimately intended for cross-platform compatibility.

Not only will "Woodstock" be available for Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 devices, but Android and iOS as well, along with any Internet-connected platform with a browser.

The Verge describes it as being "Spotify-like," and will integrate seamlessly with Facebook, to allow friends to build group playlists. It is also expected to have a "scan and match" function, similar to iTunes Match, which will acknowledge a user’s pre-existing music collection.

Given that Microsoft has claimed on multiple occasions that it will not be unveiling a Xbox 360 successor anytime soon, in favor of pushing the current console's abilities beyond just gaming, "Woodstock" falls perfectly in line with such a strategy.

The Zune was Microsoft's ultimately ill-fated attempt at getting a piece of personal media player marketplace that Apple still dominates. In recent years, it became a purely software driven music delivery service. With "Woodstock" looming, the Zune name may be completely retired.

Samsung Galaxy S III Review

The Samsung Galaxy S 3 is one of the biggest gadgets of 2012. With its predecessor topping the Android charts in the previous year and pretty much sweeping up all the best mobile phone awards it could find, it’s of little surprise that the world has its ears like a safe cracker to the web for news about the next member of this highly acclaimed super-smartphone dynasty.

Naturally, it’s our job here at Pocket-lint to sweep up any such tidbits of information and mould them in our experienced grip until we have a fully formed model of what we all expect the Samsung Galaxy S III to look like. Whether that turns out to reflect what the real phone shapes up to be remains to be seen, but read on to find out the shape of things right now according to the Samsung Galaxy S III rumours.

Samsung Galaxy S III quick facts based on rumours so far

If you take all the latest intel, fact or rumour, on the new Samsung Galaxy S3 or S III depending on how you write it, the phone will have a 4.8-inch screen, be powered by Samsung's own Exynos chip, feature slightly curved design like the Galaxy Nexus and come with an 8 megapixel camera.

It will be available on Vodafone and O2 in the UK in the coming weeks and run Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. You'll also be able to get it at Phones 4u too in the UK. It won't feature LTE for the UK and it is unlike to me made from Unicorn horns.

Samsung Galaxy S III release date
It all began just one month after the launch of the Samsung Galaxy S II when the president of Samsung’s mobile division, J.K. Shin, told the Dow Jones Newswires in an exclusive interview: “Samsung may launch a third version of its Galaxy S smartphone in the first half of next year after launching a second-generation version called Galaxy S II last month.”

Now that “may” might have sounded a shade wishy-washy at the time but we only had to wait until the 11 October 2011 for our next glimpse into the future when Phandroid.com received a leaked slide of the Samsund roadmap which featured none other than the Samsung Galaxy S III at the top of the tree. There were no dates along with the information but, with around six months to go, a Mobile World Congress 2012 launch wasn’t a big stretch.

But a big stretch it turned out to be by the end of January 2012 when Pocket-lint reported via Sammyhub and the Verge that what looked to be nailed on seemed to be suffering from delay. According to a well-trusted source group called “people familiar with the matter”, Samsung had been planning an MWC 2012 launch but there were issues which meant the timescale had been set back to a “before summer” release and that could have been about trying to reduce the long gap before users in the US got to buy them, as occured with the SGS2 arrival.

“We are still reviewing several options when to launch, so we'll let you know when it's decided,” was the official line at the time from Samsung’s head of Global Marketing, Younghee Lee, as he more or less made the handset official for the very first time.

All the same, it wasn’t until Samsung dropped a memo into Pocket-lint’s inbox a few days later on 1 February 2012 that we knew for sure that MWC 2012 was simply too soon.

"The successor to the Galaxy S II smartphone will be unveiled at a separate Samsung-hosted event in the first half of the year, closer to commercial availability of the product." was the word and the current anticpated arrival time for the Samsung Galaxy S III is May 2012.

Following the leaked image of the phone by GSMHelpdesk.nl, it was then suggested that 22 May would be the date of the phone's launch and that it would happen in London. However, Samsung finally debunked at least part of that theory by sending out an invite for its next Samsung Mobile Unpacked event, which will be held on 3 May. The host city of London though, was spot on.

Samsung Galaxy S III screen

The Galaxy S II had a whopper of a display when it arrived and Samsung even inched it out a little further for the LTE version, so one might expect something similarly grand for the Samsung Galaxy S III screen.

According to the leaked information on Phandroid.com in October, that’s exactly what will be happening with 0.1” addition taking the total to 4.6” on the diagonal. The same rumour talks of a much expected upgrade in the actual technology of the screen too. First it was Super AMOLED, then the SGS2 made it a Super AMOLED Plus and then the Galaxy Nexus came out with a 720p Super AMOLED HD. Apparently the Samsung Galaxy S III will have a Super AMOLED Plus HD. What this means in real terms has not been said but, in practice, it’s either going to be a 720p or 1080p resolution.

The only other story so far on the matter came from Samsung itself. Just after CES 2012, the company produced a video with its new product launch triumphs fresh from the show and some bright spark with the pause button at the ready spotted a large, but not Galaxy Note style, mobile device seven minutes in. What we see is a broader mobile with virtually edge-to -dge screen across its width and even less black along the top and bottom than you currently get on the SGS2. It looks great. The chances are, however, that it’s some kind of mock up but one never quite knows.

The latest rumours suggest that the Samsung Galaxy S3 will have a 4.8-inch screen based on a number of leaked images that show the supposed SGS3 next to a ruler, and more recently of a screen protector that shows it will be bigger than the HTC One X.

Samsung Galaxy S III camera

Again, it’s really, so far, only October’s leak that’s given us anything to go on in terms of the Samsung Galaxy S III camera. The word on the slide shot is that the 8MP rear-facer is going to be upgraded to a 12-megapixel backlit sensor which should improve performance under low light conditions as well as up the resolution. What’s more is that the sensor is apparently the same size as one you’d find in a compact at 1/2.3" and that might have some very interesting optical improvements so long as the lens put in front of it and circuitary behind it are up to scratch. That’s also if the leaked photo happens to be true, which looks a bit less likely when you notice a couple of typos.

The possible mock up in the post-CES promo video gives us another potential clue as far as the front-facing camera goes and that’s only to say that it’s in the same position as before. One would hope to get a little more resolution than the VGA version in the SGS2 but more on that when we hear about it.

Samsung Galaxy S III processor

The Phandroid.com roadmap listed a dual-core 1.8GHz Exynos 4212 chip backed up with 2GB of RAM as the engine room of choice for the Samsung Galaxy S III smartphone. On the one hand, the memory seems about right but, what with Tegra 3 and quad-core processors looking to rule the waves in 2012, the Exynos 4212 seems a touch short.

Indeed, according to a report in Androidandme.com in November 2011, it will, in fact, be an all-new Exynos 4412 system-on-a-chip instead. The Exynos 4412 is still based on an ARM Cortex A9 CPU architecture but comes with four cores running at a 1.5GHz clock. The GPU attached is said to be a Mali-T604 GPU with a 5x faster factor than previous Mali chips and up to, again, four cores to work with.

Samsung has since confirmed that the phone will feature its own Exynos chip, although rumours are now starting to surface that in the US the phone will come with Qualcomm's S4 processor instead.

Samsung Galaxy S III form factor

Form factor-wise, while the Phandroid.com rumour reports Samsung taking a step away from the squared-off candybar shape to disentangle itself from any iPhone infringements, the more interesting information is in the February 2012 story from Korean publication ETnews. The suggestion here is that the Samsung Galaxy S III will be just 7mm thick, thanks to printed circuit boards, connector parts and chips that are 10 to 20 per cent thinner than conventional units. That would make it 1.9mm thinner than the SGS2 and more akin to the Samsung Nexus in design, something that many of the leaked photos suggest.

Samsung Galaxy S III connectivity

 The Phandroid.com report from October 2011 stated that the Samsung Galaxy S III would come equipped with both NFC and LTE connectivity. That certainly makes sense, given that two of Samsung's recent top phones have included these standards, so there's no reason why the company would deprive their upcoming flagship model of them either. The question for UK users, of course, is whether we'll see the LTE version this side of the Atlantic?

Samsung Galaxy S III software

With Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich the latest version of the Google Mobile software for the first part of 2012, it's pretty much a cert that that's what will be adorning the Samsung Galaxy S III. The variable is the UI on top and, although there's been no word either way, the obvious choice is whatever the latest version of Samsung's TouchWiz is. Currently, it's TouchWiz 4.0 as released on the SGS2, so either that or an all-new TouchWiz 5.0 would make the most sense.

Samsung Galaxy S III pictures

We've tracked plenty of concepts so far from around the web showing a variety of different designs all purporting to be the Samsung Galaxy S 3.

Indeed, it's often the pictures that tell a thousand words with the mistakes of the pretenders revealing themselves and the hopes and dreams of thousands of fanboys in the oohs and ahhs of the vector-drawn, dream mock-ups.

Here, for your pleasure, we've collected them all. So take a look at the Samsung Galaxy S III in pictures, see if you can spot the patterns and let us know which one you would most like it to be.

- Samsung Galaxy S III: 21 leaked pictures and concepts, but are any the real deal?

Samsung Galaxy S III video

On 20 April, just under two weeks before the phone's official unveiling, Vietnamese website Tinhte.vn has released a video of what it claims to be the Samsung Galaxy S III. And certainly, it's innards, operating system and processor match up to what we already believe.

The casing of the device in the video doesn't look as slick as we'd expect, so it's likely that it is a fake shell or prototype build, but everything else looks convincing. Tinhte has also got a reputation for getting its hands on notable products before release, including several iPhones that turned out to be spot on.

Samsung Galaxy S III price

There’s been no word on the Samsung Galaxy S III price for the time being. One would expect it to come in at under the cost of the iPhone, as is usual for top Android phones, but not a huge amount less. Naturally, bigger and better technology is going to drive the price up but the original £499 PAYG/£40pm contract release tag of the Samsung Galaxy S II would seem like a decent guide.

Samsung Galaxy S III review

Expect plenty more coverage as we get closer to the release date and a full and thorough Samsung Galaxy S III review once we've had a chance to get Samsung’s latest top super-smartphone for 2012 into the Pocket-lint labs.

What are your hopes and dreams for the Samsung Galaxy S III? Let us know in the comments.

Cheap Car Insurance Quote

Before car insurances were made available online, the search for a cheap car insurance quote was a very hard thing to do, especially for an imported car. This is because a tedious process is required just so you can obtain a car insurance quote from a single car insurance company. Luckily, with the same amount of time you had allotted before in researching and contacting a single insurance company for their insurance quote, you can now find several more with just some click of a mouse. But it doesn't have to end there since after you have reviewed the different insurance quotes, you can apply for it right there and then as well.

The first thing to do to find a cheap car insurance quote online is to decide as to whether you would like to make the comparison of the different car insurance quotes separately with the use of an insurance company's personal website or to make use of a website that will allow you to compare different car insurance quotes from different car insurance companies all at once.

After you have decided on which website to use, the next thing to do in order to acquire a car insurance quote is to provide some general information about yourself such as your name, age and e-mail address. After which, you will be ask to give some information about the car that you want to insure, facts about the driver of the car, statements on any incidents that is related to the car, and the type of insurance coverage that you want.

Upon the completion of the online car insurance application form, a personalized car insurance quote or quotes will be given to you. This can be given to you either by mail or by the website itself. You will then have to compare these options carefully by making sure that you know all the differences in every car insurance quote. This comparison is extremely important as it will be the deciding factor as to whether you can have that cheap car insurance quote that you want. Then, when you are able to make your decision, you can now get in touch with the import car insurance company of your choice.

List of CEO Salaries by State

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

The basic role of a Chief Executive Officer (CEO) depends upon whether or not the organization is a corporation or not. Does the organization consist of a board of directors? Is it also labeled as a C-Corp or S-Corp? If the structure of the business comprises of a board of directors, then the role of the CEO lies in organizing and implenting strategic plans and policies that are dictated by the board of directors. This way, the CEO is accountable to the board of directors.

If the company does not consist of a board of directors (usually an LLC, sole proprietorship, partnership, etc.) then the CEO's role is to decide the direction of the organization while organizing and implementing the strategic plan and policies he/she set forth. There is much more freedom within this type of structure, but does not possess the backing or structure that a board of directors can supply.

CEO DUTIES

Some daily tasks and duties of a Chief Executive Officer can include, but is not limited to:

Program, product and service oversight.
Board administration and support.
Financial management.
Risk and facilities management.
Human resource management.
Public relations.

This profession consists of meetings after meetings with everybody in the organization. Informing board members; communicating between staff and board members; overseeing design and developments; oversight of the quality of organizations products, services, and support; management of human resources personnel; assuring the organization mission statement; and in non-profit cases, fund-raising events and implementation.

CEO SALARY

Somebody should not be paid upon their skills and abilities. They should neither be paid according to their education. Somebody's salary depends solely upon the responsibilities of their profession. The day-to-day functions of the position should be what determines your annual income. And this is why Chief Executives receive a much higher pay than other positions. There is much more responsibility in the hands of the CEO than most other professions.

The average CEO salary for the U.S. is currently $167,280 per year. The average hourly pay for a CEO is $80.43 per hour. Following is a list taken from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The data is calculated by multiplying the hourly mean by wage by 2,080 hours.

Alabama	Hourly: $79.98	Salary: $166,350
Alaska	Hourly: $69.85	Salary: $145,290
Arizona	Hourly: $80.38	Salary: $167,190
Arkansas	Hourly: $65.83	Salary: $136,930
California	Hourly: $94.09	Salary: $195,700
Colorado	Hourly: $80.52	Salary: $167,480
Connecticut	Hourly: $91.80	Salary: $190,940
Delaware	Hourly: $96.86	Salary: $201,460
District of Columbia	Hourly: $88.77	Salary: $184,640
Florida	Hourly: $84.86	Salary: $176,510
Georgia	Hourly: $78.42	Salary: $163,120
Guam	Hourly: $41.19	Salary: $85,670
Hawaii	Hourly: $77.58	Salary: $161,370
Idaho	Hourly: $64.57	Salary: $134,310
Illinois	Hourly: $73.90	Salary: $153,720
Indiana	Hourly: $78.91	Salary: $164,130
Iowa	Hourly: $69.56	Salary: $144,680
Kansas	Hourly: $66.99	Salary: $139,340
Kentucky	Hourly: $65.63	Salary: $136,510
Louisiana	Hourly: $71.43	Salary: $148,580
Maine	Hourly: $63.83	Salary: $132,770
Maryland	Hourly: $79.89	Salary: $166,160
Massachusetts	Hourly: $85.57	Salary: $177,980
Michigan	Hourly: $75.92	Salary: $157,920
Minnesota	Hourly: $83.99	Salary: $174,710
Mississippi	Hourly: $61.87	Salary: $128,680
Missouri	Hourly: $72.14	Salary: $150,040
Montana	Hourly: $43.40	Salary: $90,260
Nebraska	Hourly: $80.67	Salary: $167,790
Nevada	Hourly: $79.36	Salary: $165,060
New Hampshire	Hourly: $82.04	Salary: $170,640
New Jersey	Hourly: $94.34	Salary: $196,220
New Mexico	Hourly: $94.82	Salary: $197,230
New York	Hourly: $88.82	Salary: $184,740
North Carolina	Hourly: $91.28	Salary: $189,860
North Dakota	Hourly: $65.56	Salary: $136,370
Ohio	Hourly: $82.26	Salary: $171,110
Oklahoma	Hourly: $56.78	Salary: $118,110
Oregon	Hourly: $85.23	Salary: $177,280
Pennsylvania	Hourly: $76.72	Salary: $159,580
Puerto Rico	Hourly: $51.91	Salary: $107,980
Rhode Island	Hourly: $86.63	Salary: $180,180
South Carolina	Hourly: $79.63	Salary: $165,630
South Dakota	Hourly: $62.32	Salary: $129,620
Tennessee	Hourly: $73.39	Salary: $152,650
Texas	Hourly: $82.83	Salary: $172,280
Utah	Hourly: $70.67	Salary: $146,990
Vermont	Hourly: $64.30	Salary: $133,730
Virgin Islands	Hourly: $72.02	Salary: $149,810
Virginia	Hourly: $86.60	Salary: $180,130
Washington	Hourly: $90.49	Salary: $188,220
West Virginia	Hourly: $49.33	Salary: $102,610
Wisconsin	Hourly: $81.33	Salary: $169,170
Wyoming	Hourly: $59.61	Salary: $123,990

LEADERSHIP QUALITIES

If you're desiring to become a Chief Executive, then there are a few characteristics, skills, and abilities that you must fundamentally possess. And the most important of all of the traits that you should possess is the ability to lead. But what does that mean? How does somebody lead successfully?

Leadership qualities consist of being able to influence people in a certain direction. If your organization needs to implement a new mission statement, your job is to persuade people, in such a way, to follow this new direction. A leader does this by talking, but more importantly, listening to his staff. By serving your employees, you are modeling a form of action that others will undeniably follow. In this way you will successfully lead people to the right course of action.

With a large number of meeting per week, a leader needs to be in top physical, mental, and emotional shape. This will allow you to focus and be present in every one of those meetings. This is the foundation of being able to do your job well. Don't forget to exercise! Your mind works so much better.

And most importantly, be the person you want your organization to represent. If you're not somebody that others want to replicate, why would anybody want your product, service, or support? Why would your staff desire to help you help them? Why would anybody listen to you if they can't respect your decisions because of your behavior? This is key: be the person you would follow.

BECOMING A CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

If you're interested in becoming a CEO of an organization there are a couple of ways to go about it. There is always a need for intelligent, caring, and strategy-focused Chief Executives. Here is a small list of ways to become a CEO. Choose which path you'd like to take. But remember that there is a lot of responsibility when it comes to this position.

Start a brick and mortar business.
Start an online company.
Go to college and get an MBA.
Become a professor > enter administration > enter presidency.
Enter human resources > administration > CEO.

There a thousand ways to work your way up the corporate ladder, but the most effective way (and sometimes the most fulfilling) is the create your own business. Sometimes CEO's will sell their company and begin a new one. Other times they'll continue in their self-made organization and enter another company's board of directors and implement strategies and policies that way. The world is open to you. Welcome to it!