Rapper/model Somaya Reece recently shared her perspective regarding the very small amount of Hispanic female rappers around the industry. There have been virtually no Latina rappers to make much national noise--outside of Angie Martinez, who's arguably more known as a radio personality than as an emcee. But Reece says that she is in a prime position to change things.
"I don't know why, that's so crazy, I've been asked that in all my interviews," Reece told SOHH. "I guess it's me. That's why I'm here...We actually do have one, she's in the Latin world. You may have to Google her. Her name is Ivy Queen and she's like the queen of Latin rap. She's like our goddess of Latin rap and reggaeton. She's like a really ill spitter and it's crazy. She's an older woman now but she's somebody that's really big for us. I just know that I'm definitely putting it down for the Latinas and I'm doing a very unique style of music. I'm grateful that we had someone come out with a heavy Latin influence and then we had Big Pun, Fat Joe, Joell Ortiz. I'm happy that there's more of us out there but as far as [the lack of] females, I don't know why but I know that I'm here now."
Serving up the tasty new Android 2.3 features to look forward to
Like we did with Froyo and dessert named Android updates before that, Android 2.3, has been unleashed as the Samsung Nexus S becomes the first smartphone to host the latest version of the Google mobile OS.
But how will Gingerbread change the way we use Android-powered devices in the future? We take a look what lies in store for Android fans.
See below for our snapshot view of the Android 2.3 Gingerbread: Best features.
The presence of Android games in the Android Market continues to grow steadily, but in terms of quality it still lags behind the App Store. In the words of Google, Android 2.3 focuses "On optimizing performance and tools for games development".
So what does that mean for users? Well crucially, there is now support for gyroscope, rotation vector, linear acceleration, gravity, and barometer sensors, which means app developers can create games which you have more responsive control. This is nothing new to iPhone games, but for Android it's a step closer to delivering equally as impressive games.
According the Google Developer page, devices like the Nexus S will benefit from a UI that is "a simplified visual theme of colours against black brings vividness and contrast to the notification bar, menus, and other parts of the UI". The hope is that user experience will be much quicker and learning to use the UI will be whole lot easier.
3/ New keyboard
The on-screen keyboard has been refined to help deliver speedier typing and editing while some keys have been redesigned and reshaped all together. Multi-touch support is also a notable new addition.
4/ Near-field communications
NFC (Near-field communications) has been one of the key features discussed when talk of Android 2.3 first began to surface, and a NFC-reader application has officially arrived. The idea is turn devices into bio wallets by placing a NFC chip into your phone means you will be able to scan information from items and then buy them through your handset without the use of a credit card.
Extremely beneficial for app developers, the new OS helps to identify whether the front-facing camera or the rear-facing camera is best suited to the particular app they are developing. With all the talk about FaceTime, that should benefit video calling apps and camera apps that require higher resolution images.
6/ Internet telephone over SIP
Developers can now create apps with internet calling integrated into the app. A SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) account will be required to access internet phoning however.
7/ App Manager
Helping you keep an eye on what apps are running on your device, you can now manage your applications from the Options Menu and Launcher. This should come in handy when you are trying to conserve battery life and the identifying the biggest memory-munching apps.
8/ Copy and paste
Hoping to deliver an iPhone-like copy and paste experience, 2.3 has made the browsing tool easier to use by letting users drag markers over areas and then copying it to the clipboard.
9/ Better audio for apps
Developers will now be able to integrate audio effects such as bass boost, headphone virtualization and reverb into applications so users can benefit from a richer audio experience from their Android devices.
10/ Extra large screen support
Crucially, the Gingerbread OS brings support for larger screen devices which could see the OS appearing on one or two tablets in the very near future.
Published: December 5 2010 20:39 | Last updated: December 5 2010 20:39
Google was caught up in controversy over the weekend about its failure to seal a high-priced acquisition of Groupon, an online marketing service for local merchants, with analysts split over whether it had come close to over-paying, or whether it had suffered a strategic setback by not securing the deal. Google was last week in talks to buy Groupon for up to $5bn, according to a person familiar with the talks, in a deal that would have been its biggest to date. But those talks fell through at the end of last week, according to reports.
Its apparent willingness to pay such a high price for a two-year-old company points to a wider boom in the prices of young internet companies, according to analysts and investors.
“Valuations certainly are rising for social start-ups,” said Augie Ray, an analyst at Forrester Research. “The valuations are based on a great deal of speculation – these are not mature companies with long histories of stable revenue and profit.” He added, though, many of the new social companies had at least demonstrated they have profitable business models, unlike many companies that won backers in the dotcom bubble.
Fred Wilson, a New York venture capitalist who was an early backer of start-ups like Twitter and Foursquare, wrote over the weekend that investment in some areas had reached a level of “hyperactivity”, with investors “throwing money at energetic entrepreneurs with plans, hopes, and dreams and at emerging winners” like Groupon. In spite of a widespread view that Google was in danger of overpaying for Groupon, it was impossible from published information to assess the true value of the company, said Youssef Squali, an analyst at Jefferies. Like others, he pointed to reports that Groupon’s revenues this year would be anything from $500m to $2bn as evidence of how hard it was to arrive at a reasonable price. Many Wall Street analysts appeared unconcerned last week about the potentially high price of a deal, preferring instead to focus on the strategic significance of an acquisition that could give Google a jump-start in the fast-growing local advertising market online. “Multiples notwithstanding, Google still has a big hole in local,” Mr Squali added. While an earlier attempted acquisition of local service Yelp might have given it a bigger foothold in this market, the purchase of Groupon, which has a proven business, would have been a far better option, he added. Other analysts, however, disputed the strategic value of a deal. Whatever Google’s plans in local, “they don’t need Groupon to do it,” said Sucharita Mulpuru, an analyst at Forrester. “There is nothing that Groupon has that Google couldn’t build themselves, or partner with one of the other half-dozen viable contenders in the space to get for a far cheaper price than Groupings.” I would hold out to. if they offered me 5 billion and i only been a company for 2 years. how much is my company really worth.
