The company focused on how cloud computing will make games for its next-generation Xbox One console more immersive during its Monday presentation at the Electronic Entertainment Expo, the gaming industry's annual trade show. Microsoft announced last week that the successor to the Xbox 360 must be connected to the Internet every 24 hours to operate, and the system would ideally always be online.

"The platform features and capabilities exclusive to Xbox One allow developers to push the boundaries of creativity and take gaming in completely new directions," Microsoft Vice President Phil Harrison told the crowd at University of Southern California's Galen Center.

The upcoming console's cloud computing capabilities were demonstrated by fleshing out dense environments in third-person open-world games like the zombie-fighting sequel "Dead Rising 3" and cartoony shooter "Sunset Overdrive." The racing simulator "Forza MotorSport 5" introduced a feature called "drivatar," which mimics players' driving styles and allows their "drivatars" to play for them offline.

"There's ability to put things in the cloud that you want to have computed, so you can take some of the computing capability that you might require locally or used to require locally and then have CPUs in the cloud that actually do some background work for the game," explained Phil Spencer, Microsoft Studios' vice president. "You're actually augmenting the power of the box that's sitting right in your living room."

Microsoft revealed the console, which it has billed as an "all-in-one" entertainment solution for living rooms, will be released in November and cost $499. The company debuted the console earlier this year at its headquarters in Redmond, Wash. The initial reactions to the device have been mixed.

Other games coming to Xbox One include the historical third-person game "Ryse: Son of Rome," hard-knuckled brawler "Killer Instinct," a bigger edition of "Minecraft," terra-forming simulator "Project Spark" and a new installment of the sci-fi shooter series "Halo."

Monday's flashy event concluded with the debut of the mech-heavy multiplayer shooter "Titanfall," the first game from Respawn Entertainment, which was founded by "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare" creators Vince Zampella and Jason West.

The company said it was doing away with its Microsoft points system for online purchases with its Xbox Live online service, opting instead for local currency.

Microsoft didn't address concerns at Monday's event over connectivity, used games and privacy issues with the Xbox One, which will feature a new version of its camera-based Kinect sensor. In a blog post on Microsoft's site Thursday ahead of E3, the company outlined more details about the console, including restrictions on how previously played or used games could be shared and how frequently the Xbox One must be online.

"For people who are in a completely disconnected state, I think (Xbox) 360 is definitely a great content base for them and a great console, and we'll continue to invest in that," Spencer said after the event.

Microsoft Corp. kicked off Monday's presentation by revealing the Xbox 360 is getting a makeover with a design inspired by the Xbox One.

Yusuf Mehdi, Microsoft's vice president of marketing and strategy, said the updated Xbox 360 is "smaller, sleeker and as quiet as ever." He added it would be available beginning Monday.

The company boasted that hundreds of new games are still coming to Xbox 360, which was originally released eight years ago as the high-definition successor to the Xbox. Microsoft's Xbox 360 has outsold rivals like the Wii and PlayStation 3 from Nintendo Co. and Sony Corp. for the past two years. It has sold more than 76 million Xbox 360 units.

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AP Entertainment Writer Ryan Pearson contributed to this report. Follow AP Entertainment Writer Derrik J. Lang on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/derrikjlang .

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Online:

http://www.xbox.com

LONDON/MOSCOW (Reuters) - Banks that helped Russian oil company Rosneftfinance its $55 billion buyout of rival TNK-BP have been left waiting for their payback - a share in $15 billion in asset sales expected to follow the deal, sources familiar with matter said.

State oil company Rosneft's takeover of TNK-BP this year aimed to create a major oil group producing more oil than Exxon Mobil , but it also tightened the Russian government's grip on the country's energy sector.

The asset sales promised by Rosneft Chief Executive Igor Sechin would offload less-profitable businesses to turn the company into the major oil player the CEO has said he wants it to be. The delay shows Rosneft has a lot on its plate integrating TNK-BP and that the sales are on the back burner.

Rosneft had dangled the juicy divestment mandates at the banks in exchange for a $29.8 billion loan - the largest in Russia's history - on good terms, three out of four sources with direct knowledge of the loan talks said.

"All the lending banks are waiting," said one of the bankers who asked not to be named because the talks are private.

"We thought (refinancing) bonds and asset sales would kick start straight after the closing (of TNK-BP deal). We are now in the dark."

Rosneft declined to comment.

Rosneft's slow motion is frustrating the banks as they would earn fat fees from advising the oil giant on the asset sales this year, which would help boost M&A revenues in an otherwise arid deal making landscape.

M&A activity across all sectors is down 7 percent in Europe, Middle East and Africa since January according to Thomson Reuters data, partly due to the impact of the euro zone crisis on business confidence.

M&A PAY-OFF

Banks that maintained big balance sheets throughout the financial crisis have been hoping to use this muscle to win lucrative M&A advisory business from rivals which had to shrink partly to meet tough European capital rules.

Banks often use their balance sheets to offer cheap loans to corporate clients to secure higher-margin business such as share or bond issues or M&A work.

Big balance sheets helped Barclaysand Deutsche Bank , for example, to achieve number 2 and 3 rankings in M&A league tables last year, challenging U.S. rival Goldman Sachs, which had the top slot, Thomson Reuters data showed.

Rosneft's jumbo loan raised $16.8 billion in 2012 and $13 billion earlier this year to finance the TNK-BP deal with banks including Bank of America Merrill Lynch , Barclays , BNP Paribas , Citi , Credit Agricole , JP Morgan , Mizuho, Societe Generaleand UniCredit .

Soon after deal closed, Rosneft planned a bond issue to refinance part of the loan. But the company turned instead to Russia's domestic bond market where big Russian banks such as Sberbankand VTBdominate.

Rosneft is also doing an M&A deal, but plans to buy a local gas firm rather than sell off some of its own assets.

NO HURRY TO SELL

As a result, the banks' hopes of getting their hands on the asset sales business quickly could be disappointed.

The timing and extent of any disposals were never discussed in depth with the banks and have yet to be approved by the Kremlin, all of the sources said.

"These assets are producing on-shore fields, they are big cash cows. The pressure to sell is not there", said the first banker.

"They (Rosneft) have never sold anything, ever. It's not in their genes." said a second banker, who said Moscow was currently reviewing which assets were no longer strategic and could be sold.

One of the sources, on the Rosneft side, confirmed the parties to the loan talks touched on possible asset sales after the closure of the deal but without reference to particular assets or mandates. "It was never discussed in such specifics."

The asset sales are also considered a test of CEO Sechin's ability to get to grips with the Rosneft empire, and re-fashion it into a modern, efficient corporation.

But Sechin, ally of President Vladimir Putin for more than 20 years, also is under pressure to ensure that the oil which underpins the Russian economy remains safe in trusted hands.

Rosneft's main non-core assets are in Western Siberia, where the company pumps most of its crude. Some of these are mature and the company struggles to squeeze out a margin.

A sale of these fields would also mark a reversal in the Kremlin's decade-long drive for control of Russia's oil riches.

Western Siberia's fields make up 70 percent of Rosneft's market capitalization, according to one analyst estimate. They also host, deep underground, some of Russia's biggest potential unconventional resources which are seen as key to mid-term production growth.

Potential buyers are therefore expected to be mainly Russian companies Lukoiland Gazprombut also some resource-hungry Asian players, the bankers said.

(Reporting by Sophie Sassard and Melissa Akin; additional reporting by Tessa Walsh; Editing by Andrew Callus and Jane Merriman)

NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) - Universal has acquired the rights to adapt "Vexille," a 2007 Japanese animated film about the titular female agent who must investigate whether the Japanese are illicitly developing robotic technology, multiple individuals with knowledge of the project told TheWrap.

Evan Spiliotopoulos, who wrote MGM's upcoming "Hercules" moving starring Dwayne Johnson, will adapt the film for a live-action film. Tripp Vinsion, who will produce alongside Beau Flynn, initially optioned the rights and brought Spiliotopoulos on to write. Vinson produced "Red Dawn" and "Journey 2: The Mysterious Island."

Spiliotopoulos, represented by UTA, DJ Talbot and attorney Sean Marks, has a close relationship with Universal from his work on "Snow White and the Huntsman" and could work on another project with the studio as well before "Vexille" gets made.

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On Wednesday night,  reported a secret court order to give the NSA metadata on every Verizon call made over three months. Subsequent reporting andfromrevealed that it's a regular, quarterly thing to collect the data from several major telecom companies. Further, the NSA's PRISM program,  on Thursday night, allows the government to grab emails, chats, what you've searched for, and what files you've shared, thanks to theof Yahoo, Google, Microsoft, PalTalk, YouTube, Skype, AOL, Apple, and , and . A career intelligence officerabout PRISM to  because of concerns about privacy. The officer said, "They quite literally can watch your ideas form as you type."

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And what is the response to thatfrom the government and the NSA surveillance program's supporters? It is ridiculous. This ridiculous:

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It's just metadata — no eavesdropping!

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Metadata reveals the phone numbers, and the time, length, and location of calls. "The program does not allow the Government to listen in on anyone's phone calls," Director of National Intelligence James Clapper (right) writes in histo The Guardian article. California Sen.on Thursday, "As you know, this is just metadata. There is no content involved. In other words, no content of a communication."  is sure there's nothing to be worried about. "We bow to no one in our desire to limit government power, but data-mining is less intrusive on individuals than routine airport security," the Journal says, in an editorial titled "Thank You for Data-Mining." Yes, it can be embarrassing to know that when you go through the body scanner at the airport, one person will be able to see the fat deposits you're sensitive about. But it is not more intrusive than collecting metadata on all your calls and your emails.

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The metadata is more revealing than the content, mathematician and former Sun Microsystems engineer Susan Landau explained to . "If you can track that, you know exactly what is happening—you don’t need the content," Landau says. Take this example: "You can see a call to a gynecologist, and then a call to an oncologist, and then a call to close family members." Geolocation can reveal a reporter's sources, or an extra-marital affair, or when political leaders are meeting.

A 'robust legal regime' acts as a check on this power.

"There is a robust legal regime in place governing all activities conducted pursuant to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which ensures that those activities comply with the Constitution and laws and appropriately protect privacy and civil liberties," Clapper writes. "This renewal is carried out by the FISA Court under the business records section of the Patriot Act. Therefore, it is lawful. It has been briefed to Congress..." .

Clapper has a different definition of robust than many people. "This is a court that meets in secret, allows only the government to appear before it, and publishes almost none of its opinions," Jameel Jaffer, deputy legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union, explained to the .notes, "critics have pointed out that the Fisa Court has almost never, in its 35-year history, rejected a US surveillance request." And there's reason to doubt the FISA court is rigorously scrutinizing each government request.  points out that the Verizon Business Services court order posted by The Guardian "demands cell phone data, like customers' IMSI (International Mobile Subscriber Identity) number and another identifier that reveals the make and model of the phone." But Verizon Business Services isn't a mobile carrier — it is a landline business. It's obvious, Poulsen writes, that the FISA court "uses the same catchall boilerplate order over and over again, just changing the company name and the date. The court that’s supposed to be protecting Americans from abusive domestic surveillance is not only failing in that duty, it’s also lazy."

As for congressional oversight, , "We know that the NSA has many domestic-surveillance and data-mining programs with codenames  , ,  — deliberately using different codenames for similar programs to stymie oversight and conceal what's really going on." And  argues that the NSA has been able to trick Congress by manipulating numbers, too. Each year, the Justice Department is required to give Congress a tally of how many times it requested classified wiretaps and "business records" under the Patriot Act. The Obama administration only went to the FISA court 200 times to request Americans' "business records" in 2012, Poulsen notes. In 2011, it was 205 times; in 2010, it was 96 times; in 2009, it was 21 times. But the Verizon court order — demanding metadata on all phone calls for three months — counts as one request.

"The Department's testimony left the Committee with the impression that the Administration was using the business records provision sparingly and for specific materials," . When a reporter asked Sen. Feinstein if the program was limited to Verizon or other companies got similar court orders, she , "We cannot answer that. Fortunately, I don’t know."

It won't affect you!

"The court only allows the data to be queried when there is a reasonable suspicion, based on specific facts, that the particular basis for the query is associated with a foreign terrorist organization," Clapper says. The Obama administration told The Washington Post, "extensive procedures, specifically approved by the court, to ensure that only non-U.S. persons outside the U.S. are targeted, and that minimize the acquisition, retention and dissemination of incidentally acquired information about U.S. persons." South Carolina Sen.  on Fox and Friends on Thursday, "I don't think you're talking to the terrorists. I know you're not. I know I'm not. So we don't have anything to worry about."

The PRISM program is only supposed to go after foreigners. But  reports:

Analysts who use the system from a Web portal at Fort Meade, Md., key in 'selectors,' or search terms, that are designed to produce at least 51 percent confidence in a target’s 'foreignness.' That is not a very stringent test. Training materials obtained by The Post instruct new analysts to make quarterly reports of any accidental collection of U.S. content, but add that 'it's nothing to worry about.'

Foreign or foreignish, no big deal. The NSA looks at everyone in their terror suspects' contact list, and at everyone in their contact lists' contact lists. That's how a good deal of "incidental" American data can be swept up in a search, the Post reports. And we have plenty of reason to be skeptical that the government won't use this trove of Americans' communications, even though it has it, and . There isof the NSA abusing its surveillance power, when, under the Bush administration, warranetless wiretapping was allowed on calls in which at least one person was overseas. NSA analysts told ABC News in 2008 they had a good time listening to soldiers' phone sex.

(Top photo byvia Flickr; Dark Side of the Moon photo byvia Flickr; Clapper photo via AP PRISM slide via ; NSA headquarters via the U.S. government.)

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This article was

The new Common Core standards replace a hodgepodge of educational goals that had varied greatly from state to state. The federal government was not involved in the state-led effort to develop them but has encouraged the project.

While proponents say the new standards will better prepare students, critics worry they'll set a national curriculum for public schools rather than letting states decide what is best for their students.

There was little dissent when the standards were widely adopted in 2010, but that begun changing last year and debate picked up steam this year. The standards have divided Republicans, with former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush championing them and conservatives such as Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, opposing them.

Lawmakers and governors are reviewing the standards in Kansas, Missouri, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Indiana, Alabama, South Carolina and Utah. Grassley, meanwhile, persuaded eight other senators to sign onto a letter in April asking the Senate Appropriations Committee to stop the Education Department from linking adoption of the standards to eligibility for other federal dollars. That same month, the Republican National Committee passed a resolution calling the standards an "inappropriate overreach."

Kristy Campbell, a spokeswoman for the Bush-backed Foundation for Excellence in Education, said conservatives historically have supported higher standards and greater accountability.

"The fact that they are opposed to Common Core now is a little surprising and disappointing given the fact that states came together to solve a need," Campbell said, adding that the new standards will allow for state-by-state comparisons that haven't been possible before. "We are going to have more rigorous assessments that are going to test kids against those higher standards and hopefully achieve what we all want, which is a dramatically greater quality of education in America."

The American Legislative Exchange Council, a conservative, Washington-based think tank that espouses conservative policies in state legislatures, debated in November whether to oppose the Common Core standards. The group ultimately decided to remain neutral, but its discussion, along with concerns raised by conservative groups such as the Goldwater and Pioneer institutes, caught the attention of lawmakers.

States that adopt the standards are supposed to use them as a base on which to build their curricula and testing, but they can make their benchmarks tougher than Common Core. While the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, found the new standards to be more rigorous than those that had been used by three-quarters of all states, critics question what will happen in states whose previous standards were tougher.

"So in that regard we really viewed Common Core as the race to the middle, not to the top," said Jamie Gass, director of the Center for School Reform at the Pioneer Institute.

Questions about testing also have arisen. In New York, among the first states to test students based on the standards, some students complained this spring that the Common Core-aligned English exams were too difficult to complete in the allotted time, and there were reports of students crying from stress.

Jonathan Butcher, education director for the Goldwater Institute, based in Phoenix, said opposition also is gaining traction because states and districts are at the point where money has to be appropriated to pay for the standards.

"As soon as states had to start spending money on the Common Core, as soon as it became a line item in the budget, people sit up and take notice," Butcher said. "And that wasn't going to happen until now, until states started to implement it. So it's unfortunate that there is so much attention to it so late in the game but that's kind of where we are. As soon as it starts to become a money issue people will pay attention."

Calculations on the cost of implementing the standards vary, with the Pioneer Institute and two other anti-Common Core conservative think tanks estimating it will cost $16 billion over seven years. Meanwhile, the Fordham Institute, which is pro-Common Core, said the cost over a one-to-three-year transition period could range from $8.3 billion to breaking even or even saving money, depending on things like whether the states purchase hard-copy textbooks or use open-source learning material written by experts, vetted by their peers and posted for free downloading.

One issue is that new tests tied to the standards will be computerized, requiring some states and districts to make technology upgrades. The Pioneer analysis included those technology costs; the Fordham one didn't.

In backing ultimately unsuccessful anti-Common Core legislation in Missouri, Rep. Kurt Bahr, a Republican from the St. Louis suburb of O'Fallon, said he was concerned that many communities lacked the bandwidth and hardware to administer the tests.

"We don't have that connectivity," Bahr said. "It's about to become a massive pocketbook issue."

The standards are the result of an initiative sponsored by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers. Carrie Heath Phillips, who oversees implementation of the standards for the council, played down the concerns about cost, noting that states periodically update their standards and that spending money to implement new ones is nothing new. She also acknowledged that technology upgrades can be a real issue for states that haven't invested in it, but asked, "If you're not moving into the 21st century now in 2013, when are you going to?"

The standards have a long list of supporters, including the National Parent Teacher Association, several education associations and businesses such as the Boeing Co. and Microsoft Corp.

Literacy teacher Jessica Cuthbertson said she attempted to fully implement the new standards in her sixth-grade Aurora, Colo., classroom for the first time this year and found her students' writing was "substantially better."

"I feel that often the debate isn't about the learning," said Cuthbertson, who also trains teachers to use the new standards as part of her job with a virtual teacher leadership initiative called the Center for Teaching Quality. "We're not talking about what the kids are producing and doing with these cool standards. We're talking about the big brother federal government controlling curriculum. I don't think it's really grounded in student learning, and yet in the hands of teachers focused on student learning, I just think there is nothing but hope."

While the federal government wasn't involved in developing the standards, it has provided $350 million to two consortiums developing Common Core tests. The federal Education Department also encouraged states to adopt the standards to compete for "Race to the Top" grants and seek waivers around some of the unpopular proficiency requirements of the No Child Left Behind federal education act.

"They have done some things that have kind of muddied the waters at the very least," said Butcher of the Goldwater Institute. "It's hard for me to say, 'Well, clearly the federal government has no interest in this.'"

But in Michigan, where the Republican-led Legislature is taking steps aimed at halting the standards, Republican Gov. Rick Snyder is defending them as a "really important opportunity" for the state.

"Unfortunately, it's been too much about politics," he said. "It's being viewed as the federal government putting another federal mandate on us. ... It was the governors of the states getting together ... to say we want a partner at the national level and all levels to say, 'Let's raise the bar.'"

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Associated Press writers Chris Blank in Jefferson City, Mo., John Milburn in Topeka, Kan., Alanna Durkin in Lansing, Mich., Christina A. Cassidy in Atlanta, Tom LoBianco in Indianapolis, Phillip Rawls in Montgomery, Ala., Seanna Adcox in Columbia, S.C., Michelle Price in Salt Lake City, Marc Levy in Harrisburg, Pa., and Karen Matthews in New York contributed to this report.

More recently, we've seen a smartphone thats likely the fastest to go from $99 to 99 cents and a Death Star-like media player that doesn't do much other than look menacing. To make our list of all-time gadget flops, the product had to do more than fail to execute. It had to have serious hype behind itenough to help make that crash and burn all the more satisfying. Here are our Top 25 Worst Gadget Flops of All Time.

Segway (2001)

Other than the original iPhone, very few gadgets in history were hyped this much before launch. Dean Kamen's Project Ginger had all sorts of praise heaped upon it by those who previewed the new-age scooter. Here's what Steve Jobs reportedly said about the Segway in a book proposal: If enough people see the machine you wont have to convince them to architect cities around it. Itll just happen. Oops.

Priced at a staggering $5,000, the Segway didn't even come close to living up to its expectations. Sure, it was nifty that the Segway was self-balancing, but that wasn't nearly enough to overcome the sticker shock or the sheer geek factor of this vehicle. The final insult came when President Bush fell of a Segway in 2004. Today, you'll see these scooters ridden by some police officers and postal workers, but that's pretty much it.

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ViewSonic Airpanel Smart Display V110 (2003)

Part of Microsoft's ill-conceived Smart Display product line, the Airpanel V110 allowed users to access their PCs wirelessly from up to 150 feet away. It was kind of like a tabletwith a really short leash. For a totally unreasonable $1,000, those gullible enough to buy this device were likely disappointed to learn that the Airpanel turned your computer into a brick for everyone else while you were using it. Add in limited viewing angles and glitchy performance and you have a real stinker.

BlackBerry PlayBook (2011)

If BlackBerry's comeback fails, the PlayBook will be remembered as one of the nails in the coffin. Research in Motion was so busy showing off that it's 10-inch tablet could play high-def videos via its HDMI port that it forgot to include native email and calendar apps. That's right, the PlayBook didn't let you view your messages or appointments unless you had a BlackBerry phone connected to the slate via Bluetooth. Amazingly, RIM called this glaring weakness a security feature. Less than 9 months later, co-CEOs Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsille stepped down from their posts.

Cisco Umi (2010)

Before Cisco's consumer division completely imploded, the company staged an elaborate press event in San Francisco to show off the Umi, a device that enabled families to video chat in HD right from their living rooms. There was just one problem. No one wanted to pay a whopping $600 for a one-trick-pony set-top box, never mind the dumb $25 monthly fee. With free services like Skype and FaceTime already available for our phones, tablets and laptops, Umi was destined for the gadget scrap heap.

Nokia N-Gage (2003)

Once upon a time Nokia believed it could compete in the handheld gaming market, and that delusion manifested itself in the form of the N-Gage. This combination phone and mobile console was so awkward it was funnyassuming you didn't fork over $299 to get one. For starters, the N-Gage forced users to hold it up their heads sideways to talk, which make people look like they were holding a taco up to their ears. Gamers also needed to remove the back cover and battery to swap games. Nokia would release a mobile mea culpa sequel in the N-Gage 2, but it was too little, too late.

MSN Direct Smart Watches (2004)

Literally and figuratively, MSN Direct Smart Watches were ahead of their time. Made by the likes of Fossil and Swatch, these bulky wrist-worn monstrosities fetched stock quotes, news, sports, and weather via FM radio waves for $9.99 per month. Unfortunately for Microsoft and its partners, smartphones already did the above and much more. The hardware would fade from the market by 2008, but Microsoft only recently shut down the network.

Oakley Thump Sunglasses (2007)

Before there was Google Glass there was Oakley's Thump sunglasses, which combined shades with an MP3 player. Too bad the glasses were ugly and the audio controls were difficult to use. Plus, users were stuck with a measly 256MB of flash memory at a sky-high $495 price tag. Shockingly, a celebrity endorsement from Dog the Bounty Hunter failed to move the needle.

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Microsoft Zune (2006)

Hoping to make a dent in the iPods mammoth market share, the original Zune got some people so excited that one man decided to have the Zune logo tattooed on his arm. Too bad he didnt have anyone to share his music with. The Zune-to-Zune sharing feature (which worked over Wi-Fi) fell flat because you could only play tracks you acquired three times within three days. You also had to be near the other unfortunate Zune owner. A lack of a video store at launch further hurt the Zunes cause. A more polished design in the Zune HD and a half-baked gaming strategy couldnt save this franchise, but elements of its slick UI live on in Windows Phone.

HP TouchPad (2011)

It's hard to believe now, but the HP TouchPad was one of the most eagerly awaited tablets back in July of 2011, promising to breathe new life into webOS' multitasking-friendly interface. Some of the software elements were indeed slick, such as Stacks for organizing related tasks and the polished notification system. Ultimately, though, sluggish and buggy performance and a dearth of apps doomed this slate. After less than 3 months on sale, HP pulled the plug on the TouchPad and all webOS hardware. So much for doubling down on the platform it purchased from Palm.

Motorola ROKR E1 (2005)

Before Apple dove into the smartphone market it dipped a toe in the water by partnering with Motorola for the ROKR E1 ($249), dubbed the first "iTunes phone. The ROKR wasn't even a one-hit wonder. Thanks to its lame 100-song capacity and the inability to download tracks over the web, consumers immediately tuned this handset out. No one wanted a gimped companion device for their iPod that could make calls; they wanted it all in one device. And Apple would give it to them two years later.

Twitter Peek (2009)

Not all single-purpose devices are bad, but this was the worst. The Twitter Peek allowed Twitter fans to check their feed and post updates using a built-in keyboard. While cute, the device showed only 20-character previews of your Tweets, forcing you to click to see more. And the built-in browser was buggy. It didn't matter that you had a choice of payment plans (free service if you paid $199 up front or $7.99 monthly if you spent $99). There were plenty of free apps for cheaper smartphones that did the same thing. Perhaps the Fail Whale should have been printed on the box.

HTC First (2013)

Too soon? Nah. Sometimes it doesn't help to be first, especially when you're releasing a device for which there's a free app that does nearly all the same stuff. The HTC First for AT&T comes pre-loaded with Facebook Home, which puts your friends' updates right on the home screen and makes it easy to jump in and out of texting sessions with creepy floating Chat Heads. Although HTC's device offered a more robust notification system than the free app, that wasn't compelling enough for smartphone shoppers. AT&T cut the price from $99 to 99 cents in less than a month. Something tells us there won't be an HTC Second.

Garmin Nuvifone G60 (2009)

It's hard to blame Garmin for attempting to protect its GPS turf. The Nuviphone G60 entered a market in 2009 that saw the Motorola Droid include Google Navigation for absolutely nothing. Available for AT&T, the G60 sported a fairly large (for the time) 3.5-inch display and a driver-friendly interface, but smartphone shoppers didn't know what to do with a Linux device. By the time an Android-powered sequel hit the streets, Garmin's opportunity had hit a dead end.

Samsung Q1 (2006)

Known as a part of the buzzed-about Project Oragami before it hit the market, Samsung Q1 was an Ultra-Mobile PC that weighed 1.7 pounds and ran full Windows on a 7-inch (800 x 480) touchscreen. Price? $1,099. That's too much for a device whose software wasn't touch friendly and whose battery lasted a sad 3 hours on a charge. Today Samsung is the No. 2 seller of tablets behind Apple, but the Q1 should get none of the credit.

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CueCat barcode Reader (1999)

Step 1: Take a gadget to scan a barcode in a magazine. Step 2: Connect the USB device to your PC to direct you to a website. Step 3: Wonder why you didn't just type the URL in your browser. The likes of Wired and Forbes supported this wacky idea for a while, and many subscribers received the device for free to encourage usage. But that wasn't enough to prevent the CueCat from being put to sleep.

Google Nexus Q (2012)

Google has had decidedly mixed results with hardware, but the Nexus Q was an unmitigated disaster. Despite its Death Star-chic design, this gadget was an overpriced $299 orb that attempted to make media consumption more social. You and your friends could create a queue of tracks and/or YouTube clips and stream them from your phone or tablet. Inexplicably, though, the Nexus Q couldn't access anything other than Google's content, making the Roku look like the deal of the century. There are rumors that a Nexus Q2 is on the way, but it had better be an entirely different beast.

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BlackBerry Storm (2008)

Do you wish your touch screen felt like it was collapsing every time you tried to respond to an email? That was the magic of SureType, an ironically named feature that made the BlackBerry Storm one of the most hated smartphones ever. A lack of Wi-Fi, glitchy software and sluggish performance solidified the Storm as a unnatural disaster. RIM's Storm 2 would improve on the original in every way, but how could it not?

Microsoft Kin One and Kin Two (2010)

During the launch for Microsoft's Kin devices the company told us that its new quasi-smartphones for hipsters were three years in the making. So how did the company forget to include apps? Or games? It also didn't help that Verizon Wireless forced its pricey smart phone data plan on customers to cover the cost of all those photo and video uploads. Mercifully, Microsoft killed these awful products after 6 short weeks on the market.

Fusion Garage JooJoo (2010)

The polar opposite of an iPad killer, the JooJoo tablet was widely panned for its awful battery life, unintuitive interface, and choppy Flash video playback. Did we mention this 12-inch monstrosity weighed 2.4 pounds? Add in a measly 5 hours of battery life (max) and you know why this slate didn't stand a chance. An attempt at a comeback in the form of the Grid 10 failed just as miserably, thanks to a confusing interface that literally had a map to show you where you were.

Sony Tablet P (2012)

Sometimes two isn't better than one. Exhibit A is the Sony Tablet P, which sported dual 5.5-inch displays that you could use either laid flat or clamshell style. While small enough for jacket pocket, the P was way too big for your jeans and it cost a fairly steep $549 (or $399 with a two-year contract). And even though some of the apps stretched across both screen, you couldn't run two separate apps simultaneously like today's Galaxy S4. Worst of all, the P was instantly dated because it didn't support AT&T's LTE network. It was HSPA only. Why bother?

Dell Streak (2010)

You could call the Dell Streak a precursor to modern-day phablets like the Galaxy Note II, but that would be an insult to phablets. The Streak was so comically large that AllThingsD's Kara Swisher called it a waffle on stage at the D8 conference. The Streak also suffered from a relatively low-resolution display (800 x 480 pixels) and ran dated Android 1.6 software. A 7-inch follow-up with abysmal battery life sealed this product line's fate.

Sirius S50 (2005)

Siriusly? Somehow the satellite network provider believed that consumers would want a portable radio that wasn't really portable at all. To get live stations you had to connect the S50 to a car kit. You could listen to recordings on the go, but only two hours' worth. Maybe that was for the better, since the S50 didn't even live up to its measly 6 hours of rated battery life. At the time XM2Go devices were a much better deal; they were bulkier but actually live up to the promise of live satellite radio.

Sharp RD3D (2003)

It's probably not a coincidence that Sharp exited the laptop market in the U.S. not long after the RD3D bombed. For a gulp-inducing $3,300, this 15-inch notebook was the first to display 3D content without the aid of glasses. Even if you were willing to put up with the eye strain, the RD3D's sluggish performance with 3D enabled and laughably narrow viewing angles made this laptop fall flat on its face. Other companies would try to pick up where Sharp left off, including Nvidia and Toshiba, but they failed, too.

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Palm Foleo (2007)

Other than a few review units for the press, the Linux-powered Palm Foleo never saw the light of dayand that's a good thing. This 10.1-inch not-quite-a-netbook was designed as a companion device for Treo users, syncing data via Bluetooth but offering a Wi-Fi connection. The idea was to give buyers a bigger canvas to view email, edit documents, and surf the web with the Opera web browser. A $499 price tag and an executive decision to revive Palm's then aging mobile platform would relegate the Foleo to collector's item status.

OQO Model 01 (2004)

The power of Windows in the palm of your hand. That was the promise of the OQO Model 01, which ran Windows XP on a 5-inch display. This mobile Internet device was indeed versatile, offering a slide-down thumb keyboard and a desktop dock. Alas, a very chunky design (.9 inches inches thick), serious heat and noise issues and short battery life made the $1,999 price tag way to much to stomach, even for well-heeled mobile executives.

This story was provided by , a sister site to LiveScience. Follow Mark Spoonauer on , . Follow LAPTOPMAG on ,or .

The Congolese federation said a group of home-based players and support staff, due to join their Europe-based colleagues at a training camp in France before the friendly at Saint-Cyr, were denied visas, causing the cancellation on the eve of the match.

It is the second straight year the Congolese have had to ditch plans to train in Europe before key World Cup qualifiers.

A match in Ajaccio with Ivory Coast this time last year was also called off after domestic-based players were refused visas.

Belgian and French consular officials in Kinshasa have regularly denied visas for Congo footballers since the disappearance of three players from a national team training camp in Paris ahead of a World Cup qualifier in 2004.

DR Congo play Libya in a qualifier on Friday in Tripoli and then host group leaders Cameroon on June 16 as they bid to stay in contention for a place at the 2014 finals in Brazil.

Cameroon lead Group I with six points from three games ahead of Libya with five points and DR Congo on four ahead of Togo with one. Only the 10 group winners qualify for the final round. (Reporting by Mark Gleeson in Bloemfontein; editing by Ken Ferris)

In the late 1950s, the Palm Beach socialite had time to spare and a wealthy husband who owned citrus groves, so she opened an orange juice stand just off the island's main shopping street. Pulitzer needed to hide all the juice stains on her clothes, though. Instead of just putting on an apron, she asked her seamstress to make some sleeveless dresses in colorful fruit prints, and a fashion staple was born.

Pulitzer died at her home Sunday, according to Quattlebaum Funeral and Cremation Services. She was 81.

Pulitzer's tropical print dresses became a sensation in the 1960s when then-first lady Jacqueline Kennedy, who attended boarding school with Pulitzer, wore one of the sleeveless shifts in a Life magazine photo spread.

The colorful revolution came as fashion shed its reliance on neutrals, and Pulitzer's stuff was almost the housewife version of the more youthful mod look that was migrating from London.

To this day, the Lilly Pulitzer dress remains a popular, if not a necessary, addition to any woman's closet.

"I designed collections around whatever struck my fancy ... fruits, vegetables, politics, or peacocks! I entered in with no business sense. It was a total change of life for me, but it made people happy," Pulitzer, who married into the famous newspaper family, told The Associated Press in March 2009.

Pulitzer's dresses hung behind her juice stand and soon outsold her drinks. A boutique featuring the company's dresses developed with the help of partner Laura Robbins, a former fashion editor soon replaced the juice stand.

"Today we celebrate all that Lilly meant to us and come together as Lilly lovers to honor a true original who has brought together generations through her bright and happy mark on the world," James B. Bradbeer Jr. and Scott A. Beaumont, who bought the Lilly Pulitzer brand in 1992, said in a statement.

The signature Lilly palette features tongue-in-cheek jungle and floral prints in blues, pinks, light greens, yellow and orange the colors of a Florida vacation.

The line of dresses that bore her name was later expanded to swimsuits, country club attire, children's clothing, a home collection and a limited selection of menswear.

"Style isn't just about what you wear, it's about how you live," Pulitzer said in 2004.

"We focus on the best, fun and happy things, and people want that. Being happy never goes out of style," she said.

In 1966, The Washington Post reported that the dresses were "so popular that at the Southampton Lilly shop on Job's Lane they are proudly put in clear plastic bags tied gaily with ribbons so that all the world may see the Lilly of your choice. It's like carrying your own racing colors or flying a yacht flag for identification."

But changing taste brought trouble. Pulitzer closed her original company in the mid-1980s after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The label was revived about a decade later after being acquired by Pennsylvania-based Sugartown Worldwide Inc.; Pulitzer was only marginally involved in the new business but continued reviewing new prints from Florida.

"When Lilly started the business back in the '60s, she targeted a young customer because she was young," Bradbeer told the AP in 2003. "What we have done is target the daughter and granddaughter of that original customer."

Pulitzer herself retired from day-to-day operations in 1993, although she remained a consultant and a muse for the brand.

Sugartown Worldwide was bought by Atlanta-based Oxford Industries in 2010. Sales of the Lilly Pulitzer brand were strong in the earnings period that ended Feb. 2. The brand's revenue increased 26 percent to $29.1 million, according to Oxford Industries' earnings report. The company said last week it planned to add four to six new stores each year for its Lilly Pulitzer brand.

Pulitzer was born Lilly McKim on Nov. 10, 1931, to a wealthy family in Roslyn, N.Y.

In 1952, she married Pete Pulitzer, the grandson of newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer, whose bequest to Columbia University established the Pulitzer Prize.

Pulitzer had three children in quick succession. After the third was born, she had a nervous breakdown and ended up in a mental hospital that catered to upscale clientele in New York. A doctor there told her that she needed to find a job.

"The doctor there said, 'You're not happy because you're not doing anything,' and I said, 'I don't know how to do anything.' I'd always had everything done for me, always had my nanny and my mummy making up my mind. The doctor said, 'You've got to go out and find something to do,'" Pulitzer told The New Yorker in 2000.

Pulitzer gave the same prescription to her friends. If one of them needed something to do, Pulitzer would open a store in her town.

The Pulitzers divorced in 1969. Pulitzer's second husband, Enrique Rousseau, died in 1993.

"I don't know how to explain what it was like to run my business, the joy of every day," she told Vanity Fair magazine in a story in 2003. "I got a kick every time I went into the shipping department. ... I loved seeing (the dresses) going out the door. I loved them selling in the shop. I liked them on the body. Everything. There's no explaining the fun I had."

DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ireland is preparing to officially reject accusations by U.S. Senators this week that it acts as a tax haven for large multinationals and launch a diplomatic offensive to repair the damage done to its reputation abroad.

Ireland has been forced to defend its low corporate tax rate after the Senate said last week that iPhone and iPad maker Apple paid little or no tax on tens of billions of dollars in profits channeled through Irish subsidiaries and that it had effectively negotiated a special corporate tax rate of less than 2 percent.

Irish ministers and officials have lined up to insist that their tax system is transparent and that other countries were responsible if Apple paid tax at such low rates. Finance Minister Michael Noonan said Ireland would not be the "whipping boy" for the Senate subcommittee.

The government will likely put its response on the record this week, two government sources said, and will tell the committee led by veteran tax sleuth Senator Carl Levin that Ireland is not a tax haven, nor did it cut Apple a special tax deal.

"Undoubtedly there's a risk of reputational damage if we don't defend our corner and set out the facts, so of course that's happening," Ireland's European Affairs Minister Lucinda Creighton told Reuters, referring to the response being drafted.

"I've no doubt there will be a strong response, and we will strongly defend Ireland as a safe, a legally sound and a good place to do business. What you see is what you get, and that is why so many global companies are headquartered in Ireland."

Creighton was speaking from Dublin airport ahead of a four-day trip to Washington and New York where she will meet business leaders and politicians and address the prestigious Columbia University.

While the trade mission was planned long before last week's revelations on Capitol Hill, Creighton said she and her fellow ministers would use every opportunity to put right the "misinformation" heard in the Senate last week.

Ireland has a network in place to quickly spread that message. After it took a financial bailout in late 2010, Dublin set up its Economic Messaging Unit to coordinate communications between all government agencies, departments and embassies.

Irish embassies from Beijing to Buenos Aires were issued rebuttal points last week, a normal practice for major stories, while Ireland's ambassador in Washington held a conference call with government departments and the state agency charged with attracting investment into Ireland to discuss the next steps.

DINNER JOKES IN BRUSSELS

Within weeks of coming to office in 2011, Prime Minister Enda Kenny summoned all the country's ambassadors to Dublin to brief them on how best to restore a reputation he said was in tatters.

The fresh assault will be similar, one diplomatic source said, adding that the key focus would be liaising with a strong network of contacts in the U.S. Administration and on Capitol Hill, where the leaders of Ireland and the United States traditionally meet for lunch to mark St. Patrick's Day.

While Dublin was able to call on ex-President Bill Clinton to tell U.S. companies last year that they would be "nuts" not to invest in Ireland, the task could be trickier this time with the criticism emanating from its normally friendly ally.

"That was a blindside for Ireland Inc. because we always thought we were on the same page as Anglo-American capitalism. We thought it would stick up for us," said Hugo Brady, senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform in Brussels.

"The PR side of it is really bad for Ireland because Ireland and tax haven are going together in mainstream conversation in Brussels. It hasn't done our image much good when people start making dinner jokes about Apple being an Irish company."

While Ireland will concentrate its energy in the United States to keep attracting jobs from the likes of Apple, Google and Pfizer, it will also need to keep an eye out for any backlash in Europe where its low corporate tax rate of 12.5 percent has drawn criticism in the past.

One influential member of the European Parliament said that while Dublin should be given time to adjust, it should adopt a standardized European Union tax system and ultimately a minimum rate of corporation tax.

"Ireland should take its hands out of other countries' pockets. Ireland's tax system is designed to tax income other people have earned," Sven Giegold told Reuters, underscoring how emotive the issue will be in elections in his native Germany.

"If you want to heat up a room in an election meeting in Germany, you have to talk about tax avoidance. It has become one of the most emotional topics. People are outraged."

(Additional reporting by John O'Donnell in Brussels; Editing by Will Waterman)