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ASUS' Eee Pad Transformer Prime has already suffered a few setbacks on its march to the US market and unfortunately, it looks as if another obstacle may be on the horizon. According to a handful of tips we've received this morning, Best Buy has been sending out emails to users who pre-ordered the new tablet for delivery this week, informing them that shipments have been "back-ordered," and delayed by one to two weeks. This means, of course, that some buyers may not receive the device until after Christmas. In its email, Best Buy gave its customers the option of canceling their orders outright, replacing it with a similar device, or searching the product at a brick and mortar location (a customer service rep told us that the Transformer Prime is not in stock). Some who ordered the slate on Amazon, meanwhile, have received emails informing them that their orders were "inadvertently canceled," and offering them the chance to pre-order it again today, along with a $10 gift card to make up for the inconvenience. We asked ASUS about the Transformer Prime's delivery status, and received the following response:

We started filling the pipelines this past week and will continue to do so on an almost daily basis this coming week, although any shipments to the partners after Wednesday will probably mean availability the following week based on logistics. But we expect the inventory pipeline to be full by the first of the year. The orders shipped this past week and starting this week will cover the pre-order allocations and then start allowing online or in-store availability.

We'll be following this story closely, so check this space for any further updates.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

ASUS Transformer Prime pre-order shipments delayed at Best Buy, Amazon originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Dec 2011 02:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/12/19/asus-transformer-prime-pre-order-shipments-delayed-at-best-buy/

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WASHINGTON ? The Senate passed legislation Saturday extending a Social Security payroll tax cut and jobless benefits for just two months, handing President Barack Obama a partial victory while setting the stage for another fight in February.

It also brought a peaceful end to a year-long battle over spending by passing a $1 trillion-plus catchall budget bill that wraps together the day-to-day budgets for 10 Cabinet departments and military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The House passed the measure Friday, and the White House has signaled that Obama will sign it.

The renewal of the 2-percentage-point cut in the Social Security payroll tax for 160 million workers and unemployment benefits averaging about $300 a week for the additional millions of people who have been out of work for six months or more is a modest step forward for Obama's year-end jobs agenda.

As a condition for GOP support of the payroll tax measure, Obama has to accept a provision that forces him to decide within 60 days whether to approve or reject a proposed a Canada-to-Texas oil pipeline that promises thousands of jobs.

Obama didn't reference the pipeline issue in a brief appearance at the White House after the vote. He welcomed the Senate's passage of the payroll tax cut and unemployment insurance extension and said it would be "inexcusable" for Congress not to extend them for the rest of 2012 when lawmakers return from their holiday break.

The budget bill, passed 67-32, heads to the White House for Obama's signature; the payroll tax measure won a 89-10 tally that send it back to the House ? where many Republicans only reluctantly support it ? for a vote early next week.

A spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, would not predict whether the House would accept the Senate payroll tax measure, saying GOP leaders would have to discuss it with the rank and file. But Democrats assume Senate Republicans would not have allowed the short-term measure to advance without a signal from Boehner that the House would go along.

Democratic and GOP leaders opted for the short-term extension of the payroll tax and jobless benefits measure after failing to agree on big enough spending cuts to pay for a full-year renewal. The measure also provides a 60-day reprieve from a scheduled 27 percent cut in the fees paid to doctors who treat Medicare patients.

The $33 billion cost of the measure would be covered by raising fees on new mortgages backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The fees, drawn from a Treasury Department housing finance market reform plan, would effectively raise the interest rate on home loans guaranteed by the mortgage giants and the Federal Housing Administration by one-tenth of a percentage point.

The idea is to open up the market to private companies currently priced out by the implicit subsidies of Fannie and Freddie.

The White House says the fee would increase the monthly cost of a typical $220,000 mortgage by almost $15 a month. Over 30 years, the fees would increase the total cost of such a mortgage by more than $5,000.

In contrast, a worker making a $100,000 salary would reap a tax cut of about $330 through the two-month extension of the payroll tax cut. A worker with a typical $50,000 salary would get just a $165 tax cut.

Officials said that in private talks, the two sides had hoped to reach agreement on the full one-year extension of the payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits that Obama had made the centerpiece of the jobs program he submitted to Congress last fall.

Those efforts failed when the two sides could not agree on enough offsetting cuts to blunt the measure's impact on the debt.

The failure tees up the issue again for early next year, but it won't get any easier to agree on spending cuts.

Neither House Speaker Boehner nor his aides participated in the negotiations, although McConnell said he was optimistic about the measure's chances for final approval. The payroll tax cut is unpopular in GOP ranks and another vote in two months could present a headache for GOP leaders.

On the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, the legislation requires the president to grant a permit unless he makes a determination that it is "not in the national interest." One senior administration official said the president would almost certainly refuse to grant a permit. The official was not authorized to speak publicly.

The White House on Friday backed away from Obama's earlier threat to veto any bill that linked the payroll tax cut extension with a Republican demand for a speedy decision on the proposed 1,700-mile pipeline. Obama said on Dec. 7 that "any effort to try to tie Keystone to the payroll tax cut I will reject. So everybody should be on notice."

The president recently announced he was postponing a decision on the much-studied pipeline until after the 2012 election. Environmentalists oppose the project, but several unions support it. The legislation puts the president in the uncomfortable position of having to choose between customary political allies.

The State Department, in an analysis released this summer, said the pipeline project would create up to 6,000 jobs during construction, while developer TransCanada put the total at 20,000 in direct employment.

The pipeline would carry oil from western Canada to Texas Gulf Coast refineries, passing through Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma.

The spending bill locks in spending cuts that conservative Republicans won from the White House and Democrats earlier in the year.

Republicans also won their fight to block new federal regulations for light bulb energy efficiency, coal dust in mines and clean water permits for construction of timber roads.

The White House turned back GOP attempts to block limits on greenhouse gases, mountaintop removal mining and hazardous emissions from utility plants, industrial boilers and cement kilns.

___

Associated Press writers David Espo, Alan Fram, Donna Cassata and Jim Kuhnhenn contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/obama/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111217/ap_on_bi_ge/us_congress_rdp

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LOS ANGELES ? Gregg Barson is a documentarian, not a comedian. But when Jerry Lewis let him know that more than a dozen people were waiting in line to tell his story, Barson offered a persuasive punch line.

"Yeah, but they're not me," was Barson's comeback, followed by a momentary quiver of fear that he'd gone too far with the veteran star.

"He said, `I like that. You know why? Because you remind me of me,'" Barson recalled. That chutzpah-fueled exchange led to "Method to the Madness of Jerry Lewis," debuting 8 p.m. EST Saturday on Encore. Other airings include 11:30 a.m. EST Sunday and 8 p.m. EST Tuesday.

The film focuses on what makes the 85-year-old ? and still working ? Lewis tick as a performer and filmmaker. Those looking for dish on his family life or breakup with stage and screen partner Dean Martin or abrupt departure from the Muscular Dystrophy Association telethon he'd nurtured for nearly five decades won't find it here.

Barson, who describes himself as being "in heaven" whenever he caught a Lewis film on TV as a youngster, said his intent was to focus on Lewis' career from vaudeville on and his contributions to comedy and movies.

Younger people without exposure to Lewis' work likely consider him as "that telethon guy. Hopefully, the film will open their eyes as opposed to thinking he did one thing one day a year," Barson said.

During more than three years of filming, Barson had near-complete access as he followed Lewis from his yacht in San Diego to his home in Las Vegas to concert dates and to the Cannes Film Festival in France, the country that idolizes Lewis as a cinematic genius.

He was good company, Barson said. "He's always up, funny and playful. ... The sparkle, he didn't put in on for the camera. He's being real."

"Method to the Madness," which opens with Jerry Seinfeld, Eddie Murphy and other comedians anointing Lewis as comedy royalty, is an unabashed valentine. It is also a reminder that Lewis inspired rock-star levels of fan devotion, and of how impressively "The Bellboy" (1960) and many other films starring and written and directed by Lewis ruled the box office.

Barson, who made the well-received Phyllis Diller documentary "Goodnight, We Love You," sees parallels between Diller and Lewis, including their work ethic.

"She was 84 when she retired, and he's 85 and still working. They never rest on their laurels," Barson said. "They still care. They're not phoning it in."

And that, he said, is part of Lewis' method: Every aspect of his performance is planned.

"As Eddie Murphy says (in the film), slapstick looks simple but the reason it's been around so long is how well thought out it is," Barson said.

Lewis is pleased with the film. And his health is good, according to the filmmaker, who spills one appropriately quirky personal secret on his subject: "He drinks a lot of orange soda. Maybe that's the fountain of youth."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/celebrity/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111217/ap_en_ce/us_tv_jerry_lewis

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Army Pfc. Bradley Manning, right, is escorted into a courthouse in Fort Meade, Md., Saturday, Dec. 17, 2011, for a military hearing that will determine if he should face court-martial for his alleged role in the WikiLeaks classified leaks case. Manning is suspected of being the source in one of the largest unauthorized disclosures of classified information in U.S. history. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

Army Pfc. Bradley Manning, at center wearing glasses, is escorted into a courthouse in Fort Meade, Md., Saturday, Dec. 17, 2011, for a military hearing that will determine if he should face court-martial for his alleged role in the WikiLeaks classified leaks case. Manning is suspected of being the source in one of the largest unauthorized disclosures of classified information in U.S. history. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

FILE - This is a Thursday, Dec. 1, 2011 file photo of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange as he talks during a news conference in central London. As the suspected source for the biggest leak of intelligence material in American history faces his first hearing Friday Dec. 15 ,2011, U.S. prosecutors have their eye on another prize: The man who disclosed the documents to the world. When WikiLeaks' spectacular disclosures of U.S. secrets exploded onto the scene last year, much of Washington's anger coalesced around Julian Assange, the silver-haired globe-trotting figure whose outspoken defiance of the Pentagon and the State Department riled politicians on both sides of the aisle. Pfc. Bradley Manning, long under lock and key, hasn't attracted the same level of ire. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis, File)

Supporters of US soldier Private Bradley Manning protest outside the US Embassy in London calling for his release, Saturday, Dec. 17, 2011. Private Manning is facing charges of obtaining and distributing government secrets which he allegedly leaked to anti-secrecy web site WikiLeaks in a pre-trial hearing in a military court at US army base Fort Meade, Maryland. (AP Photo/Sang Tan)

FORT MEADE, Md. (AP) ? The military court case against the young soldier blamed for the largest leak of classified material in American history resumed Saturday after an Army appeals court rejected a defense effort to remove the presiding officer.

Army Pfc. Bradley Manning was back in a military courtroom Saturday, his 24th birthday, to hear prosecutors begin presenting their case against him as the source for the WikiLeaks website's collection of U.S. military and diplomatic secrets.

The purpose of the hearing is to determine whether prosecutors have enough evidence to bring Manning to trial. Manning's lawyers tried to oust Lt. Col. Paul Almanza as the presiding officer because of alleged bias, but an Army appeals court rejected their request late Friday.

Separately, lawyers for WikiLeaks and founder Julian Assange are asking the Army Court of Criminal Appeals to guarantee them two seats in the courtroom at Fort Meade.

Manning, a one-time intelligence analyst stationed in Baghdad, is accused of leaking hundreds of thousands of sensitive items including Iraq and Afghanistan war logs, State Department cables and a classified military video of a 2007 American helicopter attack in Iraq that killed 11 men, including a Reuters news photographer and his driver.

The Obama administration says the released information has threatened valuable military and diplomatic sources and strained America's relations with other governments.

Friday was Manning's first appearance in public after 19 months in detention. He appeared slight but serious in his Army camouflage fatigues and dark-rimmed glasses, taking notes during the proceedings and answering straightforwardly when called upon by Almanza.

Manning, a native of Crescent, Okla., is relying on a defense that will argue much of the classified information posed no risk.

In addition to claims of partiality, his lawyer, David Coombs, argued that Almanza wrongly denied the defense's request to call as witnesses the officials who marked as secret the material WikiLeaks later published. Instead, the officer accepted unsworn statements from those people, Coombs said.

Friday's tangling, however, centered primarily on Almanza's Justice Department job. "I don't believe I'm biased," Almanza said, explaining that his government work concerns child exploitation and obscenity. He said he hasn't talked about WikiLeaks or Manning with anyone in the department or FBI.

The Justice Department has a separate criminal investigation into Assange. A U.S. grand jury is weighing whether to indict Assange on espionage charges, even as he is in Britain fighting a Swedish request that he be extradited because of rape allegations.

Manning's hearing at this Army post outside Washington is open to the public, with limited seating. Assange's lawyer filed a request Friday with the Army appeals court seeking two guaranteed seats in the Fort Meade courtroom, one for the attorney representing the Wikileaks organization and the other for Assange's non-U.S. attorney.

Inside the courtroom, no civilian recording equipment is allowed. Instead of a judge, a presiding officer delivers a recommendation as to whether prosecutors have enough evidence to bring a suspect to trial. A military commander then makes the final decision.

The case has spawned an international support network of people who believe the U.S. government has gone too far in seeking to punish Manning.

In London, several dozen protesters from gay organizations, the Occupy London protest camp and other groups rallied outside the U.S. Embassy Saturday calling for Manning's release. Some held placards declaring "Free Bradley Manning" and "Happy Birthday Bradley."

A protest outside Fort Meade was planned for later Saturday. On Friday, a few dozen Manning supporters showed up at Fort Meade to rally on Manning's behalf.

"I plan to march all night tonight and bring as much attention as I can to put the entire country on notice that we have a hero who's standing trial for nothing more than telling the truth," said Dan Choi, a gay West Point graduate discharged from the military for revealing his sexual orientation. He wore a bright orange "Bradley Manning Support Network" sticker on the lapel of his uniform jacket.

Others were less supportive.

"That man did something very wrong," said Mandie Stanley, a 19-year-old who lives on the Army post with her husband, a member of the Air Force. She spotted the protesters and decided to come out with a sign that said: "Don't leak classified information, stupid!"

___

Associated Press writers Sarah Brumfield, Mark Sherman in Washington and Jill Lawless in London contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2011-12-17-Manning-WikiLeaks/id-786a04ec428f4092950a6555d78c081e

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In this photo provided by Utah Division of Wildlife Services, a Utah Division of Wildlife Resources employee frees some surviving grebes on Dec. 13, 2011 at Stratton Pond in Hurricane, Utah after thousands of the birds crash landed throughout Southern Utah on Monday night. Officials say storm clouds above city lights Monday night probably confused thousands of grebes, which are a duck-like aquatic bird that migrates south for the winter. Thousands of the birds were killed, but more than 2,000 had been rescued by Tuesday evening. The survivors were released into Washington County bodies. (AP Photo/Utah Division of Wildlife Services, Lynn Chamberlain)

In this photo provided by Utah Division of Wildlife Services, a Utah Division of Wildlife Resources employee frees some surviving grebes Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2011 at Stratton Pond in Hurricane, Utah after thousands of the birds crash landed throughout Southern Utah on Monday night. Officials say storm clouds above city lights Monday night probably confused thousands of grebes, which are a duck-like aquatic bird that migrates south for the winter. Thousands of the birds were killed, but more than 2,000 had been rescued by Tuesday evening. The survivors were released into Washington County bodies. (AP Photo/Utah Division of Wildlife Services, Lynn Chamberlain)

In this photo provided by Utah Division of Wildlife Services, surviving grebes swim across the waters of Stratton Pond in Hurricane, Utah following their release by Utah Division of Wildlife Resources employees Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2011 after thousands of the birds crash landed throughout Southern Utah on Monday night. Officials say storm clouds above city lights Monday night probably confused thousands of grebes, which are a duck-like aquatic bird that migrates south for the winter. Thousands of the birds were killed, but more than 2,000 had been rescued by Tuesday evening. The survivors were released into Washington County bodies. (AP Photo/Utah Division of Wildlife Services, Lynn Chamberlain)

In this photo provided by Utah Division of Wildlife Services, a surviving grebe huddles in the snow Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2011 after thousands of the birds crash landed throughout Southern Utah on Monday night. Officials say storm clouds above city lights Monday night probably confused thousands of grebes, which are a duck-like aquatic bird that migrates south for the winter. Thousands of the birds were killed, but more than 2,000 had been rescued by Tuesday evening. The survivors were released into Washington County bodies. (AP Photo/Utah Division of Wildlife Services, Lynn Chamberlain)

ST. GEORGE, Utah (AP) ? Thousands of migratory birds died on impact after apparently mistaking a Wal-Mart parking lot and other areas of southern Utah for bodies of water and plummeting to the ground in what one wildlife expert called the worst downing she's ever seen.

Crews went to work cleaning up the dead birds and rescuing the survivors after the creatures crash-landed in the St. George area Monday night.

By Tuesday evening, volunteers had rescued more than 2,000 birds, releasing them into nearby bodies of water.

"They're just everywhere," said Teresa Griffin, wildlife program manager for the Utah Division of Wildlife Resource's southern region. "It's been nonstop. All our employees are driving around picking them up, and we've got so many people coming to our office and dropping them off."

Officials say stormy conditions probably confused the flock of grebes, a duck-like aquatic bird likely making its way to Mexico for the winter. The birds tried to land in a Cedar City Wal-Mart parking lot and elsewhere.

"The storm clouds over the top of the city lights made it look like a nice, flat body of water. All the conditions were right," Griffin told The Spectrum newspaper in St. George (http://bit.ly/rYpQbJ). "So the birds landed to rest, but ended up slamming into the pavement."

No human injuries or property damage have been reported.

It's not uncommon for birds to mistake hard surfaces for water. However, Griffin noted most downing are localized, while "this was very widespread."

"I've been here 15 years and this was the worst downing I've seen," she told the newspaper.

Wildlife officials said they were continuing the rescue effort that started Tuesday afternoon and included an enthusiastic group of volunteers.

The surviving grebes were gathered up ? some in cardboard boxes ? and dropped into bodies of water in southern Utah's Washington County, including a pond near Hurricane.

Residents who came across remaining grebes were asked to either call wildlife officials or bring the birds to their office.

"If we can put them on a body of water that's not frozen over, they'll have a better chance of survival," said Lynn Chamberlain, a wildlife agency spokesman.

___

Information from: The Spectrum, http://www.thespectrum.com

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2011-12-14-Bird%20Crash%20Landing/id-fe5d7e861ab24655836973624dd04711

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SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) ? South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley plans to endorse Mitt Romney's presidential bid.

A Republican with knowledge of the endorsement disclosed the plan ahead of the official announcement on condition of anonymity.

Haley is a rising star within the GOP and her endorsement in the first-in-the South primary state has been sought by many other presidential contenders.

Romney plans to fly to South Carolina on Friday afternoon.

Politico first reported the Haley endorsement.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2011-12-16-Romney-Haley/id-b9f694d9783d4c31860963bad65cb800

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Intel's NFC aspirations are hardly a secret. The company showed off a Medfield-powered tablet at IDF sporting the tech and it's partnered with MasterCard -- promising to bring PayPass checkouts to Ultrabooks. Now Chipzilla is putting the final pieces of the equation in place by landing a licensing deal with Inside Secure. The company specializes in contactless payment systems and will be lending its Microread, Securead and Open NFC products to Intel for future chips. While it's a safe assumption that we'll be seeing NFC pop up in Ultrabooks, it's also going to be an essential ingredient if the Santa Clara crew ever hopes to make x86 a player in the smartphone scene. We've still got a while to go before near field communication becomes truly ubiquitous, but this is one more step in the right direction. Check out the PR after the break.

Continue reading Intel enters licensing deal with Inside Secure for NFC tech

Intel enters licensing deal with Inside Secure for NFC tech originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 15 Dec 2011 02:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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