Students all over the US are giving themselves even more reason to get good grades – money! There is now a website providing a platform for students to bet on the outcomes of their grades. The better their grades, the more they win.

The site has students from about 36 schools across the US betting on their own grades. The maximum they can bet is $25 per class but the more they play the higher the limit can grow to. The site then looks at the student’s academic history, the grade history of their school and their class and even the reputation of their tutor or professor to decide on the odds.

The students don’t just have to bet on doing exceptionally well either, they can bet on failing too – this is known as ‘grade insurance’.

Is this legal though? The CEO says it is because the power is in the hands of the students – they can choose whether they do well or fail.

How does the site make money then? Students are by nature fairly unpredictable – there are always variable like hangovers, illness, bad lecturers etc.

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It seemed like Google+ had taken a bit of a back seat to social networks like Pinterest and Twitter but this all might be about to change with the announcement of Hangouts on Air, a feature that should take global social networking to a multifaceted level of interaction soon.

Hangouts on Air is not a new feature; it just hasn’t been available for most Google+ users. It was in fact launched last September and was set to allow users to engage in live video chat sessions with as many as 9 other users and then broadcast for others to watch. These were designed to offer live streaming broadcasts with multiple participants. Up until now users could view Hangouts on Air but couldn’t start their own, unless they were part of a select group of test users. This feature is now about to be available to all Google+ users.

Features of Hangouts of Air:

• Public broadcasts: users can use their Google+ page to broadcast their live Hangouts to the world. They can also use their company’s YouTube channel or pages in their business’ website to enbed the Hangout.

• Viewer tracking: the hosts of the Hangouts can see how many users are watching the Hangout live during the broadcast.

• Recordings: after each Hangout users’ recordings will be uploaded onto their YouTube channel and their Google+ post so that they can share video content after the live event ends.

Once your Hangout ends, Google+ will upload a recording to your YouTube channel and your original Google+ post so you can easily share your video content even after the live event ends.

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By the 1830′s there were gambling establishments all over London and they weren’t all as civilised as the gentleman’s clubs of the 1700′s. In 1833, The Times published this account:

“The generality of minor gambling houses are kept by prize-fighters and other desperate characters, who bully and hector the more timid out of their money by deciding that bets have been lost, when, in fact, they have been won. To these places thieves resort and such other loose characters as are lost to every feeling of honesty and shame.”

This article went on to talk of men losing their clothes and being sent home almost naked. This ‘bad’ behaviour resulted in The Gaming Act of 1845 which stipulated that wagers could no longer be legally binding contracts.

In the 1700’s, horseracing became a professional sport that people could bet on and by the mid-1800’s, there were more than 400 betting shops in London. The Attorney General recommended a bill to the House of Commons that would prohibit betting as “mischief arising from the existence of these betting shops is perfectly notorious”.

These betting houses were closed down but this didn’t seem to stop Britain from gambling. Street betting continued until it was banned in the Street Betting Act in 1906 – the only place where it was legal to bet was at the race course.

In September 1890, the Tranby Scandal, otherwise known as the Royal Baccarat Scandal, happened at the shipping magnate Arthur Wilson’s home. His guests, who included the Prince of Wales and Sir William Gordon-Cumming, were playing illegal baccarat when Gordon-Cumming was accused of cheating. The case went to court as slander and the future British king, King Edward VII had to testify. Gordon-Cumming lost the court battle and had to retire from the army in disgrace.

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Gambling during the Georgian era was commonplace in the upper class. Card games like piquet, faro, ving-et-un, whist and baccarat were the most popular choices of the rich. Vingt-et-un ultimately became what we know as blackjack while faro eventually disappeared because it was so easy to cheat in.

Gambling in gentlemen’s clubs became commonplace. The famous London gentlemen’s club, Whites, had a betting book that had records of all members’ bets, including a record of a bet between two young men on the number of cats to walk on opposite sides of a street.

Meanwhile, the Crockford gambling club was the haunt of the aristocratic. It was started in 1793 and grew to become the most infamous gambling club in Europe until its closure in 1845.

In the 1800’s the Fourth Earl of Sandwich, John Montagu, in order to continue gambling without having to stop for a meal break, asked his servant to bring him a slice of meat enclosed by two pieces of bread – this was how the sandwich was created.

Beau Brummel was a notorious gambler and trendsetter who accumulated so much debt that he had to flee across the sea to France.

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In his book, The History of Gambling, John Aston states that in 1190 an edict was issued banning members of the army who were ranked below knights from playing games that required any form of betting. Clergymen and knights could play as long as they didn’t lost more than 20 shillings per day.

Bull baiting, the cruel blood sport in which bulls were ‘immobilised’ by dogs in a confined space, was a very popular choice to bet on. There was also racing and cockfighting to get the blood racing and the betting figures up. On the tamer side there were games of checkers that could be bet on, unsurprisingly these weren’t as popular.

Cards rapidly surpassed dice as the preferred gambling tool in the 14th century when they made their way from Asia to Europe. The deck of cards was adored by royalty – James IV of Scotland wooed his future bride, Princess Margaret, with a deck when he visited her for the first time.

Princess Margaret’s brother, Henry VIII, banned cards and dice from being played by working class people. His reason: it made men turn to drink and crime.

During the Elizabethan era a card game called Primero was developed. This is the game that is believed to be the precursor to poker. The first version of the British Lottery was also introduced during this era. Queen Elizabeth had the idea of offering 400,000 tickets to the public with prizes that included china and cash. The first London-based lottery event was organised by King James in 1612.

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The British have been occupied by gambling for thousands of years. Whether it’s been with dice, horses, cards, balls and even cats, a good bet seems to be irresistible to the British. Let’s take a look at the pastime that has ancient roots and is now a multi-million pound industry, whether in front of or behind closed doors.

Pre 1100 – primitive gambling

Ceremonies to try to predict the future like the throwing of bones, sticks and stones started off as religious rituals evolved into a primitive form of gambling that even involved, shock horror, human sacrifice. Bets were placed and stakes offered for ‘positive’ results. This often happened after a big hunt with an offering of the best piece of meat – of the animal.

In Ancient Rome, gambling was banned apart from during the week-long Saturnalia festival during which betting on chariots was allowed. While the Romans didn’t introduce gambling to Britain they did introduce it to dice.

The Anglo-Saxons thoroughly enjoyed throwing the dice that the Romans introduced them to and created games like Knucklebones. This game was played by throwing sheep or pig knuckles up in the air and players trying to catch the knuckles on the back of their hands. Bets would be placed on the result and whoever caught the most knuckles would be the winner. Knucklebones was so popular that 50 gaming bones and two deer-antler dice were found in a royal grave.

Read  more in in our next post about the history of gambling in Britain where we look at how gambling fast spread to the parlours of the rich from 1100 to 1700.

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The Android 5.0 could be released this November, Google vice president of engineering for mobile, Hiroshi Lockheimer, has hinted. Having stated at the recent Mobile World Congress in Barcelona that there is generally one major release a year, with the Android 4.0 released last November it is likely that the Android 5.0 will be released this November.

What’s for dessert this year?

Lockheimer wouldn’t say what dessert the Android 5.0 will be named after but after the Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, Google is getting a heap of pudding suggestions from fans starting with the letter “J” for the Android 5.0.

Ice Cream Sandwich

With the huge success of the Android 4.0, well-liked by developers and users, Google had an overcrowded booth at the recent Barcelona conference with people taking a look at Ice-Cream-Sandwich related applications from Google partners.

Partners like Wyse Technologies used Android Beam technology with NFC technology in Ice Cream Sandwich to transfer files between devices. Wyse workers used two Galaxy Nexus phones to demonstrate. The first phone gave the second phone permission to access information kept in the cloud. The second phone did this download with WiFi, but can also do it with 3G or other wireless signals.

The Android Beam, Lockheimer said, has resulted in a number of applications being released in the Android Market. One such app allows users to share videos by just bringing two NFC phones closer to each other.

Android improvements

Lockheimer also listed a bunch of Ice Cream Sandwich improvements for the upgrade that included data usage, battery usage meters and widgets on the main screen.

The Ice Cream Sandwich did have some complaints from some users. They were frustrated that upgrades couldn’t run on older Android phones. This has resulted in the formation of the Android Upgrade Alliance. This group will ensure that manufacturers and carriers will deliver well-timed upgrades for devices.

The future

The focus for the future Android devices will be on simplicity and power. Updated versions of Android will run faster and more smoothly. The principle of openness will still be held with carriers and manufacturers still contributing to major characteristics.

Google is well aware that some of their users just want basic vanilla Android on their smartphones or tablets while others want the extras that come with customization and will strive to offer both.

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Google is rebranding and renaming its online store for music, books and other digital goods. This is its most recent attempt to get a bigger profile in the electronic content sales market to compete with Apple and Amazon.com.

The store will be rebranded in the next week as the Google Play Store, leaving behind the Android Market name.

Google’s plan is to clarify that it offers a broader catalogue of content over and above the apps that are programmed for smartphones and tablets for Android operating systems.

“Some people see the Android icon on their home screen and they think it’s just for apps,” said Chris Yerga, the engineering director of Android Digital Content.

The new name and focus is being launched three and a half years after Google announced its Android Market as its central outlet for the download of mobile apps for Android-based smartphones.

Android is the top smartphone operating system globally and is used in smartphone giants like Motorola, Samsung and HTC smartphones. There are 450,000 Android compatible apps while there are 550,000 apps available for Apple iOS devices like iPhone and iPad.

Google has extended their products in the Android market to digital books, music and video. These are markets that Apple and Amazon are strong in: Apple reported that by October 2011 over 16 billion songs had been downloaded from the iTunes store while Amazon said that they now sell more digital books than print books.

Google has also simplified where its digital content can be bought – consumers were confused by the huge variety of outlets for different kinds of digital content as well as the variety of different names of the applications consumers could use to play music and videos or read the books.

Google’s goal, Yerga says, “is to bring more people to the store, maybe that person who is an avid book reader or music purchaser now becomes aware of ‘Hey I can also get videos here, I can get games here.’”

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The Galaxy S2 was the highest selling handset of all time managing to convert thousands of iPhone users to Google Android and now the release of the S3 is getting closer.

The release date of the S3 has been confirmed to be within the first quarter of 2012, in other words sometime before the end of March, which is soon!

Galaxy S3 features:

• The S3 will boast a Dual core 1.8ghz cpu making it faster
• It will come with Android 4.1, Ice Cream Sandwich, already installed
• There will be 2gb of internal memory
• An AMOLED 720p screen with a 4.6 display to make browsing a breeze
• A 12MP camera with Full HD 1080p video recording
• It is said to be even thinner than the S2
• A longer battery life than the S2

Impressed? We are.

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