Editor's Note: This product has not yet been tested. The following coverage is based on information provided by the manufacturer or developer.
OmniFocus ($79.99) is a powerful productivity management application for Mac computers, with versions for iPad and iPhone as well. The program helps you manage your tasks, stay on top of deadlines, and break down complex tasks into more manageable to-do list items. The OmniFocus app is more complex than a standard listmaker app, with an inbox, Web clipper, and the ability to easily separate personal goals from professional assignments.
One of its features is the ability to capture miscellaneous to-dos on the fly with a quick entry panel, which moves new items into an inbox until you're ready to process and organize them. Other features include the ability to add start dates, due dates, time estimates, and task recurrence schedules. You can also upload attachments.
The $80 app comes with a syncing service, which puts your task database into the cloud so that all your Apple devices (Macs, iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad) have the most up-to-date information.?
WASHINGTON ? Congressional officials say Democrats on the so-called supercommittee are offering to slow the growth in future Social Security benefits as part of a multitrillion-dollar deficit-reduction package of increased tax revenue and cuts in spending.
The plan also envisions using a part of the savings to fund measures to create jobs, as President Barack Obama has called for.
The proposal was outlined on Tuesday in a closed-door meeting of the special congressional committee that has until late next month to recommend at least $1.2 trillion in deficit savings. Republicans presented a counter-plan Wednesday. Details are unknown.
In all, officials say Democrats proposed to raise revenue by about $1.3 trillion over a decade and cut spending by the same amount.
They spoke on condition of anonymity, citing committee confidentiality rules.
The BBC's Roland Buerk aboard the first 787 to go into commercial operation
Boeing's Dreamliner has finally had its maiden commercial voyage, three years later than planned.
The All Nippon Airlines (ANA) flight carried its first passengers from Tokyo to Hong Kong.
The Dreamliner had originally been scheduled for delivery in 2008, but Boeing has suffered a string of setbacks.
Wednesday's flight was a special charter, with normal services due to start in November.
Problems with the Dreamliner have put its launch behind schedule, the latest being an onboard fire during test flights last November, and the company will hope a successful launch will help put to bed some of the memories of prior setbacks.
Boeing says the twin-aisle, mid-size plane features the industry's largest windows, with higher cabin humidity and cleaner air - all of which combine to allow passengers to arrive at their destinations more refreshed.
Continue reading the main story
?Start Quote
Just thinking I'm going to be part of aviation history is a dream?
End QuoteGino Bertuccio
Because of the materials used in construction - carbon fibre rather than aluminium - as well as new engines and aerodynamics, Boeing says the Dreamliner is about 20% more fuel efficient than similarly-sized models flying today.
That would be a big help for airlines coping with the high price of jet fuel, which is usually their biggest single cost.
ANA's chief Shinichiro Ito and Boeing vice-president Scott Fancher broke open barrels of sake with small hammers and passed it around to passengers as they boarded in Tokyo.
The airline auctioned six business-class seats on the inaugural flight, with one selling for $34,000 (?21,200) - about 13 times the price of a regular business-class ticket between the two Asian hubs.
The winner, Gino Bertuccio, won because he accidentally added an extra digit onto his bid - but he was happy regardless, according to the Wall Street Journal.
"Just thinking I'm going to be part of aviation history is a dream," he told the paper.
'Cost competitiveness'
Another passenger was part of a small group of fliers who try to fly on the first flights of major new planes.
Thomas Lee, a 59-year-old Californian, also flew on the maiden commercial flights of the Boeing 747 in 1970 and the Airbus A380 superjumbo in 2007.
Boeing plans to make 10 of the planes a month from 2013. But the long delay has hurt its business.
Last week, China Eastern Airlines cancelled orders for 24 Dreamliners, rather than wait for production to pick up.
Boeing has more than 800 orders on its books for the 787 Dreamliner, and the average list price is $201.7m.
Japan, a market in which Boeing dominates rival Airbus, is a major market for the Dreamliner.
ANA will take delivery of dozens more of the aircraft in the coming years.
"For carriers with high operating margins, the 787 is critical for gaining a cost competitiveness," said Masaharu Hirokane, an analyst at Nomura Holding in Tokyo.
NEW YORK ? NBA owners and players were making progress on one of the main issues confronting them during another marathon session Wednesday, meeting for more than 14 hours in talks aimed at ending the lockout.
The talks were centered on the salary cap system, a person with knowledge of the discussions told The Associated Press, adding that "both sides are demonstrating a commitment to getting a deal done."
The sides got back to the table with a small group meeting less than a week after three intense days of mediation didn't produce a new labor deal. Wednesday's negotiations marked the second-longest bargaining session since the lockout began July 1.
Talks broke down last Thursday when players said owners insisted they agree to a 50-50 split of revenues as a condition to further discuss the salary cap system.
The players have lowered their proposal to 52.5 percent of basketball-related income, leaving the sides about $100 million apart annually, based on last season's revenues. Players were guaranteed 57 percent of BRI under the previous collective bargaining agreement.
The revenue split emerged as such a roadblock last week that union executive director Billy Hunter said they should "park" the issue and turn the discussions back to the system, saying that players might be willing to take a lower number if they found the system rules more favorable.
Seeking greater parity among their 30 teams, owners are looking to reduce the ways that teams can exceed the salary cap so that big markets won't have a significant payroll advantage. Players have feared that changes owners have been seeking would result in what would essentially be a hard salary cap, restricting player movement and perhaps even eliminating most guaranteed contracts.
The first two weeks of the season already have been canceled, and there's little time left to save any basketball in November. Commissioner David Stern has said he feared even games through Christmas would be in jeopardy if there wasn't a deal last week.
Stern rejoined the talks Wednesday after missing last Thursday's session with the flu. He was joined by Deputy Commissioner Adam Silver, owners Peter Holt of San Antonio, Glen Taylor of Minnesota and James Dolan of New York, and a pair of league office attorneys.
The union was represented by Hunter, president Derek Fisher of the Lakers and vice president Maurice Evans of the Wizards, attorney Ron Klempner and economist Kevin Murphy.
The sides also are struggling over items such as the length of the deal, players' contract lengths and the size of their raises.
Silver said last week it was "unclear" to him whether an 82-game schedule was still possible. The league could try to reschedule the lost games if a deal can be reached soon.
New York ? A patient operator calms a confused Briton who reports an "enormous light blazing" in the sky above his house
The audio:?Our place in the cosmos can be a bit disorienting, which might partially explain why a British man recently dialed his country's version of 911 to report an unidentified flying object above his house. Confused and nervous, he told the rather steely operator peppering him with questions that there was an "enormous light blazing" in the sky. "I don't know what the hell it is," the man says. "It's not an airplane, but it's hovering." Two minutes after he hung up, the man called back. "I made a mistake," he said. "You won't believe this? It's the moon." (Listen to the audio below.) The police released the tape to the public this week to serve as a reminder not to clog up emergency phone lines.
The reaction: What's especially striking is "the genuine panic from the man,"?says Aaron-Spencer Charles at Britain's Metro. It's clear why the operator initially treated this?as "a serious matter."?Well, what's not to take seriously about reporting "a Death Star hovering over" your house??says The Daily What. In any case, "I feel very sorry for the people who have to deal with these phone calls," says Casey Chan at?Gizmodo, "but very happy" that amusing callers like this exist. Check out the audio:
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WASHINGTON ? The nation's first black Marines received a rare national tribute Tuesday as the House voted to award the Montford Point Marines with the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian honor given by Congress.
History books and Hollywood have chronicled the Army's Buffalo Soldiers and the Army Air Corps' Tuskegee Airmen, but the men who integrated the Marines during World War II often have been forgotten. That is starting to change, beginning with the House's 422-0 vote.
The black Marines received their basic training adjacent to Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, where conditions were harsh and the treatment from their fellow Marines could be even harsher. The black Marines were not allowed to enter Camp Lejeune unless accompanied by a white officer. In the few times they participated in training exercises, they could not eat until the white Marines had finished. They were routinely passed over for promotions.
"People forget they were fighting two wars ? both foreign and domestic," Rep. Sanford Bishop, D-Ga., said.
More than 300 lawmakers were co-sponsors of the legislation, providing Republicans and Democrats with a rare moment of bipartisanship. Lawmakers from both parties spoke in favor of the resolution, which was sponsored by Rep. Corrine Brown, D-Fla.
In 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered the Marine Corps to accept blacks. The Marine Corps was the last military branch to do so.
Rep. Brad Miller, D-N.C., noted that the Montford Point Marines were presumed unsuited for combat and not allowed to fight alongside their white counterparts until the Korean War. Still, they underwent intense fire in their supporting roles in the Pacific during World War II, serving at Okinawa and Iwo Jima.
"They served with great valor and distinction and loved their country more than their country loved them at the time," Miller said.
Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C., said he hoped that the awarding of the Congressional Gold Medal would "soothe the pain of yesterday with the glory of today."
About 19,000 men trained at Montford Point between 1942 and 1949. Most have since died. Eugene Groves, a staff sergeant who fought in Korea, was one of four Montford Point veterans on hand for the vote Tuesday. The lawmakers gave the four a standing ovation shortly before the vote.
Commandant Gen. James Amos has made it a priority to honor the group and ensure that their history is taught to all Marines.
Groves, who trained at Montford Point in 1946, said he appreciated the recognition. He served in the Korean War and said he felt for a time like the Marine Corps did not want to acknowledge the Monford Marines service.
"They did not want us involved in the history," Groves said. "It's been a hard fight."
LONDON (Reuters) ? Women given drugs during fertility treatment to stimulate their ovaries to produce extra eggs have an increased risk of developing borderline ovarian tumors, Dutch researchers said on Thursday.
A large 15-year study found women undergoing in-vitro fertilization (IVF) were twice as likely to develop ovarian malignancies -- defined as either cancer or borderline tumors -- as similarly sub-fertile women who were not treated.
The risk was concentrated in borderline tumors, which have abnormal cells that may become cancerous but usually do not. The danger of invasive ovarian cancer was slightly higher in the IVF treatment group but this was not statistically significant.
Fertility experts said the results showed there was a need for further research, although they stressed the apparent risks were still very low.
"This ... goes some way to answering the questions that so many IVF patients ask. However, the results should be kept in proportion as the increase shown was from around five in a thousand to seven per thousand women," said Peter Braude of Kings College London.
Braude, who was not involved in the Dutch study, said the possible risks needed to be balanced against the important objective of IVF in conceiving a child.
Lead researcher Flora van Leeuwen of the Netherlands Cancer Institute in Amsterdam said the findings were significant because the study was the first to include a comparison group of sub-fertile women not undergoing IVF.
That is important because having difficulty conceiving or never having been pregnant are in themselves known risk factors for ovarian tumors.
The study observed 25,000 women, of whom 19,000 received IVF. It found 61 ovarian malignancies among the IVF group, of which 31 were borderline tumors and 30 invasive cancer -- a proportion of borderline cases that was unusually high.
Richard Kennedy, general secretary of the International Federation of Fertility Societies (IF), noted that other studies over the past decade looking at ovarian stimulation and cancer risk had been generally reassuring.
"The IF remains of the view that the long-term risks are low but calls for continued vigilance through reporting of long-term outcomes with international collaboration," he said in a statement.
The results of Dutch study were published in the journal Human Reproduction.
(Reporting by Ben Hirschler; Editing by Tim Pearce)
