Avoid these 5 mistakes while practicing Yoga

Mistake 1: Practicing yoga every day Yoga is a strength-building activity, Magone said, so you need to give your muscles a chance to recuperate and recover from those microtears that occur after every workout. “I recommend doing yoga every other day and supplementing with a cardiovascular workout [running, biking, swimming] on days you don’t do yoga,” said Magone. “Otherwise your muscles will be exhausted and you’re likely to get sloppy and injure yourself.”

Mistake 2: Pushing too far too fast Two weeks ago, I noticed that I can’t comfortably sit cross-legged on the floor to play board games with my kids, so I’ve been doing simple yoga hip stretches several times a week to try to regain some flexibility. While I’m tempted to force my legs into positions where they used to go easily, Magone tells me to go slowly. “Never push to the point of pain — especially in your joints. lower back, or shoulders. It’s possible to get your flexibility back, but you need to go slowly and do the stretches three times a week,” he said.

Mistake 3: Not warming up properly Under a time crunch, you may be tempted to skip some warm-up moves and go directly into a complicated posture, but that’s sure to increase your risk of injury. “It takes a full 20 minutes to warm your body up to the point where it’s safe to go into those serious poses that require a deeper level of strength, balance, and flexiblity,” said Magone. A yoga class should involve getting your heart rate up with those initial simple poses — often sun salutations that begin from a standing position — that might get you a little sweaty. (High temperatures in hot Bikram yoga classes will also loosen muscles, but you still need to do warm-up moves,

Mistake 4: Not cooling down after workouts Just like with any workout, a cool-down for about 10 to 15 minutes is vital to help your muscles recover and repair before your next workout. It will also help you avoid dizziness or fainting which can occur if too much blood pools in your legs during standing postures. Yoga classes should be designed to gradually increase to peak intensity before moving you back down to a resting energy level, said Magone. “Avoid instructors who don’t do this,” he added.

Mistake 5: Taking a yoga class to heal an injury “I don’t recommend a large class,” said Magone, “if you have chronic pain from an injury,” to your knee, back, or hip. Instructors have too many clients to focus on without modifying every posture to suit your injury needs. He recommends going to a physical therapist with specific training in yoga to get rehabilitation postures to help strengthen muscles without further aggravating the injury.

source : boston.com

Apple rise like MacBook Pro, iOS 6, Mountain Lion and More

Apple kicked off its Worldwide Developers Conference by announcing a redesigned MacBook Pro that’s nearly as thin as a MacBook Air–with a Retina display to boot. The company also announced iOS 6–the latest version of its iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad software–and some more features for Mac OS X Mountain Lion. MacBook Pro with Retina Display






The new MacBook Pro is a 15-inch laptop that measures 0.71 inches thick and weighs 4.46 pounds. The Air is still a bit thinner, due to its tapered design, but the new MacBook Pro is 25 percent thinner than previous models–thanks in part to its lack of a DVD slot.
The redesigned MacBook Pro also includes a “Retina” display–Apple’s term for when the human eye can’t distinguish individual pixels at a normal viewing distance–with a resolution of 2880-by-1800. Apple and some third-party developers have already updated their Mac OS X apps for the Retina display. Other apps will be pixel-doubled until developers update them.
Other specs for the new MacBook Pro include up to a 2.7 GHz Core i7 processor, up to 16 GB of 1600 MHz RAM, Nvidia GeForce GT 650M Kepler graphics (good enough to play Diablo III, Apple claims), up to 768 GB of flash storage and up to 7 hours of battery life, or 30 days on standby. The new design has ports for SD, HDMI, USB 3.0 on either side, two Thunderbolt ports, a headphone jack and a slimmer MagSafe charging port. The laptop also has an HD camera for FaceTime and dual microphones.
The starting price for the MacBook Pro is $2,199, and includes a 2.3 GHz quad-core i7 processor, 8 GB of RAM and 256 GB of flash storage.
MacBook Air and MacBook Pro
For Mac fans without such deep pockets, the old MacBook Pro and MacBook Air aren’t going away just yet. Apple announced some spec boosts for its other laptops, which will retain the same design as previous models.

Here are the basics on the new MacBook Air:

• Intel Ivy Bridge processors with speeds up to 2 GHz
• Up to 8 GB of RAM
• 60 percent faster graphics
• Up to 512 GB of storage
• USB 3.0 on all ports
• 720p FaceTime camera

The 11-inch and 13-inch models will start at $999  and $1,199, respectively–the same prices as before–but high-end versions will be $100 cheaper at $1,099 for the 11-inch Air and $1,499 for the 13-inch Air.

And the MacBook Pro:

• Ivy Bridge, with up to 2.7 GHz quad-core i7 processors available on the 15-inch model
• 8 GB of RAM
• 60 percent faster graphics
• USB 3.0 ports

The 13-inch model starts at $1,199, and the 15-inch model starts at $1,799–same prices as before. Apple did not announce any updates for the 17-inch MacBook Pro.

Of course, seeing as WWDC is a developers conference, much of the day’s news focused on software that app makers can take advantage of, and Apple made some big announcements for both iOS 6 and OS X.

My colleague Harry McCracken has already written extensively about OS X Mountain Lion, but Apple announced a handful of new features for the desktop  and  laptop operating system:

• A unified search and URL bar in Safari, and “iCloud Tabs,” which syncs open tabs across devices
• A faster scrolling engine for Safari, with the ability to pinch-zoom out into large thumbnail views of open tabs
• “Power Nap,” which allows Macs to fetch e-mail, calendar updates and photos, and to back up to a Time Capsule or download updates while the computer is asleep
• Airplay mirroring from a Mac to an Apple TV box
• Game Center support, with cross-platform play between OS X and iOS

Mountain Lion will launch through the Mac App Store in July for $20. Any Mac running Snow Leopard or Lion will be able to upgrade at that price.

iOS 6

The next version of Apple’s iOS software is a major update with some long-requested features, as well as a few surprises:

• Apple’s rumored homegrown Maps service arrives with iOS6, and at long last, includes turn-by-turn navigation. Maps allows users to tap on a destination, get automatic rerouting around traffic and Siri integration. Apple says it supports 100 million local listings.
• Siri will let users launch apps by voice. Some vehicles will be able to launch Siri through a steering wheel button, with support coming from GM, BMW, Honda, Jaguar and others. Siri is also coming to the new iPad.
• Facebook integration will allow users to post to the network from various apps, from the Notification center, and from Siri. Users will able to see contact info and birthdays for their Facebook friends and “Like” content in iTunes.
• For incoming calls, users will be able to reply with a text message or get a reminder to call later.
• A “Do Not Disturb” mode will prevent push notifications from making noise or turning on the screen. It can also block phone calls or only allow calls from select users.
• FaceTime is coming to cellular networks. Users will also be able to answer incoming phone calls as FaceTime chats on an iPad or Mac.
• Safari can show notifications

Source : news.m3n4.net

Apple fights Google-Microsoft-Facebook In App Race

Apple Inc. (AAPL) is releasing a fresh lineup of computers and software tools to woo consumers and keep developers making applications amid accelerating rivalry from Google Inc. (GOOG),Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) and, now, Facebook Inc.
Apple will use the Worldwide Developers Conference starting today in San Francisco to debut Mac computers with high- definition screens, as well as features for the software that powers its iPhone and iPad. Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of product marketing, will probably emcee the keynote.
Leadership in the consumer-electronics industry hinges on a company’s ability to get developers to put its products first when building the next big application, such as “Angry Birds” or “Shazam.” With more than 600,000 downloadable games, magazines and productivity tools, Apple is the application leader. Microsoft is playing catch-up before the release of its next operating system, Google will host a developers conference this month and Facebook just opened its own store.

Facebook launches its new App Store

As expected, Facebook unveiled App Center Thursday, an “App Store” for iOS and Android that features both native and web apps that utilize Facebook integration in some way. The App Center features (only) 600 apps, and Facebook will offer personalized recommendations, presumably based on its social knowledge of each user. App Center will be featured prominently in the mobile on iOS and Android, Facebook’s full dekstop site, and on Facebook’s mobile site.

Andy Rubin, rumor smasher: Not leaving Google; 900,000+ Android activations daily

Gotta love a good unfounded rumor on a slow Sunday afternoon. Or not. 

Regardless, Robert Scoble this afternoon set up a trial balloon to see what folks though about the possibility of Andy Rubin possibly leaving Google for a startup called CloudCar. Wrote Scoble on Google+

Learn about the Top 13 uses of iPhone

THE iPhone is a bit like the human brain. Only a small part of it is used at any one time. So wouldn’t it be great if there was a way to unlock all the secret hidden uses without having to scour the whole internet?
You’re in luck. News.com.au has put together 13 features of the iPhone that can enhance your digital experience and make your busy day a little easier. Step one: download Apple’s latest software for the iPhone, iO5.

The Australian dollar rises to its highest level in more than two weeks

THE Australian dollar rose to its highest level against its American counterpart in more than two weeks following better than expected domestic growth data.
At 5pm AEST, the Australian dollar was trading at 98.48 US cents, up from 97.82 cents on Tuesday.