He also chose to live in an apartment instead of the archbishop's palace, passed on a chauffeured limousine and cooked his own meals, CNN Vatican analyst John Allen wrote in a profile published by National Catholic Reporter.

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He notes that Research In Motion had already passed on using Marvell chips in the PlayBook tablet, choosing instead a Texas Instruments (TXN) part.

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The change came as Itron's research group in Paris realized it could exploit inexpensive new wireless chips and open-source software to create a so-called mesh network of electric meters that passed information among themselves, like firemen in a bucket brigade, instead of relying on expensive and less reliable individual connections to the Internet.

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