With PlayStation network, Sony goes back to the future in search of revival

TOKYO — Japan’s Sony Corp is hammering out plans to rise from the ashes of nearly $10 billion lost in six years by building a future around its last consumer electronics blockbuster – the PlayStation.

Sony plans to reposition the video console warhorse as a hub for a network of streamed services, according to three senior officials, offering social media, movies and music as well as games. The executives spoke to Reuters on condition they not be named because the matters are still in early stages of discussion.

The plans to coax more revenue from the PlayStation’s network of users are being developed by a new breed of managers brought in by Chief Executive Kazuo Hirai. Analysts say if Sony gets it right, the game and network business could earn about $1 billion in the fiscal year from April 2016 – making it the most profitable part of the company bar a financial services unit.

“Network services have been a long-running issue for Sony,” said Atsushi Osanai, associate professor at Waseda University’s business school. It’s a field Apple Inc has dominated with iTunes, while established movie and music services like Netflix Inc and Spotify are expanding fast.

“In the past there was a time when they (Sony) were all over the place and went after everything, but zeroing in first on game users is effective,” said Osanai. The company’s next progress report will come with its first-quarter earnings on July 31.

At 200 billion yen ($1.96 billion) last fiscal year, some 90 percent of it from games, Sony Entertainment Network’s revenue is small compared with the 5 trillion yen at the company’s broader electronics business. The division lost 10 billion yen last year and more losses are expected this year as it spends on servers and systems for a surge in users, but the executives – and analysts – expect it to ramp up quickly after that to double-digit margins.

The new thinking is far from Sony’s first effort to kickstart a revival. Yet the company that was once the symbol of Japan’s technology prowess has often failed in attempts to deliver innovative hits to match successes of old, like the Walkman music player.

The managers lining up Sony’s new strategy know a PlayStation network won’t fix mainstream loss-making businesses, like its TV division – “a grim electronics portfolio”, according to brokerage Jefferies. It’s also not the first time Sony has tried to develop networked content services.

But under plain-speaking Kenichiro Yoshida, a former head of Sony’s Internet services unit now leading the charge as chief financial officer since April, managers believe focusing on PlayStation to develop a network is potentially Sony’s best chance of securing a money-making springboard for revival.

“These are crucial assets that offer the greatest potential upside,” said one of the senior officials.

Game on
The network’s base of 52 million active users is dwarfed by Apple’s iTunes with over 800 million, and now just about the same size as fast-growing Netflix. But Sony Entertainment Network’s peg to a hit piece of hardware with a potentially captive audience can give the service a future edge, executives say.

Yoshida, 54, knows networks so far have been a black spot for Sony. A PlayStation security breach in 2011 was a major setback to its plans at the time for a looser network that was designed to allow a range of Sony devices to be connected.

The CFO’s message to executives is that things must change. “What’s made it tough for Sony in electronics is that we were never able to take the lead role in the networking era,” Yoshida told a gathering of about 500 managers earlier this year, according to a person who attended the meeting.

While the network plans take shape, this year Yoshida is also overseeing restructuring across the company. Sony is axing thousands of white-collar jobs, has ditched the Vaio personal computer brand, and has placed the TV business in a separate subsidiary – to fend for itself.

High-tech components such as image sensors and batteries for smartphones, and next-generation consumer gadgets such as wearables, have been identified by Sony managers as key potential areas of hardware growth.

“Game and network services are a core part of Sony’s electronics and we are currently strengthening our network services by expanding sales of the PlayStation 4 in a bid to raise revenue,” said Mami Imada, Sony’s general manager of public relations, asked to comment on future strategy for this article.

The latest iteration of the now 20-year-old console has outsold rivals easily, attracting committed gamers rather than the casual game playing audience that is migrating to smartphones and other mobile devices.

Even as Sony plans to extend the PlayStation’s role, games are still driving the network services division forward, accounting for 90 percent of revenue. From July 31, Sony is launching a streaming game service, PS Now, the first ever for a console game maker, in the United States.

Sony has sold 8.7 million PlayStation 4s against 5 million Microsoft Corp Xbox Ones as of July 19, according to market research firm VGChartz. Nintendo Ltd’s Wii U console, released a year earlier than its rivals, also trails with sales of 6.7 million.

source: interaksyon.com

Cellphone unlocking bill clears US House, heads to Obama

WASHINGTON — The U.S. House of Representatives approved legislation on Friday to give mobile-phone users the right to ‘unlock’ their devices and use them on competitors’ wireless networks, something that is now technically illegal.

The legislation cleared the Senate last week. President Barack Obama said in a statement that he looked forward to signing the bill into law.

“The bill congress passed today is another step toward giving ordinary Americans more flexibility and choice, so that they can find a cell phone carrier that meets their needs and their budget,” Obama said.

The lawmaking follows a 2012 ruling by the Library of Congress, the minder of U.S. copyright law, that effectively made phone unlocking illegal, even after the consumer completed the contract with its wireless carrier.

U.S. wireless carriers often tether, or “lock,” smartphones to their networks to encourage consumers to renew mobile contracts. Consumers, for their part, can often buy new devices at a heavily subsidized price in return for committing to long-term contracts with a single carrier.

In December, major wireless carriers – including Verizon Wireless, AT&T Inc, Sprint Corp and T-Mobile US Inc – struck a voluntary agreement with the Federal Communications Commission to make it easier for consumers to unlock their phones after contracts expire.

Under current law, someone who unlocks their phone without permission could face legal ramifications, including jail.

New legislation, welcomed by consumer advocates, reinstates the exemption given to mobile phones in the copyright law before the controversial 2012 ruling by the Library of Congress and calls on the officials there to reconsider the issue during its next round of reviews in 2015, potentially expanding the exemption to tablets and other devices.

“Today’s action by the House moves us closer to alleviating any confusion stemming from the Copyright Office’s 2012 decision,” Jot Carpenter, vice president of government affairs at the wireless association CTIA, said in a statement.

source: interaksyon.com

JD.com to sell Microsoft’s Xbox One games console in China

BEIJING — JD.com Inc, China’s second-biggest e-commerce company by market share, will accept pre-orders for Microsoft Corp’s Xbox One games console in China from July 28 to July 30, the firm said on Monday.

The pre-orders will be taken via Tencent Holdings’ mobile social networks Mobile QQ and WeChat, known as Weixin in China, JD.com said in a statement. Tencent holds a 17.6 percent stake in JD.com.

The Xbox One will be the first gaming console to be released in mainland China since the government banned console sales in 2000, citing games’ effects on mental health.

On Friday, China Telecom, the country’s smallest wireless carrier, said it would sell the Xbox One when released in September.

In September last year, Microsoft reached a deal with Chinese internet TV set-top box maker BesTV New Media Co Ltd to form a joint venture to manufacture the consoles in Shanghai’s Free Trade Zone.

Released in November, the Xbox One has trailed in sales to Sony Corp’s PlayStation 4, launched around the same time.

source: interaksyon.com

Smartphone app helps non-Arabic speaking Muslims read the Qur’an

A smartphone application translates the Qur’an (Koran) from Arabic to Bahasa Indonesia by scanning through codes at the bottom of each line, a technology that aims to encourage a younger generation of non-Arabic speakers to become more familiar with Islam’s holy book. Reuters Jim Drury has more.


It’s the Islamic month of Ramadan and millions of Muslims are spending their time in prayer and reflection. But in Indonesia – the world’s most populous Islamic nation – some Muslims struggle to read in Arabic.

So inventor Syarief Niskala created this smart phone app that allows non-Arabic speaking Muslims to read the Koran.

“We don’t need to translate, nor go to the library. We can learn anywhere from a gadget that we carry everywhere. As I learned from the research, the gadget that is closest to us is a smart phone….Based on that I invented this application for smart phones which we always have close, so can always be read and heard.” ‘Smartquran’ application inventer Syarief Niskala said in Bahasa.

The app is used in conjunction with a specially printed Qur’an, costing 17 dollars, that contains a series of QR codes. Once registered, users scan their phone over codes positioned on each page. Bahasa Indonesia translations appear in seconds.

Commentary from Qur’an experts and verse-by-verse histories are also offered. Perhaps predictably, opinion was split along age lines in this Jakarta mosque.

“There are comments on the verses and translations too, all features that make it easy for us to learn and understand,” Worshipper Riska Suci Utari said in Bahasa

“Although our era is now advanced technologically, older people like me who cannot understand how to use these applications and gadgets, find it easier to read or recite with a real Koran,” worshipper Fadli said also in Bahasa.

But with millions of smart phone users in Indonesia, Niskala believes his app can help a new generation of Muslims stay in touch with their religion.

source: interaksyon.com

Amazon’s ‘Fire’ smartphone contains chips from Qualcomm, Samsung, NXP

Dismantling a just-delivered Fire handset, iFixit said on its blog on Thursday that it discovered radio frequency, power amplifier, audio and WiFi chips also from U.S. chipmaker Qualcomm. (iFixit: bit.ly/1nlJlUv)SAN FRANCISCO — Amazon.com Inc’s new “Fire” smartphone contains chips from Qualcomm Inc, NXP Semiconductors NV, and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, according to repair and teardown specialists iFixit, which pried one open on Thursday.

The Fire phone also houses chips from Synaptics Inc and Skyworks Solutions Inc, said the repair outfit, which made a name for itself taking apart devices like Apple Inc’s iPhone and identifying its internal components.

Amazon’s maiden smartphone, which includes four cameras that track a user’s head movements to enable special screen effects, ships this week to customers in the United States and is powered by a Qualcomm quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor.

The $600-plus device thrusts Amazon into a fiercely competitive smartphone market dominated by Apple and devices running Google Inc’s Android software.

It also feeds into Amazon’s core retail business. It touts a “Firefly” feature that can recognize objects and direct users to the same item on Amazon’s online store.

Apart from the quartet of head-tracking cameras, the phone also includes a 13-megapixel rear-facing camera and a 2.1-megapixel front-facing camera.

The device opened by iFixit included 32 gigabytes of NAND memory chips made by Samsung for storing pictures, music and other media. The phone, which has a 4.7 inch LCD display, included 2 gigabytes of DRAM memory from Samsung.

Manufacturers of mobile hardware often employ more than one supplier for memory chips and other components in their devices.

The handset included a near field communication chip, enabling features such as mobile payments, from NXP, according to iFixit.

The Fire smartphone also employs a touchscreen controller from Synaptics, and a communications chip from Skyworks.

The “Fire” is priced at $649 contract-free or $199.99 with a contract with AT&T Inc – in the same neighborhood as the iPhone. The price is a departure from the e-commerce company’s strategy of pricing Kindle Fire tablets at near-cost to sell its other products and services. It has specifications similar to high- and mid-range smartphones and runs on a modified version of Google’s Android operating system.

source: interaksyon.com

ScarJo’s brain power outwits Asian mobsters in sci-fi thriller ‘Lucy’

NEW YORK | Gun-toting thugs and a vicious Asian mob boss are no match for the brawn and brain of French director Luc Besson’s super-powered heroine in his sci-fi, action thriller “Lucy.”

Besson is known for creating strong female characters in “La Femme Nikita” and “The Fifth Element.” But he goes a step further in “Lucy,” which opens in theaters in the United States on Friday, with an American student in Taipei who becomes invincible after the full power of her brain is unleashed.

Scarlett Johansson (“The Avengers”) is Lucy, a woman tricked by a boyfriend into delivering a suitcase and becomes one of several unwilling drug mules dispatched around the globe by Asian mobsters.

After a brutal beating, the powerful synthetic compound implanted in her stomach seeps into her body and gradually lets her access more and more of her brain power.

“I think it is such an interesting imagination Luc has going on there,” said Oscar-winning actor Morgan Freeman (“Million Dollar Baby”), who as Paris-based neurologist Professor Norman helps Lucy cope with the startling changes in her mind and body.

Norman has been studying the brain for most of his life, researching what would happen if humans could use more than just 10 or 20 percent of it.

“We always think and hear terms like, ‘We only use 10 percent of our brains’ but did anyone ever imagine what it would be like if you could use more? So here comes Luc imaging what could happen if you could use more,” Freeman added.

Writer/director Besson, who won France’s Cesar award in 1998 for “The Fifth Element,” had been toying with the idea of making a film about a person with super-human intelligence for a decade. But he felt he needed to find the right balance between reality and science fiction.

With stunning visual effects Besson shows how Lucy’s senses are heightened and how she develops super-human powers and the ability to control matter. As her intelligence increases, her ability to feel emotions, empathy and pain diminish, making her a proficient assassin.

While the impact of the drug grows, Lucy travels to Paris and enlists the help of French police Capt. Pierre Del Rio, played by Egyptian actor Amr Waked (Syriana), to intercept the other drug mules.

With the Asian mobsters led by Mr. Jang, played by Korean actor Choi Min Sik, in hot pursuit Lucy leaves a trail of destruction as she takes Del Rio on a white-knuckle car chase through the streets of central Paris and a crowded flea market.

While Lucy tries to channel her intelligence with the help of Norman, French police take on the Asian mob in a gun battle at the Sorbonne.

“With Luc Besson you have a knock-down, drag-out action film but then you have one that also makes you feel and think,” said Freeman. “It gives a little spark to your imagination to say ‘What if? What would I do? How would it be?’”

source: interaksyon.com

Facebook goes express to mega-cap status — now valued more than AT&T, Coke

NEW YORK — In the days after its infamously mishandled initial public offering in May 2012, it looked as if Facebook would struggle to become a must-own for fund managers.

Now the company’s $190 billion market value makes it bigger than such bellwethers as Coca-Cola and AT&T. It’s not a member of the Dow industrials, but if it were, it would be larger than two-thirds of that index’s 30 members.

Shares of the world’s No. 1 social network touched a record high of $76.74 on Thursday after earnings and revenues easily topped analysts’ forecasts, boosting its market value to nearly $194 billion. That ranks it 15th in the Standard & Poor’s 500 benchmark index, just below the $196 billion market cap of International Business Machines Corp.

“A 100-year-old company with real assets versus a company admittedly with virtual assets and they are trading at the same market cap – crazy,” said Kim Forrest, senior equity research analyst at Fort Pitt Capital Group in Pittsburgh.

The speed of Facebook’s rise to mega-cap status is what’s notable. It took Apple Inc nearly three decades to achieve such a market value; Google Inc needed five years.

Facebook has only been public for a little more than two years, and only joined the S&P 500 seven months ago. Since S&P Dow Jones Indices announced the addition on Dec. 11, Facebook shares have risen 54 percent.

The gains represent a reversal of fortune for the social media company. After a botched IPO that infuriated investors in May 2012, the stock slumped, underperforming for 15 months before finally eclipsing its offering price of $38 in August 2013. Since then, Facebook shares have been unstoppable, doubling in less than a year.

“People understand the world is moving to mobile, and when you look at the time spent on mobile, Facebook has the lion’s share,” said Walter Price, senior portfolio manager and managing director of the AllianzGI Global Technology fund, which owned more than a million shares as of June 30.

The firm has leveraged its position by selling put options, or negative bets on the stock, and buying more call options, or bets on the shares rising further. “This is a momentum stock you can put a P/E on,” Price said.

Facebook’s rally has left e-commerce giant Amazon Inc in the dust. That company’s value peaked around $187 billion in January, but closed Thursday at $165 billion. Amazon reported disappointing results afterwards, which dragged down its stock by 7 percent, valuing the company around $153 billion.

Facebook’s market cap is still dwarfed by the roughly $403 billion in combined market cap for the two classes of Google shares, arguably the most similar in terms of revenue generation. However, Facebook tops The Coca-Cola Co by about $15 billion and Disney by more than $40 billion.

Shot, quick trip

Apple, the S&P 500′s most valuable company, needed nearly three decades before its market value finally rose to more than $190 billion, surpassing that level in late December 2009.

Google’s move was swifter. The company went public in August 2004, and posted a closing market value of more than $190 billion for the first time in October 2007, right around the S&P’s peak before the financial crisis.

That’s not to say there aren’t detractors. StarMine, a Thomson Reuters company, sees Facebook as more overvalued than 95 percent of the companies in its stock universe. Using expected growth rates over the next decade, StarMine puts an intrinsic value of $29 on the stock. It has a high price-to-earnings ratio of 42, more overvalued than 90 percent of the stocks StarMine tracks.

However, the stock’s relentless march has left few willing to stand in its way. Investors betting on the stock falling have dried up. In August 2012, more than 80 percent of shares available for short bets were being borrowed by investors expecting the stock to drop, according to Markit. Now, just 0.4 percent of shares available are being used for short bets.

Of the 43 analysts with recommendations on the stock, 37 are “strong buy” or “buy” ratings, with six “hold” ratings.

“If you were looking to short names that were ridiculously overvalued and people were not even thinking the growth was going to continue, I wouldn’t put Facebook in that category,” said Stephen Massocca, managing director at Wedbush Equity Management LLC in San Francisco.

“That being said, do I buy Facebook here? From my perspective, I am a value investor – I wouldn’t get anywhere near it with a 10-foot pole.”

That acceptance of Facebook’s legitimacy as a successful and viable company makes the comparison to the classic names that now surround it on the market cap list more palatable.

“In some respects, Facebook speaks to a demographic shift in the way retailing, social media and virtually every other component of people’s lives is being bundled,” said Peter Kenny, chief market strategist at Clearpool Group in New York.

“Investors are starting to see the brilliance of this platform in ways that haven’t to date really captured the imagination of many.”

source: interaksyon.com

232 teeth pulled from Indian teenager

MUMBAI -- Surgeons in Mumbai have removed 232 teeth from the mouth of an Indian teenager in what they believe may be a world-record operation, the hospital said Thursday.

Ashik Gavai, 17, sought medical help for a swelling on the right side of his lower jaw and the case was referred to the city's JJ Hospital, where they found he was suffering from a condition known as complex odontoma, head of dentistry Sunanda Dhivare-Palwankar told AFP.

"We operated on Monday and it took us almost seven hours. We thought it may be a simple surgery but once we opened it there were multiple pearl-like teeth inside the jaw bone," she said.

After removing those they also found a larger "marble-like" structure which they struggled to shift and eventually had to "chisel out" and remove in fragments, she added.

The youngster's father, Suresh Gavai, said that the family had been worried that Ashik's swelling was a cancerous growth.

"I was worried that it may turn out to be cancer so I brought him to Mumbai," Gavai told the Mumbai Mirror newspaper.

Dhivare-Palwankar said the literature they had come across on the condition showed a maximum of 37 teeth being removed in such a procedure, whereas she and her team had counted more than 232 taken from Gavai's mouth.

"I think it could be a world record," she said.

Gavai's jawbone structure was maintained during the operation so it should heal without any deformities, the surgeon added.

source: interaksyon.com

Flaws could expose users of privacy-protecting software, researchers say

SAN FRANCISCO — Researchers have found a flaw that could expose the identities of people using a privacy-oriented operating system touted by Edward Snowden, just two days after widely used anonymity service Tor acknowledged a similar problem.

The most recent finding concerns a complex, heavily encrypted networking program called the Invisible Internet Project, or I2P. Used to send messages and run websites anonymously, I2P ships along with the specialized operating system “Tails,” which former U.S. spy contractor Snowden used to communicate with journalists in secret.

Though a core purpose of I2P is to obscure the Internet Protocol addresses of its roughly 30,000 users, anyone who visits a booby-trapped website could have their true address revealed, making it likely that their name could be exposed as well, according to researchers at Exodus Intelligence.

“People shouldn’t trust something wholeheartedly just because Snowden says,” Exodus Vice President Aaron Portnoy told Reuters. “Generally, we assume the things we can find, others can find.”

Tails launches from a DVD or USB stick and is designed to maintain privacy even when a computer or network has been hacked.

Much more than I2P, Tails relies on Tor, the better-known anonymity system that it uses for all software connections to the Internet. But leaks in the past year have shown that Tor is also a major target for the U.S. National Security Agency and others, and researchers at Carnegie Mellon University said they could have identified hundreds of thousands of Tor users.

Those researchers planned to detail their technique next month at the security conference Black Hat. After Tor developers complained to Carnegie Mellon, the university told Black Hat to cancel the talk.

Tor programmer Roger Dingledine conceded that the researchers had found a flaw, and he said his team was now working to fix it before any public disclosure exposes dissidents and other types of users on Tor to greater risk of attack.

The I2P flaw will likewise be fixed, in what a spokesman for the I2P project called the “near future.” In the meantime, he said, users should disable the programming language JavaScript.

Tails did not respond to an email seeking comment. It was not clear how many Tails users would be vulnerable, since the I2P application does not launch automatically when the operating system is opened. The I2P spokesman said a user would have to have chosen to run I2P to be vulnerable.

Exodus is one of a dozen or more companies known to sell secret security flaws to intelligence agencies, law enforcement and other customers in a controversial marketplace.

No system is failsafe

But in this case, Exodus alerted I2P and Tails to the problem and said it would not divulge the details to customers until the problem has been fixed. Portnoy declined to say what the company would do if a government client asked him to find a similar flaw in the future.

The Tails and Tor episodes show that no anonymity system is failsafe, Portnoy said, and those in jeopardy should focus on compartmentalizing their efforts so that a single breach would not expose everything about them.

“Tor works for most purposes, but a determined adversary will always find a way,” he said.

In one such high-stakes case, the FBI used a flaw in a Firefox Web browser that came bundled with Tor to identify a man suspected of hosting child pornography, according to Irish media reports.

Leaked NSA documents show that the NSA logged the IP addresses of many Tor users and may have scanned emails for users living outside of the United States and its four closest intelligence allies, German media reported this month.

source: interaksyon.com

TransAsia Airways plane crashes in typhoon-hit Taiwan, killing 47

TAIPEI - A domestic TransAsia Airways plane crashed on landing on an island off the west coast of typhoon-hit Taiwan on Wednesday, killing 47 people, the Civil Aeronautics Administration said.

The plane, a 70-seat turboprop ATR 72, crashed near the runway with 54 passengers and four crew on board, it said.

"It’s chaotic on the scene," CAA director Jean Shen told Reuters.

Eleven injured people had been taken to hospital, the government said.

Authorities said TransAsia Airways flight GE222 crashed near Magong airport on one of the outlying Penghu islands, also known as the Pescadores, after having requested a second attempt to land.

Television images showed firefighters working at site of the mangled wreckage and soldiers on the scene.

There were conflicting reports of the death toll from officials and local media.

"Fifty-one people are feared dead and seven people injured," the Civil Aeronautics Administration's Shen Chi initially told reporters.

The island's local fire chief put the death toll at 45 while media reports said 47 were killed.

"The control tower lost contact with the aircraft soon after they requested a go-around (second attempt to land)," Shen told reporters.

It was flying from Kaohsiung and had been delayed due to bad weather, according to Shen.

Typhoon Matmo slammed into Taiwan on Wednesday with heavy rains and strong winds, shutting financial markets and schools, and leaving at least nine people injured.

TransAsia Airways is a Taiwan-based airline with a fleet of around 23 Airbus and ATR aircraft, flying chiefly on domestic routes, but with some flights to Japan, Thailand and Cambodia among its Asian destinations.

Apart from Wednesday's event, Taiwan's aviation safety council says TransAsia has had a total of 8 incidents since 2002, including 6 involving the ATR 72.

source: interaksyon.com

Palestinian decision-making body backs Hamas truce demands in Gaza

GAZA/JERUSALEM  -- The Palestinian decision-making body led by US-backed President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday endorsed demands by Hamas for halting Gaza hostilities with Israel, a closing of ranks that may help Egyptian-mediated truce efforts.

With Israeli and US encouragement, Egypt has tried to get both sides to hold fire and then negotiate terms for protracted calm in the Palestinian enclave where officials said 624 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in 15 days of fighting.

Hamas, the Gaza Strip's dominant Islamists, and other armed factions had baulked at Cairo's offer, saying they wanted assurances of relief from an Israeli-Egyptian blockade and other concessions. The dispute was further complicated by distrust between Egypt under President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Hamas.

In a move that could effectively turn Abbas into the main interlocutor for a Gaza truce, his umbrella Palestine Liberation Organization on Wednesday formally supported core conditions set by the Hamas-led fighters.

"The Gaza demands of stopping the aggression and lifting the blockade in all its forms are the demands of the entire Palestinian people and they represent the goal that the Palestinian leadership has dedicated all its power to achieve," senior PLO official Yasser Abed Rabbo said in Ramallah, the hub city in the Israeli-occupied West Bank where Abbas is based.

"We are confident Gaza will not be broken as long as our people are standing beside it to support it through all possible means until the invaders understand that our great people inside the homeland and outside will not leave Gaza alone."

Signaling that Abbas, too, sought a staggered cessation of hostilities, the Palestinian leader's Fatah faction on Tuesday proposed a truce followed by five days of negotiations on terms.

There was no immediate response to the PLO statement from Hamas or Israel, which pressed the Gaza offensive it began on July 8 after a surge of cross-border rocket salvoes.

Mounting toll

Israel has lost 29 soldiers in the Gaza clashes, including a tank officer who the army said on Wednesday had been killed by a Palestinian sniper overnight. Two Israeli civilians have been killed by shelling by Palestinian fighters that has reached deep into the Jewish state, spreading panic despite the success of its Iron Dome rocket interceptor and civilian shelters.

Three Palestinians died in Israeli strikes on Wednesday, Gaza officials said. Rocket launches set off air-raid sirens in southern Israel, but there was no word of casualties.

There was also violence in the West Bank, where a Palestinian was shot dead by Israeli troops near Bethlehem. The army said soldiers fired a rubber bullet at him during a confrontation with dozens of Palestinians hurling rocks and Molotov cocktails.

Egyptian sources, speaking on Tuesday as US Secretary of State John Kerry visited Cairo to advance truce efforts, said a unified Palestinian position could help achieve a deal.

Unlike Hamas, which refuses permanent coexistence with the Jewish state, the PLO has pursued peacemaking for two decades.

Those efforts were set back in April when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called off US-sponsored peace negotiations over Abbas's surprise power-share deal with Hamas.

Yet Netanyahu stopped short of cutting ties with Abbas, whose forces help secure the West Bank, and foreign mediators continue to see the Palestinian leader as someone the Israelis can negotiate with.

Having unilaterally accepted an Egyptian-proposed truce last week that was rejected by Hamas, the Israelis made clear on Tuesday they would not stand down before their forces destroyed Hamas's military infrastructure, including rocket sites and a network of tunnels used for cross-border Palestinian raids.

"A ceasefire is not near," said Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, the most dovish member of Netanyahu's security cabinet.

Yet Israel faced mounting international alarm at the toll on Palestinian civilians, as well as economic pressure from lost tourism that soared on Tuesday when the US Federal Aviation Administration took the rare step of banning flights to Tel Aviv's Ben-Gurion International Airport for at least 24 hours after a rocket from Gaza struck nearby, wounding two people.

European airlines also canceled flights to Israel, whose own carriers continued to operate.

An Israeli official said Netanyahu asked Kerry to help restore the US flights. A US official said the Obama administration would not "overrule the FAA" on a security precaution but noted the ban would be reviewed after 24 hours.

Focus on Hamas

Following meetings in Egypt, which has some leverage over Hamas through its control of its border with Gaza, Kerry said on Tuesday there was still "work to do" to resolve the conflict and urged the Palestinian Islamists to pursue negotiations.

Because Washington, like Israel and the European Union, deems Hamas a terrorist group, they have no direct contact and Washington must rely on proxies such as Egypt, Qatar and Turkey.

In a sign of the intensity of the US diplomacy, Kerry spoke to Netanyahu and to Qatari and Turkish foreign ministers after meeting Sisi for two hours, a senior US official said.

"The Egyptians have provided a framework and a forum for them to be able to come to the table to have a serious discussion together with other factions of the Palestinians," Kerry said. "Hamas has a fundamental choice to make and it is a choice that will have a profound impact for the people of Gaza."

Angered by an Israeli crackdown on its supporters in the West Bank and by Gaza's hardship under blockade, Hamas has said it is willing to continue fighting. In addition to freeing up Gaza's borders, Hamas wants a prisoner release by Israel.

The Egyptian plan does not specify a timeline for easing the blockade, saying "crossings shall be opened and the passage of persons and goods through border crossings shall be facilitated once the security situation becomes stable on the ground".

US officials view Qatar, a tiny, gas-rich Gulf state that has supported Hamas financially and hosts some of the militant group's senior leaders, as important to the diplomacy.

In contrast, the Egyptian government is deeply suspicious of Hamas as it is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood movement toppled from power in Cairo by then-army chief Sisi last year.

Israel is openly opposed to giving Qatar or Turkey leading roles in mediation, given its troubled ties with both countries.

The upcoming Eid al-Fitr festival -- Islam's biggest annual celebration that follows the end of the fasting month of Ramadan this weekend -- could provide all sides with a convenient moment to agree to a cease-fire.

Asked about Eid, a senior Obama administration official said: "It's a potential opportunity. We want there to be a cease-fire as soon as possible basically, and insofar as that’s a marker that can compel Hamas to the table that would be a good thing, but the bottom line is they’re going to have to stop firing rockets."

source: interaksyon.com

China’s Xiaomi announces latest flagship Mi 4 smartphone

BEIJING — China’s Xiaomi unveiled on Tuesday its new flagship Mi 4 smartphone, aimed squarely at the premium handset market dominated by Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd.

The Mi 4 has a 5 inch, 1080p screen and a Qualcomm Inc Snapdragon 801 2.5 Ghz processor, said Chief Executive Lei Jun at a launch event in Beijing.

But sheathed in iPhone-like metal sides, the Mi 4′s similarities to Apple’s smartphone drew murmurs from the crowd of ‘iPhone’ when showcased by Lei.

Founded in 2010 by Lei, Xiaomi seeks to cut costs by eschewing brick-and-mortar stores in favor of web-based distribution and word-of-mouth marketing.

Xiaomi became the world’s sixth-largest smartphone vendor in the first quarter of 2014, according to data firm Canalys, after repeatedly doubling its sales. The company was valued at $10 billion last year.

Xiaomi sold 18.7 mln smartphones in 2013 and on Tuesday maintained a 60 million sales target for 2014. For comparison, Huawei Technologies Co Ltd [HWT.UL] has said it is targeting 80 million smartphone sales for the year.

The latest phone was unveiled at a glitzy launch event at the National Convention Center in Beijing, where Lei Jun and Vice President Hugo Barra – a former Google executive – posed for photos with a winding queue of fans decked in Xiaomi-branded red T-shirts.

Barra told Reuters in an interview this month that the company was actively targeting the Indian market.

source: interaksyon.com

Abbott to Putin: back up MH17 assurances with action

SYDNEY - Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott Monday hit out at the "shambolic" situation at the MH17 crash site as he demanded Russian President Vladimir Putin back up assurances with action.

"As anyone who has been watching the footage will know, this is still an absolutely shambolic situation," he said.

"The site is being treated more like a garden clean-up than a forensic investigation."

Abbott and Putin spoke by telephone overnight in their first conversation since the Malaysia Airlines plane, carrying 298 people, crashed in eastern Ukraine on Thursday, apparently shot down by pro-Russian rebels with a surface-to-air missile.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, British counterpart David Cameron and French President Francois Hollande also piled pressure on Putin over the weekend in phone calls.

While Abbott would not divulge details of what was discussed, he said the onus was now on Moscow to act, using its influence with pro-Russian separatists to ensure experts can access the site of the crash.

"To President Putin's credit he did say all the right things. I want to stress what he said was fine," Abbott told a press conference.

"The challenge now is to hold the president to his word. That is certainly my intention, and it should be the intention of the family of nations to hold the president to his word."

Rutte talked with Putin on Sunday, with the Russian leader promising to help retrieve bodies and black boxes, a spokeswoman for Dutch government press service RVD told AFP.

Abbott has been particularly vocal among world leaders in his outrage at Russia's perceived lack of cooperation in the investigation into the disaster.

He has branded the plane's downing "a crime", and accused Moscow of trying to wash its hands of the tragedy while failing to properly secure the crash site.

Moscow denies any involvement in the disaster.

Twenty-eight Australian nationals and nine residents were among the 298 people from a dozen countries on board who died.

Abbott said every day that went by the bodies were deteriorating and the crash site was being further contaminated.

He added that his key goals were "to retrieve the bodies, we want to investigate the site, and we want to punish the guilty. That's what we want to do".

source: interaksyon.com

Alonso looks for love in cold climate

HOCKENHEIM — Fernando Alonso is hoping that the sizzling heatwave in central Europe is replaced by cooler conditions on Sunday to give his Ferrari team renewed hope at the German Grand Prix.

A break in the weather with storms followed by a cooler spell is needed if the Italians are to shine in Sunday’s 67-lap race, he suggested after qualifying only seventh on Saturday.

Alonso has won three times at Hockenheim, including his last victory with Ferrari two years ago.

“Cooler temperatures this year seem to have an effect on us being a little bit more competitive. We have a lot of tyre degradation, especially at the rear, because we spin the tyres with the lack of down force.

“When it’s hot this effect is a little bit bigger. I think in qualifying with the new tyres you mask some of the problems with the grip of the tyres.

“So I expect tomorrow to be a little bit tougher than the performance we showed today.”

On Saturday, when the air temperature rose to 34 degrees Celsius and track to 55 degrees, Nico Rosberg claimed a dominant pole position for Mercedes.

source: interaksyon.com

Malaysia Airlines to refund cancellations after MH17

KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysia Airlines said it would offer full refunds to customers who want to cancel their tickets in the wake of the MH17 disaster, just months after the carrier suffered another blow when flight MH370 disappeared.

Passengers can change or cancel their tickets without financial penalty until Thursday for travel throughout the rest of the year, the struggling national airline said.

"In light of the MH17 incident, Malaysia Airlines will be waiving any change fees for passengers who wish to make changes to their itinerary to any MH destinations," it said in a statement.

"Passengers who wish to postpone or cancel their travel plans can obtain a refund, including for non refundable tickets."

A spokeswoman Sunday confirmed Malaysia Airlines would refund cancelled tickets in full, with the costs borne by the carrier.

She said she could not reveal how many customers had already taken up the offer.

Flight MH17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur is believed to have been shot out of the sky by a surface-to-air missile, crashing in strife-torn eastern Ukraine Thursday with 298 people from a dozen countries on board.

The disaster came four months after the disappearance of Flight MH370, which lost contact with air controllers on March 8 while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board.

The plane is believed to have mysteriously gone off course and crashed into the southern Indian Ocean, but an extensive search has so far found no sign of the wreckage.

Both planes were Boeing 777-200s.

Malaysia Airlines said in May that MH370's disappearance had a "dramatic impact" on its first-quarter results, with cancelled bookings helping push the company to a loss of 443 million ringgit ($140 million).

State fund Khazanah Nasional, which holds the airline's purse strings, said in June it would announce a plan to revive the carrier within six to 12 months.

Malaysia Airlines had already raked in losses amounting to $1.3 billion over the previous three years.

source: interaksyon.com

Single-message app ‘Yo’ is what’s up with investors

SAN FRANCISCO — A messaging app that allows users to send the word “Yo” to friends has discovered newfound fame and fortune.

San Francisco-based startup Yo, which got its start in Tel Aviv and moved to California after becoming a hit in Israel, boasted new backers on Friday as reports estimated its value as high as $10 million.

Yo raised $1.5 million in an initial round of funding that included backing from Betaworks and Mashable founder Pete Cashmore, according to co-founder and chief executive Or Arbel.

“The value of this round goes far beyond the dollar amount that we received,” Arbel said in a release.

“Bringing such incredibly smart, talented, and experienced people into the Yo team at this stage is an incredible advantage that will allow us to accelerate the growth and provide more and better value to our users.”

Betaworks explained in an online post that it was pumping cash into Yo due, in part, to a fascination with the potential of simple tools for single word smartphone notifications such as “yes” or “no.”

The Yo app has been woven into communications at Betaworks, according to founder and chief executive John Borthwick.

“We Yo with co-workers alerting them that a meeting is starting; I Yo with my wife as a ‘hi’ during a busy day,” Borthwick said in an online post announcing the investment.

“I Yo with friends, without any more expectation or need than a Yo back.”

US media reports indicated that backers included founders of China-based Tencent, but Yo did not disclose the entire list of investors.

The app lets users say “Yo” to their friends, sending them a text notification accompanied by a recorded voice shouting the greeting. Arbel has insisted the deceptively simple app has a lot of potential.

“People think it’s just an app that says ‘Yo.’ But it’s really not,” Arbel told The New York Times.

“We like to call it context-based messaging. You understand by the context what is being said.”

Convinced his app has big prospects in line, he left his job as chief technology officer of stock trading platform Stox, which he helped launch last year, and moved from Tel Aviv to San Francisco to focus on Yo.

Arbel said the app could allow newspapers and blogs to notify subscribers that a new article has been published or posted, using a Yo.

Yo took advantage of World Cup frenzy by letting users sign up to get Yo notifications when goals were scored.

Reviews on Apple’s App Store were positive, but some veered into sarcasm.

“Yo cured my cancer! Yo ended world hunger, Yo also helped me find the women of my dreams because when I yo’d her for the first time she asked me if I wanted to mate and produce spawns, yo is the reason I live and the reason I wake up in the morning,” read a review featured along with a description at the App Store on Friday.

Applications available free for iOS or Android powered devices have reportedly been downloaded more than two million times and is used to fire off “yo” a similar number of times daily.

“Yo has been pushing forward at a rapid pace, focusing both on user acquisition and developing an API for businesses, brands, and other apps,” Arbel said.

source: interaksyon.com

One Direction singer’s takeover of football club flops

LONDON | One Direction’s Louis Tomlinson has seen his dreams of buying his hometown soccer club Doncaster Rovers thwarted after a fund raising effort fell short of its two million pound ($3.4 million) target.

Singer Tomlinson, who played for Doncaster’s reserve team earlier this year, had planned to take over the League One (third tier) club with former owner John Ryan.

The pair had set up a crowdfunding scheme to support the plan but that initiative had raised less than 40 percent of its target on Friday despite the Tomlinson Ryan Trust putting in a “six figure sum” to get the ball rolling. 


Tomlinson said on his Twitter feed that he was “absolutely gutted” that the deal was not going ahead to buy a team he has grown up supporting.

Ryan blamed the Football League for blocking the deal.

“They have made it so difficult now that unless you have a bag full of cash you are going to get turned down,” he told BBC radio.

The League said it had a duty to ensure that clubs were financially stable.

“In any club takeover it is a requirement for the prospective purchaser to provide a business plan and to demonstrate that the funding is in place to deliver on that plan,” it said in a statement.

“In this case, this fundamental requirement has not yet been met.”

Tomlinson, 22, is one of five members of boy band One Direction, a group assembled on British talent show “The X Factor” in 2010.

One Direction was the first group in the history of the U.S. Billboard Top 200 chart to debut at No. 1 with its first three albums.

source: interaksyon.com

MH17 downing a 'wake-up call' for Europe over Ukraine conflict - Obama

HRABOVE, Ukraine/WASHINGTON - U.S. President Barack Obama  said the downing of a Malaysian jetliner in a Ukrainian region controlled by Russian-backed separatists should be a "wake-up call for Europe and the world" in a crisis that appears to be at a turning point and warned Russia of possible tightening of sanctions.

While stopping short of blaming Russia for Thursday's crash of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17, in which 298 people died, Obama accused Moscow of failing to stop the violence that made it possible to shoot down the plane.

The United States has said the jetliner was hit by a surface-to-air missile fired from rebel territory.

A senior U.S. official said there was increasing confidence that the missile was fired by separatists and that there was no reason to doubt the validity of a widely circulated audiotape in which voices identified as separatists discussed the downing of the plane.

"This certainly will be a wake-up call for Europe and the world that there are consequences to an escalating conflict in eastern Ukraine; that it is not going to be localized, it is not going to be contained," Obama told reporters on Friday.

Obama spoke by phone later with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, British Prime Minister David Cameron and Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott. The White House said they discussed Ukraine and the downed jet and the need for an unimpeded international investigation into what happened.

Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said on Saturday he would fly to the Ukraine capital of Kiev to ensure an investigating team gets safe access to the site.

Defense Minister and former transport minister Hishammuddin Hussein said a main priority was to ensure debris was not tampered with. "We want to get to the bottom of this," he added, saying that Malaysia had been in touch with officials in Russia, Ukraine, the United States, Britain and China.

"We do not have a position until the facts have been verified, whether the plane was really brought down, how it was brought down, who brought it down," he said.

Chinese President Xi Jinping called for a fair and objective investigation as soon as possible.

International observers said gunmen stopped them examining the site properly when they got there on Friday. More than half of the victims were Dutch in what has become a pivotal incident in deteriorating relations between Russia and the West.

Obama ruled out military intervention but said he was prepared to tighten sanctions.

Russia, which Obama said was letting the rebels bring in weapons, has expressed anger at implications it was to blame, saying people should not prejudge the outcome of an inquiry.

There were no survivors from Flight MH17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, a Boeing a 777. The  United Nations said 80 of the 298 aboard were children. The deadliest attack on a commercial airliner, it scattered bodies over miles of rebel-held territory near the border with Russia.

The loss was the second devastating blow for Malaysia Airlines the country this year, following the disappearance of Flight MH370 in March with 239 passengers and crew on board on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

Makeshift white flags marked where bodies lay in corn fields and among the debris. Others, stripped bare by the force of the crash, had been covered by polythene sheeting weighed down by stones, one marked with a flower in remembrance.

One pensioner told how a woman smashed though her roof. "There was a howling noise and everything started to rattle. Then objects started falling out of the sky," said Irina Tipunova, 65. "And then I heard a roar and she landed in the kitchen."

Investigation hampered

As U.S. investigators prepared to head to Ukraine to assist in the investigation, staff from Europe's OSCE security body visited the site but complained that they did not get the full access they wanted.

"We encountered armed personnel who acted in a very impolite and unprofessional manner. Some of them even looked slightly intoxicated," an OSCE spokesman said.

The scale of the disaster could prove a turning point for international pressure to resolve the crisis in Ukraine, which has killed hundreds since pro-Western protests toppled the Moscow-backed president in Kiev in February and Russia annexed the Crimea peninsula a month later.

"This outrageous event underscores that it is time for peace and security to be restored in Ukraine," Obama said, adding that Russia had failed to use its influence to curb rebel violence.

While the West has imposed sanctions on Russia over Ukraine, the United States has been more aggressive than the European Union. Analysts say the response od Germany and other EU powers to the incident - possibly imposing more sanctions - could be crucial in deciding the next phase of the standoff with Moscow.

Some commentators even recalled Germany's sinking of the Atlantic liner Lusitania in 1915, which helped push the United States into World War One, but outrage in the West at Thursday's carnage is not seen as leading to military intervention.

The U.N. Security Council called for a "full, thorough and independent international investigation" into the downing of the plane and "appropriate accountability" for those responsible.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said it was too early to decide on further sanctions before it was known exactly what had happened to the plane. Britain took a similar line but later echoed Obama in pointing the finger at the separatists.

Kiev and Moscow immediately blamed each other for the disaster, triggering a new phase in their propaganda war.

Crash site in rebel stronghold

The plane crashed about 40 km (25 miles) from the border with Russia near the regional capital of Donetsk, an area that is a stronghold of rebels who have been fighting Ukrainian government forces and have brought down military aircraft.

Leaders of the rebels' self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic denied any involvement and said a Ukrainian air force jet had brought down the plane.

Russia's Defense Ministry later laid the blame with Ukrainian ground forces, saying it had picked up radar activity from a Ukrainian missile system south of Donetsk when the airliner was brought down, Russian media reported.

The Ukrainian security council said no missiles had been fired from its armories. Officials also accused separatists of moving unused missiles into Russia after the incident.

The Ukrainian government released recordings it said were of Russian intelligence officers discussing the shooting down of a civilian airliner by rebels who may have mistaken it for a Ukrainian military plane.

After the downing of several Ukrainian military aircraft in the area in recent months, including two earlier this week, Kiev had accused Russian forces of playing a direct role.

Separatists were quoted in Russian media last month saying they had acquired a long-range SA-11 anti-aircraft system.

OSCE monitors’ work hampered

The OSCE monitors said they could not find anyone to talk to about the plane's two black boxes - voice and data recorders - and villagers were seen removing pieces of wreckage.

Reuters journalists saw burning and charred wreckage bearing the red and blue Malaysia Airlines insignia and dozens of bodies in fields near the village of Hrabove, known in Russian as Grabovo.

Ukraine said on Friday that up to 181 bodies had been found. The airline said it was carrying 283 passengers and 15 crew.

Ukraine has closed air space over the east of the country as Malaysia Airlines defended its use of a route that some other carriers had been avoiding.

The Malaysian government is likely to come under further pressure after saying on Friday that the flight path over Ukraine had been declared safe by the U.N. International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) which, it said, had since closed the route.

The ICAO later said it did not have the power to open or close routes and that individual nations were responsible for advising on potential hazards.

International air lanes had been open in the area, although only above 32,000 feet. The Malaysia plane was flying 1,000 feet higher, at the instruction of Ukrainian air traffic control, although the airline had asked to fly at 35,000 feet.

More than half of the dead passengers, 189 people, were Dutch. Twenty-nine were Malaysian, 27 Australian, 12 Indonesian, 10 British, four German, four Belgian, three Filipino, one American, one Canadian, and one from New Zealand. Several were unidentified and some may have had dual citizenship. The 15 crew were Malaysian.

source: interaksyon.com

MH17 disaster wipes out entire family of six

KUALA LUMPUR - An entire family of six that had been returning home after three years living abroad was among the 44 Malaysians killed in the MH17 disaster, media reports said Saturday.

Tambi Jiee, 49, and his wife Ariza Ghazalee, 46, perished along with their four children when the Malaysia Airlines flight went down in eastern Ukraine.

They were reportedly returning to Malaysia after her husband's three-year posting in Kazakhstan for energy giant Shell, first taking a short European holiday.

Images of a wailing Jamilah Noriah Abang Anuar, 72 - Ariza's mother - dominated front pages of Malaysian dailies on Saturday.

"I lost my daughter and her family in a blink of an eye," the New Straits Times quoted her as saying from her home in the eastern Malaysian state of Sarawak on Borneo island.

Ariza had posted a photo on Facebook showing the family's luggage as they prepared to embark from Amsterdam's Schiphol airport for the flight to Kuala Lumpur.

"17 July 2014, starting our new hijrah (journey), Alhamdulillah (praise God)," read the accompanying message.

Her son Afzal Tambi also posted his thanks and farewells to friends from Kazakhstan on Thursday.

"Before it gets too cheesy, I just want to thank everyone who made it bearable for me to live here and for sharing with me amazing memories to reminisce on."

The Boeing 777 came down with 298 onboard in a separatist-held region of Ukraine, with the United States claiming it was shot down in a missile attack, a possible casualty of the Kiev government's battle with pro-Russia rebels.

source: interaksyon.com

Man goes after spider with blowtorch, burns down house

SEATTLE -- A Washington state resident who tried to kill a spider using a makeshift blowtorch managed instead to set his house on fire, causing $60,000 worth of damage, Seattle fire officials said on Wednesday.

The man told investigators that he spotted a spider in the laundry room of his West Seattle rental home on Tuesday night and tried to kill it using a lighter and a can of spray paint, according to Seattle Fire Department spokesman Kyle Moore.

The spider crawled into a hole in the wall, and the man, who was not identified but was described as being in his 20s, followed it with the blowtorch, setting the room ablaze, Moore said.

The man attempted to throw water on the growing fire, but the flames spread quickly to the attic and tore through the roof. The blaze ripped through the home, causing $40,000 worth of damage to the building and another $20,000 of damage to the contents.

“There were giant clouds of smoke just pouring out of the windows,” neighbor Kaitlin Sharp told KIRO-TV.

Both the man and his mother, with whom he shared the rental home, have been displaced, authorities said. The man was not facing criminal charges and the fire was considered accidental, Moore said.

“He has to live with the fact that he set fire to the house he was living in,” Moore said, adding that it was unlikely the spider survived the blaze.

source: interaksyon.com

PayPal fuels higher eBay revenue even as cyber attack, rivals weigh

SAN FRANCISCO — EBay Inc posted a 13 percent rise in quarterly revenue on Wednesday, as better-than-expected results from its fast-growing PayPal division helped the online retailer overcome increasing competition from Amazon.com Inc and a well-publicized cyber attack.

Investors had been braced for a tough quarter.

Ebay’s stock has fallen more than 8 percent since April, hurt by the cyber attack disclosed in May that compromised data for some 145 million customers, the departure of highly regarded PayPal chief David Marcus, and intensifying competition from both online and offline rivals. 


EBay was also hurt by a change in Google Inc’s algorithm, which pushed eBay results lower in search rankings, slowing traffic.

That slowdown was seen in June in a measure of transactions across eBay’s core Marketplaces platform, known as gross merchandise value, with the growth rate falling to 7 percent from around a double-digit pace in previous months.

“We had a challenging first half of the year with several distractions,” Bob Swan, the chief financial officer, told analysts on a conference call, noting that the cyber attack and the Google search engine changes “had an immediate and dramatic impact.”

Executives said eBay will spend more on measures to entice users back, including coupons, seller incentives and increased marketing.

Several investment brokerages had downgraded their forecasts ahead of Wednesday’s results. The second-quarter results and eBay’s revenue outlook were roughly in line with those tempered expectations. Revenue rose to $4.37 billion for the quarter, compared with $3.88 billion a year ago; Wall Street had forecast revenue of $4.38 billion, on average.

Payment volume leaped a better-than-expected 29 percent. Gross merchandise value grew 12 percent, in line with or slightly better than analysts’ forecasts.

Going forward, eBay will have to grapple with stiffening competition across its businesses.

Marcus departed for Facebook’s messaging team in June. The payments service faces a growing challenge from the likes of Amazon, which launched a recurring payments program in June. Google is also expected to delve further into this field. Brick-and-mortar retailers are investing to boost their online presence. EBay also has to fend off a growing coterie of fast-growing retail upstarts that focus on specific categories such as home and apparel.

Longer term, industry analysts speculate that Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd, which is going public this year in what could be the largest-ever tech IPO, is preparing to leverage its U.S. investments into a play for the U.S. retail arena, the world’s largest.

On Wednesday, eBay forecast third-quarter revenue of $4.3 billion to $4.4 billion, compared with expectations for $4.4 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

For the second quarter, it posted non-GAAP earnings per share of 69 cents, a penny better than forecasts for 68 cents.

source: interaksyon.com

US stocks tumble on news of Malaysia Airlines crash

NEW YORK - US stocks fell sharply Thursday following reports that a Malaysia Airlines passenger plane crashed over Ukraine and that it may have been shot down.

At 1604 GMT, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 82.31 (0.48 percent) to 17,055.89.

The broad-based S&P 500 slumped 14.40 (0.73 percent) to 1,967.17, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index tumbled 42.87 (0.97 percent) to 4,383.10.

Prior to the reports of the crash, US stocks were modestly lower.

But all three indices moved decisively lower as reports of the crash spread and were followed by statements by Malaysia Airlines that it lost contact with the plane and by the Ukrainian president, who said the plane may have been shot down.

Briefing.com said the drop in US equities coincided with a shift in money to gold, Treasuries and other lower-risk assets.

"The flight to safety occurred following reports from Ukraine indicating a Malaysian passenger jet from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur has crashed near the border with Russia," Briefing said in a note at 1530 GMT.

"At this time, the cause of the crash remains unknown."

source: interaksyon.com

Argentina’s Messi named player of the tournament; Germany’s Neuer top goalkeeper

RIO DE JANEIRO – Lionel Messi, who lost out on the World Cup title after Argentina’s 1-0 loss to Germany in Sunday’s final, was named the Golden Boot player of the tournament.

The Barcelona legend and four time Player of the Year was a key part in Argentina’s march to the Maracana stadium, picking up four man of the match performances.

He scored four goals at the tournament, but failed to pick up the one honor eluding him after Germany substitute Mario Goetze’s 113th minute goal dashed the South Americans’ dream of a third title.

Germany’s Manuel Neuer won the World Cup Golden Glove award for the tournament’s best goalkeeper after helping his side to a 1-0 victory over Argentina.

The 28-year-old Bayern Munich player was presented with the award at Rio de Janeiro’s Maracana Stadium moments after the triumph.

He beat off competition from Argentine opposite number Sergio Romero and Keylor Navas of surprise package Costa Rica.

Neuer was beaten only four times in the tournament and kept clean sheets in the 1-0 quarter-final win over France and the victory over Argentina in the final.

He succeeds Spain’s Iker Casillas, who was voted outstanding goalkeeper at the 2010 tournament in South Africa.

Colombia’s young striker James Rodriguez claimed the World Cup’s top scorer honors with six goals.

Despite his country going out at the quarter-final stage the 23-year-old’s haul was never matched.

Among his half dozen goals was the magical chest and volley against Uruguay.

The Monaco forward, who stepped in manfully to fill the void left by Colombia’s injured Radamel Falcao, also scored in the 2-1 quarter-final loss to Brazil.

He got a second against Uruguay in the last 16 game, and one in each of Colombia’s first round matches against Ivory Coast, Greece and Japan.

Germany’s world champion Thomas Mueller ended up in second place with five goals.

Losing Argentina finalist Lionel Messi, injured Brazil star Neymar and Dutch striker Robin van Persie, shared third spot on four.

source: interaksyon.com

YouTube weighs funding efforts to boost premium content – sources

LOS ANGELES — YouTube has embarked on a new round of discussions with Hollywood and independent producers to fund premium content, two sources with knowledge of the talks told Reuters, a move that could bolster a three-year-old multimillion-dollar effort that has had mixed success so far.

The talks underscore Google Inc’s desire to complete YouTube’s transition from a repository for grainy home videos to a site sporting the more polished content crucial to securing higher-priced advertising.

Over the past two months, YouTube executives have begun making the rounds, talking to Hollywood producers to explore the kinds of support it could offer its content creators and produce more must-see programming, according to the two people.

Executives did not lay out exactly how a program would be structured. One of the two people said the site may offer between $1 million and $3 million to produce a series of programs, and might contribute marketing funds as well.

The second person said the site was interested in videos shorter than the 30-minute, TV network-quality Web shows that Amazon.com Inc and other online sites have recently funded.

“We are always exploring various content and marketing ideas to support and accelerate our creators,” a YouTube representative said in an email. The site declined to comment on the meetings.

The latest round of discussions is in its initial phases and actual measures may never materialize, the sources said.

YouTube is by far the world’s most popular location for video streaming, with more than 1 billion unique visitors a month, far surpassing Netflix Inc and Amazon. But it is trying to lure more marketers for premium video advertising, boosting margins as overall prices for Google’s advertising declines.

YouTube set aside an estimated $100 million in late 2011 to bankroll some 100 channels, though it never confirmed amounts spent or other details. Beneficiaries of that largesse included Madonna and ESPN, as well as lesser-known creators. Reuters was one of the companies that received funds for a channel.

But few of those have garnered much mainstream attention.

“Over 115 of the channels launched as part of that initiative are now in the top 2 percent most-subscribed to channels on the platform,” a company representative said in an email.

YouTube has continued to provide backing for its content creators. It provides production facilities for creators, offers tips on how best to create content, and provides small amounts of funds for creators to test ideas.

The site also provides marketing support for online celebrities, including paying for billboards and TV ads for the likes of beauty blogger Michelle Phan and baker Rosanna Pansino.

source: interaksyon.com

Asian shares track Wall Street lower, yen gains

SYDNEY - Asian share markets slipped on Friday as troubles at a small Portuguese bank managed to wrongfoot investors already made anxious by the US earnings season and a spate of disappointing economic data globally.

Tensions in the Middle East also continued to simmer with Israeli officials seeming to hint at a possible assault on Gaza by ground forces.

As a result, yields on safe-haven US and German debt fell, the yen scaled a five-month peak against the euro and gold hit a three-and-a-half month high.

Japan's Nikkei fell 0.7 percent, while Australia eased 0.4 percent. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan dipped 0.3 percent.

Analysts emphasised that the woes of one Portuguese bank were no threat to the sovereign's rating and rather the news served as an excuse to book profits on what has been a long rally in European stocks and bonds.

Indeed, there were signs investors were taking money out of peripheral euro zone debt and seeking higher returns in the emerging world. It was notable that MSCI's index of emerging market stocks actually rose on Thursday having hit a 17-month peak earlier in the week.

In contrast, European stocks were buffeted as trading in Banco Espirito Santo was halted after a 19 percent drop. The bank's largest shareholder suspended trading in its own shares and bonds due to "material difficulties" at its own largest shareholder.

The damage was all the greater as data showed unsettlingly weak readings for May industrial production in France and Italy. These followed equally disappointing numbers from Germany and the UK, which has led many analysts to cut their estimates of economic growth for the second quarter.

Portugal's market fell 4.2 percent and Italy's FTSE MIB 1.9 percent, pulling down the European index by 0.78 percent.

While the fate of a relatively minor bank in Europe would not normally have had much affect on Wall Street, it was enough to make investors reconsider the market's high valuations as the earnings season gets into full swing.

The S&P 500 index fell 0.41 percent, while the Dow eased 0.42 percent and the Nasdaq 0.52 percent.

The S&P 500 financial sector index fell 0.5 percent and Wells Fargo & Co, which reports earnings later Friday, lost 0.7 percent.

With stocks off the boil, Treasuries picked up the usual safe-haven bid for shorter-term debt which is prized for its deep liquidity. Yields on two-year notes fell over 4 basis points to 0.4561 percent, a marked reversal from a high of 0.5360 percent hit just on Wednesday.

German debt played much the same role in Europe, where yields on 10-year bund yields ended at a 14-month trough of 1.20 percent. Bonds in the euro zone periphery were not so lucky, with yields on Portuguese, Spanish and Italian paper all rising sharply.

The itch for safety benefited the Japanese yen which climbed a full yen to 137.76 per euro. The dollar dipped to 101.26 yen even as it gained on the euro to $1.3599.

Yet the higher-yielding Australian and New Zealand dollars remained well supported, again suggesting there was no widespread retreat from risky assets.

In commodities, gold was up at $1,336.01 having touched a 3-1/2 month top of $1,345.00.

Oil prices fell anew after a brief rally on Thursday. Brent was off 13 cents at $108.54 a barrel, while U.S. crude eased 16 cents to $102.77.

source: interaksyon.com

Which European capital wears the WiFi crown?

RIGA, Latia — The Estonian tech-hub city of Tallinn has long laid claim to the title of WiFi capital of Europe – but now it has a challenger.

A Baltic rival has emerged in Latvia, whose capital Riga launched a war of words this week as it seeks to overtake its neighbour in all things Internet.

City authorities teamed up with Latvia’s state-owned Lattelecom telecoms company to buy billboards leading into Riga with the words “European capital of WiFi” cheekily emblazoned across the front.

Statements from city hall followed, pointing out that Riga has one free Wifi zone for every 750 residents, compared to one for every 1,263 in Tallinn.

At the unveiling of the billboards, Riga Mayor Nils Usakovs crowed that his city has “surpassed other European cities in free WiFi coverage”.

Lattelecom CEO Juris Gulbis hailed Latvia as an emerging European “WiFi superpower” for the 4,000 free points dotted across the country of two million.

While the sheer numbers of free WiFi points in European metropolises like London or Paris dwarf those in both Baltic capitals, Riga now claims to trump the rest — especially its northern neighbour — on a per capita basis.

Officials in the Estonian capital are not amused.

After all, their city gave birth to Skype, hosts NATO’s elite cyber-defence centre and claims to offer the highest number of public e-services on the planet.

Vaino Olev, Tallinn City Council’s head of IT services leapt to defend his city’s high tech credentials.

In a subtle dig at Riga’s supposed modernity, Olev also suggested that free WiFi is actually yesterday’s news.

“This sounds more like Riga has set an ambitious goal for itself,” he told AFP.

“Due to the booming popularity of smart devices among city residents, the number of WiFi areas in Tallinn has stabilised rather than increased – interest in public free WiFi has diminished,” he said.

“This, of course, is mainly due to the local mobile phone operators offering low prices on smart phone packages. The main WiFi users in Tallinn now are tourists,” Olev said.

Estonia, with its population of just 1.3 million people, has made a name for itself for being a trailblazer in technology and notably pioneered e-voting in 2005.

After five decades of Soviet rule ended in 1991, Estonia opted to use existing computer engineering facilities to go hi-tech as quickly as possible.

It earned the nickname “E-stonia” as it outstripped most other members of the European Union, which it joined in 2004.

Officials in Latvia have watched Estonia’s success closely, and have responded by investing heavily in infrastructure in a bid to spur growth.

source: interaksyon.com

‘This can’t happen’: Brazil rival Argentina nears World Cup crown as home fans lick wounds after exit

RIO DE JANEIRO – Brazilians might have thought that their World Cup nightmare couldn’t possibly get any worse — and then bitter rivals Argentina reached the final in their own backyard Wednesday.

Still agonizing over their traumatic 7-1 semi-final defeat to Germany just 24 hours earlier, Brazilians will now have to watch Argentina and their superstar Lionel Messi battle for the trophy in Rio de Janeiro’s legendary Maracana Stadium on Sunday.

Many Brazilians rooted for the Netherlands to beat their South American neighbors in Wednesday’s semi-final. But Argentina saw off the dogged Dutch 4-2 in a penalty shootout after a 0-0 draw in 120 minutes of attritional stalemate.

“Seeing Argentina in the final in our home hurts, especially after the Selecao’s worst ever defeat,” said Marcio Carneiro da Silva, 36, a mailman drowning his sorrows with a beer on the terrace of a Rio de Janeiro restaurant.

His friend Cesar Augusto, 37, already picked a new team for Sunday.

“Now I’m German,” he said.

Brazilians noted that the final will be in the same stadium where Brazil lost the decisive game of the 1950 tournament to Uruguay, a defeat that traumatized the country.

‘We are all Germany’

“The nightmare continues,” wrote O Dia newspaper in its online edition.

“In addition to not being able to dream about a sixth title, Brazilians will have to live with the real possibility of one of its main rivals triumphing in the ultimate football temple,” it said.

The sports daily Lance used a Twitter hashtag for its title, #SomosTodosAlemanha! (We Are All Germany). Argentines responded on the social media website by repeatedly typing the number 7, reminding Brazilians of their humiliating defeat.

Argentines were on cloud nine, singing and chanting at the stadium in Sao Paulo and in bars across Brazil.

“Reaching the final in Brazil is the best thing that could happen to us, although I would have preferred to beat them in the final,” said Miguel Martin, 32, a truck driver wearing a hat in Argentina’s blue and white colors who watched the game at a public screening in Sao Paulo.

Brazil and Argentina have battled for football supremacy in South America for decades.

Brazilians flaunt their record five World Cup titles at Argentines, whose team has won the trophy twice.

Throughout the World Cup, Argentine fans chanted in stadiums that football legend Diego Maradona was better than Brazilian great Pele.

But the competition goes beyond the pitch. Argentina was a leading emerging nation in the early 20th century but it was eclipsed by Brazil in economic and political might in recent decades.

Unbearable nightmare
At the official “Fan Fest” in Sao Paulo, some Brazilians wore the Dutch team’s orange colors, applauding every time the Netherlands were close to scoring.

Now they have to cope with the possibility of President Dilma Rousseff handing the trophy to Argentine captain Messi.

“I can’t imagine Dilma giving the trophy to Argentina at the Maracana. This can’t happen,” said Marcos Raimondi, a 44-year-old economist wearing the official Dutch team jersey. “It’s worse than what happened yesterday. It’s a nightmare. Unbearable.”

Amadeus Marques, a 27-year-old doctor also in Dutch regalia, was equally dumbstruck.

“This is incredible. I feel the same sensation as yesterday. Since the fourth German goal I was already hoping that Argentina would not go through and that we would play them for third place.”

But not all Brazilians were rooting against their South American peers.

Leonan Freitas, a 33-year-old bank worker, was the only one among a group of friends sipping beers at a Rio bar who cheered for Argentina.

“Argentina is a neighbor. I want South America to win,” he said to his friends’ disapproval. “I was more scared of losing the third-place game to Argentina.”

source: interaksyon.com

Alice Dixson steals show at FHM 100 Sexiest

The night was supposed to belong to Marian Rivera, who was being crowned the sexiest woman in the land for the second consecutive year and an unprecedented third time overall.

But it was TV5 actress Alice Dixson, 44, who stole the show at FHM Philippines’ 100 Sexiest Women event Wednesday night at the World Trade Center in Pasay City.

The “Confessions of a Torpe” star was greeted with thunderous cheers by the jampacked crowd when she sashayed down a triangular catwalk in a sexy purple gown that exposed the length of her left leg.

She ranked 7th in the list — the first time a female celebrity over 40 cracked the Top 10 — no doubt a result of her bestselling December 2013 cover appearance.

Besides Alice and Marian, dozens of other showbiz personalities who made the list graced the event, including Rufa Mae Quinto, Rochelle Pangilinan, Aubrey Miles, Diana Zubiri, Michelle Madrigal, Ehra Madrigal, and Daiana Menezes.

source: interaksyon.com