PS4 and Xbox One fuel videogame sales

SAN FRANCISCO — NPD Group reported Thursday that new consoles from Sony and Microsoft powered a winning holiday season for the videogame industry in the United States.

“The newest consoles from Microsoft and Sony are off to a tremendous start,” said NPD analyst Liam Callahan.

“Xbox One led consoles sales in December, while PlayStation 4′s two-month total makes it the best selling console during the two-month launch window.”


The rival consoles were released in November and eagerly snapped up by players.

Nintendo’s Wii U consoles also fared well during the holidays, with December logging its best monthly sales since its release about 13 months earlier, Callahan said.

Videogame hardware sales more than offset a 17 percent drop in sales of game software to $1.31 billion in December, according to NPD.

For the full year, game software sales were down 11 percent from 2012 to $6.34 billion. One reason for the drop was said to be that fewer titles were released.

US videogame hardware sales for the December holiday period were $1.37 billion, a 28 percent rise over the same period a year earlier, NPD reported

Videogame hardware sales for the year tallied $4.26 billion, up five percent from the $4.04 billion logged in 2012.

When factoring in money spent on game rentals, downloadable content, micro-transactions, mobile “apps,” play at social networks, subscriptions, and used game sales, nearly $2.4 billion was spent on games in December, according to NPD.

NPD ranked “Grand Theft Auto V,” published by Take 2 Interactive Software, as last year’s top-selling videogame.

Electronic Arts’ military shooter title “Battlefield 4″ was the second most popular game with buyers, with France-based Ubisoft’s “Just Dance 2014″ taking third spot.

The latest installment of the beloved “Call of Duty” franchise was the best selling game in the United States in December, according to the industry tracker.

It was the fifth consecutive month of rising overall US sales in the videogame industry.

source: interaksyon.com

Eye doctors warn of damage from lasers

NEW YORK - Powerful lasers that are easily purchased online pose a serious danger to vision, according to a new report.

Doctors from the Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, report on the case of a nine-year-old boy who showed up at their hospital after being blinded by an adult playing with a handheld laser.

"Until he came in, no one had realized there was an actual injury and we saw the bleeding," Dr. Cynthia Toth, one of the authors of the new report, told Reuters Health.

The high-power laser had passed through the boy's eye lenses and burst the blood vessels in the back of his eyes.

"This was a larger device that was sold as some toy, but it's a dangerous weapon," Toth said. "You can start a fire with the power that was coming out of that one."

Toth is a professor of ophthalmology and biomedical engineering at Duke. She also has a long history of studying and working with lasers.

The high-power laser was made from a component of a dismantled home theater projector and purchased online.

A laser, according to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), is a "powerful, targeted beam of electromagnetic radiation that is used in many products, from music players and printers to eye-surgery tools."

The FDA regulates lasers, as it does other radiation-emitting electronic products, and separates them into classes and subclasses.

Class 3a lasers include those typically used for pointing during presentations. Their power is capped at 5 milliwatts (mW) on the visible light spectrum under federal regulation. Class 4 lasers are the type used in industrial or medical settings and are an immediate hazard.

The laser used on the boy in the new report falls into class 4, according to the researchers. It produced 1,250 mW of power.

The boy's vision eventually recovered after two months, Toth and her colleagues report in JAMA Ophthalmology.

But other people are not so fortunate, Toth said.

Within the past few months, other reports of eye injuries by lasers were published in other journals, Toth said. In one case, a laser burned a hole through the back of a person's eye.

"I do think that higher power lasers are more available than they were in the past," she said. "For that reason, I wouldn't be surprised if there was an increase in the number of injuries."

"The amount of damage correlates to the strength of the laser," Dr. Stacy Pineles, assistant professor of ophthalmology and a retinal specialist at the Stein Eye Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles, told Reuters Health in an email.

"Shorter wavelength lasers that are now available to consumers as described in this article are more easily absorbed by the retina and therefore can cause severe and sometimes permanent vision loss," Pineles, who was not involved in the new report, said.

People who work with lasers should wear protective goggles, she said. "Different types of lasers require specific goggles for maximum protection."

Toth said it's also important that people don't let children play with lasers of any type.

"Even a so-called safe level can also be dangerous," she said, adding that people who think they are injured should see a doctor.

source: interaksyon.com

Award-winning exiled poet-journalist Gelman, who fought Argentine military rule, dies

MEXICO CITY - Argentine poet Juan Gelman, winner of the Spanish speaking world's top literature prize and a vehement critic of military rule in his country, died Tuesday at the age of 83.

Gelman had been living in exile in Mexico for the past 20 years and his death was announced by the National Council for Culture and Art.

The cause of death was not immediately given. The newspaper Milenio, for which he wrote a weekly column, said Gelman died at home.

Gelman was considered one of the Spanish speaking world's greatest poets, and also stood out for his firm stand against impunity for military regimes that once ruled in Latin American countries including his native Argentina.

Among other awards, in 2007 he won Spain's Cervantes Prize, the Spanish speaking world's top literary honor.

Gelman suffered the cruelty of the Argentine military regime that ruled from 1976 to 1983, as his son and daughter in law died during it.

Besides poetry, Gelman worked as a journalist and translator. He published more than 30 books.

He was abroad, in Rome, when the military seized power in Argentina.

His odyssey of exile led him to Madrid, Nicaragua, New York and finally Mexico City.

His poetry was known for a sharp sense of humor, a touch of the absurd and defiance in the face of injustice.

Gelman's son Marcelo was killed at 20 during the dictatorship and his body only found in 1989.

His daughter in law Maria Claudia Garcia is still listed as missing. She was abducted in Buenos Aires in 1976 while pregnant and taken to neighboring Uruguay.

Her daughter was handed over the family of a Uruguayan police officer. The remains of the mother were never found.

Gelman fought for years and finally located his granddaughter in 2000. It was one of the most highly publicized cases of babies being abducted and given away by the regime during the Argentine military dictatorship.

source: interaksyon.com

Pinay caregiver Rose Fostanes does it ‘My Way’, wins ‘X Factor Israel’

Filipina caregiver Rose Fostanes completed her Cinderella story Tuesday night in Tel Aviv (early Wednesday morning, Manila time), winning the first season of “The X Factor Israel”.

Singing Frank Sinatra’s signature song “My Way”, the 47-year-old native of Taguig City won on her own terms and displayed the form that made her the darling of the Israeli version of the British singing competition created by former “American Idol” judge Simon Cowell.

“There’s nothing to say but you did it your way. I’m so proud of you. Everyone’s proud of you,” the show’s host, Israeli supermodel Bar Refaeli, told Fostanes right after her victory-clinching performance of the all-time Filipino karaoke favorite.

“Thank you so much for those Israeli who like my voice. Thank you for giving me the chance to be in ‘The X FactorIsrael’,” Fostanes said after she bested two other finalists. She also thanked the thousands of Filipinos in Israel who supported her.

Fostanes — who has been caring for an elderly Israeli woman for six years — was teary-eyed after her solo number, which was rewarded with thunderous cheers and a standing ovation from the judges and the studio audience.

The audience included her sister Nancy and her girlfriend Mel Adel, who had flown in from Manila to witness the finale.

One of the judges was also overcome with emotion  — her mentor Shiri Maimon, who performed a duet of Alicia Keys’ “If I Ain’t Got You” with Fostanes during the show.

Fostanes won the finale representing the over-25s, the category for mature performers. Eden Ben Zaken (Girls category) placed second, while Ori Shakiv (Boys category) came in third.

An extremely popular song in karaoke bars in the Philippines, “My Way” nonetheless got a bad rap in recent years after from many bars that banned the song (link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/philippines/7199022/My-Way-deaths-lead-karaoke-bars-in-Philippines-to-ban-song.html) after singing it led to several “karaoke killings” in recent years.

“My Way”, however, proved to be a lucky choice for Fostanes as the only thing she “killed” was her performance that drew a standing ovation from the studio audience and judges composed of Israeli music sensations Ivri Lider, Moshe Peretz, Rami Fortes and Shiri Maimon.

Since “The X-Factor Israel” turned her into a household name and now, a global phenomenon, Fostanes is often compared with Scottish singing sensation Susan Boyle who shot to fame in 2009 after joining “Britain’s Got Talent”, another talent show created by Cowell.

Fostanes, however, achieved in “The X-Factor Israel” what Boyle had failed to do in “Britain’s Got Talent”—win it all.

And she has the estimated 40,000 OFW population in Israel to thank for it. It is widely believed that her fellow OFWs, including the 16,000 strong “That’s My Tomboy of Israel” group rallied and voted for her to win in the contest.

“mabuhay ka idol INSPIRASYON KA, HERO KA, WE LOVE YOU MATUTUPAD MO NA LAHAT NG PANGARAP MO SA BUHAY…. HAPPY KAMI FOR YOU, BUONG BANSA AY NAG DIDIWANG NGAYON, KAHIT SANG PARTE NG MUNDO NA MAY OFW NAG DIDIWANG,” went the latest Facebook post of “That’s My Tomboy of Israel” shortly after Fostanes won.

Fostanes made no bones about her sexual orientation, admitting in interviews that she misses not only her family but also her girlfriend who is based in Manila.

Adel, Fostanes’ girlfriend, flew to Israel together with the singer’s younger sister, Nancy to personally lend their moral support and ultimately, to witness the victory of the newly-crowned “X-Factor Israel” champ.

Watch Rose Fostanes perform “My Way” in “The X-Factor Israel” finale in this clip from the program as uploaded by Benjo Bojos:

source: interaksyon.com

Al Jefferson stars as Bobcats end Knicks’ win streak

Bobcats 108, Knicks 98: Al Jefferson exploded for a season-best 35 points as Charlotte ended visiting New York’s five-game winning streak.

Jefferson was a force on the offensive end, hitting 14-of-20 shots as the Bobcats won for just the second time in their past 10 games. Kemba Walker poured in 25 points while Gerald Henderson added 17 in the win.

Carmelo Anthony’s 20 points paced the Knicks, who trail 2-1 in the season series. Amar’e Stoudemire had 17 points while Raymond Felton added 13.

Jefferson’s 19 points and a 17-3 run to end the half gave the Bobcats a 55-46 edge at the break. The lead grew to double digits on a Walker jumper early in the third quarter, but New York whittled down the deficit on a late run fueled by seven points from Anthony to go into the fourth trailing 78-73.

Walker delighted the home crowd with a long 3-pointer from the right wing to extend the advantage to nine, and he hit another 3 on Charlotte’s next possession with 8:36 left. He then put the finishing touches on the victory with a 19-footer that quelled a New York rally with just under five minutes remaining.

GAME NOTEBOOK: Bobcats SG Michael Kidd-Gilchrist finished with eight points and seven rebounds in his first action since missing five weeks with a broken hand. … After returning from a benching to appear in back-to-back games, New York G J.R. Smith did not play against Charlotte. No reason was given for his absence. … Knicks C Tyson Chandler had five points and four rebounds in 16 minutes in his return from a four-game absence due to bronchitis.

source: interaksyon.com

7,000 same-sex couples tied the knot in France last year

PARIS  - About 7,000 same-sex couples tied the knot in France last year after gay marriage was legalised in May, the national statistics agency said Tuesday.

France legalised same-sex marriage after months of intense and sometimes violent protests, in keeping with an election pledge by Socialist President Francois Hollande, who faced a huge backlash from the opposition right and the powerful Catholic Church.




Same-sex unions made up around three percent of the total number of 238,000 marriages registered in France in 2013, the Insee statistics agency said.

Three out of every five gay marriages involved male couples, it said.

The average age at which male gay men got married was 50, while it was 43 for women. The corresponding average age for heterosexual couples was 37 and 34.

The first gay marriage in France was held on May 29 in the southern city of Montpellier, which has a gay-friendly reputation.

But many die-hard conservatives have continued to oppose the measure. Some mayors argue that the lack of an option not to perform gay marriages violates the French constitution, which stipulates that freedom of conscience is a fundamental human right.

Several have refused to conduct gay marriages on the grounds it goes against their beliefs, but the Constitutional Council, France's top court, has ruled they cannot do this.

source: interaksyon.com

GM wins awards, Ford turns heads at Detroit auto show

DETROIT — General Motors’ Chevrolet unit swept car and truck of the year honors but Ford’s use of aluminum in its F150 sparked new debate on the first day of the Detroit auto show Monday.

The show also saw the debut appearance of Mary Barra as GM’s new chief executive — the first woman ever to lead a major auto maker; Fiat-Chrysler boss Sergio Marchionne pledging to oversee the union of the two for at least the next three years; and Ford chief executive Alan Mulally still in his job, after finally scotching talk he was headed to Microsoft.

Automakers, after a hugely successful 2013, forecast more growth and unveiled powerful new trucks, sexy sports cars and luxury models.

General Motors logged an early win after its Chevrolet brand swept the car and truck of the year awards with the Corvette Stingray sports car and the Chevy Silverado pickup truck.

“Chevrolet is in the midst of the most aggressive product transformation in the brand’s more than 100-year history,” Chevy chief Alan Batey said, hailing its wins.

Eyes were on Ford, however, as it gambled with a major change for the best-selling F150 pickup, replacing steel body panels with aluminum to drastically lower body weight and boost fuel economy.

The move, which helped Ford slash the truck’s weight by up to 700 pounds (317 kilos) is seen as a big risk, because truck buyers tend to focus on sturdiness and power.

Toyota, meanwhile, revved up its design credentials with a provocative new concept for a sports car, with a race car pit crew opening a shiny red box to reveal the FT-1 sports concept — Future Toyota 1.

Chrysler unveiled its hotly-anticipated revamp of the 200 sedan, which aims to bring a new level of luxury and styling to its midsized offering with a low entry price of $21,700.

“We designed a car to take on every other vehicle in its class, feature by feature and prove that a quality sedan doesn’t have to cross an ocean to be worthy of an American driveway,” Chrysler brand chief Al Gardner told reporters.

Mercedes got a jump on its competitors by hiring Kelly Rowland of Destiny’s Child to serenade its sleek and luxurious new C-Class sedan, an upgrade from the entry-level position it has held for several years.

Now that role has been taken by the CLA, and the C-Class has been decked out with features from higher-end Mercedes.

Also enjoying the move down from senior models is the diminutive Honda Fit. Honda has reshaped the front, enlarged the inside with generous leg space for a subcompact, boosted horsepower to 130 and worked to smooth the ride, adding a right-side Lane Watch, Bluetooth, rearview cameras, and upgraded smart phone connectivity.

Corvette also generated excitement with its new racing versions of the Corvette Stingray, the street-legal Z06 and the track-ready CR.7.

Kia and Toyota brought in concept pocket-rockets, BMW served up a hat-trick of new models — the 2 series, and an M3 and M4 — and Chrysler revamped its 200 series sedan, hoping some European styling thanks to its new Italian owners will boost its market presence.

Barra, who officially takes the reins of GM on Thursday, will make her presence known at the launch of a new GMC pickup — a statement that she, too, is one of the car guys.

She signaled that the accountants will not be allowed to dominate business plans.

“At today’s GM, our products are the result of putting the customer at the center of everything we do. That has fostered a bold new culture at our company, a culture that promotes innovation and encourages risk taking,” she said.

Executive leadership issues were also settled at Fiat, two weeks after the company bought the remaining 41.5 percent of Chrysler it didn’t own after long, tough negotiations.

Chairman John Elkann said CEO Sergio Marchionne will remain until at least 2017.

With the completion of the takeover of Chrysler — now the main money-maker for the Italian group — Marchionne said the Fiat board would soon meet on strategy for integrating the two, including mulling moving the headquarters to Detroit and listing its shares on a major stock market.

“We’re the seventh carmaker in the world and we aspire to be one of the so-called big guys,” Marchionne said.

At Ford, Mulally and executive chairman Bill Ford Jr both made clear that Mulally’s much-speculated departure was no longer an issue.

“Alan has obviously done a great job, and I’m thrilled that he’s here,” Ford said.

source: interaksyon.com

Pinay caregiver Rose Fostanes shines spotlight on Israel’s low-paid foreign workers

TEL AVIV | Once part of a faceless crowd of foreign workers who clean homes and tend to Israel’s sick and elderly, a Filipina caregiver has shot to stardom on a popular TV singing contest.

Rose Fostanes, 47, surprised viewers of Israel’s X-Factor talent show and swept its judges off their feet with soulful renditions of pop songs by the likes of Lady Gaga and Christina Aguilera. And she has rocked her way to Tuesday’s live final.

Fostanes hopes her popularity on the show will shine a spotlight on Israel’s low-paid foreign workers, who include about 20,000 Filipinos.

For many Israelis, the word “Filipino” has become synonymous with caregiver, and Fostanes’ appearance and success on X-Factor could help break the stereotype.

“I think I will be a leader for them because of what I did and I think also they will be proud of me,” she told Reuters on Sunday. “Everybody in the world will know that Filipinos, even working as a cleaner … can also share their talents.”

Fostanes, who came to Israel four years ago, has been working for about 20 years across the Middle East. She had always wanted to be a professional singer and the X-Factor gave her a shot at her dream.

At first she thought Israelis would not vote for a foreign worker, and that she would be an underdog in the competition, where viewers and a panel of four Israeli musicians determine at different stages which contender moves up and which gets dropped.

“I feel that everybody is looking at me like I was an alien,” she said on one of the early audition episodes of the show. “A Filipina working here, cleaning houses.”

Then Fostanes — who cares for an ailing woman in Tel Aviv — got on the stage and sang Lady Gaga’s “You and I”, winning a standing ovation from her competitors. To her surprise, the votes, cast via text messages and the show’s website, kept on coming and catapulted her to celebrity status.

“I get from them a lot of good compliments, especially when I’m on the street, when I’m on the bus. I get from them love, from all the Israeli people who saw my videos and saw me on the television,” Fostanes said.

Fostanes has been compared to the Scottish singer Susan Boyle, 52, who shot to fame in 2009 after appearing on the TV show “Britain’s Got Talent” and performing a powerful rendition of “I Dreamed a Dream” from the musical “Les Miserables”.

Boyle’s giddy rise from unknown to multi-million-selling recording artist has been made into a musical.

“My dream is to win this competition, but I have to go back to my work as a caregiver,” Fostanes said before getting up on the arena stage to rehearse one of the numbers she was due to sing at the finals, Frank Sinatra’s “My Way”.

source: interaksyon.com

Google buys ‘smart’ thermostat maker Nest for $3.2-billion

SAN FRANCISCO — Google on Monday announced that it is buying smart thermostat start-up Nest in a deal valued at $3.2 billion.

“They’re already delivering amazing products you can buy right now — thermostats that save energy and smoke/CO alarms that can help keep your family safe,” Google chief executive Larry Page said in a press release.


“We are excited to bring great experiences to more homes in more countries and fulfill their dreams.”

The big-ticket buy continues a move by the California-based Internet titan into consumer electronics hardware, adding smartphone-synched thermostats to its Motorola Mobility smartphones; Nexus mobile devices, Chromecast, and the promise of releasing Google Glass eyewear some time this year.

“Google has the business resources, global scale and platform reach to accelerate Nest growth across hardware, software and services for the home globally,” Nest co-founder and chief executive Tony Fadell.

“And our company visions are well aligned – we both believe in letting technology do the hard work behind the scenes so people can get on with the things that matter in life.”

Nest co-founder Tony Fadell is a former senior vice president of the Apple division behind iPods and iPhones. Fellow co-founder Matt Rogers was a lead iPod software engineer working with Fadell at Apple.

Nest’s vice president of technology Yoky Matsuoka was once head of innovations at Google.

Inspiration for Nest came when Fadell was building an environmentally-friendly home in Northern California and discovered that thermostat technology was stuck in a bygone era. Fadell pulled together a team to bring the thermostat into the mobile Internet age.

The sleek, disk-shaped thermostat is controlled by turning an outer ring. A black display screen showing the temperature turns blue to indicate cooling or red to show rooms are being heated.

Machine learning built into thermostats lets them adapt to patterns in homes within a week of regular use. The more users adjust their Nest thermostats, the more precisely the devices learn preferred comfort levels in homes.

Sensors in the thermostat assess whether lights are on or there is movement, determining when people are away and then shifting to energy-saving settings.

A green leaf appears on-screen to prompt users to save energy and money by altering their usual thermometer setting by a barely noticeable degree.

Learning Thermostats also tell people how long it will take to get rooms to desired temperatures, letting them assess whether they will be home long enough to justify the process.

Nest thermostats have Wi-Fi connectivity to link up to the Internet, and a free smartphone application lets people manage home climates from afar or mine data about energy used for heating or cooling.

Nest launched in late 2011 with its smart thermostat and later added a carbon dioxide detector to its line.

“This means firmly and clearly that Google is getting into connected homes,” Forrester analyst Frank Gillett said of the acquisition.

“It once again demonstrates that the industry is going in the direction of Apple; deciding it is darn important to control the hardware.”

“Smart” homes, featuring “intelligent” objects such as door locks, lamps, refrigerators and washing machines, were among the hot trends at an international Consumer Electronics Show extravaganza that ended on Friday in Las Vegas.

source: interaksyon.com

Apple did not violate Google patent, says US appeals court

WASHINGTON — Apple Inc does not use patented technology owned by Google unit Motorola Mobility in making its iPhones, an appeals court said on Friday.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld a decision by the International Trade Commission in April that Apple did not violate a Google patent to make the popular iPhone.

The smartphone industry has seen dozens of lawsuits on several continents as Apple vies for market share with companies that make smartphones using Google’s Android software.

“We’re disappointed in this decision and are evaluating our options,” Google unit Motorola said in a statement. Apple had no comment on the decision.

Motorola Mobility accused Apple in 2010 of infringing on six of its patents covering technology such as reducing signal noise and programming the device’s touch screen so a user’s head does not accidentally activate it while talking on the phone. The ITC ruled in April 2013 that Apple did not violate any of the six. The appeals court addressed just one of the six patents.

Google acquired the patents in the case – and the lawsuit – when it purchased Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion in 2012, partly for its library of telecommunications patents.

Google’s Android software, which the company lets handset makers use for free, has become the world’s No. 1 smartphone operating system, ahead of the iOS software used on Apple iPhones.

The ITC, a U.S. trade panel that investigates patent infringement involving imported goods, is a popular venue for patent lawsuits because it can bar the importation of infringing products and because it issues decisions relatively quickly.

The case at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit is Motorola Mobility LLC v. International Trade Commission and Apple, Inc. The case is No. 2012-1666.

source: interaksyon.com