GS: Ignore the chatter, BlackBerry rebound is coming






BlackBerry’s (RIMM) next-generation BlackBerry 10 platform has received mixed reviews out of the gate, but most seem to agree that the new OS and first two BlackBerry 10 smartphones will do little to attract interest from users of rival platforms. But as analysts continue to back off BlackBerry and investors lose confidence, Goldman Sachs sees a big opportunity for clients.


[More from BGR: Here comes the PlayStation 4: Sony announces February 20th PlayStation event [video]]






In a recent research note to clients picked up by Barron’s, Goldman Sachs analyst Simona Jankowski urged investors to take advantage of BlackBerry’s recent slide and buy shares at a discount.


[More from BGR: BlackBerry 10 browser smokes iOS 6 and Windows Phone 8 in comparison test [video]]


“We continue to see significant upside to estimates over the next three quarters, as BB10 devices drive upside to the Street’s ASP and margin forecasts,” Jankowski wrote. ”With 110 carriers completing lab testing by February, 50 carriers offering integrated billing, and Verizon getting an exclusive for the white Z10, we continue to see strong carrier support for BB10. Consumer adoption will decide the ultimate outcome, but estimate revisions should be a positive catalyst in the meantime.”


Jankowski also noted that BlackBerry Z10 sales could reach roughly 1 million units in the UK and Canada alone. The analyst believes BlackBerry World is off to a solid start with more than 70,000 available BlackBerry 10 apps, and the new platform includes a number of novel features that will attract attention.


“Consistent with BB10s browser superior performance on industry benchmarks – the Ringmark and HTML 5 tests – our preliminary tests show it to be much faster than leading competitive offerings. Additionally, while the company provided a full demo of the BB10 OS, we believe the details around Hub, Flow, Peek, and Balance were largely known. BlackBerry believes its Keyboard functionality will be a key differentiator, with the capability to ‘flick’ entire words to the screen with a single thumb. It can also recognize multiple languages within a single text or email.”


She continued, adding that the new BBM, BlackBerry Remember, Story Maker and enhanced camera functionality are all compelling features that will draw attention to the new platform.


Jankowski reiterated a Buy rating on BlackBerry shares with a $ 19 price target.


This article was originally published on BGR.com


Gadgets News Headlines – Yahoo! News





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Jenna Miscavige Hill Pens Revealing Scientology Book















02/01/2013 at 08:00 PM EST







Jenna Miscavige and her uncle David inset


Michael Murphree; Inset: Polaris


What was it like to grow up inside Sea Org, the Church of Scientology's most elite body?

In her memoir Beyond Belief, excerpted exclusively below, Jenna Miscavige Hill describes her experiences at the Ranch, a San Jacinto, Calif., boarding school for children of Scientology execs. The niece of church head David Miscavige, she was raised away from her parents, then worked within Sea Org until leaving Scientology in 2005.

Now living near San Diego, married to Dallas Hill and mom to their children Archie, 3, and Winnie, 10 months, she's telling her story, she says, to increase awareness about Scientology: "I realize every day how lucky I am to have gotten out." (When asked to comment on the book's portrayal of its members, the church stated they had not read the book but that "any allegations of neglect are blatantly false.")

Jenna's parents, Ron and Blythe Miscavige, high-ranking members of Sea Org, sent both Jenna and her older brother Justin to the Ranch. There, at age 7, in accordance with Scientologists' belief that they are "Thetans," or immortal spirits, Jenna signed a billion-year contract.

I tried to write my name in my best cursive, the way I'd been learning. I had goose bumps. Just like that, I committed my soul to a billion years of servitude to the Church of Scientology.

Sea Org was run like the Navy: Members wore uniforms and managed all aspects of the church. Married members couldn't have kids; those who already did sent them to be raised communally.

A Sea Org member was required to be on duty for at least 14 hours a day, seven days a week, with a break for an hour of 'family time.' I was too young to understand that seeing your parents only one hour a day was highly unusual.

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"Great Rotation"- A Wall Street fairy tale?

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street's current jubilant narrative is that a rush into stocks by small investors has sparked a "great rotation" out of bonds and into equities that will power the bull market to new heights.


That sounds good, but there's a snag: The evidence for this is a few weeks of bullish fund flows that are hardly unusual for January.


Late-stage bull markets are typically marked by an influx of small investors coming late to the party - such as when your waiter starts giving you stock tips. For that to happen you need a good story. The "great rotation," with its monumental tone, is the perfect narrative to make you feel like you're missing out.


Even if something approaching a "great rotation" has begun, it is not necessarily bullish for markets. Those who think they are coming early to the party may actually be arriving late.


Investors pumped $20.7 billion into stocks in the first four weeks of the year, the strongest four-week run since April 2000, according to Lipper. But that pales in comparison with the $410 billion yanked from those funds since the start of 2008.


"I'm not sure you want to take a couple of weeks and extrapolate it into whatever trend you want," said Tobias Levkovich, chief U.S. equity strategist at Citigroup. "We have had instances where equity flows have picked up in the last two, three, four years when markets have picked up. They've generally not been signals of a continuation of that trend."


The S&P 500 rose 5 percent in January, its best month since October 2011 and its best January since 1997, driving speculation that retail investors were flooding back into the stock market.


Heading into another busy week of earnings, the equity market is knocking on the door of all-time highs due to positive sentiment in stocks, and that can't be ignored entirely. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> ended the week about 4 percent from an all-time high touched in October 2007.


Next week will bring results from insurers Allstate and The Hartford , as well as from Walt Disney , Coca-Cola Enterprises and Visa .


But a comparison of flows in January, a seasonal strong month for the stock market, shows that this January, while strong, is not that unusual. In January 2011 investors moved $23.9 billion into stock funds and $28.6 billion in 2006, but neither foreshadowed massive inflows the rest of that year. Furthermore, in 2006 the market gained more than 13 percent while in 2011 it was flat.


Strong inflows in January can happen for a number of reasons. There were a lot of special dividends issued in December that need reinvesting, and some of the funds raised in December tax-selling also find their way back into the market.


During the height of the tech bubble in 2000, when retail investors were really embracing stocks, a staggering $42.7 billion flowed into equities in January of that year, double the amount that flowed in this January. That didn't end well, as stocks peaked in March of that year before dropping over the next two-plus years.


MOM AND POP STILL WARY


Arguing against a 'great rotation' is not necessarily a bearish argument against stocks. The stock market has done well since the crisis. Despite the huge outflows, the S&P 500 has risen more than 120 percent since March 2009 on a slowly improving economy and corporate earnings.


This earnings season, a majority of S&P 500 companies are beating earnings forecast. That's also the case for revenue, which is a departure from the previous two reporting periods where less than 50 percent of companies beat revenue expectations, according to Thomson Reuters data.


Meanwhile, those on the front lines say mom and pop investors are still wary of equities after the financial crisis.


"A lot of people I talk to are very reluctant to make an emotional commitment to the stock market and regardless of income activity in January, I think that's still the case," said David Joy, chief market strategist at Columbia Management Advisors in Boston, where he helps oversee $571 billion.


Joy, speaking from a conference in Phoenix, says most of the people asking him about the "great rotation" are fund management industry insiders who are interested in the extra business a flood of stock investors would bring.


He also pointed out that flows into bond funds were positive in the month of January, hardly an indication of a rotation.


Citi's Levkovich also argues that bond investors are unlikely to give up a 30-year rally in bonds so quickly. He said stocks only began to see consistent outflows 26 months after the tech bubble burst in March 2000. By that reading it could be another year before a serious rotation begins.


On top of that, substantial flows continue to make their way into bonds, even if it isn't low-yielding government debt. January 2013 was the second best January on record for the issuance of U.S. high-grade debt, with $111.725 billion issued during the month, according to International Finance Review.


Bill Gross, who runs the $285 billion Pimco Total Return Fund, the world's largest bond fund, commented on Twitter on Thursday that "January flows at Pimco show few signs of bond/stock rotation," adding that cash and money markets may be the source of inflows into stocks.


Indeed, the evidence suggests some of the money that went into stock funds in January came from money markets after a period in December when investors, worried about the budget uncertainty in Washington, started parking money in late 2012.


Data from iMoneyNet shows investors placed $123 billion in money market funds in the last two months of the year. In two weeks in January investors withdrew $31.45 billion of that, the most since March 2012. But later in the month money actually started flowing back.


(Additional reporting by Caroline Valetkevitch; Editing by Kenneth Barry)



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India Ink: Highlights of the India Art Fair

NEW DELHI —All roads in Delhi lead to the Okhla Industrial Estate this weekend, where the India Art Fair opened to the public on Friday.

At a preview on Thursday, a well-heeled crowd took in over 3,000 works of art by 105 exhibitors from 24 countries. Eleven interactive art projects, works on loan from the artists, are also on display, as well as Jitish Kallat’s installation of Mohandas K. Gandhi’s letter to Adolf Hitler advising him against war.

Although there’s plenty of art to take in amid all the air-kissing society folks, be sure to wander past the following booths:

GALLERYSKE: The gallery’s director, Sunitha Kumar Emmart, shows a stellar lineup of contemporary artists, including Sudarshan Shetty, Srinivasa Prasad and Prabhavathi Meppayil. Where: booth C-2.

Gallery Espace: Works by Zarina Hashmi, who is currently showing at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, Nilima Sheikh, Rajinder Tikoo and Rina Banerjee. Where: booth B-2.

Samdani Art Foundation: The nonprofit based in Dhaka, Bangladesh, has on display “My Daughter’s Cot,” a baby crib made of stainless steel razor blades, by the artist Tayeba Begum Lipi. Where: booth D-6.

Tasveer: Powerful photography and photo-based art by Maimouna Guerresi, Steve McCurry and Raghu Rai. Where: booth D-9.

Photoink: Great photography, with Vivan Sundaram riffing on the work of his late aunt, Amrita Sher-Gil, and compelling contemporary photos by Dhruv Malhotra. Where: booth F-7.

Seven Art: A must-see is Martand Khosla’s “Site Reconsidered 2,” made of brick dust. Where: Booth C-15.

Scream of London: Pakpoom Silaphan’s “Triple Gandhi on Pepsi” attracted a lot of eyeballs. The gallery’s works have already sold out, according to the fair’s founder, Neha Kirpal. Where: booth A-5.

Imaginart Gallery/Tasneem Gallery: Big-name Spanish artists you don’t typically get to see in India, including works by Salvador Dalí and Pablo Picasso. Where: booth B-9.

TAG Fine Arts: A wall of black butterflies created by Jane Dyer. Where: booth D-5.

Dhoomimal Art Center: A collection of the Indian master Jamini Roy’s works, from the early 1900s to the 1950s. Where: booth J-2.

The Swiss curator Mirjam Varadinis is offering curated walks through the fair.

There are also several don’t-miss Speakers Forum talks:

“Art in the Age of Uprising” includes panelists Ravi Sundaram, a senior fellow at the Center for the Study of Developing Societies; Chus Martínez, chief curator of the El Museo del Barrio in New York, and Juan Gaitán, the curator of the 8th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art. Monica Juneja, chairwoman of global art history at Heidelberg University in Germany, moderates. When: Saturday, Feb. 2, noon to 1:30 p.m.

“The Museum of the 21st Century: A Working Model?” includes panelists Barbara London, a curator from New York’s Museum of Modern Art, Liu Yingjiu, from the Rockbund Art Museum in Shanghai, Sandhini Poddar, from the Guggenheim in New York, and Professor Tapati Guha-Thakurta of Kolkata. Professor Kavita Singh of New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University moderates. When: Sunday, Feb. 3, noon to 1:30 p.m.

There are also various events and in and around Delhi timed to the fair:

This year’s four finalists for the Skoda Prize for Indian Contemporary Art offer something for everyone at the National Gallery of Modern Art. Curated by Girish Shahane, the exhibit includes art by a younger set of contemporary artists, including Shilpa Gupta, L.N. Tallur, Srinivasa Prasad and CAMP. Kids especially will love Mr. Prasad’s “Igloo” and “Rebirth,” both of which involve climbing in and out of structures.

At the Indira Gandhi National Center for the Arts, “Homelands,” a British Council-sponsored exhibit curated by Latika Gupta, explores the idea of nationality, home and identity in 80 works of photography, painting, sculpture and video, many shown for the first time in India.

If you’re an audio buff, don’t miss an “Evening of Sound” on Feb. 2, organized by the artists’ residency Khoj. Arrive at their newly renovated studio, across the street from Select City Walk Mall in Saket at 6 p.m. to hear live performances by Chi-Wei Lin, Rudi Punzo and Robert Millis, then wander to nearby DT Cinemas to hear a sound exhibition curated by Alexis Bhagat and Lauren Rosati. Khoj’s studio is at S-17, Khirkee Extension.

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3 Things That Still Worry Me About BlackBerry






BlackBerry put on a pretty good show on Wednesday when it revealed the Z10 and the Q10, its first new smartphones in a year and a half. The demos were crisp, and the new BlackBerry 10 software looked clever. At the very least, it seems that BlackBerry has finally joined the modern smartphone era.


But despite my interest in BlackBerry’s new phones, I’m still worried about the future of the platform, and not merely because it’s been off the radar for a while. Looking at what BlackBerry did and didn’t announce, and what reviewers are saying about the product, gives me a few big reasons for concern:






Apps, Both Present and Future


BlackBerry deserves credit for having lots of apps out of the gate–more than 70,000, the company says–including some important ones like Twitter, Facebook, Angry Birds and The New York Times. Still, there are some big names missing from the list, including Netflix, YouTube, Spotify and Instagram. You can’t expect a new platform to have everything right away, though, so I don’t want to judge BlackBerry’s current app count too harshly.


It’s the future that I’m really worried about. What happens when the next Instagram comes out, and becomes a sensation on the iPhone and Android? Will BlackBerry be like Windows Phone–that is, just an afterthought in the minds of up-and-coming app developers? The good news is that Android apps are relatively easy to port to BlackBerry 10 (in fact, roughly 40 percent of those 70,000 launch apps are simple ports, ReadWrite notes), so RIM just has to convince developers to make a relatively small effort. We’ll see if they do.


Never Neglect Maps


The consensus among BlackBerry Z10 reviews is that its Maps app is subpar. The Verge complained about inaccurate data, and said the software couldn’t reliably find local businesses. CNet bemoaned a lack of features, such as walking directions, transit maps and street views. Apparently the software doesn’t even let you jump into the Maps app by tapping on an address or map in the web browser. That’s just basic stuff. At least the Maps app includes voice-guided turn-by-turn directions.


In any case, having a good mapping service isn’t just about telling you where to go. It’s about using your location to deliver useful information. Google Now, for instance, can warn you about traffic before your commute home, and Apple‘s Passbook can call up a boarding pass when you get to the airport. These days, a really good standalone Maps app is only part of the equation, and BlackBerry doesn’t even have that yet.


Voice Commands and Virtual Assistants


BlackBerry has added voice commands in its new phones, but the list of supported actions is paltry compared to what Android and the iPhone offer. You can’t ask for movie times, the weather forecast, directions, or things to do. You can’t tell the phone to start playing music, answer a trivia question, calculate numbers or set reminders.


You may argue that it doesn’t matter, that most people don’t rely too heavily on voice commands to begin with. I think that will change as these virtual assistants become faster and support more types of queries. They’ll also become more useful in automobiles–in fact, some car makers are now starting to integrate Siri–and they may some day play a big role in wearable computing, allowing you to communicate by voice when your phone is just out of reach. It’s still early days for this kind of technology, but Apple and Google already have a huge head start. BlackBerry, by comparison, is just getting started.


I’m not saying the new BlackBerry phones are no good, or that no one should use them. Like I said before, the software has some clever ideas, such as the Hub that combines all communications into one area, and the Balance feature that acts as a separate login for business use. But the smartphone industry moves quickly, and BlackBerry’s period of rebuilding has taken its toll in a few key areas. As with before, it’s going to be hard for the company to catch up.


MORE: Check out a video about the new hardware and features


Wireless News Headlines – Yahoo! News





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Channing Tatum All Set to Learn About Diapering















02/01/2013 at 08:00 AM EST







Jenna Dewan-Tatum and Channing Tatum


FameFlynet


First time dad-to-be Channing Tatum already in baby mode – studying baby books and watching documentaries.

But there's one thing he's still lacking: mastering the art of diapering.

"I have never changed a diaper before, so I may need some help learning," Tatum, 32, told PEOPLE at Thursday's New York premiere of his new movie Side Effects, presented by the Cinema Society and Michael Kors.

"I don't have friends who have kids, so it's going to be an interesting experience to learn how to change a diaper. I hope I don't have any problems where the diaper falls off and the baby [poops] on the ground," said PEOPLE’s Sexiest Man Alive, whose baby with wife Jenna Dewan-Tatum, 32, is due this summer.

"But once the baby is born, I'll definitely do the diaper changing. If it means touching the [poop] and getting peed on, I'll still do it. I'm up for the challenge."

One thing the Magic Mike star has mastered is keeping his pregnant wife relaxed and happy.

"Oh man, I'm not even getting into what I do to pamper Jenna. I'm doing anything that she asks for," he said.

"She jokes to me all the time by saying, 'If I feel
good, then the baby feels good or if I'm happy, then the baby is happy.' And I'm like, that is such an urban myth. You're just saying that to get me to do everything for you," he said.

"I know it's probably true, but I like to joke about it and
she hates it. I'll go to the store to pick up shakes or give her a thousand foot rubs. A foot rub now until the nine months if I have to just to keep her happy and comfortable."

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Hedgehog Alert! Prickly pets can carry salmonella


NEW YORK (AP) — Add those cute little hedgehogs to the list of pets that can make you sick.


In the last year, 20 people were infected by a rare but dangerous form of salmonella bacteria, and one person died in January. The illnesses were linked to contact with hedgehogs kept as pets, according to a report released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.


Health officials on Thursday say such cases seem to be increasing.


The CDC recommends thoroughly washing your hands after handling hedgehogs and cleaning pet cages and other equipment outside.


Other pets that carry the salmonella bug are frogs, toads, turtles, snakes, lizards, chicks and ducklings.


Seven of the hedgehog illnesses were in Washington state, including the death — an elderly man from Spokane County who died in January. The other cases were in Alabama, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Oregon.


In years past, only one or two illnesses from this salmonella strain have been reported annually, but the numbers rose to 14 in 2011, 18 last year, and two so far this year.


Children younger than five and the elderly are considered at highest risk for severe illness, CDC officials said.


Hedgehogs are small, insect-eating mammals with a coat of stiff quills. In nature, they sometimes live under hedges and defend themselves by rolling up into a spiky ball.


The critters linked to recent illnesses were purchased from various breeders, many of them licensed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, CDC officials said. Hedgehogs are native to Western Europe, New Zealand and some other parts of the world, but are bred in the United States.


___


Online:


CDC report: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr


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Euro rises, shares gain as Europe's outlook brightens

LONDON (Reuters) - The euro hit a fresh 14-month high and European stocks gained on Friday after economic data raised hopes that the region's downturn has eased, but moves were limited as investors await a U.S. jobs report.


Euro zone factories had their best month in nearly a year during January although the currency bloc is likely to remain mired in recession for a few more months, the latest reading of Markit's Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) showed.


"Providing there are no further setbacks to the region's debt crisis, these data add to the expectation that the euro zone is on course to return to growth by mid-2013," said Chris Williamson, chief economist at data compiler Markit.


The euro hit a high of $1.3657 after the data came out, its highest level since November 2011. The common currency also hit a 33-month high against the yen, rising more than 1 percent to 125.96 yen.


The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index <.fteu3> extended its recent gains by 0.4 percent to 1,169.14 points, near a 23-month high after solid rally since the start of the year. London's FTSE 100 <.ftse>, Paris's CAC-40 <.fchi> and Frankfurt's DAX <.gdaxi> were up between 0.5 and 0.8 percent.


Earlier, China's official PMI for January eased to 50.4, missing market expectations for a rise and underscoring the fragility of the recovery from the economy's weakest year since 1999.


However, a separate private survey showed that growth in China's giant manufacturing sector hit a two-year high in January as domestic demand strengthened, underlining hopes the nation's economic recovery is slowly gaining momentum.


The Chinese data left MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan <.miapj0000pus> little changed


EURO STRENGTH


The euro has risen significantly in recent weeks as the outlook for the 17-nation currency bloc has improved, and also as investors respond to the sharply easier monetary policies of the U.S. Federal Reserve and Bank of Japan.


"The perception is that the ECB is being less supportive and is not providing as much liquidity as the other central banks are," said Andrew Milligan, head of Global Strategy at Standard Life Investments.


At the same time liquidity in the European money markets is being affected by quicker-than-expected repayments of crisis loans handed out by the ECB at the height of the bloc's crisis just over a year ago.


Banks have another two years to pay back the money if they want, but have taken the opportunity this week to return over a quarter of the 489 billion euros ($663.77 billion) they took in the first of the ECB's two "LTRO" handouts.


From now on they can pay back as little or as much of the remaining money as they want each week. After the fast start, analysts are awaiting Friday's details of next week's repayments for clues on whether the pace is likely to continue.


Money market rates have already risen by a quarter of a percentage point since the start the year - the equivalent of a standard ECB interest rate increase - and are likely climb by at least the same amount again if the money continues to drain rapidly from the system.


For Europe's struggling countries and the ECB this is not an ideal situation, effectively tightening monetary policy and creating unwanted stress just as economies are showing fragile signs of improvement.


JOBS EYED


Friday's U.S. nonfarm payrolls data due at 8:30 a.m. ET could be a another factor to drive the euro higher, as a strong report would knock the safe-haven dollar.


The dollar was trading at a 3-1/2 month low against a basket of currencies <.dxy> on Friday after falling 0.3 percent to 78.97 points.


Employers are expected to have added 160,000 new jobs to their payrolls in January, a marginal step up from December's 155,000 gain, according to a Reuters survey of economists. The unemployment rate is seen holding steady at 7.8 percent.


The U.S. economy unexpectedly contracted in the fourth quarter, its weakest performance since emerging from recession in 2009, and it grew just 2.2 percent in the whole of 2012.


The U.S. ISM factory survey, a national report on the state of American manufacturers, is also due at 10 a.m. ET.


(Additional reporting by Marc Jones,; editing by Philippa Fletcher)



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IHT Rendezvous: The Indian State is a Coward

NEW DELHI – When the Indian state wants to laugh it probably reads Hegel’s hypothesis, “The state is the actuality of the ethical Idea.” The language of the Indian state is often sentimental, but in reality it is a practical corporation that tries to appease in the easiest ways possible its most valued consumers. Which is not a bad thing. But, like most practical people, the state is a coward. It wants to completely eliminate imaginary risks to its survival and is willing to do even stupid things that have no meaning to achieve that. That is the reason why there is no substantial free speech in India. The state sides with those who are offended even if their claim is farcical. This is the subject of my latest Letter from India.

At the Jaipur Literature Festival last week, the sociologist Ashis Nandy said that most of India’s corrupt people were from the backward castes. Some listeners claimed to be offended, and the police brought charges against him, including one under a very stringent act meant to protect the backward castes from “atrocities.” The annual festival attracts some of the best writers and academics in the world and hundreds of thousands of people are in attendance over five days. But if the lesson now is that speakers have to be cautious, the festival will find it hard to attract some of the world’s most interesting writers and intellectuals.

Page Two

Posts written by the IHT’s Page Two columnists.

Last year, Salman Rushdie was to attend the festival but had to cancel after some Muslim groups objected and the Indian government and the government of Rajasthan (the state of which Jaipur is the capital) said they could not guarantee his physical safety. A few days later he appeared at a conclave in New Delhi and there were no protests at all. He even taunted the Indian government for the uneventfulness of his appearance in India. He has since visited India at least once. The protest against his planned attendance at the Jaipur festival and the government’s reaction were a part of the same imbecilic farce that often collides with artistic and intellectual freedom in India. There is nothing valiant about the loss of the freedom of expression in India, as it often happens for no good reason at all. Just a small bunch of thugs or fools can influence the state to take their side.

The release of a Tamil-language film, which also has or will soon have versions in other Indian languages, has been blocked in several parts of southern India by some Muslim groups whose leaders have not even seen it. The film’s director, co-producer and lead actor, Kamal Haasan, had faced a similar problem a few years ago from many quarters, particularly Hindu groups, before the release of a film about a man who sets out to assassinate Gandhi. A Hindu nationalistic group said it was offended by its portrayal of historical figures. And, once again, the politicians took the side of the fanatics. Mr. Haasan went around for days in a green shirt and green trousers to irritate Hindu groups with the color of Islam. During the controversy he told me in an interview that he was very surprised that nobody had yet objected to the fact that the film depicted Gandhi as being shot and killed.

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Nintendo chief rules out price cuts for Wii U






TOKYO (AP) — Nintendo‘s president Thursday ruled out price cuts for its new Wii U home console as a way to boost sales, vowing to become profitable again in its core businesses as smartphones and tablets increasingly threaten specialized game machines.


Satoru Iwata, speaking at a Tokyo hotel to investors and reporters a day after earnings were released, acknowledged the sales momentum for the Wii U, as well as the 3DS hand-held game machine, had run out of steam during the key year-end shopping season, especially in the U.S.






But he said no price cuts were in the works. Price cuts are common in the gaming industry to woo buyers, but the move can backfire by trimming revenue. The Wii U now sells for about $ 300 in the U.S. and 25,000 yen in Japan.


“We are already offering it at a good price,” he said.


Iwata said he expects operating profit of more than 100 billion yen in the 12 months ending March 2014, promising that as “a commitment.”


But he acknowledged more work was needed to have consumers understand the Wii U, which went on sale globally late last year, as well as producing more game software to draw buyers.


All game machines have suffered in recent years from the advent of smartphones and other mobile devices that have become more sophisticated and offer games and other forms of entertainment.


Nintendo returned to net profit for the April-December period of 2012 from deep losses the previous year, but that was due to a perk from a weaker yen, which helps Japanese exporters such as Nintendo.


Its operating result, which removes currency fluctuations, was a loss of 5.86 billion yen ($ 64 million), and Nintendo expects that to swell to a 20 billion yen ($ 220 million) loss for the full business year ending March 2013 as sales of its game consoles fall short of expectations.


Iwata said Nintendo is preparing more game software, including those developed in-house, for the end of this year.


Kyoto-based Nintendo, which makes Super Mario and Pokemon games, lowered its full year sales forecast Wednesday to 670 billion yen ($ 7.4 billion) from 810 billion yen ($ 8.9 billion). It also said it was going to sell fewer Wii U consoles for the fiscal year through March than its previous projection. The Wii U has a touch-screen tablet controller called GamePad and a TV-watching feature called TVii.


The company forecasts it will sell 4 million Wii U consoles for the current fiscal year, ending March 31, down from its earlier estimate of 5.5 million units. The Wii U, which went on sale late last year, was the first major new game console to arrive in stores in years.


Nintendo, also behind the Donkey Kong and Zelda games, lowered its full year sales forecast for Wii U game software units to 16 million from 24 million.


Iwata said last year holiday sales quickly dissipated in the U.S. and some European nations, including Great Britain, the key market. He said the U.S. home console sales were the worst for Nintendo in nearly a decade.


He said Nintendo needs hit games to push console sales, and the company remains confident Wii U will prove more popular with time.


“The chicken-and-game problem has not been solved,” he said of the need for both game software and machine hardware.


“I feel a deep sense of responsibility for not being able to produce results for our year-end business,” said Iwata.


He declined to say what he would do if the company failed to attain the promised operating profits.


Nintendo sank into a loss the previous fiscal year largely because of price cuts for its hand-held 3DS game machine, which shows three-dimensional imagery without special glasses. That machine is also struggling in most global markets.


Shigeru Miyamoto, Nintendo’s famed game designer, said what was missing were games for the Wii U that made its appeal clear. The progress in smartphones has also posed a challenge for Nintendo, he said.


“People have to try it to see it is fun,” Miyamoto said of Wii U.


___


Follow Yuri Kageyama on Twitter at www.twitter.com/yurikageyama


Gaming News Headlines – Yahoo! News





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