As developers for tablets and smartphones we like to keep abreast of the latest mobile technology developments . This is a daily digest of mobile development and related technology news gathered from the BBC, the New York Times, New Scientist and the Globe and Mail to name a few. We scour the web for articles concerning, iPhone, iPad and android development, iOS and android operating systems as well as general articles on advances in mobile technology. We hope you find this useful and that it helps to keep you up to date with the latest technology developments.
8 Worst-Run Companies In America
This story was originally published by 24/7 Wall St.
What makes a company truly poorly run? Businesses make mistakes almost daily, and industries can transform rapidly, eroding even a market leader’s competitive advantage.
Companies that are struggling may have declining fundamentals, such as revenues and earnings. Ultimately, however, it is the market that determines how well, or poorly, a company is run. All of the eight businesses identified by 24/7 Wall St. as America’s worst run companies declined in three key measures — earnings per share, revenue, and share price — in the last year.
In order to be considered truly poorly run, a company must have a track record of missed opportunities, mismanaged risks, poor operational decisions, or executive malfeasance. In short, a company must demonstrate a pattern of decision making that calls into question the ability of its management and directors to adequately provide returns to shareholders.
While the U.S. stock market has enjoyed a rally in the past five years, the worst run companies reviewed by 24/7 Wall St. failed to match the S&P 500 rise of 82% during that time. Some of these companies have actually lost market value over that stretch. Avon Products (NYSE: AVP) is the most notable example. Avon’s share price tumbled nearly 74% over the last five years, as its China business transformed from a huge growth opportunity into a boondoggle.
Some of the poorly managed companies have missed opportunities on which others capitalized. Among the best examples is McDonald’s (NYSE: MCD), which did not follow fast-casual rivals in creating a menu that was simplified and customizable. GameStop (NYSE: GME), too, missed a major opportunity to make a name for itself in digital distribution for video games, a market that game maker Valve entered over a decade ago when it launched Steam.
In other instances, companies have made poor operational decisions. An example is the slow pace at which Staples (NASDAQ: SPLS) has closed locations. Staples built an online business without adequately downsizing its brick-and-mortar locations, even though sales did not justify the large number of stores.
Click here to see the worst run companies
In some cases, management decisions may not have had shareholders’ best interests at heart. Freeport-McMoRan’s (NYSE: FCX) acquisition of two oil producers in 2012 immediately raised questions of self-dealing and led to a shareholder lawsuit. The lawsuit alleged that, with six board members holding seats on one of the companies involved, Freeport directors were effectively using company funds to bail out their own investment.
Many of these companies are not without hope. McDonald’s could outperform if it is able to again draw in customers with an improved menu. Mattel (NYSE: MAT), too, might surge if kids rediscover the appeal of Barbie. And IBM (NYSE: IBM) may rise if the company becomes more competitive in cloud computing.
In order to determine America’s worst run companies, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed all S&P 500 stocks that declined in the past year. We then screened for companies where the trailing 12-month revenue and diluted earnings per share had declined from the year before. 24/7 Wall St. editors then reviewed this list for companies that had missed major opportunities to expand, made operational choices that undermined their financial performance over a multiyear period, or whose managers and directors failed to adequately serve shareholder interests. Figures on revenue and diluted EPS, as well as industry classifications, are from S&P CapIQ. One-year share price data, also from CapIQ, is as of December 8, 2014.
These are America’s Worst Run Companies
Sony Playstation Still Down After Cyberattack
(Adds that FBI is investigating attack, comments from Sony executive)
By Jim Finkle
BOSTON, Dec 27 (Reuters) – Sony Corp worked for a third day on Saturday to restore services to its PlayStation network as the FBI said it was looking into the disruption, which began on Christmas Day.
“We are aware of the reports and are investigating the Sony PlayStation matter,” Federal Bureau of Investigation spokeswoman Jenny Shearer said via email. She did not elaborate.
Meanwhile Sony said on Saturday that the attack had prevented some people who received consoles for Christmas from using their new machines on the PlayStation network, which lets gamers compete with people around the world via the Internet.
“If you received a PlayStation console over the holidays and have been unable to log onto the network, know that this problem is temporary and is not caused by your game console,” Sony executive Catherine Jensen said on the company’s U.S. PlayStation blog.
Some customers posted complaints about the outage on the blog. “Three days without PSN. That’s absurd,” said one of them.
“We understand your frustration,” Jensen responded early Saturday afternoon. “Our engineers are working to restore service as quickly as possible!”
Later in the day she said the company had restored access for some users and would keep bringing more back online. Sony declined to say how many of PSN’s 56 millions users had been affected by the attack.
The blog said the problems were the result of “high levels of traffic designed to disrupt connectivity and online game play,” which is widely known as a distributed denial-of-service attack.
It was Sony’s second recent high-profile encounter with hackers after an unprecedented attack on its Hollywood studio, which the U.S. government attributed to North Korea and linked to the release of the low-brow comedy “The Interview.”
A hacker activist group known as Lizard Squad said it was responsible for the PSN outage as well as delays on Microsoft’s Corp’s Xbox network; Microsoft quickly fixed the problem.
The group has claimed responsibility for previous attacks, including ones on PSN in early December and August.
The August attack coincided with a bomb scare in which Lizard Squad tweeted to American Airlines that it heard explosives were on board a Dallas-to-San Diego flight carrying an executive with Sony Online Entertainment.
Sony has been the victim of some of the most notorious cyberattacks in history. Besides the breach at its Hollywood studio, hackers stole data belonging to 77 million PlayStation Network users in 2011. (Reporting by Jim Finkle; Editing by Stephen Powell and Steve Orlofsky)
Neil deGrasse Tyson's Provocative Tweets About Christmas Started An Internet Flame War
Neil deGrasse Tyson undoubtedly hopes you and your family are having a wonderful holiday season. Nevertheless, a series of tweets sent by the astrophysicist on Christmas have incensed some, as he provocatively questioned both the significance of the holiday — and the reason we celebrate it.
Tyson kicked off the tweets by posing this cheeky question to his nearly 2.9 million followers:
QUESTION: ThIs year, what do all the world’s Muslims and Jews call December 25th? ANSWER: Thursday
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) December 25, 2014
Tyson followed up the rhetorical question by wishing a happy birthday to a significant figure who was born on Christmas:
On this day long ago, a child was born who, by age 30, would transform the world. Happy Birthday Isaac Newton b. Dec 25, 1642
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) December 25, 2014
Before pausing to reflect on the history of the day:
Merry Christmas to all. A Pagan holiday (BC) becomes a Religious holiday (AD). Which then becomes a Shopping holiday (USA).
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) December 25, 2014
Finally, Tyson ended with a Rudolf-themed physics lesson:
Santa knows Physics: Of all colors, Red Light penetrates fog best. That’s why Benny the Blue-nosed reindeer never got the gig
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) December 25, 2014
The messages drew a strong response across the Internet, with incensed commenters referring to the physicist as “a bigoted hack” and a “satanic shrill,” among other names.
On Friday, apparently in response to the strong reactions his statements drew a day earlier, Tyson again took to Twitter, this time to ponder, “Imagine a world in which we are all enlightened by objective truths rather than offended by them.”
Tyson has since posted a lengthier response on his Facebook page, in which he explains the calendar calculations behind his birthday wish for Isaac Newton, and distances himself from calls he’s anti-Christian. “If a person actually wanted to express anti-Christian sentiment,” he writes, “my guess is that alerting people of Isaac Newton’s birthday would appear nowhere on the list.”
READ the full post in full, below:
Post by Neil deGrasse Tyson.
Aereo Cleared To Auction TV Streaming Technology In Bankruptcy Deal
(Reuters) – A bankruptcy court has allowed defunct video streaming company Aereo Inc to auction its TV streaming technology assets, according to court papers published on Friday.
The U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan ruled on Wednesday that Aereo could sell its assets, after the company reached an agreement with broadcasters over the sale process.
These broadcasters include CBS Corp, Comcast Corp’s NBC, Walt Disney Co’s ABC and Twenty-First Century Fox Inc’s Fox.
Under the agreement, Aereo will allow the broadcasters to attend the auction of the assets and provide them a weekly update on the status of the sale process.
Aereo filed for bankruptcy in November, five months after the U.S. Supreme Court said it violated broadcasters’ copyrights by capturing live and recorded programs on miniature antennas and transmitting them to subscribers for $8-$12 a month.
That decision effectively closed down New York-based Aereo, whose business model was to offer a less-expensive alternative to cable television.
The case is In re: Aereo Inc, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of New York, No. 14-13200.
(Reporting by Ankit Ajmera in Bengaluru; Editing by Kirti Pandey)
Xbox and PlayStation rebuild service
Xbox and PlayStation make progress in restoring their gaming sites after a hacking attack that caused severe problems over Christmas.
Insurers Dogged By Claims Of Slanted Sandy Reports
NEW YORK (AP) — When Superstorm Sandy hit the East Coast, flood insurance companies working for the Federal Emergency Management Agency dispatched an army of structural engineers to do some detective work.
Their assignment: Find out how much damage to policyholders’ homes was caused by surging seawater and how much predated the storm.
Now, two years later, lawyers representing about 1,500 homeowners are trying to prove that some engineering firms hired to inspect the damage issued bogus reports to give skeptical insurers ammunition to deny claims.
Broken foundations, the lawyers say, were falsely blamed on poor construction or long-term settling of the soil. Cracked and warped walls were written off as being due to old age.
So far, there’s been a little proof available publicly. Some engineers who worked the coast after the storm say a lot of homeowners were simply unaware of long-standing, but hidden problems exposed by the storm.
But the issue got the attention of a federal judge in New York after a Long Island family uncovered evidence that an engineer who examined their property had been instructed by a supervisor to reverse his initial finding that the flood caused irreparable structural damage.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Gary Brown ordered insurers to produce reams of additional records that could help reveal whether engineering contractors edited damage reports in ways that improperly minimized payouts to hundreds or even thousands of storm victims. “These unprincipled practices may be widespread,” Brown wrote in his Nov. 7 order.
New York’s attorney general has opened a probe. FEMA has asked its inspector general to investigate.
Homeowners made similar claims about doctored engineering reports after Hurricane Katrina, when some insurers were accused of trying to shift blame from the 2005 storm’s winds to its monster flood, which wasn’t covered by homeowner policies.
This time, though, there is no wind-versus-water fight, and it isn’t clear why any insurance company would have a motive to cheat. Most were merely processing claims for FEMA; none of their own money was at stake. The government pays insurers marginally more to approve a claim than to deny one.
“There is simply no incentive … to try to guide the engineer to an opinion, or to try to find no coverage,” said Henry Neal Conolly, president of Wright Flood, the nation’s largest flood insurance company. He wrote in an email to The Associated Press that he was “not sure at all what the alleged conspiracy is or could be not to pay claims.”
Lawyers for flood victims have suggested that fighting claims is so deeply ingrained in the insurance industry’s DNA that it is applying the same bare-knuckle tactics to the National Flood Insurance Program out of force of habit. Others say the industry knows the program is under financial strain and is trying to help preserve it so they can continue to collect fees for selling and serving policies.
Insurers can also be penalized by FEMA if they pay a claim later determined to be invalid, though in recent years those sanctions have been rare and light. From 2011 to 2014, FEMA imposed just $742,000 in penalties on flood insurance contractors that were found to have overpaid claims, according to agency figures. That’s a trifling amount compared to the $8.1 billion in flood insurance payouts made to 132,000 Sandy victims.
To homeowners who feel shortchanged, motive doesn’t matter.
“I can’t say why it’s happening, but it’s definitely happening,” said Chris Gerold, an attorney representing some of the roughly 1,500 homeowners in New York and New Jersey who are suing over what they say are improperly denied flood insurance payments.
The scrutiny of engineering firms began after a New York couple, Deborah Ramey and Robert Kaible, raised questions about damage reports prepared on a badly flooded investment property they owned in Long Beach.
The engineer who visited the house in December 2012 initially concluded that it suffered a partial foundation collapse in the flood. But those findings were rejected by a supervisor at his engineering firm, Louisiana-based U.S. Forensic. The manager then rewrote the report with a reverse conclusion, that the home’s sloping floors and tilted walls were the result of long-term settling, not flooding. As a result, the bulk of the insurance claim was denied.
The family complained so loudly that their insurer, Wright Flood, asked U.S. Forensic to do a second inspection.
When the engineer returned, he was carrying his first draft of the report, which the family read and photographed.
U.S. Forensic stood by its work, saying the report was changed because the original draft contained gross errors and unsupported assumptions. But after conducting hearings, Brown ruled Nov. 7 that the revisions, made by an engineer who hadn’t actually visited the property, were “baseless.”
The judge also said some details within the report appeared to have been invented to cover up shortcomings of the initial inspection. He accused U.S. Forensic of engaging in “reprehensible gamesmanship” and ordered all insurance companies in Sandy-related litigation in New York to disclose any similar draft reports.
Since then, a Texas lawyer, Steve Mostyn, has filed additional lawsuits accusing another engineering firm of misconduct.
The suits said a manager at HiRise Engineering, of Uniondale, New York, completely rewrote two reports submitted by a freelancing Brooklyn engineer, Harold Weinberg, then affixed his signature without his consent.
In one of those reports, Weinberg had written that “the entire cellar, including the slab and the foundation walls” of a Brooklyn home “were damaged extensively” by the flood. That was replaced by a conclusion that “there were no structural damages observed that were caused by flooding.” The final report blamed cracks in the house on regular building settlement over many years.
HiRise did not respond to a request for comment.
Lawyers for most of the suing homeowners said they have been getting additional documents over the past few weeks and are reviewing them, but have yet to receive the bulk of the paperwork.
At the urging of members of Congress, FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate wrote to insurance contractors Dec. 5 saying he was “deeply concerned” about allegations of underpayments and “disreputable engineering practices.”
“We must do better,” he wrote.
Fugate also expressed concern about criticism that insurance company lawyers might be on track to spend more to litigate claims than it would cost to settle them.
On Dec. 2, a panel of magistrate judges said some industry lawyers were unreasonably delaying settlements and unnecessarily inflating legal costs for both sides. So far, FEMA has spent $12.4 million on litigation related to Sandy flood insurance.
After Sandy, engineering firms working for the insurance industry relied heavily on independent subcontractors with varying levels of experience to investigate damage.
The job included a close examination to look for signs that the damage was there before the flood. In dozens of reports reviewed by the AP, engineers wrote that they ruled out flood damage after noticing previous repair attempts, like shims placed beneath sagging support beams or layers of patching material built up over a crack.
Engineering experts told the AP that it isn’t always easy to say for sure what caused damage. Nevertheless, engineers were told not to hedge their findings or express uncertainty.
“It is critical that you provide conclusive and unambiguous opinions as to causation,” said instruction materials that HiRise provided to at least one inspector. “Weakly worded conclusions using words such as ‘appears,’ ‘may have,’ ‘likely,’ etc. will be rejected by our clients.”
Several independent engineers who inspected homes in Sandy’s aftermath told the AP they were occasionally challenged by supervisors who felt findings were unsupported by the evidence or could have been worded differently. But those engineers said they only changed their reports if they agreed with the suggested alterations.
“At the end of the day, it was my judgment and my opinion,” said Frank Sadeghi, whose Island Heights, New Jersey-based firm, Morgan Engineering LLC, inspected about 100 homes for HiRise.
John Mann, an engineer who inspected more than 100 homes after Sandy, said many of the changes suggested for his reports were grammatical in nature.
Bill Mancini, an engineer who did inspections for U.S. Forensic, said the company gave him a template report containing boilerplate language he was supposed to use when he drafted his conclusions. But he said he was never pressured to turn in a dishonest report by his supervisors.
Some homeowners and their building contractors, on the other hand, pushed hard for reports that could be used to justify a bigger insurance claim, he said.
“There’s a lot of fraud,” Mancini said.
In training materials prepared for court-appointed mediators, two lead attorneys for flood insurance carriers, Gerald Nielsen and Bill Treas, said they believed that a “very large percentage” of the suits filed by policyholders involved “significant issues of misrepresentation.”
They also said the threat of an audit would keep insurers from settling lawsuits unless homeowners could document proof of additional covered damage.
There are no FEMA financial penalties for insurers found to have underpaid claims. The government picks up most of the costs of litigation.
“It is safer for the … carrier to simply let the court rule at a trial upon the merits than to agree to a settlement not in accord with FEMA’s view of FEMA’s rules,” Nielsen and Treas wrote.
___
Kunzelman reported from Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
___
The AP National Investigative Team can be reached at investigate@ap.org.
The 29 Most Spectacular Space Photos Of 2014
The year 2014 was a stellar one for spaceflight, what with ESA’s Rosetta mission putting a robotic lander on a distant comet and NASA successfully testing its Orion spacecraft.
But 2014 was also a great year for space photography, as you can see from these remarkable 29 images (scroll down) picked for your viewing pleasure by your friends at HuffPost Science.
Join us for a trip through the cosmos–and be prepared to pick your jaw up off the floor.
Photos curated by Damon Scheluer and Macrina Cooper-White.
North Korean Internet, 3G Mobile Network Shut Down For Hours
By Jack Kim
SEOUL, Dec 27 (Reuters) – North Korea called U.S. President Barack Obama a “monkey” and blamed Washington on Saturday for Internet outages it has experienced during a confrontation with the United States over the hacking of the film studio Sony Pictures.
The National Defense Commission, the North’s ruling body chaired by state leader Kim Jong Un, said Obama was responsible for Sony’s belated decision to release the action comedy “The Interview,” which depicts a plot to assassinate Kim.
“Obama always goes reckless in words and deeds like a monkey in a tropical forest,” an unnamed spokesman for the commission said in a statement carried by the official KCNA news agency, using a term seemingly designed to cause racial offense that North Korea has resorted to previously.
In Hawaii, where Obama is vacationing, a White House official said the administration had no immediate comment on the latest North Korean statement blaming the United States for the Internet outages and insulting the president.
Sony canceled the release of the film when large cinema chains refused to screen it following threats of violence from hackers, but then put it out on limited release after Obama said Sony was caving in to North Korean pressure.
Obama promised retaliation against North Korea, but did not specify what form it would take.
North Korea’s main Internet sites suffered intermittent disruptions this week, including a complete outage of nearly nine hours, before links were largely restored on Tuesday.
But its Internet and 3G mobile networks were paralyzed again on Saturday evening, China’s official Xinhua news agency reported, and the North Korean government blamed the United States for systemic instability in the country’s networks.
Dyn Research, a U.S. firm that monitors telecommunications infrastructure, said on Saturday that North Korea’s Internet access had been restored after a national outage that lasted more than five hours.
Jim Cowie, Dyn’s chief scientist, said it was a “sharp” outage that appeared to immediately sever access across the nation, and the restoration also appeared to be equally fast.
“It could have been something as routine as maintenance or it could have been a continuation of the things we saw in the past week, which looked more like attacks,” Cowie said.
In its statement on Saturday, the North again rejected an accusation by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation that North Korea was behind the cyberattack on Sony Pictures, and demanded the United States produce evidence for its allegation.
The National Defense Commission also dismissed U.S. denials of involvement in North Korea’s Internet outages.
“The United States, with its large physical size and oblivious to the shame of playing hide and seek as children with runny noses would, has begun disrupting the Internet operations of the main media outlets of our republic,” it said.
In a separate commentary, the North denied any role in cyberattacks on South Korea’s nuclear power plant operator, calling the suggestion that it had done so part of a “smear campaign” by unpopular South Korean leaders.
A South Korean official investigating the attacks this week, which led to leaks of internal data from Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power, said Seoul was not ruling out North Korean involvement.
“The South Korean puppet authorities are working hard to link this case with (us), though the truth about it has not been probed,” Minju Joson, the official publication of the North’s cabinet, said in a commentary carried by KCNA. (Additional reporting by Julia Edwards in Hawaii and Jim Finkle in Boston; Editing by Kevin Liffey, Mark Heinrich and Dan Grebler)
Mars Hill Church's Former Pastor Mark Driscoll Is Back With A Flashy New Website
Pastor Mark Driscoll may be aiming for comeback.
The disgraced evangelical preacher, who recently resigned from the Seattle megachurch network he spent 18 years building, has reportedly launched a website filled with sermons and other free resources.
News about the website emerged just days before Mars Hill Church formally dissolves on Dec. 31, Seattle PI reports.
Along with offering sermons and free ebooks, the website also asks for donations. It claims the funds will be sent to “Learning For Living,” an “application-pending registered 501(c)3 nonprofit organization.”
Mark DeMoss, a friend who serves as Driscoll’s pro bono spokesperson, told HufPost that the pastor recently set up Learning For Living to manage his Bible teaching content, since he can’t provide content through Mars Hill anymore.
It is a low-key operation with no paid staff. He simply wanted a way to make sermon and written content available, much of it for free, some of it for a contribution, and is doing so now at markdriscoll.org. Learning for Living is the non-profit organization name through which people can contribute and/or order materials. He just got it up and running in recent days.
The Huffington Post used the IRS’ “Exempt Organizations Select Check” to search for an organization in Washington state named “Learning for Living” that is currently eligible to receive tax-deductible charitable contributions. The search yielded no results on Tuesday.
Patheos blogger Warren Throckmorton noted that that Driscoll’s website was registered to the Mars Hill Fellowship. In fact, Driscoll’s design closely resembles the church’s current site. However, Mars Hill’s current Communications & Editorial Manager Justin Dean told The Huffington Post that the similarities end there:
That domain is one that Mars Hill has had registered for quite some time but we never used. It has now been transferred to Mark Driscoll, and the domain registration to Mars Hill Fellowship is outdated (I believe it is now updated). The site is in no way affiliated with Mars Hill Church or Mars Hill Fellowship.
Driscoll has largely stayed under the radar since his resignation in October. He did, however, preach briefly at the Gateway Church Conference in Dallas-Ft. Worth. He told the crowd that his family was receiving death threats, and asked for prayers.
“I’ve cried a lot lately,” he said. “It’s been a rough season for the family.”
The pastor’s fall from grace can be traced back to a number of factors — including allegations of plagiarism, crude comments he made online under a pseudonym, and questions about church finances. He was removed from the church planting group Acts29 last August, according to Seattle PI.
However, the bio on his website omits that stain on Driscoll’s reputation. It simply notes that Driscoll is the organization’s co-founder, while listing other redeeming qualities.
Pastor Mark Driscoll is a Jesus-following, mission-leading, church-serving, people-loving, Bible-preaching pastor. . . With a skillful mix of bold presentation, accessible teaching, and unrelenting compassion for those who are hurting the most—particularly women who are victims of sexual and physical abuse and assault—Pastor Mark has taken biblical Christianity into cultural corners rarely explored by evangelicals.
But can Driscoll’s reputation survive the fall? According to megachurch expert Scott Thumma, it depends on how many people he can draw back into his fold.
“If (Driscoll) can continue to draw people in and have a successful ministry, then his authority — even if it has been questioned — will still rest on what he’s producing,” Thumma told RNS.
When will man become machine?
What will smarter machines mean for the future of the human race?
North Korea Blames U.S. For Shutting Down Its Internet, Says Obama Was Behind 'The Interview' Release
HYUNG-JIN KIM, Associated Press
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea called President Barack Obama “a monkey” and blamed the U.S. on Saturday for shutting down its Internet amid the hacking row over the comedy “The Interview.”
North Korea has denied involvement in a crippling cyberattack on Sony Pictures but has expressed fury over the comedy depicting an assassination of its leader Kim Jong Un. After Sony Pictures initially called off the release in a decision criticized by Obama, the movie has opened this week.
On Saturday, the North’s powerful National Defense Commission, the country’s top governing body led by Kim, said that Obama was behind the release of “The Interview.” It described the movie as illegal, dishonest and reactionary.
“Obama always goes reckless in words and deeds like a monkey in a tropical forest,” an unidentified spokesman at the commission’s Policy Department said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.
He also accused Washington for intermittent outages of North Korea websites this week, after the U.S. had promised to respond to the Sony hack.
There was no immediate reaction from the White House on Saturday.
According to the North Korea commission’s spokesman, “the U.S., a big country, started disturbing the Internet operation of major media of the DPRK, not knowing shame like children playing a tag.”
The commission said the movie was the results of a hostile U.S. policy toward North Korea, and threatened the U.S. with unspecified consequences.
North Korea and the U.S. remain technically in a state of war because the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty. The rivals also are locked in an international standoff over the North’s nuclear and missile programs and its alleged human rights abuses. The U.S. stations about 28,500 troops in South Korea as deterrence against North Korean aggression.
Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Sony Tries Unusual Experiment With Simultaneous Release Of 'The Interview' In Theaters, On Demand
LINDSEY BAHR, AP Film Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) — “The Interview” was never supposed to be a paradigm-shifting film. But unusual doesn’t even begin to describe the series of events that transpired over the past few weeks, culminating in the truly unprecedented move by a major studio to release a film in theaters and on digital platforms simultaneously.
Sony is in uncharted waters now with the film, which earned $1.04 million from 331 locations on Thursday, according to studio estimates, in addition to the untold VOD grosses.
“Considering the incredibly challenging circumstances, we are extremely grateful to the people all over the country who came out to experience “The Interview” on the first day of its unconventional release,” said Rory Bruer, president of worldwide distribution for Sony Pictures in a statement.
For a film that would have just come and gone in the usual 3,000 theaters without much fanfare, the $40 million comedy has now become an accidental case study in the world of day-and-date releases, in which titles are available both in theaters and for digital rental simultaneously. The industry is watching closely to see just where audiences will choose to place their dollars in the coming days and weeks. The big question is whether or not this strategy could be viable for major releases in the future.
While a $3,142 per-theater average and sold-out showings when audiences had the option to watch the film from the comfort of their own homes is nothing to scoff at, analysts agree that it probably doesn’t signal the beginning of a significant change in how Hollywood does business.
Day-and-date releases are nothing new, for one. Independent distributors have embraced this strategy for years. But those are generally small films with even smaller budgets_ones that can’t afford a more traditional, widespread marketing campaign.
For the major studios, it’s never really been an option.
Theater chains depend on exclusive first-run content to survive. If audiences were given the choice to just rent anything from a mid-budget comedy to a $200 million blockbuster on the day of its release, theaters would undoubtedly suffer.
“The last thing the major theater chains want is for this kind of strategy to be employed by the major studios on a more frequent basis,” said BoxOfficeGuru.com editor Gitesh Pandya. Earlier this year, Warner Bros. experimented with an unconventional day-and-date release for “Veronica Mars.” Theater chains Regal and Cinemark declined to screen the film because of its online availability. The film ended up showing on 270 screens, most of which were AMC.
“The relationship between big studios and exhibitors is so monumental that they’re not going to start changing things around anytime soon. Possibly down the road, little by little. But the old-school model of putting your major releases in 3,000 theaters nationwide will stay intact for the time being,” Pandya said.
Paul Dergarabedian, a senior media analyst for box office tracker Rentrak, agreed. “Theatrical is the engine that drives everything else. I don’t think this is a sudden gateway to studios wanting to release films this way,” he said.
Also, “The Interview” is an imperfect case. Patriotism, free speech, pure curiosity and even the desire to be part of the nationwide conversation have all played in to why audiences flocked to theaters on Christmas Day to see the movie.
“Awareness is through the roof,” Dergarabedian said. “People went out to the theaters and made an event out of it. They’re going to be talking about this for a long time. That’s a very interesting and unusual phenomenon that’s usually reserved for films like ‘The Hobbit’ or ‘Star Wars.’ “
Added Pandya: “Audiences who would otherwise never go to see a Seth Rogen movie were hearing about it and decided to come out to see what all the fuss is about.”
Long-term prospects for “The Interview” at the box office remain a mystery. Pandya believes that theatrical grosses will be frontloaded, and that’s at least partially attributable to the quality of the film.
“The movie is mediocre,” he said. “If it were a brilliant film, the word of mouth would carry it week to week.” He predicts a dramatic drop off when the holidays end.
Also, the public may never know how the movie fared on the digital platforms. Smaller distributors like Radius-TWC, who released “Snowpiercer” on demand while it was still in theaters, have started pulling back the veil on VOD financials, but it’s unlikely that Sony will ever give the public a peek into “The Interview’s” success or failure online.
“I’m sure they’re not that impressive. For studios, the biggest part of reporting box office is to brag,” Pandya said. “If the numbers aren’t brag-worthy, they’re probably going to keep it in their own files.”
“The Interview” might now forever be in the history books, but it probably won’t change the way audiences see new movies. For the big movies, theatrical will always come first, Dergarabedian said.
“It’s a system that works and audiences like it,” he said.
Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Amazon's Enormous Same-Day Delivery Growth Comes At A Price
Amazon hit a new record for its same-day deliveries this holiday season, with 10 times as many items shipped as last year, the company announced in a Friday press release.
With the company racking up all these speedy deliveries, it might be worth revisiting the woes of workers tasked with transporting items from the e-commerce giant’s warehouses to customers’ doors.
In April, The Huffington Post’s Dave Jamieson profiled Myron Ballard, a driver based out of Washington, D.C., for LaserShip, a shipping service hired by Amazon to meet its same-day delivery deadlines.
Technically hired as an “independent contractor,” Ballard received little support for the work he was doing. Delivering about 150 Amazon packages a day might have earned him, on average, $225.
But that money was spread thin covering his expenses.
Per Jamieson’s story:
Ballard had to purchase the cargo van he drives for work. He doesn’t get reimbursed for the wear and tear he puts on it; for the gasoline he pours into it on a near-daily basis; for the auto insurance he needs to carry; or for the parking tickets he inevitably racks up downtown. He doesn’t even get reimbursed for the LaserShip uniform he’s obliged to purchase and wear.
“It’s like they want us to be employees, but they don’t want to pay for it,” the 45-year-old Ballard said at the time.
Amazon has little incentive to change this system. Here’s why it works out so well for the retail company:
For starters, a delivery company using independent contractors avoids paying payroll or unemployment taxes on its drivers, as well as workers’ compensation insurance — never mind basic workplace benefits like health coverage and a 401(k). Such companies also aren’t obliged to pay workers overtime under federal law, meaning no time and a half when the delivery day stretches into a 12-hour shift. And since they pay drivers on a per-delivery basis, they don’t owe them anything for non-delivery work, like loading the van at the warehouse before hitting the road, a task that can take up to two hours.
Amazon did not respond to a request for comment on Friday.
Make no mistake, Amazon has reason to celebrate success right now. In October, the company faced its biggest quarterly loss in 14 years, leading some profit-hungry investors and pundits to dub CEO Jeff Bezos a “grinch.” Sales growth, especially during the retail industry’s coveted holiday season, is one way of proving Amazon is on the right track. But during a time of year when everyone, delivery drivers included, traditionally celebrates with family, it may be worth looking into the real costs of this same-day delivery service.
VIDEO: Hackers hit Xbox and PlayStation
Microsoft and Sony have been working to restore internet platforms for their Xbox and PlayStation gamers’ consoles.
Your Life. Your Family. Your Money. All Equal Need for Cyber Security.
You got hacked!
It is like the new “You’ve got mail.” Except no one wants this. The revelation that someone else has become you. Or your family, Or now has your money. A collective “UGH” goes out just at the thought.
Well, this was the year that Cyber-security (personal security) became Paramount in people’s mind-share. Whether it was Target, Home Depot, Equifax, Sony, JP Morgan, and the list does not stop there. We all suddenly became more aware of *some* of the dangers faced in an interconnected, digitally woven world of 1s and 0s we now inhabit. Unless you live on top of a non wifi enabled mountain; or in a non wired cave somewhere.
As the founder of Digijaks – which is a cyber security company focused on the dangers of social media and mobility; I have both seen many problems and helped many people and businesses with them. Last year we released the Cybrs8f mobile app on android, which was really an early alpha attempt at trying to educate people about how Cyber Security actually equals Personal Security.
We have are now getting ready to release two consumer products for digital family safety and see the tremendous need for the average person to start taking steps to protect their lives, their families and their money for real.
Cyber War is here. It is both sponsored by Nation States (as may or may not have been the case with Sony Pictures Entertainment) as well as hacking cartels, drug cartels, Russian + Chinese Mafia as well as numerous offshoot groups of terrorist and disgruntled people. I have been writing about the dangers we all face for several years now. But now is the time to actually start paying attention. For real.
I have said it before, and will say it again here, now. The United States finds itself in a new war. A constant 24 hour/7 day a week/365 day a year war that is both hot and cold at the same time. In fact it presents the most asymmetrical threat to our national security since the founding of this country.
Cyber war. Cyber terror. Electronic Warfare being aimed at our military, our intelligence, every government agency, utilities, banks, critical infrastructure like power, water, sewage, hospitals, police and other first responders. Yes. This is happening, now; probably even in your town or city or state.
Just imagine cities across America without power for extended periods. Imagine in your mind, no running water. No electricity. No fresh food deliveries. Hospitals suddenly finding themselves with no ability to treat sick, or dying people. Imagine this, and realize all it takes is a successful hack attempt into a critical infrastructure choke point to cause this, sight unseen, maybe not even leaving fingerprints or evidence of how things got hacked.
Almost every move you make online, or when you are using any electronic communications is watched, monitored, cataloged. License plate cameras are spying on your movements, with almost no regulation. Actual cameras are all over the place; with also little to no regulation on data use and privacy. GPS, Cookies. Beacons. RFID tags on everything from food to clothes in the stores, to your electronics. These are the tools the governments, companies and bad guys out there have almost ubiquitous access to.
California is leading the charge in helping consumers, again. The State formed the Calfornia Cyber Security Task Force, of which I am a member. This is a first in the nation effort, and we are writing policies to help businesses, schools, organizations and citizens alike. But this effort is just starting, and the average citizen can’t wait. Neither can businesses. 2014 served as the wake-up call. To all of us. Listen to it and respond to it. Do not just sit around and hope you will be ok, You won’t be if you just do nothing.
Luckily there are many companies and organizations devoted to protecting you out there providing solutions for the protection of your data, and to try to help make privacy an actual option. Use them. Make sure you follow privacy guidelines and ensure your settings online, on your smart phones and in the apps you use are set tightly. This is a step in the right direction. But just a baby step.
Tesla Announces Major Upgrade To Original Roadster
Perhaps Tesla CEO Elon Musk fancies himself a Santa Claus.
On Friday, the electric carmaker announced highly anticipated upgrades to its original battery-powered sports car, dramatically improving its travel range on a single charge.
The Roadster, introduced in 2008, will be able to cruise up the coast from Los Angeles to San Francisco with the new longer-range battery, the company said in a blog post. The upgrade also includes new parts to bolster the aerodynamic design of the car, and tires with less rolling resistance.
The update is expected to increase the Roadster’s range by up to 50 percent when the car is driven at moderate speeds and on flat terrain.
“There is a set of speeds and driving conditions where we can confidently drive the Roadster 3.0 over 400 miles,” the company said, referring to the latest model of the car.
Tesla will begin demonstrating road tests of the upgrades in the next few weeks.
This doesn’t meant that buyers can once again purchase a new Roadster; the car, which started at $110,000, was discontinued in 2011. There are no plans to begin manufacturing and selling them again, a Tesla spokeswoman told The Huffington Post.
For now, the upgrade only applies to the Roadster. In a tweet on Thursday night, Musk said such improvements will eventually come to the Model S, the company’s flagship sedan and the only car it currently sells.
Should mention that a battery pack upgrade is not coming soon for the Model S, but it obviously *will* happen long-term.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 26, 2014
'The Interview' Makes $1 Million On Christmas
“The Interview” raked in $1 million at the box office on Christmas Day, Sony Pictures reported on Friday, and stands to make a few million more throughout the holiday weekend. The much-discussed comedy about North Korea opened in approximately 300 independent theaters on Thursday after it was released online Wednesday.
Many theaters reported sold-out screenings, and co-directors Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen even made appearances at theaters in Los Angeles to thank moviegoers for their support.
“Considering the incredibly challenging circumstances, we are extremely grateful to the people all over the country who came out to experience ‘The Interview’ on the first day of its unconventional release,” Rory Bruer, Sony’s president of worldwide distribution, said in a statement. Bruer also noted that “The Interview” was only released in 10 percent of the theaters that originally planned to show the film.
Of course, the comedy almost didn’t make it to theaters since major movie chains opted out of screening “The Interview” after hackers threatened terrorist attacks on places that showed it. Sony pulled the film from its release schedule last week, but reversed its decision on Tuesday. Independent theaters rallied behind the movie and Sony made the film available to rent or buy via streaming services like YouTube and Google Play. (Here’s a full timeline of the events surrounding the release of “The Interview” for reference.)
The $1 million estimate does not include online rentals and purchases, and Sony hasn’t announced its online sales yet.
Trippy Time-Lapse Video Packs 12,500 Photos From The ISS Into Just Six Minutes
It doesn’t get any more awesome than this.
A new time-lapse video from the European Space Agency (above) lets you look back at six months of photos from the International Space Station in just six minutes.
The time-lapse features 12,500 photos captured by ESA astronaut and social media celebrity Alexander Gerst. The images include shots of auroras, the Milky Way, lightning, cities at night, and more. Gerst shared many of the images on Twitter over the past year during his time aboard the ISS.
“Seen from a distance, our planet is just a blue dot, a fragile spaceship for humankind,” Gerst said in a written statement. “We need to understand the Universe we live in to protect our home.”
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