Yahoo! News: Internet News: Amazon 4Q results, outlook sends stock lower (AP)

Yahoo! News: Internet News Internet News // via fulltextrssfeed.com

Amazon 4Q results, outlook sends stock lower (AP) Feb 1st 2012, 01:21 NEW YORK – Shoppers spent more money online this holiday season than ever before, and yet, Amazon _the world's largest Internet retailer_ failed to meet Wall Street's sales expectations with its latest financial results. In a surprise, the company's revenue fell nearly $1 billion short of Wall Street's expectations, even as it grew 35 percent from a year earlier. The quarter included Amazon's headline-grabbing November launch of the Kindle Fire, its answer to Apple's iPad. Its net income also fell sharply and its guidance for the current quarter was disappointing. Investors punished the stock. Amazon's shares dropped $17.44, or 9 percent, to $177 in after-hours trading on Tuesday following the earnings announcement. Though revenue grew 35 percent to $17.4 billion, analysts expected the holidays to lift sales to $18.3 billion, according to FactSet. Even so, BGC Financial analyst Colin Gillis said the company "didn't really give a good answer" as to why its revenue fell short of expectations. And while its earnings were stronger than expected, he said the company has been "more revenue driven than earnings driven." That explains why investors focused on the company's sales growth. With a stock valued as high as Amazon's, they are looking for any sign of a slowdown as an excuse to sell. Meanwhile, Amazon's expenses are increasing. Operating expenses grew 38 percent to $17.2 billion. The company has been investing heavily in new sales-fulfillment centers. Investments such as these cut into profits during all of last year. Seattle-based Amazon.com Inc. said that its net income was $177 million, or 38 cents per share, in the three months that ended Dec. 31. That's down 57 percent from $416 million, or 91 cents per share, a year earlier. Earnings dropped, the company said, as it continued to invest in sales fulfillment centers and increased its workforce by 67 percent from a year earlier. For the current quarter, Amazon is forecasting $12 billion to $13.4 billion in revenue. Analysts were expecting $13.42 billion. The company also said it may record an operating loss for the quarter. Its outlook was in the range of a loss of $200 million to a profit of $100 million for the three months ending in March. Analysts had been worried about Amazon's profit margins because of the heavy operating expenses, but they had expected stronger revenue growth. Although the company's earnings of 38 cents a share were well above Wall Street expectations of 17 cents, investors seemed to focus on the bad news elsewhere. Amazon said sales of its Kindle tablet computers and e-reader gadgets nearly tripled compared with the final quarter of 2010. The company did not give exact sales numbers for the devices. The Kindle Fire, Amazon's $199 tablet, went on sale in November. The company sees the Kindle as a way to drive sales of digital content such as e-books, music, movies and apps. CEO Jeff Bezos said the Kindle was Amazon's bestselling product during the holiday season in both the U.S. and Europe. Sales at Amazon's media business, which includes books, DVDs, and content consumed on the Kindle, grew 15 percent to $6 billion. Sales from electronics and other general merchandise, which includes the Kindle devices, jumped 48 percent to $10.9 billion. The company grew its employee base 67 percent from a year earlier, ending the year with 56,200 full-time and part-time workers. Chief Financial Officer Tom Szkutak said the job additions were in operations and customer service to support Amazon's growth. For all of 2011, Amazon earned $631 million, down from $1.15 billion a year earlier. Revenue grew to $48.1 billion from $34.2 billion. Amazon's stock dropped $17.44, or 9 percent, to $177 in after-hours trading following the earnings announcement.

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions

Yahoo! News: Internet News: Mexico broadband project stuck in stalemate (Reuters)

Yahoo! News: Internet News Internet News // via fulltextrssfeed.com

Mexico broadband project stuck in stalemate (Reuters) Feb 1st 2012, 00:00 MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – An ambitious private project to unlock wireless access across Mexico appears to be stuck in a stalemate with the developer and the government unable to agree on terms. At the heart of the debate is 190 megahertz (MHz) of bandwidth owned by MVS Comunicaciones that could be used to deploy a next-generation LTE (Long Term Evolution) network in Mexico. The bandwidth, briefly used to transmit radio using microwaves in the 1990s, has been dormant for most of the last decade, sparking calls from competitors for it to be put up for grabs again. "Unfortunately and despite our best efforts, the licensee (MVS) has decided to reject the different alternatives that have been submitted by the government," communications and transport minister Dionisio Perez Jacome told a news conference. The recent explosion of data-hungry devices like tablets and smartphones has offered a more obvious market for the use of that bandwidth. About 12 percent of the licenses in MVS's entire spectrum holding have come due in recent years, with the rest expiring through 2018. "Due to the lack of an agreement ... we have continued refusing to renew the expired licences," Perez Jacome added. MVS could not be immediately reached for comment. The company pitched a plan in April 2011 to use the spectrum more efficiently by making it available to just about any player via a proposed joint venture for a high-speed network that would include MVS, Clearwire Corp and chip maker Intel Corp. They would have jointly invested $400 million. The government has said its review of the case involved multiple scenarios. One option was to charge MVS a fee to let it claim back the expired licenses, critical to fully operating a national broadband backbone, keep the ones that have not come due and let the company and its partners operate the network. Another alternative was to leave at least 120 MHz in the hands of MVS and auction the rest of the capacity to other competitors. The most extreme option was to take away all the spectrum from the company and re-auction it in the market. Perez Jacome did not say on Tuesday what the government's proposal to MVS was. The delay on the MVS project comes as authorities scramble to promote competition in a country where tycoon Carlos Slim's companies have the lion's share of the phone market and two broadcasters have a near duopoly in Mexican television broadcasting. A report from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development released this week underscored the lack of competition in telecommunications, resulting in significant costs to the Mexican economy and consumers. (Reporting By Lorena Segura; Editing by Phil Berlowitz)

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions

Yahoo! News: Internet News: Amazon 4Q results disappoint, stock tumbles (AP)

Yahoo! News: Internet News Internet News // via fulltextrssfeed.com

Amazon 4Q results disappoint, stock tumbles (AP) Jan 31st 2012, 21:53 NEW YORK – Amazon's fourth-quarter net income dropped sharply, weighed down by higher operating expenses even as its revenue grew. Investors punished the online retailer's stock in after-hours trading, as the company also gave a disappointing forecast for the current period. Seattle-based Amazon.com Inc. said Tuesday that its net income was $177 million, or 38 cents per share, in the three months that ended Dec. 31. That's down 57 percent from $416 million, or 91 cents per share, a year earlier. Revenue grew 35 percent to $17.4 billion. Though it was buoyed by solid holiday sales, the figure fell below the $18.3 billion that analysts polled by FactSet had expected. Amazon's operating expenses, meanwhile, grew 38 percent to $17.2 billion. The company has been investing heavily in new sales-fulfillment centers so it can grow its business. That has cut into profits all of last year. For the current quarter, Amazon is forecasting $12 billion to $13.4 billion in revenue. Analysts were expecting $13.42 billion. The company also said it may record an operating loss for the quarter. Its outlook was in the range of a loss of $200 million to a profit of $100 million for the three months ending in March. Amazon said sales of its Kindle tablet computers and e-reader gadgets nearly tripled compared with the final quarter of 2010. As its custom, though, the company did not give exact sales numbers for the devices. The Kindle Fire, Amazon's answer to Apple Inc.'s popular iPad, went on sale in November. The company sees the Kindles as a way to drive sales of digital content such as e-books, music, movies and apps. CEO Jeff Bezos said the Kindle was Amazon's bestselling product during the holiday season in both the U.S. and Europe. Sales at Amazon's media business, which includes books and DVDs, grew 15 percent to $6 billion. Sales from electronics and other general merchandise jumped 48 percent to $10.9 billion. Amazon's stock dropped nearly $16.71, or 8.6 percent, to $177.73 in after-hours trading following the earnings announcement.

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions

Yahoo! News: Internet News: VC firm Andreessen Horowitz raises $1.5B to invest (AP)

Yahoo! News: Internet News Internet News // via fulltextrssfeed.com

VC firm Andreessen Horowitz raises $1.5B to invest (AP) Jan 31st 2012, 22:12 SAN FRANCISCO – Silicon Valley entrepreneur-turned-venture capitalist Marc Andreessen and his partners have raised another $1.5 billion to invest in technology startups as they prepare to profit from a previous bet on Internet social network Facebook. The fundraising announced Tuesday serves as further validation of the success that Andreessen has enjoyed since he started his own venture capital firm in mid-2009. The Menlo Park, Calif., firm, Andreessen Horowitz, has invested in about 90 companies since then. The portfolio includes an unspecified stake in Facebook, which is expected to file its plans for a long-awaited initial public offering of stock as early as Wednesday. Those IPO documents may divulge the holdings of Andreessen Horowitz, if it is among Facebook's biggest stockholders. Before co-founding his venture capital firm, Andreessen also personally invested in Facebook and joined the company's board of directors in 2008. Andreessen, 40, got rich as one of the Internet industry's first big stars during the 1990s. He helped change the way people used the Internet as part of a team that developed a graphical Web browser called Mosaic in the early 1990s. He went on to co-found Netscape Communications before he had turned 25. After losing its early lead in the Web browser market to Microsoft Corp. in a bruising battle, Netscape was sold to AOL for $10 billion in 1999. With the latest infusion, Andreessen Horowitz has raised $2.7 billion since the firm's inception. The firm's other partners include Andreessen's longtime business partner, Ben Horowitz, and Jeff Jordan, former CEO of online restaurant reservation service OpenTable Inc. "We are single-mindedly focused on partnering with the best innovators pursuing the biggest markets," Andreessen said in a statement. Facebook, which started eight years ago in CEO Mark Zuckerberg's Harvard University dorm room, is expected to seek an IPO price that would value the company at $75 billion to $100 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal. Andreessen Horowitz also was among the early investors in Zynga Inc., a maker of "FarmVille," "Words With Friends" and other games that are frequently played on Facebook's social network. Zynga's stock has received a lukewarm response since its Wall Street debut in December. Zynga's stock gained 10 cents to close at $10.49 on Tuesday, just slightly above its IPO price of $10. Although it focuses on startups, Andreessen Horowitz has explored investing in older companies too. Last year, it was one of several firms discussing the possibility of buying a nearly 20 percent stake in long-slumping Internet company Yahoo Inc. There was even speculation that Andreessen might join Yahoo as an executive, an idea that he refuted in a posting on his personal blog in December. Yahoo has since hired former PayPal executive Scott Thompson as its fourth CEO in less than five years.

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions

Yahoo! News: Internet News: Google defends change to privacy policies (Reuters)

Yahoo! News: Internet News Internet News // via fulltextrssfeed.com

Google defends change to privacy policies (Reuters) Jan 31st 2012, 18:38 WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Planned changes to Google Inc's privacy policies that have caught the attention of U.S. lawmakers would not take away the control its customers have over how data is collected and used, the company said in a blog post on Tuesday Google, whose offerings include its flagship search engine, Gmail, YouTube and Google+ products, announced last week that it was unifying 60 of its privacy policies. When the new policy comes into effect on Wednesday, information from most Google products will be treated as a single trove of data, which the company could use for targeted advertising. By consolidating numerous product-specific privacy policies into one comprehensive policy, "we're explaining our privacy commitments to users of those products in 85 percent fewer words," said Pablo Chavez, Google's director of public policy, on the company's public policy blog. A bipartisan group of eight U.S. lawmakers questioned whether the new policy would allow Internet users to opt-out of data-sharing systems and expressed concern about the safety of customer data, in a letter sent to Google last Thursday. In a letter dated Monday, Chavez responded directly to the lawmakers' concerns, stressing that, "the updated privacy policy does not allow us to collect any new or additional types of information about users." The company defended its decision to consolidate the policies, saying it would create a better experience for users, and added that most of its product-specific policies already allowed information to be shared across product lines when users are signed onto their Google accounts. But the previous varied policies did not allow Google to, for example, recommend cooking videos when a signed on user went to YouTube after searching for recipes on the search engine, the letter said. "We want to change that so we can create a simpler, more intuitive Google experience - to share more of each user's information with that user as they use various Google services," Chavez said in the letter. The letter also said the company's products can still be used without signing into a Google account. Google's privacy tools remain in place under the consolidated policy, allowing users to edit information stored in their account, change personalized ad preferences and control how their data is collected and used. Google's response was sent to Republican Representatives Cliff Stearns, Joe Barton and Marsha Blackburn, and to Democratic Representatives Edward Markey, Henry Waxman, Dianne DeGette, G.K. Butterfield and Jackie Speier - the eight legislators who expressed concern that consolidation would make it more difficult for consumers to protect their privacy. Following a messy rollout of Google's now defunct social network, Buzz, Google and the U.S. Federal Trade Commission reached a settlement in March last year that requires consent if Google collects information under one privacy policy, but then changes that policy. In a separate letter sent to FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz last Friday, Markey and Barton asked for a probe into whether the changes to how Google handles consumer data violated the agreement it made with the FTC. U.S. regulators are already looking into whether the company manipulates its search results to favor its own products, among other issues. (Reporting By Jasmin Melvin; editing by Andre Grenon)

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions

Yahoo! News: Internet News: The top 10 songs and albums on the iTunes Store (AP)

Yahoo! News: Internet News Internet News // via fulltextrssfeed.com

The top 10 songs and albums on the iTunes Store (AP) Jan 31st 2012, 17:51 iTunes' Official Music Charts for the week ending Jan. 30, 2012: Top Songs: 1. "Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You)," Kelly Clarkson 2. "Set Fire to the Rain," ADELE 3. "Turn Me On (feat. Nicki Minaj)," Nicki Minaj, David Guetta 4. "Rack City," Tyga 5. "Young, Wild & Free (feat. Bruno Mars)," Wiz Khalifa, Snoop Dogg 6. "Good Feeling," Flo Rida 7. "Domino," Jessie J 8. "We Found Love (feat. Calvin Harris)," Rihanna 9. "International Love (feat. Chris Brown)," Pitbull 10. "Sexy and I Know It," LMFAO ___ Top Albums: 1. "21", ADELE 2. "Human Again," Ingrid Michaelson 3. "Emotional Traffic," Tim McGraw 4. "Resolution," Lamb of God 5. "Where I Find You," Kari Jobe 6. "Take Care," Drake 7. "Bangarang," Skrillex 8. "Soul 2," Seal 9. "El Camino," The Black Keys 10. "Sigh No More," Mumford & Sons ___ (copyright) 2012 Apple, Inc.

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions

Yahoo! News: Internet News: PayPal co-founders fund pro-Paul Super PAC (Reuters)

Yahoo! News: Internet News Internet News // via fulltextrssfeed.com

PayPal co-founders fund pro-Paul Super PAC (Reuters) Jan 31st 2012, 17:37 WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Co-founders of online U.S. payment service PayPal, now owned by eBay Inc, donated to the Super PAC funding group supporting Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul, the group Endorse Liberty disclosed on Tuesday. PayPal co-founders Peter Thiel and Luke Nosek and Scott Banister, an early adviser and board member, put their support behind the Endorse Liberty Super PAC, alongside Internet advertising veteran Stephen Oskoui and entrepreneur Jeffrey Harmon, who founded Endorse Liberty in November. Texas congressman Ron Paul, a libertarian, has been an unconventional candidate for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, advocating an isolationist brand of foreign policy and a $1 trillion cut in the U.S. government's budget. "Too often in this country we learn things the hard way ... With its unsustainable deficits, government spending is heading down the same path. Men and women who want freedom and growth should take action. A good place to start is voting for Ron Paul," Thiel said in a statement. Thiel, a libertarian activist whose $1.5 billion in wealth ranked him 833 on the Forbes top billionaires list last year, became the first outside investor in social networking service Facebook in 2004. Releasing the donor list before officially filing with the Federal Election Commission, Endorse Liberty founders said they raised $3.9 million to support Paul, who failed to win any of the first three state-by-state Republican nominating contests. Republicans are voting in the Florida primary on Tuesday. Paul trails frontrunners Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich in most polls in the state, but he is seen as having a better chance in Nevada, which votes next. Endorse Liberty founders have so far reported spending about $3.3 million promoting Paul by setting up two YouTube channels, constantly buying ads from Google and Facebook and StumbleUpon and building up a presence on the Web. PayPal began as an independent company, founded in the late 1990s by technology entrepreneurs, including venture capital investors Thiel and Nosek. The business battled with eBay for supremacy in the emerging online payments market. But soon after it went public in 2002, eBay acquired PayPal for $1.5 billion. Endorse Liberty also received donations from James O'Neill and Jonathan Cain, who now run the Thiel Foundation that seeks to "defend and promote freedom in all its dimensions: political, personal, and economic," according to its website. (Editing by Paul Simao)

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions

Yahoo! News: Internet News: Online game theft earns real-world conviction (AP)

Yahoo! News: Internet News Internet News // via fulltextrssfeed.com

Online game theft earns real-world conviction (AP) Jan 31st 2012, 13:34 THE HAGUE, Netherlands – The Dutch Supreme Court has ruled that forcing a 13-year-old boy to relinquish a virtual mask and amulet in an online game amounted to real-world theft. The Netherlands' highest court confirmed Tuesday that a boy who threatened the 13-year-old with a knife to make him drop the objects in the online fantasy game RuneScape was guilty of theft and ordered him to perform 144 hours of community service. The court did not release the suspect's name, only his year of birth — 1992. It said he and another youth beat and kicked the boy and threatened him with a knife until he logged into RuneScape and dropped the objects in 2007. The court ruled the 13-year-old owned the virtual objects because of the time and energy he invested in winning them.

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions

Yahoo! News: Internet News: Twitter CEO says new policy is for transparency: report (Reuters)

Yahoo! News: Internet News Internet News // via fulltextrssfeed.com

Twitter CEO says new policy is for transparency: report (Reuters) Jan 31st 2012, 09:01 (Reuters) – Twitter Chief Executive Dick Costolo said the company's recently announced online content policy was meant to be a transparent way to handle government requests for the removal of certain content and did not mean it is actively monitoring Tweets, the Wall Street Journal reported. Twitter had said last week it would begin restricting Tweets in specific countries, renewing questions about how the social media platform will handle issues of free speech as it rapidly expands its global user base. "There's been no change in our stance ... in respect to content on Twitter," Costolo said at the "Dive Into Media" conference hosted by the website All Things D, which is owned by News Corp, the Journal reported. Costolo said Twitter would only block Tweets locally at a government's request and would leave the Tweet up for the rest of the world. In place of the pulled Tweet would be a message that the content was removed at the request of the local government, the Journal said. Costolo said the policy is not meant as a means for the company to get into countries where it currently does not operate, such as China or Iran. "I don't think the current environment in China is one in which we can operate," he added. No-one at Twitter could immediately be reached for comment. (Reporting by Sakthi Prasad; Editing by David Holmes)

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions

Yahoo! News: Internet News: BSkyB to launch online TV service (Reuters)

Yahoo! News: Internet News Internet News // via fulltextrssfeed.com

BSkyB to launch online TV service (Reuters) Jan 31st 2012, 07:30 (Adds details, quotes) LONDON, Jan 31 – Britain's BSkyB is to launch an online TV offering to non-Sky customers to enable it to better take on firms such as Lovefilm and Netflix and following some signs of slowing growth at its main satellite base. Britain's dominant pay-TV group said it would launch the new service to tap in to the 13 million homes that do not currently pay for a television service. It made the announcement as it revealed it had added 40,000 net new customers to its main TV service in the second quarter, slightly below expectations. The new offering will launch in the first half of 2012 and will enable new customers to watch Sky content including movies and eventually sports on flexible tariffs and without signing a contract. BSkyB has grown consistently through the economic downturn by attracting consumers to its range of sports, movies and broadband, but it has started to show signs of slowing growth to its overall base in recent quarters. The 40,000 net new customers added in the second quarter was above the 26,000 it added in the first quarter but below the 140,000 added in the second quarter a year ago. Analysts had expected net new TV customers of 58,000. To balance out the slowing growth it sold an increasing number of different services to existing customers, such as high-definition TV or broadband, enabling it to post strong first-half results. Revenues were up 6 percent to 3.4 billion pounds ($5.3 billion) and due to improving efficiencies in the business it posted adjusted operating profit up 16 percent to 601 million pounds. Its shares have performed weakly so far this year as investors fear that an auction for crucial football rights, investments in fiber networks and new competitors from the likes of movie service Lovefilm could all hit the business model. ($1 = 0.6377 British pounds) (Reporting by Kate Holton; Editing by Matt Scuffham)

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions

Yahoo! News: Internet News: Gaming firms 888, Caesars extend licensing deal to U.S. (Reuters)

Yahoo! News: Internet News Internet News // via fulltextrssfeed.com

Gaming firms 888, Caesars extend licensing deal to U.S. (Reuters) Jan 31st 2012, 07:57 (Reuters) – 888 Holdings Plc said a unit of private equity-owned Caesars Entertainment Corp extended its UK software licensing agreement with the British online gaming company to the United States. 888 said the agreement would see its arm, Dragonfish, power a selection of private poker brands of Caesars, one of the largest casino operators in the United States and owner of the famed Caesars Palace, once online gaming is permitted under the new regulatory regime. "Utilising 888's state of the art poker platform, the agreement will allow the launch of a real money offering immediately as either Federal or state based regulation is finalized and upon licensing by gaming authorities," 888 said in a statement on Tuesday. As U.S. states scramble for tax revenue, the potential for legalizing online poker has led casino and gaming companies MGM Resorts International and Boyd Gaming to unveil a plan to partner with online poker company Bwin.party Digital Entertainment. Last month, 888 had said it expected core profit for 2011 to be significantly above market expectations, aided by strength in its casino and poker businesses. 888 shares, which have risen 41 percent in the last three months, closed at 47 pence on Monday on the London Stock Exchange, valuing the company at about 165 million pounds. (Reporting by Tresa Sherin Morera in Bangalore; Editing by Roshni Menon)

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions

Yahoo! News: Internet News: Mexicans overcharged billions for phone, web: study (Reuters)

Yahoo! News: Internet News Internet News // via fulltextrssfeed.com

Mexicans overcharged billions for phone, web: study (Reuters) Jan 31st 2012, 03:11 MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexicans have been overcharged $13.4 billion a year for phone and internet services as the industry dominated by billionaire Carlos Slim gouges customers and keeps the economy from growing, a study released on Monday said. Mexico, the second-largest economy in Latin America, cannot reach its growth potential until the cost of phone and internet access comes down and more people have easy access to telecom services, the report from the Organization for Co-operation and Development said. From 2005 to 2009, Mexican consumers paid $13.4 billion a year excess for phone and internet services, with high fees disproportionately hitting the poor, according to the report. In total, overcharging cost the economy $129 billion over the five-year period, the report found, nearly 2 percent of the country's economic output. "Inefficient telecommunication markets impose a significant cost on the Mexican economy and the welfare of its population," according to the report that reviewed the country's telecom sector. Mexican home phone service is dominated by Slim's Telefonos de Mexico, or Telmex, which provides about 80 percent of services while the billionaire controls about 70 percent of the cellphone market through his America Movil. "This is a critical study...that exposes the weakness of the telecommunications sector in Mexico," Dionisio Perez-Jacome, minister of Communications and Transport, said at a press event accepting the report. The report found Mexico had the lowest per capita public investment in telecommunications in the 34-member OECD, while Slim's Telmex had very high profit margins compared to other countries. In 2008, Telmex had a profit margin of 47 percent, while the average for countries including Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States was 28 percent. A Slim spokesman declined to comment on the findings of customers being overcharged, but pointed to other reports that Mexico enjoys a relatively-affordable broadband base. The report found broadband internet speeds are low compared to the OECD average and comparatively expensive, while a three-minute call from a cellphone to a local phone would cost a Mexican travelling in another OECD country $8.65, compared to the OECD average of $6.76. It suggested that Mexico eliminate restrictions on foreign investment in the telecom sector and cut judicial red tape that lets the telecom industry stall new rules, fines and restrictions. Mexico's President Felipe Calderon, at a separate event, said that his government planned to auction strands of fiber optic cable that would increase broadband service across the country. Mexico's cable giant, Megacable, is in a partnership with cellphone company Telefonica and television giant Televisa to share one fiber optic project that should deliver more high-speed internet and telecom services. (Reporting by Patrick Rucker and Krista Hughes; Editing by Gary Hill and Matt Driskill)

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions

Yahoo! News: Internet News: NJ woman accused of streaming kid sex abuse cries (AP)

Yahoo! News: Internet News Internet News // via fulltextrssfeed.com

NJ woman accused of streaming kid sex abuse cries (AP) Jan 31st 2012, 00:44 TRENTON, N.J. – A New Jersey waitress cried in court Monday as she heard a prosecutor accuse her of "extreme sexual assault" on a 5-year-old girl she was baby-sitting and of streaming video of the abuse online. Authorities say Jennifer Mahoney, 32, of Manalapan, laughed while she sexually assaulted the child, and again as she streamed the video to at least two other people. They say she confessed twice to different sets of investigators. Mahoney has been charged with two counts of sexual exploitation of a child. At a federal court hearing in Trenton, she had requested to wear a global positioning device, stay away from the victim and post her parents' home as collateral for bail. The judge denied bail on the federal charges; Mahoney is being held on $500,000 bail on state charges stemming from the same assault. "Law enforcement has recovered a video capture of extreme sexual assault," Assistant U.S. Attorney John Clabby said. "There is danger to the public, and the risk of flight." During the hearing in U.S. District Court, Mahoney wiped away tears, buried her face in her hands and cried softly as her attorney, Herbert Ellis, rubbed her back. Later, she rocked quickly back and forth in her chair, not speaking except to reply, "Yes, your honor," when asked whether she understood her rights. Ellis, her lawyer, said he needs to speak to Mahoney in detail before deciding how to proceed. He said he wants to see her videotaped confession to authorities to determine how it was given and under what circumstances. Mahoney has been in custody since Dec. 14, the day after three pornographic videos showing assaults on the girl were found on the computer of a 32-year-old Texas man to whom she had streamed them, prosecutors said. That man, Robert Ramos Jr. of Austin, was charged with possession of child pornography and sexual exploitation of minors. Prosecutors in Texas say he set up seven fake Facebook accounts to solicit teenage girls to send him nude photos and videos of themselves engaged in sexual acts. When the FBI questioned her, she acknowledged performing a sex act on the child while she was baby-sitting her, court documents say. She also told investigators she streamed live video of one of the sexual assaults to two men using a chat service and acknowledged filming another assault with her cellphone and sending video of it to two other people, court documents say. No other mention of a second recipient is included in court documents. Later on the day of her arrest, she gave a separate videotaped confession to New Jersey authorities, Clabby said. Two of the videos appeared to have been made in Mahoney's bedroom, the third in the bathtub of her home, the affidavit says. The affidavit describes the sexual assaults in graphic terms. On one, the FBI agent notes, there is no audio. But, the agent notes, "it appears that the adult female is talking and laughing during the video, and it appears that the adult female is talking to another person over the Internet via a webcam." Ramos remains in custody in Texas. Court documents include a transcript of a handwritten statement Ramos gave to the FBI in which he acknowledges soliciting underage girls to send him nude photos but insists he never had sexual contact with a minor. "What I have done was stupid and not worth anything," he wrote. "I am very sorry and have made some terrible mistakes." His lawyer did not immediately return a message seeking comment Monday. ___ Wayne Parry can be reached at http://twitter.com/WayneParryAC.

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions

Yahoo! News: Internet News: Three Demand Media executives leave (Reuters)

Yahoo! News: Internet News Internet News // via fulltextrssfeed.com

Three Demand Media executives leave (Reuters) Jan 31st 2012, 00:21 SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Demand Media Inc said on Monday that three executives left the online media and advertising company to pursue other business opportunities. Larry Fitzgibbon resigned as executive vice president of the company on January 27, according to a regulatory filing late Monday. Two other executives, Joe Perez and Steven Kydd, have also left, Kristen Moore, a Demand Media spokeswoman, told Reuters. The three executives, who were among the co-founders of the company, are moving on to other ventures, she added, while noting that she didn't have specific information about their plans. The departures will not change the strategy or priorities of Demand Media, Moore said. (Reporting By Alistair Barr; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions

Yahoo! News: Internet News: Oscars tops iOS Apps of the Week (Appolicious)

Yahoo! News: Internet News Internet News // via fulltextrssfeed.com

Oscars tops iOS Apps of the Week (Appolicious) Jan 30th 2012, 22:30 Oscars tops iOS Apps of the Week Posted January 30, 2012 4:30pm by Dan Kricke Tags: Apps of the Week, iOS, Entertainment This week's top apps are quite media-centric. There are apps to make your Oscars viewing more enjoyable and apps to make your general TV watching more rewarding, too. There are even apps to keep up on digital media news and online videos. It's the middle of winter, so you might as well pop down on the couch and enjoy these apps. It looks awfully windy outside, anyway. The best award show of the year is less than a month away, and you can start planning your Oscars party now with the official app. Even though the actual show isn't until February 26, the app has plenty going on before then. Right now users can view a full list of the nominees as well as check out movie trailers and other assorted videos. On the night of the show, the app will transform into a complement to the live broadcast, offering additional live camera angles for super Oscars fans to enjoy while they check out the broadcast on TV. Shoebox is an app designed to help bring your old photos into the digital age. If you've got a bunch of old Polaroids lying around and don't have a proper scanner to get them digitized, this app uses your iPhone to help you out by automatically detecting the photo's edges and auto-flattening the image to adjust for the camera's tilt. Once the photos are scanned in, they're uploaded to the Shoebox website, where you can share them with their friend and family quickly and easily. Those who prefer their privacy can also opt to keep their uploaded photos private so that other users on Shoebox can't view them. paidContent Mobile News is the app version of paidContent.org, a website that keeps readers informed on the latest in the business of digital media. The app version boasts live updates for all of the paidContent web stories, with automatic refreshing throughout the day without users having to refresh the app themselves. Readers can also share stories through Twitter and Facebook. While paidContent Mobile News isn't a glamorous app, it's very useful if you enjoy following the business side of media. Frequency lets you keep up on all your favorite online videos. You create personalized channels tailored to your specific interests, from sports to technology to music. You can then see highlights from all of your channels in the app's "My Feed," section which acts like a best-of tab. If you're tired of jumping from website to website to keep up with all of the web clips you want to watch, Frequency streamlines the process by creating a one-stop shop for web video. Viggle is something like Foursquare for your TV viewing habits. The app lets you "check-in" to your favorite TV shows as you watch them. Each time you check-in, you receive points from Viggle, which can later be redeemed for coupons and other rewards from retailers like Best Buy, Burger King and Fandango. If you already spend a lot of time hanging out watching TV, you might as well get rewarded for your efforts. Create a list of your favorite iPhone apps

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions

Yahoo! News: Internet News: Triple Town developer files lawsuit against alleged App Store copycat (Appolicious)

Yahoo! News: Internet News Internet News // via fulltextrssfeed.com

Triple Town developer files lawsuit against alleged App Store copycat (Appolicious) Jan 30th 2012, 19:07 Posted January 30, 2012 1:07pm by Phil Hornshaw Tags: Apple, iTunes App Store, Triple Town, Yeti Town, Copyright, Tiny Tower, 6waves Lolapps, Spry Fox, Games, zynga When it comes to the video game world, it's nearly impossible to discuss a game without talking about all the other titles that came before it. Every game on the market, be it store shelves or the iTunes App Store, has built off the foundations of games that have come before, and that creates a tough spot for many game developers. At what point does a game stop building off another title's ideas or being "inspired" by another work, and start being theft of an idea? The developer of Triple Town, Spry Fox, thinks it has some idea. According to a story from Eurogamer, Spry Fox has filed a lawsuit against another App Store developer, 6waves Lolapps, for copyright infringement. Spry Fox alleges that Lolapps' Yeti Town steals the basic idea of Triple Town, selling it with just a different coat of paint. Both Triple Town and Yeti Town are built on an interesting hybrid of mixing the match-three genre, in which players try to get three objects of the same type together to score points (think Bejeweled) with city-building simulator games. In Triple Town, the game screen is divided into a grid and you score points by matching objects to build structures: match three bushes to make a tree, three trees to make a house, three houses to make a mansion and so on. You play until you fill all the grid squares on the screen and can't make any more combinations. Lots of similarities big and small Yeti Town has all the same mechanics. Like Triple Town, you can earn coins over time which you can use to buy certain objects when you don't have the time or space to make them, like a spare tree or bush. You also have yetis to contend with, which clog up your squares by moving around the game board and need to be eliminated. In Triple Town, you have bears, rather than yetis, which have to be defeated. Spry Fox, which has also released Triple Town on Facebook, said in a blog post that it had worked closely with Lolapps during the development of Triple Town and had shared important aspects of the game with the other developer. It announced the lawsuit in the blog post as well. Spry Fox alleges that while Lolapps was working under a nondisclosure agreement to help develop Triple Town, it was also developing the copy of the game. The blog post points out a number of other smaller similarities between the games, like the user interface, language in the tutorials and even the prices of items in the in-game shops. Venture Beat published a statement from 6waves Lolapps responding to the allegations, stating that the copyright claims are unjustified and "factually inaccurate." Homage or copycat? Copying can be seen as a rather big problem in the iTunes App Store, where many games seem to hew closer to established formulas of other titles than in other areas of video gaming. Last week, Zynga was bashed publicly by the three-man team that makes up NimbleBit, the developer of Apple's 2011 iPhone Game of the Year, Tiny Tower. Zynga's newly released Dream Heights carries pretty much the same concept and art style as Tiny Tower. Gameloft is often accused of making its own versions of popular games, like the Uncharted series, the Legend of Zelda series and the Grand Theft Auto series. And last year, indie developer Twisted Pixel accused Capcom of stealing the concept for its 'Splosion Man title on Xbox LIVE Arcade and turning it into the App Store title, MaXplosion. Of course, plenty of games in the App Store as well as everywhere else in video games owe their underlying framework to titles like Doom, Quake or Super Mario Bros. But in the case of Triple Town and Yeti Town, it seems Spry Fox sees a lot more going on than just homage or inspiration. It will be interesting to see if the outcome of the Triple Town lawsuit affects the rest of the gaming industry and other possible copyright claims.

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions

Yahoo! News: Internet News: NJ woman accused of streaming kid sex abuse cries (AP)

Yahoo! News: Internet News Internet News // via fulltextrssfeed.com

NJ woman accused of streaming kid sex abuse cries (AP) Jan 30th 2012, 19:29 TRENTON, N.J. – A New Jersey waitress cried in court as she heard a prosecutor describe allegations that she sexually assaulted a 5-year-old she was baby-sitting and streamed video of the abuse online. Jennifer Mahoney, of Manalapan, is charged with two counts of sexual exploitation of a child. She was denied bail Monday at a federal court hearing in Trenton. Authorities say the 32-year-old committed numerous sexual assaults against the child, laughing while she did so and again as she streamed the video to at least two other people. They say she confessed twice to different sets of investigators. Mahoney's lawyer says he needs to see the evidence before deciding how to proceed. Mahoney has been in custody since Dec. 14, the day after the videos were found on a Texas man's computer.

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions

Yahoo! News: Internet News: Artprice eyes sales boost from online auctions (Reuters)

Yahoo! News: Internet News Internet News // via fulltextrssfeed.com

Artprice eyes sales boost from online auctions (Reuters) Jan 30th 2012, 19:25 PARIS (Reuters) – French art database and ad specialist Artprice.com expects sales to soar this year on the back of the launch of an online auction service, its chief executive told Reuters on Monday. The company, whose shares have risen 470 percent in the last 12 months, sees revenue reaching tens of millions of euros, compared with 3.8 million ($5 million) in the first nine months of last year, Thierry Ehrmann said in an interview. "I think we will do in 2012 what we expected to do in 2013, 2014," Ehrmann said. The CEO expects at least 90,000 works of art to go up for sale on the online auction service this year, the equivalent of about 250 a day, though the site has seen more than three times that amount daily in the 12 days since it launched. Artprice.com was founded in 1987 and began by selling databases to consumers and professionals on the lookout for specialized information about artists, fairs, classified advertisements and upcoming auctions on a single platform. The group, which competes in some areas with Germany's Artnet, then launched various websites offering real-time prices, market indicators and indexes along with auction results through a mix of free and monetized content. Ehrmann expects online auction sales to make up around 90 percent of the total in the next three years. In 2012, he predicts up to 3 million clients will take part in the auctions. Artprice.com attracted 1.3 million subscribers last year. "From what we see in January, it is evident that we are going to see a metamorphosis of our top and bottom lines which is spectacular," said Ehrmann, a visual artist and sculptor. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ For fundamental data on company: http://xtra.session.rservices.com/rcardxtra?RIC=ARTF.PA ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ The company is also looking to team up with Google to have a built-in application for use on smartphones and tablets using Google's Android operating system, Ehrmann said. It has developed 12 mobile and tablet applications, an important "growth engine" according to Ehrmann. Artprice.com, headquartered at the Abode of Chaos open-air contemporary art museum near Lyon displaying 4,000 works of art, targets a core market of art pieces worth between $15,000 and $150,000. The company, which provides a free advertisement service, charges commissions of 5-9 percent on auction sales. Ehrmann added that he planned to open a Hong Kong unit this year and hoped China, Taiwan and Hong Kong sales would grow to 55 percent of the total by 2013 from 35 percent currently. China has become the world's largest art market, while France's fine art market has struggled, according to the CEO. ($1 = 0.7625 euros) (Editing by James Regan)

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions

Yahoo! News: Internet News: Review: Odd experimentation reveals muddled result (AP)

Yahoo! News: Internet News Internet News // via fulltextrssfeed.com

Review: Odd experimentation reveals muddled result (AP) Jan 30th 2012, 15:16 "Purple Naked Ladies," The Internet (Odd Future) The producer duo of Matt Martians and Syd Tha Kyd, of the group OFWGKTA, misses the mark with their new album "Purple Naked Ladies," a spacey foray into digital sounds that results in more confusion than clarity. Since it was recorded on Odd Future's own label, the two artists, known together as The Internet, have obviously been given a wide berth to play around with sounds and schemes. And they do. To a fault. The digital soundscape quickly becomes muddy and the musical purpose lost. Some songs like "Fastlane" offer a more traditional R&B approach. "Ode To A Dream" also promises something cohesive, with nice vocal features from Kilo Kish and Coco O. But the latter half of the song devolves into a swirl of reverse-played beats and tinny electronic drum hits. It's hard to image this as a radio staple, or even a playlist favorite. On "Violet Nude Women," it often sounds like there are no fewer than six instrumental sounds vying for attention, each attempting to elbow the others out of the way and take prominence. The melody is light and playful, but it soon gets lost as disparate noises collide. The Internet is essentially a proof of concept group. They are decent producers, but they'll need a star up front to truly shine. CHECK THIS TRACK OUT: "She Dgaf," is the lone plausible track for repeated play, curse words aside. It's got a nice hook and some semblance of a beat, something most other tracks on this album lack.

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions