Newspapers Online 10-19-2013 | ScienceTechno

"The Mexicans have shown themselves to be good partners. One thing I think they won't do is to act in a hostile way. I think you can rule that out," he told the Gewinn Messe retail investor fair.

He added he did not know if America Movil intended to increase its near 23 percent stake.

Speculation about a potential move on Telekom Austria emerged after America Movil dropped its takeover offer this week for Dutch group KPN, the other company Slim had targeted as a bridgehead for expanding into Europe.

Telekom Austria shares were down 1.4 percent at 6.271 euros by 1235 GMT, while the Stoxx European telecoms sector index rose 0.5 percent.

Asked about prospects for a capital increase, Ametsreiter said: "The issue does not arise at the moment," adding such things were communicated only when decided.

He was speaking after sources close to the situation told Reuters the company was unlikely to use a quick capital increase to finance its purchase of next-generation mobile frequency spectrum in its home market.

"Telekom has no short-term financing problems. There is enough liquidity available," said one source who spoke on condition of anonymity.

"A capital increase is not a topic for the short term," another source added.

Bids for Austria's new telecoms frequencies had approached 2 billion euros ($2.73 billion) by the time the auction - now nearing its conclusion - entered its fourth week.

The final cost of purchasing the frequencies remains a secret. Results of the auction are expected next week, people familiar with the process said.

BlackBerry Ltd said in August it was exploring options that could include an outright sale. And the Canadian company, which helped pioneer smartphones, has since been linked with a string of potential buyers from private equity firms to rival technology companies.

Its shares, which rose 4 percent after the Wall Street Journal first reported the interest from Lenovo Group Ltd, ended up less than a percent at $8.20 on the Nasdaq.

Multiple sources close to the matter have told Reuters BlackBerry is in talks with Cisco Systems Inc, Google Inc and Germany's SAP AG among others, about selling all, or parts of itself. The potential buyers have all declined to comment.

None of these technology companies have made a formal bid for BlackBerry yet. However, industry experts believe that, while these players might not be interested in all of BlackBerry, they are keen on at least some pieces that would mesh well with or expand their own businesses.

Two sources said they expect some of these strategic players to be paired in bids for BlackBerry, depending on their level of interest its hardware and network assets.

Such a deal would be an alternative to a preliminary, $9-a- share offer by a group led by BlackBerry's biggest shareholder, Canada's Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. Earlier this month, co-founders Mike Lazaridis and Douglas Fregin said they were also considering a bid.

TOUGH REGULATORY REVIEW

The sale of BlackBerry, or any of its assets will likely undergo tough regulatory reviews in both Ottawa and Washington.

Most security experts believe BlackBerry's most vital asset, a secure network that handles millions of confidential corporate and government emails every day, is likely to be sold to a North American entity because of the security concerns. Its less contentious handset business, however, could be shopped to an Asian device maker.

Under the Investment Canada Act, the federal government has wide ranging powers to veto any foreign takeover of a Canadian asset or company if it deems such a deal would not bring a "net benefit" to the country, or if it believes a deal might pose a threat to national security.

Last week, Canada blocked an Egyptian telecommunication entrepreneur's bid to acquire the Allstream fiber optic network owned by Manitoba Telecom Services Inc, citing unspecified national security concerns.

This network of urban trails connects each of the neighbourhoods so it’s possible to get nearly anywhere in the city on dedicated foot or bike infrastructure - although the comprehensive rail system is usually faster.

The transformation transcends the physical environment. A cultural shift has occurred and residents in general choose to live near where they work.

Education has improved as well, with children walking or biking to quality schools close to where they live. Health has improved dramatically and people are living longer. Most people don’t own cars, and those who do usually only drive them as a hobby, since they’re relics of a bygone era.

This is the Los Angeles of the future.

It's certainly not the Los Angeles of today, the land of 20-lane interchanges and parking lots the size of football stadiums and mind-bending, soul-crushing, life-altering traffic.

LA's seemingly brilliant plan half-a-century ago to re-engineer its urban environment for cars has become a global affliction. There are now 60 million new cars being added to the planet every year, and with those vehicles come more smog, toxic emissions and dependency on rapidly depleting resources.

As we embrace the car, our cultures become more sedentary and rates of obesity and heart disease increase. Cars not only make our cities unhealthy, they also make our cities dangerous: 270,000 pedestrians are killed by cars every year.

To undo these decades of suburban propaganda is to essentially unravel the American Dream; one which has since travelled around the world. But there is a new dream. Walkable City author Jeff Speck said it best in his recent TEDCity2.0 talk: "Sustainability—which includes both health and wealth—may not be a function of our ecological footprint, but the two are deeply interrelated.

If we pollute so much because we are throwing away our time, money, and lives on the highway, then both problems would seem to share a single solution, and that solution is to make our cities more walkable."

Virtual beginnings

The market reaction put Google's stock within striking distance of $1,000, following what analysts said was a strong, but not spectacular quarter.

Shares of the world's No.1 Internet search engine jumped 8 percent to $959.65 in after-hours trading on Thursday, after it reported a 23 percent rise in revenue from its Internet business, excluding fees paid to partners, of $10.8 billion in the third quarter.

"Expectations going into earnings were a little muted," said Needham & Co analyst Kerry Rice. "They did what they needed to do to impress investors."

Google's business, like rivals Facebook Inc and Yahoo Inc, has come under pressure as more consumers access its online services on mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, where advertising rates are lower than on PCs.

The average cost-per-click - the price that marketers pay Google when consumers click on their ads - decreased 8 percent during the third quarter, deepening the 6 percent price erosion that Google experienced in the second quarter.

But the total amount of paid clicks increased 26 percent year-on-year during the three months ended September 30, the highest rate of growth in one year.

"That's the key story, their ad volume growth is outpacing the decline in cost-per-clicks," said JMP Securities analyst Ronald Josey.

Roughly 40 percent of the traffic to YouTube, the Google-owned video website, now occurs on mobile devices, Google Chief Executive Larry Page said on Thursday. Two years ago, only 6 percent of YouTube's traffic occurred on mobile devices.

"Google's done a good job of being in the right place in mobile as it grows, and being able to monetize that," said Rice.

He also pointed to Google's 28 percent revenue growth outside of the U.S. and Britain as further signs of Google's strength.

Google's results offered a sharp contrast to online rival Yahoo Inc, which reported a slight dip in quarterly revenue on Tuesday and lowered its financial outlook.

NO MORE ANALYST CALLS FOR PAGE

On Thursday, co-founder and CEO Page told analysts he will no longer be joining the company's quarterly earnings conference calls on a regular basis.

The site's owner, Canadian Gary Fung, has agreed to pay $110m (£68m) to the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA).

MPAA chairman Chris Dodd said the move was a "major step forward" for legitimate commerce online.

In a blog post, Mr Fung said: "It's sad to see my baby go."

The site is currently still online, but will soon be shut. It is one of the most popular sites of its kind on the internet.

A group of companies, including Disney, Paramount and Twentieth Century Fox, accused the site of wilfully infringing copyright by listing millions of popular movies and TV programmes - in a court battle that has lasted for more than seven years.

Now Mr Fung has agreed to settle. He added: "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race and I have remained faithful. 10.5 years of IsoHunt has been a long journey by any business definition and forever in internet start-up time.

"It started as a programming hobby in my university days that has become so, so much more."

Court documents acknowledged that it is unlikely that Mr Fung's company could pay $110m, and that the MPAA would probably receive between $2m and $4m.

Degree of separation

Like a similar site, The Pirate Bay, that has been blocked in the UK by a court order, IsoHunt did not host pirated material itself.

It instead acted as a directory of sources from which to download illegal files. According to court documents, Mr Fung's defence hinged on this degree of separation - and argued that it was the users of IsoHunt responsible for distributing pirated material, not IsoHunt.

The Californian court disagreed.

"It sends a strong message that those who build businesses around encouraging, enabling, and helping others to commit copyright infringement are themselves infringers, and will be held accountable for their illegal actions," said MPAA chairman Mr Dodd.

"The successful outcome of this landmark lawsuit will also will help preserve jobs and protect the tens of thousands of businesses in the creative industries, whose hard work and investments are exploited by sites like IsoHunt."

'Reluctant revolutionary'

Ahead of the ruling, Mr Fung had taken to social news site Reddit to take part in an AMAA - Ask Me Almost Anything - session.

In it, he described himself as a "reluctant revolutionary", and backed calls for copyright reform.

Less than a day after Congress ended a 16-day partial government shutdown precipitated by Republican demands to delay or defund Obamacare, they sent a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius demanding she make officials available for the October 24 hearing.

The online insurance exchanges that are a central part of Obamacare rolled out on October 1 despite the shutdown but have been hobbled by technical difficulties that Sebelius has said are being fixed.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing is titled: "Implementation Failures: Didn't Know or Didn't Disclose?"

The letter from majority members of the committee said they invited Sebelius on October 11 to appear at the hearing, only to learn on Wednesday that she would not attend. The administration has not agreed to provide other administration officials, the letter added.

"It's well past time for the administration to be straight and transparent with the American people," said a separate statement by Republican Representative Fred Upton, who chairs the panel.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) had no immediate comment.

A spokeswoman for the panel's Republican majority did not respond to a Reuters inquiry about whether subpoenas would be issued by the committee.

Upton said top administration officials had previously said that everything was on track, but the broad technological failures revealed that was not the case. "Either the administration was not ready for launch, or it was not up to the job," he said.

Obama's Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is expected to provide private health coverage to an estimated 7 million uninsured Americans through the new online marketplaces that opened for enrollment in all 50 states on October 1.

But the website Healthcare.gov, the administration's online portal for consumers in 36 states, was hobbled by technical issues - including error messages, garbled text and delays loading pages - that administration officials partly blame on an unexpectedly high volume of 14.6 million visitors in its first 10 days.

Sebelius recently appeared on the cable-television comedy program, "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" for an interview that focused on the website's problems.

The rise in stock trading revenue offset most of the decline in fixed-income, currency, and commodity trading, where revenue fell 44 percent. Morgan Stanley has had difficulty with fixed-income trading for years, but in the third quarter weak market conditions also shook most of the bank's competitors.

Equity trading has been more of a bright spot for Morgan Stanley. The bank has invested heavily in the business, hiring specialty sales staff to help institutional clients pick stocks and formulate complex trades.

Overall, the second-largest U.S. investment bank posted third-quarter net income of $888 million, compared with a loss of $1.01 billion a year earlier. On a per-share basis after preferred stock dividends, the bank earned 44 cents from continuing operations, compared with a loss of 55 cents in the same quarter last year. The year-earlier figures included a charge of $2.3 billion to reflect a rise in the value of Morgan Stanley's debt.

Excluding one-time items, Morgan Stanley earned 50 cents per share in the latest quarter, beating analysts' average estimate by 10 cents, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Overall revenue rose to $7.93 billion from $5.28 billion, driven by equities trading and the company's fast-growing wealth management business.

Morgan Stanley shares rose 1.6 percent to $29.40 in early trading.

FICC LAGGARDS

Adjusted revenue from equities trading rose 31 percent to $1.7 billion, while revenue from fixed income, currency and commodities trading fell 44 percent to $835 million.

Trading activity in the bond market slowed markedly during the third quarter as investors braced for the Federal Reserve to start winding down its bond-buying stimulus program. When the Fed decided to instead hold off on tapering, investors decided they could hold onto their bonds for a little longer instead of trading them.

Bond trading results for Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group Inc, the top U.S. investment bank, were worse than commercial banks'. Goldman posted a 47 percent drop in bond-trading revenue, excluding an accounting charge. Bank of America Corp and Citigroup Inc reported declines of 20 percent and 26 percent, respectively.

Revenue in Morgan Stanley's wealth management business increased 8 percent to $3.48 billion, while the business's pretax profit margin edged up to 19 percent, getting closer to Chief Executive James Gorman's target of a minimum 20 percent.

The Saudi foreign ministry said the UN needs to be reformed first.

It said the Security Council had failed in its duties towards Syria as well as in other world conflicts.

Saudi Arabia has previously expressed frustration at what it sees as an international failure to act on Syria, where it staunchly backs the rebels.

There has been no official reaction from the UN, but diplomats there expressed surprise at Riyadh's announcement.

Russia's foreign ministry called the move bewildering, and said Saudi Arabia's criticism of the UN Security Council about its actions over Syria "is particularly strange". Unprecedented move' The announcement came hours after Saudi Arabia was elected for the first time to one of the 10 rotating seats on the Security Council.

The non-permanent members sit on the council for two years, along with the five permanent members - the US, the UK, France, China and Russia.

"Work mechanisms and double-standards on the Security Council prevent it from carrying out its duties and assuming its responsibilities in keeping world peace," the Saudi foreign ministry said in a statement.

"Therefore Saudi Arabia... has no other option but to turn down Security Council membership until it is reformed and given the means to accomplish its duties and assume its responsibilities in preserving the world's peace and security," it added.

The failure "to find a solution to the Palestinian cause for 65 years" had led to "numerous wars that have threatened world peace," the foreign ministry said.

It also criticised the UN's "failure" to rid the Middle East region of weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear weapons.

And it accused the UN of allowing the Syrian government "to kill its own people with chemical weapons... without confronting it or imposing any deterrent sanctions".

The UN Security Council last month finally broke a two-and-a-half year deadlock on how to deal with conflict in Syria after voting unanimously to adopt a binding resolution on ridding the country of chemical weapons.

Saudi observers say Riyadh would have been working for years to gain a place on the UN Security Council, so such a decision would have to have been made at the very top of the kingdom's leadership.

One Security Council diplomat, quoted by AFP, said the announcement was "totally unexpected" and without precedent.

The gadget - which is being targeted at runners - also includes a GPS location chip to maximise the accuracy of its readings.

It marks a move by the German firm into the smartwatch sector, although the device does not run third-party apps.

The news comes the same week as rival Nike updated its own activity tracker.

The two companies - which are best known for their sports clothing and shoe ranges - are taking different approaches with their flagship products.

At $399 (£350 in the UK) Adidas's Micoach Smart Run is more than double the price of Nike's $149 Fuelband SE. But it offers a wider range of sensors as well as the ability to play MP3 audio files to wireless headphones via Bluetooth.

It also has the advantage of offering partner apps for Android, Windows Phone and iOS devices. By contrast, Nike only offers a Fuelband app for the iPhone.

The US firm does, however, offer a separate Nike-branded watch made by the Dutch firm TomTom that features a GPS chip and can be paired with a heart rate strap made by another company.

Battery life

Adidas announced its new product at Gigaom's Mobilize conference in San Francisco.

It said athletes could use the watch to create a coaching programme to improve their fitness levels and would then receive feedback via animated graphics on its screen, vibrations, and audio commands - using paired headphones - telling them to speed up or slow down. The new device is bigger than less advanced digital watches and screenless activity trackers also sold by Adidas, but its 1.45in (3.7cm) display is smaller than the screens on Samsung and Sony's new smartwatches.

The Galaxy Gear and Smartwatch 2 both offer a range of activity apps of their own as well as other Android software, but rely on being paired with a smartphone for much of their functionality.

Adidas says its product's battery lasts about 14 days when its tracking sensors are switched off. However, that drops to just four hours when it is switched into "training mode".

Motorola's Motoactv watch may be its closest competitor. The gadget also features a GPS chip and MP3 player, but not a pulse rate sensor of its own.

Killer app

Analysts cut their price targets by between $2 and $6, to as low as $56. EBay shares were trading at $51.54 at midday.

EBay said on Wednesday that the U.S. economic environment and consumer confidence had deteriorated, in part because of the shutdown of the U.S. government.

However, several analysts said they were awaiting results from Google Inc later on Thursday and Amazon.com Inc next week to get a better picture of the e-commerce market.

EBay said it expects a profit of 79-81 cents per share for the holiday quarter, short of the 83 cents per share expected by analysts on average.

The update fixes 51 separate security bugs in Java, which owner Oracle says is used on billions of devices.

About a dozen of the bugs were serious enough to allow attackers to take remote control of a compromised system, researchers said.

Java is one of the most popular targets for cyber-thieves and malware writers seeking to hijack home computers.

In its advisory about the update, Oracle urged customers to patch the software as soon as possible "due to the threat posed by a successful attack".

Programming language Java has proved popular because software written with it can easily be made to run on many different types of computer.

Twelve of the holes in Java addressed by the update topped the table that ranked the severity of security weaknesses in software, wrote Qualys security expert Wolfgang Kandek in a blogpost.

If these bugs were exploited, attackers could bypass ID controls and take over a target system, he added.

He said those seeking to exploit Java would probably seed web pages with booby-trapped links in a bid to catch vulnerable machines.

Security glitches in Java are favourites among those that write and run so-called "exploit kits" that seek to compromise vulnerable websites and other systems.

Security blogger Brian Krebs said if people needed to run Java, it was well worth taking time to apply the update.

Those that did not need the software should consider disabling it altogether, he said.

"This widely installed and powerful program is riddled with security holes, and is a top target of malware writers and miscreants," he wrote.

The update is available via the main Java website and has prompted follow-up action from other electronics firms. Apple has released an update to the version of Java that runs on its computers. This update points people towards the official version of Java from Oracle instead of that supplied by Apple.

The "5C is in plenty supply" and "if you generally talk to each of the carriers I think they'll tell you the same thing," Shammo told Reuters in an interview Thursday after the company reported its third-quarter earnings.

Apple, which has its phones made by contract manufacturers overseas, is cutting production orders for the cheaper plastic-backed iPhone 5C just a month after its launch at the same time as the iPhone 5S, a source familiar with its supply chain told Reuters on Wednesday.

The production cutback was seen by analysts as a rare misstep for Apple, which typically only launches one phone at a time and tends to see massive demand for its devices, particularly during the quarter of their launch.

Consumer reception to the iPhone 5S appeared to have been much stronger, at least at Verizon Wireless, the biggest U.S. mobile operator.

Verizon's Shammo said scarcity of the iPhone 5S was a "significant issue" for Verizon Wireless, which missed Wall Street's third-quarter expectations for net subscriber additions as a result.

Shammo said iPhone 5S customers who were still waiting to receive their phones would be reflected in its numbers in the fourth quarter.

But he declined to say how much of an overall effect the shortage of the iPhone 5S had on the company's third-quarter figures.

About 51 percent of Verizon's smartphone activations in the quarter were for iPhone customers.