Top 25 Tech of 2012

It took a while, but Microsoft blasted into the tablet market with Surface, which is not quite a tablet, nor is it a computer. In fact, it's a PC in tablet's clothing. While it's not perfect yet, we called it 'the tablet for Windows fans.' It won't win over Apple iPad owners, but for all those who hate Apple, find Android confusing and underwhelming, and are ready to enter the world of touchscreen computing, this is the alternative you've been waiting for. Photo via Windows

Click here to view this gallery.[More from Mashable: iPhone 5, iPad Mini and iPad 4 All Coming to China]

In a year punctuated by groundbreaking gadgetry, brand-new design and innovative technological achievement, how on earth do you go about picking the 25 best of 2012? For me, it was made easier by my weekly Top 10 Tech columns, pinpointing the innovations and products I thought were the most future-forward and world-changing. SEE ALSO: Top 10 Tech This Week

[More from Mashable: 10 Ambitious iPhone Apps, Accessories for Your Workout]

Each one of the devices, designs and ideas in the gallery above showed me something that can change the world, something that's different from anything that came before, or a product that has taken past ideas and refined them to an extraordinary level. So after sifting through hundreds of possibilities, here are my picks for the top 25 tech of 2012.

Photo via iStockphoto, courtneyk

This story originally published on Mashable here.



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Zynga shares slide after privileged status with Facebook ends

(Reuters) - Shares of gaming company Zynga Inc fell as much as 10 percent, a day after the 'Farmville' creator reached an agreement with Facebook Inc that reduces its dependence on the social networking giant.

The companies reported in regulatory filings on Thursday that they have reached an agreement to amend a 2010 deal that was widely seen as giving Zynga privileged status on the world's No.1 social network.

Zynga gets a freer hand to operate a standalone gaming website, but gives up its ability to promote its site on Facebook and to draw from the thriving social network of about 1 billion users.

'Although Zynga investors have reacted negatively to Thursday's announcements so far, we view them as a long-term positive for both companies,' Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter said in a note to clients.

'Zynga now has an advantage to offer more payment options which could result in additional subscribers who are not Facebook users,' he said, maintaining his 'outperform' rating and price target of $4 on the stock.

Both internet companies have been trying to reduce their interdependence, with Zynga starting up its own Zynga.com platform, and Facebook wooing other games developers.

In recent quarters, fees from Zynga contributed 15 percent of Facebook's revenue, while Zynga relies on Facebook for roughly 80 percent of its revenue.

Francisco-based Zynga's shares were down 7 percent at $2.44 in morning trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Friday.

Facebook shares were down more than 1 percent at $26.98.

(Reporting By Aurindom Mukherjee in Bangalore; Editing by Don Sebastian)



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Insight: EBay's double tax base prompts calls for investigation

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain and Germany may have missed out on a combined $1 billion in sales tax since online marketplace eBay picked a tiny Luxembourg office as its base for EU sales, a shift that lawmakers say should now be investigated.

EBay's nomination of Luxembourg unit eBay Europe Sarl - with a staff of nine - as its provider of services to EU clients allows it to charge customers in Europe a low rate of sales tax, often known as Value Added Tax, helping it to compete against rivals.

However, the unit doesn't actually receive the money from sales. Instead, eBay said it continues to channel revenues through a Berne-based unit, allowing the company also to benefit from what Swiss tax lawyers say is the most competitive corporate income tax regime in Europe.

EU rules allow companies to establish subsidiaries in Luxembourg and levy VAT at Luxembourg's low VAT rate on sales to customers across the bloc.

However, the rules also allow individual EU taxmen to challenge any claim to Luxembourg residence, and the right to charge Luxembourg VAT, in their domestic courts, if the taxman feels a Luxembourg-based subsidiary does not have sufficient staff or assets to support its claim to be the true supplier of goods or services.

Tax experts say eBay's arrangement, which appears to give eBay the best of both income and sales tax worlds, could be open to challenge, and lawmakers in the UK and Germany want their taxmen to investigate.

'I hope that HMRC (UK tax authority Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs) takes note ... and takes prompt action,' said Margaret Hodge, member of parliament and chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), which monitors government finances.

'I will be seeking assurance that they are, next time we take evidence from HMRC,' she added. Officials from HMRC are due to testify to the PAC in early December as part of the committee's investigation into tax matters.

Sven Giegold, member of the European Parliament for Germany's Green Party, said he wanted the German tax authorities to 'have a very critical look at this'.

It is common for companies to seek to reduce their tax bills, and a number of multinationals have established bases in Luxembourg so they can charge customers lower levels of VAT.

EBay said it was confident it met all its tax liabilities in the UK and elsewhere.

'In all countries and at all times, eBay is fully compliant with national, EU and international tax rules (including the OECD) including the remittance of VAT to the appropriate authorities,' an eBay spokesman said in an emailed statement.

The UK, German, French and Luxembourg tax authorities declined to comment on eBay, citing rules on taxpayer confidentiality.

LOWER THRESHOLD

Big companies' tax practices have risen to the top of the political agenda in Europe in the past year, with lawmakers growing increasingly frustrated with the way in which companies such as search engine company Google pay almost no income tax in countries where they have billions of dollars in sales.

The companies escape liability for income taxes in countries like the UK by arguing the value created by their business, and therefore the location where the profit should be realized, is not the place where the customer resides, but rather in the location where the intellectual property underpinning the product or service is based.

Chas Roy-Chowdhury, head of taxation at the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, said this was a valid economic argument and that if, for example, HMRC wants to claim more income tax from Google, it has to prove the company is generating more value in the UK than it is declaring.

This would require a thorough deconstruction of its business model and supply chain.

However, it is easier to establish liability to VAT, since this tax hinges simply on the location of the buyer and seller.

'The threshold is lower,' said Simon Newark, head of VAT at accountants UHY Hacker.

'There are a lot more aspects for HMRC to challenge in VAT than in direct (income) tax.'

For tax purposes, the EU deems eBay's online platform an 'electronically supplied service', a category that also covers e-Books and music downloads.

Under EU rules, suppliers of such services based within the bloc are supposed to charge EU customers VAT at the rate prevailing in the country where the supplier is based.

A number of suppliers of electronic services, including Amazon.Com Inc and Apple Inc's iTunes have established European headquarters in Luxembourg to enable them to charge customers lower VAT rates than prevail in their customers' countries.

Luxembourg has traditionally charged the lowest standard VAT rates in the European Union. Its 15 percent rate compares with rates of 19-25 percent in most other EU members.

By charging customers VAT at Luxembourg's rate eBay is better able to compete with rivals based elsewhere in the EU, such as Britain's eBid, which must charge customers VAT at the standard UK rate of 20 percent.

However, to be entitled to charge Luxembourg rates, a company has to be able to prove in British, German or EU courts that it is genuinely based in the Grand Duchy.

Companies selling to EU customers from outside the EU - as eBay was until the 2007 nomination of eBay Europe Sarl as supplier to EU clients - must charge European customers VAT at the rate prevailing in the country where the customer resides, and to pay that VAT to the taxman in the customer's country.

There is no definitive checklist that determines the true base of a company and any decision by a national court can be challenged in the European Court of Justice. In the UK, HMRC said it approached the matter on a case-by-case basis, and disputes are often resolved in court.

'HMRC will challenge any arrangements where it is claimed that supplies are made from a particular country but the business does not have the necessary resources to make those supplies,' a spokesman said.

EUROPE EXPANSION

EBay, which is headquartered in San Jose, California, moved into Europe in 1999 when it established eBay International in Berne. Switzerland's low income tax regime for foreign companies was highly beneficial for the auction site. 'We do have a very favorable international tax structure,' then-Chief Financial Officer Rajiv Dutta told analysts in 2002 when asked how the company managed to pay such low taxes on its non-U.S. income.

The Swiss base also meant, initially, that the company didn't have to charge EU customers VAT. But in 2003, Brussels changed the rules, which forced eBay to charge EU sellers on its platform VAT based on their residence. The VAT gathered was remitted to the tax authority in the customer's country.

Not all customers are charged VAT. Most medium-sized and big businesses are legitimately exempted from paying VAT on some purchases, such as eBay seller fees.

EBay's Swiss-based European public relations head declined to say what portion of its EU customers were liable to be charged VAT. James Cordwell, equities analyst at Atlantic Equities, estimated that such customers accounted for 40-50 percent of sales in Europe.

Since the 2007 creation of its Luxembourg operation, eBay has had German fee revenues of $6.1 billion and UK revenues of $5 billion, its annual accounts show.

If the services were supplied from Switzerland or another non-EU country, and assuming only half of customers should have been charged VAT, EU rules would have obliged eBay to collect $580 million in VAT for the German taxman and $500 million in VAT for HMRC since 2007.

EBay's entitlement to charge Luxembourg VAT on sales and to pay this to the Luxembourg taxman rests on being able to prove in court that eBay Europe Sarl is the provider of services to EU clients.

But despite German and UK fee income of $3.1 billion last year, eBay Europe Sarl recorded turnover of only 5 million euros in 2011.

John Hemming, an MP with the Liberal Democrats, the junior partner in the British coalition government, said the fact eBay's sales revenues did not go through the Luxembourg unit undermined the claim that it was the true provider of services to EU clients.

'If it's a real transaction, you would expect the money to pass with it, and not pass someplace else,' he said.

Rather than going to Luxembourg, the money generated from customers continues to go to Berne-based eBay International AG, a spokeswoman said.

When Reuters visited in mid November, staff at the Luxembourg office, just opposite the central post office, declined to discuss what operations the unit conducted for eBay.

By contrast, Amazon and iTunes do report their sales of ebooks and music downloads to EU customers through their Luxembourg units.

Prem Sikka, professor of accounting at Essex University, along with Newark and Roy-Chowdhury said a cash trail through a unit was one of the key factors used as evidence that the unit was the true supplier of a service.

UK and German tax authorities could argue that the shift in eBay's supply base to Luxembourg from Berne was therefore not genuine. If successful, they could claim back the VAT lost.

EBay declined to say why it channeled sales through Switzerland. Tax advisors say the country can still offer some companies lower tax rates than other European low-tax jurisdictions such as Ireland and Luxembourg.

Indeed, EBay's closest rival Amazon, which channels about half its non-U.S. earnings through Luxembourg, reported average income tax on overseas earnings of 6 percent in the past four years. EBay paid just 3 percent over the same period.

(Reporting by Tom Bergin; Editing by Will Waterman)



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Insight: How a desperate HP suspended disbelief for Autonomy deal

SAN FRANCISCO/NEW YORK/LONDON (Reuters) - For Leo Apotheker, the former Hewlett-Packard CEO, a July 2011 meeting with Autonomy founder Mike Lynch at a chic seaside resort in France was pivotal to his effort to remake a storied technology giant.

In the nine months since taking the helm at HP, Apotheker had tried furiously to find a way to move the lumbering company away from its low-margin computer hardware business and into the lucrative corporate software and services arena. Apotheker was looking for a big, transformative acquisition, two people familiar with the situation said, and after overtures to several companies went nowhere, he set his sights on Autonomy.

After two months of negotiations on what was known at HP as 'Project Tesla,' Apotheker sat down with Lynch at a hotel in Deauville on the Normandy coast - and shook hands on what would become an $11.1 billion deal.

The Autonomy takeover was indeed a bombshell - but not in the way that Apotheker had hoped. When it was announced in August 2011, HP's stock plummeted amid withering criticism of the price tag. Within weeks, Apotheker was out of a job. Within months, Lynch and his new masters at HP were at war.

Inside a year, Lynch had been forced out and HP was investigating allegations of major accounting irregularities at Autonomy. That culminated in HP saying last week it was writing off more than three-quarters of the value of Autonomy, and telling U.S. and UK regulators about alleged accounting fraud.

The implosion of the Autonomy deal has raised questions about how HP and its army of lawyers, accountants and investment bankers could have overlooked warning signs and gone ahead with the acquisition.

Reuters spoke with close to a dozen people directly connected with the deal or the accounting investigation. The picture that emerges is of a company so desperate to plot a new course that it may have been far too accepting of Autonomy's published and audited accounts.

It has also cast a shadow over Lynch, widely regarded as a brilliant but difficult executive; he left HP in May and has flatly rejected the company's claims of accounting shenanigans or that HP had been deliberately deceived.

CEO'S ROCKY REIGN

Apotheker's appointment as CEO of HP in November 2010 was greeted even at the time with head-scratching - and criticism. A veteran of the German corporate software maker SAP, he had no obvious qualifications to run HP - a company with sales several times SAP's - especially given his lack of experience in the computer hardware business.

But the U.S. company was reeling from a series of boardroom imbroglios that culminated in the firing of then-CEO Mark Hurd in a sexual harassment scandal in August 2010.

Apotheker went on the acquisition trail almost immediately, even though previous HP takeovers like Compaq and Palm had not worked out well. He was given the mandate of moving HP in a new direction - software seemed logical given the decline in HP's traditional computer business - and felt the need for a transformative acquisition to do that, according to one of the sources.

He 'knocked on a number of doors,' according to another of the sources, looking as far and wide as the telecom software companies Comverse Technology and Amdocs, and corporate software maker Tibco Software.

It's not clear how far talks with those three progressed. According to one of the sources, HP backed off from Comverse because the company was not current with its published accounts and because of previously disclosed involvement in an options accounting scandal. HP could not agree on a price with Tibco, and Amdocs rebuffed it, saying the time wasn't right for a deal.

Spokespeople for Amdocs and Comverse declined to comment. Tibco did not respond to requests for comment.

Apotheker then set his sights on Autonomy. It was a pioneer in the up-and-coming field of 'big data' - software that can separate the wheat from the chaff in huge mountains of corporate data - and could serve as a centerpiece for the new strategy.

This time, Apotheker was determined not to miss out.

He was 'not being able to really have anybody dance with him at the right price,' said the source with direct knowledge of the deal. 'What happened is he talked to Autonomy and they got into a dialogue and he told the board that we have to do something,' this person said. 'It was out of frustration and desperation to a large degree.'

HP began looking at Autonomy in earnest around May last year, bringing in investment bank Barclays as adviser. Boutique investment bank Perella Weinberg Partners had already been hired to look at ways of restructuring HP's businesses.

In early July of 2011 the board met to do a two-day review of the rationale behind the acquisition. During that process, the board set guidelines for the deal, including the price, and agreed on a process to do due diligence, two people familiar with the process said. It voted to enter into negotiations at the end of the two days.

DEALMAKER

Throughout the process, Apotheker remained in direct contact and consulted with HP Chairman Ray Lane, the person said, adding that Lane - a former top executive at software giant Oracle - encouraged management to proceed with the deal.

By the end of July, Apotheker and Lynch - who were previously acquainted because HP was an Autonomy customer - narrowed down financial terms at the hotel in Deauville, though didn't finalize the price.

Also present was then HP chief strategy officer Shane Robison, who has been credited by HP with being the main architect of many of HP's larger deals, including another troubled acquisition - its purchase of technology services firm EDS. Robison was pushed out of HP shortly after Apotheker left last year.

At the meeting, Apotheker presented HP's view about putting the companies together - with Robison chipping in when needed, one source said. Robison, who has not spoken publicly about Autonomy's accounting issues, did not respond to requests for comment sent to representatives at Fusion-io and Altera Corp, companies where he is a board member.

For some weeks, both sides went back and forth on the price, with Robison playing a pivotal role in pitching the deal internally, and getting it finalized. Inside HP, it was seen as Apotheker's and Robison's deal, the sources said.

In the end, uber-dealmaker Frank Quattrone, whose Qatalyst Partners was representing Autonomy, proved instrumental in securing for its shareholders the lofty price tag, according to another source familiar with the negotiations.

While the price haggling was going on, a large due diligence team numbering in the hundreds, including internal HP staff from all relevant departments like finance, poured over Autonomy's books, examined contracts, and interviewed Autonomy's top executives, sources said. External experts involved in the process included accounting firm KPMG, law firms and bankers.

Due diligence was seen being straightforward as Autonomy had been filing its accounts publicly and they had been audited. One source said the month-long process was extensive and meticulous but nothing special.

SHORT SELLER

During this time, HP posed a litany of questions to Lynch and Autonomy Chief Financial Officer Sushovan Hussain about accounting rumors surrounding the company, one of the sources knowledgeable with the deal said. But Autonomy executives provided explanations for all of them, this person said.

HP would not elaborate on the specific issues it raised. But questions about Autonomy's books had surfaced as early as 2009, when renowned short seller Jim Chanos identified Autonomy's shares as a shorting opportunity based on concerns such as how reported margins of around 50 percent did not seem to translate proportionately into cash flow.

His other concern was how it could report double-digit growth in software license revenue while rivals battled shrinking sales, according to a source familiar with his views.

Asked on CNBC last week about whether the board had discussed with Apotheker the speculation about Autonomy's books, HP's current CEO Meg Whitman said: 'Not when I was on the board. What I do know is that after we announced the acquisition there were a number of blogs that came to the fore about potential issues at Autonomy. The former management team ran that to ground and came up with the conclusion that there was nothing there.'

HP officials now say they were deceived.

Apotheker said last week he was 'stunned and disappointed' to learn of Autonomy's alleged accounting issues. He declined to be interviewed for this story through a spokesperson.

As the deal was being considered, HP CFO Cathie Lesjak did raise questions about HP's ability to pay such a high price and whether it could integrate Autonomy well, sources said.

Lane said the board approved the deal based on the recommendation of management. 'That recommendation was based on misleading audited financial statements and misrepresentations made by Autonomy's executives,' he said in an email. 'In hindsight, we shouldn't have done the Autonomy deal at such a high price. We were lied to and as a result, we got it wrong.'

By the time the deal was agreed, though, Apotheker was already running out of time. He had wanted to sell HP's personal computer business but was unable to complete a deal. He announced a strategic review of the division - to the horror of many employees and the consternation of some of its customers.

That misstep, along with series of missed financial targets, led to Apotheker's firing in September 2011 - before the Autonomy deal had even closed. Board member Whitman - who had voted in favor of buying Autonomy - then took over as CEO. The acquisition still went ahead - and quickly went south.

BRUTAL CULTURE CLASH

The clash between HP's polite, slow-moving bureaucracy and Autonomy's in-your-face sales culture could not have been starker. Lynch also chafed at his new, subordinate position, according to the sources. He routinely shut HP management out of key decisions and - true to his company's name - resisted full integration with HP. He complained constantly about red tape.

After he was forced out in May of this year, Lynch returned to HP in June to discuss severance. But he found himself on the receiving end of a barrage of questions about Autonomy's accounting, sources briefed on the investigation told Reuters.

HP General Counsel John Schultz quizzed Lynch specifically on a range of accounting items, including at least three sales deals from a couple of years before, one of the sources said. Lynch's reply to most questions was that Deloitte, its auditor, signed off on various items, or he could not remember specifics.

'If there were no problems, he could have explained it,' one of the sources said. 'He simply refused to have the conversation.'

But Lynch was caught unaware: Hence he did not have information about those deals at hand, said a source familiar with his version of events. Lynch's spokeswoman said that the allegations HP made last week 'were not put to him in June.'

The legal struggle has only just begun. HP has handed documents over to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the UK Serious Fraud Office, and the U.S. Department of Justice is also involved, a source told Reuters last week.

HP also on Tuesday threatened legal action against parties involved, though stopped short of naming targets. HP has challenged Lynch to answer questions under penalty of perjury.

'He ran this company like a small private company, he was involved in all facets of the company, he was extremely hands on,' said a source close to the matter who knew the former Autonomy CEO. 'For Lynch not to know about this, if it is truly happening, would be far-fetched.'

(Additional reporting by Anjuli Davies in London and Soyoung Kim in New York; Editing by Edwin Chan, Jonathan Weber, Steve Orlofsky and Martin Howell)



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Microsoft Windows 8 makes lukewarm debut: sales tracker

SEATTLE (Reuters) - Consumer sales of Windows-powered personal computers fell 21 percent overall last month, figures released by a leading retail research firm showed on Thursday, indicating a lackluster debut for Microsoft Corp's Windows 8 operating system.

Many in the industry said Windows 8 might revive slack PC sales, but a report by NPD Group, which tracks computer sales weekly using data supplied by retailers, dampened those hopes.

On the same day, Microsoft announced pricing for its latest device designed to break Apple Inc's stranglehold on the tablet and lightweight laptop market. It is offering the Surface tablet running the full version of Windows 8 from $899, pitching it somewhere between Apple's latest iPad and MacBook Air laptop.

Since the launch of Windows 8 on October 26, Windows laptop sales are down 24 percent, while desktop sales are down 9 percent compared with the same period last year, making an overall 21 percent dip, NPD Group said.

Usually, a Microsoft release boosts PC sales because many consumers hold off purchases for several months so they can obtain the latest software immediately.

If the NPD's sales trends are borne out over the rest of the holiday shopping season, it would be a huge disappointment for Microsoft and PC makers such as Dell Inc, HP and Lenovo.

'After just four weeks on the market, it's still early to place blame on Windows 8 for the ongoing weakness in the PC market,' said Stephen Baker, vice president of industry analysis at NPD. 'We still have the whole holiday selling season ahead of us, but clearly Windows 8 did not prove to be the impetus for a sales turnaround some had hoped for.'

NPD's data neither includes Microsoft's first Surface tablet, which is only available in its own stores, nor takes account of sales of PCs to businesses, which has recently been a much stronger market.

LARGER TABLET AVAILABLE JANUARY

Microsoft's first Surface tablet runs a version of Windows called RT, created to work on the low-power chips designed by ARM Holdings, which dominate smartphones and tablets but are incompatible with old Windows applications.

A larger, heavier tablet -- officially called 'Surface with Windows 8 Pro' -- will be on sale from January, running on an Intel Corp chip that works with all Microsoft's Windows and Office applications.

Microsoft said on Thursday it would price the new Surface at $899 for a 64 gigabyte version and $999 for a 128 GB version. That does not include the optional cover, which doubles as a keyboard, costing $120 to $130.

The company describes the wifi-only device as 'a full PC and a tablet'. It is priced above Apple's 64 GB wifi-only iPad at $699 and at the low end of Apple's MacBook Air line of lightweight laptops which start at $999.

The Intel-based Surface is thicker and heavier than both the iPad and Surface running Windows RT, but at 2 lbs (0.9 kg) is lighter than the MacBook Air.

Since Microsoft introduced Windows 8, it has accounted for only 58 percent of Windows computing device unit sales, compared to the 83 percent Windows 7 accounted for at the same point after its launch in 2009, NPD said. That was partly caused by poor back-to-school sales that left many Windows 7 PCs on retailers' shelves, NPD said.

One patch of light for Microsoft is strong sales of touchscreen Windows 8 laptops, which accounted for 6 percent of Windows laptop sales, according to NPD.

It is still unclear how successful Microsoft's Windows 8 will be in the long term. The touch-optimized, tablet-friendly system was designed to appeal to younger users with a colorful, app-based interface, but has confused some traditional Windows customers more used to keyboard and mouse commands. Beneath the new interface design, it does not offer any radical new computing power.

On Monday, a top Windows executive said Microsoft had sold 40 million Windows 8 licenses in the month since the launch. That is ahead of Windows 7 at the same stage, but it was not clear how many of those were pre-orders, discounted upgrades, or bulk sales to PC makers.

According to tech research firm StatCounter, about 1 percent of the world's 1.5 billion or so personal computers - making a total of around 15 million - are actually running Windows 8.

(Reporting By Bill Rigby; Editing by Bernard Orr and Grant McCool)



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Windows PC retail sales fall after Windows 8: NPD

SEATTLE (Reuters) - Consumer sales of Windows-powered personal computers fell 21 percent overall last month, according to a leading retail research firm, indicating a lackluster debut for Microsoft Corp's Windows 8 operating system, which many in the industry had hoped would revive slack PC sales.

Since the launch of Windows 8 on October 26, Windows laptop sales are down 24 percent, while desktop sales are down 9 percent compared with the same period last year, said NPD Group, which tracks computer sales weekly using data supplied by retailers.

Usually a new Microsoft release boosts PC sales, as many consumers hold off from purchases for several months prior so they can get hold of the latest software immediately.

'After just four weeks on the market, it's still early to place blame on Windows 8 for the ongoing weakness in the PC market,' said Stephen Baker, vice president of industry analysis at NPD. 'We still have the whole holiday selling season ahead of us, but clearly Windows 8 did not prove to be the impetus for a sales turnaround some had hoped for.'

NPD's data does not include Microsoft's new Surface tablet, which is only available in its own stores, nor does it take account of sales of PCs to businesses, which has recently been a much stronger market.

But if the trend is borne out over the rest of the holiday shopping season, it would be a huge disappointment for Microsoft, as well as PC makers such as Dell Inc, HP and Lenovo.

Since launch, Windows 8 accounted for only 58 percent of Windows computing device unit sales, compared to the 83 percent Windows 7 accounted for at the same point after its launch in 2009, NPD said, partly caused by poor back-to-school sales that left many Windows 7 PCs on retailers' shelves.

One patch of light for Microsoft is strong sales of touchscreen Windows 8 laptops, which accounted for 6 percent of Windows laptop sales, according to NPD.

It is still unclear how successful Microsoft's Windows 8 will be in the long term. The touch-optimized, tablet-friendly system was designed to appeal to younger users with a colorful, app-based interface, but has confused some traditional Windows customers more used to keyboard and mouse commands. Beneath the new interface design, it does not offer any radical new computing power.

On Monday, a top Windows executive said Microsoft had sold 40 million Windows 8 licenses in the month since the launch. That is ahead of Windows 7 at the same stage, but it was not clear how many of those were pre-orders, discounted upgrades, or bulk sales to PC makers.

According to tech research firm StatCounter, about 1 percent of the world's 1.5 billion or so personal computers - making a total of around 15 million - are actually running Windows 8.

(Reporting By Bill Rigby; Editing by Bernard Orr)



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RIM shares rise 6 percent as Goldman jumps on BB10 bandwagon

TORONTO (Reuters) - A wave of optimism surrounding the launch of Research In Motion's re-engineered BlackBerry line picked up momentum on Thursday with Goldman Sachs raising its rating on the smartphone maker and setting off a surge in its share price.

The brokerage firm joined a growing chorus of analysts who have warmed to the prospects of a successful introduction of the new BlackBerry 10 devices, which RIM hopes will let it claw back market share lost to Apple Inc's iPhone and smartphones powered by Google's Android platform. The BB10 devices are expected to hit store shelves early next year.

The shift in sentiment has been swift. A few weeks ago, most analysts believed RIM had squandered any chance it had to become a serious competitor because of repeated delays in the launch of the new smartphone.

But with a launch date now set for January 30 and some positive feedback about the devices from telecom carriers and developers, some analysts now think RIM might be able turn around its fortunes.

In a note to clients, Goldman analyst Simona Jankowski said preliminary specifications that have emerged on the BB10 devices appear impressive.

'With these devices RIM appears to finally be aiming for the leading edge hardware performance that was missing from its prior generations,' Jankowski Said.

GOLDMAN UPGRADE

Jankowski said she believes more applications will be available for BB10 than had been expected because BlackBerry users typically download a relatively high number of paid apps, which is an enticement to app developers.

Goldman, which raised its rating on RIM shares to 'buy' from 'neutral,' also increased its price target to $16 from $9.

By midday, RIM's shares had jumped up more than 6 percent on the Nasdaq to $11.78, while its Toronto-listed shares rose by a similar margin to C$11.72.

RIM shares, which have plunged about 90 percent from a 2008 high of more than $148, have risen some 75 percent in the last two months as the company moves closer to the launch of the new devices.

RIM promises its new devices will be faster and smoother than previous smartphones, and will have a large catalog of apps that are crucial to the success of any new line of smartphones.

Earlier this month, Jefferies & Co analyst Peter Misek, who has been one of RIM's biggest critics, raised his rating and price target on the stock.

Last week, National Bank analyst Kris Thompson raised his price target on the shares, stating that there is more money to be made in the stock ahead of the launch of the BB10 devices.

RIM Chief Executive Thorsten Heins told Reuters earlier this month that he sees the new BB10 devices providing RIM with a framework for growth over the next decade.

To be sure, not everyone has jumped on the bandwagon. Wedge Partners analyst Brian Blair warned on Wednesday that rising expectations for the BB10 in 2013 have provided false hope for investors.

'We believe the run-up in the stock miscalculates the reality of consumer demand for BB10 next year. ... The fact is, the smartphone market has changed in the last 24 months, and RIM is not only late to the party, the party has moved to a different location and RIM is showing up at the wrong house,' Blair said.

(Reporting by Euan Rocha; Editing by Maureen Bavdek; and Peter Galloway)



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RIM jumps 10 percent in Toronto trade after Goldman upgrade

TORONTO (Reuters) - Shares in Research In Motion Ltd rose more than 10 percent at the open on the Toronto Stock Exchange after Goldman Sachs upgraded the BlackBerry maker's stock to a 'buy' from a 'neutral' recommendation.

The stock traded at C$12.02 ($12.10), up from a close of C$11.00 on Wednesday, after opening at C$12.18. The brokerage joined a growing chorus of analysts to turn positive on the company's prospects.

(Reporting by Alastair Sharp; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick)



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Goldman Sachs boosts rating on RIM, shares surge

TORONTO (Reuters) - Research In Motion received a big boost on Thursday after Goldman Sachs raised its rating on the company, sending shares of the BlackBerry maker soaring more than 12 percent in trading before the morning bell.

The brokerage firm is the latest to join a growing chorus of analysts to turn more positive on RIM's prospects ahead of the launch of its make-or-break new line of devices that will vie against Apple's iPhone and Android-based smartphones.

Goldman raised its rating on RIM to 'buy' from 'neutral,' while also lifting its price target on RIM's shares to $16 from $9. The announcement sent RIM's shares up 12.2 percent to $12.45 in premarket trading in the United States.

RIM, a one-time smartphone pioneer, hopes its new BlackBerry 10 devices will rescue it from a prolonged slump and help win back market share it had ceded to rivals such as Apple and Samsung Electronics.

'We are upgrading Research in Motion to Buy from Neutral, as we see a positive risk/reward heading into its BlackBerry 10 launch on January 30,' Goldman analyst Simona Jankowski said in a note to clients.

RIM shares, which have plunged about 90 percent from a 2008 high of more than $148, have risen some 75 percent in the last two months, as analysts have begun to turn more optimistic ahead of the launch of the BB10 devices.

Earlier this month, Jefferies & Co analyst Peter Misek, who has been one of RIM's biggest critics, raised his rating and price target on the stock. And last week, National Bank analyst Kris Thompson raised his price target on the shares, stating that there is more money to be made in the stock ahead of the launch of the BB10 devices.

(Reporting by Euan Rocha; Editing by Maureen Bavdek)



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Siemens says Invensys Rail deal will boost profits

FRANKFURT/LONDON (Reuters) - Germany's Siemens AG promised investors its deal to buy Invensys' rail business for a hefty 1.74 billion pounds ($2.78 billion) would contribute to boosting profits in a tough economy.

The engineering conglomerate, Germany's most valuable company, aims to save 6 billion euros ($7.75 billion) and focus on its core areas of expertise to close a gap with rivals such as ABB and General Electric.

Late on Wednesday, the company said it was buying Invensys Rail and selling its baggage handling and postal sorting operations as part of that plan.

The deals will lift the operating profit margin of Siemens' Infrastructure & Cities division by more than one percentage point in fiscal 2014 from 7.5 percent last year, I&C Chief Executive Roland Busch said during a conference call on Thursday.

'We are investing in our profitability. We see a margin improvement ... as validation,' Busch said.

The purchase of Invensys Rail vaults Siemens, which was advised on the deal by Goldman Sachs, well ahead of rivals in rail signaling, with a 17 percent market share, almost double the closest rivals Alstom and Ansaldo STS.

The 1.74 billion pound price tag represents about 97 percent of parent company Invensys' market value ahead of Wednesday's announcement, or 15 times Invensys Rail's estimated 2013 operating profit, which analysts said seemed very high.

'We like the strategic intent of the deal, but we do not like the pricing: the value is going to Invensys shareholders,' Bernstein Research analysts said.

The deal gives Invensys cash to pay down its pension deficit, return money to investors and re-focus its business on industrial software, systems and control equipment.

Invensys shares closed 27 percent higher following the announcement on Wednesday and were up 9.64 percent at 307.03 pence by 5:52 EDT on Thursday. Siemens was up 0.8 percent at 79.57 euros.

Analysts have long expected Invensys to sell off some of its business units because suitors interested in a takeover of the entire group were put off by its hefty pension deficit, which stood at a net 426 million pounds at the end of March. Analysts had said the total liabilities were far higher than that.

Charles Stanley analyst Rae Ellingham believes Invensys may now be a more attractive takeover target, after the bulk of its pension problems were solved by the Siemens deal. The broker has since raised its recommendation on the stock to 'accumulate' from 'hold'.

Earlier this year, Invensys said it had received a 'highly preliminary' approach from U.S. group Emerson Electric, but talks had ended. China South Locomotive has also reportedly studied a bid for Invensys.

Siemens I&C chief Busch said the German company has been eyeing Invensys Rail for a decade already and pounced on it now because it saw an opportunity to buy it without taking on future pension liabilities.

(Editing by Hans-Juergen Peters)



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Microsoft CEO defends its innovation record, financial results

BELLEVUE, Washington (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp Chief Executive Steve Ballmer defended his company's record on innovation and financial performance at the annual shareholders' meeting, but conceded that he should have moved faster to get into the booming tablet market dominated by Apple Inc's iPad.

Bill Gates, co-founder and now chairman of the world's largest software company, was one of the first to champion tablet-sized devices more than 10 years ago, but Microsoft failed to come up with a product that worked as well as the iPad. Gates was silent throughout the meeting, attended by about 450 shareholders.

'We're innovating on the seam between software and hardware,' said Ballmer, asked why his company had fallen behind rival Apple. 'Maybe we should have done that earlier.'

A month ago, Microsoft launched the Surface tablet - its first own-brand computer - but has not revealed sales figures.

In the tablet market, 'we see nothing but a sea of upside,' Ballmer said, an acknowledgement that until now Microsoft has effectively had zero presence in the tablet market.

'I feel pretty good about our level of innovation,' he added.

Ballmer said smartphones running Microsoft's new Windows software were selling four times as much as they did at this time last year. Microsoft has never given sales numbers of Windows phones, primarily made by Nokia, Samsung and HTC.

Windows currently has 2 to 4 percent of the global smartphone market, according to various independent data providers. Its overall market share will not likely grow in proportion to its own sales, given that sales of other smartphones - mostly running Google's Android system - are also growing quickly.

Ballmer, flanked by Gates and Chief Financial Officer Peter Klein, was asked by several shareholders to explain Microsoft's lackluster share price, which has been stuck for a decade, and has been outperformed by Apple and Google Inc stock in recent years.

'I understand your comment,' he told one shareholder. He went on to explain that Microsoft had 'done a phenomenal job of driving product volumes' and was focusing on profiting from that growth.

He suggested that whether investors recognized that value at any given time was out of his hands.

'The stock market's kind of a funny thing,' he said, adding that Microsoft had handed back $10 billion in dividends and share buybacks to investors in the last fiscal year.

Several shareholders at the meeting in Bellevue, an upscale suburb of Seattle, complimented the executives on how they had grown and managed the company.

Microsoft's shares rose almost 18 percent during fiscal 2012, which ended in June of this year, compared with a 3 percent rise in the Standard & Poor's 500.

Despite such fluctuations, Microsoft's shares stand around the same level they did 10 years ago.

To see a graphic on U.S. tech share price performance, 1990 to present, click on http://link.reuters.com/rug53t

(Reporting by Bill Rigby; Editing by Gary Hill)



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Powerball Photo Fever! 5,000 Players Instagram Their Tickets

If you needed a reason not to buy a ticket for Wednesday's $500 million-plus Powerball lottery, here are a few. In fact, here are 5,000 -- roughly, the number of people who have taken pictures of their tickets on the popular photo-sharing service Instagram with the hashtag #powerball.

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Taken together, the multiple ticket pics should give you a sense of how unlikely it is that you'll win. Bear in mind that if you look at all of them, you'll still have an over-inflated sense of your odds of matching six winning numbers -- which are 1 in 175 million. Imagine if half the U.S. population Instagrammed one ticket each. You're getting close.

Still, the explosion of Powerball photos is an interesting phenomenon in itself. Not only does this Powerball boast a record-breaking jackpot, it is also the most widespread lottery ever recorded on social media. Some 600 tweets per hour with the hashtag #powerball were being seen by 6 p.m. EST Tuesday.

[More from Mashable: You Know the Old Social Media Saying [COMIC]]

Naturally, most of those tweets concentrated on what users would do with the money if they won. If you want to see an interesting cross-section of humanity's hopes and dreams, they're well worth reading.

So those thousands who Instagrammed a ticket may not win, but they can at least take comfort in being part of a bona fide social media phenomenon. And here's another benefit: unlike Instagramming your ballot, taking pictures of your lotto ticket is legal in all 50 states.

@Young_Pharaoh1

Click here to view this gallery. Image: Instagram user @justinshanley

This story originally published on Mashable here.



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BlackBerry maker RIM loses patent dispute with Nokia

HELSINKI (Reuters) - Canada's Research In Motion (RIM) has lost a contract dispute over the use of Nokia patents in a case which could halt sales of its BlackBerry phones if it does not reach a deal to pay royalties to the Finnish company.

Nokia said on Wednesday a Swedish arbitrator had ruled that 'RIM was in breach of contract and is not entitled to manufacture or sell WLAN products without first agreeing royalties with Nokia.'

Wireless local access network (WLAN) technologies, usually marketed under the WiFi brand, are used across BlackBerry devices and by most other smartphones.

Nokia, which is trying to boost its royalty income as its phone business slides, said it had filed cases in the United States, Britain and Canada to enforce the arbitrator's ruling.

'This could have a significant financial impact to RIM, as all BlackBerry devices support WLAN,' IDC analyst Francisco Jeronimo said.

RIM declined to comment. At 6 a.m. EDT its Frankfurt-listed shares were down 5 percent at 8.245 euros. Nokia shares were down 1.6 percent at 2.526 euros.

'If a sales ban was imposed it would be a massive blow for RIM as it manages its transition to the new BlackBerry 10 software platform,' said Canalys analyst Pete Cunningham.

However, analysts think it is much more likely that RIM will reach a royalty agreement with Nokia to avert such an outcome.

RIM, a smartphone pioneer, hopes new devices using BlackBerry 10 software, due early 2013, will rescue it from a prolonged slump in the face of competition from the likes of Apple and Samsung.

RIM promises its new devices will be faster than previous smartphones, and will have a large catalogue of applications, which are crucial to the success of any new line of smartphones.

CONTRACT ROW

Nokia said it signed a cross-license agreement with RIM covering standards-essential cellular patents in 2003, a deal that was amended in 2008.

RIM sought arbitration in March 2011 with the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce, arguing the license should be extended to cover WLAN patents.

The arbitration tribunal concluded a nine day hearing in September 2012 and it issued a decision on November 6, Nokia said in a U.S. court filing seeking to enforce the ruling.

During arbitration RIM did not contest it manufactures and sells products using WLAN technology in accordance with Nokia's WLAN products, Nokia said, quoting the tribunal decision.

Nokia, along with Ericsson and Qualcomm, is among the leading patent holders in the wireless industry. Patent royalties generate annual revenue of about 500 million euros ($646 million) for Nokia.

Based on a Nortel patent sale and Google's acquisition of Motorola Mobility, some investors and analysts say Nokia's patent portfolio alone merits its current share price of around 2.50 euros.

However, the patent market has cooled since those deals were made and industry experts say that fair value of patents in large portfolios is $100,000 to $200,000, pricing Nokia's portfolio at up to 0.50 euros per share.

(Editing by David Goodman and Mark Potter)



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Microsoft sold 40 million Windows 8 licenses in month: exec

SEATTLE (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp has sold 40 million Windows 8 licenses in the month since the launch, according to one of the new co-heads of the Windows unit, setting a faster pace than Windows 7 three years ago.

The sales number represents a solid but unspectacular start for the touch-friendly operating system designed to combat Apple Inc's and Google Inc's domination of mobile computing, which has shunted aside PCs in favor of iPads and smartphones.

Tami Reller, finance and marketing head of the Windows business, did not give a precise comparison, but sales of 40 million licenses for Windows 8, launched on October 26, appear to be ahead of Windows 7, which sold just over 60 million units in the first 10 weeks on sale at the end of 2009.

Reller did not break down the Windows 8 license sales between relatively cheap upgrades and purchases of new machines running the new software, but suggested much of the growth was coming from upgrades.

'Windows 8 upgrade momentum is outpacing that of Windows 7,' said Reller, speaking at an investor conference held by Credit Suisse. Upgrading to Windows 8 costs $40, compared to $70 for the full software package or hundreds of dollars for a new PC.

The latest figure does not mean that 40 million users have adopted Windows 8. Many of the sales are to PC manufacturers, who in turn sell a large number of machines to companies, very few of which are using Windows 8 yet.

According to tech research firm StatCounter, about 1 percent of the world's 1.5 billion or so personal computers - making a total of around 15 million - are actually running Windows 8.

Reller did not disclose sales of Microsoft's new Surface tablet, its first-ever own-brand PC, designed to challenge the iPad head on.

The first Surface, based on a chip designed by ARM Holdings Plc, does not run old versions of Microsoft programs. A slightly bigger version based on an Intel Corp chip that will run the full Windows 8 Pro operating system and be fully compatible with the Office suite of applications will be available in January, Reller said.

The investor conference was the first public appearance for Reller since she was named as one of two executives to run the Windows unit after president Steven Sinofsky unexpectedly left two weeks ago. Julie Larson-Green heads the engineering side of Windows.

Reller said the Windows unit had survived Sinofsky's surprise departure.

'The team holistically is in great, great shape. And the product is in great shape,' she said, responding to a question from a Credit Suisse analyst. 'I think transitions are always somewhat of a challenge, but I think that timing-wise it is a reasonable time, and the team is busy.'

Earlier in the day, Microsoft said it had sold more than 750,000 Xbox game consoles in the United States last week, including the day after Thanksgiving, one of the country's biggest shopping days.

That is down from 960,000 sales in the same week a year ago, in line with reduced computer game spending across the board this year, as gamers hold off on purchases in the tight economy and move toward free online games.

(Reporting by Bill Rigby; Editing by Gary Hill, Andre Grenon and Bernard Orr)



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Microsoft sold 40 million Windows 8 licenses in month: executive

SEATTLE (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp has sold 40 million Windows 8 licenses in the month since the launch, according to one of the new co-heads of the Windows unit.

The new operating system is outpacing sales of Windows 7 at the same stage, Tami Reller, finance and marketing head of the Windows business, said at an investor conference held by Credit Suisse.

Reller was named as one of two executives to run the Windows unit after president Steven Sinofsky unexpectedly left two weeks ago. Julie Larson-Green heads the engineering side of Windows.

Windows 8 and the Surface tablet were both launched on October 26. Microsoft has not released sales numbers for the Surface.

The sales of 40 million Windows 8 licenses does not mean that 40 million users have adopted Windows 8. The bulk of those sales are to PC manufacturers, who in turn sell many machines to companies, very few of which are using Windows 8 yet.

According to tech research firm StatCounter, about 1 percent of the world's 1.5 billion or so personal computers - making a total of around 15 million - are actually running Windows 8.

The touch-friendly Windows 8 system and the Surface tablet are Microsoft's answer to Apple Inc's and Google Inc's domination of mobile computing, which has shunted aside PCs in favor of iPads and smartphones.

The first Surface, designed to challenge the iPad head on, is based on a chip designed by ARM Holdings Plc and does not run old versions of Microsoft programs. A slightly bigger version based on an Intel Corp chip that will run the full Windows 8 Pro operating system and be fully compatible with the Office suite of applications will be available in January, Reller said.

(Reporting by Bill Rigby; Editing by Gary Hill and Andre Grenon)



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Apple has top U.S. smartphone, passes Google: research firm

HELSINKI (Reuters) - Early success for the iPhone 5 smartphone has helped Apple to overtake Google's Android software in the United States, research firm Kantar WorldPanel said on Tuesday.

Apple's U.S. share of smartphone sales in the 12 weeks to October 31 more than doubled from a year ago to 48.1 percent, putting it within reach of the record 49.3 percent it managed in early 2012.

Android's share dropped to 46.7 percent from 63.3 percent, Kantar WorldPanel's data showed, but it continues to dominate in key European markets. The platform claimed 74 percent market share in Germany and 82 percent in Spain.

Android's combined share of the top five European markets rose to 64 percent, from 51 percent a year earlier, while Apple's share edged up by one percentage point to 21 percent.

Research In Motion Ltd saw its share fall in all but one of the surveyed markets, sliding to 1.6 percent from 8.5 percent in the United States, and to 2.7 percent from 8.7 percent in Brazil. In Germany, the BlackBerry maker's share rose 0.9 percentage points to 2.5 percent.

RIM's stock fell 5.9 percent to C$11.20 on the Toronto Stock Exchange. But the shares, which soared last week on rising optimism around RIM's soon-to-be-launched BlackBerry 10 devices, were still up more than 15 percent from last Monday's close.

(Reporting By Tarmo Virki; Additional reporting by Allison Martell in Toronto; Editing by David Goodman and David Gregorio)



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Apple takes smartphone top spot from Google in U.S. - research

HELSINKI (Reuters) - Early success for the iPhone 5 smartphone has helped Apple to overtake Google's Android software in the United States, research firm Kantar WorldPanel said on Tuesday.

Apple's U.S. market share in the 12 weeks to October 31 more than doubled from a year ago to 48.1 percent, putting it within reach of the record 49.3 percent it managed in early 2012.

Android's share dropped to 46.7 percent from 63.3 percent, Kantar WorldPanel's data showed, but it continues to dominate in key European markets. The platform 74 percent market share in Germany and 82 percent in Spain.

Its combined share of the top five European markets rose to 64 percent, from 51 percent a year earlier, while Apple's share edged up by one percentage point to 21 percent.

(Reporting By Tarmo Virki; Editing by David Goodman)



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Univision Weather Cat Is the Cutest News Blooper Ever [VIDEO]

As far as news bloopers go, it doesn't get much cuter than this: a neighborhood kitty wandering on-camera during Univision 23 meteorologist Eduardo Rodriguez's forecast segment recently. The Univision weather cat's tail first floats along the bottom of the screen in the video above, then the surprise visitor takes a poke around the bottom righthand corner of the shot.

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Rodriguez deserves Pulitzer consideration for keeping it together during the fuzzy interlude. According to the Univision News Tumblr page, several cats live outside the station's Miami studios, sometimes sneaking inside for a bit of TV face -- or tail -- time.

BONUS: 10 Cats That Hate Toasters, Popcorn and Treadmills

1. Kitten vs. Two Scary Things

Someone needs to tell this kitten apples aren't harbingers of doom. Then again, why spoil the fun?

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Click here to view this gallery. This story originally published on Mashable here.



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HP hit with civil securities lawsuit over Autonomy deal

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Hewlett-Packard Co was sued on Monday by an investor who claimed the company knew statements about its Autonomy acquisition were misleading and led the stock to fall, according to lawyers representing the plaintiff.

The proposed class action lawsuit was filed in a San Francisco federal court.

HP dropped a bombshell last Tuesday with an $8.8 billion write-down on its acquisition of British software firm Autonomy, saying the company inflated sales with improper accounting. Autonomy co-founder Mike Lynch has denied any wrongdoing.

HP bought Autonomy for a hefty $11.1 billion last year. HP has said it alerted regulators on both sides of the Atlantic.

The lawsuit, one of the first to be filed by investors on the Autonomy mess, said HP hid the fact it gained control of Autonomy based on financial statements that could not be relied upon. It also said that HP had not revealed to investors that it tried to undo the Autonomy agreement before it closed because of the accounting issues.

(Reporting By Dan Levine and Poornima Gupta; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick and Andre Grenon)



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Facebook not so fun with a click from boss or mom

LONDON (Reuters) - Posting pictures of yourself plastered at a party and talking trash online with your Facebook friends may be more stress than it's worth now that your boss and mom want to see it all.

A survey from Edinburgh Business School released on Monday showed Facebook users are anxious that all those self-published sins may be coming home to roost with more than half of employers claiming to have used Facebook to weed out job candidates.

'Facebook used to be like a great party for all your friends where you can dance, drink and flirt,' said Ben Marder, author of the report and fellow in marketing at the Business School.

'But now with your Mom, Dad and boss there, the party becomes an anxious event full of potential social landmines.'

On average, people are Facebook friends with seven different social circles, the report found, with real friends known to the user offline the most common.

More than four-fifths of users add extended family on Facebook, a similar number add siblings. Less than 70 percent are connected to friends of friends while more than 60 percent added their colleagues online, despite the anxiety this may cause.

Facebook has settings to control the information seen by different types of friends, but only one third use them, the report said.

'I'm not worried at all because all the really messy pics - me, drunken or worse - I detag straight away,' said Chris from London, aged 30.

People were more commonly friends with former boyfriends or girlfriends than with current ones, the report also found.

(Reporting By Dasha Afanasieva, editing by Paul Casciato)



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Facebook not so fun with a click from boss or mum

LONDON (Reuters) - Posting pictures of yourself plastered at a party and talking trash online with your Facebook friends may be more stress than it's worth now that your boss and mum want to see it all.

A survey from Edinburgh Business School released on Monday showed Facebook users are anxious that all those self-published sins may be coming home to roost with more than half of employers claiming to have used Facebook to weed out job candidates.

'Facebook used to be like a great party for all your friends where you can dance, drink and flirt,' said Ben Marder, author of the report and fellow in marketing at the Business School.

'But now with your Mum, Dad and boss there, the party becomes an anxious event full of potential social landmines.'

On average, people are Facebook friends with seven different social circles, the report found, with real friends known to the user offline the most common.

More than four-fifths of users add extended family on Facebook, a similar number add siblings. Less than 70 percent are connected to friends of friends while more than 60 percent added their colleagues online, despite the anxiety this may cause.

Facebook has settings to control the information seen by different types of friends, but only one third use them, the report said.

'I'm not worried at all because all the really messy pics - me, drunken or worse - I detag straight away,' said Chris from London, aged 30.

People were more commonly friends with former boyfriends or girlfriends than with current ones, the report also found.

(Reporting By Dasha Afanasieva, editing by Paul Casciato)



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Apple seeks to add more products to Samsung patent lawsuit

(Reuters) - Apple Inc has asked a federal court to add six more products to its patent infringement lawsuit against Samsung Electronics Co, including the Samsung Galaxy Note II, in the latest in move in an ongoing legal war between the two companies.

The case is one of two patent infringement lawsuits pending in the U.S. District Court in San Jose by Apple against Samsung. An earlier lawsuit by Apple that related to different patents resulted in a $1.05 billion jury verdict against Samsung on August 24.

Apple is also seeking to add the Samsung Galaxy S III, running the new Android 'Jelly Bean' operating system, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 Wifi, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1, the Samsung Rugby Pro, and the Samsung Galaxy S III Mini, to its lawsuit, according to a court filing on Friday.

'Apple has acted quickly and diligently to determine that these newly-released products do infringe many of the same claims already asserted by Apple,' the company said in the filing.

Samsung representatives did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Apple filed the second lawsuit in February, alleging that various Samsung smartphone and tablet products including the Galaxy Nexus infringed eight of its patents.

Samsung denied infringement and filed a cross-complaint alleging that Apple's iPhone and iPad infringed eight of its patents.

A U.S. judge on November 15 allowed Samsung to pursue claims the iPhone5 also infringes its patents.

The case is Apple Inc. v. Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. et al, No. 12-cv-00630.

(Reporting By John McCrank; Editing by Theodore d'Afflisio)



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Prankster Replicates Facebook Users' Profile Photos, Then Friends Targets [PICS]

1.

Image courtesy of Imgur, casinoroycasinoroyClick here to view this gallery.[More from Mashable: This App Curates Gifts From Startups for Your Trendy Friends]

Everyone has a knack for something. Reddit user CasinoRoy's talent is creeping out strangers on Facebook, and perfectly replicating their profile photos.

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The prankster searches for Facebook users with his name, and then recreates their profile photos by imitating their wardrobe and facial expression. When it's all done, he sends the subject a friend request.

SEE ALSO: 5 Fascinating Facts We Learned From Reddit This Week

In total, CasinoRoy found eight people on Facebook with his name. He recently shared his hilarious project to Reddit, which garnered 20,000 views in four hours. The joker revealed on Reddit that only one person accepted his friend request. The relationship was short-lived. 'He seemed genuinely creeped out and de-friended me shortly after,' he wrote.

What would you do if you found a perfect replica of your Facebook profile picture? Tell us in the comments below.

Image courtesy of Imgur, casinoroycasinoroy

This story originally published on Mashable here.



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Professor finds profiling in ads for personal data website

LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - Dr. Latisha Smith, an expert in decompression sicknesses afflicting deep sea divers, has cleared criminal background checks throughout her medical career. Yet someone searching the Web for the Washington State physician might well come across an Internet ad suggesting she may have an arrest record.

'Latisha Smith, arrested?' reads one such advertisement.

Another says: 'Latisha Smith Truth... Check Latisha Smith's Arrests.'

Instantcheckmate.com, which labels itself the 'Internet's leading authority on background checks,' placed both ads. A statistical analysis of the company's advertising has found it has disproportionately used ad copy including the word 'arrested' for black-identifying names, even when a person has no arrest record.

Latanya Sweeney is a Harvard University professor of government with a doctorate in computer science. After learning that her own name had popped up in an 'arrested?' ad when a colleague was searching for one of her academic publications, she ran more than 120,000 searches for names primarily given to either black or white children, testing ads delivered for 2,400 real names 50 times each. (The author of this story is a Harvard University fellow collaborating with Professor Sweeney on a book about the business of personal data.)

Ebony Jefferson, for example, often turns up an instantcheckmate.com ad reading: 'Ebony Jefferson, arrested?' but an ad triggered by a search for Emily Jefferson would read: 'We found Emily Jefferson.' Searches for randomly chosen black-identifying names such as Deshawn Williams, Latisha Smith or Latanya Smith often produced the 'arrested?' headline or ad text with the word 'arrest,' whereas other less ethnic-sounding first names matched with the same surnames typically did not.

'As an African-American, I'm used to profiling like that,' said Dr. Smith. 'I think it's horrendous that they get away with it.'

Instantcheckmate.com declined to comment. The company's founder and managing partner, Kristian Kibak, did not respond to repeated emails and phone calls over a period of several months, and other employees referred calls to management. Company officials also declined to comment when visited twice at their call center in Las Vegas. Former employees said they had signed nondisclosure agreements that barred them from speaking openly about Instant Checkmate.

Instantcheckmate.com is one of many data brokers that use and sell data for a variety of purposes. The field is attracting growing attention, both from government and consumers concerned about possible abuse. Rapid advances in technology have opened up all sorts of opportunities for commercialization of data.

Anyone can set up shop and sell arrest records as long as they stay clear of U.S. legal limitations such as using the information to determine creditworthiness, insurance or job suitability.

Companies that compete with instantcheckmate.com include intelius.com and mylife.com. An examination of Internet advertising starting last March as well as Sweeney's study did not find any rival companies advertising background searches on individual names along racial lines.

WHO CAN BE TRUSTED?

In its own marketing, Instantcheckmate.com sums up its mission like this: 'Parents will no longer need to wonder about whether their neighbors, friends, home day care providers, a former spouse's new love interest or preschool providers can be trusted to care for their children responsibly.'

According to preliminary findings of Professor Sweeney's research, searches of names assigned primarily to black babies, such as Tyrone, Darnell, Ebony and Latisha, generated 'arrest' in the instantcheckmate.com ad copy between 75 percent and 96 percent of the time. Names assigned at birth primarily to whites, such as Geoffrey, Brett, Kristen and Anne, led to more neutral copy, with the word 'arrest' appearing between zero and 9 percent of the time.

A few names fell outside of these patterns: Brad, a name predominantly given to white babies, produced an ad with the word 'arrest' 62 percent to 65 percent of the time. Sweeney found that ads appear regardless of whether the name has an arrest record attached to it.

Blacks make up about 13 percent of the U.S. population but account for 28 percent of the arrests listed on the FBI's most recent annual crime statistics.

Internet advertising based on millions of name pairs has only existed in recent years, so targeting ads along racial lines raises new legal questions. Experts say the Federal Trade Commission, which this year assessed an $800,000 penalty against personal data site Spokeo.com for different reasons (related to the use of data for job-vetting purposes), would be the institution best placed to review Instant Checkmate's practices.

The FTC enforces regulations against unfair or deceptive business practices. A deceptive claim that would be more likely to get people to purchase a product than they would otherwise would be a typical reason the FTC might act against a company, said one FTC official who did not want to be identified. For example, authorities could take action against a firm that makes misleading claims suggesting a product such as records exist when they do not.

'It's disturbing,' Julie Brill, an FTC commissioner, said of Instant Checkmate's advertising. 'I don't know if it's illegal ... It's something that we'd need to study to see if any enforcement action is needed.'

Instant Checkmate's Kibak, who is in his late 20s, works out of a San Diego office near the Pacific Ocean. The son of a California biology professor, he did not respond to repeated phone calls and emails seeking comment about his business.

'We would consider the answers to most of your questions trade secrets and therefore would not be comfortable disclosing that information,' Joey Rocco, Kibak's partner according to the firm's Nevada state registration, said in an email.

Instant Checkmate LLC maintains its official corporate headquarters at an address in an industrial zone across the highway from the Las Vegas strip. At the back of a long parking lot, the company shares a warehouse building with an auto repair shop. At one end, a large roll-up garage-style door opens to the company's call center. Workers face a gray cinder-block wall, their backs to the entrance. Staff declined to answer questions.

DATA FIRMS PROLIFERATE

Professor Sweeney's analysis found that some instantcheckmate.com ads hint at arrest records when the firm's database has no record of any arrest for that name, as is the case with her own name. In other cases, such as that of Latisha Smith, the company does have arrest records for some people by that name, although not for the doctor of hypobaric medicine in Washington State.

Laura Beatty, an Internet Marketing Inc expert in helping companies achieve prominent placement in Web searches, said instantcheckmate.com appeared to choose its ads based on combinations of thousands of different first and last names and then segment them based on the first names.

'There does look like there is some definite profiling going on here,' she said. 'In the searches that I looked at, it seemed like the more Midwestern- and WASP-sounding the name was, the less likely it was to have either any advertisement at all or to have something that was more geared around the arrest or criminal background.'

Internet firms selling criminal records and personal data to the public have proliferated in recent years, as low-cost computing enables even modest operations to maintain large databases on millions of Americans. Such sites sell access to users for a one-time fee - $29.95 in the case of instantcheckmate.com - or via monthly subscription plans.

Instant Checkmate, first registered in Nevada in 2010, said in a recent press release posted online that the firm had attracted more than 570,000 customers since its start and counted more than 200,000 subscribers.

According to alexa.com, an Amazon.Com Inc site analyzing website traffic, instantcheckmate.com has ranged roughly between the 500th and 600th most visited U.S. site in recent weeks, making it an increasingly major player in this area.

The company is able to target its ads on an individual name basis through a program called Google AdWords. Instantcheckmate.com and others companies like it use Google AdWords to bid to place small text advertisements alongside search results on major websites triggered by the names in their data base. Such ads typically cost a company far less than a dollar, sometimes just a few pennies, each time they're clicked.

Google says it does not control what names appear in AdWords. 'Advertisers select all of their keywords, and ads are triggered when someone searches for that name. We don't have any role in the advertiser's selection of unique proper names,' said a Google spokesman.

Some in Congress have raised concerns about developments in the use of personal data. In October, Senator John Rockefeller IV, a Democrat from West Virginia and chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, opened a probe into leading data brokers. 'Collecting, storing and selling information about Americans raises all types of questions that require careful scrutiny,' he said.

(Adam Tanner is a Reuters correspondent currently on a 2012-13 fellowship at Harvard University's Department of Government.)

(Editing by Claudia Parsons and Prudence Crowther)



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10 Tantalizing Recipes for Your Turkey Leftovers

This pot pie recipe uses not just the leftover turkey, but also the stuffing, vegetables, mashed potatoes, gravy and even the cranberry sauce.

Click here to view this gallery.[More from Mashable: Thanksgiving Was Instagram's Busiest Day Yet]

No matter how much you stuff yourself on Turkey Day, it's an irrefutable fact that there will always be leftover turkey after Thanksgiving. It's what you do with it that counts. Rather than endless rounds of dry sandwiches, why not get creative in the kitchen this holiday season? We have found 10 delicious and creative YouTube video recipes that will take your leftover bird and turn it into a standalone meal to relish.

[More from Mashable: 5 Fascinating Facts We Learned From Reddit This Week]

SEE ALSO: 9 Cooking Gadgets for Your Geeky Kitchen



If you're looking for inspiration to help make the most of your leftovers, take a look though the video gallery above. In the comments below, please share with us any other turkey recipes you've tried and tested.

Thumbnail image courtesy of Flickr, Kimberly Vardeman

This story originally published on Mashable here.



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Sony at greater risk than Panasonic in electronics downturn: Fitch

TOKYO (Reuters) - Panasonic Corp has a better chance than rival Sony Corp of surviving Japan's consumer electronics slump because of its unglamorous but stable appliance business of washing machines and fridges, credit rating agency Fitch said Friday.

Fitch cut Panasonic's rating by two notches to BB and Sony three notches to BB minus on Thursday, the first time one of the three major ratings agencies have put the creditworthiness of either company into junk-bond territory.

Rival agencies Moody's and S&P rate both of Japan's consumer electronic giants at the same level, just above junk status. Moody's last cut its rating on Panasonic on Tuesday.

Panasonic 'has the advantage of a relatively stable consumer appliance business that is still generating positive margins', Matt Jamieson, Fitch's head of Asia-Pacific, said in a conference call on Friday to explain its ratings downgrades.

But at Sony, he added, 'most of their electronic business are loss making, they appear to be overstretched.'

Japan's TV industry has been bested by cheaper, more innovative models from Samsung Electronics and other foreign rivals, while tablets and smartphones built by Apple Inc have become the dominant consumer electronics devices.

Investors are focusing on the fate of Sony and Panasonic after another struggling Japanese consumer electronics firm, Sharp Corp, maker of the Aquos TV, secured a $4.6 billion bail-out by banks including Mizuho Financial Group and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group.

Sony and Panasonic have chosen divergent survival paths.

Panasonic, maker of the Viera TV, is looking to expand its businesses in appliances, solar panels, lithium batteries and automotive components. Appliances amount to around only 6 percent of the company's sales, but they generate margins of more than 6 percent and make up a big chunk of operating profit.

Sony, creator of the Walkman, is doubling down on consumer gadgets in a bid to regain ground from Samsung and Apple in mobile devices while bolstering digital cameras and gaming.

The latest downgrades will curtail the ability of both Japanese companies to raise money in credit markets to help fund restructurings of their business portfolios.

For now, however, that impact is limited, given the support Panasonic and Sony are receiving from their banks.

In October, Panasonic, which expects to lose $10 billion in the year to March 31, secured $7.6 billion of loan commitments from banks including Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group and Mitsubishi UFJ, a financing backstop it says will help it avoid having to seek capital in credit markets.

Sony, which has forecast a full-year profit of $1.63 billion helped by the sale of a chemicals business to a Japanese state bank, announced plans to raise $1.9 billion through a convertible bond before the latest rating downgrade.

Thomson Reuters' Starmine structural model, which evaluates market views of credit risk, debt levels and changes in asset values gives Panasonic and Sony an implied rating of BB minus. Sharp's implied rating is three notches lower at B minus.

Standard & Poor's rates Panasonic and Sony at BBB, the second lowest of the investment grade, while Moody's Investors Service has them on Baa3, the lowest of its high-grade category. Moody's has a negative outlook for both firms while S&P sees a stable outlook for Panasonic and a negative one for Sony.

Stock markets in Japan were closed on Friday for a national holiday.

(Reporting by Tim Kelly; Editing by Mark Bendeich)



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