HONG KONG (AP) - In a now familiar global ritual, Apple fans jammed shops from Sydney to Paris to pick up the tech juggernaut's latest iPhone.
Eager buyers formed long lines Friday at Apple Inc. stores in Asia, Europe and North America to be the first to get their hands on the latest version of the smartphone.
In London, some shoppers had camped out for a week in a queue that snaked around the block. In Hong Kong, the first customers were greeted by staff cheering, clapping, chanting 'iPhone 5! iPhone 5!' and high-fiving them as they were escorted one-by-one through the front door.
The smartphone will be on sale in the U.S. and Canada hours after its launch in Australia, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Britain, France and Germany. It will launch in 22 more countries a week later. The iPhone 5 is thinner, lighter, has a taller screen, faster processor, updated software and can work on faster 'fourth generation' mobile networks.
The handset has become a hot seller despite initial lukewarm reviews and new map software that is glitch prone. Apple received 2 million orders in the first 24 hours of announcing its release date, more than twice the number for the iPhone 4S in the same period when that phone launched a year ago.
In a sign of the intense demand, police in Osaka, Japan, were investigating the theft of nearly 200 iPhones 5s, including 116 from one shop alone, Kyodo News reported.
Analysts have estimated Apple will ship as many as 10 million of the new iPhones by the end of September.
Some fans went to extremes to be among the first buyers by arriving at Apple's flagship stores day ahead of the release.
In downtown Sydney, Todd Foot, 24, showed up three days early to nab the coveted first spot. He spent about 18 hours a day in a folding chair, catching a few hours' sleep each night in a tent on the sidewalk.
Foot's dedication was largely a marketing stunt, however. He writes product reviews for a technology website that will give away the phone after Foot reviews it.
'I just want to get the phone so I can feel it, compare it and put it on our website,' he said while slumped in his chair.
In Paris, the phone launch was accompanied by a workers' protest - a couple dozen former and current Apple employees demonstrated peacefully to demand better work benefits. Some decried what they called Apple's transformation from an offbeat company into a multinational powerhouse.
But the protesters - urged by a small labor union to demonstrate at Apple stores around France - were far outnumbered by lines of would-be buyers on the sidewalk outside the store near the city's gilded opera house.
Not everyone lining up at the various Apple stores was an enthusiast, though. In Hong Kong, university student Kevin Wong, waiting to buy a black 16 gigabyte model for 5,588 Hong Kong dollars ($720), said he was getting one 'for the cash.' He planned to immediately resell it to one of the numerous grey market retailers catering to mainland Chinese buyers. China is one of Apple's fastest growing markets but a release date for the iPhone 5 there has not yet been set.
Wong was required to give his local identity card number when he signed up for his iPhone on Apple's website. The requirement prevents purchases by tourists including mainland Chinese, who have a reputation for scooping up high-end goods on trips to Hong Kong because there's no sales tax and because of the strength of China's currency. Even so, the mainlanders will probably buy it from the resellers 'at a higher price - a way higher price,' said Wong, who hoped to make a profit of HK$1,000 ($129).
Tokyo's glitzy downtown Ginza district not only had a long line in front of the Apple store, but another across the main intersection at Softbank, the first carrier in Japan to offer iPhones.
Hidetoshi Nakamura, a 25-year-old auto engineer, said he's an Apple fan because it's an innovator.
'I love Apple,' he said, standing near the end of a two-block-long line, reading a book and listening to music on his iPod.
'It's only the iPhone for me.'
___
Kristen Gelineau in Sydney, Yuri Kageyama in Tokyo, Faris Mokhtar in Singapore, Tom Rayner in London and Oleg Cetinic in Paris contributed to this report.
Follow Kelvin Chan on at twitter.com/chanman
This news article is brought to you by RELATIONSHIPS ADVICE - where latest news are our top priority.
Friday, September 21, 2012
Thursday, September 20, 2012
iPhone 5 launch draws Apple fans across Asia
HONG KONG (AP) - In a now familiar global ritual, Apple fans jammed shops from Sydney to Tokyo to pick up the tech juggernaut's latest iPhone.
Eager buyers formed long lines Friday at Apple Inc. stores in Australia and Japan to be the first to get their hands on the latest version of the smartphone. In Hong Kong and Singapore, buyers had to sign up online for the chance to pick up the device at a prearranged time. The first customers in Hong Kong were greeted by staff cheering, clapping, chanting 'iPhone 5! iPhone 5!' and high-fiving them as they were escorted one-by-one through the front door.
The smartphone is also being launched in the U.S., U.K., Canada, France and Germany. It will go on sale in 22 more countries a week later. The iPhone 5 is thinner, lighter, has a taller screen, faster processor, updated software and can work on faster 'fourth generation' mobile networks.
Order numbers indicate the iPhone 5 has overcome initial lukewarm reviews. Apple received 2 million orders in the first 24 hours of announcing its release date, more than twice the number for the iPhone 4S in the same period when that phone launched a year ago.
In a sign of the intense demand, police in Osaka, Japan, were investigating the theft of nearly 200 iPhones 5s, including 116 from one shop alone, Kyodo News reported.
Analysts have estimated Apple will ship as many as 10 million of the new iPhones by the end of September.
Some Australian fans went to extremes to be among the first by arriving at Apple's flagship store in downtown Sydney on Tuesday - three days ahead of the release.
Todd Foot, 24, nabbed the coveted first spot and spent about 18 hours a day in a folding chair and catching a few hours' sleep each night in a tent on the sidewalk.
Foot's dedication was largely a marketing stunt, however. He writes product reviews for a technology website that will give away the phone after Foot reviews it.
'I just want to get the phone so I can feel it, compare it and put it on our website,' he said while slumped in his chair.
In Singapore, which doesn't have an Apple store, Liu Ting Ting waited 12 hours to be the first of 10,000 people in the Southeast Asian city-state granted the opportunity to buy one at a Singapore Telecommunications launch-day event.
'I have this I-need-to-be-first mentality because this is the first time I'm buying an iPhone,' said Liu, who is dumping her Blackberry because she believes the iPhone 5's photo and video capabilities will help with her journalism studies.
'If I wasn't the first, I would have gone home,' she said.
Not everyone lining up outside Hong Kong's Apple store was an enthusiast. University student Kevin Wong, waiting to buy a black 16 gigabyte model for 5,588 Hong Kong dollars ($720), said he was getting one 'for the cash.' He planned to immediately resell it to one of the numerous grey market retailers catering to visiting mainland Chinese buyers. China is one of Apple's fastest growing markets but a release date for the iPhone 5 there has not yet been set.
Mainland Chinese, who like to shop in Hong Kong because there's no sales tax and because of the strength of the yuan, will probably buy it from the resellers 'at a higher price - a way higher price,' said Wong, who hoped to make a profit of HK$1,000 ($129).
Tokyo's glitzy downtown Ginza district not only had a long line in front of the Apple store, but another across the main intersection at Softbank, the first carrier in Japan to offer iPhones.
Hidetoshi Nakamura, a 25-year-old auto engineer, said he's an Apple fan because it's an innovator.
'I love Apple,' he said, standing near the end of a two-block-long line, reading a book and listening to music on his iPod.
'It's only the iPhone for me.'
___
Kristen Gelineau in Sydney, Yuri Kageyama in Tokyo and Faris Mokhtar in Singapore contributed to this report.
Follow Kelvin Chan on at twitter.com/chanman
This news article is brought to you by LINUXOS.PRO - where latest news are our top priority.
Eager buyers formed long lines Friday at Apple Inc. stores in Australia and Japan to be the first to get their hands on the latest version of the smartphone. In Hong Kong and Singapore, buyers had to sign up online for the chance to pick up the device at a prearranged time. The first customers in Hong Kong were greeted by staff cheering, clapping, chanting 'iPhone 5! iPhone 5!' and high-fiving them as they were escorted one-by-one through the front door.
The smartphone is also being launched in the U.S., U.K., Canada, France and Germany. It will go on sale in 22 more countries a week later. The iPhone 5 is thinner, lighter, has a taller screen, faster processor, updated software and can work on faster 'fourth generation' mobile networks.
Order numbers indicate the iPhone 5 has overcome initial lukewarm reviews. Apple received 2 million orders in the first 24 hours of announcing its release date, more than twice the number for the iPhone 4S in the same period when that phone launched a year ago.
In a sign of the intense demand, police in Osaka, Japan, were investigating the theft of nearly 200 iPhones 5s, including 116 from one shop alone, Kyodo News reported.
Analysts have estimated Apple will ship as many as 10 million of the new iPhones by the end of September.
Some Australian fans went to extremes to be among the first by arriving at Apple's flagship store in downtown Sydney on Tuesday - three days ahead of the release.
Todd Foot, 24, nabbed the coveted first spot and spent about 18 hours a day in a folding chair and catching a few hours' sleep each night in a tent on the sidewalk.
Foot's dedication was largely a marketing stunt, however. He writes product reviews for a technology website that will give away the phone after Foot reviews it.
'I just want to get the phone so I can feel it, compare it and put it on our website,' he said while slumped in his chair.
In Singapore, which doesn't have an Apple store, Liu Ting Ting waited 12 hours to be the first of 10,000 people in the Southeast Asian city-state granted the opportunity to buy one at a Singapore Telecommunications launch-day event.
'I have this I-need-to-be-first mentality because this is the first time I'm buying an iPhone,' said Liu, who is dumping her Blackberry because she believes the iPhone 5's photo and video capabilities will help with her journalism studies.
'If I wasn't the first, I would have gone home,' she said.
Not everyone lining up outside Hong Kong's Apple store was an enthusiast. University student Kevin Wong, waiting to buy a black 16 gigabyte model for 5,588 Hong Kong dollars ($720), said he was getting one 'for the cash.' He planned to immediately resell it to one of the numerous grey market retailers catering to visiting mainland Chinese buyers. China is one of Apple's fastest growing markets but a release date for the iPhone 5 there has not yet been set.
Mainland Chinese, who like to shop in Hong Kong because there's no sales tax and because of the strength of the yuan, will probably buy it from the resellers 'at a higher price - a way higher price,' said Wong, who hoped to make a profit of HK$1,000 ($129).
Tokyo's glitzy downtown Ginza district not only had a long line in front of the Apple store, but another across the main intersection at Softbank, the first carrier in Japan to offer iPhones.
Hidetoshi Nakamura, a 25-year-old auto engineer, said he's an Apple fan because it's an innovator.
'I love Apple,' he said, standing near the end of a two-block-long line, reading a book and listening to music on his iPod.
'It's only the iPhone for me.'
___
Kristen Gelineau in Sydney, Yuri Kageyama in Tokyo and Faris Mokhtar in Singapore contributed to this report.
Follow Kelvin Chan on at twitter.com/chanman
This news article is brought to you by LINUXOS.PRO - where latest news are our top priority.
iPhone 5 launch draws crowds at Asia Apple shops
HONG KONG (AP) - In a now familiar ritual, Apple's Asian fans jammed the tech juggernaut's shops in Australia, Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore to pick up the latest version of its iPhone.
Eager buyers formed long lines at Apple Inc. stores in Australia and Japan to be the first to get their hands on the latest version of the smartphone. In Hong Kong, buyers had to sign up online for the chance to pick up the device at a preset time. The first customers were greeted by staff cheering, clapping, chanting 'iPhone 5! iPhone 5!' and high-fiving them as they were escorted through the front door.
The smartphone is also being launched in the U.S., U.K., Canada, France and Germany on Friday and will go on sale in 22 more countries a week later. The iPhone 5 is thinner, lighter, has a taller screen, faster processor, updated software and can work on faster 'fourth generation' mobile networks.
Order numbers indicate the iPhone 5 has overcome initial lukewarm reviews. Apple received 2 million orders in the first 24 hours of announcing its release date, more than twice the number for the iPhone 4S in the same period when that phone launched a year ago.
Analysts have estimated Apple will ship as many as 10 million of the new iPhones by the end of September.
Some Australian fans went to extreme lengths to be the first to own the new phone, grabbing the first spots in line at Apple's flagship store in downtown Sydney on Tuesday - three days ahead of the release.
Todd Foot, 24, nabbed the coveted first spot and spent an average of 18 hours a day sitting in a folding chair adorned with an Australian flag, and attempting to catch a few hours' sleep each night in a tent on the sidewalk outside the store.
Foot's dedication was largely a marketing stunt, however. He writes product reviews for a technology website which plans to give away the phone after Foot reviews it.
In Hong Kong, not everyone who lined up was an Apple enthusiast. University student Kevin Wong, waiting to buy a black 16 gigabyte model for 5,588 Hong Kong dollars ($720), said he was getting one 'for the cash.' He planned to immediately resell it to one of the numerous grey market retailers catering to visiting mainland Chinese buyers. China is one of Apple's biggest sources of revenue but a release date for the iPhone 5 has not yet been set.
Mainland Chinese, who like to shop in Hong Kong because there's no sales tax and because of the strength of the yuan, will probably buy it from the resellers 'at a higher price - a way higher price,' said Wong, who hoped to make a profit of HK$1000 ($129).
Tokyo's glitzy downtown Ginza district had not just one long line but two - one, in front of the Apple store and the other across the main intersection at Softbank, the first carrier in Japan to offer iPhones - both packed with Japanese determined to be among the world's first to own an iPhone 5.
Hidetoshi Nakamura, a 25-year-old auto engineer, said he's an Apple fan because it's an innovator.
'I love Apple,' he said, standing toward the end of a two-block-long line, patiently reading a book and listening to music on his iPod.
'It's only the iPhone for me.'
___
Kristen Gelineau in Sydney and Yuri Kageyama in Tokyo contributed to this report.
Follow Kelvin Chan on at twitter.com/chanman
This news article is brought to you by WOMEN'S BLOG - where latest news are our top priority.
Eager buyers formed long lines at Apple Inc. stores in Australia and Japan to be the first to get their hands on the latest version of the smartphone. In Hong Kong, buyers had to sign up online for the chance to pick up the device at a preset time. The first customers were greeted by staff cheering, clapping, chanting 'iPhone 5! iPhone 5!' and high-fiving them as they were escorted through the front door.
The smartphone is also being launched in the U.S., U.K., Canada, France and Germany on Friday and will go on sale in 22 more countries a week later. The iPhone 5 is thinner, lighter, has a taller screen, faster processor, updated software and can work on faster 'fourth generation' mobile networks.
Order numbers indicate the iPhone 5 has overcome initial lukewarm reviews. Apple received 2 million orders in the first 24 hours of announcing its release date, more than twice the number for the iPhone 4S in the same period when that phone launched a year ago.
Analysts have estimated Apple will ship as many as 10 million of the new iPhones by the end of September.
Some Australian fans went to extreme lengths to be the first to own the new phone, grabbing the first spots in line at Apple's flagship store in downtown Sydney on Tuesday - three days ahead of the release.
Todd Foot, 24, nabbed the coveted first spot and spent an average of 18 hours a day sitting in a folding chair adorned with an Australian flag, and attempting to catch a few hours' sleep each night in a tent on the sidewalk outside the store.
Foot's dedication was largely a marketing stunt, however. He writes product reviews for a technology website which plans to give away the phone after Foot reviews it.
In Hong Kong, not everyone who lined up was an Apple enthusiast. University student Kevin Wong, waiting to buy a black 16 gigabyte model for 5,588 Hong Kong dollars ($720), said he was getting one 'for the cash.' He planned to immediately resell it to one of the numerous grey market retailers catering to visiting mainland Chinese buyers. China is one of Apple's biggest sources of revenue but a release date for the iPhone 5 has not yet been set.
Mainland Chinese, who like to shop in Hong Kong because there's no sales tax and because of the strength of the yuan, will probably buy it from the resellers 'at a higher price - a way higher price,' said Wong, who hoped to make a profit of HK$1000 ($129).
Tokyo's glitzy downtown Ginza district had not just one long line but two - one, in front of the Apple store and the other across the main intersection at Softbank, the first carrier in Japan to offer iPhones - both packed with Japanese determined to be among the world's first to own an iPhone 5.
Hidetoshi Nakamura, a 25-year-old auto engineer, said he's an Apple fan because it's an innovator.
'I love Apple,' he said, standing toward the end of a two-block-long line, patiently reading a book and listening to music on his iPod.
'It's only the iPhone for me.'
___
Kristen Gelineau in Sydney and Yuri Kageyama in Tokyo contributed to this report.
Follow Kelvin Chan on at twitter.com/chanman
This news article is brought to you by WOMEN'S BLOG - where latest news are our top priority.
New Maps app is rare Apple flub
NEW YORK (AP) - With a touch of geek whimsy, Google Maps warns anyone who seeks walking directions to Mordor -the land of evil in 'The Lord of the Rings'- to use caution. 'One does not simply walk into Mordor,' it says. Apple is finding this week that creating an alternative to Google Maps isn't a simple walk, either.
Apple released an update to its iPhone and iPad operating system on Wednesday that replaces Google Maps with Apple's own application. Early upgraders are reporting that the new maps are less detailed, look weird and misplace landmarks. It's shaping up to be a rare setback for Apple.
'It's a complete failure,' said Jeffrey Jorgensen. 'It's slower, its directions are poorer and its location data doesn't seem to be accurate. All around, it's not quite there yet.'
Jorgensen, a user interface designer for a San Francisco-based startup, began using Apple Maps months ago, because Apple made it available early to people in its software development program. He said he finds himself relying on Google Maps running on his wife's Android phone instead.
The most-hyped feature of the new app is a 'Flyby' mode that shows three-dimensional renderings of buildings and other features. It presents a convincing depiction of the canyons of Manhattan, but has a hard time rendering bridges and highway overpasses, which tend to look wobbly or partly collapsed.
The Apple app also has a tendency to judge landscape features by their names. For instance, it marks the hulking Madison Square Garden arena in New York as green park space because of the word 'Garden' in its name. The TD Garden football stadium in Boston gets the same treatment.
Conversely, Apple Maps marks 'Airfield Gardens,' a farm and plant nursery in Dublin, Ireland, as an airfield. This prompted the country's Justice Minister, Alan Shatter, to warn pilots on Thursday not to land there.
'Clearly the designation is not only wrong but is dangerously misleading in that it could result in a pilot, unfamiliar with the area, in an emergency situation and without other available information, attempting a landing,' he said.
Marcus Thielking, the co-founder of mapping-app developer Skobbler, said the lapses of the Apple app are surprising, particularly since Apple purchases map data from an established provider, Tele Atlas.
'The combination of Apple and TomTom screwing up something like this is very odd. Apple is not the first and only company using Tele Atlas maps,' Thielking said.
Tele Atlas is a subsidiary of TomTom, a Dutch maker of navigation devices.
'We launched this new map service knowing it is a major initiative and we are just getting started,' said Apple spokeswoman Trudy Muller. The app will work better the more people use it, she said, alluding to fact that users can report errors and omissions from within the app.
Google has been in the mapping game for much longer, giving it the benefit of years of error reports to help shape its maps.
There's been a Google Maps app on the iPhone since it was launched in 2007, but it's always come with the operating system. Now that it's gone from the list of 'core' apps, users are finding that it's not available for download either. Google says its goal is to make Maps available, but hasn't said when that will be.
In the meantime, iPhone and iPad owners can access maps.google.com through their browser, said Google spokesman Nate Tyler. The browser version has fewer features but uses a comprehensive mapping database, he said.
Last year, Apple released another software product that many regard as half-baked: the voice-controlled virtual assistant Siri. But Siri's ability to -at least sometimes- understand spoken queries was something most users hadn't met before, so they forgave its lapses. With Maps, Apple is replacing an app nearly every smartphone user is already familiar with.
User reaction on social media has been fierce. One Twitter user quipped that the lines of people queuing up to buy the iPhone 5 on Friday will be shorter, because the buyers will be misled by the new Maps.
This article is brought to you by BUY A USED COMPUTER.
Apple released an update to its iPhone and iPad operating system on Wednesday that replaces Google Maps with Apple's own application. Early upgraders are reporting that the new maps are less detailed, look weird and misplace landmarks. It's shaping up to be a rare setback for Apple.
'It's a complete failure,' said Jeffrey Jorgensen. 'It's slower, its directions are poorer and its location data doesn't seem to be accurate. All around, it's not quite there yet.'
Jorgensen, a user interface designer for a San Francisco-based startup, began using Apple Maps months ago, because Apple made it available early to people in its software development program. He said he finds himself relying on Google Maps running on his wife's Android phone instead.
The most-hyped feature of the new app is a 'Flyby' mode that shows three-dimensional renderings of buildings and other features. It presents a convincing depiction of the canyons of Manhattan, but has a hard time rendering bridges and highway overpasses, which tend to look wobbly or partly collapsed.
The Apple app also has a tendency to judge landscape features by their names. For instance, it marks the hulking Madison Square Garden arena in New York as green park space because of the word 'Garden' in its name. The TD Garden football stadium in Boston gets the same treatment.
Conversely, Apple Maps marks 'Airfield Gardens,' a farm and plant nursery in Dublin, Ireland, as an airfield. This prompted the country's Justice Minister, Alan Shatter, to warn pilots on Thursday not to land there.
'Clearly the designation is not only wrong but is dangerously misleading in that it could result in a pilot, unfamiliar with the area, in an emergency situation and without other available information, attempting a landing,' he said.
Marcus Thielking, the co-founder of mapping-app developer Skobbler, said the lapses of the Apple app are surprising, particularly since Apple purchases map data from an established provider, Tele Atlas.
'The combination of Apple and TomTom screwing up something like this is very odd. Apple is not the first and only company using Tele Atlas maps,' Thielking said.
Tele Atlas is a subsidiary of TomTom, a Dutch maker of navigation devices.
'We launched this new map service knowing it is a major initiative and we are just getting started,' said Apple spokeswoman Trudy Muller. The app will work better the more people use it, she said, alluding to fact that users can report errors and omissions from within the app.
Google has been in the mapping game for much longer, giving it the benefit of years of error reports to help shape its maps.
There's been a Google Maps app on the iPhone since it was launched in 2007, but it's always come with the operating system. Now that it's gone from the list of 'core' apps, users are finding that it's not available for download either. Google says its goal is to make Maps available, but hasn't said when that will be.
In the meantime, iPhone and iPad owners can access maps.google.com through their browser, said Google spokesman Nate Tyler. The browser version has fewer features but uses a comprehensive mapping database, he said.
Last year, Apple released another software product that many regard as half-baked: the voice-controlled virtual assistant Siri. But Siri's ability to -at least sometimes- understand spoken queries was something most users hadn't met before, so they forgave its lapses. With Maps, Apple is replacing an app nearly every smartphone user is already familiar with.
User reaction on social media has been fierce. One Twitter user quipped that the lines of people queuing up to buy the iPhone 5 on Friday will be shorter, because the buyers will be misled by the new Maps.
This article is brought to you by BUY A USED COMPUTER.
UK regulator finds BSkyB 'fit and proper'
LONDON (AP) - British Sky Broadcasting is a 'fit and proper' company to hold an operating license, U.K. regulators said Thursday in response to the phone hacking scandal that engulfed the parent company. But it criticized the former CEO and chairman, James Murdoch, for poor management.
The company's license was called into question because of the scandal at a newspaper owned by News Corp., which effectively controls BSkyB through a 39 percent shareholding.
If the company had not be found 'fit and proper' it could have been stripped of the license that yielded a net profit of $1.4 billion in the year ending June 30.
The Office of Communications, known as Ofcom, concluded that James Murdoch was not complicit in a cover up at the tabloid News of the World, but his failure to initiate appropriate action on a number of occasions was 'difficult to comprehend and ill-judged.'
The report also found no evidence that Rupert Murdoch, James' father and CEO of News Corp., 'acted in a way that was inappropriate in relation to phone hacking, concealment or corruption by employees' of his British newspapers.
Though Ofcom said it might review the situation if there are further revelations, the decision removed any immediate threat of BSkyB losing its license. The company's shares were up 0.9 percent at 733.5 pence in late morning trading in London.
'After a lengthy review process, we are pleased that Ofcom has now reached its conclusion and we look forward to continuing to develop our business for the benefit of customers and shareholders alike,' BSkyB said in a statement.
News Corp. also welcomed the regulator's decision but contended that some statements about James Murdoch were 'not substantiated by evidence.'
James Murdoch became executive chairman of News Group Newspapers - publisher of The Sun and the now-defunct News of the World - and its parent company News International - which also owns The Times newspapers - in January 2008 and held the position until February this year. Both companies are ultimately owned by News Corp.
The phone hacking scandal, along with other allegations, has spawned investigations by a Parliamentary committee, a formal inquiry led by a judge, criminal charges against some journalists - including Rebekah Brooks, former chief executive of News International - and civil suits which forced the company to pay large settlements.
Public outrage following reports that the phone of a young murder victim had been hacked also led to News Corp. deciding two years ago to drop its bid to take full control of BSkyB.
Ofcom noted contradictory evidence by James Murdoch and two former senior employees about when Murdoch became aware that phone hacking at the News of the World went far beyond the company's long-standing claim that it involved a single rogue reporter and a private detective.
However, it said there was no evidence that he knew of 'widespread wrongdoing or criminality' at News of the World.
The regulator limited itself to criticizing James Murdoch's actions as company director.
'We consider James Murdoch's conduct, including his failure to initiate action on his own account on a number of occasions, to be both difficult to comprehend and ill-judged.'
Since February, James Murdoch has been a non-executive director of the company, and one of only four people on the 12-member board with connections to News Corp.
In May, the House of Commons' Culture, Media and Sport Committee concluded that Rupert Murdoch was 'not a fit person to exercise the stewardship of a major international company.' That conclusion, on a partisan split of 6-4, had no practical effect, however.
In its statement, News Corp. said it was pleased that Ofcom found that evidence related to misdeeds at the newspapers 'does not provide any basis to conclude that News Corp. and Rupert Murdoch acted in a way that was inappropriate, and that there is similarly no evidence that James Murdoch deliberately engaged in any wrongdoing.'
'We disagree, however, with certain of the report's statements about James Murdoch's prior actions as an executive and Director, which are not at all substantiated by evidence,' News Corp. said.
This article is brought to you by BUY AFFORDABLE COMPUTERS.
The company's license was called into question because of the scandal at a newspaper owned by News Corp., which effectively controls BSkyB through a 39 percent shareholding.
If the company had not be found 'fit and proper' it could have been stripped of the license that yielded a net profit of $1.4 billion in the year ending June 30.
The Office of Communications, known as Ofcom, concluded that James Murdoch was not complicit in a cover up at the tabloid News of the World, but his failure to initiate appropriate action on a number of occasions was 'difficult to comprehend and ill-judged.'
The report also found no evidence that Rupert Murdoch, James' father and CEO of News Corp., 'acted in a way that was inappropriate in relation to phone hacking, concealment or corruption by employees' of his British newspapers.
Though Ofcom said it might review the situation if there are further revelations, the decision removed any immediate threat of BSkyB losing its license. The company's shares were up 0.9 percent at 733.5 pence in late morning trading in London.
'After a lengthy review process, we are pleased that Ofcom has now reached its conclusion and we look forward to continuing to develop our business for the benefit of customers and shareholders alike,' BSkyB said in a statement.
News Corp. also welcomed the regulator's decision but contended that some statements about James Murdoch were 'not substantiated by evidence.'
James Murdoch became executive chairman of News Group Newspapers - publisher of The Sun and the now-defunct News of the World - and its parent company News International - which also owns The Times newspapers - in January 2008 and held the position until February this year. Both companies are ultimately owned by News Corp.
The phone hacking scandal, along with other allegations, has spawned investigations by a Parliamentary committee, a formal inquiry led by a judge, criminal charges against some journalists - including Rebekah Brooks, former chief executive of News International - and civil suits which forced the company to pay large settlements.
Public outrage following reports that the phone of a young murder victim had been hacked also led to News Corp. deciding two years ago to drop its bid to take full control of BSkyB.
Ofcom noted contradictory evidence by James Murdoch and two former senior employees about when Murdoch became aware that phone hacking at the News of the World went far beyond the company's long-standing claim that it involved a single rogue reporter and a private detective.
However, it said there was no evidence that he knew of 'widespread wrongdoing or criminality' at News of the World.
The regulator limited itself to criticizing James Murdoch's actions as company director.
'We consider James Murdoch's conduct, including his failure to initiate action on his own account on a number of occasions, to be both difficult to comprehend and ill-judged.'
Since February, James Murdoch has been a non-executive director of the company, and one of only four people on the 12-member board with connections to News Corp.
In May, the House of Commons' Culture, Media and Sport Committee concluded that Rupert Murdoch was 'not a fit person to exercise the stewardship of a major international company.' That conclusion, on a partisan split of 6-4, had no practical effect, however.
In its statement, News Corp. said it was pleased that Ofcom found that evidence related to misdeeds at the newspapers 'does not provide any basis to conclude that News Corp. and Rupert Murdoch acted in a way that was inappropriate, and that there is similarly no evidence that James Murdoch deliberately engaged in any wrongdoing.'
'We disagree, however, with certain of the report's statements about James Murdoch's prior actions as an executive and Director, which are not at all substantiated by evidence,' News Corp. said.
This article is brought to you by BUY AFFORDABLE COMPUTERS.
US demanding harsh penalties for price fixers
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - The U.S. Department of Justice is demanding that a 'remorseless' Taiwanese company pay a $1 billion fine and two former top executives each serve 10 years in prison for their roles as central figures in what prosecutors called the most serious price-fixing cartel ever prosecuted by the U.S.
The proposed sentences would be the stiffest penalty ever meted out for price-fixing convictions if a federal judge adopts the DOJ's position at sentencing Thursday. The DOJ argues the sentences are necessary to punish a company that unfairly forced U.S. consumers to pay billions more than they should have for electronics and to deter others from engaging in price fixing.
The DOJ lawyers made the demands, which include $1 million fines for each of the executives, in court filings Tuesday. They are wrapping up a years-long investigation of a global price-fixing scheme that artificially increased the price of LCD screens used in televisions, computers and other electronic products made by Apple Inc., Dell Computers and many of the largest high-tech companies in the United States.
'The conspiracy affected every family, school, business, charity, and government agency that paid more to purchase notebook computers, computer monitors, and LCD televisions during the conspiracy,' prosecutors concluded in arguing for the criminal penalties.
AU Optronics and the other co-conspirators are also the targets of class action lawsuits filed by customers, retailers and consumers.
In July, the company, along with Toshiba and LG, agreed to pay a combined $571 million to settle one of the lawsuits. Other manufactures, including Hitachi, Sharp and Samsung, agreed in December to pay $538 million to settle.
U.S. District Judge Susan Illston is expected to sentence AU Optronics and its two top executives. Seven other Asian manufacturers and 22 of their executives have previously pleaded guilty and agreed to pay a combined $890 million in fines. The 10 executives who have been sentenced so far received prison terms ranging from six months to a little more than year in prison.
It's the largest criminal antitrust case ever prosecuted by the DOJ, surpassing the break-up of a vitamin cartel in the late 1990's that netted $875 million in criminal fines.
To date, F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd.'s $500 million fine for participating in the vitamin price-fixing scheme remains the largest antitrust fine. The DOJ's annual collection of antitrust criminal fines only topped $1 billion once in the past 10 years, according to a report compiled by the law firm Gibson Dunn.
A jury found AU Optronics, its former president H.B Chen and former executive vice president Hui Hsiung guilty and acquitted two others. The jury couldn't agree on a verdict for a fifth executive, and prosecutors dropped charges.
AU Optronics refused to plea bargain with the DOJ, becoming the only company to go to trial. Its lawyer Dennis Riordan says the company plans to appeal the conviction after Illston recently refused to overturn the jury's verdict issued in March.
Riordan says a $1 billion fine is out of proportion to the penalty paid by Hoffman, writing in court papers that 'it is difficult to believe that the conduct in this case was more than two times more egregious than the almost ten-year conspiracy to fix the price' of vitamins. He says a fine of a $1 billion will cripple the company financially and is arguing for a penalty of less than $285 million.
Lawyers representing the executives contend the harsh penalties sought by the DOJ are in retaliation for the company's refusal to settle the case before trial. The lawyers are arguing for sentences similar to those given to the other executive who have pleaded guilty and received less than a year in prison.
They said in court papers that a 10-year sentence 'would be more than twice the length of the longest jail sentence ever imposed on any defendant nationwide for violating the antitrust laws in the 100-plus-year history of the Sherman Act,' which made price-fixing among competitors illegal.
Prosecutors counter that the AU Optronics executives and the company do deserve harsher treatment than the others who pleaded guilty and helped with the investigation.
'Defendants cannot credibly ask this court to treat them more favorably than their coconspirators who accepted responsibility and provided substantial assistance to the investigation,' Assistant U.S. Attorney Peter Huston argued.
Prosecutors say the conspiracy began on Sept. 14, 2001, in a luxury hotel in Taipei, Taiwan, and ended when the FBI raided AU Optronics' Houston office in December 2006. In between, executives from the companies met more than 60 times in luxury hotels throughout Taiwan to set prices for the world market, racking up $72 billion in sales during that time.
Prosecutors say the executive dubbed the gatherings 'crystal meetings,' which were attended at first by top company officials and later by middle managers. Prosecutors allege the top executives began sending their underlings to the meetings after important customers began suspecting the manufacturers were scheming to fix prices. The underlings also began conducting a series of one-on-one meetings rather than gathering all at once after the DOJ announced it was prosecuting makers of certain types of computer memory chips.
Nonetheless, prosecutors said they compiled overwhelming evidence through emails and documents detailing decisions made at the meetings. They argue for the harsh penalties to punish what they describe as AU Optronics' brazen behavior and to send a message to what they say is a growing problem.
'In the past dozen years, new cartels have continued to spring up in spite of the many fines of more than $100 million imposed in cartel cases,' the prosecutors wrote. 'The continuing discovery of new cartels throughout the world is evidence that the fines imposed to date - as large as they are - have failed to provide adequate deterrence and that potential cartelists continue to see fines as an acceptable cost of doing business.'
This news article is brought to you by INTERNET NEWS - where latest news are our top priority.
The proposed sentences would be the stiffest penalty ever meted out for price-fixing convictions if a federal judge adopts the DOJ's position at sentencing Thursday. The DOJ argues the sentences are necessary to punish a company that unfairly forced U.S. consumers to pay billions more than they should have for electronics and to deter others from engaging in price fixing.
The DOJ lawyers made the demands, which include $1 million fines for each of the executives, in court filings Tuesday. They are wrapping up a years-long investigation of a global price-fixing scheme that artificially increased the price of LCD screens used in televisions, computers and other electronic products made by Apple Inc., Dell Computers and many of the largest high-tech companies in the United States.
'The conspiracy affected every family, school, business, charity, and government agency that paid more to purchase notebook computers, computer monitors, and LCD televisions during the conspiracy,' prosecutors concluded in arguing for the criminal penalties.
AU Optronics and the other co-conspirators are also the targets of class action lawsuits filed by customers, retailers and consumers.
In July, the company, along with Toshiba and LG, agreed to pay a combined $571 million to settle one of the lawsuits. Other manufactures, including Hitachi, Sharp and Samsung, agreed in December to pay $538 million to settle.
U.S. District Judge Susan Illston is expected to sentence AU Optronics and its two top executives. Seven other Asian manufacturers and 22 of their executives have previously pleaded guilty and agreed to pay a combined $890 million in fines. The 10 executives who have been sentenced so far received prison terms ranging from six months to a little more than year in prison.
It's the largest criminal antitrust case ever prosecuted by the DOJ, surpassing the break-up of a vitamin cartel in the late 1990's that netted $875 million in criminal fines.
To date, F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd.'s $500 million fine for participating in the vitamin price-fixing scheme remains the largest antitrust fine. The DOJ's annual collection of antitrust criminal fines only topped $1 billion once in the past 10 years, according to a report compiled by the law firm Gibson Dunn.
A jury found AU Optronics, its former president H.B Chen and former executive vice president Hui Hsiung guilty and acquitted two others. The jury couldn't agree on a verdict for a fifth executive, and prosecutors dropped charges.
AU Optronics refused to plea bargain with the DOJ, becoming the only company to go to trial. Its lawyer Dennis Riordan says the company plans to appeal the conviction after Illston recently refused to overturn the jury's verdict issued in March.
Riordan says a $1 billion fine is out of proportion to the penalty paid by Hoffman, writing in court papers that 'it is difficult to believe that the conduct in this case was more than two times more egregious than the almost ten-year conspiracy to fix the price' of vitamins. He says a fine of a $1 billion will cripple the company financially and is arguing for a penalty of less than $285 million.
Lawyers representing the executives contend the harsh penalties sought by the DOJ are in retaliation for the company's refusal to settle the case before trial. The lawyers are arguing for sentences similar to those given to the other executive who have pleaded guilty and received less than a year in prison.
They said in court papers that a 10-year sentence 'would be more than twice the length of the longest jail sentence ever imposed on any defendant nationwide for violating the antitrust laws in the 100-plus-year history of the Sherman Act,' which made price-fixing among competitors illegal.
Prosecutors counter that the AU Optronics executives and the company do deserve harsher treatment than the others who pleaded guilty and helped with the investigation.
'Defendants cannot credibly ask this court to treat them more favorably than their coconspirators who accepted responsibility and provided substantial assistance to the investigation,' Assistant U.S. Attorney Peter Huston argued.
Prosecutors say the conspiracy began on Sept. 14, 2001, in a luxury hotel in Taipei, Taiwan, and ended when the FBI raided AU Optronics' Houston office in December 2006. In between, executives from the companies met more than 60 times in luxury hotels throughout Taiwan to set prices for the world market, racking up $72 billion in sales during that time.
Prosecutors say the executive dubbed the gatherings 'crystal meetings,' which were attended at first by top company officials and later by middle managers. Prosecutors allege the top executives began sending their underlings to the meetings after important customers began suspecting the manufacturers were scheming to fix prices. The underlings also began conducting a series of one-on-one meetings rather than gathering all at once after the DOJ announced it was prosecuting makers of certain types of computer memory chips.
Nonetheless, prosecutors said they compiled overwhelming evidence through emails and documents detailing decisions made at the meetings. They argue for the harsh penalties to punish what they describe as AU Optronics' brazen behavior and to send a message to what they say is a growing problem.
'In the past dozen years, new cartels have continued to spring up in spite of the many fines of more than $100 million imposed in cartel cases,' the prosecutors wrote. 'The continuing discovery of new cartels throughout the world is evidence that the fines imposed to date - as large as they are - have failed to provide adequate deterrence and that potential cartelists continue to see fines as an acceptable cost of doing business.'
This news article is brought to you by INTERNET NEWS - where latest news are our top priority.
Panetta talks computer hacking issues with Chinese
BEIJING (AP) - Despite several years of escalating diplomacy and warnings, the U.S. is making little headway in its efforts to tamp down aggressive Chinese cyberattacks against American companies and the government.
U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, who is wrapping up three days of meetings with military and civilian leaders, said he has brought the issue up at every session and come away with little more than agreements to talk again.
Meanwhile, cybersecurity analysts say the computer-based attacks emanating from China continue unabated, and in fact are expanding and focusing more intently on critical American oil, gas and other energy companies.
'No diplomatic actions have made a difference,' said Richard Bejtlich, chief security officer for the Virginia-based cybersecurity firm Mandiant. 'They remain aggressive - they're kicked out one day and try to get back in the next day.'
He said the China-backed hackers' tactics are also evolving, and they are more often going after corporate computer systems by breaching software weaknesses, rather than simply trying to get into a network by duping an individual employee. And he said they appear to be increasingly targeting lucrative energy companies.
Efforts by officials across the U.S. government have not seemed to have any impact, Bejtlich said, adding: 'The Chinese don't seem to care. So I don't have any hope that the dialogue is reaching anyone of any note.'
Panetta, who is leaving China on Thursday, met with China's leader-in-waiting, Xi Jinping, Wednesday and afterward told reporters that he urged Xi and other leaders to have an ongoing dialogue with the United States about the cyber threat.
'I think it's clear that they want to engage in a dialogue on this issue,' Panetta said, 'and I guess that's the most important thing. That's the beginning of trying to perhaps be able to develop an approach to dealing with cyber issues that has some semblance of order here as opposed to having countries basically all flying in the dark.'
Chinese officials have steadfastly denied the cyberattacks, saying they also are victims of computer hackers and breaches.
But nine months ago senior U.S. intelligence officials for the first time publicly accused China of systematically stealing American high-tech data for its own national economic gain. It was the most forceful and detailed airing of U.S. allegations against Beijing after years of private complaints, and it launched a more open push to combat the attacks.
James Lewis, a cybersecurity expert with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the U.S. is starting to push the Chinese harder on the issue, but the administration needs to do more.
'The damage from Chinese cyber espionage is easy to overstate but that doesn't mean we should accept it,' he said. 'The Bush administration was unaware of the problem; this administration needs to come up with a more dynamic response.'
Cyber experts and U.S. officials agree that one of the biggest threats is the possibility of a miscalculation when a cyber breach triggers a clash between the two nations and there is no underlying relationship that can be used to discuss or work out the problem.
'How do you make sure something doesn't go off course and become a flashpoint for a bigger crisis?' Lewis said.
He added that the People's Liberation Army has been more confrontational lately, and lingering questions remain about the relationship between the Chinese political leaders and the military, and whether the civilian officials can effectively rein in the PLA.
Bejtlich and others describe a hierarchy of hackers in China that includes three main groups: those who are employed directly by the government, those who are affiliated with universities or quasi-government agencies and the so-called patriotic hackers who work on their own but direct their attacks against the U.S. and Western interests.
Bejtlich said some of the state-sponsored hackers appear to moonlight, stealing data from Western companies perhaps as a way of making more money. As long as they don't present a threat to China or Chinese companies, it is tolerated.
Panetta has warned repeatedly that cyberattacks and cyberwarfare could set off the next war. And U.S. officials and security experts say government and private industry systems are constantly being probed, breached and attacked. A key threat is an attack against critical infrastructure, including the electric grid, power plants or financial networks, that could plunge the U.S. into crisis.
Officials have said that at this point the main threats from China are intelligence espionage and the theft of corporate and high-tech data, rather than an all-out act of war. But they warn that hackers in China, many of whom work for, are backed by or are tolerated by the Chinese government, are capable of highly sophisticated attacks.
This news article is brought to you by SEXUAL HEALTH NEWS - where latest news are our top priority.
U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, who is wrapping up three days of meetings with military and civilian leaders, said he has brought the issue up at every session and come away with little more than agreements to talk again.
Meanwhile, cybersecurity analysts say the computer-based attacks emanating from China continue unabated, and in fact are expanding and focusing more intently on critical American oil, gas and other energy companies.
'No diplomatic actions have made a difference,' said Richard Bejtlich, chief security officer for the Virginia-based cybersecurity firm Mandiant. 'They remain aggressive - they're kicked out one day and try to get back in the next day.'
He said the China-backed hackers' tactics are also evolving, and they are more often going after corporate computer systems by breaching software weaknesses, rather than simply trying to get into a network by duping an individual employee. And he said they appear to be increasingly targeting lucrative energy companies.
Efforts by officials across the U.S. government have not seemed to have any impact, Bejtlich said, adding: 'The Chinese don't seem to care. So I don't have any hope that the dialogue is reaching anyone of any note.'
Panetta, who is leaving China on Thursday, met with China's leader-in-waiting, Xi Jinping, Wednesday and afterward told reporters that he urged Xi and other leaders to have an ongoing dialogue with the United States about the cyber threat.
'I think it's clear that they want to engage in a dialogue on this issue,' Panetta said, 'and I guess that's the most important thing. That's the beginning of trying to perhaps be able to develop an approach to dealing with cyber issues that has some semblance of order here as opposed to having countries basically all flying in the dark.'
Chinese officials have steadfastly denied the cyberattacks, saying they also are victims of computer hackers and breaches.
But nine months ago senior U.S. intelligence officials for the first time publicly accused China of systematically stealing American high-tech data for its own national economic gain. It was the most forceful and detailed airing of U.S. allegations against Beijing after years of private complaints, and it launched a more open push to combat the attacks.
James Lewis, a cybersecurity expert with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the U.S. is starting to push the Chinese harder on the issue, but the administration needs to do more.
'The damage from Chinese cyber espionage is easy to overstate but that doesn't mean we should accept it,' he said. 'The Bush administration was unaware of the problem; this administration needs to come up with a more dynamic response.'
Cyber experts and U.S. officials agree that one of the biggest threats is the possibility of a miscalculation when a cyber breach triggers a clash between the two nations and there is no underlying relationship that can be used to discuss or work out the problem.
'How do you make sure something doesn't go off course and become a flashpoint for a bigger crisis?' Lewis said.
He added that the People's Liberation Army has been more confrontational lately, and lingering questions remain about the relationship between the Chinese political leaders and the military, and whether the civilian officials can effectively rein in the PLA.
Bejtlich and others describe a hierarchy of hackers in China that includes three main groups: those who are employed directly by the government, those who are affiliated with universities or quasi-government agencies and the so-called patriotic hackers who work on their own but direct their attacks against the U.S. and Western interests.
Bejtlich said some of the state-sponsored hackers appear to moonlight, stealing data from Western companies perhaps as a way of making more money. As long as they don't present a threat to China or Chinese companies, it is tolerated.
Panetta has warned repeatedly that cyberattacks and cyberwarfare could set off the next war. And U.S. officials and security experts say government and private industry systems are constantly being probed, breached and attacked. A key threat is an attack against critical infrastructure, including the electric grid, power plants or financial networks, that could plunge the U.S. into crisis.
Officials have said that at this point the main threats from China are intelligence espionage and the theft of corporate and high-tech data, rather than an all-out act of war. But they warn that hackers in China, many of whom work for, are backed by or are tolerated by the Chinese government, are capable of highly sophisticated attacks.
This news article is brought to you by SEXUAL HEALTH NEWS - where latest news are our top priority.
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