nemeses select: October 2013

Thursday, October 31, 2013

First official The Lego Movie trailer is here

The teaser was great, but the official trailer is better. The movie is directed by the excellent Phil Lord and Chris Miller—who made Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs—and stars Will Arnett as Batman plus Will Ferrell, Elizabeth Banks, Liam Neeson, and Morgan Freeman.

T-Mobile says it'll carry the Nexus 5, forgets to give a price or date

If you're looking to get the new Nexus 5 through T-Mobile, you're in luck. The carrier has announced that it, too, plans to carry Google's latest Android smartphone, the first to run Android 4.4. KitKat.

T-Mobile neglected to say when, or what the price will be.

More at T-Mobile.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/HdKRXbSBIeE/story01.htm
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Hacking Trial: Prosecution Paints Picture of 'Dog-Eat-Dog' Tabloid World

Getty Images

Andy Coulson, Rebekah Brooks

LONDON – The phone hacking trial against former News Corp U.K. top executives Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson and six others continued Thursday with the prosecution playing an audio tape and showing emails and other material that it said would prove a hacking conspiracy at the former News of the World tabloid.

Prosecutor Andrew Edis continued his opening statement, telling the 12 jurors about three emails disclosed by the U.K. newspaper arm of Rupert Murdoch's media empire in 2011 that he said caused police here to launch the probe that led to the trial.

They were from private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, who – as was revealed Wednesday – has previously pleaded guilty to hacking, to ex-News of the World news editor Ian Edmondson, one of the eight defendants. The latter once again sat in the courtroom's dock Thursday on the far left from the judge's vantage point. Edmondson during wide parts of the morning session used pen and notepad to write notes.

STORY: U.K. Press Regulation Royal Charter Is Approved By the Queen

Much of Thursday's morning session focused on Edmondson and what Edis highlighted were regular exchanges between him and Mulcaire, some of which, he argued, showed Mulcaire providing summaries on his own hacking work or info, such a phone number and pin code, for the hacking of certain people's phones. The prosecutor once again argued though that former editors Coulson and Brooks also had to be aware of Mulcaire's work given their responsibility for ensuring that stories in the News of the World were true.

Edis spoke of the competitive "dog-eat-dog" world of Fleet Street, London's former newspaper district, arguing it may have led the defendants to accept the use of phone hacking to get or confirm stories and spy on competitors, such as two reporters from the Mail on Sunday. He also spoke of the industry "frenzy to get the story."

"We know what Mr Mulcaire was doing, he was phone hacking," Edis said about exchanges between the private investigator and Edmondson in the mid-2000s. "Look how much contact there is at this time between Mr. Edmondson and Mr. Mulcaire. Do you think it is likely or even possible that Mr. Edmondson did not know what was being done by Mr Mulcaire?"

He argued that given the importance of the stories - "this was big stuff," as he said - the NOTW editor also had to have asked the question: "How do I know this information is true?"

And he said Mulcaire at one point was paid around $160,000 (160,000 pounds) a year, which all top editors must have been aware of. Stuart Kuttner, a former NOTW managing editor, authorized most payments to Mulcaire, Edis said, citing 221 payments that amounted to $664,140 (413,527 pounds). But "a big contract involves the senior management," he argued. "It was not hidden from anybody that he was being paid all that money."

He said that must have been particularly true given emails from Brooks that showed her pushing for budget cuts, meaning that she was "actively involved" in financial matters at the paper. Despite this pressure of looking for cost savings around the organization, nobody seemed to have questioned Mulcaire's pay, the prosecutor continued. "The question is didn't anybody ever ask 'what are we paying this chap for'," Edis concluded.

He also emphasized that "it wasn't a secret" among NOTW staff that Mulcaire worked for the paper. He cited a profile of the former soccer player in the NOTW itself that mentioned Mulcaire worked for the paper's special investigations team. While Brooks in the past said she had never heard of Mulcaire until he got arrested, "it clearly wasn't a secret" that he did work for the tabloid, Edis said.

Edis summarized that while not all requests from a defendant that Mulcaire help them resulted in a successful hack. But he said various documents of interactions between Mulcaire and News of the World top editors and invoices typically labeled as "assists" were "evidence against all the defendants."

After playing an audio tape of Mulcaire calling a cell phone provider to find out someone's voicemail passcode, Edis focused on the three emails that led to the hacking investigation. One of the three emails from April 2006 referred to member of parliament Tessa Jowell and her husband David Mills, who at the time was accused of being involved in a bribery case linked to Italian media mogul and former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.

The second email referred to Lord Frederick Windsor and mentioned that Edmondson could "press * and pin." Edis said jurors would have to decide whether Mulcaire could have emailed that note to Edmondson for any reason other than to tell him how to hack a phone.

The third email referred to an adviser to a former deputy prime minister who back then was accused of having an affair.

Brooks wore a grey suit and white blouse Thursday. Coulson wore a grey suit and white shirt with a dark red tie. After a 20-minute break during the morning session, Brooks returned to the dock with a mug of water and cups, filling up cups for some of her co-defendants.

Just as on Wednesday, Kuttner, who has health issues, wasn't in the dock Thursday.

One email exchange that Edis cited Thursday also provided a deeper look behind the scenes of the NOTW's hunt for scoops. He said Edmondson emailed Coulson that he had a mobile number for a woman who was at the time reported to have had an affair with a top politician.

"I want to shock her with a [big number]. How are your pockets?" Edmondson wrote to Coulson amid plans to get her to write her story for the paper, the jury heard. Edis said Coulson replied that same minute: "Start at £100,000."

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/thr/news/~3/Sc9kLit_pGc/hacking-trial-prosecution-paints-picture-652342
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Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi Keeps It Classy in Response to Rude DJ

She’s received more than her fair share of criticism over the years, and Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi has apparently learned how to let it roll off her back.

The “Jersey Shore” starlet was targeted by Colorado Morning News radio host Steffan Tubbs on Tuesday (October 29), as he called her “f**king ugly” when he thought his microphone was muted.

Unfortunately, Tubbs’ statement was loud and clear over the airwaves, though Snooki responded to the remark with the utmost restraint.

Polizzi simply tweeted, “No hard feelings Steffan Tubbs..i am ‘f*cking ugly’ :(.” And Newsradio 850KOA replied, "We are aware of a recent inappropriate comment that was made on-air by Steffan Tubbs. While Steffan made the comment in what he thought was a private conversation, it was still thoughtless and insensitive and we apologize to anyone whom it offended. We take matters of this nature very seriously and we will take appropriate disciplinary action."

Source: http://celebrity-gossip.net/nicole-polizzi/nicole-%E2%80%9Csnooki%E2%80%9D-polizzi-keeps-it-classy-response-rude-dj-953033
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FAA eases rules on electronic devices on planes

A passenger check her cell phone before a flight, Thursday, Oct. 31, 2013, in Boston. The Federal Aviation Administration issued new guidelines Thursday, Oct. 31, 2013, under which passengers will be able to use devices to read, work, play games, watch movies and listen to music, from the time they board to the time they leave the plane. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Administrator Michael Huerta announces that government safety rules are changing to let airline passengers use most electronic devices from gate-to-gate during a news conference, Thursday, Oct. 31, 2013, at Washington's Ronald Reagan National Airport. The change will let passengers read, work, play games, watch movies and listen to music _ but not make cellphone calls. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)

A passenger check his cell phone while boarding a flight, Thursday, Oct. 31, 2013, in Boston. The Federal Aviation Administration issued new guidelines Thursday, under which passengers will be able to use devices to read, work, play games, watch movies and listen to music, from the time they board to the time they leave the plane. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Airline passengers won't have to "turn off all electronic devices" anymore — they'll be able to read, work, play games, watch movies and listen to music from gate to gate under new guidelines from the Federal Aviation Administration. But they still can't talk on their cellphones through the flight.

Don't expect the changes to happen immediately, FAA Administrator Michael Huerta said Thursday at a news conference announcing new rules. How fast will vary by airline.

Delta and JetBlue said they would quickly submit plans to implement the new policy. Airlines will have to show the FAA that their airplanes meet the new guidelines and that they've updated their flight-crew training manuals, safety announcements and rules for stowing devices to reflect the new guidelines.

It sounded like good news to passengers heading out from Reagan National Airport on Thursday.

Ketan Patel, 24, said he's happy that regulators have debunked the idea that the devices pose a safety problem. "If it isn't a problem, it should be allowed," he said as he stepped into a security line, a smartphone in his hand.

Monica Lexie, 50, entering the same line, said the change will enable her to use her Kindle to read longer. But then she was never bothered by the restrictions.

"You just shut it off and wait for the little light to go on," she said. "Our safety takes precedence."

Currently, passengers are required to turn off their smartphones, tablets and other devices once a plane's door closes. They're not supposed to restart them until the planes reach 10,000 feet and the captain gives the go-ahead. Passengers are supposed to turn their devices off again as the plane descends to land and not restart them until it is on the ground.

Under the new guidelines, airlines whose planes are properly protected from electronic interference may allow passengers to use the devices during takeoffs, landings and taxiing, the FAA said. Most new airliners and other planes that have been modified so that passengers can use Wi-Fi at higher altitudes are expected to meet the criteria.

Passengers will also be able to connect to the Internet to surf, exchange emails, or download data below 10,000 feet if the plane has an installed Wi-Fi system, but not through cellular networks. Passengers will be told to switch their devices to airplane mode. Heavier devices such as laptops will continue to have to be stowed away because of concern they might injure someone if they go flying around the cabin.

The guidelines reflect the evolution in types and prevalence of devices used by passengers over the past decade. In 2003, 70 percent of passengers carried electronic devices with them on planes, and the most common device was a cellphone that wasn't capable of connecting to the Internet, followed by a calculator, according to a survey by the Consumer Electronics Association. A follow-up survey by the association this year found that 99 percent of passengers carry some device with them, with smartphones the most common followed by notebook or laptop computers.

In-flight cellphone calls will continue to be prohibited. Regulatory authority over phone calls belongs to the Federal Communications Commission, not the FAA. The commission prohibits the calls because of concern that phones on planes flying at hundreds of miles per hour could strain the ability of cellular networks to keep up as the devices keep trying to connect with cellphone towers, interfering with service to users on the ground.

The changes announced Thursday apply to both domestic and international flights by U.S. carriers, but the rules get a little tricky for international flights. On takeoff from the United States and during landing back in the U.S., passengers would be allowed to use electronics. However, when arriving or departing a foreign country, passengers would have to comply with local laws. Currently, most counties have their own prohibitions on electronic device use. However, they tend to follow the FAA's lead and likely could relax their own rules in the near future.

An industry advisory committee created by the FAA to examine the issue recommended last month that the government permit greater use of personal electronic devices.

Pressure has been building on the FAA to ease restrictions on their use. Critics of the restraints such as Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., say there is no valid safety reason for the prohibitions. Restrictions have also become more difficult to enforce as use of the devices has become ubiquitous. Some studies indicate as many as a third of passengers forget or ignore directions to turn off their devices.

The FAA began restricting passengers' use of electronic devices in 1966 in response to reports of interference with navigation and communications equipment when passengers began carrying FM radios, the high-tech gadgets of their day.

A lot has changed since then. New airliners are far more reliant on electrical systems than previous generations of aircraft, but they are also designed and approved by the FAA to be resistant to electronic interference. Airlines are already offering Wi-Fi use at cruising altitudes on planes modified to be more resistant to interference.

The vast majority of airliners should qualify for greater electronic device use under the new guidelines, Huerta said. In rare instances of landings during severe weather with low visibility, pilots may still order passengers to turn off devices because there is some evidence of potential interference with the use of instrument landing systems under those conditions, he said.

Today's electronic devices generally emit much lower power radio transmissions than previous generations of devices. E-readers, for example, emit only minimal transmissions when turning a page. But transmissions are stronger when devices are downloading or sending data.

Among those pressing for a relaxation of restrictions on passengers' use of the devices has been Amazon.com. In 2011, company officials loaded an airliner full of their Kindle e-readers and flew it around to test for problems but found none.

A travel industry group welcomed the changes, calling them common-sense accommodations for a traveling public now bristling with technology. "We're pleased the FAA recognizes that an enjoyable passenger experience is not incompatible with safety and security," said Roger Dow, CEO of the U.S. Travel Association.

___

AP Airlines Writer Scott Mayerowitz in New York contributed to this report.

___

Follow Joan Lowy on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/AP_Joan_Lowy

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2013-10-31-Cellphones-Planes/id-a8ab220f4ec341c4b02ada614ec059ce
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Obama gets more tech help to fix healthcare site

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The Obama administration has recruited engineers from several prominent technology companies to help fix the problems preventing people from signing up for government-mandated health insurance.

Oracle and Red Hat are pitching in as well as Michael Dickerson, an engineer on leave from Google, according to a blog post Thursday by Julie Bataille, a spokeswoman for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

Oracle Corp. CEO Larry Ellison told shareholders at the software maker's annual meeting Thursday that the Redwood Shores, Calif., company is trying to make the Healthcare.gov website more reliable and secure.

"Most of us want to see our government operating efficiently and effectively and it is incumbent upon us to help them do that," Ellison said.

Red Hat Inc. and Google Inc. declined to comment.

Dickerson is a site-reliability engineer at Google. He is now working directly with QSSI, the general contractor hired to upgrade Healthcare.gov, Bataille said.

Exasperation with the website's buggy technology has been compounded by concerns that the service lacks the security measures needed to protect the sensitive information of people looking for insurance.

Besides Dickerson, the government also identified entrepreneur Greg Gershman as one of its new troubleshooters. Gershman currently is director of innovation at mobile app developer Mobomo, according to his profile on professional networking site LinkedIn.

Gershman's resume says he received a Presidential Innovation Fellowship last year to work with the White House on a project seeking "to re-imagine the relationship between citizens and government around the citizen's needs."

The Obama administration has pledged Healthcare.gov will be running smoothly by Nov. 30.

___

Online:

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services blog post:

http://www.hhs.gov/digitalstrategy/blog/2013/10/more-on-the-tech-surge.html

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2013-10-31-US-Technology-Help-Health-Overhaul/id-d93911e807b242e9a5f20b9a11c97720
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Tomahawk Music Player Takes Listening to a New High

Tomahawk's seamless searching feature is very impressive. Just enter your search term in the slender window at the top of the application window. Including filters makes the searching even more efficient. Tomahawk searches through all of your enabled services. The results list is very expansive and uses columns to show artists, albums, songs, tracks and much more.

The trick to designing an all-purpose music player is to make it work the way you want. The Tomahawk Music Player performs that trick very well.

It could well be a better listening choice than any other cross-platform music player application. It runs on a variety of Linux distros, Microsoft Windows and the Apple OS platforms. This flexibility is important to me as a user because I work on all three.

Tomahawk is intuitive, with a very uncluttered display. That holds true for its interface on all of its supported platforms.

Another performance factor is its ability to separate the song title from the source. This creates a universal translation layer across music repositories, streaming services and geographic territories.

The latest version is 0.7.0 for all supported Linux distros except Fedora and Debian. For those two distros the current version is 0.6.0.

Dual Sources

Tomahawk is a very young Linux music player, but it makes up for its youth with a surprisingly mature level of performance.

It handles local and Internet-based music collections as a single music platform across all three computing platforms. This is a standard that should be met in all modern music players.

Tomahawk seamlessly integrates YouTube, Spotify, Jamendo, Grooveshark, LastFM, OfficialFM and a dozen more. This latest edition makes plugging in Internet music sources easy through a system of third-party resolvers. Just open the Settings panel and click the Services button. Select the corresponding resolver from the list and click the Install>From File button. The same process lets you connect Tomahawk to your social networks.

Look and Feel

Some music players I have liked had a glaring problem with putting too much information into too little display space. That does not happen with Tomahawk.

Its interface has a menu bar you can hide. It is replaced with an icon that opens the tools and settings menus.

A sidebar helps reduce the display clutter. It has to show the local collection, online playlists and radio stations. Playback controls are at the bottom.

What You See

The Queue display expands as you add more titles to play from your collections. You can view the open queue list or keep it closed but see the number of titles waiting to play.

A nice touch is the ability to remove songs or change their order by dragging and dropping them around the list.

Depending on what sidebar labels you select, other expandable windows open in the right side of the player window. For instance, when a title is playing, the display shows the top hits, related artists and a condensed version of the Wikipedia entry for that artist.

Screen Real Estate

Hold the mouse over any item in the sidebar to see a floating option to hide it. The sidebar serves as the functional control panel for what you see in the display window.

For example, the first label is the Dashboard. It shows recent additions to the local catalog, the newest playlists from both local collections and online sources, stations and recently played tracks.

The Super Collection label combines the local libraries of all included online friends also using Tomahawk. This might be the least-used feature, depending on your social status, but if you use it, Top Loved Tracks shows the tracks loved the most by all of your friends. Recently Played Tracks shows the last tracks they've played. I'm not a huge social media fan, so pardon my big yawn here.

More Sidebar Navigation

Charts is somewhat more useful, as it shows the currently best-selling songs on selected services activated by your choice of subscriptions. The New Releases and Search History features are more of those love-it or hate-it options.

Perhaps the most useful part of the sidebar display choices are the My Music and My Collection options. You can hide or show the sublists.

This is where you click to see your local and online music lists. You also can create playlists and radio station lists for regular listening.

Searching Success

Tomahawk searches through all of your enabled services. The results list is very expansive and uses columns to show artists, albums, songs, tracks and much more.

Clicking the information icon that appears on hover pops up related details about your listening history for that selection. A Footnote button at the bottom of the information pop-up shows more details about related artists, top hits and more.

You can click on a song or other related album or artist. If that title is not already in your local collection, Tomahawk will connect you to its location on your enabled online music outlets and play it for you.

Getting It

Installing Tomahawk is about the only part of using it that is a bit of a hassle. It is not routinely available in many distro repositories. If you do luck out and find it included in your distro, it will be several versions out of date.

Instead, go to the developer's website and click the download button. Then check the download page for distro-specific installation instructions.

Tomahawk is available for a wide range of distros, but you must install your flavor through the terminal by adding distro-specific repository commands. So far Tomahawk installs on Linux Mint, Ubuntu, Fedora, openSUSE, Arch Linux, Chakra, Gentoo and Exherbo. Debian is coming soon.

For other Linux distros, you can download the tarball from the developer's website or get it from github.

Bottom Line

If you are looking for the next generation of music players, Tomahawk is a good choice. It is still a young effort with lots of areas its developers need to finesse, but that maturity will continue to come with each new release.

Meanwhile, Tomahawk performs well in its current release state. It has some usability quirks that are more annoying than dysfunctional.

Want to Suggest a Linux Application for Review?

Is there a Linux software application you'd like to suggest for review? Something you love or would like to get to know?

Please send your ideas to me at jack.germain@newsroom.ectnews.com, and I'll consider them for a future Linux Picks and Pans column.

And use the Talkback feature below to add your comments!

Jack M. Germain has been writing about computer technology since the early days of the Apple II and the PC. He still has his original IBM PC-Jr and a few other legacy DOS and Windows boxes. He left shareware programs behind for the open source world of the Linux desktop. He runs several versions of Windows and Linux OSes and often cannot decide whether to grab his tablet, netbook or Android smartphone instead of using his desktop or laptop gear.

Source: http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/79311.html
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More magazines coming to Flipboard: Time, Fortune, InStyle and People

Time Inc. Inks Deal With Flipboard: PEOPLE and InStyle First To Launch; TIME And FORTUNE Coming In December

With a digital footprint of 68MM across desktop, smartphones and tablets,Time Inc. will be the largest publisher to join Flipboard's platform.

NEW YORK, Oct. 31, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Time Inc. has reached an agreement with Flipboard to make its branded content available on the platform. PEOPLE and InStyle will be the first Time Inc. titles to launch this week, followed by TIME and FORTUNE in December.

With a digital footprint of 68MM across desktop, smartphones and tablets, Time Inc. will be the largest publisher to join Flipboard's platform. PEOPLE's content will focus on celebrity news and red carpet moments and InStyle will feature the latest celebrity looks, fashion trends and beauty how-tos.

The content on Flipboard has been paginated and designed to reflect each title's unique brand experience. Inside of the pages of PEOPLE, InStyle, TIME and FORTUNE on Flipboard will also be full page beautiful advertising inventory for brands around the world interested in reaching these readers. Time Inc. will offer its advertisers sharable full page ads within its Flipboard content. Gucci has signed on as a launch partner to InStyle on Flipboard.

"The demand for Time Inc.'s mobile content has grown exponentially this year, from celebrity and style content to breaking news," said Fran Hauser, President, Digital, Time Inc Style & Entertainment Group. "If you look at the enormous built-in following and influence our brands carry, and combine it with Flipboard's ability to showcase our content and photography so beautifully and make it more discoverable, this is a great place for us to be."

"With this deal the iconic publications of PEOPLE, InStyle, TIME and FORTUNE will bring the important stories, amazing visuals, analytical pieces and pop culture trends of the day to the millions of people on Flipboard. We are very proud to be a part of Time Inc.'s strategy to reach readers everywhere," said Mike McCue, Flipboard CEO.

About Time Inc.
Time Inc., a division of Time Warner, is one of the largest branded media companies in the world reaching more than 130 million Americans each month across multiple platforms. With influential brands such as TIME, PEOPLE, SPORTS ILLUSTRATED, InStyle, and REAL SIMPLE, Time Inc. is home to celebrated events and franchises including the FORTUNE 500, TIME 100, PEOPLE's Most Beautiful and SPORTS ILLUSTRATED'S Sportsman of the Year.

About Flipboard
Flipboard is your personal magazine. It's the most popular way to catch up on the news you care about, discover amazing things from around the world, or stay connected to the people closest to you. Inspired by the beauty and ease of print media, Flipboard is designed so you can easily flip through the stories, videos and images on just about any topic imaginable. Start reading your magazine by downloading Flipboard at www.flipboard.com.

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/10/31/time-inc-adds-four-magazines-to-flipboard-magazine-publishing-platform/?ncid=rss_truncated
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Lionsgate Pins Growth Plans on 'Ender's Game' and 'Catching Fire' (Analysis)

This story first appeared in the Nov. 8 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine.

In March 2012, Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer and the cast of its AMC drama Mad Men rang the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange. "I think back to when we first rang the bell in 2004, and we didn't have Mad Men and we didn't have Hunger Games, and we didn't have Expendables," gushed Feltheimer to CNBC's Jim Cramer that day. "You know, the company is growing beautifully."

That was only the beginning. In the 19 months since Feltheimer rang that bell, Lionsgate stock is up 140 percent, five times the growth of the S&P 500. The company, which began in 1997 as a tiny Vancouver-based distributor, has become so large -- it boasts a market capitalization of around $5 billion, more than twice that of DreamWorks Animation -- that the often-used term "mini-major" no longer seems adequate.

STORY: Why 'Hunger Games: Catching Fire's' Budget Ballooned to $130 Million-Plus

But now Lionsgate is facing key tests of whether it can sustain that momentum. Beginning with the Nov. 1 release of the young-adult adaptation Ender's Game, followed by the sequel The Hunger Games: Catching Fire on Nov. 22 and another new YA adaptation, Divergent, in March, the studio once known for low-budget horror films and Tyler Perry comedies is poised to have three major franchises. Investors are hoping those films will work, given that its Twilight property, acquired through the 2011 merger with Summit Entertainment, is winding down after taking in $3.3 billion worldwide.

"I like the management, but they are riding high on Hunger Games and Twilight, and those are hard to replace," says Doug Creutz, a Cowen & Co. analyst who downgraded Lionsgate stock to "neutral" in September. "It's hard to see how they grow the film business from here." Lionsgate shares closed at $34.76 on Oct. 28.

Since its founding by Canadian mining magnate Frank Giustra, Lionsgate largely has grown through acquisitions, first nabbing Artisan Entertainment in 2003, then a piece of the indie distributor Roadside Attractions, a TV distribution business in Debmar-Mercury and finally the $412.5 million purchase of Summit that added Stephenie Meyer's sparkly vampires and film execs Rob Friedman and Patrick Wachsberger. "The company went through a complete and utter structural transformation, where it went from a small, independent producer to the owner of a number of blockbuster franchises with multiyear visibility and earnings," notes RBC Capital Markets analyst David Bank.

VIDEO: 'Hunger Games: Catching Fire': Final Trailer Debuts

Lionsgate revenue surged 71 percent to $2.71 billion from fiscal 2012 to 2013. But Creutz estimates -- rather ominously -- that for the next three years, 62 percent of the company's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization will come from just two properties: Twilight and Hunger Games.

To lessen its dependence on the hit-or-miss film business, Lionsgate is relying more than ever on television. It expects to produce 11 shows in the current fiscal year, including Mad Men, Orange Is the New Black for Netflix, Nurse Jackie for Showtime, Anger Management for FX and Nashville for ABC. Lionsgate also has partnered with MGM and Paramount on the cable channel Epix, and Debmar-Mercury is expanding its "10-90" approach to TV syndication, in which it sells 10 episodes for a test-run and renews for an additional 90 episodes. (Lionsgate also invests in digital businesses and music publishing. Through an arrangement with Net-a-Porter, it plans on rolling out a fashion and jewelry line from the Catching Fire costume designer.)

Not surprisingly, Feltheimer, 62, says he wants a third of Lionsgate's revenue eventually to come from its TV division, led by Kevin Beggs. However, in the most recent fiscal year, the company reported $2.2 billion in revenue from motion pictures and only $379 million from television. That means that for the foreseeable future, movies will remain Lionsgate's bread and butter.

PHOTOS: 'The Hunger Games: Catching Fire' Cast Heats Up Cannes

And as the rest of Hollywood knows, the film business can be boom or bust. Eight years ago, Feltheimer boasted that Lionsgate risked no more than $8 million on any one film, citing such hits as the Saw and Hostel franchises. Those days are long gone, but investors aren't complaining that Hunger Games: Catching Fire cost $130 million as long as the pricey investment delivers on par with the $691 million global box office of the first installment. "Having 10 films that outperform and five that underperform will never have the operating leverage of one $700 million global film," says Ben Mogil of Thomas Weisel Partners.

Lionsgate has been diversifying its film efforts as well. In 2010, it launched, along with Grupo Televisa, Pantelion Films, an arm devoted to distributing films aimed at Latino audiences. Its Mexican comedy Instructions Not Included, released in September, has become the top-grossing Spanish-language film of all time with $44 million and counting.

Hunger Games, based on the Suzanne Collins trilogy about kids forced to fight to the death, has two more installments, due in 2014 and 2015. And Lionsgate actively is seeking to develop other properties and position itself as the home of YA titles turned into film franchises. "In the young-adult space, in all our intellectual property we now have over a quarter of a billion fans on Facebook alone," vice chairman Michael Burns said on CNBC.

Still, Ender's Game, about an alien race attacking Earth, is a risky proposition. Though Lionsgate's Summit label minimized exposure by releasing the $110 million-budget film only in the U.S., controversial anti-gay remarks by the novel's author, Orson Scott Card, and a sci-fi storyline revolving around young children could limit its broad appeal. Tracking indicates the movie will open in the mid-$20 millions domestically. Analysts also express concern over 2014's I, Frankenstein, a special-effects-laden movie in which Dr. Frankenstein's creation (Aaron Eckhart) gets involved in a power struggle between gargoyles and demons.

VIDEO: 'Ender's Game' TV Spot: 'Destroy Them'

Lionsgate has higher hopes for Divergent, about a dystopian future in which people are divided into factions based on their personalities. The film, starring Shailene Woodley, already is being positioned as the next Hunger Games.

If so, then, will Hollywood soon drop the "mini" qualifier when speaking of Lionsgate? Some already have. "If you're making Hunger Games and Twilight, you're a major studio," says Creutz. "Heck, they're putting out more films than Disney and Paramount nowadays. Not as big, but more of them."

And without a physical studio lot or a bevy of rich development deals, "They are running a leaner-cost business," adds Wunderlich Securities analyst Matthew Harrigan. "I think for all practical purposes, in terms of market share, talent relationships and power to get into a release window, they are a de facto major. It's really been an amazing story."

Etan Vlessing contributed to this report.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/thr/news/~3/KHBA5mpvYRc/enders-game-catching-fire-lionsgate-651405
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Google voice search gets new, less robotic voice in the UK

More natural sounding female voice replaces the old robotic tones

If you use Google Search's voice features in the UK, you may have noticed a fairly significant change today — the robotic male voice of old has been replaced with a new, more natural sounding female voice. The change brings the UK in line with the U.S., which has had realistic sounding voice playback for some time now, and it's a vast improvement on what we had before.

It looks like the change has taken place through Google's backend rather than any sort of app update, so Brits should hear the new voice right away — just tap the microphone icon as usual.

We've got a quick preview of the new British voice of Google search after the break.

Thanks to Chris for the tip, and to everyone who helped confirm it!

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/Zd2P52Rympo/story01.htm
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How Many Horror Movie References Can You Spot On Bing's Homepage?

Bing's still the underdog in the search engine wars; remaining in perpetual second place to Google. And while it's doubtful that Microsoft will ever win the overall search engine war, today Bing totally wins the Halloween makeover battle with a homepage that pays homage to countless horror movies.