There?s another controversy over Mother Jones magazine, a secret tape, and a prominent Republican speaking in private. And like with its publication of Mitt Romney?s infamous ?47 percent? comments, Mother Jones will probably cite a Supreme Court decision in publishing the recording.
Senator Mitch McConnell
Senator Mitch McConnell
On Tuesday, Mother Jones published audio and a transcript of an 11-minute conversation in Louisville, Kentucky, on February 2, 2013. The muffled audio was allegedly made without the knowledge of the campaign committee members for Mitch McConnell, which met at their campaign headquarters to discuss tactics in the senator?s upcoming re-election bid.
McConnell was in the room as the staff discussed the perceived weaknesses of actress Ashley Judd, who at the time was considering a run as a Democrat against McConnell. The tape and the transcript indicated campaign staffers were considering attaching past mental health issues involving Judd, who is a three-time rape survivor.
Judd declined to run for office, and the chance never came for the tactics to be considered.
TheWashington Post?s Greg Sargent, a liberal columnist, said later on Tuesday that the tactics discussed weren?t unusual.
?They show the McConnell team debating the use of tactics that are nasty but not that unusual by oppo research standards,? he said.
Sargent also spoke with Mother Jones writer David Corn, who broke the McConnell tape story. If the name sounds familiar, it?s because he also published the Mitt Romney ?47 percent? video last fall.
Corn said Mother Jones asked for comment from McConnell?s Senate and campaign offices before releasing the audio, and the magazine?s lawyers approved the story.
The reaction from McConnell and his staff was swift.
?We?ve always said the Left will stop at nothing to attack Sen. McConnell, but Watergate-style tactics to bug campaign headquarters is above and beyond,? said McConnell campaign manager Jesse Benton.
McConnell accused the group Progress Kentucky of bugging his campaign office.
?As you know last month my wife?s ethnicity was attacked by a left-wing group in Kentucky and then apparently they also bugged my headquarters,? McConnell said. ?So I think that pretty much sums up the way the political left is operating in Kentucky.?
Politico reported on Tuesday that McConnell?s team has swept the room for a recording device and found nothing.
Mother Jones also issued a statement that indicated how it justified releasing the audio.
?As the story makes clear, we were recently provided the tape by a source who wished to remain anonymous. We were not involved in the making of the tape, but we published a story on the tape due to its obvious newsworthiness. It is our understanding that the tape was not the product of a Watergate-style bugging operation. We cannot comment beyond that,? the magazine said in a statement.
When Mother Jones faced the critics in the Romney case, some legal experts pointed to a 2001 Supreme Court ruling that could shield it from federal prosecution. In that case, the magazine also claimed it wasn?t involved in videotaping Romney at a private Florida presidential fundraiser.
The case of Bartnicki vs. Vopper established that the First Amendment protected a media organization publishing information obtained from illegal wiretapping, as long as the publisher wasn?t involved in the act and the information was of public interest.
Jeff Hermes, director of the Digital Media Law Project at Harvard, wrote extensively on the subject last September.
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?Regardless of whether the recording was illegal, Mother Jones is likely protected by the First Amendment. The legitimate public concern over comments made by a presidential candidate would override any interest in preventing Mother Jones from disseminating this information,? Hermes said about the Romney tape.
As the most powerful Republican member of the U.S. Senate, McConnell is also a public figure.
McConnell has asked the FBI to investigate the incident.
?Senator McConnell?s campaign is working with the FBI and has notified the local U.S. Attorney in Louisville, per FBI request, about these recordings,? said Benton. ?Obviously a recording device of some kind was placed in Senator McConnell?s campaign office without consent. By whom and how that was accomplished presumably will be the subject of a criminal investigation.?
Kentucky has its own laws regarding privacy. It is a one-party consent state, meaning that at least one person in the room needs to consent to the recording, even if it is the person hitting the button.
McConnell?s aides say about a half dozen close, long-time staffers were in the conference room at the time.
Scott Bomboy is the editor-in-chief of the National Constitution Center.
LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Apple CEO Tim Cook is still the number one most powerful member of the gay community, according to Out magazine's seventh annual "Power 50" list released on Wednesday.
The publication credits Steve Jobs' successor, who ranked number one in 2012, with successfully guiding the tech company through significant upgrades on all of the company's product lines. Under his leadership, the brand's market share increased a whopping 20 percent in the United States.
Daytime talk show queen Ellen DeGeneres once again follows in second place, with Anderson Cooper moving up from sixth to fifth place and newcomer Nate Silver - the famed New York Times statistician who predicted the 2012 Presidential Election with 100 percent accuracy - entering the gay and lesbian power ranking in sixth place.
"Glee" creator Ryan Murphy and MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow each moved up one slot from 2012's list, being placed third and fourth, respectively.
Frank Ocean, the R&B star who admitted he once had a romantic relationship with a man last year, landed the number 10 slot, while the first openly gay U.S. senator, Tammy Baldwin, followed at number nine.
Imagine you were a Jedi master called Bob (your parents, whilst skilled in the ways of the force weren't the best at choosing names). The love of your life?Princess Lucia?is trapped in a burning building as you hurry to save her.
You might think of Lucia as the embodiment of your dreams, your aspirations?she is your most important thing.
Unfortunately, before you can reach her an army of stormtroopers open fire. The incoming stream of lasers demand your attention?if you fail to dodge them, you're dead. You might think of them as an urgent distraction from saving your princess.
We all know how a hero resolves this dilemma. If he takes his eye off the ultimate goal?his princess?then all his other efforts are for nought. He can engage an army of stormtroopers, cutting them down with graceful ease, but their numbers are limitless, and whilst momentarily satisfying they only distract him. Delayed too long, his princess will die.
And so it is with your life. You have things that are most important and things that are most urgent in permanent competition:
The secret to mastering your time is to systematically focus on importance and suppress urgency. Humans are pre-wired to focus on things which demand an immediate response, like alerts on their phones?and to postpone things which are most important, like going to the gym. You need to reverse that, which goes against your brain and most of human society.
Look at what you spend your day doing. Most of it, I'll warrant, is not anything you chose?it's what is being asked of you. Here's how we fix that, young padawan:
Say no. Most of us follow an implicit social contract: when someone asks you to do something you almost always say yes. It may feel very noble, but don't forget there's a dying princess you need to save, and you just agreed to slow yourself down because you were asked nicely. You may need to sacrifice some social comfort to save a life (as a bonus, people tend to instinctively respect those who can say no).
Unplug the TV. I haven't had a TV signal for 7 years, which has given me about 12,376 hours more than the average American who indulges in 34 hours a week. I do watch some shows?usually one hour a day whilst eating dinner?but only ones I've chosen and bought. You can do a lot with 12,000 hours, and still keep up with Mad Men.
Kill notifications. Modern technology has evolved to exploit our urgency addiction: email, Facebook, Twitter, Quora and more will fight to distract you constantly. Fortunately, this is easily fixed: turn off all your notifications. Choose to check these things when you have time to be distracted?say, during a lunch break?and work through them together, saving time.
Schedule your priorities. Humans are such funny critters. If you have a friend to meet, you'll arrange to see them at a set time. But if you have something that matters to you more than anything?say writing a book, or going to the gym?you won't schedule it. You'll just ?get round to it'. Treat your highest priorities like flights you have to catch: give them a set time in advance and say no to anything that would stop you making your flight.
First things first. What is the single most important (not urgent) thing you could possibly be doing? Do some of that today. Remember there's a limitless number of distracting stormtroopers?don't fool yourself by thinking "if I just do this thing first then I can." Jedi don't live by excuses.
Less volume, more time. There's always millions of things you could be doing. The trick is to pick no more than 1-3 a day, and relentlessly pursue those. Your brain won't like this limit. Other people won't like this limit. Do it anyway. Focusing your all on one task at a time is infinitely more efficient than multi-tasking and gives you time to excel at your work.
Ignore. It's rude, unprofessional, and often utterly necessary. There are people you won't find time to reply to. There are requests you will allow yourself to forget. You can be slow to do things like tidy up, pay bills, or open mail. The world won't fall apart. The payoff is you get done what matters.
One final lesson from the Jedi: they're heroes.
Heroes inspire us for many reasons: they make tough decisions, they keep going and they get done what matters. But there's another reason we love our heroes. Inside us all, we know we have the power to become one ourselves.
How to master your time | Oliver Emberton
Oliver Emberton is an entrepreneur, author-in-training, challenge addict, dancer, pianist, programmer, artist, and general busy bee.
Chicago Blackhawks right wing Marian Hossa (81), of Slovakia, celebrates with teammates including Jonathan Toews (19) after scoring the winning goal during overtime of an NHL hockey game against the Edmonton Oilers, Monday, Feb. 25, 2013, in Chicago. The Blackhawks won 3-2. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)
Chicago Blackhawks right wing Marian Hossa (81), of Slovakia, celebrates with teammates including Jonathan Toews (19) after scoring the winning goal during overtime of an NHL hockey game against the Edmonton Oilers, Monday, Feb. 25, 2013, in Chicago. The Blackhawks won 3-2. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)
Chicago Blackhawks left wing Viktor Stalberg (25) stuff the puck in the net past Edmonton Oilers goalie Nikolai Khabibulin (35), of Russia, and Corey Potter for a goal during the third period of an NHL hockey game, Monday, Feb. 25, 2013, in Chicago. The Blackhawks won 3-2 in overtime. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)
Edmonton Oilers forward Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (93) is unable to get a rebound shot on Chicago Blackhawks goalie Ray Emery (30) during the first period of an NHL hockey game, Monday, Feb. 25, 2013, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)
Chicago Blackhawks center Patrick Sharp (10) battles Edmonton Oilers center Sam Gagner (89) for a loose puck during the first period of an NHL hockey game, Monday, Feb. 25, 2013, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)
Edmonton Oilers defenseman Jeff Petry (2) celebrates with center Lennart Petrell, of Finland, after his goal during the first period of an NHL hockey game against the Chicago Blackhawks, Monday, Feb. 25, 2013, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)
CHICAGO (AP) ? The streak is just a number now. The NHL record is in the rearview mirror, so each additional game just means another giddy opponent eager to stop the Chicago Blackhawks.
So far, the skaters in red and black have responded to each challenge.
"Without sounding arrogant, it's just business as usual," forward Patrick Sharp said.
Thing is, there's nothing routine about it. Certainly not after Chicago beat the Edmonton Oilers 3-2 in overtime on Monday night, stretching its opening points streak to 19 games.
The record went down days ago, when the Blackhawks beat San Jose 2-1 on Friday night to make it 17 in a row. Now the questions are how long can it go on, and which team will stop the streak.
The Oilers gave it a good run, but eventually succumbed to the waves of pressure from the Blackhawks.
"They are an amazingly powerful team," Edmonton coach Ralph Krueger said. "They are very strong on the puck and they never, never let up, at all."
Sharp set up the winning goal with a quick turn along the boards and a drive to the goal that led to two stops by Nikolai Khabibulin. Marian Hossa picked up the second rebound and was again stuffed by Khabibulin before he poked it in 1:44 into overtime for his ninth goal of the season.
"It is a great feeling, obviously," Hossa said. "It doesn't matter who's scoring and lately we have a lot of different guys scoring. We try to enjoy the streak, keep playing a simple game and try to find a way to win."
Patrick Kane and Viktor Stalberg also scored for Chicago (16-0-3), which has won six straight and nine of 10. Ray Emery made 17 saves to remain unbeaten in eight starts this season.
The Blackhawks have earned 35 of 38 possible points so far this season.
"It was a great third period," Chicago coach Joel Quenneville said. "We had the puck in overtime, too. Great pay by Sharpie going to the net; great patience and presence with Hossa to finish."
Nail Yakupov and Jeff Petry scored for Edmonton, which carried a 2-1 lead into the third period but couldn't hold on for what would have been its fourth consecutive victory over the Blackhawks. Khabibulin had 31 stops in the opener of the Oilers' franchise-record, nine-game road trip.
"Of course you feel pain, having the lead going into the third period," Krueger said. "It's definitely something you dream and believe you can close it."
Edmonton grabbed the lead for the last time in the second, taking advantage when Brandon Saad was sent off for high sticking. Yakupov, the No. 1 overall pick in last year's draft, one-timed a pass from Sam Gagner into the right side of the net at 14:17 for his fourth power-play goal and sixth overall.
Chicago looked listless for much of the second, but rebounded quickly in the third. Michal Rozsival was behind the net when he sent a pass in front to Stalberg, who poked the puck into the goal mouth as Khabibulin went to his knees to try for the stop.
The call on the ice was no goal, but replays showed the puck crossed the line before Khabibulin could make the play and Stalberg was awarded his fifth goal of the season after a short review.
The pace picked up after the tying goal, and each team had a couple of solid chances to move in front. Yakupov shot off the post on one power-play opportunity, and Khabibulin stopped Hossa on a short-handed chance.
"I think for us it would have been a big statement game if we were able to break the streak," Gagner said. "But at the same time, once we didn't do that, we wanted to find a way to get it in overtime and were unable to do that as well. So it was unfortunate we kind of squandered the lead there."
Edmonton moved in front in the first period after Duncan Keith lost his footing and coughed up the puck deep in Chicago's end. Lennart Petrell picked it up and skated in all alone on Emery, who stopped his backhand attempt. The rebound went out to Petry, who sent it over the prone goalie at 4:28.
Just over a minute later, Kane skated to the middle of the ice and beat Khabibulin with a slick backhander for his 10th goal of the season. It was his first goal since Feb. 10 at Nashville, ending a six-game drought.
"We keep finding ways to win," said Sharp, who picked up his 400th career point on the assist in overtime. "That's important at any time of the year. Those one-goal games, we're on the right side of them. We were thankful to pull it out today."
NOTES: Chicago closed out a 6-0-1 homestand. ... Edmonton F Taylor Hall served the second of a two-game suspension for his hit on Minnesota's Cal Clutterbuck on Thursday. ... Blackhawks C Dave Bolland missed his second straight game with an upper-body injury. Chicago also scratched D Sheldon Brookbank and LW Brandon Bollig for the second straight night. ... Ds Ryan Whitney and Theo Peckham were the other scratches for the Oilers. ... The Blackhawks improved to 10-0-3 in one-goal games.
___
Jay Cohen can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/jcohenap
Add a longtime friendship with Andy Strunk, who has Down Syndrome, to the list of reasons to love Jennifer Lawrence.
On Sunday night, Lawrence took the award for Best Actress for her role in Silver Linings Playbook, and as usual, charmed viewers through the night. HuffPost declared her the winner of the entire event.
Strunk, who is 23, has been friends with her since they were students at Kammerer Middle School.
"We are like best friends," Strunk told the Courier Journal. "She's kind... I think she has spirit."
In a YouTube video, Strunk and his mother talk about Lawrence, who lived in his neighborhood growing up. Several photos show them together.
In a more recent photo, Lawrence hugs Strunk at an unspecified red carpet event. These days, Strunk follows her career, fashion and dating life, and she often sends him gifts in return.
Recently, he received an autographed Silver Linings Playbook poster. According to Wave, Strunk keeps a collection of memorabilia featuring the star in his bedroom.
Naturally, he couldn't wait to see her in the Academy Awards ceremony, for which he dressed up in a tuxedo.
"It's the best night of my life," Strunk told the Courier Journal.
Since Pope Benedict XVI announced his resignation the Italian media has speculated there could be more to the story, and has written unflattering stories about the Vatican's administration. On Saturday, the Vatican accused the Italian media of spreading false reports.
By Philip Pullella,?Reuters / February 23, 2013
Pope Benedict XVI, (r.), delivers his message concluding a weeklong spiritual retreat, at the Vatican, Saturday. On Saturday, the Vatican called reports by the Italian media speculating on conspiracies and secret lobbies said to have pushed the Pope to abdicate, 'false and damaging.'
L'Osservatore Romano/AP
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The?Vatican?on Saturday accused the Italian media of spreading "false and damaging" reports in what it condemned as a deplorable attempt to influence cardinals who will meet in a secret conclave next month to elect a new pope.
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Since Pope Benedict announced his resignation on Feb. 11, Italian newspapers have been full of rumours about conspiracies, secret reports and lobbies in the?Vatican?that they say pushed the pope to abdicate.
"It is deplorable that, as we draw closer to the time of the beginning of the conclave ... that there be a widespread distribution of often unverified, unverifiable or completely false news stories that cause serious damage to persons and institutions," a?Vatican?statement said.
The Italian reports have painted an unflattering picture of the?Vatican's central administration, known as the Curia, depicting it as being full of prelates more concerned with their careers than serving the Church or the pope.
Some Church officials, speaking privately, have said foreign cardinals coming to?Rome?to choose the next pope have been alarmed over reports of corruption and might be inclined to elect someone not connected with the Curia, which is predominantly Italian.
The?Vatican?statement said the Italian media reports were an attempt to influence the outcome of the conclave through negative public opinion much like states and kings tried to influence papal elections centuries ago.
The pope has announced that he will step down on Feb. 28, becoming the first pontiff to abdicate in some six centuries.
The 85-year-old Benedict said his failing health no longer enabled him to run the 1.2-billion-member?Roman Catholic Church?as he would like.
DISCREDITING THE CHURCH
In a separate statement, Father?Federico Lombardi, the?Vatican?spokesman, said the reports were trying to "discredit the Church and its government" ahead of the conclave.
Italy's Repubblica newspaper ran a series of unsourced stories this week about the alleged contents of a secret report prepared for the pope by a commission of three cardinals who investigated the so-called Vatileaks scandal last year.
Samsung girds for life after Apple | SouthCoastToday.com
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A man uses a Samsung Electronics Co. Galaxy S III smartphone to record a video outside the Apple Inc. store on George Street in Sydney, Australia, last September. The end may be nigh in the relationship between Samsung and Apple.
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SEOUL, South Korea ? Samsung Electronics' reclusive chairman has long warned employees against complacency and obsolescence.
"Change everything except your wife and kids," Lee Kun-hee told them in 1993, charting a course that would turn a $2 billion maker of cheap TVs into the $200 billion giant it is today. Two decades on, his message remains the same: "Forget about the past and start anew," Lee exhorted employees in his New Year's address on Jan. 2. "We must search out new businesses that Samsung's survival depends on."
That commitment to disruption has served Lee well. Samsung's pioneering of flat-screen TVs crippled Tokyo-based Sony and Sharp. Its relentless focus on chips helped bankrupt Elpida Memory Inc. Nokia's 14-year dominance in phones fell last year. With Samsung now preparing to shed Apple as a customer as their rivalry intensifies, the Korean company's smartphones are already outselling the iPhone and its share of the market for tablet computers has doubled in a year.
The Cupertino, Calif.-based maker of iPhones and iPads is already taking steps to distance itself from Samsung, according to a person familiar with Apple's thinking, who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the subject matter. Rivalry in smartphones and tablets, and lawsuits in which both insist the other is stealing ideas, are undermining the relationship, the person said.
Samsung has zoomed past Apple in the smartphone market that the U.S. company pioneered. Samsung's market share rose to 30.4 percent last year from 19.9 percent, while Apple's remained at about 19 percent, according to Strategy Analytics.
In tablet computers, the market Apple created with the iPad, Samsung doubled its market share in the fourth quarter, to 15 percent from 7.3 percent a year earlier, according to IDC. Apple's lead dipped to 44 percent from 52 percent.
Apple's purchases of chips, screens and other components now account for about 3 percent of Samsung's earnings per share, roughly half the level at the beginning of last year, said Marc C. Newman, whose team of Sanford C. Bernstein analysts published a 211-page study of the Korean company in September.
While Samsung is searching out new customers, Apple has expanded its list of suppliers, according to a statement from Apple as well as so-called tear-down reports in which analysts take gadgets apart to identify parts. Samsung's reliance on Google's Android operating system and more recent adoption of Microsoft's wireless software also strengthens its ties with Apple's two biggest U.S. rivals.
"Samsung is trying to get ready for a possible breakup with Apple," said Lee Jin-woo, who holds the South Korean company's stock in the $6.6 billion he helps oversee as a senior fund manager at KTB Asset Management in Seoul. "Samsung will make another big push into tablets, its multiple products driving sales of components and making up for any losses from Apple."
The struggle between the two will gauge not just their ability to reap the biggest gains from more than $400 billion in global sales of handheld wireless devices, it also tests two contrasting business models.
Where Apple is defined by a handful of products, Samsung sprawls across industries; where Apple outsources its manufacturing, Samsung's mastery of industrial processes is its biggest strength; where Apple seeks markets for its designs, Samsung designs for the market.
Disentangling from the relationship with Samsung will take time, said Newman, a senior analyst at Sanford in Hong Kong.
Apple needs Samsung's processors to avoid shortages of iPhone and iPads. Alternative suppliers such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. aren't able to meet demand and Samsung is withholding investment in new capacity.
"It may take a few more years before they're entirely separated from Samsung because it's a severe lock-in, extremely complicated," Newman said. "Samsung is a phenomenal manufacturer and even TSMC, which is also a phenomenal manufacturer, is going to have a lot of trouble to ramp up."
Innolux and AU Optronics, Taiwan's largest makers of liquid-crystal displays, were named among the iPhone maker's suppliers last month, according to an Apple statement.
Samsung's processor sales will continue to rise along with Apple's revenue this year at least, and in the meantime the Korean company is supplying more parts for its own phones and tablets as well as finding new customers, Newman said.
"Samsung makes the best-quality parts, and if Apple rules out Samsung, they have to make a compromise," said Baik Jae-yer, a fund manager at Korea Investment Trust, which holds a 2.7 percent stake in Samsung.
Jason Kim, a Samsung spokesman, declined to discuss any changes in the relationship with Apple.
Weaning Samsung away from its relationship with Apple is a task that will increasingly fall to Lee Jae-yong, the 44-year- old grandson of the company's founder. Lee, also known as J.Y. Lee, was named vice chairman in December, the clearest signal yet on the succession for his 71-year-old father. Educated at Seoul National University, Keio University in Japan and Harvard Business School, he has helped run the components business, which provides parts for Sony, Hewlett-Packard, Amazon.com, Google and Dell, as well as Apple.
The younger Lee "has worked hard over the past 10 years and can have actual influence now," said Lim Hyung-kyu, who ran Samsung's chips, research and new business divisions in a 33- year career beginning in 1976 and remains an adviser to the company. In any event, Samsung has grown to the point it's no longer reliant on any one person: "There's no one giving orders in Samsung. Even the chairman doesn't give orders ? just broad guidelines."
Full-year net income may reach 30 trillion won ($27.4 billion) this year, according to the average estimate of 44 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. That's a 142-fold increase from 1993, and would make Samsung the world's sixth-most profitable company, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
Samsung last month reported net income for the fourth quarter jumped 76 percent, more than analysts had forecast. The company's shares fell 6 percent in the following two days after it said smartphone sales may slow as developed countries are saturated and cheaper Chinese manufacturers crowd out the bottom of the market.
The phone division now accounts for almost 70 percent of Samsung's operating profit. The company is also pushing forward on parts. On Jan. 10, it unveiled a new, faster processor ? chips that make other components work together. Samsung is focusing on integrated processors, memory chips and display screens to capture more of a smartphone and tablet market forecast to reach $416 billion this year.
"The only company that has logic, memory and display is Samsung," Woo Nam-sung, head of System LSI, the division making the Apple processors, said at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last month.
The company also said it was targeting a 50 percent jump in sales of home appliances such as fridges and washing machines over three years. Samsung's 43 percent hold over the global market for DRAM (dynamic random access memory) memory chips may also cease to be a drag as prices rebound this year, Sanford C. Bernstein said. A gauge of DRAM chip prices has jumped 24 percent this year.
"We love Samsung," said Olaf Rogge, London-based chief executive officer at Rogge Global Partners, which manages about $50 billion in bonds. They're "very well diversified. It's not Apple. Remember, one day, a company like Apple will go ex-growth. One day, everybody has this iPhone 4 or 5."
That day may be arriving. As Samsung's fortunes waxed, Apple's have waned.
Even though 51 out of 64 analysts recommend buying Apple's stock, with full-year earnings forecast to hit $46 billion, the most for any company, investors have dumped the shares. Since peaking in September, about $240 billion has been wiped from Apple's market value as it failed to keep pace with customer demand and on increased competition from rival operating systems ? particularly Google's Android.
Unlike Apple, Samsung isn't locked into any system ? including its own. That gives the Korean company insurance against missteps by Google and time to keep working at its own software designs.
"If they can be better at making software, of course, it'd be great, but it's like expecting one company to be able to control everything," said Baik. "Samsung relies on Google a lot now, but they can also build a relationship with Microsoft."
Google and Microsoft are also among companies entering the top end of the smart-device market, while faster growth in the middle of the range, where Apple hasn't been competing, has eroded its share.
A cheaper iPhone may be added to the iPad Mini Apple brought out last year, a person familiar with the plans told Bloomberg News last month. Apple CEO Tim Cook already reversed a vow by late founder Steve Jobs that the company wouldn't introduce a scaled-back and cut-price version of the iPad. By positioning the company at the peak of design, quality and price, Apple may have limited options to expand.
"We can only do a few things great," Cook said in an interview in December. "That's a part of our base principle: that we will only do a few things. And we'll only do things where we can make a significant contribution."
Samsung didn't seem so well-placed when the elder Lee inherited the family business in 1987. The company was four years into a gamble by his father and Samsung founder Lee Byung-chul to develop DRAM. The U.S. pioneers of the industry had just been overwhelmed with relentless investment in plant and technology by Hitachi Ltd., Toshiba Corp. and NEC Corp.
Lee was "betting the company's future," recalled Lim. "It was Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday-Friday- Friday," he said. "We worked seven days a week, 14 hours a day."
Not only did Samsung survive, it became the biggest DRAM maker in less than 10 years and developed a taste for market domination: "We wanted to be number one in all our businesses," Lim said.
TVs were next: three-and-a-half decades after shipping its first black and white sets to Panama, Samsung passed Sony in 2005, and was growling at the heels of Helsinki-based Nokia in telephones.
And then came the iPhone. Apple's 2007 foray into smartphones made the once near-bankrupt maker of desktop and laptop computers an overnight threat in several new markets.
BlackBerry shares have slumped more than 80 percent as bankers ditched their once-totemic handsets; gamers shunned consoles, sending Super Mario creator Nintendo to a first annual loss last year; and demand for Microsoft's software was crushed in the stampede for Apple's integrated, connected and portable devices.
While Apple's phone was a boon for Samsung's components business, the device was a disaster for the company's mobile phones. Within two years, Apple was selling four times as many smartphones as Samsung.
The gulf between the iPhone and latest Samsung was a "crisis of design," managers at the Korean company's mobile division wrote in a February 2010 internal memo used by Apple at last year's trial. "Do you know how difficult the Omnia is to use?" the memo said. "It's better to not make anything at all than to make it in a laughable way."
Just four months later, Samsung released a new smartphone that a California jury in August last year ruled was too much like the iPhone, landing a $1 billion fine and possible import ban for infringing Apple patents. The companies returned to court Dec. 6: Apple seeking to broaden the judgment to cover more models; Samsung to have the case thrown out.
"What we would like, in a perfect world, is for everyone to invent their own stuff," Cook said in the interview.
Samsung Electronics has struggled to shake off the copycat tag that has dogged it since its foundation in 1969, when engineers ripped apart Sony TVs to learn how they were made. And while Samsung made the world's first MP3 phone in 1999, and followed that a year later with the first camera handset, it has remained an innovator of gadgets and industrial processes.
"They aren't the kind of company that makes products no one else can mimic," said Lim, the veteran. "Samsung has been making small, incremental improvements, but haven't been as successful with radical, big changes. But they're getting close."
About six miles from Apple's 1 Infinite Loop home, and a five-minute stroll from Google's sprawling campus in Mountain View, Samsung is building a 385,000-square foot (36,000-square meter) complex. When finished, it will house engineers to design mobile software, the company announced Sept. 19.
"We've seen their investment in software really spike," said Amit Pandey, CEO of Redwood City-based Zenprise Inc., which designs software to manage employees' mobile devices and works with Samsung.
Luring the best talent away from freewheeling West Coast startups or market leaders like Google may prove tricky in an industry where demand for skilled workers allows the picky to be pickier still.
"Mobile is super-hot. It's very easy to find work,'" said Leah Culver, a San Francisco-based software developer for Apple's iOS operating system and Android, used by Samsung. "I'd care more about what particular product I am working on."
Samsung represents a stepping stone on a career path, said Dave Howell, CEO of Avatron Software in Portland, Oregon. "I don't think of working for Samsung as a lifestyle, I think of it as a job," he said. "People go to Apple to retire."
That's not how it is back in South Korea, where the company is the most sought-after employer, according to a survey last year by SaraminHR, an online job-site operator.
About an hour's drive southeast of Seoul is Samsung's headquarters at Suwon, once a sprawling industrial complex churning out TVs and other household appliances. Factories have made way for pizzerias and ice-cream parlors, basketball courts and soccer pitches.
A 30-story center under construction will house 10,000 people working on networks and telecommunications, one of five new R&D units to open by 2015 at a cost of more than $3.6 billion. An industrial complex for new businesses ? part of a $20 billion search for the next drivers of growth ? will open in three years, and employ about 30,000 people. Samsung plows about 6 percent of revenue back into R&D, more than three times the rate at Apple, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Globally, Samsung has more than 55,000 engineers and other researchers ? about a quarter of its workforce ? looking at robotics and semiconductors, or seeking new applications for advanced materials that may yield game-changing advances from batteries to medical scanners and displays. Apple's total headcount was 72,800, according to its latest annual report.
The South Korean company was granted 5,081 patents in the U.S. last year, the most after IBM Corp., a Jan. 10 report by IFI Claims Patent Services shows.
"Samsung in its back pocket has got an increasingly relevant portfolio of patents," Vlad Cara, a London-based analyst at Pacific Investment Management Co., said by email.
As their legal fight spills across the globe, some decisions are going against Apple: a Dutch court Jan. 16 ruled Samsung's Galaxy Tab products didn't infringe Apple's design rights. Apple last month lost a U.S. appeal to block sales of Samsung devices pending the result of its patent-infringement case. The U.S. company itself is fighting suits from Samsung, as well as other phone and software providers.
"Everybody's talking about the patent war," said Pruksa Iamthongthong, who holds Samsung preference shares at Aberdeen Asset Management in Singapore. "It's a game all these players are playing, and it'll continue to be there," she said. "It'll just speed up the product life cycle."
The aggressive legal tactics of Apple, Samsung and other technology companies reflect the need to monetize intellectual property before the erosive effects of emulation. History is littered with examples of innovators who failed to keep hold of their first-mover advantage, according to Anil Gupta and Haiyan Wang, authors of "The Quest for Global Dominance."
While the Altair computer is regarded as the spark behind the personal computer industry, Jobs and fellow Apple founder Steve Wozniak took over the market just two years later when they began producing the first Macintosh PCs, the authors noted in a March article on the website of Paris-based Insead business school. By the early 1980s, IBM was the dominant player in an industry crowded with rivals that drove Apple close to failure by 1997.
Apple was "lucky enough to seize the moment of change successfully," said C.W. Chung, a Seoul-based analyst at Nomura Holdings Inc. in Seoul. As for Samsung: "They haven't run their course, and they're still evolving."
One of J.Y. Lee's biggest challenges will be picking those businesses he wants to remain in. His father's success coincided with the decline of Japan Inc. Japanese chipmakers failed to react as Samsung began to outspend them, turning a $1 billion capital expenditure gap with nearest rival Hitachi in 2004 into a $15 billion chasm last year.
The scale of investment Samsung needs to stay in front of competition means it risks getting caught on the wrong side of the market. It also means the company has to keep expanding to offset the cost of depreciating fixed assets, said Kota Ezawa, an analyst at Citigroup Inc. in Tokyo.
All the time, hungrier rivals are eyeing Samsung's patch ? and business model.
Huawei Technologies Co., the world's biggest seller of communications networks, is unveiling more phones and tablets. Based in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, Huawei was the sixth-biggest phone manufacturer in the world during the quarter ended Sept. 30, according to Bloomberg Industries data.
ZTE Corp., also Shenzhen based, is already the fourth- biggest phone manufacturer. Then there's Lenovo Group Ltd., poised to become the world's biggest computer manufacturer, surpassing Hewlett-Packard Co. Lenovo, the maker of Thinkpad laptops, is bringing out phones, tablets and TVs.
"Long term, they will become a bigger threat," said Edwin Merner, president of Atlantis Investment Research Corp. in Tokyo, which manages $300 million in assets. "So you have to keep running very fast."
Yang reported from Hong Kong, Krishnamoorthy from Singapore. Contributors: Olga Kharif in Portland, Aaron Ricadela in San Francisco and Ben Richardson in Hong Kong.
We reserve the right to remove any content at any time from this Community, including without limitation if it violates the Community Rules. We ask that you report content that you in good faith believe violates the above rules by clicking the Flag link next to the offending comment or fill out this form. New comments are only accepted for two weeks from the date of publication. Not sure how to add your comment? Here's howSamsung girds for life after Apple | SouthCoastToday.com
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A man uses a Samsung Electronics Co. Galaxy S III smartphone to record a video outside the Apple Inc. store on George Street in Sydney, Australia, last September. The end may be nigh in the relationship between Samsung and Apple.
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SEOUL, South Korea ? Samsung Electronics' reclusive chairman has long warned employees against complacency and obsolescence.
"Change everything except your wife and kids," Lee Kun-hee told them in 1993, charting a course that would turn a $2 billion maker of cheap TVs into the $200 billion giant it is today. Two decades on, his message remains the same: "Forget about the past and start anew," Lee exhorted employees in his New Year's address on Jan. 2. "We must search out new businesses that Samsung's survival depends on."
That commitment to disruption has served Lee well. Samsung's pioneering of flat-screen TVs crippled Tokyo-based Sony and Sharp. Its relentless focus on chips helped bankrupt Elpida Memory Inc. Nokia's 14-year dominance in phones fell last year. With Samsung now preparing to shed Apple as a customer as their rivalry intensifies, the Korean company's smartphones are already outselling the iPhone and its share of the market for tablet computers has doubled in a year.
The Cupertino, Calif.-based maker of iPhones and iPads is already taking steps to distance itself from Samsung, according to a person familiar with Apple's thinking, who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the subject matter. Rivalry in smartphones and tablets, and lawsuits in which both insist the other is stealing ideas, are undermining the relationship, the person said.
Samsung has zoomed past Apple in the smartphone market that the U.S. company pioneered. Samsung's market share rose to 30.4 percent last year from 19.9 percent, while Apple's remained at about 19 percent, according to Strategy Analytics.
In tablet computers, the market Apple created with the iPad, Samsung doubled its market share in the fourth quarter, to 15 percent from 7.3 percent a year earlier, according to IDC. Apple's lead dipped to 44 percent from 52 percent.
Apple's purchases of chips, screens and other components now account for about 3 percent of Samsung's earnings per share, roughly half the level at the beginning of last year, said Marc C. Newman, whose team of Sanford C. Bernstein analysts published a 211-page study of the Korean company in September.
While Samsung is searching out new customers, Apple has expanded its list of suppliers, according to a statement from Apple as well as so-called tear-down reports in which analysts take gadgets apart to identify parts. Samsung's reliance on Google's Android operating system and more recent adoption of Microsoft's wireless software also strengthens its ties with Apple's two biggest U.S. rivals.
"Samsung is trying to get ready for a possible breakup with Apple," said Lee Jin-woo, who holds the South Korean company's stock in the $6.6 billion he helps oversee as a senior fund manager at KTB Asset Management in Seoul. "Samsung will make another big push into tablets, its multiple products driving sales of components and making up for any losses from Apple."
The struggle between the two will gauge not just their ability to reap the biggest gains from more than $400 billion in global sales of handheld wireless devices, it also tests two contrasting business models.
Where Apple is defined by a handful of products, Samsung sprawls across industries; where Apple outsources its manufacturing, Samsung's mastery of industrial processes is its biggest strength; where Apple seeks markets for its designs, Samsung designs for the market.
Disentangling from the relationship with Samsung will take time, said Newman, a senior analyst at Sanford in Hong Kong.
Apple needs Samsung's processors to avoid shortages of iPhone and iPads. Alternative suppliers such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. aren't able to meet demand and Samsung is withholding investment in new capacity.
"It may take a few more years before they're entirely separated from Samsung because it's a severe lock-in, extremely complicated," Newman said. "Samsung is a phenomenal manufacturer and even TSMC, which is also a phenomenal manufacturer, is going to have a lot of trouble to ramp up."
Innolux and AU Optronics, Taiwan's largest makers of liquid-crystal displays, were named among the iPhone maker's suppliers last month, according to an Apple statement.
Samsung's processor sales will continue to rise along with Apple's revenue this year at least, and in the meantime the Korean company is supplying more parts for its own phones and tablets as well as finding new customers, Newman said.
"Samsung makes the best-quality parts, and if Apple rules out Samsung, they have to make a compromise," said Baik Jae-yer, a fund manager at Korea Investment Trust, which holds a 2.7 percent stake in Samsung.
Jason Kim, a Samsung spokesman, declined to discuss any changes in the relationship with Apple.
Weaning Samsung away from its relationship with Apple is a task that will increasingly fall to Lee Jae-yong, the 44-year- old grandson of the company's founder. Lee, also known as J.Y. Lee, was named vice chairman in December, the clearest signal yet on the succession for his 71-year-old father. Educated at Seoul National University, Keio University in Japan and Harvard Business School, he has helped run the components business, which provides parts for Sony, Hewlett-Packard, Amazon.com, Google and Dell, as well as Apple.
The younger Lee "has worked hard over the past 10 years and can have actual influence now," said Lim Hyung-kyu, who ran Samsung's chips, research and new business divisions in a 33- year career beginning in 1976 and remains an adviser to the company. In any event, Samsung has grown to the point it's no longer reliant on any one person: "There's no one giving orders in Samsung. Even the chairman doesn't give orders ? just broad guidelines."
Full-year net income may reach 30 trillion won ($27.4 billion) this year, according to the average estimate of 44 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. That's a 142-fold increase from 1993, and would make Samsung the world's sixth-most profitable company, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
Samsung last month reported net income for the fourth quarter jumped 76 percent, more than analysts had forecast. The company's shares fell 6 percent in the following two days after it said smartphone sales may slow as developed countries are saturated and cheaper Chinese manufacturers crowd out the bottom of the market.
The phone division now accounts for almost 70 percent of Samsung's operating profit. The company is also pushing forward on parts. On Jan. 10, it unveiled a new, faster processor ? chips that make other components work together. Samsung is focusing on integrated processors, memory chips and display screens to capture more of a smartphone and tablet market forecast to reach $416 billion this year.
"The only company that has logic, memory and display is Samsung," Woo Nam-sung, head of System LSI, the division making the Apple processors, said at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last month.
The company also said it was targeting a 50 percent jump in sales of home appliances such as fridges and washing machines over three years. Samsung's 43 percent hold over the global market for DRAM (dynamic random access memory) memory chips may also cease to be a drag as prices rebound this year, Sanford C. Bernstein said. A gauge of DRAM chip prices has jumped 24 percent this year.
"We love Samsung," said Olaf Rogge, London-based chief executive officer at Rogge Global Partners, which manages about $50 billion in bonds. They're "very well diversified. It's not Apple. Remember, one day, a company like Apple will go ex-growth. One day, everybody has this iPhone 4 or 5."
That day may be arriving. As Samsung's fortunes waxed, Apple's have waned.
Even though 51 out of 64 analysts recommend buying Apple's stock, with full-year earnings forecast to hit $46 billion, the most for any company, investors have dumped the shares. Since peaking in September, about $240 billion has been wiped from Apple's market value as it failed to keep pace with customer demand and on increased competition from rival operating systems ? particularly Google's Android.
Unlike Apple, Samsung isn't locked into any system ? including its own. That gives the Korean company insurance against missteps by Google and time to keep working at its own software designs.
"If they can be better at making software, of course, it'd be great, but it's like expecting one company to be able to control everything," said Baik. "Samsung relies on Google a lot now, but they can also build a relationship with Microsoft."
Google and Microsoft are also among companies entering the top end of the smart-device market, while faster growth in the middle of the range, where Apple hasn't been competing, has eroded its share.
A cheaper iPhone may be added to the iPad Mini Apple brought out last year, a person familiar with the plans told Bloomberg News last month. Apple CEO Tim Cook already reversed a vow by late founder Steve Jobs that the company wouldn't introduce a scaled-back and cut-price version of the iPad. By positioning the company at the peak of design, quality and price, Apple may have limited options to expand.
"We can only do a few things great," Cook said in an interview in December. "That's a part of our base principle: that we will only do a few things. And we'll only do things where we can make a significant contribution."
Samsung didn't seem so well-placed when the elder Lee inherited the family business in 1987. The company was four years into a gamble by his father and Samsung founder Lee Byung-chul to develop DRAM. The U.S. pioneers of the industry had just been overwhelmed with relentless investment in plant and technology by Hitachi Ltd., Toshiba Corp. and NEC Corp.
Lee was "betting the company's future," recalled Lim. "It was Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday-Friday- Friday," he said. "We worked seven days a week, 14 hours a day."
Not only did Samsung survive, it became the biggest DRAM maker in less than 10 years and developed a taste for market domination: "We wanted to be number one in all our businesses," Lim said.
TVs were next: three-and-a-half decades after shipping its first black and white sets to Panama, Samsung passed Sony in 2005, and was growling at the heels of Helsinki-based Nokia in telephones.
And then came the iPhone. Apple's 2007 foray into smartphones made the once near-bankrupt maker of desktop and laptop computers an overnight threat in several new markets.
BlackBerry shares have slumped more than 80 percent as bankers ditched their once-totemic handsets; gamers shunned consoles, sending Super Mario creator Nintendo to a first annual loss last year; and demand for Microsoft's software was crushed in the stampede for Apple's integrated, connected and portable devices.
While Apple's phone was a boon for Samsung's components business, the device was a disaster for the company's mobile phones. Within two years, Apple was selling four times as many smartphones as Samsung.
The gulf between the iPhone and latest Samsung was a "crisis of design," managers at the Korean company's mobile division wrote in a February 2010 internal memo used by Apple at last year's trial. "Do you know how difficult the Omnia is to use?" the memo said. "It's better to not make anything at all than to make it in a laughable way."
Just four months later, Samsung released a new smartphone that a California jury in August last year ruled was too much like the iPhone, landing a $1 billion fine and possible import ban for infringing Apple patents. The companies returned to court Dec. 6: Apple seeking to broaden the judgment to cover more models; Samsung to have the case thrown out.
"What we would like, in a perfect world, is for everyone to invent their own stuff," Cook said in the interview.
Samsung Electronics has struggled to shake off the copycat tag that has dogged it since its foundation in 1969, when engineers ripped apart Sony TVs to learn how they were made. And while Samsung made the world's first MP3 phone in 1999, and followed that a year later with the first camera handset, it has remained an innovator of gadgets and industrial processes.
"They aren't the kind of company that makes products no one else can mimic," said Lim, the veteran. "Samsung has been making small, incremental improvements, but haven't been as successful with radical, big changes. But they're getting close."
About six miles from Apple's 1 Infinite Loop home, and a five-minute stroll from Google's sprawling campus in Mountain View, Samsung is building a 385,000-square foot (36,000-square meter) complex. When finished, it will house engineers to design mobile software, the company announced Sept. 19.
"We've seen their investment in software really spike," said Amit Pandey, CEO of Redwood City-based Zenprise Inc., which designs software to manage employees' mobile devices and works with Samsung.
Luring the best talent away from freewheeling West Coast startups or market leaders like Google may prove tricky in an industry where demand for skilled workers allows the picky to be pickier still.
"Mobile is super-hot. It's very easy to find work,'" said Leah Culver, a San Francisco-based software developer for Apple's iOS operating system and Android, used by Samsung. "I'd care more about what particular product I am working on."
Samsung represents a stepping stone on a career path, said Dave Howell, CEO of Avatron Software in Portland, Oregon. "I don't think of working for Samsung as a lifestyle, I think of it as a job," he said. "People go to Apple to retire."
That's not how it is back in South Korea, where the company is the most sought-after employer, according to a survey last year by SaraminHR, an online job-site operator.
About an hour's drive southeast of Seoul is Samsung's headquarters at Suwon, once a sprawling industrial complex churning out TVs and other household appliances. Factories have made way for pizzerias and ice-cream parlors, basketball courts and soccer pitches.
A 30-story center under construction will house 10,000 people working on networks and telecommunications, one of five new R&D units to open by 2015 at a cost of more than $3.6 billion. An industrial complex for new businesses ? part of a $20 billion search for the next drivers of growth ? will open in three years, and employ about 30,000 people. Samsung plows about 6 percent of revenue back into R&D, more than three times the rate at Apple, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Globally, Samsung has more than 55,000 engineers and other researchers ? about a quarter of its workforce ? looking at robotics and semiconductors, or seeking new applications for advanced materials that may yield game-changing advances from batteries to medical scanners and displays. Apple's total headcount was 72,800, according to its latest annual report.
The South Korean company was granted 5,081 patents in the U.S. last year, the most after IBM Corp., a Jan. 10 report by IFI Claims Patent Services shows.
"Samsung in its back pocket has got an increasingly relevant portfolio of patents," Vlad Cara, a London-based analyst at Pacific Investment Management Co., said by email.
As their legal fight spills across the globe, some decisions are going against Apple: a Dutch court Jan. 16 ruled Samsung's Galaxy Tab products didn't infringe Apple's design rights. Apple last month lost a U.S. appeal to block sales of Samsung devices pending the result of its patent-infringement case. The U.S. company itself is fighting suits from Samsung, as well as other phone and software providers.
"Everybody's talking about the patent war," said Pruksa Iamthongthong, who holds Samsung preference shares at Aberdeen Asset Management in Singapore. "It's a game all these players are playing, and it'll continue to be there," she said. "It'll just speed up the product life cycle."
The aggressive legal tactics of Apple, Samsung and other technology companies reflect the need to monetize intellectual property before the erosive effects of emulation. History is littered with examples of innovators who failed to keep hold of their first-mover advantage, according to Anil Gupta and Haiyan Wang, authors of "The Quest for Global Dominance."
While the Altair computer is regarded as the spark behind the personal computer industry, Jobs and fellow Apple founder Steve Wozniak took over the market just two years later when they began producing the first Macintosh PCs, the authors noted in a March article on the website of Paris-based Insead business school. By the early 1980s, IBM was the dominant player in an industry crowded with rivals that drove Apple close to failure by 1997.
Apple was "lucky enough to seize the moment of change successfully," said C.W. Chung, a Seoul-based analyst at Nomura Holdings Inc. in Seoul. As for Samsung: "They haven't run their course, and they're still evolving."
One of J.Y. Lee's biggest challenges will be picking those businesses he wants to remain in. His father's success coincided with the decline of Japan Inc. Japanese chipmakers failed to react as Samsung began to outspend them, turning a $1 billion capital expenditure gap with nearest rival Hitachi in 2004 into a $15 billion chasm last year.
The scale of investment Samsung needs to stay in front of competition means it risks getting caught on the wrong side of the market. It also means the company has to keep expanding to offset the cost of depreciating fixed assets, said Kota Ezawa, an analyst at Citigroup Inc. in Tokyo.
All the time, hungrier rivals are eyeing Samsung's patch ? and business model.
Huawei Technologies Co., the world's biggest seller of communications networks, is unveiling more phones and tablets. Based in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, Huawei was the sixth-biggest phone manufacturer in the world during the quarter ended Sept. 30, according to Bloomberg Industries data.
ZTE Corp., also Shenzhen based, is already the fourth- biggest phone manufacturer. Then there's Lenovo Group Ltd., poised to become the world's biggest computer manufacturer, surpassing Hewlett-Packard Co. Lenovo, the maker of Thinkpad laptops, is bringing out phones, tablets and TVs.
"Long term, they will become a bigger threat," said Edwin Merner, president of Atlantis Investment Research Corp. in Tokyo, which manages $300 million in assets. "So you have to keep running very fast."
Yang reported from Hong Kong, Krishnamoorthy from Singapore. Contributors: Olga Kharif in Portland, Aaron Ricadela in San Francisco and Ben Richardson in Hong Kong.
We reserve the right to remove any content at any time from this Community, including without limitation if it violates the Community Rules. We ask that you report content that you in good faith believe violates the above rules by clicking the Flag link next to the offending comment or fill out this form. New comments are only accepted for two weeks from the date of publication. Not sure how to add your comment? Here's how
If you didn't get enough mobile news during the week, not to worry, because we've opened the firehose for the truly hardcore. This week brought confirmation of Pantech's next phone for Verizon, legal battles over the airwaves in India and a new smartphone to Virgin Mobile. These stories and more await after the break. So buy the ticket and take the ride as we explore the "best of the rest" for this week of February 18th, 2013.
PAJANIMALS are starting the New Year with a plethora of new and exciting entertainment and activities, including a brand NEW DVD, ?Pajanimals Playdate,? and an assortment of NEW FREE PAJANIMALS-themed Valentine?s Day e-cards for download, just in time to send to someone special!
The PAJANIMALS?Cowbella, Apollo, Sweetpea Sue and Squacky?have quickly become popular with children and parents alike! Their own television series airs nightly on 24-hour preschool television channel Sprout(R) during its The Good Night Show and also airs on NBC on Saturday mornings as part of the NBC Kids programming block.
PAJANIMALS, co-produced by The Jim Henson Company, Sprout and Sixteen South Television, follows this adorable quartet as they take young viewers on exciting imaginary adventures. With music and new friends in every story, PAJANIMALS teaches the skills that preschoolers need to move through their days successfully, especially getting ready for and going to bed.
In ?Pajanimals Playdate,? the Pajanimals love to play games, sing songs and go on great adventures to meet new friends. Each story resolves a challenge typically encountered during every preschooler?s day. Through their imaginary journeys, these friends discover fun ways to learn daily life lessons. Snuggle up with the Pajanimals for a magical adventure and play date that encourages a bedtime routine!
February is the month of love with Valentine?s Day (February 14), Celebration of Love Week (February 10 ? 16) and Love Your Pet Day (February 20), and Pajanimals want to help you celebrate by offering new FREE PAJANIMALS-themed Valentine?s Day printable cards available now at http://www.sproutonline.com/printables/pajanimals-printable-valentines-day-cards
PAJANIMALS fans can also access a number of fun and FREE age appropriate activities and games on the Sprout website, http://www.sproutonline.com/shows/pajanimals. Additionally, The PAJANIMALS App, an interactive adaptation of the episode ?Light in the Sky,? lets children join in the fun with their favorite Pajanimals characters. Filled with engaging activities that play off of the theme of the episode, as well as charming music and animation, the fully 3D app will extend the reach of the TV series onto iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. And, remember to tune into PAJANIMALS on Sprout and NBC Kids.
I received a copy of The Pajanimals: Pajanimals Playdate DVD.
My youngest son absolutely adores The Pajanimals. He?s been watching the first Pajanimals DVD, Meet The Pajanimals, every day since we got it. This DVD is looking to be just as popular, as he has been watching it daily as well. I think the show is adorable. I love that the show encourages the characters to get along with each other and work things out.I really like the episode A Colorful Problem, because it?s definitely a situation I can see happening amongst young children in real life. My son loves all of the episodes. And the music, he loves the songs. When the Pajanimals Bounce song comes on, he bounces. He does that when Jiggle, Jumble and Jump comes on, as well as the Pajanimals Freeze Dance.
The product(s) featured in this review was provided free of cost to me for the sole purpose of product testing and review. This review has not been monetarily compensated and is based on the views and opinions of my family and/or self. Please note that the opinions reflected in this post have not been influenced by the sponsor in any way.
ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Lyoto Machida took a split decision over Dan Henderson in the co-main event at UFC 157 on Saturday. The judges saw it 29-28, 28-29, 29-28 for Machida.
Machida was elusive as usual in the first round, but Henderson was able to sneak in and land a few kicks and punches. At the end of the round, Machida took Henderson down with a leg trip and landed strikes.
The second round showed Machida still being elusive and keeping his distance from Henderson. Machida tried for a front kick several times, but couldn't land it. Meanwhile, Henderson couldn't land much.
Henderson is known for his big, overhand punches. Most of the time, when he throws it, it can mean the end of a fight. However, he had trouble getting close enough to Machida for the overhand to work.
In the third round, Machida moved in for a takedown but ended up with Henderson on top. Henderson used elbows from the top, but Machida was able to get out with less than two minutes left in the fight.
Before the fight, UFC president Dana White said that the winner of this bout will get the next title shot. UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones will put the title up against Chael Sonnen in April, but the next fight will likely go to Machida.
Machida was once the UFC light heavyweight champion, but lost the title to Rua in 2010. Since then, he has wins over Randy Couture and Ryan Bader, but losses to current champion Jon Jones and Quinton Jackson. It will be his third chance at the light heavyweight title. He won it with a knockout of Rashad Evans in 2009, but lost to Jones in 2011.
Henderson had a long layoff between fights. His last bout was one of the best in MMA history. In November of 2011, Henderson defeated Mauricio Rua in a five-round decision. Since then, Henderson had a fight lined up with Jones in September, but had to pull out at the last minute because of a knee injury. His record falls to 29-9. He's 42 years old, and against Machida, looked slow and old for the first time in his career.
Senator Mitch McConnell
Imagine you were a Jedi master called Bob (your parents, whilst skilled in the ways of the force weren't the best at choosing names). The love of your life?Princess Lucia?is trapped in a burning building as you hurry to save her. 
ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Lyoto Machida took a split decision over Dan Henderson in the co-main event at UFC 157 on Saturday. The judges saw it 29-28, 28-29, 29-28 for Machida.