Archive for April 2013

'House of Cards,' Frank Ocean top Webby Awards



NEW YORK (AP) Netflix's groundbreaking "House of Cards" may be the first digital series nominated for a best drama Emmy. But it will start with a Webby.

The Webby Awards are honoring "House of Cards" producers Kevin Spacey and Dana Brunetti with a Webby special achievement award. The political thriller, for which Netflix released all 13 episodes at once, proved that digital media can produce cable-quality drama. Netflix also won for best streaming media site.

The 17th annual Webbys, which celebrate Internet achievement, are to be officially announced Tuesday. Winners range from Justin Bieber (for the social media campaign for his fragrance launch) to The Onion (now with a record 19 total Webbys) to Nate Silver's FiveThirtyEight blog for The New York Times.

The Webby person of the year is Frank Ocean, the R&B singer, whom the Webbys hailed "for proving the power of the Web as a medium for cultural change when he announced his bisexuality to his Tumblr community."

Singled out for outstanding comedic performance is Jerry Seinfeld, whose 10-episode Web series "Comedian in Cars Getting Coffee" showcased the "Seinfeld" star hanging out with comedian friends.

Webby categories are split into a regular award, chosen by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, and a "people's voice" award. The Australian rail safety public service campaign Dumb Ways to Die, which went viral, is an unlikely awards leader with seven Webbys.

GIF file inventor Steve Wilhite also will be honored with a lifetime achievement award. While working at CompuServe in the 1980s, Wilhite created the compressed 8-bit GIF (or Graphics Interchange Format) that remains a popular tool for lo-fi viral sharing.

Another special achievement award will go to President Barack Obama's election campaign for its use of technology in last year's presidential election. Claire Boucher, the Canadian synth-pop singer who performs under the name Grimes, is the Webby's artist of the year.

Other winners include HBO Go (four awards, including best media streaming service), Lady Gaga (for best celebrity-fan social presence), Conan O'Brien (for best celebrity-fan website) and The New York Times (best news social presence). A complete list of the awards will be posted later Tuesday at: http://Winners.WebbyAwards.com.

The awards will be handed out in a ceremony hosted by Patton Oswalt on May 21 in New York, and available to stream the following day. Acceptance speeches are famously limited to five words.

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Online:

http://www.webbyawards.com/

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Follow AP Entertainment Writer Jake Coyle on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jake_coyle

Google invades Siri's turf with iPhone, iPad app



SAN FRANCISCO (AP) Siri may be feeling a little job insecurity. The sometimes droll assistant that answers questions and helps people manage their lives on Apple's iPhone and iPad is facing competition from an up-and-coming rival made by Google.

The duel began Monday with the release of a free iPhone and iPad app that features Google Now, a technology that performs many of the same functions as Siri.

It's the first time that Google Now has been available on smartphones and tablet computers that aren't running on the latest version of Google's Android software. The technology, which debuted nine months ago, is being included in an upgrade to Google's search application for iOS, the Apple Inc. software that powers the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. It's up to each user to decide whether to activate Google Now within the redesigned Google Search app, which is available through Apple's app store.

Siri tried to dismiss the competitive threat. When asked for an opinion about Google Now, Siri responded: "If it's all the same to you, I'd rather Google later."

Mike Allton, a St. Charles, Mo., resident who has owned an iPhone for four years, could hardly wait to check out Google Now, even if Siri might interpret it as a betrayal.

Siri "is looking a little green with envy," Allton, 36, said with a laugh after he installed Google's new app. "I love Apple products, but I like to see the competition because it probably will lead to even more improvements. I believe this technology is going to be even more deeply ingrained in our lives a few years from now."

Other iPhone users even those who have grown fond of Siri welcomed Google Now's arrival to iOS in mostly enthusiastic and sometimes amusing remarks posted on Twitter and Google Plus. One person joked that Google Now is so helpful that the technology prompted him to wash his hands after using the bathroom. The biggest gripe was about the possibility of Google Now's location-tracking features draining a device's battery more quickly.

Google Now's invasion of Siri's turf marks Google Inc.'s latest attempt to lure iPhone and iPad users away from a service that Apple built into its own devices.

Google quickly won over millions of iPhone users in December when it released a mapping application to replace the navigation system that Apple dumped when it redesigned iOS last fall. Apple's maps application proved to be inferior to Google's ousted service. The app's bugs and glitches made Apple the butt of jokes and fueled demand for Google to develop a new option.

Apple has been losing to Google on other fronts in a rapidly growing mobile computing market, an arena that was revolutionized with the iPhone's release in 2007. Smartphones and tablet computers running Google's free Android software have been steadily expanding their market share in recent years, partly because they tend to be less expensive than the iPhone and iPad. In 2012, Android devices held about 69 percent of the smartphone market while iOS had about 19 percent, according to the research firm IDC.

Android's success has been particularly galling for Apple because its late CEO, Steve Jobs, believed Google stole many of its ideas for the software from the iPhone. That led to a series of court battles over allegations of patent infringement, including a high-profile trial last year that culminated in Apple winning hundreds of millions in damages from Samsung Electronics, the top seller of Android phones. That dispute is still embroiled in appeals.

The rise of Android also is squeezing Apple's profit margins and has contributed to a nearly 40 percent drop in the company's stock price since it peaked at $705.07 last September around the time that the iPhone 5 came out.

Android's popularity is good news for Google because the company's services are built into most versions of the operating system. That brings more traffic to Google services, creating more opportunities for the company to sell ads the main source of Google's revenue.

Siri is billed by Apple as an "intelligent feature." Since the technology's release in October 2011, Apple has made it a centerpiece of some marketing campaigns that depict Siri and its automated female voice as an endearing and occasionally even pithy companion.

Google believes its Siri counterpart is smarter because Google Now is designed to learn about a user's preferences and then provide helpful information before it's even asked to do so. The technology draws upon information that Google gleans from search requests other interactions with the company's other services. Knowing a person's location also helps Google Now serve up helpful information without being asked.

"This concept of predicting your needs and showing you them at the right time is unique to Google Now," said Baris Gultekin, Google Now's director of product management. "We want computers to do the hard work so our users can focus on what matters to them so they can get on with their lives."

If the technology is working right, Google Now is supposed to do things like automatically tell people what the local weather is like when they wake up to help decide what to wear and provide a report on traffic conditions for the commute to work. During the day, Google Now might provide an update on the score of a user's favorite sports team or a stock quote of a company in a user's investment portfolio. On a Friday evening, Google Now might offer suggestions for movies to see or other weekend events tailored to a user's interests. For international travelers, Google Now might provide currency conversion rates, language translations of common phrases and the time back home.

Most of this automatic information is provided in summaries that Google calls "cards." Like Siri, Google Now also is equipped with voice technology that allows it to respond to questions and interact with users, though it hasn't shown the wit that delights some of Siri's users.

The Google Now app for iOS isn't as comprehensive as the Android app, which only works on devices running on the latest version of Android known as "Jelly Bean." Some of the Android features missing from Google Now's iOS app include cards for showing airline boarding passes and movie tickets bought though online vendor Fandango. Both of those options are available on the iOS through Apple's built-in Passbook feature that's designed to be a digital wallet.

Google Now's expansion on to the iOS underscores Google's ambitions for the service. The company, which is based in Mountain View, Calif., views it as a pivotal tool in its effort to peer deeper into its users' brains. In doing so, Google believes it will be able to provide more useful services and also show more relevant ads. For Google Now to become more intuitive, it needs to widen its availability.

"The more you use Google Now, we will have a better chance of understanding what your needs are and providing you with the right information," Gultekin said. "It's a virtuous cycle."

Shawn Jacob, a student at the University of North Texas, activated Google Now on his iPhone Monday and was startled by how much the service already knew about him when he logged in for the first time. "I was blown away," Jacob, 21, said. "It made me wonder if I really want Google to know this much about me. It's like Google wants to take over the world."

Gultekin declined to discuss whether there are plans to make Google Now apps for mobile devices running on Microsoft's Windows system. He also refused to comment on speculation circulating in technology blogs that a Web version of Google Now will be offered as a replacement for iGoogle, a tool that allows people to encircle the Google search engine with a variety of services suited to their tastes. IGoogle is scheduled to close in November.

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Online:

http://www.google.com/landing/now/

Canon, Nintendo find solace in Abenomics as weaker yen boosts outlook



By Tim Kelly and Mari Saito

TOKYO (Reuters) - Super Mario creator Nintendo Co Ltd forecast a return to the black after two years of losses and camera maker Canon Inc raised its profit forecast by nearly 10 percent as a weaker yen, spurred by aggressive deflation-fighting policies, bolstered the outlook of Japan's tech companies.

The two companies, however, show no sign of reciprocating the government's helping hand with fresh job-creating investment. Canon, still worried about a struggling global economy, pared its capital expenditure.

As the first blue-chip Japanese tech companies to report quarterly results, Nintendo and Canon are often seen as a barometer for the sector's earnings. The tech sector directly employs around 2 million workers in Japan.

"We welcome Abenomics," Canon Chief Financial Officer Toshizo Tanaka said at a news briefing, acknowledging the impact of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's economic stimulus policies.

"The Japanese economy moves on this kind of mood so we value this and hope to find success," he added.

At Canon, a weakening yen is helping to compensate for a squeeze on compact camera sales as consumers switch to photo snapping on their smartphones. And the softer Japanese currency may buy Nintendo more time to plug its Wii game console successor, the Wii U, which has disappointed with dull sales as it also competes with smartphones and tablets.

For the business year to December 31, Canon, which relies on foreign markets for four-fifths of its sales, lifted its operating profit forecast to 450 billion yen ($4.53 billion).

Nintendo, which generates three-quarters of its revenue abroad, forecast an operating profit of 100 billion yen after two years of losses as its Wii boom ebbed.

Canon raised its forecast dollar rate for the year to 95 yen compared with the 85 yen forecast issued just three months earlier.

Nintendo estimated a rate of 90 yen to the dollar for the year to next March. Its president, Satoru Iwata, told a news briefing in Osaka that the figure was "conservative".

Nintendo sold 3.45 million Wii U consoles from its November launch until March 31, far below the 5.5 million it initially predicted. For this business year, it is aiming to sell 9 million.

LONG-HELD WISH

For Japanese business leaders worried about their ability to compete globally, particularly against South Korean rivals such as Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and LG Electronics Inc, the yen decline fulfils a long-held wish.

Fabricating goods worth almost $400 billion a year, Japanese makers of TVs, mobile phones, printers and personal computers account for a sizeable chunk of Japan's $5 trillion economy.

Canon's operating profit in the first quarter dipped 34 percent to $552 million, which the company blamed on a weakened global economy and the hit to its compact camera business from smartphones. Nintendo posted a full-year operating loss of 36.4 billion yen.

Corporate heads who have praised Abenomics include Sony Corp CEO Kazuo Hirai. His company and other Japanese TV makers, Panasonic Corp and Sharp Corp, have struggled to fend off competition from Samsung Electronics as a strong yen bit into profits.

Sony, with its bigger exposure to overseas markets, is the best-placed among TV makers to gain from a weaker yen, particularly versus the euro. A 1 yen drop against the European single currency adds about 6 billion yen to operating profit at the maker of Bravia sets.

At Panasonic, a 1 yen weakening against the euro boosts operating profit by 2 billion yen, while it reaps a 2.5 billion yen gain for declines against the dollar. At Sharp, which more heavily relies on its home market, a 1 yen move is worth around 500 million yen in operating profit against the euro and 700 million yen against the dollar.

More than a third of Japanese companies remain worried about domestic demand stagnating, a Reuters survey of 240 companies released on Friday shows. A quarter said they were likely to increase output in Japan because of the weaker yen.

On balance, however, Wednesday's results produced no signs that Abenomics was encouraging a boost in capital spending.

Canon, which stands to benefit more than most Japanese companies from a weak yen, on Wednesday trimmed its capital expenditure for the business year to 265 billion yen from 270 billion yen.

"Dramatic monetary easing has prompted a revision of the strong yen, but there are still uncertainties surrounding the U.S. budget problems and European debt issues," Tanaka cautioned.

Since mid-November, when an Abenomics-driven stock rally began, Canon's shares have gained 58 percent, in line with a 60 percent gain in the Nikkei 225 benchmark index. Its stock rose 1.3 percent in Tokyo to 3,840 yen on Wednesday.

Nintendo, which has gained 17 percent since November, rose 4.6 percent to 11,950 yen. Quarterly results for both companies were released after the close of trading.

($1 = 99.3600 Japanese yen)

(Editing by Daniel Magnowski and Edmund Klamann)

Insight: Good life goes on as Syrian elite sit out war



By Michael Stott and Samia Nakhoul

DAMASCUS (Reuters) - It might sound absurd to talk about normal life in Syria after two years of civil war which have killed more than 70,000 people and left five million more destitute and homeless.

Yet in the neighborhood of Malki, a tree-lined enclave of central Damascus, a wealthy group of elite, pro-government Syrians still enjoy shopping for imported French cheeses, gourmet hand-made chocolates and iPad minis in the well-stocked, recently built Grand Mall and in nearby boutiques.

Such are the parallel realities of a conflict in which, for all the gains made by rebels and the current chatter about U.S. "red lines" crossed that might ultimately draw in Western might, President Bashar al-Assad is holding his ground in the capital, bulwarked by his own foreign allies and by many Syrians who fear his end could prove fatal for them too. And so life goes on.

In Malki, sprinklers water the manicured lawns outside their blocks of million-dollar apartments. Maids and drivers cater to their every whim and birds sing in the trees. Fuel for their BMWs and electricity for their air-conditioning is plentiful and the well-guarded streets are free of loiterers.

"Look at this display and you feel all is well, life is good and everything is here," said an elegantly dressed Hiyam Jabri, 50, as she placed her order at the delicatessen counter in the mall's main supermarket.

Malki residents continue to enjoy material comforts and abundant supplies of imported goods, even as millions of their compatriots subsist on food handouts.

The United Nations World Food Programme estimates it is feeding 2.5 million people inside Syria - a tenth of the population - and a further million who have fled the country, offering them subsistence rations of flour and rice.

"We are trying to keep up with the enormity of the crisis and the impact of the brutality," the WFP's deputy regional emergency coordinator Matthew Hollingworth said in the capital.

Most of those whom his staff help "haven't been displaced once but sometimes twice, three times". Food is so scarce for those uprooted by the fighting that rations intended to feed a family of five are being shared by three families.

ILLUSIONS

Even in Malki, though, the air of normality is an illusion - as unreal as the oft-repeated assertions of government officials that victory is near and Assad still controls almost all Syria.

Scratch the surface of the illusion and the normality quickly becomes anything but.

Pasted to the lamp-post outside the elegant chocolatier Ghraoui, whose interior boasts award certificates from France, is a wad of black and white fliers. They are printed by families and they mourn sons and husbands killed in the war.

It is a war, however, that seems to be going nowhere fast.

Recent days have shown again the reluctance of the United States and its allies, in the face of evidence Assad's troops may have crossed President Barack Obama's "red line" by using chemical weapons, to intervene militarily against him - not least as some rebels have espoused the cause of al Qaeda.

Among the few independent outsiders seeing at first hand the mosaic of opinion and suffering in Syria, many aid workers lament that international discourse has become a monotone debate on supplying weapons, with little push for a negotiated peace.

"We need a political solution for this conflict," said Marc Lucet, the local emergency coordinator for UNICEF, whose fellow humanitarian workers recount grim tales of hungry refugees found cowering in half-built apartment blocks or idle factories.

The surface serenity of Malki contrasts with what aid groups say is a country splintered by ever shifting frontlines and a fragmenting opposition; many fear violence will spread beyond Syria's borders and are baffled by the debate in the West over how far to arm rebels, saying this will only make matters worse.

Stressing the need for a political settlement, however, unpalatable and, so far, unattainable, UNICEF's Lucet said: "The solution is certainly not to give more weapons to either side."

Attempts to bring Assad down by diplomatic means have failed to break the impasse, even if they do make life less comfortable in Malki.

Inside the Ghraoui chocolate boutique, as everywhere else in Syria, sales are strictly cash only - sanctions have forced international credit card networks to boycott transactions here.

Prices on restaurant menus in local currency, the Syrian pound, have been hastily updated with stickers multiple times - a tell-tale sign of rapid inflation.

At the luxury mall supermarket, Eyad al-Burghol says he is selling fewer imported foodstuffs than before because many wealthy customers have left the country.

FIGHTING TALK

A distant thump of artillery fire serves as a reminder that, just a few kilometers (miles) away, fierce street-to-street battles are being fought between government and rebel forces. Some days, Russian-made MiG fighter jets streak across the sky on their way to bomb insurgent positions.

The abundant security in Malki, residents say, is provided by men who speak the Iranian tongue of Farsi, rather than Syrian Arabic. Tehran has long been Assad's sponsor against his fellow Arab leaders and the word on the street - impossible to verify - is that this heavily guarded area of town may be home to the Syrian president himself and to his immediate family.

Assad is not seen in public these days and officials refuse to comment on his movements or whereabouts.

Senior Syrian officials try hard to show visiting reporters a picture of normality in which the government is firmly in control. But even the cocoon in which they live and work is starting to be punctured by the facts of war.

Syria's central bank governor Adeeb Mayaleh gave Reuters an interview last week at a headquarters building bearing the scars of a car bomb attack earlier in the month. Blinds hung twisted and useless in front of warped window-frames without glass. A palm tree outside had been reduced to a charred skeleton.

The bank chief insisted that the government had plenty of foreign currency available to guarantee imports and enough cash to pay public employees' wages in advance each month. For how long? Iran and Russia, he said, were about to agree fresh funds.

Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad gave an upbeat assessment of the war in an interview - but a Syrian who works nearby told us that the complex housing the ministry had been attacked four times by rebels in the past few months.

UNICEF regional coordinator Youssef Abdul-Jalil estimated that at least three million children inside Syria now needed humanitarian assistance because of the war: "There is a crisis of the children of Syria," he said. "They are paying a terrible price in their lives, in their surroundings, in their health, in their education and in their lack of protection".

REALITY INTRUDES

Cars still choke central Damascus and traffic police still issue tickets for speeding and even clamp badly parked vehicles. But armed checkpoints snarl progress to a snail's pace.

Travel agents still offer flights and holidays. But the road to the city's airport is considered too dangerous by many and flights are available only to a few, friendly, destinations.

Telephones still work and officials still show up for work in neatly ironed shirts and well-pressed suits - but many scuttle off early to be home before nightfall.

One resident spoke of a distant relative, a Christian from a prosperous family of car dealers, who was kidnapped. Accused of supporting Assad, he was beaten while hanging upside down. His captors then they injected fuel into his veins. Released for a ransom worth over $20,000, the man died a few days later.

While the Syrian elite continue to insist that the military campaign against the rebels is succeeding, aid workers in Aleppo say that the area of the country's biggest city that is now controlled by the government is very small.

The main north-south highway which connects Aleppo to Damascus via the major cities of Homs and Hama now features some 38 checkpoints, about nine of which are manned by various groups of rebels, NGO workers who have traveled along it recently say.

In the capital, the government says it guarantees a "Square of Security" in the center; some locals joke that rebel gains have shorn it to a rather smaller "Security Triangle".

Damascus's walled Old City, a UNESCO World Heritage site and home to the 7th-century Umayyad mosque, retains its beauty. But these days it is eerily empty. Tourists have long gone and the souvenir sellers have all but given up hope of selling anything.

Inside the mosque's main prayer hall, featuring a shrine said to contain the head of St. John the Baptist, mournful guides tell of how the imam was recently murdered.

At a jewelry shop in the al-Hamidiyeh bazaar, Anas Hallawi, 25, sat looking bored: "People are selling their gold not buying these days," he said. "Our business thrived on foreign tourists and Syrians buying gold for their brides.

"Now the tourists are gone. And nobody is getting married."

At the Al-Naranj restaurant in the Christian Quarter, one of Damascus's finest eateries, diners discussed the relative risks of car bombings versus random mortar attacks and kidnap. Little wonder that so many with the means have left for Lebanon, as life in the capital becomes a kind of ghoulish Russian roulette.

Across the room, a smartly dressed family group celebrated a betrothal with a lavish spread of traditional Syrian food on a table decorated with red roses.

As the strains of the old songs died away and a festive cake was eaten, a fighter jet roared across the sky. Artillery fire thudded in the distance. The family looked upwards through the restaurant's glass roof, eyes suddenly fearful. (Editing by Alastair Macdonald)

Microsoft to reveal next-generation Xbox on May 21



By Malathi Nayak

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp will unveil its much-anticipated next-generation Xbox on May 21 following months of speculation the company is gearing up to announce a new video game console this summer.

The company sent out media invitations on Wednesday, hinting it would be announcing the successor to its seven-year old Xbox 360. A new console from the software company will come on the heels of rival Sony's announcement in February that it will launch the PlayStation4 this holiday season.

Microsoft's May event will be held at its Xbox campus in Redmond, Washington, just a month before the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles, the gaming industry's largest annual convention, where next-generation consoles will be spotlighted.

"On May 21, we'll mark the beginning of a new generation of games, TV and entertainment," the company said on its official blog.

The Xbox 360 is the market-leading console that has an installed user base of 76 million. Gaming blogs have been afire with speculation about what features a next-generation console might offer, but Microsoft has been tight-lipped so far.

The current version of the Xbox sports voice- and gesture-command capabilities.

Shares in Microsoft were up 3.1 percent at $31.53 in the afternoon.

(Reporting By Malathi Nayak; Editing by Kenneth Barry)

Seattle's interim police chief sorry for video mocking homeless



By Elaine Porterfield

SEATTLE (Reuters) - Seattle's interim police chief has apologized for appearing in a 1986 video that showed him and other officers mocking the homeless in what the city's police department this week called an "ugly piece" of its history.

Interim Chief Jim Pugel, who is implementing sweeping reforms in the wake of a 2012 U.S. Department of Justice report that found the city's police routinely used excessive force, appeared in the video when he was a 26-year-old officer.

In the roughly five-minute clip, which officials say was part of a training video and which they released this week, Pugel and a few colleagues are seen wearing fake beards, dancing with bottles of alcohol under a freeway overpass and singing parody lyrics to the 1964 song "Under the Boardwalk" by The Drifters.

Some of the officers sport blacked-out teeth as they croon lyrics such as, "We'll be drinking Thunderbird (wine) all through the day, under the viaduct. Who could ask for anything more?"

"Even by 1980s standards, the Seattle Police Department considered the video to be insensitive and inappropriate," Pugel, who was appointed to his position earlier this month, said in a statement late on Thursday. "I regret my participation and have professionally apologized for my role in it. I do so now publicly. I am truly sorry."

He takes over a department that has at times experienced a troubled history with minority communities and is in the first year of a reform plan overseen by the U.S. Department of Justice to revise the use of force by officers.

The Seattle Times reported in a story posted on its website on Friday that the newspaper and other media outlets had received several tips about the video's existence before it was made public late on Thursday by police.

Seattle police spokesman Sean Whitcomb said Pugel, who has not said whether he will seek to lead the department on a permanent basis, disclosed the existence of the video to other city officials and homeless groups when he was appointed interim chief.

"It's not a problem but an opportunity to showcase who Chief Pugel is," Whitcomb said. "For him it was a leadership moment."

Police say all existing copies of the video have been destroyed, except for a single copy retained for their records.

Pugel said in his statement that he had the video released because he felt it was "important to show where this department has been and where it is going" and that he discussed it with Mayor Mike McGinn and several Seattle-based homeless groups.

(Writing by Alex Dobuzinskis; Editing by Paul Simao)

Gwyneth Paltrow named People's most beautiful woman



LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Oscar-winning actress Gwyneth Paltrow on Wednesday was named the world's most beautiful woman for 2013 by People magazine, knocking pop singer Beyonce out of the top spot.

The 40-year-old mother of two credits a five-day-a-week exercise regimen for keeping her in shape as she grows older.

"It makes me look younger and feel strong," Paltrow told the magazine. "When I first started, I thought, 'I'll never be good at this. This is a nightmare!' But now it's like brushing my teeth, I just do it."

It is the fourth time Paltrow, who is married to Coldplay singer Chris Martin, has been named to the magazine's annual beautiful people issue, but the first time landing the coveted cover as most beautiful woman.

She joins the likes of fellow actresses Jennifer Lopez, Julia Roberts, Halle Berry and Jennifer Aniston to top the list.

Paltrow reprises her starring role as Pepper Potts in the action film "Iron Man 3," which opens next month.

The actress has cut back her film work after giving birth to children Apple, 8, and Moses, 7, and released her second cookbook, "It's All Good," this month.

She is also the founder of lifestyle and clothing website Goop.com.

Paltrow won an Oscar for her role as William Shakespeare's muse in the 1998 film "Shakespeare in Love."

The full list of People's "World's Most Beautiful People" can be found on www.people.com/mostbeautiful

(Reporting by Eric Kelsey; Editing by Sandra Maler)

Zynga reports fewer players of its online games, shares drop



By Gerry Shih

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Zynga Inc said on Wednesday the number of people playing its online games dropped dramatically in the first quarter, a development that overshadowed better-than-expected revenues and sent its stock tumbling in after-hours trade.

Shares fell 10 percent to $2.99 in extended trading.

The San Francisco-based publisher behind games like "FarmVille" and "Words With Friends" said its number of monthly players continued its decline to 253 million, the lowest figure since the number peaked at 331 million at the end of the third quarter of 2012.

On an adjusted basis, Zynga reported earnings of 1 cent per share, beating analyst expectations of a loss of 4 cents per share. But the company also projected that its second-quarter loss would be between 3 to 5 cents per share, exceeding the 1 cent per share loss analysts had expected.

"The second quarter guidance is light," said Sterne Agee analyst Arvind Bhatia. "We continue to think that any hope for real growth for this nebulous company really depends on what it can do in real-money gaming."

Zynga has struggled to keep users, who once flocked to its games on Facebook Inc's website. In recent months, Zynga and Facebook have revised their business partnership, as Zynga has sought to establish itself as a more independent gaming network at the risk of receiving less visitor traffic from Facebook.

Zynga has promised investors that it could tap into a potentially lucrative new revenue stream by launching real-money casino games around the world.

The company reported revenues of $263.6 million, down 18 percent from the year-ago quarter but above Wall Street's depressed expectations as the online game maker wrung more sales than expected out of its shrinking user base.

Zynga's quarterly bookings of $229.8 million also topped estimates but represented a 30 percent decline from a year ago.

(Reporting By Gerry Shih; Editing by Leslie Adler and David Gregorio)

Zynga reports lower 1Q revenue, shares fall



NEW YORK (AP) Zynga Inc.'s surprise profit in the first three months of the year got overshadowed by a revenue decline, a drop in the number of users and a lower-than-expected second-quarter forecast.

The online game maker's stock fell more than 10 percent in extended trading Wednesday after the first-quarter results came out.

Zynga, which makes "FarmVille" and other games, said Wednesday that it earned $4.1 million, which was breakeven per share. A year earlier, it lost $85.4 million, or 12 cents per share. Adjusted earnings were 1 cent per share in the latest quarter, compared with expectations for a loss of 3 cents.

Revenue fell 18 percent to $263.6 million, from $321 million.

Analysts, on average, had expected revenue of $264.5 million, according to FactSet.

As demand for its Facebook games fades, Zynga has cut jobs, closed game studios and shut down games to reduce expenses and focus only on popular titles. The quarter's expenses fell 34 percent to $268.5 million, from $406.6 million.

The number of people who play Zynga games at least once a month fell 13 percent to 253 million, from 292 million a year earlier. The number of daily players dropped 21 percent to 52 million, from 65 million.

CEO Mark Pincus said in a statement that 2013 will "continue to be a transition year." Zynga, whose games are played mainly on Facebook's website, is working on shifting to mobile games and to its own site off of Facebook.

For the current quarter, Zynga is forecasting an adjusted loss of 3 cents to 4 cents per share on revenue of $225 million to $235 million. Analysts were expecting a loss of 1 cent per share on revenue of $258.1 million.

Shares of San Francisco-based Zynga fell 34 cents, or 10.1 percent, to $3.01 in after-hours trading. The stock had closed up 17 cents, or 5.3 percent, at $3.35 before the results came out.

BlackBerry set to add Skype to its app line-up



TORONTO (Reuters) - BlackBerry said on Wednesday it plans to fill one of the biggest gaps in the app line-up on its new BlackBerry 10 devices with a long-awaited Skype application.

Skype, which was acquired by Microsoft Corp in 2011, allows its users to communicate via voice, video or chat over the Internet, by-passing traditional telephone networks. The service has hundreds of millions of users across the globe.

The announcement comes a day after BlackBerry said its new Q10 smartphone will be available in Canada on May 1, and in the United States before the end of May. The Q10, which comes with the physical keyboard that many of BlackBerry's core fan base cherish, is the second device to be powered by the company's new BB10 operating system.

Skype will be available on the Q10 on launch day. Users of the existing Z10 touchscreen device will have to wait a few weeks more to get Skype, after a software upgrade on the operating system, BlackBerry said.

A smaller app base than Apple's iOS and Google Inc's Android platforms has been one of the biggest criticisms of the new BlackBerry system. It has yet to offer some big-name apps like Netflix and Instagram.

(Reporting by Euan Rocha; Editing by Bernard Orr)

Amazon to sell set-top box to challenge Apple TV: report



SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc will release a set-top TV box later this year that will stream video over the Internet, challenging Apple Inc's Apple TV device and a similar gadget sold by start-up Roku, BloombergBusinessweek reported on Wednesday.

The box will plug into TVs and give viewers access to Amazon's digital video content, which the company has been expanding, BloombergBusinessweek said, citing three unidentified people familiar with the project.

An Amazon spokeswoman declined to comment.

Amazon's video content is already available on other devices, including Roku, Microsoft Corp's Xbox and Sony Corp's PlayStation 3. However, it is not available on Apple TV.

Having its own gadget will help Amazon put its content more directly in front of consumers and give developers another reason to create apps for Amazon's digital platform, BloombergBusinessweek said.

"Amazon has a good content distribution strategy but not a great one," said Ron Josey, an analyst at JMP Securities. "Doing their own box maybe them admitting that it's a little bit harder to get embedded in all these different devices and platforms."

Amazon has been investing heavily in licensing, distributing and even creating its own digital content such as video, music, apps and games. The company has focused on getting that content on as many devices as possible, rather than building a lot of its own hardware.

However, the company has designed its own gadgets in situations where it believes it can bring a different approach to a market. When it launched its Kindle Fire tablet computer in 2011, for instance, the device's screen was 7 inches which at that time was not a popular size.

JMP's Josey, who said he was not privy to any Amazon plans in this area, speculated on Wednesday that any Amazon set-box device could include the ability to stream music, play games, access other apps and even shop through TVs, rather than just watch videos.

The set-top box is being developed by Amazon's Lab126 division, based in Cupertino, California, near Apple's headquarters. It's being run by Malachy Moynihan, a former vice president of emerging video products at Cisco Systems Inc, BloombergBusinessweek added.

BloombergBusinessweek also said that while Netflix Inc's video streaming service will likely be available on Amazon's TV box, Amazon's own video and music services will be more prominently integrated.

A Netflix spokesman declined to comment.

(Reporting by Alistair Barr; Editing by Carol Bishopric)

"Senna" director to make Amy Winehouse documentary



LONDON (AP) The director of award-winning film "Senna" is making a documentary about the late soul singer Amy Winehouse.

Focus Features International says the movie will feature unseen archive footage to tell the story of the art and life of the musician, who died at age 27 in London in 2011 from accidental alcohol poisoning.

The Winehouse family said in a statement Thursday that it had been approached with many documentary proposals, but "Senna" director Asif Kapadia and producer James Gay-Rees presented a vision that would "look at Amy's story sensitively, honestly and without sensationalizing her."

"Senna," the acclaimed 2010 film, focused on the life of Brazilian F1 driver Ayrton Senna. The champion racer was killed in an accident in 1994.

Liverpool's Suarez gets 10-game ban for biting



By Martyn Herman

LONDON (Reuters) - Liverpool striker Luis Suarez was handed a 10-match suspension by the Football Association (FA) on Wednesday following his bite on Chelsea defender Branislav Ivanovic at the weekend.

Suarez accepted a charge of violent conduct after the incident in the 2-2 Premier League draw at Anfield on Sunday but disputed the FA view that it merited more than a three-game ban.

An Independent Regulatory Commission met in London on Wednesday to decide the Uruguayan international's fate and added seven games to the usual ban for violent conduct.

The suspension begins immediately, meaning Liverpool's leading scorer will miss his side's last four games of the season and the first six at the beginning of next term.

Liverpool, who expressed their shock at the Commission's decision, have until Friday (1100 GMT) to appeal.

"Both the club and player are shocked and disappointed at the severity of today's Independent Regulatory Commission decision," Liverpool managing director Ian Ayre said in a statement on the club's website (www.liverpoolfc.com).

"We await the written reasons tomorrow (Thursday) before making any further comment."

Suarez's bite on Ivanovic's arm at Anfield was missed by referee Kevin Friend but television replays showed him sinking his teeth into the Serbian.

WIDELY CONDEMNED

The 26-year-old Suarez, who was banned for biting an opponent while with Dutch club Ajax before joining Liverpool in 2011, apologized after the game and was fined a reported 200,000 pounds ($305,700) by the club.

However, he was widely condemned for his behavior with some reports suggesting he was in danger of being sacked by the club, although Liverpool said this week that they wanted the Uruguayan to see out his four-year contract.

The FA said a three-match ban was "clearly insufficient" for the serious nature of the offence.

There was widespread support for the length of the punishment imposed with former Liverpool player Graeme Souness telling Sky Sports News: "I think 10 games is about right.

"What he did on Sunday is something I've never seen in a game anywhere before."

Former Liverpool midfielder Jamie Redknapp agreed.

"I think you have to accept that the crime that he committed probably warranted a 10-game ban," he said.

"It was an awful act of brutality really what he did and now he won't play for such a long time - it's is going to hit him where it hurts because he wants to play football."

Professional Footballers' Association (PFA) chief executive Gordon Taylor said the length of the sanction sent out a "strong message" but that it was important that the player received counseling to make sure it did not happen again.

Not everyone backed the FA's decision.

"Players who break peoples' legs, who do horrible tackles, get a three-game ban," former Liverpool striker John Aldridge told Sky Sports News.

"It's inconsistent. For me, it's not right, it's over the top."

Controversy has followed Suarez since he joined Liverpool, with his antics often overshadowing his impact on the pitch.

He served an eight-match ban for racially abusing Manchester United's Patrice Evra last season and later angered United manager Alex Ferguson by failing to shake the French defender's hand before their league match in February last year.

He has also been regularly accused of diving to win penalties and free kicks, while in an FA Cup tie this season against minor league Mansfield Town he was again criticized for scoring a goal despite a blatant handball.

Until Manchester United forward Robin Van Persie's hat-trick against Aston Villa on Monday that secured the title, Suarez was leading scorer in the league with 23 goals and he is included on a six-player shortlist for PFA Player of the Year.

($1 = 0.6542 British pounds)

(Reporting by Martyn Herman and Sonia Oxley; Editing by Ed Osmond)

Oops! N.Y.'s Suffolk County accidentally defaults on debt



By Edward Krudy and Pamela Niimi

NEW YORK (Reuters) - As if Suffolk County, home of the Hamptons and playground of the rich and famous on New York's Long Island, didn't have enough financial problems already.

A regulatory filing on behalf of the county dated April 16 shows it accidentally missed an interest payment on some of its debt, including $76.1 million of public improvement bonds, putting the county technically in default. Oops.

The county is wealthy with income per capita well above the national average but it has run into difficulty recently, declaring a fiscal emergency last year after an independent task force predicted a three-year deficit of $530 million.

The county could have a budget shortfall of as much as $250 million by the end of next year, local officials said last month.

The error is more of an embarrassing glitch than anything else. The missed payment - just $722.65 - would be small change for many of the county's residents.

That will buy you fewer than 20 butter-poached lobster rolls (not the most expensive thing on the menu) at Dave's Grill in Montauk, a quaint fishing village on the island's northern tip, or just 10 bottles of Merry Edwards Sauvignon Blanc Russian River 2009 at La Plage in Wading River. A mere picnic.

The mistake was pointed out by the Depository Trust Company, a clearing firm, the day after it was missed and the filing says the error was the fault of the county's escrow agent, M&T Bank.

"The county informed M&T of its error and the escrow agent immediately wired the $722.65 payment to DTC," the regulatory filing said.

So what went wrong? The county was making the first payment in a complicated arrangement that uses $17 million in state HEAL grants for medical costs, primarily related to the Foley Nursing home, said Richard Tortora, president of Capital Markets Advisors, the county's financial adviser.

The $722.65, part of a debt payment of over $1 million, was the portion of the payment from the HEAL grants. The $17 million is being held in an escrow account at M&T.

"M&T for reasons we can't fathom just blew it: 'Oops it wasn't in our system, we missed it'", said Tortora, president of Capital Markets Advisors. Tortora said missing the payment and having to make a regulatory filing with the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board was frustrating after months spent putting the arrangement together for the county.

M&T Bank was not immediately available for comment.

Fitch Ratings, the credit ratings agency, downgraded Suffolk County's general obligation bond rating to A from A-plus last month, affecting about $1.4 billion of debt. General obligation bonds have the full faith and credit of the issuer and are the best gauge of how risky investors think the county is.

Fitch said it had concerns about the county's ability to become financially stable, let alone reduce its big deficit.

(This story was corrected to fix name of Suffolk County's financial advisers)

(Reporting by Edward Krudy, additional reporting by Pam Niimi; Editing by Kenneth Barry)

Khloe Kardashian out as "X Factor" co-host



LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Reality TV star Khloe Kardashian will not be returning to "The X Factor" after just one season as co-host of the TV talent show.

Fox television on Monday announced that presenter and actor Mario Lopez would return for a second season but the statement made no mention of Kardashian.

An "X Factor" spokesman said Kardashian, 28, who with her California socialite sisters Kim and Kourtney rose to fame in "Keeping Up With the Kardashians," would not be returning when the U.S. version of the singing competition returns in September.

"We really enjoyed working with her and wish her all the best in the future," the spokesman said.

Kardashian, one of the most popular faces on U.S. television, was brought in by "X Factor" creator Simon Cowell last year as part of a revamp that included the hiring of singers Britney Spears and Demi Lovato as judges after a disappointing first season in 2011.

A source close to the show said Kardashian, who had no previous experience as a TV host, was not asked to renew her contract.

Spears quit after one season and her replacement has yet to be named but Lovato will be back in September.

Kardashian married basketball player Lamar Odom in 2009, and the pair got their own spinoff show. She has more than 8 million followers on Twitter and has been in the news for several months over the couple's efforts to have a baby.

Lopez, a former actor, is the co-host of entertainment magazine show "Extra" and radio show "On with Mario Lopez." He is also an author of several fitness books.

"I'm thrilled Mario is back for Season Three of 'The X Factor,'" Cowell said in a statement. "Hosting a live show and keeping the judges - especially Demi - in line, is not an easy job, but Mario is a pro and we are glad he's coming back."

Fox is a unit of News Corp

(Reporting By Jill Serjeant; Editing by Kenneth Barry)

Life of Pi star says blessing to work with Ang Lee



NEW DELHI (AP) "Life of Pi" actor Suraj Sharma credits director Ang Lee with setting him on a path to continue with a career in movies.

Sharma told The Times of India in an interview published Tuesday that getting to work with the Oscar-winning director on "Life of Pi" was a blessing.

"The amount I learned and did was awesome. Ang gave me a path. Before that, I didn't even know what I would do in life," he was quoted as saying. After making the movie, "I know I want to tell stories," he said.

"I don't know whether I just want to act or be behind the camera, holding the camera or just being the boom director. But I want to be on the sets. It has to be something to do with cinema," he said.

Sharma, 20, said his next Hollywood film will be "Million Dollar Arm." The film revolves around a real-life reality show that searched for potential Major League Baseball pitchers among Indian cricketers.

Prince Harry to join expedition to the South Pole



LONDON (Reuters) - Prince Harry, Britain's third in line to the throne, will take part in a race to the South Pole alongside wounded British servicemen and women, he announced on Friday.

The 208-mile (335-km) trek to the South Pole will see Britain's Royal compete against teams from the United States and Commonwealth countries.

"As a member of the British team, I will have a brew (tea) on ready for you when you join us at the Pole," he said in a speech, referring to participants from other countries.

Harry took part in a 2011 expedition to the North Pole organized by the same charity. Describing qualities he said he admired in his fellow participants, he said: "Physical strength, endurance, a sense of comradeship, absolutely.

"But there's something else, something deeper than that. Something that continues to draw me back to this charity and these people time and again - and always will."

(Reporting By Costas Pitas; Editing by Maria Golovnina)

Slowdown in Apple orders weighs on LG Display's first-quarter profit



SEOUL (Reuters) - LG Display Co Ltd reported its smallest profit since it returned to the black in the second quarter of last year, as demand for iPhone and iPad screens from Apple weakened amid concerns the U.S. company is losing its luster in the mobile device market.

Apple Inc, which analysts say provides about 30 percent of LG Display's revenue, is facing intensifying competition from Samsung and up-and-coming rivals. A disappointing forecast by a U.S. supplier to Apple last week heightened fears about slowing demand for the iPhone and iPad, pushing shares of Asian suppliers including LG Display sharply lower.

LG Display, which vies with Samsung Electronics Co Ltd's panel unit for the top position in LCD flat screens globally, made 151 billion won ($135 million) in operating profit in its January-March first quarter. That compared with the average forecast of a 147 billion won profit in a Thomson Reuters poll of analysts.

It was the South Korean company's fourth straight quarterly profit after seven straight quarters of losses, as makers of liquid crystal display panels have since curtailed output after about two years of oversupply.

The result was also a sharp improvement from a loss of 211 billion won a year earlier. But it was down 74 percent from the previous quarter, hurt by a seasonal slowdown in demand and by weaker sales to Apple, which is scheduled to report quarterly results on Tuesday.

Sales of tablet and smartphone panels, which are largely bought by Apple, accounted for 27 percent of LG Display's total screen shipments in the first quarter, down from 31 percent in the fourth quarter.

Jay Yoo, an analyst at Korea Investment & Securities, estimated before the results announcement that LG Display's panel shipments for the iPhone 5 and the latest iPad had fallen 42 percent and 66 percent, respectively, from the prior quarter as Apple struggles with slowing sales growth.

On Tuesday, Apple is expected to report just an 8 percent increase in revenue for its fiscal second quarter, among the weakest showings in years, according to analysts' estimates.

Still, analysts see earnings for LG Display improving in the coming quarters as Apple is expected to introduce upgraded products later this year, and as demand for mobile device screens from affiliate LG Electronics Inc increases.

Samsung Securities analyst Harrison Cho expects Apple to introduce a less costly iPhone around July, helping LG Display improve its sales to Apple from June when initial parts shipments are expected to begin.

LG Display said on Monday that it expects panel shipments will rise by 5 percent to 10 percent in the second quarter from the previous quarter.

Shares in LG Display have fallen about 3 percent in the year to date, compared with a roughly 5 percent drop in the benchmark KOSPI index. The stock closed 2.2 percent higher prior to the results announcement.

(Reporting by Miyoung Kim; Editing by Chris Gallagher)

Prince Harry says he'll beat US, others to S. Pole



LONDON (AP) Prince Harry said Friday he will take part in a race to the South Pole later this year, leading a team of wounded British military personnel against counterparts from Australia, Canada and the U.S.

In a tongue-in-cheek challenge issued at a news conference, the 28-year-old royal warned his competitors that the Brits would have some tea "ready for you when you join us at the Pole."

Harry and his fellow Walking With The Wounded teammates will participate in the 208-mile (335-kilometer) South Pole Allied Challenge in November and December of this year.

That may be the height of the Antarctic summer, but conditions will still be bitterly cold. The four-week expedition will see racers drag sleds weighing more than 150 pounds (68 kilograms) and face extreme temperatures and savage winds.

Harry has already taken part in one expedition with Walking With The Wounded, a charity which raises funds and keeps injured servicemen and women in the public eye through feats of endurance.

In 2011, he took part in the charity's North Pole trek, but had to withdraw earlier to attend his brother Prince William's wedding to Kate Middleton.

During the news conference, Harry was given a red polar coat by adventurer Inge Solheim, who served as the North Pole treks' guide.

This time around Solheim will be the guide for the American team from Soldiers to Summits, which is made up of Mark Wise from Colorado Springs, Colorado, Therese Frentz, from Del Rio, Texas, Margaux Mange, from Lakewood, Colorado, and Ivan Castro, from Raeford, North Carolina.

___

Online:

http://walkingwiththewounded.org.uk/

Nigeria censors documentary in growing crackdown



LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) The documentary on a massive strike that paralyzed life in Nigeria features newspaper headlines, television news footage and other information widely known about a government gasoline subsidy that saw billions of dollars stolen by greedy companies and the nation's elite.

It also, according to Nigerian authorities, could spark violence and potentially threaten national security.

The 30-minute film called "Fuelling Poverty" has been online for months, but only recently Nigerian officials have refused its director permission to show it publicly in this oil-rich nation of more than 160 million people. While free speech is enshrined in this democratic nation's constitution, an ever-increasing drumbeat of complaints and critical articles about the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan has seen authorities increasingly target journalists and others.

The film, sponsored by Soros Foundation's Open Society Justice Initiative for West Africa, focuses on the protests around Jonathan's decision to remove subsidies on gasoline in January 2012. Life in Nigeria ground to a halt before unions backed down. Later, a report by lawmakers demanded businesses and government agencies to return some $6.7 billion over the subsidy program.

Ishaya Bako, who directed the film that features civil rights activists and Nobel Prize laureate Wole Soyinka, later applied for the right to show the film publicly. In a letter dated April 8, Nigeria's National Film and Video Censors Board told Bako that the documentary was "prohibited for exhibition in Nigeria."

"I am further to inform you that this decision is due to the fact that the contents of the film are highly provocative and likely to incite or encourage public disorder and undermine national security," the letter signed by board lawyer Effiong Inwang reads. "Please you are strongly advised not to distribute or exhibit the documentary film. All relevant national security agencies are on the alert."

Tanko Abdullahi, a spokesman for the board, initially told The Associated Press on Wednesday that the film wasn't banned, but was "denied classification." Later, in the same conversation, he acknowledged it couldn't be shown over unspecified "security issues."

"What is national security for Nigeria is different from that of the U.S.A.," Abdullahi said. "We made that determination because of the content of the film. That's why you have regulators."

The government's decision has seen more people watch the film online. It also has sparked outrage from human rights activists and press freedom groups.

"Instead of banning the documentary 'Fuelling Poverty,' authorities should look into the important questions it raises about corruption and impunity in the country's oil sector and at the highest levels of government," Mohamed Keita, an official with the Committee to Protect Journalists, said in a statement. "We urge Nigeria's National Film and Video Censors Board to overturn this censorship order."

The move to ban the film comes as Jonathan's government, which many voted for believing he would change the engrained interests and corruption of Nigeria's government, has grown increasingly unpopular as extremists carry out bombings and the state-run power company cannot offer stable electricity. During the strikes, government officials put increasing pressure on broadcasters not to show images of protests, which at one point saw tens of thousands in the streets of Lagos.

Today, journalists at a newspaper face forgery charges over a story that claimed the presidency would try to disrupt opposition parties. Security agencies have harassed reporters at a weekly newspaper that wrote about abuses by the military in its crackdown against Islamic extremists. And workers who ran a call-in radio show in the northern city of Kano face charges over talking about rumors surrounding polio vaccinations in the wake of at least nine women vaccinators being killed.

Despite the outcry, however, the apparent crackdown continues, only fueling more of the same apathy for Nigeria's government seen by those featured in the documentary.

"We don't have government. It's a whole big banana republic," barber Emmanuel Tom Ekin says in the film. "They've been coming telling us story all the time, deceiving us. And right now, in our faces, they are still deceiving us."

___

Online:

The "Fuelling Poverty" documentary: www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVq10BwzQoI

___

Jon Gambrell can be reached at www.twitter.com/jongambrellAP .

Drop in Apple shares, weak profits drag Wall Street lower



By Caroline Valetkevitch

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks fell in a broad market selloff Wednesday, led by a sharp drop in Apple shares on worries about slowing demand for its products and weaker-than-expected results from Bank of America that battered the financial sector.

Apple Inc slid 5.5 percent to $402.80 after falling below $400 for the first time since December 2011. A key supplier, chipmaker Cirrus Logic , gave a disappointing revenue forecast, fueling worries about weakening demand for the iPhone and iPad.

The CBOE Volatility index , a measure of investor anxiety, jumped 18.3 percent to 16.51. It remains well below the 20 mark, however, suggesting market volatility is still considered relatively subdued.

Wednesday's losses were the week's second big sell-off, adding to views the market may be starting the pullback analysts have been speculating about for months. The market has had strong gains since the start of year, yet on Monday, the S&P 500 posted its worst day since November 7 following a sharp drop in gold prices.

"After Monday's gold selloff spooked U.S. equities, it seems as though the dip buyers are a bit less aggressive, allowing the market to fall a bit more," said Gordon Charlop, a managing director at Rosenblatt Securities in New York.

"This could also be indicative of a muted risk tolerance and perhaps mark the beginning of a long-awaited equity pullback."

The Dow Jones industrial average was down 138.19 points, or 0.94 percent, at 14,618.59. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was down 22.56 points, or 1.43 percent, at 1,552.01. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 59.96 points, or 1.84 percent, at 3,204.67.

Volume was roughly 7.89 billion shares traded on the New York Stock Exchange, the Nasdaq and the NYSE MKT, well above the average daily closing volume of about 6.36 billion this year. Decliners outpaced advancers by nearly 4 to 1 on both the NYSE and the Nasdaq.

Financial stocks also fell after Bank of America Corp posted revenue and profits that were below Wall Street expectations. Shares of the Dow component slumped 4.7 percent to $11.70.

The S&P financial index was down 1.9 percent and shares of Morgan Stanley , due to report Thursday, were down 1.7 percent.

Besides financials and technology, energy and materials sectors fell sharply along with oil and copper prices. The S&P 500 energy companies fell 1.9 percent and shares of Chevron slid 1.9 percent to $114.81 and helped lead declines on the Dow.

As Apple shares moved lower, the stock's implied volatility shot higher, reflecting more risk for the stock in the next 30 days.

"This continues a trend since December 2012 where the risk paradigm in Apple has changed," said Ophir Gottlieb, managing director of San-Francisco-based options analytics Livevol.

In a notable technical move, the S&P 500 came close to falling below its 50-day moving average. It has not fallen below the level since the end of last year.

Among other tech decliners, Texas Instruments shed 4.3 percent to $34.21. Yahoo Inc declined 0.4 percent to $23.70 after the Internet company reported first-quarter revenue that missed expectations, though many Wall Street analysts raised their price targets on the stock.

S&P 500 earnings are now expected to have risen 1.7 percent in the first quarter, based on actual results from 56 companies and estimates for the rest, according to Thomson Reuters data.

That expectation is up from a previous estimate of 1.5 percent growth at the start of the month, but so far just 48.2 percent of companies this reporting period have beaten revenue expectations.

After the closing bell, shares of eBay and memory chipmaker SanDisk fell after reporting results. EBay was down 2.3 percent at $54.80 while shares of SanDisk were down 3.1 percent at $54.

Adding to uncertainty in the market, authorities said a letter sent to President Barack Obama and intercepted at a mail screening facility contained the deadly poison ricin, according to preliminary testing.

"The ongoing sequence of these terrorist incidents ... doesn't create an environment for good investor psychology," said Bucky Hellwig, senior vice president at BB&T Wealth Management in Birmingham, Alabama.

(Additional reporting by Doris Frankel and Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by Kenneth Barry and Nick Zieminski)

Kim Kardashian, Kris Humphries settle divorce, avoid trial



LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Reality television star Kim Kardashian and NBA basketball player Kris Humphries have finally settled their divorce, avoiding a trial that was set for next month, a Los Angeles County Superior Court spokeswoman said on Friday.

Judge Hank Goldberg approved the divorce settlement for the couple, who broke up after just 72 days following their made-for-TV wedding in August 2011.

Celebrities usually settle their divorces through negotiation rather than at a trial that can fuel publicity.

Humphries, 28, had been demanding an annulment, alleging that Kardashian, who cited irreconcilable difference when filing for divorce, had no intention of keeping to the marriage, which was filmed as part of her reality show.

Terms of the divorce were not made public. Kardashian, 32, attended the hearing, but Humphries, who plays for the Brooklyn Nets, did not.

Kardashian's publicist declined to comment on the settlement. Humphries' spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The socialite started dating rapper Kanye West in April last year and is now about six months pregnant with her first child.

The divorce will be Kardashian's second. She was married to music producer Damon Thomas for four years, separating in 2004.

Kardashian, who stars with her sisters in reality show "Keeping Up with the Kardashians," also has a clothing line and several product endorsements, and was the most-searched person on the Yahoo! website in 2012.

(Reporting by Eric Kelsey; Editing by Jill Serjeant and Mohammad Zargham)

Movie halted, symphony delayed in Boston manhunt



BOSTON (AP) The manhunt for a suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing is causing filming on David O. Russell's film "American Hustle" to be suspended.

Sony spokesman Steve Elzer said Friday that the film's producers are heeding official requests to remain indoors as a massive manhunt Friday virtually shut down the city and some suburbs.

Authorities suspended mass transit and asked businesses not to open as thousands of officers swarmed the streets.

The Boston Symphony Orchestra also said it was postponing its Friday night concert for a week.

"American Hustle," about an FBI sting operation in the late '70s, features Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper both stars of Russell's "Silver Linings Playbook" along with Jeremy Renner, Christian Bale and Amy Adams.

Supplier woes stir Apple demand fears, stock drops below $400



By Poornima Gupta and Noel Randewich

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple Inc's shares fell below $400 on Wednesday for the first time since December 2011 after a chip supplier's disappointing revenue forecast fanned fears about weakening demand for the iPhone and iPad as competition intensifies.

The stock dropped below $400 briefly before bouncing back to end 5.5 percent lower at $402.80, losing more than $22 billion of market value in a single day.

Cirrus Logic, which makes analog and audio chips for the iPhone and iPad, on Tuesday warned of a reduced product forecast from one customer - which it did not name. But 90 percent or more of its business comes from Apple, making it a key indicator of demand for iPhones and iPads.

The surprise warning fueled fears that demand for the iPhone - which makes up more than half of Apple's revenue - is falling faster than expected as Samsung Electronics and other rivals who use Google Inc's Android software flood the market with cheaper phones. Typically, many Apple fans also hold off on buying the gadgets if they believe a new model will be introduced in the next few months.

Apple is to report quarterly results on Tuesday. Analysts say Cirrus Logic's reduced outlook lends weight to arguments that consumers' love affair with the iPhone is waning as challengers such as Samsung vie for their attention.

"This is a tough environment. Apple is in transition between products," said Michael Yoshikami, a portfolio manager at Destination Wealth Management, which owns about 50,000 Apple shares. Cirrus's warning "makes it more likely Apple's not going to surprise on upside."

Since its September 2012 peak, Apple has lost 40 percent of its market value or more than $280 billion - slightly more than Google's entire capitalization - battered by worries about the effect on Apple's industry-leading margins if it's forced to do faster updates of its products to keep up.

Some believe Apple will not be able to sustain its high gross margins as competition in the tablet and smartphone markets leads to lower prices. Shorter product cycles limit Apple's ability to bring down component costs, Bernstein Research analyst Toni Sacconaghi said in a note to clients.

Cirrus's weak forecast follows a 19 percent decline in first-quarter sales at Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry Co Ltd, Apple's main contract manufacturer.

"It's a reminder of weakening demand and the challenges around product transitions," Shannon Cross, of Cross Research, said. "There's not a lot of conviction about what the second half is going to look like."

Verizon Communications Inc, which with Vodafone controls the No. 1 U.S. wireless carrier Verizon Wireless, reports results on Thursday and may offer more clues to iPhone and iPad demand in the quarter.

NERVES

Investors are growing increasingly nervous about Apple's growth prospects.

Shares of other chip makers and Apple suppliers, including Qualcomm, Avago Technologies, Broadcom and Skyworks, fell between 2 and 6 percent on a day that saw broad weakness in financial markets.

Goldman Sachs analyst Bill Shope said in a note on Wednesday that Apple's momentum could weaken further before it launches new products later this year.

Apple, which relies heavily on new products to drive its revenue growth, has not had a launch since last October when it unveiled its 7.9-inch iPad mini and an updated full-size iPad.

The company typically launches a new iPad in the spring, but it is unlikely to do so because of the October update. Looking forward, investors now expect an upcoming new iPhone to power earnings in the second half. The two versions of the iPad are also likely to get an update in the fall.

In the past week, analysts had reduced their estimates for Apple's March quarter revenue on average to $42.53 billion from $42.68 billion. Following Cirrus' warning on Tuesday, some think Apple's results could miss those already reduced expectations.

Apple is expected to report a 9 percent increase in quarterly revenue, with net profit expected to decline 17 percent to $9.59 billion, or $10.08 a share, for its fiscal second quarter, according to average analysts' estimates.

Sacconaghi, who lowered his revenue estimate to $41.1 billion from $42.4 billion, said he expects mixed results with Apple's revenue coming in below consensus and earnings per share largely as expected.

Apple's implied volatility, which measures perceived risk of future stock movement, shot up on Wednesday. The implied volatility for the next 30 days for Apple stood at 43.73 percent, a 16.7 percent increase.

Share price volatility should increase into earnings and surpass an annual high in the next few days, said Ophir Gottlieb, managing director of options analytics firm Livevol.

(Additional reporting By Edwin Chan; Editing by Maureen Bavdek, Andrew Hay, Leslie Adler and Cynthia Osterman)

NBC pulls 'Hannibal' episode after Boston violence



LOS ANGELES (AP) NBC said Friday that it's pulling an episode of its serial killer drama "Hannibal" out of sensitivity to recent violence, including the Boston bombings.

The episode that was to air next week features a character, played by guest star Molly Shannon, who brainwashes children to kill other children.

"Hannibal" executive producer Bryan Fuller asked NBC to pull the episode, citing the Newtown, Conn., school shooting in December and this week's Boston Marathon attack, NBC spokesman Stuart Levine said.

Fuller said Friday that he began talking with NBC executives several weeks ago about keeping the episode off the air. His concern was prompted by Newtown and reinforced by Monday's violence, he said.

Although the "Hannibal" story is unrelated to real-world events, the intent was "to be sensitive to where we are as a nation," Fuller said.

The episode, the fourth for the freshman series, will be replaced by another "Hannibal" hour. Viewers will not see a plot continuity issue, Levine said.

But a "clip package" with scenes from the unaired episode will be available at NBC.com next week, without the scenes of child violence and with commentary by Fuller. That will allow viewers to keep current with the show's larger story arcs, the producer said.

"Hannibal" stars Mads Mikkelsen as the title character, the brilliant cannibalistic killer seen on the big screen in "The Silence of the Lambs" and its sequel and introduced in the Thomas Harris novel "Red Dragon." Hugh Dancy and Laurence Fishburne also star in the drama.

There have been other instances of networks responding quickly to the potentially difficult overlap between fact and fiction.

ABC has delayed airing an episode of the crime drama "Castle" in which a main character, New York police Detective Kate Beckett (Stana Katic), steps on a pressure-sensitive bomb. It had been scheduled to air next Monday, one week after two bombs exploded near the Boston Marathon finish line, killing three people and injuring more than 180.

"Out of respect," Katic tweeted Wednesday.

Last December, after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, the Syfy channel pulled an episode of the series "Haven" that featured a campus violence story line.

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Lynn Elber can be reached at lelber(at)ap.org and http://twitter.com/lynnelber .

Fox TV renews 'Glee' for 2 more seasons



LOS ANGELES (AP) The Fox TV series "Glee" will keep on singing for another two years.

The network announced Friday that it has renewed the show about music-loving students through 2014-2015 its 6th season.

In a statement, Fox Entertainment Chairman Kevin Reilly said "Glee" continues to break new ground as a rare successful TV musical comedy. The show been a music hit as well, with more than 50 million downloads of "Glee" tracks and worldwide album sales of more than 13 million.

"Glee" has expanded from its original focus on the McKinley High School glee club to the college world of Rachel and Kurt, played by cast members Lea Michele and Chris Colfer.

Next Thursday's episode will feature Sarah Jessica Parker. Gwyneth Paltrow and Kate Hudson are among previous "Glee" A-list drop-ins.

China's Internet abuzz about presidential taxi ride that wasn't



BEIJING (Reuters) - China's Internet was abuzz on Thursday over a report that President Xi Jinping, who is striving to portray himself as a humble man, had hailed a cab in Beijing last month. The report was later dismissed by state media as being false.

Many Chinese news portals, which had carried the story, removed it, including the website of the newspaper that wrote the original piece.

The report, which first appeared in the Beijing-backed Ta Kung Bao newspaper of Hong Kong, went viral on Chinese microblogs and the Internet before the official Xinhua news agency stepped in to say it was all untrue.

The Ta Kung Pao later posted an apology on its website.

"Because of our lapse, a significant false report appeared," the newspaper said. "For this, we sincerely apologise to our readers, We take this as a warning, and will return to producing accurate and rigorous reporting for the public."

The story had portrayed Xi, who has been keen to break from the stiff and aloof style of past leaders, as a man who takes random taxi rides and gives moderate tips.

The Ta Kung Pao said that China's new leader hailed a cab in the capital last month to take him to the Diaoyutai Hotel, part of the well-guarded state guesthouse.

Taxi driver Guo Lixin said he picked up two men, one of whom turned out to be Xi, who at the time was Chinese Communist Party secretary and was two weeks later named China's president.

"This is hilarious. It shows that people will believe anything," wrote one user on Sina Weibo, China's answer to Twitter, after Xinhua's denial.

(Reporting by Terril Yue Jones and Eleven Du; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)

Fund set up to repay Maine hermit victims



AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) The attorney for a Maine man who lived in the woods as a hermit for 27 years has established a fund to repay people who think they were victims of burglaries at their cottages by the recluse.

Christopher Knight, known as the North Pond Hermit, may have committed as many as 1,000 burglaries over the years for food, clothing, camping and cooking gear and other supplies that allowed him to live at a camp in the woods of the rural town of Rome, police have said.

Knight, who is 47, was arrested earlier this month while allegedly breaking into a camp for people with special needs to steal food. He is being held on $25,000 bail.

Knight's lawyer, Walter McKee, told the Kennebec Journal the account will pay for "what will be the substantial restitution he will owe for what he took."

"Chris very much wants to make things right," McKee told the Augusta newspaper via email. People who want to contribute to the fund can send donations to McKee at his Augusta law firm.

Lillie Cogswell of Wimberley, Texas, whose camp on Little North Pond was burglarized, said that her family "the monetary issue is not an overriding issue" and that there should be consequences for Knight's behavior.

"The bigger part was all of us feeling uncomfortable and not feeling safe and feeling like someone was watching us in our homes," said Cogswell.

District Attorney Maeghan Maloney said following Knight's initial court appearance Tuesday that she expects he will be charged in connection with 15 to 20 burglaries that were reported to police in recent years. Knight's next hearing was scheduled for June 11. So far, he has entered no plea on several burglary and theft charges.

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Information from: Kennebec Journal, http://www.kjonline.com/

Oprah, Usher, Mayer honor Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees



By Piya Sinha-Roy

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A star-studded crowd gathered to celebrate the 2013 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees on Thursday, as Oprah Winfrey and Usher gathered to pay homage to the likes of Donna Summer, Quincy Jones, Randy Newman and Rush.

Disco queen Summer, producer Jones and comedy-rock singer Newman were inducted along with Canadian progressive rock band Rush, blues guitarist Albert King, hip hop pioneers Public Enemy, rockers Heart and veteran producer Lou Adler.

Television personality and media mogul Winfrey, who said she was discovered by veteran R&B producer Jones when he cast her in "The Color Purple" in 1985, praised his decades-long career, during which he launched stars such as the late Michael Jackson.

"He defines the word legend, he is remarkable and everybody knows it," Winfrey said.

"I continue to be amazed at what goes on in his head ... he's of this time and so far ahead of this time," she added as she present Jones, 80, with his induction trophy.

"Queen of Disco" Summer, who died last May aged 68, was inducted by singer Kelly Rowland, who praised Summer's career for paving the way for female artists

"Her words remind us of exactly who we are," she said.

Summer's husband and daughters were on hand to accept her trophy and singer Jennifer Hudson got the crowd on their feet singing Summer's hits "Bad Girls" and "Last Dance".

Newman, 69, kicked off the night with "I Love LA", joined on stage by musicians Tom Petty, Jackson Browne and John Fogerty and later performed his songs "I Think It's Going to Rain Today" and "I'm Dead" with former Eagles member Don Henley.

Henley, who inducted Newman, criticized the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for its delay in including Newman, calling it "one of those inductions long overdue, in fact, shamefully overdue."

Newman was less critical, saying he was "glad" to be inducted while he was still alive.

"I always wanted to be respected by musicians ... it means a great deal to me that the people I respect are giving me respect," Newman said.

TRIBUTE TO THE BLUES

Grammy-winning singer-songwriter John Mayer paid homage to late pioneering American blues guitarist Albert King, who died in 1992 aged 69.

"The blues is in every undercurrent of the music that I play ... Albert is forever embedded in that music," Mayer said.

Seattle rockers Heart, fronted by sister duo Nancy and Ann Wilson, were inducted by Chris Cornell and performed their hits "Barracuda" and "Butterfly".

"Equality is coming right along. For us, music is the real church, it's a life calling, it's bigger than men and women put together, music makes us all equal and human," Nancy said.

Canadian progressive rockers Rush had the largest number of fans in the Nokia theater, receiving rousing standing ovations as they were inducted by Foo Fighters' Dave Grohl and Taylor Hawkins.

The night's longest speech went to Public Enemy's eccentric rapper Flavor Flav, who giggled and rambled as he talked about the influence of his group's music.

Public Enemy - comprising rappers Flavor Flav, Chuck D, Professor Griff and DJ Lord - were influential in bringing a political and social conscience to hip hop in the 1980s.

"We all come from the damn blues. Let's not get it twisted. We studied the forms of music in DJ culture ... we've always known and paid respect to where music comes from," Chuck D said.

The hip hop collective also sampled music from Summer, Jones and Rush as they performed their tracks "Bring The Noise", "911 is a Joke" and the seminal "Fight The Power".

To be eligible for induction in 2013, a candidate must have released their debut album or single at least 25 years earlier. The ceremony will be televised on HBO on May 18.

The eight inductees were chosen by some 500 voters of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation, which includes past inductees and for the first time, allowed fans to vote.

(Reporting By Piya Sinha-Roy; Editing by Elaine Lies and Pravin Char)

TV's 'Dexter' to end with upcoming 8th season



LOS ANGELES (AP) The end is coming for Showtime's serial killer drama "Dexter."

The cable channel said Thursday that the series' upcoming eighth season will be its last.

"Dexter" stars Michael C. Hall as a Miami Police Department blood-spatter expert who's got his own list of murder victims. The drama debuted in 2006 and became Showtime's first hit series, with a steady performance in the ratings through its run.

The final season begins June 30. It will feature English actress Charlotte Rampling as a neuropsychiatrist specializing in serial killers, and more of Dexter's criminal romantic interest, Hannah, played by Yvonne Strahovski.

Spas for pigs, dogs with psychics: meet the "Spoiled Rotten Pets"



By Eric Kelsey

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Every dog has its day, and for Afghan pooch Aiden, today is for dancing lessons while cats Lucky and Missy are legally guaranteed their nightly shrimp dinners according to their owner's last testament.

These are just a few of the "Spoiled Rotten Pets," a new television series that dives into the world of fawning pet owners who outfit rats in formal wear and pamper Burmese pythons like princes.

The series, which will debut on U.S. cable network Nat Geo Wild on Saturday, follows host Beth Stern as she meets devoted pet owners who go above and beyond spoiling their pets - a venture the network's chief, Geoff Daniels, said was not so hard to find.

"This is about saying that this is more pervasive that anybody thinks," Daniels, executive vice president for Nat Geo Wild, a sister network of the Natural Geographic Channel, told Reuters.

"The show is about colorful and relatable people," he added. "Everybody knows someone like this or does something for their pets to this degree."

Indeed, as the series seeks out the over-the-top pet owner, it also shows they are not alone. After all, there is a thriving market for their spoils of clothing and comfort.

New York resident Cynthia takes time to iron the countless dresses and sweaters that her Yorkie, Toto, wears every day.

"Toto is spoiled," Cynthia says. "I want to do everything possible that I can to make sure that Toto is happy and healthy."

But Toto also has her own psychic, who cautions that the toy-sized dog feels trapped in her fashionable threads.

"She wants to run naked on the beach," pyschic Madrette says while reading Toto's paw print.

"Just once in a while, make sure that she feels that she's being put first ... I think she would really like a mommy-and-me day," Madrette says in her final analysis.

'PIG-TICIANS' AND 'BARK MITZVAHS'

"It's really interesting to see how these people put their pet care above their own," Daniels said. "You consistently get the sense that there's nothing too great for these animals if you see them as family and friends."

Enter Dave and Jennifer, who drop off pet pigs Wilma and Pebbles at a nearby "pig spa" for the night, which will be the couple's first night without them in eight years.

Wilma and Pebbles get the five-star treatment, like Chinese massage from a "pig-tician," while Dave and Jennifer have a quiet but uneasy night as empty-nesters.

Not to be outdone, Diane from upstate New York keeps her 10 rats on a strict vegan diet while spoiling newcomer Vinnie with a special first birthday party where he gets his own tuxedo.

"It's one thing about spoiling dogs and cats, but we're talking pigs and donkeys and rats and tortoises," Daniels said.

Religion also gets its due when New Jersey couple David and Donna give their Pomeranian dog, Sophia, a "bark mitzvah," a canine take on the Jewish coming-of-age bar mitzvah ceremony.

"She's my daughter so I feel like I'm going to do whatever it takes to make her happy," says Donna.

More than 70 guests, including dogs, attend the ceremony under a tent in the couple's yard. But it is not the first bark mitzvah for the rabbi, who says she has done the same for the dogs of comedians Joan Rivers and Roseanne Barr.

Daniels said Nat Geo Wild sees "Spoiled Rotten Pets" as adding a lighter touch to its wildlife-heavy programming, which attracts many more male viewers.

"We are really trying to transform our offerings and bring in more women, especially," Daniels said. "We're looking for differentiation in the marketplace and a more balanced demographic."

Nat Geo Wild is owned by the National Geographic Society and News Corp.

(Reporting by Eric Kelsey, editing by Jill Serjeant and Sandra Maler)

Microsoft beats Street, readies new mobile devices



NEW YORK (AP) Microsoft is working with manufacturers to produce a line of small touch-screen devices powered by Windows, apparently intended to compete with 7-inch tablets like the iPad Mini and Amazon Kindle Fire.

Peter Klein, Microsoft's chief financial officer, told investors and analysts on a conference call Thursday that the new devices will be available in coming months at competitive prices.

Microsoft Corp. is struggling to extend its software into smartphones and tablets as consumers are turning away from PCs, the foundation of its empire. Over the winter, it launched two larger tablets under the Surface brand. And in October, the company took a large stake in Barnes & Noble's digital unit, which sells a line of entertainment-oriented 7-inch tablets under the Nook brand.

Microsoft reported financial results for its latest quarter Thursday, showing a deep but largely expected impact from the slowdown in global PC sales. Investors seemed to be expecting worse after some recent dismal reports on the PC slump.

Outside the Windows division, Microsoft posted solid results from its Office, software tools and Xbox divisions.

Even if the company has a lot of challenges, "there's a lot of good things going on at Microsoft," said Colin Gillis, an analyst at BGC Partners.

The Redmond, Wash.-based company's shares rose 81 cents, or 2.8 percent, to $29.60 in extended trading, after the release of the report.

The software company's net income was $6.1 billion, or 72 cents per share, for the fiscal third quarter, which ended in March. That was up 18 percent from $5.1 billion, or 60 cents per share, a year ago, and beat the forecast of analysts polled by FactSet, at 68 cents. However, analysts have trimmed their forecasts quickly in the last few weeks a month ago, they were expecting Microsoft to post 77 cents in earnings.

Last week, research firm IDC said PC sales fell 14 percent in the quarter, a record. It blamed, in part, Microsoft's new Windows 8, which makes a clean break with the look and workings of old Windows in order to work better with touch screens. Buyers seem daunted by the new interface, IDC said.

Klein said that an updated version of Windows 8 to be released later this year and code-named "Blue," will be in part a response to "customer feedback." Many complaints have focused on the lack of a Start button for those who prefer the older "Desktop" environment, which is hidden behind the new tile-based interface. Klein didn't offer details.

Revenue was $20.5 billion, up 18 percent from a year ago and matching analyst forecasts.

Both earnings and revenue were skewed by software accounting practices. Microsoft offered a $15 upgrade to Windows 8 for Windows 7 PCs purchased June 2 or later. It wasn't able to start recognizing the full value of the software licenses until these offers were redeemed or expired. In the latest quarter, Microsoft was able to recognize $1.1 billion of such deferred Windows revenue, greatly boosting the overall figure.

Stripping out the deferred revenue, overall revenue rose 8 percent, and revenue in the Windows division was flat with a year ago. Even if consumers aren't buying many Windows 8 PCs, businesses are still upgrading from Windows XP to Windows 7 at a rapid clip.

Stripping out deferred revenue and the effect of a $733 million fine levied by the European Commission, Microsoft earned 65 cents per share, up 8 percent from a year ago.

At the company's largest division, Business, revenue rose 8 percent from a year ago to $6.3 billion. The increase was 5 percent adjusting for upgrade offers for the new Office suite.

Microsoft also said CFO Klein is leaving at the end of the fiscal year, in June. He has been in his current role for four years and at the company for 11 years. The company plans to name a new CFO from its finance team in the next few weeks.