Danny Puff

NEW YORK (Reuters) - It's official: R&B diva Rihanna says she is back together with Chris Brown, who is still on probation for assaulting her in 2009, saying "It's different now."

"I decided it was more important for me to be happy," Rihanna told Rolling Stone magazine in an interview published on Wednesday on its website.

"I wasn't going to let anybody's opinion get in the way of that. Even if it's a mistake, it's my mistake," she said of her renewed romance with singer Brown, 23, that has prompted consternation from fans and celebrity media because of their history.

"After being tormented for so many years, being angry and dark, I'd rather just live my truth and take the backlash," said Rihanna, 24, adding, "I can handle it."

The couple's reconciliation had been rumored for months, even before the pair unveiled a duet, "Nobody's Business," in November. That track was included on Rihanna's latest album "Unapologetic."

Brown pleaded guilty in 2009 to beating and punching Rihanna. He was sentenced to community service, anger management classes, given a restraining order and is still on probation.

The Barbadian singer told Oprah Winfrey in an emotional interview in August that she and Brown now had a "very close friendship," and that she still loved him.

"When you add up the pieces from the outside, it's not the cutest puzzle in the world," Rihanna admitted to Rolling Stone, which hits newsstands this week with her gracing the cover above the headline, "Rihanna Crazy In Love."

"You see us walking somewhere ... and you think you know. But it's different now. We don't have those types of arguments anymore. We talk," she said. "We value each other."

But she noted that Brown is on probation with her as well, saying, "He doesn't have the luxury of (messing) up again."

"That's just not an option ... And I wouldn't have gone this far if I ever thought that was a possibility."

The interview was published three days after Brown's latest dustup, which involved fellow musician Frank Ocean, over a parking space at a West Hollywood recording studio. Ocean has said he wants Brown prosecuted following the Sunday brawl.

In 2012 Rihanna was rated by Time and Forbes magazines as among the world's and celebrity arena's most powerful people.

(Reporting by Chris Michaud; Editing by Jill Serjeant and Philip Barbara)

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NEW YORK (Reuters) - The smartphone patent wars have lit up courtrooms around the world. Next up: the smartphone case wars.

The makers of protective cases that shield cell phones from coffee spills and sticky-fingered toddlers are entangled in countless lawsuits seeking to protect their designs.

The fights come as the mobile accessories market has gone upscale with some cases made by luxury designers costing more than the phones they cover. Some cases are billed as virtually destruction-proof, said to protect precious electronics from crushing blows or cresting waves.

Smartphones themselves are at the heart of a global patent fight, with Apple Inc battling South Korean giant Samsung Electronics Co over the design of the iPhone and iPad.

But now similar fights are escalating over what swaddles the gadgets, as the smartphone case market has become a roughly $1 billion annual industry, according to NPD Group, a market research firm. More than 100 million Apple and Samsung phones were shipped in the most recent quarter, making for more demand.

The damage claims in the case design fights are tiny compared with the smartphone wars, but the lawsuits could help spur a shakeout in a crowded market.

The biggest industry players sell their products at Apple and AT&T Inc retail stores, as well as at retailers such as Best Buy Co Inc. They have had success in getting court judgments against Chinese counterfeiters and domestic sellers of knock-offs, but the lawsuits involving one designer against another aren't as easily resolved.

Otter Products Inc, the maker of OtterBox cases, has become a frequent visitor to the courthouse.

The Colorado-based company has filed lawsuits in federal court in its home state against LifeProof, also known as Treefrog Developments Inc, and Mophie LLC for alleged patent infringement involving waterproof cases for iPhones, iPods and other devices. Mophie and LifeProof in court papers have denied the allegations.

Otterbox and Mophie did not respond to requests for comment. LifeProof declined to comment on pending litigation. Company spokesman Jonathan Wegner said, however, that LifeProof has programs in place to protect its own intellectual property.

The Ballistic Case Co, based in Florida, has also been a repeat plaintiff. The company has sued rivals Cell-Nerds LLC and Boxwave Corp for allegedly copying the look of its rugged "Shell Gel" series of cases, which feature a dotted back and come in an array of colors.

Designers invest significant resources in case styles and deserve legal protection, said Alan Weisberg, a Ballistic attorney.

The company has sold more than $12 million worth of Shell Gel cases, according to court documents, and they are available at major retailers. Both Cell-Nerds and Boxwave are smaller enterprises that sell cases online. The Shell Gel models are priced at about $35, while similar Cell-Nerds and Boxwave cases go for less than $10.

Earlier this month, a Miami federal judge allowed Ballistic's case against Cell-Nerds to move forward, while the Boxwave case is in its early stages in the same court. Ballistic claims it has so-called "trade dress rights" to the design of its cases and wants similar, rival products off the market.

An attorney for Cell-Nerds, Ury Fisher, said the company does not think Ballistic has accurately described its trade dress rights, and he noted that such cases are difficult to prove because plaintiffs have to show their product is readily recognizable to consumers.

An attorney for Boxwave did not respond to a request for comment.

For patent-based lawsuits to succeed, plaintiffs will need to prove another company is infringing their patents and may also have to show what is innovative about their designs and worthy of protection.

If found to infringe, some companies could be forced out of the market, said intellectual property attorney Christopher Carani of law firm McAndrews, Held & Malloy.

So far, however, the in-fighting among case designers does not show signs of slowing down the industry.

Casemakers have trotted out models they say are tricked out to withstand two tons of force or can be used to film movies underwater. At the recent Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas -- where new case designs seemed to be on display everywhere -- one maker even showed off a case lined in soft orange putty that is designed to become "rock hard" if the phone is dropped.

(Reporting By Erin Geiger Smith; Editing by Martha Graybow and Kenneth Barry)

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TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada's main stock index opened lower on Thursday, weighed down by Potash Corp after its fourth-quarter profit fell and an 11 percent drop in Research In Motion Ltd the day after the BlackBerry maker released a new line of phones.

The Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index was down 35.22 points, or 0.28 percent, at 12,759.22 shortly after the open.

(Reporting by John Tilak; Editing by Jeffrey Hodgson)

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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A California man who has admitted to fabricating Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te'o's girlfriend in an elaborate hoax and playing her part over the phone told talk show host Phil McGraw he felt a deep romantic love for Te'o, McGraw said on Wednesday.

"Here we have a young man that fell deeply, romantically in love," McGraw told the television morning show "Today" to discuss his two part interview with Ronaiah Tuiasosopo, which will air on "Dr. Phil" on Thursday and Friday.

"I asked him straight up, 'Was this a romantic relationship with you?,' and he says yes. I said, 'Are you then therefore gay?' And he said, 'When you put it that way, yes.' And then he caught himself and said, 'I am confused,'" McGraw told "Today."

Te'o has said in a previous media interview he is not gay.

The fake girlfriend hoax involving Te'o, who was a finalist for college football's highest individual honour the Heisman trophy, caused a sensation when it was revealed earlier this month on news website Deadspin.com.

Tuiasosopo says he played the part of Lennay Kekua, the fictitious woman who was Te'o's girlfriend in the hoax. Te'o, 22, had spoken about the woman in media interviews, and reports described her surviving a car accident and then dying of leukaemia in September.

Te'o has said since the hoax was exposed that he was the victim of an elaborate prank, that he never met Kekua and that his acquaintance Tuiasosopo admitted to him that he was the one who played the part of Lennay.

Dr. Phil said in a segment on "Today" on Wednesday that after an extensive interview with Tuiasosopo, he believes Te'o had no role in creating the hoax.

"Absolutely, unequivocally, no," McGraw said, in pinning the blame for the scheme on Tuiasosopo.

The NBC morning program also showed some comments Tuiasosopo made in his interview for the "Dr. Phil" daytime program.

"There are many times where Manti and Lennay had broken up," Tuiasosopo told "Dr. Phil."

"But something would bring them back together, whether it was something going on in his life or in Lennay's life, in this case in my life," Tuiasosopo said.

Tuiasosopo, 22, is from southern California and played high school football in 2005 at Antelope Valley High north of Los Angeles, according to media reports. Tuaisosopo's attorney had previously told reporters his client was behind the hoax.

Before the hoax was exposed, a photo of a woman who was described as Lennay Kekua was presented in media reports about Te'o and his struggles to overcome her death and that of his grandmother, who actually did pass away.

But the photo of Kekua was taken from a Facebook profile of a California woman who said she was unaware of the scheme, according to Deadspin.com.

Te'o told Katie Couric in a broadcast of her show "Katie" last week that he received a telephone call from the person claiming to be Kekua on December 6 - two days before the Heisman presentation. But he said he was not really certain she never existed until Tuiasosopo's later confession to him.

The linebacker, during the Katie Couric interview, presented a voice mail he received from the person he said he thought was Kekua. "Doesn't that sound like a girl?" Te'o told Couric.

Te'o also told Couric he is not gay. "No, far from it," he said.

(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Andrew Hay)

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LOS ANGELES (AP) Lindsay Lohan briefly appeared in court Wednesday for the first time in nearly a year and left with a new attorney, new trial date and new judge.

Superior Court Judge Stephanie Sautner shook her head when she saw Lohan seated with her attorney, just months after the judge had warned the "Liz and Dick" star to grow up and stay out of trouble.

The actress was required to attend the pretrial hearing involving three misdemeanor counts filed after a car crash last summer. Lohan has pleaded not guilty to lying to police, reckless driving and obstructing officers from performing their duties.

Sautner previously sent her to jail, placed her under house arrest and forced her to perform morgue cleanup duty in another case.

Sautner warned Lohan on Wednesday that she could face jail time for a possible probation violation, even if she is acquitted of the counts filed after her sports car crashed into a dump truck.

Lohan was on probation at the time of the wreck and could be sentenced to 245 days in jail if a judge determines her actions in the crash were a violation of her sentence in a theft case.

Sautner, however, won't be handling Lohan's upcoming case. The judge said she is retiring before the next court hearing on March 1. Lohan will not be required to attend that hearing.

Lohan's new trial date is March 18.

Lohan was accompanied to court by her new attorney, Mark Heller, who said he wanted to get the case resolved as quickly as possible.

The judge quipped that it would only solve her legal trouble "on this coast" a reference to her two arrests in New York since being released from supervised probation in Los Angeles in March. No charges have been filed in those cases.

Heller, a New York attorney, was granted permission to handle Lohan's California cases. He said he was meeting with prosecutors to determine how to proceed.

Sautner gave him more time by delaying the trial but said, "This is not the most complex case we've ever seen."

Lohan appeared in court in a black dress. She spoke only briefly to confirm that she was switching attorneys and no longer wanted her longtime lawyer, Shawn Holley, to represent her.

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Anthony McCartney can be reached at http://twitter.com/mccartneyAP

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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Actress Lindsay Lohan will stand trial on March 18 on charges she lied to California police about a June car crash and violated probation, raising the possibility she could be sent back to jail.

A judge in Los Angeles on Wednesday set the trial date on charges related to the car crash and said the court will hold a hearing at the same time on whether Lohan in the incident violated probation from a 2011 jewelry theft.

The star of the movie "Mean Girls," who has been in and out of rehab and jail since 2007, wore a black sleeveless dress and looked tired at the brief court hearing. She arrived in Los Angeles late Tuesday from New York and has abandoned her longtime lawyer in favor of new attorney Mark Heller.

Lohan has pleaded not guilty to three misdemeanor charges of reckless driving, lying to police and obstructing police when she said she was not behind the wheel of her sports car, which smashed into a truck in Santa Monica, California in June.

Lohan, 26, left court without speaking to the media.

The former "Parent Trap" child star has been in and out of trouble since a 2007 arrest for drunk driving and cocaine possession.

Sautner warned Lohan that she could be found in violation of probation even if she is acquitted on charges connected to the car crash because the standard of proof is lower.

Lohan was ordered to appear at Wednesday's hearing because she decided to switch lawyers, firing longtime attorney Shawn Holley this month.

She was arrested in New York on a misdemeanor assault charge on the same day in November that the Santa Monica car crash charges were filed. The Manhattan district attorney's office has not filed a criminal complaint in the assault case.

Lohan's appearance in Los Angeles had been in doubt after Heller wrote to the court earlier this week saying was suffering from an upper respiratory infection and could not appear.

"Glad to see you're feeling better," Judge Stephanie Sautner told Lohan at the hearing.

(Reporting by Eric Kelsey, editing by Jill Serjeant and Cynthia Osterman)

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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A California man who has admitted to fabricating Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te'o's fake girlfriend in an elaborate hoax told talk show host Phil McGraw he felt a deep romantic love for the football player, McGraw said on Wednesday.

"Here we have a young man that fell deeply, romantically in love," McGraw told the television morning show "Today" to discuss his two part interview with Ronaiah Tuiasosopo, which will air on "Dr. Phil" on Thursday and Friday.

"I asked him straight up, 'Was this a romantic relationship with you?,' and he says yes. I said, 'Are you then therefore gay?' And he said, 'When you put it that way, yes.' And then he caught himself and said, 'I am confused,'" McGraw told "Today."

Te'o has said in a previous media interview he is not gay.

The fake girlfriend hoax involving Te'o, who was a finalist for college football's highest individual honor the Heisman trophy, caused a sensation when it was revealed earlier this month on news website Deadspin.com.

Tuiasosopo says he played the part over the phone of Lennay Kekua, the fictitious woman who was Te'o's girlfriend in the hoax. Te'o, 22, had spoken about the woman in media interviews, and reports described her surviving a car accident and then dying of leukemia in September.

Te'o has said since the hoax was exposed that he was the victim of an elaborate prank, that he never met Kekua and that his acquaintance Tuiasosopo admitted to him that he was the one who played the part of Lennay.

Dr. Phil said in a segment on "Today" on Wednesday that after an extensive interview with Tuiasosopo, he believes Te'o had no role in creating the hoax.

"Absolutely, unequivocally, no," McGraw said, in pinning the blame for the scheme on Tuiasosopo.

The NBC morning program also showed some comments Tuiasosopo made in his interview for the "Dr. Phil" daytime program.

"There are many times where Manti and Lennay had broken up," Tuiasosopo told "Dr. Phil."

"But something would bring them back together, whether it was something going on in his life or in Lennay's life, in this case in my life," Tuiasosopo said.

Tuiasosopo, 22, is from southern California and played high school football in 2005 at Antelope Valley High north of Los Angeles, according to media reports. Tuaisosopo's attorney had previously told reporters his client was behind the hoax.

Before the hoax was exposed, a photo of a woman who was described as Lennay Kekua was presented in media reports about Te'o and his struggles to overcome her death and that of his grandmother, who actually did pass away.

But the photo of Kekua was taken from a Facebook profile of a California woman who said she was unaware of the scheme, according to Deadspin.com.

Te'o told Katie Couric in a broadcast of her show "Katie" last week that he received a telephone call from the person claiming to be Kekua on December 6 - two days before the Heisman presentation. But he said he was not really certain she never existed until Tuiasosopo's later confession to him.

The linebacker, during the Katie Couric interview, presented a voice mail he received from the person he said he thought was Kekua. "Doesn't that sound like a girl?" Te'o told Couric.

Te'o also told Couric he is not gay. "No, far from it," he said.

(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Andrew Hay)

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NEW YORK (AP) An online auction of Andy Warhol's works will give a broader audience the chance to own a piece of his pop art.

It is Christie's International's first online-only Warhol sale. About 125 paintings, drawings, photographs and prints will be offered from Feb. 26 through March 5. Pre-sale estimates range from $600 to $70,000.

The auction is being held in partnership with The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.

The works can be previewed online before the sale.

Bidders can browse, bid and receive instant updates by email or phone if another bid exceeds theirs.

The first live auction raised $17 million for the Warhol Foundation's endowment.

Warhol is famous for his silk screened images of celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe and detailed renderings of Campbell's Soup cans.

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Online: www.christies.com/warhol

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TOKYO (AP) Nintendo's president Thursday ruled out price cuts for its new Wii U home console as a way to boost sales, vowing to become profitable again in its core businesses as smartphones and tablets increasingly threaten specialized game machines.

Satoru Iwata, speaking at a Tokyo hotel to investors and reporters a day after earnings were released, acknowledged the sales momentum for the Wii U, as well as the 3DS hand-held game machine, had run out of steam during the key year-end shopping season, especially in the U.S.

But he said no price cuts were in the works. Price cuts are common in the gaming industry to woo buyers, but the move can backfire by trimming revenue. The Wii U now sells for about $300 in the U.S. and 25,000 yen in Japan.

"We are already offering it at a good price," he said.

Iwata said he expects operating profit of more than 100 billion yen in the 12 months ending March 2014, promising that as "a commitment."

But he acknowledged more work was needed to have consumers understand the Wii U, which went on sale globally late last year, as well as producing more game software to draw buyers.

All game machines have suffered in recent years from the advent of smartphones and other mobile devices that have become more sophisticated and offer games and other forms of entertainment.

Nintendo returned to net profit for the April-December period of 2012 from deep losses the previous year, but that was due to a perk from a weaker yen, which helps Japanese exporters such as Nintendo.

Its operating result, which removes currency fluctuations, was a loss of 5.86 billion yen ($64 million), and Nintendo expects that to swell to a 20 billion yen ($220 million) loss for the full business year ending March 2013 as sales of its game consoles fall short of expectations.

Iwata said Nintendo is preparing more game software, including those developed in-house, for the end of this year.

Kyoto-based Nintendo, which makes Super Mario and Pokemon games, lowered its full year sales forecast Wednesday to 670 billion yen ($7.4 billion) from 810 billion yen ($8.9 billion). It also said it was going to sell fewer Wii U consoles for the fiscal year through March than its previous projection. The Wii U has a touch-screen tablet controller called GamePad and a TV-watching feature called TVii.

The company forecasts it will sell 4 million Wii U consoles for the current fiscal year, ending March 31, down from its earlier estimate of 5.5 million units. The Wii U, which went on sale late last year, was the first major new game console to arrive in stores in years.

Nintendo, also behind the Donkey Kong and Zelda games, lowered its full year sales forecast for Wii U game software units to 16 million from 24 million.

Iwata said last year holiday sales quickly dissipated in the U.S. and some European nations, including Great Britain, the key market. He said the U.S. home console sales were the worst for Nintendo in nearly a decade.

He said Nintendo needs hit games to push console sales, and the company remains confident Wii U will prove more popular with time.

"The chicken-and-game problem has not been solved," he said of the need for both game software and machine hardware.

"I feel a deep sense of responsibility for not being able to produce results for our year-end business," said Iwata.

He declined to say what he would do if the company failed to attain the promised operating profits.

Nintendo sank into a loss the previous fiscal year largely because of price cuts for its hand-held 3DS game machine, which shows three-dimensional imagery without special glasses. That machine is also struggling in most global markets.

Shigeru Miyamoto, Nintendo's famed game designer, said what was missing were games for the Wii U that made its appeal clear. The progress in smartphones has also posed a challenge for Nintendo, he said.

"People have to try it to see it is fun," Miyamoto said of Wii U.

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Follow Yuri Kageyama on Twitter at www.twitter.com/yurikageyama

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Research In Motion Ltd. showed off two new BlackBerry phones on Wednesday. They will run the new BlackBerry 10 operating system. Here's how the phones compare with Apple's iPhone 5 and Samsung's Galaxy S III.

BlackBerry Z10 tech specs:

Display: 4.2-inch (diagonal) with a resolution of 1280 by 768 pixels (356 pixels per inch)

Keyboard: Touch screen only

Memory capacity: 16 gigabytes, expandable with microSD card of up to 32 gigabytes.

Price: Varies by carrier, some of which have yet to announce details. Verizon Wireless says it will sell it for $200 with a two-year service agreement.

Size: height: 5.12 inches; width: 2.58 inches; depth: 0.35 inch (130 x 65.6 x 9 mm)

Weight: 4.78 ounces (135.4 grams)

Cameras: 8-megapixel camera on back, 2-megapixel on front.

Video recording: high-definition for rear camera (1080p comparable to the resolution of a 40-inch flat panel TV); lower resolution for front (720p)

Battery life: talk time is up to 10 hours on 3G. Up to 60 hours of audio playback and 11 hours of video playback. Battery can be replaced by user with a spare.

U.S. wireless carriers: Verizon Wireless, AT&T, Sprint Nextel, T-Mobile and others.

Operating system: BlackBerry 10

Near-field communications: A chip lets the phone act as a credit card at some payment terminals and share data wirelessly when tapped against some other phones.

Availability: In U.S. in March. Varies elsewhere, including U.K. on Thursday, Canada on Feb. 5 and Latin America by end of March.

BlackBerry Q10 tech specs:

Display: 3.1-inch (diagonal) with a resolution of 720 by 720 pixels (330 pixels per inch)

Keyboard: Touch-screen and 35-key physical keyboards. Physical keyboard will have back light, with language-specific keyboards such as QWERTY and AZERTY depending on market.

Memory capacity: 16 gigabytes, expandable with microSD card of up to 64 gigabytes.

Price: Not yet announced.

Size: height: 4.71 inches; width: 2.63 inches; depth: 0.41 inch (119.6 x 66.8 x 10.35 mm)

Weight: 4.90 ounces (139 grams)

Cameras: 8-megapixel camera on back, 2-megapixel on front.

Video recording: high-definition for rear camera (1080p comparable to the resolution of a 40-inch flat panel TV); lower resolution for front (720p)

Battery life: Not yet announced.

U.S. wireless carriers: AT&T, Sprint and others.

Operating system: BlackBerry 10

Near-field communications: A chip lets the phone act as a credit card at some payment terminals and share data wirelessly when tapped against some other phones.

Availability: In some markets in April, but unknown when it will be available in the U.S.

iPhone 5 tech specs:

Display: 4-inch (diagonal) with a resolution of 1136 by 640 pixels (326 pixels per inch).

Keyboard: Touch screen only

Memory capacity: 16, 32 or 64 gigabytes, depending on price. There's no way to expand it with memory cards.

Price: Starting at $199, for 16 gigabytes of memory.

Size: height: 4.87 inches; width: 2.31 inches; depth: 0.30 inch (124 x 59 x 7.6 mm)

Weight: 3.95 ounces (112 grams)

Cameras: 8-megapixel camera on back, 1.2-megapixel on front.

Video recording: high-definition (1080p comparable to the resolution of a 40-inch flat panel TV) up to 30 frames per second with audio

Battery life: talk time is up to 8 hours on 3G. Internet works for up to 8 hours on LTE and up to 10 hours on Wi-Fi. Up to 10 hours of video playback. Battery can be replaced by service personnel only.

U.S. wireless carriers: Verizon Wireless, AT&T, Sprint Nextel and others.

Operating system: Apple's iOS 6

Near-field communications: None.

Availability: Sept. 21, 2012, initially in U.S. and selected markets. Expanded throughout the world in subsequent months.

Samsung Galaxy S III tech specs:

Display: 4.8 inches (diagonal) with a resolution of 1280 by 720 pixels (306 pixels per inch).

Keyboard: Touch screen only

Memory capacity: 16 or 32 gigabytes. Can be expanded by up to 64 gigabytes with a memory card.

Price: As low as $99 for basic model, though carriers typically charge $199 with two-year contract.

Size: height: 5.4 inches; width: 2.8 inches; depth: 0.34 inch (137 x 71 x 8.6mm)

Weight: 4.7 ounces. (133 grams)

Cameras: 8-megapixel camera on back, 1.9-megapixel on front.

Video recording: high-definition (1080p comparable to the resolution of a 40-inch flat panel TV) up to 30 frames per second with audio.

Battery life: Up to 9 hours of talk time (depends on network). Battery replaceable by user.

U.S. wireless carriers: Verizon Wireless, AT&T, Sprint Nextel, T-Mobile and others.

Operating system: Ice Cream Sandwich version of Google's Android (at release).

Near-field communications: A chip lets the phone act as a credit card at some payment terminals and share data wirelessly when tapped against some other phones.

Availability: Worldwide, including U.S. in June 2012 and Europe in May 2012.

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