Sony’s PlayStation 4 could lose to the next Xbox before it’s even released

I love all game consoles equally. My Xbox 360 is used equally as much as my PlayStation 3. The Wii — oh, I’ll just leave it at that. The current generation of consoles is all but over — 10-year life cycle be damned — and new consoles are rumored to be coming next fall. If not next fall, then in 2014. Whatever is the case, Sony (SNE) can’t afford to lag in third place again. Sure, the Xbox 360 and PS3 are neck-in-neck in global lifetime sales, and the Xbox 360 did have a one year head start, but coming off the disappointing PS Vita, “confidence is less high” that Sony will deliver a console next year in time to compete with Microsoft (MSFT), according to Kotaku.

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I want a new console just as much as any other gamer. There’s a reason people are still pouncing on those Wii U consoles and flipping them on eBay. Six years is unusually long for a console to still be kicking around.

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According to the well-informed Stephen Totilo, Editor-in-Chief of Kotaku, the game blog that first broke news on the next-gen Xbox, Microsoft’s “Durango” is ”on the mark” and “Sony appears to inspire less confidence…due to the on-and-off troubles of the PlayStation 3 and the struggles of the Vita vs. how much lost confidence is due to any problems looming for PS4.“

Totilo says “confidence is high that the next Xbox will be out in time for next Christmas” and confidence is low that the PS4 will be right there on store shelves next to it.

The “on-and-off troubles of the PlayStation 3″ Totilo is referring to is the anchor that’s weighed the console down since launch: tougher development due to the Cell processor and less available RAM – 256MB vs. 512MB in the Xbox 360.

In the months before the PS3′s launch in 2006, Sony said the console would be the most powerful console ever created, and here we are six years later and multi-platform games on the console consistently end up being buggier and uglier than on the Xbox 360 in many cases. Cases in point: Skyrim, Mass Effect 3 and Call of Duty: Black Ops II.

Sony’s in a rut right now. It has the chops to build beautiful and powerful hardware that’s a developer’s dream (ex: PS Vita), but at the same time, it’s always launching after the competition nowadays.

If Sony’s learned any lessons in the last half a decade, it better apply them to the PS4. The console needs to offer next-level processing and graphics. It needs to be backward-compatible with PS3 games and play Blu-ray discs. It should be small and quiet. It should have a strong online platform, support a greater array of apps and most importantly be easy for developers to program for.

Game exclusives will always be important, but now that games are million-dollar productions, multi-platform will be where developers hope to reap back their costs.

With Microsoft said to be preparing an “Xbox 720″ and an “Xbox Lite,” Sony can’t make the mistake of launching late or pricing the console too high. A launch in spring of 2014 would mean Sony will miss Black Friday and Cyber Monday, the two biggest shopping days of the year that bring in massive sales.  Ceding sales and market share to Microsoft and Nintendo by launching late would be disastrous.

The PS3 screwed up too many times. At this point, the PS4 needs to be perfect out of the door.

This article was originally published by BGR

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Matt Damon fracking film in Berlin festival lineup

BERLIN (Reuters) – The Berlin film festival on Thursday announced the first movies of its 2013 lineup, and among the main competition entries will be U.S. director Gus Van Sant‘s drama starring Matt Damon and centering around the controversial shale gas industry.

“Promised Land” will have its international premiere at the annual cinema showcase, although it is scheduled to be launched first in the United States.

According to online reports, “The Bourne Identity” star Damon was originally down to direct the movie tackling the practice of hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking” for shale gas, which has raised concerns over its environmental impact.

The film reunites the actor and film maker after Van Sant directed Damon in the acclaimed 1997 drama “Good Will Hunting”.

Damon was nominated for a best actor Academy Award for his performance and won a screenplay Oscar along with co-writer Ben Affleck for a movie that helped launch their Hollywood careers.

Also in the main competition in Berlin is “Gloria”, directed by Chilean film maker Sebastian Lelio, Korean entry “Nobody’s Daughter Haewon” directed by Hong Sangsoo and Romanian picture “Child’s Pose” by Calin Peter Netzer.

There will be a world premiere for “Paradise: Hope”, the final installment of Austrian director Ulrich Seidl’s Paradise trilogy, while out of competition in Berlin is 3D animation film “The Croods”, featuring the voice of Nicolas Cage.

And under the Berlinale Special heading comes documentary “Redemption Impossible”.

The 63rd Berlin film festival runs from February 7-17.

(Reporting by Mike Collett-White, editing by Paul Casciato)

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U.S. faces task of running dozens of health exchanges

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Fourteen U.S. states and the District of Columbia so far have told the federal government they plan to operate healthcare exchanges under President Barack Obama‘s reform law, leaving Washington with the daunting task of creating online marketplaces for at least two-thirds of the country.

On the eve of a federal deadline for states to say whether they will run their own exchanges, a top U.S. healthcare policy official told lawmakers that the exchanges will start enrolling eligible families starting on October 1, 2013.

“I am confident that states and the federal government will be ready in ten months, when consumers in all states can begin to apply,” Gary Cohen, director of the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight, told a health oversight panel in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Cohen, whose agency is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), was among federal officials who testified alongside state health authorities at a hearing of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health.

In written testimony, Cohen said 15 states have told the administration they will operate their own exchanges. He later explained under questioning that the count comprises 14 states and the District of Columbia.

Separately, HHS officials confirmed the count of 14 states but could not immediately explain why Cohen’s written testimony contained a higher number.

Some experts say the number of states planning to operate their own exchanges could reach 18 by the time the deadline arrives Friday. Still, the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation, which tracks healthcare issues, says only two states – Utah and Florida – remain undecided.

That would leave at least 30 states in which the administration would be required to run exchanges, a challenge that is raising questions about how successfully U.S. officials can implement a key provision of the healthcare reform law, known to opponents and advocates alike as “Obamacare”.

“I don’t envy them for the job that they have,” said Dennis Smith, a former federal healthcare official who now heads health services in Wisconsin, a state that has decided not to pursue its own exchange.

“At the end of the day, you’re trying to connect a buyer to a seller. And the fundamental things required to do that are not yet in place,” he said.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which Obama signed into law more than 2-1/2 years ago, is expected to extend health coverage to more than 30 million uninsured Americans. Those who enroll starting in October would be covered by insurance from January 1, 2014.

POLITICAL THEATER

About half of those newly insured individuals would purchase private coverage from online exchanges at federally subsidized rates. Ultimately, the number of people finding coverage through exchanges is expected to reach 26 million, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

The remainder would be covered by expanding the Medicaid program for the poor to cover all adults earning up to 133 percent of the federal poverty level, or about $ 15,000 for individuals and $ 30,600 for a family of four.

Thursday’s hearing provided a political stage for partisan rhetoric about Obama’s health reforms, which have survived repeated Republican repeal efforts, a nail-biting consideration by the Supreme Court and the Presidential election campaign.

Republicans and state officials from Republican-led states complained about compliance costs and accused HHS of delaying the release of vital details and rules needed to move forward on the exchanges and on the planned Medicaid expansion.

“The uncertain regulatory environment and the overall lack of response from HHS are not encouraging the states or the health plans to move forward,” said Representative Michael Burgess, a Texas Republican.

In response, Congressional Democrats and their state allies stressed the law’s benefits for senior citizens, protections for young adults and the sick, and the prospective economic benefits from an expected influx of billions of dollars in federal money.

“The (Republican) move now is to delay implementation under the guise of lack of information,” said Representative Frank Pallone, a New Jersey Democrat.

“The world in fact is not coming to an end,” he added. “The nation will be better because of the Affordable Care Act.”

States that don’t run their own exchanges would opt for one of two alternatives: a federally facilitated exchange that requires minimal state participation, or a federal partnership exchange in which states help by performing certain duties.

Kaiser Family Foundation expects six states to choose the partnership option and two dozen to opt for federally facilitated exchanges. Cohen said the count so far is four partnerships and seven facilitated exchanges.

States have until February 15 to say whether they intend to seek a federal partnership exchange. Four have done so already, Cohen said.

The administration will have to engineer an information technology system capable of processing operations in a way that meet the needs of healthcare consumers in different states.

Experts say the biggest challenge will likely be providing adequate customer service to handle enrollment, as well as fielding a technology system capable of interfacing seamlessly with the system of each state government.

Cohen told the panel the administration is building a website with interactive capabilities and a call center and has begun testing a data services hub to determine eligibility.

(Reporting by David Morgan; Editing by Ros Krasny, Jilian Mincer, Nick Zieminski and David Gregorio)

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With SolarCity IPO, Elon Musk May Get Clean Tech Right

Over the past few years, Silicon Valley has pumped hundreds of millions of dollars into a vast array of “clean technology” companies. You probably can’t name many of them because, on the whole, they’ve been tremendous failures or totally underwhelming. Companies participating in particularly difficult areas such as solar have turned into laughingstocks and symbols of huge investments gone wrong.

There does, however, seem to be one person getting quite wealthy off green technology, and that’s Elon Musk, the chief executive of Tesla Motors (TSLA) and the chairman of SolarCity (SCTY). When SolarCity began trading on Thursday, its shares jumped more than 50 percent in early trading (although the company had lowered its IPO price in recent days due to lackluster demand). Musk is now the largest shareholder in a pair of public clean-technology companies. (Going into the offering, Musk owned 31 percent of SolarCity, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. That would be worth $ 150.8 million at the $ 8 offering price. A second filing said he intended to buy more shares at the offering.)

“It’s possible that Elon’s two clean-tech companies will be the two most successful clean-tech companies in the U.S.,” said Peter Thiel, the entrepreneur, investor, and Facebook (FB) board member in an interview earlier this year. Thiel is an investor in Musk’s SpaceX venture.

Instead of playing in the cutthroat world of solar-panel production, SolarCity, founded in 2006, focused on leasing solar panels to consumers and businesses and making this process easier. It helps people calculate how much money they can expect to save with solar panels, sets up the financing, and coordinates the installation of the panel. Through the first nine months of the year, SolarCity brought in $ 103 million of sales. Its business has been booming, although the company has yet to turn a profit and is likely to see a number of the state and federal tax credits from which it benefits decline over time.

What makes Musk’s clean-technology empire intriguing are the ways in which he intertwines the businesses. Tesla, for example, has begun building out a network of solar-powered charging stations for its cars. People can drive long distances—San Francisco to Los Angeles, for instance—and refuel their Model S sedans for free using a type of superfast charger. Musk has pledged to keep this refueling service free “forever,” and it is SolarCity that helps set up the stations. Beyond this, Musk plans soon to unveil what he’s describing as a “new mode of transportation” that sounds like some kind of solar-powered, super-fast tunnel called the Hyperloop. (He describes it in some detail here.)

Musk helped come up with the business plan for SolarCity, which was then founded by his cousins, CEO Lyndon Rive and Chief Technology Officer Peter Rive. All the men grew up near each other in Pretoria, South Africa, where Musk led them on a variety of entrepreneurial ventures, including selling Easter eggs door to door. Their mothers were born in Canada, and at about age 15, Musk hatched a plan to move the entire clan to the U.S. after first obtaining Canadian citizenship. “Without Elon I would be stuck in South Africa,” Lyndon told me in an interview earlier this year. “His ability to help us leave the country was amazing.”

Lyndon eventually obtained his green card for the U.S. through his skills as an underwater hockey player. (Yes, this sport exists.) “The U.S. has this green card category for people with exceptional abilities, like if you’re really good at sports or an actor,” Lyndon says. “I’ve been playing the sport since I was 14, and to get the exception you have to prove that you’re one of the best players in the world.” Both Lyndon and his wife have played for the U.S. National Underwater Hockey team.

Once in the U.S., the Rive brothers started a data center software company called Everdream, which Musk bankrolled. Dell (DELL) eventually acquired the company for $ 120 million. The cousins took the money, gave their next venture a think, and all settled on SolarCity.

Both Tesla and SolarCity have their challenges. Tesla has just started pumping out its new Model S sedan at a regular rate. The good news is that it has thousands of back orders to fill. The bad news is that it needs to produce the machines profitability and reliably. Earlier this month, Musk revealed that Tesla had enjoyed a week of positive cash flow. Still, Tesla remains one of the most shorted stocks on the market, with big-time investors betting that Musk will fail. Mitt Romney drove this point home during the presidential debates, describing Tesla as a “loser.”

SolarCity has installed panels at more than 45,000 buildings and been at the forefront of an era when getting this type of technology put on a home or office became much, much easier. “Clean energy has taken a big hit, primarily on the solar side, because of a lot of the companies there were producing a commodity,” Lyndon says, referring to the solar-panel and substrate makers. “The stocks were overhyped because of overdemand and undersupply, and then supply caught up. This should not be a measurement of the market’s willingness to adopt clean energy. The market adoption is almost doubling every year.”

Businessweek.com — Top News

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Cuban lawmakers meet to consider economy, budget

HAVANA (AP) — Cuban lawmakers are holding the second of their twice-annual sessions with a year-end report expected on the state of the country’s economy.

Legislators are also to approve next year’s budget.

Cuban leaders have sometimes used the parliamentary gatherings to make important announcements or policy statements.

Observers will be watching for word on the progress of President Raul Castro‘s economic reform plan and efforts to promote younger leaders.

The unicameral parliament will reconvene in February with a new membership following elections. It is then expected to name Castro to another five-year term.

State-run media said Castro presided over Thursday’s session.

It was not open to international journalists.

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Verizon Offering $5 Shared 4G Plan for Samsung Galaxy Camera

Imagine the powerful Samsung Galaxy S III smartphone, except that it can’t make phone calls and its backplate has been replaced by a digital camera — handgrip, zoom lens, and all. That’s basically the Samsung Galaxy Camera in a nutshell, and whether it’s a small, awkwardly-shaped Android tablet or a digital camera that you can play Modern Combat 3 on depends on how you look at it.

When the Galaxy Camera launched last month, it was only available in white, and cost $ 499 on AT&T’s network with a month-to-month data plan. But on Dec. 13, it launches on Verizon’s network, in both white and black. The Verizon Galaxy Camera costs $ 50 more up front, but in return it has 4G LTE instead of HSPA+, and Verizon is offering a “promotional price” for the monthly charge: Only $ 5 to add it to a Share Everything plan, instead of the usual $ 10 tablet rate.

A 4G digital camera

While it’s capable of functioning as an Android tablet (or game machine), the biggest reason for the Samsung Galaxy Camera’s 4G wireless Internet is so it can automatically upload photos it takes. Apps such as Dropbox, Photobucket, and Ubuntu One offer a limited amount of online storage space for free, where the Galaxy Camera can save photos without anyone needing to tell it to. Those photos can then be accessed at home, or on a tablet or laptop.

Most smartphones are able to do this already, but few (with the possible exception of the Windows Phone powered Nokia Lumia 920) are able to take photos as high-quality as the Galaxy Camera’s.

Not as good of a deal as it sounds

Dropbox is offering two years’ worth of 50 GB of free online storage space for photos and videos, to anyone who buys a Samsung Galaxy Camera from AT&T or Verizon. (The regular free plan is only 2 GB.)

The problem is, you may need that much space. The photos taken by the Galaxy Camera’s 16 megapixel sensor take up a lot more space, at maximum resolution, than ordinary smartphone snapshots do. Those camera uploads can eat through a shared data plan, and with Verizon charging a $ 15 per GB overage fee (plus the $ 50 extra up-front on top of what AT&T charges) it may make up for the cheaper monthly cost.

On top of that, the Galaxy Camera’s photos are basically on par with a $ 199 digital camera’s — you pay a large premium to combine that kind of point-and-shoot with the hardware equivalent of a high-end smartphone.

It does run Android, though, right?

The Galaxy Camera uses Samsung‘s custom software for its camera app, and lacks a normal phone dialer app. Beyond that, though, it runs the same Android operating system found on smartphones, and can run all the same games and apps.

Some apps don’t work the same on the Galaxy Camera as they do on a smartphone, however. Apps which only run in portrait mode, for instance, require you to hold the camera sideways to use them (especially unpleasant when they’re camera apps). And while it can make voice and even video calls over Skype, it lacks a rear-facing camera or the kind of speaker you hold up close to your ear. So you may end up making speakerphone calls and filming the palm of your hand.

Jared Spurbeck is an open-source software enthusiast, who uses an Android phone and an Ubuntu laptop PC. He has been writing about technology and electronics since 2008.
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Documents: Prisoner plotted to kill Justin Bieber

LAS CRUCES, N.M. (AP) — An imprisoned man whose infatuation with Justin Bieber included a tattoo of the pop star on his leg has told investigators in New Mexico he hatched a plot to kill him.

Court documents in a New Mexico district court say Dana Martin told investigators he persuaded a man he met in prison and the man’s nephew to kill Bieber, Bieber’s bodyguard and two others not connected to the pop star.

He told investigators that Mark Staake and Tanner Ruane headed east, planning to be near a Bieber concert scheduled in New York City. They missed a turn and crossed into Canada from Vermont. Staake was arrested on an outstanding warrant. Ruane was arrested later.

The two men face multiple charges stemming for the alleged plot.

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Mind-body education helps irritable bowel syndrome

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Patients who go through a mind-body educational course are better able to manage irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), according to a new study.

The benefits of the course were modest, about as large as what are typically seen from taking medications, said Dr. Emeran Mayer, the senior author of the study and a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Medicine.

The program doesn’t work for everybody, said Mayer, but for others “it changed their lives.”

The researchers couldn’t describe exactly how patients’ lives were changed, but those in the study reported having somewhat less severe symptoms and a higher quality of life after they went through the program.

Irritable bowel syndrome is a collection of symptoms, including stomach pain and diarrhea, that don’t have a known inflammatory component like inflammatory bowel disease.

According to Mayer’s study, published in Alimentary Pharmacology and Therapeutics, up to 15 percent of people experience IBS.

Although fiber supplements, antidiarrheal drugs and antidepressants can be used to ease some of the symptoms of IBS, there is no cure.

Some studies have found success with talk therapy, meditation and hypnosis (see Reuters Health reports of November 1, 2011 http://reut.rs/uOYJ8l, June 29, 2011 http://reut.rs/kbJOwu, and May 4, 2010 http://reut.rs/h2R0Ac).

In the current study, Mayer and his colleagues developed a group education program, in which patients attended two-hour sessions once a week for five weeks. The discussions centered on the role of the brain in regulating digestion, how responses to stressful events can affect IBS, and strategies to better manage symptoms.

The researchers compared the symptoms, quality of life, and mental health between 34 people who went through the course to 35 patients who were told they were on a wait list.

By the end of the sessions, patients reported that the severity of their symptoms dropped from about 10 down to about 8 on a 20-point scale. And three months after the program ended, these patients reported that the severity of their symptoms was at about 7.

In comparison, the wait-listed group reported that their symptoms went from about 13 to about 11 at the end of five weeks, and down to about 10 three months later.

The researchers could not describe just what these changes mean in day-to-day terms.

Similarly, the quality of life for patients in the education group rose from about 67 to nearly 76 on a 100-point scale by the end of the sessions, whereas the quality of life reported by the wait-listed group had a small drop from about 64 to about 62.

Patients in the mind-body course also showed some signs of better coping skills. For instance, people were less likely make the worst out of a given situation if they had gone through the sessions.

ENOUGH THERAPISTS?

The findings are “part of larger set of data that says that the brain seems to be really important in the brain-gut interactions as they relate to IBS symptoms,” said Jeffrey Lackner, a professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo who was not involved in the study.

Lackner said it’s not entirely clear yet how meaningful the improvements on these measures will be to people’s everyday lives. He said that future research should explore just how much, in a practical way, patients’ lives change.

The changes seen after the educational program are not huge, Mayer said, but they would be noticeable to the patients. “I would prefer to see much larger changes,” he told Reuters Health.

Dr. Arnold Wald, a professor of medicine at the University of Wisconsin who was not involved in the study, said he’s not surprised to see that the program made some difference to people’s illness.

He explained that one of the premises of the mind-body approach to treating IBS “is that the mind and the body are linked, physically, neurologically, as well as emotionally, and that things that affect the mind can affect the gut and vice versa. So if you can do something to alleviate mind stressors, you can improve body functions.”

“Instead of when symptoms happen to them, saying, ‘I’m going to have the worst abdominal pain of my life and I’m not going to make it to this meeting,’…they can say, ‘I know about stress, I can rationally implement specific steps” to reduce it, Mayer said.

But whether such treatments will reach large numbers of people is unclear. Lackner said there are few therapists in the U.S. who focus on IBS.

Mayer’s group is developing online programs to help make his approach more accessible.

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/U8hjKn Alimentary Pharmacology and Therapeutics, online December 3, 2012.

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The Hobbit: Richard Armitage Talks Preparations For Playing Thorin Oakenshield

British actor Richard Armitage admitted it wasn’t a walk in the park to play a J.R.R. Tolkien character in Peter Jackson’s reimagining of “The Hobbit,” the first installment of which is on its way into theaters.

Upon touching down in New Zealand, where the trilogy was shot, the cast had a lot of character preparation to do.

PLAY IT NOW: Martin Freeman Discusses The Hobbit’s ‘Good Chemistry’ & Playing Bilbo Baggins

“We arrived in February 2011 and we went straight into a training program, which was called ‘Dwarf Bootcamp,’ which was literally boots — these huge boots. We learned how to walk, we wrestled with each other, we did archery together, we did sword fighting, hammer fighting, horse riding — everything you could possibly think of,” Richard, who plays Thorin Oakenshield in the film told Access Hollywood at the film’s junket.

In addition, the cast, which includes his former “Cold Feet” co-star James Nesbitt as Bofur, found ways to get to know each other better off set.

VIEW THE PHOTOS: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey — New York City Premiere

“We went round to each other’s houses and we cooked food together, we went to the pub and got drunk together, so there was an incredibly great bonding time between the dwarves,” he said.

Richard had plenty of experience sword fighting and horse riding in the BBC America series “Robin Hood,” but it was something else that came in handy during the long days on set.

“I’d done a number of shows where I’d had to use sword fighting and I’d also done horse riding. I’d also pulled guns out of my pocket. That was less useful,” he laughed, likely referring to his recent role in the PBS-import series “MI-5,” where he played a British spy. “But, yeah, you draw on everything. I’d worked at the Royal Shakespeare Company, so the vocal work was really useful to kind of pull that from there. I’d worked in a circus, there were… all sorts of things that were really useful, but the one thing that I do have — for lack of talent — is stamina and that’s the one thing I think everybody needed on this job.”

VIEW THE PHOTOS: Meet ‘The Hobbit’ Cast!

An imagination was useful also, but Richard said what turned out on the big screen was still wilder – and more beautiful – than he dreamed of.

“So many moments… Actually, apart from the eagles — which every single time I’ve seen this film absolutely blows my mind and I can barely keep the tears back and [it has] nothing to do with the pathos of the scene, just that feeling of flight moves me — is the throne of Aragorn, in the beginning of the prologue,” he told Access of the moment that moved him most. “When it got to [filming] that scene, I walked on and… it was just a green cross on the floor with a tiny green chair… [But in the film], they just made this incredible, almost space aged, sort of suspended seat in the middle of this stalagmite. It just blows my mind when I see that.”

VIEW THE PHOTOS: The Brit Pack: Hot Shots Of Stars From The UK!

“The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” hits theaters on December 14, 2012, followed by “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug,” on December 13, 2013 and “The Hobbit: There and Back Again,” on July 18, 2014.

– Jolie Lash

Copyright 2012 by NBC Universal, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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AP PHOTOS: Top 10 Search Trends of 2012

NEW YORK (AP) — From the tragic to the downright silly, millions of people searched the Web in 2012 to find out about a royal princess, the latest iPad, a record-breaking skydiver and the death of a pop star.

Google released its 12th annual “zeitgeist” report on Wednesday. The company calls it “an in-depth look at the spirit of the times as seen through the billions of searches on Google over the past year.”

Here’s an Associated Press photo gallery of the top ten trending searches of 2012.

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