Tim Cook brings in Burberry boss to restore Apple's shine

By Guy Faulconbridge and Kate Holton

LONDON (Reuters) - Burberry CEO Angela Ahrendts rebuilt the brand after over-exposure of its trademark pattern alienated wealthy clientele. Her approach: to embrace digital innovation, build a strong online business and tap Chinese and Latin American markets.

Now Apple Inc is hoping she can do the same at the world's most valuable technology company.

In poaching Ahrendts to direct strategy, expansion and operation of its retail and online stores, Apple CEO Tim Cook has set her the task of bolstering global iPad and iPhone sales and returning some luster to the Steve Jobs-created brand which has not launched a major new device in almost four years.

Apple's profit fell 22 percent in the June quarter as gross margins slid below 37 percent from 42 percent a year earlier and its shares, down more than 30 percent since September 2012, are being pummeled by fears of slowing growth, and competition from Samsung Electronics.

"The point of Apple retail is to sell Apple, not to sell Apple products," said Benedict Evans, who covers mobile and digital media at Enders Analysis, a research consultancy.

"What they've got is somebody who can take 400 stores with really great premium positioning and turn that into 800 stores and do that in China, and do that in India and do that in Europe and in Russia and in South America and everywhere else which at the moment they don't really have."

Jumping to Apple - whose $157 billion net sales are nearly 50 times those of Burberry - is a challenge of a different proportion for Ahrendts. The pressure is made all the more intense by Cook's previous stumble hiring a retail star from the UK market.

John Browett, chief executive of consumer electronics retailer Dixons, was appointed by Cook in 2012 to lead the iPad and iPhone maker's global retail expansion. But Browett left after just six months and later said he had not fitted in with the business culture at Cupertino, California-based Apple.

Ahrendts' digital experience means she is likely to have an easier time adapting. While at Burberry she launched a website dedicated to the firm's traditional trenchcoats and introduced webcast catwalks, using the new iPhone5S to shoot the entire spring/summer 2014 show. She also collaborated with Google for a brand campaign named Burberry Kisses.

STRATEGIC VISION

"Clearly she has good strategic vision; she understands and talks digital," said John Guy, an analyst at Berenberg in London. "Under her stewardship Burberry has done well, there has been a lot of organization in terms of the backend in sourcing supply and replenishment."

One of Ahrendts' main challenges will be to boost Apple's sales in China, its second-largest market. Here, analysts say, she will be able to draw on her Burberry experience of introducing less expensive goods without damaging the value of the brand.

Apple launched a cheaper plastic iPhone last month to help make up ground in emerging markets to rivals like Samsung Electronics and Huawei Technologies. Analysts said the phone - still more expensive than many of its rivals' models - was not cheap enough.

"Part of her role from a retail point of view will be to ensure that that kind of premium or added value level that Apple is seen to represent remains intact," said Neil Saunders, managing director of retail consultancy Conlumino.

"The trick is to allow people to buy into the product and make it as mass market as possible, because you want the volume and the sales, but you don't want that to come at the expense of the cachet of the brand."

(Additional reporting by James Davey, Paul Sandle and Sarah Young; Editing by Sophie Walker)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/tim-cook-brings-burberry-boss-restore-apples-shine-141553920--finance.html
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If A Tech Company Had Built The Federal Health Care Website

HealthCare.gov was meant to create a simple, easy way for millions of Americans to shop for subsidized health care.

Instead, in a little two more than weeks, it has become the poster child for the federal government's technical ineptitude.

A dysfunctional contracting system clearly bears some of the blame. But entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley likely would have approached the project differently from the start.

A week after the site launched, NPR spoke to Suzanne Cloud, a jazz musician based in Philadelphia. At that point, Cloud had spent hours on the site, trying to sign up for coverage. "Something went wrong, and it just went to a page with all kinds of html stuff," she said.

This week, Cloud says she gave up on the website and ended up registering by phone. The folks on the phone took all of her information — then asked if she'd like to pick out her plan online or receive information about her health care options via snail mail.

Cloud chose snail mail. "Once I signed up with the telephone, I didn't go back and try the site again," she said.

At 17 days old, HealthCare.gov has become a bit of a joke — even to folks like Cloud, who were eagerly awaiting its rollout.

So how could a roughly $400 million software project that had been in the works for years have so many problems at its launch? One bit of advice from Silicon Valley: Start small.

"It's not as if Facebook says, 'OK, here is our six-year plan for how we're going to make Facebook.com,' " says entrepreneur Ben Balter. "They build one feature at a time, and take a step back, look at how the feature is be used, before they go on to the next feature."

Balter says you build something small, you test it, and when it works for your users, then you take the next step. Right now, Balter works for GitHub.

"GitHub is a social code-sharing service," he says. "Think of it like Facebook for code. So instead of posting pictures of your kids or posting ... on Twitter what you had for lunch, you are showing what projects you're working on."

By sharing the code you are writing, lots of people can critique it, find the bugs, offer ideas and make sure it works. It's called open source, and Balter believes HealthCare.gov should have been written that way from the start.

"Why would you make that code private?" Balter asks.

But often when things don't work in government, the impulse is to duck and cover and clamp down on information.

"I think the key reason is the way projects get funded," says Michael Cockrill, who used to work in startups and is now the chief information officer for Washington state.

He says to get a software project funded in the public sector, typically you have say exactly what it is going to do, spell how much it will cost and when you will finish.

"As a result, you end up creating this culture that is all about doing what you said you were gonna do," Cockrill says.

It's a culture that is risk-adverse and terrified of public failure. You can't learn from little failures or adjust course midstream. And instead of taking big jobs, breaking them down into small tasks and testing for success at each step, a project like HealthCare.gov becomes a giant all-or-nothing gamble.

Cockrill says too often it's a gamble taxpayers loose.

"You've made all these commitments about what you are going to build. What is it going to look like upfront," Cockrill says. "And even if the market changes underneath you, and even if your customers need something different — which you know always happens — you made a commitment a big public commitment, and they've written it into budgets and law."

Cockrill and many others around the country are trying to help governments become more flexible and agile as they embark on software development projects.

"It's really hard to convince people to kind of trust you," he says. "Especially when you are saying, 'Look I don't know exactly what is going to look like — but we are going to do what matters most first.' "

Source: http://www.npr.org/2013/10/17/235739367/if-a-tech-company-had-built-the-federal-health-care-website?ft=1&f=1003
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Google Shares Rise on Strong Quarterly Financials

Google said Thursday that it earned $10.74 cents per share on an adjusted basis in the most recent quarter, besting the expectations of analysts by 40 cents. Without adjustments, net income was $3 billion, up fro $2.2 billion a year ago.

Revenue for the Internet search giant rose 12 percent to $14.89 billion, about $100 million more than analysts had expected. Revenue after traffic-acquisition costs was $11.92 billion, better than the $11.64 billion expected by analysts.

Google shares, which were down 1 percent to $888.65 during the regular session, jumped nearly $70 during after-hours trading. If the gain survives, Google could open at an all-time high Friday with a market capitalization eclipsing the $300 billion mark.

Google's impressive third-quarter results came despite rising losses at its Motorola mobile phone unit. Google said Motorola's loss in the quarter was $248 million, up from a $192 million loss in the same quarter a year ago.

One worrisome trend was an 8 percent decrease in cost-per-click, which is the amount Google gets when users click on ads, but Google more than made up for it with a 26 percent increase in paid clicks.

On a conference call to discuss earnings, CEO Larry Page told analysts that 40 percent of the traffic at Google's YouTube now comes from mobile users, up from 6 percent just two years ago.

Page, who has been struggling with paralysis of a vocal chord, told analysts Thursday that he would not be participating in all of the upcoming earnings calls going forward because he needs to prioritize his time.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheHollywoodReporter-Technology/~3/GsrkidnCm9I/story01.htm
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Ed Lauter, prolific film and TV actor, dies at 74

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Mike Barnes
The Hollywood Reporter

6 hours ago

Getty Images

Ed Lauter arrives at the premiere of "Hitchcock" during AFI Fest in Los Angeles on Nov. 1, 2012.

Ed Lauter, the always working character actor who played the butler/chauffeur of Berenice Bejo’s character Peppy in the best-picture Oscar winner "The Artist," died Wednesday. He was 74.

Lauter discovered in May that he had contracted mesothelioma, a terminal form of cancer most commonly caused by exposure to asbestos, publicist Edward Lozzi told The Hollywood Reporter.

Lauter recently played a baseball scout opposite Clint Eastwood in "Trouble With the Curve" (2012) and had recurring roles on Showtime drama "Shameless" as Dick Healey and on USA Network’s "Pysch" as Deputy Commissioner Ed Dykstra. Earlier, he recurred on "ER," playing Fire Captain Dannaker.

A native of Long Beach, N.Y., Lauter made his TV debut on a 1971 episode of "Mannix" and arrived on the big screen for the first time in the Western "Dirty Little Billy" (1972). One of those character actors whose name is unknown but is instantly recognizable, he is listed with an incredible 204 credits as an actor on IMDb.

In Alfred Hitchcock’s final film, "Family Plot" (1976), the balding, angular Lauter played Maloney, the dangerous, blue-collar man who knows too much about dapper jewel thief and kidnapper Arthur Adamson (William Devane). Hitchcock cast Lauter after seeing him play Captain Wilhelm Knauer, the sadistic leader of the guards who go up against Burt Reynolds’ convict football team, in the classic "The Longest Yard" (1974).

“Hitchcock came out of his screening room, walked back into the office and said, ‘He’s very good, isn’t he?’” Lauter recalled in a 2003 interview. “[His assistant Peggy Anderson], thinking that he meant Burt Reynolds, said, ‘Yes, he is.’ ”

“Hitchcock said, ‘What’s his name again?’ Now, Peggy’s lost; he doesn’t know who Burt Reynolds is? Then, Hitchcock said, ‘Ed something …’ and when Peggy told him, ‘Ed Lauter,’ he said, ‘Yes, we’ve got our Maloney.’ He had actually told Peggy that he wasn’t going to do the film unless he first cast Maloney, the antagonist.”

PHOTOS: Hollywood's Notable Deaths of 2013

His film résumé also includes "The New Centurions" (1972), "The Last American Hero" (1973), "French Connection II" (1975), "King Kong" (1976), "Magic" (1978), "Cujo" (1983), "Lassiter" (1984), "Death Wish 3" (1985), "The Rocketeer" (1991), "Trial by Jury" (1994), "Leaving Las Vegas" (1995), "Mulholland Falls" (1995), "Seabiscuit" (2003), the 2005 remake of "The Longest Yard," "Seraphim Falls" (2006) and "The Number 23" (2007).

It only seems as if he was in every TV crime drama in history, with parts in "Cannon," "Ironside," "The Streets of San Francisco," "Kojak," "Baretta," "Police Story," "The Rockford Files," "Charlie’s Angels," "Hawaii Five-0," "Simon & Simon," "Magnum, P.I.," "The A-Team," "Miami Vice," "Walker, Texas Ranger," "Homicide: Life on the Street," "NYPD Blue," "Cold Case" and "CSI."

Lauter, who went to college on a basketball scholarship at C.W. Post on Long Island and worked as a stand-up comic, made his Broadway debut in the original 1968 stage production of "The Great White Hope" starring JamesEarl Jones and Jane Alexander.

He has three movies in the can yet to be released: "The Town That Dreaded Sundown," "Becker’s Farm" and "The Grave."

“He was a pal, not just a PR client,” recalled Lozzi. “His former stand-up comedy days would always entertain us behind the scenes with his most incredible impersonations. He called me as Clint Eastwood from the set of "Trouble With the Curve" last year. We really thought it was Eastwood!”

Lauter also was known to do excellent impersonations of Burt Lancaster, George C. Scott,James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart.

The Ed Lauter Foundation and a scholarship fund is being established to honor his work, and the scholarship will be awarded annually to aspiring young actors. His family, which includes his wife of eight years, Mia, asks that donations be made to the foundation.

In the 2003 interview, Lauter recalled: “Someone once said to me, ‘Eddie, you’re a “turn” actor.’ What’s that? He said, ‘That’s when a story is going along and your character shows up and the story suddenly takes a major turn.’ That’s kind of neat.”

Source: http://www.today.com/entertainment/ed-lauter-prolific-film-tv-actor-dies-74-8C11408676
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Google's 3Q earnings rise 36 percent, stock surges

The Chrome logo is displayed at a Google event, Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2013 in New York. Google is introducing a $279 laptop that runs its Internet-centric Chrome operating system, borrowing many of the high-end features found in models that cost $1,000 or more. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

The Chrome logo is displayed at a Google event, Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2013 in New York. Google is introducing a $279 laptop that runs its Internet-centric Chrome operating system, borrowing many of the high-end features found in models that cost $1,000 or more. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Google's third-quarter results may have proven that a deepening decline in the Internet search leader's average ad prices matters less than how frequently people are clicking on the commercial pitches.

The numbers released Thursday impressed investors who had been fretting about a downturn in Google's ad prices that began two years ago. Those concerns evaporated, at least temporarily, with a third-quarter performance that exceeded the analyst projections steering Wall Street.

Google's ad prices are still sagging as marketers pay less for commercial pitches on mobile devices, but the number of revenue-generating clicks on those ads is rising at a much faster clip.

The equation resulted in a 36 percent increase in Google's earnings for the three months ending in September.

Google's stock surged 8 percent to $959 in extended trading after the report came out. That leaves it poised to reach an all-time high in Friday's regular trading session.

The robust rally represents an abrupt about-face. As the overall stock market rose, Google's shares had slipped slightly during the past three months. The reason: Google's previous quarterly report in mid-July revealed the deterioration in the company's ad prices was getting worse.

Google's average ad price has now declined from the prior year in each of the last eight quarters, primarily because advertisers aren't yet paying as much for mobile ads because the screens on smartphones and tablet computers are smaller than those on laptop and desktop computers.

As more people rely on mobile devices to connect to Google's search engine and other services, it's driving down the company's average ad price, or "cost per click."

In Google's latest quarter, that measure fell 8 percent from last year. That was worse than the 6 percent drop in the previous quarter.

But the number of so-called "paid clicks" on Google's ads helped offset the lower prices in the third quarter. The clicking volume increased 26 percent from last year, an indication that Google's data analysis is doing a good job matching ads with the interests of its services' users.

Google Inc. earned nearly $3 billion, or $8.75 per share, during the three months ending in September. That compared to income of $2.2 billion, or $6.53 per share, at the same time last year.

If not for its expenses for employee stock compensation, Google said it would have earned $10.74 per share. That figure topped the average estimate of $10.36 per share among analysts polled by FactSet.

Revenue for the third quarter rose 12 percent from last year to $14.9 billion. After subtracting commissions paid to Google's ad partners, Google's revenue stood at $11.9 billion — about $227 million above analysts' predictions.

Motorola Mobility, a mobile device maker that Google acquired for $12.4 billion last year, remains a financial drag. The division lost $248 million in the quarter, and still hasn't made any money under Google's ownership.

In a mild surprise, Google CEO Larry Page disclosed Thursday that he doesn't plan to regularly participate in the company's quarterly earnings calls with analysts in the future.

Page, 40, missed an earnings call last year because of an ailment on his vocal chords that made it difficult for him to talk. Although his voice remains raspy, Page didn't mention that as a reason for skipping the calls. He said he wants to devote more time to running the company and helping Google's engineers build great products.

Google's stock gained $70.21 to $959 in extended trading. The stock has never surpassed $928 in regular market trading since Google went public at $85 per share nine years ago.

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2013-10-17-Earns-Google/id-a5a310d0f82d434c92f6efad1d3ffc24
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Rare whale found dead in Southern California

This image provided by Heal the Bay shows Heather Doyle, director of the Heal the Bay's Santa Monica Pier Aquarium pointing out shark bites found on a beached Stejneger's Beaked Whale that washed ashore Tuesday in the Venice Beach area of Los Angeles, Wednesday Oct. 16, 2013. Heal the Bay plans to study the whale. (AP Photo/Nick Flash)

This image provided by Heal the Bay shows Heather Doyle, director of the Heal the Bay's Santa Monica Pier Aquarium pointing out shark bites found on a beached Stejneger's Beaked Whale that washed ashore Tuesday in the Venice Beach area of Los Angeles, Wednesday Oct. 16, 2013. Heal the Bay plans to study the whale. (AP Photo/Nick Flash)

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A rare whale that has a dolphin-shaped head and saber-like teeth has been found dead on Los Angeles' Venice Beach, even though it prefers frigid subarctic waters.

The roughly 15-foot-long female Stejneger's beaked whale washed ashore Tuesday night, the Los Angeles Times reported (http://lat.ms/1aq1Wnv ). A truck hauled away the mammal, which was being examined at the Los Angeles County Natural History Museum to determine how it died.

The Stejneger's beaked whale is rarely seen in the wild. The species typically dives deep in subarctic waters to feed on squid and small fish. It is believed to migrate as far south as Northern California, and how the whale ended up so far south will probably remain a mystery.

"This is the best," said Nick Fash, an education specialist for the Santa Monica-based environmental group Heal the Bay. "(Previous finds) aren't anything like this. This is a treat."

Males are known for their saber teeth that stick up midway from each side of the lower jaw. However, the teeth of females and their offspring remain hidden beneath the gum tissue.

The whale was alive when it washed ashore, said Peter Wallerstein of Marine Animal Rescue. Its body was covered in bites from so-called cookie-cutter sharks that feed by gouging round pieces of flesh from larger animals.

Because the species isn't seen much anywhere, the autopsies of washed-up carcasses are the best source for scientists to gather information.

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/b2f0ca3a594644ee9e50a8ec4ce2d6de/Article_2013-10-16-US-Rare-Whale-Found/id-1acd7d559dc6475b8fe8b0758a29c730
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The Army's Cybersecurity Training Videos Are Embarrassing and Sad

For the past few years, the government's been relentless about making the American people respect the importance of cybersecurity. Obama's given speeches, written newspaper columns, and issued executive orders to drive that point home. This is serious business! So why are the Army's own instructional videos so silly?

Read more...

Source: http://gizmodo.com/the-armys-cybersecurity-training-videos-are-embarrassi-1446639728
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