SAARI NEWS: reuters

Altered landscape for Sony, Microsoft consoles

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NEW YORK: Remember a time before "Angry Birds," the iPad and the iPhone? No? 
 
When Sony and Microsoft last came out with new video game consoles — seven and eight years ago, respectively, the companies touted the machines' high-definition graphics, powerful processors and ability to play DVDs, and in Sony's case, Blu-ray discs. 
 
But a lot has changed since then. People are playing games on a broader array of devices than ever before, and they have more options to stream movies, TV shows and music. Connecting with friends online is the norm, not an obscure activity for young people. 
 
That's the world the Sony's PlayStation 4 and Microsoft's Xbox One enter. The PlayStation 4 goes on sale Friday and the Xbox One will be released next week. As Sony and Microsoft once again spar this holiday season over who has the brawnier machine and more enticing online features, hardcore gamers are all but certain to fall for the shiny, powerful new consoles. But what's less clear is how the gadgets will compete for the attention of people who now look to their tablets, smartphones and other devices for entertainment. 
 
"It's turning out that these consoles, in fighting each other for the love of the hardcore gamer, run the risk of failing to capture people in their homes," says James McQuivey, an analyst with Forrester Research. 
 
Both Microsoft and Sony position their gaming systems as entertainment devices meant to take over the living room. The Xbox 360 started streaming movies from Netflix in 2008 and the PlayStation 3, which already served as a Blu-ray player, soon followed, along with a bevy of other entertainment options. Experts wondered whether gaming systems would soon replace cable set-top boxes. 
 
Not so fast, was the reply from a host of other gadget makers. Along came Google's Chromecast, the Roku player, Apple TV and, of course, a slew of tablets. There are many ways to stream movies, TV and music into the home now. In that sense, the Xbox One and the PlayStation 4 are no longer in a traditional, head-to-head battle. 
 
While game console sales have been falling in the U.S., the worldwide video game market is growing, helped by mobile and online games and downloadable console games. Those sales are more than making up for a declining demand for game discs. Gartner Inc. expects the total video game market to hit $93.3 billion this year, up from $78.9 billion in 2012. The research firm sees the market rising to $111 billion by 2015. 
 
Both new gaming systems are expected to be in brisk demand around the holidays. Sony expects to sell 5 million units of the PlayStation 4 by the end of its fiscal year in March. The PlayStation 3, in comparison, sold 3.5 million units in that time period seven years ago. Microsoft declined to offer a sales outlook for the Xbox One through the holidays, but demand should be comparable, says Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter. He expects 3 million Xbox Ones to be sold through December and 4.5 million through March. 
 
Why does the PlayStation get a slight edge? Price could be one reason. The Xbox One, which includes an updated Kinect motion sensor, will cost $500, which is $100 more than the PlayStation 4. In contrast, the PlayStation 3 went on sale at $500 or $600 depending on the model in November 2006 while the Xbox 360 cost $400. Most new game software costs $60. 
 
Dan Perkins, a gamer who's on the fence about which console to buy, says the "price is certainly a factor" nudging him toward a PS4 purchase — even though he was previously an Xbox man. 
 
"I bought the Xbox 360 primarily because I preferred the titles it offered to the PS3. A major contributor to this decision was the 'Mass Effect' trilogy, which was initially unavailable on the PS3 at the time of my purchase," says Perkins, 40, a librarian from Syracuse, N.Y. "Neither platform has the edge on games in my opinion," he says. "In the end though, a big factor will be which system my friends adopt." 
 
The friend factor is why Pedro Amador-Gates decided to stick with the Xbox. The 37-year-old first-time father says he did consider switching, but the PlayStation didn't have a chance. He likes his interface, his username is already set up and his gaming achievements will carry over to the new machine. 
 
"Ninety percent is because I am already established in the Xbox community," he says. 
 
Then again, neither the Xbox One nor the PlayStation 4 is backward compatible, meaning the machines don't play games that were made for their predecessors. That gives players a clean slate to start with a whole new set of games. 
 
"Everyone is starting over to some extent," Stein says. 
 
The console makers' challenge will be to ensure that everyone does start over, instead of sticking with their own game console or perhaps buying an iPad instead of a new game machine. Tony Bartel, the president of the world's largest videogame retailer, GameStop, expects the new consoles will be in "high demand and short supply" due to a huge pent-up demand for new gaming. After all, unless they bought the Wii U last year, people have been playing the same consoles since before the iPhone came out. 
 
"There's tremendous demand for innovation," Bartel says. 
 
Given the choice between an iPad and a PlayStation 4, Sony believes its consoles have an advantage during the holiday shopping season. 
 
"One purchase offers something that everyone in the family can enjoy together," says Andrew House, president and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment. "Whereas the other is a single-person experience." (Reuters) 
 
AFP</div>

NEW YORK: Remember a time before "Angry Birds," the iPad and the iPhone? No? When Sony and Microsoft last came out with new v...

Rain and wind batter Indian coast as "super cyclone" barrels down

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ICHAPURAM/BHUBANESWAR: Rain and wind lashed India's east coast on Saturday, forcing more than 400,000 people to flee to storm shelters as one of the country's largest cyclones closed in, threatening to cut a wide swathe of devastation through farmland and fishing hamlets. 
 
Filling most of the Bay of Bengal, Cyclone Phailin was about 200 km (124 miles) offshore by noon on Saturday, satellite images showed, and was expected to hit land by nightfall. 
 
It was on the verge of becoming a "super cyclone", and was expected to affect 12 million people, officials said. 
 
"This is one of the largest evacuations undertaken in India," said Shashidhar Reddy, vice chairman of the National Disaster Management Authority, who estimated that more than 440,000 people had been evacuated. 
 
But the size of the storm made extensive damage to property  more likely, he told reporters in New Delhi. "Our priority is to minimise loss of life." 
 
In Donkuru, a fishing village in the southeastern state of Andhra Pradesh that is expected to catch the eye of the storm, people said they hesitated to leave because they had small children, despite buses provided by the authorities to take them away. 
 
Amid howling winds, a group huddled at a bus stop waiting for a ride out of town while the wind snapped tree branches like toothpicks and the rain hammered down. 
 
"We're waiting for the bus, but it's not coming," said L. Ram, an anxious fisherman. Nearby, a woman cradled her one-and-a-half year old son in one arm and struggled with a plastic bag filled with clothes on the other. 
 
"I have a small child, so I thought, how will I leave?" asked Achamma, 25, as she clutched on to the boy, Ganesh. At the coastal front of the village, roll after roll after roll of power packed waves crashed onto the beach. 
 
In a statement, the India Meteorological Department said Phailin was packing winds of between 210 kph (130 mph) and 220 kph (137 mph) and was expected to cause a 3.4-m (11-foot) surge in sea levels when it hit the coast. 
 
The weather department warned against extensive damage to mud houses, the major disruption of power and communication lines, and the flooding of rail tracks as well as escape routes set up to flee disasters, with flying debris another threat.  
 
Heavy rains left lush green fields sodden with water along the Andhra Pradesh coast. 
 
"We are ready to evacuate," said Jagdesh Dasari, 35, the wiry-haired chief of the fishing village of Mogadhalupadu, which has 2,500 residents, as the rain sheeted down. 
 
"If the waves come higher, the whole place will vanish." 
 
In neighbouring Odisha state, Muslims and Hindus flocked to mosques and temples to pray Phailin would not wreak the kind of havoc left by a similar storm 14 years ago that killed 10,000 people. 
 
In the first death reported before the storm made landfall, a 40-year-old woman in the state capital, Bhubaneswar, was killed when a tree uprooted by the heavy rain fell on her early on Saturday. 
 
"The wind speed is picking up," said Pradeep Kumar Mohapatra, the state's special relief commissioner. "Some people were earlier reluctant to move. They are willing now." 
 
Families trekked through the rain to shelters as gusts of wind snapped branches from trees. Tourists left Puri, a popular beach resort. Officials broadcast cyclone warnings through loudspeakers, radio and television. 
 
London-based Tropical Storm Risk classed the storm in Category 5 - the strongest such rating. The U.S. Navy's weather service said wind at sea was gusting at 314 kph. 
 
Some forecasters likened the cyclone's size and intensity to  hurricane Katrina, which tore through the U.S. Gulf coast and New Orleans in 2005.  
 
 It also evoked memories of an Indian storm in 1999, when winds reaching speeds of 300 kph battered Odisha for 30 hours. 
 
This time, however, the Odisha government said it was better prepared. Half a million people are expected to shelter in schools and other strong buildings when the storm hits, officials said. At least 60,000 people left their homes in  neighbouring Andhra Pradesh on Friday. 
 
India's eastern naval command, based in the Andhra Pradesh port of Vishakapatnam, was on alert and shelters were being stocked with rations. All leave for government employees was cancelled. 
 
Police said a rescue effort was launched for 18 fishermen stranded four nautical miles at sea from Paradip, a major port in Odisha, after their trawler ran out of fuel.  
 
Paradip halted cargo operations on Friday. All vessels were ordered to leave the port, which handles coal, crude oil and iron ore. An oil tanker holding about 2 million barrels of oil, worth $220 million, was also moved, an oil company source said. 
 
But the storm was not expected to hit India's largest gas field, the D6 natural gas block in the Cauvery Basin further down the east coast, field operator Reliance Industries  said. 
 
Katrina hit the U.S. Gulf coast on Aug. 29, 2005, killing about 1,800 people, and causing damage of around $75 billion. It was one of the six biggest hurricanes - also known as cyclones and typhoons - ever recorded. 
 
Reuters</div>

indian news reuters world Rain and wind batter Indian coast as "super cyclone" barrels down

ICHAPURAM/BHUBANESWAR: Rain and wind lashed India's east coast on Saturday, forcing more than 400,000 people to flee to storm shelter...

Exclusive: Saudi prince to hold Twitter stake, sees IPO by early 2014

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DUBAI: Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal says he will not sell any of his shares in microblogging site Twitter Inc when it goes public, and expects the firm's IPO to hit the market later this year or in early 2014. 
 
The prince, a nephew of Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah and owner of international investment firm Kingdom Holding, invested $300 million in the social media giant in late 2011. 
 
"Clearly the speed they're moving with shows that they would like to IPO sooner than later. I believe it will happen either this year or early next year," Alwaleed told Reuters in a telephone interview on Sunday. 
 
"Twitter is a very strategic investment for us. We believe that it is just beginning to touch the surface. We have invested $300 million in the company. We will be selling zero, nothing, at the IPO." He did not say whether he might buy new shares in the offer. 
 
Alwaleed is a closely watched figure in international markets because of successful investments through Kingdom Holding in companies such as Citigroup and Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. 
 
Twitter has filed for an initial public offer of shares with U.S. regulators, the company said on Thursday, taking a first step toward what would be Silicon Valley's most anticipated debut since Facebook Inc's listing last year. 
 
"With the 300 million customers they have and half a billion tweets a day, the growth potential is tremendous," Alwaleed said. He said Chief Executive Dick Costolo was "very knowledgeable, very much trustworthy". 
 
The market expects the company's value once listed to be more than $10 billion; Alwaleed sees potential for a much higher valuation. 
 
"We hear that the company is valued at $14 billion-$15 billion but there have been trades above this valuation. We believe it might be worth more than that." 
 
LEARNING LESSONS 
 
Facebook's rocky 2012 debut and subsequent share-price plunge chilled the consumer-dotcom IPO market for a year. The stock clawed its way back to its $38 IPO price in July, however, and is now at a record high after touching $45 this week. 
 
Alwaleed wouldn't comment on whether Twitter would choose to list on the New York Stock Exchange in order to avoid Facebook's disappointing experience on Nasdaq. 
 
But the prince said: "In my discussion with Mr Costolo and the management of Twitter, I cautioned them to be very careful and not to repeat the mistakes of Facebook. 
 
"The lessons are not to brag too much, don't be greedy - I mean price it right and be realistic." 
 
He added, "There could be a good surprise for the market, where Twitter revenues coming from mobile compared to fixed devices are way ahead of what Facebook came with at the time of the IPO." 
 
By transmitting news and opinion, social media such as Twitter played a big role in mass protests that have led to the ousting of Arab rulers in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen since 2011. 
 
Saudi Arabia, where Twitter use has been growing rapidly, has spent billions of dollars on welfare schemes to contain discontent and avoid unrest. 
 
Alwaleed said on Sunday, "There is no doubt that Twitter accelerated the process of disseminating news. It has to remain an open forum for everyone." 
 
He added, "I'm totally against anybody who tries to control or censor Twitter or any other social media, even if it is governments. It's a losing war."..--REUTERS</div>

alwaleed bin talal dubai facebook share rate ipo firm reuters saudia arabia news Technology twitter world Exclusive: Saudi prince to hold Twitter stake, sees IPO by early 2014

DUBAI: Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal says he will not sell any of his shares in microblogging site Twitter Inc when it goes...