A cool front is heading our way.
Temperatures in South Florida are forecast to dip into the 50s starting Thursday night.
Whoo-hoo!
But before that, highs will rise to the mid- to upper-70s before cooling down overnight to the mid-50s with a breeze.
Friday night will be cool again, with lows in the upper-50s.
A similar patter is predicted through the weekend.
Click here for the full weather forecast.
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
Gaming News Headlines – Yahoo! News
Josh Groban isn't one to open up much about his personal life, but in a rare moment, the singer breaks his silence on high-profile exes Katy Perry and January Jones.
"We were madly in love," Groban tells Details magazine of Jones, whom he began dating in 2003 for a period of two-and-a-half years. "It was definitely my longest relationship."
Unfortunately, the twosome couldn't make it work, but Groban says he still longs to find his special someone.
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"I'd love to get into another serious relationship," he says. "I am a real romantic at heart."
When asked about all those rumors he and Katy Perry had a fling, Groban was hesitant (at first) to admit they'd ever been involved.
"We're very good friends," he explains. "We met before her first album was even released, and we hit it off because we're both goofballs."
Video: Josh Groban Turns Kanye West Tweets Into Song Lyrics
When pushed, Groban divulges that he and the superstar had a brief connection, although it never became serious.
"We might have skated on the line of dating," he concedes.
WireImage
Miss America Mallory Hagan sings the national anthem before the Brooklyn Nets game at Barclays Center Wednesday.
No lip sync needed.
Newly crowned Miss America Mallory Hagan belted out the National Anthem at the packed Barclays Center last night before the Nets game.
The former Brooklynite drew cheers and once again promised her adopted borough that she’ll be moving back after her Miss America reign ends.
“Once I came here, I never wanted to leave,” Hagan saidbefore her big performance..
Despite Hagan’s boost, the Nets were hammered by the reigning NBA champion Miami Heat, 105-85.
Six Florida cities rank among the best places to buy foreclosures in 2013, according to a report by RealtyTrac.
Topping a list of 20 metropolitan areas is Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, the Irvine, Calif.-based real estate data firm said.
RealtyTrac looked at four criteria in tallying the “best places:” the supply of foreclosure inventory; foreclosure sales as a percentage of all transactions; the average percentage discount on foreclosures; and the annual percentage change in foreclosure activity in 2012 compared with 2011.
Also among the top 20 metro areas for buying foreclosures is Lakeland (No. 5), Tampa (No. 6), Jacksonville (No.7), Orlando (No. 9) and Miami (No. 12), according to the RealtyTrac report.
The No. 12 ranking for the metropolitan area of Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Pompano Beach was based on the area having a 29-month supply of foreclosures, with foreclosures accounting for 28.7 percent of all sales during 2012. The average price discount on a foreclosed home in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach area was 31 percent in 2012, when foreclosure activity rose 36 percent from a year earlier, RealtyTrac said.
“Markets with increasing foreclosure activity in 2012 took the first step in finally purging delayed distress left over from the bursting housing bubble,” Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac, said in a statement. “Meanwhile, the underlying fundamentals in many of those markets are slowly improving, making it an opportune time to absorb additional foreclosure inventory this year — and that is particularly good news for buyers and investors hungry for more inventory to purchase in those markets.”
The greater Miami area ranked fifth among U.S. cities in foreclosure filings in 2012, with 3.71 percent, or one in every 27 housing units, receiving some type of foreclosure filing during 2012. That compares with a national average of 1.39 percent of housing units getting a foreclosure filing during that period.
Anthony Askowitz, a broker with RE/MAX Advance Realty II in Miami, said the reality of the foreclosure market is more nuanced than such statistics suggest.
“The inventory of foreclosures on the market is very low. It’s highly competitive right now for a foreclosure or a property put out as a quote ‘good deal,’’’ Askowitz said. “Multiple offers is the norm.’’
Indeed, while the huge overhang of foreclosures has long been expected to constitute a downward pressure on home prices, robust demand for South Florida housing and a tight inventory of available homes for sale have so far trumped that force.
According to the latest Case-Shiller report released Tuesday , South Florida home prices rose 10 percent in November 2012 from a year earlier. That marked the 12th consecutive gain.
FBI agents late Tuesday night raided the West Palm Beach business of an eye doctor suspected of providing free trips and even underage Dominican Republic prostitutes to U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J. — who has denied what he calls the “fallacious allegations.”
Agents gathered at the medical-office complex of Dr. Salomon Melgen, a contributor to Menendez and other prominent politicians, to start hauling away potential evidence in several vans.
The investigation is believed to be focusing on Melgen’s finances and the allegations about Menendez’s trips and contact with prostitutes. A spokesman for Menendez could not be reached for comment, nor could Melgen.
Melgen has an outstanding IRS lien of $11.1 million for taxes owed from 2006 to 2009, according to records filed with the Palm Beach County recorder’s office. A previous IRS lien for $6.2 million was released in 2011.
Despite those financial problems, Melgen and his family have contributed at least $357,000 to candidates and committees since 1998, according to Florida and federal campaign records. Of that, the Melgens have contributed about 9 percent to Menendez’s federal campaigns.
Melgen also owns a private CL-600 Challenger plane through one of his West Palm Beach-based companies, and frequently flies between South Florida and Casa de Campo in the Dominican Republic, where he is from.
Menendez has flown on the plane at least once, his office has said, when he was chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee from 2009 to 2011, when the Melgens contributed about $60,400 to the group. A spokeswoman had previously said that Menendez and Melgen are longtime friends and said the senator did nothing improper.
Melgen was first linked to Menendez just before the November elections, when the conservative Daily Caller website interviewed two alleged prostitutes who said they had relations with the New Jersey Democrat at Melgen’s Dominican Republic mansion in Casa de Campo.
After the election, the news died down.
But then, days before Menendez was about to start leading the Senate Foreign Relations Committee as chairman, reporters started receiving a 58-page dossier of emails between a Miami FBI agent and a tipster who claimed that some of the prostitutes had been underage.
“I’m not going to respond to the fallacious allegations of your story,” Menendez told the Daily Caller on Monday when a reporter caught up with him on a train in Washington.
At the time, Menendez had just stepped into the national spotlight along with Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and six other senators who are hammering out a highly watched immigration plan that is the talk of Washington.
Rubio is one of the few big-name Florida politicians who has not received campaign money from the Melgens, who have contributed to Sen. Bill Nelson and Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Joe Garcia, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Mario Diaz-Balart, among others.
The FBI would not comment on the emails, and the agent, Regino Chavez, did not return calls or emails. But sources familiar with the investigation told The Miami Herald that the emails are real.
The emails from agent Chavez show that he tried to find out what happened. But the tipster, who went by the name “Peter Williams,” refused to talk to him by telephone or meet him face to face.
Chavez contacted the tipster Aug.1, 2012, after the group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington referred the case to the FBI. The tipster would not meet or speak by phone to CREW or to an investigative reporter, either.
“As far as the information you have provided, we have been unable to confirm most of it,” Chavez wrote on Sept. 12. “We know that you are providing accurate information.”
But it is not clear what that specific information is because Chavez was unable to interview the alleged prostitutes. Over the months, Chavez tried to meet or speak with the tipster, but had no luck.
Then, on Nov. 1, the agent wrote the tipster again and drew attention to the Daily Caller interview with the alleged prostitutes.
“I think we are at the point where you and I need to communicate over the phone so that we can move faster,” he wrote.
No luck.
Amid the suspicious circumstances of the complaints, Democrats have tried to characterize the reports about Menendez and Melgen as a right-wing smear job.
Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid refused to comment on the possibility of an FBI investigation when he was asked Tuesday about the case.
Said Reid: “Always consider the source. All anyone here has to look at is the source where this comes from.”
Tuesday night’s raid, however, shows that there is at least an investigation tied to Menendez’s longtime friend and ally.
Miami Herald Staff Writer Luisa Yanez contributed to this report.
NEW YORK, N.Y. – Following several delays and much anticipation, the new BlackBerry smartphones will be unveiled this morning in New York.
Research In Motion (TSX:RIM), the company behind the once dominant smartphones, is holding a splashy event in Manhattan to usher in the new devices, which were originally due for release last year.
The debut is expected to showcase the device as well as provide key launch details.
That will likely include its release date, which is expected in the next four to six weeks, the phone’s features and how much it will cost.
The company says the new BlackBerry will be released first in a touchscreen version, while a keypad alternative will follow in the weeks or months afterward.
The new phone launch is RIM’s attempt to regain its position in the highly competitive North American and European smartphone markets, which are now dominated by iPhone and Android devices.
While the first hurdles to overcome are the opinions of tech analysts and investor reaction, the true measure of success — actual sales of the phones — is still weeks away.
The BlackBerry has dramatically lost marketshare in recent years after a series of blunders.
Several network outages left customers without the use of the smartphones they had come to rely on, while the BlackBerry’s hardware hasn’t received a significant upgrade in years.
RIM chief executive Thorsten Heins has already offered a glimpse of some features on the new devices. They include BlackBerry Balance technology, which allows one phone to operate as both a business and personal device entirely separate from each other.
The new BlackBerry will also let users seamlessly shift between the phone’s applications like they’re flipping between pages on a desk.
In the coming weeks, RIM will launch an advertising blitz to promote the phones, including aggressive social media campaigning, which includes plugs from celebrities on their Twitter accounts, and a 30-second advertisement on the Super Bowl, the most watched television program of the year.
Gadgets News Headlines – Yahoo! News
The boys are coming back!
Warner Brothers has officially given the go-ahead to the feature film sequel of HBO's hit-series Entourage, Deadline reports.
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According to the site, the show's creator, Doug Ellin, has already written the screenplay and will direct the movie. The studio is reportedly in the process of making deals with principal cast members Adrian Grenier, Jeremy Piven, Kevin Dillon, Jerry Ferrara and Kevin Connolly.
As of yet, there is no date set for filming to begin.
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Entourage ran for eight seasons (2004-2011), earning six Primetime Emmys and one Golden Globe.
The voice of the Second Avenue Subway might have an Australian accent.
The MTA named six finalists in its search for narrators of the Second Avenue Subway video, a motley mix of Upper East Siders that includes native New Yorkers, a transplanted Midwesterner and one Aussie.
The six finalists were chosen from dozens of applicants who hoped to narrate the informational video, which will be broadcast in an exhibit at the Community Information Center on Second Avenue.
No voice-over experience was necessary, but not everyone could apply.
All applicants had to live or work in the construction zone — First and Third avenues between 63rd and 105th streets — to be eligible for the part.
This being New York, plenty of actors did apply for the gig, including two of the finalists.
But the vast majority of the dozens of respondents were amateurs.
“If you ever see the beginning auditions for American Idol, it was kind of like that,” joked Richard Mulieri, of MTA capital construction.
“You knew right away who wasn’t going to Hollywood.”
One person’s phone audition was a riff on the Twilight Zone, including a spooky over the top voice extolling the virtues of the over $4 billion project.
“It was way beyond what you’d want,” said Rehema Trimiew, an MTA digital medial producer who was one of the judges.
The public will choose one woman and one man from the finalists, whose voices will be broadcast at surveymonkey.com/s/SASIdol.
Voting begins today and will remain open until Feb. 17.
Melbourne native Theresa Ebblewhite doesn’t think her Australian accent will hurt her changes.
“New York is multi-cultural and diverse,” she said.
She decided to audition after a psychic told her she should do voice work.
She thought nothing of it — until the next day when she saw a story in the Post about the MTA’s contest.
“I thought, this is too eerie,” said Ebblewhite, an educational consultant who has lived in New York for nine years.
Scotty Davis — a Screen Actor’s Guild member who has lived in New York since 1970s — drank coffee to warm up her throat before her final audition Monday night at the MTA’s offices in Brooklyn.
She did three takes inside the tiny voice studio, finally nailing it after thinking of her mom.
“I put my mother in my mind, like how would I tell my mother?” she said.
Bill Bunting applied after being urged on by his wife, who had also read about the contest in the Post.
“I know a lot of merchants on Second Avenue [that have been impacted by construction],” he said.
But he is convinced the benefits will some day outweigh the negatives.
“Public transportation is hugely important,” he said.
jennifer.fermino@nypost.com
Screen quality is critical to a great tablet, and in 2012 we saw the quality of tablet screens advance in leaps and bounds, especially in terms of clarity. Here are our favorites.
Barnes & Noble Nook HD
Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5 (Very good)
The good: A light, comfortable design with a sharp screen and a well-implemented user profiles feature. Books, videos and magazines look great and the microSD slot takes some of the sting out of the lack of internal storage.
The bad: App, movie, TV show and game options are thin and there’s no native music service. It’s missing some typical tablet features and 8GB is low for the price. Fingerprints easily sully the screen.
The cost: $199
The bottom line: The Barnes & Noble Nook HD can’t match competing tablets in media library breadth, but as long as you’re not looking for bells and whistles, its sharp screen and comfortable body make it an ideal tablet choice for books and magazines.
Asus Transformer Pad Infinity TF700
Rating: 4 stars out of 5 (Excellent)
The good: High-resolution screen rivals the new iPad’s display in sharpness and clarity. Also, apps launch quickly, GPS works well and its rear camera is the best we’ve seen on any Android tablet. The tablet’s body has the same great thin and light design as the Prime.
The bad: So far, not enough Android apps take advantage of the TF700’s higher pixel count. Also, its battery life isn’t as good as the Prime’s.
The cost: $479.88 to $590.37
The bottom line: The Asus Transformer Pad Infinity TF700 is one of the fastest Android tablets out there, combining an already proven design with a better camera, a faster processor, and a beautiful screen.
Google Nexus 10
Rating: 4 stars out of 5 (Excellent)
The good: A beautifully sharp screen is light, durable and has the fastest processor of any Android tablet. Photo Sphere is an incredibly cool concept. Google’s content ecosystem is only getting better.
The bad: The included charger isn’t fast enough to power the battery while playing a game; even while idle, it charges painfully slowly. There’s no storage expansion option, and apps that take full advantage of the screen are currently few and far between. Navigation isn’t quite as smooth as on the Nexus 7.
The cost: $399
The bottom line: The Nexus 10’s superior design and swift performance make it one of the best Android tablets to date. We expect post-launch updates from Google to make it even better.
Apple iPad (fourth generation)
Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5 (Outstanding)
The good: A6X processor adds extra system speed and graphics power. Improved worldwide cellular compatibility makes the LTE model a more appealing proposition. And the iOS App Store remains best in class, with the widest selection.
The bad: The fourth-gen iPad is otherwise identical to its recent predecessor — same size, weight and Retina Display screen. It’s heavy to hold in one hand, and most older accessories won’t work without investing in a pricey Lightning adapter.
The cost: $499 to $539.99
The bottom line: The latest iPad adds several tweaks and improvements to secure its position at the top of the tablet heap. It’s better all around, but third-gen owners don’t need to upgrade.
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