Twitter introduces 'in-tweet' abuse button after complaints

Twitter has revised its guidelines around abusive behavior following bomb and rape threats made against several prominent female users of the service in the U.K.

"We want people to feel safe on Twitter, and we want the Twitter Rules to send a clear message to anyone who thought that such behavior was, or could ever be, acceptable," wrote Del Harvey, Twitter senior director for trust and safety, and U.K. General Manager Tony Wang, in a blog post on Saturday.

The company is also modifying its interface to make reporting threats and abuse easier. Although users could report abusive behavior before, Twitter is streamlining that procedure by creating a button within tweets that allows people to file a direct report, the officials wrote.

Users have been referred to Twitter's Help Center. The button has been introduced in the latest version of Twitter's iOS application and on its mobile site. Next month, the button will appear on its Android application and on Twitter.com, they wrote.

The BBC reported on Sunday that police were investigating eight bomb and rape-related threats made over the social networking service.

On Saturday, Wang wrote "I personally apologize to the women who have experienced abuse on Twitter and for what they have gone through."

"The abuse they've received is simply not acceptable. It's not acceptable in the real world, and it's not acceptable on Twitter," he continued in another tweet.

Twitter also plans to add more staff to its teams that handle abuse reports and is "exploring new ways of using technology to improve everyone's experience on Twitter," Harvey and Wang wrote.

What's next for Dish after losing out on Sprint?

As the dust settles after SoftBank's US$21.6 billion acquisition of Sprint, losing bidder Dish Network may be just getting started at stirring up the U.S. mobile industry.

The satellite TV and Internet provider tried to buy Sprint and Clearwire but failed in both efforts when SoftBank closed its own deal to become the third-biggest mobile operator in the U.S. But led by an aggressive chairman and facing a lackluster satellite TV industry, Dish still has incentives to break into mobile and may do it through a new type of partnership or network, analysts say.

Mobile services and apps are growing a lot faster than TV or relatively slow, expensive satellite Internet. That's partly why Dish has amassed two chunks of land-based mobile spectrum and may be trying to scoop up more. Spectrum is the lifeblood of mobile, and Dish seems intent on becoming a player one way or another.

"If they don't have some form of a wireless play, then it's very hard for them to survive longer term," said Chetan Sharma, founder of Chetan Sharma Consulting. That's because consumers are increasingly watching video online rather than over broadcast, cable or satellite TV. In fact, the U.S. consumer satellite industry may soon shrink, with Dish possibly acquiring DirecTV, analysts say.

Dish has two kinds of spectrum that are approved for commercial mobile use: a block of frequencies it bought in the FCC's 700MHz auction in 2008, and the so-called AWS-4 frequencies it acquired by buying two bankrupt satellite companies in 2011. If Dish succeeds in buying another bankrupt satellite company, LightSquared, it would have yet another set of frequencies it might be able to use for cellular services. Dish Chairman Charlie Ergen reportedly has already bought a large part of LightSquared's debt, and Dish is now offering $2.2 billion for the company.

But in the cellular world, Dish isn't likely to build its own network, a project that would cost billions and might take years. Instead, the company will probably keep trying to buy or partner with an existing operator, analysts say. That would be a quicker and cheaper way to put its frequencies to work, which the company will have to do in order to keep its spectrum licenses.

An existing carrier could add equipment for Dish's spectrum to its cell sites and then offer new devices to its customers to take advantage of those bands. Dish's video business could also be a plus, with opportunities to bundle or cross-promote it with mobile services.

"The logical next step for Dish would be to partner with a service provider like T-Mobile to build out in their spectrum," said Phil Marshall of Tolaga Research. Though AT&T is also considered a candidate to work with Dish, analysts say fourth-place T-Mobile is the most likely candidate because it has the most to gain.

However, if it's looking to make a deal, Dish doesn't hold all the cards. Sprint is now bigger and richer than it used to be, but it still has only about half as many customers as its bigger rivals. Some analysts expect Sprint to make a grab for T-Mobile, finally making Sprint a powerhouse to truly rival AT&T and Verizon Wireless. A behemoth like that wouldn't need Dish's spectrum.

To head off that possibility, Dish is likely to bid for T-Mobile itself, and soon, according to Sharma.

"If Dish is really serious about the wireless market it has to make a move in the next six months. Otherwise, as time goes on, SoftBank's positioning to acquire T-Mobile becomes stronger," Sharma said. He thinks Dish knows this and sparked bidding wars for Sprint and Clearwire just to make SoftBank pay more for its entry into the U.S.

Having put together a $25.5 billion bid for Sprint, Dish could probably afford to buy the smaller T-Mobile. But even if it did, Sharma thinks the buyouts wouldn't end there. Most countries' mobile industries consolidate down to three main players, and the U.S. is likely to follow suit, he said. In time, Sprint might turn the tables on its former suitor and buy out the combined Dish and T-Mobile.

Dish also has another asset that might come into play in a partnership or acquisition, according to analyst Tim Farrar of TMF Associates. That's the satellite dishes on top of current Dish subscribers' homes.

Here's how those might come into play, according to Farrar:

Dish's AWS-4 spectrum would be hard to use for service directly to cellphones because other carriers don't use it, he said. "Dish doesn't want to have to go and pay Apple to put AWS-4 on the next iPhone," Farrar said.

Instead, Dish could use that spectrum for a fixed wireless broadband service to the homes of its current subscribers, which they would receive on a modified version of the satellite dishes they already have on their roofs. Equipped with an added antenna for the new service, those dishes could receive signals from large AWS-4 cell towers placed five to eight miles apart, Farrar said.

Clearwire tried a similar approach with its WiMax network and an earlier, pre-standard system, but it needed more towers because it had to penetrate walls to reach indoor modems, he said. Dish's outdoor gear is perfectly positioned, he said. "The main gain you've got is that you're outside and on the roof," Farrar said. The dishes already have coaxial cable going into the homes, so there's no need to rewire, he said.

Meanwhile, the modified dishes could also serve as small cell towers providing cellular service in the areas around homes, with the longer-range network serving as backhaul, he said. That network of small cells could either use spectrum that Dish acquired by buying a mobile operator or host the spectrum of a partner carrier. AT&T or T-Mobile might pay good money to get access to all those dishes, Farrar said.

"Even without owning a mobile company, Dish could effectively be a tower company," he said. If just 10 percent of its customers agreed to have the service operate from their roofs, Dish could offer a carrier 1.4 million new cell sites for better coverage and capacity. "It's purely an issue of finding the right partner and the right commercial deal to make this happen."

Even if none of these schemes works out, today's red-hot mobile market will probably be a winner for Dish, which bought its desirable 700MHz spectrum five years ago and persuaded the government to let it use former satellite bands for terrestrial mobile.

"If everything fails, they might just sell the spectrum," Recon's Entner said.

ICO to pay back 250,000 fine after Scottish Borders Council wins appeal

The ICO has suffered a highly unusual and embarrassing reverse after a £250,000 ($375,000) fine it imposed on Scottish Borders Council (SBC) for carelessly disposing of paper records was ruled excessive by the Information Rights Tribunal.

Appeals against fines by the Inormation Commissioner are the exception and decisions against fines, especially ones as large as that levied on the Council last September, unheard of.

The original breach occurred in September 2011 when a member of the public discovered what turned out to be files containing personal data of 676 SBC employees in a supermarket paper recycling bank.

It later emerged that along with another 172 files, the records had been discarded by a third-party firm hired to digitise the Council's records. The firm had used public recycling banks as part of this contract for up to seven years before the discovery.

Two two issues that probably upped the fine to the £250,000 level could have included this unusually long period of time and the fact that the breach was only discovered by chance, both of which suggested a lack of system and oversight.

Neither seems to have impressed the Tribunal, which has now overturned the ruling and asked the ICO to pay back the £200,000 of the fine already handed over by the Council, the remaining £50,000 having been waived for early payment.

“I am extremely pleased with the outcome and have always strongly believed that the monetary penalty notice issued by the ICO in this case was unjust and disproportionate,” Council executive Tracey Logan said.

“Of course, I acknowledge that there were gaps in our processes in this case - but we have taken significant steps to address these since the breach to ensure data protection continues to be a high priority across the Council,” she said.

In comments to the BBC, the ICO accepted that the Tribunal had not been convinced that the breach had led to actual harm to the individuals concerned.

"We are disappointed with the result and await the full ruling from the tribunal confirming the reasons for its decision, before deciding whether to appeal," a spokesperson was quoted as saying.

"We do not take the decision to issue a monetary penalty lightly and follow a thorough process before serving an organisation with a penalty notice.

"The tribunal agreed with us that the breach, which led to over 600 pension records being found in an overfilled paper recycling bank in a supermarket car park, was a serious one, but we were unable to satisfy them that it was likely to lead to substantial damage or substantial distress being caused to the individuals affected."

The ICO can console itself that a separate appeal by Sony over a £250,000 fine for the infamous and vast hack of its systems in 2011 was rejected in the Information Commissioner's favour only days before the Scottish Borders Council ruling.

Given the scale of that breach, the appeal always seemed like a long shot by Sony. Most of the ICO's notable rulings are against public sector organisations; to have lost one against one in the private-sector would have counted as a major setback.

Nokia shares hit after weak sales

 Nokia sold 7.4 million Lumia phones in the second quarter Nokia shares have tumbled 4% after the company released weak second quarter sales.
The mobile phone company reported sales of 5.69bn euros ($7.46bn, £4.92bn) for the three months to the end of June, down 24% on the same period last year.

The company sold 53.7 million mobile phones during the quarter, down 27% on last year.
Sales of its new Lumia phones, which run a Microsoft operating system, rose to 7.4 million in the second quarter.
Continue reading the main story

  Nokia's Stephen Elop celebrated a strong start for the Lumia 520, the budget phone in the range - but overall smartphone sales of 7.4 million units disappointed analysts.
Having poured huge sums into trying to crack the US market, sales of half a million phones in this quarter was a meagre return.

The one bright spot is that at least Nokia's smartphones outsold Blackberry in the last quarter - in the battle for third place behind Samsung and Apple they may be ahead.
Whether that will prove a profitable place to be is another matter.
That is a rise of 21% from the 6.1 million sold in the first quarter.
Nokia's chief executive, Stephen Elop said: "We are very proud of the recent creations by our Lumia team.
"During the third quarter, we expect that our new Lumia products will drive a significant part of our smart devices revenue."

However, that improvement has to be put into perspective, as Apple sold 37 million iPhones in the first three months of the year.

"Despite massive restructuring and a shift in platform, it still feels like Nokia is treading water compared to heavyweight smartphone makers Apple and Samsung who completely dominate the smartphone business," said Ben Wood, an analyst at research firm, CCS Insight.
The other problem for Nokia is that sales of non-smartphones, called feature phones, are also under pressure.

Nokia sold 53.7 million of them in the second quarter down 27% on 2012.
That market is being hit by cheap rival phones powered by Google's Android operating system.
Overall Nokia's losses narrowed to 278m euros, compared with a loss of 1.5bn euros in the same quarter last year.

'Surprisingly strong' Sales also fell at the operation that makes equipment for the mobile phone industry called Nokia Siemens Networks.

It saw a drop in revenue of 17% to 2.78bn euros, partly because Nokia sold some parts of the unit.
But some analysts think this business will provide important support in the future.
"Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) was surprisingly strong. Looking at NSN's cash flow and results, the business seems to be a decent back-up plan for Nokia," said Hannu Rauhala, an analyst at the Finnish firm, Pohjola Markets.

Music piracy 'rises' after festivals

 Festivals cause a rise in online music piracy, research from Spotify suggests.
The findings appear to show that festivals increase demand for artists' music, but that festival-goers mainly sample through unauthorized channels.

"Our analysis uncovered some examples of torrents spiking immediately after festival performances," says a statement from Spotify.

They suggest artists who delay releasing material are pirated more than those who release music directly.
A study carried out at the Dutch Stoppelhaene festival in 2012 showed that BitTorrent downloads for the artists Racoon and Gers Pardoel "skyrocketed" after the finished their sets.

Legal sales and Spotify's own streaming counts were not affected by the performances.
"Explanations for these spikes merits further study, but one intuitive driver is instant gratification," the report, titled Adventures in The Netherlands, says.

"Academics and policy makers who are researching this topic may want to consider other events such as awards and talent shows to see if similar spikes occur."

Spotify also believes that the need for "instant gratification" means that artists who release material to the streaming markets at the same time as putting it on sale, also reduce the likelihood it will be pirated.

According to one sample, One Direction's Take Me Home was the most popular album on Spotify and also had the best sales to piracy ratio of 3.79 copies sold per BitTorrent download.

Unapologetic, by Rihanna, was released the following week but not available on Spotify and did much worse in comparison, selling only 1.36 copies per BitTorrent download.

Not all artists support the music streaming service and some are critical of how much it pays artists for making their music available.

Earlier this week Radiohead lead singer Thom Yorke pulled some albums from the site in protest at how much it pays artists.

The musician tweeted that he was "standing up for fellow musicians".
Subscription services like Spotify are the fastest-growing area in digital music, making up 13% of worldwide sales.

But 57% of global recorded music sales still come from physical products such as CDs, down from 74% in 2008.

As well as Spotify, services like Rdio and Pandora, Xbox Music, Google Play Music All Access and the soon-to-launch iTunes Radio compete for streaming listeners. 

Bits Blog: Amazon Rejected as Domain Name After South American Objections

Mauricio Lima for The New York Times A group of Latin American countries, including Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru and Uruguay, argued that the “.amazon” domain was too intrinsically connected to the regions and communities within their borders to allow the online retailer access to use it.

  A group of Latin American countries appears to have succeeded in an effort to block Amazon, the online retailer, from using .amazon as a new suffix for Internet addresses.

A committee of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, an international governance group for the Internet, recommended this week that. amazon not be approved for use as a so-called global top-level domain — the letters that follow the dot in Internet addresses.

At a meeting in Durban, South Africa, Icann reviewed applications for new domain suffixes like these in what has been billed as the biggest expansion of Internet addresses. Scores of companies, countries and organizations have applied to use their names or other terms as global top-level domains, alongside the handful of existing ones like .com and .org.

While Icann has approved several new dot-terms, including the Chinese word for game and the Russian word for network, English-language brand names derived from geographical locations have proved to be more complicated.

In the run-up to the Durban meeting, a group of Latin American countries, including Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru and Uruguay, sent a letter to Icann, in which they argued that .amazon should be rejected because a river runs through it.

“In particular ‘.amazon’ is a geographic name that represents important territories of some of our countries, which have relevant communities, with their own culture and identity directly connected with the name,” the letter said. “Beyond the specifics, this should also be understood as a matter of principle.”

The group had also objected to another application, from the outdoor clothier Patagonia, to use its name as an address suffix. That application was withdrawn before the Durban meeting.

The decision on. amazon, by the Governmental Advisory Committee of Icann, is not necessarily final. The Icann board could overrule the committee, though in practice it rarely does so.

“We’re reviewing the G.A.C. advice and we look forward to working with Icann and other stakeholders to resolve these issues as the process moves forward,” Amazon said in a statement.

One thing that remains unclear is why the United States government, represented in the Government Advisory Committee by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, an arm of the Commerce Department, went along with the decision.

The administration did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Before the meeting, it sent a letter to Icann in which it outlined its support for the use of names like. amazon as Internet suffixes, but added that it would stand aside if other governments objected.

“The United States affirms our support for the free flow of information and freedom of expression and does not view sovereignty as a valid basis for objecting to the use of terms, and we have concerns about the effect of such claims on the integrity of the process,” the administration said in the letter. “However, in the event the parties cannot reach agreement by the time this matter comes up for decision in the G.A.C., the United States is willing in Durban to abstain and remain neutral.”

One analyst said that while the specific reasons the United States government went along with the rejection were unclear, its position on Internet governance issues had been weakened by the recent leaks of information about a vast digital surveillance program by the National Security Agency. Several countries in South America — though not those in the Amazon basin or the Patagonian region — have offered the leaker, Edward J. Snowden, asylum.

“It is clear that the leaks of sensitive national security information have severely weakened the U.S. government’s ability to fight for our economic interests and have left the U.S. isolated in the G.A.C.,” said Nao Matsukata, chief executive of FairWinds Partners, a Washington-based consulting firm that specializes in domain name strategy.

Milton Mueller, a professor at the Syracuse University School of Information Studies, said there might have been an element of horse-trading. By yielding to a broader consensus on the advisory committee, Washington could have been seeking to shore up broader support for Icann, whose control over the Internet address system has long irked the governments of countries like Russia and China.

“My hypothesis is that the U.S. government has been scared to death for some time that if G.A.C. doesn’t get enough of what it wants, governments will give up on the whole Icann regime,” Mr. Mueller said.

NATS restricts UK flights as safety measure after software glitch

A software systems failure has caused the national air traffic control service (NATS) to restrict flights across south England.

The UK air traffic control restrictions were put in place this morning (Tuesday 9 July 2013) after a “conflict-alert system failure”.

NATS said: “NATS has identified and corrected the technical problem that has been affecting air traffic control systems in the south of England. Operations are now returning to normal and we are working with the airports, airlines and Eurocontrol to clear the backlog of flights to ensure disruption is kept to a minimum.”

Passengers with outbound flights could expect delays of 20 minutes, NATS said.

Technical problems occurred at Swanwick control centre. At the time, NATS said that – while this had not resulted in the closure of UK airspace or the suspension of all flights in or out the UK – it had taken steps to restrict the number of aircraft flying across the south of England as a safety measure.

While this particular incident has been resolved relatively quickly, compared to the catastrophic systems meltdown at NatWest in June 2012, the failure highlights the vulnerability of safety-critical software.

Donald Faison, Stacey Dash Reunite on The Exes 14 Years After Clueless

Former Clueless costars Donald Faison and Stacey Dash reunite in the July 10 episode of TV Land's The Exes. Credit: Evans Vestal Ward/TVLand
Eighteen years after Donald Faison and Stacey Dash first played impassioned high school sweethearts Murray Duvall and Dionne Davenport in the movie Clueless, the former costars will reunite in the July 10 episode of TV Land's The Exes. Dash plays a recommitted virgin who gets picked up by Phil (Faison).

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Dash isn't the only actress guest starring in the episode: Missi Pyle plays a sex addict who seduces Stuart (David Alan Basche).

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Both Faison, 39, and Dash, 46, appeared in the Clueless TV series that ran for three seasons from September 1996 to May 1999. The duo reunited with their former costars -- including Alicia Silverstone, Paul Rudd and Breckin Meyer -- for an April 2012 Entertainment Weekly cover. In the accompanying interview, the cast shared some of their memories from the set of the cult classic comedy. "I was 27, and I was playing this high school student," said Dash, "and I had a son at home who was 6 years old."

Credit: Paramount/Everett Collection

Donald Faison and Stacey Dash in CLUELESS
Faison -- who is currently expecting a baby with wife CaCee Cobb -- added that expectations for the film were low. "When we were making the movie, you don't think the movie's going to be good," he admitted to the magazine. "You think, 'I'm making the next License to Drive.' You think this movie's going to be just for teenagers and that's it."

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Dash's guest appearance on The Exes airs Wednesday, July 10, at 10:30 p.m. EST on TV Land.

Fox Pauses Production on Bollywood Film ‘Bang Bang’ After Star's Brain Surgery

Fox Star Studios is suspending shooting of Bang Bang, its Bollywood remake of the Tom Cruise starrer Knight and Day, after the film’s lead, Hrithik Roshan, underwent emergency brain surgery Sunday.

India media have been reporting that Roshan, one of India’s biggest stars, suffered a blow to the head while shooting stunts for Bang Bang in Phuket, Thailand two months ago (chronic subdural haematoma is often caused by a head injury that results in bleeding in the membrane surrounding the brain). But neither the actor nor the studio has confirmed the cause of his injury.

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Roshan’s father, director Rakesh Roshan, was quoted widely in the Indian media as saying the surgery was a complete success and that his son would be discharged in a matter of days. The 39-year-old actor will need several weeks to recover, however, so a planned late July European shoot for Bang Bang has been postponed, according to leading local newspaper the Times of India.

"Hrithik's health and well-being is our top priority now. So, the shoot of the third schedule of Bang Bang has been moved forward," a spokesperson from Fox Star Studios told the Times.

The project is a joint production backed by Star TV and Twentieth Century Fox.

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Roshan, well known for his lead roles in the Bollywood blockbusters Jodhaa Akbar and the superhero franchise Krrish, was reportedly set to begin work on postproduction and promotion for Krrish 3, written, produced and directed by his father and due out Nov. 3. According to the Times, there has been no change to the release schedule of that project.

Shortly before his surgery, the actor posted on his Facebook page: “We all know that we create a life of joy using the power of our mind. I’ve had the privilege of creating wonders with this amazing gift given to us called the brain. Occasionally, one must look within and realize its value. It gives us the power to see, hear, touch, smell and taste, it allows us to conquer fear and create courage to do things we never imagined. Maybe it's time for me to feel the power literally. I am going to go through brain surgery on Sunday and want you to know that I am going in with absolute power to recover fast. My thanks to all of you for using the power of your mind to contribute to my life. Love you all.”

Twitter: @sajilpl

Chief Leaves Barnes & Noble After Losses on E-Readers

William Lynch Jr., the chief executive of Barnes & Noble, resigned on Monday, two weeks after a devastating earnings report that accentuated the bookseller’s losing battle against powerful rivals like Amazon.

Mr. Lynch’s departure was part of a series of sweeping changes the company announced as it tries to regain its footing after a failed initiative to build up its Nook division and compete in the increasingly crowded market for e-readers. When it revealed its fourth-quarter earnings late last month, Barnes & Noble said it would cease making its own color tablets, an acknowledgment that they were lagging popular brands like Amazon’s Kindle Fire and Apple’s iPad.

Instead, the company said it would form partnerships with third parties to make the color devices, while it continued to make and sell its own black-and-white versions of the Nook.

In a statement late Monday, the company said that Michael P. Huseby had been appointed chief executive of the Nook division and president of Barnes & Noble. Mr. Huseby has served as chief financial officer since joining Barnes & Noble in March 2012; previously he held that position at Cablevision Systems, a media company.

Max J. Roberts, the chief executive of the college division, will report to Mr. Huseby, while Mr. Huseby and Mitchell S. Klipper, the chief executive for the retail stores, will report to Leonard Riggio, the company’s chairman.

The moves on Monday appeared to be a step toward separating the digital and retail divisions, as the company has indicated it might do. Barnes & Noble has been in talks over a potential sale of its digital assets, as well as its 675 bookstores.

Microsoft is one potential buyer of the Nook business; last year it invested hundreds of millions of dollars to acquire 17.6 percent of the division.

Mr. Riggio has expressed interest in taking back ownership of the physical stores that make Barnes & Noble the largest bookstore chain in the country. Mary Ellen Keating, a spokeswoman for Barnes & Noble, declined to provide an update on that offer.

There was no indication that a new chief executive would be named.

“Because the company is in a transition period, we have no immediate plans to name a C.E.O.,” Ms. Keating said.

“We thank William Lynch for helping transform Barnes & Noble into a leading digital content provider and for leading in the development of our award-winning line of Nook products,” Mr. Riggio said in a statement issued Monday. “As the bookselling industry continues to undergo significant transformation, we believe that Michael, Mitchell and Max are the right executives to lead us into the future.”

The financial results for the fiscal fourth quarter underscored the urgency of the need to take action. The Nook unit showed a $177 million loss in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or Ebitda, more than doubling the loss from the period a year earlier. Sales fell 34 percent, to $108 million.

The signs have been ominous for the company since the beginning of the year, when it announced that sales for the nine-week holiday period in late 2012 had declined at both its bookstores and in the Nook unit.

Mr. Lynch joined Barnes & Noble in February 2009, with no previous experience in bookselling. He was executive vice president for marketing at HSN.com and also worked for Gifts.com.

At the time, his arrival was hailed as a forward-thinking move, since Mr. Lynch, a Texas native, was only 39 years old and fluent in e-commerce and technology. Within months, Barnes & Noble introduced its first Nook e-reader.

To publishers, Mr. Lynch had performed a temporary miracle, helping create a product that provided a welcome competitor to Amazon’s Kindle, which dominated the market and offered e-books at a relatively inexpensive price.

The Nook was initially successful, drawing critical praise and capturing consumers who were uneasy about buying an e-reader — at the time a brand-new device — online, without testing it out in person. Barnes & Noble’s hundreds of retail stores allowed potential customers to see and touch what they were buying.

But even though Barnes & Noble quickly gained a sizable piece of the e-book market, it was not enough to ward off Amazon. And as black-and-white e-readers gave way to multifunctional color tablets, Barnes & Noble found itself competing unsuccessfully against companies many times its size, like Amazon and Apple, that have had technology in their DNA from the start.

As chief executive, Mr. Lynch worked from the company’s Ninth Avenue office in Manhattan, across town from the Fifth Avenue building where Mr. Riggio keeps his office. Mr. Lynch threw his energies into the digital side of the business, taking far less of an interest in the retail stores, and frequently flew to Palo Alto to build up Barnes & Noble’s presence in Silicon Valley, where their e-readers are designed.

Mike Shatzkin, the founder and chief executive of the Idea Logical Company, a publishing consultant, said a split of the business could help stave off the company’s decline.

“The Nook business clearly is going to need some global investment to have any kind of chance at all, and it certainly looks possible that they will be better off separate than together,” Mr. Shatzkin said. “There’s a glide path to oblivion, and you can affect the speed of the decline. Nobody’s going to bring back a robust brick-and-mortar book business.”

Lance Armstrong Returning to Cycling Six Months After Doping Confession

Lance Armstronghas announced his return to cycling.

The disgraced professional cyclist, who admitted to using banned substances in a highly publicized interview with Oprah Winfrey in January, says he plans to take part in The Des Moines Register's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa this month.

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“I’m well aware my presence is not an easy topic, and so I encourage people if they want to give a high five, great,” he told the Register. “If you want to shoot me the bird, that’s OK, too.”

Armstrong has been banned from professional cycling for life. He also has been stripped of his seven Tour de France titles by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency in addition to the bronze medal he won at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney.

“To be honest, it’s not a statement, it’s not an experiment,” Armstrong said of his decision to take part in the Iowa event. “It’s just me wanting to go ride my bike with what in the past has been a friendly group of people that share the same interests.”

This will mark his fifth time in the six-day Great Bicycle Ride -- kicking off July 21, which, incidentally, also happens to be the final day of the 2013 Tour de France -- and his first major public appearance since his confession to Winfrey.

Said the Iowa event's director, T.J. Juskiewicz, “We are open to anyone that wants to come ride RAGBRAI.”

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Since his confession, Armstrong has been slapped with up to $135 million in liabilities from a series of lawsuits.

“I’m committing to working through them, and whether it’s settling cases or whether it’s fighting some cases — because some have merit some don’t, ” he told the Des Moines newspaper. "But I’m committed to the process and that’s probably as much as I would and could say about it. That’s a tricky area there. Unless you have $135 million you want to let me borrow, or have?”

In his sitdown with Winfrey, Armstrong admitted that he had used banned substances -- EPO, testosterone and human growth hormone -- as well as blood doping or blood transfusion to enhance his performance.

Asked by Winfrey why he finally decided to tell the truth after years of denials, Armstrong replied: "I don’t know that I have a great answer. I will start my answer by saying this is too late. It’s too late for probably most people. And that’s my fault. I view this situation as one big lie that I repeated a lot of times. It wasn’t as if I said no and I moved off it."

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He also told Winfrey he felt his punishment was too harsh.

"I deserve to be punished. I'm not sure I deserve a death penalty," he said, adding that he feels that some of his fellow teammates got off easier than he did. "If I could go back to that time, trading my story for a six-month suspension -- what other people got. I got a death penalty, and they got six months. I'm not saying that's unfair necessarily; I'm saying it's different."

Megyn Kelly Moving to Primetime at Fox News After Maternity Leave

Megyn Kelly will be moving to Fox News' primetime lineup after she returns from maternity leave. Credit: Andy Kropa/Getty Images
Post-baby promotion! Fox News Channel announced on Tuesday, July 2 that host Megyn Kelly will be moving to their primetime lineup after she returns from maternity leave.

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"Megyn is an exceptional talent who has successfully filled and surpassed each role we have given her at the network," Fox News chief Roger Ailes said in a statement to Business Wire. "Her ability to command the screen, delve into the facts and lead a debate is what makes her one of the most sought-after anchors in the business."

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Kelly, 42, who is set to go on maternity leave later this month for the birth of her third child, said she's looking forward to her new role with Fox News.

"Roger Ailes hired me nine years ago when I was new to this business and he had little other than instinct to suggest it might work out," she said in a statement. "I was grateful to him then, remain so today, and am excited for this next opportunity."

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Fox News has yet to announce which primetime slot Kelly, who previous anchored the daytime news program, will be taking over. The network also announced, however, that they have renewed long-term contracts with Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, Greta Van Sustern, Shepard Smith and Bret Baier.

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'So You Think You Can Dance' Tweaks Elimination After Criticism

So You Think You Can Dance is tweaking its results delivery once again.

The Fox series, which lost its elimination episode at the start of last season, drew criticism from fans earlier this week when two competitors (Carlos Garland and Brittany Cherry) were voted off at the top of the hour -- and then required to perform the week's dance.

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Judge and executive producer Nigel Lythgoe announced on Thursday evening that the series will not keep that format moving forward. "We're taking your advice by revealing America's vote in the beginning and judging at the end," Lythgoe wrote on Twitter. "I hope it will inspire the bottom 4? Thank you."

Now, in lieu of anyone performing in vain, the bottom four will have the opportunity to perform the week's selected choreography and "dance for their lives" before the judges decide which two will leave the show.

Lythgoe lamented the lumping together of the performance and results shows when speaking with The Hollywood Reporter earlier this year.

"I still don't think we got it right last year," he said. "It's a tough call. It's much easier with Idol when you say, 'There it is, America. You vote and tomorrow we'll let you know.' Maybe we just let the judges [choose], so there's a result at the end of the night. But I know how much people love supporting the dancers."

Remains of the Day: After a fashion

Apple brings in a high-fashion expert, one university’s not on such good terms with Cupertino, and sorry, that’s not actually your phone vibrating. Remember: Don’t wear the remainders for Wednesday, July 3, 2013 after Labor Day.

Apple Hires Yves St Laurent CEO for Special Projects (Bloomberg)

Apple’s latest executive hire has an interesting background: He’s the former CEO of fashion house Yves Saint Laurent. Expect the next Apple event to feature Tim Cook, Craig Federighi, and Phil Schiller in natty suits with pocket squares.

Skyhook: Google co-founder sabotaged our relationship with Apple (Electronista)

The Wi-Fi-based location firm says that Google’s Sergey Brin poisoned Apple against using their technology in the iPhone, even as the search giant went ahead and rolled out a very similar system. I’m shocked—shocked—to find gambling is going on here.

Boston University Sues Apple for Patent Infringement (Patently Apple)

Yet another patent lawsuit, this time from a surprising source: Professor Theodore D. Moustakas of Boston University. The education institution alleges that Apple’s iPhone 5, iPad, and MacBook Air use a semiconductor patented by the professor, dubbed “highly insulating monocrystalline gallium nitride thin films.” Which I was pretty sure was just a type of Girl Scout cookie.

Visualising electromagnetic fields (Vimeo)

You probably know that your gadgets are all giving off invisible electromagnetic fields, but one team from the Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design has brought those fields to life, and to light. I smell a great new MacBook feature.

Why you think your phone is vibrating when it is not

Answer: Because you really want it to be ringing, but you’re not as popular as you think you are.

Alleged Shadowcrew member extradited to U.S. 9 years after cybercrime forum takedown

A 30-year-old Bulgarian was extradited to the U.S. from Paraguay in order to face charges related to his alleged involvement in Shadowcrew, a large cybercrime forum that was dismantled by U.S. authorities in 2004.

Aleksi Kolarov is charged with one count each of conspiracy, transferring false identification documents and offering access devices without authorization.

He is one of 19 indicted for their roles in the operation of Shadowcrew, which with around 4,000 members was the largest cybercrime forum of its time. Three of those charged remain at large.

According to the indictment, Kolarov used the online alias APK and was a Shadowcrew "vendor"—a member that sold illicit merchandise including stolen credit card, debit card and bank account information, as well as counterfeit passports, drivers' licenses, birth certificates, Social Security cards and other identification documents.

Kolarov was arrested on June 14, 2011, in a hotel in Asunción, Paraguay and had in his possession hundreds of thousands of dollars in various currencies, counterfeit payment cards and electronic devices for re-encoding cards.

After being incarcerated in Paraguay, he was extradited to the U.S., where he arrived Friday escorted by U.S. Marshals. On Monday he appeared in front of a judge in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.

If convicted, Kolarov faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison on the conspiracy count, 15 years in prison on the identification documents count and 10 years in prison on the access device count. He could also receive a maximum $250,000 fine on each count.

U.S. authorities estimate that Shadowcrew members collectively trafficked and misused over 1.5 million stolen credit card details, resulting in losses of over $4 million to credit card companies, financial institutions and card holders.

Albert Gonzalez, the American hacker who's currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for masterminding the theft of millions of credit card details from TJ Maxx, Heartland Payment Systems and other companies, is believed to have played an important role in the Shadowcrew takedown.

Gonzalez was a high-ranking member of Shadowcrew, where he used the alias CumbaJohnny, but at the same time he served as an informant for the U.S. Secret Service.

Fred Armisen Confirms He's Leaving SNL After 11 Years

Fred Armisen is leaving Saturday Night Live after 11 years.

Fred Armisen's Saturday Night Live days are over. The celebrated cast member, 46, confirmed he won't be returning for new episodes of NBC's live sketch comedy show during a June 28 interview with Splitsider. (Around the time Bill Hader announced he was leaving SNL just before its May 18 season finale, Armisen was rumored to be quitting, too.)

"I didn't do any kind of official announcement, but I really felt like it was obvious," said Armisen, who was once married to Mad Men's Elisabeth Moss and later dated former SNL cast member Abby Elliott. "An ending that was a love letter to all the music I grew up with, and also to my friends and to SNL and to [creator Lorne Michaels] and to the cast. There was a lot of emotion attached to it, but it was a very positive emotion."

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(During the May 18 episode, the final sketch featured Armisen, Hader, Jason Sudeikis and Taran Killam playing a British rock band saying their goodbyes on the final night of a tour. Armisen's Portlandia costar, Sleater-Kinney rocker Carrie Brownstein, also joined the group on stage.)

Armisen joined the cast of SNL during its 28th season in 2002. He is the second-longest tenured cast member behind Seth Meyers, who will take over as the host of Late Night in 2014. Armisen said his decision to leave felt "very natural."

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"I love Saturday Night Live, and I really feel like people who have left before me have always stayed with the show. They never really quite left, which is nice. Everyone kind of stays close," he explained. "For example, like when [Kristen Wiig] left, we saw her again. And [Andy Samberg] and [Tina Fey] and Amy Poehler and [Maya Rudolph]. On one level, we stay in each other's lives, but also the show. I feel like people don't really just leave in a cold way. I think people stay around in their own way."

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The other factor that made Armisen want to walk away from SNL? IFC's Portlandia, which was recently renewed for two more seasons. "Portlandia started to pull me away more and more, schedule-wise, and I just felt like it'd be nice to focus on it a little more and go into the fall a bit more with shooting," Armisen said. "So it was because of that. And also it was just a feeling. . . I was there for a long time and I also felt like I came away from Saturday Night Live feeling very well represented. I felt, and I still feel like, they let me do so much stuff that I wanted to do. Stuff that I almost didn't even know what it was. I was like, this is kind of a little bit of an experiment, or this is just a band thing, this is just a music thing. They just let me do so much, so I felt very fulfilled."

He added that the new cast members made him "feel really good" about leaving. "It was a combination of everything, between Portlandia and the feeling of real satisfaction and happiness," Armisen said. "I was like, 'I'm enjoying this so much, this'll be a good time to kind to go to the next phase.'" Armisen said what he'll miss most is writing the sketches with his fellow cast members.

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In addition to Portlandia, Armisen said he hopes to create other projects. "I just want to keep making things. Just keep going. I love doing it," he told Splitsider. "I want to make more and more things. It just makes me happy."

Gabrielle Union Starring in BET's Being Mary Jane After Losing Scandal Role to Kerry Wa

BET is giving Gabrielle Union her very own Scandal. The 40-year-old actress is starring in the new movie/TV series Being Mary Jane, which is set to premiere as a two-hour special on Tuesday, July 2 on BET -- and become a series in January 2014.

For Union, landing the lead role in the new BET show is a big career win. In an interview with The Associated Press, the Deliver Us From Eva actress revealed that she lost the lead role on ABC's Scandal to Kerry Washington.

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"I said to myself, 'Oh my God, these roles are out there.' It showed me that you don't have to settle. Luckily, the success of her and the show bred more work," she explained. "Just from the audition process, I knew that I couldn't go backward."

"I didn't get Scandal, but I got something better -- which is my own show," Union added. "It's all about building a legacy. This new opportunity is something I feel that can grow."

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In her new show, Union plays Mary Jane Paul, a successful TV news anchor balancing work and relationships. "If you loved me for one thing and may not have liked me in something else, this role gives the audience a chance to see that I can do more than one thing," the Think Like a Man star said.

And Union hopes that her fans will support her by watching the premiere. "It's finally here! Do. Not. Miss," she tweeted. "Being Mary Jane TONIGHT on BET at 10:30 p.m.!"

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Watch the preview for Union's Being Mary Jane above and tell Us: Will you be watching?

'After Earth' Bows at Number One in Japan But Fails to Dazzle

TOKYO – After Earth topped the charts on its opening weekend in Japan, but failed to light up the box office with a gross of $2.57 million (250 million yen) in its first three days on more than 570 screens, as the Will and Jaden Smith-starrer continues its mediocre global run.

By way of comparison, Oblivion bowed in Japan with a $4.4 million opening weekend at the start of June.

With local analysts predicting a $10 million final total for After Earth in Japan, the third largest theatrical market after the U.S. and China, the film may still struggle to cover its production and marketing budget.

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100 Kai Naku Koto (Cry 100 Times), a memory loss love story directed by Ryuichi Hiroki, bowed at number two during the weekend, taking $1.59 million (155 million yen) from 223 screens, a solid start for distributor Showgate Inc, a subsidiary of advertising agency Hakuhodo.

The two debutantes knocked The Great Gatsby into third place after it had opened at the top spot last week.

G.I. Joe Retaliation, released locally as G.J. Back 2 Revenge, fell to fifth in the weekend rankings in its third week of release. One place below it was Oblivion, which has now earned more than $10 million locally in its first month.

STORY: Could 'After Earth' End Will Smith's Box Office Domination?

The Complex (Kuroyuri Danchi), the supernatural thriller from The Ring director Hideo Nakata, which has also passed the $10 million mark, fell to ninth in its sixth week of release.   

Propping up the chart after three weeks in theaters is Antoine Fuqua's Olympus Has Fallen, released in Japan as End of Whitehouse.

 

Dolce & Gabbana Will Look FABULOUS In Prison After Tax Evasion Convcition

Dolce & Gabbana
They'll Look FABULOUS In Prison!

Prison just got classier -- and gaudier -- because both Dolce AND Gabbana are headed for the big house.

An Italian court sentenced Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana to 1 year and 8 months in prison for illegally dodging taxes.

They were also ordered to pay $665,000 in fines -- about the cost of 4 pair of D & G sunglasses.

They were accused of creating a phony company in Germany in 2004 and 2005 where they transferred control of D & G to avoid paying taxes.

They're both appealing the conviction so they're free to continue making really bad, overpriced schmatas.

 

Miss USA Erin Brady -- Gets Fishy After Winning Crown

Miss USA Erin Brady
Gets Fishy
After Winning Crown
After winning the Miss USA crown Erin Brady did what any starving beauty queen would do -- EAT ... well, kinda.

Our beauty queen spies tell TMZ ... Erin keeps her body right and tight by eating healthy (like all the time) ... which is why the 25-year-old noshed on a beet salad and spicy tuna on crispy rice as her first post-pageant meal.

Gorging on a burger didn't even cross Erin's mind ... she's a sweet over salty person. But the one thing she is craving: a hot fudge sundae, with ALL the toppings ... but for now, that's just unrequited love.