Year-end Wii U sales steady, says Nintendo chief

KYOTO (Reuters) – Nintendo Co Ltd‘s year-end sales of its Wii U games console were steady, though not as strong as when its Wii predecessor was first launched, the Japanese game maker’s top executive told Reuters on Monday.

The company, which grew from making playing cards in the late 19th century into the blockbuster Super Mario video game series, is pinning its hopes on the Wii U after posting a first operating loss last year, as gamers ditch console games to play on smartphones and tablets.

“At the end of the Christmas season, it wasn’t as though stores in the U.S. had no Wii U left in stock, as it was when Wii was first sold in that popular boom. But sales are not bad, and I feel it’s selling steadily,” Nintendo President Satoru Iwata said in an interview.

Iwata gave no details on sales or forecasts, but said Nintendo needed to focus on developing attractive software for its 3DS handheld device to draw new users, and increase Wii U sales as it battles competition from popular mobile devices. The Wii U carries video content from Netflix Inc and Hulu, and has a dedicated social gaming network called Miiverse, which allows users to interact and share games tips.

Nintendo said in October it aimed to sell 5.5 million Wii U devices by end-March. Wii U, the successor to the blockbuster Wii machine, went on sale in the United States on November 18. The company later said it sold more than 400,000 of the video game consoles in the first week.

Nintendo sold 638,339 Wii U consoles in Japan between December 8 and 30, according to data from game magazine publisher Enterbrain. The company has sold nearly 100 million of the original Wii units since its launch in 2006.

Rival Microsoft Corp sold more than 750,000 of its Xbox 360 console during the Black Friday week in November – one of the busiest U.S. consumer shopping periods of the year, beating sales of both Sony Corp’s

DOUBLE CHALLENGE

Iwata acknowledged the challenge of producing two Wii U models at the same time, as most customers wanted the premium package, which sold out quickly in many places, while there was a glut of the slightly cheaper Wii U model on store shelves.

“It was the first time Nintendo released two models of the game console at the same time … and I believe there was a challenge with balancing this. Specifically, inventory levels for the premium, deluxe package was unbalanced as many people wanted that version and couldn’t find it,” he said.

Iwata noted a weaker yen would have little impact on Nintendo’s profits this fiscal year, but would positively impact its foreign denominated assets.

Nintendo’s Osaka-listed shares earlier ended down nearly 2.1 percent on Monday at 8,980 yen, and have fallen 15 percent since the Wii U was launched.

(Editing by Ian Geoghegan)

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EXCLUSIVE: Pics of Lindsay Lohan Mom Dina Lohan with a Black Eye

After alleging that her ex-husband Michael Lohan physically abused her when they were married, Dina Lohan has now released old photos of herself with a black eye.

RELATED: Michael Lohan Responds to Abuse Allegations

Michael vehemently denies abusing Dina, telling ET, "[Dina] hit me with an ice tray, and I turned around and swung ... I didn't punch her. I didn't do anything deliberately to attack her. I swung out of reflex ... she's twisting everything."

During an interview with the New York Daily News, the mother of four alleged that Michael physically abused her in front of their daughter Lindsay Lohan, claiming, "that's why she's so screwed up." In the vintage photos, Dina is carrying a baby.

In a recent interview with ET's Christina McLarty, Dina revealed details about the alleged abuse, saying, "I will tell my story ... about abuse and how I've survived it and how my children have survived it. It shed some light on my children's behavior, having to witness it."

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EMT union fume over alleged plea deal for B'klyn assistant DA accused of attacking medic: letter

An EMT union members are fuming mad over what it calls plans by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office to give a sweetheart plea deal to a Brooklyn assistant DA accused of attacking a medic in an ambulance last November, according to a union letter obtained by the Post today.

Brooklyn Assistant District Attorney Michael Jaccarino, 30, will appear in court tomorrow on charges he drunkenly pummeled and choked EMT Teresa Soler, 46, inside an ambulance after she picked him up in November.

“It is said that the Manhattan DA office will not present the case in a grand jury and that he will plea bargain,” union vice president Joe Conzo raged in the letter to union members.

“Members should be outraged and come out to support EMT Teresa Soler by appearing in Manhattan Criminal Court.”

Law-enforcement sources said the Manhattan DA’s office is considering offering Jaccarino a plea deal instead of pursuing felony charges, but no deal has been offered yet and no deal is expected to be offered tomorrow.

Reached on the phone, Conzo confirmed the letter and said Jaccarino should be prosecuted as seriously as if he had attacked a cop.

“Nobody should be given special treatment,” he said.

Also, another drunken Brooklyn assistant district attorney was busted in December after he refused to pay cab fare – and then told responding cops that he “outranked” them, law-enforcement sources said at the time.

Jaccarino was suspended without pay following the alleged beatdown.

Soler could not be reached.

jsaul@nypost.com

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State appeals order to pay for special autism treatment

Already facing sharp criticism over policies that have resulted in the rationing of care to severely disabled children, Florida healthcare regulators are challenging a federal judge’s order that the state provide a costly — but potentially life-changing — treatment to children with autism.

Last spring, U.S. District Judge Joan Lenard struck down the state’s refusal to pay for applied behavior analysis (ABA) for autistic children, calling the state’s policy “arbitrary, capricious and unreasonable.”

The court case involved three autistic youngsters — then-5-year-old K.G., 2-year-old I.G. and 4-year-old C.C. — whose efforts to obtain behavioral therapy had been denied by the state’s Medicaid insurance program for needy and disabled people. Lenard ordered that the three children be given the care they sought — and that the state provide such care to other autistic children, as well.

The state Agency for Health Care Administration has appealed the order, and, in a pleading submitted in November, argued that the ruling strips the state of its ability to weigh requests for the therapy on a case-by-case basis to ensure the treatments are “medically necessary.”

“There is no evidentiary support for the district court’s conclusion that [behavior analysis] services are medically necessary for all autistic Medicaid recipients under 21,” the brief said. “In fact, the evidence established that ABA treatment is not medically necessary, or even effective, in all cases. Some children do not respond to ABA treatment at all, and, in all other cases, the efficacy of ABA treatment diminishes rapidly after early age.”

Autism, typically diagnosed around age 2, is one of the most common developmental disabilities, afflicting about one in 88 children, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The neurological disorder often affects a child’s ability to speak, learn and interact with others.

In her March order, Lenard described as “outrageous” AHCA’s position that the behavioral therapy is not widely accepted by experts in the field. Though AHCA had for years refused to pay for the treatment for impoverished families, state law already requires commercial carriers to provide it to Floridians with private insurance — meaning children from poor families were being denied services to which more-affluent families had access.

Behavioral analysis is designed to improve the behavior, language and cognitive development of autistic children so they can lead more-normal lives.

“It is imperative,” the Miami judge wrote, “that autistic children in Florida receive [behavior therapy] immediately to prevent irreversible harm to these children’s health and development.”

Florida’s system of care for disabled and medically fragile children has generated significant controversy in recent months.

In September, the U.S. Justice Department accused the state of systematically cutting in-home nursing care for disabled children, resulting in hundreds of youngsters being warehoused in geriatric nursing homes.

On Monday, about nine state lawmakers will attend a “town hall” meeting in Sunrise to hear from families that have complained that AHCA and a sister department, the Agency for Persons with Disabilities, have so poorly funded services for disabled children that they feel they are being forced to institutionalize their loved ones.

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Billionaire Phillip Frost an ‘entrepreneur’s entrepreneur’

For that blind first date, a half-century ago, the young doctor, Phillip Frost, showed up at Patricia Orr’s family house in suburban New York, with an unusual gift: a miniature mushroom garden.

In the 50 years since, Frost, the son of a shoe store owner, has gone on to amass a fortune of $2.4 billion, according to Forbes magazine, becoming the 188th wealthiest man in the United States by developing and selling pharmaceutical companies. Along the way, he and Patricia have become major philanthropists in Miami-Dade County and they’ve signed a pledge to give away at least $1 billion more.

“He’s a relentless guy,” says Miami banker Bill Allen, who’s know him for more than 40 years. “He’s not afraid to take risks. ... He knows the intimate details of the chemistry of products, and he’s the kind of guy who can examine 50 deals while eating a sandwich.”

CNBC’s Jim Cramer recently praised Frost’s “incredible track record” for developing companies, calling Frost’s latest endeavor, OPKO Health, a “very risky” investment while noting it could offer huge gains under Obamacare.

But back in 1962, Patricia’s first impression was that Phil Frost was a bit of a nerd, finishing his medical internship with a strong interest in research — including mushrooms. She figured an academic career loomed.

“My mother was very impressed,” recalls Patricia, not so much by the M.D. behind Frost’s name but by the gift, something more serious than the usual flowers or candy. Serious was fine with Patricia, who was living at home while working toward a master’s degree in education at Columbia University. For their first date, they listened to a classical music concert.

Frost’s rise to riches may seem highly distinctive, but in an odd coincidence he has much in common with another prominent Miamian. Frost, 76, and car dealer Norman Braman, 80, both frequently appear on the Forbes list of wealthiest Americans. Both grew up in Philadelphia — Frost the son of a man who sold shoes, Braman son of a barber. Both are Jewish, well-known art collectors and philanthropists.

“He’s an entrepreneur’s entrepreneur,” says Braman. “We have a lot in common, coming from very poor families. But he went to Central High (a public school for exceptional students) and I was not qualified to go there.”

There are other differences. While Braman is voluble and highly visible in the causes he supports, Frost tends to be a reticent, almost shy speaker, given to careful pauses.

‘Lucky chances’

Told that a former colleague had called Frost “lucky,” Frost thought for a long moment. He could have cited many national business stories about his business acumen. Instead, he responded crisply: “I’ll be satisfied with lucky. I benefited from chance meetings.”

Frost spent his first years living above the shoe shop within an Italian market in South Philly. His two brothers were 15 and 16 years older. “I was an afterthought.”

The family was religiously observant, and Frost recalls his father singing him songs in Yiddish when he was small. He lived at home while attending the University of Pennsylvania, except for a year abroad in France. He took many science courses, but his major was French literature.

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Handset makers scurry to join Year of the Phablet

SINGAPORE/HONG KONG (Reuters) – Call it phablet, phonelet, tweener or super smartphone, but the clunky mobile phone – closer in size to a tablet than the smartphone of a couple of years back – is here to stay.

A surprise hit of 2012, it is drawing in more users, more handset makers and is shaping the way we consume content.

“We expect 2013 to be the year of the phablet,” said Neil Mawston, UK-based executive director of Strategy Analytics‘ global wireless practice.

While Samsung Electronics Co Ltd has blazed a trail with its once-mocked Galaxy Note devices, now other manufacturers are scurrying to catch up.

At this week’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Chinese telecommunications giants ZTE Corp and Huawei Technologies Co Ltd will launch their own.

ZTE, which collaborated with Italy’s designer Stefano Giovannoni for the Nubia phablet, is scheduled to launch its 5-inch Grand S, while Huawei brings out the Ascend Mate, sporting a whopping 6.1-inch screen, making it only slightly smaller than Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablet.

“Users have realized that a nearly 5-inch screen smartphone isn’t such a cumbersome device,” said Joshua Flood, senior analyst at ABI Research in Britain.

Driving the phablet’s shift to the mainstream is a confluence of trends. Users prefer larger screens because they are consuming more visual content on mobile devices than before, and using them less for voice calls – the phablet’s weak spot.

And as WiFi-only tablets become more popular, so has interest among commuters in devices that combine the best of both, while on the move.

According to the latest Ericsson Mobility Report, the monthly data traffic for every smartphone will rise fourfold between now and 2018 to 1,900 megabytes.

The upshot is a market for phablets that will quadruple in value to $ 135 billion in three years, according to Barclays. Shipments of gadgets that are 5 inches or bigger in screen size will surge by nearly nine-fold to 228 million during the same period, though estimates vary because no one can agree on where smartphones stop and phablets start.

But that’s the point, some say.

“I think phone size was a preconceived notion based on voice usage,” said John Berns, a Singapore-based executive who works in the information technology industry. He recently upgraded his Note for the newer Note 2 and bought another for his girlfriend for Christmas. “Smaller was better until phones got smart, became visual.”

Samsung has been both the engine and beneficiary. While other players shipped devices with larger screens earlier – Dell Inc launched its Streak in 2010 – it was only when the Korean behemoth launched the Galaxy Note in late 2011, with its 5.3-inch screen, that users took an interest.

“The Streak was launched at a time when 3-inch smartphones were standard and the leap to a 5-inch Streak was a jump too far for consumers,” says Strategy Analytics’ Mawston.

“The Galaxy Note was launched when 4-inch smartphones had become commonplace, and the leap to 5-inch was no longer such a chasm.”

THE BIGGER, THE BETTER

Since then Samsung has bet big on bigger: its updated Note has a 5.5-inch screen and its flagship Galaxy S3 – the best-selling smartphone in the third quarter of 2012 – has a screen that puts it in the phablet category for some analysts.

Samsung accounted for around three quarters of all phablets shipped last year, according to Barclays’ Taipei-based analyst Dale Gai.

Samsung’s marketing heft has paved the way for others. LG Electronics Inc accounted for 14 percent of shipments in the third quarter of last year, according to Strategy Analytics.

HTC Corp’s 5-inch Butterfly – called the Droid DNA in the United States – has been selling well in places where Samsung is less dominant, according to Taipei-based Yuanta Securities analyst Dennis Chan. The first batch sold out soon after its December launch in Taiwan.

“I don’t think we can say that Samsung invented phablets,” said Lv Qianhao, head of handset strategy at ZTE. “But it did do a lot to promote this product category, which helped create tremendous demand.”

Phablets are also proving popular in emerging markets.

A poll of nearly 5,000 readers of Yahoo’s Indonesian website chose Samsung’s Galaxy Note 2 as their favorite mobile phone of 2012, ahead of the iPhone 5.

Kristian Tjahjono, a technology journalist who posted the poll, said phablets were a natural fit for Indonesians who liked tablets but also liked making phone calls.

But while those in such markets who can afford them are going for the high-end devices, the door is opening for cheaper models. Tjahjono pointed to Lenovo’s 5-inch S880, which has a lower resolution screen and sells for about $ 250, which is around a third of the price of Galaxy Note 2.

SWEET SPOT

Falling component prices will add to demand. The total cost of an upper-end phablet, its bill of materials, will likely fall to 2,000 yuan ($ 323) this year, says Gai from Barclays, and will halve within two years.

“One thousand yuan is a very sweet spot for China,” he said.

India is also a fan.

Vivek Deshpande, who manages global strategy for Shenzhen-based mobile phone maker Zopo, says that while the Indian and Chinese markets are different, they both share a common appetite for aspirational devices: phones big enough for their owners to show off. This is changing the direction of lower end players.

“Zopo’s primary focus is now on phablets,” said Deshpande.

Even Samsung is pushing its own creation downmarket: In Las Vegas it will unveil the Galaxy Grand, a 5-inch device that lacks some of the resolution and muscle of its bigger brethren but will be aimed at markets like India. There is a version offering a dual SIM slot, a popular feature for those wanting to arbitrage cheaper call and data plans.

As phablets slide into the mainstream, handset makers are trying to find ways of differentiating.

As well as hiring Italian designer Giovannoni better known for his minimalist, sleek bathrooms, ZTE also came up with an onscreen keypad that inclines to one side of the screen, depending on whether the user is left- or right-handed.

Samsung, however, not only has first mover advantage, it can also build on its expertise in display.

Barclay’s Gai says Samsung is expected to introduce a thinner, unbreakable AMOLED screen which will leave room for bigger batteries.

“That will put Samsung in good stead to still dominate the market,” he said. Despite pressure in China, Gai estimates Samsung’s share of smartphones with 5-inch or larger screens to fall only from 73 percent in 2012 to 58 percent in 2016, which is still the lion’s share.

By then consumers will see the phablet for what it is, says Horace Dediu, a Finnish analyst who runs a technology blog asymco.com. Its rise is part of a wider march of computing power into wherever we reside – the living room, the train, bed or work.

“It makes sense that we’re moving towards a time where we are served not by a computer or a netbook or a phone, but rather that we have these screens scattered around and available for us to play with,” he said. “In a way the phablet is not a bulky phone but a very delicate computer.”

(Editing by Emily Kaiser)

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Biggest Loser Jillian Michaels Returns Trailer

After three seasons on the sidelines, Jillian Michaels is returning to the show that made her a fitness sensation: The Biggest Loser!

"Several things brought me back," Michaels explained today at The Television Critics Association Tour in Pasadena, CA today. "First of all, I missed [Bob Harper] and was excited to meet [Dolvett Quince]. That said, you leave the show, you want to do new things and everyone's like, 'That's great! We support you! Can you go back to The Biggest Loser?' I greatly underestimated how inspired the American public gets by the show."

VIDEO - Jillian Michaels Uses Babies As Barbells

Unexpectedly, seeing Madonna on tour led Michaels back to TBL. "Bob and I saw Madonna in concert and she was playing all these new songs, and we were like, 'Can you just play Holiday?' The Biggest Loser is sort of my version of Holiday."

As for how long fans can expect her to stay, Michaels vowed, "I will stay on as long as [they'll] have me."

Check out a sneak peek of tonight's season premiere, airing at 8 p.m. on NBC!

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Aurora gunman's wife escaped, called cops on crazed husband

The wife of a Colorado gunman who killed three relatives in his Aurora home Saturday escaped by leaping from a second-floor window before she called cops, her sister said today.

Shooter Sonny Archuleta, 33, was later killed by cops after a six-hour standoff, but not before his wife, Stephanie, dodged his bullets to run and get help.

Corinne Wurzbacher, 30, said her stepsister Stephanie told her that Archuleta was spraying the house with bullets.

“It wasn’t just here or there,” said Wurzbacher, who spoke with Stephanie's younger sister on the phone about the incident. “Stephanie said she couldn’t understand how the bullets missed her. She’s faced with all of this grief and guilt.

“He just went nuts. I don’t think he cared who he hit. He was in a really bad state of mind that night. He was really low. It was a drug fit. He wasn’t right in the head. I can only think that they tried to confront from.”

Cops said it’s still unclear why Archuleta, 33, snapped early Saturday morning and killed his wife’s stepfather, her sister and her sister’s boyfriend in the Aurora townhouse.

Wurzbacher, whose father and Stephanie's step father, Anthony Ticali, was killed in the shooting, said the two had clashed before, and that Archuleta threatened Ticali last year with a gun.

“My father and I talked a great deal about the problems he was having,” Wurzbacher said about her dad, who lived with Archuleta and Stephanie.

“He and my father butt heads. He was violent. He had gun charges and one of them involved an altercation with my father.”

The shooting took place just miles away from an Aurora movie theater where 12 people were killed and 70 were wounded during a massacre at a July screening of “The Dark Knight Rises.”

Testimony begins Monday to determine if the accused shooter in that incident, James Holmes, will stand trial.

Archuleta lost his own brother, Patricio, 34, to gun violence only a year ago, authorities said.

Patricio was shot to death in a Denver parking lot on Sept. 3, 2011.

Patricio Archuleta, who had a criminal record of drug and assault charges, was released from prison in 2008 after serving 15 months for obstructing public peace and order and vehicular eluding.

Following that shooting, Sonny took to Twitter to express his grief: “My brother Pat was murdered in Denver, Colorado on Friday September 3 at 1:45am. Pray for my family and that Jehovah well get the glory from this.”

jbain@nypost.com

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Needle reaches the inner groove for Spec’s

In the end, even the almighty Adele and Taylor Swift could not hold back the inevitable.

Spec’s, one of the last great record stores, will close its flagship location in Coral Gables on U.S.1, thus joining once-favored chains like Virgin, Tower and Peaches, locally and abroad, that have withered from Internet shopping.

With the closing, sometime in January after the merchandise is liquidated, 64 years of history becomes memory for countless people who discovered a love of music in the home Martin “Mike” Spector built in 1948 when U.S.1 was but a two-lane road.

The original store, which sold cameras alongside 78-rpm records, was a few blocks south on the highway in South Miami and is now an Einstein’s bagel spot. The present location, opened in 1953 in Coral Gables, lived through the bobby sox era, Beatlemania, disco, punk, hip hop/rap, grunge, electronic dance music and all the format changes including 12-inch vinyl, 45-rpm, reel to reel, 8-track, cassette, compact disc and mp3.

After the first music industry recession in the late 1970s, Spec’s still managed to double in size by breaking through the walls of two restaurants in 1980 on its north side. The original room on the south side of the building would house, first, Spec’s’ VHS movie rentals and sales — Saturday Night at Spec’s! — and, later, one of the most expansive collections of classical music in town.

“It’s the soundtrack of our lives,” said store manager Lennie Rohrbacher, who spent 23 years of his life working at Spec’s, from Clearwater to Coral Gables

Music sales

At its peak, the Spec’s chain grew to some 80 stores in Florida and Puerto Rico. In 1993, annual sales exceeded $70 million. Spec’s went public in 1985 and, in 1998, the Spectors sold to Camelot Music Group, which was acquired by Trans World Entertainment Corp.

Trans World, which did not return several telephone messages, shrewdly kept the Spec’s name attached to the flagship store as goodwill even though, technically, it operated under the company’s retail subsidiary, F.Y.E. (For Your Entertainment).

But those are the cold, hard business facts.

Spec’s was “not like another Eckerd’s,” a drug store chain that also slipped into oblivion amid changing times, said Rohrbacher. “This was part of the community, part of my life. It’s not another store going under.”

Indeed, Spec’s was, first and foremost, a community gathering spot to share a love of music. In the ‘70s and ‘80s Spec’s resembled a makeshift camp site where people would sleep overnight in the parking lot to get the best shot at concert tickets in a pre-Internet world. Spec’s, a hop-skip from the University of Miami’s music school, served as its own music education outlet thanks to a knowledgeable sales staff.

Music education

“The proximity to the UM is prime real estate. Not to have it there will really be different. Even if they didn’t have what I was looking for, the staff was knowledgeable and you were sort of tapping into this knowledge base of people who could turn you on to new music. That’s what I’ll miss about it and the community around the store,” said Margot Winick, an employee at the Coral Gables Spec’s in the mid-1980s when she was a freshman at the UM.

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Honduras removes its ambassador to Colombia amid party scandal

TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) – Honduras has removed its ambassador to Colombia amid reports his personal aide was involved in a wild party held at the embassy of Honduras in Bogota which, according to media, was attended by prostitutes and where cell phones and computers were stolen.

Ambassador Carlos Rodriguez quit his post on Saturday, Honduras’ foreign ministry said in a release, after the government requested his withdrawal.

Rodriguez’s personal aide went out with friends on December 20, picking up some prostitutes in Bogota’s red district before going to the embassy, where they consumed alcohol and trashed the facilities, El Heraldo daily reported.

It was not clear if Rodriguez was present, but the ministry said an investigation was under way.

Last year, about a dozen U.S. Secret Service employees were accused of misconduct for bringing women, some of them prostitutes, back to their hotel rooms ahead of a visit to Colombia by President Barack Obama, in the biggest scandal to hit the agency.

(Reporting By Gustavo Palencia; Editing by Vicki Allen)

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