6 takeaways from Google’s antitrust settlement with US regulators

Google Inc. has settled an U.S. antitrust probe that largely leaves its search practices alone. In a major win for Google, the Federal Trade Commission unanimously concluded that there is not enough evidence to support complaints from rivals that the company shows unfair bias in its search results toward its own products.

Below are six of the biggest takeaways from the decision announced Thursday:

— Google promised to license hundreds of important mobile device patents to rivals that make gadgets such as smartphones, tablets and gaming devices, on “fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms,” the FTC said. Google got the patents as part of its $ 12.4 billion purchase of Motorola Mobility last year. The patents cover wireless connectivity and other Internet technologies.

— Upon receiving a request to do so, the online search leader pledged to stop using snippets of content from other websites, such as the reviews site Yelp Inc., in its search results. It had already scaled back this practice before the FTC settlement after a complaint from Yelp that triggered the FTC probe. Under the agreement, specialty websites such as those on shopping and travel can request that Google stop including such snippets in the search results, while still providing links to those websites.

— Google pledged to adjust its online advertising system so marketing campaigns can be more easily managed on rival networks. Some FTC officials had worried that Google’s existing service terms with advertisers make that difficult.

— The FTC’s unanimous conclusion that Google does not practice unfair “search bias” to promote its own properties against competitors is a major victory for the online search leader. It means it won’t have to change its search formula, considered to be the company’s crown jewel.

— Not everyone was happy with the results. FairSearch, a group whose members include rival Microsoft Corp., said the FTC’s “inaction on the core question of search bias will only embolden Google to act more aggressively to misuse its monopoly power to harm other innovators.”

— Next up, European regulators are expected to wrap up a similar investigation of Google’s business practices in the coming weeks.

Wireless News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Inside Jennifer Lopez's Harper's Bazaar Photo Shoot

Sun kissed and stunning, Jennifer Lopez graces the cover of the latest issue of Harper's Bazaar.

ET was behind the scenes with the Puerto Rican bombshell as she was photographed sexily soaking up some rays in Turkey for the spread, on stands January 8.

Related: J.Lo Dishes on Her Infamous Grammy Gown 13 Years Later

In the magazine, Lopez showcases her killer bod in designer duds like Giuseppe Zanotti, Tom Ford, Jimmy Choo and Balmain amid the picturesque backdrop of Istanbul.

Watch the video for an inside look at the gorgeous photo shoot, plus get ET's inside scoop into J.Lo's plans for the Golden Globes. Hint: we've confirmed a certain handsome someone will walk the red carpet with the 43-year-old actress and singer!

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Off-duty cop shot in Bronx during apparent car dealership robbery

An off-duty police officer was shot in the leg tonight while chasing a suspect in the Bronx , police sources said.

The officer was running after the perp on Boston Road in Bronxwood, around 6:32 p.m., when the gunman hid behind a parked car, according to a witness.

As the officer ran by, the assailant popped up and shot the cop, the witness added.

The shooter then fled through a used car lot.

The NYPD officer was rushed to Jacobi Hospital and is reported in stable condition, sources added.

The suspect remains at large.

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What to do with leftover Christmas trees

The presents have been opened and family pictures have been taken. Now it’s time to throw away the trees that filled South Florida living rooms with festive lights and the smell of Christmas.

Rather than putting the tree out with the trash, residents in some parts of Miami-Dade County have the option to turn their tree into mulch. Think of it as a seasonal circle of life. December’s holiday cheer will help nourish spring flowers of the new year.

“It’s good for the environment,” said Miami-Dade Public Works spokesperson Gayle Love. “This is really the best way to manage these trees.”

Residents in unincorporated Miami-Dade County and nine participating municipalities can take their trees to one of the 13 trash and recycling centers or two home chemical collection centers that are open seven days a week from 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

The trees will be mulched in the middle of January, and the sweet-smelling mulch will be available for free on a first-come-first-serve basis. People must bring their own containers to pick up the mulch.

In Broward, residents may take their trees directly to a participating park where it will be mulched and used for park landscaping.

The “Chip-a-Tree” initiative received more than 9,000 trees last year, and this year will be accepting trees until Jan. 21. Hours vary, so call the park before taking the tree.

In Miami-Dade, more than a hundred trees had been brought to that one center in the past few days, said Miami-Dade spokesman Frank Calderon, speaking from the Eureka recycling center Wednesday. He said total numbers would be hard to predict, but people had been coming in with a tree “every few minutes.”

Trees destined for the mulcher must be free of lights, tinsel and ornaments, Calderon said.

In Miami-Dade County, trees that are chopped up and put in green waste carts or left on the curb will go to the Resource Recovery Facility in Doral to be converted into biomass fuel.

Residents in the City of Miami can leave their trees on the street, separate from regular trash, and the Solid Waste Department will pick them up until Jan. 31. These trees will also be recycled for mulch, which will be available for free at the Virginia Key Mulch Facility.

Even though Christmas is over, come mid-January, the smells of the season will come back, this time in South Florida gardens.

“It’s very fragrant when it’s mulched,” Love said. “It keeps the Christmas spirit alive.”

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Portion of Macy’s Flagler Street property sold

A New York firm bought part of the Macy’s building in downtown Miami and is expected to acquire the rest. The next priority is negotiating a new lease to keep Macy’s as a tenant.

In a deal that could have implications for the future of downtown Miami’s anchor retail tenant, a New York real estate investment firm paid $15.55 million to acquire more than half the property that now houses Macy’s Flagler Street store.

The acquisition by Aetna Realty Group includes the 48,000 square feet of land that was leased to R.W. Burdine in 1917. Until the recent sale, the property was owned by 23 heirs of Richard and Harriet Ashby, who signed the initial 99-year lease with Burdine. The lease expires in 2016.

The Ashby family began taking steps to prepare the property at the intersection of Miami Avenue and Flagler Street for sale nearly four years ago, said Lewis R. Cohen, a GrayRobinson lawyer who represented the Ashby family in the transaction that closed on New Year’s Eve.

Over the years, Macy’s and its predecessor, Burdines, grew the site’s downtown presence well beyond the Ashby land, and the current building now extends another 30,000 square feet of land. Aetna has also made a commitment to purchase the remaining portion of the building, that is currently owned by Macy’s, Cohen said. But that deal hasn’t closed yet.

“That deal is a sure thing,” Cohen said. “They could not have closed with us without having an agreement with Macy’s completely nailed down.”

When Macy’s decided not to purchase the Ashby land itself, the owners soughta third-party that could control both pieces. The reason: Improvements made to the store over the years straddled both properties, such as elevators and escalators starting on one parcel and ending on another.

“Between the engineering difficulties of severing the properties and the legal issues involved, it would have been somewhere between extremely expensive and impossible” for different entities to share control, Cohen said.

Aetna was one of three bidders interested in the site, Cohen said. One of the other players was the Barlington Group, a Miami developer that in 2011 signed a deal with Macy’s to sub-lease 20,000 square feet of empty ground-floor space for a mix of restaurants and cafes.

Macy’s spokesman Jim Sluzewski said this transaction doesn’t impact Macy’s current lease. He declined to comment on any other pending transaction regarding the property the retailer owns in downtown Miami.

“It’s business as usual,” said Sluzewski, who also would not discuss Macy’s long-term plans for downtown Miami beyond the expiration of its lease. The company’s roots in downtown Miami date to 1898, when the first Burdines opened in a nearby downtown location.

Aetna and its local attorneys did not respond to calls Wednesday for comments.

But Cohen said Macy’s is in the process of finalizing a short-term deal with the new owners.

“They intend to stay for at least the foreseeable future,” Cohen said. “For a minimum of five years they’ll be there and possibly longer.”

Downtown scene

Macy’s long-term future on Flagler Street has been in doubt since 2007, when Macy’s Florida then-Chairwoman Julie Greiner took city leaders to task for the deplorable conditions in downtown and threatened that the retailer might leave.

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Laura Wasser Hollywood Divorce Lawyer

Laura Wasser has an A-list client roster that would make a Hollywood talent agent green with envy, but she's not making celebs money as much as she's helping them keep the assets they already have.

PICS: The 10 Most Shocking Breakups in Hollywood

When Ashton Kutcher, Kim Kardashian, Heidi Klum, Angelina Jolie, Britney Spears and Ryan Reynolds saw their marriages take a turn for the worst they turned to the first name of Los Angeles firm Wasser, Cooperman & Carter -- a divorced mother of two sons, who represented herself in the split from her former husband not long after graduating from Loyola Law School.

Wasser landed Maria Shriver a reported $100 million settlement in the case against Arnold Schwarzenegger and won a reported $425 million settlement for Mel Gibson's ex Robyn Moore.

The desk at her Century City office is free of clutter and empty of anything that could potentially be flung across the room, as tensions tend to run high.

"There is crying and there is screaming and there is yelling," says Wasser, who is a firm believer in pre-nuptial agreements. "And then hopefully there is the epiphany moment where they say, 'You know what? I want to get this done. Let's move on.'"

Wasser has a book coming out soon, which gives advice on dealing with failed marriages. Watch the video for more.

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Man who allegedly hit 4 pedestrians at New Year's Eve party claims he was being chased by mob

He says it was all a wild Goose chase.

The alleged drunken driver who mowed down four pedestrians outside a Brooklyn club’s wild New Year’s Eve party claims he was fleeing a violent mob, angered that he accused them of stealing his bottles of pricey vodka, his attorney said today.

Staten Island carpenter Charles Amado, 34, was slapped with attempted murder charges at his Brooklyn criminal court arraignment for plowing through four fellow club-goers after the bar brawl spilled out onto a Bay Ridge sidewalk, prosecutors said.

Amado and his girlfriend, Andrea Jobity, 39, were partying at Lounge 93 when their bottle of expensive Grey Goose vodka was stolen right off their table. A bartender replaced the stolen booze, and then Amado caught somebody stealing that bottle, too, defense attorney Lance Lazzaro said.

The hijacked hooch sparked a fight and club security booted Amado, his girlfriend, and about 15 others outside, where the fight continued on 93rd Street at Third Avenue.

Jobity was punched in the face, the lawyer said.

“These people were coming after them with bats, bottles, you name it. So he took off in his car,” said Lazzaro. “Mr. Amado says that he would have been in a coma or dead if he had stuck around.”

Amado drove up onto the sidewalk and hit three pedestrians, then reversed and hit another, prosecutors said.

“Charles Amado and Andrea Jobity got into their car and drove headfirst into a crowd,” said ADA Theresa Shanahan. “Charles Amado then passed out and Andrea Jobity took the wheel. She reversed and hit more parked cars, then she passed out as well.”

Jobity was charged with driving while intoxicated and unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle. Both she and Amado posted bail and were released, Lazzaro said.

But one of the pedestrians struck by Amado’s car said she didn’t buy his explanation for the crazed driving.

“That’s bulls---. I understand you probably had a lot to drink, but why would you drive into people?” said Vanessa Encalada, 27. “Everybody was trying to run away and he just accelerated forward. He hit me and then he reversed back. I was bleeding.”

Encalada said a friend hit by Amado still hasn’t regained consciousness.

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Possible future Israeli ambassador holds two countries in his heart

In Israel, he’s already known as “Bibi’s Brain:’’ Prime Minister Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu’s master strategist.

But Ron Dermer, 42-year-old Miami Beach native, now Israeli citizen — the son of one Miami Beach mayor and brother of another — could soon add an official title to his resume: Mr. Ambassador.

Dermer is reportedly Netanyahu’s choice for Israeli ambassador to the United States to replace Michael Oren, who plans to step down in the spring after four years.

A political conservative with close ties to powerful American Republicans, Dermer would become Israel’s top diplomat in the United States, a position requiring the ability to represent his country’s interests across U.S. party lines.

Netanyahu’s office hasn’t commented on the reports. A spokesman for the Israeli consulate in Miami could not confirm the possible appointment, nor could Dermer’s older brother, former Mayor David Dermer, who called any speculation “premature.’’ A spokesman for the Israeli embassy in Washington told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that the rumor was “baseless.’’ In any case, the Netanyahu government would have to survive a Parliamentary election later this month.

An Oxford-educated scholar-athlete who holds degrees in finance and management from the University of Pennsylvania’s prestigious Wharton School, and who quarterbacked Israel’s flag football World Cup team three times, Dermer is known as smart, polished, and so competitive that “he wouldn’t let a 3-year-old beat him at Ping-Pong,” friend Tom Rose, former Jerusalem Post publisher, once said in an interview.

Dermer “cannot abide anybody being better at him than anything, particularly physically,” Rose said.

The mere speculation that Dermer might be named seemed to thrill South Florida politicians from both parties.

“It’s wonderful — one of our own being Israel’s ambassador to the U.S.,” said U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Miami, who knows Dermer. “It is just terrific. He is American as apple pie yet Israeli at heart as well. It is a good fit. He is very much a proud Miami Beach guy — very proud of his hometown.”

U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the Democratic National Committee chairwoman, said she met Dermer as part of a Congressional delegation to Israel in 2010. Dermer was the staff person who sat next to Netanyahu as they discussed the peace process, she said.

“It was just neat to see someone reach the heights he has — he hails from South Florida and comes from a political family here,” she said. “It made the connection and conversations with the prime minister really just that much more warm and intimate.”

U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton, said that the job Dermer holds now — working behind the scenes and with the White House — is very different from being ambassador to the United States, which would require him to directly address Americans in speeches and through the media.

“Ambassador to the U.S. is the most high-profile diplomatic position in Israel,” Klein said. “It requires a tremendous amount of savvy and style that Americans can relate to.”

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Housing, jobs key to lifting S&P toward record

NEW YORK --
With it appearing that Washington lawmakers are working their way past the “fiscal cliff,” many analysts say that the outlook for stocks in 2013 is good, as a recovering housing market and an improving jobs outlook helps the economy maintain a slow, but steady recovery.

Reasonable returns in 2013 would send the S&P 500 toward, and possibly past, its record close of 1,565 reached in October 2007.

A mid-year rally in 2012 pushed stocks to their highest in more than four years. Both the Standard & Poor’s 500 and the Dow Jones industrial average posted strong gains in 2012. Those advances came despite uncertainty about the outcome of the presidential election and bouts of turmoil from Europe, where policy makers finally appear to be getting a grip on the region’s debt crisis.

“As you remove little bits of uncertainty, investors can then once again return to focusing on the fundamentals,” says Joseph Tanious, a global market strategist at J.P. Morgan Funds. “Corporate America is actually doing quite well.”

Although earnings growth of S&P 500 listed companies dipped as low as 0.8 percent in the summer, analysts are predicting that it will rebound to average 9.5 percent for 2013, according to data from S&P Capital IQ. Companies have also been hoarding cash. The amount of cash and cash-equivalents being held by companies listed in the S&P 500 climbed to an all-time high $1 trillion at the end of September, 65 percent more than five years ago, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices.

Assuming a budget deal is reached in a reasonable amount of time, investors will be more comfortable owning stocks in 2013, allowing valuations to rise, says Tanious.

Stocks in the S&P 500 index are currently trading on a price-to-earnings multiple of about 13.5, compared with the average of 17.9 since 1988, according to S&P Capital IQ data. The ratio rises when investors are willing to pay more for a stock’s future earnings potential.

The stock market will also likely face less drag from the European debt crisis this year, said Steven Bulko, the chief investment officer at Lombard Odier Investment Managers. While policy makers in Europe have yet to come up with a comprehensive solution to the region’s woes, they appear to have a better handle on the region’s problems than they have for quite some time.

Stocks fell in the second quarter of 2012 as investors fretted that the euro region’s government debt crisis was about to engulf Spain and possibly Italy, increasing the chances of a dramatic slowdown in global economic growth.

“There is still some heavy lifting that needs to be done in Europe,” said Bulko. Now, though, “we are dealing with much more manageable risk than we have had in the past few years.”

Next year may also see an increase in mergers and acquisitions as companies seeks to make use of the cash on their balance sheets, says Jarred Kessler, global head of equities at broker Cantor Fitzgerald.

While the number of M&A deals has gradually crept higher in the past four years, the dollar value of the deals remains well short of the total reached five years ago. U.S. targeted acquisitions totaled $964 billion through Dec. 27, according to data tracking firm Dealogic. That’s slightly down from last year’s total of $1 trillion and about 40 percent lower than in 2007, when deals worth $1.6 trillion were struck.

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9 Apps to Fast-Track Your New Years’ Resolutions

Whether your goal in 2013 is to lose five pounds, manage your finances, or spend more time with friends and family, there are a growing number of apps that fall into the self-help category and can assist you in accomplishing these resolutions.

At Mashable we’ve tested a lot of them out, but we’re still always hearing about new ones. There are a ton of fitness and health apps to chose from, but you might be pleasantly surprised to know they’re not all about weight loss. A device and app called Tinke monitors your stress levels and how deeply you’re breathing. An app called Fig will remind you to drink more water, skip fried foods and take breaks at work to keep you feeling good. Arianna Huffington also released an app called, “GPS for the Soul” that focuses on wellbeing.

[More from Mashable: Time Machine App Transports You Back to 2012]

Other apps can help you organize your social life, make new friends or save money for a vacation.

We’ve compiled a list of apps that can help you accomplish all sorts of goals this year. Check it out and let us know if we missed any that you plan on using in 2013.

[More from Mashable: It’s Easy to Save Videos From Facebook Poke Permanently]

OurGroceries

If you’re trying to eat out less and cook at home more often, make sure you always have a current grocery list at your fingertips. Mashable wrote about several grocery list apps this year. The standout seems to be OurGroceries for Android and iOS. If you have roommates or a significant other, everyone can download the app and sync lists. That way if you’re making a quick after-work trip to the grocery store you’ll not only be able to see the items you added, but also see what they’ve added, too.

Click here to view this gallery.

Photo courtesy of iStockphoto, hocus-focus

This story originally published on Mashable here.

Tech News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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