Friday, October 26, 2012

First iPad Mini shipments pushed to 2 weeks


Apple's online stores lit up at 12:04 a.m. PT in the United States, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Japan to those people eager to get the tablet as soon as possible but not wait in line when the first models arrive in stores on November 2.
But the balance of supply and demand meant that many buyers will have to show up in person if they want an iPad Mini as soon as possible. By 12:27 a.m. in the United States, the Apple store's words "delivers 11/2" became "available to ship: 2 weeks" for the 64GB white model. Several other models -- black iPad Minis in particular -- kept their November 2 delivery date.
Supplies appeared thinner in Europe. At 12:47 a.m. PT in Germany, all models in all colors slipped to a two-week shipment date. In France and the U.K., all white models showed a two-week shipment schedule.
The iPad Mini is arriving in two waves, with Wi-Fi-only models first and 4G-equipped models a couple weeks later. Apple listed initial ship dates of November 2 for the Wi-Fi model across the different countries, but said the Wi-Fi + 4G models would arrive in mid-November in the United States and the end of November in Europe. In Japan, the Wi-Fi + 4G models couldn't be ordered yet.
Carriers also sell iPads, but a survey of a half dozen showed none promoting or selling the iPad Mini yet. Presumably that will change closer to November 16, when the 4G models arrive in stores.
Tablets have become a huge business for Apple, with 14 million iPads sold last quarter, though not as big as its iPhone business, with 26.9 million.
Preorders can be a big problem as customers mob online stores in an effort to get the first models without having to wait in line at Apple stores. In September, iPhone 5 preorders brought down Apple's online store and those of several carriers selling the product.
Those who don't get into the online shopping queue early don't get their devices soon. iPhone 5 delivery times quickly reached 3 to 4 weeks as 2 million flooded in during the initial spurt of sales activity last month.
The most notable iPad Mini differences compared to earlier iPads is the smaller size, of course, a lower 0.68-pound weight, and also a lower price starting at $329. That should help the iPad line keep the pressure the PC market when it comes to attracting customers' disposable income this holiday season.
The Wi-Fi models of the iPad Mini will arrive in stores on November 2 at $329 for 16GB, $429 for 32GB, and $529 for 64GB. On November 16, the models that support both Wi-Fi and 4G LTE wireless networks will arrive at $459 for 16GB, $559 for 32GB, and $659 for 64GB.
The iPad Mini's 1,024x768-pixel screen has a 7.9-inch diagonal compared to 9.7 inches for the regular iPad. It's also got an Apple A5 processor -- a relatively elderly model compared to the A6 in the iPhone 5 and the A6X in the fourth-generation iPad.
The new tablet also has a front-facing 720p-capable FaceTime camera and a 5-megapixel back camera; 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi at 5.2Ghz; Bluetooth 4.0; and Apple's smaller new Lightning connector.

Kids stabbed dead in NYC home; nanny, knife nearby


The horror started for the children's mother, Marina Krim, when she and a third child returned to their apartment on Manhattan's Upper West Side Thursday evening. Puzzled by the darkened home, she returned to the lobby to ask the doorman if the nanny had gone out with 1-year-old Leo, just learning to walk, and 6-year-old Lucia, known as LuLu.
She was told they hadn't left, so she returned upstairs. A search led to the bathroom, where the children's bodies were in the bathtub and the nanny lay wounded nearby. It's unclear how many times the children were stabbed.
"There was some kind of screaming about, 'You slit her throat!'" said music therapist Rima Starr, who lives on the same floor as the family, and said she heard screams coming from their apartment at around 5:30 p.m.
The nanny, Yoselyn Ortega, who was found near a knife, was hospitalized in critical condition and was in police custody. The children were pronounced dead at a hospital.
The children's father, CNBC digital media executive Kevin Krim, who had been away on a business trip, was met by police at the airport on his return and was given an escort to the hospital where his loved ones had gathered.
The couple's apartment building sits in one of the city's most idyllic neighborhoods, a block from Central Park, near the Museum of Natural History and blocks from Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. The neighborhood is home to many affluent families, and seeing children accompanied by nannies is an everyday part of life there, making the idea of such violence even more disturbing to residents.
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said it's unclear how long the nanny had worked for the family and the police investigation was ongoing. No charges had been filed.
Starr, the neighbor, said she believed the nanny had been hired just recently.
"I met her in the elevator, the day before yesterday, and was making small talk," she said.
After police arrived, she said, the mother remained in the building's lobby, screaming hysterically and clutching her surviving child.
On a webpage devoted to a recent family wedding, the eldest of the children, Lulu, is described as loving "art projects, ballet, and all things princess." The youngest, Leo, was said to be just learning how to walk.
The family had moved to New York from San Francisco within the last few years. The children's father was named general manager of CNBC's digital media division in March, after working previously in digital media at Bloomberg. Their mother had a cooking blog and taught art classes to young children.
The family lived in a stately, late 19th-century apartment building where one three-bedroom unit currently available for rent has an asking price of $10,000 per month. They had a greyhound, retired from racing, named Babar.

Colin Powell endorses Obama again


In an interview on ‘‘CBS This Morning,’’ Powell also said he was ‘‘more comfortable’’ with the president’s views on immigration, education, and health care.
I do not want to see the new Obamacare plan thrown off the table,’’ Powell said. ‘‘It has issues — you have to fix some things in that plan — but what I see is that 30 million fellow citizens will now be covered.’’
It is an open question whether his endorsement will carry as much weight as it seemed to four years ago when he threw his support behind Obama in the final weeks of his campaign against Republican Senator John McCain. But the president’s advisers had been waiting with anticipation of an endorsement, which Powell did not reveal until his television interview Thursday.
In the interview, Powell said the nation’s unemployment rate was still too high, but he added: ‘‘I think generally we’ve come out of the dive and we’re starting to gain altitude.’’
He praised Obama for his handling of national security.
I also saw the president get us out of one war, start to get us out of a second war, and did not get us into any new wars,’’ Powell said. ‘‘I think the actions he’s taken with respect to protecting us from terrorism have been very, very solid. And so I think we ought to keep on the track that we are on.’’
On Afghanistan and other foreign policy concerns, Powell said he did not believe Romney ‘‘has thought through these issues as thoroughly as he should have.’’ He added, ‘‘There are some very, very strong neoconservative views that are presented by the governor that I have some trouble with.’’
He said he still considered himself a Republican but in ‘‘a more moderate mold.’’ He added, ‘‘That’s something of a dying breed, I’m sorry to say.’’
Four years ago, Powell announced his endorsement of Obama in an appearance on ‘‘Meet the Press’’ on NBC. He did not say during his interview Thursday whether he would campaign on Obama’s behalf.
NEW YORK TIMES
Romney ad appeals to N.H. voters worried over Navy fleet
WASHINGTON — Mitt Romney, doubling down on his contention that President Obama has allowed the Navy to dangerously erode, launched a television ad Thursday in New Hampshire seeking support from voters who depend on jobs with shipyards and other defense industries.
In the advertisement, titled “Our Navy — New Hampshire,” the former Massachusetts governor makes a patriotic appeal for increased defense spending and blames Obama for pending defense cuts that were also approved by both parties in Congress.
The state of our Navy — the state of the entire US military — is crucial for America,” the narrator intones. “Our freedom depends on it. But so do many of our jobs — 3,600 in New Hampshire alone.”
The ad also seeks to portray the cuts as characteristic of an administration that has weakened America’s influence in the world: “Does President Obama know how much his defense cuts will hurt us? . . . Do they also expose how President Obama views the world and America’s place in it?”
By highlighting his repeated calls on the campaign trail for a larger fleet, Romney is trying to sway undecided voters in a state that could prove crucial in deciding who will win the national race.
The size of the Navy fleet was a flash point in the third and final debate between Romney and Obama on Monday.
The new advertisement opens with Romney’s assertion in the debate that “Our Navy is smaller now than at any time since 1917. The Navy said they needed 313 ships to carry out their mission. We’re now at under 285. We’re headed down to the low 200s if we go through [planned defense cuts]. That’s unacceptable to me.”
Obama ridiculed his Republican rival for the simplistic comparison.
We also have fewer horses and bayonets, because the ¬nature of our military’s changed,” Obama said. “We have these things called aircraft carriers, where planes land on them. We have these ships that go underwater, nuclear submarines.
And so the question,” Obama added, “is not a game of Battleship, where we’re counting ships. It’s what are our capabilities?”
But the shipbuilding industry is vital to New Hampshire and the broader New England economy, said Loren ¬Thompson, a defense specialist at Source Associates, a consulting firm.
Any increase in shipbuilding,” he said, “will be highly ¬advantageous to Bath Iron Works in Maine, Electric Boat in ¬Groton, Conn., and makers of ¬naval electronics in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.”
Shipbuilding and defense cuts are also key issues in the tossup state of Virginia.
BRYAN BENDER
Police investigate voter fraud claim
ARLINGTON, Va. — Police in Arlington have launched an investigation following the release of undercover video showing the son of US Representative James Moran, Democrat of Virginia, discussing a plan to cast fraudulent ballots.
Patrick Moran resigned as field director of his father’s campaign after Project Veritas, a group led by a conservative activist, released the video.
It showed an undercover operative pitching a plan to Moran that called for casting ballots in the name of 100 voters who rarely vote. In the video, Moran expresses doubts but tells the volunteer to ‘‘look into it.’’ Moran has said he thought the person was unstable and was humoring him.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Dixville Notch hotel won’t open as polling place
DIXVILLE NOTCH, N.H. — For more than 50 years, voters in a township tucked close to Canada have cast some of the nation’s first ballots for president at the historic Balsams Grand Resort Hotel.
Not this year.
The hotel will be closed for the Nov. 6 election, forcing Dixville’s 10 registered voters to continue the midnight tradition at a local ski lodge.
The Victorian- and Alpine-style resort, in the village of Dixville Notch, is known for its wood-paneled Ballot Room, where residents have cast their votes for president at the stroke of midnight on New Hampshire’s primary day and on the nation’s Election Day since 1960. The room is filled with political articles and cartoons from presidential campaigns and a special glass-encased ballot box.
Dixville shares midnight voting with Hart’s Location, which began the early-bird tradition in 1948. Most residents of that White Mountain village then were railroad workers who had to be on the job during normal polling hours.
By 1964 the townspeople had grown weary of the media attention and the late hours and did away with the practice.
They revived it in 1996.
Former Balsams owner Neil Tillotson, eager to steal the spotlight from Hart’s Location, arranged for the early elections by having Dixville incorporated in 1960 solely for voting.
The nearly 150-year-old resort was officially closed in September 2011. Two local businessmen who bought it for $2.3 million hope to reopen it next year.
The hotel this year was open just for one night — the state’s first-in-the-nation presidential primary on Jan. 10.

Obama, Romney hit final stretch with bursts of fundraising


Romney's campaign and affiliated party committees raised $111.8 million between Oct 1. and 17, while Obama's reelection committee and party allies pulled in $90.5 million, according to campaign finance reports filed Thursday with the Federal Election Commission. The reports are the last required before election day.
Despite Romney's cash advantage, Obama raised more directly into his campaign committee, pulling in $54.4 million to Romney's $38 million.
That gives the president more flexibility in how he can use his financial resources in the final stretch. As of Oct. 17, Obama had $93.6 million in the bank, while his GOP rival had $52.7 million.
Overall, however, Romney and his party allies had more on hand: $169 million, compared with almost $125 million held by the president and affiliated Democratic committees.
In the end, it is likely that both candidates will exceed $1 billion in money raised, breaking previous records. Since the beginning of the 2012 cycle, Obama's campaign and affiliated committees have already pulled in a record $1.037 billion, according to FEC data and the nonpartisan Campaign Finance Institute. That surpasses the $937 million he raised for his 2008 White House bid through his campaign, the Democratic National Committee and three joint fundraising committees.
Romney is also on track to break the billion-dollar mark, with a total haul of $950.7 million now, some which has gone to the party's congressional committees.
During the first 17 days of October, Romney burned through $62 million and Obama spent $82.9 million.
The spending is only going to intensify.
In a recent gathering of top donors in New York, Romney campaign officials detailed their strategy for the final weeks; at that point they planned to pump as much as $100 million into television and online ads between Oct. 18 and election day. That massive bombardment would mean a substantially expanded on-air presence for the campaign.
The Republican National Committee, which entered the final 19-day period with $67.6 million on hand, plans to devote more money than planned to advertising, Chairman Reince Priebus said Thursday.
Both candidates will be backed by outside groups, but GOP-allied "super PACs" had a significant cash advantage over their Democratic counterparts for the final leg of the race.
Priorities USA Action, the super PAC backing Obama, raised $13 million during the first half of October. More than half of its haul came from just seven donors who gave $1 million each, including financier George Soros and Mark Pincus, chief executive of online game company Zynga. The group spent $10.2 million and had $10.1 million in the bank.
Meanwhile, the pro-Romney group Restore Our Future raised $20 million, with half its take coming from casino magnate and prolific Republican donor Sheldon Adelson and his wife, Miriam, who each wrote $5 million checks a week apart.
In all, Adelson has suggested he could spend more than $100 million in the 2012 campaign. Together with his family, he has given at least $46.5 million in donations to groups that disclose their donations, according to campaign finance reports.
Restore Our Future also collected $1 million from each of a quartet of donors: Jerry Perenchio, former chief of Spanish-language media company Univision; Julian Robertson, a billionaire hedge fund manager; Dallas-based investor Harold C. Simmons; and Edward St. John, a Baltimore developer. All except St. John are repeat donors to the group.
The pro-Romney super PAC also benefited from a rising stock market this year. In June, the committee said it received stock worth $50,265 from Sean Fieler, a New York financial analyst and chairman of a group called the American Principles Project, which advocates a return to the gold standard. When the committee sold the stock last week, it was worth $67,119.
After spending $12.5 million, almost entirely on media and direct mail, Restore Our Future entered the final three weeks of the election with $24 million cash on hand.
American Crossroads, the other major Republican super PAC, brought in $11.6 million, some from the same donors. Simmons wrote a $4 million check on Oct. 12, bringing his total to the group to $12.5 million. Perenchio gave $500,000.
Texas home builder Bob Perry and Robert B. Rowling, chairman of TRT Holdings, also each added $1 million. Perry has given $5 million to American Crossroads alone; Rowling's checks total $4 million.
After spending $21 million in the first 17 days of October, the group entered the last leg of the campaign with $6.4 million.