Apple sells record 4 million iPhones

NEW YORK — Apple said Monday that it has sold more than 4 million iPhone 4S smartphones since its launch three days ago, setting a sales record for the device.

Over the weekend, the company sold more than twice the 1.7 million iPhone 4s that it sold during last year’s opening weekend, though the numbers are a bit skewed: This year’s iPhone was simultaneously launched in the United States, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom, while last year’s launch did not include Australia and Canada.

Also in the United States, the iPhone launched on multiple carriers for the first time. The iPhone 4S is also the first iPhone to be available on the Sprint (S, Fortune 500) network. Verizon (VZ, Fortune 500) previously sold the iPhone 4, but the device launched exclusively on AT&T (T, Fortune 500).

Apple’s (AAPL, Fortune 500) management said it was pleased with the results.

“IPhone 4S is off to a great start,” Philip Schiller, Apple’s head of marketing, said in a prepared statement. “IPhone 4S is a hit with customers around the world, and together with iOS 5 and iCloud, is the best iPhone ever.”

Apple also announced that more than 25 million customers have downloaded or purchased a device with iOS 5, the new mobile software that powers the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch. The latest version of the operating system became available on Oct. 12.

There were a few reported hiccups with the download last Wednesday, as Apple’s servers were overwhelmed with demand. The new iOS 5 operating system also crashed at least one popular app, Google Voice. The search giant’s phone application was pulled from the iTunes App Store this weekend after repeated reports of crashes. Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) said it has a fix in the works and plans an update soon.

The sales record comes despite a more muted turnout at Apple’s flagship store on launch day Friday, with around 250 people waiting 90 minutes before the iPhone went on sale. Some speculated that the rainy weather in New York City was to blame.

The new iPhone appears physically the same as the iPhone 4, but the guts are improved: it features a new, faster processor called the A5, which debuted in the iPad 2. It also includes a better, 8-megapixel camera, an improved antenna, and Siri, the new voice command software that’s billed as an on-board personal assistant.

Siri has already become a cult sensation, inspiring glowing reviews and blogs devoted to chronicling her more amusing quotes. She’s got opinions about the meaning of life (“42″) and the best place to hide a body (“metal foundries” and “swamps” make the list).

Source: CNN

U.S. President Obama embarks on a two-state bus tour Monday during which he will press Congress to pass his jobs bill, even if in stages, the White House said.

Obama will begin his three-day tour of North Carolina and Virginia by flying first to Asheville Regional Airport in Fletcher, N.C., then traveling by bus, the White House said.

In mid-morning remarks at the airport before boarding the special armored bus, Obama is to push for more federal spending to improve the nation’s roads, bridges and airports.

He also is to speak about 5 p.m. at a high school in Millers Creek, N.C., to press for a provision in his $447 billion jobs bill to assist local cities and towns with money to prevent teacher layoffs.

The Senate defeated the bill last week by refusing to let it come up for a vote. So now Obama is seeking to get his bill’s individual proposals to the Senate floor for a vote as soon as possible, the White House said.

On Tuesday, Obama is to hold a roundtable with teachers at Guilford Technical Community College in Jamestown, N.C., and make remarks at an Emporia, Va., YMCA and at a Hampton, Va., high school.

First lady Michelle Obama will join him Wednesday at Langley Air Force Base in Hampton, Va., to talk about hiring service members returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. Obama later will visit a firehouse in North Chesterfield, Va., before returning to the White House.

“In the public events that are scheduled for each day, the president will challenge Congress to get to work this week passing every element of the American Jobs Act, piece by piece,” White House deputy press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters in a conference call Sunday.

Obama himself said in his Saturday radio address he wanted to “remind Congress that’s their job.”

“The American people support every single plank of that bill, and we’re going to vote on every single one of them,” Obama re-election campaign adviser David Axelrod said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.”

But House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., told “Fox News Sunday” Obama should “stop the campaigning. Let’s go find the things that are in common between [the GOP] plan and his.”

Senate Republicans made a counter-offer to Obama’s bill Thursday.

Cantor said helping small businesses get money, reforming unemployment insurance and spending money on infrastructure were areas where Republicans and Democrats have expressed support.

“We’re not going to be for tax increases on small businesses,” he said.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., told the GOP to “get off of this kick of saying that the only thing that will create jobs is to lower taxes.”

Speaking at a Las Vegas conference Sunday, he said, “If lower taxes was a way to a great economy, during the George Bush years, we would have been on fire economically, but we weren’t.”

Private memorial held for Steve Jobs

A memorial service held at Stanford University Sunday to mark the passing of Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Jobs attracted hundreds of his colleagues and admirers.

The private evening service was notable for the heavy security presence and details of the event were scarce, The Wall Street Journal Reported. Attendees were served food in an outdoors setting next to the campus chapel and invited guests said a reception was to follow the service, the business newspaper said.

The San Jose Mercury News reported dozens of dark-suited men sporting ear pieces watched purposefully over those who showed up for the event.

“This is security like you’d see for a presidential visit — maybe tighter,” retired San Mateo County Superior Court Judge John Runde, who happened by for his weekly campus walk with his wife Joyce, told the newspaper.

A US drone attack has killed at least three suspected militants in north-west Pakistan, intelligence officials say.

They say the drone fired two missiles close to a compound in the town of Miranshah in the North Waziristan tribal region, near the Afghan border.

North and South Waziristan are regularly targeted by drone missiles.

The US says the region provides sanctuary to al-Qaeda and Taliban insurgents who are involved in attacks on Nato forces in Afghanistan.

In August, a drone attack killed at least 21 militants in North Waziristan. Among the dead were several foreigners believed to be part of the Haqqani network.

Drone attacks have escalated in the region since President Barack Obama took office in 2008. More than 100 raids were reported in the area last year.

The US does not routinely confirm drone operations, but analysts say only American forces have the capacity to deploy such aircraft in the region.

Pakistan publicly criticises drone attacks, saying they fuel support for militants. But observers say the authorities privately condone the strikes, although there have been recent signs that they want to limit the scope of such attacks.

A number of militants, some of them senior, have been killed in the raids, but many civilians have also died.

Facebook has outlined plans to encourage users to share more of the media they consume – including music and movies – with friends.

Its founder Mark Zuckerberg also unveiled a dramatic redesign to the website, replacing user profiles with an audio visual timeline of their life.

The updates were revealed at Facebook’s annual F8 developer conference.

A wave of new features in recent weeks have been welcomed by some users and caused annoyance to many others.

Facebook’s latest changes point to a desire to keep users engaged through new features, in the midst of rapid innovation from social networking rivals.

The site’s application platform has been redesigned to allow users to share what they are consuming on streaming music services such as Spotify, and the movie rental site Netflix.

Continue reading the main story
“Start Quote
…knowing you helped a friend discover something new and they liked your taste in music, and that you now have that in common is awesome”

End Quote Mark Zuckerberg Facebook founder
News sites, including the Guardian and Independent newspapers, are also included in the initial roll out.

Depending on privacy settings, users will be able to see what friends are doing – for example, playing a song – then listen-in themselves.

Mr Zuckerberg said he wanted to create, what he called, “real time serendipity”.

“Being able to click on someone’s music is a great experience, but knowing you helped a friend discover something new and they liked your taste in music, and that you now have that in common is awesome,” he added.

Facebook said that users would only be able to do as much on the site as its media partners allowed in each country, so free music sharing through streaming apps would only work where that service was already available outside Facebook.

New look
Alongside the deeper integration of media content, the restyling of Facebook’s profile pages is also likely to prove a hot topic among users.

The most radical departure so far from the site’s well known profile format will doubtless prove contentious with its sometimes conservative members.

Identities will now be defined through a densely packed vertical timeline of major life events, made up of photos, videos and other items. The level of detail diminishes the further down a reader scrolls.

Profile pages had previously been limited to basic information along with a stream of every single item posted by a user.

The latest offering is significantly different to those of Facebook’s biggest social networking rivals, Google+ and Twitter, and more closely resembles the once-popular site Myspace.

“Facebook is positioning itself as not just your social graph online, but your life online,” Forrester Research analyst Sean Corcoran told the Associated Press.

“These changes not only help trump rival Google but will open up new opportunities,” he said. “But concerns around privacy and immaturity in how to do these things effectively will make it a slow go.”

Facebook stressed that all of its new offerings could be controlled by members using its recently simplified privacy controls.

In particular, it stressed that timeline items could be modified within the new “activity log”, allowing users to limit who can view certain events from their past.

The updates are expected to start appearing on users’ computers in coming weeks.

(NWI) Christine Lagarde, head of the International Monetary Fund, warned that its $384 billion emergency bail-out fund might not be enough.

“The fund’s credibility, and hence effectiveness, rests on its perceived capacity to cope with worst-case scenarios. Our lending capacity of almost $400 billion looks comfortable today, but pales in comparison with the potential financing needs of vulnerable countries and crisis bystanders,” she said at the annual IMF meeting in Washington.

The announcement came after a plan was revealed to increase the European Financial Stability Facility fund, The Sunday Telegraph reported.

The plan is part of a strategy to stop the European debt crisis from spiraling out of control and to prepare for a Greek default.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, at a Sept. 16 Ecofin meeting, said that the banking problems in Europe were “the most serious risk now confronting the world economy.”

Research conducted for Technomic’s Lunch Consumer Trend Report indicates the heaviest users of food service during lunch are millennials — those ages 18-34 — and they are also the most likely to frequently use value items as a way to build meals.

“Baby boomers are motivated heavily by value, but other significant motivations include health and quality of food,” Sara Monnette, director of consumer research at Technomic, says in a statement. “The most health-conscious consumers skew 45 and older, so their value equation is different than that of a younger person who sees value primarily as a price issue. Older consumers are less likely to perceive value in dollar menu items because of the broader context of their motivations.”

Technomic’s Lunch Consumer Trend Report also says:

– On the weekend, lunch-time preferences shift and consumers pay more attention to customization and a fresh preparation than other attributes.

– Despite many increasingly bringing lunches from home to work, 35 percent surveyed purchase lunch from a restaurant or other food service location at least twice a week.

– More than half of all consumers indicate they skip lunch at least once a week and about two-thirds say they replace lunch with a snack at least once a week.

The survey involved 1,500 consumers. No further survey details were provided.

(NWI) Calvin Johnson’s 40-yard catch and a Jason Hanson field goal in overtime Sunday handed the Detroit Lions a 26-23 victory over Minnesota.

The Vikings tied the game with 1:11 left on a Ryan Longwell field goal, but the Lions won the overtime coin toss and quickly marched down the field for the victory.

Detroit logged a third straight win to start the season 3-0 for the first time since 1980 and took a victory in Minnesota for the first time since 1997. They overcame a 10-point, second-half deficit thanks to a pair of Johnson TD catches and three Hanson field goals.

Minnesota (0-3) surrendered a second-half lead for the third time in three weeks and have been outscored 67-6 after halftime this season.

Matthew Stafford went 32-of-45 for 378 yards, two TDs and no interceptions for the Lions.

Minnesota’s Donovan McNabb, meanwhile, completed 22-of-36 passes for 211 yards and scoring strike to Visanthe Shiancoe.

(NWI) President Obama gave the Congressional Black Caucus a pep talk in Saturday night as the political wrangling over spending on the economy drags on.

Obama and first lady Michelle Obama were greeted warmly at the CBC Foundation annual awards dinner in Washington, and the president vowed to continue fighting to help the poor and middle class.

“The future rewards those who press on and I’m going to press on,” Obama told the cheering crowd. “I don’t have time to feel sorry for myself; I’m going to press on.”

The speech pointed out what the president said was a difference in philosophies in which Democrats tried to maintain valuable education and public works projects while the Republicans were most concerned with coddling the wealthy and preventing them from paying their fair share of the nation’s tax burden.

“Give me a break,” Obama said. “If asking a billionaire to pay the same tax rate as a janitor makes me a warrior for the working class, I wear that with a badge of honor.”

Obama specifically urged the lawmakers to get behind his latest economic-stimulus package. He countered concerns about the cost by accusing the Republicans of opposing a program that would create or preserve jobs for workers and improve the nation’s schools and infrastructure while favoring tax breaks and subsidies for banks and the oil industry.

“If we want to create new jobs and close the deficit and invest in our future, the money has got to come from somewhere,” he said. “And so, should we keep tax loopholes for big oil companies? Or should we put construction workers and teachers back on the job?”

RAWALPINDI: An emergency meeting of Corps Commanders was called by the Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani in Rawalpindi on Sunday.

The meeting, which is currently underway, was called in the wake of the prevailing security situation and tension in relations with the United States.

An Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) statement said the meeting is being chaired by Kayani. Issues regarding national security are on top of the agenda.

All corps commanders and principle staff officers are attending the meeting.

According to sources, recent allegations leveled by US military chief Mike Mullen that Pakistan has links with the Haqqani network will also be discussed.

The Pakistan Army has denied accusations by senior US officials that Pakistan’s intelligence service supports the Haqqani network, saying it is based in Afghanistan.

However, spokesman for the ISPR Major General Athar Abbas did acknowledge that the ISI had contacts with the Haqqanis.

He told CNN that any intelligence agency prefers keeping contacts with opposition groups and terrorist organizations for some sort of positive outcome.

He stressed that this does not mean the ISI supports or endorses the organization.

Abbas also added that Pakistan is not the only country which maintains contacts with the Haqqanis.

He also expressed his shock at Mullen’s assertion that Pakistan was complicit in recent attacks against the US Embassy in Kabul.

In an earlier statement, Kayani termed the comments by Mullen as ‘unfortunate’, and ‘not based on facts’.

(Read: Volley heats up: ISI targeted in bitter Mullen tirade)

In the first official reaction to the slew of public statements made by various levels of the US administration against the ISI and suspected links between the Haqqani network and the Pakistan establishment, Kayani said that he had held a constructive meeting with Admiral Mullen in Spain last week.

He termed the statements following that meeting as very disturbing.

On the question of contacts with Haqqani network, Kayani said that Admiral Mullen knows well which countries are in contact with the Haqqanis. Singling out Pakistan as the chief protagonist is neither fair nor productive, he said.

‘Self-defeating blame game’

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Saturday rejected US allegations linking Islamabad with the Haqqani terror network, saying the “blame game is self-defeating”.

Gilani said such accusations would only benefit the militants, and added that they showed US policy in Afghanistan was in “disarray”.

“We strongly reject assertions of complicity with the Haqqanis or of proxy war,” he said in a policy statement issued by his office amid a growing rift with the United States.

“Blame game is self-defeating… It will only benefit the enemies of peace. Only terrorists and militants will gain from any fissures and divisions.”

The White House demanded Friday that Pakistan “break any link they have” with the Haqqanis, the al Qaeda-linked Taliban faction blamed for the recent attack on the US embassy in Kabul.

A day earlier top US military officer Admiral Mike Mullen directly accused Pakistan’s intelligence service of supporting the network’s attack on the embassy and a truck bombing on a NATO outpost.

“The allegations betray a confusion and policy disarray within the US establishment on the way forward in Afghanistan,” Gilani said.