Sony gears up for PlayStation Vita's Japan launch (AP)

TOKYO ? Sony's long-awaited PlayStation Vita portable game machine hits stores in Japan on Saturday, with the company predicting brisk sales even though the launch has missed much of the holiday shopping season.

Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. President Andrew House told reporters Thursday that pre-launch orders had exceeded the allocation made for those keenest to get their hands on the device "extremely quickly" in Japan. He declined to reveal numbers.

The PS Vita goes on sale in North America and Europe on Feb. 22.

Enthusiasm for the new machine among gamers could lead to some shortages at first, House said. But he said Sony can handle the expected load.

"I'm pretty confident ... that there will not be major challenges in meeting demand, even though there may be short-term," House said.

For the Tokyo-based electronics and entertainment giant, the Vita is the biggest product launch since the PlayStation 3 console five years ago.

A successful debut would help Sony offset the rest of its struggling business. It projects a loss of more than $1 billion for the fiscal year through March 2012. That would be its fourth straight annual loss.

The next-generation device is a touch-interface and motion-sensitive handheld that Sony hopes will be a strong successor to the PlayStation Portable. Gamers can connect over cellphone networks and Wi-Fi hotspots, and use GPS location-tracking technology.

The Vita has front and back cameras, a touchscreen in front, a touch pad on the back and two knob-like joysticks. It will enable gamers to play against each other using PlayStation 3 consoles over the Internet-based PlayStation Network, a system that was hit with a massive hacking attack earlier this year.

House touted the Vita's advantages over rival Nintendo Co.'s 3DS, which had a disappointing start despite the company's efforts to market its 3-D technology. Critics complained about a lack of interesting games. Nintendo ended up slashing prices on the 3DS after less than six months.

In contrast, two dozen software titles will accompany the Vita's introduction ? the largest number of launch titles in PlayStation history, House said. Games include "Uncharted: Golden Abyss," "LittleBigPlanet," and "Wipeout 2048."

House also questioned whether 3-D actually makes gaming better.

"If you see people out on the blogs saying, 'I turned it off,' then it's not then really acting as a great game enhancer."

The Vita's Wi-Fi only model will cost $249.99 in the U.S. and euros 249.99 in Europe. The Wi-Fi and 3G-enabled Vita will retail for $299.99 and euros 299.99.

Game prices in Japan will range from 2,940 yen ($37.67) to 6,090 yen ($78).

Although the 3DS costs about 40 percent less than the Vita in Japan, House contends that the Sony device offers a "truly unique gaming experience" that will lure hardcore gamers as well as new gamers.

Both Sony and Nintendo are being challenged by the rise of smartphones and tablets, through which casual gamers can play inexpensive and simple games like the mega-hit "Angry Birds."

House, however, said people will pay if it's worth it.

"Clearly, if the experience merits it, I don't think price is necessarily the barrier to entry," he said, citing the $1 billion in sales racked up by the latest "Call of Duty" game by Activision Blizzard in just over two weeks. "The point is being able to give people a sense of value for money."

House, a U.K. national, took over as president and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment in September. He has worked at Sony Corp. for more than two decades.

___

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Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111215/ap_on_hi_te/as_japan_sony_playstation

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Obama sets campaign theme: Middle class at stake (AP)

OSAWATOMIE, Kan. ? Declaring the American middle class in jeopardy, President Barack Obama on Tuesday outlined a populist economic vision that will drive his re-election bid, insisting the United States must reclaim its standing as a country in which everyone can prosper if provided "a fair shot and a fair share."

While never making an overt plea for a second term, Obama's offered his most comprehensive lines of attack against the candidates seeking to take his job, only a month before Republican voters begin choosing a presidential nominee. He also sought to inject some of the long-overshadowed hope that energized his 2008 campaign, saying: "I believe America is on its way up."

In small-town Osawatomie, in a high school gym where patriotic bunting lined the bleachers, Obama presented himself as the one fighting for shared sacrifice and success against those who would gut government and let people fend for themselves. He did so knowing the nation is riven over the question of whether economic opportunity for all is evaporating.

"Throughout the country, it's sparked protests and political movements, from the tea party to the people who've been occupying the streets of New York and other cities," Obama said.

"This is the defining issue of our time," he said in echoing President Theodore Roosevelt's famous speech here in 1910.

"This is a make-or-break moment for the middle class and all those who are fighting to get into the middle class," Obama said. "At stake is whether this will be a country where working people can earn enough to raise a family, build a modest savings, own a home and secure their retirement."

For Obama, saddled with a weak national economic recovery, the speech was a chance to break away from Washington's incremental battles and his own small-scale executive actions. He offered a sweeping indictment of economic inequality and unleashed his own brand of prairie populism.

He spoke for nearly an hour to a supportive audience, reselling his ideas under the framework of "building a nation where we're all better off."

Billed as an important address that would put today's economic debates in context, Obama's speech seemed a bit like two packaged into one.

The first was that of the campaigner, full of loft and reclamation of American values. The second was the governing Obama, who recited his familiar jobs agenda, his feud with Congress over extending a Social Security tax cut, even his fight to get his consumer watchdog confirmed.

Obama tied himself to Roosevelt, the president and reformer who came to this town in eastern Kansas and called for a "square deal" for regular Americans. Roosevelt said then the fight for progress was a conflict "between the men who possess more than they have earned and the men who have earned more than they possess."

It is a theme Obama is embracing in a mounting fight for re-election against Republicans who, regardless of the nominee, will attack his stewardship of the economy.

One of the leading contenders for the GOP nomination, Mitt Romney, ridiculed Obama for comparing himself to Roosevelt.

Obama "said that he is like Teddy Roosevelt," Romney said at a campaign event in Paradise Valley, Ariz. "And I thought, `In what way is he like Teddy Roosevelt?' Teddy Roosevelt of course founded the Bull Moose Party. One of those words applies."

Kirsten Kukowski, spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee, said, "Maybe instead of trying to be like other presidents, Obama should try being president."

Obama took aim at the Republicans, saying they would only return the same structures that led to America's economic downturn. "Their philosophy is simple: We are better off when everyone is left to fend for themselves and play by their own rules," Obama said. "I'm here to say they are wrong."

The president conceded that the country is in the midst of a consuming re-examination on his watch, prompting national movements against both government spending and an economy that many feel disproportionately favors the elite. Obama went on the offensive about income equality, saying it distorts democracy and derails the American dream.

Responding to those who want to cut taxes and regulation in the belief success will trickle down, Obama said: "Here's the problem: It doesn't work. It's never worked."

Obama noted that Theodore Roosevelt was called a "radical, a socialist, even a communist" for putting forth ideas in his last campaign such as an eight-hour work day, a minimum wage for women, unemployment insurance and a progressive income tax.

Left unsaid: Roosevelt's Bull Moose campaign in 1912 failed to return him to the White House.

Obama attempted to sum up the pain and peril for a society where the middle class is struggling. But he also called for individual responsibility.

"In the end," he said, "rebuilding this economy based on fair play, a fair shot and a fair share will require all of us to see the stake we have in each other's success."

Obama also challenged the big banks that took bailouts from American taxpayers, pointing to "a deficit of trust between Main Street and Wall Street." He said banks that were bailed out had an obligation to work to close that trust deficit and should be doing more to help remedy past mortgage abuses and assist middle-class taxpayers.

___

Feller contributed from Washington. Associated Press writers Erica Werner and Kasie Hunt contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111207/ap_on_go_ot/us_obama

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Video: Is High Volatility Here to Stay?

Discussing whether volatility in the market is here to stay, with Brian Belski, Oppenheimer Asset Management, and Keith Wirtz, Fifth Third Asset Management.

Related Links:

Business & financial news headlines from msnbc.com

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Next legal step uncertain for O'Keeffe art at Fisk

FILE - This flie image provided by Fisk University shows the 1927 painting by Georgia O'Keeffe, "Radiator Building -Night, New York, " which is part of a 101-piece collection donated to the historically black university by the late artist. A state appeals court in Nashville, Tenn., on Tuesday, Nov. 29. 2011, threw out a judge?s requirement to reserve two-thirds of a $30 million sale of a 50 percent stake to the Crystal Bridges Museum in Bentonville, Ark., to maintain the collection when it?s housed in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/Fisk University, File) NO SALES

FILE - This flie image provided by Fisk University shows the 1927 painting by Georgia O'Keeffe, "Radiator Building -Night, New York, " which is part of a 101-piece collection donated to the historically black university by the late artist. A state appeals court in Nashville, Tenn., on Tuesday, Nov. 29. 2011, threw out a judge?s requirement to reserve two-thirds of a $30 million sale of a 50 percent stake to the Crystal Bridges Museum in Bentonville, Ark., to maintain the collection when it?s housed in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/Fisk University, File) NO SALES

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) ? Fisk University's decade-long quest to generate cash from a 101-piece art collection donated by the late painter Georgia O'Keeffe is one step closer to fruition.

But it is unclear how quickly the historically black university in Nashville will be able to complete a $30 million deal to sell a 50 percent stake in the collection to the Crystal Bridges Museum in Bentonville, Ark.

Under the agreement, the artworks including O'Keefe's own 1927 oil painting "Radiator Building ? Night, New York ? would move between Fisk and the Arkansas museum every two years.

A state appeals court ruling Tuesday threw out a judge's requirement for Fisk to reserve two-thirds of the proceeds to ensure future upkeep of the collection amid the university's shaky financial circumstances.

Fisk officials argued at last year's trial that the school had mortgaged all of its buildings, was running a $2 million annual deficit and had no unrestricted endowment available. The opinion notes that when President Hazel O'Leary was asked whether Fisk was "viable" given the scope of its financial challenges, she responded, "No, not at all."

The 2-1 decision found the lower court didn't have the authority to require the creation of the $20 million endowment to guard against creditors should Fisk declare bankruptcy.

Appeals Judge Frank G. Clement Jr. disagreed.

"The record clearly reveals that that Ms. O'Keeffe never intended for the Collection to be sold or otherwise monetized in order for Fisk University to pay its general operating expenses," Clement wrote in his dissent.

Even with the endowment in place, Fisk would be able to use $10 million to "rise above its current financial predicament," while staying closer to O'Keeffe's original charitable intent, Clement said.

The Crystal Bridges Museum features artwork amassed by Wal-Mart heiress Alice Walton, including Asher Durand's landscape painting "Kindred Spirits" and Norman Rockwell's "Rosie the Riveter."

While the majority opinion rules out the judge establishing an endowment requirement, it does not preclude the court from approving one or another "dedicated source of support" for the collection. It also calls on Fisk to lay out how it will use a $1 million pledge from Walton to upgrade the display space and outline how it plans to spend the $30 million from the deal.

The state attorney general's office, which has fought to keep the collection from leaving Nashville, has not yet decided whether to seek an appeal to the state Supreme Court. A Fisk spokesman did not return a message seeking comment.

In 1949, O'Keefe donated 97 pieces to Fisk from the estate of her late husband, the photographer Alfred Stieglitz. They include works by Picasso, Renoir, Cezanne, Marsden Hartley, Alfred Maurer and Charles Demuth, among others.

O'Keeffe, who died in 1986, also gave the school four of her own paintings as part of the gift, which was made to Fisk because the school educated blacks at a time when the South was segregated.

The gift carried the stipulation that it could not be sold or broken up. But Fisk has argued that it can't afford even the $131,000 it currently spends to display the collection each year.

The school in 2002 sought to send the collection on a foreign tour to raise money for the school. Three years later, Fisk announced plans to sell O'Keeffe's "Radiator Building" and Hartley's "Painting No. 3."

That move was blocked by the state attorney general, whose office is responsible for overseeing charitable giving in Tennessee. The current case is the result of protracted legal fights over the collection.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2011-11-30-US-Fisk-Art-Collection/id-512168440a0f46f7bb4de6b057d1c40b

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For NASA's rover Curiosity, it's 'Mars or Bust!'

NASA's rover Curiosity lifted off Saturday for its?354-million-mile cruise to Mars. After its nearly nine-month trip, the six-wheeled robot will descend to begin studying the environment for a better understanding of the red planet's history.

For NASA's Mars Science Laboratory rover Curiosity, it's "Mars or Bust!"

Skip to next paragraph

An Atlas V rocket carrying the one-ton rover to the red planet lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center at 10:02 a.m. Eastern Standard Time Saturday morning in a flawless launch.

Some 45 minutes later, a video camera aboard the rocket's upper stage captured farewell footage of the lander and its cruise stage as the package separated and headed for Mars.

A short time later, the payload phoned home to report that all its systems are functioning well.

IN PICTURES:?Exploring Mars

"Ecstatic is the word," said Doug McCuistion, who heads NASA's Mars exploration program, when asked for his reaction during a post-launch press briefing. "We have started a new era of exploration of Mars with this mission."

Up to now, NASA's program has focused on "following the water" with missions designed to reconstruct from the planet's minerals the history of a liquid essential to life as researchers currently understand it.

But water alone isn't enough, researchers say. Other environmental conditions come into play, conditions that govern the ability of organic building blocks for life to remain stable on the surface or underground, for instance.

The record of environmental conditions early in the planet's history, when it was thought to have been at its wettest, is believed to be written in the layers of rock the Mars Science Laboratory's team has identified in Gale Crater, a 100-mile-wide impact feature with a mountain that soars three miles high from the center of the crater's floor.

After an eight-and-a-half-month cruise, a nail-biting final descent aims to place the six-wheeled robotic chemist squarely in the crater.

If all goes well, Curiosity will initially spend 98 weeks traversing some 12 miles or more ? driving, drilling, then analyzing the drill tailings to help build a picture of the environments that existed at the location as the planet made the transition from a wet planet, to a periodically wet planet, to the desiccated orb humans are visiting today.

"This mission is an important next step in addressing the issue of life in the universe," says John Grotzinger, a planetary scientist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif., and the project scientist for the Mars Science Laboratory.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/reW1BLEpRRI/For-NASA-s-rover-Curiosity-it-s-Mars-or-Bust!

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Chilly November? Not for US car sales (AP)

DETROIT ? People are finally replacing the cars and trucks they held on to during the economic slump, giving a big boost to U.S. auto sales in November.

Chrysler, Ford, Nissan and Hyundai were among the companies reporting double-digit gains from last November, which is normally a lackluster month because of colder weather and holiday distractions. This November, buyers were lured by good deals, improving confidence in the economy and the need to trade in older cars.

"Consumers are just starting to say `it's time to start spending money again,' " says Larry Dominique, executive vice president of data for the TrueCar.com automotive website.

An early blitz of holiday advertising helped convince some people that it was a good time to buy. Ken Czubay, Ford's vice president for U.S. sales, says dealers saw the same rise in sales that other merchants did on Black Friday and the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

Industry sales rose 14 percent to 994,721, according to Autodata Corp. It was also the fastest sales pace since August 2009, when the government offered big rebates for drivers to trade in their gas-guzzling clunkers. U.S. sales would hit 13.6 million this year if they stayed at the same pace they did in November. That's a far better rate than the 12.6 million in the first 10 months of this year.

Car companies expected sales to improve as people who held on to cars during the economic downturn return to the market. The average age of a car on U.S. roads is a record 10.6 years, according to Polk, an auto industry research firm. And the rate of cars that are scrapped has surpassed sales for several years.

Paul Ballew, a former GM chief economist who now works for Nationwide Insurance, notes the level of pent-up demand is unprecedented. "Unless this recovery is derailed, vehicle sales will continue to move upward," he says.

A better selection of cars at Toyota showrooms also brought more shoppers back into the market. Many buyers spent the summer waiting for those inventories to improve after the March earthquake and tsunami in Japan squeezed supplies, says economist Jenny Lin, who works for Ford Motor Co.

Toyota Motor Corp.'s sales rose 7 percent for the month, the first time the company has seen a year-over-year increase since April. Sales of the subcompact Yaris more than doubled. Sales of the Prius hybrids ? which now include the original car as well as the new Prius V wagon ? were also strong.

But Honda Motor Co. continued to struggle, partly because of flooding in Thailand that forced the company to slow down U.S. production. Honda sales fell 10 percent for the month.

Chrysler Group LLC's sales rose 45 percent from a year earlier. They were led by the Jeep Compass small SUV, which had a nearly ten-fold increase in sales. Jeep brand sales rose 50 percent, while Chrysler brand sales nearly doubled on strong demand for its 200 and 300 sedans. Chrysler raised its incentives to nearly $3,300 per vehicle, up 6 percent from October.

At General Motors Co., buyers snapped up small cars and pickup trucks. Sales of the Chevrolet Cruze compact rose 64 percent, while the Silverado pickup, GM's top-selling vehicle, saw sales jump 34 percent.

"We are seeing a broad spectrum of customers return to the market," says Don Johnson, GM's U.S. sales chief. GM's overall sales were up 7 percent.

Ford's sales rose 13 percent, fueled by the new Explorer SUV, whose sales more than tripled over last November.

The increases reflect improving consumer confidence, which rose to its highest level since July last month, according to the Conference Board.

Attractive leases also spurred sales. Dealers offered good terms because low interest rates and high used-car values make leased vehicles worth more when they're returned. GM, for instance, is offering a Cruze lease at $169 per month for 39 months.

According to TrueCar.com, an auto pricing site, the average industry spending on incentives such as leases and low-interest loans was $2,534 per vehicle in November, up 2.5 percent from October.

Jeremy Anwyl, CEO of the auto information site Edmunds.com, estimates that 200,000 to 300,000 buyers who held off purchases over the summer and are coming back to the market now. But he thinks sales could soften this spring once those buyers are exhausted.

"I wouldn't view this as suggestive of a fundamental economic rebound," Anwyl says. Instead, he expects the recovery to continue the bumpy progress it has seen all year.

Other carmakers reporting Thursday:

? Nissan Motor Co. says sales were up 19 percent. The new Versa small car led sales with a 38 percent increase, but SUV and truck sales also rose 32 percent.

? Hyundai Motor Co. says sales rose 22 percent thanks to sales of the new Elantra, which jumped 44 percent.

? Volkswagen AG says sales were up 41 percent on the strength of the new Jetta and Passat sedans. Volkswagen sold 6,018 Passats in November, compared with 374 last November.

____

Auto Writer Bree Fowler in New York contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/economy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111201/ap_on_bi_ge/us_auto_sales

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