As expected, the Nokia Lumia 1020 arrived with 41 megapixels in tow at today's event in New York City. Got questions? Yeah, us too. Thankfully, we had a bit of time to sit down with none other than Nokia CEO Stephen Elop, who was fresh off the on-stage Q&A, wearing a slick pair of bright yellow Converse All-Stars, in honor of the eye-popping color scheme of the handset he showed off earlier today. Elop seemed genuinely excited by his new device (even jokingly correcting me when I called it his "new toy"), taking a picture of us immediately after entering the room -- or, rather, he took a picture of our own Richard Lai and zoomed out to reveal me. The concept of re-framing is a huge part of what Nokia's selling -- take a picture first and worry about framing it later. With 41 megapixels, it's easy enough to zoom in or out after the fact.
Richard brought along a trio of handsets for comparison, including the N8, 808 PureView and the recent Lumia 925, so naturally we started with a little history -- much like the press conference itself. Of interest was at precisely what point Nokia began to envision optics as one of, if not the, key focus of its handsets. It was an appropriate visual from Elop's point of view -- the executive sees all of the above as entries in the company's evolutionary line. Nokia's focusing on improving the experience a bit with each and every link, says Elop, with the latest handset building atop of the lessons learned. The Lumia 1020 is, naturally, a culmination of those lessons.
Home foreclosure activity in June fell to the lowest level since December 2006, but certain states are seeing a rise in activity, as judges work through tremendous backlogs of delinquent loans.
Close to 128,000 properties received some kind of foreclosure filing in June, down 35 percent from a year ago, according to a new report from online foreclosure sales and analytics company RealtyTrac. Newly started foreclosures fell 21 percent month-to-month to the lowest level since the end of 2005.
Bank repossessions, the final stage of the foreclosure process, fell 9 percent month-to-month and were down 35 percent from a year ago. Still the numbers are on pace for nearly a half a million properties to be repossessed in 2013. That's an improvement, but still well above normal levels.
(Read More: Dire Predictions For Housing Recovery)
The picture is also mixed geographically ? Arkansas (up 143 percent), Oklahoma (up 103 percent), Maryland (up 74 percent), Washington (up 71 percent), New Jersey (up 33 percent), and New York (up 21 percent) ? as states that require a judge in the foreclosure process as well as those with new laws protecting borrowers, are seeing a spike in repossessions.
"The increases in judicial foreclosure auctions demonstrate that these delayed foreclosure cases are now being moved more quickly through to foreclosure completion," notes RealtyTrac's Daren Blomquist in the report.
(Read More: Map: Tracking the US Real Estate Recovery)
"Given the rising home prices in most of these markets, it is an opportune time for lenders to dispose of these distressed properties, either at the foreclosure auction to a third-party buyer, or by repossessing the property at the auction and subsequently selling it as a bank-owned home."
Judicial foreclosure auctions were up 34 percent from June of 2012, as Realtors report "brisk" sales of these distressed properties. Investors and regular buyers have been competing for a decreasing supply of properties. Nationwide, inventories of all homes are down dramatically, as a large number of underwater borrowers and borrowers with very little home equity are still unable to sell.
(Read More: Apartments Reap Rewards of Rising Rates)
Florida, Nevada, Illinois, Ohio and Georgia posted the top five state foreclosure rates for the first half of the year, according to RealtyTrac.
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Source: www.nytimes.com --- Thursday, July 11, 2013 Outsiders were stunned when Henry Ford II dismissed Lee Iacocca as president of Ford Motor in 1977 and elevated Mr. Caldwell, who was nearly unknown outside the company. ? ? ? ? ...
LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Actress Leah Remini is expressing appreciation to fans and others following word of her decision to leave the Church of Scientology.
In a statement issued Thursday by her talent agency, the former "King of Queens" star said she was grateful to the media, her colleagues and fans around the world for their "overwhelmingly positive support."
The statement made no mention of Scientology, and the APA talent and literary agency said Remini had no further comment.
But a person familiar with Remini's decision said the statement referred to her break with the church and public reaction to it. The person, who wasn't authorized to comment publicly, spoke on condition of anonymity.
A message seeking comment from the Church of Scientology International in Los Angeles was not immediately returned Thursday night.
Remini has been a longtime member of the church. When she joined CBS' daytime program "The Talk" in 2010 as an original co-host, she told a news conference that she didn't intend to make her religion part of the show.
"I love to make people laugh, entertain them. That other thing is something that is not even part of my discussion," said Remini, who was with "The Talk" for a season.
She co-starred in the freshman sitcom "Family Tools," which ended a brief run this week, and in the 2007-08 comedy "In the Motherhood," and starred opposite Kevin James in the long-running "King of Queens" that aired from 1998-2007.
Fitch Ratings has affirmed Sprint Nextel's long term debt ratings at B+, and also removed the company from Rating Watch Positive, and assigned them a Stable Outlook.
?The rating affirmation reflects Fitch's view that Sprint's current legal, operational and strategic ties to Softbank do not warrant additional notching support at this time based on Fitch's parent and subsidiary rating linkage criteria. Thus Sprint's IDR is based on its stand-alone credit profile and does not benefit from an uplift in ratings. The two companies do not share legal or operational ties for common treasury or integrated operations.
Softbank's decision to divert $3 billion in cash from Sprint to shareholders reflects a concern with Softbank demonstrating an appropriate level of tangible support to Sprint's credit profile in order to link the ratings. A greater indication of future financial support and strategic importance to Sprint by Softbank would provide a linkage to the ratings and for notching lift to Sprint's IDR.
Weak Financial Profile, Credit Metrics
Fitch expects Sprint's financial profile to remain weak through 2014 due to the significant cash deficit during the next two years and the associated debt borrowing that will increase leverage. Sprint estimated this deficit at approximately $10 billion in its June 2013 proxy filing driven by $16 billion in capital investment to keep pace with growing industry demand and the competitive environment.
Fitch believes the cumulative $28 billion in capital spending the next four years also reflects the underinvestment in Sprint's network and the need to accelerate the deployment of capital to improve Sprint's competitive position. Additionally, DISH's pursuit of Sprint and Clearwire had a negative impact on Sprint's available liquidity for other strategic initiatives of $4.7 billion.
Looking forward, as Sprint leverages it cost reduction efforts, substantial margin expansion should occur in the 2014 and 2015 timeframe. Cost reduction efforts could drive up to $2 billion in savings. The improved cash generation when coupled with reduced capital investment should allow for the company to strengthen its financial profile, including the potential to generate free cash flow by 2015. Leverage is expected to approach 5.5x by the end of 2013 before declining in 2014.
Operational Trends
Sprint also faces material execution risk across the numerous strategic objectives that the company is pursuing. Fitch remains concerned with Sprint platform gross additions trends that when adjusted for Nextel subscriber recapture, declined in excess of 20% for the past four quarters. Consequently, postpaid revenue growth declined to 0% year-over-year for the first quarter 2013 compared to a peak growth of 6% during late 2011 to mid-2012. During this time, Sprint prioritized its marketing spend for the recapture of its iDEN subscribers and Verizon Wireless took share by leveraging its 4G LTE leadership position across its national footprint. As such, Sprint will need to reinvigorate growth in light of this increased competitive activity.
The accelerated network investment to improve capacity, data bandwidth and customer experience is a key strategic component of Sprint plans. The company hopes the improved network when combined with its differentiated unlimited plan and Softbank's expertise will increase its share of industry gross additions. Fitch believes Verizon and AT&T Wireless are currently much better positioned to leverage their scale, capital investment, subscriber bases and spectrum portfolios to capture additional share and future growth, particularly through the share data plans. These plans will likely result in even stickier subscribers as consumers attach more devices, creating further barriers to churn.
Consequently, Sprint's challenge is magnified, as industry postpaid and prepaid additions are expected to contract further as the industry matures. Additional avenues for incremental revenue growth include mobile broadband/tablet devices and machine-to-machine opportunities.
Spectrum
Softbank's cash infusion materially strengthened Sprint's flexibility to pursue key consolidation and spectrum opportunities. Fitch views Clearwire's network and spectrum assets as integral to Sprint's long-term evolution (LTE) plans to deploy high-band spectrum in high-capacity areas, particularly within the urban cores under Sprint's control. This strengthens Sprint's long-term competitive position and ability to offer a differentiated unlimited wireless broadband plan versus its national peers.
Given Sprint's deep 2.5 GHz spectrum position and unbalanced spectrum portfolio, Fitch believes Sprint could pursue opportunities to swap/sell 2.5 GHz spectrum and increase its holdings of other spectrum bands including the sub 1 GHz band through the 600 MHz broadcast auction. This would enhance Sprint's financial flexibility and allow for an expanded 2.5 GHz device ecosystem.
Sprint and DISH could also find themselves at odds again as the FCC finalizes its plan to auction the PCS H-block in late 2013, or more likely in 2014. This spectrum is particularly attractive to each because it is adjacent to Sprint's existing spectrum and strategic to DISH's AWS-4 spectrum holdings. An H-block auction in the 2014 timeframe could increase Sprint's expected deficit if the company participates in the auction.
Liquidity, Maturities & Financial Covenants
Sprint's liquidity position is supported by $7.8 billion of cash and $2.1 billion borrowing capacity under a revolving credit facility. Softbank will contribute an additional $1.9 billion of cash at closing. Sprint closed a new five-year $3 billion credit agreement earlier this year. As of March 31, 2013, approximately $925 million in letters of credit were outstanding. Sprint also maintains a second tranche of a $500 million vendor financing facility that became available for borrowing on April 1, 2013.
Fitch expects Sprint will maintain at least $2 billion of cash going forward to maintain adequate liquidity for its strategic plans. As such, given the high cash requirements to fund the operating deficit related to the capital investment, the Clearwire acquisition and potential spectrum auction, Fitch expects Sprint will substantially increase debt during the next year.
Debt refinancing and redemptions have significantly reduced Sprint's maturity profile (excluding Clearwire) from previous years. During the next four years, $356 million, $292 million, $611 million and $2,111 million comes due, respectively. Sprint will consider opportunities to refinance Clearwire's high-coupon debt. Clearwire has $2.95 billion of 12% first-priority secured notes due December 2015. The secured notes currently have optional redemption rights at 106%. This will reduce to 103% in December 2013. The $500 million 12% second priority notes are due in 2017 with optional redemption rights beginning December 2014 at 106%. The $300 million 14.75% first priority secured notes mature in the fourth quarter of 2016 and contain a make-whole premium, thus limiting refinancing options.
Financial covenants with the new credit facility have significant cushion against the expected leverage increase with current total leverage ratio not to exceed 6.25 through June 30, 2014. As of March 31, 2013, the leverage ratio was 4.25.
The unsecured credit facilities at Sprint benefit from upstream unsecured guarantees from all material subsidiaries. The credit agreement allows carve-outs for indebtedness composed of unsecured guarantees that are expressly subordinated to the credit facility. The unsecured junior guaranteed debt is senior to the unsecured notes at Sprint Nextel and Sprint Capital Corporation. The unsecured senior notes at these entities are not supported by an upstream guarantee from the operating subsidiaries.
The $1 billion vendor financing facility is jointly and severally borrowed by all of the Sprint subsidiaries that guarantee the Sprint credit facility, Export Development Canada loan and junior guaranteed notes. The facility additionally benefits from a parent guarantee and first priority lien on certain network equipment. This places the vendor facility structurally ahead of the unsecured notes.
Bose has impressed us in the past with its SoundLink and SoundLink II Bluetooth speakers. Given the competition out there, it was only a matter of time before the company would take the portable speaker concept further and shrink it down to an even more bag-friendly size. The SoundLink Mini is Bose's answer to portable speakers like the Jawbone Jambox and UE Boom. At half the weight, half the height, and two-thirds the price of the higher-end Choice SoundLink II, this $199.95 (direct) Bluetooth speaker is a terrific option if you don't want to spend $300 and lug around a 3-pound speaker; it's our new Editors' Choice for small, portable Bluetooth speakers as a result.
Design With a flat metal grille face and a solid aluminum shell, the SoundLink Mini evokes the image of a radio from the 1960s, yet sleeker and more updated for today. It measures just 2 by 7.1 by 2.3 inches (HWD), and its satisfyingly sturdy-feeling 1.5-pound heft and aluminum casing gives an impression of solidity. Its grey finish looks attractive enough in any setting, but you can protect and color the speaker with optional $24.95 rubber covers available in all-over orange, blue borders with a clear center, or green borders with a clear center. This is strictly a Bluetooth speaker, and doesn't have a microphone or support speakerphone calls.
The controls are arranged neatly in a row of rubber buttons on the top of the speaker, with raised Volume Up/Down buttons flanked by Power and Mute buttons on the left and Bluetooth and Auxiliary input buttons on the right. Lights above the Power and Mute buttons indicate if the speaker is on and muted, and lights above the Bluetooth and Auxiliary input buttons indicate which input is active. The Bluetooth light flashes blue when the speaker is in pairing mode, which can be accessed by pressing the Bluetooth button for a few seconds. The right side of the speaker holds a power connector and a 3.5mm audio input. The back is covered by a metallic grille just like the front but without a Bose logo painted on it, showing the passive radiator built into the speaker. Finally, the bottom of the speaker holds a large, rectangular rubber foot that keeps it in place and covers the rechargeable battery, along with contact points for the included charging cradle and a micro USB port.
Charging Unlike many other Bluetooth speakers, the SoundLink Mini doesn't charge through the micro USB port, which is only used for servicing the speaker and upgrading the firmware (a trait shared with the SoundLink II). Instead, it comes with a charging cradle that accepts the same power connection as the speaker itself. According to Bose, the speaker's battery can last 7 hours on a charge. The cradle is a small rectangle of plastic with the Bose logo and a large recessed area for the speaker's foot. The charging connections, made through small exposed contacts on the back-right corner of the speaker, are extremely easy to make thanks to the simple, functional cradle. The speaker falls into place without catching on anything or missing the contact, and it makes a loud chime when it starts to charge, letting you know you can leave it alone. While the lack of micro-USB charging can be inconvenient because it's so common, the cradle gives the speaker a comfortable, sturdy place to charge without you having to touch any cables at all.
Performance For its small size, the SoundLink Mini puts out some impressive sound. It easily filled both our lab test room and the main room of my apartment with streaming radio from my iPad, coming in just short on volume against some larger, constantly plugged in AirPlay docks. It also performed favorably against the Logitech UE Boom, and while its sound is more directional than the Logitech UE Boom and its 360-degree audio field, the SoundLink Mini put out more power and sounded just as good placed against a wall and facing the entire room.
The SoundLink Mini can't quite put out the clear, strong bass of its bigger brother, but it can certainly hold its own. When playing our bass test track, The Knife's "Silent Shout," the SoundLink Mini produced solid sound from the deep synth notes of the intro to the song, but occasional pops hinted at the slightest potential for distortion at maximum volume. While the bass made the speaker itself shake, its small size limited its ability to produce real wall-shaking bass, though the reverb and harsh riffs of Daft Punk's "Robot Rock" produced a suitably large-sounding soundscape, filling our test room.
Midrange and mid-highs are the SoundLink Mini's biggest strengths, and Red Fang's "Wires" sounded surprisingly clear and impactful. The crunchy track's aggressive guitar riffs and drums usually drown out the vocals, but all three elements worked well together here, and I easily made out the lyrics without feeling like the riffs were getting overpowered or flattened. The SoundLink Mini's solid high-mid performance gave it a slight edge over the Logitech UE Boom, which can sound slightly tinny in comparison.
Conclusion The Bose SoundLink Mini is an impressive little powerhouse that produces clear, solid sound. It might be lacking in the bass punch the SoundLink II and other larger, more expensive speakers offer, but for its size and price it offers great performance. The charging cradle is handy, if not quite as flexible as micro USB charging would have been. And while it lacks a speakerphone function, it offers some of the best all-around sound quality we've seen in its category, making it our Editors' Choice for portable Bluetooth speakers. If you'd like a slightly more versatile design and the ability to charge with a microUSB cable, the UE Boom is a solid alternative that offers comparable, if not quite as great, audio quality.
