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Samsung Electronics Co. admitted erring in its smartphone strategy and vowed Thursday to overhaul its handset lineup after profit from those devices tumbled last quarter to the lowest in more than three years. The South Korean company, which climbed from smartphone laggard to top seller in the past three years, had prided itself on responding quickly to market demand and ability to tailor handsets to the needs of users and mobile carriers around the world. But its rapid success with a product category pioneered by rival Apple Inc. is undergoing an equally stunning reversal. Earnings from Samsung’s mobile phone business began declining this year, undermined by lukewarm sales of the Galaxy S5 smartphone and the competitive onslaught from cheaper local brands in China and India. Apple also eroded Samsung’s leading…

Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic company is reeling from the loss of SpaceShipTwo, which crashed in California's Mojave desert on Friday, killing one of its pilots and seriously injuring the other. Branson, a billionaire business mogul whose Virgin group of companies have ranged from music to airlines to mobile phones, founded Virgin Galactic ten years ago with the aim of offering flights to the edge of space for anyone who could pay the $250,000 price tag. The future of Virgin's commercial suborbital flight program is unclear in the wake of the tragic accident. The 64-year-old Branson is not the only businessman in the space trade. Historically space and aviation have been a point of fascination by moguls who have made their fortune and want to accomplish something bigger. Eccentric millionaire Howard…

A fully operational Apple computer that company co-founder Steve Jobs sold out of his parents' garage in 1976 for $600 will hit the auction block in December, where it is expected to fetch more than half a million dollars, Christie's said on Monday. The so-called Ricketts Apple-1 Personal Computer, named after its original owner Charles Ricketts and being sold on Dec. 11, is the only known surviving Apple-1 documented as having been sold directly by Jobs, then just 21, to an individual from the Los Altos, California family home, Christie's said. "It all started with the Apple-1 and with this particular machine," said Andrew McVinish, Christie's director of decorative arts. "When you see a child playing with an iPad or iPhone, not too many people know that it all started…

This year more Americans than ever are expected to make their lists, check them twice, and then click the "add to cart" button. Forrester Research said Monday that it expects U.S. consumers to spend $89 billion online in November and December. That's up 13 percent, or about $10 billion, from a year ago. Analyst Sucharita Mulpuru said she thinks online shopping will make up 14 percent of total retail spending over that period. She estimated that 3.4 million Americans will try holiday shopping online for the first time this year. Forrester's figures exclude spending on items such as gasoline, travel, restaurants and autos, except for replacement parts. Mulpuru said her estimate would be higher if Thanksgiving were occurring earlier. The holiday always falls between Nov. 22 and 28, and it…

After a long wait, Microsoft says it plans to release a new version of its popular Office software package for Mac computers - but not until next year. Microsoft did release one component, the Outlook email program, through the company’s Office 365 subscription service, which costs $100 a year. But a full Office package for Macs was expected this year, as Microsoft usually releases that a year after it produces a new version for Windows. But there hasn't been a new Office for Macs since late 2010, even though it's already been a year and a half since the Windows release. Microsoft says that's because it has been concentrating on producing Office versions for smartphones and tablets first. The Office package usually includes word-processing, spreadsheets and other commonly used programs.…

Thai police said on Wednesday the co-founder of the file-sharing website The Pirate Bay, who was arrested this week at the Laos border, would be extradited to Sweden to serve a jail term within the next month. Fredrik Neij, 36, is being questioned in the capital Bangkok after he was detained on Wednesday at a checkpoint in the northeastern town of Nong Khai. "A Swedish national was brought here today. He will be put in a detention room ... staff from the Swedish embassy will then interrogate him," Police Lieutenant Colonel Nuttavuth Sangduen, deputy superintendent of Nong Khai Immigration, told Reuters. "It will take less than a month to extradite him." Neij told reporters in Bangkok that his arrest was "expected" but did not offer any further explanation. The Pirate…

As Samsung's smartphone business suffers a dizzying decline, another issue is vexing investors. Command of one of the world's most valuable consumer brands will eventually pass to the son of its ailing patriarch whose business abilities remain a mystery despite being elevated two years ago to a top role at the company. Expectations of a leadership shift at Samsung intensified after the chairman of the flagship company Samsung Electronics Co., suffered a heart attack in May. Lee Kun-hee, 72, remains hospitalized and has never publicly named his only son, Lee Jae-yong, as heir apparent. But within the financial world and South Korea, where Samsung’s annual sales equal a quarter of the economy, there is little doubt he'll be the third generation of the Lee family to head the sprawling business.…

ANOTHER SUREFIRE HIT FROM A DIRECTORIAL LEGEN To the casual observer, the new science fiction film Interstellar would already seem to have many of the ingredients for success - but far from a mere by-the-numbers addition to a storied and well-worn genre, it's actually a little bit of a game changer. Its cast, for one thing, certainly boasts the right combination of time-honored favorites and current commercial hot properties, including Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Michael Caine and Jessica Chastain. The story, too, is a compelling one, centering around a team of space travelers who, in :their search for a new habitable planet, plunge through a wormhole. The movie drew much of its inspiration from the works of theoretical physicist Kip Thorne, who was involved as both an executive producer and…

iOS #01 – Facebook Messenger By Facebook, Inc. Category: Social Networking Requires iOS 7.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. This app is optimized for iPhone 5. #02 – Spider-Man Unlimited By Gameloft Category: Games Requires iOS 6.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPhone 5c, iPhone 5s, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPad, and iPod touch. This app is optimized for iPhone 5. #03 – Yik Yak By Yik Yak, LLC Category: Social Networking Requires iOS 7.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. This app is optimized for iPhone 5. #04 – Amazing Thief By Ketchapp Category: Games Requires iOS 6.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. This app is optimized for iPhone 5. #05 –…

A Most Wanted Man Marking the final starring performance of Philip Seymour Hoffman, this British espionage-thriller is based on the novel of the same name by John le Carre. It centers on the arrival into Hamburg’s Islamic community of a mysterious immigrant who, in seeking to recover his late father’s ill-gotten fortune, attracts the interest of U.S. and German intelligence. FIVE FACTS: 1. The film premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival. 2. It also competed in the main competition section of the 36th Moscow International Film Festival and the 40th Deauville American Film Festival. 3. Other cast members include Rachel McAdams, Willem Dafoe, Robin Wright, Grigoriy Dobrygin, Daniel Bruhl and Nina Hoss. 4. Principal photography took place in Hamburg, Germany in September 2012. 5. Director Anton Corbijn claimed that…

Wireless carrier Sprint says it is eliminating 2,000 jobs, or about 5 percent of its staff, as part of an effort to cut $1.5 billion in annual spending. The company said the cuts will be made over the coming weeks and months, and it is still determining how many jobs will be cut from various divisions. Sprint announced a separate round of job cuts in early October, and did not say how many jobs were eliminated at that time. Sprint said Monday that job cuts would reduce labor costs by a combined $400 million per year. Overland Park, Kansas-based Sprint Corp. is the third-largest cellphone carrier in the U.S., but it has lost billions of dollars in recent years as subscribers canceled contracts and is trying to compete better with…

THE VERY FINEST MOVIES, APPS AND MUSIC If you're in love enough with Apple to be reading this article at all, chances are that you also bring your iPhone or iPad with you wherever you go. The bus to work, the gym, maybe even the night club or bar... if there's a place where one can physically take an iGadget, chances are that one of us has taken theirs there. So, why not use yours for in-flight entertainment as well? It makes sense on a number of levels. With in-flight Wi-Fi having become widespread in just the last few years, there's increasingly little excuse to leave your smartphone, tablet or 'phablet' in your pocket or luggage. Instead, more and more of us are keeping ours close to hand to catch…

Amazon.com's low prices and seemingly endless array of goods have made it the biggest online retailer in the U.S., commanding about 20 percent of all e-commerce. The company is projected to have over $89 billion in revenue this year. Its massive success has driven other sites to offer similar perks and deals to woo customers and hold on to their piece of the retail pie. Some retailers now even offer to match Amazon's prices to try to win your business. That's good news for shoppers. So if you're searching for anything from beauty products to books, here's a look at some Amazon-like deals to take advantage of: USED OR NEW - AND CHEAP! An old standby that may offer more than you think is eBay. Though it made its name…

iOS #01 – Five Nights at Freddy’s By Scott Cawthon Category: Games / Price: $2.99 Requires iOS 5.1 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. This app is optimized for iPhone 5. #02 – Minecraft – Pocket Edition By Mojang Category: Games / Price: $6.99 Requires iOS 5.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. This app is optimized for iPhone 5. #03 – Goblin Sword By Eleftherios Christodoulatos Category: Games / Price: $0.99 Requires iOS 5.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. This app is optimized for iPhone 5. #04 – Sleep Cycle alarm clock By Northcube AB Category: Health & Fitness / Price: $0.99 Requires iOS 6.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. This app is optimized for…

Sonic Highways Foo Fighters The eighth studio album of American rock band Foo Fighters features eight songs that have each been recorded in a different U.S. city: Austin, Chicago, Los Angeles, Nashville, New Orleans, New York, Seattle and Washington, D.C. It was made concurrently with a HBO documentary series documenting the album’s creation. FIVE FACTS: 1. Frontman Dave Grohl said in a 2013 XFM interview that the band was “going to make this album in a way that no-one’s ever done before and we’re pretty excited about it.” 2. Lead guitarist Chris Shiflett said that Grohl would record his vocals - the last part of each song - shortly after finishing the lyrics. 3. The compositions deal with the feelings that Grohl had about each city during production. 4. Grohl…

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd's first full quarterly report card to Wall Street investors on Tuesday will be scrutinized by the hopeful seeking validation for lofty stock price targets and studied by the few skeptics searching for inauspicious signs. Coming off Alibaba's record-breaking $25 billion IPO in September, the company's shares have remained 45 percent above their debut price. Just about every brokerage has rated the e-commerce giant a buy, taking comfort in the group's dominant position in a $450 billion Chinese market. Investors have been all too eager to overlook a structure that critics say allows its management extraordinary decision-making power, potentially to the detriment of shareholders. They have also mostly withheld judgment on how advertising spending and sales commission fees, where Alibaba makes the lion's share of its money,…