HTC says licensing agreement with Apple will lead to better devices in 2013

Apple (AAPL) and HTC (2498) signed a 10-year licensing agreement in November that covered all current, pending and future patents and ended the ongoing litigation between the two companies. It has been estimated that the company will pay Apple between $6 and $8 for every Android device shipped, however HTC CEO Peter Chao refuted the claim. Regardless of how much is being spent, HTC China president Ray Yam believes the deal will begin to benefit the company in 2013.
[More from BGR: ‘iPhone 5S’ to reportedly launch by June with multiple color options and two different display sizes]
“The settlement with Apple will start to pay off next year, and the fourth quarter of this year is still going at a set pace,” the executive said in an interview with the Economic Observer of China, according to Focus Taiwan. “The biggest benefit to us is that we can put more energy into innovation, which is more important than anything else for a technology company.”
[More from BGR: Nokia predicted to abandon mobile business, sell assets to Microsoft and Huawei in 2013]
Yam notes that HTC has wasted too many resources on lawsuits with Apple in the past and that the company is now encouraging employees to “take broader steps” when creating new and better products. The executive revealed that HTC has adjusted its product, sales and marketing strategies for 2013 in the wake of the settlement. He said that many of the company’s projects are now proceeding at a faster rate and it has also changed the way it negotiates with its telecom partners.
While the settlement will ensure that HTC’s devices will remain on sale in the U.S. and other markets, the company must still find a way to increase its dwindling market share as its struggles continue.

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Nokia’s Lumia 920 remains as expensive as Apple’s iPhone 5

One thing handset industry analysts are watching like hawks is the price graph of the most important Windows Phone 8 model in the European handset market. Nokia (NOK) priced the Lumia 920 very, very ambitiously for its November debut. How long can the model maintain a stiff premium? Was the early pricing just designed to skim high margins from the pool of eager Nokia/Windows Phone early adopters?
[More from BGR: ‘iPhone 5S’ to reportedly launch by June with multiple color options and two different display sizes]
Christmas is now over and the year 2013 has rolled in. But in the most important handset market in Europe, the Lumia 920 still costs as much as the 16 GB iPhone 5. At Phonehouse Germany, the price is 640 euros. At Handy Attacke, Ebay Germany, Amazon.de and other leading German phone retail sites, the price remains rock solid and notably uniform 650 euros. Most of these sites offer shipment within two to three days, so the price is no longer jacked up by lack of supply.
[More from BGR: Nokia predicted to abandon mobile business, sell assets to Microsoft and Huawei in 2013]
In comparison, the 16 GB iPhone 5 costs 630 euros at Ebay Germany, 650 euros at Notebooksbilliger and Handyschotte; and 670 euros at Telbay, Modeo and other sites.
Even as the unsubsidized price of Samsung’s (005930) Galaxy Note II is slipping below 510 euros in Germany, the Lumia 920 keeps levitating at the same price as the most expensive mass-market smartphone on the planet. Germany remains the biggest smartphone market in Europe, so this is going to be one key issue to keep an eye on as January price-cutting starts in earnest.

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Patent trolls’ latest gambit: Sue businesses if they dare to use office scanners

We’ve seen a lot of ridiculous claims asserted by patent trolls over the past few years, but this one truly takes the cake: Ars Technica reports that an entity called “Project Paperless LLC” has been sending out letters to small and medium-sized businesses demanding licensing fees for using office scanners capable of sending PDFs via email. Steven Vicinanza, founder of Atlanta-based IT services provider BlueWave Computing, told Ars that both his company and several of its customers had received letters telling them that they needed to buy licenses for “distributed computer architecture” patents that cover basic networked scanning technology. At a cost of $1,000 per employee, Vicinanza said that the licenses would have cost his company a grand total of $130,000 just for the right to scan documents.
[More from BGR: ‘iPhone 5S’ to reportedly launch by June with multiple color options and two different display sizes]
Vicinanza couldn’t believe that he was actually being threatened with a lawsuit for using office scanners, so he decided to contact the attorney for Project Paperless to get some clarification.
[More from BGR: Nokia predicted to abandon mobile business, sell assets to Microsoft and Huawei in 2013]
“[The attorney] said, if you hook up a scanner and e-mail a PDF document — we have a patent that covers that as a process,” Vicinanza told Ars. “So you’re claiming anyone on a network with a scanner owes you a license? He said, ‘Yes, that’s correct.’ And at that point, I just lost it.”
Vicinanza isn’t the only one “losing it” over patent suits, of course. Cisco (CSCO) late last year decided to go on the offense against patent trolls by flat-out accusing them of breaking the law. What’s more, we’ve heard rumblings that the United States Department of Justice’s antitrust division may be ready to do something to limit patent trolls’ ability to extract licensing fees, so there could be some relief for patent suit-stricken firms on the horizon.

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Typical American without a landline: A 27-year old Latino living in Columbus, Ohio

The statistical study compiled by NHIS about landline and mobile phone usage in American households is a pretty fascinating read. The number of U.S. adults with a mobile phone but no landline rose to 34% in the first half of 2012. That percentage is ticking up roughly two points every six months — a fairly rapid clip. The number of adults with a landline but no mobile phone plunged below 8% according to the study, which was picked up by GigaOm. These numbers may explain why some of the pollsters using landline-only calls in the last election ran off the rails so spectacularly. So many Americans can no longer be reached via a landline phone that polling methods simply must be adjusted.
[More from BGR: ‘iPhone 5S’ to reportedly launch by June with multiple color options and two different display sizes]
Latinos are far more likely to have a mobile-only household (46%) than non-hispanic whites (30%) according to the study; this gap is surprisingly large. The number of 25- to 29-year-old adults living in a mobile-only household hit a remarkable 60% in the beginning of 2012. There is a sharp generational divide here: Fewer than 25% of 45- to 64-year-old Americans have dared to drop the landline.
[More from BGR: Nokia predicted to abandon mobile business, sell assets to Microsoft and Huawei in 2013]
Somewhat surprisingly, the Midwest is the region with the highest level of mobile-only households. Naturally, metropolitan households are more likely to depend solely on mobile phones than suburban or rural households. For the first time ever, women edged out men as the larger group of mobile-only adults.
Back in 2006, only 10% of adults lived in a mobile-only household. Americans are kicking their landline habit with remarkable alacrity considering that many homes with small children still feel that depending solely on a mobile phone is too risky.

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Microsoft lashes out at Google’s decision to spurn Windows Phone

Dave Heiner, vice president and deputy general counsel for Microsoft (MSFT), took aim at Google (GOOG) and the company’s unwillingness to develop for Windows Phone 8 in a blog post on Wednesday. Heiner claims that, “Google continues to prevent Microsoft from offering consumers a fully featured YouTube app [among other] for the Windows Phone.” Microsoft has been apparently been trying to get a full-feature YouTube app for its Windows Phone operating system for more than two years, however it has been unsuccessful.
[More from BGR: ‘iPhone 5S’ to reportedly launch by June with multiple color options and two different display sizes]
Despite the fact that the Windows Phone Marketplace has doubled in the past year, Google has not yet produced any quality apps for the platform. The company previously said that it will not be launching a native Gmail or Google Drive app for Windows 8 or Windows Phone until people start using the operating systems.
[More from BGR: Nokia predicted to abandon mobile business, sell assets to Microsoft and Huawei in 2013]
Windows Phone is estimated to account for a mere 2.6% of the mobile market and adoption of Windows 8 is said to be weak as well.

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D.H. Clark/I.B. Long Pen New Book, ‘A Grasp for Life”

Tilton, NH (PRWEB) January 04, 2013
The new book “A Grasp for Life: The continuing story of Howard Walker” (published by iUniverse) by D.H. Clark/I.B. Long tells the tale of Howard Walker, a man looking to find what many take for granted: the love of a family.
Howard’s story tells of his ups and downs in life as he struggles to grasp the life that had been taken from him as a young boy. The authors tells of his life in the military, later marrying and continuing through the normalcy of life, finally finding a place in a loving family, something that had allured him since the state removed him and his siblings from his home.
An excerpt from the opening of “A Grasp for Life”:
“Howard D. Walker has grown into a handsome young man who has been drafted in the U.S. Army and he finds love and romance. It is during their marriage that they find there are many bumps in the road. Howard finds himself reflecting back on his childhood life while his wife Sueanne takes her loneliness into the arms of a friend. Howard is tossed back and forth from army to navy to army again as he searches for a grasp of life.”
“I believe that there have been many families torn apart in their youth who have tried to find their way in searching for the safety and comfort of a loving family,” Clark explains.
“A Grasp for Life”

By D.H. Clark/I.B. Long

Softcover | 5 x 8 in | 312 pages | ISBN 9781475954913 |

E-Book | 312 pages | ISBN 9781475954920 |

Available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble
About the Author

Born in Concord, N.H., on September 28th, 1945, D.H. Clark/I.B. Long is a disabled veteran. He has three brothers and one sister. His interests are in the space program, and he has written books on each mission. He is also author of "Behind the Chain linked Fence." He is married and lives at the New Hampshire veteran’s home in Tilton, N.H.
iUniverse, an Author Solutions, Inc. self-publishing imprint, is the leading book marketing, editorial services, and supported self-publishing provider. iUniverse has a strategic alliance with Indigo Books & Music, Inc. in Canada, and titles accepted into the iUniverse Rising Star program are featured in a special collection on BarnesandNoble.com. iUniverse recognizes excellence in book publishing through the Star, Reader’s Choice, Rising Star and Editor’s Choice designations—self-publishing’s only such awards program. Headquartered in Bloomington, Indiana, iUniverse also operates offices in Indianapolis. For more information or to publish a book, please visit iuniverse.com or call 1-800-AUTHORS. For the latest, follow @iuniversebooks on Twitter.

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Reverse Cell Phone Lookup Annual Plans Now Offered at Cell Phone Registry

Reverse cell phone lookup annual plans are now offered online at the CellPhoneRegistry.com website. This company has enabled this new and unlimited search feature to provide an alternative to Caller ID or single number searches for mobile numbers online.

San Francisco, California (PRWEB) January 04, 2013
Reverse cell phone lookup services are not new online although one company has improved the cost of these services. The Cell Phone Registry is one of the largest databases online for cell and landline phone numbers. This company has enabled a new annual search plan that provides 365 days of unlimited usage. Adults that use this system can pay a small annual fee for this service instead of single number searches.
Millions of landline and cell phone numbers now exist in the United States according to telecom data. Many people use both phone types for communication purposes. Some individuals operate businesses or use phones for texting or other purposes.
Since some cell phone data is private, traditional Caller ID services could be lacking in the amount of details provided. The new unlimited search plan online is helping to deliver more phone data.
A person that uses this updated database search plan now has the option to print a report that could include information not readily found online. Many of the records include first and last name, former mailing address, telephone carrier information and the age of a phone user. This data can be useful to adults that perform searches for verification or discovery purposes.
The Cell Phone Registry company now has one of the largest online-only databases that can be used for a reverse phone search. Over 218 million landline numbers are included as well as 200 million cell phone numbers. These records included published and unpublished numbers that can be accessed through this search system online. This secure system an be accessed 365 days a year.
About Cell Phone Registry
The Cell Phone Registry company launched its online search tool in 2009 and has updated its records on a regular basis for the past 4 years. Millions of public records can now be searched by adult users in hopes of finding information about the owner of a phone number. The cell, unpublished and landline records that are offered can be reviewed privately online. The Cell Phone Registry company provides one of the only annual plans found for reverse phone number lookup services currently online. The data that is generated by this company complies with all FCC legislation.

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Author Marionette Simmons Announces the Release of “Life's Challenges, Experiences and Blessings”

HAMILTON PARISH, Bermuda (PRWEB) January 04, 2013
In her book of poetry “Life's Challenges, Experiences and Blessings” (published by Trafford Publishing), Marionette Simmons looks back on her life in a series of heartfelt poems.
“Life's Challenges, Experiences and Blessings” is a collection of Simmons’ poetry, expressing a lifetime of emotional records in verse. She explores such topics as God’s plan, destiny and purpose, inspiration and even writing as a topic. She dedicates an entire section to mothers, specifically her mom. Throughout the book she drops in lighthearted poems, humorous poems, inspirational poems and poems about faith and glory. Ultimately, “Life's Challenges, Experiences and Blessings” is meant to allow readers to enjoy the journey she has taken throughout her life.
An excerpt from “Life's Challenges, Experiences and Blessings” from the poem “The Characteristics of a Mother”:
A mother’s touch, so soft and sweet

It’s almost like a gentle breeze

A mother’s hand so firm but loving

As she disciplines her seed
A mother’s love unlike no other

Always felt, even if it’s not expressed

A mother’s heart always yearning

For her child to have the very best
Simmons hopes to reach a wide audience with “Life's Challenges, Experiences and Blessings.” “I think this book will appeal to readers because it touches many areas of people’s lives,” she says. “Their emotions, morals, beliefs and above all it also allow them to laugh in the midst of adversity.”
About the Author

Marionette Simmons has been writing since she was a teenager, and she considers writing a means of expressing herself without hesitation or judgment from others. Her tourism essay won second place in a competition in her home island of Bermuda, and she has had work featured in a book at Bermuda College writer’s club. She was chosen to participate in “Who’s Who in Poetry,” and she considers the publication of “Life's Challenges, Experiences and Blessings” to be one of her greatest accomplishments. Simmons is the mother of one daughter, Kelly. She lives in Hamilton Parish, Bermuda, where she is eagerly looking forward to publishing a second book.
Trafford Publishing, an Author Solutions, Inc. author services imprint, was the first publisher in the world to offer an “on-demand publishing service,” and has led the independent publishing revolution since its establishment in 1995. Trafford was also one of the earliest publishers to utilize the Internet for selling books. More than 10,000 authors from over 120 countries have utilized Trafford’s experience for self publishing their books. For more information about Trafford Publishing, or to publish your book today, call 1-888-232-4444 or visit trafford.com.

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Garcinia Cambogia Sales Online Rise in 2013 Reports iTrustNews.com

Garcinia Cambogia sales have increased online in 2013 according to an iTrustNews.com report report. The resolutions that many men and women make for the New Year have helped to increase sales of this new product that has been recently released for sale in the U.S.

Houston, Texas (PRWEB) January 04, 2013
The iTrustNews.com company has released a new report that details how the sales of Garcinia Cambogia have increased in 2013. This product was released in the U.S. early last year and is in use by men and women according to the report. Retail sales in the U.S. typically spike in the New Year for fitness and wellness related products. This published report reveals how some retailers are discounting the prices for many fitness related products online.
Health and wellness manufacturers frequently release new products during the summer months and before the first of the year. The winter months in many U.S. states are a time for men and women to focus on improving things like health, weight and overall wellness according to the new report.
The discounts that some retailers offered for the holiday season are scheduled to continue for select fitness related products online according the report.
Part of living healthier for some people means adding more fruits, vegetables or vitamin sources to a daily eating routine. Not all people are able to maintain a strict dietary plan through the year and typically can seek other measures for assistance. The iTrustNews.com report details the differences in some wellness and health related options online that are now discounted by some retailers.
The new report published online is now part of a series of reports and guides that help introduce new products, services and news to consumers. The iTrustNews.com website employs a team of researchers, writers and editorial staff who locate consumer-friendly information to provide this data to men and women that make purchases online. The discounts, product announcements and one-time only incentives are now published daily to the company website.
About iTrustNews
The iTrustNews company created its website in 2011 as one online resource for consumers to find the latest in independent news. Advancements to the company strategies in 2012 helped to create a product reviews and reports section online. Apart from the writing, publishing and syndication of news a new series of reports are online. The iTrustNews company now locates some of the best discounts on products that are not always advertised to help men and women shopping online. This company has improved its delivery of consumer information and is now one of the largest sources for independent news and consumer reviews in the media category online.

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Wedding Photography Website Now Connects Couples with Photographers Online

A wedding photography website is now connecting couples with expert photographers online at WeddingPhotographyQuotes.com. This new directory launched in 2013 provides a new resources for professionals and clients to meetup to discuss packages, services and pricing online.

Albany, New York (PRWEB) January 04, 2013
Couples that search for wedding photography and professionals that provide services can now be connected together with a new directory online. The WeddingPhotographyQuotes.com website has launched its new directory for 2013. This resource provides marketing services to photographers with a free or premium directory package. Brides-to-be can use this directory to find talented photographers instantly. More information can be found at http://weddingphotographyquotes.com/add-listing.
Photographers generally use referrals to obtain future work. The wedding industry is one area that many choose due to the flexibility in scheduling and monetary gains available. Traditional advertising methods like phone directories and offline advertisements can be expensive and produce lower than expected results.
The launch of the highly trafficked WeddingPhotographyQuotes.com website is now helping to provide resources for professionals and freelancers online.
Couples can now search this online directory and use the state specific search system. Brides-to-be that live outside of metropolitan areas can often find a shortage of professionals. This new directory now offers one of the most complete solutions online that allows instant networking between professionals and new clients. Immediate contact information is provided and direct negotiations can be obtained without third party approval.
The new directory listings offer more than a simple list of professionals available. For studios and freelancers, new marketing services are now offered that take place away from the company website. These additional solutions are part of the pro directory listing plans that are offered. Video marketing, search engine marketing and publicity are now offered through this online resource.
About Wedding Photography Quotes
The Wedding Photography Quotes website first launched in 2010 and has been providing accurate photograph package pricing to brides-to-be for over 24 months. New additions to the company website in 2013 have helped to open up the doors of opportunity for professionals. The company created directory is now available to help connect more clients with photographers online. The Wedding Photography Quotes company now provides one of the largest online resources dedicated to the wedding industry that helps couples and professionals equally.

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Instagram gains users in December despite recent uproar as Zynga gets pecked to death by rivals

Zynga (ZNGA), the Facebook (FB) app behemoth, still reigns supreme on its most important platform. But the erosion of its dominant position continues as smaller rivals keep chipping away at its market share. On December 26, Zynga-owned Facebook applications had 267 million Monthly Active Users, down 20 million in two weeks. Far behind it followed Microsoft (MSFT) with 70 million MAU, King.com with 65 million MAU and Instagram with 43 million MAU.
[More from BGR: Samsung looks to address its biggest weakness in 2013]
But whereas Zynga lost nearly 7% of its Monthly Active Users in the two-week run-up to Christmas, Microsoft managed to inch up by 700,000 users, King.com by 600,000 users and Instagram by 2.1 million users.
[More from BGR: New purported BlackBerry Z10 specs emerge: 1.5GHz processor, 2GB RAM, 8MP camera]
Of course, the Facebook crackdown on aggressive customer acquisition techniques has limited the growth of all third-party app developers. But the most important of Zynga’s smaller rivals have been able to avoid the kind of MAU erosion that is now plaguing the Facebook app champion.
What really pops out from Christmas Facebook app trends is the way Instagram has been able to ride a wave of negative publicity to perky 5% monthly user growth over the past two weeks.
The tsunami of wrath and sarcasm unleashed on Twitter has not reversed Instagram’s momentum. It might even be possible that floating an outrageous-sounding privacy policy and then quickly reversing it could have simply increased Instagram’s brand recognition and piqued consumer interest among those who are not deeply involved in app trends.
This certainly adds some piquancy to the breathless commentary about Instagram’s “fatal blunder” and “possibly irreversible damage.”

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Nintendo’s Wii U wobbles as sales sink

According to Famitsu, Nintendo’s (NTDOY) portable 3DS console continued to see huge success during the week ahead of Christmas. It racked up sales of 433,000 units in Japan, up from 333,000 units in the prior week. But weirdly enough, the brand new and heavily promoted Wii U home console wobbled badly as its weekly sales slipped to 122,000 units from 130,000 units in the previous week. This may have been the biggest week in Japanese console market in 2012, so the stakes were high.
[More from BGR: Google names 12 best Android apps of 2012]
To put Wii U performance in context, the old PSP portable console sold 58,000 units in Japan during the same week. It is not an encouraging sign that the more than half-decade old PSP (which was displaced by the PlayStation Vita a year ago) managed to sell nearly half as many units as the brand new Wii U during the holidays. Of course, PS Vita continues to miss sales expectations dramatically — it sold only 19,000 units last week, barely more than a quarter of what its predecessor managed.
[More from BGR: Smartphones will replace keys on upcoming Hyundai cars]
Wii U performance may improve dramatically once compelling titles arrive. But during December, it did have “New Super Mario Brothers” and “Nintendo Land” to boost it in Japan. This clearly wasn’t enough. The aging PlayStation 3 sold only 30,000 units and Microsoft’s (MSFT) Xbox 360 barely cleared a thousand units, so the Wii U should have had a clear shot at strong sales performance in the Japanese home console market.
Overall, Japanese game console sales were down sharply from the week ahead of Christmas in 2011. The 3DS is a big hit in 2012 but instead of buoying the entire console market, it seems to be sapping energy from the Wii U and PS Vita.
It’s still early days for the Wii U, but Nintendo has probably started sweating a bit.

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Five-year-old finds porn on refurbished Nintendo 3DS from GameStop

Five-year-old Brandon Giles must have been excited to receive a Nintendo 3DS for Christmas — at least, he was until he turned it on. According to 9News, Giles’ father bought a refurbished 3DS from GameStop (GME) in Colorado for his son. However, when his son turned  it on and started poking around, he found nine pornographic images of two people in a bed and asked his brother to help him erase them. That’s when the father gave GameStop a call. GameStop’s response was that the images were most likely left over from its previous owner and an employee failed to properly wipe out the data on the 3DS before re-stocking it. “We have a rigorous quality control process in place to ensure that existing content is removed from all devices before they are re-sold,” GameStop said in a statement issued from its corporate office. “Out of millions of transactions each year, ones like this happen very rarely. Our number one priority is to make this right for our customer.”

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The Boy Genius Report: The Wii U is the Nintendo’s last console

I remember it still — people flipped out about the Nintendo (NTDOY) Wii. Yes, its name was mocked for a while, but there was genuine excitement around what Nintendo was doing with motion and the entire gameplay experience. While the original Nintendo Wii was almost an Apple (AAPL)-like product — Nintendo focused on the gameplay and not on specs; the company didn’t even have HD graphics when every other console did — the Nintendo Wii U clearly demonstrates how far Nintendo has fallen and how out of touch the company is.
[More from BGR: Samsung could face $15 billion fine for trying to ban iPhone, other Apple devices]
I bought a Nintendo Wii U for one reason and one reason only, and that’s to play and beat “Super Mario Bros. U.” I’ll probably end up returning the console after I’m done, because that’s how horrible the Wii U actually is.
[More from BGR: Five-year-old finds porn on refurbished Nintendo 3DS from GameStop]
First of all, the fact that Nintendo actually decided to ship this joke of a controller called the GamePad with a 6.2-inch touchscreen in the middle says it all. It only lasted for around two hours per charge over the week I’ve used it, and it’s big, clunky and made of glossy Nintendo plastic. The problem it, it has no charm. It feels thrown together to try to make a statement, one that says that Nintendo isn’t afraid of the iPads or Android tablets or iPhones or iPod touches, and that it too can take on touch just as it took on motion.
It fails miserably. And that’s just the controller.
The actual console is one that finally for the first time ever supports HDMI and HD graphics, yet Nintendo’s flagship game doesn’t look good in high-definition. The console’s UI is a mess, and let’s be honest, we are living in a time where we are so connected, where so much is shared across continents instantly, that real design transcends what country it was designed in.
When you see a beautiful iPhone app’s interface, there’s a good chance you couldn’t tell if it was designed by a company in San Francisco or Paris or Hong Kong. But Nintendo’s interface is blatantly Japanese, and it lacks any and all sophistication. It’s like all of Nintendo’s designers just gave up and are living in a time when Apple’s iOS devices and Google’s (GOOG) Android devices don’t exist, blissfully ignoring the threat that their company is facing from all angles.
The Wii U experience is so terrible that it took over an hour to update the software on the console recently, and apparently that wasn’t that bad. People have told me their updates took over 4 hours when performed closer to Christmas. Do you know what that 7-year-old is doing during those 4 hours you’re making him wait? Playing Temple Run or Angry Birds on his iPad mini. Way to go Nintendo.
I’ll go on record and say that I think this is the last video game console Nintendo will make for the home. I just don’t see the future here with hardware. Not by a mile.
Nintendo needs to realize that hardware is hardware and that Nintendo’s hardware isn’t special, it isn’t elegant and it isn’t thoughtful. It’s merely a delivery mechanism in a time where design has never been more important.
Nintendo is a great company, one that has invented so many great products, but sooner or later it will be forced to offer its titles on iOS devices and Android devices. It’s going to get to that point. There’s way too much revenue to be made — Nintendo isn’t Sega, and Sega is crushing it as a software-only company.
I just hope Nintendo follows suit sooner or later, because I have $9.99 ready to go for the Super Mario app on iOS.

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Oracle sees third-quarter profit of 64 to 68 cents per share

BOSTON (Reuters) - Oracle Corp, the world's No. 3 software maker, said it expects to report non-GAAP earnings per share of 64 cents to 68 cents in its fiscal third quarter.
Oracle forecast that third-quarter new software sales and cloud subscriptions sales will rise 3 percent to 13 percent from a year earlier.
The company said its sees third-quarter hardware products sales flat to down 10 percent from a year ago.
Chief Executive Larry Ellison said he expects hardware systems revenue to start growing from the fiscal fourth quarter.
Oracle President Mark Hurd said that Oracle is gaining share against SAP in Europe.

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Oracle beats outlook, shrugs off fiscal debate

BOSTON/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Technology giant Oracle Corp said software sales growth will stay strong into the new year despite fears that there could be big tax hikes and U.S. government spending cuts that could cause a slump in spending by customers.
Shares of the world's No. 3 software maker rose 1.3 percent after it reported fiscal second-quarter revenue and earnings that surpassed Wall Street forecasts.
Oracle President Safra Catz told investors that businesses were still looking to spend money already allocated to 2012 technology budgets.
"Folks want to close deals," she told analysts on a conference call following the earnings release on Tuesday. There has been "no negative impact on pricing. Pricing remains very good for us."
Oracle said software sales would grow 3 to 13 percent this quarter, which runs through February. It expects fiscal third-quarter hardware products sales to be flat to down 10 percent from a year ago.
The company's software and hardware forecasts were roughly in line with Wall Street expectations, according to FBR Markets analyst Daniel Ives.
Oracle reported that software sales and cloud software subscriptions rose 17 percent from a year earlier to $2.4 billion in its fiscal second quarter ended November 30.
It had forecast that new software sales would climb 5 to 15 percent from a year earlier, when it last reported earnings on September 20.
"I would call it an early Christmas present," Ives said. "It's a positive sign for the overall technology sector."
Investors pay close attention to new software sales because they generate high-margin, long-term maintenance contracts and are an important gauge of the company's future profits.
Oracle posted a second-quarter profit, excluding items, of 64 cents per share, beating the average analyst forecast of 61 cents according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Jefferies & Co analyst Ross MacMillan said Oracle's results are encouraging for other makers of business software, many of which end their quarter on December 31.
OFF A CLIFF
Some investors have worried that corporations would postpone spending on technology projects because of uncertainty over the year-end deadline for Congress and U.S. President Barack Obama to reach a compromise to thwart an automatic rise in tax rates and government spending cuts.
Failing to reach a deal, economists say, could lead to another U.S. recession. Catz said Oracle's customers are still spending on software.
"What's going on in Washington - I don't know who it's necessarily influencing today. But I can tell you, our customers have been spending money with us even here in December."
On Tuesday, Oracle forecast earnings per share in the current fiscal third quarter of 64 to 68 cents, excluding items. That was about level with an average forecast for 66 cents.
"It tells you that there's still money being spent by enterprises on software. It's not like the world has ground to a halt," MacMillan said.
The picture was not so bright for Oracle's troubled hardware division, which it acquired with its $5.6 billion purchase of Sun Microsystems in January 2010. The division's revenue has fallen every quarter since it closed that deal.
Hardware systems product sales fell 23 percent from a year earlier to $734 million. Oracle had forecast that hardware sales would drop between 8 and 18 percent.
Chief Executive Larry Ellison told analysts he expected hardware systems revenue to start growing in the fiscal fourth quarter which begins March 1.

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BofA CEO: Fed wants bank to show consistent earnings

CHARLOTTE, North Carolina (Reuters) - Bank of America Corp needs to show the U.S. Federal Reserve it can produce consistent earnings as part of the annual process to gain permission to return more capital to shareholders, CEO Brian Moynihan said in an interview.
The second-largest U.S. bank is turning a profit in most of its main businesses, but it inherited costly legal problems when it acquired companies during the financial crisis, including subprime mortgage lender Countrywide Financial.
In the third quarter, Bank of America reported only a nominal profit after reaching a $2.4 billion settlement with investors to resolve claims it hid crucial information from shareholders when it bought investment bank Merrill Lynch & Co.
Moynihan declined to comment on whether the bank's capital plan, which is due to the Fed by January 7, will include any proposed share buybacks or increases in dividends. Moynihan suffered a major embarrassment in 2011 when the Fed rejected the bank's request to increase its quarterly dividend, which has been stuck at just one penny per share since the financial crisis.
The Fed has been evaluating capital plans as part of its supervision of bank holding companies and under provisions in the Dodd-Frank financial reform law. It is unclear whether the Fed would approve any request for an increased dividend or share buybacks next year. A Fed spokesperson declined to comment.
"The element that is sort of unique to us is the predictability of the earnings stream," Moynihan said in an interview in his Charlotte, North Carolina, office. "We are working to get through that."
Other banks have demonstrated their ability to earn money more consistently. JPMorgan Chase & Co's quarterly profit, for example, hasn't fallen below $3.7 billion in the past year, even as it has taken losses on disastrous credit derivative trades.
Investors and analysts are hopeful that Bank of America's legal problems will die down soon. Its stock price has more than doubled this year, partly on expectations that the bank will increase its dividend and buy back more stock after the Federal Reserve reviews its capital plans this spring.
Analysts at Atlantic Equities on Tuesday said they expect Bank of America to buy back $4 billion of its own shares in 2013 and $10 billion in 2014, which would be its first buybacks since 2007.
The bank has "made a lot of progress" on legal issues, Moynihan said, but he acknowledged that the company is still working through lawsuits and investor demands to buy back soured mortgages the bank sold off during the housing boom.
In recent weeks, the bank's dispute with insurer MBIA Inc over mortgage-related claims has heated up, with Bank of America filing a new lawsuit last week against the insurer. The legal tussle with MBIA has dragged on, even as Bank of America has worked out settlements with other insurers of mortgage-backed securities issued by Countrywide.
Moynihan said the bank will settle the MBIA dispute if it can reach an agreement that is reasonable for shareholders but otherwise it is ready to litigate the matter.
The bank's shares closed Tuesday at $11.35, up 3.2 percent for the day. The shares are the best performer in the Dow Jones industrial average this year, after falling the most in 2011.
HEALING
In an effort to improve earnings, Moynihan is aiming to cut costs by $8 billion annually by mid-2015 through a program called Project New BAC, including 30,000 layoffs that have been under way since September 2011. Bank of America had noninterest expenses of $76.5 billion in 2011.
In addition, Bank of America expects to eventually reduce costs in its unit that serves delinquent mortgage customers to about $500 million per quarter from about $3.4 billion in the third quarter. If delinquent mortgages continue to fall, that saving should be achieved in 2015, if not sooner, Moynihan said.

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Top UBS shareholder pins rebound hopes on private wealth

UBS's wealth management business will help it bounce back from a $1.5 billion rap for rigging interest rates, one of its largest investors said, although fears of costly civil lawsuits could cast a pall over its shares for some time.
Paras Anand, European equities head at Fidelity Worldwide Investment, said legal action sparked by the Libor scandal posed an unpredictable threat to the bank's near-term earnings, even if its core private banking franchise escaped permanent harm.
"The big unknown factor is the civil litigation that could follow on as a result of this...That is one thing at the back of our minds that we have to be cognizant of," Anand said in an interview with Reuters.
"The issue for shareholders is the challenge of pricing that risk in. The potential costs are too unquantifiable and indeed, it's unclear as to whether they will actually manifest or not."
Switzerland's largest bank was hit with the fine on Wednesday after admitting to fraud, paying bribes to brokers and "pervasive" manipulation of global benchmark interest rates by dozens of its staff.
UBS shares were trading 1.3 percent higher at 9:01 a.m. ET, as investors looked forward to the end of a scandal-filled chapter in the bank's history and a renewed focus on managing cash on behalf of rich clients, rather than so-called 'casino' investment banking.
"There's clearly been a backlash against big faceless financial entities but a private bank has big personal relationships with its customers ... These kinds of institutions are surprisingly resilient," Anand said.
"We have seen some awful scandals in businesses much weaker than UBS and they manage to survive," he added.
Fidelity owns around 45 million shares in UBS, equivalent to around 1.2 percent of the bank, and is its fifth largest institutional owner excluding sovereign wealth funds, according to Thomson Reuters data.

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Drugs group Lundbeck's shares hit by profit warning

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Shares in Danish drugs firm Lundbeck fell to their lowest level in over 12 years on Wednesday after it cut its profits forecast for the next two years as European sales slow and spending on new products rise to combat generic competition.
The company has already warned that earnings would stall until 2015 due to cheap generic competition for its existing drugs, meaning new products will be vital for future earnings.
But Chief Executive Ulf Wiinberg said on Wednesday that the negative impact on revenue from healthcare reforms in Europe had also been bigger than expected in the last two years and that slowing European sales and generic competition were hurting.
As a result the company said operating profits would fall further than previously forecast in 2014 as it increases investments in its late-stage drugs development pipeline and product launches.
Lundbeck is working to find new drugs to replace lost revenue from products coming off patent protection such as its antidepressant Cipralex, which is sold as Lexapro in the United States and Japan, and Alzheimer's drug Ebixa.
Wiinberg said 2014 would be the company's peak investment year for the new products pipeline, offering it a solid foundation for growth starting in 2015.
"You only get one chance to launch a product and we have to do it well," Wiinberg said at a briefing for investors.
He was commenting after the company warned in a statement that it now expects revenue in 2014 of about 14 billion Danish crowns ($2.5 billion) and an operating profit of between just 0.5 billion and 1 billion crowns.
Analysts have on average been forecasting a profit of over 2.5 billion crowns for 2014 on turnover of over 14.7 billion crowns, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S Estimates.
Two years ago Lundbeck predicted its annual revenues over the period 2012-2014 would exceed 14 billion crowns a year while earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) would exceed 2 billion crowns a year.
Next years' revenue is now forecast to be in the range of 14.1 billion and 14.7 billion crowns to produce an operating profit of 1.6 billion to 2.1 billion crowns, with no change to the company's forecast for 2012.
Analysts' forecasts for this year are for operating profit to drop 41 percent to 1.99 billion crowns on revenue down 8 percent at 14.7 billion crowns, while for 2013 they predict a profit of 2.26 billion crowns on revenue of 14.5 billion crowns.
Lundbeck's shares were trading down 17 percent at 79.90 crowns at 12.44 p.m. British time, dropping below 80 crowns for the first time since April 2000.
"In the short term, earnings are under pressure," Sydbank analyst Soren Hansen said.
Lundbeck said that it expects a dividend payout ratio of about 35 percent of net profits in the 2012-14 period. Last year it paid 3.49 crowns on basic earnings per share of 11.64 crowns, a payout ratio of 30 percent.
Analysts have been predicting a 27-30 percent cut this year to 2.53-2.28 crowns, according to Thomson Reuters StarMine data.
But a number of analysts doubt that revenue from new products will be enough to secure revenue growth in 2015, compensating for lost revenue from Cipralex, Lexapro and Ebixa which together accounted for about 70 percent of group revenue in 2011.
Lundbeck is working on new products such as antidepressant Brintellix in Europe and the United States for launch at the end of next year or start of 2014, as well as alcohol dependency treatment Selincro in Europe in mid 2013.
"It is difficult to see revenue from the smaller products compensating for the large products," said Hansen.

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