Daily News

By Poornima Gupta

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple Inc missed revenue expectations for the third straight quarter after sales of its flagship iPhone came in below Wall Street's targets, driving its shares down 6 percent.

The company said on Wednesday it shipped 47.8 million iPhones, a quarterly record that nonetheless disappointed many analysts accustomed to years of outperformance from the device that helped revolutionize the smartphone industry. Wall Street was predicting roughly 50 million shipments, on average.

Sales of the iPad came in at 22.9 million in the fiscal first quarter, about in line with forecasts.

Sources this month pointed to production cutbacks at Apple's component suppliers in Asia as a sign that demand may be waning for the iPhone, which accounts for half of the company's sales, and the iPad.

Shares of Apple fell in after-hours to $482.45 after dropping nearly 30 percent from a record high in September, in part on worries that its days of hyper growth are over and its mobile devices are no longer as popular.

Apple also undershot revenue targets in the previous two quarters. The results will prompt more questions on what Apple has in its product pipeline, and what it can do to attract new sales and maintain its growth trajectory.

Intense competition from main rival and supply partner Samsung Electronics Co Ltd's cheaper line up of phones - powered by Google Inc's Android, the world's most-used mobile software - and signs that the premium smartphone market may be close to saturation in developed markets have also caused a lot of investor anxiety.

"These results were OK, but they definitely raised a few questions," said Shannon Cross, analyst with Cross Research. "Gross margin trajectory looks fine so that's a positive and cash continues to grow. But I think investors are going to want to know what Apple plans to do with growing cash balance."

"And other questions are going to be around innovation and where the next products are coming from and what does Tim Cook see in the next 12 to 18 months."

Apple said on Wednesday its fiscal first quarter revenue rose to $54.5 billion, below the average analyst estimate of $54.73 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

It posted net income of $13.07 billion, or $13.81 a diluted share, compared to $13.06 billion, or $13.87 a share, a year earlier.

(Reporting By Poornima Gupta; Editing by Bernard Orr)

Dolphins are known for being highly intelligent mammals. So intelligent, in fact, that they can communicate with humans even when they have not been trained to do so. That's what happened to a group of divers on an observation trip off the coast of Hawaii, known as the Big Island.

While the divers were observing manta rays, they were approached by a bottlenose dolphin. Luckily for all of us, they captured the encounter on video and uploaded it to YouTube. Keller Laros, one of the divers, heard an unusual squeal from the dolphin. Laros realized the dolphin was in distress; a fishing line was wrapped around its pectoral fin. He described how he tried to remove the fishing line: "I was trying to unwrap it, I got the fishing hook out of the pectoral fin. ... I was worried if I tugged on it, it might hurt him more."

The amazing part of the video is how cooperative and gentle the dolphin is as the divers help him. Laros was able to get the hook out and snip the fishing line near the dolphin's mouth.

"The way he came right up and pushed himself into me, there was no question this dolphin was there for help," Laros said. Several YouTube commenters have praised Laros and his team for their effort.

It should also be noted that at the beginning of the video, there is a disclaimer that reads, in part: "We do not advocate attempts by laypersons to rescue marine life. The assistance provided to this dolphin was given by professional divers with thousands of hours of experience at this dive site. It was an unusual event. The compassion extended to this animal by the divers is something we should aspire to do, not criticize."

So far, the rescue has been viewed more than 466,000 times on YouTube. People are in awe of what the divers captured on film and what they were able to do.

Talk about being in the right place at the right time.

[Related: Dog Swims With Dolphins]

Like us on Facebook.com/TrendingNow and follow Trending Now on Twitter: @Knowlesitall and @YahooTrending.

On Tuesday, National Rifle Association executive vice president Wayne LaPierre criticized President Barack Obama's inaugural address.

"In his second inaugural address, President Barack Obama quoted the Declaration of Independence and he talked about inalienable rights," LaPierre said during a speech at a hunting and conservation awards ceremony in Reno, Nev. "I believe he made a mockery of both."

During his inaugural speech on Monday, Obama said Americans shouldn't "mistake absolutism for principle, or substitute spectacle for politics or treat name-calling as reasoned debate."

"Absolutes do exist, words do have specific meaning in language and in law," LaPierre countered Tuesday.

"We believe we deserve, and have every right to, the same level of freedom that our government leaders keep for themselves, and the same capabilities and same technologies that criminals use to prey upon us and our families," he continued. "That means we believe in our right to defend ourselves and our families with semi-automatic technology."

The NRA leader added, "No government gave them to us and no government can take them away."

LaPierre's comments come on the heels of the last week's unveiling of a set of legislative proposals and executive actions by Obama and Vice President Joe Biden formulated in the wake of the Newtown, Conn., elementary school shooting that left 20 children and six adults dead.

[Related: NRA's LaPierre slams critics of school gun plan]

Last month, during a press conference to address the shootings in Newtown, LaPierre made the controversial suggestion that a "good guy with a gun" should be stationed at every school in the country. Two days later on "Meet the Press," LaPierre blasted critics of his plan.

If it s crazy to call for putting police in and securing our schools to protect our children, then call me crazy," LaPierre said. I think the American people think it s crazy not to do it."

Meanwhile, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., plans to introduce legislation later this week to reinstate a federal ban on assault weapons.

The "Assault Weapons Ban of 2013," which centers on banning military-style assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition feeding devices actions backed by President Obama will be introduced during a press conference on Thursday morning in Washington. Feinstein will be joined by a coalition of Democratic lawmakers, law enforcement officers, and representatives from gun safety and gun violence groups, among others.

Banksy-inspired Armstrong graffiti in Los Angeles (@JalouseClub/Twitter)

Street art apparently inspired by the elusive graffiti artist Banksy is being used by an unidentified artist to weigh in on the Lance Armstrong doping scandal.

A stenciled, spray-painted image of Armstrong wearing a yellow jersey and riding a bike while hooked up to an IV drip was spotted in Los Angeles earlier this week.

The Twitter feed for London's Jalouse Club posted a photo of the art along with the message: "Banksy's take on Lance Armstrong. #Brilliant." But a representative for Banksy told the Huffington Post U.K. that the British artist is not behind it.

In an interview with Oprah Winfrey last week, Armstrong, who was recently stripped of his seven Tour de France titles, admitted to using performance-enhancing drugs throughout his cycling career.

A Banksy-style take on the disgraced cyclist was bound to happen. After the Oprah interview aired, the parody Twitter account @BanksyIdeas suggested the artist create a "stencil of Lance Armstrong pumping his bike tyre up with a syringe."

It's not the first time Armstrong has been the subject of street art in L.A.

In 2009, Armstrong commissioned Shepard Fairey the artist who designed President Barack Obama's "Hope" campaign to create a mural for Livestrong, the cyclist's cancer charity, on the side of a theater in Hollywood.

"Cancer has affected my life like it has millions of others," Fairey wrote on his website. "I was honored and glad to help the cause."

Fairey also designed the artwork for the bike and helmet Armstrong used during his return to cycling in 2009.

Top Line

Christopher Kennedy Lawford, nephew of President John F. Kennedy and Sen. Ted Kennedy, is calling for improvements in the nation's treatment of addiction and mental illness in a new book.

"We've de-institutionalized the mentally ill in this country, our treatment now is in prisons and on the streets, and it's not working, " says Lawford, author of Recover to Live: Conversations with 100 of the World's Top Treatment Experts.

Lawford is no stranger to addiction. Not only did he once struggle with a substance abuse himself, but he watched his cousin, former Congressman Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., publicly battle with addiction during his time in Congress. Patrick Kennedy wrote the forward for the book.

"My cousin Patrick talks about a check up from the neck up; we need to start treating mental illness the way we treat physical illness. Get it early, get it fast, pay attention to it as a society," Lawford says. "Otherwise, we're going to suffer the consequences."

Lawford says he is proud to carry on the Kennedy legacy of advocacy, saying that his uncle, the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., "would be very mad at me if I turned my back" on this issue.

A senate seat in Massachusetts is about to open up, and there is a lot of talk of Victoria Reggie Kennedy, Sen. Kennedy s widow, filling the post on a temporary basis.

It always good to have a presence in Washington, says Lawford. I love to see members of my family down here.

To hear more about Lawford's advice for dealing with addictions, and to learn what Norman Mailer once said of the author, check out this week's Top Line.

By Andrea Shalal-Esa

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A key Senate committee will hold a hearing in coming weeks to examine U.S. aviation safety oversight and the Federal Aviation Administration's decision to allow Boeing Co to use highly flammable lithium-ion batteries on board its new 787 Dreamliner, a congressional aide said on Tuesday.

U.S., Japanese and French authorities are investigating two separate cases in which lithium-ion batteries on board the new airliner failed. One of the batteries sparked a fire in a parked plane in Boston, while the other forced an emergency landing in Japan.

As a result, authorities around the world last week grounded all 50 Boeing 787s.

The Dreamliner, with a list price of $207 million, is the world's newest airliner, a lightweight, advanced carbon-composite design that has more electrical power than any other aircraft and uses 20 percent less fuel.

"Certainly the issues of FAA certification will be a key component of the aviation safety oversight hearing we're planning," an aide to the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee told Reuters in an email.

The aide, who was not authorized to speak publicly, said committee chairman Senator John Rockefeller was "following the situation surrounding the Dreamliner and FAA's task force closely and he thinks the FAA and (Department of Transportation)are examining the issue carefully."

The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee is also keeping a close eye on the 787 investigations and the issue of FAA oversight, congressional aides said, although no formal hearings were planned at this point.

Boeing officials have briefed both oversight committees and other key lawmakers about the matter, a Boeing spokesman said.

The Senate committee had already been planning to conduct "substantial and aggressive oversight" of aviation safety during the first quarter, but would now look closely at the 787 incidents and FAA oversight as part of that process, the committee aide said.

Problems with the 787's lithium-ion battery have sparked questions about why the FAA in 2007 granted Boeing a "special condition" to allow use of the batteries on the plane, despite the fact that they are highly flammable and hard to extinguish if they catch fire.

Boeing designed a special system that was supposed to contain any such fire and vent toxic gasses outside the plane, but the two recent incidents have raised questions about whether that was a good decision.

It remains unclear what caused the batteries to fail, but when it announced plans to ground U.S.-based 787s, the FAA said both battery failures released flammable chemicals, heat damage and smoke - all of which could affect critical systems on the plane and spark a fire in the electrical compartment.

The FAA has said it will keep the 787s grounded until airlines demonstrate that the battery system is safe and complies with safety regulations.

(Editing by Gary Hill and Sandra Maler)

The latest company to launch into the asteroid-mining business isn't worried about competition from its biggest rival, saying that the resources of deep space are vast enough to support a bustling new industry off Earth's surface.

The new company, Deep Space Industries, Inc., announced today (Jan. 22) that it plans to mine asteroids for metals, water and other resources, with the goal of helping humanity spread throughout the solar system. Another company with similar goals, the billionaire-backed Planetary Resources, unveiled its own plans last April.

Both companies can coexist and prosper, Deep Space officials said during a press conference today.

"We love Planetary Resources," Deep Space chairman Rick Tumlinson said. "Space is big. There's room for everybody."

Deep Space and Planetary Resources will go after near-Earth asteroids, many of which are rich in water and a variety of different metals.

Both firms aim to split asteroid water into its constituent hydrogen and oxygen, which are the chief components of rocket fuel. Asteroid-derived propellant could be dispensed from off-planet "gas stations," allowing satellites and journeying spacecraft to top up their tanks cheaply and efficiently.

Such off-Earth depots could extend the lives of satellites and make manned trips to far-flung destinations like Mars much more economically viable, advocates say.

The metals and other materials, meanwhile, could be used to construct habitats, solar-power satellites and other spacecraft, potentially jump-starting an in-space manufacturing industry. Precious metals such as platinum and gold could also be delivered to Earth for terrestrial use.

So far, astronomers have identified more than 9,000 near-Earth asteroids, with about 1,000 being added to the rolls every year. Such numbers suggest there are more than enough to keep two mining companies busy for a long time, Deep Space officials said.

"There are two or three million near-Earth asteroids," said Deep Space CEO David Gump. "There's room for everyone to prosper, I think."

The startup of two asteroid-mining firms along with the rise of private spaceflight companies such as California-based SpaceX is a sign that humanity may finally be taking real steps toward the long-held dream of permanent space settlement, Tumlinson said.

"One company may be a fluke," he said. "Two companies showing up? That's the beginning of an industry."

Follow SPACE.com senior writer Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall or SPACE.com @Spacedotcom. We're also on Facebook and Google+.

Deep Space Industries' Asteroid-Mining Vision (Gallery) How Asteroid Mining Could Work (Infographic) Asteroid Basics: A Space Rock Quiz Copyright 2013 SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

As Washington begins the debate to consider reforming the nation's gun laws, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich recognized deficiencies in current law, but he emphasized the importance of holding Congressional hearings to examine mental health issues "before we go rushing off on a whole new set of rules."

"As a result of the deinstitutionalization of mental health over the last 30 years, there are a significant, small group of people who are on the streets who clearly would have been judged dangerous 20 or 25 years ago," Gingrich said at the Capitol this morning. "When you talk mass murders that we've seen with Newtown and others, Virginia Tech, for example or Aurora, I think that's a limited enough number of cases. You could actually put together a study that asks what are the common behaviors, what are the common patterns because that's a very specific number of people."

Georgia Republican Rep. Tom Price, M.D., agreed that members of Congress don't have enough information to recommend an appropriate course of action.

"You have to get the information," Price, co-chair of the Congressional Health Caucus, said. "As physicians, you've got to make the correct diagnosis of the patient before you can actually treat the patient. I don't think we have a correct diagnosis about the challenges that are out there for individuals with mental illness who can potentially become a harm to society."

Gingrich reacted to what he called "the larger question of violence," calling on Congress to hold hearings in Chicago, which is the murder capital of the United States even though Illinois enforces some of the country's toughest gun control measures.

"Virtually every gun being used in Illinois is illegal," Gingrich said. "More regulations for the honest and law-abiding, but not for criminals, are in fact destructive."

Gingrich said he has a "personal hunch" that Congress could modify the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, also known as HIPAA, which enacted federal privacy protections that provide patients with an array of rights for personal health information.

"HIPAA has made it far too difficult to surface potentially dangerous people," Gingrich said, predicting a "big fight" with privacy groups.

Texas Republican Rep. Michael Burgess , M.D., pointed out to the former speaker that HIPAA passed during his tenure as speaker. Burgess, co-chair of the Congressional Health Caucus, called it "the worst day of our lives as practicing physicians."

"HIPAA clearly went too far," Gingrich conceded. "The question is if you have information and you have a reason to believe this person is dangerous, should there be a way to surface that?"

Gingrich, who served as speaker from 1995 to 1999, was at the Capitol to meet with the Congressional Health Caucus and discuss a legislative path toward health care reforms in the new Congress.

He said he's "not going to pick to fight" on any single aspect of the Affordable Care Act, but he said lawmakers should listen to doctors and constituents to better determine which health care reforms from the law work and which ones fall short or are complicated by bureaucracy.

"This was a badly written bill," Gingrich said. "[The Obama administration] is issuing year-long delays because they can't implement it."

"Everything we've seen so far about government bureaucracies is being lived out in this area: anti-competition, anti-new technology done at the convenience of the bureaucrat," he added. "If you would like the doctor to be more focused on the patient and you'd like the doctor's office to cost less, to what extent is unnecessary paper technology" increasing costs.

While House Republicans voted dozens of times to repeal, replace, disrupt and dismantle Obamacare in the last Congress, Price said the new Congress should take a vote on full repeal to put freshmen members on the record on the controversial legislation.

"It's important to make that statement as a conference because we have 35 new members of the Republican conference who haven't had an opportunity to weigh in on that," Price said. "It's also important to give the [Democrats a vote]. I think they have 45 new individuals who have never had an opportunity to voice an opinion."

Gingrich said he believes researchers are "on the edge of enormous breakthroughs in brain science and regenerative medicine" but bureaucratic red tape at federal agencies like the Food and Drug Administration, "retard the development" of regenerative medicine and brain research.

"The process of implementing government run health care will lead to a lot of different opportunities to have hearings that return a focus to the patient, to the individual, and to solving some very key problems," Gingrich said. "I hope that this will be a year of making sure that we surface waste, and we surface fraud, and we surface those things that aren't working because that's a key part. You can't talk about controlling government spending and not look at 18 to 20 percent of the economy."

The former Republican presidential candidate touted "extraordinary progress" in regenerative medicine - the ability to take an individual's cells to grow or regenerate tissue - for its "enormous potential to lengthen lives, to increase independent living and to improve the quality of life for people." He also cited "enormous strides" in research on Traumatic Brain Injury, autism, Alzheimer's and mental health.

"These areas will be very ripe to have hearings and bring in the people doing the real research, you know, cut beyond the lobbyists and cut beyond the Washington trade associations and listen for a while to people who are right at the edge of extraordinary breakthroughs" in cancer and kidney disease, he said. "In some places now there are breakthroughs in terms of nerve regeneration, and things that we would have thought were a miracle 15 or 20 years ago, but the government bureaucracy's understanding of the science is way behind what's actually happening in the laboratory."

Also Read

Visitors to the White House Tuesday are in for a surprise Tuesday.

First Lady Michelle Obama revealed on Twitter that she and her husband are personally surprising unsuspecting visitors to the White House:

Shhhh! Barack, Bo & I are about to surprise folks on @whitehouse tours! I love doing this. Watch here: wh.gov/live mo

FLOTUS (@FLOTUS) January 22, 2013

Audiences tuning in to the livestream will find the first couple holding somewhat of a receiving line for tour groups as well as some interactions with the president's dog, Bo. "He just doesn't know where to sit," Michelle Obama explained to one guest.

"Have fun this week!" President Barack Obama said to one visitor from out of town.

WASHINGTON (AP) Michelle Obama made it a fashion tradition Monday night, wearing a custom-made Jason Wu gown to the inauguration balls. The ruby-colored dress was a follow-up to the white gown Wu made for her four years ago when she was new to Washington, the pomp and circumstance, and the fashion press.

She now emerged in velvet and chiffon as a bona fide trendsetter.

"I can't believe it. It's crazy," said Wu, reached at his Manhattan studio. "To have done it once was already the experience of my life. To have a second time is tremendous."

President Barack Obama also struck a similar style chord to his first-term inaugural balls: He wore a white tie with his tuxedo.

The red halter dress was the only one Wu, who went from fashion insider to household name on this night in 2009, submitted for Mrs. Obama's consideration. He collaborated with jeweler Kimberly McDonald on the jeweled neckline. "For this occasion, it had to be real diamonds," Wu said.

He said he felt the dress showed how he has grown up as a designer and how Mrs. Obama's style has evolved to be even more confident.

The first family headed out to inaugural festivities earlier on Monday with Mrs. Obama leading a very coordinated fashion parade in a navy-silk, checkered-patterned coat and dress by Thom Browne that were inspired by a menswear necktie.

The outfit was specifically designed for Mrs. Obama, but Browne said he wasn't 100 percent sure she was going to wear it until she came out with it on at Inauguration. "I am proud and humbled," he said.

The rest of Mrs. Obama's Inauguration Day outfit included a belt from J. Crew, necklace by Cathy Waterman and a cardigan by Reed Krakoff, whose ensemble she also wore to yesterday's intimate, indoor swearing-in ceremony.

Obama wore a blue tie with his white shirt, dark suit and overcoat. Malia Obama had on a plum-colored J. Crew coat with the hemline of an electric-blue dress peeking out and a burgundy-colored scarf, and her younger sister Sasha had on a Kate Spade coat and dress in a similar purple shade.

"It is an honor that Sasha Obama chose to wear Kate Spade New York," said the company's creative director, Deborah Lloyd, in an email to the Associated Press. "She epitomizes the youthful optimism and colorful spirit of the brand. We are so proud to have been a part of this historic moment."

Jenna Lyons, creative director of J. Crew, said it was "a huge point of pride for all of us" to be a part of the day as the brand was back in 2009 when the girls wore outfits by CrewCuts, its children's label.

"It's amazing to see the evolution of the family. I love the way Michelle looks. She looks beautiful in something so clean and tailored. It's such an elegant choice," Lyons said, "and they all look so sophisticated! You can see how the girls have grown up in the four years, and they're still so alive and vibrant, but more sophisticated."

The vice president's wife, Jill Biden, wore a gray coat and dress by American designer Lela Rose.

Mrs. Obama has worn Browne's designs for other occasions, including a gray dress with black lace overlay to one of the presidential debates last fall, and she honored him last summer at the Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt National Design Awards for his contribution to fashion.

Browne made his name in modern very modern menswear, but he launched womenswear in 2011. He was in Paris on Monday, just finishing previews for his next menswear collection. The idea to use the tie fabric came to him because he was indeed designing these men's clothes at the same time, he explained.

"I wanted 'tailored' for her. For me, she stands for strength and confidence, and that's what I wanted to design for her," he said.

Simon Collins, dean of the school of fashion at Parsons The New School for Design in New York, said the Obamas dressed in their typical fashion: one that shows pride in their appearance.

"They are a stylish couple and their children look fabulous. Too many people get dressed in the dark," he said. "They show it's good to dress up, take pride in how you look. ... It's a wonderful example for America and the rest of the world."

He also noted that the Obamas seem to understand that the fashion industry is a driving force in the U.S. economy and that its lobby is a powerful one. They don't treat fashion frivolously, he observed.

The first lady "is so supportive of so many American designers," Browne noted.

But Collins said he was a bit surprised the public doesn't pay much attention to the president's wardrobe. He joked that Obama should perhaps try one of Browne's signature shrunken suits the ones that show a man's ankles.

At the end of the Inaugural festivities, Mrs. Obama's outfit and accompanying accessories will go to the National Archives.

___

Samantha Critchell tweets fashion at (at)AP_Fashion, and can be reached on Twitter at (at)Sam_Critchell.