Sundance darlings eye alternative distribution platforms

Not that long ago, premiering a star-driven Sundance Film Festival movie on a video-on-demand channel was an admission of failure.

But last year's festival produced two huge on-demand hits, Richard Gere's crime drama "Arbitrage" and Kirsten Dunst's wedding comedy "Bachelorette," which collectively generated nearly $30 million in revenue, mostly from VOD.

With the nation's most prominent film festival kicking off Thursday in Park City, Utah, can history repeat itself?

"The last year has educated people that they can have a hit using alternative distribution platforms," said Tom Quinn, the president of the Weinstein Co.'s Radius label, which released "Bachelorette." "This Sundance we'll see how much everyone has learned."

After years of hype in the independent film business, digital platforms have finally begun to bear fruit. Last year's Sundance didn't yield the mega-deals that over the last decade have seen studios pay as much as $10 million to release low-budget productions such as "Hamlet 2" in theaters.

But thanks to VOD, movies that were bought at Sundance last year for only about $2 million, including "Arbitrage" and "Bachelorette," were breakouts. "Arbitrage," purchased by Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions, has grossed $8 million at the box office but nearly $12 million on VOD; "Bachelorette" has tallied less than $1 million at the box office but $7.3 million on VOD, according to their distributors.

Several movies from Sundance 2012 did perfectly well following more traditional release plans centered on opening in movie theaters, bolstered by strong reviews: the Oscar-nominated "Beasts of the Southern Wild" and "Searching for Sugar Man."

Each year, scores of independent filmmakers come to the snowy Utah town looking for deals that will bring their movies to audiences. Over the course of the festival's 10-day run, sales agents will huddle in condos and movie theater lobbies, haggling not only over how much the films will sell for but also where they will be shown. Finding the next "Arbitrage" will be on the minds of many buyers this year.

Among the contenders are Richard Linklater's "Before Midnight," the director's final installment in a romantic trilogy starring Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy; the porn-addiction comedy "Don Jon's Addiction," directed by and starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt; the Shia LaBeouf-starring romantic thriller "The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman"; "Kill Your Darlings," which offers the prospect of watching Daniel Radcliffe as a young Allen Ginsberg; and "Lovelace," the story of the '70s porn legend as played by Amanda Seyfried.

Experts say celebrity is a key factor in an on-demand hit; it's nearly impossible to attract channel-surfers without a known name.

"The VOD model doesn't work without a good cast — home entertainment is just different that way," said Howard Cohen of Roadside Attractions. "'Beasts of the Southern Wild' would never do 'Arbitrage' numbers on VOD — no way. And you have to have talent that are willing to support a VOD release and do publicity."

But filmmakers also say they believe their star-driven offerings will resonate with buyers because they tackle universal issues.

"Linda [Lovelace] embodied the evolution of the culture because she was very much about the loosening of sexual mores," said Jeffrey Friedman, who co-directed the film. "She's also a great character study — she's the girl next door who ended up in a very dramatic situation."

Challenges remain with VOD. Many filmmakers want a commitment that their movies will play in theaters before VOD, as well as a large upfront cash payment, known as a minimum guarantee. And actors aren't always on board for a release that will play out largely on television sets, though some are coming around.

"I think the discussion with talent is a lot easier now," said Jessica Lacy, head of the independent film division at International Creative Management, which is selling titles such as the relationship drama "A Teacher" from the young director Hanna Fidell. "But it's still a discussion."

Although there are often willing buyers for sexy films with a big star, filmmakers also hope they can sell difficult but highly original work.

Last year saw the debut of "Searching for Sugar Man," the story of a mysterious Detroit musician by unknown Swedish director Malik Bendjelloul. The film, bought by Sony Pictures Classics, has joined "Exit Through the Gift Shop" and "Capturing the Friedmans" on a list of all-time Sundance documentary breakouts and has been nominated for an Oscar.

Sundance 2012 also famously yielded "Beasts of the Southern Wild," a magical-realist drama from first-time feature filmmaker Benh Zeitlin that Fox Searchlight purchased; it has taken in $11 million at the box office and landed Oscar nominations in the best picture, director, actress and screenplay categories. Searchlight executives have signed up to make Zeitlin's next film.

"After all these years, Sundance is still a place for discovering a new or unexpected filmmaker," said Rena Ronson, co-head of United Talent Agency's independent sales arm. She is hoping that filmmakers such as Jill Soloway, a writer on the TV show "Six Feet Under" who directed the stripper-turned-nanny tale "Afternoon Delight," and Lake Bell, an actress making her directorial debut with "In a World," a story about a second-string voice-over artist, will be among this year's discoveries.

It's yet to be seen what will be this year's "Beasts," but high on buyers' list is Jordan Vogt-Roberts' story of three teenage boys in the wilderness, "Toy's House," as is David Lowery's ex-con tale, "Ain't Them Bodies Saints."

Other titles certain to attract a large contingent of buyers are Jerusha Hess' Jane Austen fantasy-camp dramedy "Austenland," starring Keri Russell; Logan and Noah Miller's period western "Sweetwater," starring Ed Harris and January Jones; and Anne Fontaine's intergenerational romantic drama "Two Mothers," with Naomi Watts and Robin Wright. Nat Faxon and Jim Rash, screenwriters on "The Descendants," have directed "The Way, Way Back," starring Steve Carell.

Some documentary filmmakers are hoping their timely — and controversial — subjects will drive sales. "Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer," about the provocative Russian band, is high on buyers' to-see list. So are "Linsanity," about the galvanizing NBA point guard Jeremy Lin, and "Manhunt," a nonfiction take on the search for Osama bin Laden that covers similar ground to this season's drama "Zero Dark Thirty."

The company 72 Productions, run by Jennifer Chaiken and Sebastian Dungan, is taking one such doc to the festival, "Inequality for All," about income inequality. Paraphrasing the director John Cassavetes, Dungan said, "If you're not arguing about the films after you leave the theater, the films haven't been successful."

Some nonfiction titles are well suited to new distribution models. On Tuesday, the on-demand company Gravitas Ventures announced it would debut "Sound City," the Dave Grohl-directed music documentary premiering at Sundance, on VOD in 100 countries simultaneously with its Feb. 1 theatrical release. And at last year's Sundance, sales agent Andrew Herwitz passed on several small minimum guarantee offers for the skateboarding documentary "Bones Brigade: An Autobiography" and decided to let director Stacy Peralta release the film himself, largely through sites such as iTunes and Amazon Instant Video. Backed by a huge social media and merchandising push, "Bones Brigade" has grossed $700,000 in just a few months without traditional theatrical exhibition.

"Any film with a built-in audience can reach that audience more effectively" through sites like iTunes and Amazon, said Herwitz, who is traveling to Sundance with two narrative films — "Computer Chess" and "Interior. Leather Bar" — and three documentaries — "The Crash Reel," "The Moo Man" and "Pandora's Promise." "And unlike a movie theater, you're always there. You can always launch new initiatives to drive people to your film."

steve.zeitchik@latimes.com

john.horn@latimes.com

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Supreme Court upholds state laws on floating homes

WASHINGTON — A house that floats on the water and has no power to move on its own is a home, not a vessel, the Supreme Court ruled Tuesday.

The 7-2 decision upholds laws in California, Washington and other states that say floating homes that are attached to the shore and do not travel are governed by local laws applying to homes, not by federal admiralty law regulating ships and boats.

The ruling will also affect operators of dockside casinos and restaurants, who will now be able to rely on the same state and local laws that protect property owners. State laws, for example, give some protection to store owners for accidents and injuries suffered by their customers or employees. But federal admiralty law gives more generous protections to sailors and harbor workers who are injured working on vessels.

In Tuesday's opinion, the high court narrowed somewhat the definition of a vessel.

It is not "anything that floats," said Justice Stephen G. Breyer, but something "actually used for transportation."

The court ruled for Fane Lozman, who had parked his two-story floating home at a marina in Riviera Beach, Fla. City officials tried to evict him from the marina and later sued him under federal admiralty law over unpaid docking fees. They eventually seized the structure as an abandoned vessel and had it destroyed. In upholding this decision, a federal judge and the U.S. Court of Appeals in Atlanta said the floating home was a vessel because it was capable of moving on the water and, indeed, had been towed several times, including one trip of 200 miles.

Lozman appealed, arguing his home should have been protected under ordinary real estate laws, not classified as a ship subject to seizure.

The Supreme Court, in Lozman vs. City of Riviera Beach, agreed and said a "reasonable observer" looking at the plywood box home would conclude it was a home, not a vessel. It was not "designed to any practical degree for carrying people or things on water," Breyer said. He noted the home had no rudder, steering mechanism or source of propulsion.

The justices sent the case back to Florida, where Lozman can seek to recover a $25,000 bond taken out before his home was seized and destroyed.

"Our clients are thrilled. This 'reasonable observer' test may seem like an obscure technicality, but it's big news for hundreds of floating homeowners we represented in Sausalito and Seattle, and for hundreds of others throughout the nation," said Michelle Friedland, a lawyer in San Francisco. "They live in homes that are designed to remain stationary and are affixed to the land through electrical and other utility connections."

Judy Patterson, executive director of the American Gaming Assn., said the ruling "will have a positive impact on our industry, framing the right of riverboat casino operators and ensuring they do not face overly broad liability, as would have been the case if the Supreme Court had ruled the other way."

Breyer also said that a vessel, once moored, can lose its legal status as a vessel. "For example, an owner might take a structure that is otherwise a vessel (even the Queen Mary) and connect it permanently to the land for use, say, as a hotel," he wrote.

In dissent were Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Anthony M. Kennedy. They said Breyer's "reasonable observer" standard would probably cause confusion in the lower courts.

david.savage@latimes.com

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Tablet shipments in 2013 could be lower than previously expected

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Oxygen halts controversial 'Babies' Mamas' project

NEW YORK (AP) — Oxygen Media has pulled the plug on "All My Babies' Mamas," a reality special the network was developing about a musician who has fathered 11 children with 10 different mothers.

The network offered no reason for curtailing the project. In a statement issued Tuesday, Oxygen said that, "as part of our development process, we have reviewed casting and decided not to move forward with the special."

The one-hour program would have featured Atlanta rap artist Shawty Lo, his children and their mothers. It was expected to air later this year on Oxygen, an NBCUniversal cable network owned by Comcast.

"All My Babies' Mamas" got a hostile public reception after Oxygen announced it last month. At least one petition calling for Oxygen to shut it down has collected more than 37,000 signatures.

The Parents Television Council called the program's concept "grotesquely irresponsible and exploitive" and pledged to contact advertisers of the show if it reached the air.

Previously, Oxygen denied charges that the show was meant to be "a stereotypical representation of everyday life for any one demographic or cross section of society," but rather would reveal "the complicated lives of one man, his children's mamas and their army of children."

On Tuesday, Oxygen said it will "continue to develop compelling content that resonates with our young female viewers and drives the cultural conversation."

___

Online:

www.oxygen.com

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Personal Best: Training Insights From Star Athletes

Of course elite athletes are naturally gifted. And of course they train hard and may have a phalanx of support staff — coaches, nutritionists, psychologists.

But they often have something else that gives them an edge: an insight, or even an epiphany, that vaults them from the middle of the pack to the podium.

I asked several star athletes about the single realization that made the difference for them. While every athlete’s tale is intensely personal, it turns out there are some common themes.

Stay Focused

Like many distance swimmers who spend endless hours in the pool, Natalie Coughlin, 30, used to daydream as she swam laps. She’d been a competitive swimmer for almost her entire life, and this was the way she — and many others — managed the boredom of practice.

But when she was in college, she realized that daydreaming was only a way to get in the miles; it was not allowing her to reach her potential. So she started to concentrate every moment of practice on what she was doing, staying focused and thinking about her technique.

“That’s when I really started improving,” she said. “The more I did it, the more success I had.”

In addition to her many victories, Ms. Coughlin won five medals in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, including a gold medal in the 100-meter backstroke.

Manage Your ‘Energy Pie’

In 1988, Steve Spence, then a 25-year-old self-coached distance runner, was admitted into the United States Long Distance Runner Olympic Development Program. It meant visiting David Martin, a physiologist at Georgia State University, several times a year for a battery of tests to measure Mr. Spence’s progress and to assess his diet.

During dinner at Dr. Martin’s favorite Chinese restaurant, he gave Mr. Spence some advice.

“There are always going to be runners who are faster than you,” he said. “There will always be runners more talented than you and runners who seem to be training harder than you. The key to beating them is to train harder and to learn how to most efficiently manage your energy pie.”

Energy pie? All the things that take time and energy — a job, hobbies, family, friends, and of course athletic training. “There is only so much room in the pie,” said Mr. Spence.

Dr. Martin’s advice was “a lecture on limiting distractions,” he added. “If I wanted to get to the next level, to be competitive on the world scene, I had to make running a priority.” So he quit graduate school and made running his profession. “I realized this is what I am doing for my job.”

It paid off. He came in third in the 1991 marathon world championships in Tokyo. He made the 1992 Olympic marathon team, coming in 12th in the race. Now he is head cross-country coach and assistant track coach at Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania. And he tells his teams to manage their energy pies.

Structure Your Training

Meredith Kessler was a natural athlete. In high school, she played field hockey and lacrosse. She was on the track team and the swimming team. She went to Syracuse University on a field hockey scholarship.

Then she began racing in Ironman triathlons, which require athletes to swim 2.4 miles, cycle 112 miles and then run a marathon (26.2 miles). Ms. Kessler loved it, but she was not winning any races. The former sports star was now in the middle of the pack.

But she also was working 60 hours a week at a San Francisco investment bank and trying to spend time with her husband and friends. Finally, six years ago, she asked Matt Dixon, a coach, if he could make her a better triathlete.

One thing that turned out to be crucial was to understand the principles of training. When she was coaching herself, Ms. Kessler did whatever she felt like, with no particular plan in mind. Mr. Dixon taught her that every workout has a purpose. One might focus on endurance, another on speed. And others, just as important, are for recovery.

“I had not won an Ironman until he put me on that structure,” said Ms. Kessler, 34. “That’s when I started winning.”

Another crucial change was to quit her job so she could devote herself to training. It took several years — she left banking only in April 2011 — but it made a huge difference. Now a professional athlete, with sponsors, she has won four Ironman championships and three 70.3 mile championships.

Ms. Kessler’s parents were mystified when she quit her job. She reminded them that they had always told her that it did not matter if she won. What mattered was that she did her best. She left the bank, she said, “to do my best.”

Take Risks

Helen Goodroad began competing as a figure skater when she was in fourth grade. Her dream was to be in the Olympics. She was athletic and graceful, but she did not really look like a figure skater. Ms. Goodroad grew to be 5 feet 11 inches.

“I was probably twice the size of any competitor,” she said. “I had to have custom-made skates starting when I was 10 years old.”

One day, when Helen was 17, a coach asked her to try a workout on an ergometer, a rowing machine. She was a natural — her power was phenomenal.

“He told me, ‘You could get a rowing scholarship to any school. You could go to the Olympics,’ ” said Ms. Goodroad. But that would mean giving up her dream, abandoning the sport she had devoted her life to and plunging into the unknown.

She decided to take the chance.

It was hard and she was terrified, but she was recruited to row at Brown. In 1993, Ms. Goodroad was invited to train with the junior national team. Three years later, she made the under-23 national team, which won a world championship. (She rowed under her maiden name, Betancourt.)

It is so easy to stay in your comfort zone, Ms. Goodroad said. “But then you can get stale. You don’t go anywhere.” Leaving skating, leaving what she knew and loved, “helped me see that, ‘Wow, I could do a whole lot more than I ever thought I could.’ ”

Until this academic year, when she had a baby, Ms. Goodroad, who is 37, was a rowing coach at Princeton. She still runs to stay fit and plans to return to coaching.

The Other Guy Is Hurting Too

In 2006, when Brian Sell was racing in the United States Half Marathon Championships in Houston, he had a realization.

“I was neck-and-neck with two or three other guys with two miles to go,” he said. He started to doubt himself. What was he doing, struggling to keep up with men whose race times were better than his?

Suddenly, it came to him: Those other guys must be hurting as much as he was, or else they would not be staying with him — they would be pulling away.

“I made up my mind then to hang on, no matter what happened or how I was feeling,” said Mr. Sell. “Sure enough, in about half a mile, one guy dropped out and then another. I went on to win by 15 seconds or so, and every race since then, if a withering surge was thrown in, I made every effort to hang on to the guy surging.”

Mr. Sell made the 2008 Olympic marathon team and competed in the Beijing Olympics, where he came in 22nd. Now 33 years old, he is working as a scientist at Lancaster Laboratories in Pennsylvania.

---

This post has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: January 16, 2013

An article on Tuesday about training advice from professional athletes misstated the year in which Steve Spence competed in the Olympic marathon, finishing 12th. It was 1992, not 2004. The article also misstated the name of the institution at which he is now a coach. It is Shippensburg University, not Shippensburg College. The article also misstated the circumstances under which Helen Goodroad attended Brown. She was recruited to row at the university, she did not receive a rowing scholarship. And the article misstated the length of some races that Meredith Kessler won. They are 70.3 mile championships, not 70.3 kilometer championships.

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Fitch warns that debt-limit delay could hurt U.S. credit rating

WASHINGTON — As Congress again veers close to the nation's debt limit, a leading credit rating company is delivering a stark warning: Don't wait until the last minute.

Fitch Ratings said Tuesday that the U.S. could lose its AAA credit rating if lawmakers don't raise the $16.4-trillion debt limit in a "timely manner" as a possible default looms as early as mid-February.

Congressional Republicans want major government spending cuts in exchange for another debt-limit increase. But Fitch, one of three major credit-rating companies, said the debt limit should not be used as leverage.

"In Fitch's opinion, the debt ceiling is an ineffective and potentially dangerous mechanism for enforcing fiscal discipline," the company said.

For that reason, a group of House Democrats on Wednesday plan to announce legislation to eliminate the debt limit. They said Republicans are exploiting it and risking another financial crisis.

QUIZ: Test your knowledge about the debt limit

"In the old days, which weren't that long ago, both parties grandstanded on the debt ceiling," Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) said. "But grandstanding is one thing. Defaulting is another, and they're prepared to do it."

Congress has increased the debt limit 76 times since 1962. But in recent years, as the budget deficit has soared, clashes over the limit have become more contentious.

Standard & Poor's downgraded the nation's AAA rating in 2011 after the last debt-limit battle. Fitch and the other major firm, Moody's Investors Service, did not. But they have given the U.S. rating a negative outlook, a prelude to a downgrade.

Fitch said Tuesday that it wasn't calling for elimination of the debt limit, just raising concerns about how it is being used.

"Fitch is not advocating any particular policy, but we are making the point that regular episodes of running up against the debt ceiling generates considerable uncertainty and undermines confidence in the predictability and reliability of the federal government as a borrower," said David Riley, Fitch's managing director for sovereign and supranational ratings.

A repeat of the 2011 brinkmanship would trigger a formal review of the U.S. credit rating because it would raise doubts about the ability of policymakers to agree on ways to reduce the budget deficit, Fitch said.

But the firm also noted that failure by Congress and the White House to agree on a plan to reduce the deficit could lead to a credit-rating downgrade later this year "even if another debt-ceiling crisis is averted."

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) seized on that second point and criticized President Obama for saying he would not negotiate budget cuts with Congress in exchange for a debt-limit increase.

"It's time for President Obama to stop putting our credit rating at risk and acknowledge we need a credible deficit reduction plan attached to any increase in the debt limit," Cantor said. "It's time to come together, get to work and solve the problem."

Obama said Monday that borrowing under the debt limit pays only for spending already authorized by Congress and that lawmakers were responsible for raising the limit or risking an economically devastating default.

The U.S. technically reached the debt limit on Dec. 31. But the Treasury Department has been using what it calls "extraordinary measures" to juggle the nation's finances and buy some more time.

Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner informed congressional leaders Monday that those measures would be exhausted as early as mid-February, though they could give lawmakers until mid-March. Geithner said it was difficult to be more precise because the flow of money in and out of the Treasury is more volatile during tax season.

On Tuesday, Geithner wrote to congressional leaders to say that the Treasury had initiated another of those measures, suspending daily reinvestment of a federal employees' pension plan. Treasury has said the move — essentially borrowing from the plan — would free up about $156 billion.

Once the debt limit is increased, the plan would be reimbursed, Geithner said.

jim.puzzanghera@latimes.com

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U.S. moves to bolster French military campaign in Mali

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is preparing to ferry hundreds of additional French troops to the North African country of Mali, bolstering a rapidly evolving military campaign in the latest conflict with Al Qaeda affiliates.

U.S. officials said they also were making plans to send drones or other surveillance aircraft and provide help with aerial refueling of French fighter jets, which bombed columns of Al Qaeda-allied militants in northern Mali for a fourth straight day Monday.

The Pentagon's moves reflect growing concern in Washington about rebel advances, and a decision by the Obama administration to back France's operation after months of inaction. French officials said they had halted the rebels' advance on Bamako, the capital, but insurgents later overran Malian forces in a town about 200 miles northeast of the capital.

PHOTOS: French troops in Mali

Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta, speaking to reporters during a trip to Europe, said the U.S. was already providing the French with intelligence help, citing "a responsibility to go after Al Qaeda wherever they are." Defense officials said small numbers of U.S. troops might be sent to Mali and surrounding countries but that they would be limited to a support role.

"We have promised [France] that we will ... provide whatever assistance we can to try to help them," Panetta said.

As the Obama administration winds down the United States' long, costly war in Afghanistan, the focus of Western governments' terrorism concerns has shifted to places such as Yemen, Somalia and northern Nigeria. Once-stable Mali joined the list after Islamist rebels seized the northern half of the country after a military coup in March. According to U.S. officials, the militants set up training camps and increased coordination with militant groups elsewhere in Africa.

The militants imposed harsh Islamic law, including forced amputations and summary executions.

The rebels include hundreds of fighters from Al Qaeda's North African affiliate, Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, which U.S. officials have described as the terrorist network's best-financed branch. Flush with cash from kidnapping and smuggling operations, the fighters gained large stocks of military equipment after the 2011 fall of Moammar Kadafi in Libya. Weapons from Kadafi's regime flowed across the lawless Sahara into Mali.

U.S. officials say the Al Qaeda offshoot has between 800 and 1,200 fighters and that an unknown number also have joined in recent months from other African nations and Europe.

"They've increased in numbers because they're able to operate a little more openly," one U.S. defense official said before the French campaign began. "A lot of folks have seen the success they've had, and that draws in people from the region as well as foreigners who've come in from outside the region."

France, the former colonial power in Mali, has a large North African immigrant population and has long feared that Islamists could use their base in Mali to plot attacks on French soil. Eight French hostages reportedly are being held by Islamists in northern Mali.

U.S. officials until recently didn't regard the threat with great urgency, but the rebel advance last week appeared to force France's hand — and heightened American concern. According to local news reports, one group of fighters attacked the town of Konna and moved toward government-controlled Mopti while a second group advanced to the west, showing a level of coordination that analysts hadn't seen before.

"Until a week ago, I and others were telling people we don't really think that there's much of a threat here, because these [militants] have very parochial interests and we don't think they've got the military capability," said Michael Shurkin, a former CIA analyst who worked on Mali and is now an expert at the Rand Corp. think tank.

"What France saw this last week just scared it. It saw real capability, audacity and capacity," he said.

French President Francois Hollande swiftly sent 550 troops to Mali, mainly to Bamako to secure the airport and, if necessary, evacuate the roughly 6,000 French citizens living there, officials said. France has asked the Pentagon for help in quickly moving another 500 to 600 troops and their equipment into the country, a U.S. defense official said.

U.S. military planners were devising options for using Air Force cargo planes to move the forces from France to staging areas outside Mali, possibly including the neighboring countries of Niger and Burkina Faso, the official said.

"We're going to do it," the official said. "We just don't know what platforms yet," referring to the types of aircraft.

The United States for several years conducted training operations with Mali's armed forces but was legally required to suspend all assistance to the Malian government after the March coup. A U.S. official said that restriction was delaying assistance to the French operation, but Obama administration lawyers were looking at ways around the prohibition.

Last month the United Nations signed off on a West African-led plan to send 3,300 regional troops to help Malian forces retake the north. France is putting pressure on the West African bloc to speed the deployment of its soldiers.

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Apple stock wilts on worries about iPhone demand

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Apple‘s stock slipped below $ 500 for the first time in 11 months on Monday as investors reacted to reports signaling the company’s latest iPhone is falling further behind a slew of sleek alternatives running Google’s Android software.

The latest indication that Apple, the world’s most valuable company, is seeing sluggish demand for its iPhone 5 emerged in separate stories published Monday in the Japanese newspaper Nikkei and The Wall Street Journal. Both publications cited unnamed people familiar with the situation saying Apple has dramatically reduced its orders for the parts needed to build the newest iPhone because the device isn’t selling as well as the company hoped.

The adjustment means Apple will buy about half as many display screens for the iPhone as management originally planned for the opening three months of the year, according to the newspapers.

Apple Inc., which is based in Cupertino, Calif., declined to comment Monday. Spokeswoman Natalie Kerris said Apple executives would share their views on market conditions Jan. 23 when the company is scheduled to release its financial results for the final three months of 2011. The period covers the first full quarter that the iPhone 5 was on sale.

Although Apple hailed the iPhone 5 as the best version yet of a product that has revolutionized the telecommunications and computing industry, the company’s stock has wilted since the device hit the market.

After peaking at $ 705.07 on the day of the iPhone 5′s Sept. 21 release, Apple’s stock has plunged nearly 30 percent. The shares fell $ 18.55, or 3.6 percent, to close Monday’s regular trading at $ 501.75, dragging the company’s market value nearly $ 190 billion below where it stood in late September. The stock traded at $ 498.51 earlier in the day, its lowest price since February.

The stock’s decline hasn’t been entirely caused by concerns about the iPhone 5′s sales performance. Industry analysts are also worried about the recent introduction of a smaller, less expensive iPad cutting into the company’s profits.

But the biggest fears hover around the iPhone because it has become Apple’s most valuable product since the company’s late CEO, Steve Jobs, unveiled the first model in 2007. Apple has sold more than 271 million of the devices since then, and in the company’s last fiscal year ending in September, the iPhone generated $ 80 billion in sales to account for more than half of the company’s total revenue.

But Apple’s upgrades of the iPhone in the past two years have disappointed gadget lovers who have been clamoring for Apple to do more to stay in front of device makers relying on the free Android software made by Google Inc. For instance, there were high hopes for a larger iPhone screen with the release of the 2011 model, but Apple waited until last September to take that leap. And when Apple moved to a larger display screen with the iPhone 5, it didn’t include a special chip to enable users to make mobile payments by tapping the handset on another device at the checkout stand. Such a mobile payment feature is available on some Android phones.

Finally, Apple has insisted that wireless carriers subsidize so much of the iPhone’s cost in exchange for customers’ two-year commitments on data plans that the carriers make little or no money by selling the devices. That has prompted more wireless carriers to tout less expensive Android phones in their stores, undercutting the demand for iPhones, said Darren Hayes, who has been studying the shifting market conditions as chairman of the computing systems program at Pace University in New York.

Through the third quarter of last year, Android devices represented 75 percent of smartphone shipments worldwide according to the research firm International Data Corp. That was up from 58 percent at the same point 2011. Meanwhile, Apple’s share of worldwide smartphone shipments has fallen from a peak of 23 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011 to 15 percent in the third quarter of last year.

Samsung Electronics, in particular, has been benefiting from the growing popularity of its Android-powered phones, led by its Galaxy S line. The company said Monday that it sold more than 100 million Galaxy S phones in less than three years. It took the iPhone nearly four years to reach that milestone.

“This is a real wake-up call for Apple,” Hayes said. “They need to be more flexible in how they do things.” Among other things, Hayes thinks Apple may have to reduce the financial burden on wireless carriers selling the iPhone and spend more money advertising the devices, especially with the recent wave of phones running on Microsoft Corp.’s Windows software. Apple’s efforts to sell more iPhones to companies also could be short-circuited if Research in Motion Ltd.’s upcoming release of a revamped BlackBerry proves to be a hit. The BlackBerry is due out Jan. 30.

In an attempt to regain its competitive edge, Apple already is considering the release of a less expensive version of the iPhone made of cheaper parts to boost sales in less affluent countries, according to a report last week in The Wall Street Journal. The company so far hasn’t commented on that speculation, either. The least expensive iPhone 5 without a wireless contract sells for $ 649. With the subsidy included with a two-year wireless service contract, the iPhone 5 sells for as little as $ 199.

Even as it loses ground to Android products, the iPhone remains a solid seller. Some analysts believe Apple sold more than 50 million iPhones in its last quarter ending in December, which would be far the most units that the company has ever shipped during any previous three-month period.

What’s more, the iPhone 5 got off to a torrid start in China, where Apple expects to eventually sell more devices than it does in the U.S. Apple said it sold more than two million iPhone 5s in the three days after its debut in China last month.

Wireless News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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AP source: Armstrong tells Oprah he doped

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Lance Armstrong confessed to Oprah Winfrey during an interview Monday that he used performance-enhancing drugs to win the Tour de France, a person familiar with the situation told The Associated Press.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the interview is to be broadcast Thursday on Winfrey's network.

Armstrong was stripped of all seven Tour titles last year following a voluminous U.S. Anti-Doping Agency report that portrayed him as a ruthless competitor, willing to go to any lengths to win the prestigious race.

USADA chief executive Travis Tygart labeled the doping regimen allegedly carried out by the U.S. Postal Service team that Armstrong once led, "The most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen."

After a federal investigation of the cyclist was dropped without charges being brought last year, USADA stepped in with an investigation of its own. The agency deposed 11 former teammates and accused Armstrong of masterminding a complex and brazen drug program that included steroids, blood boosters and a range of other performance-enhancers.

A group of about 10 close friends and advisers to Armstrong left a downtown Austin hotel about three hours after they arrived Monday afternoon for the taping. Among them were Armstrong attorneys Tim Herman and Sean Breen, along with Bill Stapleton, Armstrong's longtime agent, manager and business partner. All declined comment entering and exiting the session.

Soon afterward, Winfrey tweeted: "Just wrapped with (at)lancearmstrong More than 2 1/2 hours. He came READY!" She was scheduled to appear on "CBS This Morning" on Tuesday to discuss the interview.

In a text to the AP on Saturday, Armstrong said: "I told her (Winfrey) to go wherever she wants and I'll answer the questions directly, honestly and candidly. That's all I can say."

Armstrong stopped at the Livestrong Foundation, which he founded, on his way to the interview and said, "I'm sorry" to staff members, some of whom broke down in tears. A person with knowledge of that session said Armstrong choked up and several employees cried during the session.

The person also said Armstrong apologized for letting the staff down and putting Livestrong at risk but he did not make a direct confession to using banned drugs. He said he would try to restore the foundation's reputation, and urged the group to continue fighting for the charity's mission of helping cancer patients and their families.

Armstrong spoke to a room full of about 100 staff members for about 20 minutes, expressing regret for everything the controversy has put them through, the person said. He told them how much the foundation means to him and that he considers the people who work there to be like members of his family. None of the people in the room challenged Armstrong over his long denials of doping.

Winfrey and her crew had earlier said they would film Monday's session at Armstrong's home. As a result, local and international news crews were encamped near the cyclist's Spanish-style villa before dawn.

Armstrong still managed to slip away for a run despite the crowds outside his home. He returned by cutting through a neighbor's yard and hopping a fence.

___

Jim Litke reported from Chicago.

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Personal Best: Training Insights From Star Athletes

Of course elite athletes are naturally gifted. And of course they train hard and may have a phalanx of support staff — coaches, nutritionists, psychologists.

But they often have something else that gives them an edge: an insight, or even an epiphany, that vaults them from the middle of the pack to the podium.

I asked several star athletes about the single realization that made the difference for them. While every athlete’s tale is intensely personal, it turns out there are some common themes.

Stay Focused

Like many distance swimmers who spend endless hours in the pool, Natalie Coughlin, 30, used to daydream as she swam laps. She’d been a competitive swimmer for almost her entire life, and this was the way she — and many others — managed the boredom of practice.

But when she was in college, she realized that daydreaming was only a way to get in the miles; it was not allowing her to reach her potential. So she started to concentrate every moment of practice on what she was doing, staying focused and thinking about her technique.

“That’s when I really started improving,” she said. “The more I did it, the more success I had.”

In addition to her many victories, Ms. Coughlin won five medals in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, including a gold medal in the 100-meter backstroke.

Manage Your ‘Energy Pie’

In 1988, Steve Spence, then a 25-year-old self-coached distance runner, was admitted into the United States Long Distance Runner Olympic Development Program. It meant visiting David Martin, a physiologist at Georgia State University, several times a year for a battery of tests to measure Mr. Spence’s progress and to assess his diet.

During dinner at Dr. Martin’s favorite Chinese restaurant, he gave Mr. Spence some advice.

“There are always going to be runners who are faster than you,” he said. “There will always be runners more talented than you and runners who seem to be training harder than you. The key to beating them is to train harder and to learn how to most efficiently manage your energy pie.”

Energy pie? All the things that take time and energy — a job, hobbies, family, friends, and of course athletic training. “There is only so much room in the pie,” said Mr. Spence.

Dr. Martin’s advice was “a lecture on limiting distractions,” he added. “If I wanted to get to the next level, to be competitive on the world scene, I had to make running a priority.” So he quit graduate school and made running his profession. “I realized this is what I am doing for my job.”

It paid off. He came in third in the 1991 marathon world championships in Tokyo. He made the 1992 Olympic marathon team, coming in 12th in the race. Now he is head cross-country coach and assistant track coach at Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania. And he tells his teams to manage their energy pies.

Structure Your Training

Meredith Kessler was a natural athlete. In high school, she played field hockey and lacrosse. She was on the track team and the swimming team. She went to Syracuse University on a field hockey scholarship.

Then she began racing in Ironman triathlons, which require athletes to swim 2.4 miles, cycle 112 miles and then run a marathon (26.2 miles). Ms. Kessler loved it, but she was not winning any races. The former sports star was now in the middle of the pack.

But she also was working 60 hours a week at a San Francisco investment bank and trying to spend time with her husband and friends. Finally, six years ago, she asked Matt Dixon, a coach, if he could make her a better triathlete.

One thing that turned out to be crucial was to understand the principles of training. When she was coaching herself, Ms. Kessler did whatever she felt like, with no particular plan in mind. Mr. Dixon taught her that every workout has a purpose. One might focus on endurance, another on speed. And others, just as important, are for recovery.

“I had not won an Ironman until he put me on that structure,” said Ms. Kessler, 34. “That’s when I started winning.”

Another crucial change was to quit her job so she could devote herself to training. It took several years — she left banking only in April 2011 — but it made a huge difference. Now a professional athlete, with sponsors, she has won four Ironman championships and three 70.3 kilometer championships.

Ms. Kessler’s parents were mystified when she quit her job. She reminded them that they had always told her that it did not matter if she won. What mattered was that she did her best. She left the bank, she said, “to do my best.”

Take Risks

Helen Goodroad began competing as a figure skater when she was in fourth grade. Her dream was to be in the Olympics. She was athletic and graceful, but she did not really look like a figure skater. Ms. Goodroad grew to be 5 feet 11 inches.

“I was probably twice the size of any competitor,” she said. “I had to have custom-made skates starting when I was 10 years old.”

One day, when Helen was 17, a coach asked her to try a workout on an ergometer, a rowing machine. She was a natural — her power was phenomenal.

“He told me, ‘You could get a rowing scholarship to any school. You could go to the Olympics,’ ” said Ms. Goodroad. But that would mean giving up her dream, abandoning the sport she had devoted her life to and plunging into the unknown.

She decided to take the chance.

It was hard and she was terrified, but she got a rowing scholarship to Brown. In 1993, Ms. Goodroad was invited to train with the junior national team. Three years later, she made the under-23 national team, which won a world championship. (She rowed under her maiden name, Betancourt.)

It is so easy to stay in your comfort zone, Ms. Goodroad said. “But then you can get stale. You don’t go anywhere.” Leaving skating, leaving what she knew and loved, “helped me see that, ‘Wow, I could do a whole lot more than I ever thought I could.’ ”

Until this academic year, when she had a baby, Ms. Goodroad, who is 37, was a rowing coach at Princeton. She still runs to stay fit and plans to return to coaching.

The Other Guy Is Hurting Too

In 2006, when Brian Sell was racing in the United States Half Marathon Championships in Houston, he had a realization.

“I was neck-and-neck with two or three other guys with two miles to go,” he said. He started to doubt himself. What was he doing, struggling to keep up with men whose race times were better than his?

Suddenly, it came to him: Those other guys must be hurting as much as he was, or else they would not be staying with him — they would be pulling away.

“I made up my mind then to hang on, no matter what happened or how I was feeling,” said Mr. Sell. “Sure enough, in about half a mile, one guy dropped out and then another. I went on to win by 15 seconds or so, and every race since then, if a withering surge was thrown in, I made every effort to hang on to the guy surging.”

Mr. Sell made the 2008 Olympic marathon team and competed in the Beijing Olympics, where he came in 22nd. Now 33 years old, he is working as a scientist at Lancaster Laboratories in Pennsylvania.

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This post has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: January 15, 2013

An earlier version of this post misstated the year in which Steve Spence competed in the Olympic marathon, finishing 12th. It was 1992, not 2004. It also misidentified the institution at which he is a coach. It is Shippensburg University, not Shippensburg College.

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