Samsung goes after HTC deal to undercut Apple-filing

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – When Apple Inc and HTC Corp last week ended their worldwide legal battles with a 10-year patent licensing agreement, they declined to answer a critical question: whether all of Apple‘s patents were covered by the deal.

It’s an enormously important issue for the broader smartphone patent wars. If all the Apple patents are included -including the “user experience” patents that the company has previously insisted it would not license – it could undermine the iPhone makers efforts to permanently ban the sale of products that copy its technology.

Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, which could face such a sales ban following a crushing jury verdict against it in August, now plans to ask a U.S. judge to force Apple to turn over a copy of the HTC agreement, according to a court filing on Friday.

Representatives for Apple and Samsung could not immediately be reached for comment.

Judges are reluctant to block the sale of products if the dispute can be resolved via a licensing agreement. To secure an injunction against Samsung, Apple must show the copying of its technology caused irreparable harm and that money, by itself, is an inadequate remedy.

Ron Laurie, managing director of Inflexion Point Strategy and a veteran IP lawyer, said he found it very unlikely that HTC would agree to a settlement that did not include all the patents.

If the deal did in fact include everything, Laurie and other legal experts said that would represent a very clear signal that Apple under CEO Tim Cook was taking a much different approach to patent issues than his predecessor, Steve Jobs.

Apple first sued HTC in March 2010, and has been litigating for more than two years against handset manufacturers who use Google’s Android operating system.

Apple co-founder Jobs promised to go “thermonuclear” on Android, and that threat has manifested in Apple’s repeated bids for court-imposed bans on the sale of its rivals’ phones.

Cook, on the other hand, has said he prefers to settle rather than litigate, if the terms are reasonable. But prior to this month, Apple showed little willingness to license its patents to an Android maker.

HOLY PATENTS

In August, a Northern California jury handed Apple a $ 1.05 billion verdict, finding that Samsung’s phones violated a series of Apple’s software and design patents.

Apple quickly asked U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh to impose a permanent sales ban on those Samsung phones, and a hearing is scheduled for next month in San Jose, California.

In a surprise announcement on Saturday, however, Apple and HTC announced a license agreement covering “current and future patents” at both companies. Specific terms are unknown, though analysts have speculated that HTC will pay Apple somewhere between $ 5 and $ 10 per phone.

During the Samsung trial, Apple IP chief Boris Teksler said the company is generally willing to license many of its patents – except for those that cover what he called Apple’s “unique user experience” like touchscreen functionality and design.

However, Teksler acknowledged that Apple has, on a few occasions, licensed those holy patents – most notably to Microsoft, which signed an anti-cloning agreement as part of the deal.

In opposing Apple’s injunction request last month, Samsung said Apple’s willingness to license at all shows money should be sufficient compensation, court documents show.

Apple has already licensed at least one of the prized patents in the Samsung case to both Nokia and IBM. That fact was confidential until late last year, when the court mistakenly released a ruling with details that should have been hidden from public view.

In a court filing last week, Apple argued that its Nokia, IBM and Microsoft deals shouldn’t stand in the way of an injunction. Microsoft’s license only covers Apple patents filed before 2002, and IBM signed several years before the iPhone launched, according to Apple.

“IBM’s agreement is a cross license with a party that does not market smartphones,” Apple wrote.

Apple’s seeming shift away from Jobs-style war, and toward licensing, may also reflect a realization that injunctions have become harder to obtain for a variety of reasons.

Colleen Chien, a professor at Santa Clara Law in Silicon Valley, said an appellate ruling last month that tossed Apple’s pretrial injunction against the Samsung Nexus phone raised the legal standard for everyone.

“The ability of technology companies to get injunctions on big products based on small inventions, unless the inventions drive consumer’s demand, has been whittled away significantly,” Chien said.

The case in U.S. District Court, Northern District of California is Apple Inc v. Samsung Electronics Co Ltd et al, 11-1846.

(Reporting By Dan Levine and Poornima Gupta; Editing by Bernard Orr)

Tech News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Benghazi, Not Petraeus Affair, Is Focus at Hearings

Jose Luis Magana/Associated Press

Security was high on Capitol Hill as closed sessions of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees met on Friday.

WASHINGTON — In closed sessions before the House and Senate Intelligence Committees on Friday, David H. Petraeus apologized to lawmakers about his affair with Paula Broadwell, which led to his resignation last week as the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, but lawmakers said later that they did not ask about the matter.

Timeline: Petraeus Affair

Luis M. Alvarez/Associated Press

David H. Petraeus, right, entered his home in Arlington, Va., followed by security agents, after testifying on Capitol Hill on Friday.

Instead, the focus of both hearings was the attack on the American diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, two months ago that killed Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans.

Mr. Petraeus said that classified intelligence showed that the deadly raid on the diplomatic mission was a terrorist attack, but that the administration withheld the suspected role of specific affiliates of Al Qaeda to avoid tipping off the terrorist groups.

The C.I.A. and other intelligence agencies prepared unclassified talking points on the attack for members of Congress, and in them the references to Qaeda affiliates were changed to the less specific “extremists” to avoid revealing to insurgents that American intelligence agencies were eavesdropping on their electronic communications.

Republicans have criticized the United States ambassador to the United Nations, Susan E. Rice, for suggesting that the siege in Benghazi was a spontaneous protest rather than an opportunistic terrorist attack. Ms. Rice used the less specific, unclassified talking points when she appeared on five Sunday talk shows five days after the attack.

“The fact is, the reference to Al Qaeda was taken out somewhere along the line by someone outside the intelligence community,” Representative Peter T. King, a New York Republican, told reporters after the House hearing. “We need to find out who did it and why.”

Democrats leapt to Ms. Rice’s defense after the Senate hearing, saying she was simply following the unclassified talking points provided to her. Ms. Rice did not stray from those talking points, lawmakers said Mr. Petraeus told them.

“I really think Ambassador Rice is being treated unfairly,” said Senator Dianne Feinstein, the California Democrat who leads the Intelligence Committee.

Ms. Feinstein declined to offer any assessments on flawed intelligence or security lapses related to the attack, saying that the panel intended to hold two additional closed hearings, then produce a set of unclassified findings that would be presented in a public hearing.

But the panel’s senior Republican, Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, said the matter with Ms. Rice had not been fully resolved. Mr. Chambliss said federal investigators were getting a clearer picture of what groups or individuals were responsible for the attack. President Obama has repeatedly said the assailants will be brought to justice.

“How did this group penetrate the facility that we had in Benghazi, and who were these folks?” Mr. Chambliss said, speaking to reporters afterward. “We’re getting closer to determining that. We know they were Al Qaeda affiliates or Al Qaeda itself.”

American intelligence officials and Libyans at the scene have said that a local militant group, Ansar al-Shariah, was largely responsible for the attack, and that some of its members probably have ties to Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, the organization’s North African arm.

These officials have disputed the notion that Al Qaeda’s leadership in Pakistan or its affiliate in North Africa organized or directed the assault on the diplomatic mission and a C.I.A. base about a mile away.

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Booker scores 19 as Colorado upsets No. 16 Baylor

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — Colorado coach Tad Boyle always has a backup plan. The Buffaloes sure needed it Friday to take down No. 16 Baylor at the Charleston Classic.

Boyle knew his young players struggled from the foul line and watched them do it again, going 4 for 18 against Baylor.

"That's when you rely on defense and rebounding," he said, smiling.

The Buffaloes (3-0) got plenty of both to defeat the Bears 60-58 and advance to the championship of the eight-team tournament Sunday night. Not that it was easy to stomach down the stretch. Andre Roberson and Spencer Dinwiddie each missed in one-and-one situations, the usually reliable Booker was just 1 of 2 from the line and Roberson missed two more — all within the game's last 61 seconds.

All of it gave the Bears a chance to steal this one away.

Baylor's final chance ended when 7-foot-1 Isaiah Austin was off the mark on a catch-and-shoot prayer with a second left.

"They weren't making free throws but we weren't rebounding from the free-throw line," Baylor coach Scott Drew said. "I think it was two teams that wanted to win bad that didn't have postseason execution, but had early-season execution."

Askia Booker scored 19 points to lead Colorado, which earned a measure of payback for last March, when the Bears (3-1) knocked them out in the NCAA tournament's third round.

"We fought through the whole game because we know they're going to make shots," said Booker, who scored 15 points in the NCAA loss to Baylor. "It's going to come down to who wants it more."

Baylor star Pierre Jackson had just 12 points after scoring 31 in an opening-round win here against Boston College.

Cory Jefferson led the Bears with 17 points on 7-of-8 shooting. Austin finished with eight points and 12 rebounds.

Dinwiddie added 11 for Colorado, while Roberson had seven points and 13 rebounds, his second straight tournament game with double-digit boards.

Roberson and the Buffaloes had to be strong on the glass with so many missed free throws. Roberson missed a one-and-one try with 1:01 to go and Colorado ahead 59-56.

Jackson's bucket with 19.8 seconds left drew Baylor within a point.

Dinwiddie next went to the line for Colorado and he, too, missed a one-and-one. But Shane Harris-Tunks came up the rebound for the Buffaloes, and Booker was fouled.

He made only one attempt and Baylor was on the run. A.J. Walton was short on his driving shot, though, and Roberson collected the rebound and got fouled to set up the final moments.

Baylor had hoped to duplicate what it accomplished against Colorado in March in an 80-63 victory. But those Bears were loaded with tall, strong, talented players like Quincy Acy, Quincy Miller and Perry Jones III to get going down low. Brady Heslip helped outside with nine 3-pointers in that one.

This time, Heslip was off the mark, making just one of his six 3-point tries.

Booker said the Buffaloes took extra care to slow down Heslip, who they watched connect for 27 points in the NCAA win. The emphasis, Booker said, was to work through screens and not let Heslip get going with his outside shot.

Booker said Colorado accomplished a big goal of its trip South in defeating Baylor. The next step, he said, is leaving with the Charleston Classic championship.

"This last one's going to be very important," he said. "We didn't want to just beat Baylor, we want to win the whole thing."

Baylor falls to the third-place game Sunday afternoon. Drew knew his club would have early growing pains, melding five freshmen into what had been an experienced, savvy team last fall.

Drew said he took on this tournament to put his younger players into difficult situations so they'll feel more comfortable when the games get bigger later in the season.

"But right now, unfortunately, we might pick up some losses like today," Drew said.

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Personal Health: Quitting Smoking for Good

Few smokers would claim that it’s easy to quit. The addiction to nicotine is strong and repeatedly reinforced by circumstances that prompt smokers to light up.

Yet the millions who have successfully quit are proof that a smoke-free life is achievable, even by those who have been regular, even heavy, smokers for decades.

Today, 19 percent of American adults smoke, down from more than 42 percent half a century ago, when Luther Terry, the United States surgeon general, formed a committee to produce the first official report on the health effects of smoking. Ever-increasing restrictions on where people can smoke have helped to swell the ranks of former smokers.

Now, however, as we approach the American Cancer Society’s 37th Great American Smokeout on Thursday, the decline in adult smoking has stalled despite the economic downturn and the soaring price of cigarettes.

Currently, 45 million Americans are regular smokers who, if they remain smokers, can on average expect to live 10 fewer years. Half will die of a tobacco-related disease, and many others will suffer for years with smoking-caused illness. Smoking adds $96 billion to the annual cost of medical care in this country, Dr. Nancy A. Rigotti wrote in The Journal of the American Medical Association last month. Even as some adult smokers quit, their ranks are being swelled by the 800,000 teenagers who become regular smokers each year and by young adults who, through advertising and giveaways, are now the prime targets of the tobacco industry.

People ages 18 to 25 now have the nation’s highest smoking rate: about 34 percent counted in the National Survey on Drug Use and Health in 2010 reported smoking cigarettes in the previous month. I had to hold my breath the other day as dozens of 20-somethings streamed out of art gallery openings and lighted up. Do they not know how easy it is to get hooked on nicotine and how challenging it can be to escape this addiction?

Challenging, yes, but by no means impossible. On the Web you can download a “Guide to Quitting Smoking,” with detailed descriptions of all the tools and tips to help you become an ex-smoker once and for all.

Or consult the new book by Dr. Richard Brunswick, a retired family physician in Northampton, Mass., who says he’s helped hundreds of people escape the clutches of nicotine and smoking. (The printable parts of the book’s provocative title are “Can’t Quit? You Can Stop Smoking.”)

“There is no magic pill or formula for beating back nicotine addiction,” Dr. Brunswick said. “However, with a better understanding of why you smoke and the different tools you can use to control the urge to light up, you can stop being a slave to your cigarettes.”

Addiction and Withdrawal

Nicotine beats a direct path to the brain, where it provides both relaxation and a small energy boost. But few smokers realize that the stress and lethargy they are trying to relieve are a result of nicotine withdrawal, not some underlying distress. Break the addiction, and the ill feelings are likely to dissipate.

Physical withdrawal from nicotine is short-lived. Four days without it and the worst is over, with remaining symptoms gone within a month, Dr. Brunswick said. But emotional and circumstantial tugs to smoke can last much longer.

Depending on when and why you smoke, cues can include needing a break from work, having to focus on a challenging task, drinking coffee or alcohol, being with other people who smoke or in places you associate with smoking, finishing a meal or sexual activity, and feeling depressed or upset.

To break such links, you must first identify them and then replace them with other activities, like taking a walk, chewing sugar-free gum or taking deep breaths. These can help you control cravings until the urge passes.

If you’ve failed at quitting before, try to identify what went wrong and do things differently this time, Dr. Brunswick suggests. Most smokers need several attempts before they can become permanent ex-smokers.

Perhaps most important is to be sure you are serious about quitting; if not, wait until you are. Motivation is half the battle. Also, should you slip and have a cigarette after days or weeks of not smoking, don’t assume you’ve failed and give up. Just go right back to not smoking.

Aids for Quitting

Many if not most smokers need two kinds of assistance to become lasting ex-smokers: psychological support and medicinal aids. Only about 4 percent to 7 percent of people are able to quit smoking on any given attempt without help, the cancer society says.

All 50 states and the District of Columbia have free telephone-based support programs that connect would-be quitters to trained counselors. Together, you can plan a stop-smoking method that suits your smoking pattern and helps you avoid common pitfalls.

Online support groups and Nicotine Anonymous can help as well. To find a group, ask a local hospital or call the cancer society at (800) 227-2345. Consider telling relatives and friends about your intention to quit, and plan to spend time in smoke-free settings.

More than a dozen treatments can help you break the physical addiction to tobacco. Most popular is nicotine replacement therapy, sold both with and without a prescription. The Food and Drug Administration has approved five types: nicotine patches of varying strengths, gums, sprays, inhalers and lozenges that can curb withdrawal symptoms and help you gradually reduce your dependence on nicotine.

Two prescription drugs are also effective: an extended-release form of the antidepressant bupropion (Zyban or Wellbutrin), which reduces nicotine cravings, and varenicline (Chantix), which blocks nicotine receptors in the brain, reducing both the pleasurable effects of smoking and the symptoms of nicotine withdrawal. Combining a nicotine replacement with one of these drugs is often more effective than either approach alone.

Other suggested techniques, like hypnosis and acupuncture, have helped some people quit but lack strong proof of their effectiveness. Tobacco lozenges and pouches and nicotine lollipops and lip balms lack evidence as quitting aids, and no clinical trials have been published showing that electronic cigarettes can help people quit.

The cancer society suggests picking a “quit day”; ridding your home, car and workplace of smoking paraphernalia; choosing a stop-smoking plan, and stocking up on whatever aids you may need.

On the chosen day, keep active; drink lots of water and juices; use a nicotine replacement; change your routine if possible; and avoid alcohol, situations you associate with smoking and people who are smoking.

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This post has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: November 16, 2012

An earlier version of this column stated imprecisely the rate of smoking among young adults. According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, in 2010 about 34 percent of people ages 18 to 25 smoked cigarettes in the month before the survey -- not daily. (About 16 percent of them reported smoking daily, according to the survey.)

This post has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: November 14, 2012

An earlier version of this column misstated the rate of smoking among young adults. According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, in 2010 about 34 percent of people ages 18 to 25 smoked cigarettes, not 40 percent. (That is the share of young adults who use tobacco products of any kind, according to the survey.)

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Advertising: A Formerly Button-Down Brand Loosens Up

WITH so many young men spending their college years shuffling to class in pajama bottoms and sweatshirts, it should come as no surprise that they are largely ambivalent about fashion.

Only 29 percent of men agree with the statement “I like to keep up with the latest trends in fashion,” according to a survey of men 18 and older conducted by Mintel, a market research firm. What men most want from clothing has little to do with appearance; 85 percent agree with the statement, “I dress for comfort.”

Now Van Heusen, the 91-year-old clothing brand, is stepping up its efforts to use a different entry point — football — as a way to get young men interested in style.

A broad marketing effort called the Van Heusen Institute of Style features Steve Young and Jerry Rice, both Hall of Fame members, and Matthew Stafford, the current Detroit Lions quarterback, as guides to help men make the transition, in the words of the campaign, from “schlub to swagger.”

The average age of a Van Heusen consumer is 39, the company says, but the campaign is being pitched to younger men from 18 to 34.

The Van Heusen Web site and Facebook page have been transformed into an extended football metaphor. Fashion spreads featuring the players are called “playbooks” and feature gridiron lingo: one featuring fitted shirts is called “First and Fitted”; another with colorful shirts is called “Friday Night Brights.” First introduced in 2010, the newest iteration of the Institute of Style campaign is a collaboration between Van Heusen and Funny or Die, the comedy Web site. In a new online video produced by Funny or Die, Pete (played by comedian Rob Lathan) is about to meet with a banker for a small-business loan dressed in a hoodie, shorts, white socks and sandals.

Mr. Young and Mr. Rice, who are watching on a monitor in a van, stakeout-style, direct Mr. Stafford, who wears an earpiece, to scoop up Pete so they can dress him more suitably.

In the video, whose humor is in the over-the-top style of “Airplane” and “Police Squad,” Mr. Stafford takes Pete to a department store, where the quarterback runs through the men’s department knocking over mannequins as if scrambling for a first down.

The three-minute video, which concludes, naturally, with Pete looking dapper in Van Heusen clothes and getting the loan, will appear Sunday on Funny or Die and on the Van Heusen Web site and Facebook page.

Also on Sunday, during NBC’s “Sunday Night Football,” a 30-second commercial in the form of a trailer for the video will direct viewers to the Van Heusen Web site.

Van Heusen, a PVH Corporation brand, declined to reveal expenditures for the campaign, which also includes print advertising in GQ, Men’s Health and ESPN The Magazine. The brand spent $6.8 million on advertising in 2011, according to the Kantar Media unit of WPP.

Michael Kelly, executive vice president for marketing at PVH, said that Van Heusen took a fashion-intervention approach because men are in a sorry sartorial state.

“Men have sunken to an almost all-time low,” Mr. Kelly said. “Kids can get away with T-shirts and sweat pants in school, but the dress code allowed on campus is not the dress code allowed on Madison Avenue or Wall Street.”

In the age range of men the brand is pitching to, Mr. Kelly said that the ideal consumer is “a 26-year-old fan who is influenced by professional sports, and who is finding his way after leaving college.” Such fans, he added, are “getting their fashion cues from what they see athletes wearing postgame — on the sports runways, if you will.”

Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst at the NPD Group, a market research firm, said that while young men entering the work force today might admire the Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, they should think twice about emulating his hoodie-and-jeans wardrobe.

“Just a few years ago, you could go to work in your pajamas, and if you looked like you just rolled out of bed when you went to work, that meant you had the technological savvy to change the world,” Mr. Cohen said.

During the economic downturn, he said, applicants cannot afford to go to a job interview dressed sloppily.

Mr. Cohen lauded the Van Heusen strategy of using athletes whom many young men admire to prod them to dress more professionally.

Like its shirts, advertising for Van Heusen traditionally has been buttoned up, featuring Ronald Reagan and celebrities like Bob Hope and Jimmy Stewart. Charging Funny or Die with creating a humorous video that highlights Van Heusen but without an overt sales pitch is a departure for the brand.

“Once you move into the social space, you have to begin to give up control of the brand a bit, and if you’re not willing to do that, you can’t reach this new demographic,” Mr. Kelly, the brand marketer, said. “Writing messaging that’s edgy is a bit of a scary place.”

Founded by Will Ferrell, Adam McKay and Chris Henchy, Funny or Die draws about 19 million unique users a month, who on average watch between two and three videos per visit, according to the Web site.

Mr. Kelly was so impressed with the video that he decided to promote it with the commercial on Sunday, which had not been the original plan. But he noted that its humor did not resonate with all his colleagues.

“I reminded the old guys in the company when they were looking at this, ‘This is not targeted at you, so I really don’t care if you like it,’ ” Mr. Kelly said. “There’s a little bit of that ‘Saturday Night Live’ funniness, that you get it, or you don’t.”

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GameStop profit beats forecast; cautiously eyes holiday

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – GameStop Corp, the world’s largest retailer of videogame products, reported a stronger-than-expected profit on Thursday but lowered its sales forecast for this year due to uncertainty around the holiday shopping season as the video game market struggles.

Grapevine, Texas-based GameStop forecast same-store sales in 2012 would drop 6 percent to 9 percent, compared with a 2 to 10 percent decline projected previously.

“We’ve continued to find new ways to drive revenues and margins in our stores and that’s enabled us to hold on to some earnings in these difficult times,” Chief Financial Officer Rob Lloyd said in an interview.

“We’re still a little bit cautious in that it’s a difficult environment in which to forecast because the industry has been down,” Lloyd said. “And we’ve got uncertainty surrounding what the supply of the (Nintendo)Wii U is going to be.”

Nintendo Co Ltd is gearing up to launch its Wii U video game console on November 18. It is the first new home console device to be sold by a major gaming company in more than six years.

GameStop hopes the start of a new console cycle with the Wii U launch and just-released high quality games like Microsoft Corp’s “Halo 4″ and Activision Blizzard’s “Call of Duty: Black Ops II” will boost hardware and software sales this holiday season.

GameStop’s shares rose 4.25 percent to $ 24.48 in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

Sterne Agee analyst Arvind Bhatia said investors seem more comfortable now with the company’s recent efforts to drive profitability.

In the last two years, the company has been tackling decelerating video game sales in a tough market by diversifying its revenue sources, selling electronics like tablets, digital video games and used games.

The games retailer said it had repurchased stock worth $ 76.8 million in the third quarter and announced that its board had approved a new $ 500 million share buy-back plan to replace its existing $ 242 million repurchase plan. It also announced a quarterly dividend of 25 cents, same as last quarter.

The company reported adjusted net earnings per share of 38 cents in the third quarter, beating analysts’ expectations of 32 cents.

“Earnings per share was quite impressive, driven by gross margins being strong and cost control,” Sterne Agee’s Bhatia said.

GameStop said it expects comparable store sales to range between down 7 percent and up 1 percent in the fourth quarter. It forecast earnings per share between $ 2.07 to $ 2.27 for the period.

Sales of traditional videogame products such as consoles have been pressured globally by lower-priced online offerings and gamers spending more time on tablet computers and cell phones.

Total U.S. sales of videogame software in October dropped 25 percent from a year ago, following a similar trend throughout the third quarter, according to a report by market research firm NPD.

GameStop said sales fell 8.9 percent to $ 1.77 billion. Analysts were expecting sales of $ 1.79 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Adjusted earnings were $ 47.2 million, compared with $ 53.9 million a year ago. The company maintained its previously announced full-year earnings outlook of between $ 3.10 per share to $ 3.30 per share.

(Reporting by Malathi Nayak; editing by John Wallace, Maureen Bavdek, David Gregorio and Dan Grebler)

Internet News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Palestinian Rockets Kill Three Israelis and Trigger Air Sirens in Tel Aviv

KIRYAT MALACHI, Israel — Israel and Hamas widened their deadly conflict over Gaza on Thursday, as militants fired dozens of rockets — including one that killed three civilians in an apartment block in this small southern Israeli town — and two longer-range rockets aimed at Tel Aviv, causing no harm but triggering the first air raid warning there set off by incoming fire from Gaza. The death toll in Gaza from Israeli airstrikes rose to at least 16, including four children and a pregnant teenager.

The three Israeli deaths were the first since Israel’s military launched ferocious aerial assaults on Wednesday to stop the chronic rocket fire from Gaza, the Palestinian coastal enclave controlled by Hamas, the militant Palestinian group.

The Israel Defense Forces said in a cryptic statement that one of the two longer-range rockets aimed at Tel Aviv landed but did not hit the ground — meaning that it must have crashed into the Mediterranean Sea — and that the other appeared to have landed far outside the city. Exact locations were not specified.

But the Tel Aviv air raid warnings — which residents of Israel’s largest metropolis had not heard except for drills or malfunctions since Saddam Hussein’s Scuds threatened them in the first Persian Gulf War, more than two decades ago — were an unnerving reminder of their vulnerability to an attack from Gaza, less than 40 miles away. They also underscored Israel’s stated reason for seeking to destroy the missile-launching sites in Gaza.

Ehud Barak, the minister of defense, said the targeting of Tel Aviv and the scope of the Palestinian rocket fire “represents an escalation, and there will be a price for that escalation that the other side will have to pay.”

Mr. Barak also dropped a further hint that planning for a ground invasion of Gaza had begun, saying he had instructed the army to broaden its draft of reservists to “be prepared for any kind of development if and when it will be required.” Israeli officials said 30,000 reservists could be called, and heavy machinery and tanks rumbled south along Israeli roads leading to Gaza on Thursday in preparation for a possible invasion.

Hamas claimed to have hit one of the Israeli aircraft that have been conducting raids for the past two days on suspected missile storage sites and other targets. Israeli officials denied the claim.

Brig. Gen. Yoav Mordechai, a spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces, said its aerial assaults had hit more than 200 sites in Gaza by late Thursday, and “we’ll continue tonight and tomorrow.” He also said militants in Gaza had fired about 300 rockets into southern Israel and at least 100 more had been intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome antimissile defense system.

The Israeli aerial assault on Gaza that began on Wednesday was the most intense military operation by Israel in Gaza since an invasion four years ago and raised the risks of a new Middle East war.

The regional perils of the situation sharpened as President Mohamed Morsi of Egypt warned that his country stood by the Palestinians against what he termed Israeli aggression, echoing similar condemnation on Wednesday.

“The Egyptian people, the Egyptian leadership, the Egyptian government and all of Egypt is standing with all its resources to stop this assault, to prevent the killing and the bloodshed of Palestinians,” Mr. Morsi said in nationally televised remarks before a crisis meeting of senior ministers. He also instructed his prime minister to lead a delegation to Gaza on Friday and said he had contacted President Obama to discuss strategies to “stop these acts and doings and the bloodshed and aggression.”

In language that reflected the upheaval in the political dynamics of the Middle East since the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak last year, Mr. Morsi said, “Israelis must realize that we don’t accept this aggression, and it could only lead to instability in the region and has a major negative impact on stability and security in the region.”

The thrust of Mr. Morsi’s words seemed confined to diplomatic maneuvers, including calls to the United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon; the head of the Arab League; and President Obama.

Isabel Kershner reported from Kiryat Malachi, and Rick Gladstone from New York. Reporting was contributed by Fares Akram from Gaza, Rina Castelnuovo from Kiryat Malachi, Israel, Mayy El Sheikh and David D. Kirkpatrick from Cairo, Gabby Sobelman from Jerusalem and Alan Cowell from Paris.

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NFL commissioner says sport will evolve, get safer

BOSTON (AP) — NFL commissioner Roger Goodell says football will evolve and get safer.

Speaking to a packed auditorium at the Harvard School of Public Health, Goodell said the league will do what it needs to do to protect the safety of its 1,800 players.

Goodell discussed some of the rules that have been created to limit concussions. He says they are working, and there will be more changes as necessary.

The commissioner also noted Thursday that concussions are a problem in all sports and in the military.

The speech comes as the NFL faces lawsuits by thousands of former players who say the league withheld information on the harmful effects concussions can have on their health.

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I Was Misinformed: The Time She Tried Viagra

I have noticed, in the bragging-rights department, that “he doesn’t need Viagra” has become the female equivalent of the male “and, I swear, she’s a real blonde.” Personally, I do not care a bit. To me, anything that keeps you happy and in the game is a good thing.

But then, I am proud to say, I was among the early, and from what I gather, rare female users.

It happened when the drug was introduced around 1998. I was 50, but after chemotherapy for breast cancer — and later, advanced ovarian cancer — I was, hormonally speaking, pretty much running on fumes. Whether this had diminished my sex drive I did not yet know. One may have Zorba-esque impulses when a cancer diagnosis first comes in; but a treatment that leaves you bald, moon-faced and exhausted knocks that out of your system pretty fast.

But by 1998, the cancer was gone, my hair was back and I was ready to get back in the game. I was talking to an endocrinologist when I brought up Viagra. This was not to deal with the age-related physical changes I knew it would not address, it was more along the feminist lines of equal pay for equal work: if men have this new sex drug, I want this new sex drug.

“I know it’s supposed to work by increasing blood flow,” I told the doctor, “But if that’s true for men, shouldn’t it be true for women, too?”

“You’re the third woman who asked me that this week,” he said.

He wrote me a prescription. I was not seeing anyone, so I understood that I would have to do both parts myself, but that was fine. I have a low drug threshold and figured it might be best the first time to fly solo. My memory of the directions are hazy: I think there was a warning that one might have a facial flush or headaches or drop dead of a heart attack; that you were to take a pill at least an hour before you planned to get lucky, and, as zero hour approached, you were supposed to help things along by thinking beautiful thoughts, kind of like Peter Pan teaching Wendy and the boys how to fly.

But you know how it is: It’s hard to think beautiful thoughts when you’re wondering, “Is it happening? Do I feel anything? Woof, woof? Hello, sailor? Naaah.”

After about an hour, however, I was aware of a dramatic change. I had developed a red flush on my face; I was a hot tomato, though not the kind I had planned. I had also developed a horrible headache. The sex pill had turned into a bad joke: Not now, honey, I have a headache.

I put a cold cloth on my head and went to sleep. But here’s where it got good: When I slept, I dreamed; one of those extraordinary, sensual, swimming in silk sort of things. I woke up dazed and glowing with just one thought: I gotta get this baby out on the highway and see what it can do.

A few months later I am fixed up with a guy, and after a time he is, under the Seinfeldian definition of human relations (Saturday night date assumed) my official boyfriend. He is middle aged, in good health. How to describe our romantic life with the delicacy a family publication requires? Perhaps a line from “Veronika, der Lenz ist da” (“Veronica, Spring Is Here”), a song popularized by the German group the Comedian Harmonists: “Veronika, der Spargel Wächst” (“Veronica, the asparagus are blooming”). On the other hand, sometimes not. And so, one day, I put it out there in the manner of sport:

“Want to drop some Viagra?” I say.

Here we go again, falling into what I am beginning to think is an inevitable pattern: lying there like a lox, or two loxes, waiting for the train to pull into the station. (Yes, I know it’s a mixed metaphor, but at least I didn’t bring in the asparagus.) So there we are, waiting. And then, suddenly, spring comes to Suffolk County. It’s such a presence. I’m wondering if I should ask it if it hit traffic on the L.I.E. We sit there staring.

My reaction is less impressive. I don’t get a headache this time. And romantically, things are more so, but not so much that I feel compelled to try the little blue pills again.

Onward roll the years. I have a new man in my life, who is 63. He does have health problems, for which his doctor prescribes an E.D. drug. I no longer have any interest in them. My curiosity has been satisfied. Plus I am deeply in love, an aphrodisiac yet to be encapsulated in pharmaceuticals.

We take a vacation in mountain Mexico. We pop into a drugstore to pick up sunscreen and spot the whole gang, Cialis, Viagra, Levitra, on a shelf at the checkout counter. No prescription needed in Mexico, the clerk says. We buy all three drugs and return to the hotel. I try some, he tries some. In retrospect, given the altitude and his health, we are lucky we did not kill him. I came across an old photo the other day. He is on the bed, the drugs in their boxes lined up a in a semi-circle around him. He looks a bit dazed and his nose is red.

Looking at the picture, I wonder if he had a cold.

Then I remember: the flush, the damn flush. If I had kids, I suppose I would have to lie about it.

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Computer Problems at United Delay Travelers

NEW YORK (AP) — A computer outage at United Airlines delayed thousands of travelers on Thursday and embarrassed the airline at the time when it's trying to recover from glitches earlier this year.

The two-hour outage held up morning flights around the globe. From Los Angeles to London, Boston to San Francisco, frustrated fliers tweeted snarky remarks about the glitch. It was United's third major computer mishap this year.

"Does anyone have a Radio Shack computer or abacus to help United get their system fixed?," tweeted Lewis Franck, a motorsports writer flying from Newark, N.J. to Miami on Thursday to cover the last race of the NASCAR season.

In a subsequent phone call with The Associated Press, Franck added: "Why is there a total system failure on a beautiful day? What happened to the backup and the backup to backup?"

United said the technology problem was fixed by 10:30 a.m. EST. But early morning delays can easily ripple throughout an airline's network for the rest of the day even after the underlying cause is fixed. That's because once a plane is late for one flight it can be hard to make up for lost time.

United was not immediately able to say how many flights were delayed on Thursday. Spokesman Rahsaan Johnson said few if any flights were canceled.

The problem was that dispatchers couldn't send flight information to about half of the United's mainline flights. Johnson confirmed that the problem affected planes that came from United, which merged with Continental in 2010. Planes that came from Continental, and regional flights on United Express, were not affected. All of them together run some 5,500 flights a day.

United's biggest computer problem occurred in March, when its long-planned transition to a single computer system for passenger information caused delays and problems with frequent flier account balances. In August, 580 flights were delayed and its website was shut down for two hours because of a problem with a piece of computer hardware.

Johnson said the problems on Thursday were not related to integrating the computer systems of the two airlines. But even if Thursday's dispatching issue is separate from its earlier problems, the still leaves passengers frustrated.

Michael Silverstein, who works in finance, was supposed to be on a 6:01 a.m. flight from Los Angeles to San Francisco. The computer outage had already caused him to miss one meeting. Worried about missing another, he walked off the plane and bought a $195 last-second ticket on a Southwest Airlines flight to Oakland, Calif.

"I'm frustrated because I'm missing a meeting that I thought I had plenty of time for," Silverstein said.

CEO Jeff Smisek acknowledged on Oct. 25 that some customers avoided United over the summer because of its computer problems. He said the airline had fixed those problems by improving software and adding more spare planes to its system, among other moves.

"We expect to earn back those customers that took a detour and we expect to attract new customers as well," he said at the time.

Thursday's problems were exactly what United did not need, said airline and travel industry analyst Henry H. Harteveldt of Atmosphere Research Group. "This event shows an unacceptable lack of planning at United," he said.

"This merger has been an outright disaster on almost every count. United must make some changes in its executive leadership, starting with the CEO" and including its chief information officer if it wants to restore confidence among passengers, he said.

Shares of United Continental Holdings Inc. fell 20 cents to $19.78 on a day when shares of other big airlines rose.

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Freed reported from Minneapolis. Airlines Writer Scott Mayerowitz contributed to this report.

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