Why bother with a Facebook phone? Facebook’s app is already on 86% of iPhones and iPads

Rumors suggesting Facebook (FB) is working on a smartphone have resurfaced a number of times over the past year. Each time, Facebook denied the various claims. Facebook may indeed still be working on its own phone but as a new report from market research firm NPD Group shows, it probably doesn’t need to.

[More from BGR: Is Samsung the new Apple?]

Facebook makes money by gathering information about its users and serving targeted ads based on that data. Allowing users to update Facebook with fresh data as often as possible is obviously beneficial to the company, and smartphones present a terrific opportunity to give users access to their Facebook accounts from anywhere. The more people using Facebook’s mobile apps, the better, and Facebook’s smartphone penetration is absolutely staggering right now.

[More from BGR: iPhone 5 now available with unlimited service, no contract on Walmart’s $ 45 Straight Talk plan]

According to data published by NPD Group on Tuesday, Facebook’s iOS application was used by 86% of iPhone, iPad and iPod touch owners as of November 2012. On the Android platform, 70% of smartphone and tablet owners used Facebook’s mobile app in November.

No other third-party app even comes close to approaching Facebook’s mobile penetration. Google’s (GOOG) YouTube app is the next most popular third-party app on iOS with 40% penetration and Amazon’s (AMZN) mobile application is the second most popular third-party Android app with just 28% penetration.

So why would Facebook bother making its own phone?

One answer — perhaps the obvious one — is that an own-brand smartphone with custom software would give Facebook access to far more personal data than it can reach using third-party applications. Considering Facebook’s track record with matters relating to privacy, however, users may be reluctant to buy a Facebook phone.

In any case, a Facebook phone certainly doesn’t seem like a necessity for the time being. Instead, focusing on ways to effectively monetize the hundreds of millions of users who interact with Facebook from a smartphone or tablet each month might be a wiser use of resources.

This article was originally published on BGR.com

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Chasing the Saturdays: First Look at the British Girl Group's U.S. Reality Show

From the Beatles in the '60s to the Spice Girls in the '90s and One Direction these days, American music fans have a long-running infatuation with British singing groups.

Now: meet The Saturdays!

The pop quintet – Rochelle Humes, Frankie Sandford, Mollie King, Vanessa White and Una Healy, who's Irish – are bringing their vivacious music and sexy dance moves to the U.S., and they're getting a boost from E!

Chasing the Saturdays, a new reality show on the network premiering Jan. 20, will follow the group's attempt to break into the U.S. market after their success at home.

"It's been our dream as a band since day one to actually come to America and try and break it," says Vanessa, the youngest member of the group, in a first look their series.

"It's a little bit like starting over for us," Frankie says.

"It's scary," adds Rochelle, "and a little bit daunting."

Their first U.S. single, "What About Us," featuring Sean Paul, is out now. The video is due out on Friday.

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Flu season has Boston declaring health emergency

BOSTON (AP) — Massachusetts public health officials are reporting 18 flu-related deaths in the state already this season, and Boston has declared a public health emergency.

A spokeswoman for Mayor Thomas Menino says the city is working with health care centers to offer free flu vaccines and also hopes to set up public locations where people can go for vaccinations. The city is reporting four flu-related deaths.

There have been about 700 confirmed cases of the flu in Boston so far this season, about 10 times more than in the same period last year.

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health says the state is one of many reporting above average flu hospitalization rates. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has warned of a harsh flu season, which usually peaks in midwinter.

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Wall Street edges up after Alcoa beats revenue estimates

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks edged higher on Wednesday after Alcoa got the earnings season under way with better-than-expected revenue and an encouraging outlook for the year.

The market's rise came after two-days of declines as there were few catalysts to give direction and investors fretted about the start of earnings season after the prior quarter's lackluster performance.

Alcoa Inc said late on Tuesday it expects global demand for aluminum to grow in 2013, though the company expressed concern about the impact on business from a confrontation in Washington over the U.S. budget. Shares of Alcoa, the largest U.S. aluminum producer, rose 0.5 percent to $9.15.

Profits were expected to beat the previous quarter's meager 0.1 percent rise. Both earnings and revenues in the fourth quarter were expected to grow by 1.9 percent, according to Thomson Reuters data.

But the lowered expectations leave room for companies to surprise investors even if their results aren't particularly strong, analysts said.

The current quarter was shaping up like the one before, with companies lowering expectations in recent weeks, James Dailey, portfolio manager of TEAM Asset Strategy Fund in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, said.

"So the big question and focus is on revenue, and Alcoa had better-than-expected revenue," calming the market a little, Dailey said.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> was up 73.35 points, or 0.55 percent, at 13,402.20. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> was up 5.16 points, or 0.35 percent, at 1,462.31. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> was up 14.83 points, or 0.48 percent, at 3,106.64.

Among other earnings, Constellation Brands , whose labels include Robert Mondavi and Ravenswood wines, reported higher profit and raised its earnings forecast. The stock was down 0.8 percent at $35.74.

Apollo Group Inc slid more than 11 percent after it reported lower student sign-ups for the third straight quarter and cut its operating profit outlook for 2013. Apollo's shares were last at $18.63.

Dish Network Corp late Tuesday announced a bid for Clearwire Corp that trumped Sprint Nextel Corp's $2.2 billion offer, setting the stage for a battle over the wireless service provider.

Dish Network shares were up 2.1 percent at $36.73. Clearwire was up 7.5 percent at $3.14, while Sprint lost 2 percent to $5.85.

Hard drive maker Seagate Technology rose 4.2 percent to $32.70 after it raised its second-quarter revenue forecast.

(Reporting By Angela Moon; Editing by Kenneth Barry)

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Chemical Weapons Showdown With Syria Led to Rare Accord

Muzaffar Salman/Reuters

The violence in Syria continued on Monday. Above, Syrians went to the aid of a man who was wounded when a missile hit the al-Mashhad district of Aleppo.

WASHINGTON — In the last days of November, Israel’s top military commanders called the Pentagon to discuss troubling intelligence that was showing up on satellite imagery: Syrian troops appeared to be mixing chemicals at two storage sites, probably the deadly nerve gas sarin, and filling dozens of 500-pounds bombs that could be loaded on airplanes.

Within hours President Obama was notified, and the alarm grew over the weekend, as the munitions were loaded onto vehicles near Syrian air bases. In briefings, administration officials were told that if Syria’s increasingly desperate president, Bashar al-Assad, ordered the weapons to be used, they could be airborne in less than two hours — too fast for the United States to act, in all likelihood.

What followed next, officials said, was a remarkable show of international cooperation over a civil war in which the United States, Arab states, Russia and China have almost never agreed on a common course of action.

The combination of a public warning by Mr. Obama and more sharply worded private messages sent to the Syrian leader and his military commanders through Russia and others, including Iraq, Turkey and possibly Jordan, stopped the chemical mixing and the bomb preparation. A week later Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta said the worst fears were over — for the time being.

But concern remains that Mr. Assad could now use the weapons produced that week at any moment. American and European officials say that while a crisis was averted in that week from late November to early December, they are by no means resting easy.

“I think the Russians understood this is the one thing that could get us to intervene in the war,” one senior defense official said last week. “What Assad understood, and whether that understanding changes if he gets cornered in the next few months, that’s anyone’s guess.”

While chemical weapons are technically considered a “weapon of mass destruction” — along with biological and nuclear weapons — in fact they are hard to use and hard to deliver. Whether an attack is effective can depend on the winds and the terrain. Sometimes attacks are hard to detect, even after the fact. Syrian forces could employ them in a village or a neighborhood, some officials say, and it would take time for the outside world to know.

But the scare a month ago has renewed debate about whether the West should help the Syrian opposition destroy Mr. Assad’s air force, which he would need to deliver those 500-pound bombs.

The chemical munitions are still in storage areas that are near or on Syrian air bases, ready for deployment on short notice, officials said.

The Obama administration and other governments have said little in public about the chemical weapons movements, in part because of concern about compromising sources of intelligence about the activities of Mr. Assad’s forces. This account is based on interviews with more than half a dozen military, intelligence and diplomatic officials, all of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the intelligence matters involved.

The head of Germany’s foreign intelligence service, the BND, warned in a confidential assessment last month that the weapons could now be deployed four to six hours after orders were issued, and that Mr. Assad had a special adviser at his side who oversaw control of the weapons, the German newsmagazine Der Spiegel reported. Some American and other allied officials, however, said in interviews that the sarin-laden bombs could be loaded on planes and airborne in less than two hours.

“Let’s just say right now, it would be a relatively easy thing to load this quickly onto aircraft,” said one Western diplomat.

How the United States and Israel, along with Arab states, would respond remains a mystery. American and allied officials have talked vaguely of having developed “contingency plans” in case they decided to intervene in an effort to neutralize the chemical weapons, a task that the Pentagon estimates would require upward of 75,000 troops. But there have been no evident signs of preparations for any such effort.

The United States military has quietly sent a task force of more than 150 planners and other specialists to Jordan to help the armed forces there, among other things, prepare for the possibility that Syria will lose control of its chemical weapons.

Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, was reported to have traveled to Jordan in recent weeks, and the Israeli news media have said the topic of discussion was how to deal with Syrian weapons if it appeared that they could be transferred to Lebanon, where Hezbollah could lob them over the border to Israel. But the plans, to the extent they exist, remain secret.

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Target to match some rivals’ online prices year-round

(Reuters) – Target Corp said on Tuesday it will match on a year-round basis the prices found on the websites of key rivals Amazon.com Inc, Best Buy Co Inc, Wal-Mart Stores Inc and Toys R Us, its latest tactic to hold onto shoppers focused on price.

The move extends an online price-matching program that Target introduced over the holiday season and which was supposed to last only from November 1 to December 16. It also comes after Target last week reported flat sales growth in December at stores open at least a year.

In November Chief Executive Gregg Steinhafel said the retailer was not seeing a lot of price-match activity in its stores.

While shopping online has grown rapidly in recent years, it still represents a small fraction of overall shopping in the United States. Target’s policy of matching online prices differs from policies at several chains, which match only printed advertised prices for items sold at stores.

Target said that throughout the year it will match the price when a customer buys an eligible item at one of its stores and finds the same item at a lower price in the following week’s Target circular or in a local competitor’s printed ad. It will also match the price if the customer finds the same item at a lower price within a week on Target’s website or the websites of Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy and Toys R Us.

Amazon says it offers competitive prices and does not offer price matching when an item’s price drops after a customer buys it, with the exception of televisions. Walmart matches the prices of print ads from competitors. Walmart also says it checks the prices of 30,000 items at competing chains each week to make sure it has the lowest prices.

Best Buy matches the price from a local competitor’s store, a local Best Buy store or its own web site. Toys R Us matches in-store prices and certain online prices.

(Reporting By Jessica Wohl in Chicago and Phil Wahba in New York; Editing by Alden Bentley and John Wallace)

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Alison Sweeney Blogs: 'Oh, Dreaded Week Two' on The Biggest Loser

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By Alison Sweeney

01/08/2013 at 12:00 PM EST

Oh, dreaded week two! Emotions run high and numbers are typically low at the second weigh-in on The Biggest Loser. Never ones to keep things the same from season to season, it seemed like the prefect time to introduce the outdoor gyms created by each of the trainers.

Dolvett's dungeon pushed his team, but nothing compared to Jillian's gym ... or to Jillian's frustration with her team. As I watched the workout, I felt for Danni and Pam. Jillian's tenacity and relentlessness was hard to watch. I thought their conversation the next day was really important – and not just for each of them as individuals but for the audience, as well, to help us understand why Jillian fights so hard for, and how to not give up when the going gets tough.

I personally also love NFL week because of the incredible athletes that motivate our contestants. This season, eight-time NFL Pro Bowler Antonio Gates didn't disappoint. The best part of the challenge was the kids being reunited with their teams and how encouraging everyone was with each other. I loved every aspect of the challenge – I thought it did equalize everything, giving each team a chance at the prize. And yet the white team has now won back-to-back challenges!

It was so fun to see Bob teasing Gina. "This is not the Biggest Loser Resort & Spa!" he told her. He cracks me up! And WOW, what a change from Jillian in the last chance work out with Pam! I was so impressed! She had the conversation with them, followed through on her end of the bargain, and so did Pam. When Jill told me about it at the weigh-in I was shocked, but to watch it in the context of the show ... I was moved.

Those kid statistics in the Biggest Loser Fitness test are so important. As Dolvett said, "We are responsible. We have to do something." It's such a great idea to get kids motivated and taking those first steps. Remember that test – it definitely comes back into play later in the season!

The hardest part for all of us was in losing Nate. He and TC were both such strong influences in the house and worked so hard. They deserved every second on the Ranch and so much more time. But the changes Jillian made with them in a short time will hopefully last a long and healthy lifetime.

Favorite moment of the week: when Jillian was confronting Pam and she accidentally (Freudian slip?) said "bear claw" instead of "bear CRAWL." I loved the way it broke the tension, the way they both took a moment and laughed about it. I would never admit to Jill I know the name of any donut. Lol! It was a great moment.

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Report: Death rates from cancer still inching down

WASHINGTON (AP) — Death rates from cancer are continuing to inch down, researchers reported Monday.

Now the question is how to hold onto those gains, and do even better, even as the population gets older and fatter, both risks for developing cancer.

"There has been clear progress," said Dr. Otis Brawley of the American Cancer Society, which compiled the annual cancer report with government and cancer advocacy groups.

But bad diets, lack of physical activity and obesity together wield "incredible forces against this decline in mortality," Brawley said. He warned that over the next decade, that trio could surpass tobacco as the leading cause of cancer in the U.S.

Overall, deaths from cancer began slowly dropping in the 1990s, and Monday's report shows the trend holding. Among men, cancer death rates dropped by 1.8 percent a year between 2000 and 2009, and by 1.4 percent a year among women. The drops are thanks mostly to gains against some of the leading types — lung, colorectal, breast and prostate cancers — because of treatment advances and better screening.

The news isn't all good. Deaths still are rising for certain cancer types including liver, pancreatic and, among men, melanoma, the most serious kind of skin cancer.

Preventing cancer is better than treating it, but when it comes to new cases of cancer, the picture is more complicated.

Cancer incidence is dropping slightly among men, by just over half a percent a year, said the report published by the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Prostate, lung and colorectal cancers all saw declines.

But for women, earlier drops have leveled off, the report found. That may be due in part to breast cancer. There were decreases in new breast cancer cases about a decade ago, as many women quit using hormone therapy after menopause. Since then, overall breast cancer incidence has plateaued, and rates have increased among black women.

Another problem area: Oral and anal cancers caused by HPV, the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus, are on the rise among both genders. HPV is better known for causing cervical cancer, and a protective vaccine is available. Government figures show just 32 percent of teen girls have received all three doses, fewer than in Canada, Britain and Australia. The vaccine was recommended for U.S. boys about a year ago.

Among children, overall cancer death rates are dropping by 1.8 percent a year, but incidence is continuing to increase by just over half a percent a year. Brawley said it's not clear why.

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Wall Street loses ground as earnings season starts

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks fell on Tuesday as the market consolidated from last week's rally on the "fiscal cliff" deal in Congress and investors awaited the start of the earnings season with lowered expectations.

Profits in the fourth quarter are seen above the previous quarter's lackluster results, but analysts' current estimates are down sharply from where they were in October. Quarterly earnings are expected to grow by 2.7 percent, according to Thomson Reuters data.

The benchmark S&P index has fallen 0.7 percent in the wake of the 4.3 percent jump in the two days surrounding the conclusion of the fiscal cliff debate, and investors have found few catalysts to extend the brief rally.

"The path of least resistance at the moment is lower just because we had that explosion to the upside after (the debate) in Washington," said Ken Polcari, director of the NYSE floor division at O'Neil Securities in New York.

"People are concerned about earnings," Polcari said, adding that other worries include raising the federal debt ceiling and automatic spending cuts set to take effect in weeks unless Congress acts.

"You are going to get this kind of apathetic market until we start to see what earnings look like," he said.

In Tuesday's results, Monsanto Co shares rose 2.6 percent to $98.46 after hitting a more than four-year high at $99.99. The world's largest seed company raised its earnings outlook for fiscal 2013 and posted strong first-quarter results.

Education provider Apollo Group and Dow component Alcoa Inc , the largest U.S. aluminum producer, round out the start of earnings season after the closing bell.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> dropped 66.38 points, or 0.50 percent, to 13,317.91. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> lost 7.88 points, or 0.54 percent, to 1,454.01. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> shed 17.31 points, or 0.56 percent, to 3,081.51.

AT&T Inc , which fell 1.8 percent to $34.30, was the biggest drag on the S&P 500 after the company said it had sold more than 10 million smartphones in the quarter, topping the same quarter in 2011 but also increasing costs for the wireless service provider.

Providers like AT&T pay hefty subsidies to handset makers so that they can offer device discounts to customers who commit to two-year contracts. Rival Verizon Wireless said on Monday it had its strongest fourth quarter ever.

The S&P telecom services index <.gspl>, down 2.8 percent, was the worst performing of the 10 major S&P sectors.

Shares of restaurant-chain operator Yum Brands Inc fell 4.5 percent to $64.82 a day after the KFC parent warned sales in China, its largest market, shrank more than expected in the fourth quarter.

Sears Holdings shares slumped 5.4 percent to $40.59 a day after the company said Chairman Edward Lampert would take over as CEO from Louis D'Ambrosio, who is stepping down due to a family member's health issue. The U.S. retailer also reported a 1.8 percent decline in quarter-to-date sales at stores open at least a year.

GameStop shares dropped 4.8 percent to $23.57 as the worst performer on the S&P 500 after the video game retailer reported sales for the holiday season and cut its guidance.

(Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by Kenneth Barry)

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With Eye on China, Japan Weighs Raising Military Spending

TOKYO — Japan’s new conservative government announced a review of national military strategy on Monday that analysts said was aimed at offsetting China’s growing military power and that may increase defense spending for the first time in a decade.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe ordered his government to replace the nation’s five-year military spending plan and to review defense guidelines adopted in 2010 by the left-leaning Democratic Party, which his party defeated in elections last month. Those guidelines called for gradual reductions in defense spending, and also in the size of Japan’s military, particularly in the number of tanks and infantry members.

Mr. Abe had promised during the election campaign to strengthen the military to defend Japan’s control of islands in the East China Sea that are also claimed by China.

Mr. Abe did not release details of his intent on the military revisions, but news reports said the replacement plan would probably reverse the Democrats’ cuts, starting with a 120 billion yen, or $1.4 billion, increase in the military budget in the 2013 fiscal year, which begins in April. That would be the first increase in Japanese military spending since 2002, as the nation has tightened its belt during a long economic decline.

The reports said the new spending plan, proposed by members of Mr. Abe’s governing Liberal Democratic Party, would seek to increase the number of ground troops, strengthen air and sea defenses around the disputed islands, and buy new early-warning aircraft to guard against Chinese intrusions near the islands, as well as missile launchings by North Korea.

The reports said the plan could also include financing for a feasibility study on acquiring Osprey aircraft, American vertical-takeoff transport planes whose introduction last year to a Marine airfield on Okinawa set off protests. The Osprey can fly farther and faster than Japan’s current helicopters, allowing its troops to more easily reach the disputed islands, known as the Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China.

Despite a decade of defense cuts, analysts said Japan last year had the world’s sixth-largest military budget, spending 4.65 trillion yen, or $5.3 billion, on defense. Japan has one of the largest and most advanced militaries in Asia, though it has kept a low profile to avoid stirring bitter memories of its early-20th-century empire building.

Mr. Abe’s efforts to raise Japan’s military profile in the region are intended not only to bolster his nation’s declining influence, but also to help an economically ailing ally, the United States, counter China’s rising military prowess.

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