Soccer-Corinthians taking European style to Club World Cup

Dec 11 (Reuters) - The Corinthians side that will feature in the Club World Cup in Tokyo on Wednesday has the ammunition to ambush European champions Chelsea if the two teams get through to Sunday's final as expected.

The Brazilians won South America's version of the Champions League at a relative canter in July, going unbeaten for 14 Libertadores Cup games and conceding just four goals.

Corinthians play a dour but effective European-style pressing game and their biggest plus is the club's long-held mantra of putting teamwork and hard graft ahead of individual brilliance.

"It's one of the real strengths of this team," coach Tite told FIFA.com ahead of Wednesday's semi-final against Egypt's Al-Ahly. "If you have a group of players that only look out for themselves, that's the first step towards failure.

"But playing as a team doesn't mean that players won't stand out. They understand that by all pulling together they'll create a winning team that'll give everyone a chance to shine."

Chelsea's expensive collection of international players meet Monterrey of Mexico in the other semi-final on Thursday.

The laconic Tite has strengthened his Corinthians squad since leading them to their first Libertadores title.

The coach lost Leandro Castan to AS Roma and Alex to Al-Gharafa of Qatar but made up for that by signing Peruvian Jose Paulo Guerrero from Hamburg SV, Jose Manuel Martinez from Argentines Velez Sarsfield and midfielder Guilherme from hometown rivals Portuguesa.

Young striker Romarinho has established himself as a regular while Paulinho and Ralf have been commanding enough in midfield to win regular berths with Brazil.

Goalkeeper Cassio and full back Fabio Santos have also earned callups to the national team.
OCEAN OF STABILITY

In addition Corinthians can count on the return of Emerson Sheik. The much-travelled striker was inspirational in the Libertadores Cup, scoring three of their five goals in the semi-finals and final.

He has missed most of the season through injury and suspension but is now fully fit and should start against Al-Ahly.

While Chelsea have just hired Rafael Benitez on an interim basis, the London club's third coach in nine months, Corinthians are a relative ocean of stability.

The Brazilians have had the same coach for two years, an unusually long time in a nation where volatility and fireworks are not limited to the terraces.

"(Corinthians) have been more European than the English," said Luiz Fernando Gomes, columnist with Brazilian sports newspaper Lance. "Organisation on and off the pitch is the order of the day."

The Brazilians are treating the Club World Cup seriously, with an estimated 15,000 fans seeing them off at the airport last week and a similar number likely to travel to roar on their side in Japan.

If Corinthians win the competition it will be the 10th time a Brazilian side has lifted the trophy since it was first played in 1960.

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UPDATE 2-Soccer-Ligue 1 summaries

Dec 11 (Infostrada Sports) - Summaries from the Ligue 1 matches on Tuesday

Lille 2 Marko Basa 55, Dimitri Payet 83

Toulouse 0

Halftime: 0-0; Attendance: 35,264

- - -

Nice 1 Dario Cvitanich 66pen

Stade Rennes 0

Red Card: Jean-Armel Kana-Biyik 53, Yassine Jebbour 65

Halftime: 0-0; Attendance: 8,057

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UPDATE 2-Soccer-Ligue 1 summaries

Dec 11 (Infostrada Sports) - Summaries from the Ligue 1 matches on Tuesday

Lille 2 Marko Basa 55, Dimitri Payet 83

Toulouse 0

Halftime: 0-0; Attendance: 35,264

- - -

Nice 1 Dario Cvitanich 66pen

Stade Rennes 0

Red Card: Jean-Armel Kana-Biyik 53, Yassine Jebbour 65

Halftime: 0-0; Attendance: 8,057

- - -

Valenciennes 0

Paris St Germain 4 Zlatan Ibrahimovic 28,49,54, Ezequiel Lavezzi 82

Halftime: 0-1; Attendance: 23,021

- - -

Next Fixtures (GMT):

Wednesday, December 12

Ajaccio v Stade de Reims (1800)

Evian Thonon Gaillard FC v ES Troyes AC (1800)

FC Lorient v Sochaux (1800)

Olympique Lyon v AS Nancy (1800)

Stade Brest v Montpellier HSC (1800)

Bastia v Olympique Marseille (2000)

Thursday, December 13

Girondins Bordeaux v St Etienne (2000)

Friday, December 14

Stade Rennes v Valenciennes (1945)

Saturday, December 15

Toulouse v Olympique Marseille (1600)

ES Troyes AC v Ajaccio (1900)

Sochaux v Stade Brest (1900)

Montpellier HSC v Bastia (1900)

Nice v Evian Thonon Gaillard FC (1900)

Stade de Reims v Lille (1900)

Sunday, December 16

AS Nancy v Girondins Bordeaux (1300)

St Etienne v FC Lorient (1600)

Paris St Germain v Olympique Lyon (2000)

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Soccer-English League Cup 5th round summaries

Dec 11 (Infostrada Sports) - Summaries from the English League Cup 5th Round first leg matches on Tuesday

Bradford City (IV) 1 Garry Thompson 17

Arsenal 1 Thomas Vermaelen 88

Halftime: 1-0; Attendance: 23,971

- - -

Norwich City 1 Steve Morison 19

Aston Villa 4 Brett Holman 21, Andreas Weimann 78,83, Christian Benteke 90

Halftime: 1-1; Attendance: 26,142

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UPDATE 1-Soccer-English League Cup 5th round results

Dec 11 (Infostrada Sports) - Results from the English League Cup 5th Round first leg matches on Tuesday

5th Round

Tuesday, December 11

Bradford City (IV) - Arsenal 1-1 (halftime: 1-0, 90 mins: 1-1, penalty shootout: 3-2)

Bradford City win 3-2 on penalties.

Norwich City - Aston Villa 1-4 (halftime: 1-1)

Next Fixtures (GMT):

Wednesday, December 12

Swansea City v Middlesbrough (II) (1945)

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RIM offers biggest clients incentives to adopt BB10

TORONTO (Reuters) - Research In Motion Ltd on Thursday outlined a program of incentives to encourage its biggest customers to run its soon-to-launch line of BlackBerry 10 devices, seeking to persuade corporations and government users to stick with its secure smartphones.

RIM is betting that the devices, to be launched on January 30, will revive its fortunes. That will depend to a large extent on the response from RIM's enterprise customers -- the business users who value BlackBerry's strong security features.

Waterloo, Ontario-based RIM, once a smartphone pioneer, has bled market share to Apple Inc's iPhone and devices powered by Google's market-leading Android operating system, even among the business customers who once used BlackBerry exclusively.

RIM says its new devices will be faster and smoother than previous BlackBerry phones and will have a large catalog of apps, which are crucial to the success of any new line of smartphones.

It now plans to phase in a BlackBerry 10 Ready Program for enterprise customers, initially offering online training and webcasts, and then providing free trade-ups of licenses and services.

"We will be aggressively reaching out to our customers to make sure they are aware of this program," said Bryan Lee, senior director of enterprise at RIM. "We see this as really the linchpin for helping our customers to transition to BB10."

Early adoption of BlackBerry 10 by government and corporate clients will go a long way in easing the concerns of both RIM's clients and investors. Many fear that a lackluster market reception to BB10 could seal RIM's fate.

RIM, which does not say what percentage of its business comes from the enterprise customers, said its online training and webcast series are already in place. Trade-ups, including free upgrades on the licenses for BB10 operating system, will be available ahead of the January 30 launch.

Evercore Partners analyst Mark McKechnie said RIM's step-by-step program to woo enterprise customers was a positive move, though it highlights the challenges RIM faces.

"We are encouraged with an 'all out' marketing campaign with the right incentives to motivate enterprises to upgrade," he said in a note to clients. "Our take is that this will remove a roadblock for those already planning to upgrade, but likely won't push too many who prefer to wait."

McKechnie, who has an "equal-weight" rating on RIM's stock, said the move is unlikely to tempt back customers who have already abandoned the BlackBerry in favor of iPhones and Android devices. RIM offers support for the rival devices, but needs corporates to update to Blackberry Enterprise Service 10 so they can power and run BB10 devices on their networks.

BB10 READY

RIM's Lee said he sees tremendous excitement from enterprise customers who want to use the new platform, but he would not speculate on how many would be ready to transition to the new platform come launch day.

RIM said last month that its BlackBerry Enterprise Server 10, which runs the devices on corporate networks, is in beta testing with around 20 key government agencies and corporates.

Feedback on the BB10 devices and platform has been largely positive from both carriers and developers. Financial analysts remain divided.

Some have upgraded their ratings and targets on RIM's share price in anticipation of a successful launch of BB10, while others believe the new platform has little chance of succeeding.

TD Securities analyst Scott Penner on Wednesday raised his price target on RIM to $12 from $9.50, but said RIM still faces significant hurdles.

RIM's stock has surged over the last two months from multi-year lows around $6 as the launch date for the new devices nears. The stock is still more than 90 percent below the 2008 all-time high around $148.

The latest TSX data indicates that short positions in RIM shares have fallen dramatically in the last two weeks. The total short positions in RIM, a bet that the stock price will fall, on the TSX fell to 15.2 million as of November 30, down from 20.6 million in the prior two weeks.

RIM shares slipped 0.4 percent to $11.89 on the Nasdaq on Thursday. The Toronto-listed shares ended down 0.3 percent at C$11.81.

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Windows Phone shipments could surge by 150% in 2013

2013 might go down as the year that Windows Phone finally hits the mainstream. A new study from Digitimes Research predicts Microsoft (MSFT) is expected to see the highest increase in shipments among all mobile device operating systems next year as Windows Phone devices, including both Windows Phone 7 and Windows Phone 8 models, will see shipments increase 150% to 52.5 million units, good for a 6.1% share of the smartphone market. The firm also predicts that Google’s (GOOG) Android  operating system is expected to “solidify its market leadership” in the mobile space in the upcoming year.  With continued support from a wide-range of smartphone vendors and higher sales in emerging markets, the platform could see shipments top 600 million units, or 70% of the market, for the first time. Apple (AAPL) is once again expected to take second place with its iPhone accounting for 20% of all smartphone shipments, while Research in Motion’s (RIMM) BlackBerry devices are expected to only account for a 3.7% share.

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iPhone 5′s lack of NFC called ‘a serious blow for the technology’

Phil Schiller, Apple’s (AAPL) senior vice president of worldwide marketing has said before that the iPhone 5 doesn’t have NFC because “it’s not clear that NFC is the solution to any current problem.” While most Android smartphones happily tout that NFC’s wireless capabilities are the future of mobile payments, Juniper Research analyst Dr. Windsor Holden  wrote in his latest report that NFC growth will slow from the previously forecasted $180 billion industry by 2017 to $110 billion. Holden pins his projections for NFC’s slower growth on Apple’s failure to include NFC in its iPhone 5. He says the company’s decision is “a serious blow for the technology” and that it will be “even more difficult to persuade consumers – and retailers – to embrace what amounts to a wholly new means of payment.” Juniper Research is projecting that North America and Western Europe will have a “two-year lag” in growth based on the lower rate of NFC adoption in point of sale systems.

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Apple and Samsung return to court to battle over $1 billion verdict

Samsung (005930) and Apple (AAPL) on Thursday return to a San Jose, California courtroom to once again square off in front of U.S. District Court Judge Lucy Koh regarding an earlier ruling from August, the Wall Street Journal reported. The South Korean vendor is looking to have the federal judge throw out or soften the $1.05 billion in damages it was hit with for infringing upon Apple’s protected technology earlier this year. At the same time, however, Apple is seeking an additional $535 million and is looking to ban 26 infringing Samsung products from being sold in the U.S. Apple recently made peace with HTC through a 10 year patent licensing agreement, which Samsung argues shows that the iPhone-maker is willing to settle and an injunction against its devices is not necessary. Judge Koh  can rule on any of the arguments before, during or after the hearing, although both companies are expected to appeal an unsatisfying decision and keep the battle going for many years to come.

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The best smartphones of 2012: Sprint

Sprint (S) is featured in the third installment of our series and while it doesn’t sell quite as many smartphones as its rivals Verizon Wireless (VZ) and AT&T (T), it offers smartphone users something the big-two do not: Truly unlimited data with no caps and no throttling. That unlimited data is somewhat slow in most parts of the country since Sprint’s  LTE network is in its infancy, but the carrier still had a great smartphone lineup for subscribers in 2012. Sprint’s newest addition to its flagship brand — the HTC (2498) EVO 4G LTE  — didn’t make the cut this year along with a few other phones that came close, but the five handsets listed below were our clear stand-outs for 2012.
Samsung Galaxy S III ($199.99+)

Samsung (005930) has taken a lot of heat over the past year following countless allegations that it is ripping off Apple’s (AAPL) hardware and software designs. Some agree and some do not but the fact of the matter is that Samsung has a formula that works.

The company’s flagship smartphone for 2012 is the Galaxy S III, and it became Samsung’s most successful smartphone ever for good reason: A sleek design, cutting-edge components and a giant, beautiful display combine to form an overall user experience that smartphone users just can’t get enough of.

Highlights include a 4.8-inch 720 x 1,280-pixel Super AMOLED screen, a quad-core 1.4GHz processor, up to 64GB of internal storage, microSDXC support, an 8-megapixel camera and a suite of great Samsung services mixed into Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.

The Galaxy S III was first unveiled in May but even now, more than seven months later, it’s still one of the best smartphones on the market.
iPhone 5 ($199.99+)

Apple’s iPhone 5 has already made two appearances on our best-of lists, and now it’s back for a third mention.

Including the fastest-selling smartphone in history on a list like this is considered a no-brainer by many, but Apple’s latest smartphone has plenty more going for it than just sales.

It’s easily one of the most solid smartphones that has ever been produced in terms of build and materials, the design is arguably the sleekest on the market, and iOS 6 offers one of the most refined and comprehensive mobile experiences available. And while several smartphones make the iPhone 5 look puny on paper, specs are a small part of a much bigger picture — independent tests performed by PC Magazine earlier this year found Apple’s latest iPhone to be “the fastest smartphone in the land.”

Apple is bound to top the iPhone 5 when it launches the handset’s successor next year but for the time being, this phone is definitely one of the best in the business.
LG Optimus G ($199.99)

If you had told me last year that I would be naming an LG (066570) smartphone as one of the best smartphones of 2012 — for the second time — I definitely wouldn’t have believed you.

It’s not that LG makes bad phones — far from it. LG’s smartphones have never really been anything to write home about though, trumped time and time again by offerings from the likes of Samsung, HTC and Apple. In 2012, however, all that changed.

The LG Optimus G is without question one of the most impressive smartphones that launched in 2012. On paper, it’s a beast thanks to its 1.5GHz quad-core processor, 2GB of RAM, 4.7-inch 768 x 1,280 display, 8- or 13-megapixel camera (Sprint’s version has the 13-megapixel version) and 32GB of storage. Where some well-spec’d phones fall short in the real world, LG’s Optimus G shines with lightning-fast performance, an extensive feature set and a gorgeous and unique Optimus user interface.

I will say that I prefer the styling of AT&T’s version of this phone as opposed to Sprint’s, but the Optimus G is still one of the best smartphones Sprint has ever offered.
Samsung Galaxy Note II ($299.99)

Sure I call it “smartphoneasaurus” behind closed doors, but Samsung’s Galaxy Note II was still one of the best smartphones to hit Sprint this year.

The phone’s 151.1-millimeter height and 80.5-millimeter width make it one of the least pocketable handsets on the planet, but the brilliant 5.5-inch HD Super AMOLED screen makes the phone’s massive size well worth for many users. In fact, Samsung has sold more than 5 million Note IIs to date, making it one of the company’s fast-selling phones yet.

Packed within the Note II’s monstrous case lies a 1.6GHz quad-core processor, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, microSDXC support (up to 64GB), an 8-megapixel camera and Samsung’s TouchWiz software. The Galaxy Note II also ships with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean so users have access to great new features like Google Now.

“Phablets” certainly aren’t for everyone and the $300 price tag is a tall order, but those looking for a supersized smartphone should look no further.
Samsung Galaxy Nexus (free)

Can a smartphone that launched in 2011 be named one of the best smartphones of 2012? Why yes, yes it can.

While it’s true that the Galaxy Nexus was first released by a U.S. carrier in December 2011, Sprint didn’t pick up this pure Google (GOOG) phone until the end of April 2012. And while Google has already launched another Nexus phone, the Galaxy Nexus can definitely still hold its own despite its age.

Beyond the gorgeous curved display and sleek case, the Galaxy Nexus brings users a pure Android experience exactly as Google intended it. It also runs Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, which was found on less than 3% of all Android devices as of November.

Power users may want to look elsewhere since the phone isn’t cutting edge, but with 32GB of storage, a high-definition 720p display, a 1.2GHz dual-core processor and an 1,850 mAh battery, the Galaxy Nexus can still keep pace with most Android phones out there. And the best part? Sprint is offering the Galaxy Nexus online for free on contract right now, and the promo code BATTERY1 gets you a free extended battery and replacement battery door as well.

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