Economic CUV practical but fun

When the all-new 2013 Subaru Crosstrek rolled up, I looked forward to kicking its tires and thought this could be a nifty replacement for the Outback Sport.

It's better.

I found the new Crosstrek to be an easy- and fun-to-drive CUV that got fantastic gas mileage, nearly 30 mpg on average, yet still had a feisty temperament that didn't mind some rough and tumble driving.

The car at its core is an Impreza hatchback sharing the 148-horsepower, 2.0-liter Boxer engine and CVT transmission, but it's hardier.

The wider, taller body provides a spacious five-passenger cabin, and with the rear seats down, a large cargo area, and the beefed-up suspension is up to the task of absorbing in-town rumble and light off-roading.

The engine is torquey and responds well under acceleration although the CVT gearing could be re-engineered to maintain more power through the middle gears. Like the Impreza it gets whiny in the those gears, losing some of the torque, but once at highway speed the car was very confident and happily flows with traffic. The all-wheel-drive steering is nimble and the Crosstrek refreshingly darts through traffic and around corners as the power is meted out to the wheels as needed.

The reinforced framework is more substantial than the Impreza and it's outfitted with oversized brakes. Riding almost nine inches off the ground on 17-inch blacked-out alloy wheels with flared fenders, the Crosstrek strikes a bit of a macho profile. In fact, if you squint, it resembles the last-generation Outback. The driver sits very tall in the cockpit and hopping in and out is quite easy.

The interior is simply appointed, but well-constructed. The fit and finish are polished and the ride is comfortable and fairly quiet. Conversations on the Bluetooth-connected phone are clear and not drowned out by road noise. Subaru has updated the infotainment center, but it may be the weakest element of the cabin. It's quite small and the dark screen is a strain to see.

The XV Premium trim, one of two available, starts at $22,995 and comes well-equipped with Bluetooth, power options, heated seats and mirrors and tinted glass. We had the $2,000 Navigation and Moonroof package added on for a total of $25,790. The base Limited starts at $25,000 and adds leather, an upgraded Bose stereo and the Navigation and Moonroof package are standard. As with all Subarus, there's an endless list of options to dress your car up so although you can get a nicely appointed one for a competitive price, it can add up quickly with adornments. Unless you really want leather seats, stick with the tester combination for the best sticker value.

Weigh this against the Mini Cooper Countryman, Mazda 5, Nissan Juke and I think you'll find the Crosstrek to be a great value and a very intriguing CUV.

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Job news boosts markets

A largely positive U.S. jobs report sent the stock market soaring as the Dow Jones industrial average traded above 15,000 for the first time before closing just below the mark and the broader Standard & Poor's 500 index closed at a record 1,614.

"The Dow was at 14,000 in March. It's more than doubled since early 2009," said Paul Edelstein of IHS Global Insight.

"Investors seem to have more confidence," Alan Clayton-Matthews, an associate professor of economics and public policy at Northeastern University, told the Herald. "And the Federal Reserve made interest rates so low that if you put your savings in the bank, it won't earn much. The only place to put (your savings) is in commodities like gold or equities like stock. It seems like a pretty safe bet because businesses are doing well and profits are high."

The nation added 165,000 jobs in April, with increases reported in professional and business services, food services and drinking establishments, retail trade and health care, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

"It's an improvement from what many people were expecting," said Eric Rosengren, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. "I'd still like to see better improvement than what we've seen to date."

The number of unemployed Americans last month — 11.7 million, or
 7.5 percent of the work force — ticked down a tenth of a percent from March and has declined by 673,000, or 
0.4 percent, since January.

Another bright spot: Due to revisions of earlier estimates, employment gains in February and March combined were 114,000 higher than previously reported, federal data shows. Also, the number of people not looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them decreased by 133,000 from a year earlier to 835,000 last month.

"Overall, April's job report was consistent with the stubbornly slow pace of economic growth the nation has been experiencing this year, but with a few silver linings," said Michael D. Goodman, associate professor and public policy department chairman at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. "These include strong upward revisions to the February and March data that suggest that the employment recovery is continuing, albeit not fast enough to be much consolation for the more than 4 million American workers who have been unemployed for over 26 weeks."

And the jobs people are getting may not be the ones they want. The number of involuntary part-time workers, for example, increased in April by 278,000 to 
7.9 million, largely offsetting a decrease in March.

Ira Kantor contributed to this report.

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Luxury rises to top 
at penthouse condo

Plagued by slow sales upon its completion in 2009, 45 Province St. is benefiting from the hot real estate market and is now building out some spectacular penthouse condos with fantastic views of downtown, the harbor, Back Bay and Cambridge.

While it was a big risk to build a high-end 137-unit condo building in an untested midtown location just off Downtown Crossing, the quick sales at nearby Millennium Place and the resuscitation of the Millennium Tower project on the site of the former Filene's have really given 45 Province a boost. Last year, 41 of the condos in the building were sold, and in the past few months, several units priced from $3.5 million to $4 million have found buyers. There are only 25 units left for sale in the building, from a 1,300-square-foot loft for $975,000 to a 2,741-square-foot, three-bedroom-plus penthouse on the 31st floor that's under construction and will be listed for $4.5 million.

We took a look at a recently built-out duplex penthouse condo, Unit 2404, a three-bedroom-plus unit with its own 500-square-foot outdoor roof deck that arguably has the most spectacular residential views along the Back Bay and Cambridge sides of the Charles River. This 3,319-square-foot condo, with custom Italian kitchen cabinetry, bamboo floors throughout and high-end porcelain tile bathrooms, is on the market for $4.39 million.

A big selling point of 
45 Province, besides its downtown location, is that there are dozens of different floor plans because the building gets slimmer as it rises.

There's a large lobby tended by a 24/7 concierge.

Although the condo fees are high, they include two valet garage parking spaces, heating and central cooling and use of the building's 12th floor rooftop heated pool, a fitness and spa facility, a clubroom with a kitchen and a large movie theater room with a projection-screen TV.

Unit 2404 is on the 24th and 25th floors atop a setback that rises seven more slimmer stories. It sits at the end of a carpeted hallway with recessed doorways.

Off the foyer and adjacent to a half bathroom is the unit's signature space: a two-story open dining room with downtown views through a 20-foot high wall of glass plus a private balcony.

The adjacent custom kitchen features Italian-made walnut cabinets with frosted-glass cabinets above gray onyx counters. There's a separate onyx-topped island with a Miele five-burner gas stove, a built-in wine cooler and a fluted Zephyr hood above. There's also a stainless-steel Miele wall and convection oven and dishwasher and a large Sub- Zero refrigerator.

The living room has great city and harbor views from two walls of windows.

The condo's large master bedroom suite is at the rear of the 24th floor with spectacular views down the Charles River from a wall of windows. It features a large walk-in closet and an en-suite bathroom with porcelain tile floors with nickel insets. There's a crushed white glass double-sink vanity with Waterworks nickel fixtures. There's also a porcelain-tiled walk-in shower.

A glass-walled bamboo staircase leads up to a large open space on the 25th floor that can be used as a family room or home office and overlooks the dining area. It has glass doors leading out to a 500-square-foot private roof deck. The deck has jaw-dropping views down both sides of the Charles River.

There are also two smaller guest bedrooms, one with a private balcony, but both have en-suite porcelain tile bathrooms with Waterworks nickel fixtures. One bathroom has a porcelain walk-in shower, the other a whirlpool tub.

Broker: C. Wayne Lopez at 45 Province St. sales center at 617-742-0942.

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Obama wraps up Latin trip with an eye back home

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica — President Barack Obama, concluding a three-day visit to Mexico and Costa Rica, is cheering Mexican economic advances and pressing other Central American leaders to deal with poverty and security while reaching out to a politically powerful Latino audience back home.

Boosted by reassuring jobs numbers, Obama is calling for greater trade and economic cooperation with the U.S.'s southern neighbors, arguing that economic prosperity is the best antidote to drug and gang violence and, by extension, to the illegal immigration that the U.S. is seeking to control.

In his radio and Internet address Saturday, Obama also made the case that deepening economic ties with the Americas means more jobs in the United States.

"One of the best ways to grow our economy is to sell more goods and services made in America to the rest of the world," he said. "That includes our neighbors to the south."

During the trip Obama has tried to modulate the exercise of U.S. influence. He has refused to insert himself in Mexico's strategy for confronting narcotrafficking, even if it means more limited access by U.S. security officials to Mexican law enforcement. In Costa Rica, he urged Central American leaders to integrate their economies, reduce their high energy costs and confront the violence in the region.

"As governments, our job is to make sure that we're doing everything we can to provide security and opportunity and ladders for success and prosperity for our people," he told the regional leaders at the start of a dinner Friday. "Economic growth that creates jobs, security for people so that they can be safe in their own neighborhoods, and development that allows people to live in dignity."

On Saturday, Obama was scheduled to speak and takes questions at a meeting at a forum in San Jose on economic growth and development.

In addition to its economic aims, the trip served as a nod by Obama to the vast Hispanic population in the United States, which heavily supported him in the 2012 election and which retains strong family and cultural ties to Latin America.

"In fact," he said Friday in a speech aimed at young people in Mexico City, "without the strong support of Latinos, including so many Mexican Americans, I would not be standing today as president of the United States. That's the truth."

A theme during the trip was the U.S. effort to overhaul the nation's immigration laws, an issue of intense interest among Latinos in the United States and in Mexico and Central America.

The vast majority of the 11 million immigrants illegally in the U.S. are from Latin America, 6 million of them from Mexico alone. Obama supports legislation that would give those immigrants a path to U.S. citizenship and he told Univision in an interview aired Friday that he would not sign a bill that did not provide such a pathway. Republicans are demanding greater border security.

"The truth is, right now, our border with Mexico is more secure than it's been in years," he said in his radio address. "We've put more boots on that border than at any time in our history, and illegal crossings are down by nearly 80 percent from their peak in 2000."

The immigration legislation should be a compromise, he said, "which means that nobody got everything they wanted — including me."

As Congress debates immigration legislation, Obama's bullish — even overly rosy — depiction of Mexico's economic prospects were meant to convince the U.S. public and lawmakers that Mexico no longer poses the illegal immigration threat it once did.

"The long-term solution to the challenge of illegal immigration is a growing and prosperous Mexico that creates more jobs and opportunities for young people here," he said.

Mexico, Obama said, has lifted millions of people from poverty.

But while Mexico's economy has grown, it has yet to trickle down to average workers. Huge poverty rates held steady between late 2006 and 2010, the most recent year for which government statistics are available. Between 40 and 50 percent of the population of 112 million Mexicans live in poverty, earning less than $100 a month.

Even as he tried to keep the focus on the economy and immigration, Obama did not escape the issue of drugs and violence wracking the region. In the Costa Rican capital Friday, Obama said the U.S. and Latin America share "common effects and common responsibilities" for the troubles and argued to his dining companions Friday that his country has suffered from the drug epidemic as well.

"If you go to my hometown of Chicago, and you go to some neighborhoods, they're just as violent, if not more violent than some of the countries at this table — in part because of the pernicious influence of the drug trade," he said.

Drug-fueled violence remains an undeniable part of daily life in many parts of the region. Costa Rica has fared better than many of its neighbors, but it worries about spillover from nearby countries. Honduras, for example, now has the highest homicide rate in the world, with about 7,200 people murdered last year in the tiny nation of 8 million people, most in drug-related crime.

Obama acknowledged the role of U.S. demand for drugs and said his administration has spent $30 billion to reduce demand in recent years. But he acknowledged that the United States remains a "big market" and that "progress is sometimes slower than we'd like it to be."

Obama also could not avoid entanglements beyond the region. Questions about Syria dogged him and his aides during the trip. On Friday, he virtually ruled sending troops into the country torn by civil war, saying he did "not foresee a scenario" for sending U.S. soldiers into the country.

In the Republican address Saturday, North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory argued that Washington should learn from Republican governors on how to make government work efficiently. He said governors need Washington to give states more flexibility, independence and accountability and called on Obama to show more leadership.

___

Online:

Obama address: www.whitehouse.gov

GOP address: www.youtube.com/gopweeklyaddress

___

Follow Jim Kuhnhenn on Twitter: http://twitter.com/jkuhnhenn

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Casinos brace for impact of Internet gambling

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — With legal gambling now moving beyond the casinos and onto the Internet, the industry is bracing for the most far-reaching changes in its history.

A Las Vegas firm, Ultimate Gaming, on Tuesday became the first in the U.S. to offer online poker, restricting it, for now, to players in Nevada. New Jersey and Delaware also have legalized gambling over the Internet and expect to begin offering such bets by the end of this year.

And many inside and outside the industry say the recent position taken by the federal government that states are free to offer Internet gambling — as long as it doesn't involve sports betting — will lead many cash-hungry state governments to turn to the Web as a new source of tax revenue.

Ten other states have considered some form of Internet gambling so far this year, but none has legalized it yet. Efforts to pass a national law legalizing online poker have sputtered, leaving states free to pass laws as they see fit.

"It's no longer a question of if Internet gaming is coming; it's a question of when," said Frank Fahrenkopf, president of the American Gaming Association, the trade organization for the nation's commercial brick-and -mortar casinos. "Unless there is a federal bill passed, we are going to have the greatest expansion of legalized gambling in the United States. I don't think that's what anyone intended, but it is what we're seeing."

The brave new world for gambling brings with it a host of questions and concerns. Will letting people bet online result in fewer visits to casinos, and therefore fewer dealers, beverage servers and hotel and restaurant workers at the casinos? Will Internet bets create a new revenue stream from new players, or will it simply redirect money from gamblers who otherwise would have visited a casino, and might have eaten dinner and seen a show, as well? And will it create even more problem gamblers?

Michael Frawley is chief operating officer of The Atlantic Club Casino Hotel, perhaps the most endangered of Atlantic City's 12 casinos. A deal for it to be sold to the parent company of PokerStars, the world's largest online poker website, is up in the air. The Atlantic Club's owners said Wednesday the deal was dead, but PokerStars said the next day it still wants to salvage the purchase. It was not immediately clear whether the deal will ultimately get done.

Frawley said the Internet's vast reach could help double business at his casino, provided the right balance is struck between the online and physical gambling experiences for customers.

"If you go to the movies, you can watch one at home, or you can watch one in the theater," he said. "Both of them can be a great experience."

Regardless of whether PokerStars buys The Atlantic Club, Internet gambling is expected to take off in New Jersey before long. The Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa has said it is preparing to offer online gambling later this year, and Gary Loveman, CEO of Caesars Entertainment, has also said he expects his company's four Atlantic City casinos to grab a large share of New Jersey's online market.

Geoffrey Stewart is general manager of Caesars Online Poker. Parent company Caesars Entertainment's World Series of Poker brands, as well as its 37 casinos across the U.S., make it an early favorite to be a leader in online gambling. He said brick-and-mortar casinos such as Caesars Palace can use Internet play to complement their physical casinos.

"Someone comes to play with us online, we will be able to offer them seats to the real World Series of Poker, or offer them hotel rooms at Caesars Palace," he said. "Like any other business, you're always looking for what is the next distribution channel."

Not everyone in the industry is all-in, however.

The American Gaming Association conducted a study a few years ago on whether poker-only Internet gambling — which it supports — would cannibalize the existing brick-and-mortar casinos. The study determined that it would not. But when Internet gambling allows for casino games, such as in the bill recently adopted by New Jersey, the traditional casinos could suffer, Fahrenkopf said.

The most popular form of Internet gambling is online poker.

When the Justice Department charged executives of three online poker sites in April 2011 with conducting illegal transactions, it was a $6 billion a year industry. After the crackdown, it was largely on hiatus, because at the time, taking online bets from U.S. customers was illegal. But not long afterward, the U.S. Justice Department revised its stance, allowing states to take online bets so long as they didn't involve sporting events.

Eric Baldwin is a professional poker player who's eager to get back online again now that poker is once again available over the Net.

"The money's good when things are good," he said. On the other hand, he acknowledges, "Most people don't go to work for 12 hours, do their best and come home down a couple thousand dollars."

He plans to at least try out legalized Internet poker to see if the player pools are big enough to make it worthwhile.

Lawrence Vaughan, chief operating officer of South Point Poker, one of the first Nevada online licensees, said legalizing Internet poker removes the stigma some people had associated with it.

"You had to move money in shady ways around the world to even play online," he said. "Now it's the sort of thing your mom could sign up for."

Ultimate Gaming CEO Tobin Prior, whose firm started taking poker bets Tuesday in Nevada, added, "Players won't have to worry if their money is safe. They are going to be able to play with people they can trust and know the highest regulatory standards have been applied."

PokerStars, one of the parties charged in the 2011 crackdown that came to be known in the industry as "Black Friday," later bought Full Tilt Poker, another defendant, and reached a settlement with the federal government, paying $547 million to the Justice Department and $184 million to poker players overseas to settle a case alleging money laundering, bank fraud and illegal gambling. It admitted no wrongdoing and says it is in good standing with governments around the world.

Its parent company, The Rational Group, based on the Isle of Man in the U.K., would not say whether it plans to try to buy another casino or partner with one to gain entry into the U.S. online gambling market.

Introducing new players to poker over the Internet makes it less scary and potentially more popular, said David Schwartz, director of the Center for Gaming Research at the University of Nevada Las Vegas.

"It was mostly old guys with cigars," he said. "It was very intimidating to walk into a poker room and see a guy who's a thousand years old, smoking 10 packs of cigarettes a day, giving you dirty looks because you're taking the wrong card," he said. "What online poker did was let people get familiar with the game, feel a little bit of confidence and then they said, 'I want to go to Vegas and do the real thing.'"

Every week, it seems, a new study comes out touting the promise of Internet gambling for cash-strapped casinos and even more cash-strapped state governments.

Gambling Compliance, which tracks the online gambling industry, predicts Internet gambling in New Jersey will bring in nearly $262 million in its first year and nearly $463 million after four years. The group said that figure could go as high as $575 million after four years if online gambling takes off in New Jersey.

H2 Gambling Capital, a U.K. consultancy for the Internet gambling industry, predicts 17 states will have approved Internet gambling by 2017, led by New York, California, Florida, Illinois and New Jersey.

And Morgan Stanley predicts that by 2020, online gambling in the U.S. will produce the same amount of revenue as Las Vegas and Atlantic City markets combined bring in today: $9.3 billion.

Indian tribes are also moving to get into the online gold rush.

Two groups of tribes have already formed alliances to explore offering Internet gambling, and in April, the Cheyenne-Arapaho Tribe reached a deal with Oklahoma allowing the tribe to offer Internet gambling to customers outside the U.S. through its pokertribes.com web site. The Shoshone tribe in Nevada has a deal with an online company to offer similar Internet gambling to foreign customers in a venture that could go live in May.

States across the country are also turning to the Internet to boost sales of their lottery tickets. Twelve states have either approved or are considering selling lottery tickets online, and Georgia and Illinois are already doing it.

What types of games can be played for money online varies by state.

New Jersey will offer people within the state all the games patrons can play in physical casinos. Delaware will do the same, along with bingo. Nevada only offers poker. A proposed Internet betting law in Massachusetts would prohibit online slot machine games.

But in most cases, the games can be accessed through computers, portable tablet devices and smartphones — putting a casino or a card game within reach at 3 a.m. in the kitchen, in the middle of the day at the beach, or on a crowded commuter train.

With the Internet putting legal gambling directly into so many more hands, some are concerned about an increase in problem gambling, particularly when social media sites offer real-money gambling in the U.S., as some do already in other countries. Zynga, for instance, began taking real-money bets earlier this year in England, and its stock price jumped 15 percent in a day.

"Compulsive gambling is an impulse disease: you get an urge, you jump in your car and drive to Atlantic City or you call your bookie and then wait to see the result of the game you bet on," said Arnie Wexler, the former chairman of New Jersey's Council On Compulsive Gambling and himself a recovered problem gambler. "Now you have Internet gambling and you wake up in the middle of the night and in your birthday suit, you can blow a lot of money. I know one guy who lost $30,000 in one night of Internet gambling."

___

Associated Press writer Haven Daley in Las Vegas contributed to this report. Wayne Parry can be reached at http://twitter.com/WayneParryAC

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Outgoing Alibaba CEO Ma says he's 'old' for Web

SANTA MONICA, Calif. — Alibaba founder Jack Ma, the billionaire who has run the Chinese e-commerce giant since 1999, says he's getting "a bit old" for the Internet.

That's what the outgoing chief executive told a charitable event in Santa Monica Thursday as he pledged $5 million toward a China-based fund that supports environmental conservation projects outside China.

"I'm young for new things but I'm a bit old for the Internet," the 48-year-old said.

Ma's gift doubles the amount raised for the China Global Conservation Fund, an offshoot of the Arlington, Va.-based organization, The Nature Conservancy.

Ma steps down as CEO from Alibaba Group on May 10, ahead of a widely expected initial public offering of stock that could create a windfall for Yahoo Inc., which owns nearly a quarter of the company.

Ma said that he prepared for his retirement for the last nine years and is looking forward to working on philanthropic causes such as environmental conservation.

He said he was inspired to act after visiting his home in China six years ago. A lake he nearly drowned in as a boy had mostly dried up. He also spoke to a farmer who used chemicals on produce that he wouldn't feed his family. "I know something is wrong," Ma said.

Ma will chair the Chinese board overseeing the fund once he steps down as CEO.

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Price cuts are rare but out there

Home price reductions — get them while you still can!

The number of condos and single-family homes in the Bay State with price changes during the past month was 847, down 83 percent from the 4,975 properties with price reductions during the same period last year.

Here are a few Massachusetts properties that have seen recent price cuts.

On 87 Federal St. in Salem is a historic Colonial known as the Albert Goodhue House. Built in 1893, the home "is a fine example of Colonial Revival style, combining elements from Georgian Colonial and Federal vernaculars," said listing agent Kathleen Sullivan of RE/MAX Advantage Real Estate. Currently, the house — listed for $800,000, down from $925,000 — is a three-family with a magnificent two-level owner's unit and two rental units. The building has a number of historic details such as corner quoins, end Palladian windows, cornice dentil molding, round-arched dormers, an end bay window and five fireplaces.

Originally listed for $829,000, Unit 1 at 191 Beacon St. in Back Bay has been reduced to $799,000. The 1,219-square-foot, two-bedroom home with two full bathrooms comes with its own private patio. There are maple hardwood floors throughout and the living room has a tray ceiling with crown molding. The unit is leased for $4,200 until the end of May 2014 and is listed with The Charlesgate Realty Group.

On Beacon Hill at 58 Myrtle St., Unit 5 was originally listed for $699,000 and has recently been reduced to $675,000. This two-bedroom, one-bath penthouse condo is at the "top of the hill" and features windows on three sides. The 1,040-square-foot, floor-through home has an open eat-in kitchen with exposed brick and stainless steel appliances. There is a common roof deck with city views, one flight up. The property has been on the market about one month and is listed with Maureen O'Hara of Coldwell Banker Residential.

Listed in November with Andrea McDonough of Bushari Group Real Estate for $675,000, the single-family home at 565 Winter St. in Framingham has been reduced to $640,000. The three-bedroom, three-and-a-half bath contemporary home has water views of the Stearns Reservoir off the large deck. The home features an open loft-style layout with an open kitchen, living and dining area. There is an oversized stone fireplace that can be seen from all rooms as well as a mezzanine loft surrounded by large windows with three exposures.

At 368 Dorchester St. in South Boston, Unit 1 came on the market a month ago at $579,000 and has been reduced to $539,000. The two-bedroom condo on two levels offers over 1,300 square feet of living space as well as garage parking for one car. The home features two spacious bedrooms and a large kitchen equipped to professional grade standards. The lower level boasts a living area outfitted with a gas fireplace and surround sound. The home is listed with Melinda Sarkis of Hammond Residential.

Jennifer Athas is a licensed real estate broker. Follow her on Twitter @JenAthas.

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B&N to add Google Play app store to its Nook HD

NEW YORK — Barnes & Noble is teaming up with Google to vastly increase the number of apps available on its Nook HD tablets.

The bookstore chain says it will add Google's Play app store to its 7-inch Nook HD and 9-inch HD+ products in the U.S. and U.K. via a software update Friday. The move expands the number of apps available from the roughly 10,000 the Nook already offered in its own store — such as Angry Birds and Netflix — to 700,000-plus apps and games offered on Google Play. And it comes after a weak holiday sales season for the Nook, which is struggling to gain market share in the rapidly expanding tablet market.

CEO William Lynch said research and sales during the holidays show that consumer preference is shifting toward all-purpose tablets rather than simple e-readers.

"We saw coming off holiday the market moved to multifunction tablets," he said. "Consumer research showed us the breadth of applications available is really critical."

Lynch said the company had been in discussions with Google "on and off" for the past several years.

"This addresses the one perceived gap that we had with other tablets virtually overnight," he said. Terms of the deal were undisclosed.

The update is automatic and will occur over-the-air to all devices connected to Wi-Fi. It will also include other Google Inc. services like the Chrome browser, Gmail, YouTube and Google Maps. Google Play Music includes millions of songs as well.

The prices and styles of the Nooks that Barnes & Noble offers are not changing. The 7-inch Nook HD starts at $199 and the 9-inch Nook HD+ tablet starts at $269. Barnes & Noble also sells non-tablet e-book readers, the Nook Simple Touch and Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight, which will not offer Google Play.

Barnes & Noble Inc., based in New York, has invested heavily in its Nook e-book readers and a digital library as more readers shift to electronic books and competition has grown from discount stores and online rivals.

The retailer launched high-definition versions of its Nook HD and Nook HD+ tablets in September in an effort to better compete against Amazon.com's Kindle Fire as well as other tablets like the iPad, iPad Mini and Google's own Nexus 7.

The company's Nook unit has attracted investors — Microsoft Corp. owns 16.8 percent, while U.K. publisher and education company Pearson PLC has a 5 percent stake. But aside from investor funding, it has not been profitable. In its most recent quarter, which included the holiday season, Nook revenue fell 26 percent to $316 million. Barnes & Noble recorded $21 million in returns due to weak demand during the holiday season, and $15 million in allowances for promotions.

Meanwhile market share has slid. Barnes & Noble had a 1.9 percent share of the worldwide tablet market in the fourth quarter, making it the No. 5 Tablet player behind Apple, Samsung, Amazon and Asus, according to data from IDC. But by the first quarter it had slipped out of the top 5, replaced by Microsoft.

At the same time, competition is proliferating, with the global tablet market growing quickly. It more than doubled to 49.2 million units during the first quarter, according to IDC's estimate.

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Facebook grows worldwide

Despite recent reports that Facebook is losing users in North America and Europe, the social networking giant yesterday announced that daily and monthly users were both up more than 20 percent over last year, while mobile users were up 54 percent.

The company reported earnings that suggested its mobile efforts may be paying off. It had first-quarter revenue of $1.46 billion, surpassing the $1.05 billion reported in the first quarter of last year. The company also had $219 million in net income, up from $205 million over the same period last year.

Facebook's earnings announcement did not address where the company was growing users. But Max Wolff, senior analyst at Greencrest Capital, said much of that growth has been in countries including India and Brazil, and warned that if Facebook has already reached a saturation point in key U.S. and European markets, it could be headed for trouble.

"I don't know necessarily that people are getting bored with Facebook; it may simply have peaked already in the U.S. because there are a lot of other alternatives now for people," said David Gerzof Richard, founder of BIGfish communications and professor of social media and marketing at Emerson College. "There's definitely a big movement toward chat apps like WhatsApp and Snapchat on smart phones, especially among young people who may not want their parents to see what's going on in their lives on Facebook."

The company also faces growing competition from LinkedIn, Twitter and mobile-specific apps such as Path, said Todd Van Hoosear, a principal at Fresh Ground in Cambridge.

Facebook's shares rose 1.6 percent in after-hours trading after its earnings release.

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DreamWorks buying AwesomenessTV for about $33M

GLENDALE, Calif. — DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. is buying AwesomenessTV, a YouTube teen network, for about $33 million in cash as it looks to tap into the popularity of online content.

DreamWorks said Wednesday that AwesomenessTV founder and CEO Brian Robbins will continue to direct growth at that company while also developing a DreamWorks branded digital family channel.

The deal includes the possibility of additional cash payments of up to $117 million if certain earnings targets are reached in 2014 and 2015.

The deal is expected to close this month.

AwesomenessTV features talk shows, scripted and reality programs and sketch comedy. The company has released a movie with AMC Theaters and expects to have a television show on Nickelodeon.

Its network of more than 57,000 YouTube channels has 14.4 million subscribers. The more than 1 million videos on the network have been seen 809 million times.

"We want to let Brian do what Brian's been doing," DreamWorks CEO Jeffery Katzenberg said Wednesday night at a YouTube presentation to advertisers in New York. "We also have talked about what we think are going to be some additional great collaborations with Brian on YouTube and ways in which the DreamWorks brand can serve as a valuable, defining brand for him."

Benjamin Mogil, an analyst with investment bank Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., said in a research note that the purchase was "strategically prudent" and likely ends the possibility that DreamWorks will buy a pay TV channel as an outlet for the animated content from its franchises such as "Kung Fu Panda" and "Madagascar." He said the acquisition will likely hurt DreamWorks' earnings per share in the short term.

Rachel Egan, a spokeswoman for ad-buying network TubeMogul, said the purchase "seems like a broad recognition by DreamWorks that their younger audience — like the rest of us — are increasingly streaming content online, on mobile devices and in social media."

The announcement came a day after DreamWorks announced quarterly earnings that beat analysts' expectations on both revenue and profit, although both showed a decline.

Shares of DreamWorks, which is based in Glendale, Calif., were up $1.44, or 7.5 percent, to $20.72 in late trading Wednesday.

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Google, T providing free public WiFi at South Station

Google, Biederman Redevelopment Ventures Corp. and the MBTA have partnered to build the infrastructure for free public WiFi service inside Boston's South Station.Starting today, free WiFi access will be available throughout South Station.

Google has invested in the network and BRV Corp., who manages the public space programming inside South Station, is responsible for the WiFi deployment.

"Google is excited and proud to provide the infrastructure for free WiFi for the first time inside South Station and to support the Greater Boston community," said Steve Vinter, engineering director for Google. "We understand that people want to stay connected from anywhere, at any time, from any device. As a major hub for Boston area residents, the new WiFi network at South Station will allow hundreds of thousands of commuters to be even more productive online each day."

"We're thrilled to partner with Google and the MBTA on the creation of this free public WiFi network in South Station. As we watch this area of Boston surge with new businesses, more and more people pass through the station each day and they will appreciate this new amenity," said Ted Furst, project manager for BRV Corp.

"Anything that improves our customers' transit experience is a good thing," said MBTA General Manager Beverly Scott. "By coupling this new initiative with the WiFi service provided on commuter rail trains, the MBTA is keeping its customers connected from the moment they enter South Station to the time they exit trains."

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Hospital system sues over failed bid for Landmark

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — A Massachusetts hospital chain has filed an anti-trust lawsuit alleging that insurer Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island improperly blocked its bid to acquire the Landmark Medical Center in Woonsocket.

Steward Health Care System filed its suit Wednesday in state Superior Court. It says Blue Cross & Blue Shield interfered with the sale in an attempt to maintain its position as the main buyer of hospital services.

The sale fell through after Steward and Blue Cross failed to reach an agreement on how much Blue Cross would pay for services at the hospital.

Representatives of Blue Cross & Blue Shield say the insurer will defend itself in court and is confident it will prevail.

Landmark has since entered a deal to be purchased by a California-based hospital chain.

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Newsstand tab to make Orleans paper daily again

NEW ORLEANS — Months after cutting its print edition to three days a week, The Times-Picayune of New Orleans on Tuesday announced plans for a three-day-a-week tabloid called TPStreet available in stores and newsstands on days when the full paper isn't printed.

On the same day as The Times-Picayune's announcement, its rival The Advocate reported on its website that New Orleans businessman John Georges has completed his purchase of the Baton Rouge-based newspaper and named two former top Times-Picayune news executives to lead it.

Georges said he will serve as publisher and named former Times-Picayune managing editor Dan Shea as general manager and another former Times-Picayune managing editor, Peter Kovacs, as editor. The Advocate's announcement said current editor Carl Redman would remain in the position of senior editor.

The Times-Picayune's announcement came on its website, nola.com. Editor Jim Amoss said the 75-cent tabloid will be published Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays beginning this summer and that the publication won't be available via home delivery.

Home subscribers will be able to get an electronic replica of TPStreet on the days it is published, in addition to an electronic version of the full Times-Picayune editions published Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays (including an early Sunday edition published Saturday afternoons.)

"It will allow our readers every day to zoom in on content as they browse through the e-edition's pages on their laptops, tablets and desktop computers," Amoss wrote.

In June of last year, The Times-Picayune's owner, privately held Advance Publications Inc., and a new subsidiary, Nola Media Group, announced the paper would lay off 200 employees and shift its focus to the free nola.com site. Advance has pursued similar three-times-a-week strategies with several other newspapers in the chain.

The decision met with harsh protests in tradition-bound New Orleans, where readers had a tight bond with the 175-year-old Pulitzer-winning paper, especially after Hurricane Katrina devastated the city in 2005.

Georges acquired The Advocate from the Manship family, which has owned the seven-day daily since 1909. The Advocate's announcement said the closing capped two years of negotiations.

Terms of the sale were not disclosed. The deal does not include WBRZ-TV, which will continue to be opened by the Manships.

The Advocate expanded its coverage of news in the New Orleans area in 2012, opening a New Orleans bureau and marketing itself as the city's only daily newspaper after The Times-Picayune cut back to three days of publication a week. Officials of The Advocate say about 20 percent of its daily circulation of 98,000 copies and Sunday circulation of about 125,000 comes from the New Orleans area

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Oil price falls to $93 on China manufacturing data

BANGKOK — The price of oil fell to near $93 on Wednesday after data showed a slowdown in China's manufacturing growth.

Benchmark oil for June delivery was down 45 cents to $93.01 a barrel at midday Bangkok time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell $1.04 to finish at $93.46 per barrel on Tuesday in anticipation of another increase in U.S. crude supplies.

The China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing, an industry group, released data Wednesday showing that manufacturing grew at a slower pace in April and that export orders had been declining steadily. The federation's purchasing managers' index fell to 50.6 in April from 50.9 in March. On a 100-point scale, numbers above 50 indicate an expansion.

The pace stoked fears that the recovery in the world's second-largest economy might not meet expectations.

Investors, meanwhile, are also waiting for information on U.S. stockpiles of crude and refined products. Analysts surveyed by Platts estimate that oil supplies rose by 1.4 million barrels in the week ended Friday. The report from the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration will be released later Wednesday.

Brent crude, which is used to set prices of oil from the North Sea used by many U.S. refiners, fell 89 cents to $101.48 on the ICE Futures exchange in London.

In other energy futures trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange:

— Wholesale gasoline fell 2.4 cents to $2.778 a gallon.

— Heating oil retreated 2 cents to $2.82 a gallon.

— Natural gas rose 2.1 cents to $4.364 per 1,000 cubic feet.

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Mozilla: UK spyware company hijacking our brand

LONDON — The maker of one of the Internet's most popular browsers is taking on one of the world's best known purveyors of surveillance software.

The Mozilla Foundation — responsible for the Firefox browser — accuses Britain's Gamma International Ltd. of hijacking the Firefox brand to camouflage Gamma's electronic espionage products.

Researchers have found several samples of Gamma's FinFisher spy software disguised as a Firefox file, apparently in an effort to fool computer users into believing the virus is harmless.

Mozilla says in a statement that it has formally demanded Gamma end the practice, which it calls abusive.

Gamma, based in the English town of Andover, has recently found itself in the spotlight over the surveillance software it markets to governments and law enforcement.

Gamma did not return emails seeking comment Wednesday.

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Nissan cuts prices on 7 US models

DETROIT — Nissan is cutting prices on seven of its 18 models in the U.S., hoping its cars and trucks will show up in more Internet searches by shoppers.

The price cuts vary with the amount of equipment on each model and run from 2.7 percent, or $580, on the top-selling Altima midsize car to 10.7 percent, or $4,400, on the Armada big SUV. Other models getting price cuts include the Sentra compact car, Juke small crossover SUV, Murano midsize crossover, Rogue small crossover and the Maxima full-size car.

Jose Munoz, Nissan senior vice president of sales and marketing for the Americas, said the vehicles getting the price cuts account for 65 percent of Nissan's U.S. sales. The sticker prices, he said, were higher than some competitors for similar models, and that kept Nissan vehicles out of some Internet searches.

"In some of the customer searches we may not appear," Munoz said. "This is an indication that we certainly want to be on the shopping list and we want to be considered by as many customers as possible."

The company plans to reduce rebates and other discounts to offset some of the price cuts. The cuts come at a time when Nissan faces intense competition from U.S.-based automakers and its prime Japanese competitors, Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co.

The price cuts are effective Friday for cars and trucks that aren't yet on dealer lots. However Nissan will also make allowances to trim prices of cars now in dealer inventories. The cuts will remain in effect indefinitely.

Nissan-Renault CEO Carlos Ghosn has set a goal of taking 10 percent of U.S. sales by 2016 or sooner, and executives are under pressure to sell more vehicles to hit the goal. In the first quarter, Nissan's sales were down 1.3 percent with an 8.6 percent share of the market, according to Autodata Corp.

Although Nissan denies it, industry analysts say the company can afford to cut prices because of efforts in Japan to weaken the yen against the dollar. That makes cars and parts made in Japan cheaper than goods made in the U.S. One analyst said it could be the start of a price war if other automakers follow.

Jeff Schuster, senior vice president of forecasting for LMC Automotive, a Detroit forecasting firm, said the weaker yen should help Nissan cut prices, as the company makes a bid to increase sales and market share amid intense competition.

"We could be looking at a price war," he said. "If the yen stays where it is at and competitive pressure does as well, we could be looking at a more widespread battle for buyers."

Nissan's Munoz denied that the yen has anything to do with the price cuts, saying that four of the seven affected models are made in North America. Only the Juke, Rogue and Murano are made in Japan, and their sales are small compared with the other models.

Nissan makes about 75 percent of its cars sold in the U.S. in North America, and that should rise to 89 percent by the end of next year when the company shifts production of the Rogue and Murano.

Nissan isn't the first automaker to cut prices this year. In January General Motors trimmed $300 to $770 off the sticker price of its slow-selling midsize Chevrolet Malibu.

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Owner is at nexus of Bangladesh politics, business

SAVAR, Bangladesh — When the cracks in the building appeared early Tuesday afternoon, a stocky man in his early 30s, a feared political operative who a neighbor says dropped out of school in seventh grade, quickly arrived at the scene in this crowded industrial suburb of Bangladesh's capital.

By then, fear had spread through the 3,200 people who worked in the five clothing factories that jammed the upper floors of Rana Plaza, and the handful of shops on the lower ones. Most of the workers had gathered in the street out front. Few wanted to go back in. Inspectors said the eight-story building should be closed until it could be inspected.

But Mohammed Sohel Rana scoffed.

"The building has minor damages," Rana, the building's owner, told gathering reporters. "There is nothing serious."

The next morning, many of the building's shops and a first-floor bank were closed. But the factories' 8 a.m. shift began as usual. About 45 minutes into the shift, the building suddenly collapsed, killing at least 377 people in a fury of falling concrete. It was the worst industrial accident in the history of Bangladesh. Rescuers are still crawling through the rubble, hoping to find anyone who has managed to survive so long, but nearly all the people being carried out now are dead.

During the long search, Rana was missing. Local media reported he left his basement office in Rana Plaza just before the collapse, drove away and dropped from sight. He was arrested Sunday as he tried to cross the border into India.

For years, though, Rana had sat at the nexus of party politics and the powerful $20 billion garment industry that drives the economy of this deeply impoverished nation. This intersection of politics and business, combined with a minimum wage of $9.50 a week that has made Bangladesh the go-to nation for many of the world's largest clothing brands, has made dangerous factory conditions almost normal, experts say.

Government officials, labor activists, manufacturers and retailers all called for improved safety standards after a November garment factory fire in the same suburb, when locked emergency exits trapped hundreds of workers inside and 112 people died. But almost nothing has changed.

"Successive Bangladeshi governments have paid lip service to worker safety but in reality it is only the factory owners who have the ear of policymakers," Brad Adams, the Asia director for Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. "How many factory tragedies will it take before the Bangladeshi government ends its cozy relationship with powerful company owners and prioritizes worker safety?"

Before the collapse, Rana was little known outside of the few blocks of his tiny empire, a grid of poorly paved streets in the crowded industrial suburb of Savar, built up over the past decade or so around hundreds of garment factories.

The son of a local businessman with political connections, Rana became a neighborhood force by working as an organizer for the two political parties that have competed for power for decades in Bangladesh, according to local politicians, as well as someone who grew up near Rana and still lives in the area.

While Rana is currently a leader of the youth group of the ruling Awami League, he has also worked for that party's archrival, the Bangladesh National Party.

"He doesn't belong to any particular political party," said Ashrafuddin Khan Imu, an Awami League leader and longtime Rana rival. "Whatever party is in power, he is there."

In essence, these people say, Rana is a neighborhood political enforcer, regularly ordering thousands of people into the streets for rallies. Most recently, Imu said, he has been working for Awami League lawmaker Talukder Touhid Jang Murad. When Murad was asked about Rana after the collapse, Murad denied any connections. The next day, Dhaka newspapers printed photographs of Murad kissing Rana on the forehead after a successful rally earlier this year.

"He used to intimidate people whenever he needed them, like bringing people out for street marches in support of the lawmaker," said the neighbor, who spoke on condition he not be named, fearing Rana would send his men to beat him up after having been threatened once before. "Neighbors would avoid him ... No one wanted to upset him."

Money came with his political connections, with wealth built upon a string of government-owned properties he acquired at reduced prices, according to local media reports. He built a small apartment building and a small commercial building, where a Bata shoe store is now on the ground floor. In 2010 he built Rana Plaza on land that had once been a swamp. He had a permit to erect a five-story building, but built three additional stories illegally.

Until Wednesday, he lived just a few blocks from Rana Plaza, in a five-story red-brick building he owns at the end of a narrow alley. The ground floor has a hand-painted medieval scene, with an aristocratic woman, or perhaps a bride, being carried by scowling bearers in a covered palanquin. The neighbor says he is married, and has two children. The buildings indicate he is a man of considerable stature locally, but is almost certainly not a member of the country's tiny elite.

After the cracks appeared in the building, witnesses say Rana quickly went to work. On Wednesday morning, he and a number of factory managers ordered nervous workers into the building shortly before the collapse, according to the neighbor, who was present at the scene, and local press reports.

"I was too afraid to go inside the building. But the factory officials assured us they would also be in the factory, so there should not be any problem," said Kohinoor Begum, a factory worker who survived but whose hands were injured.

Cheers went up at the scene of the collapsed building when his arrest was announced over loudspeakers. After Rana disappeared, authorities detained his wife, apparently to convince him to surrender.

What will happen to him? At first glance, the situation doesn't look good: His political allies have abandoned him, Bangladesh's most powerful garment industry association says he ignored their warnings to shut the building and the prime minister called for his arrest.

But in the streets of Savar, many note that while three managers have been arrested in connection with the Tazreen fire, the factory owner remains free.

___

Sullivan reported from New Delhi, India. Associated Press writer Julhas Alam in Dhaka contributed to the report.

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Samsung Galaxy’s mostly a star

Remember when there were rumors swirling that Samsung's next Galaxy smartphone would include eye tracking? And then Samsung held a big event and announced the new Galaxy S4 would identify facial expressions and scroll down automatically — and pause videos when users look away?

All this super-exciting stuff? Does. Not. Work.

Samsung made a big deal out of features that no one asked for and then botched them in the end.

It's a shame because the Samsung Galaxy S4 is an otherwise nice Android offering.

The unit I tested is from AT&T, which is selling the S4 at $199 with a two-year contract.

The 5-inch 1080p resolution screen is gorgeous.

The quad-core processor exudes power, and AT&T's LTE was a joy to use.

But compared to the HTC One and the iPhone 5, the Galaxy S4 can feel insubstantial.

The body is made of plastic, which doesn't inspire a ton of confidence.

The 13-megapixel camera gets the job done, but it still falls short of the picture quality and color saturation delivered by the iPhone 5.

Yet in every other way that counts, this and other new Android smartphones are increasingly making the iPhone look static and antiquated.

Still, anyone interested in this phone should disable those gimmicky features that don't work, which is easily done. Smart rotation is supposed to adjust to your angle of sight. But it only worked about half the time for me. The screen would either adjust in a way I didn't want or do nothing at all.

A smart pause feature is supposed to detect when you are facing away from the screen. That also worked about half the time. Videos you're watching will end up pausing randomly unless you disable this feature.

Smart scrolling was the worst of the gimmicks because for me, it just plain never worked. A few times a page I was reading would scroll downward before I was ready, but that was the closest I came to this function.

It boggles the mind that Samsung would enable features that are clearly in beta without labeling them as such.

As Apple has shown, it's not as important to be first with a feature as it is to have it work better than anyone else.

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The Ticker

Smartphone sales over 50% of market

With worldwide shipments of 216.2 million units during the first quarter, smartphones grabbed 
51.6 percent of the total mobile phone market, according to InformationWeek.

This is the first time that hardware makers have shipped more smartphones than feature phones on a global basis.

Phone makers shipped 418.6 million devices during the quarter, which was up 4 percent compared to the year-ago quarter (402.4 million), but down compared to the previous quarter (483.2 million). The first quarter typically sees a downturn in sales following the holiday quarter, so these numbers are following the seasonal trends.

TODAY

 Alnylam Pharmaceuticals and Cognex Corp. release quarterly financial earnings.

TOMORROW

 Aegerion Pharmaceuticals, Momenta Pharmaceuticals, Pfizer, and Vertex Pharmaceuticals report their quarterly financial results.

 Boston-based public relations firm Schneider Associates has hired John Jowers, left, as account supervisor to the firm's corporate, education and nonprofit practice. Prior to joining Schneider, Jowers worked at Cone Communications in the corporate social responsibility practice.

 MassHousing has announced the appointments of five individuals to senior management positions.

Timothy Sullivan, of Brookline, was named deputy director for finance and rental programs.

Monte Stanford, of Saugus, has assumed the position of director of rental lending.

Peter Milewski, of Duxbury, was appointed director of homeownership lending.

Kevin Mello, of Norton, was named director of 
homeownership servicing and operations.

Karen Kelleher, of Arlington, was named general counsel.

 Lesley University has hired Alison Harris, former director of communications at the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development, as the college's new director of communications. Harris will be joined in the Office of Communications by Amanda McGregor who was promoted to communications manager.

 Burlington-based Zappix has hired two key executives for its U.S. management team. Shay Artzi will serve as chief technical officer for the company, while Gal Steinberg has been appointed vice president of marketing.

 Cambridge-based Celtra Inc. has hired Deborah Szajngarten as vice president of marketing communications. Szajngarten previously served as global communications director for Vimeo.

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IT startup Acorio beefing up work force

A Hub-based IT startup said it will use a recent seven-figure investment to increase its sales and delivery teams while also creating tools designed to "augment" the capabilities of ServiceNow's software-as-a-service platform.

Acorio, which launched six months ago, plans to expand its employee headcount to 100 people nationally over the next 18 months, President and CEO Jim Lampert told the Herald.

ServiceNow, an enterprise IT cloud company based in San Diego, was the first technology company taken public by Morgan Stanley after Facebook.

"We're very honored to have the partnership we have with ServiceNow," said Lampert, 48, an EMC veteran. "We want to be able to apply services and, in some cases, unique technologies to make that platform even better."

Lampert added Acorio's proprietary POWERBooster tools are designed to help Fortune 2000 clients implement and integrate ServiceNow's platform faster and more efficiently into their own enterprises or connect the same platform with a human resources SaaS platform like Workday.

"One of the big challenges right now organizations have is they have a lot of disparate cloud platforms within enterprises," Lampert said. "If we can help our clients connect (ServiceNow's) platform to some of their other cloud platforms to help the overall enterprise become more efficient, more agile and more automated, there's a significant value there."

The company secured its first round of funding from Momentum Equity Partners, whose chairman, Frank Selldorff, founded the startup.

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