turnaround
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Panasonic reverses its fortunes amid electric vehicle boom
Not every struggling company story has to have a depressing ending. Though its troubles are far from over yet, Panasonic has just announced 73.7 billion yen ($730 million) in net earnings for Q3. That's up 20 percent over last year, a disastrous period that saw nearly $10 billion in full-year losses and painful company-wide layoffs. While those cuts are finally helping the bottom line, Panasonic also said it's no longer relying on its consumer electronics division for profits. Instead, it saw the most growth in the automotive sector, highlighted by booming battery sales to EV makers like Toyota and Tesla -- a key part of new president Kazuhiro Tsuga's strategy. Unfortunately, another part of the plan is to keep eliminating unprofitable divisions until March 2016. That means the recent death of its much-loved plasma TV unit isn't the end of the slashing.
HTC predicts 55 percent revenue jump, could hint at strong One sales
HTC's results for Q1 2012 were a long way short of spectacular, but they came too early to see any impact from sales of its latest wares -- particularly the flagship One X and the ambitious mid-range One S. According to Reuters, the Taiwanese manufacturer now predicts that its revenue will leap by 55 percent in Q2, compared to that bad last quarter. That kind of growth equates to around $3.56 billion, which isn't so impressive when you compare it to the same quarter last year, when turnover broke records and was around 20 percent higher, but it's still an encouraging sign that this company could reap what it sowed at MWC.
SOE reveals PlanetSide 2 Terran Republic character turnaround video
One thing you can't say about PlanetSide 2 info this month is that it's scarce. As the Terran Republic info has been the focus of this week, we get another shiny tidbit in the form of a video showcasing 360-degree views of the Terran Republic military characters. The video shows some up-close and personal details of the characters' armor and tools, from Standard, Light Assault, and Heavy Assault variations to the ominous Mosquito. Check it out for yourself, embedded after the cut.
Persistent issues and Final Fantasy XIV
There are certain recurring complaints heard about Final Fantasy XIV's beta, especially with players freely able to share their experiences. The fact that guildleves are on a 48-hour timer and the lack of easy and efficient mana regeneration are two of the more persistent ones, and a recent interview with Hiromichi Tanaka at Gamescom address just those complaints among others. But it's not all roses and sunshine -- if you're one of the testers hoping for the guildleve timer to be reduced, you're flat out of luck. Tanaka makes it clear that several of these issues are part of the intended design -- guildleves, for instance, are doable solo or in groups, but they aren't meant to just be burned through solo each time they're up. As a result, the team is looking into how to give better incentives to group up and share guildleves. MP regeneration is meant to be difficult, and spells are supposed to be a choice of using up limited resources. There are several interesting answers in the interview, but not every Final Fantasy XIV player will be happy with the content of those answers
