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Gold retreats from record

LONDON (Reuters) – Gold retreated from record highs on Friday, as a firmer dollar tempered the momentum, although concerns about further quantitative easing in the United States cushioned prices.

Sister-metal silver was supercharged, benefiting also from gains in prices for industrial metals to test the $21 mark. A break above $21.24 would open the way for prices to hit levels last seen in October 1980.

Spot gold hit an all-time high of $1,282.75 a troy ounce before easing to a bid at $1,276.50 by 1215 GMT (8:15 a.m. EDT), compared with $1,272.20 late in New York on Thursday. It has gained more than $100 or 8.4 percent since the start of August.

"It's partly a currency move. There's certainly investor nervousness about monetary policy around the world since the yen intervention," said precious metals strategist Matthew Turner of Mitsubishi Corp.

"A lot of people are sensing a race to the bottom by central banks to print more of their currency, to reflate their economies and gold is getting support from that."

The dollar (.DXY) gained ground against the euro on Friday on talk of an Irish bank in trouble, but remains close to one-month lows against a basket of currencies.

Dollar sentiment overall has been damaged by speculation of more quantitative easing from the U.S. Federal Reserve next week.

Quantitative easing is a process by which central banks attempt to pump money into economies by printing money and buying bonds. Excess liquidity can often lead to price pressures as too much money chases too few goods and services.

A lower U.S. currency makes dollar-denominated commodities cheaper for holders of other currencies. Investors use gold as a store of value during times of high inflation or financial market turmoil.

Holdings in the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, SPDR Gold Trust (GLD.P), were flat overnight at 1,294.746 tonnes, having fallen the day before. But earlier this week the number rose by more than 6 tonnes.

The market shrugged off data that showed U.S. consumer prices increased slightly more than expected in August as food prices rebounded and energy costs remained elevate, but core prices were flat.

SEASONALLY STRONG

September and October are typically seasonally strong periods for jewelry demand, with a number of small gold-buying festivals in major consumer India, while Western manufacturers stock up ahead of Christmas.

Lending background support this week however, was news of AngloGold Ashanti's (ANGJ.J) capital raising, a key function of which was to buy back its outstanding gold hedge.

"They've raised the capital, but I haven't heard any strong rumors (that they have bought any gold)," said analyst Robin Bhar of Credit Agricole.

Spot silver was bid at $20.85 an ounce from $20.72 in New York on Thursday.

"The last few months, silver has been benefiting as a monetary metal like gold, when things are looking bad, and as an industrial metal when things are looking good. So investors are very keen," Mitsubishi's Turner added.

Expectations of stronger growth in the final few months of this year has helped boost industrial precious metals platinum, palladium and silver.

However, silver is according to technical analysis, overbought and could be due a correction.

"Silver is renowned for overshooting and undershooting, so this rally can get more exponential but we are already up 18 percent since late August," Kendall said.

"In my opinion, that kind of rate of increase can't be sustained. I would not be recommending anyone to get long or longer silver at $21."

Spot platinum hit $1,630 an ounce, its highest since May 19. It was last at $1,619 from $1,603.65 on Thursday and palladium was bid at $546.00 an ounce from $544.65.

(Editing by Sue Thomas)

OS X's ten most innovative features

When Apple took the wraps off Mac OS X a decade ago, it clearly marked a big leap forward from the old Mac operating system. But as Mac users installed that first beta disk, it wasn't exactly clear how big a leap OS X would turn out to be. With ten years of updates, innovations, and enhancements under our belt, we can now see how far we've come since Steve Jobs released the Mac OS X Public Beta at the Apple Expo in Paris on September 13, 2000. We now rely on OS X features that early OS adopters probably couldn't even conceive of a decade ago.

But which OS X innovations have been the most significant for the Mac and its users? We put our heads together and came up with a list of ten features^aEUR"for the tenth anniversary of the OS X beta^aEURTMs release^aEUR"that we consider to be the most significant contributions to the Mac experience.

Time Machine

Computing is risky business: All hard drives will fail eventually, and people accidentally delete files. , Time Machine was hugely important for one simple reason: It made backing up your data easy-and therefore, something you were much more likely to do.

Sure, the 3D interface may be a little cheesy, and Time Machine can slow down your system. It's also not always easy to find a file when you need it. But Time Machine makes backing up a given. And on top of that, Time Machine backups are great when you're migrating to a new Mac. Those are reasons alone to celebrate this OS X capability.-JONATHAN SEFF

Native PDF support

Apple's Preview app is the visible face of Mac OS X's system-level support for the PDF format. Mac users can easily create PDF files with any program that supports the Print command. Because PDF files recreate the layout of the original document, saving files electronically is now as convenient as printing them, except you're free to save, e-mail, or embed them in other documents without losing their unique look.

Now at version 5, Preview has undergone numerous improvements over time, but its Annotations toolbar, easy selection of columns, and image editing capabilities emphasize its advantage for users.-JACKIE DOVE

Spotlight

Introduced as the desktop search successor to Apple's Sherlock in OS 10.4, Spotlight made waves for its metadata index and instant-search capabilities.The utility's in-depth search allowed users to search inside their files, rather than by name alone. And with Leopard, introducing the calculation of simple math equations and dictionary searches, Spotlight has only grown as a reference and lookup tool.-SERENITY CALDWELL

iChat

IM clients existed before Apple folded iChat into Mac OS X 10.2 in 2002. But iChat upped the ante by integrating with the operating system's address book and mail applications, and an updated version included in Panther added video conferencing capabilities as well. The inclusion of a built-in chat client gave OS X a notable productivity boost-one we experienced first-hand in the Macworld office. We suddenly had a way to communicate with far-flung colleagues and contributors in a way that was more immediate than e-mail and more convenient than the telephone. (Instead of dropping what you were doing to make a phone call, you could keep working in one window while conducting an iChat in the other.) The Mac has made notable in-roads in the workplace during the past decade, and we suspect the presence of a built-in, full-featured messaging tool is one of the reasons why.-PHILIP MICHAELS

The Classic Environment and Boot Camp

The Classic environment and Boot Camp are very different technologies, but they serve (or, in the case of Classic, served) the same essential purpose-provide the technological safety net and the psychological peace of mind that allowed millions of people to make the switch to Mac OS X.

For most "classic" Mac users, the transition from Mac OS 9 to Mac OS X went far more smoothly than even the most optimistic among us expected. But it never would have been so had it not been for the Classic environment, a hardware-abstraction layer that let users run OS 9 applications within Mac OS X, side-by-side with native OS X software. Without the Classic environment, upgrading to Mac OS X would have meant either doing without your favorite software until it was updated for the new OS, or dumping all your existing software and starting over-a prospect only slightly more appealing than simply giving in and switching to Windows. The Classic environment wasn't perfect-some OS 9 apps acted a bit quirky when run within Classic, and a few didn't function at all-but for the most part it worked well and worked invisibly, tiding many a Mac user over until one day, as if by magic, it was no longer needed.

Boot Camp has fulfilled a similar role for Windows users. Since its debut (in , with an official release in late 2007), Boot Camp has offered Windows users the assurance that if they decide to switch to the Mac, they can still run all their Windows software-or, in the worst-case scenario, that if they end up hating OS X, they can permanently boot into Windows and just use their Mac as a fully supported Windows PC. (The latter option makes Boot Camp more compelling for many Windows switchers thansuch as Fusion and Parallels.) Of course, after making the switch, many Windows users end up finding suitable-or superior-OS X replacements for their favorite software, and become full-time Mac OS X users. But without Boot Camp, they never would have been in the position to not boot into Windows.-DAN FRAKES

Developer Tools

Apple's developer tools are probably the top candidate for the title of "most important technology that the majority of Mac users will never touch." Back in the heady days of the classic Mac OS, developers who wanted to write software for the Mac were dependent on integrated development environments (IDEs) such as Metrowerks's CodeWarrior. When OS X rolled around, Apple seemed to have realized that in order for its future platform to thrive, it couldn't afford to have the means for creating great software controlled by someone else. Hence, the introduction of Apple's own developer tools alongside Mac OS X. Included in the package was an IDE-Project Builder-that was a tweaked version of the IDE that came with NeXT, . In 2003, Project Builder became the now familiar Xcode.

Controlling the tools used to build software gave Apple a huge edge: the company could make sure developers were able to take advantage of the new, compelling features that Apple rolled out in each successive OS X update. The company positioned Xcode and the other development tools as an investment in the future of its platform, distributing them for free along with every copy of OS X-that was a marked contrast to IDEs like CodeWarrior, which often ran hundreds of dollars. While Xcode may not be a technology that most Mac users are intimately familiar with, it's the software that makes possible pretty much every application you use on your Mac, and that's no small deal.-DAN MOREN

Unix underpinnings and a modern core

The Unix underpinnings provided Mac OS X with something long lacking in the Mac OS: stability and performance. Prior versions of the Mac OS lacked protected memory, which meant that when one app crashed, the Mac itself usually crashed. Multitasking performance was also far from stellar, as the OS was written without multitasking in mind.

Mac OS X changed all that, thanks to its modern core and Unix foundation layer. Typical users may never directly see the Unix side of Mac OS X, nor even care that it's there...but every time they use their Mac, they benefit from that core: multiple programs run simultaneously, all playing nicely with each other; when a program crashes, only that program crashes. With the advent of Mac OS X, multi-daily reboots became a thing of the past, and were soon measured in days or weeks. Thanks to this solid core, Mac OS X and its programs are stable, responsive, and work well with one another.-ROB GRIFFITHS

Expos'e

As displays got larger through the years and Mac OS X's multitasking features became even more robust, the desire to keep more windows and applications running concurrently could often lead to "window-itis"-the condition of getting buried under one's virtual workspace. When Apple released Mac OS X 10.3 in 2003, it showcased its unique knack for tackling usability problems like this with the introduction of Expos'e.

Expos'e was arguably the first significant attempt by a major OS maker to improve window management since Windows 95 (or perhaps WindowShade in System 8). When Command-Tab and repeatedly hiding or minimizing waves of windows were no longer enough, Expos'e offered a refreshing bird's-eye view of all the applications, or just multiple windows in a single application, that were currently open, as well as the files on your desktop. The feature debuted with just three modes, accessible by keyboard shortcuts and mouse gestures: All Windows, Application Windows, and Show Desktop. For some, Expos'e was largely a novelty or a fun trick to show friends why the Mac is cool. For others, Expos'e was a window management game changer, a new lease on being productive that helped proved why the Mac is great.

Apple eventually added multi-touch trackpad gestures in Leopard, as well as some other minor perks in Snow Leopard, to make Expos'e more accessible. But the feature has largely remained unchanged-though useful as ever-since its introduction in 2003.-DAVID CHARTIER

Bonjour

Thanks to Bonjour, it's a lot easier to connect to printers, servers, other computers, and other devices over a network. Originally introduced in 2002 as Rendezvous in Mac OS X 10.2 andwith the 2005 release of Tiger, Bonjour is Apple's version of the Zero Configuration Networking (Zeroconf) technology. When devices on a network are using Bonjour, there's no need to mess with confusing network settings and controls. Bonjour devices automatically make themselves available on the network, and the technology resolves any addressing issues for you.

Bonjour has a wide variety of implementations; it can be used to connect your Mac to a printer, or you can connect to another Mac to share files. There's even a Windows version of Bonjour, so your Mac can connect to a Windows PC. Software programs like iChat and iPhoto can use Bonjour, too-the most common software use of Bonjour is in iTunes. When you connect someone who's sharing their music, you're witnessing Bonjour at work.-ROMAN LOYOLA

Smart Folders

The Finder evolved as a way to put a friendly face on the scary world of computer file systems, but as the way we've used computers has evolved, our file systems have gotten out of control. Smart Folders (and its cousin, Smart Mailboxes) was Apple's way of letting users tease order out of an unruly set of personal files. Using the power of the Spotlight search engine (also added as a part of Mac OS X 10.4), Smart Folders are essentially saved searches. Tell your Mac that you want to see all the Word files you've created in the past 10 days, and boom, there's a folder full of those files. For many users, Smart Folders make it okay to toss all your stuff in one big folder rather than using a complex, folder-based filing system. After all, Smart Folders can do the organization for you.-JASON SNELL

Also Worth a Mention

Limiting yourself to just 10 noteworthy features for something as complex as Mac OS X means you're going to wind up with some noteworthy omissions. We had several features that just missed making our list, including the Dock (and its clever way of keeping the applications you need close at hand) and Automator (which demystified script-writing for most users). We're also fans of Quick Look, one of OS X's best time-saving features for getting a glimpse of a file with a simple stroke of the space bar. And we debated including OS X's support for Intel-built processors as well.

But that's just our list of OS X features worth celebrating on this anniversary. We're sure we've overlooked a couple of your favorites; let us know what's on your list of OS X's greatest contributions.

'Self-Embedding' Takes Teen Self-Injury to the Extreme

TUESDAY, Sept. 7 (HealthDay News) -- The 16-year-old went to the emergency room because of a painful infection in her arm. When doctors used ultrasound on the area, they were shocked to see about 20 foreign objects under her skin, including a paper clip, a screw from a pair of eyeglasses and multiple pieces of pencil lead.

The teen had engaged in "self-embedding," an extreme form of self-injury, in which people -- often adolescents -- deliberately hurt themselves or mutilate their bodies without intending suicide. Self-embedders insert objects made ofglass, wood, metal or other materials under the skin.

Determining how many teens "self-embed" is difficult, doctors say. As with other forms of self-harm, such as "cutting" or burning, many teens are ashamed of what they're doing and take steps to conceal their behavior, said William Shiels, a pediatric interventional radiologist at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio.

Between 13 percent and 23 percent of U.S. teens have reported intentional self-injury, according to background information in a study by Shiels and colleagues that was released online Sept. 7 in advance of publication in the October print issue of the journal Radiology.

Shiels' team found that of about 600 patients of all ages who went to the hospital to have foreign bodies removed from under their skin, 11 patients, or about 1.8 percent, had intentionally inserted the objects. They ranged in age from 14 to 18, and nine were girls.

The 11 teens had other psychological disorders, including depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorder, borderline personality disorder or post-traumatic stress disorder, according to the study.

"One girl told us it's easier to deal with physical pain than the emotional pain in her life," Shiels said. "The reason they cut and embed is an effort to relieve their internal pain, the pain that's inside."

Removing embedded objects can be difficult, said Shiels. If cutting into the skin and searching for the object is likely to do more damage, surgeons may opt to leave the object in place, Shiels said.

To minimize scarring and lessen the chances of nerve damage or other surgical complications, his team usedultrasound or fluoroscopy and a minimally invasive surgical procedure. The ultrasound pinpoints objects that might not show up on X-ray and guides a tiny forceps to the object, said Shiels, chairman of the department of radiology.

This less-invasive approach is especially important with teens, said Shiels.

"They have emotional pain already. They are already embarrassed and ashamed that they are hurting themselves. Leaving a large scar can degrade their self-image and complicate things worse," Shiels said. "The beauty of doing this minimally invasive procedure, with a scar that is the size of a freckle, is that we don't add more emotional scars to these children."

In all, Shiels and his colleagues removed 68 of 76 self-embedded objects from the arms, necks, feet, ankles and hands of the 11 patients. In one case, an 18-year-old boy had embedded 35 objects, including staples, a comb tooth, a fork tine and nail polish wands.

Ten of the patients had either attempted suicide in the past or had had suicidal thoughts, the researchers said.

Dr. Niranjan Karnik, an assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral neuroscience at University of Chicago Medical Center, said suicide risk is one of the first things doctors try to assess when they see a teen who is "cutting" or "self-embedding."

While parents usually urge the teen to stop immediately, that's not necessarily a good idea, said Karnik, who specializes in adolescents. Teens say self-harm gives them relief from emotional pain -- and there may be some truth to that, Karnik said.

"Self-injury is almost li a pressure valve for them," Karnik said. "Without it, you have to ask, 'What is that kid going to do now?' We have to work with them to give them better strategies to relieve their stress and anxiety."

Journaling, exercise, psychotherapy, cognitive behavioral therapy and medications may help, Karnik said.

More information

The Center for Young Women's Health has more on teens and self-harm.

iPods still a part of Apple's big picture

When Charles Golvin gets on an airplane, he often finds himself sitting next to somebody with two Apple devices in hand-usually an iPhone, often along with something smaller, like an iPod shuffle or an iPod nano. It turns out that lots of people love their iPhones too much to use in every situation.

"The iPhone is such a valuable instrument, they don't necessarily want to be out jogging with it-exercising at the gym and getting it all sweaty," said Golvin, a senior analyst at Forrester Research in Boston.

And that's a key reason why the iPod remains firmly in the picture, as Apple prepares for its . While the days of explosive sales growth are behind the company's iconic music player and the classic, nano, and shuffle versions of the iPod have ceded their place in the spotlight to touchscreen-driven devices like the iPhone and iPad, the music business remains a lucrative one for Apple.

True, in , iPod sales fell 8 percent from the previous year. But the company still sold 9.41 million iPods-not bad for a future product line that hadn't seen an update since the previous September.

Even with overall growth slowing, the iPod remains the top-selling brand of MP3 player, commanding a 70 percent market share, according to Apple's figures. And Apple enjoys strong growth from the more advanced-and higher-priced-iPod touch. Sales of that model grew 48 percent during Apple's fiscal third quarter, leading to a 12-percent jump in average selling price for the iPod.

"Clearly, Apple likes selling touches," said Ezra Gottheil of Technology Business Research. "It's more like their other devices than other iPods are."

But analysts suggest the habits of Colvin's airline seatmates may offer a clue about the future of Apple's iPod plans, with the touch established as the flagship of the product line while smaller, cheaper shuffles and nanos remain for entry-level consumers and "secondary" uses.

And what of the venerable iPod classic, the one remaining hard drive-based music player in Apple's lineup? Observers point out that line is still profitable, but its days of growth are over. Everybody who wanted an iPod, it seems, has one by now.

"It's a nice business, and it's not going away," added Roger Kay, president of Endpoint Technologies Associates. "But if I was a manager at Apple and was told 'You've got the iPod business,' I don't know how happy I would be."

Apple has kept the traditional iPod fresh and in demand over the years by adding features and tweaking the design. Analysts say there is still work that can be done on that front: FM radios-added to the nano as part of -could be expanded to the entire line. Wi-fi capabilities could be added, both to offer iTunes sales directly to devices and to take advantage of Apple's purchase of cloud-music purveyor Lala. Television service is also a possibility.

"That's probably the next thing they'll do across the line, with the exception of the shuffle, is to integrate the TV experience into these devices," said Rob Enderle, principal analyst for the Enderle Group.

Just don't expect such changes to jump-start growth in the sales of traditional iPods.

"I don't think that's going to grow the market that much," said Ben Bajarin, director of consumer technology for Creative Strategies in Campbell, California.

It should, however, bolster Apple's holiday sales. After last year's iPod event,during the three-month period covering the 2009 holiday season-more than double the iPods sold in the previous three months. Still, that was an 8 percent drop from the year-ago holiday quarter.

Consolidation of the iPod line might happen in the near future, observers said: There may not be a need for both the nano and the shuffle, for example. But few analysts expect Apple to entirely abandon traditional-style iPods in favor of the touch.

"There is still quite a large audience tt is price-sensitive that Apple still wants to target," Bajarin said. "It might not be the kind of booming, growing sales that the iPod Touch has ... but there is still a short-term role for an audience that is price-sensitive."

And there^aEURTMs still profit to be made.

"Flat doesn't mean down," said TBR's Gottheil. "Down doesn't mean down a whole lot. Selling 50 million of a thing every year, which they've done the last couple of years, is not a bad thing."

"It's still a large market," added Ross Rubin, executive director of industry analysis for NPD Group. "There's still significant demand for a product that is simpler in its functionality, and less expensive than the iPod Touch."

Golvin agreed. "I don't think it's time," he said, "to stick a fork in the iPod."

Music labels eager for Google-Apple battle

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Google Inc is in talks with music labels on plans for a download store and a digital song locker that would allow its mobile users to play songs wherever they are as it steps up its rivalry with Apple Inc., according to people familiar with the matter.

Google Vice President of Engineering Andy Rubin has been leading conversations with the labels about what a new Google music service would look like, according to these sources.

Rubin, who was the brains behind Google's Android mobile operating system, hopes to have the service up and running by Christmas, two of these people said.

The music industry hopes to benefit from a battle for control of the mobile phone and computer desktop between Apple and Google as both technology giants go head-to-head in a wide range of media and consumer technology areas including online TV and movies, mobile phones, software and even advertising.

Music is the latest area they are likely to compete in even though Apple had a major head-start on Google, with its 7-year dominance through iTunes Music Store, which accounts for 70 percent of all U.S. digital music sales.

Google has yet to sign any licensing deals with major labels, these people say, but it hasn't stopped the labels getting excited about the prospect of its entry to the business and what competition with iTunes could mean for the industry.

"Finally here's an entity with the reach, resources and wherewithal to take on iTunes as a formidable competitor by tying it into search and Android mobile platform," said a label executive who asked not to be identified. "What you'll have is a very powerful player in the market that's good for the music business."

Sales of Android-based phones have rocketed in recent months to 200,000 a day, according to Google, matching the hugely popular iPhones and iPads from Apple which are based on its iOS technology.

"There's no dearth of music available on a computer right now, but Google can still have an impact on the cellphone or any connected device," said Larry Kenswil, a former Universal Music executive who is a counsel at Loeb & Loeb.

The labels have been grateful to Apple for helping to kick-start digital music sales with iTunes in 2003, but they have been become increasingly concerned with the control the Cupertino, California company exerts over everything from song pricing to digital formats.

Music executives have long believed having other competing powerful digital music retailers could help expand the market.

While digital album sales are up 13 percent year-to-date from the year-ago period, sales of individual songs have held steady, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

"Google has a wealth of data, from YouTube, as well as from search, that can inform on what people are consuming and looking for music wise," said Simon Wheeler, head of digital at London-based independent music company Beggars Banquet.

But just being big won't be enough even for a company of Google's size and capabilities. Leading online retailer Amazon.com Inc launched its MP3 store in 2007 but still only has just over 12 percent market share.

"We're cautiously optimistic because Google has great scale and reach but doesn't have a track record in selling stuff," said another label executive who declined to be named as the talks are still ongoing.

MUSIC IN THE CLOUD

Connected devices like Apple's iPhone and iPads or Google's range of Android-based phones will be the next battlefield for music, say various industry watchers.

Labels have been hoping that the introduction of new cloud-based music services from Apple and Google would be a major boost for winning over consumers who want to be able to access their music libraries, discover new songs and make impulse purchases wherever they have Internet access.

Apple bought cloud-based music company LaLa Media last December and closed it in April, leading observers to expect the launch of an Apple-branded cloud service. But on Wednesday Apple unveiled a social media enabled-version of iTunes, leaving some executives a little underwhelmed for now.

Perhaps not by coincidence Google also bought a remote media company called Simplify Media in May and has also promptly closed it down. It has yet to announce any plans for Simplify.

"If they get it right it will hasten the transition by consumers from music you have to own to music you need ubiquitous access to," said Ted Cohen, a former EMI executive who runs TAG Strategic Partners.

(Reporting by Yinka Adegoke; Editing by Richard Chang)