Windows 8 lifts Microsoft's profit 19%

Sales of Windows 8 boosted Microsoft's bottom line.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

In the face of a badly slumping PC market, Windows 8 sales proved a hit.

Microsoft Windows sales spiked 23% in the company's fiscal third quarter. Even if you exclude sales deferrals carried over from earlier in the year, Windows sales were essentially flat -- that's pretty good in a PC market that is in rapid decline.

Shares of Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500) rose 2% after hours.

The company said it was satisfied enough with the performance of Windows, which boosted profit 16% in the wake of Windows 8's launch. Yet it seemed more excited about the performance of its other services, including Office and Xbox.

Microsoft said that its Office 365 cloud-based productivity suite was on pace to generate a billion dollars this year in revenue. The company also expressed satisfaction with the 46% growth of Xbox Live. Microsoft got a big boost from the Xbox and Kinect, sales of which grew a surprising 56% over last year.

Microsoft is so pleased, in fact, that Chief Financial Officer Peter Klein pledged the company would stay the course on its recent strategy shift, even though that includes soft-selling tablets like the Microsoft Surface and the the Windows Phone mobile platform.

"Looking ahead, we will continue to invest in long-term growth opportunities to drive our devices and services strategy forward and deliver ongoing value to shareholders," Klein said in the company press release.

Related story: Don't blame Windows 8 for slumping PC sales

Yet Klein won't be sticking around to see that pay off. Microsoft announced the CFO will be stepping down in June, and his replacement will be named at some point over the next couple of weeks.

Overall, things are looking OK for Microsoft. After a pretty drastic reinvention of its company identity, it is not only growing again, but meeting Wall Street's expectations. It acknowledges it has a long road to travel, but surely this has to be a boost for the software giant.

"While there is still work to do, we are optimistic that the bets we've made on Windows devices position us well for the long term," said CEO Steve Ballmer.

Going forward, Klein says the public should expect to see smaller third-party devices powered by Windows. Presumably, that means more Surface-like machines. Klein said that as Microsoft moves to increase its share in the tablet market, we should expect Windows revenue from third-party PC manufacturers to be "impacted by the declining PC market." Not exactly a vote of confidence for the traditional laptop.

The Redmond, Wash.-based software giant said operating income in its fiscal third quarter rose 19% to $7.6 billion, or 72 cents per share, for the period ended March 31. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters forecast earnings of 68 cents per share.

Revenue rose 18% to $20.5 billion, meeting analysts' forecasts. 

Apparently This Matters: Drink water, you dummy

The Jomi band will remind you to drink. Because just being thirsty isn't working.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Jomi Interactive hopes their prototype band will encourage people to drink more water
• The band would use Bluetooth to snyc up to your mobile device to record stats
• Bellini on not drinking enough water: I'm in the cult of Diet Coke

Editor's note: Each week in "Apparently This Matters," CNN'sJarrett Bellini applies his warped sensibilities to trending topics in social media and random items of interest on the Web.

(CNN) -- We're all thirsty and we don't even know it.

But an Estonian start-up called Jomi Interactive aims to solve this problem.

Although they're only in a developmental stage right now (Read: Give us your money!), the company managed to turn more than a few heads online this week when prototypes of their new products were featured on TechCrunch and several other websites.

"Apparently This Matters" Is Jarrett Bellini's weekly (and somewhat random) look at social-media trends.

The product is a Jomi band (or sleeve). You attach it around your water bottle and it monitors your fluid intake, reminding you, with sounds and LED indicators, that, perhaps, its time to drink more water.

Or, if you've filled your Nalgene with vodka, then perhaps it's time to stroll through the hallway naked, stealing office supplies.

"Dude, that's my highlighter."

Naturally, the band will also sync up to your mobile device via Bluetooth so you can check your hydration stats. Presumably while you urinate for the next 30 minutes.

What you might actually do with this water-consumption info is sort of a mystery, but I suppose sharing it with friends is no less ridiculous than pontificating over your fantasy football results.

In fact, I'd rather hear all about your fluid intake far more than how many fake points Tom Brady scored in your Week 3 win over the A-Town Booger Heads.

Hopefully, unlike those super-fantasy nerds, Jomi fanatics will eventually give it a rest. Because the start-up claims their crusade is "to make sure we never forget it."

"It" being to drink water.

That, or the Alamo.

So, it'll be interesting to see if this product eventually takes off. Especially since at least one similar product already exists in the market -- the HydraCoach.

(Now with the special Rutgers Edition! When it's time to drink, HydraCoach will call you a homophobic slur and launch basketballs at your head! Operators are standing by!)

Sadly, however, despite all these innovative devices, and despite the fact that water is so important to our health, I don't think I'll ever actually give up on Diet Coke. I'm in the cult. And I'm in it real bad.

But not THAT bad.

You see, the day you start selling black market copper wire to pay for Diet Coke is the day you realize you have a serious problem.

And when you then find yourself missing your kid's T-ball game to slug down 20-ouncers under a bridge with actual addicts, that's when it's time to officially re-evaluate your life.

"Hey, man, beat it! This place is for serious drugs!"

Fortunately, for me, it never came to that. But there was certainly a semi-dangerous period in life where my body's entire liquid intakeconsisted only of Diet Coke. And I say that without a hint of hyperbole.

On a normal day I would drink three or four cans at work and then come home to literally chug out of a 2-liter bottle from the fridge.

I'm very classy. Chicks dig me.

But they don't dig me nearly as much as my dog, Mikey, who would anxiously stare up into my eyes as I power-blasted "daddy's medicine."

Buy all the fancy dog toys you want, but nothing beats a plastic Diet Coke bottle

Mikey stared partly because I think he was amazed at what a disgusting, chemically infused human pig I had become. But he also stared because he was (and is) always a grateful recipient of the empty plastic bottle.

Which, for a dog, is basically like getting a new Nintendo 64 every single day. You know, back when that was actually a relevant analogy.

Of course, despite the 100% scientific fact that Diet Coke is made from the tears of angels and unicorns, and carbonated by the gentle vibrations of Art Garfunkel's voice, I believe -- though, some research doesn't necessarily agree -- that a major negative side effect of this addiction is chronic dehydration.

It's fluid. But it's not water.

Either way, it probably wasn't a smart way to live, and I was always parched.

So I've worked out some rules to help ease me back into healthy hydration. Mind you, they're terrible rules, and I routinely bend them to achieve a far more important goal. Namely, to drink more Diet Coke.

I'm enjoying one right now. Loopholes. They're everywhere!

The basic idea is that I can only have Diet Coke on the weekends and days off from work. However, business travel counts as a weekend. And, if Diet Coke is provided free as part of a work lunch or company event, that also negates the not-at-the-office rule.

Additionally, Friday at 12:00:01 a.m. is when weekends officially start. And if I'm going on vacation, the last actual day of work that week counts as a Friday.

Other exceptions include national holidays, important televised soccer matches (including pre- and post-game analysis), and whenever somebody says the secret magic word. Today it's "Synergy."

So, if you're a betting man, the smart money is on another Diet Coke!

I also have a good feeling about the A-Town Booger Heads.

How secretive databases control Hong Kong's haunted house market

Suicides and violent deaths can make a Hong Kong apartment difficult to sell

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• In Hong Kong, an apartment where a violent death has occurred can take 10-30 per cent off its market price
• Databases that track these incidents sell their services to real estate agents
• Owners complain that once their apartments appear on these lists, there's no way to change the information
• A violent death in an apartment often affects the resale value of other homeowners on the same floor

Hong Kong (CNN) -- It's a well known part of Hong Kong urban lore that an apartment where a violent death took place can often be bought for as much as 10-30 per cent off the market price.

Depending on the type of death -- suicide, natural death or gruesome murder -- the house will become more or less hongza; a Cantonese term that literally translates as "calamity house" but effectively means the house is haunted.

Less well known is that secretive databases that collate hongzaaddresses are playing on local superstitions to effectively control prices in one of the world's most expensive real estate markets.

The problem with hongza is that it spreads.

Not only will a violent murder affect the price of the apartment where it took place, it will likely slash thousands off neighboring apartments -- and even the whole building.

"Databases don't specify which apartments, data is incomplete: if an apartment has 30 or 40 storeys there's a high probability all will be affected," said Jacklyn Pun Ka-Yan, sales director at Many Wells Property Agent.

Published information might specify the floor, but not the apartment where the death occurred. In some cases, only the building's address appears.Why did haunted house cross the road?

The $640,000 parking spaceHong Kong punctures property bubble

"I think they should make it clear, they should not just state the entire floor as haunted," Patrick Fong, whose flat is listed on the same floor as a hongza apartment, told CNN.

Penthouse slums highlight Hong Kong's wealth divide

Once a property is listed on a database, however, there's no way out, says Pun. Owners have little recourse in getting their properties removed from hongza lists.

Meanwhile, the more than 5,000 real estate practitioners in the city, according to figures from the Society of Hong Kong Real Estate Agents, are bound to keep tabs onhongza properties following a 2004 court decision making it compulsory for estate agents to report houses with a dark history.

The case found against Centaline Property, one of Hong Kong's best-known real estate agencies, after a buyer pulled out of a transaction in 2001 when he discovered the apartment he planned to buy was hongza.

"If an estate agent acting for a purchaser knows, or ought to have known of the occurrence of a tragic incident in a property, and knew or ought reasonably to have known that this would materially affect the value of the property, that agent would owe a duty to alert its client to that fact," Judge Benjamin Yu said in the judgment which also acknowledged that property values could be reduced 'between 25 to 30%' in the case of a murder or suicide in a flat.

The agency was ordered to pay almost $40,000 as a result of failing to "obtain information in relation to the properties," Judge Yu wrote in his decision.

This information is now supplied by unaccountable databases that have no oversight into how the lists are compiled.

Repeated attempts by CNN to reach the most widely used information website, hk-compass.com, were unsuccessful. The page does not display the names of its managers.

Hong Kong's hot market in 'haunted' houses

Website hk-compass.com sells hongza data to realtors for about $42 a year, according to the price list on the site.Its contacts are listed behind Web Commerce Communications Limited with phone numbers under a Malaysian country code. WCC supplies an identification service, but does not run the website, one of its employees told CNN in a phone interview.

"We can only report the case to the authorities, we can't do anything because we don't know who is behind this," said Diamond Shea Hing-wan, President of the Hong Kong Owners' Club.

Meanwhile, Shea says, authorities have shown little enthusiasm for tackling a problem that is costing Hong Kong homeowners millions of dollars.

"We have contacted the Estate Agents Authority, but there's no action," Shea said, adding that he could only urge property owners to contact Shek Lai-him, a Hong Kong lawmaker who represents realtors on Hong Kong's professional constituency government.

Repeated interview requests with Shek were ignored and attempts to speak with the Transport and Housing Department were declined.

For one disgruntled property owner, who asked to only be identified as Mr Chan due to the stigma associated with owning a cursed home, the solution to the problem is simple.

"I think the government could regulate the website so that the addresses on it are more detailed," he said.

Squarefoot, another hongza database, had 3438 entries in their database, as of October 2012, the company told CNN. In some cases, only street addresses are listed, information that could effectively depreciate the value of whole buildings.

The final number of property owners affected by a hongza listing is impossible to estimate and, with huge fortunes won or lost in one of the region's most volatile property markets, few want to talk about it.

"The government will try not to do something they don't think they can handle right now," said Eddie Hui, Professor at the Department of Building and Real Estate of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

NAt. UNITED New Sponsor

NAt. UNITED New Sponsor

Aon is currently the club's main kit sponsor but is set to be replaced by Chevrolet for the start of the 2014-2015 season.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Aon will sign an eight-year contract to brand the club's training kit and United's Carrington training ground
• The London-based insurer will act as a presenting partner for Manchester United on tour
• For the 2011/2012 season, United increased revenues by £14.2 million to £117.6 million

The world's most valuable club Manchester United has penned a new multi-million dollar deal with U.S. insurance giant Aon as part of an aggressive marketing strategy aimed at driving revenue through sponsorship.

One of 36 companies that now sponsor Manchester United, Aon will sign an eight-year contract to brand the club's training kit and attach its name to United's Carrington training ground.

The deal, which runs until 2021, is reportedly worth £15 million [$23 million] a season and will see the training ground renamed Aon Training Complex.

It is the first time the Premier League giants have sold the branding rights to their coveted training ground on the outskirts of Manchester and represents another step in the club's strategy to drive up revenues.

For the 2011/2012 season, United increased revenues by £14.2 million to £117.6 million, the highest of any club in the Premier League, and have sponsorship deals with companies from Indonesian tyremakers to China Construction Bank.

United players and coaches, including manager Alex Ferguson, will also wear Aon branded training kits at all friendly and competitive domestic fixtures as well as during training sessions. Aon will have access to the club's training grounds to entertain clients and host corporate events.

Announcing the partnership, Manchester United Commercial Director Richard Arnold said in a statement: "I am delighted that this cements our relationship with Aon for a further eight years."

Additionally, the London-based insurer will act as a presenting partner for Manchester United, nicknamed the 'Red Devils,' on its pre-season tour of Asia this summer. Aon said 'Tour 2013' will focus on the Club's 325 million followers in Asia with matches planned in Bangkok, Sydney, Yokohama, Osaka and Hong Kong.

Phil Clement, Aon's Global Chief Marketing Officer said: "This announcement is the next step in the evolution of our partnership with Manchester United."

He added: "It is a privilege for Aon to be associated with the world-famous Manchester United training facility."

In October, Manchester United cashed in on a four-year deal with training kit partner DHL anticipating that they could make more money from another sponsor.

Aon is currently the club's main kit sponsor but is set to be replaced by Chevrolet for the start of the 2014-2015 season after the club signed a seven-year deal with the U.S. carmaker in July.

Manchester United, owned by the American Glazer family, look set to win a record 20th league title this season, holding an unassailable 15-point lead over their fierce rivals Manchester City.

The league leaders are set to host reigning champions Manchester City in a local derby at Old Trafford on Monday.

Magnitude-5.9 earthquake hits Mexico

A magnitude-5.9 earthquake hit central Mexico near the Pacific Coast on Sunday night, the U.S. Geological Survey said.
The earthquake was centered more than 200 miles from Mexico City, the USGS said, in the Mexican state of Michoacan. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries in Michoacan, according to state civil protection officials.

Some people in the capital said they could feel the tremors. Some neighborhoods there were without power, according to a preliminary report from the federal electrical commission.

The quake was 46 miles deep, the USGS said.

An earthquake of this magnitude is considered moderate but capable of causing considerable damage to poorly built or badly designed structures and slight to moderate damage to well-built, ordinary structures, the USGS says.

North Korea diplomacy effort grows, but sides are still far apart

North Korea's reluctance to talk

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• North Korea says its nuclear and ballistic missile programs are non-negotiable
• The U.S. and South Korea say a way to dismantle those programs must be on the table
• South Koreans may want nuclear weapons of their own, an idea that rankles China
• China's top priority is keeping Kim Jong Un's regime from collapse

 A week of critical diplomacy is set to begin in Washington, Beijing and Pyongyang. But the sides are so far apart, at least in public declarations, it is impossible to predict where any diplomatic efforts will lead.

North Korea continues to hold fast to the position that its nuclear and ballistic missile programs are non-negotiable. Pyongyang's official news agency says the North wants U.N. Security Council sanctions lifted. The sanctions were put in place after North Korea launched a three-stage rocket last December that put a satellite in orbit. More sanctions were added when the North conducted its third underground nuclear test in February.

The U.S. and South Korea insist that a verifiable path to dismantling those programs must be on the table for any negotiating process to begin.

South Koreans are increasingly saying they may need a nuclear deterrent to counter Pyongyang's threats. China, of course, detests the possibility the U.S. would reintroduce strategic nuclear weapons there. (They were removed in 1991.) Everyone is heaping pressure on China to rein in the North Koreans.

Looking at the North's rapidly growing nuclear threat, some South Koreans admit that after years of dismissing all the bombastic rhetoric from Pyongyang, real fears are emerging.

"It really is a game changer," said Hahm Chaibong, president of the ASAN Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul. "We really don't know what to do with it because these are political weapons, these are psychological weapons."

North Korea outlines exacting terms for talks with U.S., South Korea

Wanted: Bold diplomatic moves (by the other guy)

Hahm says the six-party talks don't evoke confidence anymore. In his view, what is needed is a bold, new strategy comparable to President Richard Nixon's historic 1972 visit to Beijing credited with not only laying the groundwork for rapprochement with the U.S., but opening up China to the world.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is no Zhou Enlai. But Beijing may be hoping Washington will overlook that.

"The Chinese are very keen to just get back to any kind of talks," Stephanie Kleine-Ahlbrandt told CNN. The International Crisis Group's Northeast Asia project director says more than one Chinese source has suggested a repeat of the Nixon-Zhou scenario.

"The Chinese regularly tell me, if (President) Obama would just pick up the phone and talk to Kim Jong Un, we could solve this whole thing!"

Don't hold your breath. Obama is in lockstep with his regional allies vowing not to reward Pyongyang's bad behavior.

China is feeling more wanted than ever. The North Koreans have signaled their readiness to meet with anyone from Beijing. The U.S., Japan and South Korea have repeatedly and publicly declared that China holds the key to reining in the North. While Beijing raised its hand in the vote in favor of sanctions on Pyongyang, many believe it is staying that hand when it comes to enforcing them.

"If China is not active and China is not fully committed, I don't think this is an issue that can be resolved," says professor Lee Jung-Hoon of Seoul's Yonsei University.

China has shown disdain for Kim's recent outbursts. But Beijing's No. 1 priority is keeping his regime from collapse and millions of hungry North Koreans on his side of the border. China is arguably sympathetic to young Kim's predicament. That's the reason, says Kleine-Albrandt and others, that China will not go as far as the U.S. and its partners in Asia would like.

Nuclear weapons: Who has what?

Understanding Kim Jong Un's predicament

"We think they're blackmailing us right now, we think they want money from us," said John Delury, a professor of Northeast Asian studies at Yonsei University in Seoul. "What we fail to understand is their profound insecurity."

Delury recalled the six-party talks, when U.S. diplomats were trying to persuade the North Koreans to denuclearize. "We said, look, you'll be safe without your nuclear weapons, look at Libya!"

While almost no one inside North Korea has access to the real Internet, we can safely assume that Kim is the exception. We should also assume that the young leader has watched the grisly videos of Moammar Gadhafi being lynched by a mob of his own people. Kim may see his own face in that video.

South Koreans are hardly sympathetic. "There's growing public sentiment," says Lee Jung-Hoon, that "we have to be very firm with this regime. It's good to have dialogue and, yes, we want to talk with North Korea. But it's a fading hope that somehow we could convince North Korea, through dialogue, to give up its nuclear weapons program.

"If that's the case, what's the point in engaging in dialogue? Shouldn't we now be focusing on beefing up our security so our deterrence, especially nuclear deterrence, is firm so we will not be vulnerable to these threats?"

Diplomacy to deal with North Korea is gathering momentum. But the vast difference in the positions of all the parties raises doubts about the outcome.

If it fails, many predict Pyongyang will immediately subscribe to another round of missile or nuclear tests and the familiar, and destabilizing, sequence will begin anew.

War of words: Timeline of a crisis

Eminem’s Next Album Coming ‘Post-Memorial Day.

Eminem’s follow-up to 2010′s Recovery will land in stores after Memorial Day,

100 Greatest Artists: EminemBillboard reports. Shady Records president Paul Rosenberg revealed to the publication that Eminem is “far into the process” of recording his eighth studio album. “We fully expect to be releasing a new Eminem album in 2013. He’s been working on it for some time,” said Rosenberg. “It’s safe to say that it will be post-Memorial Day at some point, but we’re not exactly sure when. We’ve got some dates locked in for him to perform live in Europe in August, so we’re trying to see what else lines up.” The still-untitled new album will be Eminem’s first release since 2011′s Hell: The Sequel with Bad Meets Evil, his project with Royce da 5’9″.

Rosenberg also said Shady Records will put out 50 Cent’s long-delayed Street King Immortal, which has been repeatedly pushed back since its originally intended 2011 release, this spring