Apple hit with Siri suit over what the program can really do

Ever find yourself frustrated with how smoothly Siri seems to work for the folks in Apple’s commercials but not for you?

A New York man has filed a class-action suit against Apple, saying that the company has been “misleading and deceptive” about what the iPhone 4S virtual assistant can do.

“For example,” the suit reads, “in many of Apple’s television advertisements, individuals are shown using Siri to make appointments, find restaurants and even learn the guitar chords to classic rock songs or how to tie a tie.” According to the plaintiff, Frank M. Fazio, the commercials have misled him to buy the iPhone 4S to get Siri but that he has had a lot of trouble using the software. The lawsuit claims that Apple’s advertisements are “fiction.”

Apple declined to comment on pending litigation.

The company has said — as the lawsuit notes — that Siri is a beta product and that the software is evolving. Personally, I haven’t had that much trouble getting Siri to set appointments and alarms for me, though I have trained myself to request that Siri “Search the Web for...” because that’s normally where I’m directed. Other bloggers have documented some problems I’ve had with Siri, and voice-control software in general, including that sometimes they just have no idea what you’re saying. (See: Gizmodo’s Mat Honan on Siri’s failed attempt to play “coal train.”)

Still, I had no trouble getting Siri to do some of the things the lawsuit mentions, such as in the commercial “Rock God” where Siri shows the protagonist how to play a B-minor ninth. And, unlike Fazio, I’ve had very few issues setting reminders and appointments.

The company can probably excuse a lot with the “sequences shortened” disclaimer it puts on its ads, including, perhaps, shortening to exclude repeating one’s self.

Yet while I agree that Siri lacks features I would like to have — such as the ability to launch apps — and that the ads portray a much smoother experience than the real-life product, it’s probably a stretch to call it “fiction.”

The company has also had some problems with its latest language addition, Japanese, Kotaku reported. Some complain that the program only seems to understand basic Japanese and is far behind the voice assistant designed by the major Japanese carrier DoCoMo when used by native speakers.

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Take a First Look at ‘Halo 4′ [VIDEO]

Prepare to indulge in some Halo 4 hotness. Fans are getting a closer look at the game, thanks to leaked screenshots and a brand new developer’s diary that shows glimpses at actual gameplay.

Halo 4 is slated to hit the Xbox 360 in time for Holiday 2012. It’s also the first title developed under the auspices of 343 Industries. Bungie, the company that developed the original Halo trilogy (as well as Halo 3: ODST and Halo: Reach), split off from Microsoft in 2008.

Thus, the challenge with Halo 4 isn’t just adding another title to a successful franchise, it is ensuring that Halo 4 still looks and feels like a Halo game. To that end, 343 Industries has committed a lot of time and energy in not just the graphics, but also the story. With the new trilogy of Halo titles, 343 Industries is taking a more expansive approach, weaving in aspects of the narrative from graphic novels and books into the gameplay itself.

The first screenshots from Halo 4 leaked online via Gamerlive.TV (via NeoGAF) ahead of more formal announcements, including the developers diary video.

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Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 LTE Review

The size range of Android-based devices Samsung has made over the past year is far and away the largest any manufacturer has yet achieved, and if you’re unable to find the screen size you desire at the moment, you likely have only to wait another week or month and poof! It will appear. That said, it appears that the Galaxy Tab 7.7 has appeared here in the USA in an LTE edition made specifically for Verizon, and having taken a glance at every single other display size in the lineup I can comfortably say the following: this is one of the best.

This device is small enough to fit in your purse or carry-along sack, but a bit too large to fit in your pocket. The mid-range is still dominated by the original Galaxy Note, and the “full-size tablet” is still sitting at 10.1-inches – this 7.7-inch tablet is perfect for someone who doesn’t need access to the device 24 hours a day but wants to keep a slightly lower profile than they would be if they’d be whipping out the 10-inch tablet all day long.

That said, this device brings a few fantastical specifications along with it that trump even the 10.1-inch tablet, including the first Super AMOLED Plus display at 7.7-inches, this bringing you a higher resolution display than this device’s larger sibling. Have a peek in the hands-on video here to see how this device measures up literally against the 10.1-inch Tab and see the resolution difference as well.

The device is essentially the same thinness of its Tab relatives, that being just 7.89mm at its thickest point – putting the overall feel of this device in the “hero” range for tablets without a doubt. This is not a member of the low-class tablet family that’s been expanding at an undeniable rate over the past few years, it’s one of the much more high powered and well constructed group instead.

Above what you’re seeing is the Galaxy Tab 7.7 on top and the 10.1 below, both of them ringing in at thinner than you could ever ask for in a tablet device. Then if the 1.4GHz dual-core processor in the 7.7 didn’t impress you when you saw it tossing around pages and games like paper, the full aluminum construction of the tablet will. This tablet looks and feels nice, and has certainly very quickly become my favorite Samsung tablet to use (and I’ve used them all).

Inside you’ll find the rapidly aging Android 3.x Honeycomb, complete with Samsung’s own TouchWiz UX on top. This is the same TouchWiz we were first introduced to back at CTIA in the Spring of 2011, and it’s looking as good as it’s ever looked here in this slightly modified version over its 10.1-inch optimized cousin.

What you’ve got here is a software experience made specifically for the tablet, not quite Ice Cream Sandwich, but just about as close as you’re going to get without getting there. Samsung has been adamant about their want to update a whole swathe of their Galaxy devices inside the Summer months, so we’re hoping this device wins out in that battle as well. Meanwhile this setup is perfectly workable for your daily tablet needs. Also of note, even though it’s not unique to this device: the Android Marketplace is now optimized fully for devices with displays much larger than a smartphone – so you’re in business here from the top of the software experience down to the base.

That said, you’ve got an experience which is actually closer to what we’ve seen this week with the Galaxy Note 10.1 than it is to any of the other Galaxy Tab devices released thus far. Samsung is aiming for a much more “Note” experience for their whole line of devices here in the first months of 2012, finding heavy success it seems with this slightly unique approach started with the Galaxy Note.

Have another peek at the Superbowl push for the Note experience to see how excited Samsung is about this world of note-taking. Keep in mind that this device does not come with an S-Pen, but that you’ll be able to work any capacitive pen you’ve got on hand to rock the drawings on the screenshots you take with the device’s built-in software screenshot button in your dock.

Just like the Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus, this device also includes an infrared eye as well as the Peel app to make using this strange bit of hardware easy as pie. What you’ll be able to do with this combo is control your TV, cable box, and more. As Cory Gunther of Android Community noted back with the 7.0 Plus, “I was pleasantly surprised with how simple and easy this worked.” The same is true here – it all works right out of the box.

Have a peek at a couple of benchmark tests here if you’d like to compare them with the rest of our [Tablet Review Series], and note that comparing devices in this way should be taken mostly as a bonus entertainment exercise as it’s really the total experience you should be paying attention to when you decide on picking up a tablet such as this.

Just like the rest of the Galaxy Tab line, the battery life on this device has been nothing short of extraordinary. Tablets made by Samsung with Android have never been disappointing in the battery world, and here with an undeniably massive 5100 mAh battery, this 7.7-inch beast is able to work with high brightness and ultra-dense resolution for a full 20+ hours easy. Just so long as you’re not streaming video that whole time.

The cameras on the front and the back are OK, but certainly don’t bring the fury like the tablet-based cameras on the ASUS Transformer Prime and the HTC Jetstream do – they’re still the winners of the tablet-based camera war, if that still is a thing. Have a peek at a couple of photos and a video here to see what’s up with this 3 megapixel camera on the back of the device.

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Barnes & Noble NOOK $199 tablet a godsend

Though Barnes & Noble’s earnings call appears to have turned up sour for the most part, the NOOK lineup may have saved the book company from going Borders way. Having tested the original NOOK Color out back at the start of 2011 when it was released, giving a run down through and through, I can comfortably say the following: $199 for an upgraded version in the NOOK Tablet is quite the deal. You’ve got a high quality tablet that interacts with the Barnes & Noble store like no other, it costs the same as its biggest competitor, and it’s not the same shape as the BlackBerry PlayBook.

NOTE: the following piece is heavily opinionated – that said, it’s my set of opinions, so you can take them or leave them. Having also tried out the Kindle Fire, I can easily guarantee you you’ll be more satisfied with the NOOK Tablet or even the much cheaper NOOK Color when it comes to how great the device feels to work with and how nice the display is. These tablets sit next to one another at Target and you can see the quality difference from an aisle away.

Hold the Kindle Fire at a 30 degree angle and you’re suddenly in flipped colors world. Don’t get me wrong, the Fire does have its perks – like it’s ability to get a wide variety of applications right out of the box from the Amazon app store. But for the price, I feel like one should be getting something a bit more unique, and not just in software build.

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Samsung's Galaxy Note phablet now ready for pre-order

If you're burning to secure Samsung's Galaxy Note, AT&T is now taking pre-orders of the hybrid slate for $300.
Samsung was the only tech company with a splashy Super Bowl ad this year, and that's sure to drive interest in the manufacturer's hot product of the moment which hits stores officially on February 19. Pimping the Galaxy Note, an interesting cross between a small tablet computer and a large-screened smartphone, Samsung's spot also pointedly took a dig at Apple fans.
Whether ordinary phone or tablet shoppers, however, will be tempted by the Galaxy Note remains to be seen. When I spent some time with the product last month at CES, I admit it seemed an impressive piece of hardware, with a large and very attractive 5.3 inch Super AMOLED screen plus 4G LTE data connection.
The Galaxy Note's most distinctive attribute though is a stylus input method which Samsung calls an S Pen. With the S Pen, users can quickly snap screen shots and scribble notes on Web pages or documents. While a pen may not sound very sexy as high-tech gadget features go, I feel there is a need for a hand-written mobile interface. If you doubt that just count all the old school notepads in the room at your next meeting.
One hurdle for the Galaxy Note I see is whether people will be able to give up their primary phone for it -- especially since purchasing a cellular plan from AT&T is part of the bargain. Perhaps using the Note as a phone isn't completely outrageous given the growing popularity of Bluetooth headsets and headphones. Still, I wonder who long folks could go without their handset in favor of a massive tablet-style gizmo like this. Heck, I'd be up for the challenge myself.

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Facebook could be the next Google

The most anticipated IPO since Google is in motion. Facebook is going public and its 27-year-old founder – Mark Zuckerberg – will enter the rarified air of the world’s wealthiest people.
The $10 billion question is whether Facebook will follow in Google’s footsteps or mimic the more recent and less impressive Internet IPOs like Linkedin and Zynga.
I’m reticent to weigh in because I thought investing in Google’s IPO was folly. It would be easy to jump on the bandwagon, but my gut tells me Facebook’s long-term financial prospects will fall short of Google’s. Then again, my gut is more AARP material then a prime Facebook demographic. I must temper the fact that I have no use for the product against the reality that 845 million other people do.
Yes, Facebook has 845 million users, an advertising jackpot. But its user base is also part of the company’s challenge. Where’s the upside? The company’s own filing cited only 2 billion global Internet users – meaning Facebook already has more than a 40 percent market share.
Is the global population large enough for Facebook to match Google’s growth? The world population is about 7 billion people of which approximately 1.5 billion are either younger than 9 or older than 50. That leaves a total “market” of 5.5 billion. And something tells me many of those people aren’t carrying around iPhones. Also consider that China’s population alone is 1.2 billion where in the near term Facebook can’t play due to government censorship of the Internet.
The primary growth markets are basically India, the rest of Asia and Eastern Europe. But Facebook’s penetration rate in India is only a third to half that of the U.S. and penetration in Japan, Russia and South Korea is even lower. In part, this is the result of strong local competitors, but it’s also possible that cultural barriers exist that inhibit Facebook’s ability to duplicate U.S. adoption rates.
Nonetheless, the company’s financials are impressive. Last year Facebook generated a $1 billion in profit on $3.71 billion in revenues. Over the past two years, revenues have increased at a rate of 118 percent and operating margins average 49 percent.
Advertising accounts for 85 percent of revenues with the remainder coming from social gaming and other fees. From 2010 to 2011, the number of ads delivered grew 42 percent and the price per ad increased by 18 percent.
These are Google-esque numbers as are Facebook’s profit margins. And Facebook’s growth is slightly higher than what Google registered in the years surrounding its public offering.
As impressive is the estimate that Facebook will IPO at between 75 and 100 times earnings. Such a lofty P/E harkens back to the dot com days.
A major risk in investing in Facebook is that doing so is placing a heavy bet on Mark Zuckerberg’s ability to sustain the company’s momentum.
That’s because the company plans to issue two classes of stock, and Zuckerberg will retain 57 percent of the voting stock. And the company’s structure means it won’t be required to have independent outside directors.
So the question is: how much faith do you have in a 20-something CEO who is more passionate about “the cause” than the cash?
Zuckerberg is an idealist, albeit a brilliant one. But he is only 27 and may not fully grasp or accept the realities of the world.
Some of Mr. Zuckerberg’s perspectives on life and business provide insight into his management philosophy:
“Facebook was not originally created to be a company. It was built to accomplish a social mission.
“We don’t build services to make money; we make money to build better services.”
Call me a cynic, but I’m fairly certain that isn’t the mindset of the majority of investors.
He also believes:
“These days I think more and more people want to use services from companies that believe in something beyond simply maximizing profits.”
You’d like to think so, but I suspect most people couldn’t care less about whether a company believes in something. What the majority of consumers care about is buying a good product at a good value. Perhaps this generation will be different but I wouldn’t bank on it.
Other musings include:
“Society is at a tipping point because of the Internet. Facebook gives people the power to share and help them once again transform many of our core institutions and industries … That includes changing government … Over time, we expect governments will become more responsive to issues and concerns raised directly by all their people rather than through intermediaries controlled by a select few.”
These are noble thoughts that I hope come to fruition, and I admire Zuckerberg for attempting to leverage Facebook to forward these goals. But will doing so make a good financial investment? For Facebook to replicate Google’s success, it must not only grow its user base but also squeeze more from existing users.
To accomplish that, it must establish new forms of advertising including the soon-to-launch “Sponsored Stories” which provides advertisers access to the crown jewel home page.
So here’s my take: Facebook’s stock will take off like a rocket shortly after the IPO, then come back to earth. It will tread water for a quarter or so then gradually ascend.
However, in the long-term I don’t see Facebook matching Google’s stock appreciation track record.

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AT&T Q4 2011: Massive $6.68 Billion Loss On T-Mobile Deal Collapse, iPhone Subsidies, Pension Adjustments

NEW YORK -- AT&T Inc. is still the home of the iPhone. It activated 7.6 million of them in the latest quarter, accounting for one out of every five iPhones sold globally.

And AT&T remains heavily dependent on the iPhone to gain and keep customers, despite a vow by CEO Randall Stephenson a year ago to "very aggressively" market competing smartphones in 2011. That vow came in the wake AT&T's loss of the exclusive right to sell the iPhone in the U.S.

The iPhone accounted for 81 percent of the smartphones AT&T activated in the fourth quarter of 2011, up from 69 percent just before Stephenson made his vow.

The figures are somewhat skewed because the fourth quarter of 2011 saw the launch of a new iPhone model, the iPhone 4S, whereas the fourth quarter of 2010 didn't. Looking at annual sales instead, there's a small decline in the iPhone's percentage of AT&T smartphones from 2010 to 2011, from 72 percent to 69 percent.

The Dallas company has also retained its position as the premier U.S. iPhone carrier, beating Verizon Wireless' 4.3 million iPhone activations handily.

AT&T's iPhone dependency comes at a heavy cost, since the phone is more expensive than many other smartphones, and AT&T needs to subsidize each iPhone with hundreds of dollars to put it in customers hands for as little as $1.

That, together with massive charges for adjustments in the value of the company's pension plans, the breakup of the deal to buy T-Mobile USA and a writedown of the value of its phone-directory business, forced AT&T to post a massive loss on Thursday of $6.68 billion, or $1.12 per share, for the fourth quarter.

It was the first quarterly loss for AT&T in three years. An adjustment of pension-plan obligations was also the main culprit behind the previous loss, in the fourth quarter of 2008.

Excluding charges, net income was 42 cents per share in the latest quarter, a penny shy of Wall Street expectations, according to a poll by FactSet.

The loss compares with net income of $1.09 billion, or 18 cents per share, in the same period a year earlier.

Revenue rose 3.6 percent to $32.5 billion, helped by the smartphone sales. Analysts were expecting revenue of $31.99 billion, on average.

In premarket trading Thursday, shares of AT&T Inc. fell 71 cents, or 2.3 percent, to $29.53.

In a welcome move for investors, AT&T is shifting the cash it had hoped to buy T-Mobile with into stock buybacks, saying it will deploy $9 billion into a program that will start immediately.

Most of the iPhone activations were upgrades for people who were already AT&T subscribers. The carrier gained a net 717,000 subscribers on contract plans in the quarter. That was the best result all year, but didn't match Verizon's 1.2 million. AT&T has been lagging Verizon in this important measure for more than a year.

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hone Now Trumps Android Smartphones In U.S.: Researcher

(Reuters) - Suppliers basked in the reflection of Apple's glowing results on Wednesday after the company's gold standard iPhones and iPads flew off the shelves over the holiday sales season.
Apple's forecast-beating fourth-quarter figures late on Tuesday helped it to beat Google's Android as the largest smartphone platform in the United States and to regain the world's largest smartphone maker spot from Samsung.
Apple's results were spearheaded by sales of the iPhone 4S, which is packed with technology from British chip designer ARM, said analyst Nick James at Numis.
Apple accounts for about 10 percent of ARM's technology revenues, and for about 35 percent of graphics and video chip designer Imagination's technology revenues, he said.
"It means people are still driven by performance in terms of having the highest performance, highest functioning devices, and those tend to have quite a number of ARM-based chips in them."
"It is one of the key things that drove Imagination to come through to the next level," James added.
Shares in ARM jumped 4.2 percent, while shares in Imagination were 4.1 percent higher at 1030 GMT.
Analyst Didier Scemama at RBS said that although Apple was only one of many ARM customers -- the Cambridge-based company supplies virtually every smartphone and tablet with their cheap designs -- from a sentiment standpoint there has been a strong correlation between the two stocks.
"(Apple) should help the whole sector today, but especially Dialog Semiconductor and other suppliers," said a Frankfurt-based trader.
Shares in Dialog Semi were up 3.9 percent.
OVERTAKING SAMSUNG
Samsung became the world's largest smartphone maker in the third quarter, but analysts said the 37 million iPhones sold in the fourth quarter should easily beat Samsung's expected sales of around 30 million.
Samsung is due to report on Friday.
Research firm Kantar Worldpanel ComTech said Apple's share of the U.S. market doubled from a year ago to 44.9 percent in the October to December period, just beating the total for Android smartphones, which slipped to 44.8 percent from 50 percent.
"Overall, Apple sales are now growing at a faster rate than Android across the nine countries we cover," said Dominic Sunnebo, global consumer insight director at the research firm.
Apple's iPhone 4S also uses chips from Samsung Electronics, Qualcomm, Toshiba and a host of smaller semiconductor companies, including TriQuint, Skyworks Solutions and Avago Technologies Inc.
In stark contrast to Apple's success, sales of handset makers using Android, including Motorola Mobility, HTC and Sony Ericsson, have stumbled in the quarter.
(Reporting By Tarmo Virki, Paul Sandle and Harro ten Wolde; Editing by Will Waterman)

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The analysts weigh in on Apple's $46 billion quarter

Barclay's Ben Reitzes: No "Law of Large Numbers" Here. The upside Apple posted for the December quarter was beyond all of our most bullish scenarios, especially for iPhones and iPads. Most importantly, it seems momentum can continue given low channel inventories and demand in China. We look forward to several new product cycles this calendar year including a new line of iPads, an iPhone 5, and new Macs. In addition, we may hear more around a potential dividend and Apple's entry into the TV business during CY12 as well. With all of these drivers, Apple remains our top pick in the sector. Price target: $630, up from $555.

RBC's Mike Abramsky: iDominance! Strong Q1 results offer an early vote of confidence for CEO Tim Cook and team, and the strong guidance shows continued momentum from product cycles and expanding markets (Asia/emerging markets Q2–Q3). We remain constructive on the shares and view valuation (8x ex-cash) as compelling. Risks to our outlook include: 1) transitional risks post-Steve Jobs; 2) unexpected competitive gains; 3) margin erosion; and 4) "law of large numbers." Reiterate outperform. Price target: $600 (up from $525).

Morgan Stanley's Katy Huberty: Apple reported the cleanest and strongest EPS beat in recent history. New iPad 3 and iPhone 5 will help maintain sales momentum in 2012 and increasing possibility of cash return could re-rate the stock toward IBM's multiple range of 12-13x P/E. Raising price target to $515.

ISI's Brian Marshall: When the Apple is Ripe, it will Fall...however, this AAPL is still growing on the Tree. With minimal "real" competitive threats to AAPL's major product families in CY12, we believe the outlook for the next 4 quarters can be characterized as "smooth sailing..." We think the road for the "AAPL cart" is relatively smooth over the next few quarters. Price target: $515.

Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster: Strong Dec. Results A Precursor To Monster 2012. We believe investors are missing the potential long term upside of Apple's current market expansion and future upgrade cycles. Based on our research, we estimate that 70% of iPhones sold in the US were upgrades from previous iPhones. We believe 30% of iPhone sales were from buyers going from iPhone 4 to iPhone 4S. Lastly, our research suggests 94% of iPhone owners expect to re-buy an iPhone. Price target: $670 up from $607.

BTIG's Walter Piecyk: Apple Target up to $600 after Blowout Fiscal Q1. The most impressive element of the quarter was clearly the 37 million iPhones that were sold during the quarter which topped our street high estimate of 35 million and produced an ASP that actually grew from the prior year, a clear indication of the popularity of the higher priced iPhone 4S. We believe Apple is gaining additional momentum on Android which suffers with a fragmented product portfolio and uneven customer experience and RIM's lack of interesting product. As an example, we estimate that Verizon's non-iPhone smartphone base actually declined in Q4 while the iPhone base grew by more than 4 million. Price target: $600, up from $580.

Deutsche Bank's Chris Whitmore: Product pipeline is stacked. We believe Apple's new product portfolio remains incredibly strong. Specifically, we expect iPad 3 in C1Q12 followed by an iPhone 5 refresh in the Fall. In addition, we expect Macs with Ivy Bridge should support incremental share gains and Apple TV appears set to graduate from an "Apple hobby" later this year. We anticipate an iOS device with Siri user interface and iCloud synching has the potential to redefine the smart TV category in the same way iPhone and iPad impacted the smartphone and tablet markets, respectively. Meanwhile, we expect iPad 3 to enter the tablet market as most competitors are refocusing their efforts on Windows 8 tablets. Price target: $600 up from $530.

That's it for now. Heading to San Francisco for Macworld/iWorld.

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Apple Net Doubles as IPhone Demand Boosts Pressure on Google

(Updates with German trading in fifth paragraph.)

Jan. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Apple Inc.’s quarterly profit more than doubled as surging demand for the iPhone and iPad cemented its role as the most valuable technology company and ramped up pressure on rivals Google Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co.

Net income of $13.1 billion in the period that ended Dec. 31 ranked among the highest quarterly profits on record, putting Apple in the same league as energy companies such as Exxon Mobil Corp. and Russia’s Gazprom OAO, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Per-share profit of $13.87 for the period was more than Apple earned in any full year before 2010.

Apple sold 37 million iPhones in the period, with customers snapping up the new 4S model that went on sale in October, a week after the death of co-founder Steve Jobs. Record revenue vaulted Apple ahead of Hewlett-Packard Co. as the world’s biggest computer maker by sales and quelled concern that the company’s allure may dim as it embarks on a new era with Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook at the helm.

“The momentum that Steve Jobs created, Tim Cook is maintaining,” Gene Munster, an analyst at Piper Jaffray Cos., said in a televised interview on “Bloomberg West.” “We kind of run out of adjectives to describe this quarter.”

Apple today rose as much as 7.6 percent in German trading to the equivalent of $454.69. In the U.S., the stock soared as much as 12 percent to $468.95 in extended trading, surpassing its record closing price of $429.11 on Jan. 18.

Sales Surge

If the gain holds in today’s U.S. trading, Apple’s market value would grow to $437.1 billion, higher than Exxon’s $417.9 billion market capitalization at yesterday’s close. The two companies have been trading places atop the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index since August.

Sales rose 73 percent to $46.3 billion in the fiscal first quarter, Cupertino, California-based Apple said yesterday in a statement. Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg on average estimated net income of $10.14 a share on sales of $39 billion.

In looking ahead to the second quarter, Apple forecast revenue of about $32.5 billion and profit of $8.50 a share. That compares with average analysts’ predictions for sales of $31.9 billion and profit of $7.96 a share.

Except for the period that ended in September 2011, when customers put off iPhone purchases in anticipation of the 4S, Apple’s profit has exceeded analysts’ projections in every quarter for at least six years, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

‘Unimaginable’ Numbers

The quarterly results mark the first time Apple’s revenue topped Hewlett-Packard’s, underscoring how the company’s focus on sleek, touch-screen mobile devices has rearranged the technology industry’s pecking order.

Apple’s net income exceeded total revenue at Google, Apple’s largest rival in mobile operating systems, for the period.

“Those numbers are just unimaginable,” said Michael Obuchowski, chief investment officer at First Empire Asset Management, which has $4 billion under management, including Apple shares. “It’s still an extremely well-managed company and they are showing that the product pipeline is sufficient even now to generate growth rates that are unrivaled.”

Apple wasn’t harmed by Amazon.com Inc.’s introduction of the Kindle Fire, a tablet designed to compete against the iPad at less than half the price. Apple sold 15.4 million iPads, topping the 13.5 million projected by analysts.

Supply-Chain Investments

“Everybody expected the Kindle Fire to affect their sales,” said Carl Howe, an analyst at the Yankee Group in Boston. “All evidence shows it had none.”

Apple has accumulated $97.6 billion in cash and investments, money it’s “actively” discussing how to use, Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer said on a conference call yesterday. That could include supply-chain investments, acquisitions or other expenditures, he said.

The recent period was the first full quarter since Cook took over in August, when Jobs stepped down, six weeks before his death.

“This shows that the business model has lasting momentum without Steve Jobs,” said Keith Goddard, CEO of Capital Advisors Inc. in Tulsa, Oklahoma, whose firm manages more than $13 million in Apple shares.

Apple’s report contrasted with those of companies such as Microsoft Corp. and Intel Corp., which are grappling with slower personal-computer sales in part because customers are choosing to buy smartphones and tablets like the iPad instead. While Microsoft and Intel are benefiting from business demand for servers and software, they’re playing catch-up in the consumer arena by rolling out new mobile products, including Microsoft’s Windows 8 operating system, designed to integrate more smoothly with smartphones and tablets.

Smartphone Rivals

Rival smartphone makers also have struggled to keep pace with Apple. HTC Corp. and Motorola Mobility Holdings Corp., two of the biggest companies whose devices run Google’s Android operating system, disappointed investors with results for their most recent quarters. Research In Motion Ltd., which has lost 90 percent of its market value since June 2008, replaced its co- CEOs this week.

Holiday iPhone demand helped Apple gain market share on manufacturers including Samsung and HTC. In December, about 45 percent of U.S. shoppers who bought a smartphone in the previous three months said they purchased an iPhone, up from 25 percent in a study done two months earlier, according to Nielsen Co. Android phones were selected by 47 percent of buyers, down from 62 percent.

Cook said Apple couldn’t manufacture iPhones fast enough and that the record number announced yesterday could have been bigger.

Mac Sales Rise

Competitors also haven’t been able to match the success of the iPad, with Apple controlling 62 percent of the tablet market in the third quarter, according to researcher IDC.

The popularity of the iPad and iPhone has also buoyed sales of Apple’s lineup of Mac computers. The company sold a record 5.2 million Macs in the first quarter, up from 4.9 million in the previous period.

Hewlett-Packard had revenue of $32.1 billion in its most recent quarter, which ended in October. The Palo Alto, California-based computer maker will report fiscal first-quarter results next month.

On the call yesterday, Cook was asked to assess his early months at the helm.

“You can see our results,” Cook said. “The team is doing a fantastic job. We feel very good about where we are.”

--With assistance from Sarah Gill in New York and Jordan Robertson and Emily Chang in San Francisco. Editors: Jillian Ward, Tom Giles

To contact the reporter on this story: Adam Satariano in San Francisco at asatariano1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Tom Giles at tgiles5@bloomberg.net.

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Google will update its privacy policies

INTERNET SEARCH AND ADVERTISING FIRM Google has come up with a plan to merge its users' accounts across its whole portfolio.
Updates to privacy policies should always be treated with caution as they tend not to be to the benefit of users. This plan hatched by Google has already gathered opponents.
At Google though, it's all good, and according to the firm it is an early Spring cleaning that will sort out what has become a complex of overlapping privacy policies.
"Despite trimming our policies in 2010, we still have more than 70 (yes, you read right ... 70) privacy documents covering all of our different products. This approach is somewhat complicated. It's also at odds with our efforts to integrate our different products more closely so that we can create a beautifully simple, intuitive user experience across Google," said Alma Whitten, director of Privacy, Product and Engineering at Google.
"So we're rolling out a new main privacy policy that covers the majority of our products and explains what information we collect, and how we use it, in a much more readable way. While we've had to keep a handful of separate privacy notices for legal and other reasons, we're consolidating more than 60 into our main Privacy Policy."
The change should appease regulators, added Whitten, as they have been calling for "shorter, simpler privacy policies". The main change is that when users sign in to one Google property they will be signed in across all of them,
"In short, we'll treat you as a single user across all our products, which will mean a simpler, more intuitive Google experience," said Whitten. "People still have to do way too much heavy lifting, and we want to do a better job of helping them out."
It's a flowery announcement and one that does not sound too chilling. Google promises that it will not sell its users personal information and will not share it without their permission unless told to do so by a court order. However, it might not be taken lightly by all parties.
"@Google's Privacy Policy: Your data are belong to us," tweeted the Anonymous-related @Anon_Central account in response. "Dear @google, I do not accept your change of policy and as such I expect a full refund for my Android phone," added Privacy advocate Alexander Hanff.
Google has already been chided recently over its decision to make its searches more personal. When it announced that the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) suggested that it might be of interest to competition regulators, while Twitter was also a vocal opponent. µ

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Jailbreak iPhone 4S, iPad 2: 'Absinthe' Brings Untethered Jailbreak To Apple's A5 Devices

There's a new jailbreak in progress. An iOS jailbreak, that is.

Users of iOS devices built around an A4 processor -- such as the iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPad and some iPod Touch models -- have been enjoying anuntethered jailbreak for a few weeks, allowing them to access Cydia, an iTunes App Store alternative that offers hacks, tweaks and apps not approved for sale by Apple.

iPad 2 and iPhone 4S owners, on the other hand, were left without a jailbreak of their own due to enhanced security measures Apple built into the devices' new dual-core A5 processor.

But that all changed on Friday, Jan. 20, when iOS hackers released an untethered jailbreak tool for the two devices, both of which use the A5 chip.

An "untethered" jailbreak means users don't need to plug into a computer and use third-party software every time they need to restart their device.

The new jailbreak software, known as "Absinthe," is a result of the combined efforts of @pod2g -- the iPhone hacker responsible for the recently released iOS 5 jailbreak for A4 devices -- and members of the iPhone Dev Team and the Chronic Dev Team.

According to the iPhone Dev Team blog, jailbreaking the two devices was no easy task:

On his blog, @pod2g playfully nicknamed the combined effort a "dream team".  It’s an ironic name, because the past few weeks have left everyone involved with very little sleep and the opportunity to dream :)

In fact, according to Information Week, jailbreaking the iPhone 4S and iPad 2 took around 10 months to complete, due primarily to the more secure A5 chip Apple began using when it released the iPad 2.

"The endless war we fight to jailbreak has become more and more difficult with each new device released, and our recent battle against A5 only proved this further," Joshua Hill, akap0sixninja, said in a blog post.

Nevertheless, a working beta version of Absinthe is currently available for both Mac and Windows at the Greenpoison website, which is run by the Chronic Dev Team.

While the software is still currently in beta, the iPhone Dev Team has said on their blog that a "public version" -- more refined and with more of the bugs worked out -- will be released shortly.

While numerous users have reported success with the beta version, most, including the team responsible for the jailbreak, recommend performing a full backup in iTunes before attempting.

While jailbreaking was officially deemed legal by federal regulators in 2010, the practice does void users' warranty with Apple. Though, since the process is reversible, many users consider this a non-issue.

For those on the fence about whether or not to jailbreak their device, PC World has compiled a simple list of pros and cons of the practice called "5 Reasons to Jailbreak Your iPhone - and 5 Reasons Not."

WATCH: iPhone hacker @pod2g walks through the new iPhone 4S jailbreak.

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Deutsche Telekom Buys Time for T-Mobile From Breakup Package

Dec. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Deutsche Telekom AG, whose proposed $39 billion sale of T-Mobile USA to AT&T Inc. collapsed yesterday, has about a year before it needs to start the search for another partner amid rising costs for improving its network.

A breakup package that includes the payment of $3 billion in cash to Deutsche Telekom will only cover T-Mobile's expenses for 12 to 24 months, said Wolfgang Specht, an analyst at WestLB AG in Dusseldorf. If T-Mobile doesn't find a new partner after that time, it risks failing to generate enough operating cash flow to cover capital spending, he said.

“Stabilization is the first step and then it's about finding a new partner in the medium term,” said Specht, who has an “add” recommendation on Deutsche Telekom shares. “In the long run a standalone strategy seems impossible. Everything from here on is only a second-best solution.”

AT&T and Deutsche Telekom agreed to abandon this year's biggest transaction, which would have created the largest U.S. mobile-phone operator and dethroned market leader Verizon Wireless. Bonn-based Deutsche Telekom cited unwillingness by the U.S. Justice Department and the Federal Communications Commission to change their “non-supportive stance” even after the companies proposed changes to the size and structure of the March 20 transaction. The Justice Department sued in August to block the deal.

Roaming Agreement

Deutsche Telekom fell 0.7 percent to 8.83 euros at 4:37 p.m. in Frankfurt, valuing Europe's largest phone company at 38.2 billion euros ($50 billion). Before today, the stock had dropped 7.3 percent since the takeover was announced. Dallas- based AT&T climbed 0.9 percent to $28.99 in New York.

T-Mobile is valued at about $19 billion, Berenberg Bank analyst Paul Marsch wrote in a Dec. 12 note, citing a survey the bank held with about 40 investors “a few weeks back.”

To generate cash, Deutsche Telekom may reconsider plans to sell its tower network in the U.S., Chief Financial Officer Timotheus Hoettges said on a conference call today. A sale of those assets, which was considered until the AT&T agreement, may bring as much as $3 billion, said Jonathan Atkin, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets.

In addition to the $3 billion in cash, T-Mobile will receive a package of wireless frequencies from AT&T in 128 market areas, including Los Angeles, Dallas, Houston, Washington and San Francisco. The separation agreement also includes a roaming deal lasting at least seven years, which Deutsche Telekom said will improve T-Mobile's coverage to 280 million potential customers from 230 million.

Investment Needs

The entire package is valued at about $6 billion, Chief Executive Officer Rene Obermann said on the call, citing estimates by experts.

“Our first and biggest challenge is to improve the spectrum situation,” Obermann said in an interview on Bloomberg Television. “The current spectrum is not good enough for a clear path to LTE and we'll have to find alternative solutions.”

T-Mobile USA spent about $3 billion annually on capital expenditures in recent years, including network upgrades, the CEO said. Upgrading to the faster long-term evolution technology being rolled out by its competitors, including new spectrum, may cost $8 billion to $9 billion and such a process may take three years, RBC's Atkin said.

T-Mobile USA lost 849,000 contract customers in the first nine months of the year. Its operating income before depreciation and amortization was $3.91 billion in that period, compared with $4.14 billion a year earlier.

European Woes

T-Mobile USA CEO Philipp Humm has done an “excellent” job during recent months, Obermann said, adding that he considers the manager “well-placed” to continue running the business.

Obermann had planned to part with T-Mobile USA to focus on restoring growth in Europe amid a debt crisis that has reduced demand for phone services. Before Deutsche Telekom agreed on the deal with AT&T, it had also held talks with Sprint Nextel Corp., people with knowledge of the matter said in March. Sprint remains a potential suitor for T-Mobile in the future, said RBC's Atkin.

“They'll need to make the asset as competitive as they can, not only to bring in good results for the operating business, but also in order to fetch a better price at a future date,” he said.

Deutsche Telekom, which has vowed that its U.S. unit must finance itself, may also consider an initial public offering for the business or issue debt through the division, said Mark Chapman, an analyst at CreditSights in London.

Network Upgrades

Obermann declined to comment today on a potential partnership or a sale of T-Mobile USA to another company, adding that Deutsche Telekom will concentrate on improving T-Mobile's operating performance. The spectrum from the breakup package won't be enough to cover upgrades to LTE technology, Obermann said.

“In the longer term we have disadvantages with regards to scale and mobile frequencies,” he said. “That's why in the coming months we'll look closely into how we will be able to offer LTE despite the scarcity of spectrum.”

T-Mobile may reduce the costs of an LTE rollout by sharing next-generation wireless infrastructure with AT&T or Sprint, Atkin said. For additional frequencies, T-Mobile may look to Clearwire Corp. or Sprint for more spectrum, or wait for the next round of spectrum auctions in the U.S., which may come in as little as six months, he said.

Verizon Deal

T-Mobile missed a potential opportunity to purchase additional wireless frequencies this month after Verizon Wireless agreed to buy spectrum valued at $3.6 billion from cable companies Comcast Corp., Time Warner Cable Inc. and closely held Bright House Networks LLC. Phone companies need wireless frequencies to add capacity to meet increasing demand for high-speed mobile Internet devices.

“We think they will go back to the old fashioned sort of plan - run the business,” Sanford C. Bernstein analyst Robin Bienenstock wrote in a note today. “T-Mobile USA will compete for prepaid customers and hope that Sprint or someone else comes under enough strain they free up more spectrum.”

--With assistance from Ragnhild Kjetland in Frankfurt, Scott Moritz and Erik Schatzker in New York. Editors: Kenneth Wong, Simon Thiel.

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Ice Cream Sandwich Destined for Samsung Galaxy S II in Early 2012

Samsung Galaxy S II owners will be upgraded to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich in the first quarter of 2012, the Korean manufacturer has announced. The completely revamped OS debuted on the Galaxy Nexus phone this month, and S II models will benefit from the improvements early next year, too.

Samsung said most of its Galaxy-branded devices would get the Android 4.0 update some time next year. This includes the Galaxy S II, S II LTE, Note and R smartphones and the Galaxy Tab 10.1, 8.9, 7.7 and 7.0 Plus tablets as well. There’s no exact timeline for the update on each device, as Samsung said this depends on each market and carriers’ requirements, so individual announcements should follow in the spring.

With Android 4.0, Google hopes to bridge the gap between Android 2.X for smartphones and Android 3.X for tablets. Most parts of the operating system received a makeover with Ice Cream Sandwich; the most notable change is that new devices running the OS do not require the four Android hardware buttons anymore, replaced by contextual software keys. Other new features include face unlocking and Android Beam sharing over NFC (for NFC-equipped devices).

Other Android manufacturers are rushing to get Android 4.0 to their customers, too. Sony Ericsson acted fast and released a version of Ice Cream Sandwich that can be installed on unlocked Xperia devices such as the Arc, Neo V or Ray. Meanwhile, Motorola said the Droid Razr and Bionic on Verizon will get Android 4.0, and HTC is working to bring the updates to some of its devices early in the new year.

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Apple Gains Ground in U.S. Ruling Banning Some HTC Phones

(Updates with HTC closing price in ninth paragraph.)


Dec. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Apple Inc. won a patent-infringement ruling that bans some HTC Corp. smartphones from the U.S. starting next year, bolstering efforts to prove that devices running Google Inc.'s Android operating system copy the iPhone.

The U.S. International Trade Commission, in a review of a judge's findings in July, said yesterday that HTC is violating one Apple patent related to data-detection technology and issued a limited import exclusion order that takes effect April 19.

"HTC will completely remove it from all of our phones soon," Grace Lei, general counsel for Taoyuan, Taiwan-based HTC, said in an e-mail. The six-member commission determined that three other patents in the case weren't infringed.

While less than what Apple sought, the ruling gives the company its first victory in patent cases designed to slow the growth of Android, which former Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs claimed "ripped off the iPhone." Apple has one other case against HTC, as well as complaints against Samsung Electronics Co. and Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc., and is involved in more than a dozen other cases before the trade commission.

"The battle between Apple and Android is going to continue," said Peter Toren, a patent lawyer with Shulman Rogers in Potomac, Maryland, who has been watching the cases. "I'm not sure this decision, the way it is, is enough to push the parties to settlement. Apple doesn't have the leverage of a total exclusionary order."


Nexus One


The list of affected products and a full reason for the commission's decision, which is subject to appeal and a presidential review, wasn't immediately made public. Apple's original complaint named HTC's Nexus One, Touch Pro, Diamond, Tilt II, Dream, myTouch, Hero and Droid Eris.

Kristin Huguet, a spokeswoman for Cupertino, California- based Apple, declined to discuss the possibility of a settlement. She repeated the company's position that "competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology."

Representatives from Google had no immediate comment.

HTC shares rose by the 7 percent daily limit to NT$476 in Taipei after the company said it will buy back 10 million of its own shares, equal to 1.16 percent of those outstanding.

The ruling is the first definitive decision in the dozens of patent cases that began to proliferate in 2010 as smartphone makers battle over a market that Strategy Analytics Inc. said increased 44 percent last quarter from a year earlier to 117 million phones worldwide. HTC, the second-largest maker of Android phones, used its partnership with Google to help transform itself from a contract manufacturer founded in 1997 to the biggest U.S. smartphone seller in the third quarter.


HTC Sales


HTC generated about $5 billion in U.S. sales last year, according to a separate patent complaint it filed at the trade agency against Apple. That's more than half of HTC's $9 billion (NT$275 billion) in global sales last year.

The commission's order applies to new phone imports and doesn't force HTC to pull existing devices off U.S. store shelves. The company can import refurbished phones to fulfill warranties or insurance contracts through Dec. 19, 2013.

"This exemption does not permit HTC to call new devices 'refurbished' and to import them as replacements," the commission said.

Apple's so-called '647 patent covered a feature in which the phone recognizes a telephone number so it can be stored in directories or called without dialing.

"The '647 patent is a small user interface experience," Lei said. The company is pleased with the commission's overall decision, and "we respect it."


IPhone 4s, Galaxy



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iPhones, iPod Touches still on iOS 3.1.3 can't download new apps directly from the App Store

While fragmentation is a rare(r) problem on iOS there's still quite a few users rocking older versions on their devices. Unfortunately for them, ever since a recent update on the 16th they haven't been able to download any new apps from the App Store straight to their devices. While users of older iPod Touches and iPhones stuck on 3.1.3 by choice or incompatibility with newer OSes can still update the apps they already have and transfer software from iTunes on a computer, they can't buy or install new ones directly from the device.

We were able to confirm the issue on one of our own devices, while there's a pretty lengthy thread in Apple's support forum about the issue, but no official response yet. We'll keep you posted if word comes that this is just a glitch or if the company has decided to leave those old versions on the outside looking in.

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LifeStreet Facebook Updates iOS App to Include Timeline, Make Browsing Faster

Facebook released version 4.1 of its iPhone app to bring the new Timeline version of profiles to iOS. The app is now in line with Facebook’s offering for Android and the mobile touch site, which we detailed last week.

Facebook for iPhone has more than 57 million daily active users, according to AppData, our data tracking service covering traffic growth for apps on Facebook. For the first time, Facebook for Android has more DAU than its iPhone counterpart. The Android app reached that milestone when it passed 58 million DAU on Dec. 16.

Although Facebook for iPhone still leads in monthly active users, the Android app has a higher percentage of DAU per MAU. This suggests Facebook is more “sticky” among Android users.

Facebook noted in the iPhone app changelog that iPad support for Timeline was on its way. Facebook for iPad, has 5.5 million DAU, according to AppData.

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NASA rover begins quest to explore Mars

After a picture removing will perfect on Saturday, Mars is curiosity rover of NASA now good on its way to the red planets for an expected landing in August 2012.

If it reaches the surface, the rover will begin the most comprehensive measurement of the Mars geology, to becomes to date, can support including searches of proof that Mars supported, or, life.

To make but that, the rover on a buffet of scientific instruments, inclusive "ChemCam," the chemistry and the camera of instrument, a combination spectrometer/laser is developed through lot Alamos national laboratory, that fires an ultra precise, extremely highly operated invisible laser ray, that is sketched in order to evaporate Mars rocks, and samples leave for hours a millimeter all at once for further analysis of its formation.  The emerging plasma cloud, that is left in the entourage by the evaporated matter, is recorded of the telescope the spectrometer.

Curiosity became with the mission of shot down to discover whether life exists, or ever existed, on Mars.  It will become work the rover opportunity, that connect has the planet for more than six years processed, and in preparation for adept people there.

That newly excessively rover earth will gather and rock samples and analyzes has are favorable it for proof that the zone has, or ever, environment conditions had, that to microbial life.

NASA long said that robots will play a critical role in its plans to create a human outpost on Mars or the moon.  In order that are sketched, around to erect building, and to prepare safe landing places, are expected to arrive before people.  After the space drivers arrive to carry become the robots, payloads, and to serve expected as a carrier vehicles.

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Thomas H. Lee Intersted To Buy YAHOO U.S Sources Says

There are some rumors around which firm or firms may buy part of all of Yahoo!  (NASDAQ:  YAHOO).  There is even speculation that Microsoft (NASDAQ:  MSFT) could merge itself with silver lake to buy a 20% interest.

THL hopes to make on, effectively used buyout of the Yahoo that of USA business - that of its experience the other medium assets such as for example Nielsen Co runs, cleans canal and university vision to turn the sick firm around, said the sources.

In the taking of this approach, THL draws a different path on as other private equity firms such as for example silver lakes, KKR and TPG, that are expected to put on there in offer for a stake of to 20 percent in the firm on Monday, said sources.

Several other parties including THL are expected to sign confidentiality agreement later this week, that would give take action it up to the financial information of Yahoo, said the sources.

TPG, KKR, silver lakes and Microsoft have signs already confidentiality agreement with Yahoo, that permits over the last couples of weeks them, to prepare offer for a minority investment in Yahoo.

Your investment could come in the form of a private investment in public equity (PIPE) negotiation.  PIPES investor received typically share with discount to the public market estimation so that price could prove to be an issue in a business, especially as the from shot other option have might before it, said the sources.

Who that of USA business of Yahoo receives will have a simple problem, to treat.  With the exception of the Yahoofinanz and possible Yahoosports, every part of Yahoo of a product tissue hangs postal service from – and young people do not use tissue postal service to use like it.

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Google's Gorgeous Shopping App Finally Comes To Android

More than three months after it became came shot down on iOS devices, Google catalogue in the end Android.

Blog mobile in a post on the Google on Monday, announced Google that the free digital catalogue library are available now for download on Android tray.

Google catalogues that shot down in August are always find substantially a digitalized version of all the shining catalogues you in your mailbox.  It marks products of more than 125 brands including north current, Nike, William Sonoma and Sephora on more than 400 catalogue editions.

During Google, search is large if you know, what you seek,, Google catalogues are would manage told has "all around that seek through,", when business product Abigail Holtz the Huffington post in August.  It said, is "at its kernel it a very simple application.  It is enthused so rather to become and Findendinge that you did not know, that you dear would become".

Except searching products consumers can construct like and divide collages of things that it it over e-mail to other consumers.  They can buy also directly of the application and the search for specific things.

Although the sides of the application only versions of catalogue sides are tested digitalizes in the reason using Google book technology, described Tuaw the consumer experience as "seamless".  It regards certainly more nicely physical catalogues than the smooth paper and the type tiny.

See itself the user surface of Google catalogues, over our slide presentation (below) on.  They can visit the Androidmarkt to load the application for your Android operated tablet.

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