Samsung posts record $7.4B profit on strong Galaxy sales

South Korea's Samsung Electronics reported on Friday (local time) a record quarterly profit of $7.4 billion, crediting strong sales of its Galaxy line of smartphones and tablets with making up for weak chip demand.
The electronics giant said its third-quarter operating profit increased 91 percent to $7.39 billion, in line with guidance offered earlier this month. Revenue for the quarter ended September 30 was 52.18 trillion won ($47.5 billion), a 26 percent increase over the same period last year.

The company's Mobile Communications division accounted for half that figure, logging 26.25 trillion won ($23.9 billion) in revenue. Samsung singled out the Galaxy S3 as a key component in raising profit margins. The company said sales of LTE-enabled devices increased in the third quarter but that competition hurt profit margins.

Samsung doesn't disclose its smartphone sales figures, but analysts believe the company sold about 60 million smartphones during the quarter. By comparison, Apple, which hours earlier reported profits of $8.2 billion on revenue of $36 billion, sold 26.9 million iPhones during the same period.

Its display panel business swung back to profitability with an operating profit of 1.09 trillion won ($1 billion), a 19 percent increase over the same period last year. However, profit from Samsung's chip division fell 28 percent to 1.15 trillion won on weak demand for dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chips.
The company trumpeted another record quarter despite facing tough economic conditions.
"The business environment remained difficult with global economic uncertainties persisting amid the fiscal concerns in the U.S. and Europe," Robert Yi, Samsung's chief of Investor Relations, said in a statement. "However, we continued to break our quarterly profit records."

After 1.2 billion hours of user testing, Windows 8 is good to go

Windows 8, seeing, touching, clicking and swiping is really believing," said CEO Steve Ballmer. Now Windows users will have a chance to decide for themselves whether Windows 8 is a hit or miss.

After several years of development, now it's your turn to vote for or against Windows 8 with your wallet. Windows 8 goes on sale around the world at 12:01 a.m. local time, with an upgrade price as low as $39.95.
"This is the best release of Windows ever," Microsoft Windows chief Steven Sinofsky said at the Windows 8 launch event in New York today. He noted that Windows 8 has been heavily road-tested, with 1.24 billion hours of pre-release testing across 190 countries.

Previous versions of Windows have been touted as the best ever, but Windows 8 is a much bigger bet for Microsoft.  Over a billion people use Windows, but Windows 8 will require some retraining for users to get the hang of the new interface with its touch capabilities.
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer took the stage to pronounce: "Windows 8 shatters perceptions of what a PC is." He was referring to Microsoft's Surface tablet/PC hybrid and the touch interface that is at the center of the Windows 8 user experience. Reviewers have given Microsoft kudos for technology innovation in the Surface but cite slow performance and a lack of applications for the device.

Windows 8 is not just aimed at preserving Microsoft's dominance in the business world -- it's also poised to begin its battle to keep Windows relevant and profitable in the new era of mobile computing dominated by Apple and Google.
Sinofsky touted the new Windows Store, claiming that it has more apps than any competing app store at its opening. That may be accurate, but for now Microsoft has less than 10,000 apps and both Google and Apple have more than 700,000 apps for their respective platforms.  "Developers are working fast and furiously to stock the shelves of the new Windows Store," Ballmer said.

Sony May be Preparing Its Own Cloud Service for Xperia

A "MyXperia" trademark filed by Sony has suggested the firm is preparing a new cloud service for its Xperia smartphones. The European Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market registered the trademark, which is intended to enable the "upload, storage, retrieval, download, transmission and delivery of digital content and media."

Trademark 011197332 states that the aforementioned functions apply to "mobile phones, smartphones, digital or electronic tablets, PDAs and/or portable and handheld digital electronic devices."

The trademark is also hinted at by MyXperia.com, lending further credence to a Sony-developed cloud-based service. Visiting the domain will forward users to MyXperia.Sony.com, with the sub-domain asking for credentials.

Sony is late in terms of offering mobile cloud storage services. Apple has iCloud, while search giant Google offers its Google Drive service. Both the former and the latter offers up to 5GB of free storage, with users being able to expand storage space for a fee.

iOS 6 Adoption Reaches 61 Percent (Apple News)

One month after the release of iOS 6, more than 60 percent of iOS users in the U.S. and Canada have update to the latest version of Apple's mobile operating system.

Advertising and analytics company Chitika confirmed today that a total of 61 percent of iOS devices are now running iOS 6. The latest update became available more than a month ago on September 19, which was two days before the iPhone 5 launched.

This number derives from what Chitika said is "a sample of hundreds of millions of mobile ad impressions" stemming from its advertising network during the last month.

"We expect small gains for the OS in the coming weeks, with the possibility of iOS 6 usage touching 70 percent once adoption peaks," Chitika said. "The upcoming release of the iPad mini will likely accelerate this process."

iOS 6.0.1, meanwhile, is reportedly scheduled for a release in due course, with the update said to fix several bugs.

Xperia Phones to Receive Android 4.1 Jelly Bean in 2013

Sony has announced that the latest version of Google's mobile operating system will arrive on 2012 models of Xperia smartphones. Jelly Bean will be available for several Xperia handsets sometime during "mid-Q1 2013," which represents a February release.

The Xperia T, Xperia TX, and Xperia V will be upgraded to Android 4.1, as will various other 2012-model Xperia phones such as the global versions of Xperia S, Xperia acro S, Xperia ion, Xperia P, Xperia go, and Xperia J. None of the Xperia phones released during 2011 will receive the update.

Sony failed to provide a specific release date in terms of when the devices will be updated, but promised to unveil more information "in due course."

"We were glad to provide the Android 4.0.4 upgrade for our 2011 Xperia portfolio across most markets and the majority of models but, after thorough evaluation, we have concluded they will not be upgraded beyond Ice Cream Sandwich," Sony said. "Beyond Ice Cream Sandwich we would not able to guarantee owners of these smartphones the user experience you expect and we demand."

U.S. Galaxy S3 to Receive Android 4.1 in Next Months

Updates Already Available in European Countries......

Samsung has announced that Galaxy S3 owners in the United States will receive the latest Android update, 4.1 Jelly Bean, in next coming months.

The specific launch dates of the update's availability will be unveiled by each of the device's carrier including AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless and U.S. Cellular.

Samsung has already released the Android 4.1 update for its smartphone in several regions, including the likes of France, Spain, Romania, Austria, Sweden, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Poland.

When Jelly Bean launches in the U.S., S3 owners can either download Android 4.1 via the air or through Samsung's Kies software that downloads the update to a computer, followed by a synchronization with the device. Either way, each carrier will announce its own update method.

In addition to Jelly Bean, the update will also deliver new features to Samsung's TouchWiz interface, as well as enhancements being applied to the smartphone's camera. You'll be able to apply several filters to still and video shots, utilize a low-light mode and combine separate video clips.

Jelly Bean also introduces different keyboard options such as the Swype keyboard, as well as the ability to allow users to block both incoming calls and alerts for a specific period of time.

iPhone Responsible for 43% of Smartphone Web Traffic

Online advertising network Chitika has found that nearly half of all web traffic stemming from smartphones is generated by the iPhone.

The iPhone 5 itself is responsible for 3 percent of the total smartphone usage, while older versions of the device make around 43 percent. Samsung devices, meanwhile, make up for 17 percent of traffic, with the Galaxy S3 generating 2 percent of total smartphone web usage.

Chitika said both the iPhone 5 and Galaxy S3 surpass the web traffic generated from all BlackBerry users, which equals around 2 percent. Windows Phone users are responsible for 1 percent of total online usage.

The firm had recently found that in terms of web traffic between the iPhone 5 and Samsung Galaxy S3, "millions of mobile ad impressions" originated from the former. The iPhone 5 was responsible for 56 percent of traffic, while Samsung's flagship device claimed 44 percent of total impressions.


The breakdown from Chitika in terms of web traffic share by smartphones is as follows:

iPhone 5: 3 percent

Other iPhones: 43 percent

Samsung Galaxy S3: 2 percent

Other Samsung phones: 15 percent

Non-Samsung Android smartphones: 34 percent

BlackBerry: 2 percent

Windows Phone: 1 percent

hotmail changes his environment for users

Microsoft’s focus in the new Hotmail is to enable users to be able to take advantage of all features no matter whether you’re on your home PC, using a laptop on the move or even in a tablet. This means that you can access Windows Live Messenger through Hotmail, even if the Windows Live Messenger software isn’t installed on the PC you are using. You will also be able to edit Microsoft Office documents within Hotmail, again without having to have the relevant software installed.

The integrated cloud services offer people a chance to review documents in the cloud, before deciding whether to download them. Collaborative work is made easier as users can view, share and edit Office documents in the cloud. Microsoft Hotmail will have similar looks as Microsoft Outlook.