Apple sells 3 million iPads over the weekend, remains coy on how many were Mini

Apple has announced that it has sold three million iPads over the opening weekend, but fails to break down that figure into how many were iPad Mini tablets and how many were fourth generation full-size model.

Apple has sent forth its traditional, post-opening weekend press release trumpeting how many new iPads it has sold. We say iPads — plural — because it wasn’t only the iPad mini that went on sale, but the fourth generation iPad too, despite it being almost completely ignored by the press.

From November 2 to November 5, Apple sold 3 million iPads, which it says “doubles the previous first weekend milestone of 1.5 million Wi-Fi only models sold for the third generation in March.” Neither of the two new iPads have cellular connectivity yet, but 4G models will ship in the next few weeks.

Just in case you didn’t quite catch it, Apple CEO Tim Cook chimed in to confirm that the company “set a new launch weekend record,” and adds that it had “practically sold out of iPad minis.”

So, a resounding success? Well, possibly, but there’s no breakdown of exactly how many units of that 3 million magic number were iPad minis. Reports from around the world on Friday didn’t contain the same degree of excitement over the iPad Mini as they have for previous Apple products, and described shorter lines at stores.

This didn’t stop it from selling out, a fact that anyone could gather from a cursory glance at Twitter late in the launch day, as frustrated buyers found the shelves empty at their local stores. Apple’s statement closes with reference to online pre-orders selling-out too, confirming that “demand for the iPad mini exceeded the initial supply.”

Three million sales needed for success

Prior to the weekend, an analyst from BTIG said Apple needed to shift at least 3 million iPad Mini tablets for it to be hailed a success. For some context, the iPhone 5 sold 5 million over its opening weekend and as we reported last week, the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 has taken nearly 40 days to reach 3 million sales.

Apple analyst Gene Munster warned the company may fall short of this figure, estimating between 1 million and 1.5 million iPad mini devices would be sold. He noted that this lower than expected figure is because the iPad mini will be a “grower,” and that once people see and try it, demand will increase.

Without the aforementioned sales breakdown, it’s impossible to know how close Munster came to the truth, but he’s probably not far off. At least we assume he’s not, as for all we know, the fourth generation iPad could have been responsible for 75 percent of the total.

With the iPad mini selling out online and in stores, it certainly looks like another successful launch for Apple. But it’s difficult to say just how much of this was true demand, and how much was lack of supply. Among the endless iPad Mini rumors, you may recall an analyst warning that there would only be “acceptable” iPad mini stock levels for the first month, due to problems with the supply chain. This rumor may have come true, and comes soon after the iPhone 5’s similar problems.

The iPad mini came out in 34 countries on Friday and according to the Apple Store, is currently limited to two per customer with a two-week wait before it ships.

Source : http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/apple-sells-3-million-ipads-over-opening-weekend/

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Samsung Galaxy Camera goes on sale in the UK in two days

The Samsung Galaxy Camera drew a lot of attention when it was announced though launch date and pricing details were a bit slim. Samsung put out a press release today, saying the camera will be in the UK stores in a couple of days.

The Samsung Brand Store will get in on November 7, while other stores will get it the next day. The other stores are Carphone Warehouse, Phones4U and Jessops. Both brick-and-mortar and online stores will be selling the camera.

Jessops already have the Galaxy Camera on pre-order (in black and white) and are asking £400 for it ($640, €500) with a free 8GB SanDisk microSD to complement the 8GB of built-in storage.

Carphone Warehouse and Phones4U still haven’t put up the Camera up on their sites and Jessops only offers it through their online site (no in-store pickups yet).

By the way, a Samsung NX1000 EVIL camera with 20-50mm lens goes for £380 in the same store, so you should consider how important it is for you to have an Android powered camera.

Just so we're clear, it's an Android 4.1 Jelly Bean-powered camera with the internals of the Galaxy S III (including the quad-core CPU at 1.4GHz and 4.8" Super Clear LCD with 720p resolution) packed inside a point-and-shoot camera body (1/2.3 sensor" 16MP BSI sensor, 23mm wide-angle lens and 21x optical zoom).

By the way, the Samsung Galaxy Camera has 3G and 4G LTE connectivity, though that's for data only.

Source | Via

Source : http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_camera_goes_on_sale_in_the_uk_in_two_days-news-5043.php

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Apple paid just 2% corporation tax outside the US last year

Taxing times

Apple's financial results reveal that it managed to pay just 2% corporation tax in overseas countries last year.

The Cupertino company paid foreign (e.g. outside the US) taxes of $713 million (£445m/ AU$689m) last year, despite making $36.8 billion overseas (£23bn / AU$35.5bn).

It's not clear how much of that was paid in each specific country over the course of the year.

Only death is certain now

Tech companies are coming under increasing scrutiny in the UK, at least, where it's possible to side-step British corporation taxes by routing payments through other countries that charge a lower rate – like Ireland.

Ireland is Apple's tax haven of choice and in 2011, the company paid £10 million in tax on £6 billion-worth of UK sales by opting for the Irish route.

This is perfectly legal, although it leaves Brits somewhat short-changed in the tax department despite Apple's significant contributions to the unavoidable national insurance and VAT coffers.

Other tech giants that have been accused of avoiding paying their fair share of tax include Amazon and Google, both of whom have been invited to discuss the matter with the Public Accounts Committee at Parliament later this month.

Source : http://www.techradar.com/news/computing/apple/apple-paid-just-2-corporation-tax-outside-the-us-last-year-1110091

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Samsung may reveal “vibrant” new brand identity at CES 2013

Samsung is reported to be planning a complete brand overhaul for CES 2013, ably assisted by Brandstream and its CEO Scott Bedbury, who was responsible for turning Nike and Starbucks in global phenomenons.

Samsung is planning something special for CES 2013, and although we’re sure many new products will be among them, a rumored overhaul of the company’s branding may take center stage.

The news comes from a report published by Channel News in Australia, and quotes anonymous sources who say Samsung is almost ready to unveil a “more vibrant international brand image.” While the specifics aren’t discussed, the familiar blue Samsung oval will be replaced, and each part of Samsung’s business will get its own individual color that will be used in its advertising.

On the subject of advertising, this will shift from being based around features and benefits, to focus instead on “lifestyle activities.”

According to Channel News’ sources, the man at the helm of this ambitious project is Scott Bedbury, CEO of brand development consultancy Brandstream. This is a fascinating choice, and if anyone can enhance Samsung’s already well-established brand image, it’s Bedbury.

During his time at Nike in the late 80s and early 90s, he directed the launch of the Just Do It campaign, which you’re probably familiar with, and turned Nike around from being a youthful, aspirational American brand to being a global, all-inclusive fitness phenomenon. After Nike, he pushed Starbucks out into the world, and introduced the comfy chairs and CDs.

Since then, he has gone on to work with companies including Nokia, Facebook, Amazon, T-Mobile and Google.

Public perception problem?

A complete brand overhaul means Samsung may have taken recent comments regarding the way it’s perceived to heart. When a judge in the UK says your products aren’t as cool as Apple’s, it’s not only bound to smart, but also raise concerns about the opinion of the man on the street too.

The really interesting thing is, Bedbury isn’t a fan of “cool.” In an interview with FastCompany.com way (way) back in 2002, he warned companies “not to worship cool,” and called it a “false god.” He said (rather prophetically, as it turns out) that companies should “be more concerned with their karma than with being cool,” and closed with the thought that “big doesn’t have to be bad, that profits are only one measure of success, and that great brands can use their unique superhuman powers for good. Now that would be cool.”

An attitude like this makes a major Samsung brand identity alteration intriguing, as it could take a very different route not only to the one it has been on for a while, but the one Apple has chosen too.

Next year’s International Consumer Electronics Show begins on January 8 and ends on January 11.

Source : http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/samsung-plans-vibrant-brand-overhaul-for-ces-2013/

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Why ARM CPUs look set to end the x86 computing era

ARM's new 64-bit cores are coming next year

Is the era of x86 over? Not yet, but maybe soon if the weight of ARM-related processor developments is anything to go by, including AMD's recent ARM chip announcement.

Adding flesh to the bones of the increasingly scary looking ARM beast are a pair of new processor cores. The first is just becoming available now, the second looks set to raise the bar even higher in late 2013 or early 2014.

First up we have the ARM Cortex A15 core. It's the processor architecture you can increasingly expect to find powering high end phones and tablets over the next six months.

Out of order!

It's a triple issue, properly out-of-order CPU core. If that's just so much digital double speak, the take-home notion is that A15 does much more work per operating cycle than previous ARM cores, including ARM Cortex A9, a current favourite in phones and tablets.

The interesting comparison here is with Intel's ultramobile Atom core. Given Intel's track record for producing chips with epic instructions-per-clock capability, it's ironic to note that Atom remains a simple in-order design at a time when ARM is delivering more complex out-of-order designs.

Anywho, early benchmarks indicate ARM Cortex A15 has Atom soundly beaten. Of course, Intel is planning to finally update the Atom core next year. To date, all Atoms have been built around essentially the same processor core.

Next year's updated Atom is expected to make the move to out-of-order execution and thus bring a big boost in performance. Problem is, by then ARM has something even beastlier planned.

Say hello to 64-bit

I speak of the ARM Cortex A50 series. Two versions have been announced, the A53 and A57. In simple terms, you could say they're just 64-bit versions of existing ARM 32-bit cores. So the A53 is a 64-bit Cortex A7, the A57 a 64-bit A15.

The former is claimed to deliver the same performance as existing ARM chips, but with a fairly epic 4x improvement in power efficiency. Superphones that last a lot longer between charges is the implication.

But it's the top ranking A57 that's really interesting. Tweaks to the existing A15 pipeline, along with wider floating point execution, are said to boost performance by 30 to 40 per cent over A15.

And remember, A15 is probably over twice as fast as existing ARM cores and perhaps 50 per cent or more faster than existing Atom cores. So A15 with a 40 per cent boost is going to be one hell of an ultramobile CPU core.

Setting sights on servers

Actually, it's going to be more than that. With A57, ARM also has server computers in its sights. That's very much Intel's heartland of course.

Another interesting twist is big.LITTLE, ARM's strategy of mixing core types in a single processor. So you could have a smartphone with two A53 cores which provide excellent efficiency for simple tasks, and a pair of A57s for when you need maximum performance.

Put it altogether and you have a package that easily outstrips anything Intel's existing Atom chips can offer. Given that Intel is trying to break into the smartphone and tablet market, currently, that's hardly ideal.

Then again, maybe next year's new Atom will blow the ARMs off everything that came before. One thing's for sure. The desktop CPU war is over. Intel Core versus AMD FX? Fuggedabowdit. It's all about ultramobile.

Source : http://www.techradar.com/news/mobile-phones/phone-and-communications/tablets/mobile-computing/laptops/computing-components/processors/pc/computing/why-arm-cpus-look-set-to-end-the-x86-computing-era-1109622

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New JB ROM for Samsung Galaxy Note leaks, supports Multi-View

A couple of weeks ago we saw the first Android 4.1 Jelly Bean ROM for the Samsung Galaxy Note leak, version N7000XXLS2, but now SamMobile claim that they have the real deal straight from Samsung's servers and that the previos ROM was a system dump.

The update brings the original Galaxy Note to Android 4.1.1 and gives it the latest TouchWiz with all the bells and whistles. The ROM also has basic support for Air View (detecting the S Pen from a distance and triggering previews), but that isn't ready just yet.

Before you flash N7000XXLS2 on your Note, have a look at this video N7000XXLS7, which some lucky guy in France who got the update early. It updates the phablet to Android 4.1.2 and enables Multi-View just like on the new Note II.

The video is quite long (and in French), but here are the juicy bits - flashing the ROM at 4:00, you can see the Jelly Bean version at 7:30 and 16:50, Multi-View is shown off at 9:00 and texting works too (13:00), suggesting it's a fully featured ROM.

You can't flash this ROM has yet as it still hasn’t made its way to XDA. On the upside, LS2 is from October 9 (nearly a month ago), so Samsung should be testing a newer version internally (possibly the LS7) and the update should be nearly ready (the Galaxy S II update should arrive at the same time too).

Source 1 • Source 2 | Via

Source : http://www.gsmarena.com/new_jb_rom_for_samsung_galaxy_note_leaks_supports_multiview-news-5042.php

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Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini UK release date and price revealed

The Galaxy S3 Mini could be priced to fail

The Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini release date and price have been confirmed by a press release sent out by a high street retailer.

Over the weekend Carphone Warehouse released information on the Galaxy S3 Mini, confirming that you'll be able to pick up the handset for free on two year contracts starting at £25 per month.

According to Carphone's website the Galaxy S3 Mini will be available on O2, Orange and Vodafone, but if you don't fancy being tied to one of those networks the retailer is also offering the handset SIM-free for £299.95.

Stiff competition

We had high hopes for the Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini, but when it was finally announced the specs were far from blockbuster. The smartphone sports a non-HD 4-inch Super AMOLED display, 1GHz dual-core processor and 5MP rear camera.

Considering the recently-announced Google Nexus 4 will costs £239 for 8GB and £279 for the 16GB version and packs a 4.7-inch 768x1280 display, quad-core processor, 2GB of RAM, 8MP camera and Android 4.2 we wonder why you'd want the Samsung.

According to the Carphone Warehouse listing, the Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini release date is set for November 9, however we're taking this with a pinch of salt as Phones4U originally had November 2 as its delivery date – which was obviously incorrect.

Source : http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/samsung-galaxy-s3-mini-uk-release-date-and-price-revealed-1110049

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