Apple Passes LG to Become World’s Third Largest Mobile Phone Manufacturer

Research firm IDC today released its estimates of global mobile phone sales for the fourth quarter of and full-year 2011, finding Apple moving past LG to claim third place in the rankings for the first time. Apple was rapidly closing on LG by mid-2010, but fell back into fifth place behind ZTE during the third quarter as customers held off in anticipation of new iPhone hardware. The strong surge from the iPhone 4S launch was then enough for Apple to move up in the year’s final quarter and by a large enough margin that it was able pass LG in full-year numbers as well.

Apple updates Final Cut Pro X with multicam, broadcast monitoring

Perhaps the biggest new feature in Final Cut Pro X is the addition of Multicam editing. Typical of Apple when adding a new feature, the company didn’t just think about how to add the functionality, they thought about how to do it better than before.

Apple has received a lot of flak when they released FCP X on the Mac App Store, with people saying that it was no longer a “Pro” app and lacked many of the features one needs in the professional industry. Apple just released an update to the app that brings three of the most requested features.

It’s interesting to note that Apple isn’t playing the version numbers game — this update was 10.0.3.

Apple Q1 2012 Results: Holy Shit

Apple has just posted their Q1 2012 financial results. The company posted record-breaking revenue of $46.33 billion, with 15.43 million iPads, 37.04 million iPhones and 5.2 million Macs sold. Apple sold 15.4 million iPods, a 21 percent unit decline from the year-ago quarter. The company posted quarterly net profit of $13.06 billion, or $13.87 per diluted share. iPhone represented a 128 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter, while iPad reported a 111 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter.

Apple has almost $100 billion in cash.

A Fascinating Cricket Scorecard

This 3-day text match, allegedly played in the 1964/65 season between Pakistan Railways and Dera Ismail Khan teams has, without a doubt, the most fascinating scorecards I’ve ever come across.

Wed, 2 Dec – day 1 – Pakistan Railways 1st innings 415/2
Thu, 3 Dec – day 2 – Pakistan Railways 1st innings 825/6
Fri, 4 Dec – day 3 – Dera Ismail Khan 2nd innings 27 (12.3 ov) – end of match

Acer’s AcerCloud

Acer just showed off its AcerCloud service, something that already sounded suspiciously like Apple’s iCloud. Even the “PicStream” element sounds a lot like Photo Stream. Still not convinced? Acer basically ripped off Apple’s slide wholesale, outside of the font, which is a simulacrum of Apple’s font of yore.

Acer’s biggest announcement at CES was (discreetly) that they’re now Samsung.

Schools will Mint Rs. 1200 Cr selling Nursery Forms, says Study

Leading public schools in Delhi are likely to earn a revenue of over Rs 1,200 crore through sale of nursery admission forms this year, as against nearly Rs 1,000 crore in the previous year.

The report stated that parents do not wish to limit their options and, therefore, apply to almost 30 schools on an average, shelling out nearly Rs 20,000 in the process.

That is an insane amount of money being shelled out just to stand in the race for getting admissions. That’s about US$227,855,311 just by selling admission forms for the nursery level. Wow!

The Dearth of Android Software Updates

John Gruber on the death of Android Software Updates:

[…] it’s the difference between a company that simply wants to sell you a device, and a company that wants to sell you a device and make you happy that you bought it. Making a sale versus fostering a relationship between customer and the company.

No cookies for guessing which company he’s talking about here.

Tanjore – The web is what you make of it

Another one of Google’s brilliant ads. My favorite still remains this one.

5byfive

A fantastically minimal website to look up Album Art for all the missing albums in your music library.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey – Exclusive Movie Trailer

“The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” follows title character Bilbo Baggins, who is swept into an epic quest to reclaim the lost Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor, which was long ago conquered by the dragon Smaug. Approached out of the blue by the wizard Gandalf the Grey, Bilbo finds himself joining a company of thirteen dwarves led by the legendary warrior, Thorin Oakensheild. Their journey will take them into the Wild; through treacherous lands swarming with Goblins and Orcs, deadly Wargs and Giant Spiders, Shapeshifters and Sorcerers. Although their goal lies to the East and the wastelands of the Lonely Mountain first they must escape the goblin tunnels, where Bilbo meets the creature that will change his life forever … Gollum. Here, alone with Gollum, on the shores of an underground lake, the unassuming Bilbo Baggins not only discovers depths ofguile and courage that surprise even him, he also gains possession of Gollum’s “precious” ring that holds unexpected and useful qualities … A simple, gold ring that is tied to the fate of all Middle-earth in ways Bilbo cannot begin to know.

December 14, 2012