New Sonic Game Rumored To Be Announced Next Month

Sonic is one of those classic games that is right up there with Mario Bros. And just like Mario, Sonic keeps coming back to please fans. Some new rumors suggest that SEGA is ready to announce a new Sonic game in February.

Blizzard Still Working On Blizzard All-Stars

Many gamers are wondering what is going on with Blizzard's Blizzard All-Stars. It was unveiled at BlizzCon in 2010 and they promised that it was "coming soonish". And here we are in 2013. Many gamers have given up hope.

Tim Cook congratulates employees on another record quarter during Town Hall Q&A

“Following reporting what CEO Tim Cook referred to as another record-setting quarter, today the Apple executive sent out an email to employees congratulating the team,” Jordan Kahn reports for 9to5Mac. “Within the email, Cook thanked employees for their ‘incredible hard work and focus’ and highlighted that the company sold over 75 million iOS devices during the quarter.”

Kahn reports, “Like last year, when Apple held a Town Hall meeting following its Q1 results, Cook is asking employees to attend an employee communications meeting scheduled for today at 10 a.m. Pacific time. The email sent out last night following Apple's earnings results conference call, and it noted that employees would be able to submit questions via AppleWeb in advance.”

Read more in the full article here.

Apple in danger of losing ‘Most Valuable Company In The World’ crown

On Jan. 25, 2012, Apple Inc. passed Exxon Mobil as the most valuable publicly-traded company in the world. The gap between #1 and #2 had widened to as much as $240 billion by September 2012 as Apple shares hit all-time record highs. You know, back when we all should have sold our AAPL stock (wink).

“That gap alone is greater than the value of some 98% of the companies in the S&P 500,” Steven Russolillo noted for The Wall Street Journal. “Over the summer Apple even gained the title of biggest U.S. company of all-time, surpassing Microsoft's previous peak in 1999.” (See related articles below.)

“But Apple's fall in recent month has been fast and furious. Thursday alone, the company's market cap fell by as much as $59.48 billion, according to WSJ Market Data Group,” Russolillo reports. “At one point, the gap between Apple and Exxon's market cap had narrowed to only about $6.2 billion.”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: Damn that all-time record performance! Damn it all to hell!

Embrace the lunacy, folks, for calmer, saner heads will someday prevail and this too shall pass.

Google unveils a more beautiful, reliable, and faster image search with inline results and metadata

Google on Wednesday announced a redesign of its image search feature on Google.com that the company claims is faster, more beautiful, and more reliable. Google says you will see the new look “in the next few days” but wouldn’t get any more specific beyond that.

The new design displays images in an inline panel and lets you quickly flip through a set of images by using the keyboard (we assume this will also work on touchscreens eventually with gestures):

Google says that going back to browsing other search results is as simple as just scrolling down and picking up right where you left off. Yet this is more than just a visual update: the company is finally going to show useful information about the images it is surfacing.

Google’s images section will soon display detailed information (the metadata) right underneath it in the search results; more specifically, key information will be shown much more prominently next each image: the title of the page hosting it, the domain name it comes from, and its size. The company also says the source page will no longer load up in an iframe in the background of the image detail view, significantly speeding up the experience for users.

Do you know what that means? It means no more annoying redirects and landing pages.

All those extra clicks just to get basic data about an image has always been one of my biggest pet peeves about the company’s image search so I’m rather excited about it. Google and Bing have played around with including more details by default (but this required a setting to be turned on), hovering over images, and so on, but I’ve still found all of this to be rather unnecessary. We’ll see soon enough if Google has figured out how to address all these shortcomings.

This is great news for users, but Google is also saying it will be a boon for webmasters. With image search ditching iframes that show the image’s original site in the background, Google says it will reduce the load on the source website’s servers and also improve the accuracy of metrics such as pageviews.

This might seem like a bad idea since image search often leads to a lot of click-throughs for many sites. To compensate, Google is making the domain name for each image clickable and is also adding a new button to visit the page the image is hosted on.

With these changes, Google has effectively doubled the number of clickable targets to the source page from two to four. The company says its tests have revealed a net increase in the average click-through rate to the hosting site, but only time will tell if the same holds true once users become accustomed to the new image search.

We’ll keep you posted as Google rolls out the new image search design.

Image credit: AFP/Getty Images

Apple in China Q1 2013: Revenue up 67% to $6.8 billion as iPhone sales double YoY

Apple began breaking out its Greater China operating segment with the release of its Q1 2013 financials on Wednesday, reporting $6.83 billion in revenue in the region, up 26% sequentially and 67% year-over-year.

The company recorded $54.5 billion in revenue the first fiscal quarter, with $13.1 billion in profit. It sold 47.8 million iPhones and 22.9 million iPads.

Its performance in Greater China, which includes Taiwan and Hong Kong, continues to gain strength, but it did see the region’s share of overall revenue decline sequentially. In Q4 2012, the region accounted for 15% of overall revenue, but it made up just 12.5% in Q1 2013. It is a significant improvement year-over-year, though, as Q1 2012 saw just 8.8% coming from Greater China.

Looking across all of Apple’s operating segments in Q1 2013, Greater China actually had the lowest sequential revenue growth (26%). Japan and the rest of Asia Pacific had the highest with 88% and 89% respectively, and the company’s overall revenue jumped up 52% quarter-over-quarter.

The most likely cause for the lower growth in Greater China is the fact that the mainland didn’t receive the iPhone 5 and the iPad 4 and iPad mini until late in the quarter. The new iPads arrived on December 7th and the iPhone 5 hit the market a week later.

While some naysayers have expressed concerns that Apple’s handset market share in China is under tight pressure from low-priced Android handsets, the iPhone does still appear to be doing well in China. CEO Tim Cook noted during Wednesday’s earnings conference call that iPhone sales grew by triple-digit percentage year-over-year.

“We experienced strong iPhone growth in each of our geographic segments most notably Greater China where iPhone sales more than doubled year-over-year,” he said, as transcribed by Seeking Alpha.

It’s worth noting, though, that the year-ago quarter didn’t have a new iPhone launch on the mainland, as the iPhone 4S didn’t arrive there until January 2012.

Apple reported record iPhone sales of 2 million units in mainland China during its first weekend of sales. The iPad mini also appears to be quite popular in China, as the company has had trouble keeping it in stock since it arrived last month.

Cook himself is optimistic about China, as he told Chinese reporters earlier this month that he expects the region to eventually become its largest market. His recent trip to China included visits with top-ranking government officials and executives at Chinese carriers.

In order to continue its impressive sales growth in China, Apple will eventually need to strike a deal with China Mobile, the country’s largest carrier by a large margin with over 700 million subscribers. Sales on China Unicom and China Telecom are going fine, but the country’s smaller carriers have a much lower ceiling.

China Mobile has said it expects to sell 120 million 3G devices this year, up from 60 million in 2012. By releasing an iPhone compatible with China Mobile’s TD-SCDMA 3G network, Apple could grab a portion of that pie. Though the company might be more inclined to wait for China Mobile’s 4G TD-LTE network to arrive, that’s still a year or two away.

Next quarter will be the quarter to watch for Apple in China, as it will contain the first full quarter of iPhone 5 and iPad mini sales there, as well as the Red Friday shopping event to take advantage of Chinese New Year spending.

Garmin Approach S2 Golf Watch Contains Data On 30,000 Courses Worldwide

If you are an avid golfer and are looking to improve your club selection a little more using the latest technology, you might be interested in a new wrist deveice unveiled by Garmin today, in the form of the Garmin Approach S2.

The Garmin Approach S2 watch has been packed with the data on 30,000 golf courses worldwide out of the box, and includes extensive measurement features and a digital scorecard.

Wii U Receiving Speed Updates And Virtual Console This Spring

Nintendo has today announced via its Nintendo Direct broadcast, that two new updates will be rolling out to the new Wii U games console during the Spring.

Nintendo’s president Satoru Iwata made the announcement this morning revealing that the new updates will provide a speed boost when returning to the Wii U’s menu system.

Apple’s all-time record quarterly earnings disappoint

Apple Inc.’s “fiscal first quarter marks the first full period to include sales of the iPhone 5, which launched in September. The company, which doesn’t break out sales by models, sold a record 47.8 million iPhone smartphones in the latest period, up 29% from a year earlier,” Nathalie Tadena reports for The Wall Street Journal. “Apple also sold a record 22.9 million iPad touchscreen tablet computers in the most recent quarter, a 49% year-over-year increase.”

“For the quarter ended Dec. 29, Apple reported a profit of $13.08 billion, up 0.1% from $13.06 billion a year earlier [and the most profitable quarter for any tech company in history, narrowly edging out Apple's own $13.06 billion record set in the same quarter last year]. On a per-share basis, earnings fell to $13.81 a share from $13.87 a share as the latest period had slightly more shares outstanding. Revenue jumped 18% to $54.5 billion,” Tadena reports. “In October, the company predicted earnings of about $11.75 a share on revenue of about $52 billion. Analysts most recently projected $13.47 share and $54.73 billion, respectively.”

Tadena reports, “Shares fell 10.4% to $460.66 after hours. The stock, which reached an 11-month low last week following reports that Apple cut production for the iPhone for the current quarter, has fallen 16% over the past three months.”

Read more in the full article here.

MacBreak Weekly 334: Kobe Beef Bandwidth

This week on MacBreak Weekly, Leo Laporte, Alex Lindsay, Andy Ihnatko, and I discuss the rumors about new Apple products in 2013, Apple's upcoming quarterly earnings report, and more.

Download and subscribe: TWiT.tv

How to Guest Blog from Your SmartPhone

Guest blogging is a great way for you to reach a brand new audience for your business, grow your brand awareness, and boost your credibility and improve your SEO all while helping out a fellow blogger. The newest way to blog is of course on the trendy Smartphone, and if it is one thing bloggers like it is trends. It can be convenient to blog on the go and not have to sit down at home on a desktop computer. Here are some of the top ways you can use the phone to improve your guest blogging experience.

Smartphone Blogging is Not Impossible

It can be a little tricky writing out a full post from a phone, especially for those that are new to the idea. This won't be a daunting task for the super texters among us who have trained their thumbs accordingly. Some people choose to write the gist of their posts on their laptop and then transfer that to their Smartphone for editing on the go. There are apps, such as voice to text options that can make this an easy task. It all depends on how much you like to type, talk or transfer files.

When you are blogging as a guest on someone else's page you really do want it to be perfect. Luckily you can surf the web, double check facts and stalk Wikipedia for answers all on your phone. What if, even after all your research, while you are out and about you view a comment from a reader pointing out a glaring mistake? How awful it would feel knowing you'd have to wait until you got all the way home in order to fix it. Luckily Smartphones work wonderfully for editing your guest blog. Now if you notice a typo, or have made a huge mistake you can simply delete, retype and then be back to your perfect post in no time.

More Benefits of Smartphone Blogging Apps

Speaking of comments, another great use for the Smartphone is editing and responding to comments while on the go. In this fast paced world people expect a response to what they have said on a blog in a hurry. With the Smartphone, you don't have to stay tied to your computer at home, but can be out and about and still reply to comments, delete spam, and deal with trolls while still being out in the real world, gathering information for your next post. It is also a great way to keep the conversation going on your post, while also filling in any lulls in your day.

Lacking inspiration for your guest blog? Hit the streets and bring your phone along with you. Jot down any inspiration that strikes in a note taking app, research things on the internet, and talk to the locals. Take pictures with your phone to use on your post later, in fact, your adventure to find inspiration may just turn into the post itself!

Checking out your guest blog on your Smartphone is smart for another reason; many viewers are now viewing blogs more often from their phones themselves. If the blog looks good on your mobile phone, you can rest assured that you are reaching the widest possible audience and gaining the most potential followers. See something that isn't meshing well with the mobile view? With Smartphone in hand you are able to make tweaks and changes.

Guest blogging from your Smartphone is a fairly simple and straightforward thing, plus you get all the added convenience of having all your information on the go. If you want to make things even simpler for yourself, download blog helping apps such as BlogPress, Evernote, Photoshop Express, iBlogger, and TypePad. Blogging from your phone may soon be the only way you want to blog!

“ Helene Lazarenco is a dedicated writer at Kepard.com. She is passionate by Technology, Security software and Blogging. Don't forget to try out a VPN service when need a reliable UK VPN. ”

Technology Providers Look to The Future

Five years ago the first iPhone was released and was regarded as a whole new way of using technology on the go; phones were finally capable of not only connecting to the internet, but also surfing it smoothly. Now there are thousands of phones that can do this and most people who use these phones say that they cannot live without them and the information that they provide. With phones now able to navigate you to wherever you want to go or stream live programs while receiving important emails and phone calls all at once, you can understand why people might not be able to function without their phones.

Games have also become something that – instead of just being played at home on a computer or console – you can now play anywhere on your phone. With massive app stores filled with thousands of different games and apps, it's almost hard to choose what type of game you want to play these days. One type that has become very popular is the online casino game; with the many variations on the classic slots or roulette games you can find on some online casinos sites like JackpotCity, there is a lot to choose from. The simplicity of the games has allowed the people who make these games to spend more time on the presentation, and it shows – with great-looking as well as great-playing games available.

But what of the future, what is next on our horizon? Many people believe that cloud computing is the next step we will take in the world of technology. This would allow us to access our home computer wherever we are in the world as long as you have a screen and input methods. You would always be able to access all of your data wherever you are from a simple terminal and the internet.

Image Source : Ashleyellis

Samsung Launches White ATIV Smart PC In South Korea

Samsung launched their ATIV Smart PC, which runs Microsoft’s Windows 8 OS last year, and now they have launched a new version of the device in South Korea, although the only changes are the color scheme as this new version comes in white and keeps the same hardware specifications as the existing model.

The Samsung Ativ Smart PC features an 11 inch display with a resolution of 1366 x 768, and is powered by a 1.5 GHz Intel Atom Z2760 Clover Trail processor, it also comes with 2GB of RAM.

Samsung Galaxy S4 To Go On Sale In April, Feature Wireless Charging (Rumor)

We have been hearing a number of different rumors about Samsung’s next generation Galaxy S smartphone, the Galaxy S4, and now it would appear that the Galaxy S4 will go on sale in April of this year.

That would mean that Samsung will either unveil the Galaxy S4 at Mobile World Congress next month, or at a separate Samsung Unpacked event some time in March.

UK Satellite broadcaster Sky set to roll out local downloads on its Sky Go mobile apps

UK satellite television broadcaster Sky will launch updates to its hugely popular Sky Go apps next week that will enable users to download content and not just stream it. According to UK newspaper The Telegraph, the service will see Sky launch a subscription based service that will not only allow users to stream content that matches their actual home Sky subscription but be expanded to include movies and TV series too.

The subscription will cost 5 a month and will allow you to register up to four devices to download on-demand TV shows and movies from Sky's huge catalogue. The content will stay on your device for 30 days after you have downloaded it then it will not be available. You will be able to download as much content as you like with the only restrictions being the available storage on your device.

The move by Sky will certainly bring some competition to Lovefilm and Netflix which both offer movie and TV show streaming services in the UK. Sky however is such a well-known brand that it is sure to take a big chunk of that market when it launches next week. Currently Netflix offers its streaming service for 5.99 a month and Lovefilm is offering a special price of 4.99 a month; it's no surprise then that Sky chose the 5 a month figure for its service.

Sky claims that more than a quarter of its 11 million subscribers already actively use its Sky Go service. The Sky Go Extra service will be the first mobile TV subscription service in the UK and Ireland that offers Hollywood movies to download and watch offline.

If you are currently a Sky subscriber, would you be happy to pay an additional 5 a month to get access to this service?

Source: The Telegraph

Why Apple had to close at $500 on January 19

Joe Springer on Seeking Alpha proposed the following theory on why institutional money had a lot to gain by pushing Apple's stock price down to $500 by January 19, and a lot to lose if it had remained substantially higher.

So here is our logic to being patient. It is threefold:

1. 
   

   Apple had an enormous amount of call options speculation related to its Summer surge

   
   
2. 
   

   A huge share of this was calls with a strike of around the current price of $550 and higher that expire January 19 2013

   
   
3. 
   

   The institutional money managers that wrote those call options and bought common stock to cover will make a lot of money if a) those options expire worthless, and then b) Apple runs after that expiration date

   
   

It's an interesting theory that I don't know enough about, one way or another, to provide any commentary on. (We'll ask Chris Umiastowsky to weigh in when he can). Maybe Apple just sucks now and everyone who likes Apple products is panicking and ass covering, or maybe there's a concerted effort to make money at Apple's expense. Often the truth lies in between the extreme.

Any smart investor types out there have any light they can shine on this?

Source: Seeking Alpha via Daring Fireball, Loren Brichter

Apple job posting seeks hire to improve Siri’s wit, zeal, and overall banter

“Apple's virtual assistant Siri may have its roots in a Pentagon-funded artificial intelligence research project, but algorithms aren't everything and the Cupertino company is now turning to writers to make Siri smarter,” Tom Simonite reports for MIT Technology Review.

Simonite reports, “A job ad posted by Apple on LinkedIn appeals for: ‘[S]omeone who combines a love for language, wordplay, and conversation with demonstrated experience in bringing creative content to life within an intense technical environment.’ They'll need ‘experience in writing character-driven dialog,’ a good vocabulary, and ideally knowledge of more than one language. The end result, says the ad, will ‘evolve and enrich Siri... known for ‘her’ wit, cultural knowledge, and zeal to explain things in engaging, funny, and practical ways.’”

Read more in the full article here.

All eyes on Apple as company readies Q113 earnings release this Wednesday

“Apple this Wednesday is expected to report record iPhone and iPad sales from the 2012 holiday season,” Neil Hughes reports for AppleInsider.

“This Wednesday’s earnings conference call has already been declared Apple’s most important in a decade,” Hughes reports. “The report arrives as AAPL stock has taken a significant hit in recent months, dipping below the $500 threshold.”

Hughes reports, “The timing of Apple’s selloff is particularly interesting, as the company just completed a holiday quarter that was likely the strongest in its history. Consensus calls for Apple to report $54.58 billion in revenue, which would be up from its previous record of $46.33 billion set in the holiday 2011 period... Particular attention will also be paid to Apple’s guidance for the March quarter. Any potential decreases in demand are expected to be seen in the company’s second quarter of fiscal 2013, which is currently underway.”

Read more, including the analysts’ consensus estimates for Apple Inc. and Apple product unit sales, in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Note: Today is Martin Luther King Day in the U.S. and the markets are closed. As usual on such trading holidays, we will have limited posting today.

PadGadget’s iPad Tips: KikStart, The Perfect App For New iPad Owners – App Review

Here at Padgadget, we feel like it is part of our mission to help others make the most out of their iPad. Whether you are a businessman looking to get the most productivity out of your tablet, or an artist trying to take your creativity to the digital world, we want you to be able to use your iPad to its fullest potential.

For our first installment of Padgadget's iPad Tips, we are going to tell you about KikStart, the app for iPad beginners.

This app is an educational tool that works like an interactive textbook. It is laid out like an instructional course for new iPad users. There are 15 different chapters and a test at the end. Each chapter goes over basic details of your iPad.

For example, in the Multitasking chapter, you'll learn how to switch between apps, access the multitasking bar, and close out apps correctly. In the Camera chapter, you'll find out how to focus a shot, edit an image, and send videos to YouTube.

There are lots of video clips in addition to the reading materials to help you absorb the information. Once you've completed all 15 chapters, you can take the test to see how well you've learned to use your iPad.

This app would be perfect for an organization that is switching over to iPads for employee use. The first chapter touches on proper security and care for iPads and even mentions internal IT practices. If you own a small (or large) business and need to be sure that your new employees know how to use an iPad, you can sit them down with this app and make sure they can pass the test before they can use it. When you pass the test, you can have an official certificate of completion from BCS Charter Institute for IT emailed to you.

Because this app only offers the most basic of information, it is not useful for iPad owners that are already familiar with the fundamental workings of their tablet. If you already know how to access your music playback controls from the multitasking bar, or are aware of the photo sharing features, then you don't need this app. If the sentence above sounded foreign to you, then this should be the first app you buy.

It is a dry read- the app is more like a training manual than anything else- but it is worth it for new iPad owners. I even came across some information that was new to me. For example, I didn't realize I could split my keyboard using touch gestures (if you don't know what it means to split your keyboard, you need this app).

What I liked: The app goes over the basics pretty thoroughly. If you are new to the iPad, it is definitely worth the price.

What I didn't like: The information is presented like a training manual or textbook. It is very dry and kind of boring.

To buy or not to buy: If you are brand new to the iPad, you should get this app. If you know the basics, like how to delete apps, access Siri, and copy and paste text, then you already know most of the information presented in this app.

• Name: KikStart
• Version Reviewed: 2.0.1
• Category: Education
• Developer: BCS Learning and Development
• Price: $6.99
• Score:

This Week’s App Store Editor’s Choice: Temple Run 2

A few months ago, Apple started spotlighting a weekly Editor’s Choice for games and other apps. While the “editor” in question and the criteria for being considered a top pick are unknown, Apple has made it easier to find out about apps that deserve recognition. This week’s Editor’s Choice game is Temple Run 2. The sequel to the most popular endless runner game is more than just another version of the same. Temple Run 2 has better graphics, a more lively landscape, and offers a variety of alternatives to just running.

Temple Run was a huge hit from the moment it launched in the App Store in August of 2011. The tiny start up development team who created Temple Run, Imangi Studios, gained immense notoriety through the following year. When Temple Run: Brave, the Disney-collaborated version of Temple Run hit the App Store in June of 2012, it skyrocketed to the top of the paid apps chart.

It is no wonder Temple Run 2 is generating the kind of attention that its predecessors did. Not only did Imangi Studios launch a sequel game that is set in a new environment with a new enemy (the trifecta of evil monkeys has been replaced by a single, monstrous ape-like beast), but they managed to remake the game to be more exciting, have better graphics, and offer a greater gaming experience.

The game is very similar to its namesake. Players swipe up to jump, down to slide, and side-to-side in order to move left and right. Tilt your iPad to veer from one side of the path to the other, collecting coins and power ups.

In Temple Run 2, the path is more three-dimensional. Instead of a flat run with left and right turns, players run up and down hills, around curves, and up stairs. Additionally, players slide down zip lines and hop into a mine cart, zooming through a gem-filled cavern like Indy himself.

The graphics are significantly better than in Temple Run. The team at Imangi has not been sitting on their hands this past year, eating chocolates and drinking Champagne. They’ve been hard at work developing the next generation of the endless runner genre.

While we may not know why Apple’s “Editor” decides why an app deserves the recognition of being chosen, it is clear that Temple Run 2 receives this week’s Editor’s Choice nod for the advancement in technology, design, and overall performance from the company’s first foray into the gaming world.

Temple Run 2 is free to download and available in the App Store now.