2012
Latest
Intel reports $12.9 billion in revenue for Q1 of 2012, breaks no records
While it's hard to get upset when your company is raking in just shy of $13 billion over just three months, we're sure Intel's investors are a little sad to see revenue drop across all business divisions. With a net income of $2.7 billion, profits dropped nearly 19 percent from last quarter and everyone from the data center group to the PC client group saw revenues fall by significant margins. There's no reason to worry about Chipzilla, though. The company's seemingly constant record smashing quarters had to come to an end sometime and we're sure with its entrance into the smartphone market this year new streams of revenue will start pouring in shortly. Check out the source link for all the financial nitty gritty.
Google reports $10.65 billion in revenue for Q1 2012, splits stock
Google just announced its earnings for Q1 of 2012 and the company did not disappoint. It raked in $10.65 billion, a full 24 percent higher than last year for the same time period and a hefty improvement over last quarter. Of that rather sizable chunk of cash, $10.2 billion came from advertising revenues -- $7.3 billion of that placed on Google's own properties. GAAP net income for the quarter was $2.89 billion, more than twice that of Q1 2011, which brings its total war chest to $49.3 billion in cash on hand. Perhaps the biggest news for investors, though, is the 2-for-1 stock split, which is a perfect accompaniment for the skyrocketing price. It's worth noting however, that this new stock is a new class of non-voting shares. For more info check out the PR after the break and don't miss the letter from Larry Page and Sergey Brin at the source link.
One Piece Pirate Warriors sails to North America this year
Namco Bandai is bringing One Piece and Dynasty Warriors together, for a game that we're sure sounded way more exciting when it was announced in Japan. One Piece: Pirate Warriors for PS3 features the world and characters of the One Piece manga/anime, like Monkey D. Luffy, Zoro, and Nami, and the gameplay of Tecmo Koei's Warriors series, like hitting thousands of people.Pirate Warriors is due this year. There's no more specific release date than that, so we don't know how long we have to expand our knowledge of the series -- beyond knowing there's a stretchy-arms guy.
Apple prepping London stores for 2012 Olympics
TUAW has learned that Apple has quietly begun making preparations for the "onslaught of journalists" that are set to arrive in London for the 2012 Olympics, which are less than four months away. A high-level Apple retail employee here in London told me today that the company is planning to stock its London area retail stores with international replacement MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, and MacBook keyboards. This way, the retail outlets will have the spare parts on hand should international journalists need a quick turnaround on a damaged laptop. As my source told me, "London is going to be overrun by an onslaught of journalists when the games begin. We want to be prepared should they need help with their equipment during the time they are here." Over 10,000 print journalists -- a large number of them Mac users -- are set to descend upon London when the games begin on July 27. That's not even counting all the professional videographers, TV and radio reporters and editors, photographers, bloggers, and new media journalists. However, press won't be the only Mac users coming for the games. With an expected extra 325,000 daily visitors to London for the games, Apple wants to be fully prepared to take care of all of its users. While my source could only confirm at this time that London area stores will be stocking international replacement MacBook keyboards on hand, I was also told that Apple is considering carrying stock of MacBooks with American, Asian, and other international keyboards in the London stores. The stores can take advantage of the expected rush of international shoppers that may pump millions of GBP into the high street shops.
April Fools' Day roundup: the big toys, the small toys and the cats
Depending on where you are right now, you're either pretty much done with April Fools' Day (hence our bloated inbox thanks to all you lovely tipsters!) or it's just about to start on your side of the world. In fact, some of this year's submissions already got a head start, including the excellent 8-bit quest mode in Google Maps. Oh, don't worry, there's plenty more from Mountain View and the usual participants this year -- we've rounded up the best of the lot right after the break for your amusement. Keep an eye on this as we will be adding new goodies to the list throughout the day. [Thanks to everyone who sent these in]
RIM announces Q4 2012 earnings, Jim Balsillie resigns from board, company plans to refocus on enterprise
We've already seen a bit of big news slip out ahead of RIM's earnings announcement, and the company's now dropped another bombshell itself. Former co-CEO Jim Balsillie has resigned from his position on the company's board of directors. In a statement, Balsillie said simply: "As I complete my retirement from RIM, I'm grateful for this remarkable experience and for the opportunity to have worked with outstanding professionals who helped turn a Canadian idea into a global success." RIM also confirmed that CTO David Yach would be retiring as well, and that COO Jim Rowan has "decided to pursue other interests," but it hasn't offered any indication of a broader shakeup beyond those three departures. As for the fourth quarter earnings, RIM is reporting revenue of $4.2 billion, down 19 percent from the third quarter, and a GAAP net loss of $125 million. Total BlackBerry shipments for the quarter dipped 21 percent to 11.1 million units, while PlayBook shipments totaled 500,000, which is actually a new high water mark for the tablet (1.3 million were shipped during the fiscal year). This is also notably the company's first quarterly earnings under the leadership of new CEO Thorsten Heins, who admits that the RIM faces some "significant" business challenges over the "next several quarters," and says that he's "taking the necessary steps to address them." That includes "increased management accountability and process discipline," as well as what he describes as a "comprehensive review of strategic opportunities including partnerships and joint ventures, licensing, and other ways to leverage RIM's assets and maximize value for our stakeholders." On the company's earnings call, Heins further added that he intends to refocus on the company's enterprise business, and not try to be "all things to all people." He went on to offer an even more frank assessment of RIM's current state than he had earlier, stating that these are "difficult times" and that there's "no guarantee of success," while also adding that he's open to exploring "all opportunities." That includes the possibility of licensing BB10 which, incidentally, will apparently address the company's current LTE deficit "later this year." Asked on the call whether he would consider getting out of the hardware business altogether, Heins says that he prefers an "integrated" approach, but left the door open a little to that being done through partnerships instead of completely in-house -- he also repeatedly noted that he wants RIM devices to be high-end, "aspirational" products. In short: the company's focus now is on BB10 and enterprise, but it's seemingly leaving just about everything on the table.
Sharp's bigger and better HDTVs for 2012 start hitting store shelves
Right on schedule, Sharp let us know it's begun shipments of Aquos 7-series LED HDTVs in 60- and 70-inch sizes. With MSRPs of $2,300 and $3,300, respectively, the 745U models have edge LED lighting, 3D, WiFi and SmartCentral UI built in featuring apps including Netflix, Hulu and Facebook. The 8-series models will bring the company's latest Quad Pixel Plus 2 Quattron tech when they start shipping towards the end of this month as well as full-array LED backlighting and an ultra-slim bezel design. Check after the break for sizes, specs and prices, and let us know if these models have shown up in your neck of the woods yet.
TUAW Social Club: Chat about your new iPad and Apple TV
Happy iPad day, boys and girls! Congratulations on your new 3rd generation baby -- and possibly on your new 1080p Apple TV. If your gadget household just grew in size -- or if you're trying to decide whether to pull the trigger on buying some new tech -- come join the discussion in our comments. We and the TUAW social braintrust are here to help you get your new equipment set up and to answer questions to get you going. So jump on in -- whether you've got questions, or answers, or just want to brag about your new baby. We're excited, too!
NCAA March Madness Live app comes to iOS, Android by tourney tip-off
Following in last year's steps, the NCAA and Turner Sports have taken the wraps off their March Madness 2012 goodies for handsets, slates and PCs. Though, unlike its 2011 variants, you'll now have to part ways with a one-time $3.99 charge in order to catch your favorite college team in action. Paying such a fee will give you an all-access ticket to watch every game during the tournament, which gets rolling this Tuesday, March 13th. Moreover, you'll also be able to customize channels to your viewing pleasure, test your knowledge in live trivia and check out how the bracket's shaping up. The action-packed March Madness Live app is available now to folks on iOS, with the Android version coming to "selected" devices by the time the tourney is underway.
Panasonic prices 2012 Blu-ray lineup, high-end units due in May
Panasonic has officially priced-out its 2012 Blu-ray player lineup announced back at CES, and it includes no fewer than six boxes (and price-points) for you to choose from. Four of the new players -- ranging in price from $150 to $350 -- are capable of playing your favorite Blu-ray flicks in 3D and come with Panasonic's Viera Connect service, which provides access to online content from Amazon, Hulu and Netflix and a host of applications including Facebook, Skype and Twitter. The 2D models -- which range from $90 to $120 -- aren't left out in the cold when it comes to connectivity, and include IP VOD support for streaming web-content. What's more, the entire 2012 lineup is DLNA-enabled, can be controlled via a smartphone app and, with the exception of the DMP-BD77, has WiFi built-in. Four of the six units are available for purchase immediately, but you're going to have to wait until May if you're interested in the two higher-end models. Mosey on past the break to view the full press release.
NBC, YouTube pair up for synchronized streaming at London 2012
If the news that the Olympics is but 141 days away fills you with excitement, then you'll be overjoyed to know that NBC has abandoned Silverlight for YouTube, which is the network's official on-demand partner for the games. All events will be streamed live on Google's backbone (presumably via NBC.com), with replays of web-exclusive events, all the TV broadcasts and "behind the scenes" footage all available at your whim. Good luck finding the 3,000 plus hours necessary to watch it all, unless this is the reason you've been looking for to quit your job over the summer.
Samsung details pricing and availability for its 2012 Smart TV lineup
We've already seen pricing leak out for some models, but Samsung has today gotten official with the pricing and availability for its complete Smart TV lineup for 2012 (which includes more TVs than we can mention this post). On the LED side of things, those start out with the 26-inch EH4000 on the low-end, which runs $329.99, and top out with the company's 65-inch ES8000, which will set you back a hefty $5,099.99, although it's one of the few models that remains TBA in terms of availability. The company's plasma TV offerings for the year are comparatively fewer (but still include 16 different sets), and range from the 43-inch PN43E450 at $549.99 to the 64-inch PN64E8000 at $3,949.99. Those looking for a particular model can find the full rundown of prices and dates at the links below.
Adéu, Barcelona: Mobile World Congress 2012 comes to a close
The mobile world's biggest players have exhausted themselves again, taking us with them in the process. While HTC and Nokia seemed to grab a lot of the attention, Samsung stayed quiet -- at least for now -- there was still a veritable pile of devices and news to cover from everyone else. Let's take a look at what caught our attention during the week.
HP reports Q1 2012 financials: $30 billion net revenue, $1.5 billion net earnings, big drop in PC sales
HP reported results for its first fiscal quarter of 2012 this afternoon, including $30 billion in net revenue (down seven percent from the previous year), and net earnings of $1.5 billion (down a full 44 percent). Partly contributing to that drop is a slump from its Personal Systems Group, which saw revenue slip 15 percent year-over-year, and total desktop and notebook units decline a rather drastic 19 and 18 percent, respectively. The company's Imaging and Printing Group also saw a seven percent decline in revenue, with the total number of printer units slipping 15 percent. HP's services business managed to eke out a one percent growth with revenue of $8.6 billion, though, while its software business saw the biggest growth in any one area at 30 percent (that includes results from the recently-acquired Autonomy). The company's full rundown can be found in the press release after the break, with additional numbers available at the source link below.Update: On the company's earnings call, CEO Meg Whitman laid some of the blame for PSG's decline on hard drive shortages, but also said that HP has "under-invested in innovation for the last several years" and "been late to market too often," adding that "we have to lead again." A transcript of Whitman's prepared remarks can be found here.
Wii's 'The Last Story' coming to North America in 2012 [update: summer!]
The final surprise at the end of this morning's Nintendo Direct: The Last Story! The long-awaited action-RPG for Wii by Mistwalker will be out in North America this year, thanks to the stalwart RPG localizing staff of publisher XSEED Games.Update: A press release from XSEED specifies summer 2012. You can read it after the break.
Qualcomm Krait S4 SoC fully benchmarked, diagnosed as 'insane'
We've seen it, touched it and we fully expect it'll be turning heads in Barcelona next week, but until now Qualcomm's Krait chip has largely escaped the rigors of independent benchmarking. Fortunately, AnandTech has to come to our rescue once again with a characteristically thorough analysis at the source link. Those blue and green charts can speak for themselves, but if you're in a rush then here's the rub of it: the Krait truly is a next-gen SoC, with the dual-core 1.5GHz MSM8960-powered reference handset delivering an "insane performance advantage" of between 20 percent and 240 percent on CPU benchmarks. As we glimpsed recently, graphics performance is somewhat less ground-breaking but still very healthy, with the 28nm process allowing the Adreno 225 GPU to run at up to 400MHz, versus 266MHz on its Adreno 220 predecessor. Oh yes, this is going to be one mother of an MWC.
BlizzPlanet goes to Toy Fair 2012 in New York
Toy Fair 2012 started up on Sunday, Feb. 12, at the Jacob Javits Center in New York City, where many companies announced awesome new licensed Blizzard products that we're definitely excited about. The event ends tomorrow on Wednesday, Feb. 15. BlizzPlanet has been on the scene to report back on all of the new products coming stamped with the Blizzard seal of approval. MEGA Bloks showed up with new prototypes for the World of Warcraft MEGA Bloks sets coming soon, with cool catapults and orcish scenary. Giant MEGA Blok Thrall was on hand to pose with fans. Insight Editions showed off its Diablo III: Book of Cain, and USAopoly made one of the biggest announcements with World of Warcraft Monopoly and RISK: StarCraft. DC Unlimited continued to show off its figures for the World of Warcraft series, many of which were delayed for a long time for unknown reasons. However, these figures are coming, and they look great. Check out BlizzPlanet for coverage of all of the licensed Blizzard products showing up at the convention.
2012 HDTV pricing leaks out for Panasonic, Sony, Sharp and Samsung
The madness of CES 2012 is long over and now that we've seen all of the new HDTVs, it's time to find out when they're actually going on sale, and for how much. HDGuru has just dug up advertised pricing for some of the new models from Sony (BX, EX and HX lines) and Sharp (640, 745, 844, 847 and 945), while US pricing and ship dates for Panasonic's new plasmas have been revealed by Value Electronics. For Samsung, some of the new HDTVs have already showed up for preorders at retailers like Vanns, including the top of the line 75-inch ES8000 priced at $7,999, while a more reasonably sized 46-inch model is $2,699. Sony's prices range from $399 for the KDL-32BX320 to $2299 for the KDL-55HX750, while Sharp's range from LC-46-L540U for $1,099 to the LC-80LE844U for $6,499. Most of the ship dates are still TBA, although Panasonic is planning to unleash the ST50 later this month, followed by the UT50 and GT50, then the top of the line VT50 in May. While we wait for official announcements, you can hit the source links below for more details, and let us know if you've seen any other 2012 model information peeking out early.
Age of Conan prepares to pillage 2012 with basketweaving
The Funcom team is happy with its bone-crunching achievements in Age of Conan last year, but it has moved on to bigger and better conquests. In a new development update, the devs outline their roadmap for 2012 -- and it might not be what you'd expect. According to the update, the team felt torn between adding more content to the game and going back to rework and tweak systems that needed it: "Our problem there in 2011 was that with so much content to support, the majority of the systems time was consumed by the creation of everything that is needed for the content itself." As a result, the first half of 2012 looks to be light on the content side of things -- although with new tier-four raids, it won't be non-existent. Instead, the team will be reworking the tradeskill system this summer to make it more involving and complex than the modern "point and click" setup. Other improvements on the way include enlarging bank space, a dual-specification system, class balancing, and single-server development. Following these projects, the team will shift back into content-creation mode, starting with a new adventure pack for later this year.
Apple announces Q1 earnings, sets quarterly record with $46.33 billion in revenue
It's that time folks: time for the quarterly running of the spreadsheets. Today Apple, one the most anticipated of all, is revealing its earnings for the past three months and let's just say things are lookin' pretty good for the Cupertino crew. The company set a new record for quarterly revenue and profit in Q1 of 2012, netting $46.33 billion in total with $13.06 billion earnings -- the latter number representing about half of the company's annual profit. That's nearly twice what Apple announced for the same (at the time record-setting) period last year -- $26.74 billion and $6 billion, respectively. In total the company shipped 15.4 million iPads, 15.4 million iPods and 5.2 million Macs this quarter. That last number is particularly surprising since it represents a growth of 26 percent over last year, bucking trends that indicated PC growth would remain flat. Even the Apple TV enjoyed a record quarter, selling 1.4 million units.Perhaps more importantly, though, the company sold just over 37 million iPhones -- a 128 percent increase over the same quarter last year and greatly exceeding industry estimates. This also moves Apple back into the number one slot, ahead of Samsung which sold a stunning 35 million units this last quarter. Sales of iPhones and accessories accounted for 24.4 billion of the quarter's revenue. Apple also anticipates to have a strong Q2, though maybe not a record-breaking one, thanks to "some amazing new products in the pipeline." But even if Q2 turns out to be a slow one, Cupertino should be perfectly fine thanks to its $97 billion in cash on hand. Check out the complete PR after the break.
