Business, Financial & Legal - Page 130

Today was a big day for Apple as they released their second quarter financial results. Apple's stock has been in a free fall as of late and this quarter's earnings needed to be good for Apple to stop their stock from falling any further. The official numbers are in and Apple pulled in a quarterly revenue of $43.6 billion, up from $39.2 billion for the second quarter of last year.

While revenue was up, profit was down. Apple pulled in a net profit of $9.5 billion, down from $11.6 billion from the same quarter last year. Apple sold 37.4 million iPhones and 19.5 million iPads. During the same period last year, Apple sold 35.1 million iPhones and just 11.8 million iPads. Mac sales continue to be flat, with Apple selling just shy of 4 million units during the quarter.

Apple's stock price increased by roughly 5 percent during the conference call. It will be interesting to see how the stock fairs tomorrow during normal trading.

The HTC One could be facing another delay, at least in the Netherlands. Nokia has been granted a preliminary injunction against HTC over the latter's use of high-amplitude mics in their latest flagship device. As you can see in the picture below, both the Lumia 720 and HTC One use the same dual-membrane components.

Nokia asserts that the supplier of the Lumia 720 part was supposed to be manufacturing the part exclusively for Nokia: "[the] microphone components [were] invented by and manufactured exclusively for Nokia."

This could be bad news for HTC. The One has already faced delays due to component shortages and could again be facing delays. This device is the--pardon the pun--one that HTC needs to turn their floundering company around.

The Xbox 360 has enjoyed its position as the best-selling console in the United States for the 27th consecutive month in a row according to new data from NPD Group. Last month, there were 261,000 Xbox 360 units sold in the US, beating both the PS3 and Wii U.

Physical sales were down 10% year-over-year, with $992.5 million in March 2013 compared to $1.1 billion in the same month of 2012. Software sales didn't rise, but they didn't fall much either, dropping just 1% year-over-year. The biggest decline came from hardware sales, dropping 32% to $221.6 million. This should be solved with the upcoming next-generation consoles. Portable consoles are having problems, experiencing a "stronger decline" than traditional ones.

While America still reels over the Boston Marathon bombings and the fertilizer plant explosion near Waco in Texas, the House of Representatives have passed the cybersecurity bill CISPA (Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act).

CISPA was passed by a 288-127 vote, receiving support from 92 democrats. From here, it will move to the Senate, then to President Obama's desk. CISPA, if you're not already familiar, will allow private businesses to share customers' personal information with any government entity, giving the government, and entities like the NSA, some serious power.

The way laws like this get passed, is by people who throw their hands in the air claiming that not letting something like CISPA pass, is because there are threats to "US economic security". Because, you know, there aren't any other issues with the US' economy right now. Mike Rogers, co-author of CISPA and the intelligence committee chairman, argued that cyberattacks and espionage, mostly from China, where an umber of high profile attacks have originated from, are a number one threat to US economic security.

According to an analyst with the ISI Group, Apple have sold around 38 million iPhone's in the last quarter, representing an 8% increase over the same quarter of last year. Brian Marshall, an analyst with ISI Group, said he's sticking with his estimate of 38 million iPhone's for Q1 2013.

Other analysts, such as Brian White of Topeka Capital Markets and Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray, have their bets on lower numbers, with 35 million and 35.5 million, respectively. These two analysts' estimates would have Apple seeing an increase of just 0% or 1% versus each quarter, Q1 2013 and Q1 2012. Most analysts are looking ahead, waiting for Apple's next move, which is rumored to be the iPhone 5S.

Personally, I don't think this can save them unless it is a big departure from what we know and love about the iPhone, and in particular, iOS. I hope we see a new premium iPhone (6) with iOS 7, with widgets and a much better UI, oh, and much cheaper than we have now. A 128GB offering would be nice too, maybe even 256GB. Apple could shake the market up again, and they need to considering Samsung are really pushing forward with so many devices being announced and released lately in all shapes and sizes catering to all markets, all over the world.

Estimated sales numbers for the Nexus 10 aren't very positive. In fact, the estimates place sales of the Nexus 10 below that of the Microsoft Surface, which is widely regarded as a flop product. So, just how bad is it? Estimates suggest that Google has only sold somewhere between 680,000 and one million Nexus 10's.

Neither Samsung or Google provided data regarding tablet sales, but some interesting extrapolations by Ben Evans resulted in those numbers. Since the Nexus 10 features a relatively uncommon screen resolution, Evans was able to use Google's development data for screen sizes. Only 0.1 percent of devices hitting the Play Store featured the resolution present on the Nexus 10.

An estimate of 680 million Android users at the end of March was used, though this could be slightly off base. Even still, sales numbers of the Nexus 10 aren't good, especially when compared to Apple's. Apple managed to sell 36.9 million iPads in the second half of 2012 and 10 million iPad minis in Q4 alone.

Not all that glitters is gold, and this morning Bitcoin investors who traded on the Bitfloor Bitcoin exchange are waking up to that hard to learn lesson. Bitfloor has announced that it has been forced to cease all operations due to reasons "outside of our control."

Bitfloor, while not as popular as Mt. Gox, was still a key player in the Bitcoin game. In the wake of last week's Bitcoin crash, the exchange has had its bank account closed and as a direct result, must end all trading. We are guessing that when the massive sell off was over, the bank deemed Bitfloor too much of a risk and opted to part ways in an act of self-preservation.

Roman, the founder of Bitfloor, had the following to say:

Power Matters Alliance have announced that they've found some new recruits in Samsung, HTC and LG to help their wireless charging group chug along. The PMA have a long list of members currently, with AT&T, Google, Blackberry, NEC, Texas Instruments and ZTE.

The wireless charging advocacy group are pushing for a unified charging standard, where they've developed more than 1500 charging stations in Starbucks coffee shops, airports and other locations around the world. The PMA have asked their partners to integrate PMA-certified wireless charging solutions into their products by near year, with AT&T have also pledged to bake the technology into their smartphones within the same timeframe.

Until then, the wireless charging group are working with their partners to "deploy PMA-certified handsets and accessories as quickly as possible".

As part of the terms of sale for the Google Glass Explorer Edition, users are prevented from reselling, loaning, transferring, or giving them away. Users who break this rule could see their Glass deactivated and neither person would be entitled to a refund, support, or warranty. Ouch.

This is somewhat understandable. This is essentially a pre-release product that Google is allowing people to have and use. However, it's not clear if Google can legally deactivate a user's hardware because he sold it. While it's true that the purchaser agreed to the terms, it seems a bit overbearing and something where the government might step in to protect consumers.

We still don't know when Google will be releasing a finalized version Google Glass for public purchase and consumption.

During Intel's first quarter earnings call, Intel CEO Paul Otellini said that Windows 8 touch devices including laptops will see a massive price drop in the coming months when the company releases its new quad-core Bay Trail chip. He said that new innovative designs will allow future touch devices to sink into the $200 price range.

Being billed as the most powerful Atom processor ever, Bay Trail is a complete redesign of the Atom micro architecture and is said to bring Atom chips closer to the performance levels of mainstream Intel processors.

Personally I have been hesitant on purchasing a Windows 8 tablet because of the high entry level cost, but if prices truly do drop into the sub $200 range, I would consider picking up one to augment my Android tablet.

We know the PC industry is in a state of pain, but it looks like the largest chipmaker is hurting, too. Intel have just posted their latest earnings report, revealing that their quarterly profits for Q1 2013 are down 25% year-over-year.

For Q1 2013, Intel made $2.045 billion in profits, down from $2.738 billion last year. Intel CEO, Paul Otellini, said in a statement:

It gets dirtier than that, with a Bernstein Research analyst, Stacy Rasgon, writing in a recent investors' note:

A Beijing-based third-party Internet security company called Anquan, are looking for a "chief porn identification officer", a position they posted on their Weibo account.

The company was started in 2010, with the goal to "combat bad information on the internet" and promote greater control of porn on the web. Anquan have big partners in Baidu and Tencent, as well as government agencies that regulate the Internet in China. Here's a translated version of the job post:

Job Location: Beijing

You might not remember when a former Rochdale Securities trader was arrested last December or why he was arrested, but today he plead guilty to wire fraud and conspiracy after making an unauthorized purchase of $1 billion in Apple stock that led to the demise of Rochdale Securities.

David Miller's lawyer:

David Miller ordered 1.625 million shares of Apple stock, telling Rochdale that the trade was for a customer. That customer had, in fact, only ordered just 1,625 shares of Apple stock. After the stock fell in price, Rochdale lost about $5.3 million.

According to market intelligence firm ABI Research, tablet sales are set to create $64 billion worth of sales this year - up 28% year-over-year. Over the course of 2013, there are set to be approximately 150 million tablets sold, up 38% year-over-year.

Since 2010, Apple has been the tablet champion - where last year's shipments saw 60% of tablets purchased by customers come with iOS while Google's Android OS sat at 37%. The remaining 3% of the market was divided up to Windows (in its many flavors), BlackBerry Tablet OS and unidentified OS implementations.

It should be an interesting year, to see if Apple can hold onto that 60% of the tablet market, or whether they'll see those numbers erode away as people move toward Android-based slates.

We reported the bad numbers of PC shipments in Q1 earlier today, and since then Microsoft stocks have dropped by around 4.4% to $28.93 at the time of writing. Not only that, but other technology stocks have dropped, too.

Dell, HP and Intel were down in stock prices riding the news of Q1 shipment numbers. Research firm IDC had partly blamed Windows 8 for the drop in PC sales, noting that HP's shipments declined 24% year-over-year, backed up by Dell's numbers which dropped 11%. Now several Wall Street analysts have downgraded Microsoft stock, so I'm sure we'll see it tumble more in the coming days and weeks.

We heard Microsoft's Adam Orth talking about the always-on debacle that is sure to light up Internet messageboards and social networks across the world in the coming months and years, but it looks like the Microsoft creative director is no longer working with Microsoft.

A close source of Orth has told Kotaku that he resigned from the company, and wasn't fired. Microsoft were asked to confirm the news, with a spokesperson for the company responding with "we do not comment on private personnel matters". Microsoft did apologize because of Orth's comments, hours after his rant on Twitter.

One would gather that all of the publicity he received from the Internet has caused the former MS creative director to resign from his position. I'm sure he'll talk about it soon enough.

Reuters is jumping out of the gate, with fresh news that former News Corp president, Peter Chernin, who now runs The Chernin Group, has made a $500 million bid to buy Hulu. We heard that Hulu jammed a 'For Sale' sign into their front garden a few weeks ago, but this news is now much more official.

The Chernin Group owns stakes in Pandora Media Inc and the related production company Chernin Entertainment, who has produced films and TV shows such as New Girl, Terra Nova and Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Hulu is currently jointly owned by News Corp and Walt Disney Co. Peter Chernin actually had some word in building Hulu back in 2007 when he sat on the website's board.

Reuters has reported that the owners of Hulu "reached out to potential buyers in March [of 2013] after initially contemplating a deal in which one [News Corp. or Disney] would buy out the other. It is not clear whether that transaction is still being contemplated."

It looks as though the Austin, Texas could be getting Google Fiber. Google and the City of Austin have an announcement planned for this Tuesday, April 9. Sources in the city seem to think that the announcement relates to broadband, most likely meaning Austin will be getting Google Fiber.

There are definitely other explanations than Google Fiber. Google could be planning to test out same-day delivery, open a new office, or any number of things. But Google Fiber is somewhat likely. Austin did fairly well in the original contest for Google Fiber and Google has contemplated expanding outside of Kansas City.

We'll know more April 9 and will let you know the full details.

Every now and then a story comes along that makes you laugh out loud. For me, this is certainly one of those stories. Google has started receiving takedown requests of pages that contain a copyright holder's original takedown request. These robotically-generated requests are submitted because the original takedown request features the URL that was originally taken down.

It's rather hilarious and also ironic. In the picture above, you can see one of the takedown requests submitted by Fox asking for a ChillingEffects.org link to be removed. That link points to a previous Fox takedown request.

The system is clearly broken. Google is now handling over 20 million takedown requests per month and it shows no sign of slowing down. But just how we fix the DMCA isn't clear. Both Google and the movie studios have their own ideas and they are, of course, mostly contrary to each other.

AMD's representitive believes that NVIDIA may be bitter over Sony's choice to go with AMD in the PlayStation 4. His reasoning? A statement by NVIDIA's Tony Tamasi saying how the GTX 680 outperforms the PlayStation 4. He added that the 680 had been out for a year and a half.

AMD's director of ISV relations Neal Robinson responded:

It's true that the hardware being used in the PlayStation 4 isn't the latest and greatest. But AMD is able to offer both the CPU and GPU as a package, allowing certain optimizations that can work in the PlayStation 4's favor. We'll have to wait and see what Microsoft brings to the table with the Xbox 720.