Hasta La Gadget!

Sprint’s latest financials show that while the network is slowly stemming the flow of cash from its veins, it’s not quite there in terms of turning a profit. The country’s third biggest carrier suffered a $767 million net loss and an operating loss of $231 million — much less than the $629 million operating loss it had in Q2, but on-par with the $208 million lost in the same period last year. The business did manage to bring in total revenues of $8.8 billion, but had to take a hit on a $397 million write-down on costs related to Network Vision and the continued pain of the Nextel shutdown.

On the customer size, it added a further 900,000 users, sold 1.5 million iPhones and a further 1 million “LTE smartphones” in the quarter. Those with long memories will know that the company sold the same number of Apple handsets in the last two quarters, with around 40 percent going to new customers then as now. However, churn, the deadly enemy of all carriers, increased to 1.88 percent, up from 1.69 percent in Q2. The network did manage to coax 59 percent of former Nextel customers to stay tied up with Big Yellow, which may account for it selling nearly 1.2 million Direct Connect devices. While it’s hardly a rosy estimation of Sprint’s financial health, this report doesn’t take into account Softbank’s $20.1 billion buy-out or the regained controlling stake in Clearwire — so we’re expecting the next financial announcement to contain some more exciting news.

Update: During the conference call, Dan Hesse was asked about adopting a shared data plan to rival Verizon and AT&T, but unlike the last call, he was dismissive of the idea.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

Sprint sells 1.5 million iPhones, 1 million other smartphones, but makes a net loss of $767 million originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 25 Oct 2012 07:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Canon just released its Q3 2012 earnings reported, and things aren’t looking peachy right now for the camera maker: revenue is down 13 percent to $10.3 billion from last Q3 last year, while profit tumbled by 42 percent. The Japanese company directed the blame toward the “negative impact of economic deterioration” in Europe and emerging markets like China, as well as the strong yen (again). DSLR sales fell over last year, with Canon mentioning that its launch of new models like the EOS 5D Mark III didn’t help to shore its camera figures up. Other units within the company didn’t fare much better, with printer sales falling and business-to-business numbers flatlining. The company doesn’t see a bright fourth quarter either, and is projecting that sales will stay in lockstep with the sluggish economy, resulting in a 6 percent decline in operating profit for the year. It may not want to count so much on the new mirrorless offering pulling it out of the mud, though — it got fairly mixed reviews.

Filed under: Cameras, Canon

Canon announces Q3 2012 results: operating profit down 42 percent to $908 million originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 25 Oct 2012 07:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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LG’s Nexus 4, expected to be officially unveiled by Google at its event next week, has been prematurely confirmed by a UK retailer. The 4.7-inch Android handset has cropped up in a listing at Carphone Warehouse, running 4.2 Jelly Bean and packing an 8-megapixel camera and a quadcore 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4 processor, as expected. According to the page, shoppers can preorder now for delivery on October 30, with the Nexus 4 priced from free on a £31 ($50) per month, two-year agreement.

As for specifications, the phone has NFC, WiFi, 3G and Bluetooth, and measures in at 68.7 x 133.9 x 9.1 mm. LG isn’t making any runtime estimates yet, but whatever the Nexus 4 can muster is all you’re getting as the battery is believed to be fixed inside, just as per the LG Optimus G. Memory is apparently limited to 8GB, while RAM is 2GB.

Details on Jelly Bean 4.2 are sparse, at least compared to what we’ve already heard about the “point” update, though the page does confirm what sounds like a Swype rival:

“Stay in touch with Gesture Typing, a faster way of typing that lets you spell words by dragging your finger across the screen from letter to letter”

Whether this is an authorized early sale or not is a contentious point. Google is holding an Android event next week, where the Nexus 4 was expected to be one of the stars of the show alongside Jelly Bean v4.2; it’s possible Carphone Warehouse has simply jumped onto the hype bandwagon, thrown together a page based on the latest rumors and leaks, and is using it with a guesstimated price to build up pre-launch enthusiasm and sales.

So, there’s still no SIM-free pricing, and the full specs will have to wait until Google gives the official nod. Still, this is likely to be a more contentious Nexus device than others we’ve seen.

Update: The Carphone Warehouse listing has been taken down.

[via Xataka – Thanks Kote!]

LG Nexus 4 confirmed early: Ships October 30th is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto 5 is most likely looking at a 2013 release, but so far not much about the game has been revealed, i.e. gameplay, features, system requirements, story and etc. So far Rockstar has released several screenshots from the game in the past, highlighting the pretty awesome graphics that gamers can expect to see. Well Rockstar has now released the first official artwork from the upcoming game, giving us a look at some characters from the game disguised as pest control workers while wielding some pretty serious firepower. In any case the artwork looks pretty good and according to the Rockstar blog, lots of info will be coming next month. We’re not sure what they mean by that – could they be talking about a release date or game features? Either way we guess we will have to wait and find out, but do check back with us then for the latest updates!

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Rockstar launches official Grand Theft Auto 5 Facebook page, Grand Theft Auto V Confirmed by Gilbert Gottfried, But For What Consoles?,

If you use your iPhone often for video or audio recording, then you might be interested in Apogee’s new iPhone mount for video recording, which is unfortunately only compatible for the iPhone 4/4S, which means that iPhone 5 owners will have to sit this one out, at least for now. Dubbed the MiC/Zacuto Zgrip Jr., this kit has been designed for the iPhone videographer in mind and will feature a handle that will make holding the iPhone while recording videos a lot more easier, not to mention potentially a lot more stable as well. As the name suggests, it will also come with a studio-quality condenser microphone that will presumably do a better job at picking up audio compared to the iPhone’s default microphone.

It will also be able to capture sound and send it directly to GarageBand for the iPhone, iPad and Mac computers. It certainly seems like a professional setup which means that it will not come cheap. Priced at $289.95, it might be hard for the hobbyist to justify buying it, but if you think that you will get a ton of use out of it, then pop on over to Apogee’s website to place your order.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Apogee Duet 2 turns your Mac into a recording studio, Mike: Apogee’s studio quality microphone for the iPad, iPhone and Mac,