This week the folks at Apple have revealed their full Q1 2013 earnings report complete with a new record for revenue in the first quarter. This includes revenue of $54.5 billion for the quarter as well as a net quarterly profit of $13.1 billion USD, this being a lovely set of results comparatively as well as on their own with last year’s revenue and net quarterly profit coming in at $46.33 billion $13.06 billion respectively. It may be the iPhone that we see as the star here, as compared to the already monstrous 37 million units sold in the first quarter last year, the 47.8 million sold reported today seems rather fantastic.
Apple made it clear that, as Tim Cook put it, “We’re thrilled with record revenue of over $54 billion and sales of over 75 million iOS devices in a single quarter.” As the margins continue to push iOS in as the dominant product Apple offers up, the results are plain to see: mobile is driving Apple’s growth right here and now. Apple’s record results today include both their highest quarterly revenue and their highest net income ever reported.
Apple showed iPhone sales to be bursting forth with 47.8 million iPhones sold in this one single quarter – that’s a record for one quarter, mind you. Compared to last year’s 37 million sold in Q1, Apple’s release of the iPhone 5 is being shown as a guiding light. Apple also showed a new record amount of iPads sold in a quarter with 22.9 million units sold – this is also busting out compared to last year’s Q1 with 15.4 million units sold.
Interestingly it seems that both the Mac and the iPod‘s units sold are going downward rather than up, this showing off how mobile is taking hold with connected devices – we want to be online and we want to have our connections made easy, it would seem. Apple’s Mac sales this quarter added up to 4.1 million compared to 5.2 million one year ago this quarter, while iPod sales added up to 12.7 compared to last year’s Q1 total at 15.4 million.
Stockholders are being rewarded this quarter once again with a cash dividend of $2.65 per share of Apple’s own common stock. With $23 billion dollars in cash flow from operations built up over the quarter as well as cash from short and long term investments adding up to $137.1 billion (up $16 billion from the quarter before this one), Apple still appears to be swimming in money.
Apple announced that they’d be changing their approach to guidance, as well. In this case changing guidance means for Apple that while they, in the past, have been reporting “conservative” point estimates, they’ll be more on-point through the future. With plans for estimates reflecting what Apple “believes they can achieve” rather than what they had “reasonable confidence” in achieving, we may be seeing slightly more perfectly adjusted predictions from them in the future, starting with what they’ve suggested today. Apple is projecting between $41 and $43 billion in revenue for Q2 of 2013 as well as a gross margin between 37.5 and 38.5%.
We’ll be seeing Apple continue to take massive chunks of the market through the future, but with something so simple as a projection for a quarter that’s less spectacular than the one we’re in now, we’ll see the company’s stock slide ever so slightly – even if it’s just today. At the moment we’re seeing Apple stock falling around 10.47% in after-hours trading. Expect this to leap up again tomorrow morning once the dust has settled.
Stay tuned to our massive Apple hub through the future and check the timeline below this paragraph to see all the Apple results from this afternoon!
Spotted outside the auditorium at Qualcomm’s China QRD (Qualcomm Reference Design) Summit earlier today were a handful of — surprise, surprise — QRD-based smartphones from China, several of which featured the Cortex-A5-based quad-core MSM8x25Q announced back in September. The usual suspects were there in the quad-core lot: Yulong had its Coolpad 5890 (EVDO) and Coolpad 7268 (UMTS), along with Hisense’sU958 (UMTS) and Tianyu’s K-Touch U86 (UMTS). These all fall within the so-called “¥1,000 ($160) phone” category and yet they are also gifted with a second SIM slot. But what really got our attention was Beidou’s Little Chilli LA-M1, which also does dual-SIM (UMTS) but packs an OGS gapless IPS display, while the others came with an LCD panel of obviously lesser quality. Read on to learn more about this mysterious phone, as well as checking out our hands-on photos of the other aforementioned quad-core QRD phones.
Here’s a little background: Little Chilli is Beidou’s fairly new brand that attempts to follow Xiaomi’s online retail model, but without supplying a heavily customized version of Android like MIUI. Most of its earlier models didn’t really stand out as they carried almost the same set of components used by other budget phones; but that was until Beidou and ZTE announced their ¥999, Tegra 3-based U950, followed by the Little Chilli Q1 which was officially launched four days ago. The latter went on sale yesterday and the first batch of 20,000 units promptly sold out — not a surprise since it comes with Tegra 3 and a 4.7-inch 720p IPS display for just ¥999 as well.
Giving the Q1’s recent availability, you could say the timing of the LA-M1’s announcement today wasn’t ideal, which is likely why Beidou has yet to mention the price and availability for its newer phone, but we did hear mentions of a sub-¥1,000 on the show floor. That would be pretty decent for the specs we know so far: 4.5-inch 800 x 480 IPS gapless display, MSM8225Q quad-core chip, dual-SIM support, an eight-megapixel main camera (which produced reasonably good photos, from what we could see), a two-megapixel front-facing camera, and Baidu cloud service integration with 15GB of storage for life, plus another 15GB free for one year. No word on battery size nor battery life yet, but our guess is that neither should disappoint.
While it isn’t exactly the most handsome phone on the planet, the M1 that we got to touch actually felt pretty solid, and it ran the native Android 4.1 quite smoothly. So given the choice (and assuming they cost the same), it’s either the M1 with its dual-SIM capability but qHD display, or the Q1 with the 720p display but with just one SIM slot. Regardless, Beidou could be well on its way to become the new Xiaomi (sans the software part), though only time can tell whether it has the reliability and after-sale service to prove it. If not, there’s still plenty of opportunity for others — Qualcomm’s already completed over 170 QRD-based projects, with about 100 more in the pipeline. Watch out, MediaTek!
This week the first official Android Community app has been launched – and it’s launched on Android devices, imagine that! This app is made for lovers of Android news that spans from the smallest of software updates to the largest of Android-toting launches, with the team behind the Android Community webspace bringing you this iteration with the same content, top to bottom! You’ll be able to read the newest of new in news, see updates from events up-to-the-minute, and check out hands-on reviews for all the newest devices on the market, quite often before they’ve been launched to the public.
If you’re already a fan of the community of which we speak, you’ll be glad to find that this app is friendly with most any Android device, be it big or small, old or new. The interface here is meant to be a no-nonsense stripped-down sort of situation where the news comes first, the flare comes second. Because of this, you’ll find that it’s both extremely swift and easy on the eyes. And it’s all free, too, of course.
The Android Community team that works in the newsroom and at the review benches there have been known to post on SlashGear as well – in fact we’re all under the same roof in the end, which is why when you hit the videos tab you’ll find both Android Community and SlashGear titles galore. If you’d like just SlashGear content across the board, mind you, you can always pick up the SlashGear app for Android, both this one and that one available from the developers in the section known as Apps by R3 Media – again, free and clear.
You’ll be working with several different tabs here in the Android Community app, the first and most-traffic’d of these being “What’s New”, aka the main news feed. You’ll be able to check the hottest Trending categories as well as access Must Read and Featured sections too. Also included is a Reviews section, the last three listed here accessible by you by hitting your Android menu button and Sections button.
Each article also has a menu which you can access with your Android menu button that includes sharing abilities with whatever apps you’ve got on your device that can share. You can also access the ability to save an article for later viewing, change the size of the text in each article, and make comments, too. Comments are also available under the grid icon in the upper left-hand corner, this also showing a back button and a reload button for updates if you’re antsy.
Inside many of the posts you’ll find a button that links you to Device Specifications and Information – this data is harvested directly from DEVICE.AC, the Android Community device directory. Rather valuable details at a tap!
So go forth to the Apps by R3 Media link above to download this first iteration of the Android Community universe for Android device right this minute, and tell us how you like it! Do not hesitate to suggest improvements for future iterations and make sure you’re keeping up with Android top to bottom, all night and day! Also note – if you’d like to search for the app at Google Play on your own, search for AndroidCommunity, one word, no spaces.
Today Facebook’s Android iteration has hit version 2.1, bringing with it a variety of features like Voice Messaging and the ability to share in a more wide open way. This upgrade’s ability to record and send voice messages is easily the most important upgrade to the Android version of this app in several weeks, with the ability to open and view photos “faster” being lower on the list. You’ll be able to download this upgrade to Facebook for free from the Google Play app store right this minute.
For those of you unaware, the messaging portion of Facebook in its app form on both Android and iOS is now more diverse in its newest iterations than ever before. In addition to being able to send voice messages, you’re able to type, add emoticons, add a photo from your own gallery, and take a new photo to insert. There’s also an Image Search function that uses – you guessed it – Bing!
When you do an Image Search and find a Bing Images result, you’re able to simply tap that image and have it planted in your message like a pro. Simple and clean indeed. This is one of several ways in which Facebook is working with Microsoft and their Bing search engine here in 2013, their connections rising up in Graph Search most prevalently this past week. Keep an eye on Bing and Facebook for news about one from the other and vice versa in the very near future.
Sharing has been updated in this Facebook 2.1 upgrade for Android allowing you to share your friend’s posts (or Stories, as Facebook calls them), to your Timeline, Pages, and Groups galore. Now we’ve only to wait for the rest of the features that the iOS version of the app has – soon, soon! Anyone hear of Facebook staff members being relegated to Android devices until this version of the app is up to snuff? Keep it classy!
The system known as Graph Search is Facebook’s way of allowing you to search through the massive amount of connections that exist between you and your friends. This search system is in Beta mode when the article you’re reading now is being published, but it’ll be in full swing by the Spring or Summer of 2013. This release is a relatively important addition to the Facebook ecosystem because before now, only the titles of people, places, and things could be searched – and photos were all but buried hopelessly under piles of galleries with no search connections at all.
In a Nutshell
The Facebook Graph Search bar will be appearing (or already exists) at the top of your Facebook page and works with instant suggestions based on what you type. You can search for people, photos, places, and interests – that’s what Facebook suggests – but your imagination can run wild with keywords. Example searches include the following:
• Photos of my friends in Minnesota • People who like SlashGear and live nearby • Tourist attractions in England visited by my friends • Photos before 2005 • Italian restaurants in Montana my friends have liked • My Friends who work at SlashGear
Use Cases
Those of you who just started using Facebook in the last few years – or even the last few days – probably have been frustrated that there’s not a single search bar that’s been able to do what Graph Search is suggesting here this week. With such a massive treasure trove of information in Facebook, it was only a matter of time before the developers on Facebook’s team revealed something such as this.
You’ll be able to use this tool to discover restaurants – search for restaurants in your area that your friends have liked (or have just been to). Use this tool to find friends who may want to go cycling with you in the Spring (friends of friends or friends you never knew liked their bike!) If you’re heading to a new city you’ve never been to before, search for photos of your friends in that city and ask those friends for advice on what to see!
This is an exploration tool as Facebook presents it. We’ll have to see later this year what it’ll become in the hands of the public.
Privacy
Your privacy in all of this remains the same, or so Facebook notes – this being true so far as your privacy settings are still in place, and nothing you’ve made private is able to be searched for or seen. If you’d rather not have someone realizing you’ve been to Italy 20 times over the course of 10 years and are only able to hide this fact due to the difficulty someone would have putting together all your albums at once before Graph Search exists, you might want to do something about it.
Facebook took the time (above) to show you how Privacy works with Graph Search, publishing the video you see here before the special event revealing Graph Search was even complete. Make sure you watch the whole thing and put your mind at ease! For those of you that want to go through your history piece by piece to take out the old connections you’re not proud of or otherwise want to destroy, hit up your [Activity Log] and chop away!
When Graph Search will be available to you
At the time of this article’s publishing, there’s a website at http://www.facebook.com/about/graphsearch where you can hit a button that’ll add you to a waiting list. This waiting list will be addressed person by person, giving each of them an invite to Graph Search beta. Zuckerberg himself noted that the service would be rolled out to users over the coming weeks and months at a speed relative to the interest they see in its use and any problems they encounter as it rolls out.
Be sure to check our our full collection of SlashGear 101 posts in our lovely SlashGear 101 tag portal right this minute – get educated!
At CES 2013 we saw the unveiling of the NVIDIA Tegra 4, a mobile processor the company suggested was the World’s Fastest, it containing 72 GPU cores, five CPU cores (one of them an A15 “companion”), and the ability to work with 4G LTE. The Tegra 4 will be working with the NVIDIA Icera i500, that being a 28nm HP, Category 3 LTE (4 in the pipeline) Soft Modem. These two pieces of architecture together will be NVIDIA’s hero technology for mobile devices throughout 2013.
NVIDIA Tegra 4
The NVIDIA Tegra 4 System-on-Chip with five ARM Cortex A15 cores – four of them with 1.9GHz max clock speed, a fifth synthesized to work at lower power. The technology working around this fifth Companion core is similar to the Tegra 3, and for the lay person, it may as well be presented as the same due to how similar it really is. The fifth core is not visible to the operating system you’re using (be it Android, Windows, or something else), acting as more of a “Shadow Core” or a “Ninja” as we’ve been apt to call it, just as it was with Tegra 3.
Above you’re going to see a rundown of what Tegra 4 is, how it compares to Tegra 3, and what the future holds for mobile processing. The talk you’re seeing above is with NVIDIA Technical Marketing Director Nick Stam who presented us more of a detailed look at the Tegra 4 and what it means for mobile devices in 2013 (and beyond.)
For those of you that want to get rather technical with it all, you’ll be interested in knowing that the die size here in this new model is 80mm^2, ever so slightly larger than Tegra 3, but a whole lot denser as well. The cores you’re seeing here work on 28nm HPL, that being 28nm low power with high-k plus metal gates. What that basically means here is that you’re going to get one extremely optimized experience, made for high performance and low power consumption – as every great processor should.
The Tegra 4 processor will be working with “Always-On” HDR camera technology as well. You’ll find a rather interesting set of details in our initial reveal post, and we’ll be seeing this technology in-person sooner than later. It’s then that we’ll be seeing what it really means to be able to instantly take a shot with multiple exposures at once!
NVIDIA Icera i500 Soft Modem with 4G LTE
The NVIDIA Icera i500 Soft Modem is what the company describes as 40% smaller than a conventional die – this referring to other modems they’ve worked with from companies other than themselves, of course. The Icera i500 will work with Soft Modem technology, starting with UE Category 3 LTE (100 Mbps downlink on 20 MHz FDD-LTE) and moving forward to UE Category 4 LTE in the very near future. VoLTE is supported with other voice mode technologies, and the modem will be paired with a new never before seen transceiver built on 65nm LP CMOS.
The NVIDIA Icera i500 Soft Modem is built on TSMC’s 28nm high performance High-K Metal Gate process, and the company is able to power gate each of its cores individually. Depending on the needs of each device’s software package, each of the NVIDIA Icera i500′s 8 cores can be used or not used, gating based on changing load conditions.
Following Tegra 4
Those of you getting pumped up about Tegra 4 and NVIDIA’s full 2013 experience, you’ll have a fabulous time hitting up our massive Tegra Hub. There you’ll find not just your everyday NVIDIA Tegra mobile processor news, but featured hands-on articles, must-read up-to-the-minute updates, and reviews of Tegra-toting devices of all kinds.
Right this minute you’ll find several stories on the first device to have been revealed working with the Tegra 4 processor: NIVIDA’s own Project SHIELD. You’ll find plenty of awesome Project SHIELD action in the immediate future and up with its final name some time in Q2 of this year. Also have a peek in the timeline below to see the first important detail articles to have come down the line here in the first week since Tegra 4 was first revealed – Project SHIELD included!
In some ways, one could argue that CES 2013 was really all about the accessories. Sure, a lot of companies where there unveiling new hardware, whether that hardware was a massive TV, a new gaming tablet, or a phone that has an eInk display on the backside, but there were more accessories than we care to count being shown on the floor. Each of these accessories seemed to offer something unique; each was newsworthy in it’s own particular way. There were some that caught more attention than others, naturally, but nearly every accessory we saw is bound to get someone, somewhere excited.
We’ll start with the Pebble smart watch, a device that had visitors to CES clamoring for a look left and right. The Kickstarter darling was on display at CES 2013, with SlashGear managing to secure some hands-on time with the device despite the chaos that seemed to follow Pebble everywhere it went. We also got the chance to sit down with Pebble CEO Eric Migocovsky to talk about what makes the watch stand out from the competition and why it became such a hit with Kickstarter users. The company also talked about developers, apps, and how its future proofing the device, along with revealing when Pebble will begin shipping out to consumers (spoiler: its ship date is right around the corner).
Pebble netted a lot of attention during the show, but there were a couple other watches that managed to stick out despite Pebble’s presence. One of these watches was the the eInk CST-01, which has the distinction of being the world’s thinnest watch (it looks pretty sleek too, if we do say so ourselves). Next we come to the Martian Passport Watch, which boasts voice commands and Bluetooth to allow for simple connectivity to your Android or iOS device. If you’ve been in the market for a new watch, CES 2013 offered a bevy of potential choices.
The same could be said for smartphone cases at CES 2013. It isn’t much of a surprise that many of the cases we saw were for Apple’s relatively new (but nonetheless incredibly popular) iPhone 5. Otterbox was on-hand to show off its new Armor series and Defender series, using Apple’s latest iPhone to display them. Just the same, Pelican announced its first foray into the world of smartphone cases with its new ProGear Vault cases for the iPhone 5 and iPad mini. olloclip made itself stand out from the rest of the case manufacturers by offering one iPhone 5 case that has lens system, while Lifeproof was showing off a number of accessories for its iPhone 5 case, including a bright orange “Life Jacket” meant to keep your phone afloat if it ever goes overboard.
One of the coolest things to happen during CES 2013 was when the TATS CRU customized our Cygnett ICON cases right there in person. It wasn’t all just about iPhone 5 cases, however, with Pelican showing off a pair of new cases for the Galaxy S III, and ONGUARD introducing us to a rather unique origami case for the Nexus 7 (though the origami case is also available for the iPhone 5 and iPad).
Just as well, there seemed to be an awful lot of speakers on display on the show floor. SoundMatters had its Dash 7 portable Bluetooth speaker primed and ready for the spotlight, while SuperTooth was showing off its Disco Twin stereo Bluetooth speakers. If you’re looking for something a little more out of the ordinary, iuiDesign’s Mirror Boombox might be worth a look, considering its based on the side mirrors of a Mini Cooper car.
We also went hands-on with the HMDX Jam Plus and Burst speakers, which are cylindrical and available in all sorts of different colors. TYLT, which was there primarily to show off its Energi backpack that can charge three devices at a time, also had its TUNZ Bluetooth speaker on-hand, though this one comes with the bonus of NFC functionality.
Corning Optical Cables kept the Apple train moving by introducing new Thunderbolt cables aimed at the budget crowd during the show, so we imagine that those will be a big hit given the cost of spare Thunderbolt cables. Fitbit Flex is looking to to tackle the fitness monitoring business that Jawbone has conquered, while MpowerD was offering a waterproof, solar-powered lantern that seems perfect for the more adventurous among us.
Wearables seemed to be a pretty big thing at CES 2013. We already told you about TYLT’s Energi backpack and its device-charging capabilities, but TYLT had some competition from the likes of Spigen with its new SGP backpack. The SGP has enough pockets and storage areas to satisfy even the most serious gadget hoarder, and it’s also lined with super soft fabric that will keep your devices free of scratches. Then there’s the prototype TEC Jacket 2.0, which among other things features a battery pack for on-the-go charging and an antenna to boost your mobile data speeds. It’s lightweight to boot, so don’t be surprised to see this bad boy take off once its eventually released.
Griffin used the show to introduce a trio of new products. First up is its Powerdock 5, which as you can imagine can charge up to five devices at a time. The company was also showing off its StudioConnect iPad dock, which comes complete with a Lightning connector, making it compatible with Apple’s newest slate offerings. While those two were impressive, Griffin also had the very cool Crayola Light Marker on hand. The best description we could come up with for this device was calling it a “laser pointer on steroids,” so you’ll just have to check out our hands-on for more.
While many companies were announcing a collection of new products at CES 2013, there was also a number of one-off devices that were just as cool. These include Tethercell, which lets you use an app on your smartphone to control devices powered by double-A batteries (seriously, it’s super awesome), and the Silverlit Mercedes-Benz RC Car that’s controlled using your iOS device – and also features speakers you can use to stream music! Ion Scratch 2 is looking to outfit your iPad with actual DJ controls, and the Belkin WeMo light switch wants to bring light switches into the Internet age, offering connectivity with your iOS or Android device.
Kingston had its 1TB flash drive on display during the show, and though it’s a bit bulkier than the flash drives we’re used to seeing, it’s still incredibly small considering it houses a full terabyte of storage. We all know that power is always a difficulty, with many of us experiencing dead cellphone batteries at the worst possible times more than once. MiPower has taken it upon itself to solve that problem with its new PowerCube 8000M, which packs in 8,000mAh to make sure that you’ve always got enough juice to share between your devices.
Finally, there were a number of companies showing off new headsets. Turtle Beach had a collection of gaming-centric headsets at the show, introducing us to its new PX51, XP510, and SEVEN series headsets. Monster also targeted gamers out there with its MVP headset, which signifies a partnership with Electronic Arts, one of the biggest games publishers around. Last but not least, we got to spend some time with the Sennheiser MOMENTUM Black headphones, and boy do they looks sharp.
So there you have it folks – we weren’t kidding when we said that CES 2013 was in many ways all about the accessories. There were plenty of impressive devices and accessories on display, and we’re excited to get the chance to spend more time with these as the year goes on. As always, you can find any news from the show you may have missed at our CES portal!
Tons of big-name companies make an appearance at CES every year, and while Microsoft backed out of this year’s show, there were still a bevy of companies that filled the void. LG, Sony, Qualcomm, Verizon, Samsung, Intel, and more, all stepped up to the plate to take Microsoft’s place, but one other big-name company that made an appearance at the show was Apple. They didn’t necessarily have a booth, or had any of their execs on the show floor, but their products were everywhere, and I’m not even exaggerating when I say such a thing.
A ton of the new products announced at CES were built for the iPhone or iPad — mostly accessories, mind you, but there were a ton of accessories lining the halls of the Las Vegas Convention Center, and while we covered a crap-ton of new accessories here at CES, there were still a truckload that we never got to. Company after company had new iPhone and iPad cases, like OtterBox, who unveiled new additions to their Armor and Defender series of cases, and Pelican, who introduced the ProGear Vault series. Olloclip showed off a new lens for the iPhone 5, Lifeproof had new cases and mounts, Cygnett had some custom cases for the iPhone 5, Belkin had a nifty speaker case for the iPad, and ONGUARD had fancy origami stands for Apple devices.
Other than all the companies showing off new products for Apple devices, and using iOS devices to demo various products, we also noticed the abundance of MacBooks being used in the press rooms at CES. Our team alone consisted of all MacBooks except for one team member, and we had an iMac back at our temporary headquarters that took care of any heavy video work.
Is all this Apple swag a bad thing? Of course it’s not — I think it goes to show just how much of an impact Apple products have had on a lot of people, and will continue to have. And while Apple isn’t directly participating in all of the CES festivities here in Sin City, their logo is plastered everywhere, and they’re not paying a dime for it. Companies want to spend money on things that are worthwhile and that have the biggest audience — the Samsung Galaxy S III was up there, but it was ultimately the iPhones and iPads that stood out in the end.
What we love about CES is that we get to see so many familiar faces in one week, and Just Mobile was one of them this year. Since our visit to its Taiwan office a few months ago, the award-winning accessory maker had been preparing several new products for CES: (from left to right in the above picture) AluCup, black HeadStand, AluFrame, AluPocket and Gum Max Duo. Starting in chronological order we have the black edition of the minimalistic aluminum HeadStand headphone stand, which will join its silver-colored sibling for the same $49.95 price tag at the end of this month. As before, the HeadStand’s base comes in two layers for cable management, as well as a spun-metal finish. Check out the rest of the product range after the break.
We’ve been covering telepresence robots for years, but those that have materialized aren’t exactly within most people’s budget. However, if all you need is some way to rotate your view on the other end of the line, then you may consider Revolve Robotics’ KUBI. With six days left and just over $27,000 away from the $50,000 goal (the team was able to knock 50 percent off the original goal), this Indiegogo project hopes to offer a relatively affordable and simple telepresence solution for existing tablet users. The KUBI itself is essentially a tablet mount that can do a 300-degree pan plus 90-degree tilt, and the prototypes we saw featured two spring-loaded aluminium arms that elegantly pinches the tablet — we’ve been told that they can even fit Microsoft’s Surface in landscape. The robot is pretty much platform-agnostic as long as the tablet supports Bluetooth 4.0 Low Energy, which is how the robot receives its motion commands.
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