Twitter bumps the price of Promoted Trends to $200K

In a sign that suggests healthy demand for Twitter's advertising, the microblogging site has reportedly increased the daily price of its Promoted Trends to $200,000.

The new price, which is a 33 percent increase over the previous price, went into effect earlier this year, according to an All Things D report. The price has increased 150 percent since the program launched in 2010 with a daily price of $80,000.

Twitter promotes the feature as a way for business to increase interest in a brand or product. Promoted Trends appear in Twitter's Trends section to the left of the users' Twitter feeds, denoted by a yellow arrow. Presuming Twitter sells one Promoted Trend a day, the program could generate $73 million in revenue.

Some of the big-name users of Promoted Trends have included Virgin, HBO, Samsung, and JetBlue. In addition to promoted trend slots, which appear on the right side of any Twitter user's home page, Twitter also offers promoted accounts and promoted tweets, but those are sold through an auction system.

CNET has contacted Twitter for comment on the price increase and will update this report when we learn more.

The moves come as Twitter is reportedly gearing up for an IPO as early as next year. Analyst firm Greencrest Capital pegged Twitter's valuation at between $10.5 billion and $11 billion "by late 2013 or early 2014." It also predicted that Twitter's 2014 revenue would total $1.028 billion, up from estimates of $605 million in 2013 and $295 million in 2012.

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LA Microsoft Store not mobbed, but Surface has a following

The Surface Pro

(Credit:
Brooke Crothers)

LOS ANGELES -- The launch of the Surface Pro at the Microsoft Store in LA's Century City was a relatively low-key affair compared with the debut of the Surface RT.

When I arrived just after 10 a.m. there was a small line (see photo). That said, both versions -- 64GB and 128GB -- of the
Surface Pro had sold out immediately.

Of course, no one would say how many units were set aside for first-day sales, and the lines didn't exactly snake around the Westfield Century City mall. So, it wasn't like a Depression-era run on a bank.

And back in October the lines were longer and the atmosphere a bit more frenzied when the Surface RT launched.

On Saturday, there was a small line outside the Century City Microsoft Store near Beverly Hills. The Surface Pro sold out immediately at the store.

(Credit:
Brooke Crothers)

But like the RT rollout, there was a fixation on and interest in the product not unlike what's found at an Apple event. I saw more than a few customers glued to the device for 30 minutes or even an hour.

In other words, Surface has a following. An analogy I would use is the Chevy Volt. Recently in LA, the Chevy Volt is gaining ground, driven by a small but growing (and fervent) customer base.

And Microsoft Store sales reps know what they're talking about. A patient, focused rep gave me a long, hands-on explanation of the
Windows 8 touch interface and demonstrated a new touch-enabled paint app, among other apps.

Finally, note that there are other enticing touch-screen Windows 8 devices at the store, including the 2.3-pound Acer Aspire S7 and the HP Spectre XT TouchSmart. And that's good for Windows 8 overall.

Looking at the line from inside the store.

(Credit:
Brooke Crothers)

The Surface Pro isn't the only cool Windows 8 device on sale at the Microsoft Store. The 11.6-inch Acer Aspire S7 touch-screen laptop is a tempting alternative to the Pro.

(Credit:
Brooke Crothers)

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Apple and the iWatch conundrum

Will Apple ever make an iWatch?

(Credit:
Sarah Tew/CNET)

Ever since the sixth-generation iPod Nano, lots of people have thought that Apple making its own branded watch is not merely a smart potential move but simply a matter of time. No matter what some have recently argued, I doubt, however, that today's Apple is hungry enough to create the fabled iWatch device.

I've been covering the technology beat long enough to feel, no, smell certain shifts in the gadget market. I'm talking about those cycles when a new product category springs up from nowhere and first seems like a completely goofy notion. Soon after, the segment really heats up with scores of companies jumping into the fray to make a quick buck.

Traditionally, if Apple senses a legitimate opportunity it steps in at the right moment after figuring out the secret to success and sucks the air right out of the market.
Tablets and MP3 players existed well before Apple launched the
iPod and iPad, but their arrival completely transformed the playing field. Remember music players from Creative Labs, Rio, or even Microsoft's clunky Windows Tablet PCs?

I'm getting the same tingling sensation right now from smartwatches. At
CES in January the sleeper hit of the show was wearable tech, essentially devices you could strap or clip to yourself as you would an accessory or article of clothing. A lot of smartwatches, fitness bands, or some hybrid of the two, were talked up at the conference.

These included everything from the long-awaited and crowd-funded Pebble and the Dick Tracy/007-inspired Martian Passport Watch to the Fitbit Flex fitness tracker and the Basis Band. When you factor in the success of the Nike FuelBand, Nike being a company Apple has partnered with in the past to create fitness products, I'd say the time is ripe for Apple to swoop in for the kill.

Chat through the Martian Passport like a speakerphone.

(Credit:
Brian Bennett/CNET)

This is a move the Cupertino company used to accomplish without breaking a sweat. Apple has the knack of catching the competition completely flat-footed, surprising since many already had a big head start. The iPhone is a perfect example. Smartphones had existed for years but the iPhone sounded the death knell for Microsoft's struggling Windows Mobile products -- trust me, I was saddled with a T-Mobile Wing at the time. The Sidekick and a legion of keyboarded feature phones suffered the same fate.

I'm afraid Apple hasn't demonstrated its signature ferocity in recent years. We haven't seen a truly disruptive product from the company since the first iPad. Every noteworthy hardware release since then has been evolutionary and incremental, not transformative. The iPad Mini is simply a smaller iPad, while the iPhone 5 essentially increased the screen from 3.7 to 4 inches. Its A6 processor is also dual-core where many Android CPUs have gone to full quad-core and it received 4G LTE well after its rivals.

What Apple needs here is true out-of-the-box action to quell the doubters at large and on Wall Street. A serious example of nonlinear thinking that matches the creation of the iPod, iPhone, and iPad. Something that would merge multiple gadgets and applications into something entirely new or perhaps clean up the confused mess other manufacturers tout as useful gadgets. Something like a fabulous, shiny Apple iWatch.

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NASA astronauts aboard ISS to host live Google+ Hangout

Chris Hadfield plays guitar in the ISS cupola.

(Credit:
Canadian Space Agency)

Astronauts in the International Space Station have already explained how to clip fingernails and play guitar while orbiting 240 miles above the Earth. But what about all those other questions people may have about life in space?

They can be answered in an upcoming Google+ Hangout with three of the astronauts aboard the ISS -- Kevin Ford, Tom Marshburn, and Chris Hadfield.

NASA announced today that it is hosting its first live Google+ Hangout from space. It's to happen from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. EST on February 22. The space agency is accepting questions in advance up through February 12. To have a question considered, users must upload a 30-second or less video clip to YouTube with an #askAstro tag.

Google+ Hangouts let up to 10 people chat face-to-face, but thousands more can watch the discussion. People interested can watch the Hangout on NASA's Google+ page or its YouTube channel. Many of the questions selected to be answered will be those that were pre-recorded, but fans can also submit real-time questions on NASA's Google+, Twitter, and Facebook pages. Astronauts on the ground might answer some of the questions.

Hadfield and Ford launched into space on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft in December. They joined Marshburn, who was already stationed on the ISS, to conduct science experiments and carry out station maintenance. Most astronauts stay aboard the ISS for six months.

"Their life aboard the station in near-weightlessness requires different approaches to everyday activities such as eating, sleeping and exercising," NASA said in a statement.

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Tablets rising: Apple No.1, Samsung No. 4 'PC makers'

Right now, the iPad Mini is fueling Apple's market dominance.

(Credit:
Apple)

Market researcher Canalys has again put Apple in top spot among PC makers with an overwhelming 20 percent market share.

Apple shipped 27 million units in the fourth quarter, while HP and Lenovo both shipped around 15 million (HP slightly more than Lenovo), putting them in the No. 2 and No. 3 spots, respectively.

Samsung is also on the rise: it made an appearance in the top five for the first time, pushing Dell out of fourth place.

All of this is possible because Canalys counts "pads," i.e.,
tablets, as PCs -- not a ludicrous concept considering that tablets have become personal computers capable of doing many of the tasks once limited to laptops and desktops.

And Samsung is shipping more and more tablets. While not a huge player in traditional PCs, it is a force in
Android tablets.

"Samsung, buoyed by strong pad shipments, had its first quarter in the top five, shipping 11.7 million PCs giving it a 9% share," said Canalys.

Of those, 7.6 million were tablets, an increase of 226 percent.

Amazon, another Android tablet player, also got a mention with shipments up 18 percent year-to-year to 4.6 million units.

No. 1 Apple, due to strong
iPad Mini shipments, could have done even better.

"Apple's growth in the pad segment was driven by strong demand for the iPad mini. Its overall shipments, however, were hampered by supply issues," the market researcher said.

Canalys estimated that the Mini made up over half of Apple's total "pad" shipments.

There was one word of caution, though. "Despite record shipments, Q4 saw Apple's pad share dip to 49%, becoming the first quarter it has not controlled over half the market."

And there were harsh words for Microsoft's tablet efforts. Canalys gave Microsoft a three percent tablet share in the fourth quarter, with shipments of just over 720,000 Windows RT Surface tablets.

"The outlook for Windows RT appears bleak," according to Canalys.

And as tablet shipments rise, shipments at more traditional PC makers, fall.

"Dell's reputation in the PC market continues to fade. It only shipped 9.7 million units, a 19% decline on 2011. Its direct business model is expensive and unsuitable for driving growth in new markets. A turnaround in fortunes is likely to take years," said Canalys.

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Go Daddy posts top sales after airing model-kissing-geek ad

Screenshot of Go Daddy ad featuring model Bar Rafaeli about to kiss a geek.

(Credit:
Go Daddy/YouTube Screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET)

Apparently advertising really works. Well, at least if it contains a nerdy geek making out with a blonde model.

Web hosting company Go Daddy announced yesterday that it had its biggest Super Bowl sales day ever after its infamous ad aired on Sunday. The site got more new customers and overall sales than after any of its other Super Bowl campaigns.

"Attracting new customers is what advertising is all about," Go Daddy CEO Blake Irving said in a statement. "We set all-time Super Bowl Sunday records for mobile sales, Website Builders, website hosting and new customers."

Go Daddy featured two commercials. One had different people talking about the next "big idea." But the ad that garnered the most attention showed model Bar Refaeli slowly kissing a curly haired geek. The point of the ad is to illustrate that Go Daddy is a brand that is both sexy and nerdy.

Not only did the ad trend on Twitter and top Google searches, it got more than 4 million YouTube views before the game even aired. Go Daddy's commercial also stirred controversy with some claiming that it was inappropriate, which is exactly what the company was looking for.

"Inappropriate? Hearing that word, I absolutely knew we were in for a record Super Bowl ad campaign," Go Daddy's executive chairman and founder Bob Parsons said.

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Pinterest rolls out revamped iPhone and iPad app

Pinterest updates its iOS app to make pin management easier.

(Credit:
Pinterest)

Pinterest spruced up its iOS app today to make scrolling, pin management, and deleting comments easier.

"We've made a few tweaks behind the scenes so scrolling is smoother when you're going through pins," the pinning social network wrote in a blog post today. "We also added some features to make it easier to manage your pins."

Version 2.2 of the iPhone and iPad app focuses on making it simpler for users to edit their pins. Not only can users scroll through pins faster, but they can also update pin descriptions, change board locations, and delete pins. Pinterest has also made is possible for users to delete comments.

"Made a typo? See a comment you don't like? Now, you can delete your comments anywhere on Pinterest, and you can also delete any comments on your own pins," the company wrote.

Pinterest got serious about mobile and debuted its iOS and Android apps last August. At the time, Pinterest co-founder Ben Silbermann said the company wanted to help get users away from their desks and encourage them to interact more with the world. One of the app's first features was the ability to pin with a smartphone or
tablet camera.

Last week, the social network also began redesigning its Web site. The company's goal is to create an overall faster and more dynamic site experience, so it is tweaking navigation and adding bigger pins.

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Surface Pro lands at Microsoft Store

Microsoft Surface Pro is now on display at the Century City Microsoft Store in Los Angeles.

(Credit:
Brooke Crothers)

LOS ANGELES -- The Surface Pro has arrived early at Microsoft stores.

Locations, such as the store near Beverly Hills, Calif., now have the Pro -- slated to go on sale this Saturday -- on display and available for anyone to use.

So, I spent about an hour with Pro and came away impressed. More impressed than I was initially with Surface RT.

In a word, smooth. In two words, silky smooth. In the limited time I used it, I experienced no lag or stuttering on graphics-intensive sites and videos. And when I used
Microsoft Office in desktop mode (which was installed on the Pro I used) everything was snappy. Really snappy.

The Intel Ivy Bridge chip paired with a PC-class solid-state drive (and 4GB of memory) makes all the difference.

And the 10.6 -inch display at 1,920x1,080 resolution is a stunner. (That's over 2 million pixels at 200 pixels per inch, for those keeping track.)

To me, the resolution looked pretty much the same as on my Retina
iPad 4. Yes, I know, the iPad 4 has a higher pixel, density but text was highly resolved (see photo below) on the Pro much like the Retina iPad.

And if all of that sounds appealing to you, you can reserve one. A Microsoft store sales rep will take your name and e-mail address and then hand you a reservation card (see photo below).

Typing with the Pro on my lap. Note, you can also use it on your lap with the stand extended but it felt more comfortable for me flat.

(Credit:
Brooke Crothers)

Text is well resolved and looks pretty much like it does on my iPad 4 -- though display aficionados may dispute that. Note that the wave and grid patterns are a photo artifact, not what you actually see.

(Credit:
Brooke Crothers)

My Surface Pro reservation card. I was told to bring it on Saturday -- when Surface Pro goes on sale.

(Credit:
Brooke Crothers)

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How Boeing's 777-300ER could help save American Airlines

American Airlines hopes its rise back to profitability and relevance can get a big jump start with the launch of all-new livery, and Boeing's 777-300ER. It is the first U.S. carrier to fly the plane, the most successful twin-engine aircraft in the world.

(Credit:
Chris Sloan/Airchive.com)

It has become the world's most-successful twin-engine airplane, but until now, no U.S. carrier has flown Boeing's 777-300ER. But with the launch on Thursday of its Dallas to Sao Paolo, Brazil flight, American Airlines has broken new ground, and is now depending on its fledgling 777-300ER fleet to re-earn its once legendary wings. And make it a lot of money.

Among the many passengers aboard the inaugural flight to Sao Paolo was Chris Sloan, an aviation writer who often flies on the most notable planes in the skies. Sloan, who previously shared his impressions of the inaugural Boeing 787 Dreamliner commercial flight with CNET, has once again let us in on what it's like to be among the first people aboard a notable, world-class airplane.

As Sloan notes, the past few years have not been kind to American Airlines. The carrier has gone through bankruptcy, seats becoming unbolted, a disastrous crash, and more.

But the airline is doing its best to come back from the dead, and the launch of service aboard the 777-300ER, as well as the roll-out of all-new livery, show that American can't be counted out.

As Sloan wrote:

In an era of smaller airliners, American inaugurated the 777-300, the largest new airliner by a U.S. carrier since the last Boeing 747-400s entered service with U.S. airliners in the late 1990s. Built to handle up to 386 passengers and fly up to 7,825 nautical miles, American's 777-300ER is the first plane flown by a U.S. carrier to feature a stand-up bar since the 1970s, Sloan wrote. American flies the aircraft in a 304-passenger, four-class and six-cabin configuration.

This inaugural, flight 963, from Dallas/Ft. Worth to São Paulo, Brazil in the author's view is one of the most significant in the airline industry in years because it is about something much bigger than just the launch of a new airliner, it's about the re-birth of a proud American institution that happens to bear the name of our country - American Airlines.

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Powertrekk fuel cell charger to be released in Spring

Along with a fuel cell puck, the PowerTrekk gives your iPhone a bit of juice. Just add water.

(Credit:
Lynn La/CNET)

While it's been circulating around at trade shows for a while, including Mobile World Congress 2011 and CES 2012, the PowerTrekk phone charger is slated to finally come to the U.S. at the end of this quarter.

Although the $229 device is peddled as a charger that can simply juice up your phone on water alone, it's not quite that simple.

To use the PowerTrekk, you also have to purchase a $4 PowerTrekk Pukk. Once you add a small amount of water (about half a shot), and add a one-time-use Pukk, the latter will immediately begin separating the hydrogen from the water, using it as fuel to charge your handset.

Each Pukk will produces 2.5 watts at 5 volts, which is good for about one full iPhone charge. If there is electricity available, however, you can also charge the separate internal battery in the PowerTrekk so it can power your phone later on.

Power your phone in an emergency

When I handled the unit at iWorld in San Francisco, it was indeed very lightweight despite its industrial look, and in a situation where there is no sun, I can see it coming in handy.

However, there is much debate about how useful a product like this can be. Not only is it rather cumbersome in shape, but you'll need to continually buy more Pukks in order to use the device multiple times. Compared to solar chargers and chargers that run on kinetic energy, this can become wasteful and pricey.

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Nokia begins work on graphene, world's strongest material

A model of a sheet of graphene.

(Credit:
Swedish Academy of Sciences)

Forget diamonds, graphene is now the world's hardest material. And, all sorts of developers most likely want to get their hands on it.

Nokia looks to be ahead of the game in this graphene race. The Finnish mobile phone maker announced today that it was one of the recipients of a $1.35 billion grant from the European Union to do research and development on the super-material over the next 10 years.

"Nokia is proud to be involved with this project, and we have deep roots in the field -- we first started working with graphene already in 2006," Nokia's CTO Henry Tirri said in a statement. "Since then, we have come to identify multiple areas where this material can be applied in modern computing environments. We've done some very promising work so far, but I believe the greatest innovations have yet to be discovered."

Besides being the hardest substance in the world -- 300 times stronger than steel -- graphene has all sorts of other noteworthy qualities. It is also the thinnest object ever obtained by man -- measuring just one atom thick -- and the lightest. It is made of a 2D crystal and looks a bit like scotch tape, only infinitely thinner. Graphene is also transparent, bendable, and a far better conductor than copper.

If Nokia is successful in its development of the material, it will be able to build cell phones that are extremely light, durable, and less susceptible to overheating.

"When we talk about graphene, we've reached a tipping point. We're now looking at the beginning of a graphene revolution," research leader at Nokia Research Center Jani Kivioja said in the statement. "Before this point in time, we figured out a way to manufacture cheap iron that led to the Industrial Revolution. Then there was silicon. Now, it's time for graphene."

Here is a video by Cambridge University about the properties of graphene:

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Microsoft Surface sales well below shipments, says iSuppli

Surface RT tablet.

(Credit:
CNET)

Sales of Microsoft's first Surface tablet fell well short of the 1 million mark, while return rates were high, IHS iSuppli told CNET.

Shipments of the Surface RT device, which debuted last quarter, into the channel were about 1.25 million, but sales out of the channel "were significantly lower, maybe on the order of 55 to 60 percent of that figure," said Rhoda Alexander, an analyst at iSuppli, citing the market research firm's estimates.

That would put sales in the range of between roughly 680,000 and 750,000 based on those percentages.

That kind of "sales out" percentage is not unusual, however, according to Alexander, adding that she has seen similar percentages with newly introduced
Android devices.

And, needless to say, almost every manufacturer's sales-out figure pales against Apple's, the gold standard, where the percentage is typically in the mid to high 90 percent range or even 100 percent.

And Alexander said she sees little evidence of continued production of the Microsoft RT device -- which runs a limited version of
Windows 8 on top of an ARM processor -- in the first quarter because Microsoft is still trying to sell off inventory.

But that inventory carryover is also not unique to Microsoft. The Amazon
Kindle Fire, when it was first introduced, had excess inventory that carried over into the following quarter. As a result, Amazon temporarily cut production, Alexander said.

Surface RT has other challenges, too. The return rate on the device was "very high," Alexander said. "If you put the high return rate together with low sell-through [sales out] rate, that's indicative of a problem," she said, adding, again, that the Kindle Fire initially had very high return rates and low sell-through.

Why the high return rates? "It seems to be linked in a lot of cases to a steep learning curve of the [Windows 8] OS -- which is not necessarily intuitive," she said.

And another problem possibly looms big this year. There is a "distinct lack of interest" from device makers in pursuing RT devices at the moment, she said.

For Microsoft partners the question is, "where is the win for us?" -- according to Alexander.

During last week's earnings conference call, Chief Financial Officer Peter Klein repeated a number of times that Surface contributed to revenue. "Certainly this quarter [Surface] was a contributing factor to revenue growth in the Windows business," Klein said.

During the call, Microsoft cited Surface as a part of non-OEM revenue that grew 40 percent.

Microsoft has not talked about sales figures. And the company would not provide a number when contacted.

Microsoft is about to bring out a second line of tablets, the Surface Pro, that runs the full version of Windows 8 on top of a mainstream Intel processor. Alexander says she sees more momentum industrywide for these kinds of devices.

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Obama backs immigration reform for skilled tech workers

Obama announced today that he backs immigration reform.

(Credit:
White House)

Tech companies may score a victory in their hopes to get immigration reform passed for skilled tech workers.

President Obama urged Congress today to work on immigration policy that would allow foreign-born startup founders to stay in the country. At the same time, several U.S. senators introduced a bill focusing on the same. As U.S. immigration policy currently stands, U.S.-educated computer programmers and engineers could be deported once finishing school.

"Right now in one of those classrooms there's a student wrestling with how to turn their big idea -- their Intel or Instagram -- into a big business," Obama said during a speech in Las Vegas today. "We're giving them all the skills they need to figure that out, but then we're going to turn around and tell them to start that business and create those jobs in China or India or Mexico or someplace else. That's not how you grow new industries in America. That's how you give new industries to our competitors. That's why we need comprehensive immigration reform."

The president mentioned that Instagram was co-founded by an immigrant -- Brazilian Michel Krieger who studied at Stanford University. But, he said, not all startup founders are able to secure visas and stay in the U.S.

In addition to Obama urging Congress to act today, a handful of U.S. Senators -- Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., Marco Rubio, R-Fla., Chris Coons, D-Del. -- introduced new legislation called the Immigration Innovation Act of 2013. This bill focuses on reforming the country's immigration laws for high-skilled workers. The idea is to increase the H-1B visa cap from 65,000 to 115,000, along with easing green cards rules.

Several tech companies have come out in support of such reform. Google, Intel, and Hewlett Packard all commended the government's efforts on changing the country's immigration policy today.

Google's senior vice president of People Operations, Laszlo Bock, wrote in a blog post today that immigrants founded 40 percent of tech sector companies that went public in the U.S., including Yahoo, eBay, Intel, and Google. And, one in four startups were founded by an immigrant. Combined, these companies employ about 560,000 workers and make $63 billion in sales.

"Our experiences here at Google and in the tech sector show us that immigrants to the U.S. are a powerful force for entrepreneurship and innovation at every level, from startups to multinational corporations," Bock wrote.

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'Citizen cartographers' help Google update maps of N. Korea

City center or Pyongyang, North Korea.

(Credit:
Google)

Maps of North Korea's landscape have for decades been largely blank, but thanks to "a community of citizen cartographers," Google Maps has managed to fill in some of the blanks.

Tapping input submitted to its Google Map Maker tool, the Web giant has added more detailed, up-to-date information to its maps of the reclusive nation, including streets, names, and other points of interest.

Jayanth Mysore, Google's senior product manager of Map Maker, discussed in a company blog post the effort behind assembling the new data:

To build this map, a community of citizen cartographers came together in Google Map Maker to make their contributions such as adding road names and points of interest. This effort has been active in Map Maker for a few years and today the new map of North Korea is ready and now available on Google Maps. As a result, the world can access maps of North Korea that offer much more information and detail than before.

One area where the changes are most apparent is in the city of Pyongyang, where highways, parks, and even subway stations have been added. Google provided the following examples:

Pyongyang, North Korea, before the map update.

(Credit:
Google)

Pyongyang, North Korea, after Google's map update.

(Credit:
Google)

The additions come mere weeks after Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt made a controversial humanitarian visit to the country where he warned officials that global Internet access was key to developing its economy.

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New iPad 4 reportedly in the works -- perhaps a 128GB model

Are you ready for an iPad with beefier memory?

A new fourth-generation
iPad with Retina display -- and perhaps as much as 128 gigabytes of memory -- is being readied for release, sources tell 9to5Mac. The upcoming slate would not be a new design but rather an addition to the current fourth-generation line, with the same color and wireless combinations as the iPad 4, these unnamed sources say.

Pricing is unknown, but the new model is described as a "premium SKU" (stock keeping unity) that would join the current lineup of 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB iPads. A source at a large U.S. retailer provided 9to5Mac with what is purportedly a new SKU listing for iPads that includes a fourth model labeled as "Ultimate" to join its current lineup

CNET has contacted Apple for comment and will update this report when we learn more.

9to5Mac suspects the new model will have 128GB thanks to code found in the
iOS 6.1 beta 5 that references a compatibility with 128GB iOS devices. The discovery was first noted yesterday by @iNeal on Twitter.

That tweet led Jeff Benjamin at iDownloadBlog to extract the iOS 6.1 and compare the System Partition Padding values found in old iOS 6.x firmware. What he found was an additional field for 128:

9to5Mac notes that if this purported iPad is in the works, it might be not be intended for the general consumer but rather perhaps for government or even retail use.

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The ultimate gall of a heartless iPhone thief

An object of desire?

(Credit:
CNET)

One should never expect justice in life.

The best one can hope for is poetry.

And yet, just once or twice, both manage to collide with a deliciousness that moves the soul.

Here is the tale of a teenage girl who had her iPhone stolen.

As The New York Times composes it, the girl had her
iPhone 4S ripped from her by a teenage boy in Brooklyn's notoriously difficult Prospect Park.

iPhone theft is rather popular in New York. Indeed, Mayor Bloomberg recently suggested that it's responsible for an increase in crime in the city.

Anyway, the iPhone-less girl collared a couple of policemen, but the miscreant was not to be found.

However, the thief then decided that he'd try to get some money for the phone. So he met a man on a Flatbush street -- as you do.

The man asked to take a look at the phone. Perhaps he wanted to see whether Siri was still inside.

Then, he ran off with it.

Yes, this is slightly poetic. But we've only just begun.

You see, the boy thief was not very happy. After all, he'd had his recently acquired property stolen. So he went off in search of a policeman to report the crime.

I pause for your sound effects.

Thank you.

More Technically Incorrect

The police reacted with unusual efficiency. They corralled both the boy and the man who had taken Siri from him. But they still assumed the boy was the victim.

Are you ready for verse three?

The phone rang. It was the girl trying to do a deal to get her phone back. The police realized something might be amiss here. This seemed to be a miss who actually owned the phone.

So they waited for her to arrive in Flatbush. She recognized the boy's sneakers. They were pink.

I pause for your further sound effects.

The police decided it was time to play Solomon. They would slice the phone in two if one party didn't renounce their claim to the phone.

No, wait. They asked both the girl and the pink-sneakered boy to unlock the phone with the PIN code.

You're already there, aren't you? Both the actual thieves were brought to justice -- the actual kind. And the girl got her phone back.

There are several morals to this story.

One, don't steal iPhones if you're wearing pink sneakers.

Two, if someone does unto you as you have done unto someone else, take it onto the chin. It will help you understand the feelings of others.

Three, if you're the kind of New Yorker who thinks they can always get away with it, well, you can't. Not always.

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CEA backs Dish in Hopper copyright lawsuit

Dish's AutoHop enable screen.

(Credit:
Dish)

The Consumer Electronics Association, a trade organization that represents 2,000 technology companies, voiced its support today for Dish Network's ad-skipping technology -- the focus of a heated multifront battle between the satellite TV provider and major broadcast television networks, including CBS, the parent company of CNET.

At issue is the legality of Dish's digital video recorder, the Hopper, including its "AutoHop" feature. AutoHop allows customers to record the entire prime-time lineup and automatically skip commercials. Broadcasters argue that the technology threatens to undermine an industry that depends on advertising revenue to help cover the cost of its shows.

The CEA filed an amicus brief yesterday before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals -- along with the Computer and Communications Industry Association and the Internet Association -- arguing: "In sum and substance, the Hopper merely enables the consumer to perform the same actions as the old VCRs or other DVRs, just more efficiently." The brief relies heavily on the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Sony v. Universal City Studios, saying that recording TV programming for personal use is legal and the devices that make the recordings are not liable for copyright infringement.

CEA president Gary Shapiro said in a statement that "making television easier to watch is not against the law. It is simply pro-innovation and pro-consumer."

Fox, owned by News Corp., filed the lawsuit that's before the 9th Circuit. CBS Corp., parent company of CNET News, and other media companies are also in litigation against Dish. CBS filed an amended lawsuit earlier this week.

NBC Universal officials have previously argued: "Dish simply does not have the authority to tamper with the ads from broadcast replays on a wholesale basis for its own economic and commercial advantage." We reached out to NBC and CBS and we'll update the story when they comment. A Fox representative declined to comment on the CEA amicus brief.

The CEA runs the International Consumer Electronics Show, or
CES. The organization made the Hopper a 2013 Design and Engineering Award Honoree at the show earlier this month. In his statement, Shapiro maintains the Hopper will actually encourage people to watch more TV. He pointed to the tech industry's support of the product, citing CNET's initial decision to award the Hopper the "Best of CES" award. The Hopper was taken out of the competition for CNET's Best of CES owing to a conflict of interest related to CBS' ongoing litigation with Dish over its ad-skipping technology.

So far the court has not prevented Dish from selling the product. In August 2012, Fox filed for a preliminary injunction against the Hopper, but in November, a California district court denied its request to block sales of the device. Fox has appealed that ruling. The court did find that copies of programs Dish makes for its AutoHop function could constitute copyright infringement.

Separate pro-Hopper amicus briefs were filed yesterday by a group of law professors and nonprofit advocacy groups including the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Public Knowledge. Referring to the court's refusal to block sales of the Hopper, the advocacy groups said: "Copyright law does not grant copyright holders like Fox absolute control over the use of their works. The district court followed clear precedent and sound policy when it found that users of Dish's Ad Hopper do not trespass on Fox's exclusive rights, that Dish would not likely be liable for its customers' uses, and that Fox suffered no irreparable harm."

The CBS Television Network Affiliates Association and other broadcast affiliates filed their own amicus brief last month. It says: "This service -- particularly if it becomes ingrained and widespread -- threatens to devalue the advertisements on which local television stations rely to produce and acquire quality programming."

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Samsung, Apple dominate as 700M smartphones ship in 2012

A record 700 million smartphones shipped last year, with Samsung and Apple accounting for half the market, according to new research released today.

While global smartphone shipments increased 490.5 million units over 2011, the 43 percent growth rate slowed in comparison to 2011's growth rate of 64 percent over 2010, according to market researcher Strategy Analytics. The research blamed saturation in North America and Western Europe for the slower growth.

"Large marketing budgets, extensive distribution channels, and attractive product portfolios have enabled Samsung and Apple to tighten their grip on the smartphone industry," the market researcher said in a blog post today.

Samsung captured 30 percent of the market with 213 million smartphones shipped worldwide, blowing away the previous record of 100 million smartphones shipped by Nokia in 2010. The study said the company had success with a wide range of models, from the pricier
Galaxy Note 2 phablet to the less-expensive Galaxy Y.

Apple captured 19 percent of the market with 135.8 million units shipped last dyear, a 46 percent increase over 2011. The iPhone maker benefited from strong demand in North America but was hobbled by limited presence in developing markets such as Africa, the researchers said.

Nokia retained its position as the No. 3 smartphone maker in 2012, but its market share dropped from 16 percent to 5 percent.

"Nokia's Windows Phone portfolio has improved significantly in recent months, with new models like the
Lumia 920, but we believe the vendor still lacks a true hero model in its range that can be considered an Apple iPhone or Samsung S3 killer," Strategy Analytics said.

Meanwhile, the global mobile phone market, which includes feature phones, was largely flat, growing only 2 percent with 1.6 billion units shipped in 2012. The study blamed the market's modest growth on a variety of causes, including tighter upgrade policies, changing consumer tastes, and economic challenges in North American and Western Europe.

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NYPD unveils radiation scanner to catch people with illegal guns

As the U.S. gun control debate continues in full force, several authorities are looking for ways to catch people illegally possessing firearms.

The New York Police Department announced today that it will soon adopt portable scanning technology that lets police officers see from a distance whether someone is carrying a concealed weapon, according to the New York Daily News.

The scanner is a device small enough to fit in a police van or set up on a street corner that reads terahertz radiation, which is energy emitted by both humans and inanimate objects. When aimed at a person, it's possible to see anything that is blocking the specific energy coming off the human -- such as a gun.

"If something is obstructing the flow of that radiation, for example a weapon, the device will highlight that object," Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said, according to the New York Daily News.

Using terahertz machines has been the subject of controversy among civil liberties groups. Not only can authorities "search" individuals without cause, but false positives can also lead to unjustified stops.

The NYPD said it hopes to start testing the device in high-crime areas in the near future, according to the New York Daily News.

"We still have a number of trials to run before we can determine how best to deploy this technology," Kelly said. "We're also talking to our legal staff about this. But we're very pleased with the progress we've made over the past year."

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LTE users to hit 1 billion by 2016

The rise in worldwide subscribers on 4G LTE has far exceeded expectations. In just three years since its nascent beginnings, the mobile technology has skyrocketed -- going from 600,000 users in 2010 to nearly 100 million subscribers in 2012.

Now, in a new report, market research firm IHS iSuppli is projecting that global users will double in 2013 and by 2016 LTE will claim more than 1 billion subscribers.

"With LTE emerging as a true global technology standard, its ecosystem now faces both challenges and opportunities," iSuppli's senior analyst for wireless communications Wayne Lam said in a statement. "Rapid adoption will drive design innovations, particularly in smartphones, but issues like spectrum fragmentation will also remain an overhang for the LTE industry that requires attention. Overall, however, the LTE space will be less worried about rifts or divisions in technology, and more concerned with laying the foundation for sustained growth across the entire LTE landscape."

In 2010, analysts projected that LTE would reach 300 million users by 2015. But at the rate wireless technology is now proliferating, iSuppli believes it could reach this many people by 2014. Just in the last year LTE subscribers jumped 599 percent from 13.2 million subscribers in 2011 to 92.3 million in 2012. It's projected that LTE users will reach 198.1 million by the end of 2013.

As smartphone technology and apps become increasingly more comprehensive and dependent on faster delivery, wireless infrastructure has to keep up. This has proven difficult in some aspects, according to iSuppli. For example, while 3G registered on just a few spectrums, LTE has registered more than 40 different frequency spectrums so far. So, even though subscribers are multiplying, kinks still need to be ironed out.

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