Apple beats Google in US smartphone market

Apple overtook Google 's Android to become the leading smartphone platform in the US in the fourth quarter of 2011 , thanks to strong demand for its latest iPhone model , a study said on Wednesday.
In October-December quarter last year, Apple 's share of the US smartphone market doubled from a year earlier to 44.9 per cent , while Android' s share fell from 50 percent to 44.8 per cent in the same period, according to market research firm Kantar Worldpanel.
While Android retains global smartphone crown,Apple is now growing at a faster rate, driven by the launch of its latest iPhone 4S model in October last year, Kantar Worldpanel noted.
"Overall, Apple sales are now growing at a faster rate than Android across the nine countries we cover," Xinhua reported quoting Dominic Sunnebo, global consumer insight director at the research firm.
Apple posted better-than-expected quarterly results on Tuesday, saying it sold a record-breaking 37.04 million units of iPhone in total in the fourth quarter last year, an increase of 128 per cent over the year-ago period.

The New iPad Launched – Retina display, Quad-Core Graphics, 5 MP iSight Camera

Apple introduced the new iPad, the third generation of its category defining mobile device, featuring a stunning new Retina display , Apple’s new A5X chip with quad-core graphics and a 5 megapixel iSight camera with advanced optics for capturing amazing photos and 1080p HD video. iPad with Wi-Fi + 4G connects to fast networks worldwide, including AT&T’s and Verizon’s 4G LTE networks, and still delivers the same all-day 10 hour battery life* while remaining amazingly thin and light. iPad 2 will be offered at an even more affordable price starting at just $399 .
The new iPad’s Retina display delivers four times the number of pixels of iPad 2, so dense that the human eye is unable to distinguish individual pixels when held at a normal distance, making web pages, text, images and video look incredibly sharp and realistic. The 3.1 million pixels in the Retina display are more than one million more pixels than an HD TV, and with 44 percent increased color saturation the new iPad displays colors that are unbelievably richer, deeper and more vivid. Movies are now capable of playing at full 1080p HD-resolution , deliveringan incomparable viewing experience on a mobiledevice.
The powerful new A5X chip with quad-core graphics was specifically designed by Apple to deliver a fast, responsive user experience while supporting the incredible Retina display. With double the graphics performance of the A5 chip, the A5X provides a superb balance between performance and power efficiency so users can enjoy all the benefits of the stunning new displaywhile experiencing a smooth Multi-Touch interface , immersive gameplay, incredible visual depth and all-day battery life that iPad is known for delivering.
The 5 megapixel iSight camera features advanced optics for taking stunning pictures and recording full HD video. Backside illumination allows you to take great photos in low-light conditions and a new video image stabilization feature removes the bumps and shakes typically seen when filming with a hand-held device. Images can be enjoyed on the large Retina display, then edited, enhanced and easily shared with friends and family using the built-in Photos app on iPad.

iPad Wi-Fi + 4G with built-in next generation 4G LTE has the most comprehensive support for fast networks worldwide including HSPA+ and DC-HSDPA , and now both CDMA and GSM iPad users have the ability to easily roam internationally. The world-ready iPad delivers blazing download and upload speeds so web pages load incredibly quickly and email with large attachments can be sent and received easily. Personal Hotspot can be used to share the fast network connection on your iPad with up to 5 other devices using Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or USB**.
With iOS 5.1 , the latest update to the world’s most advanced mobile operating system, the new iPad has a number of new features and enhancements including: a redesigned Camera app with video stabilization technology; the ability to delete photos from Photo Stream; support for dictation in English, French, German and Japanese; and Personal Hotspot. iOS 5.1 also works seamlessly with iCloud , a breakthrough set of free cloud services including iTunes in the Cloud, Photo Stream and Documents in the Cloud, that works seamlessly with your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac or PC to automatically and wirelessly store your content and push it to your devices. When content changes on one of your devices, your other devices are updated automatically.
The new iPad also supports dictation , another amazing way to get things done just using your voice. Instead of typing, tap the microphone icon on the keyboard, then say what you want to say and the new iPad listens. Tap done, and iPad converts your words into text. You can use dictation to write messages, take notes, search the web and more. Dictation also works with third-party apps, so you can update your Facebook status, tweet, or write Instagram captions.

Apple also introduced the iPhoto app , along withmajor updates to iMovie and GarageBand , completing its suite of iLife apps for iOS . iLife andthe iWork apps, Pages, Keynote and Numbers, have all been updated to take advantage of the new iPad Retina display. iPhoto includes breakthrough Multi-Touch features so you can use simple gestures to sort through hundreds of photos and find your best shots, enhance and retouch your images using fingertip brushes and share stunning photo journals with iCloud. iMovienow gives you the ability to create amazing Hollywood-style trailers as you record HD video, and GarageBand introduces Jam Session , an innovative and fun new feature that allows a group of friends to wirelessly connect to play instruments and record music together live on their iOS devices.
iPad runs almost all of the over 585,000 apps available on the App Store, including more than 200,000 native iPad apps, from a wide range of categories, including books, games, business, news, sports, health, reference and travel. The iTunes Store puts the world’s most popular onlinemusic, TV and movie store at your fingertips with a catalog of over 20 million songs, over 90,000 TV episodes and over 15,000 movies. The new iBooks 2 app for iPad lets users experience an entirely new kind of ebook that’s dynamic, engaging and truly interactive. iBooks created with Apple’s new iBooks Author offer gorgeous, fullscreen ebooks with interactive animations, diagrams, photos, videos, unrivaled navigation and much more.
Apple – The new iPad – TV Ad
Pricing & Availability
The new iPad Wi-Fi models will be available in black or white on Friday, March 16 for a suggested retail price of $499 (US) for the 16GB model, $599 (US) for the 32GB model and $699 (US) for the 64GB model. iPad Wi-Fi + 4G for eitherAT&T or Verizon will be available for a suggested retail price of $629 (US) for the 16GB model, $729 (US) for the 32GB model and $829 (US) for the 64GB model. iPad will be sold in the US through the Apple Store (www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores, and select Apple Authorized Resellers. iPad will also be available in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Puerto Rico, Singapore, Switzerland, UK and the US Virgin Islands on Friday, March 16. Customers can begin pre-ordering their new iPad today, and the incredible iPad 2 is now offered at a more affordable price of $399 (US) for the 16GB Wi-Fi model and just $529 (US) for the 16GB Wi-Fi + 3G model.

Apple App Store more than 25 Billion Downloads

Apple announced that more than 25 billion apps have been downloaded from its App Store by the users of the more than 315 million iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices worldwide. The 25 billionth app downloaded, Where’s My Water? Free, was downloaded by Chunli Fu of Qingdao, China. As the winner of the App Store Countdown to 25 Billion Apps, Chunli Fu will receive a $10,000 iTunes Gift Card .
The revolutionary App Store offers more than 550,000 apps to iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users in 123 countries around the world, with more than 170,000 native iPad apps available. App Store customers can choose from an incredible range of apps in 21 categories, including Newsstand, games, business, news, sports, health & fitness and travel. The App Store has paid out more than four billion dollars to developers.
Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services said:
“We’d like to thank our customers and developers for helping us achieve this historic milestone of 25 billion apps downloaded. When we launched the App Store less than four years ago, we never imagined that mobile apps would become the phenomenon they have, or that developers would create such an incredible selection of apps for iOS users.”

Apple ‘OS X Mountain Lion’ Developer Preview Released

Apple released a developer preview of OS X Mountain Lion , the ninth major release of Mac OS, which brings popular appsand features from iPad to the Mac and accelerates the pace of OS X innovation. Mountain Lion introduces Messages, Notes, Reminders and Game Center to the Mac, as well as Notification Center , Share Sheets, Twitter integration and AirPlay Mirroring .
Mountain Lion is the first OS X release built with iCloud in mind for easy setup and integration with apps. The developer preview of Mountain Lion also introduces Gatekeeper , a revolutionary security feature that helps keep you safe from malicious software by giving you complete control over what apps are installed on your Mac. The preview release of Mountain Lion is available to Mac Developer Program members starting. Mac users will be able to upgrade to Mountain Lion from the Mac App Store in late summer 2012.
The developer preview of Mountain Lion features the all new Messages app which replaces iChat and allows you to send unlimited messages, high-quality photos and videos directly from your Mac to anotherMac or iOS device. Messages will continue to support AIM, Jabber, Yahoo! Messenger and Google Talk . Lion users can download a betaof Messages from www.apple.com , and the final version will be available with Mountain Lion. Reminders and Notes help you create and track your to-dos across all your devices.Game Center lets you personalize your Mac gaming experience, find new games and challenge friends to play live multiplayer games, whether they’re on a Mac, iPhone, iPad or iPod touch.
Mountain Lion presents notifications in an elegant new way, and Notification Center provides easy access to alerts from Mail, Calendar, Messages, Reminders, system updates and third party apps. System-wide Share Sheets make it easy to share links, photos and videos directly from Apple and third party apps. Twitter is integrated throughout Mountain Lion so you can sign on once and tweet directly from Safari, QuickLook, Photo Booth, Preview and third party apps. Mountain Lion also introduces AirPlay Mirroring, an easy way to wirelessly send a secure 720p video stream of what’s on your Mac to an HDTV using Apple TV.
More than 100 million users have iCloud accounts, and Mountain Lion makes it easier than ever to set up iCloud and access documents across your devices. Mountain Lion uses your Apple ID to automatically set up Contacts, Mail, Calendar, Messages, FaceTime and Find My Mac. The new iCloud Documents pushes any changes to all your devices so documents are always up to date,and a new API helps developers make document-based apps work with iCloud.
Gatekeeper is a revolutionary new security feature that gives you control over which apps can be downloaded and installed on your Mac. You can choose to install apps from any source, just as you do on a Mac today, or you can use the safer default setting to install apps from the Mac App Store, along with apps from developers that have a unique Developer ID from Apple. For maximum security, you can set Gatekeeper to only allow apps from the Mac App Store to be downloaded and installed.
Mountain Lion also has features specifically designed to support Chinese users, includingsignificant enhancements to the Chinese input method and the option to select Baidusearch in Safari. Mountain Lion makes it easy to set up Contacts, Mail and Calendar with top email service providers QQ, 126 and 163. Chinese users can also upload video via ShareSheets directly to leading video websites Youku and Tudou, and system-wide support for Sina weibo makes microblogging easy.
Hundreds of new APIs give developers accessto new core technologies and enhanced features within OS X. The Game Kit APIs tap into the same services as Game Center on iOS, making it possible to create multiplayer games that work across Mac, iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. A new graphics infrastructure underpins OpenGL and OpenCLand implements GLKit, first introduced in iOS5, to make it easier to create OpenGL apps. Using Core Animation in Cocoa apps is easier than ever, and new video APIs deliver modern 64-bit replacements for low-level QuickTime APIs. Enhanced Multi-Touch APIs give developers double-tap zoom support and access to the system-wide lookup gesture. Kernel ASLR improves security through enhanced mitigation against buffer overflow attacks.
Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Appleleads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices with iPad.