A breakdown of iOS and Android profits, plus 4
other Apple stories to read today

post from Apple on 17 May 2012 03:03:44 PM. © Apple

With so many people writing about Apple, finding the best stories and reports isn’t easy. Here’s our daily pick of stories about the company from around the Web that you shouldn’t miss:

Apple number cruncher Horace Dediu at Asymco took at stab at calculating how much of Apple’s revenue comes from Google. What he came up with suggests that Apple makes more money from Google than Google does from Android: ”$1.4 billion from Google to Apple vs. $600 million from Android to Google.” Read his analysis to find out how he got there.
Turns out the Apple retail juggernaut he helped create can’t be duplicated in a few quarters. Former Apple VP and current J.C. Penny CEO Ron Johnson is coming under fire from his investors for falling sales and a huge stock drop just six months after he joined, Reuters reports.
There’s been a lot of talk about Apple doing a MacBook with a high-resolution Retina display. Sounds great, but how feasible would that be? ZDNet does the analysis.
The Flashback malware threat exposed some serious lapses in Mac security. But what did the creators get out of it? Pretty much nothing, according to Symantec: The botnet “managed to generate around 400,000 ad clicks out of roughly 10 million being displayed,” and they’re having trouble collecting from pay-per-click services who employ anti-fraud measures, says Ars Technica.
Just a day after Greenpeace protested outside Apple’s headquarters about its data center’s reliance on coal power, Reuters reports that Apple plans to build solar farms next to its North Carolina data center and move toward only renewable resources at the site by the end of this year. Katie wrote about this earlier in the year.

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Read The Full Article:
http://gigaom.com/apple/a-breakdown-of-ios-and-android-profits-plus-4-other-apple
-stories-to-read-today/

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Rene Ritchie on the Ramifications of a 4-Inch
iPhone Display

post from Daring Fireball on 17 May 2012 02:02:47 PM. © Daring Fireball

There are numerous ways Apple could change the physical size of the iPhone, but none of them are painless or easy fragmentation-wise. Rene Ritchie does a good job here analyzing Apple’s options.

My money remains on changing the aspect ratio and keeping the pixel density the same. Going from the current 3:2 aspect ratio 960 × 640 display to something like a 9:5 1152 × 640 display. Yes, this would introduce a new headache for developers, but iPhone apps are already supposed to be somewhat flexible vertically, to account for the double-height status bar when there’s an active phone call or audio recording.

And don’t forget the operations angle. My understanding is that these displays aren’t manufactured at their finished sizes — they’re manufactured in big sheets that are then cut to size. So instead of ramping up manufacturing of an entirely new display, Apple would simply be cutting slightly larger displays out of the same “iPhone retina display” sheets they’ve been producing ever since the iPhone 4 hit production.

Lastly, the above is only my conjecture if Apple were to switch to a larger iPhone display. If Apple changes the iPhone display size, this is how I think they’ll do it. I still think that’s a big if, though, and wouldn’t be surprised in the least if this year’s iPhone ships with a good old-fashioned 3.5-inch 960 × 640 display.

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Read The Full Article:
http://www.imore.com/2012/05/17/4-inch-iphone/

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JustNotes

post from Daring Fireball on 17 May 2012 02:02:47 PM. © Daring Fireball

Back in 2009 I wrote about a then-new iPhone notes app called Simplenote. It’s still my favorite today, with a spot on my first home screen. Simplenote uses its own cloud-based syncing service, and offers an API for other developers, and there are a bunch of notes app for the Mac that offer Simplenote syncing.

A new one, JustNotes, is my favorite. Simple and obvious. Ben Brooks wrote a full review of JustNotes, and I pretty much agree with every word of it.

Update: Cody Fink at MacStories has a review of it, too.

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Read The Full Article:
http://selfcoded.com/justnotes/

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Bullish Cross Initiates Rare Buy Rating on Apple

post from Daring Fireball on 17 May 2012 02:02:47 PM. © Daring Fireball

Andy Zaky:

Now here are the reasons why we believe its time to buy Apple andwhy we feel the valuation is incredibly attractive today. At$533.52 a share, Apple trades at 13x last year?s earnings and atonly 10.56x our expect October earnings. Those are incredibly lowvaluations even for Apple. At the November 25, 2011 lows, Appletraded at a 13.13 P/E ratio. So today, Apple is trading at a lowervaluation than it was at the November lows. At the June 2011 lows,Apple was trading near a 15 P/E trailing P/E ratio.

This is only the fifth time Zaky has issued a buy on Apple. He’s four-for-four.

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Read The Full Article:
http://bullishcross.com/2012/05/bullish-cross-initiates-rare-buy-rating-on-apple/

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The Worst Phones You Can Buy

post from Daring Fireball on 17 May 2012 01:03:11 PM. © Daring Fireball

Sam Biddle surveys the bottom end of the cell phone market.

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Read The Full Article:
http://gizmodo.com/5910202/the-worst-phones-you-can-buy

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Nielsen on U.S. Smartphone and Mobile App Growth

post from Daring Fireball on 17 May 2012 01:03:11 PM. © Daring Fireball

Nielsen:

Roughly a year ago when we summarized the state of smartphones atthe Appnation conference, less than 40 percent of mobilesubscribers in the U.S. had smartphones. Today, one in two mobilesubscribers has a smartphone and that figure is moving steadilyupwards.

In other words, there is a lot of headroom remaining. It’s a growth market.

By most measures, it has been the year of the App once again,driven mostly by the rise of Android and iOS users who have morethan doubled in a year and account for 88 percent of those whohave downloaded an app in the past 30 days. In just a year, theaverage number of apps per smartphone has jumped 28 percent, from32 apps to 41. Not only is the 2012 smartphone owner downloadingmore apps, they are increasingly spending more time using them vs.using the mobile web — about 10 percent more than last year.

Hence the agitation of web-centric companies like Facebook and Google.

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Read The Full Article:
http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/?p=31891

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Justnotes

post from Daring Fireball on 17 May 2012 01:03:11 PM. © Daring Fireball

A new one, Justnotes, is my favorite. Simple and obvious. Ben Brooks wrote a full review of Justnotes, and I pretty much agree with every word of it.

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Read The Full Article:
http://selfcoded.com/justnotes/

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PDF Expert 3 brings signatures and embedded media
to PDFs on the iPhone

Today Readdle releases PDF Expert 3, the new generation of its popular iPhone application to read, annotate PDF documents and even fill in PDF forms. With PDF Expert 3 signing PDF documents becomes possible on the iPhone. The update also brings the ability to add stamps and images to the document, create audio notes and connect to the Microsoft SkyDrive. PDF Expert lets people manipulate PDF files just the way they would do it on the desktop.

Read The Full Article:
http://prmac.com/release-id-42872.htm

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Tiffen Dfx v3 Adds Support for Final Cut Pro X
and Motion 5

The leader in still and motion digital filters and effects expands host support for its multi award-winning Dfx solution to include FCP 10.0.4 and Motion 5.0.3. Through a global distribution partnership with Digital Film Tools, a developer of visual effects tools, Tiffen provides the creative community access to an unprecedented breadth and depth of award-winning visual effects products with special production bundles that can be purchased only through Tiffen and DFT.

Read The Full Article:
http://prmac.com/release-id-42871.htm

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The Blue Jackal Puzzle Book - Storybook & Puzzle
rolled into one

The Blue Jackal Puzzle Book, is now available on the Apple App Store. It is similar to Aesop's Fables, with every story having a moral at the end. Its one of the many stories in the Panchatantra, a collection of tales from India. The app is both a storybook and a puzzle rolled into one, to give kids a more fun and interactive experience while listening to the tale. Each page of the book includes a colorful puzzle image, easy to understand narration as well as the text of the story itself.

Read The Full Article:
http://prmac.com/release-id-42775.htm

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