A New Number 1?

Apple and Samsung Electronics are sucking up every penny of profit in the handset business. But Samsung’s mobile business is growing fast, and the question is: Could it surpass Apple in profit next quarter?

Analysts at Canaccord Genuity, an investment research firm, think so, according to a new report. The report, issued on Monday, said that in the first quarter of the year, Apple took 57 percent of profit in the handset business, while Samsung took 43 percent. That shows substantial growth for Samsung’s phones. For comparison, in the first quarter last year, Apple raked in 74 percent of profit, and Samsung took 26 percent.

In the report, Michael Walkley, a Canaccord Genuity analyst, said he believed that in the June quarter, slowing sales of the iPhone combined with strong sales of Samsung’s new flagship phone, the Galaxy S4, may catapult Samsung to the top spot.

The End of Boxed Software

Adobe has joined the 21st Century. They recently announced that the next version of their famous Adobe Creative Suite that includes Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, After Effects, Dreamweaver and Acrobat will be its last.

Moving forward, the company will only sell the online Creative Cloud products, which is a software-as-a-service offering that introduced last year.

The current version of their desktop product, Creative Suite 6, will still be available for purchase, but it is the final version and will not be updated beyond routine maintenance.

It’s a big gamble for Adobe and we hope it works out for them.

To Droid or Not to Droid

By Robert Sanborn

To Droid or not to droid, is that a question you are asking yourselves as you look at the choices of smartphones? 

I broke down over a year ago and bought the Apple iPhone 4S model and really like having it except for a couple of snags. I purchased the minimum data plan mostly because I really didn’t like the idea of surfing the web on something that small and didn’t want to pay the $50 a month for that privilege.  

And for a year that philosophy worked out great as I never hit the minimum data usage. If I was going to do a bunch of updates, web surfing, and the like, I did it when I was connected to a wi-fi hotspot.  

Come to find out, the iPhone is worse than a computer when it comes to phoning home because it seems like every app that you download wants to phone home. And unfortunately, one of those apps went berserk and pushed me over my limit. Turned out to be an Apple software snag that did it. The Calendar application decided that it needed to update itself via the cloud constantly. Fortunately, there was a quick fix from Apple but it did cost me a hit on the data plan.  So now I spend time monitoring the data use to make sure there aren’t any other data hogs out there.  

Too bad there wasn’t a better app for that.

Jill-E Jack Metro Tablet Bag Review

This is a review of the fantastic leather shoulder bag from Jill-E Designs. The Jack Collection Metro Tablet Bag is a brown Columbian leather carry case. It can hold up to a 10” tablet, Phablet or eReader and a bunch of other stuff. Dimensions are 8x3x11.5” and there are pouches on the back and front to carry other stuff.

The rear pocket has a zipper and provides quick access for things like a smartphone, wallet, or things like that. The interior front pouch is under the top flap and is large enough to hold quite a lot of items.

The adjustable carry strap is long enough to allow it to be used over-the-shoulder or cross-body. The interior is well padded and provides excellent protection.

The Jack Metro Bag is as much a fashion accessory as it is a practical tablet case. It is very well made and absolutely beautiful. If you’re looking for a way to carry your geek tools in style then this is the bag for you.

MSRP is $129.00

www.jill-e.com

Q1 2013 Tablet Shipments

More tablets were shipped during January and March this year than the entire first half of 2012: 49.2 million units during the three-month period, according to IDC. The analyst firm’s Worldwide Quarterly Tablet Tracker was published Wednesday and it shows that tablets continue grow at a rapid clip. Every major tablet maker saw large gains in shipments during the first quarter — and one of the notable results of that is that Apple’s overall share of the tablet market is decreasing.

Apple is still the world’s largest tablet seller; it shipped 19.5 million in the last quarter, up from 11.8 million the same quarter a year ago, according to IDC and its own numbers released earlier this month. That’s an increase of 64 percent. Its No. 1 mobile competitor, Samsung, saw its shipments grow even faster, from 2.3 million tablets a year ago to 8.8 million in the latest quarter. Rounding out the Top 5, Asus and Amazon also more than doubled their tablet shipments from a year ago. Microsoft, which did not start selling tablets until October 2012, shipped 900,000 Surface units between January and March.

The overall growth in tablets means Android is now the most popular mobile OS in tablets shipped during the quarter; a year ago it was on 8 million of tablets shipped worldwide, compared to the 11.8 million iPads. This past quarter saw Android shipped on 27.8 million tablets that were shipped and 19.5 million iPads and iPad minis.

Nikon CoolPix P7700 Firmware Update

We’re in the midst of doing a review on the Nikon Coolpix P7700 digital camera and we were notified of a firmware update.

If you have a P7700 then you should go to nikonusa.com web site and get the update. Here are the simple instructions once you get the file:

Basic Download and Installation instructions: (New firmware versions contain all previous versions.)

Windows

1. Create a new folder with an appropriate name on your computer's hard disk.
2. Download F-P7700-V11W.exe to the folder created in step 1.
3. Run F-P7700-V11W.exe to create the folder titled P7700Update, containing the following:
4. 
   
• firmware:  folder containing the firmware.bin file
• firmware.bin :  the firmware located inside the firmware folder.
5. Format a memory card with the camera and use a card reader or similar device to copy firmware folder to the root directory on the memory card.
6. Insert the memory card containing the firmware folder into the camera and turn on the camera.
7. Select Firmware version from the setup menu and follow the instructions displayed to upgrade the camera’s firmware.
8. After the upgrade is complete, turn the camera off and remove the memory card.
9. Check the Firmware version item in the setup menu to confirm that the camera’s firmware has been upgraded.

MD Discs

I’m doing my far-too-occasional deep-pore cleaning of my office. It’s one of those chores that I should do two or three times every year, but I don’t. I’m doing things like moving printers that haven’t been used in 8 years and other things like that.

Tonight I discovered a small stack of MD discs. OK, who remembers MD discs? They were the transition from records/CDs to MP3s. A mini-disc that still held a full album. I have a wonderful MD recorder/player that I used for several years that gave me a lot of pleasure on flights to Vegas.

At a Comdex show many years ago I remember a conversation with the PR rep for the maker of an MD recorder. He was unusually factual when he told me that MDs had been a great very-short term profit maker. He also said that it was a doomed format and MP3 players would overtake them in a year or so. He was absolutely right!