Thfire.com – iNews

Microsoft has officially come out with Windows 8. But wait! Its not yet officially confirmed if it will be called “Windows 8″. Its just code-named Windows 8 which is the next OS in line after Windows 7 which was released barely less then 2 years ago.

So, just as we are familiarizing with Windows 7′s re-designed user interface and its brand new features and getting to like it. Windows 8 is going to loaded with more redesigned interface and better functionality. Windows 8 is designed keeping in mind that it has to be used in mobile platforms also. This could bring a whole new experience for users who will get the same feel whether they are on their mobile or PC.

One striking new concept of Windows 8 is that they have completely re-designed the iconic Start Menu and replaced it with a tiled screen where each tile launches an application. Some what like that in an iOS of iPhone, but better. The better part is these tiles can be ‘live’, which means constant updates and notifications of that application on its tile. Windows 8 by default will come loaded with a bunch of apps like weather app, a stock ticker app, and a built-in news app all with their ‘live tile’.

It seems to be fully designed with touch screen on mind. But they say it will work just as fine with a mouse and keyboard.

Other features include multitasking, by sliding the application to the side of the screen, very similar to the ones already available in iOS and Android. Which enables you to run 2 applications side-by-side.

Now, the good news Windows 8 is still in development stage and you can’t expect it to hit the stores will the end of 2012. Lots of features are still being considered. Microsoft has just decided to show us a glimpse of what to expect.

I guess we can go back and enjoy Windows 7 till then.

Here is the video Microsoft officially released on “Windows 8″ in its YouTube channel:

iPhone 5 rumors are surging online indicating a possible earlier release of the product with a faster processor and a similar look to the iPhone 4.

The new Apple rumors contradict previous assertions the so-called iPhone 5 wouldn’t start production until September for a launch during the holidays or early 2012. Instead, the next iteration of Apple’s iPhone would go into production in the summer around June or July to get ready for the big launch in the fall, according to three anonymous sources who spoke to Reuters.

It’s not clear what kind of a faster processor the iPhone 5 would have, but most observers expect Apple to use the dual-core A5 chip that debuted in the iPad 2.

Little else is known about the next iPhone, as most speculation has been about when the new smartphone would launch and not what new features the device would offer.

Since the iPhone first launched in 2007, Apple has introduced a new version every year in June during its annual Worldwide Developers Conference. But most speculation suggests a 2011 iPhone launch would happen later than usual due, at least in part, to Apple’s launch of a CDMA version of the iPhone 4 on Verizon in early 2011.

Apple at WWDC 2011 plans to offer a preview of the next iterations of iOS and Mac OS X (Lion). Current rumors suggest a new iOS, dubbed iOS 5, would include cloud-based features such as online storage, free Mobile Me access for e-mail, calendar and contacts syncing, and possibly new location-based social features. Apple’s iOS 5 may also have an improved graphics engine.

There is also some debate about whether the iPhone 5 would have a Near Field Communication (NFC) chip. NFC technology would allow you to turn your phone into a virtual wallet that lets you pay at shops, restaurants and subway stations with just a wave of your phone in front of an NFC reader. Google announced the feature for Android devices in late 2010 and Microsoft is said to be prepping Windows Phone 7 with NFC functionality.

The September Debate

Apple typically uses September to launch new iPods and other music products, but the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch have made Apple’s other multimedia devices increasingly irrelevant. There’s only so much interest you can muster every year over a revamped iPod Nano or Shuffle and a new version of iTunes. Also, if Apple releases a new version of iOS in the summer and then waits for the fall for a new iPhone, it gives third-party developers more time to get their apps ready for the new device.

Whatever the reason for Apple’s rumored launch changeup, without a new iPhone coming in June it will be interesting to see if the company has any other surprises cooking for this year’s WWDC.

Localphone releases new voip softphone for windows and Mac.

Localphone which is said to be voip phone with unbelievable cheaper call rates around the globe, has come up with new softphone for pc with windows and MAC OS.

New Features of the softphone said to be much more enhanced crystal clear calls through voip (voice over internet protocol) with low speed internet. They have also released a voip call for iphone and other mobile devices.

Through their enhanced cheaper development of VOIP call they are said to beat their local competitor like SKYPE, YAHOO.

Apart from the above said, Localphone has also enhanced their connectivity of SIP through other third party like FRING, NIMBUZZ.  Boy, Thats Sounds fantastic!

I have browsed myself and installed the application which is very handy for me.

In order to download the softphone application for your windows or mac or linux, visit the official localphone website by clicking here

I came around a weird information about Apple CEO Steve Jobs health and his rare medical leave of absence via Yahoo. Its rumored that he might live just another 6 weeks as he is suffering with pancreatic cancer.

Hell, this is very sensitive info and i hope it is false.

The information was reported in Yahoo, and it continues below

Apple founder and CEO Steve Jobs has terminal pancreatic cancer and may live for just six more weeks, a media report said Thursday.

The 55-year-old Jobs in January announced that at his request, the board of directors granted him a medical leave of absence so that he could focus on his health.

Since then, employees have said Jobs can still be seen at the company’s headquarters in California and is also calling all the strategic shots from his home.

Now, new pictures have been published in the tabloid National Enquirer, which suggest things may be worse for the the man behind the iPod, iPhone and iPad.

The report said Jobs is stricken with pancreatic cancer and may have just six weeks to live.

The new photos show him looking painfully frail and weak, with his jeans and dark top hanging loosely on his six-feet-two-inches, frail body, the Daily Mail reported.

The pictures were not yet available online, but Jobs’s weight is said to have dropped from a pre-cancer 175 pounds to 130 pounds now, according to the National Enquirer.

His thinning hair was a sign of the effects of chemotherapy used to treat the disease.

The photos, which were taken Feb 8, showed Jobs going for breakfast with his wife Laurene Powell before heading to the Stanford Cancer Centre in California.

Jerome Spunberg, a doctor, said: ‘Mr. Jobs is most likely getting outpatient chemotherapy at Stanford because the cancer has recurred.’

Gabe Mirkin, a physician with 40 years’ experience, said: ‘He is terminal. What you are seeing is extreme muscle wasting from calorie deprivation, most likely caused by cancer. He has no muscle left in his buttocks, which is the last place to go.’

Continue Reading

Of all the crazy/useful iPhone apps this app seems to be one really useful one. The developer was inspired to develop this app after he was constantly hampered with parking tickets costing him over 1000′s of dollars per year.

This Australian man developed an iPhone app that will let users warn each other when parking officers are spotted lurking near their cars.

ParkPatrol in action, a screenshot of the App.

“The idea was pretty much born out of frustration,” said Joseph Darling of “ParkPatrol,” the app developed by his Sydney-based firm to help users avoid tickets that cost what he said was at least $82 Australian ($81) a shot — and often more.

“I could show you a list of maybe 20 to 30 parking tickets that I had last year, in my town, just by being a normal driver. I must have spent thousands of dollars.”

The final straw came when he was ticketed in his own neighborhood despite a parking permit that he pays hundreds of dollars for each year.

The app is community based. When users sign in, they can report sightings of a parking officers. This is marked in the map which is represented by a cartoon face wearing a cap, along with the a note thanking the who updated it.

The app will also alert users if a parking officer is spotted in their area and how close. Notification options for 500 meters (1,640 ft), 200 meters and 100 meters are available.

The free app is available in English, German, Spanish, Portuguese and French. Roughly 80 percent of users are in Australia, but it is also used in England, Spain, France and Germany, Darling said.

“With an active community, it’s pretty accurate. We reckon around 90 percent,” he added.

Future versions, currently being finished, will include an alert function for when parking time has expired. The company is also finalizing an Android version.

Apple Inc.’s 78 percent surge in profit, buoyed by holiday purchases of iPads, iPhones and Mac computers, helped allay concerns about the company’s prospects as Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs takes medical leave.

Net income in the fiscal first quarter rose to $6 billion, or $6.43 a share, from $3.38 billion, or $3.67, a year earlier, Apple said yesterday in a statement. The Cupertino, California- based company also projected second-quarter profit and sales that may exceed analysts’ estimates.

Sales gained 71 percent to a record $26.7 billion as customers packed stores to buy iPhone 4s, iPads and new Macbook Air laptops, all available for the first time during a year-end holiday season. Revenue would have risen more had the company been able to build more iPhones, Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer said. The results indicate that Apple will perform well even as Jobs hands day-to-day operations to Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook, said Bill Kreher, an analyst at Edward Jones.

“These results will help shift focus away from Steve Jobs’s health and to the company’s long-term earnings power,” said Kreher, who’s based in St. Louis. “Investors have become increasingly more comfortable with life after Jobs.”

Apple gained 1.3 percent in extended trading yesterday after the results were announced. The company had declined $7.83, or 2.3 percent, to $340.65 in Nasdaq stock market trading.

Apple, whose potential U.S. customer base for the iPhone will almost double by adding Verizon Wireless as a carrier next month, said profit this quarter will be $4.90 a share on sales of $22 billion.

Beating Predictions

Analysts had predicted second-quarter profit of $4.47 a share on sales of $20.9 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Last quarter’s results also topped analysts’ estimates.

“Apple is doing its best work ever,” Cook said on a conference call with analysts. “We are all very happy with the product pipeline, and the team here has an unparalleled breadth and depth of talent in a culture of innovation that Steve has driven in the company.”

Cook, who fielded questions from financial analysts during the hour-long conference call, wasn’t asked about Jobs’s health or the outlook for the management structure.

Shaw Wu, who covers Apple for Kaufman Bros. in San Francisco, said analysts didn’t expect Apple to say anything new if asked. He also said investors are becoming less concerned that the company will falter without Jobs at the helm.

“The investment community has gotten past it,” Wu said.

Comments By Jobs

Jobs, who didn’t participate in the call, said in a statement accompanying the results that, “we are firing on all cylinders.”

The CEO said on Jan. 17 that he will take his third medical leave since 2004. In the e-mail released by Apple, he said, “I love Apple and hope to back as soon as I can.”

In the first quarter, which ended Dec. 25, Apple sold 7.33 million iPads. Apple also sold 16.2 million iPhones, 4.13 million Mac computers and 19.5 million iPod media players. Mike Abramsky at RBC Capital Markets LLC predicted 6 million iPads, 16 million iPhones, 4.2 million Macs and 18.7 million iPods.

Apple is reaching new customers internationally and among businesses that haven’t typically used its products. In China and Taiwan, sales last quarter were $2.6 billion, compared with about $3 billion for the region in all of fiscal 2010, Cook said. Companies including Wells Fargo & Co., Archer Daniels Midland Co. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. are using iPhones and iPads.

‘Blowout’

“It was a blowout quarter,” said Ashok Kumar, an analyst at Rodman & Renshaw LLC, who’s based in Palo Alto, California. “The momentum should sustain for the next 12 months with the iPad and iPhone refresh. The uncertainty investors have to prepare for is beyond that time frame in terms of the company’s ability to execute in this flawless manner and develop new markets.”

The second-quarter will be the first to include sales from Verizon Wireless, the largest U.S. carrier, which will begin selling the iPhone on Feb. 10. The arrangement ends AT&T Inc.’s exclusive U.S. rights to the iPhone and adds 93.2 million potential customers for Apple.

The iPhone is Apple’s top-selling product, accounting for 39 percent of revenue last fiscal year. The iPad also is becoming a bestselling product for Apple, accounting for 17 percent of revenue last quarter.

Cash Holdings

Apple also is reserving cash. Oppenheimer, Apple’s finance chief, said Apple’s cash, combined with short-term and long-term holdings, now equals $59.7 billion, up from $51 billion in the fourth-quarter. He said the company will spend about $3.9 billion over the next two years as a prepayment for components.

The results followed the Jan. 17 announcement that Jobs is taking a leave of absence. His health has deteriorated from a bout with a rare form of cancer and the effects of a liver transplant he had almost two years ago, according to a person with knowledge of the situation.

Jobs will continue as the CEO and will be involved in major decisions, according to his e-mail.

“I hope he comes back,” said Jane Snorek, who helps oversee about $75 billion at Nuveen Asset Management and said Apple is Nuveen’s biggest holding. “I don’t care who they get, there’s no way you can replace Steve Jobs.”

Source : Bloomberg.com

Looks like investors believe that Steve Jobs is the iron hand that holds the Apple together and without him Apple would really hit the floor.

Apple will fail without Steve Jobs ?

Apple Inc. shares fell 4.4% in early trading Tuesday, erasing about $15 billion in market value, after the consumer-electronics company disclosed that company visionary Chief Executive Steve Jobs would take another medical leave.

Few CEOs have been as closely linked to his company’s success as Mr. Jobs has, and some say his presence is reflected in Apple’s stock price. Others, though, argue that any such premium was washed out during his last leave two years ago, and that the stock’s surge since January 2009—shares have nearly quadrupled–is based on the company’s strength in the market and balance sheet.

Apple is now the world’s most valuable technology company with a market cap of about $321 billion, as of the close Friday, according to FactSet Research, and will likely remain above Microsoft Corp. despite the stock declines Tuesday.

In early trading, shares of the Cupertino, Calif., company recently fell 4.4% to $333.18. Based on that price, the stock remains up 3% this month from its 2010 close of $322.56 and the company carries a market cap of $304.69 billion.

Mr. Jobs’s leave comes as the stock ended on another all-time high Friday. Apple shares, up 66% over the past 12 months, have rallied due to the success of its iPad tablet, expectations surrounding the Verizon Wireless iPhone and increased sales of its Mac computers, which last week were named the fastest-growing PCs in the U.S.

Evidence of Apple’s recent success is expected after the bell when the company reports its fiscal first-quarter earnings. Analysts, on average, expect Apple’s per-share earnings to rise 47% to $5.40 as revenue increases 56% to $24.43 billion, according to Thomson Reuters.

The 55-year-old’s leave shouldn’t derail the company’s current momentum, analysts say, but could have longer-term implications.

Mr. “Jobs’s absence should have no material impact on Apple’s financial performance over the next several years,” Needham analyst Charlie Wolf said. What Apple loses during the leave “is the ability to redefine markets and industries going forward—in short, the option value of future innovations.”

Goldman Sachs analyst Bill Shope recommended buying on any weakness because the long-term fundamentals remain intact. He said Apple’s multiple of 15.1 times earnings “already represents a significant historical discount, and we see no direct risk to earnings from this move.”

Mr. Shope, who reiterated his 12-month target price of $430, also said “Apple’s $51 billion in cash and investments could be partially distributed to shareholders to stabilize the shares.”

The leave marks the third time in the past decade that the 55-year-old CEO has been forced to step back from his role at Apple. He took medical leave in 2004 and then again in the first half of 2009, returning to the company in late June of that year. Mr. Jobs, a survivor of pancreatic cancer, received a liver transplant while on leave in 2009.

In his absence, Apple Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook will run the company. Mr. Cook, 50, and a longtime lieutenant, ran the company during Mr. Jobs’s previous leaves. Analysts don’t expect any major changes under Mr. Cook.

“We could see changes to more mundane corporate issues such as a dividend policy as we believe Jobs was the most vocally opposed,” Jefferies & Co. analyst Peter Misek said.

In May, Apple surpassed Microsoft as the most valuable technology company, capping a rise for a stock that hit a low of $3.19 in December 1997 and a more recent bottom of $6.36 in April 2003, according to FactSet Research. The historical share prices are adjusted for Apple’s 2-for-1 stock splits in 2000 and 2005.

“The major risk in the Apple story is Steve Jobs’ heath,” Mr. Wolf said. “Risks arising from the competitive landscape pale in comparison.”