Siam News Network

Sony launched the stylish new Cyber-shot DSC-TX200V featuring a beautiful reinforced glass design, a look that will go well with your iPhone. With fierce competition coming from the high-end smartphones that now deliver high megapixel cameras with good lenses and sensors (Xperia Ion with 12 MP Exmor R sensor and Nokia Lumia 900 with Carl Zeiss lens), it is hard for point-and-shoot to remain attractive to highly demanding consumers. Beside the innovative and stylish design, the  DSC-TX200V packs serious performance in its slim body, thanks to a enhanced 18.2 MP “Exmor R” CMOS sensor and a new BIONZ processor that deliver “ Extra High Sensitivity ” technology for enhanced low-light shooting capabilities. Other new features include the Optical SteadyShot Active Mode , that provide better image stabilization and a super fast auto focus with a speed of approximately 0.13 seconds in daytime and 0.25 seconds in low-light situations (speed vary based on shooting conditions), according to Sony. Despite its elegant appearance, the Cyber-shot DSC-TX200V is also a tough cookie, and “reinforced glass design” means the camera is waterproof (up to 5m,16 feet), dustproof and freeze-proof (up to 14 o F). The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-TX200V  will be available in March in silver, red and violet for about $500. Check the features list in the complete article. (more…) By Ubergizmo . Related articles : Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W620 and DSC-W610 , Top 10 CES Gadgets ,

See the original article here:
Sony Cyber-shot DSC-TX200V Stylish 18.2 MP Glass Design Camera

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Samsung Electronics Co. reported a 17 percent jump in fourth quarter profit on the strength of sales in flat panels and smartphones even as the company battled claims it had copied Apple’s iPhone.

Samsung said Friday in a regulatory filing that its net profit reached 4 trillion won ($3.5 billion) in the three months that ended in December.

The company earned 3.4 trillion won in the same quarter a year earlier.

The Suwon, South Korea-based company said its operating profit jumped 75.8 percent to 5.3 trillion won in the fourth quarter.

The figure was closely in line with the company’s estimate earlier this month of a 73 percent rise.

Samsung, the world’s biggest manufacturer of memory chips and liquid crystal displays, said demand for semiconductors in mobile products and servers remained solid despite weakness in personal computers, which face stiff competition from the rising popularity of tablets.

Samsung has over the decades grown into a key global manufacturer of components that let PCs, digital music players and handsets store data and display it on flat, high-resolution screens.

The company has recently been stepping up its challenge against Apple Inc. in the global smartphone business, releasing models such as the Galaxy S II. Cupertino, California-based Apple, which spurred the smartphone boom with the launch of its iPhone in 2007, has accused Samsung of “slavishly” copying its smartphone and iPad in design, user interface and packaging. Apple sued Samsung in April last year in the United States.

The legal battle has now spilled into 10 countries, according to Samsung officials. Court rulings so far have tended to side with Apple.

The quarterly profit brought the 2011 net profit to 13.7 trillion won, down 15 percent from the previous year, Samsung said. “If profit in handsets continues to stream in, this year will also likely be a solid one for Samsung,” said Jae Lee, an analyst at Daiwa Securities in Seoul. “The biggest threat would be if the global economy worsens.” Lee said legal battles with Apple would start weighing less on Samsung this year as the South Korean company is expected to release models with new designs. Please follow Money Game on Twitter and Facebook . Join the conversation about this story » See Also: UBS: If You Exclude Apple, Then This Earnings Season Sucks Here Are The Key Market Moving Events For Tuesday, January 24 Chemical Giant DuPont’s Q4 Earnings Decline Less Than Expected, Strength In Performance Chemicals

The rest is here:
Samsung Earnings Beat Expectations Even As Legal Battle With Apple Weighs On Company

Despite Steve Jobs’s nearly malevolent attitude towards the Android operating system, Steve Wozniak is a fan, reports The Daily Beast . “My primary phone is the iPhone . I love the beauty of it. But I wish it did all the things my Android does, I really do,” he said. According to Woz, voice commands and navigation are two huge advantages of Android over iOS . “If you’re willing to do the work to understand it a little bit, well, I hate to say it, but there’s more available in some ways,” said Wozniak. Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook . Join the conversation about this story » See Also: 10 Things You Need To Know This Morning Here’s Why Robert Scoble And The Rest Of The Pundits Are Wrong: Windows Phone Will Be A Success iPad 3 Production Just Started!

Excerpt from:
Forget About Siri — Steve Wozniak Says Voice Commands Are Better On Android (AAPL)

LAS VEGAS — Microsoft’s booth was definitely one of the coolest (and biggest) we saw at the Consumer Electronics Show today. We saw Star Wars Pod Racing in 3D, all the best new Windows Phones, and even a woman trying on virtual clothes using Xbox Kinect . Here are our favorite things we saw at Microsoft’s booth. Microsoft’s CES booth is one of the best at the entire show.

The booth is massive, and it was packed when we visited it. Microsoft is offering $100 to anybody whose phone is faster than a Windows Phone.

They’d even let you swap your phone for a Windows Phone.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider Please follow SAI: Tools on Twitter and Facebook .

See Also: HANDS ON: Nokia’s Gorgeous Lumia 900, Microsoft’s Only Chance To Beat The iPhone 33 Big And Beautiful New Screenshots Of Windows 8 In Action CES DAY 1: Here Are All The Incredible Gadgets You Missed, Plus A Very ‘Enthusiastic’ Steve Ballmer

Read the original post:
Microsoft’s CES Booth Was Packed With Windows Phones, Windows 8, And Even 3D Star Wars Pod Racing (MSFT)

Just thought i’d let you know, it’s on now! If you want to get the best airfares around Asia, and even long haul flights to destinations in Europe or Australia, AirAsia are now having their ‘Awesome 20% Sale’ on all flights operating on over 165 routes. AirAsia have begun their 20% off sale – Applicable on all flights on all routes! The sale begins today (January 11, 2012) and ends on January 13.

The three day sale is available on travel on any immediate flight departing between the 30 th  of January and the 26 th  of April 2012. For those planning a long haul vacation, the 20% offer includes thecomfy premium fly flat beds on flights to New Zealand, Japan, Australia, China, India, Taiwan, Europe and Korea. Long haul AirAsiaX flights, which feature the cheapest bed in the sky, are also included in the Awesome 20% Sale.

Thai AirAsia chief Tassapon Bijleveld said that it highlighted the budget carrier’s commitment to giving more passengers the chance to take off by providing low fares. “AirAsia is showing our commitment to providing low fares by offering this ‘Awesome 20% Sale’ throughout both AirAsia and AirAsia X’s route network. Now guests will be able to connect to more than 80 destinations in 23 countries. Apart from affordable air travel, this promotion will also allow people to travel immediately while enjoying even lower fares to any of the over 165 destinations that AirAsia and AirAsiaX fly to. ” But it’s not just in the sky where savings are to be made, but also on the ground.  The low-cost group’s holiday division, AirAsiaGo, is also offering a 10% discount on selected destinations for bookings made between 11 and 13 January.

The travel period for this promotion is also from 30 January – 26 April 2012.

To make holidays more interesting and memorable, guests may log on to airasiago.com to be able to mix and match their preferred tour and activities, apart from affordable holiday packages and lodging.

Together with the partnership with Expedia, the travel portal has 130,000 hotel partners around the world. Guests are also able to enjoy the ‘Awesome 20% Sale’ via AirAsia’s mobile apps on Blackberry, iPhone and Android devices, or via mobile.airasia.com on WAP enabled phones.

The discounted fares can also be purchased through our flight search engine – visit http://flights.thaitravelnews.net  Related Video

Go here to read the rest:
Sale Time at AirAsia! Save 20% on bookings before 26 April 2012!

The Apple Investor is a daily report from SAI.

Sign up here to receive it by email . AAPL Still Battling XOM For Market Cap King Last week was good to Apple, which closed above $400 for the first time since early November. But the stock gained little ground in its running battle with Exxon Mobil for the market cap championship, as the rise in crude prices has pushed the oil giant up as well. Catalysts for Apple include iPhone upgrade cycles and adoption; update to the iPad in early 2012; continued market share growth of the Mac business line; penetration in China and emerging markets; the evolution and potential re-conception of Apple TV ; and platforms such as Siri, mobile advertising (iAd), books and publishing, gaming, mapping and social ( Ping ).

Shares of Apple trade at 8.9x Enterprise Value / Trailing Twelve Months Free Cash Flow (including long-term marketable securities). Will Apple Make The Perfect TV While Google TV Continues To Disappoint? (The Perfection Paradox) The single biggest reason Google TV didn’t work was it didn’t solve any of the biggest shortcomings of our living room television viewing experience. Apple, meanwhile, will approach the market with the aim of making TV simple again, by making the “perfect” TV. Henry Blodget at Business Insider says that TV users just want to press “on” and watch what they want to watch .

That’s it.

Steve Jobs probably figured out how to allow TV users to press “on” and then say, “The Jets game,” or “Addams Family” or “The next Sopranos episode” or “our Hawaii vacation videos” and have the TV just play them. If Apple can do that, they will have a massive hit. iOS Mobile Devices Accounted For Over 90% Of December Mobile Retail Sales (RichRelevance) iPads and iPhones accounted for over 92% of online retail sales not originating from a desktop device for December, according to RichRelevance, easily beating out Android .

Shoppers on Apple devices were also willing to spend more, with an average order value of $123 versus Android’s $101 (that’s 19% more). Mobile shopping is still a drop in the bucket compared to desktop shopping, with just 3.7% of total online retail dollars spent in the U.S. Goes to show that the browsing experience is key to mobile commerce. Why Isn’t Safari Growing Like Chrome? ( TechCrunch ) Remember Safari ? While Google’s Chrome has skyrocketed from obscurity in 2008 to over 25% last month, Apple’s web browser lingers somewhere between 5-8%. But Why? Windows ? But Safari has actually been available for Windows quite a bit longer than Chrome has been.

Speed? Chrome is know for being the fastest browser available in terms of both page rendering and JavaScript performance. Promotion? Or lack thereof. Google does quite a bit of promotion for its browser. However, Safari being bundled by default with iTunes should have helped it gain massive Windows market share. Extensions? Safari has had them as well since mid-2010.

That said, Chrome’s extensions are better and much more plentiful. Neglect? Apple is more inclined to throw resources at native work rather than web work. Of course, this could all change if devices like the iPad really are the future of general purpose computing. A New Era Is Coming For Apple In 2012 (paidContent) Apple will remain the most compelling story in tech not just because of the iPhone and its cousin, the iPad, but because of the immense pressure on CEO Tim Cook and Apple’s management team to live up to the standard set by a legend.

This quarter will be the first full quarter that Cook and his lieutenants will have been in charge of Apple. And the company has never been stronger, and Cook has been auditioning for this job for several years.

The company could make or break mobile payments this year and revolutionize the way we watch TV. It’s hard to imagine Apple losing steam in 2012. Get Ready For Apple’s Monster Quarter, And The Stock To Soar (Seeking Alpha) Apple is unique among America’s mega caps due to the company’s ongoing rates of revenue and earnings growth.

That said, the rate of Apple’s share price appreciation has fallen behind the rate of earnings growth over the past four quarters. Despite the 83% growth in earnings per share in fiscal 2011, at Apple’s closing price of $403.33 last week, the share price has risen only 25% year-over-year.

There’s a disconnect between the perceived limits to Apple’s continuing strong growth and the reality of the company’s potential for growth. Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook . Join the conversation about this story » See Also: Here’s Why The Apple TV Might Be Awesome And Google TV Will Continue To Suck…

THE MICROSOFT INVESTOR: Stagnant Shares Are No Reason To Ignore In Microsoft THE GOOGLE INVESTOR: Why Google+ Is Now A Must For Businesses

See the original post here:
THE APPLE INVESTOR: 2012 Will Usher In A New Era For Apple (AAPL)

With several people getting a new smartphone during Christmas time, the post-Christmas period marks the busiest of app downloading days in a year; underscoring the increasing active installed base of iOS and Android!

It is pretty obvious that as soon as people get hold of their new smartphone – be it the hugely popular Apple iPhone, an Android-based handset, a Windows Phone 7 handset, or a BlackBerry -, they straight away want to begin loading their device with their favorite apps, free as well as paid ones.

read more

By Shibani Mahtani and Sam Holmes Associated Press Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, pictured purchasing an iPhone 4S in California, said that a company like Apple could not emerge in “structured” societies.

Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple, said a company like Apple could not emerge in societies like Singapore where “bad behavior is not tolerated” and people are not taught to think for themselves. “Look at structured societies like Singapore where bad behavior is not tolerated and you are extremely punished” Mr. Wozniak said in a recent interview with the BBC . “Where are the creative people? Where are the great artists? Where are the great musicians? Where are the great writers?” Speaking about the late Steve Jobs, his former business partner, he said that allowing creativity was more important than wearing a suit or the length of your hair. Mr. Wozniak, a computer engineer and programmer, founded Apple Computer Co. — now the famed Apple Inc. — with Ronald Wayne and the late Mr. Jobs in the mid-70s.

Speaking specifically about Singapore, he said that though many people are educated with well-paid jobs and nice cars, “creative elements” in society seem to have disappeared.  He added that inspiring creativity was important to a company like Apple. Earlier this year, Mr. Wozniak visited Singapore to speak at a motivational talk series organized by Singapore’s Workforce Development Agency and the National Trades Union Congress. His comments come at a time when Singapore is actively trying to woo creative tech companies like Google and Facebook to invest in the tightly controlled city-state. Just today, Google launched a US$120 million dollar investment for a data center in Singapore, the first of its kind in Southeast Asia.

Speaking about Internet innovation, Jayson Goh, Executive Director for Infocomms & Media at Singapore’s Economic Development Board, said he was happy that “many innovative Internet companies” had chosen Singapore as the focal point for their investment in Southeast Asia, specifically naming Google, Yahoo, PayPal and Facebook. “We will continue to work…to enhance the infrastructure to create a conducive environment for enterprises to provide innovative solutions,” Mr. Goh said.

Singapore actively encourages startups and entrepreneurship in the city-state. According to government statistics,  29, 798 companies were formed in Singapore in 2010 across all sectors, a 13% increase from the previous year. At the groundbreaking ceremony of Google’s Singapore data center, its Southeast Asia head Julian Persaud praised Singapore for its “fantastic business environment” and transparency. “It is very easy to work with the government,” said Mr. Persaud, adding that cooperation from the government and Singapore’s regulatory framework was a big reason for the company’s heavy investment in the city-state.

Link:
Wozniak: Apple Couldn’t Emerge in Singapore