Top tech headlines: Mac OS X Mountain Lion, early iPhone & iPad prototype designs revealed
Hot topics in the tech blogs for the week ending July 27 include third quarter results from Apple, the release of OS X Mountain Lion, Facebook’s second quarter results, iPhone 5 rumors, and original designs of early iPhone and iPad prototypes.
Apple third quarter results
Apple announced its financial results for the third quarter, increasing its profits but failing to meet analysts’ expectations. The company posted a quarterly revenue of $35.0 billion and quarterly net profit of $8.8 billion. Apple revealed that it had sold 26 million iPhones (an increase of 28 percent from 2011), 17 million iPads (up 84 percent from a year ago) and 4 million Macs (up 2 percent).
http://www.apple.com/
OS X Mountain Lion hits the App Store with positive reviews
OS X Mountain Lion 10.8, the next major Mac operating system (OS) from Apple, arrived in the Mac App Store as a digital download. The operating system captured the number one spot in both the top paid and top grossing charts in the Mac App Store in countries around the world and received glowing reviews from both consumers and technology blogs.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/os-x-mountain-lion/id537386512?mt=12
Facebook reports second quarter results, denies phone rumors
Facebook revealed it had brought in $1.18 million in revenue in first post-IPO earnings report. The company confirmed it now counts over 955 million monthly active users, 552 million daily users and 543 million mobile users. During the earnings call, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed that the company was not building a (much-rumored) smartphone. He said it “wouldn’t really make much sense” for Facebook to make a phone.
http://facebook.com/
Reports of new, smaller dock connector to feature on iPhone 5
New reports suggested Apple will replace the 30-pin dock connector with a much smaller 19-pin dock connector to free up more space on the next generation iPhone. Reuters said that Apple will shrink the connector "to make room for the earphone moving to the bottom" of the phone. Technology blog iMore revealed Apple will produce an adapter that will enable iPhone 5 owners to use existing iPhone accessories with the smaller 19-pin dock connector.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/23/us-apple-connector-idUSBRE86M07320120723
Original iPad and iPhone prototype designs revealed
Details of early iPad and iPhone prototypes have been uncovered in court documents. According to The Verge, some early iPad designs show some of the different features Apple was investigating before deciding on the final design. A few of the different features on the tablet prototypes include a kickstand, dual dock connectors, and handles. The images also reveal Apple was testing a slimmer, sleeker iPhone with a smaller screen and an iPhone with diagonal corners. Buzzfeed also showed off an iPhone prototype that looks like a giant iPod mini.
http://www.theverge.com/2012/7/26/3190849/court-documents-reveal-multiple-ipad-iphone-prototypes-kickstand
