PS4 boosts Sony to first full-year profit in three years | Ars Technica

PS4 boosts Sony to first full-year profit in three years | Ars TechnicaSony shipped 17.7 million PlayStation 4 consoles over the fiscal year ended March 31, bringing the total number of consoles shipped to an impressive 40 million. The strength of the PS4 helped Sony to reach its first full-year profit in three years, bringing in ¥ 147.8 billion (£936 million, $1.36 billion).

Their entertainment division, which is actually quite frugal, is also profitable. May they live on to make more top notch television! Nothing worse than big networks that make crappy content.

Dell spinoff SecureWorks' Wall Street debut didn't provide much hope for stalled tech IPO market - Silicon Valley Business Journal

Dell spinoff SecureWorks' Wall Street debut didn't provide much hope for stalled tech IPO market - Silicon Valley Business JournalLast week's tepid SecureWorks IPO didn't provide a sense of security for other tech companies who hope to go public this year.

Except of course, that secure computing is more or less a necessary requirement for the future of everything. Like Wall Street knows anything except churning clients for commission.

iPhone sales fall to 51.2M, Apple earns $50.6B in revenue in disappointing March quarter

iPhone sales fall to 51.2M, Apple earns $50.6B in revenue in disappointing March quarter Apple's second fiscal quarter of 2016 officially marks the first time ever that iPhone sales saw a year-over-year decline, as the company shipped 51.2 million handsets on its way to $50.6 billion in total sales.

I suppose it's never too late to go after Windows on the desktop. Plenty of cashmoola in that pile. It's easy to get distracting wasting time squashing Flipboard like a bug when you're having trouble competing with Microsoft.

Review: The 2016 Retina MacBook is a faster version of the same machine | Ars Technica

Review: The 2016 Retina MacBook is a faster version of the same machine | Ars Technica: "The growing number of USB Type-C accessories and peripherals can also help partially mitigate the port problem. Acer, for instance, will sell you a monitor that can pass power, USB data, and a display signal to your MacBook through a single cable."

Sounds elegant, or, nobody will ever need more than 640KB of RAM.

Apple taps Touch ID, 4K video in new iPhone 6s ads

Apple taps Touch ID, 4K video in new iPhone 6s ads: "While one is fairly straightforward and informative, the other is kind of … out there. We’re not entirely sure what to do with it, really. The entire Cult of Mac staff just watched it and had no words. But we really can’t stay mad at Neil Patrick Harris, who shows up at the end."

I'm for anything by Neil Patrick Harris who used the golden buzzer for PIFF, indicating his classy tastes and extremely good judgement.

A year with the Apple Watch: What works, what doesn’t, and what lies ahead? | Ars Technica

A year with the Apple Watch: What works, what doesn’t, and what lies ahead? | Ars TechnicaAbout a year ago, Apple announced and released its first Apple Watch. The long-rumored product was Apple’s first all-new product category since the iPad and its first under CEO Tim Cook. To say that expectations were high would be an understatement.

Baby steps.

Siri & Liam star in Apple's new Earth Day TV ad

Siri & Liam star in Apple's new Earth Day TV adMarking Earth Day, Apple on Friday debuted a new TV commercial, using Siri to promote its custom-designed recycling robot — Liam — and its branding as an environmentally-responsible company.

Born, as they were, in the North Sea.

'Silicon Valley' EP Alec Berg Tells How Ex-Twitter CEO Dick Costolo Made the Show Even Better

'Silicon Valley' EP Alec Berg Tells How Ex-Twitter CEO Dick Costolo Made the Show Even BetterThis year, one of those people was ex-Twitter CEO Dick Costolo — “a fan of the show,” Berg said — who actually sat in on the writer’s room one day a week. He kept the guys honest, which is usually good, though sometimes bad.

The only mistake twitter made was trying to be Instagram.

Amazon expands $50 Fire tablet lineup with new colors, offers 16GB model for $70

Amazon expands $50 Fire tablet lineup with new colors, offers 16GB model for $70: "Amazon has expanded its budget-priced tablet lineup, offering the $50 Fire in new magenta, blue and tangerine colors, and also launching a 16-gigabyte version priced at $70 [updated]"

Selling razor blades (content), not razors (devices) may actually be the killer tablet app.

Microsoft’s $20.5B quarter: Office up, Surface up, cloud booming | Ars Technica

Microsoft’s $20.5B quarter: Office up, Surface up, cloud booming | Ars TechnicaSurface revenue looked better; it was about $1.1 billion, up 56 percent year-on-year, driven by Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book. Gaming revenue grew 6 percent in constant currency, with 11 percent increase in game revenue partially offset by reduced revenue from hardware sales. Xbox Live users are up year-on-year to 46 million, but sequentially this is actually a decline; last quarter, Microsoft had 48 million monthly active Xbox Live users.

I think you'd actually have to be a complete moron to disregard the chances of success for the Surface. Look at the XBox. Literally, Nintendo had a 20 year head start. Did it make a difference? Not really. Microsoft is adapting. Is Apple adapting? Can't quite tell. It more looks like they're reshaping themselves as a high end jewelry brand. Let's see how that pans out. I can't think of one Apple fan who buys their hardware because it matches their Manolo Blahniks. But I'm probably wrong. And I think teenagers are actually very, very smart and change technology platforms and apps effortlessly. iPhone today, Galaxy tomorrow. It's the old fogies who need the iPad to be kind of a reliably simplistic brain-dead Mac. Kids can learn Raspberry Pi. They haven't accepted the assault of self-limitation quite yet.

Wait, did someone say dumb terminal? Thin client?

I'd love to write apps in ObjC on the Surface and for the Surface. Almost. There.

Bill Gurley says Silicon Valley's unicorn fantasy is collapsing in on itself — Quartz

Bill Gurley says Silicon Valley's unicorn fantasy is collapsing in on itself — Quartz: "Top tech dealmaker Bill Gurley has a dire message for Silicon Valley: The unicorn fantasy is unraveling. Fast."

It's amazing to think that these VC's lived through the dot com bust of 2000 and learned nothing.

Apple launches new 12" MacBooks with Intel Skylake CPUs, rose gold color & longer battery life

Apple launches new 12" MacBooks with Intel Skylake CPUs, rose gold color & longer battery lifeThe new MacBook also comes in a rose gold color option, mimicking Apple's iPhone and iPad product lineups. Like the first-generation MacBook, the ultraportable notebook has a 12-inch Retina display, full-size keyboard, Force Touch trackpad, and a single USB-C port for charging and syncing, all packed into a 2-pound frame that is just 13.1 millimeters thin.

O Daeng!

Apple runs secret car lab in Berlin with 15-20 employees, report says

Apple runs secret car lab in Berlin with 15-20 employees, report saysAdding to rampant rumor and speculation surrounding Apple's "Project Titan" automotive initiative, a new report claims the company is operating a secret car lab out of Germany's capital city tasked with imagining, and realizing, vehicles of the future.

Das is gut. AAPL ist International.

Apple taps Surface Pro hinge maker for super-thin MacBooks

Apple taps Surface Pro hinge maker for super-thin MacBooks: "Apple has hit up the makers of the ultra-tiny hinges used for the Microsoft Surface Pro to come and work on its next-gen MacBooks, which will launch in the second half of 2016."

Competition is usually good for everyone.

Rumor: Ultrathin MacBook update coming in second half of 2016, will feature redesigned hinge

Rumor: Ultrathin MacBook update coming in second half of 2016, will feature redesigned hinge: "Apple is allegedly planning to update its ultraportable MacBook with Retina display in the second half of 2016, featuring a new screen hing design made from metal injection molding, according to a new supply chain report."

My hing is better than your hing.

UK soccer star Raheem Sterling close to signing six-figure Apple endorsement deal

UK soccer star Raheem Sterling close to signing six-figure Apple endorsement deal: "A winger with U.K. soccer club Manchester City, Raheem Sterling, is nearing a lucrative deal to endorse Apple devices, a report said on Thursday."

Now that app developers are working for free, let's be sure and pay the people who are important to the survival of a platform.

Lytro's first pro movie camera is designed for visual effects magic

Lytro's first pro movie camera is designed for visual effects magicWhile there are plenty of advanced digital movie cameras, most of them aren't really designed for the modern realities of movie making, where computer-generated effects are seemingly ubiquitous.

Game changer. It's the new Panavision.

Apple grows to 7.4% of worldwide PC market as Windows continues to cede share to the Mac

Apple grows to 7.4% of worldwide PC market as Windows continues to cede share to the MacApple continued to grow overall Mac marketshare during the March quarter as most leading Windows PC makers suffered significant setbacks, according to the latest research data from Gartner and IDC.

One day, all this will be yours!

Ex-EPA scientist publishes Wyoming fracking study that agency abandoned | Ars Technica

Ex-EPA scientist publishes Wyoming fracking study that agency abandoned | Ars TechnicaControversy ensued, and the EPA withdrew from the investigation before the report was ever finalized, giving the state of Wyoming control.

HOW THE EPA LINKED “FRACKING” TO CONTAMINATED WELL WATER
An investigation by the US Environmental Protection Agency at a site in … One of the EPA scientists leading the investigation, Dominic DiGiulio, subsequently took a job at Stanford University. Along with Stanford colleague Rob Jackson, DiGiulio has tabulated all the EPA data that was sitting in scientific limbo—DiGiulio even went as far as using a Freedom of Information Act request to access EPA data from a couple of water samples that weren’t published.

All that data now has a home in the form of a paper published in Environmental Science & Technology. The end result? The researchers stand by the EPA team’s original conclusions.

It's that ostrich head-in-the-sand thing, literally.

Facebook doubles down on live streaming with new features for groups, events, and interactivity

Facebook doubles down on live streaming with new features for groups, events, and interactivityIt seems as if the revolution will be streamed, as social networking behemoth Facebook has chosen to drastically expand its live streaming features to make streams more interactive, easier to share, and more discoverable.

I stream, you stream, we all stream for live stream.

Review: iOS flash drive makes sharing data simple

Review: iOS flash drive makes sharing data simple: "We’ve all been using flash drives on our Macs for ages, ever since Apple dropped the disk drives from its computer lineup.

iPhones and iPads don’t have a USB port, so it’s hard to use the same external thumb drives on the go.

The new Xtra Drive from Naztech is the best of both worlds, providing a single microSD card-based solution that has both a USB and a Lightning connector that will let me back up and transfer files from my iOS device to any computer."

Simplicity. Obvious. Why did it take so long?

New teardown reveals iPhone SE contains display identical to iPhone 5s, larger battery

New teardown reveals iPhone SE contains display identical to iPhone 5s, larger batteryAccording to the report, Apple appears to be using more off-the-shelf components than expected in its 4-inch form factor revamp. In particular, iFixit installed an iPhone 5s display into iPhone SE, finding the older model panel fits and functions perfectly in Apple's new device. Also interchangeable with iPhone 5s are the iPhone SE's loudspeaker, SIM card tray and vibration motor.

The whole scoop and nothing but the scoop, so help me gawd.

Xamarin for Everyone | Xamarin Blog

Xamarin for Everyone | Xamarin BlogVisual Studio now includes Xamarin As of today, we are including Xamarin in Visual Studio at no extra cost.

Microsoft continues to understand developer needs better than anyone.