Strong smartphone sales boost Samsung to $7.9 billion profit in Q1 2013

via theverge.com

Samsung Electronics made an operating profit of 8.78 trillion won ($7.9 billion) in the first quarter of 2013, matching its guidance and representing a more than 50 percent improvement on its performance last year. Revenues were 52.87 trillion won ($47.6 billion), and net profit was 7.15 trillion won ($6.45 billion). The company said strong smartphone sales coupled with reduced marketing expenses helped boost its IT & Mobile Communications division to revenues of 32.82 trillion alone. However, Samsung's revenues were hit by seasonality — the company took in 6 percent less cash than in the previous quarter — and what it describes as a sluggish economy that meant lower TV and home appliance sales.

Posted via email from Create | Inspire - DM2 Studios

Nokia hits $7.7 billion in revenue for Q1 2013 with 5.6 million Lumias sold

via engadget.com

Nokia may have seen an operating loss in Q1 2013, but the news isn't all bad. The company saw revenue of $7.7 billion and managed to sell 5.6 million Lumias, which equates to a 30 percent increase in handset sales over last quarter. As for earnings, Nokia put a shiny buff on them by trumpeting a net profit of $236 million using the non-IFRS accounting method. By stricter IFRS rules, it actually lost $150 million, but that still compares favorably to the vast billion dollar losses it made in the same quarter of 2012...

Posted via email from Create | Inspire - DM2 Studios

Samsung estimates $7.75 billion in Q1 profits, up 45 percent over last year

via theverge.com

Samsung is announcing its earnings estimate for Q1 2012, and everything seems to be on the upswing. The company thinks its operating profit will land between 8.5 and 8.9 trillion won ($7.56 - $7.92 billion) for the quarter — that’s a big increase over the 5.85 trillion won the company pulled in during the same quarter last year. Revenues are also up, from 45.27 trillion won a year ago to somewhere between 51 and 53 trillion ($45.39 - $47.17 billion) this time around.

Posted via email from Create | Inspire - DM2 Studios

Groupon CEO: All Is Well! Nothing to See Here! Carry On!

via allthingsd.com

Andrew Mason says Groupon is “better positioned than any other company in the world to plug local commerce into the Web,” but you wouldn’t know it from the daily deals site’s latest earnings: A fourth-quarter GAAP loss of 12 cents per share — 10 cents more than Wall Street was looking for.

As Groupon’s shares tanked in after-hours trading, Mason fielded questions from analysts on the company’s earnings call, but didn’t do much to explain how the company is going to scale its core online-coupon business. Instead, he did all that he could to paint a happy face on today’s sad results, tossing out sound bites that glossed over the issues troubling the company...

Posted via email from Create | Inspire - DM2 Studios

Yahoo Perks Up Amid Q4 Growth And Mayer's Plan To Right The Ship

via readwrite.com

Yesterday In its fourth quarter earnings call, Yahoo reported its first revenue growth spurt in four years. The company saw 2% year-over-year growth for the first time since 2008, with a net income of $272.3 million in the fourth quarter. The numbers beat out Wall Street estimates by 30%, with shares opening at $20.87 - the highest point Yahoo's stock had seen since its 2008 era highs.

All eyes are on CEO Marissa Mayer, former Google engineer and executive, who is widely credited with jump-starting Yahoo's stock into late 2012. Confidence in Mayer has inspired a much-needed morale boost for the company, which is still struggling to find its footing among massive, savvier competitors like Google and Facebook.

Posted via email from Create | Inspire - DM2 Studios

Apple Now Has $137.1 Billion In Cash, More Than HP’s Annual Revenue And Vietnam’s GDP

via techcrunch.com

Let’s put Apple’s amazing cash on hand numbers into perspective once again. The company now has $137.1 billion in cash — a 12.9 percent increase from the last reported number, $121.3 billion. With such a big figure, it’s hard to realize how big it actually is. In 2012, HP had $120.4 billion of annual revenue. Apple slightly edges HP’s revenue with its cash. Even more impressive, Apple has slightly more cash than Vietnam’s nominal GDP of $123.6 billion.

Posted via email from Create | Inspire - DM2 Studios

Hulu announces 2012 results: $695M revenue, 3 million Hulu Plus subscribers

via engadget.com

It looks like Hulu has rounded out 2012 with some very solid figures. The company's CEO, Jason Kilar, has announced revenue of $695 million -- a 65-percent jump over 2011. Kilar also shared subscriber numbers, adding that 3 million users fork over fees for the Hulu Plus service, which is double last year's paying viewers total. Throughout the year, Hulu boosted content offerings by 40 percent, with 430 current content partners, 2,300 TV series with some 60,000 episodes, and a total of 50,000 hours of video -- since Hulu launched in 2007, it has generated more than $1 billion in revenue for content partners. Kilar ended on another high note, stating that the site's Japanese version has quadrupled content offerings this year, and is now accessible from 50+ million devices in Japan. You'll find full details at the source link below.

Posted via email from Create | Inspire - DM2 Studios

Google's Search Results Page Looks Different Now

via gizmodo.com

Google search results are like the old beat up recliner of the internet. Your butt's always there, and if anything changes, you notice. Well, Google changed the way its search results look. It's a relatively small change, but you're going to notice.

The biggest difference is that the bar along the left hand side of your searches is gone. This is where you used to break your search down into News, or whatever else. That function is now at the top of your results, along with the also relocated Search Tools. Search Tools moving means you don't have those two butt ugly calendars with custom dates in your line of sight, which is a plus. This change has been live a day or two, and should only be a negative if you're running a ton of searches (it's been killing me).

Posted via email from Create | Inspire - DM2 Studios

How To Watch Tonight's Election Results Online

via readwrite.com

On November 6, 2012, the first post-PC U.S. presidential election will come to a close. Just like the primaries, conventions and debates, tonight's election returns will be obsessively and extensively live streamed and covered live online. For those relying on the Internet for their nail-biting date with democracy, there are more choices than anyone could possibly list.

Pretty much every modern news site in the United States (and many abroad) will be covering the results as they happen. That coverage will consist of a dizzying array of interactive maps, data visualizations, live video feeds, tweets, Instagram photos and good, old fashioned news articles. The New York Times and Wall Street Journal are even pulling down their paywalls for the occasion.

Posted via email from Create | Inspire - DM2 Studios

Google Lays the Smack Down on Torrent Sites in Search Results

via gizmodo.com

Next week Google will begin censoring sites for which it receives a large number of copyright removal requests by reducing their Google site rank across their entire domains.

Google's Transparency Report reveals that some sites used for torrenting pirated content receive more than 100,000 complaints a month. While Google has refused the requests of organizations like the RIAA to stop listing these sites altogether, it'll be effectively doing the same thing by pushing them down in your search results. Yes, censorship. And it won't do a lick to stop piracy.

Posted via email from Inspiration

Google to pull Gmail information into search engine results

via theglobeandmail.com

Google Inc. is creating an information bridge between its influential Internet search engine and its widely used Gmail service in its latest attempt to deliver more personal responses faster.

The experimental feature unveiled Wednesday will enable Google’s search engine to mine the correspondence stored within a user’s Gmail account for any data tied to a search request. For example, a query containing the word “Amazon” would pull e-mails with shipping information sent by the online retailer.

Posted via email from Inspiration

Google Search Beats the Crap Out of Siri In 1600 Question Test

via gizmodo.com

Pitting Google search against Siri using a monster 1600-question test shows how useful Siri really is: not at all. Google answered correctly 86 percent of the time. Siri achieved just 68 percent accuracy. At that point, it's not much better than a crystal ball.

We knew that Siri isn't very good. But this intense test shows just how ridiculous the gimmicky voice assistant could be.

The fact is that even Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has been saying this since the day Apple introduced the iPhone 4S with Siri. It just sucks. Siri as an independent product, before Apple acquired it, the Woz told us at the Gizmodo Gallery...

Posted via email from Inspiration

Pay your way to the top of search results with Google Shopping

via digitaltrends.com

Google is turning its relevance-based price comparison service into a pay-to-play operation where merchants that pay the most will get best placement for their wares. Is it a smart move for Google…or a slippery slope?

Internet search giant Google has announced that it plans to change its Google Product Search online shopping service to a fully-commercial operation in the next few months — and will operate it under the name Google Shopping. The big difference: Instead of impartially returning product search results from participating merchants — and running ads alongside — Google is going to make retailers pay for preferred placement. Merchants who want their listings to appear at the top of Google Shopping’s search results will be able to pay for the privilege.

Posted via email from Inspiration

35+ Photoshop Tutorials for Realistic Results

via smashingspy.com

Sometimes it’s amazing how realistic a Photoshop creation can look. In this post we’ll feature 35 tutorials for creating realistic effects in Photoshop. Some will show you how to illustrate an object from scratch, while others teach how to edit photos with realistic elements, such as water or snow.

Posted via email from Inspiration

Storify Compiles 10 Most Quoted Tweets of the Year

Storify has just released its compilation of the top 10 tweets of the year. The number one tweet was Bill Gates' farewell post to Steve Jobs. Second place was Sohaib Athar's observation of a helicopter over Abbottabad, Pakistan, which turned out to be the first report of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden.

Posted via email from Inspiration

Starbucks Social Experiment has an Unexpected Result

via gizmodo.com

What happens when a social experiment gets socially experimented on?

Jonathan Stark (no relation to Ironman) started a social experiment (which is not a PR stunt) wherein he put his Starbucks Coffee card up for grabs. He started it off with $100, and anyone can use it, and anyone can add money to it. The idea was "an experiment in social sharing of physical goods using digital currency," and the whole pay it forward concept. It was working rather well. Then some dude named Sam Odio decided to derail it. Kind of.

Posted via email from Inspiration