Google Q4 Earnings

Google revenue for their fourth quarter of 2013 was up by 17 percent. The revenue of the search giant in Q4 was $16.86 billion with the net profit of $3.38 billion, which is even more then was expected from the Wall Street.

Google sites is still their biggest profit, bringing in $10.55 billion, which is 67% of total Google revenues. Network revenues brought $3.52 billion  and so called "other" revenues were at $1.52 billion. Larry Page, the CEO of Google had this to say about the fiscal results for Q4


“We ended 2013 with another great quarter of momentum and growth. Google’s standalone revenue was up 22 percent year on year, at $15.7 billion” he also added ”We made great progress across a wide range of product improvements and business goals. I’m also very excited about improving people’s lives even more with continued hard work on our user experiences.”

Fiscal results were great, but this wasn't the biggest story from the search giant in the last couple of days, Google selling Motorola Mobility to Lenovo was. We still have to wait and see what this decision will have for the company in the long term.

Source technobuffalo.

Apple Record Sales Over the Holidays

Apple has reported their financial results for fiscal Q1 of 2014, and no surprise here the results are better then ever. Their revenue in Q1 is $57.5 billion with $14.5 billion net profit. Just for comparison, last year in Q1 of 2013, Apple had a revenue of $54.5 with a net profit of $13.1.

During this holiday season they have sold a record number of iPhones and iPads. The number of iPhones that were sold is 51 million, no information was given how much of 5s and 5c just the total sale. Apple tablets iPad Air and iPad Mini with Retina display reached a number of 26 million units sold, which is also a record for the company.

The interesting part is that the Wall Street is actually disappointed by these results, because by their predictions Apple was supposed to sell even more iPhones and iPads. Guess some people are never happy, even when the sales results are better then ever.

Source engadget.

Lenovo buys Motorola from Google

Lenovo has just bought Motorola Mobility from Google for $2.91 billion. The news came as sort of shock as there were no big rumors about Google selling Motorola, the company they bought in 2011 for $12.5 billion.

Lenovo is a huge company that is currently number one in pc sales and so this purchase of Motorola is pretty straight forward. They want to make a push in the smartphone market, so this is basically their best option. Motorola has been making smartphones for many years, they have both experience and name recognition.

But this move from Google was not expected, as the search giant is recently trying to develop their own hardware. Google Glass is a product that they have been testing lately, and their acquisition of Nest was also a step forward to developing smart household appliances.

So why would a giant company like Google sold their own smartphone division. They already make operating system for smartphones, the most popular OS in the world Android. Doesn't it make sense to control your own hardware and software, Apple is the best example for this winning strategy and even Microsoft is becoming more and more involved with developing their own hardware. Looks like Google might have shot themselves in the foot with this one.

Source technobufallo.

Nokia Sends Invitations for MWC

Nokia has more stuff they want to show us. Microsoft still hasn't hasn't bought their mobile department, but it is in the final stages, so this could be the last hardware devices we will see from Nokia for a while. The event will be at Mobile World Congress at February 24.

What will Nokia announce at MWC is still unknown. Smartphone, tablet or possibly something else. The most leaks lately where about Lumia Icon, a 5 inch Windows Phone 8 smartphone. But then again there was a lot of rumors about Nokia Normandy, smartphone with Android operating system. This is their last chance to get that smartphone to the market, because once Microsoft finishes the purchase they want be interested in developing an Android smartphone.

There is a possibility that we want see any kind of new device and Nokia executives will use this opportunity to talk about the future of the Finish company. Anyone one way or the other we look forward to hear what Nokia has to say at MWC.

Source technobuffalo.

Netflix has 44 Million Subscribers

Most popular Internet streaming service Netflix keeps getting bigger and better. Number of subscribers is increasing and their original content TV series are getting awards and are consider great by both critics and fans. House of Cards is on the top of the list.

Netflix ended last year with 44 million subscribers world wide, which is an impressive number no matter how you look at it. The interesting part is that in the US only there are currently 33 million subscribers and 15 in all the other countries combined.

However there are still a lot of countries and regions in the world where Netflix is not available. Most of Europa and entire Asia do not have this streaming service available. In Europa only a few of the northern countries have Netflix. It's strange that a modern and develop country like Germany doesn't have Netflix.

Internet streaming services like Netflix are bringing a true revolution in the way we watch TV series. Now TV content is available to the viewers 24/7 and across a multiple devices like smartphones, tablets, laptops and of course TV. People are no longer forced to watch their favorite TV series at the exact same time on the exact same day in the week. Some would say finally.

Source engadget.

Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft in Open Beta

Blizzard has announced that Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft can now be played by anyone in open beta. Game is first available in North America and Europe but in the next few day it should be available world wide. Just a quick warning, the game is very addictive, just like everything else from Blizzard.


Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft was announced last March and closed beta testing began later in the year. The fact that Blizzard has started open beta means the game is nearly finished and we could see it in the full version very soon. But then again with Blizzard you never know. Their policy is we will release the game when it is finished. Not that there is anything wrong with that, millions of fans around the world are not complaining.

Blizzard already has many great games like Starcraft, Warcraft, Diablo and it looks like Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft is another hit.

Official announcment.

Surface 3 and Surface Mini

Surface 2 and Surface Pro were released a few months ago and so far we have no official sale numbers. But no matter because there are already leaks about Surface 3 and Surface Mini that Microsoft is planing to launch during this year.

First to launch will be Surface Mini, it is expected sometimes in the first half of this year. Microsoft is looking to compete with the iPad Mini and a lot of 7 or 8 inch Android tablets that are already on the market. It's still unknown will the Surface Mini come with the Pro version and full Windows 8 or will they just release the Windows RT version.

Al tho we don't know the number of Surface 2 units sold, no one can deny that this is a powerful and well build tablet. Only major criticism was the lack of apps compared to the competition. So much is expected from Surface 3 which we expect later this year. No details were officially released but there is a number of tweets hinting what the Surface 3 tabled could look like.

These are some of the features that are expected:

-Nvidia's Tegra K1 chipset to power Microsoft's Surface 3 tablet.

-The firm might be working on Surface Mini and LTE versions of Surface 2.

-InstantGo support to arrive with Windows 8.1 OS' first update for Intel's BayTrail+ chips.

-AMD's Mullins CPU to be used in Xbox TV instead of Microsoft's own designed chip.

-Company's plans for Microsoft Notebook is currently on hold.

Source gadgets.ndtv.