Sony’s smartphone division could be seeing massive layoffs

In recent years, Sony has had little trouble producing some of the most stellar smartphones we’ve ever seen, but it has constantly struggled to make the kind of profits it needs off of them. Despite attempts to reshuffle to shift the smartphone group’s fortunes, it continues to not be such a great for Sony, with upper management now looking to remedy the losses with a rather concerning measure. Sony smartphone division layoffs numbering 1,000 will reportedly take effect soon.

Nikkei reports that the 1,000 cuts will be made following the previous summer 2014 removal of 1,000 other employees (an action taken after misfortunes during that time period). The cuts make sense given the struggles the Japanese company’s smartphones have been facing, but it’s disappointing from a consumer standpoint considering how gloomy the future now looks for Sony smartphones.

Add to this the fact that Sony’s Xperia Z3 may not be launching at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this March, Sony could slowly be fading out of relevancy in the smartphone sector, but all hope is far from lost. It is certainly possible that its numbers could be reversed, and we certainly hope for the best as the company heads into the second quarter.

Source: Nikkei / Reuters

Galaxy Note Edge to go on sale in Canada on Feb 18

Samsung has announced the availability of the Galaxy Note Edge in Canada. The device, which wasspotted up for pre-order on Best Buy Canada website a couple of days ago, is priced at CA$400 on-contract, or CA$900 outright, and will go on sale in the country on February 18. Both Rogers and Bell will sell the device, which will be available in Charcoal Black.

"The Galaxy Note Edge is one of our most innovative and unique smartphone designs to date, which once again demonstrates that we are listening and responding to our consumers," said Paul Brannen, Executive Vice President, Mobile Solutions, Samsung Canada.

The key selling point of the Galaxy Note Edge is the curved display present on its right edge. "The Edge Screen helps busy Canadians get more done on-the-go with incoming calls, texts, emails and alerts appearing neatly contained in the Edge panel without interrupting your main screen experience, Brannen said.

The smartphone is powered by a Snapdragon 805 chipset with 2.7GHz Krait 450 quad-core processor and Adreno 420 GPU. It sports a 5.6-inch 1600 x 2560 Super AMOLED display, 16 MP rear camera, and 3.7 MP front snapper. The device comes with 3GB of RAM, 32/64GB of internal storage (which can be expanded up to 128GB via MicroSD card), and runs Android 4.4.4 KitKat. 

Apple Watch to start shipping in April

Apple's first wearable, the Apple Watch, will begin shipping in April, the company's chief executive revealed Tuesday.

CEO Tim Cook, speaking during a call with analysts following the company's earnings announcement, said that "development for Apple Watch is right on schedule."

Previously, Apple had simply said that the Apple Watch would ship in "early 2015." The lowest-end Apple Watch will cost $349. The company announced the device during a star-studded event in September. At the same time, it introduced its bigger-screen iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus devices. The Apple Watch is the first major new product category for the company since the "magical" iPad in 2010. It's also the first new push by the company under Cook's leadership. Cook had promised for over a year that Apple in 2014 would introduce "amazing" new products and enter "exciting new product categories" beyond its wildly successful smartphones, tablets and computers. The Apple Watch, along with the new Apple Pay mobile-payments service, fulfill that vow.

Cook on Tuesday said his expectations "are very high" for Apple Watch. "I'm using it every day and love it and can't live without it," he said. "I see that we're making great progress on the development of it."

Cook added that the number of developers making apps for Apple Watch is "impressive."

Even though Apple has given a general release date for Apple Watch, it still hasn't provided more information about pricing and other features. The device will start at $349 for the most basic version and go up from there.

Apple Watch also comes with some challenges for Apple. The company has to figure out how to sell such a personal device to consumers and how to let them try on the different models. Apple also now has more models than it does with other products, with Apple Watch offered in two sizes, three collections (Apple Watch, Apple Watch Sport and Apple Watch Edition) and five different bands.

Apple rings up big holiday sales thanks to larger-screen iPhone 6

The iPhone 6 didn't just supersize the phone's screen size. It also supersized Apple's financial results.

The Cupertino, Calif., electronics giant on Tuesday reported the best sales quarter in its 38-year history, as demand for its newest smartphones, the 4.7-inch iPhone 6 and the 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus,soared beyond analysts' expectations.

The company said it sold a record 74.5 million iPhones during the period, much higher than the 66.5 million estimated by analysts, according to a poll by Fortune. That's 46 percent more devices than the record 51 million sold in the year-earlier quarter. This was the first full quarter of iPhone 6 and 6 Plus sales since their debut.

Apple also projected strong sales for the current quarter thanks to continued demand for its newest models, which went on sale in September. The iPhone's success came at the expense of the iPad tablet, which posted its fourth consecutive decline as consumers opted for large phones over Apple's tablet computers.

"We'd like to thank our customers for an incredible quarter, which saw demand for Apple products soar to an all-time high," Apple CEO Tim Cook said Tuesday in a statement. "The execution by our teams to achieve these results was simply phenomenal."

At the same time, Cook revealed Apple Watch will start shipping in April. Apple, which announced the device in September, earlier only said Apple Watch would hit stores in "early 2015." The lowest end Apple Watch will cost $349.

"Development for Apple Watch is right on schedule," Cook said.

Apple generates more than half of its revenue from its smartphone business and the iPad represents more than 10 percent. The fiscal first quarter, which ends in December, is typically Apple's biggest quarter because of holiday sales and the introduction of the latest iPhones.

"They closed the one feature gap that they had, namely a larger screen, and blew the doors off on revenue and earnings," Gartner analyst Van Baker said. "That said, they are increasingly dependent on iPhone revenues and that does pose increased risk." In the period, about 70 percent of Apple's revenue came from the iPhone. In the past, the iPhone and iPad combined typically made up about two-thirds of sales. But iPhone has been soaring as iPad has been slipping. The strong results stand in contrast to last year, when investors worried Apple's best days were behind it. It seemed at that time that nothing could slow down rival Samsung's quest to take mobile market share, while newcomers in emerging markets, such as Xiaomi in China, threatened Apple's position. Apple is the world's second-largest smartphone maker behind Samsung. Now, Samsung has found itself struggling to compete as customer demand soars for Apple's new iPhones.

Apple also benefited from strong demand for Macintosh computers during the period. It sold 5.52 million Macs, up from 4.84 million a year ago and higher than the 5.51 million projected by analysts, according to a Fortune poll. Macs accounted for 9.3 percent of sales, and revenue from the computers reached a record high.

The increase in Mac sales comes as the rest of the PC market struggles. Worldwide PC shipments slid 2.4 percent to 80.8 million in the calendar fourth quarter, according to market tracker IDC. Apple held on to its new position as the fifth biggest computer vendor in the world, a title it first gained in the calendar third quarter of 2014 (which coincides with Apple's fiscal fourth quarter) with then-record shipments of 5.5 million units. Apple controlled a much smaller chunk of the market in previous periods, but its sleek designs, such as the MacBook Air, have caught on with customers.

Shares closed Tuesday down 3.5 percent to $109.14, but rose 5 percent in after-hours trading.

As Apple advised in October, the company no longer breaks out sales for its retail stores or fading iPod media player. Store results are now spread among the various regions (including the Americas and Greater China). The iPod is lumped in with "other products," including Beats headphones, the Apple TV streaming box and accessories. "Other products" will also include the highly anticipated Apple Watch, due in April. Apple also modified its "iTunes/software/services" to simply "services" to encompass iTunes content and apps, software, cloud services and Apple Pay.

Slowing iPad demand

iPad remained the weak spot in Apple's results. Tablet unit sales dropped 18 percent to 21.4 million, slightly below analysts' predictions of 21.5 million, according to a poll by Fortune. Revenue totaled $8.99 billion, above the $6.94 billion generated from the Mac.

Large-screen smartphones, including the iPhone 6 Plus, are eroding demand for tablets; and consumers have held on to their iPads longer than their smartphones. Investors and analysts have questioned for months if the iPad's declining shipments are a temporary hiccup or a troubling trend. Apple has long claimed iPad weakness is a "speed bump."

Prynt smartphone case prints your photos, Polaroid-style

Smartphone photographers have expended a considerable amount of effort in the quest to transform crisp digital images into gauzy, washed-out, retro-looking photos. It seems a lot of us would love to crawl back in time to an era when instant Polaroid photos were the height of cool. If Instagram filters aren't enough for you anymore, check out the Prynt camera case on Kickstarter.

Prynt essentially turns your smartphone into a Polaroid-style instant camera so you can print out pictures and hold them in your hand, rather than show them off on the screen. Put the case on your phone, take a photo using the Prynt app and then collect the photograph from the top. You can also print out your social-media selfies, Instagram images and photos from other sources.

The Prynt app has an interesting augmented-reality trick up its sleeve. It captures a short video each time it takes a photo. Hold your phone over a photo you just printed out and it will roll the video, bringing the image to life. It's an entertaining extra that elevates the concept a little beyond being just an instant-print camera. The case itself is pretty chunky, so it's probably something you'll whip out for special occasions rather than keep on your phone all the time. It's compatible with the iPhone 5, iPhone 6,Galaxy S4 and Galaxy S5.

One of the knocks against instant cameras of the past is the cost of consumables. The case can hold 10 sheets of paper at a time. The Kickstarter price for more paper is $25 for 50 sheets. If you're a photo-printing fiend, that could add up to pretty big photo bill, but it's no crazier than what people have paid for Polaroid materials in the past. There seems to be plenty of demand for the Prynt case. The Kickstarter handily topped its $50,000 funding goal in under an hour and is already up over $155,000 with 34 days to run. The early-bird pledge levels sold out fast, so regular backers are looking at a $99 (about £65, AU$125) pledge price for a Prynt case with 10 sheets of paper. The project's popularity just goes to show that people still want something to hold, even in our Digital Age.