News written by James Delahunty (October, 2011)

Sony has "learned its lessons."

After having to put up with product shortages in the past, it would be no surprise if the launch of Sony's PlayStation Vita handheld console has marred by the same troubles. However, having learned the lessons of the past, Sony has taken steps to ensure that won't happen.

"We've increased production materially since E3," John Koller, Sony hardware marketing directory, told AllThingsD. "We learned our lesson to make sure you have enough product."

When asked about the level of concern at Sony about increasing competition from smartphones and tablets, as well as Nintendo's continued push of the 3DS handheld, Koller aid they aren't expecting it to be much of a problem.

?This is a larger game experience. We think we are insulated from the competition," Koller said. "We love mobile games. Mobile and tablets games are additive."

The PlayStation Vita will launch in Japan in December, followed by the U.S. and other areas on February 22, 2012.

Speech and touch rule the roost.

So it seems Microsoft's "officevideos" channel has gone on some kind-of futurist craze over the past few days, ending with a video titled "Productivity Future Vision". The video shows Microsoft's view is on the future of productivity - how we manage our day to day activities and responsibilities at home, at work, and so forth.

"We create these videos to help tell the story we see unfolding in technology, and how it will impact our lives in the future," wrote Kurt DelBene, President of the Microsoft Office Division.

"The video shows our vision for a future where technology extends and highlights our productive capabilities; it helps us manage our time better, focus our attention on the most important things, and foster meaningful connections with the people we care about."

DelBene points out that all of the ideas in the video are based on real technology; some of the speech recognition, real time collaboration and data visualization already exists and is in use, while other features not commercially available are based on active research and development at Microsoft's, and other's labs.

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Music videos push video-sharing guide up behind Facebook.

Figures released by Internet research company Experian Hitwise show that visits to video-sharing websites have gone up by more than a third in the UK in the past year. Predictably, YouTube has taken the bulk of this new traffic, accounting for about 70 percent of the increase.

The main driver of more UK users flocking to web videos is music, which accounts for about 33 percent of the hits. Music videos are followed by TV shows at 17 percent, films at 11 percent, gaming content at 10 percent and news at 9 percent.

Of the music being sought by UK users, Lady Gaga was the most popular artist.

The research was carried out between September 2010, and September 2011. UK users spend about 240 million hours per month watching videos, with YouTube accounting for more than 184 million hours itself.

While YouTube is now in third place in the UK behind Google and Facebook, it is still a long way off social networking in terms of usage. The same research showed that UK users spent upwards of 800 million hours on social networking sites, such as Twitter and Facebook.

Block order hailed as win for UK's creative industries.

BT was originally ordered to block access to Newzbin2 back in July, and was told by the High Court how to implement the block on October 26. BT was, at the time, given 14 days to comply with the order.

Last March, Newzbin.com was found to be in violating of copyright law in the UK and was ordered by the High Court to implement filters. The site never implemented a filter as it was relaunched outside the UK.

Movie studios represented by the Motion Picture Association then brought BT to court to force it to block access to the website. The block will also apply to any variations of the Newzbin site to prevent operators of Newzbin from circumventing the law.

"This is a very significant day for the UK?s creative industries. The law is clear. Industrial online piracy is illegal and can be stopped." Lord Puttnam CBE, President of the Film Distributors' Association, said.

Chipmaker dismisses "tabloid" headlines.

Intel put together a video responding to claims that the PC is coming to its end. The gist of the argument against the PC is that shipments of tablet PCs and smartphones are on the rise, people are using them to do much of the daily tasks they used to do with their PCs and therefore, the PC era may be coming to its end.

"That may sell the tabloids, but here in the real world, the PC remains alive and well," the voice-over assets. It claims that with 400 million new PCs sold in 2011, and with new form factors such as all-in-one PCs and Ultrabooks, "you might want to hold off on writing that obituary."

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Public-interest group targets provisions in PROTECT IP (PIPA) and Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA).

Public Knowledge is opposed to using DNS blocking techniques to limit access to websites accused of peddling pirated content. Far from just being demonstrably ineffective in the first place, Public Knowledge believes that the practice would threaten the functioning, freedom, and economic potential of the Internet.

The provisions for website blocking in SOPA and PIPA short-circuit the legal system by giving rightsholders a fast-track to shutting down websites they accuse of infringing activities. This must be viewed as a precedent that could be applied to any kind of website that is opposed by a special interest in the future.

By using DNS blocking in particular, you create conflicts between DNS servers on the Internet, make the system less secure and create potential for identity theft.

Possibly the most important point for Americans however is the sanctioning government interference with the Internet, while at the same time the U.S. State Department blasts cencorship and firewalls used in China, or in more recent and volatile examples, such as Syria.

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RIAA submits report on "notorious markets".

First in the firing line for the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) was VKontakte, a Russian social networking website. It claims that the social site's unlicensed music service is undermining the growth of the legitimate music marketplace.

VKontakte touts more than 120 million registered users, and is ranked amongst the most visited websites within Russia, and also is listed among the top 50 globally.

The trade group said that VKontakte's music functionality is ?specifically designed to enable members to upload music and video files, hundreds of thousands of which contain unlicensed copyright works. Its dedicated content search engine enables other members to search and instantly stream unlicensed music and movies, giving VKontakte an unfair competitive edge over other social networks that do not offer free access to unlicensed material."

The RIAA also targeted China's Sogou website, which offers a "Sogou MP3" feature providing access to links to download or stream music from unlicensed sources. Dispelling any claim that it acts just as a search engine, the RIAA points out that Sogou maintains a database of unlicensed music, broken into categories such as "US Billboard Chart," "UK Chart," "Albums TOP 100" and so forth.

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Interacting with Xbox 360 using a Nokia Lumia smartphone.

Running the Windows Phone 7.5 Mango operating system, Nokia's Lumia smartphones can take advantage of Xbox Live features. In a demo video, posted by Nokia Conversations, "Krissy" from Microsoft demonstrates using a Nokia Lumia prototype phone to connect with an Xbox 360 console nearby.

In blog posts describing the demo, it's admitted that there were limits as to what could be shown from the demo stand at this time, with apparently plenty more to come in the near-future.

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HP will keep Personal Systems Group (PSG) after evaluation.

The company announced on Thursday that it has completed an evaluation of strategic alternatives for its PSG division, deciding that the unit will remain part of the company.

The evaluation revealed the depth of the integration that has occurred across key operations such as supply chain, IT and procurement. It also detailed the significant extent to which PSG contributes to HP's solutions portfolio and overall brand value.

"HP objectively evaluated the strategic, financial and operational impact of spinning off PSG. It?s clear after our analysis that keeping PSG within HP is right for customers and partners, right for shareholders, and right for employees," said Meg Whitman, HP president and chief executive officer.

"HP is committed to PSG, and together we are stronger."

PSG is the No.1 manufacture of personal computers in the world, with revenues totalling $40.7 billion last year.

Nokia finally gives us some Windows Phone 7 handsets.

The release of the Nokia N9 smartphone was a bitter-sweet event. On one hand, it was praised for its sleek design and simple (MeeGo) user interface. On the other, it's absence from major markets, along with the very uncertain future of MeeGo, served as the ultimate buzz kill to Nokia's party.

Today, Nokia has shown an evolution of the N9, featuring the Windows Phone 7.5 Mango mobile operating system. It comes in the form of two new smartphones, the Lumia 800 and the Lumia 710.
 

Nokia Lumia 800

The Nokia Lumia 800 comes in cyan, megenta and black, featuring a 3.7-inch AMOLED ClearBlack display. It is powered by a 1.4GHz processor and features hardware accelerated graphics. It comes with 16GB of internal memory, and also uses 25GB of SkyDrive cloud storage.


Nokia Lumia 800 Specifications

• Dimensions: H - 116.5mm; W - 61.2mm; D - 12.1mm. Weighs 142g.
• Display: 3.7-inch AMOLED ClearBlack capacitive touch-screen, 800x480px.
• Processor: Qualcomm MSM8255 1.4GHz.
• Memory: 512MB SDRAM.
• Operating Band: GSM 850, 900, 1800, 1900; WCDMA Band V (850), I (2100), II (1900), VIII (900).
• Data Bearer: WCDMA, EDGE Class B, GPRS Class B, HSUPA Cat6 5.76 Mbps, HSDPA Cat10 14.4 Mbps, WLAN IEEE 802.11 b/g/n, Dual Transfer Mode (MSC 32).
• Local Connectivity: WiFi, Micro USB, USB Mass Storage, Bluetooth 2.1 +EDR, USB 2.0 High-Speed, 3.5mm AHJ Connector, Bluetooth Stereo Audio.
• WLAN Support: 802.11b/g/n, WEP, WPA, WPA2-Personal, WPA-Enterprise.
• Storage/User Memory: 16GB mass memory; SkyDrive 25GB cloud storage.
• Camera: 8 megapixels; Photo - 3984x2992; Video - 1280x720, 30fps, MPEG-4.
• Camera Digital Zoom: 3x.
• Music: Supported Codecs - AAC, M4B, MP3, WMA, EVRC, MP42, QCELP; Formats - FLAC, Ogg Vorbis.
• Video: Formats - ASF, AVI, VC-1, WMV-9, MPEG-4, H.264/AVC, 3GPP formats (H.263).
• Navigation: GPS, A-GPS, CellID, SA-GPS, WiFi Positioning.
• Internet: Internet Explorer 9 Mobile.
• Operating System: Windows Phone 7.5 Mango.
• Battery: BV-5JW 3.7V 1450mAh, USB charged.
• Battery Charge: 2G Talk - 13 hours; GSM Standby - 265 hours; 3G Talk - 9.5 hours; 3G Standby - 335 hours; Music Playback - 55 hours; Video Playback - 7 Hours.
• Other: TV-Out; Micro SIM; Nokia Maps; Bing Maps; Flight Mode; Nokia Drive; Nokia Music; Nokia Store; 2 Microphones; Microsoft Lync; 3D Accelerometer; Proximity Sensor; Megnetometer Sensor; Ambient Light Sensor; Nokia Contacts Transfer.

The new Nokia Lumia 800 is now available in select countries for pre-order on www.nokia.com and is scheduled to roll-out across France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK in November, with 31 leading operators and retailers providing unprecedented marketing support in those first six countries. It is scheduled to be available in Hong Kong, India, Russia, Singapore and Taiwan before the end of the year, and in further markets in early 2012.

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Nintendo's fiscal H1 results are eagerly awaited.

The company will report its financial figures for the fiscal first half on Thursday. It had previously forecast a loss of ¥55 billion (around $720 million) for the period, but a report is now suggesting that the loss could be far worse than Nintendo itself anticipated.

The online edition of the Nikkei business daily has reported that the loss will be closer to ¥100 billion, or around $1.32 billion, for the fiscal first half ending September 30. At a point after the news, Nintendo shares took a 7.5 percent plunge.

Nintendo is experiencing increased competition from mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets, which are appealing to casual gamers. Nintendo heavily targeted casual gamers with its Wii home console and DS handhelds. Recently, it has seen interest in both the Wii, and the DS, wane.

The Nintendo 3DS handheld, for example, has only managed to sold 4.32 million units since it was launched, while total Nintendo DS sales since its 2004 launch, top 150 million across all revisions.

To add to the problems of increased competition and waning interest in its products, Nintendo also suffers as a result of the surging yen currency, hitting the value of overseas earnings for exporters in Japan.

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Anti-piracy firm back tracking down web pirates in France.

Back in May, plans to implement a three strikes policy in France that could lead to the disconnection of Internet users caught sharing illegal files were put on hold after it was revealed the company tasked with tracking activity had been hacked.

Trident Media Guard (TMG) was found to be using very insecure servers that were easily penetrated by hackers. They were running a custom administrative program written in Delphi, which didn't require any authentication at all, meaning anyone could connect to port 8500 and start sending commands.

Even though the commands that could be carried out were limited, they were sufficient for hackers to figure out how to do, more or less, whatever they wanted. Hackers had figured out that they could specify any FTP server as the update server and deliver their own malicious updates to be installed.

TMG had to provide details on the breach to the French government. Since the breach, TMG has tightened up its security and the French data authority says it is now happy with the level of security deployed, meaning TMG can continue to track IP addresses of suspected Internet pirates.

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Third quarter net income reported at $63 million.

Amazon's profits have dropped 73 percent after the company invested heavily in the Kindle Fire tablet computer, according to the online retailer. As a result, Amazon's shared dropped 12 percent in after hours trading with questions about the web giant's business in the air.

Still, Amazon said that sales had grown by 44 percent. On September 28, it experienced its biggest ever day for Kindle orders, surpassing even previous peak sales during holiday seasons.

"In the three weeks since launch, orders for electronic ink Kindles are double the previous launch. And based on what we're seeing with Kindle Fire pre-orders, we're increasing capacity and building millions more than we'd already planned," said Jeff Bezos, Founder and CEO of Amazon.

The web giant forecast lower-than-expected sales during the next quarter, despite the holiday season , and warned it could see an operating loss as it continues to invest in the Kindle Fire tablet.

Taiwanese company announces deal with popular cloud storage provider.

Dropbox is a cloud storage service, founded in 2007, that lets you bring your files (documents, photos, videos etc.) everywhere with you. It has a free option that provides 2GB of storage space (can be extended by recruiting others).

The service has more than 45 million registered users to date, with over 1 million files being saved every five minutes. Pro Dropbox accounts provide storage space up to 100GB. Saving files into a Dropbox folder means they will be synched / available across all devices you have Dropbox software installed on.

HTC has confirmed that it is partnering with Dropbox to pre-install the Dropbox app on all new Android phones. The devices will receive 5GB worth of cloud storage at no extra cost.

HTC didn't provide details about the deal with Dropbox, nor did it suggest whether the extra free storage space would be available to existing users of its Android smartphones.

Roskstar Games officially announced Grand Theft Auto V.

We wish we had a whole bunch of details to tell you about Grand Theft Auto V, but in Rockstar Games' typical fashion, the only thing that has been confirmed is that, yes, the game is coming and the date of the first trailer.

The trailer will drop on Wednesday next week, November 2. Before then, we will of course have to endure rumors and all kinds of detail leaks, but at least we have not long to wait.

Rockstar's announcement just came as a big Grand Theft Auto V (complete with the word FIVE on the logo.. just in case your Roman Numerals suck that bad) logo and a trailer release date at rockstargames.com.

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Secret spiller has to take time off to raise cash.

Wikileaks has suspended publishing files, saying it must cease operations in order to raise funds and ensure the survival of the website. It alleges that U.S.-based financial companies have mounted a "blockade" that has gravely impacted its operations.

Wikileaks founder, Julian Assange, has called the blockade "arbitrary and unlawful,", pointing the finger of blame at Bank of America, Visa, Mastercard, PayPal and Western Union. He alleges that this activity has dried up 95 percent of all revenue to Wikileaks.

"A handful of US finance companies cannot be allowed to decide how the whole world votes with its pocket," he said. Wikileaks will take pre-litigation action in Iceland, Denmark, the United Kingdom, Brussels, the United States and Australia, and it has lodged an official complaint with the European Commission.

Of the companies that Assange alleges are part of the blockade, PayPal told the BBC that Wikileaks violates its Acceptable Usage Policy, because it encourages the release of classified material in violation of U.S. law.

Japanese gaming firm expected to report sore losses.

Nintendo has found itself in a battle for casual gamers who are tempted by mobile gaming on other platforms. The Japanese firm has reached out to casual gamers with its Nintendo DS handheld, originally launched in 2004, and its Wii home console.

In recent years, smartphones have become portable gaming devices in their own right, and have massive catalogs of games available that would tempt a casual gamer.

Nintendo's latest DS iteration, the 3DS, has failed to get anywhere near as much attention as previous releases in the line have. While total Nintendo DS sales top a staggering 150 million units worldwide, the Nintendo 3DS has only sold 4.32 million units worldwide since launch.

To prop up its offerings for the holiday season, Nintendo has slashed the price of the 3DS handheld and is pushing out some new software titles, including 3D versions of its Super Mario franchise. In the United States, Nintendo is also offering on-demand service of movies and TV shows on the 3DS and Wii console.

Still, Nintendo will have to put up with more competition as Sony preps the PlayStation Vita for a December 17 launch in Japan, with the U.S. and Europe following early next year.

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Ultrabooks must become more affordable if they are to compete in the market.

Intel Corp. has said it will work with suppliers and manufacturers to bring down the cost of Ultrabooks, a product that it is betting can revive the traditional computer as tablet PCs up the ante.

The super-thin laptops need to come down in price to notebook levels. Acer Inc.'s recent Ultrabook model retails for $899, while the target now is seen at around $699. Intel aims for Ultrabooks to account for 40 percent of the consumer PC market by the end of 2012.

"At some point you'll have to be at that price point, but it doesn't have to be overnight. It takes time to engineer a cost down," said Navin Shenoy, Intel's vice president of sales and marketing.

"More work needs to happen in the ecosystem. Even if we're giving the chips away for free, we couldn't hit the price point we want to hit if we don't work with the rest of the industry."

Ultrabooks will not be affected by the flooding in Thailand, which has forced the shutting down of plants responsible for half of the world's hard disk drives. Ultrabooks do not use traditional HDDs, but opt for solid-state drives for a performance / energy boost instead.

KF8 brings HTML5 and CSS3 to the Kindle and Amazon Fire tablet.

KF8 (Kindle Format 8) is the next generation file format for Kindle books, serving as a replacement for the Mobi 7 format. KF8 enables publishers to create great-looking books in categories that require rich formatting and design such as children?s picture books, comics & graphic novels, technical & engineering books and cookbooks.

It adds over 150 new formatting capabilities, including fixed layouts, nested tables, callouts, sidebars and Scalable Vector Graphics.

KF8 will make its way to the Amazon Fire tablet first. In the coming months, KF8 abilities will be rolled out for latest generation Kindle e-ink devices as well as the free Kindle reading applications available for other platforms (iPad etc.).

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Video gives glimpse inside Nokia's manufacturing process of N9 smartphone.

The N9 is not likely to have that much of an exciting life, being only available in a limited number of territories and amidst major changes at Nokia. When it was unveiled in June 2011, it received mostly positive feedback for its design and the user-interface of the MeeGo (Harmattan) operating system.

It's release raised questions about Nokia's decision to embrace the Windows Phone operating system, given the potential of MeeGo and the N9's positive reception.

Yesterday, Nokia uploaded a video showing the "Nokia N9 Journey", which is worth a look.

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Amped Wireless adds to its line of Professional Series High Power Wi-Fi Solutions for indoor and outdoor applications, providing Wi-Fi coverage for large homes, office buildings, outdoor areas, boats, and RVs.

The new AP600EX High Power Wireless-N 600mW Professional Series Access Point provides "extreme" Wi-Fi range and coverage to an existing wireless network, and the new SR600EX High Power Wireless-N 600mW Professional Series Smart Repeater extends the range of any indoor or outdoor Wi-Fi network.

All Amped Wireless Professional Series High Power Wi-Fi Solutions feature a weatherproof enclosure for indoor and outdoor use, an advanced 600mW amplifier for professional Wi-Fi range, and a high gain directional antenna to achieve strong, wireless connections up to 1.5 miles.

Amped Wireless Professional Series products are designed for consumers and businesses that require demanding Wi-Fi performance and range for their home, business or special application.

With a high power 600mW amplifier and a high gain bi-directional antenna, the SR600EX is capable of repeating networks up to 1.5 miles away. The Pro Smart Repeater features 2 network ports for connecting additional PCs, network switches, and other devices.

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Syria appears to be using American-made devices to block citizens' access to Internet, hackers say.

The United States imposed sanctions against Syria back in 2004 which prohibit the export of products from the U.S. to the country, except in cases of food or medicine. For that reason, the U.S. State Department is looking into claims made by hackers that Syria's Internet censorship relies on equipment made by Blue Coat.

The equipment that the hackers allege is in use can be used to limit website access, and possibly spy on activity of dissidents. Blue Coat has said it does not offer its equipment or services to the country.

"We are actively investigating recent allegations that certain Blue Coat products have been sold or transferred into Syria and are being used by the Syrian government," the company said. "Blue Coat does not sell its products into Syria, and prohibits its partners from selling Blue Coat products into Syria or other embargoed countries."

Syria would not have to deal with Blue Coat directly to get the hardware, of course. Still, the State Department seems to think the issue is worth looking into.

"We are concerned about reports of the use of technology by repressive regimes in general, but Syria in particular, to target activists and dissidents," said Victoria Nuland, a spokeswoman for the US State Department. "We are reviewing the information that we have and monitoring the facts."

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Roadmap also details planned schedules for other Microsoft products, and mentions Windows 9.

The roadmap marked the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January as the target to release a beta of the Windows 8 operating system, along with the first "Tango" update for the Windows Phone OS, and WinStore Beta.

A release candidate of Windows 8 is scheduled to be rolled out at MIX 2012 along with the online market beta and the Kinect commercial SDK. The Windows 8 RTM (release to manufacturer) build is scheduled for release around June next year.

CES is also noted to bring the Xbox 360 SDK for creating apps, Apollo SDK for Windows Phone and a bunch of new third-generation Kinect video games.

The roadmap also mentions "Windows 9", slotting a developer preview in for the BUILD 2013 conference, and a beta release at CES 2014. MIX 2014 would get a release candidate build of Windows 9 and an RTM build would roll out at BUILD 2014. A commercial release for the OS is targeted for November 2014.

Of course, these dates need to be greeted with skepticism. Microsoft has not confirmed any dates for Windows 8's commercial release, let alone Windows 9, and the 2014 target for Windows 9 seems very early if Windows 8 launches in August 2012. Even if the roadmap is real, the projected events are not set in stone.

Websense ThreatSeeker Cloud deploying on world's largest social network.

Due to the size of Facebook's userbase, it is a primary target for attack. Facebook users are often enticed to click links that take them to malicious websites that can range from phishing scams, to pages that target web browser vulnerabilities to deliver malware.

The social network giant has decided to make moves to help protect users from this threat. When a user clicks a URL in Facebook, the link will be checked by the Websense ThreatSeeker Cloud platform in real-time.

If the system detects anything suspicious about the page, it will prompt a warning to user. This warning message will give the user three options; return to the previous screen, get more information on why this URL was identified as potentially harmful, or to proceed at their own risk.

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Sony did not breach country's Privacy Act, according to office of the Australian Privacy Commissioner.

The PlayStation-maker should have moved quicker to notify Australian users of its PlayStation Network (PSN) services following a widely-publicized hack in April that exposed personal information of millions of gamers, but it did not technically break the law.

The announcement follows an investigation that was launched shortly after the incident, with the Privacy Commissioner questioning whether Sony Australia violated the Privacy Act, which regulates how firms transfer customer information to third parties.

The leak was the "result of a sophisticated security cyber attack on the Network Platform's systems," the Commissioner's Office said, determining that Sony Australia was not guilty of violating the law. Additionally, Sony Australia held no personal information relating to the incident, as it was stored in a data center in San Diego.

The Commissioner's Office did criticize the seven day delay between the firm becoming aware of the incident, and when it reported it to customers.

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Intel looks to expand mobile software services capabilities.

No financial details were officially disclosed by either company, but Israeli media claims Intel will pay between $300 million and $350 million for the company. It will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of the chipmaker.

"This move is a step towards expanding our mobile software services capabilities as Intel continues to grow in the area of software and services," Intel's announcement reads. "We are all very excited to have such knowledgeable and respected experts join the company."

Telmap will allow Intel to provide AppUp developers with great, differentiated location capabilities in the form of a standard set of location-based APIs and software that developers can easily integrate into their AppUp apps.

New iPhone 4S is confirmed by Apple at 'Let's talk iPhone' event.

After being 'leaked' in an iTunes beta update, Apple has confirmed the existence of the iPhone 4S handset. It has been speculated that Apple would unveil a more affordable iPhone handset (though that's not exactly the case), as fierce rival Samsung has been showing strong growth driven by both high-end and low-end market sales of its devices.

On the outside, it features the same glass finish front and back, Retina Display clarity and the same stainless steel band on the edges. The iPhone 4S is driven by a dual-core A5 chip, as is the iPad 2, up to twice as fast as iPhone 4. It offers dual core graphics, seven times faster than iPhone 4.

To drive home the point about iPhone being a platform for gaming, Epic Games President Mike Capps took the stage to demonstrate Infinity Blade 2, an iOS exclusive. The game will be available from December 1.

For battery life, the iPhone 4S provides up to 8 hours of 3G talk time, 14 hours talk on 2G networks, 6 hours browsing on 3G networks, 9 hours browsing on Wi-Fi, 10 hours playing video and 40 hours pumping out music. The model can automatically switch between two antennas to improve call quality and provide faster data performance. It supports GSM and CDMA networks.

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Apple gives iOS sales information during 'Let's Talk iPhone' event.

It has been revealed that the company sold 250 million iOS devices in the products' lifespan so far. It is the number 1 mobile operating system with 43 percent of the market. The upcoming iOS 5.0 will launch October 12, along with iCloud.

IHS iSuppli had reported this week that Apple shipped 20.3 million smartphones during the second quarter of 2011, confirming Apple's figures from its quarterly earnings report in July. This puts Apple in pole position as a smartphone vendor, ahead of Samsung on 19.6 million and Nokia on 16.7 million.

Apple says that three out of every four tablet PCs bought are iPads

Over 140,000 apps are now made specifically for iPad, with Apple paying out over $3 billion to developers, according to Scott Forestall.

Earlier, Tim Cook also talked about Apple's retail success and continued momentum. He brought up the new Shanghai store, which is "absolutely gorgeous," and welcomed over 100,000 visitors on its opening weekend, whilst the LA store took a month to reach that milestone.

Apple now has 357 stores in 11 countries.

Apple CEO Tim Cook gives some information on Apple's music-related business.

It has been 10 years since the iPod launched and revolutionized the music industry. The market share of the iPod is more than 70% across the world, and has been for a long time now, Cook demonstrated on stage.

In total, Apple has sold over 300 million iPods around the world since it first launched. 45 million iPods were sold between July 2010 and June 2011, remaining a very strong part of Apple's overall business.

More than 16 billion songs have been downloaded from iTunes, being easily the world's number 1 music store.