Research firm Gartner today released its preliminary personal computer shipment data for the fourth quarter of 2012, showing a mixed market for manufacturers. Overall, Gartner saw a 2.1% year-over-year decline in PC sales in the United States, compared to a 4.9% decline on a global basis.


Gartner's Preliminary U.S. PC Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for 4Q12 (Thousands of Units)
In the United States, Apple maintained its third-place ranking with 12.3% of the market on a unit sales increase of 5.4% over the year-ago quarter. Apple's growth was outpaced by leader HP at 12.6% and fourth-place Lenovo at 9.7%, but Lenovo remains well behind Apple at 8.4% of the U.S. market. Apple and the other gainers were, however, more than offset by steep losses at Dell and Acer, leading to overall contraction of the PC market in the U.S.


Apple's U.S. Market Share Trend: 1Q06-4Q12 (Gartner)
As usual, Gartner did not cover Apple's worldwide market share for the quarter, as the company does not rank among the top five vendors on a worldwide basis.

IDC has also released its estimates of PC sales for the quarter, offering an even bleaker view of the market with its calculations of 6.4% contraction in the global market and a 4.5% decline in the United States. Apple in particular took a hit in IDC's estimates relative to Gartner's numbers, with IDC projecting that Apple's sales actually shrank by 0.2% year-over-year. Still, given the overall market decline in the U.S., IDC saw Apple's share of the market rise from 10.9% to 11.4%.

On Friday, we noted that Apple had taken the rare step of using its anti-malware tools in OS X to disable existing installations of the Java 7 browser plug-in due to a major security vulnerability that was being actively exploited in the wild. Apple's anti-malware system is capable of enforcing minimum version numbers for plug-ins such as Java and Flash, and Apple simply updated its blacklist information to require that machines be running a higher version of the Java 7 plug-in than was publicly available.

Oracle has now released Java 7 Update 11, and the release notes indicate that it does indeed address the vulnerability. The new release registers with a version string of 1.7.0_11-b21, satisfying Apple's requirement for a minimum version number of 1.7.0_10-b19.

In addition to the fix for the vulnerability, Java 7 Update 11 also sees a change in the default security level setting from "Medium" to "High". Under the new setting, users will be warned before the Java plug-in runs any unsigned application.

The default security level for Java applets and web start applications has been increased from "Medium" to "High". This affects the conditions under which unsigned (sandboxed) Java web applications can run. Previously, as long as you had the latest secure Java release installed applets and web start applications would continue to run as always. With the "High" setting the user is always warned before any unsigned application is run to prevent silent exploitation.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple has recently cut component orders for the iPhone 5 due to weaker-than-expected demand. The device enjoyed a successful start when it launched in September 2010, quickly becoming the Cupertino company’s fastest-selling iPhone. It appears, however, that sales since then haven’t quite been what Apple was originally expecting.

Apple’s orders for iPhone 5 displays during the January to March quarter have dropped to roughly half of what the company initially planned to order, according to people familiar with the situation. Orders for other components have also been reduced. The move comes as Apple’s struggle to keep up with Samsung’s smartphone market share continues.

The Korean electronics giant has launched a number of incredibly popular Android-powered smartphones in recent years, and along with Apple, it’s the only smartphone vendor in the United States that’s currently seeing any growth. But analysts have been concerned about how long Apple’s growth can continue.

Its iOS devices, the iPhone in particular, have been hugely successful over the past five years, helping Apple become the world’s most valuable company. However, as the demand for inexpensive smartphones continues to grow, it’s unclear how long premium products like the iPhone can continue to be big players in the market.

In the third quarter of 2012, Apple held 14.6% of the smartphone market share worldwide, which is significantly less than the peak of 23% it enjoyed during the fourth quarter of 2011.

Samsung’s share, meanwhile, rose to 31.3% during the third quarter of 2012, a huge improvements over the 8.8% the company claimed during the third quarter of 2010. And Samsung expects another record operating profit between $8.1 billion and $8.5 billion for the fourth quarter of 2012 — the icing on the cake for the Korean company’s best year in the smartphone business.

It’s possible, however, that Apple may have made larger component orders during the October to December quarter due to earlier concerns about manufacturing difficulties, which could have led to shipping delays. The company may have reduced its order now to clear out some of that inventory.

Nevertheless, analysts aren’t too confident about iPhone 5 demand. Citigroup last month lowered its rating for Apple to Neutral from Buy, and it voiced concerns about iPhone order cuts. ”It is unlikely that Apple is cutting orders in a ‘great’ demand environment,” it said.

Numerous reports have claimed Apple will launch a cheaper iPhone before the end of the year, which will be aimed at China and other emerging markets in a bid to secure more market share. However, Phil Schiller, the company’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing, reportedly dismissed those reports during an interview with the Shanghai Evening News.

Source: WSJ

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The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple has slashed component orders for the iPhone 5 this quarter, responding to weaker-than-expected demand.

Apple's orders for iPhone 5 screens for the January-March quarter, for example, have dropped to roughly half of what the company had previously planned to order, two of the people said.

The Cupertino, Calif., company has also cut orders for components other than screens, according to one of the people.

Apple notified the suppliers of the order cut last month, the people said.

There have been reports that Apple is looking to launch its next-generation iPhone in the middle of this year as part of a broader effort to shorten its product update cycles. Apple is reportedly also toying with other changes such as a cheaper version of the iPhone in order to help the company slow the momentum of Android and its leading manufacturers Samsung.


It is not unusual for demand, and thus Apple's component orders, to wane in the lead-up to hardware updates, but the iPhone 5 is just four months old, and the slashing of production at this stage of the device's lifecycle is sure to cause concern for the company, its investors, and others closely watching Apple's performance.

Seriously, there were a lot more when I did this the first time.

Over the years, my contacts list has become kind of crufty. Which is no surprise, really, as I’ve essentially used the same list since I owned a Palm Tungsten C back in 2003. I keep backing it up, moving it to newer, better devices and systems, but over time, there are serious issues in that database.

Like duplicated contacts, for example, each with a different subset of addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses. It’s a pain to go through them, one by one, and copy over information from each duplicate contact to a final, master contact for each person in my list. The OS X Contacts app, though, has a couple of helpful features to make this a bit easier.

First of all, when you have your Contacts app launched, head up to the Card menu and choose “Look for Duplicates.” The Contacts app will search through all of your Contacts and find the ones that have the same name. It will then offer you a chance to Merge them. If you want to do that, click on the Merge button in the bottom right, and OS X will put all the duplicate contacts together so that you have only one name per contact, and no more duplicates.

The Contacts app will not tell you which of the contact entries are duplicates, though, so you may want to go the manual route. In addition, it won’t find contacts that are the same, but have differently spelled names in them due to typos. In that case, you’ll have to scroll through your contacts to find two or more you want to merge. Command-Click on each of the contacts you want to merge, then go back up the the Card menu and choose “Merge Selected Cards,” or hit the Command-Shift-I keys on your keyboard after you’ve selected multiple contacts.

Via: Macworld Hints

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This week’s must-have apps roundup begins with PodDJ, the first iOS app from Pod2g, the mastermind behind a number of hugely popular jailbreaks for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. We also have a terrific app called 1 Second Everyday, which will help you put together a movie that includes one second from every day for the rest of your life; a handy timer app for iPad, and more.

PodDJ — iPad ($5.99)

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PodDJ is the first iOS app from eminent jailbreak hacker Pod2g. It promises to turn your iPad into “the most realistic virtual turntable you have ever seen,” allowing you to mix and scratch any track in your iTunes library. PodDJ has been designed to provide you with an interface that’s powerful and easy to use; the discs and controls have been carefully placed so that your hands can navigate their way around each feature as quickly as possible, without the requirement of any additional accessories to “achieve the perfect mix.”

PodDJ is the only app in the App Store “with which you can truly scratch on your iPad thanks to a brilliant touch to sound reactivity.” Furthermore, Pod2g promises it will “finally inspire the DJ sleeping inside you to wake up and turn your living room into the club it ought to be!”

Note: PodDJ is priced at $5.99 until the end of today, and then its price will rise to $7.99 until the end of January. After that, it will be priced at $9.99.

Swipe — Universal ($0.99)

Swipe is a great new way to add beautiful typography to the photographs stored on your iOS devices with a simple swipe of your finger. It has a built-in photo gallery so that you can quickly import the image you’d like to edit. You can select from more than 100 fonts, adjust font sizes, select color and transparency, and adjust rotation and alignment. When you’ve finished with your image, you can share it with your friends via Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr, or email.

Swipe is fast, effective, and super simple.

1 Second Everyday — iPhone ($0.99)

1 Second Everyday is possibly my favorite pick this week, simply because it’s so cool. With this app, you can put together a movie that includes every day for the rest of your life. As its name suggests, you add one second of video every day, either from an existing video, or from a new recording. The app accesses all the videos stored on your iOS device, sorts them by date, and allows to pull a second of video out of each one.

Every second you record is then saved inside the app, and you can look back over days and months to see all the videos you’ve included. They’re also backed up to iCloud, so if you happen to lose your device, you won’t lose your clippings. When you’re ready, you can compile the videos for any given amount of time — a month, a year, or a specific start and end date — to create a short movie that allows you and you friends to relive every single day.

The app will remind you to add your video clips each day, and you can even keep multiple timelines, like one for your, one for your kids, one for every dinner you eat… whatever you’d like. If you choose to, you can share your videos on YouTube and Facebook.

I think you’ll agree 1 Second Everyday is a wonderful idea, and I encourage you to go try it out.

Pronto for iPad — iPad ($0.99)

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Pronto is a handy little timer app that’s been available on the iPhone for some time, but it finally made the leap to the iPad this week. It boasts a great user interface, and it’s incredibly easy to use — simply turn the virtual knobs to set a time, and then push start to begin your countdown.

The great thing about Pronto is that when a timer is active, a countdown is displayed on the app’s icon using a notification badge. You can also set music as the alarm sound, and access previous countdowns from within its useful timeline. This is great if you set the same timers each day, like those for brewing coffee, warming baby bottles, working out, or power napping.

What’s Your Favorite?

So that concludes our list of this week’s must-have iOS apps. If you’ve picked up something that you think we should have included, be sure to let us know about it in the comments.

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Every week Mac Games and More (http://www.macgamesandmore.com/) features a fun, downloable game to try out for free that you can play over the weekend. With this week’s selection, become an astrology fanatic and unveil the mystery of the 13th zodiac sign. Download it now

Zodiac Prophecies: The Serpent Bearer (hidden objects/adventure) – The new astrological sign you’ve just discovered is The Serpent, which makes you the newfangled Serpent Bearer. This means many things including immersing yourself in a dark realm to free the souls of the children belonging to the 12 zodiac signs. Play an entertaining and well-balanced mix of point and click adventure activities, puzzles and hidden object games, then defeat the Dark Lord and save the world as you know it. Download it now

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Kicking off this week’s must-have games roundup is Joe Danger, the motorcycle stunt game you’ll find on iOS. It’s accompanied by a wonderful platformer called Little Amazon, a unique puzzle game called Wake the Cat, a classic beat ‘em up called Take My Machete, and more.

Joe Danger — Universal ($1.99)

Joe Danger is the most beautiful motorcycle stunt game that you’ll find in the App Store. Joe, the world’s most determined stuntman, first made his debut on the PlayStation Network in 2010, and now he’s back and better than ever.

Grab your motorcycle and defy death as you jump buses, dodge giant mousetraps, and leap over tanks filled with sharks to claim your title of Master of Disaster. Enjoy more than 20 hours of gameplay, with 25 characters to unlock, and Game Center integration.

Little Amazon — Universal (Free)

Little Amazon is a new platform game from Bulkypix, the developers of The Sandbox and Another World, in which you help a young girl called Lily free the cursed lair of the horrible demon Grûûl.

You must run through the forest as fast as you can, destroying any creature that stands in your way, and collecting as many coins as you can. When you complete missions you’ll win trophies and gain new abilities that will help you along your quest.

Little Amazon offers iCloud game syncing, and you can play it on your HDTV in 720p if you have an Apple TV.

Wake the Cat — Universal ($0.99)

Featured in Apple’s “New & Noteworthy” section this week, Wake the Cat is a unique puzzle game in which each level requires you to wake a little kitten from her slumber. You’ll have to put together all kinds of strange contraptions in an effort to guide a ball of yarn around the room and hit the dozy cat. It sounds cruel, but it’s not.

There are 60 puzzles to solve initially, with more on the way in future updates. If you like puzzle games, then Wake the Cat will certainly keep you occupied this weekend.

Take My Machete — iPhone (Free)

Take My Machete is another awesome new game that won’t cost you a penny. It’s a classic arcade beat ‘em up from one-man studio Upper Class Walrus. You play a man, armed with a machete, who must slice and dice his way through hordes of aliens as you search for the missing puzzles pieces in each level.

There’s a story mode with 4 stages and 4 bosses; you’ll play through this relatively quickly, but it’s lots of fun — and free! There’s plenty more fun to be had, however, in the endless mode, in which you fight off incoming aliens for as long as you possibly can. There are trophies to unlock, collectable pets, and more than 20 achievements.

Jtpck — Universal ($0.99)

It might be the simplest, but Jtpck has been my favorite game this week. It’s almost like a retro 2D version of Jetpack Joyride, but at the same time, it’s quite different. The aim of the game is to get the highest score you can without dying. Each game begins with a 30-second timer, and you must use your jetpack to fly through gates and add two seconds to the clock. For each one you miss, however, five seconds is deducted.

There are more than 20 power-ups and “power-downs” that will come at you while you’re flying, each of which will drastically alter the way you play. You can unlock a dozen new characters, and there are more than 50 achievements to collect.

What’s Your Favorite?

So that concludes our list of this week’s must-have iOS games. If you’ve picked up something that you think we should have included, be sure to let us know about it in the comments.

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