Microsoft has just released their financial results for the quarter ending in June and it appears that all is rosy at Redmond. The company recorded its highest ever revenue – $17.37 billion, which is 8% higher than Q2 of 2010.

Profits rose by the amazing 30% over the same period of last year and reached $5.87 billion. Just about every division of the company had a good quarter, but the Entertainment & Devices division is certainly the most impressive with its 30% growth in revenue, driven by the hugely successful Xbox 360. Read more »

The Viber application that won the hearts of over 12 million iOS users has now landed on the Android Market, doing just about everyone involved a favor. Android users now have another way to make free calls and send free messages (data charges not counting), iOS users can do that with a lot larger portion of their contact list and Viber gets more users. And now that we had a day or so to play with the app we bring you our take on it.

To get started with Viber you need to go to the Android Market from either you phone or your desktop browser and install the free app. You then go through a quick activation process, where you enter your phone number (the only ID you would need) and then wait for an SMS to arrive, containing your activation code. Read more »

The global research and consulting firm Strategy Analytics has published its report on the tablet market in the second quarter of the year. Unsurprisingly, slate sales grew at an explosive rate – 15.1 million for the period, compared to just 3.5 million in Q2 of 2010.

Another conclusion drawn from the report that will hardly raise any eyebrows is that the iPad is still the device to beat, capturing a huge 61.3% market share. As Apple happily reported the other day, sales of the two versions of the iOS slate rose 6 million to a total of 9.3 million. Read more »

The world’s largest chip maker, Intel, has posted its Q2 2011 financial results and has reported that this was their 5th consecutive quarter with record revenue. The company has done great to score revenue of $13 billion, which is 1% higher than in previous quarter and 21% better than in the same quarter of last year.

However, the $3 billion dollar profit is 7% lower than what the company achieved in Q1 of this year and only 2% higher compared to Q2 of 2011. The earnings per share have also dropped 4% sequentially to 54 cents and while this is still a 6% increase Year-on-Year, it has had a negative impact on the Intel stock (down almost 2% in the after hours trading). Read more »

Panasonic has just announced the new addition to their lineup of superzoom compacts, the FZ47 (to be known in Europe as FZ48). Carrying a 1/2.33″ 12.1 megapixel sensor the new camera has a 24x zoom range covering the 25 – 600mm range (in 35mm equivalent).

The stabilized lens is pretty bright on the wide side opening the aperture all the way to F/2.8, but at the long end you only get F/5.2 as a maximum aperture. Video recording up to 1080p resolution is a go in both MP4 and AVCHD formats and on the back you are getting a 3″ LCD of 460K dots. Read more »

A few photos and some specs of an upcoming 24 megapixel Sony A77 camera surfaced and they look quite exciting. The mirrorless camera with Electronic Viewfinder and Interchangeable Lens (EVIL) looks like a real beast and judging by the resolution and its reported ability to record 1080p video, it might be the most capable in its class to date.

The only thing that puzzles us a bit is its size. As far as we know, the main advantage of EVIL cameras compared to DSLR cameras is that they are way more compact and this one looks anything, but that. Read more »

A heap of interesting AT&T rumors just came in. Reportedly, the carrier will start selling its first LTE handsets in December and the HTC Eternity, which first leaked a while ago, will be one of them.

Our tipster says that the WP7-running Eternity will be the only new HTC phone to come to AT&T this year, but it won’t be the only one to have an LTE radio. A selection of LTE-packing Android smartphones will launch alongside it in December, including at least one device from each of LG, Samsung and Sony Ericsson. Read more »

Just as expected, Apple today announces the update to the MacBook Air. Most of the rumors came up true and the 11″ and 13″ ultra-portables now sport backlit keyboards by default and a selection of i5 and i7 Sandy Bridge CPU.

The 11″ MacBook Air starts at $1,000, just like its predecessor, and for that kind of cash you only get a measly 64GB of flash storage and 2GB of RAM. However add a couple of extra Benjamins and you have 128GB of storage and 4GB to compliment that 1.6GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 Sandy Bridge CPU. Doubling the storage once more will set you back an additional $300. Read more »

More tablets from HTC ahead! We just heard that the Taiwanese company is working on a 3D version of its Flyer slate and we even got a photo of a part of the device to prove it. What you are seeing here should be the topmost part of the upcoming stereoscopic slate and as you can see, it features two cameras rather than one.

Now leaks based on just a piece of hardware should definitely be filled under uncertain, but seeing the interest that the EVO 3D generate, it would be strange if HTC didn’t keep pushing on the stereoscopic front. Read more »

The Apple Store website is down and as the tradition goes we will most probably be getting some new Apple gear when it goes back up. In this case we are looking forward to the new generation of MacBook Airs, which should be significantly more powerful than their predecessors and a new MacBook Mini series.

We got some 11th hour rumors on the exact specs of the new devices. Despite earlier speculations, the new 11.6″ MacBook Air base version will still only have 64GB worth of storage and 2GB of RAM. It will certainly be getting the new i5 and i7 Sandy Brigde CPUs, though, so it’s not too bad. Read more »

Not only is the BlackBerry Touch 9860 not officially available yet, it hasn’t even been properly announced. However this didn’t stop a prototype unit from getting listed on the Dubai ad site of Dubizzle.com.

Apparently, someone got hold of a prototype well ahead of its release and decided to earn some cash from it. The asking price is 5,500 United Arab Emirates dirhams, which equals about €1,050 or $1500. For that price you are only getting the handset and a battery and no accessories. Read more »

Now here’s an interesting concept for you – a smartphone that is able to change its weight-balance on command, giving you another way to interact with it and thus enriching the user-experience.

This idea was introduced by Fabian Hemmert, who used a moving battery on an axis to change not only the center of gravity, but also the shape of the gadget. Read more »

Archos has just reveled the pricing of its ninth generation of tablets. The bad news is that the two Android 3.1 Honeycomb running slates are a bit more expensive than the French company estimated at launch.

Now at $300 for the 8″ Archos 80 G9 and $370 for the 10.1″ Archos 101 G9 still remain among the most affordable devices in their respective classes. What you should keep in mind, though, is that these are prices for 8GB worth of storage, whereas most competitors start at 16GB. Read more »

We just got a portion of Galaxy S II news for our American droid-loving friends. One of our readers managed to squeeze a few details about the arrival of the coveted smartphone to the AT&T network from a representative of the carrier.

Apparently, the handset will keep its Galaxy S II name, instead of being called Attain as previously rumored. It should appear on the carrier shelves in late Summer or early Fall, with the date 1 September repeatedly mentioned in the conversation. That would put the AT&T Galaxy S II in direct competition against the next iPhone, which is supposed to appear at about the same time. Read more »

Sure, we have seen the Wave II run Bada OS 2.0, but Samsung made that v.2.0 release history before it was even released. The Koreans decided to revamp the UI before they let the next major Bada release hit the shelves. Enter the 2.0.1. version, which is a more major overhaul than the name suggests.

And if you were worried that changes run deep enough to prevent the Wave II from getting the nod for an update, you can calm down now. For Mr. Blurrycam has just delivered a video, showing the smartphone running the latest Bada release. Read more »