In a note to clients -- as reported by "AppleInsider" (http://www.appleinsider.com) -- USB Investment Research says Apple and Samsung are expected to collectively earn 90% of profits in the mobile handset industry this year. The two companies' shares of profits are expected to grow as Samsung's margins are projected to improve to the high teens. Meanwhile, Apple's margins lead the industry, allowing it to take 75% of mobile phone profits with just 9% of units sold. UBS has increased its estimated iPhone sales for Apple's fiscal year 2013 from 149.5 million to 156.5 million. The research firm thinks the company is preparing to build a record number of next-gen iPhones for its biggest product launch ever later this year.

The Austin City Council is expected to approve an US$8.6 million incentive package for Apple as part of a larger $33.5 million incentive and tax break package to bring a $304 million company expansion to Texas, reports the "Phoenix Business Journal" (http://macte.ch/nPz1m). Earlier this month Gov. Rick Perry today announced that Apple will expand its presence in Texas with an US$304 million investment in a new campus in Austin that will create more than 3,600 new jobs. The new campus will more than double the size of Apple's workforce in Texas over the next decade, supporting the company's growing operations in the Americas with expanded customer support, sales and accounting functions for the region. In exchange for Apple's commitment to create these new jobs in Texas, the state has offered Apple an investment of $21 million over ten years through the Texas Enterprise Fund (TEF). "Apple is known for its bold innovation and game-changing designs, and the expansion of their Austin...

Adobe has announced Adobe Photoshop CS6 beta, a preview of what’s to come in the next release of the digital imaging software. It's available as a free download from Adobe Labs (http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/photoshopcs6/). Customers can download the beta, try out the experience and provide feedback to the product team. Photoshop CS6 beta is available for the Mac OS and Windows platforms. The final release is expected in the first half of 2012. According to Winston Hendrickson, vice president products, Creative Media Solutions, Adobe, key features include new additions to the Content-Aware tools. Content-Aware Patch allows greater control by letting users select and duplicate an area of an image to fill in or "patch" another. Content-Aware Move lets users select and "magically" move an object to a new place in the image. The beta offers beefed-up performance thanks to the Adobe Mercury Graphics Engine, enabling near-instant results from popular editing tools including Liquify,...

The media tablet segment has evolved as a dynamic landscape since its inception about three years ago, evidenced by the fact that there are currently more than 220 models in the market. While the Apple iPad remains the market leader in the media tablet segment, the buzz created by iPad has paved the way for more vendors to join the race, especially in the lower price segment. The market for sub-US$400 media tablets is expected to see significant growth over the next five years, occupying more than 60% of the market share by 2016, while the market for the over $400 segment is expected to shrink, according to ABI Research (http://www.abiresearch.com). "The majority of new entrant media tablet models have been in the sub-$400 segment that focuses on growth markets like India and China," says Jeff Orr, group director, consumer research. "The strong wave of growth in this segment over the next few years is expected to be driven by the adoption in emerging markets." Wide aspect display...

ProMAX Systems, a provider of media technology and video editing solutions, has launched the ProMAX ONE (http://www.promax.com/one), an all-in-one computer workstation and storage device built specifically for video editors, on set personnel, DI, VFX, color correction and finishing artists. "Since Apple discontinued its widely popular Final Cut Pro 7 software a year ago, many in the professional industry have been transitioning to AVID and Adobe software platforms," says Jess Hartmann, CEO of ProMAX Systems. "However, until now, they have had few good workstation options to meet their increasing demands. And with the future of Apple's Mac Pro workstation murky at best, we knew it was time to offer up a solution." He says the ProMAX ONE has more processing power than the current 12-core Mac Pro, includes up to 18TB of raw RAID 6 disk storage, has four 2.5-inch boot drives for flexibility and includes options for an LTO tape, and a P2/CF/ SxS card reader. Built on Microsoft Windows 7...

Ableton and new partner The Loop Loft have presented Hip Hop Drums, an US$52 collection of loops, samples and effects inspired by classic hip hop breaks and one-shots. It sports 322 live clips, 144 MIDI clips, and 18 drum racks. What's more, you can rough up the sound with included Effect Racks like sub bass, tape delay, New York-style compression, granular time-stretch and more. For more info, including audio samples, go to http://www.ableton.com/library/hip-hop-drums .

Flurry (http://www.flurry.com), a cross-platform mobile application analytics provider, recently quantified China’s meteoric adoption of iOS and Android applications.  While China ranked 10th in application sessions at the beginning of 2011, it finished the year in second place, only behind the United States.  With its large population and rapidly emerging middle class, adoption of apps vaulted China into the position of world’s second largest app economy. In additional analysis, Flurry also determined that China has the most market upside, based on calculating those in China who can afford smartphones versus the current installed base. This report reveals that, for the first time ever, China now leads in new smart device adoption (iOS and Android smartphones and tablets). For this report, Flurry used its entire data set, tracking more than one billion anonymous, aggregated application sessions per day. More than 60,000 companies use Flurry Analytics across more than 160,000...

According to the "Financial Times" (http://macte.ch/adNHB) -- registration is required to read the article -- Apple is competing with Motorola Mobility, Research in Motion and Nokia on a smaller SIM card standard. Apple wants a "nano-SIM" that would let it design even smaller products, the article adds.The MicroSIM card, with a design smaller than traditional SIM cards, was pushed by Apple in 2010 with the launch of the iPhone 4. However, a nano-SIM would shrink further -- to about a third the size of the MicroSIM. Apple's keen on adopting the new standard, but the other companies aren't warm to Apple's design proposals, per the "Financial Times."

Apple's mobile device dominance is not overstated, but use of new technologies like video chat and LTE is -- at least for now, according to the results of the first Mobile Life survey, published by UBM TechWeb's Light Reading (http://www.lightreading.com). "Light Reading surveyed 550 telecom professionals, including 120 service providers, and found that the average person has a rich mobile life made up of mobile device ownership and daily use of technologies like mobile video, mobile apps and Wi-Fi," says Sarah Reedy, Light Reading Senior Reporter and the report's author. Of the survey respondents: ° Thirty-four percent say they use more than 1GB of mobile data per month and 12 percent say they use over 3GB. ° Sixty-three percent update their status on a social network at least once a day, and 41% use up to six mobile apps on a regular basis. ° Fifteen percent of respondents are planning to buy an LTE-capable tablet this year; only 3% own one. "We weren't surprised at all to see...

Western Digital has announced the next generation of its My Passport line of portable hard drives, offering consumers a fresh new enclosure design and what the company says is the first-ever 2 TB capacity in a portable drive. It's available in five colors (white, black, silver, blue, and red) and has a range of capacities beginning from 500 GB. Additionally, the new My Passport drives offer WD SmartWare™ automatic backup software and WD Security for password protection and hardware encryption. "More than money, jewelry and other valuables, the item most missed if ever lost or stolen is one's computer -- and everything on it -- so our goal in launching the next-generation of the popular My Passport drives is to encourage more consumers to protect their data before something happens," says Jim Welsh, executive vice president and general manager of WD's branded products and consumer electronics groups. My Passport drives come with a 2-year limited warranty and are available online at...

WaterField Designs (http://www.sfbags.com/) has unveiled the US$179 Indy, an over-the-shoulder bag for the new iPad that takes the place of a guy's overstuffed pants pocket. Sporting an outdoorsy look, it's specially sized to hold the iPad either "naked" or in a protective case. The Indy has a slim profile and two deep organizational pockets. It's lined with WaterField Designs' signature gold nylon. The top zipper sits lower than the opening, making it almost invisible. A diagonal outside pocket shows a hint of color and is lined with soft Ultrasuede to cushion the iPhone and other necessities. A pocket on the opposite side secures items with a self-locking zipper. These outside pockets are strategically designed so the Indy has no obvious front or back, says Gary Waterfield of WaterField Designs. An adjustable strap for carrying on the shoulder or across the body, plus a choice of matte black or nickel hardware, completes the design. The Indy comes in distressed black or brown,...

Jaksta Technologies and Applian Technologies have released two new specialized products to convert video and audio files on the Mac: Jaksta Video Converter and Jaksta Music Converter.   Jaksta Video Converter for Mac is designed for transferring high quality video files (especially Torrent downloads and HD Camcorder AVCHD files) to devices like the iPad, iPhone or Apple TV. It analyzes each file and only converts what is necessary for playing on the target device.    For music files, Jaksta Music Converter’s interface converts entire albums or music libraries to popular audio file types playable on the iPad, iPod or iPhone. It defaults to conversion at 320K AAC. Additional preset functions allow you to set up personal preferences for converting FLAC or WMA files, albums and libraries into popular formats. For more details on Jaksta Video Converter and Jaksta Music Converter, go to www.jaksta.com.  Jaksta Video Converter and Jaksta Music Converter are each available for US$19.95, or...

TRTL BOT (http://www.trtlbot/com) has unveiled the US$24.95 KidSafe, a reversible iPhone 4/4S case designed to protect it from damage while ensuring that apps and settings are inaccessible to children.  It features a proprietary home button protective cover that prevents unwanted or mistaken access to the home screen, blocking the ability to access apps or settings.  Designed with protection in mind, the KidSafe features slightly raised corners, allowing it to protect against everyday drops or scratches, says Peter Gloria, president of TRTL BOT.  The KidSafe is manufactured in the U.S. using BPA-free, non-toxic recycled plastic. It's available in Charcoal Black, Arctic White and Grass Green for only $24.95.

Macmanu has introduced templates for iBooks Author, Apple's free app for creating digital books for the iBookstore. iBooks Author is a free download at the Mac App Store. The Macmanu templates offer a variety of styles, including astrology, science, urban and wild life, leisure andmore. In addition to this, writers can choose among many different layouts, as chapter styles, sections and pages are unique in every template, says Vitalijus Vysniauskas, project manager at Macmanus. Most of the elements are easy to move, remove or replace, he adds. Pictures can be replaced by via drag 'n drop. Many widgets, font styles and colors are a few clicks away. A The price of 20 templates for iBooks Author is US$4.99 and can be found at the Mac App Store under the Graphic & Design section. Mac OS X 10.6 or higher is required.

Apple may become the world's largest mobile processor company by the end of the year, according to a study due to be released by In-Stat later this week as reported by "InfoWorld" (http://macte.ch/GDh4g). Apple was the world's second largest mobile processor company behind Intel in 2011, according to In-Stat. If that trend holds and Apple's iPhone and iPad shipments continue to grow at an unprecedented pace, Apple will likely overtake Intel as the world's largest mobile processor company by the end of this year, notes "InfoWorld."

Apple is now offering monthly updates to its Supplier Responsibility website (http://macte.ch/5q8dr), tracking efforts to reduce extreme overtime hours worked among employees of Apple’s manufacturing partners, as reported by "Daring Fireball" (http://macte.ch/Xtlya). "In our effort to end the industry practice of excessive overtime, we’re working closely with our suppliers to manage employee working hours," notes Apple. "Weekly data collected in January 2012 on more than 500,000 workers employed by our suppliers showed 84 percent compliance with the 60-hour work week specified in our code. In February 2012, compliance with the 60-hour work week among 500,000 workers at those suppliers increased to 89 percent, with workers averaging 48 hours per week. That’s a substantial improvement over previous results, but we can do better. We will continue to share our progress by reporting this data on a monthly basis.

The analyst thinks Apple will dominate the tablet market through at least the next three years. Munster predicts that Apple will sell 66 million iPads in calendar year 2012, growing to 176 million in calendar 2015. You knew the new iPad was hot. It is in more ways than one. In heavy use, it's five degrees C warmer than its predecessor, according to the "Tweakers.net" site -- as translated by "Endgadget" (http://macte.ch/tA9Cp). This is probably due to the more powerful graphics processing unit (GPU), the article adds, using the GLBenchmark for results.The graphics processor is the same as in the iPad 2 is, but it has more shader cores. The A5 processor from the iPad 2 has a PowerVR GPU SGX543MP2, while the new iPad has a SGX543MP4.

Apple is increasing its lead as the most popular mobile platform among application developers while Google's Android has receded and Research In Motion's devices plunged anew, reports "Reuters" (http://macte.ch/82AhK), noting a quarterly survey by Appcelator. The survey asked developers if they were interested in writing programs for various devices. The results showed Google's Android slipped even though sales of devices powered by the operating system surged. The platform is fragmenting as an array of hardware makers adapt it in different ways for their devices, unlike Apple's platform, which is used exclusively by the maker of the iPhone and iPad, Mike King, a strategist at Appcelerator, tells "Reuters." The firm, which works with developers, conducted the survey in conjunction with IDC, a research firm. Almost nine in every 10 developers surveyed said they were "very interested" in developing for iOS, while eight in 10 had interest in Android phones and only two-thirds were...

"iFixIt" has torn down the third generation Apple TV, Apple's streaming home theater device. During the teardown, the gang -- which disassemblies and examines the latest tech so you don't have to -- discovered that where there was one antenna, now there are two. "We expect that Apple added the new antenna to address complaints about range and signal strength in the previous generation, and to help improve wireless speed -- we also found a Broadcom 4330 chip inside that supports dual-band 2.4 GHz and 5GHz 802.11 a/b/g/n connectivity," says "iFixIt." There's also a brand-new A5 processor. This is Apple's first product with a single core A5 -- with half the processing power they ship in the dual core iPhone 4S --which leads "iFixIt" gang to suspect this means that Apple doesn't have plans for this device to ever run apps from the App Store. The single-core A5 processor is also less expensive than a beefier dual-core would have been, helping Apple keep the Apple TV at $99. The third gen...

Graphic Node (http://graphicnode.com/) has announced an addition to its collection of Pages Templates that brings the options available to 900 pieces. In addition to the 500 layouts from the previous version, the updated assortment provides 117 new and improved templates for Apple's Pages software. Users can view samples of the 117 new designs and purchase Pages Templates on the Graphic Node website. After the product is downloaded and installed on a computer, the new themes will automatically appear in the Template Chooser within Pages. The collection is also available on the Mac App Store. Pages Templates requires Mac OS X 10.5 or higher and iWork '08 or later. The pack costs US$24.99.

Boris FX (http://www.borisfx.com) has announced that Boris Continuum Complete 8 for Sony Vegas Pro (BCC 8 for Vegas Pro) is now available. Based on the Open Effects Association (OFX) platform, BCC 8 for Vegas Pro delivers over 175 VFX and compositing filters to 64-bit and 32-bit versions of Sony Vegas Pro 11 and 10. Audio-driven effects creation, 3D particle effects, and enhanced lens flares and glows headline the new release. BCC 8 for Vegas Pro is immediately available for an introductory manufacturer's suggested retail price of US$595. The regular MSRP will be $995. Owners of previous versions of BCC for Vegas Pro may upgrade for an MSRP of $295. A free 14-day trial version is available from the Boris FX website.

Apple's stock closed above $600 for the first time Monday. It closed at $601.10, an increase of $15.53, or 2.7%. On Thursday, the stock reached $600.01 briefly before falling to a closing price of $585.56. Apple is the world's most valuable company, boasting a market capitalization of approximately $560 billion. It topped $500 billion for the first time in late February.

Apple says it's sold three million of the iPad since its launch on Friday, March 16. That's the biggest iPad launch yet, according to hilip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. "Customers are loving the incredible new features of iPad, including the stunning Retina display, and we can't wait to get it into the hands of even more customers around the world this Friday," he adds. The new iPad is already available in the US, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Puerto Rico, Singapore, Switzerland, UK and the US Virgin Islands and will be available in 24 more countries starting at 8:00 a.m. local time on Friday, March 23 through the Apple Online Store (www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores and select Apple Authorized Resellers, including Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Macau, Mexico, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania...

Sprint Nextel dropped the most in more than a month after Sanford C. Bernstein downgraded the company to underperform amid concern it won’t sell enough iPhones to afford its 'punishing' commitment with Apple, notes "Bloomberg" (http://www.bloomberg.com). The high costs of network upgrades, a “stupendous debt burden” and a “hobbled 4G offering” that may be insufficient to sell millions of iPhones this year, are some of the challenges faced by the nation’s third-largest wireless operator, analyst Craig Moffett wrote in a research note to clients. He had previously rated the shares market perform.