An extremely volatile stock market and a big sell-off on Wednesday helped Apple to assume the position of the most valuable US company as far as its stock value is concerned. Apple shares were down 2.76% to $363.69, which gave the company a market cap of $337.17 billion. Exxon Mobile, however, was down 4.41% to $68.03 and a market cap of $330.77 billion.

Exxon and GE dominated the market cap game before 1999, when Microsoft became the most expensive company on the U.S. stock market. Exxon was able to retake the top spot in 2005 and kept it until Wednesday. In terms of revenue, however, Exxon is playing in an entirely different league than Apple. Exxon posted annual revenue of $393 billion and a net profit of about $38 billion. Apple will be exceeding $100 billion of revenue this year with estimated profits of just under $25 billion. However, Exxon’s future is uncertain, with growth depending on oil field discoveries and an evolution of energy away from oil in the future.

Apple, however, appears to be unstoppable at this time and financial advisors are still saying that, while the relationship between the share price and its earnings turns out to be more worse than that of Exxon Mobil, the stock isn’t overly expensive. Apple is still on a path of growth and quite apparently has the trust of analysts.

On Thursday Symantec released a free security application for the Android platform to help users combat against malware and phone thieves. Called Norton Mobile Security (NMS) Lite, the new suite goes up against Lookout Mobile Security’s own popular offering which provides similar anti-malware and anti-theft services for Android.

“In the same day, a smartphone user can stream their favourite music station, get the high score hurling birds through the air and then file their taxes online.  Having Norton installed means feeling equally confident regardless of what you do on your mobile phone,” said Dave Cole, vice president mobile products, Norton. “Norton Mobile Security Lite protects confidential information and offers basic mobile protection from the most trusted name in security – which means your device is safe and you’re worry-free.”

According to Symantec, NMS Lite protects users on three fronts. First, it will remotely lock your lost or stolen device via SMS text and prevent strangers from seeing your private information or running up your mobile bill. Second, it will scan all files and app updates downloaded to the mobile device and automatically detect and remove threats without slowing the device down. And finally third, it will download and install security updates automatically, keeping you “a step ahead of cybercriminals.”

Read more…

Like slowly waking up from a sweet dream, the Nokia N9 is gradually slipping away from our conscious mind before it’s even released. We knew Stephen Elop & Co. didn’t have high interest in the one (and only) Meego smartphone in its repertoire, but it’s becoming very clear exactly how much the handset doesn’t matter to the company. Nokia’s confirmed with German site MobiFlip that the N9 will in fact not be making its way to Deutschland, just days after making it known that it has no plans to send the device to the US or the UK. Granted, those who can’t shake off their desire for the one-of-a-kind phone will still find alternative methods of procuring it, but this is still a solid indication that Espoo is only staring ahead to its future with Windows Phone, and the N9 is merely in its peripheral vision.

SOURCE via Mobiflip

Samsung Electronics just announced volume production of SSDs that support the SATA 3.0 (6Gb/s), with new high-performance PM830 SSDs up to 512 GB densities. The new drives are expected to replace SATA 3Gb/s-based SSDs by year-end.

“Samsung’s new line up of advanced SSDs will raise the performance bar to the next level for ultra-slim notebooks and tablets and accelerate growth of the market for high-performance SSDs,” said Wanhoon Hong, executive vice president, memory sales & marketing, Device Solutions, Samsung Electronics. “The industry is expected to quickly embrace SATA 6Gb/s-based SSDs, which also will help increase market interest in 256GB and higher densities significantly,” he added.

Samsung claims that its new 6Gb/s SSDs shortens system boot-up time to about 10 seconds, while its high-performance allows users to download up to five DVD video files in less than a minute. The drives also feature an AES 256-bit encryption algorithm

The new SSDs utilizes Samsung’s 20 nm class 32 Gb MLC NAND memory chip incorporating the toggle DDR interface with a proprietary NAND controller. This allows Samsung’s new SSD to boast sequential read speeds of 500 megabytes per second (MB/s) and sequential write speeds of 350MB/s.

Samsung’s SATA 6Gb/s SSDs are available in 512GB, 256GB and 128GB densities.

There’s a new segment of portable PCs coming soon, and they’re called Ultrabooks. Intel took the wraps off of the design direction at Computex 2011 for exceptionally thin-and-light notebooks that take many design cues from Apple’s MacBook Air.

Asus and Acer have already announced Ultrabook products, and there will be plenty more on the way because Intel is pushing hard for the growth of this new segment that the chip giant believes will be 40 percent of the consumer laptop market segment by the end of 2012.

There was a concern that Ultrabooks won’t be able to come in under the $1000 mark with compelling performance and features, but such worries will soon be put to rest. Intel today announced a $300 million “Ultrabook Fund” to help drive innovation in this new category of devices.

The Intel Capital Ultrabook Fund aims to invest in companies building hardware and software technologies focused on enhancing how people interact with Ultrabooks such as through sensors and touch, achieving all-day usage through longer battery life, enabling innovative physical designs and improved storage capacity. The overall goal of the fund, which will be invested over the next 3-4 years, is to create a “cycle of innovation and system capabilities.”

Read more…

It may not have been the best kept secret around, but Google’s now made what’s surely the biggest addition to Google+ in its short lifespan: games. Unlike a certain other social network, Google says games in Google+ are “there when you want them and gone when you don’t,” meaning that they won’t flood your main stream if you never play them — you have to click the games icon at the top of the page to play and see updates from your circles. According to Google, the service is rolling out “gradually” starting today, but should be available to all Google+ users “soon.”

SOURCE via Google

Dell has just announced a new addition to the lineup, the 13.3-inch V131, and while it doesn’t look that different from the last-gen V130, it offers all the spec bumps you’d expect from a laptop announced in mid-2011.

With this generation, you get Sandy Bridge Core i3 and i5 processor options, two USB 3.0 ports and a user-replaceable six-cell battery that promises up to 9.5 hours of juice. If you wanted, you could add up to a 320GB 7200RPM hard drive, which we suspect might not be enough storage space for some folks at these days. The resolution, meanwhile, is 1366 x 768 — typical for budget notebooks.

Like we said, the design isn’t anything ground-breaking, but Dell did move to a chiclet layout for the keyboard, which you can configure with backlighting if you’re into such things.

SOURCE via Dell

Violence and looting has raged across London and spread to three other major British cities, as authorities struggle to contain the country’s most serious unrest since race riots set the capital ablaze in the 1980s. And yes, that’s a double-decker bus on fire.

Except those were race riots and seemed to have, you know, a reason to have happened. We’re still not even entirely sure why they’re rioting in London right now. We just know they’re destroying a lot of cars, and some Justin Bieber’s posters.

Two police cars and a double-decker bus were set alight, stores were looted and several buildings along Tottenham’s main street — 2.5 miles from the site of the 2012 Olympics — were reduced to smouldering shells. In, looting and police officers being pelted with bottles and fireworks, as groups of young people rampaged through neighbourhoods. And that’s just the third night mind you. We still haven’t got the full report yet. And apparently everyone’s looting and vandalizing around regardless of anything, even a millionaire’s daughter was looting around if you’re reading the news these few days. I guess everyone that has lost their sanity is joining in the fun. Guys, please stop this!