Facebook IPO: On the Number of Facebook Users

• 845 Million: Number of active users per month as of 31 Dec. 2011
• 229 Million: Number of monthly active users in Europe
• 161 Million: Number of monthly active users in US
• 37 Million: Number of monthly active users in Brazil
• 46 Million: Number of monthly active users in India
• 483 Million: Number of Daily active users
• 143 Million: Number of Daily active users in Europe
• 126 Million: Number of Daily active users in US and Canada
• 425 Million: Number of  Monthly active users on Mobile

Facebook IPO: Revenue and Profit By Numbers

• $777 Million: Facebook’s revenue in the year 2009
• $764 Million: Facebook’s advertising revenue in the year 2009
• $1.974 Billion: Facebook’s revenue in the year 2010
• $1.868 Billion: Facebook’s advertising revenue in the year 2010
• $3.711 Billion: Facebook’s revenue in in the year 2011
• $3.154 Billion: Facebook’s advertising revenue in in the year 2011
• $445 Million: Zynga’s  contribution to Facebook’s revenue in in the year 2011
• $229 Million: Facebook’s Net Income in the year 2009
• $606 Million: Facebook’s Net Income in the year 2010
• $1 Billion: Facebook’s Net Income in in the year 2011

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Google says the effort to make the privacy policy simpler, Google has got rid of over 60 different privacy policies and can treat you as a single user across all Google products to give a more intuitive Google experience.

Explaining the benefit of combining privacy policies, Google said

Our recently launched personal search feature is a good example of the cool things Google can do when we combine information across products. Our search box now gives you great answers not just from the web, but your personal stuff too. So if I search for restaurants in Munich, I might see Google+ posts or photos that people have shared with me, or that are in my albums. Today we can also do things like make it easy for you to read a memo from Google Docs right in your Gmail, or add someone from your Gmail contacts to a meeting in Google Calendar.

But there’s so much more that Google can do to help you by sharing more of your information with … well, you. We can make search better—figuring out what you really mean when you type in Apple, Jaguar or Pink. We can provide more relevant ads too. For example, it’s January, but maybe you’re not a gym person, so fitness ads aren’t that useful to you. We can provide reminders that you’re going to be late for a meeting based on your location, your calendar and an understanding of what the traffic is like that day. Or ensure that our spelling suggestions, even for your friends’ names, are accurate because you’ve typed them before. People still have to do way too much heavy lifting, and we want to do a better job of helping them out.

Google’s new privacy policy will be on effect from March 1. Learn more about the new policy here at http://www.google.com/policies/

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Apple’s iPhone, iPad and Mac drove Apple’s growth this quarter. Apple sold a whopping 37.04 million iPhones in the quarter, with an increase of 128% over the year-ago quarter. Apple sold 15.43 million iPads with a 111% growth over the year-ago quarter. And Apple sold 5.2 million Macs, a 26% increase over the year-ago quarter. Just like previous quarters, Apple’s iPod sales continued to drop. In this quarter Apple sole 15.4 million iPods, a 21% decline from the year-ago quarter.

Riding on iPhone/iPad/mac sales during the holiday season, Apple posted a record quarterly revenue of $46.33 billion and record quarterly net profit of $13.06 billion. In the year ago quarter, Apple’s revenue was $26.74 billion and net quarterly profit was $6 billion.

Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, announcing his first quarter results said that

We’re thrilled with our outstanding results and record-breaking sales of iPhones, iPads and Macs. Apple’s momentum is incredibly strong, and we have some amazing new products in the pipeline.

Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO, said that

We are very happy to have generated over $17.5 billion in cash flow from operations during the December quarter. Looking ahead to the second fiscal quarter of 2012, which will span 13 weeks, we expect revenue of about $32.5 billion and we expect diluted earnings per share of about $8.50.

Related posts:

1. Apple’s Earnings Set All TIme Record with 78% Increase
2. Apple Reports Record Mac, iPhone and iPad Sales

Jonathan Rothesberg’s Life Technologies launched his newest sequncing toy, a benchtop Ion Proton at this year’s CES. By 2012, Ion Proton can sequence a human genome for just $1000. And PC Magazine and Forbes called the Ion Proton as the coolest gadget at the CES. And Steve Jobs’ has played an indirect role in Jonathan Rothberg’s success and the coolest gadget.

In an interview to his alma matter Carengie Mellon University, the $1000 genome man Rothberg said he heard Steve Jobs speak at Carnegie Mellon during his senior year after the launch of the Macintosh. And Steve Hobs shared the reason for his success to the student audience. And the secret to his success was “just do it” attitude. This was years before Nike coined the phrase. Rothberg said

I wanted to understand if Steve Jobs was made out of something different than the rest of us, but he explicitly said you are really defined by what you do It was that ‘aha’ moment, where I realized life was about doing as opposed to hesitating. And it reminded me of something my mother told me: You don’t go through life with your IQ on your forehead—what matters is what you do with yourself.

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DROID RAZR is the thinnest 4G LTE smartphone powered by dual-core 1.2 GHz processor with 1 GB of RAM and a 8MP rear camera with 1080p HD video recording capability. Verizon also announced that starting Droid RAZR will available in white and purple colors, in addition to black, starting from January 23.

Here is the full press release from Verizon announcing the $100 price drop

The DROID RAZR™ by Motorola in Black is now available online at www.verizonwireless.com for $199.99 with a new two-year customer agreement. Equipped with 16 GB on-board memory, the DROID RAZR is 7.1 mm thin, made with KEVLAR® fiber for strength and Corning® Gorilla® Glass for scratch resistance. DROID RAZR customers can expect to rip through the Web at blazing speeds with a dual-core 1.2 GHz processor and Verizon Wireless 4G LTE. Verizon Wireless leads the way in 4G with the fastest and most reliable 4G network in the United States, covering more than 200 million people in 190 markets.

Additional features:

• Powered by Android™ 2.3.5 Gingerbread, upgradable to Android™ 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich
• 8-megapixel rear-facing camera with 1080p HD video capture and image stabilization technology for crisp and clear videos
• Front-facing HD camera for video chat over 4G LTE, 3G or Wi-Fi
• 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot capable – customers can share 4G LTE speed with up to eight Wi-Fi-enabled devices
• Remote wipe, pin lock and government-grade encryption for email, calendar and contacts, as well as voice and video chat conferencing
• 16 GB on-board memory
• microSD™ card slot with support for up to 32 GB memory card

The DROID RAZR in White and Purple will be also available for $199.99 in Verizon Wireless Communications Stores and online at www.verizonwireless.com on Jan. 23.

Customers that purchase a DROID RAZR will need to subscribe to a Verizon Wireless Nationwide Talk plan beginning at $39.99 monthly access and a smartphone data package starting at $30 monthly access for 2 GB of data. For more information on Verizon Wireless products and services, visit a Verizon Wireless Communications Store, call 1-800-2 JOIN IN or go to www.verizonwireless.com.

The DROID RAZR™ by Motorola in Black is now available online at www.verizonwireless.com for $199.99 with a new two-year customer agreement. Equipped with 16 GB on-board memory, the DROID RAZR is 7.1 mm thin, made with KEVLAR® fiber for strength and Corning® Gorilla® Glass for scratch resistance. DROID RAZR customers can expect to rip through the Web at blazing speeds with a dual-core 1.2 GHz processor and Verizon Wireless 4G LTE. Verizon Wireless leads the way in 4G with the fastest and most reliable 4G network in the United States, covering more than 200 million people in 190 markets.

Additional features:

Powered by Android™ 2.3.5 Gingerbread, upgradable to Android™ 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich
8-megapixel rear-facing camera with 1080p HD video capture and image stabilization technology for crisp and clear videos
Front-facing HD camera for video chat over 4G LTE, 3G or Wi-Fi
4G LTE Mobile Hotspot capable – customers can share 4G LTE speed with up to eight Wi-Fi-enabled devices
Remote wipe, pin lock and government-grade encryption for email, calendar and contacts, as well as voice and video chat conferencing
16 GB on-board memory
microSD™ card slot with support for up to 32 GB memory card
The DROID RAZR in White and Purple will be also available for $199.99 in Verizon Wireless Communications Stores and online at www.verizonwireless.com on Jan. 23.

Customers that purchase a DROID RAZR will need to subscribe to a Verizon Wireless Nationwide Talk plan beginning at $39.99 monthly access and a smartphone data package starting at $30 monthly access for 2 GB of data. For more information on Verizon Wireless products and services, visit a Verizon Wireless Communications Store, call 1-800-2 JOIN IN or go to www.verizonwireless.com

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My time at Yahoo!, from its founding to the present, has encompassed some of the most exciting and rewarding experiences of my life. However, the time has come for me to pursue other interests outside of Yahoo! As I leave the company I co-founded nearly 17 years ago, I am enthusiastic about the appointment of Scott Thompson as Chief Executive Officer and his ability, along with the entire Yahoo! leadership team, to guide Yahoo! into an exciting and successful future.

Here is the full press release from Yahoo announcing Jerry Yang’s resignation.

SUNNYVALE, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO), the premier digital media company, today announced that Jerry Yang has resigned from its Board of Directors and all other positions with the company, effective today. In addition, Yang resigned from the Boards of Yahoo Japan Corporation and Alibaba Group Holding Limited, effective today.

In a letter to the Yahoo! Board Chairman Roy Bostock, Yang wrote:

“My time at Yahoo!, from its founding to the present, has encompassed some of the most exciting and rewarding experiences of my life. However, the time has come for me to pursue other interests outside of Yahoo! As I leave the company I co-founded nearly 17 years ago, I am enthusiastic about the appointment of Scott Thompson as Chief Executive Officer and his ability, along with the entire Yahoo! leadership team, to guide Yahoo! into an exciting and successful future.”

Yang co-founded Yahoo! Inc. in 1995 with David Filo and served as a member of the Board of Directors since March 1995 and as Chief Executive Officer from June 2007 to January 2009. The Company went public in 1996.

“Jerry Yang is a visionary and a pioneer, who has contributed enormously to Yahoo! during his many years of service,” said Roy Bostock, Chairman of the Yahoo! Board. “It has been a pleasure to work with Jerry. His unique strategic insights have been invaluable. He has always remained focused on the best interests of Yahoo!’s stakeholders, including shareholders, employees and more than 700 million users. And while I and the entire Board respect his decision, we will miss his remarkable perspective, vision and wise counsel. On behalf of the Board, we thank Jerry and wish him all the very best in his future endeavors.”

Bostock concluded, “We appreciate Jerry’s comments and share his enthusiasm for the company’s prospects. With Scott Thompson leading an outstanding team of Yahoos to deliver innovative products and an engaging customer experience, Yahoo!’s future is bright.”

“I am grateful for the warm welcome and support Jerry provided me during my early days here,” said Scott Thompson, Yahoo!’s Chief Executive Officer. “Jerry leaves behind a legacy of innovation and customer focus for this iconic brand, having shaped our culture by fostering a spirit of innovation that began 17 years ago and continues to grow even stronger today. Jerry has great confidence in the future of Yahoo!, and I share his confidence in the enormous potential of Yahoo! in the days ahead.”

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Xperia S will be available for sale globally from early 2012. Xperia ion will be available exclusively in the U.S. from AT&T in the second quarter 2012. Xperia NX and Xperia acro HD will be available in Japan from this spring.

Announcing the new Xperia smartphones, Bert Nordberg, CEO for Sony Ericsson said that

CES marks an important milestone for both Sony Ericsson and Sony with the introduction of the first smartphones from Sony. As the market continues to evolve into a world where we consume content and entertainment across multiple screens, the Xperia portfolio will deliver a mobile experience that is an important cornerstone of Sony’s strategy to provide seamless connectivity and networked entertainment across smartphones, TV, laptops and tablets.

In addition to Xperia smartphones, Sony Ericsson also unveiled a number of gadgets to accessorize Android smartphones, including Xperia Smart Tags for improved NFC experience, Bluetooth Wireless Headset pro, and a SmartDock for Xperia ion.

Related posts:

1. Sony Ericsson Launches Experia arc S
2. AT&T and Sony Introduces Xperia X10
3. Sony Unveils Sony Internet TV – the First Google TV
4. Sony Pictures Hacked and A Million Accounts Compromised
5. Skype Video Calls for Android is Here

iPhone is a revolutionary and magical product that is literally five years ahead of any other mobile phone. We are all born with the ultimate pointing device—our fingers—and iPhone uses them to create the most revolutionary user interface since the mouse.

Apple got everything right with respect to the first iPhone’s specs and its usability, except for the whopping prize and undermining the power of externally developed apps. During the launch Apple was selling the 4GB iPhone for $499 (US) and an 8GB model for $599. And Apple allowed no third party apps. However, Apple was quick enough to realize its mistake by reducing iPhone’s prize by $200 in September 2007 and allowed developers to make iPhone apps in Apple’s terms a year later.

Relive the magic moment of Apple’s iPhone announcement made on Jan. 9 here from the original press release.

iPhone is a revolutionary new mobile phone that allows users to make calls by simply pointing at a name or number. iPhone syncs all of your contacts from your PC, Mac® or Internet service such as Yahoo!, so that you always have your full list of up-to-date contacts with you. In addition, you can easily construct a favorites list for your most frequently made calls, and easily merge calls together to create conference calls.

iPhone’s pioneering Visual Voicemail, an industry first, lets users look at a listing of their voicemails, decide which messages to listen to, then go directly to those messages without listening to the prior messages. Just like email, iPhone’s Visual Voicemail enables users to immediately randomly access those messages that interest them most.

iPhone includes an SMS application with a full QWERTY soft keyboard to easily send and receive SMS messages in multiple sessions. When users need to type, iPhone presents them with an elegant touch keyboard which is predictive to prevent and correct mistakes, making it much easier and more efficient to use than the small plastic keyboards on many smartphones. iPhone also includes a calendar application that allows calendars to be automatically synced with your PC or Mac.

iPhone features a 2 megapixel camera and a photo management application that is far beyond anything on a phone today. Users can browse their photo library, which can be easily synced from their PC or Mac, with just a flick of a finger and easily choose a photo for their wallpaper or to include in an email.

iPhone is a quad-band GSM phone which also features EDGE and Wi-Fi wireless technologies for data networking. Apple has chosen Cingular, the best and most popular carrier in the US with over 58 million subscribers, to be Apple’s exclusive carrier partner for iPhone in the US.

iPhone is a Widescreen iPod
iPhone is a widescreen iPod with touch controls that lets music lovers “touch” their music by easily scrolling through entire lists of songs, artists, albums and playlists with just a flick of a finger. Album artwork is stunningly presented on iPhone’s large and vibrant display.

iPhone also features Cover Flow, Apple’s amazing way to browse your music library by album cover artwork, for the first time on an iPod. When navigating your music library on iPhone, you are automatically switched into Cover Flow by simply rotating iPhone into its landscape position.

iPhone’s stunning 3.5-inch widescreen display offers the ultimate way to watch TV shows and movies on a pocketable device, with touch controls for play-pause, chapter forward-backward and volume. iPhone plays the same videos purchased from the online iTunes® Store that users enjoy watching on their computers and iPods, and will soon enjoy watching on their widescreen televisions using the new Apple TV™. The iTunes Store now offers over 350 television shows, over 250 feature films and over 5,000 music videos.

iPhone lets users enjoy all their iPod content, including music, audiobooks, audio podcasts, video podcasts, music videos, television shows and movies. iPhone syncs content from a user’s iTunes library on their PC or Mac, and can play any music or video content they have purchased from the online iTunes store.

iPhone is a Breakthrough Internet Communications Device
iPhone features a rich HTML email client which fetches your email in the background from most POP3 or IMAP mail services and displays photos and graphics right along with the text. iPhone is fully multi-tasking, so you can be reading a web page while downloading your email in the background.

Yahoo! Mail, the world’s largest email service with over 250 million users, is offering a new free “push” IMAP email service to all iPhone users that automatically pushes new email to a user’s iPhone, and can be set up by simply entering your Yahoo! name and password. iPhone will also work with most industry standard IMAP and POP based email services, such as Microsoft Exchange, Apple .Mac Mail, AOL Mail, Google Gmail and most ISP mail services.

iPhone also features the most advanced and fun-to-use web browser on a portable device with a version of its award-winning Safari™ web browser for iPhone. Users can see any web page the way it was designed to be seen, and then easily zoom in to expand any section by simply tapping on iPhone’s multi-touch display with their finger. Users can surf the web from just about anywhere over Wi-Fi or EDGE, and can automatically sync their bookmarks from their PC or Mac. iPhone’s Safari web browser also includes built-in Google Search and Yahoo! Search so users can instantly search for information on their iPhone just like they do on their computer.

iPhone also includes Google Maps, featuring Google’s groundbreaking maps service and iPhone’s amazing maps application, offering the best maps experience by far on any pocket device. Users can view maps, satellite images, traffic information and get directions, all from iPhone’s remarkable and easy-to-use touch interface.

iPhone’s Advanced Sensors
iPhone employs advanced built-in sensors—an accelerometer, a proximity sensor and an ambient light sensor—that automatically enhance the user experience and extend battery life. iPhone’s built-in accelerometer detects when the user has rotated the device from portrait to landscape, then automatically changes the contents of the display accordingly, with users immediately seeing the entire width of a web page, or a photo in its proper landscape aspect ratio.

iPhone’s built-in proximity sensor detects when you lift iPhone to your ear and immediately turns off the display to save power and prevent inadvertent touches until iPhone is moved away. iPhone’s built-in ambient light sensor automatically adjusts the display’s brightness to the appropriate level for the current ambient light, thereby enhancing the user experience and saving power at the same time.

Pricing & Availability
iPhone will be available in the US in June 2007, Europe in late 2007, and Asia in 2008, in a 4GB model for $499 (US) and an 8GB model for $599 (US), and will work with either a PC or Mac. iPhone will be sold in the US through Apple’s retail and online stores, and through Cingular’s retail and online stores. Several iPhone accessories will also be available in June, including Apple’s new remarkably compact Bluetooth headset.

iPhone includes support for quad-band GSM, EDGE, 802.11b/g Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.0 EDR wireless technologies.

iPhone requires a Mac with a USB 2.0 port, Mac OS® X v10.4.8 or later and iTunes 7; or a Windows PC with a USB 2.0 port and Windows 2000 (Service Pack 4), Windows XP Home or Professional (Service Pack 2). Internet access is required and a broadband connection is recommended. Apple and Cingular will announce service plans for iPhone before it begins shipping in June.

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Hackers Cup has five rounds of programming challenges and the winner who hacks through the challenges get to be be World champion and win $5000. Runners up get $2000 and $1000 for the coming seond and third places. And the players ranking 4th to 25th get $100

The first three rounds will be conducted online throughout this month and the finals will be at Facebook’s headquarters in California. The top 25 competitors from the online rounds will fly to Menlo Park, California, to compete in the final two rounds on March 17, 2012. Here is the complete details on the three online rounds.

The competition commences with a 72-hour Qualification Round on January 20, 2012 at 4:00 PM PT and ends on January 22, 2012 at 4:00 PM PT. All registered competitors will be presented with three problems. Every competitor who correctly solves at least one problem will advance to Online Round 1.

Online Round 1 will last 24 hours from January 28, 2012 at 10:00 AM PT and ends on January 29, 2012 at 10:00 AM PT. The top 500 competitors will advance to Online Round 2.

Online Round 2 will last three hours from February 4, 2012 at 1:00 PM PT and end February 4, 2012 at 4:00 PM PT. The 500 competitors will have three hours to solve the presented problem sets. The top-scoring 100 participants from Online Round 2 will receive an official Hacker Cup t-shirt. The top-scoring 100 competitors from Online Round 2 will be notified via email that they have advanced to Online Round 3.

Online Round 3 will last three hours from February 11, 2012 at 1:00 PM PT and end February 11, 2012 at 4:00 PM PT. The 100 competitors will have three hours to solve the presented problem sets. The top-scoring 25 competitors from Online Round 3 will be notified via email that they have advanced to the final round at Facebook.

For the hacker in you, who wants to get started and familiarized with the Hackers Cup competition, one can check the problems from last year’s qualification round here.

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Just a glance at the title of the patents suggest that the focus area of the acquisitions is in wireless, mobile, and search. With numerous patent trouble over Android, Google has been patent hungry in the year 2011.

And this is not the first time Google has bought IBM’s patents. Google bought over 1000 patents from IBM earlier in 2011 and the patent transfer news was first published by SEO By Sea from the updates at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) patent assignment database.

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