Android OS Now World?s Leading Smartphone Platform

Looks like another big milestone for Google?s signature smartphone operating system. Android-based smartphone shipments reached 33.3 million worldwide �in the fourth quarter of 2010, now making Android the world?s leading smartphone platform.

In hitting the number one spot, Android has knocked out Nokia?s Symbian platform, which for years has been the leader in global smartphone shipments. Symbian now clocks in at second place with 31 million units shipped worldwide in 2010, according to the report released by research firm Canalys. Android?s sales rocketed up from just 4.7 million units shipped over the same period in 2009.

In the United States alone, Android OS-based phones now account for over half of consumer smartphone purchases, according to a report released by NPD Group.

?The US landscape will shift dramatically this coming year, as a result of the Verizon-Apple agreement,? Canalys Analyst Tim Shepherd said in a statement. ?Verizon will move its focus away from the Droid range, but the overall market impact will mean less carrier-exclusive deals, while increasing the AT&T opportunity for Android vendors, such as HTC, Motorola and Samsung.?

2010 was a big year for smartphones. The global market exploded with smartphone shipments totaling 101.2 million units over 2010, almost double that of 2009. Android?s growth has been fast and furious, having launched only in late 2008 and already besting the long-established Nokia and RIM platforms. Samsung recently boasted of 10 million Galaxy S handset sales since its June debut.

With 2011 promising new smartphone technologies such as dual-core processors and Near-Field Communications, and with many of those technologies showing up on Android phones, this could be a very good year for Google. However, the coming of the iPhone 4 to Verizon might take some wind out of Android?s sails, as Verizon?s Droid and Droid Pro have been perennial bestsellers for the platform.

Rounding out the top five sales performers for 2010 were Apple?s iOS-running iPhone, which came in third with 16.2 million, and RIM?s BlackBerry OS at fourth place with 14.6 million. With its October 11 launch coming too late in the quarter to get a jump on the holiday sales rush, Microsoft?s Windows Phone 7 shipped 3.1 million units.

?Windows Phone 7 entered the epicenter of competition between iOS and Android at AT&T,? NPD Group?s Ross Rubin said in a statement.

See Canalys? table below for info on 2010 smartphone sales.

Photo by Charlie Sorrel/Wired.com

See Also:

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Screen shots reportedly show official Gingerbread build on the Droid X

We've got no doubt that Verizon and Motorola are working on bringing Gingerbread to the Droid X. We said as much in our predictions of which phones will get Android 2.3 upgrades. And so it's little surprise that we're starting to see (reportedly) official builds leak out. And for all intents and purposes, it looks like how we'd expect Gingerbread to look on the DX. Real question, of course, is when we might actually see an update drop. Check out the full annoying animated GIF after the break, if you dare. [My�Droid World via Android Central Forums]

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Use a virtual private server to BitTorrent faster and more efficiently

This week's series of tips is all about downloading files via BitTorrent. We'll highlight ways in which to torrent more efficiently, obtain higher download speeds, and generally make the whole process easier. For more tech tips, check our Tips index.

In almost every case, your download speed on a torrent is dictated by your upload speed. If you manage to download a few chunks, and then upload those at high speed, you will very soon find your pipe very full indeed.

Now, if you're lucky enough to have a juicy upload connection at home (a few megabits), you probably have no problem filling your entire downstream bandwidth. If you're stuck with a weak DSL connection, however, a virtual private server (VPS), or 'seedbox', is what you need.

A VPS [Google search link] can cost as little as a few dollars a month, and for that you get access to 100Mbps both upstream and down. 350 megabyte torrents will complete in just a few seconds, and in general you'll get more bandwidth than you'll ever need (100GB or more). Once your torrents are complete on your VPS, you can download to your home computer at full speed. This also leaves your home's upstream bandwidth free for other uses, like surfing the Web!

Most VPSes run Linux, though, so you will need to learn how to use a console torrent client like rTorrent -- but that's tomorrow's tip!

Tags: bittorrent, dedicated-server, download, p2p, seedbox, tips, torrent, torrenting, vds, vps, web

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Android OS Now World?s Leading Smartphone Platform

Looks like another big milestone for Google?s signature smartphone operating system. Android-based smartphone shipments reached 33.3 million worldwide �in the fourth quarter of 2010, now making Android the world?s leading smartphone platform.

In hitting the number one spot, Android has knocked out Nokia?s Symbian platform, which for years has been the leader in global smartphone shipments. Symbian now clocks in at second place with 31 million units shipped worldwide in 2010, according to the report released by research firm Canalys. Android?s sales rocketed up from just 4.7 million units shipped over the same period in 2009.

In the United States alone, Android OS-based phones now account for over half of consumer smartphone purchases, according to a report released by NPD Group.

?The US landscape will shift dramatically this coming year, as a result of the Verizon-Apple agreement,? Canalys Analyst Tim Shepherd said in a statement. ?Verizon will move its focus away from the Droid range, but the overall market impact will mean less carrier-exclusive deals, while increasing the AT&T opportunity for Android vendors, such as HTC, Motorola and Samsung.?

2010 was a big year for smartphones. The global market exploded with smartphone shipments totaling 101.2 million units over 2010, almost double that of 2009. Android?s growth has been fast and furious, having launched only in late 2008 and already besting the long-established Nokia and RIM platforms. Samsung recently boasted of 10 million Galaxy S handset sales since its June debut.

With 2011 promising new smartphone technologies such as dual-core processors and Near-Field Communications, and with many of those technologies showing up on Android phones, this could be a very good year for Google. However, the coming of the iPhone 4 to Verizon might take some wind out of Android?s sails, as Verizon?s Droid and Droid Pro have been perennial bestsellers for the platform.

Rounding out the top five sales performers for 2010 were Apple?s iOS-running iPhone, which came in third with 16.2 million, and RIM?s BlackBerry OS at fourth place with 14.6 million. With its October 11 launch coming too late in the quarter to get a jump on the holiday sales rush, Microsoft?s Windows Phone 7 shipped 3.1 million units.

?Windows Phone 7 entered the epicenter of competition between iOS and Android at AT&T,? NPD Group?s Ross Rubin said in a statement.

See Canalys? table below for info on 2010 smartphone sales.

Photo by Charlie Sorrel/Wired.com

See Also:

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Turn Your iPhone Into a Fake Windows Phone 7 With This Hack

Maybe Windows Phone 7 can gain some presence with the help of the iPhone?s hacker community.

Recently released as a public beta, a new hack transforms the interface of the iPhone to mimic the main screen of Windows Phone 7.

So gone will be the springboard UI we?ve all grown accustomed to on the iPhone and Android OS, and in its stead will be the tile-based interface of Windows Phone 7.

Of course, the iPhone theme doesn?t work exactly the same as the real thing. The authentic Windows Phone 7 uses tiles to represent ?Hubs? containing the main experiences of the phone. So for example, the photo hub has your camera, and after you snap a photo it brings up another feature to share the photo on a social-working site or e-mail the pic. Microsoft calls these ?threaded? experiences.

The iPhone hack doesn?t replicate the threaded Hub functionality of Windows Phone 7. It�just repurposes your individual apps into Windows Phone 7-like tiles and mimics the process of adding or removing these tiles. Check out the video below for a demo.

Windows Phone 7 offers a fresh and brand-new UI compared to competing smartphones, but that hasn?t been enough to win over a large number of customers yet. Microsoft has been cagey about initial Windows Phone �7 handset sales numbers, but according to a new report by NPD, the OS is off to a slow start. Windows Phone 7 debuted with 2 percent of the smartphone OS marketshare, which is lower lower than the debuts of WebOS and Android, according to NPD.

So maybe you?ll more likely see an iPhone running this fake Windows Phone 7 theme as opposed to the real thing.

It?s a neat theme, and if you?re tired of the iOS UI but don?t want to ditch the iPhone just yet, this will be a fun hack to tinker with. Visit the ModMyi forum for a quick tutorial on installing. Jailbreaking is required.

From Gizmodo

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Dell Streak 7 coming Feb. 2 for $200 on contract, $450 off

�

T-Mobile has just announced that the Tegra 2-powered Dell Streak 7 will be launching on their network Feb. 2 with Android 2.2 Froyo. Pricing with a new two year contract will be just $199.99 (after $50 mail in rebate). Plus, according to Engadget, users looking to avoid a new monthly bill can pick up an unsubsidized model for $449.99. Considering the price for an unlocked Galaxy Tab is around $600, the Streak 7 could be a better option for those looking to jump into the tablet world without throwing down a ton of cash. [Twitter,�T-Mobile, Engadget]

�

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Canalys: Android overtakes Symbian as world's best-selling smartphone platform in Q4 2010

Google's Android becomes the world's leading smart phone platform
- Canalys reveals smart phone market exceeded 100 million units in Q4 2010

Palo Alto, Singapore and Reading (UK) ? Monday, 31 January 2011
For immediate release

Canalys today published its final Q4 2010 global country-level smart phone market data, which revealed that Google's Android has become the leading platform. Shipments of Android-based smart phones reached 32.9 million, while devices running Nokia's Symbian platform trailed slightly at 31.0 million worldwide. But Nokia did retain its position as the leading global smart phone vendor, with a share of 28%. The fourth quarter also saw the worldwide smart phone market continue to soar, with shipments of 101.2 million units representing year-on-year growth of 89%. The final quarter took shipments for the year to fractionally below 300 million units, with an annual growth rate of 80% over 2009 (see table below).

In Q4 2010, volumes of Google OS-based smart phones (Android, OMS and Tapas) were again boosted by strong performances from a number of vendors, notably LG, Samsung, Acer and HTC, whose volumes across these platforms grew 4,127%, 1,474%, 709% and 371% respectively year-on-year. HTC and Samsung together accounted for nearly 45% of Google OS-based handset shipments.

'2010 has been a fantastic year for the smart phone market. After a difficult 2009, the speed with which the market has recovered has required real commitment and innovation from vendors and they have risen to the challenge,' said Canalys VP and Principal Analyst Chris Jones. 'But vendors cannot afford to be complacent. 2011 is set to be a highly competitive year with vendors looking to use new technology, such as dual-core processors, NFC and 3D displays, to differentiate their products and maintain value.'

At a regional level, Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) remained the largest market, with shipments totalling 38.8 million and a year-on-year growth rate of 90%. Nokia continued to lead in EMEA and Asia Pacific, but in 2010 it was overtaken by RIM in Latin America, which shipped over a million more units than Nokia in Q4 2010. The vendor was particularly helped by the popularity of its mid-range smart phones, such as its Curve family of devices.

The United States continued its reign as the largest country market in terms of shipments, at more than double the size of the Chinese smart phone market. RIM recaptured first place from Apple, as the latter experienced its usual US seasonal dip, and RIM benefited from the first full quarter of shipments for the BlackBerry Torch. HTC successfully maintained its third-place ranking in the US for the third consecutive quarter, driven by its speed to market with the latest Android updates and new Windows Phone 7 devices.

'The US landscape will shift dramatically this coming year, as a result of the Verizon-Apple agreement,' said Canalys Analyst Tim Shepherd. 'Verizon will move its focus away from the Droid range, but the overall market impact will mean less carrier-exclusive deals, while increasing the AT&T opportunity for Android vendors, such as HTC, Motorola and Samsung.' Android was by far the largest smart phone platform in the US market in Q4 2010, with shipments of 12.1 million units ? nearly three times those of RIM's BlackBerry devices. Windows Phone 7 devices appeared too late in the quarter to take full advantage of holiday season purchasing. As a result, Microsoft lost share in the United States, from 8% in Q4 2009 to 5% in Q4 2010.

Analysis of the published country-level data shows that, around the world, the strength of smart phone performances remained diverse. In South Korea, for example, shipments grew from under 700,000 units in Q4 2009 to just under 3.4 million units in Q4 2010, making the country a top 10 market. In Japan, Android shipments have taken off over the past year, with nearly 1.4 million units shipping from local as well as international vendors, such as HTC. More Japanese vendors have also announced plans to launch Android devices in 2011, such as NEC Casio and Panasonic. Under pressure from Huawei and Samsung in particular, Nokia's share in China slipped to 56%, down from 76% a year ago, despite growing its volume in the country by over 70% in the same period. Albeit from a smaller base, the Chinese market grew 134% year-on-year, notably faster than the US market, which grew at 64% in the quarter.

Canalys analysts in Asia Pacific, the Americas and EMEA are available for press interviews on topics related to mobile devices and the growing ecosystem for mobile applications and services. There will also be a significant Canalys analyst presence at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona from 14 to 17 February. To arrange an interview, please send a request to press@canalys.com. Photos and bios of analysts are available from the Canalys web site.

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Silhouetter Turns Your Photos into iPod Ads

Oddly, the Silhouetter app for the iPad and iPhone doesn?t mention its ?inspiration? anywhere in its description. But then, it doesn?t really need to, so obvious is the ?homage? to the iconic iPod ads.

That said, the app is actually pretty cool in a single-serve kind of way. You choose a photo from your camera-roll, pinch to crop and then pick one of nine juicy colors. Wait for a second or ten while the app cranks away and works out which parts of the picture need to be colored and then you can tweak things. Standard mode gives two sliders: one to fade the effect between a full-on silhouette and the original image, the other adjusts the contrast.

Opt for ?expert? mode and you can tweak highlights, mid-tones and shadows separately before moving into the basic mode screen to finish things off. Images can be saved or sent to the usual places: Facebook, Flickr and Twitter.

The app has some quirks in action. It seems to have a mind of its own when it comes to cropping, zooming in from your own chosen setting (although your settings do stick when the image is output). And when you?re done with an image, you get bumped back to the instructions screen, which you surely don?t need to read every single time you choose an image. Finally, there is a lag every time you move a slider, but that?s likely to be processor and memory limitations.

It?s a fun, single purpose photo app, and it does what it says it does. I doubt Apple will be using this for iPod ads in the future, but who cares? Silhouetter costs a buck. Surely a half hour of entertainment is worth that?

Silhouetter app [iTunes. Thanks, Jeshua!]

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Inhabitat's Week in Green: the power plant you can ski, and NASA's orbiting Nanosail-D

Each week our friends at Inhabitat recap the week's most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us -- it's the Week in Green.

This week we saw new horizons dawn for green transportation as NASA's Nanosail-D became the first solar sail spacecraft to orbit the earth and President Obama issued a call for one million electric vehicles in his State of the Union Address. We also test drove the recently released electric Mini Cooper and took a look at several transportation breakthroughs that could clean up car emissions - researchers have developed an air pollution-fighting road treatment and Cella Energy claims to have created an emission free gas that costs $1.50 per gallon.

In other news, this week Qatar showcased designs for 9 sustainable stadiums for the 2022 World Cup and BIG unveiled plans for a plant-wrapped waste to power plant that doubles as a ski slope. Super cities are on the rise in Asia as China announced plans to construct a mega-city the size of Switzerland and SOM unveiled a masterplan for a cutting-edge green tech city for Hanoi. On the other hand, Dubai's architecture of excess is fading fast as a report revealed that the emirate's world-shaped archipelago of islands is sinking into the sea.

We also showcased the latest in portable tech as we brought you a brilliant Fire Department iPhone app that stands to save lives, and we rounded up our five favorite phone-charging green gadgets. And if you're looking for a case to carry it all in, check out these chic quilted iPad bags - just the thing to keep your kit cozy and protected during this month's blizzards.

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CorelDRAW tutorial: Trace, vectorize and modify a simple logo (video)

This is the second CorelDRAW tutorial in a series of four. Last week we looked at how to make a Polaroid-like image, and this week I'd like to show you how to vectorize a simple logo. I use the Android logo in the video, but you can do this with pretty much any logo other simple graphic.

There are many reasons why you might like to vectorize an existing logo. Perhaps you need to modify it, integrate it into a larger design, or generate a high-res printout. As you can see in the video, there's not much you can do with the low-res Android logo Google gives you. If your bitmap logo is large enough, you might be able to use CorelDRAW's auto-trace capabilities and simply generate a good vector outline of it. However, since the bitmap I selected was so small (and simple), I opted to use a completely manual tracing method ? I just recreated the Android logo using a few simple shapes.

Rather than wax poetic about what the video contains, if you're curious to see the Android logo dissected and recreated in full vector glory, just watch the video after the jump.

Tags: apps, corel, coreldraw, graphics, handson, vector, video

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Barnes & Noble Releases Firmware Upgrade For NOOKcolor

Barnes & Noble has released a small, bug significant firmware upgrade for the NOOKcolor. The new firmware fixes some bugs and adds a few new features including the ability to pinch-and-zoom from the Web browser. On its Website, Barnes & Noble provided a brief description for the update:

Barnes & Noble is providing a minor update to NOOKcolor firmware that will improve NOOKcolor's Wi-Fi connectivity; improve Home and Shop performance; add the ability to pinch and zoom in browser; enhance the reading experience for magazines and children's books; add a text banner to easily identify NOOK kids Read To Me books; and other general bug fixes and performance improvements. The software update is available immediately via a manual download here and will also be delivered via an automatic download for devices connected to Wi-Fi, over the next few days.

The NOOKcolor Ver1.1.0 update also includes the ability to access NOOKcolor related information and support tips on a new default browser home page and the ability to reduce mistyped passwords with a "show password" option during registration and Wi-Fi set up.

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ITU Finds 2 Billion Internet Users Worldwide, 5 Billion Mobile Subscriptions

Following a weekend where much of Egypt had no Internet service at all, we're now seeing data that proves just how important the world wide web is to the society we now live in. Just decades ago, there was no worldwide inter-connectivity. But the world has become a far smaller place with the advent of the Internet, and the UN's telecommunications agency, Hamadoun Toure, has just produced a staggering number to prove that.

The amount of users worldwide that now use the Internet has ballooned to two billion. Yes, billion, with a capital B. To put things in perspective, it's important to realize that there were only 500 million mobile users globally and 250 million Internet users globally in the year 2000. In just over a decade, both of those numbers have simply exploded. Today, a full five billion people have cellphone subscriptions, proving that mobile use is actually growing faster than Internet use. But it's arguably easier to get a low-end phone into the hands of individuals in developing countries compared to a fixed line connection and a PC.

To say that the Internet has changed the world as we know it is an understatement. It most definitely has, and it will continue to. Just look at Facebook. Today, it's possible to keep tabs on thousands of friends without ever having to call them. All possible because of widespread Internet use. Estimates now say that 2.08 billion will be online by the end of the year, with 5.28 billion cellphone subscriptions to occur by the end of 2010.

This is all the more impressive when you think about the population of the world. Earth is only home to 6.8 billion people. That means that today, in 2011, one in three humans surfs online. That's a staggering number. The Internet didn't even exist 50 years ago, and in just that short amount of time, nearly a third of the world -- regardless of race, language, nationality or social status -- has access. Even wilder, 57% of Internet users actually reside in "developing countries."

With this monumental explosion in Internet and mobile use, something obviously has to give. That "something" is fixed landline telephones. For the fourth year in a row, fixed line subscriptions fell, with just under 1.2 billion active lines today. Mobile phones haven't been around long, and already there are 5 billion mobile lines compared to 1.2 billion landlines. Amazing stuff. If you're wondering where exactly people are surfing, the ITU found that the highest density resides in Europe, with the Americas, former Soviet states and Arab nations following closely behind. Can you imagine where these numbers will be in just 10 years from now?

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Firefox 4 beta 10 now available, fixes 500 bugs and nears completion

Just a few days after the release of beta 9, there is a new build to sink your teeth into. Beta 10 has no new features -- it simply squashes about 500 bugs, thus improving stability across Windows, Mac and Linux platforms. The fix that halved Firefox's start-up time sadly didn't make it into the new beta build.

If all goes to plan, beta 11 should be released in the next week, with the first release candidate rolling out in early- or mid-February. Firefox 4 final may actually launch before March!

Again, if you haven't played with Firefox 4 yet, now's the time to give it a go. We even have a guide that walks you through each of Firefox 4's new features.

Tags: bugs, ff4b10, firefox, firefox 4, Firefox4, stability

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The Colour Clock, a beautiful marriage of HEX and time

With apologies to the linguistic sensitivities of any Americans that may be reading, feast your eyes upon The Colour Clock.

Whether you're looking for colorific inspiration for a website you're designing, or merely looking for an attractive and easy to read clock, The Colour Clock is for you. By default you get the current time, but you can click a button to show the current HEX value of the background color -- and yes, the HEX value ticks up, just like the clock. As the seconds pass, the background color changes, and slowly but surely -- bit by bit [get it?] -- you're exposed to delicious new shades.

Mac OS X users even get downloadable screensavers! Windows users will have to settle for pinning the tab in their browser, or dragging it to a second display.

Tags: clock, color, developer, hex, html, the colour clock, TheColourClock, time, web, web development, WebDevelopment, website design, WebsiteDesign

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ITU Finds 2 Billion Internet Users Worldwide, 5 Billion Mobile Subscriptions

Following a weekend where much of Egypt had no Internet service at all, we're now seeing data that proves just how important the world wide web is to the society we now live in. Just decades ago, there was no worldwide inter-connectivity. But the world has become a far smaller place with the advent of the Internet, and the UN's telecommunications agency, Hamadoun Toure, has just produced a staggering number to prove that.

The amount of users worldwide that now use the Internet has ballooned to two billion. Yes, billion, with a capital B. To put things in perspective, it's important to realize that there were only 500 million mobile users globally and 250 million Internet users globally in the year 2000. In just over a decade, both of those numbers have simply exploded. Today, a full five billion people have cellphone subscriptions, proving that mobile use is actually growing faster than Internet use. But it's arguably easier to get a low-end phone into the hands of individuals in developing countries compared to a fixed line connection and a PC.

To say that the Internet has changed the world as we know it is an understatement. It most definitely has, and it will continue to. Just look at Facebook. Today, it's possible to keep tabs on thousands of friends without ever having to call them. All possible because of widespread Internet use. Estimates now say that 2.08 billion will be online by the end of the year, with 5.28 billion cellphone subscriptions to occur by the end of 2010.

This is all the more impressive when you think about the population of the world. Earth is only home to 6.8 billion people. That means that today, in 2011, one in three humans surfs online. That's a staggering number. The Internet didn't even exist 50 years ago, and in just that short amount of time, nearly a third of the world -- regardless of race, language, nationality or social status -- has access. Even wilder, 57% of Internet users actually reside in "developing countries."

With this monumental explosion in Internet and mobile use, something obviously has to give. That "something" is fixed landline telephones. For the fourth year in a row, fixed line subscriptions fell, with just under 1.2 billion active lines today. Mobile phones haven't been around long, and already there are 5 billion mobile lines compared to 1.2 billion landlines. Amazing stuff. If you're wondering where exactly people are surfing, the ITU found that the highest density resides in Europe, with the Americas, former Soviet states and Arab nations following closely behind. Can you imagine where these numbers will be in just 10 years from now?

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Amazon Now Selling More Kindle Books Than Paperbacks

Times may have been tough for the corporate world in 2009, but things are definitely different now that it's 2011. A lot of companies are finishing up their 2010 earnings with Q4 announcements this week, with

having a particularly great outlook. The company managed to score their first $10 billion quarter (talking about sales), with a grand total of $12.95 billion in net sales, representing a 36% leap over Q4 2009.

Operating cash flow increased 6% to $3.50 billion for the trailing twelve months, compared with $3.29 billion for the trailing twelve months ended December 31, 2009. Free cash flow decreased 14% to $2.52 billion for the trailing twelve months, compared with $2.92 billion for the trailing twelve months ended December 31, 2009. Net income increased 8% to $416 million in the fourth quarter, or $0.91 per diluted share, compared with net income of $384 million, or $0.85 per diluted share, in fourth quarter 2009. That's the key aspect, and that means that Amazon's making some serious money.

So where did the Kindle fit into all of this, not to mention the Kindle bookstore? Both played a very important role, with company CEO Jeff Bezos confirming in the latest press release that "millions" of third-gen Kindles were sold in Q4 2010, a critical holiday period. Also,

books have now overtaken paperback books as the most popular format on Amazon.com. Since the beginning of the year, for every 100 paperback books Amazon has sold, the Company has sold 115 Kindle books. Additionally, during this same time period the Company has sold three times as many Kindle books as hardcover books. This is across Amazon.com?s entire U.S. book business and includes sales of books where there is no Kindle edition. Free Kindle books are excluded and if included would make the numbers even higher.

Those are fairly impressive numbers, and it makes clear that the e-reader has a real future. Tablets may be the hot topic, but the Kindle is still alive and well in the shadows.

�Amazon.com Announces Fourth Quarter Sales up 36% to $12.95 Billion

SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) today announced financial results for its fourth quarter ended December 31, 2010.

��� ?Thanks to our customers, we achieved two big milestones?

Operating cash flow increased 6% to $3.50 billion for the trailing twelve months, compared with $3.29 billion for the trailing twelve months ended December 31, 2009. Free cash flow decreased 14% to $2.52 billion for the trailing twelve months, compared with $2.92 billion for the trailing twelve months ended December 31, 2009.

Common shares outstanding plus shares underlying stock-based awards totaled 465 million on December 31, 2010, compared with 461 million a year ago.

Net sales increased 36% to $12.95 billion in the fourth quarter, compared with $9.52 billion in fourth quarter 2009. Excluding the $139 million unfavorable impact from year-over-year changes in foreign exchange rates throughout the quarter, net sales would have grown 37% compared with fourth quarter 2009.

Operating income was $474 million in the fourth quarter, compared with $476 million in fourth quarter 2009. The unfavorable impact from year-over-year changes in foreign exchange rates throughout the quarter on operating income was $18 million.

Net income increased 8% to $416 million in the fourth quarter, or $0.91 per diluted share, compared with net income of $384 million, or $0.85 per diluted share, in fourth quarter 2009.

?Thanks to our customers, we achieved two big milestones,? said Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com. ?We had our first $10 billion quarter, and after selling millions of third-generation Kindles with the new Pearl e-ink display during the quarter, Kindle books have now overtaken paperback books as the most popular format on Amazon.com. Last July we announced that Kindle books had passed hardcovers and predicted that Kindle would surpass paperbacks in the second quarter of this year, so this milestone has come even sooner than we expected ? and it?s on top of continued growth in paperback sales.?

Full Year 2010

Net sales increased 40% to $34.20 billion, compared with $24.51 billion in 2009. The unfavorable impact from year-over-year changes in foreign exchange rates throughout the year on net sales was $86 million.

Operating income increased 25% to $1.41 billion, compared with $1.13 billion in 2009. The unfavorable impact from year-over-year changes in foreign exchange rates throughout the year on operating income was $28 million. In 2009, operating income was negatively impacted by a $51 million legal settlement.

Net income increased 28% to $1.15 billion in 2010, or $2.53 per diluted share, compared with net income of $902 million, or $2.04 per diluted share, in 2009.

Highlights

��� * Amazon.com is now selling more Kindle books than paperback books. Since the beginning of the year, for every 100 paperback books Amazon has sold, the Company has sold 115 Kindle books. Additionally, during this same time period the Company has sold three times as many Kindle books as hardcover books. This is across Amazon.com?s entire U.S. book business and includes sales of books where there is no Kindle edition. Free Kindle books are excluded and if included would make the numbers even higher.
��� * The Company sold millions of third-generation Kindle devices with the new advanced paper-like Pearl e-ink display in the fourth quarter and the third-generation Kindle eclipsed ?Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows? as the bestselling product in Amazon?s history.
��� * The U.S. Kindle Store now has more than 810,000 books including New Releases and 107 of 112 New York Times Bestsellers. Over 670,000 of these books are $9.99 or less, including 74 New York Times Bestsellers. Millions of free, out-of-copyright, pre-1923 books are also available to read on Kindle.
��� * Amazon added to its growing list of ?Buy Once, Read Everywhere? Kindle apps, launching a Kindle app for Windows Phone 7. In addition, the Kindle for Android app was updated to enable users to buy, read and sync over 100 Kindle newspapers and magazines. All Kindle apps let customers ?Buy Once, Read Everywhere??on Kindle, Kindle 3G, Kindle DX, iPad, iPod touch, iPhone, Mac, PC, BlackBerry and Android-based devices. All Kindle apps are free and incorporate Amazon?s Whispersync technology, which allows readers to seamlessly switch between devices. With Kindle Worry-Free Archive, books purchased from the Kindle Store are automatically backed up online in the Kindle library on Amazon where they can be re-downloaded wirelessly for free, anytime.
��� * The Company announced Price Check for iPhone, a new price comparison app that provides shoppers an easy way to compare in-store prices with the low prices from Amazon.com and other online merchants. Shoppers can use the app to scan a barcode, snap a picture, or say or type a product name to instantly see online prices for that item. Over the Black Friday-Cyber Monday weekend, mobile shoppers used Price Check to look up prices over a million times. In December, shoppers used the app more than two million times to check prices.
��� * North America segment sales, representing the Company?s U.S. and Canadian sites, were $7.21 billion, up 45% from fourth quarter 2009.
��� * International segment sales, representing the Company?s U.K., German, Japanese, French, Chinese and Italian sites, were $5.74 billion, up 26% from fourth quarter 2009. Excluding the unfavorable impact from year-over-year changes in foreign exchange rates throughout the quarter, sales grew 29%.
��� * Worldwide Media sales grew 12% to $5.23 billion. Excluding the unfavorable impact from year-over-year changes in foreign exchange rates throughout the quarter, sales grew 13%.
��� * Worldwide Electronics & Other General Merchandise sales grew 60% to $7.39 billion. Excluding the unfavorable impact from year-over-year changes in foreign exchange rates throughout the quarter, sales grew 62%.
��� * The Company launched Amazon.it, an Italian-language website offering customers a vast selection of books, DVDs, video games, music and consumer electronics at everyday low prices. Amazon.it?s convenient services include Amazon Prime, the membership program with unlimited free guaranteed 2-3 day delivery at an annual fee of 9.99 Euros. The first product sold on Amazon.it was a Canon Pixma printer to a new Prime customer in Turino, Italy.
��� * Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced lowered usage pricing on existing Premium Support offerings by 50% and added two new support plans to meet the needs of developers and enterprises of all sizes and technical ability. In addition to the existing Silver and Gold support plans, AWS now offers a Bronze support plan for $49 per month and a Platinum support plan that provides 15 minute response times and dedicated Technical Account Managers.
��� * AWS achieved Level 1 Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliance, continuing its commitment to providing the security certifications developers and enterprises care about. Merchants and other service providers can now run their applications on AWS PCI-compliant technology infrastructure to store, process and transmit credit card information in the cloud.
��� * AWS launched Elastic Beanstalk, an easy way for developers to quickly deploy applications to AWS and manage applications in the AWS cloud. Elastic Beanstalk automatically scales up and down as needed so developers don?t need to worry about configuring their infrastructure requirements in AWS. Unlike existing application containers or ?platform as a service? offerings that force developers to accept infrastructure decisions pre-determined by the vendor, Elastic Beanstalk allows developers to ?open the hood? to tinker with the AWS resources powering their applications. AWS customers can now choose to have as much automation or as much control as they wish.

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How to change Android keyboards or input methods

This week's tips series is all about Android, highlighting some the operating system's built-in utilities, and better ways of getting stuff done. For other technology tips, check our Tips index.

When I first started using my Android devices, one of the most frustrating things I had to figure out was how to switch keyboards, or input methods. I don't just mean input languages, but switch to a completely different keyboard, such as Swype.

Well, it turns out it's a two-step process:

1) First you have to enable the keyboard (or "input method"). You do this by going to Settings > Language & keyboard and checking the box next to the keyboard's name. Android will make sure you know what you're doing, and once you confirm, it will enable the keyboard.

2) Next, go to any text field (for instance, start composing a new text message or email) and long-press the text-field. You will get a pop-up with all sorts of actions, one of which would say Input method. Press that, and you'll get the long list you can see in the screenshot. From here it's just a matter of tapping the name of the keyboard you want, and then merrily typing along.

Tags: ANDROID, APP SWITCHING, APPS, APPSWITCHING, IME, input method, InputMethod, keyboard, on screen keyboard, OnScreenKeyboard, soft keyboard, SoftKeyboard, TIPS

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Ejector Plug Makes British Sockets Pensioner-Friendly

This curious plug-ejecting power-socket has just won first prize in the The Future Perfect Company design competition. The brief: Come up with ?attractive and aspirational? designs that help people carry on as normal when they get older.

For most of the world, pulling out a plug is as simple as yanking a cord. Arthritis? Wrap the cord around your wrist before you pull. In England ? where the fear of electrocution is only matched by the fear of the gangs of teenagers that roam the streets like marauding post-apocalyptic biker-gangs (only without the bikes) ? things are more complex. Switches, interlocks and a three-pronged design with a side-exiting cable mean you need some strong fingers to unplug a plug.

Glenn Crombie?s winning design has an eject button. Press it and three prongs push the plug out and let it drop gently to the thick carpets that cover the floors of Britain. Never mind that frail fingers will have to press hard on a thin rod to make it work, or that when the plug is not in place there are three prongs sticking out to catch on skirts, slacks or any furniture you may wish to place in front of the sockets.

I guess the best thing to do would be to change UK plugs, but that?s about as likely as the country ditching the pound for the Euro, driving on the right or finally admitting that it is no longer in charge of a world-spanning empire.

Innovative push-out plug socket wins student design competition [The Future Perfect Company via Core77]

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How to change the screen time-out on Android

This week's tips series was all about Android, highlighting some the operating system's built-in utilities, and better ways of getting stuff done. For other technology tips, check our Tips index.

Earlier today, I was helping my brother set up his new Motorola Defy. While the phone itself was quite nice (and tough), the screen kept turning off after just a few seconds of idle time. It was starting to drive us crazy, but after quickly poking through the settings we fixed it. Here's how:

1) Go to Settings > Display

2) Tap Screen timeout

3) Tap the timeout value you wish to use

Of course there's a trade-off between convenience and battery life ? having the screen time out after two whole minutes can be nice, but your battery may not last very long. And while you're here, you can also easily adjust your display's brightness.

This tip wraps up this week's Tips series. What would you like to see next week? Let me know in the comments!

Tags: android, brightness, power, screen, time out, TimeOut, TIPS

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Hands-On With the iFusion iPhone-to-Landline Converter

Apple sought to reinvent the phone with the iPhone, and now a company is trying to reinvent the landline with an iPhone accessory.

Seriously. That?s the gist of the iFusion accessory, which consists of an iPhone power-charging dock and a Bluetooth receiver that pairs the device with a traditional telephone handset as well as a speakerphone. There?s also a USB port on back to connect the device straight to a PC or Mac for syncing the iPhone with iTunes.

The company said customers would enjoy the handset?s ergonomic design. However, unless you have miraculously good iPhone reception, I?m not sure why you?d get this.

I tried placing a call to my friend Heather with the iFusion. I heard her loud and clear when she picked up through the iFusion handset, but she hung up after she couldn?t hear a word I was saying (I think).

Showcased at Macworld Expo, the iFusion Smartstation iPhone dock costs $170. The accessory ships April 2011.

Photo: Brian X. Chen/Wired.com

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LG weather widget from the Optimus 2X system dump

Have you been looking for the sweet weather widget from the LG�Optimus 2X?� I know a lot of you have, and thanks to XDA member Sony_Ericsson_X10 we now have it -- almost.� He found that the weather-only portion of the Today Briefing widget inside the Optimus 2X system dump looked exactly like the widget we all want, and it works without any elfin magic.� To take it a step further, the widget has already been edited to remove the black background if that's how you like it, so be sure to try them both.� That's the edited version you see above.

Installing needs no magic either -- just download it and install, or use the Sideload Wonder Machine.� There is one caveat, however.� The widget will take one full screen unless you use a home replacement that allows for widget resizing.� We recommend Launcher Pro or ADW Launcher pretty equally, and both will resize it just fine.� Hit the source link for the downloads. [XDA-Developers via @macprv]

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Next PS3 update rumored to add 'Online Saving' for PlayStation Plus users

Say it with us, finally a PS3 firmware update that actually does something useful! We've grown so accustomed to Sony refreshing the software on its console just to spite jailbreakers that we almost started to believe that's all the word "update" entailed. But, here comes Kotaku with word that v3.6 of the PS3's firmware will come with a neat little addition: saving games to the cloud. This seems a very logical step toward delivering Sony's overall goal of giving users a holistic, integrated experience. Indeed, during the NGP presentation, guest speaker Hideo Kojima specifically referred to saving your PS3 game on the console and resuming it on the Next Generation Portable. "Online Saving," as Sony's reputed to be calling it, would be the conduit through which that can be realized, though it doesn't appear like it'll come for free. Kotaku's sources indicate it'll be part of the PlayStation Plus subscription, at least initially. Still, we like cloud storage, and if it means never having to see another hard drive again, we're all for it.

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