Some more information has emerged in the last few days that helps put Apple’s earnings in a slightly different perspective. The release of Microsoft’s quarterly report just a few days ahead of Apple’s allowed for some comparisons to be made, and the results are surprising. Whereas Apple generated $46.33 billion in revenue, Microsoft generated less than half of that – $20.9 billion. What’s remarkable, though, is that not only did Apple generated more revenue than Microsoft, the iPhone generated more revenue than Microsoft. That is, if the iPhone were a standalone business, completely separate from Apple, it would have made more money last quarter than Microsoft. The iPhone alone generated a revenue of $24.4 billion. That’s $3.5 billion more than Microsoft, and $2.47 billion more than the rest of Apple’s revenue.

The chart below, courtesy of Business Insider, gives a little bit of visual perspective:

Of course, that doesn’t quite make Apple king of the hill. Microsoft still has Apple beaten in terms of computer market share, just as Android maintains a solid lead in the mobile space. Nevertheless, it’s amazing to see that within 5 years of completely reinventing the smartphone market, it has parlayed that success into complete financial dominance of its biggest rival. Whether you’re an Apple fanboy or an Apple hater, you have to admit that that’s pretty impressive.

Windows 8 is going for a more visual approach to navigating their OS with the Metro style desktop. The Start button will still be there in theory, but as Extreme Tech reports, it’s going to now be a “hot corner.” To access the applications on the start screen, users will now flick their mouse to the left corner of the screen, or just touch it if they have a touch screen monitor.

What is Microsoft thinking, you ask. It’s a good question and one they have answered. They are saving space. They want to be able to fit one more app onto the Super Bar.

The confusing bit is that there’s no visual indication that a start screen exists so first-time users may not even be aware of its existence.

I’m all for simplifying things for the end user, but I’m going to stick with Windows 7 for now. The Metro style desktop is cool for the first few minutes until you realize that you want a computer that’s more than just a glorified media player.

Microsoft will release the Windows 8 Consumer Preview public beta in a few weeks time. That’ll be your chance to try out the new OS to see if it’s to your liking. The Start button is not likely coming back, but that’s just a small problem in the larger scheme of Microsoft trying to emulate the simplicity of Mac OSX and losing its identity in the process.

In remembrance of the Start button, here’s a video of the first Windows 95 ad that prominently featured the lovely Start button:

Pocket Now is claiming to have seen a video from Windows Phone manager Joe Belfiore that details the changes coming to Windows Phone 8.

Windows Phone 8 hardware may be scalable to a user’s needs and wants. Apollo, the codename for platform, will support multicore processors, multiple screen resolutions, and removable microSD card storage. It’s a move to compete with iPhone and Android devices.

What may be exciting to some users, Windows 8 devices will support near-field communication radio signals for wireless payments. It’s called “The Wallet Experience” and will be carrier-branded and controlled. There will be tap-to-share capabilities allowing content to be shared across desktops, laptops, tablets and phones.

The Windows 8 phone will apparently use a very similar OS to the desktop Windows 8 OS. This will allow developers to reuse code to make porting easy from desktop to phone. The company mentions the kernel, networking stacks, security and multimedia support as “areas of heavy overlap.”

Windows Phone 8 will get rid of integration of the desktop Zune client, instead favoring a new version of ActiveSync for their sync technologies.

The Xbox Companion app, which is already on Windows Phones, will see a new app on Windows 8 desktop that integrates the two devices. Skydrive allows users to sync their data on the cloud so they can have their entire music collection already available on a new phone without having to sync it to a desktop.

Microsoft expects 100,000 apps to be in the Marketplace by the time phone launches. The phone will have native code support, which will allow more powerful apps to be developed for the device as well as easy porting of iOS and Android apps to Windows phone.

Microsoft is also planning to integrate Skype naturally into Windows Phone 8 making Skype calls as natural as non-VoIP calls. Microsoft will provide a basic camera interface that can be upgraded with third-party apps.

Microsoft is innovating in data management with DataSmart. It will attempt to simplify the tracking of data usage. The phone will actively attempt to give Wi-Fi priority and make Bing Maps locate hotspots in a user’s vicinity.

The phone will use a proxy server to feed pages to Internet Explorer 10. This will compress Web pages to reduce the amount of data needed to view a Web site by 30 percent.

For businesses, Windows Phone 8 will add native BitLocker encryption – the same software found on the current Windows desktop OS.

There will also “line-of-business” applications that will allow businesses to deploy “proprietary, tailored software behind their company firewalls.”

What do you think of these supposed Windows Phone 8 changes? Are they enough to compete with the next generation of iPhone and Android devices? Let us know in the comments.

Amazon Web Services is designed to make cloud computing easier for a wide variety of businesses – whether large, small, or the U.S. Treasury Department (yes, really). The addition of the ability to run Windows Server applications represents a significant expansion of the program for users who want to have more flexibility in the kinds of applications and operating systems they run on their AWS accounts.

[Source: Amazon]

In order for Windows 8 to be legally installed on a computer with an ARM processor, that machine must have custom boot mode disabled. Custom boot mode allows users to add new operating system signatures to the system’s database, enabling them to install, for example, Linux-based systems on their machines. With custom boot disabled, that capability is taken away. In other words, Microsoft is demanding that every ARM-based computer that ships with Windows 8 must be locked down in such a way that competing operating systems can never be installed.

Microsoft’s argument is that the goal of this new requirement is to give users the best and most secure experience possible. it is difficult to see, however, how preventing users from installing non-Windows operating systems could be construed as a security measure. At any rate, the significantly smaller market share of ARM processors means that these requirements will not impact very many users, at least at first. However, as ARM’s market share grows – especially with the introduction of so many ARM-based ultrabooks at this year’s CES – that problem could grow considerably larger.

[Source: Software Freedom Law Center]

HTC announced at CES their first Windows-based phone to run on a 4G LTE network and it is a beauty. The kicker, however, is that it comes with a 16-megapixel camera. That’s truly ridiculous for a phone’s camera and makes the HTC Titan II easily one of the most compelling phones on the market for the camera alone.

“HTC’s history of innovation in 4G technology includes delivering the first 4G-powered devices to each major carrier in the U.S., so it is exciting today to continue that leadership with our first 4G LTE Windows Phone, the HTC TITAN II,” Peter Chou, CEO of HTC Corp., said. “This full-featured smartphone combines HTC’s design with AT&T’s high-speed 4G LTE network and Microsoft’s powerful Windows Phone software, giving people more of what they crave.”

The phone is equipped with a 4.7-inch super LCD capacitive touchscreen that looks to provide a great viewing experience for movies, games and more. Of course, with it being a Windows Phone, it will also offer Xbox LIVE which has always been the most compelling part about the Windows phone software.

The phone also features 720p HD video recording with the rear facing camera and video chat over Wi-Fi with its 1.3 mega-pixel front-facing camera.

Now about that amazing 16-megapixel camera, it’s almost as if HTC and Microsoft want to replace digital point-and-shoot cameras. It features a wide-angle lens, autofocus, dual LED flash, red eye reduction, image stabilization, a backside-illuminated sensor and a physical camera button. It seems like HTC made a camera and decided to throw a smartphone on top of it.

The phone’s hardware will feature a 1.5GHz Snapdragon S2 processor and a decent battery that will provide plenty of longevity before a recharge is required.

The Windows phone software is also looking pretty good and could be a serious contender for iOS and Android devices. With this new amazing camera that happens to be a smartphone, Windows phones could be a market disruptor. If Windows phones can keep getting hardware this good, I don’t see why not.

The HTC Titan II will launch exclusively with AT&T in the coming months.

The company looks to expand their mobile scope, as they announced today they are releasing apps for Android, Amazon Kindle Fire, and Windows Phone. The apps are free on their various marketplace services. The app will be compatible with devices running Android 2.3 (and above), Amazon Fire, and Windows devices running Windows Phone 7.5

The app will have all the features enjoyed on the iPhone and iPad, including:

- Uploading videos in HD

- Sharing videos on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, WordPress, Email, and SMS

- Utilize the community features on Vimeo; liking, commenting, and adding videos to your “watch later” queue

Joe Schmitt, lead mobile developer at Vimeo, said this of the announcement, “With the widespread accessibility of high-quality video on mobile devices and high-speed mobile Internet access, people use their mobile devices not only to watch video but to shoot and then upload video to share online“, continuing, “With mobile devices making up approximately 15 percent of our site traffic, we recognize the importance of expanding our platforms to allow people to access Vimeo from as many devices as possible.”

As an aside, Vimeo has a pretty cool contest running right now. It’s called their 5×5 Project. Users submit a 25 second video clip, comprised of individual 5 second clips which reflect on everyday life. They’re taking submissions until the 10th. Here’s an example from one of their staff.

Morning / Commute / Distinction / Platform / Celebratory Pizza! from Thomas Riggs on Vimeo.

Microsoft announced this morning that they have filed suit against Comet, a British retailer that specializes in electronics and appliances. The suit accuses Comet of “creating and selling more than 94,000 sets of counterfeit Windows Vista and Windows XP recovery CDs.” The recovery discs were sold to customers who bought Windows PCs. In years past, Microsoft supplied such discs itself, but has stopped doing so.

In their statement, Microsoft insists that “Comet’s actions were unfair to customers,” and emphasized their concern to “ensure people get what they pay for,” and to shield customers from pirated versions of their software.

Meanwhile, Comet have issued a statement of their own. In it they insist that they are the ones who acting in the consumers’ best interests, based on their belief that “customers had been adversely affected by the decision to stop supplying recovery discs with each new Microsoft Operating System based computer.” Comet also asserted that their actions do not constitute infringement, and stated their intention to defend against the suit “vigorously.”

A request for comment from Microsoft has not yet been answered. This situation presents an interesting problem, in that both companies claim to be acting in the best interest of consumers. Moreover, Comet does not appear to be selling the discs to consumers independently. The only way to get them is to purchase a Windows-based PC from Comet. Which means that in effect, Comet’s customers are only receiving a product that they have already paid for. This is definitely a story worth watching. Check back for updates as it unfolds.

What do you think? Should Comet be allowed to make Windows recovery discs for customers who have bought Windows computers? Let us know in the comments.

[Sources: Microsoft Press Release; Comet Statement]

According to data from Net Applications, IE6′s market share in the United States has just dropped under the 1% mark, a milestone that is enough reason for the Windows Team to announce a time of death.

Here’s what the IE team had to say in a blog post:

IE6 has been the punch line of browser jokes for a while, and we’ve been as eager as anyone to see it go away. In fact, we launched the IE6 Countdown site last March to help accelerate the process. Less than a year later, I’m thrilled to say that the United States has joined the ranks of Austria, Poland, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway in dropping below 1% usage of IE6. In addition, the Czech Republic, Mexico, Ukraine, Portugal and the Philippines are also entering the Champions’ Circle. We hope this means more developers and IT Pros can consider IE6 a “low-priority” at this point and stop spending their time having to support such an outdated browser.

The folks at Microsoft are obviously ecstatic to see IE6 go, but it’s rather amusing to see just how happy they are. Bubbly, cake, and puns – all employed to celebrate the “demise” of the decade-old browser that, according to the data, 7.7% of the world still uses as of December 2011.

It is truly amazing that so many people are still using IE6. Unsurprisingly, the worst offender is China, with a reported 25.2% of internet users still browsing on IE6.

There are currently 12 countries who have gained membership to the aforementioned Champions’ Circle (those reaching under 1% total usage of IE6). The U.S. just joined the Czech Republic, Portugal, Philippines, Ukraine, Mexico, Austria, Poland, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway.

Microsoft hopes that this means more people are switching over to more modern browsers like IE8 and IE9. Are you still a Internet Explorer user? Or do you prefer Firefox, Chrome, or another “modern” browser? Let us know in the comments.

[Windows Team Blog via The Next Web]

TechIT.co.il, which discovered the leak, points to the file.

Here’s what the app looks like:

The app lets you use Facebook without actually being on Facebook.com. You can chat and message friends, see updates from the ticker and get notifications while your browse other parts of the web.

“We’re testing out a first version of the app with a small group of people,” says Facebook. “During this trial period, we plan on rolling out changes to the app and expect outages and periods of instability as we make improvements.”

The app works with Windows 7, and updates will be installed automatically.

You can log in and out by right-clicking the Facebook icon in your Windows system tray.