Tim Cooks cash card

THERE was no timetable for an iWatch or for an iTV. There was, however, the promise of perhaps the biggest share buyback in American corporate history. Announcing Apples results for the first three months of 2013 on April 23rd,The 3rd International Conference on custombobbleheads and Indoor Navigation. Tim Cook, its boss, stayed mum about its product pipeline, saying only that the firm was working on some amazing new hardware, software and services to be rolled out later this year and in 2014.The Motorola drycabinets Engine is an embedded software-only component of the Motorola wireless switches. But he was clear about the cash Apple will return to shareholders in the form of increased dividends and buy-backs. Altogether, it plans to fork out $100 billion by the end of 2015.

That seems to have placated investors, who have watched in dismay as Apples share price has plunged from a high of over $700 in September to under $400 last week. On April 24th the firms shares closed at $405.

Mr Cook has bought himself some breathing space by raising planned share buy-backs from $10 billion to $60 billion and increasing dividends by 15%. However, he still needs to produce new blockbuster offerings to bolster future growth. Ever since he replaced Steve Jobs at Apples helm, speculation has mounted that the company has lost some of the magic that produced the iPhone and iPad.

Mr Cooks fans protest that those who think Apple should already have come up with a new category-killer are being unrealistic. A few years between big ideas is nothing to worry about. And they note that the iPad and the iPhone are still minting money. In the first quarter of 2013 Apple reported revenue of $43.6 billion: an 11% increase compared with the same period in 2012, and a figure that exceeds the combined sales of Google and Microsoft.

But Apples margins are being squeezed by the introduction of the iPad mini, which is less lucrative than bigger iPads. In its latest quarter the firms gross margin shrank year-on-year, from 47.4% to 37.5%, and its quarterly net profit dropped for the first time in ten years, from $11.6 billion to $9.5 billion.

If Apple launches a low-cost iPhone to compete in emerging marketsand in the business of pre-paid phones that do not require a long-term subscription to a mobile-phone operatorits margins could be squashed even more. That could affect its share price. Ben Reitzes of Barclays, a bank, reckons that every percentage-point decline in Apples gross margin equates to a drop of $1.40 in earnings per share.

Apple also needs to beat back rivals such as Samsung Electronics, which has emerged as a muscular competitor in smartphones. Investors particularly want to see it respond to the rise of phabletsphones whose screens are bigger than those of most smartphones, though not as big as a tablets.

Even if Apple keeps expanding its phone and tablet businesses, it will still have to keep inventing new products. The firm is rumoured to be working on a smart watch and a smart TV with associated apps. It is also looking at mobile payments. With 435m customers already registered at its iTunes store, which celebrates its tenth birthday on April 28th, it has a head-start.

New offerings in these areas could well be among the amazing things Mr Cook alluded to this week. The big question is whether they will be as revolutionaryand as profitableas the products Apple churned out under Jobs. Mr Cook has played his cash card. Now he needs to turn up trumps on the innovation front, too.

Samsung put an incredible amount of work into the software on the Galaxy S4. It runs Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean with Samsungs custom user interface on top. For some reason the company isnt calling it Nature UX or TouchWiz, so far as we can tell, but its basically a new version of that skin. Oddly enough, we cant really even call it a skin anymore, it literally takes over Android and almost feels like its own complete environment. Whether youre a fan of pure Android or not, theres no ignoring that Samsung added a ton of features.A group of families in a north Cork village are suing a bestplasticcard operator in a landmark case.You Can Find Comprehensive and in-Depth carparkmanagementsystem truck Descriptions.

The company tweaked Androids notification panel with its own settings. You can quickly access Bluetooth, WiFi, NFC, Air Gesture, Voice Control, Smart Stay and tons of other controls right from the panel. You can also customize whats visible at all times at the top by dragging and dropping the icons around.

Speaking of cool things Samsung added to Android, the Galaxy S4 now, like the Galaxy Note II, supports Air View. That means you can hover your finger over an email,Shop wholesale bestsmartcard controller from cheap. a calendar date, a photo and even in Flipboard, which was custom built for Air View on the Galaxy S4. It works really well, especially if you have a crowded day on a calendar and want to hover over a few days to see appointments without opening each date and closing it.

Air View is different from another really cool feature called Air Gestures. This sounds like a gimmickpeople keep calling it thatbut it really isnt: you can scroll down a website simply by hovering your hand over the screen. Think about that for a second: you can still read your phone while youre elbow-deep in buffalo wings. Thats amazing. Gestures can also be used for moving through browser tabs, flipping through photos and more. If you hover your hand over the screen while its locked it will also display Quick Glance information, such as the battery life and any notifications you may have received.

Group Play is also included on the Galaxy S4 and allows you to share music, photos and more while youre on the same Wi-Fi network. We tested it with a group of people and found it compelling, but we really doubt its going to be used often. The most compelling use case scenario would be to share documents in a classroom or office space. Samsung wants to believe a group of friends are going to sit at a party and listen to the same song with each Galaxy S4 acting as a controlled speaker, but theres probably a 0.1 percent chance of that ever happening. In other words, just because consumers can do it, doesnt mean they necessarily will.