CIStud writes "The IT industry is hurting for women. Currently only 11% of IT companies are owned by women. The Women-Owned Small Business (WOSB) Federal Contract program requires 5% of all IT jobs to go to female-owned integration companies, but there must be at least 2 female bidders. There are so few female bidders that women-owned IT firms are ineligible for the contracts. From the article: 'Wendy Frank, founder of Accell Security Inc. in Birdsboro, Pa., wishes she had more competitors. It's not often you hear any integrator say that, but in Frank's case, she has good reason. The current Women-Owned Small Business (WOSB) Federal Contract program authorizes five percent of Federal prime and subcontracts to be set aside for WOSBs. While that might sound fair on the surface, in order to invoke the money set aside for this program, the contracting officer at an agency has to have a reasonable expectation that two or more WOSBs will submit offers for the job. “We could not participate in the government’s Women-Owned Small Business program unless there was another female competitor,” says Frank. “Procurement officers required that at least two women-owned small businesses compete for the contracts, even in the IT field, where women-owned businesses are underrepresented.”'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

redletterdave writes "It seemed like a step in the right direction for Yahoo back in November, when the company announced a family of new mobile products that would enrich the way users experience and understand their news and entertainment content. But just shy of seven months after that outburst of mobile and social apps and tools, Yahoo has decided to call it quits on arguably the biggest piece of that mobile package: the personalized magazine app for iPad, Livestand. This was the first major business decision made by Ross Levinsohn, the interim CEO who took over for Scott Thompson on May 13 after the SEC discovered Thompson lied on his resume."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

First time accepted submitter gbrennan123 writes "Researchers at NYU School of Medicine have identified a single gene that simultaneously controls inflammation, accelerated aging and cancer. From the article: '"This was certainly an unexpected finding," said principal investigator Robert J. Schneider, PhD, the Albert Sabin Professor of Molecular Pathogenesis, associate director for translational research and co-director of the Breast Cancer Program at NYU Langone Medical Center. "It is rather uncommon for one gene to have two very different and very significant functions that tie together control of aging and inflammation. The two, if not regulated properly, can eventually lead to cancer development. It's an exciting scientific find."'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

dgharmon writes in with a story about the final outcome of thousands of Nortel patents that were bought last July. "You may recall last summer that Apple, Microsoft, EMC, RIM, Ericsson and Sony all teamed up to buy Nortel's patents for $4.5 billion. They beat out a team of Google and Intel who bid a bit less. While there was some antitrust scrutiny over the deal, it was dropped and the purchase went through. Apparently, the new owners picked off a bunch of patents to transfer to themselves... and then all (minus EMC, who, one hopes, was horrified by the plans) decided to support a massive new patent troll armed with the remaining 4,000 patents. The company is called Rockstar Consortium, and it's run by the folks who used to run Nortel's patent licensing program anyway — but now employs people whose job it is to just find other companies to threaten:" In a semi-related note, there is a new petition to the Whitehouse to make a law that patent lawsuits that find for the defendant automatically fine the plaintiff three times the damages they were seeking."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader writes "The Malaysian Government has recently passed an amendment to their Evidence Act that has been designed to hold cyber bullies accountable for their malicious tirades on blogs or Facebook Walls. Unfortunately, the amendment has been worded such that 'If your name, photograph or pseudonym appears on any publication depicting yourself as the author, you are deemed to have published the content' and 'If a posting comes from your Internet or phone account, you are deemed to be the publisher unless the contrary is proved.' What these raft of amendments have done is shifted the burden of proof to the accused. One is considered guilty until proven innocent. Even the simple act of posting an offending message on a friend's Facebook Wall could get that friend and not the original poster, into trouble with this law. Although the amendments were initiated by good intentions, conspiracist can see how easily this law can be misused to curb dissent in Malaysia."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader writes "CNN takes a look at Apple's response to the Department of Justice's investigation into eBook price fixing. The filing 'cuts the government's case to shreds' while at the same time not bothering to defend the five publishers also under investigation. Apple said, 'The Government starts from the false premise (PDF) that an eBooks "market" was characterized by "robust price competition" prior to Apple's entry. This ignores a simple and incontrovertible fact: before 2010, there was no real competition, there was only Amazon. At the time Apple entered the market, Amazon sold nearly nine out of every ten eBooks, and its power over price and product selection was nearly absolute.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

mikejuk writes "Following the successful defense of the Internet against SOPA, website owners are being invited to sign up to a project that will enable them to participate in future protest campaign, the Internet Defense League. The banner logo for the 'bat-signal' site is a cat, a reference to Ethan Zuckerman's cute cat theory of digital activism. The idea is that sites would respond to the call to "defend the Internet" by joining a group blackout or getting users to sign petitions. From the article: 'Website owners can sign up on the IDL website to add a bit of code to their sites (or receive code by email at the time of a campaign) that can be triggered in the case of a crisis like SOPA. This would add an "activist call-to-action" to all participating sites - such as a banner asking users to sign petitions, or in extreme cases blackout the site, as proved effective in the SOPA/PIPA protest of January 2012.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

First time accepted submitter funge writes "The Economist has an article on Work and play: The gamification of hiring about a start-up that lets you play games to show off your talents to prospective employers. From the article: 'The rules of Happy Hour are deceptively simple. You are a bartender. Your challenge is to tell what sort of drink each of a swelling mob of customers wants by the expressions on their faces. Then you must make and serve each drink and wash each used glass, all within a short period of time. Play this video game well and you might win a tantalizing prize: a job in the real world.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader writes "Legendary sci-fi writer Marc Zicree (Star Trek, Babylon 5, Sliders) and special effects wizard Doug Drexler (Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica) are behind the fastest funded film project on Kickstarter. They're using crowd-funding website kickstarter to directly communicate with and enlist the support of fans for their latest project Space Command. Maybe with direct communication, sci-fi fans can rest easy and not have to worry about their favorite shows being cancelled like FireFly."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

First time accepted submitter johnsnails writes "A German 16-year-old, Shouryya Ra, solved two fundamental particle dynamic theories posed by Sir Isaac Newton, which until recently required the use of powerful computers. He worked out how to calculate exactly the path of a projectile under gravity and subject to air resistance. Shouryya solved the problem while working on a school project. From the article: 'Mr Ray won a research award for his efforts and has been labeled a genius by the German media, but he put it down to "curiosity and schoolboy naivety." "When it was explained to us that the problems had no solutions, I thought to myself, 'well, there's no harm in trying,'" he said.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

sciencehabit writes "China and India are some of the world's top polluters, with countless cars, factories, and households belching more than 2 million metric tons of carbon soot and other dark pollutants into the air every year. The pall hanging over the region has come to be known as 'the Asian brown cloud.' These pollutants aren't just bad news for the countries themselves. A new study reveals that they can affect climate thousands of kilometers away, warming the United States by up to 0.4C by 2024, while cooling other regions (abstract)."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

ainandil writes "Facebook may have to alter its data use policy now that grassrooters have driven enough complaints about the company's proposed data usage policy to trigger a user vote on the matter. 'Facebook's proposed changes to its data use policy include new explanations of its data deletion practices as well as the controls that users have over the sharing of information with third-party applications. However, 47,824 users commented on the plans with many posting opposition to the planned new terms and instead calling for the chance to vote on the "demands" outlined by Europe-v-Facebook.' Does this mean the days of the man-in-the-middle attack as social media are numbered?"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader writes with news that Groupon is testing out a service for letting merchants accept credit cards that could put it into competition with PayPal and Square. "Groupon's nascent payment service comes with an Apple iPod Touch, and a case that wraps around the back of the device, which allows merchants to swipe credit cards." The fee structure isn't finalized, but their aim is to be competitive with PayPal and Square. "Groupon may have flexibility to charge lower fees because it could subsidize the payments service from money it makes providing other services to merchants, they said. PayPal's service, known as PayPal Here, charges a fee of 2.7 percent of the purchase price for all types of credit and debit cards - including those issued by American Express Co.. Transaction fees for processing AmEx cards are often higher. Square charges 2.75 percent per swipe. Groupon's test service is charging a 1.8 percent transaction fee and 15 cents per transaction, Rocky Agrawal, an industry analyst, reported in a VentureBeat blog late Thursday."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

New submitter thuf1rhawat writes "For a certain type of geek, nothing is more important than Dungeons & Dragons. In January, Wizards of the Coast announced that the next iteration of the game (referred to as D&D Next) was under development, and now they've released an open playtest. They hope to gather as much player feedback as possible to help refine the new rules."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Hugh Pickens writes "Continuing its tradition of reverse engineering and fabricating its stockpile of 40-year old American weaponry, Iran announced that it is about to unveil its first ever domestically produced Cobra attack choppers. Nearly 50 years after the U.S. introduced the legendary Bell AH-1 Cobra, once the backbone of the U.S. Army's attack helicopter fleet, Iran's locally-grown Cobras will be armed with 'different types of home-made caliber guns, rockets and missiles,' according to Iran's semi-official Fars news agency. 'All the phases of designing and manufacturing of the chopper have been done inside the country and the helicopter enjoys some capabilities which make it preferable to Apache Choppers,' says Brigadier General Kioumars Heidari. Iranian officials stress that Iran's military and arms programs serve defensive purposes and should not be perceived as a threat to any other country, reports the FARS news release. More photos available here."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Dave Burns has been covering stock car racing from pit road for seventeen years, including spending the past twelve covering NASCAR's premiere Sprint Cup Series. These days he's a Pit Reporter for ESPN, covering Nationwide and Sprint Cup practices, qualifying, and races, all over the course of a single weekend -- every weekend -- for months at a time.


Working the pit lane means dealing with dozens of teams, drivers, mechanics, and more; all while keeping viewers informed across hours of live programming. When he started covering NASCAR for NBC in 2001, Burns developed a sophisticated note-taking system that "catered to our programming, the way my brain worked, and portability." He started with half-sized legal pads and advanced to custom-bound pads that he would print and bind at home. He has since accumulated hundreds of binders filled with information.

"I have boxes and boxes of notepads that impressed the crew chiefs and race engineers every time," Burns said. Enviously, the teams would ask "Who does that for you?" Burns response? "I do, with a laser printer and a big ol' stapler!"

One of Burns' old notebooks
When the iPad was released in 2010, Burns instantly saw the potential. He could digitize his notepads, drop the pen and paper, and carry all his reference material with him to every race. After addressing concerns about size; durability; using it outside in the bright summer sun; and, perhaps most importantly, which apps to use; Burns arrived at his perfect setup:

For taking notes, both hand-written and typed, he uses Note Taker HD, a $4.99 iPad app [App Store]. "Note Taker HD has gone through a couple of valuable updates and has been rock solid all the way. I appreciate the "output" feature which allows me to save or email myself a copy of the weekends' work."

For downloading and storing statistics as well as the weekly NASCAR Media Guide, he found the $1.99 app Simply PDF works best [App Store]. "Simply PDF has been solid as well, never balking at NASCAR's 100+ page per weekend update books. In addition, I permanently store 1-page race results for Nationwide and Sprint Cup, for every event, dating back to 2004."

Originally, Burns used the Boxwave Active Field Case to carry and protect the iPad, but discovered that because it covered the entire iPad, it overheated in the sun. Burns says the first time it happened, he "calmly shut it down and scrambled for pen and paper."

To avoid more heat-related complications, he switched to the FreeOneHand iPad holder and avoids holding the iPad in direct sunlight for too long. It has since "endured countless days out in the 90 degree heat of summer." He uses Boxwave's ClearTouch anti-glare screen protector to cut screen glare.

I upgraded to the iPad 2 over the winter for the weight break and camera, and all has gone smoothly in 2012. I no longer bring my MacBook Air on the road, and am thrilled that the TSA doesn't require that the iPad be removed from my carry on! Using the iPad for what I do has proven to be efficient and entertaining. And, as usual for an Apple product, IT JUST WORKS. I've had to put a baggie over it a time or two in a rain situation, but other than that it absolutely does the job.

And once again the crew chiefs and engineers ask, "who does that for you?"

Burns developed his system personally, using his own iPad, and says that iPad use isn't widespread among the on-air talent at ESPN. "Almost every pit reporter developed a system that fits their way of thinking," Burns said. "As a pit reporter on television, you cue up a lot of things to say in your brain, but as the action on the track moves, so must your story."

He said that with his paper notepads, he would constantly be flipping back and forth from a "driver page" with prewritten story notes to a "race tracking page" where he jots down details mid-race. He says that he runs into the same problem on the iPad and he has needed to train himself to remember the tricks that get him from app to app, and this "may be a process that would distract others rather than help them." He says that ESPN isn't requiring reporters to work a certain way, as these note taking systems are extremely personal.

Most importantly, so far as Burns is concerned, the system "really works" for him. Side effects, such as saving resources by not needing to print hundreds of pages each week, are a benefit, but weren't his primary motivation. "I can do a lot of things on the fly and easily incorporate items into my notes." Having a connection to the Internet helps too. Burns uses the personal hotspot feature on an Android phone on Sprint because, being a prime NASCAR sponsor, they have the best coverage at the track.


He shared a sample PDF to show the kind of notes he takes. This is from the Pioneer Hi-Bred 250 this past weekend at Iowa Speedway. It includes the race tracking system he developed, post-race NASCAR stats pasted in for future reference, and individual pages for the drivers he covered during the race.

Burns does have some visions for the future. He'd love to add live race timing and scoring, as well as the ability to scan driver's radio frequencies. He currently has a radio scanner hooked up to a Bluetooth transmitter attached to the back to the iPad. "NASCAR keeps close control of their timing and scoring," Burns noted, but they haven't provided that to mobile users except for an app that Sprint, as a primary sponsor, provides to their customers. That app is Android-only at the moment, but is coming to Sprint iPhone owners later this year.

"I may not want it," Burns noted. "I don't know if I want my note-taking iPad tied up with scanning frequencies or showing a screen of scoring" or a live ESPN video feed. That said, he would "always like to try."

This weekend, he'll be covering the NASCAR Nationwide race live from the pit road at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Coverage of qualifying begins at 11AM Eastern on ESPN, with the race beginning at 2:30PM Eastern on ABC.


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Chronic Dev Team today announced the release of Absinthe 2.0, which offers users the ability to jailbreak numerous iOS devices running iOS 5.1.1, including the third-generation iPad, without having to tether the device to a computer for booting. The jailbreaking process allows users to load third-party software and hacks not authorized by Apple onto their devices.

Absinthe 2.0 works only on iOS 5.1.1, and enables jailbreaking of all iPad models with the exception of the revised 16 GB iPad 2, although compatibility with that device is scheduled to be added in the future. On the iPhone side, Absinthe 2.0 can jailbreak all devices from the iPhone 3GS onward, while the software is also compatible with the third- and fourth-generation iPod touch models.

Absinthe 2.0 is available for OS X (Leopard, Snow Leopard, and Lion), Windows (XP, Vista, and 7), and Linux. Users who have already jailbroken their iOS 5.1.1 devices using tethered options available prior to today can untether their devices using the Rocky Racoon 5.1.1 Untether package available through Cydia.

The release comes from the same partnership of Chronic Dev Team and iPhone Dev Team that released Absinthe A5 earlier this year to offer the first untethered jailbreak of iOS devices based on Apple's A5 system-on-a-chip, which included the iPhone 4S and iPad 2.

Update: The Dev Teams have already pushed out version 2.0.1 to address an issue with hanging. New direct download links include:

- OS X (Leopard, Snow Leopard, and Lion)
- Windows (XP, Vista, and 7)
- Linux


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As noted by our sister site TouchArcade, Apple yesterday issued a Tweet announcing that Cut the Rope: Experiments is the company's "Free App of the Week", discounted from its usual $0.99 price [App Store] for the iPhone version and $1.99 price [App Store] for the iPad version.


While Apple has previously offered some apps for free through its App Store Facebook page, the new promotion directly through the App Store will make such offers more visible to users.

As the official App Store Twitter account posted earlier today, Cut the Rope: Experiments is their "Free App of the Week", which as far as we can tell is the first of its kind.

Now, don't get me wrong, Cut the Rope: Experiments is an excellent game and you should go download it immediately if you haven't already, no matter what the promotion is. But it will be interesting to see if this is something that Apple keeps doing each week, and I'd be curious to know how they decide on which games or apps to promote.

TouchArcade also notes several other tweaks to the App Store, including new "Editors' Choice" picks and the removal of the "Staff Favorites" section. In the U.S. App Store for iOS, Apple is currently featuring Facebook Camera [App Store] and Extreme Skater [App Store] as Editors' Choice picks on the iPhone side, with SketchBook Ink [App Store] and Air Mail [App Store] being highlighted on the iPad section of the store.


As noticed by The Verge, the Editors' Choice terminology has also been picked up in the Mac App Store, with Cobook [Mac App Store] being the initial recipient of the designation. Deus Ex: Human Revolution [Mac App Store] has also been made an Editors' Choice pick, but there appears to be no Free App of the Week in the Mac App Store to correspond with the feature on the iOS side, although Cobook is a free app.


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Apple's board has decided to award dividend equivalent payments to employees holding restricted stock units or RSUs. Apple announced a quarterly dividend of $2.65/share in March, to commence in July. RSUs are typically issued to employees to encourage them to stay with the company. They are awarded in a similar way to stock options, but convert directly into shares of stock upon vesting.

Apple CEO Tim Cook was awarded 1 million RSUs upon his promotion to CEO last year to entice him to stay with the company for the foreseeable future. Half of the shares vest in 5 years, and the other half in 10. Cook has specifically declined the dividend equivalents, turning down more than $75 million in dividend payments over the life of the RSUs.

From an Apple SEC filing today:

On May 24, 2012, the Compensation Committee (the "Committee") of the Board of Directors of Apple Inc. (the "Company") approved amendments to each outstanding and unvested restricted stock unit award granted by the Company to its employees (other than Timothy D. Cook, the Company's Chief Executive Officer). The amendments provide that if the Company pays an ordinary cash dividend on its common stock, each award will be credited with an amount equal to the per-share cash dividend paid by the Company, multiplied by the total number of restricted stock units subject to the award that are outstanding immediately prior to the record date for such dividend. The amounts that are credited to each award are referred to as "dividend equivalents." Any dividend equivalents credited to an award will be subject to the same vesting, payment and other terms and conditions as the unvested restricted stock units to which the dividend equivalents relate. Depending on the domicile of the employee, accumulated dividend equivalents will either be paid in cash or used to offset employee taxes due upon vesting of the restricted stock units.

The Committee determined these amendments were appropriate in light of the Company's announcement on March 19, 2012 that it intends to commence paying ordinary cash dividends of $2.65 per share to its shareholders on a quarterly basis sometime during the fourth quarter of its 2012 fiscal year. As restricted stock units are not outstanding shares of common stock and thus would not otherwise be entitled to participate in such dividends, the crediting of dividend equivalents is intended to preserve the equity-based incentives intended by the Company when the awards were granted and to treat the award holders consistently with shareholders.

At Mr. Cook's request, none of his restricted stock units will participate in dividend equivalents. Assuming a quarterly dividend of $2.65 per share over the vesting periods of his 1.125 million outstanding restricted stock units, Mr. Cook will forego approximately $75 million in dividend equivalent value.

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Facebook today released a new standalone iPhone app dedicated to posting and sharing photos on the 900-million strong social network. Facebook Camera aims to make using photos on Facebook "faster and easier", according to a press release.

The app, much like the Facebook Messenger app launched last year, is designed to streamline a single Facebook feature that users are constantly interacting with, rather than using the clunkier Facebook iOS app. Photos are such a large part of Facebook that the company recently spent $1 billion to purchase photo sharing service Instagram.

Facebook built the app to make it much easier for mobile users to share multiple photos to the network -- something that is cumbersome in the standard Facebook app. Facebook Camera, made by a dedicated Photos team, streamlines browsing photos that friends have posted, a task which is all many users want to use Facebook for. From All Things D:

Facebook seems to have learned a heck of a lot from Instagram. Photos in Facebook Camera are full-bleed, spanning the entire width of the iPhone?s screen (which was probably tested when Facebook tweaked the photo experience for mobile last week). You?re able to comment and like photos directly from the stream. And of course, there are filters (albeit ones with names nowhere near as fun as Toaster or Valencia).

More than this, it?s very lightweight. The app moves much faster than browsing photos within Facebook?s proper app. And by introducing a separate camera app, it?s another way of bypassing the cumbersome, clicky process of adding pictures via the main Facebook app.

Instagram and Facebook Camera may seem like competitors -- and within Facebook they will be, sort of. Ellis Hamburger reports for The Verge:

The Facebook Camera team has been working on the app for months, and Mark Zuckerberg reportedly kept his desire to purchase Instagram close to the vest, as if he almost impulse-bought it. Had the Instagram deal never occurred, Facebook Camera wouldn't really be much of an Instagram competitor anyway, lacking any mobile-only social circles and hashtagged sharing around specific topics. "Enhancing the Facebook photos experience on mobile is long overdue," Facebook's Derick Mains told me. "We really had to step up our game, and we're committed to building Instagram independently."

Facebook Camera is available free on the App Store. [Direct Link]


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While Steve Jobs famously panned the idea of a stylus for the iPhone at the device's unveiling in January 2007, Apple has continued researching ideas for stylus-based input, if only as part of continued reevaluation of how users interact with their devices and how technology will change those interactions over time. Toward that end, Unwired View highlights a pair of Apple patent applications filed in late 2010 and published today addressing optical and haptic stylus concepts.

Apple's idea for an optical stylus takes advantage of a tiny camera on the tip of the pen that would allow it to track patterns on a device's screen that are invisible to the user's eye. The stylus could also incorporate other sensors such as pressure sensors, accelerometers, and gyroscopes to help determine orientation and movement.

In some embodiments, a stylus is provided with an optical sensor, such as a camera, that is used in determining a location and movement of the stylus relative to a touch screen display of a computing device. It should be appreciated, however, that displays other than touch screens may be implemented in some embodiments. The optical stylus may be configured to transmit the location and movement to the computing device. In some embodiments, the optical stylus may be configured to process and/or filter the location and movement information prior to transmission, whereas in other embodiments, raw data may be transmitted.

Apple's generic iPhone stylus concept with enlarged view of encoding pattern for tracking movement
Alternatively, Apple suggests that it could incorporate haptic feedback to allow users to gain a tactile feel for the content on a device's screen via a stylus. Apple has researched haptics for quite some time, and the patent application published today describes how a haptic actuator embedded in the stylus could receive signals from a device to help users gain a tactile feel for the context of their onscreen input.

Generally, input devices do not provide haptic feedback to a user in response to interactions with the input device. The user can typically only feel the rigid surface of the touch screen, making it difficult to find icons, hyperlinks, text boxes, or other user-selectable input elements on the display. An input device capable of generating haptic feedback may help a user navigate content displayed on the display screen, and may further serve to enhance the content of various applications by creating a more appealing and realistic user interface. "Haptic feedback" may be any tactile feedback. Examples include forces, vibrations, and/or motions that may be sensed by the user.

Apple's concept for stylus with haptic feedback
There has been essentially no evidence that Apple is seriously looking at incorporating a stylus into its products, but it remains clear that the company is thinking about how such pen-based input could be used in novel ways.


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Following a March agreement that saw Foxconn and Sharp entering into a partnership to advance LCD technology, Reuters reports on a new article from Japan's Nikkei business newspaper indicating that the two companies are specifically teaming up on a new plant in Chengdu, China to produce displays for the iPhone.

Japan's Sharp Corp will supply technological know-how to Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry Co for a plant in China that will produce panels for Apple Inc's iPhone and other consumer electronics products, the Nikkei business daily said on Thursday. [...]

The Nikkei said that the new technology handover, for which Sharp will receive tens of billions of yen in fees, is aimed at improving quality management at Hon Hai's planned plant in Chengdu.

Apple has been working hard to continue streamlining its supply chain, and closer partnerships between component suppliers such as Sharp and device assemblers like Foxconn will likely help Apple move more quickly and efficiently to the latest technologies for its products.

Sharp was reportedly behind the main force in development of the third-generation iPad's Retina display technology, but quality control issues led to the company being shut out of the initial batch of devices as it sought to bring its production up to Apple's standards. The company has reportedly begun shipping its displays for the new iPad, joining Samsung and LG in efforts to meet Apple's demand.


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New York Times writer Brian X. Chen reports that Amtrak is replacing its old manual ticketing system with iPhone, noting that the company is among the ?growing number of businesses? to use iOS devices to improve operations. Chen reports that the system will allow conductors to keep track of passengers in real time and also provide updates to railway staff, such as if a disabled person is getting on at a particular stop or if equipment fails. Amtrak?s Matt Hardison says, ?We?ve made a number of important improvements for both our customers and Amtrak, all in one fell swoop.?

Apple today announced financial results for its fiscal 2012 second quarter ended March 31, 2012. The Company posted quarterly revenue of $39.2 billion and quarterly net profit of $11.6 billion, or $12.30 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $24.7 billion and net profit of $6.0 billion, or $6.40 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. ?We?re thrilled with sales of over 35 million iPhones and almost 12 million iPads in the March quarter,? said Tim Cook, Apple?s CEO. ?The new iPad is off to a great start, and across the year you?re going to see a lot more of the kind of innovation that only Apple can deliver.?

Professional video editors around the world have moved to Final Cut Pro X to create faster and more flexible workflows. New York-based production house @radical.media is flipping its entire facility to Final Cut Pro X to tackle high-profile client projects. Hollywood?s Electric Entertainment is using Final Cut Pro X to cut episodes for the new season of its hit TV show ?Leverage.? And accomplished editor Knut Hake used the software to edit new episodes of ?Danni Lowinski,? one of Germany?s most popular and critically acclaimed TV shows.

FileMaker, Inc. today announced the release of the FileMaker 12 database software line ? including FileMaker Pro 12, FileMaker Go 12, and FileMaker Server 12 ? which offers powerful new ways to create custom database apps for iPad, iPhone, Mac, Windows, and the web. New professionally designed themes and the ability to customize every detail make it easy to create databases for managing contacts, projects, digital content, and more. All FileMaker 12 products are available starting today.

At Lowe?s stores around the country, iPhone is changing customer service for the better. Using custom iPhone apps, store employees have key product information on hand, so they can check pricing, inventory, and location of items within the store, anytime, from their iPhones. And the free consumer app features how-to videos, prices and reviews, store locations, and gift card balances. ?iPhone, iPad, and the iOS platform are enterprise solutions that we can build on for the future,? says Lowe?s Executive Vice President and CIO Mike Brown.

National Geographic magazine reports that ski-mountaineer Hilaree O?Neill ? a member of its 2012 Everest expedition ? will follow the same route Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay did in 1953, but with an iPad and iPhone in her backpack. iPad gives O?Neill a journaling device with a solid-state data storage drive usable at altitudes where spinning hard disk drives have been known to fail. And with cell service available even on Everest?s summit, she?ll use an iPhone 4S to stay in touch instead of a cumbersome walkie-talkie.

Apple today announced it has sold three million new iPad devices since its launch on Friday, March 16. ?The new iPad is a blockbuster with three million sold ? the strongest iPad launch yet,? said Philip Schiller, Apple?s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing.

The new iPad ? the third generation of the category-defining mobile device ? arrived at Apple?s Retail Stores and the Apple Online Store on Friday, March 16 at 8:00 a.m. local time in the US, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, Switzerland, and the UK; along with Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. Beginning at a suggested retail price of $499 (US), the new iPad features a stunning Retina display, Apple?s A5X chip with quad-core graphics, and a 5-megapixel iSight camera with advanced optics for capturing amazing photos and 1080p HD video. And iPad 2 is now available at a more affordable price, starting at just $399.