AT&T posts loss on breakup fee, benefit plan costs

AT&T’s loss for the quarter was $6.7 billion due to $13.4 billion in one-time charges, including $4.2 billion in charges for ending its bid to acquire rival mobile carrier T-Mobile USA.

AT&T also reported a $6.3 billion charge for its benefit plan costs and $2.9 billion for asset impairments during the quarter. The company had revenue of $32.5 billion for the quarter, up from $31.4 billion for the fourth quarter of 2010.

AT&T announced in December it would charge a $4 billion merger breakup fee during the quarter, after it withdrew its offer to purchase T-Mobile. [read]

Patents By The Numbers: Average Wait Time Is Down, But Trolls Cost Us $80 Billion A Year

Starting last fall and stretching through mid-2013, the U.S. has been overhauling the patent-approval process for the first time since 1952. The biggest change: our first-to-invent system, which favors creators, will become a first-to-file system, which favors . . . whoever files first. Uncle Sam says the reform will speed innovation. Our experts check the numbers. [read]

Basic Lighting Setups for Green Screen

There’s more to lighting your green screen than just sticking some green fabric up on a wall behind your talent and hoping for the best! Planning ahead and choosing the right setup for the shot you’re hoping to get is a key factor in determining what kind of lighting setup you’re going to require. Will it be in a studio? On-location? Indoors or outdoors? Full-length with walk-ons or just a talking head? Will your actors be making contact with the screen? These are all questions covered in this video lesson from my Green Screen Workshop series – this is a FREE video lesson, so enjoy! [read]

Brand Name Batteries Last Longer but the Savings Over Generics Is Small

he battery aisle is a confusing place and if you’ve ever found yourself wondering if brand name batteries are worth the extra cost, you’re not alone. Wired has put together a comparison between expensive batteries and dollar stores batteries that answers the question.

According to their study, name brand batteries from Duracell and Energizer last over twice as long as dollar store batteries. However, when they broke down the cost to energy ratio, all the batteries are essentially equal. The exception is that you have to replace dollar store batteries more often, but since they’re cheaper, it balances out. What does this say about choosing batteries? Wired suggests: [read]

ProSoundNetwork Best Of Show Awards: NAMM 2012

The editorial staffs of Pro Sound News and Pro Audio Review magazines are proud to present the ProSoundNetwork Best of Show Awards for the 2012 NAMM Show in Anaheim, California.

During each of the major conventions and trade shows in a given year, the editors of PAR and PSN, with assistance from the editors of sister titles Audio Media and Mix, comb the exhibit halls for new and noteworthy products. Gear and software that show particular merit are singled out for the ProSoundNetwork Best of Show Awards. All products debuting at a given event are eligible.

And the winners are: [read]

Apollo – apparent hit of NAMM 2012

Of all the new products announced at NAMM, Apollo (Universal Audio) seems to have captured the most buzz.

Huge news from Universal Audio! Today at the NAMM show they will announce a brand new 18 x 24 FireWire/Thunderbolt-ready audio interface with on-board UAD plugins for tracking and mixing.

Apollo will be available in UAD-2 Duo and Quad formats. If you plan on mixing with the UAD plugins I assume you’ll want the Quad version but if you’re integrating hardware and/or Native plugins the Duo should be able to handle the task well. Universal Audio promises sub-2ms latency. [read] [Universal Audio]

Top 10 Safari Plugins and Extensions for Better Productivity

As much fun as procrastination can be, productivity always proves more rewarding in the long run. Luckily, Safari users can access a wide range of plugins (aka shortcuts) that can not only help to increase productivity while surfing the web, but also help make your browser more unique and user-friendly.

You may be concerned about overcrowding the top of your browser, but remember that these icons are small and easily removable. [read]

Verizon admits that the majority of the smartphones it sold last quarter were 3G iPhones

Despite reports that Verizon’s fourth quarter earnings were hurt mainly by high subsidies for iPhone, Verizon announced on Tuesday it sold 4.3 million iPhones– over 50 percent of the 7.7 million total smartphones sold during the quarter. This statistic follows reports earlier this month that Verizon sold approximately 4.2 million iPhones during the holiday quarter. Compare that figure to the 1.6 million 4G LTE smartphones sold during the same quarter, of which the carrier offers more than 18 (mostly Android) devices versus a few iPhone models. These numbers show consumers are still choosing 3G iOS devices over the latest generation of 4G LTE smartphones from other vendors. [read]

Moving Time-lapse Photography Tutorial

Time-lapse photography has always been a magic process where time is condensed and the familiar process of time experience is dramatically changed. Processes such as plants growing, a building being constructed, or an entire city changing through the cycle of a day and night, have become the subject of creative, expressive videos or films. Once you master time-lapses where the camera is stationary, you might wonder how professionals create sequences where the camera moves through a scene. These tutorial videos offer some helpful clues: [view]

U.S. Tablet Ownership Nearly Doubles over Holiday Season

According to new survey data from the Pew Internet & American Life Project (via VentureBeat), the share of U.S. adults owning a tablet device nearly doubled during the most recent holiday season, moving from 10% to 19% between mid-December and early January. While the introduction of Amazon’s Kindle Fire certainly played a significant role in the tablet growth, the news still bodes well for Apple’s iPad performance during the quarter.

These findings are striking because they come after a period from mid-2011 into the autumn in which there was not much change in the ownership of tablets and e-book readers. However, as the holiday gift-giving season approached the marketplace for both devices dramatically shifted. In the tablet world, Amazon’s Kindle Fire and Barnes and Noble’s Nook Tablet were introduced at considerably cheaper prices than other tablets.

Apple’s iPad dominated tablet sales following its early 2010 debut as competitors struggled to find traction in the marketplace, but the Kindle Fire has been seen as perhaps the best-equipped product to take on the iPad given its much lower pricing ($199) and its integration with Amazon’s significant services and large customer base. But while the Kindle Fire is selling well according to estimates, its effect on iPad sales has been the subject of considerable debate given the significant differences in hardware and target markets between the two devices. [read]