Author: Serkadis

Yahoo just released its earnings for the fourth quarter and full year 2012, beating analysts’ expectations, and perhaps more noteworthy, showing solid signs for Yahoo’s search business.

GAAP revenue for the quarter was $1,346 million. For the year, it was $4,987 million. Revenue ex-TAC for the quarter were $1,221 million. For the year, they were $4,468 million. Non-GAAP income from operations was $283 million. For the year, it was $825 million.

GAAP search revenue for the quarter was $482 million, up 4% year-over-year. GAAP search revenue was $1,886 million for the year, up 2% year-over-year. Search revenue ex-TAC was $427 million for the quarte (up 14% year-over-year) and $1,611 million for the year (up 9% year-over-year). Paid clicks were up 11% year-over-year and 8% quarter over quarter. PPCs increased by 1% year-over-year, but decreased by 2% quarter-over-quarter.

CEO Marissa Mayer said, “I’m proud of Yahoo!’s 2012 and fourth quarter results. In 2012, Yahoo! exhibited revenue growth for the first time in 4 years, with revenue up 2 percent year-over-year. During the quarter we made progress by growing our executive team, signing key partnerships including those with NBC Sports and CBS Television, and launching terrific mobile experiences for Yahoo! Mail and Flickr. At the same time, we achieved tremendous internal transformation in the culture, energy and execution of the Company.”

Here’s the release in its entirety:

SUNNYVALE, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) today reported results for the fourth quarter and full year endedDecember 31, 2012.

Yahoo! Inc.

Keeping with an ongoing trend, Android solidified its global smartphone dominance in fourth quarter and for all 2012, according to Strategy Analytics. The Android Army sent iOS idolaters into retreat during Q4, iPhone 5’s first full three months of sales. Like I explained in September, “Android wins the smartphone wars“.

During fourth quarter, iOS share fell to 19 percent from 23.6 percent a year earlier. Meanwhile, Android rose to 70.1 percent from 51.3 percent. For all 2012, iOS nudged up to 19.4 percent from 19 percent share, while Android reached 68.4 percent, up from 48.7 percent. The differences between the quarter and year, strongly suggest sales surge at the end, for Android, which forebodes poorly for Apple when iOS got big lift from iPhone 5’s recent launch.

Duopoly

“Android’s challenge for 2013 will be to defend its leadership, not only against Apple, but also against an emerging wave of hungry challengers that includes Microsoft, Blackberry, Firefox and Tizen”, Neil Mawston, Strategy Analytics executive director, says.

Four-hundred seventy-nine million Android smartphones shipped in 2012, compared to 135.8 million iPhones, according to Strategy Analytics. Rest of the market: 85.3 million. That puts combined Android/iOS share at 92.1 percent and 87.8 percent for the year.

“The worldwide smartphone industry has effectively become a duopoly as consumer demand has polarized around mass-market Android models and premium Apple designs”, Mawston says. Combined dominance leaves little room for competitors, and refutes earlier IDC predictions about three dominant platforms emerging. The more perplexing question: How skewed will be the split among the two?

Cumulative Android shipments (phones and tablets) reached 500 million in September, according to Google. By comparison, iOS, which had long led the green robot, only reached that number three months later, according to Apple. The company shipped 75 million iOS devices during fourth quarter, which works out to about 834,000 per day. Android activations are more than 1.3 million per day.

Back to handsets, IHS iSuppli now predicts that cumulative Android smartphone shipments will reach 1 billion this year, but iOS not until 2015.

Saturation

Android and iOS compete in a rapidly growing, and in some countries quickly saturating, device category. Annual shipments grew to 700.1 million from 490.5 million. But Android and iOS success rely heavily on two companies — Apple, obviously, and Samsung. For 2012, Samsung shipped 213 million smartphones (mostly Android) and Apple 135.8 million (all iOS). Apple’s problem is the Other category (316.3 million), largely dominated by manufacturers shipping Androids.

“Samsung and Apple together accounted for half of all smartphones shipped worldwide in 2012”, Linda Sui, Strategy Analytics analyst, says. “Large marketing budgets, extensive distribution channels and attractive product portfolios have enabled Samsung and Apple to tighten their grip on the smartphone industry”.

Respective share: 30.4 percent and 19 percent, up from 19.9 percent and 19 percent, respectively. Still, the Other bucket slight trails (45.2 percent) Apple and Samsung combined (49.8 percent).

Still, from another perspective, iPhone had a great quarter, with 47.8 million units shipped, up from 37 million year over year and 26.9 million quarter on quarter. iPhone revenue rose to $30.67 billion in Q4 from $16.25 billion three months earlier. In fourth quarter, iPhone accounted for 56.3 percent of all Apple revenue and 52.7 percent a year earlier.

But success comes with risks. As Android share continues to rise, iOS recedes — and that in a device category destined to rapidly saturate. Market share Android takes today, it is more likely to keep tomorrow, if other platform categories, PC operating systems among them, are comparable.

The question: Is Apple willing to do anything to gain share against Android? During last week’s Apple’s earnings call, Toni Sacconaghi, Sanford Bernstein analyst, asked: “Is holding share in the smartphone market in 2013 a priority for Apple, yes or no and why? And realistically how does Apple hold share given that the market segment and price point that you play in is expected to grow a lot slower and you have pretty dominant share in that high end”.

Apple CEO Tim Cook deflected the answer. But the market will require one. Lower price isn’t the answer, as iPhone 4 is free to buyers, with two-year carrier contract, and Apple couldn’t make enough to meet demand during fourth quarter. Too bad iOS licensing is sacrilege in Apple’s sacred halls. Mr. Cook, perhaps it’s time for some new religion.

Photo Credit: Joe Wilcox

Facebook ecommerce platform company Payvment announced that it is shutting down as its team joins a new, unspecified company. The platform will be shut down on February 28.

The company in question is Inuit, according to TechCrunch, though it’s unclear why this piece of information was left out of the announcement, and why Intuit itself did not make an announcement.

On Payvment’s home page, the company says:

As part of this transition, you will have one month to transfer your store to Ecwid, which will allow you to continue selling on Facebook. Ecwid is a global leader in Social Commerce with over 200,000 sellers in 174 countries and a robust Facebook application very similar to Payvment. For details, visit ecwid.com/payvment.

Payvment and Lish stores and the Payvment Dashboard will be active through February 28, and on March 1, the service will shut down. People will be able to transfer their stores to Ecwid from one click from the dashboard. More FAQs here.

Innovation could utterly transform the way meat is created and consumed in the world, making it more efficient and removing some of the problems like greenhouse emissions. While I didn’t get a chance to attend The Intersection conference at the Googleplex recently, a sentence from notes on a discussion between VC Steve Jurvetson and Microsoft co-founder Nathan Myhrvold at the event stood out for me on the subject of meat and innovation: “Killing a cow is the least effective way to make a steak.”

Over the years the meat industry has delivered efficiency in animal raising, slaughtering and meat production through factory farming, which reduces the time it takes for animals to mature with corn-based diets, antibiotics, hormones and other industrial feeding and slaughtering techniques. But maximizing the efficiency of industrial meat production has led to a lot of unintended negative consequences and a growing movement of people who will pay more for organic, local meat or will forgo meat altogether.

But what if you could reduce, or eliminate, the whole traditional meat production industry completely? That’s the idea behind new types of plant-based proteins, so-called in-vitro meat production and more integral approaches to reducing meat consumption. Because the world’s population is rapidly growing to 9 billion by 2050, and developing countries have emerging middle classes that want a higher standard of living, alternative protein and meat production could find a market in the developing world first.

Here’s three new technologies being developed that can reduce eating animals:

• Peter Thiel’s Breakout Labs invested in a food startup called Modern Meadow, which aims to combine in-vitro meat with 3D printing. The idea is to print out a meat product from biological materials.
• Beyond Meat is a startup backed by Obvious Corp — the group that created Twitter — which is creating next-gen plant-based meat substitutes. The product is on sale in a few select locations at Whole Foods in Northern California.
• Foodpairing is a food industry research company and app developer that has broken down flavor to its molecular components and compiled databases that can identify vegetable or seafood ingredients that reinforce the flavor of different meats, or can act as a substitute for a meat entirely.

Some are speculating that Apple might release a 128GB iPad model this year.

As previously reported, a complete redesign is expected to grace the iPad 5, which is expected to be launched in October. A report from iLounge claims to have seen a “supposedly accurate” model of the iPad 5, saying it will be smaller than past (non-mini) models.

Separately, developers have discovered a reference in to 128GB iOS devices in the code in a beta of iOS 6.1. 9to5Mac reports:

Following the latest beta release of the upcoming iOS 6.1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch operating system, developers have begun tearing away at the software to see what secrets it may hold about the future of Apple’s devices. @iNeal made the discovery that iOS 6.1 beta 5 holds a reference to compatibility with 128GB iOS devices. Jeff Benjamin dug up the code that @iNeal is referring to, and he has provided screenshots of the evidence. He notes that iOS 6.0 does not include the “128″ system partition code.

Update: We understand that this 128GB code is also found in iOS 6.1 beta 3, which was released in early December.

Still, this may not mean that we’ll be seeing the 128GB model this year. ZDNet’s Adrian Kingsley-Hughes is particularly skeptical.

Apple released iOS 6.1 today for iPads, iPhones and iPod Touches, bringing LTE capabilities to more carriers.

2012 was a good year for Etsy, to say the least. CEO Chad Dickerson took to the company blog this morning to share some stats about the year as Etsy’s growth continues to accelerate.

“Growth of highly-personal shopping categories like wedding goods and home decor was strong in 2012,” an Etsy spokesperson tells WebProNews. “Jewelry, our #1 category, is still hugely popular, but others, like clothing and housewares, are quickly gaining steam. Furniture was the fastest-growing category on Etsy this year, growing 134% year-over-year.”

Here are some more highlights from Dickerson’s post:

• Overall sales by the community in 2012 grew 70.3% over the previous year, to $895.1 million from $525.6 million in 2011.
• Sales in December 2012 were 72.9% higher than 2011 (compared to 69.9% from Dec 2010-Dec 2011).
• Sales in November 2012 sales increased by 74.9% over the previous year (compared to 65.7% from Nov 2010-Nov 2011).
• New buyers increased by 83% in 2012.
• 10 million new members joined Etsy last year, nearly doubling the total number of members to 22 million around the world, in nearly 200 countries.

Etsy will celebrate its 8th birthday this year. Since opening in 2005, the site has seen over 14 million shoppers buy over 100 million items.

Etsy has only made more moves in recent months to help its growth continue. Consider that it only laumched its iPad and Android apps in the last two months. The site also continues to expand into more languages.

Last week, Etsy announced its acquisition of Mixel.

Apple announced today that it has updated iOS to version 6.1, adding LTE capabilities to 36 more iPhone carriers and 23 more iPad carriers around the world. Now, more iPhone 5, iPad Mini and iPad with Retina Display users can utilize faster wireless performance.

“iOS 6 is the world’s most advanced mobile operating system, and with nearly 300 million iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices on iOS 6 in just five months, it may be the most popular new version of an OS in history,” said Apple SVP Philip Schiller. “iOS 6.1 brings LTE support to more markets around the world, so even more users can enjoy ultrafast Safari browsing, FaceTime video calls, iCloud services, and iTunes and App Store downloads.”

According to Apple, iOS users have uploaded over nine billion photos to Photo Stream, sent over 450 billion iMessages and received over four trillion notifications to date.

iOS 6.1 is now available as a free software update, an dis compatible with the following devices: iPhone 5, iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPad (third and fourth generation), iPad mini, iPad 2 and iPod touch (fourth and fifth generation). Still, some features are not available for all products.

LTE, specifically, is available on iPhone 5, iPad mini and fourth generation iPad Wi-Fi + Cellular models through certain carriers.

Chances are, the quad-core processor powering your desktop computer or high-end laptop is vastly underworked. But it’s not your fault: Writing code that executes in parallel is difficult, so most consumer applications (save for some compute-intensive video games that really need help, for example) continue to run on just one core at a time. Which makes it all the more impressive that a group of Stanford researchers recently ran a jet-engine-noise simulation across 1 million cores simultaneously.

As anyone even casually familiar with parallel processing knows, running applications across more nodes means jobs execute faster because they’re able to share the computing workload. The more cores, the faster it runs. This what makes Hadoop, for example, so great at processing large chunks of data. The MapReduce framework on which it’s based divvies up the work across nodes and everything they find is stitched back together as the result of a job.

But even Hadoop can only scale to tens of thousands of nodes and, because of its focus on “nodes,” actually isn’t really good at utilizing multi-core processors to their fullest (expect to hear more about the limitations of Hadoop at our Structure: Data conference March 20-21 in New York). The IBM-built Sequoia supercomputer (housed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory) that the Stanford team used consists of 98,304 processors (or nodes), each containing 16 computing cores. That’s a grand total of 1,572,864 cores, and the researchers were able to use the majority of them, which they claim is a record of some sort.

Sequoia, decomposed

But record or not, that’s an incredibly complex undertaking. Programming the jet-engine simulation meant figuring out how to divvy the code into more than a million different tasks that could run across tens of thousands of nodes and 16 cores within each of those nodes. If even one of those processes is buggy, it could slow down or ruin the whole simulation.

Even in the world of supercomputing, where systems now regularly contain hundreds of thousands of cores — some of them special-purpose GPU co-processors — there’s a shortage of programming talent to actually use them all to their fullest potential. As my colleague Stacey Higginbotham explained in some time ago, the world of high-performance computing is hurtling toward exascale computing but a bigger problem than energy-consumption might be finding applications that need that much computing power and the algorithms capable of operating at that scale.

Still, the implications of advances in parallel programming are huge — like potentially life-altering huge. This is true not only because of the scientific questions we’ll soon be able to answer at speeds inconceivable even a decade ago, but also because of the computing power we’ll all soon be carrying around in our pockets and purses. If you think those multi-core smartphones and tablets are great now because they can run multiple applications at the same time, just wait until their processors are even bigger and badder and we have more applications — photo- and video-editing, computer-aided design, games and who knows what else — that can actually get the most out of them.

The German high court has weighed in on the value of a web connection (as well as faxes and VoIP lines) and determined that the internet is pretty much essential to modern life (hat tip to TechDirt). This puts the German court closer to agencies such as the ITU and countries such as Finland where internet access is considered a right.

Apparently back in Dec. 2008, a German citizen found himself disconnected from his DSL line because of some error and was stuck without a connection for two months. He sought compensation for his expenses (he spent more time using his mobile phone instead of his wireline VoIP service) as well as €50 ($67) per day he had no connection. He didn’t get that much because the courts felt he was overeaching in seeking compensation from his ISP beyond actual costs for his fax line and VoIP line, but it did send the case back to a lower court telling it to set the fine accordingly.

The court’s rationale was that so much of modern life is conducted via the internet that going without was worthy of some compensation when it was cut off. A Google translation of the court’s press release notes:

The internet replaces, because of the easy availability of information, more and more other media, such as encyclopedias, magazines or television. It also allows the global exchange between its users, for example via e-mail, forums, blogs and social networks. In addition, it is increasingly for the initiation and conclusion of contracts, used for making transactions and to fulfill public service obligations. The majority of people in Germany uses the Internet daily.

The release goes on to say that because of these things it is not easily replaced and essential to modern life. Thus, it sent the case back so the man might get his compensation. In light of AT&T’s massive service failure last week that affected thousands of users, I’m curious how our own court system might view access to the web and what type of compensation — above and beyond a service credit — might be due those affected by multiday outages.

Twitter announced today that it is launching a new Transparency Report home page at transparency.twitter.com. The announcement comes on Data Privacy Day, and the week following the latest release of Google’s Transparency Report.

Twitter first released a Transparency Report of its own last July, publishing six months of data. We should be seeing these regularly from here on out, but you can go to the new destination anytime.

“In addition to publishing the second report, we’re also introducing more granular details regarding information requests from the United States, expanding the scope of the removal requests and copyright notices sections, and adding Twitter site accessibility data from our partners at Herdict,” says Twitter Legal Policy Manager Jeremy Kessel.

“We believe the open exchange of information can have a positive global impact,” he adds. “To that end, it is vital for us (and other Internet services) to be transparent about government requests for user information and government requests to withhold content from the Internet; these growing inquiries can have a serious chilling effect on free expression – and real privacy implications.”

Google, in addition to putting out its latest data last week, also addressed data privacy today, highlighting three initiatives that it is focusing on. More on all of that here. Meanwhile, the company is facing new legal action in the UK related to its privacy conduct.

Additionally, Facebook has launched its “Ask Our CPO” (Chief Privacy Officer) initiative.

Google Chromebooks, not Microsoft Windows 8 computers, are selling well for Acer. In a weekend report, Bloomberg noted that Chromebooks account for between 5 and 10 percent of Acer’s recent shipments to the US; an interesting data point considering the timing. Microsoft’s Windows 8, hoping to re-ignite the PC market, launched in late October, or just about the same time Acer began selling Chromebooks.

Acer’s president, Jim Wong, has been one of the most vocal critics of Microsoft’s partners of late, first announcing disappointment in Microsoft’s decision to launch its own Surface computers and now suggesting that Windows 8 “is still not successful.” For its part, Microsoft has turned the finger-pointing back at PC makers, with The Register reporting last week that Microsoft feels partners didn’t build enough attractive Windows 8 tablets for the 2012 holiday season.

Blame game aside, the numbers are telling. This month, Microsoft announced sales of 60 million Windows 8 license sales, but that figure includes sales to hardware makers for new PCs that may not have been sold yet. And the overall PC market is down in terms of sales. In the final quarter of 2012, the industry experienced a decline of 6.4 percentage points over the year ago quarter.

A few reasons explain the sales decline. For starters, consumers and businesses may be holding on their older computers longer; unless you have a budget PC from a few years ago, you can very likely upgrade to Windows 8 or simply keep using Windows 7 for now.

Cheaper options for PC-like tasks are available as well: Smartphones to some degree and tablets to a much larger extent can handle many activities once reserved for computers. Plus, you can remotely connect to and use a computer from these tablets if needed.

The popularity of Google’s Chromebook is another example of less need for a traditional computer. It’s clearly not a full computer replacement but after using one since June of last year, it fits nearly all of my needs, for example. So much of today’s computing activities take place in a browser that the Chromebook can be a secondary device allowing an old computer to suffice for more resource intensive tasks or apps.

Ironically, Acer’s Chromebook entries are simply low-priced Windows laptops repurposed for Google’s Chrome OS. That cuts out any licensing fees to Microsoft, which if the market for Chromebooks grows, can hurt the company down the line. No Windows also means no Office; essentially a double whammy for Microsoft revenues if Acer’s Chromebooks become a hot seller. Samsung sells both Windows 8 computers as well as Chromebooks and it appears HP is entering this non-Microsoft market too.

Don’t think Acer is divorcing Microsoft, however. The company still builds Windows devices and surely makes the bulk of its PC division revenues from these.

In fact, I just received a Windows 8 tablet review unit from Acer — the Intel Atom-based W510 — and my initial impressions are mostly positive. The $599 tablet offers the benefits of touch when desired plus full Windows compatibility and an optional keyboard dock: A handy combination. But if that’s too much money for you, Acer’s Chromebooks start at a low $199; a price that will command more attention than any Windows 8 laptop on the market.

Google announced back in November that it was rolling out changes for AdWords Impression share reporting (the number of impressions received in a campaign or ad group divided by the estimated number of impressions you were eligible to receive).

The company added new columns to separate search and display impression share, and added hour of day segmentation and the ability to apply filters, see charts and apply automated rules using impression share metrics. They also improved the accuracy of how data is calculated.

Today, Google reminds users that it is continuing its plans to phase out the old impression share columns on February 4th, which is coming right up.

“Any saved reports using the old IS columns will need to be updated to use the new columns,” says product marketing manager Rob Newton. “If you don’t remove/replace those columns before they’re retired on February 4th, you won’t be able to run those saved reports.”

Saved reports will be updated to use the new columns.

Google continues to deal with the fallout from “Safari-gate” privacy scandal that led to a record fine (for a single company) from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission last August. The company was fined $22.5 million.

Now, iPhone users in the UK are getting together to sue Google over the debacle. The Guardian reports:

At least 10 British iPhone users have started legal proceedings and dozens more are being lined up, according to Dan Tench, the lawyer behind the action at the London-based firm Olswang.

“This is the first time Google has been threatened with a group claim over privacy in the UK,” he said. “It is particularly concerning how Google circumvented security settings to snoop on its users. One of the things about Google is that it is so ubiquitous in our lives and if that’s its approach then it’s quite concerning.”

There is a Facebook Group called “Safari Users Against Google’s Secret Tracking,” which has been set up by the law firm in connection with the users who are going after Google. In the “About” section, the description says:

This group has been set up to provide information for anyone who used the Safari internet browser between September 2011 and February 2012, and who was illegally tracked by Google.

If you have concerns or want to join the action, contact us via this group and we will share your views or put you in touch with the legal team.

It will be interesting to see how many users get on board with this, and what it ends up meaning for Google. A press release from Olswang has more on the case.

Over three years ago the Department of Energy allocated around $4.5 billion in stimulus funds for smart grid projects in the U.S. That included $700 million for demonstration projects that helped install technology like wireless data networks and battery farms for the power grid. With such a large amount handed out over a relatively short period of time, the chances of problems were high. And according to a newly released report from the Department of Energy’s Inspector General, the smart grid demonstration program had some management issues.

Those problems included:

1. Handing out funds for a couple projects for estimated costs instead of actual costs of projects, which resulted in over payments.
2. Funding a project that also received a grant from another DOE program, the ARPA-E program, for the exact same project.
3. Funding a project that had not handed in proper documents, and had not begun making the energy storage units that it claimed for the award.

The audit looked at just 11 projects, with a total of $279 million in awards, out of the $700 million smart grid demonstration program. Out of that section alone they found $12.3 million in questioned costs, and they have now recovered $6.6 million of those misspent costs, and plan to recover another $5 million. It’s probably safe to assume there’s similar levels of mismanagement throughout the entire $4.5 billion.

The report says:

The Department had not always managed the Program effectively and efficiently. . . .In the absence of significant improvements, the Program is at risk of not meeting its objectives and has an increased risk of fraud, waste and abuse.

As a result the report recommends that the program:

• Ensure adequate review of payments made to recipients
• Provide training to recipients on proper submission of reimbursement packages
• Ensure that recipients contribute their required cost-share from allowable sources
• Ensure the elimination of any potential overlapping funding among awards authorized by various Department programs
• Contracting officers should resolve the questioned amounts in our report.

The stimulus funds delivered an unprecedented, and game-changing amount of federal support for the next generation of power grid technology. It’s natural that with such a large amount of money allocated that mismanagement would happen.

One of the things not addressed in the report is how effective — or not — this type of stimulus program for smart grid projects actually was. Many in the industry back in 2010 complained that the funds actually had a sort of chilling effect on the sector, because the funds took awhile to actually get delivered, which meant utilities waited on these projects and didn’t put money into other new ones.

This photo of the Equinix SV5 data center shows the colorful overhead trays housing the miles of cabling for interconnections. (Photo: Equinix Inc.)

The social media team at Equinix recently posted some cool photos of the company’s SV1 and SV5 data centers in San Jose. “Do you love the symphony of cables like we do?” asked Equinix’s Phil Schwarzmann. It’s the latest example of data center companies showcasing the visual interest of their mission-critical facilities. Check out 10 Beautiful Photos of Equinix Data Centers on the Interconnections blog.

For more “data centers as art,” see The Top 10 Data Center Images of 2012.

Ashton Kutcher is not the only “Dude, Where’s My Car?” star making headlines today (the actor portraying Steve Jobs in the upcoming “jOBS” talked about being hospitalized for two days because of a fruitarian diet and tweeted an intriguing split image of himself and the real Steve Jobs).

Seann William Scott, who in addition to playing opposite Kutcher in the cult hit, is best known as Stifler form the American Pie films, has broken off his engagement to model Lindsay Frimodt, as confirmed by his rep to US Weekly (to set your soul at ease, the publication says the split was “amicable”). The two had been engaged at least since last March.

Prior to his engagement to Frimodt, Scott had reportedly been linked to Mad Men’s January Jones and Sin City’s Jaime King.

Seann William Scott can be seen in Movie 43, which opened on Friday. Here’s the red band trailer:

Google has updated its Flight Search tool to let users search for regions. Now, you can search for places in addition to just airports. Google made the announcement on its ITA Software blog. ITA Software is, of course, what powers the Flight Search feature.

“Let’s say you want to take your family to Hawaii for spring break, but you’re not sure which of the islands sounds most appealing,” says Google software engineer Peter Balsiger. “There is now a way to quickly and easily search for a broader set of destination information. In this case, instead of checking prices to Kailua-Kona or Kahului, you could type ‘Hawaii’ into Flight Search. Live prices would then appear on the map, so you can quickly compare the cost of the different options.”

“Whether you’re planning a trip on your desktop, tablet or phone, you can use Flight Search to search for countries, states, islands and even continents from any U.S. or Canadian origin,” he adds.

Balsiger encourages users to try searches like “Australia,” “Europe” or “Florida”.

Last month, Google upgraded Flight Search with a handful of new features, including Flight Explorer, which lets you browse flights by trip length, number of stops, airline, duration, outbound times and return times. The feature is still under the “experimental” label.

Also in December, MileWise began letting its users search with its ITA Software QPX pricing and shopping technology on their iPhones.

Actor Ashton Kutcher, who plays the role of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs in the film jOBS, told reporters after the film’s Sundance premiere, that he was hospitalized for two days before the movie started shooting. He reportedly said (via TV Guide) that he had adopted the “fruitarian diet” that Jobs was known to have lived on (as documented in Walter Isaacson’s biography of Jobs), and that it led to him spending two days in the hospital.

Last week, the first clip from the film hit the web. In case you missed it, you can see it again here. It features Kutcher and co-star Josh Gad, who plays Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, discussing Wozniak’s operating system, planting the seeds (pun semi-intended) for what would become Apple.

It should be noted that the real Wozniak has already made comments about the scene saying it didn’t happen that way, but it is, after all, a movie.

The film itself has received mixed reviews so far, but that’s to be expected from any film, let alone any film documenting the life of the controversial Steve Jobs.

Kutcher and Gad are set to appear at MacWorld/iWorld this week to talk about their experiences playing Jobs and Wozniak respectively. My guess is that we’ll hear more about Kutcher’s diet and hospitalization when that happens. They’ll speak on the main stage on Thursday.

jOBS hits theaters on April 19.