Sprint Nextel Corp. has reported operating income of $29 million for its first fiscal quarter. The company's adjusted OIBDA [operating income before depreciation and amortization] of US$1.5 billion was the highest in nearly four years.

Sprint (www.sprint.com) reported smartphone sales of five million. Of that number, 1.5 were iPhones with 43% being sold to new Sprint customers. Eighty-six percent of quarterly Sprint platform postpaid handset sales were smartphones.

"This is a transformative year for Sprint and we’ve gotten off to a good start," says CEO Dan Hesse. "Record Sprint platform service revenue and subscriber levels fueled our performance."

Move over, road warriors, and enter the new era of productivity warriors. Many businesses are now using mobile devices to automate inside their building or company campus, according to a recent survey by FileMaker, Inc. (www.filemaker.com). Further, businesses are building custom solutions to automate and “mobilize” processes in nearly every department.

Database software maker FileMaker -- with millions of deployments, including more than 500,000 downloads of FileMaker Go, a free app for accessing FileMaker databases from iPad and iPhone -- polled customers on their use of mobile devices to boost business productivity. The research included a survey of 499 customers who have deployed FileMaker solutions on iOS devices as well as an analysis of 102 mobility case studies.

"The next wave of business mobility, fueled by iPad and iPhone-equipped 'productivity warriors,' is delivering real ROI [return on...

DEVONtechnologies has released maintenance updates for all their commercial products from DEVONthink over DEVONsphere to DEVONagent, as well as their freeware products EasyFind, PhotoStickies, and XMenu.

The updates are free and recommended for all users. The overall reliability and performance of all apps have been enhanced, according to the folks at DEVONtechnologies. Other improvements include various minor changes to the user interface that make the workflow with DEVONthink and DEVONnote smoother. Go to http://www.devontechnologies.com for more info.

Ergonis Software (http://www.ergonis.com) has released Typinator 5.5, the latest version of its tool for auto-typing text and auto-correcting typos systemwide across all Mac OS X applications. The upgrade introduces calculation fields, which provides text expansions for users without any programming skills.

With a simple inclusion mechanism, text expansions can execute external scripts and include their results in the expansion. Typinator supports scripts written in in many different languages like AppleScript, Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby, and arbitrary shell scripting languages.

Typinator requires Mac OS X 10.5.8 or later. Mac OS X 10.6 or higher is recommended.

Typinator can be purchased on the Ergonis Software web site for approximately US$32 for a single user license. A family pack for installation on up to five computers is $49. The upgrade to Typinator 5.5 is free for anyone who owns a...

Apple has announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a significant increase to the company’s program to return capital to shareholders. The company expects to utilize a total of $100 billion of cash under the expanded program by the end of calendar 2015.

This represents a $55 billion increase to the program announced last year and translates to an average rate of US$30 billion per year from the time of the first dividend payment in August 2012 through December 2015.

As part of this program, the Board has increased its share repurchase authorization to $60 billion from the $10 billion level announced last year. This is the largest single share repurchase authorization in history and is expected to be executed by the end of calendar 2015. Apple also expects to utilize about $1 billion annually to net-share-settle vesting restricted stock units.

Additionally, the Board has approved a 15% increase in the company’s quarterly dividend and today has...

The US International Trade Commission (ITC) has dismissed a complaint by Google-owned Motorola Mobility accusing Apple of infringing on patented technology that makes touchscreens ignore fingers when people are holding smartphones to their ears for calls, reports "ZDNet" (http://tinyurl.com/brycsyv).

The filing by acting ITC secretary Lisa Barton indicated that the investigation into the Motorola complaint filed in late 2010 has been terminated. The ITC reasoned that the technology at issue in the patents wasn't original enough to support the accusation.

This is part of an ongoing battle. Apple has alleged that Motorola infringes 24 of its patents (21 of them with Android-based phones, the remaining three with set-top boxes and DVRs), while Motorola previously asserted 18 patents against a variety of Apple products (mostly but not exclusively iPhone, iPad and iPod). Litigation between the two...

WD is shipping what it says is the world's first ultra-slim 2.5-inch, 5 mm hard drives and solid state hybrid drives (SSHD), which are designed for integration into the slimmest devices and space-constrained computing environments.

With 500GB of storage capacity and models with high performance-enabling solid state hybrid drive technology, this slim product line helps to address the tradeoffs system designers often make between capacity, physical size and performance, says Matt Rutledge, vice president of WD's client computing business unit.

The new drives are aimed to increase internal storage capacity while enabling it to fit into smaller device slots, he adds. Shipping today to select industrial distributors and OEM [original equipment manufacturer' customers in 500GB capacities, WD Blue 2.5-inch 5 mm hard drives have a manufacturer's suggested retail price of US $89. For more info go to http...

Akitio has released a new 256GB, one-bay, bus-powered Thunderbolt storage solution. It's a follow-up to the company’s 120GB SSD solution, which was previously launched in 2012.

Akitio has upgraded the 120GB SSD to meet the demand of consumers by rising up to the challenge and offering an upgraded 256 GB SSD version of the Neutrino Thunderbolt, says Richard Wright, director of Global Distribution, Akitio. In addition, the 256 GB version is the fastest one bay bus powered external storage device on the market today with 464 MB/s data transfer speeds, he adds.

Akitio’s 256 GB Neutrino Thunderbolt Edition is available for purchase at an manufacturer's suggested retail starting price of US$339.99. It can be found at Akitio.com, as well as Amazon.com and other various Akitio retailers and distributors.

Logitech introduced two new products to its tablet accessories lineup with the Logitech FabricSkin Keyboard Folio for iPad (pictured) and the Logitech Folio for iPad and iPad mini. They protect the front and back of your tablet, says Mike Culver, vice president of brand development for tablet accessories at Logitech.

Both are offered in a range of colors from electric blue and sunflower yellow to Mars red orange, and in an array of on-trend fabrics from matte leather to finely woven cotton. The Logitech FabricSkin Keyboard Folio features the first Bluetooth keyboard with its keys fused into an interior fabric.

Its full-size keys give you the tactile feedback you’re used to in a traditional keyboard, but in a sleek new look, says Culver. The keyboard folio’s high-end fabrics are treated with a coating that's liquid repellent. Hidden magnets hold your iPad in two positions, snapping your tablet into typing mode and ensuring the folio stays shut when you’re moving...

The US$15 "AntennaGate" settlement checks have started arriving for qualifying iPhone 4 users, as noted by "TUAW" (http://tinyurl.com/dyrsbwv).

The checks are a settlement for those who filed a claim in a class action lawsuit against Apple for "misrepresenting and concealing material information in the marketing, advertising, sale, and servicing of its iPhone 4–particularly as it relates to the quality of the mobile phone antenna and reception and related software."

"Antennagate" is the popular term used for reported glitches with iPhone 4 call reception.The settlement comes from 18 separate lawsuits that were consolidated into one.

Intel has doubled the speed of the Thunderbolt data transfer technology, which will soon shuttle data between host computers like Macs and peripherals at a rate of 20Gbps.

As noted by "Computerworld" (http://tinyurl.com/dym2qg7)) this is the first big speed boost for the interconnect, which has held steady at a 10Gbps data transfer rate since the technology's introduction in early 2011. The enhancement will give Thunderbolt an edge over USB 3.0, which transfers data at 5G bps.

The speed boost comes through a new Thunderbolt controller chip code-named Falcon Ridge, notes "Computerworld." The controller chip will go into production by the end of this year, Intel said.

NEC Display Solutions of America has announced the 24-inch MultiSync P242W-BK and P242W-BK-SV, entry-level professional desktop widescreen monitors with LED backlights.

The MultiSync P242W display (pictured joins the MultiSync P Series family, which features standard-gamut monitors designed for web, high-end desktop and photography. Its white LED-backlit AH-IPS panel only requires 29 watts of typical power while its ambient light sensor automatically adjusts the display’s brightness based on lighting conditions, says Art Marshall, product manager for Professional and Medical Displays at NEC Display Solutions.

The P242W offers an array of connectivity options with DisplayPort, DVI-D, HDMI and VGA inputs. Additionally, it’s USB with DisplaySync Pro feature can be used to operate two computers with only one keyboard and mouse.

The MultiSync P242W-BK-SV features hardware color calibration using the NEC SpectraViewII color calibration solution. The kit, which is...