Foxconn CEO Terry Gou just can’t help himself: When he sees an opening to stir up controversy, he goes all in.

Last month, Gou added fuel to the Apple TV rumor fire when he said that his company was making preparations for the iTV. Now, Gou is urging consumers to hold off on buying Samsung’s new flagship smartphone. Instead, he says, we should all get an iPhone 5 when it eventually is released.

At a shareholders’ meeting Monday, Gou reportedly said that the new model “will put Samsung’s Galaxy S III to shame.”

Gou also reportedly called Samsung “a company with a track record of snitching on its competitors” — a reference to a European price-fixing investigation of the flat panel industry in 2010. And how’s this for an inflammatory statement: “I respect the Japanese and especially like their execution and communication styles. Unlike the Koreans, they will not hit you from behind.”

According to gaming blog Kotaku, Japanese blogs are actually reporting that Gou used more colorful language, calling the Koreans a slang word for “country hicks.”

Foxconn confirmed an alliance with Japan’s Sharp Electronics Co. on Monday. Gou said the partnership should help his company defeat Samsung Electronics in 3 to 5 years.

The theory is that Apple would have engineered this new dock connector in order to comply with the European Union directive to standardize chargers around micro-USB. This would make the iPhone compatible with the standard set by the European Standardisation Bodies CEN-CENELEC and ETSI, as well as by the Open Mobile Terminal Platform.

If this is true, it would be good news for consumers. They would be able to use any micro-USB cellphone charger and they would be able to keep their current peripherals working with the new iPhone by using an adapter as the one imagined by Italian blog

Because Apple restricts the way third-party web browsers can work with iOS, Chrome isn’t substantially different from any other mobile web browser. In fact, it’s basically just the UIWebView (geek speak for the basic Mobile Safari rendering engine) with a customized skin.

That’s not a bad thing — Mobile Safari is a great mobile web browser — but it mean that users have to accept a few trade-offs. First, Apple restricts the super fast Nitro JavaScript engine to its own Mobile Safari browser. For security reasons, third-party apps can’t use Nitro within their own UIWebViews.

The lack of Nitro JavaScript support is one of the reasons Facebook for iPhone is so slow (and why the team is building a native version of the app).

In practical terms, this means that web pages aren’t going to load any better in Chrome for iOS than they would in any other third-party browser. Moreover, Mobile Safari will always have the home-field advantage.

Second, because Apple won’t allow users to designate default apps, users will have to manually invoke Chrome for iOS each time they want to use it. This works fine for most tasks — just move the Chrome iOS icon to your home screen or dock.

It does mean, however, that tapping links in email, messages or other apps will still open in Safari.

Apple Inc. posted a sharp gain in earnings for its third fiscal quarter on Tuesday afternoon, but the company missed Wall Street’s targets as sales of the iPhone fell 26% from the previous period.

Apple shipped approximately 26 million iPhone units during the June quarter. Analysts were expecting a little more than 28 million units shipped for the period. The company had shipped a little more than 35 million units in the March quarter, but analysts believe customers are beginning to hold off their purchases as they await the expected launch of the so-called iPhone 5 later this year.

Shares of Apple fell more than 5% in after-hours trading following the report. The company also gave a lower-than-expected forecast for the September quarter.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/app...?siteid=yhoof2

Apple Reports Third Quarter Results

17 Million iPads Sold

Board Declares Quarterly Dividend of $2.65 per Common Share

CUPERTINO, California—July 24, 2012—Apple® today announced financial results for its fiscal 2012 third quarter ended June 30, 2012. The Company posted quarterly revenue of $35.0 billion and quarterly net profit of $8.8 billion, or $9.32 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $28.6 billion and net profit of $7.3 billion, or $7.79 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 42.8 percent compared to 41.7 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 62 percent of the quarter’s revenue.

The Company sold 26.0 million iPhones in the quarter, representing 28 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter. Apple sold 17.0 million iPads during the quarter, an 84 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. The Company sold 4.0 million Macs during the quarter, a two percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. Apple sold 6.8 million iPods, a 10 percent unit decline from the year-ago quarter.

Apple’s Board of Directors has declared a cash dividend of $2.65 per share of the Company’s common stock. The dividend is payable on August 16, 2012, to stockholders of record as of the close of business on August 13, 2012.

“We’re thrilled with record sales of 17 million iPads in the June quarter,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “We’ve also just updated the entire MacBook line, will release Mountain Lion tomorrow and will be launching iOS 6 this Fall. We are also really looking forward to the amazing new products we’ve got in the pipeline.”

“We’re continuing to invest in the growth of our business and are pleased to be declaring a dividend of $2.65 per share today,” said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO. “Looking ahead to the fourth fiscal quarter, we expect revenue of about $34 billion and diluted earnings per share of about $7.65.”

Apple will provide live streaming of its Q3 2012 financial results conference call beginning at 2:00 p.m. PDT on July 24, 2012 at www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/earningsq312. This webcast will also be available for replay for approximately two weeks thereafter.

http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2012...r-Results.html