News

Targeted search advertising firm, Chitika, last week released the results of an iPhone usage study that showed a positive correlation between iPhone usage and education level - states with a higher percentage of the population holding a Bachelor's or higher degree had a higher percentage of iPhone users. No geographic correlation was uncovered, but the study also showed a positive correlation with population density.

Apple last week released its executives' 2014 earnings. Newcomer Angela Ahrendts topped the list with $73.3 million, with the majority of it coming from a $70 million stock award. Tim Cook received a compensation increase and more than doubled his earnings from the previous year, going from $4.2 million to $9.5 million. To be clear, Tim Cook is the better compensated of the two. He received a $70 million stock award in 2013, and when he took over as CEO, he received a $378 million payout package plus $373 million in stock options.

The oft-quoted and usually reliable KGI Securities analyst, Ming-Chi Kuo, released a research note in which he forecasts record breaking iPhone sales for Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) during the holiday quarter, a March launch for the Apple Watch and a 12-inch MacBook Air sometime before April.

Ming-Chi estimates in his note, which was obtained by AppleInsider, that Apple has sold 73 million iPhones in the holiday quarter, including 43 million iPhone 6 handsets and 16 million iPhone 6 Plus models. This would be a record breaking number for Apple and would surpass the average estimate of around 69 million sales. He believes the success will continue into Q2 FY 2015, amounting to another 61.7 million sales.

Imagine an iPhone display that's thinner, looks better, and extends battery life to boot. Reports indicate that Apple supplier Foxconn is partnering with InnoLux on a new manufacturing plant. The facility would be dedicated to producing OLED panels for Apple wearables and smartphones.

The Foxconn plant is slated to enter mass production in 2016, which could align smartphone OLED production with an iPhone 7 launch later that year. The Apple Watch is currently the only Apple product known to utilize an OLED display, despite past rumors of the technology heading to the iPhone.

Google Translate received a major update, to version 3.1.0 with several new features. The iOS app continues to improve, with Word Lens integration for live text translation. Aiming the iPhone camera at printed text, such as a sign or restaurant menu will reveal an instant translation via augmented reality.

This feature translates French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish into English and vice versa for starters. Google plans to add more languages to Word Lens soon. In the meantime, 36 languages can be translated using a still photo of text. Once the text is captured, words or sentences can be highlighted for translation.

Three members of Mojang's development team held a live stream and answered questions from fans about Minecraft: Pocket Edition. The team mostly talked about the upcoming 0.11 update they are currently working on. You can watch the full video below or click here for a good summary of the event.

Lots of mobile gaming news is coming out of PAX South which is going on right now in San Antonio, Texas. Touch Arcade got an early look at tinyBuild's upcoming puzzle game Divide by Sheep and Undead Labs Moonrise.