A service that exists to let people broadcast their physical location has, fittingly enough, begun operating in a few more spots.  There’s word today that Facebook Places now works in Brazil, Bulgaria, Egypt, India, Israel, Malaysia, the Philippines, and South Africa.

Facebook Places only crossed the Atlantic for the first time in September, rolling out in the UK, so the latest expansion makes for a quick – and impressive – continuation.  Assuming nothing goes wrong, it’ll demonstrate that Facebook has plenty of skill dealing with different languages and unusual technical demands.

The move also shows that Facebook thinks it’s addressed all the privacy issues related to Facebook Places to the satisfaction of many different cultures.

Then here’s one more interesting thing about the new rollout: it puts additional pressure on Orkut and Facebook’s check-in rivals.  After all, Brazil and India were two of only a handful of countries around the world where Google’s social network has achieved much success, and now people there have another reason to use Facebook.

As for how this could affect a company in the check-in space, Willis Wee pointed out, “1.7% of the Foursquare users come from Malaysia.  Foursquare last reported that it has 6 million users.  So, 1.7% would be equivalent to 102,000 users. . . .  That doesn’t look too good, especially when Facebook has over 10 million users in Malaysia.  If just 10% of users were to adopt the Facebook Places, it would be practically game over for Foursquare in Malaysia.”

Anyway, credit goes to Wee, who’s based in Malaysia, and Philippines-based Arnold Zafra for reporting the development.

Apple released its second-quarter financial results today. This includes a record March quarter driving 83% revenue growth, and 95% profit growth.

Second quarter revenue came to $24.67 billion with profit at $5.99 billion ($6.40 per diluted share). For the same period last year, the company reported 13.50 billion revenue and $3.07 billion profit.

The company also recorded year-over-year iPhone sales growth of 113%, having sold 18.65 million iPhones in the quarter. In addition, the company sold 3.76 million Macs (28% YoY growth), 9.02 million iPods (a 17% YoY decline), and 4.69 million iPads during the quarter.

“With quarterly revenue growth of 83 percent and profit growth of 95 percent, we’re firing on all cylinders,” said CEO Steve Jobs. “We will continue to innovate on all fronts throughout the remainder of the year.”

CFO Peter Oppenheimer added, “We are extremely pleased with our record March quarter revenue and earnings and cash flow from operations of over $6.2 billion. Looking ahead to the third fiscal quarter of 2011, we expect revenue of about $23 billion and we expect diluted earnings per share of about $5.03.”

iPhone sales estimates had been all over the board, but clearly they’re doing well, based on this earnings report. Analysts expected the iPad to be doing a little better, but it looks like Apple will survive. iPod decline isn’t entirely shocking.

The iTunes store had its best quarter ever, Oppenheimer said in the conerence call. This included $1.4 billion in revenue.

He also noted that Apple will be celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Apple Retail Store on May 19, and that in a few days they will welcome their one billionth visitor. Apple plans to open 40 new stores in fiscal 2011.

COO Tim Cook talked a bit about the tragedy in Japan and how it might impact earnings in Q3. He said that there has been disruption for many suppliers of components, but employees have been “working around the clock” with suppliers in Japan on contingency plans. He says Apple does not anticipate any material impact to component supply or cost in fiscal Q3 barring any unpredictable, unforeseen incidents (aftershocks, etc.).

Google has launched Google Earth Builder, a tool to enable businesses to use Google’s cloud to manage geospatial data, create custom map layers, and share Google Earth/Maps layers.

Organizations can scale services for traffic spikes, reduce server costs, and control source data and attribution, according to the company.

“Whether you have terabytes of imagery or just a few basemap layers, now you can create multiple map layers from your data, such as shapefiles of demographic data, spreadsheets of worldwide customer locations and files of your recently acquired imagery for a new development,” says Tarun Bhatnager, Google’s Head of Geo Enterprise Sales. “You can also integrate the map layers with our own imagery basemap, road data, Google Street View, Terrain View, or Directions in order to find your next best store location.”

“In the enterprise a lot of geospatial data remains trapped on costly servers and inaccessible to those who need it,” Bhatnager says. “We’d like to help free that data and bring the same benefits that consumers have enjoyed for years to businesses and government agencies.”

If you’re interested in seeing how businesses and government organizations are already using Google Earth and Google Maps, Google has page full of case studies here. Organizations include the Air Force Weather Agency, Toyota Motor Europe, The City and County of Washington DC, Dell, and Apple, to name a few.

On a related note, Google Earth has been downloaded over 700 million times.

Smell that? Yeah, it’s the crisp smell of Sandy Bridge chips. The iMacs were starting to smell a bit stale with older Intel Core CPUs and low memory ATI graphic cards. Not anymore. Apple just rolled out the latest models and as expected, rock Intel’s latest i5 and i7 Core CPUs along with ThunderBolt I/O.

The base model 21.5-inch model no longer slums with a Core i3 CPU. The budget iMac now has a Core i5 and 4GB of RAM. Likewise, the Core i3 option is gone from the 27-inch model range as well as the whole model range are rocking at least new quad-core chipsets.

The iMac line is the next platform to rock Intel’s Thunderbolt I/O technology. The dual protocol chipset enables both DisplayPort and PCI Express devices to run simultaneously through a bidirectional pipeline running 10 Gbps each way. Like on the new MacBook Pros, this is done through an adapter and daisy chaining as the 21.5-inch iMac has one port with two on the 27-inch model.

FaceTime HD is now featured in the iMac line as well. It supports HD video calling between HD-enabled Macs and standard definition calling on the iPad 2, iPhone 4 and other Intel-based Macs.

Pricing starts out at $1199 for the 21.5-inch iMac with a 2.5GHz quad-core i5, AMD Radeon HD 6750M and 500GB. The base 27-incher rocks a 2.7 GHz quad-core Intel Core i5, AMD Radeon HD 6770M and 1TB hard drive for $1,699. Of course things can get a bit frisky once more expensive options are selected. Shipping today.

Apple Announces New iMac With Next Generation Quad-Core Processors, Graphics & Thunderbolt I/O Technology

CUPERTINO, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Apple® today updated its signature all-in-one iMac® with next generation quad-core processors, powerful new graphics, groundbreaking high-speed Thunderbolt I/O technology and a new FaceTime® HD camera. Starting at $1,199, the new iMac is up to 70 percent faster and new graphics deliver up to three times the performance of the previous generation.*

“Our customers love the iMac’s aluminum enclosure, gorgeous display and all-in-one design”
“Our customers love the iMac’s aluminum enclosure, gorgeous display and all-in-one design,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “With next generation quad-core processors, powerful new graphics, Thunderbolt technology and a FaceTime HD camera, we’ve made the world’s best desktop even better.”

The new iMac features quad-core Intel Core i5 processors with an option for customers to choose Core i7 processors up to 3.4 GHz. These next generation processors feature an integrated memory controller for an amazingly responsive experience and a powerful new media engine for high-performance video encoding and decoding. With new AMD Radeon HD graphics processors, the new iMac has the most powerful graphics ever in an all-in-one desktop.

iMac is the first desktop computer on the market to include groundbreaking Thunderbolt I/O technology. The 21.5-inch iMac has a single Thunderbolt port while the 27-inch model features two ports for even greater expansion. Developed by Intel with collaboration from Apple, Thunderbolt enables expandability never before possible on an all-in-one computer. Featuring two bi-directional channels with transfer speeds up to an amazing 10Gbps each, Thunderbolt delivers PCI Express directly to external high performance peripherals such as RAID arrays, and can support FireWire® and USB consumer devices, and Gigabit Ethernet networks via adapters. Thunderbolt also supports DisplayPort for high resolution displays and works with existing adapters for HDMI, DVI and VGA displays. Freely available for implementation on systems, cables and devices, Thunderbolt technology is expected to be widely adopted as a new standard for high performance I/O.

iMac includes a built-in FaceTime HD camera and Apple’s innovative FaceTime software for crisp, widescreen video calling the whole family can enjoy. The new camera supports high definition video calls between all FaceTime HD-enabled Macs and standard resolution calls with iPad® 2, iPhone® 4, the current generation iPod touch® and other Intel-based Macs. The iMac continues to feature its signature aluminum and glass design, gorgeous IPS LED-backlit high resolution display, SD card slot and comes with Apple’s innovative Magic Mouse or Magic Trackpad.

Continuing Apple’s commitment to the environment, Apple’s desktop line is a leader in green design. The iMac meets stringent Energy Star 5.2 requirements and achieves EPEAT Gold rating.** iMac features LED-backlit displays that are mercury-free and made with arsenic-free glass. iMac uses PVC-free components and cables, contains no brominated flame retardants, uses highly recyclable materials and features material-efficient system and packaging designs.

Every Mac comes with Mac OS® X Snow Leopard®, the world’s most advanced operating system, and iLife®, Apple’s innovative suite of applications for creating and sharing great photos, movies and music. Snow Leopard builds on more than a decade of innovation and includes the Mac App Store? for finding great new apps for your Mac. iLife ’11 features iPhoto® with stunning full screen views for browsing, editing and sharing photos; iMovie® with powerful easy-to-use tools to transform home videos into fun theatrical trailers; and GarageBand® with new ways to improve your playing and create great sounding songs.

Pricing & Availability

The new iMac is available through the Apple Store® (www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers. The 21.5-inch iMac is available in two configurations: one with a 2.5 GHz quad-core Intel Core i5, AMD Radeon HD 6750M and 500GB hard drive for a suggested retail price of $1,199 (US); and one with a 2.7 GHz quad-core Intel Core i5, AMD Radeon HD 6770M and 1TB hard drive for a suggested retail price of $1,499 (US). The new 27-inch iMac is available in two models: one with a 2.7 GHz quad-core Intel Core i5, AMD Radeon HD 6770M and 1TB hard drive for a suggested retail price of $1,699 (US); and one with a 3.1 GHz quad-core Intel Core i5, AMD Radeon HD 6970M and 1TB hard drive for a suggested retail price of $1,999 (US).

Apple has just announced the availability of the white iPhone. Unlike the black iPhone, it is able to reflect all colors of the visible spectrum, thereby making it white. It will be available tomorrow at Apple retail stores, AT&T, and Verizon wireless. It will also be available in the following countries on Thursday, April 28:

White models of iPhone 4 will be available in Austria, Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Macau, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, UK and the US

Standard pricing. Our long national nightmare is over.

CUPERTINO, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Apple® today announced that the white iPhone® 4 will be available beginning tomorrow. White iPhone 4 models will be available from Apple’s online store (www.apple.com), at Apple’s retail stores, AT&T and Verizon Wireless stores and select Apple Authorized Resellers.

“We appreciate everyone who has waited patiently while we’ve worked to get every detail right.”
“The white iPhone 4 has finally arrived and it’s beautiful,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “We appreciate everyone who has waited patiently while we’ve worked to get every detail right.”

iPhone 4 is the most innovative phone in the world, featuring Apple’s stunning Retina™ display, the highest resolution display ever built into a phone resulting in super crisp text, images and video, and FaceTime®, which makes video calling a reality.

Pricing & Availability

White models of iPhone 4 will be available in Austria, Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Macau, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, UK and the US, beginning Thursday, April 28 and in many more countries around the world soon. White iPhone 4 will be available for a suggested retail price of $199 (US) for the 16GB model and $299 (US) for the 32GB model with a new two year agreement through the Apple Store® (www.apple.com), at Apple’s retail stores, AT&T and Verizon Wireless stores and select Apple Authorized Resellers.