It was a landmark Android device, and it's been an iconic phone for Sprint, but it seems that this past week finally saw the venerable HTC EVO 4G reach end-of-life (EOL) status. According to an internal memo obtained by Sprintfeed, the EVO View 4G, Sprint's version of the HTC Flyer, will also be put out to pasture from Jan. 29. And there's bad news for our friends at CrackBerry, too, as it seems Sprint also plans to stop offering the BlackBerry Playbook from "late January".
While the EVO View (and the Playbook) haven't exactly been runaway successes, we're sure a few of you will have fond memories of the EVO 4G, which first appeared way back in June 2010. Hopefully we'll see these devices replaced by more compelling Android phones and tablets as the year progresses.
The BBC has updated its BBC News app for Android with Honeycomb and Ice Cream Sandwich tablet support. The app now offers a larger, split-screen view for tablets running Android 3.0 and above -- the layout seems very similar to the iPad version, which has been available since mid-2010. This tablet-optimized app is apparently designed for "larger" tablets only, and that 7-inch tablets will still default to the portrait-only smartphone app.
Following the initial release, the Beeb says it's looking to add new functionality like live streaming of the BBC News channel, and homescreen widgets.
The tablet version of the BBC News app is currently available on the Android Market in the UK, and will be rolling out internationally "soon". If you're in the UK, you can pick up the latest version of the BBC News app using the Android Market links after the jump.
We touched on the numbers in our report on Apple's Q1 earnings, but the company's throwing out a lot of "record" figures so we thought we'd take a moment to focus on just how its hardware sales stack up. The standout number is, of course, the 37.04 million iPhones sold during the quarter, which is up 128 percent from the same quarter a year ago (and up from 17 million in the previous quarter, a jump of 117 percent). That notably puts Apple back ahead of Samsung, which sold a total of 35 million smartphones in its most recent quarter. And as if that wasn't enough, Apple's Tim Cook also said on the company's earnings call that it could have sold even more if it had more supply.
iPad sales also set a new record with 15.43 million units sold during the quarter, which is a 111 percent jump from the 7.3 million sold a year ago, and a 39 percent increase from the 11.1 million moved in Q4 2011. Once again, however, iPods are the one category that continues to decline in the face of the growth of smartphones. Apple sold a total of 15.4 million iPods -- over half of which were iPod touches -- which represents a 21 percent decline from the 19.4 million sold a year ago. The holiday shopping season did boost sales considerably from the 6.6 million sold in the previous quarter, though.
Mac sales were also on the upswing, totaling 5.2 million units -- a 26 percent increase year-over-year. Breaking things down further, that translates to 1.48 million desktops (including iMac, Mac Mini and Mac Pro), and 3.7 million laptops (including the basic MacBook, MacBook Air and MacBook Pro). As for the company's "hobby," the Apple TV, it rang up 1.4 million in sales for the quarter, and 2.8 million for the 2011 fiscal year. Fans of charts can get their fix after the break. 
