Back in the late 1990s, the world was first introduced to the CueCat, a consumer-aimed handheld scanner which allowed users to simply scan barcodes in printed publications rather than type in arcane web addresses. I can't help but see a correlation between yesterday's CueCat and today's QR Codes.

While commenting on rumors that Samsung is favoring tablets over netbooks in 2012, Acer vice president Scott Lin set the record straight on Acer’s netbook stance. From DigiTimes:

Lin pointed out that several emerging markets such as China, India and Indonesia still have strong demand for netbooks and the company will continue to target these markets as their focus for netbooks.

With potentially less competition in the netbook market, and actual demand in emerging markets, maybe Acer can pull larger profits from their netbooks’ currently thin margins. Although netbooks have already run their course in the U.S., I wouldn’t rule them out completely internationally, and it appears Acer is set to milk them until the end.

While U.S. demand for BlackBerry’s smart phones could be described as tepid at best, people in Indonesia were willing to riot over them. From TechCrunch:

A crowd of 3,000 people waited in line today in Jakarta, Indonesia for a new smartphone. In fact, the group got so out of control that riot police had to be brought in to calm the masses.

[…]

RIM may have bitten off more than it could chew this morning promising a 50 percent discount on the handset for the first 1,000 buyers. Turns out, about 3,000 people wanted to be one of those lucky thousand, and when the announcement came that the phone had sold out… Well, things got ugly. According to the Press Association, the masses were “rattling the gates” and later “went crazy” after hearing they would not only miss out on the discount, but the phone entirely.

While it’s great to see strong demand for a BlackBerry device, it’s unfortunate that the main message to come out of this event was civil unrest and violence.

While enroute to Sydney, Australia, passengers aboard Regional Express flight ZL319 were given a fright as an iPhone 4 “started emitting a significant amount of dense smoke accompanied by a red glow.” A flight attendant extinguished the phone and fortunately no one were harmed.

Apple recently announced a recall for the first generation iPod nano, citing “in very rare cases, the battery in the iPod nano (1st generation) may overheat and pose a safety risk.” While rare, a defective battery does have the potential to cause electronic devices to overheat and catch fire. Judging by the age of the iPhone 4, I feel it is safe to assume this is most likely an isolated incident.

From the Regional Express Press Release:

MEDIA RELEASE

MOBILE PHONE SELF COMBUSTION

iPhone 4 Fire

Regional Express

Regional Express (Rex) flight ZL319 operating from Lismore to Sydney today had an occurrence after landing, when a passenger’s mobile phone started emitting a significant amount of dense smoke, accompanied by a red glow.

In accordance with company standard safety procedures, the Flight Attendant carried out recovery actions immediately and the red glow was extinguished successfully.

All passengers and crew on board were unharmed.

The matter has been reported to the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) as well as the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) for investigation and directions.

The mobile phone in question appears to be an Apple iPhone (see picture below) and has been handed over to ATSB for analysis.

Regional Express (Rex) is Australia’s largest independent regional airline operating a fleet of more than 40 Saab 340 aircraft on some 1,300 weekly flights to 36 destinations throughout New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia and Queensland. The Rex Group comprises Regional Express, air freight and charter operator Pel-Air Aviation and Dubbo- based regional airline Air Link, as well as the pilot academy Australian Airline Pilot Academy.

[Via BGR]

Falling in line with the positive news regarding Kindle Fire sales, iPad 2 also received a significant bump in sales on Black Friday. From AllThingsD:

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster surveyed a few Apple stores on Black Friday and found that iPad sales per hour were 68 percent higher than they were a year ago. On average, the stores Munster visited sold about 14.8 iPads per hour, up from 8.8 iPads per hour last year, more than enough to support the analyst’s projection of 13.5 million iPads sold in the December quarter.

Deutsche Bank analyst Chris Whitmore’s analysis is similar to Gene Munster’s, leading him to believe that iPad 2 sales are tracking in line with his estimate of 14 million iPad sales for the December quarter.