Android and iOS drive mobile app explosion [infographic]

One year ago, less than 40% of mobile subscribers in the United States had a smartphone. That number has increased dramatically, however; according to Nielsen, one in two mobile subscribers now owns a smartphone. Driven mostly by the rise of Android and iOS, which account for more than 80% of the U.S. smartphone market, 2012 has turned into the year of the app. The average number of apps installed on each smartphone has jumped 28% in 2012, an increase from 32 apps to 41. Smartphone owners are also spending increasingly more time using apps than using the mobile web, roughly 10% more than last year. Nielsen notes that the top five most active apps continue to be Facebook, YouTube, Android

Factbox: Facebook's IPO: who gets rich?
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The rich are going to get richer when Silicon Valley's biggest IPO starts trading on Friday. Facebook this week raised the number of shares it intends to float by 25 percent to 421 million shares, and lifted the target price range to $34-$38 per share as investors clamored for a slice of the third-largest IPO in U.S. history. As a result, the No. 1 social network and its shareholders will now collectively reap more than $15 billion from the initial public offering - a $5 billion hike from early May, when Facebook sought an IPO of roughly $11 billion. ...

Watch: Ultrabook Reviews: Dell, HP and Samsung
Does the MacBook Air finally have real competition?

Mammoth 'Butchered' by Ancient Man
A young woolly mammoth, found remarkably well preserved in the tundra in Siberia, may have been attacked by lions -- but scientists say there are signs it was then butchered by ancient humans.

Sprint won’t turn a profit on the iPhone until 2015

Sprint’s costly $15.5 billion gamble on Apple’s iPhone won’t pay off until 2015, according to CEO Dan Hesse. At that time, however, the iPhone will be “quite profitable,� and the company is “very happy� with the deal despite conflicting reports, AllThingsD said. Hesse sees the iPhone as a long-term investment that will slow subscriber defections and attract new customers. “We believe in the long term,� the CEO said. “And over time we will make more money on iPhone customers than we will on other customers.� Sprint sold 1.5 million iPhones in the first quarter of 2012, and while the number doesn’t approach AT&T or Verizon’s sales, 44% of Sprint’s iPhone sales were made to new customers. Read

Water World: New 'Super-Earth' Found
Scientists report they have found an exoplanet -- a world orbiting a distant star, 22 light-years away -- that they call the best candidate yet to be the right temperature for liquid water and, perhaps, life. It is labeled GJ 667Cc, and it is located in the constellation Scorpio.