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'Twas a very mobile Christmas (week in review)

iOS and Android device activation soars on December 25, while the NSA is secretly looking for vulnerabilities in large-scale utilities. Also: An Apple wristwatch?

Steven Musil Night Editor / News
Steven Musil is the night news editor at CNET News. He's been hooked on tech since learning BASIC in the late '70s. When not cleaning up after his daughter and son, Steven can be found pedaling around the San Francisco Bay Area. Before joining CNET in 2000, Steven spent 10 years at various Bay Area newspapers.
Expertise I have more than 30 years' experience in journalism in the heart of the Silicon Valley.
Steven Musil
2 min read

Android and iOS devices were apparently popular gifts this Christmas -- more popular than ever before.

Device activations soared from their daily December average of 4 million to 17.4 million on Christmas Day, a 332 percent increase, according to analytics firm Flurry. That's more than double the 6.8 million devices activated on Christmas last year, the previous single-day record holder. And in a first, more tablets were activated on Christmas this year than phones. Apple tablets dominated the category, but the Kindle Fire HD 7-inch made its strongest showing ever.

iPhone and iPad app downloads jumped 87 percent on Christmas Day as compared with the average for the month, according to data from mobile analytics firm Distimo. Sales from all those downloads rose by 70 percent on December 25.
•  Tablets more popular than e-readers among e-book crowd
•  Windows Phone store doubles to 150K-plus apps
•  Google names best Android apps of 2012
•  Mobile: 10 predictions for 2013

More headlines

NSA targeting domestic computer systems in secret test

The National Security Agency's Perfect Citizen program hunts for vulnerabilities in "large-scale" utilities, including power grid and gas pipeline controllers, new documents from EPIC show.
•  Stuxnet attacks Iran again, reports say

Apple rumor watch: iOS timepiece on drawing board?

Never mind the Nano doing double duty. New scuttlebutt out of China suggests that Apple is teaming up with Intel to fashion a bona fide iOS-based watch.
•  Apple wins critical SIM connector patent

Netflix outage mars Christmas Eve

The company's video streaming service went down for an undetermined number of people across the Americas. The outage continued into Christmas morning for some customers.
•  Netflix to get 'social features' next year

Instagram loses millions of users

Photo-sharing service records a nearly 25 percent drop in the number of daily active users in the wake of a terms of service controversy.
•  Instagram hit with proposed class-action lawsuit
•  Randi Zuckerberg loses control on Facebook (and Twitter)

China tightens the screws on Internet users

The country will now require all citizens to use their real names when signing up for an Internet account and force Internet providers to delete posts deemed "illegal."
•  China to curtail trademark trolls
•  Apple ordered to pay Chinese writers in copyright dispute

HP confirms: Feds investigating the Autonomy acquisition

In its new annual report, Hewlett-Packard says the Department of Justice has opened an inquiry into the $11 billion 2011 deal, now allegedly marred by accounting impropriety.
•  Autonomy founder fires back at HP after news of DOJ inquiry

Also of note
•  Amazon again tops in e-tail customer satisfaction; Apple slips
•  Apple's Tim Cook sees his 2012 pay fall 99 percent
•  Wikipedia's most-viewed articles in 2012 were...