The pace sure seemed to pick up last week, and I found it challenging to keep up. Here are a few of the highlights that crossed my screen:

Apple reported quarterly earnings, exceeding expectations for iPhone 6 sales. Some analysts said the iPhone was the best-selling smartphone in China in Q4. Apple reported $18 billion in net income for the quarter, setting a record for the largest corporate quarterly profit — ever.

The FCC's AWS-3 auction ended, raising a record $44.9 billion. AT&T bid the most: $18.2 billion. Surprisingly, Dish was second at $13.3 billion, with Verizon third at $10.4 billion. T-Mobile was a distant fourth, bidding a comparatively low $1.8 billion.

RFMD and TriQuint, now Qorvo, reported their respective financial results for the December 2014 quarter. (The results were separate since the merger closed after each company's quarter ended.) TriQuint's 2014 revenue achieved the long sought goal of $1 billion in annual revenue, a proud ending to its history as a stand-alone company.

What's next for Ralph Quinsey, TriQuint's former CEO and chair of the Qorvo board? The Portland Business Journal asked him.

Riding the tide of base station infrastructure growth — particularly in China — Freescale's RF revenue grew 57% in 2014 to $554 million. CEO Gregg Lowe spoke about the factors behind the success of the RF segment, as well as the outlook for the business, during the Q4 earnings call.

Custom MMIC announced a MMIC LNA covering 17 to 27 GHz, offering 1.3 dB noise figure, 24 dB gain, 19 dBm output at 1 dB compression, and positive gate and drain bias. The company designed the product for “military and space applications, as well as point-to-point and point-to-multipoint communication systems where small die size and high linearity are needed.”

ANADIGICS stock closed above $1 last Monday (January 26) — the first time since June 26. The closing price stayed above $1 throughout the week.

Companies to watch: Resonant is aiming to disrupt mobile filters with a new technology and design licensing model. Here's the pitch they're making to investors.

Nick Bilton of The New York Times says that in-flight Wi-Fi is worse than airline meals. My recent experience has been that Gogo, which uses air-to-ground links, is choking from the popularity. ViaSat's Exede, using an air-to-satellite link, fares much better. What's your experience?

Ten years ago, we hadn't heard of Facebook. Today, the social media platform has connected much of the world and is fueling the demand for more bandwidth.

Google has committed to deploy Google Fiber to 18 more cities in four metro areas: Atlanta, Charlotte, Nashville, and Raleigh-Durham.

Cable operators are pursuing their own strategy for dominating connectivity: offering Wi-Fi phone service in a quad play that threatens mobile operators. Caroline Gabriel shares her analysis.

The new space race: LEO satellites providing broadband Internet access for the billions without a fiber, cable, or cellular connection. Two competing systems are vying for investors. Teledesic deja vu?