Evening news roundup for January 6, 2014

Good evening! Here's the Apple news for Jan. 6, 2014:

• There are a couple hours left until midnight, which means if you haven't downloaded the final gift from Apple's 12 Days of Gifts, you'll need to hurry up and do so. The giveaway ends with a mini album from The Rolling Stones.
• Apple will announce its Q1 2014 earnings on Jan. 27 at 5 PM ET/2 PM PT. An audio webcast will be provided after the earnings release. We will have full coverage of the earnings report on TUAW.
• The latest numbers from ComScore show that Apple's hold on the US smartphone market has risen to 41.2 percent. Even though Android runs on a larger percentage of phones, iPhone usage continues to far outpace the Android competitors with Samsung phones coming in at 26 percent.

• It's not the best time of year for the Nest thermostat to be having issues, and a 4.0.1 update has been rolled out to address WiFi and battery problems. However, Nest tells TechCrunch that the 4.0 release isn't behind Nest having issues with cycling on and off or just not working altogether.

  Customers like Clayton and Richard (seen above) have been flocking to social media to report Nest problems ranging from annoyance to disaster. Some say they've come home or woken up in the middle of the night to a freezing cold house. When they investigate their Nest, they find it turning on and off repeatedly, or suddenly out of battery. In some cases it's shut off or down their heat. One unlucky customer had his pipes freeze because his house got so cold.

• Pebble unveiled a $250 Steel version of its smartwatch for CES this year. It's up for pre-order now and will be on sale Jan. 28. The company also said it's preparing to open its own app store by the end of this month.

Finally, kick back and relax with some of these features that appeared on TUAW earlier today:

• The Book and I: How the iPad has changed my reading life
• 8 Time Machine excuses that don't make sense
• Cut the Rope 2 perfects the art of having in-app purchases without being a jerk
• Waterfield Designs Outback Solo bag for iPad Air: Style and substance
• The most frustrating thing you've never noticed about your iPhone's home screen
• Rumor Roundup: '2014 is the Year of (x)'
• 10 tips for getting the most out of your Apple TV