Apple

Not satisfied with just smartphones, MP3 players, and computers anymore, the rumor mill has now tacked on "smartwatch" to the list of potential hot items that Apple will develop and manufacture. Dubbed "the iWatch," chatter about Apple producing this sort of wearable tech is timely, considering that smartwatches seem to be on the mind of a number of other companies as well.

From bendable glass to an OLED screen, we gather all the dish on Apple's iWatch. Please note that we'll continue to update this roundup periodically and feel free to let us know … Read more

Apple's next iPad will be both thinner and lighter than its predecessor, bringing back the company's old habit of iPad shrinkage.

That's according to KGI Securities analyst Mingchi Kuo, who in a note to investors last night said to expect a full-size iPad that's 15 percent thinner than the fourth-generation device and weighs 25 percent less.

The size reduction is due to a handful of tweaks, Kuo said. That includes a battery that's 25 percent to 30 percent smaller, and improvements on display panels and A-series chip technology, which now slurp up less juice. Apple … Read more

A plastic, cheaper iPhone might be a reality, after all.

After rumors surfaced recently suggesting Apple would launch a thicker, cheaper, plastic iPhone, an image seeming to be just that device has hit the Web. Earlier today, mobile case maker Tactus shared a photo of what it claims is the rear, plastic casing on Apple's next iPhone.

It's not clear how Tactus might have received the casing or whether it's real, but it follows a rumor in February from Japanese Apple-news site Macotakara, which claimed that a cheaper, plastic iPhone was on the way to store shelves.… Read more

Apple likely sold around 35.5 million iPhones last quarter, according to Piper Jaffay analyst Gene Munster.

In an investors note out Thursday, the analyst cited the 4 million iPhones activated by Verizon last quarter, which represent a 56 percent share of the carrier's smartphone sales and are inline with Munster's expectations.

Though that number is down from the December quarter's 63 percent, Munster believes such a decline is expected since the holiday quarter was the first full quarter of iPhone 5 sales, a period when the phone's share of the market is typically at its … Read more

The technology behind Apple's iTunes U, a repository of educational information for students and teachers, has been outed by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

According to Patently Apple, which first to discover the patent application on Thursday, Apple filed for a patent on the technology that powers iTunes U. Interestingly, the technology in the patent application is called Virtual University, but Apple ostensibly decided it wasn't the right name for its service.

So, what does Apple's application describe? The application describes a method by which instruction information is displayed within a graphical user interface. The … Read more

Verizon Wireless sold 4 million iPhones in the first quarter.

The breakdown of iPhone sales was split evenly between the iPhone 5 and older iPhones, Chief Financial Officer Fran Shammo said during a conference call Thursday.

The company sold 7.2 million smartphones in the period, with 28 percent going to customers new to Verizon. Shammo declined to provide a figure for Android sales.

In total, Verizon sold 9.7 million devices on a contract basis, with 87 percent of those being phones of some sort.

The 4G LTE push continued in the first quarter. Verizon activated 5.9 million … Read more

At retailers, Apple's 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro has found a happy medium between a fire sale and Apple's official pricing.

Online retailers like MacMall and MacConnection are selling Apple's smallest Retina MacBook for $1,499 -- with a bonus.

That price gets you a 256GB solid-state drive -- a step up from the $1,499 model that Apple offers with a 128GB drive.

And that 128GB model is even cheaper at MacConnection, which now appears to have settled on a less drastic discount of $1,399 after practically fire-selling it earlier this month for $1,299.

Why … Read more

After climbing to more than $700 eight months ago, Apple's shares continued their steep decline on Wednesday. After falling below $400 for the first time since 2011, the shares closed at $402.80, down $23.44, or 5.5 percent.

This has been a slow-motion stock rout as many Wall Streeters have soured on Apple, reducing forecasts for the company while adopting a decidedly negative opinion about its future prospects. The trigger for today's sell-off was Cirrus Logic, which supplies analog and audio chips to Apple. The company issued a disappointing quarterly forecast, which got interpreted as a … Read more

Comedy site Funny or Die beat out the competition in getting "iSteve," the first Steve Jobs biopic, out for viewing. Take that, Ashton Kutcher. In all that haste, Funny of Die may have cut a few corners as far as accuracy goes. That's left the film open for evisceration by Apple fans on high alert for anachronistic images.

The film is full of tripping Steve Jobs scenes, Bill Gates beating computer components with a hammer, and Steve Wozniak looking like he just wandered off the set of "Lost." It's also full of computer parts that just don't fit the time period. It's the sort of thing that will either make Apple fanboys giggle, or send them up in arms to the Internet to complain.… Read more