Apple

Apple has issued a fix for the graphics problems suffered by some owners of the company's new 17-inch MacBook Pro.

The firmware update was released Wednesday for owners of the MacBook Pro announced at Macworld and shipped in February. Some owners had reported problems with vertical lines polluting the display, and Apple says the new firmware should fix the problem.

Please let us know if you had any problems installing the update, or if the firmware update doesn't fix the problem. Based on the release notes for the firmware, it 's not clear whether this fix is related … Read more

EA Mobile is making a big bet on the iPhone and iPod Touch, announcing plans this week to port more than a dozen of its most popular games to Apple's gadgets.

EA Mobile's Travis Boatman--a fixture onstage at Apple's last two iPhone software events--announced this news during a keynote address at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco Tuesday. At some point this year, EA Mobile will release versions of franchises like Madden NFL, Wolfenstein, Command and Conquer, and NBA Live, according to PocketGamer.

Gaming continues to be one of the most active areas on the … Read more

Apple has switched on its Genius recommendation engine for videos, two weeks after releasing the latest version of iTunes (download for Windows and Mac) without the promised feature.

iLounge spotted the new Genius feature, which recommends movies or television shows you might be interested in purchasing from the iTunes Store based on your current video library. Apple unveiled a similar feature for music last year, but one notable difference with the video version is that it only seems to work with videos that have been purchased from Apple, according to iLounge's early testing.

When iTunes 8.1 shipped earlier … Read more

China Unicom did nothing to dispel rumors that it plans to be Apple's iPhone partner in China by posting images and specifications of the iPhone 3G on Tuesday.

The details (in Chinese), spotted by IDG News Service, are perhaps the strongest sign that China's second-largest carrier has won the deal to supply the iPhone to the world's largest mobile phone market. At this point, some may wonder why China Unicom wouldn't just wait for the new iPhone that is almost universally expected to arrive sometime around the middle of this year, but Chinese media reports have … Read more

Earlier this month Apple got hit with a lawsuit over an "exploding" iPod Touch. Now it appears to be getting hit with a suit over the exploding e-book market.

A couple of blogs, including Apple Insider, are reporting that a Swiss communications firm, Monec Holding, has filed suit in a Virginia district court. Monec accuses the iPhone maker of "patent infringement, unfair trade practices, monopolization, and tortious interference for allegedly treading on its January 2002 patent No. 6,335,678 titled 'Electronic device, preferably an electronic book.'"

We've never heard of Monec, but the mission … Read more

Update at 2:52 p.m. PDT, with a report from AdMob about global Internet traffic on smartphones.

With the popularity of Apple's iPhone mobile-application store growing and competitors Palm and Google teeing up their efforts, the number of smartphone users tapping into mobile-application stores are expected to reach 100 million in 2013, according to a research report released Tuesday by In-Stat.

Currently, the number of smartphone users accessing mobile-application stores is roughly a fourth of the projected 100 million users and is largely comprised of only iPhone users.

But with Google calling on third-party developers to embrace its Android smartphone … Read more

Two reports involving a purported next-generation iPhone dovetailed quite nicely Friday.

First off, Silicon Alley Insider reported that it had heard a "rumor" that the next-generation iPhone--expected to launch around the middle of the year but unconfirmed by Apple--would come with faster networking chips. The tipster apparently wasn't clear on whether or not that meant an upgrade to 802.11n Wi-Fi or an upgraded 3G chipset meant to take advantage of faster 3G networks in testing by AT&T, according to Electronista.

But it makes sense viewed against another rumor floated by AppleInsider with a greater … Read more

What's the difference between a Mac and a PC?

According to comments reportedly made by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer: $500 and a logo.

Ballmer, according to a report in TechFlash, issued his fighting words during his keynote speech at Media Summit 2009 in New York.

When asked about Apple's market share growth in computers, Ballmer reportedly responded with a barb to his competitor, according to TechFlash:

Apple gained about one point, but now I think the tide has really turned back the other direction.

The economy is helpful. Paying an extra $500 for a computer in this environment … Read more

Updated at 7:33 a.m. PST with clarification from Apple iTunes Web site.

A new feed has popped up on Twitter within the last week that links directly with Apple's iTunes trailers Web site.

The feed describes itself as providing "official trailers and theatrical content updates to Apple iTunes Trailers, Apple TV, and for the iPhone/iPod touch on Twitter."

The author of the feed responded to a question on its legitimacy this way: "Our focus is to tweet theatrical related info for our iTunes Trailers, Apple TV, and iPhone/iPod touch- that's all … Read more