Apple announced Tuesday it has opened an online store selling used products in China in an effort to expand its business there, according to a Reuters report.

The new store is offering discounts of up to 22 percent on various refurbished products. Apple said on its Web site that the products had been previously sold, then returned, and had undergone quality tests, Reuters reported.

An Apple representative in China would not say how many products are available on the site. But the store was featuring such items as an iPod shuffle for 308 yuan ($45) and an iMac for 14,… Read more

Offering a unique perspective on Steve Jobs' health, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak is speaking out in the media on his old friend's leave of absence and its likely effect on the company.

In an interview with NBC11 in San Jose, Calif., Wozniak said investors and the media should be respectful of his privacy.

"What he says, we ought to accept," Wozniak said in response to a question about Jobs' health.

Wozniak also said Jobs' six-month absence shouldn't have a negative effect on Apple's product line:

The developer of an iPhone app that has been cracked and distributed for free said he is considering pursuing criminal charges against whoever is responsible for the piracy.

On the Apple App Store, Annoy-A-Teen sells for 99 cents. But now you can get the amusing app--which plays a high-pitched tone at the press of a button that is inaudible to most adults but highly annoying to teens--for free on a pirate site, said Christopher Kemsley, an electrical engineering student trying to pay his way through college.

"I made, in a month, about the same amount of money as professionals … Read more

An e-book submitted to Apple's App Store has been approved after the author removed language that apparently offended Apple.

CNET's David Carnoy wrote a book called Knife Music last year, and attempted to submit it to the App Store as an e-book. Apple rejected his application for containing "objectionable content," which appeared to be a couple of uses of that four-letter word that starts with F.

But Carnoy decided to remove that type of language from the book, which he said didn't amount to all that many words in the first place. Upon resubmitting the … Read more

Apple CEO Steve Jobs' disclosure that he'll have to take some time off to tend to his health did not clear up any of the mystery surrounding exactly what is ailing the man.

By any measure, Jobs has lost a lot of weight over the last year. He has only said that he is suffering from some sort of hormone imbalance that is preventing his body from properly absorbing protein and therefore is causing weight loss. The problem has apparently become "more complex" in the last several days.

Let's look at what we know and what … Read more

Apple may have wanted to protect Steve Jobs' privacy with the way it chose to address his health. But the end result is a credibility problem that will not go away easily.

After initially reassuring the public that Jobs' health issues were real, but not all that serious, Apple's statement Wednesday that his problems had grown "more complex" outraged many investors and corporate governance experts. Jobs will remain Apple's CEO, but he is turning the responsibility for day-to-day operations over to COO Tim Cook until the end of June to focus on his recovery.

Now that … Read more

Update at 2:29 p.m. PST, with closing stock price.

Shares of Apple took a hit Thursday at the market open, falling 5.7 percent as investors demonstrated their anxiety about the company following the news that CEO Steve Jobs is taking a medical leave.

Apple opened at $80.50 a share in morning trading, down from its close of $85.33 a share Wednesday. But by the end of the regular trading session, Apple narrowed the gap, with its shares closing down 2.29 percent to $83.38 a share.

While a number of Wall Street analysts predicted … Read more

Clarification at 7:02 a.m. PST: This article originally noted Silicon Alley Insider's report that Dan Lyons has been banned from CNBC. A CNBC representative disputes that assertion.

Newsweek columnist Dan Lyons, whose anonymous "Fake Steve Jobs" satire blog took the tech world by storm in 2007 went on a blunt rant on cable network CNBC that questioned its journalistic tactics--but contrary to a blog report, CNBC says he has not been banned from appearing on the network.

Lyons was facing off against CNBC's Silicon Valley bureau chief, Jim Goldman, in a segment about the … Read more

How will Apple fare without CEO Steve Jobs at the helm for six months? History provides some indication.

Clearly, Apple will miss its legendary CEO while he takes a leave of absence to recuperate from health problems that are apparently much more serious than previously thought. But Apple is in far better shape in January 2009 than it was in August 2004, when Jobs announced he had undergone surgery for pancreatic cancer and would have to take a few months off.

These days the company has three strong product lines, a worldwide network of retail stores and, with $24 billion … Read more