Apple

Several smartphone makers are finding themselves short of product this spring, not just Apple.

A few weeks ago, Apple's retail stores were extremely low on iPhones, which at the time was attributed to a clearing of the channel before the next revision to the product brought 3G speed. But Apple's not the only company dealing with lean inventories, according to a research note from Morgan Keegan spotted by Electronista.

Research In Motion and Palm are also short on certain smartphone models, with RIM's carriers running low on BlackBerry Pearls and Palm's Treo 755p hard to find. … Read more

A report out of Italy Monday suggests that Apple is planning to revamp its business model with the launch of the iPhone in that country.

It's always tough to correctly interpret translations, but check out the report from La Repubblica and read it for yourself. In short, the report claims that Apple is getting ready to launch a 3G iPhone in Italy with Telecom Italy, and that the carrier will not have to pay Apple a share of the data revenue earned from iPhone users, nor will it have an ongoing exclusive. As a result, the iPhone will be … Read more

Psystar finally managed to get its Internet store back up and running Saturday, and promised that all Mac clones ordered to date will soon be on the way.

if you haven't been following the saga of Psystar, check out our coverage this week. In short, Psystar is selling home-built Open Computers with Mac OS X Leopard preinstalled, which is a violation of Apple's licensing policy for Mac OS X.

The company has been besieged with orders, attention, and skepticism this week after news of its existence spread far and wide. Most of the attention focused on the fact … Read more

Steep price cuts to the iPhone in Europe are a sign that carriers overestimated demand for Apple's first smartphone, according to a report.

O2, the iPhone's U.K. carrier, and T-Mobile, its German carrier, both cut the price of the iPhone by a significant margin this week, in a move seen by many as a prelude to the debut of a 3G iPhone within the next couple of months.

Before the 3G iPhone arrives, carriers will need to clear their shelves of the current EDGE model, which will look pedestrian next to the faster model. An O2 representative … Read more

Psystar's store remained down on Friday, as its former payment-processing company expanded its explanation of why it pulled its services from the computer maker's site.

Anyone who might have wanted to order an Open Computer last night or today has been stymied by the second interruption in Psystar's online store.

The first interruption, on Wednesday, was caused when Powerpay pulled its services after Psystar violated the terms of its agreement, as reported by CNET News.com.

My colleague Richard Koman, at ZDNet, obtained a statement from Powerpay's CEO, explaining the reasons why his company pulled Psystar'… Read more

The New York City school system has refused to accept any more iMac shipments until Apple fixes a Wi-Fi flaw, according to a report.

MacNN is reporting that the city's Department of Education has instructed Dell Managed Services, which is apparently the DOE's IT partner, to stop all iMac shipments until Apple fixes a Wi-Fi connectivity issue. The exact nature of the issue wasn't explained in MacNN's report, which cited an e-mail from Apple to school faculty apologizing for the problems.

It's unclear how long this problem has been going on, but AppleInsider reported that … Read more

Mac clone maker Psystar's Web store went down again on Thursday evening, the second time in as many days that the company has experienced an interruption in service.

"We're sorry but the store is temporarily down," Psystar said in the Store section of its Web site late Thursday. The company has been selling computers preinstalled with Mac OS X Leopard through that store, in violation of Apple's licensing policies for Mac OS X.

Psystar's site went down Wednesday after Powerpay, a payment-processing company, pulled its services from Psystar after the company violated the terms … Read more

Microsoft just held a summit on the next version of Windows Mobile, and one attendee is excited about the product, but worried about the timing.

Brandon Miniman of PocketNow posted a recap (thanks, Gizmodo) of his trip to Redmond for the Microsoft MVP Summit to check out Windows Mobile 7. He couldn't get into details, as he had signed an NDA about the event, but hinted that the leaked screenshots earlier this year are pretty close to what you should expect from Windows Mobile 7.

Microsoft just released Windows Mobile 6.1 at the CTIA show on April 1. … Read more

Updated 3:35 p.m. PDT with additional details and comments from conference call.

As we already knew, times are still tough for Advanced Micro Devices.

The company reported its first-quarter financial results Thursday after the close of the market, and it continues to lose hundreds of millions of dollars. AMD had already warned investors that revenue would fall short of early expectations, and the official number, at $1.5 billion, was in line with the revised expectations.

For the quarter, which ended March 29, AMD lost $358 million based on generally accepted accounting principles, but that number includes $50 … Read more