Apple

A firm in China has found a way to get users in China to download applications to their iPhones or iPads without having to pay a dime.

According to Venturebeat, which discovered the exploit, a Chinese "app store" known as 7659.com has taken advantage of a loophole in Apple's bulk enterprise licensing that allows users to download paid applications for free without having to jailbreak their devices, as they would in previous exploits.

Apple's enterprise app distribution platform allows a major company to deploy programs across all corporate devices, as long as they have a … Read more

All those curse words and other commands you yell at Siri hang around a bit longer than you may think.

In response to a Wired story expressing concern about Siri's privacy policy, Apple has revealed exactly what happens to your Siri chats. Apple spokeswoman Trudy Muller told Wired on Thursday that Apple may keep your Siri data for up to two years, albeit in an untraceable state.

Here's how the process works, according to Wired.

Whenever you talk to Siri, your commands are uploaded to Apple for analysis. Apple then assigns you a random number, which it associates … Read more

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

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

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

You don't have to be the host of "American Idol" to use Twitter Music anymore.

A little more than a month after CNET broke the news that Twitter was working on a stand-alone music discovery app and a week after that app was rolled out to an invite-only group of celebrities and others -- including Ryan Seacrest -- the general public can now get its hands on the music discovery app.

Twitter officially unveiled #music on Thursday during "Good Morning America." The company later provided more details about the service in a blog post, saying … Read more

The iPad 5 is coming! The iPad 5 is coming!

Yes, if the rumors are to be believed, we're not too far away from seeing Apple unveil a fifth-generation iPad that it may or may not call the iPad 5. That new iPad is speculated to be trimmer and lighter than the iPad 4, which was unveiled last October, and features a design borrowed from the iPad Mini.

It will most likely offer the same or slightly speedier performance than the iPad 4, which runs on an A6X processor, deliver similar battery life despite its trimmer size, and cost … Read more

Apple can never keep its nose out of anything for too long.

A patent application filed recently describes a laptop hybrid that could be charged wirelessly. Could this be the game changer that nobody's been waiting for?

Windows' next iteration might make things easier for users with the touch of a button. And according to a recent report, Microsoft can't let everyone else have all the smartwatch fun. Unfortunately.

What do you think about an Apple laptop hybrid? Is it something you'd buy? Does wireless charging up the ante? Leave a comment and let us know your … Read more