iPhone

Updated at 4:55 p.m. PST with comment from Apple.

A judge has granted IBM's preliminary injunction aimed at preventing former executive Mark Papermaster from reporting for duty as Apple's new iPhone leader.

Apple hired Papermaster as the new head of iPhone and iPod development earlier this month, but IBM sued Papermaster last week claiming he is violating the terms of a noncompete agreement with IBM in accepting the job at Apple. U.S. District Court Judge Kenneth Karas ordered Papermaster on Friday to "immediately cease his employment with Apple Inc. until further order of this … Read more

Apple knew full well that Mark Papermaster would have to learn his new role as iPod and iPhone chief "on the job" when it hired him.

Papermaster's former employer, IBM, filed a lawsuit against him last week, claiming that he broke the terms of a noncompete contract with IBM in accepting a high-profile job with Apple. InformationWeek spotted Papermaster's formal response Friday morning, in which he declares that the two companies are not competitors and that his experience at IBM is not the primary reason why Apple sought his services.

The court filings reveal the interesting … Read more

A survey conducted by J.D. Power and Associates found Apple's iPhone generated the highest amount of customer satisfaction among smartphone-using businesspeople.

The survey of almost 1,400 respondents, which was conducted during August and September, ranked the iPhone first on a scale that asked respondents to rate the smartphones for ease of operation, operating system, physical design, handset features, and battery aspects. Apple's favorite gadget scored 778 points out of a possible 1,000 points, beating Research In Motion and Samsung.

The iPhone received perfect rankings in four of the five categories, with the exception of "… Read more

Apple's blowout quarter for iPhone 3G sales lifted it into second place among all smartphone vendors worldwide.

Canalys released market share stats on Thursday showing strong growth for the smartphone market even as the worldwide economic situation takes a turn for the worse. A total of 39.9 million smartphones were shipped during the third calendar quarter of the year, a 28 percent increase over last year's totals.

Nokia is still the leading vendor by a comfortable margin, holding 38.9 percent of the market. But shipments declined slightly, and market share fell 12.5 percent, compared to … Read more

AT&T Mobility chief Ralph de la Vega confirmed on Thursday that iPhone 3G users will be able to use their phones as wireless modems at some point next year.

De la Vega made the comments during a conversation with TechCrunch's Michael Arrington at the Web 2.0 Summit on Thursday. "Tethering" an iPhone to a laptop, and using the iPhone's mobile data connection to get online, is a service that iPhone users have wanted for some time but that AT&T was reluctant to provide, perhaps because it feared that a huge influx of traffic … Read more

Apple appears set to turn on over-the-air podcast downloads with the next version of the iPhone software, making it much clearer why it rejected a third-party application that did the same thing.

A German blog called Flo's Weblog has published screenshots purportedly from the next release of Apple's iPhone OS, version 2.2. One of the new features in that software, along with additions like Google Street View, will allow iPhone or iPod Touch users to download podcasts directly to their devices without having to connect the device to their computers and go through iTunes.

Sound familiar? That … Read more

Apple is ready to start a new chapter in the history of the iPod with a new leader for that group.

The company's selection of Mark Papermaster as the new head of iPod and iPhone hardware engineering points the way toward a more sophisticated future for Apple's mobile computers, as Apple has been hinting for over a year. The veteran chip and system designer will be tasked with overseeing the transformation of the iPod lineup from relatively simple music players to complex and powerful mobile devices, with the iPod Touch as the first example.

Longtime Apple executive Tony Fadell … Read more

In case you're just awakening from a coma, today's election day in the United States, and turnout's expected to set records.

But what about tomorrow? After the polling places have closed and the results are in, what can you do if you still hanker to cast a ballot and make your opinion count? OurStage offers you the chance to make or break thousands of independent artists by listening to and rating their songs.

The Web site's been around for more than a year, but last week the company added a free iPhone application as well. You … Read more

After the California primary earlier this year where my touchscreen voting machine literally rebooted in mid-vote, this time around I was wondering what California and/or San Francisco election officials would do. Sure, my buggy e-voting machine did have a paper receipt behind glass next to the machine that looked to have captured my choices accurately, but the whole experience was not particularly reassuring. What about those folks in states that do NOT have a paper record next to the machine?

This election, with all the hype, all the California propositions that really matter, is one where an independent record … Read more