Apple Inc

Apple Inc. may bid for the rights to a wireless spectrum auctioned by the Federal Communications Commission, a risky but intriguing move that would help carry the consumer electronics company into the telecommunications realm. Citing unnamed sources, BusinessWeek reported Monday that Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs had "studied the implications" of bidding on the spectrum, which analog TV broadcasters will return to the government in 2009 as they switch to digital television.

Chinese authorities have found 22 more fake Apple Inc. stores in the city of Kunming after the uncovering of a fake Apple store in that city by a blogger. China's Administration for Industry and Commerce has suspended previously exposed stores from doing business, but the 22 newly discovered stores are instead being ordered to stop using Apple's logo and trademarks, according to a report from Reuters. State media reports said Apple China had filed a complaint with the government and accused such fake stores of unfair competition and trademark violation.

If you think Bluetooth is a rare dental condition and an app is what you eat before the entree, you might not be a candidate for today's high-tech, whiz-bang smart phones. Instead, you might be happier with a mobile phone geared toward seniors. Those phones typically don't have Web-surfing capability, GPS maps and video games. Instead they have large buttons, oversized digital readouts and hearing-aid compatibility, along with a relatively simple calling plan. Although senior-friendly phones aren't new, their lower prices and variety are. A recent price skirmish among wireless companies means seniors can get an easy-to-use cellphone and cheap service to go with it, said Mac Haddow, senior fellow on public policy for the independent and nonprofit Alliance for Generational Equity.

HBO is going mobile. The pay TV network on Monday will begin offering its subscribers access to watch HBO programming on Android mobile devices and Apple Inc.'s iPhone and iPad tablet. "That device has changed television," HBO Co-President Eric Kessler said this week, pointing to an iPad during an interview at the company's Santa Monica offices. HBO hopes the iPad will kick-start HBO Go, the online viewing option for current HBO subscribers that the network launched last year.

The new, high-octane iPhone 3GS is loaded with features that could light up your life -- but its battery isn't one of them. Buyers are finding that the device, introduced two weeks ago, has trouble making it through a workday without a rest stop at the electrical outlet. It's proving to be something of an Achilles' heel on Apple Inc.'s flagship device, more than 1 million of which were sold in the first weekend.

Eight iPhone owners have joined an elite clan: Their gadget is running a program that cost nearly $1,000. When the iPhone first hit the market in June 2007, those who paid the $499 entry price -- and signed the two-year AT&T contract -- owned a status symbol. A year later, we have the iPhone 3G, Apple Inc.'s speedier, sleeker and, most important, less expensive smart phone, which introduced a section for downloading third-party applications.

Now the iPod can answer the question: Am iDrunk? A new product called the iBreath turns Apple Inc.'s iPod into an alcohol breathalyzer. The $79 accessory plugs into the base of the iPod and functions like a field sobriety test. The person using the iBreath exhales into a retractable "blow wand" and the internal sensor measures the blood-alcohol content. Within two seconds, it displays the results on an LED screen. A reading of 0.

Apple Inc., the company that popularized selling songs online for 99 cents apiece, now hopes to buoy interest in albums, giving customers credit for purchases of full albums from which they have bought individual tracks. Apple introduced the Complete My Album feature on its iTunes Store. It now gives a full credit of 99 cents for every track the user previously bought and applies it toward the purchase of the complete album.

Apple Inc. cut the price for its iPod Shuffle by 38% as demand for the music player slowed. The 1-gigabyte device, Apple's smallest model, will have a retail price of $49, the Cupertino, Calif., company said. The previous price was $79. Apple also introduced a version with double the storage for $69. The bigger Shuffle, which clips onto clothing, can hold about 500 songs.

Apple Inc. said Google Inc.'s YouTube Internet video site will soon be available on its Apple TV set-top box. Starting in mid-June, Apple TV will stream videos wirelessly from the Internet on YouTube, the company said. Thousands of the most current and popular YouTube videos will be available then, it said.

Propelled by huge demand for the latest iPhone model, Apple Inc. on Monday posted tremendous increases in earnings and sales as it overtook BlackBerry's maker in the rankings of smart-phone manufacturers. The tech juggernaut once again trounced analysts' expectations for earnings as well as sales, but its stock slumped in after-hours trading because of an unexpected drop in a key measure of profitability. Still, "the one data point that really jumps out is the stunning iPhone number," said Yair Reiner, an analyst at Oppenheimer & Co. Apple sold 14.1 million iPhones in the fiscal fourth quarter, which ended Sept.

When Apple's iPad debuted on April 3, it was greeted in some quarters of the tech world by a chorus of critiques. With no phone, no camera and no multitasking, how could it be revolutionary? And yet, when it comes to the iPad's e-reader, revolutionary is exactly what it might be. It's not just that the iPad is beautiful. Nor is it just that the touch-screen interface is more intuitive than the controls on the plastic shell of the Kindle -- which up to now has been the dominant e-reader.

Amid an atmosphere of carefully cultivated euphoria, Apple fans across the country waited in lines Saturday morning, excited to get their hands on the first of Apple Inc.'s new iPad tablet computers. "It's a new member of the family," said Pat Fallis, a Burbank producer who, along with his wife and a friend, had been waiting at the Grove in Los Angeles since 2 a.m. When Fallis was finally allowed into the store, blue-shirted Apple employees greeted him and other customers as though they were football players taking the field at the Super Bowl, with choreographed whoops, applause and high-fives.

When Apple Inc. Chief Executive Steve Jobs showed off the new iPad -- complete with built-in bookstore -- on Wednesday he praised Amazon.com Inc. for pioneering the electronic book business with its popular Kindle reading device. But moments later, the compliment took on an ominous tone when Jobs added, "We're going to stand on their shoulders and go a little further." At first glance, the multimedia iPad -- with its fast, colorful touch screen and built-in Web browser and video player -- would seem to outshine the slower Amazon device.

Apple Inc. Chief Executive Steve Jobs sat in a leather chair onstage with all the tech world watching Wednesday as he showed off his much-anticipated and talked-about design marvel. He was placing a risky bet that the company could again change the world of entertainment, but this time adding books. Jobs, clad in his trademark black turtleneck and jeans, called the device "magical" and "revolutionary." He demonstrated the 1.5-pound tablet-style computer, called the iPad, that will let users download and read books, surf the Web, check e-mail, play games, and watch movies and TV shows.

Only Steve Jobs could make anticlimax seem so fascinating. After the Apple CEO unveiled his company's most fervently anticipated new product at an invitation-only media event Wednesday, most of the anticipation was left in the bottle. Despite months of hype heralding an entirely novel kind of electronic device, the reality was underwhelming. The iPad resembles a scaled-up iPhone -- without the phone. It's an iPod too big to fit in your pocket yet too small in capacity to hold your entire music collection, with a Web browser featuring excellent graphics but tied to a data network (AT&T's)

Apple Inc. won dismissal of a lawsuit claiming company directors and managers including Chief Executive Steve Jobs lied to shareholders about how they backdated option awards to maximize their personal profit. U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel in San Jose dismissed the suit because it was based on alleged false statements made about the awards more than three years before the case was filed, according to his order.

According to a regulatory filing, Apple Inc. Chief Executive Steve Jobs exercised options to buy 120,000 shares for $5.75 each and may reap a potential profit of $13.7 million. The Cupertino, Calif.-based company gave Jobs the options under a 1997 plan. Jobs hasn't sold the shares and has no plans to do so at this time, Apple said.

It's not just anticipation for a much-hyped tablet device that's boosting Apple Inc.'s cult status with investors. The consumer electronics giant nailed its most profitable quarter ever Monday, blowing past expectations with a $3.4-billion profit in the last three months of 2009 -- nearly a 50% jump from a year earlier -- on a 34% rise in revenue. The record performance came on the heels of a blockbuster holiday shopping season in which Apple continued to lure shoppers without discounting its products that command premium prices, particularly its line of Mac personal computers.

Not since biblical times has the arrival of a tablet been greeted with such anticipation. Apple Inc. won't reveal the details of what is widely expected to be a new tablet computer until Wednesday, but it has already shaken up the publishing world, whose executives wonder whether the device will revolutionize the distribution of newspapers, magazines and books in the same way that the iPod transformed the music industry. Fueling widespread speculation, Apple last week invited reporters to "come see our latest creation" but provided no other information.