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SHENZHEN, Guangdong province, China -- A young man, wearing a short-sleeve, white, button-down shirt, is looking at my 32-gigabyte iPhone 4S.

The man, sitting at a small stand in front of the massive SEG Electronics Market here, surfs to the settings page on the device, looks at the model number to determine where the phone came from. He sees it's a locked device. He notes there aren't any scratches or dings, and that it seems to work just fine. It should. I bought it last October, when the 4S first went on sale in the United States.

He … Read more

For those hoping Google had a version of its maps application on standby in the event that Apple's own maps app shipped, a new report suggests otherwise.

Citing two people familiar with the matter, The Verge says Google was caught flat-footed by the news that Apple would be rolling out its own mapping software, in part because there was still more than a year of mapping service as part of the agreement between the two companies.

As a result, the report claims, Google has been "scrambling" to finish a replacement Google Maps application but the app is &… Read more

Apple's efforts to trademark an icon for its iOS music player in the U.S. have been denied due to design from a company that no longer exists.

As part of a decision handed down by the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board last week, the group found Apple's icon a bit too similar to one issued to iLike in 2008, upholding an initial finding from a trademark examiner.

iLike, of course, no longer exists. The company was gobbled up by MySpace in late 2009 and was eventually absorbed into the company's own music product.

"In comparing … Read more

Here's a new one from the world of whacky maps brought to you courtesy of Apple. It turns out that Apple's maps in iOS 6 -- which has brought images such as this wobbly rendition of New York's Williamsburg Bridge, and this free-falling road over the Hoover Dam -- is anything but helpful when you want to get off the Interstate? Which Interstate? Well, any of the ones we looked at, from California to New Jersey. Just check out the maps above, which shows Interstate 80 and U.S. Route 50 near Sacramento. Google maps shows the … Read more

Navigation company Garmin is continuing to capitalize on users who are in search of an alternative to Apple's new maps platform.

As part of an update to four of its iPhone apps today, the company added support for the iPhone 5 and iOS 6, as well as public transit features and Google's Street View -- two things that were removed in the big overhaul of Apple's own maps application.

Users can also add on a 3D panorama view that adds three-dimensional elevation views that Garmin says are sourced from data from NASA.

Not all of the features … Read more

A stall tactic may be the strongest weapon in Google's strategic arsenal right now.

The Mountain View, Calif., Internet giant is facing a lot of questions about when it will offer Google Maps in Apple's app store, but the company doesn't seem to be in any hurry. Google Chairman Eric Schmidt said earlier today that Google hasn't made any attempts to provide its mapping app for the iPhone 5, and CNET confirmed independently that Google hasn't yet submitted an app for approval. Schmidt added that it's largely up to Apple, which has to approve … Read more

The Big Apple is seeing a surge in stolen Apple devices.

The latest data from the New York City Police Department shows that iPhone and iPad thefts have soared 40 percent this year so far, compared with the same period last year.

Between January 1 and September 23 of this year, a total of 11,447 cases of stolen iDevices were reported to the New York City police, a rise of 3,280 over 2011, NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said in a report sent to CNET.

"As if to mirror the market place, thefts of Apple products increased this … Read more

Apple's new Lightning cable technology has gotten kudos from reviewers for its smaller size and reversibility, though some users are experiencing troubles getting the USB end of the cables to unplug from their computers and other devices.

CNET readers have e-mailed us, pointing to a pair of support threads on Apple's site (here and here) in which several people describe problems getting the cables out of the USB ports on their computers, with some going so far as to break out pliers and even take their machines into one of Apple's retail stores to get the cable … Read more