Apple

Apple will likely tap into its hefty hoard of cash to fund a dividend increase of more than 50 percent, according to a consensus of six analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

A quarterly dividend rise of 56 percent would cost Apple $4.14 per share, or $15.7 billion a year. That seems like a lot of money to most companies. But Apple is sitting on cash of $100 billion and has been under pressure to return some of that money to its shareholders.

Greenlight Capital's David Einhorn, a major Apple investor, has criticized the company for not sharing its … Read more

Best Buy has kicked off another one of its iTunes gift card promotions.

The retailer is selling the $100 iTunes gift card for $80. As always, you can buy the card directly at one of Best Buy's outlets. Or you can order it online to pick it up at your local store or have it delivered directly to your home.

The sale applies only to the $100 gift card. All other iTunes gift cards from Best Buy remain at their usual price.

How long will the offer last? That seems to be a bit of a mystery.

The offer … Read more

Apple could shed some of its bad publicity once it gets back on track with a round of new products. At least, that's the opinion of a couple of Apple watchers.

In a panel led by TUAW editor in chief Victor Agreda, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster and TechCrunch columnist pundit MG Siegler opined about the latest hard-luck streak for the iPhone maker, as described by AppleInsider.

Siegler blamed much of the negativity about Apple on perception, calling it a "media-driven anomaly." But he also suggested that the company is a victim of its own success, asking … Read more

Apple sent me an e-mail yesterday.

The subject line was: "How will you love it? Let us count the ways."

Given that the e-mail's subject was the iPhone 5, this was an odd thing to be saying to someone who already owns an iPhone 5.

I like my iPhone 5. Love, though, comes to me quite rarely and often when I least expect it.

So sending me a long list of why I will love something that I already own seemed a forced and hurried response to the launch of Samsung's Galaxy S4.

But a response … Read more

Samsung's just-launched Galaxy S4 is nothing special -- it's simply another member of the wannabe-iPhone crowd. At least that's what Apple would have you believe by way of a new marketing effort for its storied handset.

"There's iPhone. And then there's everything else." reads the headline on a Web page added to Apple's site today -- two days after Samsung trotted out the S4 during a splashy (and, to some, rather puzzling) event at New York's Radio City Music Hall.

The Apple Web page -- reachable by way of a button … Read more

The George Lucas-founded audio-and-visual tech firm THX has filed a patent suit against Apple for allegedly swiping speaker technology for the iPhone, iPad, and iMac.

The suit, filed Thursday in federal court in San Jose, Calif., involves a patent called "Narrow Profile Speaker Configurations and Systems," which essentially covers various setups for directing sound from a small speaker or speakers toward a narrow, slotted opening in such a way as to produce the best possible sound quality.

The abstract of the patent says the speaker units "may be integral with or attached to electronic appliances such as … Read more

An iPad Mini with an upgraded display could appear later in the third quarter or fourth quarter, while a very-high-resolution Nexus 7 may be more imminent, according to DisplaySearch.

"We're seeing potential in the third quarter of panel production for a higher-resolution iPad Mini," DisplaySearch analyst Paul Semenza told CNET today.

"When would the Mini be available? Could be third quarter or fourth quarter," he said, adding that the speculation is DisplaySearch's best guess based on supply chain data.

Estimates about the timing for a Retina version of the iPad Mini have been all … Read more

The release of "Jobs," the first film about Apple co-founder Steve Jobs since his death in 2011, has been pushed back, its creators said today.

The film -- which was set for an April 19 release -- will now be released at another time, and likely for marketing reasons, says The Hollywood Reporter.

The film, which is not to be confused with a separate production penned by "The Social Network" and "The West Wing" writer Aaron Sorkin, stars Ashton Kutcher as Jobs. The movie covers the years 1971 through 2000. That bit of Jobs' … Read more

Apple today suffered another setback in securing the legal rights to one of its product names outside the U.S.

In a ruling this week, The Mexico Supreme Court upheld a lower court's decision to keep granting ownership of the iPhone name to a company named Ifone SA, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Ifone SA registered the moniker in 2003, four years before Apple launched its popular smartphone. The iPhone and Mac maker did not find this out until attempting to get the trademark for it in 2009, which led to a lawsuit.

Ifone SA has its own "… Read more