Apple

We're in an Apple store.

All the employees are terribly agitated. They're wearing green. Is it St. Patricks' Day? Not quite. It's a new ad -- sent to me by reader Marrec Selous -- that tweaks, pokes, teases, and tickles at Apple's softer parts.

The ad is on behalf of a British cider called Somersby. And the excitement within it mirrors that of an Apple product launch.… Read more

Normally, you'd think a rumor that never comes true, despite being circulated continuously for years, would shrivel up and die. Such is not the case with the legend of a fabled Apple TV set, which later became an Apple HDTV set, and now apparently is an Apple 4K screen, according to the latest iteration of the gossip.

But after all this time, the more pertinent question becomes not "will there be an Apple TV?" but "do we still care about an Apple TV?"… Read more

OK, fanboys and -girls, it's time once again to haul out your digital scrapbooking materials and add to your collection of Apple-related odds and ends.

It's been a fun month for Apple miscellanea. We saw the surfacing of a rare video of Woz circa 1984, which was digitized from a videotape found in a basement. And earlier there was the Fast Company interview with Ying Hang "Hannah" Zhang, the young Starbucks employee who took the "prank" call Steve Jobs made during the unveiling of the iPhone in 2007 ("I'd like to order 4,000 lattes to go, please. … Read more

Apple's nearly year-and-a-half old iMessage service has been found to be vulnerable to an attack that uses a flood of messages, or messages so long that the application is rendered unstable.

According to a report from The Next Web, a small group of developers have found themselves the target of an attack that does one of those things -- sending what could be thousands of messages.

The source is suspected to be someone with involvement in pirated iOS software, who could have gotten some basic information needed to send another user a message through Apple's messaging service, The … Read more

Apple is once again rumored to be planning a game controller.

Citing developer sources, Pocket Gamer says Apple has been floating the idea of a physical controller to developers at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, which wraps up today. The publication adds that such a device would be unveiled at a press event next month.

Pocket Gamer's report says Apple actually has a space reserved at the show for meeting with developers, but that it's using a false name to fly under the radar.

An Apple spokesman declined to comment on the report, citing company policy.… Read more

A Chinese animation film studio has sued Apple for allegedly selling its movies in its iTunes store without permission.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, citing a report from the South China Morning Post, Shanghai Animation Film Studio, which is backed by the Chinese government, has sued Apple for more than $500,000. The company argues that Apple sold over 110 of its movies, including "Calabash Brothers" and "Black Cat Detective," in the iTunes store without permission.

Apple has faced its fair share of troubles in China. The company last year was forced to pay $60 million to settle a lawsuit with Proview … Read more

iOS continues to be the preferred mobile platform in the business world, at least according to a recent report from Citrix.

Looking specifically at business customers who use its cloud-based management software, Citrix found that iOS was No. 1 with 58 percent adoption in last year's fourth quarter. Android took second place with a 35 percent share, followed by Window Mobile with only 7 percent. Among all deployed iOS devices using Citrix's sofware, iPads accounted for 53 percent and iPhones for 46 percent.

iOS actually showed a two-percentage point gain from the previous quarter, while Android's share … Read more

Apple will unveil its next iPhone on June 20 and kick off sales in July. At least, that's the claim from Japanese Mac enthusiast site MacFan.

Marking its 20th anniversary as a Mac-oriented Web site, MacFan suggests that the next-generation iPhone will take the stage at a Apple event on Thursday, June 20. The new iPhone will then go on sale a few weeks later in early July, as reported by Electronista.

The report further claims that Apple will launch the much-rumored low-cost iPhone in August and target it as a pre-paid device for developing markets such as China … Read more

The 13.3-inch Retina MacBook Pro has plunged to $1,299 at one retailer, a whopping $400 off its original price.

The model debuted at $1,699 in October. But it didn't take long for Apple to cut the price to $1,499 in February after widespread discounting from retailers such as Best Buy, Fry's Electronics, and MacMall.

Today we have new low, courtesy of MacConnection: $1,299.

It's obvious now that the original pricing on the Retina MBP was a miscalculation by Apple. And the additional $200 discount at MacConnection may indicate that $1,499 may … Read more