Sales of prepaid smartphones in the US consumer market have risen dramatically, doubling in the last year and "continuing a string of more than 12 quarters of triple-digit sales increases" according to a new report from market analysts NPD. Prepaid phones -- defined as either premium smartphones such as the iPhone bought outright to avoid a contract or low-end smartphones aimed at lower-income consumers -- increased 11 percent in year-over-year in the first quarter of 2013.
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In the aftermath of the devastating tornado that cut a path of destruction through Oklahoma City on Monday, wireless carrier AT&T announced that overage charges would be suspended for the area until June 30 as part of an effort to assist victims, many of whom lost everything. Due to high call volumes as friends and family check on their loved ones, the company said it would add additional resources to relieve cell congestion.
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12 hours ago | Posted in: Apple
Apple is preparing to open a new Apple Store in Adelaide, Australia on May 25 at 10AM. The Rundle Place outlet will not only be Apple's first in Adelaide, but also by extension the first in the state of South Australia, which is otherwise sparsely populated. The company has 19 other stores in the country, most of which are in New South Wales or Victoria.
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14 hours ago | Posted in: industry
Today, Google made it known to its array of merchants that it is discontinuing the Google Checkout functionality, and migrating some existing users to Google Wallet. In a blog post announcing the move, Google called the Wallet product "a platform that enables merchants to meet the demands of a multi-screen world where consumers shop in-stores, at their desks and on their mobile devices." Users have six months to find an alternative solution, if not migrated automatically.
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Samsung Display announced today that it is showcasing several mobile to extra-large-sized display prototypes at the Society for Information Display’s Display Week. These include a Full HD 1920×1080 mobile AMOLED 4.99-inch display with the world's broadest color gamut, a 10.1-inch 2560 x 1600 LCD for tablets, and a 13.3-inch 3200 x 1800 LCD for notebooks.
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15 hours ago | Posted in: Investor, Apple
In the wake of Apple's published testimony, US Senators Carl Levin (D-MI) and John McCain (R-AZ) have released their own joint statement on the work of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. "Apple Inc. has used a complex web of offshore entities -- including three foreign subsidiaries the company claims are not tax resident in any nation -- to avoid paying billions of dollars in U.S. income taxes," Levin's office writes.
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Facebook has brought a native Share Dialog for iOS out of beta via an updated SDK, v3.5.1. The change means that third-party iOS 6 apps will be able to share activity to Facebook without always requiring a login first. People should also be able to tag friends from within those apps.
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Speaking at tonight's Yahoo press event in New York City, Marissa Mayer and Yahoo's Mobile Engineering Senior Vice President and Flickr product manager Adam Cahan revealed the new Flickr and accompanying new Android app, offering users 1TB of photo storage in a "very metro" user interface.
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17 hours ago | Posted in: gadgets, Apple
Apple is testing 1.5-inch OLED touchscreens for use in its upcoming smartwatch, claims Taiwanese publication the Economic Daily News. Apple is in fact said to have tried 1.8-inch screens, but judged that they were too big. The 1.5-inch panels are reportedly being manufactured by Taiwan's RiTdisplay, and use one-glass-solution touch sensors, which should allow Apple to keep the watch thin.
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17 hours ago | Posted in: iPhone, Apple
Apple is making some moves to make its iPhone line more affordable in India. Deals sponsored by Apple with partners include credit card rebates, trade-in discounts, subsidies, and modified payment plans. As a result of the plans, analysts expect "significant growth" in the region.
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18 hours ago | Posted in: iPhone, Apple
AT&T has made a statement regarding the future of video chat applications on its LTE network. According to the telecom company, all "pre-loaded video chat apps" will be available for all of its wireless customers "regardless of data plan or device" by the end of the year. The move is a turnaround from previous decisions by the company to prohibit use of FaceTime and now Google Hangouts chat on mostly grandfathered unlimited data plans.
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18 hours ago | Posted in: Investor, Apple
A day ahead of CEO Tim Cook's planned appearance in front of the US Senate, Apple has published its official testimony (PDF) for the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. In the document, the company lobbies for corporate tax reform, specifically arguing that the government should be "revenue neutral, eliminate all corporate tax expenditures, lower corporate income tax rates; and implement a reasonable tax on foreign earnings that allows free movement of capital back to the US." Apple has roughly $100 billion in overseas cash, which it has refused to repatriate unless it can pay less than the standard 35 percent tax rate.
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A new report from market analysts NPD Group indicates that US Mac sales for the month of April were about even with the same month last year, which some analysts see as a positive sign for Apple. However, NPD's data -- which is normally considered reasonably accurate -- only covers US sales, meaning the higher percentage of Mac sales overseas is making meaningful predictions difficult.
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SwitchEasy is now offering a a version of its cocoon laptop case designed for the 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display. Built form a polycarbonate material, the cocoon is offered in four different colors, black, white, grey and yellow, and features a textured finish for improved grip. The case provides protection to the entire exterior of the laptop and comes with four rubber feet to keep the laptop from sliding around on a desk. The cocoon can be purchased through SwitchEasy's online store for $50.
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20 hours ago | Posted in: industry, Apple
A new study from Asymco analyst Horace Dediu finds that Apple is continuing to outpace the rest of the retail industry in sales per customer, sales per store and sales per square foot -- more than double the income of the second-place finisher Tiffany & Co and three times the third-place entry, Lululemon Athletica. In addition to retaining the crown of retailers, Dediu found revenues had increased from a year ago.
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22 hours ago | Posted in apps
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AppDelete is an uninstaller for Macs that allows users to remove applications and all of their associated files. Support is also included for deleting widgets, preference panes, plug-ins, and screensavers. A bug that could cause the software to crash when deleting files is included in this update, along with several other minor fixes and optimizations.
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Duplicate Annihilator can scan an entire iPhoto library and identify any duplicate images stored within. All of the duplicates are marked according to the users preferences, or can be sent directly to the trash. The v4.7.1 update resolves an issue related to filename extraction.
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OnyX is a tool for verifying the Startup Disk and system files structure of a Mac OS X computer. The software also provides users with access to a number of hidden parameters of the Finder, Dock, and some Apple applications. Version 2.6.9 includes new options for delete any saved application states, as well as for turning the rubber-band scrolling on or off. Additionally, the update includes a new version of sqlite3 and no longer requires all applications to be quit before checking the disk.
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Cobook is an alternative address book for the Mac that can connect with social networks and automatically update contact cards. The software is capable of recognizing different types of information, such as e-mails, phone numbers, and addresses, and automatically placing them in the proper portion of a contact card. Version 1.2.6 is now compatible with Alfred 2.0 and offers numerous contact sync improvements.
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Feeder is a utility for creating, editing, and publishing RSS and iTunes podcast feeds. A problem where the length of a tween with links would be incorrectly calculated when posting manually has been addressed in the v2.3.8 update. In addition, fixes are also included for a timeout that could occur when publishing to Amazon S3 and an issue with online permissions when creating buckets on S3.
The Prime Minister of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has been touring Silicon Valley companies this week, on the heels of a similar tour by Turkish President Abdullah Gül last month. Both men received VIP tours of facilities at Microsoft and Google, and met privately with officials from Apple. All three companies are hoping to land a contract to supply the country with at least 10.6 million tablets for the country's students.
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