05/24, 9:08am
Microsoft retreats from previous sales claims
In a pair of related developments, Microsoft has retreated from earlier claims that its phone OS was more popular in China than iOS just as new figures for the first quarter of 2011 show that Apple has nearly tripled its sales of iPhones in the country and raised its share from eight to 19 percent, mostly due to the launch of the iPhone 4S, which was launched with two of China's major carriers in January to great demand and some crowd issues.
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05/24, 2:37am
New ad reveals the meaning of life
Apple has released two new televisions commercials featuring the iPhone 4S, its Siri voice capability and a celebrity in need of company. Like the first two ads in the series, a famous actor (in this case thespian and director John Malkovich) is inside a white house alone, making conversation with Siri. Unlike the previous commercials, Malkovich never leaves his chair, and gets two distinct ads -- one of which reveals the meaning of life.
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05/18, 7:30pm
Oklahoma, Puerto Rico latest additions
Continuing with a string of recent arrivals on US regional carriers, the iPhone has arrived to two news that cover northwest Oklahoma and Puerto Rico, respectively. Open Mobile, the Puerto Rico carrier, may be the first exclusively no-contract carrier in the US to offer iPhones. Oklahoma-based Pioneer Cellular is carrying only the iPhone 4S, while Open Mobile has both the 4 and 4S at various capacities.
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05/17, 12:46pm
Trade-in offer expected to begin May 18th
Beginning tomorrow, Sprint is planning to offer "at least" $100 for older iPhones traded in towards an iPhone 4S, a leak claims. A graphic provided by a source identifies the promotion as running through June 30th, and also requiring the activation of a new line of service. What it might take to get more than $100 for an old iPhone has not been mentioned.
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05/15, 10:36pm
Apple claims Siri works fine, user error and opportunism
Apple has filed to dismiss a range of lawsuits filed against it over the performance of Siri, the digital assistant featured on the iPhone 4S. Apple contends in its motion that the plaintiffs in the case lack standing to pursue their case, have improperly interpreted Apple's advertising of Siri, and have failed to pursue other means of redress beyond litigation.
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05/14, 11:36am
Reverses upgrades to iOS 5.1.1
The unofficial iPhone Dev Team has released a new version of redsn0w, its jailbreaking utility for iOS devices. The v0.9.11b4 update lets users restore old IPSW files to A5-based Apple devices, including the iPhone 4S, third-generation iPad, and iPad 2; previously, only devices prior to the iPad 2 could be downgraded, thanks to the limera1n exploit. The update means that A5 devices can now be downgraded from iOS 5.1.1 or 5.1 to 5.0.1.
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05/10, 9:28pm
RadioShack follows Targets lead, discounts iPhones
Yesterday, RadioShack's Twitter feed carried word of a new discount on the iPhone 4 and the iPhone 4S. The retailer will, for a limited time, let customers save $50 instantly on the two most recent models of iPhone. The discount follows a similar move by Target. Earlier this week, Target announced it would discount the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S by $50 with a two-year contract.
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05/08, 1:40pm
Each to offer discounted iPhone prices
Three more regional US carriers will begin carrying the iPhone on May 18th, according to separate announcements. These include Kentucky's Bluegrass Cellular, California's Golden State Cellular, and finally Kansas' Nex-Tech Wireless. Following in the footsteps of other regionals, the companies will be offering iPhones at discounted prices; this includes $149, $249, and $349 tiers for the 16, 32, and 64GB iPhone 4S, and a $49 pricetag for the 8GB iPhone 4.
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05/07, 7:05pm
iPhone discounted in Target for a week
Target, which just recently announced it would expand its Apple Store-Within-A-Store (SWAS) program, is now discounting new iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S unite by $50 with a two-year contract, reports 9to5Mac. The new prices in-store offer the iPhone 4 8GB at $50 and the 4S 16GB at $150 with either AT&T or Verizon.
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05/07, 8:31am
Apple legal claim a confirmation of iPhone 5 name?
Apple has filed to gain control of the iphone5.com domain with the World Intellectual Property Organization, reports Fusible. With the next iPhone often referred to as the iPhone 5, the move has garnered a lot of attention, although it does not necessarily amount to a smoking gun. It was thought that the iPhone 4S would carry that name; if it is called the 5, the next iPhone will nevertheless be a sixth-generation device.
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05/04, 1:28pm
Discounts apply on store-to-store basis
(Updated with Walmart statement) The reported Walmart discounts on iPhones aren't in effect across the entire Walmart chain, reports observe. The Verge notes that it managed to find a Walmart in Austin with the same bargain, but four other US outlets had regular prices. 9to5Mac says it called 17 Walmarts around the US, none of which were offering discounts. Separate of these, though, one out of two Austin Walmarts was offering the deal, as well as one out of two stores in Edmond, though the Frontage Road location said the iPhone 4S was "$114 this morning, for a little while."
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05/04, 10:00am
Parts shipments could slip up to 20 percent in current quarter
Two of Apple's touch panel suppliers, TPK and Wintek, wiil see shipments to drop by 15 to 20 percent in the current quarter because of the transition from the iPhone 4S to the next-generation iPhone, industry sources tell DigiTimes. The 4S is described as "moving into the final stage of its product life cycle," and TPK has previously stated that it expects revenues to fall 10 percent sequentially in Q2 as a result of iPhone 4S stockpiling and people holding off on buying an iPhone.
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05/04, 2:30am
Savings up to $74 are possible
At least one Walmart store has slashed prices on its AT&T iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S prices without prior associate notice. The 8GB iPhone 4 now sells for $34 with a two-year contract, down from Walmart's already-discounted $88 price. The 16GB iPhone 4S, in either white or black, is now offered with the same contract for $114, down from the $188 original store price. The Verizon iPhone models are not affected by the price cut, reports Cult of Mac, and its not yet clear if the sale is fully nationwide.
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04/27, 11:00pm
Can toggle slow-motion live or in editing
A new, free app from the App Store has promised users a long-desired feature for retaining high quality HD even when using slow motion for things like acrobatic stunts. SloPro says it can use the camera in a variety of recent iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch models, but the 60 frames per second recording that is its main selling point remains exclusive to the iPhone 4S for now. A $2 "pro upgrade" allows users to save the raw footage to iTunes for third-party editing.
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04/26, 11:10am
iPad almost totally dominates
The iPhone 4S was far and away the most-activated device during the March quarter by Good Technology enterprise customers, a new study by the firm says. The phone represented 37 percent of activations, roughly four times the amount of any other device. The iPad 2 took home second place at 17.7 percent; the third-gen iPad came in fourth at 4.3 percent, but was only available for less than one month in the quarter, and nevertheless accounted for 12.1 percent of all of the March activations Good tracked.
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04/23, 8:35pm
Deliberations begin July 5
Judge Janis Sammartino has scheduled July 5th as the date for deliberations on the latest chapter in the legal maneuvering between Apple and Motorola. Apple filed the countersuit in question in February with the intention of gaining declaratory and injunctive financial awards as a result of Motorola's short-lived injunction against the iPhone 4S in Germany. The July 5 hearing is likely to not be open to the public.
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04/20, 10:00am
iPad comes to 12 more countries
This Friday marks another set of expansions for iPhone and iPad sales. The iPhone 4S is now available through another five regional US carriers, including Alaska Communications, Appalachian Wireless, GCL, Cellcom, and nTelos. The first regional carrier to get the iPhone was C Spire, which joined national options AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint.
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04/17, 9:15am
Samsung Galaxy may face iPhone 4S moment
Android supporters may be dealt a degree of irony at Samsung's May 3 event based on rumors from an uncharacteristic if potentially major source. A UK telecom insider told CNET that the new Galaxy phone would be an "incremental" update, where the quad-core Exynos 4412 and eye tracking would be the highlights of an otherwise safe design. Despite criticisms of Apple using a cosmetically similar design even with major upgrades inside, Samsung would face the same complaint itself.
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04/16, 7:45pm
iPhone 4S ad taps Sam Jackson in unusual spot
(Update: Zooey Deschanel too) Apple, Sprint, and Verizon on Monday renewed the iPhone 4S ad run with a first celebrity commercial for the hardware. The as yet unnamed TV spot (below) has Samuel L. Jackson acting out of stereotype and using his iPhone's Siri to cancel golf, shop for dinner ingredients, and time his gazpacho. The promo even exploits Siri's real reactions to direct statements, reacting to Jackson's telling Siri it can take the night off.
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04/11, 4:40pm
Levels second only to pre-launch period
Demand for the iPhone has actually grown since the release of the iPhone 4S, a new ChangeWave Research study claims. The firm polled 4,413 people in March; of the people who said they would buy a smartphone in the next 90 days, 56 percent said they were planning to buy an iPhone. That figure is actually up two points from December, which not only represented part of the holiday shopping season, but came just two months after the launch of the 4S.
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04/04, 9:50pm
Botched search backfired on company, police
The attorney for the man accused by Apple of having pilfered an iPhone 4S prototype from a San Francisco bar last summer has suddenly gone silent on the case and refuses to confirm or deny the possibility of a settlement. Lawyer David Monroe had announced near the end of last year that settlement discussions had ended "and we're moving forward" with a lawsuit against Apple with his client, Sergio Calderone, reports NetworkWorld.
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04/02, 6:00pm
Apple still promoting Siri as selling point
One of the first print ads for Siri has been spotted in the latest issue of Rolling Stone magazine, reports Twitter user Philip Bernstein. The ad is a simple photo of a user holding the iPhone in a city environment (specifically, San Francisco) with the caption "I could use a latte" and Siri showing the results of nearby coffee shops. "You speak, Siri helps" reads the tagline, promoting the iPhone 4S as "the most amazing iPhone yet."
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03/29, 11:00pm
LA man says he can't get it to work properly
A second lawsuit has been filed regarding Siri, the voice-capable assistant in the iPhone 4S, this time in Los Angeles. The suit alleges that Apple is overselling Siri's abilities in its TV advertising, echoing an earlier one filed by a New York City resident, claiming that Siri doesn't understand the plaintiff or provides the wrong answer after a long delay. The new lawsuit seeks "relief and damages" for "false and deceptive" representations, and has applied for class-action status.
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03/28, 9:35am
Siri founder met with Jobs shortly after app debut
Former Apple CEO Steve Jobs didn't particularly like the name "Siri," but decided to use it for the iPhone 4S' voice command system anyway, according to Siri co-founder Dag Kittlaus. Kittlaus recently gave a speech in which he explained some of the origins of the app and its progression from a third-party title to a part of iOS. He mentioned, for instance, that he was told "Siri" is Norwegian for "beautiful woman who leads you to victory."
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03/13, 6:00pm
Time and weather queries better handled
Apple's support for time and weather queries via Siri in Canada has been quietly improved, allowing users to get the correct response to a question like "what time is it" without having to mention location, which was previously required, reports iPhoneinCanada. The improved location ability also helps Siri answer questions about the weather in a more natural way, such as asking "what is the wind chill right now?"
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03/12, 7:05pm
Brooklynite claims commercials 'misleading'
A New York man is suing Apple for false advertising, alleging that Siri's real-world performance and capabilities fall short of what is depicted in the commercials for the service, the Wall Street Journal reports. The suit, filed earlier today in California, is led by claimant Frank M. Fazio of Brooklyn, who says that Siri is "far less responsive" in real life and uses as evidence the fact that the program often didn't understand him or "after a long wait time, responded with the wrong answer."
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03/09, 11:50am
Medfield phone places well in browser tests
Browser benchmark tests performed at CeBIT by Caschys Blog on a Medfield phone reveal strong performance. The handset, due out at carrier Orange in France this June as the Santa Clara, was tested using Rightware and Vellamo. In the former, which measures JavaScript and HTML rendering performance, it beat out the iPhone 4S' 87801 score, at 89180, while falling behind the Galaxy Nexus' top 98272 performance.
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03/09, 9:40am
Demand better than expected, carrier says
Over 200,000 pre-orders were made for today's launch of the China Telecom iPhone 4S, according to MIC Gadget. Of these, more than 10,000 were placed in Beijing; over 20,000 were made in Shanghai. Telecom claims that demand for the 4S has been higher than expected.
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03/07, 2:45pm
Upgraded tablet simply 'the new iPad'
As a part of its third-generation iPad event, Apple announced that iOS 5.1 will be released later today. Few features have been revealed, but the focus is on a Japanese version of Siri for the iPhone 4S. Previously Siri was restricted to English-, French-, and German-speaking users.
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03/07, 5:50am
Samsung launches latest suit against Apple
Samsung has filed a new lawsuit against Apple in its home market of South Korea. The new lawsuit claims that that the iPhone 4S and the iPad 2 infringe on three of its patents and comes on the eve of Apple’s special iPad 3/HD launch event today. Specifically, Samsung claims that Apple has infringed on three of its utility patents including the way data is displayed, an aspect of the iOS user interface and the way Apple has implemented SMS.
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03/05, 9:50am
Report says Apple supporting unofficial carrier
Apple has contributed to fixing a problem with using the iPhone 4S on China Mobile, the People's Daily reports. Some 4S owners have been having trouble activating SIM cards, or else simply making calls with a full signal. A telecom expert reached by the Daily notes that the issue appears to involve the 4S only supporting the GSM P band -- 885-915MHz -- and not the E band (880-890MHz), although both are used by China Mobile.
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03/02, 7:00pm
Regional carrier borrows Sprint, Verizon networks
Southeast regional US carrier C Spire has unilaterally dropped the price of an iPhone 4S by $50 across all three models with a two-year plan, making the 16GB model as low as $149. The company offers plans starting at $25 per month that scale up to $100 per month for the unlimited data, streaming, texts and voice plan. C Spire uses a CDMA-based EV-DO 3G network compatible with Sprint and Verizon for roaming outside its own territory.
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02/29, 9:30pm
Ideal for teachers, presenters, developers
A new application for Macs leverages the AirPlay technology found in the iPhone 4S and iPad 2 to mirror the screens of those devices onto a Mac running Snow Leopard or higher. Called Reflection, the app can simply show the screen or put a "device shell" around the screen to simulate the look of an iOS device and its contents. The program utilizes the AirPlay abilities to wirelessly stream visual and audio information from the device to the Mac.
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02/27, 8:45pm
New buyers, contracts will spur profit over time
Just how large Sprint's "bet the company" move in agreeing to carry the iPhone at a high subsidy cost has been revealed in the company's 2011 10-K filing with the FTC. The carrier agreed to a minimum order of $15.5 billion in iPhones over the course of four years, and is projecting a deficit in 2012 in part due to the high subsidy it offers on each new model, up to $450 off the $850 full cost of a 64GB iPhone 4S.
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02/27, 4:40pm
Motorola shows superior voice control performance
Motorola Mobility has released three videos that illustrate the performance advantage offered by Android Voice Actions compared to the iPhone 4S' Siri feature. The videos below, match up the iPhone 4S with Motorola's Atrix 2, Photon 4G, and Electrify, respectively, and different tasks assigned by voice operate quicker than Siri.
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02/22, 11:55pm
Samsung Galaxy S II hits next big milestone
Samsung notched another milestone for the Galaxy S II late Wednesday after it said the range-leading phone passed 20 million sold. The figure came about 10 months after launch and showed Samsung keeping a steady rate of sales, having reached 10 million five months after the April 2011 arrival. Hitting 20 million still took about seven months less than it did for the original Galaxy S.
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02/17, 11:55pm
iPhone 4 owners can claim bumper, cash in lawsuit
Apple finished the week by agreeing to a settlement (active in the next few weeks) over the iPhone 4's antenna issues. US customers who were unhappy with the antenna performance of the smartphone will have the option of getting either a free bumper case or $15. Owners will have up to 120 days to make a claim, starting from April 30, and will be both e-mailed in advance as well as given notices in Macworld and USA Today to make sure they can take advantage of the compensation.
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02/09, 8:30pm
Both tout major advantage over alternative phones
Apple has quietly added two new iPhone 4S ads, both showcasing Siri's voice recognition and intelligent-assistant technology, to its iPhone videos web page. In "Road Trip," a man decides to travel across the US from what appears to be Boston to Santa Cruz with his partner, and both of them consult Siri throughout the trip. In "Rock God," a young man progresses from locating a guitar store to forming a rock band and changes the name Siri addresses him by.
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02/09, 10:20am
New targets reach as high as $665
Two financial analysts have raised their targets for Apple stock. The highest target comes from Canaccord Genuity's Michael Walkley, who has pushed his forecast up to $655. "Our monthly channel checks indicated very strong sales trends for the iPhone 4S at all three U.S. carriers and overall strong iPhone sales in international markets. We are increasing our March quarter iPhone estimates from 30.1 million to 32.6 million units," he elaborates. Walkley's 2012 EPS prediction is being raised from $41.06 to $42.81.
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02/08, 3:15pm
Could coincide with iPad refresh
A Chinese version of Siri will launch next month, claims DoNews. The website quotes an Apple engineer said to be working on the project, who adds that the technology is already in internal testing, and will moreover be able to process information and navigation requests, something only US Siri users currently enjoy. General language support has so far been restricted to three different English accents, as well as French and German.
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02/07, 12:50pm
Alpha tech built deep into Siri system
Siri now represents about a quarter of all the queries submitted to Wolfram Alpha, says the New York Times. The Siri technology is an integral feature of the iPhone 4S firmware, and aside from direct voice commands, allows asking plain-language questions about various facts and figures. A Wolfram Alpha widget primarily answers questions related to math and numerical facts, such as the distance to the moon.
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02/06, 3:10pm
EarSmart built directly into A5 processor
Siri's exclusivity to the iPhone 4S may be connected to the use of Audience's EarSmart noise cancellation technology, suggests Linley Group analyst Linley Gwennap. While teardowns have shown the presence of a dedicated Audience chip in the iPhone 4, Gwennap points to a January S-1 filing, indicating that EarSmart is built directly into the 4S' A5 processor. "Even after accounting for the dual Cortex-A9 CPUs and the large GPU that provides the A5 with industry-leading 3D graphics performance, the remaining die area seems too large for the usual mundane housekeeping logic," the analyst explains. "To reduce system cost and eliminate the extra package required for the Audience chip, Apple cut a deal to integrate the noise-reduction technology directly into its A5 processor, which appears in the iPhone 4S."
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02/06, 6:35am
HTC revenue down, but expects to bounce back
HTC has said that it expects to record lower than forecast revenue
for Q1, according to Reuters. The news follows its revenue dipping last October for the first time after it had experienced spectacular growth over 2010 and most of 2011. At the time, the launch of the iPhone 4S was thought to have had an impact on its performance, however, it is arguable that the rapid rise of Samsung as the leading Android player has damaged HTC’s income stream more.
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02/04, 1:25pm
Motorola royalty demands of Apple uncovered
Newly uncovered documents from Apple's opposition to a Motorola attempt to silence its requests have uncovered Motorola's demands for a 3G patent license. In explaining why it needed to get details of Qualcomm's patent deal with Motorola, Apple mentioned that Motorola had wanted a 2.25 percent royalty on Apple product sales as its attempt at a FRAND (fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory) patent licensing offer. Florian Mueller, who unearthed the details, saw it as likely an excessive rate given that Apple wouldn't only be licensing from Motorola and that it could significantly raise the price of selling an iPhone or 3G iPad.
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02/03, 6:50pm
YouGov says Galaxy S II spots no longer past Apple
Metrics from ad tracking agencies has hinted that Samsung's TV ad campaign has lost momentum. YouGov BrandIndex has posted updated ad effectiveness tracking that suggests the buzz, or conversation around the brands, has leveled off. Its score has climbed since October, from 18 to 26, but Apple has also grown in the same space of time to get a comfortable lead at 34.
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02/03, 3:15pm
Some sales methods still restricted
Apple has reopened online sales of the iPhone 4S on the Chinese mainland, says China Daily. The option actually became available again on Wednesday local time, but customers wanting to buy a 4S may still be waiting for weeks. The Chinese storefront mentions an expected delivery date of "February," while a phone sales staffer tells the Daily that "If you pay today, you might get the items tomorrow, and no later than March 2." Orders are restricted to two devices per person.
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01/31, 1:30am
Speculation on metal body for 2012 model
Higher-than-expected sales of the iPhone 4S along with rumors of an all-metal body for the next iPhone has sent shares of Foxconn Technology Company to their highest level in more than five months on the Taipei stock exchange, BusinessWeek reports. Although the company makes nearly 50 percent of all the world's high-tech electronics, its fortunes are closely tied to the status of its best-known customer, Apple. The stock closed the day at NT$101.50 (approximately $3.44 US) a rise of about six percent.
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01/30, 9:15am
iPhone 4S now ships immediately
Apple now appears to have at least partially caught up with iPhone 4S demand after listing the device as "in stock" at most countries' version of the Apple Store. The immediate availability applies to every capacity and color. Apple had shortened times to three to five days two weeks ago.
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01/25, 7:40pm
Company boasts of platform performance
Raspberry Pi executive director Eben Upton has made several performance claims regarding the company's micro PCs. The startup argues that the devices outperform NVIDIA's Tegra 2 chipset, and even doubles the iPhone 4S' performance, when benchmarking graphics capabilities.
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01/25, 3:35pm
Motorola lawsuit swings to newer Apple releases
Motorola has escalated its countering campaign against Apple with a new lawsuit in Florida. Filed Tuesday but only made public today, the complaint focuses on more recent releases and alleges that both the iPhone 4S and iCloud violate six of its patents. These include basics such as having a hidden external antenna, communicating filtered data, managing use, and a "pager status" sync patent also used in Motorola's German actions.
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