Apple is putting law enforcement requests on hold, according to one judge. The company has created a waiting list for all the “unlock this device” requests it receives.

After repeat attempts to unlock a suspected drug dealer’s iPhone 4S, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) reached out to Apple for help, as reported by CNET. Apple complies with law enforcement requests, like most big tech companies, to unlock devices or supply data. But, according to Judge Karen Caldwell handling the case, the ATF was told it would have to be placed on a waiting list along with all the other requests Apple receives.

The agent involved explained in an affidavit that it would be up to seven weeks before the request was fulfilled meaning Apple has its hands full with law enforcement aid. But it makes sense as smartphone data can be a pivotal part of the discovery process in a law suit.

Text messages, Facebook messages, emails, pictures, location-data and more would be available to anyone who had the unlocked phone. In the case of a drug dealer, law enforcement would of course want to look for any messages about transactions, or anything that could lead to further arrests in a drug ring.

Of course, this becomes a sticky matter when it comes to whether warrants are involved or not. It could then be considered an unreasonable search and seizure.

This might be a testament to how secure iPhones seem to be. This might also be a testament to how law enforcement might want to invest in more technical resources.

Apple HQ image via matteoartizzu/Flickr

The Federal Aviation Administration is thinking about relaxing rules for using electronic gadgets while aboard planes. Rather than requiring passengers to turn off their devices during takeoff or landing, the U.S. federal agency may now merely require passengers to put their reading devices into “airplane mode.”

The FAA set up a working group last year to study to the use of portable electronics on planes, and the agency may announce the recommended change during takeoff and landing regarding “reading devices.” That includes devices like the Amazon Kindle, but it apparently will not include cellphones. An Apple iPhone or Google Android mobile phone can’t be used, but an iPad might be OK. The group is expected to announce findings by July 31.

The New York Times reported that one FAA official, who asked for anonymity, said the agency was under a lot of pressure to either allow reading devices on planes or provide scientific evidence for why they cannot. The concern has been that the devices might interfere with a pilot’s ability to control the electronic gear in a plane. Right now, it is OK to use electric razors and audio recorders in a flight. The FAA declined comment to the New York Times.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Blackberry lost a big enterprise customer today. Home Depot announced that it will soon replace 10,000 of its workers’ Blackberries with iPhones, causing the stock to take a nearly 5 percent tumble today.

Research in Motion recently rebranded itself to Blackberry, the name of its line of phones, a move that coincided with the launch of two new phones — the touchscreen Z10 and the keyboard-ed Q10 — running its latest operating system Blackbery 10. The company is banking on BB10 as a way to make it a relevant player alongside Google and Apple, which produce the obviously popular iOS and Android operating systems. The company also brought on Grammy-winning singer Alicia Keys as creative director.

A Home Depot spokesperson confirmed to Reuters that it will be replacing Blackberry phones with iPhones for its “executives, managers, and corporate staffers.”

The launch of those phones, however, revealed that investors might find Blackberry’s efforts “too little too late.” The stock closed down 12 percent that day. Blackberry soon thereafter announced that it would not be releasing the phones in Japan, as the market has not been favorable for sales.

The company’s stock closed down 4.16 percent today at $15.73 a share.

“We have over 2,700 unique businesses in North America already registered for our BlackBerry 10 Ready Program,” Blackberry spokesperson Amy McDowell told Reuters. “We are confident that BlackBerry is, and will continue to be, the best solution for corporations managing large smartphone deployments.”

And if only to add insult to injury, Keys was spotted tweeting from her iPhone. Ouch, sick burn.

BBRY data by YCharts

Home Depot image via daysofthundr46/Flickr

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Apple released its fourth quarter earnings today, just meeting market expectations. Wall Street said Apple would be around $35 billion in revenue, while the company reported $36 billion, or $8.67 per diluted share.

Apple didn’t release specifics about its iPhone 5, though it did increase its overall iPhone units sold by 900,000. In terms of iPads, Apple said that it saw iPad sales growth in all of the countries it’s available.

It also announced that it’ll start paying out dividends of $2.65 per common stock to its customers on Nov. 15 to all who are stockholder by the close of business on Nov. 12.

Thus far Apple’s stock has remain unmoved in after hours trading. Check out the company’s earnings by the numbers:

Revenue: $36 billion compared with $28.3 billion in Apple’s fourth quarter of 2011 and $35 billion last quarter.

Net Profit: $8.2 billion compared with $6.6 billion in Apple’s fourth quarter of 2011 and $8.8 billion last quarter.

iPhones: 26.9 million units, which is 58 percent more than Q4 2011. Last quarter Apple sold 26 million units.

iPads: 14 million units, which is a 26 percent increase from this quarter last year. In the third quarter 2012, Apple sold 17 million units.

Macs: 4.9 million units sold, only a 1 percent increase over the same quarter in 2011. Last quarter Apple sold 4 million units.

iPods: 5.3 million units, which declined 19 percent from the same quarter in 2011. Last quarter Apple sold 6.8 million units.

Apple money image via Shutterstock

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Despite a sequential quarterly profit dip, AT&T is still succeeding at getting smartphones out the door. In its third quarter earnings report today, AT&T said that it shipped 6.1 million smartphones — which mostly included 4.7 million iPhones. It’s also reporting “record” sales for Android and Windows Phone smartphones.

Selling smartphones is important for AT&T, because it’s also what attracts valuable contract customers. The carrier now has 44.5 million contract customers, up 1.4 million from the last quarter. AT&T added 678,000 net wireless customers, including 151,000 contract subscribers. Overall, smartphone users account for 63.8 percent of its 105.9 million network customers (which also includes prepaid users and those with non-phone wireless devices).

AT&T reported $31.5 billion of consolidated revenue today, but net profits were only $3.64 billion (down from $3.9 billion last quarter). That dip is mostly due to AT&T’s stock buyback plan (which cost $3.8 billion during the quarter) and continued LTE deployment costs. But at least profits were up slightly from $3.62 billion last year.

On a call with investors today, AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph de la Vega said that more than a third of customers adopting its mobile share plans are choosing the large 10 gigabyte plan. He noted that the average revenue per user, or ARPU, was much higher for those customers.

For some reason, AT&T created a video starring de la Vega to explain today’s earnings. Check that out below:

Photo: Matt Hollingsworth/Flickr

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Despite rumors that Sprint was killing off the iPhone 4, the company says it’s still sell the aging iPhone model — but only on its website.

Sprint confirmed the news to CNET saying, “iPhone 4 will become a web-only device effective on September 21. We will certainly still be selling it.”

It’s obvious when Apple launches a new phone, its older phones go on sale. When the company launched the iPhone 5 earlier this month, it really put the iPhone 4 (two generations back) on sale: It’s free with a new contract. As VentureBeat reporter Sean Ludwig noted, that’s an incredible deal. The iPhone 4 is the same form factor as the iPhone 4S, and for an everyday iPhone user, the only thing the “4″ is really missing is Siri, Apple’s voice-assistant that is built into the operating system and lets you dictate commands and ask questions vocally to your phone.

Soon after, rumors started floating around that the iPhone 4 would no longer be available on the Sprint Network. Instead, Sprint is just making the deal slightly more inaccessible and is routing anyone who wants the free phone to its website. That said, though, it’s not that hard to buy something online.

The iPhone 5, which is already starting to draw crowds to Apple retailers, goes on sale Friday. Over two million pre-orders for the phone have already been sold on Apple’s website.

via CNET; iPhone image via Apple

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

No fear, iPhone 4S users, you won’t have to go without your precious phones for long. Electronics buy-back site Gazelle has extended the amount of time consumers have to send in their gadgets after locking in a quote, according to CNET.

Rumors are thick about a new iPhone launch happening in September. Go to almost any technology blog (including ours) and you’ll find new specs, conceptual drawings, and other evidence that a new Apple smartphone is coming soon. As with every iPhone launch, Gazelle is happy to take your old phones off your hands in exchange for cash, though usually you have to send the phone in within 30 days. To encourage people to start selling back their iPhones now, Gazelle promises to honor any quotes made between August 20 and August 31, and will let consumers keep their phones until October 1, after the rumored launch date of the new iPhone.

Rumors aside, there is some concrete evidence that an iPhone — dare we say 5 — launch is upon us. Sprint, one of the carriers that sells the smartphone, cut its iPhone 4S pricing earlier this month from $200 to $150. It is also offering free activation if you order online. Apple is also said to be discounting the iPhone 4S to the same price as Sprint. However, it will only do this if asked — online, the price for the phone remains $200.

According to CNET, Gazelle believes its iPhone 4S’ could get as low as $100 the closer to the iPhone launch we get.

These rumors certainly helped propel Apple’s stock, which faltered slightly when the company only met earnings expectations last quarter. Last week, Apple’s share price hit an all time high of $648.02.

via CNET

Apple reports its third quarter 2012 earnings Tuesday, but according to Reuters, analysts are playing it safe in anticipation of the rumored iPhone 5. Apple often releases its iPhones in October, which causes a slow-down in the market as people stop putting down cash for a model they expect to be outdated soon. We haven’t heard anything concrete about the iPhone 5 yet (though we’ve heard a ton of rumors), but we do know that the operating system it will likely run, iOS 6, is slated for a fall launch.

“Of all the quarters, this is the one that seems to have widest range of opinion,” said Tim Lesko, portfolio manager at Granite Investment Advisors told Reuters.

Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S expects Apple to bring in $37.2 billion in revenue and $10.35 a share. Apple, on the other hand, provided a conservative guidance of $34 billion in revenue and earnings per share of $8.68. The company is also expected to sell only 29 million iPhones.

Apple does have a couple of things going for it this quarter, though, including the 15″ Macbook Pro with Retina screen it launched this June. The computer got an upgrade at Apple’s World Wide Developer Conference with the same display that made the latest iPad so popular. Sales from this probably won’t boost Apple’s bottom line too much, but the company does make a significant portion of its revenue from overall Mac sales. It sold 4 million units in the last quarter.

Despite hesitation from analysts this quarter, Apple beat market expectations in a big way in its last two earnings calls. It blew estimates out of the water with $39.2 billion in revenue last quarter and profits of $11.6 billion. The company sold 35.1 million iPhones, which was 88 percent more than the same quarter in 2011, but 1.9 million units less than Apple’s first quarter.

Check back with VentureBeat Tuesday for full coverage of Apple’s earnings.

via Reuters; Apple with money phone via Shutterstock

Apple CEO Tim Cook made his first trip on Thursday to a Chinese Foxconn production facility that is charged with making the company’s ultra popular iPhones.

Cook’s visit comes after weeks of accusations that employees of the Foxconn plant(s) were the victims of inhuman working conditions, low wages, and unreasonably long shifts. Those same claims, also perpetuated by This American Life’s interview with activist Mike Daisy, caused quite an uproar from Apple’s customers. It even sparked protests outside Apple retail stores and petitions calling for the company to end its relationship with many of its manufacturing partners.

While Daisy’s claims about Foxconn’s labor practices were later revealed to be mostly fabricated, Apple apparently got the message from its customers.

It’s likely that Cook’s visit is part of a new effort by the company to find out more about its manufacturing partners. According to a Reuters report, Cook was seen in pictures smiling and shaking hands with employees at the Foxconn Zhengzhou Technology Park facility, which employs 120,000 people.

China is a very important part of Apple’s business. The country is home to several factories that build its products, like the iPhone, iPods, iPads, and others. China is also Apple’s biggest market overall. Apple is currently selling the iPhone through Chinese wireless carriers China Telecom and China Unicom, but it has yet to strike a deal with the country’s largest carrier, China Mobile. (That could change when China Mobile upgrades to LTE.)

Cook’s trip also included meetings with Vice Premier Li Keqiang, the mayor Beijing, and a visit to Apple’s largest retail stores in the country, according to the Reuters report.

Photo credit: Apple

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

How important is Best Buy to Apple’s iPhone sales strategy? Possibly more than Apple’s own retail shops, according to a new study from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners.

The research firm surveyed shoppers for a three-month period from December 2011 to February 2012 about where they purchased their iPhones. The study found that Best Buy accounts for 13 percent of all iPhone sales — a mere two percent lower than Apple’s share.

Surprisingly, 76 percent of all respondents said they purchased their iPhones from a brick-and-mortar retail store. And as the largest national electronics retail store chain, it’s no wonder Best Buy is selling nearly as many iPhones as Apple.

Of the five outlets that accounted for at least one percent of iPhone sales, three are U.S. wireless carriers. Considering that every phone needs a wireless service subscription, it’s understandable that AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint accounted for 32 percent, 30 percent, and 7 percent of the iPhone sales respectively. The same is true for Apple’s 15 percent of total iPhone sales since it manufactures and markets the device. Best Buy, however, is the only outlet without a direct tie to either the hardware or the wireless service it requires.

With Apple rumored to start setting up “mini Apple Stores” inside of retail chains like Sam’s Club and Target, it’ll be interesting to see if Best Buy can hold its ground.

Via AllThingsD; Photo via PB Central

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Last month saw several big stories on poor working conditions at the factories in China where makes Apple products. Chief executive Tim Cook initially responded by saying that Apple had nothing to apologize for. Now Apple has announced a series of special “voluntary audits” at Foxconn factories in Shenzen and Chengdu, China by the Fair Labor Association.

It’s the first big step by Apple to be proactive about the horrendous working conditions at its suppliers.

“We believe that workers everywhere have the right to a safe and fair work environment, which is why we’ve asked the FLA to independently assess the performance of our largest suppliers,” Cook said in a statement today. “The inspections now underway are unprecedented in the electronics industry, both in scale and scope, and we appreciate the FLA agreeing to take the unusual step of identifying the factories in their reports.”

Cook previously responded directly to a damning story in the New York Times in a letter to Apple employees, saying that, “Any suggestion that we don’t care is patently false and offensive to us. As you know better than anyone, accusations like these are contrary to our values. It’s not who we are.”

But momentum continued to build for Apple to take action. Last week activists delivered a petition with 250,000 signatures to the Apple store in Grand Central.

A former Apple executive quoted in the New York Times story said that, “Suppliers would change everything tomorrow if Apple told them they didn’t have another choice.”