Activist investor Carl Icahn earlier this year sold his position in Apple, but that doesn't mean he no longer thinks Apple is a lucrative stock to invest in. Quite the contrary, he's made several billion dollars on Apple!
That being said, he would invest back in the Cupertino firm were it not for Apple's prospects in China, which he doesn't feel secure about although he's adamant that CEO Tim Cook is “doing a good job”.
Messaging service Viber this morning pushed a new update to its App Store app, adding several new long overdue features. For starters, iPhone users can now back up and restore their chat history through iCloud, making keeping their conversations after an iOS restore possible.
The application now has a brand new native watchOS 2 app for your wrist with canned responses on your Apple Watch. Other new features in this edition of Viber include support for sending and receiving animated GIF images, sending money from within the app and low-rate Viber Out calling plans via a redesigned screen.
Apple on Thursday announced that it has invested $1 billion in Chinese Uber competitor Didi Chuxing, reports Reuters. Speaking with the outlet, Tim Cook said the venture will help his company "better understand the critical Chinese market."
The move comes amidst slumping iPhone sales, which has driven Apple's stock price down to $90 per share, and other struggles in China. Last month, the State Administration shut down the iBooks Store and iTunes Movie sales in the country.
Old iPods have apparently become the latest craze in the world of collectables. As noted by The Guardian, various Apple-branded MP3 players from the early 2000s are going for insane prices on eBay right now, depending of course on the model and condition.
For example, a factory-sealed third-generation iPod shuffle is listed on the auction site at $999.95, and it has 10 watchers. A fourth-generation U2 edition iPod is priced at just under $7,000. And a new-in-box second-generation iPod classic? A staggering $20,000.
Tim Cook's annual CharityBuzz auction ended this afternoon, with the winning bid raising $515,000 for the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice & Human Rights. The winner of the auction will get a one-hour lunch date with Tim Cook at Apple headquarters, as well as tickets to an upcoming Apple keynote event.
There were over 40 bids in the auction, with the high bid nearly doubling over the last 24 hours. The lunch date is valid for up to two people, and will be scheduled at an agreed upon date, based on availability. Obviously the guests will be subject to security screenings, but don't worry, the cost of the meal is included.
Tim Cook on Monday appeared on CNBC's 'Mad Money' to talk with host Jim Cramer about Apple's recent earnings report. The iPhone maker announced weaker-than-expected Q2 sales last week, and its stock has since dropped more than 10 points.
While the interview is transparently a PR move to let Wall Street know that Apple is still on the right path, Cook did offer up some interesting comments about the future of his company. Naturally, we've highlighted some of our favorites for you below.
FBI Director James Comey said on Thursday that the agency paid more to break into the San Bernardino shooter's iPhone than he'll make in the remaining 7+ years of his tenure. Reuters crunched the numbers, and that suggests that the FBI paid more than $1.3 million for the hack.
That seems like a lot of money for a tool that doesn't work on the iPhone 5s or newer, but speaking at the Aspen Security Forum in London today, the Director said that he believes it was worth it. And of course the FBI will be able to use the tool in other case involving older iPhones.
Apple has signed a deal with Google to use the search giant's Cloud Platform for some of its iCloud services, reports CRN. The site says that the two firms inked the deal late last year, and it's believed to be worth somewhere between $400-$600 million.
This is a major coup for Google’s enterprise cloud business, and its newly appointed chief Diane Greene. Although Apple has not publicly discussed its cloud backends, it's been reported that the iPhone maker spends $1 billion per year on Amazon's AWS.
An appeals court on Friday ruled that Samsung won’t have to pay Apple $119.6 million for infringing its patents, reports Bloomberg. The court found two of Apple's patents, including one for its slide-to-unlock feature, to be invalid and a third wasn’t infringed.
Today's ruling overturns a verdict reached by a California jury in May 2014, which found Samsung devices to infringe on Apple's patents. It also upholds a decision to make Apple pay Samsung $158,400 in damages for infringing on its video compression patent.
The PayPal app for iOS, which has been long over-due for an update, has finally received its much-needed update on Thursday that adds official support for the retina HD displays of Apple's 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch handsets.
The app, which is still a free download from the App Store, has been completely redesigned with a slew of changes to make using the app not only feel better, but look better.
Apple has been ordered by a federal jury in east Texas to pay $625 million for patent infringement, Reuters reported late Wednesday. The jury found the iPhone maker guilty of using VirnetX's security technology without its permission.
More specifically, Apple was found guilty of willfully infringing on technology found in VirnetX Holding Corp's patents related to virtual private networking protocols, which Apple uses in its FaceTime and iMessage apps on iPhone and iPad.
Both Bank Of America and Wells Fargo are working on integrating Apple Pay into their ATMs, reports TechCrunch. The outlet says it has learned that ATM engineers from the two companies have been placed on assignments to build out support for Apple's digital wallet.
When questioned, Wells Fargo's head of ATMs Jonathan Velline implied that the report holds water, telling TechCrunch his team has been working on the technology that will allow the bank to hook into digital wallets to replace the need for cards during ATM transactions.