As noted by AppleInsider, MacBook Air supplies are beginning to dry up as Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference approaches.

Currently, the 13.3-inch 256GB 1.8Ghz MacBook Air is out of stock at Amazon.com, with a listed one to two month waiting period. While the low end 13.3-inch MacBook Air is in stock, the 11.6-inch MacBook Air is in short supply. Amazon lists an inventory of just ten 1.7Ghz 128GB 11.6-inch MacBook Airs and just one lower end 64GB 11.6-inch MacBook Air available through a third party.

Several other authorized Apple resellers, such as...

Following a report from earlier this month indicating that the U.S. Department of Defense was preparing to approve Apple devices running iOS 6 for use on military networks, Bloomberg now reports that the department has officially issued the authorization, opening the door for greater use of Apple's products.The Defense Department said in a statement today that it has approved the use of Cupertino, California-based Apple’s products running a version of the iOS 6 mobile platform.

The decision eventually may spur a three-way fight for a market long dominated by Waterloo, Ontario-based BlackBerry. The Pentagon on May 2 approved Suwon, South Korea-based Samsung’s devices, as well as BlackBerry 10 smartphones and BlackBerry PlayBook tablets....

In his interview with Politico earlier today, Apple CEO Tim Cook shared some additional details about the new Mac model that will be manufactured in the United States when it is announced later this year.

Cook said that not only will the machine be assembled in the U.S., many of the components will be sourced from suppliers in the country as well.
And Cook is also promoting a $100 million investment in domestic manufacturing, where the company will begin producing a new version of a current Mac product later this year.

"We're going very deep in this project," Cook said, noting that not only will the final product be manufactured in the U.S., but so will many of its components. Arizona, Texas, Illinois, Florida and Kentucky are among the states he mentioned as having parts and assembly located.
Cook...

New Mac spyware was discovered earlier this week on a computer at the Oslo Freedom Forum, an annual human rights conference. Located by computer security researcher Jacob Appelbaum, the malware, which has been deemed OSX/KitM.A, is currently being investigated by anti-virus company F-Secure, reports CNET.

The malware is a backdoor application called "macs.app," which launches automatically upon login and captures screenshots that it then sends to a MacApp folder in the user's home directory. Two command-and-control servers, located at securitytable.org and docsforum.info, are associated with the malware, but one does not function and the other gives a "public access forbidden" message.

...

Apple has released an update to its iTunes music and media application, bringing it to version 11.0.3.

The update updates the compact MiniPlayer, adding album artwork and a progress bar, as well as better support for multi-disc albums and large iTunes libraries.
This version of iTunes comes with several new features and improvements, including:

- New MiniPlayer. MiniPlayer now includes a beautiful new view that showcases your album artwork. In addition, a progress bar is now built right into MiniPlayer.

- Improved Songs View. You can now enjoy your album artwork while in Songs view.

- Multi-Disc Albums. Albums with multiple discs now appear as a single album.

This update also provides performance improvements when searching and sorting large iTunes libraries.The update weighs in at 187.50MB on the Mac, and is available through the Mac App...

BGR shares several new relatively high-resolution photos of parts claimed to be from the iPhone 5S. These parts have been leaking to repair firms over the past several months, and a number of photos have already been seen, but the new photos do represent the highest-quality look at these parts so far.

Vibrator/audio control flex cable for iPhone 5S
Unfortunately, the photos reveal little about Apple's plans for the iPhone 5S, as they are minor parts generally seeing relatively small changes compared to their corresponding iPhone 5 parts.The parts include the loud-speaker bracket, ear speaker bracket, vibrating motor assembly, Wi-Fi flex cable ribbon and SIM card tray from Apple’s upcoming seventh-generation iPhone.Part leaks claimed to be from the iPhone 5S began in January...

Apple's San Francisco flagship retail store has been a particularly high-profile location for the company since it opened nine years ago, but the San Francisco Chronicle reports that Apple has submitted plans to move the store to a new location three blocks away. The new location at Stockton and Post streets will be directly adjacent to Union Square, the focal point of San Francisco's high-end shopping district.Supervisor David Chiu said he hoped the new silver box-shaped computer store and customer service center would “turbo-charge” the Union Square area, which has long been home to many of the city’s high-end retailers.

The new outlet will occupy the space at Stockton and Post streets formerly occupied by Levi’s and be about 45 percent larger than the existing space, though it will include all the same features....

Apple's App Store today reached 50 billion downloads since its inception in 2008, and along with the milestone comes the end of the company's "50 Billion App Countdown" promotion launched thirteen days ago. The winner of the promotion, who is yet to be announced, will be awarded a $10,000 gift card valid for App Store, Mac App Store, or any other iTunes Store content. Fifty additional winners will receive $500 gift cards.

The milestone is being acknowledged on Apple's website with a graphic showing a "Thanks" message written using award-winning iPad app Paper by FiftyThree.

The App Store took nearly 3 years, 8 months to reach 25 billion downloads,...

Google has unveiled a new unified messaging service that is designed to work on Android, iOS, and the web. Called Hangouts, the app incorporates and unifies several different Google services, including Google Talk, Google+ Messenger, and the existing Google+ Hangouts.Today we're launching a stand-alone version of Hangouts that combines text, photos and live video across Android, iOS and your computer.

Now that Hangouts spans modalities and devices, you can finally fuhgeddaboudit (the technology, that is), and focus on what really matters: creating lasting relationships. And that, we think, is a plus.Hangouts, which is similar to Facebook Messenger, places an emphasis on "conversations which last," saving chats between users in the cloud and allowing users to...

At today's Google I/O keynote, Google unveiled Google Play Game Services, which is designed to compete with Apple's Game Center. Like Game Center, Game Services features real-time multiplayer capabilities, leaderboards, cloud saves, and achievements.

The service is not limited to Android developers as Google has developed it to link gaming across Android, iOS, and the web. Google will be providing the SDK for Game Services to both iOS and web developers in addition to Android developers. As noted by Engadget, Game Services more closely resembles the now-defunct OpenFeint social gaming platform than Game Center.Unlike Apple's Game Center application, what Google's offering is backend support for developers rather than a standalone application. Think of it more like OpenFeint than Game Center – you can sign in using your Google+ login in-game, and that login will track your identity (...

Google is set to announce a new music subscription service tomorrow at its annual Google I/O conference, reports The Verge, having finalized deals with Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment., and Warner Music Group.

The service is said to be a direct Spotify competitor, offering up songs on demand that can be streamed to a computer or mobile device for a set monthly fee.

Though Google has had an existing music service since 2011, it operates in a manner that is similar to iTunes, allowing users to purchase individual songs and albums. It also has a "locker" that lets users store digital entertainment collections.

Pricing information on the new service has yet to be released, but...

The CharityBuzz auction for coffee with Apple CEO Tim Cook has just ended, with a final bid driving the price up to $610,000. Previously, the auction had stagnated at $605,000, where it remained until 30 minutes before the bidding closed.

The $610,000 bid was placed by a newcomer to the auction who had not previously bid before, known only as "a********s." While CharityBuzz will not release the name of the high bidder, it is possible that the winner will come forward to take advantage of the publicity surrounding the auction.

Currently, the money that the Tim Cook auction has brought in is more than twice as much as the total of the current high bids on the other 118 auctions that are supporting the RFK...

Back in In October 2010, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law a bill that made California the first state in the nation to create a live donor registry for kidney transplants. The bill also required California drivers to decide whether they want to be organ donors when they renew their driver licenses. According to one supporter, this second measure alone should double the number of organ transplants available in California. This was a project that Apple's late Co-Founder and CEO Steve Jobs pushed hard to get done. The registry created by that bill opened today.

The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 35 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. In this particular report we cover two multitouch related patents. The second patent covers a movable trackpad like those associated with the iPod Classic and the Apple TV remote. The first granted patent that we cover today is for yet another major multitouch patent covering contact tracking and an identification module for touch sensing.

BlackBerry has announced that it will bring its BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) platform to iOS this summer. BBM was one of the first proprietary mobile messaging services -- not unlike Apple's iMessage service -- and remains hugely popular.

The company reports that BBM has 60 million monthly active users and that BBM users send 10 billion messages per day. In January, Apple claimed iMessage users were sending 2 billion messages per day.

Moreover, there are a number of popular so-called 'over-the-top' messaging services including WhatsApp and...

Cult of Mac points to a report [Google translation] from Taiwanese site TechNews claiming that Apple will be including a sapphire-covered capacitive home button on the iPhone 5S in order to accommodate the fingerprint sensor rumored to be coming as a differentiating feature for the device.Apple is expected to do away with the traditional physical home button, which has long been one of the most unreliable components on iOS devices. It’s thought that using sapphire crystal, which has a hardness second only to diamond, will prevent the button from getting scratched and ruining the fingerprint sensor. [...]

They...

The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 35 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. In this particular report we cover three granted patents covering technologies found in iMovie and/or Final Cut Pro.

The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 35 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. In this particular report we cover two of Apple's patents relating to waterproofing iDevices. A waterproofing test was recently conducted ...

Although Samsung is the world's biggest manufacturer of smartphones, televisions and supplier of chips and flat-screens, Samsung continues to pay outsiders billions of dollars in return for using patents in semiconductors, displays and other software. Samsung wants to have first access to cheaper home grown ideas and solutions in the future and in order to get their hands on this new technology Samsung has set up the new "Samsung Future Technology Foundation."

AT&T is planning to discontinue the HTC First, better known as the "Facebook Phone," reports BGR. Released on April 12, the HTC First was touted as the first device to come with Facebook Home preinstalled, a feature that has not enticed buyers to purchase the phone.Our source at AT&T has confirmed that the HTC First, which is the first smartphone to ship with Facebook Home pre-installed, will soon be discontinued and unsold inventory will be returned to HTC. How much unsold inventory is there? We don't have an exact figure, but things aren't looking good. According to our source, AT&T sold fewer than 15,000 units nationwide through last week when the phone's price was slashed to $0.99.When contacted, an AT&T spokesperson gave MacRumors the...

When 4th-place U.S. cell carrier T-Mobile launched the iPhone last month, customers could purchase it for a $100 down payment with 24 monthly payments of $20 to cover the full cost of the phone.

Now, however, T-Mobile has ended that promotion and the 16GB iPhone 5 has a $150 down payment with the same monthly payments, effectively raising the cost of the phone to $630 from $580 over the life of the plan, TmoNews reports.

The 32GB and...

It's being reported today that ABC will be quietly revolutionizing its app for iPhones and iPads with a button called “live.” Users around New York and Philadelphia will be able to live-stream all the programming from ABC’s local stations there, the first time that any major broadcaster has turned on such a technology.

Popular free messaging app LINE was forced to remove one of its key sticker features today, eliminating the ability for its users to purchase and send sticker sets as gifts to friends.

Stickers are an important monetary source for LINE, notes The Next Web, bringing in $17 million last quarter, which represented 30% of the company's total revenue. Stickers can be sent in chat messages and represent different characters and emotions. The stickers, which are bought in sets, can also be gifted to friends for their own use. A set of stickers generally costs $1.99 and includes 40 different sticker options.

We received a request directly from Apple who operates the AppStore, that this sticker gifting function will have to...

CIO reports on an Interop keynote presentation yesterday by PayPal chief information security officer Michael Barrett in which he discussed the future of account security and suggested that passwords and PINs will soon be a thing of the past. Barrett currently serves as president of the Fast Identity Online (FIDO) Alliance that is seeking alternatives to these traditional security methods.The FIDO Alliance protocol allows users a choice of authentication method while shifting control to providers who can make authentication user-transparent and limit the risk of fraud. Essentially, FIDO combines hardware, software and Internet services. A FIDO user will use a FIDO Authenticator or token that they've chosen or that's incorporated in their device; it could be a built-in fingerprint scanner, a USB memory drive with a password, a voice reader...

There's good and bad news to be found in the latest statistical breakdown of "smart mobile device" shipments by independent analyst firm Canalys who notes that in Q1 2013, 308.7 million mobile devices were shipped. The analysis considered smart mobile devices to consist of notebooks, tablets and smartphones. Apple, Samsung and Microsoft were the big winners.  ...

In April of this year we posted a report titled "Apple Electro-Optical Connector Patents Surface that may Point to "Lightning's" Road Map," which was Apple's most up to date patent on their new lightning connector technology. Today, two older 2011 Lightning related patents surfaced as continuation patents which basically means that in all likelihood Apple simply updated their 2011 patent claims and no more. However ...  ...

A surprising report out of Asia this afternoon emphatically states that Sharp, the leading company in the small & medium-sized LCD panel market, is starkly changing its supply strategy. After inviting investments from Samsung, the Japan-based company is strengthening its cooperation with Samsung. According to the industry on May 8, Sharp stopped the production of LCD panels for iPad as of January this year and started supplying Samsung with small & medium-sized IGZO panels instead. ...

Apple is still in negotiations with Sony and Warner over its iRadio streaming music service, reports the Financial Times. Apple had offered roughly 6 cents per 100 tracks streamed, but later reportedly raised this to 12.5 cents per 100 tracks -- similar to the rate paid by Pandora.

Although the company has reached an agreement with Universal Music, the largest record label, the FT claims other labels are still looking for better terms. Apple is reportedly working hard at reaching a deal and wishes to launch the 'iRadio' service at some point this summer, perhaps at WWDC in June.
Some music industry executives argue that...

Apple today increased its promotion for the upcoming milestone of 50 billion downloads from the App Store, an event the company is marking with a contest in which the person who downloads the 50 billionth app will receives a $10,000 iTunes Store gift card while the next 50 downloaders will receive $500 gift cards each.

The milestone is now being promoted as the main feature on Apple's front page, with an animated counter being accompanied by a rotating series of iPad mini app photos with associated facts to put the "50 billion" number in perspective:

- "With 50 billion steps, you could walk around the earth more than 800 times." [Solar Walk]

- "With 50 billion bricks, you could build 12 Great Walls of China." [...

Samsung is at it again. Within a new patent application published by the US Patent Office today, Samsung is found presenting some new user interface ideas for their touch display devices covering page turning effects and a new screen-unlock feature. Yet one of their so-called new ideas is one "borrowed" from Apple.

Aio Wireless, a new prepaid cellular brand from AT&T, today announced that it has launched operations in Houston, Orlando, and Tampa, with additional cities coming over the next year. The brand offers customers access to increasingly popular prepaid cellular services alongside popular devices including the iPhone."We talked with no-annual-contract customers and created our service around what they want. They want simple, easy plan choices with unlimited offers; first-class service at affordable prices; great devices; nationwide voice and data coverage; and no annual contracts. Today's wireless customers don't want to compromise," said Jennifer Van Buskirk , president of Aio Wireless. "We are set up to win...

On May 09, 2013, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that reveals one of the next chapters for Apple's iPhone. Today's patent reveals an innovative concept that is designed to help users control their incoming calls and voicemail by simply swiping their finger over the external camera lens. It will control replay and fast forwarding of voicemail. In addition, the new methodology will also enhance one handed navigation of web pages, documents, a contact list or your iTunes library by simply swiping the camera lens in different swiping motion combinations. The majority of this patent ... ...

Apple is well known for the simple, no-frills product photos that highlight its lineup of mobile devices and as it turns out, a lot of work goes into capturing those images. The Verge interviewed Peter Belanger, a photographer who has worked with Apple for years, to shed some light on Apple's creative process.

In the interview, Belanger reveals that Apple exercises extreme attention to detail when it comes to product photos, providing him with both sketches and a comprehensive shot list.

The team at Apple always has a really well developed shot list and sketches of what they need. I work with their talented art directors to translate those sketches into photos. We start by getting the position of the product and then move forward on lighting. Because Apple products have such carefully...

A German court has ruled that eight provisions in Apple's privacy policy are inapplicable because they run afoul of German consumer protection laws, reports Bloomberg.

The lawsuit, between Apple and consumer protection group Verbraucherzentrale Bundesverband (VZBV), related to Apple's request of its users for 'global consent' to use customers' data.

The German court appears to have struck down blanket policies that allow Apple to share personal information with other companies or use it for advertising, regardless of what the ultimate purpose is. Instead, to comply with German law, Apple will need to be more explicit about exactly what information is being shared, and what it will be used for.
A Berlin court struck down eight of 15 provisions in Apple’s general data-use terms because they deviate too much from German laws, a...

A new milestone for Apple was reported on today. Apple has made its first foray into the top 10 of the Fortune 500 list, replacing Silicon Valley's previous top-10 tech entry, Hewlett-Packard, which fell steeply while recording the biggest loss of any company to make the list in 2013.  ...

The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 34 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. In this particular report we single out a patent that generally relates to input devices and device display systems, and more particularly to invisible input systems and device display systems. The input devices and display systems may become visible when illuminated from behind through microperforated holes that are invisible to the naked eye. ...

Following a somewhat confusing report earlier this week in which NPD DisplaySearch analysts first indicated that a Retina iPad mini would not appear until the first quarter of 2014 before quickly issuing a correction stating that a third quarter refresh would bring the Retina display to the line, the firm has now told CNET that production on those Retina display panels should begin in June or July.

The timing would not be a tremendous surprise given that the firm just said that the device should begin shipping in the July-September quarter, although other sources have indicated that it may not appear until...

The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 34 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. In this particular report we cover Apple's granted patent relating to iTunes for iOS based devices and specifically the upgraded "Movie" section of iTunes. The second granted patent that we highlight is Apple's iDevice magnetometer that relates to their iOS "Maps" application. To top off our report we provide with a full listing of the remaining patents that were granted to Apple today.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Adobe Systems has officially decided to pull the plug on most of their packaged-software business and double down on delivering its popular design tools through the online service ...

Earlier today, Intel announced a number of new systems coming to market later this year.

Apple is missing the opportunity to reach 2.8 billion wireless customers because of their stringent requirements around minimum purchases of iPhones and price subsidies, according to a report from Bloomberg.

In order to carry the iPhone, Apple has strict requirements for carriers. One such requirement relates to minimum purchase agreements, which regional U.S. postpaid carrier Cricket has had some trouble meeting this year.

Some smaller carriers, especially those in emerging markets, have difficulties paying the pricey subsidies that Apple's $600 iPhones require. The rumors about a cheaper, plastic iPhone could address some of...