Verizon announced during its first fiscal quarter earnings report on Thursday that it activated 4 million iPhones, which comes in above Wells Fargo analyst Maynard Um's 3.5 million unit target. The cell service provider's activations were down compared to last quarter, but are up year over year. Still, Apple's quarterly iPhone numbers may come in below expectations, leaving investors unhappy.

Verizon released its first fiscal quarter earnings report for 2013 on Thursday, giving us our first hint into what to expect from iPhone sales figures during Apple's earnings report next week. 55 percent of the 7.2 million new smartphone activations for the quarter were iPhones, and about half of those belonged to the iPhone 5.

A petition hosted at Change.org is asking Verizon to follow in T-Mobile's footsteps and drop contract requirements for customers. The petition has already gathered more than 79,000 signatures out of a goal of 150,000.

Facebook has hired Richard Williamson for its mobile-software group, according to Bloomberg. Mr. Williamson was part of the team that built the original iPhone, but is better known for being the manager in charge of developing the original Apple Maps service. He was fired from Apple after the launch of the service was panned.

The iTorch IMP52D charger with LED light and laser pointer presents as a multi-function device that will charge all existing versions of the iPhone and iPad. There's also a laser pointer and flashlight thrown in for good measure. For the most part, it achieves those goals well.

T-Mobile officially started selling and supporting Apple's iPhone on Friday, and Chief Marketing Officer Mike Sievert said sales were "gangbusters." The carrier is the last of the major cell phone service companies to land an iPhone deal and was hoping its "Uncarrier" package that does away with subsidized phone prices and complicated service contracts would draw in new subscribers.

New e-periodicals blur the line between apps and magazines. In this week's Free on iTunes Vern Seward take a look at "app-zines" from one company, MERI Media .

Apple has agreed to a US$53 million settlement in a class action lawsuit that alleged the company failed to properly honor warranty repairs on iPhones. The lawsuit was filed after several iPhone owners were denied warranty repairs when the moisture sensoris in their smartphones were triggered even though they hadn't suffered from any water damage.

Apple has found a way to boost sales of the iPhone in India, a market where Apple's smartphone has languished with minimal success. The Times of India reported that Apple initiated a smartphone buyback promotion for the iPhone 4, and that sales of the entry level model have tripled. Bryan Chaffin pokes his nose in the development.

Starbucks announced a change to its iTunes Pick of the Week program on Tuesday that pushes customers to the company's mobile app for free downloads, which had some people thinking the cards they're used to seeing next to the cash register were going away, and soon. Turns out that's not the case, and what Starbucks is really doing is giving away even more free iTunes content every week.