Phone Scam Hits Victims with Surprise Charges

The scheme works by calling phone numbers, letting them ring once, and then disconnecting. The call lasts just long enough to register on your phone's Caller ID, but is short enough you likely won't be able to answer. If someone is curious enough to call back — and that's what the scammers are counting on…

Sightings: Hamilton on Maccast, Martellaro on Tech Night Owl

Meanwhile, TMO's senior editor, John Martellaro, joined Gene Steinberg's Tech Night Owl to chat about Google's decision to sell its Motorola Mobility handset division, at fire sale prices, to Lenovo. You'll also hear him explain why Wall Street doesn't understand Tim Cook's business strategy (or doesn't want to), the future of the Mac, and an…

States want $840M from Apple for Ebook Price Fixing

States asking for $840 million from Apple in ebook price fixing case The damages amount the states are asking for is based on 0.5 percent of the $158.8 billion in cash Apple had at the end of 2013, according to Bloomberg. The states involved in the lawsuit have claimed that Apple's actions caused economic harm…

Facebook Targets Flipboard with New iPhone Paper App

Facebook wants to keep user's eyes with Paper for iPhone Like Flipboard, Paper is a full screen app that lets users swipe to move from story to story as if they're flipping through magazine pages, supports zooming in to photos, lets users subscribe to content from what the company is calling trusted publishers, and supports…

Samsung's Win: No Sanctions in Apple, Nokia Document Leak

No sanctions for Samsung in Apple, Nokia document leaks Quinn Emanuel came under fire for sharing confidential documents related to Apple and Nokia's licensing deals with Samsung that were intended only for special witnesses. Samsung found itself in hot water for then using those documents to gain an unfair advantage in its own negotiations with…

New Apple Retail Exec Angela Ahrendts Awarded Dame Honor in UK

News of the honor has been low key with both Ms. Ahrendts and the British Government skipping any formal announcement. The award was confirmed in October 2013, according to Vogue, but the news is just now surfacing. Ms. Ahrendts has been credited with turning around Burberry's performance in the Asian market where the retailer hadn't…

Donald Trump: Lack of Bigger iPhone Makes Apple Dumb

Trump says Apple needs a bigger iPhone Mr. Trump offered up his financial analysis on Twitter saying, Apple's iPhone sales fell way short-they must go to a larger screen, as alternative, fast (as I said long ago)! Samsung's size much better. I predicted Apple's stock fall based on their dumb refusal to give the option…

Carl Icahn Plunks Down Another $500 Million on $AAPL

Shares of AAPL opened down more than US$40 lower, as shown in the chart below, and didn't budge much throughout the session, despite all the money that Carl Icahn was pumping into the stock. The stock closed at $506.50, down $44.00 (-7.99 percent), on extraordinarily high volume of 38.1 million shares trading hands, more than…

A Next Generation Stylus: TruGlide Apex Uses Electronic Magic

Introduction – Why a $60 Stylus? Apple's iOS devices are designed to work without a stylus. There's a reason for that: Steve Jobs didn't believe in them. “God gave us 10 styluses, let’s not invent another,” he told Walter Isaacson, his biographer. And yet. There are times when a stylus is useful. Indeed splendid. It…

After Hours Traders Send $AAPL Down $43.50 on Guidance & iPhone Sales

After-hours session typically have an exaggerated effect on Apple's stock in either direction compared to regular session trading the next day. It's doubtful that $AAPL will open as low as Tuesday's after-hours low, but investors definitely have things to be tense about despite record revenues and record earnings per share for the quarter. “The real…

ABC Interviews Tim Cook on NSA Surveillance Friday Night

TechCrunch spotted the teaser video posted by ABC, and in that teaser Mr. Cook once again states that the U.S. government has no access to Apple's servers. In a quote that I personally love, he said, “They would have to cart us out in a box for that.” The teaser text in full: ABC's David…

Carl Icahn to Apple: I Know Best, and I Just Bought $1 Billion More in $AAPL Stock

TMO's Artist's Representation of Carl Icahn's Characterization of Apple's Management Mr. Icahn was already a major Apple shareholder before Thursday's investment announcement, and he has been pushing the company to get more aggressive in buying back its own stock. For Apple's upcoming annual shareholder meeting, Mr. Icahn submitted a shareholder proposal that would require Apple…

Surprise! Microsoft Loses Money Every Time It Sells a Surface

The Surface Trainwreck In quarterly filings with the SEC, Microsoft reported that it had a whopping US$893 million in revenue from selling an unspecified number of Surfii (no more than a couple of million units), and that doing so only cost the company $932 million. That left Microsoft $39 million the poorer for all that…

Wacom Bamboo Pad Has The Touch of Class

The Wacom Bamboo Pad is a multi-use input device, touchpad and drawing tablet with stylus. It can be used with its stylus and/or your fingers for click-tapping and gestures for computer input to replace a mouse. Plus, the stylus can be used with any drawing app. ________________________ First shipped in October, 2013, the Wacom Bamboo…

A Sad Tale of a Microsoft Surface RT Customer

The discussion they were having was right next to us, so we couldn't help inquiring about what was going on. It turns out that the price was right for that Surface RT, but in the end, it wasn't able to run the X86 binaries, her classic Windows apps that the daughter had on her Windows…

Starbucks Responds to iPhone Privacy Concerns with App Update

Starbucks app left user logins unprotected The user name and password issue was revealed by Daniel Wood at the seclists.org website where he said, There are multiple instances of the storage of clear-text credentials that can be recovered and leveraged for unauthorized usage of a users account on the malicious users’ own device or online…

Bring Back Older "Filter-Style" Search in iTunes 11

iTunes' Current Search Interface To temporarily search the old way, being by selecting the media category from which you'd like to search (such as Music). Then start typing your search query. To actually filter within the main window, press the return key (or enter on Windows). The search popover will disappear and the list of…

Appeals Court Greenlights Apple Anti-poaching Lawsuit

Employee anti-poaching lawsuit against Apple, others, gets to move forward After Federal Judge Lucy Koh granted class action status to employee's lawsuit in October 2013, Apple and the other companies named in the case turned to the Appeals Court in hopes of overturning her ruling. With the Appeals Court backing up Judge Koh, the plaintiffs…

CES 2014: TMO Editors' Choice Awards

iPort Magnetic Charging Case and Stand There are plenty of cases for the iPad Air and Retina Display iPad mini, and most let you charge while they protect your tablet from accidental drops. iPort's Magnetic Charging Case and Stand for the iPad Air and Retina iPad mini, however builds charging contacts into its housing and…

Wearable Tech at CES: The Scent of Desperation

2014's wearable tech: Bling that knows when your phone rings Going for the Wrist The big rumor bouncing around the Internet is that Apple is hard at work on a smartwatch product that'll take the industry by storm. It was pretty clear tech gear makers were hearing those same rumors because they all rushed to…

Does Apple REALLY Care About You?

“The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool.” — Physicist Richard P. Feynman A question has been raised by one of TMO's readers whether Apple genuinely cares about its customers. In addition, do Apple customers occasionally have to overcome hurdles that Apple places in the…

Analyst: Apple Devices to Outnumber Windows PCs in 2014

Based on Mr. Dediu's figures, Apple's Mac, iPhone and iPad marketshare has been on the rise and last year Windows PC numbers were only 1.18 times higher in comparison. “In 2013 there were 18.8 times more Windows PCs sold than Macs. This is a reduction in the Windows advantage from about 19.8x in 2012,” Mr.…