iPhone 4S

iPhone 4S set for Chinese New Year launch on mainland

Apple received final certification on Dec. 22, according to a report in the People's Daily

Reports that the iPhone 4S was headed for mainland China -- the world's largest mobile phone market -- have been dribbling in ever since the device arrived in Hong Kong last month.

The news in November was that it would arrive on the mainland in December. On Dec. 6 Apple (AAPL) was reported to have been granted MORE

Report: iPhone share hit 36% in U.S., fell to 20% in France

Mixed results from a 12-week Kantar Group snapshot of the walk-up to Christmas

The launch of the iPhone 4S lifted Apple's (AAPL) share of the smartphone market rather dramatically the U.S., the U.K. and Australia between early September and the end of November.

But Apple lost ground just as dramatically against less-expensive Google (GOOG) Android phones on the economically troubled continent, according to results released Thursday by the Kantar Group, a research MORE

Could Siri really help Santa?

Would that Apple's intelligent assistant were as reliable as its Christmas TV ad suggests

Apple (AAPL) has been pushing Siri hard as the key selling point for the iPhone 4S, especially on TV with ads like the Santa spot it began airing this week. (It's also available on YouTube.)

But our experience is that between system outages, misunderstandings and the basic limitations of its knowledge base, Siri is considerably less reliable than MORE

China reported to OK sale of the iPhone 4S on mainland

If true, Apple will have just expanded its addressable market by 167 million users

China Unicom (CHU), the second largest carrier in the world's largest mobile phone market, received a government permit this week to begin selling the iPhone 4S on mainland China this month, according to two Chinese-based news outlets (see here and here).

However a third source, citing a report by unnamed China Unicom "insiders" to Sina Tech, says the permit MORE

Robin Williams' impression of an iPhone in Paris

What if Siri had a French accent -- and an attitude to match?

If Apple (AAPL) ever opened up a Siri app store, a line of personality modules -- like the haughty Parisian Robin Williams trotted out on The Ellen Show -- could be a real money-maker.

Via boxerconan at Apple Sanity.

Pre-Christmas chatter about iPhone supply constraints

Apple is selling iPhones as fast as it can make them, but that may not be fast enough

A pair of analyst reports Tuesday warn that Apple (AAPL) may be having trouble feeding the demand for iPhones in advance of the holiday selling season.

In a note entitled "Limited near-term upside for iPhone," Rodman & Renshaw's Ashok Kumar alerted clients that low yields on an unidentified "key component" is likely to constrain production MORE

Today in Tech: What happened, Sony?

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* As an active Facebook user, you may have noticed News Feed updates describing which news stories your friends recently read via apps like The Washington Post's Social Reader or songs they listened to from say, Spotify. But is this form of "automatic sharing" simply the next logical step, or is MORE

iPhone 4S chaos in Hong Kong

Thousands left empty-handed as scalpers rush to feed a hungry gray market

Even with the support of Chinese riot police, police dogs, private security guards and an elaborate grid of metal barricades, Apple (AAPL) could barely contain the chaos when the gates of the Hong Kong Apple Store opened Friday morning and customers began to run up the store's spiral glass staircase.

An Apple-sanctioned queue of roughly 1,250 were allowed to file MORE

Massive crowds gather in Hong Kong for iPhone 4S launch

Police were called in Wednesday to restore order after fighting broke out

"I can't begin to accurately describe the scene on the walkways outside the Hong Kong Apple Store."

So begins the dispatch by Penguin Six's Andrew Leyden writing 24 hours before the first scheduled launch of Apple's (AAPL) iPhone 4S in China.

According to Leyden, police broke up a disorganized mob of 400 line sitters Wednesday night amid rising tensions and scattered fighting. On MORE

iPhone 4S pre-orders sold out in Hong Kong in 10 minutes

Bodes well for Friday's launch in 15 countries -- and maybe mainland China by December

Ticonderoga's Brian White, who has been keeping as close tabs on Apple's (AAPL) prospects in China as any Western analyst, reported Monday that pre-orders for the iPhone 4S ended almost as soon as they began in China last Friday.

According to his checks, pre-orders were sold out in Hong Kong 10 minutes after Apple started taking them. MORE