Japan

Sprint cozies up to Android with Market carrier billing

After offering Google Voice, the carrier now will let you make Market purchases against your monthly bill.

Joining AT&T (T) and T-Mobile (ahem), Sprint (S) will now allow Android users to buy Android Market items and have them charged to their monthly Sprint bill.  This theoretically simplifies purchasing and removes the barrier to entry for paid Apps for some Android users.  Google remarked:

We believe that Direct Carrier Billing is a key MORE

Report: Apple to absorb quake costs

Paying whatever it takes to ramp up to a reported ship rate of 4 million iPads per month

Here's what Apple COO Tim Cook might call another "fantastic use" for the company's nearly $60 billion cash reserves.

According to a report Thursday in DigiTimes, the Taipei-based daily that is a rich source of electronics supply-chain rumors, Apple (AAPL) has agreed to absorb all the additional component costs created by the Japanese earthquake MORE

iPad 2 queues around the world

Customers began lining up in Australia two days before the scheduled launch

Alex Lee, 28, and Marius Eilertsen, 27, armed with folding chairs and blankets, took their places -- Nos. 1 and 2 -- in front of Apple's (AAPL) Sydney, Australia, retail store Wednesday at noon local time, 53 hours before the iPad 2 was scheduled to go on sale. By Thursday evening, the line of customers behind them extended down MORE

Japan supplied 5 key iPad parts

In a post-tsunami teardown, iSuppli identifies vulnerabilities in Apple's supply chain

Many analysts have tried to gauge the effect of Japan's troubles on Apple's (AAPL) supply-constrained iPad 2, but the report issued Thursday afternoon by iSuppli's Andrew Rassweiler is the most thorough we've seen. He identifies five key components:

NAND flash memory from Toshiba Corp.
DRAM (dynamic random access memory) from Elpida Memory Inc.
An electronic compass from AKM Semiconductor
The touch screen overlay glass MORE

The day Apple landed in Gauna

Why did one of the world's fastest growing tech companies fall twice as fast as the market?

Boy. You leave town for one day and -- if you'll forgive an expression Elmore Leonard warns writers never to use -- all hell breaks loose.

Of course, with Japan's nuclear plants burning and the Dow dropping 242 points and change, you would expect Apple (AAPL) to take a hit. So some of its $15.42 MORE

Japan's iPad 2 launch postponed

Apple can only do so much for the beleaguered country

Although Apple claims that it's on track to deliver iPad 2s to the other 25 countries that were scheduled to get the new tablet on March 25, it has confirmed what it told All Things Digital's John Paczkowski earlier today: The company is postponing the launch in Japan while its people there focus on recovery.

"Our hearts go out to the people MORE

Google deploys People Finder to help Japanese quake victims

The tool is an easy registry creator to help victims and loved ones communicate during emergencies.

Natural disasters such as the EarthQuake/Tsunami in Japan last night disrupt traditional channels of communication.  When homes are destroyed, cell communications towers toppled, and people taken to emergency rooms or worse, there is very little in the way of a full organized registry of people who may be missing.

For this, Google (GOOG) deploys its People Finder tool.  People Finder is MORE

Today in Tech: Yahoo layoff details, Facebook, and iAds

A curated selection of the day's most newsworthy tech stories from all over the Web.

"Chrome OS will be killed next year (or "merged" with Android). ... Chrome OS has no purpose that isn't better served by Android (perhaps with a few mods to support a non-touch display)." -- Gmail creator Paul Buchheit (Boy Genius Report and TechCrunch)

Unfortunately, Yahoo finally made good on all those layoff rumors by cutting roughly 600 jobs, MORE

6 Japanese tech treasures

In the land of the rising sun, a widespread early adopter mentality has encouraged tech companies to think outside the box. Way outside the box. Here are six of the country's craziest gadgets.

When early adoption is brought up in American media, it focuses on the small, vocal group of consumers who need the latest tech products, and stat: the Apple faithful who queue up days before a product launch, MORE

Melting iPod snarls Tokyo rush hour

Japanese commuter train halted by the smell of an overheated iPod nano

The iPod nano may be one of the world's most popular music players, but it's been a headache for Apple (AAPL) in the Japanese market.

The devices have been known to overheat, burst and, in some cases, burn their owners.

Only last Thursday did Japan's trade ministry pronounce itself satisfied with Apple's efforts to comply with a government order to alert MORE