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The Verizon version of the iPhone, released on February 10th, had lackluster launch day performance and since then has had unimpressive sales figures. Whilst Verizon has much higher customer satisfacion ratings than AT&T, it doesn't appear to be breaking away in iPhone sales. Since Verizon got its version of the iPhone while the current generation of iPhone is already halfway through its lifespan, that can explain the steadily average sales Verizon has been experiencing. But who exactly is buying the Verizon iPhone? Certainly not newcomers to the iPhone, or so says Tumblr developer and iPhone instapaper app writer Marco Arment. ...read more

Google is tossing its hat in yet another market. Amazon's Kindle and Apple's iPad have made it obvious e-books are not going away. Earlier this year Google realized there was money to be made in this arena as well. And now, the creation of their e-bookstore is just about complete.  Unlike the Droid, in the smartphone market, there are no immediate plans for Google to try to compete directly with the Kindle and iPad, on the hardware side. However, they are ... read more

Apple's big announcement this week is that it struck a deal with the Beatles to offer all 13 albums in digital form via iTunes, but Apple wasn't the only online groupie in the mix. According to reports. both Amazon and Google also tried to strike licensing deals for The Beatles music.

Refusing to get with the times, The Beatles for many years downright refused to let their music be offered in digital form, prompting music lovers to take matters into their own hands and illegally distribute their songs ripped from CDs. Terms of Apple's deal with EMI were not disclosed, but has to wonder if The Beatles catalog will shuffle over to other digital download services as well.

Apple's big announcement today is that...the Beatles are now on iTunes. Well that's a big deal for iTunes, we can't help but feel this should have been announced a long, long time ago. But hey, it's finally here, a13 of the group's remastered studio albums at $12.99 a pop, or double albums for $19.99 (individual songs run $1.29).

"We love the Beatles and are honored and thrilled to welcome them to iTunes," said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. "It has been a long and winding road to get here. Thanks to the Beatles and EMI, we are now realizing a dream we’ve had since we launched iTunes ten years ago."

For $149, you can snag the special digital "Beatles Box Set" with all 13 albums with itunes LPs and all mini-documentaries. That's great and all, but $130, Amazon sells The Beatles Stereo Box Set, which would look a lot cooler under the Christmas tree than an iTunes card, no?

Fei Lam, a 17-year-old high school student living in Queens, New York, has made a tidy sum selling something Apple so far hasn't been able to: white iPhone 4 devices. According to The New York Observer, Lam scored a connection with someone at Foxconn, Apple's main supplier of iPhones, and has been selling a conversion kit that turns regular iPhone 4s into white ones.

His business -- run through www.whiteiphone4now.com -- has netted him $130,000 so far, as well as a threatening letter from a private investigator accusing him of selling stolen goods.

"There are a couple of other sellers online and somehow I'm the 'focus' of it all. I think this guy is just trying to scare me into stop selling on behalf of Apple," Lam said.

Lam does intend to contact a lawyer, but has no intentions of closing shop. And with $130,000 in sales so far, who can blame him?

Would you consider a 22-inch monitor with 15 funked up pixels to be in good working order? Apple would, according to an internal document making the rounds online. As the internal policy goes, Apple thinks it's fine and dandy to have up to 8 bright pixel anomalies, up to 10 dark pixel anomalies, or up to 15 in any combination of the two.

So are you totally screwed? Not exactly. Apple will offer to replace a monitor (size 22 inches to 30 inches) a bunch of pixel anomalies, "but the replacement product may have even more anomalies yet still be within specifications," and if that's the case, "Apple will not replace the product again."

Caveat emptor.

Two things stood out from Facebook's mobile event. The first is that Mark Zuckerberg, the whiz-kid-gone-billionaire who created Facebook, squashed any lingering rumors that he's working on a Facebook phone.

"There's been a rumor floating around that Facebook was going to build a phone. No," Zuckerberg said.

The second thing that stood out was his almost incredulous reaction that people would consider Apple's iPad a mobile device.

"I don't want to be rude to Apple -- we all love Apple products -- but this is a mobile event and we want to stay focused on that. The iPad isn't mobile in the same way," Zuckerberg said. "It's a computer."

Zuckerberg had plenty to say on a variety of topics, which you can read here.

Everything Steve Jobs touches turns to hype, but if there's one thing that needs no marketing spin, it's Facebook, the world's most popular social network. An interesting rumor that's floating around is that Apple might have some interest in acquiring the online stomping ground.

Here's the thing. Apple has some $51 billion in cash to play with, enough to buy Facebook two times over at face value. And though there's been no indication that Apple is taking aim at Facebook, Jobs made it clear that his company is in a "unique opportunity to take advantage of.... very strategic opportunities."

Peter Kafka at All Things Digital argues that Facebook makes a whole lot of sense because (A) it doesn't currently compete with Apple, (B) it'st not an entity Apple could go up against even if it wanted to, and (C) it's already competing with Google.

Say what you want about Apple, Steve Jobs, the iPhone 4, antennagate, and all that jazz, but one thing the Cupertino company knows how to do is make money. In fact, Apple just posted its best quarter ever, claiming $20.34 in revenue and $4.31 billion in earnings.

Though Apple no longer airs the Mac vs. PC commercials, Mac sales for the quarter were up 27 percent compared to one year ago. And despite the hiccups with the iPhone 4, Apple said it sold 91 percent more iPhones than last year.

At this point, we think Apple could slap its logo on a pile of dung, call it the iTurd, and it'd sell millions of units.

Want to know what milk, cookies, live fish, toilet plungers, and Apple's iPad have in common? Well, nothing yet, but if the latest Internet chatter turns out to be true, you'll be able to buy all of these things at Walmart.

More than just chatter, leaked memos, internal notices, and even a preemptive display in one of Walmart's Denver, Colorado locations indicate this is the real deal. Walmart will carry all version of the iPad, and will offer a few related accessories too.

Give credit to Steve Jobs and his marketing team. With thousands of Walmart locations across the United the States, the iPad will be a strong presence this holiday shopping season.