Apple

Al Gore has just purchased a big chunk of Apple stock by exercising his Apple stock options.

A filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission shows that Gore exercised options on January 15 to buy 59,000 Apple shares at the price of $7.475 a share.

That means Gore paid around $441,000 for his load of Apple stock. With the shares trading just under $500 this morning, Gore's investment is now worth around $29.5 million.

Of course, Apple stock has been falling recently, although that could turn around next week if the company releases good results … Read more

Apple has asked Sharp to decrease production of its 9.7-inch iPad screens, leading some to wonder if the iPad Mini is behind the move.

Sharp's iPad screen production line has fallen to "minimal level," Reuters reported today, citing people who claim to have knowledge of its output. The sources say the production slowdown commenced late last year.

Those sources say that the slowdown could be due to consumer demand increasingly shifting to the iPad Mini, though they would not say how much Apple's smaller slate could be impacting screen production. It's also possible, the … Read more

The cellular edition of the iPad Mini debuted in China today, but buyers will have to wait two weeks before it ships.

That delay also applies to the Wi-Fi only version, which has been out for about six weeks. A check of the Apple Store in China finds that all capacities of both the Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi + Cellular models are stuck with a two-week ship time.

iPad Mini buyers in the U.K., Japan, and other countries face the same delay, though the wait time in the U.S. is only one week.

Apple has been battling to meet global … Read more

Publisher Hearst has a new initiative that gives iPad owners early access to digital versions of its magazines.

Apple today quietly launched a new section in its App Store called "Read them here first," with a listing of Hearst-owned magazines that can be had digitally before they arrive on newsstands or on competing digital platforms.

Hearst has 20 of its titles involved in the program, including Esquire, Car and Driver, and Popular Mechanics. A company spokeswoman said the lead time varies by publication.

The move gives Apple a leg up against competing digital newsstand products, particularly apps Zinio … Read more

One research firm says market share for Apple's iPhone will peak at 22 percent, and that the device will hit that ceiling this year -- with market share then remaining flat.

Despite predictions that half of all handset shipments will be smartphones by 2014, and a steady rise to 2.4 billion shipments by 2014: "Barring an unlikely collapse in Samsung's business, even Apple will be chasing Samsung's technology, software, and device leadership in 2013 through the foreseeable future," says ABI Research Senior Analyst Michael Morgan.

Apple currently holds an 18.5 percent share of … Read more

Longtime Apple Newsstand holdout Rolling Stone magazine has caved, and is now available on Apple's subscription service.

Rolling Stone's new app works like any other publication in Newsstand, with a way to buy a single issue or subscribe using an iTunes account. Rolling Stone is pricing issues at $4.99 apiece, and there are two subscription options: one month for $1.99 (Rolling Stone comes out twice a month), or one year for $19.99 -- both with the first month for free.

The addition is noteworthy given comments made by publisher Jann Wenner of Wenner Media, who … Read more

It's no secret Apple's still in the process of fine-tuning its virtual voice assistant Siri, and a recent job posting confirms there's still much work to be done.

The company is looking for someone to "refresh and refine existing Siri dialog," according to the posting for a Siri writer/editor, as well as expand what the software can do.

"Siri's known for 'her' wit, cultural knowledge, and zeal to explain things in engaging, funny, and practical ways," the posting, which was spotted by 9to5Mac, reads. "The ideal candidate is someone who … Read more

iPhone users now have another option for downloading songs from their device.

Amazon today launched its MP3 store for iPhone and iPod Touch users, allowing them to buy digital music from Amazon's 22-million song catalog. There's one catch, though. The purchases have to be made via the Safari Web browser, not through any of Amazon's apps. That means the process isn't quite as seamless as buying music through iTunes.

Amazon noted that music purchases are automatically saved to the customer's Cloud Player library and can be downloaded or streamed instantly from an iPhone, iPod Touch, … Read more

The iPad may have missed out on a healthy chunk of sales last quarter due to limited supply, says J.P. Morgan analyst Mark Moskowitz.

In an investors note out today, Moskowitz said he believes unit sales of the iPad and iPad Mini combined will be lighter than expected for the final quarter of 2012, which marks Apple's first fiscal quarter of 2013. He's now predicting unit sales of 18.4 million, down from his prior forecast of 20.1 million.

"Our research indicates that near-term supply constraints impacted iPad sell-in activity during the seasonally-stronger holiday season,&… Read more