Apple Corporate

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Tuesday granted Apple nearly three dozen patents, including one that covers how a device responds to acoustic signals such as scratching and tapping.

Patent No. 8,441,790, or "Electronic Device Housing as Acoustic Input Device," focuses on tech that would allow a device to detect and react to sound resulting from an impact with the housing, such as dragging a finger along the surface of the device. The sensors send information to a microprocessor, which can distinguish between different types of input as well as interpret what each input … Read more

There's less than a day left in the auction that will net one individual a brief, and very expensive, sit-down meeting with Apple's top executive.

CharityBuzz's buzzy auction for a coffee meeting with Apple CEO Tim Cook ends just after 1 p.m. PT on Tuesday, bringing to a close what is currently the group's second-highest auction ever at $605,000.

"We're truly amazed by the support for the RFK Center for Justice and Human Rights through our coffee with Tim Cook online auction," Coppy Holzman, Charitybuzz CEO and founder said in a … Read more

Apple could be planning considerable changes to the way it handles warranties on its devices, according to a new report.

The iPhone, iPad and Mac maker is said to be planning a revamp of its basic AppleCare warranty service to become a subscription that will cover all the Apple devices a user owns. AppleCare currently has to be purchased on a per-gadget basis. According to AppleInsider the company held a meeting about the changes on Thursday and plans to roll them out this fall.

The report also claims that Apple is working on some behind-the-scenes changes to the way it … Read more

Apple has been sued by a Taiwan-based university for the second time.

The company on Friday was hit with a lawsuit by the National Cheng Kung University in Taiwan related to a patent the university owns on video compression technology. The complaint, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, claims that Apple's use of video compression technology in its FaceTime video-chatting feature, as well as QuickTime, violates the university's patent.

The university last year hit Apple with a patent-infringement lawsuit over the company's use of Siri and voice-to-text functionality. … Read more

Apple and Samsung can't be stopped in the handset market, according to new data from analysts at Cannacord Genuity.

The analysts on Monday reported that Apple and Samsung again combined to capture all of the operating profits in the handset industry in the first quarter of 2013. In other words, there isn't a single other device maker competing in the mobile industry right now that's actually nabbing operating profits.

Although that might sound like bad news for companies like Nokia, Motorola, and Sony, Cannacord pointed out that in the past, Apple and Samsung had actually combined to … Read more

Apple has shot up to sixth place in the Fortune 500, Fortune announced today.

The iPhone maker's strong showing in the Fortune 500 is a dramatic rise from its 17th-place ranking in 2012. In sixth place, Apple is the highest-ranking technology company in a list topped by Walmart. Major oil companies, including Exxon Mobil and Chevron, along with Berkshire Hathaway, separate Apple from the top spot.

Another notable mention -- Facebook has for the first time made the Fortune 500. The company was previously ranked 598, but this year, it was able to take the 482nd spot in Fortune'… Read more

An operational Apple-1 will go on the auction block later this month, and the rare computer is expected to fetch as much as $392,000.

The 37-year-old machine -- thought to be one of only six in working condition -- is expected to sell for between $261,000 and $392,000 at the current exchange rate, according to German auctioneer Breker, which is conducting the sale. As impressive as that range may sound, it's far off the record mark of $640,000 set last December for Apple's first production computer.

Constructed in 1976, the Apple-1 is one of … Read more

Just how much is Apple's new, six-part, $17 billion bond plan going to end up saving the company in taxes it would have needed to pay if it used its overseas cash pile?

Try $9.2 billion, says a senior vice president at Moody's Investors Service.

Speaking to Bloomberg, Moody's Gerald Granovsky said that's how much Apple's not going to pay in U.S. taxes as it pays out $55 billion of its $100 billion capital returns program.

To put the figure, which was first reported by the Financial Times (subscription required) late Wednesday, in … Read more

J.C. Penney has launched a new ad campaign apologizing for the decisions made under Ron Johnson, its former chief executive and Apple's one-time retail chief.

The new ad, posted to YouTube, focuses people in different locations as a narrator acknowledges the company's recent mistakes that left customers unhappy and pushed revenue down billions of dollars.

"It's no secret, recently J.C. Penney changed," the narrator says over the ad. "Some changes you liked and some you didn't, but what matters from mistakes is what we learn. We learned a very simple thing: … Read more