Top stories

Journalists Cover Microsoft, Using Macs

It’s not an easy time for Microsoft — with Steve Ballmer having to field questions about being “buffoons” and an “evil empire”  at the shareholder’s meeting (.doc) — so when they get together “the world’s most influential technology pundits and online writers” (nb: we weren’t invited) for Mobius to discuss super-secret mobile tech you’d think [...]

Guide To Black Friday Apple Bargains: Cheap MacBooks, iPods and Accessories Galore

Here’s a guide for finding the best bargains on Apple-related gear during the infamous Black Friday sales on November 27. We’ve compiled a comprehensive list of gear from leaked photos of sales flyers and descriptions of sales.
The bargains include a 2.26 GHz MacBook + $150 gift card at Best Buy for $999.99 ; a 32GB [...]

Review: Voices Is Today’s Best Thing Ever, Grab It Now While It’s Cheap

New on the App Store is Voices from the clever folk at Tap Tap Tap. You can guess what it does.

Open it up, pick a silly voice. Helium is pretty silly. A microphone appears and the app even clears your throat for you (try it, you’ll see what I mean). Now speak your brains, and [...]

Review: Sony Walkman S540 Series Video MP3 Player

Press releases, you will hardly be surprised to hear, are rarely very interesting. But one arrived in my inbox a couple of weeks ago that made me double-take.
“Sony’s S Series Walkman,” it chattered, “is a serious challenger to the iPod Nano.” Gosh, really? Perhaps the Cult had better have a look at one, then, despite [...]

Report: Apple May Ink Pact With China Unicom May 17

china-flagAfter several rounds of fruitless talks with China’s largest carrier, Apple may ink an iPhone agreement with another carrier May 17, reports said Thursday.

China Unicom, the nation’s second-largest mobile carrier, confirmed it and Cupertino were discussing iPhone distribution.

“Yes, we are in talks with Apple Inc.,” a China Unicom executive told China Business News. The talks have been ongoing since October, according to the report.

Although China Unicom’s 130 million subscribers are no match for China Mobile’s 415 customers, the country’s second-largest mobile carrier has an ace up its sleeve: better compatibility with iPhone transmission technology.

China Unicom will launch May 17 a WCDMA network, the same technology used by Apple’s iPhone 3G. China Mobile, the first network Apple approached, insists on using TD-SCDMA, a standard developed by China.

Incompatible 3G technology has not been the only sticking point in 18 months of negotiations between Apple and China Mobile. Talks with China Mobile fell through after the giant carrier objected to control over Apple’s China App Store, according to a recent report.

About the author

Ed Sutherland

Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.

Email the author | Read more posts by Ed Sutherland.

One comment

    Unicorns are awesome, even if they happen to be a large mobile carrier.

Buy Inside Steve's Brain Buy from Amazon.com Buy from Barnes & Noble