Smartphone crime has become an epidemic. Especially in places like New York City where the crime rate went up for first time in twenty years thanks to thieves mugging people for their iPhones.

As a response to the iPhone crimewave, Apple added some significant improvements to iOS 7, including a new Activation Lock feature, but according to the New York Police Department’s new commissioner, Bill Bratton, that’s not enough. Not only that, Bratton is pretty sure Apple and other U.S. smartphone makers are in cahoots with insurance companies to make a fortune by not installing a kill switch.

While Microsoft and BlackBerry are still trying to piece together a decent mobile user base in the U.S., Apple and Samsung managed to widen their lead against the competition in terms of smartphone marketshare in the U.S. Both companies experienced a significant bump in 2013, but Apple claimed the largest increase despite murmurs that the company is getting out innovated by Google. 

For some time now, a number of pundits have been calling on Apple to release a cheaper version of the iPhone to grow market share in developing countries.

To some extent Apple has apparently listened — since it is reportedly planning to sell the discontinued iPhone 4 in India for the reduced price of around RS 15,000 ($250) — making it among the cheapest unsubsidized iPhones in the world.

Chinese appliance maker Haier has announced that it has become the first company of its kind to be accepted into Apple’s MFi licensing program, guaranteeing ease-of-use and compatibility with iOS devices.

“Haier’s Tianzun [cabinet air conditioning unit] is the first air conditioner and white good that is authorized by Apple’s MFi program,” noted the company’s official press release — going on to claim that, “Haier will use this technology in the other Haier products, such as water heaters, ovens, intelligent home accessories and the like.”

LAS VEGAS — Shure has hit the extremes lately in terms of how much they think music lovers are willing to pay for headphones and earphones, but their latest in-ear monitors cost just $50.

The new SE112s are just half the price of Shure’s previously cheapest IEMs, the SE215, and only $20 more than Apple’s iconic, earbud-ish EarPods. It’s quite a change for Shure: Earlier this year, the company came out with the ultra-high-end, $1,000-plus SE846 canalphones. And their exotic, carbon-fiber SRH1540 headphones arrived just a few months ago at a robust $624.

Apple will hold its earnings call for the first fiscal quarter of 2014 on Monday, January 27th. During the call, Apple executives will talk about the company’s sales during this last holiday season.

Most notably, this will be the first quarter to see how sales of Apple’s latest iPads have been, and iPhone sales should also be interesting. Apple announced a deal to sell the iPhone on China Mobile last month, but sales from that big partnership won’t be very noticeable until after preorders are over and sales officially start.

With all of the pressure Apple faced in 2013 from Wall Street, the U.S government, legal disputes with other companies, and growing competition in the smartphone market, this earnings report will show us just how well Apple managed to close out the year. Based on Apple’s own guidance to investors, it could turn out to be the company’s best quarter ever.

Source: Apple

Apple acquired today a one-man startup called SnappyLabs for an undisclosed amount.

The startup makes just one product: A 99-cent iPhone app called SnappyCam.

Apple hasn’t said why they acquired SnappyLabs, and probably won’t say. But such an acquisition would make sense as both an aqui-hire of founder and sole employee John Papandriopoulos (pictured), who has a PhD in electrical engineering, and also an IP purchase of the amazing thing that Papandriopoulos built.

Here’s what Apple bought and why it makes perfect sense that they bought it.

Apple has acquired SnappyLabs, the small startup behind the SnappyCam iPhone app, according to a report from TechCrunch. SnappyCam gave the user the ability to shoot 20 full-res photos per second with the iPhone’s camera. By comparison, Apple’s new Burst Mode on the iPhone 5s can only capture 10 photos per second.

The price Apple paid and exact date of the acquisition remain unknown, but the SnappyCam app was recently pulled from the App Store.

Apple denies working with the National Security Agency to create a backdoor into the iPhone and other products that would give the spy agency access to users’ data.

The denial is a response to leaked NSA documents published yesterday from 2008 that detail a backdoor into the iPhone called “DROPOUTJEEP.” The spyware is able to intercept data like the iPhone’s SMS messages, contacts, location, and more after being installed.

There are more than a few people who would claim that not much happened with Apple in 2013. After all, they spent the first six months of the year without releasing a single product, didn’t they?

Maybe that’s true, but in actuality, 2013 was one of the most exciting years in the Apple space in recent memory.

Don’t believe us? First of all, check out our round-up of the biggest stories in 2013, and then, take a detailed look at this incredible infographic by Kevin Choi, beautifully showing the most important milestones in Apple’s fiscal 2013, from the introduction of the 128GB iPad to the App Store’s 50th Billionth App Download, and beyond.

We can only show a small snatch of the infographic, due to its hugeness, but you can see the whole thing here on Google Drive.