The iPhone is now one-fourth of the world’s smartphone market

Lost in all of the talk of Apple's declining profits was that the iPhone now accounts for a quarter of all smartphones shipped globally in 2012.

Although Samsung's triple-digit yearly growth-rate blinded many observers, Apple last year did eek out 47 percent growth.

It was enough to make Apple the only smartphone maker beside the South Korean firm to show any growth at all in 2012. Apple shipped 136.8 million iPhones in 2012, up from 93.1 million units in 2011, according to technology researcher IDC. Wednesday, Apple announced it shipped 47.8 million iPhones during the fourth quarter of last year...

Pressure mounts on Apple to reveal iOS source code

Samsung's first crack at cornering Apple into providing the iOS source code came in November 2011, when it argued at an Australian court it needed to take a look into the iPhone 4S firmware in order to determine the extent of an alleged patent infringement.

And on its own turf in South Korea, the Galaxy maker is putting pressure on the Cupertino, California firm to reveal the iOS 6 source code to judge whether Apple's mobile operating system - specifically, the Notification Center feature - infringes its technology patents.

To say that Apple wasn't impressed would be an understatement: lawyers for the iPhone maker called Samsung's request “insane” and argued its rival is trying to force it into revealing its “most important data”...

Are analysts responsible for AAPL decline?

So... Exxon passed Apple to reclaim the title of the World's Most Valuable Corporation. But how much did Wall Street's prognosticators have to do with Apple's drop in value following its earnings report earlier this week?

While investors realize the company is facing stiff competition and potentially lower profits, a number of financial observers were way off in the predictions ahead of Wednesday results. Indeed, while Apple reported $54 billion in fourth-quarter revenue, analysts had forecast between $51.7 billion and $65.69 billion.

According to Fortune, some analysts were up to 17 percent wrong, while some well-known Wall Street Apple watchers came within 3 percent of the iPhone maker's final numbers. Partially as a result of such wildly-varying forecasts, Apple is changing the way to releases its revenue guidance...

Apple lists California-based Quanta Computer plant as Mac assembler

Back in November, some folks started seeing "Assembled in the USA" etched into the backs of their iMacs. This obviously led to the conclusion that Apple has been quietly moving some of its assembly operations from China to the United States.

Today we learn where, at least some of, those Macs are being put together. In a recent update to its Supplier Responsibility page, Apple has named Quanta Computer Inc., in its Fremont, California plant, as a final assembler for its Mac computers...

Quipio adds artistic quotes to iPhone photos in under 60 seconds

You've probably seen beautifully captioned photos floating around Facebook and Tumblr, and thought you'd try your hand at making some of your own. The problem with making typography look good over a photo is it takes a bit of effort and design sense, so it's not for everybody. Or so we thought.

Quipio is a recently released app that allows users to make their own captions for their photos. If you just have some idea you'd like to share, Quipio can also take up to 400 characters of text and turn it into a simple piece of word art in less than a minute...

Looking to buy a MacBook Air? Now is the time

BestBuy's Winter Doorbuster Days sale is resulting in some pretty amazing prices for the entire MacBook Air line. The Richfield, Minnesota based company has slashed the price of the MacBook Air by $200 across the board.

That means that you can score a brand new low-end 11.6" MacBook Air for a mere $799 before tax. Even when you look at refurbished options direct from Apple, that's the lowest price you'll find anywhere.

Exxon surpasses Apple’s market cap, becomes most valuable corporation

Despite Apple's record holiday quarter earnings, investors continue to punish the Apple stock which has took quite a beating since Tuesday's earnings report. As the stock continues to slide, Apple on Friday hit a new 52-week low, becoming worth less than Exxon Mobil and ceding the top spot to the oil corporation.

As of this writing, Exxon Mobil was worth about $1 billion more than Apple. Though Apple was briefly ahead, Exxon has reclaimed the lead. The situation is changing by the second so we'll have to wait until the end of trading today to see who emerges victorious...

Pin Lock screen reminders to a non-jailbroken iPhone with ‘Task Paper’

We know that some of our readers who updated to iOS 6, or those of you who upgraded to the iPhone 5, get annoyed when we feature jailbreak tweaks. In for each article about tweaks we get at least one comment along the lines of, "Why are you covering tweaks when there's no jailbreak!?!" It's totally understandable, since you can't take advantage of all the awesome tweaks we've showcased. Lucky for you, the clever developers at Renegade Apps have found a way to add functionality to the Lock screen without relying on MobileSubstrate.

Task Paper (not to be confused with the similarly named TaskPaper) is a to-do list app, available in iTunes, that allows users to create persistent Lock screen reminders through generated wallpapers. These wallpapers provide functionality similar to the Reminders+ tweak, all without a jailbreak...

AT&T buying $1.9 billion worth of spectrum from Verizon

U.S. carrier AT&T announced Friday that it will acquire 700 MHz spectrum from rival Verizon Wireless in a cash transaction valued at $1.9 billion. The 700 MHz band was originally used to broadcast analog TV channels and in 2008 was put up for auction. AT&T says it will use the airwaves to improve its 4G LTE U.S. network presence...

Google upgrades YouTube Capture with 1080p video uploads

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0sOzdXce6o

When Google in December released the YouTube Capture iOS app, the company instantly goy my attention. I love its sleek design, simplified user interface and the effectiveness of having an app dedicated to recording and uploading video clips to YouTube. It would be a must-have if not for the inexplicable lack of support for 1080 uploads - the software would limit any upload to 720p.

Not anymore. Today, a new maintenance released has been pushed which now lets you upload footage in the full HD 1,920-by-1,080 pixel resolution, along with a few other tweaks. More details right after the break...

Apple rumored to tap Qualcomm’s low-end Snapdragon chip for budget iPhone

The less-pricey iPhone rumor just wouldn't die. Today, Forbes reports that the Cupertino, California firm is likely to use Qualcomm's less powerful lower-end Snapdragon processor for the rumored budget iPhone thought to be targeted to price-sensitive shoppers in emerging markets like China, Brazil and elsewhere where carriers rarely subsidize handsets.

The story has it that such a device would not need the same kind of graphics, video and processing power as premium iPhones do and using Qualcomm's integrated solution could enable the company to integrate the CPU, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi on a single chip rather than have three separate chips. As a result, Cook & Co. would be able to minimize costs, a necessity should Apple pursue the rumored $149 price point...

German court finds Apple to infringe Samsung’s 3G patent

A court in Germany has ruled that Apple's iPhone infringes upon Samsung's patents related to 3G wireless technology and has issued an order to stay a German Samsung v. Apple lawsuit. Patent blogger Florian Müeller who follows tech litigation explains that the case will be adjudicated only after the validity of this patent. Apple, of course, is challenging the validity of Samsung's patent, but that will likely take years to resolve...