Apple today announced it has agreed to acquire the critically acclaimed subscription streaming music service Beats Music, and Beats Electronics, which makes the popular Beats headphones, speakers and audio software. As part of the acquisition, Beats co-founders Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre will join Apple. Apple is acquiring the two companies for a total of $3 billion, consisting of a purchase price of approximately $2.6 billion and approximately $400 million that will vest over time.

"Music is such an important part of all of our lives and holds a special place within our hearts at Apple," said Tim Cook, Apple's CEO. "That's why we have kept investing in music and are bringing together these extraordinary teams so we can continue to create the most innovative music products and services in the world." "I've always known in my heart that Beats belonged with Apple," said Jimmy Iovine. "The idea when we started the company was inspired by Apple's unmatched ability to marry culture and technology. Apple's deep commitment to music fans, artists, songwriters and the music industry is something special."

Apple today updated MacBook Air with faster processors and lower prices, making the perfect everyday notebook an even better value. Now starting at $899, MacBook Air features powerful processors, fast flash storage, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, up to 12 hours of battery life and Apple's iLife and iWork apps, giving you everything you need to handle all your work, all day long.

"With MacBook Air starting at $899, there's no reason to settle for anything less than a Mac," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. "Macs have never been more popular, and today we've boosted the performance and lowered the price of MacBook Air so even more people can experience the perfect everyday notebook."

Apple today announced that its Board of Directors has authorized another significant increase to the Company's program to return capital to shareholders. The Company expects to utilize a total of over $130 billion of cash under the expanded program by the end of calendar 2015. As part of the program, the Board has increased its share repurchase authorization to $90 billion from the $60 billion level announced last year. The Company expects to continue to utilize about $1 billion annually to net-share-settle vesting restricted stock units.

Additionally, the Board has approved an increase to the Company's quarterly dividend of approximately 8 percent and has declared a dividend of $3.29 per common share, payable on May 15, 2014 to shareholders of record as of the close of business on May 12, 2014. The Company also plans to increase its dividend on an annual basis. With annual payments of $11 billion, Apple is among the largest dividend payers in the world. From August 2012 through March 2014, Apple has spent $66 billion in cash on its capital return program.

Apple today announced financial results for its fiscal 2014 second quarter ended March 29, 2014. The Company posted quarterly revenue of $45.6 billion and quarterly net profit of $10.2 billion, or $11.62 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $43.6 billion and net profit of $9.5 billion, or $10.09 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 39.3 percent compared to 37.5 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 66 percent of the quarter's revenue.

"We're very proud of our quarterly results, especially our strong iPhone sales and record revenue from services," said Tim Cook, Apple's CEO. "We're eagerly looking forward to introducing more new products and services that only Apple could bring to market."

ZiiLabs Inc., Ltd. ("ZiiLabs") today announced that it filed a patent infringement lawsuit ("the lawsuit") in the United States against Samsung and Apple. The lawsuit alleges that certain products of Samsung (including various Galaxy phones and tablets, and laptops) and Apple (including various ranges of the iPhone and iPad, iMac and MacBook Pro) infringe a number of ZiiLabs patents.

ZiiLabs owns over 100 US patents in the graphics, processor and 3D spaces. Ten of these patents have been asserted in the lawsuit, in which ZiiLabs is claiming past and future damages for patent infringement, and injunctions against Samsung and Apple.

Today Logitech announced the Logitech Harmony Smart Keyboard, a keyboard and touchpad combination specially designed for controlling streaming media in your living room. This new keyboard simplifies text entry, so you can search for shows, navigate menus and browse the Web on a PC or Mac connected to your TV or Internet-connected media devices, such as Apple TV, Roku or Xbox One.

"Internet-connected and streaming-media devices seem to deliver limitless entertainment options, however their accompanying remotes struggle to keep up with the text entry needed to search for selections," said Chad Thompson, senior director of worldwide marketing and product management for Logitech's digital home business group. "Our goal with the Logitech Harmony Smart Keyboard is to unite Logitech's expertise in both universal remotes and keyboards to provide a fast and simple way to search for and navigate through the vast content options available through the living room's entertainment devices."

Apple today announced financial results for its fiscal 2014 first quarter ended December 28, 2013. The Company posted record quarterly revenue of $57.6 billion and quarterly net profit of $13.1 billion, or $14.50 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $54.5 billion and net profit of $13.1 billion, or $13.81 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 37.9 percent compared to 38.6 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 63 percent of the quarter's revenue.

The Company sold 51 million iPhones, an all-time quarterly record, compared to 47.8 million in the year-ago quarter. Apple also sold 26 million iPads during the quarter, also an all-time quarterly record, compared to 22.9 million in the year-ago quarter. The Company sold 4.8 million Macs, compared to 4.1 million in the year-ago quarter.

Other World Computing (OWC), the world's leading destination for cutting-edge Mac and PC upgrades and accessories, today announced lower pricing for the OWC Mercury Accelsior_E2, a Mac and PC-bootable, high-performance PCIe SSD card that features up to 960GB of SSD capacity, up to 820MB/s of sustained data performance and external storage expansion with two 6Gb/s eSATA interface ports. Built to exceed the demanding needs of video editing and creative professionals, the Mercury Accelsior_E2 offers the best combination of speed, capacity, connectivity for simultaneous internal and external storage performance and value. OWC will be showcasing the Accelsior at CES 2014, Booth #30472, in Las Vegas January 7-10, 2014.

Apple today announced the all-new Mac Pro will be available to order starting Thursday, December 19. Redesigned from the inside out, the all-new Mac Pro features the latest Intel Xeon processors, dual workstation-class GPUs, PCIe-based flash storage and ultra-fast ECC memory.

Designed around an innovative unified thermal core, the all-new Mac Pro packs unprecedented performance into an aluminum enclosure that is just 9.9-inches tall and one-eighth the volume of the previous generation. Mac Pro features 4-core, 6-core, 8-core or 12-core Intel Xeon processors running at Turbo Boost speeds up to 3.9 GHz and two workstation-class AMD FirePro GPUs that deliver up to eight times the graphics performance of the previous generation Mac Pro.

Apple today announced financial results for its fiscal 2013 fourth quarter ended September 28, 2013. The Company posted quarterly revenue of $37.5 billion and quarterly net profit of $7.5 billion, or $8.26 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $36 billion and net profit of $8.2 billion, or $8.67 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 37 percent compared to 40 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 60 percent of the quarter's revenue.

The Company sold 33.8 million iPhones, a record for the September quarter, compared to 26.9 million in the year-ago quarter. Apple also sold 14.1 million iPads during the quarter, compared to 14 million in the year-ago quarter. The Company sold 4.6 million Macs, compared to 4.9 million in the year-ago quarter.

Apple today updated MacBook Pro with Retina display with fourth generation Intel Core processors, the latest graphics, longer battery life, faster flash storage and next generation Wi-Fi. Starting at a new lower price of $1,299 (US), the updated MacBook Pro with Retina display features a stunning high-resolution display, an amazing thin and light design, and the latest technology to power through the most demanding projects. Apple today also announced that both iWork and iLife are now free with the purchase of every new Mac.

"We've made the world's best pro notebook even better by adding more performance and even longer battery life," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. "MacBook Pro with Retina display continues to redefine the pro notebook."

Apple today announced that OS X Mavericks, the 10th major release of the world's most advanced desktop operating system, is available for free from the Mac App Store. With more than 200 new features, OS X Mavericks brings iBooks and Maps to the Mac, includes a new version of Safari, enhances multi-display support, introduces Finder Tabs and Tags and delivers new core technologies for breakthrough power efficiency and performance.

"Mavericks is an incredible release, which introduces significant new apps and features, while also improving the performance and battery life of your Mac," said Craig Federighi, Apple's senior vice president of Software Engineering. "We want every Mac user to experience the latest features, the most advanced technologies, and the strongest security. We believe the best way to do this is to begin a new era of personal computing software where OS upgrades are free."

Apple posted a much needed firmware update to the SSDs inside MacBook Air (mid-2012).Bad firmware made the machine vulnerable to data loss in certain cases, and it took over a year for Apple to get enough warranty claims to act on the firmware. The firmware update puts existing data on risk, so it would be a good idea to back things up. Apple admits that the firmware update may not work on all drives, and in such cases, stated that the drives would be replaced for free.DOWNLOAD: MacBook Air (mid-2012) SSD firmware update

Other World Computing, the world's leading destination for cutting-edge and easy-to-install Mac and PC upgrades and accessories, announced the immediate availability of the OWC Memory Upgrade Kits from 8GB to 32GB for 2013 iMac 27" models that became available today. OWC's kits offer memory configurations not offered by the factory as well as savings of more than $240 compared to same-size factory options. Like all OWC Memory Upgrade Kits, a 'how-to' install video and OWC Lifetime warranty are included.

What it does: upgrading the memory of this iMac gives you more options and better performance. It's a low-cost improvement that gives Apple's latest OSX-including the upcoming Mavericks release-the space it needs for maximum performance. For hundreds less than what Apple charges, users can select an OWC upgrade to unlock the machine's true potential. Installation takes just a few minutes, and OWCs iMac Memory Upgrade Guide makes it easy to select the right memory for any Apple iMac model.

Apple today updated iMac with fourth generation Intel quad-core processors, new graphics, next generation Wi-Fi and faster PCIe flash storage options. The updated iMac brings the latest technology to the stunningly thin design and gorgeous display of the world's leading all-in-one desktop.

"iMac continues to be the example that proves how beautiful, fast and fun a desktop computer can be," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. "Inside its ultra-thin aluminum enclosure, the new iMac has the latest Intel processors, faster graphics, next generation 802.11ac Wi-Fi and faster PCIe flash storage."

Apple announced a GPU Replacement Program along the lines of its HDD Replacement Program, dating back to 2011, for mid-2011 iMacs, which had its run at the markets from May 2011 to October 2012, more specifically, iMacs equipped with AMD Radeon HD 6970M. Apple says that both the 1 GB and 2 GB variants of the graphics boards inside these iMacs could fail. Telltale signs include artifacts on the screen, including white or blue vertical lines or a solid black display. Apple is offering free repair and replacement for affected iMacs, and refunds to people to paid to get the issue fixed, prior to this announcement.

Today is the day the headphone becomes "smart" with the launch of Muzik, an innovative company inspired to transform the way music is experienced. Muzik, founded by disruptive innovator, Jason Hardi, is pioneering a new space called Social Smartware, coined to describe the seamless connection of consumer electronic devices, content and social media platforms to make music instantly discoverable and shareable in an effortless way. Muzik is launching a full line of smart audio products synced to their mobile Muzik ecosystem that will activate a new wave of innovation in the headphone space.

Muzik's game-changing lineup includes their marquee product: the smart, on-ear wireless headphone that combines high-fidelity audio in a simple, elegant sleek design with groundbreaking capacitive touch controls. They are the first headphones in the world that allow users to natively share what they are listening to on Facebook and Twitter or instantly send a song anywhere in the world.

While Apple's MacBook Air got its direly needed hardware upgrade this June, it left its MacBook Pro lineup untouched. The company plans to hold a press event in September, when it plans to unveil its next MacBook Pro lineup. These could include MacBook Pro driven by Core "Haswell" GT3e processors, which feature large integrated graphics cores, featuring 40 execution units, allowing it to do away with discrete GPUs, and improve battery life. A new rumor doing rounds in the tech circles states that Apple could make Intel build-to-order a new class of Haswell GT3e processors with even faster graphics cores than Iris 5200, the graphics core inside today's Core i7-4950HQ.

Apple today announced financial results for its fiscal 2013 third quarter ended June 29, 2013. The Company posted quarterly revenue of $35.3 billion and quarterly net profit of $6.9 billion, or $7.47 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $35 billion and net profit of $8.8 billion, or $9.32 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 36.9 percent compared to 42.8 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 57 percent of the quarter's revenue.

The Company sold 31.2 million iPhones, a record for the June quarter, compared to 26 million in the year-ago quarter. Apple also sold 14.6 million iPads during the quarter, compared to 17 million in the year-ago quarter. The Company sold 3.8 million Macs, compared to 4 million in the year-ago quarter.

Apple's MacBook Air refresh for 2013 saw it integrating Intel's 4th generation Core "Haswell" CPUs in an effort to improve performance and battery life. It was only a matter of time before the CPU architecture caught up with the rest of Apple's lineup. A validation of a 15-inch MacBook Pro on Geekbench database reveals that Apple is already testing the notebook with the very latest Intel chips.

With Core "Haswell," Intel introduced a new grade of silicon codenamed "Haswell-GT3," which combines four CPU cores with up to 6 MB L3 cache, and a large integrated graphics core that features 40 execution units, as opposed to 20 found on regular "Haswell-GT2" and "Haswell-GT1" grades. The added pixel-crunching muscle makes the chip ready to singlehandedly take on Apple's Retina displays, without the need for discrete GPUs, such as the NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M that handled the first Retina-equipped MacBook Pro.

Buffalo Technology, a global leader in the design, development and manufacturing of wired and wireless networking and network and direct attached storage solutions, today announced the launch of its LinkStation 400 Series of high performance network storage devices. Ideal for the novice to the tech enthusiast, the LinkStation 400 Series provides secure central storage and backup and offers an assortment of features, enabling consumers to organize and protect content, stream their favorite media and access files from any computer, smartphone and tablet device, at home or on the road.

Buffalo's LinkStation 400 Series provides up to 8 TB of ultra-fast shared storage and backup for all PC and Mac computers on a home network. Simply connect it to a wireless router for high capacity centralized storage and backup. Equipped with a high performance processor, the LinkStation 400 Series boasts transfer speeds up to 100 MB/s, nearly three times as fast as a standard NAS device. Additionally, it is DLNA Certified, it can be used as an iTunes server and it features an integrated BitTorrent Client for simplified media storage and streaming, and P2P sharing. While on the go, Buffalo's WebAccess service allows users to create a free personal cloud for easy remote access over the Internet, and even on smartphone and tablet devices. The LinkStation 400 Series allows users to back up multiple computers simultaneously and enjoy uninterrupted access to terabytes of storage anytime, anywhere.

The MacBook Air products received the expected hardware update and are currently shipping (in the US) with Haswell ULT processors. While the performance gains on the CPU side should be fairly marginal, the IGP upgrade is supposed to offer a considerable boost to graphic performance (a 40% gain was mentioned, though no measurement criteria was given to justify or explain the value). Another important effect of the hardware upgrade is a noticeably extended battery life, translated into 9 hours for the 11" MacBook Air and 12 hours for the 13" version, or what Apple called "all day battery life." WiFi was also upgraded to the 802.11ac standard. Both MacBook Air versions suffered downward price adjustments, with pricing for the 11" model starting at $999 while the 13" saw a $100 price cut, now starting at $1099.

During the Worldwide Developer Convention (WWDC) this Monday, Apple presented its radically redesigned Mac Pro which represents a complete and long overdue departure from the shapes, sizes and general design language of its workstations. Personally I can not decide which is the most striking visual aspect of the new Mac Pro, the truly tiny size of this multi-GPU powerhouse, or its curiously cylindrical shape. Alas, my true curiosity lies with the cooling solutions employed by the designers to address the inevitable heat issues associated with densely packing such potent hardware. The monolithic appearance of the Mac Pro is interrupted only by a cutout in the cover that allows access to the back panel, where the entire I/O interface is located. Apart from the usual suspects (USB, RJ45, etc), the user is presented with no less than six Thunderbolt 2 ports, which some might find problematic considering they constitute the entire expansion potential of the new Mac Pro.

Other World Computing (OWC), a leading zero emissions Mac and PC technology company, today introduced the OWC Mercury Helios+E2 Thunderbolt SSD Solution. The bootable 'all-in-one' storage performance and expansion solution offers owners of Thunderbolt technology enabled Macs and PCs sustained read/write data throughput up to 617MB/s from up to 960GB of OWC Mercury SSD capacity; two Thunderbolt interfaces for connecting multiple Thunderbolt devices; and two eSATA 6Gb/s expansion ports for connecting up to an additional 32TB or more of external storage/backup capacity.

Apple today announced financial results for its fiscal 2013 second quarter ended March 30, 2013. The Company posted quarterly revenue of $43.6 billion and quarterly net profit of $9.5 billion, or $10.09 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $39.2 billion and net profit of $11.6 billion, or $12.30 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 37.5 percent compared to 47.4 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 66 percent of the quarter's revenue.

The Company sold 37.4 million iPhones in the quarter, compared to 35.1 million in the year-ago quarter. Apple also sold 19.5 million iPads during the quarter, compared to 11.8 million in the year-ago quarter. The Company sold just under 4 million Macs, compared to 4 million in the year-ago quarter.