IPOD

Apple beat its own conservative quarterly estimate, reporting a strong jump in earnings and even sold a record number of iPads in Q3, but across the board, Apple did a rare thing: It missed analysts' estimates. Apple can rebound in Q4 if it decides to release its next iPhone, which many are already calling "iPhone 5," as long as the much-rumored "iPad Mini."

Most Apple fans couldn't wait to download OS X Mountain Lion, the eighth iteration of the OS X software line for Mac, and as a result, the Mac App Store was flooded early Wednesday morning with download requests for the $19.99 upgrade. Most early adopters of Mountain Lion love the beast, but most major software upgrades are not without their fair share of bugs, issues, errors and omissions. Would OS X Mountain Lion suffer the same fate?

There's always a big buzz whenever Apple releases new hardware or software - or really, any time Apple does anything publicly - and today is no different. Apple released OS X Mountain Lion this morning, which is the eighth edition of its OS X software for Mac. Many will have upgraded to OS X Mountain Lion by now, but others are waiting to know if Mountain Lion is worth upgrading to immediately. Here's why you should wait.

Apple promised a July release date for OS X Mountain Lion, the eighth edition of Apple's OS X software for Mac, and the company came through. As confirmed by Apple's fourth quarter earnings conference call on Tuesday evening, OS X Mountain Lion promptly released on Wednesday for $19.99. The upgrade is exclusively downloadable via the Mac App Store.

In the wake of numerous reports suggesting that the next generation Apple iPhone, dubbed iPhone 5, would feature an enlarged 4-inch screen and will ditch the traditional 30-pin dock connector in favor of a smaller 19-pin version, new cases have surfaced in the UK that simply substantiate all these notions.

It's long been rumored that the iPad Mini and the new iPhone -- the 5, as many call it -- would launch around the same time -- around the end of September and beginning of October -- but a new report says Apple may release the new iPhone and iPad sooner rather than later.

On Monday, Apple released its newest commercial for the iPhone 4S -- the first smartphone to feature Apple's AI assistant -- with Martin Scorcese as the company's latest spokesman. If Apple plans to do more commericals with these Hollywood types, we've got a few great ideas on who should be picked next, and why.

It's officially the last week of July, which means that Apple has seven days to release its brand-new operating system for Mac, also known as OS X Mountain Lion. Users that upgrade to Mac OS X Mountain Lion will discover scores of useful features -- more than 200 of them, according to Apple. Here's a guide to the best and most important features in Mountain Lion.

Rumors are rife that Apple will launch a significantly redesigned iPhone later this year. One of the much-talked about design overhauls is a smaller dock connector, replacing the existing 30-pin one. While many rumored features of the next iPhone, aka iPhone 5, are still uncertain, this particular feature seems to be getting closer to fruition with more reports surfacing online in its favor.

Apple iOS users may not enjoy an easy view of their applications' data collection policies until iOS 6 is unveiled in the fall this year as Apple has removed BitDefender's Clueful, a privacy monitoring app from iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.

With the highly anticipated The Dark Knight Rises, the third installment in Christopher Nolan's Batman film series, hitting the silver screen Friday, a mobile game version inspired by the movie has also landed on the Apple App Store and can be downloaded for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.

Heating up the so-called smartphone patent war, HTC has filed two counterclaims against Apple in the Southern District of Florida, claiming that the iPhone-maker has infringed on two HP patents it acquired in December last year.

Apple announced iOS 6, the latest version of its mobile operating system, just over a month ago, and since then the company has released three betas, allowing developers to have a firsthand look at how the software will behave. If you've updated your device to the iOS 6 beta 3 firmware, you can jailbreak it tethered using latest version of the popular RedSn0w jailbreak tool. The iPhone Dev Team has released RedSn0w 0.9.13dev3, covering the third beta.

Apple heralds OS X Mountain Lion as the world's most advanced desktop operating system, but despite being unveiled at WWDC last month, there is no official world on its exact release date.

Apple earlier announced that it would launch the OS X Mountain Lion 10.8 in July, and now latest reports have surfaced, suggesting that the company could choose July 25 for the release.

On Tuesday, Gotta Be Mobile released exclusive photos of what it believes to be an engineering sample of the iPhone 5 design, which only helps to validate earlier rumors, reports, and even photos and schematics of the phone. The features and specs from this iPhone metal mockup actually perfectly match up with those earlier photos and schematics released in May.

Jailbreaking smartphones creates a wide array of theme and customization opportunities that wouldn?t exist otherwise. Some of these themes, such as Winterboard?s eXpLos1on HD, allow iPhone apps to be displayed in an eye-popping way that can distinguish your Apple device from anyone else?s. However, a new, clever jailbreak may disguise your iPhone with an unexpected interface.

If you own an iPad 2 or a third-generation new iPad, you need to buy Logitech's Ultrathin Keyboard Cover. Right now. Logitech accomplished something rare with the Smarter Stand for iPad. It's not very often that companies outside of Apple can build a hardware accessory that actually integrates Apple's hardware and software perfectly.

Ever since Bloomberg first reported rumors of a new, smaller iPad, the internet has been ablaze with rumors over the expected announcement of the iPad Mini. While Apple hasn't yet made an announcement about the device, manufacturer reports suggest the rumors might be accurate.

Whether it's a phone, or a tablet, or a music player, each and every new product released by Apple is thinner, lighter, faster and more powerful than its predecessor. With this in mind, the latest report about Apple's next iPhone, presumably dubbed the iPhone 5, should come as no real surprise: According to DigiTimes, Apple has chosen the powerful Exynos 4 quad-core processor built by Samsung to power its next-gen iPhone.

Despite an earlier dismissal of a 7-inch iPad by late Apple CEO Steve Jobs, rumors of an iPad mini have been around for quite some time now. Adding to the already churning rumor-mills, a new report surfaced Tuesday, saying that the Cupertino tech giant is indeed planning to launch a smaller and cheaper iPad by year-end.