Technology, Electronics | featured news

In everything it does, from product design to business deals, Apple strives for as much control as possible. But as the world's most valuable company sets out to define and dominate the rapidly evolving markets it created with the iPhone and the iPad, Apple is likely to face antitrust regulators who want to curb its power.

A new system can wirelessly recharge smartphones and other consumer devices from up to several feet away — and it may eventually find use for electric vehicles and medical implants, too.

Apple's U.S. website said new pre-orders for iPads would not ship until March 19, three days after the official launch day. Earlier, the site had said the newest tablet would arrive at customers' homes on its launch day.

will begin production on a smaller 7.85-inch iPad later this year according to a new report. DigiTimes is reporting that the new iPad will run somewhere between $249 ? $299, making it a cheaper alternative to the current crop of iPads. is also expected to release an 8GB iPad 2 for US$349-399 according to DigiTimes. ...

Apple's market capitalization topped $500 billion in opening trading Wednesday, climbing to a mountain peak where few companies have ventured -and none have stayed for long.

The iPad 3 is widely-tipped to be launched on 7 March as Apple announces a special event in San Francisco.

With a year-on-year growth rate of more than 250%, 850,000 new Android devices are activated each day, jetting the total number of Android devices around the world past 300 million. These numbers are a testament to the break-neck speed of innovation that defines the Android ecosystem.”

Taiwan's HTC, the world's No. 5 smartphone maker, launched a new range of smartphone models on Sunday, hoping the fresh designs will help it to recover some of the lost market share. The new smartphones are crucial for HTC in a cut-throat market place -- dominated by Samsung Electronics and Apple Inc -- as lack of new, outstanding models has sent its sales sinking over the last months.

Barnes & Noble Inc posted a lower holiday-quarter profit as investments to keep its Nook e-reader competitive with Amazon.com Inc's Kindle continued to hurt its results.