Apple-Overload!

Apple has been cracking down on app discovery resources in recent months, removing high profile apps like AppGratis for violating guideline 2.25 , which states the following: "Apps that display Apps other than your own for purchase or promotion in a manner similar to or confusing with the App Store will be rejected." A report from AllThingsD in early April indicated that AppGratis' rejection from the App Store was just the first phase of a much wider crackdown, which was today confirmed by Pocketgamer after Apple began rejecting apps that feature tools for "filtering, bookmarking, searching, or sharing recommendations." We've been contacted by one developer whose app discovery tool has recently been blocked by Apple because it includes such features, with App Store regulation 2.25 - which restricts apps that could be confused by consumers as app stores in their own right – cited within the reasoning.

comScore today released the results of its monthly rolling survey of U.S. mobile phone users for the January-March period, showing that Apple's smartphone market share rose 2.7 points from December to March, from 36.3% of total U.S. smartphone platform and hardware sales to 39%, marking a record high share for the company

According to a new report from media research firm TDG (via GigaOM ) 14% of households with broadband internet owned an Apple TV, Roku box, or similar streaming platform during a study in 2012. While that sounds like an impressive number, Smart TVs have been slowly taking over the connected TV market. 25% of households owned a smart TV that comes equipped with apps, such as those offered by manufacturers like Samsung and LG

AllThingsD shares details on a new report from J.P. Morgan analysts Gokul Hariharan and Mark Moskowitz, who unsurprisingly argue that Apple's rumored lower-cost iPhone will still be a "mid-end" device rather than competing against the true low end of the smartphone market. The analysts point to Apple's previous introductions of the iPod nano and iPad mini as cheaper versions of their parent products that were still significantly more expensive than low-end competitors due to Apple's refusal to sacrifice quality for the sake of price

As part of its quarterly earnings release today, U.S. Cellular announced that it will begin carrying Apple products later this year, although the carrier offered no additional details on its plans. "We have a number of strategies in progress to increase loyalty and attract more customers, including our announcement today that we will begin offering Apple products later this year

Apple has posted a new contest on the App Store [ Direct Link ], offering a $10,000 gift card to whomever downloads the fifty billionth app from the App Store, similar to previous promotions. Apple said during its most recent earnings call that the company has surpassed 45 billion app downloads.

After Google Now was added to the Google Search app last week, many users began complaining that the app was draining battery by constantly accessing the iPhone’s Location Services. According to a Google employee who posted on the Macworld forum (via The Next Web ), Google Now does not excessively drain battery, despite the fact that the app often causes the Location Services icon to remain active. Hi there, I’m with Google and wanted to address this issue: Reports that Google Now on iOS drains battery life are incorrect.

Apple today released a minor iOS 6.1.4 update, bringing an updated audio profile for speakerphone. The new version, which arrives as Build 10B350, appears to only be for the iPhone 5. The update did not involve a beta testing period for developers and follows the release of iOS 6.1.3 in mid-March.

A new national stolen phone database is having little effect on smartphone thefts in the U.S., according to an article in The New York Times . The country's four major carriers all contribute to the database , which lists stolen phone ID numbers that should not be activated on domestic networks. However, the database appears to be ineffective for several reasons

As noted by The Verge , Intel late yesterday released details on its next-generation integrated graphics offerings arriving as part of the company's Haswell processor lineup.