As noticed by Apple Bitch , Chinese parts vendor TVC-Mall has begun offering "iPhone 5" home buttons for sale in both black and white . But what the report doesn't mention is that the buttons are indeed slightly different from the round home buttons seen on iOS devices to date. Front of "iPhone 5" home buttons The new home buttons appear to have a rounded square shape much like iOS app icons, but retain the round depression for the button as seen in existing devices.

Back in September, we covered Microsoft's announcement of Windows 8, the next step in the operating system's evolution that seeks to encompass not only traditional PCs but also mobile devices running on ARM processor architecture. Microsoft's Steven Sinofsky showing off prototype Windows 8 hardware at September's BUILD conference Steven Sinofsky, president of Microsoft's Windows division, today issued a massive blog post laying out in more detail how the company plans to tackle Windows on ARM (WOA). Sinofsky notes upfront that WOA will be a new member of the Windows family, based heavily on Windows 8 but customized for the flexibility that users will see in ARM-based systems in both traditional PC and mobile form factors

Research firm Gartner today released its preliminary personal computer shipment data for the fourth quarter of 2011, offering up a picture of market performance during the quarter.

Research firm Gartner today released its preliminary personal computer shipment data for the fourth quarter of 2011, offering up a picture of market performance during the quarter. With year-over-year unit growth of over 20%, Apple was the only one of the top five U.S. vendors to see an increase in shipments in an overall market that shrank by nearly 6%.