Apple, Blackberry | featured news

Apple has run out of white iPhone 4s on the eve of the launch of the hot-selling next-generation smartphone, the latest hiccup in the gadget's closely watched global roll-out. Apple said on Wednesday that supplies of its more popular black model remain ample.

A day before the the much-hyped release of the iPhone 4, Verizon is announcing a new Droid phone that's got some analysts more excited.

As Apple's chosen reviewers sounded off first on the iPhone 4 Tuesday night, they all agreed that it was a major improvement over its predecessor, the iPhone 3GS, and a champion when compared to challengers from other phone makers. Still, many pointed out that call reception was no better.

Apple and AT&T have now both sold out of their initial batches of iPhone 4 devices.

As promised, Apple early today began taking pre-orders for its new iPhone 4, although only the black model was immediately available. Around 6 a.m. Eastern, however, the iPhone 4 page on Apple's U.S. online store was returning an "Oops! An error occurred" message. Minutes later, the entire store went down. It was back up around 8 a.m., and a Computerworld editor successfully ordered one of the iPhones (in black). But by 8:15 a.m., the store was again down, displaying a "We'll be back soon" message.

The iPhone will be available on other cell phone networks as early as this fall and will likely come first to T-Mobile USA, one analyst who follows Apple Inc. closely said Thursday.

I spent about 45 minutes playing with Apple's new iPhone 4. In a word: Wow. And I don't throw that word around lightly. Here are a few of my first hands-on impressions.

Apple Inc is widely expected to unveil its latest iPhone on Monday, as the company aims to stay a step ahead of rivals in an increasingly competitive smartphone market.

Apple Inc's next-generation iPhone, which CEO Steve Jobs is widely expected to unveil on Monday, will have to really set new standards in multimedia content and function to wow Wall Street and consumers.

Since its release last month, Opera Mini for the iPhone has been used by more than 2.6 million users and is now the third most popular Opera Mini device worldwide.