As a result, Leap said, it could end up with $100 million worth of unsold iPhones by the middle of this year. That spells more trouble for Leap, a company struggling to keep pace with larger competitors, and sheds light on the challenges facing Apple in cracking the huge market for smartphones being bought by lower-income consumers.

Oh NOES. The iPhone is a failure! Everyone hates Apple now! SELL AAPL! SELL! SELL!

Leap, which has about 5.3 million total subscribers, is also handicapped by the fact it lacks the robust nationwide networks of the country’s biggest carriers, and because technological limits mean it can’t sell the iPhone in all of its markets.

Oh, gee, you think this may explain part of the reason why fewer customers than expected are rushing to buy iPhones from this company? No, it has to be “challenges facing Apple.” Right.

Earlier today, CBS This Morning (video clip not yet available) mentioned that Mayer had viewed remote workers’ VPN usage, only to discover that employees were not using the virtual private network when and as often as they should be. If true, this would sound alarm bells for any executive, especially one at the helm of a company facing as many challenges as Yahoo does today.

This furthers my belief that telecommuting isn’t the core issue, but rather effective management of the remote workforce. Right now I’m sure everyone at Yahoo is under Mayer’s microscope, including the managers who have done a particularly poor job of handling telecommuting employees.

It may also save Yahoo money to make it unpleasant enough for these workers to quit rather than offer them severance.

Creative manipulation of images, from layering to composition to special effects, can add depth to web projects.

Tricks of the trade.

Launched 55 years ago, in 1958, the ES-335 is undoubtedly a classic, not only of Gibson’s but of all electric guitar designs. What the Les Paul model is to solidbodies, the ES-335 is to semis – beautiful, versatile and coveted by players across all genres.

Some history on one of the great guitars.

This is brilliant.

Jim and Dan discuss the latest Apple and tech news.

Sponsored by Shutterstock and Shopify (3 months free).

CNBC’s Jon Fortt had a live blog of the meeting.

Now thinner to accommodate the Retina Display-equipped MacBook Pro. Some of the best and prettiest camouflage you can buy for your Apple devices – make them look like hardbound leather books.

They’re not just talking about future EA games for iOS and Android. All EA games are going to nickel and dime you to death from here on out.

Screw that.

A little while ago I sarcastically asked on Twitter how the Wall Street Journal could take good news about Apple and turn it into bad news. Well, they did it. I can’t even link to them, but Gruber noticed it too.

Apparently, a glitch in the update is erasing the user’s entire book library from their iOS device.

Brutal update.

Come on Samsung, can you at least try not to be a bunch of assholes.

But it’s hard not to pin Tuesday’s action in Apple to [Seabreeze Partners hedge fund president Douglas] Kass’ Twitter posts or to see how he profited from them. The stock was down. He tweeted the split rumor. The stock went up. He sold shares while tweeting that his rumor was baseless.

Good on Philip Elmer-Dewitt for calling this like he sees it.

The manga will be an adaptation of the Japanese edition of “Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography,” an official biography based on interviews with Jobs and published in 2011 with his blessing.

No word on whether it’ll be translated into English, but I’m willing to bet scanlations will appear before too long. Just remember kids, every time you read a scanlation, the angry copyright gods kill a kitten.

(Some NSFW content on that page – unrelated to the Steve Jobs content – just FYI.)

Matthew Panzarino:

Apple sent one over to Fancy to commemorate its role as a launch partner on Google+ Sign-In. A picture of the cake was posted by Fancy’s Jake Frey and we confirmed that yes, it was indeed sent from Apple.

Love it.

Update: The original story was updated saying Google sent the cake, not Apple.

Developers will love this.

I downloaded this tonight and really like it.

Apple and Google are both bitter competitors and sometime partners in the smartphone business, but that hasn’t stopped the search giant from looking to the computer company’s legendary and late cofounder for inspiration.

How is it that Google feels its entitled to steal elements of Java and get away with it. No matter how you look at it, that’s an asshole move.

AB InBev routinely adds extra water to its finished products to produce malt beverages with significantly less alcohol content than displayed on its labels, Thomas and Gerald Greenberg said in a complaint filed yesterday in federal court in Philadelphia. The company’s exaggeration of the alcohol content violates Pennsylvania’s consumer protection statutes, according to the complaint.

It’s about time.

I don’t think Yahoo’s primary problem is with remote workers – I think it’s with craptastic managers.

Google’s Andy Rubin denies his company is working on its own retail stores:

A few years ago, consumers needed to touch and feel devices, but these days they can often get the information they need to make a purchase decision by talking to friends and reading reviews.

“They don’t have to go in the store and feel it anymore,” Rubin said, during a roundtable with reporters at Mobile World Congress on Tuesday.

That’s absolutely true. Nobody goes to Apple retail stores to get some time with the new products, nobody at all. Those stores are basically empty all the time. Rubin is TOTALLY right.

Moron.

“Apple has [become] more flexible, paying more attention to everyone else, probably a little less arrogant than they used to be,” France Telecom-Orange CEO Stephane Richard said during a dinner with reporters in Barcelona on Monday. Characterizing today’s Apple with the same company under Steve Jobs, Richard said, “I think they are probably a little more under pressure, and it is quite nice.”

If you like the sound of Orange amplifiers, this collection is a must-have.

This quarter’s report showed a clear preference for iOS devices, which accounted for 77 percent of all activations and captured eight of the top ten spots on the most popular device list this quarter. While Android activations dropped 6.3 percent as compared to Q4 2011, they still accounted for 22.7 percent of all activations for the quarter, which were primarily driven by Android tablets. Windows Phone devices came in a distant third for the quarter, capturing just 0.5 percent of overall activations.

The iPhone 5 was the most popular device activated in Q4 2012.

Perhaps I’m biased but I believe the only cure for discouragement is dissatisfaction. That it is a key ingredient, perhaps the key ingredient, to success.

Great views from Patrick Rhone. I agree.

Apple is catching up with iMac demand.

Rene Ritchie compares six podcast apps for iPhone users. Personally, I use Apple’s podcast app.

With another 2 billion people hooking up to the Internet in the next five years, there’s plenty of room for another mobile operating system, Mozilla Chief Executive Gary Kovacs said today in a sales pitch for his new Firefox OS.

Mozilla’s lined up a dozen and a half carriers and handset makes including LG and Huawei to build devices based on the Firefox OS.