Google is reportedly in talks with retailers in an effort to create a subscription-based expedited delivery service that will compete directly with Amazon Prime. Citing unnamed people familiar with the matter, The Wall Street Journal on Thursday reported that Google has contacted a number of retailers in an effort to provide unlimited speedy deliveries to members who pay an annual fee. Among the retailers Google has reportedly contacted about the service are Gap, OfficeMax and Macy’s. “They’...

Apple’s iPhone 4S became available to the general public today, and the launch appears to have been an overwhelming success. Yankee Group analyst Carl Howe believes Apple could close out the weekend having sold as many as 4 million new iPhones. We’ve been hearing from proud new iPhone owners across the country all day — and we’ve also been hearing about all the crazy things they’ve been asking poor Siri — but we’ve also heard from an unhappy minority that seems to have fallen...

It’s 8:00 a.m., do you know where your iPhone is? The day is upon us and Apple’s fifth-generation iPhone is now available for purchase on the East Coast of the United States. Apple Stores that fall in the Eastern time zone are now open for business, and online pre-orders are out on delivery trucks en route to hundreds of thousands of homes across the country. As the sun moves west, retailers will open early and, in all likelihood, quickly sell through their limited launch day inventory. Did you pi...

Delivery times quoted on Apple’s online store for new iPhone 4 orders slipped to 1-3 business days this week, suggesting inventory may be diminishing. Orders placed on Apple’s U.S. website had previously shipped within 24 hours of being placed. With an announcement regarding Apple’s fifth-generation iPhone expected within the coming weeks and a launch to follow in October, iPhone 4 supply is likely beginning to run low. Apple may also launch a new low-cost version of the iPhone 4 alongside...

It looks like we may finally see Apple unveil its mid-2011 MacBook Air models some time this week. Best Buy has stopped shipping all MacBook Air notebooks as of this past weekend. The online retailer is still taking orders, however, which indicates that Apple will likely not adjust pricing when it issues its refreshed models. Of note, unless Apple introduced an entirely new model at a much lower price point, this puts earlier rumored sales targets of 8 million units well out of reach. Several sellers on the A...

On Wednesday Delivery.com — the popular food delivery service — launched a dedicated iPhone application. It offers a bunch of useful features, including a “nearby” feature to find restaurants that deliver nearby, automatic sync with your account, the ability to filter for cuisine, distance, or rating, and more. Users can check out using a debit card, gift card, or credit card, although we suspect that cash-on-delivery is still an option, too. The application is free in case you’re ever l...

Just ahead of Apple’s international launch of the iPad 2, replenishment of U.S. inventory appears to be incoming. BGR has confirmed with various Apple Store and third-party retailer locations that new shipments have begun to arrive over the past few days. Retailers we have spoken with in the New York metropolitan area appear to be receiving new units in very small quantities, and Wi-Fi iPad 2 tablets seem much easier to come by than 3G-enabled units. Apple’s online store also adjusted its shippi...

Some Apple Store locations may or may not be releasing a second wave of iPad 2 shipments to the public today, but potential buyers who would prefer not to deal with the chaos are in for some bad news this morning. Shipping times have varied a great deal in the short time since the iPad 2 was launched last week. Most recently, Apple listed shipping quotes of between two and three weeks. With rumors of new shipments floating around, many had hoped these shipping delays would be reduced as new inventory reached ...

Taiwanese handset giant HTC has announced a “strategic investment” made in the digital media-delivery company Saffron Digital. “Saffron Digital has developed an incredible expertise in mobile multimedia delivery,” said Peter Chou, HTC’s CEO. “This ability to deliver optimized content in the future will be a key asset as content becomes more and more complex and localized. We are excited to be working with Saffron to increase our global service delivery capabilities and exp...

Today is the day a bunch of folks who stayed up until the wee hours of the morning to pre-order will finally begin to receive their Verizon iPhone 4 deliveries. We just snagged ours, and after a bit of a hiccup with activation on the device itself (it failed multiple times until we restarted the handset), it’s been smooth sailing. We’ll obviously follow up with some thoughts on the device versus the AT&T-flavored version, but in the meantime, hit our gallery for an unboxing and some hands-on p...

Are you waiting on the edge of your seat for that brand new Verizon iPhone 4 you stayed up all night to pre-order? We’ve been receiving tips that some devices pre-ordered this morning have already started shipping via FedEx standard overnight delivery, and should be arriving as early as 3:00PM tomorrow. Not a bad exclusive for existing Verizon customers, we’d say. Drop a comment below and let us know if your iPhone 4 has already shipped from Verizon, alright?

If you went ahead an pre-ordered yourself a Nokia N8, you might want to keep your eye on your mailbox. Nokia has announced that the company’s not-actually-a-flagship-but-sort-of-a-flagship Symbian^3 handset, complete with 12 megapixel camera and Carl Zeiss lens, has begun shipping worldwide. Nokia’s blog writes:Being a global device launch, the Nokia N8 is shipping in tens of different languages to dozens of operators around the world. That isn’t something that happens overnight and as factory ...

For those of you that managed to get in an online iPhone pre-order (via the online Apple Store) on June 15th before the pre-order Armageddon, you have a bit of good news in your inbox. Our tips box is full of future iPhone 4 owners who report having an email from Apple stating:You recently received a Shipment Notification email from Apple advising you that your iPhone has shipped. This email is to confirm that your delivery will occur on June 23rd. Although Apple and FedEx tracking information may currently i...

You know we had to do one… But now that we (and practically most of the human race) have got a unit in hand, what do we think? In the really short time we’ve had it:It’s definitely heavier than you’d think but too heavy. We carry around 4-7lb laptops all the time, so 1.5lbs doesn’t sound like much, but it’s definitely a decent amount of weight in such a thin package.The screen is gorgeous. It’s just as you’d expect — Apple’s best-in-the-business mult...