Apple is now the number two online retailer in the world and that is according to data from e-commerce research firm Internet Retailer. Amazon remains at number one spot. Apple just recently surpassed Staples and Walmart to take over second place.

Here are some factors why Apple was able to reached the second spot. First, Staples saw flat online sales of $10.4 billion over the past year and that represents just a 1% increase over year 2012. Second, Apple jumped over 24% increase in online sales to $18.3 billion last year. Part of Apple’s sales increase for this year came from Internet Retailer’s inclusion of Apple’s online hardware sales for the first time, in addition to the digital sales from its App Store and iTunes.

Here's the sales results image courtesy of the Wall Street Journal:

Microsoft sent out invites to the press for a Surface related event for May 20th. Microsoft is expected to unveil a smaller version of the Surface tablet by mentioning ‘small’ word in the invite.The event will kick-off at 11am EDT / 8AM PDT on May 20th.

The text of the invite says “Join us for a small gathering,” hinting at the announcement of the rumored Surface Mini. While the event could really refer to a small gathering of attendees to witness the unveiling of the latest tablet that Microsoft has to offer, it seems more likely to be a tease for the company's latest product.

There have been rumors of a smaller sized Surface tablet and is expected to be called the Surface Mini. The Surface mini is expected to feature an 8 inch display and an active digitizer with Office pre-installed. In addition to its Surface event, Microsoft is gearing up to release Windows Phone 8.1 later this month.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is expected to host the event as he did for the unveil of native office apps on the iPad. Panos Panay should also be at the event and there is speculation that Stephen Elop may also be at the event since he is Executive Vice President of Devices and Studios.

Apple and other tech companies are reaching into its pockets for local San Francisco anti-poverty charity SF Gives. According to a report that came from Fortune's website, Apple is one of many companies that has donated $500,000 and according to the Forbes story, SF Gives is attempting to raise $10 million in total with their self-imposed deadline on Wednesday, May 7.

The arrival of an initiative like SF Gives comes at a precarious time for Silicon Valley. Critics of the thriving tech industry have blamed companies for a meteoric rise in rents and increased evictions.
In recent months, protesters have blocked Google’s employee commuter buses, held a rally at the annual Crunchies tech awards gala, and stood outside the San Francisco home of Google Ventures partner Kevin Rose, distributing flyers and holding signs maligning Rose as a “parasite” and “leech.”

Raising $70 million towards HIV/AIDS programs in Africa was Apple’s previous charity moves through Product(RED) items such as iPod nano and shuffle devices, iPhone bumpers and more.

Apple helped raise funds for the Hurricane Sandy and Philippine Typhoon Relief efforts through iTunes donations. Donated $2.5 million to American Red Cross in the Hurricane Sandy relief. Apple also donated $8 million to the earthquake victims in China.

Read more in the full article: Here

I shut down the device and accessed the file system using well-known techniques (DFU mode, custom ramdisk, SSH over usbmux). Finally, I mounted the iOS data partition and navigated to the actual email folder. Within this folder, I found all attachments accessible without any encryption/restriction.

Kurtz found that Apple’s data protection technology in iOS 7 does not extend to email attachments and also verified the existence of the nasty bug that can be found in iPad 2 and and iPhone 5s running iOS version 7.0.4.
According to the researcher Apple said that they are aware of the issue and is working on a fix. No dates  on when the fix for this issue will be release, but it shouldn’t be long because attachment encryption is crucial for businesses that use iOS devices.

Steve Jobs has been ranked #1 in CNBC’s First 25: Rebels, Icons & Leaders, described as “a definitive list of people who have had the greatest influence, sparked the biggest changes and created the most disruption in business over the past quarter century.”

The list was being created as part of CNBC’s year-long 25th anniversary celebrations. CNBC’s First 25 was being broadcast last April 29, 2014, anchored by CNBC’s Tyler Mathisen.

Here’s an excerpt from CNBC’s paragraph on Jobs:

His creative genius revolutionized not just his industry and its products, but also everything from music and movies to smartphones. He provided a platform for others to create and distribute apps, bringing innovation and change to an even wider sphere. Apple’s co-founder tops our anniversary list of the 25 most transformative leaders, icons and rebels of the past-quarter century. More than any other member of our group of extraordinary entrepreneurs and executives—all outstanding leaders—his vision spurred changes far beyond his industry and put an indelible stamp on the wider culture.

CNBC says that the final list of 25 was being compiled using poll data from a combination of editorial leaders, experts and TV viewers.

And here's a short clip that was being aired on CNBC last April 29, 2014.
  Just in case you want to know who are included, here's the complete list of CNBC’s First 25: Rebels, Icons & Leaders: 1. Steve Jobs 2. Bill Gates 3. Alan Greenspan & Ben Bernanke 4. Sergey Brin, Larry Page & Eric Schmidt 5. Jeff Bezos 6. Warren Buffett 7. Oprah Winfrey 8. Mark Zuckerberg 9. Jack Bogle 10. Larry Ellison 11. Rupert Murdoch 12. Jack Welch 13. NR Narayana Murthy 14. Howard Schultz 15. Bernard Arnault 16. Li Ka-shing 17. Carl Icahn 18. Meg Whitman 19. Amancio Ortega 20. Michael Bloomberg 21. Sandy Weill 22. Cher Wang 23. Aliko Dangote 24. Martha Stewart 25. Carlos Slim

Good news for those who live in Japan especially for those who have been waiting for Apple's music locker service, iTunes Match to arrive you're now finally able to take advantage of the service on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac, because Apple continues its international expansion of iTunes services by launching iTunes Match in Japan.

For those who are unfamiliar with the service, iTunes Match allows users to ‘mirror’ their music libraries to the cloud. This will also enable users to access their songs from any compatible device(iPhone, iPad, or Mac), without having to spend hours uploading them…

The pricing is set at ¥3980 per year and the service will let you store and listen to up to 25,000 songs on Apple's iCloud servers across all your devices.

Source: MacRumors