Apple to Purchase Chinese Game Developer Handseeing?
We're really not quite sure to make of this one, but Chinese SinoCast Daily Business Beat is reporting that Apple is preparing to purchase Handseeing Information Technology, a Chinese game developer focused on Rich Internet Applications (RIAs).
As US-based Apple Inc. is close to making the purchase of Handseeing Information Technology Co., Ltd., a mobile Internet service provider and a mobile game developer in China, for as much as USD 150 billion, the emergence of more potential buyers has added to the uncertainty of the deal.
Apple's plan to take over the Chinese company underscores its mounting interests in China's potentially huge mobile Internet sector, which has been basically ignored by it for a long time.
The "USD 150 billion" figure appears to be a typographical error, however, as, beyond the fact that it would be an unreasonable purchase price for such a company, other figures given in the report discussing outside investments in the company lead to a figure in the range of $150 million instead of $150 billion.
Apple's potential reason for interest in Handseeing is unclear, although the company does seem to have some expertise in Java-based online gaming technologies. The company touts its partnership with Sun Microsystems, a relationship that Sun profiled (PDF) as Handseeing helped deploy new Java-based RIAs for Tianya Online, a social community centered around online gaming in China that has reportedly become one of the country's largest social networking forums.
A separate report from just a month ago indicated that Apple's manufacturing partner Foxconn was planning to acquire Handseeing.
Popular Stories
iOS 19 is still around six months away from being announced, but a new leak has allegedly revealed a completely redesigned Camera app.
Based on footage it obtained, YouTube channel Front Page Tech shared a video showing what the new Camera app will apparently look like, with the key change being translucent menus for camera controls. Overall, the design of these menus looks similar to...
Apple on late Saturday removed TikTok from the App Store in the U.S., and it has now explained why it was required to take this action.
Last year, the U.S. passed a law that required Chinese company ByteDance to divest its ownership of TikTok due to potential national security risks, or else the platform would be banned. That law went into effect today, and companies like Apple and Google...
A leaker known as "Majin Bu" today shared an alleged image of a component for the rumored, ultra-thin "iPhone 17 Air" model.
The blurry, pixelated image shows a pair of rear iPhone shells with a pill-shaped, raised camera bar along the top. On the left side of the bar, there is a circular cutout that appears to be for a single rear camera. On the right side of the bar, there appears to be an ...
A new iPhone SE is widely rumored to launch this year, and the device has potentially been confirmed today by known leaker Evan Blass.
In a private social media post, Blass shared an image of what appears to be source code mentioning an iPhone SE (4th Gen), which casts doubt on the alternative "iPhone 16E" name rumored for the device. However, the name in the source code could be a...
After a four-year wait, a new AirTag is finally expected to launch in 2025. Below, we recap rumored upgrades for the accessory.
A few months ago, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said Apple was aiming to release the AirTag 2 around the middle of 2025. While he did not offer a more specific timeframe, that means the AirTag 2 could be announced by the end of June.
The original AirTag was announced...
iOS 19 will not drop support for any iPhone models, according to French website iPhoneSoft.fr.
The report cited a source who said iOS 19 will be compatible with any iPhone that can run iOS 18, which would mean the following models:
iPhone 16
iPhone 16 Plus
iPhone 16 Pro
iPhone 16 Pro Max
iPhone 15
iPhone 15 Plus
iPhone 15 Pro
iPhone 15 Pro Max
iPhone 14
iPhon...
In September, Apple said that it would be launching Powerbeats Pro 2 in 2025, and it appears the wireless earbuds are coming very soon.
Powerbeats Pro 2 images found in iOS 18 code
In his Power On newsletter today, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said the Powerbeats Pro 2 are "due imminently." In addition to Apple filing the Powerbeats Pro 2 in regulatory databases last month, Gurman said Apple is...
Apple provided the third beta of iOS 18.3 to developers today, and while the betas have so far been light on new features, the third beta makes some major changes to Notification Summaries and also tweaks a few other features.
Notification Summary Changes
Apple made multiple changes to Notification Summaries in response to complaints about inaccurate summaries of news headlines.
For...
