The Verge reports on an article from Japanese business newspaper Nikkei claiming that the country's third largest carrier, SoftBank, is close to acquiring U.S. carrier and iPhone partner Sprint Nextel. The report indicates that SoftBank is looking to acquire at least a two-thirds share of Sprint in a deal that would exceed ¥1.5 trillion ($19.2 billion).
The Wall Street Journal follows up with its own claims along the same lines, although it pegs the purchase price at over ¥1 trillion ($12.81 billion).
Sprint executives have said they want to participate in the industry's consolidation. The approach from Softbank comes as Sprint is making progress stitching together its various network technologies and stemming declines in its revenue and subscriber base following a 2005 merger with Nextel.
The deal would mark a massive gamble by Softbank, the country's third-largest carrier by subscribers, to expand its business outside of Japan. Softbank Chief Executive Masayoshi Son has made big bets in the past, including acquiring the Japanese arm of Vodafone Group in 2006. It paid for the deal through a leveraged buyout, which vaulted the company in the mobile-phone business.
The U.S. mobile carrier industry has been looking at significant consolidation in recent years, particularly at the top of the market as Verizon and AT&T have jockeyed for the top spot and Sprint and T-Mobile USA have sought to gain ground on the two leaders. Following the failed merger of AT&T and T-Mobile last year, T-Mobile just last week announced that it would merge with MetroPCS, the country's fifth-largest carrier, although Sprint was rumored to also be considering making a bid.
Sprint became the third of the four major U.S. carriers to offer the iPhone upon the release of the iPhone 4S in October 2011, with company executives moving to "bet the company" on the iPhone in committing to purchase more than 30 million iPhones worth $20 billion over the first four years of the partnership. The move has impacted Sprint's financials over the short-term, but the carrier believes that the long-term effects of having the iPhone will be positive.
Thursday September 25, 2025 1:11 pm PDT by Joe Rossignol
Apple is developing an all-new operating system codenamed "Charismatic," according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.
Apple smart home hub concept based on rumors
This is likely Apple's long-rumored "homeOS" operating system.
In a report last month, Gurman said both Apple's rumored smart home hub in 2026 and tabletop robot in 2027 will run the new operating system. He said the software platform ...
Monday September 29, 2025 9:31 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
Apple's annual iPhone event is in the rearview mirror, but rumors suggest the company plans to release a handful of additional products before the year ends.
Will there be another Apple event this October? We discuss the possibility below.
Apple in October
Apple's most recent October events were in 2021 and 2023.
In 2022 and 2024, Apple did not host an October event. Instead, it...
Sunday September 28, 2025 1:30 pm PDT by Joe Rossignol
Apple is preparing to release iOS 26.0.1, according to a private account on X with a proven track record of sharing information about future iOS versions.
The account initially said iOS 26.0.1 would have a build number of 23A350, but they now expect the update to have a build number of 23A355. This suggests that the software update will include more bug fixes or changes than initially...
Sunday September 28, 2025 2:08 pm PDT by Joe Rossignol
Apple's next MacBook Pro models will enter mass production soon, according to the latest information shared by Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.
In his Power On newsletter today, Gurman said he continues to believe the new MacBook Pro models will be released at some point between late 2025 and the first quarter of 2026, meaning they should be available to order by March at the latest.
Apple often...
Monday September 29, 2025 10:12 am PDT by Juli Clover
Apple today released iOS 26.0.1 and iPadOS 26.0.1, the first updates to the iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 operating systems that came out earlier this week.
The new software can be downloaded on eligible iPhones and iPads over-the-air by going to Settings > General > Software Update.
According to Apple's release notes for the update, iOS 26.0.1 addresses a bug that could cause aberrations in...
Wednesday September 24, 2025 3:58 pm PDT by Juli Clover
With the iPhone 15 series, I did an experiment and kept my iPhone's Charge Limit set at 80 percent for an entire year. It provided an interesting look at the impact of charge limits on battery longevity, so I decided to repeat it for the iPhone 16 line.
Since September 2024, my iPhone 16 Pro Max has been limited to an 80 percent charge, with no cheating. As of today, my battery's maximum...
Tuesday September 30, 2025 8:39 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
An apparent unboxing video for an unannounced iPad Pro with the M5 chip was uploaded to YouTube today by Russian channel Wylsacom.
The same YouTube account leaked the 14-inch MacBook Pro with the M4 chip before it was announced by Apple last year, so this is likely a legitimate leak.
Based on the box shown in the video, this appears to be a 13-inch iPad Pro with an M5 chip, 256GB of...
Friday September 26, 2025 9:01 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
The website ChargerLAB has tested the standard iPhone 17 model's USB-C charging speeds with a variety of Apple's chargers, from 18W to 140W.
The device reached a peak charging speed of around 27W to 28W with these Apple chargers:29W USB-C Power Adapter
30W USB-C Power Adapter
35W Dual USB-C Port Power Adapter
35W Dual USB-C Port Compact Power Adapter
40W Dynamic Power Adapter with 60W Max...
Monday September 29, 2025 6:21 am PDT by Tim Hardwick
Pre-orders for LG's new UltraFine evo 6K display (model 32U990A) with Thunderbolt 5 support will begin on September 30, according to a major U.S. retailer listing.
LG first revealed the 32-inch display at CES 2025 in January, teasing its status as the first monitor to support Thunderbolt 5. At the time, LG only provided high-level specs, but left pricing, availability, and full technical...
Samsung Display president Lee Cheong has confirmed plans to make foldable smartphone displays for a major American company, which is widely believed to be Apple.
As reported in Chosun Biz, Cheong last week told journalists in Seoul that the company is accelerating preparations for mass production of OLED displays designed for foldable smartphones to be supplied to a "North American client."...
And thus continues the selling out of our nation to foreign countries.
Not happy to see this. Soon the rest of the world will own us, if not already.
Yeah, because no American company has ever purchased their way into a foreign market...
Ever since the bomb, Japan and the US are so tied together that this sort of thing no longer really matters. Both countries are leading innovators with technology. It's like two people getting into a fight and then becoming best friends after...well, if you take the bomb part out of the story.
