MacRumors

With the holiday shopping season in full swing, we've been highlighting several increasingly good deals on the iPhone 5, and Walmart is now launching new discounts on both the iPhone and iPad that may be of interest to some readers.

Starting today, Walmart has dropped prices on both the iPhone 5 and iPhone 4S, with the 16 GB iPhone 5 now on sale for just $127 and the iPhone 4S coming in at $47.

In addition, Walmart is now selling the latest fourth-generation 16 GB Wi-Fi iPad for just $399, a $100 discount from standard pricing. And beginning on Monday, Walmart will also include a $30 iTunes gift card bonus with iPad purchases.

Despite the iPhone 5 having launched in the United States less than three months ago, retailers are offering aggressive discounts on the devices to attract holiday shoppers. RadioShack is currently offering all iPhone 5 and iPhone 4S models at $50 discounts from their regular prices, and also offering email coupons for $10 credit on future purchases for every $50 spent during the holiday shopping season. RadioShack also offers price matching through its Mobile Low Price Guarantee, suggesting that it is likely to match Walmart's discounted pricing upon request.

Update: Wal-Mart spokesperson Sarah Spencer gave MacRumors this statement regarding inventory of the products on sale. Something to keep in mind for people thinking of taking advantage of the promotions:

Walmart works closely with Apple to secure some of the strongest allocations of their products. That being said, inventory is a first come first serve basis so we recommend customers come early to secure their Apple product. We will not offer rain checks but customers should know we will be refreshing our inventory on an ongoing basis.

Update 2: Walmart has contacted MacRumors to note that it erred in stating that the iPad promotion was for the current generation. It is in fact the third-generation iPad that is on closeout sale for $399.

Earlier this week, we noted that this weekend's group of Apple retail store grand openings would be headlined by the company's Causeway Bay flagship location in Hong Kong. The store features three levels, with a 30-foot tall glass curtain wall making a significant impact on the shopping center.

With the store set to open to the public tomorrow, Apple has been putting the finishing touches on it and has unveiled the store for passersby to see. ifoAppleStore's Gary Allen pointed to an image posted to Flickr showing showing the full scale of the store's glass facade.

M.I.C. gadget has also posted a number of photos of the store, as well as a short video giving a glimpse of the store from the outside.

As we previously noted, Apple is also opening new stores tomorrow in the following cities: Chengdu, China; Melbourne, Australia; and Malmö, Sweden. Apple is also opening its replacement Third Street Promenade store in Santa Monica, California tomorrow, moving into a much larger space. The new store is one of the first to use a design based on that of the Upper West Side store in Manhattan, with similar stores having already opened in Houston and Palo Alto.

Finally, Apple is opening a replacement Rockway store in New Jersey tomorrow, allowing Apple to close one of its last "mini-stores" in the U.S.

In line with its announcement from earlier this month, Apple today launched the iPhone 5 in 33 new countries, with the most prominent member of the group being China.

Unlike the chaos that reigned at the iPhone 4S launch earlier this year, The Wall Street Journal reports that the iPhone 5 appears to have been quite subdued. It is unclear, however, how much of the change may be due to lack of interest and how much may have been related to snowy weather and changes in Apple's sales policies designed to reduce scalping and other factors that have led to problems at previous launches.

Friday’s iPhone 5 launch was notable for a different kind of white: a rare accumulation of fresh snow that blanketed the nearly empty plaza outside the Sanlitun store.

At 8 am on Friday, when the store opened to hurrahs from employees, only two consumers stood inside a cordon set up by Apple, though they were joined by a desultory snow man someone had made on a bench near the entrance.

Apple's new sales policies require customers to enter a lottery for the right to purchase an iPhone in the store, with winners being given specific windows of time in which to pick up their devices.

Fortune has also collected a handful of videos showing launches in China, Malaysia, and the Philippines that were part of today's major rollout in the following countries: Albania, Antigua and Barbuda, Armenia, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, China, Costa Rica, Cyprus, Ecuador, Grenada, Indonesia, Israel, Jamaica, Jordan, Kuwait, Macedonia, Malaysia, Moldova, Montenegro, Panama, Paraguay, Philippines, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Taiwan, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela.

While critics loved the iPad mini, the biggest complaint concerned the device's screen, which does not have a Retina resolution like Apple's larger iPad.

Retina seems like a logical update for Apple’s second generation iPad mini, and a report from Digitimes today says that Apple is indeed planning to increase the resolution of its next iPad mini.

Apple's next-generation iPad mini will focus mostly on enhancing the device’s display resolution, according to Taiwan-based backlighting industry sources.

The sources have yet to specify whether the device will use Apple’s Retina Display technology to enhanced resolution, but market observers said it is highly likely based on the development of past Apple products such as the iPhone and 9.7-inch iPad series.

Adding a Retina display to a device as thin as the iPad mini could be a tricky prospect, possibly requiring a large battery and a more robust processor, as it did when Apple introduced the Retina display to the full-sized iPad. This restriction has led notable technology site AnandTech to predict that the next iPad mini won't come with a Retina display, as stated in the site's iPad mini review.

Digitimes adds that the next generation 9.7-inch iPad will be lighter due to new LED light bar technology that will incorporate just one light bar instead of the two that are currently in the third and fourth generation iPads. While Digitimes has had a mixed record in the past, it's clear that they do have sources in Apple's supply chain.

Apple has updated iTunes to version 11.0.1, fixing a number of bugs. The update is available in the Mac App Store or via Apple's support website.

This update to the new iTunes addresses an issue where new purchases in iCloud may not appear in your library if iTunes Match is turned on, makes iTunes more responsive when searching a large library, fixes a problem where the AirPlay button may not appear as expected, and adds the ability to display duplicate items within your library.

iTunes 11 was originally released on November 29, and these bug fixes had been promised in Walt Mossberg's review of iTunes 11 in early December.

iTunes 11 brought a number of enhancements to the media player including a redesigned store, simplified player, and new iCloud features.

Apple has updated its iCloud System Status page with a much more comprehensive page breaking down outages by service and showing recent outages in a detailed timeline. The old system simple offered written status updates in a more free-form fashion.

Over the past year, Apple has seen various iCloud services go offline several times. Just today, some users were unable to access iCloud mail, iCloud Documents, Photo Stream, and Backup & Restore.

With the change, it looks like Apple is taking iCloud a bit more seriously, particularly following Eddy Cue's promotion to Senior Vice President of Internet Software and Services.

Apple today released the 2012 version of its annual iTunes Store awards, previously called iTunes Rewind, which celebrates the best music, movies, TV shows, apps, books, and podcasts of the year.

Here are some of the notable winners for 2012:

Apps:
-iPhone App of the Year: Action Movie FX
-iPhone Game of the Year: Rayman Jungle Run
-iPad App of the Year: Paper by FiftyThree
-iPad Game of the Year: Room

Music:
-Best Artist: Channel ORANGE by Frank Ocean
-Best Album: Shields by Grizzly Bear
-Best Song: We Are Young by Fun.
-Breakthrough Album: The Lumineers by The Lumineers

Books:
-Best Novel: The Dog Stars by Peter Heller
-Best Nonfiction: Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo
-Best Young Adult Novel: The Fault In Our Stars by John Green
-Best Multi-Touch Book: Fashion by DK Publishing

For the first time in two years, no photography apps made it in to the top listings. 2012 also marks the first year that an Entertainment app was given an editor’s choice award. As always, during the end of the year wrap up Apple highlights games and apps from a wide variety of categories, so it’s well worth skimming the list for hidden gems.

Beyond the top-level awards for music, movies, TV shows, apps, books, and podcasts, Apple is featuring a number of other awards and Editors' Choice picks across various genres and categories for the various content types.

See previous winners here: 2009, 2010, 2011.

Bloomberg reports that a jury in Delaware has found Apple guilty of patent infringement in a lawsuit brought by MobileMedia Ideas, a patent holding firm organized by Sony, Nokia, and MPEG LA. The lawsuit, which was filed in 2010, ultimately focused on three patents MobileMedia Ideas claimed were infringed by the iPhone.

In its complaint, MobileMedia contended it would suffer “irreparable injury” if Apple was allowed to use the patented inventions in its iPhone without paying royalties.

[MobileMedia CEO Larry] Horn said one patent is for the camera phone and others cover call handling and call rejection. He said MobileMedia has a portfolio of about 300 patents.

The jury in the trial reportedly deliberated for approximately four hours at the end of the weeklong trial, finding that the patents were valid and that they had been infringed upon by Apple. No damages have yet been awarded in the case.