News

Following in the footsteps of Rovio Entertainment and its Angry Birds telepods, the indie developer Lima Sky has teamed up with the Australia-based Goldie Marketing to release a line of Doodle Jump toys exclusively to Toys R Us stores. The new toys are based on the different characters from the popular iOS game starring Doodle the Doodler.

The toy line features 18 Mini Doodles, 6 Mega Doodles and 6 Plush Doodles. The Mini Doodles are available in 2 packs for $5.99 or as a set of 6 for $14.99. The 5-inch Mega Doodles are available for $12.99 each and the 8-inch plus dolls are available for $9.99 each.

A new bug discovered in iOS 8 by Happy-Touch (via 9to5Mac) is causing the Kids section of Apple's App Store to display some inappropriate apps. For example, the Top Grossing apps for "Kids 5 and Under" is displaying titles like Game of War, which is recommended for 9-years or older, and the popular dating app Zoosk.

Unless your 5-year old has already started dating, you may want to pay close attention to what you download from the the All Kids, Kids 5 & Under, Kids 6-8, and Kids 9-11 categories until Apple fixes the problem. The bug only seems to a be affecting devices running iOS 8 or later, and it has been found on both the U.S. and Canadian App Stores, according to 9to5Mac.

Another investment analytics firm has joined the club and raised Apple's target price per share. Just a few days after BMO raised its target price to $110, Evercore Partners went a bit further, raising its price to $125 from $115.

In a research note to investors, provided to AppleInsider, Evercore analyst Rob Cihra maintained his "overweight" rating for Apple stock (NASDAQ: AAPL), meaning that he expects the stock to return above the average of the overall industry. He upped his fourth quarter iPhone sales estimate to 39 million, which would represent a 15% year-over-year increase. Fourth quarter results will be disclosed on Monday Oct. 20 at 5:00 PM ET.

After dipping to $97.87 on Thursday, likely due to "Bendgate," Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) shares rebounded to close at $100.75 on Friday. The high close for the week was $102.64 on Tuesday.

Early in the week reports of the iPhone 6 and especially 6 Plus began to surface and the story gained traction and became known as "Bendgate." Investors took note and on Thursday a higher than usual volume of shares was traded (almost 100 million compared to a more typical 60 million) and the share price closed below $100 for the first time in two weeks. Apple responded saying that with normal use an iPhone 6 would very rarely bend, and that only nine people had officially complained about the problem since the phone hit the shelves. The scare passed and share price closed at over $100 on Friday.

Apple suffered a pair of black eyes last week when first, "Bendgate" made its way into tech headlines, and second, when it released a problematic iOS 8 update. While neither are serious problems, negative publicity is never a good thing.

Rumors of iPhone 6's bending began to emerge last Tuesday. Anecdotal evidence suggested that keeping an iPhone 6 or, especially, an iPhone 6 Plus in a pocket (front or back) would put it at risk of bending. This is really not a surprise, considering the new handsets are 6.9 and 7.1 mm thick, as compared to the 7.6 mm iPhone 5. Also both handsets are longer than their predecessor, giving them more leverage for