Apple Inc. (AAPL) News: Blocked from Taking Aerial Photos, Carl Icahn Requests Buyback, Victory over Samsung & More

Oracle’s Larry Ellison says Apple’s best days are over (San Jose Mercury News)
Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ:ORCL) CEO Larry Ellison, never one to mince words, on Tuesday made clear to Charlie Rose on “CBS This Morning” that he thinks Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s best days are behind it. Calling its late co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs “irreplaceable,” Ellison said “Apple won’t be nearly as successful” without him at the helm. Yes, the world’s third-richest man likes and respects Apple CEO Tim Cook. But without Ellison’s old friend Jobs around anymore to ride herd over Apple’s mad-genius workforce, he insists the company’s future is dimmed.

iPhone 5 Explodes in China: Chinese Woman Suffers Eye Injury After Apple Inc. iPhone 5 Explodes [Report] (Latinos Post)
An iPhone 5 exploded on a woman’s face after she used the Apple device for over 30 minutes. According to China’s Da Lian Evening News, and translated via ZDNet, the Chinese woman was using her iPhone 5 at her workplace when she felt the smartphone’s screen becoming warmer. After using the device for almost 40 minutes, the woman, whose family name is Li, tapped on the touchscreen to end the phone call, but the display was unresponsive. Then, following a few more taps, the screen exploded. Li was sent to a hospital where her eyeball was inflamed and red. Debris from the iPhone 5 hit her eye, which resulted in a scratched cornea.

Apple’s new iPad 5 won’t employ Haswell processor (Stabley Times)
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is using the new Intel Haswell chip in its MacBook Air, but despite the low power nature of the new processor designed for tablets, it won’t go anywhere near the iPad 5. Frustrated with the lack of sufficiently low power chips on the market, Apple began designing its own A-family processors four years ago for use in its iPads and iPhones. While chip makers Intel and AMD have since come around to the notion of making super low power chips which allow mobile devices to have physically small batteries and therefore be thin and light overall, Haswell still doesn’t come close enough to tempt Apple to discard its own A7 processor for the iPad 5.

Apple to release iPhone 5S and 5C on October 25 (GSMArena.com)
Over the weekend, we brought word of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s anticipated September 10 announcement date for its new iPhone models, the iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C. Now, an October 25 release date has been tipped as well – that’s when we will allegedly see the two new Apple smartphones on the store shelves. The Apple iPhone 5S is expected to feature an improved 8MP camera sensor with f/2.0 aperture, which should result in better low-light shots. There’s also hints of an alleged fingerprint scanner on the home button, and a heftier battery inside, which should bump up the weight slightly over the current iPhone 5.