Legalbrief reports that the company this week confirmed that it sold a staggering 9m of its two new handsets (5S and the 5C) in the first three days, well above what analysts had anticipated. To put that in perspective, BlackBerry sold about a third as much in three months. And the bad news? After millions of Apple users rushed to download iOS7, many iPhone owners are discovering the latest operating systems leaves their devices susceptible to security breaches. A report on thestar.com site notes that a group of German hackers on Sunday claimed to have cracked the iPhone fingerprint scanner, just two days after Apple Inc launched the technology that it promised will better protect devices from criminals and snoopers seeking access. The report notes that if the claim is verified, it will be embarrassing for Apple which is betting on the scanner to set its smartphone apart from new models of Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and others running the Android operating system of Google Inc. The Chaos Computing Club, or CCC, reportedly succeeded in defeating Apple's Touch ID, though they had not personally replicated the work. It posted a video on its website that appeared to show somebody accessing an iPhone 5S with a fabricated print. The site described how members of its biometrics team had cracked the new fingerprint reader, one of the few major high-tech features added to the latest version of the iPhone. Full report on thestar.com site

Nevertheless, San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon, New York Attorney-General Eric Schneiderman and London Mayor Boris Johnson concur that the Apple iPhone iOS 7's activation lock is an important step toward ending iPhone thefts worldwide. According to a report on the News24, the feature is available on the newest iPhone and can also be downloaded on older models, but it's too early to know how effective it will be in preventing thefts. Full report on the News24 site

Meanwhile, last Thursday's release of the Google Wallet app represents a challenge to the Passbook program that Apple has built into the iPhone's operating system. According to a report on the News24 site, both Google Wallet and Passbook allow iPhone users to store loyalty cards from some merchants and scan coupons offering discounts. Google Wallet also allows its users to send money and make purchases on some mobile websites by storing a debit or credit card account on the app, according to the report. It says the arrival of Google Wallet on the iPhone comes a few days after a similar version was released to smartphones running on Google's Android software. The report notes Google gives away Android for free, taking sales away from the iPhone by enabling other smartphone makers to sell their devices at cheaper prices. In comparison, the iPhone had a 16% share of the worldwide market. Full report on the News24 site

Despite the hiccups, the company also said that its quarterly sales and profit margin would likely be at the high end of the company's previous forecast. Apple in July projected revenue between $34bn and $37bn and gross margin between 36% and 37%. The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple's record volume for the new iPhones compared with 5m iPhone 5 models sold on its opening weekend a year ago. But there are caveats with the Apple figures, among them the decision to sell the phone in China in the opening weekend this year, according to the report. It says assessing demand for the phones is particularly difficult because more countries are involved this year: 11, compared with nine for the iPhone 5 release last year. And China, in particular, is a huge smartphone market. Toni Sacconaghi, an analyst at Sanford C Bernstein, said the original iPhone 5 sold 2m units in its first weekend of sales in China, according to the report. It states he estimated that China likely contributed a similar amount this year. Full report in The Wall Street Journal