Apple's New Milestone and Other Hot Tech Stories from the Past Week

Since the device's debut in 2007, Apple has turned the portable MP3, video and app player into the most successful device of its kind. Referred to by many as an "iPhone without the phone," the iPod Touch was a groundbreaking device that helped propel Apple to new heights.

Now, nearly six years after its release, Apple has proudly announced that it has sold more than one million units. This is far lower than the iPhone, which sold more than 100 million units in the last year alone. But for a standalone device without the ability to make calls, the iPod Touch is an undeniable, record-breaking success.

If Dish Network thought that a few billion extra dollars was all that it needed to stop a SoftBank takeover of Sprint, it might be time to come up with a new strategy.

SoftBank is moving closer to a successful acquisition now that the Committee on Foreign Investments has given the company has green-lit its plans to buy Sprint.

Meanwhile, Dish is also attempting to buy Clearwire (a company Sprint already invested in and hopes to take over) in what looks to be a hopeful move to strengthen its position to buy Sprint.

Nuance CEO Paul Ricci finally admitted that the company is responsible for at least a portion of the tech that can be found within Apple's voice-triggered personal assistant app, Siri.

The company also said that it is working with Samsung to build its speech-recognition apps, adding to its previous announcements regarding ZTE and AutoNavi. Nuance does not, however, power the voice software developed by Google.

Google's handset division, Motorola, announced that it is going to build its next smartphone in the United States.

Known as the Moto X, the new device will be designed to take on the stalwarts of the smartphone industry, including the iPhone, HTC One and Galaxy S IV.

Apple has yet to announce when will begin to mass-produce Macs in the U.S., so it is very possible that Google will actually beat its competitor to American manufacturing.

Workplace analytics and planning solutions company Visier announced that it had secured an additional $15 million from investors.

"Today Visier has been in the market for about 18 months," John Schwarz, co-founder and CEO of Visier, told Benzinga. "…The company is built around the idea that delivering [our solutions] to the end user will ultimately displace the way that organizations use business intelligence today."

The company will use the new funds to acquire more customers and to become more of an international firm, among other things.

Smartphones have made it very easy for people to stop wearing watches. This is especially true for younger consumers, who are more than content to check their handset whenever they need to check the time.

As one of the pioneers of the smartphone movement, Apple is partially responsible for that evolution. Likewise, Apple is heavily responsible for the switch from notebooks and netbooks to tablets.

If and when the iWatch (Apple's rumored device) is ever released, watch industry expert Dr. Oliver Hoffmann suspects that it could pose a serious problem for traditional, non-luxury watch manufacturers.

"I see a very serious problem for, for example, Swatch," he told Benzinga. "Swatch is very successful with mass product, high-quality watches, and this is probably the most attractive market for Apple or Samsung."

The media had a little firestorm this week after Apple CEO Tim Cook took the stage at D11 and spoke about the possibility of multiple iPhones.

There was just one problem: he never actually said that the company will or won't make more than one iPhone model a year.

Around the same time, DigiTimes ran a report claiming that Apple will release two iPhones this year. This only added to the confusion surrounding Cook's statements.

Is CBS taking over the world of digital entertainment? Between its successful dot-com properties and its growth as a TV network, it seems that there is little stopping CBS from maintaining its spot at the top.

This week the network announced that it had acquired TV Guide Digital. The acquisition gives CBS control of the hugely popular TVGuide.com, as well as the TV Guide Mobile apps.

Microsoft announced that the new version of Office 365 Home Premium had sold faster than any other version released. One million people had already subscribed to the service in just three and a half months.

By comparison, Facebook (a free service) took 10 months to reach one million subscribers. Dropbox, which offers free options, took seven months. Spotify, which also has a free version, was available for five months before it received one million subscribers.

Of all the services listed (Foursquare took 13 months, Hulu Plus took five months), only Instagram -- another free service! -- proved to be more successful. It only took Instagram two and a half months to gain one million subscribers.

Is BlackBerry on the cusp of a new milestone?

New rumors claimed that the company will ship as many as 40 million handsets this year. While that is a far cry from the number that will be shipped by Apple and Samsung (and will be lower than the total number of traditional phones shipped by Nokia), it would be a positive step forward for BlackBerry.