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AT&T sold 4.8 million iPhones in the first quarter.

The company sold 6 million smartphones in total.

The number almost certainly means that AT&T continues to be the largest retailer of iPhones in the U.S. Verizon Wireless sold 4 million units in the same period. Sprint Nextel reports its results tomorrow, but it's unlikely to top AT&T's number.

AT&T added 296,000 net contract customers in the first quarter.

NTT DoCoMo lost 40,800 subscribers in November, acknowledging that it's due to customer flight to the iPhone 5, according to Japan's Nikkei business daily.

For Japan's largest mobile-phone carrier, it was the first monthly drop in over five years.

NTT DoCoMo made no bones about blaming its shrinking subscriber base on customers opting for the iPhone 5 at rival carriers.

The company does not offer the iPhone, while rivals Softbank and KDDI do. Both of those carriers posted subscriber gains in November, with KDDI showing net gains of 228,800 customers and Softbank adding 301,900, … Read more

T-Mobile USA has lost close to half a million subscribers during the third quarter, according to the company's earnings statement out this morning (PDF).

The network lost a total of 492,000 postpaid contracts -- the lucrative long-term contracts that that bring in regular income for a cellular network -- during the quarter, causing a drop in its average revenue per user (ARPU) to $42.78, a decline of 7 percent on the same quarter a year ago.

The firm also reported a net 287,000 wholesale customers, including machine-to-machine (M2M) agreements and through its resellers.

However, T-Mobile USA … Read more

The Podcasts app on iOS is a great way to subscribe, listen to, and even watch your favorite podcasts while on the go. The tight integration with iTunes makes it simple to find and subscribe to new podcasts from your iOS device. What if you want to subscribe to a podcast that isn't in iTunes? As Macworld pointed out a while back, you can add non-iTunes podcasts to the app, using a not-so-obvious method.

Before you can add a podcast to the app, you'll need the direct link to the podcast. Sending it to yourself over iMessage or … Read more

If you're not familiar with Flipboard, it's a magazine-style news reader that has been wildly popular on iOS for quite some time. What gives it extra cool points is its ability to handle social media. See, Flipboard can integrate your social accounts into its feed, and present tweets or other status updates just as it would news stories or blog posts (complete with images and video thumbnails). Couple this with Flipboard's gorgeous tiled interface, and it's easy to see why the app is such a fan favorite.

With its clean design, vibrant display of photographic tiles, … Read more

Travelzoo might just be putting itself on the market. This 14-year-old Internet company, which helps travelers find deals on flights, hotels, and vacation packages, has seen a dismal past few months and therefore could be getting ready to sell itself, according to Reuters.

Prospective buyers include Google, Amazon, and online travel Web sites, according to Reuters. These tech companies might want to get their hands on Travelzoo because of its 24 million subscriber-base, its share in the daily deal world, and its advertising-generated revenue stream.

Currently the New York-based company has a market value of $336.1 million and once … Read more

In an effort to root out impostors, Facebook will reportedly soon allow celebrities and other public figures to verify their accounts in much the same way that Twitter does.

The social network will begin notifying public figures with many subscribers tomorrow that they can verify their accounts by submitting an image of a government-issued ID, allowing them to display a preferred pseudonym instead of their birth name, according to a TechCrunch report. Facebook will then manually approve the "alternative names" to confirm they are the real stage names or pen names.

Facebook users must be chosen to participate … Read more

Path takes a wrong turn, Yahoo's board gets new faces, and Amazon Instant Video adds Viacom content.

Links from Wednesday's episode of Loaded: