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Afternoon news roundup for December 23, 2013

Good afternoon! Here's what's going on in the Apple world this afternoon. If you've missed our morning news roundup, you can check it out here.

  • Apple has confirmed with AllThingsD that mapping company BroadMap and Evernote competitor Catch were acquired earlier this year. 9to5Mac originally reported the acquisitions, along with the fact that Apple has bought 15 companies this year but only 10 of those have been named. Apple's confirmation of the BroadMap and Catch purchases brings that number to 12. 9to5Mac goes into more depth about the ramifications of these purchases for Apple, and it's well worth the read.

  • Apple has posted its iOS 7 Tech Talk videos, which were originally presented during its fall Tech Talk tour that wrapped up December 18. The videos cover a range of topics including the integration of various game and system technologies, user interface design and hidden development gems.

  • Cultured Code has sold its 1 millionth copy of its flagship productivity software Things, and to celebrate, it worked up an innovative presentation that highlighted dozens of positive reviews left for Things on Twitter. In addition, Cultured Code is giving away a MacBook Pro, an iPad Air and an iPhone 5s, along with 50 copies each of the various flavors of Things. The blog post ends with the reveal that Cultured Code is working on Things 3.

  • The China Mobile announcement is barely a day old, and analysts already are guessing at how many phones that China's largest carrier will sell once the iPhone makes its debut on January 17. CNN/Fortune gathered those guesses together, and they range from a mere 5 million units from Morgan Stanley's analysts to a very optimistic 39 million from ISI. Most analysts are guessing between the 17 million to 20 million range, which seems far more realistic.

  • AOL has reversed course on its decision not to support iCloud email on its Alto service and apologized to users for any confusion. Those who use Alto and want to continue using iCloud will have no problems doing so.

  • An Apple lawsuit has landed atop the list of the top 10 most ridiculous lawsuits of 2013, but it's not any of the Samsung-related ones, nor does it involve the Department of Justice. Instead, a man sued Apple claiming that he became addicted to pornography after accidentally visiting an adult website. He claimed Apple was at fault for not blocking the site.

  • Square CEO and Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey has been elected to the Walt Disney Board of Directors. His tenure will begin in March.