Apple just announced on its Investor Page that it would report its Q1 2013 earnings Jan. 23. As it does once a quarter, Apple will issue a press release at 4:30 p.m. EST with the numbers and follow with a conference call at 5 p.m. EST to discuss the results with CEO Tim Cook, CFO Peter Oppenheimer, and more. The report will give us a close look into how Apple fared during the holiday shopping season and its outlook for 2013. As of the last earnings report in October, Oppenheimer said he expected revenue of about $52 billion and diluted earnings per share of about $11.75 for Q1 2013. Past numbers, questions from investors on the conference call typically bring out new, interesting pieces of information from Apple, and you bet 9to5mac will provide full coverage. [Apple]

Expand
Expanding
Close

Apple has detailed in a support article on its website that the Do Not Disturb functionality found within iOS 6 will return to normal functionality after Jan. 7, 2013. As we previously covered, the New Year brought some problems with the feature. It would not turn off at the scheduled time for many users, causing the opportunity for missed notifications. Until Apple’s fix goes in place, the company advised you to manually turn the feature on or off. The Williams twins can’t be happy.

Expand
Expanding
Close

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company has been contracted by Apple to soon manufacture A6X chips, according to a report from Taiwan-based Commercial Times (via France24). The move, which has been speculated by media in the recent months, is said to reduce Apple’s reliance on South Korean-based Samsung, who has been responsible for many of Apple’s chips in recent years. The folks in Cupertino introduced the A6X chip in the fourth-generation iPad in October, and it is expected to go into TSMC’s hands, rather than Samsung’s, during the first quarter of this year for trial production.

For those unfamiliar, TSMC is the world’s largest dedicated independent semiconductor foundry. The trial that will be underway during the first quarter will presumably be in-place to see if the company can keep with Apple’s high demand that must be appeased with devices in stock. Past the powerful A6X chip, Apple has been rumored to make the switch to TSMC’s 20nm process for quad-core processors over the next couple of years in the iPad, “iTV” (Apple TV?), and MacBook, while iPhone’s will remain with duo-core chips.

Expand
Expanding
Close

From 9to5toys:

As a special offer to close out the year, Apple is offering the bestselling albums of 2012 on iTunes for $6.99. The promotion is running from Dec. 31 to Jan. 3 only and includes some pretty nice offerings for you hip music listeners in the crowd:

• Babel – Mumfurd & Sons
  
• good kid, m.A.A.d city – Kendrick Lamar
• The World from the Side of the Moon – Phillip Phillips
• The Heist – Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
• Take Me Home – One Direction
• Believe – Justin Bieber
• Dreams and Nightmares – Meek Mill
• Warrior – Ke$ha

12 Days of Christmas Day 6:

Expand
Expanding
Close

[youtube=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GG2Wn2dm5-4″]

Since the removal of YouTube, and Maps as preloaded Google apps within iOS, Google has been especially adept at developing its own set of iOS apps. We previously detailed how Google wants to own the iOS ecosystem on the apps level, providing users with an alternative universe to most of the core features of Apple’s mobile operating system. It appears Google now has a dedicated iOS app team which builds cohesive apps rather than having each business unit build its own apps.
Expand
Expanding
Close

As users powered on their new iOS devices and received iTunes gift cards on Christmas day, a strong surge of app downloads obviously followed. According to analytic firm Distimo, App Store downloads increased a whopping 87 percent on Christmas Day, compared to the rest of December 2012. With the increased downloads, revenue consequently rose 70 percent. Interestingly, the iPad and iPad mini seemed to be the most popular iOS gift given, as downloads and revenues rose by 140 percent and 83 percent, respectively.

Distmo also looked at the most downloaded applications from the App Store on Christmas day. They included Google’s standalone YouTube app and the recently released Apple Maps alternative Google Maps at the top. Other top downloads, excluding Apple’s in-house apps like iWork, included: ElfYourself by OfficeMax, Where’s My Holiday?, and Skype for iPad. The numbers that will give us a real look at how iOS device sales were during the Christmas quarter will be during Apple’s January earnings call with investors, where record sales are expected.

Competitor Amazon, who doesn’t like to give hard numbers, detailed some of its shopping statistics for the holiday season. The Seattle-based online retailer said that Christmas day brought the busiest day ever for digital downloads of movies, TV shows, apps, and more. The Angry Bird fans were also busy with purchases, as Angry Birds plush toys would stack up to 285 times the height of the world’s tallest tree in California. Research firm Flurry also detailed that Christmas 2012 saw the highest amount of activated gadgets than any other day in history.

Expand
Expanding
Close

In June, we told you about BlueStacks. It is a tool that allows Android apps to run on a Mac. The alpha only officially supported 17 Android apps, with Pulse and Words with Friends being the two of the more notable apps at launch, but the application has improved immensely. As Venture Beat first noted, BlueStacks has moved into beta this morning. It now allows users to run every Android app that the Google Play store has to offer. Some may be puzzled at the need to run a mobile application on the desktop, but it does come in use for apps like Instagram and Flipboard that have no desktop equivalent. BlueStacks reminds us a lot of Parallels or VM Ware, and it definitely becomes more useful with the added apps.

As of earlier this month, the Silicon Valley-based company passed 5 million installs on both Windows and Mac. BlueStacks also plans an even more impressive growth with partners AMD and ASUS, as TechCrunch noted, where the software would be pre-installed on over 100 million devices. Upcoming features include an App Discovery system in the Mac app to make it easier for users to find apps. Interested? You can download the beta from BlueStacks.

Expand
Expanding
Close

[youtube=”http://youtu.be/JtcQMFeNeTw]

In January 2012, The New York Times published a lengthy report covering the problems with Foxconn’s plants in China. The piece caused uproar, and it pushed Apple to perform its own audit in the factories that make its products and work to address the issues the audit found. Close to a year after publishing its first report, the New York Times has followed up with a second piece that found working conditions are getting better. One of the first steps was in March, when top Apple executives met with Foxconn executives to reduce worker hours and increase wages in 2013. This is said to create a ripple effect that will benefit the entire manufacturing industry.

Past wages and hours, changes are also coming about within the plant. According to the New York Times, new safety measures like automatic shut-off devices and protective foam are now in place to protect workers when doing their difficult jobs of assembling various Apple products. The piece told a story of one worker receiving a wooden, sturdy chair more comfortable on her back than the green plastic stool she once used. Apple also tripled the staff at its California headquarters to ensure safe working conditions across the world.

The changes also extend to California, where Apple is based. Apple, the electronics industry’s behemoth, in the last year has tripled its corporate social responsibility staff, has re-evaluated how it works with manufacturers, has asked competitors to help curb excessive overtime in China and has reached out to advocacy groups it once rebuffed.

Earlier this year, CEO Tim Cook spoke a lot about worker safety while changes were underway. “We insist that our manufacturing partners follow Apple’s strict code of conduct, and to make sure they do, the Supplier Responsibility team led more than 200 audits at facilities throughout our supply chain last year,” said Cook in an email. “These audits make sure that working conditions are safe and just, and if a manufacturer won’t live up to our standards, we stop working with them.” Subsequently, Apple issued a statement to the New York Times this week on the recent changes:

Expand
Expanding
Close

Digitimes has shed more light on CEO Tim Cook’s early December announcement that a Mac line’s production will move to the United States in 2013 courtesy of a $100 million investment. According to the hit-and-miss publication this evening, Cupertino-based Apple will move the production of its Mac mini to the U.S. (and not the Mac Pro, as previously theorized.) The infamous Foxconn will be responsible for manufacturing it, moving away from its traditional Asia and South America locale.

We previously detailed several locations that Foxconn has in the U.S., where hiring is sure to ramp up to accommodate the production. Additionally, with the help of automated production lines, Mac mini sales are expected to rise to 1.8 million units in 2013. That’s up 30 percent from 2012. While we have a very solid guess on location, we’re still left scratching our heads with who the U.S.-assembled iMacs are originating from.

Expand
Expanding
Close

As we move past Christmas and into Boxing Day worldwide, Apple has confirmed its annual ‘Lucky Bag’ sale for Jan. 2 in Japan. The sale, which takes place in seven stores across the country, allows shoppers who get in line early to purchase a 33,000 yen ($390 USD) gift bag that includes the possibility of headphones, an iPod touch, cases, an Apple T-shirt, and other accessories. The real surprise is a few gift bags are loaded with special items like a MacBook Air or iPad that a few lucky people will receive.

Lucky Bags are a big tradition in Japan and other parts of Asia to bring in the New Year. Apple’s Lucky Bag event, much like Black Friday in the United States, brings out overnight campers who seek the silicon treasures. As one person noticed in 2011, getting in line at 5 a.m. still wasn’t early enough. Will any 9to5mac readers venture out? Check out a gift bag below: [Apple via Tech in Asia]

Expand
Expanding
Close

As customers begin receiving the new iMac this month, business-end users and gamers may find one issue when booting up their new machine. As reader Michael Verde first shared with us, the built-to-order 27-inch iMac configuration with a 3TB Fusion Drive (an extra $400) will not allow any Boot Camp use. This essentially cuts off access to a full Windows experience that some Mac users may want to benefit from. Many might consider this a bummer, as a sizable amount of users turn to Boot Camp to access necessary Windows programs or just simply enjoy Windows paired with Mac hardware.

Apple highlighted the issue on both its iMac configuration and Fusion Drive explanation page. “Boot Camp Assistant is not supported at this time on 3TB hard drive configurations,” Apple said in buried text. “At this time,” could mean the feature is enabled down the road in a software update, but it is non-existent as of now.

There are virtualization solutions, such as Parelles and VM Ware, that provide a Windows experience, but they do not offer a full experience that many may want. Boot Camp users include gamers who want to run games at full settings and business users looking to use specific business apps in a full Windows environment.

Right now it is not clear what the cause is, or if it has anything to do with Apple’s new Fusion Drive technology, but it seems that Boot Camp is limited to hard drive with less than 2TB of space (PC World has a good explanation for this). Announced in October and shipping in the new Mac Mini and iMacs, the top Fusion Drive configuration provides 128GB of flash storage coupled with 3TB of HDD space. The cheaper configuration, 128GB Flash Storage + 1TB HDD, supports Boot Camp. So, we have to wonder: what is holding back the more expensive configuration? We reached out to Apple for comment.

Expand
Expanding
Close

Shortly after releasing iOS 6.0.2 to the masses this afternoon, Apple seeded build 12D43 of OS X 10.8.3 to developers. The folks in Cupertino have not listed any new features or known issues, but they asked developers to focus on AirPlay, AirPort, Game Center, Graphics Drivers, and Safari. The last pre-release build was released on Dec. 5. You can check today’s release out on the developer center, while the full release note is below:

Expand
Expanding
Close

Just after releasing iOS 6.1 beta 4 to developers yesterday, Apple has released iOS 6.0.2 to the masses this afternoon. The update is only for the iPhone 5 and iPad mini and seems minor, as the folks in Cupertino said the update simply addresses bugs including a Wi-Fi bug that has plagued many users. You can grab the updates from iTunes, your device, or by directly downloading them from the links below. After initial OTA problems, the update looks to now be installing.

iPad Mini (Wi-Fi) (iPad2,5) version 6.0.2 (Build 10A550), Download

iPad Mini (GSM) (iPad2,6) version 6.0.2 (Build 10A8500), Download

iPad Mini (CDMA) (iPad2,7) version 6.0.2 (Build 10A8500), Download

iPhone 5 (GSM) (iPhone5,1) version 6.0.2 (Build 10A551), Download

iPhone 5 (CDMA) (iPhone5,2) version 6.0.2 (Build 10A551), Download

Expand
Expanding
Close

According to the Wall Street Journal, Apple is said to be in talks with New York-based Foursquare to add the company’s data to its Maps application. For those out of the ‘social scene’, Foursquare is a popular social network that allows users to check in to any location and share tidbits with followers. According to the report, the partnership between the two companies would lead to local data from Foursquare being incorporated into Apple’s Maps app. This will presumably give users more information on destined locations and it would compete with Google’s own Map solution that released on iOS last week. Apple SVP Eddy Cue of Internet Services, someone who would certainly be in the know with this type of deal, was seen checking into a location on Foursquare last week. Moreover, from the looks of the picture attached, it was shot with the front camera on the iPod touch.

Apple has shown its willingness before to partner with social services and add them into its iOS platform. Not only have the folks in Cupertino partnered with Facebook and Twitter to promote easy sharing across the entirety of iOS, but also they have partnered with Yelp to provide easy access to information within Maps and its Siri personal assistant feature. The social location space is heating up, as Facebook just boosted its Nearby feature this afternoon to give information on local businesses. A partnership with Foursquare could give Apple a bigger presence in this space.

Since the launch of Apple Maps on iOS 6 in September, users have highlighted several issues with the service. Apple CEO Tim Cook has reassured more than once that Apple is working to fix the problems with Maps—specifically with the mapping data.

[tweet http://twitter.com/cue/status/278968979601625088]

Expand
Expanding
Close