Apple Inc

613 'Apple Inc' stories April 2013 - September 2015

Tim Cook to meet Indian Prime Minister as India’s sales growth outstripping that of China

Ben Lovejoy Sep 16 2015 - 4:19 am PT

The Economic Times reports that Apple CEO Tim Cook is to meet Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi later this month.

An Apple spokesperson confirmed that a meeting between its CEO Cook and PM Modi will take place. The Apple spokesperson, however, declined to comment on the topic of discussion.

It’s likely that Cook will want to discuss the possibility of official Apple Stores in the country. India does not permit manufacturer-owned stores unless a certain proportion of components are sourced within the country, forcing Apple to rely on third-party resellers …
Expand
Expanding
Close

Jony Ive-designed Apple company store at 1 Infinite Loop re-opens Saturday, possibly with big changes

Ben Lovejoy Sep 15 2015 - 5:01 am PT

7 Comments

The Apple Company Store on its 1 Infinite Loop campus, which closed for major refurbishment back in June, will re-open at 10am on Saturday – the same day its first Belgium store opens. Apple announced the Grand Reopening on its retail site.

With Jony Ive now having responsibility for all aspects of design – including retail stores – it should be interesting to see how it’s changed.

The Company Store has always been quite a different experience to all other Apple retail stores, with no iPhones, iPads or Macs on sale. Instead, the store has majored on Apple-branded clothing and other brand-oriented products. But sources told us back in June that things may be very different when it reopens …
Expand
Expanding
Close

Sketchy supply-chain rumor says display panel shortages could limit 2015 iPad Pro sales to 2.5-3M units

Ben Lovejoy Sep 15 2015 - 4:38 am PT

0 Comments

A sketchy supply-chain rumor reported by Digitimes says that display panel shortages could limit this year’s sales of the iPad Pro to between 2.5 and 3M units.

iPad Pro’s IGZO panel is currently supplied by Sharp only, and LG Display will only be able to supply a small volume starting November, while supply from Samsung will begin in 2016. As a result, Apple is only able to start shipping the iPad Pro in November and its shipments will be between 2.5-3 million units in the fourth quarter of 2015, according to Digitimes Research.

This contrasts with KGI estimates of up to 5.5M sales this year.

Apple finally revealed the long-awaited device last week, featuring a 12.9-inch display, ‘desktop class’ A9X chip and optional Smart Keyboard and Apple Pencil accessories. The range starts at $799 for the 32GB WiFi-only model and goes up to $1079 for the 128GB WiFi + Cellular model.

Apple discontinues combined Apple Watch + iPhone AppleCare packages

Mark Gurman Sep 14 2015 - 9:05 am PT

4 Comments

On the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus announcement day, Apple increased the pricing of its AppleCare+ protection plan from $99 to $129. We’ve since discovered that Apple has additionally discontinued its combined plans for the Apple Watch and iPhone. Since the launch of the Apple Watch earlier this year, Apple offered combined packages that allowed a customer to protect both devices on a single plan. Now, customers must purchase both plans separately. The combined packages did not bring any discount or value over purchasing the plans separately, so the discontinuation of the program does not come as a major change for consumers. Apple has told employees that customers who have already purchased the combined plans will not be affected through their deals.

Apple video showcases the art & artists behind the opening of its new Brussels store

Ben Lovejoy Sep 14 2015 - 5:52 am PT

1 Comment

In the run-up to Saturday’s opening of the first Apple Store in Belgium, Apple has uploaded a video showcasing the artists behind the comic art it is featuring on the hoardings outside the store. Brussels is known for its comic art, with many young artists moving there to further their careers.

Apple asked 20 artists to each create five images to help tell the story of the city. The paintings are displayed along with the slogan ‘The creativity continues.’

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=41&v=dC7WPAH35AQ]

Featuring local artists at soon-to-be-opened stores seems to now have become standard practice for Apple. We’ve seen calligraphy used in Hangzhou, a combined painting and photo in Chongqing, and a mural in Miami.

UK PSA: Apple Watch on sale in John Lewis this week, with free extended warranty

Ben Lovejoy Sep 14 2015 - 4:43 am PT

1 Comment

Any UK readers planning to buy an Apple Watch this week may want to hold out until Friday, when it goes on sale in 37 branches of the department store John Lewis. The company offers free extended warranties on the electronic items it sells, ranging from two years for small items to five years for TVs. The Apple Watch is likely to be offered with the same two-year warranty as iPads.

Although EU law declares that almost all products sold in the UK have to be offered with a minimum two-year warranty, and some have successfully used this to make claims from Apple Stores after the company’s own one-year warranty has expired, it’s always likely to be less hassle claiming from a company that explicitly promises it.

The news follows shortly after Currys/PC World announced on its website that it would be selling the Apple Watch “soon.” Apple’s wider roll-out of the Watch beyond its own retail stores and selected upmarket launch partners began with Best Buy in the U.S., the same chain in Canada and then other chains in Australia, France and Germany.

Digital Spy via Engadget . Photo: Evening Standard.

Google’s Eric Schmidt makes thinly-veiled attack on Apple Music as elitist and a decade out of date

Ben Lovejoy Sep 14 2015 - 3:58 am PT

43 Comments

Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Google parent company Alphabet, has made a thinly-veiled attack on Apple Music in a BBC op-ed on artificial intelligence. He described human-curated music selections as a decade out of data and an elitist approach.

A decade ago, to launch a digital music service, you probably would have enlisted a handful of elite tastemakers to pick the hottest new music.

Today, you’re much better off building a smart system that can learn from the real world – what actual listeners are most likely to like next – and help you predict who and where the next Adele might be …

Expand
Expanding
Close

News Hub: Apple reveals new iPhone 6s, iPad Pro, Apple TV, Apple Watch updates, more

Mark Gurman Sep 9 2015 - 7:37 am PT

18 Comments

The day is here: Apple is holding one of its biggest events in company history. Apple is set to unveil a pair of new iPhones (the 6s and 6s Plus) two new iPads (the iPad mini 4 and iPad Pro) a revamped Apple TV set-top-box, Apple WatchOS 2, new bands, and Apple Watch Sport casing colors. We’ll be following the entire event from start to finish, and we’ll also be using this post to issue live updates of the latest information from before the event. We’ll be publishing separate articles detailing all of Apple’s major announcements, but this post will serve as a hub with direct links to all of them. Follow along with us, below:

Expand
Expanding
Close

Woz expands on earlier praise for Steve Jobs biopic as he reflects on his co-founder’s personality

Ben Lovejoy Sep 9 2015 - 6:18 am PT

5 Comments

steve-jobs

After Steve Wozniak gave a thumbs-up to the upcoming Sorkin/Boyle biopic simply entitled Steve Jobs, the Apple co-founder expanded on his comments in a lengthy interview with the BBC’s tech editor Leo Kelion.

Wozniak said that while the film didn’t always portray events in the way they really happened, it did capture the essence of its subject.

But when you see it portrayed dramatically, not the way it really happened but in a way that is emotionally graphic, it really conveys what Steve Jobs was really like inside… and what it was like to be around him.

Wozniak doesn’t, however, pull any punches when talking about Jobs’ personality …
Expand
Expanding
Close

Verizon’s 5G tests show it to be faster than Google Fiber, could launch as early as 2017

Ben Lovejoy Sep 8 2015 - 6:23 am PT

26 Comments

5G could even make Google Fiber look slow …

Early tests of Verizon‘s 5G technology show that it can achieve connection speeds 30-50 times faster than 4G/LTE – above the speeds offered by Google Fiber’s gigabit wired broadband. Even better, the company expects to have “some level of commercial deployment” by 2017, some three years earlier than expected, reports CNET.

To put that speed difference into perspective, the movie Guardians of the Galaxy would take around six minutes to download over a good LTE connection – while 5G would have it downloaded to your device in just 15 seconds …
Expand
Expanding
Close

Analytics highlights iPhone 6/Plus success, and failure of iPhone 5c and why Apple won’t do an iPhone 6c (Concept images anyway)

Ben Lovejoy Sep 8 2015 - 5:38 am PT

29 Comments

A day before the announcement of the new iPhones, analytics company Localytics has provided a picture of the iPhone market today. It shows that the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus between them account for a full 40% of all iPhones in use, with the iPhone 5s trailing behind at 23.7%.

The same data also backs our report that the iPhone 5c is being discontinued, showing that it accounts for just 8.5% of active iPhones, putting it below the iPhone 4S. This can only add to doubts about whether the often rumored and debunked iPhone 6c (beautiful concept images below) could succeed …
Expand
Expanding
Close

Apple is upping its AI game but can it become as smart as Google without tracking us?

Ben Lovejoy Sep 7 2015 - 7:38 am PT

20 Comments

Reuters reports that Apple is working on significantly increasing the number of artificial intelligence specialists it employs as it works to make Siri smarter, but that the company’s commitment to user privacy imposes constraints.

As part of its push, the company is currently trying to hire at least 86 more employees with expertise in the branch of artificial intelligence known as machine learning, according to a recent analysis of Apple job postings. The company has also stepped up its courtship of machine-learning PhD’s, joining Google, Amazon, Facebook and others in a fierce contest, leading academics say.

Machine learning relies heavily on large-scale data-crunching to figure out what users are likely to want to know. But while Google analyses the data of Android users en-masse, Apple’s approach to privacy means that far less data is sent from the iPhone to its servers, making it more challenging to increase Siri’s intelligence …
Expand
Expanding
Close

A first look inside the new phase of Apple’s 2nd biggest worldwide location: Austin, Texas (Photo gallery)

Ben Lovejoy Sep 7 2015 - 6:16 am PT

8 Comments

austin-campus

Alongside building its far more famous spaceship campus in Cupertino, Apple has also been busy expanding its main U.S. operations campus in Austin, Texas – with four of the planned seven buildings now open. The Austin-based American-Statesman got to do a photo tour of the facility.

We first reported on Apple’s $304M plans all the way back in 2012, with the first employees moving in two years later. This is our first look inside the latest stage of the development …
Expand
Expanding
Close

Could this be the patent behind 3D Force Touch on the new iPhones?

Ben Lovejoy Sep 7 2015 - 4:20 am PT

4 Comments

3d-force-touch

Our exclusive report that the Force Touch feature in the new iPhones will be a more advanced form of the technology than used in the Apple Watch has been supported by what may be the patent behind it.

Prompted by our report, Patently Apple revisited a patent published in Europe in July and found references which point to the ability to measure three levels of force. While the technology used in the Apple Watch can measure varying levels of pressure (as can be seen in the animation if you slowly increase pressure, for example on the notifications screen), the measurement is translated into just two levels: a touch or a press. 3D Force Touch adds a third level of sensitivity …
Expand
Expanding
Close

Another working Apple I being auctioned, expected to sell for upwards of half a million dollars

Ben Lovejoy Sep 4 2015 - 6:21 am PT

1 Comment

An original Apple I is being auctioned by Bonhams in New York in October, and is expected to sell for upwards of half a million dollars, reports Quirker. It has been authenticated as one of the first 50 constructed by Steve Wozniak in Steve Jobs’ garage, and is said to be fully working and in fantastic condition.

Corey Cohen, Apple-1 expert and member of the Board of Directors for Mid-Atlantic Retro Computing Hobbyists Museum said: “It’s in incredible condition. It’s nearly 40 years old, next year. It’s one of the best condition Apple-1s we’ve ever seen – not just at auction, but at any physical place at all.”

The machine is believed to be one of only six original Apple I computers in working order, a previous one selling in 2013 for $671k. Owner Tom Romkey sold a previous Apple I in 2014 for a world record £564k ($857k).

This model was apparently traded in at a computer shop by the original owner, who had used it only once and didn’t like it. Bonhams auctioneer Cassandra Hatton described the trade-in as “probably the worst financial transaction in history” – though we’d have to disagree.

That would probably be the third Apple cofounder, Ron Wayne, selling his 10% of the company back to the two Steves for $800 – stock that would now be worth billions. Even the original founding contract for Apple Computer sold back in 2011 for $1.6M.

Via Gizmodo

Steve Jobs movies: Man in the Machine documentary opens today, Sorkin/Boyle biopic debuts tomorrow

Ben Lovejoy Sep 4 2015 - 5:08 am PT

4 Comments

Steve Jobs, the Universal Pictures biopic written by Aaron Sorkin and directed by Danny Boyle, gets its debut screening tomorrow at the Telluride Film Festival. This is followed by a screening at the New York Film Festival on Oct 3rd, before its national release on 9th October.

We first saw a trailer for the movie back in May, with a longer one shown in July and a modified version shown on TV last month. A leaked screenplay draft confirmed that the movie is set around three product launches: the original Macintosh, the NeXT Cube and the iMac …
Expand
Expanding
Close

37M Americans used Apple Music in the first month, reports ComScore, as iOS increases market share [Updated]

Ben Lovejoy Sep 4 2015 - 4:09 am PT

12 Comments

apple-music

Update: ComScore has issued a clarification to its original press release, giving 37M (not 44M) as the number and stating that its measurement does not distinguish between streaming and local music.

Clarification: “Apple Music,” as it appears in comScore’s July reporting, is the same measured entity as the previously named “iTunes Radio/iCloud” that has been reported in past months’ mobile rankings. This entity, now under the new name, is referring to Apple’s native music app, which captures all music activity within that app, including listening via the streaming service, radio service and users’ personally downloaded music libraries.

Analytics data from ComScore shows that 37M Americans used Apple Music in its first month, making it the 14th most popular smartphone app, just behind Twitter.

Expand
Expanding
Close

Apple planning to bring 4K screen to 21.5-inch iMac in October

Mark Gurman Sep 3 2015 - 10:16 am PT

27 Comments

Apple is indeed planning to release a new version of its 21.5-inch iMac with a 4K display this fall, according to reliable sources. The current plan is to announce the refreshed version of the smaller iMac by the end of October alongside OS X El Capitan and begin shipping the product by the beginning of November. As indicated by references inside of El Capitan, the new 21.5 inch iMac’s 4K display will come with a resolution of 4096 x 2304, which is up from the current model’s screen resolution of 1920 x 1080. Faster processors and improved color saturation can also be expected. The higher-resolution screen will likely raise the price of the new iMac, much like the 5K display raised the price of the 27-inch iMac last fall. Apple may keep around the current 1080P models, much like the lower-resolution 27-inch iMac is still available for sale.

Expand
Expanding
Close

App Store’s gaming section gets its own curated Twitter account

Mark Gurman Sep 3 2015 - 9:10 am PT

2 Comments

Apple is making its App Store a bit more social. The company today opened up a new Twitter account dedicated to the App Store’s gaming section. The account, @AppStoreGames, is yet to be officially verified by Twitter, but it was retweeted this morning by the official and verified @AppStore account, which launched a few years ago.

Expand
Expanding
Close

Apple applies for patent for fuel cell system that could power a MacBook “for days or even weeks”

Ben Lovejoy Sep 3 2015 - 8:17 am PT

7 Comments

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has today published a patent application from Apple for a fuel cell system designed to allow a MacBook to operate without external power “for days or even weeks.” The patent was published shortly after a British company rumored to be working with Apple managed to fit a fuel cell battery into an iPhone 6, powering it for a week at a time. We first reported on that project last summer.

While the patent refers only to a ‘portable computing device,’ both the text and diagrams specifically reference MagSafe, giving a clear indication that a MacBook is the device in question (even if Apple may be moving away from the system) …
Expand
Expanding
Close

KGI: iPhone 6S will have upgraded 5MP front camera, may not have sapphire lens

Ben Lovejoy Sep 3 2015 - 6:06 am PT

22 Comments

A report from the usually-reliable KGI has repeated many of the details from our exclusives on the iPhone 6S, but additionally offered support for an earlier rumor that the front camera will be upgraded to 5MP. Surprisingly, it also suggests that the rear camera lens may not be sapphire, as it has apparently failed drop tests.

Aside from upgrading rear camera module to 12MP, Apple will upgrade front camera module to 5MP […] The new iPhone may not be equipped with sapphire cover lens, as it still has quality issues on the drop test.

Although sapphire is much more scratch-resistant than Gorilla Glass, it is more brittle, and thus at greater risk of shattering when dropped.

The company also repeated its concerns that limited appeal of the new features, together with external economic factors, is likely to result in flat or negative sales growth …
Expand
Expanding
Close

More than 1M Apple Watches sold in China, reports large analytics company

Ben Lovejoy Sep 3 2015 - 4:36 am PT

7 Comments

A week after IDC estimated worldwide Apple Watch Q2 sales of 3.6M units, a large Chinese app analytics company has reportedly measured more than 1M Watches in use in China. TalkingData has access to huge volumes of data as the apps it monitors include WeChat, which has more than half a billion active users, reports Business Insider …
Expand
Expanding
Close

Lawsuit against Apple, Google & others for ‘Do not hire’ agreements ends as settlement deal finalized

Ben Lovejoy Sep 3 2015 - 4:00 am PT

5 Comments

A class action lawsuit against Apple, Google and other tech companies for agreeing not to poach each other’s employees has finally been settled. Steve Jobs, Google’s Eric Schmidt and others had agreed in emails not to offer higher salaries to each other’s employees in order to reduce the risk of losing valuable employees. When the emails came to light, the 64,000 employees affected successfully argued that this had limited their earning potential.

After Apple’s originally settlement offers were rejected by Judge Lucy Koh as inadequate, the company increased its offer to $415M, which the judge agreed was fair. Reuters reports that Koh has now granted final approval of this sum.

Koh did, however, reject the $81M cut the lawyers in the case had demanded …
Expand
Expanding
Close

Apple Event: New Apple Watch bands, 16GB iPhones confirmed with 7000 series aluminum

Mark Gurman Sep 2 2015 - 9:35 am PT

56 Comments

Starting with the iPhone 3GS, every new iPhone has started with 16GB of storage as a base model — a capacity that has come under increasing fire as both videos and apps have grown in size. Despite new capabilities and the presence of 4K video recording in the new iPhones, sources say that the new iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus will retain the same storage tiers as the current iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus: 16GB, 64GB, and 128GB. On-contract pricing will also be the same as the 2014 models: $199, $299, and $399 for the iPhone 6S, versus $299, $399, and $499 for the iPhone 6S Plus. We previously posted images of pre-production next-generation iPhone components that indicated that the 16GB option could remain.

Expand
Expanding
Close