Apple

6,146 'Apple News' stories November 2008 - November 2013

Apple News and Brief History

Before you can properly understand Apple News, it’s important to know its history. Apple was founded by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak in 1976. In 1977, Apple’s sales were growing with the success of its early computers. Within a few years, Jobs and Wozniak hired designers and a production line crew. Apple went public in 1980 and was an instant success. Over the next few years, Apple shipped new computers featuring new graphical user interfaces, such as the original Macintosh in 1984. As the market for personal computers expanded through the 1990s, Apple lost market share to the cheaper Microsoft Windows on PC clones. Eventually, Wozniak and Jobs both left Apple. Jobs would go on to found NeXT and would return to Apple when NeXT was acquired in the late 90s. Apple then began a journey to the great second act in the history of the business world.

Since the release of the iPod in 2001, Apple has become a major player once again in the technology industry. After releasing the iPhone in 2007, the iPad in 2010, and the Apple Watch in 2015, Apple is now one of the largest companies in the world. Apple’s worldwide annual revenue totaled $274.5 billion for its 2020 fiscal year.

Today, Apple operates retail stores all across the world, has a growing services division, and an ever-expanding hardware lineup. The technology industry follows Apple news to see where the company is headed in the future.

Keep reading for the latest Apple news

Apple doubles developer promo code limit to 100 per app version

Benjamin Mayo Nov 12 2013 - 9:33 am PT

7 Comments

Although Apple is yet to provide official confirmation, developers are finding that they are now being allocated 100 promo codes per version of their apps. Until today, the limit was 50.

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Apple prepares for court battle against California inventor over ‘smartphone patent’ for iPhone

Zac Hall Nov 12 2013 - 8:04 am PT

3 Comments

(via <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/reticulating/5288349613/sizes/o/in/photolist-94jb6B-9nWwdZ-8qTS3t-7Z3gDW-8fY1Y8-bYQcKs-bZ7ptY-dcQLrg-bV5PJy-8d4XB3-8BybHw-8d4Xtj-8d4Xvw-8du5Lt-ayPrTq-bfbQpz-7DhbKd-8jpUeE-8jmEZV-aZEXQn-8jc6xf-b1etjT-8dtWHM-fksCDu-9gYEuB-9gYEpz-bkcgEK-8e7rMS-aXAC9c-8eizhZ-b1esWg-9gYEi8-eM9JYi-dgrzR7-dcZSLg-b43Pqk-bkHPjB-8TQyba-aXjZ46-fbBvLu-fbBvJ5-fbBvS3-8zwgH8-8tGQkE-8tGYj9-8dDVby-aXdMxH-cS3t2L-fbDbKr-82ENDG-fbTt1L/" target="_blank">Flickr</a>)

Following a lawsuit filed three and a half years ago by NetAirus Technologies LLC, Apple is preparing for a legal battle in Los Angeles federal court over a patent regarding the iPhone and smartphone technologies, Bloomberg reports.

California man Richard L. Ditzik filed for a patent in 1997 that describes smartphone technologies and behavior, but Apple believes his claim should be invalidated based alone on capabilities of its Newton message pad three years prior.

“The technology at issue was so well known at the time NetAirus filed its patent, that independent patent watchdogs have made NetAirus’s patent a poster child in the movement to limit the proliferation of facially invalid patents,” Apple said in its July 2011 request to throw out the case.
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iOS market share continues to fall, but Apple unlikely to be worried

Ben Lovejoy Nov 12 2013 - 6:57 am PT

18 Comments

The headline news in the latest IDC stats might look like bad news for Apple: iOS Q3 market share dropped from 14.4 percent last year to 12.9 percent this year. But it’s a number that is unlikely to lead to too many sleepless nights in Cupertino, for four reasons.

First, Apple isn’t competing with most of the Android market, which spans all price-points, only the top end of it. Samsung has been struggling to make money from its flagship handsets, with most of its profits coming from low-end models, while HTC has been in all kinds of trouble. Looking at Apple’s market share in the smartphone market as a whole is the most academic of exercises.

Second, while market share is down, shipments are up: from 26.9M in Q3 last year to 33.8M in the same quarter this year.

Third, for most of Q3 savvy iPhone buyers were holding fire, waiting for the new models Apple launched almost at the end of that quarter. The iPhone 5s and 5c between them notched up a record 9M sales in just the opening weekend. Q4 is where it’s really at …
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Sapphire iPhone screens just might be cost-effective sooner rather than later

Ben Lovejoy Nov 12 2013 - 5:39 am PT

6 Comments

TechCrunch has an interesting piece in which it suggests that the sapphire crystal Apple currently uses in the Touch ID home button on the iPhone 5s might prove a cost-effective option for iPhone screens sooner than we thought.

Sapphire is very, very tough. Short of scraping it with your diamond ring, you’re unlikely to scratch it. But it’s also very, very expensive. A sapphire outer layer on an iPhone would likely cost ten times as much as the Gorilla Glass Apple uses at present.

But Apple recently struck a deal with sapphire manufacturer GT Advanced Technologies to boost production by 2000 percent, and GTAT just happens to have acquired a solar panel company that developed a new technique for slicing hard materials very thinly using an ion particle accelerator.

If the same technique can be applied to sapphire, and if it could be combined with a sapphire laminating system already patented by Apple, the cost could plummet.

Apple could drive the costs of sapphire sheets down incredibly low in comparison to the traditional method. It will be able to create many of these super thin sapphire sheets from the same amount of raw material it would take to make one full piece of sapphire cover glass. It could then laminate the assembly together in the way that it currently does iPhones […]

This, in turn, could mean sapphire cover sheets that are harder and tougher than standard glass materials on your iPhone years sooner than most analysts have predicted.

Those are two big IFs, so we’re not holding our breath, but it’s certainly an intriguing possibility.

Initial Retina iPad mini Apple Store rollout to be exclusive to Personal Pickup, Apple issues press release

Mark Gurman Nov 12 2013 - 5:32 am PT

15 Comments

Due to “limited supply” and “high demand,” the new iPad mini with Retina display will be available at Apple Stores exclusively through the Personal Pickup service for the time-being. Personal Pickup allows a customer to purchase a Retina iPad mini via the Apple Online Store, then pick it up at an Apple Retail location of their choosing. This also means that a customer who wants a Retina iPad mini cannot simply walk-in to an Apple Store and buy one (yet). It’s likely that Apple will allow walk-in purchases when demand meets supply. Apple notified its retail employees of the current sales exclusivity to Personal Pickup customers, and Apple’s own retail website seems to imply similar…

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Apple invites donations to American Red Cross to support Philippine typhoon relief

Ben Lovejoy Nov 12 2013 - 5:01 am PT

4 Comments

Apple is inviting iTunes customers to donate between $5 and $200 to the American Red Cross to assist its relief work in response to Typhoon Haiyam, which is estimated to have killed more than 10,000 people (update: the estimate was later revised to 2,500).

The typhoon – the name given to a hurricane when it occurs in the West Pacific – is thought to have been the worst ever to hit land. Philippine Red Cross volunteer rescue and relief teams are providing assistance in the hardest hit communities, including assisting in search and rescue efforts and distributing food and relief supplies to survivors.

Apple has used the iTunes donation system several times, in response to Superstorm Sandy, the tsunami in Japan and the earthquakes in Haiti.

Report: GlobalFoundries Apple tie-in not as big a deal as it sounds, might be overflow supply line

Ben Lovejoy Nov 12 2013 - 4:27 am PT

3 Comments

Suggestions that Apple is looking to chipmaker GlobalFoundries to reduce its reliance on Samsung chips are rather wide of the mark, according to sources cited by AllThingsD. The rumors followed a story in the Albany Times Union that Apple might be looking to the Malta, New York, chipmaker to make iPhone and iPad chips.

In the most likely scenario, Samsung will still be the primary manufacturer of Apple’s chips for the iPhone and iPad, they said, continuing the role it has played since the earliest days of the iPhone: Building the chips that Apple designs under contract […]

Samsung will use GlobalFoundries for what is known as “flex capacity.” This is a long-standing industry practice under which a chip manufacturer pays to occasionally use another company’s factories when demand on their own factory is running higher than they would like, and they need a little help …
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Jony Ive and Marc Newson talk on video about Sotheby’s (RED) auction items

Mark Gurman Nov 11 2013 - 4:25 pm PT

1 Comment

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OF1ZzrKpnjg&start=60]

You may have already read Apple Senior VP Jony Ive and designer Marc Newson discussing their design pieces of the Sotheby’s Product(RED) auction, and now you can watch them go into more depth in the above video. The designers focus on pieces such as a brushed aluminum table and Ive touched upon the prototyping and manufacturing process that went into the Leica camera. Besides those items, the pair redesigned some Apple products such as a Red-colored next-generation Mac Pro. (Warning: Bono gets NSFW at the end).

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Target’s Black Friday ad: $100 gift cards on $479 iPad Airs, $10 off iTunes/Apple TV, $75 on iPad mini, much more

Seth Weintraub Nov 11 2013 - 12:39 pm PT

6 Comments

We’re posting all of the Black Friday ads as they become available at 9to5Toys.com

Target just released theirs and the Apple page is a pretty nice one (below). Head over to 9to5Toys for complete coverage of the Target ad as well as other retailers’ upcoming holiday sales.

In order of most notable:

Preview Target’s Black Friday Ad

Analyst: iTV plans put on hold for wearables debut in 2014

Zac Hall Nov 11 2013 - 8:37 am PT

3 Comments

As evidenced by TV supply chain sources, Apple could be prioritizing wearable technology and delaying a true Apple TV launch during 2014. That’s according to analyst Paul Gagnon of DisplaySearch who believes Apple was positioned to debut a true iTV in the latter half of next year, but has put that plan on hold due to content deals still in development.

For Apple to have a successful television product for the living room, it needs to achieve three goals:

Sell enough units to generate sufficient content purchasing points, especially among households who do not yet own Apple TV set-top boxes.

Offer a unique point of differentiation to capture market share from leading TV manufacturers such as Samsung and Vizio, while at the same time being able to sell the products for a high enough price to deliver typically high Apple margins.

Create follow-on replacement purchases to keep hardware sales from flat-lining once household penetration peaks.
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Apple’s market share in Japan overtakes USA, with more to come

Ben Lovejoy Nov 11 2013 - 7:40 am PT

5 Comments

Photo: japantimes.co.jp

Apple’s share of the smartphone market in Japan has hit 37 percent, greater than the 36 percent share in the USA, reports the WSJ.

Sales got another boost in late September when NTT DoCoMo Inc., Japan’s largest wireless carrier, began offering the iPhone for the first time to its 61.8 million customers. Even before that, the iPhone was Japan’s best-selling smartphone, with a 37% market share in the six months ended Sept. 30, according to Tokyo’s MM Research Institute. That’s comparable to the iPhone’s 36% share in the U.S. in the third quarter, according to Kantar Worldpanel ComTech …
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Beyoncé serenades fan over FaceTime during performance [Video]

Zac Hall Nov 11 2013 - 7:20 am PT

7 Comments

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueW3anV8Cl0]

Despite rapper Jay-Z having been temporarily in bed with Samsung earlier this year, Beyoncé proved herself the better half of the relationship when she voluntarily serenaded a fan over FaceTime at a concert in South Australia recently.

Beyoncé smoothly walked across the stage reaching out to her adoring fans when someone offered their iPhone in mid-FaceTime call.

“This is a first,” she said while taking the iPhone and still performing her song. “Hi. He’s doing FaceTime right now. Nice to meet you.”
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New renders of Apple’s Spaceship HQ provide the most detailed view yet

Ben Lovejoy Nov 11 2013 - 6:40 am PT

12 Comments

New renders released by the City of Cupertino from Apple’s planning documents provide the most detailed view yet of what life inside the company’s new spaceship headquarters will be like.

Illustrating everything from cafes to car-parks, the renders are intended to provide a feel for what the building will be like to work in, rather than just its appearance as a structure. They also include additional renders of the upper level of the 1,000-seat auditorium.

Full gallery below …

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Apple copies popular collage app’s icon for iPhoto Web Journals in iOS 7

Michael Steeber Nov 8 2013 - 12:05 pm PT

12 Comments

Apple seems to have “been inspired” by popular collage app Pic Stitch when redesigning iPhoto for iOS 7. Taking a look at the share sheet in iPhoto reveals the icon for Photo Journals as being almost identical to that of the Pic Stitch for iOS icon, save for a quick 90˚ rotation and a color swap. What’s more, both Pic Stitch and iPhoto Journals perform very similar functions, allowing you to build photo collages to share with your friends.

We’ve reached out to the developers of Pic Stitch for comment.

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9to5Toys Last Call: iPad Air giveaway, Toshiba portable HD 1TB $60/2TB $100, Panasonic Lumix G5 camera $300, more

Nov 8 2013 - 10:00 am PT

0 Comments

Take a few minutes out of your lunch to cash in on some incredible deals. Be sure to follow 9to5Toys to keep up with the best gear and deals on the web: Twitter, RSS Feed, Facebook, Google+.

Weekend update:

2nd Generation AppleTV, perfect for hacking~~, $80 shipped~~
1080P LED Monitors: 24-inch AOC: $120 shipped, 27-inch Viewsonic (refurb): $141+ship
Headphone Deals up to 82% off: Beats by Dre, Soul by Ludacris, Sony MDR, Pioneer DJ cans, more
LG G2 5.2″ 1080P Android 4.2 quad-core phone on Verizon Wireless: Free /w plan

Today’s can’t miss deals:

Giveaway: Apple iPad Air with awesome SlickWraps protective skin

Hard Drive Deals: Toshiba portable 2TB $100/1TB $60, Seagate portable 1TB: $60, WD 3TB desktop: $100

Panasonic Lumix G5 16 MP Compact System Camera with 14-42mm Zoom Lens: $300

PNY StorEDGE flash memory expansion for MacBooks: ~~128GB $98~~, 64GB $40

Logitech iPad solar keyboard folio $30 https://t.co/50MRE3hw6X

— 9to5Toys (@9to5toys) November 8, 2013

Other great deals from today:

New! Logitech UE 6000 active noise-canceling headphones (Refurb.) $80, Sennhesier RS 170 wireless headphones $149
New! Apple iPad mini 16GB WiFi (black or white) $275 shipped (Reg. $299)
New! Logitech K811 Bluetooth easy-switch Mac keyboard $70 shipped (Reg. $100)
New! Game/App Deals: Splinter Cell Paladin Edition: $100, 50% off Call of Duty Mac titles, iOS freebies, more
New! iPad Air Cases: i-Blason Convertible KickStand $18 shipped, rooCASE SlimShell origami $5 shipped

The best deals that are still alive:

Game/App Deals: Rayman Fiesta Run out now, Final Fantasy V: $11, iOS freebies, more
RAVPower 6000mAh power bank w/ built-in 30-pin/Micro-USB cables $20 shipped (Reg. $40)
BoxWave Blackout Case with Glossy and Black Matte Finish for iPad Air $8 shipped
$50 Brookstone credit for $25 (online and in-store)
This Week In Entertainment: Lady Gaga ARTPOP free iTunes Radio stream, Eminem, We’re The Millers
CaseCrown Bold Standby Pro iPad Air case (multiple colors) $5 shipped
Pebble Smartwatch (red or black) as low as $120 shipped for .edu email holders, $150 otherwise
MFi All-in-One Lightning Card Reader for iPad Air and iPad mini $24 after coupon
The best Apple-certified (MFi) Lightning cables in various lengths, colors, and styles

New product announcements & reviews:

Onkyo’s new headphones line-up boasts slick metal design, in-line controls and iOS app integration
Radio Shack Black Friday ad leak: Beats Pill, Apple TV, Roku 2, PS3/Xbox 360 consoles
Synology unleashes its most affordable 2-bay NAS ever, the DS214se for $160
Toys R Us Black Friday ad leak reveals early start time and ample video game deals
Target’s PS4 launch week ad leaks: will offer buy 2 get 1 free on PS4, Xbox One games, others

Vodafone store evacuated as iPad demo model catches fire [Update: Not an Air]

Ben Lovejoy Nov 8 2013 - 4:13 am PT

11 Comments

Update: A Vodafone spokesperson says that the model that caught fire was not an Air:

“It was an earlier generation iPad with Retina display model — not one of the more recently launched devices. Apple is investigating the cause,” a Vodafone Australia spokesperson told Mashable.

A Vodafone store in Canberra, Australia, had to be evacuated and the fire brigade called in after a demo model iPad ~~Air~~ caught fire, reports news.com.au.

“A burst of flames” appeared from the charging port of an iPad demo model, a Vodafone spokesperson confirmed.

The fire brigade was called in after the store filled with smoke and sparks continued to appear from the charging port.

Nobody was hurt.

There have been several reports of iPhones and iPads catching fire while charging, but these have generally been associated with third-party or counterfeit chargers. As an official Vodafone store, a third-party charger would seem unlikely.

It’s reported that Apple sent a representative to the store to collect the iPad for investigation.

Apple fixes 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro trackpad/keyboard issues, graphics bug on 15-inch

Mark Gurman Nov 7 2013 - 12:07 pm PT

3 Comments

With the new 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro launch last month, many users have noticed and complained about issues relating to the computer’s keyboard and trackpad becoming unresponsive.

In line with Apple’s promise, a fix has been delivered:

This update is recommended for MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, late 2013) models. This update addresses an issue where the built-in keyboard and Multi-Touch trackpad may become unresponsive.

The solution comes in the form of the MacBook Pro Retina EFI Update 1.3, and this update is available via Software Update in the Mac App Store. Apple has also released an update for the 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro to fix issues relating to NVIDIA Graphics chips:

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Some Apple Stores closing early in coming weeks for quarterly meetings, not ‘mysterious’ product launch

Mark Gurman Nov 7 2013 - 10:14 am PT

1 Comment

Yesterday, some noise emerged that some Apple Stores are closing early under “special hours” on the weekend and days between November 17th and 19th. Several reports seem to be blowing this out of proportion and speculating that this indicates an imminent Apple product launch (like the Retina iPad mini or redesigned Mac Pro). Besides the fact that Apple would never launch a product on a Sunday night, these days are when Apple will be holding its quarterly, typically-boring store meetings for its retail employees. Nothing “mysterious” here…

Nov 17 update:

Some employees have had their meetings, and this is what they shared:

https://twitter.com/markgurman/status/402138499727380480

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Apple’s sapphire deal to increase manufacturer’s revenue from sapphire by approximately 20x current levels

Benjamin Mayo Nov 7 2013 - 6:48 am PT

7 Comments

Earlier this week, Apple announced a deal with GT Advanced Technologies to increase production of sapphire for use it’s in products. This production will take place in Apple’s new Arizona facility. Via AllThingsD, as part of an earnings call on Monday, GT shed some light on just how big this deal is for both companies.

As Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Brian White noted today, GT’s sapphire business accounted for 11 percent of its year-to-date sales — about $28.9 million in revenue. But, in forecasting 2014 revenue, the company said it expects to make $600 million to $800 million, with 80 percent of those sales attributable to its sapphire business.

This means that GT’s sapphire business will generate between $480 – $640 million of the company’s 2014 revenue, an increase of almost twenty-times compared to 2013. An increase this large implies Apple has a much bigger vision for sapphire than what it uses it for today.

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Apple’s challenges in ensuring fair treatment of workers in complex supply chains

Ben Lovejoy Nov 7 2013 - 6:11 am PT

6 Comments

Bloomberg has a lengthy piece illustrating just how great a challenge it is for Apple and other multinational companies to ensure the fair treatment of workers in complex supply chains.

When one of Apple’s suppliers like Flextronics wins a new contract, it needs to take on additional workers – lots of them, and fast. Those workers are recruited through employment brokers, which are required to adhere to Apple’s rules. But many of them are brought in from other countries, like Malaysia and Nepal.

Alok Taparia, the managing director of Transworld Manpower, another of the four Nepalese brokers retained for that drive, says he was given clear instructions: Workers shouldn’t be charged; Flextronics would pay the brokers. But Taparia and the other Nepalese brokers say Flextronics demanded so many men so quickly that there was no way to do it without tapping the country’s network of subagents, stretching into Himalayan villages reachable only by foot. As Apple itself has described in reports on its supply chain, the subagents always charge…

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Apple working to slim its iWatch via intermittent Bluetooth LE connection?

Ben Lovejoy Nov 7 2013 - 4:31 am PT

5 Comments

iWatch concept by Stephen Olmstead

An Apple patent filing filed today suggests that Apple may be working on a way to make its long-rumored iWatch slimmer than existing offerings by reducing the size of the battery required.

One of the barriers to widespread adoption of smartwatches is that existing models are not exactly sleek. Technology lovers might be willing to put function ahead of form and put up with chunky devices, but the wider market buys on style first, technology second.

While the Bluetooth LE protocol used by existing smartwatches uses around half the power of classic Bluetooth (peaking at 15mA instead of 30mA), a constant connection in a device you won’t want to charge daily still requires a reasonably chunky battery. What Apple’s patent proposes is for an on-demand creation of a Bluetooth connection between two devices, one with radio capabilities (aka an iPhone), one without …
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Mac Developers also have access to upcoming OS X Mavericks Mail update

Mark Gurman Nov 6 2013 - 9:29 pm PT

3 Comments

Last week, we reported that Apple had provided its employees with an update to the Mavericks Mail app that solves several issues relating to Gmail account compatibility. While this has seemed to stay under the radar, Apple has also provided the update to registered Mac Developers. Apple says that the update became available on October 31st, but we have not heard any sightings of this update until now. The update should be available for all users in the coming weeks. Thanks, Hunter!

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Apple Stores to soon offer iPhone 5s & 5c screen replacements, other repairs

Mark Gurman Nov 6 2013 - 8:33 pm PT

43 Comments

iPhone 5s Teardown via <a href="http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/iPhone+5s+Teardown/17383">iFixit</a>

Apple is gearing up to soon begin hardware repairs for the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c in its chain of retail stores, according to sources with knowledge of the upcoming initiative. These sources say that Apple Stores will be able to replace several parts of the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c on-site, meaning that Apple will no-longer need to fully replace iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c units with damage or other problems…

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Apple seeds a pair of OS X Mavericks updates internally

Mark Gurman Nov 6 2013 - 5:47 pm PT

10 Comments

Apple has seeded two software upgrades for OS X Mavericks internally, according to a source with knowledge of the upcoming updates. This person says that the updates are labeled as OS X 10.9.1 and OS X 10.9.2. The first update is expected to be released later this month, and it will serve as an update to squash bugs that accompanied the OS X 10.9.0 release of Mavericks last month. Many users have complained about issues relating to the Mail and iBooks applications, and Apple is preparing to release individual bug-fix updates for those apps in the coming days…

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