Apple

Apple’s Senior VP of worldwide marketing Phil Schiller tweeted a link to a National Geographic feature in which photographer Jim Richardson used his iPhone 5s for a photo feature on Scotland in the definitive landscape photography magazine.

iPhoneography http://t.co/1MYjDgV2sj

— Philip Schiller (@pschiller) October 8, 2013

Richardson said that the transition from his usual Nikon kit wasn’t an easy one.

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t struggling to make pictures. Walking down the Royal Mile surrounded by all things Scottish nothing seemed worth a picture. Out of desperation I took a few glib shots. Awful! Surrounded by great subjects I could see nothing. Made me feel worse.

But that using it over four days, he came to be impressed …
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Google Chairman Eric Schmidt on Android security: “Not secure? It’s more secure than the iPhone.”

Seth Weintraub Oct 7 2013 - 6:08 pm PT

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We have a long running series on 9to5Google called “Talking Schmidt” and the Chairman of Google keeps loading it up with amusing quotes on the technology industry. Today’s comes from the Gartner Symposium where our pro/antagonist was asked by Gartner analyst David Willis about the security of Android (which has taken some hits lately to put it mildly).

To which Schmidt, without batting an eye, said:

“Not secure? It’s more secure than the iPhone.”

The comment drew laughter from the crowd, comprised largely of CIOs and high level IT personnel. Keep in mind, this is the same quote-smith who forecasted Google TV would have taken over the market last year and called the iPad just a big iPhone.
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Apple to hold fiscal Q4 earnings conference call on Monday, October 28th

Benjamin Mayo Oct 7 2013 - 2:56 pm PT

Update: Live webcast will be at www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/earningsq413

Apple will hold its quarterly earnings call to announce results on October 28th, as noted on Apple’s investor website. Typically, Apple’s CEO Tim Cook and CFO Peter Oppenheimer will read prepared statements about the company’s performance, before opening the call to a question and answer session for analysts. The call will begin at 2PM Pacific / 5PM Eastern time. Apple will publish a press release reporting their results about half an hour before the call is due to begin.

Online backup services: why, how & which?

Ben Lovejoy Oct 7 2013 - 7:03 am PT

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Macs make automated backup childishly easy: simply plug in an external hard drive and OS X will ask whether you want to use it as a Time Machine disk. Say yes, and you’ll then get fully-automatic, hourly, versioned backups without doing anything further.

Unplug it to take your MacBook out & about, and it will catch up as soon as you return and plug it back in. Even easier, get a Time Capsule, and those backups take place over wifi, so you don’t even have to connect a drive.

But I’m a belt-and-braces chap. I like multiple backups, and I like one of those backups to be off-site. That way, if the house burns down, or a burglar takes both my Macs and my backup drives, I still have access to my data. Which is where online backup services come into play. Think of them as your backup of last resort.

iCloud, covered in my cloud storage roundup last week, already backs up quite a lot of your data – but nothing like all of it. The services covered here are ones that backup either your entire Mac, or a large proportion of it …

Skype for iPhone gets a flatter, cleaner look for iOS 7

Ben Lovejoy Oct 7 2013 - 6:35 am PT

Skype has updated its iPhone app to give a “refreshed look and feel for iOS 7” as well as a number of accessibility improvements and bug fixes.

Although the UI is clearly iOS 7 focused, Skype for iPhone 4.13 is compatible with iOS 5 and 6 too. Full details of the update below the fold …
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SEC finds Apple didn’t create “the Holy Grail of tax avoidance” after all

Ben Lovejoy Oct 7 2013 - 5:48 am PT

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A four-month long investigation into Apple’s tax affairs by the Securities and Exchange Commission has cleared the company of any wrong-doing in regard to the way the company accounted for taxes in respect of its overseas operations.

A Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations hearing into Apple’s tax affairs had previously accused the company of seeking “the Holy Grail of tax avoidance” over cash held overseas. The hearing proved anti-climatic, with no wrong-doing established, and the investigation handed off to the SEC. The SEC has now closed the case.

Tim Cook made an unequivocal statement during the Senate hearing that Apple used no tax gimmicks …
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iOS 7 betas expire as some folks forget to update, here’s how to get your iPhone back

Ben Lovejoy Oct 7 2013 - 4:41 am PT

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Developers who didn’t upgrade their iOS devices from beta 6 to the public release of iOS 7 are finding their iOS devices temporarily bricked this morning after the beta expired, reports Gizmodo.

Around midnight UK time, my iPhone 5, along with thousands of other iOS 7-running devices which hadn’t updated from their dev betas, randomly crashed. An error message of “could not activate iPhone” appeared, and prompted users to sign in with their iCloud details. Unfortunately this did not solve the issue, with Apple’s activation server being “temporarily unavailable.”

Fortunately, a fix is available – such as the one detailed at iPhoneHacks. The executive summary is to make sure you’re running iTunes 11.1, manually download the latest 7.0.2 version of iOS , connect the device to your Mac, click on the device in iTunes and then hold down the option key when clicking the Check for Update button to select the downloaded file. See the detailed instructions and links to the files for each device here.

iPhone 5s takes top slot from Samsung Galaxy S4 at U.S. carriers; good showing by 5c too

Ben Lovejoy Oct 7 2013 - 4:10 am PT

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The iPhone has long been the best-selling phone on AT&T, but the Samsung Galaxy S4 has for some time held that slot at Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile, with the iPhone 5 in second place. No more. September sales figures from Canaccord (reported in Fortune) show that the iPhone 5s now has top billing on all four major U.S. carriers, with the iPhone 5c also beating Samsung on AT&T and Sprint. While the news isn’t unexpected, the numbers do seem to put the lie to one rumor …
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iTunes Radio launch in Canada imminent as Apple seeks programmers

Mark Gurman Oct 4 2013 - 4:31 pm PT

Apple’s popular, free music streaming service iTunes Radio looks set for an imminent launch in Canada. Since launching last month in tandem with iOS 7, iTunes Radio has been exclusive to the United States. However, Apple Senior Vice President Eddy Cue has noted that he would like the service to launch in “more than 100 countries.” Even with this plan in place, there has been no indication of when iTunes Radio would arrive internationally and exactly where…

Apple updates iPhone website with Tips and Tricks, teaches users new iOS 7 features

Mark Gurman Oct 4 2013 - 11:58 am PT

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Apple has updated its iPhone website with “Tips and Tricks” (you’re welcome, Apple) pages to teach users about features found on the iPhone 5s, iPhone 5c, and iPhone 4s (via MacRumors).

The pages detail some of the software-exclusive features to the iPhone 5s in addition to some enhancements that came in iOS 7. For instance, the section’s spends time highlighting the camera app, which arguably received one of the most significant in-app transformations with the launch of the new iOS.

Unlikely fingerprint hack plus Airplane Mode from lockscreen prevents remote wipe

Ben Lovejoy Oct 4 2013 - 6:35 am PT

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For those paranoid spy folks out there, SRLabs has pointed out an additional security weakness which could help an attacker use the fingerprint hack to access an iPhone 5s.

The fingerprint hack takes time: around half an hour of actual work, plus drying time. Provided you notice your phone has gone before the thief gains access, you can simply remotely lock or wipe the phone. But with Airplane Mode accessible from the control center on the lockscreen, a thief can simply enable this to prevent the phone being wiped while they are dealing with the fingerprint …
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3D motion sensor promises instant sports analysis on your iPhone

Ben Lovejoy Oct 4 2013 - 4:54 am PT

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You’ve long been able to get wireless sports sensors that transmit data to your iPhone: heart-rate, cadence and so on. Zepp Labs has now taken the concept one step further with a small, lightweight sensor that captures data on your baseball, golf or tennis swing, providing an instant analysis and data-logging.

The ~~17g~~ 6g sensor, which attaches to a glove, contains 2 accelerometers, a gyroscope and compass. The rechargeable battery allows five hours of continuous use. The Zepp Multi-Sport Training System is expected to be available next month for $150.

Sensors definitely appear to be the new black. The iPhone 5s features the M7 chip, which captures sensor data while the main A7 chip takes a nap, and the long-awaited iWatch is widely expected to major on sensors, Apple recently hiring a key Nike Fuel Band designer to work on wearable products.

The M7 chip could do all this right now, but you’d have to duct-tape it to your glove … It’s our bet that the iWatch will offer the same functionality, it’s just a question of how long we might have to wait for that.

Apple opens up iTunes Radio ad creation to iAd Producer

Mark Gurman Oct 3 2013 - 4:13 pm PT

In addition to the iTunes 11.1.1 and OS X 10.8.5 updates, Apple has updated its iAd Producer application. iAd Producer allows Mac users to create ads for deployment via the iAd Network inside of App Store applications. Most notable in today’s update, Apple has now opened up the ability to create ads for display inside of iTunes Radio.

This release contains a number of enhancements and fixes, including:
● Support for creating iTunes Radio ads for iOS devices.
● Simplified, more flexible interface for iAd Blueprints projects.
● Support for creating iAd Blueprints projects that support multiple languages.
● Improved action support in Quick Preview.
● Improved search results in Code Documentation.
● Live asset previews during drag-and-drop.
● Support for grouping and ungrouping views.
● CSS class auto-completion in the Object Inspector.
● Support for taking photos and using the front-facing camera.
● Accessibility improvements for exported content.
● Music video support in iTunes LP content
● Other bug fixes and improvements.

Best Buy giving out $50 gift cards with iPhone 5c purchases through Oct. 7

Mark Gurman Oct 3 2013 - 3:45 pm PT

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Best Buy has noted on its website that between today (Thursday) and October 7th (next Monday), it will be offering $50 gift cards with iPhone 5c purchases. The offer is exclusive to purchases within Best Buy’s physical retail stores via on-location purchases or the in-store pickup option. The gift card will not be applicable to the iPhone 5c purchase, but can be used for future transactions at Best Buy. If you return the iPhone 5c, you must also return the gift card, according to Best Buy. Best Buy is currently not running any promotions for the (still constrained) iPhone 5s.

Update: Best Buy has updated its terms. Yes, you can use the gift card toward the 5c in-store.

Nike schedules Oct. 15 event; more durable, battery-efficient FuelBand incoming

Mark Gurman Oct 3 2013 - 12:23 pm PT

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Nike has scheduled a Tuesday, October 15th media event in New York City to discuss “the future of the digital world and physical activity.” Besides that, the company has been light on official details about what will be announced. However, we’ve been hearing about an upcoming Nike fitness/digital-related event for the past few weeks, and we are expecting a successor the popular Nike FuelBand fitness device to be announced. The event was originally planned for November, but perhaps the upcoming announcements from competitor Fitbit put pressure on Nike to move up its timeline…

iOS 7 update broke filtering protections on student iPads, say schools

Ben Lovejoy Oct 3 2013 - 6:24 am PT

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Photo: ipadsforeducation.vic.edu.au

AllThingsD is reporting that updating school iPads to iOS 7 failed to restore the supervision profiles, meaning that all of the protective filters put in place were lost.

“Apple did not realize that installing iOS 7 would remove our (and thousands of organizations across the country) safety protection measure, which now makes the iPad devices unfiltered when accessing the Internet away from school,” said a memo from the Manitou Springs (Colo.) School District 14 to parents. “In the short term, the district will be collecting iPad devices at the end of each day until the safety protection measure is reinstalled” …
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Is paid iCloud storage a good deal, or can you do better? Cloud storage roundup

Ben Lovejoy Oct 3 2013 - 6:07 am PT

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With former MobileMe customers losing their additional 20GB of free storage a couple of days ago, there are probably a bunch of new people eyeing the paid iCloud upgrade options and wondering whether or not to hand over their cash. So we thought it would be a useful to take a look at the other major cloud storage services out there, to see how they compare.

As none of them are trying to hide the filesystem in the way Apple does, they all essentially work in the same way: providing you with a virtual online drive that you treat just like a local folder. There are also OS X and iOS apps for each.

Let’s start with the obvious: if you want something that is totally integrated into both OS X and iOS, and which Just Works, then iCloud is king.

Although the 5GB you get free doesn’t sound like a lot, you actually get more than this in practice – because Apple doesn’t count the space used by any of your iTunes purchases (apps, music, movies/TV shows or books), nor does it count the 1000 most recent photos you get to store in Photostream. If most of the content you want to store came from Apple, and all you want to do additionally is sync your contacts, calendar, notes and so on, the free storage is probably all you need.

iCloud is also a seamless way to store documents if you use Apple’s own iWork software: Pages, Numbers and Keynote. By opting to save documents on iCloud, they are automatically available to you from your Mac(s), iPad and iPhone – as well as on the web.

But if you have a lot of documents, you can pretty soon start bumping up against that 5GB limit. Which is where iCloud’s costs and limitations start to show up …
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iTunes Radio gets new competition as Rdio iOS app offers free personalized stations

Ben Lovejoy Oct 3 2013 - 4:40 am PT

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Rdio has launched a free personalized radio stations option within its iOS and Android apps. This is a more controllable version of the You FM feature added back in August.

Like iTunes Radio, you can’t choose a specific artist or track, but you can create a radio station based on a song, artist or genre and then listen to the stream Rdio creates based on your selection. Unlike iTunes Radio, Rdio’s free streaming service is ad-free, at least for now.

New subscribers also get a 14-day free trial of the Rdio subscription service, allowing you to play specific tracks. Once the 14 days end, however, you’ll revert to radio stations only unless you sign-up at $9.99 a month to keep the paid service.

Rdio is a free download on iTunes.

Adobe working on an iPad app for presentations called ‘Ginger’

Benjamin Mayo Oct 3 2013 - 4:30 am PT

Adobe is currently testing a new presentation app for the iPad similar in purpose to PowerPoint and Keynote, via CNET. The project is currently called Ginger. Although details are sparse, it seems to be focused on the creation of sales pitches and what Adobe calls “explainer videos”. Adobe has said that the app is in the beta stage of development, but is yet to confirm whether the app will ever be publicly released.

On Ginger’s minisite, there are a few demos of what the app could create. One example presentation is embedded below …

iCloud Mail push notifications return in Germany as injunction gets lifted in Apple/Motorola dispute

Jordan Kahn Oct 2 2013 - 6:50 am PT

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Since more than a year ago, Germans have not had access to push notifications for iCloud Mail services following a dispute between Apple and Motorola in the country that forced Apple to disable the feature. Now, as noted by German Apple blog iPhone-ticker.de, Apple has now confirmed that push notifications services have been switched back on in the country. The news comes following Apple’s success in getting the original injunction lifted after posting $132 million bond, according to FossPatents:

After the Federal Patent Court’s preliminary ruling, Apple filed with the Karlsruhe-based appeals court a motion to stay enforcement against Google’s will. In early September, the Karlsruhe Higher Regional Court granted it. I published my own (obviously unofficial) English translation of the order. The order revealed that Apple had to post a 100 million euro ($132 million) bond to get the injunction actually lifted. The paperwork for all of this apparently took a few weeks and presumably Apple’s technical staff conducted some internal tests before finally reactivating the push notification feature for end users — which it did today.

What’s an Icahn tweet worth? About $8B in AAPL’s value …

Ben Lovejoy Oct 2 2013 - 5:57 am PT

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Fortune ran a couple of pieces showing what happened to Apple’s stock price after investor Carl Icahn’s tweets, with his initial announcement that he had taken a “large position” in AAPL, followed by news that he’d had a “nice conversation” with Apple CEO Tim Cook – and a subsequent tweet yesterday that he’d “pushed hard for a 150 billion buyback” over a “cordial dinner.”

The total effect? A jump in Apple’s valuation totalling around $23B – or approaching a cool $8B per tweet.

Would be nice to know when he’s about to tweet, eh?

Still looking for that elusive in-store iPhone 5s? Screen-scraper web app is here to help

Ben Lovejoy Oct 2 2013 - 5:11 am PT

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If you’re still hoping to pick up an iPhone 5s from your local Apple retail store, developer Mordy Tikotzky has put together a web app to help.

Just go to the iPhone Check website, put in your ZIP code (it’s US-only at present), select your desired color and carrier and hit the Submit button. The web app carries out the search for you, screen-scrapes the results from apple.com and then presents a neat, color-coded table of results.

Apple briefly introduced an in-store pickup option, pulled it after one day and restored it a few days ago. The tool is a very handy way to check availability, but if my quick tests are anything to go by, you’re still not going to have much luck finding a gold one (other solutions are available …).

Reuters: Retina iPad mini supplies will be constrained, full production now pushed into 2014

Ben Lovejoy Oct 2 2013 - 4:18 am PT

Reuters is reporting that problems with the rumored retina display for the iPad Mini 2 mean that it will be available only in limited quantities when it launches this year, with full-scale production pushed into 2014.

Apple Inc will be unable to widely roll out a new version of the iPad Mini with a high-resolution “retina” display this month, people who work in the company’s supply chain said […]

Given the time required to ramp up screen production, a retina display-equipped iPad Mini would not be available in large volumes until early next year, the sources said.

The delays are said to be due to the display suppliers – believed to be Samsung, LG and Sharp – having difficulties meeting the strict power-saving specifications laid down by Apple …
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CableLabs Senior VP with mobile TV experience heads to Apple

Mark Gurman Oct 1 2013 - 5:02 pm PT

Jean-Francois Mule, who recently served as a Senior Vice President at CableLabs, has joined Apple, according to his LinkedIn profile. The move was first noted by MultiChannel News. CableLabs is a consortium made up of cable providers that works with these providers in order to bring new TV-related technologies to life. At Apple, Mule will work as an Engineering Director, but it is currently unclear was his precise role will be. Apple has Engineering Directors in many departments across the company, so it is unclear if his role will actually be connected to TV-development.

According to his CrunchBase Profile, Mule worked on the technology side of TV operations at CableLabs: