Apple

6,139 'Apple News' stories November 2008 - April 2013

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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

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Google Babel to have iOS client at launch

9to5 Staff Apr 18 2013 - 11:21 am PT

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Google’s new Babel messaging platform is not only taking on a Hipchat-like Group messaging featureset, it also appears it will hit the iOS App Store at launch (which is looking like sooner rather than later for all of the code leaks). More at 9to5Google

Facebook launches SDK 3.5, Share Dialog, over 80% of top iOS apps/games include Facebook integration

Zac Hall Apr 18 2013 - 9:05 am PT

via redmondpie.com

Facebook announced updates regarding mobile today at its Mobile Developer Conference in New York City continuing its effort to transition to a mobile-first platform.

Changes include an improved experience with Facebook Login, easier implementation of Open Graph on mobile, a new Object API and Object Browser, a native Share Dialog and Facebook SDK 3.5 for iOS.

The new Share Dialog allows users in non-Facebook apps to share directly to Facebook without leaving the app.

Facebook says its permissions dialog is 20% faster now.

The social network is encouraging mobile developers to integrate Facebook into their apps as it announced that 81% of the top grossing 100 iOS apps already integrate with Facebook.

(Source: Facebook)

Twitter #music for iPhone, iPod touch is now playing

Zac Hall Apr 18 2013 - 8:25 am PT

Twitter launched its new music discovery app Twitter #music for iPhone today.

Twitter #music takes a step toward filling the void created when everyone migrated from MySpace, which was one of the most effective music discovery tools for me until it was largely vacated.

Twitter promises to “change the way people find music, based on Twitter,” per the social network’s blog, which I believe will be widely appreciated.

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Jonathan Ive gets tribute in Time 100 from Bono

Seth Weintraub Apr 18 2013 - 8:14 am PT

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Nice words in the Time 100 for Apple SVP of Industrial Design Sir Jony from U2 frontman Bono:

Jony Ive is himself classic Apple. Brushed steel, polished glass hardware, complicated software honed to simplicity. His genius is not just his ability to see what others cannot but also how he applies it. To watch him with his workmates in the holy of holies, Apple’s design lab, or on a night out is to observe a very rare esprit de corps. They love their boss, and he loves them. What the competitors don’t seem to understand is you cannot get people this smart to work this hard just for money. Jony is Obi-Wan. His team are Jedi whose nobility depends on the pursuit of greatness over profit, believing the latter will always follow the former, stubbornly passing up near-term good opportunities to pursue great ones in the distance. Jony’s values happen to add value — emotional and financial. It takes a unique alchemy of form and function for millions of people to feel so passionately about the robot in their pocket.

Many more in the Time100 including Samsung’s CEO Oh-Hyun Kwon, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and AAPL stock manipulator David Einhorn.

55 percent of Verizon’s first-quarter smartphone sales (4M of 7.2M total) were iPhones

Ben Lovejoy Apr 18 2013 - 7:30 am PT

Engadget notes Verizon revealed that 4m of the 7.2m smartphones activated by the company in the first quarter this year were iPhones, half of them iPhone 5s, the other half split between older models. The numbers were revealed by CFO Fran Shammo in a conference call.

The 55% is down a slight percentage from Q1 2013 where close to two thirds of Verizon smartphone sales (6.2M out of 9.8M) were iPhones. Shammo also noted that just half of the iPhones activated on Verizon’s network were iPhone 5 or LTE iPhones which seems like a surprisingly low number.

The number is up 25% over the year ago (Q1-2012) quarter which saw 3.2 million iPhones activated out of a total 6.3. The iPhone mix is also up from just over 50% to 55% of total Verizon smartphone sales (likely helped by the addition of the free iPhone 4).

AAPL share price is again down on the number trading at near $395.

Budget iPhone rear shell leaked?

Ben Lovejoy Apr 18 2013 - 6:50 am PT

Could this be the rear case of the long-rumored low-cost iPhone? Tactus (via Macrumors) thinks so.

While Tactus doesn’t have a notable track-record in such leaks, the design does appear reasonably consistent with the majority of rumors so far. It’s a plastic shell, similar dimensions to the iPhone 4 but a little thicker as you’d expect with a polycarbonate casing.

Tactus also claims to have some details of the phone’s spec:

I’ve also heard on the grapevine that the alleged budget iPhone will have an A5 processor like the iPad Mini with a 32nm diecast. It’s also rumoured it will have a 3.5 inch retina screen, much like the 4S, but not as big as the iPhone 5 … I’ve also discovered the factory producing this secretive project have confirmed the device will be available in Black, White, Blue, Red and Yellow

Tactus got a picture of an iPhone back shell, and then decided to make up a load of other random facts. Hey ho, still better than DigiTimes.

— Benjamin Mayo (@bzamayo) April 18, 2013

Real or not real? Let us know your view

Nexus 10 is no iPad-killer, says strategy analyst

Ben Lovejoy Apr 18 2013 - 6:02 am PT

Strategy analyst Benedict Evans (via Daring Fireball) has done some admittedly rough-and-ready number-crunching on Nexus sales based on Google development data to come up with a figure of just 680,000 Nexus 10 tablets in use.

Given that Apple sold 36.9m iPads sold in the second half of 2012 alone, we’re guessing they’re not too concerned about the competition. Even the Microsoft Surface tablet is believed to have beaten the Nexus 10 numbers, with a rumored 1.5m sales.

MacBook bottom case replacement program extended to four years

Ben Lovejoy Apr 18 2013 - 5:28 am PT

If the rubber surface of your MacBook has separated from the bottom case, and you bought it between Oct 2009 and April 2011, you’re in luck: Apple has just extended warranty coverage of this specific issue to four years. Apple originally launched the replacement program in May 2011. Full details on the Apple support site (via MacRumors.)

Yahoo plans to launch iPad email app, new iOS weather app tomorrow (Update: Live)

Mark Gurman Apr 17 2013 - 6:14 pm PT

Update: Yahoo! Weather is now available in the App Store. Yahoo! Mail for iPad is also available in the App Store.

Check out our new Yahoo! Weather app featuring Flickr photos, now available for iOS! http://t.co/p0o9vPAUqd

— marissamayer (@marissamayer) April 18, 2013

Yahoo plans to release an in-house weather app for iOS and an iPad version of its Yahoo Mail app as soon as tomorrow, according to a person familiar with the apps.

The iPad version of Yahoo Mail is optimized for the iPad’s larger screen, and it is already available for the iPhone and iPod touch. Late last year, Yahoo released a redesigned version of its iPhone application that focused on speed and intuitiveness.

Yahoo’s new weather app is notable as the company already is in a partnership with Apple to provide the data for the Weather app pre-installed on all iPhone and iPod touch models…

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Apple seeds OS X 10.8.4 build 12E33a to developers

Mark Gurman Apr 17 2013 - 2:35 pm PT

Following the most recent build just over a week ago, Apple has seeded another build of the upcoming OS X 10.8.4 to registered developers.

The new build comes in at build number 12E33a, and Apple asks developers to, again, focus on Safari, WiFi, and Graphics Drivers.

We previously reported that OS X 10.8.4 has hooks to support faster, 802.11ac WiFi connectivity.

Thanks, D!

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iPhone, iPad leads in business, profitability, Android leads in smartphone marketshare

Zac Hall Apr 17 2013 - 10:40 am PT

via techin5.com

Henry McCracken over at Time has done us all a favor by collecting various data sets that illustrate the state of iOS versus Android.

The data ranges from device marketshare to revenue from app downloads, which presents some stark differences between the two platforms.

We unpack the results below.

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Amazon reportedly acquires Evi, the Siri-like iPhone/Android voice assistant app

Mark Gurman Apr 17 2013 - 10:03 am PT

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMBD4dymDRg?rel=0]

According to TechCrunch, Amazon has acquired Evi, a Siri-like voice assistant application currently available for both iOS and Android. While the application remains available on both platforms, the report seems to have significant evidence to back up its acquisition claims:

At UK Companies House all the Evi Technologies Ltd directors have been replaced by Amazon’s UK legal representative, and this is confirmed by the Octopus Ventures annual report. The annual reports of all Octopus Ventuers’ funds all refer to the disposing of their shares in Evi Technologies.

Companies House records show all directors at Evi have beed replaced and loans paid off, while a small loss of £19,000 was recognised.

The new Company Secretary for Evi Technologies is also Amazon’s: Mitre Secretaries Ltd are the corporate secretary for Amazon.co.uk (and Amazon’s London software development company).

As seen in the video above, Consumer reports created a video showing the differences between Apple’s Siri and Evi. In early 2012, Apple threatened to remove Evi from the App Store because of similarities to Siri, but the application seems to have stayed inside of the App Store’s bounds since then.

Cross posted on 9to5Google.com

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Funny or Die’s ‘iSteve’ film with Justin Long now available to watch online

Mark Gurman Apr 16 2013 - 7:39 pm PT

Following weeks of teases, Funny or Die has published its satirical film about Steve Jobs, iSteve, on its website for streaming. The nearly 80-minute long film stars Justin Long of the Mac vs. PC ads. Notably, the project is the longest video that Funny or Die has ever created. The trailer is embedded above, and you can watch the full movie here.

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Richard Williamson, former Apple executive who led Maps team, Loren Brichter join Facebook

Mark Gurman Apr 16 2013 - 3:29 pm PT

According to Bloomberg‘s Adam Satariano, Richard Williamson has joined Facebook. We’ve independently heard the same. Williamson is a former iOS executive from Apple who was reportedly terminated over Apple Maps. Williamson ran Apple’s iOS 6 Maps team and also worked on Siri features.

Williamson joined Facebook in the past couple of weeks to be a manager within its expanding mobile-software group, said two of the people, who declined to be identified because the information isn’t public.

Facebook’s hire of Williamson is notable as the social network reportedly has hired several former Apple engineers to work on various projects, including the Facebook Home software and various other mobile applications. Williamson’s hire marks one of the more high-profile hires of former Apple employees.

Following up on this morning’s news that Loren Brichter is working with Facebook some capacity, Bloomberg also notes that the company has actually hired the Letterpress developer and former Apple employee as a consultant.

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Here’s how to enable Chat Heads and Stickers in the new Facebook app right now

Mark Gurman Apr 16 2013 - 3:08 pm PT

When Facebook released their brand-new iOS application today, some were disappointed to find that the highlight features of Chat Heads (from Facebook Home) and Stickers were not present. Facebook says that the two features, like many other of Facebook’s recently released products, will be released via a staggered rollout.

For those who truly want to enable Chat Heads and Stickers before Facebook wants it on your iOS device, iMore‘s Nick Arnott has put together a thorough tutorial on how to enable the features. Follow the steps, grab an app called PhoneView (no jailbreak required), and a Plist editor (like the one included in Xcode), and you should be good to go. We’ve tested the Chat Heads trick, and it works well.

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Apple updates iPhoto and Aperture for Mac with Photo Stream improvements, bug fixes, Safari and Java

Mark Gurman Apr 16 2013 - 1:38 pm PT

Today, Apple has released software updates for the Mac version of iPhoto and for Aperture. The updates both focus on bug fixes and improvements.

Notably, both apps were given improvements and fixes for Photo Stream integration. iPhoto now has easier image deleting and exporting from Photo Stream, while Aperture has a bug fix related to Shared Photo Streams.

Safari and Java were also updated with improved security (release notes below). Notably, the new update introduces controls to specify which websites can use Java – something that should help prevent malicious websites from exploiting the never-ending stream of Java exploits.

Full release notes below:

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Leaked document apparently shows AppGratis enticed developers with potential high App Store rankings

Mark Gurman Apr 16 2013 - 11:07 am PT

Business Insider has obtained a leaked document that seems to show that AppGratis enticed developers with potential high iTunes App Store rankings. According to the document, AppGratis said that if a developer invests $100,000 with them, an app will likely reach the top 5 spots on the App Store top charts.

Of course, reaching the top of the App Store rankings is highly lucrative as hundreds of millions of iOS devices are given a prominent view to the top of the App Store charts.

AppGratis was reportedly originally pulled from the App Store for mimicking Apple’s App Store and for sending its users ad-like push notifications. Of course, the aforementioned apparent move by AppGratis to inflate rankings is a serious concern for Apple and it is something that Apple, of course, wants to keep out of its App Store. Interestingly, AppGratis, yesterday, seems to have denied participating in inflating App Store rankings.

Since the App Store algorithm has been based on download velocity only for so long, advertisers know exactly what they are doing.Reaching the the top of any App Store is a simple and logical equation. But we’re not in this business.

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AnoStyle iPhone 5 giveaway winner announcement (and $75 off coupon for all 9to5 readers)

Mark Gurman Apr 16 2013 - 9:43 am PT

Last week, AnoStyle and 9to5Mac launched a giveaway for an AnoStyled iPhone 5, and, as promised, we have picked the winner. Congratulations to DrewXScott! For all 9to5 readers, AnoStyle has provided a $75 off coupon that expires on May 17th. Coupon code: 9TO5MACSPRING2013.

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Mailbox email app for iPhone removes reservation system following scaling improvements

Mark Gurman Apr 16 2013 - 9:26 am PT

The Mailbox for iPhone email application no longer has a reservation system, its developers announced today. The developers say that improved scaling contributed to this.

Good news! Mailbox is now available without having to wait in line. After 10 weeks of around-the-clock hard work, our engineering team has scaled the Mailbox service to deliver over 100 million messages per day (and growing). We believe we can now confidently handle new users as they sign up, so we’ve pulled down the reservation system.

It is unclear if Dropbox, the new owner of Mailbox, contributed to the new scaling efforts. The developers say that the app processes 100 million emails per day. Yesterday, Mailbox was updated with interface enhancements and new snooze options.

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Facebook for iOS gains ‘ChatHeads’, iPad app redesigned, Brichter working on Home

Mark Gurman Apr 16 2013 - 9:17 am PT

Facebook has released an updated version of its Facebook application for iOS today, bringing the iPad application more in line with the website’s recently announced redesign and adding some features from the Android-based Facebook Home software. The Verge took a hands-on look at the updated app.

The iPad application now has a more streamlined, simplified user-interface that focuses more on content such as photos…

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Apple online store updated with promotions for Mother’s Day

Mark Gurman Apr 16 2013 - 7:16 am PT

Ahead of the Mother’s Day “commercial holiday” in May, Apple has updated its online store with a Mother’s Day theme. Apple seems to be heavily promoting the iPad more than other products. Additionally, the company is promoting various accessories.

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Job postings suggest Apple to begin chip development in Orlando, Florida, near chip partners AMD and Qualcomm

Zac Hall Apr 16 2013 - 6:55 am PT

Several job postings looking for both hardware and software engineers reveal that Apple is looking to begin its own chip development in Orlando, Florida.

Last week we learned that Apple is hiring software engineers to work on fingerprint technology at Authentec in Melbourne, Florida, which is about one hour south of the future site of the company’s development labs.

The job posting are interesting as Samsung, which works with Apple to develop the custom chips used in iPhones and iPads, continues to compete with Apple in the smartphone and tablet space.

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Apple releases minor Xcode update with fixes/improvements

Mark Gurman Apr 15 2013 - 5:23 pm PT

Today, Apple has released a minor update to its Mac Xcode software development suite. The update includes various performance improvements and bug fixes. It is available on the Mac App Store as a free update. Thanks, D!

What’s New in Version 4.6.2

• Improves LLDB performance for debugging Objective-C code.
• Fixes an issue where the crash log database could grow very large.
• Additional bug fixes and stability improvements.

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Apple says small number of Apple TVs have WiFi issues, opens replacement program

Mark Gurman Apr 15 2013 - 3:56 pm PT

Apple has informed its official retail stores, AppleCare employees, and authorized resellers that a small number of third-generation Apple TV units have WiFi issues. These issues surround not being able to locate a WiFi network, unable to join a network, and dropped or intermittent connections.

Apple has determined that a very small number of Apple TV (3rd generation) products might experience one of these Wi-Fi related connectivity issues: Cannot locate network, Unable to join network, Dropped or intermittent connection.

If an Apple technician determines that an applicable Apple TV has these issues, the unit can be replaced as part of a replacement program that Apple has begun because of these WiFi issues. Apple says that replacements can be offered free of charge up to two years after the device’s purchase date.

Here are the serial number pairs that are eligible:

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