Apple

Popular Science Magazine is once again declaring their Best of What’s New Awards for 2011, and not so surprisingly this year’s top three spots in the computing category are all technologies that you will find in Apple’s latest lineup of Macs.

At number one we have OS X Lion which earned a spot for its ability to close the gap between desktop and mobile operating systems with the publication calling it “the first step toward a computing landscape in which one interface can serve all purposes”.

The number two spot goes to Intel Sandy Bridge chips and their ability to reduce “data’s travel time from component to component by replacing lengths of wire with nearly a billion close-knit microscopic transistors”. We know Apple just recently refreshed their MacBook Air and Mac Mini lineup with new Sandy Bridge processors, and future Macs will likely get the same treatment. The new Thunderbolt I/O has also been an emerging technology Apple has adopted for future Macs, and that brings us to number three…

Last but not least, we have Intel Thunderbolt at the number three spot, which we all know Apple teamed up with Intel to help develop and is now being implemented on future iterations of iMacs and MacBooks. Minor limitations aside, its contribution to the tech industry is pretty obvious, as Popular Science puts it, “Thunderbolt’s wires are the first to combine the languages that handle data and display in one channel, making it faster and more versatile than any other connection”.

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Update: The Business Software Alliance has officially withdrawn their support for SOPA on the BSA blog. Important bits after the break.

So where does Apple stand on the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA)? A report from TNW gives the impression Apple is in support of the bill via their association with the Business Software Alliance, who made their stance clear by commending the introduction of the bill in a recent bulletin. However, while Apple’s stance isn’t official, they do support SOPA by proxy, and haven’t made an effort to distance themselves from it with an official statement. The BSA is also associated with Microsoft, Adobe, Dell, and 20+ other large tech companies.

According to Apple’s website, “Apple works closely with the Business Software Alliance (BSA) and the Software Information Industry Association (SIIA) to combat software piracy worldwide.” They also provide links to report piracy through the BSA and provide the following statement on copyright law and piracy on their Piracy Prevention page:

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According to a survey done by Nielsen, kids in the U.S. are Apple crazy for the holidays this year. Apple’s iPad tops the list as the most desired consumer electronic among kids between the ages of 6-12 with 44% of kids showing interest in the device. The iPod Touch and iPhone also come in right after as 2nd and 3rd most desired products. In 2010 the same survey was taken among this age group, and although all three of these products made it onto the list, only the iPad and iPod Touch got into the top 5.
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You don’t need this software to hack an AppleTV but it makes things easier.

aTV Flash (black) is a user-friendly software package that supercharges your new black AppleTV, unleashing a plethora of new functionality. Don’t worry about the technical details – aTV Flash (black) is simple to use and safe for your AppleTV. Installation is a snap and doesn’t require any physical changes to the AppleTV.

MacUpdate has it for the sale price of $19.99 today only.  AppleTV (2010) went on sale for $89.99 at Amazon matching Best Buy so you are looking at $110 for the whole shebang.  If you have an old AppleTV, they’ve got you covered there as well.  Full features below:

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Apple has been no stranger to environmental concerns regarding their manufacturing and supply chain abroad, most recently a report from five independent environmental organizations in China in August accused the company of taking “advantage of the loopholes in developing countries environmental management systems” and awarding contracts to known polluters. Yesterday Apple responded to the accusations in a three-hour meeting with five Chinese environmental NGOs, admitting fifteen of their current manufacturing partners are contributing to pollution in surrounding areas by agreeing to perform audits of the companies. This followed several meetings with Apple following the group’s report in August, including one with Apple execs in Cupertino.

According to a report from WSJ, Ma Jun, of the Institute of Public & Environmental Affairs in Beijing, had this to say following the meeting:

“This is a major step forward… They asked these companies to take corrective plans and give a timeline, and Apple will verify whether all these issues have been resolved.”

As a result of the meeting, Apple is apparently vowing to improve its environmental standards within its supply chain, a move that could not only alter the manufacturing process of components, but also impact contracts awarded to manufacturers and suppliers in the future. According to the report, to avoid issues like massive amounts of waste water, Apple will encourage alternative manufacturing processes for components such as printed circuit boards. Apple also confirmed that this and other environmental concerns will play a role when awarding future contracts to suppliers.

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/?v=NnSmENvbY8I#!]
With the $199 Kindle Fire out of the gate, the inevitable questions pops into mind: Which is faster overall, the Amazon or Apple tablet?

The comparison isn’t really fair because Amazon skimped on internal components, which was key to its breakthrough $199 price point. An iFixit teardown reveals Texas Instruments’ OMAP 4430 chip inside the device, also  found inside Research In Motion’s BlackBerry PlayBook tablet.

For starters, iPad 2 boots much quicker than the Amazon tablet – again, due to its more efficient dual-core processor and optimized software. Browsing the web? No surprises here either, Safari on iPad 2 stormed ahead, performing noticeably faster than Amazon’s Silk browser which offloads page rendering to the Amazon cloud. One thing to remember: In this test, Kindle Fire was loading Flash content which of course is not supported on Apple’s device.

The iPad 2’s graphics unit, praised for its nine times performance jump, helps with scrolling, which is pretty choppy most of the time on Amazon’s device. One surprising finding is that Kindle Fire streams Netflix smoother than iPad 2, most likely due to the new version of their Android client which is not yet available for Apple’s platform.

This is not the most scientific test in the world, mind you. Again, as 9to5Google noted in its quick review, there’s really no comparing Kindle Fire to iPad 2, be it on the price, overall polish, performance or shininess. As for the speed, mainstream buyers may not be interested in raw specs anymore and Amazon has priced this thing out of the range of the Samsungs and BlackBerrys of this world so it’s more of a competitor to Android tablets than to Apple.

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Apple has just begun seeding OS X Lion 10.7.3 (11D16) to developers this afternoon. The set focus areas for this release are iCloud document storage, Address Book, iCal, and Mail. 10.7.3 weighs in at 633MB, and has no known issues right now. OS X Server 10.7.3 is also accompanying today’s update, with the same focus areas and build number.

Release notes after the break:

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Apple has announced that Arthur D. Levinson, former CEO of Genentech, has been named as Chairman of the Board and will continue serving on the audit comitee. Apple has also announed that Disney’s CEO Bob Iger has joined the Board. Tim Cook commented:

“Art has made enormous contributions to Apple since he joined the board in 2000. He has been our longest serving co-lead director, and his insight and leadership are incredibly valuable to Apple, our employees and our shareholders.”

After Steve Jobs stepped down from his role as CEO, he became the company’s first Chairman. Levinson has now taken Jobs’s seat, after the inspirational founder passed away October 5, just a day after the company’s team of executives announced the iPhone 4S at a media event in Cupertino. Since 2005, Levinson served as co-lead director with Andrea Jung. Levinson has been known for pushing Apple to allow third party applications into Apple’s platform and guiding Jobs through Apple’s antenna problems with the iPhone 4.

In 2009, Levinson was forced to resign from Google’s Board of Directors. Levinson was serving on both Google and Apple’s Board, and once Google and Apple began moving into the same space, he was forced to resign from one Board. Consequentially he chose to be part of Apple.

Bob Iger is currently the President and CEO of Disney, and is joining Apple’s board and will serve on the audit committee. Iger and Jobs had a close relationship with one another while Jobs served as Chairman of Disney/Pixar’s Board. Tim Cook commented:

“Bob and I have gotten to know one another very well over the past few years and on behalf of the entire board, we think he is going to make an extraordinary addition to our already very strong board. His strategic vision for Disney is based on three fundamentals: generating the best creative content possible, fostering innovation and utilizing the latest technology, and expanding into new markets around the world which makes him a great fit for Apple.”

Press release after the break:

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nOdc5knf-M]

Computerworld/IDG reports that wireless industry pioneer John Stanton (founder of of Western Wireless, VoiceStream wireless and former CTIA chairman) worked with Steve Jobs prior to the launch of the iPhone on becoming a carrier using unlicensed spectrum…

Stanton, chairman of venture capital firm Trilogy Partners, said he spent a fair amount of time with Jobs between 2005 and 2007. “He wanted to replace carriers,” Stanton said of Jobs, the Apple founder and CEO who died Oct. 5 after a battle with cancer. “He and I spent a lot of time talking about whether synthetically you could create a carrier using Wi-Fi spectrum. That was part of his vision.”

The one that got away…
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Interesting move today from Amazon.  Not only did they drop the price of Apple TV to $89.99 matching Best Buy, but they are now calling it the ‘2010’ edition.  Could that mean an update is on the horizon?  At the very least, it is a solid deal.
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The delayed iPhone launch gave Android vendors additional three months to gain market share whilst negatively affecting Apple, sending shares down ten percent over the past month. Worry not, though – strong iPhone 4S launch and price reductions for both the iPhone 4 and 3GS models are seen as catalyst enabling Apple to regain lost share from Android manufacturers during the current quarter.  Also, remember Apple is still taking more than half of all smartphone profits.

The gist of today’s report from Gartner pegged Apple’s share of the global smartphone market at 15 percent on sales of 17.29 million units, a 21 percent annual increase. But the smartphone market grew at an even faster clip so Apple actually recorded a decline from the 16.6 percent in Q3 2010 on sales of 13.48 million units. Android, meanwhile, has gone from 25.3 percent in Q3 2010 to 52.5 percent in Q3 2011, more than doubling its market share. Together, iOS and Android accounted for more than two-thirds of all smartphones sold (talk about duopoly).

Apple is also under pressure as quarterly iPhone sales decreased compared to the 20.34 million iPhones shipped during the June quarter. Principal research analyst Roberta Cozza said some consumers “were waiting for a rumored new iPhone and associated price cuts on older iPhone models; this affected U.S. sales particularly”.

Gartner believes Apple will bounce back in the fourth quarter because of its strongest ever preorders for the iPhone 4S in the first weekend after its announcement. Markets such as Brazil, Mexico, Russia and China are becoming more important to Apple, representing 16 percent of overall sales and showing that the iPhone has a place in emerging markets.

iPhone 4S launches in India, the world’s second-largest market, on November 25. Pre-orders sold out in Hong Kong in 10 minutes and the online Apple Store is now offering unlocked iPhone 4S units. The company pledged to roll out the handset to a hundred carriers in 70 countries by the year’s end, the fastest iPhone roll out yet. Supply chain sources claimed Apple cut holiday quarter iPhone 4S orders, but analysts rushed to dispute that report. How does Apple fare in the whole handset market? Read on…

Source: Gartner (November 2011)

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If you don’t know by now, Apple has officially opened up their iTunes Match service to the public, bringing with it 256-kbps AAC DRM-free copies of your non-iTunes purchased music for $25 a year. To help familiarize users with the service, Apple has posted the following chart walking us through some new iTunes Match related iCloud icons you’ll start to notice in iTunes.

In addition, they also dropped some helpful guides explaining the ins and outs of the service including Troubleshooting iTunes Match, How to subscribe to iTunes Match, How to add a computer or iOS device to iTunes Match, and How to delete songs from iCloud.

In the troubleshooting guide, we learn you can enable a column within iTunes to display the iTunes Match/iCloud status of any given song in your library. For example, whether it’s a “Matched” song or just “Uploaded”. To do this, click “View > View Options” or press “Command-J“, and click the “iCloud Status” checkbox (same place you also enable “iCloud download”).

A MacRumors forum poster also offers a few helpful hints, while noting iTunes Match keeps your meta-data (a nice touch if you tend to edit data associated with your songs), the post clears up some concerns regarding the intricacies of what happens with your local copies: 
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Digitimes says we’ll only have to wait until March to get the long sought after 15 (and possibly 17) inch MacBook Airs.

Upstream suppliers of Apple have recently started shipping a small volume of components for a 15-inch ultra-thin notebook model from Apple in November and the device could be either MacBook Air or just a thinner MacBook Pro….Estimated by the product planning, mass shipments of the notebook device will start in March…While a 15-inch ultrabook model would be considered a full function machine, which consumers normally expect to have an optical drive, limitations over the thickness restriction of 0.8-inch for the ultrabook means the launch of a 15-inch machine with an optical drive and a thickness of less than 0.8-inch may not be in the plans until a later time.

It is uncertain whether these machines will be called MacBook Pros or Airs or just “MacBooks” at that point.  The industry has been moving away from hard disc platter computers with optical drives and the recent flooding in Thailand, where many hard drives are manufactured, has only served to hasten that migration.

Intel is also expected to produce quad core Ivy Bridge i7 CPUs based on a 22nm platter that will shave 10W off the current chip power consumption, thereby allowing quad-core ultra portable laptops.

Apple in particular is limited to 35W in its 13-inch MacBook Pro chassis, we may see a quad-core option in the 2012 13-inch Ivy Bridge MacBook Pro as a result.

Beyond energy consumption benefits, Ivy Bridge processors have a 20% increase in CPU performance and up to 60% increase in integrated graphics performance over current Sandy Bridge models. They should also support 4K video.

The new MacBook is expected to appear as early as the second quarter of 2012, according to the report.
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Today is the last day you can purchase AppleCare+ for your iPhone 4S or iPhone 4, if you purchased it on October 14th or after. AppleCare+ was announced along with the iPhone 4S, and is available for $99 (two years). The plan not only gives you phone and genius bar support coverage, but also accidental damage coverage with a $49 service charge. The plan covers up to two accidents. $99 is a pretty solid insurance policy (Square Trade offers the same).

However, for new iPhone 4S purchases, the AppleCare+ protection plan can be purchased with the device on that day. Today was just the end of the grace period Apple instated for pre-orders. Thanks for the reminder Marco!

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The developers over at Applidium are claiming they have cracked Siri’s security protocol, which could enable the speech recognition technology on any device. The possibilities of devices range from iPhone 4, to iPad, to Mac, to even Android.

Last month we showed you Siri running on an iPhone 4 (seen above), but today the possibilities look beyond that. With the crack, developers could even work to implement Siri inside of their own apps. Of course, Apple could push a fix for this sparking another cat and mouse game.

When it comes to this crack you actually need a UDID of an iPhone 4S to get this working. At any time Apple could block the UDID if they see something suspicious.

Applidium has released a set of tools for developers to begin cracking, and says it will be fairly easy to obtain a UDID with them. Check out their post for all of the details.

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Following the recent release of the iTunes 10.5.1 beta 3 to developers, Apple today started pushing out iTunes 10.5.1 to the public. You should see the update appearing in Software Update any second, otherwise it’s already available for download from Apple’s site here.

Apple also confirmed the availability of iTunes Match in the U.S., with the following announcement on their iTunes page. iTunes Match syncs users’ music to iCloud for $24.99 a year. Unlimited songs can be synced and doesn’t affect iCloud storage, but only songs that are available on iTunes can be synced.

Even though it is available to the public, Apple is still labeling iTunes Match as a beta product. Developers who tested Match will still receive a free three months with a year subscription.

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iOS 5.0.1 was released last week with promises to fix the issue of battery life that has been plaguing many users and some security issues like the Smart Cover hack.

As we originally reported, the update even left some of those without battery issues with quicker battery drains. Over the weekend, even more issues within iOS 5.0.1 have arisen including Wi-Fi signal loss, microphone failures, and cellular network issues.

If you head on over to the Apple Support Forum you’ll find a very long list of issues people are having. The most prominent complaint is still the battery life.  “The recent iOS software update addressed many of the battery issues that some customers experienced on their iOS 5 devices,” Apple said in a statement to All Things Digital. “We continue to investigate a few remaining issues.”

Among the Wi-Fi, microphone, and cellular issues, the other big bug in iOS 5.0.1 has to do with Contacts.app (via CNet). All of the names and numbers associate together inside of Contacts.app, but when making a phone call or sending a text through iMessage, 5.0.1 can’t seem to associate the name with the number as usual.

How’s the upgrade going for you?

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I was in New York City for a Samsung event focused on SSDs and gaming on PCs last month.  There wasn’t much in the way of new information, but Samsung gave me one of their SATA III 256GB 830 SSDs to try out.  These are within a few bytes per second of the fastest SATA3 SSDs money can buy, so I was pretty excited to get home and throw it in a Mac.

The problem is that I don’t have a worthy Mac to test it out on.  I’ve been using an Air as my exclusive machine for a year and my wife is tired of me testing stuff on her MacBook Pro.  We have a bunch of old Macs laying around the house but nothing with a SATA III connection.

Luckily, I’ve been in the market for a new Mac desktop since I replaced my MacBook Pro with an Air  last year, but to my surprise, I haven’t really found myself in need of one.  The Air drives my 30-inch display pretty well and most of my media has been offloaded to a Gigabit NAS.  Since I already have a 30-inch display, an iMac doesn’t really appeal to me.  Apple’s headless desktops don’t make sense in my situation either. A Mac Mini isn’t going to be much faster than my Air and the Mac Pro hasn’t been updated in over a year and doesn’t even have SATA 3 on board.

I also have some USB3 and eSATA peripherals that I get for testing and can’t use these products on standard Mac hardware.

I decided to give into temptation and build a Hackintosh…
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In Australia, as part of discovery, Samsung got access to Apple’s Qualcomm baseband source code for the iPhone 4S (lookout for battery issues while you are in there Sammy!).

Other matters appeared to be resolved, including Samsung’s access to the firmware used in the iPhone 4S’ baseband chip, supplied by Qualcomm.

A software expert had approximately two hours’ access to the firmware and would submit his findings by Sunday.

According to FOSSPatents, Samsung’s lawsuits against Apple in Germany are really heating up after a Mannheim hearing set a schedule for January 20 and 27 of 2012. It looks like Apple has a tough case, as the hearing leaned towards Samsung’s claims.

The two patents asserted in today’s litigations are

• EP1005726 on a “turbo encoding/decoding device and method for processing frame data according to QoS”, and
• EP1114528 on an “apparatus and method for controlling a demultiplexer and a multiplexer used for rate matching in a mobile communication system”.

Samsung’s third German complaint against Apple, which wasn’t at issue today, relates to EP1188269 on an “apparatus for encoding a transformat format combination indicator for a communication system”.

Below is a full rundown of the issues discussed at today’s hearing..

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Update: Back up

Must be time to call it a week…

Thanks everyone who sent this in!

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7YOSDLOW2k]

We told you about Condition One before, a first-person immersive video app that combines “the power of the still image, the narrative of films and the emotional engagement of tactile experiences”. In recognition of Veterans Day, developer Danfung Dennis has finally brought the unique, interactive video experience, which as of yet features mostly video shot in war-torn regions, to the App Store with a free app for iPad…
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