Apple

Desktop fans have waited a long time for a Retina iMac, but it now seems pretty clear the wait won’t last too much longer. Our sources told us last month that the machines are “in the late testing phases,” and the rumor is that the machine will have a 5K display, with a resolution of 5120×2880 – exactly double that of the current 27-inch iMac.

We may even have identified the specific display Apple intends to use: a 27-inch 5K panel announced by Dell is looking like a very plausible candidate. This panel would provide a pixel density of 218 PPI, about the same as that of the 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro …

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Greek site Techingreek.com is reporting that Apple Service Providers will be providing after-sales service for Beats headphones and speakers within the country, suggesting that Apple itself may be doing the same in countries with Apple retail stores.

The site says that the above message was sent to Apple Service Providers in Greece, stating that they will provide service for Beats Electronics products “in the near future” … 
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Apple today released the sixth public beta of the upcoming OS X Yosemite to AppleSeed testers. The build number is 14A388b, which coincides with last week’s OS X Yosemite Golden Master Candidate 3.0 release for registered developers. Apple plans to provide final details on OS X Yosemite at the October 16th event, then release it as soon as later that date.

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With Apple scheduled to kick off its second special event in the last six weeks on Thursday, Re/code has set some expectations for what not to expect noting that Apple is not expected to introduce a Retina MacBook Air.

Apple may well have a new MacBook Air with Retina Display in the pipeline, but it’s not going to unveil it this week. Sources familiar with Apple’s plans tell me that the company’s latest reimagining of the ultralight laptop won’t be shown off at its Thursday event.

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FBI Director James Comey isn’t backing down from his position that Apple and Google are wrong to encrypt customer smartphone data preventing law enforcement agencies the possibility of access if requested. After last month sharing that the FBI was in talks with the two companies to discuss concerns with marketing devices as being inaccessible to third-parties including the government, the FBI Director spoke with CBS News in an interview where he continued to make the case against such encryption…
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Not much is known about Apple’s deals with its suppliers, but court filings by former sapphire supplier GT Advanced reveal that the contract included a $50M penalty for any leak of Apple product information, reports the Financial Times.

While the amount of the penalty clause may vary according to the size of the supplier, it seems likely that a substantial leak penalty is a standard condition of supplying product components to Apple – though the number of leaks over the iPhone 6 suggests that such penalties offer limited protection.

Contracts between Apple and its suppliers will undoubtedly be subject to strict non-disclosure agreements, but lawyers for GT Advanced are asking the court to allow details to be made public … 
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Apple has announced that it will be rolling out the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus to an additional 36 countries this month, bringing the total number of markets to 69. The latest rollout will begin with India and Monaco alongside China on Friday.

Apple today announced that iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, the biggest advancements in iPhone history, will arrive in 36 additional countries and territories across Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Latin America and Africa by the end of October. iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus will be available in a total of 69 countries and territories by the end of the month and are on track to be available in more than 115 countries by the end of the year, making this the fastest iPhone rollout ever … 

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The launch of Apple Pay, Apple’s NFC and Touch ID-based mobile payment solution, is upon us. Apple has begun preparing for the launch by kicking off Apple Pay training programs for its own group of retail store employees and by working with retailers to prepare for the debut later this month. The training materials, shared by a reliable source, for the Apple Pay launch at Apple retail stores have also detailed some new specifics regarding the Apple Pay setup and transaction processes both on customer iPhones and in Apple retail stores…

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Ahead of next Thursday’s Apple event, new images purportedly showing parts for the new, full-sized iPad have emerged. Photos re-published by blog apple.club.tw show a full logic board for the new iPad Air as well as parts for the new Home button, glass screen cover, and audio control components. At first glance, the new iPad Air logic board does not reveal too much new, but adjusting the colors of the image shows a fairly unexpected addition: an A8X system-on-a-chip:

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Sales of accessories for mobile phones in the US reached record numbers following Apple’s launch of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, according to the latest data published today by NPD. Accessory sales topped $249 million in the two weeks following the launch, which NPD notes is “43 percent higher than the two weeks prior.” The report breaks down numbers by accessory category and highlights that screen protector and case manufacturers experienced the biggest increase:
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Bose headphones and audio products could soon get the boot from Apple retail stores, according to a report from MacRumors citing “a reliable source.”

While Apple’s acquisition of Beats would seem like the obvious reason behind replacing the many Bose headphones and speakers currently used with iOS and Mac demo units, the report also claims that Apple will be removing Bose products from store shelves in addition to the demo units.
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Apple has confirmed on its website that the October event will be streamed. The URL is ‘apple.com/live’, so it seems that Apple is using the same video/blog platform that it first used for the iPhone 6/Apple Watch event in September. As the event progressed, Apple added tweets, product information and photos to the timeline below the main video.

Let’s hope the stream doesn’t also experience the same issues as the September event this time around, which made the event unwatchable for many people.

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Apple’s second retail store in Turkey appears to be finally nearing completion, as Apple branding has been added to the black cladding on the storefront in photos posted by Apple Toolbox as the company confirmed its plans to open the store.

Apple opened its first store in the country back in April, on the European side of the city, first announced during a meeting between Tim Cook and President Abdullah Gül. Istanbul straddles the European and Asian continents, and the second store is located in the Asian side, in a shopping mall called Akasya … 
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Apple’s controversial U2 album giveaway is about to wrap up as the record is only scheduled to be free through October 13th, and the company is sharing some numbers about the promotion to celebrate.

Apple SVP of Internet Software & Services Eddy Cue told Billboard that more than 81 million customers ‘experienced songs’ from U2’s Songs of Innocence album either through plays or streams over iTunes, iTunes Radio, or Beats Music where the album was exclusively available to users. The Apple exec added that 26 million full downloads of the album were measured by Apple. Cue also shared that U2’s music had previously been purchased by 14 million customers through iTunes since 2003.

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Apple has now finalized and published specifications for HomeKit through its Made-For-iPhone/iPad/iPod (MFi) licensing program. The finalized specifications, which allow accessory makers to start building products that integrate iOS 8’s new framework for home automation devices, come ahead of Apple’s yearly MFi summit in November where it plans to brief manufacturing partners on HomeKit and other new iOS 8 features for accessories.
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Apple drew a lot of attention earlier this year when it debuted its own blog dedicated to updating developers on Swift, its programming language for building Mac and iOS apps first introduced at WWDC in June. The blog has since been used to share updates on the state of Swift as well as technical details about the programming language, but today Apple posted an official video tutorial (embedded below) targeted for new Swift developers on using the language and Xcode to build an app for iOS from scratch.
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A new rumor from Digitimes makes the bold claim that Apple is working on an ‘iPad’ (tablet device) that runs both Mac OS X and iOS. This is sourced as ‘according to rumors in the upstream supply chain’, so read with skepticism. Supply chain analysis can often be incorrect about Apple’s future software plans.

The report says that two versions of a 12.9 inch iPad are in development. One of which is the more typical larger iPad that has been rumored for a while now, but the other is a multifunction device that can run both OS X and iOS. Digitimes notes that it does not know whether both devices will actually enter mass production for public release. It indicates the larger iPad is currently headed for an early 2015 debut. Frankly, a 2-in-1 device seems unlikely.

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