German users of the Apple Store app have started seeing the program listed within the app, though the update has yet to roll out to Apple’s retail website. Under this program, qualifying devices can be traded in and recycled for up to €230 off the price of a new, upgraded iPhone at any Apple Retail Store in the country.
New images from iFun.de reveal an Apple logo on the front of the building in Hannover, Germany suggesting Apple is nearing completion on the project. Development on the site started in April last year.
Although the building has been covered, iFun.de has managed to catch a photo of the Apple logo whilst it is lit up — the logo is visible because the light is bleeding through the cover. This sighting not only acts as confirmation that the site is indeed an Apple Store, it also suggests that the site is almost ready to open to the public.
iFun.de says that the store is likely to open sometime next month.
A German court has dismissed a $2B patent claim by IPCom against Apple for use of a standard which is a mandatory feature in all cellphones. As we reported earlier this month:
The chip is used to identify mobile phones used by the emergency services in order to give them priority access to networks when they are heavily congested, such as during a major disaster. Carriers can set their networks to block access to all phones in the vicinity of a major emergency other than those identifying themselves as belonging to police and rescue workers. The chip can be included in the circuitry of either a phone or a SIM.
IPCom claimed a patent on the technology, but Germany’s Mannheim Regional Court dismissed the claim, along with a similar one against HTC.
This is, however, unlikely to be the end of it. IPCom has a record of appealing such rulings, and attempting to charge for patents purchased from other companies is its primary source of revenue. The company owns more than a thousand mobile-related patents.
Back in May of last year, a long list of readers in countries around the world reported having access to Apple’s two-step verification security feature for their Apple ID. Shortly after the news broke, the feature disappeared in many countries signaling it had been launched prematurely. The only officially supported countries listed on Apple’s website included the “U.S., UK, Australia, Ireland, and New Zealand.” However, today the feature has appeared in several new countries including Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Italy, & Spain. Apple has also updated its support pages for two-step verification here and here to list the new countries.
The video screenshot above is a re-enactment from Romanian TV
Some “James Bond” thievery was reported in Germany yesterday. According to the story, thieves pulled up behind a moving truck carrying Apple products on its way to the Czech Republic. They then got out and climbed onto the hood of the SUV, broke open the truck’s door and removed about 160 iPads and iPhones, all while the truck driver was unaware and unable to see anything happening.
How hurrying officials of the police station Kassel-east and the staff of the forensic noted the perpetrator had the security lock of the tarp apparently cracked with a bolt cutter and stole a total of seven loaded pallets of electronics products high quality Apple products worth a total of around 70,000 euros.
The loot includes according to the police 125 iPads, four iPad mini, “probably” 30 iPhones and two keyboards of the Californian cult group. In the further investigation, the suspicion compacted that the cargo thieves had apparently slammed unnoticed while driving on the highway.
We’ve seen Apple’s new iBeacon technology in use at several retail stores and events here in North America— Apple Stores, Macy’s, CES, MLB— but adoption of the new Bluetooth low power technology has been slower overseas. Beaconic aims to change that with a new iBeacon Retail Kit that will make it easier for businesses in Europe to deploy the technology. The concept of iBeacons is simple: As you walk around retail stores or other locations, your iOS device will communicate with iBeacons in proximity and display notifications, promotions, payment options, or other info setup by whoever deployed the nearby beacons. Beaconic’s new Retail Kit will make it easier for small businesses to get setup and track usage, and its software is available in several languages: Expand Expanding Close
Both Deutsche Bank and Global Equities Research have raised their target price for AAPL – the price they expect the stock to achieve – in response to spot checks of Apple sales on Black Friday, reports Fortune.
After spot-checking Black Friday weekend sales, Deutsche Bank’s Chris Whitmore raised his price target to $625 from $575. “We have become significantly more confident in our near-term estimates for Apple” […]
Global Equities Research’s Trip Chowdhry raised his price target to a Street-high $800 after visiting nine Apple Stores and five Targets and talking to “no less than 300 people.”
Anyone planning to invest on the basis of these numbers might want to dig a little deeper, however … Expand Expanding Close
Apple has published a new page on its website titled “Life on iPad.” The page highlights stories of iPad usage in a variety of capacities from Broadway to the operating room. The page also features the video from the iPad Air keynote showing the iPad in many of these same uses.
There are six total stories on the page, each with an entirely different take on how businesses and individuals are using the iPad to to improve their jobs. For example, a page on Siemens Energy’s wind power division details how iPads have replaced countless pages of manuals and repair plans for workers working 250 feet in the air.
Apple will be live streaming today’s launch event, first revealed by the Apple Events channel returning to Apple TV, the icon displaying the theme for the event and a message saying “tune in at 10 am for the live stream.”
The event will also be streamed on the web when it begins at 10am Pacific/1pm Eastern. As usual, live streaming requires Safari 4 or later on OS X v10.6 or later; Safari on iOS 4.2 or later. Streaming via Apple TV requires second- or third-generation Apple TV with software 5.0.2 or later.
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.
German Apple blog Macerkopf notes that Apple TV users in Germany today have been greeted with new content in a server-side update that includes Vevo and NHL channels. Vevo first landed on the Apple TV for US, Canada, and other countries back in August alongside a big update for the platform that also brought content from Disney, the Weather Channel, Smithsonian, and others. The National Hockey League channel, however, has been available in many countries since an Apple TV update back in 2011.
According to a report from French Apple blog Mac4Ever, Apple has just dropped the outside public relations company, Rumeur Publique, that it has used in recent years to handle communications with journalists in France. Instead Apple will now be moving its public relations in the country in-house as it does in the US and most other countries. A separate report from Macg.co notes that Rumeur Publique tells them Apple’s decision to move its press relations to an internal team was “not a surprise”, hinting that the transition has been in place while Apple beefs up its internal PR teams in the country. Apple already has its public relations teams located within the company for most countries, but the report notes that PRFection still handles Apple’s PR in Germany.
Cat’s out of the bag? It appears that Parallels is preparing an update to their award-winning virtualization software for Mac. Amazon Germany has a pre-order page up with Parallels Desktop 9 artwork and an expected delivery date of September 5th. Having a quick look around, it appears you can also order it now in the US at MacMall/PCM for $74.99 shipped:
A variety of other retailers appear to be getting units in stock after a quick Google search of manufacturer part PDFM9L-BX1-EN-NT. The September 5th release date would seem to fit into Parallels’ schedule. Previous releases were:
Parallels allows Mac Users to run Virtual machines of Windows, other instances of Mac OS, Linux, Android and just about every other Intel-based OSes out there inside of Mac OS. Likely updates this time around would probably include OSX 10.9 Mavericks and Windows 8/.1 compatibility improvements.
Parallels has traditionally allowed users who’ve bought within 2 weeks of release a free upgrade to the new version but no such policy has yet been announced for this version. (Update: Here’s Parallels Tech Guarantee saying if you buy after August 15th (now) you are covered for a free upgrade when V9 comes out.) If you are interested in purchasing Parallels now (and it is a GREAT product), we recommend downloading a free 30-day trial of Parallels Desktop 8 which would conclude after the above early September update, guaranteeing you wouldn’t need to pay extra for an update to v9.
If Parallels 9 is indeed coming out soon, you can bet we’ll have a full review of the product and/or any iOS accessory products, should such products exist, as soon as they are available.
As first spotted by our friends over at German language publication Macerkopf.de, Apple appears to be rolling out an option to make purchases on the Apple Online Store using PayPal. The feature appears to be limited to Germany currently, but it could mark the start of a broader roll out to other users.
Apple has never been opposed to offering the option to use PayPal for some services. Users in the U.S. have long been able to setup PayPal as a payment option for their Apple ID on the desktop, allowing them to purchase iTunes content with PayPal on iTunes & the Mac App Store. Apple does, however, already support PayPal payments for its online store in China.
It also allows its education customers to use PayPal for volume purchases of iOS apps, but the privilege didn’t extend to making purchases from the online store at Apple.com.
Apple’s help page for payments and tax information in Germany now explains how users can opt for PayPal at checkout, but we’ve yet to find the feature live in other countries that we’ve tested.
Users will not have to setup their PayPal as their payment option for their Apple ID, instead they will be redirected to log in using their PayPal username and password at the time of purchase: Expand Expanding Close
Bloomberg reports that the Berlin Regional Court in Germany has told Apple to change its policies for managing customer’s data on its website after ruling that Apple’s terms for data use go against German laws. According to a statement posted by a German consumer group Verbraucherzentrale Bundesverband (VSBV), the courts have ruled that Apple cannot request “global consent” for use of a customer’s data” without informing the user of where and how the data will be used. It will also no longer be able to use German users’ data to “promote location-based services and products” or deliver the data to third-parties for advertising purposes: Expand Expanding Close
As if we needed someone to tell us that the ongoing patent lawsuits between Apple and Motorola in Germany were getting a little out of control… Today the European Commission has finally stepped up calling Motorola’s enforcement of an injunction against Apple with mobile standard essential patents “abuse of a dominant position prohibited by EU antitrust rules.” The EU Commission, however, does note that the statement of objections sent to Motorola does not reflect the final outcome of its investigation into its use of standard essential patents (SEPs):
The Motorola Mobility SEPs in question relate to the European Telecommunications Standardisation Institute’s (ETSI) GPRS standard, part of the GSM standard, which is a key industry standard for mobile and wireless communications. When this standard was adopted in Europe, Motorola Mobility gave a commitment that it would license the patents which it had declared essential to the standard on FRAND terms. Nevertheless, Motorola Mobility sought an injunction against Apple in Germany on the basis of a GPRS SEP and, after the injunction was granted, went on to enforce it, even when Apple had declared that it would be willing to be bound by a determination of the FRAND royalties by the German court.
The EU Commission essentially states that Apple should be able to license the technology under fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms decided by a third-party, and that Motorola’s approach with its latest injunction could “distort licensing negotiations and impose unjustified licensing terms.” Back in February of 2012, Apple was for a short while forced to remove all 3G devices from its online store in Germany following the injunction, and at the time Apple noted that “Motorola repeatedly refuses to license this patent to Apple on reasonable terms, despite having declared it an industry standard patent seven years ago.” Expand Expanding Close
Samsung infringes key text-selection patent:Reuters reports that the International Trade Commission has handed down a preliminary decision ruling Samsung infringed on an Apple patent related to a text-selection feature. However, the courts also ruled Samsung didn’t infringe another patent related to detecting when other devices are plugged into a microphone jack. If the text-selection decision is upheld, the result could be a U.S. import ban on Galaxy, Transform, and Nexus devices: Expand Expanding Close
Apple has plans to announce at least 30 new Apple stores this year to add to the 400 or so it already has up and running, and today we get tips that it has also started advertising jobs for new locations in Germany and the United Kingdom.
First off is a new U.K. Apple Store located in Trinity Leeds shopping center in Leeds. TechnoDaily pointed us to an announcement from Apple that the new store will open March 21 at 10 a.m. local time.
CEO Tim Cook announced plans earlier this year to open 30 new retail locations in 2013, most of which will be located outside of the United States. Apple will also move 20 stores to new, larger spaces during the year and bring the total number of countries with Apple Stores to 13 after launching its first store in Turkey.
Last week, Apple lost an appeal in the U.K. that forced Apple to apologize to Samsung publicly and state that its Galaxy Tab does not infringe on Apple’s patents.
Britain Court of Appeal upheld a previous ruling that Samsung’s Galaxy Tab does not infringe on the iPad’s patents because it is not “as cool.” Reuters reported that after losing the appeal this morning, Apple has been instructed by the court to apologize to Samsung by running ads on its website and in newspapers saying Samsung did not infringe on patents in at least Arial 14 font.
Hidden at the bottom of Apple’s U.K. website this morning is the required link to the apology, but the apology is more like one your big sister would give you after being reprimanded by your parents. After mentioning Samsung did not infringe, Apple nicely sliced out some complimentary quotes from the ruling:
“The extreme simplicity of the Apple design is striking. Overall it has undecorated flat surfaces with a plate of glass on the front all the way out to a very thin rim and a blank back. There is a crisp edge around the rim and a combination of curves, both at the corners and the sides. The design looks like an object the informed user would want to pick up and hold. It is an understated, smooth and simple product. It is a cool design.”
Apple goes on to say German and U.S. courts ruled otherwise.
However, in a case tried in Germany regarding the same patent, the court found that Samsung engaged in unfair competition by copying the iPad design. A U.S. jury also found Samsung guilty of infringing on Apple’s design and utility patents, awarding over one billion U.S. dollars in damages to Apple Inc. So while the U.K. court did not find Samsung guilty of infringement, other courts have recognized that in the course of creating its Galaxy tablet, Samsung willfully copied Apple’s far more popular iPad.
Pixelmator version 2.1.1:A big update today goes to version 2.1.1 of the Pixelmator Mac App Store app. The updated app includes a new Healing Tool that’s up to 20x faster than the previous version, UI improvements for Retina MacBooks, and a number of fixes and performance enhancements. A full list of changes is here.
We are bursting with pride to tell you that this is the best and the fastest Healing Tool in the world. Pretty sophisticated algorithms and the latest OS X technologies have allowed us to create a tool that performs at an incredible speed. We hope you’ll be as excited about it as we are… A lot of other good things are here, too: the ability to temporarily hide the Alignment Guides with the Command key, significant performance improvements, the effects you’ve missed, and much more.
Amazon Cloud Player version 1.2.4: Amazon updated its Cloud Player app for iOS today, which allows users to stream and download music from their Amazon Cloud account. The biggest news in the update is that Cloud Player is now available in the UK, Germany, and France. Amazon is also introducing support for French and German languages.
Reeder version 3.0.4:The iOS Fever, Readability, and Google Reader client was updated today with a few new features. Included is enhancements bringing full support for iPhone 5 and iOS 6. The update means Facebook sharing becomes an iOS 6 only feature after updating. The developers have also included a fix for issues with Fever syncing and missing folders. Expand Expanding Close
Apple recently unveiled Germany’s ninth Apple Store on its website (translated). The latest shop will open Sept. 1 at 10 a.m. in Cologne’s Rhein-Center shopping mall. It is located on the top floor next to Zara and across from Lush. According to German news blog iFun (translated), those who wait in line to gain entrance will receive a limited number of T-shirts.
In related news, Apple’s signage now covers a second spot in Hong Kong. The gray, simple look indicates a new retail store is coming to the Festival Walk mall in the Kowloon Tong area, according to Engadget China (translated), which also posted a few pictures, as seen below. The report said the store could open in September, but the date is not confirmed.
We are all familiar with various retailers offering discounted iTunes cards by now. We told you just yesterday that Walmart is offering downloadable $100 iTunes/App Store gift cards for just $80. The redeem code associated with these cards is usually good for the purchase of all content from the stores including songs, movies, TV shows, apps, games, books, etc. However, according to a report from German website ifun.de, Apple is no longer allowing discounted iTunes cards to be used toward the purchase of books in the country due to pressure from a German bookseller association:
Apple says, discounted iTunes gift cards are not valid for ebooks anymore in Germany…Background is a law, that forces retailers to offer books at same price in Germany. This is to protect small book shops. Booksellers association sent Apple a c&d letter last week, to end selling ebooks for discounted iTunes credit… Announcing an actual gift card discount, German supermarket REWE notices, that discounted iTunes cards can’t be used to buy books at the iTunes Store.
Apple has bigger things to worry about at home with a trial in the U.S. Department of Justice’s ongoing eBook antitrust suit currently scheduled for June 2013. Most recently, Apple claimed previous settlements with three book publishers involved in the case were unlawful and requested the settlements be rejected or delayed until after trial. It is possible Apple’s decision to stop allowing discounted iTunes cards to be used for book purchases will eventually extend to other markets.
Following a report on Monday that the ITC blocked Apple’s request for an emergency ban on United States imports of HTC devices, Bloomberg reported this morning that a court in London has ruled against Apple over four touchscreen-related patents—including one covering the iOS slide-to-unlock feature. The four patents in question will also be used in similar Apple and HTC lawsuit in Germany in the coming months.
HTC’s devices don’t infringe four Apple patents for touchscreen technology and three of those patents are invalid, Judge Christopher Floyd said today… While HTC was pleased with the ruling, “we remain disappointed that Apple continues to favor competition in the courtroom over competition in the marketplace,” spokeswoman Andrea Sommer said… In addition to the slide-to-unlock feature, today’s ruling covered Apple’s patents on tools used to scroll through photographs and change alphabets, and software allowing users to touch the screen in two spots simultaneously.
According to two separate reports today, Apple is once again facing roadblocks in its attempt to win sales bans in a patent-related litigation with Samsung and Motorola.
The first report comes from Bloomberg about a court in Dusseldorf, Germany, which said Apple would likely lose its bid for an injunction on Motorola’s Xoom tablet in the country:
The German court that banned Samsung Electronics Co.’s Galaxy 10.1 tablet sales last year is unlikely to grant Apple the same victory against Motorola Mobility’s device, Presiding Judge Johanna Brueckner-Hofmann said at a Dusseldorf hearing. The assessment is preliminary and may change after today’s arguments are reviewed. A ruling is scheduled for July 17… “We don’t think someone sits in a coffee house using the Xoom and hopes other people will think he owns an iPad,” Brueckner-Hofmann said.
The second report is related to the ongoing United States Samsung/Apple patent case. Today, CIO claimed Apple’s request to ban Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 was delayed due to a judge in California telling the court it will hold off on a ruling:
Apple’s bid to get a ban on sales in the U.S. of Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet has been delayed after a federal court in California said on Monday it could not rule right away on Apple’s request for a preliminary injunction, while the matter is before an appeals court… The judge said Apple can renew its request for a preliminary injunction once the appeal court issues its ruling.
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Thanks Christian!
