Friends and rivals discussed family, history, future
An unaired portion of a 60 Minutes interview with Bill Gates saw the founder of Microsoft in an unusually reflective state when questioned by interviewer Charlie Rose on the topic of the late Apple co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs, his friend and rival . Jobs met with Gates for an extended period very near the end of his life, an unusual concession to a colleague he had had a tumultuous relationship with over the decades. Gates said the two men had "grown up together," each building the computer industry in their own image.
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More repairs for damaged iPhones, phone support extended, more
According to leaked reports from an Apple "town hall" meeting, some significant changes are coming to AppleCare and AppleCare+ policies starting this fall -- however, unlike most news of this nature, the changes should benefit consumers while still cutting some costs. Among the bigger changes will be a new policy to repair, rather than replace, damaged iPhones when possible; an extension of telephone support; more remote hardware fault diagnosis, and a change to tie an AppleCare policy to a customer rather than a specific device.
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Could affect outcome of Apple v. Samsung battles
The US Patent and Trademark Office has issued a preliminary rejection of some claims in an Apple patent, Method and apparatus for providing translucent images on a computer display , says FOSS Patents . Claims 29-30 and 33-35 have been rejected. The USPTO says that aspects of the patent were obvious or anticipated in light of another patent, Method and apparatus for displaying simulated keyboards on touch-sensitive displays , as well as prior art.
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Agencies stymied by locked-down operating system
Apple is receiving so many requests from police agencies looking to decrypt seized iPhones that the company has started a waiting list, CNET reports. In an example exposed by court documents, the ATF is said to have wanted to break through the encryption of an iPhone 4S owned by a Kentucky man accused of distributing crack cocaine. The agency "contacted Apple to obtain assistance in unlocking the device," according to US District Judge Karen Caldwell, but was "placed on a waiting list by the company."
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Apple apparently reticent to add Metro support
"You shouldn't expect an iTunes [Metro] app on Windows 8 any time soon," Microsoft CFO Tami Reller tells CNN Money . "iTunes is in high demand. The welcome mat has been laid out. It's not for lack of trying." The quote may suggest that Microsoft has been talking with Apple about adding Metro support for iTunes, but without any progress.
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Option will appear automatically in account details
Apple is extending its two-step verification option for Apple IDs to a wider range of countries, users say . When the feature first launched in late March , it was restricted to the US, UK, Australia, Ireland, and New Zealand. Now though people in Canada, Argentina, and Pakistan are reporting getting the feature, and other countries may be following suit.
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Small press had use 'ibooks' for imprint, never registered trademark
Of the many contentious and complex legal battles Apple has had to fight, some are easier to sort out than others. In a New York courtroom on Wednesday, Judge Denise Cote -- who is also handling the complicated battle between Apple and the Department of Justice over e-book pricing -- made short work of a trademark dispute between Apple and a small-press publisher of sci-fi and horror novels. At issue was Black Towers' line of "ibooks" it obtained in the purchase of a smaller rival, and Apple's "iBooks" trademark.
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Sony allegedly holding out for higher fee for streaming music
Apple may have hit another snag in its alleged plan to launch an "iRadio" service in the near future, according to an unconfirmed report from London's Financial Times . The forthcoming service, should negotiations get completed, would allegedly see iTunes offering a streaming music service that leveraged its enormous statistical and purchasing information from users to serve curated songs they would be likely to enjoy from artists they have bought before or would probably like. Sony, according to sources, is still holding out.
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Apple issues minor patch
Apple has posted a new support download for Macs, Thunderbolt Firmware Update 1.2 . The patch appears to deal solely with stability problems related to Target Disk Mode. The file is 1.22MB, and requires OS X 10.8.3 or later.
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Samsung still overwhelmingly in control
Apple retook fifth place in the Chinese smartphone market during the first quarter of the year with an 8 percent share, according to Canalys data obtained by IDG News . Previously, during the third and fourth quarters of 2012, Apple had been relegated to sixth place. Samsung remained in control during Q1 2013, managing a 20 percent share. Local firms Yulong, Huawei, and Lenovo completed the top five.
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'Light Leak' effect simulates broken-down cameras
The developer of Pixelmator has released an important v2.2 update for the image-editing software. Codenamed Blueberry, the update makes several enhancements to the app's shape tools, for instance adding "smart" controls that rapidly adjust outlines. The Shape Style palette has new Fill, Stroke Style, Shadow, and Inner Shadow options, and the Custom Shapes palette now includes dozens of preset objects.
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Service currently limited to Houston, Orlando, Tampa
AT&T has officially launched Aio Wireless , an awaited MVNO carrier offering cheaper prepaid plans. Aio is offering Basic, Smart, and Pro tiers for phones, all of which including unlimited calling and texting. Basic costs between $35 and $40, and includes 250MB of data. Smart costs $55 per month for 2GB, and the $70 Pro plan ups the data cap to 7GB. Once a cap is exceeded, Aio begins throttling speeds. A special $15 tablet plan provides 250MB of data.
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Other regions might also have new 3D terrain
Apple has extended Flyover coverage in iOS 6 Maps to Paris and several surrounding areas, reports say . Aside from Paris, other new detail regions include Versailles, Aulnay-sous-Bois, Disneyland Paris, and L'Haÿ-les-Roses. Flyover renders scenery in a rough 3D state, clarifying maps and giving a better sense for what an environment will look like in person.
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Supplier reportedly boosting staff by 40 percent
Pegatron CEO Jason Cheng is denying making comments to Bloomberg linking the company's performance to weaker iPad mini demand , according to Fortune . Cheng says that after a Pegatron Institution Investors conference, a Bloomberg reporter came to him "trying to dig out detail numbers about some specific product." But, he claims, "I clearly refused to comment on specific products, nor customers, even though he continued with other questions. I did say those words that he quotes me in the article… but I did not say anything associated with any specific products."
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Phone moves toward production
A part discovered by French site Nowhereelse may be a section of a next-generation iPhone motherboard used to house the phone's camera and flash. Significantly there are some architectural differences versus the iPhone 5, like the camera and flash being linked together on the same ribbon cable. The part is said to have been obtained by a Japanese vendor, Moumantai, which has also got its hands on other alleged next-gen iPhone components in the past, such as a Home button and a camera lens.
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Biggest quarterly drop for supplier since 2011
Asian supplier Pegatron is blaming an anticipated second-quarter revenue drop on falling iPad mini demand, Bloomberg reports. The company is predicting a 25 to 30 percent sequential dip in revenue, the worst the company has seen since a 37 percent slide in the fourth quarter of 2011. CEO Jason Cheng elaborates that the Mini represents over half of Pegatron's consumer electronics revenue, although devices like e-book readers, game consoles, and other tablets have seen declines as well.
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Incident may be linked to 'drainage problem' caused by 2011 construction
Apple's flagship Fifth Avenue store in New York City was flooded earlier today, according to the New York Post . The store was reportedly hit by heavy rain, which initially resulted only in a slow leak. The leak turned into a pour however, forcing workers to hurriedly move tables out of the way. By 8AM, the outlet was flooded.
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Could indicate new testing phase at Apple
Web traffic from iOS 7 users has surged in the last week or so, reports say. MacRumors notes that it saw iOS 7 hits on its website start to climb on April 29th. Those numbers fell over the weekend, but have risen even higher since. All of the hits are said to be coming from a block of IP addresses belonging to Apple.
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Files statement opposing Google amicus curiae in first case
As a part of one of its lawsuits against Samsung, Apple is asking US Magistrate Judge Paul Grewal for access to Google's Android source code records, Bloomberg reports. The documents are being demanded as part of pretrial information sharing; Apple argues in a court filing that Android is used in all of the Samsung devices accused of infringing Apple patents, and "provides much of the accused functionality."
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Company shells out to retain key executives
Apple's Peter Oppenheimer was the highest-paid chief financial officer during 2012, according to Bloomberg . The executive received compensation worth a theoretical $68.6 million, roughly 16 times what Apple CEO Tim Cook received for the year. By comparison, Oppenheimer's closest competition -- Oracle CFO Safra Catz -- was given $51.7 million, while Google CFO Patrick Pichette was granted $38.7 million.
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September launch forecast
Multiple new iPhones should begin production in June or July, says Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty in a new memo. The claim is based on meetings with suppliers in Hong Kong and Taiwan. She predicts that the new phones will launch in September; production starting in the next couple of months would be consistent with recent rumors about Sharp .
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Should pave way for Google Now on OS X
The Chrome OS notification center -- already in the Windows releases of Chromium and Chrome Canary -- is in the process of being ported to the Mac version of Chromium, says Google's François Beaufort. The Chromium evangelist points to a logged Chromium issue titled "[Mac][MC] Implement notification updates and relayouts." He comments that the Mac version of the notification center is still "under heavy development," but that it can already be toggled on by running Chrome with an "--enable-rich-notifications" switch.
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A cryptographic component in iOS 6 has received FIPS (Federal Information Processing Standard) 140-2 Level 1 security certification from the US National Institute of Standards and Technology, says TUAW . In particular, the NIST says that when running in FIPS mode, iOS 6's CoreCrypto Kernel Module 3.0 "generates cryptographic keys whose strengths are modified by available entropy." The module is identified as "a software cryptographic module running on a multi-chip standalone mobile device and provides services intended to protect data in transit and at rest."
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Apple can't ask for 'global consent' for data use, court finds
A Berlin court has struck down eight provisions in Apple's terms of use for data because they violate German law, Bloomberg reports, citing local consumer group Verbraucherzentrale Bundesverband (VZBV). The ruling states that Apple can't ask for "global consent" to use personal data, including location information. Previous to the decision, Apple had already signed a binding agreement that it wouldn't use seven of the 15 provisions VZBV objected to prior to the lawsuit. Today's judgment invalidates the remaining eight, although Apple can appeal if it chooses.
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Apple pulls share from Android, smaller platforms
iOS made significant gains in US mobile web traffic during April, according to Investing Analytics data obtained by Piper Jaffray. The platform reached a 69 percent share, up from 66.4 percent in March. The growth primarily at the expense of Android, which declined from 28.7 percent in March to 26.5.
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Claims new Minis in Q3 2013, Q1 2014
Production of Retina displays for a new iPad mini should start in June or July, says NPD DisplaySearch analyst Richard Shim. Elaborating, Shim claims that LG Display will be the parts' major producer, and that Samsung will continue to be omitted from the Mini display chain. "Samsung is currently not in the iPad mini and they won't be in the next generation. LGD is becoming a much bigger supplier than before," he says.
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Trojan horse points to non-functional webpage, part of sound file
A bit of malware -- a Trojan horse file that tries to redirect to a website -- has been found inside an iOS app , but the code has turned out to be harmless. The app in question is called Simply Find It ($2) and comes from a legitimate developer that has produced a number of legitimate games -- suggesting that the malware was probably inserted into the app accidentally. The bigger issue (since there is no direct threat posed by the bad code) is how Apple's testing procedure missed it -- and how two well-known anti-malware scanners couldn't pick up on it either.
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Folds in 3D tools from Photoshop Extended
One of the core pieces of today's Adobe announcements is Photoshop CC, its rebranded and updated photo-editing software. Among new features in the software is Smart Sharpen, which analyzes images and attempts to produce the best-possible sharpening, while minimizing any halos or noise. The process can be tuned as needed.
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Company continues subscription push
Adobe has introduced a wide range of software updates, dropping the Creative Suite branding as the company continues to embrace its Creative Cloud subscription service . New features have been added to Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash Pro, After Effects, Muse and Dreamweaver, among other titles.
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InDesign gets modernized interface, engine
As a part of today's major Adobe announcements , the company has gone into detail for the upgrades present in its design software. Illustrator CC features a new Touch Type tool, which lets people manipulate individual characters in text while still maintaining control over font and other edits. Multi-touch devices have been added as a form of input.
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