Large tech firms are coming under scrutiny over their tax avoidance measures, following the testimony of Apple executives to a US Senate Permanent Subcommittee. Google, Yahoo, Cisco, and others have been found to be using an assortment of tax loopholes and off-shoring in order to avoid paying governments in the US and Europe at least $100 billion.... ...
| Read more »Apple has revamped the look of its online store’s homepage, placing a considerably stronger focus on Apple-developed hardware and high-margin accessories. Fewer and generally more expensive items have been given prominent positions on the Store’s main pages, while text and links have been reduced. Notably, the redesign removes front-page…
| Read more »Jeff Gamet, The Mac Observer's Managing Editor joined MacVoices host Chuck Joiner to discuss Apple CEO Tim Cook's testimony in a U.S. Senate hearing on corporate taxes, and accusations that the company has been sheltering revenue to avoid tax payments.
Book publisher Penguin announced on Wednesday it has reached a $75 million "comprehensive agreement" with U.S. State Attorneys General and private class plaintiffs over e-book price fixing allegations connected to Apple and its iBookstore for iOS. ...
| Read more »The Saturday Evening Post, one of America's most iconic magazines, thanks in part to cover artist Norman Rockwell, is finally on Apple's Newsstand. Apparently many people don't know the magazine is still in publication (I didn't, and even the magazine's technology director Steve Harman admits to TechCrunch that many people don't think so either), yet it still has a subscription base of 300,000 annually. And now it's ready to enter the digital age on iOS.
The magazine will keep its general-interest focus while attempting to appeal to younger readers with articles on technology and movies. Considering the magazine's history (publishing some of the best short stories by America's most famous writers) and beautiful artwork, I'd love to see the Post begin selling digitized back issues starting with ones that featured F. Scott Fitzgerald's short stories....
| Read more »Microsoft announced its upcoming Xbox One console yesterday.
And threw in some interesting iOS cooperation with it.
Per Mac|Life and Wired, Microsoft’s new gaming console will be “fully integrated” with Xbox’s SmartGlass application, thus allowing users of iPhones and iPads to connect seamlessly with the next generation of Microsoft’s popular console series.
Introduced last year and allegedly downloaded by over 10 million people, SmartGlass currently allows users...
| Read more »You can’t knock an application that’s updated this frequently.
On Wednesday, Google released version 27.0.1453.93 of its Chrome web browser. The update, a 49.8 megabyte download, adds the following fixes and changes:
- Web pages load 5% faster on average
- Chrome.syncFileSystem API
- Improved ranking of predictions, improved spell correction, and numerous fundamental improvements for Omnibox predictions. Please see the Help Center for more information on our updated policies.
Security fixes:
- [235638] High CVE-2013-2837: Use-after-free in SVG.
- [235311] Medium CVE-2013-2838: Out-of-bounds read in v8.
- [230176] High CVE-2013-2839: Bad cast in clipboard handling.
- [230117] High CVE-2013-2840: Use-after-free in media loader.
- [227350] High CVE-2013-2841: Use-after-free in...
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. 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...
In most of the world, the asymmetric nature of your average Internet connection means that, unless you are lucky enough to be on a corporate network or fiber reaches your house, sending large files to your friends and colleagues is often an exercise that requires a lot of patience. Most of it is spent waiting for files to upload and dealing with complex workflows that tend to take up more time than they're worth.
This is where the recently-launched Minbox comes into play. Its developers have set their sights on turning file sharing into as frictionless a workflow as possible, while keeping costs down to a rather cool zero dollars.
There is, of course, no shortage of competing products that attempt to reduce the stress of sharing data—Dropbox and ...
| Read more »As is traditional for the time of year, Apple has updated its main US homepage to promote items from its store in tune with the upcoming Father's Day holiday. In addition to the iPad and iPad mini, such items as iPhone 5, the Nike+Fuel band, the iGrill meat thermometer, the HipKey proximity alarm, the Nest thermostat and other suggestions are highlighted. The page also features a subtly cleaner and more geometric design.... ...
| Read more »Following a U. S. Senate hearing where lawmakers suggested Apple is sheltering revenue from taxes by using a subsidiary company in Ireland, the country is saying the real issue is that companies are working they system across borders and that international cooperation is needed to make real changes. Ireland's government is right, but some of that change needs to happen in the U.S., and there isn't any guarantee politicians want to take on that fight with corporations.
Just as Apple appears to be readying its music streaming service and Google just announced its subscription music service, Pandora Radio has released a sturdy update to its iPhone app.
Users can now publish Now Playing activity to Facebook as it updates, similar to Spotify or Rdio, allowing friends to interact with the music you enjoy. Sharing individual tracks and stations to Facebook, Twitter, and email is built right in now as well.
Pandora 4....
Apple is looking to bring even more Mac production back to the states.
Andrew Cunningham
Last week, we learned that Apple was looking to devote about $100 million to bring the manufacturing of one of its Mac product lines back to the United States. At yesterday's Senate hearings on the company's untaxed overseas pile of cash, Apple CEO Tim Cook confirmed that the new Mac would be manufactured in Texas. The computer will also "include components made in Illinois and Florida and rely on equipment produced in Kentucky and Michigan.”
Moving away from solid facts and into informed speculation, AllThingsD notes that longtime...
In its ongoing litigation against Samsung, Apple has added five new patents to its claims, targeting both the company's new flagship Galaxy S4 smartphone, as well as the Google Now service for Android. ...
| Read more »Las Vegas! is a popular dice game that Ravensburger put together last year. It's not exactly the most complicated board game on the block (you roll dice, and then can place them into certain numbered slots that represent stakes in money-making casinos), but it's fun for families especially, and provides a nice relatively casual mix of luck and skill.
Perhaps because the game is so approachable, the German company Ravensburger has elected to bring an iOS version out to iPhone and iPad, and you can now pick it up on the App Store for $2.99. Just like the real world game, the iOS version is fun but simple -- you select your players (or you can play online via Game Center), you roll the dice, and then you try to lay them out in casinos wherever you think they'll earn you the most money. Play goes on like this for four rounds, at which point...
| Read more »Popular as Apple’s iOS mobile platform is, it doesn’t exist in a vacuum. There’s also Google’s Android—a widely used mobile OS in its own right. Last week, Google held its I/O developers conference in San Francisco. And more than a few announcements coming out of that event should be of interest to iOS device owners—for how it may or may not influence what Apple does with its own mobile platform, if nothing else.
I’m joined by senior editor Dan Moren and senior writer Lex Friedman to talk Google I/O. Specifically, we look at where Android is playing catch-up to iOS and where Apple is lagging behind what Google has to offer. (Here’s a hint: It rhymes with “maps.”) We also briefly discuss subscription music services, like the one Google just unveiled as well as Google CEO Larry Page’s unusual Q&A session.
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| Read more »A new reliability report from Rescuecom shows Apple placing in second place, beaten by Samsung by a wide margin. The new report for the first quarter of 2013, which now takes into account tablets as well as computers, also puts Apple ahead of Lenovo, Asus, Toshiba, HP, Dell, and Acer, with both Sony and Panasonic dropping out of the rankings entirely.... ...
| Read more »Japanese electronics and entertainment conglomerate Sony could drop one of those divisions in the near future, as the company's board will soon discuss spinning off its entertainment division in order to help its electronics arm better compete against Apple and Samsung. ...
| Read more »iLoveHandles, a company that makes unique iOS device accessories (Facet and Pinhead come to mind), today announced...
| Read more »A fellow gets thirsty.
∞ Read this on The Loop
Samsung's Galaxy S4 infringes on 5 Apple patents, according to a court filing by Apple.
Apple wants to add the new Galaxy S4 to an ongoing case involving Apple and Samsung being heard in the U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, San Jose Division, according to a filing with that court on Tuesday.
Samsung's newest flagship smartphone was launched in March and went on sale in the U.S. in late April.
"Apple obtained the Galaxy S4 on April 27 and immediately began its infringement analysis, including Samsungs customizations of the Android Jelly Bean platform, covering the eight asserted patents," Apple stated in the filing, adding that it tested S4's sold by AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint. "That analysis revealed that the Galaxy S4 infringes five of Apples asserted patents in the same ways as Samsungs already accused products," it added...
| Read more »I must admit, I missed this part of the Senate hearings yesterday, but I think Cook brought up some good points.
∞ Read this on The Loop
Walt Mossberg: Will there be an Apple product ever made again in the United States?
Tim Cook: I want there to be.
Walt: You what?
Tim: I want there to be.
Walt: You want there to be.
– Apple CEO Tim Cook and Walt Mossberg at D10, May 2012
When Apple announced its intention to manufacture one of its existing Mac lines exclusively in the U.S. last December, the company didn’t say which line, or where in the country it planned to build it. Now, some five months later, the answer to one of those questions has finally emerged.
During...
TUAW has covered the alternative energy accessories from Etón before: the BoostTurbine is an excellent way to charge up an iPhone or iPad when the power is out, the FRX3 acts as an emergency radio and has both solar cells and a hand crank for providing a charge to your iPhone when you need it, and the Mobius solar case for iPhone is a smart way to top off your phone. Now the company has announced the Rugged Rukus (US$99.99), an "all-terrain, solar-powered, wireless speaker."
Designed to work with any of your Bluetooth-equipped goodies, the wedge-shaped Rugged Rukus sports a 20-square-inch...
| Read more »Audio accessory maker Ultimate Ears has announced a new wireless Bluetooth portable speaker, the UE Boom. Available in six colors, the mini-speaker is intended to be portable and offers 360-degree sound from all sides of the easy-grip device. The device features an acoustic skin to be water and stain resistant, a long and rechargeable battery life (up to 15 hours) and is easily paired with other UE Boom units.... ...
| Read more »During its Google I/O keynote earlier this month, Google announced that it would be bringing conversational, Google-Now like voice search to the desktop. Using a UI similar to voice search and Google Now in its mobile apps, Google would soon allow Chrome users to search and drill down further into results using only their voice.
Today, Google appears to have finally started rolling out the feature for Chrome users on the stable and beta channels of Chrome....
Though they weren't grilled before a U.S. Senate subcommittee on Tuesday like Apple, Google and Yahoo rely on Irish subsidiaries to avoid taxes on billions of dollars in income, and they go one step further than Apple by utilizing offshore accounts. ...
| Read more »Getting frustrated with that red "archive" button when you try to delete a message on your iOS device? Melissa Holt is here to report that there's a trick to select whether you want to archive or delete each message, and you can also turn off the archiving feature entirely. Hooray! She also reports that she likes pie, which is somewhat less relevant.
The Apple Store was briefly down as Apple updated the homepage with a special Father’s Day gift promotion and updated the page to a new squarer & cleaner look – more possible evidence of Jony Ive’s growing design influence …
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The page leads with the iPad and iPad Mini, highlighting the free engraving option, as well as suggesting a range of alternative gift suggestions ranging from the $79.95 iGrill cooking thermometer to $399.95 GoPro HD Hero 3 Black. The homepage has a link to shipping deadlines for a range of products to reach buyers in time for Father’s Day on June 16th.
The redesign has replaced rounded corners with square ones, more of a...
Intel has tapped former Apple VP Mike Bell to head up the company's new Smart Devices Unit, according to AllThingsD. Bell last worked at Apple in 2007, and then Palm after that and has a long experience in mobile device development. Recently he has been co-leading Intel's mobile chip business. His new position as the head of Intel's new Smart Devices Unit signals a shift in strategy for the chipmaker.
As AllThingsD notes, Intel's competitors Qualcomm, Nvidia, MediaTek, Broadcom and other ARM-based manufactures have a strong foothold in the mobile device market -- a place Intel knows it needs to be to stay competitive in the future. While Intel did not explicitly state what the Smart Device Unit would produce, it did say "The group...
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Apple CEO Tim Cook defended his company's tax policies in Congress Tuesday, after the Senate released a report that condemned it for tax policies that used global subsidiaries to avoid paying billions in U.S. taxes. The report alleged that Apple dodged paying taxes on as much as $44 billion in foreign income from 2009 to 2012. The company reportedly used subsidiaries to get around certain tax responsibility. When the senators spoke in percentages, Cook spoke dollars and cents.
The American Customer Satisfaction Index, a large-scale annual survey of consumer satisfaction across a wide range of products, shows that Apple retained the top ranking, but Samsung closed Apple’s lead from 12 points to just five …
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In the survey of 70,000 US consumers, Apple scored 83 percent, two points down on 2012, while Samsung climbed from 71 to 76 percent.
Image: Wall Street Journal
Yesterday’s Senate subcommittee hearing, in which Apple CEO Tim Cook was asked to explain alleged tax avoidance measures, turned into something of a damp squib, each side effectively stating their respective positions rather than engaging in any head-to-head debate …
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Senator Carl Levin, Chair of The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, gave a lengthy introductory speech which merely repeated the claims already made, and Cook responded with a pretty general statement saying little more than Apple complied with the law and did not use any tax gimmicks. Cook did take the opportunity to argue for tax reform, proposing both lower domestic corporation tax rates and a special ‘single digit’ rate for cash...
| Read more »Zagg has debuted a pair of new iPad mini Bluetooth keyboard accessories at CTIA Las Vegas. The ZaggKeys Cover for the iPad mini, pictured, is the latest in its iPad line of popular keyboard covers. According to the company, it is the thinnest Bluetooth keyboard accessory for the iPad mini available, measuring just 6.3mm (0.25-inch) thick. It also incorporates backlit keys with seven color options and three lighting levels.... ...
| Read more »Apple on Wednesday updated its online storefront, adding a special section for Father's Day with a heavy emphasis on the iPad, the iPad mini and related accessories. ...
| Read more »As anyone who has read TUAW over the past few weeks can tell there's no shortage of IPad keyboards on the market these days. All of them tend to use Bluetooth to connect to the iPad, which is fine -- except when you're a school teacher or IT person who needs to figure out which keyboard is paired with a particular iPad. So that students can simply grab a keyboard, plug it in, and start typing away, Logitech has announced the Logitech Wired Keyboard for iPad (US$59.99, available later this year).
The keyboard will come in two flavors; a Lightning-equipped model that will be shipping in August, and a 30-pin connector version that is expected in October. Since it's designed to be used by students of all ages, the Wired Keyboard has a spill-resistant design and is expected to put up with the pounding of over 5 million keystrokes.
There are shortcut keys for the regular iPad functions, such as Siri, app switching, and copy...
| Read more »Unity, the company behind the eponymous game rendering engine, announced on Tuesday that it will no longer be charging an $800 licensing fee to developers looking to make apps for Apple's iOS and Google's Android. ...
| Read more »We know that Bluetooth keyboards are usually the go to solution for a bringing a traditional typing experience on the iPad. We’ve reviewed plenty from Logitech in the past that we highly recommend, but today the company launched what it says is a better solution for iPad keyboards in the classroom. Logitech says having to connect multiple iPads to Bluetooth keyboards in classrooms is a big hassle for teachers, and to combat that it is introducing a plug-and-play, wired keyboard in both Lightning and 30-pin variants:
“Schools are increasingly purchasing iPads for use in the classroom,” said Mike Culver, vice president and general manager of mobility at Logitech. “While tablets are enabling new ways of teaching and...
Scanner Pro has always been one of the best iOS document scanners applications around, and it just got better. Readdle has updated Sacnner Pro to include real-time border detection.
Scanner Pro allows your iPhone or iPad to scan receipts, whiteboards, or any single or multi-page document. "Why not just use your device's built-in camera?" Scanner Pro has got you covered. It'll auto-crop your documents, remove shadows, correct awkward perspectives and save in multiple formats. Images can be sent right to Evernote, Dropbox and Google Drive.
If you have this great app then go right away and update it. If you don't, then go grab it from the App Store now. Scanner Pro has been a long-time friend of my mobile office workflow....
| Read more »The Apple Store went down around midnight ET. What will the refresh bring? We'll let you know as soon as the store is back up. Thanks to all the tipsters that let us know!Apple Store is down originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 22 May 2013 00:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments
| Read more »Optical character recognition purveyor IRIS has launched its next-generation IRIScan Book 3 and the IRIScan Book 3 Executive. These portable scanning solutions are battery‐powered, enabling mobile users to easily capture paper documents, receipts, photos and more without the use of a computer.... ...
| Read more »The Apple Store is down! The average Store downtime is about 2 hours and 52 minutes.What to do next?Fastest:Fast:Also fast:Medium:Slow:Slowest:Open the alarm page in your browser to know exactly when the Apple Store comes back onlineFollow @IsTheStoreDown on twitterInstall our Dashboard widget for Mac OS XSubscribe to the email function to receive an email when the Store status changesCheck the store yourself laterWait for the media to report anything newPlease feel free to share this information with your friends :-)
| Read more »Flickr Pro users have been informed by Yahoo about the future of the once-premium accounts. As long as the user's account is kept in good standing, customers paying $25 per year for unlimited storage will be allowed to keep the plan indefinitely, with no plans for the Pro benefits to be purged.... ...
| Read more »Burstly acquired the beta testing service TestFlight just a few months ago, and TestFlight released a mobile analytics service called FlightPath soon after that. Now, Burstly has announced that it is restructuring its offerings, to set up a full set of services to take developers from developing and testing their app with TestFlight, to preforming analytics with FlightPath, and then monetizing with Burstly's tools, now rebranded as SkyRocket.
This is a smart bit of revamping -- TestFlight is very popular, but FlightPath has just started out and SkyRocket's name is brand new to most developers, so combining these tools under the same umbrella should make them all more accessible to developers. All of these services are still...
| Read more »Unity has announced that its mobile game development tools are now free to use for smaller developers. The Unity platform is popular amongst iOS and Android developers, but its creator previously charged $800 to publish a game to the App Store or Google Play. Under the new rules, that barrier has been lifted.... ...
| Read more »CS Odessa has posted a minor update for ConceptDraw Project, the developer's project management software. The v6.4 release adds new resource types, which should let organizers better describe both resources and resource behavior. Separately, new filters can be used to generate custom views of a project, which in turn can be saved for later use.... ...
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When Jony Ive took over the role of leadership for Apple’s Human Interface in October of last year, many speculated that the style of Apple’s design language across iOS and Mac OS X would also shift towards a flatter, more clean style. This speculation was fueled mainly by Ive’s feelings towards skeuomorphism and his minimalist design aesthetic.
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In April, we reported that iOS 7 would have a fresh, yet familiar interface, embracing a flatter style thanks to Jony Ive’s new leadership....
| Read more »Escape Motions has released Flame Painter 2.0, an update of the developer's illustration software. The v2.0 upgrade brings in a host of new features, such as smoother antialiasing, unlimited layers and editable vector layers in the Professional edition. Brush options include new Flame, Follow, and Ribbon brushes; presets; Normal, Lighten, and Darken modes; gradient transitions; and lastly, the ability to drag-and-drop brushes from a website.... ...
| Read more »Unity has announced that it's making its mobile game development tools free to use for most independent and small studios. Unity has always been a popular engine both for mobile game development and for cross-platform game creation, but up until now, you had to pay about $800 to actually publish Unity-created apps on the iOS or Android stores. Those basic add-ons have now been made free, so anyone can now download Unity, and then use it to publish an app for iOS or Android without paying a fee for the engine.
Unity still has pro versions available for sale to both iOS and Android developers, and anyone making over $100,000 per year with their releases is required by Unity to go ahead and purchase a pro license. So there are still some limits on exactly how this all works, and if your iPhone app does hit it big, Unity still would like its due. But starting off...
| Read more »Seagate Technology has announced the new Seagate Video 3.5 HDD -- the industry's first 4TB, 3.5-inch hard disk drive engineered specifically for use in video applications such as digital video recorders, set-top boxes, and surveillance systems. Purpose-built for video solutions, the Video 3.5 HDD can store up to 480 hours of high-definition (HD) content. The drive supports up to 16 simultaneous HD streams or 20 standard-definition streams as well as 24-hour operation capabilities optimizing it for video content applications.... ...
| Read more »Apple remains in first place on an annual BrandZ ranking of the world's most valuable brands, notes MarketingWeek. Apple's brand is estimated to be worth $185.071 billion, putting it well ahead of next-closest rivals Google ($113.669 billion) and IBM ($112.536 billion). Other companies in the top 10 include McDonald's, Coca-Cola, AT&T, Microsoft, Marlboro, Visa, and China Mobile.... ...
| Read more »The team at Olloclip has taken the wraps off of their newest product, a case for the iPhone 4/4S and iPhone 5 called the Quick-Flip Case (US$49.99) that works with the Olloclip 3-in-one lenses to produce a lightweight solution for all-purpose iPhoneography. Let's take a look!
Design
At first glance, this doesn't look like much of a case. It's made out of a smoked translucent black or opaque white polyurethane material and looks like any of a thousand other slip-on hard cases for iPhone. But then the little features start to appear and you realize how the Quick-Flip case can be used to assist in taking photos with your iPhone.
Gallery: Olloclip Quick-Flip Case and Pro-Photo Adapter...
| Read more »Wal-Mart-owned video-on-demand service Vudu has updated its iOS apps to allow movie downloads for offline viewing. The Android phone version of the app has had this feature for awhile, but Android tablets are still unable to download and view their Vudu/Ultraviolet collection on their tablets.
Other additions to the update include a reworked player to make the app easier to use, as well as support for closed captions on the iPhone. It's worth noting that the Flixter iOS app already allowed for Ultraviolet downloads. Ultraviolet is a digital rights authentication service that allows DVD and Blu-ray buyers to redeem unique download codes for digital viewing later.
You can find the updated app for free in the iTunes store now.Vudu adds ability to download movies...
| Read more »Apple Inc.’s real tax bill isn’t as big as the one it reports to its investors.
Among the findings of an investigation by the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations are figures that show Apple’s reported taxes substantially exceed the sum it actually pays the U.S. Treasury.
One factor: Apple uses a conservative approach to accounting for taxes on its overseas earnings. It has been setting aside billions of dollars a year in provisions against possible taxes on income that it earned abroad. But those taxes wouldn’t be due until Apple brought the funds home to the U.S., something Chief Executive Tim Cook said he has no intention of doing.
Read the rest of this post on the original site »
Video-on-demand service Vudu on Monday rolled out a major update to its Vudu Player iOS app, granting users the ability to download movies and TV shows directly onto an Apple device for offline viewing. ...
| Read more »Apple CEO Tim Cook and CFO Peter Oppenheimer had a straight-forward and direct message for a Senate subcommittee questioning the company about its tax practices: we comply fully the law, we don't hide profits from the U.S., and if you don't like what we're doing, change the law. Note that in this analysis, Bryan Chaffin discusses the politics of the situation.
Those of us who use Google's Chrome browser for OS X are familiar with how Chrome web apps can be installed and launched from within the browser. Now it appears that Google is working on a way to bring those Chrome apps even closer to the heart of your Mac by creating a Chrome apps launcher for OS X.
Google engineer François Beaufort detailed the plans in a Google+ post, noting that OS X users can actually try out a beta of the Chrome OS app launcher right now. To do so, you need to install the most recent build of Chromium, then set the --show-app-list switch through the CLI.
After performing that magic, launch Chromium and click its Dock icon to display a grid of your Chrome apps, ready to launch (see image above). Put this on your MacBook...
| Read more »Microsoft has announced a brand new game console today, though the company would probably disappointed to hear that I called it that. The Xbox One is really more of an entertainment center all-in-one -- it's designed to connect your games, your streaming media, and cable television all together in one set-top box. In some ways, it's a competitor to Apple TV. The Xbox One will also include a new Kinect camera, which will boast Siri-like voice control over all of its functions, and allow users to switch back and forth between live games, live TV, or any of the console's various apps.
Obviously, that release is only tangentially related to Apple and its products, but there are a few closer ties that might become more important in the future. First up, Microsoft has already confirmed that the Xbox One will work with its Smart Glass system, for which...
| Read more »Apple’s executives speak before congress, Ireland doesn’t think it has a taxation problem, and iOS 7 looks to share and share alike. The remainders for Tuesday, May 21, 2013 are certain.
Tim Cook’s Opening Statement Before The Permanent Subcommittee On Investigations (Apple)
In case you missed Tuesday’s riveting Senate subcommittee action, you can now read the opening remarks from CEO Tim Cook and CFO Peter Oppenheimer on Apple’s site. But that does mean you’ll miss out on the full effect of the Tim Cook appearing before the body in a purple velour track suit.
Ireland says not to blame for Apple’s low tax rate (Yahoo Finance)
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Intel has noted that it has appointed Mike Bell to lead its emergent technology and product trend group, which includes ultra-mobile products. The new division will be "tasked with turning cool technology and business model innovations into products that shape and lead markets," according to Intel.... ...
| Read more »Smith Micro has launched Poser 10 and Poser Pro 2014, updates of the developer's core 3D rendering and animation tools. Both apps have gained a number of new features, such as subdivision surfaces, which let users set subdivision levels for props, figures, or body parts using Pixar's OpenSubdiv library. The technology should improve aspects like bending accuracy and object smoothness.... ...
| Read more »Every year, Millward Brown Optimor produces the BrandZ list, a listing of the 100 most valuable brands. As with last year, Apple is at the top of the list with a 2013 brand value of just over US$185 billion.
Apple's brand value rose only 1 percent this year, but that number is still well over #2 Google at $113.7 billion. How much of a gap lies in the brand value between Apple and Google? How about almost the value of the venerable Coca-Cola brand at $78.4 billion (the soft drink company is at #5 on the list).
Another tech brand rounded out the top three, with IBM coming in just behind Google at $112.5 billion. The value of the top 100 brands is a staggering $2.6 trillion globally, up 7 percent from 2012.
Although Apple's share price and investor sentiment have lagged in the last year,...
| Read more »Google is looking to bring a version of its Chrome OS app launcher to the Mac, possibly as an add-on to the Chrome browser, allowing users to access a slew of Web apps normally available only from within the ...
| Read more »During Apple's April 2012 earnings conference call, Tim Cook emphatically stated that he hates litigation.
"I've always hated litigation," Cook explained. "I continue to hate it. I just want people to invent their own stuff."
That notwithstanding, Apple today finds itself embroiled in a myriad of patent infringement lawsuits. With Samsung in particular, Apple has ongoing legal battles with its Korean-based competitor in 11 countries across 4 continents.
Oddly enough, Apple's legal battles were tangentially brought up during Tuesday's congressional hearing which was held to take a closer look at Apple's tax practices. At one point during the hearing, the narrative veered a bit of course when Tim Cook was asked to answer a question about Apple's challenges with respect to protecting its intellectual property in the U.S.
Cook took a moment to gather his thoughts and answered thusly.
I think the U.S Court system is currently structured in such a way...
| Read more »Starting this year, IBM's Watson intelligent agent technology will debut as a customer service assistant. Customers of Australia's ANZ Bank, Celcom, The Royal Bank of Canada, and Nielsen can query the system for general questions related to accounts with the companies. IBM claims to have the technology ready for deployment and integrated into consumer apps for computers and smartphones in the second half of 2013.... ...
| Read more »Apple has posted the opening statements two of its executives -- CEO Tim Cook (PDF) -- and CFO Peter Oppenheimer (PDF) -- made during their testimony in front of the US Senate earlier today. The documents don't reveal anything new, but do constitute a record of Apple's stance during the Senate hearing. "We pay all of the taxes we owe -- every single dollar. We not only comply with the laws, but we comply with the spirit of the laws," Cook's statement reads.... ...
| Read more »Beethoven's 9th Symphony (free plus in-app purchases) is an epic iPad app that lets you explore one of the greatest symphonies ever written in a unique, compelling way. Classical music lovers will definitely want to check it out.
Beethoven's 9th Symphony uses every trick in the multimedia tool box. For starters, you can listen to 4 different performances of the work, taken from the well-known DGG catalog. As you listen, follow along with the the score in real time. The original manuscript displays each page as the music plays but with modern notation.
An interesting feature called the "BeatMap" offers an overhead view of the orchestra, complete with symbols of the various instruments that glow as they are played.
The app also features several interviews, both contemporary and historic, with notable people like Leonard...
| Read more »Apple pays a fair share of the taxes it owes the U.S. and other nations, its CEO said Tuesday, despite criticism from U.S. senators that the company is ducking taxes by shifting profits to subsidiaries that the company does not consider tax residents of any nation.
Apple CEO Tim Cook defended the company Tuesday before a Senate subcommittee, saying that Apple uses no “tax gimmicks” in assigning about two-thirds of its worldwide profits to three subsidiaries in Ireland, where the company has negotiated a corporate income tax rate of less than 2 percent.
In reality, Apple has paid a far lower rate than the 2 percent negotiated in Ireland, with one subsidiary paying no income taxes in the past five years, and another paying 0.05 percent in Ireland in 2011, according to...
| Read more »Apple is aiming to integrate Flickr and Vimeo into iOS 7, a source tells 9to5Mac. The integration is expected to work in much the same way as Facebook and Twitter support does in iOS 6, allowing single sign-ins via the Settings menu. In the case of Flickr, at least, signing in may not only add another option to iOS' built-in sharing menus, but also simplify apps with their own hooks for the service, such as Instagram. Flickr is already integrated into OS X Mountain Lion and the iOS edition of iPhoto.... ...
| Read more »Squarespace provides everything you need to create an exceptional website for you or your business, all within a single platform. Start with beautifully designed templates, an easy-to-use interface, and a free domain name – all backed up with award-winning 24/7 customer support.
Add your own content, customize the style, and you’ll have a website that looks great on any device.
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There are several ways you can move a user account from one computer to another without having to set up the account again from scratch.
| Read more »Steve Wilhite, the inventor of the Graphics Interchange Format (GIF), received a Webby Award for lifetime achievement. He reiterates that he intended it to be pronounced like “jif.” Read the full article at TidBITS, the oldest continuously published technology publication on the Internet. To get a full-text RSS feed, help support our work and become a TidBITS member! Members also enjoy an ad-free version of our Web site, email delivery of individual articles, the ability to make long comments with live links, and discounts on Take Control orders and other Apple-related products.
| Read more »I've been wrestling with the right way to put this for weeks. There was something about Samsung that's been bugging me since the bizarro world GS4 media event, but I couldn't put my finger on it. Yesterday's news about the Samsung Smart App Challenge 2013 helped crystallize it for me—Samsung has delusions of relevance.
ABC Aquarium ($3) by Peapod Labs is yet another release in the company’s ABC family of universal iOS education apps. Each app has brought a new theme, complete with an alphabet’s worth of new photographs, videos, and simple rub-on-the-picture activities, plus small user interface improvements. Aquarium leverages all of…
| Read more »Ireland has responded to criticism from Senater Carl Levin (D-Mich.) that Irish tax laws allowed Apple to avoid playing taxes on tens of billions of dollars in profits using Irish subsidiaries. So what did Ireland have to say for itself?
In a statement to RTE, Ireland's national broadcast network, deputy Prime Minister Eamon Gilmore said:
These are not issues that arise from the Irish taxation system. They are issues that arise from the taxation systems in other jurisdictions, and that is an issue that has to be addressed first of all in those jurisdictions,
Ireland's answer is simple. If American companies like Apple are using loop holes in the American tax system to skirt playing their taxes, it's not Ireland's fault, and we should fix our system before we come after theirs. It's a good point.
The issue isn'...
| Read more »Jesus Christ, Silicon Valley on the belief that Yahoo bought his Tumblr blog:
In the meantime, whatever I want: mine. You want to talk excitement? That’s excitement. I just Amazon Primed a fucking speedboat.
| Read more »A ruling yesterday in the Northern District of California may have repercussions on the smartphone patent battles raging across the US court landscape. A federal judge granted a user of a standards-essential patent a preliminary injunction against enforcement of a possible US International Trade Commission (ITC) sales injunction. This decision by Senior District Judge Ronald Whyte is the first time a US district court is preventing the ITC's only option to combat patent infringers in conjunction with standards-essential patents.... ...
| Read more »It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world.
You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here.
No Flash? Click here to listen.
Subscribe via RSSDaily Update for May 21, 2013 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 21 May 2013 15:45:00 EST. Please see our...
| Read more »You can view Tim’s and Peter’s statements as PDFs
| Read more »In a brief sidetrack during his Senate testimony today, Apple CEO Tim Cook voiced his opinion on US intellectual property law. Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) asked Cook about the IP benefits of running a company in the US versus other countries, but appears to have been surprised when Cook took a critical tone. "I actually think that we require much more work on IP in this country," he said.... ...
| Read more »After Apple chief executive officer Tim Cook and chief financial officer Peter Oppenheimer appeared before the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations to explain the tech giant's offshore tax practices, the company has made available the opening statements as read in testimony. ...
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Chris Foresman
There's a disconnect between how Apple CEO Tim Cook sees his company's tax strategies and how some members of the US Senate view it. That became clearer than ever today after Cook and two other Apple executives testified before Congress, explaining why they're holding most of their international income in Irish subsidiaries like Apple Operations International (AOI), which declare no tax residency anywhere in the world.
AOI hasn't filed a tax return anywhere in the world for the last five years, yet it earned $30 billion in income from 2009 to 2012, according to a Senate report released yesterday.
Senator Carl Levin (D-MI), who...
Asa Mathat / AllThingsD.comApple, like all multinational corporations, works hard to minimize its tax liability, but it is in full compliance with U.S. tax law and the tax laws in nations where its subsidiaries operate.
That was the gist of Apple CEO Tim Cook’s testimony before the U.S. Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations Tuesday: Apple is a good corporate citizen that pays all taxes due.
“We pay all the taxes we owe. Every single dollar,” Cook said during a Tuesday morning hearing. “We not only comply with the laws but we comply with the spirit of the laws. We don’t depend on tax gimmicks.”
No gimmicks, just standard U.S. tax code which, according to the Senate panel’s investigation, allowed Apple to pay little or no corporate taxes on at least $74 billion in profits over the past four years.
And to be clear, that’s not illegal. Indeed, the Senate investigation into Apple’s...
On Tuesday, software company Delicious Monster released version 3.0.2 of the shareware favorite, Delicious Library. Delicious Monster allows Macs with webcams to scan the bar codes of any book, movie, music CD or video game, then creates an archive based on background information from the Internet. Additional features help keep the library organized and reseller’s tools allow for items to be quickly posted for sale online.
The new version, an 80.3 megabyte download, adds the following fixes and changes:
- Items without a cover show title and creator on shelf.
- Synopses can be added and edited. Custom synopses imported from Delicious Library 2 now display.
- Many changes to make...
I just love A Pale Horse Named Death. Deep, dark music and lyrics that will take you on a journey like few other bands can. Go buy this. NOW!
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Mark Crump at GigaOm has an interesting piece on how the iPad is becoming an important tool for music bands. Crump is an amateur musician whose band is rehearsing for a gig. What's interesting is Crump's realization that the iPad is almost all his band needs at rehearsal.
Crump explains how his iPad fits into band rehearses. First, he chooses the songs in the Music player app and sends his friends links to the songs on YouTube. Next he'll use the AmpliTube app (free) to load up his selected song from the iPad's music app and play along with it via a Fender Squire USB guitar. To chart the songs during rehearsal, Crump uses Apple's Pages app (US$9.99). He...
| Read more »During his testimony before the Senate on Apple's tax strategies, CEO Tim Cook restated an earlier promise that a forthcoming Mac model -- not identified -- was going to be built in the United States, and further revealed that it would be assembled in Texas. While the exact site wasn't specified, Apple has established and is expanding an administrative campus in Austin, and manufacturing partner Foxconn has facilities in Houston.... ...
| Read more »After installing OS X Mountain Lion, some people are finding their internal optical drives are no longer functioning.
| Read more »Apple is reportedly planning an “increased presence of third-party social networks” in iOS 7, and more specifically, a deeper integration of photo and video sharing services Flickr and Vimeo. According to a 9to5Mac report, users will be able to sign into Flickr or Vimeo using iOS 7’s Settings application.…
| Read more »It's time to save some of that hard-earned cash with our Daily Deals, featuring a handy list from Dealnews and our own hand-picked selections that include some sweet deals on iOS and OS X software (all prices are USD).
Deals from Dealnews
During Tim Cook's appearance on Tuesday before the US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (which is presently looking into the tax code), Chairman Carl Levin (D-Michigan) accused Apple of "exploiting an absurdity [in US tax laws] that we have not seen other corporations use," referring to a loophole he believes should be closed. Cook maintained that Apple pays US taxes on its US profits as it should.... ...
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There may be some life in Flickr (and its current owner, Yahoo) after all…
Per Mac|Life, the Flickr Blog announced Monday that the cloud photo service would be making a big change, effective immediately, combining 1TB of free storage with a beautiful new look and feel for the web app.
“At Flickr, we believe you should share all your images in full resolution, so life’s moments can be relived in their original quality,” the blog post reads. “No limited pixels, no...
Pinterest just updated its app for iPhone and iPad after adding push notifications and much more just last week. Today’s update, version 2.4.2, brings the ability to view more information on pins including pricing, availability, ingredients, movie ratings and more. Pinterest just recently outlined the new feature on its blog.
Pinterest will also be making a new Pin It button available to third-party mobile apps to allow pinning from other apps. Some of the apps to already implement the feature include Behance, Brit+Co, ...
Blendoku is based on a crazy idea, made even crazier by the fact that it works. I am just plain terrible at colors. When I was working retail, I spent an entire day learning to lay out merchandise according to color. I was so bad at it, the trainer sent me right back to customer service. That's the very skill set that Blendoku tests, yet I still enjoy playing it.
You're presented with several different colors which must be sorted by shade, lightness, or various other qualities. Some levels are simple, with just a strip of various colors going back and forth, but some are very complicated, with multiple colors mixing up in different ways. The game works well. Moving the colors around is intuitive, and the fun, simple aesthetic allows you to focus on the puzzle.
Blendoku was a surprise. If someone asked me if I'd like a game about lining up color combinations, I don't think I would have said yes....
| Read more »Peter Lewis of Stairways Software has updated the Keyboard Maestro macro utility to version 6, adding a slew of new features, including the capability to automate Web pages, trigger macros when USB devices are connected or disconnected, step through macros one action at a time, sync macros between Macs, and much more. Read the full article at TidBITS, the oldest continuously published technology publication on the Internet. To get a full-text RSS feed, help support our work and become a TidBITS member! Members also enjoy an ad-free version of our Web site, email delivery of individual articles, the ability to make long comments with live links, and discounts on Take Control orders and other Apple-related products.
| Read more »Tim Cook on Tuesday morning appeared before Congress to talk about Apple's tax practices, with a specific focus on Apple's foreign stash of cash. As it stands now, the bulk of Apple's revenue is derived from overseas sales. Consequently, Apple has chosen to keep that cash abroad where it's subject to much lower tax rates than the corporate income tax rate of 35% it would be subject to if it brought that cash back.
During his opening remarks, Cook highlighted all Apple has done for the U.S. economy, emphasizing how much the company already pays in domestic taxes and how it's been responsible for the creation of hundreds of thousands of new jobs in the U.S.
Further, Cook noted that Apple was investing $100 million to begin manufacturing Macs in the US. While we had previously heard of Apple's plans to do so, Cook for the first time fleshed out some more details, in a geographic sense, surrounding Apple's plans.
Specifically, Cook noted that Apple's upcoming "made...
| Read more »In front of the U.S. Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, Apple CEO Tim Cook reiterated the company’s claim that Apple uses no gimmicks to avoid paying U.S. taxes. “We pay all the taxes we owe. Every single dollar,” Cook said. Under the country’s current tax system, Cook argued that it…
| Read more »Native Instruments (NI) announced the release of Abbey Road 50s Drummer, a collection of samples of two classic drum kits popular in the 1950s and recorded inside the famous Abbey Road studios. Built for NI's Kontakt engine, the samples also include templates that allow them to be used as MIDI instruments, with electronic drum kits, and with various software packages. This collection was sampled using a combination of current state-of-the-art equipment and vintage gear. All of the Abbey Road collections have been amazing, and the 50s Drummer collection joins 60s Drummer, 70s Drummer, 80s Drummer, Modern Drummer, and more. It's priced at US$99/€99 and is available now.
| Read more »In the midst of a larger discussion with U.S. senators on international corporate taxes, Apple CEO Tim Cook took an aside to discuss another area of regulation where the iPhone maker would like to see changes: the United States' intellectual property protection environment. ...
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