Apple is some good company.
∞ Read this on The Loop
Apple is some good company.
∞ Read this on The Loop
Microsoft on Tuesday unveiled its next-generation home game console dubbed the "Xbox One," a device that aims to go beyond gaming and become the center of a consumer's living room entertainment experience. ...
| Read more »Environmental activist group, Friends of the Earth HK, claims Apple's Causeway flagship store in Hong Kong is a major contributor to light pollution in the area. Apple reportedly runs about 500 lamps and spotlights over night, and the light spills outside of the store into the Hong Kong streets. According to a report in M.I.C. Gadget, Friends of the Earth HK says light from the store can be seen as far as 700 meters away.
Hong Kong is known for its colorful and illuminated skyline, but all these lights may be having a negative effect on residents. A recent study suggests that parts of Hong Kong have light levels that are 1,200 times higher than international standards. This nighttime brightness is affecting the sleep...
| Read more »A new Broadcom chipset spotted on a Chinese website may be a component of future Mac updates, bringing 802.11ac (known as "Gigabit Wi-Fi") and Bluetooth 4.0 to new models on a single chipset. Not only will the chip handle all wireless communication for future Mac models, but the new chip appears -- at first glance -- to be backward compatible with similar parts in recent models, opening up the possibility of aftermarket upgrades.... ...
| Read more »As I mentioned in my review of a couple of wood cases, I’m not normally a case kind of guy. I’ve never quite seen the point of paying a premium for something beautifully designed and then hiding it away inside a case.
However, a cycling holiday from the Netherlands to Denmark in which my iPhone would be used for both photos and video suggested that at least a temporary change of policy might be in order. Videoing while cycling always carries the risk of an unintended phone-road interface, and using it with the screen on a lot during some long days might also be pushing the battery-life …
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The Otterbox Defender iON case seemed tailor-made for the job. Otterbox Defender cases are rigid plastic cases housed in a silicone skin, designed to offer a reasonably high level of impact protection. The Defender iON goes one better, housing a 1450mAH battery inside the...
| Read more »Ahead of an expected refresh of Apple's Mac lineup, images of what appear to be the wireless cards that could go into those computers have appeared online with potential support for high-speed 802.11ac connectivity. ...
| Read more »While Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Carl Levin (D-MI) are accusing Apple of using shelters in other countries to avoid paying U.S. taxes, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) is accusing the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of bullying Apple. Senator Paul's comments came on Tuesday during a subcommittee hearing into corporate tax practices in Washington DC.
The Mac Observer Spin:
If Apple is complying with the law, but you think the company should pay more taxes, it's time to change the law. Assuming Apple is in the right and hasn't violated any tax codes, Congress needs to look to itself for change and not big corporations.
Vudu has launched an update for its iOS video player that adds support for downloading movies for offline viewing. Previously, users were required to stream all of their content from within the app, however, now they may select to download any content at various qualities for offline use. Other changes include closed captioning support for the iPhone, a simplified Player, and numerous bug fixes. VUDU Player is a free Universal app that can be downloaded from the App Store.... ...
| Read more »Apple has announced that its next Apple store will open at Rundle Place Centre in Adelaide, South Australia this Saturday. It will be the first Apple Store in South Australia. This will bring the number of Apple's retail stores in Australia up to twenty.
Rundle Place Centre is a four-story shopping center with over 70 retail outlets. The store is set to open at 10 AM local time this Saturday. However, interested customers can already set up Genius Bar appointments on the store's web page.Apple's first store in South Australia to open on Saturday originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 21 May 2013 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds...
| Read more »This morning, AT&T sent out a message to Oklahoma customers affected by yesterday's tornado devastation noting that those in the affected areas will have all voice, data and text overages waived through June 30.
The company also reminded AT&T Wireless customers across the country that they can support disaster relief efforts by texting the word REDCROSS to 90999. That text message sends a donation of $10 to the American Red Cross and is charged on the customer's monthly bill.
Bryan Gonterman, State President for AT&T Oklahoma, said in a statement that "Our thoughts and prayers are with those affected by the tornado that hit the Oklahoma City area Monday.
We are coordinating with local authorities and bringing in additional resources. We recommend text messaging for communications with family, friends and loved ones given heavy call volumes."
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| Read more »During this morning’s Senate hearing regarding Apple’s tax strategies, Apple CEO Tim Cook provided opening statements regarding Apple’s perspective on the issues. Notably, during a time in which Cook was discussing Apple’s United States-based operations and strategies, the Apple CEO said that Apple’s upcoming Made-in-the-USA Mac line will be assembled in Texas…
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Apple has not previously disclosed where the already announced US-built Mac will be assembled. Foxconn, Apple’s main assembly partner in China, has factories in Texas.
We’re using our earnings growth to invest billions of dollars in the U.S. to create even more American jobs. We’re investing $100 million to build a Mac product line here in the U.S. The product will be assembled in Texas, include components made in Illinois and Florida, and rely on equipment produced in...
| Read more »Appearing before a U.S. Senate subcommittee on Tuesday, Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook defended his company as a proud American business that pays more in taxes than any other U.S. corporation. ...
| Read more »Google’s new music subscription service Google Play Music All Access doesn’t yet have its own iOS app, but an existing app may add support for the service in the near future. An update for gMusic, a $2 Google music player app, has been submitted to the App Store to…
| Read more »New internal drawing order and menu scanning technique improves speed in looking up keyboard shortcuts. (€19.99 new, free update, 2.6 MB) 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 »Catch up on all of Apple's tax controversy here as both CEO Tim Cook and CFO Peter Oppenheimer gear up to testify in front of Congress to address Apple's billions in foreign-stored cash.
Livestream of Tim Cook and Peter Oppenheimer at today's congressional hearing originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 21 May 2013 10:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Source | ...
| Read more »If Apple has “sought the Holy Grail of tax avoidance” as Sen. Carl Levin (D., Mich.) of The U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations claims, the company didn’t find it in Ireland. Because according to the Irish government, Ireland is “a highly tax compliant country.” And if it’s allegedly being used as a tax haven by companies like Apple, it’s because loopholes in US tax law allow it to.
“[These] are not issues that arise from the Irish taxation system,” Ireland’s Deputy Prime Minister Eamon Gilmore said Tuesday, responding to a U.S. Senate investigation that alleges Apple dodged taxes on tens of billions of dollars in profits held in Irish subsidiaries...
Football fans rejoice (that's soccer for you in America)! Sky Sports has released an update to its popular iPad app that offers a new feature called Sky Sports 360. It lets you switch between over 20 camera angles during a replay. The app also allows you to choose to view the replays at normal speed or in slow motion. Announcing the new feature, David Gibbs, Director of Sky Sports Digital Media, told Sky Sports:
"This is great news for the Sky Sports for iPad app, which keeps getting better and better. This is about putting the technology into the hands of the viewer and allowing them to recapture the big moments in the final. It's the first time we've offered this through our app and it's another example of our investment in the Sky...
| Read more »Gus Mueller gives us a list of four points when we’ll know that Apple got iCloud right.
∞ Read this on The Loop
Your Wi-Fi is about to get faster.
Which is never a bad thing.
Per 9to5Mac, additional evidence has surfaced indicating that Apple’s incoming next round of MacBook Air/Pros would contain 802.11AC Gigabit wifi chips, not the least of which was code we found referencing ’802.11AC‘ in 10.8.4 Betas.
Reader TonyMacx86, found some interesting parts on...
This is an excellent deal for any iOS owners who are fans of football and video games. EA is releasing the 25th iteration of the Madden football games this year, called Madden 25. And in that box, which costs a standard $60, there will be a deal with DirecTV and the NFL to set up streaming to your television, your PC and consoles, or any mobile devices you have. The NFL has been stepping up on streaming game coverage to iOS over the last year or so, and usually services like that can cost a couple of hundred dollars.
To get the deal, you'll have to preorder the Anniversary Edition of Madden 25 (which costs $100)...
| Read more »Bobby Owsinski takes a look at some of his favorite compressors. I love the ones he chose, especially the Fairchild and the Universal Audio LA series.
∞ Read this on The Loop
This could prove useful.
Per The Unofficial Apple Weblog and The Verge, wireless carrier AT&T has indicated that all iPhone subscribers will be able to use FaceTime via a cellular connection by the end of 2013, as stated below:
“For video chat apps that come pre-loaded on devices, we currently give all OS and device makers the ability for those apps to work over cellular for our customers who are on Mobile Share or Tiered plans. Apple, Samsung and BlackBerry have chosen to enable this for their pre-loaded video chat apps. And by mid-June, we’ll have enabled those...
Once again, the strength of Apple's products has led to the Cupertino company being honored as the most valuable brand in the world, topping not only tech rivals like Google and Microsoft, but also giants of industry like McDonald's and Coca-Cola. ...
| Read more »Poser has come a long way from the last time I used it, right around version 4. We're now at 10 for the basic edition (retail US$299.99) and Poser Pro 2014 (retail $499.99) has become a powerful animation tool in its own right. I got to look at some of the new features rolling out today and they are impressive, putting Poser on par with many animation and modeling suites costing much more.
A problem with any humanoid character is how the "skin" folds when you bend it. Poser now offers Pixar's OpenSubdiv libraries, which means subdivision surfaces anywhere you need them. I was impressed with the accuracy and speed at which Poser created subdivisions, which add greatly to the realism already available in Poser. There are also some new characters, both realistic and cartoonish, to help get you started. For basic work the stock characters will keep you busy for quite a while, but there's also a great third party...
| Read more »Before either Apple CEO Tim Cook or Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer took the stand to testify on behalf of Apple to defend the company’s tax practices, Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky lashed out on Senator John McCain and Senator Carl Levin for the “spectacle of dragging in here executives from Apple using the brute force of government to bully a great success story.”
Senator Paul, a notable Tea Party leader and son of Representative Ron Paul, is often outspoken on issues of tax reform and made no effort to align for his Republican colleague Senator John McCain.
Chairman Levin didn’t hesitate to bring the narrative against Apple and its tax practices back to the center stage soon after Senator Paul’s comments.
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“Apple has done more to enrich people’s lives than politicians will ever do,” Senator Paul voiced on Twitter after his monologue.
“If there is anyone to blame here it is not Apple, it is Congress and the tax code it created.”
Senator...
The U.S. Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations claims Apple has avoided paying billions of dollars in U.S. income taxes by using offshore entities. “Apple wasn’t satisfied with shifting its profits to a low-tax offshore tax haven,” subcommittee chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) said in a statement. “Apple sought the Holy…
| Read more »AT&T has reversed its stance blocking FaceTime video chats over cell signals and will begin supporting that, along with all pre-loaded video chat apps, over LTE without any service plan restrictions before the end of the year. Currently, AT&T allows FaceTime video chats on its data network only for subscribers on shared family data plans.
The Mac Observer Spin:
Better late than never, but AT&T should've had this policy in place from the beginning.
Touch Arcade recently had a chat with CCP, the Icelandic developer behind the popular MMO EVE Online, and while there aren't any announcements yet, it certainly sounds like they're gearing up for some iOS apps, or even maybe a client for the game itself. EVE's been on the Mac for a while now, and there have been some third-party attempts at bringing parts of the game to iOS. But CCP has just released a companion game called Dust 514 on the PS3, and that means it's probably time they start thinking about tying in iOS and other popular mobile platforms as well.
There's an app called Neocom coming from CCP to the PS Vita, and executive producer John Lander calls that app a...
| Read more »In opening remarks of a hearing Tuesday morning, the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations accused Apple of being the mastermind of elaborate tax avoidance practices that are unique to the iPhone maker. ...
| Read more »Zagg, a company that makes high quality keyboard cases for iPads that we’ve reviewed in the past, today introduced two brand new keyboard cover and folio designs for iPad mini. Zagg says both products are ultra-thin Bluetooth keyboards that take advantage of “a unique, patent-pending hinge system that enhances the iPad mini user experience with a full...
| Read more »Update: Live coverage of the Senate hearing on Apple’s offshore tax practices is above.
As things heat up in the row on alleged tax avoidance by Apple, Ireland has denied a claim made by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations that it had agreed a special deal with the company to allow it to pay corporation tax of just 2% on its Irish earnings.
The denial was made to Yahoo! Finance reporter Conor Humphries:
According to the congressional report, Ireland had also agreed a special 2 percent rate for Apple’s Irish taxable profits...
Sales of prepaid smartphones in the US consumer market have risen dramatically, doubling in the last year and "continuing a string of more than 12 quarters of triple-digit sales increases" according to a new report from market analysts NPD. Prepaid phones -- defined as either premium smartphones such as the iPhone bought outright to avoid a contract or low-end smartphones aimed at lower-income consumers -- increased 11 percent in year-over-year in the first quarter of 2013.... ...
| Read more »There have been plenty of hints over the past months that indicate that Apple’s incoming next round of MacBook Air/Pros would contain 802.11AC Gigabit wifi chips, not the least of which was code we found referencing ’802.11AC‘ in 10.8.4 Betas.
TonyMacx86, found some interesting parts on Chinese VR-Zone today that could be the next 802.11AC boards in Macs, widely expected to be announced at WWDC next month. The Broadcom BCM94360CD PCI-E mini custom combo WLAN+Bluetooth...
Logitech’s UE brand is often at the top of our list when it comes to the best bluetooth speakers around, so we’re excited that today the company introduced its latest product with the announcement of the ‘UE BOOM’. Logitech is calling this “the world’s first social music player,” and that’s due to the fact that it’s the first to offer 360-degree sound and a 15-hour rechargeable battery. That’s a nice step up from the 5-8 hours you’ll get with most Bluetooth speakers.
Logitech is also following a trend that many Bluetooth speaker manufacturers have been lately: With UE BOOM you’ll be able to wirelessly connect two UE BOOMs via a free companion app to allow for traditional right/left stereo sound and other sound settings. It’s also water and...
Jeff Gamet, The Mac Observer's Managing Editor, joined the team at The Mac Show to talk about Apple's tax payment practices and the U.S. Senate hearing where CEO Tim Cook will be testifying.
Have you ever heard the saying, "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results?" Apparently none of the rumor blogs have, because they keep publishing the same sketchy rumors from the same terrible sources. Many of these sources (*coughDigitimes* *coughPeterMisekcoughcough*) have proven to be wrong so often that they've been publicly lambasted by numerous actual news outlets... but for some reason, "sources from the Far East" and "analysts" still account for two out of the three legs on the rumor blogs' increasingly shaky table.
Despite 'mounting' pressure, Apple not seen releasing 'iPhablet' until middle of next year (BGR)
This is a perfect example of a rumor with a truly terrible source. Here's your homework assignment, BGR: tell us the last time "analyst" Peter Misek made a prediction about Apple that actually turned out to be...
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The Chrome App Launcher is coming to OSX, providing a simple way to launch Chrome ‘packaged apps’ – web apps that are written in a combination of HTML5, Javascript and CSS but which look and behave like conventional PC or Mac apps …
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Google Chrome team member François Beaufort, who has the whacky job title of Happiness Evangelist (some Google employees get to pick their own job titles), posted the screengrab on his Google+ page.
Chrome Team is currently working on bringing the App Launcher on the Mac platform as you can see in the screenshot below.
You can already give it a try by running the last chromium build available at download-chromium.appspot.com with the –show-app-list switch.
To see it in action, you’ll need to download...
Google is still axing services, and this time it's Google Checkout that's on the execution block. The Internet search giant warned retailers they have until November to find a replacement for the feature, although some users can move to Google Wallet.
The Mac Observer Spin:
This time Google already has an alternative in place for the service it's killing, but considering the number of services the company has killed off over the past few months, that probably isn't instilling much confidence in users.
With Apple under fire for its low international tax rate thanks to corporate subsidiaries housed in Ireland, the Irish government has spoken out on the matter, saying its laws are not to blame. ...
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Apple remains the most valuable brand in the world, in an annual ranking by market intelligence company Millward Brown, reported in Marketing Week.
The Millward Brown Brandz rankings take into account both financial strength and brand equity, a measure of the value consumers place in a brand. Despite Apple’s share-price woes, the brand is regarded by consumers as the ‘gold standard’, says the report …
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“What we see with the most popular or powerful brands is that brand lasts a lot longer, is more...
| Read more »In the aftermath of the devastating tornado that cut a path of destruction through Oklahoma City on Monday, wireless carrier AT&T announced that overage charges would be suspended for the area until June 30 as part of an effort to assist victims, many of whom lost everything. Due to high call volumes as friends and family check on their loved ones, the company said it would add additional resources to relieve cell congestion.... ...
| Read more »mspohr writes with news that Apple might be in a bit of hot water over its policy of offshoring revenues to favorable tax jurisdictions. Only they take it a step further, from the article: "Apple relied on a 'complex web of offshore entities' and U.S. tax loopholes to avoid paying billions of dollars in U.S. taxes on $44 billion in offshore income over the past four years ... The maker of iPhones and iPads used at least three foreign subsidiaries that it claims are not 'tax resident in any nation' to help it avoid paying billions in 'otherwise taxable offshore income,' the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations said in a statement yesterday." ...
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Designers of operating systems can't think of everything that should be in their programs. Utilities are a testament to that. Utilities are software programs that do things that should have been included in an operating system, but weren't. They can help you keep your system performing at top speed, solve irritating problems or just keep valuable information at your fingertips. For example, you might want to have the windows on your desktop placed just so when you're working.
With the iPhone and iPad driving increasingly more of Apple’s profits, the Mac is no longer the defining theme of the company’s financial story that it once was. Which is why new data suggesting domestic Mac sales for the month of April didn’t grow at all is actually reasonably good news for Apple.
According to NPD, Mac sales for the month of April in North America were flat year-over-year. Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, who reported the data, says that’s a “neutral to slight positive” data point for Apple, relative to expectations for its Mac business.
Why neutral? Munster’s own forecast calls for worldwide Mac sales for the June quarter to decline about 5 percent year over year. And last quarter supply issues hampered sales of Apple’s newer Macs. So if NPD is seeing flat sales for April, that potentially bodes well for the current quarter.
Level Mac sales aren’t great, but they’re obviously...
In response to the devastating tornado that hit Okalhoma City on Monday, U.S. wireless carrier AT&T announced it will be waiving all overage charges for those affected through June 30. ...
| Read more »As you have come to expect from your two favorite geeks, this show brought to you with real-time logistics: Dave flew in just in time to make the recording of the show, coordinating with John and prepping the agenda from the car while Dave's wife drove him straight to the studio. Good stuff in this show, too, as you'd expect with the kind of frantic energy that went into the prep! Download today (it's free, after all) and enjoy!
View Magazine is a nicely put-together coffee table ebook for the iPad or iPhone that contains photos that are interesting and certainly not run-of-the-mill sunsets and flowers. A variety of photographers have combined to submit some of their favorite work, and they offer some commentary about the images.
There are shots of urban landscapes, people, and nature images, but none are what I would call the standard 'pretty pictures'. That said, the images are striking, and the thoughts behind the images are often illuminating. You won't like everything you see, but there is plenty to choose from.
VIEW Magazine used to require a paid subscription, but it has just gone free, and you can manually download an issue or set it up for automatic downloading to Apple's Newsstand app.
I found the content stimulating and interesting. Any image can be shared to Facebook or via email. You scroll...
| Read more »Apple is preparing to open a new Apple Store in Adelaide, Australia on May 25 at 10AM. The Rundle Place outlet will not only be Apple's first in Adelaide, but also by extension the first in the state of South Australia, which is otherwise sparsely populated. The company has 19 other stores in the country, most of which are in New South Wales or Victoria.... ...
| Read more »Welcome South Australia to the Apple Store family. The Rundle Place Centre Apple Store will open at 10am local time on Saturday May 25th.
An anonymous tipster from the area sent in the above image which is supposed to be the store before opening.
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| Read more »In an update to its website on Monday, Apple revealed its newest retail location in Australia, at Rundle Place Centre in Adelaide, will open its doors on Saturday at 10 a.m. local time. ...
| Read more »A new Senate report (PDF from The New York Times) shows that Apple has been employing potentially sketchy business methods to avoid heavier tax burdens. According to the investigation, the company did dodged billions in potential taxes on $44 billion in foreign income during the past four years.
Some of the interesting bits from the Senate's report: three Apple subsidiaries in Ireland claim no responsibility to pay income taxes to any country. Apple Operations International, one of the Ireland three, reported $30 billion in income during 2009 to 2012 despite having no employees and not filing income taxes anywhere within the last five years. Apple did not violate any laws during this time according to the Senate investigation.
As...
Peter Molyneux's studio 22cans has been working on a Populous followup game called Godus, and the company has just announced a deal for a publisher. DeNA, the Japanese company behind the Mobage social platform, will be publishing Godus on iOS. And the game will also connect up to Mobage in Western companies and in Japan and Korea.
DeNA is an interesting choice for Molyneux -- the company is usually known for casual games, and the audience is largely Japanese so far. But DeNA has definitely been looking to expand to the west and seeking well-known developers to do that with, including a game they're working on with former EA designer Ben Cousins. Plus, Molyneux has released Curiosity on iOS...
| Read more »Facebook on Monday brought its Share Dialog out of beta which, once adopted by iOS app developers, will allow users to share content in-app without first having to sign in to the social network. ...
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Yahoo, which had dropped off the important BrandZ Top 100 ranking several years ago, scratched its way on again this year at No. 92.
The Silicon Valley Internet giant had last been on the key list of brands in 2009, when it had a brand value of $7.9 billion. It now has a brand value of $9.8 billion, which is still down from its $11.4 billion in 2008.
And that’s tiny in comparison to Apple, which remains No. 1 on the list, with a brand value of $185.1 billion. Google ranked as No. 2, with a brand value of $113.7 billion.
Apple rival Samsung’s brand value rose by by 51 percent to $21.4 billion, clocking in at the No. 30 spot.
In tech, Amazon’s brand value was $45.7 billion, rising 34 percent to No. 14. IBM is No. 3 with a brand value of $112 billion.
And more: Microsoft (No. 7, $69.8 billion, down 9 percent); Facebook (No. 31, $21.3 billion, down 36 percent); and eBay (No. 47, $17.7...
Today, Google made it known to its array of merchants that it is discontinuing the Google Checkout functionality, and migrating some existing users to Google Wallet. In a blog post announcing the move, Google called the Wallet product "a platform that enables merchants to meet the demands of a multi-screen world where consumers shop in-stores, at their desks and on their mobile devices." Users have six months to find an alternative solution, if not migrated automatically.... ...
| Read more »In a statement provided to The Verge, AT&T has indicated that all iPhone subscribers will be able to use FaceTime via a cellular connection by the end of 2013.
For video chat apps that come pre-loaded on devices, we currently give all OS and device makers the ability for those apps to work over cellular for our customers who are on Mobile Share or Tiered plans. Apple, Samsung and BlackBerry have chosen to enable this for their pre-loaded video chat apps. And by mid-June, we'll have enabled those apps over cellular for our unlimited plan customers who have LTE devices from those three manufacturers. Throughout the second half of this year, we plan to enable pre-loaded video chat apps over cellular for all our customers, regardless of data plan or device; that work is expected to be complete by year end. Today, all of our customers can use any mobile...
| Read more »Apple's chain of retail stores continue to be the most profitable retail outlets in the world on a square-foot basis. According to Asymco, Apple hit yet another record in the March quarter for dollars-per-visitor, getting US$57.60 on average from the hordes of ravenous Apple fans that frequent Apple Stores.
The Mac Observer Spin:
Looking at these charts, it's hard to fit the Apple-hater narrative that the company is on some kind of downhill trajectory. Maybe we just need more time, and then surely it will come to pass?
Apple has been making moves over the last year to expand its market share in India after its net profit for their India devision increased 431 percent year to year. Tripling the amount of franchise stores in the country? Check. Trade-in incentives? Check. Now the incentives are continuing with expansions for college students and American Express customers.
The first incentive is designed to draw students into picking up an iPhone. Currently non-student residents who trade-in their smartphones for an iPhone get 7,000 rupees (US$130). Students, however, get 7,777 rupees (around $144) for their trade-in.
Apple's other new incentive is targeted at American Express owners and offers 10% cash back towards the purchase of an iPhone 4, 4S, or 5 before June 10th. The maximum refund...
| Read more »Sony and Apple are at loggerheads over streaming music, AT&T gets ready to open the floodgates on video chat over its network, and the head of Turkey drops in on Silicon Valley. The remainders for Monday, May 20, 2013 are up a stream without a paddle.
One issue holding up Apple iRadio: The economics of skipping songs (CNet)
If you were expecting Apple’s rumored music streaming service to roll out at next month’s WWDC, you might be disappointed. CNet reports that Sony Music is at odds with Cupertino over what Apple will pay for songs that users skip or rate poorly. Here’s a tip, Sony: Make better music. That one’s free!
AT&T says ‘any’ mobile video chat app will work on its network by the...
| Read more »Samsung Display announced today that it is showcasing several mobile to extra-large-sized display prototypes at the Society for Information Display's Display Week. These include a Full HD 1920×1080 mobile AMOLED 4.99-inch display with the world's broadest color gamut, a 10.1-inch 2560 x 1600 LCD for tablets, and a 13.3-inch 3200 x 1800 LCD for notebooks.... ...
| Read more »It's official: Yahoo! CEO Marissa Meyer has gone completely bonkers, as the Yahoo-owned Flickr has just announced that all users now have a free terabyte of storage. That's a thousand gigabytes, folks. For free.
As the Flickr website touts, 1 terabyte will hold 537,731 photos at an average size of 6.5 megapixels each. No more are you going to need to scale down the size of your images to fit 'em on Flickr -- just upload them at their native resolution.
It's worth remembering that Flickr has a free iPhone app available to facilitate uploading, viewing, and sharing your images.
Yahoo raises the stakes for free Flickr storage: 1 terabyte originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple...
| Read more »You can make your own filters for reducing or otherwise adjusting images when exporting in OS X's Preview application.
| Read more »In the wake of Apple's published testimony, US Senators Carl Levin (D-MI) and John McCain (R-AZ) have released their own joint statement on the work of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. "Apple Inc. has used a complex web of offshore entities -- including three foreign subsidiaries the company claims are not tax resident in any nation -- to avoid paying billions of dollars in U.S. income taxes," Levin's office writes.... ...
| Read more »A Congressional panel has found that Apple avoided billions in taxes, the New York Times reports, thanks to an intricate network of subsidiaries throughout the globe. The structure of some of these sub-companies in certain countries made them exempt from paying or filing taxes or record-keeping laws.
The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations found that kept $74 billion from the IRS between 2009 and 2012. Apple is not charged, however, with breaking any laws.
Apple has published the full text of its upcoming testimony to the Senate congressional panel, which it's scheduled to make on Tuesday. Among those to testify include CEO Tim Cook. Cook spoke with The...
| Read more »As part of a special media event on Monday, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer unveiled major changes to photo management and sharing service Flickr, with full resolution image support, 1 terabyte of storage for each user, and a revamped user interface. ...
| Read more »A Senate committee investigating U.S. corporate tax rates has accused Apple of using a global network of complex subsidiaries to avoid paying billions of dollars in U.S. taxes. The accusation represents a rare bipartisan front in the U.S. Senate, with both Democrat and Republican senators issuing statements in the accusation.
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.
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Subscribe via RSSDaily Update for May 20, 2013 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 20 May 2013 17:45:00 EST. Please see our...
| Read more »In its continuing quest for domination in the Android market place, Samsung has announced a global contest for developers to make Samsung-exclusive apps. In particular, they're looking for apps that highlight the Group Play function showcased in the new Galaxy S4. Group Play allows users to interact and share content like music, photos, and games with other users. 10 winner developers will split $800,000 in prize money as the company looks for the killer app to help it stand out in the pack of Android handset providers.
The contest requires developers to use Samsung's Chord SDK media streaming service to be eligible for the prize money. $200,000 goes to the first prize winner, three second-place winners get $100,000 each, and the remaining six third-place winners pocketing $50,000 apiece.
Entries will be judged based on originality, design, functionality, and...
| Read more »Facebook has brought a native Share Dialog for iOS out of beta via an updated SDK, v3.5.1. The change means that third-party iOS 6 apps will be able to share activity to Facebook without always requiring a login first. People should also be able to tag friends from within those apps.... ...
| Read more »Reading this will give you a good idea of what’s going to happen tomorrow. It’s going to be messy.
∞ Read this on The Loop
Just hours after Apple published the full testimony which CEO Tim Cook plans to give to the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations in the U.S. Senate, the government body issued its own findings on the company's offshore tax practices, saying subsidiaries were used to purposefully avoid paying billions of dollars in domestic taxes. ...
| Read more »Tired of the same old keyboard design and looking for something a bit different? The Penclic Mini Keyboard K2 (US$69.95) definitely fits the bill in terms of not being the typical keyboard, and as you'll see in this review that's not necessarily a good thing.
Design and Functionality
When I think of Scandinavian design, I usually think of sleek minimalist wooden furniture. The Swedish-designed Penclic Mini Keyboard K2 comes in black (unless you're looking at the company's website, where the keyboard is white), and definitely has a different look to it. It's about the same width and depth of the Apple Wireless Keyboard, but with a top end that swoops up. It's striking but difficult to describe; if that description makes no sense to you, just take a look at the photos. That thick top end is where the batteries -- a pair...
| Read more »TMO cofounder and copublisher Bryan Chaffin will be speaking Monday evening at the monthly meeting of the Silicon Valley Macintosh User Group. Bryan will be talking about Apple, the high noise-to-signal ratio in coverage of the company, and what we might expect at June's World Wide Developer Conference.
Apple has set up three foreign subsidiaries that the company claims are not resident in any nation for taxing purposes, in an effort to avoid paying tens of billions of dollars in taxes to the U.S. and other countries, according to a new report from a U.S. Senate subcommittee.
Apple has set up a “complex web” of offshore entities to avoid paying taxes, with some subsidiaries set up in low-tax Ireland, according to a report released Monday by the investigations subcommittee of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
One of the subsidiaries set up by Apple has paid no corporate income tax to any nation for the past five years, although it reported $30 billion in net income from 2009 to 2012, the report said. Another subsidiary has paid a tax rate to Ireland of one-tenth of 1 percent or less in 2009, 2010 and 2011, far below the normal Irish corporate income tax rate of 12 percent, according to the subcommittee report.
Apple has negotiated...
| Read more »Apple Inc. has set up corporate structures that have allowed it to pay little or no corporate tax—in any country—on much of its overseas income, according to the findings of a U.S. Senate examination released Monday evening.
The unusual result is possible because the iPhone maker’s key foreign subsidiaries argue they are residents of nowhere, according to the investigators’ report, which will be discussed at a hearing on Tuesday where Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook will testify.
The finding comes from a lengthy investigation into the technology giant’s tax practices by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, led by Sen. Carl Levin (D., Mich.) and Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.).
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Yahoo has been busy. I like this look better.
∞ Read this on The Loop
Congrats to everyone involved. This is a great look at Tumblr from the inside.
∞ Read this on The Loop
All of a sudden Flickr is back. Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer’s Tumblr (that was quick!) post on the matter:
Photos tell the stories — stories we’re inspired to relive, share with our friends, or capture simply to express ourselves. Collecting these moments is a part of our everyday. Since 2005, Flickr has become synonymous with inspiring imagery. Today, we’re thrilled to take Flickr even further with a beautiful, completely re-imagined experience that puts photos front and center. When it comes to photography, technology and its limits shouldn’t hinder the experience. So we’re also giving our Flickr users one terabyte of space — for free. That’s enough for a lifetime of photos — more than 500,000 original, full-resolution, pixel-perfect, brilliant photos. Flickr users will never have to worry about running out of space.
1TB is “I no longer have to think...
| Read more »A TUAW staffer recently asked if there were a way to snapshot the exact same region of the screen over and over at timed intervals without buying third-party software.
There is, but it depends on your comfort with the command line. If you're experienced in Unix scripting, read on. If not, you may want to investigate standalone screen-capture apps instead.
I pointed him to /usr/sbin/screencapture. This built-in OS X utility allows you to specify a screen region to capture. For example, to capture a 50x200 rectangle starting at the point 200, 200, you'd say:
% /usr/sbin/screencapture -R"200,200,50,200" ~/Desktop/foo.png
You can easily apply a Unix shell script to create numbered output files. Unix commands will also enable you to sleep and repeat the capture requests over time.
The utility is Retina-ready. Since it captures in points (and not pixels), the results are twice as big in each dimension when run on Retina systems....
| Read more »This is along the lines of what I would expect in iOS. Not throwing everything away, but more updating and modernizing the interface.
∞ Read this on The Loop
Speaking at tonight's Yahoo press event in New York City, Marissa Mayer and Yahoo's Mobile Engineering Senior Vice President and Flickr product manager Adam Cahan revealed the new Flickr and accompanying new Android app, offering users 1TB of photo storage in a "very metro" user interface.... ...
| Read more »Apple has already made its planned remarks before a Senate committee on Tax Reform known.
Here’s what the other side has to say via Michigan’s Carl Levin (Democrat) on the senator’s view of Apple’s tax avoidance strategy:
“Apple wasn’t satisfied with shifting its profits to a low-tax offshore tax haven. Apple sought the Holy Grail of tax avoidance. It has created offshore entities holding tens of billions of dollars, while claiming to be tax resident nowhere. We intend to highlight that gimmick and other Apple offshore tax avoidance tactics so that American working families who pay their share of taxes understand how offshore tax loopholes raise their tax burden, add to...
Apple is testing 1.5-inch OLED touchscreens for use in its upcoming smartwatch, claims Taiwanese publication the Economic Daily News. Apple is in fact said to have tried 1.8-inch screens, but judged that they were too big. The 1.5-inch panels are reportedly being manufactured by Taiwan's RiTdisplay, and use one-glass-solution touch sensors, which should allow Apple to keep the watch thin.... ...
| Read more »Apple released the testimony CEO Tim Cook will submit to a Congressional hearing on Tuesday, including some of the details of a proposal to overhaul the U.S. corporate tax system. In a 16 page PDF, Apple asked that Congress eliminate all corporate tax loopholes, lower the corporate income tax rates, and to implement a "reasonable tax" on foreign earnings.
At a media event in New York today, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer announced a new office in Times Square for the Silicon Valley Internet giant.
“From one Mayor to another,” said Mayor Michael Bloomberg to Mayer (get it?) about locating in Manhattan’s iconic location, which will house 500 Yahoo employees.
But not Tumblr, which will remain blissfully downtown, even after its $1.1 billion all-cash acquisition by Yahoo announced today.
“We’re very happy that Tumblr is a home-grown company,” said Bloomberg,
Irony alert: Yahoo’s new digs in the Big Apple is actually the old HQ of the New York Times.
“Twenty years ago there were a lot of Yahoos in New York,” said the Bloomberg, channeling Jackie Mason and then touting the local tech industry and reeling off the stats.
Boiled down:...
Tim Cook’s taking on the tax man. On Tuesday, the Apple CEO will appear before the U.S. Senate’s permanent Subcommittee on Investigations to discuss that body’s look into multinational companies and how they pay taxes. As a special preview to those who really can’t wait to hang on Cook’s every word, Apple on Monday released its head honcho’s testimony.
Those searching for even the merest hint of Apple’s future plans will want to find another tree up which to bark: the 18-page testimony deals almost exclusively the relatively dry subjects of Apple subsidiaries, the company’s corporate structure, and its broad suggestions for overhauling the federal tax system. Given that, it’s no surprise that Cook will be joined by Peter Oppenheimer, the company’s CFO, and Phillip Bullock, Apple’s head of tax operations.
Apple acknowledges that a corporate tax overhaul may may mean that it pays more, but says that...
| Read more »A few months ago I reviewed an external hard drive enclosure I was pretty fond of -- the Mercury On-The-Go-Pro. Today I want to tell you about one I like even more: The Oyen Digital MiniPro enclosure. The two enclosures actually are very similar in functionality. They both allow you to take your old laptop hard drives, insert them into the enclosure, and turn those old drives into useful spare external drives. They also both offer one USB 3.0 port and two Firewire 800 ports. The reason I like the Oyen Digital MiniPro more, however, is because its design mirrors the Mac Pro. It's made from a solid aluminum housing that Mac Pro users know and love. Because of this, it actually looks like it was designed by Apple. The enclosure is also bus-powered, so no power cord is required.
The Oyen Digital...
| Read more »At its event last month Facebook showed us a native Share Dialog as part of its Facebook SDK 3.5 for iOS update, and today Facebook announced on its blog that the feature is now available to developers.
Now officially out of beta, the native Share Dialog will allow developers to implement easier sharing features into their apps using a single line of code. Facebook said it provides “a lightweight and consistent way to enable sharing from your apps,” allowing users to share data from apps without first having to login into Facebook. The result is the elimination of 1 – 3 extra steps required for login when sharing via the feed dialog and an experience similar to using a Facebook Like button.
The Share Dialog further improves upon the...
AT&T has made a statement suggesting the carrier will allow all mobile video chat apps over cellular on its network by the end of the year. In a statement made to The Verge, AT&T said that pre-loaded Apple, Samsung and BlackBerry’s video chat apps will be enabled by mid-June…
| Read more »Apple is making some moves to make its iPhone line more affordable in India. Deals sponsored by Apple with partners include credit card rebates, trade-in discounts, subsidies, and modified payment plans. As a result of the plans, analysts expect "significant growth" in the region.... ...
| Read more »Apple has released a document containing CEO Tim Cook’s testimony ahead of his scheduled appearance tomorrow before US Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. Responding to questions about the company keeping more than $100 billion overseas, Apple used the testimony to state that it does not use tax gimmicks, and…
| Read more »Nozbe is a tool that helps busy professionals and teams organize time and manage their projects to get things done efficiently and effectively.
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| Read more »AT&T has made a statement regarding the future of video chat applications on its LTE network. According to the telecom company, all "pre-loaded video chat apps" will be available for all of its wireless customers "regardless of data plan or device" by the end of the year. The move is a turnaround from previous decisions by the company to prohibit use of FaceTime and now Google Hangouts chat on mostly grandfathered unlimited data plans.... ...
| Read more »AT&T has announced that all mobile video chat applications, including Apple's FaceTime, will work over its cellular network by the end of this year. ...
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