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Apple Updates iTunes to Version 11.0.3 With New MiniPlayer and Improvements

Apple has released an update to its iTunes music and media application, bringing it to version 11.0.3.

The update updates the compact MiniPlayer, adding album artwork and a progress bar, as well as better support for multi-disc albums and large iTunes libraries.
This version of iTunes comes with several new features and improvements, including:

- New MiniPlayer. MiniPlayer now includes a beautiful new view that showcases your album artwork. In addition, a progress bar is now built right into MiniPlayer.

- Improved Songs View. You can now enjoy your album artwork while in Songs view.

- Multi-Disc Albums. Albums with multiple discs now appear as a single album.

This update also provides performance improvements when searching and sorting large iTunes libraries.
The update weighs in at 187.50MB on the Mac, and is available through the Mac App Store, Software Update, and direct from Apple's Software Download Page.

The last update to iTunes was released back in February.

New High-Resolution Photos of iPhone 5S Parts Reveal Little

BGR shares several new relatively high-resolution photos of parts claimed to be from the iPhone 5S. These parts have been leaking to repair firms over the past several months, and a number of photos have already been seen, but the new photos do represent the highest-quality look at these parts so far.

Vibrator/audio control flex cable for iPhone 5S
Unfortunately, the photos reveal little about Apple's plans for the iPhone 5S, as they are minor parts generally seeing relatively small changes compared to their corresponding iPhone 5 parts.
The parts include the loud-speaker bracket, ear speaker bracket, vibrating motor assembly, Wi-Fi flex cable ribbon and SIM card tray from Apple’s upcoming seventh-generation iPhone.
Part leaks claimed to be from the iPhone 5S began in January with photos of a speaker enclosure, and have continued with additional photos of the home button and volume/mute button flex cables, front camera flex cable, and nano-SIM card trays. The source of the previous SIM tray leak claimed that the trays were identical to those seen in the iPhone 5, while BGR's report today claims that they are thinner.

iPhone 5S nano-SIM trays
Most recently, just last week an antenna-related add-on piece for the iPhone 5S logic board surfaced, although the implications of minor changes observed in the part compared to the iPhone 5 remain

Android and iOS Continue to Dominate Smartphone Market as Windows Phone Shows Signs of Life

Following up on its April report breaking down mobile phone shipments by manufacturer for the first quarter of 2013, research firm IDC today issued a new report looking at shipments from an operating system perspective. The report unsurprisingly shows that Android and iOS continue to dominate the smartphone market with over 92% of shipments during the quarter, with Android's broad availability driving it to represent 75% of all shipments.
Apple iOS marked its largest ever first quarter volume on the strength of its iPhone shipment volumes, yet the operating system posted a year-over-year decline in market share and lower year-over-year shipment growth than the overall market. Although demand remains strong worldwide, the iOS experience has remained largely the same since the first iPhone debuted in 2007. That appears ready to change as online rumors and speculation predict a massive overhaul of the user interface when iOS 7 debuts.
Worldwide Smartphone Shipments in 1Q13 in Millions of Units (Source: IDC)
The gains by Android and iOS over the last several years have come at the expense of every other operating system, but IDC's numbers reveal that Windows Phone is beginning to see signs of life with shipments more than doubling year over year, although its share of the market remains low at 3.2%.

Still, Windows Phone was the only minor competitor to gain share over the previous year, with BlackBerry continuing its slide in falling to 2.9%, although IDC suggests the launch of BB10 may bolster BlackBerry's numbers going forward. Linux and Symbian also saw significant share

Apple to Relocate Flagship San Francisco Retail Store to Union Square

Apple's San Francisco flagship retail store has been a particularly high-profile location for the company since it opened nine years ago, but the San Francisco Chronicle reports that Apple has submitted plans to move the store to a new location three blocks away. The new location at Stockton and Post streets will be directly adjacent to Union Square, the focal point of San Francisco's high-end shopping district.
Supervisor David Chiu said he hoped the new silver box-shaped computer store and customer service center would “turbo-charge” the Union Square area, which has long been home to many of the city’s high-end retailers.

The new outlet will occupy the space at Stockton and Post streets formerly occupied by Levi’s and be about 45 percent larger than the existing space, though it will include all the same features.
Rendering of new San Francisco flagship store on Union Square
Apple says that the new location will increase its staff from the current 350 to 400 at the new location, but no timeline for construction and the move has been announced.

The current flagship store at 1 Stockton Street is located directly adjacent to an entrance for a subway station serving both San Francisco's Muni Metro and the broader BART rail system. The new location is several blocks from the main Market Street transit corridor, but remains well served by transit and city officials hope that the new location will help draw more customers into the Union Square shopping district. San Francisco is also in the early stages of work on a new Central Subway line that will include a station

Apple Announces Winner of App Store's 50 Billionth Download Contest

Apple today announced the winner of its "50 Billion App Countdown" promotion that saw the company pass that milestone on Wednesday afternoon.

Word game Say the Same Thing from the band OK Go was the milestone download, with Brandon Ashmore from Mentor, Ohio making the winning download. Ashmore will will receive an iTunes Gift Card worth US$10,000. For the first time, Apple also gave the fifty downloaders after the big winner US$500 iTunes Gift Cards.
“Apple would like to thank our incredible customers and developers for topping 50 billion apps downloaded,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services. “The App Store completely transformed how people use their mobile devices and created a thriving app ecosystem that has paid out over nine billion dollars to developers. We’re absolutely floored to cross this milestone in less than five years.”
Apple ran similar promotions for ten billion and twenty-five billion downloads, in January 2011 and March 2012 respectively.

The App Store took just under five years to hit the fifty billion download mark, though the rate of downloads has been accelerating and is now at more than 20 billion app downloads per

Tim Cook to Testify In Front of Senate Committee Over Apple's Tax Practices

Apple CEO Tim Cook will testify in front of the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigation next week, Politico is reporting. The subcommittee is attached to the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.

The hearing, titled "Offshore Profit Shifting and the U.S. Tax Code - Part 2" will occur at 9:30AM on Tuesday, May 21 in the Dirksen Senate Office Building.

The Subcommittee will continue its examination of the structures and methods employed by multinational corporations to shift profits offshore and how such activities are affected by the Internal Revenue Code and related regulations. Witnesses will include representatives from the Department of the Treasury, the Internal Revenue Service, representatives of a multinational corporation, and tax experts.
Representatives from Microsoft and HP testified on September 12 on the same topic.

Apple recently borrowed $17 billion in a bond offering, in part to return cash to shareholders without bringing some of its $100 billion overseas cash pile to the United States. If it were to repatriate that cash to the U.S., it would need to pay a more than $13 billion tax

Apple's App Store Reaches 50 Billion Downloads, Now on Pace for 20 Billion Apps Per Year

Apple's App Store today reached 50 billion downloads since its inception in 2008, and along with the milestone comes the end of the company's "50 Billion App Countdown" promotion launched thirteen days ago. The winner of the promotion, who is yet to be announced, will be awarded a $10,000 gift card valid for App Store, Mac App Store, or any other iTunes Store content. Fifty additional winners will receive $500 gift cards.

The milestone is being acknowledged on Apple's website with a graphic showing a "Thanks" message written using award-winning iPad app Paper by FiftyThree.

The App Store took nearly 3 years, 8 months to reach 25 billion downloads, with the next 25 billion downloads requiring only about 14.5 months.

With the last 25 billion downloads coming over a period of 14.5 months, Apple's pace is now at over 20 billion downloads per year or over 50 million per day. As tracked by our sister site AppShopper, Apple has approved a total of nearly 1.2 million apps for the App Store since its launch, with nearly 850,000 of them currently available in the

Google Shows Off Upcoming Map Changes, Announces iPad App

At the Google I/O keynote in San Francisco this morning, Google demonstrated an upcoming overhaul for its mobile mapping apps on iOS and Android and announced an iPad version of Google Maps that will hit the App Store this summer.

The new version of Google Maps will incorporate both restaurant and location ratings from Zagat. Google is bringing Google Offers integration to its mobile maps, offering discounts and coupons from retailers like Starbucks directly in the app. Searching for a restaurant or location within Google Maps will display ratings, reviews, and available offers.

Image Courtesy of The Verge
Google also plans to add live coverage of traffic incidents around the world, providing real time alerts with dynamic re-routing capabilities to improve the functionality of its turn-by-turn directions. As for Google Maps on the iPad, Google introduced a new tablet-centric feature called "Experience," which provides indoor maps for a variety of locations, displaying restaurant and shopping options.

While on stage, Google's Mobile Director of Maps Daniel Graf didn't waste an opportunity to poke fun at Apple's Maps. While speaking about Google Maps on iOS, he had this to say: "People called it sleek, simple, beautiful… and let's not forget accurate."

Apple Maps, which was introduced alongside iOS 6 to replace Google Maps, has been heavily criticized for providing inaccurate results and for its lack of crucial features, like transit information. Though Apple has been working to improve Maps, the addition of real time traffic reports, rerouting, and a more

Google Unifies Cross-Platform Messaging Services With 'Hangouts'

Google has unveiled a new unified messaging service that is designed to work on Android, iOS, and the web. Called Hangouts, the app incorporates and unifies several different Google services, including Google Talk, Google+ Messenger, and the existing Google+ Hangouts.
Today we're launching a stand-alone version of Hangouts that combines text, photos and live video across Android, iOS and your computer.

Now that Hangouts spans modalities and devices, you can finally fuhgeddaboudit (the technology, that is), and focus on what really matters: creating lasting relationships. And that, we think, is a plus.
Hangouts, which is similar to Facebook Messenger, places an emphasis on "conversations which last," saving chats between users in the cloud and allowing users to access past chats, shared photos, and video call history. The app's interface also emphasizes conversations over contacts and supports both multimedia content and additions like emoji.


According to Google's Senior Vice President of Engineering Vic Gundrota, detailed chat history can be toggled off. “Of course we give you the ability to delete those things,” he said. “But having the ability so save those conversations, I think is delightful and amazing.”

Because Hangouts relies on Google's cloud, both video and text chats can take place on a number of different devices and between multiple people. The app will be available today from Google Play, the App Store, and the Chrome Web Store.

Update: The Google Hangouts app can now be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]

Update 2: As noted by

Google Announces 'Google Play Music All Access' Subscription Service

Google today officially announced its new music subscription service, Google Play Music All Access, at the Google I/O conference in San Francisco. As reported yesterday afternoon, the service is designed to compete with Spotify, providing songs on demand that can be streamed to a computer or mobile device.

The service, which is built on Google's existing Google Play Music Store, will cost $9.99 per month with a 30-day free trial available. Google is, however, offering a discount for early adopters. Those who begin the free trial by June 30 will pay just $7.99 per month. The Verge has a rundown on a few of the available features for music discovery and recommendations.
A recommendation engine will guide users towards new music they may have already discovered. As demoed on an Android device — it also works in a standard web browser — All Access incorporates both local tracks and those available for streaming into one master searchable library, a marked improvement over much of its streaming competition.
Google's tagline for Google Play Music All Access is "Radio without Rules," a small jab at Apple's upcoming Pandora-style music service, iRadio. As of last week, Apple was still in negotiations with music labels but is reportedly aiming for a summer launch of its own music subscription

Google Unveils Google Play Game Services for Android, iOS and Web

At today's Google I/O keynote, Google unveiled Google Play Game Services, which is designed to compete with Apple's Game Center. Like Game Center, Game Services features real-time multiplayer capabilities, leaderboards, cloud saves, and achievements.

The service is not limited to Android developers as Google has developed it to link gaming across Android, iOS, and the web. Google will be providing the SDK for Game Services to both iOS and web developers in addition to Android developers. As noted by Engadget, Game Services more closely resembles the now-defunct OpenFeint social gaming platform than Game Center.
Unlike Apple's Game Center application, what Google's offering is backend support for developers rather than a standalone application. Think of it more like OpenFeint than Game Center – you can sign in using your Google+ login in-game, and that login will track your identity (including leaderboard scores, achievements and saves) across various games and devices.
Several Android games have been updated with the new gaming service, including Osmos, Kingdom Rush, and Super Stickman Golf 2. The service and the SDK are launching today, with the following features:
- Achievements that increase engagement and promote different styles of play.
- Social and public leaderboards that seamlessly use Google+ circles to track high scores across friends and across the world.
- Cloud saves that provide a simple and streamlined storage API to store game saves and settings. Now players never have to replay Level 1 again.
- Real-time multiplayer for easy addition of cooperative

Airline Industry Remains Divided Over Personal Electronics Usage During Takeoff and Landing

Earlier this year, we noted that the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) was continuing to look at the use of personal electronic devices during the taxi, takeoff, and landing phases of commercial flights, hoping to take action by the end of the year to loosen restrictions currently requiring that all devices be powered down during these times.

Bloomberg now provides another update on the situation, noting that the airline industry remains divided over whether restrictions should be relaxed as reports of possible interference between these devices and aircraft electronics continue to surface. The report leads with a brief anecdote involving an iPhone:
The regional airliner was climbing past 9,000 feet when its compasses went haywire, leading pilots several miles off course until a flight attendant persuaded a passenger in row 9 to switch off an Apple Inc. iPhone.

“The timing of the cellphone being turned off coincided with the moment where our heading problem was solved,” the unidentified co-pilot told NASA’s Aviation Safety Reporting System about the 2011 incident. The plane landed safely.
Despite the fact that correlation does not necessarily imply causation, some pilots and airlines remain concerned over the potential impact of these electronic devices on their aircraft. The International Air Transport Association collected a list of 75 suspected cases of interference between 2003 and 2009 and airlines are continuing to see occasional reports, although some remain in favor of relaxing the regulations.
Even Delta Air Lines Inc., which argued for relaxed rules,

Apple Blames Book Publishers in E-Books Antitrust Lawsuit

Reuters is reporting that Apple has responded to the Justice Department's accusations that the company colluded with publishers to increase e-book pricing, saying that it negotiated with the publishers separately and reached different agreements with each.
But Apple said the publishers had decided, independent of Apple, to eliminate discounts on wholesale book prices of e-books, to sell lucrative hardcover books first to bookstores in a practice called windowing and to take other measures to push Amazon to raise prices.
In a court filing dated April 26 but released on Tuesday, Apple said it had approached publishers to create an online bookstore that would eventually become the iBookstore and had demanded a 30 percent commission, that publishers would not undercut prices paid to Apple, and that "windowing" be scrapped.

Apple said that points of contention in early negotiations centered around Apple's demand for a 30 percent commission and price caps. Apple went on to note that each publisher immediately offered its own counterproposals in what Apple described as "tough negotiations."

The company also claims that before it entered the market the publishers were engaged in a battle to break Amazon's grip on the low-cost e-book market, with Apple laying the blame for any potential collusion on the publishers.

The lawsuit was originally filed in April 2012 and included HarperCollins, Simon and Schuster, Hachette Book Group, Macmillan and Penguin, but the Justice Deparment settled with the publishers and has since concentrated on Apple. Recently, CEO Tim Cook was ordered

Google to Unveil Streaming Music Service at Google I/O Tomorrow

Google is set to announce a new music subscription service tomorrow at its annual Google I/O conference, reports The Verge, having finalized deals with Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment., and Warner Music Group.

The service is said to be a direct Spotify competitor, offering up songs on demand that can be streamed to a computer or mobile device for a set monthly fee.

Though Google has had an existing music service since 2011, it operates in a manner that is similar to iTunes, allowing users to purchase individual songs and albums. It also has a "locker" that lets users store digital entertainment collections.

Pricing information on the new service has yet to be released, but The New York Times claims that Google will not offer a freemium ad-supported tier.
Google's streaming service will not include a free tier, according to the people briefed on the plans who did not want to be identified discussing confidential matters. The subscription rate was not known, but is expected to be similar to that of Spotify and other competing services, like Rhapsody and Rdio, which tend to charge about $10 a month.
While Google's streaming music service will be released ahead of Apple's rumored iRadio service, the two are fundamentally different. With a Spotify model Google will be able to offer songs piecemeal, while Apple's iRadio is said to closely resemble Pandora, which plays a selection of random songs based on user preference. As of last week, Apple was still in negotiations with music labels.

Google's subscription music service will be connected to Play,

Tim Cook Coffee Auction Ends with $610,000 Bid

The CharityBuzz auction for coffee with Apple CEO Tim Cook has just ended, with a final bid driving the price up to $610,000. Previously, the auction had stagnated at $605,000, where it remained until 30 minutes before the bidding closed.

The $610,000 bid was placed by a newcomer to the auction who had not previously bid before, known only as "a********s." While CharityBuzz will not release the name of the high bidder, it is possible that the winner will come forward to take advantage of the publicity surrounding the auction.

Currently, the money that the Tim Cook auction has brought in is more than twice as much as the total of the current high bids on the other 118 auctions that are supporting the RFK Center for Justice and Human Rights.

Because the bidding totals ran so high with bidders clamoring for a moment in the spotlight, CharityBuzz was forced to implement bank qualification terms before additional bids could be placed, which slowed bidding considerably.

Under the terms of the auction, the high bidder is entitled to a 30–60 minute meeting with Cook at Apple headquarters on a mutually agreed upon

Media Streaming Challenges App Store Downloads for Leading Share of iTunes Store Traffic

Networking company Sandvine has released a new report that breaks down North American iTunes traffic on fixed networks, examining how iTunes customers are using the service. Surprisingly, the largest portion of iTunes traffic is not generated from streaming, but from the App Store.

Direct App Store downloads account for 38.1% of total iTunes traffic, while 36.15% of traffic comes from iTunes streaming, which includes movie and song previews, along with iTunes Match.

With iTunes Match, customers can stream music and video purchases to both mobile devices and Apple TVs. Apple's streaming traffic may increase in the coming months with the introduction of iRadio, the company's rumored streaming radio service.

Media downloads, which are non application purchases such as music, movies, and books make up the third largest portion of iTunes traffic at 20.47% and the final 5.33% of traffic is generated from iTunes Browsing as users visit various App Store and iTunes pages.

As Tim Cook noted in Apple's Q2 financial results call, iTunes has been experiencing phenomenal growth with record quarterly billings of $4 billion. Apple's App Store is nearing 50 billion downloads and has paid out more than $9 billion to developers.

Sandvine's report also points out that Apple manufactured devices generate 35% of all streaming audio and video on fixed access networks, with the iPad generating the most traffic at 10%.

To generate its report, Sandvine examined a cross-section of customer data, gathered over a one-month period and compiled a 24-hour profile of each network

Siri Updated to Respond to Long Questions With Quotes on Brevity

Apple has quietly given Siri the ability to answer user responses with quotes, citing famous passages from notable people like William Strunk and Thomas Jefferson. First noticed by iLounge, the quotes are used when Siri is asked a question that is excessively long, tactfully reminding the user of the value of brevity.

When Siri is given a request that is too lengthy, she will now respond with one of several different quotes that suggest that the user shorten the question. For example, one quote from Thomas Jefferson reads, "The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do."

Siri has a range of different quotes in her repertoire, including one from the 1970's television show MASH.

It is unknown when the change to Siri was implemented, but a Reddit thread from last week appears to contain the first known instance of the phrasing, suggesting that Siri's new quoting ability was added within the last week or

BlackBerry Messenger Coming to iOS This Summer

BlackBerry has announced that it will bring its BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) platform to iOS this summer. BBM was one of the first proprietary mobile messaging services -- not unlike Apple's iMessage service -- and remains hugely popular.

The company reports that BBM has 60 million monthly active users and that BBM users send 10 billion messages per day. In January, Apple claimed iMessage users were sending 2 billion messages per day.

Moreover, there are a number of popular so-called 'over-the-top' messaging services including WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger -- both of which move billions of messages a day.
BBM set the standard for mobile instant messaging with fast and reliable service and an added layer of engagement with delivered and read statuses. You’ve shared with us your stories about how BBM has kept you connected when it mattered most to you. Upon release of the multi-platform BBM service, you can broaden that real-time connection to friends and colleagues on other supported mobile platforms.

In the first version of multi-platform BBM, iOS and Android users are expected to be able to experience the following BBM features:

- The immediacy of BBM chats
- Multi-person chats
- Voice note sharing
- BlackBerry Groups, where BBM users are able to set up groups of up to 30 people and share calendar, photos, files and more

The team here at BlackBerry has definitely been working hard to bring the much-adored BBM experience to a wider group of mobile users.
It was rumored back in 2011 that BlackBerry was planning to port BBM to iOS.

BlackBerry Messenger for iOS and

Philips 'Hue' Receives Major Update With Geofencing, Visual Alerts, and More

Late last year, Philips launched its "Hue" lighting system, offering sets of wireless-enabled LED lightbulbs that allow users to remotely control their lighting, including adjusting to a rainbow of colors, from an iOS app. Hue has been exclusively sold through Apple's online and retail stores, and Philips has been working hard to both bring more features to the system and to open it up to developers to build even more functionality.

Philips today announced the "next phase" of Hue with a major update bringing a number of new features. Perhaps most interesting is integration with If This Then That (IFTTT) protocols to allow Hue to provide visual alerts for a wide variety of situations.
The next generation of the Hue app (version 1.1) can now hook up to your essential internet services via your smartphone or tablet, meaning your bulbs can act as indicators for weather, stock quotes, sports scores, email, social media and more. They can be set to behave in any way you choose. For example, to change color if it’s going to rain; to blink if you receive an urgent email, Facebook message from someone special; illuminate gradually as the sun sets; or even flash in your sports team’s colors when they score.
The new Version 1.1 of Hue also adds geofencing, automatically turning lights on as the user approaches their home and turning them off as they leave, as well as other customizable options. The update also brings recurring schedules, allowing users to simply set a schedule once and have it repeat each day.


Philips is also announcing an expansion in availability for its

Sketchy Rumor Claims Sapphire-Covered Capacitive Home Button for iPhone 5S

Cult of Mac points to a report [Google translation] from Taiwanese site TechNews claiming that Apple will be including a sapphire-covered capacitive home button on the iPhone 5S in order to accommodate the fingerprint sensor rumored to be coming as a differentiating feature for the device.
Apple is expected to do away with the traditional physical home button, which has long been one of the most unreliable components on iOS devices. It’s thought that using sapphire crystal, which has a hardness second only to diamond, will prevent the button from getting scratched and ruining the fingerprint sensor. [...]

They insist Apple will employ a capacitive touch home button for the first time with the iPhone 5S, eliminating one of the most unreliable components in an iOS device (the physical home button has a tendency to fail after long periods of use).
TechNews has not, however, been a regular source of Apple rumors, and thus it is difficult to place much faith in this rumor. Rumors of a capacitive home button to replace the physical button that has been a staple of iOS devices since the launch of the original iPhone in 2007 have circulated for several years, but have never gained serious traction.

Reports of a fingerprint sensor for the iPhone 5S have been gaining steam following Apple's acquisition of mobile security firm AuthenTec last year, with high-profile Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo repeatedly predicting that the device will include such a feature "under" the home button, although details on exactly how it will be incorporated into the device remain unknown.