Apple today announced its all-new retail store at Westfield Century City in Los Angeles, California opens Friday, November 3 at 8:00 a.m. local time.
The grand opening date coincides with iPhone X launch day. Apple said the device will be available for walk-in customers to purchase on a first come, first served basis, although in-store quantities are likely to be extremely limited.
Apple's plans to open a more spacious store at Century City were first revealed by MacRumors last month, as part of the company's ongoing efforts to modernize its chain of nearly 500 retail stores around the world.
Apple's new Century City store
Apple will be in a prime location at the center of the shopping mall, which has undergone a $1 billion expansion and modernization. The new store will be opposite an upcoming Rolex watch store, according to a source familiar with the matter.
Apple's current store at Century City opened in June 2005 and will permanently close after November 2. The new, larger store will provide the space needed to accommodate increased customer traffic and Today at Apple sessions.
Apple's new Century City store
The new store should also be based on Apple's latest retail design, including large glass doors, sequoia wood tables and shelves, a large video screen for Today at Apple sessions, and light boxes spanning the length of the ceiling.
All new Apple retail stores opened since September 2015 have been based on the updated design, including Apple's flagship Union Square location in San Francisco. Apple has also renovated over 40 existing stores with the newer look.
The never-ending legal battle between Apple and Samsung over the design of the iPhone will likely stretch into its eighth year of proceedings.
Apple's original complaint accused Samsung of copying the iPhone's design
Lucy Koh, the judge who has been presiding over the case since it began in April 2011, has scheduled a five-day retrial between May 14 and May 18 of next year, according to court documents filed electronically on Wednesday.
Earlier this week, Koh ordered that a new trial is required to determine whether Apple's $399 million award for Samsung's design patent infringement should stand or whether a new damages trial is required.
Apple successfully sued Samsung for infringing upon the iPhone's patented design, including its rectangular front face with rounded edges and grid of colorful icons on a black screen.
Apple's damages were awarded based on Samsung's entire profit from the sale of its infringing smartphones, but Samsung argued that the amount should be a percentage based on individual components like the front bezel or display.
The case progressed all the way to the Supreme Court, which recommended that the U.S. Court of Appeals reconsider the damages amount that Samsung owes. The trial has since returned to the U.S. District Court in Northern California where it began.
Apple's statement about the case from last December:
Our case has always been about Samsung's blatant copying of our ideas, and that was never in dispute. We will continue to protect the years of hard work that has made iPhone the world's most innovative and beloved product. We remain optimistic that the lower courts will again send a powerful signal that stealing isn't right.
Apple was initially awarded nearly $1 billion in damages, but a significant part of the decision was reversed in 2015, leaving Samsung owing $548 million. The amount was eventually lowered to $399 million, and now it may be adjusted again.
Following an announcement earlier in the summer, eBay this week launched an "Image Search" feature in its iOS application. Image Search uses computer vision technology powered by AI to let you search the popular auctioning site by snapping a picture -- or uploading one from your Camera Roll -- and receive similar results based on image recognition abilities.
Live now in the eBay iOS app, you can tap the camera icon in the search bar at the top of the home screen, choose "Image Search," then take a picture or upload one from Photos. You'll have to grant eBay access to both your iOS Camera and Photos apps for the feature to work properly.
After you take a picture or choose one, you can crop it so it focuses on the item you want to search, and then tap "Search." eBay will then show you listings for items that are a "close match" or "visually similar" to the product in your picture. Image Search takes into account all of eBay's over one billion listings, according to the company.
Leveraging the latest advances in two core parts of artificial intelligence -- computer vision and deep learning -- these new features make it easier to find and buy the things that inspire you. When you upload images to run Find It On eBay and Image Search, we use a deep learning model called a convolutional neural network to process the images.
The output of the model gives us a representation of your image that we can use to compare to the images of the live listings on eBay. Then, we rank the items based on visual similarity and use our open-source Kubernetes platform to quickly bring these results to you, wherever you are in the world.
eBay also launched "Find It On eBay" for Android smartphones only, which lets users start an image search on another social platform, like Facebook. Using a share extension on an image, Android users can tap eBay and the retailer's app will open to show similar listings.
We've performed a few quick Image Searches today and found mostly solid results for some items (an Apple Watch and band), although other products stumped the software so much we got an error (Nintendo Amiibo, Apple Watch dock). eBay still hasn't said if some products are more reliable than others, but it did mention that Image Search will gain intelligence as customers use it more, as is typical with machine learning technology.
Image Search is live now on iOS and Android, and Find It On eBay has also launched on Android this week. The eBay app on iOS doesn't require an update for Image Search, so it appears the company is rolling out the feature through over-the-air installs.
Krause warned that any time you grant an app permission to access your iPhone's front and back cameras, the app can secretly take pictures and videos of you as long as it's running in the foreground (via Motherboard).
Similar to his previous blog post, Krause's camera privacy project isn't about disclosing a new iOS bug, but more about warning users that this kind of privacy violation is possible within iOS. Many apps regularly request permission to the camera in iOS, allowing users to post photos from their Camera Roll, take a picture within the app without leaving it, and more.
Krause explained that with these permissions granted to a malicious app, the iPhone's front and back cameras can be turned on when that app is running. From there it could record content, upload it online, and even run real-time facial recognition software to detect emotions, all without indicating that your iPhone is recording you or your surroundings.
Krause created a demo called watch.user to further emphasize his point, creating a fake social network app that tracks the user. As you browse, Krause explained, "you'll suddenly see pictures of yourself, taken a few seconds ago while you scrolled through the feed." In the image above, he explained that with a vision framework in iOS 11 a developer could even map someone's face to track their expressions, and Krause's mapping software displayed a corresponding emoji as a further proof of concept.
The developer said that there are "only a few things you can do" to potentially prevent this from happening, including purchasing camera covers to place over your iPhone's lenses. Otherwise, you have to revoke camera access for all apps -- which would greatly hinder the usefulness of many apps -- and instead always use Apple's built-in Camera app.
Krause reported the issue to Apple, and mentioned a few ways it could be potentially addressed:
- Offer a way to grant temporary access to the camera (e.g. to take and share one picture with a friend on a messaging app), related to detect.location.
- Show an icon in the status bar that the camera is active, and force the status bar to be visible whenever an app accesses the camera
- Add an LED to the iPhone’s camera (both sides) that can’t be worked around by sandboxed apps, which is the elegant solution that the MacBook uses
To double check which apps have access to your iPhone's cameras and photo library, navigate to the Settings app in iOS, tap Privacy, and there you'll find Photos and Camera. Apps that you've granted access to each will be listed, and you can change settings with toggles or choosing to "Never" allow access. As a point of emphasis, Krause's project isn't a bug or a major security breach you need to worry about, but it is a good reminder to ensure the apps you grant camera access to are trustworthy.
LG Innotek recently finished constructing a manufacturing plant in Vietnam, where it will produce single-lens and dual-lens camera modules for several iPhone models, according to South Korea's ETNews.
LG Innotek reportedly built the factory to expand its production capacity due to Apple's increasing demand for iPhone camera modules. Production costs are also lower in Vietnam, as workers are often paid less than in South Korea.
LG Innotek is said to be planning a production capacity of 100,000 modules per day by the end of this year, and it should start supplying them to Apple on a full-scale basis in 2018. Orders are expected to continue through at least 2019.
"It is heard that LG Innotek's plant in Vietnam is built in order to match increased orders from Apple," an industry representative told ETNews. "It is likely that there is already an outlook for 2018 from Apple."
LG Innotek already has production lines exclusively for Apple, its largest customer, at its factory in Gumi, South Korea. It extends these lines whenever there is a large increase in the number of orders, according to the report.
Facebook has teamed up with auto car dealers to introduce a new Marketplace section for vehicles on its flagship social media app (via TechCrunch).
The new section features search filters to find a vehicle of a specific type, maker, transmission, color, and more, offered by members of the public as well as car dealerships including Edmunds, Auction123, Cars.com, CDK Global, and SocialDealer.
The automobile Marketplace includes a price checking function that uses the industry standard Kelly's Blue Book, and integrates with Messenger bots to allow users to communicate with dealers in real-time.
Today's announcement comes following an apparent upsurge in car listings, with the social media platform already featuring a dedicated vehicles category that lets users search by make, year, milage, and price.
Facebook doesn't receive a fee for any Marketplace transactions, but it has recently started testing ads within Marketplace to promote certain products. The company said the new car inventory will populate and new features will start rolling out over the next few weeks.
Apple is offering users of its official Apple Store app free redeem codes to download Plotagraph+ Photo Animator from the App Store. Usually $4.99, the iOS app allows users to animate any still photo into a seamlessly looping video or animated PNG.
Users create a Plotagraph by selecting or taking a photo, creating an animation track to indicate the direction of movement, and masking areas of the image they don't want to animate. It's then possible to adjust the animation speed and save the final result to the Camera Roll or share it as a video, GIF, or animated PNG using custom presets.
The editing interface features a range of tools for manipulating images, including an animation tool, selection tool, instant playback, mask, eraser, crop presets, anchor points, pinch zoom, Apple Pencil pressure sensitivity, real-time animation speed control, and multiple export options.
To get the app from the App Store, first download the free Apple Store app [Direct Link]. Then simply open the app, and the Plotagraph+ offer can be found further down in the Discover section on the main store screen. The offer looks like it's working for users in the U.S. and U.K. at the time of writing. Apple has extended its redeem codes to other countries in the past, so it's still worth checking for the offer if you're based elsewhere – let us know in the comments below if you have any success. Offer ends January 15, 2018.
Facebook brought its redesigned Workplace apps out of beta today, opening up the business-focused team chat service to anyone who wants to use it.
The new Slack-like apps for mobile and desktop are called Workplace Chat, which have the same functionality as Workplace's existing messaging features, but come as standalone apps for PC, Mac and iOS.
After installing the apps, Workplace users can access messaging features like screen and file sharing, video calling, and private and group messages. Facebook said it also plans to add group video calling to the platform in the coming months.
In addition, Both mobile and desktop apps have redesigned interfaces to make them functionally similar to Facebook's flagship social networking app.
Workplace Premium costs $3 per user for the first 1,000 active users, with $2 and $1 price plans for increasing numbers of users. Workplace can also be used for free and includes the communication and productivity features, but loses the enterprise features and admin support.
As was announced back in July, Apple partnered with Australian company Cochlear to develop the Nucleus 7, the first made for iPhone Cochlear implant, which is able to stream audio from a compatible iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch directly to a surgically embedded sound processor.
Cochlear's new Nucleus 7 Sound Processor is launching in Australia this week, and should soon also be available in other countries for customers who have profound hearing loss that can't be alleviated with traditional hearing aids and requires implant technology.
Apple's accessibility engineering team worked with Cochlear to create a new form of Bluetooth low-energy audio that allows the implant to connect to the iPhone without draining significant amounts of battery life. Through an iPhone connection, patients who adopt the Nucleus 7 implant will be able to watch movies, listen to music, make calls, and more.
In a comment to The Australian about the launch of the Nucleus 7 from Cochlear, Apple director of accessibility Sarah Herrlinger said the Cochlear project is something Apple is "passionate about." Creating the Bluetooth improvements and developing integrations across multiple companies with hearing aid products took two to three years to complete, says Herrlinger.
"It's something that we are really passionate about as a company," she said. "We consider it one of our core corporate values, an area where we put significant amount of time and energy ensuring our products work for everyone.
"We started looking at this program around the concept of Bluetooth LE and how it would be a beneficial tool in this specific circumstance. The work we have done is applicable both to hearing aids and sound processors."
The Nucleus 7 Sound Processor is compatible with a wide range of Apple devices, including the iPhone 5 and later, all iPad Pro models, the iPad mini and later, and the fourth-generation iPad and later.
Release notes for the watchOS 4.1 golden master were leaked this afternoon by developer Guilherme Rambo, confirming all of the bug fixes and feature updates that we can expect to see in the new watchOS software.
Much of what's listed in the release notes was already known because the features are available in the beta, but the notes confirm GymKit support and highlight several bugs that are being addressed in the update.
watchOS 4.1 introduces streaming music on Apple Watch Series 3, and it includes a new Radio app, which is limited to watchOS Series 3 models. Though not listed in the release notes, the update also offers several new Unicode 10 emoji. Full GM release notes are below:
New features, improvements, and bug fixes include:
- Stream music on Apple Watch Series 3 with Apple Music or iCloud Music Library - Listen to live radio on Beats 1, custom stations, and expert-curated stations with the new Radio app on Apple Watch Series 3 - Use Siri to find, discover, and play songs, playlists, or albums - Sync fitness data with GymKit-enabled treadmills, ellipticals, stair steppers, and indoor bikes for more accurate distance, pace, and energy burn metrics - Ability to disconnect from a WiFi network in Control Center for Apple Watch Series 3 (GPS + Cellular) - Fixes an issue for Apple Watch Series 1 and later where Heart Rate notifications were delivered when the feature was not enabled - Fixes an issue where some users did not receive Stand Reminders - Resolves an issue where the current stand hour indicator did not appear for some users - Resolves an issue that caused haptics to not be delivered for silent alarms - Addresses an issue that prevented Apple Watch (1st generation) from charging for some users - Resolves an issue where the Sunrise and Sunset complication would sometimes not appear - Restores Mandarin as the default dictation language for China
As these are not final release notes, there could be additions or tweaks to the information ahead of when the new watchOS 4.1 update is released to the public. There is as of yet no mention of Apple Pay Cash, Apple's new peer-to-peer payments service, so it continues to be unclear if that feature is going to be bundled into the iOS 11.1 and watchOS 4.1 updates.
Apple employees are currently testing Apple Pay Cash as part of iOS 11.1, but support for the feature could be held back until a later update.
It's not yet clear when Apple will launch watchOS 4.1, but a release could come as soon as next week alongside iOS 11.1, macOS 10.13.1, and tvOS 11.1 if Apple is aiming to get all of its new software updates out ahead of the debut of the iPhone X.
iPhone X pre-orders begin this Friday, October 27 at 12:01 a.m. Pacific Time on a first come, first served basis, and customers that want any chance of receiving the smartphone on launch day will need a combination of speed and luck.
The quickest way to pre-order the iPhone X is to use the Apple Store app on iPhone. Prospective buyers that want any chance of receiving the iPhone X when it launches Friday, November 3 should follow the steps below to be ready.
Note that these steps are for customers paying full price for the iPhone X upfront, and may not apply to those who owe money towards a previously carrier financed device.
Verizon in August limited video quality on all of its unlimited data plans to a maximum of 720p on smartphones, but starting in November, the carrier is allowing customers to pay an additional $10 per month for higher-quality video streaming, reports CNET.
With $10/month payment per line, Verizon customers can stream video at the maximum quality available on any VZW device, up to 4K, removing all video restrictions.
Verizon currently limits customers who subscribe to its entry-level Go Unlimited plan to 480p, while customers who have the Beyond Unlimited plan have access to 720p streaming on smartphones and 1080p streaming on connected tablets.
Go Unlimited starts at $75 per month for a single line, and the plan includes unlimited LTE data that may be throttled during times of network congestion, 480p video streaming, and 600kb/s mobile hotspot streaming.
Beyond Unlimited starts at $85 for a single line and includes unlimited LTE data that's not throttled during times of network congestion until 22GB has been used, 720p video streaming, and 15GB of LTE mobile hotspot access.
Verizon plans to make the new $10 video add-on available to customers on November 3.
Following the launch of the Apple Watch Series 3 last month, the previous generation of Apple's wearable device -- Series 2 -- has seen a steady stream of sales hit both aluminum and stainless steel editions, with the best discounts arriving for the aluminum models. The first discounts (from B&H Photo) marked 38mm devices down to $290 and 42mm devices down to about $320, while the second wave (from Best Buy) brought those numbers down by $20, to about $270 and $300, respectively.
Today, Best Buy has dropped the price of aluminum versions of the Apple Watch Series 2 down by another $40, resulting in 38mm models priced at just $230 and 42mm models at $260. Cases in the sale include Space Gray, Gold, and Silver, and collections are only focused on Sport Bands, although there are a few Nike+ editions. We've listed a few of the models below, compared to their previous sale prices at Best Buy. For the full list visit Best Buy's deals page right here.
As a point of comparison, current prices of aluminum Series 3 models stand at $329 for 38mm and $359 for 42mm without LTE.
Best Buy's new sale isn't just focused on Apple Watch, however, and includes deals on MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, iMac, iPad Pro, and select Beats products. The retailer also has a special offer running right now for anyone interested in both the 12.9-inch iPad Pro and Apple Pencil accessory. If you buy both items simultaneously, you'll save $100 on the order, essentially making the Apple Pencil free.
For more details on Best Buy's new sale -- and other ongoing discounts -- head over to our Deals Roundup.
Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Best Buy
The Information Technology Industry Council (ITI), an industry group that represents several tech companies like Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and Facebook, this week released Artificial Intelligence Policy Principles [PDF] covering responsible and ethical artificial intelligence development.
"We recognize our responsibility to integrate principles into the design of AI technologies, beyond compliance with existing laws," reads the document. AI researchers and stakeholders should "spend a great deal of time" working to ensure the "responsible design and deployment of AI systems." Some of the specific policies addressed are outlined below:
Government: The ITI supports government investment in fields related to AI and encourages governments to evaluate existing tools and use caution before adopting new laws, regulations, and taxes that could impede the responsible development and use of AI. ITI also discourages governments from requiring tech companies to provide access to technology, source code, algorithms, and encryption keys.
Public-Private Partnerships: Public-Private Partnerships should be utilized to speed up AI research and development, democratize access, prioritize diversity and inclusion, and prepare the workforce for the implications of artificial intelligence.
Responsible Design and Deployment: Highly autonomous AI systems must be designed consistent with international conventions that preserve human dignity, rights, and freedoms. It is the industry's responsibility to recognize potential for misuse and commit to ethics by design.
Safety and Controllability: Autonomous agents must treat the safety of users and third parties as a paramount concern and AI technologies should aim to reduce risks to humans. AI systems must have safeguards to ensure the controllability of the AI system by humans.
Robust and Representative Data: AI systems need to leverage large datasets to avoid potentially harmful bias.
The ITI goes on to encourage robust support for AI research, a flexible regulatory approach, and strong cybersecurity and privacy provisions.
ITI President Dean Garfield told Axios that the guidelines have been released as a way for the industry to get involved in the discussion about AI. In the past, the group has learned "painful lessons" about staying on the sidelines of debates about emerging technology.
"Sometimes our instinct is to just put our head down and do our work, to develop, design, and innovate," he said. "But there's a recognition that our ability to innovate is going to be affected by how society perceives it."
Bloomberg this morning alleged that Apple allowed its suppliers to make Face ID less accurate in order to speed up production on the device, a claim that Apple now says is "completely false" in a statement shared with TechCrunch.
According to Apple, the quality and the accuracy of Face ID have not changed, and Face ID will be the new "gold standard" for facial authentication.
Customer excitement for iPhone X and Face ID has been incredible, and we can't wait for customers to get their hands on it starting Friday, November 3. Face ID is a powerful and secure authentication system that's incredibly easy and intuitive to use. The quality and accuracy of Face ID haven't changed. It continues to be 1 in a million probability of a random person unlocking your iPhone with Face ID.
Bloomberg's claim that Apple has reduced the accuracy spec for Face ID is completely false and we expect Face ID to be the new gold standard for facial authentication.
The report from Bloomberg, which went into detail about some of the components used in the TrueDepth camera, suggested Apple had "relaxed some of the specifications for Face ID" to boost the number of usable dot projectors, a component that Apple suppliers were said to be struggling with. From Bloomberg:
It's not clear how much the new specs will reduce the technology's efficacy. At the phone's official unveiling in September, executives boasted that there was a one in a million chance that an interloper could defeat Face ID to unlock a phone. Even downgraded, it will probably still be far more accurate than Touch ID, where the odds of someone other than the owner of a phone being able to unlock it are one in 50,000.
In addition to Apple's statement suggesting no changes have been made to Face ID, Apple has shared specific accuracy numbers and details on the feature, so it would be difficult for the company to make changes in production that would alter the way that Face ID works.
Apple reportedly struggled with production for several of the components for the iPhone X, given that it's a new device using many new technologies. As a result of those issues, supply of the iPhone X is expected to be extremely limited at launch, with Apple likely unable to reach supply-demand balance until 2018.
The report claims Apple wants every show it produces to be suitable enough for an Apple Store, as opposed to content with nudity, raw language, and violence. Hollywood producers that have pitched edgier content, such as an eight-part series produced by filmmaker Alfonso Cuarón, have allegedly been turned away.
Apple wants to have a small slate of shows ready for release in 2019, a timeframe previously reported. Unlike Planet of the Apps and Carpool Karaoke: The Series, however, its new shows will supposedly no longer be placed on Apple Music, which in turn will be limited to music-related videos and documentaries.
Carpool Karaoke itself was supposed to launch in April, but its debut was delayed until August due to some coarse content.
Days before Apple Inc. planned to celebrate the release of its first TV show last spring at a Hollywood hotel, Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook told his deputies the fun had to wait. Foul language and references to vaginal hygiene had to be cut from some episodes of Carpool Karaoke, a show featuring celebrities such as Gwyneth Paltrow, Jessica Alba, Blake Shelton, and Chelsea Handler cracking jokes while driving around Los Angeles.
While the delay of Carpool Karaoke was widely reported last April, the reasons never were. Edits were made, additional episodes were shot, and Apple shifted resources to another show. When Carpool Karaoke was released in August, it didn’t make much of a splash.
A new profile of Apple retail chief Angela Ahrendts has been posted today by BuzzFeed News, providing a look into Ahrendts' move from Burberry, the inspiration for her approach to retail from late Apple CEO Steve Jobs, and her partnership with Apple design chief Jony Ive. Ahrendts has been in the spotlight lately following her presentation during the iPhone X keynote event in September, where she explained Apple's new retail initiative, Today at Apple, and provided a sneak peek into upcoming locations around the world.
Ahrendts said that her approach to the new retail strategy began with an inspiration from Steve Jobs, comparing the brick-and-mortar locations as the retail team's "hardware" and the inner workings of the store -- like Today at Apple programs -- as the "software."
Ahrendts’s approach to retail harkens back to the late founder Steve Jobs’ insistence on building “the whole widget” — in other words, constructing the look and feel of a device, as well as making the operating system and the processor that runs it, in order to fully optimize — and control — the entire user experience.
“This is our hardware,” she said, pointing to the Indianapolis store’s glass doors and indoor ficuses. ”Then you say, ‘What’s the software of the store? How do we turn it on?’ Because this unto itself is magnificent, but it's not just what it is, it's what it does,” referring to the new Today at Apple program, under which locations host events like photography workshops and coding classes.
Ahrendts has tweaked parts of Apple's retail "software" by changing employee t-shirts to a softer material, and removing lanyards so employees "make a human connection" with customers. One former Apple Genius said that while removing lanyards made uniforms "cleaner," the high amount of customers visiting Apple every day is a "reality of retail" that made connecting with every customer difficult.
When she was creating her strategy, Ahrendts discussed the design and look of the new Apple locations with Jony Ive, who was said to have told Ahrendts, "Don't mess with the tables," referring to the iconic wooden tables that line every Apple store. Ive further described these tables as "sacred."
Before embarking on the redesign, Ahrendts consulted creative chief Ive, whom Steve Jobs once called his “spiritual partner.” “In one of those very early conversations,” Ahrendts recalled, Ive “said, ‘Don't mess with the tables. They're the same tables we used in our design studio and I love that it goes from the studio to the stores.’ He said, ‘They're sacred.’”
Ahrendts also recalled the company's expansion into China, where she asked all United States retail employees if they would be interested to move overseas and assist in running new stores in China. The executive said she was expecting 100 or 200 responses, but ended up with 2,000, half of which ended up moving overseas with plans to stay for between 1 and 5 years. Those who remain in the U.S. said that under Ahrendts' leadership, worker benefits have improved.
All of the employees who spoke to BuzzFeed News agree that Ahrendts improved their benefits soon after she joined in May 2014. For example, Ahrendts introduced restricted stock units, or gifted Apple stock (which could previously be purchased at a discount), that vests every three years. She also extended school tuition reimbursement to part-time workers. Most said they were happy with their pay, which ranges from $17 to $20 an hour for non-Genius roles and up to $30 an hour for Geniuses.
Still, some employees have described their work as starting to feel "increasingly corporate" under Ahrendts. One technical specialist stated that Apple retail "now feels more like a Circuit City, a Best Buy" because of increased micromanagement, rising repair prices, a focus on moving customers in and out of the store as fast as possible, and an "emphasis" on attracting business accounts.
The rest of the profile on Ahrendts covers much of the same ground as BuzzFeed's iPhone 8 launch video about Apple's "war room," as well as an interview with CEO Tim Cook and Ahrendts posted yesterday. In that interview, Ahrendts said it was "fake news...silly" that she was being groomed as future Apple CEO. Cook then said, "I see my role as CEO to prepare as many people as I can to be CEO, and that’s what I’m doing."
Check out the full BuzzFeed News article on Angela Ahrendts here.
Apple has reportedly acquired or at least hired some talent away from InVisage, according to the blog Image Sensors World. The report, citing two unnamed sources, claims the deal was closed in July of this year.
Beyond the sources familiar with the matter, there are only subtle clues that Apple may have scooped up InVisage.
Image Sensors World, for example, highlighted that InVisage is no longer listed as a current investment in the portfolios of venture capital firms Nokia Growth Partners and InterWest Partners.
InVisage also removed a news page and a list of employee profiles from its website, compared to an archived version from February. Many companies acquired by Apple in the past have simplified or even removed their websites.
LinkedIn lists at least six Apple employees who previously worked at InVisage, although only two joined the company this year. One employee joined Apple as a hardware engineer in July, the same month as the rumored acquisition.
InVisage also filed to register a manufacturing subsidiary in June with the state of California, where the company is headquartered, but it later surrendered the request and the entity was legally dissolved in early October.
InVisage, founded in 2006 and based out of Newark, California, has developed new image sensor architecture with a dedicated QuantumFilm layer that can maximize a smartphone camera's light sensing capability.
The company's website says QuantumFilm pixels have over three times higher dynamic range, allowing users to capture "supremely detailed images in almost any lighting condition where there is bright sky."
QuantumFilm is a photosensitive layer that relies on InVisage's newly invented class of materials to absorb light; specifically, the new material is made up of quantum dots, nanoparticles that can be dispersed to form a grid once they are synthesized. Just like paint, this dispersion of solid materials can be coated onto a substrate and allowed to dry.
InVisage's technologies could certainly be implemented as part of annual improvements to iPhone and iPad cameras.
Update: Apple has confirmed its acquisition of InVisage in a statement provided to TechCrunch.
