MacRumors

Following in the footsteps of several other major tech companies, Apple has released a diversity report on the sex and race of its employees (via Re/code). As is common in the tech industry, the majority of Apple's workforce is male -- only three out of 10 employees around the globe are female. Broken down, males compose 65 percent of non-tech workers, 80 percent of tech workers, and 72 percent of Apple's leadership.

In the United States, across tech, leadership, and non-tech, Apple's workers are 55 percent white, 15 percent Asian, 11 percent Hispanic, and 7 percent Black. Nine percent of workers declined to state their ethnicity, one percent selected other, and two percent listed more than one race.

According to CEO Tim Cook, he is unhappy with Apple's diversity numbers and says Apple is working to improve them.

Apple is committed to transparency, which is why we are publishing statistics about the race and gender makeup of our company. Let me say up front: As CEO, I’m not satisfied with the numbers on this page. They’re not new to us, and we’ve been working hard for quite some time to improve them. We are making progress, and we’re committed to being as innovative in advancing diversity as we are in developing our products.

During his tenure as CEO, Cook has taken steps towards improving Apple's diversity by boosting Apple's female leadership. Cook hired Angela Ahrendts as the head of retail and Susan Wagner was recently added to Apple's board, joining existing female board member Andrea Jung. Cook has also overseen the hire of Lisa Jackson, who oversees the company's environmental affairs, and the promotion of Denise Young Smith to head of human resources. Apple is a sponsor of the National Center for Women & Information Technology, which aims to get women involved in technology.

In its report, Apple suggests that its company diversity beliefs go beyond race and gender, pointing to its involvement in the Human Rights Campaign. Under Cook, Apple has supported the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which lobbied to add lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals to the U.S.'s existing nondiscrimination law. Apple also recently participated in San Francisco's Gay Pride event and the company has long had protections for its LGBT employees.

Update 1:30 PM PT: Apple has posted the Diversity video from its Diversity page on YouTube.

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Ahead of its London iTunes Festival in September, Apple is promoting its Apple TV with a bundle deal offering a $25 iTunes gift card with each Apple TV purchase (via 9to5Mac). The gift card can be used to purchase apps, music, and movies available in the iTunes Store, and the promotion is valid through September 30.

Earlier this year, Apple offered a similar $25 gift card promotion that sparked speculation about a possible imminent launch of an updated Apple TV. These rumors turned out to be false, and Apple is still selling the same third-generation model that saw its last substantial update in early 2012. Though this latest promotion offers a $25 gift card, the Apple TV still retails for its original $99 price tag.

The current crop of rumors suggests a 2015 update for Apple's television-related hardware, with delays to a rumored set-top box interfacing with live and on-demand content reportedly due to ongoing negotiations with cable companies. Rumors have indicated the next-generation Apple TV may include an App Store, support for wireless game controllers, Siri integration and more, although it is unclear whether Apple plans to split the television lineup between the full-featured set-top box and an improved Apple TV or if everything will be bundled into a single Apple TV product.

When Apple acquired Siri in 2010, several members of the team behind the technology joined Apple to continue development of the virtual assistant. As iOS evolved and the vision for Siri changed, co-founders Dag Kitt­laus and Adam Cheyer left Apple to pursue other opportunities. This liberation led to their reunion and the formation of Viv Labs, which is now working on new virtual assistant software that may change how we interact with our devices. Writer Steven Levy takes a close look at Viv in a lengthy profile on Wired.

Viv Labs is building a virtual assistant that is capable of more than just pre-programmed answers in response to a question. Viv expands further into the realm of artificial intelligence with a codebase that can interpret the question, make connections across a variety of services and apps and even generate code on the fly if needed to formulate an answer. Team members describe Viv as a "global brain" that can learn about its users and adapt to their preferences.

Take a complicated command like “Give me a flight to Dallas with a seat that Shaq could fit in.” Viv will parse the sentence and then it will perform its best trick: automatically generating a quick, efficient program to link third-party sources of information together—say, Kayak, SeatGuru, and the NBA media guide—so it can identify available flights with lots of legroom. And it can do all of this in a fraction of a second.

Unlike Siri, which was targeted at the iPhone even before its acquisition by Apple, Kitt­laus and his team hope to license the technology and bring Viv to a variety of devices including TVs, cars and other Internet-connected devices.

“I’m extremely proud of Siri and the impact it’s had on the world, but in many ways it could have been more,” Cheyer says. “Now I want to do something bigger than mobile, bigger than consumer, bigger than desktop or enterprise. I want to do something that could fundamentally change the way software is built.”

Viv is an ambitious project that is still in the early stages of development, but the vision is revolutionary. "If this team is successful, we are looking at the future of intelligent agents and a multibillion-dollar industry," said AI expert Oren Etzioni of the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence to Wired.

It's unclear whether Apple will be interested in the technology and what kind of relationship the two companies might have given their history with Siri, but what is clear is that Siri's inventors have much broader ambitions in mind.

More photos said to be of the iPhone 6's rear shell have been shared by frequent iOS device part leaker Sonny Dickson. The part shown in the photos also appears identical to the rear shell shared by luxury modified iPhone vendor Feld & Volk, hinting that this may be a legitimate component.

Similar to previous leaks, this newest rear shell shows a number of physical features including a near-all metal design with upper and lower bezels, a cutout for the new round "True Tone" dual-LED flash, and a cutout for the rear camera that may hint at a protruding lens for the device.

Apple is expected to reveal the iPhone 6 at an event on September 9, with a launch likely coming one week after the announcement. It is possible that the company will release the 4.7-inch version of the iPhone 6 first, with the 5.5-inch version seeing a launch later this year or early next year as Apple solves production issues with the larger device. In addition to a bigger screen, both versions of the iPhone 6 will likely incorporate a faster A8 processor, an improved camera with stabilization, and iOS 8.

Apple is preparing to roll out its Healthkit development tools to health professionals across the U.S., and has been discussions with health providers at Mount Sinai, Cleveland Clinic, John Hopkins, and Allscripts to use the new system, reports Reuters.

Apple is said to be pushing Healthkit and its Health app as being an all-in-one solution for medical professionals to store patient data like blood pressure, pulse, and weight. Apple is also hoping that physicians will use the available data to improve diagnostics and treatment decisions. The company is also looking to partner with electronic health records provider Epic Systems to integrate its software and services.

The article notes that Apple is likely to face challenges in the mobile health data field due to privacy and regulatory requirements. Apple's Health app and Healthkit development tools were originally introduced at this year's WWDC conference this past July. The Health app allows users to keep track and input several different health metrics measured by various devices, and can also allow an at-a-glance view of overall health with the aggregated data. The HealthKit tool for developers can be incorporated into health and fitness apps to access health data stored within the health app.

Both Health and HealthKit will be shipping as a part of Apple's new iOS 8 mobile operating system this fall.

Apple's suppliers are gearing up to begin producing the next-generation iPad Air and Retina iPad mini, reports Bloomberg. Production for the 9.7-inch iPad Air 2 is underway and according to the site's sources, the tablet will debut towards the end of the third quarter or early in the fourth quarter. Production of the 7.9-inch Retina iPad mini 2 is also said to be beginning soon.

August production dates for both tablets are in line with rumors that have suggested the new iPads will be unveiled at a fall event (possibly October) that follows Apple's September 9 iPhone event.

Apple's iPad Air 2 may see some manufacturing issues that restrict available supply, however, due to a new anti-reflection coating that's being added to the tablet. The coating is said to make the iPad's screen easier to read.

Output of the larger iPad may be restricted by manufacturing complications related to the use of a new anti-reflection coating, which Apple plans to add to the device to make the display easier to read, said one of the people.

According to recent rumors, the iPad Air 2 and the second-generation Retina iPad mini will both feature form factors that are largely the same as Apple's existing iPad Air and Retina mini. The iPad Air may see some minor design tweaks including a new speaker grille with a single row of larger holes and a slightly recessed set of volume buttons.

Both tablets are expected to get upgraded A8 processors that are both faster and more efficient and Touch ID fingerprint sensors. The iPad Air may also gain an improved 8-megapixel camera.

Apple today began a new email ad campaign drawing customer attention to the iPad's productivity capabilities by highlighting several different Business-oriented apps for the tablet, including Pages, Numbers, Keynote and Microsoft's Office apps for iPad.

iPad is the perfect way to be more productive than ever. Its powerful apps are designed to take full advantage of the things only iPad can do. So you'll have everything you need to do what matters most.

The email advertises how customers can create documents, spreadsheets, and presentations with Apple's own iWork software, available for free with every new iPad, and it also points towards Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, which were released for the iPad in March.

Competitors like Microsoft and Samsung have launched aggressive ad campaigns attempting to position the iPad as a content consumption device without the multitasking capabilities or the software to allow it to serve as a true PC replacement, but Apple has fired back in recent months with an equally aggressive "Your Verse" iPad campaign that shows the iPad being used in hundreds of different ways for a variety of vital tasks that range from composing to choreographing to mountaineering.

Microsoft used the lack of Office software on the iPad as a main advertising point for its Surface tablets throughout 2013, before releasing an iPad version of the productivity software earlier this year. Microsoft has actually seen enormous success with Office for iPad, garnering 35 million downloads as of July, suggesting millions of customers are using their iPads for productivity-oriented tasks like creating documents and presentations.

In addition to sending out emails, Apple launched a promotion for several different productivity apps in the App Store last week, offering discounts on apps like Fantastical, Clear, Notability, Scanner Pro, and more. That sale lasts until August 14.

The company has also been continuing to expand its "Your Verse" advertising campaign, releasing two new stories earlier this morning highlighting Chinese electropop group Yaoband and Detroit Slow Roll city bike ride cofounder and organizer Jason Hall.

Apple's focus on productivity comes just weeks after the company inked a deal with IBM that will see the two companies teaming up to push for more iPads in enterprise environments.

Intel today released new details on its next-generation 14-nanometer Broadwell processors, which are designed to combine high-performance and low power to allow for more efficient devices. Haswell ushered in an era of impressively long battery life, which is expected to improve even further with Broadwell.

In a list of features on the new chips, Intel says Broadwell will usher in "new form factors" with systems that are thinner and run both silently and cool, with two times reduction in thermal design point.

- The combination of the new microarchitecture and manufacturing process will usher in a wave of innovation in new form factors, experiences and systems that are thinner and run silent and cool.

- Intel architects and chip designers have achieved greater than two times reduction in the thermal design point when compared to a previous generation of processor while providing similar performance and improved battery life.

- The new microarchitecture was optimized to take advantage of the new capabilities of the 14nm manufacturing process.

- Intel has delivered the world's first 14nm technology in volume production. It uses second-generation Tri-gate (FinFET) transistors with industry-leading performance, power, density and cost per transistor.

- Intel's 14nm technology will be used to manufacture a wide range of high-performance to low-power products including servers, personal computing devices and Internet of Things.

As has been previously announced, the 14-nanometer Broadwell-Y Core M chip will be the first of the Broadwell processors to hit the market, with retailers releasing Core M devices in the fall. Designed specifically for low power devices such as two-in-one tablet/computer hybrids, the Core M's low wattage allows for fanless operation and its smaller physical size means it can fit comfortably in devices that are "razor-thin."

AnandTech has released a detailed look at the Broadwell architecture with a preview of Core M, pointing towards "substantial" GPU increases for the Broadwell line of chips and limited CPU performance improvements.

Apple is said to be working on a 12-inch Retina MacBook that has a slimmer form factor than the existing MacBook Air and a fanless design that aligns with some of the properties of the Core M Broadwell chip, but existing MacBook Air computers utilize the Haswell-U series chips that run at 15 watts while the Core M operates at approximately 5 watts, making it unclear whether it would be possible for a Retina MacBook to be powered by the Core M chip.

Intel's Core M processors are expected to ship during the 2014 holiday season, with additional Broadwell chips becoming available in early and mid-2015. The first devices utilizing Core M processors will be shipping before the end of the year.

Apple's "Your Verse" website highlighting the various ways that people use their iPads has been updated with two new stories, featuring electropop group Yaoband and Jason Hall, founder of a biking program in Detroit.

Luke Wang and Peter Feng, the two Chinese musicians who make up Yaoband, use their iPads to capture audio samples, turning them into beats. In a video on Apple's site, the duo are depicted using the iPad to capture sounds like water flowing over rocks in a river, water dripping from a faucet, a spoon on a bowl, a ringing bell, and more.

Various audio apps then allow them to mix sounds, styles, and techniques, creating a unique sound. To capture and make music, Feng and Wang use apps like iMaschine, iMPC, Music Studio, Notes, MIDI Designer Pro, Figure, and TouchOSC.

With iPad, Luke Wang has the power to make every show unique. "I'll add new apps, new techniques, and new ideas during the show," he says. By adding fresh elements to the music, even in a live performance, Yaoband lives up to its vision of an ever-evolving sound. "Creativity and innovation are the essence of music," says Peter. "For us they're what keep the power of music alive."

Jason Hall, who cofounded Detroit's Slow Roll city bike ride that thousands of people participate in, uses his iPad to organize the event, plan routes, create posters, communicate with other organizers, check the weather, and more. Hall uses apps like Mail, Calendar, Facebook Pages Manager, Prezi, Penultimate, and Phoster, managing each bike ride from start to finish on his iPad.

"I wanted to convince other people to see Detroit the way I was seeing it," he says. "The plan was, let's start a bike ride and see if people want to go with us."

It began simply enough. Just 10 friends on a Monday night ride. Soon it was 20. Then 30. In its second year, the ride grew from 130 to 300 cyclists in two weeks. As the numbers increased, Hall turned to his iPad and made it the command center for all things Slow Roll. "We use it for everything we do, from mapping to communicating to ordering new T-shirts," he says."

Apple's newest stories, which are part of its "What will your verse be?" campaign and a continuation of its "Life on iPad" ad campaign, join several previous stories that have shown the iPad being used in a multitude of creative ways. Featured iPad users have included conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen, travel blogger Chérie King, mountaineers Adrian Ballinger and Emily Harrington, choreographer Feroz Khan, and biologist Michael Berumen.

Update 2:30 PM PT: Apple has now posted two YouTube videos on the new "Your Verse" stories featuring Yaoband and Jason Hall, which are embedded below.

Over the last several months, a number of drawings, mockups, and even rear shell parts for the iPhone 6 have consistently shown a round hole for the LED flash next to the rear camera. That feature has been one of the primary sources of skepticism about the legitimacy of these leaks, as many observers have argued it suggests Apple would have to be abandoning the pill-shaped "True Tone" dual-LED flash introduced in the iPhone 5s.

Earlier today, we highlighted a new photo set from Nowhereelse.fr [Google Translate] showing a number of components said to be from the iPhone 6, but one part we neglected to feature shows Apple has indeed developed a new round version of the True Tone flash. The part shows both white and amber LEDs within a single round flash component.

This round flash module is integrated into a purported iPhone 6 flex cable that contains several arms with a power button, a logic board connector, a microphone, and the round True Tone flash. The cable had been seen in a previous leak late last month, but only from the rear where the flash itself was not visible.

Apple added the dual-LED True Tone flash to the iPhone 5s, replacing the white-only flash module in previous iPhone models. The True Tone flash includes both white and amber LEDs in order to improve white balance and add support for more than 1,000 different color temperatures.

Besides a round flash module, Apple may also improve the photo-taking abilities of the iPhone 6 with an enhanced camera module featuring either optical or electronic image stabilization. The high-quality rear camera may come with an aesthetic cost in some users' eyes, however, as at least the 5.5-inch model has been rumored to require a slight protrusion from the thin body to accommodate the camera, as seen on the current iPod touch.

The iPhone 6 is expected to launch in two different sizes including a 4.7-inch or 5.5-inch display, along with a more durable Touch ID. Apple is expected to unveil its next-generation handset at a September 9 press event with the retail launch to follow shortly after the announcement.

Nowhereelse.fr (Google Translate) shares more photos said to be of various iPhone 6 parts, including images of the embedded rear Apple logo, external camera ring, Touch ID home button enclosure, flex cables, and more. The pictures of the embedded rear Apple logo and external camera ring also line up with photos shared last week by luxury modified iPhone vendor Feld & Volk.

Apple has not used an embedded logo on the iPhone since shipping the original iPhone in 2007. It was stated last week that the embedded logo may be made of an incredibly scratch-resistant metal, perhaps even a Liquidmetal alloy. Earlier this year, Apple renewed its rights to use Liquidmetal Technologies' alloy in consumer products, although no other evidence suggests that this logo or any other components are using such a material.

The external camera ring also makes an appearance once again, and may indicate that at least one iPhone 6 model may have a protruding lens. To this point, leaked design drawings, mockups, and rumors have pointed to the 5.5-inch iPhone 6 having a protruding rear lens, while reports have pointed to a flush rear camera for the 4.7-inch iPhone 6. It is possible that a protruding lens on the iPhone 6 would appear similar to the one currently on the iPod touch.

Other components such as the headphone jack, Lightning port connector, and Touch ID home button enclosure among others appear to be similar to those found in the iPhone 5s. Apple is expected to announce the iPhone 6 on September 9, with a launch likely coming shortly afterward. The 4.7-inch iPhone 6 will also possibly be released before the 5.5-inch model, as Apple is said to be experiencing issues with the larger device's display technology and battery life.

Microsoft today launched three new ads targeting Apple's MacBook Air and comparing the notebook to its new Surface Pro 3 tablet. All three commercials emphasize the Surface Pro 3's touchscreen multitasking features and expandable hardware, with each showing how the MacBook Air lacks similar functionality. The ads also end with the tagline "The tablet that can replace your laptop."

The first spot is titled "Crowded" and focuses on two narrators and how the Surface Pro 3 is a tablet and a laptop. When told about the Surface Pro 3 by the first narrator, the second claims that the tablet doesn't have the power of the MacBook Air's Intel i5 processor. The first narrator states that the Surface Pro 3 does have an equal processor, and shows off Microsoft Office, Photoshop, pen support and its touchscreen. The second narrator counters with showing off his own touchscreen (an iPad), and exclaims "I have a lot of stuff to carry." The ad ends with the first narrator saying "You are more powerful than you think", referencing Apple's recent "Powerful" ads for the iPhone 5s.

The second ad, named "Head to Head", features a direct comparison between the two, drawing a parallel between the 128GB of storage and 4GB of RAM on each device. However, Microsoft once again emphasizes the Surface Pro 3's touchscreen, pen support and detachable keyboard, while the MacBook Air is shown to have none of those features.

The third ad "Power" starts off with a Mac user curious about a full version of Adobe Photoshop running on the Surface Pro 3, once again demonstrating the device's laptop and tablet capabilities. The narrator claims that the Surface Pro 3 is just as fast as the Mac, boasting a touchscreen with a kickstand along with a Mini DisplayPort and a USB port. The ad ends when the Mac user states "So you're saying it does more than my Mac?", and the Surface Pro 3 user going "Well, technically you said it."

Microsoft originally announced the Surface Pro 3 this past May, and also launched a program offering MacBook Air owners $650 to trade in their laptop towards the Surface Pro 3. In prior years, Microsoft has also released ads poking fun of the iPad and comparing it to the Surface.

A new profile of Apple's internal training program published by the New York Times has shed new light on how the company teaches its vision and practices to select new employees. Originally established by Steve Jobs and Apple's Vice President of Human Resources Joel Podolny, the-so called "Apple University" is a year-round, in-house program that allows employees to enroll in a number of classes with instructors coming from universities like Yale, Harvard, Stanford, M.I.T., and more.

Apple's internal training programs are taught at the company's Cupertino, California campus, with rooms being described as being "well lit" and formed in a trapezoid shape with elevated seats so employees can clearly see their instructors.

Interested individuals sign up on an internal Apple website, as classes are taught to employees based on their positions at the company and work backgrounds. Some courses teach employees about vital business decisions in the history of Apple, with one employee citing a case study on how Steve Jobs chose to make the iPod and iTunes compatible with Windows after being opposed to the idea. Even classes for founders of recently acquired companies are available:

One class taught founders of recently acquired companies how to smoothly blend resources and talents into Apple. The company may also offer a course tailored specifically to employees of Beats, perhaps including its founders, Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine. Neither Apple nor Beats would comment.

Another course, titled "Communicating at Apple", focuses on being able to convey products and ideas to others and is taught by the former Dean of Pixar University Randy Nelson among others. A detailed overview of the course given by an employee shares how Apple used the works of Picasso to explain its vision:

In a version of the class taught last year, Mr. Nelson showed a slide of "The Bull," a series of 11 lithographs of a bull that Picasso created over about a month, starting in late 1945. In the early stages, the bull has a snout, shoulder shanks and hooves, but over the iterations, those details vanish. The last image is a curvy stick figure that is still unmistakably a bull.

"You go through more iterations until you can simply deliver your message in a very concise way, and that is true to the Apple brand and everything we do," recalled one person who took the course.

Another class taught by Nelson, titled "What Makes Apple, Apple" gives lessons on how the company executes its design principles with precision and simplicity in time. To convey that idea to employees, Nelson showed a comparison of the Apple TV remote that has three buttons and the remote from a Google TV, which features 68 buttons. The instructor explained that Apple designers included just what was needed, while the Google TV remote resulted in a complicated device because its designers "got everything that they wanted."

Finally, the article describes a course called "The Best Things", which teaches employees to be proactive in a high-caliber work environment so they can perform their best work. An example relayed to employees by course teacher and Stanford professor Joshua Cohen pointed out New York City's Central Park, which was transformed from a rocky swamp into an area that made residents feel comfortable with nature. The goal of the class was to teach employees how to make intricate computer technologies feel natural, which was a main philosophy of Jobs.

Taiwanese Apple news website AppleClub (Google Translate, via 9to5Mac) shares new photos of the supposed front panel from the 4.7-inch iPhone 6, including the device's display and its insides.

The images are consistent with prior leaks of the iPhone 6's front panel, showing a larger screen, a thinner bezel, rounded edges, and a cutout for the Touch ID home button. The panel depicted also features the front-facing camera and the ambient light sensor located on the left and at the top respectively, which is similar to the design of the iPhone 4.

It is not known whether the display shown is made of sapphire, which was once rumored to come with the 4.7-inch iPhone 6. However, recent rumors have suggested that the smaller iPhone 6 will not come with a sapphire display, as rigorous scratch tests may instead hint at a more durable glass screen. Sapphire panels may come to the larger 5.5-inch iPhone 6, which is reported to feature a number of other differentiating factors including a faster processor and a camera with optical image stabilization.

Apple's next-generation iPhone will be revealed at an event on September 9, with sales likely commencing roughly a week and a half afterward. It is likely that the 4.7-inch iPhone 6 will launch first, as the 5.5-inch model is said to be experiencing production issues that may lead to a delayed release.

According to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, the United States Federal Communications Commission is now questioning all wireless carriers on their network management policies, asking how carriers choose when to throttle customers, including those with unlimited data plans.

In a report from Reuters, Wheeler said that the FCC had written to all major U.S. carriers about its concerns on throttling practices following its inquisition into Verizon's upcoming plan to throttle unlimited data customers during peak usage times.

"My concern in this instance - and it's not just with Verizon, by the way, we've written to all the carriers - is that it is moving from a technology and engineering issue to the business issues ... such as choosing between different subscribers based on your economic relationship with them."

Last week, after Verizon announced plans to slow down the data speeds of unlimited customers using heavy amounts of data, the FCC questioned the carrier about its policies, with Wheeler stating that he was "deeply troubled" by the decision.

Verizon responded, suggesting its throttling plans were both fair and legal, and likely to impact only a small subset of customers. Verizon also noted that several other carriers, like Sprint, AT&T, and T-Mobile all have unlimited data restrictions in place. According to Wheeler, pointing towards the policies of other carriers was not a sufficient response. "'All the kids do it' was never something that worked for me when I was growing up," he said.

AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile have long had policies in place that allow the carriers to opt to restrict the data usage of customers with grandfathered unlimited plans in an effort to encourage users to switch to pay-by-usage tiered data plans.

While the FCC did not share the letters sent to AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint, an FCC spokesperson said the letters were similar in nature to the original letter sent to Verizon. That letter asked the carrier to answer specific questions on its rationale for treating customers differently on plan type, the need for such throttling on efficient LTE networks, and the legality of throttling.

Verizon was the first to receive the letter because of the announcement of a new policy, according to the FCC spokesperson. Verizon will begin throttling its high-usage off-contract LTE customers accessing congested network cells beginning on October 1.