MacRumors

Apple today updated its U.S. online store to begin offering sales of unlocked, SIM-free iPhone 5s models, with shipping estimates currently set at 1-2 weeks compared to 3-5 business days for carrier-specific purchases (via 9to5Mac). Pricing is the same as for other unsubsidized iPhone 5s models, with the 16/32/64 GB models available for $649/$749/$849 respectively.

While the launch brings official unlocked device sales to Apple's stores for the first time, many of the carrier-specific models sold by Apple have been unlocked all along when purchased at full retail price. For example, the T-Mobile iPhone 5s models sold by Apple have been unlocked since launch, although the company has not been specifically marketing them as such. There had been some early confusion about the issue, as Apple initially listed some iPhone 5s models as unlocked leading up to the launch, but the company removed that text at launch time.

With today's addition, the company is now more clear about offering unlocked models without the need for any SIM card to be included at the time of purchase, with the models available for use on a number of carriers around the world.

As Apple notes on the store page, unlocked iPhone 5s devices are model are A1533 and are compatible only with GSM networks.

Following a surprise launch last week that saw Apple's retail stores offering the new Retina iPad mini only for Personal Pickup of online orders, the company's U.S. stores have now begun selling the device to walk-in customers. Supplies do, however, remain extremely tight, and thus ordering online for Personal Pickup to secure a specific model is still advised.

The launch of walk-in sales was noted this morning in a research note from Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Brian White, who indicated that a number of New York City stores received shipments designated for walk-in customers last night and this morning. MacRumors has confirmed that walk-in sales are now being offered in some stores, although one store contacted by MacRumors reported that it was still offering only Personal Pickup options.

Apple has also updated its iPad retail page to simply encourage customers to purchase in-store, rather than specifically noting that they should purchase the Retina iPad mini online for in-store pickup.

The tight supply constraints on Retina iPad mini models mean that Personal Pickup remains unavailable for many models at many stores, with several supply trackers attempting to help customers determine whether their desired models are available in their areas. Online orders through Apple's U.S. online store continue to show 5-10 business day shipping estimates for all models.

Update 10:40 AM: White has issued a new note reporting that 26 out of 32 stores surveyed by his team currently have at least some stock of Retina iPad mini models available for walk-in purchase.

Following a discussion about the duo's design vision and obsession with perfection in a Vanity Fair article last month, Apple's senior vice president of design Jonathan Ive and industrial designer Marc Newson appeared on the Charlie Rose show last night, with airings of the interview occurring last night on PBS and again tonight on Bloomberg TV.

Simplicity is refining and being able to define the very essence of what something does, and therefore you understand what it is and you understand what it does....but simplicity for us, it's not just the absence of clutter, it's not just stuff that's not there, it's this tremendous gravity to trying to find that very simple solution.

Ive and Newson have collaborated numerous times throughout the past few months to select and customize products for Sotheby's charity auction to benefit Product (RED), including a one-of-a-kind Leica camera, an aluminum desk, solid gold Apple EarPods, and a one-of-a-kind red Mac Pro. Product (RED) has been a longtime Apple partner, with the company raising more than $65 million for the charity since 2006. The two had previously appeared in a video discussing the auction and their role in it.

Update: The full video of the duo's interview on the show has been posted above.

Apple has published a new page on its website dubbed "Life on iPad", which documents six stories of people using their iPads in various ways to improve their lives. The page, which was first discovered by The Verge, also includes copy highlighting how people have used the iPad in ways that Apple hadn't foreseen.

The six stories focus on Siemens Energy-Wind Service, champion speed skater Bridie Farrell, Palmaz Vineyards, Riviera Racing Team owner and driver Mark Post, Broadway director and choreographer Jeff Whiting, and Dr. Itaru Endo, director of digestive surgery and liver transplantation for Yokohoma City University.

All six stories detail how each person and/or company is able to use the iPad to enhance either their lives, careers, and businesess or others' lives. For instance, Dr. Endo's story discusses how he and his team created iPad apps to to reduce the possibility of complications during surgery.

The app uses augmented reality to overlay complex vascular systems during operations. This reveals liver perfusion patterns that are invisible to the human eye, giving greater insight into the exact location of certain blood vessels. The app also shows local blood flow territories and assesses potential risks in real time. “The visualization of liver blood vessels puts surgeons at ease,” Dr. Endo explains, “and it helps to ensure that the right incisions are made at the right time.”

The new page also includes the "Life on iPad" video that debuted at the company's iPad Air event in October and stays in line with Apple's recent theme of highlighting the iPad's ability to be used for a wide variety of tasks, from everything to games and media consumption and creation to business and educational needs.

Apple today released an updated version of OS X 10.9.1 for developers and AppleSeed members, which carries a build number of 13B35. The first version of 10.9.1 seeded to developers last week had a build number of 13B27.

Build 13B35 of OS X 10.9.1 includes several fixes for Gmail in OS X Mail, along with improvements to Smart Mailbox functionality. It also fixes an emoji bug with VoiceOver and provides updates to the Shared Links tab when the Safari Sidebar is open. Apple previously released several Mail fixes in a standalone Mail update for Mavericks users.

The 10.9.1 update improves the stability and compatibility of your Mac, and is recommended for all OS X Mavericks users.

The update includes the following fixes:

- Improved support for Gmail in OS X Mail, and fixes for users with custom Gmail settings
- Improves the reliability of Smart Mailboxes and search in Mail
- Fixes an issue that prevented contact groups from working properly in Mail
- Resolves an issue that prevented VoiceOver from speaking sentences that contain emoji
- Updates Shared Links periodically when open in the Safari Sidebar
- Improves compatibility of the VPN server in OS X Server

Registered developers and AppleSeed members can download the update through the software update tool in the Mac App Store.

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission plans to introduce a proposal that would allow passengers to use cell phones on airplanes during flight, reports The Wall Street Journal. Under the terms of the proposal, airplane passengers would be permitted to make voice calls and use cellular data when above 10,000 feet.

The Federal Communications Commission will propose allowing passengers to use their cellphones on airplanes, people familiar with the matter said.

While phone use would still be restricted during takeoff and landing, the proposal would lift an FCC ban on airborne calls and cellular data use by passengers once a flight reaches 10,000 feet, an FCC official said.

The proposal, which will be discussed during the FCC's December meeting, would let individual airlines implement wireless technology and decide whether to allow customers to make voice calls while in flight.

The FCC introduced a similar proposal in 2007, which was ultimately abandoned after both numerous complaints about the idea and a "lack of technical information."

Recently, the Federal Aviation Administration relaxed the rules on the use of electronic devices in flight, permitting gate to gate use of devices like iPads. Most major airlines in the United States have now adopted the new policy, which allows an iPhone to be used in-flight with "Airplane" mode enabled to restrict cellular access.

The Federal Communications Commission intends to release the proposal as a Notice of Proposed Rule Making, accepting comments on the plan ahead of a final decision. According to The Wall Street Journal, the entire process could take several months.

The jury has reached a verdict in the damages retrial between Samsung and Apple that began last week. The trial was to determine the amount of money Samsung must pay for copying key iPhone features and design elements after Samsung was found guilty in a jury trial last year.

The jury found Samsung liable for $290 million in damages, according to IDG News reporter Martyn Williams. During its opening statements, Apple asked for $379 million in damages, while Samsung said it only owed $52 million.

Last year, Samsung was ordered to pay Apple a total of $1.05 billion after a jury found the South Korean company guilty of willfully violating multiple Apple patents. Back in March, Judge Lucy Koh struck $450 million from the $1 billion awarded to Samsung after deciding the jury may have miscalculated the damages due to a misunderstanding of patent issues.

The remaining approximately $600 million in damages was left intact by Judge Koh, and Samsung will have to pay a total of $890 million.

During the retrial, Apple brought Phil Schiller, senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing to the stand where he explained how Apple's marketing strategy worked and how Samsung's infringement caused consumers to "question our design skills in a way they never used to."

Update: Apple issued this statement to AllThingsD following the verdict:

"For Apple, this case has always been about more than patents and money," Apple said in a statement to AllThingsD. "It has been about innovation and the hard work that goes into inventing products that people love. While it’s impossible to put a price tag on those values, we are grateful to the jury for showing Samsung that copying has a cost."

Apple today debuted a new video trailer in the App Store for its latest Editor's Choice app, Clumsy Ninja, reports MacStories. This is the first time that Apple has allowed a video to be embedded within an App Store description.

As an Editor's Choice pick, Clumsy Ninja has been given a specially designed App Store page in iTunes that includes a link to the app along with a video trailer that opens into a full screen preview when clicked. The iOS App Store description of the app features the same general layout, with the embedded video playing directly within the built-in iOS media player.

The big news is, of course, the fact that Apple is embedding a video in the App Store, which has historically only allowed developers to include up to five static screenshots for their apps. Clumsy Ninja's video opens the built-in iOS media player in portrait mode, and it features music playing in the background with no voiceover or custom App Store branding. It is, effectively, a game trailer on the App Store.

Videos within App Store app descriptions are a new feature and it is unclear whether Apple plans to use videos only for its featured apps or if there will be a wider video rollout allowing developers to embed similar trailer videos in their app descriptions.

Developers have thus far been limited to a handful of screenshots to show off app functionality, but video embeds could go a long way towards showing off the true capabilities of an app.

Currently, the Clumsy Ninja video is restricted to the U.K. and other European App Stores, but the U.S. App Store will presumably be updated soon to feature the new Editor's Choice pick. The new App Store layout can be accessed through the U.K. link, however, which does open in the U.S. App Store.

Late last month, the Rockstar Consortium -- a group of companies, including Apple, Ericsson, Microsoft, BlackBerry, and Sony, that purchased a collection of 6,000 patents and patent applications from the bankrupt Nortel in 2011 -- sued Google, Samsung, HTC, Huawei and others for infringement of some of those patents.

In an interview with Intellectual Asset Management (via TUAW), Rockstar CEO John Veschi, who was Nortel's chief intellectual property officer before the company went bust, said "It was entirely my call based on the facts in front of me." Shareholders, including Apple, "got an email telling them what had happened after the suits were issued.”

What is important to remember about Rockstar is that it is essentially the continuation of what was previously the Nortel licensing operation – or the one that Veschi would have established if he had been able to see through his plans for the Canadian telecoms company before it entered bankruptcy. Veschi joined Nortel as its chief IP officer in 2008 and by 2009 had already established programmes for both its internet patent portfolio and the one relating to handsets. As a result, he and his team have actually been negotiating with parties for four or five years, not just the two since Rockstar came into being. “The real question is why it took us so long to initiate actions. We didn’t and we didn’t, but there comes a time when you have to. There is nothing magic about it,” Veschi says.

There was some pushback against Apple, after the initial lawsuit filing, from customers and pundits who believed Apple was behind the filing of the lawsuit. This interview would seem to be a response from the Rockstar Consortium, which apparently operates independently of its shareholders, that the decision was entirely up to the holding company's executive team.

Rockstar is likely seeking significant damages from Google and the other defendants, claiming that their patent infringement is ongoing and willful.

Apple is investigating the use of Liquidmetal alloys to create various product parts using injection molding and 3D printing, according to five patent applications the company filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in 2012. (via Patently Apple).

Apple has been rumored to be experimenting with amorphous metal alloys, aka Liquidmetal, ever since the company signed an exclusive deal with California-based company Liquidmetal Technologies back in 2010. Liquidmetal alloys demonstrate a different molecular structure than traditional metals, which results in a stronger, harder substance that is also durable, thin, and moldable into unique shapes.

The patents are highly technical and describe methods of creating parts layer by layer using bulk metallic glasses, aka Liquidmetal alloys, as is done with 3D printing, which Apple suggests is quicker and less expensive than traditional machining of parts. According to the patent, 3D printing could be especially useful for visualization, demonstration, and mechanical prototyping, as well as the production of patterns for molds.

Apple's patents indicate that Liquidmetal alloys could be used within iPhones, iPads, iPods, and as part of a digital display or computer monitor. Apple also specifies potential uses in the Apple TV, remote controls, hard drive tower housings, laptop houses, keyboards, track pads, mouses, speakers, and a "device such as a watch or a clock."

Rumors have long suggested that Apple could use Liquidmetal in its device casings, allowing the company to create slimmer products that are highly resistant to wear. The former director of research at Liquidmetal Technologies claimed that Apple would eventually "make the iPhone out of it."

Following its deal with Liquidmetal Technologies, Apple began testing the manufacturing capabilities of the alloys by crafting the iPhone 3G's SIM eject tool from a Liquidmetal alloy. Though minor components have been constructed from Liquidmetal alloys, one of the original inventors of Liquidmetal suggested in 2012 that the use of the alloys in major components was still two to four years off.

Apple has, however, recently been awarded a patent on the mass production of amorphous metals, indicating that the company is continuing to make progress with the material.