MacRumors

Earlier today, Apple released the third beta of iOS 7.1 to developers, which included both bug fixes and a number of visual changes that give several aspects of iOS 7 an entirely new look and feel. For example, the Phone dialer has been revamped with new buttons and several icons have had their color toned down, making iOS 7 less neon.

We've rounded up all of the visual changes that have been found in the iOS 7.1 beta thus far, creating an overview of what iOS 7 might look like in just a few months if the revisions make it into the final public release.

Keyboard: The keyboard in iOS 7 has been slightly revamped, adding a slight boldness to the font and a new design to the delete and shift keys. It also incorporates a somewhat darker, less yellow gray tone. Overall, the keyboard changes have the effect of adding contrast and making the letters easier to see.

Icons: The green color in the Phone, Messages, and FaceTime apps has been toned down and is now darker, especially at the bottom of the icons. This introduces a less neon coloration to iOS 7, cutting down on some of the operating system's brightness.

Phone: The Phone app has seen the biggest changes, with a renewed focus on simple, circular buttons. The standard incoming call screen with rectangular buttons has been replaced with a black background and two round Accept and Decline icons.

The "Call" and "End" buttons visible on the dialer have also been replaced with circular icons.

Wallpaper: When selecting a new wallpaper, users can now choose to turn the parallax effect on or off.

Control Center: Control Center's brightness and volume sliders now maintain momentum when they are flicked, a new feature that fits in well with a previous bounce animation added in iOS 7.1 beta 2.

Shut down: The power off screen when shutting down the phone has a new look that does away with the red "slide to power off" and cancel tabs first introduced with iOS 7. The new design includes a power button icon at the top and a cancel icon at the bottom.

Accessibility: A New option has been added in the Accessibility's Contrast menu, allowing users to reduce iOS 7's white point. This feature joins both the "Button Shapes" and Darken Colors options that were added in an older iOS 7.1 beta.

Music: The Music app has new shuffle and repeat buttons that are more prominent, and iTunes Radio has a revamped "New" button.

According to a recent report from BGR, iOS 7.1 may not make it to consumers until March, indicating that the software will see a lengthy beta testing period. Beta 3’s release notes indicated a number of known issues that remain with iOS 7.1, suggesting that the update is not yet ready for the public.

A number of companies introduced new 4K display options at CES this week, and, though some 4K monitors have seen early teething pains with the new Mac Pro, the new displays are expected to be compatible with Apple's new pro machine.

4K displays saw significant price drops in 2013 with a number of models introduced in recent months but these new options are, for the most part, significantly cheaper than currently available 4K monitors.

Lenovo debuted its ThinkVision Pro2840m, a 28" 4K display aimed at professionals with a 3840x2160 resolution. The monitor should be available in April for $800.

Asus also has a 3840x2160 display available, a 28-inch panel called the PB287Q, priced at $800. It will be available in the second quarter of 2014.

Finally, Seiki confirmed to MacRumors that it will announce a new 28" 4K display tomorrow, likely a budget-option as the company currently has a 39-inch 4K television available for just $500, significantly cheaper than similar alternatives.

LG previously announced a 4K display, the 31-inch 31MU95, that is wider than most other options using a 19:10 ratio widescreen panel at 4096x2160, whereas the most other 4K displays use a 16:9 ratio. LG will also offer 34-inch and 29-inch options with much wider 21:9 screens at lower, non-4K resolutions. Those panels should be announced later this week at CES.

Apple today released the third beta of iOS 7.1 to registered developers for testing purposes, following the release of the second iOS 7.1 beta in mid-December. The update has a build number of 11d5127c and is available via an over-the-air update or through Apple’s developer center website.

The first and second betas of iOS 7.1 bundled multiple bug fixes along with several new features including a new "Button Shapes" option in Accessibility and a more prominent location for Touch ID and Passcode options. The third beta includes fixes for audiobook playbook and iCloud account setup with iCloud Keychain, but there are undoubtedly other tweaks that have not been documented by Apple.

According to a recent report, iOS 7.1 will see a lengthy testing period with a public release coming in March. Beta 3's release notes indicate that a number of known issues remain with iOS 7.1, which must be fixed before the software can see a general release.

The last version of iOS 7 available to the public, iOS 7.0.4, was released back in November.

Today's update also includes Xcode 5.1 Developer Preview 3 and a new version of the Apple TV beta software.

Update: While the "dark keyboard" option that was added in beta 1 and removed in beta 2 has not returned in beta 3, Apple has tweaked the standard keyboard slightly, most notably with a new look for the delete key.

Beta 3 also includes a new look for the confirmation screen when powering down the device, while the Phone dialer now uses round "call" and "end" buttons rather than large rectangular ones. The incoming call screen also adopts the round buttons as part of a redesign.

The green color of the Phone, FaceTime, Messages app icons has been toned down slightly, while there is an expanded "Increase Contrast" section in the Accessibility settings that now has three separate settings allowing users to reduce transparency, darken colors (added in iOS 7.1 beta 1), and reduce white point (new in iOS 7.1 beta 3).

There is a new option to turn parallax on or off when setting wallpapers.

Imagination Technologies yesterday announced a new Series6XT generation of its PowerVR graphics architecture, representing a successor to the Series6 graphics used in Apple's A7 chip for the iPhone 5s, iPad Air, and Retina iPad mini.

Series6XT cores achieve up to a 50% performance increase on the latest industry standard benchmarks compared to equivalent configurations of previous generation cores. And with a significant increase in raw GFLOPS, Series6XT delivers the industry’s best performance in both GFLOPS/mm2 and GFLOPS/mW.

Apple currently uses Imagination's quad-core G6430 graphics in the A7, and the new Series6XT architecture brings a GX6450 model as a direct successor with potential for inclusion in future Apple A-series chips. But as noted by AnandTech, typical lead times on moving from licensing announcement to consumer availability suggest that these new graphics options may not appear in shipping chips until the latter half of 2015.

Series6XT is designed to be a moderate feature upgrade and power/performance optimization pass for Series6, integrating various innovations over the past couple of years to keep Imagination’s designs performance and feature competitive. Series6XT comes 2 years after Series6 licensing was announced at CES 2012, and roughly half a year after the first SoCs implementing Series6 GPUs were released to consumers.

Apple has used versions of PowerVR graphics throughout its history of iOS device chip development, leading all the way back to the original iPhone in 2007. In line with Apple's preference for Imagination's graphics offerings, Apple has been a leading investor in the graphics company for some time, making several purchases that pushed its ownership stake in Imagination to nearly 10% by mid-2009.

Wireless power firm WiTricity today announced the release of a reference design for its new wireless charging system aimed at the iPhone 5 and iPhone 5s. Moving beyond existing induction power transfer technologies such as Powermat that require direct contact with a charging pad, WiTricity's system supports power transfer over short distances using magnetic resonance, allowing charging pads to be kept out of sight such as mounted on the bottom surface of a desk.

The WiTricity charging system for the iPhone 5/5s includes a wireless charging hub and a charging sleeve that fits an iPhone 5 or 5s. Similar to other protective covers, the WiTricity sleeve quickly slides onto an iPhone 5/5s and is powered when in proximity to the WiTricity charging hub. Capable of charging two phones concurrently, the charging hub can be placed on top of a table as an upright or flat charging pad, or mounted underneath a table or desk for charging through the surface. By mounting the charging pad under a surface, smartphone users are freed from the tangle of charging cords and cluttered desktops.

We first explored Apple's connection to WiTricity in July 2011 after it was reported that Apple was working on a "new way of charging" the iPhone, and while that way turned out to simply be the Lightning connector introduced in the iPhone 5, Apple does clearly have an interest in wireless charging and WiTricity's technology in particular.

Patent applications from Apple have outlined how the company could use something in line with WiTricity's technology to allow a computer such as an iMac to serve as a wireless charging hub, with accessories and other devices such as keyboard, mice, and iOS devices able to be charged simply by being in close proximity to the iMac. Shortly after the publication of a key Apple patent application on the concept, WiTricity even demoed how such a system would work.

WiTricity's system announced today is a reference design not meant for direct sale to consumers, but it will allow the company to partner with a variety of other firms such as device manufacturers, accessory companies, and furniture makers to explore implementation of the technology.

Apple announced today that App Store sales topped $10 billion in 2013, including a record breaking $1 billion in December alone, where App Store customers downloaded almost three billion apps. Overall, Apple has paid out over $15 billion to App Store developers.

“We’d like to thank our customers for making 2013 the best year ever for the App Store,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services. “The lineup of apps for the holiday season was astonishing and we look forward to seeing what developers create in 2014.”

In its press release, Apple also highlighted a number of popular and emerging apps and developers while drawing special attention to a few larger developers that particularly embraced the new look and features of iOS 7, which was released in September.

Apple announced a year ago that the App Store had passed 40 billion downloads, with half of those coming in 2012. The company also announced that December 2012 brought over two billion downloads, with 500 million user accounts registered.

In May 2013, Apple hit 50 billion worldwide app downloads, which it celebrated with a promotion for a $10,000 gift card for the person who downloaded the 50 billionth app. The App Store also reached one million live apps in December.

Apple today announced its annual Lunar New Year sale, a one day event for Asian countries that is also known as "Red Friday" because of its similarity to November's Black Friday sales.

During the event, which takes place three weeks before the Lunar New Year, Apple will be offering deals on Macs, iPads, iPods, and accessories like the Smart Cover. It is unclear whether Apple will offer traditional price cuts or instead give customers gift cards with purchase as it did in the United States during Black Friday. In previous years, Apple has offered modest cash discounts on products.

Discounted prices will be available in China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand, on Friday, January 10. Last week, Apple also held its annual "Lucky bag" promotion for Japanese customers.

(Thanks, Andrew!)

Some analysts expect Apple to introduce a larger "iPad Pro" later this fall, but Samsung has beaten them to the punch. The Korean firm today announced a pair of 12.2" Galaxy tablets running Android.

Engadget got a hands on with the 12.1-inch Galaxy NotePro, noting that it "simply isn't designed for optimal portability" and that it is awkward to hold for long periods of time. Weighing in at 1.66 lbs with a 2560x1600 pixel display at 247 ppi, the device is significantly larger than the iPad Air.

First, let's discuss the key specs. With a larger Note comes an even larger 9,500mAh battery, an 8MP rear camera paired with a 2MP front camera, "super clear" WQXGA LCD panel, IR support, dual-band WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac MIMO, USB 3.0 and Bluetooth 4.0. The LTE model promises support for 800/900/1800/2100/2600+850, while you'll get quad-band HSPA+ (with a max of 21Mbps).

The Note Pro 12.2 runs Android 4.4 KitKat, but the user experience is drastically different than any Note we've played with before. Instead of being graced with a standard Android/TouchWiz home screen panel when pressing the home hardware button, you get whisked away to a new interface lovingly called Magazine UX. This experience consists of three separate customizeable screen panels: one for your office/workspace, another for personal use and a last one that handles your social networks and media.

The Verge also has a hands-on video with the new tablets:

There are two 12.2-inch variants -- the GalaxyNotePro which includes Samsung's S Pen functionality, and the Galaxy TabPro which does not -- though both include custom Samsung software and firmware. It will come in LTE, 3G and Wi-Fi-only variants and is expected to launch later this quarter. Pricing is not yet available.

Along with the 12.2-inch devices, Samsung introduced several other new Galaxy TabPro tablets, in 10.1- and 8.4-inch variations.

Apple updated its investor relations page today to note that it will announce its earnings for the first fiscal quarter (fourth calendar quarter) of 2014 on Monday, January 27. The earnings release typically occurs just after 4:30 PM Eastern Time following the close of regular stock trading, and the conference call is scheduled to follow at 5:00 PM Eastern / 2:00 PM Pacific.

MacRumors will provide running coverage of the earnings release and conference call.

The release will provide a look into initial iPad Air and Retina iPad mini sales during their first quarter of availability as well as iPhone 5s and 5c sales throughout the holiday. Apple reported a record number of iPhone/iPad sales during fiscal 2013, at 150 million iPhones and 71 million iPads.

In its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings call, Apple guided expected revenue of $55–58 billion and gross margin between 36.5 and 37.5 percent. If the company meets even the low end of that guidance, it will count as the strongest quarter for Apple in history.

Later this year, Burberry CEO Angela Ahrendts will move to Apple as a new senior vice president in charge of Apple's retail and online sales efforts. Before Apple announced her hiring in October, Fast Company spoke extensively with Ahrendts across several non-Apple related interviews. However, since the announcement, she has unsurprisingly declined any interview requests.

In a wide-ranging profile, Fast Company looks at Ahrendts' job history and work style, the troubles Apple Retail has seen in the past few years, and how her experiences at Burberry could shape Apple Retail's growth going forward.

Ahrendts' is not a tech-savvy geek, but she has a vision for how to speak for customers. In an interview with Vishal Sikka, a development executive at SAP, Fast Co. discovered that she exhibits some Steve Jobs-esque tendencies:

She saw a wealth of information... what did customers respond to? What did they like or dislike? What did they share on social media? She thought there must be a way to collect and share such data with the whole Burberry team, as well as combine all six of Burberry's consumer-intel databases into one salesperson-friendly interface. "She wanted to merge the digital experience with the in-store experience," Sikka says. She did not know how to do that herself; she freely acknowledges that she is no digital native nor is she fluent in the language of coders and engineers, but she is very good at asking for help. "She is not a geek. She is not technical," Sikka says. "But she has a vision for things she wants to see, and she has a profound understanding of what technology can do for people."

Beyond that, Ahrendts put extensive amounts of technology into the sales experience at Burberry. She created a back-end system that allows every Burberry salesperson, across 330 stores, to access all the data that the company has collected on individual customers, including data as detailed as whether customers prefer to browse merchandise with assistance or to be left alone.

The company uses RFID tags extensively, allowing customers to bring a piece of merchandise to a mirror and a video will appear with a model wearing the coat. She also oversaw the creation of a website where users can upload photographs of themselves wearing Burberry attire, allowing users to share their looks and potential buyers to imagine themselves in Burberry garb.

Finally, Ahrendts appears to take a page out of Ron Johnson's communicative playbook. Johnson was famous for the videos he recorded to be played to all Apple Retail employees at quarterly staff meetings, and Ahrendts currently does weekly videos for Burberry's 11,000 employees.

At Burberry, she communicates constantly with her 11,000 employees, sending emails to thank them for a particular contribution and frequently jetting to offices and stores around the world (she tries always to be home by Friday night to be with her husband and her kids, who are 18, 17, and 13). She is adamant that significant news be shared first with staff, so that they never learn about their own company by reading the papers. She does a weekly video update--soon, perhaps, Apple staff will joke about how perfect Ahrendts's hair is, just as they did with Johnson. Her main message is usually "thank you." Sometimes that's an epilogue to an all-hands call to action: "I will sit there on the webcast and say, 'Okay, guys, we're nearing the end of the quarter and it's really tight, but I know we're gonna make it because there's 11,000 of you out there,' " she says. "'Could you do me a favor? Just one extra call to a customer? 'Cause if you do that, we'll win.'"

Angela Ahrendts will join Apple this spring and will continue in her role as Burberry CEO until then. In his email to Apple employees announcing the hire, Tim Cook said Ahrendts' shares Apple's values and "focus on innovation" and that she "embraces our view that our most important resource and our soul is our people".

Apple Retail has been without a leader since John Browett was fired in October of 2012.