Following announcements from Best Buy and RadioShack that they will be offering $50 gift cards to iPhone 5c customers that will bring the prices down to $50 for a 16 GB model with a two-year contract, Walmart will be undercutting even those offers starting today by dropping its pricing to $45, reports MarketWatch.
While Best Buy's current offer is good only through next Monday and RadioShack's is scheduled to run for about a month, Walmart's pricing will be valid throughout the holiday shopping season. Walmart has been offering the iPhone 5c for $79 since launch, a $20 discount from standard pricing.
Price drops around the holidays are not terribly unusual for major iPhone retailers, but stores are being rather aggressive in announcing price drops on a brand-new iPhone model so soon after launch. iPhone 5c models have been in relatively good supply since their launch, while the more expensive iPhone 5s has seen significant shortages. The iPhone 5s has not seen any significant sale announcements, although Walmart has been offering the 16 GB model for $189, a $10 discount from normal pricing, since launch.
Apple has added new 'Tips and Tricks' sections to its iPhone marketing websites, giving new and old iPhone users a handy guide to the new features of iOS 7 and the new iPhone models.
The three pages, one each for the iPhone 4s, 5c and 5s, include sections about photography, swipe gestures, FaceTime, Maps, Siri, Calendar, Music, Mail, Safari, AirPlay and Wireless, Settings, Compass, and Find My iPhone.
The pages, which are linked at the bottom of every iPhone marketing webpage on Apple.com, appear to be something of a quick start guide, complimenting the more in-depth iPhone User Guide.
Jonathan Zufi, who runs the Shrine of Apple website, has spent the last several years collecting and photographing Apple’s huge array of products, from rare releases to everyday items. He’s amassed 150,000 photos, 650 of which will appear in his new 326-page book, "Iconic: A Photographic Tribute to Apple Innovation."
Zufi interviewed with The Wall Street Journal, where he described how he purchased more than 500 Apple items and traveled across the country to photograph prototypes and other rare products.
"I wanted to create a repository where people who also love the company and its products could go and reminisce," says Mr. Zufi, a mobility expert at SAP America Inc. who says he has never worked for Apple Inc. The idea, he says, was to trace the company’s evolution both in electronics and design from a user’s point of view. "I want people who are a bit younger who think Apple just makes things that start with "i" to know this company used to make clunky printers."
The book includes photographs of rare Apple products like the Apple II, a circuit board from the Apple I, the “Flower Power” iMac G3, and an Apple Lisa 2. It also features more modern products like iPods, and also offers an entire chapter on packaging. The book has little text, but it does offer forewords and introductions from original Apple employees like Daniel Kottke and Steve Wozniak.
"Iconic: A Photographic Tribute to Apple Innovation" is self-published and can be purchased on the website dedicated to the book. There are two versions, a classic edition that retails for $75 and a $300 special edition that includes a cover designed to mimic the vintage Apple form factor.
As noted by ABC News, Best Buy yesterday began a brief promotion offering $50 off of the price of the iPhone 5c. With the 16 GB model normally priced at $99.99 on a two-year contract in the U.S., the discount cuts pricing on the device to just $49.99. The offer brings the cost of the higher-capacity 32 GB model down to $149.99 with a contract.
The discount, which comes in the form of a gift card that can be applied to the in-store iPhone purchase itself, comes just two weeks after the device's launch and beats Walmart's $79.99 pricing on the 16 GB model that has been available since launch.
iPhone 5c supplies have remained fairly strong throughout Apple's distribution channels, giving retailers some incentive to reduce pricing to help drive sales. That availability contrasts with significant shortages seen for Apple's flagship iPhone 5s, most acutely with the silver and gold models.
The $50 gift card offer on the iPhone 5c is valid through Monday, October 7.
Update: RadioShack will be offering a similar promotion starting tomorrow, with in-store iPhone 5c purchasers eligible for a $50 gift card they can apply to the purchase of their devices. The promotion will run through November 2. Customers can also take advantage of RadioShack's Trade & Save program to receive up to $250 in store credit for trading in their current iPhones.
Just ahead of the second anniversary of Steve Jobs’ death, Fred Vogelstein has published a piece in The New York Times that gives a detailed behind-the-scenes look at the work that went into both the first iPhone and its January 9, 2007 announcement, featuring information from key iPhone developers like Andy Grignon, Tony Fadell, and Scott Forstall.
According to Andy Grignon, the senior manager in charge of the radios of the iPhone, the night before the iPhone announcement was terrifying. Jobs had insisted on a live presentation of the prototype iPhone, which was still in the developmental stages, often "randomly dropping calls, losing its Internet connection, freezing, or simply shutting down."
The iPhone could play a section of a song or a video, but it couldn’t play an entire clip reliably without crashing. It worked fine if you sent an e-mail and then surfed the Web. If you did those things in reverse, however, it might not. Hours of trial and error had helped the iPhone team develop what engineers called “the golden path,” a specific set of tasks, performed in a specific way and order, that made the phone look as if it worked.
At the time of the announcement, only 100 iPhones existed, with some of those featuring significant quality issues like scuff marks and gaps between the screen and the plastic edge. The software, too, was full of bugs, leading the team to set up multiple iPhones to overcome memory issues and restarts. Because of the phone’s penchant for crashing, it was programmed to display a full five-bar connection at all times.
Then, with Jobs’s approval, they preprogrammed the phone’s display to always show five bars of signal strength regardless of its true strength. The chances of the radio’s crashing during the few minutes that Jobs would use it to make a call were small, but the chances of its crashing at some point during the 90-minute presentation were high. "If the radio crashed and restarted, as we suspected it might, we didn’t want people in the audience to see that," Grignon says. "So we just hard-coded it to always show five bars."
Apple had poured all of its efforts into the iPhone, and its success largely hinged on a flawless presentation. As described by Grignon, there was no backup plan in place if the presentation was a failure, which put enormous pressure on the team.
Jobs rarely backed himself into corners like this. He was well known as a taskmaster, seeming to know just how hard he could push his staff so that it delivered the impossible. But he always had a backup, a Plan B, that he could go to if his timetable was off.
But the iPhone was the only cool new thing Apple was working on. The iPhone had been such an all-encompassing project at Apple that this time there was no backup plan.
Though there were a huge number of factors that could have caused the presentation to fail, it famously went off without a hitch. Grignon shares a final story on how the engineers and managers that worked on both the iPhone and the presentation shared a flask of Scotch as they watched "the best demo any of us had ever seen."
The full piece, which explores thoughts from other key Apple employees like Tony Fadell and Scott Forstall, is well worth a read. It covers the overwhelming complexity of developing an entirely new product and the extreme lengths that Jobs and his team went to keeping the product a secret.
As noted by our sister site TouchArcade, the game appears to combine Tiny Tower-style gameplay with the Star Wars universe. In Tiny Tower, the goal was to build up a tower filled with various businesses, collecting and managing resources to continue to expand.
The Empire needs your help! In collaboration with LucasArts and Tiny Tower creators NimbleBit, Disney Mobile introduces Star Wars™: Tiny Death Star™, a new game for mobile devices. Live life on the dark side and join Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader on a mission to attract Galactic bitizens, run intergalactic businesses, and build an all-new Death Star. Construct unique Star Wars themed locations to attract iconic characters and species to your space station in this 8-bit style game. Star Wars: Tiny Death Star will soon be available worldwide.
Though there is no prospective release date included with the game’s announcement, Disney says that it is coming soon, which could mean within the next week or two. Like other NimbleBit and Disney games, it will likely be free-to-play.
Apple India executives Maneesh Dhir and Sanjay Kaul have stated in a meeting with retailers that the company will be focusing on consumers in small cities and towns in the country in order to grow sales, reports The Economic Times (via The Next Web).
The executives state that Apple desires to build 100 exclusive standalone stores under the franchise model in smaller markets, and will aim to do so by the end of the current fiscal year. The company is precisely interested in the changing demographic of the market, with both executives feeling that the aspiration level of Apple products amongst the youth are growing along with the population of wealthy citizens.
The move comes amid Samsung's success in the Indian hinterland, said a senior executive with a retail chain, besides which companies such as Sony and Nokia have been able to sell smartphones costing in excess of 30,000 in areas outside the metros. The 16 GB iPhone 5 costs 45,500. India pricing for the upcoming iPhone models - the 5C and the 5S - hasn't been announced yet.
"Apple has realised that if it wants to grow fast in India, it has to look beyond the metros," said the CEO of one of India's retail chains. The company wants to grow upwards of 30% year-on-year in India and feels the smaller markets would play a critical role since the aspiration level of Apple products amongst the youth and rich is growing there as well.
India notably does not have any Apple Retail Stores in its country; however a report in January 2012 stated that Apple was interested to build stores in the country after business regulations were eased. Apple was also planning for 'significant growth' of its reseller network in India as reported last March.
Figures from research firm Canalys reported in August for Q2 2013 showed that India is now the third largest smartphone market in the world, with 129% growth in the region resulting in 9 million smartphone shipments during the quarter. Apple CEO Tim Cook also mentioned during the company’s Q3 2013 earnings call that iPhone sales in India were increased by 400% year-on-year, while the iPad posted double-digit growth in the region, highlighting the potential for future growth in the market.
Berlin-based Security Research Labs has detailed various exploits within the iPhone 5s' Touch ID security feature and iOS 7 that allow would-be criminals to bypass the device's security features, reports Reuters.
The method for bypassing the Touch ID security feature found on the iPhone 5s is very similar to the one used by the Chaos Computer Club, which also claimed to hack Touch ID earlier this month. A video posted on the group’s website shows how Touch ID can be bypassed using information gathered from fingerprints left on the victim’s phone display, demonstrating that a photo taken with the iPhone 4s can be used for developing a mold.
Another video by the group outlines a scenario in which a knowledgeable criminal could steal an iPhone 5s running iOS 7, use Control Center on the lock screen (enabled by default) to turn on Airplane Mode and disable the device’s connectivity, then using a fingerprint mold to bypass the lock screen and disable other various security features. Ultimately, the group shows how an attacker could conceivably gain complete control of a victim's device, Apple ID, and even other services such as Google accounts.
The group ends the video by suggesting Apple do the following to increase security efficiency in iOS 7:
1. Make Airplane Mode inaccessible from the lock screen by default and require PIN after setting Airplane Mode or removing SIM Card 2. Warn users not to store password-reset email accounts on iDevices 3. When device is lost for good, advise users to revoke its privileges 4. Do not inform potential attackers how the device is protected 5. Upon reconnecting to the Internet, iOS should not allow email retrieval before the device’s wipe- or don’t-wipe status can be retrieved
Aside from any future changes Apple may make to increase security, users can already prevent the simple bypass of the Remote Wipe feature by turning off access to Control Center from the lock screen.
iOS 7 has recently been the subject of much praise by security officials, including the New York Police Department, which passed out flyers in New York City recommending users to update to iOS 7, along with government officials who have praised iOS 7’s Activation Lock. Meanwhile, Touch ID has been the subject of much scrutiny since its release, with U.S. Senator Al Franken sending a letter to Tim Cook asking a number of questions about the security of the system and the exact fingerprint storage process. Apple has also published an extensive knowledge base article about the benefits of the Touch ID system to alleviate some consumer concerns.
With the second anniversary of Steve Jobs' death coming tomorrow, Apple CEO Tim Cook has sent a brief email to company employees reflecting on Jobs and the impact he continues to have on Cook and the company. The full email has been posted by 9to5Mac.
Team-
Tomorrow marks the second anniversary of Steve’s death. I hope everyone will reflect on what he meant to all of us and to the world. Steve was an amazing human being and left the world a better place.
I think of him often and find enormous strength in memories of his friendship, vision and leadership. He left behind a company that only he could have built and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple. We will continue to honor his memory by dedicating ourselves to the work he loved so much. There is no higher tribute to his memory. I know that he would be proud of all of you.
Best,
Tim
In the weeks following Jobs' death, Apple invited fans to leave remembrances to be shared on the company's website and held a private celebration of his life for company employees. The company marked the first anniversary of his passing last year with a photo and audio slideshow and message from Tim Cook posted on the front page of apple.com.
Atlanta resident and veteran voice actress Susan Bennett has claimed in an interview with CNN that she is original voice of Siri, Apple’s popular iOS voice assistant that was first introduced with the iPhone 4s two years ago today. While Apple has not confirmed the information, the report states that professionals within the technology industry are familiar with her voice, and cites an audio forensics expert with 30 years of experience who is certain that Bennett’s voice and the voice of Apple’s digital personal assistant are the same.
The story of how Bennett became this iconic voice began in 2005. ScanSoft, a software company, was looking for a voice for a new project. It reached out to GM Voices, a suburban Atlanta company that had established a niche recording voices for automated voice technologies. Bennett, a trusted talent who had done lots of work with GM Voices, was one of the options presented. ScanSoft liked what it heard, and in June 2005 Bennett signed a contract offering her voice for recordings that would be used in a database to construct speech.
...The surprise came in October 2011 after Apple released its iPhone 4S, the first to feature Siri. Bennett didn't have the phone herself, but people who knew her voice did.
"A colleague e-mailed me [about Siri] and said, 'Hey, we've been playing around with this new Apple phone. Isn't this you?'"
Bennett went to her computer, pulled up Apple's site and listened to video clips announcing Siri. The voice was unmistakably hers.
Notably, the report also states that a feature titled Machine Language: How Siri Found Its Voice done by technology news website The Verge last month mistakenly gave the impression that another voice actor, Allison Dufty, was Siri:
But a new Apple mobile operating system, iOS 7, with new Siri voices means that Bennett's reign as the American Siri is slowly coming to an end. At the same time, tech-news site The Verge posted a video last month, "How Siri found its voice," that led some viewers to believe that Allison Dufty, the featured voiceover talent, was Siri. A horrified Dufty scrambled in response, writing on her website that she is "absolutely, positively NOT the voice of Siri," but not before some bloggers had bought into the hype.
Bennett also stated her feelings on then revealing herself to be the original voice of Siri after the video was released:
"I really had to weigh the importance of it for me personally. I wasn't sure that I wanted that notoriety, and I also wasn't sure where I stood legally. And so, consequently, I was very conservative about it for a long time," she said. "And then this Verge video came out ... And it seemed like everyone was clamoring to find out who the real voice behind Siri is, and so I thought, well, you know, what the heck? This is the time."
Released last month, Apple’s new iOS 7 mobile operating system contains a refined version of Siri with a noticeably different voice that does not appear to be Bennett’s. But with Bennett's version of Siri having been on every new U.S. iOS device since the launch of the iPhone 4s in 2011 until last month's iPhone 5s/5c debut, millions of users are familiar with her voice.
Following today's release of OS X Mavericks Build 13A598 for members of the company's AppleSeed testing program, Apple has now posted the build for all registered Mac developers, referring to it as the "GM" (Golden Master) version that will be released to the public.
Apple has also seeded the GM build of Xcode 5.0.1 for building applications for Mavericks.
Apple is reportedly targeting a late October launch for Mavericks, with the company starting to train AppleCare staff on the upcoming operating system this week. Sources have indicated that training must be completed by October 11.
Update: Apple has also seeded developers with an iPhoto 9.4.7 update that "addresses an issue that could cause iPhoto to quit unexpectedly on launch when running OS X Mavericks GM Seed."
Back in 2010, Apple debuted a volume purchase program for its iOS App Store, designed to allow educational institutions and businesses to purchase iOS apps in bulk. With Mavericks, the company is planning to expand its purchase program to the Mac App Store.
The App Store Volume Purchase Program now offers institutions the ability to assign apps to users while keeping full ownership and control over app licenses. Institutions purchase app licenses through the VPP website, and can use their MDM solution to assign apps to students, faculty, and staff over the air. Students can enroll with their personal Apple IDs without providing it to their institution, and apps are placed in their purchase history for self-service download, or are installed automatically via MDM. Apps can be revoked at any time and reassigned to other students. In addition to iOS apps, VPP now also supports the purchase of Mac apps and even books, so students can be provided all the tools they need to get their work done.
As the release of Mavericks approaches, Apple sent an email to Mac developers (via 9to5Mac) with instructions on how to prep for the upcoming launch of Mac App Store volume purchases.
We’re pleased to announce that Mac apps will soon be eligible to participate in the Volume Purchase Program for Business and Education. The Volume Purchase Program allows businesses or educational institutions to purchase multiple copies of your app at once.
You may also offer a discount to educational institutions for multiple purchases. If you choose to offer a volume discount for an app, institutions that purchase 20 or more copies of that app in a single order will receive a 50-percent discount.
Your existing Mac apps will not be automatically enrolled in the discount for educational institutions. If you would like to offer your existing Mac apps at a discount for the Educational Volume Purchase Program, check “Discount for Educational Institutions” in the Rights and Pricing section of the Manage Your Apps module on iTunes Connect.
Under the terms of the program, Mac developers will be able to implement educational discounts to bulk app purchases in iTunes Connect, allowing institutions that purchase 20 or more copies of an app to get a 50 percent discount. Previously, bulk purchases of Mac apps were not available, with the exception of Apple’s own apps.
OS X 10.9 Mavericks is expected to launch at the end of October and includes a number of other features for education and enterprise users, including single sign on, Caching Server 2, and new MDM configuration options.
Citigroup has been fined $30 million by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in a settlement after a Citi analyst sent confidential research information to major clients without sharing it with the public, reports Reuters.
The research, which included negative order forecasts for the iPhone, was shared with major Citi clients including SAC, T. Rowe Price, Citadel, and GLG partners -- but not with Citi's retail investors, putting them at a competitive disadvantage.
"The emails between Kevin Chang and the hedge funds reveal this cozy culture which illustrates again that there are two types of customers; big ones and retail customers who often dont' receive this information," [Massachusetts Secretary of State William] Galvin said in a telephone interview.
The complaint cites an email from an unidentified SAC employee who asked a contact at Citi "can u send me everything u have on the entire iphone 4/4s/5 supply chain?.
Citi employees responded immediately by asking their colleagues "can you please send directly to (employee for SAC Capital) ... He needs it asap - works directly for (SAC Capital).'
Citi was previously fined $2 million by Massachusetts for improper disclosures related to Facebook's IPO last year. The analyst in question, Kevin Chang, was terminated by Citi last month.
Adobe today announced that hackers have managed to obtain information on approximately 2.9 million of its customers that have downloaded its software, including customer IDs, encrypted passwords, customer names, encrypted credit/debit card numbers, expiration dates, and other information on customer orders.
Adobe does not believe that the attackers were able to obtain decrypted credit or debit card numbers from its system, and is currently working with external partners and law enforcement to address the issue.
As a precautionary measure, Adobe is contacting users with affected accounts, initiating password resets. The company is also offering customers that had their credit or debit card information accessed the option of enrolling in a one-year complimentary credit monitoring service.
As a precaution, we are resetting relevant customer passwords to help prevent unauthorized access to Adobe ID accounts. If your user ID and password were involved, you will receive an email notification from us with information on how to change your password. We also recommend that you change your passwords on any website where you may have used the same user ID and password.
We are in the process of notifying customers whose credit or debit card information we believe to be involved in the incident. If your information was involved, you will receive a notification letter from us with additional information on steps you can take to help protect yourself against potential misuse of personal information about you. Adobe is also offering customers, whose credit or debit card information was involved, the option of enrolling in a one-year complimentary credit monitoring membership where available.
We have notified the banks processing customer payments for Adobe, so that they can work with the payment card companies and card-issuing banks to help protect customers’ accounts.
We have contacted federal law enforcement and are assisting in their investigation.
In addition to customer accounts, the hackers also accessed the source code of a number of Adobe products, but Adobe says that it is unaware of any increased risk to customers as a result of that particular attack.
Apple has seeded a new release of OS X Mavericks to members of the AppleSeed beta testing program, a little more than two weeks after the release of the eighth Developer Preview. DP 8 had a version number of 13A584, while today's release is build 13A598.
Separately, 9to5Mac reports that this build may be a GM candidate, according to AppleSeed members, while other sources have said the final release build will be several versions newer. The OS was reportedly nearly ready for release a few weeks ago, but was pushed back because of "critical bugs".
Since being announced at WWDC, OS X Mavericks is said to have picked up a few minor unannounced features. Namely, the Messages and FaceTime applications have received the ability to block phone numbers and Apple IDs from sending the Mavericks user messages and/or FaceTime calls. This addition brings parity to iOS 7 and the two operating systems will sync in this manner.
OS X Mavericks, which is expected to be released this fall, includes multiple new features like a tabbed Finder, full screen dual monitor capabilities, Safari improvements, and a new Maps app.
Following an employee test period earlier this week, Apple today released a Supplemental Update to OS X 10.8.5, fixing an issue with the FaceTime HD camera on 2013 MacBook Airs, a bug that caused external drives to be ejected after a computer goes to sleep, an HDMI audio issue, and a problem that prevented certain USB Bluetooth adapters from working.
The OS X v10.8.5 Supplemental Update is recommended for all users running OS X Mountain Lion v10.8.5. This update:
- Resolves an issue that may prevent certain applications from using the FaceTime HD camera on mid-2013 MacBook Air systems - Fixes an issue that may cause external drives to be ejected after the computer goes to sleep - Addresses an issue that may prevent HDMI audio from working after waking from sleep - Fixes an issue that may prevent certain USB Bluetooth adapters from working
The update also includes iTunes 11.1.1, fixing a bug that caused iTunes Extras to display incorrectly and an issue that resulted in deleted podcasts.
The update can be accessed from the software update tool in the Mac App Store or via Apple's support page.
Apple has acquired Cue, a personal assistant app that was designed to aggregate information from email, contacts, and calendars into a daily snapshot, reports AppleInsider. MacRumors heard similar rumors about the potential acquisition several weeks ago, but we were unable to verify the claim. The deal has reportedly netted Cue (formerly known as Greplin) $40 to $60 million dollars.
In response to queries about the reports, Apple seemingly confirmed the acquisition to CNET and TechCrunch with its standard statement: "Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans."
Cue turns your email, contacts and calendar into an intelligent snapshot of your day. All you need to create a Cue account is an email address. Then you can begin linking your Gmail, Yahoo Mail, Google Calendar, Facebook and all the other accounts that you depend on every day. Cue pulls these accounts together and uses sophisticated algorithms to create a personalized overview of the events and activities of your day.
Earlier this week, Cue unexpectedly shut down, posting a short note on its website letting users know that the Cue service is no longer available. TechCrunch speculated the shut down was likely the result of a sale due to the amount of funding Cue had raised. The app has since been pulled from the App Store.
Cue's aggregation functionality could potentially be built into a number of Apple products, including Siri. Apple’s iOS 7 Notification Center already offers a similar daily overview, pulling events and information from the Calendar, Weather, Clock, and Maps apps. The information is dynamic, shifting based on new events and location.
Amazon is developing a set-top box to compete with the Apple TV and Roku boxes, reports The Wall Street Journal. The box would be aimed primarily at users of its Amazon Prime Video streaming video service and could launch in time for the holiday season.
It was reported back in April that Amazon was developing a set-top box to stream video via its Amazon Prime and Instant Video services.
Plans for a device that would stream video were reported in April by The Wall Street Journal and other media outlets. Such a set-top box would broaden Amazon's reach into the living room, where today it is dependent on other hardware makers to reach consumers watching video on TV sets. Providing a device of its own is a potentially crucial component to Amazon's ambition of expanding beyond its core online marketplace business.
Amazon has stepped up its streaming content offerings recently, producing 14 original television pilots and using customer feedback to decide which get made into full shows, as well as spending significant amounts of money to secure exclusive rights to shows like Downton Abbey and The West Wing. The tactic takes on both Netflix's subscription streaming service and Apple's iTunes content store.
Currently Amazon's Instant Video service is available on iPads and iPhones, the Xbox 360, the Nintendo Wii, the Sony Playstation 3, smart televisions from LG, Panasonic, Samsung, Sony, and Vizio, TiVo, the Roku box, as well as a number of Blu-ray players.
Following announcements from Best Buy and RadioShack that they will be offering $50 gift cards to iPhone 5c customers that will bring the prices down to $50 for a 16 GB model with a two-year contract, Walmart will be undercutting even those offers starting today by dropping its pricing to $45, reports MarketWatch.
Just ahead of the 
With the second anniversary of 
Atlanta resident and veteran voice actress 
Citigroup has been 
Amazon is developing a set-top box to compete with the Apple TV and Roku boxes, 
