MacRumors

Reuters reports that recent talks between China Mobile and Apple have been progressing smoothly and that the two sides are positive about reaching an possible agreement, according to the company's chairman Xi Guohua. Mr Xi told Reuters that "both sides sounded keen" during recent talks, which have been ongoing since the start of 2011.

Of the three Chinese carriers, China Mobile is the only one to utilize TD-SCDMA technology, a standard developed by the company and not supported by any current iPhone model. The carrier has also been reluctant to commit to the huge cost of marketing and handset subsidies associated with the iPhone. But new chips from Qualcomm now give Apple an opportunity to support China Mobile's network in its upcoming hardware.

Apple is expected to unveil its redesigned iPhone next month and may also release a cheaper, emerging market smartphone. Crucially, it also now has Qualcomm Inc chips that can operate even on China's obscure networks. At the same time, Beijing is expected to grant 4G licenses by the year-end that favor the biggest of its domestic mobile operators.

Apple has so far ducked a deal with China Mobile as this would have required a redesign inside the iPhone to work on the operator's inferior TD-SCDMA 3G technology. For its part, China Mobile has been reluctant to commit to the huge cost of marketing and subsidizing sales of the expensive iPhone.

Beijing is looking to expand 4G networks within China by the end of the year and the licenses are expected to be based on TD-LTE technology, as supposed to the more widely-used FDD-LTE, both of which the new Qualcomm chips expected to be used in the upcoming iPhone 5C and 5S models support.

The report comes after China Mobile, the world's largest mobile network in terms of subscribers, posted healthy Q2 profits that beat the analyst expectations. Net income rose to CNY 35.2 billion ($5.8 billion) for the second quarter from CNY 34.4 billion ($5.62 billion) a year earlier, which surpassed the CNY 33.9 billion average of four analyst expectations, as reported by Bloomberg.

Although a date has yet to be confirmed by Apple, many sources confirm that new iPhone models will be announced on September 10. Recent leaks have provided strong evidence that Apple is developing a lower-cost smartphone, perhaps dubbed the "5C" for developing markets. And with chip technology now allowing Apple to more easily support China Mobile's network, the opportunity is ripe for the company to make a push on the world's largest carrier.

Last week, it was reported that Apple was looking to open a research and development center in Taiwan focused on technology for future iPhones, but at the time no such positions had been posted to Apple's jobs website.

But as noted today by Digitimes, Apple has over the past week been adding job postings for hardware engineering positions in Taipei engineers in Taiwan for various purposes. The report also indicates that Apple may establish a maintenance center in the country.

Apple has recently started hiring engineers in Taiwan and has posted positions such as senior packaging engineer, reliability engineering manager, senior software instrumentation engineer, senior AC-DC design engineer and sensing system hardware engineer on its website.

Apple is reportedly planning to establish an R&D team in Taiwan to develop products such as iPhone and has already attracted the attention of many IT engineers in Taiwan. Some market watchers even speculate that Apple may also establish a maintenance center for after-sales services.

The article also mentions that Taiwan is a favorable place for Apple to hire engineers because of high skill and low labor costs, and Apple already has favorable relationships with technology manufacturers in the country such as Foxconn Electronics and Pegatron Technology. It is also a possibility that Apple will form partnerships with other companies in the region such as Wistron and Compal Communications to lower costs and diversify production, according to the article.

Earlier this week, Digitimes also reported that Apple would be sending engineers to Taiwanese packaging firm Xintec to help increase the yield rate for fingerprint sensors to be used in the iPhone 5S, which is reported to be limited to 3-4 million units in Q3 2013 because of a shortage.

Apple will reportedly unveil the next-generation iPhone on September 10, but it is still unclear whether the event will focus singularly on the iPhone 5S or also include the announcement of the rumored low-cost iPhone.

Apple has updated its App Store Review Guidelines, revising several sections and introducing a number of new rules based on various policies that have been enacted over the last six months.

Most notably, Apple has clarified its guidelines regarding apps for children in light of its upcoming educational policy changes and the expansion of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) earlier this year.

COPPA's new rules prevent developers from collecting information from children under the age of 13 without verifiable parental consent. While developers were previously limited from collecting information like name, address, and telephone number, COPPA now restricts access to photographs, video, and audio as well.

17.3 Apps may ask for date of birth (or use other age-gating mechanisms) only for the purpose of complying with applicable children's privacy statutes, but must include some useful functionality or entertainment value regardless of the user's age

17.4 Apps that collect, transmit, or have the capability to share personal information (e.g. name, address, email, location, photos, videos, drawings, persistent identifiers, the ability to chat, or other personal data) from a minor must comply with applicable children's privacy statutes.

Apple has also created a whole new section on "Kids Apps" as it prepares to implement sweeping changes to its educational program with the introduction of iOS 7. As part of its efforts to increase iOS device usage in schools, Apple will allow children under age 13 to own and operate individual iTunes accounts for the first time.

The new section detailing apps for children under aged 13 specifies that such apps must include a privacy policy, may not include behavioral advertising (ads based on in-app activity, for example), and must ask for parental permission before allowing children to "link out of the app or engage in commerce." Apps in the Kids Category of the App Store must be made specifically for children "ages 5 and under, ages 6–8, or ages 9–11."

In addition to its guideline changes regarding children, Apple implemented two new guidelines that pertain to gambling. Apps that offer real money gaming are now required to be free and are forbidden from using in-app purchases to offer players credit or currency to use in such games.

20.5 Apps that offer real money gaming (e.g. sports betting, poker, casino games, horse racing) must have necessary licensing and permissions in the locations where the App is used, must be restricted to those locations, and must be free on the App Store

20.6 Apps that use IAP to purchase credit or currency to use in conjunction with real money gaming will be rejected

Apple has also introduced a new guideline that prevents apps "whose use may result in physical harm" and provided a slight wording change to guideline 2.25, which first made headlines earlier this year when it was cited in the rejection of prominent app discovery title AppGratis. Under the new terms, apps that mimic the App Store will not be rejected if they have been approved for a specific need.

Registered iOS developers can access Apple’s full range of App Store Review Guidelines from Apple's developer site.

Just days after Apple teased its upcoming radical redesign for the Mac Pro back in June, a Geekbench 2 result appeared to offer some data on just such a Mac Pro running a 12-core 2.7 GHz Intel Xeon E5-2697 v2 processor, 64 GB of RAM, and a custom build of OS X Mavericks. Many observers were disappointed to see that the machine received a Geekbench 2 score of just under 24,000, only marginally higher than a top-end 2012 Mac Pro, a machine that was considered by many to be outdated from the day it was launched.

Others had noted that prototype hardware, beta software, and a 32-bit Geekbench run were likely to have limited the performance seen in the benchmarks, with the final shipping version of the Mac Pro due for launch later this year perhaps seeing substantial improvements under a 64-bit version of Geekbench 2.

Tom's Hardware has now gotten its hands on this exact processor expected to make its way into the Mac Pro and put it through rigorous testing in a Windows setup, subjecting the system to numerous benchmarking tools including the 64-bit version Geekbench 2. While the results do not provide an exact answer to how well the chip will benchmark in a Mac Pro, it does offer some perspective on what kind of performance might be possible.

The leaked result was run using the free 32-bit build of Geekbench on a pre-release build of OS X Mavericks. Switching over to the paid 64-bit build of the benchmark adds SSE support, though that’s still a pre-Pentium 4 extension. Tab between the 32- and 64-bit runs on Xeon X5675-based systems and you’ll find that the SSE-capable build averages 14%-better performance.

Curious as to how the very same 12-core Xeon [E5-2697 V2] compared in Windows, I ran my own test on a 64-bit build of Geekbench and scored in excess of 30,000 points—more than 25% faster than the leaked number.

The full set of testing benchmarks pitted the high-end 12-core Ivy Bridge-EP Xeon processor against a variety of Sandy Bridge and other Ivy Bridge chips, as well as a Core i7-4770K Haswell chip, finding that the Xeon E5-2697 V2 generally topped the performance charts in multi-threaded tests but was beaten in many single-threaded tests by the faster chips with fewer cores.

As noted, the benchmark scores for the Xeon E5-2697 V2 generated from these tests won't necessarily translate exactly to a Mac Pro running OS X Mavericks, but they do provide some confidence that the redesigned Mac Pro will indeed be a significant improvement over its predecessor for the most demanding multi-threaded tasks.

The iCloud.com beta page has received a makeover with new icons from iOS 7.

The site is using new icons for Mail, Contacts, Calendar, Notes, Reminders and Find My iPhone; while iWork for iCloud is still using the older-style iWork for iOS icons.

Apple has been sending iWork for iCloud beta invites to a number of users recently, as it expands its beta testing ahead of a fall launch for the product.

Thanks Jeremiah!

Following yesterday's news that investor Carl Icahn has taken a greater than $1 billion position in Apple, believing the company is 'extremely undervalued', today Lee Cooperman of hedge fund Omega Advisors says he agrees with Icahn and that his firm has taken a modest position in Apple, according to CNBC.

The news has driven Apple's stock price over $500 for the first time seven months. Apple first breached the $500 barrier in February of 2012, nearly 18 months ago to the day.

Scott Wapner reporting earlier today on CNBC:

Much is being made of Carl Icahn's big new position in Apple, but from the filings we've learned that Lee Cooperman has taken a new position. He is back in Apple. I just got off the phone with him and he told me the following: he agrees with Carl Icahn that Apple is cheap, said they have a new modest position, said got back in the low $400s.

Lee Cooperman thinking that the new iPhone is going to create some buzz. When talking about the entire space he says he still thinks that Qualcomm is the best play in that overall space. But clearly making it known that he agrees with Carl Icahn that Apple is cheap in his words. They got back in in the low $400s and think the new iPhone which is expected on September 10th is going to create some buzz and you know Apple was right on the cusp of $500. We will see what happens here.

Apple has a long way to go to reach its all-time high of $705 set last year, but both Icahn and Cooperman are betting big on the company and believe it can regain those levels.

Sonny Dickson shares a new high-quality video of a yellow rear shell allegedly from Apple's upcoming "iPhone 5C". Similar parts have been seen in previous video and photo leaks, but this new video provides another good closeup look at the shell, including some comparisons to other iPhone models.

Dickson has released several other photo sets of iPhone 5C rear shell parts in recent days, including green and white parts. Other photos have indicated that the device may also come in blue and red.

Apple is all but confirmed to be holding an iPhone media event on September 10, where the company is expected to introduce the iPhone 5S as the successor to its current flagship iPhone 5 model. The "iPhone 5C" may also make an appearance at the event as a lower-cost alternative that would mark a shift away from Apple's current strategy of continuing to sell older models at lower prices.

An all-new iPhone 5C could allow Apple to meet its pricing goals while unifying its lineup around 4-inch displays, Lightning ports, and perhaps LTE connectivity, features not currently offered in the iPhone 4S that would otherwise be expected to drop to Apple's lowest pricing tier upon the launch of the iPhone 5S.

With the expected introduction of Apple's iPhone 5S now less than a month away, French site Nowhereelse.fr has shared some new photos [Google translation] of an alleged iPhone 5S rear shell. While the part has been seen a number of times in the past, the site has put together some overlays and iPhone 5 comparison photos to help provide an overview of some of the changes expected for the device.

One example shows an overlay of the iPhone 5S bare logic board, which has leaked several times in recent months. The part contains a number of repositioned screw holes compared to the iPhone 5 logic board, and overlay photos shows how these holes line up exactly with mounting points on the rear shell.

Also of interest is the home button region, as Apple has been reported to be incorporating a fingerprint sensor into the part, perhaps moving to a sapphire-covered convex design to help accommodate the sensor.

Nowhereelse.fr's comparison photos show how the metal spacer shield for the home button has changed from the iPhone 5 to the iPhone 5S, with the previous nearly symmetric design moving to an asymmetric design with altered screw hole locations and an angled edge along one side.

The exact reason for the design changes on the spacer is unclear given a lack of other parts, but it seems reasonable to suspect that they may be related to accommodating the fingerprint sensor.

Apple's September 10 media event is expected to include the introduction of the iPhone 5S and perhaps the "iPhone 5C", a lower-cost model built around a plastic shell. Apple is also preparing to introduce new iPads in the coming months, although those are not expected to debut at this event.