MacRumors

With his two-year anniversary of being named Apple CEO coming on Saturday, Tim Cook is the subject of a new profile by Reuters highlighting his leadership style and some of the challenges he continues to face following in the footsteps of Steve Jobs. The report notes that Cook has been overseeing Apple's transition into a "mature corporate behemoth" and that he has successfully managed the company's high-profile iPhone and iPad lines, but that he has yet to prove he can deliver a new breakthrough product category.

Some worry that Cook's changes to the culture have doused the fire - and perhaps the fear - that drove employees to try to achieve the impossible.

The intensely private Cook has been profiled in the past, and his workaholic nature, thoughtful demeanor and "no-nonsense, methodical style" are well-known, but the new profile offers a few more tidbits about his personality and how Apple runs under his command.

People who know him well paint a portrait of a thoughtful, data-driven executive who knows how to listen and who can be charming and funny in small group settings. [...]

Still, he has a tough side. In meetings, Cook is so calm as to be nearly unreadable, sitting silently with hands clasped in front of himself. Any change in the constant rocking of his chair is one sign subordinates look for: when he simply listens, they're heartened if there is no change in the pace of his rocking.

"He could skewer you with a sentence," the person said. "He would say something along the lines of 'I don't think that's good enough' and that would be the end of it and you would just want to crawl into a hole and die."

The report notes that Cook is generally very decisive, as evidenced by the issues Apple experienced with its new Maps app in iOS 6. According to sources, Cook responded quickly to that controversy with an open letter to customers and by bypassing then-iOS chief Scott Forstall to put software and services head Eddy Cue in charge of fixing the problems.

There has, however, been some grumbling by employees about a shift in the Apple culture under Cook, with Reuters quoting a morale survey distributed to members of the hardware engineering group earlier this year by senior executive Dan Riccio.

Overall, the verdict on Cook's tenure so far is portrayed in the profile as still in flux, with his challenging role seeing him making some positive changes for the company but still dealing with issues related to employee happiness and retention. And amid slowing revenue growth as the iPhone and iPad mature, customers and investors are eagerly anticipating the introduction of Apple's next major product line, whether it be smart watches, televisions, or something else.

Japanese website ASCII.JP [Google translation] has posted new photos allegedly showing the highly-rumored gold color configuration for the iPhone 5S, comparing the device’s casing to the traditional color options of the iPhone as well as offering a solo photo from the device’s rear. The color of the device appears to be in line with previous reports that stated that the device would have a “champagne” color palette as opposed to an ingot gold look.

Over the past few weeks, numerous reports have added to the growing chorus of claims for the color option of Apple’s upcoming device, with notable tech journalists such as TechCrunch's MG Siegler indicating from his sources that the iPhone 5S would be offered in a gold color. Following that report, AllThingsD and 9to5Mac also reported that gold would indeed be a new option on the device as well, and this latest leak seems to be consistent with those reports.

Apple will reportedly unveil the next-generation iPhone on September 10, with likely to introduce not only the iPhone 5S but also a lower-cost plastic "iPhone 5C". Both devices are also rumored to launch in the first wave of markets on September 20.

Update: AppAdvice has posted some additional high-quality photos of the rear shell of the upcoming 'champagne' iPhone 5S, this time fully assembled with the pill-shaped dual-LED flash window pictured. The site also has a number of part photos depicting the volume buttons and SIM tray.

Apple’s official Services, Stores, and iCloud status page is reporting that multiple services are experiencing an outage that is affecting “less than 1% of users”. Among the services down are iMessage, Photo Stream, and Documents in the Cloud, and according to Apple the services have been out for over eight hours now.

Multiple Services - Less than 1% of users are affected

Users may be unable to use iCloud Documents, Photo Stream, iPhoto Journals, or Backup & Restore. Users may also be unable to send or download attachments in iMessage.

Apple's verious cloud services have experienced occasional downtime, although outages extending for this length of time are fairly unusual. This extended outage does, however, only appear to be affecting a relatively small number of users.

Last month, Apple’s Developer Center was completely down for over a week due to a security breach, with Apple taking over three weeks to bring those services fully back online.

Update 9:09AM PDT: Apple claims all services have been restored.

Reuters has added to the long list of confirmations and claims that Apple will introduce a gold variant of iPhone with its next device - the iPhone 5S. The report cites supply chain sources in Taiwan for the information.

This follows a research note last week in which KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo stated that Apple would offer an iPhone in a gold casing in addition to the more traditional black and white. TechCrunch's MG Siegler followed up with his own claims and AllThingsD and 9to5Mac soon followed.

Gold iPhone 5S mockup. (Source: iMore)

Siegler speculated that a gold iPhone could be an effort to upsell customers in emerging markets like India and China, where gold is popular, where the low-cost iPhone 5C is expected to be a significant device. Reuters interviewed Jerry Zou, Senior VP and Partner at public relations firm FleishmanHillard in Beijing, whether a gold device would appeal to Chinese customers.

Commercially it makes sense, said Jerry Zou, Senior VP and Partner at FleishmanHillard, a public relations firm in Beijing. New colors would add "novelty and variety, both of which are key to winning over fickle Chinese consumers.

Zou went on to say that a champagne or gold color would be able to portray a luxury or high-end image that was also more restrained and subtle. Most of the customers Reuters interviewed at Apple's Xidan store, however, weren't sold on the idea of a gold iPhone, and consumers in India were "just as skeptical."

Reuters also spoke to Brandon Edwards, a Shanghai-based product designer who believes that a gold iPhone may only add cultural relevance for Apple's existing customers in the country rather than attract new ones who are using other smartphone brands.

Apple is expected to unveil the iPhone 5S at an event on September 10, with a fingerprint sensor and perhaps a new 128 GB maximum storage capacity being other significant additions besides the new gold color option.

Apple has seeded the sixth Developer Preview of OS X Mavericks to developers, exactly two weeks after the release of the fifth Developer Preview. With the fifth preview, Apple introduced both the Mac iBooks app and a new beta version of iPhoto.

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. Developers can receive the update via the Software Update tool in the Mac App Store.

Consumers spend four times as much on games from the App Store and the Google Play Store than they do on games for gaming-optimized handhelds like the PlayStation Vita and the Nintendo 3DS, according to the newest report from App Annie.

The report points out that while Google Play game spending surpassed spending on handheld console games (both physical and digital) during the second quarter of 2013, App Store game spending continues to outpace both categories, bringing in far more revenue.

Back in July, App Annie reported that Google Play downloads had surpassed App Store downloads, but App Store revenue remains 2.3 times higher.

App Annie notes that games continue to lead app store growth, and during the second quarter of 2013, games represented approximately 40% of downloads from both Google Play and the App Store. Game sales in both app stores grew a significant amount from the Q1 2013 to Q2 2013 and represented 70% of total app revenue in both the App Store and Google Play.

The App Store and Google Play metrics that App Annie uses for its reports come from App Annie intelligence data, which is designed to offer global market data to publishers. As always, revenue estimates include paid downloads and in-app purchases, but not in-app advertising.

Apple has hired Levi Strauss’ former Senior Vice President Enrique Atienza, reports 9to5Mac. Atienza, who formerly handled Levi’s Retail Americas and Global Store Operations, is said to be working as a retail director overseeing multiple regions on the West Coast of the United States.

A source says that Atienza will be the director of all retail matters for many regions within the West Coast of the United States, and this role is one of the highest ranking retail positions inside of Apple. Several internal and external candidates were considered for the position, but the external Atienza is said to have been the best fit.

While a Levi Strauss spokeswoman confirmed that Atienza had recently left the company, she declined to comment further on the departure. At Levi Strauss, Atienza was in charge of streamlining the company’s global sales approach to create a better customer experience.

9to5Mac also notes that Steve Cano, formerly a retail manager, was promoted to Vice President of Retail Operations earlier in the year. Atienza will report to Cano, who reports directly to Tim Cook.

As Apple beefs up its retail team, the company is still searching for a new retail chief after John Browett was ousted last October as part of a major management restructuring. In August, The Wall Street Journal reported that Apple was only considering outside candidates for the position.

Apple's retail operations are more important than ever as the company enters into the fall months with a slew of products to reveal. Both the iPhone 5S and the low-cost iPhone 5C are expected to debut in September, with the fifth-generation iPad and the iPad mini coming slightly later in the year.

Taiwan's Apple Daily has posted a new video [Google translation, via iPhone Hacks] showing a hands-on overview of the plastic rear shell of Apple's "iPhone 5C". While the shell has been seen a number of times in photos and a few videos, Apple Daily highlights the durability of the shell while also taking measurements of the part with a digital caliper. Assuming the part is a legitimate back shell sourced from Apple's supply chain, the report offers a few additional details about what to expect from the iPhone 5C.

In the durability tests, Apple Daily placed the shell in a plastic bag with a key and some coins before shaking the bag vigorously, then removing the items and attempting to directly scratch the shell with the key. While the video is somewhat blurry at times, the accompanying article notes that there were no visible scratches on the shell. According to sources, the shell scores a high "8H" rating on the pencil hardness test.

Based on caliper measurements, the iPhone 5C measures 124.55 mm tall x 59.13 mm wide, in line with case makers' design drawings showing it slightly larger than the iPhone 5/5S due to the thicker plastic shell. Apple Daily measure the thickness of the device at 8.98 mm compared to 8.50 mm in the design drawings, but Apple Daily has paired the shell with a front panel that sticks out somewhat from the rear shell and it is unclear if that panel is seated correctly to provide accurate measurements.

The report also includes an image of an iPhone 5S rear shell showing the pill-shaped window for the rear camera's dual-LED flash. The shell is blue in color, but appears to have some sort of coating applied to it. Another blue iPhone 5S shell also appeared in photos today, although its authenticity is also very questionable.

The first seven exclusive "Steve Jobs schools" have opened their doors across a number of cities in the Netherlands. Starting from today, schools in the Dutch cities of Sneek, Breda, Almere, Emmen, Heenvliet and Amsterdam will start teaching students according to the principles of the O4NT, or Onderwijs voor een nieuwe tijd (Education for a new era), which emphasizes the role of the iPad in an elementary school environment. The program, which was first proposed by Dutch officials back in March 2012, gives every child access to a "virtual school" through an iPad and helps them develop information and communication technology (ICT) and information processing skills, collaboration techniques and a critical, problem-solving and creative mind.

The O4NT foundation is currently in talks with a number of school boards across the Netherlands and they hope that more schools will sign up the model next year. The program has a number of benefits: apart from teaching children useful skills, school hours and vacations are a lot more flexible under the new model — as the "virtual school" is accessible round the clock, 365 days a year (although the Dutch Ministry of Education is currently preventing this scenario due to legislative restrictions) — and the ICT-based approach also has a major impact on the role of the teacher. According to O4NT's press release:

In the O4NT approach, teachers will no longer simply convey knowledge to a group of children; they will be transformed into coaches that support children with their individual and group projects. Because educational apps are used for basic skills, the learning process can be completely adapted to the individual child’s learning speed and style.

O4NT is also planning an international version of the program, allowing Dutch expatriate children around the world to attend full-time education via their iPad. O4NT International, as it has been dubbed, is expected to launch in early 2014.