MacRumors

CNBC is reporting that former Apple Retail head Ron Johnson is out as CEO of JC Penney, the job he took after resigning from Apple.

@CNBC: BREAKING: Ron Johnson out as J.C. Penney CEO - source

Johnson departed Apple in late 2011 and was replaced by John Browett, the CEO of British computing retailer Dixons. Browett's tenure was a bumpy one and he was fired after less than a year on the job.

Nearly six months after Browett left Apple, the position remains open, leading many to speculate that Johnson would be a natural fit to move back into the position he occupied for more than ten years.

MacDailyNews, which does not have much of a track record on rumors, says one of its sources said Apple will announce a replacement to the Mac Pro at some point in the next several months.

Apple will announce its replacement for the company’s Mac Pro lineup this month, a source who has been correct about Apple product matters in the past has just informed us.

Our source offered no information as to whether the "Mac Pro replacement" would be a tower, mini-tower, or some other solution, but did caution that the announcement "could slip into May or even June, but currently April looks most likely."

It has been nearly one thousand days -- almost three years -- since the last significant update to the Mac Pro.

Last year, Apple said a new Mac Pro model was likely to arrive sometime in 2013. Earlier this year, a European reseller claimed they heard from Apple that a new Mac Pro would arrive this Spring. WWDC 2013 would seem to make the most sense for the announcement of a new pro-level Mac workstation.

The current Mac Pro is not available for purchase in Europe because of EU regulatory requirements around unprotected fan blades, providing some additional incentive for Apple to release a new model.

Engadget reports that Intel has announced the next generation of Thunderbolt, promising throughput of 20 Gbps in each direction -- twice as fast as the current protocol, allowing simultaneous 4K video file transfer and display

The new generation of Thunderbolt, code-named 'Falcon Ridge', will be backwards compatible with current-generation cables and connectors. Intel expects production to ramp up in 2014.

An on-stage demo with fresh-off-the-press silicon showed the new Thunderbolt running 1,200 [MB/sec], which is certainly a step up from what's currently on the market.

A minor update to Thunderbolt, called 'Redwood Ridge', will be included in some of Intel's upcoming 'Haswell' Core processors.

Apple yesterday posted a new job listing (via AppleInsider) looking for a software engineer to join its team of fingerprint sensor engineers from AuthenTec, which was acquired last year for $356 million.

Apple refers to the job location as its "Melbourne Design Center" located in Melbourne, Florida, which is where AuthenTec was based, and is the only Melbourne-based position currently listed on Apple's job site. The position requires the ability to write "low-level code to configure and control hardware" and experience with firmware-hardware interaction.

Responsibilities of the position include work on the "LabTool" software used to evaluate the team's chip work, as well as failure analysis software, control firmware for the team's chips, and support for the team's design verification group.

LabTool – Develop, maintain, update and optimize the “LabTool” software that is used for lab evaluation and characterization of the Melbourne Design Center sensor ICs. This includes adding new features as specified by the analog and digital design engineers. Updating the tool to work with new sensors. Automating lab test and characterization. Provide support and debug capability to all groups within Apple that use the tool.

AuthenTec late last year sold off its embedded security group following the acquisition by Apple, leaving a core of fingerprint sensing and identity management groups in place to drive Apple's work in those fields. AuthenTec is also said to be cutting off non-Apple customers of its fingerprint sensor technology, leaving Apple with exclusive use of the technology and its associated intellectual property.

Apple has been rumored to be including fingerprint sensing technology in the iPhone 5S later this year, but there has not yet been any concrete evidence of such an addition.

Avid today announced new versions of its flagship video editing and audio production applications Media Composer 7 and Pro Tools 11, as well as two new Mac- and iOS- compatible hardware interfaces for recording audio at home or on the road.

In addition to a number of new features, Media Composer 7 receives a significant price cut, bringing the standard edition to $1000, down from $2500. It will be available in June.

ProTools 11, which Avid says "represents a quantum leap in creative power", gains a redesigned audio engine and 64-bit architecture. The standard edition of Pro Tools 11 is available for $700, with upgrades ranging from $300 to $500 depending on which previous version of Pro Tools is owned. The new version should be available later this quarter.

The Avid Fast Track Solo and Duo include Pro Tools Express for recording and editing audio on a Mac, and also connect directly to the 30-pin connector on older iOS-hardware, and to newer iOS devices via the 30-Pin to Lightning adapter.

The Solo provides one mic preamp and one instrument input, while the Duo provides two mic preamp/instrument inputs, and two line inputs.

"Today’s aspiring songwriters and musicians want a high-quality, affordable recording solution that’s portable enough to let them create wherever they are," said Dana Ruzicka, vice president of Segment and Product Marketing at Avid. "Providing access to the industry-standard Pro Tools family, Fast Track Solo and Duo deliver this capability like nothing else on the market today."

The Fast Track Solo and Duo are available now for $180 and $300 respectively.

Digital Trends reports that Google is on the verge of acquiring WhatsApp, the company behind the popular cross-platform messaging service WhatsApp Messenger.

While the deal started four or five weeks ago, we’ve been told that WhatsApp is “playing hardball” and jockeying for a higher acquisition price, which currently is “close to” $1 billion right now.

WhatsApp Messenger is currently a $0.99 app in the App Store, but the company has announced that it will be shifting to a subscription model later this year under which the app would likely be free for the first year and $0.99/year thereafter. The subscription model is already in use on the company's Android and Windows Phone apps.

WhatsApp Messenger consistently ranks at or near the top of Apple's charts for Top Paid apps in countries around the world, and is in fact currently in the #1 position in the U.S. App Store.

The service is one of many messaging services available on iOS and other mobile platforms, including Apple's own iMessage service integrated into iOS and OS X. Such services have become increasingly popular as users seek to avoid mobile carriers' SMS charges and expand their conversations to include devices not directly connected to cellular service.

Last week, we noted that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) had issued an initial office action denying Apple's application for a trademark on the term "iPad mini".

The examiner's primary objection to Apple's application related to all of the elements of the "iPad mini" name having been judged as descriptive rather than contributing to a unique product name. A second objection related to Apple's use of the iPad mini overview page as its specimen proving that the named product was being offered for sale.

At the time, we noted that a resolution to the issue would likely be relatively straightforward, with Apple simply needing to show that the "iPad mini" term was an extension of its already distinctive "iPad" trademark and submit a new specimen satisfying the examiner's objection.

Based on a newly published office action from the USPTO, dated last Wednesday, the issue has in fact mostly been resolved without Apple having had to address the examiner's objections. Presumably responding to the publicity surrounding the initial decision, the USPTO has preemptively withdrawn its two main objections to Apple's objections.

This Office action supersedes any previous Office action issued in connection with this application.

Upon further review of the application, the examining attorney has determined that the following refusals issued in the initial Office action should be withdrawn. The examining attorney apologizes for any inconvenience caused.

REFUSALS WITHDRAWN:

The Trademark Act Section 2(e)(1) descriptiveness refusal and the Sections 1 and 45 specimen refusal are both withdrawn.

The new document continues to alert Apple to several other issues with the trademark application, including potential refusal should earlier pending applications from other companies seeking to protect the names of their electronics products with "mini" in them end up being granted. No action on this issue is, however, required by Apple at this time.

The document also holds firm on the requirement that Apple add a disclaimer to its application noting that it only seeks to protect the term "mini" when used as part of the "iPad mini" name. The disclaimer would allow other companies to use the "mini" term in their own product names.

In line with a report from earlier this week, TmoNews reports that T-Mobile USA has begun rolling out software updates for existing customers running unlocked iPhones on its network.

As the carrier notes in its support forum, the update enables a number of features, including LTE support where available, ahead of the official launch of new iPhone 5 sales for the carrier next week.

Enables the following:

- Visual Voicemail
- 4G network indicator
- Commercial Mobile Alert System (CMAS)
- AWS LTE (T-Mobile and officially unlocked AT&T iPhone 5 only)
- HD Voice (T-Mobile and officially unlocked AT&T iPhone 5 only)
- AWS HSPA+ (T-Mobile and new 2013 AT&T iPhone 5 only)

Auto configures:

- MMS Settings
- Personal Hotspot Settings (Smartphone Mobile Hotspot)
- APN settings for LTE connectivity
- My Account bookmark

Earlier today, T-Mobile began taking pre-orders for iPhone 5 customers, with the official launch set for next Friday, April 12.

Earlier this week, a number of Apple-focused bloggers claimed iOS 7 was running behind schedule and that it would bring a significant user interface refresh.

Designer F. Bianco has posted a set of images to Flickr with some interesting thoughts on what useful changes Apple could make to iOS 7 to improve the user experience. Apple's user interfaces will likely face new scrutiny now that Facebook has laid out a new vision for how phone users interact with their devices with Facebook Home.

One of the more interesting concepts that Bianco shows is a 'widget' mode for apps that allows users to see quick information or change app settings straight from the home screen, as well as a quickly accessible settings screen that can slide out from the side to quickly adjust settings.

Turning Bluetooth on and off, for example, takes four distinct steps and the process could be much improved with a quickly accessible preferences screen.

The Loop points to a new Apple support document disclosing that the company will be changing the behavior of the VPN On Demand feature on iOS devices running iOS 6.1 or later through a software update to be released later this month. The changes have been necessitated by a $368 million judgment against Apple late last year in a patent lawsuit brought by VirnetX.

Devices using iOS 6.1 and later with VPN On Demand configured to "Always" will behave as if they were configured with the "Establish if needed" option. The device will establish a VPN On Demand connection only if it is unable to resolve the DNS name of the host it is trying to reach. This change will be distributed in an update later this month.

The support document outlines a number of scenarios in which this may cause difficulties for users, including when contacting servers that present different internal and external content or which resolve externally but can't be contacted.

Apple suggests that users who experience these issues turn on VPN manually as needed for the time being, a potentially significant inconvenience for users needing to make extensive use of the feature. Virtual private networking (VPN), which is most commonly used by corporate users to access company networks, allows a user to securely connect to a private network via public networks as if his or her device were directly on the private network.

Apple says that it will address the issue with other alternatives in a future software update, but has given no indication on what options will be available to users and when that update may appear.

Apple today rolled out a few minor tweaks to its online store (via Mac Otakara), making it easier to navigate the store on touchscreen devices such as the iPhone and iPad.

One change involves a new sliding navigation bar for product categories. From the main store page, once users select one of the four main shopping categories (Mac, iPad, iPhone, iPod), the navigation bar at the top of category page showing various products and other topics within that category can now be slid back and forth with the touch of a finger. Users on non-touch devices can slide the bar by clicking on arrows at each end.

A second change involves product search results, which had previously been presented as lists of items. Results are now presented in a grid formatted to allow easy tapping on touch-enabled devices. Users on non-touch devices will also see arrows appearing on either side of each product image allowing them to view all associated product images without having to click through to the product pages.

Apple's change should notably improve the user experience on the iPad, where the large screen can take full advantage of the grid-based search results and where Apple does not have a dedicated app for shopping the store. The company's Apple Store app has been iPhone-only since its July 2010 launch, with Apple believed to be refraining from making it a universal app with a native iPad interface under the view that the iPad allows for a full web experience.

In line with its previously announced timeline, T-Mobile USA today began taking pre-orders for the iPhone 5 ahead of its April 12 launch.

Under T-Mobile's new payment model, the 16 GB iPhone 5 requires a down payment of $99.99 with the customer also responsible for an additional 24 monthly payments of $20, bringing the total cost of the device to $579.99. The 32 GB and 64 GB models carry the same monthly payment amounts, but require larger down payments of $199.99 and $299.99 respectively.

Single-line service plans for the iPhone 5 require no contract and begin at $50/month for unlimited talk, text, and data, although data is slowed to 2G speeds once the customer reaches 500 MB for the month. A $60/month plan raises the high-speed data cap to 2.5 GB, and a $70/month plan includes unlimited high-speed data.

Apple is close to signing a deal with both Warner Music and Universal Music Group for its rumored streaming music service, reports CNET.

Content negotiations between Apple and record companies were said to have stagnated because the Cupertino-based company was offering low royalty rates, but CNET's sources say that Apple's music service will bring alternate revenue streams in addition to unique features that are not offered by other streaming music services.

That includes a quick way for consumers to buy a song they hear, potentially boosting download sales from iTunes, as well as a revenue share of new audio ads Apple is planning to add to the free service, according to sources.

The product would be tied to iTunes, and available on mobile devices.

The service, according to sources, most closely resembles Pandora because it doesn't offer on-demand listening. Apple is building some unique features, such as the ability to jump back to the beginning of a song, according to one person briefed on the company's plans.

Though Apple is approaching deals with Warner Music and Universal Music Group, the sources caution that the negotiations are not final and could fall through. Apple also needs to work out a deal with Sony Music Group, but is continuing to aim for a summer launch, as was suggested last week.

If Apple is able to complete the negotiations in time, its annual Worldwide Developers Conference could be an ideal occasion to announce the new streaming music service. WWDC dates have yet to be announced, but the conference typically takes place in June.

Following today's introduction of Facebook Home, a new people-focused integration layer for Android devices, Fortune has published an interview with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg in which he discusses a number of topics including the rivalry between Apple and Google in the mobile market.

In Zuckerberg's view, the open nature of Google that has allowed Facebook to build Home offers a great opportunity for advances in the user experience that are considerably more difficult to achieve within iOS given Apple's control over the platform.

I think that Google has this opportunity in the next year or two to start doing the things that are way better than what can be done on iPhone through the openness of their platform. We’d love to offer this on iPhone and we just can’t today. And we will work with Apple to do the best experience that we can within what they want, but I think that a lot of people who really like Facebook--and just judging from the numbers, people are spending a fifth of their time in phones on Facebook, that’s a lot of people. This could really tip things in that direction. We’ll have to see how it plays out.

Zuckerberg shared a similar sentiment with Wired, noting that the question of whether Facebook Home would be on iOS within two years was "above my pay grade".

Android is growing quickly, and we’re excited that the platform is open and that it allows us to build these great experiences. I think that this is really good for Google too. Something like this could encourage a lot of people to get Android phones, because I think people really care about Facebook. In a lot of ways, this is one of the best Facebook experiences that you can get. Of course, a lot of people also love iPhones—I love mine, and I would like to be able to deliver Facebook Home there as well.

Apple and Facebook have at times had a strained relationship, as evidenced by difficulties related to Apple's now-defunct Ping social networking feature in iTunes, although the two companies have recently been working more closely together with system-wide Facebook integration appearing in iOS 6 and OS X Mountain Lion.

comScore today released the results of its monthly rolling survey of U.S. mobile phone users for the December-February period, revealing that Apple's smartphone market share rose 3.9 points from November to February going from 35% of total U.S. smartphone platform and hardware sales to 38.9%. Last month's report demonstrated similar growth for Apple.

Samsung was the hardware manufacturer with the second largest share of the market at 21.3%, up from 20.3%. HTC, Motorola, and LG all experienced slight drops in market share.

Google's Android is still ranked as the top smartphone platform with 51.7% of smartphone platform share, though it experienced a significant drop from 53.7% in November, which was absorbed by Apple.

Apple's share increased 3.9 points to 38.9%, while Blackberry came in at 5.4% (down from 7.3%) and Microsoft experienced a slight jump from 3% in November to 3.2% in February. Collectively, Apple and Google control over 90 percent of the smartphone market, up from 87% last month.

comScore's data tracks installed user base rather than new handset sales, which means it is more reflective of real-world usage but slower to respond to shifting market trends than some other studies.