MacRumors

9to5Mac reports that it has reanalyzed the previously-obtained hardware code dump for Apple's next-generation iPhone prototypes and discovered that the code makes reference to hardware components supporting near field communication (NFC) capabilities.

We’ve previously been able to pull data from PreEVT iPhone 5,1 and iPhone 5,2 prototypes codenamed N41AP (5,1) and N42AP (5,2), which leads us to believe that the new iPhone will have a bigger 1136×640 display. We also detailed a lot of the hardware here but forgot one very important little bit. Further investigation into this hardware code dump leads us to believe that these iPhones also have Near Field Communication (NFC) controllers directly connected to the power management unit (PMU).

NFC enables short-range wireless communication between devices and chip readers, with the most high-profile deployment of the technology being for contact-less payment systems.

Rumors of NFC support for the iPhone have been circulating for some time, with The New York Times giving a substantial boost to the discussion back in March 2011 with its claims that the technology would be available in a "coming iteration of the Apple iPhone - although not necessarily the next one". NFC did not arrive in the iPhone 4S released last October, and thus expectations for the 2012 iPhone and NFC have been heightened.

Apple did not directly address the topic of NFC in iOS 6 at its Worldwide Developers Conference earlier this month, but the company did announce a new Passbook digital wallet app which strongly suggests that company is moving toward offering NFC services. As announced, Passbook serves as a time- and location-aware app for storing digital tickets, coupons, loyalty cards, and more.

Your boarding passes, movie tickets, retail coupons, loyalty cards, and more are now all in one place. With Passbook, you can scan your iPhone or iPod touch to check in for a flight, get into a movie, and redeem a coupon. You can also see when your coupons expire, where your concert seats are, and the balance left on that all-important coffee bar card. Wake your iPhone or iPod touch, and passes appear on your Lock screen at the appropriate time and place — like when you reach the airport or walk into the store to redeem your gift card or coupon. And if your gate changes after you’ve checked in for your flight, Passbook will even alert you to make sure you’re not relaxing in the wrong terminal.

Adding an NFC component to Passbook would be a natural step to eliminate the need to physically scan barcodes on the iPhone's screen, allowing users to simply wave their devices near readers to activate Passbook items.

In the latest installment of its "iEconomy" series of articles, The New York Times takes a look at Apple's retail stores, examining the compensation offered to its employees responsible for fueling booming sales in the division. The article features quotes from a number of former Apple retail store employees, including MacRumors' own Jordan Golson.

The new report takes the stance that Apple is not paying its retail staff enough given the success of the stores, instead relying on its employees' devotion to the company and a strong fan base providing a massive pool of job applicants to keep its retail stores staffed.

Within this world, the Apple Store is the undisputed king, a retail phenomenon renowned for impeccable design, deft service and spectacular revenues. Last year, the company’s 327 global stores took in more money per square foot than any other United States retailer — wireless or otherwise — and almost double that of Tiffany, which was No. 2 on the list, according to the research firm RetailSails.

Worldwide, its stores sold $16 billion in merchandise.

But most of Apple’s employees enjoyed little of that wealth. While consumers tend to think of Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, Calif., as the company’s heart and soul, a majority of its workers in the United States are not engineers or executives with hefty salaries and bonuses but rather hourly wage earners selling iPhones and MacBooks.

The report notes that roughly 70% of Apple's 43,000 U.S. workers are retail store employees, with many of them earning in the neighborhood of $25,000 per year. Apple's pay rates are above average for the retail sector, but the Times argues that with each retail store employee bringing in an average of $500,000 in sales per year Apple is not a typical retailer.

The latest iEconomy report comes just days after Apple began offering raises of up to 25% to many of its retail store employees, with speculation suggesting that the move was made to address the criticism set to appear in the report. Apple last week also launched new employee hardware discounts of $500 off of a Mac or $250 off of an iPad, on top of existing 25% employee discounts.

(Photo by Win McNamee/Reuters)

Earlier today, Instapaper developer Marco Arment published his thoughts on a potential timeline for upgrades to Apple's iMac and Mac Pro lines, initially suggesting that the need for an ultra-high resolution 5120x2880 Retina display (either inside the 27-inch iMac or as a standalone display) is likely the most significant hurdle to major updates for those lines.

With ABC News having reported in May that Apple was planning to bring Retina displays to its next-generation iMac line and suggestions of updated models potentially being right around the corner, anticipation has been high for new Retina iMacs. But shortly after publishing his speculation, Arment is now hearing that while the next iMac update will come later this year, it will not include Retina displays.

I’ve now heard from multiple sources that while an iMac update is indeed coming this fall, it will not have Retina displays.

Arment describes some of the issues surrounding Retina displays at the size needed for the 27-inch iMac, including production yield and insufficient bandwidth, but it is unclear why Apple would wait until the fall to update the iMac if those issues will prevent Retina displays from being included in that revision. Even without a Retina display, updated iMac models could take advantage of Ivy Bridge processors, improved graphics chips, and USB 3.0, and those upgrades could be included in a new model any time now.

As we noted earlier today, vacation blackouts at a third-party technical support firm are hinting at a release of OS X Mountain Lion in late July, and it seems possible that Apple could follow last year's trend of a simultaneous hardware/software launch by introducing new Ivy Bridge iMacs and perhaps Mac minis alongside Mountain Lion. That speculation is, however, yet to be supported by any specific rumors or evidence.

Following the keynote at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference earlier this month, company representatives were initially quoted as saying that updated Mac Pro and iMac designs were due "later next year", but the company moved to clarify those remarks as applying only to the Mac Pro, suggesting that iMac updates will come ahead of that timeframe.

Steve Jobs was a frequent guest at All Things D's annual D Conference, appearing six times with D hosts Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg. After he passed away last year, Swisher and Mossberg felt it was important to have a session honoring Jobs and his legacy.

They asked Dr. Ed Catmull, who worked with Jobs for years at Pixar, as well as Larry Ellison, the legendary CEO of Oracle who was one of Jobs' closest friends, to appear and reflect on Jobs' life.

Dr. Catmull also did a separate one-on-one interview with Kara Swisher. He discussed the history of Pixar, computer animation, and shared some fascinating stories about his experiences working with Jobs at both Pixar and Disney.

Image courtesy Asa Mathat/All Things D

At its Worldwide Developers Conference earlier this month, Apple officially announced that OS X Mountain Lion would launch sometime in July through the Mac App Store, carrying a low upgrade price of $19.99 for users of OS X Lion or Snow Leopard. Following the conference keynote, Apple also released a "near-final" version of OS X Mountain Lion to developers for testing purposes.

MacRumors has now heard from several employees at a third-party firm offering technical support for Apple products that their company has imposed a vacation blackout from July 22 through 29, requiring "all hands on deck" in its desktop and portables division to support an unspecified event.

Speculation naturally turns to OS X Mountain Lion as the event in question, although some potential customers may be hoping that new iMac and/or Mac mini hardware could arrive at the same time. Apple scheduled just such a simultaneous hardware/software launch last July, introducing new MacBook Air and Mac mini models alongside OS X Lion.

With OS X Mountain Lion set to launch to the public sometime next month, 9to5Mac reports that Apple has asked select members of its retail store staff to begin testing the software.

In an e-mail to Apple Store Genius Bar members and Creatives, Apple has provided access to its OS X Mountain Lion AppleSeed testing program…

This testing is to be done on personal Macs belonging to employees, and is not standardized in-store OS X Mountain Lion training.

Not only will the program provide additional testers for Apple as it expands beyond registered Mac developers, but it will also give retail store staff a head start on gaining familiarity with the forthcoming operating system before formal training begins.

Apple is almost certainly wrapping up work on OS X Mountain Lion, if it hasn't completed it already, with the company issuing a "near-final" build to developers at its Worldwide Developers Conference earlier this month. With OS X Mountain Lion being a Mac App Store exclusive, Apple can continue to work on the operating system until relatively close to the launch date given that it does not need to build in time for pressing millions of DVDs, but the company will want some time to ensure that the golden master build is behaving properly before it is released to the public.

At Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference earlier this month, Tim Cook announced that the App Store would be launching in 32 additional countries this month, bringing the total number of countries with App Store access to 155. As documented in the country-selection page within the iTunes Store, those 32 new markets are now available, although Apple has yet to update its support page listing which iTunes Store content is available in which countries.

The vast majority of new countries are located in Apple's African and Asian markets, with the exception of Albania and Ukraine in Europe. The full list of new App Store countries includes: Albania, Benin, Bhutan, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cape Verde, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Fiji, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Liberia, Malawi, Mauritania, Federated States of Micronesia, Mongolia, Mozambique, Namibia, Nepal, Palau, Papua New Guinea, São Tomé and Príncipe, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Swaziland, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Zimbabwe.

While Apple's new Retina MacBook Pro includes a display measuring 2880x1800 pixels, the default display options do not allow users to run their systems at that raw resolution. Instead, the extra pixels are used to display a higher level of detail on a canvas representing the previous 1440x900 resolution. As a result, windows and user interface elements appear to be the same relative size as on a 1440x900 15" display, but with four times the detail. Users who wish to use a desktop with apparent resolution higher than 1440x900 can still do so, as System Preferences offers several different options ranging up to 1920x1200.

Those users who want even more screen real estate by tapping into the full 2880x1800 resolution mode of the display can also do so, but the option involves a workaround that is not authorized by Apple. Macworld has more details on the process, which involves using either a third-party app like the paid SwitchResX (as noted in our forums) or one of a number of free options that have sprung up such as Change Resolution.

Running a 2880x1800 desktop on a screen measuring only 15.4 inches diagonally obviously results in very small text and user interface elements, but for those willing to sit close enough to their screens to make the onscreen content readable, it may be an interesting option.

As noted by developer Steven Troughton-Smith, users running Windows on the new Retina MacBook Pro can also take advantage of the full display resolution, simply setting the resolution in preferences within Windows.

Back in January, Apple CEO Tim Cook announced to employees that the company would begin a new hardware discount program in June, offering employees $500 off a Mac (excluding the Mac mini) or $250 off an iPad.

In line with that schedule, 9to5Mac reports that the new program has now gone live. As had been previously claimed, the discount is available to employees who have worked at Apple for at least 90 days, can be used once every three years, and can be stacked upon existing 25% employee discounts on hardware.

Unfortunately for those Apple employees looking to apply the discount to the new Retina MacBook Pro, the model is not included in the program and is not even available through the employee purchasing portal. This is typical for new Apple products, and with supplies remaining tight for consumers it may be some time before availability loosens up enough for Apple to add it to the employee purchasing program.

The enhanced hardware purchase program comes as Apple's retail store staff has begun seeing salary increases of as much as 25% depending on market and performance. Those raises are set to go into effect in mid-July.

In a new research note published today, Topeka Capital Markets analyst Brian White points to a new report from Chinese business site 21cbh.com claiming that Foxconn/Hon Hai has accelerated its schedule for ordering television-sized LCD panels from Sharp, fueling speculation that the panels are destined for an Apple television set that could debut in time for the holiday shopping season this year. Foxconn and Sharp announced a partnership earlier this year to advance LCD technology, a move some observers have seen as closely tied to an Apple television set.

This morning, the Chinese character version of 21cbh.com indicated in an article that Hon Hai Precision expects to start receiving LCD TV panel orders from Sharp in 3Q12 instead of 4Q12 as was originally planned. Recall, Hon Hai invested in Sharp earlier this year to secure LCD panels that we believe will largely support a new Apple TV. Based on a recent interview by 21cbh.com with a Sharp executive and information from sources at the company, the online news source believes the order is for the new Apple TV and could be available for the holiday season. In our view, a holiday launch would make for a very merry holiday season for Apple and consumers. However, we will continue to monitor the data points surrounding the timing of this launch as they could change.

In his new note, White also reiterates his claims from earlier this month regarding Apple's use of Kinect-like motion sensing technology for controlling the forthcoming television set, with the device also including an iPad-like touchscreen remote.

White continues to be one of the most optimistic analysts regarding Apple, maintaining his 12-month price target for the stock at $1,111. He believes that Apple could generate $10 billion in revenue from its television set in the first year, operating under the assumption that Apple's device will command a higher price than its competition's products and that the company will be able to grab 2% of the LCD television market in its first year.

Back in February, iMore reported that Apple was working on a smaller dock connector for its iOS devices, seeking to shave the size of the current 30-pin connector in order to allow its devices to shrink further and to provide space for other components.

Rumors of the smaller dock connector have persisted in the months since, and with claimed rear shells for the next-generation iPhone showing a smaller opening for the dock connector it does appear that Apple will be rolling out the new design with its next iOS device launch.

TechCrunch now reports that it is hearing more about the smaller connector, including word that it will include 19 pins for connectivity.

Although the form factor and actual size are still unknown, TechCrunch has independently verified that Apple is working on adding a 19-pin port, replacing the current 30-pin port, to the new iPhone. It is a move that will surely send shocks through the iPhone accessory ecosystem.

TechCrunch's report comes as Mobile Fun shares several case drawings and renderings from a case manufacturer who is betting that the parts leaked so far will prove to be genuine.

One manufacturer we spoke to said that he was sure that the leaked images were accurate – so sure that he was already preparing to construct iPhone 5 cases and he’d be willing to ship replacements for free if they turned out not to be perfect. He enumerated three big changes from the old iPhone 4S to the iPhone 5:

1. The phone is much bigger, measuring 58.47 mm wide, 123.83 mm high and 7.6 mm thin. The screen is 4″.
2. The earphone jack has been relocated to the bottom of the phone.
3. The dock connector is much smaller, similar in size to micro USB.

Based on the post, the drawings and renderings seem to have been created by the case manufacturer as it works to design its cases for the already-leaked form factor, and thus do not appear to be actual design leaks from Apple's supply chain.

Case designs were of course one of the primary sources for rumors of a dramatic "iPhone 5" redesign last year, a design that did not come to pass as Apple kept the basic iPhone 4 form factor and instead upgraded the internals to yield the iPhone 4S.

But the situation is different this year, with the rumors being driven by what appear to be legitimate leaks of actual parts and case manufacturers now responding to those leaks rather than driving the rumors themselves in the absence of part evidence as they did last year.

Update: Robert Scoble has added his thoughts in a comment on TechCrunch's post, claiming that he has learned from an industry contact that Apple's new dock connector will be magnetic much like the MagSafe connector used on Mac notebooks and that it will include chips to verify licensing of accessories to be used with the devices.

Earlier this week, Business Insider reported that all Apple retail store staff would be receiving raises of at least $4 per hour, a claim that the site later backpedaled from somewhat as other sources from the company's stores reported in to note that they had heard nothing of the sort.

But Dow Jones Newswires is now weighing in with its own claims that Apple is indeed raising staff pay by "as much as a quarter of their wages".

Employees began learning of the raises in face-to-face meetings with managers last week, according to three Apple employees in various regions across the U.S. The raises, which are based on performance, will begin appearing in paychecks around the middle of July, two of these people said. [...]

The overwhelming staff complaint during an internal review was wage levels, one employee said. Higher-level retail staff, such as its "Genius" tech support teams and "Creative" educational teams were among the most frustrated, this person said. At one store, another employee noted, a nearby competing Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) retail shop had begun poaching employees by offering promotions and higher wages.

The report notes that sales staff at Apple retail stores are currently paid between $9 and $15 per hour before the forthcoming raises are factored in, with Geniuses at the high end of the pay scale earning as much as $30 per hour.

It is unknown just how the raises will be distributed across staff and what proportion will be closer to the 25% end of the raise spectrum, but it is clear that Apple is making a significant effort to increase wages for its retail store workers in order to help retain staff and increase satisfaction amid booming sales and retail store traffic.

A number of MacRumors readers are reporting that iCloud services are currently down, and based on the number of reports it appears that the outage is quite widespread. Apple's iCloud system status page is currently acknowledging access issues, although there is no estimate of the proportion of iCloud users being affected.

Beyond iCloud, Apple's iMessage service also appears to be down, with messages failing to go through as the sending process hangs prior to completion.

Update: Users are also reporting problems with Apple's developer portal and iTunes Store access, although pieces of Apple's online services do appear to be coming back online. We're even hearing that Apple may have experienced Internet issues for its own employees at its Cupertino headquarters.

Update 2: Apple has updated its iCloud system status page to note that "some" users are affected and that service will be restored "ASAP".

Update 3: Roughly two hours after reports of the issues began surfacing, Apple now notes on its iCloud system status page that all services are back online.