MacRumors

Financial Times reported earlier today that Foxconn has enacted a hiring freeze at most of its Chinese facilities due to reduced demand for the iPhone 5.

“Currently, none of the plants in mainland China have hiring plans,” said Liu Kun, a company spokesman at Foxconn’s largest manufacturing facility, in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen across the border from Hong Kong.

Human resources officials at Foxconn’s largest factories, local government officials and external recruiters working with the company said there had been internal notices on Tuesday and Wednesday to halt hiring until at least the end of March, in response to reduced orders for the iPhone 5.

Recruiters specifically pointed to hiring freezes at Foxconn's massive facilities in Shenzhen, Zhengzhou, Taiyuan, and Chengdu, all of which focus on assembly of iPhones and iPads.

An expectation of hiring picking up again in late March would be in line with rumors of Apple beginning to ramp up production of the iPhone 5S, but a Foxconn spokesman told Bloomberg that the current hiring freeze actually has nothing to do with waning demand for Apple products.

Foxconn halted recruitment until the end of March after more employees returned from the Chinese New Year break than a year earlier, Bruce Liu, a spokesman for the Taipei-based company, said today in a phone interview. The decision wasn’t related to iPhone 5 production, he said.

The Chinese New Year festivities last for several weeks, with many factories running at greatly reduced capacity as workers return to their homes. The offical two-week festivities conclude with the annual Lantern Festival, which takes place this Sunday, February 24.

Back in November, research firm Strategy Analytics estimated that Samsung's Galaxy S III had topped the list of worldwide smartphone shipments for the third quarter of 2012, taking advantage of a lull in iPhone 4S sales ahead of the iPhone 5 launch to claim the crown.

Unsurprisingly, the firm's latest figures published today find that Apple easily reclaimed the title for the fourth quarter of the year with the iPhone 5 seeing shipments of 27.4 million units for 12.6% of the market.

Not only did the iPhone 5 top the market, but the iPhone 4S also saw more shipments than the Galaxy S III, as shipments of the previous-generation iPhone actually saw an uptick in the fourth quarter after Apple cut pricing.

Apple’s iPhone 5 and iPhone 4S together accounted for 1 in 5 of all smartphones shipped worldwide in Q4 2012. This was an impressive performance, given the iPhone portfolio’s premium pricing. We estimate Samsung’s Galaxy S3 was the world’s third best-selling smartphone model and it shipped 15.4 million units globally, capturing 7 percent share in the fourth quarter of 2012.

Strategy Analytics' numbers are of course an estimate, given that Apple does not break down iPhone sales by model and Samsung does not even release handset shipment data.

The leapfrog game between Apple and Samsung is likely to continue when Samsung launches its new flagship handset, the Galaxy S4, which is expected on March 14.

According to a report from Digitimes, Apple supplier AU Optronics has managed to improve its poor iPad mini display yields, finally leading to increased availability of the current iPad mini and a solid infrastructure for the production of displays for the next generation mini.

Due to AUO's yield issues throughout the second half of 2012, cumulative shipments of the iPad mini were less than Apple's originally estimated 10 million units. However, the sources said AUO has solidified higher yields as of the first quarter in 2013, which will help keep the iPad mini in supply as well as most likely push up AUO's tablet panel shipments on year in 2013.

The iPad mini has been in short supply since its release in October 2012, after some models sold out just minutes after pre-orders began. Reports cited display production as the limiting factor, which led to ship times of up to two weeks.

Just today, we reported that Apple managed to reach supply-demand balance on the iPad mini. The tablet is now listed as "in stock" for immediate shipment from several online Apple Stores, which confirms the display yield improvements.

Digitimes is also reporting that AU Optronics has begun production of displays for the second generation iPad mini. Rumors have suggested that the next iPad mini will be equipped with a Retina display, and a report from November stated that AU Optronics was gearing up for production.

Retina is widely believed to be the next logical step for the iPad mini, and while there are no concrete hints on when an updated mini will be released, KGI Securities Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo recently predicted that both the iPad mini and the full sized iPad will be updated in the third quarter of 2013.

As reported by The New York Times, the software development website responsible for seeding malicious software to Mac computers at Apple, Facebook, and presumably Twitter has been revealed by a person who was involved with the investigation at Facebook.

The compromised site, iPhoneDevSDK, is an online forum designed for software developers. The site is still infected, and visiting it is not recommended.

At this time, it is unknown if the site had any involvement in the attacks, though it is likely that it was the work of third party hackers given the site's prominent standing as a dedicated community for iPhone developers.

Apple this morning announced that a small number of its employees' computers had been compromised through the Java plug-in vulnerability, an issue that has now been fixed with the Java update and malware removal tool released by Apple this afternoon.

Mac users can determine whether or not they have been affected by the security flaw by installing the Java update, which will notify a user if malware is found. Apple says that the Java update and malware removal tool will "remove the most common variants of malware."

As noted by The Next Web, iPhoneDevSDK is currently in maintenance mode.

Shortly after releasing a Java update to fix a vulnerability that allowed hackers to access the computers of Apple employees, Apple released iTunes version 11.0.2.

The update offers a Composers view for music, bug fixes, and enhanced responsiveness when accessing large playlists. It also offers a fix for an error that prevented purchases from showing up in the library.

The 54.2 MB update is available through the Mac App Store and it can also be downloaded from Apple’s support website.

iTunes 11 was originally released in November of 2012, with a major redesign of the store, improved search, a simplified MiniPlayer, and new iCloud enhancements. iTunes was previously updated to version 11.0.1 in December, fixing bugs with iCloud and iTunes Match.

Apple has released updated versions of Java for OS X, following a prominent hacking of Apple employees' Macs, plus the remote blocking of the Java plugin due to security vulnerabilities.

This is the standard quarterly update of Java 6 that Apple distributes, while customers looking for Java 7 should download straight from Oracle.

The update includes the malware removal tool mentioned earlier that will "remove the most common variants of malware". If malware is found, the user is notified -- otherwise, no notification is made.

About Java for Mac OS X 10.6 Update 13

Java for Mac OS X 10.6 Update 13 delivers improved security, reliability, and compatibility by updating Java SE 6 to 1.6.0_41.

On systems that have not already installed Java for Mac OS X 10.6 update 9 or later, this update will configure web browsers to not automatically run Java applets. Java applets may be re-enabled by clicking the region labeled "Inactive plug-in" on a web page. If no applets have been run for an extended period of time, the Java web plug-in will deactivate.

Please quit any web browsers and Java applications before installing this update.

See http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5651 for more details about this update.

See http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222 for information about the security content of this update.

There are two download packages available through Apple's software download site, one for OS X Snow Leopard and the other for OS X Lion or Mountain Lion. They may also be downloaded through Software Update or the Mac App Store.

NPD today released a report examining U.S. consumer technology sales for 2012. Among other things, the company said consumer technology sales have dropped by $4 billion since 2010, down to $143 billion.

Additionally, three of the top five categories based on 2012 revenue experienced declines from 2011 to 2012 -- the two categories that grew were smartphones and tablets, both of which are product lines that Apple currently dominates.

“While CE remains a dynamic industry the fact is that the stellar growth of the past few years has made growth today more difficult,” [said Stephen Baker, vice president of industry analysis at NPD.]. “Most market segments have high penetration rates and the demand for additional devices is slowing, or declining. Tablets and smartphones have been able to stimulate demand for additional devices, but unfortunately it hasn’t been enough, yet, to sustain positive growth trends.”

NPD went on to note that Apple accounted for 19.9% of U.S. sales, (based on revenue) an increase in share of 2.6% from last year. Samsung captured 9.3% of dollars spent, up from 7% in 2011.

The fall in TV revenue could be noteworthy given the recent rumors around an Apple television set. The company could be hesitant to launch a product in a shrinking category, though perhaps Apple might be able to drive double-digit growth like it has for smartphones and tablets.

A number of Macs owned by Apple employees were compromised by the same China-based hackers that targeted Facebook employees recently, reports All Things D. The malware entered the systems through the Java plug-in, which Apple has blocked recently due to unpatched security vulnerabilities. Reuters was the first to report the disclosure.

“Apple has identified malware which infected a limited number of Mac systems through a vulnerability in the Java plug-in for browsers,” the company said in a statement to AllThingsD. “The malware was employed in an attack against Apple and other companies, and was spread through a website for software developers. We identified a small number of systems within Apple that were infected and isolated them from our network. There is no evidence that any data left Apple. We are working closely with law enforcement to find the source of the malware.”

Apple will also be releasing a standalone malware removal tool to clean infected machines.

The New York Times published an article yesterday laying out how a number of recent hacking attacks against U.S. corporations could be linked to the Chinese People's Liberation Army.

Macs have traditionally been viewed as significantly more secure than Windows machines, though in the past year there have been a number of compromised machines from the Flashback malware and issues with Java.

In line with a report from last week, Apple has just released iOS 6.1.2. According to Apple, the update addresses a Microsoft Exchange bug but sources had indicated that it also addresses a lock screen passcode issue.

Fixes and Exchange calendar bug that could result in increased network activity and reduced battery life.

The update arrives as Build 10B146 for most devices, with the exception of cellular-capable iPad mini and fourth-generation iPad models that are receiving Build 10B147.

Update: Users are reporting that the update does not in fact fix the passcode bug.

Apple appears to have finally achieved supply-demand balance on its popular iPad mini, with the company's online stores for the United States, Canada, Australia, and a number of other countries now showing all models as "in stock" for immediate shipment. European customers are still being quoted 1-3 business days for new orders, although these will likely move to "in stock" relatively shortly.

Supplies of the iPad mini have been constrained since the device's launch over three months ago, with early reports indicating that supplies would remain tight into 2013. Apple acknowledged those shortages on its earnings conference call last month, noting that it expected to catch up with demand later this quarter, in line with today's move to "in stock" status.

There have been a growing number of reports that Apple is working on a larger form factor iPhone, presumably to better compete with the wide variety of Android devices currently available. Based on those rumors, there have been also been a number of speculative articles on exactly how Apple might adapt iOS to handle the increase in screen size.

The predominant theory suggests that Apple will simply scale up the existing 4-inch iPhone 5 screen to nearly 5 inches. This would result in a display with the same 1136x640 resolution of the iPhone 5 but with a lower pixel density. The pixel density would drop from 326 pixels per inch (ppi) to 264 ppi, which conveniently matches up with the screen density of the full-sized iPad.

While lowering the pixel density of the iPhone has led some to question whether Apple could continue using "Retina" display marketing, it does seem like a reasonable strategy that would allow Apple to increase display size without introducing yet another screen resolution to complicate app developers' work. To date, Apple has been very cautious about introducing new screen resolutions to minimize fragmentation. The other added financial and logistical benefit of using a 264-ppi screen is that Apple can continue to use the same screen production facilities and processes that are currently being used for the full-sized iPad screens.

Another objection centers around the fact that increasing the screen size while maintaining the same resolution does not provide any more viewable area. This is not entirely true, however, as some features such as text with multiple font size options could be used to show more content on the screen at a given time despite the identical resolution.

In order to provide a sense of how a 5-inch iPhone would feel in the hand and to show how the physically larger interface would appear in person, we've commissioned CiccareseDesign to create a papercraft mockup of a device based primarily on the design of the iPhone 5 but with the larger (almost) 5-inch display (PDF 1, PDF 2). We performed a similar exercise for the rumored 7" iPad that did provide a very accurate representation of the screen size of the then-unreleased iPad mini.

Our new mockup can be printed out at 100% scale (example), trimmed, and folded to provide a three-dimensional paper version of the 5-inch iPhone. Readers can then see how a 5-inch iPhone would fit in their hands and get a feel for the size of the icons and other interface elements at the larger size. We've also included a separate printable PDF (100% scale) of screenshots from several different apps at the larger size to help users gauge usability at that size.

In our testing, we felt that the larger iPhone fits surprisingly well in our hands. However, the ability to operate the device with one hand is significantly compromised compared to the iPhone 5. Whereas the iPhone 5 requires very little stretching to reach the opposite top corner of the screen with our thumbs, the 5-inch screen would definitely be a two-handed device for most apps. The included screenshots also show off existing apps that have been automatically scaled up to full size, resulting in tap-targets that are larger than on the iPhone 5. Developers could eventually offer different sizes for interface elements and font-scaling options.

So far, the 5-inch iPhone is believed to be in prototype form, and the latest reports have suggested we are unlikely to see it in 2013.