Apple has begun sending emails when AppleID's are used to make purchases on iOS devices not previously associated with the account. It is likely these emails are being used as one way to combat increasingly frequent app purchase fraud.
MacRumors reader Michael had his iPhone replaced at an Apple Retail Store. After the first App Store purchase on the replaced phone, he received the above email. The email doesn't require confirmation of the purchase, but is instead a simple notification that a new device has been used and requests the user change their password if they don't recognize the activity.
Apple already requires credit card users to reenter the 3 or 4 digit CID number from the back of their credit card (front in the case of American Express) to authenticate the new device, however users with balances from iTunes Store Gift Cards aren't required to perform any special authentication other than entering their AppleID password.
A class-action lawsuit has been filed against Apple and 5 of the 6 major book publishers, alleging they "colluded to increase prices for popular e-book titles to boost profits and force e-book rival Amazon to abandon its pro-consumer discount pricing."
The lawsuit, filed this afternoon in the Northern District of California claims Apple and Hachette, HarperCollins, MacMillan, Penguin, and Simon & Shuster illegally worked together to enable an "agency model" as the standard for e-book sales, rather than the "wholesale model" that is used in the physical publishing industry. The complaint argues that the strategy was unfair and anticompetitive because e-book prices rose after the agreements were in place.
From the lawsuit:
In November 2007, Amazon revolutionized the book publishing industry by releasing the Kindle, a handheld digital reader for electronic books or “eBooks.” Using proprietary “electronic ink” technology, the Kindle replicated the appearance of ink on paper and introduced numerous efficiency-enhancing characteristics, including portability and other advantages of a digital format.
A major economic advantage to eBook technology is its potential to massively reduce distribution costs historically associated with brick-and-mortar publishing. But publishers quickly realized that if market forces were allowed to prevail too quickly, these efficiency enhancing characteristics would rapidly lead to lower consumer prices, improved consumer welfare, and threaten the current business model and available surplus (profit margins). So, faced with disruptive eBook technology that threatened their inefficient and antiquated business model, several major book publishers, working with Apple Inc. (“Apple”), decided free market competition should not be allowed to work – together they coordinated their activities to fight back in an effort to restrain trade and retard innovation. The largest book publishers and Apple were successful.
When Apple introduced the iBookstore, it used a so-called "agency model" where publishers set the price for their content and Apple takes a 30% cut. It's the same pricing model that Apple uses on the iTunes Store for music, and on the App Store. It's a change from the "wholesale model" that Amazon had been using for e-books and it and brick-and-mortar stores like Barnes & Noble continue to use for physical book sales.
Eventually, Amazon and the various book publishers came to agreements regarding the agency model and e-books have been priced that way ever since. Random House was the only major publisher to resist the agency model -- making it a late entry to the iBookstore. Random House books finally joined Apple's bookstore earlier this year.
Publishers were concerned that Amazon's aggressive $9.99/book pricing strategy -- where the bookseller sold books for a loss, presumably to drive adoption of its new Kindle platform -- would quickly erode the profits and reduce the perceived value of their books. Random House was concerned the agency model would lead to a price war between the publishing houses.
This lawsuit alleges that as a "direct result of this anticompetitive conduct as intended by the conspiracy, the price of eBooks has soared" and "bring claims under federal and state antitrust laws to enjoin the illegal conduct and to obtain damages."
Cablevision has released a new app to complement its existing Optimum for iPad offering. The app expands live TV viewing to iPhones and iPod touches, and allows its cable customers to use their iPhone as a television remote as well.
Cablevision customers can now enjoy more than 300 channels of live TV and thousands of titles of video on demand (VOD) on all three devices, in addition to DVR management, interactive guide information and search. And, for the first time, customers can use the app on all three devices as a virtual remote control for conventional TVs in the home, maximizing its value as a discovery and navigation tool.
The app does require authentication to use, but it doesn't work across the Internet. It allows users to watch live TV and video-on-demand only when connected to an Optimum Internet connection.
Cablevision is dealing with a lawsuit from Viacom over what the latter company calls "unauthorized streaming of its programming" on mobile devices.
Facebook has released Facebook Messenger, an iPhone app focused on chat and messaging. The dedicated app allows users to send messages directly to friends whether they are on phones or using the Facebook website.
Messenger is a separate app, so it only takes one click to get to your messages or send a new one. Messages are delivered through notifications and texts, so your friends are more likely to get them right away.
You can use Messenger to reach all of your friends -- whether they're on Facebook or in your phone contacts. All you have to do is type the person's name.
The app is integrated with the Facebook messaging and chat service and all conversations are archived as part of ongoing conversations on Facebook. The app allows users to share their location and attach photos to conversations. Users aren't restricted to chatting with one friend either, group conversations are easily created as well.
Facebook Messenger is a direct challenge to other messaging services like BlackBerry Messenger and Apple's forthcoming iMessage. Like those products, Facebook Messenger uses data, not text messages to communicate, which means the service isn't restricted by per-message charges or separate mobile phone charges.
Facebook Messenger is a universal app available for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, free from the App Store.
Last week, we reported that registration information on the domain name applepico.com had been updated to reveal Apple as the owner of the domain. The domain name had previously been listed under brand management firm MarkMonitor and its domain registration arm DNStination, Inc., both known to have handled domain registrations for Apple and many other major companies.
Fusible now reports that another domain, PVRApple.com, has made a similar transition, with its WHOIS registration information being changed to point to Apple instead of DNStination.
Speculation surrounding the domain naturally turns toward personal video recorder functionalities. Apple has been rumored for many years to be working on a set-top box offering PVR functionality, and some thought that the Apple TV might eventually move in that direction. But with the second-generation Apple TV released late last year, Apple did away with nearly all internal storage and turned the Apple TV into a device dedicated to streaming content.
Apple has also been rumored to be looking to enter the television set business, perhaps integrating some of the Apple TV's functionality directly into television sets. Apple seems to be focused, however, on streaming solutions that bypass the traditional cable provider setup, making it somewhat unlikely that Apple would still be interested in pushing forward on PVR technology for television.
It seems odd for both applepico.com and pvrapple.com to have made the transition to being publicly linked to Apple, and it is unknown whether the change is simply due to some administrative shuffling or if there is more to the story. Apple maintains control over hundreds of domain names, many of them not obviously related to Apple products or features, and thus it is difficult to read too much into the company's specific holdings. But changes related to individual domains owned by Apple naturally pique the curiosity of those trying to look into Apple's plans for the future.
The Apple Store Liverpool ONE has emptied its front-of-house of all products ahead of possible rioting in Liverpool, UK as the country faces its fourth night of unrest.
Update: Rioters have attempted to break into the Arndale shopping center in Manchester city centre, home of the Apple Store Arndale.
Update: BBC News interviewed a shaken-sounding Glen Barkworth, general manager of the Arndale Centre in Manchester who confirmed that rioters have breached the facility.
The BBC also interviewed Tim Whalley, general manager of the Bullring Shopping Centre in Birmingham, home to Apple Store Bullring. He said that two entrances at the facility had been smashed, but no looters were in the centre. He said Bullring had hired four dog handlers with four large dogs and that had helped keep rioters at bay.
The Regent Street store closed early, but left product on display.
Last night, Metropolitan Police were out in force in Oxford Circus and Regent Street, including parked in front of the flagship Apple Store there. The vans weren't specifically protecting the Apple Store, but it is a significant business and commercial area.
English cities are tonight facing rioting and looting for the fourth night in a row. The BBC has extensive coverage of the events.
Any UK readers with pictures, video, or other information, please get in touch via Twitter, email, or the comments on this post.
Apple, Inc. was, several times today, the most valuable public company in the world as measured by market capitalization. Apple's market cap briefly passed ExxonMobil today, just after 1PM, reaching $341.55 billion in valuation. ExxonMobil was valued at $341.42 billion. Both stocks fluctuated throughout the day, but ExxonMobil closed the day at a higher valuation.
Apple didn't pass ExxonMobil by rocketing up in price, however. It merely hasn't fallen as far during the current market downturn. Both AAPL and XOM are significantly off their highs as the overall markets have dropped over the past couple weeks.
Five-year comparison of Apple and Exxon Mobil market capitalizations (Source: YCharts)
Today, Apple is having a strong day, up more than 4%, while Exxon is near flat.
At the time, Apple's stock was trading at $368.40, off 8% from its all-time high of $404 - but ExxonMobil had fallen farther, down 20% to $70.21 from just over $88.
Update: While Apple dropped back a bit after its initial move past ExxonMobil and quickly relinquished the lead, ExxonMobil has pulled back more than Apple has over the past few hours, and Apple now holds a market cap lead of $4-5 billion.
Update x2: At 4PM Eastern, the end of the trading day, ExxonMobil closed at $71.64 with a market cap of $348.32 billion. Apple closed at $374.01, valued at $346.74 billion, some $1.6 billion behind XOM.
FOSS Patents reports on news out of Germany that Apple has been granted a preliminary injunction barring Samsung from selling its Galaxy Tab 10.1 anywhere in the European Union with the exception of the Netherlands.
Apple alleged that the Galaxy Tab imitates the iPad and infringes on various intellectual property rights owned by Apple. Apple asked the Landgericht (district court) of Düsseldorf, Germany, to order an injunction under which Samsung is threatened with fines of up to EUR 250,000 (US$ 350,000) for each violation or imprisonment of Samsung's management in the event of continued infringement. Those are standard sanctions under German tort law for contempt of a preliminary injunction.
Last week, Samsung agreed to delay the launch of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia in response to Apple's request for a preliminary injunction in that country. Samsung argues that Apple's case in Australia addresses the U.S. version of its tablet device and that it plans to release a version specific for the Australian market, but the company has agreed to provide Apple with samples of the Australian version and has pushed back the device's debut there as the dispute continues to play out.
Apple today quietly rolled out several enhancements to its reuse and recycling programs designed to help consumers dispose of their outdated computers and mobile devices in an environmentally friendly manner. The changes include the addition of old iPhone and iPad devices as accepted items for gift card trade-ins and free recycling for all computers and displays, regardless of manufacturer.
- iPhone and iPad now accepted for Apple Gift Card trade-ins. Apple has for some time partnered with PowerON to offer users the ability to trade in an old desktop or notebook computer (Mac or PC) and receive an Apple Gift Card good for the "fair market value" of the computer. The gift card can then be used in any Apple retail store or the online store. Apple has now expanded the trade-in program to allow users to send in their used iPhone and iPad devices for gift cards.
Turn that iPhone, iPad, or computer — Mac or PC — you’re not using anymore into something brand new. Send it to us and we’ll determine if it qualifies for reuse. If it does, that means your device has monetary value that we’ll apply to an Apple Gift Card, which you can use for purchases at any Apple Retail Store or the Apple Online Store. If your iPhone, iPad, Mac, or PC doesn’t qualify for reuse, we’ll recycle it responsibly at no cost to you.
- Free recycling of all computers and displays. Apple also has an existing partnership with WeRecycle to help recycle computers that no longer possess trade-in value. Apple had previously offered free recycling of all old Macs as well as PC systems for customers purchasing Macs, old non-Apple-branded computers and displays recycled without the purchase of a Mac were processed through WeRecycle for a $30 fee to cover shipping. But Apple has now expanded its relationship with WeRecycle to support free recycling of all brands of computers and displays, regardless of whether the user is purchasing a new Mac.
If all you want is to dispose of your unwanted equipment — regardless of brand — we can help you do that. Apple contracts with WeRecycle! to responsibly recycle computers and displays from any manufacturer. Just call 877-712-2405 to receive a free prepaid shipping label. Then pack up your equipment using your own box and send it off.
Apple also continues to offer its iPod and mobile phone recycling program. That program offers users 10% off of the purchase of a new iPod when they trade in an old iPod at an Apple retail store. Users can also recycle their old iPods or mobile phones (from any manufacturer) free of charge by mail.
Apple's recycling and trade-in services are of course not the only options for users seeking to get rid of outdated equipment, as there are many other vendors offering cash for trade-ins and a number of states and municipalities offer recycling programs for electronics. But Apple is clearly taking an interest in providing such services on a broader basis to help simplify the process for its customers.
A couple of weeks ago, we noted that Apple was apparently set to open over 30 new retail stores over the following two months, pushing the company's total to over 360 by the end of September. While Apple has opened a couple of stores since that time, including a new Glendale, California store just 500 feet from an existing location, things now appear to be getting into full swing with Apple apparently set to open at least five new stores this Saturday.
The total includes two U.S. stores and three international locations covering Australia, Canada, and Italy, and represents the largest batch of store openings since Apple opened seven stores on September 25th of last year.
Apple's I Gigli retail store in Florence, Italy (Source: iPhone Italia)
- Anchorage 5th Avenue Mall (Anchorage, Alaska): The new store will be Apple's first location in Alaska.
- Fashion Place (Murray, Utah): Apple's second store in Utah, the new store covers the southern suburban stretch of Salt Lake City suburbs to complement the company's existing store at The Gateway in downtown Salt Lake City.
- Southland (Cheltenham, Victoria, Australia): The new store is Apple's third location in the Melbourne area and its twelfth overall for Australia.
- Conestoga: (Waterloo, Ontario, Canada): Apple's 20th retail store in Canada, the new location is also notable for its placement in the hometown of smartphone competitor Research in Motion.
- I Gigli: (Florence, Italy): The new store is Apple's sixth location in Italy and first in the Florence area, filling a gap between the company's store in Rome and a series of stores in northern Italy across the Turin, Milan, and Bergamo.
The new openings come as Apple continues to push forward with construction on a number of other stores, as well as renovations and expansions of some of its existing stores. The company is also notably undertaking an upgrade of the plaza and glass cube at its flagship Fifth Avenue store in Manhattan. Earlier today, we reported that Apple has released details on the cube's revamp, which will see the original design of 90 panes of glass replaced with a new version using only 15 panes of seamless glass.
Back in June, Apple began work on a $6.6 million upgrade of the plaza and glass cube at its iconic flagship retail store on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. Barriers surrounding the plaza and the glass cube itself quickly went up, with customers continuing to access the store through a covered passageway leading to the main entrance. At the time the work began, planning documents revealed that Apple would be removing the glass cube and working on drainage, pavers, and bollards on the plaza, but it was unclear just what changes Apple would be making to the cube itself.
Apple has now revealed its plans for the cube with a new informational sign posted on the barrier surrounding the plaza, showing that the company is completely replacing the cube's glass panels with new, larger panels that will also be "seamless" for a cleaner appearance.
We're simplifying the Fifth Avenue cube. By using larger, seamless pieces of glass, we're using just 15 panes instead of 90.
According to the diagram of the new cube, Apple will be using three glass panes per side of the cube (plus the top), with each side pane stretching the entire height of the cube.
Apple last year filed for a trademark on the original design of the Fifth Avenue store's cube, seeking to protect what was recently ranked as one of the most-photographed sites in Manhattan based on a study of geotagged photos posted to Flickr and Picasa.
The new Airport Extreme and Time Capsule released by Apple in June didn't have an advertised upgrade, outside of a capacity bump on the Time Capsule. However, Brian Klug at AnandTech has written an extraordinarily detailed review of the new devices and found they are notably improved from the prior generation.
Klug notes that the new devices are virtually indistinguishable from their older counterparts, but in detailed testing, they found increased throughput and range.
At the end of the day, the new Airport Extreme dramatically improves throughput in the best case and in a few regions where signal was previously unusable. In the worst case (location 4), performance improves from being essentially unusable to totally fine, and in the case of the 2010MBP goes from not being able to connect at all to pushing 23 Mbps.
[...]
The main improvements with AFS (real-world file transfer) happen out at the extremes where previously signal was unusable on 2.4GHz, and likewise on 5GHz. That really tells the story of the (sometimes dramatic) difference that the higher power WLAN solution in the 5th generation makes over the 4th generation.
The highest speeds are attained with the 2011 generation MacBook Pro which includes an upgraded "three spatial stream compliant WLAN stack", which basically is next-generation wireless software and hardware.
The new Airport Extreme includes a slightly different chipset as well, moving from one sourced from Marvell to one from Broadcom:
The result of the move from Marvell to Broadcom is twofold. First, performance and range is definitely better thanks to more transmit power and the improved sensitivity afforded by newer generation chipsets. Second, the combination of lots of Broadcom in Apple’s hardware lineup (from the iPhone, iPad, and MacBooks, to iMac and Mac Mini) with Broadcom in the access point likely allows for the use of frame bursting or some other packet aggregation technique that speeds things up in some scenarios. It’s another example of how having that complete hardware control can in fact result in some benefit—in this case, faster WiFi.
Klug finishes the review by noting the Airport Extreme is reasonably priced compared to the competition and he prefers it due to it "actually work[ing] without locking up, becoming unstable periodically, dropping the session from overheating when being pushed to 100% for hours, or requiring a daily reboot."
Metropolitan Police have multiple police vans parked in Oxford Circus, including three parked directly in front of the Apple Store flagship on Regent Street. The picture above was posted to Twitter by @Joe, a venture capitalist with m8 Capital in London.
Update: Reports on Twitter that the Bullring shopping center in Birmingham has been breached. There is an Apple Store in the Bullring complex, but there are no confirmed reports that the store has been broken into. The Bullring closed early on Monday evening due to the situation in Birmingham.
Update: The Bullring shopping center closed early again on Tuesday, shutting stores at 5PM. There are no indications of vandalism to the Apple Store in the complex, though there were significant disturbances in the area around Bullring last night.
Update: The Apple Store Liverpool ONE was emptied of all product Tuesday evening ahead of possible unrest in Liverpool.
Londoners are facing rioting and looting for the third night in a row. The BBC has extensive coverage of the events.
Any UK readers with pictures, video, or other information, please get in touch via Twitter, email, or the comments on this post.
Way back in January 2010, development firm Illusion Labs demoed a Mac version of its popular iPhone game Touchgrind, showing off how the sophisticated multi-touch trackpad included on Apple's notebook computers could be used in a novel way for controlling the skateboarding gameplay.
Currently available for free from the Mac App Store, Touchgrind can obviously also take advantage of Apple's Magic Trackpad that was released last year, several months after the Touchgrind demo was first created.
It may have taken a while, but Touchgrind has indeed launched in the Mac App Store, and it’s currently completely free. The game controls well with the multi-touch trackpad, though it definitely feels different than the iOS touch screen and does take some getting used to. The view is nice and zoomed out, similar to the iPad version Touchgrind HD [$7.99], which makes it a whole lot easier to tell where you are going while cruising around the skatepark.
Illusion Labs has been aggressive in demoing ideas for moving its iOS games to other devices and platforms, having also shown off Touchgrind and another title, Sway, on a large multi-touch table several years ago.
Apple today released Lion Recovery Disk Assistant, a utility that lets users create a Lion recovery partition on an external drive or USB key. Lion Recovery lets users "repair disks or reinstall OS X Lion without the need for a physical disc."
To create an external Lion Recovery, download the Lion Recovery Disk Assistant application. Insert an external drive, launch the Lion Recovery Disk Assistant, select the drive where you would like to install, and follow the on screen instructions.
When the Lion Recovery Disk Assistant completes, the new partition will not be visible in the Finder or Disk Utility. To access Lion Recovery, reboot the computer while holding the Option key. Select Recovery HD from the Startup Manager.
Apple's knowledge base article about the utility notes that the partition it creates has all the same capabilities as the Lion Recovery that is installed during a Lion installation. However, this partition could be used in the event a user can't start their computer from the Recovery partition or if the hard drive is replaced.
[Users can] reinstall Lion, repair the disk using Disk Utility, restore from a Time Machine backup, or browse the web with Safari. This drive can be used in the event you cannot start your computer with the built-in Recovery HD, or you have replaced the hard drive with a new one that does not have Mac OS X installed.
The document has two final notes:
- If the computer shipped with Lion, the external recovery drive can only be used with the system that created it.
- If the system was upgraded from Mac OS X v10.6 Snow Leopard to Lion, the external recovery drive can be used with other systems that were upgraded from Snow Leopard to Lion.
We had previously reported that in order to do a clean install of Lion, Snow Leopard would need to be installed first. With this recovery partition creator, there is now an official path to perform a clean install without Snow Leopard. Also, this would seem to make the unofficial Lion boot disk creator unnecessary.
ZeptoLab has released a successor to multi-million selling game Cut The Rope. The new game, titled Cut the Rope: Experiments, expands on the simple physics model with a few new gadgets. From TouchArcade's review:
One is a button that shoots a rope at the candy. The rope can snag it in midair, leading to some impressive carnival stunts. The other is a rope on a suction cup that can be attached and detached with a touch. It still obeys the laws of physics, so you need to be quick to reattach it while it's dropping. Both of the new gadgets give you a bit more freedom to move the candy around the levels, and they're great fun to play with.
ZeptoLab followed Angry Birds-maker Rovio by self-publishing its Cut the Rope sequel and dropping game publisher Chillingo.
Cut the Rope: Experiments is available for iPhone ($0.99) and iPad ($1.99) on the App Store.
Apple today released a pair of updates for its Logic audio workstation software packages, fixing a number of bugs and delivering improved compatibility with the Apogee Duet 2 audio interface device. Logic Pro 9.1.5 (192.55 MB) and Logic Express 9.1.5 (138.84 MB) each require Mac OS X 10.5.8 or later.
This update improves overall stability and addresses some minor issues including the following:
- All instrument and effect plug-ins that use LFO's synced to the beat now behave correctly. - The Toggle Zoom key command now returns to previous zoom level as expected. - Improved compatibility with Apogee's Duet 2.
Full details on the over a dozen changes included in the updates are available in the release notes.
Condé Nast is following up the iPad edition of The New Yorker with an iOS app of its "Goings On Around Town" section. Goings On [iTunes] is a weekly listing of New York's art exhibits, concerts, and the like, connected to an interactive map.
Like audio recordings from New Yorker authors that will work as walking tours: Food writer Calvin Trillin will lead listeners through his favorite eateries and stores; architecture critic Paul Goldberger navigates the city’s amazing elevated High Line park.
The app is free, but ad-supported.
Condé Nast -- the publishing company behind Wired, The New Yorker, and many others -- has been very active in Apple's ecosystem. The company released iPad editions of most of its titles, and is offering in-app subscriptions as well, giving Apple a 30% cut of its revenues. Condé recently reported that the iPad edition of The New Yorker has more than 100,000 readers.
Facebook has released 
