MacRumors

Following up on an earlier rumor that Siri would soon support Mandarin Chinese, Russian and Japanese languages, 9to5Mac noticed that if Siri is actually asked what languages it supports, Japanese is listed as one of the options.

At launch, Siri could converse in the American, UK and Australian dialects of English, German and French.

Contrary to what Siri claims, Japanese is not available as a choice in the Siri preferences pane. It's possible that Siri's additional languages will be launched with the iPad 3 launch next month. That launch is rumored to be set for March 7.

Apple has cut its minimum iAd buy-in fee to $100,000 according to a report from Advertising Age. The new lower price, one-tenth the $1 million originally required when iAd launched in July of 2010, dropped to $500k and then $300k per package.

Even the $300k level has apparently not been enough to keep existing advertisers on board and bring on new ones to meet the ever-growing number of ad slots available. In addition to the reduced minimum spend, Apple is increasing the cut that developers receive from iAds running within their apps from 60% to 70%. The extra money is expected to cover lower ad rates and encourage developers to include iAds within their applications.

AdAge continues:

Apple is also planning to change the way it charges for ads, which irked some advertisers and agencies. Since it launched in 2010, Apple has charged advertisers twice: a fixed rate for every 1,000 ad impressions plus an additional fee every time a user clicked on the ad. Apple will now only charge the cost-per-thousand rate.

Apple recently hired former Adobe executive Todd Teresi to head up the iAds service after Andy Miller departed to join a venture capital firm.

Apple CEO Tim Cook has just completed a Q&A session with analyst Bill Shope at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference. While we liveblogged the event with a rough transcript of Cook's comments, here are a few of the highlights:

- Worker safety: Addressing ongoing publicity about working conditions at Apple's suppliers' facilities, Cook reiterated his position that no company is doing more or being more transparent about the issue than Apple. Cook specifically addressed Apple's efforts to address underage labor, safety, and excessive overtime. Apple has also partnered with the Fair Labor Association to conduct what is likely the largest and most extensive audit in manufacturing history. Apple will also be continuing to collect its own data and will be releasing it monthly on the company's website.

- iPhone growth: Dryly noting that Apple's record-smashing sales of 37 million iPhones during the holiday quarter led to "a decent quarter", Cook noted that 90% of mobile phone purchasers and 75% of smartphone purchasers are still choosing something other than an iPhone. Consequently, Apple still has remarkable room to grow.

- Emerging markets: Cook noted that Apple has placed significant energy on emerging markets, with China being the primary focus but Brazil and Russia also receiving attention. While the iPod created a halo for the Mac and other Apple products in developed markets, that didn't work for emerging markets. It took the iPhone to generate that momentum in those countries. In China, Mac grew 100% year-over-year compared with 10% for the broader industry. The Mac growth was from a small base, but still demonstrates significant momentum. Revenue across Apple's emerging markets has grown from $1.4 billion in 2007 to $22 billion in 2011.

- iPad growth: Cook noted that no one could have predicted 55 million units at this point, by far the fastest growth ever for an Apple product. The iPad benefited significantly from an established base of users familiar with the iPhone and iPod and from the established infrastructure of the iTunes Store and App Store.

- Competing tablets: Addressing the Kindle Fire and other cheaper competitors, Cook noted that price is rarely the most important thing for consumers. Long-term, people aren't happy about getting a good deal on a terrible product. Cook noted that he loves competition (as long as other companies "invent their own stuff") and that he believes Apple's innovation will drive things forward.

- Stock buybacks/dividends: Cook noted that Apple is judicious with its cash, and acknowledged that the company currently has much more cash on hand than it needs to run its day-to-day business. He acknowledged that discussions on the topic at board meetings have ramped up as Apple's cash hoard has grown, but asked for patience as Apple considers its options and works to make the best decision for shareholders.

- Apple TV: Cook reported that Apple still considers the Apple TV to be a "hobby", in the sense that it shouldn't be thought of as a major pillar of Apple's business. That said, Apple has always felt that if it kept "pulling the string", there would be something there. Consumer satisfaction is reportedly off the charts and sales are growing quickly.

- Siri and iCloud: Cook's belief is that iCloud is the strategy for the next decade, enabling users to access their content from anywhere. iCloud already has over 100 million users just months after launching. Siri, on the other hand, is a profound change in input methods in Cook's view, and he notes that never before had he considered a beta product to be indispensable.

- Cook's legacy: In a question that seemed to have caught Cook a bit off-guard, Shope asked what Cook believes his stamp on Apple will be and what he will seek to maintain. Cook seemed to very much be speaking from the heart as he focused on the latter portion, outlining the culture of Apple and how important a factor it has been in Apple's success.

The most important is the second part. Apple is this unique culture and unique company. You can't replicate it. I'm not going to witness or permit the slow undoing of it. I believe in it so deeply.

Steve grilled in all of us over many years, the company should revolve around great products. We should stay extremely focused on a few things, rather than try to do so many that we did nothing well. We should only go into markets where we can make a significant contribution to society, not just sell a lot of products. These things, along with keeping excellent as an expectation, these are the things that I focus on.

Cook has participated in this Goldman Sachs event a number of times in the past, but this was his first time as CEO and provided a rare opportunity outside of the company's earning conference calls for him to address questions from those who follow the company from the outside.

Apple CEO Tim Cook will speak at the Goldman Sachs Technology Conference today at 3:30PM Eastern / 12:30PM Pacific. Cook's presentation will be broadcast via Quicktime on Apple's website and MacRumors will be liveblogging the event on this page.

Cook has spoken at the annual conference a number of times (2007, 2008, 2010), but this will be his first time at the event in the role of Apple CEO. While he has not made any major announcements at the venue in the past, he has at times offered an interesting perspective into Apple's business.

Tim Cook is on-stage. Opens with "safe harbor" statement noting that his speech may include "forward-looking statements." Goldman Sachs analyst Bill Shope is conducting the interview.

What should investors know about Apple's relationship with the supply chain and the workers within it?

First thing I would want everyone to know is that Apple takes working conditions very seriously, and we have for a very long time. Whether workers are in Europe or Asia or the United States, we care about every worker. I've spent a lot of time in factories, personally. Not just as an executive. I worked at a paper mill in Alabama and an aluminum plant in Virginia. Many of our top executives visit factories on a regular basis. We have hundreds of employees based there full time.

We are very connected to the process and we understand working conditions at a very granular level. I realize that the supply chain is complex and I'm sure that you realize this. The issues around it are complex. Our commitment is simple: every worker has the right to a fair and safe work environment, free of discrimination, where they can earn competitive wages and they can voice their concerns freely. Apple's suppliers must live up to this to do business with Apple.

We also believe that education is the great equalizer and that if people are provided the skills and knowledge, they can improve their lives. We've put a lot of effort to supplying educational resources to our workers throughout our supply chain. We supply free classes in many place thoroughout our supply chain. More than 60,000 employees have attended these classes, which is pretty amazing when you think about it.

If you take all these employees and move them to one location, it would be larger than Arizona State -- which is the largest college in the United States. This is a powerful stepping stone for workers looking to enhance their careers and their lives.

You can read the details on problems we're looking to fix on our website, but I can tell you that no one in our industry is doing more to improve working conditions than Apple. We are constantly auditing facilities going deep into the supply chain, looking for problems, finding problems and fixing problems. We report everything because we believe transparency is so very important in this area. I am so incredibly proud of the work that our teams are doing in this area. They focus on the most difficult problems and they stay with them until they fix them. They are truly a model for the industry.

➜ Click here to read rest of article...

Soon after rumors of Apple's plans for entering the television market began to gain significant momentum late last year, analysts noted that the industry's existing players were already "scrambling" to react to Apple's likely entry and its chances of remaking the industry.

But perhaps not all television manufacturers are sweating Apple's arrival, as Pocket-lint reports on comments from a Samsung product manager indicating that his company is confident that its massive investment in picture quality improvements will trump anything Apple might be able to put together in other areas.

"We've not seen what they've done but what we can say is that they don't have 10,000 people in R&D in the vision category," [Samsung product manager Chris Moseley] said.

"They don't have the best scaling engine in the world and they don't have world renowned picture quality that has been awarded more than anyone else.

"TVs are ultimately about picture quality. Ultimately. How smart they are...great, but let's face it that's a secondary consideration. The ultimate is about picture quality and there is no way that anyone, new or old, can come along this year or next year and beat us on picture quality.

"So, from that perspective, it's not a great concern but it remains to be seen what they're going to come out with, if anything."

As a product manager, Moseley's words carry less weight than if they had come from a senior executive with broader responsibility for the company's overall direction, and so it remains unclear whether Moseley's lack of concern about Apple's plans is a personal perspective or a broader indication of the company's thinking on the matter. Moseley is also obviously charged with promoting his company's products and thus would be expected to position them as industry leaders.

Nevertheless, Moseley's comments leave him open to comparisons with other representatives of Apple's competitors who underestimated the company as it entered new markets. Executives at Microsoft and Research in Motion famously panned Apple's iPhone announcement, while others scoffed at Apple's plans to completely reinvent the tablet market with the iPad.

Apple's ultimate plans for a television set are unknown, and its ability to drive a revolution in the well-established and low-profit television industry remains to be seen, but the company's success over the past 10-15 years has proven that competitors would be wise to keep an eye on Apple's efforts.

The Mooresville, North Carolina district is one of a handful in the country to issue laptops, the MacBook Air in this case, to each student. Mooresville is attempting to turn the public school education on its head, using technology to change the culture of instruction. The district was profiled in the New York Times on Monday.

The Times says the district has "quietly emerged as the de facto national model of the digital school."

[Superintendent of schools Mark] Edwards spoke on a White House panel in September, and federal Department of Education officials often cite Mooresville as a symbolic success. Overwhelmed by requests to view the programs in action, the district now herds visitors into groups of 60 for monthly demonstrations; the waiting list stretches to April. What they are looking for is an explanation for the steady gains Mooresville has made since issuing laptops three years ago to the 4,400 4th through 12th graders in five schools (three K-3 schools are not part of the program).

The district’s graduation rate was 91 percent in 2011, up from 80 percent in 2008. On state tests in reading, math and science, an average of 88 percent of students across grades and subjects met proficiency standards, compared with 73 percent three years ago. Attendance is up, dropouts are down. Mooresville ranks 100th out of 115 districts in North Carolina in terms of dollars spent per student — $7,415.89 a year — but it is now third in test scores and second in graduation rates.

Each MacBook Air notebooks is leased from Apple for $215 per year, including warranty. The total cost for the computers is around $1 million per year, plus an additional $100K for software. Families pay a $50 fee

The Mooresville Graded School District paid for the initiative by eliminating 65 jobs, including 37 teaching positions, and accepting larger class sizes. At the same time, schools could get rid of computer labs and antiquated teaching materials like hanging wall maps.

Steve Jobs biographer Walter Isaacson wrote about Jobs' feelings towards American public education. Jobs felt the system was "hopelessly antiquated and crippled by union work rules." Particularly galling to Jobs was that classrooms were led by teachers standing at a blackboard, using textbooks. He felt that "all books, learning materials, and assessments should be digital and interactive." Feedback should be tailored to each student and provided in real time.

Instead of simply throwing technology dollars at the problem, hoping it can fix itself, Mooresville is using technology as a tool to help students learn.

Mooresville frequently tests students in various subjects to inform teachers where each needs help. Every quarter, department heads and principals present summary data to Mr. Edwards, who uses it to assess where teachers need improvement. Special emphasis goes to identifying students who are only a few correct answers away from passing state proficiency standards. They are then told how close they are and, Mr. Edwards said, “You can, you can, you can.”

Apple made its biggest stride yet into the digital classroom at an education-focused event last month. At that event, Apple launched a new digital textbook initiative for the iPad, plus easy-to-use authoring tools to help educators collaborate and share knowledge across school districts and disciplines.

Jobs' vision for the digital school may be turning to reality in Mooresville, North Carolina.

(Image via Jeremy M. Lange/New York Times)

Earlier this week, we noted that Chinese authorities had begun seizing iPad stocks from a small number of retailers over Apple's alleged infringement of a disputed "iPad" trademark. Apple claims that it purchased the Chinese rights to the trademark several years ago, but the original owner Proview and Chinese courts have disagreed with that assertion.

Bloomberg now notes that Proview is seeking to go beyond local enforcement and is asking Chinese customs officials to block both imports and exports of the iPad over the issue. With iPad production taking place in China, a successful bid by Proview could cut off Apple's supplies of the device throughout the world.

“We are applying to customs to stop any trademark- infringing products from imports to China and also for exports,” said [Proview lawyer Roger] Xie, who is based in Shenzhen. “Apple wants to postpone and continue infringement of the iPad in China.”

Calling a potential export ban "catastrophic" for Apple, one Chinese legal expert notes that pressure on Apple to settle the case has dramatically increased.

A halt to exports from China would be “catastrophic” for Apple because it would mean a global halt to iPad sales, said Stan Abrams, an intellectual property lawyer and a law professor at the Central University of Finance and Economics in Beijing. The threat of an export ban increases the pressure on Apple to settle the case, he said.

“There’s got to be a settlement, and fairly soon,” Abrams said. “I can’t see how much more incentivized to settle Apple could be.”

Apple continues to maintain that it acquired "worldwide" rights to the iPad in ten countries, including China, as part of an earlier deal. Apple's case is still pending with Chinese courts as it seeks to appeal earlier rulings.

We've been covering Apple's forthcoming Amsterdam retail store with interest for some time now, as it will be the company's first location in the Netherlands. While development has been slowed by historic preservation issues, rumors last month suggested that the store could open on February 18.

Apple indeed appears to be getting closer to opening the store, as today it unveiled striking new orange window coverings announcing that the location will be "opening soon". Several Dutch sites including One More Thing [Google translation] and iPhoneclub.nl [Google translation] have posted photos of the store.

Orange is the national color of the Netherlands, while the three vertically-stacked Apple logos are a play on the three crosses found in Amsterdam's coat of arms and which are popularly used to represent the city.

An opening date for the new store remains unknown, with hiring plans and glimpses of the store's interior suggesting that it will not quite meet the previously-rumored February 18 date.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple is working with suppliers on a smaller iPad carrying a display in the range of 8 inches on the diagonal, down from the 9.7-inch display in the current iPad but still larger than the 7-inch display found in the Kindle Fire.

Officials at some of Apple's suppliers, who declined to be named, said the Cupertino, Calif.-based company has shown them screen designs for a new device with a screen size of around 8-inches, and said it is qualifying suppliers for it. Apple's latest tablet, the iPad 2, comes with a 9.7-inch screen. It was launched late last year.

One person said the smaller device will have a similar resolution screen as the iPad 2. Apple is working with screen makers including Taiwan-based AU Optronics Co. and LG Display Co. of South Korea to supply the test panels, the person said.

The report does caution, however, that Apple is continually testing new designs with its suppliers and could ultimately decide not to bring the smaller iPad to market.

According to the report, Apple has played with various tablet sizes in the past, but has so far stuck with a single form factor with a 9.7-inch display, a size Steve Jobs argued was the minimum to meet Apple's standards for usability.

An "iPad mini" has been rumored for quite some time, with reportedly having tested a variety of different screen sizes. A number of the rumors have pinpointed a 7.85-inch iPad that could be released late this year.

Back in December, we published mockups and "actual size" PDFs demonstrating how the device would appear and fit in the hand at that size. Our printable PDFs included home screen (6 MB) and keyboard (18 MB) views, and we also included an actual size image for viewing on a current iPad.

Squeezing the current iPad's resolution down to a smaller screen would also reduce the size of the interface elements on the device, and Apple is indeed said to be planning to move the current iPad's 1024x768 resolution to the smaller iPad in a move that would allow current iPad apps to "just work" on the new device. Testing with our "iPad mini" mockup suggests that interface elements would remain usable even at the smaller size.

The iPad 3 will come in 4G LTE versions for Verizon and AT&T according to a report from the Wall Street Journal. It was reported earlier today that the iPad 3 announcement would come on March 7.

Verizon Communications Inc. and AT&T Inc. will sell a version of the coming iPad that runs on their newest fourth-generation wireless networks, according to people familiar with the matter, as the battle to cash in on big investments in mobile broadband heats up.

Apple Inc. appears to be planning to announce the latest version of its tablet computer in the first week of March, according to another person briefed on the matter.

Whether other carriers will also sell the device couldn't be learned.

The WSJ noted that the devices will fallback to a "slower network technology" when LTE isn't available. The next iPad is expected to have a high-resolution Retina Display and a quad-core A6 processor, in addition to the LTE capabilities. There is no indication if the AT&T and Verizon iPads would be one model that can operate on both networks or separate units with individual SKUs, as they are currently.

Apple insiders have noted that Apple frequently engages in the practice of "controlled leaks", briefing trusted reporters with product information before the launch of a big product.

iMore reports that Apple is planning to hold their iPad 3 announcement on Wednesday, March 7, 2012. Aside from the date of the announcement, iMore also claims that the iPad 3 will feature a 2048x1536 Retina display as well as a quad-core A6 processor and "possibly" 4G LTE networking. They cite sources "who have been reliable in the past".

Overall, the site seems least certain about LTE's presence in the iPad 3:

4G LTE networking has been another mystery surrounding the iPad 3, with a compatible Qualcomm chipset becoming available, but international LTE coverage is still slim, and in some cases a year or more away. It sounds like Apple has 4G LTE lined up for iPhone 5 this October, but we’re still not certain if the iPad 3 will get it earlier.

iMore (then called Tipb) had previously pinpointed the pre-order date for the iPhone 4S.

LTE has been rumored to be included in the iPad 3 in the past. As iMore notes, LTE's rollout has been slow, but many carriers are aggressively rolling out coverage and LTE requirements in 2012. Apple has also been testing LTE in iOS 5 and hiring LTE engineers.

Update: Jim Dalrymple of LoopInsight confirms the date with a simple "Yep". Dalrymple is known to have sources inside Apple.

As noted by @settBIT, Apple has posted a notice on its investor relations page announcing that it will be offering a live audio webcast of a presentation by CEO Tim Cook tomorrow at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference. Cook's presentation will begin at approximately 3:30 PM Eastern / 12:30 PM Pacific.

Cook has spoken at the annual conference a number of times (2007, 2008, 2010), but this will be his first time at the event in the role of Apple CEO. While he has not made any major announcements at the venue in the past, he has at times offered an interesting perspective into Apple's business.

Apple captured "19 percent of all sales dollars" of consumer electronics sales in the U.S. during the holiday quarter of 2011 according to NPD. Not coincidentally, the holiday season was also the best quarter in Apple's history.

Not only was Apple by far the most successful consumer electronics brand for the second year in a row, Apple Retail has the third most revenue of any electronics retailer, coming in behind only Best Buy and Walmart. Apple was the only brand in the top five to post a sales increase from 2010, with receipts for 2011 rising more than 36 percent in the U.S. on the back of the iPad 2 and iPhone 4S.

Tablet sales have more than doubled as a share of consumer electronics dollars, going from 5.1 to 10.7 percent. That's especially good news for Apple -- the iPad's 40 million units sold made up nearly 60 percent of tablet sales in 2011.

HP, Samsung, Sony, and Dell all saw declines in sales from 2010 to 2011, according to NPD's report, with Sony and Dell taking the biggest hits.