The Wall Street Journal takes a look at Apple's plans for its education-focused media event scheduled for this Thursday, and while the report is a bit short on specifics, it does examine some of the possibilities and demonstrates how the textbook industry is ripe for a shakeup at the hands of Apple.
Among the more specific claims included in the article is a brief discussion of the company's work with textbook publisher McGraw-Hill on a project that has been underway since last June.
McGraw-Hill Cos., Pearson and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt are among the education-publishing companies most likely affected by an Apple textbook announcement. The companies have experimented with interactive approaches, such as allowing students to take quizzes as they read and hear audio for foreign-language study, but many digital textbooks have looked a lot like their physical counterparts.
McGraw-Hill has been working with Apple on its announcement since June, a person familiar with the matter said. It wasn't known whether Pearson and Houghton Mifflin also would participate.
The report also points to Cengage Learning, another textbook publisher that has worked with Apple in the past and who will be attendance at Thursday's event. Cengage acknowledges that a combination of its content with Apple's hardware and distribution "could be exciting", but declined to talk specifics of any deal.
Apple's media event is being held at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City on Thursday, January 19. It is scheduled to begin at 10:00 AM Eastern / 7:00 AM Pacific, and Apple senior vice president Eddy Cue has been reported to be a key figure in the presentation.
Less than a week after Dutch music copyright organization Buma/Stemra announced that it had struck a deal with Apple regarding iTunes Match, the service has now gone live in the Dutch iTunes Store.
An iTunes Match link is not yet showing up on the front page of the Dutch iTunes Store, but Apple has updated the iTunes Store terms and conditions in the Netherlands with new text covering the service and the generic link to the iTunes Match page [iTunes Store] is now working for those who have set their systems to access the Dutch version of the store.
As in other European countries, iTunes Match is priced at €24.99 per year.
Earlier this month, we reported on Hong Kong company In Icons, which was attempting to release a realistic-looking Steve Jobs figurine. According to reports, Apple was at the time threatening legal action over the posable figurine, and PC World now notes that production on the figurine has been halted.
In Icons has posted a statement on its website acknowledging that while it does not feel that it has violated any laws with the figurine but noting that it will cease production out of respect for Jobs and following "immense pressure" from lawyers representing Apple and Jobs' family.
I would like to take this opportunity to reiterate that the original intention for creating the figurine was driven by a fan’s admiration of Steve. We respect copyright and trade mark rights and therefore indicated on our site that we were not providing any Mac, iPhone and iPad models with the figurine. Further, we haven't used any Apple related brands. Unfortunately we have received immense pressure from the lawyers of Apple and Steve Jobs family. Regardless of the pressure, I am still Steve’s fan, I fully respect Steve, and his family, and it is definitely not my wish or intention that they be upset. Though we still believe that we have not overstepped any legal boundaries, we have decided to completely stop the offer, production and sale of the Steve Jobs figurine out of our heartfelt sensitivity to the feelings of the Jobs family.
The 12-inch figurine had been set to sell for $99.99 plus shipping, and included a number of accessories to help users replicate any number of famous Jobs poses.
Das Keyboard, a popular keyboard manufacturer that specializes in "clicky" mechanical keyboards like the Apple Extended Keyboard or the IBM Model M, has announced a Macintosh-edition of its Model S Professional keyboard.
Das's keyboards are a favorite of many computer users, includingMacRumors chief Arnold Kim. The Model S Professional for Mac is the same keyboard as the Model S that Das Keyboard has been selling, but with the appropriate "control", "option", and "command" keys for the Macintosh, plus function keys for sleep, brightness +/-, mute, volume +/-, eject, play/pause, next and previous track.
CNET gave the Model S Professional 4/5 stars, praising its "tactile feel and satisfying clack" and noting that "power typists will find comfort, utility, and nostalgia in the Model S Professional's sleek design and springboard performance." The keyboard "brings back the same mechanical key switches and provides tactical and audible feedback that might even improve your typing speed and accuracy." The mechanical key switches of the 2.6 lb. Model S are designed to withstand more than 50 million strokes.
The Model S Professional for Mac will be priced at $133 when it's released, but is available for pre-order for $113. Das Keyboard says it has a limited quantity available for immediate shipping, but the keyboard will be shipped in volume on April 16, 2012.
Pocket-lint reports that Utah company HzO, which was showing off its "WaterBlock" technology for providing water resistance to mobile devices at last week's CES, has said it is talking to Apple about the possibility of including the technology in future iPhones and other devices. Samsung is also reportedly "excited" by the technology.
"We showed the Samsung Chairman the technology with a Samsung Galaxy S that we had coated with HZO and he couldn't believe his eyes," a representative of the company told us. "Samsung is really excited by the tech."
The company has told us that they are also talking to Apple as well, hoping to be able to let Apple make the iPhone 5 waterproof.
"We expect HZO to be in next season's phones," HZO told Pocket-lint rather confidently.
The WaterBlock technology, which consists of a coating applied to interior device components to help them resist water damage, is performed during the manufacturing process and is invisible to the user.
It is difficult to know how serious the company's discussions with Apple are, and any substantial conversations would almost certainly be subject to non-disclosure arrangements. In addition, expo floor exhibitors are of course primarily interested in promoting their products, and any mention of discussions of partnerships with major companies is a good way to generate publicity.
Consequently, it is impossible to put any measure of weight on speculation that Apple might adopt HzO technology, but it does appear to be an interesting possibility for mobile device manufacturers seeking to improve the durability of their products.
ifoAppleStore reports on an article from French magazine Aix en Dialogue noting that Apple is preparing to build an interesting new store in Aix-en-Provence, France. While the store appears to be a relatively small one by Apple's standards, the striking design sees the store set back on a plaza and constructed almost entirely of transparent glass with the exception of the rear wall hiding the back-of-house operations.
According to AixEnProvence.fr magazine, the current tired-looking tourism office on the south side of Place du General de Gaulle will be demolished and the Apple store will be constructed at the site. A rendering posted by the magazine shows a one-level structure set back on a broad stone plaza, with a tan-colored rear wall, and all other encompassing walls made of glass. A second rendering shows the store is an extension of a design roughly based on the Upper West Side (NYC) store.
Reports indicate that the new store, which is also depicted with a low-profile fountain on the plaza, could open by late 2012 or early 2013.
Meanwhile, Macprime.ch reports [Google translation] that it has obtained access to Apple's plans for its first retail store in Basel, Switzerland. The company recently revised its plans for the store to meet the requirements of planning officials, and with the current tenant having vacated the location late last year Apple is nearly ready to begin construction on the new store, which would be the company's fourth in Switzerland.
The two-level sales floor of the forthcoming store measures in at a modest 460 square meters (close to 5,000 square feet), with a nearly equal amount of space dedicated to back-of-house operations such as storage and a conference room, as well as building systems. Schematics for the store show a staircase in the rear of the store for moving between the two sales floors, with the ground floor hosting twelve display tables and the next level hosting several other display tables and what appear to be a pair of 12-seat Genius Bars.
Given that Apple will be tearing down the current building to construct the new Basel store, the location is unlikely to open until 2013.
In a preliminary ruling (PDF) today, the ITC ruled that Motorola's smartphones do not violate the Apple patents at issue, though the decision still needs to be approved by the full six-member ITC panel.
On this date, the ALJ issued an initial determination on violation of Section 337 and recommended determination on remedy and bond in the above-referenced investigation. It is held that no violation of section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended, 19 U.S.C. § 1337, has occurred in the importation into the United States, the sale for importation, or the sale within the United States after importation of certain mobile devices and related software by reason of infringement of one or more of Claims 1, 2, 10, 11, 24-26, and 29 U.S. Patent No. 7,812,828 ("the '828 Patent"), claims 1-7 and 10 of U.S. Patent No. 7,663,607 ("the '607 Patent"), and claims 1, 3, and 5 ofthe U.S. Patent No. 5,379,430 ("the '430 Patent").
The case goes back to November 2010, when the International Trade Commission agreed to investigate Apple's claims of patent infringement lodged against Motorola.
Bloomberg briefly reports that Apple's manufacturing partners have indeed begun on production of the iPad 3, with a ramp-up to full capacity taking place by February ahead of a March launch for the device. The report corroborates circulating rumors that the iPad will offer a quad-core processor and sport a high-resolution "Retina" display. The iPad 3 is also said to offer 4G LTE support for faster data connectivity on the go.
Apple Inc. (AAPL)’s next iPad tablet, due in March, will sport a high-definition screen, run a faster processor and work with long-term evolution wireless networks, according to three people familiar with the product. [...]
The tablet will use a quad-core chip, an enhancement that lets users more quickly jump between applications, two of the people said.
Rumors have been split on whether the iPad 3 will be slightly thicker, thinner, or the same form factor as the iPad 2, with those rumors apparently depending on whether Apple has been able to adopt Sharp's IGZO technology that would allow for a thinner display. While some sources have indicated that Sharp's displays are making the cut for the iPad 3, others have claimed that Sharp failed to win approval from Apple and that a slightly thicker form factor may be required to accommodate a dual light bar design to support the high-resolution IPS display from Samsung and LG.
Update: Bloomberg has now updated its article with additional information on the new features:
Apple is bringing LTE to the iPad before the iPhone because the tablet has a bigger battery and can better support the power requirements of the newer technology, said one of the people.
The new display is capable of greater resolution than the current iPad, with more pixels on its screen than some high- definition televisions, the person said. The pixels are small enough to make the images look like printed material, according to the person. Videos begin playing almost instantly because of the additional graphics processing, the person said.
Sources note that Foxconn's factories will be running 24 hours a day to produce the iPad 3, with a break later this month for the Lunar New Year holiday being followed by an acceleration to full capacity in February.
Italian site iSpazionotes [Google translation] that Apple has made a small but helpful tweak to the iTunes Store when accessed from a computer, now allowing users to access information on content such as songs, albums, videos, apps, and books via a pop-up window rather than needing to click through to a separate page within the store. The new option, which appears in most locations within the store as a small "info" button in the lower right corner of the content's icon when the user hovers over the item, is available on both main iTunes Store and App Store feature pages as well as in search results.
The pop-up windows offer different content depending on which area of the store the user is in, with music, books, and podcasts offering a description of the selected item. In the App Store, the pop-up windows contain multiple tabs with each item's description, reviews, and iPhone and iPad screenshots. Users can also easily purchase the items from their respective pop-up windows.
Finally, movies and TV shows display a small "play" icon instead of the "info" icon, and immediately pop up a window with a video preview and details on each item.
In a wide-ranging interview with the BBC, former Apple CEO John Sculley was asked about Jobs killing off the Newton, and what he thought of the product in retrospect. Sculley admitted that the Newton was "clearly too ambitious" but nailed "many of the concepts."
Perhaps most importantly, Sculley points out that Apple had to develop a new type of microprocessor to power the Newton, co-founding a company called ARM Holdings. Processors based on those developed for the Newton now power most of the smartphones and tablets in the world.
Well the facts are that we had to create a new microprocessor for the Newton as there was no low-powered microprocessor that could handle object orientated programming.
So when we were creating Newton we also co-founded a company called Arm.
Apple owned 47% of it, Olivetti owned 47% and the founder Hermann Hauser owned the rest.
Arm not only was the key technology behind the Newton but it eventually became the key technology behind every mobile device in the world today including the iPhone and the iPad.
Sculley is clearly proud of the fact that even though the Newton failed, the technology behind it succeeded.
In the interview, Sculley also discusses Walter Isaacson's biography of Jobs, which he says he hasn't read; his and Jobs' relationship; what he's up to these days, including a large investment in social health company Audax Health; and what he thinks of a possible Apple television.
Earlier today, Apple released its 2012 Supplier Responsibility Progress Report, an annual report that was supplemented for the first time by a public list of over 150 companies that supply components and manufacturing services to the company.
As related by French site MacGeneration, Apple CEO Tim Cook sent the following email to company employees today addressing the developments on the supplier responsibility front:
Team,
We've just released our sixth annual update on conditions in Apple's supply chain, and I want to personally share some of the results with you.
We insist that our manufacturing partners follow Apple's strict code of conduct, and to make sure they do, the Supplier Responsibility team led more than 200 audits at facilities throughout our supply chain last year. These audits make sure that working conditions are safe and just, and if a manufacturer won't live up to our standards, we stop working with them.
Thanks to our supplier responsibility program, we've seen dramatic improvements in hiring practices by our suppliers. To prevent the use of underage labor, our team interviews workers, checks employment records and audits the age verification systems our suppliers use. These efforts have been very successful and, as a result, cases of underage labor were down sharply from last year. We found no underage workers at our final assembly suppliers, and we will not rest until the number is zero everywhere.
We've also used our influence to substantially improve living conditions for the people who make our products. Apple set a new standard for suppliers who offer employee housing, to ensure that dormitories are comfortable and safe. To meet our requirements, many suppliers have renovated their dorms or built new ones altogether.
Finding and correcting problems is not enough. Our team has built an ambitious training program to educate workers about Apple's code of conduct, workers' rights, and occupational health and safety. More than one million people know about these rights because they went to work for an Apple supplier. Additionally, Apple offers continuing education programs free of charge at many manufacturing sites in China. More than 60,000 workers have enrolled in classes to learn business, entrepreneurial skills or English.
Finally, we are taking a big step today toward greater transparency and independent oversight of our supply chain by joining the Fair Labor Association. The FLA is a leading nonprofit organization dedicated to improving conditions for workers around the world, and we are the first technology company they've approved for membership. The FLA's auditing team will have direct access to our supply chain and they will report their findings independently on their website.
No one in our industry is driving improvements for workers the way Apple is today. I encourage you to take some time to read more about these efforts, so that you can be as proud of Apple's contributions in this area as I am. The details are online now at apple.com/supplierresponsibility.
Tim
Today has been a busy day on the environmental responsibility and worker rights fronts for Apple, with the company also announcing a partnership with the Fair Labor Association to monitor conditions at suppliers' facilities and an expanded recycling program in the UK, Germany, and France. News also surfaced today regarding Apple's efforts to transition to halogen-free power and USB cables for its products.
Last August, Apple expanded its recycling program in the United States to allow customers to turn in their used iPhones and iPads for Apple gift cards.
As noted by Macworld UK and Macerkopf.de [Google translation], Apple has once again expanded its recycling efforts by bringing a similar initiative to the UK, France, and Germany. But rather than offering payment in the form of an Apple gift card, the program in these countries offers users cash deposited into their bank accounts.
With the Reuse and Recycling Programme, you could turn your old equipment into a brand-new Mac, iPod, iPhone or iPad.
Whether it’s an iPhone, iPad, Mac or PC computer, working or not, we’ll take it and determine if it qualifies for reuse and has a monetary value. If it does, the amount will be credited directly into your bank account. If it doesn’t, you can recycle it responsibly through one of our free recycling programs.
The program, offered in conjunction with the German arm of electronics recycler Dataserv, builds upon Apple's existing programs for recycling Macs, PCs, batteries, iPods, and mobile phones.
Apple supports recycling efforts in a number of other countries through third-party organizations with details for each region of the globe available from Apple's main recycling program pages.
The stream of environmental and labor rights news from Apple continues today with the company's release of its annual Supplier Responsibility Progress Report for 2012. The report details efforts to oversee working conditions and environmental responsibility at its suppliers around the world, and notes that the company conducted 229 audits during 2011 for an 80% increase over 2010's auditing levels.
In 2011, we conducted 229 audits throughout our supply chain — an 80 percent increase over 2010 — including more than 100 first-time audits. We continue to expand our program to reach deeper into our supply base, and this year we added more detailed and specialized audits that focus on safety and the environment.
The company notes that in 2011 it began a dedicated environmental auditing process to supplement the environmental checks that had previously been included in the standard auditing procedure. According to the company, third-party environmental engineering experts helped conduct audits at fourteen different facilities, and some violations were found.
Full details on the auditing results, including summaries of the various violations discovered in environmental and other areas, are available in the complete report (PDF).
Apple for the first time also published a list of 156 suppliers (PDF) representing 97% of the company's procurement expenditures. While no details on each company's role in Apple's supply chain is offered in the document, merely identifying the supply chain offers some improvement in transparency for the secretive company.
"I have spent a lot of time in factories over my lifetime and we are clearly leading in this area," said Mr. Cook, previously Apple's chief operating officer who oversaw its supply chain. "It is like innovating in products. You can focus on things that are barriers or you can focus on scaling the wall or redefining the problem." [...]
The report found 108 facilities didn't pay proper overtime wages and 93 facilities had records that indicated more than 50% of their workers exceeded the 60-hour work week. The audits also found 5 facilities had incidents of underage labor.
"Working hours is a complex issue," said Mr. Cook, adding he's confident the company can improve in the area by "monitoring these plants at a very, very micro level."
Bloomberg reports that Apple has agreed to allow the Fair Labor Association (FLA) to access its suppliers' facilities to monitor workplace conditions in the wake of publicity surrounding worker suicides at Apple's primary manufacturing partner Foxconn.
The world’s most valuable technology company joins Nike Inc. (NKE), Nestle SA (NESN) and Syngenta AG (SYNN) in turning to the Fair Labor Association, set up in 1999 to monitor workplace conditions globally in an initiative by former U.S. President Bill Clinton. Apple is the first technology business to sign up to the FLA as a participating company, the Washington-based body said today in a press release.
In the press release (PDF), Apple senior vice president Jeff Williams notes that Apple routinely performs audits of its suppliers' facilities but that the company is pleased to engage with the Fair Labor Association as an independent monitoring group.
"We're extremely proud to be the first technology company admitted to the FLA," said Jeff Williams, Apple's senior vice president of Operations. "Last year we performed more than 200 audits at our supplier's facilities around the world. With the benefit of the FLA's experience and expertise, we will continue to drive improvements for workers and provide even greater transparency into our supply chain."
The FLA reports that it worked with Apple last year on the company's training programs regarding labor rights and worker standards, and that Apple will bring all of its workplace compliance standards in line with the FLA's guidelines over the next two years.
The London Evening Standard reports (via GigaOM) that Apple is requiring cable supplier Volex to spend up to $6 million retooling its production lines to eliminate halogens from the power and USB cables used in the company's products. The move will make the cables less toxic to the environment upon disposal.
Apple is the biggest customer of Volex, 23%-owned by billionaire financier Nat Rothschild, which makes the power cables and USB leads used in everything from laptops to iPhones and iPads.
But the US firm is on a drive to move its products towards halogen-free power cables, which are less harmful to the environment when disposed of.
The start-up costs in designing and making the new cables will cost it up to $6 million in the current financial year, Volex said today, although, stripping out these one-off costs, profits will be in line with market expectation.
Apple has in the past received criticism from environmental advocacy groups such as Greenpeace, but the company has been performing better in recent surveys as it has continued to shift to more environmentally-friendly alternatives and has become more open about its efforts on the environmental front.
In 2009, the company launched an expanded environmental footprint section of its website to help provide information on its impact and progress in the area.
The Jakarta Globe reports that Apple's three carrier partners in Singapore are making plans to offer iPhone 4S models lacking cameras, with the move said to be targeting members of the military who are prohibited from bringing camera-equipped phones onto their bases. Carrier M1 even briefly offered camera-less models on its website earlier this week.
"iPhone 4S Non Camera" listing on M1's site (Source: CNET Asia)
The camera-less phones are not, however, an officially-sanctioned product offered by Apple, as the carriers are simply removing the cameras from the standard devices before sale and charging a premium for the service. The modification also voids Apple's warranty on the device.
Following a year-long review, Mindef [the Singapore Defense Ministry] recently issued guidelines to its servicemen on the use of such smartphones.
It is understood that servicemen with these phones must show a certificate to prove that their handsets were modified by any one of the local telcos.
Last September, Mindef spokesman Desmond Tan told The Straits Times that Mindef and the SAF were 'exploring ways to allow our personnel to use smartphones while maintaining our current security policy on disallowing personal image-capturing devices to be used on Mindef/SAF premises'.
Singapore is of course not alone in its restrictions on camera-enabled phones, as many other governments and private companies place restrictions on such devices in sensitive locations. But the effort by Singapore's carriers appears to be the most official and organized attempt to address those needs for iPhone users.
Following early morning chaos at Apple's Sanlitun retail store in Beijing that prevented Apple from opening the store for the iPhone 4S launch, Reuters reports that the company has temporarily halted in-store sales of the device at all five of its retail stores in China.
"The demand for iPhone 4S has been incredible and our stores in China have already sold out," an Apple spokeswoman said.
"Unfortunately, we were unable to open our store at Sanlitun due to the large crowd. And to ensure the safety of our customers and our employees, iPhones will not be available in our retail stores in Beijing and Shanghai for the time being," she said.
The statement noted that customers would still be able to order the iPhone 4S through Apple's website or through carrier partner China Unicom. Apple's Chinese online store is, however, currently out of stock of all iPhone 4S models and not taking any orders.
Police organizing to handle disruptions at Apple's Sanlitun retail store (Source: M.I.C gadget)
Teams of scalpers are very active at Apple's retail stores in China, with their efforts to snap up as much of the available supply of popular products as possible leading to significant tensions, particularly at product launches. Disruptions have occasionally forced Apple to briefly shut certain stores and tweak their purchasing requirements as they seek to manage the situation, but this morning's "near-riot" at the Sanlitun store seems to have been the most significant situation yet.
OnLive's virtual Windows 7 / Office app for the iPad has arrived on the App Store. As we reported earlier this week, OnLive Desktop offers iPad users access to full-featured versions of Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint. The applications are running on OnLive's servers and streamed to your iPad.
OnLive offers a number of plans for the service, including a Free service as server capacity is available. Paid accounts will take priority over free accounts.
Existing OnLive customers can sign in with their existing accounts and new users may sign up for a free account -- though account activation seems to be throttled and may be delayed.
As with their gaming service, performance can be subject to a number of factors, including internet speed and proximity to servers. [App Store]
The Wall Street Journal takes a look at Apple's plans for its education-focused media event scheduled for this Thursday, and while the report is a bit short on specifics, it does examine some of the possibilities and demonstrates how the textbook industry is ripe for a shakeup at the hands of Apple.
In a preliminary ruling (
Earlier today, Apple released its 
