MacRumors

Earlier this week, a report from the UK's Daily Mail made waves for its claim that Apple was interested in bidding for the rights to stream English Premier League football games. There was a significant amount of skepticism regarding the report given that it would mark a significant departure from the company's usual model of content distribution, and The Guardian now follows up with a new report denying that Apple will be in the running.

The Premier League is preparing to go to market with its lucrative television contract in the second quarter of this year, but the technology company Apple is believed to have ruled itself out of the running for the rights. [...]

However, despite speculation it is understood that Apple has not discussed bidding for the rights and is unlikely to do so, despite rumoured plans to launch an Apple TV device.

Its model relies on taking a cut of the revenue from existing content producers by retailing its content through its AppStore or iTunes service.

The report goes on to note that live matches broadcast by Sky are already available on iOS devices via the channel's SkyGo app and that archived Premier League content is available through iTunes. Those outlets make it less likely that Apple would view an expensive outright streaming deal as a worthwhile effort for the company.

Reuters reports that Taiwanese company Elan Microelectronics has issued a statement announcing the settlement of a patent infringement dispute with Apple regarding multi-touch technology. According to Elan, Apple has agreed to pay $5 million and the two companies will cross-license certain patents to avoid future issues related to the intellectual property in question.

Elan Microelectronics Corp, a Taiwanese touch design company, said on Thursday that Apple Inc will pay $5 million as part of a settlement in a patent infringement case.

The statement said the two companies would also exchange authorizations to use each other's patents.

The patent dispute between the two companies dates back to 2009, when Elan sued Apple over alleged infringement of a patent related to the detection of multiple-finger input as on the company's iOS devices, notebooks, and several accessories. Apple had also counter-sued Elan in 2009 in an attempt to gain leverage in the dispute.

Elan turned to the U.S. International Trade Commission in 2010, seeking a ban on imports of Apple's products, but the ITC ruled in Apple's favor last year.

Earlier this week, an app called GameStore was accidentally made available for purchase on the App Store. The app, which appeared to be a test or development app of some sort, offered several racing-themed in-app purchases but without any actual functionality. The app was quickly removed from the store, and now Apple is issuing refunds to users who purchased the app.

We received this email from iTunes Support, claiming that the GameStore app was "made available for sale prematurely."

You recently purchase the GameStore app. The app was made available for sale prematurely. We apologize for the problem and have refunded the purchase amount back to your account. These funds will be applied to your original payment method within 5 business days.

Sincerely,
iTunes Store Customer Support

Verizon Wireless Chief Financial Officer Fran Shammo today participated in Citi's Global Entertainment, Media & Communications Conference, and as part of his presentation revealed some iPhone sales numbers for the carrier. As noted by StreetInsider.com, Shammo announced that Verizon sold 4.2 million iPhones during the fourth quarter of 2011, a quarter which saw the launch of the iPhone 4S.

That performance more than doubled the previous quarter's sales of 2.0 million iPhones. Overall, Apple sold just over 17 million iPhones during that third calendar quarter, and while it is difficult to extrapolate Apple's total fourth quarter sales from the performance of a single U.S. carrier, the 4.2 million number could at least put Apple in the range of 35 million iPhones for the quarter across all carriers and markets. Apple today announced that it will report its holiday quarter sales and earnings numbers on January 24.

As a result of the strong performance of the iPhone 4S, Verizon is projecting a reduction in its profit margin as it absorbs the upfront subsidies paid to Apple for the device. Those subsidies will, however, be recouped over time from subscribers' service contracts.

Bloomberg's Adam Satariano reports that Apple has hired Adobe executive Todd Teresi to head up its iAd mobile advertising unit. Additional information on the hire will be forthcoming.

Apple has hired Adobe's Todd Teresi to head iAd. Story coming....

Teresi has served as VP of Adobe's Media Solutions division for the past nine months, having previously held positions with Quantcast, Yahoo, and PriceWaterhouseCoopers.

iAd, which has reportedly struggled to gain momentum due to high pricing and Apple's demands for substantial creative control, was launched in July 2010 following Apple's acquisition of mobile advertising firm Quattro Wireless earlier in the year.

The iAd division was led by former Quattro founder and CEO Andy Miller, who then left Apple in September 2011 to take a venture capital position. iAd has since been overseen by Eddy Cue, who is also responsible for the iTunes Store, App Store, iBookstore, and iCloud.

Update: Satariano has now filed his full report on Teresi's hiring.

Apple Inc. hired Adobe Systems Inc. executive Todd Teresi to lead its iAd mobile-advertising business, three people with knowledge of the matter said, filling a role in an area where the company has struggled.

Teresi, who was vice president of Adobe’s media solutions group, has already started at Apple as vice president of iAd, said two of the people, who declined to be identified because the move hasn’t been announced. Teresi is reporting to Eddy Cue, a senior vice president who also oversees Apple’s iTunes and the App Store.

USA Today takes a look at the effect rumors of an Apple television set are having on expectations for next week's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, with the industry's existing players working hard to avoid to being caught flat-footed by Apple as mobile phone manufacturers in many cases were by the iPhone.

While rumors have pegged the Apple television set as offering Siri-powered voice recognition and control, the new report offers a few other tidbits of information on the project including claims that the company is working to launch models of at least 42 inches and that a 50-inch model is currently in the works in the its design studio.

Apple is said to be looking at a 42-inch or larger LCD TV with built-in Wi-Fi. Inside the locked-down studio of Jonathan Ive, senior vice president of industrial design at Apple, there's a slick 50-inch TV, according to the source who worked at Apple.

Early reports had claimed that Apple was looking at TVs in the 40-55" range, but a recent report from Digitimes claimed that suppliers were preparing components for smaller 32" and 37" models.

USA Today's report also summarizes some of the other expectations for an Apple television set, including Siri, an iOS-compatible processor supporting apps, AirPlay, and iCloud. But Apple reportedly continues to struggle with how to bring content to the new television set as it attempts to break free of the traditional cable TV model.

But a major roadblock for Apple along the way has been securing content needed to make an iTV succeed. The problems Apple is having securing content deals were described in an interview with a person who worked in the Apple TV group and verified by two television industry sources. All declined to be identified because of the confidential nature of the talks.

They say Apple has been unable to cut deals that would let it offer first-tier TV network programs for an à la carte iTunes TV service. That's seen as a key element to launching a revolutionary iTV.

With so many rumors pointing towards Apple's work on television sets, it's not surprising that company co-founder Steve Wozniak also believes that an effort is underway.

"I do expect Apple to make an attempt," says Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, "since I expect the living room to remain a center for family entertainment, and that touches on all areas of consumer products that Apple is already making."

Even as Apple's plans remain under wraps and the subject of considerable rumors and speculation, it is clear that competitors are taking note of where the company is likely to go with its project, with today's report citing executives from Samsung, LG, and Microsoft all acknowledging the threat.

"We do not discount what they are going to do in the space — they are going to come on strong," says [Microsoft general manager of content acquisition and strategy Ross] Honey.

Apple early today updated its investor relations page to officially state that it will announce its earnings for the first fiscal quarter of 2012 (fourth calendar quarter of 2011) and host a conference call regarding the release on Tuesday, January 24.

Apple’s conference call webcast discussing Q1 - 2012 financial results will begin at 2:00pm PT/5:00pm ET on Tuesday, January 24, 2012.

Please note that comments made during this call may include forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties, and that actual results may differ materially from these forward-looking statements. For more information on the factors that could influence results, please refer to Apple’s SEC filings.

The conference call at 5:00 PM Eastern / 2:00 PM Pacific will follow the earnings release itself, which typically comes around 4:30 PM Eastern. MacRumors will provide running coverage of the earnings release and conference call.

The highly-anticipated results from a holiday quarter that also saw the launch of the iPhone 4S follow the company's typically conservative guidance that has already pegged the quarter as a blockbuster with predicted revenue of $37 billion. The company is also predicting all-time record iPhone sales as industry sales estimates have been pointing toward a similar record for Mac sales.

iPad sales are also expected to be strong with a record number of sales likely, although there have been some concerns that Amazon's Kindle Fire may have tempered iPad demand slightly. Finally, while iPod sales have been slowing over the past few years as customers have continued to shift toward smartphones for their music player needs, the holiday quarter remains the company's strongest by far for iPod sales due to their popularity as lower-priced gifts without expensive service contracts associated with them.

Apple today announced that it will be launching the iPhone 4S in 22 new countries on Friday, January 13, with China being the featured addition for this round of debuts.

“Customer response to our products in China has been off the charts,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “With the launch in China next week, iPhone 4S will be available in over 90 countries making this our fastest iPhone rollout ever.”

China Unicom has been the exclusive official iPhone carrier in China, and Apple's press release gives no indication whether the device will be expanded to new carriers there.

The full list of launch countries includes: Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Bolivia, Botswana, British Virgin Islands, Cameroon, Cayman Islands, Central African Republic, China, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Grenada, Guam, Guinea Conakry, Ivory Coast, Jamaica, Kenya, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritius, Niger, Senegal, St. Vincent and The Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos and Uganda.

Apple is considering bidding for the rights to stream English Premier League (EPL) football matches, according to the Daily Mail. The EPL is the top football league in England, and one of the premiere football leagues in the world and the bidding for the television rights is expected to generate billions of dollars in revenue for the teams and the league.

The Premier League is seen as the type of premium content that will help establish Apple TV in the UK and boost iPad sales, while the iTunes subscription service infrastructure is already in place.

The involvement of Apple - and their great multimedia rivals Google are also expected to make similar soundings - would give the PL a hugely competitive market at a time when the price of other TV sports rights are in decline.

The Daily Mail notes that Sky, the current holder of the Premier League broadcast license, ESPN, and Al Jazeera are also expected to bid on the rights.

Thanks Dean!

Silicon Valley startup CloudOn today released a free iPad app [App Store] that aims to bring the functionality of Microsoft Office to the iPad. The iPad app actually serves as an interface for the full cloud-based app on CloudOn's servers, and thus requires an Internet connection to function, but offers what seems to be a remarkably functional implementation of Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, all integrated with file storage and syncing through Dropbox.

CloudOn’s WorkSpace allows you to:

-Use Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint on your iPad to create or edit documents.
-Rename, delete and manage documents with your Dropbox account
-Display, edit or create charts, change formatting, spell check, insert comments, into any Word, Excel or PowerPoint files
-Track changes while reviewing Word documents
-Use pivot tables and insert formulas in Excel workbooks
-Display and edit animation or transitions in PowerPoint presentations
-Present in full PowerPoint mode (not in PDF)
-Open files directly from your iPad email accounts or Dropbox account
-Automatically save documents to avoid losing changes

In our limited testing, the app appears to function as advertised, offering the Office-style ribbon toolbars with a significant number of features and tools included. Given the constraints of operating on an iPad and via a cloud-based interface, however, there are some limitations such as an inability to insert outside images into a document via the interface. The app is also currently U.S.-only.

The CloudOn company itself is a bit of a mystery, with little in the way of publicity or web presence. Founded in 2009 as AppToU by several former Cisco employees, the company has attracted several rounds of financing as it has quietly built its cloud-based tool for delivering Office functionality to the iPad.

Microsoft has acknowledged at least exploring the possibility of bringing Office to the iPad, and recent rumors have suggested that the company is "actively working" on Office for iPad.

Update: The CloudOn app is currently "sold out", likely due to high levels of interest from users.

Yesterday, AllThingsD reported that Apple is planning a late January media event in New York City that appeared to have something to do with Apple's publishing or advertising efforts rather than any hardware announcements. TechCrunch weighed in a few hours later with word that the event is indeed focused on publishing and the iBookstore.

At the time of our report on that information, we suggested that digital textbooks could be a possibility for the event given that Steve Jobs' biographer Walter Isaacson has indicated several times that one of Jobs' last goals had been to revolutionize textbooks. According to Isaacson:

His idea was to hire great textbook writers to create digital versions, and make them a feature of the iPad. In addition, he held meetings with major publishers, such as Pearson Education, about partnering with Apple.

Adding to the speculation about textbooks perhaps playing a role in the upcoming announcement is information we've received from a source indicating that Apple last month filmed a series of short interviews with textbook industry executives. The interviews are said to have been of the type that would be used in one of Apple's promotional overview videos for a new product or service.

Our source cautions us that there is no direct evidence tying the interviews to the upcoming media event and that Apple frequently films promotional video segments and commercials that never see the light of the day, but the timing of the filming seems to be in line with possible preparations for the media event.

Even more fuel for the idea that the event may carry an education focus comes from a new blog post from Clayton Morris of Fox News, who claims that the event will focus on iTunes U and perhaps textbooks.

Here is what I know from sources involved:

- This event will focus on iTunes University and Apple in education
- I learned of the event back in September when it was originally scheduled for late Fall in New York but it was eventually postponed.
- The event will be in New York rather than in the Silicon Valley because New York is more centrally located for textbook and publishing.
- This initiative has been in the making for years.
- The announcement will be small in size but large in scope: a big announcement in a demure space.
- I expect at least two large project announcements as they relate to Apple in education.
- Steve Jobs was intinimately [sic] involved with this project before his passing. He gave a hat tip to the textbook side of this project in the Isaacson biography.
- This will not be a hardware-related announcement.

Morris has a bit of a mixed track record, having weighed in just ahead of Apple's original iPad introduction in January 2010 to correctly predict the device's appearance (an easy guess) but miss with his predictions of discussion relating to iOS 4 and an update to iLife.

At the time of the iPad's debut in early 2010, Apple was said to have struck deals with textbook publishers to bring their content to the iPad, but Apple has so far been rather quiet on the topic of textbooks on the iPad and offerings have so far been limited.

Update: 9to5Mac also indicates that the iTunes team in on "lockdown mode" heading into the media event, suggesting that the announcement is indeed related to content of some sort.

Update 2: Ars Technica adds its voice to the rumors surrounding digital textbooks:

And based on information from our own sources, we believe the announcement could likely involve support for the EPUB 3 standard, which enables a wider variety of multimedia and interaction features. [...]

Incidentally, one source who has worked with Apple to integrate technology in education recently suggested that Apple may have important changes coming to its iBooks platform directed specifically toward the academic set. Digital textbooks represent another nascent market that Apple could potentially upend as it did with music and mobile apps.

Apple has begun informing customers in several of its Asian markets regarding this Friday's one-day shopping event in celebration of the Lunar New Year. Termed "Red Friday", the event is similar to Apple's Black Friday shopping deals in many areas of the world, where the company offers discounts on a number of different items including Macs, iPads, and iPods, as well as accessories.

According to 9to5Mac, the Red Friday deals will be offered through Apple's online stores in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines. The deals will be also available in the company's brick-and-mortar stores in China and Hong Kong.

The event also falls during the same week that Apple celebrated the new year in Japan with its annual Lucky Bag promotion, allowing customers to buy bags containing mystery Apple and third-party products at a discounted price of $430.

A rumored Apple event to be located in New York City later this month was originally reported to be "media-related" and not about an Apple television or iPad update. TechCrunch now reports the event will be focused on publishing and the iBookstore.

According to the source the event will not involve any hardware at and instead will focus on publishing and eBooks (sold through Apple’s iBooks platform) rather than iAds. Attendance also be more publishing industry-oriented than consumer.

One possible topic of the event is an expansion of the iBookstore to sell textbooks. In his biography of Steve Jobs, Walter Isaacson said the textbook industry was one Jobs looking to revolutionize with the iPad.

AllThingsD reports that Apple is said to be planning a special event in New York for the end of this month. The event is reported to be for a "media-related announcement" and not for the iPad 3 or an Apple television set.

According to sources close to the situation, Apple is planning an important — but not large-scale — event to be held in New York at the end of this month that will focus on a media-related announcement.

Per the usual caveat, the tech giant is well known for moving around their public show-and-tells, so this could certainly change at any moment.

As the report notes, the New York location makes it likely that the announcement has something to do with advertising or publishing. Several of Apple's media and advertising units under senior vice president Eddy Cue have significant presences in New York City, and Cue is also said to be set to play a role in the event.

Apple participated in a pair of New York-based media events last year, although both of those were primarily hosted by other companies: the Verizon iPhone introduction and the launch of The Daily. The company had previously been a participant in Macworld Expo events held in New York, but that event ceased to exist a number of years ago and Apple has now pulled out of trade shows entirely.

Update: The Loop's Jim Dalrymple tersely indicates that he is hearing similar information.