MacRumors

Bloomberg reports on comments from Apple CEO Steve Jobs out of the company's shareholders meeting today regarding Apple's growing war chest of cash and the company's plans for it in the face of questions from shareholders. According to Jobs, Apple is building its reserves for future investments that would be calculated to return significant value rather than simply returning the money to shareholders.

Apple Inc. Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs said he prefers having cash for investments to paying dividends or doing stock buybacks.

Apple is holding onto cash to take "big, bold" risks, Jobs said at the company's shareholder meeting today. The company had about $25 billion in cash and short-term investments as of December.

Apple Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook mentioned earlier this week at a Goldman Sachs conference that Apple has looked at large companies for acquisitions, but that none have been the right fit. Consequently, Apple has restricted itself to purchasing smaller companies, such as Quattro Wireless and Lala Media, primarily for their technology and talent.

Cook noted that remaining focused on a relatively small number of products and making them the best they can be is key to Apple's strategy and that it would not simply acquire another company to boost its bottom line. A report last month, however, claimed that Apple is becoming more serious about corporate acquisitions in the wake of Google's acquisition of AdMob, a company Apple had been looking at purchasing itself.

In other news from the meeting, all seven members of Apple's Board of Directors, including Jobs, were re-elected by shareholders.

Apple is currently conducting its annual shareholders meeting on the company's campus in Cupertino, California, and while attendees were not permitted to bring communication devices into the meeting, Fortune is gathering reports from those in attendance who were able to get details out. Apple CEO Steve Jobs is in attendance and reportedly answering the majority of questions from shareholders after missing last year's meeting due to health issues related to a liver transplant.

In addition to expected agenda items such as re-election of members of Apple's Board of Directors and discussion of environmental and sustainability issues that have become a staple of Apple shareholder meetings, one brief item of interest coming out of the meeting is that Apple senior vice president of retail Ron Johnson noted that the company is planning to open 25 retail stores in China. The timeframe for the store opening of these stores is currently unknown, although more details may be forthcoming.

Apple opened its first Chinese retail store in Beijing in July 2008 ahead of the Olympic Games, and Johnson noted at the time that it was the "first of many" stores the company was planning to open there. A year and half later, however, that location remains Apple's sole Chinese retail store. Plans for a second store in Beijing surfaced in mid-2009, but the project has been put on hold, although Apple Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook briefly noted during his comments at a Goldman Sachs conference earlier this week that a store will be opening in Shanghai by this summer.

Update: CNBC's Jim Goldman reports that Johnson said that Apple is planning to open "up to 25" retail stores in China over the next 24 months.

Mobile advertising firm AdMob today released its January 2010 Mobile Metrics Report, revealing some interesting data about application usage and demographics for iPhone and iPod touch users, as well as users of Android and webOS handsets.

Among the more interesting statistics collected in the opt-in survey of nearly 1,000 respondents were results showing that 50% of iPhone users download at least one paid application per month, compared to only 35% of iPod touch users. Only 20-25% of Android and webOS users similarly download at least one paid app per month. But while iPhone users are more likely iPod touch users to download paid apps, iPod touch users download more apps in total. According to the survey, iPod touch users download an average of just over 12 applications per month with 1.6 of them being paid, while iPhone users download only 8.8 applications per month with 1.8 of them being paid. iPod touch users also spend 25% more time using applications on their devices than iPhone and Android users.

In looking at demographics of users, AdMob's survey found that iPhone, iPod touch, and webOS user bases are all in the range of 54-58% male, while Android skews much more strongly to 73% male. iPod touch users are also typically much younger than the smartphone users, with 78% of iPod touch users being below the age of 25 while only 24-25% of iPhone, Android, and webOS users are similarly below age 25. The data corresponds with previous comments made by mobile analytics firm Flurry regarding Apple's positioning of the iPod touch as building a base of future iPhone customers.

AdMob's survey also asked users about their plans for purchasing Apple's iPad tablet device and found that 16% of iPhone users are planning to purchase an iPad in the next six months while only 11% of webOS and 6% of Android users are planning similar purchases. This compares with only 6% of iPhone users, 5% of Android users, and 2% of webOS users who are planning to purchase a Kindle in the same timeframe.

Finally, the survey questioned users about their willingness to recommend their devices to others, and the iPhone (91%) and iPod touch (88%) topped the list. 84% of Android users are likely to recommend their device, while webOS brought up the rear with only 69% of users willing to recommend their device and 3.4 times more likely than iPhone OS users to specifically not recommend their device.

Intuit today announced the release of Quicken Essentials for Mac (QEM), a complete rebuild of the company's personal financial management application.

QEM launches a new era for Quicken on the Mac. It marks Intuit's first Mac-native application for Quicken, that is, a product developed specifically to run on a Mac operating system, instead of adapting a product originally designed for a PC. QEM's features serve a broad array of essential customer needs, focusing on quick set-up, ease-of-use, and Mac-like intuitiveness in design and workflow. The redesign reflects the influence of the Mint.com product team and its deep experience with Apple products.

Walt Mossberg offers a review of the new Quicken, finding "seriously mixed feelings" for the update. Mossberg notes that the application now benefits from a true Mac look and feel, along with updated data conversion from Windows versions and more banking interface options. QEM, however, also feels to Mossberg like a stripped-down version of Quicken for Windows and even loses some features that were present in Quicken 2007 for Mac.

Most important, Quicken Essentials doesn't display, or even allow you to enter or edit, individual transactions in investment accounts. It only shows a snapshot of the current status and value of the overall investment account and of the securities or funds it holds. It also lacks a bill-paying feature. And it can't export your data to Intuit's popular TurboTax program. Even the much-maligned older Mac version could do these three things.

Mossberg reports that the Mint team now in charge of the division has conceded that the Mac version is missing some important features and is currently targeted at users new to personal finance software with only basic needs. The company plans, however, to add such features as detailed investment tracking and bill pay to a future update.

Intuit announced in early 2008 that it would be rewriting Quicken for the Mac platform, and was expecting at that time to release the new version later that year. After several delays and another complete ground-up rebuild, Intuit committed last July to a February 2010 release that it met with today's launch.

Quicken Essentials for Mac is available via CD-ROM or direct download for $69.99, or from Amazon for $59.99.

Patently Apple points to another interesting patent application from Apple filed in August 2008 and published this morning detailing means of controlling an iPhone or other handheld device by swiping one's finger across the camera lens. Most prominently, the document suggests the use of the proposed functionality to control voicemail options such as rewind, fast forward, pause and other options while the handset is held to the user's ear. The patent application also describes integration of an accelerometer to detect tapping input to supplement the finger swipes.

In one embodiment, to access his voice mailbox, a user may tap the phone to cause playback of a message to pause, tap the phone again to resume playback, swipe his finger over the camera lens in one direction to fast forward playback, and swipe his finger over the camera lens in another direction to rewind playback. These actions allow the user to control functions of voicemail review without removing the device from over his ear.

In another embodiment, functions for controlling call features utilize similar user actions or motions. Features such as merging multiple calls, putting a call on hold, and switching between or among multiple simultaneous calls may be controlled by single or double (or any number of) taps of the device, as detected by an accelerometer of the device. These taps may be preprogrammed by a manufacturer, or selected and programmed by a user.

Apple's patent application also describes the use of swiping over the device's camera for navigation in a document or application. Finger swiping over the camera lens could be used to navigate Web pages or other content such as contact lists.

Apple has clearly been researching methods of input for its handheld devices that do not directly involve a touchscreen. Several years ago, Apple filed a patent application describing the use of "back side touch" for controlling an iPod, while earlier this month the company was granted a patent for a touch-sensitive bezel. One analyst has also claimed that Apple's next-generation iPhone will include a touch-sensitive casing.

Apple today announced that its iTunes Store has reached the significant milestone of 10 billion songs downloaded, as we noted yesterday. The company also revealed that the winner of its "Countdown to 10 Billion Songs" contest is Louie Sulcer of Woodstock, Georgia, who purchased "Guess Things Happen That Way" by Johnny Cash to push Apple to the milestone. Sulcer will receive a $10,000 iTunes gift card.

"We're grateful to all of our customers for helping us reach this amazing milestone," said Eddy Cue, Apple's vice president of Internet Services. "We're proud that iTunes has become the number one music retailer in the world, and selling 10 billion songs is truly staggering."

Apple notes in the press release that the iTunes Store currently offers a catalog of over 12 million songs, over 55,000 TV episodes and over 8,500 movies including over 2,500 in high definition.

Update: Rolling Stone reports that Apple CEO Steve Jobs personally called Sulcer to inform him that he had won the contest.

When Steve Jobs personally called Woodstock, Georgia native Louie Sulcer to tell him he'd won Apple's iTunes Store 10 Billion Song Sold contest, Sulcer first thought was that he was being pranked. "He called me and said, 'This is Steve Jobs from Apple.' I said, 'Yeah right,' " Sulcer tells Rolling Stone. "I have a son that loves to play tricks and he does that every now and then -- calls me and imitates somebody." After three or four times of asking "Come on now, who is this," Sulcer realized that his caller ID read simply "Apple," and only then did he believe that he was the winner of the contest and a $10,000 iTunes card.

Apple's patent applications always generate a lot of interest as they are one of the few windows we have into the company's research and development labs. Some patent applications are more interesting or relevant than others, but we knew this latest one would generate some buzz as it actually depicts an old-style iMac with a touch screen (above).

This Patent application is called Shape Detecting Input Device and was originally submitted in 2004 with a continuation published today. It proposes that a touch screen could be used not only as a pointer/input device but also a shape recognition device to essentially take the place of a key/lock system. For example, a manager at a retail store could simply place a specially imprinted object on the screen to verify his/her identity. The lock/key angle isn't even as interesting as the fact that Apple assumes that a computer screen would come with a touch sensitive input.

Apple's been rumored to be working on multi-touch displays and even one report which claimed a 22" touchscreen iMac was due later this year. Having been originally published in 2004, it's interesting to see how long Apple's been considering the use of touch screens on their desktop computers. This continuation application was filed in October 2009.

There isn't much more to say about these Mac OS X seeds, except that Apple is still at it. Tonight, Apple delivered Mac OS X 10.6.3 Build 10D561 for developers. iPhone Canada details the changes listed, which haven't changed much since the previous build.

Given the rapid release sequence to the seeds, we still expect Apple to be releasing 10.6.3 to end users shortly. 10.6.3 is primarily a bug-fix/performance release, with the only new features reported being some increased adoption of OpenGL 3.0 - a programming interface for 3D graphics.

Apple yesterday began promoting on its home page the release of its annual Supplier Responsibility progress report, describing the company's commitment to responsible business practices on the part of its suppliers and other partners around the world.

Apple requires suppliers to commit to our comprehensive Supplier Code of Conduct as a condition of their contracts with us. We drive compliance with the Code through a rigorous monitoring program, including factory audits, corrective action plans, and verification measures.

Among the key highlights touted in the report is Apple's commitment to audits of its suppliers. The company reports having audited 102 facilities in 2009, up from only 39 just two years ago, and has trained over 133,000 workers, supervisors, and managers on such topics as workers' rights and management responsibility. Apple notes that representatives of most of the audited facilities have reported that Apple is the only company to have audited them regarding supplier responsibility.

Apple also notes that is has developed thorough guidelines in seven areas (Dormitories, Juvenile Worker Protections, Medical Non-Discrimination, Pregnancy Non-Discrimination, Prevention of Involuntary Labor, Wages and Benefits, and Working Hours) clarifying how suppliers can meet the standards outlined in the company's code of conduct.

According to the report, Apple in 2009 found a total of 17 instances of what it considers "core violations" of its code of conduct, representing about 2% of core issues assessed by its auditors. The violations involved such incidents as overcharging of agency recruitment fees to employees, hiring of underage workers, improper disposal of hazardous waste, and falsification of records related to underage labor and working hours, and in each case Apple reports having worked with the suppliers to address these issues.

As Apple's business has grown, the company has come under increasing scrutiny for the practices of its suppliers and manufacturing partners. The apparent suicide of a Foxconn employee who lost an iPhone prototype and a more recent report on the security at Apple's partners' facilities including a description of the physical assault of a reporter outside a Foxconn compound have added to the publicity surrounding Apple's control over its partners, increasing the need for the company to visibly share the steps it is taking to ensure compliance with company standards.

Just days after Apple removed over 5000 "overtly sexual" applications from the App Store, the company appears to have taken a curious turn that could result in the reinstatement of many of these applications.

Cult of Mac reports and MacRumors has confirmed that Apple has added a new "Explicit" category in the iTunes Connect system for App Store submissions. The category is included in drop-down menus that allow developers to select categories for their applications to be placed in, and appears alongside the traditional App Store categories such as "Books", "Entertainment", and "Games".

The reason for Apple's addition of the new category is unknown, although it seems possible that the company may have reconsidered its decision to remove the "overtly sexual" applications in the face of backlash from developers and users and has decided to create a dedicated category in an attempt to find a middle ground in the controversy. The use of a dedicated category for explicit material could supplement the age-rating system used for all App Store applications to easily make the entire category invisible to certain users using Parental Controls.

Update: Gizmodo reports that the "Explicit" option is no longer appearing as a category option in iTunes Connect. It is currently unknown why it appeared only briefly today and whether it will return in the future.

According to the developer, Apple said that, while they are thinking about it, "it's not going to happen anytime soon."

Today marks MacRumors.com's 10 year anniversary. It's a shocking realization that I've been doing this now for a decade. For those unfamiliar with the history of the site, I started it as a hobby back in early 2000 as a place to consolidate interesting news and rumors about Apple. I was finishing my 4th year of medical school at the time and kept the site running as I completed my medical training. But it wasn't until July 2008 that I finally gave up medicine to go full time.

With the growth of Apple, and success of their products, the interest in Apple rumors has grown substantially in the past few years, and MacRumors is stronger than ever. I feel the main strength behind MacRumors beyond tracking rumors has always been the community and discussion about the latest news and happenings. I hope to emphasize that more in the future and continue to build on our strengths.

So, thanks to our readers, staff and volunteers who have made 10 years possible.

- Arnold Kim, Founder and Editor (twitter | blog)

Unfortunately, we already know how this story ends. Apple introduced the iPad in late January and made no mention of a camera - either on the front or back of the device. So that means no video conferencing or even photos are possible on the first generation device.... and yet, it seems like they had everything in place for it already. For example, the enclosure has an empty space for the camera and the SDK has accept/decline video chat references.

Here are some even more tantalizing pieces of information found in the latest Beta 3 iPad SDK. We've been told that if you go digging into Apple's private framework which controls the camera, the iPad SDK tests for 3 additional camera characteristics that are not found in the iPhone 3.x SDK. For comparison, Erica Sadun has a code listing of iPhone 3.x PLCameraController.h on her site. The Beta 3 iPad SDK version adds these additional test conditions for the device's capabilities.

It seems Apple built in API support to test to see if your iPad had a Front Facing Camera, Zoom and a Camera Flash. The front facing camera would, of course, be used for video chat, while Zoom and Camera Flash are often requested features for the iPhone's camera.

Further investigation (via 9to5Mac) even reveals the following icons which clearly show an interface to accept or decline a video chat:

Given the size of these buttons, they were intended for use on the the iPad's screen rather than the iPhone. We're not sure why these features were dropped on the first version of the iPad, but we hope to see it again in future versions of the iPad or even iPhone.

Apple's iTunes Store today reached 10 billion music downloads since its inception in 2003, and along with the milestone comes the end of the company's "Countdown to 10 Billion Songs" promotion. The winner of the promotion, who is yet to be announced, will be awarded a $10,000 iTunes Store gift card.

The milestone is being featured prominently on Apple's main page, iTunes page, and the iTunes Store, among other locations.

Apple Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook today participated in a Q&A session at the Goldman Sachs Technology & Internet Conference, and while he did not offer any major revelations, some of his comments offered a bit of perspective on Apple's business, including comments on the Apple TV, iPad sales channels, exclusive carrier relationships, and other topics. Here is a paraphrased summary of some of the key points:

Q: Where do you see things going with the Apple TV?
A: It's still a hobby, but our gut tells us there's something there. The go-to-market model is difficult, and we have no interest in being in the TV market. But we have continued to invest in the Apple TV and will keep doing so.

Q: Are all pieces of the iPhone OS platform complete or is there more to come?
A: The word "complete" isn't in our dictionary. We're always innovating and always looking to obsolete ourselves. The ecosystem and platform are really good, and the foundation is in place, but clearly it will continue to get better.

Q: How will you sell the iPad?
A: We'll start with Apple's direct channels, such as online, retail, education, etc. We'll also pursue indirect sales channels like Best Buy's store-in-a-store concepts. Internationally, we have a very good premium reseller program that we'll also use. Over time, sales channels will expand.

Q: What are the advantages and disadvantages of Apple's exclusive relationship with AT&T for iPhone and iPad?
A: Simplicity, and the ability to work with the carrier on new features such as visual voicemail on original iPhone. For multi-carrier models, in some countries, carriers have very "sticky" relationships with customers and thus a multi-carrier model greatly enhances potential sales. In Apple's top ten iPhone countries last year, five were single-carrier countries. Three were by contract, and two were by choice where we could add additional carriers at any time. In 2009, we added carriers in France, UK, Singapore, Scandinavian countries, Canada. In every single country, our units increased significantly. So we made really good decisions. But I'm not saying it would be the case in every country. We look at things on a country-by-country basis.

Q: Would other carriers have to match AT&T's pricing on the iPad service to even have a shot?
A: AT&T's pricing is truly revolutionary. But I wouldn't want to speculate on what someone else might have to do to join the party.

Q: Where do you see retail store expansion going?
A: Early on, we set a range of 25-50 new stores per year as our goal. We've been at the high end of that range and the low end, but we like that pace. In 2008, the world started to fall apart with the economy. We thought it would be better to slow down and wait for great properties to come on the market. That did happen, and we're ready to take advantage. We're turning the dial back up and will be near the high end of the range this year.

Q: Why did you launch your own processor for the iPad? What was missing?
A: Apple has for years been in the silicon design business. On PowerPC, Apple always personally crafted the northbridge and southbridge chipsets. It's not new to us. For the iPad, we felt we had the best knowledge of what we wanted the silicon to do and were in the best position to do it ourselves rather than going to someone else offering something that wasn't really exactly what we wanted. At the end of the day, we want to make the world's best products. By doing it ourselves, we were putting ourselves in the best position to do so.

Q: How would you describe your corporate acquisition strategy?
A: Technology and talent. Typically small companies. We've looked at big companies, but nothing has totally fit. If we find a large one, we won't be shy about it, but we won't do it to do it. We're not about having the highest market share or revenue...we want to make the best products. Acquiring a company simply to boost our revenue wouldn't be something we'd consider.

Q: Is there a chance of hubris creeping into the company?
A: People are our number one asset, and the executive team spends a lot of time thinking about recruiting and retaining great talent. We've said no to a lot of good products, great products even, in order to remain focused. That focus is so ingrained that the management team would never let hubris take hold. That's not what we're about. Focus on people and ensure that it's a small list of things to work on. That's the magic behind us.

While this shouldn't be much of a surprise to most, Apple has confirmed that the iPad uses the same family of graphics chip as the iPhone and iPod Touch. According to reports, Apple's latest iPad SDK Beta 3 documentation confirms this, though falls of short of detailing exactly which chip it is:

Using OpenGL ES on iPad is identical to using OpenGL ES on other iPhone OS devices. An iPad is a PowerVR SGX device and supports the same basic capabilities as other SGX devices. However, because the processor, memory architecture, and screen dimensions are different for iPad, you should always test your code on an iPad device before shipping to ensure performance meets your requirements.

There was some confusion about the actual hardware that Apple had used due to an erroneous report by Bright Side of the News which claimed that Apple used a far less powerful ARM-based GPU.

Apple is a licensee and major investor in Imagination Technologies who creates the PowerVR SGX chips and has used them throughout the iPhone and iPod Touch designs. Apple's new A4 chip from Apple incorporates both the ARM processor as well as the PowerVR SGX GPU in a single chip.

Apple today released an update to its iPhone SDK 3.2 for developers looking to create applications for the company's forthcoming iPad tablet device. The new update is the third beta version of the SDK, and there is no word yet on changes included in the update.

The initial version of the SDK was released late last month alongside the iPad introduction, and was last updated two weeks ago.

Update: Apple appears to have pulled the Beta 3 release, and several readers who were able to download the update before it was removed have reported that it contains a major bug that is the likely cause of the removal.

Update 2: 9to5mac posts a screenshot of the Photos app which is now included:

Update 3: Mac4Ever notes that the Photo app also has a Camera tab, which we've seen before referenced in the iPad SDK.

PCWorld reports on the results of its recent 13-city performance tests of wireless carriers in the United States, and Apple's iPhone partner AT&T came out well ahead of the pack in both upload and download speeds while also faring well in reliability.

After registering the lowest average download speeds in our 3G performance tests last spring, AT&T's network turned in download speeds that were 84 percent better than the numbers from eight months ago; in our latest tests, AT&T's download speeds were 67 percent faster on average than those of the other three largest U.S. wireless providers--Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon.

In looking specifically at the iPhone, AT&T again fared well compared to flagship handsets on other carriers, offering significantly higher download and upload speeds with 91% reliability, only marginally lower than the G1 on T-Mobile and the HTC Hero on Sprint.

AT&T's efforts to address performance issues in the New York City and San Francisco markets also appear to be paying off, with PCWorld's testing revealing average download speeds tripling over a previous survey in New York City and jumping 40% in San Francisco.

Overall reliability also improved for AT&T, with successful connections achieved on 94% of attempts, up from only 68% on the previous survey and on par with results for Sprint and ahead of T-Mobile and Verizon on an overall basis. PCWorld's testing did, however, reveal significant reliability weaknesses in San Francisco, with only 55% of connections being successful in its smartphone testing.

Complete data and analysis is available in the article, which covers results from twenty locations in each of thirteen cities: Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Denver, New Orleans, New York City, Orlando, Phoenix, Portland, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, and Seattle.