News from category ‘Other’

Research firm Gartner recently released its estimates of PC sales in Western Europe for the third quarter of 2011. Despite the overall decline of 11.4% for the market, Apple’s sales in Western Europe were up 19.6% year-over-year. In mobile PC market Apple showed the most significant performance of 28%, comparing to the last year performance.

Gartner especially paid attention to the United Kingdom, France, and Germany, noting that in the UK Apple became one of five top vendors. Apple’s sales here increased up to 21.8% year-over-year. So now the company takes the fourth place in the United Kingdom with 7.8% of the market. Apple’s rival Samsung goes slightly behind with 7.3% of the market, despite the fact that Samsung’s growth there was 39%.

As for the U.S. PC market, Apple took 12.9% for the third quarter, demonstration significant increase in sales both quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year.

Digitimes is now reporting that Apple have ordered a small number of components for a 15-inch ultra-thin notebook that Apple is said to start shipping this month with mass shipments set for the beginning of March 2012.

Upstream suppliers of Apple have recently started shipping a small volume of components for a 15-inch ultra-thin notebook model from Apple in November and the device could be either MacBook Air or just a thinner MacBook Pro. The new MacBook is expected to appear as early as the second quarter of 2012, according to sources from the upstream supply chain.

It remains unclear whether the final version of the 15-inch laptop will be marketed as a MacBook Air or a MacBook Pro. Rumors related to the new Apple’s notebook have been circulating since July, when we reported that Apple was finishing up work on a new ultra-thin laptop, and at the end of October it was rumored that Apple was finishing a “test phase” and the new machine was nearing the production. The Mac maker is also rumored to be developing a 17-inch ultraportable MacBook, though such a machine was not mentioned in Tuesday's report.

Back in February, Appleinsider reported that according to people familiar with the matter, Apple appears poised to move its MacBook Pro lines more toward the MacBook Air next year. So it is likely that the new Apple’s notebook will feature a SSD rather than HDD, similar to current MacBook Air models, and would forego an optical drive.

According to The Chosunilbo report (via The Next Web), Samsung has at the last minute decided not to seek an injunction against iPhone 4S sales in South Korea, its home country. It appears that Samsung’s decision was driven by public relations considerations and the company preferred not to irk customers in South Korea by attempting to ban iPhone sales there. The company debated until the last minute whether to file the action similar to applications in Italy, Australia, France and Japan. A senior Samsung executive said:

“We concluded that we should engage in legal battles with Apple only in the global market, but not in order to gain more market share in Korea”.

Mike Chambers, Principal Product Manager at Adobe, blames Apple of halting development of the Flash Player for mobile devices, because Apple refused to support Flash on its iOS devices. As he clarified, Adobe will support existing versions of Flash Player for mobile devices, and concentrate on HTML 5 technology.

"Considering how politically charged the issue has been, the decision to stop development of the Flash Player for Mobile Browsers was not an easy decision. However, at the end of the day, there were a number of items that made it clear that putting resources towards its continued development would not be the best use of resources," he wrote.

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Samsung has made a next step in its legal battle with Apple, having initiated new efforts to ban Apple’s 3G products in Germany. Now Samsung and Apple are arguing over what devices might be covered under the injunction Samsung seeks, which would include a prohibition of sales of iPhones and iPads with 3G features. Apple is now doing its best to protect the iPhone 4S from consequences of the injunction that might be granted. This time Samsung plans to use the same methods and patents that Motorola used recently. The German court granted Motorola Mobility an injunction against Apple covering its German sales.

Now Samsung raises questions that include whether Apple is infringing patents that were licensed by the component manufacturers.

At question is "patent exhaustion," whether Samsung can sue Apple for infringement in using Intel's version of the Infineon chips sold since January 2011, or whether Samsung's rights to sue over patents are "exhausted" after being licensed to a third party building the components.

The second issue in the case is standard-essential patents that Samsung uses. As far as we know, Samsung sued before trying to reach a licensing agreement with Apple. Apple noted that Samsung has never claimed infringement over any of its standards-essential patents "until it decided to retaliate for Apple's assertions of non-standards-related patents."

According to The Next Web, Apple has quietly changed the title of Phil Schiller. Apple dropped the word “Product” from his previous title of Senior Vice President of Worldwide Product Marketing. It is unknown why the company changed the title. May be it reflects changes in responsibilities or just describes more accurately his duties.

The Next Web suggests that Philip Shiller could take on some new responsibilities related previously to retail store marketing that executed by Ron Johnson, who had left Apple on November 1st. the other position believes that new responsibilities relate to Apple's education division, which Tim Cook has reportedly integrated into the company's broader marketing and sales divisions.

Rumors about “iPhone 5” have been still circulating, even despite the fact that Apple launched last month updated iPhone 4S. The next-generation iPhone is expected to be released next year and will be redesigned significantly. Business Insider now reports that it has received information from the source who have had access to an iPhone 5 prototype, providing the following details on the device:

We've been told this by an industry source who has been right about future Apple products in the past. We have not been able to verify what he told us with a second source. So we're still treating these details as rumors. You should probably still read this post with a nice fat dose of salt.

The source confirmed that Apple planned to launch the iPhone 5 this year but was forced to change its plans. The source mentioned the following details of the next-generation iPhone:

• 4-inch screen
• Aluminum back
• Capacitive home button
• "Flatter" form factor
• Much faster than current hardware, but poor battery life
• 10-megapixel rear camera
• Siri prototype known as "Assistant", which had been the rumored name for the feature until its introduction

Apple reported that the battery in the first-generation iPod nano may overheat and pose a safety risk. Although, Apple had previously said that less than 0.001 percent of first-generation iPod nanos experienced the overheating issue, Apple has recently initiated a replacement program for the first-generation iPod nano. The company recommended users of the first-generation iPod nano to stop using the device and replace it for free.

The defect was firstly traced in 2008, when several customers experienced overheating on their first-generation iPod nano. South Korea, Japan and Europe international government agencies even initiated a special investigation and as a result the trade ministry in Japan ordered Apple to publicize the replacement offer on its Japanese website in 2010. Now Apple is notifying purchasers of the first-generation iPod nano about the replacement program, sending out emails.

"Apple has determined that, in very rare cases, the battery in the iPod nano (1st generation) may overheat and pose a safety risk. Affected iPod nanos were sold between September 2005 and December 2006," the company wrote. "This issue has been traced to a single battery supplier that produced batteries with a manufacturing defect. While the possibility of an incident is rare, the likelihood increases as the battery ages."

Greenpeace ranked 15 companies across three areas: energy, greener products and sustainable operations and released its "Guide to Greener Electronics" on Wednesday. This time Apple took fourth place in the rating up five places from the previous report. Nokia (4.9/10), Dell (5.1/10), and HP (5.9/10) were on the third, second and first places respectively. Immediately below Apple were Philips (4.5/10), Sony Ericsson (4.2/10), Samsung (4.1/10) and Lenovo (3.8/10).

The organization criticized Apple for the fact that Apple has not specified any target to reduce emissions. Nevertheless, Greenpeace gave the company credit for use of renewable energy and improved energy efficiency. Apple is also very demanding for product criteria. So all of the company's devices are free of PVC vinyl plastic and brominated flame retardants.

But Apple’s relationships with Greenpeace are not limited by positive experience only. "For years now Apple has pushed the environmentally friendly aspects of its products, countering a dispute that began with Greenpeace in August of 2006, when the organization issued a report condemning Apple for the use of toxic chemicals in its devices. Greenpeace also pulled a number of publicity stunts, such as a "Green My Apple" campaign in London in October of 2006, and a "greening" of Apple's flagship Fifth Avenue glass cube in January of 2007."

Soon after Apple proposed a smaller SIM card standard, a German company Giesecke & Devrient made a proposal of its own standard. The German company that developed the first SIM card in the world has proposed a standard for “nano-SIM ” cards that are 15 percent thinner and one-third smaller than the current smallest micro-SIM cards used in the iPhone 4S, iPhone 4 and 3G iPad.

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Patently Apple posted a new Apple’s patent application that describes integration of a speaker into the clip of the iPod nano or iPod shuffle and how a small domed or dimpled cover over the speaker could be designed to produce specific acoustic effects.

In some embodiments, the cavity size may be shaped to create a particular frequency response or to otherwise influence the sound produced by the acoustical element. In some embodiments, the interior surface of the cavity may be modified to increase the size of the cavity, to control the frequency response of the cavity, modify the amount of air displaceable by movement of the diaphragm of the acoustical element, and/or to direct sound waves within the cavity and/or out of the cavity. The shape of the surface may be configured to resonate at a certain desired frequency or frequency range that is desired based on its shape. For example, one or more indentations in the surface may be provided to increase the size of the cavity and/or control the frequency response of the cavity. Generally, the larger the size of the cavity, the lower the frequency that may be resonant within the cavity. In some embodiments, holes may be provided in the surface to adjust the frequency response.

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Yesterday Apple released the promised update of the iOS 5.0. The iOS 5.0.1 should fix battery life issues found on devices upgraded to the iOS 5, as well as on new iPhone 4S. Apple publicly said the battery life bugs affected a small number of users. In addition to addressing battery life issues, the update also brings new multi-touch gestures for the first-generation iPad.

This update contains improvements and other bug fixes including:

• Fixes bugs affecting battery life
• Adds Multitasking Gestures for original iPad
• Resolves bugs with Documents in the Cloud
• Improves voice recognition for Australian users using dictation

The update also includes security improvements, as well as a new way for developers to specify files that should remain on a device even in low storage situations.

iOS 5.0.1 is available for iPhone (4S, 4, and 3GS), iPod touch (third- and fourth-generation), and all iPad models. The update is now available to all users through iTunes, and will be soon available as an over-the-air update.

Direct links for downloads:

• iPhone: 4S, 4 GSM, 4 CDMA, 3GS
• iPad: 2 Wi-Fi, 2 GSM, 2 CDMA, Original
• iPod touch: 4th Generation, 3rd Generation

Apple cooperates with an American company which helps Apple to build its forthcoming solar farm in North Carolina. Leaf Solar Power, a renewable energy company that specializes in residential and "small" commercial projects in South Florida is working with Apple on construction of Apple’s $1 billion data center, according to a person familiar with the ongoing project. Apple's massive $1 billion data center was opened this spring. The main purpose of the facility is to support Apple's online services, including iTunes and the newly launched iCloud. And use of sustainable energy is not new for the company. As usual for Apple, details of the project have not yet been revealed. We just know that last month Apple received permit to erosion control in the area.

This is quite unusual that Apple chose U.S.-based solar company, because now the most part of solar panels is produced overseas. In particular, solar panel production has greatly shifted to China over the last two years. That fact has become such an issue that earlier this year, U.S. President Barack Obama signed a law with a "Buy American" provision for the purchase of solar panels. So may be Apple decided to support President’s idea?!

The late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs was nominated by "NBC Nightly News" anchor Brian Williams for Time Magazine "Person of the Year", so he could become the first person to be posthumously awarded the distinction.

"One guy, who changed our world, and I said to Seth Meyers [Saturday Night Live head writer] as we walked across Sixth Avenue, 'Just look with me on this one block walk at how he changed the world around us. Look at how he changed the world,'" Williams said during his nomination speech. "So may he rest in peace, Steve Jobs, and the spirit he represents, are my nominee for Person of the Year."

Nevertheless, it is quite difficult to deny that “the iPhone has changed the world as much as the Bible has.” Jobs was already nominated for Time Magazine’s “Person of the Year”, but Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg won last year. Will see who will be a winner this year. The award will be presented in December.

As The Atlantic reports, Amazon’s filings with a Securities and Exchange Commission reveals that the company has acquired speech recognition firm Yap, which may suggests that Amazon is going to compete with Google and Apple on this market.

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