News tagged ‘Apple’

Several interesting patent applications filed by Apple have been summarized today by Patently Apple. Among many new applications recently published by the US Patent & Trademark Office the most interesting concern a new finger oil resistant coating, antenna clip for iPhone and usage of solar energy as a power source for portable devices.

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As TiPb reports, the next iPhone will be put on the market in the United States on October 7th. The report suggests that iPhone 4S with better cameras and faster processor is more likely to be launched first than completely revamped iPhone 5. But it is impossible to say for certain because many contradictory rumors are getting around. The report also wrote it is quite possible that iPhone 4S could be a budget device. Apple is probably preparing both iPhone 4S and iPhone 5 for a fall launch. According to report, Retina Display iPad that was widely expected for a fall launch will likely not to be released until spring 2012.

In the The Wall Street Journal’s article about Intel investing $300 million on developing "Ultrabook" platform, an Intel executive revealed that Apple was threatening to drop Intel’s processors if they didn’t made their chips less power-consuming.

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By the end of September Apple will have opened over 30 new retail stores, so the total number of stores will be over 360. On this Saturday Apple apparently set to open at least five new stores: two U.S. stores and three international locations covering Australia, Canada, and Italy.

• Anchorage 5th Avenue Mall (Anchorage, Alaska): The new store will be Apple's first location in Alaska.
• Fashion Place (Murray, Utah): Apple's second store in Utah.
• Southland (Cheltenham, Victoria, Australia): The new store is Apple's third location in the Melbourne area and its twelfth overall for Australia.
• Conestoga: (Waterloo, Ontario, Canada): Apple's 20th retail store in Canada, the new location is also notable for its placement in the hometown of smartphone competitor Research in Motion.
• I Gigli: (Florence, Italy): The new store is Apple's sixth location in Italy and first in the Florence area, filling a gap between the company's store in Rome and a series of stores in northern Italy across the Turin, Milan, and Bergamo.

According to Japanese site Kodawarisan, the specific date for Apple’s September media event is Wednesday, September 7th. Kodawarisan stated that the specific date is not alleged, but came from a reliable source.

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A couple of new patent application from Apple published today is gaining some attention. The first application describes in detail how the company could integrate tiny projectors into iPads, iPhones and MacBooks. The application even suggests that cameras will be capable of detecting “shadows and/or silhouettes” gestures shown on the projected display.

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It is known that Apple upgraded from Toshiba SSDs to Samsung drives in the current MacBook Air line. Today Anandtech wrote that the Samsung PM810 (customized version of the drive that will work in the 2011 MacBook Air) was considerably upgraded in the latest refresh.

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Since the release of iPhone 4 numerous reports have revealed its major success among consumers. Taking that into consideration it is easy to assume that many people will soon be selling their smartphones to save money on iPhone 5. According to GigaOm, many resellers are aware of that fact and has already started to prepare for the release of the next-gen Apple’s smartphone.

The same thing happened last year, shortly after the iPhone 4 release. For instance, one of Apple resellers Gazelle announced that it had over 10 000 old iPhones to sell.

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Today Apple managed to pass Exxon and now it is the most world valuable company. However, people’s euphoria lasted several hours and then Exxon were on top again after market rally. But many people are still eager to know: What can happen to Apple next?

One of Reuters’ columnists Robert Cyran is curious whether Apple may become the first one trillion dollars company:

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According to DigiTimes report, Apple has turned to suppliers other than LG Display (specifically Chimei Innolux and Samsung) because of some issues with 9.7-inch panel produced by LGD for the iPad 2. Apparently LG Display has failed to meet Apple’s July orders for around 1 million units and also it hasn’t fulfilled requirements in impact tests, during which backlight units of iPads 2 failed. Reportedly Apple has suspended its orders for new displays with LG, which until now has been the largest manufacturer of display panels for iPad 2.

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A class-action lawsuit has been filed against Apple and 5 of the 6 major book publishers: Hachette, HarperCollins, MacMillan, Penguin, and Simon & Shuster. The lawsuit claims that they "colluded to increase prices for popular e-book titles to boost profits and force e-book rival Amazon to abandon its pro-consumer discount pricing."

From the lawsuit:

In November 2007, Amazon revolutionized the book publishing industry by releasing the Kindle, a handheld digital reader for electronic books or “eBooks.” A major economic advantage to eBook technology is its potential to massively reduce distribution costs historically associated with brick-and-mortar publishing. But publishers quickly realized that if market forces were allowed to prevail too quickly, these efficiency enhancing characteristics would rapidly lead to lower consumer prices, improved consumer welfare, and threaten the current business model and available surplus (profit margins). So, faced with disruptive eBook technology that threatened their inefficient and antiquated business model, several major book publishers, working with Apple Inc. (“Apple”), decided free market competition should not be allowed to work – together they coordinated their activities to fight back in an effort to restrain trade and retard innovation. The largest book publishers and Apple were successful.

This lawsuit alleges that as a "direct result of this anticompetitive conduct as intended by the conspiracy, the price of eBooks has soared" and "bring claims under federal and state antitrust laws to enjoin the illegal conduct and to obtain damages."

Facebook has just launched Messenger app that extends its Messages service. This app will allow sending Facebook messages to your Facebook contacts and text messages to your phone’s contacts. In addition to messages the app will allow you to send pictures as well.
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After a district court in Dusseldorf, Germany, granted a preliminary injunction, Galaxy Tab 10.1 has been barred from distribution in the European Union (except for the Netherlands, because a separate lawsuit in the Netherlands is already underway). Apple spokesperson Kristin Huguet confirmed the injunction to Bloomberg:  ”It’s no coincidence that Samsung’s latest products look a lot like the iPhone and iPad, from the shape of the hardware to the user interface and even the packaging. This kind of blatant copying is wrong, and we need to protect Apple’s intellectual property when companies steal our ideas.”

Apple alleged that the Galaxy Tab imitates the iPad and infringes on various intellectual property rights owned by Apple. Apple asked the Landgericht (district court) of Düsseldorf, Germany, to order an injunction under which Samsung is threatened with fines of up to EUR 250,000 (US$ 350,000) for each violation or imprisonment of Samsung’s management for up to two years in the event of continued infringement. Those are standard sanctions under German tort law for contempt of a preliminary injunction.

Last week, Samsung had to delay the launch of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia in response to Apple's request for a preliminary injunction in that country.

In June Apple began upgrading the plaza and glass cube at its iconic flagship retail store on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. The company plans to invest in upgrading about $6.6 million.  Customers still have access to the store through a covered passageway. Apple plans to remove the glass cube and work on drainage, pavers, and bollards on the plaza. The company is going to completely replace the cube’s glass panels with new and larger panels.  As Apple says, the appearance of the renovated Fifth Avenue Store will be much cleaner, and visually more seamless. Detailing the upgrades in an informational notice, Apple shows off past and present examples of the Fifth Avenue retail store, showing a reduction in glass panels from 90 to just 15 large strips (three vertical panes on each side and three on top).

We're simplifying the Fifth Avenue cube. By using larger, seamless pieces of glass, we're using just 15 panes instead of 90.

Boxee has launched a free application for iPad that enables users to stream virtually any video format from your Mac to your iPad. Apart streaming functions, this application can be very helpful in finding popular video or video shared by your friends to watch it online. Sharing is performed using Friends tab that is a queue of all content sharing by your friends through Boxee’s social service. Also there is a Popular tab that shows what currently is the most popular content on the globe.

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