News tagged ‘Time’

Recently Apple has made changes to its app policy and focused on making the iOS App Store the most attractive rather than simply the biggest.

Lately the company has banned the idea of "incentivized app installs", which was used by certain game developers to prompt players to install other apps if they want to continue playing. Because of the incentives some apps become artificially popular and don’t reflect the actual situation in top games chart, for instance.

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Leander Kahney from CultOfMac found the patent application which may throw even more light on the recently found iPhone tracking issue.

The application is entitled "Location Histories for Location Aware Devices" and was filed back in September 2009. It describes technologies and methods that allow to track the location of such devices as computers, game consoles, MP3 players and, certainly, iPads and iPhones.

According to the document a location aware mobile device may collect transmitter IDs and other network information over time. This information will be then translated to estimated position coordinates of the device if the user requests. A user or application also may get an access to location history or its part only in a map view.

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According to AppleInsider, Apple may introduce next-generation iMacs with the newest Intel processors as soon as on Tuesday, May 3.

People familiar with the matter told the devices will sport the first-gen Intel Core i processors, new high-speed Thunderbolt port and second-generation Core i chips.

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Bloomberg reports that Samsung now countersues Apple in the Unites Stated. Samsung already sued Apple in Europe and Asia for patent infringement in technologies like power conservation and 3G data transmission, in response to Apple’s lawsuit accusing Samsung of coping iPad and iPhone design with its Galaxy series devices.

In the U.S. complaint, Samsung accuses Apple of violating patents that “relate to fundamental innovations that increase mobile device reliability, efficiency, and quality, and improve user interface in mobile handsets and other products.”

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Six months ago Apple’s quarterly revenue for the first time in approximately 15 years was higher than the Microsoft’s one. But Microsoft was unbeatable with its high profit margins that the company achieved thanks to its software sales. The situation changed in the past fiscal quarter.   Today Microsoft has announced net profit of $5.23 billion for the first calendar quarter (third fiscal quarter) of 2011. Apple last week reported profits of $5.99 billion over the same period, which corresponded to the company's second fiscal quarter of 2011. It seems that Apple finally surpassed its longtime rival in almost all position. Moreover Apple’s market cap is now nearly $100 billion higher than Microsoft's.

Ina Fried of The Wall Street Journal yesterday published a telephone interview with Apple's executives Steve Jobs, Phil Schiller and Scott Forstall. CEO of the company again explained Apple's further policy related to recently found algorithm of collecting anonymous data about iPhones' locations.

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We still don’t know whether Apple realizes or not the iPhone 5 until September or early fall.  But we’ve tried to sum up all possible reasons why Apple might officially launch the iPhone 5 this fall. First of all, Apple announced Verizon iPhone only in February and the white iPhone’ has stared selling today. An October shipping date of new iPhone would give Verizon and the white iPhones time to enjoy their purchases without temptation from the next model of Apple’s smartphone. The second reason is that Apple typically updates the iPod line in late summer/early fall. This encourages back-to-school sales and jump-starts the all-important Holiday shopping season. By bringing the iPhone into line with its iPod refresh cycle, Apple could better position new iPhone sales so that giving an iPhone for Christmas doesn't feel like you're committing to last year's technology. And the last reason is firmware update. The iPhone 5 and iOS 5 may be presented simultaneously showing us more revolutionary than evolutionary changes.

GigaOM reports that Apple has acquired the iCloud.com domain, used for online data storage, for $4.5 million.

My source, who is familiar with the company, says that Xcerion has sold the domain to Apple for about $4.5 million. Xcerion hasn't responded to my queries as yet. At the time of writing, the Whois database showed Xcerion as the owner of iCloud.

The purchase of iCloud.com could be a sign confirming Apple’s intention to rebrand MobileMe. With Apple’s new cloud services preparing for launch, the purchase of iCloud.com could indicate that new services from Apple may be arriving sooner than later.

A third party iOS developer FutureTap has posted a tweet where he reveals he got a crash log from a device running iOS 5.0 and then published a screenshot (above). The image indicated Apple is testing its new version of iOS using third party apps.

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Apple has finally begun selling the rumored white iPhone 4 after a 10-month delay since the original unveiling at the WWDC 2010. Steve Jobs and Phil Schiller told in an interview to Mobilized’s Ina Fried that the white iPhone was really “challenging” to make because of “unexpected interactions” of the white color with several internal components. Moreover, the white model of iPhone 4 indeed has a different proximity sensor than the black one.

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After a week of discussions around the discovery that the iPhone has an inbuilt algorithm of keeping track of users' locations in unencrypted file, Apple finally shed light on the subject.

Before we repost the company's official statement, here is a short summary. Apple says it's not tracking the location of iPhone users. It maintains a database of celltowers and Wi-Fi hotspots that allows to calculate your location when requested much more quickly than it can be made with the help of GPS only. The location data is being sent to Apple in anonymous form, and users' iPhones download only the necessary part of the database.

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Yesterday The Wrap reported that Google is going to launch a Video on Demand movie rental service on YouTube, which will obviously become a rival for Apple's iTunes movie store.

Actually, YouTube started offering movie rental last year, but only independent studio movies have been available yet. Now Google plans to partner with major Hollywood studios.

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There are some rumors claiming that the next revision of Apple's MacBook Pro line will utilize a brand new case for the first time in several years. Macrumors.com pointed out a February iLounge piece that asserted that 2011 will see the “all new design” described as “a big milestone” for the MacBook Pro family. iLounge reported that this new design was under development at the time at Quanta Computers, a contract manufacturer. There no specifics on what the next MacBook Pro might look like, though many have previously speculated that Apple will take cues from the MacBook Air line that offers an iMac-inspired design with a black-bezel and aluminum unibody casing.

There was a lot of noise lately about the fact that Apple keeps users’ location data on their iPhones. Finally, MacRumors reader had sent an e-mail to Apple CEO Steve Jobs with a request to explain what's going on and received an answer. Here's the full exchange:

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A test conducted by The Wall Street Journal reveals that Apple’s iPhone collects and stores location information even if its location services are turned off.

It was also found that the device collects location data using Wi-Fi access points and cellphone towers (triangulation method). However, this information is not being transmitted to Apple.

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