MacRumors

Apple has confirmed to Tech Insider that the notebook pictured behind Apple general counsel Bruce Sewell during the 60 Minutes special Inside Apple is the 12-inch MacBook released in April, debunking some users on Reddit and social media who speculated the notebook could be an ultra-thin MacBook Pro.

The chances of Apple leaving an unreleased MacBook in plain sight for a national TV program were slim to begin with, especially in a room full of Apple's top executives. In a later segment, Apple even covered desks in its secretive design studio so that cameras could not capture what the company is working on next.

The rumor mill is also abuzz after a fake "iPhone 7" leaked video circulated on social media this week. The sketchy video, spotted by French website Nowhereelse.fr, falsely depicts an alleged Foxconn employee handling a purported next-generation iPhone prototype that seemingly lacks a home button.

The staged video from "ViralVideoLab" shows a metallic device with an Apple logo, but it is noticeably thicker than the iPhone 6s and includes regulatory markings that are questionable for such an early prototype. The prototype more closely resembles an HTC One M9 with thin bezels along the top and bottom of the screen.

Foxconn has been the source of iPhone leaks in the past, including the iPhone 6 rear shell and dimensions, but it is unlikely Apple has provided the supplier with an assembled "iPhone 7" prototype over nine months ahead of its expected release. No other physical components for the next-generation iPhone have leaked to date.

In time for the holiday season, a number of paid apps and games for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch have been discounted on the App Store this week, including Alto's Adventure, Final Fantasy VII, Lara Croft GO, Launch Center Pro, PDF Expert 5, Scanner Pro, This War of Mine, Thomas Was Alone and more.

Apple's annual iTunes Connect winter shutdown takes place between December 22 and December 29, during which time the following features are unavailable: new app submissions, app updates, in-app purchase submissions and TestFlight submissions for external testing. All other features, and access to iTunes Connect, remain available.

Apps on Sale

There are dozens of other iOS apps discounted for the holidays beyond those listed above. Keep track on our sister website AppShopper.

Starting today, some Facebook users will be able to view Live Photos in their Facebook feeds using the Facebook for iOS app, reports TechCrunch. Introduced with the iPhone 6s and the iPhone 6s Plus, Live Photos are motion-enabled images that capture the moments just before and after a photo is taken.

Facebook plans to gradually roll out support for Live Photos, so while some Facebook app users will be able to post and view Live Photos as of this morning, others will not have access to Live Photos support until the beginning of 2016.

According to TechCrunch, uploading a Live Photo is done in the same way as uploading a regular photo, but there will be an option to choose whether to upload an image as a Live Photo or a regular photo during the uploading process. In a Facebook feed, Live Photos are denoted by a set of concentric circles and can be pressed to play.

You’ll have to tap that box manually with each Live Photo, and with good reason: once enabled on your iPhone, Live Photos are created with little to no thought on your part. It’s easy to forget the feature is even on. Add in the fact that Live Photos include 1.5 seconds of video and audio from before/after the instant you hit that shutter button, and it’s easy to imagine a scenario where you unwittingly capture something you… maybe don’t want to make public. By making it opt-in with each photo, there’s less of a chance you’ll accidentally upload stuff you forgot was even there.

While only the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus can take live photos, all iOS devices running iOS 9 can view them in the Facebook app. All iPhones from the iPhone 4s on are capable of supporting iOS 9.

Facebook is the second major social network to implement support for Live Photos. Tumblr added support two weeks ago.

A newly opened Apple Museum in Prague is showing off the largest private collection of Apple products, housing Macs, iOS devices, and other Apple paraphernalia from 1976 to 2012. The museum opened its doors last Thursday, and an inside look has been shared on Imgur.

Located in a renovated historical building, the exterior windows of the Apple Museum are decorated with quotes from Steve Jobs, artistic product arrangements, and one popular quote of unknown origin.

Three apples changed the world. The first tempted Eve, the second inspired Newton, and the third was offered to the world half eaten by Steve Jobs.

Included is an Apple Lisa, which is one of 100,000 made, an Apple II, and several other older Mac and NeXT Computer products. One section displays a range of printers Apple produced, while another houses iterations of the PowerMac and iMac and a third includes different iBook, PowerBook, and MacBook models.

Little known Apple accessories like the Apple camera are on display, and there's an entire section dedicated to the complete iPod family, including the special edition Beatles box set sold in 2008 for $795. Each version of the iPhone and iPad, starting with the original 2007 and 2010 models, is also shown off on dedicated tables in order of release.

Miscellaneous products, papers, contracts, and other small odds and ends from Steve Jobs' time at Apple, NeXT Computer, and Pixar are available at the museum, as are mementos from his early life, including a high school yearbook. The full assortment of images is available on Imgur and is well worth checking out for those who won't be able to visit the museum in person.

According to the Prague Post, there are more than 12,000 meters of computer cabling installed in the museum, which students from the Czech Technical University helped assemble. Also on the site is a bistro that includes all raw vegan foods, in honor of Steve Jobs' preferred diet, and there's an interactive space for children.

Tickets for the Apple Museum are available from the Apple Museum website for 11 euros. The site also includes details about the creation of the museum, the history of Apple, and will offer a 3D tour, information on Steve Jobs' diet, and products to purchase in the future.

Ericsson announced today that it has reached a seven-year global patent cross licensing agreement with Apple for standard-essential technologies, including GSM, UMTS and LTE cellular standards, thereby settling all litigation between the two technology companies.

Apple will make an upfront payment to Ericsson and continue paying royalties on an ongoing basis. The terms of the agreement are confidential, but investment bank ABG Sundal Collier believes Apple could be charged around 0.5% of iPhone and iPad revenue, per Reuters.

The licensing agreement applies to several technology areas, including 5G development, video network traffic management and wireless network optimization, and grants certain other undisclosed patent rights. The deal ends all litigation before the U.S. International Trade Commission, U.S. District Courts and European courts.

"We are pleased with this new agreement with Apple, which clears the way for both companies to continue to focus on bringing new technology to the global market, and opens up for more joint business opportunities in the future," said Kasim Alfalahi, Chief Intellectual Property Officer at Ericsson.

Apple originally filed suit against Ericsson in January 2015, arguing that it was demanding excessive royalties for patents not essential to LTE standards. Ericsson countersued in a Texas courtroom just hours later, seeking an estimated $250 to $750 million in annual royalties for Apple to continue licensing its patented wireless technologies. Apple declined to honor those demands.

Ericsson subsequently sued Apple again in February 2015 for allegedly infringing 41 wireless-related patents that it believed to be critical to the functionality of products such as the iPhone and iPad. At the time, Ericsson filed two complaints with the U.S. ITC in an effort to secure a U.S. sales ban on infringing products, in addition to filing seven complaints with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.

The U.S. ITC agreed to launch an investigation into the Apple-Ericsson patent infringement claims in March 2015, and Ericsson extended the lawsuit to Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom in May 2015, but today's agreement precedes any courtroom rulings.

Ericsson is the world's largest provider of mobile network equipment and holds over 35,000 patents related to 2G, 3G and 4G wireless technologies. Ericsson's cellular technology patents are considered essential and are subject to fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory terms (FRAND).

Apple's previous licensing deal with Ericsson signed in 2008 expired in January 2015.

60 Minutes on Sunday aired an Inside Apple special with correspondent Charlie Rose that included interviews with a number of Apple's senior executives alongside closer looks at Apple's secretive design studio, camera lab, mock next-generation Apple Store and under construction Campus 2 project.

Apple CEO Tim Cook discussed a wide range of topics with Rose, starting with the legacy of co-founder Steve Jobs. "This is Steve's company," said Cook. "This is still Steve's company. It was born that way, it's still that way. And so his spirit I think will always be the DNA of this company."

Rose then accompanied Apple design chief Jony Ive for a rare look inside Apple's secretive design studio, where a team of 22 designers work on the future of Apple products. Apple covered many of the desks to ensure Rose could not see what the company is working on next.

Ive explained how he prototyped the Apple Watch, beginning with a sketch of the watch casing transformed into a 3-dimensional electronic blueprint sent to a high-precision CNC machine for milling. The watch casing is then sanded and polished by hand by veteran craftsmen at Apple.

The design chief also reflected on the complex engineering process that was required to create Apple's new 12-inch MacBook, including working with Apple's head of hardware engineering Dan Riccio to create the custom-shaped terraced battery that fits inside the notebook's ultra-thin enclosure.

The segment revealed that Apple senior director Graham Townsend leads a team of 800 engineers and specialists working on the iPhone's camera. Townsend showed Rose a micro suspension system that stabilizes the camera when its owner's hand shakes, and explained how Apple engineers calibrate the camera.

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Apple is reportedly preparing to launch new higher-quality audio streaming in 2016, according to industry sources who spoke to Mac Otakara at this weekend's Portable Audio Festival in Tokyo.

According to several insiders familiar with Apple, whose products are exhibited at PORTABLE AUDIO FESTIVAL 2015, the company has been developing Hi-Res Audio streaming up to 96kHz/24bit in 2016.

The Lightning terminal with iOS 9 is compatible up to 192kHz/24Bit, but we do not have information on the sampling frequency of Apple Music download music.

The report also claims many audio equipment manufacturers are preparing their own third-party Lightning cables in anticipation of Apple's move toward improved audio quality.

Apple has long been rumored to be looking to introduce higher-quality audio formats for iTunes Store downloads and perhaps also Apple Music streaming. A year and a half ago, music blogger Robert Hutton claimed Apple was working to roll out high-resolution audio for the iTunes Store, and Mac Otakara made similar claims about an HD Audio format and new hardware being planned for release alongside iOS 8 later that year.

An even earlier flurry of rumors came in 2012 after Neil Young revealed that he and Steve Jobs had discussed ideas for improving the audio quality of iTunes Store content. Young ultimately went on his own in an effort to increase the quality digital music, releasing his PonoPlayer in early 2014.

60 Minutes has shared a preview of Tim Cook's latest interview with journalist Charlie Rose, in which the Apple CEO emphatically counters the idea that Apple has created elaborate schemes to pay little or no U.S. corporate taxes on its overseas revenue.

Cook described the tax avoidance accusations as "total political crap," and deflected blame on the U.S. tax code for being far outdated. He added that repatriating the money in the U.S. is not "a reasonable thing to do" due to high corporate tax rates.

Rose: You also have more money overseas probably than any other American company. […] Why don’t you bring that home?

Cook: “It would cost me 40% to bring it home, and I don’t think that’s a reasonable thing to do. This is a tax code that was made for the industrial age, not the digital age. It’s backwards. It’s awful for America. It should have been fixed many years ago. It’s past time to get it done.”

Rose: Here’s what they concluded: “Apple is engaged in a sophisticated scheme to pay little or no corporate taxes on $74 billion in revenue held overseas.”

Cook: “That is total political crap. There is no truth behind it. Apple pays every tax dollar we owe."

Apple's tax policies have been closely investigated over the past few years in Europe. Earlier this year, for example, Italian regulators accused Apple of booking profits generated in the country through an Irish subsidiary in an effort to lower its taxable income base and save nearly 900 million euros from 2008 through 2013. The investigation was completed in March 2015.

The European Commission began an investigation of Apple's tax policies in June 2014, and the Brussels-based executive body formally accused the company of receiving illegal state aid from Ireland in September 2014. The commission has since requested more information from Apple, likely delaying a decision in the tax probe until at least after the Irish elections in early 2016.

Apple is said to utilize multiple foreign subsidiaries in Ireland to move around overseas money, which Cook says accounts for two-thirds of Apple's revenue, without being subject to high corporate tax rates in the U.S. and elsewhere. Apple has consistently denied any wrongdoing, and Ireland vows to take the European Commission to court over any negative ruling.

Cook's wide-ranging interview will also touch upon encryption technology and manufacturing products in China. In the same episode, Rose will also offer a rare inside look at Jony Ive's "secret design studio" at Apple's headquarters in Cupertino, California. 60 Minutes airs on CBS this Sunday, December 20 at 7:30 p.m. Eastern Time and 7 p.m. Pacific Time.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Target is in early stages of developing its own mobile wallet solution that could launch as early as next year, according to Reuters. The fourth-largest U.S. retailer is leaning towards using QR code technology for the payments app, rather than NFC, enabling customers to purchase goods by scanning a code at checkout akin to Walmart Pay announced last week.

The retailer reportedly plans to integrate the mobile wallet into its existing app available on iOS and Android, and will directly link customers' credit cards for payments. The wallet will likely support both Target's Red store credit and debit cards and ones from other issuers. Target does not currently accept any mobile wallets in it stores, but does support Apple Pay in its iPhone and iPad app.

Target's plans to launch its own mobile wallet raise questions about its commitment to rival payment platforms. A company spokesperson confirmed that Target remains an active member of the Merchant Customer Exchange, a consortium of retailers developing the payments system CurrentC, and the retailer is also exploring additional mobile wallet solutions, according to the report.

Target CEO Brian Cornell said in May that the retailer is "open-minded" about supporting Apple Pay or other payment services after upgrading its point-of-sale systems with chip-and-PIN card support, but the company has not announced any specific plans since. A few other MCX retailers including Best Buy and Rite Aid have already reversed course and started accepting Apple Pay this year.