MacRumors

The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) today officially ended a $1.3 billion education initiative that would have seen all students in the Los Angeles school district outfitted with an iPad, reports the Los Angeles Times. LAUSD superintendent Ramon C. Cortines clarified that the district was not going to use "the original iPad contract" anymore.

"We're not going to use the original iPad contract anymore," Cortines said Tuesday. "I think there have been too many innuendos, rumors, etc., and based on my reading of a great deal of material over Thanksgiving, I came to this conclusion.

"As CEO and steward of a billion-dollar operation, I have to make sure things are done properly so they are not questioned."

Cortines' official statement comes just a day after the FBI seized 20 boxes of documents from the L.A. school district as part of an investigation into the district's contract with Apple. The FBI is reportedly looking into the bidding that led to deal, which would have seen the district spending $500 million on iPads and curriculum and $800 million on staff, improved broadband, and other expenses.

In question is the relationship between Apple executives and former L.A. superintendent John Deasy, who resigned in October. Deasy has said that he did not do anything wrong when securing the deal, but there has been speculation that the bidding process for the deal was modified to favor Apple and Pearson, the company providing content for the devices.

The contract between the Los Angeles Unified School District and Apple was first suspended back in August after Deasy's ties to Apple executives first became apparent, but the district was still planning to spend millions of dollars on iPads up until this week.

Apple's deal with the Los Angeles Unified School District was formed under Deasy in an effort to give all students in the district equal access to technology. A $30 million agreement was signed last year to facilitate an early rollout of the program to 47 schools, which was expected to lead to a larger deal between the two.

Initial testing unveiled quite a few problems with the program, including an issue that saw students discovering security workarounds to freely access content on the iPads, which led to a home use ban on the devices. Despite the cancellation of the current contract with Apple, the L.A. School District plans to continue moving forward with its technology program, shifting towards Chromebooks and other laptops.

Mozilla's Firefox browser may soon make its way to iOS, according to a statement made by Firefox VP Jonathan Nightingale at an internal Mozilla event. Relayed by Firefox release manager Lukas Blakk and shared by TechCrunch, Nightingale reportedly told Mozilla employees "We need to be where our users are so we're going to get Firefox on iOS."

The statement about releasing Firefox for iOS marks a major shift in ideology for Mozilla, as the company has, in the past, repeatedly said that it would not offer a version of Firefox for iOS because of Apple's refusal to allow third-party browsers to use their own web engines. In 2013, then VP of product Jay Sullivan said that Moziila didn't "feel like it could build the browser it wants" on Apple's platform, and that it had "no plans" for an iOS version of Firefox.

One of the major points of contention for Mozilla was Apple's refusal to allow the Firefox browser to carry over its rendering and JavaScript engines to iOS, as Apple imposes strict restrictions on third-party browsers and limits them to the company's own JavaScript engines. Prior to iOS 8, this meant that third-party browsers were slower than Apple's Safari, but with iOS 8, Apple began allowing third-party browsers to take advantage of previously unavailable features like the JavaScript Nitro Engine.

An inability to provide custom web engines along with the lack of an option to set a third-party browser as the default browser makes it difficult for companies like Chrome, Opera, and Firefox to create satisfactory browsing experiences on Apple's platform. Though little is known about Firefox's plans for iOS at the current point in time, it is likely Mozilla will need to continue to work within Apple's limits.

Though Mozilla's Firefox browser for iOS will be subjected to Apple's restrictions, key Firefox features like accounts, customizable home panels, and data syncing will translate to iOS, helping Firefox users achieve a more seamless browsing experience on a range of devices.

Apple is continuing to sort out its nebulous policies on Notification Center widgets, and has today told Drafts developer Agile Tortoise that the app's widget is not allowed to be used to create drafts or open the Drafts app.

In a tweet, developer Greg Pierce says that he's been asked to re-submit Drafts without functionality for opening the app or creating a new note, which essentially removes all of the features of the Notification Center Widget.

Like many other apps that have Notification Center widgets, the Drafts app widget lets users open the app directly, create a new draft, or create a new draft from what's on the clipboard. It has very little functionality in the Notification Center aside from simply opening up the Drafts app, which in the past, has seemed like an acceptable use of the Notification Center.

Pierce, however, says that he's been told that the Today view in the Notification Center is "for information presentation only," a point of view that would rule out nearly all Notification Center apps. As Pierce points out, there are several similar apps that offer the exact same widget function as Drafts, such as Evernote, which also allows users to launch the Evernote app and new notes and other content from within the Notification Center.

Drafts is one of a number of apps that have faced confusing rules and restrictions delivered by Apple's app review team. Back in October, Apple told the PCalc developers that calculator functions were not allowed in the Notification Center before changing its mind, and just a few weeks ago, Neato was told that it would have to remove the note taking functionality from its Notification Center widget.

Apple's App Extension Guidelines suggest that Notification Widgets should have a "simple, streamlined UI," and "a limited number of interactive items," but its vague language has led developers to spend time and effort creating a variety of useful functions that are ultimately disallowed as Apple aims to refine how it wants the Notification Center to be used.

It is not clear why Drafts has been singled out by Apple's app review team as it offers the same functionality as other widgets, but if the Drafts widget is removed, it's possible that many other similar widgets could be in danger of being in violation of the Notification Center widget rules.

Drafts can be downloaded from the App Store for $9.99. [Direct Link]

Wells Fargo, one of Apple's early Apple Pay partners, has been heavily promoting the service, perhaps more than any other participating bank. In addition to sending out numerous Apple Pay emails to customers, launching promotions, and advertising Apple Pay on its website, Wells Fargo has also launched a new television commercial highlighting Apple Pay's speed and ease of use.

In the ad, first shared by iSpot.tv, a man visits several different retail stores and uses Apple Pay to make his purchases at each location. With just a thumb on the Touch ID button, he breezes through each transaction, letting him return home in record time. Upon entering his house, he finds out he's interrupted his own surprise party.

"You were supposed to be out shopping," says his wife after he interrupts the surprise party. "It went super quick," he responds, before a voice over goes on to tout Apple Pay. "With Apple Pay, using your Wells Fargo card just got easier. Done."

Alongside Wells Fargo, Chase has also been heavily promoting Apple Pay. The bank recently launched a promotion giving its users a free David Guetta album for adding a Chase Visa card to Passbook for use with Apple Pay, and last week, it debuted an Apple Pay ad starring Fun front man Jack Antonoff.

In a new interview, Apple's Eddy Cue spoke with Fortune about the e-books pricing scandal that has plagued the company over the past several years. After a July 2013 judgment found the company guilty of conspiring to fix prices of electronic books, and a settlement in a class-action lawsuit was reached over the summer, the Apple negotiator at the center of the lawsuit has shared his thoughts on the case with Fortune ahead of Apple's appeals court appearance later this month.

The specifics of the case lie in the opening of the iBooks Store and the 17 percent industry-wide increase in e-book prices following its unveiling in April of 2010. Cue, Apple's "master negotiator", played a key role in convincing five of the then-six major publishing houses to start selling e-books through Apple's new store alongside the launch of the iPad. Part of the deal involved a shift in the pricing model for the entire e-books industry, eliminating Amazon's previous pricing advantage in which it would sometimes sell books at a loss in order to attract customers to Kindle hardware and other Amazon products.

These events led the Justice Department and thirty-three state attorneys general to sue Apple and those five publishing houses for horizontal price fixing in violation of the Sherman Act. While the publishing houses settled the lawsuits, Apple declined to do so and proceeded to trial in the federal case where the company was found guilty.

“Is it a fact that certain book prices went up?” asks Cue. “Yes. If you want to convict us on that, then we’re guilty. I knew some prices were going to go up, but hell, the whole world knew it, because that’s what the publishers were saying: ‘We want to get retailers to raise prices, and if we’re not able to, we’re not going to make the books available digitally.’ At the same time, other prices went down too, because now there was competition in the market.”

A settlement in the separate state and class-action consumer lawsuit worked out this past June sees Apple paying around $450 million if the company loses its appeal in the federal case and nothing if it wins. The case has dragged on far longer than most expect, and Cue argues that the company is fighting more for reputation than for monetary reasons.

“We feel we have to fight for the truth,” says Cue. “Luckily, Tim feels exactly like I do,” he continues, referring to Apple CEO Tim Cook, “which is: You have to fight for your principles no matter what. Because it’s just not right.”

Cue met with all six CEOs of the major publishing houses before the original iPad launched, and discovered most wanted the cost of e-books at price points both he and Steve Jobs considered too high. Cue proposed price tiers tied to the suggested retail prices of the hardback versions of the books.

As part of the shift to a new "agency model" of pricing similar to that used in the App Store, Cue also proposed a "most favored nation" clause, allowing Apple to match the price at which any retailer was selling a new e-book. When the iPad launched a few weeks later, most iBooks were priced between $12.99 and $14.99, higher than Amazon's typical $9.99 price point for best sellers but in the range of where publishers wanted to be selling their books. The agency model quickly became the industry standard, with Amazon also being required to adopt the pricing at the insistence of the publishers.

The sequence of events led Judge Denise Cote to rule in July 2013 that Apple was guilty of e-book price-fixing. When asked how he looks back on the "nightmare", Cue plainly stated, "If I had it to do all over again, I’d do it again. I’d just take better notes."

Apple will appear before the federal appeals court on December 15.

Amid persistent rumors of substantial upgrades, the current Apple TV is beginning to show its age, losing ground in the streaming media device marketplace to rival Google Chromecast and Roku in the first three quarters of 2014, according to market researcher Parks Associates as reported by CNET. Apple's decline comes at a time when interest in streaming media devices is on the upswing, with 10 percent of households buying at least one media player this year.

Despite a decent drop in market share over the past year amid increased competition, Roku remains the leader among set-top boxes and streaming media sticks, accounting for 29 percent of the market in the 9-month period, down from 46 percent in 2013. Google's Chromecast stick had a strong showing in 2014, climbing to the number two slot with 20 percent market share and knocking the Apple TV down to number three. With 17 percent share, the Apple TV remains in front of Amazon's Fire TV and Fire TV Stick, which together accounted for 10 percent market share, although the Fire TV stick is just now rolling out to consumers.

The Apple TV was first introduced in 2007 and has been updated periodically during its seven-year lifespan. It currently remains in its third generation with the last major hardware update released in March 2012, followed by a minor revision in January 2013. Multiple rumors this year hinted at a refreshed Apple TV hardware with App Store integration, Bluetooth controller support, and more, but those rumors have yet to pan out. Though its Apple TV hardware has been essentially unchanged for over two and a half years, Apple continues to make improvements to the software and add new channels to the Apple TV lineup.

As a longtime key retail partner for Apple, RadioShack is once again offering the iPhone this holiday season, but finding the phone on the retailer's shelves may be difficult, reports Mitch Nolen for Seeking Alpha. According to Nolen, RadioShack stores nationwide are reporting massive shortages in iPhone units with most models not available in stores during the important holiday shopping season.

RadioShack currently advertises the iPhone on its website with no ability to purchase the phone online. Users instead are directed to find a RadioShack store to purchase a unit, but many stores do not stock the iPhone, offering only a "Ship To Store" option that takes several days to fulfill. This method of inventory is markedly different from competitors like Best Buy, which sell the iPhone online, in-store and via an in-store pickup option.

RadioShack franchise owner Gary Mahan claims his sales have plummeted 30 percent year-over-year due to declining stock, with a major lost opportunity this Black Friday.

Mahan believes that if he had received the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, his one store on the Oregon coast could have made an extra $1,000 in profit over the Black Friday weekend, which would have been a happy holiday gift for him, he says. He couldn't speculate how that $1,000 in lost profit opportunity might extrapolate to other stores in RadioShack's chain of 5,387 corporate-owned and franchised locations.

The reasons for low inventories aren't clear, as Apple and other partners have managed to maintain some store supplies even amid high demand, but RadioShack's shortages may be due to the retailer's tenuous financial position. The company is close to being delisted from the New York Stock exchange and may be forced to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy to protect it from its creditors.

RadioShack's cash on hand at the end of last quarter had fallen to just $30 million, down from $440 million a year earlier and leaving the company unable to afford shutdown costs involved in a planned closure of 1,000 stores.

To minimize risk as its cash dwindles, the retailer may be reducing standing inventory and changing to an on-demand model that supplies devices when customers order them in store. Apple also may be withholding inventory, opting to ship its popular iPhone models to retailers with higher-volume sales.

Last week, Japanese magazine Mac Fan published possible schematics depicting the design of a 12.2-inch "iPad Pro" or "iPad Air Plus". The schematics suggested that the larger-screened tablet would carry dimensions of 305.31mm x 220.8mm x 7mm, or 12 inches x 8.7 inches x 0.28 inches, which is in line with previous rumors about the device. Now, YouTube user Canoopsy (via Nowhereelse.fr) has created a video showing how an iPad Air Plus with those dimensions would measure up to Apple's other devices including the company's current iPads, iPhones and 13-inch MacBook Pro.

The iPad Air Plus is said to also feature a new A9 processor and dual top and bottom speakers for improved audio. Mac Otakara claims that the iPad Air Plus and a new iPad mini 4 may launch between April and June of 2015. KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo also suggested earlier this month that the iPad Pro may not enter production until the second quarter of 2015 as Apple shifts its production resources towards improving supplies of the iPhone 6 Plus.

Apple this week is scheduled to appear in court and face accusations that it deliberately crippled competing music services and players in an iPod class action lawsuit from 2005, reports The New York Times. The trial will feature testimony from Steve Jobs, whose emails and a videotaped deposition taken before his death will play an important part in the plaintiffs' case.

The complaint focuses on Apple's older iPod models, which only supported music purchased on iTunes and songs downloaded from CDs. Also being disputed is Apple's FairPlay system of encoding purchased music, which limited music playback to the iPod and not competing MP3 players. In the suit, consumers claim Apple violated antitrust law by deliberately limiting interoperability with competitors, while exclusively promoting its products and services.

The email testimony is expected to paint Steve Jobs as an aggressive businessman who worked hard to ensure the success of the iPod and iTunes. This success often came at the expense of smaller competitors, which were not allowed to connect to Apple's popular iPod ecosystem. In one already released email, Jobs addresses Apple's lack of support for the-then upcoming MusicMatch music store.

"We need to make sure that when Music Match launches their download music store they cannot use iPod," he wrote. "Is this going to be an issue?"

Part of the case also involves Apple's interactions with RealNetworks, which devised a workaround in 2004 that allowed content from its music store to be played on the iPod. In an angry statement released to the media, Apple accused RealNetworks of hacking the iPod and threatened to disable this functionality in future iPod software updates.

To counteract Jobs' testimony, Apple is expected to argue that updates to the iPod and iTunes were designed to improve the platform for the consumer and not cripple competing devices. The company also likely will point out that the price of the iPod has gone down over the years, despite Apple's alleged monopolistic behavior.