MacRumors

Apple is hiring away Samsung employees working on next-generation technology, including signal- and visual-processing management, according to The Korea Times.

The report, citing unnamed officials at the South Korean tech giant, also claims that Apple has expanded its recruitment efforts to focus on Samsung personnel with expertise in battery technology amid rumors that it is working on an electric vehicle project.

"Some of our personnel have been hired by Apple. They now work at Apple's headquarters in San Jose, Calif.," said one official, adding that Apple offers highly-competitive benefits and large annual paychecks.

"Those former Samsung workers are given greater independence to proceed with their tasks. Apple prefers to use Samsung's chip experts because they are very diligent, mission-oriented and are prepared to acquire new knowledge," said another official.

Apple has reportedly assembled an automotive team with hundreds of employees working at a "top-secret research lab" near its Cupertino, California headquarters. Apple appears to be recruiting battery experts from multiple companies to join the team, as the company also faces a lawsuit for poaching key battery engineers from A123 Systems. That lawsuit also listed Samsung as one of the companies that Apple has been poaching battery engineers from.

Apple's appetite for hiring former Samsung personnel has expanded to the battery arena as the Cupertino-based company is reportedly developing electric vehicles, which means Apple needs battery experts. […]

"As the electric vehicle business is a new one, Apple needs patents and experts in battery technology. Top human resources firms have been approaching Samsung's battery experts, individually, and I think such human exchange moves are a win-win for both," said the official.

Earlier this month, multiple reports from credible sources claimed that Apple is working on an electric and possibly autonomous vehicle that could enter production in 2020. Some other reports, however, downplay the rumors by claiming that Apple is working on expanding its dashboard presence through CarPlay. Any electric car project at Apple is likely in the early stages of research and development at this time.

Apple announced on Monday that it will invest €1.7 billion to build and operate two new data centers in Europe. The state-of-the-art facilities will be located in County Galway, Ireland and the Central Jutland Region of Denmark, powering Apple's online services such as the App Store, iTunes Store, iMessage, Maps and Siri for European customers.

“We are grateful for Apple’s continued success in Europe and proud that our investment supports communities across the continent,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “This significant new investment represents Apple’s biggest project in Europe to date. We’re thrilled to be expanding our operations, creating hundreds of local jobs and introducing some of our most advanced green building designs yet.”

The data centers will be powered by 100% clean and renewable energy sources, with each having the lowest environmental impact yet for any Apple data center. Apple will also work with local partners to develop additional renewable energy projects derived from wind and other sources for future usage.

“We believe that innovation is about leaving the world better than we found it, and that the time for tackling climate change is now,” said Lisa Jackson, Apple’s vice president of Environmental Initiatives. “We’re excited to spur green industry growth in Ireland and Denmark and develop energy systems that take advantage of their strong wind resources. Our commitment to environmental responsibility is good for the planet, good for our business and good for the European economy.”

The 166,000-square-meter data centers are expected to be begin operations by 2017 and help support nearly 672,000 jobs in Europe, a large portion of which relate to the development of iOS apps. Apple claims that developers have earned more than €6.6 billion through app sales since the App Store launched in 2008.

Apple hired former NV Energy VP Bobby Hollis to serve as its Renewable Energy Manager in April 2014, just over two years after outlining that it achieved 100% renewable energy usage at its data centers in its 2012 environmental responsibility report. Last year, the iPhone maker reached a deal for a third solar farm at its North Carolina data center and expanded its Reno data center with several new data cluster buildings.

While Toyota has long been listed as one of Apple's CarPlay partners, the third best-selling auto brand in the U.S. currently has no plans to offer vehicles with the feature in that country, as noted in a New York Times overview of the race between Google and Apple to own the dashboard. Toyota also has no plans to offer Android Auto support in the U.S.

John Hanson, the national manager of Toyota’s advanced technology communications, said while the company talked frequently with both Google and Apple, it currently had no plans to adopt Android Auto or CarPlay in the United States.

“We may all eventually wind up there, but right now we prefer to use our in-house proprietary platforms for those kinds of functions,” Mr. Hanson said.

While Toyota is ruling out the U.S. market for CarPlay support for the time being, the company has not made any firm announcement about support in other countries. Shortly after Apple's CarPlay announcement, Toyota's UK division briefly posted a blog entry claiming CarPlay would be coming in 2015, but the company quickly backtracked on the claim.

Today's report from The New York Times focuses more on Android Auto than on CarPlay, likely due in large part to Apple refusal to comment for the piece. Still, it offers a glimpse of the struggles auto manufacturers have had developing in-car systems and their reluctance to turn that experience over to Apple and Google.

With consumer preference driving the market, however, many manufacturers now see little choice but to support both CarPlay and Android Auto. Vehicles supporting both systems are expected to be hitting showrooms in the near future, with Hyundai likely one of the first out of the gate.

Apple debuted a new iPad ad to air during tonight's Oscar's. Apple highlights the new ad on their website which features students at Los Angeles County High School, using the iPad to write, produce, shoot, score, and edit films. It features a voiceover from Martin Scorsese and is called "Make a film with iPad".

Mashable reports that the ad itself was filmed entirely on an iPad Air 2. Apple created a special section in the App Store highlighting the various apps used by the students for their filmmaking.

Daring Fireball's John Gruber today published a piece going in-depth on what he believes Apple's upcoming Apple Watch wearable will sell for, how the various accessory bands will be sold at retail, and just how much the all-gold Apple Watch Edition could possibly cost.

Taking a step back from the tech industry, Gruber looked at the upper tier of the fashion accessory market and decided to revisit his early fall guess that the lowest price the Apple Watch Edition could sell for would be $5,000. He began asking "friends who might know" whether they thought that estimate was too high.

The answer has always been “No”. But the way I’ve been told “No” has given me the uneasy feeling that I’ve been asking the wrong question. I should have been asking if $5,000 is too low.

I now think Edition models will start around $10,000 — and, if my hunch is right about bands and bracelets, the upper range could go to $20,000. I was off by a factor of two, and my friend Vincent, I think, nailed it back on the day Apple Watch was introduced.

Due to Apple's decision to remain silent on many details of Apple Watch pricing structure so far, Gruber, like many others, assumed the interchangable bands shown off at last September's reveal event would be able to be purchased separately. Watch wearers could, in essence, dress up a Sport Edition with a Milanese Loop, or exchange a nice leather band of a higher-tier model with a Sport band. Gruber now notes, however, that this does not appear to be the case, with band options for each watch version being limited.

He points to a list of bands available for the mid-tier stainless steel Apple Watch model. As presented on Apple's site, the list starts with the Sport band and ends with the higher-quality Space Black Stainless Steel with Link Bracelets. Besides differences between each band's 38mm and 42mm sizes, Gruber argues this ordering is an indication of price from least to most expensive.

So I’m thinking the regular Apple Watch will come in at least five pricing tiers:

1. Entry: Sport Band, black or white.
2. Regular leather: Classic Buckle, you’ll get it in black and you’ll like it.
3. Milanese Loop.
4. Deluxe leather: Modern Buckle for 38mm models, Leather Loop for 42mm models. Each with a choice of three colors.
5. Link Bracelet.

You’ll pay a premium for color straps and advanced clasp mechanisms, and you’ll pay even more for the Link Bracelet.

He isn't sure the same ordering rules will apply to the expensive Apple Watch Edition, however, with a small list of six variations, he thinks their placement on the website "almost certainly does not correspond to price."

Gruber's full piece is well worth a read, as it offers a thorough analysis of the various band options and how they will likely pair up with the various watch collections. With three different watch collections, two casing sizes, and a number of different bands that will likely vary substantially in price, the Apple Watch appears set to be available at a wide range of price points starting at the base price of $349 and quickly ramping up from there.

News and rumors about the Apple Watch and all of its editions have been building since Tim Cook announced the device's launch window sometime in April. Most recently it was reported that Apple is allowing select third-party developers to visit the company's Cupertino headquarters to help them put the finishing touches on their various Apple Watch apps before the big launch. It remains unclear, however, just how long Apple will wait to announce full details on pricing and availability.

Today we're debuting giveaways on MacRumors, a new feature that will see us partnering up with companies to give away products to our readers. You can expect to see giveaways from us on a regular basis throughout the year.

For our first giveaway, we've partnered up with Kero, a company that makes a few awesome accessories for iOS devices, like the Nomad Lightning Cable. The Nomad cable is a three-inch Apple-certified Lightning cable that comes equipped with a USB cap that attaches to a key ring or clip for portability.

If you've been a long-time MacRumors reader, you might recognize the Nomad, because we've covered it on a few occasions since it first originated on Kickstarter in 2012. There have been several iterations of the Nomad cable since then, and it now comes in three colors: white, blue, and gray.

We're giving away 50 Nomad Lightning Cables. You can enter to win using the Rafflecopter widget below. You'll need to enter an email address, which we'll only use to contact you if you've won (your email address will never be provided to a third-party). Social media accounts are not required to enter the contest, but following us on Twitter or Facebook or subscribing to our newsletter can give you a chance for extra entries. You must be 18 or older to enter and located in the United States.

The contest will run from today (2/20) at 10:00AM until next Friday (2/27) at 10:00 AM Pacific Time, at which point we will notify the winners, which will be chosen randomly. Winners will be able to pick a Nomad Cable in the color of their choosing, and it will be shipped out for free.

Winners will need to respond to our email within 48 hours, or another winner may be chosen.

Following up on the public beta program used for OS X Yosemite that allowed non-developers to try out and offer feedback on the operating system before its release, Apple will be launching similar programs for iOS 8.3 next month and iOS 9 later this year, reports 9to5Mac.

...Apple intends to release the upcoming iOS 8.3 as a public beta via the company’s existing AppleSeed program in mid-March, according to the sources. This release will match the third iOS 8.3 beta for developers, which is planned for release the same week. Apple then expects to debut iOS 9 at its June Worldwide Developer Conference, with a public beta release during the summer, and final release in the fall.

iOS 8.2 is still in developer testing as Apple gears up for an April launch of the Apple Watch, but the company has also begun seeding iOS 8.3 to developers. The update includes a number of tweaks including support for wireless CarPlay, two-step verification on Google accounts, a new emoji picker, and Apple Pay through China UnionPay.

After a dramatic visual overhaul with iOS 7 in 2013 and a number of new features such as Continuity in iOS 8 last year, iOS 9 will reportedly focus on stability and optimization, although some new features are likely to be included.

Update 4:21 PM PT: Re/code has confirmed that Apple has plans to offer a public beta testing program for iOS 8.3 beginning in mid-March.

Apple is hoping to begin production on the car project that it is secretly developing as early as 2020, reports Bloomberg. According to the site's sources, Apple is pushing employees working on the car to have it ready to go in five years, a timeline that will eventually allow it to compete with similar electric vehicles coming out from Tesla and GM in 2017.

The timeframe -- automakers typically spend five to seven years developing a car -- underscores the project's aggressive goals and could set the stage for a battle for customers with Tesla Motors Inc. and General Motors Co., both of which are targeting a 2017 release of an electric vehicle that can go more than 200 miles on a single charge and cost less than $40,000.

Apple's electric car plans first came to light last week, after The Wall Street Journal shared news of "Project Titan," an electric vehicle that hundreds of Apple employees are working on. Apple has been heavily recruiting automotive experts to join the project and plans to have a team of about 1,000 employees developing the car. Bloomberg says the team currently has about 200 members.

Over the course of the last few months, the company has picked up employees from companies like Tesla, Ford, GM, A123 Systems, MIT Motorsports, Ogin, Autoliv, Concept Systems, and General Dynamics.

As with The Wall Street Journal's initial report, Bloomberg's report is quick to point out that that Apple could decide to delay or abandon its car project all together if the company is unhappy with its progress. Apple works on many prototype projects that never make it to production.

Little is known about Apple's electric car at this point, but rumors have suggested that it might resemble a minivan and that it may or may not be self-driving.

Apple has launched a repair program to fix MacBook Pro machines sold between February 2011 and February 2013 that have problems with distorted video, no video, or unexpected system restarts.

As of February 20 in the United States and Canada (February 27 in other countries), users with affected machines will be able to visit an Apple Store or Apple Authorized Service Provider to receive repairs for their MacBook Pros at no charge. Customers will be able to bring their MacBook Pro to an Apple Store or service provider or send it in via mail for repairs.

An affected MacBook Pro may display one or more of the following symptoms:
-Distorted or scrambled video on the computer screen
-No video on the computer screen (or external display) even though the computer is on
-Computer restarts unexpectedly

Affected products include 15 and 17-inch MacBook Pro models manufactured in 2011 and 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro models manufactured between Mid 2012 and Early 2013. Users can see whether their computers are affected by using the "Check Your Coverage" tool on Apple's site.

Apple is contacting customers who already paid to have their machines repaired either through Apple or an Apple Authorized Service Provider to arrange a reimbursement. The company asks customers who paid for a repair for the issue and did not receive an email to contact Apple.

Apple will provide repairs until February 27, 2016, or three years from the MacBook's original date of sale, depending on which coverage period is longer.

Some early and late-2011 MacBook Pro owners with discrete graphics cards have been experiencing GPU failures and crashes for years now, causing screen glitches and image distortion, among other problems.

MacBook owners petitioned Apple to begin a repair program for the machines on change.org and even went as far as filing a class action lawsuit after an extended period of time without a repair program.

The lawsuit asked that Apple acknowledge that an issue exists and repair affected machines, which the company appears to be prepared to do with the launch of today’s repair program covering both repairs and reimbursements for repairs already made. It is unclear how the new program will affect the class-action lawsuit brought against Apple by 2011 MacBook Pro owners.

(Thanks, Philip!)

Fuel cells, which generate power via chemical reactions, aren't exactly new technology, having been invented in the 1830s, but they're seen by some as one of the next steps in the evolution of electrical power. In the not-so-distant future, we may adopt fuel cells for powering cars, homes, and a whole range of consumer electronics with clean energy.

Intelligent Energy is one of the companies working to further fuel cell technology in the consumer space, having recently introduced its first hydrogen fuel cell iPhone charger, the "Upp." MacRumors went hands-on with the Upp to give fuel cell technology a try, and we spoke to Intelligent Energy's Corporate Development Director Julian Hughes, who shared some details about Intelligent Energy's fuel cell ambitions.

The Upp, introduced in the U.K. in November, is a hydrogen micro generator that uses replaceable, refillable fuel cartridges to charge an iPhone. With a cartridge attached, the Upp becomes a PEM (polymer electrolyte membrane) fuel cell, which transforms the chemical energy freed during a reaction of hydrogen and oxygen to electrical energy to power an electronic device. Since it's using a chemical reaction to create power, there's an audible clicking noise as the Upp releases water vapor while charging.

There are two main parts to the Upp: the base charger, and the fuel cell cartridge that it ships with. Using the Upp is as simple as popping the cartridge into the bottom of the charger, plugging a Lightning cable into the USB port, (not included) and then plugging in an iPhone.

➜ Click here to read rest of article...

Apple may be building a stand for the Apple Watch at Galeries Lafayette, a high-end department store located on Boulevard Haussmann in Paris, according to a few news outlets based in France. Mac4Ever [Google Translate] reports that the stand would reside on the first floor of the department store, with possible expansion to other stores along the Avenue des Champs-Élysées.

Mac4Ever claims the current construction on the stand, which began at the beginning of February, is hidden as workers finish it up ahead of the Apple Watch launch in April. They also report that Angela Ahrendts, Apple's new retail chief, oversaw the setting up of the display and general organizational duties concerning the project.

The fashion-focused FashionMag.com [Google Translate] added more details onto the rumor, and a slightly clearer picture of the ongoing construction of the possible Apple-leased space. The site reports that the project has taken the place of a small food court and a few lesser-known jewelry shops, and spans four balconies within the Galeries Lafayette. From what they could tell, it's located near the stores of Celine Saint Laurent and Miu Miu.

As the Apple Watch nears its launch date, news and rumors on Apple's first wearable device have picked up steam. Most recently it was announced to be featured on the March cover of Self magazine on the wrist of model and Victoria's Secret Angel Candice Swanepoel.

Apple has also reportedly placed between 5 and 6 million orders for the initial run of the Watch, with the most expensive gold Apple Watch Edition expected to dominate the revenue of the wearable, despite having the least amount of orders placed compared to the lower tiers of the Watch.

Apple's alleged automotive team consisting of hundreds of employees working on an electric vehicle includes several former Tesla, Ford and GM employees, according to 9to5Mac. The report reveals that Apple has also recruited talent from smaller firms in the automotive industry and other fields, including A123 Systems, MIT Motorsports, Ogin, Autoliv, Concept Systems and General Dynamics.

The list of recent hires from Tesla includes David Nelson, a mechanical engineering manager at the car maker until this month, and John Ireland, previously a senior powertrain test engineer at the company. Tesla's former head recruiter Lauren Ciminera also joined Apple in September and is likely responsible for recruiting additional engineers for the automotive team. The trio of hires surface just weeks after it was reported that Apple and Tesla continue to fight over top employees.

Another notable hire is Mujeeb Ijaz, who most recently served as chief technology officer at A123 Systems. Ijaz led a team responsible for research and development for the company's leading lithium-ion energy storage technology. Prior to that, he worked at Ford as an electric and fuel cell vehicle engineering manager for nearly sixteen years. The hiring adds fuel to yesterday's report that Apple faces a lawsuit for poaching key employees from A123 Systems.

The report adds that Apple has also recruited former Ford engineers David Perner and Jim Cuseo, although the latter has been with the company since 2010 as a product design lead and manager for the iMac. General Motors' Fernando Cunha recently joined Apple as well after working various engineering and product design roles at the auto maker since 2001. Dillon Thomasson of General Dynamics, Robert Gough of Autoliv, Hugh Jay of EMCO Gears and Rui Guan of Ogin are other new hires.

Last week, multiple reports from credible sources claimed that Apple is developing an electric vehicle that is possibly autonomous in a top-secret research lab near its headquarters in Cupertino, California. Some reports say otherwise, claiming that Apple is working on expanding its dashboard presence through CarPlay. These hirings suggest that Apple may be working on a larger project after all, but it remains to be seen if a full-fledged electric vehicle is in the works.