MacRumors

It appears the United States Securities and Exchange Commission has launched an inquiry into GT Advanced's trading activity, according to a new filing released today.

The SEC sent a letter to GT Advanced on October 15, letting the company know that it was seeking "certain information regarding trading activity in the Company's securities," along with more information on its sapphire business and securities offering dating back to January 1, 2013.

Shortly after GT Advanced filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, it became clear that GT's CEO Thomas Gutierrez and COO Daniel Squiller had been selling off large amounts of stock, with some of the plans put in place just after production troubles surfaced in February 2014.

Gutierrez sold off 9,000 shares of GT Advanced stock a day before the iPhone 6 was announced as part of a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 Plan enacted in March. He earned $160,000 from that particular sale, but had also sold shares on several other occasions in 2014, netting more than 10 million dollars. Comparatively, Gutierrez sold no stock in 2013, ahead of the company's Apple deal.

Squiller sold $1.2 million worth of stock in May, and made plans to sell off additional shares throughout 2014, garnering an additional $750,000 before the company's October bankruptcy filing, and it appears that the well-timed divestitures have roused suspicion with the SEC.

After GT Advanced inked a deal with Apple in 2013, its stock began to rise significantly on rumors suggesting Apple would use the company's sapphire in its iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. Stock prices went on to fall more than 1/3 in September after it became clear Apple had not opted to use sapphire for the devices.

According to court documents and leaked information, the deal between Apple and GT Advanced soured over the latter company's inability to hit necessary milestones and the strict contract terms that Apple imposed on GT. Additional court documents were recently unsealed, and new details on the relationship could come to light as soon as tomorrow.

The two companies have already signed an agreement to dissolve their relationship, with GT Advanced planning to decommission and sell off furnaces to repay the $440 million it was loaned from Apple. GT has already begun shutting down its Arizona plant, with a final shutdown planned for December 31.

With the launch of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, Apple announced a partnership with U2 that saw the band's latest album distributed to iTunes users for free. In interviews following the launch of the album, U2's manager suggested Apple and U2 had formed a "long-term" relationship that would see them collaborating on additional projects, and now U2 frontman Bono has shed a bit more light on the partnership.

At the Web Summit in Dublin that VentureBeat attended, Bono told the audience that Apple "let us into the labs," suggesting the band's been able to work with Apple on unreleased products and services. Bono went on to share a story about an interaction with Steve Jobs that hints at what U2 and Apple might be doing.

To illustrate the kind of concepts U2 and Apple might be exploring, Bono told the story of being in a house in France with Steve Jobs a decade ago. Bono looked at a version of iTunes being displayed on a TV screen and asked Jobs if he liked design so much, then "why does that look like a spreadsheet?"

Bono said he had wondered why the album covers displayed on iTunes weren't interactive or why they didn't display archival photos, lyrics, or 3-D versions of band members: anything that would make for a more engaging visual experience with fans to complement the music.

Jobs replied that the operating system and the technology didn't quite exist yet for such an experience.

"But it does now," Bono said.

Over the course of the last few years, Apple has been facing declining music downloads, which has led the company to launch iTunes Radio and purchase streaming music service Beats Music. There are rumors suggesting Apple is planning both a dramatic overhaul of iTunes and a rebranding of Beats Music, possibly merging the two into one all-inclusive service, and it's possible U2 is offering advice on new iTunes features.

Apple has also been aiming to get artists more involved in the music distribution process. In a recent interview, Apple employees and Beats co-founders Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine said Apple's goal was to bring together the people who create art with those who distribute it, which has been evidenced in the company's recent endeavors with U2.

In addition to his comments on what the band might be working on with Apple, Bono told the audience that U2 "wanted to work with the creative people at Apple, and that Jony Ive is a guy he'd "like to be in a band with. He'd be like a bigger Edge." He also commented on the negative reaction that the "Songs of Innocence" album garnered from some users, which he apologized for in October, saying "We got a lot of people who weren't interested in U2 to be mad at U2. I would call that an improvement in the relationship."

Amazon today unveiled a new product called Echo, a cylindrical piece of hardware with a built-in Siri-style voice assistant that's able to answer a variety of requests and perform functions like playing music.

The cloud-connected Echo is entirely controlled by voice and will wake to answer a question when the word "Alexa" is spoken. Like Siri, it can answer questions like "What time is it?" "What's the weather like?" and more, plus it's able to complete tasks like setting an alarm, playing music, or creating a shopping list.

According to Amazon, Echo uses far-field voice recognition capabilities with seven microphones to detect a request from anywhere in a room, and its downward-firing speakers "can fill any room with immersive sound." Echo lets users have access to Amazon Music, Prime Music, iHeartRadio and TuneIn, and with built-in Bluetooth, Echo is also able to play music from a phone or tablet.

As it's connected to the cloud and Amazon Web Services, Echo is designed to learn and gain functionality over time, and an accompanying Amazon Echo app (Android/Fire OS only) or web interface is what lets Echo create alarms, music playlists, shopping lists, and more.

Echo is priced at $99 for Amazon Prime members and $199 for non-Prime members, but currently users must request an invitation from Amazon to be allowed to purchase the device.

In a newly posted video clip, screenwriter Aaron Sorkin spoke to Bloomberg's Emily Chang about his upcoming Steve Jobs biopic that is expected to begin filming sometime next year. When asked why he was filming yet another movie about the Apple co-founder, Sorkin noted that Steve Jobs' life could provide content for at least ten movies.

I think that you could do ten more movies about Steve Jobs, and I think if you lined up ten writers and said "write a movie about Steve Jobs", you'd get ten different movies, all of them worth going to see.

Though he spoke relatively freely about Steve Jobs, such as mentions of the three times he spoke with Jobs on the phone including one where he "fixed a couple of typos" in Jobs' famous Stanford 2005 commencement speech, Sorkin did not address the casting for his upcoming movie, which has been in flux over the past year.

Early reports had Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon and Bradley Cooper allegedly considered for the leading role, and just weeks ago Sorkin announced Christian Bale was selected without audition for the part. Bale has, however, reportedly pulled out of the project and Michael Fassbender is now reportedly in talks for the role.

Sorkin went on to address the pressure he faces in writing the movie, noting it is "the same pressure that I feel when I'm writing anything...maybe with a little bit of sauce on top of pressure because he is a person that so many people have so many strong feelings about." He notes that he has met extensively with the other seven main characters in his Jobs movie, including Steve Wozniak, former Apple CEO John Sculley, and former Mac marketing chief Joanna Hoffman.

The film will include 30-minute segments that focus on three major Apple product announcements with Danny Boyle of Slumdog Millionaire fame as director. Seth Rogen reportedly is in talks to play Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, while Academy Award nominee Jessica Chastain may also play an unspecified role in the film.

Sorkin's full interview will air tonight at 8:30 pm ET/PT on Bloomberg's Studio 1.0.

Back in March, Microsoft launched dedicated Word, Excel, and PowerPoint apps for the iPad in a first effort to bring Office capabilities to everyone, everywhere. The apps have been highly successful, garnering more than 40 million downloads, and as of today, Microsoft is expanding its Office for iOS suite, offering dedicated Word, Excel, and PowerPoint apps on the iPhone.

While Microsoft's Office apps for the iPhone have been designed with the existing iPad apps in mind, offering full feature parity, the iPhone versions have been built to adapt to the iPhone's smaller interface and optimized to put touch controls first.

All three apps take advantage of an innovative "vertical ribbon" that puts a full suite of editing tools right within thumb's reach at the bottom of the device's screen. Each individual app also has built-in tools to make the viewing experience more streamlined on the iPhone's Retina screen.

In Word, there's a Reflow button (located at the top menu bar) that shifts to a mobile-optimized view for reading and previewing what's been added to a document, and in Excel, Microsoft has focused on making it simple to edit formulas. Tapping on a cell brings up editing buttons and a dedicated formula keyboard.

Excel has a fullscreen view that lets users have an unobstructed view of their spreadsheets, and PowerPoint has similar tools, including the ability to project slides from the iPhone using AirPlay.

Today's Office update that brings Microsoft's popular productivity apps for the iPhone also includes new features and functionality for the iPad versions.

In addition to expanding its Office apps to the iPhone and updating its iPad apps, Microsoft has also decided to offer the core Office experience on the iPhone and iPad to all users for free. That means Office users will no longer be required to have an Office 365 subscription in order to access features like basic editing.

Word, Excel, and PowerPoint users on iOS will be able to view, edit, create, and print documents for free, but many advanced editing capabilities will still be reserved for Office 365 subscribers. For example, advanced change tracking features in Word such as accepting or rejecting changes are reserved for subscribers, as are Pivot Tables in Excel and Presenter View in PowerPoint. Office 365 subscribers also get 1TB of OneDrive storage.

Microsoft's Office apps for the iPhone are compatible with the iPhone 5, 5c, 5s, 6, and 6 Plus, and include full optimization for the two larger-screened iPhones. iOS 7 or later is required.

Since releasing Office for iPad in March, Microsoft has added 150 new features. Microsoft's Principal User Experience Manager Han-yi Shaw told MacRumors that the company will continue to aggressively add features in the future, and it is investigating new iOS 8 technologies like Handoff.

Microsoft's updated apps, which are now universal, will be available today from the App Store.

- Microsoft Word [Direct Link]
- Microsoft Excel [Direct Link]
- Microsoft PowerPoint [Direct Link]

In a new profile of Beats co-founders and new Apple employees Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine, The Wall Street Journal interviews the duo about their newly launched undergraduate academy at the University of Southern California called the USC Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young Academy for Arts, Technology and Business of Innovation. The Beats co-founders, who bankrolled the academy with a $70 million gift last year that led to the first students being enrolled this past August, are being profiled as part of the WSJ. Magazine 2014 Innovator Awards.

Echoing Steve Jobs' description of the philosophy of Apple, the school is aimed at preparing young people to be able to work in businesses that are at the intersection of technology and liberal arts.

“We wanted to build a school that we feel is what the entertainment industry needs right now,” he says. “There’s a new kid in town, and he’s brought up on an iPad from one and a half years old. But the problem with some of the companies up north [in Silicon Valley] is that they really are culturally inept. I’ve been shocked at the different species in Northern and Southern California—we don’t even speak the same language. The kid who’s going to have an advantage in the entertainment industry today is the kid who speaks both languages: technology and liberal arts. That’s what this school is about."

Erica Muhl, the school's first executive director, says that while other schools aim to mix business and technology, none of them add in the arts or culture. Iovine says the school's goal is to "find kids who can work at Beats or at Apple".

While Iovine and Dre unsurprisingly haven't shared what their exact roles at Apple will entail, The Wall Street Journal notes that one of the primary things on their minds is to marry people who create art with those who distribute it.

“I think what you’re seeing more and more are companies that are designed to do multiple things,” Iovine says. “If you look at the Beats model, there’s software and hardware. Look at what Amazon is doing; look at what Google’s trying to do. It’s technology and content in one.”

In recent months, Apple's music strategy has seen increased cooperation from artists in its distribution channels. In December, Beyoncè launched her newest album exclusively on iTunes with no advance promotion, while iTunes Radio has consistently featured specially curated radio stations from artists like Sam Smith. More recently, Beats Music highlighted on Twitter that its service will still stream Taylor Swift's music after she decided to pull her content from rival streaming service Spotify. Apple is expected to launch a revamped version of Beats Music in early 2015.

The full profile, which includes anecdotes on the creation of Beats Music and how Iovine had always wanted to work with Apple, as well as examples of what students are doing at the new school, can be found at The Wall Street Journal.

Earlier this year, Apple and IBM announced a major enterprise mobility partnership that would see IBM selling iOS devices to its corporate customers, creating industry-specific native apps, providing iOS-optimized cloud services, and providing support for a new AppleCare service.

IBM and Apple are now moving forward with their partnership, and Apple has recently launched a new AppleCare for Enterprise website, suggesting that its promised enterprise-grade AppleCare plan is now available for IBM's enterprise customers.

As detailed on the website, all AppleCare for Enterprise accounts are handled by an AppleCare Account Manager, providing a personal liaison with AppleCare. Apple promises a one-hour response time for all urgent issues, with IT department-level support available 24/7 via phone or email. All AppleCare for Enterprise customers can also replace 10 percent of damaged iOS devices, giving businesses an easy way to replace iPads or iPhones that have been accidentally damaged by employees.

As promised during the announcement of its IBM partnership, Apple is offering an onsite hardware repair service for AppleCare for Enterprise customers. While Apple is handling all email and phone requests, IBM Global Technology Services will provide onsite repairs.

You have the option to get onsite service coverage for two or three years from the date of your hardware purchase. If you have a hardware issue during that time, AppleCare for Enterprise will help get you back up and running quickly. IBM's Global Technology Services, a worldwide Apple Authorized Service Provider, will provide onsite service within the next business day.

The new AppleCare for Enterprise site comes just ahead of IBM's first dedicated enterprise-focused iOS apps. During Apple's recent earnings call, Tim Cook said that next month, IBM will introduce apps across six sectors: banking, government, insurance, retail, travel, and transportation and telecommunications.

Pricing on the Enterprise plans is unknown, but enterprise customers interested in finding out more about Apple's AppleCare for Enterprise plans are encouraged to contact their Apple or IBM Account Executives.

(Thanks, Craig!)

Researchers from Palo Alto Networks (via The New York Times) have published a research paper on WireLurker, a malware new family that's been infecting both Mac OS and iOS systems over the course of the past six months. The researchers say that WireLurker, which is targeting users in China, "heralds a new era in malware attacking Apple's desktop and mobile platforms."

The WireLurker malware is the "biggest in scale" in the trojanized malware family, and it is able to attack iOS devices through OS X using USB. It's said to be able to infect iOS applications similar to a traditional virus, and it is the first malware capable of installing third-party applications on non-jailbroken iOS devices "through enterprise provisioning."

Thus far, WireLurker has been used in 467 OS X apps in the Maiyadi App Store, which is a third-party Mac app store in China. The apps have been downloaded 356,104 times, infecting hundreds of thousands of users.

According to the researchers, WireLurker looks for iOS devices connected via USB to an infected Mac, installing malicious third-party applications onto the device even without a jailbreak.

WireLurker monitors any iOS device connected via USB with an infected OS X computer and installs downloaded third-party applications or automatically generated malicious applications onto the device, regardless of whether it is jailbroken. This is the reason we call it "wire lurker". Researchers have demonstrated similar methods to attack non-jailbroken devices before; however, this malware combines a number of techniques to successfully realize a new brand of threat to all iOS devices.

WireLurker exhibits complex code structure, multiple component versions, file hiding, code obfuscation and customized encryption to thwart anti-reversing. In this whitepaper, we explain how WireLurker is delivered, the details of its malware progression, and specifics on its operation.

Once installed, WireLurker can collect information from iOS devices like contacts and iMessages, and it's able to request updates from attackers. It's said to be under "active development" with an unclear "ultimate goal."

Palo Alto Neworks offers several recommendations for avoiding apps infected with WireLurker, including an antivirus product and Mac App Store installation restrictions that prevent apps from unknown third parties from being installed. Users should not download and run Mac apps or games from third-parry app stores, download sites, or other untrusted sources and jailbreaking should be avoided.

Unknown enterprise provisioning profiles must be avoided as well, and users should avoid pairing their iOS devices with unknown computers or charging with chargers from untrusted or unknown sources.

Palo Alto Networks has notified Apple of the malware, but an Apple spokesperson declined to offer a comment.

Update: Apple has issued a statement to iMore about the issue:

"We are aware of malicious software available from a download site aimed at users in China," an Apple spokesperson told iMore, "and we've blocked the identified apps to prevent them from launching. As always, we recommend that users download and install software from trusted sources."

Apple Pay competitor Merchant Customer Exchange or MCX, which is a group of retailers working on a QR-code based payment system called "CurrentC," has been in the spotlight in recent weeks after two prominent MCX members, Rite Aid and CVS, opted to remove Apple Pay support from their retail stores.

After a glut of negative press and a hacking incident, MCX executives have been scrambling to defend CurrentC, hosting a press conference and doing several interviews.

The latest information on MCX and CurrentC comes courtesy of The Verge, in an interview conducted with MCX CEO Dekkers Davidson.

According to Davidson, when it comes to security, CurrentC uses the same tokenization system Apple Pay is based on, replacing card numbers with random numbers. He also says that if customers want to be "totally anonymous" to retailers, "they'll get that."

We think Apple Pay, which has also embraced the concept of low value tokens as we did three years ago, we're probably in simpatico on that one. I pull out my phone, I hold up my phone with a QR code that says "I am a customer at lane 6", and now we're each sent a token and a message to the cloud that says "I am the seller" and "I am the buyer and I want to pay for this transaction with the payment instrument that I've selected in my phone." There's no piece of paper to sign, there's no print out, there's no signature to hand back. There are never credentials in my device at the point of sale, it all occurs in a secure server. So like with Apple, if anyone were to intercept the low value tokens there's nothing they could do with that.

One of the major draws of CurrentC that MCX executives have highlighted time and time again is its ability to incorporate loyalty cards and discounts, suggesting consumers want more than just a payment method. Davidson pointed out that the average American household is signed up for 18 loyalty programs but only uses a handful, with CurrentC making it "rewarding" and "hassle free" for customers to take advantage of loyalty programs. The CurrentC app offers automatic credits, points, and coupons, which are redeemed with each transaction.

This puts all the power in the hand of the consumer to make it simple, to make it rewarding and to make it hassle free. So for us, it's a lot more than about payments. Paying by mobile is a flat value proposition, it'll be cool for a while, but we hear from our merchants and they hear from their consumers that they want something that brings it all together, that's what we're doing.

On the subject of QR codes, Davidson says that CurrentC is "quite forgiving." Customers will not need to hold their phones "at a certain angle with certain light," and it's "designed to read a QR code pretty quickly." Davidson pointed towards Starbucks as a QR code success story, and said Starbucks is an "inspiration."

Davidson also commented on MCX's exclusivity agreements that have prompted stores like CVS and Rite Aid to stop accepting Apple Pay, while MCX member Meijer has continued to offer Apple's payment solution. "They have to make the decision that's best for their business," he said, but he went on to say that defying MCX's exclusivity agreements does have "consequences." Merchants who do not keep agreements will not see MCX "put a lot of energy in helping get [them] launched in the near term."

Davidson's full interview, which also includes details on why he thinks customers will use CurrentC, more of his thoughts on QR codes, and more information on the recent hacking attempt that saw customer email addresses compromised can be found over at The Verge.