MacRumors

Internal documents included in the second patent trial between Samsung and Apple last week revealed how Apple viewed Android, calling for a "Holy War" against Google and expressing concern about competition from larger-screened, lower-priced Android phones. A new set of documents reported by Re/code and AppleInsider reverses this perspective, showing how Samsung was laser-focused on Apple with the objective of beating the Cupertino company as its "#1 priority" in 2012.

The internal document outlines the lessons Samsung learned in 2011 as it continued development on its Galaxy line of phones and faced a patent infringement lawsuit from Apple. Samsung considered the threat from Apple to be "extremely real and urgent" and communicated to employees that "everything must be [in the] context of beating Apple" in 2012.

Samsung listed the expected features of the upcoming iPhone 5 and predicted how Apple's iPhone would perform in the marketplace. The Korean company also detailed how it would boost its own Galaxy branding and work with both carriers and retailers to expand its retail presence to combat growing consumer interest in the iPhone.

Samsung also detailed a strategy of "continuous" branding campaigns where "Galaxy Nexus rolls into Galaxy Note into GSIII," playing upon Apple's consistent branding of iPhone across generations of its products.

"Drive consumer pull," Samsung's Galaxy branding document strategized, hoping that "customers walk into stores asking for Samsung." To get there, Samsung said it needed to "understand why customers buy Apple," and then "develop countermeasures by carrier/retail."

The documents reveal that Samsung shifted its product lineup to serve carriers with 80% of the company's product roadmap supporting carrier demands for joint projects, exclusive offers and low-cost handsets for entry-level consumers. Only 20% of its product lineup focused on high-end handsets like the Galaxy S3 and the Note II.

Samsung also spent billions on advertising to support its Galaxy phones with Apple-targeted ads that focused on iPhone line-waiters, Apple's Genius Bar and more. Samsung credits the company's 2012 "Next Big Thing" advertisements as "a tipping point" for the company's branding and claimed in its opening arguments last week that Apple was taken aback by the edgy marketing campaign.

The latest internal documents coming out of the Samsung/Apple trial show some candid insight into Apple's analysis of the future of the smartphone market.

The documents posted by Re/code include an Apple slide deck from April, 2013 for 2014 planning. The document includes graphs showing that Apple's growth rates are slowing quarter after quarter. The main reason for the decline amongst consumers? Consumers want less expensive and larger screen smartphones:

In a further breakdown, Apple acknowledges that "consumers want what we don't have" -- which shows that the majority of smartphone growth is in both >4" screen sizes and <$300 markets.
Apple has been heavily rumored to be introducing a larger iPhone 6 this fall. The size of the new iPhone has been thought to be 4.7" or 5.5" with the 4.7" model coming first. While rumors have been consistent, Apple's own insights from 2013 explain why such a move is likely to happen.

Google is gearing up to release a new Android TV set-top media box that utilizes a simple card interface with native apps and games, voice search, and a proactive recommendation system, according to new documents obtained by The Verge.

The documents note that while Android powers the box's experience, the interface offers a series of "cards" representing different channel options, including movies, shows, apps, and games. Users will be able to scroll through the interface with a four-way directional pad that contains Enter, Home, and Back buttons, with the set-top box reportedly featuring optional game controllers.

"Access to content should be simple and magical," reads one Google document, which adds that it should never take more than three clicks or gestures to go from the homescreen to enjoying a new piece of content. Even search appears to be secondary to intuitively understanding what you want and delivering it as soon as possible, though search will be still be one of Android TV's primary tools. In addition to universal search, pressing the Search button on the controller will let you search from within individual apps as well.

Moreover, Android TV is said to contain support for voice input, notifications, and search, with the set-top box also being able to recommend content based on a user's interests and resume content viewed elsewhere the moment Android TV is turned on. Google is reportedly asking select developers to create games and apps for its new set-top box with optimized interfaces for the TV, as apps for Vevo, Netflix, Hulu, Pandora are expected to ship with the device. The company will also work in its own apps including Play Movies, YouTube, and Hangouts.

"Android TV is Android, optimized for the living room consumption experience on a TV screen," writes the company, but the focus is on simplicity for now. Google is stripping away unneeded features like telephony, cameras, touchscreen support and near-field communication to keep developers focused, and handing them ready-made interfaces where they can hopefully just plug in shows, games, photos, music, and films.

Google is also expected to keep its popular Chromecast HDMI streaming accessory with the release of Google TV, with The Verge noting that developers will be required to build two different interfaces for the two different devices.

It is not known specifically when the device will launch, but it is clear that Google's Android TV will enter a growing market of set-top boxes -- just this past week, Amazon launched its own Fire TV media streaming box with voice search, game support, and more, to compete with other devices like the Apple TV and Roku.

The move comes as Apple is said to be preparing a new version of the Apple TV that will include game support and might possibly integrate with Comcast's network to enable a streaming TV service for users. Apple is expected to unveil its new Apple TV sometime in the near future, with some rumors suggesting a launch as early as April.

Steve Jobs outlined a potential future for the Apple TV in an email correspondence with top Apple executives in 2010, a year before his death, noting potential plans for the "Apple TV 2" that included TV subscriptions, apps, browser and a "magic wand" control device. The email was published today as a part of Apple's lawsuit trial with Samsung (via The Verge).

8. Apple TV 2 - David Moody, Jeff Robbin
- Strategy: stay in the living room game and make a great "must have" accessory for iOS devices
- sales so far, projections for this holiday season
- add content:
- NBC, CBS, Viacom, HBO, ...
- TV subscription?
- where do we go from here?
- apps, browser, magic wand?

While the potential Apple TV features aren't mentioned in concrete terms, they do provide insight into features Apple was internally discussing and considering in 2010. Additionally, the internal email also confirms that Apple has considered using its patented Nintendo Wiimote-like MagicWand to control Apple TV.

Jobs' email also goes over other subjects for Apple's 2010 Top 100, a secret meeting in which top Apple employees discuss strategy for the upcoming year, including plans for the "plus" iPhone 4 that was eventually named the iPhone 4s and a low cost iPhone model based on the iPod touch that would replace the iPhone 3GS.

Plans for the future of iOS are also mentioned, with Jobs noting that strategy should be to "catch up to Android where we are behind (notifications, tethering, speech...) and leapfrog them (Siri, ...)".

The subject of Apple's now defunct MobileMe service makes up another large part of the email, with Jobs acknowledging that Google was "way ahead of Apple in cloud services" and that both the search giant and Microsoft had better technology than Apple but had not "figured it out yet". The email also notes that Apple's plan was to improve MobileMe to the point where it tied all Apple's products together and made its ecosystem even more "sticky", so that it would be more difficult for customers to leave for a competitor.

Finally, the email makes mention of Apple's desire to further its lead over Google in music and great apps in the App Store as a part of Apple's "holy war" with Google, with mentions for both The Beatles and iTunes in the Cloud.

Apple senior software engineer Greg Christie took the stand today in Apple's second patent trial against Samsung, where he shared some details on the development of the "Slide to Unlock" function Samsung is accused of copying and gave additional details on the development of the original iPhone.

One of Apple's major arguments against Samsung is the fact that developing the iPhone was a serious risk for the company as it was new territory, a point that Christie reiterated in his testimony as he described the three year journey of the iPhone's development (via CNET).

The iPhone went through hundreds of different design tweaks as Apple worked to make the phone function in a way that anyone could understand. The company's focus on simplicity remains to this day, with Apple designing for "normal people," as described by Christie.

"One of the biggest challenges is that we need to sell products to people who don't do what we do for a living," Christie, one of the inventors of the slide-to-unlock iPhone feature, said. When designing products, Apple keeps in mind that it wants “normal people – people with better things to do with their lives than learn how a computer might work – to use the product as well as we can."

Christie helped develop some of the original iPhone's key features and he is known as the inventor of "Slide to Unlock," a function that prevents the iPhone from being activated accidentally while within a pocket. During his testimony, Christie also detailed the creation of the function (via Re/code), noting that Apple had originally aimed to have the device's screen on at all times.

A screen that was always on proved to be infeasible, with Christie citing an inability to meet power requirements. "We had to resort to a power button," he said, stating that the company was also concerned with "pocket dialing."

"We knew we had to have a locked mode, or a locked state, where it wouldn't let you do most things, except you could unlock it," Christie said.

That need resulted in the development of Apple's famous Slide to Unlock function, which Christie testified was an important feature on the phone because it is the first thing a customer sees on the iPhone, both in store and at home.

During this second patent trial, which covers newer devices, Apple was limited to levying just five patents against Samsung, making each one vital to the case. Apple is aiming to prove that each patent is highly valuable to the company and is seeking $2 billion in damages from Samsung.

Greg Christie gave additional details on the development of the original iPhone ahead of the patent trial, which can be found in his March interview with The Wall Street Journal.

Apple is worried about larger-screened, lower-priced Android phones, according to an internal document shared today in the ongoing Apple vs. Samsung patent lawsuit (via Re/code). The document, which is from the company's sales department, notes that iPhone growth could drop due to competition from smartphones that have larger screens or lower prices than the iPhone.

"Competitors have drastically improved their hardware and in some cases their ecosystems," a member of Apple's sales team wrote in a document that was prepared as part of a fiscal 2014 offsite meeting. Portions of the document were shown Friday to the jury in the Apple-Samsung case.

Other concerns noted in the document included the idea that Android rivals were "spending 'obscene' amounts of money on advertising and/or carrier channel to gain traction" and that mobile carriers had an interest in limiting iPhone sales because of, among other things, the high subsidies they had to pay on the device.

Samsung presented the document during its cross-examination of Apple senior vice president Phil Schiller, who was on the stand earlier today. According to Schiller, the document was not representative of Apple policy and contained information that he largely disagreed with.

Ahead of the release of the iPhone 5c, many thought Apple would enter the low-cost smartphone market for the first time, positioning the phone as an alternative to cheaper Android phones. The iPhone 5c ended up being priced higher than expected and was later described by Tim Cook as a mid-tier device rather than a low-cost option.

Though it is unwilling to sacrifice quality for price even amid fierce competition, Apple is gearing up to compete with Android phones and boost its growth through another arena in 2014 -- larger screens. Rumors have indicated the iPhone 6 may be released in two sizes, 4.7 and 5.5 inches, both of which are larger than the existing iPhone 5s. Analysts have already suggested the release of a larger-screened iPhone could lure back a significant number of Android switchers and cause a massive spike in upgrades.

Other tidbits from the Apple vs. Samsung lawsuit include details on its "Holy War" with Google and the fact that Apple considered dropping its advertising partner, Media Arts Lab, due to its dissatisfaction with its advertising in early 2013.

Following Phil Schiller, Apple senior software engineer and inventor of "Slide to Unlock" Greg Christie has taken the stand, largely reiterating details on the development of the original iPhone, which were first published in an interview with The Wall Street Journal in March.

Steve Jobs is best known as the co-founder of Apple and the man who spurred the company to greatness, but he also co-founded Pixar Animation Studios, another company that's both highly successful and widely admired for the quality animated movies that it produces.

In a new book that's slated to be released next week, Pixar president and co-founder Ed Catmull gives an inside look at Pixar and what made the company so successful. An early excerpt describing Steve Jobs and his influence on the company has been published at Gizmodo, giving an inside look at Jobs' later years.

Though Jobs is often described as obsessed with perfection and relentlessly tough on his employees, Catmull notes that he underwent a significant transformation as he matured, becoming sensitive to other people's feelings and their "value as contributors to the creative process" during his last two decades of life.

Catmull attributes some of that personality shift to Jobs' experiences at Pixar, a company that he was particularly proud of because of the lasting impact its films had on the world. Jobs believed that movies endure because they "dig for deeper truths" and later in life, he fully embraced the "nobility of entertaining people."

His experience with Pixar was part of this change. Steve aspired to create utilitarian things that also brought joy; it was his way of making the world a better place. That was part of why Pixar made him so proud—because he felt the world was better for the films we made. He used to say regularly that as brilliant as Apple products were, eventually they all ended up in landfills.

During Pixar's early years, Jobs is described as the company's benefactor, later becoming a "protector" who gave constructive criticism within the company but defended it to the outside world. As a side project, Pixar was a "place [Jobs] could relax and play a little," which changed him for the better, according to Catmull.

While he never lost his intensity, we watched him develop the ability to listen. More and more, he could express empathy and caring and patience. He became truly wise. The change in him was real, and it was deep.

Jobs was able to diagnose problems at Pixar with "startling efficiency," focusing on the problem itself and not the filmmakers. As he spent more time at the company, he became "more articulate and observant of people's feelings."

Some people have said that he got mellower with age, but I don't think that's an adequate description of what happened; it sounds too passive, as if he just was letting more go. Steve's transformation was an active one. He continued to engage; he just changed the way he went about it.

Catmull's Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration is currently available for preorder on Amazon.com and will be released on April 8. The full excerpt on Steve Jobs' role at Pixar is well worth reading and can be found over at Gizmodo.

Apple's (Product) RED contributions towards the fight against AIDS have reached $70 million, according to a Friday tweet from the (RED) Twitter account. That's up $5 million from $65 million in July of 2013, with 100 percent of that total going towards HIV/AIDS programs in Africa.

Apple has collaborated with (RED) since it was created in 2006, first releasing a special edition (RED) iPod nano. Since then, Apple has released a number of (RED) devices, including iPod nanos and shuffles, iPad Smart Covers, iPhone Bumpers, and iPhone 5s cases. With every (RED) product bought, Apple donates a portion of the purchase price to the charity.

Last year, lead Apple designer Jony Ive teamed up with designer Marc Newson to create a range of one-of-a-kind products that were auctioned off by Sotheby's, with proceeds going to (RED). Items included a red Mac Pro and solid gold EarPods, earning nearly $13 million in total.

(Product) RED is affiliated with several other companies in addition to Apple, including Starbucks, Nike, and American Express, raising more than $200 million to date.

Earlier this week, Amazon launched its Fire TV media streaming box, entering a crowded market with devices from Roku, the Chromecast from Google and the Apple TV. With the Fire TV delivering a number of features rumored for a future Apple TV, reactions to Amazon's new box have certainly been of interest to Apple fans.

With an immediate launch for Fire TV, the device has already landed in the hands of reviewers and at popular repair shop iFixit, which promptly tore the device down. Early analysis of the Fire TV suggests the device has market-leading hardware that is hindered by less-than-perfect software.

On the hardware front, iFixit confirms the Fire TV is a powerhouse with a quad-core, 1.7 GHz Qualcomm Krait 300 processor, Qualcomm Adreno 320 dedicated GPU, 2 GB LPDDR2 RAM clocked at 533 MHz, 8 GB internal storage, 802.11a/b/g/n MIMO Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0. The Fire TV has the power to play back HD videos, with extra to spare for games.

Though the hardware is impressive, early reviews suggest the device's blazing performance is overshadowed by a poor search experience that makes finding content on the Fire TV a chore, says Dave Smith in a review for ReadWrite. While Voice Search offers an improvement over typical manual input, its results are limited to Amazon services.

Due to the extreme limitations of Voice Search, browsing through Netflix — where you’ll probably spend most of your time, considering Amazon’s rather limited library of quality movies for free streaming — is, once again, manual labor.

In time, applications like Netflix and Hulu+ could support Voice Search—maybe even through a simple software update. But since searching is so important on this device, Amazon has really hung early-adopters out to dry. Even when Voice Search works, it can’t filter the results by movies or programs you can stream for free.

Because of its high-end hardware, Amazon couldn't undercut its competition and had to release the Fire TV at a price point that is on the high-end of the market as noted by Leslie Horn of Gizmodo.

"More features and more horsepower are rarely a bad thing, but in this case it's driven the price of Fire TV much higher than one might have expected from an Amazon product. In a world full of $35 Chromecasts and $50 Roku sticks — which definitely can't do as much as Fire TV, but can arguably do more than enough — forking over $100 for the ability to play some biggie-sized tablet games is a tough sell."

Scott Stein of CNET focused on the gaming feature of the Fire TV, saying it isn't groundbreaking and doesn't offer a compelling alternative to existing smartphone, tablet, or console games.

Don't expect anything more than what Android/iOS already offers: the Fire TV's initial offerings, while better than I'd expected, cover a lot of familiar bases. Terraria, Badland, Asphalt 8, Riptide GP 2, Dead Rising 2, The Walking Dead, even Minecraft Pocket Edition...you can already get all these in many other places.

To help set it apart from its competitors, Amazon included an app store, gaming and wireless controller support to Fire TV. Earlier rumors suggest Apple will bring similar features to its next generation Apple TV, adding support for games and Apple's iOS 7 controllers to the media box. Other rumors point to a device with the router features of the AirPort Express as well as a possible cable TV tie-in with partners such as Comcast.

Apple debuted its Touch ID fingerprint sensor in September of 2013 with the iPhone 5s, making it the first major smartphone to include fingerprint recognition technology. Samsung followed with its own version of a fingerprint scanner in the Galaxy S5, which is slated to be released on April 11.

A new YouTube video from Tanner Marsh compares Touch ID on iPhone 5s with the fingerprint scanner of the upcoming Galaxy S5, walking through the process of setting up fingerprint recognition on both devices and comparing and contrasting some of the available functionality.

The two fingerprint scanners are quite different, with Apple's Touch ID utilizing a round home button that captures a motionless fingerprint while Samsung's sensor is activated using a swiping motion that scans the finger from base to tip using a rectangular home button.

iPhone 5s users may be familiar with the setup process of Touch ID, which includes placing each finger on the home button multiple times in order to register a fingerprint from multiple angles. Samsung's setup is a bit different, involving multiple swipes downward on the screen over the home button.

Early reports suggested Samsung's fingerprint sensor was somewhat inaccurate, and the video depicts some of the same problems with fingerprint recognition. Marsh notes that he has to swipe directly over the center of the home button for a fingerprint to register and describes how the sensor on the S5 is hard to use with a single hand.

It seems like it's sort of hit or miss unless you swipe directly over the center of the button, covering most of it with your finger. Moreover because you have to swipe starting from the bottom of the touchscreen it makes the process nearly impossible with one hand.

As for the iPhone 5s, because the device essentially captures multiple scans of your finger in various positions you can literally unlock it from any orientation including upside down, left, right, or diagonally. It doesn't matter. It will almost always recognize your finger.

While Samsung's fingerprint sensor appears to have some issues, Apple's Touch ID faced its own problems early on, including "fade," or the increasingly erratic performance of the fingerprint sensor over time. iOS 7.1, released in March, solved the issue, bringing much-needed improvements to Touch ID's fingerprint recognition capabilities.

Apple also faced significant scrutiny over both hacking and privacy concerns after the launch of the iPhone 5s, leading it to publish multiple documents detailing how the feature works, assuring users that only mathematical representations of fingerprints are stored in the A7 processor’s Secure Enclave, which is walled off from the rest of iOS.

Samsung may face some of the same scrutiny following the April 11 release of the Galaxy S5, especially as the company has plans to allow developers access to the feature.

Samsung's S5 will also be compatible with PayPal's mobile payment app, allowing users to authorize PayPal payments with a fingerprint, a feature that could also cause concern with some users. Apple has plans to enter the payment arena with its Touch ID fingerprint scanner, but has yet to do so.

Apple is exploring touch screen technology that determines pressure sensitivity using a combination of capacitive touch and infrared light sensing, according to a new patent application recently published by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (via AppleInsider).

The patent describes a method of determining the force of a user's touch on a capacitive screen using infrared transmit lines from transmitters and receivers positioned under the frame of the cover glass. Capacitive touch combined with light would determine both the position of the finger and distinguish a soft touch from a harder touch, allowing Apple to implement gestures that could vary with force.

Using infrared light to determine where a user touches a screen is a method known as Frustrated Total Internal Reflection, or FTIR. FTIR is essentially a light-based way to detect multitouch, bouncing infrared light off of the touch screen to detect interference from a finger. When combined with capacitive touch, the interference measurements can also deduce force.

FTIR has been used by Microsoft for its Perceptive Pixel products, as noted in Apple's patent application. Microsoft offers several large-screened multi-touch sensing devices that use FTIR and offers a technology called Microsoft PixelSense, which is used in the Samsung SUR40.

As implemented by Microsoft, the FTIR technology, which uses cameras to detect light refracted by pressure, allows multiple people to use the device at once and it also recognizes and distinguishes objects that are not fingers.

Though Apple has not yet built pressure sensitivity into the touch screens of its mobile devices, the company has been looking at various techniques for implementing pressure detection over the last several years. In addition to infrared light, Apple has explored force sensors, spring membranes, and pressure sensitive device casings.

Given Apple's continued interest in pressure sensitive touch screens and competing products that already include pressure sensitivity, such as Microsoft's Surface Pro line of tablets, the implementation of the technology in some form or another seems like a logical step for Apple's future mobile devices.