Apple has been ranked second, edged out slightly by Samsung in J.D. Power's latest U.S. tablet satisfaction study. Samsung scored 835 on a 1,000 point scale, while Apple was just behind at 833. Both companies got 5-star ratings from J.D. Power.
The survey found Apple scores particularly well in performance and ease of operation, while Samsung improved across all five factors measured by J.D. Power and ranked particularly well on cost. The survey found that 50% of consumers get recommendations from family and friends for tablets, while 49% peruse a manufacturer's website for information.
Apple has used J.D. Power rankings numerous times in its marketing surveys in the past.
"Whether consumers prefer the online channel for competitive pricing compared with the tactile retail store experience, effectively matching owner needs with the appropriate tablet model during the purchase process goes a long way in positively influencing overall satisfaction," said Kirk Parsons, senior director of telecommunications services at J.D. Power.
The 2013 U.S. Tablet Satisfaction Study--Volume 2 is based on experiences evaluated by 3,375 tablet owners who have owned their current device for less than one year. The study was fielded between March and August 2013. The study measures satisfaction across five key factors (in order of importance): performance (26%); ease of operation (22%); styling and design (19%); features (17%); and cost (16%).
Apple has begun inserting special entries for some of its own stock iOS apps and services into search results for users on the iOS App Store, notes MacStories, which first picked up on the addition from a Tweet by Lukas Burgstaller.
The results attempt to steer users searching for apps related to certain topics toward Apple's built-in offerings, perhaps reminding users that their needs may already be met without needing to resort to App Store apps. The special results can be seen with a variety of search terms, including exact matches for Apple's offerings such as "safari" and "siri" but also with more general terms such as "SMS" or "movies".
If you search for common terms like “web”, “SMS”, or “movies” in the iOS 7 App Store you’ll see special search results for Apple apps like Safari, Messages, and iTunes with a large icon, a description, and a link to learn more or open an app (such as Safari). These results appear on the App Store for iOS 7 devices (I wasn’t able to display them on a Mac using iTunes) and, in my tests, they also worked for queries like “browser”, “messages”, “cloud”, “internet”, “Siri”, and “text”. I’ve tried several other queries, but I couldn’t see results for other apps like Reminders, Calendars, Mail, Photos, Music, or Notes.
Depending on the app or service showing up as the result, users can either directly open the app or be directed to pages on Apple's site to learn more.
MacStories notes that while the new feature is a good way for Apple to share information with new users who may be unfamiliar with all of the apps and services included on iOS devices, it could cause concern for third-party developers who might see it as Apple trying to discourage users from downloading their apps.
Ahead of the launch of the iPad Air just hours from now, Apple's online stores in the Asia-Pacific region have been taken offline. Countries in the region where the device will be launching include Australia, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Macao, and Singapore, although all online stores in the region are currently down.
Apple's in-store sales will begin at 8:00 AM local time in countries where the company operates its own stores, and online store outages should work their way across the world later today with separate batches for Europe and North America.
Apple's November 1 launch for the iPad Air is taking place in over 40 countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, China (Wi-Fi models only), Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macao (Wi-Fi models only), Macedonia, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Romania, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and United States.
In line with an advisory committee recommendation from last month, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) today announced that it is relaxing restrictions on the use of portable electronic devices during nearly all phases of flight.
Under the new regulations, by the end of the year many passengers will be able to use their personal devices, including iPhones and iPads in Airplane Mode, throughout their flights with the exception of the actual takeoff and landing, although specific implementation will be left up to the individual airlines.
Passengers will eventually be able to read e-books, play games, and watch videos on their devices during all phases of flight, with very limited exceptions. Electronic items, books and magazines, must be held or put in the seat back pocket during the actual takeoff and landing roll. Cell phones should be in airplane mode or with cellular service disabled – i.e., no signal bars displayed—and cannot be used for voice communications based on FCC regulations that prohibit any airborne calls using cell phones. If your air carrier provides Wi-Fi service during flight, you may use those services. You can also continue to use short-range Bluetooth accessories, like wireless keyboards.
Airlines may also limit device use at other times depending on circumstances, such as earlier in the landing process during periods of low visibility where pilot reliance on electronic guidance systems is critical.
Airlines will have to certify that their aircraft can tolerate any radio interference from the personal electronics devices, and the FAA will provide clear guidelines on various risks of allowing personal electronic devices, as well as on the various areas where updates will need to be made, including signage, audio announcements, flight crew checklists, and more.
For a number of years, Apple has asked that developers use only images of black iOS devices in their App Store marketing materials, although that restriction has never been firmly enforced. With the new look of iOS 7, Apple has been turning its promotional focus to white devices, and as noted by 9to5Mac earlier this month, the company removed language restricting developers to black devices, opening the door to additional color options.
On its App Store Marketing Guidelines page, Apple provides product images with blank display areas for all of the current iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch models to allow developers to paste their app screenshots into them for promotional purposes. The product colors included in Apple's downloads are limited, however, with the iPhone 5s, iPad Air, and iPad mini available in silver and space gray options while the iPhone 5c is available in blue and white and the iPod touch is available in blue and space gray.
Notably absent are files allowing developers to include their screenshots on gold iPhone 5s devices for marketing purposes, and Apple has now extended that restriction to custom photography and video, which already requires explicit approval from Apple. Apple has clarified which colors of devices may be used in custom photos and video with a new addition to the marketing guidelines:
Feature only the most current Apple products in the following finishes or colors: iPhone 5s in silver or space gray, iPhone 5c in white or blue, iPad Air in silver or space gray, and iPad mini in silver or space gray.
Just yesterday, a survey revealed that the blue and white iPhone 5c models have proven most popular with U.S. customers, and Apple's guidance on using those colors for developer marketing parallels consumer preference.
The iPhone 5s is a somewhat different story, with that survey showing the gold models with the lowest share among the three color options, but gold models have also been in the shortest supply. Those shortages have almost certainly skewed the buying patterns as customers wanting a gold iPhone have in many cases been forced to either turn to another color or hold off on their purchases until they can find a gold unit for purchase.
Apple has been heavily promoting the gold iPhone 5s in its television and print advertising for the iPhone 5s, and thus it appears that Apple prefers to keep focus on the distinctive color to itself. Within hours of the iPhone 5s launch as it became clear that customer demand for gold models was higher than expected, Apple was reportedly already moving to boost production of those models. Supplies do, however, remain very tight in Apple's retail stores and other locations.
Following yesterday's release of Apple's 10-K annual report, which we shared some numbers from, Asymco analyst Horace Dediu has now taken a closer look at some of the other retail store performance numbers. Dediu notes that Apple reported a total of 395 million visits to the company's retail locations in fiscal 2013, an increase of 23 million visitors from 2012. The analyst also shows that, with the exception of some seasonal spikes, visitors per store per quarter has remained fairly steady at 240,000 since mid-2010, compared to just 160,000 visitors per store per quarter from 2007 to 2010.
In examining potential factors driving this "quantum leap" in visitors to Apple's retail stores occurring in mid-2010, Dediu determined that the launch of the iPad could be the main reason:
That leaves product. Here we have a clear suspect. The iPad launched exactly at the point in time when the visitor count leaped. In my opinion this is the best explanation.
Let’s remember also the comment from Ron Johnson at the time of the iPad launch. He said that it was as if the stores were designed for a product like the iPad. In other words, the iPad is something that needs to be discovered with a retail experience. You can sense this when you visit the stores and the placement of the iPads within.
As Business Insider points out, Dediu also notes that the average spending per visitor in an Apple retail store has remained steady for the past several years at around $50, up from the $40 spent on average before the product launched:
Next, Dediu explains that the traffic to each store depends in part on the size of the store and the "flow" of people through the store. The store renovations that Apple recently announced, Dediu says, will be geared toward improving these. Dediu also pointed out that the average spending per visitor in the stores is very steady — "around $50 since the iPad launched, $40 prior."
Apple reported during its fourth quarter earnings call this week that its retail stores made $4.5 billion in revenue in Q4 2013, with 30 new stores coming in fiscal 2014. Two-thirds of those new stores will be located outside of the United States, and Apple plans to remodel an additional 20 stores over the course of the year.
Pocket God developer Bolt Creative has released Pocket God: Ooga Jump for iOS devices, a game based on an "easter egg" character and gameplay from the popular iOS title Doodle Jump. The game has players take controller of a pygmy named Ooga as the character attempts to collect gems through various platforms while bouncing upward. Mini games also appear during gameplay, and the user may also spend gems collected in the game to apply artifacts and boosts to Ooga.
See how many Oogles you can climb as you're grabbing gems, reaching level objectives and acquiring collectibles for your shelf. If you are signed up with Game Center, an in-game leaderboard will show off your high scores and help you keep an eye on your friends' scores. You also see your friends' score markers on wooden signs as you play the game. As you pass their score, Slam Bounce the sign and break it to find a hidden gem. The more Game Center friends you have, the more gems you can collect as you play! You can also challenge them to Oogle-height competitions!
Our sister site TouchArcade has also posted a video first look at the game, and came away impressed by the innovation in the gameplay despite the nature of the game's tried-and-true foundation. Pocket God: Ooga Jump is an $0.99 app for iOS devices, and can be downloaded through the App Store. [Direct Link]
UK Carrier Three has announced that it will be the first British carrier to offer cellular models of the iPad Air on November 1 and the iPad mini with Retina Display upon its release, reports Engadget.
The carrier will offer an entry-level 1GB data plan starting at £7.50 per month on contract, in addition to the £499 up-front cost for the tablet itself. For £25 a month, the carrier is offering a 15GB data plan, which will also be offered on contract. Initially, celluar models of the iPad Air purchased on the carrier will be restricted to 3G data, as Three will begin rolling out its faster 4G LTE networks in December, with service first launching in London, Birmingham, Manchester, and Reading.
Three also announced that cellular versions of the Retina iPad mini will be avaliable through its services with the same data plans offered alongside iPad Air, however it still remains unclear as to when specific release of the second-generation iPad mini will be due to tight supplies.
The iPad Air will be available beginning on Friday, November 1, with initial online orders beginning at 12:01 AM Pacific Time in the United States and at varying times in other countries. Apple retail locations will open at 8 AM local time on Friday to begin in-store sales.
Back in September, a court gave initial approval of a settlement in a class-action lawsuit against Apple and AT&T alleging that the companies failed to live up to customer expectations with advertised data plans for 3G-capable models of the original iPad. At the device's launch, Apple touted a $29.99/month unlimited data plan through AT&T, but just two months after the 3G iPad models became available AT&T discontinued the plan in favor of a capped data plan.
Today, the administrator handling the settlement began sending out claim forms to customers who purchased or ordered an original iPad Wi-Fi + 3G on or before June 7, 2010, allowing them to register to receive their settlement benefits. Claim forms must be filed by February 3, 2014, and the final settlement terms still need to approved by the court.
Under the terms of settlement, all U.S. customers who purchased a 3G-capable iPad will be eligible for a $40 payment from Apple. Those customers who purchased the affected device but did not activate a data plan will also be eligible for a $20 discount on AT&T's 5 GB iPad data plan, good for one year. Current pricing for that data plan is set at $50/month, so the settlement will reduce that fee to $30/month for that one-year period.
On the claim form, customers must attest that the ability to switch in and out of the unlimited data plan was a factor in their decision to purchase the 3G iPad. Customers must also provide the serial number and IMEI number for the device in order to be credited with the data plan benefit. For any customer eligible for the data plan benefit but who is no longer in possession of the affected iPad, he or she may apply the benefit to a newer iPad by submitting the serial number and IMEI number of that newer device.
Full details on the settlement and required claim forms are available on the settlement website.
A product listing for the Retina iPad mini with a release date of November 21 has appeared on Target.com, suggesting Apple's new tablet could make its debut on the Thursday before Thanksgiving. Thus far, Apple has not provided a prospective release date for its iPad mini with Retina Display, offering up only broad November launch plans.
While the November 21 launch date listed on the Target website could be a simple guess by the company, it is a logical release day for the tablet because it falls before Thanksgiving and more importantly, before Black Friday, which is a major shopping holiday in the United States.
A late November launch also gives Apple an opportunity to focus its attention on the iPad Air for the majority of the month. It is unclear, however, why Apple would choose to launch the Retina mini on a Thursday, as product releases typically fall on a Friday.
Apple's Retina iPad mini, which includes an A7 processor, is said to be in very short supply. According to a recent report, stock of the Retina iPad mini will be "ridiculously tight" until early 2014.
Though supplies of the Retina mini will be low, Apple is said to have a large quantity of iPad Airs available for purchase, which will likely alleviate some of the demand for the smaller tablet. Apple's iPad Air will go on sale this Friday, with online orders beginning at 12:01 AM in the United States and at varying times in other countries.
Both Apple Retail Stores and Apple resellers have begun receiving iPad Air stock to prepare for Friday’s launch, reports 9to5Mac. Shipments have begun showing up at Apple Stores and third party locations such as Walmart.
According to the site, major Apple retail locations across the United States are getting more than 500 units of the iPad Air, suggesting that supplies of the tablet will be plentiful, as we initially reported earlier this week. International stores are also receiving decent quantities of the iPad Air.
We've heard similar from resellers of iPads internationally with some chains indicating that they will have a solid number of iPad Airs on tap for Friday. These stores say even more supply is promised for the next couple of weeks…
Due to seemingly adequate supplies of the iPad Air, Apple will reportedly accept requests for Personal Pickup, allowing prospective buyers to reserve an iPad Air online beginning at 12:01 AM Pacific Time and pick it up at an Apple Store later that same day, avoiding lines.
Online orders for the iPad Air will begin at 12:01 AM Pacific Time in the United States, and at varying times in other countries. Apple retail locations will open at 8 AM local time in the U.S. and other countries in order to begin in-store sales. Third party outlets, such as Walmart, Best Buy, and Target, will also offer the iPad Air beginning on Friday.
Apple's iPad Air, which features a Retina display, an A7 processor, and an all new thin-and-light design, will be available in white/silver and black/space gray and begins at $499 for the entry-level 16 GB Wi-Fi only model with a $100 price increase for additional storage options up to 128 GB and an extra $129 for comparable cellular models.
Apple is working on a fix for new 13-inch Retina MacBook Pros that are experiencing issues with the trackpad and keyboard, according to a recently posted Apple knowledge base page (via CNET).
Shortly after the revamped 13-inch MacBook Pros were introduced on October 22, users began complaining about a bug causing the trackpad and the keyboard to lock up at random during usage. At the time, it was unclear whether the issues were hardware or software based, but Apple claims to be working on an update to fix the lock up, which indicates a software-based problem.
Apple is aware of rare circumstances where the built-in keyboard and Multi-Touch trackpad may become unresponsive on 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display (Late 2013) computers and is working on an update to resolve this behavior.
Apple does not give a timeline on when a potential update might be ready, but to fix the problem temporarily, the company suggests that users experiencing issues should reset the keyboard and the trackpad by closing the computer's display for a minute before reopening it.
According to new color preference data from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP), Apple's space gray iPhone 5s was the most popular choice for consumers in the United States, followed by the silver and gold models, which is unsurprising given significant supply constraints of the gold and silver iPhones.
43 percent of iPhone 5s units sold were space gray, while 30 percent were silver and 27 percent were gold. Supplies of the space gray model were more readily available than the silver and gold iPhones, but consumers have demonstrated a preference for the black iPhone in the past.
For the iPhone 5c, blue proved to be the most popular choice with 27 percent of purchasers choosing the color, followed closely by white at 25 percent, green at 21 percent, and pink at 20 percent. Apple's yellow iPhone 5c was the least popular color, purchased by only 7 percent of the 400 consumers surveyed in the month after the phones launched.
Broken down by gender, women had a preference for the silver iPhone 5s, while men preferred space gray. Gold was equally split between both genders. Men also had a preference for the white and blue models of the iPhone 5c, while the pink iPhone 5c fared much better with women.
Said CIRP Partner and Co-Founder Mike Levin, "iPhone 5S and 5C colors seem to confirm some traditional gender biases. In the iPhone 5C, men prefer the neutral white, and the Space Gray in the iPhone 5S. In contrast, women prefer lighter silver 5S and the brighter iPhone 5C colors. Interestingly, no one, including the women in the survey, appears to want the Yellow iPhone 5C very much."
Because multiple models of the iPhone 5s have been difficult to obtain, CIRP's data gives an incomplete picture of iPhone 5s preferences. It is possible that consumers desiring a gold iPhone chose another color when supplies ran out or have yet to make a purchase. Data on the iPhone 5c is likely more accurate, as supplies of the phone have been plentiful since launch.
Research firm IDC today announced its preliminary estimates of worldwide tablet shipments for the third quarter of 2013, finding that Apple's share of the market has fallen to under a third. According to IDC's numbers, Apple held a 29.6% share of the market for quarter, compared to 32.4% in the previous quarter and a 40.2% share in the year-ago quarter.
Though Apple's unit shipments grew slightly from last year to this year -- from 14 million to 14.1 million -- because so many more Android tablets were sold, particularly by Samsung and Lenovo, Apple's total tablet market share dropped by more than 10%. Notably, the quarter preceded the recent iPad refresh and should logically be Apple's weakest quarter of the year.
Shipments in millions
With no new iPad product launches in the second or third quarter to drive volume, Apple experienced a quarter-over-quarter decline in shipments from 14.6 million in 2Q13 to 14.1 million in 3Q13. Year over year, iPad shipments grew less than one percent. Apple's slowing growth—caused in part by its decision in late 2012 to move its product launches from earlier in the year to the fourth quarter—has caused the company's tablet market share to slip to 29.6%, its lowest share to date. However, with the new iPad Air shipping November 1st and the refreshed iPad mini with Retina scheduled to roll out later in November, IDC expects Apple to enjoy robust shipment growth during the fourth quarter.
"With two 7.9-inch models starting at $299 and $399, and two 9.7-inch models starting at $399 and $499, Apple is taking steps to appeal to multiple segments," said Jitesh Ubrani, Research Analyst with IDC's Tablet Tracker. "While some undoubtedly hoped for more aggressive pricing from Apple, the current prices clearly reflect Apple's ongoing strategy to maintain its premium status. It's worth noting that Apple wasn't the only one to increase the price of its small-sized tablet during this product cycle: Both Google and Amazon increased the price of their newest 7-inch tablets from $199 to $229 to cover the higher costs associated with high resolution screens and better processors."
Second-place Samsung continues to close on Apple in the tablet market, garnering 20.4% of the market -- and more than doubling its total tablet shipment number -- as other major tablet makers continue struggled to sell more than 3.5 million tablets.
As always, it is important to note that IDC's numbers track shipments instead of sales, and thus how many shipped devices are making their way into consumers' hands remains unclear. IDC's figures are also estimates, as most companies do not release their exact tablet shipment data and thus research firms must rely on supply chain data and calculations from information that is made public by manufacturers to build their estimates.
The iPad Air's graphics performance was 40 to 70 percent better than its predecessor in benchmarks conducted by AnandTech in an extensive review of the new tablet. Like the iPhone 5s, the iPad Air incorporates an A7 chip with IMG's PowerVR G6430 graphics processing unit (GPU), which is estimated to have a max GPU clock of 450 Mhz.
In T-Rex HD game simulation benchmarks, the iPad Air performed up to 75 percent better than the fourth-generation iPad and up to 36 percent better in the 3DMark Ice Storm benchmark. GPU gains over the iPad 4 were as high as 60 percent in 3DMark's GPU-specific benchmark suite.
While the iPad Air outperformed the iPad 4 in the majority of tests, there was a decline in triangle rate performance in the new model, though AnandTech has yet to see any real world impact from this change.
Along with significant improvements in GPU performance, the iPad Air has also shown huge gains in processing power. In Geekbench 3 benchmarks published today, the iPad Air was found to be twice as fast as the iPad 4.
AnandTech has a full review of the iPad Air that includes an array of benchmarks comparing the GPU performance of the iPad Air, the fourth-generation iPad, the iPhone 5s, the iPad mini, and several competing Android tablets. It's well worth a read to see the full scope of the iPad Air's performance improvements over both its predecessor and other tablets on the market.
Apple yesterday filed its 2013 10-K annual report with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, offering some insight into how the company has grown over the past year. Among the interesting tidbits included in the report:
- Apple's employee headcount grew to 80,300 full-time equivalents, up from 72,800 at the end of fiscal 2012. Nearly all of that growth was outside of the company's retail division, which grew by only 400 to 42,800 full-time equivalents.
- Apple's retail store count increased by 26 during fiscal 2013, with average revenue per store dropping slightly to $50.2 million from $51.5 million. The company also saw a decrease in the number of full-time equivalent employees per store, moving from 108.7 in 2012 to 102.9 in 2013. As noted during Apple's earnings conference call on Monday, the company plans to open 30 new retail stores in fiscal 2014, with two-thirds of those being outside of the United States. Apple expects to remodel an additional 20 of its existing stores.
- Real estate holdings continue to grow, with Apple now owning or leasing 19.1 million square feet of space, up from 17.3 million square feet at the end of the previous year. That number includes 2.6 million square feet at the former HP campus in Cupertino that will be demolished to make way for Apple's new headquarters campus. Apple's campus will ultimately contain roughly 3.6 million square feet of space.
As of September 28, 2013, the Company owned or leased approximately 19.1 million square feet of building space, primarily in the U.S., and to a lesser extent, in Europe, Japan, Canada, and the Asia-Pacific regions. Of that amount approximately 12.0 million square feet was leased building space, which includes approximately 4.6 million square feet related to retail store space. Of the Company’s owned building space, approximately 2.6 million square feet that is located in Cupertino, California will be demolished to build a second corporate campus. Additionally, the Company owns a total of 1,428 acres of land in various locations.
As of September 28, 2013, the Company owned a manufacturing facility in Cork, Ireland that also housed a customer support call center and facilities in Elk Grove, California that included warehousing and distribution operations and a customer support call center. The Company also owned land in Austin, Texas where it is building office space and a customer support call center. In addition, the Company owned facilities for research and development and corporate functions in Cupertino, California, including land for the future development of the Company’s second corporate campus. The Company also owned data centers in Newark, California; Maiden, North Carolina; Prineville, Oregon; and Reno, Nevada. Outside the U.S., the Company owned additional facilities for various purposes.
- Apple's advertising expenses rose to $1.1 billion in fiscal 2013, up from $1.0 billion in 2012.
- Apple expects capital expenditures to rise to $11.0 billion in fiscal 2014, a significant increase of 57% over the $7.0 billion spent in 2013. The retail division is expected to see only a 10 percent increase in spending, while Apple's other capital expenditures related to manufacturing, corporate facilities and infrastructure would grow by over 60 percent. Some of that increase may be related to Apple's new corporate campus, but it is not entirely clear how those costs are being budgeted and accounted for over time. Asymco's Horace Dediu has used Apple's capital expenditure estimates to predict shipments of 250-285 million iOS devices in fiscal 2014, up from around 235 million in 2013.
Apple's annual report contains a number of other details about the company's operations, much of it targeted at investors and regulators, and addresses such topics as executive compensation, company investments, taxes, and more.
Intel partner Altera announced at the ARM developers' conference yesterday that the world's largest semiconductor chip maker will start manufacturing 64-bit ARM chips beginning in 2014, reports Forbes. The move brings Intel's chipmaking prowess to the most popular architecture for mobile devices and could prove to make Intel a foundry option for Apple and its custom A-series chips for its iOS devices at some point in the future.
“It’s huge. Imagine ARM’s most powerful and technologically advanced 64-bits processor built on Intel’s leading-edge fabs. A duo that will be hard to beat,” explains Nathan Brookwood, principal analyst at Insight 64. [...]
“Intel will build Apple's, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon or the Nvidia Tegra for the right price. Now, the question is, are they ready to pay that premium and feed their direct competitor, except for Apple. But that would actually make business sense for everyone,” adds Brookwood.
Apple notably signed a three-year deal in June with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSMC) to produce A-series Chips for future iOS devices beginning in 2014, with the move seen as a part of Apple's strategy to move away from rival Samsung for component supplies. However, Samsung was soon after reported to have landed another deal to produce chips for Apple beginning with the A9 in 2015. According to a report in June, Samsung will also remain involved in next year's A8 chip family, with TSMC handling 60 to 70 percent of the manufacturing load and Samsung picking up the remainder.
Apple was also originally rumored in 2011 to be moving from Intel's x86 architecture to ARM processors in future laptops, with a report in November 2012 also stating that Apple was considering the switch from Intel chips. A closer look at the potential move determined that Apple's potential shift from x86 to ARM for Macs was not implausible, as Apple could theoretically push ARM's power efficient based chips to become more suitable for its line of desktops and notebooks. While purely speculative, Intel's move into ARM chips could make such transitions smoother in the future.
Flexibits today released Fantastical 2, a fully reworked version of the popular iOS calendar app.
The new app, which is a separate purchase for existing Fantastical owners, includes reminders support, an improved sentence parser -- perhaps the most unique and valuable feature in Fantastical -- background app refresh, and more.
Fantastical 2 now includes the ability to create and manage reminders directly from the event parser. Users can create reminders as well as calendar events using plain english. The parser allows users to type in full sentences like "Meeting with Eric Slivka at Ken & Sue's on Tuesday at 7", or to use geofencing when creating reminders: "remind me to pick up the dry cleaning when I leave work".
"We wanted to make an iOS 7 iPhone calendar app worthy of the name Fantastical," said Michael Simmons, Co-Founder of Flexibits. "With its beautiful iOS 7 design and functionality, we’re confident users are going to love Fantastical 2 for iPhone."
With Fantastical 2 for iPhone, users will quickly and easily create, view, and search all of their events and reminders. The advanced natural language engine is extremely expressive, enabling users to enter event or reminder details in their own style. For example, users can enter sentences such as "Lunch with Elon at 123 Main Street on Tuesday" and Fantastical 2 for iPhone translates the sentence into an event and adds it to their calendar. And with support for reminders, users can enter sentences such as "todo Pick up dry cleaning" and the user will have a reminder, ready to check off.
UK Carrier 
Apple is working on a fix for new 13-inch Retina MacBook Pros that are experiencing issues with the trackpad and keyboard, according to a recently posted Apple 
Flexibits today 
