MacRumors

In line with its usual timing, Apple has just issued media invitations for its October 22 media event where the company is expected to introduce its next-generation iPad and iPad mini models and offer a number of Mac-related announcements, reports AllThingsD. The event will be held at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco and will begin at 10:00 AM Pacific Time. The invitation tagline reads "We still have a lot to cover."

The October 22 date was first reported by AllThingsD earlier this month, and was quickly confirmed by the The Loop's ever-reliable Jim Dalrymple.

The original AllThingsD report claimed that event will focus on the iPad updates, but that OS X Mavericks and the redesigned Mac Pro will also be featured at the event. Apple is due to release a number of other product updates, perhaps most notably new MacBook Pros, but it is apparently still unclear whether those updates will be a part of next week's event.

Following Apple's announcement that it is hiring Burberry CEO Angela Ahrendts to head up its retail and online store effort, CEO Tim Cook has sent an email to employees announcing the hire and giving some additional thoughts on Ahrendts and the hiring process. The full email has been posted by 9to5Mac.

Team,

I am thrilled to announce that Angela Ahrendts will be joining Apple as a senior vice president and member of our executive team, reporting directly to me. Angela is currently the CEO of Burberry.

She will lead both our retail and online teams. I have wanted one person to lead both of these teams for some time because I believe it will better serve our customers, but I had never met anyone whom I felt confident could lead both until I met Angela. We met for the first time last January, and I knew in that meeting that I wanted her to join Apple. We’ve gotten to know each other over the past several months and I’ve left each conversation even more impressed.

She shares our values and our focus on innovation. She places the same strong emphasis as we do on the customer experience. She cares deeply about people and embraces our view that our most important resource and our soul is our people. She believes in enriching the lives of others and she is wicked smart. Angela has shown herself to be an extraordinary leader throughout her career and has a proven track record. She led Burberry through a period of phenomenal growth with a focus on brand, culture, core values and the power of positive energy.

Angela will need to focus over the coming months on transitioning her current role at Burberry and will then join Apple in the spring. I am sure as all of you meet her, you will see why I am so excited that she is joining our executive team. I’d like to add a special thanks to all of our retail leaders. Your strength, talent and leadership afforded me the luxury of taking the time to perform an exhaustive search to find the best person in the world for this role.

Tim

Ahrendts, who previously held positions at Donna Karan and Liz Claiborne, has been CEO of Burberry since 2006. Apple and Burberry last month worked together to film a Burberry fashion shoot entirely with Apple's new iPhone 5s even before it had officially been released, allowing Apple to show off the high-quality camera included on the device.

Update: Former Apple retail chief Ron Johnson told Bloomberg in a statement that Ahrendts is a "terrific choice" and she will be "exceptionally well received" at the company.

The Austin American-Statesman reports that Flextronics America is currently in the middle of a hiring effort that will see the company employing as many as 1,700 workers to build a "next generation desktop computer" at the company's facilities in Austin, Texas. While Flextronics will not reveal the identity of the computer or the company behind it, speculation naturally points toward Apple's radically redesigned Mac Pro.

Flextronics America, which has ramped up hiring and spent tens of millions of dollars to renovate its Northwest Austin factory over the past two years, will start manufacturing a "next generation desktop computer" at the upgraded plant, according to a presentation it filed Monday with Travis County commissioners.

The document, part of a push by the computer and electronics manufacturer to have its Central Texas facilities designated as a foreign trade zone, suggests the company already created 879 jobs for the project and could add another 815 positions if it hits peak targets.

Flextronics had previously been named as Apple's contract manufacturer for the Mac Pro as part of an effort to bring some Mac production back to the United States, but we had received an unconfirmed tip that Flextronics would be using its facility in Fort Worth, Texas where it manufactures the Moto X smartphone.

It appears that the company will instead be using its Austin facilities that are less than a mile from Apple's existing operations campus where it employees roughly 4,000 workers. That campus is currently undergoing a major expansion that will see Apple spending over $300 million to add at least 3,600 new employees there over ten years.

Apple announced back in June that the new Mac Pro would be launching later this year, and the machine is expected to be featured at the company's media event reportedly scheduled for next Tuesday.

Apple is set to release refreshed MacBook Pro models, new iPads, and the newly designed Mac Pro all by mid-November, according to French website MacGeneration [Google Translate]. The report shares target dates for each new product, with the new MacBook Pros with Intel's Haswell processors expected to be released on October 24 or 25, the iPad 5 and iPad mini 2 on October 30 or 31, and the release of the Mac Pro expected on November 15.

The website's projection for a new line of MacBook Pros is somewhat likely, with both the 13-inch and 15-inch models showing up in benchmarks over the past couple of months as a release has seemed inevitable. The new line of laptops is expected boast improved battery life due to Intel's power-efficient Haswell processors, along with the more powerful "Iris" integrated graphics found in the chipset. Other potential features for the upcoming laptops include faster PCI Express-based flash storage, as well as faster 802.11ac "Gigabit" Wi-Fi.

Meanwhile, an expected release of the fifth-generation iPad and the second-generation iPad mini seems less likely on the given days of Ocotber 30 or 31, due to the iPad 4 and iPad mini launching on Friday, November 2 last year. Traditionally, Apple's major iOS devices have launched on the Friday of the week after the initial announcement, and thus it would appear more likely that the iPad 5 and iPad mini 2 would launch on Friday, November 1. The next-generation iPad is expected to feature a thinner design, while the upcoming iPad mini is set to feature a high-resolution Retina display.

The projected November 15 release of Apple's radically redesigned Mac Pro does seem probable, as the company announced the device back in June at WWDC for a Fall 2013 release, with the expected day of release coming two weeks before the "Black Friday" holiday shopping date across the United States. The new Mac Pro features a compact cylindrical design, along with Ivy Bridge E Xeon processors, dual AMD FirePro graphics chips, and fast PCI Express-based flash storage among other professional-grade internals.

Apple is expected to unveil both the fifth-generation iPad and the second-generation iPad mini during an October 22 event that will also showcase other Apple products such as OS X Mavericks, the Mac Pro, and potentially may also include the announcement of a refreshed MacBook Pro line.

It should be noted that MacGeneration has a mixed track record on its rumor claims, although the site claims that the source for this report had previously accurately shared word of the 16 GB iPod touch released earlier this year. But one recent high-profile miss for the site was a September claim [Google Translate] that Apple's iPad and Mac media event would take place today, October 15.

Apple announced that it has hired Angela Ahrendts, CEO of Burberry, as Senior Vice President of Retail and Online Stores. According to the press release, Ahrendts will have oversight of the strategic direction, expansion and operation of both Apple retail and online stores.

“I am thrilled that Angela will be joining our team,” said Cook. “She shares our values and our focus on innovation, and she places the same strong emphasis as we do on the customer experience. She has shown herself to be an extraordinary leader throughout her career and has a proven track record.”

Ahrendts will join Apple in the spring and will continue her role as Burberry CEO until then.

“I am profoundly honored to join Apple in this newly created position next year, and very much look forward to working with the global teams to further enrich the consumer experience on and offline,” said Ahrendts. “I have always admired the innovation and impact Apple products and services have on people’s lives and hope in some small way I can help contribute to the company’s continued success and leadership in changing the world.”

The head role of Apple's retail stores has had significant turnover in the past couple of years. Ron Johnson left Apple in 2011 after having been at Apple for eleven years and is widely credited for building up their retail initiative. Johnson was replaced by John Browett who lasted less than a year at Apple.

Valve has released a video demonstrating its Steam Controller, a handheld gaming controller that will eventually be compatible with many Steam games, including popular titles like Portal, Counterstrike and Team Fortress.

The Steam Controller is designed to work with all the games on Steam: past, present, and future. Even the older titles in the catalog and the ones which were not built with controller support. (We’ve fooled those older games into thinking they’re being played with a keyboard and mouse, but we’ve designed a gamepad that’s nothing like either one of those devices.) We think you’ll agree that we’re onto something with the Steam Controller

The Steam Controller includes a touch screen in the center of the device with a pair of trackpads around the outside using "super-precise" haptic feedback and "dual linear resonant actuators" to deliver a range of force and vibration feedback sensations.

The Steam Controller is currently in beta and is designed to work primarily with the Steam Machine set-top box. It will also work with any PC version of Steam, including Steam for Mac.

As Samsung's home country of South Korea approaches connected device saturation, Apple's share of the market is dwarfed by Samsung's share, according to a new report from mobile analytics firm Flurry.

Of a total of 33,527,534 active smartphones and tablets in South Korea, Apple iPads and iPhones make up 14 percent. Samsung devices, including larger phone/tablet hybrids, make up 60 percent of all connected devices. LG and Pantech are also popular in the country, with 10 and 15 percent share, respectively.

Based on rapid device adoption in 2011 and 2012 and slowing adoption numbers in 2013, Flurry suggests South Korea is the first market to approach connected device saturation, serving as an early indicator of what smartphone adoption might look like in other worldwide markets as mobile market growth begins to slow.

As shown in the graph, that growth has slowed markedly in the past year or so, and has even been negative in some months. That implies that the South Korean connected device market either already is, or will soon be, the first in the world to reach saturation. As such, it provides a good early indicator of what other markets can expect once the rapid growth period the mobile market has experienced over the past few years ends.

Unlike other parts of the world, however, phone/tablet hybrids more commonly known as "phablets" are highly popular in South Korea. While 41 percent of connected devices in South Korea are phablets, the hybrids remain fairly unpopular in the rest of the world, making up just 7 percent of the market. Tablets were also more popular worldwide, making up 19 percent of connected devices, compared to just 5 percent in South Korea.

As noted during Apple's third quarter financial results call, though the iPhone remains less popular in South Korea, it topped a customer satisfaction survey [Google Translation] in the country, outpacing Samsung by two percent.

As companies like Samsung, LG, and HTC continue to produce larger smartphones, Apple too is said to be experimenting with additional iPhone sizes ranging from 4.8 inches to 6 inches, which could shift more of the market in Samsung’s home country towards Apple in the future.

HTC today unveiled its newest device, the HTC One max, a 5.9-inch smartphone that includes a dedicated fingerprint sensor. Unlike the convenient home button location of the fingerprint sensor in the iPhone 5s, the One max’s sensor is located on the back of the device, near the camera.

The sensor is activated via a swipe and can be programmed to recognize three different fingers. Each finger can be tied to a different function, allowing quick access to frequently used apps. One finger, for example, can unlock the phone, while another might open up the camera.

While that sounds useful in theory, reviews of the HTC One max have likened its fingerprint sensor to little more than a gimmick. While the iPhone 5s received rave reviews for the Touch ID’s utility and ease of use, the One max fingerprint sensor appears to be less functional due to its location and the need to wake the phone from sleep before use. The Verge has a detailed review of the feature, calling it an "exercise in frustration."

Firstly, it's placed in exactly the wrong place. Sitting immediately below the camera lens and requiring a swipe, it pretty much compels you to smudge the lens every time you want to identify yourself. The need for a vertical swipe is also problematic, since your hand’s natural position is at an angle to the sensor, demanding an unnatural and uncomfortable motion to activate it. Inevitably, that leads to regular failures to recognize your epidermic signature.

Equally enervating is the fact that you have to wake the One max from sleep before swiping to unlock it. The whole point of these fingerprint sensors is to speed up security processes, not make them more finicky, and that’s exactly where the HTC One max fails. There's plenty of potential here, as you can enroll up to three different fingers and assign each an app to launch, but that only works from the lock screen — why not universally? As it is, the fingerprint scanner implementation here is clumsy, awkward, and comfortably in line with the long history of failed attempts at making this technology work.

Pocket-lint agrees, noting the difficulty in using the fingerprint scanner without swiping the camera lens.

But it's irritating that you have to press the standby button before you can swipe to unlock the phone, so it's a two-stage process and we'd much rather it was one.

Much as we hate to say it, the fingerprint scanner on the iPhone 5S is much better when it comes to unlocking: you press the button, it scans, and you're in. It's one process. On the HTC One max, we suspect that some will find it fiddly from the off, and disable the feature in favour of regular on-screen security.

In addition to a finger print sensor, the One max features a 1.7Ghz quad-core processor, a 1080p display, 16 to 32GB of expandable storage, a 4-megapixel UltraPixel camera with an f/2.0 aperture, and a 3300 mAh battery for up to 25 hours of talk time.

The smartphone will be available on Sprint and Verizon later in October.

Some Chinese case-makers expect the new iPad mini to be roughly 0.3mm thicker than the current model, going from 7.2mm to 7.5mm, according to a report from Mac Otakara. The cases also indicate the device will be 0.2mm wider, growing from 134.7mm to some 134.9mm.

A number of iPad mini backplates, supposedly from the new device, have leaked over the past few months, with no hint that the size of the new mini will be different from the old one. However, given the small size changes in the new report -- only 0.3mm difference in thickness -- it would likely take a micrometer to notice any change.

The third-generation iPad, which was the first Apple tablet to come with a Retina display, gained 0.6mm in thickness and 0.07 pounds from the prior generation.

The new iPad mini cases also have a small hole for a possible back-mounted microphone, something that has appeared in prototype fifth-generation iPad shells, and also on preproduction cases for the first-generation iPad mini. However, alleged second-generation iPad mini shells have not had a microphone hole in that location.

The next iPad mini will be revealed next Tuesday, October 22 and it is widely anticipated to include a high-resolution Retina display -- though it's possible the new mini will be in short supply because of manufacturing difficulties with the new display.

According to new data by Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (via AllThingsD), the iPhone 5s has been outselling the iPhone 5c by more than a two-to-one margin since the launch of both devices last month, with the higher-end device accounting for 64% of total iPhone sales and the lower-cost device accounting for 27%. The iPhone 4S made up the remaining 9%, with the iPhone 5s capturing a lesser percentage of new sales this year when compared to the 68% of new sales captured by the iPhone 5 last year.

What’s more surprising is the iPhone 5c’s sales performance relative to that of the iPhone 4S’s following the debut of the iPhone 5. Despite the 5c’s newness and its colorful design, it’s not selling that much better than the 4S did when it was demoted to legacy iPhone by the flagship iPhone 5.

According to CIRP’s analysis, the 5c accounted for 27 percent of iPhone sales during the time period surveyed — just slightly more than the 23 percent captured by the 4S during the same period last year. Remember, the new 5c is this year stepping into a role similar to the one the old 4S served last year: The $99 iPhone. But Apple has attempted to improve its value proposition, tricking it out with a new plastic chassis and color options.

A 2-to-1 lead for the iPhone 5s over the iPhone 5c would appear to mark a decline from the launch weekend of September 20, when analytics firm Localytics saw the ratio at closer to 3.5-to-1 by tracking the new devices showing up on its network. At the time, we noted that the gap would likely narrow over time as the launch weekend focused on early adopters buying the higher-end iPhone 5s models that were in short supply, while over the longer term the iPhone 5c would more likely hold appeal for mainstream customers updating when their current contracts run out, and that dynamic appears to already be playing out in the weeks following the launch.

Last week, it was reported that Apple is cutting iPhone 5c production from 300,000 units to 150,000 units per day, with the iPhone 5c seeing significantly better availability compared to the iPhone 5s. It is, however, unclear how much of the ample iPhone 5c stock are due to weak demand and how much is due to Apple simply having met demand through more effective production.

Apple announced last month that the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c had sold a record nine million units during their launch weekend, but the company did not break down the sales distribution between the two models. However, a report from last week stated that the iPhone 5c finished second in sales over the month of September at US carriers AT&T and Sprint, and finished within the top three in sales at all four major carriers, which suggests that the lower-cost iPhone is at least selling fairly well.