MacRumors

Apple has begun the process of training its AppleCare staff on OS X Mavericks ahead of an expected late October launch for the updated Mac operating system, reports 9to5Mac.

These sources say that training has begun today, and support staff will be required to learn about the operating system’s new features, installation process, and troubleshooting options for at least six hours over the course of the next few weeks.

The training is said to be similar in secrecy and style to the iOS 7 and iTunes Radio training, and it has yet to begin for all AppleCare employees. AppleCare advisors will learn the OS X Mavericks materials in small groups in order to prevent information about the training process from becoming public knowledge.

Publicly, Apple has only stated that OS X Mavericks is "coming this fall", but the company is reportedly targeting a late October launch. The company is also expected to hold a media event as soon as this month where it could not only unveil new iPads but also officially launch the redesigned Mac Pro and perhaps other updated Mac models, offering an opportunity for a Mavericks release announcement there as well depending on timing.

OS X Mavericks has been in developer testing since its introduction at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference in June. Eight developer previews have been seeded so far, with the most recent one having been released over two weeks ago.

In line with its previous announcement, Virgin Mobile USA began sales of the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c yesterday, with the prepaid Sprint brand offering a $100 discount from normal unsubsidized pricing.

The 16 GB iPhone 5s is priced at $549 through Virgin Mobile, while the 16 GB iPhone 5c is selling for $449. Those models will be available both online and in retail stores while the 32 GB and 64 GB iPhone 5s and 32GB iPhone 5c are only available at Virgin Mobile's website.

Supplies appear to be somewhat limited at launch, with the yellow 16 GB iPhone 5c and all 32 GB iPhone 5c models with the exception of blue listed as out of stock. As for the iPhone 5s, all three gold variants and the silver 16 GB model are also unavailable. Interestingly, the 16 GB iPhone 5 remains available for $549, $100 more than the iPhone 5c, suggesting that pricing on the new models could be temporary.

Virgin Mobile first started carrying the iPhone in June 2012 with both the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4s. It did not start selling the iPhone 5 until this June, nine months after the former flagship phone debuted on major U.S. carriers.

Following a report earlier this week from market research firm IHS iSuppli, sources from inside Apple’s supply chain have stated that the Apple will be unable to roll out a next-generation version of the iPad mini with a high resolution Retina display this month, reports Reuters. Specifically, the sources are expecting Apple to wait until early next year for a full-fledged launch or make the iPad mini with Retina display available only in very limited quantities this year.

The reason behind the delays in manufacturing the retina display screens for the iPad Mini were unclear. One source at a supplier said there were delays in Apple's certification of panel producers, which were given strict power-saving requirements.

LG Display Co Ltd, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd's display unit and Sharp Corp all vied to manufacture the panels, supply chain sources said.

The news of problems with strict power-saving requirements are consistent with the previously rumored challenges related to the integration of the Retina display and the compact size and exceptional battery life of the iPad mini. Additionally, two of the sources have also stated that Apple has told told suppliers to reduce cost, with one person saying that the company may roll out a separate new iPad mini with 8 GB of storage to compete in emerging markets.

Notably, KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo claimed last month that the Retina iPad mini would indeed make an appearance before the end of the year. Apple has been expected to launch its redesigned iPad and a Retina iPad mini in the near future, with Reuters claiming that the unveiling is indeed planned for this month.

Apple is aware of a glitch in iOS 7 that is disrupting iMessage delivery and is working on a fix, reports The Wall Street Journal.

“We are aware of an issue that affects a fraction of a percent of our iMessage users, and we will have a fix available in an upcoming software update,” Apple said in a statement. “In the meantime, we encourage any users having problems to reference our troubleshooting documents or contact AppleCare to help resolve their issue. We apologize for any inconvenience this causes impacted users.”

Since the release of iOS 7 last month, users have been complaining about issues relating to the sending and receiving of iMessages on their iOS devices. While some users have also complained about multi-day outages on their devices, Apple's System Status page hasn't documented all of them, suggesting that something more than a simple service problem is at fault.

As MacRumors reported yesterday, some users have reported that turning their iOS devices on and off has fixed their problem while others have claimed the method has not worked for them. In our own testing with a device experiencing difficulties, the following steps appear to have fixed the issue (Note: this will cause your device to forget previously entered Wi-fi passwords):

1. Turn off iMessage in Settings > Messages
2. Reset networking settings in Settings > General > Reset
3. Reenable iMessage in Settings > Messages

Last week Apple released iOS 7.0.2, which was an update that delivered several bug fixes, including a fix for a lock screen vulnerability. Earlier today it was reported that Apple had begun seeding iOS 7.0.3 internally ahead of a potential launch next week.

Apple has hired Jean-François Mulé, the former Senior VP of Technology Development and longtime employee of CableLabs -- an R&D joint venture run by many of the biggest cable operators in the U.S. -- as an engineering director.

The hire was revealed on Mulé's LinkedIn page and first noted by Multichannel News. He has been working at Apple since September and says in his Apple job description that he is "challenged, inspired and part of something big".

He claims extensive experience in software development for cable applications like Internet data, IP voice and video, TV apps and more. From Multichannel News:

Before joining Apple, Mulé spent the last two years as senior vice president of technology development at CableLabs, where he founded the organization’s San Francisco office (CableLabs is in the process of building out a new R&D outpost/innovation center in Sunnyvale).

During his earlier career at CableLabs, Mulé also served as VP of IP technologies and services, director of the PacketCable Architecture, and chief architect. During that span, he ran or helped spearhead several projects, including PeerConnect, the cable industry’s peering registry, a development program for cable industry-focused wireless services (Wi-Fi gateways, device management, inter-operator Wi-Fi roaming, and mobile offload services using femtocells and Wi-Fi), and was involved in several high-profile, IP-based CableLabs programs such as DOCSIS 3.0 and APIs for second screen video apps.

Apple is rumored to be developing both a television set and an expanded set-top box that would work with services provided by existing cable television providers, or, alternatively, a set-top box with television content provided directly by Apple over the Internet, bypassing current cable companies.

In his biography, Steve Jobs said he had "cracked" the redesign of television to make it seamless and easy to use, and some analysts have been claiming for years that Apple is working on a television set.

With Apple negotiating with both content providers like Sky News and ESPN, as well as cable companies like Time Warner, the company appears to be examining multiple possible strategies for reinventing television.

An image of what might be Logitech's upcoming MFi (Made for iPhone) controller for the iPhone has been leaked on Twitter by @evleaks, who has been known to provide reliable images in the past.

The enclosure controller wraps around the iPhone, adding buttons and controls on either side of the phone and is similar to an earlier prototype that was leaked back in June. It also fits with teaser images that Logitech released a few weeks ago.

While the controller in the image is an enclosure model, other available models are said to be standalone controllers that will not require an attachment to an iPhone or an iPad to function.

In addition to the Logitech gamepad, GameCase last week released a trailer for its GameCase iPhone controller, which connects via Bluetooth and is battery operated.

News of MFi controllers first surfaced in June, after Apple debuted the controller API at WWDC. Since the release of iOS 7, many games have incorporated Game Controller Support, including several major titles like Walking Dead and Bastion.

Though no game controllers have yet to hit the market, the appearance of controller support in games and continuing hardware leaks suggest that a release could come at any time, possibly during Apple's rumored iPad-centric fall event.

Like it did with its Galaxy S 4 smartphone, Samsung has once again been caught artificially increasing CPU speeds on its Galaxy Note 3 phone when benchmark apps are running, reports Ars Technica.

Samsung uses special code inside its operating system to identify benchmarking apps by name to boost CPU clock speeds and prevent CPU cores from entering low-power modes. As a result, Ars discovered, Galaxy Note 3 benchmarks report CPU performance roughly 20 percent faster than most apps will experience on the device.

The difference is remarkable. In Geekbench's multicore test, the Note 3's benchmark mode gives the device a 20 percent boost over its "natural" score. With the benchmark boosting logic stripped away, the Note 3 drops down to LG G2 levels, which is where we initially expected the score to be given the identical SoCs. This big of a boost means that the Note 3 is not just messing with the CPU idle levels; significantly more oomph is unlocked when the device runs a benchmark.

Apple executive Phil Schiller -- senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing and the most prolific tweeter amongst Apple's senior staff -- linked to the Ars article in a tweet, saying only "shenanigans".

Apple has reportedly begun seeding iOS 7.0.3 to some of its own employees and carrier partners, with a potential launch coming as soon as next week, according to BGR.

According to our sources, Apple has seeded iOS 7.0.3 to employees and partners for final testing. We’re not sure exactly when the new software will be released to the public, but we believe it will be sometime next week. The build number of iOS 7.0.3 is 11B491.

The claimed build number appears to be somewhat at odds with Apple's usual numbering patterns over the past several years, which should see all iOS 7.0.x releases carrying 11Axxx build numbers before moving on to 11Bxxx builds for iOS 7.1.x. The company did, however, vary from this pattern in earlier iOS versions, incrementing the letter designation even for x.x.1 releases at times.

MacRumors has indeed been seeing visits from devices on Apple's networks running iOS 7.0.3, with the first visits coming on Friday, September 20 and increasing significantly last week.

Apple just released iOS 7.0.2 to the public last Thursday, bringing several fixes for issues related to lock screen passcode bugs. iOS 7.0 was released to the public on September 18 with a special iOS 7.0.1 for Apple's new iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c models arriving that same day.

Activist investor Carl Icahn has just issued a Tweet sharing that he had a "cordial" dinner with Apple CEO Tim Cook last night where he pushed for an increased stock buyback of $150 billion. According to Icahn, the two will revisit the subject later this month.

The stock buyback portion of Apple's capital return program was originally set at $10 billion when it was announced in March 2012, but in April of this year the company announced a significant increase to $60 billion as Apple has sought to take advantage of a drop in the company's stock price to repurchase shares at relatively low prices. Icahn believes that Apple's stock remains undervalued, and thus is pushing Apple to increase the buyback even further.

Icahn took a "large position" in Apple, said to be in the neighborhood of $2 billion, back in August and noted shortly after that he would be having dinner with Cook to discuss the company's buyback plans. That dinner meeting was held yesterday in New York City.

Update: Carl Icahn spoke with CNBC this afternoon, giving additional details about his dinner with Tim Cook and his increased position in Apple.

Via Time reporter Sam Gustin, Icahn said he believes Tim Cook is "doing a damn fine job", management "is not an issue", and that he doesn't "micromanage". He said he is "not going away" until Apple executives "hear a lot more from me."

Icahn also revealed that he purchased several hundred million dollars worth of shares on the recent dip in Apple's stock price and he now holds $2 billion worth of stock.