MacRumors

Following last month’s iTunes update that included fixed syncing and iTunes Store sign-in, Apple has today released iTunes 11.0.5.

The update fixes a bug with iTunes in the Cloud where some purchases may download or play unexpected items.

This update corrects an issue with iTunes in the Cloud, where some purchases may download or play unexpected items.

The update is available through the Mac App Store, Software Update, and direct from Apple's Software Download Page. A Windows 64 version is also available.

Steve Jobs was able to strike an unprecedented revenue sharing deal with AT&T (formerly Cingular) due to his deep involvement with the iPhone, says Raj Aggarwal, a former telecommunications consultant who worked with Jobs on the deal.

In an interview with Forbes, Aggarwal details the history behind the deal, which saw Apple receiving a portion (approximately $10) of the monthly service charges that AT&T collected from each iPhone user. The revenue sharing agreement, which ultimately ended in 2008, allowed AT&T to offer the iPhone exclusively as other carriers, like Verizon, were unwilling to agree to the terms of the deal.

Under the terms, Apple also had control over pricing, branding, and distribution, in addition to getting AT&T to create a number of new features for the phone.

Aggarwal, whose Adventis consulting stint with Jobs occurred in "early 2005," said that Jobs was able to pull off the AT&T deal because of his personal involvement in the details of the iPhone, his efforts to build relationships with carriers, his willingness to make demands that others perceived as outrageous, and his nerve to bet major resources on that vision.

According to Aggarwal, Jobs was hands-on in a way that no other CEO was. He personally met with the CEOs of each carrier, and "got deeply involved in the details he cared about." Jobs, Aggarwal recounts, was willing to take risks to "realize his vision" and made "outrageous" demands that ultimately worked out in Apple’s favor.

Aggarwal also found Jobs unique in his outrageous demands. As he explained, "Jobs said, '$50 a month unlimited voice, data, and SMS plan — that's our mission. We should ask for and go after something unreasonable that no one has been willing to accept.' He would come up with these outrageous demands and fight for them — getting much more than he otherwise would have."

AT&T's exclusivity agreement expired in 2010, but the deal Jobs struck with the company earned both AT&T and Apple an enormous amount of money thanks to the iPhone's immediate popularity with customers.

Researchers from Georgia Tech submitted to the App Store and received approval for a malicious app, according to Technology Review. The researchers submitted an innocuous app that included inactive malware-type code hidden from Apple's app approval system.

When downloaded onto a test device after the app was approved, the app 'phoned home' and gained a variety of abilities that compromised the host phone.

This malware, which the researchers dubbed Jekyll, could stealthily post tweets, send e-mails and texts, steal personal information and device ID numbers, take photos, and attack other apps. It even provided a way to magnify its effects, because it could direct Safari, Apple’s default browser, to a website with more malware.

The researchers, including Long Lu, a Stony Brook University researcher who was part of the team at Georgia Tech, only put the app on the App Store very briefly and it was not downloaded by anyone other than research team members.

The team said that using monitoring code built into the app, they determined that Apple's app approval team only ran the app for a few seconds and that malicious code was not discovered by Apple's team. "The message we want to deliver is that right now, the Apple review process is mostly doing a static analysis of the app, which we say is not sufficient because dynamically generated logic cannot be very easily seen," said Lu.

Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr told Technology Review that the company made some changes to the iOS operating system in response to the paper, though he did not specify what the changes were.

New photos of the rumored gold iPhone 5S have been published by the French site MacBoutic (via iPhon.fr). Similar images have appeared before and KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who has offered accurate information on Apple's upcoming product plans numerous times, said yesterday the 5S would be available in gold.

Several days ago, BGR shared different images suggesting the color will be more subtle, calling it 'Champagne' and providing its own images of the volume and mute switches. Japanese blog Mac Otakara reported separately earlier this week that the iPhone 5S would have a gold option.

Oddly, MacBoutic claims they "deliberately blurred the "Apple" logo and the words "iPhone" on the back of the chassis", though there are no traces in the image of such blurring. It's possible that this is a preproduction sample and that sort of lettering was missing entirely, or possibly a knockoff part not manufactured for Apple.

The new iPhone is expected to be announced at a media event on September 10th.

Update: Rene Ritchie of iMore, who has had accurate sources in the past, echoes these rumors.

There are a bunch of rumors and speculation making the rounds about Apple adding gold to the color options for the upcoming iPhone 5S. I've heard the same thing, but probably from different sources.

Joshua Michael Stern's Steve Jobs biography JOBS launched in theaters today, and despite a vigorous marketing campaign that saw actor Ashton Kutcher attending a number of promotional events and interviews, the movie appears to be garnering largely mixed reviews for both its content and the performance of its title actor.

On movie review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes, JOBS is ranked as "rotten" with a score of 25 out of 100. The Washington Post gave the movie 1.5 stars out of four, pointing out that the movie focuses heavily on Apple rather than on Steve Jobs himself.

Directed by Joshua Michael Stern ("Swing Vote") and written by first-time screenwriter Matt Whiteley, "Jobs" confuses the story of Apple, the company, with the story of its guru and guiding force, spending way too much time on backroom personnel dealings than on encounters that might help us understand, on a deep level, the title character.

The film is so thick with Jobs's career highlights and lowlights that there's little room for insights. What made this famously private man tick?

The New York Times offers a similar opinion of the movie, which it claims has "all the sex appeal of a PowerPoint presentation."

But Mr. Kutcher doesn't have the tools that some actors use to transcend weak material and either he didn't receive any help or didn't allow any real direction from Mr. Stern. Mr. Kutcher's tendency to cap so many emotional scenes with small, self-satisfied smiles is especially unfortunate because they can’t help but bring to mind his other career as a pitchman for digital cameras.

The greater blame rests on the filmmakers, who never find a way to navigate the "passions, perfectionism, demons, desires, artistry, devilry and obsession for control" that Walter Isaacson enumerated in "Steve Jobs," his 2011 authorized biography.

Several of Steve Jobs' former colleagues who were present during the events laid out in the movie also weighed in. Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak gave a short review of the film on Gizmodo, where he commended the acting but noted that the film had left out important events and interactions.

I felt bad for many people I know well who were portrayed wrongly in their interactions with Jobs and the company. The movie ends pretty much where the great Jobs finally found product success (the iPod) and changed so many of our lives. I'm grateful to Steve for his excellence in the i-era, and his contribution to my own life of enjoying great products, but this movie portrays him having had those skills in earlier times.

Early employees Daniel Kottke (who was famously awarded no stock options) and Bill Fernandez gave their opinion on JOBS in an interview with Slashdot, pointing out the creative licenses that the film took when telling the story.

Kottke, who collaborated on the film, says that Kutcher was "very good," but that Wozniak was depicted inaccurately. "It portrays Woz as not having the same vision as Steve Jobs, which is really unfair," he says. While he was impressed with the way the movie captured some of the early scenes, such as the West Coast Computer Faire, he does point out that quite a bit of dramatic flare was added.

The early versions were painful. Really painful. I forwarded the first draft to Mike Markkula because they wanted his feedback, and Mike took such a bad reaction to it, he wouldn't have anything more to do with the project.

By the time it got to the fourth draft, it was okay. It wasn't making me cringe. But they still had a scene of me arguing with Steve, which never ever happened, but, you know, in the realm of artistic license. I mean, the dynamic of my relationship with Steve Jobs is he just completely stopped talking to me in about 1980. And that's not cinematic; arguments are much better on the screen.

JOBS is currently showing in theaters around the world, and according to Open Road Films CEO Tom Ortenberg, the movie will debut on Netflix in the spring of 2014. A second Steve Jobs movie, from screenwriter Aaron Sorkin, is also in the works for 2014.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple appears to be ramping up its hiring in China, with over 250 currently open positions posted on the company's website. Alongside the usual positions of retail specialists and store leaders (there are currently 8 Apple Stores in China in the major cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu and Shenzhen), Apple is hiring for a number of technical and administrative positions including an "environmental affairs program manager" and a "security specialist".

Earlier this month, it was reported that two Apple suppliers and manufacturers, UniMicron and Foxconn, were accused of dumping large quantities of heavy toxic metals into nearby rivers. There have also been frequent accusations of labor law violations, with Pegatron (the company widely rumored to be the manufacturer of the upcoming iPhone 5C) being the most recent in the limelight. It therefore comes at no surprise that at least some of the positions Apple is hiring for are intended to help address these issues and comply with local regulations.

The environmental affairs program manager will be based in China’s capital Beijing, the center of political power. According to the job description, the candidate has to “ensure that Apple’s products and processes meet and surpass regional and national environmental regulatory requirements.”

The hiring push in China also comes just as Apple has begun hiring in Taiwan for what has been reported to be a new research and development center focused on iPhone projects.

The Chinese market has been an especially difficult one for Apple, even as it has seen tremendous growth there over the past several years. The company has been in talks with China Mobile, the country's largest carrier, for several years and yesterday it was reported that the two sides have nearly reached an agreement for China Mobile to offer the iPhone. In a conference call last month, Apple's CEO Tim Cook said, "I continue to believe that in the arc of time here, China is a huge opportunity for Apple".

Although nearly all of Apple's products are manufactured in China and the country is now responsible for around 15% of Apple's total revenue, the company still holds a relatively low share of the smartphone market, and recent slowing of momentum saw Apple post a 14% decline in revenue year-on-year to $4.6 billion. In the second quarter of 2013, Apple ranked seventh in the Chinese smartphone market, falling to just 5% from 9% a year earlier.

Back in February, former TechCrunch writer and Google Ventures partner MG Siegler reported that he was hearing "chatter" about Apple making a significant push into television in the fall of this year. While Siegler was unable to say whether the push would include an actual television set from the outset, he believed that something was indeed happening, whether it be opening up the existing Apple TV up to third-party developers or launching a new Apple TV set-top box with expanded capabilities.

Siegler appeared on yesterday's episode of The Talk Show with John Gruber, and near the end of the podcast talk turned to Apple's plans for a lower-cost "iPhone 5C" and the iWatch. But as noted by Business Insider, Siegler also slipped in a brief comment indicating that Apple may still be planning some sort of television announcement for "as soon as this November". The relevant bit begins at the 1:27:00 mark of the podcast:

Not to go into rumor central here but the latest things I've heard, that some sort of television product — not necessarily a television screen but something — could be coming as soon as this November. And I think there's some surprises there about what it could actually be and I don't know this for sure yet, but there's been whispers about, so I'm not going to write anything about it, but there's whispers out there that the interaction with it could be the interesting thing. People have talked about voice, but I think that that might be out the window and there might be some new way to interact with whatever this thing is.

Apple has been expanding its Apple TV offerings in recent months, working more closely with TV content providers to host their content on the set-top box. Back in June, Apple added several new channels to the box, including WatchESPN, HBO GO, Sky News, anime site Crunchyroll, and music concert and documentary streaming service Qello. Apple is also close to launching a Time Warner Cable app and television network The CW has said that it is working on an app for the device.

KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who has offered accurate information on Apple's upcoming product plans numerous times, has issued a new research note claiming that the iPhone 5S will be available in a gold casing in addition to Apple's traditional white and black options. There will also be an option for larger 128 GB storage.

We also forecast the new model will add a new look, a golden casing, and a new option for larger 128GB storage, to offer greater differentiation from iPhone 5.

The possibility of a gold or champagne colored iPhone 5S option has been raised a few times in recent months, but Kuo is the most credible source yet to indicate that the iPhone 5S will indeed be available in that color.

The new 128 GB storage option would double the current maximum 64 GB storage option and could mean that Apple discontinues the 16 GB storage option for the iPhone 5S as Apple has typically only offered three different storage options for most devices.

Kuo goes on to note that the new device will likely add a 1 GB LPDDR3 RAM chip and that the new A7 processor will afford Apple the ability to improve system performance.

We reckon A7 will upgrade memory bandwidth spec to LPDDR3 from LPDDR2 adapted by A6, in an effort to improve system performance. Since Apple is in charge of both hardware and OS design, it is capable of minimalizing memory capacity at an optimized state. Therefore, A7’s RAM will likely be unchanged at 1GB.

Apple will reportedly unveil the iPhone 5S, which Kuo claims will come with a sapphire-covered home button with a fingerprint sensor, at a media event on September 10. Like previous iPhone launches, Apple is likely to launch the iPhone 5S a few weeks after its unveiled. Apple is also rumored to unveil the low-cost iPhone with a plastic case at the same event.

Apple has just released the sixth beta version of iOS 7 to developers for testing purposes. The update is available as an over-the-air update to existing beta testers and it can also be downloaded via Apple's Developer Center.

It was rumored earlier today that Beta 6 might be released next week, roughly two weeks after the release of Beta 5; however, the odd timing of this release -- Apple traditionally releases new iOS betas to developers on Monday mornings -- along with its small size, only 13.5MB on an iPhone 5, suggests that it could be some kind of urgent bug fix.

The new beta arrives as build 11A4449d, and comes a little more than week after the previous beta 5, which had a build number of 11A4449a.

iOS 7 is scheduled for release in the fall of this year, with updates to Apple’s iPhone and iPad lineups expected around the same time. If past history is any indication, iOS 7 should be made available to the public just a few days before the launch of the next-generation iPhone.

Update: Apple notes on the iOS Developer Center that the release fixes an "issue with iTunes in the Cloud, where some purchases may download or play unexpected items."

A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit against Apple that alleged the company had an illegal monopoly because the iPhone does not allow users to use alternative app stores.

Apple had requested that the suit be dismissed because Apple doesn't set the price for paid applications and because charging a price for distribution of products on a platform does not violate antitrust laws.

However, the suit was dismissed on a something of a technicality and can be refiled at a later date. Bloomberg reports:

The plaintiffs failed to prove “collective allegations that they have been deprived of lower cost alternatives, paid higher prices for Apple-approved applications, or had their iPhones disabled or destroyed,” [U.S. District Judge Yvonne] Gonzalez wrote. “At a minimum, plaintiffs must allege facts showing that each named plaintiff has personally suffered an injury-in-fact based on Apple’s alleged conduct.”

A lawyer for the plaintiffs told Bloomberg that they can refile with "no difficulty" and will argue that Apple has "cornered the distribution market for software for the iPhone".