MacRumors

In June, reports surfaced of a top secret surveillance program named PRISM, which according to leaked presentation slides was claimed to allow the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) direct access to user data on servers across a wide spectrum of Internet companies, including Apple. Now, Politico is reporting that a meeting between President Barack Obama and technology executives including Apple CEO Tim Cook took place earlier this week to discuss the subject of government surveillance. The meeting was reportedly confidential and was the second meeting this week in which top government officials held discussions with representatives from the technology industry to examine mainstream privacy issues.

President Barack Obama hosted Apple CEO Tim Cook, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson, Google computer scientist Vint Cerf and other tech executives and civil liberties leaders on Thursday for a closed-door meeting about government surveillance, sources tell POLITICO.

The session, which Obama attended himself, followed a similar gathering earlier this week between top administration officials, tech-industry lobbyists and leading privacy hawks, the sources said. Those earlier, off-the-record discussions centered on the controversy surrounding the NSA as well as commercial privacy issues such as online tracking of consumers.

Earlier this year, a conservative activist and three others sued Apple among other companies and the U.S. government over alleged privacy violations resulting from supposed participation in the NSA’s PRISM intelligence program.

After the lawsuit, Apple issued a “Commitment to Customer Privacy” statement addressing the issue, implying that no agency has had direct access to customer data and that each request for data by law enforcement is strictly evaluated. And last month, Apple signed on to an alliance of dozens of technology companies asking for greater transparency with regard to the NSA's surveillance program.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the comment thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All MacRumors forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Back in April, a pair of photos surfaced showing what was claimed to be a white front panel from Apple's fifth-generation iPad, showing narrower side bezels as had been rumored as part of a redesign inspired by the iPad mini. A brief video that surfaced over this past weekend also appeared to show the next-generation iPad's front panel and digitizer paired with a rear shell.

Now, a new listing at parts and repair firm Macfixit Australia includes a number of photos of a similar part, which the company's supplier says is a genuine front panel and digitizer for the fifth-generation iPad.

The part shows the same narrower side bezels seen in previous leaks, as well as a pair of flex cables running along one of the long edges of the panel and ending in connectors in roughly the same location seen on both the current iPad and in the leaked photo from last weekend. The connectors are different from those seen in current and previous full-size iPads, but Apple has been rumored to be making a number of technological changes in order to achieve the smaller form factor expected for the upcoming iPad, revisions which could necessitate a significant change in connector design.

Our supplier claims this is the new iPad 5 Screen/Digitizer:

- The display area is the same as the iPad Retina.

- The edges of the frame are narrower using the same style as the iPad mini.

- The ITO (Indium tin oxide) is the same as the iPad mini.

- There is now 2 connectors instead of 1.

- The connectors have been changed from FFC (Flat Flexible Cable, like the iPad 2/3/4) to FPC (Flexible Printed Circuits, like the iPhone 4/5).

Stamped on the front panel is a part number of 821-1892-02, which matches the format used by Apple on many of its iOS device components.

Apple is expected to introduce the fifth-generation iPad as soon as next month, with an updated iPad mini rumored to be following fairly soon after.

(Thanks, Martin!)

Apple's Board of Directors has expressed concern about the company's "pace of innovation" according to a report from Fox Business Network's Charlie Gasparino. The board is normally extremely secretive and, if accurate, this report is unlike anything we've heard from inside the company in recent years.

From what we understand, there is concern at the board level, sources are telling the Fox Business Network, about the pace of innovation over at Apple. What have they had lately? They had the iPad and a few other things, but they don't have anything innovating from what came from Steve Jobs and that concern is basically manifesting into pressure on Tim Cook to innovate, and to do something fast.

We should point out, this is an interesting boardroom drama. It does not mean that Tim Cook is out of a job or that there is a job search out there, we don't know that and I don't believe that is happening. In fact, sources inside Apple are saying that's not the case.

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Apple appears to be experiencing another problem with its systems today, as a number of MacRumors readers have reported they are unable to activate their new iPhones. Other reports are showing up on Twitter as the problems continue.

An AT&T employee has told MacRumors that some Apple Retail Stores are sending customers to AT&T stores, but indicated that those locations are having similar activation issues.

There is no word yet on when users can expect the issue to be fully resolved, but a similar outage occurred two weeks ago.

Music video company Vevo is developing an app for the Apple TV, according to a report from AdAge. The app will show a 24/7 music video channel with ads made specifically for television rather than for streaming Internet video.

Vevo launched Vevo TV this March as an alternative way to watch and discover music videos on its platform. Previously, users had to search for videos. Vevo's "Vintage" program plays songs from the '80s, '90s and '00s.

Vevo TV -- a linear music video channel -- appears better suited for the "lean back" experience of watching television, as opposed to mobile viewing. Vevo had nearly 62 million unique U.S. visitors in May but only 4.2 million watched on mobile devices (smartphones and tablets), according to comScore.

Vevo has an existing iOS app [iPhone, iPad], and, if it launches an Apple TV app, would join other recently launched apps including HBO Go and WatchESPN. Apple is also rumored to be coming close to launching a Time Warner Cable app for the Apple TV.

Apple worked with a number of third-party content providers recently to launch new channels for the Apple TV. HBO used an internal development team to make its app, presumably using an unpublished development kit from Apple.

Historically, the Apple TV has taken a backseat to the iPad and the iPhone with the company referring to the Apple TV as a "hobby project," though Apple is rumored to be exploring new product lines that could eventually include an Apple television set.

At the D11 conference in May, Apple CEO Tim Cook reiterated that television continues to be an "area of great interest" for Apple and that the company has a "grand vision" in place.

Update: According to AllThingsD, the Vevo Apple TV app is slated for release later this month.

According to VR-Zone Chinese [Google Translation] (via BGR) Apple is currently recruiting a development team in Taiwan, in order to establish a new research and development facility.

The Taiwan R&D center will supposedly focus its efforts on future iPhones, but may also work on other future products as well. Apple is said to be hiring for numerous positions at the facility, with a number of different engineering and managerial jobs available. There do not appear to be any new R&D job listings for Taiwan on the Apple site, so it appears that the hiring push for the facility has yet to begin.

A Taiwanese development center makes sense, as it is where Apple partner Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) is located. TSMC recently signed a deal with Apple that will see the company producing A-series chips for future Apple devices beginning in 2014.

Apple operates a number of other research and development facilities around the world and is currently planning to open another center in Shanghai this summer.

Following his company's earnings release earlier today, T-Mobile USA CEO John Legere told AllThingsD that the carrier is looking forward to expanding its Apple product offerings beyond the iPhone. Back in April, T-Mobile became the last of the four major U.S. carrier to begin selling the iPhone.

Legere said it is a good sign that the iPhone is only a portion of the company’s sales growth, accounting for just 21 percent of smartphone sales last quarter.

“I think it’s a healthy percentage,” Legere said.

That said, Legere looks forward to more business with Apple, including carrying products beyond the iPhone.

“I think there’s a whole array of Apple products that we look forward to carrying,” Legere said. “We will expand what we offer from them.”

The most obvious new Apple product for T-Mobile would be the iPad, with the other major U.S. carriers already selling and supporting cellular-capable models of the device with data plans. In order to provide official support for the iPad on T-Mobile, Apple would almost certainly have to at least tweak its existing hardware in order to support the AWS 1700/2100 MHz frequency bands used by T-Mobile, something the company did on the iPhone 5 when it launched on T-Mobile. But with an updated iPad expected to launch within the next few months, any frequency support changes would almost certainly just be folded into the new hardware.

T-Mobile may also find itself able to support new iPhone models if Apple launches both an iPhone 5S and a lower-cost "iPhone 5C" in the coming months. The carrier currently does offer the iPhone 4S and iPhone 4, although official device availability is currently limited to areas where T-Mobile has been able to refarm its spectrum to offer 3G/4G coverage on frequencies supported by those devices. Apple would presumably build full support for T-Mobile's frequency bands into any new iPhone models it launches in the United States.

Back in May 2011, patent holding firm Lodsys began threatening lawsuits against a number of small iOS developers, alleging infringement of a Lodsys-held patent through the use of Apple's in-app purchase and upgrade functionalities. The case was an interesting one because small developers were being held liable for their use of Apple's supported tools for iOS apps, with Apple agreeing to back the developers and claiming that Apple's existing license with Lodsys automatically extended to cover third-party developers using those tools.

Lodsys continued to pressure developers, both large and small, to take out their own licenses for Lodsys' patents, with many developers choosing to purchase licenses rather than fight in court. Lodsys now claims over 200 licensees for its patents.

While news about Lodsys had been relatively quiet through late 2012 and early 2013, the firm once again made a splash in April of this year when it filed suit against Disney, Gameloft, and several other developers and companies. Aside from a brief June announcement from Lodsys noting that Angry Birds developer Rovio has taken a license for Lodsys' patents, things had once again turned quiet through the middle of this year.

But as noted in a blog post today from developer Todd Moore, whose firm TMSOFT is responsible for several dozen iOS and Mac apps, Lodsys has curiously agreed to dismiss its case against him in exchange for an end to the dispute and a mutual charitable donation from the two sides (via @DotComCTO).

The dismissal is with prejudice which means they can never sue my company again for infringing its patents. I did not have to pay any money to Lodsys or sign a license agreement. I also did not sign a confidentially agreement so I’m free to talk about this matter.

So what did I have to agree to?

1. Never to sue Lodsys over its patents (I otherwise would have the right to ask a court to rule their patents invalid if I wanted)

2. Dismiss all motions with prejudice (we had filed a motion to dismiss that also sought to recover my attorneys fees, costs and expenses)

3. Make a donation to a mutually agreeable charity

Moore notes that the only reason he was able to fight Lodsys in court was that he had pro bono assistance from the Public Patent Foundation, with attorneys there estimating that their time spent on the case could normally have been billed at roughly $190,000 even before it headed to trial. He also highlights the ease with which Lodsys is able to file patent lawsuits against small developers and his continuing efforts at supporting patent reform.

It remains unclear whether Lodsys' move to dismiss the case against Moore and TMSOFT is part of a strategy shift for the firm or if it simply realized that it was not worth pursuing a protracted fight against a small developer receiving free legal representation. We have yet to hear of any similar settlements, although many developers have understandably been reluctant to share details on their own experiences with Lodsys.