MacRumors

In addition to its main office in Cupertino, Apple maintains a number of satellite offices in different cities in the United States. One such office is located in Boston, and according to industry sources that spoke to Xconomy (via 9to5Mac) Apple’s Boston team specializes in speech technology and may be working on Siri improvements.

Based on their online job profiles, we can say that members of the Apple speech team here are working on Siri, the company's voice-activated virtual assistant. Details beyond that are hard to come by, however, even for others in the field.

"They won't tell us what they're doing," says Jim Glass, who heads MIT's Spoken Language Systems Group. “We can only guess.”

Apple's Boston team is said to be made up of employees that formerly worked at VoiceSignal Technologies, a speech software company that was purchased in 2007 by Apple partner Nuance.

Multiple members of the team worked at Nuance before moving onto Apple, including Gunnar Evermann, Larry Gillick, and Don McAllaster. Gillick, a former vice president of research at Nuance, lists his job as "Chief Speech Scientist, Siri at Apple," while McAllaster calls himself a "Senior Research Scientist" at the company.

While it is unclear just what the Boston Siri team is working on, Xconomy speculates that Apple could potentially be working on a Siri solution that moves away from Nuance, the technology that currently powers the personal assistant.

It would not be out of the question for Apple to aim for improved Siri software using its own in-house technology. The company has made moves to be more autonomous over the past few years, most recently switching to in-house mapping with iOS 6 rather than continuing to rely on Google Maps. Both former Apple CEO Steve Jobs and current Apple CEO Tim Cook have emphasized the importance of owning technology. "In the business we're in, own the technology," said Cook in an interview. "Steve was laser focused on that and that's ingrained in us."

Though it is possible that Apple is working on its own in-house voice recognition solution, the team could also be seeking to improve the integration of Nuance's technology into Siri. Apple could also be working on new developer APIs to better integrate Siri with existing iOS apps.

Apple has been working hard to improve Siri since the software's debut in 2011. With iOS 6, Siri gained the ability to provide sports scores, make reservations, launch apps, and locate movie listings. In iOS 7, Siri will see further improvements, including speed enhancements, better pronunciation, and new voices.

A picture posted on the Chinese microblogging site Weibo appears to show the rear of an assembled low-cost iPhone, complete with the required legal notices from the FCC and other agencies. The image was noticed by Dutch Apple site iPhone5Skopen.com [Google Translate].

The unit shown appears to be almost identical to the rear shell that was leaked a few days ago, though this is one of the first leaks to include legal notices on the back.

As expected, the phone appears to include a rear camera with single flash -- leaks of the new iPhone 5S have suggested a dual-flash system -- as well as similar Lightning and headphone jack locations to the existing iPhone 5.

Because of the angle of the photo, is it impossible to tell if it is an assembled phone or just the rear plate. However, it looks very similar to other reported leaks. At a minimum, there is a good chance that these parts offer a good representation of what Apple's lower-cost iPhone will look like.

KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who has a solid track record, predicted earlier this week that the low-cost iPhone would ship in early September.

Thanks Arjan!

MacRumors attended a promotional screening of "JOBS" in San Francisco last night, where Ashton Kutcher and director Joshua Michael Stern held a question and answer session that covered a variety of topics on the production of the movie. Kutcher, for the most part, expanded on the ways that he slipped into the role of Jobs, and pontificated on what loyalty might have meant to the former CEO.

While Kutcher has made a number of appearances to promote the movie, speaking multiple times about his preparation for the role of Steve Jobs, he shared a few new details last night.

Kutcher explained the physical demands of the role, which included the mastering of the Steve Jobs walk over the course of the three months that he prepared for the part. Kutcher attributed Jobs’ walk to his penchant for bare feet, which contributed to his odd lope. He suggested Jobs probably stubbed his toes fairly often, causing the unique gait where he picked up his feet while walking.

Kutcher also noted that he went as far as studying the same books and artists that Jobs once did in order to get into the right mind frame and learn his aesthetic taste. Throughout the interview, it was clear that Kutcher had a great respect for Jobs, and he mentioned that he deeply regretted forgoing a chance to meet Jobs just months before he passed away. “I loved a man I never knew,” he said.

When an audience member asked Kutcher how he thought that Jobs would define loyalty, Kutcher initially declined to answer, but went on to discuss Jobs’ relationship with some of the earliest Apple employees, including Daniel Kottke, who was not awarded Apple stock.

“I think Steve was extraordinarily loyal to people he felt were loyal to him. And I don’t think that he had a historical relationship in his life that he felt that - that he trusted other people’s loyalty so I think he was sparing with his.”

Director Joshua Michael Stern also shared his thoughts on the question, explaining that someone had told him that Jobs was not a sentimental person. According to Stern, sentimentality draws from the past and Jobs didn’t live in the past–he was always looking towards the future.

“So I think that he would define loyalty in a very different way. He’d probably get defensive if you’d ask because his loyalty had probably been questioned so often in his life. But I think that he was loyal to his vision and he was loyal to the one thing he wanted to bring to the world … I think he was loyal to what he was trying to achieve. If you were loyal to that too then he loved you and if you didn’t then you didn’t understand him.”

The JOBS movie, starring Ashton Kutcher and Josh Gad, is set to hit theaters next month on August 16.

A report from the China Times (cited on the Japanese website Mac Otakara) predicts an October launch for an updated MacBook Pro model featuring Intel's new Haswell processors, which are already present in the new MacBook Airs, released last month at Apple's annual WWDC event. The report cites sources in Apple's lengthy supply chain and suggests that the new models will remain the same price as the previous ones.

The new range of Haswell processors (image above courtesy of ITPro UK) offer a slight boost in processor speed, but their major draw is a lower rate of power consumption compared to previous models. The MacBook Air now boasts an "all-day battery life" of up to 12 hours for the 13-inch model and up to 9 hours for the 11-inch model. The chips also offer support for the latest 4K displays, which offer a resolution 4 times that of standard HD displays. Currently, no Apple products feature the resolution.

KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who has a good track record when it comes to Apple rumors, originally predicted new MacBook Pros with Haswell processors at WWDC back in June, alongside a slimmer MacBook Pro with Retina display, though he later updated his prediction to suggest a mid-September release date for refreshed MacBook Pros.

There is some evidence that suggests Apple vendors may be trying to run down existing MacBook Pro stock. Both Best Buy and Amazon are currently offering significant back-to-school discounts on the MacBook Pro, offering the 13-inch base model (with 4 GB of memory and a 500 GB hard drive) for $999, compared to $1,199 in the Apple Store. Best Buy has dropped the price even further for students, with an additional $100 off.

The sales do not appear to be confined to the United States as Amazon UK is currently selling the same entry level 13-inch MacBook Pro for £904.95 ($1,395), instead of £999 ($1,539) in the Apple Store.

Yesterday, Mac Mini shipping times slipped to 5 to 7 days in the official Apple Store, suggesting that Apple may also be gearing up to introduce additional new products in the near future.

Marketing research firm Harris Interactive has awarded Apple the title of “Brand of the Year” in the categories of smartphones, tablets, and computers, as first reported by VentureBeat. The distinction comes after a poll asking 38,500+ Americans about the perceptions of their favorite brands, in which Apple was placed above other competitors such as Hewlett-Packard, Amazon, Samsung, and HTC.

"Americans continue to give Apple brands strong ratings," says Manny Flores, Senior Vice President at Harris Interactive. "And while their Consumer Connection scores are strong within their respective categories, what really stands out is that in all three of the categories Apple brands are measured - Computer, Tablet and Mobile Phone - its Brand Momentum scores are in the top 30 of all 1,500 brands evaluated in the study, showing that consumers see this as a brand of the future.

These awards come after BBC reported about a survey done by marketing group Added Value (AV), who claimed that Apple’s brand has become “less inspiring” among consumers.

Research firm IDC has released its estimates on worldwide mobile phone sales for the second quarter of 2013, showing Apple's iPhone growth slowing as it posted its second-lowest iPhone growth rate in four years with only 20% year-over-year growth compared to 52.3% growth for the entire market. However, Apple maintained a hold on the number two spot for smartphone makers behind Samsung, as other competitors LG, Lenovo, and ZTE failed to hit the 6% mark during the quarter.

Apple posted its second-lowest year-over-year iPhone growth rate in almost four years as some buyers presumably held off on iPhone purchases in advance of an expected next-generation device launch this fall. Nonetheless, the 31.2 million iPhones Apple shipped last quarter was impressive as its flagship iPhone 5 model, which has been in the market for three quarters, was faced with additional global competition in the form of Samsung's Galaxy S4 and HTC's critically-acclaimed One models. Apple's growth is likely to accelerate globally assuming it launches a lower-cost iPhone and continues to penetrate prepaid markets in the quarters to come.

Apple continues to benefit from the growth of smartphones, as it held onto its spot as the number three manufacturer in the world in looking at total mobile phone shipments. Apple’s overall unit shipments were up 5.2% from previous quarter, while overall market share rose 0.8% allowing the company to grab an overall 7.2% market share for the quarter.

Ahead of a "very busy fall" for Apple, Mac mini ship times on many Apple Online Stores have slipped to 5-7 business days.

All other Macs on the online store have shipping estimates of "within 24 hours". That said, most Apple Retail Stores do show availability for the mini, as does Amazon.com.

Apple sometimes does have temporary product shortages of computers mid-cycle, but they can also portend intentional drawdowns of stock ahead of a product refresh. The Mac mini is a candidate for an upgrade to Haswell processors, and it is coming due for a possible update according to the MacRumors Buyer's Guide.

Ahead of an upcoming import ban on older Apple devices, Verizon attorney Randal Milch has published an open letter via The Wall Street Journal, calling for presidential intervention in the case to veto the ban.

High-tech products can implicate thousands of patents. If the ITC finds that a product infringes even a single one, it can stop the product at the border. But that's basically it. The commission can't levy much in the way of a lesser penalty. In the end the consumer suffers when the use of such an enforcement tool is unwarranted.

The import ban was originally scheduled back in June, after the U.S. International Trade Commission reached a decision on an ongoing Apple vs. Samsung patent case. The ITC ruled that Apple infringed on Samsung Patent No. 7,706,384, entitled "Apparatus and method for encoding/decoding transport format combination indicator in CDMA mobile communication system."

A cease and desist order was issued on several Apple products, including AT&T models of the iPhone 3GS and 4, the iPad 3G, and the iPad 2 3G. The ban did not go into effect immediately, however, as such rulings are given a 60 day window for the White House to intervene.

Though Verizon is not directly affected by case as it pertains solely to AT&T products, Milch believes that such a ban would further encourage patent abuse.

What we have warned is that patent litigation at the ITC—where the only remedy is to keep products from the American public—is too high-stakes a game for patent disputes. The fact that the ITC's intellectual-property-dispute docket has nearly quadrupled over 15 years only raises the stakes further. Smartphone patent litigation accounts for a substantial share of that increase.

While a presidential veto on an ITC decision has not happened since 1987, Milch suggests that intervention is necessary when the patent holder is not using the technology (as is often the case with patent trolls), when the patent holder has agreed to license the patent on reasonable terms, or when the infringement is unimportant to the overall product. Apple's infringement on Samsung's patent falls into the third category.

"There are more than 250,000 patents relevant to today’s smartphones," Milch writes. "It makes no sense that exclusion could occur for infringement of the most minor patent."

Without intervention, the cease and desist order on Apple products will go into effect on August 5, 2013. Apple has filed for an appeal and has also requested a stay on the ban.

After being found guilty in federal court of conspiring to artificially inflate e-book prices, legal experts are estimating that Apple could owe as much as $500 million in damages.

GigaOm has shared a chart provided to the federal judge in the case by the Texas attorney general. It shows how much in damages the five publishers have been found liable and how much they have paid in settlements. The remainder -- after damages have been trebled for willful violations -- works out to roughly $500 million.

The chart shows that the publishers have paid out over $166 million so far. Earlier this month, a lawyer from Hagens Berman — the class action firm in the case — told my colleague Jeff Roberts that Apple would likely face a liability payment of harm to consumers times three, minus the $166 million already paid out by publishers. On Wednesday, Law360 reported (paywall) the same thing, calculating that if Apple loses its appeal it would face about $490 million in damages. I annotated the chart above with those figures.

Apple has indicated that it will appeal the guilty ruling and it's likely that it will be many months or even years before the case is resolved.