MacRumors

Apple has released an updated version of its Apple Store app for the iPhone, which is said to include both performance enhancements and improved product search capabilities. The Apple Store app allows users to purchase Apple products quickly and efficiently on their iPhones.

News of an upgrade first came to light last week, with a report that suggested Apple would begin offering free downloads within the App, including content from Apple’s iTunes Store, App Store, and iBookstore.

While the app appears to be the same on the surface, it is entirely possible that Apple has included the framework that will support the addition of new deals and offerings within the app in the near future. 9to5Mac suggests the possibility that free content may only be shown when a customer is inside a brick-and-mortar Apple Store.

Apple is said to be overhauling the app as part of its incentivization efforts designed to increase its number of in-store iPhone sales. According to Apple CEO Tim Cook, iPhones are an important "gateway product" that lead customers to purchase other Apple products.

At the current point in time, only a small percentage of iPhones are sold in Apple Stores, with the majority of sales coming from third party locations like carrier stores and electronics retailers. By offering free content in its Apple Store app, Apple can draw customers in to view and purchase additional Apple devices.

In an effort to increase iPhone sales Apple has begun including the iPhone in its annual Back to School program, allowing eligible education customers to receive a $50 gift card that can be used to purchase music, books, or apps.

Apple is also planning to implement a new iPhone trade-in program, which is designed to encourage users to upgrade to the latest models by offering a credit for used devices.

The Apple Store app can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]

Update: Apple has pushed a second update to its Apple Store app, bringing it to version 2.7.1. The release notes continue to point to improved search capabilities and performance enhancements, so it is unclear why the app has been updated again.

Following the introduction of T-Mobile's "Jump" and AT&T's "Next" early upgrade programs, T-Mobile has launched a new anti-AT&T ad campaign that calls the company's Next policies "calculating, sneaky, and underhanded," reports AllThingsD.

First introduced last week, Next is AT&T's answer to Jump, a T-Mobile program that allows users to upgrade their phones at regular intervals with a $10 monthly fee. Like Jump, Next provides AT&T users with an option to upgrade their phones more frequently, but its $32.50 monthly charge is on top of standard monthly fees, ultimately causing customers to pay double for their devices.

A comparison of the two plans reveals that a T-Mobile customer using Jump would pay $518 for a 16 GB iPhone 5 over the course of a year while a customer using Next would pay $630, a premium of $112. With both plans, customers have to trade in existing devices and pay the monthly fees in order to obtain an upgrade.

T-Mobile CEO John Legere has been vocal about AT&T Next since its debut, releasing a number of tweets condemning the program. The company's newest ad includes a quote from The Verge that Legere highlighted last week: "AT&T's reaction to T-Mobile's transparency is to be more deceptive than ever."

Verizon has also introduced an upgrade program called "Edge," which shares similarities with AT&T's Next program. A 16 GB iPhone 5 costs $565 on the plan. According to T-Mobile marketing chief Mike Sievert, Verizon will be targeted in ads set to run later this week.

"There are real and material differences between what we are doing and the so-called upgrade programs that AT&T and Verizon are doing," he said.

T-Mobile and AT&T have an ongoing feud that originally began in 2011 after AT&T was unable to purchase the T-Mobile network due to objections from the Federal Communications Commission and the Department of Justice.

Tensions ramped up in January after Legere called the AT&T network "crap," leading to an advertising war between the two companies as T-Mobile unveiled its "Un-Carrier" policies, designed to decouple device fees from service fees.

Philip Elmer-Dewitt has assembled his quarterly list of analyst predictions ahead of Apple's earnings report this afternoon. The list includes estimates from 59 analysts: 21 "independent" and 38 "institutional" who work for large investment houses or research organizations.

Apple's stock price remains down significantly from its highs of last year, and investors are concerned about Apple's growth prospects across both existing and potential new product lines.

As far as hardware goes, Apple only introduced new MacBook Air models during the past quarter, and only in the final month. The company is not expected to introduce new iPhone models -- its financial bread and butter -- before the last month of Q4.

Two quarters ago, Apple changed how it provides financial guidance, choosing to offer a range of guidance for what the company believes it can achieve, rather than a point prediction. Apple provided guidance for the third quarter for revenue of between $33.5 and $35.5 billion and gross margin between 36% and 37%.

Last year, in the third quarter of 2012, Apple reported a profit of $8.8 billion on $35 billion in revenue.

Apple will announce its earnings for the third fiscal quarter of 2013 (second calendar quarter of 2012) and host a conference call regarding the release this afternoon at 5:00 PM Eastern / 2:00 PM Pacific. The earnings release itself typically comes in around 4:30 PM Eastern. MacRumors will have live coverage of the proceedings.

ETNews.com reports that Apple is discontinuing its relationship with AU Optronics to supply display panels for the iPad mini as production on displays for the second-generation models is expected to ramp up in the coming months. According to the report, LG Display is already onboard and Sharp is in solid position given its technological advantage in energy efficiency, while other display manufacturers such as Samsung are competing to replace AU Optronics' production share.

LG Display already secured order from Apple. Sharp seems to have no problem in getting approval from Apple as a supplier for iPad mini 2 despite some product quality problems, because it is the only supplier of oxide semiconductor LCD. Oxide semiconductor LCD has an advantage of saving electricity. Apple plans to apply oxide semiconductor LCD to iPad mini 2 despite the initial low production yield, because it gives the advantage of saving electricity.

AU Optronics won a share of display production for the original iPad mini, but struggled with production issues and reportedly did not catch up on production until months after the device's launch, contributing to tight supplies.

According to today's report, AU Optronics has been unable to meet technical and timing milestones for the next-generation iPad mini, and Apple's improving relationship with Samsung's display arm may be giving Apple more flexibility in managing its suppliers.

Apple's plans for its next-generation iPad mini have been the subject of numerous conflicting rumors, with some suggesting that a Retina iPad mini will launch later this year, while others have indicated that the company will launch a new non-Retina model later this year before adding a Retina display early next year. Just yesterday, KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo reported that Apple will not be updating the iPad mini until it can launch a Retina display version in March or April 2014.

After news that government officials would be testing the efficiency of iOS 7’s Activation Lock against thieves, San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón has come out in support of the feature, saying that “clear improvements” have been made to stop criminals, according to the San Francisco Examiner.

Last week, Gascón and New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman brought in security experts from the Northern California Regional Intelligence Center to test out Apple’s Activation Lock feature as well as Absolute Software’s Lojack service on the Samsung Galaxy S4 in order to determine how effective they are against thieves.

"I'm very optimistic that they came and were willing to share their technology with us," Gascón said in a statement, also noting that Microsoft and Google had not yet come forth with their plans to combat theft. Gascón did not detail how the specific features work, explaining that they were not yet finished.

Both attorneys called for the tests as a part of the Secure Our Smartphone (S.O.S) program that aims to stop the theft and black market resale of stolen mobile devices. While carriers have already established a database to track stolen phones, it has proven to be largely futile. Prior to these tests, Gascón and Schneiderman called for smartphones to have a kill switch that would disable them in the event of theft.

Announced at WWDC, Activation Lock is set to be included in iOS 7, which is expected to be released to consumers this fall.

According the Podcasts section of the iTunes Store, Apple has just hit a milestone of one billion Podcast subscriptions. Originally introduced in 2005, Podcasts allow both individuals and major companies to broadcast episodic radio-style shows. Apple offers thousands of different Podcasts that are available via iTunes or its Podcasts iOS app [App Store].

In honor of the one billion milestone, Apple has highlighted a number of its most popular podcasts over the years in a new iTunes section which offers up a number of classic Podcasts alongside New and Noteworthy content.

From comedy to hard new to sports to innovative educational content and so much more, podcasting has transformed the global media landscape. Podcasts on iTunes launched in the summer of 2005 and since then, we’ve seen countless episodes downloaded and streamed. But the heart of podcasting is finding your favorite voices in this exciting field and subscribing to the best ones. To celebrate reaching 1 billion podcast subscribers, we’re highlighting some of the most popular podcasts of all time, as well as a collection of captivating new shows.

Apple told Macworld that its billion subscriptions are spread across 250,000 unique podcasts in more than 100 languages, with more than eight million episodes published to date.

The new celebratory section includes popular Podcasts like This American Life, TEDTalks, 60 Minutes, and Happy Tree Friends, among others.

According to a new report from KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, production difficulties will cause Apple's iPhone 5S to ship towards the end of September, with supplies constrained until October or November. This is in line with recent reports that have suggested production on the iPhone 5S will ramp up towards the end of the month for a fall launch.

Apple's upcoming iPhone 5S is expected to retain the same form factor as the iPhone 5, but it is said to feature upgrades like a higher megapixel camera, a new slow motion video mode, and a fingerprint sensor — reportedly the factor behind the production delays.

We believe iPhone 5S will experience production difficulties among numerous components as well as assembly, as seen with iPhone 5 last year. The model will thus be available only in limited amounts following launch. We expect undersupply to improve in October or November.

Kuo believes that Apple’s low cost iPhone, which will be priced between $450 and $550, will launch somewhat earlier, likely towards the beginning of September alongside the fifth generation iPad.

A number of images of Apple's plastic-cased device have leaked over the last few weeks, suggesting that it will be similar in form to the iPhone 5 and that it will come in a variety of colors. MacRumors also has renderings of what the device may look like.

The fifth generation iPad, which is also expected in September, has been rumored to feature a slimmer, iPad mini-style redesign that will offer a thinner form factor and smaller bezels. According to Kuo, it will be the only iPad released in 2013, which is unsurprising as the potential release date of the iPad mini has been in flux in recent months. Though some reports have suggested Apple might release a slightly upgraded non-Retina version of the iPad mini in late 2013, Kuo does not believe that will happen.

Judging by the production status of low-cost iPad mini model, we estimate shipments can only launch in December at the earliest. For the sake of gross profit, the model may not be much cheaper than current iPad mini, which means less appeal to consumers. As such, we think Apple is unlikely to launch the product this year.

Kuo attributes the iPad mini Retina delay to the higher energy demand of a Retina display alongside limited battery capacity because of the diminutive size of the device. Rather than launching in 2013, Kuo predicts that the Retina mini will instead be released in March or April of 2014.

Finally, Kuo believes that the Haswell Retina MacBook Pro will launch in mid-September while an updated iMac will launch in late August. The exact launch date of the next MacBook Pro refresh has been in question since WWDC, as many expected Apple to release an upgraded MacBook Pro alongside the upgraded MacBook Air. While the MacBook Air was refreshed in June, the date of the MacBook Pro refresh has remained up in the air.

Ming-Chi Kuo has been proven to have relatively reliable information over the past several years and his release predictions also line up with a number of other reports that have filtered out over the past few months.

In its latest report on Apple, Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP) surveyed a number of recent purchasers of Apple products to determine U.S. buyer's purchasing habits regarding preferred capacity and model of a variety of Apple products.

Among other things, the survey found that the iPhone 5 accounted for just 52% of iPhones purchased in June 2013 -- back in October, just after the iPhone 5 had launched, the new device commanded some 68% of iPhone purchases. In June, 30% of iPhone sales were from the 4S, while 18% were from the 4.

The iPhone 4 and 4S aren't the only older iOS devices to be seeing significant sales success. The iPad 2, which is particularly popular in educational and enterprise environments, accounted for 34% of total iPad sales in June. The Retina iPad and iPad mini each counted for a third of total sales.

The 16GB capacity iPad is by far the most popular model, with the 32GB, 64GB and 128GB models accounting for 28%, 11% and 2% of total sales respectively.

Finally, though the Mac Pro has not been significantly updated in several years, it still accounts for 5% of total Mac sales, according to the survey -- and is more popular than the Mac mini. The MacBook Pro makes up 70% of Apple's notebook sales, with more than half of those sales going to the Retina display-equipped models.

Apple does not break down sales by model, and though this data is from a survey and not company-provided, it gives some insight into the sales preferences of Apple's customers.

Apple has seeded the fourth Developer Preview of OS X Mavericks to developers, some two weeks after the release of Developer Preview 3.

OS X Mavericks is slated for release this fall and includes new features like a tabbed Finder, full screen dual monitor capabilities, Safari improvements, and a new Maps app. Developers can receive the update via the Software Update tool in the Mac App Store.

Early this morning, independent security researcher Ibrahim Balic speculated that he may be responsible for the security breach that caused an extended outage of Apple's Developer Center, which has been offline since late last week.

Despite Balic's claim that he reported his findings directly to Apple and did not intend to act maliciously, information that he gave in an interview with TechCrunch suggests somewhat questionable behavior.

Balic, who has reported 13 different bugs to Apple, originally discovered an iAd Workbench vulnerability on June 18 that allowed a request sent to the server to be manipulated. This security hole could be used to acquire the names and email addresses of iTunes users (even non-developers). After finding the loophole, Balic wrote a Python script to harvest data from the vulnerability and then displayed it in a YouTube video, which may have put him on Apple's radar.

In addition to the iAd Workbench bug, Balic also discovered and submitted a report on a bug that caused the Dev Center site to be vulnerable to a stored XSS attack. While Balic says that it was possible to access user data by exploiting the Dev Center issue, he claims that he did not do so. According to TechCrunch, Balic's YouTube video (which has since been removed) contained full names and email addresses, and it is unclear where they originated.

It's too bad, though, that the video seemed so definitive: After showing off images of Apple's downed Dev Center and the company's official response, Balic then showed a slew of files that seem to contain full names and email addresses. It seems pretty damning, but Balic says that he never went after the Developer Center site directly, and all that user information he highlighted came from the iAd Workbench. Two separate bugs paved the way for one very confusing video.

Balic claims that he harvested data on 73 Apple employees and 100,000 other iTunes users, but he says that he did not use the Developer Center exploit that he first submitted on July 16, instead garnering the data from the iAd Workbench issue.

TechCrunch reports that the data that Balic gained (limited to email addresses and Apple IDs) may have come from non-developer accounts, though Apple has clearly stated that only developer accounts were affected.

Throughout our conversation, Balic maintained that he was only ever trying to help Apple. When asked why he downloaded all that user data rather than simply reporting the bug, Balic says he just wanted to see how "deep" he could go. If he wanted to do ill, he says, he wouldn't have reported everything he found. For what it's worth, he also says he never attempted to reset anyone's password — the farthest he went was to email one of the addresses he had discovered and ask if it was really the person's Apple ID. Balic didn't get a response.

Due to the ambiguity of the source of the names and email addresses shown in Balic's video, it is unclear whether or not he caused the Dev Center outage by manipulating the iAd Workbench bug and it is equally unclear what his intentions were.

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster has released a new report covering the full June quarter Mac and iPod sales data from market research firm NPD.

According to the data, Apple's Mac sales came in down 5% year over year, despite the introduction of the newest Haswell-based MacBook Airs at this year's WWDC. During the same time period last year, Apple unveiled both upgraded MacBook Airs and the new Retina MacBook Pro, so it seems the lack of a refreshed MacBook Pro lineup may have impacted sales for the quarter.

As with his previous reports, Munster notes that it remains difficult to extrapolate NPD data to Apple's global sales performance, but he views the June data as "neutral to slightly negative," down from slightly positive in a May report.

We note that we had expected an uptick in Mac sales in the month of June given updated Macbook Airs at WWDC; however, Mac units were [down] 12% y/y for the month of June according to NPD. Based on the differences between NPD data and Apple reported Mac sales over the past few quarters, we note it is becoming more difficult to draw conclusions from NPD data.

Munster stands by his belief that iPads will continue to cannibalize Mac sales and sticks with his prediction of 5% year over year decline in Mac sales for the June quarter. Macs are currently responsible for less than 15% of Apple's total revenue.

As for iPods, Munster's analysis of NPD data suggests that units are down 32% year over year, while the Piper Jaffray estimate suggests that sales are down 23% year over year on a global basis. However, as iPods only represent 2% of Apple's revenue, the overall impact of the sales decline is minor.

AT&T today announced the launch of two new Mobile Share plan options, including a 300MB and a 2GB data plan, both of which include unlimited talk and text.

First introduced last summer, AT&T's Mobile Share service plans are designed to allow users to share monthly data allotments across multiple devices. The plans come with both a monthly data cost and a per-device charge that ranges from $10 to $45 based on the data plan selected and the type of device.

Previously, AT&T's Mobile Share plans started at 1GB of shared data and then jumped to 4GB, so the new options give customers who use less data additional pricing choices. The 300MB option is available for $20 per month with a $50 charge per smartphone bringing the total plan cost to $70 per month, while the 2GB option costs $50 with a $45 charge per smartphone, for a total cost per month of $95.

As AT&T rolls out new Mobile Share plans, its early upgrade pricing has also been gaining some attention. A report from Gotta Be Mobile points out that a number of AT&T customers have begun receiving early device upgrade options, which appear to be part of the 24-month upgrade policy that AT&T introduced last month. AT&T has offered similar early upgrade discounts in the past.

Early upgrades. Once you’ve completed six months or more of your Service Commitment, you qualify for partial discount off the full retail price when you sign a new two-year wireless agreement.

Several AT&T iPhone customers have logged in and found themselves eligible for a discount on an upgrade, and according to AT&T, users that have completed at least six months of their contracts should be eligible for a partial discount off of the full retail price of a new device.

It is, however, unclear how AT&T is doling out its early upgrades as it appears to be limited to an upgrade on a phone brand that is already in use (an iPhone user can only early upgrade to another iPhone, for example) and other users have reported not seeing an early upgrade discount at all.

AT&T's new Mobile Share plans will be available beginning on July 26.

The Next Web points to a comment on a TechCrunch article taking credit for last week's unauthorized access of Apple's Developer Center last week. The comment comes from independent security researcher Ibrahim Balic, who claims that his effort was not intended to be malicious and that he reported his findings to Apple just hours before the developer site was taken down by the company.

In total I have found 13 bugs and have reported through http://bugreport.apple.com. The bugs are all reported one by one and Apple was informed. I gave details to Apple as much as I can and I’ve also added screenshots.

One of those bugs have provided me access to users details etc. I immediately reported this to Apple. I have taken 73 users details (all apple inc workers only) and prove them as an example.

Balic claims to have accessed details on over 100,000 users, but only released to Apple details on 73 of its own employees in order to prove the seriousness of the issue.

I have emailed and asked if I am putting them in any difficulty so that I can give a break to my research. I have not gotten any respond to this… I have been waiting since then for them to contact me, and today I’m reading news saying that they have been attacked and hacked. In some of the media news I watch/read that whether legal authorities were involved in its investigation of the hack. I’m not feeling very happy with what I read and a bit irritated, as I did not done this research to harm or damage. I didn’t attempt to publish or have not shared this situation with anybody else.

Balic's tactics and motives have, however, been questioned by some, with scattered reports suggesting an unusually high level of password reset requests on Apple developers' accounts over the past few days.

Apple's Developer Center remains down today, some four days after the company took it down in order to investigate the breach, update its software, and rebuild its developer database.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple and its suppliers are testing larger screens for both the iPhone and iPad:

In recent months, Apple has asked for prototype smartphone screens larger than 4 inches and has also asked for screen designs for a new tablet device measuring slightly less than 13 inches diagonally, they said. The current iPhone 5 has a four-inch screen, while the iPad has a 9.7-inch screen. The iPad Mini, a stripped-down version of its tablet computer, has a 7.9-inch screen.

Reports of larger screen sizes for Apple's iPhone model are not new. Multiple reports have already suggested that Apple has been experimenting with screen sizes as large as 5.7" for the iPhone.

However, only one previous rumor, which we classified as "sketchy" emerged in May that pinpointed a 12.9" size for a future iPad.

The larger iPad, which the site apparently in all seriousness says would be called "iPad Maxi", would launch in the first half of 2014 and be intended to target the ultrabook market as well as increase utility for digital textbooks.

While we dismissed that rumor before, the Wall Street Journal's sources apparently confirm the testing of this large almost 13" screen size. The newspaper does explain that these new designs may never make it to market.

Meanwhile, they say the new 2013 iPad will be ramping up later this month. This year's iPad will use the same 9.7" screen, but with a lighter and thinner display structure.