MacRumors

As outlined in our feature highlighting Apple's possible product plans for 2014, a number of rumors have suggested Apple may be working on a 12.9-inch iPad model that could launch later this year. The company is allegedly accelerating development on this device in response to Samsung's introduction of two competing 12.2-inch tablet models, with market sources cited by Digitimes claiming that Apple is now prepping the so-called "iPad Pro" for a late Q3 2014 launch at the earliest.

The claim that Apple's timeline is motivated by a perceived need to match Samsung's recent introductions seems doubtful given that Apple has routinely taken its time coming to market even in the face of competitors rushing to beat Apple to its own rumored products, but at a minimum the claimed launch target offers one more data point for those trying to predict a release. Some sources have predicted a launch as soon as early this year but such a timeline seems very unlikely given the absence of part leaks and other substantiating evidence.

Earlier reports suggested the 12.9-inch iPad Pro could be a hybrid device that would appeal to enterprise customers looking for a machine that bridges the gap between tablet and notebook. Based on display panels currently under development in the supply chain, research firm DisplaySearch believes that the iPad Pro could ship with a 12.9-inch Retina display with a resolution of 2732 x 2048 and 265 ppi.

Besides the iPad Pro, Digitimes' sources unsurprisingly also claim Apple is working on new 7.9-inch and 9.7-inch models to replace the current Retina iPad mini and iPad Air. These models will likely debut in Q3 2014, keeping with Apple's current late fall release schedule for the iPad. Demand for the iPad is expected to be strong again in 2014 with the company selling between 80 and 90 million units over the course of the year.

After nearly six years of negotiations, the iPhone is finally available on China Mobile, which is the largest mobile carrier in the world with around 763 million subscribers. Apple CEO Tim Cook was on hand with China Mobile Chairman Xi Guohua at the carrier's headquarters store in Beijing at launch, according to Bloomberg.

Tim Cook with China Mobile's Xi Guohua and a customer. Image via Eunice Yoon

Cook handed out autographed iPhones to the first few customers before he once again praised Apple's new cooperation with China Mobile.

“Today is just the beginning of China Mobile and Apple coming together to deliver the best experience in the world,” Cook said as a few dozen people came in to look at the iPhones on display. China Mobile said Jan. 15 it signed a multiyear agreement with Apple containing “broad potential” for future cooperation.

Cook was soon asked whether the next iPhone would launch with a bigger screen, and responded that Apple does not like talking about future projects, but that they are working on "great things" and want to keep them secret because "you will be so much happier when you see it."

China Mobile is focused on attracting premium customers for the iPhone, Canalys analyst Nicole Peng told Bloomberg, because the carrier is concerned the high subsidy on the iPhone would impact their profitability. Fellow Chinese carrier China Telecom reported a 10 percent drop in net income in the first year of offering the iPhone, largely because of the higher subsidy.

On January 15, China Mobile said that 1 million iPhones had been pre-ordered in advance of launch. Estimates of Apple's potential iPhone sales have varied from 10-30 million units, with some claiming demand is lower due to satisfaction with China's other two carriers China Telecom and China Unicom as well as waning interest in iPhone because of increased smartphone choices in the country.

Apple will begin offering in-store screen replacements or repairs for iPhone 5c displays next week, starting on Monday, January 20, according to 9to5Mac.

Apple has begun conducting iPhone 5c screen replacements in a small number of stores in the United States over the past couple of months, but the January 20th rollout will represent a full-scale launch in all of Apple’s retail regions aside from Hong Kong and Canada.

Broken displays that aren't covered under AppleCare+ will likely cost $149 per device to replace or repair, while displays that are covered under AppleCare+ are likely to cost $79 per device, similar to the pricing structure Apple employs for broken iPhone 5 displays.

In-store replacements/repairs for iPhone 5s displays are still in Apple's plans and are "coming soon", though are not expected to roll out next week alongside iPhone 5c replacements/repairs. The moves are part of Apple's larger shift to lower repair costs.

T-Mobile will expand its recently introduced "Un-Carrier 4.0" initiative, which saw the company offering to pay up to $350 in early termination fees for Sprint, Verizon, and AT&T customers who switched to T-Mobile. As part of the expansion, first detailed by Re/code, T-Mobile will pay the same contract termination fees for customers currently with U.S. Cellular and a dozen other small regional carriers.

T-Mobile also has plans to entice additional customers by accepting a larger number of handsets for trade-in, including damaged phones, albeit for a lower trade-in credit.

"This is not just a promotion," T-Mobile marketing chief Mike Sievert told Re/code on Thursday. "What we are trying to do is bring an end to unfair one-way onerous contracts in this country."

First unveiled last week, T-Mobile's early termination deal pays up to $350 per line in fees for individuals and families with up to five lines who switch from their current carriers and trade in their phones to T-Mobile.

Under the terms of the program, customers have to leave their current carriers, trade in existing phones (T-Mobile offers up to $300 per trade-in), sign up for a new T-Mobile plan and port a phone number. After the above qualifications are met, customers can send the final bill from their previous carrier (with termination fees listed) to T-Mobile for reimbursement via prepaid MasterCard.

According to T-Mobile, upwards of 80,000 "break-up" letters have been shared on social media sites in the last week by customers leaving their carriers for T-Mobile and signups have increased as a result of the program.

Sonnet today announced the first Thunderbolt 2 expansion chassis, allowing owners of late 2013-era MacBook Pro and Mac Pro models to add two or three PCIe cards to their machines.

There are three new options, desktop and rack mount three-slot chassis, plus a two-slot desktop version.

The Echo Express III-D, Echo Express III-R, and Echo Express SE II incorporate ultra-fast Thunderbolt 2 technology, which delivers twice the throughput of 10 Gb/sec Thunderbolt and provides sufficient bandwidth to support many of the highest-performance and most-demanding PCIe cards. The new expansion chassis support every kind of Thunderbolt-compatible PCIe card available — enabling the use of professional video capture, audio interface, 16Gb and 8Gb Fibre Channel, 10 Gigabit Ethernet, SAS and SATA HBA, and RAID controller cards with Thunderbolt-enabled iMac®, Mac® mini, Mac Pro®, MacBook Air®, and MacBook Pro® computers. Plus, the Sonnet systems' dual Thunderbolt 2 ports support full-bandwidth connectivity with Thunderbolt 2-equipped host computers, full backward compatibility with 10 Gb/sec Thunderbolt-equipped computers and devices, and daisy-chaining of other Thunderbolt 2 and Thunderbolt devices.

Customers who purchased Thunderbolt 1 equipped expansion chassis can get free upgrades to the Thunderbolt 2 version. All the Thunderbolt 2 chassis are fully backwards-compatible with older Thunderbolt equipped Macs.

The desktop three-slot version is available for $979, the rack mount three-slot is $1,199, and the two-slot desktop is $499.

As Apple rolls out its iBeacon technology across its Retail Stores and investigates using it to enable mobile payments, a number of large retailers are testing the technology in their establishments.

Today, Shopkick announced it would be starting an iBeacon trial at 100 American Eagle stores in the U.S. This follows announcement earlier this month that InMarket would introduce iBeacons to more than 200 Safeway and Giant Eagle grocery stores in a number of markets across the country.

As shoppers enter an American Eagle Outfitters store, shopBeacon will welcome and show them location-specific rewards, deals, discounts and product recommendations – without them even having to remember to open the app. It can also tie at-home browsing behavior to in-store benefits; if the customer “likes” a specific product online, if they so choose, shopBeacon can remind them where in the American Eagle Outfitters store that product is sold. Even better, in the future, it can also deliver department-specific offers throughout the store – so must-have skinnies show up at the most useful time: in the jeans department.

Companies introducing iBeacons seem to understand the appeal of the devices, but it remains to be seen how consumers will respond and if they will download apps for individual stores -- a necessity for the iBeacons to have any effect. Shopkick previously performed a retail trial of iBeacons in two Macy's locations.

If the larger American Eagle trial is successful, Shopkick could introduce the technology to its other retail partners including Best Buy, Crate & Barrel, JCPenney, Old Navy, Sports Authority, Target and more.

Current MFi game controllers designed to work with devices running iOS 7, including offerings from MOGA, Logitech, and SteelSeries have all been unpopular with reviewers due to their high price tags, their build quality, and lack of game support. While it has been unclear why each manufacturer has chosen a $99 price tag and why all controllers have suffered from the same quality control problems, a new report from 9to5Mac sheds some light on the issue.

As it turns out, the main issue driving up price is Apple's strict guidelines on the creation of the controllers. Apple is requiring manufacturers to source the pressure sensitive analog switches used in buttons and thumbsticks from a single supplier, Fujikura America.

According to manufacturers that spoke to 9to5Mac, pressure sensitive switches may have been an area where costs could be cut if they were not forced to use Apple-approved supplies. Apple isn't setting specific prices for the controllers, but these supply costs, coupled with licensing fees and other component costs are edging the controllers to the $100 range.

Along with cost, other construction limitations may be affecting build quality. In addition to specifying the build of the pressure-sensitive buttons, Apple also has requirements that cover the joystick range of motion, d-pads, color, labeling, layout, and more.

There are other limitations of the program as well. For instance, the d-pads must be one circular button, opposed to just a raised cross shape or separate buttons for up, down, right, and left that you find on PlayStation and Xbox controllers and that many gamers prefer. The requirements also extend to the color, labeling and layout of the face buttons, thumbsticks, triggers, etc. It's all meant to control quality and make it easy for developers to update apps to support all controllers, but in some areas Apple's controller specification might not be strict enough.

Quality issues can also be chalked up in part to the rapid development of the first crop of MFi controllers. Apple introduced the API back in June, but developers and manufacturers had little time to get a controller out before the holiday season. One Logitech employee expressed disappointment to 9to5Mac over the quality of the controller and said that it was "put together in haste."

One final problem with the controllers lies in developer hands, with some developers expressing reluctance to implement support for subpar hardware and others seeing no need to add support to their games.

For other developers, especially those that developed games specifically for the touchscreen, controller support just doesn't make sense. App developer Massive Damage compared the controllers to Kinect: "An optional piece of equipment with relatively low market penetration that a developer has to program and design for explicitly." It won't introduce controller support in any of its games "until iPhones come with controllers out of the box."

According to accessory maker Signal, the company currently developing an Xbox-style MFi game controller, it is not currently possible to create a reasonably priced controller (matching the cost of low-priced generic Bluetooth controllers) with the quality of those from Microsoft or Sony under the MFi program.

Though MFi game controllers are riddled with issues, there is room for improvement in the future. It is possible that with more development time, second-generation controllers could have a better build quality, and it is also possible that Apple could relax its restrictions in the future to make it easier for companies to source less expensive components. Existing controllers will also see improvements as developers embrace the technology and build specific support into a wide range of suitable games.

Research firm NPD today announced the results of its latest Connected Home Report, showing that Apple increased its share of the U.S. smartphone installed user base by seven percentage points, from 35 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012 to 42 percent in the same quarter of 2013. Second-place Samsung increased its share of the market by a smaller margin from 22 percent to 26 percent, while other major manufacturers saw their shares drop.

NPD's data, which is based on a survey of roughly 5,000 consumers, is in close alignment with recent data from comScore that showed Apple with 41.2 percent of the market and Samsung at 26.0 percent in the September-November period.

Both firms track installed user base rather than sales, offering a more realistic picture of real-world usage but which is slower to react to shifting market trends given typical handset lifespans. Apple has shown steady increases under these studies over the past several years, even as Android has experienced significant growth. One recent study of trends by Asymco's Horace Dediu has predicted that Apple's share of installed user base in the U.S. will peak at 68 percent in 2017 when the smartphone market hits a saturation point at 90 percent of the country's population.

While Apple's performance remains strong in the U.S. and several other countries, Android has had more success attracting customers in many other markets around the world. Data from Kantar Worldpanel for the August-October period pegged Apple's share of the market in many European countries and China in the 15-20 percent range, with iOS barely registering in some countries such as Spain.

Apple's iBeacon technology based on the Bluetooth LE standard is being installed in Apple Stores and other retail outlets to assist customers and send them promotions while shopping, but as noted by Patently Apple, a newly published patent application suggests this technology could also be used to send secure mobile payments while making purchases.

Patent application number 20140019367, filed in September 2012 and published today, describes a method that would send payment data through various wireless interfaces without compromising the user's data. The method uses two links -- one connection to a point-of-sale device to establish the initial connection and a second, secure connection that sends the payment information. This payment information is then processed by a backend server, which uses a shared secret to verify that the connection was secure before it authorizes the payment.

In one or more embodiments, a method of performing a commercial transaction is provided. The method includes establishing a first secure link over a first air interface by a purchasing device, the first secure link between the purchasing device and a point of sale device, identifying a second air interface different from the first air interface, establishing a second secure link over a second air interface, the second secure link between the purchasing device and a backend server, and conducting, using the second air interface, a secure commercial transaction between the purchasing device and the backend server using payment data secured by a shared secret known to a secure element in the purchasing device and to the backend server.

The payment method described in the patent may use NFC as well as Bluetooth and Wi-Fi to connect the mobile device to the point-of-sale terminal. Though iBeacon is not directly named in the patent, it is easy to see how the technology could be used as the conduit for the secure Bluetooth connection. Apple even notes in the patent that NFC "is less desirable for longer transactions," while Wi-Fi or Bluetooth has "more desirable characteristics for maintaining the link over time than NFC."

The use of Apple's iBeacon technology, rolled out alongside iOS 7, is expected to increase over the coming year as other retailers such as Macy's have begun piloting the Bluetooth LE technology. Most recently, the Consumer Electronics Association used iBeacons for a scavenger hunt at CES 2014, while Major League Baseball will be bringing the technology to stadiums.

Google today released a Google Play Movies & TV app for iOS, allowing iPhone and iPad users to watch movies and TV shows that have been purchased on Google Play. In addition to providing a way for iOS users to stream Google Play content directly to their devices, the app is also a boon for Chromecast users with iOS devices, as it will let them stream movies and TV shows purchased from Google Play to the Chromecast device.

Watch your favorite movies and shows instantly on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch from wherever you are. Buy or rent movies by visiting Google Play Store on any computer and watch them from any device over Wi-Fi using the Google Play Movies & TV app.

Limited content for iOS users has been an issue for Chromecast since the device was first launched in July. Though Chromecast was designed to compete with the Apple TV and Roku set top boxes, Chromecast users on iOS have been restricted to movie and TV content from apps like Netflix and YouTube that have implemented Chromecast support, while Android users have had prior access to movies and television shows from the Android version of Google Play Movies & TV.

Other apps, like HBO GO and Hulu Plus implemented Chromecast support after the device was launched, but it still lacked a comprehensive alternative to iTunes.

With the addition of Google Play Movies and TV to iOS, Chromecast users have a much larger library of content to access, which puts the device more on par with the Apple TV. The Apple TV has long had support for iTunes, which gives users the opportunity to purchase movies and television shows. Chromecast users with iOS devices, like Apple TV users, can now access a service that provides a wide range of recent movie and TV show downloads.

iOS users cannot purchase content directly within the Google Play Movies and TV app due to Apple's restrictions, so movies and and shows will need to be purchased on the Google Play Store on a computer before the content can be accessed within the iOS app to be streamed to a television.

As noted by Gizmodo, content sent to Chromecast from the Google Play Movies and TV app will be in full HD, but content viewed on an iPhone will be limited to standard definition. There are a few other drawbacks with the app as well -- content can only be streamed over Wi-Fi and there is no option for offline viewing.

Google Play Movies & TV joins Google Play Books and Google Play Music as the third Google Play app available on iOS.

Google's Chromecast can be purchased directly from Google for $35 and it is also available from a number of third party retailers like Amazon and Best Buy. Google Play Movies & TV can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]