Yesterday, Apple began shipping its Mac Pros to waiting customers, with many shipments carrying an estimated delivery date of December 30. As it turns out, Mac Pros are shipping early and are already making it into the hands of customers, with one MacRumors forum user receiving his Mac Pro today.
The 6-core stock Mac Pro was ordered on the West Coast with Next Day Shipping and had a listed delivery date of December 26, but it was delivered early, just ahead of tomorrow's Christmas holiday.
With Mac Pros already reaching customers just a few days after orders initially began, Apple has successfully met its promised December release date for the professional desktop computer.
It appears that all Mac Pros shipped thus far have been the stock configurations, as customized Mac Pros ordered on the computer's release date carried a non-specific "January" shipping estimate.
According to Apple, demand for the new Mac Pro has been "great" and the company expects that "it will take time before supply catches up with demand." Mac Pros ordered today, both stock and custom, have an estimated ship date of February.
Apple's Mac Pro starts at $2,999 for the low-end model, but can be customized with a wide variety of upgrades including additional memory, flash storage, enhanced graphics, and an improved CPU.
A fully loaded 12-core Mac Pro with 64GB of RAM, dual AMD FirePro D700 GPUs and 1TB of PCI-e based flash storage retails for $9599 in the United States.
Tim Cook will reportedly travel to Turkey next year for the opening of Apple's first store in the country on February 4, reports emlakkulisi.com [Google Translate]. The store is located in the city of Istanbul at the new multi-use Zorlu Center and has undergone construction over the past few years, and was reported to open in the beginning of 2014.
According to report, Cook will also meet with Turkish President Abdullah Gül during his visit, with talks most likely centering around the $4.5 billion iPad education initiative that was discussed between Apple executives and the country's president earlier this year. Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan also visited Apple in May as a part of the ongoing negotiations. In total, the program would reportedly provide 10.6 million tablets to Turkish schoolchildren.
Apple has been making a significant push into the Turkish market for quite some time, with having listed initial job postings for stores in the country last November. The company also launched the iTunes Store for music and movies in Turkey last year.
As noted by a number of MacRumors forum members and Twitter users, Apple has begun preparing a number of stock Mac Pro configurations for delivery starting on December 30. In addition, many other users are seeing their credit cards charged and order statuses changed to "Preparing for Shipment". The new status indicates that orders cannot be canceled or changed and are in the final stage before the new Mac Pros are handed off to delivery companies.
Although the majority of users' reported dates appears to be December 30, a small number of users are also reporting that their deliver dates are December 27. Both dates would squeeze the new Mac Pros into Apple's self-imposed December release date for the new professional desktop computer.
It appears that the first shipments of the Mac Pros are all stock configurations, as it has thus far been unclear if custom configurations have been shipping out to users. Since online ordering has been available, the shipping estimates have slipped into February 2014, with demand outstripping supply.
In 2011, Apple teamed up with companies like Microsoft, Ericsson BlackBerry, and Sony to form a consortium to purchase a collection of 4,000 patents and patent applications for $4.5 billion from Nortel, a communications company that went bankrupt in 2009.
The team of companies, called the "Rockstar Consortium," is now holding discussions on a potential sale of a portion of those patents, reports Bloomberg, after attempts to land large licensing deals for the patents have failed.
The group, called Rockstar Consortium, has recently been in conversations with possible buyers about the patents, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the information isn’t public. Rockstar, which also includes BlackBerry Ltd. (BBRY), Ericsson AB and Sony Corp., has had little success in landing large licensing deals for the patents, three of the people said.
Back in 2012, Nortel’s portfolio of patents was highly sought after, with the Rockstar Consortium entering into an ongoing bidding war with Google, another technology company that was also after the patents.
A buyer, or several buyers, could acquire Rockstar’s patent portfolio excluding those involved in the lawsuits, two people said. Because Rockstar bought the Nortel patents at a high price and doesn’t want to sell them at a loss, the deals could be structured to take advantage of any future financial gain enjoyed by the buyer, the people said.
Another scenario would involve a third party joining the consortium to dilute existing investors, without involving a sale of particular patents, said one of the people.
According to Bloomberg, several of the patents have already been sold and earlier this year, reports indicated that the consortium filed suit against Google, Samsung, HTC, Huawei, and others for patent infringement on the Nortel portfolio. Apple and other Rockstar Consortium shareholders were reportedly not involved in the decision to sue.
The patents currently for sale are not the patents involved in the October lawsuit.
The talks took place this fall at a variety of locations around the world and were geared to both general app developers and those focused specifically on games.
Get in-depth guidance about developing for iOS 7, learn practical coding tips and tricks, and obtain valuable one-on-one programming and design assistance in our lab. Choose which day is best for you — app developer day or game developer day.
The sixteen talks cover a variety of topics including App Store Distribution and Marketing, Integrating iOS 7 Technologies, User Interface Design, Security and Privacy, and more. They are open to all registered developers, even those that don't pay a yearly subscription fee.
Before shutting its doors in August of 2013 following an acquisition by Apple that was revealed this morning, Catch operated a web-based note taking service and iOS and Android apps known as Catch Notes. Ahead of the company's acquisition, Catch Notes was well-known as a high-quality productivity app and had been featured by Apple as a new and noteworthy app when it was first released in 2010 and as part of the Apple's "Why You'll Love an iPhone" advertising campaign.
Designed for note taking, Catch Notes allowed users to capture and share ideas, writing notes in text, saving images, and recording voice notes. It functioned similarly to Evernote, organizing notes into different categories that could be easily shared with others. Deep organization was one of the key features of Catch Notes, which organized notes into "Spaces" or folders that included tags for labeling. Spaces could be manipulated with simple touch gestures, giving Catch Notes an easy-to-use interface. The app also organized notes into "Streams,"
In addition to bundling a variety of note formats into a single note-taking app, Catch Notes also included task-oriented functionality like checklists and reminders, along with a lot of collaborative features. With Catch Notes, for instance, users could create a task list or note that was shared and synced between multiple people. Collaborative content was organized into "Streams," which aggregated a collection of notes that could be used to allow multiple users to contribute to and build upon a single idea, even functioning as an ongoing conversation.
Shortly before Catch shut down its services, the company also launched Catch Team, designed to make team collaboration both easier and more secure through the implementation of "team leader" functionality allowing an admin to manage individual users.
It is impossible to predict how Catch and its Evernote-style note-taking capabilities might be incorporated into Apple’s OS X and iOS operating systems, but there are multiple possible use cases for the technology, across Notes, Reminders, Siri, and Maps.
Notes and Reminders
Catch's base functionality, which included note taking that incorporated both images and audio clips, is an easy to imagine expansion for Apple’s own Notes and Reminders apps. Currently, Notes and Reminders are limited to text functionality, though voice dictation can be used to transcribe text. With design elements taken from Catch Notes, notes, reminders, and checklists could be created from and include both audio clips and photos or other images directly within a note or reminder.
Catch Notes used a tag-based system for organizing notes, much like Finder in OS X. While Reminders incorporates colored tags as well, a more unified tagging system across Reminders and Notes apps for both iOS and OS X could make Apple’s productivity apps far more functional by facilitating quicker searches for relevant content.
The collaborative features within Catch Notes could also be useful within the Reminders and Notes apps, allowing users to easily share content over iCloud. With collaboration, deeper functionality, and better organization for the Notes app, Apple’s built-in productivity software could edge closer to competing with more robust solutions like Evernote, which was formerly one of Catch's competitors.
Catch also had an innovative click-wheel style menu system that was simple to use for the creation of new content, along with visual notifications, and it is possible that some of these design elements could make it into Apple's apps in the future.
Siri and iCloud
An expanded Evernote-like note and reminder functionality bundled into Apple's own Notes and Reminders apps could also be extended to Siri, allowing the service to potentially capture voice-based notes to be remembered later.
Catch's robust syncing capabilities, which allowed content to be synced to multiple iOS devices and multiple user accounts, is also technology that Apple could look into incorporating into future versions of iOS and iCloud.
Maps
Along with its Catch Note app, Catch also operated an Android App called Compass, which was a location-based app that allowed users to make location-based notes about individual places, similar to how Foursquare allows users to leave tips on each location within the app.
New to Compass? Compass is our location-based app that allows you to always know where North is, save your favorite locations, navigate back to them (with Google Maps), and take notes about a location.
It is possible that Apple could use this location-based note-taking technology in order to expand its mapping capabilities, as it has worked hard in recent months to beef up its Maps app through the acquisition of several Mapping apps including Embark, Locationary, and HopStop. Aggregating location-based notes could be a way for Apple to introduce location discovery and additional points of interest to Maps.
Catch was shut down in August of 2013 and according to recent reports, was acquired by Apple during the same month. It remains unknown when or how Apple will incorporate the purchase into its own products, but at this time, several former Catch employees are now working at Apple on iOS-related software.
After a weekend of testing, Engadget and The Verge have posted longer pieces on their Mac Pro review units, with mixed results.
As The Vergerepeatedly notes, the new Mac Pro really only shines when used with software specifically optimized for its dual-GPU setup. At the moment, Final Cut Pro X is the best demonstration of the Mac Pro's prowess -- when using other software, the Mac Pro is only modestly faster than a new-vintage iMac, though, as Engadget points out, that should change soon.
Without belaboring the point, this brings me to one of my few concerns about the Mac Pro, which is that right now, at least, most programs won't fully harness its graphics capabilities. One of the reasons I spent so much time in Final Cut Pro is that it's one of the few programs designed specifically to run well on a new Mac Pro. It reminds me a bit of how Retina display MacBook Pros were initially short on compatible software. If that analogy holds true, we should see more apps retooled to play nice with the Mac Pro's dual-GPU setup. Just be prepared for some slim pickings if you buy one this week.
When the Mac Pro is running optimized software, however, performance is impressive. Engadget found similar results to those from Friday, reporting that 4K clips could render and display more than a dozen filters in real-time, and that the machine can play back as many as 16 4K streams simultaneously. File transfers are incredibly fast, and most apps launch immediately.
Perhaps the most immediately noticeable change is to the Mac Pro's design. The Verge noted that the location of the Pro's ports -- on the back of the device -- can make connecting and disconnecting plugs a pain, while also grumbling about the lack of an SD card slot. Engadget wasn't perturbed by the lack of a card slot, noting that the professionals that will likely purchase the device use a wide variety of storage cards so including a slot for just one of those formats would be rather arbitrary.
Engadget notes that the Mac Pro can get a bit warm -- unsurprising given the amount of horsepower under the hood -- but it doesn't get particularly hot.
For lack of a better word, you'd have to provoke the machine to really be bothered by the heat: The warmest area is at the top of the chassis, and even then, you'd have to be sticking your hand near the vents to feel it. Otherwise, the chassis does get a tad warm -- and can take a while to cool down -- but it's much cooler than the air blowing out of the top. Avoid sticking your fist into the opening at the top and you'll be fine. As for noise, I tried hard to get the fans spinning, but they stayed quiet. Actually, if you put your ear up to the opening at the top, you will hear a faint purring, but again, you'd have to be the sort of wise guy willing to put your ear next to the hottest part of the machine (not recommended).
While Engadget is largely impressed with the new device, The Verge uses Adobe Premiere for its video editing and found very slight performance improvements because Adobe has not yet updated its software to take advantage of the Mac Pro's dual-GPUs. In fact, Premiere puts most of its processing on the Mac Pro's CPUs, the tower's weakest performance datapoint.
When Adobe -- and other performance-focused applications -- are inevitably upgraded to take advantage of the Pro, it's likely the performance improvements will shine like they do with Final Cut Pro X. Until then, however, the Mac Pro is mostly an incredibly well-designed, and fast, Mac. With new Mac Pro orders currently delayed until at least February, perhaps it will give developers time to upgrade their software.
OpenEmu 1.0, an open source project designed to bring game emulation to OS X, has officially launched following a lengthy beta testing period. Though there are other emulator options for OS X, OpenEmu has been designed from the ground up for OS X.
For the first time, the ‘It just works’ philosophy now extends to open source video game emulation on the Mac. With OpenEmu, it is extremely easy to add, browse, organize and with a compatible gamepad, play those favorite games (ROMs) you already own.
OpenEmu is able to emulate the hardware of several different consoles, including several 16-bit systems like the Game Boy, GameBoy Color, Game Boy Advance, Game Gear, NeoGeo Pocket, Nintendo Entertainment System, Sega Genesis, and Super Nintendo, among others.
The emulator features a native OS X interface with a design that mirrors iTunes, offering up ROMs in a unified card-style menu organized by system. OpenEmu includes full save state support, allowing multiple ROMs to be played at once, and it also provides OpenGL scaling, multithreaded playback, and gamepad support.
Multiple controllers are supported, including console controllers from Nintendo, Xbox, and PlayStation, along with gamepads from Gravis, Logitech, and more.
Apple reportedly acquired mapping firm BroadMap and Evernote competitor Catch in 2013, reports 9to5Mac, citing data acquired from "evidence and chatter from sources," including LinkedIn profiles.
Several former BroadMap employees are now listed as working at Apple on LinkedIn, including the company's former Director of Program Management who now works in "Maps Data Validation" at Apple. BroadMap CEO Daniel Perrone's LinkedIn profile suggests the company was purchased by a "Fortune 5" company for "supporting their digital mapping efforts."
We have specifically heard from a source directly familiar with Apple's mergers and acquisitions process that Apple acquired BroadMap. The source says that the acquisition was mostly centered around talent, not solely BroadMap's technology. In addition to the information from our source, there is evidence online that Apple made the acquisition.
BroadMap is a company that provides Geographic Information Systems (GIS) services, designed to analyze and manage geographical data. The company provides GIS tools along with Digital Mapping Data Products, Location Intelligence, and Web and Mobile Application Development.
Catch, which suspended its service in August, was reportedly acquired in the same month according to the former LinkedIn profile of the company's Vice President of Business Development. While it remains uncertain whether Apple officially acquired the company, multiple former employees are now working at Apple, including the company's co-founder.
While Catch being acquired following promotion from Apple does not exactly indicate that Apple is the buyer, we have heard from multiple sources that the majority of Catch employees are now working for Apple. The sources say that the former list of Catch employees, which even includes co-founder Andreas Schobel, are working on iOS-related software.
Catch, a popular notetaking and archiving service, was behind the Catch Notes app, which originally launched in 2010. The app, designed to allow users to create text, photo, and voice notes, earned multiple awards and was previously featured on Apple's "New and Noteworthy" list of apps. It is unknown how Apple could utilize Catch's technology, but possible use cases include integration with Siri, Reminders, or Notes.
According to Apple CEO Tim Cook, the company made a total of 15 acquisitions during fiscal 2013, which has also included companies like AlgoTrim, Cue, Passif Semiconductor, and Matcha.tv. The company has also made several mapping-related acquisitions, including Embark, HopStop, WifiSLAM, and Locationary.
While eight of Apple's fiscal 2013 acquisitions have been confirmed, several others remain unknown.
Update:AllThingsD reports that both Catch and BroadMap were indeed acquired by Apple earlier in 2013. Apple confirmed the rumors with its standard acquisition statement: "Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans."
Update 2: Despite reports confirming the acquisition, BroadMap has stated on Twitter that the company was not purchased by Apple.
Sorry to disappoint everyone but contrary to current reports @BroadMap has not been purchased by Apple.
— BroadMap (@BroadMap) December 23, 2013
Update 3: According to series of Tweets from Spacially Adjusted's James Fee, BroadMap continues to exist as an independent company, but Apple acquired the majority of staff and intellectual property, licensing select assets back to BroadMap so that it could continue supporting its existing customers.
@markgurman Broadmap is not owned by anyone right now. Apple acquired staff and IP but not the company itself.
— James Fee (@cageyjames) December 23, 2013
@markgurman From what I've been told by staffers is that the management and IP was brought by Apple and licensed back to what was left.
— James Fee (@cageyjames) December 23, 2013
Apple has seeded a new build of iOS 7.1 to its "testing partners" or carriers, reports BGR, with a public release of the software set to come in March. A March launch of iOS 7.1 would mark more than four months of testing, as the first iOS 7.1 beta was seeded to developers in mid-November. iOS 7.1 beta 2, the version currently available to developers, was released in mid-December.
Lengthy development periods are not unheard of – before Mavericks, OS X 10.8.5 Mountain Lion was tested over a period of three months, from June to September.
The current version of iOS, iOS 7.0.4, was released on November 14. If an iOS 7.1 release is not planned until March, it is likely that Apple will release iOS 7.0.5 in the interim, though MacRumors has seen no sign of the software in recent logs. iOS updates frequently, though not always, show up in our site analytics.
As the first major update to iOS 7 since its launch, iOS 7.1 is expected to include multiple bug fixes along with new accessibility options in the form of "Button Shapes" and potential support for iOS in the Car. Given the minor updates bundled into iOS 7.1, it is unclear why such a lengthy testing period is necessary. Last year, Apple released its iOS 6.1 update in January, though its iOS 5.1 update also came in March in 2012.
Apple has begun seeding a new build of iOS 7.1 to testing partners, we have learned from a trusted source. iOS 7.1 beta 3 is said to bring several important bug fixes in addition to some new features, though our source was uncomfortable detailing these for us at this time.
An Apple Retail Store located in Kurfürstendamm, Berlin was the site of a smash-and-grab robbery earlier this morning, reports Bild.de [Google Translate]. At 4:15 AM, thieves reportedly crashed an Opel Corsa supermini automobile into the store and proceeded to steal display iPhones, iPads, and computers before fleeing in two Audis.
The report also notes that there have been seven such robberies in Berlin as of late, including a heist at the Alexa shopping mall located in Alexanderplatz, Berlin where theives made off with over 100,000 euros worth of goods.
With Apple gadgets fetching a high price on the secondary market, thefts of individual devices in muggings are common. However, organized robberies on Apple Retail Stores are usually uncommon.
The smash-and-grab robbery on the Kurfürstendamm Apple Store is also similar to the robbery that took place at Apple's Promenade Temecula retail store in Temecula, California last year, where robbers also used a car to obliterate the entire front glass and security grating of the store before making off with merchandise. It is likely that the Kurfürstendamm store will close for cleanup and repair for a short while before opening to the public again.
Following a report last month stating that Apple supplier Quanta Computer had landed the contract to mass-produce a larger-sized iPad for late 2014, Digitimes is reporting that the 12.9-inch tablet will be released in October 2014 and will target North America's educational market. Apple is also said to be examining the possibility of replacing the 11-inch MacBook Air with the larger iPad.
12.9-inch iPad (left) with 13-inch MacBook Air (right)
Apple's large-size tablet will be manufactured by Quanta Computer, and was originally expected to adopt either 12.9- or 13.3-inch panels, with recent rumors indicating that 12.9-inch has a better chance to be picked, the sources noted.
The report also states that Apple is planning to release a larger size iPhone in May 2014, using a 20nm processor manufactured by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC). Reports of a next-generation iPhone featuring a larger screen have surfacedoccasionally throughout the past year, while the claim of an A8 processor made by TSMC is follows a report in June stating that the company had struck a three-year deal with Apple to produce A-series chips starting in 2014.
However, a May 2014 release date for the next iPhone would be somewhat of a surprising move by Apple, considering that the most recent reports have stated that the larger-screened iPhone will debut in late 2014. A release then would be in line with the October 2011 launch of the iPhone 4s, the September 2012 launch of the iPhone 5, and the September 2013 launch of the iPhone 5s and 5c.
A report last month from The Korea Times indicated that production of a 12.9-inch Retina Display to be used in a next-generation iPad was already underway at an Apple supplier in Korea, with a target date of early 2014. The larger tablet is also said to carry an improved display nearing ultra high-definition (UHD) quality, which would be significantly bigger and contain more pixels than Apple's current 9.7-inch iPad Air.
In an email sent to employees today, Apple CEO Tim Cook reflected on the company's accomplishments throughout the past year, discussing a wide variety of subjects including product releases, humanitarian efforts, and corporate initiatives. Cook also made statements looking toward the next year, stating that Apple has “big plans“ for 2014. The full email has been posted by 9to5Mac.
Team,
This holiday season, tens of millions of people around the world, from all walks of life, are experiencing Apple products for the first time. Those moments of surprise and delight are magical, and they’re all made possible by your hard work. As many of us prepare to celebrate the holidays with our loved ones, I’d like to take a moment to reflect on what we’ve achieved together over the past year.
First and foremost, we introduced industry-leading products in each of our major categories in 2013, showing the breadth and depth of innovation at Apple. We extended our lead in the smartphone market with iPhone 5s; launched iOS 7, an extraordinarily ambitious project; released OS X Mavericks for free to our customers; introduced the iPad Air and the iPad mini with Retina display; and this week began shipping the Mac Pro from a manufacturing facility in Austin, Texas. We also marked our 50 billionth download on the App Store – a milestone no one could have predicted we would reach so quickly.
Together we’ve shown the world that innovation at Apple goes beyond our products to the way we do business and how we give back to our community. This year, Apple raised and donated tens of millions of dollars for important charities and relief efforts like Red Cross aid to typhoon victims in the Philippines, and we continue to be the largest contributor to (PRODUCT)RED, supporting the Global Fund in its fight against the spread of AIDS in Africa. Just a few weeks ago, Jony Ive led an unprecedented effort that brought money and awareness to eliminating the transmission of AIDS from mother to child.
And finally, Apple is standing up for what we believe is right. We know that equality and diversity make our company and our society stronger, so we’ve urged the U.S. Congress to support workplace protections against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. We are also laser focused on our contribution to several environmental initiatives and we will increase our efforts even more in this area in the future.
We have a lot to look forward to in 2014, including some big plans that we think customers are going to love. I am extremely proud to stand alongside you as we put innovation to work serving humankind’s deepest values and highest aspirations. I consider myself the luckiest person in the world for the opportunity to work at this amazing company with all of you.
Happy Holidays,
Tim
Apple is said to be working on a variety of new products for 2014, including both updates to existing products and new product categories. Most notably, the company is rumored to release an iPhone 6 with a larger display that is curved and a 12.9-inch iPad with an ultra high definition screen. Also rumored is an "iWatch" smart watch containing biometrics and iOS device integration, as well the release of a ultra-high definition television set. In terms of software, Apple is also expected to launch OS X 10.10 and iOS 8 in the fall, with updates to programs such as Aperture also possible.
After the Evasi0n untethered jailbreak was updated for newer iPhones, iPads, and iOS 7.x earlier today, Cydia administrator Jay Freeman noted on his Twitter that he was not informed about a new version of the jailbreak before its release. Beyond that, he also reported that the new jailbreak automatically installs a third party app store named Taig which distributes cracked apps in China.
Following Freeman's comments, twotweets by developer i0n1c claims that the Chinese company Taig paid the Evad3rs development team "a big pile of money" to release the jailbreak in order to bundle its app store onto devices.
Now, the Evad3rs development team behind the jailbreak has posted an open letter to the jailbreak community on its website, trying to address the various concerns surrounding the method and emphasizing the safety and security of its users.
The team admitted that it was indeed approached by a company with an offer to include Taig with the jailbreak in China, feeling that it was "well-suited to meet the needs of users for the Chinese market." The team also notes that users are not locked into Taig, with the program giving users given the ability to uninstall the Chinese app store and install Cydia.
Also addressed was the speculation concerning the possible disclosure of exploits and methods to Taig:
Taig has never asked us to disclose our exploits to them, let alone sell them. We were simply asked to bundle their third-party app store in China in a similar way we bundle and distribute Cydia around the world as an additional App Store, and in a similar way to how previous jailbreaks like blackra1n have bundled non-Cydia stores.
Furthermore, the developers also claim that they were unaware that Taig contained pirated apps upon access, and say they are removing instances of piracy and that Taig had contractually agreed not to serve pirated apps. They say they "will continue to monitor this issue and work to resolve it completely" and that Taig will be removed if it can't be resolved.
Currently, Evasi0n is available for OS X and Windows as an untethered jailbreak.
Apple and China Mobile have officially announced today that the iPhone 5s and 5c will be available at the carrier's stores as well as Apple retail stores across mainland China beginning January 17, 2014, with pre-registration for both devices beginning on December 25, 2013.
“Apple’s iPhone is very much loved by millions of customers around the world. We know there are many China Mobile customers and potential new customers who are anxiously awaiting the incredible combination of iPhone on China Mobile’s leading network. We are delighted that iPhone on China Mobile will support our 4G/TD-LTE and 3G/TD-SCDMA networks, providing customers with high-speed mobile service,” said Xi Guohua, China Mobile Chairman.
“Apple has enormous respect for China Mobile and we are excited to begin working together. China is an extremely important market for Apple and our partnership with China Mobile presents us the opportunity to bring iPhone to the customers of the world's largest network,” said Tim Cook, Apple CEO. “iPhone customers in China are an enthusiastic and rapidly growing group, and we can’t think of a better way to welcome in the Chinese New Year than getting an iPhone into the hands of every China Mobile customer who wants one.”
China Mobile is currently the world's largest carrier with over 760 million subscribers and is expected to bring many new customers to Apple, significantly increasing the company's presence in China. Multiple signs of an approaching deal between the two companies have popped up during the final months of 2013, with Apple receiving licensing needed to operate on China Mobile’s TD-LTE standard in September and releasing the iPhone 5s and the iPhone 5c with TD-LTE support.
The popular Evasi0n jailbreak has been today updated for iOS 7.x., marking the first time users have been able to deploy an untethered jailbreak on any device running iOS 7.0 to iOS 7.0.4, including newer devices such as the iPhone 5c, iPhone 5c, iPad mini with Retina Display, and iPad Air. The method allows for users to jailbreak their devices to make use of unauthorized content like themes, tweaks, and apps from sources other than the App Store.
However, Cydia administrator Jay Freeman noted on his Twitter that he was not informed about a new version of Evasi0n before its release, also indicating that the build of Cydia installed with the new jailbreak is not official and may lead to some compatibility issues with existing downloads on the service. However, users on our forums are actively pointing out which Cydia apps are compatible with the new jailbreak, and it is recommended you look there for specific information.
Evasi0n is available now for OS X and Windows as an untethered jailbreak, with users only having to apply the method once. Tethered jailbreaks requires users to have their devices connected to a computer each time they restart.
Update: Cydia administrator Jay Freeman has also revealed on his Twitter that Evasi0n installs a third party "app store" named Taig for cracked apps in China. Furthermore, twotweets by developer i0n1c (via Y Combinator) state that a Chinese company paid the Evad3rs development team a rumored $1 million dollars to release the jailbreak in order to force the Taig app store onto devices.
With the new Mac Pro in the hands of reviewers for more than a day now, the first impressions focused on performance are being published and they are impressive.
FCP.coposted a 24-hour hands on with the new Mac Pro. They found read speeds of 880MB/s from the Mac Pro's solid state storage, with impressive write numbers of 985.5MB/s. Further, the team discovered that new machine could post full 4K video with multiple color corrections, effects and transitions playing back all in real time.
Macworld saw even more impressive SSD performance, with Black Magic reporting 952.8MB/s writes and 920.5MB/s reads. Black Magic's speed test app reports that the new Mac Pro can easily handle all video formats it currently tracks, with FCP.coadding that its Mac Pro was able to play back 16 simultaneous streams of 4K video.
I can quite honestly say that, despite working with these huge file sizes and frame sizes, the editing experience has been silky smooth. Skimming, playback, shuttling, jogging and trimming are all responsive. In fact, editing 4K on the Mac Pro feels like editing HD on my current MacBook Pro - except I can see large numbers for the frame sizes where normally I’d expect to see the reassuringly familiar "1920x1080".
They went on to push the machine by adding real-time effects to a 4K stream to see the breaking point.
I started slowly, adding a simple Dry Heat look. That played back in real time, no dropped frames. How about a Gaussian Blur? That’s usually a bit more intensive, especially with the huge numbers of pixels we're dealing with here. No dropped frames. Nice. How about a Gaussian blur with a Bleach Bypass look? Still in real time… ok, let’s get serious…
And so it went on… Multiple colour corrections, effects, transitions. This thing keeps playing back! In fact at one point I took a RED RAW 4K clip into a 4K project and just started working through the list of video effects (many of which are 4K ready). Watch the result for yourself.
Back in September, GeekBench scores for the new 8-core 3.0Ghz Mac Pro appeared, giving the unit a single- and multi-core scores of 3349 and 24429. Now, on production hardware, Macworldgot scores of 3599 and 25997, a modest improvement.
Both Macworld and FCP.co mentioned a gentle but notable current of warm air rising from the machine, but that the Mac Pro's fan was barely noticeable. If something is placed on top of the machine's vent hole, like a book, the Mac Pro will shut itself off before any damage can occur.
The new Mac Pro is available for order now, but shipments are not expected until well into the new year. An Apple spokesperson said yesterday that "demand for the all new Mac Pro is great and it will take time before supply catches up with demand".
Each year during the holidays, app developers offer deals on a wide variety of apps and games, giving customers a chance to purchase popular content at a significant discount. This year is no exception, with a slew of fantastic apps and games available at low prices.
Our sister site AppShopper tracks prices in real-time and is a great resource to use to keep an eye on app sales during the holiday. We've also listed some of the best deals on apps below:
- Inspire Pro (Free, down from $4.99): App for drawing and sketching [Direct Link] - ArtRage ($2.99, down from $4.99): Popular iPad painting app [Direct Link] - ReadKit ($2.99, down from $6.99): Read-it-later/RSS app for the Mac [Direct Link]
Along with the apps listed above, several developers have teamed up to offer an App Santa promotion, offering discounts of up to 60 percent off apps like Twitter client Tweetbot, scanning app Scanner Pro, package tracking app Delivery Status Touch, password management app 1Password, and note taking app Vesper.
A forum member on our sister site TouchArcade has aggregated an extensive list of all the games on sale. Multiple studios, including Electronic Arts, Taito, CAPCOM, Square Enix, and Warner Bros. are offering deep discounts on their entire game catalogs. We've listed some of the more notable sales below:
Discount pricing on many of these apps will be in place for at least a week, as Apple will shut down iTunes Connect from December 21 to December 27, preventing developers from implementing app changes. For more sales, check out AppShopper's price drop section.
Apple has seeded a new build of iOS 7.1 to its "testing partners" or carriers, reports 
In an email sent to employees today, Apple CEO Tim Cook reflected on the company's accomplishments throughout the past year, discussing a wide variety of subjects including product releases, humanitarian efforts, and corporate initiatives. Cook also made statements looking toward the next year, stating that Apple has “big plans“ for 2014. The full email has been posted by 
With the new Mac Pro in the hands of reviewers for 
Each year during the holidays, app developers offer deals on a wide variety of apps and games, giving customers a chance to purchase popular content at a significant discount. This year is no exception, with a slew of fantastic apps and games available at low prices.
