MacRumors

Apple has released newly updated versions of the iOS iBooks and iTunes U apps, bringing a clean look and feel to the app and getting rid of the wooden bookshelf look that has been a hallmark of the app since it was released.

Other than the new design, the apps do not appear to have gained any new features.

What's New in iBooks Version 3.2

iBooks has been updated with a beautiful new design for iOS 7.

What's New in iTunes U Version 1.4

This version of iTunes U has been updated for iOS 7 with an all-new look and feel.

iBooks and iTunes U are free downloads for the iPhone and iPad. [Direct Links: iBooks, iTunes U]

Despite numerous accolades for his role in creating a long line of iconic products at Apple, Jonathan Ive is a famously publicity-shy figure whose most visible contributions to Apple's high-profile product launches typically come in the form of his participation in brief videos highlighting the design of the company's latest devices.

But Ive's reserved nature hasn't stopped former Wired.com managing editor and current Cult of Mac editor and publisher Leander Kahney from taking on the task of covering Ive's life in a new biography entitled Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple's Greatest Products launching today.

The biography draws on interviews with a number of former classmates, teachers, co-workers, and other acquaintances of Ive, while also making extensive reference to previously-published quotes from Ive and others stretching back over the past several decades. The book begins with coverage of Ive's upbringing and schooling, including an overview of his father's role in making design technology an integral part of the UK school curriculum and discussion of how Jony was already being regarded as an excellent design student by the age of 16 or 17.

From Ive's days studying design at Newcastle Polytechnic on a rare sponsorship from leading London design firm Roberts Weaver Group (RWG) to his time working at RWG after graduation and eventually joining with friends at the young design firm Tangerine Design, the book offers a good background on Ive sprinkled with discussion of some of his projects and quotes from those he worked with.

From there, the book naturally carries on to cover Ive's recruitment to Apple, the evolution of the Industrial Design group, and more well-known topics such as the multitude of groundbreaking products for which his team has been responsible, including the original iMac that kicked off a "string of hits" for the Mac lineup, the iPod, the iPhone, and the iPad.

Near the end, Kahney's biography touches on the corporate shakeup at Apple late last year that saw iOS chief Scott Forstall ousted and Ive given responsibility for the Human Interface aspects of software to go along with his hardware design role.

Overall, Kahney's book does a solid job of pulling together various tidbits of information, anecdotes, and quotes from Ive himself to highlight Ive's life, career and outlook on design. In the absence of cooperation from Ive and Apple, the book provides the best look yet at a designer whose work is seen and used by millions of people around the world.

Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple's Greatest Products is available now through a variety of outlets including Amazon and Apple's iBooks Store.

Another unofficial web tracker for checking the availability of Retina iPad mini models at Apple's U.S. retail locations has surfaced, providing help to those attempting to purchase the supply-constrained device. Obscurely hosted on marine life conservation website Seaturtle.org, the website offers a grid view of inventory checks of each Retina iPad Mini model for every Apple Retail Store in the United States, displaying a green, red, or white box for availability, unavailability, or non-checked information, respectively.

For model/location combinations that have not recently been checked, users are able to click on the cell content to update the data and check nearby stores. Users can also register for email notifications when specific models become available for pickup at their local stores. Apple launched its Personal Pickup option for the Retina iPad mini earlier this week, with stores seeing quick sellouts of many models. Walk-in sales of the device will apparently not be offered until supplies improve.

Last week, Apple shut down tracking website Apple-Tracker.com, which was dedicated to monitoring in-store pickup availability of iPhone 5s and iPad Air models, citing a terms of use violation, and a similar fate will likely befall this new tracker as it continues to gain attention.

Apple and Samsung entered a new damages retrial this week, to determine the amount of money that Samsung must pay for copying key iPhone features and design elements.

During opening statements, Apple asked for $379 million in damages, while Samsung suggested it should only pay $52 million. "Apple is simply asking for much more money than it's entitled to," said Samsung attorney William Price (via CNET).

According to Apple attorney Harold McElhinny, Apple's figure is based on lost profits of $114 million, Samsung's profits of $231 million, and royalties of $35 million.

Apple estimates it would have sold 360,000 devices if Samsung hadn't released infringing rivals. He noted that Samsung sold 10.7 million infringing devices, generating $3.5 billion in revenue.

"In a fair fight, that money should have gone to Apple," McElhinny said.

Last year, Samsung was ordered to pay Apple a total of $1.05 billion after a jury found the South Korean company guilty of willfully violating multiple Apple patents. Back in March, Judge Lucy Koh struck $450 million from the $1 billion awarded to Samsung after deciding the jury may have miscalculated the damages due to a misunderstanding of patent issues.

The retrial, which is ongoing, may see Apple call witnesses like marketing chief Phil Schiller and former senior vice president of iOS software Scott Forstall, who was ousted from the company in late 2012. It appears the retrial may ultimately benefit Samsung, as Apple's $379 million request is significantly lower than the nullified $450 million award, though Samsung is also responsible for the $600 million that was not struck from the first jury decision.

One day after the surprise launch of the Retina iPad mini, small amounts of stock of the cellular-capable models of the device have begun trickling into Apple's U.S. retail stores. The company has been offering Personal Pickup of online orders since yesterday, but until now that service has been limited to Wi-Fi models.

Model selection is currently very limited and many stores have yet to show any available cellular models, but availability should improve over time as Apple delivers more stock to its stores.

While Apple retail stores in several other countries did have stocks of the cellular-capable Retina iPad mini at launch yesterday, the company's U.S. stores did not have any available. Online orders for the Retina iPad mini through Apple's U.S. store launched with 1-3 day shipping estimates on 16 and 32 GB Wi-Fi models, with larger-capacity Wi-Fi and all cellular models showing 5-10 day shipping. A number of customers who placed orders for Wi-Fi models have already seen their orders shipping directly from China, with delivery scheduled for early next week.

The experts at iFixit have performed another one of their usual high-quality teardowns on Apple's new iPad mini with Retina display, revealing that while the device is nearly unchanged visually from the original iPad mini, it features a number of internal upgrades such as an A7 chip and M7 motion coprocessor alongside the new high-resolution display.

Notably, a number of parts in the iPad Mini with Retina Display appears to be very similar to those found in the iPad Air, including similarities in the display driver, M7 coprocessor, NAND flash storage, Wi-Fi module, and audio amplifers between the two devices. However, the Retina iPad Mini appears to be using a different A7 processor than the 1.4 GHz variant found in the iPad Air, with the APL0698 part in the iPad mini matching the 1.3 GHz A7 found in the iPhone 5s rather than the 1.4 GHz APL5698 part seen in the iPad Air. The Retina iPad mini's slightly slower A7 chip was revealed in benchmarks done on the device yesterday.

The main feature of the device is of course the 2048 x 1536 resolution display, which appears to be manufactured by LG. Apple has been said to be turning to Samsung as a display supplier for the iPad mini due to low yields from LG and Sharp, but it is clear that at least LG is providing some panels for the launch batch. The new iPad mini also carries a significantly larger battery than the 16.3 Whr battery found in previous iPad mini, with the new tablet's battery measured at 24.3 Whr. That extra battery capacity in large part goes toward supporting the new Retina display, with the device offering the same 10-hour battery life as the previous generation.

As is tradition for iFixit's teardowns, the company has assigned a repairability score to the iPad mini with Retina display based on the accessibility of the various components. As with the iPad Air, the firm rates the Retina iPad mini's repairability at just 2 out of 10, with the firm again assessing positive points for easy LCD accessibility and a non-soldered battery, but the amount of adhesive and hidden screws used to hold the device together make repair extremely difficult.

Last month, NPD DisplaySearch analyst David Hsieh offered an overview of Apple's display plans for future devices, based on sources in the company's supply chain. Among the products included in Hsieh's analysis was Apple's long-rumored "iWatch" smart watch device, with Hsieh only briefly noting that Apple appeared to be looking to source both 1.3-inch and 1.63-inch flexible AMOLED displays with resolutions of 320 x 320 pixels.

According to the Korea Herald (via Unwired View), Hsieh offered a few additional details on Apple's plans at a conference today, noting that the company will be using the two sizes to offer watches targeting men with a larger 1.7-inch display and women with a smaller 1.3-inch option.

Apple’s wearable iWatch is expected to come with a 1.7-inch OLED display for men’s watches and a 1.3-inch OLED screen for women, David Hsieh, DisplaySearch’s Vice President of the Greater China Market, said at a conference today in Taiwan, citing Apple sources. [...]

It is yet to be confirmed whether the displays will be flexible but sources said it was a possibility, since Apple will want to upstage Samsung’s Galaxy Gear.

Separate from Hsieh's comments, the report claims that Apple could introduce the iWatch as soon as late this year, but that appears to be extremely unlikely given that it is already mid-November and that recent rumors have pointed to a late 2014 timeframe for launch.

Just days ago, fellow NPD DisplaySearch analyst Paul Gagnon noted that Apple appears to have put its major television product plans on hold for the time being in order to focus on wearables such as the iWatch. Apple's ambitious TV plans have reportedly been stymied by difficult negotiations with content providers, with the company feeling that it needs to have the content side in place before being able to offer something more substantial than the current Apple TV box on the hardware side.

Back in October, Apple filed its 2013 10-K annual report with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, offering some insight into how the company has grown over the past year. A section within the filing revealed that the company is investing a record $10.5 billion on advanced supply chain technology, and a new report from Bloomberg has offered a look at what Apple typically does with those expenditures.

Apple's investment will reportedly include the purchase of new machinery such as assembly robots and milling stations to place in the factories of its suppliers, which would help with the mass production of iPhones, iPads, MacBooks and more from the company's line of products, as Apple looks to seek advantages over the production tools in the factories of its rivals.

To get a jump on rivals like Samsung Electronics Co. and lay the groundwork for new products, Apple is spending more on the machines that do the behind-the-scenes work of mass producing iPhones, iPads and other gadgets. That includes equipment to polish the new iPhone 5c’s colorful plastic, laser and milling machines to carve the MacBook’s aluminum body, and testing gear for the iPhone and iPad camera lens, said people with knowledge of the company’s manufacturing methods, who asked not to be identified because the process is private.

Apple has been seeking to expand its production efforts in numerous ways recently, as a report surfaced earlier this week that Apple and Samsung were looking to use an upstate New York factory belonging to semiconductor company GlobalFoundries to produce Apple's A-series chips. Apple has also struck a deal with GT Advanced to produce sapphire glass for its products, with Apple investing significant upfront money in facilities and advanced technologies to advance the process

Apple engineers often spend weeks at facilities in Asia making sure the parts and equipment they buy or make are working properly, people familiar with the work said. The company has hired robotics experts and its website has several job openings for engineers who can operate high-end manufacturing equipment. [...]

Apple’s approach contrasts with other technology companies, which typically partner with contract manufacturers to handle much of the engineering work involved in getting a product made in large numbers, said Cormac Eubanks, product development director at industrial design firm Frog Design.

A push to expand its production technology and increase efficiency within the factories of its suppliers comes as Apple looks toward a busy next year with high demand for existing products such as the Retina iPad mini, as well as new product categories on the horizon.

A previous analysis of Apple's 2013 10-K annual report with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission revealed other interesting developments about the company's growth over the past year, including the growth of Apple's employee headcount and retail store count, along with the increased advertising expenses and real estate holdings. Apple's annual report usually contains a number of details about the company's operations, much of it targeted at investors and regulators, and addresses such topics as executive compensation, company investments, taxes, and more.

Shipments of the supply-constrained iPad mini with Retina display are likely to double in Q1 2014, according to market research firm IHS iSuppli (via CNET) and KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, with both stating that the estimated shipment of 2 million Retina iPad mini tablets in the current quarter will grow to a total shipment of about 4.5 million devices in the first three months of next year.

Rhoda Alexander, director of Tablet and Monitor Research at IHS iSuppli, stated the following about the supply constraints surrounding the tablet:

Rhoda Alexander told CNET on Tuesday that she expects production of about 2 million Mini Retina tablets in the fourth calendar quarter.

"When you think about some of the releases where they sold that many iPads in a weekend," that's not a lot, she said.

Meanwhile, Ming-Chi Kuo stated his estimates for a production boost of the tablet, stating that shipments of the Retina iPad mini will increase due to an improvement in manufacturer yield:

We maintain our iPad mini R shipments forecast of around 2.2mn units for 4Q13. Considering production yield improvement at the supply chain, we forecast shipments will grow 102% QoQ in 1Q14 to 4.5mn units. But marked shipments growth given the low base in 4Q13 can’t make up for overall iPad shipments in 1Q14.

In something of a surprise move, Apple began accepting orders for the Retina iPad mini in the United States and several other countries yesterday, with the device's quiet launch potentially due to constrained supplies. Currently however, availability through Apple's online store appears to be holding up for the time being, with the company's U.S. stores showing the same shipping estimates seen at the time orders went live: 1-3 business days for 16 and 32 GB Wi-Fi models and 5-10 business days for all other models.

Previous rumors have suggested that available quantities of the mini are extremely low due to display production issues, with Apple turning to Samsung to help with production. Apple did also launch its Personal Pickup option for the Retina iPad mini yesterday, with stores seeing quick sellouts of many models. Walk-in sales of the device will apparently not be offered until supplies improve.

Black Friday, a major shopping day in the United States, is still more than two weeks away, but several retailers have already begun advertising upcoming deals. As is typical, Target, Walmart, and Best Buy will all be offering discounts on popular Apple products like iPhones, iPads and MacBook Pros.

We've gathered up a list of current deals, but expect other retailers, like Apple, to also publicize upcoming deals over the course of the next two weeks.

Best Buy:

- $50-$70 off iPad Air
- $100 off 16 GB iPad 2
- $48 off iPhone 5c
- $200 off 21.5-inch iMac
- $200 off 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro
- $50 off 32 GB iPod touch
- $15 off Apple TV
- $20 off AirPort Extreme
- $15 off $100 in iTunes Gift Cards

Target:

- $75 gift card with the purchase of any iPad mini
- $100 gift card with the purchase of any iPad Air
- $50 Gift Card with the purchase of a 16 GB 5th gen iPod touch
- $10 off Apple TV
- $60 in iTunes Gift Cards for $50

Walmart:

- $75 gift card with the purchase of an iPhone 5s (starting at $189)
- $75 gift card with the purchase of an iPhone 5c (starting at $45)
- $100 gift card with the purchase of a 16 GB iPad mini ($299)

Sam's Club:

- iPhone 5c for $0.96

Black Friday will kick off on Friday, November 29, the day after Thanksgiving. Many retailers open their doors beginning at midnight and some stores will be opening even earlier this year.