In his interview with Politico earlier today, Apple CEO Tim Cook shared some additional details about the new Mac model that will be manufactured in the United States when it is announced later this year.
Cook said that not only will the machine be assembled in the U.S., many of the components will be sourced from suppliers in the country as well.
And Cook is also promoting a $100 million investment in domestic manufacturing, where the company will begin producing a new version of a current Mac product later this year.
"We're going very deep in this project," Cook said, noting that not only will the final product be manufactured in the U.S., but so will many of its components. Arizona, Texas, Illinois, Florida and Kentucky are among the states he mentioned as having parts and assembly located.
Cook announced in an interview with Brian Williams last year that an existing Mac line would be manufactured exclusively in the U.S. beginning in 2013.
Apple CEO Tim Cook, in a break from his predecessor, is giving a number of interviews to Washington press outlets ahead of his appearance in front of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigation next week.
Washington newspaper Politicospoke to Cook about Apple's offshore cash pile -- which the company has thus far refused to repatriate to the United States because of the significant tax burden that would result -- and Apple's political activities.
"We don't have a large presence in Washington, as you probably know, but we care deeply about public policy and believe creative policy can be a huge catalyst for a better society and a stronger economy," Cook said in the interview.
He also defended his company's conduct. “I can tell you unequivocally Apple does not funnel its domestic profits overseas. We don't do that. We pay taxes on all the products we sell in the U.S., and we pay every dollar that we owe. And so I'd like to be really clear on that,” Cook said.
Cook has agreed to appear in front of the subcommittee on Tuesday morning personally, instead of sending a more junior executive to testify in front of the committee. His predecessor as CEO, Steve Jobs, agreed to very few interviews and tended to stay out of politics entirely.
Apple recently borrowed $17 billion in a bond offering, in part to return cash to shareholders without bringing some of its $100 billion overseas cash pile to the United States. If it were to repatriate that cash to the U.S., it would need to pay a more than $13 billion tax bill.
Update: In an interview with The Washington Post, Cook says he plans to present specific proposals at the Senate hearing to overhaul the U.S. corporate tax system.
"If you look at it today, to repatriate cash to the U.S., you need to pay 35 percent of that cash. And that is a very high number," Cook said in an interview Thursday. "We are not proposing that it be zero. I know many of our peers believe that. But I don’t view that. But I think it has to be reasonable."
Cook also pointed out that if state and federal taxes are combined, Apple pays roughly $1 million per hour in taxes, possibly making Apple the largest corporate taxpayer in the country.
Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the comment thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All MacRumors forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.
eBay today released updates to its iPhone and iPad apps, offering a redesigned user interface that includes multiple search views, an improved bidding process for ending auctions, and new shopping cart functionality.
With the new shopping cart, users can add multiple items to the cart and purchase them at the same time with a single payment. The app also features larger photos and better search results, with the iPad version of the app sporting new photo editing tools.
The iPhone app has also gained an interesting new function, allowing users to scan in their drivers licenses with the iPhone's camera to quickly create new accounts.
- New and improved look and feel - Checkout multiple items at a time with the new eBay Shopping Cart (US and UK only) - Tap the grid icon at the top of search results to see larger photos (iOS 6 required)* - Scan your drivers license for fast and easy eBay registration (available in select US states) - Improved last minute bidding - Selling support for Spain - Many bug fixes and enhancements
Both the iPhone and iPad eBay apps can be downloaded from the App Store for free.
This update is recommended for MacBook Air (mid 2012) models. This update addresses a storage firmware issue that, in rare cases, may cause a system to fail to recover from a crash.
Flash storage module from mid-2012 MacBook Air (Source: iFixit)
The update is 1.69 MB and requires OS X 10.7.5 or OS X 10.8.3.
New Mac spyware was discovered earlier this week on a computer at the Oslo Freedom Forum, an annual human rights conference. Located by computer security researcher Jacob Appelbaum, the malware, which has been deemed OSX/KitM.A, is currently being investigated by anti-virus company F-Secure, reports CNET.
The malware is a backdoor application called "macs.app," which launches automatically upon login and captures screenshots that it then sends to a MacApp folder in the user's home directory. Two command-and-control servers, located at securitytable.org and docsforum.info, are associated with the malware, but one does not function and the other gives a "public access forbidden" message.
Interestingly, the malware is signed with an Apple Developer ID, which is designed to prevent the installation of malware. Apps that are unsigned are blocked by default by Apple's Gatekeeper security option.
This bit of malware is somewhat unique in that it is signed with what appears to be a valid Apple Developer ID associated with the name Rajender Kumar. Though not an uncommon name, this may be a reference to the late Bollywood actor of a similar name. Regardless, the use of the ID appears to be an attempt to bypass Apple's Gatekeeper execution prevention technology.
Currently, F-Secure is investigating where the malware originated, and though it does not appear to be widespread, it can be mitigated by removing the macs.app program from the log-in menu. Apple often addresses malware threats quickly, and has the ability to revoke the developer ID to further limit the spread of the software.
Apple has released an update to its iTunes music and media application, bringing it to version 11.0.3.
The update updates the compact MiniPlayer, adding album artwork and a progress bar, as well as better support for multi-disc albums and large iTunes libraries.
This version of iTunes comes with several new features and improvements, including:
- New MiniPlayer. MiniPlayer now includes a beautiful new view that showcases your album artwork. In addition, a progress bar is now built right into MiniPlayer.
- Improved Songs View. You can now enjoy your album artwork while in Songs view.
- Multi-Disc Albums. Albums with multiple discs now appear as a single album.
This update also provides performance improvements when searching and sorting large iTunes libraries.
The update weighs in at 187.50MB on the Mac, and is available through the Mac App Store, Software Update, and direct from Apple's Software Download Page.
BGR shares several new relatively high-resolution photos of parts claimed to be from the iPhone 5S. These parts have been leaking to repair firms over the past several months, and a number of photos have already been seen, but the new photos do represent the highest-quality look at these parts so far.
Vibrator/audio control flex cable for iPhone 5S
Unfortunately, the photos reveal little about Apple's plans for the iPhone 5S, as they are minor parts generally seeing relatively small changes compared to their corresponding iPhone 5 parts.
The parts include the loud-speaker bracket, ear speaker bracket, vibrating motor assembly, Wi-Fi flex cable ribbon and SIM card tray from Apple’s upcoming seventh-generation iPhone.
Part leaks claimed to be from the iPhone 5S began in January with photos of a speaker enclosure, and have continued with additional photos of the home button and volume/mute button flex cables, front camera flex cable, and nano-SIM card trays. The source of the previous SIM tray leak claimed that the trays were identical to those seen in the iPhone 5, while BGR's report today claims that they are thinner.
iPhone 5S nano-SIM trays
Most recently, just last week an antenna-related add-on piece for the iPhone 5S logic board surfaced, although the implications of minor changes observed in the part compared to the iPhone 5 remain unknown.
Following up on its April report breaking down mobile phone shipments by manufacturer for the first quarter of 2013, research firm IDC today issued a new report looking at shipments from an operating system perspective. The report unsurprisingly shows that Android and iOS continue to dominate the smartphone market with over 92% of shipments during the quarter, with Android's broad availability driving it to represent 75% of all shipments.
Apple iOS marked its largest ever first quarter volume on the strength of its iPhone shipment volumes, yet the operating system posted a year-over-year decline in market share and lower year-over-year shipment growth than the overall market. Although demand remains strong worldwide, the iOS experience has remained largely the same since the first iPhone debuted in 2007. That appears ready to change as online rumors and speculation predict a massive overhaul of the user interface when iOS 7 debuts.
Worldwide Smartphone Shipments in 1Q13 in Millions of Units (Source: IDC)
The gains by Android and iOS over the last several years have come at the expense of every other operating system, but IDC's numbers reveal that Windows Phone is beginning to see signs of life with shipments more than doubling year over year, although its share of the market remains low at 3.2%.
Still, Windows Phone was the only minor competitor to gain share over the previous year, with BlackBerry continuing its slide in falling to 2.9%, although IDC suggests the launch of BB10 may bolster BlackBerry's numbers going forward. Linux and Symbian also saw significant share losses as their former supporters have shifted focus to Android and Windows Phone.
Apple's San Francisco flagship retail store has been a particularly high-profile location for the company since it opened nine years ago, but the San Francisco Chronicle reports that Apple has submitted plans to move the store to a new location three blocks away. The new location at Stockton and Post streets will be directly adjacent to Union Square, the focal point of San Francisco's high-end shopping district.
Supervisor David Chiu said he hoped the new silver box-shaped computer store and customer service center would “turbo-charge” the Union Square area, which has long been home to many of the city’s high-end retailers.
The new outlet will occupy the space at Stockton and Post streets formerly occupied by Levi’s and be about 45 percent larger than the existing space, though it will include all the same features.
Rendering of new San Francisco flagship store on Union Square
Apple says that the new location will increase its staff from the current 350 to 400 at the new location, but no timeline for construction and the move has been announced.
The current flagship store at 1 Stockton Street is located directly adjacent to an entrance for a subway station serving both San Francisco's Muni Metro and the broader BART rail system. The new location is several blocks from the main Market Street transit corridor, but remains well served by transit and city officials hope that the new location will help draw more customers into the Union Square shopping district. San Francisco is also in the early stages of work on a new Central Subway line that will include a station directly at Union Square.
Update: AllThingsD has several larger images and a statement from Apple about the new store.
“We’re thrilled to be working with the city of San Francisco on a new Apple retail store at Union Square,” Apple said in a statement to AllThingsD. “Our store on Stockton Street has welcomed over 13 million customers since it opened nine years ago, and we look forward to serving them in an amazing new location when this project is complete.”
Apple today announced the winner of its "50 Billion App Countdown" promotion that saw the company pass that milestone on Wednesday afternoon.
Word game Say the Same Thing from the band OK Go was the milestone download, with Brandon Ashmore from Mentor, Ohio making the winning download. Ashmore will will receive an iTunes Gift Card worth US$10,000. For the first time, Apple also gave the fifty downloaders after the big winner US$500 iTunes Gift Cards.
“Apple would like to thank our incredible customers and developers for topping 50 billion apps downloaded,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services. “The App Store completely transformed how people use their mobile devices and created a thriving app ecosystem that has paid out over nine billion dollars to developers. We’re absolutely floored to cross this milestone in less than five years.”
Apple ran similar promotions for ten billion and twenty-five billion downloads, in January 2011 and March 2012 respectively.
The App Store took just under five years to hit the fifty billion download mark, though the rate of downloads has been accelerating and is now at more than 20 billion app downloads per year.
Google has updated its Google Play Books iOS app following its keynote address at Google I/O this morning, adding support for user uploaded PDF and ePub files.
Google Play, the world's largest eBook collection, just got bigger. Now, you can upload your own files to Google Play Books to access on Android, iOS, and the web. Whether you're a student with a backpack full of PDF printouts or an avid reader with hundreds of pages held captive on your computer, relieve your back and start adding files today!
After uploading your files, you can enjoy reading them with all the nice features available: bookmarks, highlights and notes, dictionary and more. What's more, your reading progress, highlights etc are synced to the cloud, so if you have multiple devices, you can easily pick up reading anywhere!
The Google Play Books app has also been redesigned to add a Read Now section, featuring books that have been recently purchased, upload, or read. This update also brings both stability and performance improvements.
Apple has long supported the ability to upload both ePub and PDF files through iTunes so the new version of the Google Play Books app brings it up to speed with iBooks.
DirecTV today updated its iPhone app with the ability to search channels and discover new entertainment with voice commands. The app allows users to view search results on the TV (via a supported DirecTV DVR) or on the iPhone.
Similar to how one would interact with Apple's Siri, the app allows DirecTV customers to ask questions like "what action movies are on tonight?" or to make requests like "record True Blood" or "show me comedy movies." The app also allows searches for programs by title, channel, actor, time frame, genre and more.
What's New in Version 2.5.0
NEW IN THIS VERSION
Search and discover entertainment with the power of your voice.
- Just talk as you would to a person and the app finds what you’re looking for. - Search for programs by mentioning title, channel, keyword, actor, time frame, genre and more. - Switch to TV mode to see your dialogue and search results on your TV screen. HD DVR (HR24+) required. Your phone and HD DVR must be connected to same Wi-Fi network. - See personalized recommendations as soon as you switch to TV mode.
DirecTV for iPhone is a free download on the App Store. [Direct Link]
As noted by 9to5Mac, Apple today seeded build 12E52 of OS X 10.8.4 to developers. The release comes seven days after the previous build 12E47 and marks the seventh beta iteration of OS X 10.8.4.
As with previous beta releases, Apple continues to ask developers to focus on Wi-Fi, Graphics Drivers, and Safari.
The update is available through the software update tool in the Mac App Store and Apple's Developer Page.
The Subcommittee will continue its examination of the structures and methods employed by multinational corporations to shift profits offshore and how such activities are affected by the Internal Revenue Code and related regulations. Witnesses will include representatives from the Department of the Treasury, the Internal Revenue Service, representatives of a multinational corporation, and tax experts.
Representatives from Microsoft and HP testified on September 12 on the same topic.
Apple recently borrowed $17 billion in a bond offering, in part to return cash to shareholders without bringing some of its $100 billion overseas cash pile to the United States. If it were to repatriate that cash to the U.S., it would need to pay a more than $13 billion tax bill.
Verizon is offering a $100 discount on iPhone 5 upgrades to certain current Verizon customers, reports Gotta Be Mobile.
The change makes the iPhone 5 available for $100 with a two-year contract, one of the lowest prices we've seen for the device. However, Verizon said the discount is only being offered to certain "basic phone customers [who] are interested in moving to a smartphone".
The carrier did not elaborate on what qualifies customers for the deal and it also stressed that not every basic phone customer will be getting the offer, only those that it has identified as those who are interested in potentially upgrading to the iPhone 5.
The promotion will last until the end of next month which means that it will last through Apple’s WWDC developer conference which is set to kick off in the middle of the month.
Apple is expected to release a new model of the iPhone at some point this summer or fall.
Apple's App Store today reached 50 billion downloads since its inception in 2008, and along with the milestone comes the end of the company's "50 Billion App Countdown" promotion launched thirteen days ago. The winner of the promotion, who is yet to be announced, will be awarded a $10,000 gift card valid for App Store, Mac App Store, or any other iTunes Store content. Fifty additional winners will receive $500 gift cards.
The milestone is being acknowledged on Apple's website with a graphic showing a "Thanks" message written using award-winning iPad app Paper by FiftyThree.
The App Store took nearly 3 years, 8 months to reach 25 billion downloads, with the next 25 billion downloads requiring only about 14.5 months.
With the last 25 billion downloads coming over a period of 14.5 months, Apple's pace is now at over 20 billion downloads per year or over 50 million per day. As tracked by our sister site AppShopper, Apple has approved a total of nearly 1.2 million apps for the App Store since its launch, with nearly 850,000 of them currently available in the store.
At the Google I/O keynote in San Francisco this morning, Google demonstrated an upcoming overhaul for its mobile mapping apps on iOS and Android and announced an iPad version of Google Maps that will hit the App Store this summer.
The new version of Google Maps will incorporate both restaurant and location ratings from Zagat. Google is bringing Google Offers integration to its mobile maps, offering discounts and coupons from retailers like Starbucks directly in the app. Searching for a restaurant or location within Google Maps will display ratings, reviews, and available offers.
Google also plans to add live coverage of traffic incidents around the world, providing real time alerts with dynamic re-routing capabilities to improve the functionality of its turn-by-turn directions. As for Google Maps on the iPad, Google introduced a new tablet-centric feature called "Experience," which provides indoor maps for a variety of locations, displaying restaurant and shopping options.
While on stage, Google's Mobile Director of Maps Daniel Graf didn't waste an opportunity to poke fun at Apple's Maps. While speaking about Google Maps on iOS, he had this to say: "People called it sleek, simple, beautiful… and let's not forget accurate."
Apple Maps, which was introduced alongside iOS 6 to replace Google Maps, has been heavily criticized for providing inaccurate results and for its lack of crucial features, like transit information. Though Apple has been working to improve Maps, the addition of real time traffic reports, rerouting, and a more personalized experience puts Google Maps even further ahead of Apple Maps.
Google also demoed its redesigned desktop mapping experience, which has a heavy focus on both "immersive imagery" and a more personalized experience. As noted by The Verge, Google Maps will be given a total design overhaul, displaying an edge-to-edge map within the browser window that is accented by a single search box. Maps are vector-based and quick loading, with details on locations and directions provided by information cards.
A lone search box in the upper left gives you access to Maps’ features, as does clicking on elements within the map. Google has integrated Google Now’s card metaphor to present information from a newly built-in version of Google Earth, reviews from Zagat and Google+, Street View, and directions. And new user interface tweaks surface locations and transit routes before you even search for them.
Clicking on a location within Google Maps will display reviews and a 360 degree inside-view option. Maps on the desktop has also been enhanced with imagery that allows users to explore mountains, oceans, and more, as it incorporates Google Earth's 3D view.
Google is currently allowing users to sign up to preview the new Google Maps desktop experience. Google's iPad app and redesigned mobile apps will be released this summer.
Mophie today announced the Juice Pack Plus, a new 2100mAh battery case for the iPhone 5. The case is the third that the company has released for the iPhone 5, though this new $120 case has the largest battery of the three.
The mophie juice pack plus is made for the user who puts their iPhone 5 through the paces morning to night, maxing out features, apps, video, email and web browsing while on-the-go. The case features a 2100mAh battery, translating to an added 120 percent of extra battery life and offers the most power of mophie’s battery case solutions for the iPhone 5 to date. For protection, the juice pack plus’ dual-injected sleeve is engineered with a shockproof band and anti scratch guides to help buffer the impact of falls.
Like the other cases, the Juice Pack Plus uses a microUSB cable to charge.
The Mophie Juice Pack Plus is available for $120 in black, white and PRODUCT (RED) from Mophie's website and elsewhere.