MacRumors

Under the direction of Jony Ive, who took charge of Apple's user interface teams last October, iOS 7's redesign is said to be "flatter" with fewer skeuomorphic design cues and an interface that focuses on simplicity.

Skeuomorphism, a real-world design concept that was favored by former Apple senior vice president of iOS software Scott Forstall, is found in many of Apple's default iOS apps. For example, apps like Notes and Find My Friends both feature leather design accents and Game Center offers up a felt pool table texture. These are all elements that are expected to be removed in iOS 7, as AllThingsD points out in a new report covering the design changes.

With Scott Forstall — an advocate for flashy, skeuomorphic design and its stitched-leather and faux wood grain flourishes — now gone from Apple, and Ive in an expanded role, the current and former Apple employees I've spoken to say iOS 7 was destined for a new coat of paint. As one said, "Sounds like a much-needed 'deForstallization.'"

As noted by AllThingsD, Apple's iOS has not had a serious design overhaul since the original iPhone was released in 2007, making it long overdue for an update.

If the company has good ideas for design tweaks, it's about time it implemented them. With new mobile operating systems like BlackBerry 10 and Windows Phone proving that there's plenty of room left for innovation in the market, Apple can ill afford even the risk of the perception that iOS might be getting dusty.

Apple's challenge, then, is to overhaul the look and feel of the OS while retaining the intuitiveness that's made it so popular.

According to a report from Bloomberg earlier today, Apple has been forced to delay its internal timelines for iOS 7, but the company’s engineers are said to be working overtime to get a preview ready for the upcoming Worldwide Developers Conference in June. Multiple sources have indicated that Apple is pulling engineers from OS X 10.9 to help the company stay on schedule with iOS 7.

Research firm IDC today announced its preliminary estimates of worldwide tablet shipments for the first quarter of 2013, finding that Apple's share of the market continues to slide as competitors begin to gain footholds in the market, although the firm notes that Apple did exceed expectations. Apple held a 39.6% share of the market for quarter, compared to 43.6% in the previous quarter and a 58.2% share in the year-ago quarter.

Apple outperformed IDC's most recent projections for the quarter, shipping 19.5 million units compared to a forecast of 18.7 million units. The company, which historically has experienced a steep drop off in first quarter shipments (following strong holiday sales in the fourth quarter), saw some smoothing of that seasonality this year. [...]

"Sustained demand for the iPad mini and increasingly strong commercial shipments led to a better-than expected first quarter for Apple," said Tom Mainelli, Research Director, Tablets at IDC. "In addition, by moving the iPad launch to the fourth quarter of 2012, Apple seems to have avoided the typical first-quarter slowdown that traditionally occurred when consumers held off buying in January and February in anticipation of a new product launch in March."

Samsung and Asus in particular saw strong performances during the quarter, with each seeing year-over-year shipment increases in excess of 250% compared to Apple's 65% growth. Still, Apple's share of the market is more than double that of second-place Samsung. In looking at operating systems, Android now outships iOS, with Android taking 56.5% of the market and iOS taking just under 40%.

It is important to note that IDC's numbers track shipments instead of sales, and thus how many shipped devices are making their way into consumers' hands remains unclear. IDC's figures are also estimates, as a number of companies do not release their exact shipment data and thus research firms must rely on supply chain data and calculations from information that is made public by manufacturers to build their estimates.

MacRumors is pleased to announce the Fourth Annual MacRumors Blood Drive, running for the month of May 2013. Our goal is to increase the number of life-saving donations in real-world communities by encouraging everyone in our online community to step forward. While most blood drives are specific to a geographic location and a specific collection center, our blood drive is online and worldwide.

We ask that you:

1. Donate blood or platelets at any hospital or other donation center near you. Join the bone marrow registry in your country. Sign up for the organ donor registry in your state, province, or country.

2. Post in the MacRumors 2013 Blood Drive! thread. Show us your bandage/plaster after donating blood or tell us your story of registering as a bone marrow or organ donor. Let us thank you and help us thank other users who donate and/or register.

3. Share the message with other people you know.

For details see the MacRumors 2013 Blood Drive! thread.

Why donate blood or platelets?

Donated blood and platelets save the lives of people recovering from accidents, undergoing surgery, or struck by illness. These are people in your own neighborhoods who need your help to recover. Donated blood and platelets are needed every 2 seconds, not just when calamities such as hurricanes and earthquakes occur. An hour of your time could save up to 3 lives.

Why join the bone marrow registry?

With a simple cheek swab you are volunteering to donate stem cells or bone marrow if you turn out to match someone dying from a disease like leukemia. You might be the only person who matches them and can save their life.

Why join the organ donor registry?

Thousands of people die every year while waiting for organ transplants. Your donation of organs when your own life ends could save the lives of as many as 8 people.

The lives you save may belong to your friends, neighbors, relatives, or complete strangers. Someday you may receive the same generosity from others. A number of MacRumors members have already told us that the life of a loved one, or their own life, was saved by the donations of strangers. There's no gift more precious than the gift of life.

Donor eligibility requirements vary by country. We provide links and general information in our guides to Blood and Platelet Donation and Organ, Tissue, and Bone Marrow Donation.

If you are eligible, please schedule a blood or platelet donation, register for the bone marrow registry, and register as an organ donor in the month of May. If you aren't eligible to donate blood, we still ask for your support in encouraging others to donate and thanking those who do, and we suggest that you check if you are eligible for the bone marrow and organ donor registries. If you think the blood donor eligibility rules in your country are unfair and discriminatory, speak up in the Blood donor eligibility discussion thread.

Apple has supported a number of health, relief, and charity efforts over the years, even though Steve Jobs was not known for personal philanthropy. See our new guide to Apple Support for Charity.

As highlighted by The Next Web, security firm Trend Micro yesterday outlined a new phishing scam that has seen the perpetrators compromise over 100 sites in their attempts to gain access to users' Apple ID accounts. While Apple IDs are relatively popular targets for phishing scams, Trend Micro's analysis offers some interesting detail on the approaches used by the criminals.

We’ve identified a total of 110 compromised sites, all of hosted at the IP address 70.86.13.17, which is registered to an ISP in the Houston area. Almost all of these sites have not been cleaned. [...]

We’ve seen attacks targeting not only American users, but also British and French users. Some versions of this attack ask not only for the user’s Apple ID login credentials, but also their billing address and other personal and credit card information. It will eventually result in a page that states that access has been restored, but of course the information has been stolen.

Trend Micro's sample of a spam message designed to trick recipients into sharing their account information at the compromised sites shows a very poor attempt at copying Apple's email style, but inexperienced Internet users are undoubtedly still falling for the scheme.

Trend Micro offers a number of suggestions to help users protect themselves from phishing scams, including checking for consistent domains throughout email addresses and links included in an email and checking for indicators that the user is at a secure site associated with the correct company.

While phishing scams rely on the gullibility of users to direct them to fake account management sites, Apple has sought to increase account security on its own site with its recent introduction of two-step verification to help minimize the possibility of an unauthorized party gaining access to a user's account. That feature is, however, only available in a handful of countries for the time being.

Over the past several months, rumors of Jony Ive's influence on iOS 7 as part of his new role overseeing user interface design in addition to hardware have surfaced, indicating that Ive is pushing to adopt a "flatter" design that will modernize the look of iOS.

In a lengthy report, Bloomberg now notes that this major effort to remake iOS puts Apple at risk of delaying the launch of iOS 7. While a public launch is said to currently remain on schedule for "as soon as September", Apple's internal deadlines have been pushed back as Apple's software teams race to complete their work and ready a preview for next month's Worldwide Developers Conference.

Ive, 46, has begun revamping iPhone and iPad applications, shunning realistic images, such as wood bookshelves for the Newsstand feature, and he’s exploring more dramatic changes to the e-mail and calendar tools, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the plans are private.

Ive is also methodically reviewing new designs, seeking to avoid a repeat of last year’s release of map tools that were widely panned, and he’s encouraging collaboration between the software and hardware divisions, which operated in silos under co-founder Steve Jobs, people said.

The report also corroborates previous claims from Daring Fireball's John Gruber regarding engineers being pulled from OS X projects to bolster the iOS 7 effort, as well as his claim that the software changes in iOS 7 are significant enough that testers are using devices with special films over the screens to make it more difficult for those around them to see their displays.

Sources indicate to Bloomberg that Apple may ultimately have to push back to a later iOS version some of Ive's desired changes such as a complete remake of the iOS email app in order to have iOS 7 ready on time, and that Ive is also exploring some future concepts such as gesture controls that do not require touching the device's display.

Finally, the report briefly describes a March town hall meeting at Apple in which Jony Ive uncharacteristically took the lead to preside over a two-hour presentation about the changes that are underway. As previously noted, Ive is also sitting in on Apple's software design meetings, reportedly offering his input without forcing his ideas, and also giving software teams greater access to his hardware plans in order to increase collaboration.

Apple CEO Tim Cook will be the opening night speaker at the 11th D: All Things Digital conference next month. Last year, Cook joined hosts Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg for a 100-minute session that covered a wide variety of topics.

There’s lots to talk about, from the explosive growth of the mobile market to intense competition from a range of rivals, most especially Google’s Android, as well as innovative offerings from Korea’s Samsung. It will also be interesting to talk about the changes at Apple under Cook’s leadership, who took over from the late co-founder and industry legend Steve Jobs, as well inquiring about what new products are in the pipeline and how the company is faring in an increasingly high-pressure market.

Tim Cook makes very few public appearances, but appears to be making the D Conference his preferred interview spot much like his predecessor Steve Jobs did. Jobs appeared on the D stage six times in nine years.

D11 will take place from May 28-30, 2013 at the Terranea Resort in Rancho Palos Verdes, California.

Samsung and Apple will be heading back to court in November for a partial retrial, reports FOSS Patents. The trial follows judge Lucy Koh's March ruling that struck $450 million from the $1 billion in damages that were awarded to Apple last August, on the premise that the original damages may have been miscalculated by the jury.

According to Koh, the original jury may not have had a clear understanding of the patent issues, which resulted in a lump sum award that did not distinguish between patent violations, making it impossible for the court to determine which part of the damages were applicable to each patent.

Scheduled for November 12, the new trial could result in an award that favors either Apple or Samsung, depending on whether the amount is more or less than the original $450 million. The trial will be limited to the same evidence used in the original trial, which means neither Samsung nor Apple can introduce new information.

The new damages trial will take place on November 12, 13, 14, 15, and 18, 2013. Eight jurors will be selected, and for the purposes of their new damages verdict, the first jury's infringement findings will be law of the case, as the court rejected Samsung's argument that a new trial also has to re-evaluate liability issues.

Though a trial will determine how much (or more) of the $450 million Samsung is required to pay, Samsung is still responsible for the remaining $600 million from the original jury decision. Apple will also request both interest and supplemental damage, which could cost Samsung even more.

Apple wants prejudgment interest and supplemental damages (damages covering the period between the jury trial and the final ruling), and it's undoubtedly entitled to both, but the court won't determine the amount (which won't be substantial compared to the overall set of issues in this case) until after the appeal from a final ruling following the second trial.

Samsung requested a stay on the case in order to reexamine two Apple patents on rubber-banding and pinch-to-zoom that have since been preliminarily invalidated, but the request was denied. Koh did say, however, that a final ruling from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office could change her mind.

The two companies also have a separate 12-day trial scheduled in March of 2014 to investigate additional patent infringement claims.

Following up on yesterday's initial filing from Apple addressing the company's efforts to issue a bond offering to raise cash in support of its stock buyback program, the company today filed a prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Commission outlining its general plans, which include six different chunks of debt with staggered maturities. The Wall Street Journal has more on Apple's prospectus and other details being revealed in one-on-one meetings with potential investors:

The Apple deal comprises six chunks of debt, according to a regulatory filing from the company. Four tranches of fixed-rate debt are being offered in the form of three-, five-, 10- and 30-year paper. Rounding out the deal are two tranches of floating-rate debt, comprised of three- and five-year notes.

The Wall Street Journal indicates that Apple has not yet announced exactly how much money it intends to raise with today's offering, but that Apple is expected to offer "more than $10 billion" worth of bonds. Reuters cites a higher figure of $15-16 billion, which would rank the deal as one of the largest investment-grade bond offerings in history.

While Apple holds approximately $145 billion in cash and investments, roughly two-thirds of that money is currently held in foreign countries and would be subject to significant taxes if it were to be returned to the United States. As a result, Apple has elected to keep that money offshore and instead rely on relatively cheap debt to fund its capital return program, which consists primarily of a major stock buyback program and a quarterly dividend. Apple's current plan involves spending $100 billion to return capital to investors by the end of 2015.

Update: Reuters reports that the order book for Apple's bond offerings has now topped $40 billion, meaning that investors have offered bids for more than twice the amount of debt Apple is expected to issue. The oversubscription gives Apple flexibility in finalizing interest rates and amounts to be raised and indicates very strong interest in Apple's offerings.

Update 2: Bloomberg reports that Apple will sell a total of $17 billion worth of bonds.

The company is offering $1 billion of three-year floating-rate notes, $1.5 billion of three-year fixed-rate notes, $2 billion of five-year floating-rate notes, $4 billion of five-year fixed-rate notes, $5.5 billion of 10-year fixed-rate notes and $3 billion of 30-year fixed-rate notes, according to market sources.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All 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.

Building on yesterday's report describing a "very, very flat" design for iOS 7, 9to5Mac reports that Apple is also looking to make significant improvements to vehicle integration with the next-generation mobile operating system. In particular, Apple is looking at ways to integrate Maps and Siri with the built-in displays increasingly found in cars.

According to people familiar with the plans, Apple is working with car makers on updated versions of car center consoles that could attach to iOS devices like the iPhone. Specifically, an iPhone could be plugged into a car and an optimized, redesigned version of Apple Maps will appear on the car’s built-in display instead of a proprietary GPS system found in many cars.

Sources have described this as a feature akin to a video-out or mirrored display representation of the iPhone’s Maps app onto the bigger screens included with most modern vehicles.

The report's sources warn that the actual integration may take some time to appear given the complexities of negotiating deals with car companies, testing, and required improvements to Apple's services infrastructure, but that the technology supporting the integration is coming as part of iOS 7.

Apple last year announced an "Eyes Free" mode for Siri as part of iOS 6, but it took until February of this year for Chevrolet to become the first car manufacturer to offer the integration with its Spark and Sonic models. A number of manufacturers have, however, committed to support Eyes Free in their vehicles in the future.