Microsoft is planning to introduce an updated version of its Office productivity suite for the Mac in 2014, according to Thorsten Hübschen, Business Group Lead at Microsoft Germany, who gave Computerwoche (via Macworld) the news at the Cebit trade fair in Hanover.
While there's little information available on a possible release date, Hübschen said more news on the product should come during the second quarter of 2014. Microsoft's current Office software for the Mac was released more than three years ago in October of 2010.
At the Cebit trade fair in Hanover, Hübschen told Computerwoche that there are now development teams for each of the Office applications, which each produce versions of their product for different platforms. In addition to MacOS, other possible targets for the future may include tablets running iOS and Android.
Microsoft originally had plans to release Office for Mac in the spring of 2014, but it appears the company will miss that timeline, instead planning for a release later in the year. According to a representative from Microsoft, the company is indeed working on the next version of Office for Mac.
"The team is hard at work on the next version of Office for Mac," she said in an email. "While I don't have details to share on timing, when it’s available, Office 365 subscribers will automatically get the next Office for Mac at no additional cost."
When Flappy Bird creator Dong Nguyen removed his ultra popular app from the App Store back in February, he gave little explanation for the surprising decision, aside from a short message stating he could no longer take the attention.
In a new interview with Rolling Stone, Nguyen explains why he pulled the app, pointing to extensive press coverage and unwanted attention in his home town of Hanoi. While Nguyen enjoyed his early success, he was swarmed by the media after news of his monetary success was revealed. At the height of its popularity, Flappy Bird was generating upwards of $50,000 per day.
As news hit of how much money Nguyen was making, his face appeared in the Vietnamese papers and on TV, which was how his mom and dad first learned their son had made the game. The local paparazzi soon besieged his parents' house, and he couldn’t go out unnoticed. While this might seem a small price to pay for such fame and fortune, for Nguyen the attention felt suffocating.
Even more troubling were the messages he began receiving from parents and Flappy Bird players who had become addicted to the game. One woman told him he was "distracting the children of the world," and Nguyen worried the game was too addictive.
Another [message] laments that "13 kids at my school broke their phones because of your game, and they still play it cause it’s addicting like crack." Nguyen tells me of e-mails from workers who had lost their jobs, a mother who had stopped talking to her kids. "At first I thought they were just joking," he says, "but I realize they really hurt themselves."
According to Nguyen, who had trouble in school because of his own addiction to Counter-Strike, those messages were a major reason why he opted to put an end to Flappy Bird. When asked by the interviewer why he ultimately pulled the app, he said "I'm master of my own fate. Independent thinker."
With Flappy Bird’s removal from the App Store, hundreds of clones have popped up. While Apple initially attempted to stem the flood of Flappy Bird-style games, the game’s success has continued to tempt developers into creating clones. At the end of February, one-third of new games released over a 24-hour period ended up being games that were heavily inspired by Flappy Bird and Nguyen's success. "People can clone the app because of its simplicity," Nguyen said, "but they will never make another Flappy Bird."
Flappy Bird clones
Nguyen told Rolling Stone that removing Flappy Bird from the App Store has been a "relief," but he is also contemplating returning the app to the App Store.
"I'm considering it," Nguyen says. He’s not working on a new version, but if he ever releases one it will come with a "warning," he says: "Please take a break."
Though Flappy Bird is no longer available for download, it continues to make money for Nguyen, "generating tens of thousands of dollars." The app's success has led Nguyen to quit his job, and he’s considering purchasing both a Mini Cooper and an apartment as he continues to develop new games.
Rolling Stone's full interview with Nguyen, which is well worth reading, also includes tidbits on the development of Flappy Bird, details on Nguyen's childhood, his game creating experience, and info on his future plans.
Music video and entertainment platform Vevo announced today that it is partnering with Apple to stream this week's iTunes Festival at SXSW. Apple is limiting the service to include the same streaming options offered by its own iTunes Festival coverage, which includes iOS devices, Macs and the Apple TV.
Starting Tuesday, March 11 and ending Saturday, March 15, viewers can launch the Vevo iOS app or open the Apple TV channel to watch live performances from ACL Live at the Moody Theater in Austin, Texas. Mac owners can view the live stream by pointing their Safari browser to Vevo's iTunes Festival website.
Three performances are scheduled each night, with headline acts to include major artists such as Coldplay, Kendrick Lamar, Soundgarden, Pitbull an Keith Urban. Select performances will be available for on-demand viewing after the concert is over.
iOS owners who prefer not to use Vevo can watch the daily concert series via Apple's iTunes Festival app [Direct Link], while Apple TV users can open the recently updated iTunes Festival channel. Both sources allow users to live stream the concert's shows as well as view concert lineups, on-demand performances and artist information.
Apple is preparing to significantly improve its Maps application in iOS 8, claims a report in 9to5Mac. Apple will slow its work on UI changes and focus instead on improving the underlying infrastructure that powers the application. These data-level changes will make Maps more informative and reliable for iOS users.
The new application will also be injected with new points of interests and new labels to make places such as airports, parks, train stations, bus stops, highways, and freeways easier to find, the sources added. Sources also say that the mapping application’s cartography design has been tweaked to be slightly cleaner and to make streets more visible.
Public transit is another major area that Apple will bring to the iOS 8 version of Maps, tapping into the engineering talent the company has acquired from mapping companies such as HopStop and Embark. The new Maps app likely will allow users to find train, subway and bus information in major U.S. and international cities. These public transit options will be embedded in the maps themselves and in the Directions panel, where they will show up in a new tab next to "Driving" and "Walking."
Mockup of iOS 8's transit features
These changes are only the beginning of Apple's proposed plans for its Maps application, as the company is reportedly also working to add indoor mapping views, improved car integration, and augmented reality features in the future.
Apple switched away from a Google-powered mapping solution in 2012 when it introduced its own Maps application alongside iOS 6. Apple's Maps faced extensive criticism at launch when a series of high-profile incidents highlighted embarrassing inaccuracies in mapping data and missing features like street view and transit directions that were available in its competitors' products. Apple CEO Tim Cook even issued a personal apology to iOS owners, promising to improve the app until it lives up to Apple's "incredibly high standard."
Apple's much rumored larger iPhone is said to be a variation on the iPhone 5c rather than the iPhone 5s, according to a new report from Mac Otakara. Sources indicate that the larger iPhone would be an expansion to Apple's lineup rather than replacing the positions currently held by the iPhone 5s and 5c.
Mac Otakara's sources claim Apple has decided on 4.7-inch and 5.7-inch displays as potential candidates for new iPhone models that would launch later this year. These two sizes originally were singled out by Reuters in a report published last year.
This new iPhone model may keep the basic design of the iPhone 5c such as the rounded back edges, button designs, and speaker/microphone hole designs, with some inspiration from the seventh-generation iPod nano. The latest iPod nano models are available in a range of colors like the iPhone 5c, but feature an anodized aluminum design instead of polycarbonate.
Sources also claim the 4.7-inch iPhone will measure at 14x7 cm, while the 5.7-inch model will be larger with dimensions of 16x8 cm. Possibly both models will be 7 mm thick with a protruding rear camera as seen on the current iPod touch models, although it the report indicates that the final version of the phone could be expanded to 7.5 mm thick to match the thickness of the camera module. The design for the phones should already be complete for a launch later this year, so it is unclear if Mac Otakara's sources are sharing information from earlier in the design process or if there is simply still some uncertainty in the sources' information.
Rumors about Apple's next generation iPhone have been scattered, with reports suggesting the iPhone 6 will adopt a "bezel-free" display and a 10-megapixel or higher camera module with an improved filter. A sketchy report from earlier this year also claimed Apple was working on an iPhone with a 5.6-inch display that would not be marketed with the iPhone name because of its experimental nature.
Less than six months after its launch alongside iOS 7 last September, Apple's iTunes Radio has become the third most popular music streaming service in the United States, according to a new report from Edison Research and Statista (via Fortune).
While Pandora and iHeartRadio took first and second place with a 31% and 9% share of the market respectively, iTunes Radio accounted for an 8% share with over 20 million users, passing Spotify's 6%. Apple's streaming service also passed the likes of competitors such as Google Play All Access, Rhapsody, Slacker, and TuneIn Radio.
While users can hop between services freely (and at least one report has suggested that 92 percent of iTunes Radio listeners also find time for Pandora), that figure would suggest that iTunes Radio is growing at the fastest rate of the top three services, and is likely to overtake iHeartRadio in the next quarter or two.
Apple launched iTunes Radio in Australia last month, as the company looks to ultimately have the service "in more than 100 countries," according to senior vice president of Internet software and services Eddy Cue. The company will be able to roll out its service to additional countries more quickly than competitors due to its existing international rights deals with Universal Music Group and other record companies.
Steve Jobs' great displeasure about the the idea of a multi-button mouse was apparently the driving force behind Apple's push to greatly innovate in the area of input devices, according to a new interview with Apple's former Senior Mechanical Engineer of Product Design Abraham Farag (via Cult of Mac).
Farag, who is the current owner of product development firm Sparkfactor Design, says that he was brought onboard to Apple in 1999 to design a successor to the original Apple USB "hockey puck" mouse, which shipped with the iMac G3 in 1998 and garnered heavy criticism for its small size, short cord, and tendency to rotate in a user's hand.
From left to right: Apple's USB "Hockey Puck" Mouse, Pro Mouse, Mighty Mouse, and Magic Mouse
The designer said that Apple's design team had worked on five complete prototypes to show Jobs, complete with lines cut for buttons and different plastic parts. Farag noted that the team made a last-minute choice to work on one more prototype model, which resembled the Apple Desktop Bus Mouse II.
However, that last prototype was not finished as Jobs entered the room to look at the group of potential mice, which led to an encounter between the CEO and the design team:
“It looked like a grey blob,” Farag says. “We were going to put that model into a box so people wouldn’t see it.” However, when Jobs turned up things went awry.
“Steve looked at the lineup of potential forms and made straight for the unfinished one,” Farag says.
“That’s genius,” he said. “We don’t want to have any buttons.” “That’s right, Steve,” someone else piped up. “No buttons at all.” The meeting, it seemed, was over.
“[Afterwards], Bart Andre, Brian Huppi and I left the room and huddled outside with each other, [saying] ‘how are we going to do that?’” Farag recalls. “Because of that unfinished model we had to invent a way to make a mouse with no buttons.”
The unfinished model that Jobs designated as his choice eventually became the Apple Pro Mouse, and began shipping in 2000. Farag believed Apple was the first to create a mouse that used an LED for optical tracking in place of a rubber ball, as the team looked toward building a successor worthy of the Apple Pro Mouse. Once again, Apple's design team wanted to create a mouse with multiple buttons, as Farag recalled a meeting with Apple design chief Jony Ive in which multiple prototypes were being discussed.
“Steve wasn’t invited to the meeting,” Farag recalls. “Not because he wasn’t allowed — he could go anywhere in the company — but just because it wasn’t something we were pitching to him yet.
...Suddenly Jobs happened to walk by, on his way back from another meeting. Seeing prototypes on the table, he stopped and came over. “What morons have you working on this project?” he asked as he realized what he was looking at.
“There was just a total hush,” Farag recalls. “No one was going to fess up to being the moron in the room. Eventually I said, ‘Well, this was asked for by the marketing division. It’s a multi-button mouse. It’s been approved through Apple’s process channels, and so we’ve been working on it.”
Jobs stared at him.
“I’m Marketing,” he said. “It’s a marketing team of one. And we’re not doing that product.” With that, he turned and stalked off.
Farag notes that it was Jobs' persistence to create a mouse unlike anything on the market that helped Apple in the long run, and that the concept of built-in capacitive sensors to emulate the presence of multiple buttons eventually changed the former CEO's mind about multi-function mice.
Apple then went on to produce the Mighty Mouse, which was the company's first mouse to ditch the one-button philosophy, and followed it up with the Magic Mouse, which features multi-touch gesture controls and is currently included with every new iMac.
Last September, when Apple released iOS 7 to the public, the iPhone 4 was the oldest model supported by the operating system. However, many iPhone 4 users found their devices to be slow and unresponsive, something Apple was likely aware of because there were a number of iOS 7 features that didn't work at all on the iPhone 4, including Siri, AirDrop, AirPlay Mirroring, and a number of special effects across the user interface including parallax, some translucency effects, and live wallpapers.
Today, with the release of iOS 7.1, Apple has much improved the experience of iPhone 4 users on iOS 7, though not entirely back to what users saw in iOS 6.1.3. According to Ars Technica, there is a measurable improvement in iOS 7.1 across a number of native iOS apps, including the speed at which the apps open from the home screen:
There's a measurable improvement over iOS 7.0 across all of these apps, some more noticeable than others. In a few instances, iOS 7.1 very nearly catches up with iOS 6.1.3, which is impressive given the gap between the two operating systems in some of these apps. It's not a complete recovery from the original iOS 7.0 release, but it's about as good as Apple can do with hardware this old. The small speed improvements are present throughout the operating system, and this makes the iPhone 4 feel more responsive than it did, if not always as responsive as it once was.
iOS 7.1 also helps with the UI jerkiness that was all over the place in 7.0. It's easiest to capture the difference in video—actions like launching apps or pulling up the Control Center shade are always visibly jerky in iOS 7.0, but they're smooth (or at least smoother) in the new update.
As Arsnotes, iOS 7.1 may well be the final major iOS release for the iPhone 4, as Apple generally removes support for the last generation of iPhones when it releases a new operating system each year. Ars says iOS 7.1 makes the experience good enough that using the iPhone 4 is no longer "unbearable", but that there are "unmistakable" benefits to moving to a faster phone.
Apple recently implemented changes to its loyalty program designed for organizations like schools and businesses, improving the discounts given to those customers, reports TechCrunch.
Customers are eligible to receive discounts through Apple Retail's Business Team after spending more than $5,000. Apple's particular program is three-tiered, offering increasingly greater discounts at $5,000, $35,000, and $200,000. Given the amounts spent, the program is typically limited to businesses and educational facilities that purchase Apple devices in bulk.
With the changes made to the program, Apple has upped the discounts buyers receive on Macs, iOS devices, and accessories.
With last week's changes, Apple has improved the discounts of several items across all of these tiers. Almost all of the discounts have been improved a couple percent. We're hearing, for instance, that Mac has gone from 5% to 6% in the lower tier and as much as 8% at the higher tier.
Third-party accessory discounts, for example, have risen from 5 percent to 10 percent for the lowest loyalty program tier, and even higher for other tiers, while iPads are discounted by two to four percent based on model and quantity.
Along with increased discounts on the above listed items, the program has been expanded for the first time to include both unlocked iPhones and Apple TVs. As noted by TechCrunch, Apple TVs have become increasingly important for schools and businesses that rely heavily on iOS and Mac devices as they work well with AirPlay as a way to avoid traditional projectors.
Apple's efforts to deploy iPads in both educational institutions and businesses have ramped up over the course of the last several years. The company often highlights its enterprise performance during quarterly earnings calls and a February survey suggested Apple accounted for 73 percent of all enterprise mobile device activations in the fourth quarter of 2013.
Two weeks ago, Apple launched new enterprise tools for large device deployments, offering several new features for mobile device management, including over-the-air tools to allow IT administrators to set up devices without the need for the Apple Configurator software.
Apple has credited the evad3rs jailbreak team with discovering several security issues, according to a new Knowledge Base article that details security issues fixed in iOS 7.1 today. The company also credits a number of individual researchers -- including one named Roboboi99 -- as well as corporate security specialists from Google and FireEye, among other companies.
As is common at many tech companies, Apple credits security researchers who discover vulnerabilities in its products after it fixes them, though the company does not offer a bounty program to financially reward researchers like many other companies do.
In iOS 7.1, Apple fixed security issues with Backup, the Certificate Trust Policy, Configuration Profiles, CoreCapture, Crash Reporting, dyld, FaceTime, ImageIO, IOKit HID Event, iTunes Store, Kernel, Office Viewer, Photos Backend, Profiles, Safari, Settings, SpringBoard, SpringBoard Lock Screen, the TelephonyUI Framework, USB Host, Video Driver, and WebKit.
Of course, with Apple fixing the security issues that the jailbreak team discovered, it has also closed the loopholes that allowed a jailbreak in the first place. For now, the last version of iOS that can be jailbroken is iOS 7.0.6.
iOS 7.1, released this morning, includes several notable features, like support for CarPlay, a fix that improves the reliability of Touch ID, and a fix for a bug that caused crashes to the home screen.
Along with those major enhancements, the update also offers a slew of minor visual tweaks and improvements to the operating system, such as refined icons for the Phone, FaceTime, and Messages apps, along with revamped shift and caps locks keys and a new look for elements of the Phone app.
YouTube channel iTwe4kz has posted a handy overview of the new update, which shows off all of the new features that iOS 7.1 has to offer. The video has a detailed walkthrough of all the visual changes and enhancements, which is well worth watching for users who want a quick guide on what's new.
The full set of changes to the operating system were detailed in our initial post on iOS 7.1, which has a list of release notes directly from Apple and information on other app updates that were released today, including Xcode 5.1 and Remote.
As noted in the video, iOS 7.1 officially disables the iOS 7 evasi0n jailbreak by patching a key kernel exploit. iOS 7.1 is now available for all users via an over-the-air-update.
Update: The video was shot using an iOS 7.1 beta rather than the final public version, and also incorrectly depicts a change to the Photos app icon. The icon has not changed in iOS 7.1.
iOS 7.1, released earlier today, includes support for existing iPad models along with support for two unannounced models, labeled iPad4,3 and iPad4,6. It is possible that these new model numbers represent minor hardware revisions for existing iPads that will be introduced to the market silently, as a more substantial upgrade would push the model numbers higher.
On occasion, Apple has implemented new hardware components for its iOS devices without a public announcement and these minor changes often go unseen by consumers as they tend to introduce very minor improvements in efficiency. For example, an Apple TV update in January of 2013 revealed a new Apple TV, which turned out to be a minor update with a smaller A5 chip. That change was not obvious to Apple TV purchasers, but it did warrant a model number jump to 3,2 from 3,1.
Existing iPad Air models are numbered 4,1 and 4,2, while Retina iPad mini models are numbered 4,4 and 4,5, suggesting one new iPad Air for the 4,3 designation and one new Retina mini for the 4,6 designation.
As noted by 9to5Mac, it is also possible that iPad4,3 and iPad4,6 represent iOS devices that are optimized for networks in other countries.
The upcoming iPhone 6 has been incorporated into a new concept video by designer Sam Beckett, which was initially posted to The Verge forums. According to the dimensions Beckett provides, his "iPhone Air" concept includes a 4.7-inch display, a 1920 by 1080 resolution and 468 pixels per inch.
Beckett's concept is 8 percent larger than the iPhone 5s and 9 percent thinner. The slimmer profile is in line with previous iPhone 6 rumors, which have suggested Apple has improved its backlighting technology to allow for thinner devices.
The phone is only 8% larger than the existing iPhone 5S, this increase is to accommodate the larger screen. Some extra space could be potentially utilised by reducing the width of the side bezels and by also slimming down the top and bottom of the phone frame too. The depth of the iPhone Air is 7mm, coming in 0.6mm smaller than it's predecessor. This modest reduction in the device depth and larger increase in the width and height could help create a bigger space for the battery and other components.
Like several other iPhone 6 concepts, Beckett's design keeps the same general size and shape of the existing iPhone 5s while doing away with thick side bezels. The design incorporates thinner side bezels with a sapphire crystal display, both features the phone is rumored to include.
Beckett also draws on a number of other rumors for the video, suggesting the iPhone 6 will include a 10-megapixel sensor with an aperture of f/1.8 and a faster A8 chip, which is reportedly already in production with TSMC.
As with any concept, it is unclear if these ideas and rumors will make it into the next-generation iPhone, but the video does imagine how a larger iPhone could possibly look. Apple is said to be developing two larger iPhones for release in 2014, one near 4.7 inches and one quite a bit larger at approximately 5.5 inches.
Alongside the launch of iOS 7.1, Apple today updated its Apple TV software to version 6.1, adding a much-requested feature that allows users to hide unwanted channel icons from the main screen without needing to access the Parental Controls menu. The hiding feature joins an already existing rearranging feature, letting users further customize their Apple TV home screens as the number of channels has grown significantly in recent months.
Arranging or hiding icons can be initiated by selecting an item in the main menu and then pressing and holding on the Select button of the remote control until the icon jiggles, much as how icon rearranging functions within iOS. Icons can be moved using directional buttons, with Play/Pause available for more options.
The Apple TV software was last updated to version 6.0.1 in October, following the release of the 6.0 software in September, which brought several new features including iTunes Radio and AirPlay from iCloud. Earlier this week, the Apple TV gained a new iTunes Festival channel ahead of SXSW.
Users can download the Apple TV 6.1 software through the Apple TV’s over-the-air update mechanism found in Settings --> General –-> Software Update.
Apple has also updated the Remote app for iOS devices to version 4.2, adding a feature that allows users to browse purchased movies and TV shows within the app and then play them on the Apple TV. The update also includes the ability to control iTunes Radio on the Apple TV and offers bug fixes and stability improvements. [Direct Link]
Following a lengthy beta testing period, Apple today released iOS 7.1 to the public, marking the first major update to iOS 7 since its September release. The update includes much-needed improvements to the Touch ID fingerprint recognition system built-in to the iPhone 5s, an update for a home screen crashing issue, and it brings CarPlay support, which was first unveiled by Apple last week.
The update also includes multiple visual tweaks, such as revamped shift and caps locks keys on the keyboard, refined icons for the Phone, FaceTime, and Messages apps, and a redesign for several aspects of the Phone dialer and shutdown screen.
Accessibility has been improved with a new "Button Shapes" option that indicates where tappable areas are located, a "Darken Colors" option, and an enhancement to Contrast allowing users to reduce iOS 7’s white point.
A multitude of minor improvements to enhance the performance of the operating system have also been bundled into the update, such as new bounce animations in Control Center, more prominent buttons in the Music app, and a new event list view within the Calendar app. Full release notes are as follows:
CarPlay - iOS experience designed for the car - Simply connect your iPhone to a CarPlay enabled vehicle - Supports Phone, Music, Maps, Messages, and 3rd-party audio apps - Control with Siri and the car's touchscreen, knobs, and buttons
Siri - Manually control when Siri listens by holding down the home button while you speak and releasing it when you're done as an alternative to letting Siri automatically notice when you stop talking - New, more natural sounding male and female voices for Mandarin Chinese, UK English, Australian English, and Japanese
iTunes Radio - Search field above Featured Stations to easily create stations based on your favorite artist or song - Buy albums with the tap of a button from Now Playing - Subscribe to iTunes Match on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to enjoy iTunes Radio ad-free
Calendar - Option to display events in month view - Country specific holidays automatically added for many countries
Accessibility - Bold font option now includes the keyboard, calculator, and many icon glyphs - Reduce Motion option now includes Weather, Messages, and multitasking UI animations - New options to display button shapes, darken app colors, and reduce white point
Other - New Camera setting to automatically enable HDR for iPhone 5s - iCloud Keychain support in additional countries - FaceTime call notifications are automatically cleared when you answer a call on another device - Fixes a bug that could occasionally cause a home screen crash - Improves Touch ID fingerprint recognition - Improved performance for iPhone 4 - Fixes display of Mail unread badge for numbers greater than 10,000 - Continued user interface refinements
The update officially disables the evasi0n iOS 7 jailbreak, patching key kernel exploits.
iOS 7.1 was first seeded to developers back in mid-November, following the launch of iOS 7.0.4. iOS 7.1 saw five developer betas, with the last beta coming on February 4.
iOS 7.1 can be downloaded via the software update tool in the settings menu on iOS devices. Users on devices upgrading from iOS 7.0.6 are seeing file sizes of approximately 268 MB, while those upgrading from a beta are seeing larger downloads of 1.3-1.4 GB. Users who are still on iOS 7.1 beta 5 should upgrade to the full version of iOS 7.1 as the betas do not include features like the SSL fix released in February and a finalized version of CarPlay.
Apple has also launched a new update for the Apple TV and Xcode 5.1, with bug fixes, improvements, and new Auto Layout constraint inspector, and Quick Look support in the debugger for custom object types. [Direct Link]
The following Apple apps have also received minor updates alongside iOS 7:
Musician and songwriter Neil Young, who also has experience directing, has been working on a competitor to Apple's iPod for several years now, which is now close to seeing a release date.
The PonoPlayer is a $399 digital music player that is designed to offer high quality sound, beating out Apple's iPod. The sound is described as "master-quality digital music at the highest audio fidelity possible," which allows listeners to feel the true emotion and detail of the music, "the way the artist recorded it."
Young initially unveiled plans for the higher-quality digital music in 2012, after he revealed in an interview with AllThingsD that he had discussed high definition music formats with former Apple CEO Steve Jobs ahead of his death. Young has been in favor of higher definition music formats for several years, but such formats require larger files, which may have held Apple back from jumping on board.
When asked if Young had approached Apple about the idea, Young said that he had, in fact, met with Jobs and was "working on it," but that "not much" ended up happening to the pursuit.
Of note, Young made mention that Jobs was a vinyl fan, despite having helmed the company that would spearhead the way people listened to and purchased digital music.
Apple offers iTunes music in an AAC format at a quality of 256 kbps and while the company does support a lossless audio format, the files take up more space than AAC files and are not sold on the iTunes Store.
Young's PonoPlayer works in conjunction with the yet-to-be-released PonoMusic service, which pledges to "significantly improve the way you get to hear and feel your favorite music." The PonoPlayer itself will ship with 128GB of memory, storing from 100 to 500 high resolution albums.
As for Apple's line of iPods, several of the devices, including the nano, the shuffle, and the classic, have gone more than three years without an update. Apple did introduce a minor color change for some of the devices, but it appears the company may be planning to phase out several models. The exception may be the iPod Touch, which was updated with a new design in 2012.
During a recent conference call, Tim Cook called the iPod a declining category for the company, which has been overtaken by more popular offerings such as the iPhone and the iPad. "All of us have known for some time that the iPod is a declining business," he said.
The $399 PonoPlayer will be introduced to the public via a Kickstarter project that is set to go live later this week.
After expanding to France last week, Apple's iPhone trade-in program is now available in Apple retail stores throughout Canada as noticed by 9to5Mac. Though not publicly announced, the launch was confirmed on Canadian Apple Store retail pages and in the Apple Store app.
The in-store recycling program allows customers to trade-in an older iPhone model and immediately receive a gift card up to $275 towards the purchase of a new iPhone. The program encourages customers to responsibly recycle their old iPhones instead of throwing them away. SellCell estimates customers are storing and not recycling approximately $13.4 billion in unused iPhones.
This in-store iPhone recycling program debuted in the U.S. last summer and was expanded to include the UK a few months later. Apple also offers a mail-in recycling program that requires customers to send in their iPhone before receiving a credit. Customers may receive more money for their iPhone via the mail-in program, but they lose the convenience of a no-hassle credit that's immediately available to spend on a new phone.
Samsung may play a larger role in the production of Apple's next generation A8 processor than previously rumored, claims ZDNet Korea (via GforGames). According to the report, the Korean company has already signed a contract to produce the A8 processor at its Austin, Texas plant and is in the final stages of testing before mass production begins.
This latest information from an anonymous Samsung official contradicts an earlier report that said Samsung was struggling with poor yields of the A8 processor and could not meet Apple's demands. As a result, the bulk of A8 chip production was said to be shifting to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC). These "manufacturing issues" were "exaggerated claims" says the Samsung source, stating that the company is ready to start mass production of the A8 in Q2 2014.
While Samsung and TSMC may be splitting A8 production however, the latter already appears to have a lead on the Korean manufacturer. A recent report from Taiwan's Commercial Times claims TSMC has started production of the next generation chip.
Samsung has been the exclusive manufacturer of Apple's A-series chips, but Apple has been looking to depend less on its rival by shifting some of its orders to TSMC. Apple reportedly struck a deal with TSMC in 2013 to start A-series chip production early in 2014.
Apple's much rumored larger iPhone is said to be a variation on the iPhone 5c rather than the iPhone 5s, according to a new report from 
