MacRumors

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Laurene Powell Jobs (left) sitting next to Chelsea Clinton -- Image via @joelagro67

Laurene Powell Jobs, the newest nominee to Stanford University's Board of Trustees, was spotted at the Democratic National Convention sitting next to former First Daughter Chelsea Clinton -- prime seating on a night when Clinton's father, former President Bill Clinton, was giving a major address. Powell Jobs has supported Democratic causes in the past, both financially and by volunteering her time.

Note: Due to the inevitable 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.

NewImageNuance -- the company behind Siri's speech recognition -- has unveiled version 3 of its Dragon Dictate speech recognition software. The software will be available via Digital Download on September 13 with the physical box shipping on September 24.

Dragon Dictate 3 increases accuracy, speed, control of third-party applications, and support for transcription from digital voice recordings -- a feature that will be useful for many professions.

Nuance Communications, Inc. today announced Dragon® Dictate for Mac 3, the most powerful, accurate and personalized voice recognition software for the Mac available on the market today. With increased accuracy and significant feature updates, Dragon Dictate lets people quickly and easily create and edit content, and command and control their favorite Mac applications by voice – anytime, anywhere.

Dragon Dictate harnesses the power of the renowned Dragon NaturallySpeaking voice recognition technology to let Mac users simply speak to see their words instantly captured in real time on their screen. Dragon Dictate for Mac 3 is the most robust version of Dictate yet, with a 15 percent increase in accuracy, new Smart Format Rules and new correction capabilities for a personalized experience, wideband Bluetooth support, the ability to transcribe recorded audio files from a single speaker, and much more.

Dragon Dictate for Mac 3 is available for $199.99 as a digital download, a $199.99 physical box with a USB headset, or in several other configurations of varying prices.

NewImageStanford University is adding Laurene Powell Jobs, widow of Steve Jobs, to its 33-member Board of Trustees for a five-year term.

Powell Jobs, who earned an MBA from Stanford's Graduate School of Business in 1991, is the founder and chair of Emerson Collective, an organization that supports social entrepreneurs and organizations working in the areas of education, social justice and conservation.

Laurene Powell Jobs, a leader in the education reform movement and vocal advocate for the federal Dream Act, has been elected to the Stanford University Board of Trustees to a five-year term that begins Oct. 1.

Powell Jobs is historically very private with her activities but is passionate about education, serving on the boards of a number of charitable organizations. She serves as the President of the board for College Track, an after-school program outside San Francisco, and also sits on the board of Teach for America.

The story was broken by TechCrunch earlier today.

Powell Jobs earned an MBA in 1991 from Stanford's Graduate School of Business, where she also first met Steve Jobs.

Grove, makers of bamboo cases for iPhones and iPads, has announced a redesigned made-in-USA iPhone case to be released soon after the next-generation iPhone goes on sale later this month.

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This smart, innovative design involves the combination of two natural materials - a beautiful, renewable bamboo exterior and a strong, 100% post-consumer plant fiber composite core (say that five times fast). The whole team is pleased to present a case that is equal parts sustainable, durable, and eye-catching! In signature Grove style, we design and make the case entirely here at our workshop in Portland, Oregon.

[…]

Each Grove iPhone Case journeys through several days of hard work: milling, filing, gluing, sanding, soaking, oiling, lining, laser engraving, quality control, and packaging, before finally shipping directly to the customer. We take pride in finishing each of our pieces by hand to guarantee a smooth feel, an accurate fit, and unique artisan character.

Grove is asking interested customers to preorder by placing a $20 deposit, and promising a discount of $20 off the $79 price of the case, as well as earlier availability.

Preorders must be placed by September 30.

NewImageApple has released an update to iMovie, fixing a minor bug and bringing the app to version 9.0.8. The update weighs in at 1.08GB and is available via Apple's support website.

About iMovie 9.0.8

Addresses an issue related to third-party QuickTime components that could prevent iMovie from opening

The Mac App Store version of iMovie has yet to be updated, but presumably will soon be bumped to 9.0.8 as well. iMovie is available from the Mac App Store for $14.99. [Direct Link]

Update 1:29 PM: The Mac App Store version of iMovie has now been updated to 9.0.8.

Parts and repair firm iResQ has been slowly building its own iPhone 5 as parts have been coming in, as shown in yesterday's photos revealing the battery installed into the rear shell alongside several other components such as the dock connector/headphone jack flex cable, external buttons flex cable, and the rear camera assembly.

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iResQ has now added a front panel to the mix, providing a good overall look at the iPhone 5 with several closeup photos. The assembly is of course non-functional, as it is missing the logic board and several other components, but nearly all of the externally-visible features are in place.

iresq iphone 5 4s side comparison
Perhaps most notable is one closeup side-on shot showing the iPhone 5 laying next to an iPhone 4S on a table. The photo shows that the iPhone 5 is indeed substantially thinner than the iPhone 4S, by approximately the thickness of either the front or rear glass of the iPhone 4S. Apple's move toward thinner body components and a thinner distribution of internal components enabled by the larger surface area due to the 4-inch screen of the iPhone 5 have allowed the company to substantially shrink the device's overall thickness. Previous reports have pegged the iPhone 5 thickness at 7.6 mm, 18% thinner than the iPhone 4S at 9.3 mm.

iresq iphone 5 4s bottom comparison
Apple is expected to introduce the iPhone 5 at its media event scheduled for next Wednesday, September 12.

Related Forum: iPhone

According to iLounge, Apple will be the "exclusive initial supplier" for the new Dock Connector Adapter that will allow the next-generation iPhone to be used with older 30-pin Dock Connectors. Apple will reportedly sell them for $10 each or three for $29. However, it's possible that Apple will allow third parties to build the adapter at a later date.

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Additional sources have confirmed to iLounge that Apple will be the exclusive initial vendor of a new Dock Connector Adapter, to be sold individually and/or in three-packs. According to sources, the Dock Connector Adapters will sell for approximately $10 each or three for $29, with Apple-branded new USB cables selling for $19 each.

According to iLounge's source, Apple predicts it will sell 10 million adapters by the end of 2012, generating $100 million in revenue. It's likely that the adapters would have an extremely high profit margin and while this is a significant amount of money, it is but a drop in the bucket compared to Apple's total sales.

Related Forum: iPhone

NewImageApple has released an update to Java, bringing the standard OS X Java installation to parity with Oracle's latest release of Java SE 6.

About Java for OS X 2012-005

Java for OS X 2012-005 delivers improved security, reliability, and compatibility by updating Java SE 6 to 1.6.0_35.

Java for OS X 2012-005 is available for OS X Lion and Mountain Lion.

Java for Mac OS X 10.6 Update 10 is available for OS X Snow Leopard.

AllThingsD reports that Apple has issued a statement responding to this week's leak of one million unique device identifiers (UDIDs) for iOS devices, noting that it did not provide the FBI with the information. An FBI computer was claimed by the hackers to be the source of the information, but the FBI has denied any involvement in the situation.

“The FBI has not requested this information from Apple, nor have we provided it to the FBI or any organization. Additionally, with iOS 6 we introduced a new set of APIs meant to replace the use of the UDID and will soon be banning the use of UDID,” Apple spokesperson Natalie Kerris told AllThingsD.

With the AntiSec hackers claiming to be in possession of 12 million UDIDs as well as additional personal information tied to some of the numbers, it remains unclear exactly where the data came from.

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Apple has been working to phase out use of the UDID, creating new tools to allow developers to track usage of their apps on a per-device basis. With the UDID being a universal identifier, it has been used by advertisers and others to collect information across apps and other usage to develop user profiles for marketing persons, and Apple's new system will seek to improve user privacy.

M.I.C. Gadget reports on photos and a video that have surfaced on Chinese site Vgooo.com [Google translation] claiming to show an iPhone 5 that boots to a screen warning that the device is not associated with a registered developer account. Several apparent features of the device do, however, call its authenticity into question, and so we are primarily posting this for interest and discussion at this point.

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The video shows the device attempting to boot but being directed to a version of the error screen that appears when activation can not be completed. Rather than linking to the iPhone developer portal, however, the text contains a placeholder string of "@@url@@".


One questionable aspect of the device is the presence of a fourth hole or window at the top front of the device that has generally not been visible from the front in previous part leaks. In the iPhone 5, the camera has been moved to above the earpiece, swapping places with the proximity sensor that moves to the left of the earpiece. This leaked device contains a small fourth hole to the left of the camera, and while previous photos showing the backside of the front panel do indeed show the window, it is has not been visible from the front in any previous leaked photos.

white iphone 5 vgooo 2
This leaked device also contains a rather odd-looking home button in comparison to the home button seen on the iPhone 4S placed next to it in the photos and video. Apple has tweaked the design of the home button for the iPhone 5, but the button shown in the video appears to be a somewhat poor match for the device itself.

Otherwise, identifying information on the device has been either covered up or digitally obscured, rendering any specific model number or other information impossible to read.

Related Forum: iPhone

Today we are introducing a new type of page here on MacRumors called "Roundups". We've started with a detailed roundup on the much anticipated iPhone 5. In the near future, we expect to expand these pages to cover all of Apple's products.

While MacRumors has always been a great rumor resource, we've long felt that it's been too difficult for visitors to catch-up with the latest news on a particular product. Even amongst our daily readers, we find people often lose sight of the big picture after seeing rumor after rumor. Our popular Buyer's Guide helps bridge that gap to some degree, but our new Roundup pages should take it to the next step.

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The new Roundups will be more casual and to-the-point than our historical pre-event roundups. Rather than covering every possibility, we will focus on what we personally expect to happen. The other major distinction is that our Roundups will be posted early and be continuously updated week-to-week to reflect the latest rumors. The goal is that they will always reflect the current rumor outlook on any particular Apple product.

Roundups can be accessed using the Roundups navigation tab at the top of the site and we will introduce more Roundups over time.

Click here to read the iPhone 5 Roundup

Following their appointments to Apple's senior executive team, Craig Federighi and Dan Riccio have each been granted 75,000 restricted stock units by Apple. The grants, which were revealed in filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission covering Federighi and Riccio, are worth roughly $50 million apiece at today's stock price, although they do not convert into actual shares for some time.

According to the vesting schedule, Federighi and Riccio will each see 25,000 of their restricted stock units convert into actual shares on December 23, 2013, with another 25,000 following on April 23, 2015 and the final batch of 25,000 converting August 23, 2016.

federighi riccio
Including actual shares as well as previous restricted stock unit grants that are converting to shares over time, Federighi holds roughly $97 million worth of stock rights at Apple's present share price, while Riccio's holdings would be worth about $89 million.

Grants of restricted stock units are typically issued both as bonuses for previous work as well as incentives to remain with the company. With the units vesting over time, recipients are generally required to remain employed with the company through each vesting date in order for those units to convert into redeemable shares.

With rumors and leaks offering a good bit of detail on what has been claimed to be Apple's 7.85-inch "iPad mini" setting up for an October debut, we worked with CiccareseDesign to create a new set of renderings and even a 3D model of the device that readers can explore on their own.

ipadmini3 small
In coming up with this particular design, we've drawn from the numerous rumors, part leaks, and work by case manufacturers who are trying to determine what the device will look like in order to have their products ready for sale as soon as possible. What we've come up with is a thin design measuring at roughly the same thickness as the iPod touch and carrying thinner side bezels than seen on the top and bottom of the device.

One notable difference between our design and those put forth by others is the location of the headphone jack. Case manufacturers have uniformly been showing the headphone jack along the top edge of the iPad mini, as is seen on the full-size iPad, and various renderings have generally followed that standard.

➜ Click here to read rest of article...

Related Roundup: iPad mini
Buyer's Guide: iPad Mini (Don't Buy)
Related Forum: iPad

Volume Purchase Program  Apple Developer
Apple has expanded its Volume Purchase Program to nine new countries, including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom. The program allows enterprise businesses and educational institutions to purchase and distribute apps to their workforces easily and quickly.

The App Store features thousands of great business apps designed to deliver immediate benefits for your company. With the App Store Volume Purchase Program, your business can tap into the potential of world-class apps and offer a broad range of solutions for your employees to make them even
more productive. Whether you’re purchasing apps for iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, the Volume Purchase Program offers a simple and efficient method to purchase iOS apps from the App Store in volume for distribution within your organization.

Both purchasers and app developers need to specifically enroll in the program in order to be eligible for bulk purchases. Corporate buyers don't get a discount, but it is much easier to purchase bulk apps via VPP instead of requiring corporate iOS device owners to purchase apps separately and get reimbursed -- developers can choose to offer a discount to K-12 and higher education institutions, but it is not required.

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Diagram by TheTechBlock / Don Lehman, Photo by iLab.cc

In case there was some continuing doubt, iMore reports that all the circulating iPhone part leaks are accurate and will be what the new iPhone will look like on September 12th:

iMore has learned that recent parts leaks and dummy phones are accurate representations of what the new iPhone (iPhone 5,1) will look like when Apple announces it on September 12, 2012. Almost identical in design to the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S, the major visible differences will include a 4-inch display with a 16:9 aspect ratio, a metallic plate across most the back, and a miniaturized Dock connector and relocated 3.5mm headset jack along the bottom.

iMore cites "reliable" sources for the confirmation. The confirmation is notable in that iMore was the first to report on the September 12th announcement date for the new iPhone. That media event date was confirmed by Apple today.

While photos of the iPhone 5 battery have leaked several times in recent weeks, repair firm iResQ has now obtained one of the batteries and posted new photos showing the battery in the iPhone's rear shell and next to an iPhone 4S battery for comparison.

iresq iphone 5 battery shell
As previously seen, the iPhone 5 battery runs at 3.8 volts, potentially using new chemistry to boost capacity to 5.45 watt-hours from the 3.7-volt 5.30 watt-hour battery used in the iPhone 4S. The comparison photos show that the new battery is slightly taller than the iPhone 4S battery, and the thickness appears roughly the same despite the fact that the new iPhone is expected to be at least 15% thinner than the iPhone 4S.

Key differences between the iPhone 5 and the iPhone 4S battery:

1. The iPhone 5's battery is slightly less than a half an inch taller than the iPhone 4S. The thickness appears to be identical.

2. The iPhone 5 is 3.8V/5.45Whr while the iPhone 4S is 3.7V/5.3Whr.

3. The connector on the iPhone 5 is not only different, it is placed on the opposite side of the battery to accomodiate its new position within the iPhone.

iresq iphone 5 4S batteries
iPhone 4S battery (left) compared to iPhone 5 battery (right)

Apple is expected to introduce the iPhone 5 at next week's media event that was officially announced today.

Related Forum: iPhone

NewImageThe Federal Bureau of Investigation has issued a denial of responsibility regarding the leak of more than 1,000,000 iOS UDID numbers last night.

In a statement issued in the past hour:

The FBI is aware of published reports alleging that an FBI laptop was compromised and private data regarding Apple UDIDs was exposed. At this time there is no evidence indicating that an FBI laptop was compromised or that the FBI either sought or obtained this data.

The statement is not a blanket denial that the information did not come from the FBI, but instead says there "is no evidence" that a laptop was compromised or that the FBI sought or obtained the UDIDs.

Business Insider reports on a new research note from Canaccord Genuity analyst Michael Walkley claiming that Samsung's flagship Galaxy S III has surpassed Apple's iPhone 4S to become the top-selling smartphone in the United States. Walkley's data shows the iPhone 4S continuing to lead at AT&T during August but falling to second at Sprint behind the Galaxy S III and third at Verizon behind the Galaxy S III and the Motorola RAXR MAXX. The Galaxy S III is also on top at T-Mobile, which does not officially offer the iPhone.

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The shift is due to a combination of factors, partly strong performance by Samsung with its new flagship smartphone launched in June and partly weakness on the part of the iPhone as consumers begin to hold off in anticipation of the iPhone 5 set for later this month following an introduction next week.

Related Forum: iPhone