MacRumors

Improvements to the iPad's LED backlighting will allow Apple to create a thinner iPad 5, NPD DisplaySearch's Paul Semenza told CNET.

"It's likely that part of the thinner/lighter design will be reducing the size of the LED backlight, partly by making the display more efficient and partly by using more efficient LEDs," said Paul Semenza, an analyst at NPD DisplaySearch, in an e-mail to CNET.

The Retina displays of the third and fourth generation iPads required a dual-LED backlight along with a bigger battery, which caused them to be thicker than the previous iPad 2.

Semenza also pointed out that a shift to a film-based touch sensor might also serve to reduce bulk. The current iPad mini incorporates a DITO film touch panel sensor which contributes to its 7.2mm thickness. He was unsure whether Apple might consider a switch to different display technology, but some reports have suggested that Apple is investigating IGZO panels.

DisplaySearch has extensive sources in the display supply chain, but a mixed track record when it comes to predictions. Before the launch of the fourth generation iPad DisplaySearch claimed that the tablet would launch with a thinner design, a prediction that ended up being incorrect after the iPad was released with the same form factor as the third generation iPad. The research firm did, however, accurately predict the in-cell display technology used in the iPhone 5.

Rumors of a thinner iPad 5 originated last year and were followed up with photos of an alleged rear shell of the device in January and case leaks in February. Photos of the front bezel of the iPad 5 surfaced yesterday, featuring a narrower iPad mini-style design.

Wired is reporting that Apple has agreed to pay $53 million to settle a class action lawsuit, which originated in 2010, that accuses them of failing to honor warranties on certain models of iPhones or iPod Touches.

The settlement, which should be filed in San Francisco federal court in the next couple of weeks, provides cash payouts to possibly hundreds of thousands of iPhone and iPod Touch customers that say Apple did not honor either their one-year standard or two-year extended warranty.

According to several lawsuits combined in San Francisco, no matter what the problem, Apple refused to honor warranties if a white indicator tape embedded in the phone near the headphone or charging portals had turned pink or red. However, the tape’s maker, 3M, said humidity, and not water contact, could have caused the color to at least turn pink.

In November 2010 Apple adjusted their damage assessment procedures so that repair staff had to inspect devices even if a device's indicator tape was "triggered" and changed color. Prior to that change, Apple would rely on the indicator tape when determining a liquid damage event, which would not be covered by Apple's warranty.

The lawsuit's affected devices include the original iPhone, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS and the first, second and third generation iPod Touch. Wired notes that potential payouts could be around $200 or less, depending on how many claims are submitted.

Apple chief litigation counsel Noreen Krall signed the settlement yesterday. Wired notes that Apple admits no wrongdoing, and the settlement will have to be approved by the judge.

The Verge is reporting that Apple is set to strike a licensing deal with Universal Music Group, the largest music label, by next week for its rumored Internet radio service. A deal with Warner Music would follow soon after that, according to The Verge.

Last week, it was reported that Apple was close to wrapping a deal up with Universal Music Group and Warner Music, but no immediate time table was given and it was unclear if any side made concessions on royalty rates.

In early March the New York Post said that one of the sticking points in the negotiations with the labels was that Apple was offering to pay half the royalty rate of Pandora, which was $0.06 per 100 songs streamed. The Verge says that Apple did not succeed in trying to undercut Pandora's rates.

Now, Apple will pay rates nearly "neck and neck" with Pandora, one of the sources said. Because of iTunes huge number of users, the new service is expected to be an immediate threat to Pandora.

The Pandora-like service is supposed to launch later this year and is set up to help iTunes users discover new music, generate ad sales and boost sales of downloads, according to The Verge.

However, Apple still has to strike a deal with Sony Music Entertainment and music publishers, and talks with those companies are said to not be as far along as Universal Music Group and Warner Music. If Apple is able to agree to a deal with Sony in the next couple months, it could possibly debut iRadio at Worldwide Developers Conference this June.

France will ask the European Commission for increased regulation following Apple's decision to remove AppGratis from the App Store for violating its developer guidelines, Reuters reports.

During a visit to AppGratis publisher iMediapp, French junior minister for digital economy Fleur Pellerin called Apple's decision "extremely brutal and unilateral....

"This behaviour is not worthy of a company of this size," Pellerin said.

She added that certain Internet companies were guilty of "repeated abusive behaviour" and said she would ask the European Commission and EU member states to better regulate digital platforms, search engines and social media.

Apple has come under European Commission scrutiny in the past for its requirements around the pricing of ebooks, a subject that the United States is currently prosecuting Apple for as well.

Back in January, reliable KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo laid out a thorough roadmap of his expectations for Apple's product launches in 2013, pointing to a very busy third quarter for the company with launches for updated iPhone, iPad, iPod, and Mac notebook lines. As recently as last month, Kuo was targeting a June/July launch for the new iPhone models, with a version specific to China Mobile arriving a bit later in September.

Kuo has released a new report today indicating that a number of challenges appear to be pushing back the release of the new iPhone and iPad mini models relative to his previous predictions and general market consensus. As a result, Kuo believes that Apple's third quarter may see much smaller shipment growth than previously expected. Apple of course has not announced its launch plans, so any "delays" are relative to these market expectations and not necessarily Apple's internal plans.

Earlier we estimated that shipments of the new iPhone would begin in July (FDD version) and September (TDD version), while iPad mini 2 would hit the market in August. Currently, market consensus for shipments of iPhone 5S, low-cost iPhone and iPad mini 2 is July, July, and August, respectively. But in light of publicly available information and our knowledge of technological trends, we now think all three products will begin shipments later than our previous expectation and market consensus.

Kuo does not provide a new specific target date for the launches of the updated models, instead laying out a series of three scenarios modeling how Apple's shipments could be affected based on August/September, September/October, and October/November timeframes.

As for details on the challenges facing Apple, Kuo lays out the following issues:

- Fingerprint sensor for iPhone 5S. Work on finding the right color coatings in order to prevent interference with the sensor offers a technical challenge for Apple, and software integration in iOS 7 will also require additional work.

- Color coatings for lower-cost iPhone. Apple's lower-cost iPhone has been rumored to be arriving with a plastic shell in a number of different colors, and Apple's efforts to keep the shell as thin as possible will likely lead to production ramping issues for coatings and surface treatments.

- iPad mini Retina display. Kuo expects the second-generation iPad mini to adopt a Retina display, and technical challenges related to its design and manufacture are likely to slow Apple's release timetable.

As a result of later-than-expected launches, Kuo currently predicts that Apple will see only single-digit growth of total iPhone/iPad shipments year-over-year for the third quarter of 2013, far below current market expectations of 30-40% growth.

Kuo's report comes as Morgan Stanley's Katy Huberty has released her own report projecting new iPhone launches for September following an iOS 7 preview at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) expected in June. Huberty projects that Apple will show off a new "killer app" such as mobile wallet at WWDC, with the new iPhone and iPad hardware following several months later.

Bloomberg reports on comments from a U.S. District Court judge in Miami chastising Apple and Google for engaging in patent lawsuits as part of a broader business strategy rather than focusing on resolution of the disputes. The judge is currently overseeing a legal dispute that began with an initial complaint by Motorola Mobility in late 2010 and was expanded in January 2012 with the approval of Google, which had agreed to acquire Motorola several months earlier.

“The parties have no interest in efficiently and expeditiously resolving this dispute; they instead are using this and similar litigation worldwide as a business strategy that appears to have no end,” U.S. District Judge Robert Scola in Miami said in an order dated yesterday. “That is not a proper use of this court.”

Scola went on to blast the companies' "obstreperous and cantankerous conduct" in refusing to streamline the 12 patents and over 180 claims currently involved in the lawsuit.

“Without a hint of irony, the parties now ask the court to mop up a mess they made by holding a hearing to reduce the size and complexity of the case,” he wrote. “The court declines this invitation.”

Scola has given Apple and Google four months in which to streamline the case on their own before he puts the case on hold.

Several weeks ago, photos of a pair of parts alleged to be from the iPhone 5S surfaced through a Japanese parts vendor. The parts included a flex cable for the device's home button and a second flex cable housing the vibrator and volume/mute controls.

Another Japanese parts vendor, iLab Factory, has now posted a new set of photos showing not only those two parts but also a third flex cable that appears to house the device's front camera. iLab Factory points out that these parts may be from the iPhone 5S but could alternatively be from Apple's rumored lower-cost iPhone.

One interesting item of note that we neglected to point out in our previous report relates to the vibrator/volume control flex cable. The part contains a strip of three buttons to run along the edge of the device, corresponding to the locations of the two volume buttons and the mute switch on previous iPhone models. But on this part, all three features appear to be buttons, suggesting that this upcoming iPhone may see the mute switch become a push button.

iLab Factory also notes that the vibrator in this part uses a dual-head design, which is distinct from the iPhone 5 vibrator design, although it is unclear what may have prompted the change.

The other two parts shared by iLab Factory reveal little information, with the home button flex cable appearing essentially identical to the previously seen part except for a part number change from 821-1684-01 to 821-1684-02. These parts do, however, contain a significantly longer cable than seen on the corresponding iPhone 5 part.

The layout of the front camera flex cable is nearly identical to the corresponding iPhone 5 part, although this leaked part is missing the microphone and other sensors seen on the iPhone 5 part offered by iFixit.

Research firm IDC today released its preliminary calculations of PC shipments for the first quarter of 2013, finding the worst year-over-year performance in the nearly 20-year history of its tracking studies. According to IDC's numbers, the worldwide PC market declined nearly 14% compared to the first quarter of 2012, with the U.S. market declining by nearly 13%.

Despite some mild improvement in the economic environment and some new PC models offering Windows 8, PC shipments were down significantly across all regions compared to a year ago. Fading Mini Notebook shipments have taken a big chunk out of the low-end market while tablets and smartphones continue to divert consumer spending. PC industry efforts to offer touch capabilities and ultraslim systems have been hampered by traditional barriers of price and component supply, as well as a weak reception for Windows 8. The PC industry is struggling to identify innovations that differentiate PCs from other products and inspire consumers to buy, and instead is meeting significant resistance to changes perceived as cumbersome or costly.

While Apple's performance was far from stellar, the company did outperform the market by showing only a 7.5% decline in shipments in the United States. Apple's performance allowed it increase its third-place share of the U.S. market from 9.4% to 10.0% as leaders HP and Dell saw significant declines, but a smaller decline from Toshiba and strong growth from Lenovo placed those vendors close behind Apple.

Apple does not rank on IDC's list of top five vendors on a worldwide basis, with Asus holding down the bottom spot at 5.7% of the market. Lenovo was, however, the only one of the top five worldwide vendors to avoid major declines in PC shipments, managing to hold steady amid the declining market.

Update: Gartner has released its own data showing a similar picture for the PC market as a whole, estimating an 11.2% year-over-year decline for the worldwide market and a 9.6% decline in the United States.

Gartner's numbers for Apple in the United States, however, show a completely different story, with Apple's shipments estimated to have risen by 7.4% compared to IDC's estimate of a 7.5% decline.

A job listing posted by Apple earlier this month indicates the company is indeed looking at using flexible displays in future products, along with high optical efficiency LCD and AMOLED units. The listing was first noticed by 9to5Mac.

The listing, for a Senior Optical Engineer, asks for someone with experience in the design, development and technical investigation of display technologies, along with a Ph.D or M.S. in physics, optics, material science or electrical engineering.

Recent rumors have suggested Apple is looking at curved glass displays for products like the iWatch, where a flexible display could make sense -- though Apple has applied for patents relating to curved glass screens on the iPhone as well. The presence of a job listing is no indication of future products, however, and Apple's research and development labs are always investigating future products.

Corning, which makes the Gorilla Glass that is used as the front glass for the iPhone suggests flexible 'Willow Glass' displays are unlikely to appear for at least three years.

Update: The job listing seeking a Senior Optical Engineer has been removed by Apple.

ZDNet has shared a roadmap it received from a source who claims it is the timetable for Microsoft's plans for both the Mac and iOS versions of Office.

The map says a new version of Office for Mac will arrive in April 2014, while the long rumored Microsoft Office for iOS and Android will arrive next Autumn, in October 2014.

I do not know how old this purported roadmap is, but my contact indicated it was likely current as of the start of 2013. I asked Microsoft Office officials for comment on the alleged roadmap, but they declined to do so.

The most recent report, from this past December, suggested that Apple and Microsoft were in negotiations over revenue share as part of Microsoft's Office 365 subscription service that launched in January. Apple wants the standard 70/30 split in revenue that is part of its developer license agreement for every developer.

Microsoft itself has leaked references to Office Mobile for iPhone, Excel for iPad, and PowerPoint for iPad, making clear that Microsoft does have iOS versions in the works.