MacRumors

Back in September 2010, our sister site AppShopper launched a dedicated iOS app offering users easy access to app-tracking features such as updates and price changes. But after two years on the App Store, Apple removed AppShopper in late 2012, citing a rule against apps that could be confused with Apple's own App Store app.

Apps that display Apps other than your own for purchase or promotion in a manner similar to or confusing with the App Store will be rejected.

Since that time, several other developers such as AppGratis have seen their apps removed from the App Store, reportedly as part of a broader crackdown on app discovery apps.

Over the past several months, the AppShopper team has been reworking the app to add a more social component, and that effort is now showing up with today's launch of a brand-new app, AppShopper Social.

The Next Web has more on the return of AppShopper:

The new app, called App Shopper Social, makes social recommendations indispensable, rather than optional. When you launch the app, in fact, there is no list of apps waiting for you. Instead, the app recommends that you follow the App Shopper account, which is one of several curated lists ready at launch. Others include Macrumors, 148apps and Toucharcade, all of which provide a steady stream of apps that can be ‘owned’ or ‘want listed’. Each of the apps has a rating from one or more of those feeds, as well as an App Store rating. This allows users to say, get a friend’s rating, Toucharcade’s rating and the App Store rating all side-by-side.

A blog post at AppShopper notes that this 1.0 version of AppShopper Social brings back much of the core functionality of the original AppShopper app but that a number of features such as native iPad support and Top 200 lists are not included. Those features will be brought back in future updates.

In the 1.0 version, we’re aware that there are several obvious features that are absent. Top on our priority list is the ability to browse friends’ lists individually by tapping on their name. Also, an easier method for friend discovery and friend recommendation are also something that is clearly necessary. Even without these features, AppShopper Social is an incredibly useful tool for App Discovery, but there’s a lot of potential to be even better.

We lost a lot of momentum with the removal of our App Store app, so we’d ask you to spread the word on AppShopper Social. A large user base will guarantee future updates and improvements.

AppShopper Social is available now as a free download in the App Store. [Direct Link]

Earlier this month, KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo reported that various production issues will likely result in launches of Apple's iPhone 5S, lower-cost iPhone, and second-generation iPad mini coming somewhat later than many observers have been expecting. In particular, Kuo claimed that issues with color coatings for the fingerprint sensor said to be included on the iPhone 5S are likely to push back that device's launch from a June/July timeframe to perhaps September or later.

Reuters today published a new report highlighting how Apple's suppliers are working hard to reduce their reliance on Apple as uncertainty about demand for Apple's products presents challenges for these companies. As part of the report, Reuters shares word from Apple's iPhone suppliers painting a nearly identical picture to that shared by Kuo earlier this month.

Supplier sources in Japan and Taiwan, home to dozens of Apple suppliers, said they initially expected mass-production of the next iPhone to begin in June.

That date may have begun to slip beyond June, the sources said. The phone, widely referred to as the iPhone 5S, is expected to include new features such as a fingerprint sensor. A supply chain source in Taiwan said Apple was trying to find a coating material that did not interfere with the fingerprint sensor, and this may be causing a delay.

Regarding Apple's lower-cost iPhone, a Japanese supplier informed Reuters that "small-scale production" of displays for the device will begin in May, with mass production beginning the following month. As has been reported by other sources, Reuters' sources claim that the lower-cost iPhone will use the same 4-inch display as the iPhone 5S, but lack the fingerprint sensor and use a plastic casing.

Mac software developer Delicious Monster has informed MacRumors that a major new version of its popular OS X cataloging app Delicious Library is being released very soon.

Delicious Library is a media and gadget cataloging application that hasn't been in the news in recent years, but garnered very positive reviews upon its first release. The first version and its followup both won Apple Design Awards for Best Mac OS X user experience in 2005 and Best OS X Leopard Application in 2007. The flashy design elements were notable at the time, and is likely to have inspired a "generation" of Mac App developers as well as (indirectly) Apple's own iBooks iOS app.

One of the most notable features of Delicious Library's initial release was the use of Apple iSight camera as an inexpensive barcode scanner, so users could scan and inventory their products. As a followup to that feature, the company will be releasing an iOS app that offers this behavior using the iPhone's camera, allowing quick mobile cataloging.

According to Delicious Monster CEO Wil Shipley, Delicious Library 3's major shift is from being just a "know what you own" app to a recommendation engine based on the products you own:

We're centered on the idea of your books (movies, cds, whatever) being an aspect of your unique personality, and our app does neat things with your personal data—like give you cool graphic summaries, or really good composite recommendations.

Aside from the new recommendation engine, Delicious Library 3 will offer a 3D cover-view interface, interactive charts mode, flexible smart shelves, and more. It should be available in the Mac and iOS app stores soon.

According to reports over the weekend from China Business [Google translation] and China Times [Google translation], Apple last month returned at least five million and perhaps as many as eight million iPhones to manufacturing partner Foxconn due to defects in either appearance or operation.

The reports indicate that it will cost Foxconn roughly 200 yuan ($32) per device to correct the issues with the defective iPhones, resulting in a charge of as much as 1.6 billion yuan ($259 million) to address the problem. It is unclear which iPhone models are affected by the issues, but Apple does not appear to be suffering from major shortages of any of its current devices.

The iPhone 5 suffered from quality control issues following its launch, with a number of customers complaining of scratches and other issues with their devices even right out of the box. Foxconn executives acknowledged that the iPhone 5 was a difficult device to assemble, with increased quality control standards contributing to production output below the company's goals.

As a result, it took Apple two and a half months to achieve supply-demand balance for the device, although the company was also pursuing its most aggressive worldwide rollout yet.

Case company Tactus, which last week shared a photo of what was claimed to be the polycarbonate rear shell of Apple's rumored lower-cost iPhone, has now posted a new photo allegedly showing the inside of the fifth-generation iPad's rear shell.

The photo is of fairly low resolution, but is consistent with the first photos of the shell that leaked in late January. At a minimum, the photo indicates that these parts are continuing to surface from the supply chain some three months after their initial appearance, although there has yet to be any firm indication on when Apple is planning to launch the new full-size iPad that appears set to carry a slimmer design based on the iPad mini. The photo also shows for the first time the entirety of the rear shell's interior.

Most reports have indicated that the fifth-generation iPad will be launching around the September timeframe, although there have been sporadic reports that Apple could update its iPads any time now if the next-generation devices are ready.

On a separate note, Japanese parts shop Moumantai has posted [Google translation] a pair of photos showing what is said to be the nano-SIM tray from the iPhone 5S. with the trays reportedly identical in shape to those used on the iPhone 5. The report identifies the iPhone 5S trays as showing up in gray and bronze/gold colors, although it is possible that the photos may show somewhat inaccurate colors given expectations of slate and silver as seen on the iPhone 5.

It is, however, difficult to place too much stock in these SIM tray photos, given that they are identical to the current design and that third-party versions in various colors are prevalent.

Alleged parts for the iPhone 5S have begun surfacing in recent weeks, although there has been some uncertainty about which parts might be for the iPhone 5S and which ones might be destined for Apple's rumored lower-cost iPhone.

RadioShack has begun offering Mac accessories both online and at its retail stores. The electronics retailer has an existing partnership with Apple, having sold the iPhone, the iPad, and their accompanying accessories since 2010 and the iPod since 2005.

Mac products available on the RadioShack website include the Apple Wireless Keyboard, the Magic Mouse, and the Magic Trackpad. Items can be ordered online or purchased in a local store.

At this point in time, it appears that RadioShack is limited to selling accessories, but an accessory deal could lead to the full line of Mac products at RadioShack stores in the future.

RadioShack currently offers computers from manufacturers like Hewlett-Packard, ASUS, and Toshiba. With more than 7,000 stores worldwide, the electronics retailer could represent a significant expansion of Apple's Mac distribution chain.

Apple recently struck a similar deal with Staples, allowing the office supply retailer to offer Apple products in the United States.

Thanks, Stephen!

AMD has hired away another executive from Apple, CNET is reporting.

Raja Koduri, Apple's former director of graphics architecture, has been rehired by AMD as Corporate Vice President of Visual Computing after four years with Apple.

Koduri joined Apple from AMD in April 2009 as part of the electronics giant's push to build up its own chip operations. Instead of relying on partners like Intel to design processors for smartphones and tablets, Apple started creating its own chips for mobile devices.

Anecdotal reports have suggested that Apple employees have been sending out resumes more recently than they have in the past, though CNET says Koduri left Apple last month and didn't immediately join AMD. The company was reported to have been attempting to hire Koduri back for some time.

The skills of Koduri and Jim Keller -- Apple's former head of platform architecture who joined AMD last year -- would seem to compliment each other as AMD attempts to gain market share after a poor showing in recent years. AnandTech says AMD is putting GPU hardware and software under Koduri's leadership.

A new ChangeWave survey shows that consumers have a similar level of interest in buying a rumored Apple iWatch, as were interested in buying an Apple tablet just before the iPad was announced.

19% of respondents indicated they are 'very' or 'somewhat' likely to buy an iWatch, with current Apple product owners significantly more likely than others to want an iWatch.

The survey results show very strong consumer interest – with 5% of respondents saying they areVery Likely and 14% Somewhat Likely to buy an "iWatch" for themselves or someone else.

How does this level of interest compare to earlier Apple products before they were formally announced?

While there are no exact comparisons, here are the Apple "iWatch" results in relation to the ChangeWave pre-release findings for two earlier very successful Apple launches – a January 2010 survey on the original Apple Tablet and an August 2005 survey on the Apple Intel Mac.

Rumors about the iWatch have suggested the device will run a "full" version of iOS, rather than the simpler operating system seen on the iPod nano. Additionally, The New York Times claimed the watch would have a curved glass screen.

Apple CEO Tim Cook said last year that wearable devices were "an interesting area", though "the book hasn't been written on that yet."

Yesterday, Wired reported that the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) was raising questions about Apple's privacy policies regarding Siri, citing vague statements indicating that older "disassociated" voice clips would be kept for a "period of time" even if a user deactivated Siri on his or her device.

“It’s not clear what ‘disassociated’ means. It’s not clear what ‘period of time’ means. It’s not clear what using it to ‘generally improve Siri and other Apple products and services’ means,” says Nicole Ozer, a lawyer with the ACLU. “The only thing that’s clear is we really don’t know what may be happening to the personal information we have told Siri, even after we turn Siri off.”

The report noted that privacy concerns have led to instances where companies such as IBM have banned the use of Siri.

In a follow-up report today, Wired shares official word from Apple that such data is stored in anonymized form for two years and reveals general details on how that data is anonymized.

Here’s what happens. Whenever you speak into Apple’s voice activated personal digital assistant, it ships it off to Apple’s data farm for analysis. Apple generates a random numbers to represent the user and it associates the voice files with that number. This number — not your Apple user ID or email address — represents you as far as Siri’s back-end voice analysis system is concerned.

Once the voice recording is six months old, Apple “disassociates” your user number from the clip, deleting the number from the voice file. But it keeps these disassociated files for up to 18 more months for testing and product improvement purposes.

Ozer suggests that Apple should go further in publicizing these privacy policies, linking them directly from Apple's Siri FAQ page, and that users should always be mindful of what they are saying to Siri because "Siri works for Apple".

Susan Kare, who created many of the original interface elements for the Apple Macintosh in the mid–1980s, today reflected on her work at Apple in an interview with Path (via AppleInsider). Kare first joined Apple with the title "Macintosh Artist" through software programmer Andy Hertzfeld, who she knew from high school.

When asked about her design influences and her time at Apple, she had this to say:

I was so lucky to get to work in the Macintosh group with great colleagues and talented programmers. That experience introduced me to interface design development and how I might be able to contribute as a graphic designer to the overall user experience. It also gave me practice in aiming to communicate big concepts in small spaces.

At Apple, Kare was responsible for most of the typefaces and the icons of the original Macintosh, along with much of the marketing material. She is best known for the Chicago sans-serif typeface and the "Happy Mac" icon that welcomed early Mac users on startup.

Kare now works as an independent artist and created a set of "stickers" for social networking app Path.

Before Amazon's acquisition of Goodreads earlier this year, Apple had been talking to the company about a partnership between Goodreads and Apple's iBookstore.

However, once Amazon got into acquisition talks with Goodreads, those talks with Apple broke off, The Wall Street Journal is reporting.

Goodreads had proposed its reviews and ratings appear within iTunes when users searched for a title, one of the people said. iTunes has already integrated Rotten Tomatoes movie ratings in such a way. Apple was entertaining the idea, but talks didn’t progress much, two of the people said.

Around March, Apple pinged Goodreads to move forward with the talks, these people said. ITunes officials were perplexed when Goodreads executives went quiet, two of the people said.

Goodreads is a popular book-recommendation site that would seem to fit well into Amazon's sales recommendation system. Amazon has indicated that it will keep the company as a separate entity, but will integrate its recommendations into its system going forward.

The Verge reports on a new jailbreak hack for the iPhone that puts Facebook's new 'Chat Heads' feature above all other content on the device, similar to how Facebook Home works on Android.

On Android, Facebook's Chat Heads float above all other content so users can quickly jump in and out of conversations while they continue to use their phone for other tasks. On the iPhone, Chat Heads are normally only active when users are actually using the Facebook app.

The trick, according to [developer Adam Bell], was isolating the Facebook app from the Chat Heads living inside it. Chat Heads inhabit a separate layer inside the Facebook app, so it was just a matter of finding that layer and making the rest of the app transparent. "The hardest part was getting this all to render on top of everything else," Bell says, which means Facebook is always running on your phone. Apparently, Bell's tweak doesn't take much of a toll on battery life. "It doesn't seem very resource intensive," he says. "Only when you move the Chat Head is it actually doing anything."

The hack will be released on jailbreak app store Cydia and Github in the next few days.

Facebook executives were asked at a recent conference if they had spoken with Apple about bringing the full Chat Heads experience to the iPhone, but they demurred.