MacRumors

Apple today published its 2014 Supplier Responsibility Report, releasing the results of its supplier audit program for 2013 and confirming that its partners only use ethically sourced tantalum, which is a primary metal used in electronic components that can be also be mined from war-torn regions in Africa.

In January 2014, we confirmed that all active, identified tantalum smelters in Apple’s supply chain were validated as conflict-free by third-party auditors, and we will continue to require all suppliers to use only verified tantalum sources. We know supply chains fluctuate, and we’ll maintain ongoing monitoring of our suppliers’ smelters.

Apple's senior vice president of operations Jeff Williams, also spoke to The Wall Street Journal on the matter:

In the company's 2014 Supplier Responsibility report published on Wednesday, Apple identified that its suppliers use 20 global smelters or refiners whose tantalum has been verified by third-party auditors as what the industry calls "conflict-free." Jeff Williams, Apple's senior vice president of operations, said the company has had success in pressuring tantalum smelters to agree to a third-party audit because Apple and other consumer electronics firms are the biggest users of the metal.

The gathering of tantalum, along with other minerals such as gold and tungsten, has become a controversial subject in the tech industry due to their sourcing at mines blamed for funding conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Apple added in its report that it will continue to support conflict-free supply lines and economic development in the region instead of abandoning the questionable minerals.

Apple's report also noted a number of other achievements for 2013, including driving suppliers to achieve a 95% compliance rate with the company's standard maximum 60-hour workweek, requiring suppliers to reimburse $3.9 million in excess foreign contract worker fees, and tracking the weekly work hours for over 1 million supply chain workers.

In its Supplier Responsibility Report for 2012 published last year, Apple revealed that it had dropped one of its suppliers in China after finding evidence of 74 underage workers at one facility.

Apple's plans for its revamped Apple TV have been scaled back compared to what the company had previously intended, reports The Wall Street Journal. According to the publication, Apple was originally approaching media companies directly to obtain content rights for an ambitious a-la-carte-Internet-enabled TV set-top box, but has since gone in a different direction.

In the current discussions, which involve at least two big media companies, Apple envisages working with cable companies, rather than competing against them, the people said. For programming, it would rely on cable providers to acquire programming rights from media companies, rather than acquire them on its own, the people said. Apple might consider seeking some rights directly in the future, one of the people said.

Apple had been trying to negotiate with companies like CBS and Disney to offer the networks' content directly to Apple customers over the Internet, cutting out cable and satellite providers like Comcast, Time Warner and DirecTV. However, the media companies consistently pulled out of negotiations, fearing that any potential deal with Apple could damage their revenue streams.

Apple's ambitious plans went even further, as the company hoped to erase the distinction between live and on-demand TV, allowing users to watch any show at any time via iCloud as well as being able to skip commercials. In addition, Apple explored the possibility of paying media companies more for ad-free TV.

Having abandoned those lofty ideas in the face of failed negotiations, Apple is now asking content providers for the last five episodes of any given show rather than an entire season. This structure is similarly used by Hulu and is considered a standard amongst TV show streaming services.

Apple's latest approach is far less ambitious. Instead of asking for full current seasons of shows, it is asking programmers for just the most recent five episodes of current-season shows—the standard for video-on-demand services in the TV industry, a person familiar with the matter said. Apple is also proposing to disable fast-forwarding on shows for three days after they air, which would protect TV channels.

The Wall Street Journal also suggests that it is unclear whether Apple will sell its own box or allow cable distributors to lease boxes to customers when the company is able to establish a deal for a television service.

Apple has long been in negotiations with Time Warner Cable for some sort of television-related product, with a recent report suggesting talks are ongoing. Apple may run into some trouble reaching a deal with TWC, however, as Comcast has reportedly inked a deal to purchase the company.

Apple may be planning to unveil a redesigned Apple TV box in April, which is rumored to include both app and game support, but it is unclear whether that product will also offer new television-related content.

A set of images depicting what could be a prototype of the next-generation iPhone were first shared with MacRumors by an anonymous Twitter user earlier today. Australian writer Sonny Dickson, who also shared some of the same images, told MacRumors that they were initially shared by someone in China who claimed the images show the "iPhone 6".

It is entirely unclear whether the device in the images is a legitimate iPhone 6 prototype or whether it is a fake. Early prototypes of the iPhone 5s and the iPhone 5c exhibited a blank rear shell while the iPhone 6 shell in the picture clearly shows FCC text that is generally added to the phone at a later date. There are also no plastic or glass cutouts for an antenna, something the current-generation iPod Touch -- which sports a similar aluminum-bodied design -- has next to its rear-facing camera.

We asked designer Federico Ciccarese to conduct some measurements based on the photos and he believes the iPhone in the images is 4.7 inches diagonally and 2.3 inches wide, the same width as the existing iPhone 5s.

iPhone 5s overlayed. iPhone 5s dimensions (mm) in red. iPhone 6 dimensions in blue.
iPhone 6 Dimensions: 2.3" x 5.1" with 4.7" Diagonal Screen

A report from earlier today indicated the iPhone 6 may be thinner and lighter than the existing iPhone 5s, thanks to advancements in LED backlighting technology. The device in the images is indeed thinner, taking on a curved-edge design much like the existing iPod touch, the iPad mini, and the iPad Air.

The iPhone 6 may also include a sapphire glass display, which is both thin and durable. It is also believed that the iPhone 6 will be equipped with the Touch ID fingerprint authentication system first introduced with the iPhone 5s.

Even if these images are fake, they give a good idea of what a larger screened iPhone 6 could look like. More images below.

Update: A few readers have pointed out why they believe these images to be fake: repeating textures, wrong font, copied texture.

➜ Click here to read rest of article...

Apple is working on a platform that combines OS X and iOS to boost iPhone and iPad sales, according to J.P. Morgan analyst Mark Moskowitz (via CNET). He believes that a combo operating system, which he has termed "iAnywhere," would work in tandem with an iOS device docked to a secondary display, running as a full-blown computer.

"While not a new idea, our global tech research team believes Apple could be on the cusp of introducing a new category with iAnywhere, a converged MacOS-iOS operating system that allows an iPhone or iPad to dock into a specially configured display to run as a computer," Moskowitz said. "In our view, this category would be a leapfrog event, potentially jumpstarting iPhone and iPad growth as well as peripherals and cloud-based software and services sales."

Other PC and smartphone manufacturers have experimented with dual operating systems and other hybrid solutions. Samsung, for example, introduced the ATIV Q, an Ultrabook capable of running and switching between both Windows 8 and Android 4.2.2. Motorola experimented with a docking solution for its Atrix 4G phone, but no manufacturer has thus far combined a dock with a converged mobile/desktop operating system.

"To say [OS X and iOS] should be the same, independent of their purpose? Let's just converge, for the sake of convergence? [It's] absolutely a non-goal," Federighi said. "You don’t want to say the Mac became less good at being a Mac because someone tried to turn it into iOS. At the same time, you don't want to feel like iOS was designed by [one] company and Mac was designed by [a different] company, and they're different for reasons of lack of common vision. We have a common sense of aesthetics, a common set of principles that drive us, and we're building the best products we can for their unique purposes.

While Schiller and Federighi noted iOS and OS X would share a common sense of aesthetics and design principles to make it easier for customers to switch between iOS devices and Macs, the two operating systems would remain distinctly "different in those things that are critical to their essence." Given the executives' strong stance on convergence, it seems unlikely the company has plans to debut the iAnywhere system Moskowitz has outlined.

Apple is planning to introduce a new Apple TV set-top box in April according to Bloomberg, but the report says Apple would not begin selling the box for months. Apple is also in talks with content providers including Time Warner Cable to provide TV shows and other media. The new box is said to include an upgraded processor and a revamped interface. The current Apple TV UI is getting a bit unwieldy as the company has continued to add new content channels over the past year.

Time Warner has been in talks with Apple for well over a year and the company has said it would be willing to give control of the customer-facing user interface over to Apple. Bloomberg reported last July that Apple and Time Warner were close to a deal.

Apple is aiming to have the device available for sale by the Christmas holidays, though the release date could change because the company is still in the process of securing new agreements with programming and distribution partners, said two people, who asked not to be identified because the plans are private.

Earlier this week, a reference to new Apple TV hardware was discovered in a recent release of iOS 7 and rumors have suggested that a new Apple TV could see added support for apps and Bluetooth game controllers in the next few months. At the end of January, the Apple TV received new prominence on the Apple Online Store, suggesting the platform could be developing into more than just a "hobby".

The long delay between the introduction of the new Apple TV box and its public launch would be unusual for Apple, which prefers to announce and release products in a short time period. Apple has only had long lead times between announcement and release for major new product releases -- the iPhone debuted six months before it's public launch owing to the unique FCC permitting process for new cell phones, and the iPad was presented more than two months before it first went on sale. The new Mac Pro was previewed six months before its final release as well.

It's possible that Apple will introduce a new App Store platform for the Apple TV, with the delay giving developers time to build new apps for the device.

As Apple continues its quest to make its iOS devices thinner and lighter, the company will take advantage of advancements in LED backlighting technology to shift to thinner components for the iPhone 6 and upcoming iPad models, according to a report from LEDinside, a division of research firm TrendForce.

The report notes that a thinner design will see Apple shifting from 0.6 mm thick side-view LED backlights to 0.4 mm thick modules, but also questionably claims that the iPhone 6 will arrive in June. The iPhone 6 is generally expected to arrive in the same September-October timeframe seen in recent years.

According to sources from Apple supply chain, the iPhone 6 is likely to be released in June 2014, and will have larger monitor size of 4.7”. Industry insiders also projected the iPhone 6 will have a much lighter frame, which will lead to upgrades in LED backlight specs. In the previous generation, the iPhone used 0.6t side-view type LED, in contrast the new iPhone will probably be adopting 0.4t side-view type LED.

Apple has been rumored to be increasing display size for the iPhone 6, and while LEDinside's report only mentions a 4.7-inch model, a number of other claims have included an even larger model at 5.5-5.7 inches. Larger displays will undoubtedly lead to larger device bodies, but that extra height and width could give Apple more room to spread out components and reduce device thickness from the current 7.6 mm of the iPhone 5s, and thinner backlights could aid that goal in an industry where fractions of a millimeter count.

LEDinside claims that similar changes are coming for the iPad, particularly with a rumored 12-inch model. According to the report, new iPads will see their backlights shift to 0.6 mm thick modules from the current 0.8 mm components.

Apple will reportedly release two versions of its next-generation iPhone featuring 4.7 and 5.5-inch sapphire screens in September, reports the South China Morning Post. Citing industry insiders who have "seen the prototypes," the publication also states that both phones will feature a pixel density of 441 pixels per inch (PPI) compared to the 326 PPI currently found on the displays of the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c.

Furthermore, the Hong Kong-based newspaper adds that the new devices will feature a flat screen instead of a curved screen as suggested by prior reports, and that Apple will be discontinuing the iPhone 5c in favor of an iPhone 5s made of lower-cost materials.

Apple has been experimenting with a range of screen sizes for the next-generation iPhone since early 2013, with size rumors varying from 4.7 to 5.7 inches. The Korea Herald reported yesterday that the iPhone 6 would adopt a "bezel-free" display.

It was also reported last week that GT Advanced, the company that has partnered with Apple to open a plant in Mesa, Arizona, was gearing up to mass produce sapphire displays meant for the iPhone 6. While another report yesterday said that Apple's initial sapphire production would target the iWatch instead of the next-generation iPhone, the volume of raw material and equipment the company is purchasing would suggest plans to manufacture approximately 200 million 5-inch sapphire displays to meet iPhone demand.

Several concept images for the rumored "Healthbook" app that may be included with iOS 8 were today published on the MacRumors forums by member CarlosGQ. According to 9to5Mac, the site that shared the original Healthbook rumors, the app mockup "vaguely" resembles the actual app that Apple is working on and thus hints at what such an app might look like.

According to sources, the mockups are "vaguely" the right idea. Of course, Apple is likely testing multiple different user-interfaces for this software, and since we are several months out from an official introduction, things can and likely will change (even drastically)…

Healthbook, which is a health-related app reportedly in iOS 8, is said to pull in health-related data from several sources, including Apple's much-rumored sensor-laden iWatch and the iPhone itself. Healthbook may be able to manage and track weight loss and monitor and store fitness statistics like steps taken, calories burned, and miles walked.

Rumors suggest it can also monitor vital signs like blood pressure, hydration levels, and glucose levels, aggregating information to provide an overall picture of health. As pictured, the app is said to have a card-style design much like Passbook.

Along with commenting on the Healthbook mockups, 9to5Mac has reiterated some information on both the Healthbook app and the iWatch to refute a report from MobiHealthNews earlier this week that tempered some of the expectations surrounding Apple's iWatch.

While MobiHealthNews cast doubt on the iWatch's ability to sense glucose and hydration levels, 9to5Mac argues the device may indeed have those abilities as the Healthbook app is able to read glucose-related data and track hydration. It will not, however, track stress or women's health/pregnancy as previously reported.

Though many aspects of the iWatch and the Healthbook app remain unknown, iWatch rumors do generally agree the device will include several important health-related sensors able to track elements like sleep and exercise. As 9to5Mac points out, Apple has some significant hurdles to overcome with both hardware design and regulatory bodies, so it continues to be unclear what the final device and its accompanying app might include.