TIME today unveiled its shortlist of people who are being considered for TIME's annual Person of the Year Award. Apple CEO Tim Cook is on the list, as well as Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer.
The Person of the Year award is given to "a person, couple, group, idea, place, or machine" that has "for better or for worse done the most to influence the events of the year." TIME's editorial team decides the winner.
The two tech CEOs join notable figures like Malala Yousafzai, the young Pakistani activist who suffered a head wound after being shot by the Taliban, United States President Barack Obama, Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi, Bill and Hillary Clinton, and the three scientists behind the discovery of the Higgs Boson.
The Protestor, a group choice inspired by Mohamed Bouazizi, a Tunisian fruit vendor who famously set himself on fire in a public square, received the award in 2011, while Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg won in 2010.
TIME's 2012 winner for Person of the Year will be announced tomorrow morning.
For last minute gift seekers still in need of an iPad, iPhone, iPod touch or a Mac, Apple is offering free next-day shipping for U.S. customers on nearly everything sold on the Apple Online Store, ensuring delivery in time for the holidays on select items.
It’s too late to get an iPad mini shipped in time for Christmas, but according to Apple's chart, the fourth generation iPad, the iPad 2, iPods, all iPhones, all non-customized Macs except for the iMac, and the Apple TV will arrive on time if purchased by midnight on 12/21 using Apple's free next day shipping.
Macs with customized options are no longer available for delivery by 12/25, but most accessories in the Apple Store will deliver before the big day. There's also the option to pick up in stock items at a local Apple Retail Store.
Previously, the last date to order with standard shipping was 12/18, though iPad minis and customized Macs had to be ordered as early as 12/5 for delivery by December 25.
When Skitch was purchased by Evernote, the 2.0 update that came after the acquisition was not well received. Key features like minimizing the app to the menu bar, choosing a file format for screenshots, and the corner resizing of images were removed in the name of simplicity.
With the new version (2.0.3) of the image editing and sharing app, Skitch users will see the return of features like custom styles and colors, the option to auto copy URLs for uploaded images, a redesigned sharing interface, and more tool sizes. In addition to restoring classic features, Evernote has also updated Skitch with more sharing options, improved performance, and timed screenshot captures.
The Skitch update can be downloaded directly from the Evernote website, and should be live in the Mac App Store as soon as Apple approves the new version. Skitch is a free download. [Direct Link]
Clear, which was designed by Impending and Realmac Software, took the app world by storm when it was released, thanks to an innovative gesture-based interface and simple list making tools.
The team that made Clear is working on another app, one that looks just as promising. This time, though, productivity isn't the goal. Instead, the two companies have dreamed up a new virtual pet simulation game called Hatch.
Tamagotchis, those digital handheld pets that were popular in the '90's, have slowly made their way into the App Store. For example, virtual iPhone pet Hatchi has been available in the App Store since early 2012, but based on both video and screenshots, Hatch is an entirely new experience that aims to turn the iPhone itself into a companion creature.
A teaser video reveals that each user will get a pet "Fugu." The pet appears to interact with users in a variety of ways on the iPhone, including those outside the app itself, like through music playing.
As the video says, "You love your iPhone and starting early next year, it's going to love you back."
Hatch will launch in 2013, but visiting the Hatchpet website at this time presents a special opportunity to choose a Fugu in a special color when signing up for the site via email.
The first model will be called "Neo One," IGB said in a securities filing. The company was formed this year after the restructuring of Gradiente Eletronica SA, which had applied for exclusive rights in Brazil to register its products under the name IPHONE in 2000.
Apple will either file a lawsuit, or perhaps more likely, begin negotiations for a settlement deal.
Apple was involved in a similar trademark issue in China, with Proview owning the "iPad" trademark. Apple ended up paying that company $60 million to gain control of the 'iPad' trademark.
Brazil is an important country for Apple. The company has begun hiring for new Apple Stores in the country, which would be its first locations in South America and Apple and Foxconn have begun iPad and iPhone production there.
Finally, Apple CEO Tim Cook has said in the past that Brazil is the company's next big target after China.
Apple has released an iOS update for the iPhone 5 and iPad mini, bringing the iOS version for those devices up to 6.0.2. The release notes for the iPhone note only that an unnamed Wi-Fi bug has been fixed.
There have been a number of complaints related to malfunctioning Wi-Fi connections on the iPhone 5, so this could be a welcome update for many users.
iOS 6.0.2 Software Update
This update contains improvements and bug fixes, including:
Update: Many users are reporting difficulties downloading iOS 6.0.2, with attempts at over-the-air updates simply yielding errors. Users updating through iTunes appear to be having more success, although even then it may take several attempts.
Apple has updated its supplier responsibility pages to note that it is now tracking working hours for one million employees in its supply chain, up from 900,000 at its previous update.
Compliance with Apple's 60-hour work week standard stood at 88% in November, below the peak of 97% reached in July and August. Apple notes, however, that it allows the normal 60-hour standard to be exceeded during period of high demand if workers volunteer for the additional time. That policy seems to have had an impact on overall compliance over the past three months, coinciding with Apple's major product ramps for the iPhone 5, iPad mini, fourth-generation iPad, updated iPods, and a number of new Mac models.
Going deep into our supply chain, we now follow weekly supplier data for over 1,000,000 workers. In November 88 percent of workweeks were less than the 60-hour maximum specified in Apple’s code of conduct. In limited peak periods, we allow work beyond the 60 hour limit for those employees that volunteer to do so.
Apple reports that with one million supply chain workers now being tracked through the system, the company has doubled its coverage since early this year when it began a new initiative to more openly address worker rights and safety throughout its supply chain. Apple has also partnered with the Fair Labor Association to provide third-party monitoring of conditions.
In yet another development in the worldwide patent battle between Apple and Samsung, The Verge reports that Samsung has dropped its requests for injunctions barring the sale of a number of Apple products in Europe. Samsung has accused Apple of infringing several standards-essential patents related to cellular technology and has been pursuing both sales bans and monetary damages. Samsung's statement reads:
Samsung remains committed to licensing our technologies on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms, and we strongly believe it is better when companies compete fairly in the marketplace, rather than in court. In this spirit, Samsung has decided to withdraw our injunction requests against Apple on the basis of our standard essential patents pending in European courts, in the interest of protecting consumer choice.
While Samsung is portraying its move as an altruistic one focused on "protecting consumer choice", the company has been under scrutiny from the European Commission over potential antitrust issues related to licensing the standards-essential patents it owns.
Standards-essential patents are required to be licensed under FRAND (fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory) terms in order to promote competition. The requirement is aimed at preventing a single company from controlling an entire industry by refusing to license patents critical to building a competing product. Apple's lawyers have argued, however, that Samsung's offers for licensing its 3G-related patents have not been reasonable.
Apple has been pushing for greater clarification of how patents subject to FRAND terms should be licensed, and has been one of a number of parties to argue that standards-essential patents should not be used as the basis for requests for sales injunctions as the patents are intended to be licensed.
In a pair of court filings tonight, Judge Lucy Koh published a pair of decisions in Samsung v. Apple. The first filing (via The Verge) denied Samsung's motion for a new trial regarding alleged juror misconduct by jury foreman Velvin Hogan.
Samsung accused Hogan of withholding the fact that he had been involved in a lawsuit with Seagate, a partner of Samsung's. Judge Koh didn't agree, saying in her filing that Samsung's attorneys should have dug up the information.
Prior to the verdict, Samsung could have discovered Mr. Hogan's litigation with Seagate, had Samsung acted with reasonable diligence based on information Samsung acquired through voir dire, namely that Mr. Hogan stated during voir dire that he had worked for Seagate.
Judge Koh denied a second motion (via AppleInsider), this one filed by Apple, requesting a U.S. ban on certain Samsung products. The motion was denied because Apple was not harmed by Samsung infringing on the patents.
In sum, to the limited extent that Apple has been able to show that any of its harms were caused by Samsung’s illegal conduct (in this case, only trade dress dilution), Apple has not established that the equities support an injunction. Accordingly, Apple’s motion for a permanent injunction is DENIED.
The decisions amount to more jousting in the ongoing legal drama between Samsung and Apple.
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Apple is in early discussions with popular location-based app Foursquare for a data-sharing deal. Apple SVP Eddy Cue is reportedly involved with the negotiations as he tries to improve a Maps app that has failed to live up to Apple's expectations.
Apple Inc. is in early discussions to integrate local data from Foursquare Labs Inc. into its mapping application, according to people familiar with the talks, as the company continues to build an arsenal of local data to try to take on Google Inc.
Foursquare's data includes local businesses like restaurants, bars and more and even allows users to leave tips about businesses for future visitors. The Wall Street Journal notes that Apple may be able to use that data in its Maps app as well.
This news comes days after Google announced its Maps app for iOS, which was downloaded more than 10 million times in the first 48 hours. These are just preliminary talks however, if the report is to be believed. There's no guarantee what kind of data Foursquare will share with Apple, if the deal is ever finalized.
Apple has released an update for late 2012 iMac models that fixes issues related to sleep and Thunderbolt, as well as compatibility when using 5GHz Wi-Fi frequencies. The update is recommended for all "late 2012" iMacs.
iMac EFI Update 2.0 can be downloaded from Apple's support site or through the Mac App Store on affected iMacs.
About iMac EFI Update 2.0
This update is recommended for all iMac (late 2012) models. This update contains general performance fixes pertaining to sleep and Thunderbolt, and improves compatibility when using the 5GHz band in Wi-Fi.
Boot ROM or SMC Version Information: After Update is complete:
Build version: 010A.05 ROM version: IM131.88Z.010A.B05.1211151146
It's not clear if this is in addition to the Wi-Fi Update released earlier today, or if it includes that fix as well as a few more iMac-specific ones.
According to a Google+ blog post from Jeff Huber, Google Maps for iOS turned out to be a success, with more than 10 million downloads just 48 hours after the app was released last Wednesday night.
We're excited for the positive reception of Google Maps for iPhone around the world. Congratulations to the Maps Team on the recognition for the passion and hard work they poured into it, for this release and over the last 7+ years.
If you already have it – thank you, and please tell a friend. Any feedback you have is welcomed, here in G+ or in the app (just shake it).
Google Maps shot up to the number one free app on the App Store within a day of its launch, and today it maintains a 4.5 star rating with more than 20,000 reviews.
Though 10 million is a significant number, it still represents just a fraction of iOS users. Only three days after iOS 6 was released on September 21, Apple announced that it had been downloaded onto more than 100 million devices.
The number of iOS 6 downloads has likely increased quite a bit over the last three months, indicating that the majority of iOS users have chosen to stick with Apple's Maps application rather than switching to Google Maps, despite the rampant complaints about the quality of the built-in app.
As discovered by The Next Web, the Center for Digital Democracy today asked the FTC to investigate a children's game made by Nickelodeon and PlayFirst for deceptive marketing.
According to the advocacy group, SpongeBob Diner Dash violates the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act. The game, which is aimed at kids, is an iPhone and iPad app that can be found in the "Kids Games" section of the App Store, and though it claims to comply with COPPA, the CDD says that it does not.
The objective of the game is for children to help SpongeBob "seat, serve, and satisfy all kinds of fishy customers in five colorful Bikini Bottom restaurants," run by the greedy, selfish Mr. Krabs from the show. SpongeBob Diner Dash is a "freemium" game, which can be initially downloaded for free, but is designed to encourage users to buy virtual "coins" that can be spent on items such as shoes that make SpongeBob walk faster, or a frying pan that makes the food cook faster. Children are also prompted to spend more money to buy upgraded versions of the game.
The SpongeBob Diner Dash game asks children to provide a wide range of personal information, including full name, email address, and other online contact information, without providing notice to parents or obtaining prior parental consent, as required by the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act. Nor does the app provide an adequate description of the personal information it collects or how it is used.
The filing, which asks that the Federal Trade Commission investigate how the offending app collects data, comes just a week after the FTC released a report on the privacy practices of apps aimed at children. Following the report, the FTC began a non-public investigation to discover if app developers that produce games for children are violating Federal law.
YouTube has launched a new app called Capture to make it easier for users to shoot and share video. The app is one of many competing for the unofficial title of 'Instagram-for-videos'.
The app is set up for quick and easy recording, basic editing with color correction, stabilization, trimming, and music tracks, as well as the ability to share videos on YouTube, Google+, Facebook and Twitter.
Once opening Capture, users can shoot new video or use existing footage from their camera roll; from there they can apply some automatic color correction filters, trim the video, and even apply a soundtrack. The app automatically starts uploading video as soon as you're done shooting, and it also helpfully includes a landscape lock reminder to help cut down the blight of vertically-shot videos that are being taken these days.
YouTube Capture is a free download from the App Store. [Direct Link]
Apple has released an update for recently released Mac systems that improves compatibility when using 5GHz Wi-Fi frequencies. The update is recommended for all "late 2012" Macs.
Mac Wi-Fi Update 1.0 can be downloaded from Apple's support site or through the Mac App Store on affected Macs.
About Mac Wi-Fi Update 1.0
This update is recommended for all late 2012 Mac systems. This update improves compatibility when using the 5GHz band in Wi-Fi.
Boot ROM or SMC Version Information: To confirm the update has been applied, the CFBundleVersion string of the AirPortBrcm4311.kext will need to be checked.
New driver delivered in update: AirPortBrcm4331.kext CFBundleVersion = 612.20.15
Apple today released the fourth beta of iOS 6.1 to developers. The release has a build number of 10B5126b, versus 10B5117b for the third beta of iOS 6.1 that was released on December 3rd.
Apple also released beta 3 of the Apple TV software, as well as Xcode 4.6 Developer Preview 4. Registered developers can download the betas via Apple's Developer page or via Software Update on iOS devices with a previous iOS 6.1 Beta already installed.
Alfred is a beloved launcher program for Mac OS X that allows users to quickly launch Google searches, launch applications, make quick calculations and more. Now, the developers behind Alfred have revealed in a blog post one of the new features for version 2.0.
The feature is called Workflows and allows users to create advanced functions to make Alfred even more useful. Some examples are the ability to research a film before watching or uploading photos to Flickr.
Movies weren’t created equal, so before I start watching a movie, I can search for “movie dark knight rises” to decide whether or not I should watch it. This will launch a YouTube search for the trailer in Chrome (because I don’t have Flash installed in Safari), an IMDB search using a default web search, and a Rotten Tomatoes custom search I’ve created.
Alfred 2.0 goes into beta in January and prospective beta testers can take part by upgrading to a "Mega Supporter" account.
In a guest post on AllThingsD, Brightcove founder and CEO Jeremy Allaire offers a thorough look at his ideals for a television initiative from Apple. While Allaire has no direct knowledge of Apple's plans, his perspective gained by leading one of the major online video platforms for mainstream media offers an interesting basis for discussion on what Apple may wish to do.
Allaire describes three "key values" that he expects Apple will bring to consumers with its television initiative: an integrated system for delivering all types of television content including broadcast, video-on-demand, Netflix, and Youtube; the "ultimate game console" leveraging the existing iOS ecosystem; and innovative app experiences enhancing existing App Store apps with dual screens. He argues that Apple will need to offer both integrated television sets and a set-top box in order to make the necessary impact in the market.
To do this, Apple needs a two-pronged strategy:
1. A new companion device for TV that starts at $149, attaches to nearly any existing TV, and does not require customers to buy an expensive new monitor. This is crucial for quickly establishing and maintaining platform dominance quickly and even stand-alone could be a $5-10 billion opportunity.
2. A new family of ultra-thin TV monitors that bundles all of the capabilities of the companion device and includes beefed up computing power. These large-screen monitors will be a direct assault on the global TV monitor industry, a market worth hundreds of billions annually, albeit with slightly slower replacement cycles of four years versus two years for smartphones and tablets. This gives Apple that additional $30 billion+ revenue stream it needs.
The set-top box Allaire envisions a relatively thin bar-like design to sit above or below an existing television, based on an A7 quad-core chip and offering several cameras and sensors, HDMI, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, substantial storage, and Lightning ports for power and a coaxial cable dongle.
As for the television set itself, Allaire's scenario includes 46-inch and 60-inch models with multiple HDMI ports, an optical audio port, Ethernet, and dual Lightning ports for connectivity. The sets would include onboard storage of either 1 TB and 3 TB, and of course incorporate a high-end display in a package carrying the usual Apple design aesthetic.
Allaire goes on to describe an Apple TV app for iOS that would serve as the hub for interacting with the system, delivering guide information, on-demand libraries, and iTunes Store access to an iPhone or iPad, as well as allowing the device to serve second-screen content while viewing on the television set. Apple would also deliver APIs for third-party input devices such as game controllers, as well as tools for helping delivers create both dedicated apps for the TV and expand their existing iOS apps to address new possibilities opened up by the larger-screen environment.
Allaire's vision is of course entirely speculative and seems to be more of a "wish list" rather than a serious proposal for how Apple will bring cable operators onboard and integrate a host of features into a set-top box starting at $149 or a television set starting at $1499, but some of the proposals offer interesting food for thought about directions Apple could be aiming for.
TIME today unveiled its shortlist of people who are being considered for TIME's annual Person of the Year Award. Apple CEO Tim Cook is on the list, as well as Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer.
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