MacRumors

Apple overtook Samsung as the market leader in mobile phones in the United States for the final quarter of 2012, reports Strategy Analytics, though Samsung still led for the year as a whole. The development marks the first time Apple has held the top spot in overall mobile phone shipments.

The technology analysts estimate that a total of 52 million mobile phones were shipped in the U.S. last quarter, with Apple accounting for 17.7 million of them, Samsung for 16.8 million and LG a distant third with 4.7 million. Samsung had held the top spot since 2008 before being dethroned by Apple.

Strategy Analytics Executive Director Neil Mawston said:

We estimate Apple shipped 17.7 million mobile phones for a record 34 percent share of the United States market in the fourth quarter of 2012. This was up sharply from 12.8 million units shipped and 25 percent share in Q4 2011. Apple has become the number one mobile phone vendor by volume in the United States for the first time ever. Apple’s success has been driven by its popular ecosystem of iPhones and App Store, generous carrier subsidies, and extensive marketing around the new iPhone 5 model.

The firm believes, however, that Samsung may retake the title when it launches its rumored Galaxy S4.

Meantime, The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit yesterday rejected Apple's renewed attempt to ban sales of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, as noted by AllThingsD. Apple was initially awarded an injunction which prohibited sales of the Nexus in the long-running patent battle between the two companies, but this was overturned in October. This now exhausts Apple's appeal options, making the latest decision final.

Apple is in talks with HBO to bring that company's HBO Go video streaming service to the Apple TV, reports Bloomberg. HBO Go is a streaming service that allows HBO subscribers to watch HBO content on PCs, tablets, consoles, and other platforms.

Bloomberg:

Apple Inc. is in negotiations to start carrying Time Warner Inc.'s HBO Go application on Apple TV by mid-2013, according to two people familiar with the plans.

Cable and satellite subscribers who pay for HBO will be able to watch more than 600 hours of films and television shows on Apple TV, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the talks are private.

Currently, Netflix and Hulu Plus are the only subscription service that Apple allows on its Apple TV box, while HBO Go is available on the iPhone and the iPad.

There have been numerous rumors in recent years about Apple's plans for the television, but CEO Tim Cook has been cagey about details other than repeatedly saying that television is "an area of intense interest" for the company

Amid rumors of a significantly larger "iPhone Math", Instapaper developer Marco Arment has spent time developing some speculation and a few mockups showing how Apple could achieve an iPhone with a nearly 5-inch without disrupting the existing app ecosystem.

The recently rumored, larger-screened “iPhone Math”, or more likely “iPhone Plus”, is plausible as an additional model (not a replacement) alongside the 4” iPhone. And there’s a good chance that it would have a 4.94”, 16:9 screen.

The theory is easy to understand: perform John Gruber’s Mini-predicting math backwards. The iPad Mini uses iPhone 3GS-density screens at iPad resolution. What if an iPhone Plus used Retina iPad screens with iPhone 5 resolution, keeping the rest of the design sized like an iPhone 5?

In the scenario put forth by Arment, an 1136x640 screen matching the iPhone 5's resolution but blown up to the Retina iPad's 264 pixels-per-inch resolution would measure 4.94 inches diagonally.

Arment notes that such an iPhone Plus maintaining the same relative proportions as the iPhone 5 but with the larger screen would measure somewhere between the Galaxy S III and the Galaxy Note II, but that Apple would likely be able to trim down the chin and forehead of the device somewhat to bring the device closer to the Galaxy S III's overall size.

At an iPad-like pixel density of 264 ppi, Apple could have a hard time positioning the iPhone Plus as a Retina device given that a phone is assumed to be held closer to the eye than a tablet, but some consumers may still prefer the option of having a larger screen to offer more flexibility such as being able to zoom out further on text or view small text with the device held further from the eye.

Arment offers several other mockups showing what Apple's iOS device lineup would look like with a larger iPhone in it, as well as how users could take advantage of smaller font sizes on the larger screen to show more text.

Ashton Kutcher and Josh Gad kicked off the Macworld/iWorld conference in San Francisco this morning, talking about their new feature film 'Jobs' that premiered at Sundance. Kutcher plays the iconic Jobs, while Gad takes on the role of Steve Wozniak.

The Next Web wrote up much of the conversation, including this part about how Steve Jobs affected Kutcher:

“Steve believed it was possible to do something impossible,” says Kutcher, alluding to the third thing that he took away from the film. He made reference to [a] famous quote that Jobs gave in an interview.

Kutcher says that this stuck with him. “When I heard that,” says Kutcher, “he was talking to me, and he was talking to you. He was saying ‘don’t settle’ for what life gives you, make life better.”

And this, addressing criticisms aimed at the movie, including from Steve Wozniak himself:

“There will always be debates about what we got right and what we got wrong,” says Gad, “but if I had a chance to sit down with him I’d explain that it was done with the utmost love, admiration and respect. And I hope when he sees it…in its entirety, that he can understand that.”

“We weren’t there,” says Kutcher. “Part of it is, in filmmaking, you have to make a narrative that plays. If you look at the events of these guys’ journey together, there were probably a lot of moments where there was nobody else there. You have to ride the arc of entertainment of the film and stay true to who the people were, how the people were and what the intent was.”

'Jobs' premieres nationwide on April 19th.

Canadian firm Maya-Systems today announced that it has sold a group of 18 user interface patents to Apple. The patents appear to be related to Maya-Systems' work with axis-based interfaces in which documents and other files can be automatically grouped into timelines based on tags or other attributes and made accessible via the cloud.

Maya-Systems' technology offers an intuitive way to display any virtual content in a superior manner. This transaction attests that Maya-Systems axis-based user interface is ahead of the growing demand for axis-based user interfaces.

"We dealt with a significant number of sophisticated buyers," noted Mathieu Audet, founder of Maya-Systems and patent agent. "We are pleased to have secured the transaction with Apple." "Our patents have been analyzed thoroughly by many potential buyers. We are confident that they are strong assets."

Maya-Systems' key product is I am Organized, a platform for organizing, viewing, and sharing files.

IamOrganized’s uniquely distinctive, patented feature is its axes-based interface. Intuitive and elegant, axes herald a new era in content management. They show and manage content more meaningfully than ever.

Unlike folder trees based on file location, axes group files by subject (any attribute, really) and display them along a timeline.
Scroll an axis to view more files. Zoom in. Zoom out. Navigate swiftly between projects by displaying several axes on your screen.

Attribute-based, orderly and relational, axes give users a meaningful and integrated view of their files.

It is not entirely clear exactly what aspect of Maya-Systems' patent portfolio Apple was interested in controlling, but Apple has been making a significant push into cloud-based document and file storage and sharing, including such features Documents in the Cloud and Photo Stream.

Apple today issued a notice to European distributors indicating that it will halt sales of the Mac Pro in Europe and select other countries as of March 1 due to new regulatory requirements going into effect on that date. The move will affect all European Union countries, as well as EU candidate countries and the four European Free Trade Association countries: Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland.

As of March 1, 2013, Apple will no longer sell Mac Pro in EU, EU candidate and EFTA countries because these systems are not compliant with Amendment 1 of regulation IEC 60950-1, Second Edition which becomes effective on this date. Apple resellers can continue to sell any remaining inventory of Mac Pro after March 1.

Apple will take final orders for Mac Pro from resellers up until February 18th for shipment before March 1, 2013.

Countries outside of the EU are not impacted and Mac Pro will continue to be available in those areas.

It is currently unclear exactly what aspect of the regulation the current Mac Pro will fail to meet.

Apple has uncharacteristically announced that a redesigned Mac Pro is due in 2013 after a lackluster update in June 2012 that included still-outdated processors and no other seemingly obvious improvements like USB 3.0 or Thunderbolt.

Update 10:17 AM: Macworld provides a bit more detail on where the current Mac Pro fails to meet the new regulation.

[U]nfortunately for EU customers, the Mac Pro does not comply with this standard, due to issues with power provided to its I/O ports and the placement of its fan guards. The Pro is the sole Apple product to fall under this ruling, likely due to its build - the desktop computer hasn’t had an overhaul since 2010, with a minor speed bump last June.

Update 10:21 AM: Apple has issued a statement to The Loop confirming the halt for Mac Pro sales, but not offering any additional detail on the situation.

"Due to evolving regulatory requirements, Apple will stop selling Mac Pro in EU, EU candidate and EFTA countries on March 1, 2013," an Apple representative told The Loop. "After that date, resellers can sell existing inventory but Apple will no longer ship Mac Pro in those countries."

Update 10:24 AM: Macworld UK has even more on the issue:

"The Mac Pro met the previous standards prior to the amendment 1 addition. Obviously it's a very safe and very reliable product," added the company.

At issue are the large fans within the Mac Pro. Since they are unprotected, it would be possible to touch the fan blades.

"The new requirements necessitate fan guards and some increased protection on the ports on the electrical system," explained Apple.

Apple representatives also confirmed to Macworld UK that the company will continue supporting existing Mac Pro machines after March 1, including replacement parts.

Research firm IDC today announced its preliminary estimates of worldwide tablet shipments for the fourth quarter of 2012, finding that Apple's share of the market slipped to 43.6% even as the iPad mini drove a nearly 50% growth in units for the company. Apple had held a 50.4% share in the previous quarter and a 51.7% share in the year-ago quarter.

"We expected a very strong fourth quarter, and the market didn't disappoint," said Tom Mainelli, research director, Tablets, at IDC. "New product launches from the category's top vendors, as well as new entrant Microsoft, led to a surge in consumer interest and very robust shipments totals during the holiday season. The record-breaking quarter stands in stark contrast to the PC market, which saw shipments decline during the quarter for the first time in more than five years."

Apple's iPad once again led the market, and the firm's shipment total of 22.9 million units was exactly in line with IDC's forecast for the period. A strong iPad mini launch, plus availability of the fourth generation full-sized iPad, led to solid 48.1% shipment growth over the same quarter last year. However, strong competition in the market led to Apple's market share declining for a second quarter in a row (down to 43.6% from 46.4% last quarter).

Samsung and Asus were the biggest winners in the surging tablet market, with Samsung seeing 263% year-over-year growth to seize 15% of the market. Samsung's share was, however, down from 18.4% in the third quarter.

IDC notes that Microsoft did not qualify for the top five vendors in the fourth quarter, but the company did ship 900,000 units of its Surface tablet with Windows RT. It remains to be seen, however, whether those shipments and the upcoming Surface Pro tablet will translate into strong sales for the company.

Earlier this month, Apple took the unusual step of remotely blocking Oracle's Java 7 browser plug-in due to a major security vulnerability, using the "Xprotect" anti-malware system built into OS X to enforce a minimum version number that had yet to be released. Within days, Oracle updated Java to address the issue, with the new version number making the Java plug-in usable on OS X systems once more.

As noted by French site MacGeneration [Google translation] and the Apple discussion forums, Apple has once again blocked the Java 7 plug-in using Xprotect.

The updated blacklist enforces a minimum Java plug-in version of 1.7.0_11-b22, while the latest version of the plug-in is 1.7.0_11-b21.

The exact reason for Apple's renewed block on the Java plug-in is unknown although reports immediately following the release of Update 11 earlier this month indicated that it fixed only one of the two bugs that contributed to the security vulnerability. In the wake of that news, cybersecurity officials recommended that most users disable Java even with the up-to-date plug-in installed.

Oracle Security Alert CVE-2013-0422 states that Java 7 Update 11 addresses this (CVE-2013-0422) and an equally severe, but distinct vulnerability (CVE-2012-3174). Immunity has indicated that only the reflection vulnerability has been fixed and that the JMX MBean vulnerability remains. Java 7u11 sets the default Java security settings to "High" so that users will be prompted before running unsigned or self-signed Java applets.

Unless it is absolutely necessary to run Java in web browsers, disable it as described below, even after updating to 7u11. This will help mitigate other Java vulnerabilities that may be discovered in the future.

If this continued issue is indeed the reason for the new block by Apple, it is unclear why the company waited several weeks to update its plug-in blacklist.

Apple today posted a new job listing for a Manufacturing Design Engineer with a focus on Advanced Plastic Tooling and Process. According to the job description, Apple is looking to expand and improve its current plastics division.

Identify, develop and launch new tooling and process capabilities in support of new Apple product developments. Areas of focus will be "non-traditional" Apple plastic processing such as thermoforming, foam molding, blow molding, etc., and their application to new Apple products. The successful candidate will have demonstrated history of bringing new process and tooling technologies through a full development cycle and launch into high volume production.

Though Apple has focused heavily on aluminum for the iPad, the iPhone, and the MacBook line for the past few years, the Cupertino-based company has continued to prominently use plastics in such products as the Apple TV, the AirPort Extreme, keyboards, and other accessories.

Recent rumors have suggested that Apple is working on a low cost iPhone that will be constructed primarily of plastic. The iPhone is said to be a hybrid of the iPhone 5 and the iPod touch, with a plastic enclosure.

A new hire specializing in plastics is unlikely to be involved in the design of the low cost iPhone, given that it is rumored to be released later this year, but the open position does support reports that Apple is focusing on novel uses of plastics for upcoming products.

An Apple spokesperson spoke to The Next Web about the new Apple TV model disclosed in FCC filings yesterday.

The company explained that the changes are strictly internal, and there won't be any new features or other changes. The Next Web is also reporting that the new Apple TV will use Apple's A5X processor from the third-generation iPad, and an upgraded Broadcom BCM4334 wireless chip, as was reported last night. The external size of the device will also remain the same.

“We sometimes make component changes which require an updated model number for regulatory approval,” an Apple spokesperson told TNW. “The component changes we made don’t affect product features and Apple TV customers will continue to have the same great user experience.”

The new Apple TV will not be marketed as a new version, and it appears the only way to distinguish the old from the new is via the model number.

Research in Motion today announced its next-generation smartphone, the Z10. RIM also announced a corporate rebranding, officially changing the name of the company to BlackBerry.

All four U.S. carriers are expected to carry the Z10, shipping in March and starting at $199 with a two-year contract. Walt Mossberg, reviewing the Z10 for the Wall Street Journal, notes that a physical keyboard-equipped Q10 model is due in April as well. He notes that in "moderate to heavy use", the battery didn't last as long as a charge on an iPhone 5 in similar usage, but he did have some praise for the device.

BlackBerry has always leaned heavily on its physical keyboard, and, according to Mossberg, the virtual keyboard on the Z10 shines as well:

The Z10 keyboard is the best and fastest out-of-the-box virtual keyboard I’ve used. Master BlackBerry thumb typists might not find it as fast as the traditional physical keyboard, but, for a one-finger typist like me, it was faster and more accurate than either the native keyboards on the iPhone or Android. This is partly because it features predictive typing. It displays words that are likely to come next right above the rows of letters, and lets you flick these words upward into the text you’re composing. It learns what mistakes you typically make in hitting letters, and adjusts. And it learns words and abbreviations you frequently use, even proper names.

The company promises 70,000 apps at launch, including staples like Facebook, Twitter, Angry Birds, MLB, and more. Many notable apps are missing however, including Pandora, Spotify and Netflix.

The Z10 comes with a 4.2" 1280x768 display, giving it a higher pixel density than the iPhone 5; an 8 megapixel rear camera; 16GB capacity only, but includes a card slot for storage upgrades; available in white or black; a removable battery; and LTE support, though Mossberg got extremely poor data speeds on AT&T and RIM couldn't explain why.