MacRumors

Following last week's addition of an iPhone 6 roundup, MacRumors today is publishing a new Apple TV roundup covering not only Apple's current set-top box and rumors for future enhancements, but also long-running rumors of a dedicated Apple television set.

While Apple has been busy increasing the amount of content available through the current Apple TV, there is still uncertainty about timing for new television-related hardware from the company. A dedicated Apple television set has been rumored for a number of years, with Steve Jobs having been quoted in his 2011 biography as saying "I finally cracked it" with regard to a television interface concept, but signs continue to suggest that release is not yet imminent.

Apple has also been rumored to be working on Kinect-like motion control for the Apple TV, and Apple's acquisition of PrimeSense, the company behind the original Microsoft Kinect motion control technology, last month has continued to fuel that speculation. But whether that technology will make its way into the next Apple TV as part of a radical revamp or if the next-generation box will primarily be an iterative update based on improved internals remains to be seen.

Continue reading our full Apple TV roundup...

Apple today added yet another set of channels to its Apple TV set-top box, including a "Watch ABC" channel to allow subscribers to certain cable services to watch content from their local ABC affiliate through Apple TV. Other additions include financial channel Bloomberg, streaming movie and TV show channel Crackle, and Korean channel KORTV.

Today's launches are just a few of the many additions for Apple TV over the past few months, with the most recent previous addition having been Yahoo Screen and PBS last month. Other recent additions included Major League Soccer and Disney Junior in September, Vevo, Smithsonian, and Disney in August, and WatchESPN and HBO GO in June. Apple is also reportedly in talks to launch channels for cable provider Time Warner Cable and TV network The CW.

Update: 9to5Mac has a behind the scenes look at the development process for the Bloomberg channel.

Apple has already streamlined the process of building its current lineup of Apple TV apps— which mostly consist of streaming video content— to the point where developers can quickly and easy build apps through an easy to use SDK, much like on iOS. The team behind the development of the Bloomberg app, which consisted of two developers under Bloomberg’s head of mobile and connected devices Oke Okaro, told me that Apple’s toolkit, an SDK of sorts, has “made it quite easy to build the apps.” The team of two developers along with Okaro built the app in just five weeks. Most of that time was spent testing and optimizing the video experience.

Apple reportedly provided some input and feedback along the way in terms of optimizing the user experience, but largely allowed Bloomberg to define what it wanted to include in the channel.

Chinese labor rights group China Labor Watch (CLW) is calling for answers from primary Apple supplier Pegatron after the death of five young workers in recent months, highlighted by the passing of a fifteen year old factory worker due to pneumonia related causes in October, reports The New York Times. The laborer, Shi Zhaokun, was able to secure a job at a Pegatron factory producing the iPhone 5c by presenting a fake ID stating that he was 20, reportedly working a total of 280 hours in his only month at the company.

Apple’s supplier responsibility statement bars employees of supplier companies in China from working more than 60 hours a week; so does Chinese law. But Mr. Shi worked 79 hours in his first week, 77 in his second and 75 in his third, all apparently in violation of the law, according to documents provided by his family.

Pegatron said that the work logs the family kept are records of when the young man clocked in and out, and may not include breaks. The company said his hours did not exceed the legal limit.

A Pegatron spokeswoman said that the death of the worker was “not related to the workplace environment“, while Apple has not officially commented on the incident. In July, China Labor Group alleged numerous safety and workplace violations at Pegatron, including the unethical holding of worker pay and identification cards, as well as poor living conditions within the factory including tight living quarters and packed cafeterias. Apple replied to the allegations, confirming various labor violations and vowing to investigate the incident.

Recently, Hong Kong-based Apple supplier Biel Crystal was also accused of workers rights violations, with a nonprofit watchdog labor group stating that the company made employees work forced 11-hour shifts without adequate compensation for injuries sustained on the job.

Apple announced in July that it was forming an academic advisory board for its Supplier Responsibility program, saying that it wanted to ensure "safe and ethical working conditions wherever its products are made." Apple has also published Supplier Responsibility Progress Reports every year since 2007, tracking the ethical progress of its suppliers in order to bring transparency to its product manufacturing process.

Update: Reuters reports that Apple sent a medical team to the Pegatron facility last month, determining that the worker's death was not related to working conditions.

"Last month we sent independent medical experts from the U.S. and China to conduct an investigation of the (Pegatron) factory. While they have found no evidence of any link to working conditions there, we realize that is of little comfort to the families who have lost their loved ones," Apple said in a statement on Thursday.

"Apple has a long-standing commitment to providing a safe and healthy workplace for every worker in our supply chain, and we have a team working with Pegatron at their facility to ensure that conditions meet our high standards."

Wireless carriers like AT&T and Verizon will not be able to continue the smartphone subsidy model that has driven widespread smartphone penetration to this point. AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson, speaking at an investor conference today, said the current model is not economically viable, reported CNET.

With more than 75 percent of mobile phone users owning smartphones -- and that number growing towards 90 percent -- Stephenson said carriers will "move into maintenance mode" and that "the model has to change" because carriers "can't afford to subsidize devices like that". Many higher-end smartphone power users also tend to upgrade their phones as often as possible, something that can become expensive for carriers subsidizing those purchases to the tune of hundreds of dollars per device.

Stephenson also acknowledged that breaking customers of their habit of upgrading to a new phone every 18 months to two years is not an easy task. But he said a business models focused on financing rather than providing a subsidy would be "transformative" for the industry. He said the company's new AT&T Next program, which offers no-money down and 0-percent financing, drives smartphone penetration in a way that is more sustainable over time.

"If you are a customer and you don't need to upgrade your device, you can get unlimited talk and text and access to the data network for $45 all-in," he said. "You can use your own device or finance it. I think this will be very powerful. It's where we see the market going."

As part of a larger strategy to move away from straight device subsidies, AT&T rolled out its AT&T Next smartphone and tablet upgrade program earlier this year -- following T-Mobile's lead -- to entice customers to pay for devices in full, spreading the payments out over several years with no down payment or upgrade fees.

This month, AT&T introduced a new "value plan" that gives customers a $15/month discount on smartphone plans when users bring an off-contract device, purchase a phone at full retail price, or use an AT&T Next financing plan. The new plans come after several price adjustments to AT&T Next plans as customers analyzed similar offerings from other carriers.

Stephenson noted that carriers have largely solved their data capacity issues because of LTE and can now focus on lower end customers, saying that AT&T will "go very aggressively in the prepaid market".

Apple has seen huge success with the iPhone, largely because of carrier strategies that saw its smartphones heavily subsidized while locking customers into two-year contracts. As demand in Western countries begins to peak, Apple executives have often spoken of the importance of growth in countries where purchasing phones for full-price, with prepaid voice and data plans, is more popular.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office today published a newly granted Apple patent describing a goggle-like video headset designed to allow users to view media while on the go but with a much larger view than on their mobile device's built-in display (via Patently Apple).

Apple's patent is a relatively straightforward one with a single independent claim outlining a headset that contains adjustable optical modules for lining up with the user's eyes, but the full description of Apple's ideas includes such topics as allowing displays for each eye to be individually focused to provide vision correction, as well as possibilities for 3-D viewing similar to Oculus Rift's virtual reality headset.

A goggle system for providing a personal media viewing experience to a user is provided. The goggle system may include an outer cover, a mid-frame, optical components for generating the media display, and a lens on which the generated media displayed is provided to the user. The goggle system, or head mounted display may have any suitable appearance. For example, the goggle system may resemble ski or motorcycle goggles. To enhance the user's comfort, the goggle system may include breathable components, including for example breathable foam that rests against the user's face, and may allow the user to move the display generation components for alignment with the user's eyes. In some embodiments, the goggle system may include data processing circuitry operative to adjust left and right images generated by the optical components to display 3-D media, or account for a user's eyesight limitations.

Apple goes on to describe how visual corrections could be made either by the user entering a prescription or by the headset automatically detecting the needed correction. Those corrections could then be stored by the headset and automatically applied when the user wearing the headset is identified.

Apple's patent was originally filed in May 2008 and is based on a provisional patent application filed in May 2007, but it has taken until now for the application to make its way through the review process to approval. This is also not the first time Apple has moved to patent concepts related to video headsets, with the company receiving a 2008 patent for a system in which laser light could be pumped from an external source into a lightweight goggle system to display images. As noted by Patently Apple, Apple has made a number of other moves over the years to expand on the possibilities for a video headset, but the company has yet to bring any such product to market.

Qualcomm has announced the launch of its Gimbal proximity beacons, which are designed to work similarly to Apple's own iBeacons. Like iBeacons, Qualcomm's proximity beacons serve as physical Bluetooth access points that interact with apps on iPhones and iPads over Bluetooth LE.

Qualcomm's overall Gimbal platform is billed as a "context aware" proximity platform allowing brands to deliver information to customers based on physical location, activity, time, and personal interests.

Gimbal helps increase the relevance of content delivered to end users' devices, filtering out the irrelevant and offering more personalized experiences, thereby allowing retailers, venues, content providers and developers to send personalized high-value content to enhance their users' mobile devices.

The Gimbal beacons, which support iOS out of the box with an accompanying SDK that can be built into apps, come in two different sizes that are accurate down to one foot both indoors and outdoors. The Series 10 beacons cost as little as $5, while the larger Series 20 beacons start at $10. Individual iBeacon-compatible beacons from other companies are more expensive, at approximately $100 for three.

Apple's iBeacons, first introduced earlier this year at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference, are already in use in a number of different locations.

Back in November, Shopkick teamed up with Macy's to debut the first retail-based iBeacons, allowing customers to find location-specific deals and recommendations within the app while visiting a participating Macy’s store.

iBeacons have also been installed in Apple retail stores, giving in-store notifications through the company's Apple Store app. Along with retail applications, one publishing startup is using the technology to deliver free magazines, and Major League Baseball also plans to incorporate iBeacons into stadiums next year.

With iOS support, Qualcomm's Gimbal proximity beacons will be indistinguishable from Apple's iBeacons to end users, giving merchants and retailers a suitable alternative to Apple's technology. Apple does have an edge, however, as iPhones and iPads can potentially be configured as both iBeacon receivers and transmitters, skirting the need for a separate piece of hardware.

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, who has regularly assessed Siri's accuracy in terms of correctly interpreting and answering queries, has issued the latest version of his Siri report card, noting that Siri has continued to improve under iOS 7, particularly in terms of being able to properly interpret questions being asked.

The primary improvement between Siri in iOS 6 and iOS 7 came from its performance in noisier areas, where Siri was able to translate better through a noisy environment (94% vs. 83% correct in Aug iOS 6). Based on our testing, iOS 7 Siri's net ability to answer questions (factors in questions not correctly understood) improved to 79% from 77% in August with iOS 6.

The improvements in Siri's understanding come alongside but separate from Apple's continued efforts to reduce its reliance on Google, as evidenced by Siri's shift to emphasize Bing, Wikipedia, and WolframAlpha results. In Munster's most recent testing, only 4 percent of Siri's answers relied on Google, compared to 17 percent in August testing and 27 percent in December 2012.

Munster also compares Siri to Google Now, finding that the two services are now essentially tied in effectiveness with a "C+" score after Siri held a substantial lead in the year-ago testing. In the latest testing, Google Now held small leads in content areas such as commerce and information, while Siri performed significantly better for operating system controls.

Less than a week after experiencing a significant improvement in shipping times for new online orders throughout the world, the iPhone 5s has seen its availability improve once again with models now shipping "within 24 hours" in nearly all of Apple's online stores for countries around the world. The GSM-compatible SIM-free iPhone has also improved to a shipping estimate of 3-5 business days.

Following the launch of the iPhone 5s, supplies were significantly constrained, especially for silver and gold models. Shipping estimates slipped to 7 to 10 days hours after the phone was released and then slipped further to two to three weeks for an extended period of time. The rapid improvement in availability indicates that Apple is quickly reaching supply-demand balance for the iPhone 5s three months after its debut.

According to reports, Apple has significantly ramped up its iPhone 5s production over the course of the last month while cutting back on iPhone 5c production, which has resulted in improved supplies in time for the Christmas holiday.

In-store supplies of the iPhone 5s are also reported to be nearing 100% availability, with all colors and capacities of the phone available for immediate pickup at many of Apple's retail locations across the United States.

Last week, Apple also released shipping deadlines to ensure customers receive gifts by December 24. According to the guidelines, the iPhone 5s must be ordered by midnight December 18 to arrive ahead of Christmas.

Apple has been awarded a patent by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (via AppleInsider) detailing a manufacturing technique applied to the production of curved touch sensors to be used in existing components such as displays, touch pads, and touch mice.

The patent, which was filed in November 2010, introduces itself by describing the problem with existing touch sensor panels, stating that they are sometimes difficult to produce because of their thinness, which leads to a risk of damaging panel components. The technology in the patent however, details a curved sensor benefiting from increased strength and enhanced viewing properties without warping or deformation to the surface during initial assembly.

By depositing and patterning thin film, for example, on substrate while in a flat state, and then annealing, for example, the thin film when the substrate is joined to a forming substrate, the substrate can be curved to a desired curvature. Further, thin film can receive the benefits of the annealing process, such as increased strength and conductivity and enhanced optical properties, without undesired warping or deformation to the substrate.

In detail, the patent states that while some current electronics appear to have curved displays, the devices in question suffer from a degraded touch sensitivity because of the distance between the cover glass and the actual drive and sense electrodes in the device due to current manufacturing techniques.

Meanwhile, Apple describes its manufacturing process as allowing the thickness of a curved touch sensor panel to remain constant, with touch sensitivity remaining high since the distance between the cover glass and thin film is akin to flat touch sensor panels that have a high amount of touch sensitivity.

It is unknown exactly how or even whether Apple plans to utilize this technology in its products, but competitors such as Samsung and LG have already touted curved displays as key features in their products such as the Galaxy Round and the G Flex, respectively.

Apple is also said to be testing larger-screen iPhone prototypes with curved displays, as well as enhanced touch sensors for later models. Earlier this year, an Apple patent application describing a flexible wraparound display for devices such as the iPhone was published, further stoking rumors of such a feature making its way into the next iPhone.

Apple today released its annual "12 Days of Gifts" app for iOS devices, setting the stage for the actual giveaway of free content from the company's various digital stores from December 26 through January 6. Apple has offered the giveaway for several years in Europe, Canada, and several other countries, and in 2013 U.S. customers will have access for the first time.

From 26 December – 6 January, you can download a gift each day—songs, apps, books, movies, and more—with the 12 Days of Gifts app. Each day's gift will only be available for 24 hours, so download the free app to make sure you don’t miss out. Please note: Not all content is available in all countries.

12 Days of Gifts is a universal app available for free in the App Store. [Direct Link]