MacRumors

Taiwanese newspaper Economic Times reports [Google translation, via Mac Otakara] that Apple is lining up suppliers for its next-generation MacBook Air for launch in the third quarter of this year.

According to the report, the MacBook Air will not only be receiving internal upgrades to Intel's new Haswell platform but also a "facelift" with new external features, including the possibility of a Retina display. The report also claims that suppliers will begin shipping components to Apple's assembly partner Quanta during the second quarter of the year.

KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo had previously included an updated MacBook Air in his 2013 Apple product roadmap, predicting a late second quarter or early third quarter launch for the device. He did, however, indicate that the update would not include Retina displays, which would require substantially more battery power than the current displays and likely force a redesign to also accommodate a somewhat thicker display assembly.

Pricing remains another question for Apple, as the MacBook Air is the company's entry-level notebook and Apple will likely be very hesitant to raise that floor. But while Apple's Retina MacBook Pro models carry significantly higher pricing than their non-Retina counterparts, a significant amount of that cost is related to a shift to solid-state drives, which are already used in the MacBook Air.

Consequently, a shift to a Retina display for the MacBook Air may add a much smaller price premium to the lineup. Apple could also choose to separate the MacBook Air into Retina and non-Retina lines as it has for the MacBook Pro, or offer Retina displays as higher-end options on a unified lineup.

As noted by 9to5Mac, the Mac Pro is no longer available for purchase from Apple's European Online Stores.

In late January, Apple informed its European distributors that sales of the Mac Pro would cease as of March 1st due to new regulatory requirements that go into effect on that date. At the time, Apple told resellers that it would accept orders up until February 18, a deadline that appears to apply to general consumers as well.

The Mac Pro is no longer able to be sold in Europe because it is not compliant with Amendment 1 of regulation IEC 60950–1. According to information from Apple, the issue has to do with the Mac Pro's unprotected fan blades. Compliance with the new regulation would require fan guards and increased protection of the ports on the electrical system.

Apple's Mac Pro is now unavailable in European Union countries, EU candidate countries, and the European Free Trade Association countries of Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland.

Though the Mac Pro has been discontinued in Europe, resellers are still able to sell remaining product after the March 1st deadline. Apple plans to continue to support existing Mac Pro machines and will supply replacement parts.

Apple has also announced plans to offer a redesigned Mac Pro in 2013, following a minor update in 2012.

Former Apple executive Jean-Louis Gassée shares his perspective on Apple's rumored "iWatch", noting that the company likely has very ambitious plans for the device given its focus on continually pushing forward the concept of a "personal computer".

[W]hat really floats their [boats], what hardens Apple’s resolve is designing, making, and selling large numbers of personal computers, from the traditional desktop/laptop Mac, to the genre-validating iPad, and on to the iPhone — the Very Personal Computer. Everything else is an ingredient, a booster, a means to the noblest end.

After walking through how Apple's iTunes Store, retail effort, software, and Apple TV all serve as ancillary offerings to support this positioning of the company's primary products as increasingly personal computers, Gassée argues that the iWatch is the next step in this progression and thus Apple will do much more than simply slap a previous-generation iPod nano into a wristband.

Is Apple working on an iWatch that can be experienced as an Even More Personal personal computer — an “intimate computer”? If so, many questions arise: user interface, sensors, iOS version, new types of apps, connection with other iDevices… And, of course price.

This would be much more interesting than the perennially in-the-future Apple TV set. Of course, iWatch and Apple TV aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive.

Gassée's piece comes just as British newspaper The Observer has produced its own mockup of what an iWatch might look like given claims of Apple using Corning's bendable Willow Glass for the device.

There is no reason to believe that The Observer has any more insight into the strongly rumored Apple research project than anyone else, but the graphics which accompany the article reproduced on the sister-paper Guardian website do give an interesting feel for the difference a curved glass display could make to a smart watch and the article offers an overview of how Apple might fit into the smart watch market still in its infancy.

Apple tonight posted two new television spots for the iPad and the iPad mini on its YouTube page. The two ads, titled 'Alive' and 'Together', highlight some of the 300,000 apps made specifically for the iPad, using a variety of words to describe them.

Apps shown in the ads include AmpliTube, Style.com, GarageBand, TED, iMovie, iBooks, Dinosaur Zoo, Toca Hair Salon, The Lonely Beast ABC, Brian Cox's Wonders of the Universe, Vimeo, Rockmate, Glow Hockey 2 HD, and FaceTime.

Apple has launched a companion billboard campaign, as well.

Apple has added refurbished models of the current-generation 21.5" iMac to its Online Store in the past several days, offering a faster-shipping alternative to customers looking to get a desktop Mac.

New iMac models on the Apple Online Store list a lead time of several weeks to get delivered, while the refurbished models claim to ship in 1-3 days, with $200 and $230 discounts on the low- and high-end 21" models respectively.

Apple Retail Stores list mid-March as the earliest time to pick up new 21" iMacs ordered online, but Amazon.com claims to have both 21" models in stock [$1,299 and $1,494] and eligible for Amazon Prime shipping.

Ship times on the 21.5" iMac rose to 2-3 weeks back in January, and have not improved since then. Tim Cook mentioned on Apple's earnings call in January that the company would increase iMac supply this quarter, but may not get to supply/demand balance.

27" iMac models have yet to appear on the refurbished store, with the company reporting a 3-4 week lead time online and late March for in-store pickup. Amazon has the base 27" model in stock for $1,799.

As noted by 9to5Mac, Apple has posted a job listing seeking a new software engineering manager focused on "next generation features for Apple TV".

The Apple TV team is looking for an experienced engineering manager to help deliver the next generation features for Apple TV. Bring your creative energy and engineering discipline, and help us bring the Apple experience to the Living Room. [...]

- Lead a team of engineers working on exciting new features and functionality
- Drive releases from initial concept to completion
- Work closely with cross functional teams, representing Apple TV across Apple
- Develop the engineering plan for upcoming projects
- Communicate status to key stakeholders and senior management

The managerial job listing comes roughly a month after the company posted another listing seeking an Apple TV software engineer interested in "delivering first in class home entertainment solutions".

While the listings unsurprisingly do not offer any specific information about Apple's plans for the Apple TV platform and are filled with typical human resources phrases designed to appeal to prospective employees, they do suggest that Apple may be increasing staffing to push forward on a television initiative.

Rumors of an Apple television set and/or a new set-top box with increased functionality have repeatedly surfaced over the years, although the company's efforts have reportedly been slowed by content negotiations. A new report from TechCrunch's MG Siegler indicates, however, that Apple may finally be ready to begin its push later this year with a focus on third-party apps for the Apple TV and future hardware.

Just over a year ago, a LinkedIn Q&A session with Inside Apple author Adam Lashinsky generated some attention for an exchange with a former Apple employee in the audience who reported that new Apple hires are sometimes placed on "fake" projects during a probationary period. The audience member's comment was sparked by Lashinsky's discussion of employees being hired into "dummy positions" where they do not know what they will be working on until they start at the company.

Ars Technica has now followed up on those claims of new hires being placed on fake projects and found that the claim is unlikely to be true.

I spoke to Apple employees from various areas of the company at differing levels, some who are still at Apple and others who have moved on, but all expressed the same sentiment. No one reported any direct experience of being put on a fake project at Apple, and no one knew a friend or colleague at the company who had. A single former employee acknowledged having heard about fake projects—but only from a friend-of-a-friend-of-a-friend, and the employee was quick to acknowledge that the rumor should be treated with a skeptical eye.

Sources noted that virtually all work at Apple is heavily covered by nondisclosure agreements, meaning that there is little need to resort to putting employees on fake projects as tests of their loyalty.

The report also describes how Apple works to track down suspected sources of leaks, occasionally putting an entire room on lockdown with security personnel working quickly to download data from computers and other devices. Such incidents are said to be rare, but they do leave lasting impressions on employees.

German site iPhone-Ticker reports [Google translation] that Apple is planning to release iOS 6.1.2 early next week to address both the Exchange bug and lock screen passcode issue affecting iOS 6.1 users. According to the report, iOS 6.1.2 is likely to arrive before Wednesday, February 20.

Like iOS 6.1.1 released for the iPhone 4S earlier this week, iOS 6.1.2 will be a limited update addressing only these issues in order to allow Apple to quickly release it to the public. Apple last week seeded to developers an initial iOS 6.1.1 beta including broader changes such as improvements to Maps in Japan, but it now appears that this release will become iOS 6.1.3 as Apple addresses a few high-priority bug fixes on a separate basis.

iPhone-Ticker has previously offered accurate information on iOS update schedules, including word of the iOS 6.1.1 update [Google translation] a few hours before it was released to the public.

Apple design chief Jonathan Ive has been awarded a gold badge by the BBC children's show Blue Peter, a show the British-born designer watched as a child and which encourages children to make things from ordinary household objects. Blue Peter is the world's longest-running children's television show, having been on the air for over 50 years.

The show said that Ive was an "inspiration to children around the world". Blue Peter awards the badges to those it considers have encouraged and inspired children to develop their talents, with the gold badge awarded to Ive marking exceptional achievement.

The interview clip accompanying the BBC's article represents a rare public appearance by Ive, and it takes place in an Apple facility surrounded by equipment including a CNC machine for milling aluminum. Ive will also be featured in the half-hour Blue Peter episode airing tomorrow on CBBC.

Ive said that he had loved watching the show as a child, and described receiving the award as 'absolutely incredible'. He referenced the way the show encouraged children to make things from objects as ordinary as detergent bottles.

I loved the way there was just products that you thought were no longer useful, but reusing them. It was fantastic.

Ive in turn presented the show with a Blue Peter badge milled from a single block of aluminum, the approach famously used for the MacBook Pro.

TechCrunch's MG Siegler reports that Apple indeed appears to be moving closer to making a major push into television, perhaps leveraging the existing iOS-based Apple TV to pursue gaming as a focus point for the initiative.

Xbox founding engineer Nat Brown had noted earlier this week that he believes Apple could destroy the traditional console gaming business by opening up the Apple TV platform to third-party apps, and Valve founder Gabe Newell had expressed similar sentiments several weeks earlier.

But while Siegler has not heard any specific information about how Apple would open up the Apple TV to developers, multiple sources have informed him that something does appear to be brewing for later this year.

I haven’t heard anything specific about the SDK, but the chatter about Apple’s broader television plans has been picking up. And if that chatter is to believed, something is happening this fall — likely late fall. As always with Apple, those plans are subject to change (and, in fact, have changed a few times in the past — see: “Project Sphere”). As you might imagine, content deals remain a bitch, yet remain vital to such a project. But multiple sources suggest everything is finally lining up for this fall.

Siegler goes on to note that he does not know if the effort will include an actual television set at launch, but he argues that it doesn't really matter whether Apple does or not. The key is to bring apps to either the existing Apple TV concept or to new hardware, whether it be a new set-top box or integrated into a television set.

Siegler suggests that under this scenario Apple is likely to hold an event several months ahead of this projected late fall TV hardware launch, using the earlier event to introduce developer tools for the existing Apple TV, although whether that introduction might come mid-year at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference or at a separate event is unknown.

Earlier this week, analyst Peter Misek claimed that Apple would be holding a television-related product event next month, but the rumor was quickly refuted by The Loop's Jim Dalrymple.

Last month, MacRumors had heard reports that office supply retailer Staples would begin offering Apple products for sale in the United States. Staples already sells Apple products internationally but had been unsuccessful in completing a deal with Apple for the U.S. market.

Tonight, we'd received word that Staples had a meeting today with corporate employees announcing that Apple products were coming to their stores. 9to5Mac has since spotted that Staples executives have taken to Twitter to confirm that a deal with Apple has been finalized and that their stores will begin selling Apple products. Staples Senior Vice President of Global Human Resources confirmed the deal on Twitter (Tweet now deleted).

After Canada, #Apple products are coming to #Staples in US. Great news!

Other Staples employees also took to Twitter to confirm the news, including Strategic Accounts coordinator Erin LaFlamme and Field Services Manager Mike Goggin.

While there's no mention of what Apple products Staples would carry, MacRumors previously heard in mid-January that Staples would carry Apple's full lineup of Macs, iPads as well as the iPhone 5 in their stores.