Amazon is continuing its full-frontal attack on Apple's iTunes and App Store platforms, announcing today that it is expanding its In-App Purchase program to include virtual goods and currencies on Mac, PC and Web-based games. Amazon has previously offered IAP for Android and Kindle Fire developers, including the ability to order physical goods from within apps.
Further expanding its multi-platform, end-to-end offering for game developers, Amazon today announced a new In-App Purchasing service that enables developers to let customers use their Amazon accounts to purchase virtual goods and currencies from within Mac, PC and Web-based games. With today’s announcement, Amazon now provides In-App Purchasing services for Mac, PC and Web, Android and Kindle Fire developers, enabling them to offer Amazon’s millions of customers a convenient, trusted and secure buying experience.
This isn't the only development in Amazon's digital store efforts. Recently, Amazon optimized its MP3 music store so mobile iOS devices could purchase music directly on the device via Safari.
Apple and Amazon have been dueling in court over the trademark for the "app store" term, with the most recent development sending Apple and Amazon into court-ordered settlement talks.
Research firm Kantar Worldpanel today issued a report indicating that Apple continued to maintain its position as the best-selling smartphone platform in the United States during the fourth quarter of 2012. Kantar Worldpanel, which releases its rolling quarterly data on a monthly basis, indicated that Apple retook the lead from Android in the August-October period and gathered a majority share for the first time in the September-November period.
Looking at year-over-year comparisons, iOS increased its market share in the final quarter of 2012 to 51.2% from 44.9% in the same quarter the previous year. Android sales remained almost constant at just over 44%, with nearly all of Apple's gains coming at the expense of Research in Motion and other smaller players.
“Apple’s continual improvement is thanks to both the iPhone 5 and older models attracting various customer groups, from repeat Apple buyers, first time smartphone buyers and those coming from other smartphone brands," said Kantar Worldpanel ComTech analyst Mary-Ann Parlato.
Kantar Worldpanel notes that 35% of Apple's sales during the period were to those upgrading from a previous iPhone, with 36% switching from a competitor platform and 30% upgrading from a feature phone to their first smartphone.
Kantar's data comes just as Verizon announced its results for the fourth quarter, revealing that the iPhone represented approximately 63% of the carrier's total smartphone activations.
NZweek reports (via The Next Web) that government officials in Indonesia have revealed that Apple has submitted an application outlining plans to relaunch its online store in the country, to be followed by the opening of its first Indonesian retail store in Jakarta.
Chatib Basri, BKPM chairman, said BKPM has given official permission to Apple relating to its plan to open online store in Indonesia. “We have approved their (Apple) application,” he said here on Tuesday.
Apple online store in Indonesia is expected to give shorter supply chain and distribution of its products.
Azhar Lubis, deputy chairman of BKPM said Apple will open its store in Indonesia’s capital city, Jakarta. “The investment worth around 2 million to 3 million U.S. dollars,” he said.
The Next Web notes that Apple previously operated an online store for Indonesia but shut down the store in early 2011 due to issues with shipping products from the store's central hub in Singapore. The store currently remains online only to provide pricing information and connect customers to resellers.
Apple has been focused on expanding its international retail store presence, and the company revealed in job listings late last year that it is making plans for its first stores in Brazil and Turkey. Apple has also been said to be looking at expanding sales in Russia.
Verizon today became the first major U.S. iPhone carrier to announce earnings for the fourth quarter of 2012. Overall, the carrier activated 9.8 million smartphones during the quarter, and GigaOM notes that Verizon revealed on its conference call that 6.2 million, or nearly two-thirds, of those were iPhones.
Perhaps most interestingly, only half of those iPhones activated during the quarter were of the iPhone 5 variety, indicating that Verizon continues to enjoy strong sales of the lower-cost iPhone 4S and iPhone 4.
It sold 7.3 million LTE devices the last three months of 2012, and it activated 9.8 million smartphones in total. It activated 6.2 million iPhones, about half of which were the LTE-enabled iPhone 5.
Approximately 23% of devices on Verizon's base are now LTE-compatible, with those devices representing almost half of the carrier's data traffic. And AllThingsD notes that Verizon has halted any further additions to its 3G networks in favor of continuing to expand its already substantial 4G LTE networks.
Last quarter, Verizon reported total iPhone activations of 3.1 million, representing 46% of the carrier's smartphone sales.
Apple will be reporting its own earnings tomorrow after the close of trading, at approximately 4:30 PM Eastern / 1:30 PM Pacific. MacRumors will have full coverage of Apple's earnings release and associated conference call taking place at 5:00 PM Eastern / 2:00 PM Pacific.
Apple today announced its annual Lunar New Year sale, a one day event for Asian countries that is also known as "Red Friday" because of its similarity to November's Black Friday sales.
As with its Black Friday event, Apple will be offering limited time deals on Macs, iPads, iPods, and accessories like the Smart Cover.
Last year's sales saw discounts of up to 8% on iPads, 10% on iPod touches, and a flat discount of HK$ 770 on all models of the MacBook Air, the MacBook Pro, and the iMac. This year’s discounts are expected to be similar, and free shipping will be offered.
Apple has also published a gift guide for the event, which features its flagship products like the iPad mini and the iPhone, alongside several third-party accessories from manufacturers like Bose, Logitech, and Griffin.
The Red Friday sale will take place on January 25 and is valid in China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand.
Ashton Kutcher and Josh Gad, the actors who play Apple co-founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak in the upcoming independent movie jOBS, will be hitting up the annual Macworld/iWorld conference in San Francisco next week.
The two actors will be attending a talk where they discuss their experiences portraying the two Steves, who famously began Apple Computer in 1976. The session is titled "Playing Steve & Woz," and it will take place on the main stage of room 2005 at 9:00 a.m. on the first day of the event.
jOBS will be premiering at the Sundance Film Festival later this week, with a public release set for April.
Musician Will.i.am also plans to attend the Macworld/iWorld conference this year, pairing with Intel futurist Brian David Johnson in a discussion on future technology and gadgets. Fred Armisen, of Portlandia and Saturday Night Live, will also be present.
Though Apple has not attended Macworld/iWorld since 2009, the conference has continued to be popular with third party companies, developers, and Apple enthusiasts. Over the years, Macworld/iWorld has expanded to include Apple's mobile operating system in addition to the traditional Mac hardware and software.
The conference, which features upcoming products, apps, and tech talks, is open to the public. Tickets can be purchased beginning at $25 for access to the Expo hall.
Macworld/iWorld begins on January 31 and will run until February 2 at Moscone Center West in San Francisco.
Shipping estimates for new orders of 21.5-inch iMac models began slipping in Apple's online stores in many European countries such as the United Kingdom today, moving from 7-10 business days to 2-3 weeks. The changes have not yet propagated to stores for other regions.
Estimates for the 21.5-inch models had remained steady at 7-10 business days since just after they became available for sale late last year. Apple has also been quoting even longer estimates for the 27-inch models, which are reportedly seeing more significant issues with display production due to a new lamination process. Estimates for new 27-inch iMac orders remain at 3-4 weeks for the time being, essentially in line with their status since just after pre-orders went live.
IDG News Service reports that Kariem McFarlin, the burglar who stole $60,000 worth of Apple products and other items from the home of Steve Jobs' family last July, has been sentenced to seven years in prison. McFarlin entered the home while it was undergoing renovation and stole two iMacs, three iPads, three iPods, an Apple TV, jewelry, and other items.
REACT officers found McFarlin with help from Apple security, which tracked where the stolen devices were being used by matching their serial numbers with connections to Apple iTunes servers. The IP address in use matched a line in McFarlin's apartment in nearby Alameda that was also being used by an Apple device registered to a member of his family, according to a police report. [...]
McFarlin admitted to the burglary under questioning by Palo Alto police and said he had stolen from other homes in the San Francisco Bay Area, including two homes in Marin County, four homes in San Francisco County and one home in Alameda County.
Renovation work on the Jobs family home in July 2012 (Source: Forbes)
Immediately following the burglary, officials indicated that it appeared to be a random crime of opportunity due to the renovation going on at the house, with McFarlin having been unaware that he was targeting the home of Steve Jobs' family. At the time of his arrest, McFarlin still had a number of the stolen items in his possession, while others had been distributed to friends, including an iPad that made its way into the hands of a local clown.
According to new information from the China Times translated by BrightWire, Apple is planning to release the iPhone 5S alongside a larger phone, deemed the "iPhone Math" by the report.
Because the iPhone Math name is highly unusual and does not fit in with Apple's traditional naming scheme, it is not clear if it is a code name or a potential mistranslation, although the actual "iPhone Math" terms appears in English in the China Times report.
China Times says that the larger phone will come equipped with a 4.8-inch screen and an 8-megapixel camera. It is said that it will launch in June alongside an updated iPhone 5, which will also feature an 8-megapixel camera. An additional iPhone update is said to be coming during the holiday season, with a 12-megapixel camera.
Though the report contains detailed information on suppliers, manufacturers, and production times, it is difficult to believe that Apple will produce a bigger iPhone and that the company will release two iPhones in a six month time frame.
The shipments for components, including touchscreens and cameras, will start rising significantly in March, and iPhone manufacturers will begin production in late April. Hence, Apple's suppliers will see major growth in 2Q 2013.
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. Ltd. will undertake 90% of the manufacturing orders, and Largan has received orders for 8 million camera lenses. Fujikura, Flexium and Zhen Ding will share production orders for printed circuit boards.
Foxconn Technology and Coxon will provide molding parts for Apple's new models; Foxlink will continue to offer connectors; Hon Hai Precision's Microelectronics Technology will start designing 4G network solutions for Apple.
This is not the first rumor that has featured a larger iPhone. Jefferies analyst Peter Misek first reported in December that Apple was working on an iPhone with a 4.8-inch display, but just last week noted that he has seen no further signs of the device. Digitimesalso reported in early January that Apple was working on a bigger, more affordable iPhone that was targeted towards emerging markets, and analyst Brian White suggested that Apple might be considering launching its next iPhone in multiple sizes.
While rumors from the The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg support the introduction of an additional iPhone at a lower cost, the device is said to be smaller, not larger.
As we noted the first time the 4.8-inch iPhone rumors emerged, Apple has just increased the size of the iPhone with the iPhone 5, and may be reluctant to face the same resolution and pixel density obstacles attempting to create an even larger iPhone.
Aubrey Johnson, a former Color employee, shares two stories behind the scenes at Apple's acquisitions of both Color and Lala -- both firms were founded by Bill Nguyen before being acquired by Apple for two very different reasons.
Like Pandora, Lala's music was streamed from the internet rather than stored locally. This allowed users to listen to a catalog of over 7 million songs for free as a stream over the web -- much like Pandora or Spotify today. Songs could also be purchased and downloaded, typically for a lower price than iTunes was offering.
Johnson writes that Lala's biggest strength was that it was at or near the top for many Google searches of particular songs, thanks to a search placement deal with Google. As a result, the firm was siphoning sales away from iTunes. As well, Google and Lala had partnered on Google's Music service. Both Nokia and Google made lowball offers for the firm, and Nguyen headed to Apple to see if they'd be interested in buying his company.
In late November [2009], Nguyen was seated at the dinner table in Steve Job’s home on Waverly St in Palo Alto. Also present were Eddy Cue and Tim Cook and other Apple executives. Steve led the conversation while eating a beet salad:
“I’m going to give you a number, Bill, and if you like it, let’s do it and just be done with this whole thing. Okay?” Bill agreed.
Jobs passed a piece of paper to Nguyen and Bill nodded. The deal was done.
After the acquisition, a number of Lala employees left the company with Nguyen, leaving millions in options on the table. Later, Apple apparently bought back some of those same engineers when the company purchased the remnants of Color, getting more experienced personnel for a significant savings.
Bloomberg is reporting that Apple CEO Tim Cook has been ordered by U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh to give a deposition in a lawsuit claiming that Apple and five other companies entered deals not to recruit each other's employees.
Koh told lawyers yesterday that Apple founder Steve Jobs was copied on e-mails at issue in the case, and that she found it “hard to believe” that Cook, as Apple’s chief operating officer at the time in question, wouldn’t have been consulted about such agreements.
The judge said she was disappointed that senior executives at the companies involved hadn’t been deposed before yesterday’s hearing over whether she should certify the case as a group lawsuit.
The case goes back to 2005 and alleges that Apple, Adobe, Pixar, Lucasfilm, Google, Intel and Intuit had agreements not to poach employees from the companies that were privy to the agreements. Employees were free to apply at jobs at any of the companies on their own volition, however.
The agreements were investigated in 2010 by the Justice Department and the claims were eventually settled, with the companies agreeing not to enter employee-poaching bans for five years.
The current lawsuit is a class-action civil suit by employees who say they were harmed by the anti-competitive actions of the companies within the agreement.
Reuters reports that Sharp, one of Apple's primary display panel partners for its mobile devices, has slashed production of iPad displays at one of its plants. Sources did not indicate the reasons for the dramatic cut, but it appears to be a combination of a shift in consumer interest to the smaller iPad mini and a natural seasonal slowdown coming out of the holiday quarter.
Sharp Corp has nearly halted production of 9.7-inch screens for Apple Inc's iPad, two sources said, as demand shifts to its smaller iPad mini.
Sharp's iPad screen production line at its Kameyama plant in central Japan has fallen to the minimal level to keep the line running this month after a gradual slowdown began at the end of 2012 as Apple manages its inventory, the industry sources with knowledge of Sharp's production plans told Reuters.
Apple also obtains iPad display panels from Samsung and LG Display, with a source at Samsung indicating that there has been no production cut there and a source at LG suggesting that any production cuts there were in line with typical seasonality.
Reports of cutbacks in iPad component production come close on the heels of reports that Apple has slashed orders for iPhone 5 parts, although there have been significant questions about the figures cited in those reports and whether the decline actually represents a weakening of demand.
MIT Technology Review has dug up a job ad posted by Apple on LinkedIn appealing to writers to help make Siri more conversational.
“[S]omeone who combines a love for language, wordplay, and conversation with demonstrated experience in bringing creative content to life within an intense technical environment.”
The ad notes that writers who apply will also need "experience in writing character-driven dialog", a good vocabulary and, ideally, knowledge of more than one language. The goal of the hirings would be to "evolve and enrich Siri."
Siri has been known for her wit and personality, with Apple attempting to allow Siri to build emotional ties with users.
Apple focused on keeping Siri's personality "friendly and humble -- but also with an edge". According to their source, they were thinking "How would we want a person to respond?" while developing the software.
After scaling back Siri's original feature set for its initial launch through Apple, the company has been working to expand compatibility to new devices such as the iPad as well as new languages. Apple has also improved Siri in iOS 6 with new movie, sports and restaurant features, and is set to introduce movie ticket purchases through Fandango with the upcoming iOS 6.1.
Black Pixel today released its first major in-house app, Kaleidoscope 2. The app that helps coders, writers and others to compare the differences in folders, images, text, and more. The app was released as a beta back in November.
At the time, The Next Web spoke with former Apple employee Michael Jurewitz and the rest of the Black Pixel team about Kaleidoscope 2:
Kaleidoscope 2 is a lovely comparison app that allows you to take two or more files, folders or images and compare them to one another. The applications are broad, with benefits that swing from developers on one end to those simply looking to compare two images side-by-side. It has full integration with Git, Subversion, Mercurial, and Bazaar. The app can be used as the default conflict resolver for code with its command line integration or simply to check the changed passages in a collaborative word document. It’s beautifully designed, fast and wonderful to use. It’s become an essential part of my toolkit already.
Black Pixel acquired Kaleidoscope and Versions last year, as well as the popular RSS reader NetNewsWire. Version 2 of Kaleidoscope is the first major bit of software that Black Pixel has put its own name on -- previously, the company focused on developing apps for outside clients.
Apple and Rovio have paired up to give away Angry Birds Rio for the iPhone and iPad for free this week, as part of Apple's 'Free App of the Week' promotion.
The game is normally $0.99 for the iPhone and $2.99 on the iPad.
Angry Birds Rio brought more of the same bird-flinging action that we all are quite familiar with by now, but also threw a couple of new very welcome twists into the formula. First and foremost are the boss fights, which were a first for the Angry Birds series and have you squaring off against the main antagonists from the Rio movie. The game also utilized more advanced graphics and recently was updated with tons of new power-ups and support for the widescreen of the iPhone 5.
Angry Birds Rio is free for a limited time on the iPhone and iPad from the App Store. [Direct link: iPhone/iPad]
Hearst is the first publisher to be featured, and its entire catalog is available to subscribers several days before the print editions hit newsstands, and before its magazines hit other platforms like Amazon's Kindle Fire.
The exclusive arrangement varies by individual publication in terms of how far in advance you’ll be able to get the various Hearst titles compared to in print and from other online storefronts like Amazon’s Kindle marketplace, but each will be available at least a few days in advance, I’m told. Existing subscribers will get early access, as well as those signing up for the first time.
The exclusive publishing window is a nice perk for potential subscribers and iPad owners, though it seems unlikely that getting a magazine a few days early would, on its own, sway potential tablet purchasers to the iPad.
Apple today added the new 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro to the refurbished section of its online store, giving prospective customers the opportunity to save 15% compared to brand-new machine. Currently available models include:
All three models are listed as shipping in 1-3 business days.
As with all of Apple's refurbished products, the 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro units have been thoroughly tested and reconditioned and carry a one-year warranty equal to that offered on brand-new machines.
The addition of the 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro to Apple's refurbished store comes roughly two weeks after the appearance of 15-inch models. But with the 13-inch models having just been introduced in October, some four months after the launch of the 15-inch models, the smaller Retina MacBook Pro has made the transition to the refurbished store much more quickly than its larger sibling.
Square Enix calls All The Bravest a "pick-up-and-go RPG," an accurate description for the game, which incorporates the Final Fantasy series' Active Time Battle mechanic. The system has been greatly simplified, and battling consists of tapping party members to attack with little to no strategy involved. The game also does away with typical time consuming RPG activities like exploration, dungeon crawling, and dialogue.
Our sister site TouchArcade went hands-on with the game, and has this to say about the gameplay:
In the game, you can control up to 30 different classical Final Fantasy heroes across series of fights against classical villains. To attack, you tap on a character or, as we've discovered, just swipe up and down on the screen to activate all of them. After each attack, characters are smacked with a cool down timer, which keeps them from being able to attack for a few seconds.
Every enemy kills with one hit, regardless if it's just a basic Final Fantasy goblin or one of the horseman of the apocalypse. In addition to being flimsy, heroes are one note: they attack, that's it. You can’t activate special skills, you can’t target enemies, and they can't buff each other.
If you haven't caught on, this definitely isn't the Final Fantasy you know, but there’s a lot of the series' touches present. The presentation is old-school Final Fantasy. The enemies and heroes are, too. The simple "save the world" narrative hooks are all present and accounted for, as well as the late title card.
Final Fantasy All The Bravest comes with a much lower price tag than Square Enix's other offerings, which have cost as much as $17.99. Unfortunately, the initial purchase price is supplemented by a heavy focus on in-app purchases. 35 "premium" characters are unlocked at $0.99 each, and resurrecting a fallen party requires purchasable currency as well.