MacRumors

Apple will launch products in new categories and the company is working on "really great stuff", according to an interview with CEO Tim Cook in The Wall Street Journal this evening.

He demurred when asked about specific possible products, but said anyone "reasonable" would consider Apple's upcoming products to be in new categories.

Cook has said on prior occasions that new product categories are coming for Apple in 2014 and, with this interview, he is likely looking to encourage spooked investors that Apple is still focused on growth.

Cook said in the interview that Apple remains a "growth company" and has significant opportunities in existing products as well as new ones. In addition, Apple strives to be the number one smartphone, tablet, and computer maker in the world.

He said his statement that Apple doesn't aim to make the most phones has been misunderstood.

"I don't view that as being satisfied with being small or however you want to define it," he said. "I just want to say that the macro thing for us is making a great product and we must do that. If we can't do that, we're not going to force ourselves to hit a price point that makes us produce a product that we're not proud of because we lose who we are in that. We're not going to do that."

Apple executives have repeatedly said that they are only interested in making the best products in the world, not generating revenue for revenue's sake. Tim Cook has previously said that Apple is "focused on making great products that enrich lives" and that the company is "deeply committed to doing this and maniacally focused on it." He said last month that innovation is "deeply embedded" at the company and that Apple has "no issue" coming up with new ideas.

Elsewhere in the interview Cook revealed that Apple has repurchased $14 billion in stock over the past two weeks, and that the company is open to making large acquisitions if it makes sense.

The City of San Francisco today approved Apple's plans to build a new retail store in the city's famous Union Square, taking over the former Levi's building at the corner of Post and Stockton streets.

According to an Apple representative presenting the company's plans to the city's planning commission, the flagship store will be "more iconic" than the well-known Fifth Avenue glass cube retail store in New York City, reported ifoAppleStore's Gary Allen after attending the meeting.

Apple originally filed plans to move its existing Stockton Street store to the prime Post Street location back in May of 2013, but the company was forced to revise its initial building plans after critics objected to the removal of the historical Ruth Asawa fountain and the installation of an 80-foot wide wall along a key pedestrian and transit corridor.

Revised plans for the site were filed in August, and Apple pledged to move the fountain to a nearby location, add an eight-foot wide window, and move the glass wall of the store back by four feet.

The commission has now accepted Apple's second proposal with one small caveat -- the company will need to offer improved accessibility options for the store's upper floor. Earlier today, the San Francisco Historic Preservation Commission also approved a permit for the project, giving Apple a green light to move on with the store's construction.

Apple has repurchased $14 billion of its own stock in the two weeks following its first quarter earnings call on January 27th, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.

The Journal spoke to Apple CEO Tim Cook who said that Apple wanted to be "aggressive" and "opportunistic" with its repurchases after Apple's share price dropped 8 percent the day after the results were reported.

With the latest purchases, Mr. Cook said Apple had bought back more than $40 billion of its shares over the past 12 months, which Mr. Cook said was a record for any company over a similar span.

"It means that we are betting on Apple. It means that we are really confident on what we are doing and what we plan to do," said Mr. Cook, speaking in a conference room at the company's corporate headquarters here. "We're not just saying that. We're showing that with our actions."

He went on to say that the company would share "updates" to its buyback program in March or April, roughly a year after it more than doubled its capital return program to $100 billion. Apple has bought back $40 billion in shares over the past 12 months.

Cook said that though Apple has not made any large acquisitions, it is open to making a big purchase if it made financial sense: "We have no problem spending ten figures for the right company, for the right fit that's in the best interest of Apple in the long-term. None. Zero."

As of its earnings call last month, Apple had $158.8 billion in cash, with $34.4 billion located in the United States. It's likely that the repurchase was done entirely with Apple's domestic cash.

GT Advanced, the company that has partnered with Apple to open a sapphire plant in Mesa Arizona, has purchased and received a total of 518 sapphire furnace and chamber systems with another 420 machines on order, according to analyst Matt Margolis (via 9to5Mac). The company has also purchased multiple "Sapphire Display Inspection Tools" from Intego.

The sheer amount of equipment purchased indicates that a massive sapphire production operation is being installed at the Arizona factory, and as rumors have hinted, the large amounts of sapphire being produced, along with the tools ordered, could hint at a future ultra-durable iPhone display.

Matt Margolis believes that with the current equipment the factory has, it could produce between 103 and 116 million displays per year, with an additional 84 to 94 million possible when taking into account the 420 furnaces on order. Apple could, in total, produce 100 to 200 million ~5-inch sapphire displays, enough for its entire line of devices. In 2013, Apple sold approximately 150 million iPhones.

In documentation, GT Advanced itself suggests the aforementioned Sapphire Inspection Tools are aimed at device displays.

Lowering manufacturing and fabrication costs of sapphire is a key driver for accelerating the adoption of its use in new market segments such as cover screens for smartphones and mobile devices. GT Advanced Technologies is working with key downstream technology providers to optimize fabrication processes and technologies to lower the cost of sapphire cover screen material.

GT is partnering with Intego GmbH to develop a series of automated sapphire inspection tools that will increase the yield of high quality sapphire material from each boule and ensure that only high quality material enters the value stream. The SIRIUS Slab automated sapphire inspection tool begins a new level of repeatability and performance throughput to the production of sapphire material intended for high volume markets such as mobile and touch screen devices.

In November, shortly after the partnership between GT Advanced and Apple was announced, it became clear that GT Advanced, with Apple's help, was aiming to drastically increase its sapphire production.

A recent patent pointed to Apple's interest in using sapphire as a display cover on future iPhones and shortly after, a report suggested Apple partner Foxconn had already began a small trial production of 100 devices with a sapphire display.

Those rumors, along with today's report, indicate that Apple is almost certainly aiming to use sapphire as a major component in an upcoming product such as the next-generation iPhone or the company's much-rumored iWatch. Currently, the company uses limited quantities of sapphire to protect the camera on recent iPhones and to cover the Touch ID fingerprint sensor on the iPhone 5s.

Sapphire, as the second hardest mineral after diamond, is incredibly durable and scratch resistant, as can be seen in the video below. An iPhone with a sapphire display would be almost impossible to scratch in day-to-day use.

A bug in the current version of iOS 7 appears to allow users to disable Find my iPhone on a device without typing in a password, which effectively hides it from being located on iCloud.com.

Deactivating Find My iPhone takes just a few simple steps and it can be easily repeated on devices running the current version of iOS (7.0.4). The exploit involves making a few simple changes to the iCloud account section of the Settings app.

This is a potentially serious bug as Find My iPhone is a useful method of locating a lost device. While this exploit does disable Find My iPhone and allow for an iOS device to be erased, it does not remove Apple's Activation Lock theft deterrent system. After being erased, the device will remain locked to the original account and continue to ask for that Apple ID and password during the setup process to resume functionality.

The bypass only works on a device that does not have Touch ID or a Passcode enabled, as the exploit requires access to the Settings menu. To avoid having Find My iPhone disabled, users should update their phones with a Passcode and install iOS 7.1 when Apple releases the software.

MacRumors has contacted Apple for comment on the exploit and we will update if we receive new information.

The International Olympic Committee confirmed today that Olympic athletes are free to use any device they wish during the Opening Ceremonies, including iPhones. They are also not required to cover any logos on their devices.

Yesterday, it was reported that Samsung had asked athletes to cover the logos on devices made by competitors during the opening ceremonies as a condition for receiving a free Galaxy Note 3 smartphone in the gift bags given to all athletes.

In an email exchange with MacRumors today, an IOC spokesperson was asked about athletes being asked to cover non-Samsung logos on mobile devices. She responded saying the report was "not true":

No it is not true. Athletes can use any device they wish during the Opening Ceremony. The normal rules apply just as per previous Games.

The Samsung Note 3 that were distributed are a gift to the athletes, so they can capture and share their experiences at the Games, and the phones also contain important competition and logistical information for competing athletes.

Olympic athletes are controversially banned from mentioning any non-sponsor products during their time at the Olympics, including on social media and clothing. Rule 40 of the Olympic Charter, the rule covering the mention of non-sponsors, does have a specific exemption for sponsor logos on clothing or equipment that cover less than 10% of the surface area of the product in question.

It is possible that Samsung requested that logos be covered, but it is not an official IOC request and athletes will not be penalized for using or displaying non-Samsung phones.

Last week, we noted that Apple has registered several new ".guru" domains, part of an initial batch of new generic top-level domains (gTLDs) being launched over the coming weeks and months.

That rollout is continuing this week, and Apple has wasted no time securing a number of additional domains in the new .camera and .photography families. Among the new domains registered by Apple:

- aperture.camera and aperture.photography
- apple.camera and apple.photography
- facetime.camera and facetime.photography
- imovie.camera and imovie.photography
- iphoto.camera and iphoto.photography
- isight.camera and isight.photography
- photobooth.camera and photobooth.photography
- retina.camera and retina.photography

Other new gTLDs opening for registration this week include .equipment, .estate, .gallery, .graphics, and .lighting. While Apple has apparently placed blocks to prevent registration of its own trademarks under these new gTLDs, such as apple.estate and macbook.lighting, the company so far appears to have only pursued active registrations in the .camera and .photography families.

As with the new .guru domains registered by Apple last week, the company's new .camera and .photography domains are not yet active, and it is unclear whether Apple has plans to actively use them in the future.

Apple is looking to hire an Exercise Physiologist to oversee cardiovascular fitness and energy expenditure tests at its main headquarters campus. The new position was posted to the company's job board today (via 9to5Mac).

Design and run user studies related to cardiovascular fitness & energy expenditure, including calories burned, metabolic rate, aerobic fitness level measurement/tracking and other key physiological measurements.

Candidate will be knowledgeable about the physiological effects being measured and how to avoid potential inaccuracy and experimental error due DOE flaws and/or reference monitor (i.e. metabolic cart, etc.) usage issues.

The role will need to apply relevant knowledge to the design of products and their testing/validation through user studies.

This elite team of medical researchers is presumably designing Apple's iWatch along with fashion experts like Former Yves Saint Laurent CEO Paul Deneve, who was hired last year to work under Tim Cook on a "special project". Apple's fitness band may connect to the iPhone via Healthbook, a fitness app expected to be released alongside iOS 8.

Update: Apple has removed the job listing from its site.

Imagination Technologies today announced that it has extended its licensing agreement with Apple. The financial terms of the deal were not revealed, but Imagination confirmed the deal signed was a multi-year, multi-use agreement that provides Apple with access to the company's PowerVR graphics and video hardware.

Imagination Technologies Group plc (LSE: IMG, "Imagination") announces that Apple has extended its multi-year, multi-use license agreement, which gives Apple access to Imagination's wide range of current and future PowerVR graphics and video IP cores.

Under the terms of the above licensing arrangement, Imagination will receive on-going license fees, and royalty revenues on shipment of SoCs (Systems on Chip) incorporating Imagination's IP.

Imagination also recently announced its Series6XT PowerVR GPUs, which will replace the current Series6 graphics used in Apple's A7 chipset. In detail, the company claims that its newer GPU chips will deliver a 50% benchmark performance increase when compared to similar configurations of previous generation cores. The technology is expected to debut in devices sometime in 2015.

Apple has used Imagination's PowerVR graphics architecture in all of its iPhone models to this point, and is a major investor in the company with a 10% ownership stake.

Apple has confirmed on its website that it will be opening its first retail store in Brazil on Saturday, February 15. The store will be located in Rio de Janeiro's famous Barra da Tijuca borough, located at the VillageMall luxury shopping center.

The news follows a report from last October stating that Apple was planning to open its first store in the South American country between February and March 2014, giving the location a few months to be up and running before the start of the FIFA World Cup being held in Rio during the months of June and July.

The prior report also stated that Apple would be seeking some of its U.S. Apple retail employees to temporarily relocate to Brazil to educate local employees about Apple retail procedures and act as in-store workers. However, it is unclear as to whether Apple actually followed through on the initiative or not. Apple's difficulty in recruiting employees for its Brazilian store was reportedly one of the reasons as to why the company could not open the store in July as originally intended.

Apple began hiring for its first Brazilian retail stores in November 2012, and has been working with Foxconn to move some iPhone and iPad production to the country to avoid hefty import taxes and allow Apple to expand its market share. Last October, a regulatory agency also granted Apple the authorization needed to sell the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c in Brazil, as both phones launched in the country shortly thereafter. It was also reported earlier this week that the company will restart iPhone 4 production in order to sell the device in Brazil, India, and Indonesia.

Thanks, Cássio!