MacRumors

Apple CEO Tim Cook has publicly spoken out in support of the pending Employment Nondiscrimination Act in the form of an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal, stating the company's feelings toward the current issue of workplace equality in the United States. The legislation would prohibit many civilian, nonreligious employers in the United States from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity for the purposes of hiring or other employment practices.

Cook explains in his article that Apple has made it a point to create "a safe and welcoming workplace for all employees, regardless of their race, gender, nationality or sexual orientation", while also elaborating on employee rights to express identity in a working environment.

Apple's antidiscrimination policy goes beyond the legal protections U.S. workers currently enjoy under federal law, most notably because we prohibit discrimination against Apple's gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender employees. A bill now before the U.S. Senate would update those employment laws, at long last, to protect workers against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

We urge senators to support the Employment Nondiscrimination Act, and we challenge the House of Representatives to bring it to the floor for a vote.

A U.S. Senate vote on the act is currently scheduled for November 4, 2013.

Note: Due to the potentially controversial nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

iOS engineering vice president Henri Lamiraux has retired from Apple after 23 years with the company. His retirement last month is mentioned on his LinkedIn profile and was confirmed by Lamiraux himself to 9to5Mac.

He says that he retired from Apple a "couple of weeks" ago, following the release of iOS 7.0.3. Lamiraux decided a "little while ago" that iOS 7 would be his last release.

Sources within Apple's iOS division say Lamiraux is respected and he was in charge of developing the applications that come with iOS. The executive also led feature-implementation across the operating system, and he managed both bug-fixing processes and feature distribution to consumers. He also managed the frameworks within the operating system that power features and allow developers to build applications.

Lamiraux joined Apple in 1990, spending ten years as a Mac OS and later OS X software engineer before being promoted into more senior positions. He moved over to iOS in late 2005, more than a year before the original iPhone was shown to the public, and served in several managerial roles, culminating with his being named Vice President of Software Engineering for iOS Apps and Frameworks in September 2009.

T-Mobile CEO John Legere tweeted today to clarify his company's free 200MB monthly plans for iPads on its network. He reiterated that "everyone" gets 200MB of free data with no strings attached.

Earlier today, customers trying to buy iPads on T-Mobile were told they would have to pay a $10 monthly fee to access the "free" data, contradicting an offer from last week.

The $10 per mo./fee written about today is incorrect. We had an executional mistake that we will make right. - @JohnLegere

Yes. Everyone gets the 200MB of free data. No exceptions. No strings attached. - @JohnLegere

Apple continues to have strong stocks of the iPad Air on its Online Store. Only the Space Gray iPad Air with 128GB of storage on T-Mobile is not in stock, showing an available-to-ship time of 5-10 business days.

T-Mobile is offering the 16GB Cellular iPad Air for $0 down and 24 monthly payments of $26.25 per month, with an additional $100 and $200 down payments for the 32GB and 64GB models respectively.

According to a survey by PiperJaffray, 75 percent of U.S. iPad Air purchasers on launch day already owned an iPad, compared to only 58 percent for last year's iPad mini launch.

Gene Munster, a PiperJaffray analyst, believes the U.S. market may be getting slightly more saturated.

Surveying 71 day-one iPad buyers, Munster found that the early-adopter upgrade cycle is around 23 months, significantly shorter than the general public's upgrade cycle of 30 months. Also, the average capacity purchased today was 59.7GB versus 40.5GB for the 3rd-generation iPad launch.

Of the iPad Air buyers who already own an iPad (75%), only 18% expected to keep using the old device and essentially all of those users were owners of an iPad Mini. We noted a similar trend in our iPad Mini survey in that 76% of iPad Mini buyers expected to use the Mini along with their prior full-sized iPad. We believe this makes sense as the majority of consumers that already own an iPad seemed to be replacing it with the Air entirely, but viewed the Mini as a companion device to the larger iPad. In other words, if a consumer owns more than one iPad, it is more likely to be an iPad Air and an iPad Mini than multiple full-sized iPads.

With Apple likely selling millions of iPads this weekend, PiperJaffray's survey of 71 buyers is a small fraction but the broader trends could be consistent with the larger U.S. market. 1 in 5 of today's buyers picked up the 128GB iPad Air, while a 94 percent of buyers said they owned an iPhone.

The iPad Air still remains in stock on the Apple Online Store with nearly all configurations available to ship within 24 hours.

Launch day supplies of the iPad Air in the U.S. appear to be dwindling slightly, with new orders of the tablet in all colors and capacities shipping within 24 hours and carrying a delivery estimate of November 6.

When the iPad Air launched on November 1 at 12:01 AM Pacific Time, Apple declined to provide a shipping estimate, instead offering a blanket November 4 delivery date for all U.S. orders.

Earlier this morning, in-store supplies of the iPad Air of began weakening at some retail locations, and the T-Mobile Space Gray 128 GB Wi-Fi + Cellular iPad Air was the first model to see its shipping time slip to 5 to 10 business days.

Other countries around the world have also seen dwindling supplies, with some countries seeing 5–10 day shipping times for certain models. Higher capacity iPads and the Space Gray models appear to be selling out the fastest.

Though some stores are seeing less availability of higher end models, in-store supply of the 16 and 32 GB iPad Air remains strong in most areas. Prospective iPad Air buyers in the United States can use Apple-Tracker.com to check on local availability of the iPad Air.

Unity plugin developer Icoplay has come up with a new way for developers to monetize free apps on the App Store while avoiding in-app purchases, through the use of bitcoin mining.

Bitcoin is a digital currency first developed in 2008 that has soared in value in recent years. While bitcoin value fluctuates wildly, a single bitcoin today is worth approximately $200, which makes Bitcoin mining a potentially lucrative endeavor.

Because new bitcoins are generated via complex math problems, Bitcoin mining requires an incredible amount of processing power. Icoplay is aiming to use mining software hidden within apps and games to take advantage of the latent processing power of mobile devices, rewarding the developer with bitcoin. Like distributed computing projects such as SETI@home, Bitcoin mining can be done in small chunks over hundreds or thousands of devices.

As described by Icoplay's Simon Hill on PocketGamer.biz, the company has developed the Icominer Unity plugin, which is designed to be built into an app or game, running in the background to mine for bitcoin while a player uses the application.

The core concept we worked towards is this: A developer installs the software, and every instance of its game running at any time, anywhere mines Bitcoins using the latent power of the device it's being used on.

The developer then takes its Bitcoins to spend or invest.

At Icoplay, we’ve spent the last few months making this a reality. We've ended up with software that can just be dropped into a Unity project (on any platform at all) and make this distributed model of 'passive grinding' work.

According to Hill, Icoplay's plugin is dynamically designed not to interfere with apps that it is built into, so much so that users will never "even notice the plugin is humming along in the background."

Regardless of the solution you choose, our bitcoin miner will seamlessly integrate into your game with no interference, earning you cash in perfect harmony with your existing app monetisation strategy. There’s no catch - it's just awesome.

What Hill doesn't mention, however, is that an app or game continually drawing power for a background process would certainly be a drain on system resources, quickly exhausting battery life.

Icoplay's Icominer plugin is currently in the final stages of beta, and according to the company's website, it will be released in the near future. The plugin, priced at $80, is designed to integrated seamlessly into Unity-based apps.

OS X Mavericks includes a new feature that leverages the light sensors included in many Macs to detect movement in front of the machine and prevent the system's Energy Saver sleep functions from activating even when the user is not actively using the machine, notes The Verge.

First highlighted by Moshen Chen of Radiantlabs and confirmed by developer Jonathan Wight, the feature was initially thought to use the iSight camera to monitor movements but was quickly discovered to actually be tapping into light sensors.

The sensor is already used to adjust screen brightness to ambient light, but the new OS puts it to a different purpose, tracking changes in the light as "movement," and resetting idle time accordingly. Verge tests confirmed this on two separate Mavericks laptops: after covering the camera but not the light sensor, we were able to delay sleep mode by changing the ambient lighting conditions.

Users have long been able to set separate thresholds for display and system sleep based on lack of interaction with their Macs, but under Mavericks, many Macs have now become smarter about being able to detect whether or not the user is sitting in front of the machine.

With the iPad Air now having launched in over 40 countries today, supplies of the device are starting to weaken in some of Apple's online and retail stores. The most significant signs of tightening supplies are appearing in higher-capacity models in some countries, specifically 128 GB and 64 GB cellular models and 128 Wi-Fi models. In a number of countries these models are now listed as shipping in 5-10 business days.

Apple's U.S. online store continues to list delivery dates of November 4 for new orders of all models, while those looking to use Personal Pickup to order their devices online and pick them up today at a nearby U.S. Apple retail store will find that supplies are beginning to dry up with increasing combinations of models and stores now listed as "Ships to store" rather than "Available today".

In countries other than the U.S., Apple's online stores list shipping estimates rather than delivery estimates, and the following combinations of models and countries have seen estimates slipping to 5-10 business days:

- Australia: Cellular 128 GB in space gray

- Austria: Wi-Fi and Cellular 128 GB in both space gray and silver

- Belgium: Wi-Fi 128 GB in space gray

- China: Wi-Fi 16 and 128 GB in space gray, all Wi-Fi models in silver (Cellular models not available yet)

- Czech Republic: Cellular 64 GB and 128 GB models in both space gray and silver, Cellular 32 GB and Wi-Fi 128 GB in silver

- Denmark: Cellular 128 GB in space gray

- Finland: Cellular 128 GB in both space gray and silver

- France: Cellular 128 GB in space gray

- Germany: Wi-Fi and Cellular 128 GB in both space gray and silver

- Hong Kong: All models quickly became unavailable for shipping

- Hungary: Cellular 64 GB and 128 GB models in both space gray and silver, Cellular 32 GB in silver

- Ireland: Cellular 128 GB in both space gray and silver

- Netherlands: Cellular 128 GB in space gray

- Norway: Cellular 128 GB in space gray

- Poland: Wi-Fi and Cellular 128 GB in both space gray and silver

- Portugal: Cellular 128 GB in both space gray and silver, Wi-Fi 128 GB in space gray

- Singapore: Cellular 128 GB in space gray

- Sweden: Cellular 128 GB in both space gray and silver

- Switzerland: Cellular 128 GB in both space gray and silver, Wi-Fi 128 GB in space gray

- UK: Cellular 128 GB in both space gray and silver

Update: U.S. users interested in checking availability of Personal Pickup for various models may want to take advantage of Apple-Tracker.com for a much more efficient method than going through Apple's online store manually for each model.

Update 2: The Space Gray 128GB iPad Air w/cellular on T-Mobile is the first model to see its shipping time slip on the U.S. store. It is now available to ship in 5-10 business days.

Last month, Sprint prepaid subsidiary Boost Mobile announced that it would begin offering the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c on Friday, November 8. The company has followed up with a new press release today announcing that it will be offering prices $100 below Apple's standard pricing for unsubsidized models. The launch will mark the first time Boost has officially offered any iPhone model for sale.

iPhone 5s will be available for $549.99 for the 16GB model, $649.99 for the 32GB model and $749.99 for the 64GB model. iPhone 5c will be available for $449.99 for the 16GB model and $549.99 for the 32GB model. In addition, iPhone 4s will be available for $299.99. iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c customers will be able to connect to the Sprint 4G LTE network.

Boost Mobile offers a $55/month contract-free unlimited talk/text/data service plan, although data is throttled once users reach 2.5 GB in a given month. Customers can also reduce their monthly fees by making on-time payments, with Boost reducing the charge by $5 for every six on-time payments made, down to a minimum of $40/month after 18 months.

Boost is not the only prepaid carrier brand to offer discount pricing on unsubsidized iPhone models, as fellow Sprint prepaid brand Virgin Mobile USA is also offering $100 discounts. For customers who do not need unlimited minutes, Virgin Mobile can offer even lower pricing on service than seen with Boost, as Virgin offers plans with as little as 300 monthly talk minutes for $35, or $30 with auto pay.

iFixit has performed another one of its traditional high-quality teardowns on the iPad Air. The new iPad is dramatically thinner and lighter compared to the previous models, and also sports a 64-bit A7 chip, an M7 motion compressor, and a Qualcomm MDM9615 LTE modem. Among the details revealed in the teardown:

- The display appears to be manufactured by LG. The Korean company along with Sharp and Samsung are expected to be the primary manufacturers of displays for the iPad Air. But while supplies of the iPad Air are plentiful, LG and Sharp are said to be struggling with low yields of displays for the Retina iPad mini also due for launch this month, with Apple turning to Samsung for help.

- The A7 chip found in the device has a part number of APL5698, which differs than the APL0698 chip found in the iPhone 5s. The processor in the iPad Air is likely the 1.4GHz variant which was discovered in benchmark results earlier this week, and is 100MHz faster when compared to the 1.3GHz variant found in the iPhone 5s. The Apple M7 "motion coprocessor" also makes an appearance in the logic board, with a part number of NXP LPC18A1.

- 1GB of Elpida DDR3 SDRAM is found within the device but is now housed on one chip, compared to the two Elpida chips that housed the RAM on the fourth-generation iPad.

- The iPad Air now sports a 32.9 Whr two-cell battery, which is smaller than the 43Whr three-cell battery found in the fourth-generation iPad. However, it appears that the same ten-hour battery life from the last generation has been preserved on the new device.

- As expected, the device contains essentially the same rear 5-megapixel iSight camera found in the previous generation, although with a shorter focal length. The front FaceTime HD camera remains at 1.2 megapixels for 720p quality, but with an improved sensor.

- Dual microphones are now found on the top edge of the device for noise cancelling capabilities, and are joined by other minor changes including separated volume buttons on the side and stereo speakers on the bottom of the device like that of the original iPad mini.

- Two antennae sporting multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO) technology are now included in the iPad Air, with Wi-Fi performance reportedly twice as fast when compared to previous iPads.

- The device now contains a modular nano-SIM tray for cellular connectivity, changed from the micro-SIM tray found in the previous generation.

- Two Broadcom BCM5976C1KUB6G Touch Screen Controllers are now included in the iPad Air, which is similar to the BCM5976A0KUB2G trackpad controller found in current and previous MacBooks.

As is tradition for iFixit's teardowns, the company has assigned a repairability score to the iPad Air based on the accessibility of the various components. The firm rates the iPad Air's repairability at just 2 out of 10, with positive points for easy LCD accessibility and a non-soldered battery, but the sheer amount of glue and other adhesives used to hold the device together makes repair extremely difficult.

Apple began taking orders for its redesigned thin-and-light iPad Air in the United States, Canada, and Europe at midnight Pacific Time, after the tablet launched earlier today in several Asia Pacific countries. Supply of the iPad Air has been plentiful, with multiple worldwide stores still listing shipping times of 24 hours.

The iPad Air, available in space gray/black and white/silver can be purchased directly from Apple via the Apple Online Store and through the Apple Store iOS App. [Direct Link] The Apple Store app is often the most reliable way to place an order, as it circumvents web traffic. For the first time ever, Apple is accepting Personal Pickup requests in the U.S., allowing customers to reserve an iPad Air online for pickup at a local retail location.

Initial orders from the Apple Online Store will ship within 24 hours for all colors, carriers, and capacities in Canada and Europe. U.S. online orders list a delivery date of 11/4 rather than a shipping estimate.

In the United States, Apple is selling the 16 GB Wi-Fi only iPad for $499, with incremental storage updates available for an extra $100 and Wi-Fi + Cellular models available for an additional $130. T-Mobile is offering the 16 GB iPad Air for $0 down and 24 monthly payments of $26.25 (additional storage requires a downpayment of $99 for 32 GB or $199 for 64 GB).

Walmart is selling the iPad Air at $479, a discount of $20, and Best Buy will be price matching Walmart's $479 price tag. Target may also be offering the entry-level 16 GB version for $479.

European countries seeing the launch of the iPad Air today include Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK. Apple's retail stores located in some of those countries will open at 8:00 AM local time to begin selling the device.

In the United States, the iPad Air can be purchased from the following retailers:

Apple:
Apple Online Store
Apple Store iOS App [Direct Link]

Carriers:
AT&T
Verizon
Sprint
T-Mobile

Third-Party Retailers:
Walmart
Target
Best Buy
RadioShack (In-Store Only)

A new report from Japanese business newspaper Nikkei [Google Translation] (via CNET) has shed light on the production issues surrounding the forthcoming Retina iPad Mini, with Apple now turning to rival Samsung as suppliers Sharp and LG Display have failed to produce an adequate supply of displays for the new tablet.

Apple CEO Tim Cook stated earlier this week during the company's fourth quarter earnings call that that it was “unclear whether we will have enough for the quarter or not,” with a report on Wednesday stating that Sharp’s low yield of displays was reportedly tied to the shortage.
It was notably reported back in August that Samsung had become the primary iPad display supplier, as the Korean company along with LG and Japan Display was said to be supplying 7.9-inch panels for the next-generation iPad mini. The Wall Street Journal also commented in July that the Retina iPad mini would use screens from Samsung, LG, and Sharp.

Apple has been reported to be seeking to reduce its reliance on Samsung as a component supplier due to continuing tensions between the two companies as they have increasingly become top competitors in the mobile device market. However, it has been reported for several months now that Apple would be returning to Samsung as a display supplier due to its technological advantages and production capacity.

While supplies of the Retina iPad mini will be constrained, supplies of the iPad Air are expected to be more plentiful, with the company will offer same day in-store pickup for orders of the new full-sized tablet. As noted by Apple during the introduction of the second-generation iPad mini, a Retina display has been one of the most requested features for the smaller iPad since its release last year.

Apple's Online Store is down in the United States and several other countries to prepare for the launch of online sales of the iPad Air. The iPad Air, which will be available to consumers in a few short hours, is Apple's new flagship thin-and-light tablet that comes equipped with an A7 processor, the M7 coprocessor, and upgraded MIMO Wi-Fi.

As Apple prepares to launch the iPad Air, prospective buyers around the country have begun lining up outside of Apple Stores. Supply of the iPad Air is expected to be plentiful, with even some standard mall stores receiving shipments of up to 1000 units.

The iPad Air launched in several other countries earlier in the day and stock remains steady in those online stores, with shipping times still listed at 24 hours, aside from Hong Kong, where the tablet has sold out.

Apple will be accepting day one Personal Pickup requests for the first time ever with the launch of the iPad Air, which means consumers can reserve an iPad Air online after 12:01 AM and pick it up later that same day.

The Online Apple Store is expected to come online and accept orders at 12:01 AM Pacific Time, or 3:01 AM Eastern Time. In store sales will begin later in the day, at 8 AM local time.

Apple is working on a fix to address issues with the native Mail client in OS X Mavericks, including problems with Gmail, stability, and smart mailboxes, reports 9to5Mac.

There have been widespread reports of Mavericks users experiencing problems receiving messages, sorting messages into folders, and deleting messages. Apple is aware of the problem and has seeded an updated Mail app to both Apple employees and testers in Apple's AppleSeed customer program.

Apple is telling testers that the updated Mail app, which carries the same Version 7.0 as the current app but an updated build number of 1822 compared to 1816 for the publicly available version, fixes those issues while addressing overall stability and smart mailbox enhancements. The company is also asking users with the updated Mail app to test for the following things:

- Use Mail with your usual Mail accounts, including iCloud, Gmail, Exchange, etc.
- Send Mail messages
- Receive and check for new Mail messages at the intervals you expect it
- Read and move Mail messages to folders on your mail server, folders on your Mac, smart folders.
- Delete Mail messages as appropriate
- Undo move or delete actions with your Mail messages
- Mark messages read/unread in both your mail provider’s webpage and Mail and verify they stay in sync.

Currently, the update is only available as a downloadable patch for Apple employees and testers rather than a regular update to Mavericks. While OS X 10.9.1 is well into development, it's not yet known whether the Mail update will roll out separately or be included with OS X 10.9.1.

Apple's iPad Air has already gone on sale in multiple countries around the world, including Australia, where Ben Pasternak waited in line to get one of the new ultrathin tablets and filmed his Apple Store launch day experience.

After receiving his iPad Air, Pasternak also filmed an unboxing, giving the world a glimpse of an iPad Air out in the wild. Like other iPads, the iPad Air comes packaged in a sleek white box.

While the iPad Air has already launched in several countries like Australia and Singapore, additional countries across Europe will be able to purchase the tablet in a few short hours. In the United States and Canada, online orders will begin at 12:01 AM Pacific Time with retail sales commencing at 8 AM local time.

The third ad in Apple's print magazine campaign for the iPhone 5s has appeared on the back of this week's issue of Entertainment Weekly, focusing on the 5s' camera improvements and True Tone flash. The ad once again depicts the gold iPhone 5s, this time from behind, and includes a paragraph that describes the advantages of the 5s' camera.

A better photographer, built in. 

Instead of teaching people to take better photos, why not teach the camera? The new iSight camera's software makes dozens of smart decisions every time you click--from True Tone flash that analyzes and adapts to your lighting, to burst mode which takes multiple pictures and suggests the best ones.

The new iSight camera. Only in iPhone 5s.

The ad in our image depicts AT&T branding, but Apple's ads for iPhone have traditionally rotated between carriers, likely part of a co-marketing agreement between Apple and the carriers.

After the launch of Apple's new iPhones, the 5c received most of the advertising, likely because of the iPhone 5s' limited stock levels initially. Apple's advertising for the iPhone 5s has been gearing up over the past two weeks with new print and TV spots. The print ads do note that the phone has "limited availability".

Apple opened its online store to customers in Turkey today, bringing direct ordering of its full lineup of products to the the country's 74 million residents.

Apple is set to open its first Turkish retail store in Instanbul at the beginning of 2014, with several other stores in the country in the pipeline. Earlier this year, Apple launched its online store in Russia as international sales make up an increasing portion of Apple's revenue.

Turkey is not part of the first round of countries selling the iPad Air.

(Thanks, Goktug!)