MacRumors

A promotion occasionally visible on the Colombian App Store suggests Apple will soon be releasing an updated version of the Remote app that allows control of Apple TV and Mac/PC iTunes installations from iOS devices, complete with an iOS 7 redesign.

It's not the first hint that Apple has a redesign in the works -- some users have noticed that the most recent release of iTunes has a new Remote icon as well.

The last major update to Remote occurred nearly a year ago with support for iTunes 11, with a bug fix release coming this past January. Last week, Apple released updates for Podcasts, iTunes Movie Trailers, and Find My iPhone apps with iOS 7 redesigns, along with redesigned versions of the iWork and iLife suites.

Aside from Remote, iBooks, iTunes U and Find My Friends are also awaiting iOS 7 redesigns.

Remote is a free download from the App Store. [Direct Link]

Thanks Sebastián!

Western Digital has emailed customers warning them about possible data loss when connecting external hard drives to Macs with OS X Mavericks installed.

The MacRumors Forums, Western Digital's forums, and Apple's Support Communities all have threads about lost data after connecting Western Digital external hard drives to computers after updating to Mavericks.

In an email to customers, Western Digital warned about using its WD Drive Manager, WD Raid Manager, and WD SmartWare software products with Mavericks and suggests customers uninstall those applications before upgrading to Mavericks, or, if they already have upgraded, to uninstall those applications immediately.

Dear WD Registered Customer,

As a valued WD customer we want to make you aware of new reports of Western Digital and other external HDD products experiencing data loss when updating to Apple's OS X Mavericks (10.9). WD is urgently investigating these reports and the possible connection to the WD Drive Manager, WD Raid Manager and WD SmartWare software applications. Until the issue is understood and the cause identified, WD strongly urges our customers to uninstall these software applications before updating to OS X Mavericks (10.9), or delay upgrading. If you have already upgraded to Mavericks, WD recommends that you remove these applications and restart your computer.

The WD Drive Manager, WD Raid Manager, and WD SmartWare software applications are not new and have been available from WD for many years, however solely as a precaution WD has removed these applications from our website as we investigate this issue.

Sincerely,
Western Digital

Most of the complaints seem to center around Western Digital drives, but the company does say other drives could have issues as well.

Thanks Jackie!

After going offline earlier today in advance of today's iPad Air launch, Apple's online stores in the Asia-Pacific region have returned for business.

In line with reports that supplies would be plentiful, all models of the iPad Air are currently listed as shipping within 24 hours in Australia, China (only Wi-Fi models available), Japan, and Singapore, while Apple's Hong Kong store is listing 1-2 week shipping estimates.

All Apple online stores around the world are currently online, but the company's European stores will be going offline later today in advance of orders going live in a number of countries there. North America will follow several hours later, with orders set to go live in the U.S. and Canada at 12:01 AM Pacific Time.

Update: All iPad Air models in Apple's Hong Kong online store have now moved to "Currently Unavailable". Apple's outlets in Hong Kong invariably see high demand as customers seek to purchase devices there and export them to China. While that impact may be partially muted by the fact that Wi-Fi models are also launching in China itself today, pricing differences mean that the same devices are up to 15% cheaper in Hong Kong than in China.

Apple has begun inserting special entries for some of its own stock iOS apps and services into search results for users on the iOS App Store, notes MacStories, which first picked up on the addition from a Tweet by Lukas Burgstaller.

The results attempt to steer users searching for apps related to certain topics toward Apple's built-in offerings, perhaps reminding users that their needs may already be met without needing to resort to App Store apps. The special results can be seen with a variety of search terms, including exact matches for Apple's offerings such as "safari" and "siri" but also with more general terms such as "SMS" or "movies".

If you search for common terms like “web”, “SMS”, or “movies” in the iOS 7 App Store you’ll see special search results for Apple apps like Safari, Messages, and iTunes with a large icon, a description, and a link to learn more or open an app (such as Safari). These results appear on the App Store for iOS 7 devices (I wasn’t able to display them on a Mac using iTunes) and, in my tests, they also worked for queries like “browser”, “messages”, “cloud”, “internet”, “Siri”, and “text”. I’ve tried several other queries, but I couldn’t see results for other apps like Reminders, Calendars, Mail, Photos, Music, or Notes.

Depending on the app or service showing up as the result, users can either directly open the app or be directed to pages on Apple's site to learn more.

MacStories notes that while the new feature is a good way for Apple to share information with new users who may be unfamiliar with all of the apps and services included on iOS devices, it could cause concern for third-party developers who might see it as Apple trying to discourage users from downloading their apps.

Ahead of the launch of the iPad Air just hours from now, Apple's online stores in the Asia-Pacific region have been taken offline. Countries in the region where the device will be launching include Australia, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Macao, and Singapore, although all online stores in the region are currently down.

Apple's in-store sales will begin at 8:00 AM local time in countries where the company operates its own stores, and online store outages should work their way across the world later today with separate batches for Europe and North America.

Apple's November 1 launch for the iPad Air is taking place in over 40 countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, China (Wi-Fi models only), Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macao (Wi-Fi models only), Macedonia, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Romania, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and United States.

In line with an advisory committee recommendation from last month, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) today announced that it is relaxing restrictions on the use of portable electronic devices during nearly all phases of flight.

Under the new regulations, by the end of the year many passengers will be able to use their personal devices, including iPhones and iPads in Airplane Mode, throughout their flights with the exception of the actual takeoff and landing, although specific implementation will be left up to the individual airlines.

Passengers will eventually be able to read e-books, play games, and watch videos on their devices during all phases of flight, with very limited exceptions. Electronic items, books and magazines, must be held or put in the seat back pocket during the actual takeoff and landing roll. Cell phones should be in airplane mode or with cellular service disabled – i.e., no signal bars displayed—and cannot be used for voice communications based on FCC regulations that prohibit any airborne calls using cell phones. If your air carrier provides Wi-Fi service during flight, you may use those services. You can also continue to use short-range Bluetooth accessories, like wireless keyboards.

Airlines may also limit device use at other times depending on circumstances, such as earlier in the landing process during periods of low visibility where pilot reliance on electronic guidance systems is critical.

Airlines will have to certify that their aircraft can tolerate any radio interference from the personal electronics devices, and the FAA will provide clear guidelines on various risks of allowing personal electronic devices, as well as on the various areas where updates will need to be made, including signage, audio announcements, flight crew checklists, and more.

Following yesterday's release of Apple's 10-K annual report, which we shared some numbers from, Asymco analyst Horace Dediu has now taken a closer look at some of the other retail store performance numbers. Dediu notes that Apple reported a total of 395 million visits to the company's retail locations in fiscal 2013, an increase of 23 million visitors from 2012. The analyst also shows that, with the exception of some seasonal spikes, visitors per store per quarter has remained fairly steady at 240,000 since mid-2010, compared to just 160,000 visitors per store per quarter from 2007 to 2010.

In examining potential factors driving this "quantum leap" in visitors to Apple's retail stores occurring in mid-2010, Dediu determined that the launch of the iPad could be the main reason:

That leaves product. Here we have a clear suspect. The iPad launched exactly at the point in time when the visitor count leaped. In my opinion this is the best explanation.

Let’s remember also the comment from Ron Johnson at the time of the iPad launch. He said that it was as if the stores were designed for a product like the iPad. In other words, the iPad is something that needs to be discovered with a retail experience. You can sense this when you visit the stores and the placement of the iPads within.

As Business Insider points out, Dediu also notes that the average spending per visitor in an Apple retail store has remained steady for the past several years at around $50, up from the $40 spent on average before the product launched:

Next, Dediu explains that the traffic to each store depends in part on the size of the store and the "flow" of people through the store. The store renovations that Apple recently announced, Dediu says, will be geared toward improving these. Dediu also pointed out that the average spending per visitor in the stores is very steady — "around $50 since the iPad launched, $40 prior."

Apple reported during its fourth quarter earnings call this week that its retail stores made $4.5 billion in revenue in Q4 2013, with 30 new stores coming in fiscal 2014. Two-thirds of those new stores will be located outside of the United States, and Apple plans to remodel an additional 20 stores over the course of the year.