MacRumors

BlackBerry has agreed to a "letter of intent" to be acquired by Fairfax Financial, in a potential deal worth $4.7 billion or $9 per share. Fairfax currently owns 10% of BlackBerry shares.

Fairfax Financial is a conglomerate holding company, somewhat like a Canadian Berkshire Hathaway. The company's primary business is insurance. Fairfax's CEO, Prem Watsa, was on the BlackBerry board of directors until he resigned from the position last month.

The deal is far from complete, with "a number of conditions" according to Bloomberg reporter Sarah Frier. The agreement includes six weeks of due diligence and, in the meantime, BlackBerry is free to look for higher bids, though Fairfax has the right to match those bids.

From The Globe and Mail:

"BlackBerry has fallen on hard times recently, but we have every confidence it will be successful again," Fairfax CEO Prem Watsa said in an interview.

[…]

Mr. Watsa said that a significant amount of the equity in the deal will come from Canada. There are no strategic players, or other technology firms, in the consortium.

"If the right strategic investor comes in we’d consider taking them as a partner in this company," Mr. Watsa said. "We’re looking at any possibility for the good of the company, its customers and its employees."

As part of a larger reorganization of the company, BlackBerry said on Friday that it would layoff 40 percent of its staff, ceasing sales of devices to consumers. The company also put the imminent release of the iOS version of BlackBerry Messenger on indefinite hold because of separate technical issues with the rollout.

BlackBerry shares had been halted because of the news, but last traded at $8.23 a share. The stock traded near $15 as recently as July.

Microsoft today unveiled the successors to its Surface line of tablets, announcing both the Surface 2 and the Surface Pro 2. The Surface 2 is an upgrade to the existing Surface RT tablet and includes a Tegra 4 processor, a 1920 x 1080 resolution, and 25 percent better battery life.

The Surface 2 is both thinner and lighter than the original Surface RT, retaining the adjustable kickstand. Instead of USB 2.0 ports it uses USB 3.0, and includes Microsoft's full Office software (adding Outlook).

Microsoft's Surface Pro 2, the next iteration of its existing Surface Pro tablet, is equipped with an Intel Haswell processor that boosts graphics performance by 50 percent and battery life by 75 percent. Overall performance is said to be up 20 percent, and while the Surface Pro 2 includes double the memory (8GB), the form factor remains unchanged.

Accompanying the two new tablets is a new Touch Cover ($119) that boasts additional sensors, new gestures, a thinner design, and backlighting. There's also a new Power Cover ($150-$200), designed to add additional battery life to the Surface Pro and Surface Pro 2.

The Surface 2, priced at $449, is once again poised to compete with Apple's full-sized iPad. The Surface Pro 2 has a price tag of $899, putting it nearly on par with the MacBook Air. Microsoft does intend to continue selling the original Surface RT for $349.

Despite a vigorous anti-iPad campaign touting its Surface tablets, Microsoft has seen poor sales of the devices and was forced to initiate price cuts after taking a $900 million writedown for the Surface RT.

Microsoft will begin accepting pre-orders for the new Surface tablets on September 24, shipping them on October 22, which falls in the time frame of a prospective October Apple event that could see the introduction of Apple's fifth-generation iPad and Retina iPad mini.

While Apple announced record-breaking iPhone launch weekend sales of nine million units earlier today, the company did not break down relative sales of the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c. Analytics firm Localytics has, however, shared some data on usage, revealing that among U.S. users the iPhone 5s is being seen 3.4 times as often as the iPhone 5c.

In less than 3 days, the iPhone 5s and 5c combined now represent about 1.36% of the total numbers of all iPhones activated in the U.S. market across the top 4 carriers AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Sprint and T-Mobile. From the data we are seeing, 1.05% of all iPhones in the United States are now iPhone 5s and just 0.31% are iPhone 5c. That means that the iPhone 5s outshines the 5c by a factor of 3.4x, a clear indicator that the early adopters are favoring the high-end 5s compared to 5c.

International data shows a similar pattern according to Localytics, with iPhone 5s usage outpacing that of the iPhone 5c by 3.7x, with some countries such as Japan seeing ratios of as high as 5x.

While Apple made the iPhone 5c available for pre-order and has had fairly strong stocks of the device in its retail stores, the iPhone 5s has seen significant shortages, with online orders through Apple's U.S. store currently being quoted October shipping estimates. Gold and silver iPhone 5s models have been in particularly short supply, with even Apple's own retail stores having almost no supply of those devices on launch day.

The disparity in popularity between the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c is unlikely to persist over the long-term, as the iPhone 5s is more likely to be the device of choice for early adopters who made the effort to purchase the device on the launch weekend, while the lower-cost iPhone 5c will likely improve its relative performance over time as the bulk of customers who are likely to be more budget conscious purchase new phones as they become upgrade eligible.

Apple today announced opening weekend sales of the new iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c topped a record-breaking nine million units since the launch of both phones this past Friday.

“This is our best iPhone launch yet―more than nine million new iPhones sold―a new record for first weekend sales,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “The demand for the new iPhones has been incredible, and while we’ve sold out of our initial supply of iPhone 5s, stores continue to receive new iPhone shipments regularly. We appreciate everyone’s patience and are working hard to build enough new iPhones for everyone.”

Additionally, the company claims more than 200 million iOS devices are now running iOS 7, making it the fastest software upgrade in history. Apple also says that demand for the iPhone 5s has exceeded the initial supply, with many online orders scheduled to be fufilled within the coming weeks.

Apple also announced that its new iTunes Radio service has already seen over 11 million unique listeners, with the most popular track so far being "Hold On, We’re Going Home" by Drake.

The nine million iPhone units sold over the launch weekend nearly doubles the "over five million" units of the iPhone 5 sold in its opening weekend last year.

Apple retail stores have now begun offering a Personal Pickup option for the iPhone 5s through its online purchase page, allowing customers to see store availability for each model and place orders for in-store pickup.

The move comes after Apple quickly sold out of its initial iPhone 5s online order stock following its launch on Friday, with shipping estimates in the United States falling to October.

In-store pickup is also available for the iPhone 5c, although that device has seen much better availability than the iPhone 5s.

Apple cited "incredible" demand for the new iPhones in the hours after the launch, acknowledging shortages of iPhone 5s models. Gold models in particular have been more popular than Apple predicted, with the company reportedly boosting production of those models by one-third.

The iPhone 5s was announced alongside the lower-cost iPhone 5c at a media event last month, and includes features such as the new “Touch ID” fingerprint sensor, a 64-bit A7 chip, and a new iSight camera with a dual-LED “True Tone” flash.

Update: As noted by 9to5Mac, the ability to place orders for in-store pickup and check store availability is also available in the Apple Store iOS app.

The Chaos Computer Club claims to be able to bypass Apple's new Touch ID fingerprint sensor with a photo of the original user's fingerprint. The bypass is demonstrated in this short video:

The system is detailed in a how to which requires obtaining the original user's fingerprint:

First, the fingerprint of the enroled user is photographed with 2400 dpi resolution. The resulting image is then cleaned up, inverted and laser printed with 1200 dpi onto transparent sheet with a thick toner setting. Finally, pink latex milk or white woodglue is smeared into the pattern created by the toner onto the transparent sheet. After it cures, the thin latex sheet is lifted from the sheet, breathed on to make it a tiny bit moist and then placed onto the sensor to unlock the phone. This process has been used with minor refinements and variations against the vast majority of fingerprint sensors on the market.

Apple's new iPhone 5s includes a fingerprint sensor called TouchID, which can be used to unlock the iPhone as well as make purchases on the Apple iTunes store. Users, however, can continue to use a pin or password as an alternative to the fingerprint sensor -- though that is arguably even less secure than duplicating someone's fingerprint.

Apple today pulled the Apple TV 6.0 update that it released on Friday, following multiple reports on Apple's support forums stating that the update caused several critical errors for users. MacRumors forum members have also experienced a slew of problems with the software. From a forum member:

Bricked after update. Finally found micro USB cord, hooked up to iTunes and said it was restored. Said to connect to the TV. Hit ok and the light instantly started flaunt again. Same graphic on TV screen to reconnect to iTunes. Went through this three times and no love.

While some devices were bricked, rendering them completely unusable, others experienced Wi-Fi connection issues and other problems that necessitated an iTunes restore. Restoring requires a micro USB cable to connect the Apple TV to a PC or Mac with iTunes.

The update, which brought features like iTunes Radio, AirPlay from iCloud, and iTunes music purchases, seems to have disappeared from the Apple TV last night. Users that have 5.3 installed on their Apple TVs no longer have the option to install the 6.0 software.

Apple has yet to release a statement on the issue and there is no word on when the software might reappear.

Apple appears to have sold out of its iPhone 5s stock, with shipping estimates for all models in the United States slipping from 7–10 days to an ambiguous "October" ship date. The phone, which went on sale yesterday, saw shipping times of 1–3 days for the first four hours that it was available before estimates dropped to a seven to 10 day ship time.

Shipping estimates for online orders of the phone opened at 7–10 days in a number of countries, indicating significant stock shortages. Apple saw high demand for its gold iPhone 5s, which sold out within 28 minutes after launch in the United States. Both gold and silver iPhones were available in very limited quantities from Apple and other third-party retailers, while stock of the space gray phone appeared to be more widely available.

According to an Apple representative, the company saw incredible demand for the new phone, and a report from The Wall Street Journal suggests Apple has already asked its supply chain to increase production of the gold iPhone 5s in particular.

Currently, all colors and capacities of the iPhone 5s from all U.S. carriers display a shipping estimate of October. The same is true for the rest of the world, with online Apple Stores in Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Japan, Singapore, and the U.K. displaying identical October estimates.

iPhone 5c supplies remain plentiful, with all colors and capacities available to ship within 24 hours.

The iPhone's touch screen has a much faster response time than its Android and Windows counterparts, according to a new set of TouchMark benchmarks from cloud streaming company Agawi.

Using a 240fps high frame rate camera along with a custom-built device called a Touchscope, Agawi measured the App Response Time (ART) of several different smartphones. The ART is the latency experienced between the time a user touches the device display to the device’s on-screen response.

Apple’s iPhone demonstrated a minimum app response time (MART) of 55 milliseconds, a much better performance than the Galaxy S4, which had a MART of 114ms. The Lumia 928 had a similar high MART time of 117ms, and the iPhone 5's closest competitor was the iPhone 4, with a MART of 85. The HTC One and the Moto X had the highest MART times, coming in at 121 and 123ms, respectively.

Relan, Agawi CEO, spoke to Venturebeat about the company's benchmarks.

"App responsiveness is judged by how quickly the app can respond to your inputs," said Rohan Relan, cofounder and CEO of Agawi. "Smartphones with touchscreens that have lower MART scores feel snappier. This is probably why, to many users, the iPhone keyboard feels more responsive than an Android phone keyboard."

Microsoft has published a video that demonstrates how the differences between various touch screen response times translate into real world device experiences. As seen in the video, there is a noticeable difference between a 100ms latency time and a 50ms latency time.

Agawi speculates that Apple's touch screen hardware is better calibrated for capturing and processing touch than the Android and Windows devices that it was compared to. The company does note, however, that more comprehensive testing is required, and that coding differences may have slightly altered the results.

In the future, Agawi plans to develop additional TouchMark tests, releasing both the hardware and software behind the benchmarks so that its results can be replicated. The company also plans to test additional Apple devices, including the newly released iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c.

Apple CEO Tim Cook has apparently joined Twitter with the username @tim_cook, with fellow Apple executive Phil Schiller retweeting him as a means of verification. The account was first created back in July, but today saw Cook's first tweet.

Cook's bio on the site reads "CEO Apple, Fan of Auburn football and Duke basketball". Cook is an alumnus of both Auburn and Duke. His first tweet reads, "Visited Retail Stores in Palo Alto today. Seeing so many happy customers reminds us of why we do what we do."

Earlier today, Cook visited the downtown Palo Alto Apple store and shook hands with customers standing in line to purchase the iPhone 5s.

Following the release of iOS 7 and the debut of its new iPhones, Apple has today pushed a new software update to its Apple TV set-top box following months of testing.

As expected, the update offers a number of new features for Apple TV users, including support for Apple’s newly released iTunes Radio music service, iCloud Photos and Videos, iTunes Music Store purchases on the device, Podcasts, and AirPlay from iCloud.

With AirPlay from iCloud, iTunes users can play content purchased from the iTunes store on any Apple TV, streaming it via iCloud.

- iTunes Radio: Create your own radio stations and listen to them ad-free with iTunes Match.

- iTunes Music Store: Browse, purchase, and play music directly from the iTunes Music Store.

- iCloud Photos: Adds support for playing video from a shared photo stream and viewing photo streams from multiple contributors.

- AirPlay from iCloud: Apple TV will play content from iTunes in the Cloud instead of your AirPlay device when possible. Requires iOS 7 on AirPlay device.

- Podcasts: Sync your podcasts and podcast stations across Apple TV and all your iOS devices.

- Subtitles & Captioning: Automatic subtitle selection based on Apple TV language setting. Customize closed caption style.

- Conference Room Display: Lock Apple TV into Conference Room Display (for business and education environments) and show onscreen instructions for using AirPlay.

- Software Update: Keep your Apple TV always up to date by automatically installing software updates when available.

- Setup: Use an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with iOS 7 to automatically transfer network settings, your Apple ID, and language preferences. Not available on iPhone 4 and iPad 2.

Apple has been working hard to bolster its Apple TV content offerings in recent months and has added additional apps for Vevo, The Weather Channel, the Disney Channel, the Smithsonian Channel, and more. The company is also rumored to be working on an updated version of its Apple TV hardware, which could debut later this year.

Chipworks is performing a more in-depth examination of the iPhone 5s than the one performed by iFixit last night.

Among its discoveries, Chipworks found that the A7 chip is manufactured by Samsung, a big win for that firm after rumors surfaced earlier this year that Taiwan Semiconductor Company (TSMC) might win the contract for the new chip. Code discovered in iOS 7 back in July did suggest that Samsung would remain the primary manufacturer for the A7.

Chipworks also found what it believes to be the M7 motion coprocessor, which iFixit dubbed the "magical" chip because it couldn't be found on the logic board during the original teardown. Instead, the M7 is a discrete processor from NXP:

Luckily, we’ve been able to locate the M7 in the form the NXP LPC18A1. The LPC1800 series are high-performing Cortx-M3 based microcontrollers. This represents a big win for NXP. We had anticipated the M7 to be an NXP device based on input from industry analysts and our partners and we are happy to see this to be the case.

The M7 is dedicated to processing and translating the inputs provided to it by the discrete sensors; the gyroscope, accelerometer and electro magnetic compass mounted throughout the main printed circuit board. Traditional Apple techniques lead us to believe that the these discrete sensors will most likely be STMicroelectronics for the accelerometer and the gyroscope while the electro magnetic compass would again be an Asahi Kasei Microdevices (AKM). We have since confirmed the compass to be AKM’s AK8963.

Chipworks will be continuing its teardown throughout the day.

Following last night's teardown of the iPhone 5s, iFixit has completed its iPhone 5c teardown. Unsurprisingly, the iPhone 5c's dismantling has revealed numerous similarities with the iPhone 5, including nearly identical innards with matching A6 processors.

While the internals and form factor are largely the same, the iPhone 5c is slightly thicker and heavier than the iPhone 5 and due to its polycarbonate shell. The 5c also has a larger battery, measuring in at 1510 mAh compared to the 1440 mAh battery of the iPhone 5, and it shares camera parts with the iPhone 5s, though the latter has a larger aperture. iFixit found that the plastic shell was nearly impossible to bend, largely because of its heft – the rear case weighs in at 43.8 grams.

We may not have super strength, but we put this case to the muscle test, anyway. The results: this lacquered plastic is as strong and blue as Captain Planet.

It's good to know that, though the rear panel is made with plastic to presumably cut costs, Apple did not compromise build quality in the process.

iFixit gave the iPhone 5c a 6 out of 10 repairability score, one point lower than the iPhone 5 and the same score given to the iPhone 5s, due to the lack of the pull tab on the battery, the proprietary screws, and the considerable amount of adhesive used to hold the phone together. iFixit has a number of other pictures and a detailed rundown of the iPhone 5c dismantling process on its website.