MacRumors

Apple has hired former Nike design director Ben Shaffer, claims 9to5Mac, citing a source at Nike. Shaffer worked as the Studio Director of the "Innovation Kitchen", Nike’s research and development lab, which produced popular Nike products like the Nike Fuelband and the Flyknit shoe.

While it is unknown what position Shaffer will take on at Apple, it seems likely that he will be involved in the development of the iWatch, given his expertise in wearables. Apple has been aggressively hiring for its iWatch team in recent months, acquiring a number of experts in the health sensor field. The company also recently hired fitness expert and former Nike consultant Jay Blahnik.

At the D11 conference in May, Apple CEO Tim Cook called the idea of smart watches and other wearables "incredibly interesting" saying the market was "ripe for exploration." Since then, Apple has filed for "iWatch" trademarks in a number of countries across the world, including Jamaica, Russia, Japan, Taiwan, Mexico, Turkey, Colombia, Chile, and India.

The most recent rumors have suggested Apple's iWatch will not make an appearance until late 2014 due to "hard engineering problems" that have yet to be solved.

Update: According to Fast Company's Austin Carr, though Shaffer did oversee Nike's Innovation Kitchen, he was not a part of the Nike Fuelband team, making it unclear what his role at Apple will be.

Last month, we revived our Roundups feature with new pages covering the iPhone 5s, iPhone 5c, iOS 7, and Apple's rumored iWatch, offering a frequently updated one-page summary of the latest news and rumors about each product.

With the new iPhones and iOS 7 now launched, we're continuing to update those articles with information to help site visitors stay on top of the latest developments, but we're also launching a number of new roundups today to address Apple's upcoming iPad and Mac product launches expected over the next several months.

New roundups include:

- iPad 5
- iPad mini 2
- MacBook Pro
- Mac Pro
- iMac
- Mac mini

As with the original set of iPhone and iOS roundups, the goal of each of the new roundups is to simply answer the question of "What are you expecting" for any given product. That opinion is certain to change over time as new rumors are revealed, and the roundups will be updated regularly to reflect that. Roundups for recently updated products will also include details on the new models to help bring visitors up to speed on what they have to offer.

Our roundup index page continues to include a full list of our available roundups ordered by most recently updated. Roundups are also accessible directly through the "Roundups" tab in the navigation bar on all MacRumors pages. We will continue to update the existing roundups and add new ones for other products over time.

Back in June soon after Apple offered a sneak peek at the new Mac Pro, a Geekbench result from the new machine appeared revealing some performance information about the machine under its internal product code name of AAPLJ90,1. That machine was running a 12-core Intel Xeon E5-2697 v2 at 2.7 GHz, representing what would be a high-end model of the machine.

Today, a new Geekbench result that appears to be a second legitimate Mac Pro has appeared, this time running a lower-end 8-core Intel Xeon E5-1680 v2 chip at 3.0 GHz. As with the previous Mac Pro seen on Geekbench, this new machine is running a custom internal build of OS X Mavericks, in this case Build 13A3010.

Exact Geekbench scores are not comparable between the two Mac Pro models, as the original one was benchmarked using Geekbench 2 and the new one was benchmarked under Geekbench 3, which uses a new baseline measure. The latest machine can, however, be compared to other Mac models tested using Geekbench 3.

On the 32-bit Multi-Core Geekbench 3 scoring, this new 8-core Mac Pro registers a score of 24429, on par with scores achieved by the higehst-end 2010 and 2012 Mac Pro models running dual 6-core processors for a total of 12 cores. The new Mac Pro also handily beats the Geekbench performance of earlier 8-core models.

While Geekbench can assess raw CPU and memory performance, Apple's new Mac Pro will also bring massive new graphics capabilities that can be leveraged for computational purposes. The new Mac Pro will come with dual AMD FirePro GPUs standard, giving users additional computational horsepower while being able to simultaneously drive up to three 4K displays.

Apple's new Mac Pro is scheduled for release this fall, but the company has yet to announced detailed specifications, pricing, or an exact release date.

Rumors of a narrower and thinner design for the fifth-generation iPad have been circulating for a number of months now, with Apple reportedly taking some design cues from the iPad mini in redesigning the full-size iPad with narrower side bezels, a thinner shell, and more rounded curves.

As long ago as last December, rumors indicated that the new iPad would shave off 4 mm in height, 17 mm in width, and 2 mm in thickness compared to the current design, and based on those rumors and leaked rear shell photos, we created renderings of what the device might look like fully assembled. A number of photo leaks of the rear shell and front panel of the device have continued to support the claims of the iPad mini-inspired redesign.

A case maker's design drawings have now been provided to AppleInsider showing the expected exact dimensions of the fifth-generation iPad. According to the drawings, the next iPad will measure 7.5 mm thick, a full 2 mm thinner than the current iPad and 0.3 mm thicker than the iPad mini.

The new iPad will only shave a little more than 1 mm off of the height of the current iPad, but the much narrower side bezels will reduce the width of the device by over 16 mm or nearly 9%.

Similar design drawings surfaced for the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c, and while they were nearly spot on in several of their measurements, it should be noted that those drawing had pegged the iPhone 5c as being 8.5 mm thick while the official thickness according to Apple is 8.97 mm, indicating that these design drawings are not always perfect.

Earlier this week, we noted that a number of regional carriers in the United States and Canada had begun announcing plans to begin selling the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c on October 1, representing a coordinated expansion of availability for the device even as iPhone 5s supplies remain extremely tight.

One notable exception to the list of carriers launching the new iPhones on that date was Virgin Mobile, but in a pair of Tweets issued today the company has announced that it too will be part of that October 1 rollout.

Virgin Mobile, a prepaid brand from Sprint, first began carrying the iPhone in June 2012 with the iPhone 4s and iPhone 4. The carrier did not begin selling the iPhone 5 until June of this year, some nine months after the handset debuted on the major U.S. carriers.

Following the emergence last week of new photos that appeared to show the rear shell of the next-generation iPad mini in Apple's new "Space Gray" color, new photos of an alleged "gold" model with a Touch ID fingerprint sensor have surfaced on Chinese website Zol.com.cn [Google Translate] (via Nowhereelse.fr [Google Translate]).

Specifically, the first photo of the device shows the lower half of the device from front, which appears to reveal a metal ring around the home button, much like the recently released iPhone 5s. The second photo from the set shows the tablet from the rear, revealing a gold finish similar to that of the gold iPhone 5s.

We do, however, have some concerns over the legitimacy of the images, as the staged environment lacking much context could be indicative of these simply being high-quality renderings rather than actual photos. Suspicions are also raised by the fact that this device appears to be fully assembled, which is a far more advanced state than has been seen before, as until now only various part leaks have surfaced.

Apple is expected to unveil its second-generation iPad mini with Retina display and fifth-generation iPad at a media event within the next month or so, although a report from earlier yesterday indicated that the next-generation iPad mini may not ship alongside the new full-size iPad.

The Federal Aviation Administration advisory committee has recommended that electronic device restrictions on commercial aircraft be relaxed. According to the committee, airline passengers should be permitted to use smartphones, tablets, e-readers, and other personal electronic devices during taxi, takeoff and landing.

The 28-member committee agreed on the recommendations during a closed-door meeting, the officials said. The recommendations will be included in a report to be delivered to the FAA early next week, they said.

Current rules prohibit the use of electronic devices such as the iPad or the iPhone below 10,000 feet, which means airline passengers are instructed to power off their devices as the plane ascends and descends. Pilots and crew, however, are allowed to use iPads during all phases of flight and many airlines have replaced pilot flight bags with iPads to reduce weight and save money.

The ban has been in place to prevent electronic devices such as cell phones from interfering with cockpit equipment, but modern planes are designed to prevent electronic interference.

The Federal Aviation Administration began reexamining the regulations that ban electronic device usage below 10,000 feet last year, and in March, the FAA’s advisory committee reported that it hoped to loosen device restrictions by the end of the year.

Under today’s recommendation, passengers would be able to use most devices, though some, like Apple’s iPhone, would need to be switched to airplane mode. Downloading data, browsing the web, and talking on the phone would remain prohibited, though reading e-books, listening to music, watching movies, and playing games would be permitted during all phases of flight.

The recommendation will be delivered to the Federal Aviation Administration next week, but it remains up to the FAA to decide whether to follow the recommendations of the committee. The FAA created the committee and was involved in committee deliberations, so it is likely that some of the changes will be implemented, though a timeline for the change is thus far unknown.

Apple and Staples have agreed to a deal to sell various iPad and iPod models on the Staples online store in the U.S., reports 9to5Mac. The deal will potentially expand to Staples' retail stores as well if the company is able to sell a certain amount of iPads per week.

The source says that if each Staples store refers one iPad sale per week in October, two per week in November, and five per week in December, Apple will be willing to sell iPads in physical Staples locations.

If Staples is able to meet Apple's sales goals it could see its brick-and-mortar stores selling iPads and iPods by early 2014, according to 9to5Mac. It would also be the second successful Apple test for Staples, as it appears that Apple and Staples' deal to sell accessories was a "testbed" to see whether Staples' customer base and Apple's products were a good fit.

In March, MacRumors revealed screenshots of training materials for Staples' sales associates that educated them on Apple's various products, including Macs, Apple TV, iPhones, iPads and more.

Currently, Staples sells iPads on its online store in Canada. Expanding into Staples' 1,500 United States retail stores would be a significant expansion of Apple's distribution chain. Staples also offers an appealing channel for businesses that already have billing accounts and existing relationships with the retailer for office supply needs.

U2 singer Bono, who heads up the (Product) RED charity Apple has collaborated with since 2006, today announced (via TechCrunch) Apple has raised more than $65 million to fight AIDS in Africa.

Since it first debuted a special edition (Product) RED iPod nano in 2006, Apple has released a number of (RED) devices, including several iPod nanos and shuffles. The company has also produced a (RED) iPad Smart Cover, iPad mini Smart Cover, and an iPhone Bumper, along with a new (RED) iPhone 5s case. For every (RED) product bought, Apple donates a portion of the purchase price to the charity.

(RED) works with companies like Apple to fight for an AIDS-free generation by 2015 by creating (PRODUCT) RED merchandise. A percentage of gross profits from the sale of those products goes to the Global Fund to help fund AIDS programs in Africa.

(Product) RED is affiliated with several other companies in addition to Apple, including Starbucks, Nike, and American Express, raising more than $200 million to date.

Apple today added a new page to its website featuring reviews of the new iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c from a number of prominent publications and sites. Carrying the tagline "It seems we've given people a lot to talk about," the review page is currently being featured on Apple's main iPhone page.

The feature page contains quotes from and links to reviews from The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Time, CNET, USA Today, Esquire, Engadget, Daring Fireball, AnandTech, and TechCrunch. Most of the quoted and linked reviews cover the iPhone 5s, although several address the lower-cost iPhone 5c as well.

Most of those reviews for the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c were published on Tuesday, September 17, several days before the devices launched to the public. Apple introduced the devices at a September 10 media event, and provided review units to several publications in advance of the public release, allowing them to publish their reviews in a coordinated release late on the 17th.