As announced earlier this week, Apple today began selling the new iPad in twelve new countries: Brunei, Croatia, Cyprus, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Malaysia, Panama, South Korea, Saint Maarten, Uruguay and Venezuela. An additional nine countries will see the new iPad launch a week from today.
Just as Apple expands availability of the device yet again, the company is also reducing shipping estimates in a number of markets, now citing 5-7 business days for new orders instead of the 1-2 week estimate that has been in place for the past month. The new 5-7 business day estimates appear to be in effect in Apple's North American and Asia/Pacific distribution channels, but have not yet made their way to the company's European channel, where estimates remain at 1-2 weeks.
Update: Fortune posts a video of the new iPad going on sale at an Apple reseller in South Korea.
Taiwan's Central News Agency reports on comments from DisplaySearch analyst David Hsieh, who believes that Apple is planning to use new "in-cell" display technology from Japanese manufacturers in the next-generation iPhone. The move would benefit suppliers such as Sony, Sharp, and Toshiba, which currently lead the industry in the technology.
Compared with on-cell technology, touch panels that use in-cell technology can be made thinner because the touch sensors are actually placed inside the color filters rather than on top of them, he explained.
At present, Taiwan's TPK Holding Co. and Wintek Corp., which supply touch panels to Apple, use mainly on-cell technology in their products, according to the two companies.
The occasionally-reliable Digitimes is reporting similar claims based on "sources in Apple's supply chain", indicating that improvements in yield rates for the in-cell panels have made it feasible for Apple to use the technology in its products. According to the report, Sharp and Toshiba will be ramping up their production of in-cell panels this quarter.
RTÉ reports that Apple is making plans to add 500 more jobs at its European headquarters in Cork, Ireland, bringing the total headcount at the site to 3,300 as the company works to continue expansion of its business in the region.
The company plans to construct a three-storey office block next to its existing plant in the city to cater for the expansion of its business in Europe, the Middle East, India and Africa.
Apple has been in Cork for 30 years and currently employs 2,800 people in the city.
Apple expects to add the new jobs over the next 18 months, and the move appears to be on top of plans for 350 jobs in downtown Cork announced less than a year ago.
The company's main campus in Cork was in the news earlier this week after Greenpeace activists scaled a building to protest Apple's use of coal-derived power at its data centers.
Apple of course continues to expand its workforce at and around its corporate headquarters in Cupertino, California, with the company snapping up a number of leases in the area to support the growth as it works toward building a new campus for up to 13,000 workers. The company is also expanding at its other primary employment hubs, currently working with governmental authorities on a plan to add 3,600 at its administrative and support center in Austin, Texas, doubling the size of its workforce there.
Apple CEO Tim Cook didn't visit Valve headquarters according to company co-founder Gabe Newell. The rumor, originally reported by AppleInsider, was squashed by Newell in a podcast interview.
We actually, we all sent mail to each other, going, "Who's Tim Cook meeting with? Is he meeting with you? I'm not meeting with Tim Cook." So we're... it's one of those rumors that was stated so factually that we were actually confused.
No one here was meeting with Tim Cook or with anybody at Apple that day. I wish we were! We have a long list of things we'd love to see Apple do to support games and gaming better. But no, we didn't meet with Tim Cook. He seems like a smart guy, but I've never actually met him.
The report of the meeting between Cook and Valve executives set off a torrent of speculation about partnerships between the companies, including rumors of Valve's Steam service integrating with the App Store or an Apple television.
9to5Mac claims Apple's marketing chief Phil Schiller told a fan that the uber-popular photography app Instagram "jumped the shark" after it launched an Android version.
Schiller recently deleted his Instagram account and a 9to5Mac reader noticed this and asked why he had deleted it.
Update: As noted in an update to the original post, one individual was able to contact Schiller about his comment and received a response clarifying his feelings on Instagram's evolution.
Instagram is a great app and community. That hasn't changed.
But one of the things I really liked about Instagram was that it was a small community of early adopters sharing their photographs.
Now that it has [grown] much larger the signal to noise ratio is different.
That isn't necessarily good or bad, it's just not what I originally had fun with.
Earth is under siege by the Strogg, a barbaric alien race moving through the universe consuming, recycling and annihilating any civilization in their path. In a desperate attempt to survive, an armada of Earth’s finest warriors is sent to take the battle to the Strogg home planet.
More importantly, unlike some older games that have recently been released as a campaign edition, without the multiplayer component, Quake 4 has full cross-platform multiplayer support, including Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Tourney, Capture the Flag, Arena CTF and DeadZone.
The game requires an Intel processor but has a generous list of supported video cards.
Midway Arcade, a collection of classic Midway video games ported to the iOS, has received an update adding support for the iCade iPad gaming add-on. The iCade started life as a ThinkGeek April Fool's joke, but has since become a well-supported iOS game controller. Ion Audio, the company behind the iCade, announced new versions of the product at CES this year.
Morphing drug pushers into plumes of viscera and leg parts has never been easier, thanks to the latest update to Midway Arcade. The arcade collection app, which features tons of classic arcade titles including NARC and Rampage, now features iCade support. We spent a moment or two in the app this morning and can confirm that the added support is sharp. We can also confirm that NARC is still the greatest game that has ever been made.
Qualcomm yesterday warned analysts that it is experiencing supply issues with some of its advanced mobile phone chips, particularly its new 28-nm modem chips set to power the next wave of LTE devices.
"At this stage we cannot secure enough supply to meet the increasing demand we are experiencing," Chief Executive Paul Jacobs told analysts on a conference call, adding that the issue would limit revenue growth this year. [...]
"Demand went so far ahead of availability that we've decided to start spending more money to get more supply as soon as possible," [Chief Financial Officer Bill Keitel] told Reuters. "Any time we can't make a customer totally happy I'm going to worry. You don't want to give a customer a reason to go elsewhere."
As a result of the issues, analysts believe that vendors may have to slow their rollout of new devices, and a report out today from Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster predicts that the next-generation iPhone will arrive in October.
Munster had previously been modeling for an August launch as a hedge between those thinking the device may arrive in June and those thinking it will arrive in a September-October timeframe similar to the iPhone 4S. Apple is expected to use Qualcomm's 28-nm MDM9615 modem chip in its next-generation iPhone to provide LTE data and voice services, and the chip appears to be one of those impacted by Qualcomm's supply issues.
QCOM will likely support an Apple iPhone launch in October. Based on our checks, we believe the design win momentum of QCOM's 28nm products has been exceptionally strong and a 28nm LTE baseband is likely designed into the next iPhone. QCOM's supply issue likely pushes the launch of the iPhone to October. Based on the increased capital spending this year from TSMC and QCOM's efforts over the last quarter to port its 28nm designs to UMC and probably Global Foundries, we think QCOM will have the capacity to support a Q4 LTE iPhone 5 launch. Moreover, the slow wireless infrastructure spending in 1H:12 is also likely a result of the lack of availability of a low power 28nm LTE baseband modem.
Apple may have been planning for a September-October iPhone launch all along, but Qualcomm's issues seem to make it less likely that those holding out hope for an earlier launch will see something closer to the June-July timeframe that had been the traditional launch window prior to last year.
Munster believes that it is "irrelevant" whether the iPhone launches in August as his model currently predicts or in October, with the primary driver of success being whether the upgrade is a compelling one for consumers. And with the next-generation iPhone expected to offer LTE support and carry a redesigned form factor, it seems likely that it will be an attractive device for both new and upgrade customers.
Plants vs. Zombies for iPhone and iPad both received some content loving while you were in bed last night. Plants vs. Zombies iPhone received Vasebreaker Endless mode, which packs in a total of nine levels. The iPad version, on the other hand, now supports Zen Garden, Vasebreaker Endless, "I, Zombies" mode, and four new mini-games: Slot Machine, Portal Combat, Beghouled Twist, and Zombiquarium have been included. The Plants vs. Zombies wiki has delightfully ridiculously in-depth looks on each of these modes, if you need to know exactly what you'll be getting into before updating.
The update is, of course, free for current owners of Plants vs. Zombies. The Mac version of PvZ has not been updated.
Plants vs. Zombies for iPhone is $2.99 on the App Store. [Direct Link] Plants vs. Zombies HD for iPad is $6.99 on the App Store. [Direct Link]
Back in January, blogger Seattle Rex announced that he would be suing Apple over issues related to his 2008 MacBook Pro that appears to have suffered from an NVIDIA graphics card failure. According to Rex, the graphics chip on his top-of-the-line 17-inch MacBook Pro began to flake out late last year, two months after his AppleCare extended warranty expired, and a month later the machine died completely, refusing to boot.
Upon taking the machine to the Genius Bar at a local Apple retail store, Rex was informed that because the machine could not be booted to confirm that the graphics chip was indeed defective, he would have to pay for all repairs to the machine, up to $600.
I proceeded to explain my displeasure with the “genius”, firmly, but politely. I explained, calmly, that a $4,500 laptop that fails in 3 years and 3 months is defective. Period. I explained to him that a chip on the mainboard was known to be defective, and that Apple had admitted as much. I was calm, but at this point, I think my temper was starting to show, because I could feel that telltale flushness in my face.
Following an additional two months of speaking to various levels of Apple's support and executive relations teams and filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau, all to no avail, Rex filed suit against Apple in small claims court seeking compensation for his dead MacBook Pro and associated expenses.
And finally, Rex earlier this week published a lengthy blog post outlining his experience facing off against two Apple lawyers last week and winning an unspecified sum sufficient to purchase a new computer. Among the interesting incidents from the proceedings:
- Apple's lawyers argued that Rex's MacBook Pro wasn't covered by the repair program because he had purchased a build-to-order machine with a faster processor, even though the machine carried the same GeForce 8600M GT graphics chip that was the subject of the repair program. Only after Rex presented this information to the court did Apple's lawyers admit the fact and concede that the machine should be covered for repair.
- Rex had refused to accept a replacement logic board for his MacBook Pro, arguing that he would simply receive yet another defective GeForce 8600M GT chip. Apple's lawyers conceded that the machine could only accept the GeForce 8600M GT chip, and the judge ruled that Rex's machine was not repairable.
- Apple fought the case even though a repair could have been made at no expense to Apple, as NVIDIA was covering the cost of repairs related to the defective chip.
At one point, the judge asked Apple how much it would have cost them to have simply replaced my logic board when I had taken it in, and one of the Apple guys said “Oh, it wouldn’t have cost us anything, Nvidia foots the bill for each board we replace.”
The judge’s face almost hit the floor as he shot me a quizzical look, to which I just shrugged. I knew that he, and everyone else in the courtroom was thinking the same thing:
If Apple could have replaced my logic board at no cost to themselves, then why in the hell did they drag this out for so long, and why did they send two people to court to try and make sure that I got absolutely nothing? Friends, this is a question I have been asking myself for three months, and it is a question that I do not have the answer to.
Rex still has to collect on the judgment, which covers the cost of a new computer and compensation for court costs and other minor expenses, and he remains concerned that Apple will try to avoid making the required payment.
Beyond his own case, Rex notes in an update to his post that the response from readers has been overwhelming, with numerous readers sharing similar tales of being unable to have suspected NVIDIA graphics chip failures covered by Apple's repair program. Consequently, he is now considering organizing a class action lawsuit to allow those affected by the issue to band together in seeking compensation.
Marking the first significant piece of data to help build a picture of Apple's quarterly iPhone sales numbers ahead of next week's earnings release, Verizon today announced its own earnings results for the first quarter of 2012, revealing during the associated conference call that it activated 3.2 million iPhones during the quarter.
The number is down from 4.3 million iPhones in the previous quarter, which was part of Apple's record-setting launch quarter for the iPhone 4S that saw the company sell 37 million iPhones worldwide.
Analysts are generally expecting Apple's iPhone sales for the first calendar quarter of 2012 to be down slightly from that 37 million number, and Verizon's results certainly support that belief, at least in the United States. But increased international availability of the iPhone 4S during the first quarter, most notably a launch in China in mid-January and an expansion to China Telecom in early March, should help Apple maintain strong iPhone momentum.
Overall, Verizon reported sales of 6.3 million smartphones during the first quarter, meaning that the iPhone continues to represent just over half of the carrier's smartphone business. But Verizon is continuing to shift the focus of its data highlights toward its 4G LTE network, with the carrier noting that it sold 2.9 million LTE devices during the quarter. 4G LTE users now make up 9.1% of Verizon's wireless user base.
As noted by Macgasm, Apple has begun notifying at least some MobileMe users of a new upgrade program offering a free copy of Mac OS X Snow Leopard. The offer is being made to provide users of machines running older versions of Mac OS X with a reduced-cost pathway to upgrade to OS X Lion, which is required to take full advantage of the features of iCloud.
With OS X Lion being distributed via the Mac App Store, users need to have Mac OS X Snow Leopard installed on their systems in order to access the store. Consequently, users still on Mac OS X Leopard or earlier would have to pay $29 to upgrade to Snow Leopard via disc and then an additional $29.99 to upgrade to Lion via the Mac App Store in the absence of the new upgrade program. With MobileMe set to be discontinued in favor of iCloud as of June 30, Apple is clearly seeking to encourage MobileMe users to move their accounts to iCloud.
In an article sent to MobileMe customers, Apple has recommended that potential customers get in touch with Apple to receive a free DVD of Snow Leopard so that users can upgrade to Lion, and move to iCloud. All you have to do is follow this link, log in to MobileMe with your Mobile Me account, and fill out your mailing information. Apple will then send you a Snow Leopard DVD for free.
Mac OS X Snow Leopard remains available in the Apple online store for $29, suggesting that the offer is a targeted program intended for MobileMe members who need to upgrade their systems in order to move to iCloud rather than a general price cut for all purchasers of Snow Leopard.
An Apple lawyer has said it wants a trial to defend itself in an antitrust lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Justice over the pricing of e-books. Apple's attorney said the company "would like the case to be decided on the merits".
Apple Inc wants to go to trial to defend itself against U.S. government allegations that it conspired with publishers to raise prices of electronic books, a lawyer for the Silicon Valley giant said in court on Wednesday.
Two publishers took a similar stance in the first hearing in Manhattan federal court since the anti-trust division of the Department of Justice last week accused Apple and five publishers of colluding to break up Amazon.com's low-cost dominance of the digital book market.
The next hearing in the case has been scheduled for June 22. Apple has previously come out strongly against the lawsuit, with a spokesperson saying the accusations against the company were "simply not true."
9to5Mac reports that Apple is working on a new hardware solution for its retail store Genius Bars that would allow staff to quickly back up devices requiring replacement and move that data back onto the the replacement devices. While users are always encouraged to back up their devices before bringing them to a Genius Bar appointment, users who fail to do so and then learn that their devices require replacement can lose valuable data.
According to the report, the systems would essentially be a local wireless backup system capable of quickly obtaining an iCloud backup from a device and temporarily storing it while the device is swapped out for the user. Once the replacement device is powered on and activated if necessary, Genius Bar staff would be able to quickly pull that data onto the new device to provide the user with a fully-updated and functional replacement device.
A user brings in their iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch to the Genius Bar to be swapped for a fully working unit. The person didn’t back up their device. Now, instead of having to conduct an iCloud wireless backup or go home for a tethered iTunes backup, the Genius Bar will have the ability to mirror an iCloud backup, but onto a local store server. After the device is swapped, the Genius can pull the content right back from the server onto the new device. The content is then automatically wiped from the store server.
While users could presumably use their existing iCloud accounts and Apple's in-store Wi-Fi access to accomplish similar backups in the event that device replacement is needed, the local systems are said to operate more efficiently and can assist users who have not signed up for iCloud accounts.
The report's source indicates that the project is still in the early prototyping phase and may not ever be released, but if Apple does decide to bring it into the field it may begin appearing in retail stores in mid-2013.
MacRumors has received a number of reports today from users who have been unable to access their iCloud mail accounts, and a growing thread in Apple's discussion forums is documenting the growing complaints.
According to user reports, iCloud mail went down around 9:30 AM Eastern Time this morning, and it remains out some seven hours later. Apple updated its iCloud System Status page at 10:08 AM Eastern Time to note that Mail and Notes were down for some users, but pegged the issue as affecting less than 1% of users.
iCloud services do go down from time to time, although the downtime is usually fairly brief, as evidenced by a short half-hour outage just yesterday. And while Apple's status update indicates that only a small number of users are being affected by this latest outage, for those who are unable to access their mail the extended seven-hour downtime may be a significant inconvenience.
Apple has provided no estimate of when affected users can expect iCloud mail services to return, noting only that they "will be restored ASAP".
Just over a month after the arrival of the previous build, Apple today seeded registered members of the Mac Developer Program with the third developer preview version of OS X Mountain Lion.
The new version arrives as Build 12A178q, up from the earlier 12A154q version. Changes included in the new version have yet to be discovered, but those with access to the build will undoubtedly be searching for Apple's latest tweaks as the company continues to work on the next-generation operating system.
Apple does list a number of known issues with the current build:
- On systems with FileVault enabled, canceling the restart to the Mountain Lion Developer Preview 3 Installer may leave your system unable to present a password dialog at boot time. You can repair the problem by holding down command-R to boot to the Recovery OS and then using Disk Utility to unlock and Repair your volume. - Installing OS X 10.8 over 10.7.2 or earlier with FileVault turned on may fail - Pre-Lion FileVault user accounts are not supported in this Developer Preview - Some Apple menu items such as Restart may not work when a sandboxed app is in the foreground - iTunes no longer syncs Notes - Mail's photo browser cannot access the iPhoto library - Back to My Mac doesn't work for the first 5 minutes after rebooting - DVD Player may not launch after inserting a DVD on some systems - Most help topics are unavailable in this Developer Preview - In the Recovery HD: - Some icons may be missing - Network Utility's Lookup pane does not work - Time Machine restoration via a AFP share does not work - Restoring from a Time Machine backup via AFP does not work - Migration from a Time Machine backup that excludes paths such as /System may yield an unusable system - Brightness settings may change unexpectedly after reboot - Display brightness may be dim after sleep or reboot - If Mail is hidden at logout time, it may not be correctly relaunched during a subsequent login but will appear to be running - Java applets may not work in Safari - QuickTime screen recordings may produce corrupted videos or cause an exception when run on machines with NVDIA graphics
Apple also appears to be continuing to put a fair amount of effort into getting Game Center up and running on OS X with the new build.
OS X Mountain Lion is Apple's next major operating system version and is scheduled for release in "late summer". The release will offer greater integration with iCloud, as well as a number of new feature including some drawn from iOS.
Draw Something, the wildly popular app that led Zynga to acquire creator OMGPOP for $200 million, has received a major update. The update, which applies to both the free and paid versions of Draw Something, adds a number of features that the apps' millions of users have been requesting, reports The Next Web.
The update brings three new features that should be nice for regular players, including comments, the ability to save your drawing to your photo library and direct sharing of your drawings to Facebook and Twitter.
The updated app now also allows you to undo a single line at a time, but only the last one you’ve drawn. It also adds ‘pull-to-refresh’ to the main view, allowing you to snag an updated list of your games.
Draw Something is available in two versions, one free and one for $0.99 on the App Store. [Direct link: Free/$0.99]
TIME magazine today released its annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world, and two of the selections have close ties to Apple: CEO Tim Cook and Steve Jobs biographer Walter Isaacson.
Each selection is accompanied by an essay by another prominent personality or close associate outlining why the person qualifies for inclusion in the list. The essay on Cook is written by former vice president Al Gore, who has served on Apple's board of directors since 2003.
It is difficult to imagine a harder challenge than following the legendary Steve Jobs as CEO of Apple. Yet Tim Cook, a soft-spoken, genuinely humble and quietly intense son of an Alabama shipyard worker and a homemaker, hasn't missed a single beat.
Fiercely protective of Jobs' legacy and deeply immersed in Apple's culture, Cook, 51, has already led the world's most valuable and innovative company to new heights while implementing major policy changes smoothly and brilliantly.
He has indelibly imprinted his leadership on all areas of Apple — from managing its complex inner workings to identifying and shepherding new "insanely great" technology and design breakthroughs into the product pipeline.
Isaacson, a former editor of TIME, is profiled by former U.S. Secretary of State Madeline Albright, who points to his trio of biographies covering Benjamin Franklin, Albert Einstein, and Steve Jobs for their impact on understanding key figures in history.
This is influence of the best species, educating us while demonstrating the continued fascination of the seriously examined life, rendered by Isaacson with the objectivity of a true historian and the flair of a born storyteller. But what most separates Isaacson, 59, from would-be peers is his wisdom in choosing subjects whose individual talents have affected all our lives.
TIME's 2012 list of the world's most influential people is the magazine's cover story for next week's issue and highlights representatives in five different categories: breakouts, pioneers, moguls, leaders, and icons.
Taiwan's 
9to5Mac claims Apple's marketing chief Phil Schiller told a fan that the uber-popular photography app Instagram "
Quake 4, a game which 
Midway Arcade, a collection of classic Midway video games ported to the iOS, has received an update adding support for the iCade iPad gaming add-on. The iCade started life as a 
An Apple lawyer has said it 
Draw Something, the wildly popular app that led Zynga to acquire creator OMGPOP for $200 million, has 
TIME magazine today 
