MacRumors

Rumors have suggested that Apple has acquired 3D mapping firm C3 Technologies. While much of the early demos showed C3's ability to create realistic looking 3D maps, the company had also been working on both street view and interior views prior to their acquisition.

BrightSideOfTheNews reported in a January, 2011 article that the company was creating street level imagery as well using the same technology:

In addition to 3D maps, C3 also makes awesome street level imagery captured using "an advanced multiple camera system with overlapping viewing angles to capture the entire surroundings in stereo."

Beyond street level views, the company was also offering interior panoramas as shown in this early promotional photo:

SingularityHub noted how C3 created these interior shots:

As well as increasing its geographic range, C3 is expanding into interior settings. With a special camera rig, they can also create a 3D model of the interior of a building using the same photo stitching they use with their aerial or street level maps. Businesses have to request C3 to come in and create such an inside map of their facilities, so don’t expect these 3D indoor maps to become ubiquitous anytime soon. Still, the technology is ready and available, so we’re bound to see at least a few examples in the months ahead.

Obviously, both street-level work and interior shots are particularly resource intensive. In fact, the interior views are said to have required businesses to invite the company in to make create the images. It's not clear if Apple will use the technology to this degree when they release it. At a minimum, however, street view data would be required to make it match up feature for feature with Google's technology which presently powers iOS Maps.

Apple has awarded 1 million shares of stock to seven top executives as a reward for their hard work during Apple's record fiscal year -- the first time the company did more than $100 billion in revenue.

Earlier we reported that the recently promoted Eddy Cue received 100,000 shares of stock in the form of a restricted stock unit or RSU. These RSU's convert into freely tradable shares of stock on their exercise dates. In Cue's case, 25% of his shares on 9/21/2014 and 75% on 9/21/2016, assuming he continues his employment at Apple.

According to Apple's filings with the SEC, the other six executives each received 150,000 RSU's, vesting in two equal parts -- 50% on 6/21/2013 and the remaining 50% on 3/21/2016. Those executives are:

- Scott Forstall, Senior Vice President, iOS Software (SEC Filing)
- Bob Mansfield, Senior Vice President, Hardware Engineering (SEC Filing)
- Peter Oppenheimer, Senior Vice President and CFO (SEC Filing)
- Phil Schiller, Senior Vice President, Worldwide Product Marketing (SEC Filing)
- Bruce Sewell, Senior Vice President and General Counsel (SEC Filing)
- Jeff Williams, Senior Vice President, Operations (SEC Filing)

An Apple spokesperson told the Wall Street Journal that the awards are "meant to reward them down the road for their hard work in helping to keep Apple the most innovative company in the world."

No paperwork has been filed showing any award for CEO Tim Cook. Earlier this year, when he was appointed CEO, Cook was awarded 1 million shares, vesting in 2016 and 2021, should he stay with the company. The only other executive on Apple's leadership team to not receive an award, at least according to the SEC, is Senior Vice President, Industrial Design Jonathan Ive.

At current prices, Cue's 100,000 share award would be worth $40 million, and Forstall, Mansfield, Oppenheimer, Schiller, Sewell, and Williams' awards are worth $60 million each.

comScore today released the results of its latest survey of mobile phone usage in the United States, noting that Apple has reached a milestone in surpassing a 10% share of the U.S. mobile phone market. As has been the recent trend, Apple again led the major phone manufacturers in growth between the three-month period ending in June and the period ending in September, growing by 1.3 percentage point to hit 10.2% of the U.S. market.

Narrowing down to smartphones, Apple's iOS took 27.4% of the market, up 0.8 percentage points since the previous three-month period but trailing Android's 44.8% share and 4.6 percentage point growth. Apple stood at 9.8% of the overall mobile phone market and 27.3% of the smartphone market in last month's release of the firm's rolling three-month data sets.

comScore's data tracks installed user base rather than new handset sales, making it more reflective of real-world usage but slower to respond to shifting market trends than some other studies. With today's released data covering the period of July through September, it is also important to note that it does not include any surge from the iPhone 4S launch, which took place in mid-October.

Just two days after seeding the first beta of iOS 5.0.1 to developers, Apple has already pushed out a second version for testing.

The new version, known as build 9A404, comes as Apple is working quickly to deploy the update to address battery life issues and bring several other enhancements to devices running iOS 5. The latest build is available as an over-the-air update for those with the first beta of iOS 5.0.1 installed on their devices.

FierceWireless reports on comments from U.S. Cellular CEO Mary Dillon, who claims that the mobile phone carrier turned down a proposed deal to offer the iPhone because it considered Apple's terms to be "unacceptable". The decision is not final, however, and U.S. Cellular could offer the iPhone at some point in the future if a deal can be struck.

U.S. Cellular turned down Apple's iPhone because it did not make sense for the company economically, CEO Mary Dillon said on the company's third-quarter earnings conference call.

Dillon said that the carrier had the opportunity to sell the iPhone but that Apple's "terms were unacceptable from a risk and profitability standpoint." Dillon added that the potential strain on the company's network was not a factor in the decision, and that U.S. Cellular remains open to carrying the iPhone in the future.

U.S. Cellular, headquartered in Chicago, is the sixth-largest mobile phone company in the United States with over 6 million subscribers. Behind the top tier of Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile USA lies a group of so-called "super-regional" carriers led by MetroPCS, U.S. Cellular, and Cricket. Interest in the possibility of these super-regional carriers being able to offer the iPhone was sparked by last month's announcement from C Spire Wireless that it had landed a deal for the iPhone. C Spire ranks at the lower end of the super-regional group, with under a million customers on its network.

Earlier this week, the Czech arm of Telefonica/O2 announced that it would be dropping the iPhone entirely after it was unable to reach a deal with Apple for the iPhone 4S. The company cited Apple's "business terms" as the reason for the discontinuation, and U.S. Cellular's disclosure today adds further evidence that some carriers simply don't see the economic advantage to offering the iPhone even as other carriers are working hard to land the device.

9to5Mac reports that Apple's vice president of global security John Theriault has left the company, marking yet another key executive departure this year.

While the reasons for Theriault's departure and his destination appear to be unconfirmed, speculation naturally turns toward this summer's loss of another iPhone prototype. Apple has received some criticism over its handling of the case, which involved Apple security personnel being escorted by San Francisco police to a home to where the device had been traced. Apple's security personnel conducted an unsuccessful search of the home, with the homeowner claiming to have believed that they were police officers and not private security agents.

Theriault, a former FBI agent and Pfizer vice president, was profiled just two months ago for his role overseeing Apple's anti-counterfeiting efforts. That work has taken on increased importance with the proliferation of fake Apple products and even fake Apple retail stores popping up in a number of countries. The most publicized location for these counterfeiting operations has been China, where Apple has been stepping up its anti-counterfeiting efforts in support of its own increasing presence in the country.

Update: AllThingsD confirms that Theriault has left Apple, and while the reason for his departure is officially said to be retirement, sources indicate that the circumstances surrounding the latest lost iPhone case are indeed the root cause.

Despite a sequential drop in iPhone sales in the third calendar quarter of 2011 as customers held out for the iPhone 4S, Apple once again seized over half of the profits generated by leading mobile phone manufacturers during the quarter, according to a new research report by Canaccord Genuity analyst T. Michael Walkley and shared by Forbes. According to the study's estimates, Apple raked in 52% of the overall profits during the quarter, down slightly from 57% in the second calendar quarter but up from 47% in the year-ago quarter that also had the then-new iPhone 4 on the market.

In an epic reversal of fortunes, Mr. Walkley pointed out that in 2007, Nokia had 67% of operating profits while Apple had just 4%. Today, while Apple has 52% of industry profits, Nokia has been relegated its rival’s former position with just 4% of operating profits.

As noted in a report from AllThingsD on the same research note, Walkley predicts that the launch of the iPhone 4S will spur even further growth for Apple, pushing the company to take over 60% of industry profits in the final calendar quarter of 2011.

Walkley is not the only observer to routinely release estimates of mobile phone manufacturer profit shares, as asymco's Horace Dediu performs a similar analysis each quarter. Dediu's numbers have typically come in 5-10 percentage points higher for Apple than Walkley's estimates have, but the trends seen by each analyst are certainly consistent: Aside from some natural ebb and flow due to iPhone release cycles, Apple is continuing to increase its dominant share of mobile phone industry profits despite shipping only a small fraction of total units.

Update: Dediu has just posted his Q3 estimates, pegging Apple at 56% of industry profits.

The patent dispute between Apple and Samsung has certainly been well-documented as it has expanded to encompass numerous lawsuits and other complaints filed by both sides in a number of different countries. The offensive portion of Samsung's case has centered on 3G-related patents that it owns, but Apple has argued that those patents are essential to basic device operation and must therefore be licensed under FRAND (fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory) terms. Apple's lawyers have also argued that Samsung's proposed licensing terms for those patents have so far not been made in compliance with FRAND standards.

As first reported by FOSS Patents, a new legal filing by Apple in a U.S. case has revealed that the European Commission is indeed investigating Samsung over potential abuse of FRAND-related patents. From the filing:

Samsung has launched an aggressive, worldwide campaign to enjoin Apple from allegedly practicing Samsung's patents. Samsung has sued Apple for infringement and injunctions in no fewer than eight countries outside the United States. Indeed, Samsung's litigation campaign and other conduct related to its Declared-Essential Patents is so egregious that the European Commission recently has opened an investigation to determine whether Samsung's behavior violates EU competition laws.

Reuters also reports that the European Commission has issued a statement acknowledging the investigation, noting that it has requested information from both Samsung and Apple as it enters the early stages of a potential antitrust inquiry.

"The Commission has indeed sent requests for information to Apple and Samsung concerning the enforcement of standards-essential patents in the mobile telephony sector. Such requests for information are standard procedure in antitrust investigations to allow the Commission to establish the relevant facts in a case. We have no other comments at this stage," the EU executive said in a statement.

Apple has won a number of injunctions against Samsung over claims that several Android-based tablets and smartphones infringe upon Apple's design patents. Samsung initially adopted a primarily defensive stance against Apple, but has recently gone on the offensive to assert its 3G patents in an attempt to strengthen its hand in the courts and any potential settlement talks. But with some observers and Apple having argued that Samsung's asserted patents are subject to FRAND terms and judges and regulatory authorities beginning to agree with or at least consider that position, Samsung's efforts may yet backfire on the company.

While Apple's Fifth Avenue retail store in Manhattan is not set to reopen until 10:00 AM this morning, crews have completed their work on the revamped glass cube, fully revealing the streamlined design for the first time.

MacRumors reader Vincent sent along these photos of the new cube, which utilizes only 15 panes of glass rather than the 90 used in the original cube. The new cube is also "seamless", doing away with nearly all of the hardware that previously held the panes of glass together.

In addition to the new cube, Apple has also upgraded the plaza, refreshing or installing new water drains and pavers while removing the small bollards that had previously surrounded the cube.

Update: YouTube user patjem2 has posted a brief video showing the new cube and a growing crowd of customers just prior to the store's reopening.

A second video also shows the first customers entering the newly-reopened store through the updated glass cube.

Businessweek provides a very interesting look behind Apple's supply chain and how they have managed to fine tune their operations into a competitive advantage.

According to more than a dozen interviews with former employees, executives at suppliers, and management experts familiar with the company’s operations, Apple has built a closed ecosystem where it exerts control over nearly every piece of the supply chain, from design to retail store.

Apple's well known to be a master at operations with much of that credit going to now CEO Tim Cook. Businessweek's profile gives many examples of how Apple has managed to stay ahead of the competition, with much of it being the ability to predict needs and also secure the necessary pieces by exercising their enormous $81 billion cash hoard.

Even as far back as the launch of the Bondi blue iMac in the late 90s, Apple's Steve Jobs paid $50 million to buy up all available holiday air freight space at a time when most of its competitors were shipping by sea. This reportedly handicapped rivals such as Compaq who later wanted to book air transport.

Similarly for both the iPhone 4 and iPad 2 launch, Apple bought up so many suppliers and machines needed for assembly, they squeezed out the competition who needed the same resources.

The tactic ensures availability and low prices for Apple—and sometimes limits the options for everyone else. Before the release of the iPhone 4 in June 2010, rivals such as HTC couldn’t buy as many screens as they needed because manufacturers were busy filling Apple orders, according to a former manager at HTC.

Apple's level of efficiency and control extends into launch day where factories work for weeks building hundreds of thousands of devices. Electronic monitors are placed in part boxes to discourage leaks and completed products shipped in non-descript boxes to avoid detection. Even in their retail stores, they can monitor demand by the hour and make supply chain adjustments as necessary.

During an earnings call today, CBS CEO Les Moonves is reported to have revealed that CBS had turned down an Apple TV service that would rely on advertising revenue.

As reported by GigaOM:

When asked about CBS’s appetite for striking deals with new streaming providers that might not have the money to pay cash upfront to license its content, Moonves said that CBS had decided against joining an Apple TV service because it was based on an ad split.

Apple has been long rumored to be working on some sort of TV subscription service over the past few years. A Wall Street Journal article from December, 2009 described one possible iteration of the service:

The proposed service by the maker of iPhones and iPod music players could, in at least some scenarios, offer access to some TV shows from a selection of major U.S. television networks for a monthly fee, according to people familiar with the discussions.

Such a service, of course, has never launched. But it's not clear if that particular plan was canceled or is awaiting the arrival of a full Apple television.

Rumors of a full blown Apple TV set were recently revived after Steve Jobs' biography quoted Jobs as saying he had "finally cracked" the problems standing in the way of an Apple television set.

As we'd previously reported, Apple appears to be preparing to unveil the new 5th Avenue Retail Store for Friday.

MacRumors reader Will submitted this photo which shows construction workers starting to remove part of the white covering from the store's new glass panes.

Apple's $6.6 million renovation started back in June and involved replacing the cube's 90 glass panels (Photo of old design) with a much simpler 15 glass panel design (Artist rendition).

Will reports that today they've torn away much of the white covering along the bottom of the store. This area remains hidden from the street level view due to the surrounding construction barriers. Workers have been power-washing the ground, presumably in preparation for the grand unveiling.

We'll post more photos as we get them, readers can submit photos to us via email.

As noted on Apple's 5th Avenue Retail page, the store will be closed from 10pm to 10am:

We'll be closed starting at 10:00 p.m. on Thursday, November 3 and will reopen at 10:00 a.m. on Friday, November 4.

While Apple's new Siri personal assistant for the iPhone 4S experiencing a few hiccups in availability just after the device's launch last month, a new widespread outage appears to be the most significant one since those first few days. The Siri problems have been ongoing for at least three hours, with only intermittent service available over that time. In general, users have been faced with error messages in which Siri reports being unable to connect to the network.

Apple has labeled Siri as a beta service and is no doubt continuing to refine the technology and infrastructure behind the feature. Apple has rapidly rolled out the iPhone 4S to nearly 30 countries already with another 15 set to come online next week, although Siri currently offers support only in English (US, UK, and Australia), French, and German.