It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world.

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Daily Update for June 18, 2013 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 18 Jun 2013 16:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Daily Update for June 18, 2013 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 18 Jun 2013 16:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple has released the Apple TV 5.4 beta to developers. The latest beta software for Apple's set-top box adds support for several new features, notes JournalDulapin.com. The first up is iTunes Radio, which Apple announced at WWDC would be coming to Apple TV in the fall. iTunes Radio functions much as it will over iOS 7: users can access the Apple TV's built-in Music app to stream songs over the internet.

Perhaps the coolest new feature is called Conference Room Display. As the name suggests, this mode is aimed at Apple TVs in the workplace. Users can set the Apple TV's home screen with a custom image, like a corporate or event logo, and a custom message. Viewers will see the custom image and message and also an overlay telling them how to connect their devices to the Apple TV.

Finally, Apple has added increased subtitle features to the Apple TV. Users can now choose between closed captioning or subtitles and also alter the way subtitles look. Users will be able to set the font color and size and also the background color of subtitles.

It is presumed that Apple will release the Apple TV 5.4 software to users when iOS 7 ships in the fall.

Apple TV 5.4 beta adds iTunes Radio, Conference Room Display originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 18 Jun 2013 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Apple TV 5.4 beta adds iTunes Radio, Conference Room Display originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 18 Jun 2013 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Well it's official now. With iOS 7 now out of the bag, Jony Ive's title at Apple has recently been changed to reflect his added responsibilities and increased influence across Apple's product line. Whereas he used bear the title of Senior Vice President of Industrial Design (as recently as June 9), he now holds a more comprehensive title -- Senior Vice President of Design.

Ive originally made a name for himself as the man behind Apple's gorgeous and often innovative hardware designs. With the October ouster of Scott Forstall, however, Ive began applying his design aesthetic to Apple's software as well, an aesthetic which first became apparent last week when Apple unveiled a complete revamp of iOS.

via 9to5Mac

Apple shortens Jony Ive's title to 'Senior Vice President, Design' originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 18 Jun 2013 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Apple shortens Jony Ive's title to 'Senior Vice President, Design' originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 18 Jun 2013 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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While testifying in court last week, Apple executive Eddy Cue had a number of interesting tidbits regarding the origins of the iBookstore, namely that Steve Jobs was initially opposed to the idea, but quickly hopped on board after Cue convinced him that the iPad would make the perfect e-reader.

Today, Cue took the stand once again where he divulged some more interesting tidbits regarding Apple's foray into the e-book space.

At one point during today's proceeding, an Apple attorney asked Cue a number of questions about Jobs and his involvement in Apple's iBooks initiative.

Once again, All Things D was there covering the trial and relayed the following nuggets of information.

The "page curls" in the iBook app, which show up when you flip an iBook's page? That's Steve Jobs' idea.

It was Jobs' idea to pick ""Winnie-the-Pooh" as the freebie book that came with every iBook app. Not just because Jobs liked the book, Cue said, but because it showed off iBook's capabilities: "It had beautiful color drawings, that had never been seen before in a digital book."

Jobs was also specific about the book he used to show off the iBook during his initial iPad demo in January 2010. He picked Ted Kennedy's "True Compass" memoir, because the Kennedy family "meant a lot to him," Cue said.

Indeed, Cue's testimony serves to underscore that you'd be hard-pressed to find another CEO in the annals of tech that was as product- and detail-oriented as Jobs.

Apple's trial with the DOJ is slated to end this week.

Eddy Cue: Steve Jobs picked 'Winnie the Pooh' as the iBooks freebie, also came up with the idea for 'page curls' originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 17 Jun 2013 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Eddy Cue: Steve Jobs picked 'Winnie the Pooh' as the iBooks freebie, also came up with the idea for 'page curls' originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 17 Jun 2013 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world.

You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here.

No Flash? Click here to listen.

Subscribe via RSS

Daily Update for June 17, 2013 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 17 Jun 2013 16:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Daily Update for June 17, 2013 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 17 Jun 2013 16:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Crytek is the company behind the Crysis series of games, as well as the CryEngine game engine that powers them, and it's released a game on iOS before. Now, it looks like the AAA developer is planning to make a return to Apple's touchscreen platform, with a new game called The Collectibles (or The Collectables, depending on who you hear about it from). Last week at WWDC, Crytek showed off the new game during a panel, and as you can see above, the game looks like a top-down action title, probably a shooter of some description.

The other interesting thing you'll notice about the game is that the developer demoing it was using a controller. iOS 7, you'll remember, adds official Apple support for "Made for iPhone" controllers, and we've already seen this hardware leaking out into the world. There have already been a number of third-party controllers available for iPhone and iOS devices, but it looks like Apple is finally supporting buttons officially, and Crytek's game might be one of the first titles to work with this new standard. The game also uses the touchscreen, however, so you probably won't absolutely need to have a controller just to play.

Of course, that probably also means we won't see The Collectibles in action until iOS 7 is out, which means sometime later on this year. Hopefully we'll get a chance to see the game in action sooner rather than later.

Crytek showed off a new iOS title called The Collectibles at WWDC originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 17 Jun 2013 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Crytek showed off a new iOS title called The Collectibles at WWDC originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 17 Jun 2013 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Walter Isaacson's bestselling biography of the late Apple founder and CEO, Steve Jobs, will be hitting bookstores again late this summer. On September 10, the book will be released as a paperback featuring a much younger portrait of Jobs on the cover.

As you can see in the images at the top of this post, the two portraits are similar. The top portrait, from the Macintosh launch year of 1984, was taken by photographer Norman Steef, the same man who shot the iconic image of Jobs posing with a Mac that was used on the cover of Time magazine's commemorative issue in 2011. The newer image used on the hardback edition was taken by photographer Albert Watson.

Amazon is apparently taking pre-orders for the paperback edition at US$17.99, although the pre-order page shows a book title of "Untitled" by "Cathy Unknown" as placeholders. The hardcover is currently available for $17.74 and those desiring an electronic version can pick up the Kindle edition for just $13.60. The iBooks edition is available for $13.99.

When it was released shortly after Jobs' death in 2011, the book took just 45 days to become the year's top seller in the Amazon bookstore.

Steve Jobs bio appearing in paperback September 10 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 17 Jun 2013 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Steve Jobs bio appearing in paperback September 10 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 17 Jun 2013 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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New report claims Apple's 'iPhone mini' could launch next month (BGR)

Some analyst claims the low-cost iPhone will launch next month. BGR spends a good portion of this article making fun of the guy. When even BGR is pointing and laughing at your claims, your career as an Apple analyst is essentially over.

Alleged 'iPhone 5S' parts show FaceTime camera, home button, vibration motor (AppleInsider)

Buried within the center of a dead article: "The images cannot be fully verified as components in a future iPhone." Okay, then.

iPhone 5S release reportedly pushed back to October (BGR)

Some analyst throws a dart at a wall, and it hits "October." For some reason, this qualifies as newsworthy. According to the analysts, the iPhone 5S was already supposed to have launched 57 times by now, so the only logical conclusion is Apple's suppliers are unable to keep pace with analysts' entirely random and unsubstantiated predictions, and therefore Apple is DOOMED.

iMac Update to Haswell Expected in June or July as Shipments Sink (MacRumors)

Another article sourced entirely from an analyst's random musings. This guy has been right a few times in the past, but MacRumors still only classifies him as "relatively accurate." I'd like to know what batting average separates "hit-or-miss" from "sometimes accurate" or "relatively accurate." In this case, we have an analyst contradicting his own prior analysis -- he'd made earlier claims pointing to a late 2013 launch for new iMacs. Calling this "relatively accurate" isn't an abuse of the English language; it's taking the English language out into the Nevada desert and burying it.

Apple's OS X Mavericks hints at future Retina Thunderbolt Displays and iMacs (AppleInsider)

Apple posted a wallpaper that's exactly twice the pixel width and height of Apple's current 27-inch displays, so AppleInsider rolls out the Jump to Conclusions Mat and claims this is a hint that Retina-caliber Thunderbolt displays are on the way. AppleInsider also notes that a high-res wallpaper from OS X Lion "hinted" at forthcoming Retina display MacBook Pros... which didn't launch until a year later. Even the blue whale can't hold its breath for that long.

Is Apple ditching the 'Black & Slate' color option on the iPhone 5S? (BGR)

Speaking of jumping to conclusions... actually, in this case, it's more like BGR slipped on a banana peel and tumbled over a logic cliff.

"There are dozens upon dozens of images [on Apple's website] showing iOS 7 on the iPhone 5, but I just looked through them all and aside from tiny thumbnails, I was only able to find one mockup of iOS 7 running on a black iPhone," BGR writes. Okay... so what?

"By itself, this isn't necessarily evidence that Apple is ditching the black iPhone" -- actually, let me stop you right there. Not only is it not evidence, it's the opposite of evidence. It's completely meaningless. It's like looking at Mount Rushmore and claiming there will never be a female President.

BGR then says currently "leaked" SIM trays have so far only shown up in silver and gold, and offers this as further evidence (I just ran out of sarcasm quotes) to prompt a repeat performance: "So I ask again... is Apple getting rid of black on the iPhone 5S?"

Welcome to Non Sequitur City. Population: You.

"Apple's black iPhone 5 has had some issues with scuffing, but ditching the color entirely would be a curious move." Curious is one word for it. Not gonna freaking happen is four more, slightly more accurate words for it.

iOS 7 design changes remain in flux, likely to see major revisions before release (AppleInsider)

BREAKING: Design elements in beta software, not due to be released to the public for three months, may be altered in the intervening months before release. More on this astonishing story as it develops.

This was just one of probably hundreds of articles that have come out in the past week regarding iOS 7's supposedly "controversial" design. I've been using iOS 7 since the day after it became available. Here's my prediction: "normal" people, in other words non-geeks, who have for several years constituted the overwhelming bulk of people buying iPhones and iPads, are going to love this new design. They may not consciously know why, but they're going to eat it up.

Apple looking at bigger iPhone screens, multiple colours - sources (Reuters)

Reuters classifies this as "Apple [taking] a cue from rival Samsung Electronics," and says it "underscore[s] how the California-based firm that once ruled the smartphone market is increasingly under threat from the South Korean competitor." This is a perfect example of the ongoing efforts certain publications are (STILL) making to twist the narrative around to suit their idea of the truth rather than the actual truth.

Here's the actual truth, Reuters: Apple never "ruled" the smartphone market by the measure that publications like yourself seem to focus on to the exclusion of all other factors -- market share. Apple has never been the number-one smartphone vendor worldwide by that measure. It probably never will be. But by every other measure, including profits, revenues, number of apps available, the percentage of people actually using all those smartphone features, customer satisfaction, and industry recognition, Apple still "rules" the smartphone market in spite of your attempts to tell the story otherwise.

"Apple declined to comment." Well, duh.

"Critics say its pace of innovation has slowed since the death of legendary co-founder Steve Jobs." Serious question: have you people been contractually obligated to include variations of this monumentally stupid sentence in every single Apple article since October 2011?

"The current iPhone 5 has one of the smaller screens among the best-selling smartphones in the mobile market, where consumers spend more time browsing the web and streaming content. Samsung's Galaxy S4 and Galaxy Note 2 have 5-inch and 5.5-inch screens, respectively." And yet the numbers also show that people are using iPhones to browse the web far more and far more often than people with those larger screens on Samsung devices. But the evidence doesn't fit your desired conclusion, so we'll just ignore it and move on.

"Apple [...] has sought ways to re-energize its flagship line." Apple sold 37 million iPhones in three months, compared to 35 million in the same quarter of the previous year. They sold more phones than a year earlier, yet by the same kind of math where 2 + 2 = 5, this somehow means Apple is a beleaguered company losing its innovative edge and desperately turning to copying the supposedly-ascendant Samsung in order to turn its flagging fortunes around.

Reuters is no longer a news organization. Reuters is writing Samsung fan fiction.

Rumor: Apple's inexpensive iPhone to adopt colors from iPhone 4 Bumpers (AppleInsider)

"A fresh rumor out of the Far East" -- have to interrupt here, there's no such thing as a "fresh" rumor from that part of the world -- "claims Apple will launch a low-cost iPhone in September in five colors."

This is not a fresh rumor, no matter which definition of fresh you're using. It's months old, and the first person to raise the "many-colored iPhone" flag was an analyst whose track record is as spotty as a leopard with measles.

Rumor: Apple suppliers now shipping 'large number' of parts for low-cost iPhone (AppleInsider)

This type of article reminds me of something Tim Cook said last year about not putting too much stock in supplier reports, because it's impossible to gain any idea of the whole picture that way. It also reminds me of the story of a bunch of blind guys touching various parts of an elephant, with one guy calling it a tree, another a snake, and so forth.

Rumor: Samsung to supply 7.9" Retina displays for Apple's next iPad mini this year (AppleInsider)

If the iPad mini 2 Electric Boogaloo launches without a Retina display, now you know whose offices to storm with torches and pitchforks: Korea's ETNews.

Entry-level iPhone, Retina iPad mini to reportedly begin shipping in August (BGR)

According to Digitimes, something something yadda yadda not a chance.

New iPhone 5S parts leak, again pointing to internal overhaul (BGR)

BGR has more BREAKING EXCLUSIVE photos of ribbon cables and metal connectors to tantalize and titillate -- don't give me the hairy eyeball, I said "titillate," not whatever you thought I just said.

By this time last year, enough parts had leaked out that you probably could have assembled your very own fully-functional iPhone 5 if you had halfway decent soldering skills. All we've got so far this year is a bunch of ribbon cables. I don't know about you, but I actually prefer it this way.

Rumor Roundup: Samsung fan fiction originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 17 Jun 2013 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Rumor Roundup: Samsung fan fiction originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 17 Jun 2013 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Earlier this month a top-secret PowerPoint presentation was released that leaked the existence of the US government's PRISM program. The program is a surveillance program that gives the US government a backdoor into user accounts at major technology companies such as Microsoft, Facebook, Google and Apple, among others. All of the companies involved have strenuously denied any knowledge of PRISM's existence and have been in damage control mode assuring users that their privacy is upheld.

Early today Apple issued a statement called Apple's Commitment to Customer Privacy in which it aims to clarify to users the steps it goes through to protect their privacy and also to state how many requests for user data it received from the government. Below is the statement in full.

Apple's Commitment to Customer Privacy

Two weeks ago, when technology companies were accused of indiscriminately sharing customer data with government agencies, Apple issued a clear response: We first heard of the government's "Prism" program when news organizations asked us about it on June 6. We do not provide any government agency with direct access to our servers, and any government agency requesting customer content must get a court order.

Like several other companies, we have asked the U.S. government for permission to report how many requests we receive related to national security and how we handle them. We have been authorized to share some of that data, and we are providing it here in the interest of transparency.

From December 1, 2012 to May 31, 2013, Apple received between 4,000 and 5,000 requests from U.S. law enforcement for customer data. Between 9,000 and 10,000 accounts or devices were specified in those requests, which came from federal, state and local authorities and included both criminal investigations and national security matters. The most common form of request comes from police investigating robberies and other crimes, searching for missing children, trying to locate a patient with Alzheimer's disease, or hoping to prevent a suicide.

Regardless of the circumstances, our Legal team conducts an evaluation of each request and, only if appropriate, we retrieve and deliver the narrowest possible set of information to the authorities. In fact, from time to time when we see inconsistencies or inaccuracies in a request, we will refuse to fulfill it.

Apple has always placed a priority on protecting our customers' personal data, and we don't collect or maintain a mountain of personal details about our customers in the first place. There are certain categories of information which we do not provide to law enforcement or any other group because we choose not to retain it.

For example, conversations which take place over iMessage and FaceTime are protected by end-to-end encryption so no one but the sender and receiver can see or read them. Apple cannot decrypt that data. Similarly, we do not store data related to customers' location, Map searches or Siri requests in any identifiable form.

We will continue to work hard to strike the right balance between fulfilling our legal responsibilities and protecting our customers' privacy as they expect and deserve.

Continue reading Apple issues 'Commitment to Customer Privacy' statement

Apple issues 'Commitment to Customer Privacy' statement originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 17 Jun 2013 06:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Apple issues 'Commitment to Customer Privacy' statement originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 17 Jun 2013 06:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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As Chris Rawson has pointed out repeatedly over the years, Apple's "beta" releases are what normal people would refer to as alpha. On a good day. If they're feeling generous.

Apple offers a simple guide as to whether you should or should not file a bug report: the answer is always Yes.

Beta participants are encouraged to file radars even when the issue seems trivial, only happened once, seems "obvious", or may be a dupe.

Duplicates are never a bad thing -- they're like casting a vote. Highly duplicated items appear on manager reports, and various versions contain bits of information that add to the whole.

I speak from experience. Apple employees posting on the developer forums may swat you with large trouts to encourage you to comply with filing radars.

I should also point out that bug titles are editable, you should explain the bug in the field called "description", and if Apple calls you (hint the phone numbers start with 408, specifically 408-996-1010, and will be more likely this week after WWDC if you talked with an evangelist or engineer), you should probably answer the call.

Want to learn more? Visit the WWDC videos page (credentials required) and watch Maximizing Apple Developer Resources.

Don't forget to check out Open Radar, the developer crowd-sourced site for non-beta bugs.

DevJuice: If you don't report the bug in the beta to Apple, it does not exist originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sun, 16 Jun 2013 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

DevJuice: If you don't report the bug in the beta to Apple, it does not exist originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sun, 16 Jun 2013 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AppleInsider was able to spend some time talking to developers from The Foundry who shared how they were able to get some quality alone time with Apple's Mac Pro weeks before the public was first made aware of the upcoming beast during this year's WWDC keynote.

In recounting how they were given special sneak-peak access to Apple's newly revamped and cylindrical Mac Pro, The Foundry explains that they were placed in a "room at Apple HQ known as the 'Evil Lab'" where they were able to test out their MARI software on the Mac Pro. MARI, if you're unfamiliar, is world-class visual effects software often used in movies.

Of course, seeing as Apple has always been keen on the big reveal, the Mac Pro itself was hidden inside a locked metal cabinet during testing.

"We were essentially doing a blind tasting of the machine," said Jack Greasley, MARI product manager at The Foundry. "All we could see was the monitor, and the Mac Pro was encased in a giant metal filing cabinet on wheels. Experiencing the machine in this way was actually really cool, because I can tell you that the speed and power of this machine really stands up. MARI running on this machine out of the box is the fastest I have ever seen it run."

Hop on over to AppleInsider for the full scoop as to how folks from The Foundry and Pixar found themselves able to give Apple's upcoming Mac Pro a spin.

Lastly, and per The Foundry's website, MARI will be coming to the Mac as a beta product in the near future.

Apple let developers from The Foundry and Pixar test out the new Mac Pro weeks before WWDC originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 14 Jun 2013 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Apple let developers from The Foundry and Pixar test out the new Mac Pro weeks before WWDC originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 14 Jun 2013 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world.

You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here.

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Daily Update for June 14, 2013 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 14 Jun 2013 15:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Daily Update for June 14, 2013 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 14 Jun 2013 15:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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During Apple's e-book price-fixing case on Thursday, Apple executive Eddy Cue testified that Steve Jobs initially wasn't interested in getting into the e-book market at all. Lucky for us, All Things D was on hand to capture all of the courtroom details describing the backstory behind Apple's eventual foray into the e-book market.

Cue explained that when he first approached Jobs and broached the topic of getting Apple into the e-book business, Jobs wasn't on board.

"He wasn't interested," Cue explained. "Steve never felt that the Mac or the iPhone were ideal reading devices. In the case of the phone, the screen was smaller, and in the case of the Mac, you had this keyboard and device, and it didn't feel like a book."

The iPad, however, was a game changer.

When Cue first began using the iPad in the months before Apple publicly unveiled the device, he immediately recognized the potential for it to become a wildly successful and popular e-reader.

So with the iPad unveiling steadily approaching, Cue in the fall of 2009 said that he approached Jobs yet again with the idea of getting into the e-book market.

And so I went to Steve and told him why I thought [the iPad] was going to be a great device for e-books ... and after some discussions he came back and said, you know, I think you're right. I think this is great, and then he started coming up with ideas himself about what he wanted to do with it and how it would be even better as a reader and store.

Cue noted that Jobs finally came around to the idea of an iBookstore in November 2009. Now bear in mind that Apple first introduced the iPad in January 2010, meaning that Cue, Apple's chief content negotiator, was left with little to no time to secure deals with major publishing companies as Jobs wanted to demo Apple's new e-book initiative on stage for the world to see.

Of particular interest was Cue's testimony detailing how he was especially motivated to secure content deals ahead of the iPad's introduction on account of Jobs' worsening health.

Steve was near the end of his life when we were launching the iPad, and he was really proud of it. He was working hard on it. I believed that iBooks was going to be a tremendous feature of the product. People were going to love it; our customers were just going to go wild about iPad and iBooks, and I wanted to be able to get that done in time because it was really important to him ... I like getting my work done and I pride myself on being successful, but this had extra meaning to me.

Now aside from the usual intrigue typically associated with discovering what goes on behind the scenes at 1 Infinite Loop, I find this whole story noteworthy for two reasons.

First, this isn't the first time we've heard a story about Cue successfully convincing Jobs to move Apple in a particular direction. During last summer's Apple / Samsung trial, emails came to light which revealed that Cue had been pushing Jobs to release an iPad with a smaller form factor as early as 2010.

In a January 2011 email sent out to members of Apple's executive team, Cue wrote:

I believe there will be a 7-inch market and we should do one. I expressed this to Steve several times since Thanksgiving and he seemed very receptive the last time. I found email, books, Facebook and video very compelling on a 7''. Web browsing is definitely the weakest point, but still usable.

Apple would of course go onto announce the iPad mini in October 2012.

Second, the story provides further proof that Apple is teeming with talented employees and that the company is poised to succeed even in the absence of Jobs. While Jobs was a visionary without compare, the stories above illustrate that Jobs sometimes needed a bit of convincing before deciding where the "puck was going." In short, the notion that an Apple without Jobs is destined for failure is ridiculous. Indeed, one of the reasons Jobs was able to successfully bring Apple back from the brink of bankruptcy was precisely because he surrounded himself with top-tier talent.

To that end, this old quote from Jobs regarding his hiring philosophy is worth a mention:

... you're well advised to go after the cream of the cream. That's what we've done. You can then build a team that pursues the A+ players. A small team of A+ players can run circles around a giant team of B and C players. That's what I've tried to do.

Steve Jobs didn't want an iBookstore until Eddy Cue convinced him originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 14 Jun 2013 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Steve Jobs didn't want an iBookstore until Eddy Cue convinced him originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 14 Jun 2013 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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While on the stand, Cue didn't deny that the price of e-books had risen in the wake of Apple getting into the e-book market. He did however clarify that the rise in e-books pricing wasn't the result of backhanded and behind-the-scenes maneuvering from Apple, but rather the result of publishers on the whole being unsatisfied with their current contracts with Amazon.

Yahoo adds:

Cue was the chief negotiator in deals with the publishers that allowed them to set prices as high as $14.99 for sales in Apple's new iBookstore. But he denied that the deals were calculated to force Amazon into similar agreements that would raise its prices as well.

Jobs closely monitored the negotiations but was "indifferent" about the outcome for Amazon, Cue testified. However, when asked if Jobs knew that there was a chance that once the iBookstore launched, publishers would withhold best sellers and new releases from Amazon, he responded, "I believe so, sure. Smart guy."

Cue also testified that he was wholly unaware that the publishers he was negotiating with were also talking to each other independently of Apple.

The DOJ initially went after Apple and five big publishing companies for e-book price fixing back in April of 2012. Since then, each publishing house has settled with the DOJ, thus leaving Apple the only party willing to battle it out in court.

When Tim Cook was asked about the trial during his recent appearance at the All Things D conference, he called the trial "bizarre," noting that Apple wasn't going to settle and effectively admit to something it didn't do.

Cue's testimony on Thursday marked the end of this week's proceedings. The trial will resume next Monday and scheduled to wrap up late next week.

Eddy Cue takes the stand in e-book price fixing case originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 13 Jun 2013 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Eddy Cue takes the stand in e-book price fixing case originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 13 Jun 2013 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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While Apple was able to settle its past patent disputes with both Nokia and HTC, its ongoing legal battles against Samsung show no signs of slowing down.

According to the Korea Times, Samsung CEO Shin Jong-kyun recently spoke to reporters and indicated that an all-encompassing settlement agreement with Apple isn't on the horizon.

The CEO confirmed Samsung has no intention of ending the patent disputes with Apple.

"Patent disputes against Apple will continue," Shin said.

The paper notes that Jong-kyun's remarks are the first he's made about Apple since the ITC in early June ordered an import ban against older-generation iPhones and iPads for infringing upon standard essential patents owned by Samsung.

With a multitude of legal cases in jurisdictions across the globe, it would appear, at this point, that both Apple and Samsung will continue to fight this out until the bitter end. After all, Apple and Samsung together account for nearly 100 percent of the profits in the smartphone market and it stands to reason that neither side is sufficiently motivated to back down in any way.

That's all well and good, but the problem with these patent disputes is that by the time they ultimately go to trial, the products and designs in question may very well be irrelevant.

Tim Cook himself said as much while testifying in front of Congress this past May. Though he was in D.C. to discuss Apple's tax practices, Cook at one point was asked about the state of IP in the tech industry.

Cook replied,

I think the US Court system is currently structured in such a way that tech companies aren't getting the intellectual property protection they need. Our cycles are fast, the court system is very long and the foreign competitors in the US can quickly take IP and use it and ship products with it and they're to the next product as well. I would love to see conversations between countries and see protections between IP globally. For us, our intellectual property is so important, I would love the system to be strengthened in order to protect it.

Samsung CEO says 'patent disputes with Apple will continue' originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 13 Jun 2013 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Samsung CEO says 'patent disputes with Apple will continue' originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 13 Jun 2013 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world.

You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here.

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Daily Update for June 13, 2013 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 13 Jun 2013 17:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Daily Update for June 13, 2013 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 13 Jun 2013 17:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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CNN Money reporter JP Mangalindan recently got his hands on a review unit of the new 11-inch MacBook Air and he has good news to report. As a longtime Air user Mangalindan's major criticism of his old 2011 model was its skimpy battery life. While Apple said the 2011 Air was capable of five hours of life, Mangalindan experienced closer to three hours before he was out of power. Based on his experiences with the 2013 review unit however, it appears the Air's battery problems have been solved.

The review unit is an 11-inch MacBook Air with a 1.3GHz dual-core i5 processor, 4 GB of RAM and 256 GB of flash storage. Over the course of his basic testing, Mangalindan was able to get eight hours of battery life with WiFi on, multiple apps running, the brightness turned up and the keyboard illuminated. Now granted this is a brand-new unit, so as time wears on that battery life will drop. But that's still an incredible amount of juice for such power-intensive use settings.

Mangalindan will have a full review later this week, but head over to CNN Money now to check out the rest of his first impression.

CNN Money happy with MacBook Air battery life originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 13 Jun 2013 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

CNN Money happy with MacBook Air battery life originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 13 Jun 2013 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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On Monday, Apple introduced OS X Mavericks, their next-generation operating system for Macs. One feature Apple demoed on stage enables users to use an HDTV as an extra monitor, courtesy of Apple TV and AirPlay connectivity.

If that feature sounds familiar, you may already be an AirParrot customer. The US$9.99 app allows you to stream your screen or individual windows to Apple TV and it also offers extra screen support. The app's popular extended desktop features have been around for a while.

After Monday's announcement, we contacted Sidney Keith of Squirrels to get his reaction to the Mavericks feature. Today, he provided the following, thoughtful response.

We're continuing to innovate and develop at our own pace. Just because Apple released one of our features as its own doesn't mean we quit. We're still striving for quality applications that solve our customers and users needs. Honestly, we're glad Apple finally caught up. It gives us that much more motivation to innovate and create cooler applications that users want and need. Software is about progress, and that's what this is going to give us.

Not only do we have the motivation to keep innovating, we now have the opportunity and obligation to help those that can't or won't upgrade to 10.9. We have a large and loyal customer base that we'll continue supporting. We don't plan on dropping support for 10.6, even though we've now seen three major releases since then, and not everyone is as loyal to Apple as we may think. Upgrades can be costly for institutions and businesses that have hundreds of systems that need to be upgraded. We're here for those users, and we're here for the ones that don't trust the first iterations of Apple products. Whatever the reason for not upgrading, we have their back.

Apple has a global audience to attend to, and while we also have users all around the globe, our feature set is much more focused. We're able to focus solely on one group of features instead of an entire operating system. While Apple might add a feature, it's likely they'll not change that feature significantly in any future releases. We saw the addition of AirPlay desktop mirroring in OS X 10.8, but that feature hasn't changed since its initial release-roughly a year since the beta. We've got the ability to focus our entire teams attention on that one specific feature if we need to. That's something you'll be seeing over the next few months. We'll be doing a lot of innovation and creation in this area, and while we hope Apple doesn't steal our new features, we know it's inevitable. It's almost an honor.

If you want to see what Apple's going to to include AirPlay-wise at WWDC 14, you can probably bet our next few releases will be a preview.

Squirrels is also the developer of the Reflector app, which nearly all of us at TUAW have purchased. It allows you to stream AirPlay to your Mac or PC.

Note: in case you're wondering what "Sherlocked" refers to, here's a definition. Looking for other examples? Here's another for your delectation.

No downeys, millers, cumberbatches, lauries, bretts, etc. were hurt in the preparation of this article.

So you've been Sherlocked: AirParrot developers respond to new Mavericks features originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 13 Jun 2013 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

So you've been Sherlocked: AirParrot developers respond to new Mavericks features originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 13 Jun 2013 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple, of course, disputes this allegation. Last week, Apple lawyer Kevin Saul said that Apple was "indifferent" to Amazon's own contracts with publishers. Apple, Saul added, merely wanted its own contracts with publishers to be flexible enough as to ensure that Amazon wouldn't be able to undercut them on pricing. As a result, Apple's contracts with the accused publishing houses included a "Most Favored Nation" clause which allowed them to match any price set by competitors.

In an attempt to dispute Apple's assertion, the DOJ this week trotted out a January 14, 2010 email from Steve Jobs to Eddy Cue regarding e-book pricing.

The email reads:

I can live with this as long as they move Amazon to the agent model too for new releases for the first year. If not, I'm not sure we can be competitive ...

Seems like a smoking gun, right?

I mean, here's an email from Jobs himself where he seemingly insinuates that Apple may not enter the e-book business at all unless publishers get Amazon to move to the agency model of e-book pricing.

Well, there's more to the email than meets the eye.

As it turns out, the email in question was nothing more than a draft that Jobs never actually sent out.

All Things D reports:

According to new evidence submitted by Apple, it's hardly warm, let alone smoking. The document cited by the government is simply a draft message that was never sent. What Apple entered into evidence late Wednesday is the final version of that message, the one that was actually sent to Cue, and it differs significantly from that apparently damning draft.

Indeed, the email Jobs ultimately sent to Cue on the matter had a completely different tone and indicates that Jobs was okay with publishers carrying on with their existing contracts with Amazon, contracts which involved the wholesale model of e-book pricing wherein retailers, and not publishers, set the prices.

The email Jobs actually sent to Cue reads in part:

I can live with this as long as they also agree to the other thing you told me you can get: The retail price they will set for any book will be the LOWER of the applicable "iTunes" price below OR the lowest wholesale price they offer the book at to anyone else, with our wholesale price being 70% of such price. For example, normally our retail price for a $26 book will be $12.99 and we will pay 70% of that, or $9.10. However, if they offer the same book to Amazon for a wholesale price of, say $12.50, then our retail price for the same book shall be set at $12.50 and we will pay 70% of that price for the book.

Based on the above, it appears that Apple was less concerned with Amazon's own contracts with publishers than they were with ensuring that they wouldn't be undercut in the e-book marketplace. In essence, Jobs here is pushing for a "Most Favored Nation" clause, not sneakily looking to get Amazon on board with the agency model of e-book publishing.

Lastly, and in what can only be characterized as a legal teaser, Fortune's Philip Elmer-DeWitt writes that he has "learned that there's a twist to the story of Jobs' Jan. 14 e-mail that's going to make for some fireworks in the courtroom when Cue takes the stand."

Well, color me intrigued.

Cue is slated to take the stand today, so we'll keep you posted as to the latest developments and/or fireworks from the courtroom.

The Steve Jobs smoking gun email that wasn't originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 13 Jun 2013 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The Steve Jobs smoking gun email that wasn't originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 13 Jun 2013 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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While the e-book market still, by and large, belongs to Amazon, it appears that Apple has been doing much better than most would have initially imagined. Though most estimates pegged Apple's share of the e-book market in the 10 percent range, Apple executive Keith Moerer testified in court on Wednesday that Apple's share of the e-book market is around 20 percent these days.

paidContent on Wednesday relayed some of Moerer's testimony:

"The government called the iBookstore 'a failure,' and charged that 'Apple pricing was unfair to consumers,' and that 'Apple sold fewer books because of the higher price caps.' Moerer challenged that characterization, 'I disagree. E-book sales grew 100 percent last year at the iBookstore and it had over 100 million customers.' The government countered that 'when you drop prices you sell more books,' and Moerer said, 'sometimes, yes.'"

Moerer added that Apple's share of the e-book market now stands at about 20 percent.

Apple, if you recall, is being taken to task by the government for allegedly colluding with publishers to artificially increase the price of e-books across the board by reverting to the agency model of e-book pricing wherein publishers, and not retailers, determine the pricepoint of books.

While on the stand, Moerer echoed what Apple and publishers have been arguing all along -- that there was no grand plan of collusion to raise prices, noting that Apple even fought against some publisher efforts to raise the price of e-books beyond US$14.99.

Publishers Weekly has an in-depth look at today's legal proceedings that's worth reading if you wanna stay abreast of the latest happenings in the case.

Apple says it has 20% of the e-book market originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 13 Jun 2013 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Apple says it has 20% of the e-book market originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 13 Jun 2013 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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