Edible Apple

It’s no secret that Apple and Samsung share a somewhat thorny and complex relationship given that the two companies remain entangled in legal battles around the world at the same time that Samsung manufactures all of the chips used in Apple’s lineup of iOS devices.

That said, it’s been rumored for quite some time that Apple is doing all it can to shift away production from Samsung and to the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) instead. Indeed, if you look back at old news reports, it was widely assumed that A6 production for Apple’s current lineup of iOS devices would be handled by TSMC, though that never actually proved to be the case.

Now, AFP is reporting that TSMC will, in fact, soon begin manufacturing chips for Apple’s mobile devices and that trial production has already begun.

The Taiwanese company has been contracted to manufacture the A6X chip, which drives Apple’s iPad4 tablet, with trial production set for the first quarter of this year, Taiwan’s Commercial Times reported.

The move is the latest in a strings of efforts by Apple to switch mass manufacturing contracts away from Samsung, it said.

It remains to be seen how long it will take, if at all, for Apple to completely end its reliance on Samsung. And from the other side of the ball, Samsung will definitely not want to lose Apple’s business. To put things into context, in 2010 Apple’s business dealings with Samsung contributed $6 billion to Samsung’s bottom line.

via Google

Apple on New Years Day posted a new commercial for the iPhone 5 titled “Do Not Disturb”. The ad highlights, as you might expect, the ‘do not disturb’ feature Apple first introduced in iOS 6. The ad is pretty fun and features Serena and Venus Williams in a dream sequence playing Ping Pong.

Overall, this one’s a winner, except for the fact that it was released on the same day it was discovered that iOS 6 has a software bug which prevented the feature from being turned off on many iPhones. Apple later noted that the bug will self-correct come January 7.

While most people were either out getting drunk or celebrating New Years in other ways, some thieves in Paris decided to spend their NYE robbing the flagship Apple Store in Paris of more than 1 million Euros worth of iPhones and iPads.

The actual attack took place at about 9PM on Monday, just three hours after the store had closed.

Police believe it was coordinated to take place as police dealt with large crowds building up for the New Year Eve’s celebrations on the Champs Elysee and by the Eiffel Tower.

The robbers, who were masked and carrying handguns, are believed to have attacked a security guard before helping themselves to smartphones and tablets.

With Apple products priced at a premium, on the black market as well, the appeal in robbing an Apple Store is self explanatory. And given that a lone iPhone or iPad can fetch a few hundred on the street, robbing in bulk, so to speak, certainly has an allure for those lurking in the criminal underworld.

via Daily Mail

Corning, the Kentucky-based company responsible for the ultra-durable Gorilla Glass used on the iPhone and other smartphones, recently announced that the third iteration of its famed glass is right around the corner.

As you might expect, Corning’s next-gen glass is even more durable than its predecessors and will debut at CES next week.

Engadget reports:

Gorilla Glass 3 has been improved at the molecular level, incorporating a proprietary feature called Native Damage Resistance (NDR). According to Corning, NDR reduces the propagation of flaws, the appearance of scratches and does a better job of maintaining the overall retained strength of the glass. As a result, GG3 claims a three-fold improvement in scratch resistance, 40 percent reduction in the number of visible scratches and 50 percent boost in retained strength after the glass becomes flawed.

You might recall the interesting anecdote from Steve Jobs’ biography regarding Gorilla Glass wherein Jobs personally called up Corning CEO Wendell Weeks before the iPhone launch and essentially willed the glass into existence.

Walter Isaacson recounted in an interview:

Steve Jobs when he does the iPhone decides he doesn’t want plastic, he wants really tough glass on it, and they don’t make a glass that can be tough like they want. And finally somebody says to him, because they were making all of the glass in China for the fronts of the stores, says, “You ought to check with the people at Corning. They’re kind of smart there.” So, he flies to Corning, New York, sits there in front of the CEO, Wendell Weeks, and says, “This is what I want, a glass that can do this.” So, Wendell Weeks says, “We once created a type of process that created something called Gorilla Glass.” And Steve said, “No, no, no. Here’s how you make really strong glass.” And Wendell says, “Wait a minute, I know how to make glass. Shut up and listen to me.” And Steve, to his credit, shuts up and listens, and Wendell Weeks describes a process that makes Gorilla Glass. And Steve then says, “Fine. In six months I want enough of it to make–whatever it is–a million iPhones.” And Wendell says, “I’m sorry, we’ve actually never made it. We don’t have a factory to make it. This was a process we developed, but we never had a manufacturing plant to do it.” And Steve looks at him and says what he said to Woz, 20, 30 years earlier: “Don’t be afraid, you can do it.” Wendell Weeks tells me… Because I flew to Corning, because I just wanted to hear this story. Wendell Weeks tells me, “I just sat there and looked at the guy. He kept saying, ‘Don’t be afraid. You can do this.'”

As the iPhone 5 continues to sell like hot cakes, rumors surrounding what Apple has planned for the next-gen iPhone are starting to trickle into the blogosphere.

This past week, Topeka Capital Markets analyst Brian White issued a research report claiming that Apple’s next-gen iPhone may come in up to 6-8 different colors. While Apple has traditionally gone with white and black iPhone models exclusively, the recent iPod Touch line – with its array of colors – lends some credence to White’s prediction.

Even more interesting is that White anticipates the next iPhone release will see Apple offer its iconic smartphone in a number of different screen sizes.

Although Apple offers a 4-inch screen on the iPhone 5 and a 3.5-inch screen on the iPhone 4S and iPhone 4, the Company has never offered multiple screen sizes for a single model. We believe this is about to change with the next iPhone offering different screen sizes that we believe will allow Apple to better bifurcate the market and expand its reach. This eventually opens up the possibility for a lower-priced iPhone (i.e., iPhone mini) with a smaller screen size that could allow Apple to further penetrate markets such as China and open up opportunities in India. At the same time, Apple could unveil a larger screen size compared to the recently updated 4-inch screen on the iPhone 5.

Given that it took Apple 5 years to enlarge the screen of the iPhone, it seems unlikely at this point that Apple would all of a sudden offer a number of varying iPhone screen sizes. The counterpoint, however, is that seeing the success of the iPhone 5, Apple is now convinced that different screen sizes appeal to different consumers.

Remember, there’s a lot to consider when increasing or decreasing the iPhone’s traditional 3.5-inch display and Apple is and has always been keen on consistency.

Previously, Jefferies analyst Peter Misek – who I should note doesn’t have the best track record with respect to Apple rumors – noted that the next gen iPhone will come with a new super HD camera, better battery life, and NFC functionality. Some possible additions, according to Misek, include an IGZO screen, 128GB storage option, and as White suggests, multiple colors.

via MacRumors

Get ready for some Ashton filled Steve Jobs movie goodness, folks. I hesitate to say that the film is highly anticipated, but the Steve Jobs film starring the former “That 70s show” star is set to be released this April.

The film, aptly titled “Jobs”, will close out the Sundance Film Festival this year as well. That little festival is going down in Utah at the end of the month.

Directed by Joshua Michael Stern, written by Matthew Whitely, shot by Oscar- winning cinematographer Russell Carpenter and produced by Mark Hulme, jOBS details the major moments and defining characters that influenced Steve Jobs on a daily basis from 1971 through 2000. jOBS plunges into the depths of his character, creating an intense dialogue-driven story that is as much a sweeping epic as it is an immensely personal portrait of Steve Jobs’ life. The filmmakers were granted unprecedented access during shooting to the historic garage in Palo Alto, that served as the birthplace to Apple Inc. jOBS stars Ashton Kutcher, Dermot Mulroney, Josh Gad, Lukas Haas, J.K. Simmons and Matthew Modine.

And for full effect, herre’s another photo of Kutcher as Jobs, albeit from a different era in Jobs’ life.

Lastly, you might also remember that there is another Jobs movie in the works, this one penned by none other than Aaron Sorkin and will be bankrolled by Sony Pictures.

via Deadline

In case you missed it, the Wall Street Journal reported right before the holidays that Google, along with the engineers from Motorola Mobility it acquired back in May 2012, are hard at work on a homegrown smartphone meant to compete with the iPhone, and surprise surprise, the top Android handsets out on the market.

Engineers at Motorola Mobility are hard at work on a sophisticated handset—known internally as the “X phone”—but the Google unit is running into some obstacles in its effort to provide more potent competition for Apple said people familiar with the matter.

According to the report, Google is experiencing a few hurdles with regard to manufacturing and supply-chain management. The fact that Google is working on a homegrown device at all, though, is rather interesting. While we’ve grown accustomed to flagship Android devices that Google develops in conjunction with partners such as HTC and Samsung, a Google branded device is an entirely new beast altogether. One can only wonder how companies like Samsung feel about Google’s rumored hardware foray into the smartphone market.

Dennis Woodside, a former Google top sales executive who is now Motorola’s chief executive, declined to discuss products under development. But he said in an interview that the company is “investing in a team and a technology that will do something quite different than the current approaches.”

For the X phone, an initiative being led by former Google product manager Lior Ron who worked on the Google Maps team, Motorola wanted top-notch features for the phone’s camera and photo software, such as better color saturation and the ability to take panoramic shots, two people familiar with the situation said.

But as the report goes on to state, some of the more noteworthy features the folks at Google were looking into either drained the device’s battery life or had already been implemented by competitors.

Interestingly enough, Google and co. reportedly looked into implementing a bendable screen and utilizing different types of materials.

One thing’s for sure though, with Larry Page at the helm, you can bet that the company is doing all it can to push the envelope, even if it means pissing off partners like Samsung in the process.

via WSJ

Before Christmas, Apple rolled out the following commercial for the iPad Mini. Dubbed “I’ll be home”, the ad features a girl singing Bing Crosby’s “I’ll be home for Christmas” to her grandpa via Facetime.

Is it just me, or are Apple’s ads getting a bit schmaltzy?

With CES just a few days away, we are undoubtedly in store for a number of interesting new TVs. And for as much as the Apple faithful likes to poke fun at Samsung, it’s hard to deny that they simply make the best HDTVs money can buy.

Of course, rumors have been circulating for years now that Apple is looking to get into the TV business and revolutionize the way we view and access media content. Adding to those rumors is a recent report via the Taiwan-based Central News Agency which notes that Apple manufacturing partner Foxconn is currently working closely with Apple on a number of different HDTV designs that range in size from 46 to 55 inches.

Hon Hai, the world’s largest contract electronics maker, has declined to respond to the reports, saying that it never comments on specific business deals with any single client.

However, the Hon Hai source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the initial phase of tests on the TVs has kicked off.

Nevertheless, the source said it is unlikely that shipments of the appliances will begin as soon as the end of next year.

Notably, the report goes on to state that Apple may showcase its new HDTVs at CES 2013, which essentially calls the entire report into question. I mean, Apple stopped showing up at Macworld so that they can announce products at their own discretion. Apple showing up at CES this year? Not bloody likely.

Lastly, whether we see an Apple HDTV in 2013 or not, it’s clear that the area remains of particular interest to Apple. Apple CEO Tim Cook said as much during an interview with NBC’s Brian Williams this past December. “It’s an area of intense interest. I can’t say more than that,” Cook said in response to a question from Williams.

via Focus Taiwan

Really, Rob? Really?!

As we look ahead to 2013, it’s becoming increasingly clear that the new year provides an unprecedented opportunity for Research in Motion to make a huge comeback.

This is largely because the market is dominated by two platforms: Android, which is seen as an unsecure malware magnet, and iOS, which comes from a firm that has never learned to spell “IT.” In fact, Apple’s biggest failures were Lisa and the Apple Server, both created on Steve Jobs’ watch (Lisa was even his product, initially) and both targeted at the IT market.

via CIO

MacRumors reports:

Brightwire summarizes a report [Google translation] from Taiwanese news site United Daily News claiming that Apple’s supply chain partners will continue working through the traditional Chinese New Year holiday in order to keep up with demand for the popular iPad mini and iPhone 5. The holiday falls in mid-February in 2013, with many workers traditionally returning to their homes for two weeks or more in celebration

The New York Times reports:

Major crime in New York City inched up this year, and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg on Friday fingered the culprit: too many iPhones and iPads were being swiped.

A rise in thefts of shiny Apple products accounted for the slight increase in the city’s annual crime index, a statistic that covers a number of felonies, including murder, grand larceny and robbery, Mr. Bloomberg said on Friday morning during his weekly radio show.