Edible Apple

Ah yes, the perpetual battle between Samsung and Apple shows no signs of slowing down. Recently, Samsung executive Shin Jong-Kyun said that Samsung has no plans to follow HTC’s lead and enter into a settlement agreement with Apple. What’s more, he also managed to throw in a jab or two against Apple’s iPhone.

The truth never lies. Without Samsung-owned wireless patents, it’s impossible for the Cupertino-based Apple to produce its handsets,’’ said Samsung’s mobile chief Shin Jong-kyun in a brief meeting with local reporters on his way to the company’s main office in downtown Seoul, Wednesday.

“As you know, Samsung is very strong in terms of portfolios of wireless patents,’’ the executive added.

In that it turns the Macs fans off. Nifty.

Samsung’s request for access to Apple and HTC’s recent settlement agreement has been granted by US Magistrate Judge Paul S. Grewal. As a quick refresher, Samsung argued that it should be able to check out the particulars of the aforementioned agreement so as to see if the terms are such that they might have to remove certain products from the market. So yeah, Samsung’s legal team certainly is crafty.

Apple’s attorneys had previously agreed to share a version of the agreement that redacted the financial terms of the settlement; in a hearing today Samsung argued that the fees HTC is paying Apple indicate how much consumer demand there is for those features covered by the patents. While Judge Grewal did write that he was “more than a little skeptical” of Samsung’s argument, he nevertheless ordered Apple to turn over the document. Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear the details of the agreement will surface anytime soon, as it is being handed over subject to an “Attorneys-Eyes-Only” designation — basically, nobody but Samsung’s legal team will get a look.

via The Verge

TechCrunch reports:

In a lawsuit filed today by a former founding employee of Color Labs, one moment of clarity emerged amidst some seriously salacious allegations: Color’s approximately 20 person technology team and some of its key intellectual property assets were indeed acquired by Apple last month. This deal was buzzed about a lot in the press, but to date neither company has provided on the record confirmation — this was a central point in the suit, since former Color employee Adam Witherspoon claims he was intentionally left out from the move to Apple.

TechCrunch has confirmed with sources involved that the Apple deal did indeed go through, and the price paid in all was $7 million. That is higher than the $2 million to $5 million range that had been previously reported by AllThingsD in a much-circulated post.

Remember when Windows OS launches used to mean something? Yeah, well we’re in a new age now and OS releases just aren’t, for the lack of a better word, sexy anymore. That said, it’s not all that surprising that sales of Windows 8 thus far have been rather slow.

ExtremeTech reports:

Further confirming our suspicions that Windows 8 is off to a slow start, a Newegg senior vice president has said that sales of Windows 8 have been “slow going.” Likewise, sales of hardware with Windows 8 pre-installed has been “slow and steady.”

Furthermore, Windows enthusiast Paul Thurrott adds that sales of Windows 8 thus far haven’t met Microsoft’s internal projections.

Sales of Windows 8 PCs are well below Microsoft’s internal projections and have been described inside the company as disappointing. But here’s the catch: The software giant blames the slow start on lackluster PC maker designs and availability, further justifying its new Surface strategy. But Windows 8’s market acceptance can be blamed on many factors.

One of my most trusted sources at Microsoft confirmed Windows 8’s weak start this week. And with all of the drama surrounding Windows 8 and the recent, unexpected departure of Windows chief Steven Sinofsky, rumors are sure to swirl.

Apple is taking its dear time with iTunes 11, reportedly putting the final tweaks on its software to make sure it addresses many of the long-standing complaints users have had against Apple’s iconic media player.

The next version of iTunes, which Apple says will be out by the end of the month for both Mac and Windows, represents the latest step to address some of these changes in the way people store and use their content on computers. It’s more deeply tied into Apple’s media store, as well as a user’s music collection that can now be backed up and stored indefinitely in Apple’s cloud as part of a paid subscription service. Apple’s even redesigned its player to put many of the commonly used features in a widget that can be used even when you’re doing something outside of iTunes.

Check out the full scoop over here at CNET.

Well it turns out that Steve Jobs vision for Apple’s new campus is on hold until 2016, a few years later than the company initially anticipated.

The iPhone maker included the new timetable in an updated proposal it submitted to the city on Nov. 14. While Apple, the world’s largest company by market value, had wanted to break ground on the 176-acre campus this year, the city may not complete its environmental impact report until June, and Apple may not be able to start work until 2014.

“They could conceivably break ground in 2013, but only if everything goes smoothly,” said David Brandt, Cupertino’s city manager. That depends on the city council approving the project quickly, and on residents not filing legal challenges. “The project is running a little bit slow.”

via Bloomberg

Like clockwork, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster is out with some more predictions of an Apple HDTV, a prediction he’s been recycling for what may very well be 4 years now.

Here’s how Munster anticipates Apple’s 2013 playing out:

Munster’s revised thinking on the Apple TV release was buried in a note on his product roadmap for Apple in 2013. Here’s how he sees Apple’s 2013 playing out:

• March 2013: iPad Mini with Retina display, update the little Apple TV box, allowing to do accept apps from developers, and some sort of iTunes radio product.
• June 2013: WWDC brings us previews of iOS 7, and OSX, as well as MacBook Airs with Retina displays. Look for Jony Ive’s influence over iOS to start showing up here.
• September 2013: iPhone 5S, a “modest upgrade” from the iPhone 5. The iPad Mini gets a specs bump, and we get a new iPad, which is totally redesigned to look more like the iPhone 5 and iPad Mini.
• November 2013: An Apple TV comes out. It should cost $1,500-$2,000 and come in sizes from 42-inches to 55-inches.

via Business Insider

T-Mobile continues to lose customers and the head honchos there aren’t shy about admitting that its largely due to the fact that they don’t carry the iPhone.

During the Morgan Stanley 12^th Annual Technology, Media & Telecoms Conference in Barcelona, Spain, T-Mobile USA COO Jim Alling explained, “Make no mistake about it: We would love to carry the iPhone. However, we want the economies to be right for us.”

Further, Alling said that T-Mobile wouldn’t be comfortable signing an iPhone contract similar to the one Sprint signed with Apple prior to the iPhone 4S release. You might remember that Spring effectively bet the farm on the iPhone to the extent it agreed to purchase a certain number of iPhones (estimated to be 30 million units) regardless of whether or not they’d be able to sell them. Add on high subsidy fees and there’s no doubting that it was a risky gamble on Sprint’s part. That said, Sprint thus far has been happy with the effects of the iPhone on its network in both keeping customers and attracting new ones. Still, Sprint CEO said that the company won’t really begin recouping its initial iPhone investment until sometime in 2014.

Alling added that the company realizes that the lack of the iPhone “has has been a point of churn for us.”

via Fierce Broadband Wireless

A new job posting on Apple indicates that everyone’s favorite purveyor of fruit based products is looking to add some language chops to Siri’s arsenal. Specifically, the job listing is for a 6-month internship in Cupertino and is specifically designed for folks looking to help deliver Siri to other parts of the world. The languages desired include Arabic, Chinese, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, Korean, Norwegian, and Swedish.

Candidates must be fluent in one of the languages above in addition to being fluent in English.

As it stands now, Siri is available in English, Spanish, German, Korean, Japanese, Mandarin, Catonese, French, and Italian. You might have noticed the overlap of French and Korean, a fact which may point to Apple expanding the number of workable dialects within those languages in Siri.

via 9to5Mac

It’s gonna be a grand quarter for Apple as we enter the busiest shopping season of the year. A new survey conducted by Nielsen reveals that US consumers aged 6-12 want Apple products more than anything else.

Approximately half the children surveyed expressed interest in the full-sized iPad (up from 44% last year), and 36 percent in the new iPad Mini. The iPod Touch and iPhone are also coveted devices among these young consumers (36% and 33%, respectively).  Kids are also likely to ask for dedicated gaming hardware this holiday, with 39 percent excited to own Nintendo’s just-released console offering, Wii U, and 29 percent indicating they want a device from that company’s portable DS family.  Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Sony’s PlayStation 3 also proved appealing, with approximately one-quarter of kids 6-12 saying they want these high definition consoles.

For the second time this year, Apple will pay out a $2.5 billion dividend to investors. Breaking it down, that amounts to $2.65 per each individual share. This of course is also in addition to a $10 billion buy back plan where Apple will purchase back shares on the open market.

AppleInsider reports:

Over the next three years, Apple has stated that its buyback and dividend plans will distribute $45 billion from its cash pile, with quarterly dividends handing out $2.5 billion per quarter.

Apple is earning new cash faster than it is paying out in dividends however, so its $2.5 billion in quarterly dividend payments has not reduced Apple’s cash hoard over the past two quarters.

In the company’s June quarter, Apple announced the accumulation of an additional $7 billion in cash, while in its most recent earnings report, it announced having piled up another $4.2 billion, leaving it with $121.4 billion in cash at the end of its fiscal 2012 as reported in October.