Edible Apple

9to5Mac reports:

Apple’s new Mac mini and iMac lines will feature price-points that are similar to those of their current models (depending on country). The three Mac mini models will likely be priced at the same $599, $799, and $999 for the two standard models and single server model, respectively.

The new iMacs will also feature similar or same pricing as the current iMacs, but the top 27-inch and 21.5-inch models may feature slightly cheaper pricing in some countries. The current iMacs come in at $1199, $1499, $1699, and $1999 U.S. price points.

All Things D reports:

What’s really happening is that Color’s engineering team — about 20 people, comprising almost the entire company — is being “acqhired” by Apple at what’s being called a “nominal” price of something like $2 million to $5 million, according to multiple sources familiar with both sides of the situation. To repeat, there are no “double-digit” millions involved, according to many people familiar with the deal.

Apple is not buying Color’s technology, intellectual property, domain names or liabilities. Those are being left with the company, which still has considerable cash in the bank — something like $25 million — and is going to be wound down.

Apple and Color both declined to comment. Color CEO Bill Nguyen did not reply to a direct query about the talent acquisition.

There seems to be more bad blood than agreement between Color employees, Nguyen, former Color employees, Color investors and Apple, which is why you’re seeing all these conflicting stories.

Digitimes reports that Apple has already begun informing its component suppliers to get ready for iPad 4 production by mid 2013. While the design will still incorporate a 9.7-inch display and the same approximate form factor, Apple is said to be tweaking the innards ever so slightly as to make the manufacturing process a tad more simpler.

Specifically, the report notes that Apple is planning to reduce the number of LED chips used in the new iPad. As it stands now, the third-generation iPad employs 84 LED chips for backlighting purposes.

The sources said the next generation iPad will remain its same 9.7-inch size but will simplify its components to give the device a simpler manufacturing design, such as the amount of LED lights that are used. The sources said the New iPad uses one-chip packages for its LED baklight units (BLUs), but the next-generation model will adopt two-chip packages, the sources added.

Apple is also reportedly making adjustments to its New iPads. But the revised version may not be introduced until the first quaret of 2013, said the sources.

With Apple’s upcoming iPad Mini event set for October 23, keep in mind that there have been other reports pointing to a revamped iPad model in the works, potentially with Apple’s new lightning connector and support for 4G networks int he UK. Word of a refreshed third-gen iPad first emerged this past Summer when KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo noted Apple’s plans to release a modified iPad before the end of the year. Further, a revamped iPad might help explain a new iPad designation of “iPad3,6″ which one developer recently noticed making an appearance in his analytics log a few weeks ago.

Steve Jobs was a complicated man. Heralded as a genius and visionary who helped usher in a number of technological and cultural revolutions, Jobs was equally as famous for his wrath which he would often unleash upon unsuspecting employees when they didn’t perform up to Jobs expectations.

And while Jobs reportedly toned down his temper a bit as he became older and more of a family fan, Jobs’ early days were replete with family drama akin to what you might find on a Soap Opera.

It’s no secret now that Jobs fathered a love-child named Lisa with his high school sweetheart Chrisann Brennan. Lisa, not coincidentally, was also the name for Apple’s Lisa computer.

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Forget about Mapplegate (could there be a worse name for a ‘controversy’?), Apple continues to sell iPhone 5s just as quickly as Foxconn can produce them. Indeed, if anything, Apple has had trouble meeting pent up demand for its 6th generation iPhone up until recently.

Recently, we reported on how stricter quality control measures requested by Apple as a means to limit the number of scratched iPhone 5s caused a temporary slow down in production. Now in a follow up report from the WSJ, an official with Foxconn added that the iPhone 5 is the most difficult product the company has ever assembled.

“The iPhone 5 is the most difficult device that has ever assembled.  To make it light and thin, the design is very complicated,” said an official at the company who declined to be named. “It takes time to learn how to make this new device. Practice makes perfect. Our productivity has been improving day by day.”

That’s Apple all right, pushing the boundaries.

The report also adds that the iPhone 5 employs a special coating material that makes it more prone to getting scuffed up. Also note that the iPhone 5 back casing uses anodized aluminum as opposed to the glass used on the back of the iPhone 4 and 4S. The aluminum does lend itself more easily to scratching but the upside is that it’s much more durable.

via WSJ

Apple’s newly released iPod Touch is by far the best iPod ever released. Sharing the same 4-inch screen as the iPhone 5, not to mention the long-awaited addition of a competent camera, the 5th generation iPod Touch is a sight to behold.

It’s also insanely thin, we’re talking just 6.1mm deep. To that end, there’s only so much Apple can pack into the device.

This was brought to the forefront recently on account of a purported email from Apple executive Phil Schiller addressing a user complaint that the new iPod Touch lacks an auto-brightness setting.

Schiller responded,

Thank you for purchasing a new iPod touch. It is a remarkable device! The 5th generation iPod touch does not have a built-in automatic light sensor (it’s just too thin!)

Phil

via Twitter

Josh Lowensohn of CNET reports that Apple last month acquired a San Francisco based creative consulting company called Particle that specializes in HTML 5 and UI design.

Particle was founded in early 2008 and has some celebrity financial backing. Pop star-turned-actor Justin Timberlake is an investor and helped fund short social video service Robo.to, which Particle created. Sources with knowledge of the deal did not know the selling price.

The company has done HTML5 work for Google, Motorola, Amazon, Yahoo, Sony, and Apple. The group has also created some “labs” projects including Intervue.me, an asynchronous video interviewing project.

Notably, Lowensohn points out that Particle founder and CTO Aubry Anderson did consulting work for Apple between 2006 and 2008.

Particle brings positive and energetic relationships with Google and the Chrome team specifically, as well as great Apple relationships and execution experience around iAds, iTunes Extras, and Apple.com. We have participated in and piloted much of the technology which will display the next generation of advertising and deliver media content for the next decade.

And so Apple’s championing of HTML 5 continues.

Etradesupply today published photos purporting to show the iPad Mini’s LCD screen. If accurate, the screen will measure in at 162mm by 124mm in width. Notably, and running counter to previous leaks, the LCD obtained by Etradesupply suggests that the iPad Mini will not have a 16:9 aspect ratio and will instead share the same 4:3 aspect ratio used by the iPad.

They also got their hands on the iPad Mini battery and found that it’s 3 times larger than the iPhone 5 battery and is a 16.7Whr battery running at 3.72V.

Despite only having been out for less than a month, a new report from the research firm Chitika shows that web traffic from the iPhone 5 has already surpassed that from Samsung’s Galaxy S3. So while the pundits and even Apple enthusiasts and iPhone owners may have less than stellar things to say about Apple’s Mapping application, that clearly has not slowed down iPhone 5 sales nor people’s use of their device.

Chitka notes:

Record-breaking sales numbers, along with new 4G browsing speeds which encourage data usage, are the most likely explanation for this tremendous growth. This latest shift in the mobile ecosystem is not welcome news for Samsung, which has positioned its device as a direct competitor to the iPhone 5.

One point of curiosity though is that Chitika’s research found that Apple’s iPhone 5 garnered 56% of web traffic while the Galaxy S3 took home 44% of web traffic. So these two smartphones alone account for 100% of smartphone web traffic? Surely something must be amiss.

via Chitika

Well done, Microsoft. Well done. This ad, dare we say, is very cool and I kinda wish Apple experimented with these kinds of numbers. Oh well, I’d rather have an iPad and decent commercials than a Microsoft Surface and amazing commercials.

Apple today finally sent out invitations for what promises to be the introduction of the highly anticipated iPad Mini. As expected, the event is scheduled to go down on October 23 at the California Theatre in San Jose, marking a departure from the typical events which Apple holds at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco.

In addition to the iPad Mini, recent reports have suggested that Apple will also use the event to announce a 13-inch MacBook Pro with a Retina Display alongside a revamped Mac Mini.

Pricing for the entry level iPad Mini will likely be $250 but Network World makes the case for why $199 might be a better strategic move for Apple.

via The Loop

Has it been 7 generations of the iPod Nano already? Why yes, yes it has. And iFixit recently got their hands on Apple’s newest miniaturized MP3 player and did what they do best, tore that bad boy apart. Check out their teardown efforts over here.