Edible Apple

The Telegraph is reporting that Apple has its eyes on improving its AirPlay technology in such a way that iOS devices will be able to communicate directly with speakers without the need to set up a wireless network first. Adding to that, the report notes that Apple announce such a feature on September 12th where it will likely unveil a completely revamped lineup of iPods as well.

Apple is also expected to combine a change in size for the iPod connector, used widely on docks, with a new push for Airplay streaming. This means docks will no longer require the iPod to be physically connected, bringing them into line with Android docks, which usually use BlueTooth for music playback.

Check out this listing of absolutely stunning, downright gorgeous iOS icons. True artists at work, I tell ya!

A quick sampling.

Check out 43 more beautiful icons over here at DesignMag

Just when you thought you knew everything there was to know about the iPhone 5 came scattered reports that Apple’s next-gen smartphone would be equipped with NFC chips. Indeed, rumors of Apple’s interest in NFC date back quite a while and Apple has made a number of NFC related hires and patent filings in this regard as well.

But as exciting as the prospect of using your iPhone to make payments is, you might have to wait for the iPhone 6.

After analyzing photos of leaked iPhone 5 casings, AnandTech explains why NFC is not probably for the iPhone 5.

Given the primarily metal backside of the new iPhone, it’s highly unlikely that NFC is in the cards for this generation. In fact, given the very little space at top and bottom dedicated to those glass RF windows, you can almost entirely rule it out.

NFC operates on the 13.56MHz ISM band, which has a relatively large wavelength, at 22.1 m. Making a traditional dipole antenna that radiates at all given the constraints of a smartphone package is thus a big challenge, considering that smartphones are maybe 5-inches tall at maximum, to say nothing of the supposed upcoming iPhone’s longest linear dimension.

Further, the well-connected Jim Darlymple – who if we’re not mistaken hasn’t been wrong about an Apple rumor yet! – references AnandTech’s report with a simple “Yep.”

So sorry NFC enthusiasts, the wait continues.

Following Apple’s notice that it plans to seek injunctions against 8 Samsung devices, and no doubt more confident than ever following its decisive legal victory over Samsung last week, the Korean based electronics giant isn’t going to go down without a strong fight.

While Apple had pointed out about 28 devices in its recent trial as being infringing, it chose 8 that address a “portion of the immediate, ongoing irreparable harm that Apple is suffering.” What’s more, many of the accused Samsung devices are no longer available for sale in the United States.

In any event, Samsung issued a one sentence statement to the press yesterday which said, “We will take all necessary measures to ensure the availability of our products in the U.S. market.”

A Samsung spokesman said the company’s options included filing to stop the injunction, appealing if the judge grants it and modifying products.

Samsung officials have already begun to talk to wireless carriers about removing or modifying infringing features to keep products on the market if the injunctions are granted, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The 8 Samsung products Apple is going after include:

• Galaxy S 4G
• Galaxy S2 (AT&T)
• Galaxy S2 (Skyrocket)
• Galaxy S2 (T-Mobile)
• Galaxy S2 Epic 4G
• Galaxy S Showcase
• Droid Charge
• Galaxy Prevail

via WSJ

Apple’s not wasting any time. Hot on the heels of their legal victory this past Friday, Apple’s attorneys today filed a motion with the US District Court outlining just which accused Samsung products it will now seek to attain an injunction over.

There were a multitude of accused Samsung devices in the recent trial, but Apple, in seeking an injunction, is going to focus on 8 – which as The Verge points out, is a reflection of the fact that many of them aren’t available for sale in the US anymore.

In any event, these are the 8 devices Apple is going to go after:

• Galaxy S 4G
• Galaxy S2 (AT&T)
• Galaxy S2 (Skyrocket)
• Galaxy S2 (T-Mobile)
• Galaxy S2 Epic 4G
• Galaxy S Showcase
• Droid Charge
• Galaxy Prevail

Now just because Apple secured a favorable jury verdict does not mean that this is a piece of cake, sign, sealed and delivered type of process. Apple still has to demonstrate to the court that they’ll suffer irreparable harm if the aforementioned smartphones remain on sale.

It’s easier to make this argument after a positive jury verdict, but an injunction is by no means a foregone conclusion. However, Apple did apparently appreciate the benefits of picking its battles here, rather than just going after each and every product found to infringe. It’s easier for Apple to establish irreparable harm when the focus of the injunction is on products it may actually compete against in the market.

A hearing on Apple’s attempt to secure an injunction is scheduled for September 20th.

Apple today announced that Craig Federighi, currently Apple’s VP of Mac Software Engineering, has been promoted to a Senior VP. Concurrently, Dan Riccio, Apple’s VP of Hardware Engineering, has also been promoted to a Senior VP and the two of them will now join the ranks of Apple’s vaunted executive team and will report directly to CEO Tim Cook.

Interestingly, Apple also announced that Bob Mansfield, who previously announced his retirement in June, will be staying at Apple after all.

As senior vice president of Mac Software Engineering, Federighi will continue to be responsible for the development of Mac OS X and Apple’s common operating system engineering teams. Federighi worked at NeXT, followed by Apple, and then spent a decade at Ariba where he held several roles including vice president of Internet Services and chief technology officer. He returned to Apple in 2009 to lead Mac OS X engineering. Federighi holds a Master of Science degree in Computer Science and a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of California, Berkeley.

Riccio, as senior vice president of Hardware Engineering, will lead the Mac, iPhone, iPad and iPod engineering teams. He has been instrumental in all of Apple’s iPad products since the first generation iPad. Riccio joined Apple in 1998 as vice president of Product Design and has been a key contributor to most of Apple’s hardware over his career. Dan earned a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 1986.

Despite going after each other’s throats in their recent patent infringement lawsuit, Apple and Samsung remain very important business partners given that the Korean based electronics giant happens to be the sole supplier of the chips that power Apple’s uber-profitable iPhone and iPad.

To that end, the Orlando Sentinal reports on an emergency meeting held in Seoul early on Sunday that was led by vice chairman Choi Gee-sung and JK Shin, who heads up Samsung’s mobile business. CEO Kwon Oh-hyun, who is tasked with overseeing the component business, was reportedly not in charge of the meeting.

The clear message from Samsung is that a strict internal firewall between its handset business and its components operations remains intact.

While it plans to appeal the U.S. verdict, and a damages bill for $1.05 billion for copying critical features of Apple’s popular mobile devices – a sum that could be trebled – Samsung will not want to put at risk its Apple supply contract which is worth billions of dollars.

As well as being the only supplier of micro processors for the iPhone and iPad, Samsung also supplies DRAM and NAND-type memory chips and flat screens used in the popular Apple gadgets. Samsung products comprise 26 percent of the component cost of the iPhone, Samsung’s lead counsel Charles Verhoeven was quoted as saying in the media.

Samsung’s component sales could hit $13 billion next year and bring in $2.2 billion in operating profit, according to a recent estimate by Morgan Stanley. That’s nearly 8 percent of estimated group operating profit for next year.

Apple recently received a judgement for $1.05 billion from Samsung, but again, Apple and Samsung’s relationship over the course of a year is worth many more billions. Samsung needs Apple just as much as Apple needs Samsung.

And citing a quote from Florian Mueller, the report notes that “Apple isn’t that stupid (to risk its Samsung parts deal). Apple’s agreements with Samsung will ensure that Samsung has no choice but to comply and supply.”

Though it’s gone down a tad since, shares of Apple opened up at $680 earlier today in the wake of Apple’s victory over Samsung over an assortment of utility and design patents.

The jury awarded Apple about $1.05 billion in damages, and while that’s hardly going to break Samsung’s bank or do much to really help Apple’s already fat bank account, we’re still talking billions here.

Shares of Samsung, as a result, plummeted more today than it has in the previous four years, losing $12 billion in Market Cap in the process. And while Samsung will of course appeal the ruling, Apple may choose to go for the jugular as it seeks permanent injunctions against a slew of Samsung devices currently on the market.

And as high as Apple is now, the crazy thing is that it may be poised to skyrocket even higher given that the iPhone 5 is slated for release sometime in late September to be followed by an iPad Mini launch later in the Fall.

Samsung may be standing up tall in public following their loss to Apple last week, but investors aren’t necessarily on the same page. Shares of Samsung dropped rather precipitously in early morning trading, marking the company’s largest one-day decline in nearly four years.

CNET reports:

Shares of Samsung were off 6.98 percent in early morning trading, down 89,000 South Korean Wan ($78.38) to 1.19 million SKW ($1,043.88). It was the company’s largest decline since October 2008. The heavily weighted Samsung brought the South Korean Kospi down 0.6 percent.

Now what would be particularly problematic for Samsung is if injunctions on its accused products follow. Indeed, a number of Samsung products currently on the market infringe upon some of the patents Apple successfully asserted at trial.

Meanwhile, Samsung released the following internal memo regarding its loss to Apple, alleging that it is the company that prioritizes innovation over litigation.

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The Verge relays that Google has officially responded to last Friday’s ruling in the Apple/Samsung litigation. Google doesn’t take as strong a stance as Samsung and instead takes a more even keel perspective.

Google’s statement reads:

The court of appeals will review both infringement and the validity of the patent claims. Most of these don’t relate to the core Android operating system, and several are being re-examined by the US Patent Office. The mobile industry is moving fast and all players — including newcomers — are building upon ideas that have been around for decades. We work with our partners to give consumers innovative and affordable products, and we don’t want anything to limit that.

Interestingly enough, some of the more damning evidence to emerge at trial were internal Samsung emails which revealed that Google itself was concerned over how similar Samsung’s products were starting to resemble Apple’s.

The only victory for Samsung in last Friday’s ruling was that its Galaxy Tab 10.1 device was found not to infringe upon Apple’s iPad design patents. As a result, Samsung on Sunday filed a motion with the US District Court to have the preliminary injunction the device is currently subjected to lifted.

The motion reads in part:

Here, the jury found that Samsung‟s Galaxy Tab 10.1 does not infringe the D‟889 patent. Since the purported infringement of the D‟889 patent was the only basis for the preliminary injunction, the jury‟s finding means that Samsung had a right to sell the Galaxy Tab 10.1 during the period in which the injunction has been in effect. Samsung is therefore entitled to recover damages caused by the improper injunction, and the Court should retain the bond so that it may do so.

Apple was initially granted a preliminary injunction against Samsung’s tablet back in June, with Judge Lucy Koh ruling that while Samsung “has a right to compete, it does not have a right to compete unfairly by flooding the market with infringing products.”

via AppleInsider

A few months back, Ashton Kutcher signed on to play Apple co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs in a biopic tentatively titled Jobs: Get Inspired. Back in May photos of Kutcher wearing jeans and Jobs’ patented black turtleneck emerged.

And now we’ve stumbled across this photo of Jobs (err, Kutcher) looking a bit older, but very much still looking the part of of Jobs. This time, for instance, Kutcher is even wearing Jobs’ trademark New Balance sneakers. We venture a guess that this version of Jobs is from the late 1990’s after he had already returned to Apple.

And here’s what Kutcher as Jobs looked like just a few months back.

Also keep in mind that there’s another Jobs movie in the works, this one from Newsroom and West Wing megawriter Aaron Sorkin.