Edible Apple

Even though it doesn’t officially exist, and even though it may never see the light of day, the rumored Apple HDTV apparently has some competitors shaking in their boots. And hey, given how Apple has disrupted entire industries with the iPod, iPhone, and more recently the iPad, you can’t fault TV manufacturers from playing preventive defense, so to speak.

That said, a Digitimes report from last week claims that TV manufacturers are looking to add more features to their lineup of Smart TVs over the next few months and that some companies are even looking to partner up in an effort to leverage respective strengths – with the implicit goal being to prevent Apple from just moseying in on the HDTV market and tearing everything asunder.

The sources said the alliances are also forming as Apple is preparing to release a smart TV. Due to Apple’s influence in the market, the sources fear it will further dominate the smart TV market, which is estimated to reach a 40% penetration rate by 2014.

The alliance-forming TV makers are researching and developing smart TV concepts that will have similar functions as Samsung Electronics’ but will still need a lot of time before models start hitting stores, added the sources.

The most recent HDTV rumors we’ve heard are from this earlier this year. One report from May claimed that an Apple Smart TV had begun the manufacturing process on a trial basis. And before that, a research note from the Asian research group CLSA predicted that Apple would launch an HDTV in 2013 with display panels from Sharp.

We continue to view Apple TV hardware as a 2013 event. The timing of Hon Hai/Foxconn’s equity stake and partnership with Sharp along with Hon Hai Chairman Terry Gou’s separate 46.5% investment in Sharp’s Sakai City plant lends further credibility that Apple TV is in the works. This also follows reports that Apple is investing ~$1.3bn in equipment destined for Sharp facilities.

Let the speculation continue.

What you’re looking at in the photo above is a comparison of the Galaxy Note and the iPhone. The Galaxy note has a gargantuan 5.3-inch screen while the iPhone has a relatively miniscule 3.5 inch screen.

Stranded somewhere between a tablet and a smartphone, the Galaxy Note from Samsung provides easy fodder for tech jokesters and pundits. But believe it or not, and in spite of its abnormally large screen – though truthfully, as a direct result of it – Samsung has deemed sales of the Galaxy Note to be strong enough that they’ve gone back to the drawing board and are releasing a Galaxy Note II… with an even bigger screen!

Yep, that’s right folks. The Galaxy Note II will feature a 5.5-inch screen, but thankfully rumor has it that they’ve managed to fit a larger screen onto the same form factor so folks won’t have to worry, even more, about busting the seams on their pants. Other reports though claim the device will be slightly taller than the original.

In any event, the Galaxy Note II will also sport a quad core processor and a 12 megapixel camera.

Earlier today, BGR reported that Samsung will unveil the device during a press conference scheduled for August 15th.

Following up on our report on the aesthetics of the iPhone 5 comes more confirmation that a launch is scheduled for mid-late September, to be preceded by an unveiling on September 12.

News of the September 12 Apple special media event was first noted by iMore and since confirmed by All Things D:

Apple hasn’t yet officially announced the fall event at which it is expected to debut the next iteration of the iPhone, but it’s definitely planning one.

iMore was first to report that the company has scheduled a special event for Wednesday, September 12, and now we’ve confirmed it as well. Sources tell AllThingsD that Apple is currently planning an event for that week. And while we haven’t yet confirmed its focus, history suggests it will indeed be the new iPhone.

And if that’s not enough to convince you, this was also corroborated by The Verge and the almost always reliable Jim Darlymple who simply added a “yep” to the September 12 speculation.

As we inch closer and closer towards the iPhone 5 release/announcement, we’re starting to see a lot more credible images of purported iPhone parts and the like. Most recently, the Japanese site iLab posted a number of photos of what they claim is the final production model of Apple’s highly anticipated iPhone 5.

The photos above are the result of assembling pre-production iPhone 5 repair parts. So whereas previous leaks might have solely shown an iPhone 5 blackplate, what we see here is the full enchilada.

CydiaBlog, which first reported on the photos from iLab, adds that the photos shown here are remarkably similar to previous leaked photos and, if you recall, an alleged hands on video purporting to depict Apple’s next-gen 4-inch iPhone.

The leaked parts shows the bigger screen, different internals (such as a new flex cable holding the Home button in place), and the camera modules (front and rear). The camera module cutout looks to be larger, there is an enhanced version of speaker and microphone configuration at the bottom, new smaller dock connector (instead of 30-pin Dock Connector, 16-pin connector could be introduced). Another notable design change in the new iPhone front panel shows theFaceTime camera has been moved to a centered position above the earpiece speaker (it is currently to left of the earpiece in iPhone 4S and iPhone 4).

But wait, there’s more!

The typically accurate iMore reported earlier this morning that Apple will unveil its next-gen iPhone at a special media event set to take place on Wednesday, September 12 2012. Following that, the launch is on track for Friday, September 21. Notably, another Mac site reported just a few days ago that September 21 had been earmarked for the iPhone 5 launch.

All that said, it’s starting to look like you’ll be able to pick up the phone you see below in just under 2 months time.

In Samsung’s trial brief, the Korean based electronics giant accuses Apple’s iPhone of effectively borrowing heavily from a Sony device. In other words, Samsung argues, the iPhone is anything but an original creation.

As the story goes, this 2006 Businessweek interview set the course for Apple’s original iPhone design.

All Things D relays a telling quote from Samsung’s brief:

Right after this article was circulated internally, Apple industrial designer Shin Nishibori was directed to prepare a “Sony-like” design for an Apple phone and then had CAD drawings and a three-dimensional model prepared. Confirming the origin of the design, these internal Apple CAD drawings prepared at Mr. Nishibori‘s direction even had the “Sony” name prominently emblazoned on the phone design, as the below images from Apple‘s internal documents show.

The difference between Samsung copying Apple and Apple’s alleged copying of Sony is that Apple didn’t take a wildly popular Sony design already out on the market and copy it part and parcel like Samsung did. But I digress.

Moving along, check out this internal Apple email sent to Jony Ive.

The two iPhone prototypes referenced in the email are below, to which Buzzfeed adds:

As pointed out by the Verge, Apple designer Richard Howarth argued for the “sony-style chappy” over the “extrusion” model because it’s a “much smaller-looking product with a nicer shape to have next to your ear and in your pocket.” Can’t say I disagree. The best part of this email, though, is the fact that Howarth (and perhaps Jony Ive?) thought the iPhone 4-like design “look[ed] old next to the extrusion,” way back in 2006. And here we are in 2012.

Decent, and way better than those Siri ads.

Not sure how I’m feeling about these Siri ads. Does anyone really use Siri like this? Does the notion of talking to Siri like a real person really get people going?

Well that may be all she wrote for Eastman Kodak as the once mighty photography company was recently on the losing end of  a decision in its patent suit against both Apple and RIM.

This past Friday, the ITC upheld a previous ruling which declared that Apple and RIM products did not infringe upon Kodak’s intellectual property, noting that the patent in question was invalid.

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MicGadget reports that Foxconn has opened up jobs at its plant in Chengdu for the Summer and that thousands of people lined up in hopes of landing one. And as you can tell from the photo above, the rain couldn’t keep them away.

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Below are some notes of interest from Apple’s recent earnings conference call:

Year over year Mac growth was relatively low at 2%, but still higher than 1% for the broader PC market..

Apple recorded all time quarterly highs for iPad sales and new Q3 2012 records for iPhone and Mac sales.

Apple sold 26 million iPhones in the quarter, compared to 20.3 million last year. That amounts to 28% year over year growth. Helping this, no doubt, is the fact that the iPhone is now on 250 carriers in over 100 countries.

iPad wise, Apple sold 17 million units compared to 9.2 million last year in the same quarter. That’s an increase of 84%. Apple also highlighted that it sold 1 million iPads to education institutions. Interestingly, Apple specifically noted that iPad 2 sales were a hit with the K-12 market.

Translation? People want cheaper tablets! And with reports of an iPad Mini swirling about, it seems that Apple is reading the message loud and clear.

Apple also highlighted some noteworthy education-based purchases of Macs, such as Rutherford County, North Carolina which purchased 6,000 MacBoko Airs.

iPod sales checked in at 6.8 million units compared to 7.5 million in the year ago quarter. Still, this was more than Apple was expecting. Incidentally, we reported previously on a rumor that Apple will be revamping both the iPod Touch and the iPod Nano this coming Fall.

Not surprisingly, the iPod Touch accounts for more than half of all iPods sold. The rumored iPod Touch refresh will likely have a 4-inch screen.

There are now over 20 million songs on iTunes

The iTunes App Store now sports over 650,000 applications, with 225,000 of them specifically designed for the iPad.

Impressively, Apple has cumulatively paid out over $5.5 billion to developers.

Regarding Apple’s retail operations, revenue rose 17% to come in at $4.1 billion. There are 372 Apple Stores in total around the world now, with 123 of them located outside the US. On average, Apple retail handles about 17,000 visitors per store per week. All told, 80.3 million folks stopped in an Apple Store last quarter.

Apple’s cash hoard now stands at $117.2 billion, with with $81 billion of that being offshore.

In the wake of the DOJ’s lawsuit against Apple amid allegations of colluding with publishers to raise the price of e-books, there have been no shortage of critics lambasting the DOJ for going after Apple when Amazon essentially owns the e-book market. Recently, we highlighted the letter that US Senator Charles Schumer penned taking the DOJ to task for what he effectively calls a shortsighted move with the potential to ruin the publishing industry.

“Choice is critical in any market”, Schumer wrote, “but that is particularly true in cultural markets like books. The prospect that a single firm would control access to books should give any reader pause.”

Interestingly enough, the DOJ has since responded to the avalanche of criticism which has been pointed in its direction.

In a document released on Monday, the DOJ called critiques of its lawsuit “self-serving” while also pointing to recent e-book ventures taken on by Google and Microsoft as evidence that Amazon’s dominance in the marketplace is infused with hype.

This seems quite prepostorous and Daring Fireball’s John Gruber hits the nail on the head, writing:

I’ll bet Amazon sells more e-books in a day than Microsoft and Google combined do in a month. Not that sales numbers alone disprove the DOJ’s argument, but let’s not kid ourselves that Microsoft or Google have yet made a dent in the e-book market.

PaidContent, which has the full DOJ response on its website writes:

Under the terms of the settlement, Apple and the settling publishers must terminate existing “Apple Agency Agreements” within seven days time of the settlement’s final approval. The publishers can then sign new contracts but are forbidden for two years from using clauses that limit retailers’ rights to discount. (Amazon often offers discounts whereas Apple instead uses a commission-style system favored by publishers).

The Justice Department’s filing largely skates away from issues related to Amazon’s role in the e-book market. It states that public comments suggesting it sue Amazon for abuse of dominant market power or address issues of online sales tax issues are beyond the scope of the antitrust action.

If you’ve been following this suit closely, check out the full story over here.

As Samsung and Apple begin to duke it out in an Australian Court this week, the accusations and strategic positioning from the two companies marches on.

On Monday, Samsung told an Australian Judge that Apple had “refused to negotiate” a deal with respect to Samsung’s 3G related patents, opting instead to go to court. As a quick refresher, the 3G patents at issue are standard essential patents meaning that Samsung is obligated to license them out on fair, reasonable and non discriminatory terms to any other company in the industry.

ComputerWorld reports:

Monday’s hearing focused on two of the three patents — Australian patents No. 2005202512 and No. 2006241621 — that Samsung alleges Apple has violated. The two patents deal with power control and the format of packet headers used for 3G data transmissions. The court will address patent No. 2005239657, which deals with rate matching patterns used in data transmission, in August.

Apple’s Australian suit against Samsung dates back to July 2011 when the Cupertino-based company sued alleging that Samsung’s Galaxy tablet infringed upon Apple’s IP. Samsung naturally turned right around and accused Apple of infringing upon their 3G related patents.

Apple’s original Samsung lawsuit was filed in April 2011 and the success of Apple’s worldwide efforts to stick it to Samsung and Android are slowly but starting to surface. Here in the US, Apple recently secured preliminary injunctions against both the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and the Galaxy Nexus – flagship ICS Android smartphone.

Some solid wins, but overseas Apple hasn’t necessarily fared as well. Recently, a judge in the UK ruled that Samsung’s tablets don’t infringe upon Apple’s iPad design, noting that Apple’s offering is sleeker and much more cool than Samsungs. That notwithstanding, Apple was ordered to post a message on its website alerting the masses that Samsung did not, in fact, copy Apple’s iPad design.

via IDG