Apple Inc. - page 53

Market research firm Harris Interactive conducts a fairly extensive poll each year in the area of consumer electronic brands. This year, Apple again took the top spot in three major categories, named the best brand of tablet, computer, and mobile phone. The iPad, Mac, and iPhone scored the best across an array of specific brand markers, like brand recognition, emotional response to the brand, and purchasing consideration.

Apple was found guilty of e-book price fixing by federal judge Denise Cote earlier this month, and it looks like the total bill for colluding with book publishers for the launch of the iBookstore will be pretty steep.

The five publishers in the case – Hachette, Penguin, Random House, HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster – have already paid out $166 million,  according to figures obtained by GigaOm. Based on the settlement payments publishers have already shelled out, it looks like Apple might have to pay $500 million to the states and class action lawyers in the case.

This Cult of Mac Deals offer features a bundle of style for your iPhone 5. Essentially, this bundle of iPhone protection gear comes with several components, including a glass shield screen protector. With that component alone, you can be confident that if your iPhone takes a beating –its glass screen won’t shatter upon impact.

This iPhone 5 Full Armor Pack – courtesy of Spigen – can be yours during this limited time offer for just $26.99. That’s a savings of 59%!

There are a lot of compelling reasons to buy a refurbished Apple product instead of a new one. Not only are they cheaper and come with the same warranty, but because they’ve been gone over with a fine-tooth comb for problems, there’s an argument to be made that they are even less likely to exhibit problems after purchase.

The only problem? Buying a refurbished Apple can be a crapshoot. You go to the official Apple.com Refurbished page and see if the machine you want is available. If it is, great! If not, you just keep checking back.

A new website by Guillaume Bourdreau makes this process a lot easier, though. It allows you to subscribe to email alerts when any refurbished Apple product you want comes back in stock, and it works even internationally. If you want a lightly used Mac for a rock bottom price, check it out!

Source: Refurbished Stock Checker

Apple just sent out an email announcing that it has a new System Status page for developers who want to track what’s going on with the still-down Dev Center after it was apparently hacked a couple of days ago.

The email apologizes for the “significant inconvenience” caused by the downtime, and assures developers that it’s been working non-stop to overhaul the systems behind the Dev Center, update server software, and rebuild the entire database now that it’s been compromised.

In addition, they’ve created a one-stop web page with the status of each specific service, noting whether the services in question are yet online or still off.

Apple just released it’s Q3 2013 earnings report and even though iPhone sales were up to 31.2 million units in the quarter, compared to 26 million last quarter, the company only posted a net profit of $6.9 billion. Samsung on the other hand reported that it made $8.33 billion in profit during the same quarter.

Apple reported a profit of $8.8 billion and $35 billion in revenue in the third quarter of 2012, so profit is still down and revenue growth is flat. The company’s year-over-year net profit shrank for the first time in a decade last quarter.

Source: SAI

In the sphere of Apple, most analysts are generally full of it. KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo is one of the exceptions; when he says something’s happening, there’s a pretty good chance it actually is.

Now, Kuo’s supply chain checks have indicated that the end of the year might be a rough one for Apple: not only is Kuo not anticipating a new iPad mini this year, but he’s forecasting serious supply issues at the launch of the iPhone 5S.

While some radio stations started sending out recordings of broadcasts in 2001, podcasts came onto the scene in 2004, got onto iTunes in 2005, and have since “transformed the media landscape,” according to Apple’s new iTunes splash page celebrating a milestone one billion podcast subscriptions.

Those billion subscriptions are held up by 250,000 unique podcasts across over 100 languages. More than eight million episodes have been published on the iTunes Store, according to Apple.

Google copied pretty much every aspect of iOS when it came up with Android, so I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised that the Search Giant is now shamelessly copying Apple’s patents… right down to the drawing.

As noticed by Patently Apple, on the left you have Apple’s already granted patent for a wider MacBook trackpad that would be able to use the Facetime camera to detect whether someone was just resting their hands on the trackpad, or actually using it.

On the right? A new Google patent for a Chromebook that can detect a user’s presence based upon the forward-facing camera. Notice the line drawings used for both are essentially identical. Ballsy, Google!

Source: Patently Apple

Just a friendly note. Apple has so far been releasing new betas of iOS 7 and OS X Mavericks every other Monday, like clockwork. But with the iTunes Developer Center, down for almost four days now (because of a hack that might have been committed by a researcher) and no end in sight, if you’re expecting iOS 7 Beta 4 and OS X Mavericks Beta 4 to drop today, you might not want to hold your breath: if Apple can’t get the Developer Center up and running this afternoon, releasing a new beta isn’t likely.

UPDATE: Lucky Frame has provided us with some updated stats: Gentlemen! now has over 6,000 players on Android, with just 50 paid downloads.

Gentlemen!, a brand new title from Scottish development studio Lucky Frame, made its debut on Android and iOS last week. It’s been a pretty big success so far, with plenty of acclaim from reviewers, a mention in a British newspaper, and thousands of players worldwide.

But it’s not all good news for Lucky Frame. You see, only 20 of the players on Android actually paid Gentlemen!’s $4.99 price tag, the company revealed to Cult of Android.

The other 3,000 stole it.

Cult of Mac Deals has been dishing out deals and giveaways for a long time now, and this time around we’re going to up the ante a little bit. That’s because e’re giving each and every one of our Cult of Mac readers the chance to take home a brand new Mac!

You read that right. Cult of Mac Deals is giving away an all-new 13″ MacBook Air – valued at over $1000 – for free!

The Mac has become a media hub for many people. But even it could use some extra help now and again to make sure it stays organized and streamlined so that it can be a true entertainment powerhouse. Cult of Mac Deals has assembled 3 top-notch apps that aim to boost your Mac’s reputation as a media center with The Mac Media Mini Bundle.

Featuring Musictube, Minitube, and Musique, The Mac Media Mini Bundle has the ability to further innovate how it handles YouTube and simplify your music experience – which is no simple feat. During this limited time offer, you can get The Mac Media Mini Bundle for just $14.99 – a savings of 53%!

Even though Apple was awarded $1 billion last summer during its patent infringement case against Samsung, the two tech giants still aren’t done fighting, but there’s hope that a deal can be made as the two sides have renewed their talks to reach a settlement.

If you’ve been hunting for a truly unique way to customize your iPhone 5 then look no further. With this exclusive promotion you’ll be able to fully customize a case with all of your special photos thanks to Casetagram.

Casetagram is a revolutionary design service that lets you create custom cases for your mobile devices from your Instagram and/or Facebook photos. And Cult of Mac Deals has a Casetagram iPhone 5 case available for $39 during this limited time offer – and that includes free global shipping and a screen protector ($20 value) for your mobile device!

In response to the public’s outcry that tech companies are working with the NSA to pilfer personal info on targets of interest, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Twitter and others announced an alliance with civil liberties groups today demanding for more transparency by the U.S. government concerning wiretapping.

The coalition sent a letter today to President Obama and other leaders in Congress, urging for greater transparency around national security-related requests. Portions of the letter were published last night, but we now have a copy it in its entirety, which can be read below:

Apple and some of Silicon Valley’s biggest companies have been under heavy fire ever since info on the National Security Administration’s PRISM program leaked to the public last month.

In response to the public’s outcry that tech companies are working with the NSA to pilfer personal info on targets of interest, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Twitter and others have formed a broad alliance with civil liberties groups that will tomorrow demand for increased transparency regarding the U.S. government’s spy programs on citizens.

All Things D reports that the alliance will publish a letter Thursday, demanding President Obama and Congress allow tech companies to provide reports on information requests related to national security.

Just about every major tech company is working on two untapped product categories right now: wearable technology and streaming television over the internet. Apple is trying to draw in TV networks with advertising incentives, and even Intel is working on its own TV service.

It should come as no surprise that Google has been in talks with media companies about streaming premium TV over the internet. The company has reportedly demoed its new product to cable executives, but it’s still up to the networks to jump on board.

Apple and Samsung will meet in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit court next month as Apple steps up its bid to have a number of Samsung devices banned in the United States.

The Cupertino company is hoping to reverse the court’s decision not to remove then handsets from sale when they were found guilty of infringing Apple patents last August.

VimpelCom, owner of Beeline, Russia’s third-biggest mobile carrier, has cut its ties with Apple and decided it will no longer offer the iPhone. The company reportedly feels Apple’s conditions are too “harsh,” and so it has inked a deal with its biggest rival instead.

At the same Sun Valley conference where Apple CEO Tim Cook and Senior Vice President Eddy Cue are prowling around looking for iTunes deals, Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt says that the war between Google and Apple isn’t quite so thermonuclear anymore. In fact, he says Cupertino is thawing in many respects towards the search giant.

Samsung has overtaken Apple and Nokia to become the global leader in mobile web traffic, according to the latest figures from web analytics company StatCounter. It’s the first time the South Korean company has taken the lead in Internet usage, but Apple isn’t far behind.

Well, that’s exciting! Apple and Amazon have apparently settled their differences over who can use the “App Store” name, making it possible for one or both companies to use it in their business.

US District Judge, Phyllis Hamilton, ordered today that the case be dismissed, as requested by both Cupertino-based Apple and Seattle-based Amazon. The trial, originally scheduled for August 19, will no longer occur.

Apple and Amazon have agreed to end their lawsuit regarding the rights to use the “app store” name, leaving room for both companies to use the phrase.

The case was dismissed on Tuesday afternoon by U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton in Oakland, California. The dismal comes after Apple promised Amazon it won’t sue, thus eliminating the need for a counterclaim from Amazon.

Android has held a pretty sizable lead over the iPhone for a long time now, and in the United States, it would appear there’s little chance of that changing any time soon. But Apple’s smartphone is gaining ground on its rival, and it’s all thanks to T-Mobile.