With the countdown to 50 billion App Store downloads now underway, Apple has begun highlighting the “top 25 all-time” free and paid apps on iOS. The Cupertino company did a similar thing in the run up to 25 billion downloads last year, and for 10 billion downloads in January 2011.
Some of the apps included in the list are no surprise, with the likes of Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and Skype topping the free chart, and Angry Birds, Fruit Ninja, and Doodle Jump topping the paid chart.
Apple just sidestepped a $9.2 billion tax bill by financing part of a $55 billion stock buyback with debt rather than using its offshore cash. The sneaky trick means the U.S. government is unable to bill the Cupertino company for tax on the deal, which is said to be the “the biggest corporate offering on record,” according to Bloomberg.
Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov has revealed that he recently spent $100 million on Apple shares in anticipation that they will rebound. The 59-year-old believes that Apple is a “very promising” investment, despite the current share price being almost 40% off its peak last September.
Japanese telecom provider KDDI’s mobile branch is planning to kick off its iPhone 5S pre-orders on June 20 ahead of a launch in July, according to an internal document that has been making its way around the web. The carrier expects the device to offer a 13-megapixel camera as well as Apple’s latest iOS 7 operating system.
Didn’t get a ticket to WWDC this year? Don’t worry, you’re certainly not the only one. But if you were looking forward to a week out of the office, then there is another event you can attend instead.
It’s called AltWWDC, and it’s a free, open alternative to Apple’s prestigious conference that encourages Mac and iOS developers to meet up and mingle and discuss the latest software from Cupertino. You won’t get your hands on OS X 10.9 or iOS 7, but you will get free lunch for a week.
UPDATE: Bidding just reached $505,000!
Earlier this week we wrote about a Charitybuzz auction that will get you coffee with Apple CEO Tim Cook at the company’s headquarters in Cupertino, California. At the time, the auction had reached $5,250, but its estimated value was just under ten times that amount at $50,000.
Just a few days later, the auction has received 68 bids and reached a whopping $295,000 with 18 days still to go. It’s now Charitybuzz’s biggest ever auction.
Apple has been ordered to compensate three Chinese writers for infringing their copyrights when it made their books available on the App Store without first seeking their permission. The Cupertino company will pay more than ¥730,000 ($118,000) for the infringement.
iCloud push services could soon resume in Germany more than a year after they were killed after a high court stayed Motorola’s patent trial against Apple on Wednesday. Karlsruhe Higher Regional Court issued a press release that said both Apple and Google — which now owns Motorola — agreed to the stay, which has called into question the validity of Motorola’s patent.
Apple submitted a new proposal, dubbed Submittal 6, for it’s super futuristic circular spaceship campus in Cupertino. The revision includes new details like bike and pedestrian paths, enhancements to street areas, and parking spaces for the huge project, which is behind schedule and $2 billion over budget. The current move-in estimate is in the summer of 2016, a date that continues to show up in the lastest revision.
Apple has this morning announced that its 2013 Worldwide Developer Conference will take place in San Francisco’s Moscone West from Monday, June 10 through Friday, June 14. The five-day event will provide developers with a first look at the future of iOS and OS X.
Tickets will go on sale tomorrow, April 25, at 10 a.m. PDT.
Apple has updated its Apple Store app for the iPhone to introduce push notifications for delivery updates. So when you order an item from the Apple Store, you’ll receive updates on its delivery status without having to check manually. The Cupertino company will even let you know when your iPhone is ready for an upgrade.
Apple’s quarterly profit probably fell for the first time in over a decade, thanks to new products with lower profit margins and a slowing demand for the iPhone, Bloomberg reports. Fourteen analysts have reduced their estimates for Apple in recent weeks, and on Friday, the Cupertino company’s share price fell below $400 for the first time since December 2011.
I have to admit, I hadn’t heard of case maker Tactus until last week, but in the space of just a few days it has published an unveiling date and specifications for the fifth-generation iPad, the plastic casing for Apple’s rumored low-cost iPhone, and now the fifth-generation iPad’s new aluminum shell.
Apple has reportedly stopped placing Mac component orders after overestimating demand and placing “aggressive” orders at the end of 2012. DigiTimes reports that suppliers haven’t received any information from the Cupertino company to indicate when orders may resume.
Securities trader David Miller has pleaded guilty to fraud after buying $1 billion of Apple stock without permission and bringing down his company. The 40-year-old purchased 1.625 million Apple shares on the day the Cupertino company reported its third-quarter results in October 2012, hoping that he’d be able to make a profit when the share price rose.
Instead, the share price fell and Miller’s gamble backfired, sending Rochdale Securities under.
Five employees working at an official iPhone distributor in China have been arrested after exploiting Apple’s returns policy by exchanging fake iPhone parts for real ones. The group sent 121 fake iPhone 4S BAND parts to have them exchanged for real ones worth around CN¥400,000 ($64,117), which they then used to build and sell fake iPhones.
Apple’s new spaceship headquarters look pretty amazing. Even though the mothership is still a year behind schedule, Apple loves the design of it so much, that they want the architectural firm who created the mothership to redesign some Apple Stores too.
Foster + Partners architecture firm has just signed a deal with Apple to work on new designs for some of its retail stores.
Foxconn sales declined 19% during the first quarter of 2013, and “disappointing” demand for Apple’s iPhone is getting the blame, Reuters reports. Between January and March, the company’s sales totaled NT$808.97 billion ($26.96 billion), down from NT$988.24 billion ($32.99 billion) in the fourth quarter of 2012, and NT$1 trillion ($33.38 billion) a year ago.
Remember Lodsys, the patent troll that began suing a bunch of indie iOS developers back in 2011 over their use of in-app purchases? Well, it’s back to do more trolling. The company has targeted another ten mobile game makers in its latest complaints, which it has been quietly filing in an East Texas court throughout 2013.
The studios named include Gameloft, Walt Disney, BackFlip Studios, and Gamevil.
Apple is reportedly gearing up to make big changes to iOS 7, changes so big that it’s had to pull engineers away from OS X 10.9 development to help get it finished for its release later this year. I’m just hoping that the Cupertino company adds some of the features included in the latest iOS 7 concept video below.
Designed by Federico Bianco, the concept adds almost every feature we’ve ever wanted in iOS, including quick message reply, quick settings, widgets, Mission Control, and lots more. Check it out below.
Apple's forthcoming Campus 2 is set to become Silicon Valley's most envy-inducing headquarters: the kind of futuristic home base that belongs in a James Bond movie.
With work progressing nicely, en route to a 2016 opening, we thought the time was right to look at some of the (fictional) headquarters it will be competing against for title of best secret lair of all time.
Scroll through our gallery to take a look at some of our other picks. You never know when Tim Cook will decide to incorporate an underground cave or shark tank into Apple's new home...
The budget for Apple’s “spaceship” campus has ballooned from $3 billion to “nearly $5 billion” since 2011, according to a new report from Bloomberg Businessweek. Five people close to the project say its cost will now eclipse the $3.9 billion being spent on the new World Trade Center complex in New York City.
We’ve been waiting for Samsung to launch a new smartphone with a flexible, wraparound display ever since the Korean company began showing off its new technology at trade shows like CES. But it may need to move a little faster if it wants to be the first to market with this new form factor.
A new Apple patent published today by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office shows the Cupertino company has been also experimenting with wraparound displays for the iPhone, which provide a more rounded form factor not too dissimilar to that of the fourth- and fifth-generation iPod nanos.
Apple is beginning to close the gap on Samsung over shipments of smart connected devices, which includes computers, smartphones, and tablets. The Cupertino company grabbed 20.3% of the market by the end of 2012, according to IDC, while Samsung just about had the edge with a 21.2% share.
WWDC 2012 sold out in under two hours last year. It was insane. A lot of people on the West Coast didn’t even get a chance to buy a ticket because Apple announced tickets were available at 5am.
Everyone who’s really wanting to go to WWDC this year is probably looking for the best method to alert them on tickets, so Oisin Prendiville has created a service that will call you as soon as tickets are available.
The U.S. Patent & Trademark Office has today approved Apple’s application for a registered trademark for “iAd,” 21 months after the Cupertino company first applied for it.
