Samsung tried to beat Apple to market with a fingerprint scanner for their Note 3 in September and failed. Yet Samsung was so determined to beat Apple at something this year so as to validate their false innovative leadership title, that they rushed a smartwatch to market. They were jumping at Apple's shadow fearing that Apple had one for their September iPhone Event. We called Samsung's Gear smartwatch a disaster in our report and in October the Wall St. Journal's David Pogue agreed with us by calling Samsung's smartwatch a Human Interface train wreck. So what is one of Samsung's next big move's for 2014 to show that they're the undisputed leader in the mobile industry? Well, according to a new report out today, one of Samsung's next moves will revolve around wireless charging solutions. Will Samsung get a big leap on Apple on this front? Our report sheds a little light on this matter and shows you what Samsung is up to.

Apple has asked developers to submit apps that take advantage of new features in OS X Mavericks.
Make sure your app takes advantage of the great new features in OS X Mavericks when the world’s most advanced desktop operating system becomes available to millions of customers later this fall. Download OS X Mavericks GM seed and Xcode 5.0.1 GM seed, now available on the Mac Dev Center. Build your apps with these latest seeds, then test and submit them to the Mac App Store.At the beginning of October, Apple began training its AppleCare staff on OS X Mavericks and the company has publicly stated the OS will be coming later "this fall".

The release of the new OS is expected to be announced during the...

Ireland may shut down a tax loophole that allowed Apple to avoid declaring itself a tax resident in any country, reports The Street.

Apple, which currently has multiple subsidiary companies in the Irish city of Cork (Apple Operations International (AOI) Apple Operations Europe, Apple Operations, Apple Sales International and Apple Distribution International), is able to move money around the world without tax penalties because companies managed and controlled abroad but located in Ireland are not subjected to taxes."The second measure to be included in the Finance Bill is a change to our company residence rules aimed at eliminating mismatches – that can exist between tax treaty partners in certain circumstances – being used to allow companies to be ‘stateless’ in terms of their place of tax residence," the country said in a press release on Tuesday....

Apple’s release of two new iPhone models on September 20, 2013 was the company’s latest salvo in the smartphone market. The two respective models, the iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C, were aimed to appeal to different sets of customers with two separate price points and some feature differences. Initial domestic sales estimates for both devices have been positive, and based on the latest usage figures, the iPhone 5S and 5C have already made a significant impact on the iPhone ecosystem.

Following Apple's announcement that it is hiring Burberry CEO Angela Ahrendts to head up its retail and online store effort, CEO Tim Cook has sent an email to employees announcing the hire and giving some additional thoughts on Ahrendts and the hiring process. The full email has been posted by 9to5Mac.Team,

I am thrilled to announce that Angela Ahrendts will be joining Apple as a senior vice president and member of our executive team, reporting directly to me. Angela is currently the CEO of Burberry.

She will lead both our retail and online teams. I have wanted one person to lead both of these teams for some time because I believe it will better serve our customers, but I had never...

Late yesterday Apple announced that Angela Ahrendts, CEO of Burberry, would be joining Apple in a newly created position, as a senior vice president and member of our executive team, reporting to CEO Tim Cook.

Valve has released a video demonstrating its Steam Controller, a handheld gaming controller that will eventually be compatible with many Steam games, including popular titles like Portal, Counterstrike and Team Fortress.

The Steam Controller is designed to work with all the games on Steam: past, present, and future. Even the older titles in the catalog and the ones which were not built with controller support. (We’ve fooled those older games into thinking they’re being played with a keyboard and mouse, but we’ve designed a gamepad that’s nothing like either one of those devices.) We think you’ll agree that we’re onto something with the Steam ControllerThe Steam Controller includes a touch screen in the center of the device with a pair of trackpads around the outside using "super-precise" haptic...

HTC today unveiled its newest device, the HTC One max, a 5.9-inch smartphone that includes a dedicated fingerprint sensor. Unlike the convenient home button location of the fingerprint sensor in the iPhone 5s, the One max’s sensor is located on the back of the device, near the camera.

The sensor is activated via a swipe and can be programmed to recognize three different fingers. Each finger can be tied to a different function, allowing quick access to frequently used apps. One finger, for example, can unlock the phone, while another might open up the camera.

While that sounds useful in theory, reviews of the HTC One max have likened its fingerprint sensor to little more than a gimmick. While the iPhone 5s received rave reviews for the Touch ID’s utility and ease of use, the One max...

According to a new Consumer Intelligence Research (CIRP) report, the iPhone 5S has outsold the iPhone 5C more than 2 to 1. Yet it's far too early to know which iPhone model will be the holiday season winner as there are still too many factors holding back iPhone 5C sales at this moment.

Apple may be preparing to release a cheaper model of the iMac in 2014, KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo states in a new research note. The analyst believes that sales of recent iMac models have failed to meet expectations and that Apple may look to introduce a lower-cost option in order to bolster sales in critical foreign markets. Our surveys indicate that Apple’s last iMac model, released at end-2012 with an all-new-design, shipped fewer-than-expected units in the worldwide market. We think the price was set too high and the model failed to make an impact in critical foreign markets like China. We thus think Apple may offer a budget iMac model to push shipments among non-US markets in the face of solid competition from Levono (CN), HP (US) and other rivals.

We are optimistic that a budget iMac would boost overall iMac shipments to grow 10-20% YoY in 2014. After a...

In 2012 AppAdvice asked the question: "Will an Anti-Reflective Screen Ever Come to the iPhone and iPad?" Our September patent report covering Apple's patent application titled "UV Mask with Anti-Reflection Coating and UV Absorption Material," answered that question in respect to Apple working on a solution. The timing of this coming to market, of course, is another matter. This morning, Patently Apple was first to discover another Apple patent application on this very subject matter ...

Apple’s proposed Apple Campus 2, now in the final planning stages, can be seen in detail in new model photos provided by The Mercury News. The 4-story circular building, which Steve Jobs famously described as "like a spaceship," encompasses more than 2.8 million square feet and is designed to house upwards of 12,000 employees.

As seen in the model, the campus includes the main spaceship building with curved glass windows and polished concrete ceilings, several auxiliary buildings, a massive parking structure topped with solar panels, an underground parking lot, and a huge number of trees. In...

A new Korean report published today states the influence of the iPhone to be released in Korea at the end of this month is attracting their attention. Consumers are also paying attention to whether the iPhone, appearing in the market in a year, will be able to revitalize Apple in Korea. The report further states that "as there are ...

According to a study by mobile application mangement platform Crittercism, iOS apps are twice as likely to crash on the new iPhone 5s as they are when running on the iPhone 5 and 5c, reports AllThingsD.

The app crash rates on the iPhone 5s are attributed to the unforseen issues that developers have had transitioning to the new internals of the iPhone 5s, such as rewriting drivers and code for the phone's 64-bit A7 chip and M7 coprocessor. Apple notably began allowing developers to submit 64-bit apps for the iPhone 5s on September 16, just four days before the launch of the device itself. “Anytime there is new hardware or software release, we see issues,” Crittercism CEO Andrew Levy said in an interview. “Inevitably, over time, those issues...

A new report out today by ABI Research notes that Apple's new iPhone's still don't support Verizon's SVLTE or SVDO wireless variants as their other phone partners do. Yet the only one complaining thus far publically is ABI – unless of course, they're airing Verizon's complaints for them. ABI was apparently on a mission to put the iPhone in a poor light which is rather odd for a research company.

In September we posted a report titled "Samsung Fails to Deliver a Fingerprint Scanner for the Note 3," where we clearly reported that Samsung failed to deliver a fingerprint scanner that was highly anticipated. Later that month we posted a secondary report titled "Samsung and LG on the Run to Integrate Inferior Fingerprint Technology into their Somewhat Smartphones," where we noted that the swipe type of fingerprint scanner "has a lower recognition rate than the area type" of scanner. We further noted that "Android OEM's will now scramble to use technology from Korea's CrucialTec." Well, today the Korean press is confirming that very point. Samsung was so fit to be tied that Apple pulled off a gigantic innovative leap over them that they're now telling the press that it wasn't their fault that they're late in delivering a fingerprint scanner on the smartphones. Ha! – more Whining from Samsung.

Earlier this month we noted in a report that that IGZO displays used in Apple's current and future products will not only be brighter but could eventually reduce power consumption by 50% or more. Getting more life out of our mobile devices is important to all of us and it's a priority at Apple who is working to advance displays that could continue to provide a power savings.

On October 10, 2013, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple titled "Systems and Methods for Ejecting Removable Modules from Electronic Devices." Some will find Apple's redesigned SIM Card tray invention that utilizes a combination of magnets very interesting. However, the part that I found most interesting of all had nothing to do with the design. For me it was ...

On October 10, 2013, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that reveals their intent to one day reinvent the connector system for both Macs and iDevices. It's a universal desire for consumers to have a simplified connector system for computers or other electronics – and yet technically there are so many electrical standards in place today that it's close to impossible to think that we could have a utopian universal connector system. Yet Apple plugs away believing there's a way to be the first computer company to crack this nightmare of differing connectors; a way to keep the connectors on a Mac or iDevice super simple. Apple began this project back in 2011 and today we're getting more detailed information about how the reinvention of the connector system could one day be a reality.

International Data Corporation's latest U.S. and Worldwide PC shipment stats were just released. Worldwide PC shipments totaled 81.6 million units in the third quarter of 2013. In year-on-year terms, the market contracted -7.6%, ahead of a projected decline of -9.5% for the current quarter. Although Lenovo inched out over HP, HP held up well in this tough market with a 0.4% growth which is in stark contrast to both Acer and ASUS who dropped more than 34% for the quarter. In the US, the only loser in this quarter was Apple.

Apple is set to reveal its revamped fifth-generation iPad later this month, and ahead of the event, new high-resolution images of the upcoming iPad’s casing and front panel have been released by Australian writer Sonny Dickson, offering a clear view of what can be expected from the redesign.

Though the iPad’s components have been shown off in multiple photos and videos, these high-quality images provide a better look at the slimmer, mini-style iPad 5.

The fifth-generation iPad has been designed to look similar to the iPad mini, adopting smaller...

A rumor errupted back in 2010 when a the reputable Japanese publication Nikkei Business Publications posted photos of an alleged iPod touch and iPad being equipped with Senseg haptics. Another rumor had surfaced even earlier on MacRumors. Coincidentally, shortly after the rumor surfaced, an Apple patent application published by USPTO came to light discussing a wildly intelligent multi-tiered haptics system. Apple's latest haptics related patent filing was published in March of this year discussing haptics using magnetically permeable materials. Even Samsung is aiming to bring advanced haptics to smartphones via a floating screen structure that is able to create spot-screen 3D effects. To date there's no major smartphone or tablet on the market that provides consumers with advanced haptics allowing them to experience unique touch sensations on their device touch displays. But a surprise revelation by Disney Research says that they have a solution in hand. Apple has ...

It's being reported today by the Korean Press that Samsung will officially launch the world's first curved display smartphone called the "Galaxy Round" Tomorrow. Our Patent Bolt blog first uncovered Samsung's design patent back in May of this year.

Both Apple's iPhone and iPad continue to remain popular with U.S. teenagers, according to Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster's latest semiannual teen survey. 55 percent of teens now own an iPhone, compared to just 48 percent from a survey conducted in April and 40 percent in the fall of 2012.Our most recent semi-annual Teen survey demonstrates that Apple remains the most popular tech brand amongst teens. As of Fall 2013, the iPhone represented nearly 55% all phones used by teens and the iPad family remained at close to 70% share of tablet ownership. We believe that while Samsung seemingly had some momentum with teens over the past year, Apple's brand and product quality has enabled it to remain the top choice for teen consumer...

Last week, Qualcomm chief marketing officer Anand Chandrasekher called Apple's new 64-bit A7 processor a "marketing gimmick" and claimed the processor had very few consumer-driven features.

Today, Qualcomm is backing away from those comments, according to Macworld. A company spokesperson issued this statement to the magazine:
"The comments made by Anand Chandrasekher, Qualcomm CMO, about 64-bit computing were inaccurate," said a Qualcomm spokesperson in an email. "The mobile hardware and software ecosystem is already moving in the direction of 64-bit; and, the evolution to 64-bit brings desktop class capabilities and user experiences to mobile, as well as enabling mobile processors and software to run new classes of...

Jim Richardson is an American photojournalist working primarily for the National Geographic Society and as a social documentary photographer. Richardson is also a contributing editor of National Geographic Traveler magazine, where he has contributed both writing and photographs. His latest project for National Geographic was taking photos on a trip to the Scottish Highlands with only an iPhone 5S. As a photographer ...

According to Obama’s designee, U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman, said in a statement today that "After carefully weighing policy considerations, including the impact on consumers and competition, advice from agencies, and information from interested parties, I have decided to allow" the import ban to proceed.

The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 54 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. In our second and last granted patent report of the day, we briefly cover a few patents covering Apple's manufacturing and finishing processes related to such iDevices as the iPhone and iPad. Most of Apple's major product introductions for these latest iDevices include a video presentation from Apple's Senior VP of Industrial Design Jony Ive. These presentations are classic as they illustrate Apple's passion for design and the lengths that they'll go to get every last detail just right. Ive's latest presentations include the iPhone 5S and 5C. Lastly, our report briefly covers Apple's original iPhone voicemail system patent.

Following last week's news that iTunes Radio would be expanding to Canada within the next few months, Bloomberg is reporting that Apple plans expand the service to the U.K., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand by early 2014, ahead of competitor Pandora’s own expansion. The expansion could also include Nordic countries.

Apple Inc. plans to expand iTunes Radio to English-speaking countries outside the U.S. by early 2014, beating industry leader Pandora Media Inc. to the U.K. and Canada, people with knowledge of the situation said.

ITunes Radio is also set to start early next year in Australia and New Zealand, where Pandora already operates, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the plans aren’t public. Nordic countries are also being...

Both LG and Samsung plan to release phones that feature curved displays in the near future, reports Reuters. Flexible curved displays, which have been utilized in television sets, are a developing technology for smartphones and other consumer electronic devices.Curved displays are in the early stages of development and allow bendable or foldable designs that could eventually allow mobile and wearable gadgets to take new forms that could radically change the high-end smartphone market.Apple has been rumored to be working on curved displays for several years, with rumors from 2011 suggesting the company could debut a...

Sharp has announced that its 32" 4K touchscreen monitor will eventually have drivers for full OS X touchscreen support, reports Japanese site Mac Otakara [Google Translate] (via 9to5Mac).

The display, which is aimed at the retail/commercial applications (PDF), sports a 3840x2160 IGZO LCD panel and includes a capacitative touch interface and pen support. Sharp demonstrated the display running off a Apple notebook at the CEATEC Japan trade show earlier this month.

Sharp...

This weekend, Samsung began running new television ads for its Galaxy Gear smart watch. The ads, which have received positive feedback from critics, pay homage to the first ads from another revolutionary device: the iPhone.

The ad from Samsung uses movie clips from "Star Trek", "Dick Tracy", "Knight Rider", and others with actors using their watches to communicate. The clip ends with a normal person using their Samsung Galaxy Gear, referencing a long-running pop culture fascination with wrist phones.

Six years ago, Apple used a similar ad to introduce the iPhone during the 2007 Academy Awards, stringing together movie...

iTunes Radio, Apple's streaming music service that debuted alongside iOS 7, is currently limited to users in the United States. That may change in the near future, however, as Apple appears to be preparing to launch the service in Canada.

Apple recently added a new job listing (via 9to5Mac) seeking an iTunes Canada Music Programmer, who will be responsible for overseeing the programming of iTunes Radio in Canada.The Canadian Music Programmer will be responsible for the programming of iTunes Radio and the...

Apple has added new 'Tips and Tricks' sections to its iPhone marketing websites, giving new and old iPhone users a handy guide to the new features of iOS 7 and the new iPhone models.

The three pages, one each for the iPhone 4s, 5c and 5s, include sections about photography, swipe gestures, FaceTime, Maps, Siri, Calendar, Music, Mail, Safari, AirPlay and Wireless, Settings, Compass, and Find My iPhone.

The pages, which are linked at the bottom of every iPhone marketing webpage on Apple.com, appear to be something of a quick start guide, complimenting the more in-depth iPhone User Guide.

Recent Mac and iOS Blog Stories
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In Time magazine's assessment of over 1,000 notebooks on the market, Apple came out shining by making a sweep of the top three overall notebooks segments for 2013. Ben Taylor writes: "Maybe you’re a tech geek, ...

With the second anniversary of Steve Jobs' death coming tomorrow, Apple CEO Tim Cook has sent a brief email to company employees reflecting on Jobs and the impact he continues to have on Cook and the company. The full email has been posted by 9to5Mac.Team-

Tomorrow marks the second anniversary of Steve’s death. I hope everyone will reflect on what he meant to all of us and to the world. Steve was an amazing human being and left the world a better place.

I think of him often and find enormous strength in memories of his friendship, vision and leadership. He left behind a company that only he could have built and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple. We will continue to honor his memory by dedicating ourselves to the work he loved so much. There is...

A new report out of Kolkata India today states that "Apple may soon be slugging it out in the trenches with Samsung and other smartphone rivals as India country head Maneesh Dhir and telecom business chief Sanjay Kaul seek a rapid increase in the pace of growth in India, a market that it has neglected until recently."

Apple has seeded a new release of OS X Mavericks to members of the AppleSeed beta testing program, a little more than two weeks after the release of the eighth Developer Preview. DP 8 had a version number of 13A584, while today's release is build 13A598.

Separately, 9to5Mac reports that this build may be a GM candidate, according to AppleSeed members, while other sources have said the final release build will be several versions newer. The OS was reportedly nearly ready for release a few weeks ago, but was pushed back because of "critical bugs".
Since being announced at WWDC, OS X Mavericks is said to have picked up a few minor unannounced features. Namely, the Messages and FaceTime applications have received the ability to block phone numbers and Apple IDs from sending the Mavericks user messages and/or FaceTime calls. This addition brings parity to iOS 7 and...

Apple has acquired Cue, a personal assistant app that was designed to aggregate information from email, contacts, and calendars into a daily snapshot, reports AppleInsider. MacRumors heard similar rumors about the potential acquisition several weeks ago, but we were unable to verify the claim. The deal has reportedly netted Cue (formerly known as Greplin) $40 to $60 million dollars.

In response to queries about the reports, Apple seemingly confirmed the acquisition to CNET and TechCrunch with its standard statement: "Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we...

Apple is shaking up the display market with a multitude of upcoming product debuts and enhancements, according to Korean site ET News (via 9to5Mac). The site summarizes several known product rumors that will impact display manufacturers, including larger iPhone and iPads, an OLED iWatch, and IGZO displays for its MacBook lineup.

Multiple reports have suggested that Apple is working on both a larger iPhone and a larger iPad. ET News suggests that a larger iPhone will be at least 5 inches, in line with a September report from The Wall Street Journal indicating that Apple was experimenting with a number of screen sizes from 4.8...

iPhone 5s devices appear to be reporting inaccurate information through the compass and inclinometer apps, reports Gizmodo and Cult of Mac.

The compass appears to be off by 8-10 degrees, while the inclinometer is consistently incorrect by 2 degrees on level services.

iPhone 5s and level, courtesy GizmodoYou see a pretty dramatic illustration of the difference between the iPhone 5S internal inclinometer readings and a real measurement of inclination. A simple Stanley spirit level tells the whole story: The iPhone 5S level readout in the iOS 7 compass software read 2-3 degrees off in our tests, while other users are reporting that the level is off by as many as 4-6 degrees. We...

At every opportunity, we've tried to expose Samsung in the light of a copycat manufacturer and dirty trickster. In the past, we've had the courage to challenge Samsung's blustering claims of blockbuster sales and have been proven correct. Some say we're too hard on Samsung and yet we're the only Apple site that covers Samsung patents in all fairness. If they file for an innovative idea, we try to cover them. But that has nothing to do with us hammering them when they copy Apple's designs and steal or "infringe" Apple's patents. These creeps have tried to invalidate key Apple patents and have repeatedly failed in the US. Yet they kept pushing until they got a German court to invalidate one of Apple's patents that they (Samsung and Google) desperately need to defeat because pinch and zoom and other key Apple inventions define multitouch functionality on mobile devices like no other. So today I applaud the CNN/Fortune Apple 2.0 blog for posting a historical listing of Samsung's dirty...

The Planning Commission of Apple's hometown of Cupertino, California approved Apple’s plans for the company's new "Spaceship" campus Wednesday night, a day after the company made a presentation to the community at a public discussion, reports CNET. The next steps in the process will be a vote by the Cupertino city council on October 15 along with a final vote on November 19, and the company remains on track for a 2016 opening of the new campus.

Just like any other Apple presentation, this one came with a slickly-produced video. Dan Whisenhunt, the company's director of real estate and facilities, introduced a video featuring lead architect Norman Foster and others in charge of the site's development. One gem from the film is that the site's now infamous O-shaped structure was not the original vision. "It really grew into that born out of an...