Following its 2012 acquisition of mobile security firm AuthenTec, which specialized in fingerprint sensors, Apple has been rumored to be looking to incorporate its technology into its future products. Rumors have indicated that such a sensor could be a differentiating feature for Apple's upcoming iPhone 5S, although there has so far been little in the way of solid evidence that such a feature is in the works.

But as noted by 9to5Mac, Apple's developer release of iOS 7 beta 4 today has brought a significant clue that Apple is indeed...

In line with hints and rumors from earlier today, Apple has just pushed out a fourth beta version of iOS 7 to developers for testing purposes. The update is arriving as both an over-the-air update to existing beta testers and through the iOS Dev Center.

As expected, the new beta arrives as build 11A4435d. Apple has also released Xcode 5 Developer Preview 4 and a third beta of the Apple TV software under development.

The three-week interval between the third and fourth betas is longer than the two-week intervals seen for earlier for betas of iOS 7, although Apple typically stretches out seeding intervals somewhat as it proceeds through development.

Apple's Developer Center was also...

MacRumors Forum poster aibnr noticed earlier today that the iOS 7 Beta 4 download appeared to be posted on Apple's developer servers early this morning, ahead of an expected release today. If released today, Beta 4, with a rumored build number of 11a4435d, would come three weeks after Beta 3 was released at the beginning of July.

Clicking the purported download link, available here, returns a 'Your session has expired' error page. Other URLs with similar build numbers, on the other hand, return an 'Access...

Today, Network World decided to run a headline that reads "US patent office rejects claims of Apple 'pinch to zoom' patent." Of course that's only true in part, as Apple has 60 days to appeal the ruling. Is this a case of Déjà vu? Yes, more than likely.

Today, China Labor Watch (CLW) published an investigative report detailing the labor violations of three factories of Pegatron Group, a major supplier to Apple. In 2013, Apple has increased its orders to these factories, which have benefitted from and relied upon labor violations to increase their competitive edge. In a CLW video provided for in our report, you'll hear the claim that one of the plants violating China's labor laws is a plant now making Apple's new mid-level iPhone.

During quarterly retail meetings that took place today, Apple announced a new ‘iBooks Discovery’ initiative that will see Apple Store employees provided with free iBooks beginning next week in order to prepare the retail workers for the launch of OS X Mavericks and iOS 7, reports 9to5Mac.

While an iBooks app has been available on iOS devices since the debut of the original iPad in 2010, OS X Mavericks will mark the first instance of an iBooks app for the Mac.

The Mavericks version of iBooks offers a number of features that will appeal to readers and students alike, including full screen reading capabilities, note taking functionality, and a feature that allows study cards to be automatically created from notes.

With access to...

It appears that Apple is slowly bringing its Developer Center online after more than a week of outage.

According to the site's new status page, several systems are up and running, including Certificates, Identifiers & Profiles, Software Downloads, Safari Dev Center, iOS Dev Center, and Mac Dev Center.

Apple's Developer Center first went offline last Thursday, and on Sunday, Apple revealed that it had been taken down as a precaution after a security breach. It is unclear who was responsible for the hacking, but a security researcher has suggested that he might be to blame for the outage.

Apple has been "working around the clock" on a complete overhaul of its developer systems since the Developer Center was taken down and has noted that developer memberships and apps set to expire during the outage will be given an extension to account for the significant downtime.

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•...

In addition to its main office in Cupertino, Apple maintains a number of satellite offices in different cities in the United States. One such office is located in Boston, and according to industry sources that spoke to Xconomy (via 9to5Mac) Apple’s Boston team specializes in speech technology and may be working on Siri improvements.Based on their online job profiles, we can say that members of the Apple speech team here are working on Siri, the company's voice-activated virtual assistant. Details beyond that are hard to come by, however, even for others in the field.

"They won't tell us what they're doing," says Jim Glass, who heads MIT's Spoken Language Systems Group. “We can only guess.”Apple's...

MacRumors attended a promotional screening of "JOBS" in San Francisco last night, Ashton Kutcher and director Joshua Michael Stern held a question and answer session that covered a variety of topics on the production of the movie. Kutcher, for the most part, expanded on the ways that he slipped into the role of Jobs, and pontificated on what loyalty might have meant to the former CEO.

While Kutcher has made a number of appearances to promote the movie, speaking multiple times about his preparation for the role of Steve Jobs, he shared a few new details last night.

Kutcher explained the physical demands of the role, which included the mastering of the Steve Jobs walk over the course of the three months that he prepared for the part. Kutcher...

Research firm IDC has released its estimates on worldwide mobile phone sales for the second quarter of 2013, showing Apple's iPhone growth slowing as it posted its second-lowest iPhone growth rate in four years with only 20% year-over-year growth compared to 52.3% growth for the entire market. However, Apple maintained a hold on the number two spot for smartphone makers behind Samsung, as other competitors LG, Lenovo, and ZTE failed to hit the 6% mark during the quarter.

Worldwide Smartphone Shipments in 2Q13 in Millions of Units (Source: IDC)Apple posted its second-lowest year-over-year iPhone growth rate in almost four years as some buyers presumably held off on iPhone purchases in advance of an expected next-generation device launch this fall. Nonetheless, the 31.2 million iPhones Apple shipped last quarter was impressive as its flagship iPhone 5 model, which has been in the market for three quarters,...

Ahead of an upcoming import ban on older Apple devices, Verizon attorney Randal Milch has published an open letter via The Wall Street Journal, calling for presidential intervention in the case to veto the ban.High-tech products can implicate thousands of patents. If the ITC finds that a product infringes even a single one, it can stop the product at the border. But that's basically it. The commission can't levy much in the way of a lesser penalty. In the end the consumer suffers when the use of such an enforcement tool is unwarranted.The import ban was originally scheduled back in June, after the U.S. International Trade Commission reached a decision on an ongoing Apple vs. Samsung patent case. The ITC ruled that Apple infringed on...

On July 25, 2013, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that reveals a new feature coming to Safari that advances the nature of tabbed browsing. When you have a sea of open tabs before you, it's difficult if not impossible to find that one tab that you want to access quickly. Apple introduces a new Carousel concept to advance tab browsing and eliminate that problem. Today's report concludes with the listing of a few other minor patent applications that were published today by USPTO that some of you might find interesting.

Last week, Ashton Kutcher took to Quora to explain some of the reasons why he decided to take on the role of Steve Jobs in the upcoming film JOBS, noting his admiration for Jobs, the challenge of the role, and his interest in the convergence of technology and entertainment.

With the film set for wide release on August 16, Kutcher is now beginning to hit the publicity circuit to talk about the film. He appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno last night, where he discussed how he missed a chance to meet Steve Jobs six months before Jobs' death and how regret over that decision played a part in his decision to portray Jobs.

Kutcher also...

European regulators have accepted a promise by the British media group Penguin and German media conglomerate Bertelsmann to scrap deals on electronic books, also known as "e-books", with Apple which were found to be in breach of European competition policy.

Penguin was not the only company in the firing line. Back in December 2012, the Commission criticized the practices of four large publishers, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, Holtzbrinck and Harper Collins, of working with Apple via an "agency model" whereby the publishers set the retail price and the distributor takes a fee (30% in Apple's case).

Under the "wholesale model" in place before Apple entered the market, publishers sell their goods to distributors for fixed prices and allow the distributors decide the final retail prices. The agency model came under fire for causing a rise in retail prices of e-books compared to the wholesale model championed by Amazon and Google. Under Apple's "most favored nation"...

After two electric shock incidents involving the iPhone in China, Apple has added a special page [Google translation, via The Next Web] to its Chinese website informing consumers about the identification and use of genuine USB power adapters for the iPad and iPhone.

The page includes a message about Apple’s continued dedication to consumer safety and testing. It also includes diagrams for identifying genuine power adapters for products that use the new Lightning connector and those that use the legacy 30-pin connector.When you need to charge the iPhone or iPad, we recommend that you use the standard USB power adapter and USB cable. These...

Korean site ETNews.com is reporting [Google translation] that Apple will be discontinuing production of the iPhone 5 in the fall, instead putting all of its efforts towards the iPhone 5S and the rumored entry-level plastic iPhone.

Apple has been presumed to be discontinuing the iPhone 4 and 4S in order to make way for an all-Lightning iPhone lineup, allowing Apple to standardize around its latest connection standard and phase out the older 30-pin connector standard with the possible exception of the iPod classic, which has not been updated in a number of years. The fate of the current iPhone 5 has, however, not been the subject of much discussion as it has remained unclear whether the new lineup of iPhone 5S and plastic iPhone would...

Digitimes reports that the adoption of new touch-sensor systems in both the iPhone 5 and iPad has caused a notable shift in the supply chain of the touch panel market, according to research carried out by the firm DisplaySearch.Displays with in-cell touch are expected to rise from 7.3% of mobile phone shipments in 2012 to 13.7% in 2013, while shipments of GG DITO (double-sided ITO glass) structure are expected to decline from 10.3% to 0.6%. For tablets, shipments of GF2 sensor structure are expected to rise from 4.7% in 2012 to 28.4% in 2013, while shipments of GG DITO structure decline from 37.2% to 8.1%.Calvin Hseih, research director at DisplaySearch, notes that Apple has been primarily responsible for this shift, despite the massive number of touchscreen devices already on the market. Apple's shift from a GG type touch-sensor system (glass on glass) to in-cell touch technology and GF2 (whereby the second layer of...

We've been hearing a lot of rumors about a new plastic iPhone due to arrive later this year, dubbed the "low-cost iPhone" by some, and a video posted by DetroitBORG on YouTube (via AmongTech) shows the new rear shell of the plastic iPhone, which is expected to replace the existing iPhone 4 and 4S models already on sale.

In the video, Mike from DetroitBORG walks through the various features of the new rear shell and speculates on what features the new "low-cost iPhone" will have. While the shell appears to be essentially identical to one that leaked earlier this month, the video offers a good comparison between the shell and several of Apple's other iOS devices, including the iPhone 3GS, the iPhone 5, and the...

Apple's results for its fiscal third quarter came in with revenue of $35.3 billion and quarterly net profit of $6.9 billion, or $7.47 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $35 billion and net profit of $8.8 billion, or $9.32 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 36.9 percent compared to 42.8 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 57 percent of the quarter’s revenue.

During the Question and Answer portion of Apple's third quarter earnings call, Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer suggested that Apple will have a "very busy fall," specifically mentioning October as a month when the company might release new products.

Apple is expected to unveil a number of products in the fall months, including the next generation iPhone, the fifth generation iPad, the low-cost iPhone, and refreshed MacBook Pros. All of the products on the horizon are expected to include impressive new features, including a fingerprint sensor and an upgraded camera for the iPhone 5S, an iPad mini-style redesign for the fifth generation iPad, and Haswell processors for the new MacBook Pros.

The company is also rumored to be working on additional projects such as the iWatch, and according to Tim Cook, Apple's catalyst will always be "new products and new services" in both current product categories and "in new categories." Apple's iWatch, which has been trademarked in...

Apple has released an updated version of its Apple Store app for the iPhone, which is said to include both performance enhancements and improved product search capabilities. The Apple Store app allows users to purchase Apple products quickly and efficiently on their iPhones.

News of an upgrade first came to light last week, with a report that suggested Apple would begin offering free downloads within the App, including content from Apple’s iTunes Store, App Store, and iBookstore.

While the app appears to be the same on the surface, it is entirely possible that Apple has included the framework that will support the addition of new deals and offerings within the app in the near future. 9to5Mac suggests the possibility...

In May we reported that Apple's iPad lead in web traffic had increased in May to an all-year high of 82.4%. Today, Chitika's newly published tablet web traffic statistics for June have Apple leaping to 84.3% despite Samsung launching their new Galaxy Tablets products in May.

ETNews.com reports that Apple is discontinuing its relationship with AU Optronics to supply display panels for the iPad mini as production on displays for the second-generation models is expected to ramp up in the coming months. According to the report, LG Display is already onboard and Sharp is in solid position given its technological advantage in energy efficiency, while other display manufacturers such as Samsung are competing to replace AU Optronics' production share.LG Display already secured order from Apple. Sharp seems to have no problem in getting approval from Apple as a supplier for iPad mini 2 despite some product quality problems, because it is the only supplier of oxide semiconductor LCD. Oxide semiconductor LCD has an advantage of saving electricity. Apple plans to apply oxide semiconductor LCD to iPad mini 2 despite the initial low production yield, because it gives the advantage of saving electricity...

It's a huge day for Apple in respect to newly granted patents. The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 49 granted patents for Apple this morning. The patents cover a wide array of technologies such as Apple's lightning connector, the Mac mini, five camera patents and a few patents relating to the iPhone. We also provide you with two graphics from a recent European patent illustrating ...

According to a new report from KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, production difficulties will cause Apple’s iPhone 5S to ship slightly later than expected towards the end of September, with supplies constrained until October or November.We believe iPhone 5S will experience production difficulties among numerous components as well as assembly, as seen with iPhone 5 last year. The model will thus be available only in limited amounts following launch. We expect undersupply to improve in October or November.Kuo believes that Apple’s low cost iPhone, which will be priced between $450 and $550, will launch somewhat earlier, likely towards the beginning of September alongside the fifth generation iPad.

The next iPad, said to feature a slimmer, iPad-mini style redesign, will be the only iPad released in 2013. Kuo suggests that there will be no iPad mini release in 2013, despite reports that Apple might release a slightly upgraded non-Retina version.Judging by the production...

Apple has seeded the fourth Developer Preview of OS X Mavericks to developers, some two weeks after the release of Developer Preview 3.

OS X Mavericks is slated for release this fall and includes new features like a tabbed Finder, full screen dual monitor capabilities, Safari improvements, and a new Maps app. Developers can receive the update via the Software Update tool in the Mac App Store.

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Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster has released a new report covering the full June quarter Mac and iPod sales data from market research firm NPD.

According to the data, Apple's Mac sales came in down 5% year over year, despite the introduction of the newest Haswell-based MacBook Airs at this year's WWDC. During the same time period last year, Apple unveiled both upgraded MacBook Airs and the new Retina MacBook Pro, so it seems the lack of a refreshed MacBook Pro lineup may have impacted sales for the quarter.

As with his previous reports, Munster notes that it remains difficult to extrapolate NPD data to Apple's global sales performance, but he views the June data as “neutral to slightly negative,” down from slightly positive in a May report.We note that we had expected an uptick in Mac sales in the month of June given updated Macbook Airs at WWDC;...

The Next Web points to a comment on a TechCrunch article taking credit for last week's unauthorized access of Apple's Developer Center last week. The comment comes from independent security researcher Ibrahim Balic, who claims that his effort was not intended to be malicious and that he reported his findings to Apple just hours before the developer site was taken down by the company.In total I have found 13 bugs and have reported through http://bugreport.apple.com. The...

In an email to developers today, Apple revealed that its Developer Center website was breached by unknown hackers and was taken offline last Thursday as a precaution.

The company notes that sensitive personal information was "encrypted and cannot be accessed" but that Apple's engineers "could not rule out the possibility" that developer names, mailing addresses and email addresses may have been accessed.

Apple says it is overhauling its developer systems, updating software and rebuilding the entire develop database. There is no indication of when the site will be back up, other than the company saying it expects to have it up again soon.Apple Developer Website Update

Last Thursday, an intruder attempted to secure personal information of our registered developers from our developer website. Sensitive personal information was encrypted and cannot be accessed...

News that Apple acquired their second location based application company in the last 24 hours came in late last night. Apple has acquired New York based HopStop which is the number one ranked transit app in iTunes and Google Play with over three million downloads to date. In April HopStop launched ...

According to a new report this afternoon, Apple and Samsung have held a series of private negotiations about their numerous patent disputes since a court victory by Apple in one case last summer. The negotiations included face-to-face meetings in Seoul, South Korea, in December, one document states. The two companies even appeared to come close to a settlement in February before talks cooled off. There is no indication that the two sides are close to a settlement, but talks between the companies are still going on, the people familiar with the discussions said.

Apple and Samsung have been in settlement negotiations following Apple's victory in a patent lawsuit last year, according to The Wall Street Journal. This contradicts a report from last November that said Samsung was not interested in settling with Apple.

The talks included face-to-face meetings in Seoul and reportedly came close to a resolution in February, but have since "cooled off". The sides remain in discussions, according to The WSJ.

In the negotiations, described sparingly in heavily redacted documents from the U.S. International Trade Commission made public earlier this month and by people familiar with them, Samsung has pushed for a broad patent cross-licensing deal that could settle all outstanding litigation between the companies...

Over the past several weeks, an increasing number of photo leaks of what has been claimed to be the rear shell of Apple's rumored upcoming lower-cost plastic iPhone have surfaced, showing a device just slightly larger than the iPhone 5 and carrying the same layout of physical features, albeit with simplified microphone and speaker grille designs along the bottom edge.

Japanese magazine Weekly ASCII now shares some new closeup photos [Google translation, via Macotakara] of a yellow version of this plastic rear shell, showing it in good detail while also placing it alongside...

AllThingsD reports that Apple has acquired Locationary, a Canadian company focused on crowdsourcing location and other data on local businesses for improved accuracy.Apple has acquired the Toronto-based Locationary, a small Canadian startup, backed by Extreme Venture Partners and Plazacorp Ventures. Multiple sources familiar with the deal tell AllThingsD it closed recently and includes Locationary’s technology and team, both. The price of the acquisition couldn’t immediately be learned.Referred to as a "Wikipedia for local business listings" by AllThingsD, Locationary uses crowdsourcing and other means to improve local search results for mapping purposes by verifying such data as location and whether or not the business is still in operation.

Apple is obviously interested in Locationary for its potential to improve Apple's mapping...

Ma Ailun, the 23-year-old Chinese woman who was killed via electric shock when answering a call on her iPhone last week, was most likely using an unauthorized third party charger, reports the South China Morning Post.

Knockoff chargers often use low cost supplies and fail to meet standards for the adequate isolation of electrical input and output, making them more dangerous than brand name chargers that are subject to safety regulations.

The alleged phone and charger that were in use during the incident.According to Xiang Ligang, a telecommunications expert interviewed by CCTV, the charger Ma had been using may have been a "knockoff" - a fake.

"Knockoff chargers sometimes...

After introducing iWork for iCloud during its Worldwide Developers Conference and sending invites to registered developers soon after, Apple has begun inviting normal users to test the software according to a number of MacRumors tipsters.

The following invitation is being sent out to users who have been accepted into the iWork for iCloud beta:

We’ll soon be introducing a new and exciting feature to iCloud. It’s called iWork for iCloud and it’s a suite of apps — Pages, Numbers, and Keynote — that make it easy for anyone with an iCloud account to create and edit great-looking documents, spreadsheets, and presentations right on the web.

We’d like to invite you to be one of the first to try it, so we’re giving you early access to the iWork for...

After launching an investigation into the anti-theft practices of smartphone manufacturers like Apple, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón will today test how Apple’s Activation Lock feature holds up against determined thieves, reports CNET.

First introduced at WWDC, Activation Lock is designed to prevent Find My iPhone from being deactivated, which keeps stolen iPhones from being wiped and reactivated. The feature is included in iOS 7, which is expected to be released to consumers this fall.

Several years ago, the popular desktop media player VLC was released for iPhone and iPad on the App Store. However, the app was eventually removed from the store over copyright issues with the GPL license.

Now, VLC is back on iOS [App Store Link] with a complete rewrite including AirPlay support, multiple ways to load files into the video app, realtime video filters, playback speed manipulation, subtitles and more.

VLC for iOS is still rolling out to international App Stores, beginning in Australia and New Zealand and arriving in the U.S. this evening.

Today, it’s my pleasure to announce that VLC for iOS is back on the App Store. It’s available...

On July 18, 2013, the US Patent & Trademark Office published two patent applications from Apple that reveal the details behind their "Book Proofer" and Social "Game Center" applications.