New data from Kantar Worldpanel shows year over year market share gains by iOS in the United States, Great Britain and France, despite a seasonal shift that's returned Android to a majority share in the U.S.   ...

Alongside iOS 7 beta 4, Apple has provided developers with iTunes 11.1 beta. The biggest new feature is built-in iTunes Radio. iTunes Radio is Apple’s upcoming streaming music service that is also integrated into iOS 7.

First screenshots below:

...

New York-based nonprofit China Labor Watch on Monday released a report alleging labor abuses — including environmental and safety violations, withholding of worker pay and poor living conditions — at Taiwanese Apple Inc. contractor Pegatron. If confirmed, the breaches alleged in the report would violate both Chinese law and Apple’s own supplier policy.

Here is Apple’s response to the report, sent out early Monday morning Beijing time:

“Apple is committed to providing safe and fair working conditions throughout our supply chain. We lead the industry with far-reaching and specialized audits, the most transparent reporting and educational programs that enrich the lives of workers who make our products. Apple is the first and only technology company to be admitted to the Fair Labor Association, and we are dedicated to protecting every worker in our supply chain.”

...

Apple on Monday supplied its developers with the fourth pre-release beta of iOS 7 for testing, as it prepares to launch the software to the public this fall.   ...

What do Microsoft, Oracle, Intel and AT&T have in common? All four of the major corporations are jumping to Apple's defense against the impending iPhone 4 ban ordered by the US International Trade Commission (ITC).

The Wall Street Journal reports that a trade group representing Microsoft, Oracle and Intel -- BSA -- was joined by AT&T in supporting Apple's side of the ban, which was brought about thanks to arch-rival Samsung. Samsung won a case before the ITC, and the potential ban, which still has to be approved by US Trade Representative Michael Froman before going into effect on August 4, was sought as a patent-infringement settlement. BSA argues that the use of essential industry patents to ban products should not be allowed, except under unusual circumstances.

The companies are concerned, though, that the ban sets precedent. Companies must license patented...

colinneagle writes "AllThingsD reported, Bob Mansfield, Apple's Senior Vice President of Technologies, has disappeared from the executive management team at Apple. But it was only last October when Mansfield was widely reported to have been convinced to return from retirement by Apple CEO Tim Cook for a two-year stint. His return to the company may have been cut short on account of Apple's continued reliance on Samsung for its mobile SOC processors, for which Apple paid an estimated $10 billion to Samsung last year. Mansfield's group was to have played a major role in this, and apparently it has not been able affect this change."

...

Apple on Monday issued a statement promising to look into claims that its supplier Pegatron has been requiring employees to work excessive hours without adequate compensation.  ...

Update: Apple appears to have removed the app from the App Store.

A...

Apple has sent a response to the Wall Street Journal with a full response to this morning’s report regarding Pegatron’s working conditions:

Apple is committed to providing safe and fair working conditions throughout our supply chain. We lead the industry with far-reaching and specialized audits, the most transparent reporting and educational programs that enrich the lives of workers who make our products. Apple is the first and only technology company to be admitted to the Fair Labor Association, and we are dedicated to protecting every worker in our supply chain.

As a part of our extensive Supplier Responsibility program, Apple has conducted 15 comprehensive audits at Pegatron facilities since 2007, covering more than 130,000...

Samsung has notified the courts that the United States Patent and Trademark Office has rejected all claims of Apple’s “pinch to zoom” patent, according to a report. The rejection is a “Final Office Action,” but the decision is far from finished, as Apple will have additional opportunities to appeal.…

This past weekend, an image claiming to show a bin of boxes for Apple’s upcoming lower-cost, plastic iPhone emerged with “iPhone 5C” as the purported product name. However, earlier today, the image was claimed to be debunked due to some minor inconsistencies and image distortion. The inconstancies do not seem to be prominent enough, though, to completely rule out legitimacy. Now, BusinessInsider is separately reporting that “iPhone 5C” will be the name of the upcoming plastic iPhone.

It’s unclear what the “C” in “5C” stands for, but we can discern from the 5 that the...

Daniel Eran Dilger for AppleInsider:

Strategy Analytics is attempting to estimate mobile handset profit shares for both companies. While it generated a lot of coverage for its report, the numbers not only don’t reflect reality, but they were further mangled by sloppy reporting from a variety of major tech websites.

I’m shocked. It’s a great article.

∞ Read this on The Loop

Chinese scalpers are booking all available Genius Bar appointments and selling them online, according to the Beijing Morning Post (translated link). Customers looking to book Genius Bar appointments at local Chinese Apple stores often find that all appointments have been taken. After searching for alternatives online, they discover that…

Music recognition and discovery app Shazam updated its iOS apps today with a couple interesting features, including new “multi-track purchases” allowing users to purchase multiple songs at once through iTunes.

Multi-track purchase: When you’ve tagged a bunch of songs, now it’s easy to go back and buy them in one go. Go to My Tags (or Favorites on iPad), tap “Select & Buy”, pick the songs you want, then tap “Buy” to purchase in iTunes.

Also included in the update its recommendations based on what others users have purchased, music previews for trending songs in the Pulse charts, and improved Voiceover support and sharing.

What’s New in Version 6.2.0

○ Multi-track purchase:...

If someone tells you a source for a story is "very credible" or "has a strong track record" or is "a well-connected insider," do this simple check first. Is the person or entity saying these things about the source a rumor blog that regularly posts whatever random BS anyone says about Apple? If so, you may safely disregard their opinion of the source's credibility. In fact, it couldn't hurt to assume the opposite is true.

Analyst's predictions for 2013: New iPhones to be in short supply, Haswell iMacs/MacBook Pros arriving, no new iPad mini (9to5 Mac)

According to 9to5 Mac, some analyst "has a fairly strong track record in predicting future Apple products (timing notwithstanding)." I don't know about you, but I got a chuckle out of that disclaimer. It's like, "This guy has been accurate in the past. Oh, he's been wrong about the when, but occasionally right about the what...

Apple's Calendar apps on the Mac, iPhone and iPad can share events so your schedule isn't ever any farther away than your fingertips. Turns out you can sync more than your appointments through Calendar; you can sync files that are attached to your events, too. Read on to learn how.

China Labor Watch, a New York-based workers' rights organization, is accusing Pegatron -- one of Apple's major suppliers -- of violating a number of Chinese and international laws, as well as Apple's own supplier responsibility code, according to a report seen by Reuters and the Wall Street Journal. Although Pegatron is headquartered in Taiwan, it has a heavy presence in mainland China. The CLW says that between March and July it probed three factories, based in Shanghai and Suzhou, using undercover investigators and interviews with almost 200 workers. The interviews were conducted outside... ...

Apple senior vice president of technologies Bob Mansfield has left the company’s executive team, a company spokesman has confirmed. Mansfield’s biography was initially removed from Apple’s website yesterday, as noted by MacRumors. Spokesman Steve Dowling said Mansfield would remain at Apple to work on special projects, while reporting…

A new plastic iPhone is currently being tested Apple supplier Pegatron, and will soon go into mass production and hit the market, one factory worker claims.  ...

An alleged leaked photo posted on the WeiPhone forums shows a bin full of plastic packaging for the “iPhone 5C,” which may be the name of Apple’s budget iPhone. Though different from previously cardboard iPhone boxes, the new white plastic packaging appears to be legitimate, featuring a slightly thinned…

Some of the world’s brightest minds have speculated that a vacuum tube is the only way to do it — but before that idea could even get off the ground, Musk said that the Hyperloop is not based on an evacuated tunnel. With that possibility ruled out, there aren’t actually that many ways of safely and economically propelling carriages at 700 mph (1126 kph). Furthermore, when you factor in Musk’s comments that the Hyperloop “can never crash,” has no need for rails, and is “immune to weather,” the architecture of the system becomes a real head-scratcher. Oh, did I mention that Musk envisions the entire system being self-powered by solar panels, and that it somehow stores energy inside the system itself, without the need for batteries?

The Hyperloop is from Tesla founder, Elon Musk. He is set to unveil the plan on August 12—I’ll be interested to see what it is.

...

Apple will launch not only a replacement for the iPhone 5, but also a lower priced new iPhone model on September 6, according to a report from iFun. That sounds great, except that it's wrong.

The Mac Observer Spin:
We're getting closer to a new iPhone launch, but Apple isn't confirming anything yet. As excitement for the new iPhones builds we'll probably see more reports claiming to know when they're really coming. Until Apple makes an official statement, however, it's all rumor and speculation.

Look on the belt or wrist of just about any well-equipped geek these days and chances are good that you'll see some sort of activity tracker. Whether it's a Fitbit (US$60 - 100), Nike+ FuelBand ($150) , Jawbone UP ($130), or even just a cheesy USB-equipped pedometer, these devices are becoming ubiquitous among those who want to try to keep track of their fitness. The latest entry comes from a pioneer in the connected health market, Withings. The Pulse (US$99.99) joins a line of connected health devices from the company, including the Smart...

The report on working conditions at Chinese iPhone manufacturer Pegatron appears to confirm that the low-cost iPhone does indeed exist, is plastic and is not yet in mass production.

The introduction to the report (PDF), which provides a background to Pegatron, contains this statement:

Its assembled products include iPhone 4, iPhone 4s, iPhone 5, and low-priced plastic iPhones

A day-in-the-life report on page 27 of the report states:

Today’s work is to paste protective film on the iPhone’s plastic back cover to prevent it from being scratched on assembly lines … ...

Bob Mansfield quietly disappeared from Apple's executive team webpage on Sunday and the company said it's because he'll be working on "special projects" instead. Mr. Mansfield had been serving as the company's Senior Vice President of Technologies, but now it looks like he may be throwing his weight behind secret new products.

Apple Store, Shanghai

Beijing Morning News reports that local ticket scalpers have found a new way to make money on Apple: booking up all available Genius Bar appointments and then offering them for sale online.

Ticket scalpers usually make their money by buying large quantities of event tickets as soon as they go on sale then illegally selling them for more than face value once the event is sold out. With Genius Bar appointments, they don’t even need to fork out cash in the first place: they just use a bunch of email addresses to make the...

When I stumble upon a fresh and creative app, particularly an app that pushes humanity forward in cold dark universe, I take a closer look. One such app is Ear Monsters: A 3D Audio Game by Ear Games via Brian Schmidt Studios. In this game, monsters from a parallel dimension have created wormholes to invade our universe. They quickly become invisible in our world when they pop out of the wormholes, but luckily for us, they don't realize we can still hear them.

A previous chapter talked a lot about adding metadata during the import process because that’s the easiest way to apply it. Assigning keywords and other information during that initial stage takes some prep time, but when you click the Import button, the metadata is applied with a broad brush across all your incoming photos. After import, though, you still have some touch-up work to do. To make your photos easily searchable later — the ultimate goal in our organization project — you also need to apply more-specific metadata to individual photos. This might include identifying people and landmarks, or describing shots. In this chapter, I look at how to choose good keywords and how to apply them smartly. I also discuss how to fix incorrect dates and times, how to apply geolocation information, and why it may not be worth investing the time in your program’s facial-recognition tools.

Read the full article at TidBITS, the...

According to an upcoming report from the China Labor Watch, outlined by the Wall Street Journal, Apple’s China-based manufacturing partner Pegatron has come under fire for worker conditions. The report outlines several claims which shed a negative light on Pegatron:

• Pegatron is claimed to be withholding worker IDs. This means that Pegatron employees are unable to work elsewhere because they lack proper identification.
• The company is also claimed to be providing “poor living conditions” with “30-minute waits to enter their production facility, tight living quarters, and packed cafeterias.” Cold showers and packed dorms are also noted.
• Workers are claimed to be working over 60 hours a week (Apple’s limit), while Apple’s June...

In a very recent change to its website, Apple removed Senior Vice President of Technologies Bob Mansfield's biography from the executive profiles webpage, suggesting the executive may no longer be with the company.  ...

Update: Poornima Gupta from Reuters got a statement from Apple on Mansfield:

Apple says Bob Mansfield is no longer on Apple's exec team but will remain at Apple working on special projects reporting to Cook. $AAPL—
Poornima Gupta (@PoornimaGupta) July 29, 2013

“Bob is no longer going to be on Apple’s executive team, but will remain at Apple working on special projects reporting to Tim [Cook],”

Apple Senior Vice President of Technologies Bob Mansfield has mysteriously disappeared from the executive organization chart on Apple’s website, as noted by MacRumors...

All-new dial-in experience! See below -- do not call into Talkshoe, we won't be there. Be sure to set up Fuze Meeting before the show if you want to join in live.

Sheeeesh. Can you believe it's the end of July already? It's like we just went from June to August this year. Anyway, we're going to liven up the evening tonight with the usual TUAW Talkcast, this one with yours truly hosting and with The Loop's Jim Dalrymple (AKA The Beard) as our special guest. Topics will include the continuing rumors about low-cost plastic iPhones, the return of the Dev Centers, and probably some banter about the Apple Q3 financials.

All this, and your comments and calls -- what more could you ask? Join us at 10 pm ET/7 pm PT, and we'll have a grand old time.

Reminder on new-style talkcasting: With some help from...

Google described its new Chromecast HDMI web streaming device as running a slimmed down version of ChromeOS, but hackers have discovered it's really Google TV without the Android features.   ...

July 10, 2013 marked the fifth anniversary of Apple's App Store. To say that the App Store revolutionized the way we interact with our mobile devices would be an understatement. The sheer size of the App Store today demonstrates that it has indeed taken on a life of its own, creating an entire economy unto itself.

Today, there are over 900,000 apps in the App Store, with over 50 billion apps having been downloaded to date. Even more impressive is that Apple has paid out over $10 billion to developers thus far.

Over the last five years, the App Store has of course had its fair share of controversy. From apps that were ...

This is why Eric is one of the best players ever.

While the world is seemingly full of available USB ports and wall chargers, somehow it's always missing the appropriate cable when you need it. Enter the Charge Card: a flat, credit-card-sized USB "cable" that can be easily carried in a wallet, and now supports Apple's Lightning connector.  ...

Given the surfeit of wild and life-threatening weather events across the USA over the past few months, it's great that the major iPhone carriers now all support the Federal system for wireless emergency alerts. These location-specific messages are broadcast by cell towers in an affected area, and provide brief messages that may help provide warning or guidance in a crisis.

Verizon and Sprint both launched their capability in 2012, T-Mobile has the alerts enabled, and AT&T joined the parade last month approximately one year after the service was...

Just a quick note that we’ve moved our comment system to WordPress. You can log in with your WordPress, Twitter or Facebook accounts and you will need manual approval by mods the first time you comment (so prepare to wait a few minutes/hours). Previous stories will continue to contain  previous comment archives.

Why didn’t we go to Disqus or Livefyre? If it was only comments, we probably would have. But we’re building something kind of cool behind the scenes with WordPress and this is just the start.

As always, we read and appreciate your feedback and look forward to hearing your thoughts.

For more information about Tips and Tricks, Facebook...

WeiPhone forums (via Macotakara) has what appears to be a bin full of ‘iPhone 5C’ packaging (above). There is no way to verify if these are from an Apple production line or simply some knockoffs.

If these belong to Apple (big if), the assumption would be that the C will stand for “Color’ or ‘plastiC’ or ‘polyCarbonate’ or ‘China’ or ‘Cheap’ or ‘Consumer’ or something else in the same way that ‘S’ stands for speed. Theoretically, the aluminum model would be the iPhone 5S which of course would be speedier and have other upgrades.

As an example of Apple’s packaging...

Last week, we noted that popular communications app Viber was hacked by the Syrian Electronic Army, which led to aspects of Viber’s website being defaced with the message “The Israeli-based “Viber” is spying and tracking you.”

Today, reader Peter Wells points out that Viber’s App Store description has been defaced as well. If this new app description was tainted by the Syrian Electronic Army, it is possible that the hackers have gained access to the other various developer-facing functions.

We have reached out to Viber for comment and will update this post once they are received...

This app brings back memories of my trips to Radio Shack back in the day to look at scanners to listen to police, fire, aircraft and other emergency frequencies. SuperScanner! (US$9.99) recreates those days with a slick iPad app that gives you access to these stations. You're not stuck with just your local police and other public frequencies, but can hop all over the US and the world.

When running, the app looks just like the beloved 16-channel hardware scanners. The major difference is that you can search for any location, program frequencies in, and then listen for hours. You can program favorites, have the app switch frequencies at a set time, or touch an active frequency to hold it there. SuperScanner! can be set to give you background audio if you want to do something else, but not miss out on the action.

I spent some fun time exploring my local channels, then took a virtual trip down...

Big box retailer Best Buy is holding a 48-hour sale that ends Saturday at midnight, slashing the price of all MacBook Pro with Retina display models by $200, while also offering $100 iTunes Gift Cards for $85. Meanwhile, other Apple resellers have discounted fully loaded MacBook Pro with Retina display BTO configurations by as much as $650, while supplies last.  ...

Frustration was the impetus for Tom Katis to co-found Voxer in 2007. While he was serving in the U.S. Special Forces in Afghanistan, he experienced the limitations of communication via military walkie-talkie firsthand. Now his push-to-talk app is looking to be the Nextel of the future, with free, Voxer Pro, and Voxer Pro for Business versions available on iOS and Android. He sat down recently to answer some of our questions about what interests and drives him.

What qualities do you like in a person?
The qualities I find appealing are simple: Courage, intellect, enthusiasm.

Name one thing you will regret never having done (if you never do it)
Having kids. I love my life, but I feel like I’m missing out on something if I never have kids.

Name one thing you will never regret having done...

You've probably tapped it at least a few times today without ever knowing exactly what it is or what it's called; I'm talking of course about the strange, swirly square emblazoned on the Command key. So just what exactly is it and who decided it would be the symbol for such an important modifier key?

The shape itself goes by several different names including the Gorgon loop and Saint John's Arms has come to symbolize many things over the past 2,600 years or so, but it didn't become an icon part of computing culture until 1984. The tale states that when Steve Jobs first viewed the keyboard command list for MacDraw he was disgusted with the number of Apple logos - which at this point was the symbol used for the Command key - cluttering up the list. He demanded that his team find a suitable symbol to replace it.

Apple's...

A clever post from deallocatedobjects cropped up on IRC on Friday, and I thought I'd share its wisdom. The post discusses how you can add a custom build phase to automatically show TODO and FIXME comments as warnings in your Xcode 4 (and later) projects.

It takes very little work. Select a target and choose Editor > Add Build Phase > Add Run Script Build Phase. Paste the following bash script in:

KEYWORDS="TODO:|FIXME:|\?\?\?:|\!\!\!:"
find "${SRCROOT}" \( -name "*.h" -or -name "*.m" \) -print0 | xargs -0 egrep --with-filename --line-number --only-matching "($KEYWORDS).*\$" | perl -p -e "s/($KEYWORDS)/ warning: \$1/"

According to the write-up, credit goes to "Tim" on the Cocos2D forums.

Thanks, swillits

...

This is the third how-to in our new weekly series: 

One of the most common issues I hear about is forgotten Apple IDs. But this is not as simple as it sounds. Figuring out Apple ID details can involve finding out what the Apple ID username is, which Apple ID they should be using (if they have multiple), resetting security questions and answers, and resetting passwords.

Most people, if they have an iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad, are using their Apple ID on their mobile device. From there, if you go into the Settings App, you will be able to see your Apple ID.

Always double-check to see if you have two different Apple IDs: one for iCloud and one for iTunes and App Stores.  Under Settings, press iCloud. Make note of the email address listed in the account. To go back to the main Settings page, press the Settings arrow in the upper left hand corner. Then scroll down until you see iTunes and App Stores and press it. You now have three...