May 17, 2013
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A third of all smartphones activated in Q1 were on prepaid plans, a trend that historically has favored Android, according to The NPD Group. Apple, though, is starting to make in-roads into the prepaid market.
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May 17, 2013
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Apple CEO Tim Cook, in a break from his predecessor, is giving a number of interviews to Washington press outlets ahead of his appearance in front of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigation next week.
Washington newspaper Politicospoke to Cook about Apple’s offshore cash pile — which the company has thus far refused to repatriate to the United States because of the significant tax burden that would result — and Apple’s political activities.
“We don’t have a large presence in Washington, as you probably know, but we care deeply about public policy and believe creative policy can be a huge catalyst for a better society and a stronger economy,” Cook said in the interview.
He also defended his company’s conduct. “I can tell you unequivocally Apple does not funnel its domestic profits overseas. We don’t do that. We pay taxes on all the products we sell in the U.S., and we pay every dollar that we owe. And so I’d like to be really clear on that,” Cook said.
Cook has agreed to appear in front of the subcommittee on Tuesday morning personally, instead of sending a more junior executive to testify in front of the committee. His predecessor as CEO, Steve Jobs, agreed to very few interviews and tended to stay out of politics entirely.
Apple recently borrowed $17 billion in a bond offering, in part to return cash to shareholders without bringing some of its $100 billion overseas cash pile to the United States. If it were to repatriate that cash to the U.S., it would need to pay a more than $13 billion tax bill.
Update: In an interview with The Washington Post, Cook says he plans to present specific proposals at the Senate hearing to overhaul the U.S. corporate tax system.
“If you look at it today, to repatriate cash to the U.S., you need to pay 35 percent of that cash. And that is a very high number,” Cook said in an interview Thursday. “We are not proposing that it be zero. I know many of our peers believe that. But I don’t view that. But I think it has to be reasonable.”
Cook also pointed out that if state and federal taxes are combined, Apple pays roughly $1 million per hour in taxes, possibly making Apple the largest corporate taxpayer in the country.
Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the comment thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All MacRumors forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.
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May 17, 2013
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As Paul Otellini relinquishes the reins of chipmaker Intel, the outgoing chief executive reveals in an in-depth profile that he ultimately passed on a contract to build the silicon which powered Apple’s original iPhone, a regretful decision given the handset’s wild success.
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May 17, 2013
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Apple today announced the winner of its “50 Billion App Countdown” promotion that saw the company pass that milestone on Wednesday afternoon.
Word game Say the Same Thing from the band OK Go was the milestone download, with Brandon Ashmore from Mentor, Ohio making the winning download. Ashmore will will receive an iTunes Gift Card worth US$10,000. For the first time, Apple also gave the fifty downloaders after the big winner US$500 iTunes Gift Cards.
“Apple would like to thank our incredible customers and developers for topping 50 billion apps downloaded,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services. “The App Store completely transformed how people use their mobile devices and created a thriving app ecosystem that has paid out over nine billion dollars to developers. We’re absolutely floored to cross this milestone in less than five years.”
Apple ran similar promotions for ten billion and twenty-five billion downloads, in January 2011 and March 2012 respectively.
The App Store took just under five years to hit the fifty billion download mark, though the rate of downloads has been accelerating and is now at more than 20 billion app downloads per year.
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May 17, 2013
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Apple’s San Francisco flagship retail store has been a particularly high-profile location for the company since it opened nine years ago, but the San Francisco Chronicle reports that Apple has submitted plans to move the store to a new location three blocks away. The new location at Stockton and Post streets will be directly adjacent to Union Square, the focal point of San Francisco’s high-end shopping district.
Supervisor David Chiu said he hoped the new silver box-shaped computer store and customer service center would “turbo-charge” the Union Square area, which has long been home to many of the city’s high-end retailers.
The new outlet will occupy the space at Stockton and Post streets formerly occupied by Levi’s and be about 45 percent larger than the existing space, though it will include all the same features.
“We’re thrilled to be working with the city of San Francisco on a new Apple retail store at Union Square,” Apple said in a statement to AllThingsD. “Our store on Stockton Street has welcomed over 13 million customers since it opened nine years ago, and we look forward to serving them in an amazing new location when this project is complete.”
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May 17, 2013
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Apple CEO Tim Cook will testify in front of the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigation next week, Politico is reporting. The subcommittee is attached to the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
The hearing, titled “Offshore Profit Shifting and the U.S. Tax Code – Part 2” will occur at 9:30AM on Tuesday May 27th in the Dirksen Senate Office Building.
The Subcommittee will continue its examination of the structures and methods employed by multinational corporations to shift profits offshore and how such activities are affected by the Internal Revenue Code and related regulations. Witnesses will include representatives from the Department of the Treasury, the Internal Revenue Service, representatives of a multinational corporation, and tax experts.
Representatives from Microsoft and HP testified on September 12 on the same topic.
Apple recently borrowed $17 billion in a bond offering, in part to return cash to shareholders without bringing some of its $100 billion overseas cash pile to the United States. If it were to repatriate that cash to the U.S., it would need to pay a more than $13 billion tax bill.
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May 17, 2013
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Apple iPads and iPhones can become unified communications end points for workers using ShoreTel Dock to transform the devices into business desk phones and enterprise collaboration tools, utilizing voice, IM presence and conferencing on a favored, personal device as they follow the BYOD trend.
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May 17, 2013
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Following up on its April report breaking down mobile phone shipments by manufacturer for the first quarter of 2013, research firm IDC today issued a new report looking at shipments from an operating system perspective. The report unsurprisingly shows that Android and iOS continue to dominate the smartphone market with over 92% of shipments during the quarter, with Android’s broad availability driving it to represent 75% of all shipments.
Apple iOS marked its largest ever first quarter volume on the strength of its iPhone shipment volumes, yet the operating system posted a year-over-year decline in market share and lower year-over-year shipment growth than the overall market. Although demand remains strong worldwide, the iOS experience has remained largely the same since the first iPhone debuted in 2007. That appears ready to change as online rumors and speculation predict a massive overhaul of the user interface when iOS 7 debuts.
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May 17, 2013
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A new lawsuit claims the iPhone4 has a defective on-off button. The national class action claims Apple knew about the defect but didn’t disclose it even as it worked with AT&T to sell 2 year contracts.
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May 17, 2013
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New Mac spyware was discovered earlier this week on a computer at the Oslo Freedom Forum, an annual human rights conference. Located by computer security researcher Jacob Appelbaum, the malware, which has been deemed OSX/KitM.A, is currently being investigated by anti-virus company F-Secure, reports CNET.
The malware is a backdoor application called “macs.app,” which launches automatically upon login and captures screenshots that it then sends to a MacApp folder in the user’s home directory. Two command-and-control servers, located at securitytable.org and docsforum.info, are associated with the malware, but one does not function and the other gives a “public access forbidden” message. 
Interestingly, the malware is signed with an Apple Developer ID, which is designed to prevent the installation of malware. Apps that are unsigned are blocked by default by Apple’s Gatekeeper security option.
This bit of malware is somewhat unique in that it is signed with what appears to be a valid Apple Developer ID associated with the name Rajender Kumar. Though not an uncommon name, this may be a reference to the late Bollywood actor of a similar name. Regardless, the use of the ID appears to be an attempt to bypass Apple’s Gatekeeper execution prevention technology.
Currently, F-Secure is investigating where the malware originated, and though it does not appear to be widespread, it can be mitigated by removing the macs.app program from the log-in menu. Apple often addresses malware threats quickly, and has the ability to revoke the developer ID to further limit the spread of the software.
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May 17, 2013
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BlackBerry continues to gain product momentum with a new handset for emerging markets, 120,000 total apps for BlackBerry 10 and BBM for other phones. Can it push Windows Phone aside as the third mobile platform?
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May 17, 2013
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The CW has struck a deal that will bring the network’s content to the Apple TV, reportsDeadline. At the company’s annual Upfront Presentation in New York today, CW president Mark Pedowitz announced that the CW’s TV Now applications, which are currently available on Xbox 360 and Windows 8, will be coming to the Apple TV as well.
“This year we’re reaching more viewers on more platforms,” said Pedowitz, speaking of the deal. “We are reaching our audience everywhere they are, and we want you to be with us everywhere we go,” he went on to say to advertisers at the event. 
The CW told MacRumors that the app will function similarly to the company’s Xbox and mobile apps and confirmed that it will indeed be an app located on the Apple TV’s home screen.
It’s a dedicated CW app that will work like our Xbox and mobile and tablet apps – no cable authentication required, full episodes of our shows available next day after air, ad-supported.
The CW’s TV Now app for the Xbox offers free full streaming episodes of network shows like The Vampire Diaries with limited advertising. The app also includes additional content like previews and cast extras. Currently, Apple sells CW content through its iTunes store.
While the Apple TV offers apps and digital content from sites like Netflix and Hulu, it does not include apps from television networks. The partnership between the CW and Apple will mark the first the first network television app available via the Apple TV.
It is unclear if the CW’s app is part of a larger initiative by Apple to bring additional apps to the Apple TV. According to the CW, the app is set to launch in the coming weeks, though no exact release date was given.
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May 17, 2013
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BGR shares several new relatively high-resolution photos of parts claimed to be from the iPhone 5S. These parts have been leaking to repair firms over the past several months, and a number of photos have already been seen, but the new photos do represent the highest-quality look at these parts so far. 
The parts include the loud-speaker bracket, ear speaker bracket, vibrating motor assembly, Wi-Fi flex cable ribbon and SIM card tray from Apple’s upcoming seventh-generation iPhone.
Part leaks claimed to be from the iPhone 5S began in January with photos of a speaker enclosure, and have continued with additional photos of the home button and volume/mute button flex cables, front camera flex cable, and nano-SIM card trays. The source of the previous SIM tray leak claimed that the trays were identical to those seen in the iPhone 5, while BGR‘s report today claims that they are thinner. 
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May 17, 2013
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Yes, it includes filters like every other photo app, but it also allows for a quick succession of shots to be taken. Then there’s a grid for helping to more easily select the best shot taken and best filter.
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May 17, 2013
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Google’s support for the Bluetooth Smart Ready platform in Android is one step forward for the radio technology’s dominance in the internet of things. But the Bluetooth SIG has a lot more up its sleeve.
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