Currently, AirPlay offers one-way communication with the intermediate device / television i.e there is no way for a user viewing the television to provide commands back to the iPhone or iPad for interacting with the running application. However, Apple’s patent filing suggests that future generation AirPlay may be able generate a second UI configured to be presented on a second display device, such as a TV, while the first UI is being presented on the first display device.

The communication between the application and the intermediate device/television is one way–a user viewing the television cannot provide, though an input interface of the television or the intermediate device, commands back to the computing device for interacting with the application. Rather, the application must be controlled via an input interface of the computing device. Certain embodiments of the present invention overcome this limitation and can allow users of both the computing device and the intermediate device/television to simultaneously control/interact with the application via respective input interfaces.

More interestingly, the same filing also refers to a possible future Apple television:

Apple distinctly states that “Although digital media receiver 208 (Apple’s current Apple TV box) and television 210 are shown as separate devices, in certain embodiments they can the combined into a single device (e.g., an Internet-enabled television).

Apple states that in one set of embodiments, the television viewer can assign a particular rating to the photo, such as “like,” dislike,” or a star rating. These ratings can be mapped to particular buttons on remote control, such that the assignment process can be carried out by activating a single button. 

Looks like Apple may have just provided us with the tiniest bit of information regarding a future internet enabled Apple television.

Apple Patent Suggests Next Gen. AirPlay Will Offer Interactivity, Hints At Internet TV is a post from: iPhone in Canada Blog - Canada's #1 iPhone Resource

Apple was operating almost tax-free in Ireland, Reuters reports. It was welcomed by a country facing one of the state’s bleakest times. The news comes hot on the heels of Senate’s Subcommittee hearings on Apple’s offshore tax strategy. The investigation led Senator Carl Levin to accuse Apple of seeking the “Holy Grail of tax avoidance.”

Reuters has obtained information from former Apple executives as well as from Irish officials, who say the company’s almost tax-free status “dates all the way back to Apple’s arrival in County Cook 32 years ago.”

In fact, Apple was the last company that enjoyed, as did so many other foreign companies, a zero tax rate. That is how the Irish government attracted foreign companies from 1956-1980. Eligible companies received tax holidays until 1990, when the Irish economy bounced back.

“There were tax concessions for us to go there,” said Del Yocam, who was Vice President of manufacturing at Apple in the early 1980s. “It was a big concession.”

“We had a tax holiday for the first 10 years in Ireland. We paid no taxes to the Irish government,” one former finance executive, who asked not to be named, said.

“Any multinational attracted into Ireland that was focusing on the export market paid zero percent corporation tax,” said Barry O’Leary CEO of IDA Ireland, which is charged with attracting investment into Ireland.

John Sculley, Apple’s CEO from 1983-1993 recalls that Apple was the first tech company establishing manufacturing operations in Ireland. At the time the country was struggling with high unemployment and low wages.

The creative mind behind Apple’s low tax bill was Mike Rashkin, Apple’s first tax director, according to two Apple executives from that period who are Reuter’s sources. He joined Apple in 1980. He was “the father of all,” setting up a tax structure that took advantage of Apple’s Irish base.

As the subcommittee’s investigation reveals, Apple’s low taxes were due at least in part to a deal with its Irish operators, which made it possible to share the cost of funding Apple’s research and development.

In 1980, Apple entered into a deal with its Irish operation, whereby the latter would share the cost of funding Apple’s research and development. In return, the Irish unit would be able to enjoy rights to Apple intellectual property for goods sold outside the Americas.

Apple secured the blessing of the U.S. tax authority, the Internal Revenue Service, for the deal, one executive said. The IRS gave Apple an advance pricing agreement, or APA, an agreement which establishes how the IRS will treat a transaction between affiliates for tax purposes, before it is entered into.

Apple had received a green light from the IRS for the aforementioned CSA (cost sharing agreement). As a result, the IRS was favourable to AOI. The unit paid much less for its US patent to use the company’s IP, than it made from selling that property on to affiliates. To put that into numbers, the subsidiary paid $500,000 in income tax on profits of $317 million, which is a tax rate of 0.2%.

After the tax holiday ended, the tax rate was raised to 4% and Apple nearly left Ireland. It negotiated a new arrangement with the government that fell within European rules and had an outcome somewhat similar to the deal it enjoyed during the tax holiday.

The report contradicts an earlier The Telegraph report citing the Irish Prime Minister as saying the government didn’t negotiate any deal with Apple. Reuters could not obtain a statement from any Irish government spokesman.

Apple Had a Tax Holiday for the First 10 Years in Ireland is a post from: iPhone in Canada Blog - Canada's #1 iPhone Resource

Apple has confirmed with AllThingsD its 2013 WWDC keynote has been scheduled for Monday, June 10th at Moscone Center in San Francisco. Apple previously announced dates of the conference last month and as WWDC tickets went on sale for $1,599 each on April 25th they sold out in literally a minute.

The keynote normally takes place on the first day of WWDC, so this isn’t surprising, but Apple never confirmed this until now.

Some analysts predict Apple will refresh its MacBook line up at WWDC to go alongside the highly anticipated launch of iOS 7. What’s on your wish list for WWDC?

Apple Confirms 2013 WWDC Keynote Taking Place on June 10 is a post from: iPhone in Canada Blog - Canada's #1 iPhone Resource

The Cupertino tech giant is currently under fire for allegedly being one of the largest tax avoiders in U.S. In a recent testimony, Apple CEO Tim Cook has stated that the company has no plans to bring its cash pile to American shores with taxes on foreign earnings as they currently are. the report also notes that aside from taxes, Apple would likely lobby Congress on environmental and import issues, as well as broadband and other technology issues.

Another likely area of interest would be America’s intellectual property protections. Given its struggles with Samsung and other Android device makers, Apple would like to see intellectual property protections within the United States strengthened, as it argues the system isn’t built to handle the rapid pace of technological development.

“The U.S. court system is currently structured in such a way,” Cook said during his testimony, “that it’s currently difficult to get the protections a technology company needs.”

While Apple is yet to set up a political action fund to distribute employee contributions to sympathetic congresspersons, it has already begun bringing in outside lobbying firms with experience in taxes, broadband, electronic waste and more.

Apple To Reportedly Double The Amount Of Money It Spends Lobbying Politicians is a post from: iPhone in Canada Blog - Canada's #1 iPhone Resource

Last March, Mailbox noted it was delivering 50 million emails per day, only days later to reveal Dropbox had acquired the startup. According to TNW, Orchestra, the team behind Mailbox brought 14 employees to Dropbox and their team now sits at 16 people.

You can check out our review of Mailbox here.

Click here to download Mailbox–it’s free.

Popular Email Client Mailbox is Now Available on the iPad is a post from: iPhone in Canada Blog - Canada's #1 iPhone Resource

Microsoft has launched another ad targeting the iPad, after releasing an interesting ad yesterday using Siri to bash Apple’s tablet. Now, the following ad released 40 minutes ago compares the iPad to Windows 8 tablets in this side-by-side comparison which details specs, apps, printing and a whole lot more. If anything, the ads give some air time for the iPad as well. Check it out below and tell us what you think!

Earlier today, Amazon announced the launch of its Kindle Fire tablets for pre-order, set to debut on June 13th.

Microsoft Launches ‘iPad vs Windows 8 Tablet’ Direct Comparison Ad [VIDEO] is a post from: iPhone in Canada Blog - Canada's #1 iPhone Resource

Launched last spring, Angry Birds Space surpassed 20 million downloads in its first week.

Both the iPhone version ($0.99) and HD versions ($2.99) are free and Angry Birds Space joins Angry Birds Seasons and more recently Angry Birds as free App of the Week picks. Not much to say here other than to get downloading.

Download Links: 

• Angry Birds Space
• Angry Birds Space HD

Apple’s Free App of the Week: Rovio’s Angry Birds Space is a post from: iPhone in Canada Blog - Canada's #1 iPhone Resource

The company says customers will have access to over 1 million apps, games and books, which include over 300,000 exclusive titles in the Kindle Store.

Dave Limp, Vice President, Amazon Kindle said “Kindle Fire HD is the #1 best-selling item in the world for Amazon since its launch, and we’re thrilled to make it available to Canadian customers.”

The Kindle Fire HD 8.9″ is available for pre-order starting at $284 and the Kindle Fire HD 7″ starts at $214 for 16GB models. The Source and Staples will also carry the devices.

It was just yesterday Amazon Cloud Drive was launched in Canada and we alluded Kindle Fire HD tablets could make their way to Canada shortly after. This seems like a fast turnaround. Canada is part of a new wave of Kindle Fire launches around the globe, as the tablet is now available in over 170 countries.

The Kindle Fire pricing looks to disrupt other Android tablets as Amazon has clearly stated it wants to make from selling content to customers, not on its hardware. When the second generation Kindle Fire HD launched last fall, you may recall Amazon targeted Apple’s iPad mini on its homepage as its direct competitor.

Anyone going to pre-order a Kindle Fire? You can learn more about tablets over here at Amazon.ca.

Amazon Launches Kindle Fire HD for Pre-Order in Canada, Coming June 13th is a post from: iPhone in Canada Blog - Canada's #1 iPhone Resource

As Philip Elmer-DeWitt of Fortune recalls, Joe Nocera has a long history with Apple. Lately he has made it “his business to be the fiercest critic of what he sees as shady business dealings at the company’s highest levels.”

Nocera accuses Tim Cook of telling a “whopper” and a “flat-out lie” while under oath. He backs up his claims with several documents and news articles. But according to Elmer-DeWitt, he is probably wrong.

Here are some highlights of what Nocera thinks about Tim Cook’s testimony:

• Even though the company appears to pay about 10 percent of its pretax income in taxes — when the federal corporate tax rate is 35 percent — Cook said, “We pay all the taxes we owe — every single dollar.” He added that Apple had never shifted any of its American profits to an offshore tax haven when, in fact, that is basically what it has done, routing tens of billions in pretax profits to a shell corporation in Ireland that exists solely to avoid taxes in the United States. He even said that the low taxes Apple pays overseas is on the profits of its overseas sales. Not to put too fine a point on it, but this was a flat-out lie.

• Here is another whopper from Mr. Cook on Tuesday. He said that his company not only doesn’t violate the letter of the law, that it doesn’t even violate the spirit. He may be right on the first part, but he is wrong on the second.

• Question for the government of Ireland: Do you really want your country to be known as an offshore tax haven? Indeed, at a time when your citizens are dealing with the pain of an austerity program, how can you justify allowing Apple to pay virtually no taxes on a subsidiary established solely to avoid taxes in the United States? Just wondering. [The Irish government denies these claims. You can read about this here. ]

In fact, the essence of Nocera’s relationship with Apple can be captured in a phone call he had with Steve Jobs back in 2008, according to Elmer-DeWitt:

“This is Steve Jobs,” [Jobs] began. “You think I’m an arrogant [expletive] who thinks he’s above the law, and I think you’re a slime bucket who gets most of his facts wrong.”

Joe Nocera of NYT is Skeptical of Tim Cook’s Tuesday Testimony is a post from: iPhone in Canada Blog - Canada's #1 iPhone Resource

Microsoft has launched a new ad titled “Less talking, more doing” targeting Apple’s iPad–using Siri’s own voice to verbalize what the iPad ‘can’t do’ when next to it its Windows 8 competitor. Check it out below:

The 32 second ad highlights how the iPad does not have real-time widgets, multitasking support within apps and lacks Powerpoint. The kicker at the end throws in price points where a 64GB iPad costs $699 compared to $449 for a 64GB Asus VivoTab Smart tablet.

It’s interesting how Microsoft is touting other tablets from its hardware partners instead of its Surface tablets, which have had lacklustre sales–less than 2 million. The Surface Pro starts at $899 with half the battery life of the Surface RT and was also formerly criticized for having the OS take up too much free space, as advertised 64GB models only had 23GB of usable storage according to the company.

What do you think? Maybe Microsoft should stick to showing off the Surface as a skateboard?

[via The Verge]

Microsoft Windows 8 Tablet Ad Thrashes the iPad Using Siri [VIDEO] is a post from: iPhone in Canada Blog - Canada's #1 iPhone Resource