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Apple's iPod, iPhone, Macs made in inhuman working conditions

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 16:08:12 GMT

Apple computer made over $14 billion in the fourth quarter of last year alone - yet workers in companies that supply its products overseas, particularly in China are paid low wages and suffer from horrible working conditions. Some have resorted to suicide in protest.

A petition drive directed at Apple's CEO Tim Cook has been launched demanding the computer giant treat its workers fairly. The petition is being circulated by the AFL-CIO. It can be signed here.

Apple - which makes Mac computers and iPhones - has been accused by China's Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs of practices that sharply differ from its highly polished corporate image. "Behind their stylish image Apple products have a side that many do not know about - pollution and poison. This side is hidden deep within the company's secretive supply chain, out of view from the public."

Apple has responded to these charges by appearing to raise wages and conduct an investigation. These measures, however, seem to be just another corporate maneuver.

The AFL-CIO writes: "According to Students & Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior:
The new basic wage...only applies to the workers in Shenzhen. In inland provinces, where two-thirds of production workers are based, basic salary remains meager. Given that the inflation in China is high, Foxconn is just following the trend of wage increase in the electronics industry in China."

As for the inspections: "These inspections will not expose-or begin to solve-Apple's problems. The FLA is funded and controlled by the multinational corporations it oversees, which means it is not at all independent."

Microsoft Office to Become Available on Apple's iPad? Don't Believe the Hype

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 16:01:13 GMT

Microsoft now denies it will release Microsoft Office for the Apple iPad, despite a recent screenshot and report from The Daily.

A Microsoft spokesperson told the New York Times: "The Daily story is based on inaccurate rumors and speculation. We have no further comment." She added that an image with The Daily's article depicting an Office product for iPad was "… not Microsoft's software," she said.

As PC World's Ian Paul notes, Microsoft has been slow to release the Word, Excel, and PowerPoint suite on non-Windows platforms. Based on comments, our readers would love to get Office on the iPad, but there are a couple reasons why we should chalk this situation up to wishful thinking.

Microsoft Office: An Incentive to Buy Windows 8 Tablets
Keeping Microsoft Office on Windows-based tablets could push PC loyalists and even current Apple iPad users to switch when mobile Windows 8 arrives--probably later this year. Apple's Pages, Keynote, and Numbers software programs for the iPad do a fair job of imitating Word, PowerPoint, and Excel, but the software is not perfectly compatible with Windows-based technology.

Microsoft surely knows that it has an uphill battle against Apple, which has sold 55 million iPads in just less than two years. Microsoft will need every advantage possible to win or even viably compete in the tablet wars.

Keeping Microsoft Office on non-Apple platforms wouldn't require much restraint, either: Several experts expect Microsoft to reveal the Windows 8 beta next week at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. The iPad has been out for nearly two years. So the question is: Why should Microsoft release Office for iPad now?

Not Much Money in the Venture
If Microsoft did release Office on the iPad, it probably should expect to lose money for little gain. The problem isn't that people won't pay for it, but that iPad users are used to paying much, much less for similar software.

Take QuickOffice Pro HD, a favorite third-party iPad app that is even more compatible with Office products than Apple's own Office clones. It not only has been out since the iPad's 2010 launch, but it cost only $24.99. Apple's Pages, Keynote, and Numbers cost $9.99 each. Microsoft Office for the PC starts at $119.99 and can cost almost $500 for use on two PCs for the Profession version.

The competitive pricing puts Microsoft between two uncomfortable realities: Price it more than $30 and even die-hard Office users will think twice about purchasing.

However, price it below $25 and Microsoft loses more money than it would gain in expanding the Microsoft Office user base. Consider that someone could be purchasing Office on the iPad they already own for, say, $20 as opposed to spending $600 for a Microsoft-based tablet and then purchasing Office.

Being able to use Microsoft Office on the iPad would be great, but the timing is awful and the numbers just don't add up.

What will Apple's iPad 3 'retina display' mean for you?

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 15:39:50 GMT

The rumors appear to be true. The next model Apple iPad 3 will have a ‘retina display’ display. MacRumors has their hands on what appears to be the iPad 3’s display component With four-times the pixels of the earlier iPad displays, the reputed iPad 3, screen with its 2048×1536 resolution, will have twice the resolution of the iPad 1 and iPad 2, which can only boast 1024×768 resolution. That’s all well and good, but what will it mean for you?

Dr. Raymond Soneira, president of DisplayMate, the world’s leading display and display tuning company, isn’t in the least bit surprised at Apple’s move. Soneira wrote: “The next generation iPad will quadruple the number of screen pixels with a resolution of 2048×1536.” This in turn, will indeed give the iPad 3 a Retina Display [because it] does not require the same pixels per inch (ppi) as the iPhone 4 Retina Display because it is typically held much further away from the eye, whose visual sharpness is based on angular resolution rather than linear ppi resolution. The iPad is typically held 15-18 inches away as opposed to the iPhone 4’s 12-15 inches. As a result, to meet the 300 ppi Retina Display specification made by Steve Jobs at WWDC for the iPhone 4, an iPad Retina Display would need only 240 ppi. So an iPad Retina Display could start anywhere above 1862×1397 pixels.”

Still, we don’t know who’s making this display, so it’s hard to work out exact what else the screen will be capable of. Soneira speculates, “Sharp is rumored as a supplier for the iPad 3 Retina Display. Sharp’s IGZO is a technology for producing the thin film transistor (TFT) Active Matrix in a display - just like Low Temperature Polysilicon, which is the technology it is competing against in the current iPhone 4. So IGZO could be used to make an IPS display, which has the best Viewing Angles (but they aren’t the often quoted 170+ degrees). My guess is that if Apple uses IGZO it will be IPS because Apple is unlikely to backpedal on Viewing Angle performance.”

So, this is all great news right? Great resolution means sharper images, which means happier users? Yes? Well, not necessarily according to Soneira. “Technically an overkill and comes with a large penalty in cost and performance - requiring significantly more processing power, more memory and battery power, plus lowering the display brightness efficiency.”

In other words, the iPad 3 display may indeed be the sharpest tablet display out there, but it may lead to slower overall performance and lower batter life. Of course, the iPad 3 is rumored to have a quad-core Apple A6 processor that could probably take care of the display’s need for a faster processor, but that could only come at the cost of lower battery life.

So before getting too excited about a great iPad 3 display, I’d wait to see the first comprehensive reviews come in. I’m certain that Apple wouldn’t release an iPad 3 unless it faster than its predecessors, but I’d really like to know what its battery life is going to be like before replacing my current iPad.

Apple Launches 'Start Developing iOS Apps Today' Guidebook

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 10:14:50 GMT

"So you want to be an App Developer," is exactly how Apple's new "Start Developing iOS Apps Today" guide should read. It doesn't, but that doesn't detract from the important information Apple's built into its new thirteen-step guidebook for aspiring iOS app developers.

Now, to be fair, using Xcode and the iOS SDK to build a fully-fledged, working iOS app is a bit more complicated than what a thirteen-deck slide presentation might be able to deliver. And that's not what Apple's trying to accomplish in a single document per se. Rather, the guide splits up the process of app development into five separate chunks, and each is punctuated with links to additional resources that are designed to help turn a wannabe developer into the next Zynga.

"The road map provides you with a breadth of knowledge to get you started, and the last page, Where to Go from Here, includes links to documents you should read next," reads the introduction to Apple's guide. "After you finish the road map, you will be prepared to delve deeper into any individual topic. You'll have the knowledge, tools, and skills to start developing iOS apps!"

The guide's first section, "Set-up," gives readers an introductory overview to the tools that go into designing the most basic of iOS apps: Apple's iOS SDK and Xcode development software. It also helps users set themselves up as Apple Developers within the iOS Developer Program (provided they pay the $99 annual fee), although Apple does note that non-official developers can still write and test apps within the iPhone Simulator.

Since Apple's guide is more of a general look at app development than a specific instruction list for helping a user to build his or her first "hello, world!" app, the guide's next "Tutorial" section just introduces readers to Apple's official "Your First iOS App" guide—the meat and potatoes of app development.
Subsequent sections related to app "fundamentals" and "development" give readers a general overview of app development workflow: The act of coding up an app with Objective-C (using both basic and advanced tasks), the process of testing and debugging one's introductory software, and the various frameworks one can integrate into an app using APIs.

As one might expect, Apple spends a good portion of its "Start Developing iOS Apps Today" guide discussing how a user might go about designing an app's overall look and feel to create a satisfactory user experience.

"Before you begin writing a line of code, you should make some critical design decisions. Be as specific as possible about your app's purpose and features. Choose the kind of data model your app will use. Decide on a user interface style for your app; for example, should it follow a master-detail pattern or that of a utility app? Do you want your app to be universal—that is, an app that runs on iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch," Apple writes.

And, of course, Apple finishes by touching on how a new developer might get an App uploaded into the App Store itself, ideally contributing to the near-25 billion app downloads that the App Store's quickly approaching.

Apple's OS X Mountain Lion brings more iPad to the Mac

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 15:02:13 GMT

Apple's next Mac operating system, OS X Mountain Lion, will bring far more integration to iOS found on the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch when it arrives this summer. The Cupertino, Calif., company announced Mountain Lion on Thursday, detailing the new version of what was previously known as Mac OS X on its website for consumers.

Programmers, meanwhile, were offered the ability to download Mountain Lion so they can get started integrating their apps with the new operating system before its release.

Like Mac OS X Lion, Mountain Lion will be sold as a digital download through the Mac App Store on Apple laptops and desktops. Apple said Mountain Lion will include more than 100 new features, many of them "inspired by the iPad."

Mountain Lion will gain iOS' widespread Twitter integration and will rely more on iCloud than previous versions of OS X. Apple says that more than 100 million Apple users have iCloud accounts and that those accounts, which are tied to a user's Apple ID, will be used to automatically set up Calendar, Contacts, Mail, Messages, FaceTime and Find My Mac apps in Mountain Lion.

More iOS-like additions will be found in the new OS X apps Messages, Reminders, Notes, Game Center and Notification Center. Each of these apps is supposed to work on Mac computers very much like way they do in iOS devices.

Messages replaces the old iChat app and will enable Mac users to send text and multimedia messages to other Mac users as well as to people with iPhones, iPads and the iPod Touch. The messaging system uses Web data rather than text messages from a phone plan and expands the free messaging service in a way that will contribute to the growing alternatives to text messaging plans offered by telecommunications companies.

The new Messages app, which is available to Lion users today as a beta download, will support online chat services such as AOL Instant Messenger, Jabber, Yahoo Messenger and Google Talk, just as iChat does.

Reminders and Notes use iCloud to sync across Macs and iOS devices to track to-do lists and notes taken in the apps, and in Mountain Lion they look and work the same as they do on iPhones and iPads.

Game Center, too, works exactly the same way on a Mac as it does on iOS devices, enabling users to see what games their friends are playing on Apple gadgets and to play some multiplayer games on a Mac with friends who are playing on an iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch.

Notification Center maintains the style of its iOS counterpart, but the OS X version is built for a desktop screen, with notification pop-ups appearing in the top right corner of a user's screen when an alert comes from apps such as Mail, Calendar, Messages, Reminders and third-party apps that tap into Apple's developer API. A new two-finger swipe from right to left across a Mac trackpad reveals a list of unseen notifications. To take the Notification Center off the screen, a users need to perform two-finger swipe from left to right on a trackpad or click on any of the notifications, which will take them to the corresponding app.

Apple has taken the Twitter integration found in iOS into OS X, with the ability to share to Twitter from Safari, Quick Look, Photo Booth, Preview and third-party apps that take advantage of the feature in Apple's API. Videos can also be shared in OS X Lion from QuickTime to Facebook, YouTube and Vimeo.

One of the more useful additions to Mountain Lion is AirPlay Mirroring, which, just as an iPad can do, can "wirelessly send a secure 720p video stream of what's on your Mac to an HDTV using Apple TV." Apple TV is Apple's $99 set-top box that streams video from Netflix, YouTube, Vimeo and iTunes to television sets.

On the security side, Mountain Lion is adding a new feature called Gatekeeper, which enables users to define what apps can and cannot run on their computers based on where they purchased from or who built them.

"You can choose to install apps from any source, just as you do on a Mac today, or you can use the safer default setting to install apps from the Mac App Store, along with apps from developers that have a unique Developer ID from Apple," the tech giant said. "For maximum security, you can set Gatekeeper to only allow apps from the Mac App Store to be downloaded and installed."

Gatekeeper could cause Apple a bit of blowback from developers who don't want to have to submit their apps to Apple for approval or distribution: Mountain Lion's default setting will be to run only apps from the Mac App Store or from developers with a recognized Apple DeveloperID.

That's more iOS-like -- iOS runs only apps from the iTunes App Store -- but the setting can be changed as a user sees fit. So far, the Mac App Store has been a hit for software sales, with more than 100 million downloads served up last year. Apple, unsurprisingly, would like to keep the Mac App Store the top place to get Mac apps.

Apple hasn't yet given a definite public release date or pricing for Mountain Lion. The previous version of OS X, Lion, was the first to be released as a digital download and not on disc, hitting the Mac App Store last July for $29.99 and selling more than 1 million downloads its first day out.

Tablets will overtake PCs, says Apple boss

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 15:26:36 GMT

Tim Cook, speaking at a conference hosted by Goldman Sachs, said that Apple's iPad "is on a trajectory that is off the charts". He said: "From the first day it shipped, we thought that the tablet market would become larger than the PC market and it was just a matter of the time it took for that to occur. I feel that stronger today than I did then."

Apple has sold 55 million iPads and is expected to launch a new version of the device in the first week of March. Apple's competitors have rushed to launch their own tablets since the original iPad was launched in 2010 but none has sold as well as the iPad. Cook was dismissive of Google's Android tablets as a competitor for the iPad. "We wound up with 170,000 apps and I'm not sure there is 100 yet on the other platform," he said.

He acknowledged that Amazon, which launched the Kindle Fire tablet in the US later last year, was "a different competitor". However, he implied that the Kindle Fire is a "limited function" tablet and said that was something that Apple's target audience did not want.

Apple is widely expected to announce its next iPad next month and it is thought that it will have an improved screen, with much higher resolution, as well as a faster processor. Cook said the iPad's success came because of Apple's existing ecosystem. Consumers were familiar with the iOS interface from using the iPhone and there was a range of content available from the iTunes Store.

He said: "The iPad has stood on the shoulders of everything that came before it."Cook has spoken at the annual Goldman Sachs Technology Conference several times in the past but this was his first appearance as chief executive. In a broad conversation, he also addressed criticism over the treatment of workers in the Chinese factories where Apple's products are made.

He said: "I would want everyone to know is that Apple takes working conditions very seriously, and we have for a very long time. Whether workers are in Europe or Asia or the United States, we care about every worker."Explaining Apple's commitment to auditing suppliers to ensure that they conform to standards on working conditions, health and safety and other key criteria, Cook said that no company in the technology sector does as much as Apple.

"We are constantly auditing facilities going deep into the supply chain, looking for problems, finding problems and fixing problems," Cook said. "We report everything because we believe transparency is so very important in this area."Earlier this week, Apple announced that it had asked the Fair Labor Association to inspect Foxconn factories in China, where some Apple products are made. The FLA will also inspect facilities run by other Apple suppliers.

Apple is rumoured to be planning a television set for launch later this year but Cook did not give any hint of what might be coming. Asked about Apple TV, the set-top box that streams content to a television, Cook said the company still considers it to be a hobby. It would remain that way until Apple had "something that could go more main market", Cook said.

Apple's iPad 3 could face customs ban in China

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 15:02:29 GMT

Apple's much speculated iPad 3 has emerged as the latest target in an ongoing trademark dispute in China, after a little-known Chinese firm said on Wednesday it has filed for a customs ban with local authorities to stop the import and export of the tablet.

Ma Dongxiao, a lawyer for display vendor Proview, said the company has filed the request with the country's custom offices, but declined to offer details. "We feel that Apple is infringing on the iPad trademark," he said, adding that the company's goal was to stop shipments of Apple's next generation iPad.

Both Proview and Apple have been locked in a legal battle to determine which company owns the iPad trademark in mainland China. In December, a Shenzhen court rejected Apple's claims to the trademark, putting the company's iPad at risk of further legal action in the country.

China is not only a major market for Apple, but also home to many of the factories that build the company's products. If a customs ban is allowed, it could stop the import of iPad tablets to the country, but is unlikely to affect exports, said Stan Abrams, an intellectual property lawyer and professor at Beijing's Central University of Finance and Economics.

"Apple can come back and say to the government, 'We have the right to make stuff here,'" he said, noting that Apple owns the iPad trademark in other countries.

More than 30 commercial regulatory offices in China are investigating Apple's sales of the iPad following complaints made from Proview, according to the company's lawyer. One of those offices, located in the Chinese city of Xuzhou, confirmed on Wednesday an investigation was taking place, but declined further comment. Another Chinese city, Shijiazhuang, has reportedly seized iPad tablets from merchants.

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The company has appealed the December court ruling. Apple claims the company bought the iPad trademark from Proview's subsidiary in Taiwan.

Although its still unclear how authorities will proceed, Abrams said Proview is pressuring Apple to settle and buy the iPad trademark. But Proview, which has filed for bankruptcy, could be asking for a sum Apple believes is too high and unwilling to pay.

"If there isn't a (settlement), this could be a big problem for Apple," he said. "They could have damages to pay for past iPad sales and even future sales. That's a big headache. Proview has all these cases they have filed all over the country."

Apple iPad 3: Rumors, Analysis and Predictions

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 15:52:29 GMT

Apple’s iPad flipped the tablet world upside down in 2010, but thankfully the accelerometer kicked in and the image righted itself.

Seriously though, the original iPad, and 2011’s iPad 2, are due some credit for transforming Apple into one of the most financially successful companies of this still-young millennium. The original was virtually by itself in 2010, with no real competition in sight. When Android tablets like the Motorola Xoom finally started shipping in 2011, the iPad 2 arrived shortly thereafter, packed to the gills with a dual-core CPU, powerful GPU, exceptional app offerings, and a solid ten hours of battery life when put to the test. Most Android-based offerings could match the iPad 2 in one or several areas, but it took months for some legitimate competition to finally surface. And some contenders did indeed hit the market in the spring and summer, including the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and the Acer Iconia Tab A500. Extra features like USB and HDMI ports called to potential buyers, while Android 3.0 (also known as Honeycomb), came into its own after several updates.

As it stands today, the best tablet available is indeed an Android device. Unless you’re already married to Apple’s services and software, the Asus Transformer Prime tablet is the killer device, with its quad-core Tegra 3 internals, Android 4.0 (or Ice Cream Sandwich) operating system, fantastically bright display, and best-in-class 8 megapixel camera. Of course, there’s a pretty good chance you already own an iPad 2, and shifting from an iOS to Android is no easy task – and you can kiss your entire app collection goodbye. Odds are you’re waiting on the next iPad, as the migration from one iOS device to another is – in theory – pretty painless.

So when will this Cupertino Unicorn (trademarked, patent pending) emerge from the clouds and drop onto your laps and into your faux-hipster messenger bags? That’s where the rumors, and our predictions, come into play. We’ll be looking at every other aspect of this mythical-but-soon-to-be-very-real tablet, including its design and physical specs, internal hardware (CPU, GPU), optics, and display.

APPLE, ANDROID, MICROSOFT GEAR UP FOR HUGE TABLET SALES

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 16:28:34 GMT

While Apple continues to lead the booming tablet market, Android and Microsoft are trying to keep up. Tablet shipments, led by Apple's iPad, Google's Android, and Microsoft's Windows 8 operating systems, could top 125 million units in 2012, said Jeffries & Co.'s Peter Misek, as reported by eWeek.

As Research In motion, HP, and other Android OEMs, failed to compete with Apple, the market consolidated much more quickly than expected, leading Misek to cut back his original projection that the tablet market would exceed 150 millions units by 25 million.

Apple was the clear winner in tablet sales in 2011. Of the 70 million tablets shipped in 2011, 40.5 million were iPads, 10 million were Galaxy Tabs, and 4 million were Kindle Fire Android tablets sold by Amazon, the report said.

There may be a few reasons the Android tablet market didn't match up with Apple's: High prices, bugs in Honeycomb, and a weak application environment hurt Android sales by Motorola, who only sold 1 million tablets in 2011, Misek noted.

The iPad 3 is expected in the first quarter of 2012, which means that, if Apple follows its current pattern, iPad and iPad2 prices will be discounted. As prices because to fall, Misek expects tablets to go for an average of $350, according to the report.

While Android is trying to keep up with Apple, Microsoft has a shot at increased market share in the near future. Misek expects soon-to-come Windows 8-based tablets to give Microsoft a push in the tablet market.

Apple's iPhone most popular but Android handsets market winner

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 12:07:57 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO: An outbreak of iPhone fever made Apple the hottest smartphone maker worldwide at the end of 2011 but handsets powered by Google's Android software were shaping up as true winners in the market.

Worldwide shipments of smartphones soared 54.7 percent in the final three months of 2011 from the same period a year earlier, with California-based Apple making the most popular models, according to an IDC report released Monday.

Smartphone makers shipped 157.8 million units in the fourth quarter of 2011, compared to 102 million in the same period the prior year, IDC reported.

A total of 491.4 million smartphones were shipped during the year, up a "strong 61.3 percent" from the 304.7 million units in 2010, according to IDC. Apple had a 23.5 percent share of the global smartphone market, followed by Samsung and Nokia with 22.8 percent and 12.4 percent respectively.

"So-called 'hero' devices, such as Samsung's Galaxy Nexus and Apple's iPhone 4S, garner the bulk of the attention heaped on the device type," said Kevin Restivo, senior research analyst with IDC's Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker.

"But a growing number of sub-$250 device offerings, based on the Android operating system, have allowed Google's hardware partners to grow smartphone volumes and expand the market concurrently."

While Apple tightly controls iPhone hardware and software, Google makes the Android mobile device operating system available free to smartphone manufacturers who have been building it into ranks of handsets.

Android and iPhone smartphones accounted for slightly more than 90 percent of US smartphone sales in the fourth quarter of 2011, industry-tracker NPD Group reported on Monday. Android commanded 48 percent of the market compared to Apple's 43 percent, according to NPD.

NPD figures indicated that Android handsets were more popular with first-time smartphone buyers in the United States, with its share of that market at 57 percent compared to Apple's 34 percent in the fourth quarter of last year.

"Android has been criticized for offering a more complex user experience than its competitors, but the company's wide carrier support and large app selection is appealing to new smartphone customers," said NPD analyst Ross Rubin.

Apple jumped into the third spot in the overall global mobile phone market from fifth place in the final quarter of the year due to a record-breaking quarter for iPhones, according to IDC. Apple sold 37.04 million iPhones in the quarter which ended on December 31, giving it a market share of 8.7 percent.

Nokia remained king, shipping 113.5 million mobile phones in the final quarter of the year to claim nearly 27 percent of the market. Samsung was second with 22.8 percent of the market, or 97.6 million handsets shipped.

South Korea's Samsung, a star producer of Android smartphones, hit a new milestone in the final quarter of the year, more than tripling handset shipments to top the 35 million mark for the first time.

Nokia and Canadian BlackBerry maker Research In Motion saw shipments drop by 30.6 percent and 11 percent, respectively. Nokia hopes to reverse the losing trend with a new line of smartphones based on mobile gadget software crafted by US technology colossus Microsoft.

A total of 427.4 million mobile phones were shipped in the final months of 2011 in a 6.1 percent increase from the same quarter a year earlier, IDC said. IDC warned that the growth rate in the fourth quarter of 2011 was weaker than the 9.3 percent seen in the prior three-month period of the year.

"The introduction of high-growth products such as the iPhone 4S, which shipped in the fourth quarter, bolstered smartphone growth," Restivo said. "Yet overall market growth fell to its lowest point since the third quarter of 2009 when the global economic recession was in full bloom."