Apple cuts MacBook Pro Retina prices, bumps specs

The starting price of the 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display drops by $200 to $1,499. The MacBook Air sees a price drop, too.

Apple today dropped the prices in its line of MacBook Pro laptops with Retina display while boosting processor speeds. 

 The 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina now starts $1,499, or $200 less than before. The higher-capacity 256GB version costs $1,699, or $300 cheaper than the original price. The processor clock speed also gets boosted to 2.6 gigahertz from 2.5GHz.

The 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina gets a speed boost, with the lower-end version getting its clock speed bumped up to 2.4GHz from 2.3GHz, and the higher-end version getting bumped up to 2.7GHz quad-core processor from 2.6GHz, as well as double the RAM at 16 gigabytes.

The line of MacBook Pros with Retina displays have always been a higher-end item that fewer consumers could buy. The starting 13-inch MacBook Pro is significantly less at $1,199. With its own iPad sales cutting into Mac revenue, Apple is likely looking to goose interest with a minor price cut and spec upgrade.

Apple also cut the price of its high-end MacBook Air. The 256GB version now costs $1,399, or $100 less than the previous price. 

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Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-57569135-37/apple-cuts-macbook-pro-retina-prices-bumps-specs/

Apple loses Brazilian iPhone trademark ruling

Brazilian regulators have ruled that Apple does not have exclusive rights to use the "iPhone" trademark in the country.

But the US tech giant has already lodged an appeal against the decision with the Brazilian regulators.

The ruling is the result of a local company, Gradiente Eletronica, registering the name in 2000, six years before the US firm.

Apple can continue to sell iPhone-branded handsets in Brazil.

But the decision means that Gradiente has an option of suing for exclusivity in South America's biggest market.

The Institute of Industrial Property (INPI) told the BBC that its decision only applied to handsets, and that the California-based company continued to have exclusive rights to use the iPhone name elsewhere including on clothing, in software and across publications.

"I can confirm that INPI published today its decisions about eight trademark applications related to iPhone, from Apple: four applications were rejected and other four were approved," said the agency's spokesman Marcelo Chimento.

"Some were rejected because a Brazilian company, Gradiente, made an application for G Gradiente iphone in 2000 and it was approved in 2008. As Apple started its applications for iPhone in 2006, they were denied because Gradiente had a very similar register for cell phones applied some years before the American company.

"The trademarks approved today for Apple were related to other classes, such as education, software development and advertising. Since they are in other classes, different from communications and telephones, they could be approved."

Appeal

INPI added that Apple had argued that it should have been given full rights since Gradiente had not released a product using the iPhone name until December 2012.

Apple is asking the INPI to cancel Gradiente's registration through expiration - it is arguing that the Brazilian firm did not use the name within a five year limit.

The Manaus-headquartered company now sells its Android-powered iPhone Neo One for 599 reals ($304; £196).

Bloomberg previously reported that the chairman of Gradiente had said: "We're open to a dialogue for anything, anytime... we're not radicals."

Apple's most recent financial results revealed its cash reserves had grown to $137bn (£88bn).

The firm's manufacturing partner, Foxconn, currently produces iPhones and iPads among other equipment at its facilities in Brazil.

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Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-21449890

Apple secretly developing entire platform for wearable, attachable computing

As rumors swirl over the potential for a so-called iWatch from Apple in the not-too-distant future, the company is secretly developing an entire wearable/attachable computing platform and ecosystem comprised of wireless sensing systems for monitoring not only sports activity, athletic training, medicine, fitness, and wellness in humans, but also for tracking packages and industrial production.

AppleInsider first touched on the subject nearly three years ago when it discovered a sprawling 83-page patent filing granted to the company that covered a series of wireless sensing systems aimed at quantifying actions or events that can currently be measured only qualitatively, such as the effectiveness of a karate kick or what exactly happened to a package from FedEx that arrived with its contents broken. Industry watchers could think of the technology as a series of Nike FuelBands for nearly all aspects of motion.

Since then, Apple has continued to refine the provisional filing, and on Tuesday was awarded the rights to a continuation of the now divisional patent application under the title "Personal items network, and associated methods." It makes references to dozens of earlier filings, including several from the company itself dating back to 2001.

Movement Monitoring Devices

A couple of wireless monitoring devices are critical to Apple's concept, the first of which is called a movement monitor device, or "MMD." The company says these tiny transmitters can take the form of an adhesive strip similar to a bandage and include a processor, a detector, communications port, and battery. Alternatively, they could assume the form of a credit card and/or include a magnetic element for adhering to metal objects. In any of the cases, they'd ideally also include a real time clock so that the transmitter can tag "events" with time and date information.

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Read complete story here: http://appleinsider.com/articles/13/02/12/apple-secretly-developing-entire-platform-for-wearable-attachable-computing

Tim Cook On Innovation At Apple: We’re At The Top Of Our Game

During today’s annual Goldman Sachs conference, Tim Cook spoke about the culture of innovation at Apple. While Wall Street has started losing faith in the company’s ability to grow, Cook has “never been more bullish on Apple.”

Cook still sees Apple as the leading innovator in the tech sector, and he believes there are two key aspects that fuel the company’s success.

Skills

The first part of Apple that makes it an innovative company is its wide skill set, according to Cook. “Apple is in a unique position” in that it specializes in hardware, software and services.

Unlike the faltering PC industry, Apple is all about product integration. “Consumers want this elegant experience where the technology floats to the background and the customer is at the forefront of the experience,” said Cook. Apple designs Mac hardware, OS X and iCloud services that tie its products together.

Cook remains very optimistic about his company’s future. “Apple has the ability to innovate like crazy and cause magic” to happen in all three spheres. The “desire to make the best products in the world” is still embedded in Apple’s DNA.

Leadership

Apple’s executive team was undergone quick a bit of restructuring in the last 12 months. John Browett was brought in to lead Apple Retail at the beginning of 2012, and he was fired in the fall. The head of iOS, Scott Forstall, was also let go. Perhaps the most notable change was Jony Ive being put in charge of all design for both hardware and software; Steve Jobs previously made those kinds of decisions.

“When I look around the executive table, I see superstars,” said Cook. “I see people who are at the top of their game.” Cook called Ive the “best designer in the world,” Bob Mansfield the top “silicon expert in the world,” and Jeff Williams the best guy for operations (Cook previously ran operations before he was made CEO). “We have the talent to pull this off,” said Cook.

During his talk Cook briefly addressed Wall Street’s concerns about the company’s future. ”The profound decisions we make are for Apple’s long-term health,” said Cook. “We know people care about quarters, and we care too, but we’re making decisions to ensure Apple’s health past a ninety-day window.”

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Source: http://www.cultofmac.com/215489/tim-cook-on-innovation-at-apple-were-at-the-top-of-our-game/

Apple’s newly-patented invisible ‘microslot antennas’ could be used in future iPhones, iPads, MacBooks

“Apple on Tuesday won the patent rights to ‘microslot antenna’ technology that allows micron-wide antenna assets to be integrated into the housing of a portable device, such as an iPhone, making them nearly invisible to the human eye,” Mikey Campbell reports for AppleInsider.“

Apple’s U.S. Patent No. 8,373,610 for ‘Microslot antennas for electronic devices,’ granted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Tuesday, could drastically cut down on the size of at least one component needed to create products like the iPhone,” 

Campbell reports. “While the patent refers to implementations in a laptop computer, the antenna tech can be used in other portable electronics like smartphones and tablets. “Campbell reports, “As for the size of the microslots, the patent language states that the widths of the slots are usually significantly less than their lengths. For example, widths can range from microns to hundreds of microns, while a microslot’s length can be on the order of millimeters or centimeters.”

Source: http://macdailynews.com/2013/02/12/apples-newly-patented-invisible-microslot-antennas-could-be-used-in-future-iphones-ipads-macbooks/

Related Links:

http://appleinsider.com/articles/13/02/12/apples-microslot-antennas-are-invisible-to-the-naked-eye-could-see-use-in-future-iphones

Apple reportedly has 100-person team working on 'iWatch'

 As the Apple "iWatch" rumor mill gets wound up, a new report holds that Apple already has a team of 100 people working on the rumored smart wristwatch, including some prominent Apple employees.

Following a spate of reports that Apple is developing an iOS-based wristwatch, unnamed sources tell Bloomberg that the team working on just such a device has grown over the past year and includes employees from its marketing, software, and hardware units who had previously worked on the iPhone and iPad.

Key members of the team are said to include James Foster, Apple's senior director of engineering, and Achim Pantfoerder, a program manager who is credited with 13 Apple patents, including an electronic sighting compass and ambient light sensor. 

The Bloomberg report comes on the heels of a New York Times report over the weekend that said Apple was experimenting with wristwatch-like devices that sported curved glass. However, a team of this size and with such prominent membership suggests the company might be farther ahead than the experimental phase.

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Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-57569087-37/apple-reportedly-has-100-person-team-working-on-iwatch/

iTunes now Apple's fourth-largest business, says analyst

Apple's iTunes generated revenue of $13.5 billion last year, making it the company's fourth-largest business, according to Asymco analyst Horace Dediu.

A business that simply broke even a few years ago has been rising "steadily and rapidly," Dediu said in a post yesterday. iTunes has averaged growth of more than 30 percent over the past two years. The $13.5 billion in sales in 2012 was up from $10.2 billion in 2011.

At the same time that iTunes is adding a greater chunk of sales to Apple's overall results, the Mac and iPod lineups are contributing less. If this trend continues, iTunes could become Apple's third-largest business sometime this year, forecasts Dediu.

Another business already bigger than the Mac is Apple's Accessories line, which includes products such as Apple TV. As Dediu points out, iTunes and Apple accessories depend on hardware sales to thrive. But the results show that these "ancillary" businesses are contributing more than their fair share."

Indeed, if seen in isolation, iTunes plus Accessories combined is a bigger business in terms of revenues than any of the other phone vendors except Samsung," Dediu said.

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Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-57568944-37/itunes-now-apples-fourth-largest-business-says-analyst/