Apple will be accused of prospering from illegal tax deals with the Irish government for more than two decades when Brussels this week unveils details of a probe that could leave the iPhone maker with a record fine of as much as several billions of euros. Preliminary findings from the European Commission’s investigation into Apple’s tax affairs in Ireland, where it has had a rate of less than 2 per cent, claim the Silicon Valley company benefited from illicit state aid after striking backroom deals with Ireland’s authorities, according to people involved in the case.This simply isn’t so. And over and above the error concerning the content of the reports there is no possibility of a fine upon Apple whatsoever. For in cases of illegal state aid there never is a fine levied upon the company or recipient of such aid. The government that allowed or paid out the aid must recover it, that’s true, but there’s no fines over and above that even if there’s a finding of said illegal aid. Again, this just isn’t how the Commission undertakes its public policy on these matters. Damn fact-based reporting.]]>
YouTube is becoming the TV of choice for millions. Before it becomes that choice for billions, what are you doing to encourage user-generated video content distribution through your ecosystem?Let's hope these get asked, and answered.]]>
When Ive tasked Apple’s Human Interface team with redesigning iOS 7 to include an entirely new look, Christie and Ive reportedly clashed over design direction, after which Ive is said to have circumvented Christie’s leadership of the team during the new operating system’s development.]]>
The iPad doesn't make as much money as the iPhone. And, no iWatch, iTelevision, iEspresso maker, or any other consumer electronics product is going to either.
Yet article after article, analyst after analyst insists Apple simply must release their "next big thing" and now or, doomed. 60 days to release an iWatch or doomed. Has to sell 65m units a year or doomed. Haunted. Doomed. Sensible. The smartphone has been the fastest-adopted technology ever* (data for the wheel not available).]]>
Yet despite the new look, everything about the software is obvious. For the most part, the iPad versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote work exactly as they do on PCs and Macs.
This is a testament to the designers and engineers at Microsoft and to the power of long-term training. Other than my web browser, there’s no software I use more often than Word, so I’ve internalized all its tics. I know the keyboard shortcuts, the menu options, the ins and outs of esoteric features like Track Changes. As I used the iPad version, I felt it click into the same neural grooves dug out by the years I’ve spent on desktop Office. If you’re familiar with Office, you won’t face any learning curve in the new version.
If you love Office on your computer, you’ll love it on your iPad. If you’ve always hated it, that won’t change, either; now you’ll just have one more place to hate it.]]>
The foundation stated that it had received 6,497 mobile phone-related complaints in 2013, a 60% growth from the previous year, and which accounted for 12.4% of the total number of complaints received by the industry.
The report revealed the top 10 mobile phone brands that received the most number of complaints, which included Xiaomi, Meizu, Huawei, ZTE, HTC, Nokia, Lenovo and Motorola.]]>
The malware problem on Mac OS X is nothing like as bad as it is on Windows.
There are something like 200,000 new Windows malware variants being discovered each day. Malicious code activity in the Mac world is far less frenetic, but the fact is, malware does exist that can infect our iMacs or MacBooks.
And if your Apple computer is unlucky enough to fall victim you’re not going to feel any better than your PC-owning friends who are struggling to remove a backdoor Trojan or a pernicious browser toolbar from their copy of Windows. He lists 14 main ones. Wonder what a comparable one for Windows over the same period would look like.]]>
Aside from the fact that many of Apple’s services lack a web-based component that makes them accessible on any device, it’s not clear Apple even has the expertise to crunch all this data in the way that Google Now does—or to use that data to predict our needs. Apple had a chance to create something like Google Now in 2010 when it acquired the voice-powered personal assistant Siri, which has its origins in research conduted for the US military. One of the intentions of early versions of Siri was “context awareness,” precisely the thing at which Google Now excels.
Even if Siri were revamped now, however, it’s not clear whether Apple knows enough about its users to provide them a Google Now-like experience. ComScore data suggests that actually, most Apple users stick with defaults - that the Gmail app is used by less than 45% of the combined user base of Android + iOS in the US. That aside, it's clear Apple won't have a "Google Now" any time soon, if ever. So where will the "smart" be - if anywhere?]]>
Each category of functionality is a card in the Healthbook. Cards are distinguished by a colour, and the tabs can be arranged to fit user preferences. As can be seen in the above images, Healthbook has sections that can track data pertaining to bloodwork, heart rate, hydration, blood pressure, physical activity, nutrition, blood sugar, sleep, respiratory rate, oxygen saturation, and weight. Hard to see that this would be the full usefulness of a wearable Apple thingamajig, because those are directly useful for comparatively few people. ]]>
Nonetheless, Paper was developed in secrecy for more than a year before its surprise unveiling in January. That seems more like Apple’s approach than the internet companies’. Facebook and Google often post new services to the web to see how users respond, before improving them based on large-scale, real-world behaviour.
Mr Grignon says Facebook’s sometime motto of “move fast and break things” sits uncomfortably with many longstanding Apple employees. “It’s a recklessness, in a way, of engineering. It works well for folks like Facebook but Apple engineers going into companies like that can experience a certain level of frustration.”]]>
In addition to the mapping data changes, Apple will add one of the most important mobile features to Maps this year: public transit directions. Overdue.
Apple is also working on unique ways for integrating indoor mapping views and enhanced car integration for future versions of iOS. Sources say that Apple has also begun work on augmented reality functionality that leverages the iPhone’s compass hardware to visually see nearby points of interest.Apps such as Localscope already do this - but its usefulness is limited.]]>
Apple should, to the full extent permissible by law, deploy its strengths in both technology and law to publicly reveal, challenge, reduce, and overturn every government attempt at covert surveillance against its customers that doesn't meet these standards: surveillance of single, identified individuals under a warrant issued by a neutral judge, particularly describing the person and places to be searched, and of limited duration. To the full extent permissible by law, Apple should not actively or passively agree to do or allow covert mass surveillance against its customers, nor remain silent about what Apple and the government have done or are doing. Note the phrase "to the full extent permitted by the law". That isn't very far. ]]>
So it isn’t rash to declare that we’ve reached the point where the reasonable conclusion is that market share alone is not the overriding factor.]]>
They were pleased to discover the Note 3 in among the other promotional kit sponsors have been offering, Bluewin reports, but the phone came with guidelines on what Samsung is said to be requiring in return for its financial support. The rule only appears to apply to athletes, rather than anybody else attending the opening ceremony.]]>
With many features dubbed "iPhone compete", WM7 is all about effective uses of the touch screen, finger gestures, and additional motion gestures. Microsoft's put a lot of thought into how to make the mobile phone interface more intuitive and easier to use, even more so than Apple's iPhone. Apple has never had a product, or a year, when it hasn't been "doomed to failure".]]>
Apple is aware of the issue and is testing a fix for the problem…
An updated Mail application has been seeded to both Apple employees internally and testers within Apple’s customer AppleSeed program. Receiving, sorting and deleting messages do sound like things you would expect an email client to do without trouble - especially as every previous version of Mac OS X since 2004 or so has handled Gmail without this farrago.]]>
And just wait till iOS 7 comes out. It gets even better!
In iOS 7, Apple adds some great new features to make a very secure platform even more secure. In ways which are listed. (Although he doesn't use an iPhone...)]]>
Shrinking OS X and building a multitouch screen, while innovative and difficult, were at least within the skills Apple had already mastered as a corporation. No one was better equipped to rethink OS X’s design. Apple knew LCD manufacturers because it put an LCD in every laptop and iPod. Mobile-phone physics was an entirely new field, however, and it took those working on the iPhone into 2006 to realize how little they knew. Save some time and read it all.]]>
The Melin declaration furthermore says that "to prove to Nokia that he knew the confidential terms of the Apple-Nokia license, Dr. Ahn recited the terms of the license, and even went so far as to tell Nokia that 'all information leaks.' The Apple-Nokia licence was secret, and only provided to Samsung's lawyers for an expert witness to investigate - not for distribution to Samsung. On Thursday we asked Samsung to confirm the details of the meeting. It hasn't responded so far. The judge's statement says the document was marked "Highly Confidential - Attorney Eyes Only" - yet sent to more than 50 Samsung executives without redaction. Samsung's lawyers confirmed that "dozens" of individuals had seen the document, according to the judge's statement. The judge has told Samsung to make Ahn available for interview.]]>
That said, perhaps the paranoia about police being able to access your devices with a copied fingerprint is already hugely outdated. According to Val Swain from NetPol, a police watchdog group, this kind of thing has already been going on for years: "The police routinely download information from mobile phones when anyone is taken into custody, using an ACESO device. This claims to be able to access data from smartphones, including Blackberry devices, even when they are password protected.
"It is not clear whether the use of fingerprint locks on mobile phones would be a significant hurdle for the police, or whether the ASECO reader is – or would quickly become – capable of by-passing the requirement for a fingerprint," she continued. "We would need more technological data in order to know that." And due to the interest of private sector companies in creating this kind of technology, Val suspects "an answer to Apple's fingerprint technology will not be far behind".]]>
Although administrators select and purchase apps through the VPP version of the App Store, apps are no longer distributed using redemption codes. Instead, the VPP store records the apps (and quantities) purchased by an organization. MDM APIs allow mobile management solutions to invite users to enroll their devices into the licensing program. As they do, administrators gain the ability to assign apps to enrolled user devices or to allow users to select apps through an enterprise app store. An administrator can then purchase additional licenses if needed.
When the apps are loaded on employee devices they also become part of the user's personal App Store purchase history, allowing users to install them on other devices that are tied to their Apple ID. Essentially they behave the way App Store purchases have always behaved. When a user leaves the company, the mobile management solution can use those same APIs to revoke the license from that user. ]]>