iPhones Will Feature A Kill Switch to Stop Apple Picking

Looks like Apple remains a first at something. Three days before a scheduled meeting between authorities and smartphone companies over the issue of mobile-devices robberies, Apple announced its iPhones will feature a kill switch, allowing the user to turn it off and track it using a GPS.

Whereas most people have been debating whether or not the iOS 7 design of icons and overall colorful theme are cool enough or not, some new useful features the new firmware is set to implement were put aside. For instance, iOS 7 will implement a kill switch in your iPhone to help you keep tabs on it when it gets lost or is picked by a robber. This makes Apple the first smartphone company to take action following recent law enforcement attempts to limit smartphone robberies.

“We think this is going to be a really powerful theft deterrent” said Craig Federighi, senior vice president at Apple, during the iOS 7 debut at the company’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference. Based on the details released during the conference, the kill switch can remotely erase all content via a website and prevents the robber from turning off “Find My iPhone” by requesting an Apple ID and password.

“Apple picking is a huge epidemic in the United States” reads a joint statement by San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón and New York state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman following Apple’s announcement which was released just ahead of a meeting that aimed to find ways of limiting or preventing mobile-device robberies. “We are appreciative of the gesture made by Apple to address smart-phone theft”.

Apple picking has been so thriving lately that New York has a special police unit dealing particularly with mobile-device robberies. According to a statement by Deputy Police Commissioner Paul Browne, “if you subtracted just the increase in Apple product thefts, we would have had an overall decrease in crime in New York”.

Colorful New iOS 7 Design Sparks Debates

They’ve been calling it “black and white and flat all over”, the next best thing since the original iPhone or plain ugly, although considerably more practical. The colorful new iOS 7 design has been sparking debates following its debut, earlier this week, at the World Wide Developers Conference in San Francisco.

If you ask designers and graphic artists, Apple’s iOS 7 lacks a nuance of finesse, but the new features show there’s promise for improvement. If you ask users, you’ll get a straightforward answer that the looks aren’t all that great, yet it could be something they’d live with, in exchange for the added functionality designer Jony Ive implemented. All in all, it looks like nobody agrees with Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering, when he says the new iOS 7 design is “the most significant iOS update since the original iPhone”.

Cap Watkins, ETSY design lead, feels iOS 7 is “unpolished by design”, whereas Phill Ryu, iOS app designer, takes a more practical stand and signaled a frustrating and confusing visual feature in the new iOS 7 lock screen. The legend says “slide to unlock” whereas the arrow below the text suggests you could unlock it by sliding up.

The truth is that there’s something about the new iOS 7 design that put a lot of people off and it is mainly because of the icons’ new look. “The singularly biggest issue – apart from the color – is that so many of the icons are clearly intended to be round, but are crammed inside rounded rectangles” notes Ben Moss of Webdesigner Depot. “Apple set out with good intentions, but their fear of profit margins kept them from designing something truly exciting” he adds.

Yet, at the same time, despite the overall criticism the colorful new iOS 7 design has been getting, Forbes’ Anthony King believes the new look is “subtly dimensional and exquisitely modern”. Jony Ive’s design for iOS 7 “aims to be an unobtrusive interface that elevates content” with hallmarks such as “translucency, levity, expansiveness, fluidity and surprising depth”.

But, enough with designers and media’s points of views! What do you think of the new colorful iOS 7 design?

OS X Mountain Lion v10.8.4 Fixes Annoying Compatibility Bugs

Apple released earlier this month a new OS X Mountain Lion update following months users have been reporting about annoying compatibility bugs with iMessages, VoiceOver, Microsoft Exchange and enterprise Wi-Fi networks, to name just a few. As of June 4th, Apple has released the OS X Mountain Lion v10.8.4 update, available via the Apple Store.

The list of compatibility issues OS X Mountain Lion v10.8.4 fixes is varied and quite long. Sure, we’re happy the fixes are finally here, but we cannot help wonder if this update will cause other compatibility issues later on. From the looks of it, most believe the v10.8.4 update could be the last version of Mountain Lion to make it to users, before next week’s WWDC event, when Apple is expected to announce OS 10.9.

It goes without saying you should update to OS X Mountain Lion v10.8.4 immediately, although you’ve surely been waiting for this update anxiously over the past few weeks. The fixes to those annoying compatibility bugs that have been bothering so many users lately are included in the last OS X Mountain Lion update, promising to put an end to many users’ frustration, particularly enterprises.

The v10.8.4 update delivers fixes for the following compatibility issues: not being able to call non-US phone numbers via FaceTime, not being able to connect or remain connected via certain enterprise Wi-Fi networks, being displayed iMessages out of order, having difficulties using VoiceOver with text in PDF documents, sending the device in scheduled sleep after running Boot Camp, the Microsoft Exchange fiasco in Calendar and not displaying Calendars Birthday accurately in some time zones.

But that’s not all. There are many more fixes the Mountain Lion v10.8.4 delivers, including resolving the issue that prevented users from saving files to an Xsan volume from certain apps, the one that hindered access to see changes in files when made over NFS, as well as the one that prevented documents from being saved to a server using SMB. Other fixes include improvements for Active Directory log-in performance (cached accounts and .local domains), OpenDirectory data replication and 802.1X compatibility with ActiveDirectory networks.

Analyst Estimates Apple Will Reach 600 M Users By 2014

Despite rumors that Apple lost its huge appeal with consumers, a Morgan Stanley analyst still sees positive figures. Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Hubert estimates Apple will reach 600 million users by 2014, a forecast that sees Apple’s client base growing by up to 100 million users.

Over the past year, Apple has recorded a growth of 55 percent, reaching 500 million users by the end of the year, placing the company second after Facebook. It is estimated that on average each of the 500 million Apple users spend about $300 for year, whereas the free cash flow of 95 percent is higher than companies’ with similar appeal to the public, such as Amazon and Facebook.

“Apple’s advantage over other hardware platforms is its ecosystem, which creates ‘stickiness’ and opens new revenue streams” reads an investors’ note by Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Hubert. “New services, like mobile payments, video, streaming music, or ad exchange, can help monetize Apple’s user base” explains the analyst and one of the company’s opportunities to grow the number of users is mobile payments, “where Apple can leverage its larger user base, secure platform, and acquired AuthenTec technology”.

Katy Hubert’s extensive report backs up her estimate highlighting three reasons that could boost Apple’s number of users to 600 million. Mobile payments is one of them, particularly since the rumor mill has it the next iPhone will feature fingerprint recognition and the NFC technology. Then there’s also the iRadio rumor, Apple’s very own internet radio service being expected to release next week, at the company’s Worldwide Developers Conference event taking place June 10 – 14 at San Francisco’s Moscone West conference center.

Finally, there’s the ad exchange rumor that says Apple is going to release a new ad exchange service on the existing iAd platform. “Developers could potentially charge higher rates than ad impressions on other devices, as Apple could offer better targeting given its insight into the user from information gathered from the hardware, the software, iTunes and app stores, user profiles and cloud storage” reads a report via Macrumors.

A Charger Can Hack Your iPhone

Jailbreakers have you heard the good news? Researchers with Georgia Tech discovered how a charger can hack your iPhone, just in time for the July 27th Black Hat computer security conference in Las Vegas. Perhaps the new “discovery” could lead to a whole new kind of jailbreaks.

Apple’s iOS has been increasingly hard to break into, until the latest release which made the evad3rs’ evasi0n jailbreak useless. Exploits have become more and more difficult to find, as Apple has patched most access points into the root file. Only a few developers considered using the USB port to inject the hack, but Georgia Tech researchers’ announcement was the first serious one to confirm a successful hack of an iPhone with a charger.

“(W)e investigated the extent to which security threats were considered when performing everyday activities such as charging a device” explained the Georgia Tech researchers. “The results were alarming: despite the plethora of defense mechanisms in iOS, we successfully injected arbitrary software into current-generation Apple devices running the latest operating system (OS) software” their research reads. 

The malicious charger was named Mactans and contains an open-source single board computer built by Texas Instruments and called BeagleBoard. The hardware proved to be capable of delivering a hack into the iPhone without requiring a jailbroken device or any user activity apart from plugging the charger into the device. Researchers explain the choice of “hardware was selected to demonstrate the ease with which innocent-looking, malicious USB chargers can be constructed”.

The charger was built to warn that such attacks are definitely possible and researchers note that “more motivated, well-funded adversaries could accomplish” a much more dangerous device, seeing as they were building theirs “with limited amount of time and a small budget”. Researchers say that their malicious chargers injects the iPhone with a hidden software that works “in the same way Apple hides its own built-in applications”.

For their upcoming Black Hat demonstration, researchers promise they will “recommend ways in which users can protect themselves and suggest security features Apple could implement to make the attacks we describe substantially more difficult to pull off”.

Senate Investigation Says Apple Dodged Billions in US Taxes

It might just be that Apple is a lot worth that what the quarterly figures read. A Senate investigation says that Apple has dodged billions in US taxes over the past few years by taking advantage of special tax deals with Ireland and subsidiaries that haven’t declared any tax residence, corporate tax return or, in some cases, don’t even have a physical presence.

On Monday, the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigation has published a report that accuses Apple of avoiding US tax in the figure of billions thanks to loop holes and offshore havens. During the last four years, Apple is said to have dodged income tax on $44 billion from intellectual property rights from offshore sources. Seeing as Apple is most likely the largest corporate income tax payer in the US, everyone is now pointing fingers at the company’s executives.

“The secret to Apple’s business success isn’t the aluminum and the steel and the glass of an iPhone” explains Senator Carl Levin, Senate panel chairman. “The genius is the ideas that bring those elements together in an elegant package. That intangible genius is intellectual property... nurtured and developed here in the United States. Any yet, it ends up that most of the profits are shifted to a tax haven” he says.

Even so, it might well be that not even income in countries, such as Ireland where Apple has a tax rate lower than 2% (the average corporate tax there is 12%) aren’t fully disclosed. “Those Irish tax payments are so low... they raise questions about whether ASI is declaring on its Irish tax returns the full amount of income it has received from the other Apple affiliates” reads the Senate’s report.

Apple works internationally through a web of subsidiaries, out of which Apple Operations International is the principal. From 2009 – 2012 it has generated income of $30 billion, but most of that isn’t actually accounted for in taxes, not to mention the company has no physical presence and has not paid income taxes.

“Apple wasn’t satisfied with shifting its profits to a low-tax offshore tax haven” said Carl Levin, Democratic Senator and chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. “Apple sought the Holy Grail of tax avoidance. It has created offshore entities holding tens of billions of dollars while claiming to be tax resident nowhere” he added.

Rumor Has It Cheap iPhone 6 Will Feature Wireless Charging

The rumor mill goes on and on about Apple’s upcoming iPhones, particularly those regarding the cheap version, meant to boost sales in Asia, where despite all of Apple’s intensive marketing, cheaper competition is by far the market leader. Rumor has it, that the cheap iPhone 6 will have features particularly meant for the Japanese market.

In the US, wireless charging is something that most of us only dare to dream off, although just recently this year Duracell Powermat introduced the first wireless charging solution for iPhone 5 (you can read a full review of the iPhone 5 battery case and charging mat here). With that product release, most of us found for the first time that wireless charging has been around for quite some time now. In fact, there are over 8.5 million devices compatible with or for wireless charging sold worldwide. 

Asia is where QI (the standard for wireless charging technologies for mobile devices) is all the rage. So releasing an iPhone that is meant to revolutionize those markets without wireless charging isn’t exactly the right business strategy. In fact, to withstand the aggressive competition in that region, Apple needs good-quality, very affordable price and appealing technologies.

There’s been a lot said about iPhone 6, but it seems wireless charging is an essential feature, whether it’s going to be an in-built feature or an added functionality via an external accessory. “Apple is likely to adopt the wireless charging technology developed internally, but it remains unknown if the next-generation iPhone will come with built-in wireless charging capability or with other attached accessories” reads a report by DigiTimes.

As for the US market, prepare to get rid of charging cables and accessories, because as of 2014 we are definitely going to see a lot more wireless charging solutions. AT&T has announced earlier this year that it had requested all of its device suppliers to provide integrated wireless charging solutions by 2014. And it’s only getting better. Already there are more than 100 major device vendors that have joined the Wireless Power Consortium and the first mobile products with built-in wireless charging have already been announced for release in the US. The first to be rolled out is a Windows Phone 8 smartphone, the Nokia Lumia 920 that is actually the first US smartphone with built-in wireless charging.

Apple’s Low-Cost iPhone 6 Will Feature a Qualcomm Snapdragon Single-Chip

When it comes to the latest Apple rumors, there’s always more than one thing that draws interest, although as we’ve seen lately with this company, its latest-generation products aren’t exactly game-changers. What would definitely be revolutionary is for Apple to actually release a low-cost iPhone and according to the more recent rumors that’s one dream that should come true. In fact, analysts at Detwiler Fenton believe the cheap iPhone 6 will feature a Qualcomm Snapdragon single-chip.

“It is likely that the work with QCOM is being driven by AAPL’s concern regarding maintaining gross margins as well as the need to differentiate the product by performance” reads Detwiler Fenton’s research note. “AAPL would not want a value priced iPhone to offer the same kind of graphics and video support, processing power etc. that its premium priced device would, therefore a less powerful and lower-end Snapdragon integrated solution would help segment the product” the note adds.

What this means effectively for you? The Qualcomm Snapdragon single-chip will not be able to run premium features such as 4G LTE, although it is very possible Apple will release two versions of its cheap iPhone 6 since Qualcomm makes separate chips for 3G and LTE.

A report by China Times confirms the analysts’ research note, with news from an insider saying that Apple has hired TSMC for the production of Qualcomm Snapdragon chips. It’s been rumored that TSMC is currently testing A6X chips for Apple, for which production is expected to begin as of next year.

A recent statement by Morris Chang, Chairman and CEO of TSMC, was interpreted as a strong hit that TSMC will produce Qualcomm Snapdragon chips for iPhone 6. “Enough discussions have taken place, with enough customers who have large requirements (on 20nm) to lead us to believe that the volume will be very large” he said talking about the company’s 20 and 28 nanometer process technologies.