T-Mobile has just announced that consumers will have a new affordable, unrestricted and hassle-free way to buy an iPhone 5 when T-Mobile USA, Inc. begins offering the revolutionary phone on Friday, April 12. T-Mobile announced today that qualifying customers can get an iPhone 5 for $99.99 down, plus monthly payments. T-Mobile is the only major U.S. wireless company to offer iPhone 5 with no annual service contract plus unlimited talk, text and Web on a screaming-fast nationwide 4G network.
A Patently Apple report in January asked the question "Is There More to Apple's Move to Sell 28 Cent Songs in India?In February we followed up with a report that stated that Apple's sales in India had more than tripled in Q4 2012. Today, the news gets even better. Buoyed by the success of the iPhone in India, Apple has decided to scale up its presence in the country and plans to triple its exclusive stores to around 200 by 2015.
On March 26, 2013, The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of thirty-five newly granted patents for Apple Inc. In this particular report we cover Apple's Face Detection technology, an iPen patent which was reexamined by USPTO, five design wins and more.
On March 26, 2013, The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 35 newly granted patents for Apple. In this particular report we cover playback controls and variable rate media playback methods using a multitouch display, another covering instant messaging multiple recipients and a full list of the remaining twenty-five patents that were granted to Apple today.
Last week we posted a report titled "Google Glass: Orwellian Surveillance with Fluffier Branding" which took a basic overview of some of the resistance towards Google's upcoming product. At the time we stated that between now and the time Google Glass actually launches we're bound to hear arguments getting louder and louder about the pros and cons of using this technology. Well that didn't take time. Today, in a pre-emptive move, West Virginia State Rep. Gary G. Howell introduced legislation that would amend existing laws against texting while driving to prohibit "using a wearable computer with head mounted display."
On March 25, 2013, the US Patent & Trademark Office published seven of Apple's latest trademark filings covering the round app icons for their seventh generation iPod nano. The designs that differ from those displayed on Apple's iPhone and iPad were originally filed last week and revealed today. Our report provides you with the entire set of color app icon graphics along with their respective International Class specifics.
It's being report today that Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. (2317), the world's largest contract manufacturer of electronics, posted record annual profit after Apple released a new iPhone and three versions of its iPad in Q4 2012.
According to the Wall Street Journal this evening, Apple has acquired indoor-GPS company WifiSLAM, a sign that the war over indoor mobile location services is heating up. The report claims that Apple paid around $20 million for the Silicon Valley-based company. The company describes its main product this way: "Allow your smartphone to pinpoint its location (and the location of your friends) in real-time to 2.5m accuracy using only ambient WiFi signals that are already present in buildings." This is illustrated in two videos presented below. Update Mar 24, 2013 1PM MST
On Monday BlackBerry's CEO Thorsten Heins stated that Apple was risking being left behind in the smartphone business because its flagship iPhone hadn't been significantly redesigned in five years. In an interview with the Associated Press yesterday he was blunter by stating that "a lack of innovation at Apple has left the iPhone's user interface outdated." Thorsten's comments about Apple's iPhone have come at time when BlackBerry is promoting their all-new smartphone lineup with their revised OS and sexier interface. Thorsten had earlier stated that "the rate of innovation is so high in our industry that if you don't innovate at that speed you can be replaced pretty quickly." That wasn't said from simple blind sarcasm but rather from experience as Apple's iPhone eventually overtook the Blackberry back in 2008, though at times BlackBerry jostled with the iPhone for second position in the race for Mobile Device leadership. But no one has suffered more in the mobile space recently than Nokia who was once the king of mobile phones. As the chart illustrates below, Nokia has fallen from grace to the fourth spot in 2012 mobile phone sales. So it's no wonder why Nokia's CEO has decided to now throw his hat into the ring and take a big swipe at Apple's iPhone.
Believe it or not, a whopping 18,000 college students have taken high-interest loans simply to keep with their friends who mainly use iPhones and iPads on campus. According to the report out of Bejing, Twenty thousand students applied for the student loans and 90% of them chose to buy Apple products with the funds in central China's Wuhan city.
According to Reuters, Apple now runs its largest U.S. data center entirely on renewable energy, with a majority of the power generated on-site from solar panels and fuel cells, the company's chief financial officer, Peter Oppenheimer, said on Thursday. The data center in Maiden, North Carolina, which supports Internet storage and Apple's service-hosting iCloud product, produces 167 million kilowatts -- the power equivalent of 17,600 homes for one year -- from a 100-acre solar farm and fuel cell installations provided by Silicon Valley startup Bloom Energy. They are the largest, non-utility power-generating facilities of their kind in the United States, Oppenheimer told Reuters. "We switched over to these new energy sources in December," he said. "And we are committed to generating 60 percent of the electricity that the data center will use by making power on site. We are now achieving that goal."
News out of Taiwan today states that Hon Hai's Chairman Terry Gou met with Apple executives earlier this month to discuss HDTV displays for Apple's future iTV. The meeting reportedly took place a tenth generation flat panel plant in Sakai in western Japan.
