Earlier today we posted a report titled "Apple's iPhone 6 goes on Sale in China October 17 after Ensuring China's Ministry that there's no Secret Backdoors." Apple's iPhone 6 was originally to have debuted in China on September 19 when the news struck that Apple didn't have the right license. Yet we now know there was also some backroom politicking going on. Now that Apple has ensured the Chinese government that there are no back doors to their software, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder stated today that officers should not be blocked from the information they need to investigate a crime.
China's Apple Daily has reportedly discovered that Quanta Computer has just landed the exclusive contract to manufacture the Apple Watch. The rough translation states that the Quanta Changshu plant will employ 4 million people, a number that either got lost in translation or is bigger than most cities in North America. G for Games adds to the report that "it is said that Apple and Quanta have entered a deal which prohibits the Taiwanese company from manufacturing/assembling smartwatches for Apple's rival OEMs."
Apple's CEO Tim Cook tweeted earlier today that it was "Amazing to see the excited crowds today in Paris to preview Apple Watch for the first time," at retailer Colette. Apple's Jony Ive and Marc Newson were hobnobbing with the likes of Karl Lagerfeld creative director of the fashion house Chanel as well as the Italian house Fendi and his own label fashion house, along with Vogue's U.S. editor-in-chief Anna Wintour (as shown in photos below) promoting Apple Watch.
A new report out of Taiwan today states that strong demand for Apple's iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus is pushing Foxconn Electronics (Hon Hai Precision Industry) to restart large-scale hiring at its plants in Shenzhen and Zhengzhou China, according to upstream supply chain sources.
According to a new report this morning, the iPhone 6 will be available for sale in China starting on Oct 17, after rigorous regulatory scrutiny which led Apple to reassure the Chinese government that their new smartphones didn't have security "backdoors" through which U.S. agencies can access users' data. Apple won approval to sell the phones after also addressing risks of personal information leaks related to the operating system's diagnostic tools, China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said on its website on Tuesday.
The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 34 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. In this particular report we cover a single patent regarding a possible future infrared system for iOS cameras. On one hand the technology could turn your iOS device into a kind of automated tour guide for museums or cityscapes as well as eventually being an automatic retail clerk providing customers with price, availability and product information. It's an angle that might work very well with "Apple Pay" in the future. On the other hand, there's a controversial aspect to this invention and our report will tell you why. We wrap up this week's granted patent report with our traditional listing of the remaining granted patents that were issued to Apple today.
Apple's first invention relating to a 3D holographic display was back in 2008. Today the US Patent and Trademark Office officially published Apple's second granted patent in this field but takes it to a whole new level aiming for an interactive holographic display for Macs and iDevices like an iPhone or iPad. Apple notes in their granted patent that "The mobile telephone, media player and personal computer can provide a three-dimensional viewing and interacting experience, without the requirement of a reflective medium or wearing 3D glasses. Accordingly, a truly unobtrusive interactive three-dimensional holographic display can be provided."
According to a new Korean report this morning, a South Korean venture firm by the name of Infozone has filed a complaint with the prosecution against Apple Inc.'s Seoul-based branch for patent infringement.
In May of last year we reported that Hon Hai (Foxconn) had undergone its worst financial quarter since 2005. While Windows 8 turned out to being a disaster hurting PC orders at that time, Apple's shift to splitting orders between Foxconn and Pegatron was likely the number one factor in Hon Hai's disastrous quarter. Now a new report is out that is claiming that Foxconn is focusing on supporting Apple's competitors such as Xiaomi and others.
In August we reported that Microsoft was eyeing a prime New York Location for a high-end retail store just blocks away from Apple's classic glass cube store on Fifth Avenue. Today Microsoft confirmed that their first Manhattan flagship store has been given the green light.
The newly revealed Sport Collection of the Apple Watch that is coming to market in 2015 will be using a new kind of cover glass called Ion-X glass which has been patently strengthened. This strengthening process was first uncovered by Patently Apple in an August report covering this patent pending invention. This week, another patent pending invention came to light in Europe about strengthening sapphire glass for larger cover display glass that Apple may use for future iDevices such as the iPhone and iPad.
Yesterday we reported that Apple went out of their way to show the world the extensive stress testing that they did for the iPhone 6 Plus by inviting a CNBC crew in to film the testing process the phones underwent before giving Foxconn the go ahead to start producing the iPhone 6 Plus. Now an independent test has been published by Consumer Reports as noted in our video above. The iPhone 6 Plus actually fared much better than the 4.7 inch iPhone which proves that the Unboxed Therapy video was little more than an opportunistic publicity stunt.
A new patent application from Apple was published today in Europe. Apple's 120-page document which includes 54 detailed graphics describes how Apple's Mapping App will be able to function in varying types of vehicle infotainment systems. The system will also be able to function plugging an iPhone or iPad into a vehicle's dashboard display and function with touchscreens and non-touchscreen systems. The Mapping App will be able to function differently if not adapt to whatever type of system it's connected to. The system will understand whether your iDevice is connected to A low or high-quality vehicle infotainment system display and whether the system uses dials or a keypad. We know that Apple is working with dozens of car manufactures to integrate CarPlay, yet Apple's invention gives us the impression that they're working on ways to make CarPlay that's running on your iDevice work with less sophisticated in-vehicle infotainment systems.
Last week the iPhone 6 went on sale and racked up sales north of 10 million units. One week later and the mania has begun anew in Taiwan today with long lineups once again. News out of China this morning states that "Media reports of a botched update of Apple's iOS operating system, and of the larger model's metal case bending when pressure is applied did not seem to dampen the enthusiasm of loyal Apple fans, many of whom had waited for up to 35 hours at electronics retailers and telecom stores to obtain the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus."
Although it already seems like weeks ago, it was only Tuesday that we began hearing stories about bending iPhones on MacRumors. Then a YouTube channel known as "Unboxed Therapy," one that is self-described as being one that "bridges the gap between advertising and entertainment," started a firestorm around the globe by showing how easy it was to bend the new iPhone 6 Plus. The owner of this video site, Lewis Hilsenteger, told CNN yesterday that you just have to "Grab it in the middle with the glass facing out and give it everything you have. It'll bend. We posted a report on this issue this week and stated that it was all hypothetical – even though the video was quite convincing on the surface. We added that the issue would work itself out in a few days one way or another. Well, it has.
Ireland's Longitude Licensing Ltd and Luxembourg's Longitude Flash Memory Systems S.a.r.l. have filed a joint patent infringement lawsuit against Apple. The lawsuit involves a whopping 13 counts of infringement covering most iDevices and iPod models. The plaintiffs are using former SanDisk patents that they now own against Apple. On longitude's "About" page they note that they recently partnered with Conversant Intellectual Property Management Inc. ("Conversant") to assist in maximizing the value of our intellectual property. Interesting to note that Core Wireless sued Apple earlier this month and they're a wholly owned subsidiary of Conversant. So it's becoming quite evident that this super-patent troll has Apple in their crosshairs. With patents in hand from SanDisk and Nokia, Conversant and their partners will certainly be keeping Apple legal busy for some time.
In a new report this morning we learn about a new BCN survey that shows us an interesting breakdown in iPhone sales amongst local Japanese carriers and more importantly, how the all-new iPhone phablet is doing in one of Apple's most important markets.
Straight Path IP Group, Inc. has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Apple. The patent infringement lawsuit concerns Apple's FaceTime video conferencing software. Three of the four patents in the lawsuit were originally owned by NetSpeak, the company behind the 90's "WebPhone" product.
It was relatively quiet at the US Patent & Trademark Office regarding new innovations from Apple today. We found that Apple tweaked their fused glass and running shoe sensor patentsthat were first covered back in 2013. The tweaks made to both of these patent pending inventions are restricted to legal patent claims and don't represent anything new technologically speaking. If you happen to be following Apple's ongoing work with their Macroscalar architecture relating to parallelism you could review these three new filings today: one, two and three. Apple's Macroscalar first came to light in a 2009 granted patent report. In 2012 we posted a report about Apple filing a trademark for the word "Macroscalar." The technology was probably applied to Apple's 64 bit A7 processor which was introduced last year for the iPhone 5S. Indirectly, there was one patent of interest today talking about next-gen biometrics for future Ford vehicles that will work with iOS.
Today SquareTrade, the top-rated protection plan company, published the results of their iPhone 6 testing. They announced that the iPhone 6 and its larger sibling, the iPhone 6 Plus, performed impressively in Breakability testing, with each carriing the top Breakability Score in their respective category. The SquareTrade Breakability Score ranks today's top devices based on how prone they are to break due to accidents. Evaluating key elements such as front and back panel design, edge construction and materials, size, weight, friction quotient, water resistance and grip-ability, SquareTrade's Breakability Score fills in the missing gap left by traditional device reviews: it tests devices in everyday danger situations brought on by our lifestyles and habits. In light of yesterday's concerns over "bendability" issues arising, SquareTrade should seriously consider a new "Bendability" test in the future specifically designed for Phablets. Obviously there's a need for a reliable test for this instead of us having to rely on the word of a make believe scientific test performed by bloggers. We look forward to that in the future. Report Updated 2:45 pm PST
It's being reported in Korea today that the share price of Samsung Electronics plunged to the lowest level in two years and two months, amid growing concerns about its third-quarter performance results. Yesterday Samsung Electronics closed down by 2.27 percent in a single day. The report generically points to Samsung's third quarter likely to suffer from "sluggish smartphone business." Gee, I wonder if Apple's record iPhone sales over the weekend had anything to do with Samsung's declining stock price.
Earlier today Apple's video noted above surfaced starring Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake. Timberlake represented the iPhone 6 Plus and his angle was to constantly push the iPhone's "Huge" factor. One of the things that Apple didn't want the iPhone 6 Plus to be known for is it being too light and causing the frame to actually bend over time when placing it in your pocket for everyday use. A new video released this afternoon and presented in this report, shows us that the iPhone 6 Plus could bend with medium applied pressure around the volume rocker switch. Ouch! That could add up to being a "Huge" headache for new iPhone 6 Plus owners and Apple. I can see the video spoofing on this point surfacing shortly, even if the issue is later to be proven false.
Our Patently Mobile site has just published a brief Samsung patent report about a possible future non-glasses based 3D user interface for future devices from smartphones through to televisions and beyond. Obviously it's being designed for Samsung's future Tizen OS based products. One of the interesting twists to this invention is that one of the leading engineers behind this project is none other than Michael Rosenblatt who worked at Apple on some rather high profile inventions.
Every time CEO Terry Gou wants to pump up Hon Hai's (Foxconn's) image, he pulls out his dream of happy robots making Apple iPhones 24/7 that won't complain about lousy working conditions or cause them problems with Apple's CEO Tim Cook by stealing iPhone parts and selling them to unscrupulous rumor blogs who continuously screw up Apple's big keynote surprise each and every year. Days prior to Apple introducing the iPhone 6, Terry Gou had spoken at the opening ceremony of The World Assembly of Jin Merchants in Taiyuan, which is the capital and largest city of North China's Shanxi province Taiyuan, Shanxi. While Gou continually and faithfully promises that Apple will be the first to benefit from their future robotic assembly, it's an ongoing story that we've heard for years now. In fact our most recent story on this very topic was posted back in July titled "Hon Hai's Plan to Hire 100,000 Workers for iPhone 6 Production Throws Cold Water on Speculative Robot Rumors." Since that report Foxconn has scrambled to hire an additional 20,000 workers to keep up with iPhone 6 production.
The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 34 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. In this particular report we focus on one patent regarding a unique touch gesture that provides a user with visible points of interaction. Apple points out in their patent that if a user tries to place a cursor at a specific point (e.g., between two letters in a word in a text message) on a touch screen and the cursor is smaller than the touch area, it can be difficult to accurately position the cursor without being able to see exactly where the cursor is on the touch screen with respect to the touch. The same problem can exist for other types of touch objects such as a stylus, brush, or other objects that have an end that can block the point of interaction from the user's view. Today's granted patent provides a solution for that. We conclude this week's granted patent report with our traditional listing of the remaining granted patents that were issued to Apple today.
Since Apple's Special Event that launched the iPhone 6 and gave us a peek at the all-new Apple Watch, we've been rummaging through Apple's literature looking for possible patents that could have been fulfilled due to their new products. Of course with Apple's new mobile wallet service called "Apple Pay" rolling out – the Mother Lode was struck in terms of finding Intellectual Property being fulfilled and that which will be fulfilled in the months ahead the service expands. We covered that one segment of Apple's patents in a separate major report titled "Apple Pay: The Digital Wallet that will Rule the World." In today's report we point to a few other patents that have come to light, knowing that there could even be more as other products (old and new) roll out later this year.
Apple today announced it has sold over 10 million new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus models, a new record, just three days after the launch on September 19. iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus are available in the US, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Puerto Rico, Singapore and the UK and will be available in more than 20 additional countries on September 26. The new iPhones will be available in 115 countries by the end of the year.
During a recent event regarding the launch of Transport for London's contactlesscard payment system, MasterCard UK and Ireland president Marion King told us that it was an exciting time as technology changes the way we pay for things. King added that "We welcome Apple Pay." In a press release that was published the day of the Apple Event introducing the iPhone 6, Ed McLaughlin, MasterCard's chief emerging payments officer stated that "Apple has a long tradition of introducing breakthrough products with features that really matter to people. Apple Pay, combined with MasterCard's payments technology, gives consumers an easy, secure and private way to shop." MasterCard's "Priceless" marketing campaign began 17 years ago and they're extending this tradition through to the introduction of the MasterCard and Apple Pay relationship (as noted in our cover graphic). Our report lists a series of targeted points that MasterCard wants you to know about using Apple Pay and the technology behind the MasterCard payment system.
Buried in a sea of Apple patent applications that were published earlier this week by the US Patent & Trademark Office, an Apple invention for an alternative method for strengthening sapphire glass came to light. On September seventeenth I posted a report titled "LG Wins Contract for AMOLED Apple Watch Displays & Apple Fulfills Patent," which showed that the new Apple Watch was using a new patent pending sapphire glass strengthening process that we first covered in a report in August using ion steaming. In Apple's latest patent pending invention, we see that a secondary engineering team has worked on an alternative sapphire glass strengthening process. Whether their new process will work itself across the entire Apple Watch family over time or is being aimed for future cover glass applications for the iPhone and iPad is unknown at this time.
With Apple's iPhone prices' getting a bump at each and every launch it seems that there's no limit to how much people will pay for the latest iPhone. A Saudi man has reportedly asked a man who proposed to his sister to present him with an iPhone 6 as dowry. Well, that's certainly one way to be assured of getting your hands on a new iPhone 6 without standing in line.
A European report surfaced late yesterday acknowledging that the newly unveiled "Apple Pay" is already winning over the heavyweights of the financial industry who couldn't deny that Apple's 800 million iTunes account holders are already tied into credit and debit cards. Nathalie Reinelt, a payments expert with banking consultancy Aite Group stated that "Apple's approach appears to be collaborative with traditional payment networks, instead of competitive, and it's much less disruptive." With Apple's new Apple Pay service already rocking the market, the news that there are already new extensions and capabilities on the drawing board for 2015 shows that Apple Pay is going to be a heavy weight in the mobile wallet market in record time. Count on it.
Angela Ahrendts, Apple's Senior VP, Retail and Online Stores, was on hand at the Sydney Australia Apple Store this morning greeting the very first Apple fans in the world to get their hands on the exciting new iPhone 6. We first showed Ahrendts at the Sydney Apple Store in another photo this morning in our initial report titled "Samsung weeps as iPhone 6 Mania Rocks around the Globe." Ahrendts noted on her Twitter site this morning that this was a historic day.
Samsung wastes time and money on TV ads trying to bash Apples iPhone and yet races to copy Apple's next great thing at every turn. Yet what they can't copy is having passionate fans around the globe, willing to sleep for days outside Apple Stores just to be first in their city, State, Province and/or Country to own a shiny new smartphone. No, machines can't copy that. Today the iPhone 6 Plus, as noted in our cover graphic, begins its war march against the Galaxy Note 4. It will easily crush Samsung's product sales and wipe that smug smirk right off their collective faces. Today, jubilant Apple fans finally get to own the iPhone 6 that they've been reading about for months. Today is a great day!
Secure Web Conference Corporation based out of Melville, New York has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Apple. The patent infringement lawsuit concerns Apple's FaceTime and all of the hardware that it's capable of running on which includes the iPhone and specific Macs.
On Monday PayPal came out swinging against Apple's new electronic wallet called Apple Pay. PayPal ran a full page ad in the New York Times that basically said that if Apple can't protect your Selfies, how will they ever be able to protect your finances? PayPal's PR man Rob Skinner explained why he's not running scared, as well as firing a good humored jibe about the truly dreadful live feed that Apple provided complete with timeouts, jumps and a Chinese translator. Skinner added that "Nobody can dispute Apple's strong track record, but payments is a difficult area," he said. "It's much more difficult to do payments than to keep a live stream working!" Our report takes a look at one of PayPal's next moves against Apple Pay.
Gartner is predicting that by 2016 smartwatches will comprise about 40 percent of consumer wrist worn devices. Gartner said that seven out of the top 10 smartphone vendors have entered the wearables market to date or are about to ship a first product, while a year ago only two vendors were in that space. But let's be honest here, all eyes will be on the Apple Watch and whether or not they'll be able to convince consumers to return to a day when wearing a wristwatch was commonplace. Will Apple be able to pull that off in 2015? Only time will tell.
On September 18, 2014, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a series of five patent applications from Apple covering such matters as CarPlay, Touch ID, Deep Audio and more. While it's impossible to have high profile inventions roll every week, especially with Apple's Tim Cook trying to be more secretive that Jobs ever was, there's still a lot of intellectual property to appreciate exploring today.
Most Apple fans knew that Steve Jobs owned a super yacht called Venus that was designed by Philippe Starck's design company Ubik and built by Feadship. Knowing Steve Jobs, he likely had a hand in every aspect of the design. At a cost of US$100 million you could bet on that. In fact, to control his new yacht Jobs wanted to use an iPhone and/or an iPad. How do I know this? Simply put, I stumbled upon a new patent application earlier this morning while doing some research. A new 2014 patent that was filed in 2013 actually lists Steven P. Jobs of Palo Alto, California as the primary inventor of a remote control interface for a mobile device that could control a boat/yacht. One of the first things that struck me about this invention was that it wasn't filed under Apple Inc.
On September 18, 2014, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a series of three patent applications from Apple that reveal their ongoing work on developing a future advanced stylus. For the record, Apple now has 30 patent applications on advancing a stylus on record.
In a new business report that was published in South Korea earlier this week we've learned that Samsung Electronics' smartphone sensor technology has been dragged down by technological and legal problems. The legal issue revolves around smartphones integrating biometric sensors have to be clearly labelled as medical devices. Whether this problem could spill over to the iPhone 6 being sold in certain countries like South Korea is unknown at this time.