To our Fans Around the Globe, Happy New Year!
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Continue reading "To our Fans Around the Globe, Happy New Year! " »
Floridians by the name of Paul Orshan and Christopher Endara have filed a class action lawsuit against Apple for storage capacity misrepresentations and omissions relating to Apple's iOS 8. According to the filing, "iOS 8 uses an unexpectedly large percentage of the storage capacity on 8 GB and 16 GB iPhones, iPads and iPods." While this is an annoyance lawsuit, it's an industry practice that should end – and Apple should lead the way.
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T-Mobile's CEO John Legere didn't mince his words about the fabled Bendgate back in October. To him it was all a bunch of Horse sh*t, to mark his words. He's definitely outspoken and an in-your- face type of CEO. Today Legere is stepping up his war cry by calling 2015 as he sees it. He steps on his competitors while talking a little about Apple in between punches.
Microsoft's former CEO Steve Ballmer officially retired earlier this year and so as the year closes out, I thought it would be fun to show you a video that I discovered earlier today on CNNMoney that had me laughing looking back at Ballmer the mad salesman. It shows us his glory days as an enthusiastic young man ranting like a crazed used-car salesman. Off course it made him a billionaire and so he gets the last laugh in the end. But who doesn't want to see a virtual pie thrown at someone's face for being a never ending pain in our side for the longest of time. So on that note, enjoy the video below.
In a report covering Apple's Q4 (calendar Q3) financial conference we noted that Apple had added some color to their initial press release wherein Apple's CEO Tim Cook stated that for Macs, it was a "blowout" quarter and that "it doesn't get better than that" at 21% growth year over year. That news was like waiving bananas in front of a hungry monkey and just too hard for Samsung to resist chasing. Over the weekend, Samsung's executive core held a 13 hour crisis management marathon meeting to find a way to get their company back to profitability. One of the products that they hope will sell well in 2015 is a new all-in-one PC with a 27" curved display.
In November we posted a report titled "Did Apple Really Sign a Deal with Samsung for 80% of their 14nm Processors?" While everyone in the press was quick to claim that Samsung won back Apple's A9 business for 2015, we were skeptical of the story and now there's more data that has surfaced that just might throw cold water on that rumor. Report Update Dec 31 8:30 am
The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 35 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today, the last publishing day for 2014. In this particular report we briefly cover three of Apple's granted patents. The first relates to input transitions that are used on Apple's Magic Trackpad. The second patent covers embedded force measurements for use on iDevice displays and the third patent relates to location tracking and recording on iDevices. We wrap up this week's granted patent report with our traditional listing of the remaining granted patents that were issued to Apple today.
On the last patent day for 2014, the US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 35 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. In this particular report we cover one of Apple's unique digital pen inventions. This pen invention will allow a user to write on paper and have their notes simultaneously transfer to an iDevice like an iPhone or iPad. Apple's invention also smartly presents a built-in dock for the pen that would appear to be held in place via magnetics. Besides granted patents, Apple filed for ten new iPen patents in 2014.
Continue reading "Apple Granted a Patent for an iPen that also Works with Paper" »
Over the weekend we posted a report titled "Samsung's iPhone 5 Clones failed to make a Dent against Apple." Their cloner attack on the iPhone 5 with their Galaxy Alpha line-up failed to steal iPhone users to their camp or even generate enthusiasm from their own Android camp. On top of that, the Korean Times reported earlier today that Samsung held a 13 hour marathon "crisis management" meeting today to find a way out of their negative profit nightmare. And if that wasn't enough, a new published study from Flurry (a Yahoo! company) delivers another punishing blow to Samsung that knocks them to the mat for a ten count for 2014.
The UK's Guardian is reporting that Britain's top banks are in talks with Apple to introduce its iPhone "wave and pay" service, Apple Pay, to Main Street in the first half of 2015. The interesting aspect of this story is that the banks are uncomfortable with Apple's quest for information on clients.
Continue reading "Britain's Top Banks are Leerily Negotiating for Apple Pay Service" »
With Samsung's mobile sales depressed and mobile profits falling off a cliff, one of Samsung's only shining stars in 2014 was their air purifiers that experienced 300% growth. What happened to the mobile industry's "King of volume" smartphones? Now that 2015 is just around the corner, Samsung has now found a newly discovered vision about home automation and we're going to hear all about it at CES 2015.
On Christmas Eve we reported that Apple's 5.5 inch iPhone 6 Plus and the 4.7 inch iPhone 6 in both 16 and 64GB models took 4 out of the top 5 smartphone spots in Taiwan for November. The stats also showed us that Samsung only had a single model on that list, the Galaxy Note 4. The stats clearly showed us that phablets took three out of the top five smartphones and, more importantly perhaps, is that Samsung's S5 failed to crack the top 10 and their all-new metal trimmed iPhone 5 copycat models known as the Galaxy Alpha, the Galaxy A3 and A5 all failed to crack the top 10. A new Korean report published late yesterday told us that Samsung's iPhone 5 clones will now drop out of the premium phone market as their goal of challenging the iPhone failed to materialize in any way, shape or form.
Continue reading "Samsung's iPhone 5 Clones Failed to make a Dent against Apple" »
Apple's esthetic police headed by Jonathan Ive have been hard at work inventing ways to kill off device housing apertures for good. Apple has been thinking of killing off iDevice speaker grills by having sound carry through specialized cover glass. They're switching to the audio connector working with the Lightning port to kill off the standard audio jack aperture. And now Apple wants to add to their collection of aperture killing methods by having light transmissive fillers fill holes when not in use so as to appear as if they're not really there. Do you think that Apple's idea is just a little farfetched? If you do, then think again, because Apple's current wireless keyboard for the iMac already uses this invention. In a way this would make it a patent fulfilled, though Apple's invention talks about taking this idea further to other devices. After checking out my iMac's keyboard indicator light when off and on, I was rather surprised at just how well this invention really works.
Earlier today we posted a report titled "Apple Patent Reveals a 3D Zoom-Based Gesture User Interface." That particular patent application stemmed from Apple's acquisition of PrimeSense, the company whose technology was used in Microsoft's Kinect. To show you that Apple is serious about air-gesturing, another patent application has surfaced today that has nothing to do with PrimeSense's technology and yet shares the same vision. This time air-gesturing is being considered and aimed at iDevices, Macs and for use at the Apple Store. The air-gesturing system is also recognized in Apple's patent filings as a touchless gesturing system. In the big picture, Apple's touchless gesturing system is quite extensive. Apple's research that was revealed today shows us that air gesturing may be coming to a future version of Apple TV, iDevices like the iPhone and iPad all the way through to Macs and beyond. Who do we thank for this cool patent application today – Apple or Santa? Either way it's a nice surprise.
On Christmas day 2014 the U.S. Patent and Trademark office reveals one of PrimeSense's key technologies relating to a 3D sensing device that is operated using a unique in-air gesturing system and user interface. The technology found its way into Microsoft's Kinect. The system could one day find its way into Apple TV and future Macs.
Continue reading "Apple Patent Reveals a 3D Zoom-Based Gesture User Interface" »
Patently Apple would like to wish all of our fans, friends and industry colleagues from around the globe a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
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Sony Pictures Entertainment officially announced that the movie "The Interview" will be available online across the United States starting today, Christmas Eve. According to Sony's press release, Apple fans will be able to access the movie on their Apple TV box available via youtube.com/movies. The reasoning for Apple not directly participating via iTunes is unknown at this time. Sony specifically thanked Google and Microsoft for their participation leaving Apple out. It'll be interesting to hear Apple's position on this at some point in the future. Update Dec. 28, 2014: The movie is now available directly through iTunes (at least in North America).
Continue reading "Sony's Movie "The Interview" Available later Today on Apple TV" »
I was shopping for new display the other day when I stumbled onto a display from BenQ that featured special Low Blue Light technology designed specifically to target the problem of blue light exposure, which can cause eye damage and sleeplessness. The monitor comes with four preset Low Blue Light modes (30% reduction, Web-surfing – 50% reduction, Office – 60% reduction, and Reading – 70% reduction.) Considering that I and others work very long hours in front of a display each day, this kind of feature could be appealing. Earlier this morning I discovered a newly published patent application from Apple in Europe dated today that covers this basic theme of reducing bright backlight reflections using a special blue filter. Without recently bumping into the BenQ information, I wouldn't have understood the potential benefit of using such a special blue filter in a display.
Continue reading "Apple Invents a Display Process to Diminish Bright Reflected Light " »
In July we posted a report titled "Angry Samsung Takes Back Billions in Bonuses from 100 Samsung Mobile Division Executives for Poor Performance." Since that time, Samsung's sales have declined further and in the last quarter, profits dramatically collapsed, especially in their mobile and display businesses. In the last week, Samsung made the decision to freeze most salaries while reducing salaries to executives in divisions that didn't perform. Earlier today we report that Samsung's flagship Experience Store in London shut its doors due to poor sales and inability to match the Apple Store experience. What a gloomy holiday time it'll be for Samsung sales and retail executives.
Continue reading "Ah, Samsung Executives to Get Pay Cut due to Disastrous Q3" »
Last weekend we reported that Apple had filed a trademark application in Hong Kong for their revised Mac logo. Today the U.S. Patent Office published two trademark applications from Apple for the same logo in color and black and white. The new Mac Logo better reflects Apple's flatter User Interface that was first introduced last year with iOS 7 and now extends through to OS X Yosemite.
Continue reading "Apple Seeks U.S. Trademarks for New Mac Logo in B/W & Color" »
A new report this morning states that Apple iPhone 6 ranked as the number one smartphone and Apple the number one vendor in the Taiwan market in November, in terms of both sales volume and sales value, according to data compiled by local retail channels. Apple's iPhone 6 took 4 out of the top 5 smartphone sold.
Continue reading "Apple's iPhone 6 is the Number One Smartphone in Taiwan" »
According to both a new UK report and a UK Twitter user, Samsung has shut down operations of one of its biggest shops in Stratford's Westfield, as sales plunge and shoppers said that the store never matched the Apple experience that it was apparently trying to copy.
On December 15 we posted a report titled "Bankruptcy Court Approves Settlement between GTAT & Apple." In that report we noted that the settlement freed GT Advanced from some exclusivity agreements with Apple, giving it control of its sapphire-making patents and lets it retain ownership and sales rights for more than 2,000 production furnaces in Mesa, Arizona. Today, GT Advanced Technologies (GTAT) announced that following the Bankruptcy Court's recent approval of its Settlement Agreement with Apple, GT is now pursuing Advanced Sapphire Furnace opportunities for sapphire cover glass applications across the broader smartphone market as well as ongoing opportunities in the LED and Industrial markets.
Last week we posted a report titled "Apple, HP, Microsoft and Intel await Important IEEE Vote this Saturday on the Future of Wireless Technology Licensing Fees." Qualcomm, the world's largest maker of mobile-phone chips, earns more than 60 percent of its profits from businesses licensing its patented wireless technology, collecting $30.5 billion in licensing fees over the past five years. The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), a professional association that is the world's largest association of technical professionals, held a crucial vote last Saturday. While we await the official verdict of that vote, it's being revealed today that China is putting the screws to Broadcom over licensing fees set for smartphone makers in their country. This will put pressure on the IEEE decision, as companies like Apple aren't going to stand for paying more royalties to Qualcomm than their Chinese counterparts.
Continue reading "China Stepping into Royalty Battle with Qualcomm" »
Apple is the apple of Wall Street's eye again. And that's why Tim Cook is CNNMoney's choice for best CEO of 2014. The stock is up 40% this year and near an all-time high thanks to the launch of the latest iPhones and Apple Pay service as well as excitement about the Apple Watch due out in 2015.
Continue reading "CNNMoney Votes Apple's Tim Cook as CEO of the Year" »
On March 27, 2014, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that revealed an Apple TV feature that many will appreciate. Today that patent has been granted. In a nutshell, if you're watching a movie on Apple TV and want to get some popcorn and drinks, you may not have to stop the movie. You'll just sync the movie stream from your Apple TV to your iPhone, iPad or maybe even your future Apple Watch and it'll allow you to watch your movie while you're grabbing those snacks. While only time will tell if that scenario ever plays out, it sounds like an interesting little feature.
Today the European Patent & Trademark Office published Apple's latest trademark application for "Works with Apple CarPlay," that was noted as being filed late yesterday.
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As the countdown to Christmas begins, the US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 24 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. In this particular report we highlight is Apple's design win for an upcoming two-story glass front story in San Francisco. We wrap up this week's granted patent report with our traditional listing of the remaining granted patents that were issued to Apple today.
As the leading student-first connected learning platform, Chegg makes higher education more affordable, more accessible, and more successful for students. Chegg surveyed 880 college students attending 2-year and 4-year colleges between December 16th and December 19th to see what electronics such as smartphones, tablets and headphones students preferred. For Christmas gifts the winner with students is all things Apple – but the jumbo chart presented in our report also shows you what other gifts that could make the grade this holiday season.
A month ago we reported that Tickets.com, a provider of state-of-the-art technology solutions to more than 1,000 sports and entertainment clients around the world had launched Apple Pay integration. Today Ticketmaster, a division of Live Nation Entertainment, announced Apple Pay support with the latest update to its iOS app, transforming mobile payments with an easy, secure and private way to pay.
Continue reading "Ticketmaster now offers iPhone 6 Owners with Apple Pay Option" »
Apple has filed for a number of "Apple Pay" trademarks (word and logo versions) in the U.S., Europe and China since introducing their new mobile payment wallet for the iPhone. Today the US Patent & Trademark Office published two new trademark filings for "Apple Pay." It's evident that Apple's legal team had decided to strengthen the specific verbiage found in the two international classes when compared to previous filings. Report Updated December 3.
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Apple's initial stumbles with the release of iOS 8 hurt the adoption of Apple's latest mobile operating system. But after stabilizing, the numbers have been growing steadily. In early November Apple's iOS 8 adoption rate was noted as being 56%. A month later Apple's developer webpage tracking adoption rates now presents a new chart showing that the adoption of iOS 8 has risen by another 7% to a total of 63%.
Continue reading "Apple's iOS 8 Adoption Rate has climbed to 63% in December" »
Two new rumors surfaced this morning that might interest some. The first rumor states that Apple is set to double the DRAM capacity for 2015 iPhones and iPads. The second rumor talks about the ramping up of Apple's next-gen MacBook Air.
We reported last week that Apple's online store in Russia was halted due to the Russian Ruble derailing. Today, The Moscow Times via Bloomberg reports that Apple has raised iPhone prices in Russia by 35 percent, its second increase in less than a month to account for the ruble's plunge against the U.S. dollar.
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During Apple's iPhone event Eddy Cue, senior vice president of Internet Software and Services, announced that Apple Pay would be available at Walt Disney World "by Christmas." Right on cue, Florida's Walt Disney World's flagship theme park empire will kick start the use of Apple Pay throughout the many facilities including Epcot on December 24 and eventually extend to Disneyland Resort sometime in 2015.
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Last week the BBC broadcast a special called "Apple's Broken Promises" that was heavily influenced and directed by the union group China Labor Watch and like-minded people like Ralph Nader. In my view, the China Labor group guided the documentary and the union members working at Apple plants with an axe to grind made sure the video showed depressed exhausted workers in the majority of the shots. But like any form of propaganda, the actors play to the camera to make a story fit the image they want to portray to their particular audience. In our report below we show you a photo from Apple on human rights. Here the workers are young vibrant cheery employees of a company under contract with Apple. There are two very different perspectives playing out. Apple could put together a video that shows how employees in Apple contracted plants are happy and inspired. It's all in the script. But if any tech company is trying to do something to advance the rights of workers, it's Apple. A patent filing in Hong Kong this month shows how Apple has or will laser etch assembly instructions into the inside of the iPhone in order to assist unskilled workers put the iPhone parts in the right order.
A Patent Troll by the name of Dynamic Hosting Company is suing Apple for infringement regarding visual voicemail. Wikipedia notes that in 2007, Apple's iPhone was the first cell phone promoting this feature. Yet according to this patent troll, their recently purchased patents predate the iPhone's use of visual voicemail. Other companies that Dynamic Hosting Company has sued over the years include Xerox, Casio, Google, Samsung, Epson, Canon and others.
Continue reading "Apple Targeted in new Patent Lawsuit over iPhone Visual Voicemail" »
Yesterday Apple's filing for a trademark for their Apple Pay logo surfaced at the European Patent Office. Apple also inadvertently revealed this past week in London that Apple Pay is being prepared to run in Europe, the Middle East, India and Africa.
Today the Hong Kong Patent and Trademark Office published Apple's latest trademark application for the revised Mac Logo that debuted with Yosemite. It's also the logo found on OS X Yosemite's dock representing the Finder. The graphic above illustrates the evolution of the Mac Logo over the years.
Continue reading "Apple Seeks Trademarks for Revised Mac Logo" »
Although it's Nov 19, the US Patent and Trademark Office just published a document sent to Apple dated Sept 26, 2014 that basically states that Apple may be out of luck for CarPlay, a trademark noted as being filed in early August. According to the letter, Carplay Enterprises had already filed for the trademark a year earlier with the mark relating to computers in cars. Is it lottery time for Carplay Enterprises or will Apple dream up a new trademark? Well, it's actually a weird case in that USPTO missed a small clue that was kind of important.
Continue reading "USPTO Gets Confused by Apple's CarPlay Trademark Filing" »