Apple’s MacBook Air Lineup Is Now Faster and $100 Cheaper

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Endura system at Applied Materials’ Maydan Technology Center

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Apple’s Potential Acquisitions Show a Tech Company Growing To New Heights

From SFGate

Adrian Perica is a very busy man. Over the past 18 months, the mergers and acquisitions chief at Apple has been scouring the globe looking for deals, snatching up everything from search engines and data analytics to mapping software and motion tracking chips.

Such a buying spree has ignited fierce speculation in tech circles and on Wall Street about Apple’s future ambitions, especially as smartphone and tablet sales start to slow. Most of that speculation has centered on wearable technology or perhaps a souped-up upgrade of Apple TV.

But Apple is thinking bigger. Much bigger.

A source tells The Chronicle that Perica met with Tesla CEO Elon Musk in Cupertino last spring around the same time analysts suggested Apple acquire the electric car giant.

Cracked Already: Chaos Computer Club Crack’s Apple’s New TouchID

Germany’s Chaos Computer Club has reportedly cracked Apple’s newest feature, TouchID. As you probably know, people lucky enough to pick up an iPhone 5S this weekend are able to open their iPhone and charge their iTunes account with a simple thumb print.

Using some pretty comprehensive technology, the fingerprint scanner, built into the iPhone 5s’ home button, scans the users fingerprint. Rather than comparing it to a stored fingerprint locally or on a server,the technology compares the data in the fingerprint to verify the identity of the user. It also requires that the user be alive, breathing and attached to the person it belongs to.

For their customer’s protection, Apple has blocked the TouchID feature from developers. Apple insists that no one actually has a saved version of the fingerprint, but for now the technology is protected from anyone not working at One Infinite Loop.

Well despite being protected from developers, hackers have been able to crack the TouchID feature.

The biometrics team at Germany’s Chaos Computer Club were able to use a hacking technique that dates back to 1994 in order to breach the TouchID security.

The blog nakedsecurity has simplified the procedure for cloning fingerprints and then unlocking an iPhone 5s to these 7 steps:

Take a hi-res (2400dpi) photograph of the fingerprint.
Digitally invert the image so that the valleys of the print are black.
Laser print (1200dpi) the image with a very thick toner setting.
Smear white woodglue (or latex) over the printout and allow to set.
Carefully peel off the glue or latex sheet.
Breathe on the surface so it’s slightly moist and conductive.
Unlock phone.

What’s more in this story is that the hackers at Chaos Computer Club didn’t use a picture of the iPhone owners fingerprint to clone, rather they lifted the print off of a glass surface and were able to make a working duplicate.

Now obviously this is a lot of steps to take to just get access into someone else’s iPhone, but it sure beats cutting a finger off (which won’t work anyway).

Fred Wilson: The C In 5C Means Clueless Not Cheap

The godfather of New York venture capitalists Fred Wilson took to his blog Wednesdaywith his reactions to the New York City Mayoral race and, the all important news to the world, Apple’s release of two iPhones. When the story started crossing my alert box, I hadn’t had time to read the blog post and thought perhaps Wilson had gotten it wrong. I was thinking he didn’t see the need for the iPhone 5C.

Wilson took a look at what really happened on the stage at Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, California on Tuesday morning. The first indicator that things were awry with this iPhone announcement is that they were holding the press event in the town hall room at Apple vs the Moscone or the Yerba Buena Center For The Arts. The significance in the venue is how many people it holds. Holding the event on campus meant a tighter, more curated press corps.

So what did happen on Tuesday?

Apple’s Phil Schiller, Jony Ive, and CEO Tim Cook announced not one but two new iPhone models. The iPhone 5s is the annual upgrade to the original iPhone (now in it’s 6th iteration). The iPhone 5c is supposed to be a cheaper version of the iPhone, designed to start competing with Android.

Most tech pundits have said time and time again over the last three days that one would be silly to “upgrade” your current iPhone to the iPhone 5c. The colors are cool but you can get a case for the new iPhone 5s in any color imaginable. Heck a 3d printer can print you one.

The 5C isn’t supposed to be an upgrade. It’s supposed to be an entry level iPhone, which is Wilson’s exact point over on his blog. When Apple held their press event, they showed the subsidized two year contract prices. The iPhone 5c would start at $99 while the 5s would start at $199. Yes you get a whole lot more for $100 dollars, but that’s not the point.

The point Wilson brings to our attention is that the iPhone 5C is supposed to be the low cost point of entry in the iPhone ecosystem. Abroad most wireless users buy a phone outright and just pay for SIM cards from the carrier they want. They own the phone and don’t have to get into a ridiculously long contract to obtain it. In the US those contracts are two years and in Canada they are three years.

So if you look at what’s really happening as Wilson reports: “the 5C is a big disappointment. It will sell for $100 less than the 5S in the unsubsized market, which means $549 for 16gb and $649 for 32gb. The C in 5C does not mean “cheap” as I had hoped. It means clueless, as in clueless about how the vast majority of new smartphone users are paying for their phones.”

So it looks like Wilson is right. The 5C may not be that entry point Apple’s been looking for to disrupt the low cost Android phones that are gobbling up market share.

Apple Leaves Finger Print Scanner, TouchID Untouchable To Developer’s And Startups

Apple, iPhone 5S, TouchID, developers, startups, mobile wallet

(photo theverge.com)

Apple’s CEO Tim Cook, alongside executives Jony Ive and Phil Schiller, took to the stage today at their Cupertino headquarters to unveil the new iPhone 5c and the iPhone 5s. If you’re a frequent reader of technology blogs, you’ll notice that most of the leaked specs actually came to fruition.

Normally when we are building up to an Apple product release there are several “features” that may seem a little outlandish. Often times they don’t actually pan out. In fact there were 127 rumors of Apple changing phone sizes over the years. Only one time were they actually correct.

One of those rumors this year was a “finger print scanner” that would somehow be baked into the new iPhone. Many pundits said no-way was Apple going to put a finger print scanner on their phone. Well they have. Which actually makes a whole lot of sense after seeing leaked photos of a new home button.

As you can see from TheVerge’s photo above the home button now dubs as a fingerprint scanner. When talking about it on stage, Apple execs said that it provides a new layer of security for those who feel a 4 digit code is too “cumbersome”. Of course a finger print scanner also provides an extra layer of security for people who typically use easy to guess four digit codes.

The finger print scanner, dubbed “touch ID,” can work with multiple finger prints, and with any kind of human finger print it takes into account arches, loops, and whorls. CSI Las Vegas fans, you know what I’m talking about.

In this generation of the iPhone, the TouchID is seen strictly as a security layer for the walled garden within your iPhone. Apple did say you will be able to use your finger print to authorize purchases from the iTunes store. They didn’t say whether you would be able to use it to validate in store purchases with the Apple store app, but that is very possible.

What Schiller was very specific about, though, was that the TouchID information would not be available to other software. Period. It’s never uploaded to Apple’s servers or backed up to iCloud. The Verge’s Dieter Bohn reported in their live blog.

What is possible is that Apple’s Passbook and future apps designed around security and purchasing will most likely benefit from access to the TouchID, but for now startups hoping to disrupt the mobile wallet with a tie-in to Apple’s Touch ID will find it, well, untouchable.

Jobs Is Great For Entrepreneurs And Startups

(photo: Jakob Henner)

So I went to see Jobs for the Thursday early showing. You know nowadays theaters aren’t even waiting until midnight to show Friday releases.

The movie was absolutely remarkable and blew me away, despite my being a huge Pirates of Silicon Valley fan. The previews didn’t even do the movie justice. When I saw previews I thought that startup investor, entrepreneur and actor Ashton Kutcher would fail in comparison to Noah Wylie’s portrayal of Steve Jobs in the 1999 TNT film that’s now a cult classic.

Kutcher has been praised over and over again for his portrayal of Jobs. We knew before the movie debuted that Kutcher had studied Jobs more intently than any other role. Several news sources, mostly tech leaning, also pointed out that with Kutcher’s investment in startups, role as startup adviser, and entrepreneurial spirit, he was paying homage to a pioneer in a field that he may love even more than acting.

The script was very well written and chronicles the birth of Apple, to the ousting of Steve Jobs and then Jobs’ triumphant return to Apple and his subsequent replacing of the Board of Directors.

The movie opens with Kutcher (as Jobs) unveiling the iPod at an internal Town Hall meeting. The camera angles make the viewer wonder if they are watching some old Steve Jobs footage instead of Kutcher.

I’m not sure if it was in the screen play, Joshua Michael Stern’s direction, or Ashton Kutcher’s acting but the movie really stares down the barrel of entrepreneurship and takes a lot of time (possibly for dramatic effect) looking into those “startupy” moments of Apple.

For example, the movie concentrates on the early stages when Wozniak has an idea and Jobs shows him the potential. It looks at the founding team in a way that resonates with two person founding teams of today’s startups. There’s a tech guy (Steve Wozniak) and a business development guy and visionary (Steve Jobs), and of course Jobs is the ultimate visionary.

While the duo is adding employees 3 through 6, they are still in Jobs’ parents garage. They even have a token “young guy” who just wants to be a part of something, and they don’t even need to pay him (at first). During that sequence of events you also see Jobs pitching over 100 companies on the phone, crossing names off of a list until the one angel believes in them. That is of course Michael Markkula.

Most of us startup folks knew the story of Apple well before the movie was even an idea, even before Walter Isaacson’s book came out. But we all knew the story of Facebook as well and went to see The Social Network.

The movie shows the struggle between the visionary leader and founder, the board of directors, and the CEO who was actually handpicked by Jobs. It repeatedly shows the iteration upon iteration of Apple and even spends a good amount of time on Apple’s big failure under Jobs, Lisa. Some may say that Newton was the company’s biggest failure, but that wasn’t under Jobs).

To tell the whole story, the movie could have gone on six hours, but in two hours and five minutes they did an amazing job of talking about the legacy of Steve Jobs and that legacy should resonate with all of our readers.

Is iTunes Radio The Pandora Killer?

Almost a month ago, Google held their annual developer’s conference known as Google IO. At the conference over 5000 Google developers across all of their platforms gathered at the Moscone Center in San Francisco for three and a half days of pure Google.

In that same venue, more than 5000 Apple developers, across all of their platforms, are gathered this week for the World Wide Developer’s Conference (WWDC).

Last month Google unveiled a new product called “Google Play All Access”. During the ceremonious unveiling, Google touted all kinds of features that positioned the part-radio, part-streaming music, part-cloud library, customizable music platform as a Spotify killer. Unfortunately, since the unveiling we haven’t heard much else about it. For all intents and purposes Google’s new music service has gone the way of Google Music, which is far from Apple’s stranglehold on library functionality and Spotify’s streaming offerings.

Today, during the WWDC Apple announced iTunes Radio. This was one of the longest rumored announcements for this year’s conference, which is being held more 200 days since Apple’s last announcement..

iTunes Radio will give users a variety of ways to get “radio like” streaming services via iTunes. Without any customization an iTunes user will be able to use iTunes Radio to hear radio stations generated by algorithms based on what’s already in the users iTunes library. Apple has also curated several stations based on genre, very similar to Pandora.

The service will be ad-supported and free to any iTunes user. Those users who pay for iTunes backup service iTunes Match will get to use iTunes Radio without ads.

Apple plans to make money by selling the streaming tracks at regular iTunes store prices. When you’re listening to an iTunes radio track, a purchase button will come up that will enable a friction-less download of the song that you are listening to.

Apple has some advantages over Pandora, Slacker, and even Spotify because they already have 600 million devices on the market, which means 600 million iTunes users. They’ve also already negotiated their own licenses with most of the major labels. Billboard Magazine reports that Apple will pay $.16 cents per stream in addition to a portion of the advertising revenue. However, payments won’t begin until Apple reaches a pre-established threshold of users on the iTunes Radio service.

Will iTunes Radio bring the music streaming crowd back to Apple? U.S. residents will be the first to test it out.

Images: VB

Apple is throwing a curve ball to would be iPhone thieves.

Apple Solves The Stolen iPhone Problem

A stolen iPhone or iPad can be an incredibly big problem for a lot of people. The problem can get even worse for a startup founder. Often times startup founders have test flight, alpha versions of their product on their iPhone. They may also have proprietary user data and other really important information. Sure using a number code to unlock your iOS device can hinder some would be thieves, but plenty of them know the work-arounds.

Well today at Apple’s World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC), Apple software VP Craig Federighi put a damper on future iOS device thefts.

Apple has baked a new feature called “Activation Lock” into the new iOS 7 operating system. The feature works side by side with “Find My Phone.” When the user loses their iPhone, they can use their iTunes account to disable that particular device from getting re-activated for any reason. In effect the stolen iPhone has just become a total brick.

Now of course, like “Find My Phone,” the user is going to be responsible for actually turning the service on. Once it’s on though, you’ll have the comfort of knowing that no one else can access anything on your device or get it reset and start using it as their own. As for actually getting your phone back, well, for now you’re on your own.

iOS 7 will be available to developers today and the public beginning later this fall.

Source and image: VB

Top Android Developer Cyanogen gets the startup bug.

Whoops! Wired Reports That Jobs Responded From The iGrave

At the Sundance film festival this week one of the biggest movies of the year is already jOBS. The biopic film stars startup investor and Hollywood hotshot Ashton Kutcher as Steve Jobs.

While the film was screened at the event the first clips were released to the Internet depicting a conversation between Apple cofounder’s Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak.

Gizmodo published this reaction piece from their good friend Woz.

As you can tell Woz doesn’t seem to happy with the portrayal however he later says that if its fun and entertaining all is the better.

Now we realize that both the founders names were Steve however most everyone in America knows that. They also know that Jobs passed away October 5, 2011.

As most tech publications do, and we are doing right now, Wired picked up the Gizmodo piece.

In their article they attribute one of the quotes to Steve Jobs.

Typically, the author Hugh Hart is pretty good about reporting the facts and fact checking. We are talking about Steve Jobs here.

To our knowledge not even the iPhone 6 will be able to communicate posthumously.

iPhone 6 Rumors Already?

Apple’s product cycles are getting shorter and shorter. This may prove worrisome for investors who, despite Apple stock still being on top, have seen a rollercoaster ride this past year.

When Steve Jobs was alive and well and running Apple, it seemed that their products got updated on an annual basis. We would have an annual press event and launch for iMacs and Macbooks and another event later in the year for mobile products. That all seemed to change after Jobs passed away and next in line Tim Cook took over.

After AT&T’s exclusive deal with Apple ran out and Sprint and Verizon joined the ranks of wireless carriers selling the iPhone, Apple sped up the cycle, but not just on the iPhone, but on the iPad as well.

Last year, around this time, rumors of the iPad 3 started to bubble. At a press event in California Tim Cook unveiled the iPad 3, or what it was officially called “The New iPad” right before SXSW, consequently a year, almost to the day, after the release of the iPad 2.

So in the fall of 2012 when reporters were once again summoned to Silicon Valley, they left scratching their heads when Apple announced not only the iPad mini but the iPad 4th generation as well. The new generation of Apple’s 10″ flagship tablet immediately made “The New iPad” (not even the iPad 2), obsolete. It was “The New iPad” that halted production and purged from retail locations.

This left not only journalists scratching their heads but Apple fans as well. Loyal Apple fans and users were used to re-upping their mobile products on a somewhat annual basis and their computers either annually or every other year depending on the feature sets.

While Apple rumors are bubbling every day, it’s disturbing to some that not barely three months after the September 21st 2012 release of the iPhone 5, rumors of the iPhone 6 are hitting the net.

Now usually the earliest of Apple rumors originate from some no name blog site that’s getting a few hundred hits a week, however trusted startup and technology site The Next Web (TNW) has reported that “Developers Begin Seeing New Apple iPhone Hardware and iOS 7 in Usage Logs”.

While this is no indication that the iPhone 6 is just around the corner, the TNW article and this article at Business Insider suggest a mid year release date for the iPhone 6 refresh. That could put the release anywhere between May and August of 2013. August of course could line up perfectly with an annual release, and May would still seem a bit early.

The iPhone 5 was one of the most significant upgrades which was why the newest version got a number change, unlike the 4 to the 4s. The iPhone 5 increased the speed, added 4G LTE, a new (miserable) maps product and changed the connection port from 30 pin to their proprietary “lightning” port.

Many are hoping that the next iPhone will be even thinner and also incorporate new technologies like NFC.

We’ll have to wait and see for now.

Belkin First To Produce Lightning Accessories

When Apple made the decision this year to switch from the 30 pin connector that they introduced in 2001 to the new lightning connector on their devices today, the world went into a panicked frenzy. Now, households were going to have a mix of 30 pin devices and lightning devices, until eventually every Apple device they owned had a lightning connector.

The lightning connector is slimmer, can go in on either side and is considerably faster at both data transfer and charging. Because the connector is smaller it’s less likely to cause the cord to break if it gets tangled. The lightning connector also does away with the locking clip which makes it easier to pull the cord away from the device.

Although Apple’s loyal customers with older generation iPods, iPads and iPhones mixed into their iLifestyle, are undoubtedly upset, it’s Apple’s accessory partners that have to be feeling the biggest pinch. Companies that were known for their data accessories like Griffin, Belkin and even Verbatim, were able to revive themselves by making accessories for Apple’s consumer electronics.

Fret not, all of the accessory companies will eventually get around to making accessories with the lightning connector. Belkin is actually the first one out of the gate. The popular accessory company has produced a car charger and a home dock which both have lightning connectors.

While many of the case manufacturers have already had an iPhone 5, iPad Mini or the new, the new iPad case ready to go, accessories for power and audio are the ones most affected.

Larry Fishback, an Apple customer we met at the Lenox Square Apple store this weekend told us “I’ve got a home audio dock on my desk at home and another at work, as well as an in dash system that all use the old connector.” Fishback is a loyal Apple user and was purchasing an iPad Mini this weekend. For now he says he’s going to use the 3.5mm cord adapters for his docks. He plans on upgrading his iPhone 4s to an iPhone 5 when more lightning accessories are available.

Corrine Watson, also from Atlanta, is hoping that the new lightning connector devices will be able to control the music function on her iPhone 5. “Once I plug my iPod into my car stereo I can control it with the car stereo controls, I hope we can still do that with the itty bitty connector”.

BGR reports that Apple is holding a workshop for it’s accessory partners on the lightning connector. There are also Asian knock offs already on the market.

Both Belkin accessories retail for the normal $29.99 Apple accessory price.

Linkage:

Source: BGR

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Android Prepared Me For The iPad 4th Generation

Tuesday was a big day for Apple. Apple’s CEO Tim Cook took pride in announcing that it would be a big day for Apple when he took the stage at their standing room only press event in California Tuesday morning. A big day it was.

Apple announced a new 13″ MacBook Pro with Retina display and a bunch of great bells and whistles, two new iMacs, two new Mac Mini’s, a new full sized iPad and the new iPad mini.

Many people who went out and purchased a “The New iPad” this past spring felt a little stung by Phil Shiller’s announcement that they were unveiling a new “4th Generation iPad” while on stage Tuesday morning. From the way they choreographed the announcement it could have been the iPad mini that Shiller was touting just about until the very end. However it wasn’t.

Apple has decided to release a new 10″ version of the iPad alongside the new iPad mini. The 4th generation iPad will feature a A6x processor which is rumored to be twice as fast as the previous processor. Like it’s immediate predecessor “The New iPad” this new, new iPad will feature a retina display and it will also incorporate the new “lightning” connector which is becoming standard for Apple devices.

But why re-up the iPad just six months after “The New iPad” release? There were many factors involved in that decision and both journalists and analysts have been hypothesizing about it for the past 36 hours straight.

The reasons that make sense include:

Apple wanted to put the iPad and the iPad mini on the same schedule, just ahead of the holiday rush.

Apple wanted to put the A6x processor into a full sized iPad but it wasn’t ready in the spring.

Apple wanted to hurry up and get the “lightning” connector into the iPad but wanted to wait until it had hit the iPhone 5 first.

Apple wants to speed up it’s iteration/production cycle to thwart off competition.

It could have been anything but it’s Apple and as we’ve seen Apple does thing their own way. Being an early adopter though, a speed up in the Apple cycle could prove to be costly not only to myself but to many early adopters.

Personally, the verdict on the iPad 4th generation isn’t in just yet for me. I’m not sure if it’s a significant enough upgrade to actually warrant the change from “The New iPad” to this iPad 4th generation other than the fact that it’s the latest model. If you’ve read this piece here at nibletz.com then you know that I’ve been an Apple computer guy my entire life. I usually sit out a cycle when upgrading Macbooks and iMacs. Typically I take an iMac upgrade, and skip the next, the year I skip the iMac upgrade is the year that I do the Macbook upgrade.

The problem this time around is that it’s technically MacBook upgrade year but the iMac looks so great. Also, I upgraded my MacBook three months ago under Best Buy Black Tie protection. I had decided to get a MacBook Air because of our extremely tough travel schedule but the trackpad went out multiple times for multiple replacements and of course, after the second time the trackpad was rendered useless Best Buy gave me a credit. I then got the newest 2012 13″ MBP.

An upgrade on all fronts could prove to be a very costly endeavor.

I do know this though, after running a high profile Android website for three years and testing or using over 200 Android devices in that time, I was very well prepared for Apple canibalizing “The New iPad”

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Analysts: Apple Sold 18M iPads In Their Their Q4 2012

Apple’s Fiscal Q4 ended on September 30th and analysts are anxiously awaiting their 4th quarter results. It was a good year for the Cupertino based company, breaking stock price records repeatedly in their last 12 months.

In the spring of 2012 Apple released their newest iteration of the iPad. It wasn’t called iPad 3 as expected, instead Apple went with calling it “The New iPad”. This put retailers and vendors in a frenzy as the iPhone 5 approached, with companies like Best Buy opting to use signage that said “The New iPhone”. Of course, 10 days before the release of the newest iPhone, Apple confirmed it would be the iPhone 5.

The New iPad, saw a significant upgrade in processor speed, display (retina) and additional wireless speed with the addition of 4G/LTE on multiple carriers. Throughout three cycles of the iPad, Apple has been able to maintain roughly the same price point, as they have with all their previous releases of iPads, iPods and iPhones.

Apple is also expected to announce a 7″ version of their world famous slate as early as a press event next week. Many internet sources are reporting that Apple has ramped up production and ordered 10 million of the as yet unannounced devices.

As for The New iPad (the 10″ version), Analysts are suggesting that Apple has sold around 18.38 million units. Fortune Magazine’s Phillip Elmer-DeWitt polled 61 wall street analysts and independent firms to come up with that figure. If that’s the case, Apple has sold a million more iPads than the previous quarter and 60% more than the same time last year.

While the 10″ “The New iPad” has been around for six months, there’s still no slowing down the tablet machine. With the new increased size in the iPhone 5 many people are curious to see how many 7″ iPads can be sold. The “iPad Mini” is expected to be the “must have” gift this holiday season.

Linkage:

Source (never thought we’d ever do this but) Thedroidguy

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