Apple may not have answer for Google’s music service at WWDC
Reports indicate Apple is still working out the licensing details with music publishers for its “iRadio” service. Read more »
Apple CEO will detail his corporate tax policy ideas to Congress next week
photo: Credit: Asa Mathat | All Things Digital
It’s an unfamiliar role for an Apple executive to be in. But Tim Cook will say that while he believes 35 percent is too high of a corporate tax, he also doesn’t think “zero” taxes on that money is reasonable. Read more »
Apple’s app store hits 50 billion downloads
Apple announced a big milestone in app downloads on Wednesday, the same day that Google’s I/O developer conference kicked off in San Francisco. The app store has now seen 50 million downloads so far. Read more »
Apple sued over faulty power button on iPhone 4
A new lawsuit claims the iPhone4 has a defective on-off button. The national class action claims Apple knew about the defect but didn’t disclose it even as it worked with AT&T to sell 2 year contracts. Read more »
The Hue lightbulb makes some connected friends and gets new skills
photo: Philips
Philips is giving its connected Hue light bulb an update that connects it to IFTTT so people can tie their light bulbs into existing web services. It’s also adding a location-aware feature and scheduling. Read more »
Sandvine report confirms: video makes bandwidth hogs of us all
Video has long been the driving force behind our growth in broadband traffic. The latest Sandvine report shows us that’s still the case and offers clues on how ISPs may cope. Read more »
iTunes’ recent growth shows content could be a big business for Apple
iTunes’ increasingly good quarterly sales demonstrates how the long-rumored Apple video and “iRadio” subscription services the company has over the years tried to bring to fruition could become significant revenue sources. Read more »
How Apple could pull ahead in the Mac vs PC speed race again
While things are not quite what they used to be, Apple does still have a shot at impressing its seemingly forgotten Mac Pro customers by putting the power back into its Macs. Read more »
With Cloud Drive Photos, Amazon makes a play to be the cloud app for iOS photos
Something Amazon is really good at and something Apple is not: the cloud. Amazon hones in on its competitors’ cloud-based photo territory on Apple’s own platform with a new app. Read more »
Financial Times joins Flipboard, says it’s a better deal than Apple
The Financial Times is the latest publisher to strike a partnership with Flipboard. The deal is interesting because the FT recently left another third-party platform, iTunes. Read more at paidContent »
What Apple really means when it says it has “sold” a product
photo: Getty Images / Daniel Barry
When Apple says it sold 37.5 million iPhones and 19.5 million iPads this is often interpreted as Apple declaring that 37.5 million iPhones and 19.5 million iPads have been purchased by customers. That’s not quite the whole story. Read more »
Losing its way: Why Google would be stupid to let Facebook acquire Waze
photo: Flickr / Dunechaser
News reports out of Israel say Facebook is in talks to acquire traffic-information service Waze for as much as $1 billion, but Google will be making a big mistake if it doesn’t try to top that offer. Read more »
Apple wins trademark case over ‘iBooks’
Apple has won one of its many lawsuits involving “i” products — a federal judge threw out a case in which a New York publisher claimed that it, not Apple, has the rights to use “iBooks.” Read more »
Google lets iOS apps direct users to Chrome instead of Safari
Google is helping third-party iOS app makers send their users to Chrome instead of the default Safari browser. It’s yet another step in the company finding ways to reach its users on Apple’s own platform. Read more »
If Apple decides to make a television, Foxconn will be ready to build it
Foxconn isn’t looking for ways to reduce its dependence on Apple; it’s really looking for ways to rely less on the iPhone. Read more »
Recruiting new iPhone carriers may be harder than adding individual users
The key to Apple’s growth is finding international carriers that will sell the iPhone to new smartphone users. But, as Bloomberg points out, that’s getting harder to do because of Apple’s requirements. Read more »
EU warns Motorola over standards-essential patent ‘abuse’
Europe’s antitrust authorities have invited Motorola to defend itself over its use of essential patents as legal weapons against Apple, despite Apple’s willingness to pay what it considered a reasonable royalty rate. Read more »
iPhone remains top US smartphone, while iOS gains a bit of ground on Android
photo: Samsung
The U.S. smartphone story didn’t change too drastically in the first quarter of 2013: Android is still used by more than half of all smartphones and the iPhone is still by far the most popular smartphone in the U.S. Read more »
Why your favorite iOS apps may look different six months from now
Should Apple roll out a version of iOS with a new and fresher design language this fall, third-party iOS app makers will very likely follow suit. Read more »
iPad is top selling tablet, but Android now most common tablet OS, says IDC
Tablet sellers had a really good first quarter. As a result, Apple’s overall share of tablet sales is slipping. Read more »
With MetroPCS, T-Mobile could help Apple reach 9 million new potential iPhone buyers
It may not be the iPhone 5 they buy — the iPhone 4 or iPhone 4S may prove more attractive — but that’s OK. Read more »
Major changes to iOS 7 coming — what will it mean for OS X 10.9?
Rushing to finish an overhaul to iOS 7 has meant Mac team members have “been roped in to help the mobile software group finish the job,” Bloomberg reports. Read more »
Apple looking for deeper iOS integration into cars
A report on Tuesday indicates Apple has bigger plans for the car beyond a hands-free assistant app: teaming up with carmakers to offer Apple Maps and Siri on a car’s in-dash system. Read more »
With UDID gone, the mobile-ad floodgates will open – straight to Apple iOS
With the sunset of UDID this coming week, a major barrier to mobile ads will fall. The new system for iOS will benefit advertisers while still protecting consumers, and will become a revenue juggernaut for Apple. Read more »
iTunes turns 10. What’s in store for the next decade?
A decade after the launch of iTunes, Apple is still the king of digital music. But as attitudes about music ownership continue to shift, the software’s next 10 years will likely be more challenging than its last. Read more »
As smartphone shipments surpass feature phones, Samsung rules the galaxy
Smartphone shipments eclipsed those of feature phones for the first time ever, says IDC. Who’s the current smartphone king, based on the numbers? Samsung is, with a strategy that started in 2010. Read more »
Missed out on a WWDC ticket? Try an alternative conference, one block away
photo: Erica Ogg
The second-ever AltWWDC conference, an alternative to Apple’s WWDC developer conference, is seeing lots of interest as organizers line up speakers. Read more »
WWDC sold out in minutes — but ticket-less developers can follow along at home
Instead of waiting weeks after the conference is over, Apple says it will be posting the training session videos online as the conference is going on. Read more »
The Mac didn’t do as bad as the PC last quarter, but it’s stopped growing
photo: Om Malik
Apple said it sold 3.95 million Macs during its second fiscal quarter, which is ever-so-slightly below the 4.01 million it sold a year ago. It’s the second straight quarter of no growth for the Mac. Read more »
Apple’s WWDC starts June 10, will showcase new versions of iOS, OS X
It sounds like iOS 7 and OS X 10.9 will be introduced. What’s not as good a bet is that we’ll see new hardware introduced at the show — Tim Cook yesterday referenced “fall” and “2014″ for new products. Read more »
As the iPhone matures, Apple looks to older versions to drive growth
Apple’s CEO says the nearly three-year-old iPhone 4 is an important part of the company’s strategy for expanding the ranks of iPhone owners to include first-time ever buyers. Read more »
Why it’s time for Twitter to add two-factor authentication
photo: alexmillos/Shutterstock.com
As the stakes rise for Twitter when it comes to the security and monetary risks surrounding tweets, it’s time for the company to consider stepping up its security practices to keep accounts safer from hacks. Read more »
Apple’s online services struggles continue with GameCenter, iCloud, iTunes outage
Tuesday morning’s outage is the second multi-hour problem Apple iCloud and online services users have experienced in the last two weeks. Read more »
The first Firefox OS dev phones are on sale
Produced by the obscure Spanish outfit Geeksphone, the Keon and Peak are the first devices to ship bearing Mozilla’s HTML5-centric operating system. Prices start at $119 before taxes. Read more »
Data centers are getting more sophisticated, so why aren’t our metrics keeping up?
photo: Microsoft
As the web giants, co-lo providers and cloud companies add millions of square feet of data center space we need to start getting more sophisticated in how we view these rooms full of servers. Read more »
Older model iPhones are more popular than ever
By the end of March, Apple was selling more iPhone 5 devices as a share of iPhones than in December. But at the same time, the share of older model phones it is selling has never been higher. Read more »
Without a big product launch, don’t expect too much from Apple’s Q2 earnings tomorrow
photo: Chris Hondros/Getty Images
January through March sales are always slower compared to the holiday buying period. And all of Apple’s major products — iPhone, iPad, iPad mini, Macs — were refreshed in the fall, leaving Apple with no major new device release during the quarter. Read more »
Digital capitalism is the most Darwinian capitalism: The economics of building a platform
Platform companies from Apple to OpenTable take a commission from developers or merchants. But figuring out how much to take has huge repercussions on the business explains Benchmark’s Bill Gurley. Read more »
Ever wonder what Apple does with your Siri data?
Apple confirms the anonymized information may be kept “for up to two years.” But when Siri is turned off all the user data is deleted. Read more »
Google’s infrastructure spending spree continues; $1.2B in Q1
photo: Google
Google spent $1.2 billion on property and equipment in the first quarter of 2013, nearly doubling last year’s first quarter. Read more »
