A new iPhone may be on track to arrive this summer
According to the WSJ, Apple has two different phones in production, the follow-up to the iPhone 5 and the long-rumored low-cost iPhone. Read more »
Apple back on China’s good side after Tim Cook’s apology
it will be interesting to see what kind of precedent this sets for how Apple gets along in its No. 2 market with the Chinese media, and more importantly, the Chinese government. Read more »
China extracts personal apology from Apple CEO over iPhone warranty policies
photo: China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology
Open letters from the Apple CEO are few and far between, as are apologies. But from Tim Cook they come when he senses that public opinion is turning dangerously against the company — see also “Apple Maps.” Read more »
China consumer group demands Apple offer 2-year iPad warranties
China’s top consumer watchdog group is the latest to attack Apple over issues of consumer protection. It’s the latest bout of criticism Apple has received in the Chinese media. Read more »
What it takes to be a mobile hit: Five friends, zero VC dollars and lots of chutzpah
John Arrow is the 26-year-old CEO of a four year old mobile application company that has 375 employees. Here’s how he managed to grow his business while growing as a leader at Mutual Mobile. Read more »
A Facebook phone: Is this the final brick in the social network’s walled garden?
A “Facebook phone” is one of the longest-running rumors in the technology world, but a number of observers think such a beast is actually going to make an appearance next week. But do users actually want one? Read more »
The dark matter of the virtual world: resources
The era of constrained resources is just beginning, so right now access to resources acts as sort of dark matter, quietly putting pressure in complex ways on how the virtual world operates. Read more »
With Presence app, People Power pulls a pivot
photo: People Power
Energy management startup People Power is back with a new remote monitoring app designed to reuse old iOS devices as security cameras. It’s a nice app and People Power’s gateway drug to the internet of things. Read more »
IoT Podcast: Why the Hue internet light bulb is a bright idea
photo: Philips
Want the creation story behind the Philips Hue connected light bulbs? In this week’s podcast we explore that and what people are doing with Hue and what might be next for Philips in the connected home. Read more »
Apple ensnared in Chinese patent fight over Siri
Shanghai Zhi Zhen makes a product called Xiaoi, which the company calls a “chat robot system.” It says Siri violates a patent it holds on man-machine interaction. Read more »
Why Apple doesn’t need a cheap iPhone if T-Mobile does it for them
T-Mobile’s $99 unlocked iPhone 5 may be one way of putting an iPhone in the purses and pockets of more price-sensitive customers in the U.S. Read more »
Apple may expand retail presence in India, but plan still doesn’t include Apple Stores
A report out of India says that Apple plans to “triple its exclusive stores to around 200 by 2015″ in the country. Read more »
Survey: Tell us your thoughts on the future of the smart watch
With the smart watch making many headlines these days, we ask GigaOM readers to weigh in with their thoughts on the device: which features they want, how much they would pay, and which company will rule this market. Read more »
Apple loves China, but its government is not returning those feelings
Apple’s presence in China and how its products and brand are portrayed are critical to its future. That’s why the recent run-ins with the country’s state-run media could become a concern for the company. Read more »
Apple buys indoor location company WifiSlam
Apple is said to have paid around $20 million recently for the small, 2-year-old Silicon Valley company. Read more »
How closely knit design and engineering teams put Pinterest on a rocket ship
For companies in Silicon Valley who want to prioritize design, the real question is how to do it while also shipping engineering products to market. At Pinterest, the designers and engineers are vocal that you can, in fact, do both. Read more »
Why the EU is unlikely to crack down on Apple over its carrier contracts
photo: Shutterstock / Lisa F. Young
French carriers have reportedly made an unofficial complaint to EU competition authorities over Apple’s iPhone sales quotas. The Commission is unlikely to see this as a matter for an antitrust investigation. Read more »
Review: Apple’s Podcasts app catches up with the competition
With the Podcasts 1.2 update released Thursday, Apple’s own app is now on par with other iOS podcasting apps. One area in which it really excels now is automatic downloads of new episodes. Read more »
Apple warns developers it will stop accepting apps that access UDIDs on May 1
Other apps that won’t make the cut: those that are not optimized for the iPhone 5 or Retina displays. Read more »
Apple’s Podcasts app gets playlist creation, iCloud syncing and custom stations
Improvements to the app are long overdue since the Podcasts feature was broken out from iTunes as a standalone app last fall. Read more »
Google’s Motorola wins patent for octagon smartphone shape
photo: GigaOM
Do you remember Apple’s rounded rectangles patent? Well, this week Motorola obtained a patent for eight-sided smartphones. Read more »
Apple sued again, this time over security patents by Intertrust
Intertrust has 250 patents related to digital copy protection software security and has licensed them to plenty of Apple’s peers. Now it is using the iPhone maker for infringement. Read more »
How energy data will impact the smart grid
The deployment of smart meters combined with the growth of cloud computing infrastructure has created opportunities to build business models around the volume of emerging energy data. Those who use data to solve customer problems and leverage decades of software development and advances in big data will attract investment dollars. Read more »
Adobe’s CTO leaving the company and heading to Apple
The move to Apple is tinged with a bit of irony considering the bad blood between the two companies. Read more »
Apple issues fix for lock screen bug with iOS 6.1.3 update
Apple says its latest iOS update should fix a security flaw discovered in February; it also includes an update to Apple Maps in Japan. Read more »
EU says Apple still not conforming with warranty laws
Apple’s warranty practices come under fire again in Europe as EU Justice Commissioner calls for better enforcement of current consumer protection laws. Read more »
How the mega data center is changing the hardware and data center markets
photo: Facebook
Mega data centers’ innovations in serviceability, automatically detecting and recovering from failures, procurement practices, and so forth will become standard practice in all modern data centers. Read more »
Pot kettle BlackBerry: Thorsten Heins thinks the iPhone is outdated
While it’s amusing to hear critiques of iOS coming from the guy stuck with running BlackBerry, it’s clear that Apple’s competitors sense an opening. Read more »
Why I stopped wearing my iPod nano as a watch
I was an enthusiastic early adopter of the iPod nano with wristwatch case that arrived in 2010. But as a practical solution, it didn’t work. Here’s what I’m hoping a true Apple watch solution would be like and what it would avoid. Read more »
Media outlets will argue in Apple, Samsung appeal over sealed documents
Last years’ gigantic court fight between Apple and Samsung continues to have ripples in the court and the press. This week, an appeals court agreed to let the New York Times and others argue that documents in the case should not be secret. Read more »
Former Apple retail chief John Browett admits he was a bad fit at the company
It was apparent former Dixon CEO John Browett probably wasn’t going to fit in at Apple to many of us watching. Five months after his firing, he says his tenure ended over “fit, not competency.” Read more »
Mark Zuckerberg ousts Tim Cook as top employee-approved tech CEO, according to Glassdoor
photo: Flickr user Anirudh Koul
A year after Apple’s CEO topped Glassdoor’s employee rankings as best chief executive, he dropped down to No. 18 this year. SAP and Facebook’s CEOs are the new highest-rated CEOs. Read more »
On eve of Galaxy S4 launch, Apple exec dumps on Android
Surprise! Apple thinks Android is lame. In a brief, curiously timed interview with the Wall Street Journal, SVP of Worldwide Marketing Schiller ticked off reasons why he thinks iOS is better. Read more »
Judge rules Apple CEO Tim Cook must testify in ebook antitrust case
photo: Chris Hondros/Getty Images
A federal judge ruled Wednesday that Apple CEO Tim Cook must testify in the Department of Justice’s lawsuit against Apple for conspiring to fix ebook prices, citing Steve Jobs’ death as a key factor in her decision. Read more at paidContent »
Samsung spent $401M on Galaxy ads and iPhone mockery in 2012
photo: Samsung
Samsung’s U.S. smartphone spending in 2012 saw a huge jump from a total of $78 million in 2011. In the meantime, the company actually outspent Apple, which put $333 million toward iPhone ads during the year. Read more »
IDC tablet takeaway: Androids to outsell iPads this year as tablet sizes, prices shrink
That small slate market — which in Apple’s eyes, didn’t exist — will account for more sales than larger slates, says IDC. And due to lower prices, Android’s tablet market share will reach just past that of iOS this year. Read more »
Spotify hits 6 million paid users as market for music streaming heats up
A report shows that music subscription service Spotify continues to grow at a rapid pace. The growth validates Spotify’s business model but is also inviting a growing cluster of rivals. Read more at paidContent »
Like Amazon, Apple wants to create a marketplace for used digital goods
In a patent application filed Thursday, Apple outlined the possible creation of a marketplace for used digital goods. Amazon recently won a patent to create such a marketplace. Read more at paidContent »
6 ways to watch your own videos from your iPhone or Mac on your TV
A guide for how to watch one of your home movies in the privacy of your own home using the Apple TV, a Mac or an iOS device. Read more »
Analyst: Apple, could you be more like IBM, please?
UBS compares Apple and IBM and suggests based on their similarities Apple should do a bigger stock buyback and start a yearly analyst meeting to get analysts more face time with company executives. Read more »
