Bloomberg: Intel will supply modem chips for the next iPhone
Bloomberg is reporting that Intel will replace Qualcomm as the supplier of modem hardware for some models in the next generation of iPhones. The news service believes that the move is down to Apple’s desire to “diversify its supplier” base for the best-selling devices. Intel will provide the wireless hardware for the GSM version of the device, compatible with AT&T and T-Mobile in the US as well as most worldwide carriers. Qualcomm, meanwhile, will still provide the gear that goes into the Verizon/Sprint model, as well as for other mobile networks that use the CDMA protocol.
It’s a small step for Apple, but a pretty giant leap for Intel, a company that famously turned down the chance to supply key components for the iPhone. Before the first generation device launched, then CEO Paul Otellini was offered the chance to fabricate the processors that would reside within each handset. But, as the chips were designed by a rival, ARM, he decided to take a pass. It wound up costing him big, and firms like Samsung became wealthy from his mistake knocking out the A-series of mobile CPUs.
Realizing its mistake too late, Intel attempted to beat ARM on its own turf, releasing a series of low-power mobile chips designed for Android smartphones. But the gear arrived too late and was considerably slower than the alternatives from Qualcomm, NVIDIA and Samsung. The demise of the PC market has compounded the issue, and the company is now lurching around in crisis mode. Earlier this year it revealed that it’ll have to fire 12,000 employees and re-shape its business in order to remain relevant in the new world.
Source: Bloomberg
Apple Stores are being targeted by thieves dressed as employees
People say carrying a clipboard, wearing a hard hat and acting like you belong can get you into any place you want. Well, a number of thieves in NYC adopted that idea to steal thousands of dollars worth of iPhones. They simply dressed like Apple Store employees and went straight to the shops’ storage drawers. Back in March, a store on the Upper West Side was targeted by fake personnel twice. The location lost 67 iPhones, which amounts to almost $50,000, from the heist. This time, someone stole 19 iPhones from the company’s retail store in SoHo.
According to DNAInfo, the man used the same MO: he also dressed up as an employee to get into the backroom and nab $16,130 worth of devices. He and an accomplice simply stuffed the phones in their shirts and walked out. As Gizmodo notes, Cupertino’s new uniforms might be to blame. The company used to make its store personnel wear themed shirts for every new product launch or for every season.
Last year, however, retail chief Angela Ahrendts introduced permanent blue shirts with tiny Apple logos, which are pretty easy to dupe or to buy online. While smaller stores will obviously be harder to infiltrate, the company’s larger locations remain susceptible to the same scheme until it imposes tougher security measures.
Via: Gizmodo
Source: DNAinfo, New York Post
Apple creates a new company to sell solar energy
Apple has a new product quite unlike the ones you’re used to: solar energy. The tech giant has formed a new subsidiary called Apple Energy LLC in order to sell surplus solar power generated by its farms in Cupertino and Nevada. As The Verge notes, the company’s newest environmental responsibility report says it only generates enough energy to provide 93 percent of the electricity it needs worldwide. However, Apple might have plans to expand its farms even further to prepare for new projects, such as charging stations for the long-rumored Apple car.
In Apple’s Federal Energy Regulatory Commission filing, which 9to5Mac spotted, it said it could legally sell energy at market rates since it’s not a big energy company and can’t influence the price of electricity. While it could mean that Cupertino is thinking of selling power directly to home or business owners, most corporations sell surplus energy to power companies. We guess we’ll know what Apple’s up to soon enough: it requested permission from FERC to begin the LLC’s operations 60 days after it filed its application on June 6th.
Via: The Verge, 9to5Mac
Source: FERC Online
Apple hints at OS X rebrand in the App Store
If you think about it, OS X isn’t really a great name for Apple’s Mac operating system. It was just meant to be the next OS after Mac OS 9, but because it has a nice round (roman) number and used all-new UNIX-based tech, Apple has stuck with the name for nigh on 17 years. According to the rumor mill and apparent slip-up on the App Store, that’s about to change, however. It now seems likely that Apple will change OS X to macOS, essentially reverting to its pre-1999 naming scheme.
“macOS”. Seen on Apple’s app subscription FAQ.https://t.co/890TR0LGz6 pic.twitter.com/JPOwp7NlDB
— Rob Hunt (@helloiamrob) June 8, 2016
Twitter user Rob Hunt spotted the “macOS” on Apple’s app subscription FAQ, and 9to5 Mac noticed that the company quickly changed it back to Mac OS X. That site also noticed that Apple used the moniker on OS X framework and environmental webpages earlier this year. Based on the change to the App Store, the betting is that Apple will announce the name change and reveal the first version of macOS at WWDC 2016, set to start on June 13th.
Via: 9 to 5 Mac
Source: Rob Hunt (Twitter)
Apple’s App Store is changing, starting with subscriptions
At next week’s WWDC, Apple is set to unveil some major changes to the way developers and users interact with the App Store. According to Apple’s senior VP of Worldwide Marketing (and perennial WWDC keynote presence) Phil Schiller, Apple is working to improve everything from the app review experience to the discovery process. But the most notable change is a shift in the business models to allow for subscriptions from any kind of app.
As The Verge reports today, the 70/30 revenue split between developers and Apple will stay in place, but apps that keep a user subscribed for more than a year will see that split shift in their favor to 85/15. “Now we’re going to open up to all categories,” Schiller told The Verge, “and that includes games, which is a huge category.”
According to LoopInsight, developers will be able to choose “one of over 200 subscription price points” and will be able to create region-specific pricing. If a developer chooses to raise a subscription price, users will have to re-authorize the price increase. The new system will also effect current subscription-based apps.
The shift looks enticing for developers, who will now be able to offer their apps and games for a monthly fee rather than a single price up front. And with iPhone sales finally on the decline, the arrangement also allows Apple to turn existing users into even more lucrative revenue streams.
Also per Schiller, Apple will be introducing display ads into the iOS App Store search results for the first time. Although Apple has previously stated that Featured positioning in the App Store is “not for sale,” Schiller now feels confident they’ve built a system that will work for everyone. The auction system behind the ads, Schiller said, will be “fair to developers and fair for indie developers, too.”
As for the app review process, Schiller says that the turnaround time has dropped to the point where a full half of the apps submitted to Apple are reviewed in the first 24 hours and 90 percent are reviewed within two days.
Finally, Schiller is looking to drive even more traffic to the App Store, to the point where it becomes a daily visit for most users. One of the ways Apple plans to do that is to add a “Share” button to every app’s 3D Touch menu on the home screen. As you might expect, tapping the share button allows you to shoot off a download link on your social network of choice.
Google Also Planning to Adopt 85/15 Subscription Revenue Split for Developers
Just hours after Apple announced plans to implement App Store revenue sharing changes that will see developers getting an 85/15 revenue split for subscriptions maintained for longer than a year, Re/code says Google is planning on implementing a similar change for Android.
According to unnamed sources, Google is going to implement the same 85/15 split, but unlike Apple, Google will make the new revenue sharing changes available without the one year requirement. It is not known when Google will roll out its revenue changes to all developers.
Now Google plans to up the ante at its app store: It will also move from a 70/30 split to 85/15 for subscriptions — but instead of requiring developers to hook a subscriber for 12 months before offering the better split, it will make it available right away.
Sources said Google has already been testing the new split with some entertainment companies (so has Apple, to some extent). Google started running the new model over a year ago with video services as a way to get Play subscriptions to work with its TV streaming offerings like the Cast dongle.
Apple currently takes a 30 percent cut of subscription fees in the App Store with 70 percent going to developers, but that’s changing with a new policy that will implement an 85/15 split if a customer stays subscribed to an app for more than one year.
For example, if a customer subscribes to Netflix through the App Store and pays $7.99 per month, for the first year, 30 percent of that amount goes to Apple. If a customer stays subscribed, at the start of the second year, Apple’s share will drop to 15 percent, giving Netflix 85 percent.
In addition to a new revenue sharing model, Apple expanded App Store subscriptions to encompass all App Store categories, giving developers more options for selling their apps and earning revenue, and it introduced ads for App Store search results.
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Apple’s App Store is changing, starting with subscriptions
At next week’s WWDC, Apple is set to unveil some major changes to the way developers and users interact with the App Store. According to Apple’s senior VP of Worldwide Marketing (and perennial WWDC keynote presence) Phil Schiller, Apple is working to improve everything from the app review experience to the discovery process. But the most notable change is a shift in the business models to allow for subscriptions from any kind of app.
As The Verge reports today, the 70/30 revenue split between developers and Apple will stay in place, but apps that keep a user subscribed for more than a year will see that split shift in their favor to 85/15. “Now we’re going to open up to all categories,” Schiller told The Verge, “and that includes games, which is a huge category.”
According to LoopInsight, developers will be able to choose “one of over 200 subscription price points” and will be able to create region-specific pricing. If a developer chooses to raise a subscription price, users will have to re-authorize the price increase. The new system will also effect current subscription-based apps.
The shift looks enticing for developers, who will now be able to offer their apps and games for a monthly fee rather than a single price up front. And with iPhone sales finally on the decline, the arrangement also allows Apple to turn existing users into even more lucrative revenue streams.
Also per Schiller, Apple will be introducing display ads into the iOS App Store search results for the first time. Although Apple has previously stated that Featured positioning in the App Store is “not for sale,” Schiller now feels confident they’ve built a system that will work for everyone. The auction system behind the ads, Schiller said, will be “fair to developers and fair for indie developers, too.”
As for the app review process, Schiller says that the turnaround time has dropped to the point where a full half of the apps submitted to Apple are reviewed in the first 24 hours and 90 percent are reviewed within two days.
Finally, Schiller is looking to drive even more traffic to the App Store, to the point where it becomes a daily visit for most users. One of the ways Apple plans to do that is to add a “Share” button to every app’s 3D Touch menu on the home screen. As you might expect, tapping the share button allows you to shoot off a download link on your social network of choice.
Run Android on an iPhone – with some heavy engineering and caveats
Familiar with cramming one operating system into somewhere it doesn’t belong, developers at Tendigi have just created a homemade iPhone case that lets you run Android on your iOS smartphone. (Well, kind of). Fortunately, because of the Android Open Source Project, it gave Nick Lee the freedom to clone the mobile OS and build his own local hardware. Before he went that far, Lee decided to test the concept — streaming Android across to an iPhone through a cable — with a Nexus 5. He needed tools that could communicate with iOS, as well as services that let USB cables play nice with an iPhone. Lee also crafted software that transmitted what was happening on the Android devices’ screen to the iPhone, while also send touch-input back. The next challenge: cramming it all into an iPhone “case”. See it working after the break.
He then made his own tiny Android development board (all the technical specifics are here), linking it to the soon-to-be franken-iPhone and its own power supply, prototyping and 3D-printing an enclosure to house it all and attach to the iPhone. It’s not the prettiest case, and really you’re ‘streaming’ Android to your iPhone screen, but it’s the man-hours thought that counts, right?
Source: Tendigi
Custom Built Case Allows Android to Work With an iPhone
Developer and Tendigi CTO Nick Lee, who previously got an Apple Watch to run Windows 95, today showed off a new project he’s been working on, which allows Android to work with an iPhone using a specialized iPhone case.
As seen in the video below, Lee created a 3D printed iPhone case and outfitted it with a built-in Lemaker HiKey board, a battery pack, and other hardware so it could support a version of Android. The case plugs into an iPhone’s Lightning port, turning the iPhone into a display and emulating touch events on Android. While the iPhone is able to display the Android operating system, the Android OS itself is powered by the hardware in the case.
Lee outlines the case’s creation process in a detailed post on Medium, explaining that he figured out how to clone the Android Open Source Project to make a customized version of Android Marshmallow, which is what is displayed on the iPhone.
Over several design iterations and experiments with 3D printing, Lee was able to shrink the case containing the parts down to a reasonable size and perfect the connection between the case and the iPhone. The result is an relatively thick iPhone case that lets the iPhone display and control a full version of Android.
Like Windows 95 running on the Apple Watch, Lee’s Android case is conceptual and not practical for real world use, but it’s an interesting take on getting Android to work with an iPhone.
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Microsoft Launches Trello-Like ‘Planner’ App For Office 365 Subscribers
Microsoft has announced it is rolling out a new project management and collaboration app called Planner to all Office 365 subscribers for free from today.
Similar to Trello in concept, Planner enables users to organize projects into “buckets”, or collections of tasks that can then be dragged and dropped between buckets in the project interface.
Planner has a marked emphasis on team collaboration: tasks can be assigned to individual team members and users can get a visual overview of task responsibilities, progress, and upcoming deadlines.
The company has been trialling the app through a select few customers since September, but the planned rollout “over the next several weeks” marks the app’s official entrance into the standard Office suite of apps.
Existing Office users needn’t do anything to access the app, as the tile should appear in the Office 365 launcher as soon as it becomes available.
In recent months Apple has been including a subscription option for Microsoft Office 365 in all iPad ordering processes on its website, a move that initially raised a few eyebrows, since Apple usually positions its iWork suite as a better alternative to Microsoft’s Office apps.
A one-year, single-license Office 365 subscription on Apple’s website costs $69.95. A five-license subscription costs $99.95 and a four-year, two-license University download comes in at $79.95.
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