iCloud Website Error Hints at Upcoming iCloud Bookmarks Feature

An error on Apple’s iCloud.com portal is displaying a “Coming Soon” page for iCloud Bookmarks, suggesting that the website may soon gain functionality for displaying iCloud Bookmarks saved in Safari on a Mac or an iOS device.

An online iCloud Bookmarks section, if added to iCloud, could be useful for users that wish to access their bookmarks on a computer that is not used regularly. While iCloud already syncs Safari bookmarks between Macs and iOS devices, iCloud bookmarks are not currently accessible via iCloud.com.

First discovered by a Twitter user (via 9to5Mac), the iCloud Bookmarks page can be seen briefly when visiting a specific URL, originally accessed by installing the Chrome extension from the iCloud Control Panel for Windows app on a PC: http://icloud.com/bookmarks_extension

Though the page text suggests that an iCloud Bookmarks feature could be in the works for iCloud.com, it is possible, based on the “extension” URL, that it is referring to an iCloud Bookmarks extension, but iCloud browser extensions for both Chrome and Firefox on Windows and Mac have been available for several months following the launch of iOS 7.

As noted by 9to5Mac, the introductory screen also features the iOS 7-style design for Bookmarks, which seems to indicate that it was rather recently created, pointing more towards a new feature than an old page for an existing feature.

Apple has been hard at work beefing up iCloud during the last year. At WWDC, the company introduced iWork for iCloud, giving users a way to work on collaborative documents from any device, and more recently many of the apps received a full iOS 7-style redesign.

Apple Releases iOS 7.0.5 With Bug Fixes

Apple today released iOS 7.0.5 for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch with a minor update to correct network provisioning for some iPhone 5s and 5c models sold in China.

AT&T Offering $200 Off Cellular iPads With 2-Year Commitment, $100 Off New Lines w/No Contract

AT&T is now offering customers $200 off cellular iPads when added to an existing Mobile Share data plan, with a two-year commitment. It’s one of the best discounts we’ve seen for new iPads and it is available on all iPad models offered by AT&T, including the iPad Air and iPad mini, both with and without Retina display.

The deal combines an existing promotion that offers $100 off tablets with contract and a new promotion that offers $100 bill credits to customers who add a new smartphone or tablet to an existing account.

An AT&T spokesperson confirmed to MacRumors that the two promotions can be used together. $100 of the credit will be applied at purchase while the other $100 will appear as a bill credit within 3 billing cycles. Customers must remain with AT&T for 45 days to receive the bill credit.

A 16GB Retina iPad mini is normally $529, but would be available through the program for $329 after both credits, while the $629 16GB iPad Air would end up at $429.

The promotions are available to all AT&T customers, new and existing, who have or sign up for Mobile Share plans. The $100 bill credit promotion also applies to iPhone purchases when adding a new line, both on-contract and on AT&T’s Next financing plan.

The new $100 bill credit is also available when customers bring their own device. That is, users who already own an iPhone or cellular iPad can open a new line on a Mobile Share plan and receive a $100 bill credit with no commitment beyond 45 days.

Purchases can be made at AT&T retail stores as well as its online store at ATT.com.

U.S. cellular carriers have been in a marketing war in recent months, particularly between T-Mobile and AT&T. Recently, AT&T began a new promotion to offer up to $450 in credits to customers that switch to it from T-Mobile, while T-Mobile launched a similar program offering up to $350 in credits to customers that switch to it.

Apple’s Share of Tablet Market Sees Slight Holiday Quarter Boost

Following its mobile phone report earlier this week, research firm IDC has published its estimates of tablet shipments for the fourth quarter of 2013, showing that Apple continues to lead the market with roughly one-third of all shipments.

Worldwide tablet shipments in 4Q13 in millions of units (Source: IDC)
Apple’s share of the market has generally declined over the past two years amid the proliferation of low-cost Android tablets, particularly unbranded “whitebox” devices in the Chinese market. The holiday quarter with refreshed iPads did, however, allow Apple to raise its share of the market to 33.8 percent from 29.7 percent in the previous quarter.

Apple once again led the worldwide market for tablets, shipping 26 million units during the quarter, up from 14.1 million the previous quarter and 22.9 million in 4Q12. While the quarter represented the company’s most successful on record, its year-over-year growth of 13.5% was well below the industry average. The numbers bring into focus the challenges the company faces as it attempts to grow its tablet business in markets outside of its traditional mature-market strongholds and in the face of continued success from competitors both large and small.

Apple saw its worldwide tablet market share for the quarter grow to 33.8%, up from 29.7% in the third quarter but down from its 38.2% share in the fourth quarter of 2012.

Apple’s iPad shipments (red) and share of worldwide tablet shipments (blue) for 2Q11–4Q13 (Source: IDC)
As always, it is important to note that IDC’s numbers track shipments instead of sales, and thus how many shipped devices are making their way into consumers’ hands remains unclear. IDC’s figures are also estimates, as most companies do not release their exact tablet shipment data and thus research firms must rely on supply chain data and calculations from information that is made public by manufacturers to build their estimates.

Stock Prices of Japanese Suppliers Slip in Response to Apple’s Earnings [iOS Blog]

Negative reactions to Apple’s Q1 2014 earnings report extended overseas to Japanese component manufacturers, says Reuters. Suppliers such as Taiyo Yuden, TDK, Sharp and Nitto Denko saw their stock prices fall by as much as 3.9 percent following the release of Apple’s quarterly financial results.

Stock prices of these Japanese suppliers are expected to rebound because of their broad client base, but Japanese analysts believe Apple will remain stagnant.

“The company is unlikely to expect profit growth from now on as the iPhone market has been saturated,” a fund manager at a Japanese asset management firm said. “In order to sell in China and emerging countries, the company needs to cut prices more aggressively, so there is also pressure on parts makers.”

Despite these negative global projections, demand for Apple products in Japan remains strong. During Apple’s earning conference call, Tim Cook said iPhone sales rose 40% in Japan, due to a new distribution deal with the country’s largest mobile operator NTT Docomo.

Gmail Bug Mislabeled Some Messages as Spam or Trash [iOS Blog]

A Gmail glitch earlier this month resulted in some users accidentally deleting emails and unintentionally reporting others as spam (via The Verge). The bug occurred when users were managing their inboxes, and the system inadvertently applied these actions to the wrong email messages.

In a notice appearing for some Gmail users, Google confirmed this issue occurred between January 15 and 22 and is now fixed. It only affected users who accessed Gmail via the iOS app, a mobile browser, or offline in a desktop browser. Google advises users to check their spam folder and trash for emails that were marked incorrectly.

The issue is the second round of technical difficulties for Google’s Gmail service in less than a week. Late last week, Google’s cloud services went offline for approximately an hour. The Friday afternoon outage affected Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Talk, Google Drive, Google Groups and other services.

President Obama Mentions Apple-Backed School Broadband Initiative During State of the Union Address

During his yearly State of the Union address, President Barack Obama mentioned that the Federal Communications Commission, along with tech companies such as Apple, Microsoft, Sprint and Verizon, would be providing the framework needed to connect over 15,000 schools and 20 million students to high-speed Internet over the next two years.

The move is a part of the ConnectED initiative that the President announced back in June, which pledged to connect 99% of students to next-generation, high-speed broadband within five years, at speeds no less than 100 Mbps and with a target of 1Gbps.

Last year, I also pledged to connect 99 percent of our students to high-speed broadband over the next four years. Tonight I can announce that with the support of the FCC and companies like Apple, Microsoft, Sprint, and Verizon, we’ve got a down payment to start connecting more than 15,000 schools and 20 million students over the next two years, without adding a dime to the deficit.

Apple also provided a statement to The Loop about its role in the ConnectED initiative:

“We are proud to join President Obama in this historic initiative to transform America’s schools,” Apple said in a statement provided to The Loop. “Apple has a long history in education, and we have pledged to contribute MacBooks, iPads, software and our expertise to support the ConnectED project. We look forward to announcing more details with the White House soon.”

An accompanying fact sheet to the State of the Union address [PDF link] also stated that the President will announce “new philanthropic partnerships” with the tech companies mentioned throughout the coming weeks. Apple was also mentioned during last year’s State of the Union, with the President lauding the company’s move to again build Macs in America.

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