Apple Adds ‘Red Bull TV’ Action Sports Channel to Apple TV

Apple today expanded the lineup for its Apple TV set-top box, adding a new Red Bull TV channel with free action sports content carrying branding from the energy drink company. As noted by Variety, the channel includes coverage of live events, as well as curated playlists and on-demand content.

Red Bull TV live programming, films, shows and clips are now available to Apple TV users worldwide for free. Launched in 2010, Red Bull TV features “inspirational entertainment programming” designed to promote the beverage and its high-action brand image. Content includes live global events and sports, music and lifestyle entertainment.

Red Bull TV has also been available as an iOS app for several years.

Red Bull TV is just the latest in a long line of channel additions for the Apple TV over the last six months, with the most recent major expansion coming last month with the addition of Watch ABC, Bloomberg, Crackle, and KORTV.

Apple Continues to Lose Smartphone Share, Gain Mobile Phone Share in 4Q 2013 [iOS Blog]

Even as Apple’s share of the smartphone market declined in the fourth quarter of 2013, the rise of smartphones to replace more basic feature phones has allowed the company to continue increasing its share of the overall mobile phone market, according to new numbers from research firm IDC.

According to IDC, yearly smartphone shipments topped one billion for the first time in 2013 and now represent 55 percent of mobile phone shipments, up from under 42 percent in 2012. The fourth quarter alone saw smartphone capture over 58 percent of the overall mobile phone market.

Worldwide smartphone shipments in 4Q13 in millions of units (Source: IDC)
For full-year 2013, Apple’s iPhone sales increased by 12.9 percent over 2012, trailing the broader smartphone industry’s growth rate of 38.4 percent. Apple was, however, still able to retain firm control of second place in the rankings behind Samsung even as Apple’s market share fell from 18.7 percent to 15.3 percent. It was a similar story for the fourth quarter on its own, with Apple’s 6.7 percent growth in shipments trailing the broader market and causing the company’s share to dip from 20.9 percent to 17.9 percent.

Apple posted record shipment volume during 4Q13, driven primarily by the addition of multiple countries offering the iPhone 5S and 5C, and sustained demand from its initial markets that saw these models launch at the end of 3Q13. Still, Apple had the lowest year-on-year increase of all the leading vendors. Now that Apple has finally arrived at China Mobile, it remains to be seen how much Apple will close the gap against Samsung in 2014.

But when looking at the overall mobile phone market, Apple performs much better due to its exclusive focus on the rapidly growing smartphone segment. According to IDC’s numbers, Apple easily outpaced overall market growth of 4.8 percent for 2013 and 0.9 percent for the fourth quarter alone, boosting Apple to an 8.4 percent share for the full year and 10.4 percent for fourth quarter. Apple continues to sit firmly in third place among all mobile phone manufacturers behind Samsung and a rapidly falling Nokia.

Worldwide mobile phone shipments in 4Q13 in millions of units (Source: IDC)
Just yesterday, Apple released its earnings report for the fourth quarter (first fiscal quarter of 2014), revealing fairly strong overall performance but weaker than expected iPhone numbers that helped drive Apple’s stock down nearly 8 percent at the opening of trading today. And with the iPhone accounting for 56 percent of Apple’s revenue for the quarter, it’s clear the device continues to be the main factor in measuring Apple’s success.

Carl Icahn Buys $500 Million More in Apple Shares Following Earnings Dip [Mac Blog]

Activist investor Carl Icahn revealed this morning that he has purchased an additional $500 million in Apple shares following Wall Street’s disappointment with the company’s earnings announcement yesterday.

Apple’s share price closed at $550 yesterday, before falling as low as $503 at open this morning.

Just last week, Icahn announced that his share in Apple had passed $3 billion, then a day later he purchased another $500 million, and now, with the addition of today’s shares, Icahn now owns somewhere in excess of $4 billion in Apple, nearly 1% of the company.

Icahn has repeatedly pushed Apple to increase buyback of its own shares and yesterday’s news that the company has increased its cash on hand to more than $158 billion will likely have Icahn reiterating that demand.

Only 22 percent of Apple’s cash — some $34.4 billion — is located in the United States. The remaining $124.4 billion is located offshore, and Apple would need to pay significant amounts of corporate income tax if it were to bring that money back to the States for a share repurchase.

Apple and several other tech companies have been active in lobbying the Government to allow companies to bring cash back to the United States as part of a one-year “tax holiday”.

Just bought $500 mln more $AAPL shares. My buying seems to be going neck-and-neck with Apple's buyback program, but hope they win that race.

— Carl Icahn (@Carl_C_Icahn) January 28, 2014

Nintendo Denies Report of Plans to Release Demo Games on iOS

A Monday report from Japanese business newspaper Nikkei claimed Nintendo is planning unveil an iOS app to market content for its Wii U and 3DS, with the app allegedly featuring information about new games from Nintendo and the mobile initiative potentially also including playable demos of console and handheld games. In a statement provided to Engadget today, however, Nintendo has denied it is planning to offer such minigames on smartphone platforms.

“Nikkei’s article contains information previously stated by Mr Iwata during past press conferences, including statements which relate to Nintendo’s willingness to make use of smart devices to promote our products.

However during such past announcements Mr Iwata has also stated that Nintendo’s intention is not to make Nintendo software available on smart devices and as such, we can confirm that there are no plans to offer minigames on smartphone devices.”

Nintendo is at a crossroads as mobile gaming makes gains on both the console and handheld market. The Japanese game maker reported its third consecutive annual loss and adjusted its forecast to reflect a 35 billion yen ($335.76 million) operating loss, instead of the previously projected profit of 100 billion yen. The company also slashed it sales forecasts for the Wii U from 9 million to 2.8 million units and cut its estimates for the 3DS from 18 million to 13.5 million units.

Many investors and Nintendo fans have called for the legendary game company to embrace mobile platforms, but the company’s executives have so far remained steadfast in focusing their valuable game franchises only on Nintendo-branded hardware.

Broadwell CPU Delay and iPad Competition May Reduce 2014 Notebook Shipments [Mac Blog]

Industry-wide notebook shipments will continue to decline in 2014, claims NPD DisplaySearch. Revised estimates predict shipments from all vendors, including Apple, will reach 134 million units, down from an earlier estimate of 152 million unit.

One factor contributing to this decline is the expected Q3 2014 launch of Intel’s upcoming Broadwell CPU. Intel confirmed in its latest earnings conference call that its Broadwell chipset will enter production in Q1 2014 and become available in the second half of 2014. Slowing PC demand and yield issues forced Intel to delay Broadwell by at least a quarter from its original timetable, with that delay likely contributing further weakness in the PC market. Intel’s Haswell processor line, the company’s current CPU family and predecessor to Broadwell, was released in June 2013 and landed in the MacBook Air during the same month.

DisplaySearch also cites the rumored 12.9-inch iPad, wearables and the convergence of mobile and desktop operating systems as market forces that could shift consumers away from notebook PCs.

At the same time, the expected launch of a 12.9” iPad from Apple could trigger growth in larger tablet PC screen sizes, leading to even more competition for potential notebook PC buyers. In addition, wearable devices and other new concepts are expected to compete for consumer spending during the holiday season and beyond. Finally, the trend toward user-interface fusion and operating-system integration will offer a more seamless working platform between mobile devices and PCs, which would further extend mobile device advantages for businesses.

Despite a declining market, Mac sales in the just-ending quarter were strong, increasing from 4.06 million units in Q1 2013 to 4.8 million in Q1 2014. Mac net sales accounted for 11% of the company’s revenue for the quarter, up slightly from 10% a year ago.

Rovio Denies Any Role in NSA Spying on Angry Birds Users [iOS Blog]

Documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden and made public yesterday claim U.S. and UK intelligence agencies are retrieving personal data sent by mobile apps during mass surveillance sweeps.

Rovio’s Angry Birds was one of the apps targeted by intelligence agencies for key profile data such as age, location and gender, and the company has now defended itself against these allegations, denying any voluntary cooperation with government agencies.

Rovio Entertainment Ltd, which is headquartered in Finland, does not share data, collaborate or collude with any government spy agencies such as NSA or GCHQ anywhere in the world.

There has been speculation in the media that NSA targets Angry Birds to collect end user data. The speculation is based on information from documents leaked by Edward Snowden.

The alleged surveillance may be conducted through third party advertising networks used by millions of commercial web sites and mobile applications across all industries. If advertising networks are indeed targeted, it would appear that no internet-enabled device that visits ad-enabled web sites or uses ad-enabled applications is immune to such surveillance. Rovio does not allow any third party network to use or hand over personal end-user data from Rovio’s apps.

Apple last year faced similar allegations it and other technology companies provided the NSA with backdoor access to its servers. Apple CEO Tim Cook denied these reports, saying last week the NSA “would have to cart us out in a box” in order to gain access to Apple’s servers. Cook also has been vocal about increased transparency, asking the government for permission to talk about information requests from federal and law enforcement agencies.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Solar-Powered Laptop with Dual-Sided Display Detailed in Apple Patent

Apple has been awarded a patent by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (via AppleInsider) detailing an “electronic device display module” for a laptop that would include the ability to act as a secondary rear display featuring touch controls. The patent also details a photovoltaic system located in the display unit which could power the device with solar energy.

The patent, which was originally filed in 2012, details a portable computer that would encompass both upper and lower housings, consisting of materials such as metal, ceramic, carbon fiber, and glass. The rear housing of the computer would feature a logo similar to Apple’s current line of MacBooks, but would be made of a patterned ink layer instead of a plastic material.

The electrochromic glass that could be integrated into the rear display is also detailed, as the glass would receive signals from light sources with the ability make itself opaque or translucent depending on user input. In theory, this would allow the rear display to remain hidden from view when not in use, which would assist in preserving battery life and privacy.

The display may be controlled using timing and control circuitry on a display driver board. The driver board may be mounted within a clutch barrel that contains the hinges. The driver board may be mounted within the clutch barrel so that it lies perpendicular to the plane of the display or may be oriented at other orientations such as orientations that are within plus or minus 10.degree. or 20.degree. from perpendicular, orientations that are parallel to the plane of the display, or other orientations.

Furthermore, Apple also proposes that the computer include photovoltaic cells located under the rear panel, with the cells producing power when activated by an external light source. The cells could also have the option to store the power or use it immediately, and would receive energy from light when the display and electrochromic glass are in the translucent mode.
Lastly, the touch controls found on the rear display would allow the user to do a number of things, including the ability to input passcodes, control media playback, and unlock the magnetic latch of the computer by touching a certain region. The patent also states that the touch sensors may include capacitive, acoustic, optical, or pressure-sensitive properties to allow different methods of input, and could be located on a centralized rear structure.

It is unknown whether Apple plans to create such a product or not, but the company has researched similar technology before. A patent in August 2012 detailed significantly enhanced iPad Smart Covers with secondary displays and solar cells, and a patent in 2008 showed the company’s interest in producing solar LCD powered iPods, iPhones, and laptops.

Other reports on Apple’s interest in solar-powered devices have also popped up on numerous occasion throughout the years, though it is unclear as to whether Apple is ready to make a serious attempt at integrating the technology into its products or is still focused solely on researching methods.

Vox Music Player Updated with Redesigned Interface, Gapless Playback [Mac Blog]

Coppertino’s Vox music player today received a new update, bringing a refreshed design that displays album art and hides playback controls until needed, along with new features such as gapless playback and improved searching across devices and file locations. The update also features improved multi-device support and bug fixes addressing previous issues with radio stations and general stability.

Well known in the Mac community for delivering gorgeous sound, intuitive user features and flexible file support, VOX 2.0’s most exciting update is the completely redesigned smart interface, which now slickly displays album art; seamlessly tucks away controls until needed, and offers perhaps the most lightweight, flexible, modern music player available for OS X. Additionally, Mac fans asked and Coppertino listened. VOX 2.0 now features gapless playback that eliminates pauses between audio tracks.

VOX 2.0 updates include:
– New playlist formats for export;
– Smarter searching across all devices and file locations;
– Improved multi-device support via the Audio MIDI;
– Several bug fixes address some minor issues that occurred when changing radio stations, stability when handling high loads and with services support.

Originally launched last August, Vox is designed to be a replacement for playing music within iTunes, and supports a wide variety of audio formats including MP3, FLAC, AAC, Musepack, Ogg Vorbis, WAV, and more. Vox can import an existing iTunes library with metadata, and also offers offers a built-in equalizer as well as internet radio connectivity, which is available as an in-app purchase.

Vox 2.0 is available in the Mac App Store for free. [Direct Link]