Apple Seeds OS X Mavericks 10.9.2 Build 13C44 to Developers [Mac Blog]

Apple today seeded build 13C44 of OS X 10.9.2 to developers, marking the third developer beta iteration of 10.9.2. The release comes a week after the second OS X 10.9.2 beta, build 13C39, and a month after the first OS X 10.9.2 beta.

The update is available to registered developers through the Software Update mechanism in the Mac App Store as well as through the Mac Dev Center.

Apple has also seeded a new version of Safari 6.1.2 for Lion/Mountain Lion, asking developers to focus on General Website Compatibility, Accessibility, AutoFill features, Printing and Emailing from Reader, Dragging Tabs Between Monitors, and Extension Compatibility.

Best Buy Offering $50 Off iPad Air Models, $30 Off Prior Generation iPad Mini Models [iOS Blog]

Best Buy is offering $50 off all iPad Air models for Friday and Saturday this weekend, with $30 discounts on first-generation iPad mini models as well (via CNET).

The U.S. retailer is also offering additional discounts on iPhones, as well as trade-in bonuses for older electronics:

Best Buy customers can score at least a $10 gift card by trading in virtually any electronic device, including digital cameras, digital camcorders, laptops, tablets, mobile phones, gaming consoles, and MP3 players. Certain tablets, phones, and gaming systems can qualify for at least a $75 gift card. The device does have to power up and be free of water damage and any cracks in the screen. This latest trade-in deal runs through February 1.

Best Buy will also be offering $50 off the 16GB iPhone 5s and 5c, plus $100 off the 32GB iPhone 5c through February 2.

Carl Icahn Posts Response to Apple On Proxy Proposal for Share Buyback, Buys $500 Million More in Stock

Several weeks ago, Apple filed a statement with the SEC advising shareholders to vote against activist investor Carl Icahn’s non-binding “advisory” share buyback proposal from early December.

The proposal will be voted on by shareholders at Apple’s stockholder’s meeting, to be held at Apple’s headquarters at some point in the next couple of months. Today, Icahn published a seven-page letter to shareholders advocating for a yes vote on its proposal.

He also announced that he purchased another $500 million in Apple stock today, bringing his cumulative total to $3.6 billion. Just yesterday, Icahn revealed that he had surpassed $3 billion in AAPL ownership. He also stated on CNBC that his criticism was reserved for Apple’s board of directors, not its management.

In the letter, Icahn explains his belief that Apple’s stock is a “no brainer” to purchase, and that Apple’s board should be supportive of a significant increase in Apple’s share repurchase program. He argues that Apple’s stock — currently priced at $555 — would be priced at $840 if its price to earnings ratio was the same as the average P/E across the S&P 500.

We believe, however, that this share repurchase authorization can and should be even larger, and effectuating that for the benefit of all of the company’s shareholders is the sole intention of our proposal. The company has recommended voting against our proposal for various reasons. It seems to us that the basis of its argument against our proposal is that the company believes, because of the “dynamic competitive landscape” and because its “rapid pace of innovation require[s] unprecedented investment, flexibility and access to resources”, it does not currently have enough excess liquidity to increase the size of its repurchase program. Assuming this indeed is the basis for the company’s argument, we find its position overly conservative (almost to the point of being irrational), when we consider that the company had $130 billion of net cash as of September 28, 2013 and that consensus earnings are expected to be almost $40 billion next year. Given this massive net cash position and robust earnings generation, Apple is perhaps the most overcapitalized company in corporate history, from our perspective.

Bought another $500mil of $AAPL tday, bringing our total to $3.6 billion. If board doesn’t see AAPL’s ‘no brainer’ value we sure do.

— Carl Icahn (@Carl_C_Icahn) January 23, 2014

The full letter is available from the SEC and comes ahead of Apple’s first quarter earnings report, scheduled for Monday afternoon. The company is expected to report the strongest results for any quarter in its history.

HondaLink Offers Partial Car-iPhone Integration Ahead of Apple’s ‘iOS in the Car’ Initiative

While Apple’s upcoming iOS in the Car functionality has been gaining significant attention, some automakers have been developing their own systems to allow for greater integration between iPhones and vehicles.

Back in December, Honda announced new HondaLink apps and functionality to allow iOS devices to integrate with the new 2014 Civic and upcoming 2015 Fit, and MacRumors recently sat down with a Honda representative to walk through the system that offers solid integration for several features but unsurprisingly does not yet achieve the vision of iOS in the Car.

The HondaLink experience for iOS arrives in the form of four App Store apps: a Connect app that serves as the hub for passing information such as weather, location searches, and Honda service information from the iPhone to the car, an Aha app that offers an interface to the streaming music service, a Launcher app that will allow approved third-party apps to interface with HondaLink, and a $59.99 Navigation app that offers turn-by-turn GPS navigation powered by Nokia’s HERE services.
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Apple Researching Automatic Mood Assessment for Targeted Ad Delivery [iOS Blog]

The United States Patent and Trademark Office today published a new patent application (via AppleInsider) from Apple that describes a method of mood-based advertisement. This method infers the mood of the user by monitoring phone activities, and this mood sentiment information would provide advertisers with a powerful consumer intelligence metric they could use to deliver targeted content.

Rather than ask for mood information directly, Apple’s method of mood-based advertising relies on indirect means of inferring a user’s feelings. This involves the creation of a baseline mood profile that’s derived by monitoring app usage, music playback, social network activity and input from various biometric sensors. Once a profile is established, rules then can be applied to the data and used to gauge the relative mood of the user in relation to this baseline.

A way of improving targeted content delivery can be to select content based, at least in part, on a user’s current mood. One way of accomplishing this could be to query the user regarding their current mood prior to selecting an item of invitational content. A targeted content delivery system can then select an item of invitational content based on the user’s response. However, such an approach could quickly lead to user aggravation, and likely a majority of users reporting a similar mood. Instead, a targeted content delivery system can be configured to use an inferred or derived mood, which can be generated using the presently disclosed technology.

This mood information can then be used by Apple and other content providers to gauge a user’s responsiveness to a product as well as their interest in that product before deciding which ad or offer to send to the user’s handset. This mood information also can be used to adjust select settings on the user’s handset.

Though Apple is not an advertising company, the company does have an iAd unit that sells advertising space in iOS Apps and iTunes Radio. Since its debut in 2010, iAd has undergone several leadership changes and is now under the control of Eddy Cue, Senior Vice President for Internet Software and Services.

Huawei Settles with Apple/Microsoft ‘Rockstar Consortium’ Over Nortel Patents [iOS Blog]

The Apple-backed “Rockstar consortium” has filed a joint motion with Huawei in U.S. District Court of Eastern Texas to dismiss with prejudice Rockstar’s claims of patent infringement against the Chinese handset manufacturer. Though the motion does not mention a settlement amount, it is reasonable to expect there was some monetary licensing agreement that will allow Huawei to continue using the patents.

Pursuant to Rule 41(a) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and the terms of a separate agreement, Plaintiffs Rockstar Consortium US LP and MobileStar Technologies LLC (collectively “Plaintiffs”) and Defendants Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd., Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., Huawei Device (Hong Kong) Co., Ltd., Huawei Technologies USA, Inc., Huawei Device USA Inc., Huawei Technologies Cooperatief U.A., and Futurewei Technologies, Inc. (collectively “Huawei”) hereby move the Court to dismiss with prejudice all of Plaintiffs’ claims against Huawei, including but not limited to any of Plaintiffs’ claims against any direct or indirect Huawei customer as is based in whole or in part upon the use of a Huawei product, with the parties to bear their own costs and fees, including attorneys’ fees.

Huawei is the first of seven Android OEMs cited in the original lawsuit to settle with Rockstar. Other high-profile companies mentioned in the suit include Google, Samsung, HTC, ZTE, LG, Pantech, and ASUSTeK. The decision by Huawei to settle may impact the other defendants in the case as it suggests to the court that Rockstar’s claims of patent infringement may have reasonable merit. As a result, other OEMs may decide to pursue a settlement rather than fight the claims in court.

The patents in question are related search technology and user profiles. They were obtained by Rockstar as part of a patent collection the consortium purchased in 2011 from bankrupt Canadian communications company Nortel.

Two New iPhones With Screens Larger Than 4.5″ and 5″ Coming This Year

The next generation of iPhones, expected to be released this fall, will include new phones with significantly larger screens, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. It’s been widely expected that Apple will launch an iPhone with a larger screen, but this is the first solid indication that Apple could be launching phones in multiple screen sizes, including in the larger “phablet” market.

The report says that Apple will not continue the plastic-shelled body of the iPhone 5c, and will instead have two models with metal outer casings similar to the current iPhone 5s. It’s possible that Apple will continue offering two “new” lines of phones with the new lineup, offering a flagship phone with the largest screen — one more than 5-inches diagonally — and offering a step-down model with a screen size larger than 4.5-inches diagonally.

5.5-inch Samsung Galaxy Note II vs. iPhone 5 (Source: phoneArena.com)

Facing competition from rivals offering smartphones with bigger screens, Apple Inc. plans larger displays on a pair of iPhones due for release this year, people familiar with the situation said.

The people said Apple plans an iPhone model with a screen larger than 4½ inches measured diagonally, and a second version with a display bigger than 5 inches. Until now, Apple’s largest phone has been the 4-inch display on the iPhone 5.

Both new models are expected to feature metal casings similar to what is used on the current iPhone 5S, with Apple expected to scrap the plastic exterior used in the iPhone 5C, these people said.

The report notes that Apple will not be using a curved display in its units — something that had been previously rumored — and that the iPhone 5c has seen weaker-than-expected demand. Instead, it appears the iPhone 5s has seen significant demand that analysts had expected to see go to the more inexpensive iPhone 5c.

SteelSeries Stratus Wireless iOS Gaming Controller Launches with Lower $79.99 Price Tag [iOS Blog]

Earlier this month, SteelSeries started accepting pre-orders for its Stratus gaming controller, one of several new MFi-certified controllers debuting with $99.99 price tags. As announced by SteelSeries today, the Stratus is now available and arrives with a lower price of $79.99.

The new pricing will be honored for all pre-order customers, although Apple’s online store is still showing the higher pricing.

“The media and consumer reaction to the announcement of the Stratus Controller at CES really demonstrated the power behind this product, and the new category of gaming we can enable by working together with Apple,” said Bruce Hawver, SteelSeries CEO. “More than ever, we see the power of this platform and we want to make every effort to make it accessible to as many consumers as possible. We have therefore worked closely with our retail partners and suppliers with the objective of lowering the retail price target without changing any of the terrific features of this product.”

Unlike competing controllers from Logitech and MOGA, the Stratus from SteelSeries uses Bluetooth instead of the Lightning port to connect to an iOS device. It features a console-like design with a directional pad, two analog sticks and four front buttons.

Eli Hodapp from our sister site TouchArcade was able to get some hands-on time with the Stratus and offered a detailed review evaluating the controller’s performance in light of its competition. Though it loses points for its high price tag and small size, TouchArcade considered the SteelSeries Stratus to be “the best controller out there” for gadget addicts and early adopters, although users willing to jailbreak their devices may prefer a new tweak adding support for PlayStation 3 controllers.