New iOS 9.3 Update Aims To Fix iPad 2 Problems

Last week we heard that the iOS 9.3 software update was causing an issue for some owners of Apple’s iPad 2.

Owners of the tablet were unable to activate their device after installing iOS 9.3, Apple has not released another version of the software which is designed to fix the issue.

It looks like the latest software update has fixed the issue for iPad 2 owners, although there is apparently another activation bug which is affecting other devices.

The second activation buy appears to be affecting the iPad Air or earlier, the iPad Mini 2 or earlier and the iPhone 5S ear earlier, the bug stops people activating their device if the cannot remember their Apple ID and password.

As yet there are no details on when a fix will be released, as soon as we get some more information on when the update will land, we will let you guys know.

Source MacRumors

Apple : Return of the Ordinary

A visit to the iconic Apple store at 5th Avenue in New York can be somewhat overwhelming for a first time visitor- given the design, size and sheer size of the crowd there. Having said that, if the crowd doesn’t unnerve you, the confusion will! An innocuous question like “which Macbook model to choose” can put the friendly store assistant totally off guard! The MacBook Air is a good choice but has an under powered processor and no retina display, Macbook is good but somewhat heavy and expensive and MacBook Pro? Not an easy answer to get. After staring at the roof for a full 2 minutes and asking twice about usage pattern, the helpful assistant throws up his hands in despair and shrugs his shoulders with the profound advice- “Don’t Know!”. Suddenly the realisation hits with a deep sinking feeling that Steve Jobs is gone, and is gone forever.

Image: wikipedia

The signs which became loud and clear last week to the world with the launch of the iPhone SE became somewhat obvious to Wall Street some six months back when Apple started trading at an earning multiple of 9 (a steel mill or cement plant might command a better earnings multiple).

However the signs of Jobs absence were visible much before Wall Street latched on. The launch of iPhone 5 C signaled the first break from the Apple philosophy, way back in Sept 2013.

Apple, to most of us, was is  almost the final word when it comes to product design, seamless consumer experience, imagination, and yes, perfection. And perhaps, that mysterious but pleasant surprise feature/s in each product. This was achieved by not aiming to make analysts and strategists happy, but by completely focusing on user experience with Apple products – starting from packaging to fonts to casing to design to overall manufacturing and feel of the product.

All this core user experience was achieved not only by keeping a relentless focus on every aspect of product design / manufacturing but by  keeping the number of products low. Apple is was probably the only company in the world with such a large balance sheet size (USD 424 Billion Market Cap, 37% EBITDA margin, USD 170 billion cash reserve) and such a limited range of products and equally limited models. Probably told us a thing or two about focus or rather Zen-like-focus!!!

However, the launch of iPhone 5C signaled a decisive shift from this Apple belief, and the Apple 5C symbolizes everything which Apple was not.

Describing the Zen of Steve Jobs, Jeff Yang in his weekly column “Tao Jones” describes the impact of Zen teachings in Job’s work and style, and how Jobs was as proud of the things that Apple didn’t do as he was of the things it did. One of the things which Steve Jobs definitely didn’t like was having a bunch of never ending models designed to capture every segment of the market.

With the launch of iPhone 5C, Apple started to move from user obsession to market obsession where it no longer aimed to delight its users but wished to service number-crunching analysts in order to justify its share price / market cap / valuation and those crazy EBITDA multiples. Suddenly from being a minimal product company, Apple morphed into a company with endless models in each category. There were multiple screen sizes, colours and multiple processor types for each product without any clear differentiation or user delight. There were classics, pro light, S, SE, C, models without numbers, model with numbers and models with multiple scene sizes! While Apple sales continue to grow with additions to each category, somewhere during the journey Apple has lost the plot of innovation. What do you conclude when its biggest achievement since the launch of iPad in 2010 is not any new design but a pink coloured iPhone!

Hence, iPhone 5C or SE or 6 or 6S are not the continuity of same series of models but rather symbolize the break from whatever Apple had been so far. Over this period, Apple has ceased to exist as a bold company driven by a Zen practitioner, which dared to imagine the future and create it.

Instead, now the boardroom is filled by a timid group of managers who find the legacy too big to hold and wish to get approval from analyst reports, focus groups, journalist views, and hide behind the fig leaf of banality, and aim to build by not imagining but looking at everybody else for guidance. In that sense, the Apple of yesterday is gone forever and is taken over again by the era of ordinary, which touched Apple in 1985 and almost killed it, but for Steve Jobs. Alas – he is no more!

RIP Steve. RIP Apple.

Courtesy: Shailesh Vikram Singh(Yourstory)

Apple TV Streaming Service Confirmed By CBS CEO

The new Apple TV set top box is due to launch later this month or early next month, we have also been hearing about the Apple TV streaming service over the last few months. Apple has been in talks with the major TV networks regarding their new TV streaming service and now one of the networks has confirmed the existence of Apple’s TV streaming plans.

The news that Apple is working on a new TV streaming service was confirmed by the Chief Executive of CBSin a recent interview with Bloomberg.

CBS CEO, Les Mooves told Bloomberg that the Apple TV streaming service is in the works and that Apple is having discussions with content providers about the service, he also confirmed that CBS has had discussions with Apple about the service.

“Apple is having conversations with everyone about doing their own streaming services,” Moonves said in an interview Wednesday on Bloomberg TV. “We have had those conversations, as have the other networks. Do I think something will happen? Probably, but I do not know when.”

We had previously heard rumors that the service would launch this year, although back in August it was rumored that it wont launch until next year. Apple is apparently looking to provide regional shows on its new TV streaming service as well as national shows from the major networks.

Exactly how the service will work remains to be seen, it is expected to launch in the US at first and then Apple will have to work out content deals in other countries, this could take them some time. If the new service does launch in the US early next year, we would expect it to launch in the UK a few months later, unless Apple is able to work out the deals with the various company’s involved for a global launch.

Source Bloomberg

Apple Launches Restricted Stock Program For All Employees

Apple has announced a new restricted stock program which is now available to all of its employees, this includes its employees in its retail stores.

The new RSU grant program will allow all of Apple’s employees who were previously only eligible to purchase stock through Apple’s Employee Stock Purchase Plan to buy Apple stock, the RSU grant program had previously only been made available to management at Apple.

The news of this new stock program was announced by Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook in a letter to Apple’s employees, you can see an excerpt from the letter below.

This year, I’m excited to let you know that the Executive Team has created a new program for stock ownership through RSU grants. It’s designed to reach employees who were not previously eligible, including many in our amazing retail and AppleCare teams.

This new program extends eligibility to everyone not covered by other RSU programs, effectively making everyone who works at Apple eligible for an RSU grant. This is an unusual step, and very special — just like our team.

As Tim Cook points out in his letter, this is an unusual step for a large corporation to make, this sort of stock program has only bee available to management and higher level employees in the past. Apple is obviously looking to retain it staff in its retail stores and other parts of the business with these incentive.

According to 9 to 5 Mac, who have received some information from an Apple Retail source, Apple has started to reward employees with RSU awards of between $1,000 and $2,000 of Apple shares. This is a smart move by Apple and it shows its employees in all parts of the company that they are valued as much as the higher level employees.

Source 9 to 5 Mac

Image Credit Ivan Bandura / Flickr

Apple’s iOS 9 Gets Jailbroken With Pangu 9

Apple released their iOS 9 software a couple of weeks ago and now the first jailbreak for the software has been released in the form of Pangu 9.

The Pangu 9 jailbreak is compatible with some Apple devices that are running iOS 9.0 to iOS 9.0.2 and the software works with a number of devices.

The jailbreak is only available for Windows at the moment, there is now version available for the Mac as yet, although that should be coming soon.

The list of devices that the Pangu 9 Jailbreak will work on includes the new iPhone 6S and 6S Plus, theiPhone 5S, iPhone 5 and 5C, iPhone 4S, iPad 4, iPad 3, iPad 2, iPad Min 1 to 4, both models of the iPad airand also the 5th and 6th generation iPod Touch.

You can find out more details about the Pangu jailbreak at the link below, if you use it it is a good idea to backup your device first.

Source Pangu, Redmond Pie

Apple’s Mac 1TB Fusion Drive Now Only Has 24GB Of Flash Storage

When  Apple launched their new 1TB Fusion drive a few years ago, the device came with a 128GB flashdrive and a 1TB hard drive, this gave you around 1.11TB of usable storage on an iMac.

Yesterday Apple announced its new range of iMac’s, the company has introduced a new 1TB  Fusion Drive in these new iMac’s and it now comes with less flash storage.

The new 1TB Apple Fusion Drive now has 1TB hard drive and 24GB of flash storage, this is significantly less than the previous model.

There are no changes to the 2TB and 3TB Fusion drives, they both come with 128GB of flash storage, so those might be the better options to go for on the new Mac.

Apple has not mentioned anything about why the have cut the flash storage down from 128GB to 24GB on the 1TB Fusion Drive on the new Mac’s, you can find out more information over at Apple.

Source 9 to 5 Mac

Apple Loses Patent Lawsuit, Could End Up Paying $862 Million In Damages

Apple has lost a patent lawsuit in the US and could end up having to pay around $862 million in damages.

The lawsuit was brought against Apple by the University of Winconsin-Madison’s licensing arm and it related to technology used in Apple’s iPhone and iPad processors.

The patent is used to improve processor efficiency and Apple has apparently been found to use this feature in their processors that are used in the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.

Apple denied that they had infringed the patent, but a jury has now ruled that they did infringe it and U.S. District Judge, William Conley has said that Apple could be liable for up to $862.4 million in damages.

The patent has been used to sue a major technology company in the past, it was used against Intel back in 2008, although Intel settled before the trial began.

This current lawsuit relates to Apple’s older processors, there is a new one in the works relating to the new A9 and A9X that are used in Apple’s latest devices.

As yet there are no details on what Apple plans to do about the ruling, as soon as we get some more details, we will let you guys know.

Source Reuters

Apple Announces New Retina iMac Range

Apple has updated its range of Retina iMac’s the 27 inch models of the iMac now all come with a 5K Retina display.

Apple also introduced a new 21.5 inch Retina iMac, this model comes with a 4K Retina display with a resolution of 4096 x 2304 pixels.

“From the first iMac to today, the spirit of iMac has never wavered — deliver the ultimate desktop experience with the latest technologies, gorgeous displays and cutting-edge designs,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “These are the most stunning iMacs we’ve ever made. With our gorgeous new Retina displays, more powerful processors and graphics and all-new Magic accessories, the new iMac continues to redefine the ultimate desktop experience.”

As well as the new iMacs, Apple also announced a new range of accessories which include a new Magic Keyboard, a Magic Mouse 2 and Magic Trackpad 2.

Source Apple