#Apple Releases #iOS 7.0.5 for #iPhone 5s, #iPhone 5c

Apple has just released iOS 7.0.5 via Software Update to resolve network provisioning issues for some iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c models sold in China.

iOS 7.0.5
Corrects network provisioning issues for some iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c models sold in China.

For information on the security content of this update, please visit this website:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222

Ref - iClarified

#Google selling #Motorola phone business to #Lenovo for $2.9 billion

#Google is selling Motorola's smartphone business to Lenovo for $2.9 billion, a price that makes Google's biggest acquisition look like its most expensive mistake.

The deal announced on Wednesday will rid Google Inc. of a financial headache that has plagued the internet company since buyingMotorola Mobility for $12.4 billion in 2012.Motorola has lost nearly $2 billion since Google took over, while trimming its workforce from 20,000 to 3,800.

Google had previously recovered some of the money that it spent on Motorola by selling the company's set-top operations last year to Arris Group Inc. for $2.35 billion. Google is also keeping most of the patents that came with the Motorola purchase.

It's unclear if Google will have to absorb a charge to account for the difference between what it paid for Motorola Mobility and what it is getting back. The Mountain View, California, company may address the issue Thursday when it announces its fourth-quarter earnings after the market closes.

Most investors viewed Motorola as an unnecessary drain on Google's profit, a perspective that was reflected by Wall Street's reaction to the sale. Google's stock gained $28.08, or 2.5%, to $1,135 in extended trading.

While Google is backpedaling, Lenovo Group Ltd. is gearing up for a major expansion. Already the world's largest maker of personal computers, Lenovo now appears determined to become a bigger player in smartphones as more people rely on them instead of laptop and desktop computers to go online.

Lenovo already is among the smartphone leaders in its home country of China, but it has been looking for ways to expand its presence in other markets, especially the US and Latin America. The company had been rumored to be among the prospective buyers for BlackBerry Ltd. when that troubled smartphone maker was mulling a sale last year.

This marks Lenovo's second high-profile deal this month. The company announced plans last week to buy a major piece of IBM Corp.'s computer server business for $2.3 billion.

Buying Motorola will enable Lenovo to join Apple Inc. as the only major technology companies with global product lines in PCs, smartphones and tablets, putting Lenovo in a better position to become a one-stop shop for companies to buy all their devices from the same vendor, said Forrester Research analyst Frank Gillett.

"This makes Lenovo a company to watch,'' Gillett said in an email. "The personal device manufacturer business is consolidating, and manufacturers must compete in all three device markets, plus emerging wearable categories, or get left out of the next market shift.''

After it takes over, Lenovo plans to retain a Motorola management team led by Dennis Woodside. Google had reassigned Woodside, one of its top executive, to run Motorola Mobility in hopes he could engineer a turnaround. Under Woodside, Motorola released two new smartphones last year, the Moto X and Moto G. The phones attracted lots of headlines, but didn't sell as well as anticipated, analysts say.

Lenovo executives also said they aren't planning to lay off any more Motorola employees and that the subsidiary would remain based in its current headquarters in Libertyville, Illinois.

"We buy this business, we buy this team as our treasure,'' Lenovo CEO Yang Yuanqing said during a Wednesday conference call.

Google is retaining most of Motorola's portfolio of mobile patents, providing the company with legal protection for its widely used Android software for smartphones and tablet computers. Gaining control of Motorola's patents was the main reason Google CEO Larry Page decided to pay so much for Motorola Mobility at a time the smartphone maker was already losing money and market share.

Most analysts thought Page had paid too much money for Motorola and questioned why Google wanted to own a smartphone maker at the risk of alienating other mobile device makers that rely on Android.

Selling Motorola's smartphone operations will "enable Google to devote our energy to driving innovation across the Android ecosystem,'' Page said in a statement.

Lenovo is picking up about 2,000 Motorola patents in addition to the phone manufacturing operations.

Ref - TOI

#Apple to go beyond phones, tablets in 2014: CEO - #TimCook

 

Apple reshaped technology and society when Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone seven years ago. Now, the trend-setting company is losing ground to rivals that offer what Apple has stubbornly refused to make: smartphones with lower prices and larger screens than the iPhone. 

The void in Apple's lineup is a major reason why the company's quarterly revenue may be about to fall for the first time in more than a decade, much to the dismay of investors who are worried that Apple is losing its verve and vision. 

Wall Street vented its frustration after Apple reported that it sold fewer iPhones than analysts anticipated during the holiday season. Apple compounded that disappointment with a forecast raising the possibility of a slight revenue decline in the current quarter. It would be the first time that Apple's quarterly revenue has dropped from the previous year since 2003. 

Apple's stock shed $44, or 8%, to close Tuesday at $506.50, marking the company's largest one-day drop in a year. The sell-off leaves the stock about 28 percent below its peak of $705.07, reached in September 2012 when Apple's leadership in smartphones and tablet computers was still generating robust revenue growth. 

Since then, Apple has been relinquishing market share to SamsungElectronics Inc. and other companies that primarily make devices running Google Inc.'s Android operating system. Those competitors offer a broader selection of designs and prices than the iPhone and the iPad. 

That trend is one of the reasons that Apple's revenue growth hasn't exceeded 6 percent in any of the past three quarters. By contrast, Apple's quarterly revenue was consistently increasing by at least 20 percent two years ago and even exceeded 70 percent during the 2011 holiday quarter. 

Apple remains in stellar shape financially, coming off a $13 billion profit in its most recent quarter - more than all but a handful of companies make in an entire year. The Cupertino, Calif., company also is sitting on nearly $159 billion in cash. 

But Apple's stock is unlikely to bounce back to its previous high unless the company's growth accelerates. 

The challenges facing Apple have been most glaring in the smartphone market. 

Phones in less affluent parts of the world are selling for less than $200. By comparison, iPhones sold for an average of $637 in Apple's most recent quarter. Even Apple's cheaper iPhone 5C is just $100 less than the high-end 5S. 

Meanwhile, a variety of Android phones boast screens measuring 5 to 6.5 inches diagonally, while the latest iPhones are all 4 inches. 

Apple's insistence on catering to the upper end of the smartphone market with only one choice of screen size is undercutting the company's growth, International Data Research analyst Ramon Llamas said. 

"There is a gap where Apple is not playing, and it's clear that many users want some of these other things in a phone," Llamas said. 

As a result, Apple's share of the smartphone market fell from nearly 19 percent at the end of 2012 to about 15 percent last year, according to IDC. Samsung remains the market leader with a 31 percent share at the end of last year, up a notch from 30 percent in 2012. 

Apple tried to widen the iPhone's appeal with the cheaper 5C, which was essentially a recycled version of the iPhone's previous generation. To make the 5C look like something new, Apple dressed it up in a brightly colored array of plastic casings. 

In Monday's conference call with analysts, Apple CEO Tim Cook made it clear that the 5C didn't sell as well as the company anticipated, though he didn't provide specifics. Cook hailed the 5S model as the star performer in the company's holiday quarter. 

With the 5S leading the way, Apple sold 51 million iPhones in the fiscal first quarter. Even though that set a record for the company, it represented a letdown because analysts had projected 55 million. 

Analysts suspect that many of those iPhones are being bought by repeat customers who love the mobile operating software and other services, as well as the cachet that comes with the Apple brand. Cook said Apple still attracts a "significant" number of first-time iPhone buyers. 

Jobs carefully cultivated Apple's luxury image before he died in October 2011, and Cook has given no indication he will risk tainting it with an inexpensive smartphone sporting lower-quality parts. 

"Our objective has always been to make the best, not the most," Cook said Monday. 

He also said Apple will expand its horizons this year with new products that will push the company beyond smartphones and tablets. Most analysts expect an Internet-connectedsmartwatch and possibly a long-rumored television set that would run on the same software as the iPhone and the iPad. 

Apple also is preparing to sell an iPhone with a 5-inch display screen, according to unidentified people cited in a report this month in The Wall Street Journal. 

Apple declined comment Tuesday. 

If an iPhone with a bigger screen is in the works, it would pose another test for the company as it tries to ensure the device retains the same high resolution and other features in earlier generations. 

"There is clearly a standard that Apples has set for itself: Anything less than fantastic won't do, and no one is going to give them a pass if they don't live up to that," Llamas said.

Ref - TOI

#Apple reports record revenue in Q1, but forecast weak

Apple's holiday season proved to be a letdown, even though the company sold a record number of iPhones and iPads during its latest quarter.

The results released Monday further crystalized the challenges facing Apple as the world's most valuable company struggles to lift its stock back to where it stood at its peak of more than $700 in September 2012. That was before investors began to fret about fiercer competition in mobile devices and the lack of a breakthrough product since the iPad came out nearly four years ago.

Apple's management amplified those concerns with a revenue forecast for the current quarter of $43 billion, falling about $3 billion below analysts' predictions.

The company's projection also raised the unsettling specter of Apple's quarterly revenue declining from the prior year for the first time in more than a decade. It last happened during the opening three months of 2003.

The cautious outlook is likely to feed perceptions that Apple Inc is still losing ground to a myriad of competing devices running Google Inc's free Android software.

Apple's stock shed $43.30, or nearly 8%, to $507.20 in extended trading after the results were released.

The sell-off could give activist investor Carl Icahn more firepower as he wages a campaign aimed at prodding Apple's board to spend more money buying back the company's stock to help boost the price. The company ended 2013 with nearly $159 billion in cash.

Apple CEO Tim Cook sought to reassure investors during a Monday conference call. He reiterated previous statements that Apple plans to plow new fields in technology, although he didn't provide specifics.

Expanding Apple's horizons is critical because about four out of five smartphones sold worldwide run on Android, according to the research firm Gartner Inc. The iPhone is a distant second with a market share of about 12%.

Android devices have been siphoning sales from the iPhone because they usually cost less and many of them feature bigger screens than the iPhone's four-inch display. An iPhone with a display screen spanning nearly five inches is being prepared for sale later this year, according to unidentified people cited in a recent report in The Wall Street Journal.

Investors had driven up Apple's stock after the company stoked consumer demand by unveiling new versions of its iPhone and iPad for the holidays. The iPhone 5S added several new features, including a sensor that can read fingerprints to unlock the device, while the iPad Air dangled the appeal of being the slimmest and lightest full-sized tablet made by Apple so far.

The Cupertino, California, company sold 51 million iPhones during the three months ending December 28. That marked a 7% increase from the previous sales record of nearly 48 million iPhones set a year earlier.

Analysts had predicted about 55 million iPhones would be sold in what is traditionally the company's best quarter.

Apple sold 26 million iPads during the quarter, in line with analyst predictions. The iPad volume represented a 14% increase from the same time in 2012.

Apple earned $13.07 billion, or $14.50 per share, in the quarter. That's roughly unchanged from $13.08 billion, or $13.81 per share, in the prior year.

Revenue for the fiscal first quarter rose 6% to $57.6 billion.

Analysts, on average, had expected Apple to earn $14.09 per share on revenue of $57.5 billion, according to FactSet.

Ref - TOI

#Google, #Samsung sign global patent deal

Samsung Electronics has signed an agreement with Google to cross-license their patents, reducing the risk of costly legal disputes over intellectual property and likely fostering greater collaborate between the two tech giants. 

Seoul-based Samsung said Monday that the deal covers patents to be filed over the next 10 years as well as existing patents. Financial terms were not disclosed. 

Allen Lo, a deputy general counsel at Google, said in a statement that the deal allows the two to reduce the potential for litigation and to focus on innovation. 

Samsung said it also paves the way for deeper collaboration on research and development for Samsung and Google. The two already collaborate on smartphones and televisions. 

The announcement means there will be a higher possibility for Samsung to participate in Google's key projects as a hardware partner, said Chung Chang-won, an analyst at Nomura Financial Investment. 

Chung picked wearable PCs, which connect everyday objects such as glasses to wireless networks, and Google's self-driving cars as the products that Samsung could join forces on with Google. 

Samsung is the world's largest maker of popular consumer electronics such as smartphones and televisions, and key tech components such as memory chips for mobile phones and PCs. 

Google, the world's largest search company and maker of the most used mobile operating system, Android, has been moving to acquire hardware manufacturers such as Motorola Mobility and Nest Labs. 

Tech companies often use litigation to stop rivals from using patents without permission but many of the disputes end in cross-licensing agreements outside court. 

Samsung, maker of Android-powered Galaxy devices, is in legal fights with Apple. CEOs of Samsung and Apple are scheduled to meet next month to give a try at settlement per US court's request.

#BlackBerry to offer free voice calls through #BBM by February

Smartphone maker BlackBerrywill introduce free voice calls on its instant messenger app over next month through an update which will also allow users to surf and create BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) channels, share content and geographical location on the go.

Krishnadeep Baruah, senior director, channel marketing in Asia Pacific for Blackberry, told ET that the global update of the app will happen 'within a few weeks', which will put BBM in direct competition with apps like Viber, Line and WhatsApp, that allow users to make free calls and send audio as chats.

The Canadian company that had launched BBM voice for BB 10 users last year, will make the free calling feature available across Android,iPhone and BlackBerry OS 5 upwards smartphones. Around 100 million people worldwide use BBM across OS platforms.

Baruah said that video call on BBM, that is available on BB 10 devices, will be available for users across platforms in the near future, but declined to confirm whether it will be part of the next app update. The company may also launch BBM for Windows devices in the future, the only operating system that does not support BBM at present. "We're constantly evaluating and hopefully at the right time we will be able to launch on newer platforms," Baruah said, without specifying a timeline.

The smartphone maker that has lost significant market share in India, from 5% to 0.5% in a year since September 2012, is looking at monetising BBM and BBM channels globally and locally.

BBM Channel is an extended version of the messenger where users can upload content and subscribe to public (free) and private (paid) channels of other users, which may include companies or individuals. Channel owners can post messages, share pictures, start discussions, post animated images and chat directly with subscribers.
The social media platform which was launched in November, a month after BBM was made available across platforms, has over 250,000 channels globally.

Companies like Bharti Airtel, Loop Mobile, Cafe Coffee Day, music website Gonna.com and news portal Firstpost already have their BBM channels that will be available for users to subscribe in India, once the app is updated. Baruah said that the company wanted to capitalise on the instant messaging phenomenon which has elbowed out traditional text messaging, and is expected to explode over the next couple of years.

Ref - TOI

#Apple planning to launch #PayPal rival: Report

 

Apple is considering launching a mobile-payments service for its iPhone and iPad, which would compete with major players such as PayPal, The Wall Street Journal said Friday. 

The newspaper, citing sources familiar with the matter, said Eddy Cue, Apple's iTunes and App Store chief, "has met with industry executives to discuss Apple's interest in handling payments for physical goods and services on its devices." 

Apple manages purchases of digital content in its online store iTunes. Consumers can also buy mobile applications using their iTunes account, meaning the company already has hundreds of millions of credit cards on file. 

"In another sign of the company's interest, Apple moved Jennifer Bailey, a longtime executive who was running its online stores, into a new role to build a payment business within the technology giant," the newspaper said, citing "three people with knowledge of the move." 

Apple could use the fingerprint reader on its latest model, the iPhone 5S, to limit fraud. 

The company last year said it had 575 million registered users with its iTunes store and has sold 375 million iPhones over the last five years and 155 million iPads since its launch in 2010.

Ref - TOI

#BillGates involved in #Microsoft, but doesn’t want to run it

Bill Gates, the chairman and former chief executive of Microsoft, is more involved with the company now than he has been in years. But he does not -- repeat, not -- want to run it. 

Since Microsoft began a search for a new chief executive months ago, Gates and people close to him have said that he won't return to lead the company. For good measure, Gates said it again on Tuesday, in an interview on Bloomberg Television. 

Yet Gates, even as he hobnobs this week with the powerful and wealthy in Davos, Switzerland, is deeply engaged at Microsoft. He is regularly meeting with company executives, offering input on products and weighing in on the search for a chief executive, according to several people who have either spoken to Gates directly or are aware of his recent comings-and-goings at the company. Those people would speak only anonymously to protect their relationship with Gates. 

The precise nature of Gates's current and future involvement at Microsoft has been a hot topic of speculation as the company searches for a new chief. That interest has only intensified as the search has dragged on longer than many investors and people inside the company had hoped. 

When Alan Mulally of Ford, the presumed frontrunner for the job at one point, dropped out, many people watching the process from a distance concluded that Gates's presence at Microsoft was harming the process. What rational person would lead the company, this line of thinking goes, with Gates breathing down his neck and second-guessing his every move? (All of the presumed candidates are men.) 

The reality of Gates's status is a bit more nuanced. One of the people with knowledge of his activity at the company, who is also informed about board discussions, said Gates was willing to dial up or down his involvement with Microsoft based on the wishes of the new chief. 

If the new chief executive wants Gates, a co-founder of Microsoft and one of the founding fathers of the tech industry, to chime in more often on company matters, Gates will do it, this person said. If the new chief executive wants Gates doing less around Microsoft, he will respect that, too. 

Several people associated with Microsoft and Gates for years say they believe that he doesn't want to have to be called in to rescue the company from a perilous situation, which would require day-to-day attention. 

The company is still healthy, but it has lost its advantage in several areas. If a new chief executive failed, the company could fall further behind. 

In interview after interview, most recently the one on Bloomberg Television, Gates has shown little interest in leaving his full-time work as a globe-trotting philanthropist with the Gates Foundation. 

Following the example of Michael Dell or Howard Schultz, executives who came back to lead Dell and Starbucks after those companies went astray, does not seem to be his ambition. 

Gates is spending more time on Microsoft now, in other words, to avoid spending more time on it later. 

"I think it will be very important for Bill to assure for himself that he has put in place a good steward for the company who can provide the right technical direction for the future, and not someone who just reduces costs for a couple years and leaves the company without the problems having been fixed," said Rick Sherlund, a veteran Microsoft analyst with Nomura Securities. 

A Microsoft spokesman declined to comment, as did a spokesman for Gates. 

The future of Microsoft's chief executive, Steven Ballmer, is also an intense topic of discussion. Ballmer does not have a large foundation waiting to occupy him once his successor is found. He is a meaningful shareholder and board member of the company. And he is the architect of many major projects at Microsoft that are still in motion, including a broad reorganization of the company and the acquisition of Nokia's handset business. 

It's those initiatives that could complicate Ballmer's dealings with his successor, should the new chief executive decide to change the playbook. For that reason, Matt McIlwain, a venture capitalist in Seattle with Madrona Venture Group, predicts that Ballmer will leave the company's board in the next six to 12 months, when the spotlight has shifted to Microsoft's new leader.

McIlwain says he also believes that Gates will end up doing more at Microsoft than in past years. He sees fewer hazards associated with that than with Ballmer staying involved. 

"Bill has a strong personality, but he has more distance and perspective," McIlwain said. 

So the search for a new Microsoft chief executive continues. Progress on the search has slowed this week because of Microsoft's earnings announcement on Thursday and Gates's trip to Davos, said the person briefed on the process. 

With Mulally and other external candidates fading, McIlwain and others speculate that Microsoft is leaning toward selecting a Microsoft executive as its new chief. Many senior executives brought into Microsoft from the outside have not fared well at the company, and that point is widely discussed among employees. McIlwain said he favoured Satya Nadella, who has led the company's cloud computing efforts and big parts of its corporate software business. 

Wherever the person comes from, the company can't afford to have its body reject its new part. Gates seems acutely aware of that.

Ref - TOI

#Apple has finalized #iPhone 6 design, screen size: Analyst

While the launch of the next-generation iPhone is months away, the model is still keeping the rumour mill running. And Applemay have finally decided how its upcoming smartphone will look. 

According to a research note by Cowen & Co analyst Timothy Arcuri, Apple has "locked down" the design for iPhone 6. He says that the model will have a 4.8-inch screen and will be compatible with the faster Wi-Fi 802.11ac wireless standard. 

Citing sources in the supply chain, the analyst also says that though the launch of iPhone 6 is likely to be in September, a June roll out is also "not out of the question." Several earlier reports have claimed that Apple may unveil the next iPhone in May or June this year, around the time that it hosts the WWDC developer conference. 

Arcuri says that Apple will introduce "key software innovations" with the next iOS update as well. Prominent among them is expected to be mobile payments, which will use existing technologies like Passbook, Touch ID and iBeacon. 

He also said that the iPhone 5S, with technologies like fingerprint scanner and 64-bit processor, was a "set-up" for the next generation smartphone. He said that these technologies will enable the iPhone maker to debut new services that will give it an edge in the smartphone market. 

Apart from iPhone 6, Arcuri also mentioned the next-generation iPad in the research note. He wrote that the next model will have a 13-inch screen and will "blur the lines between tablets and PCs." This is in line with previous reports about a large-screen, professional-grade iPad that will replace the Macbook Air.

Ref - TOI

#Facebook to launch 'digital newspaper'

 

Facebook is reportedly all set to roll out its digital social newspaper for its members to access on their mobile devices.

The digital newspaper of sorts has been named 'Paper', and is scheduled for delivery before the end of January.

According to Cnet, 'Paper' has been developed specifically for the mobile platform and will aggregate content from a variety of sources including status updates from Facebook and articles from partner media companies, just like Flipboard.

The social networking giant recently attempted to alter the way it is consumed by its users and in a bid to deliver `more relevant` content, the website tweaked its News Feed feature to show up more news articles over memes.

However, the company has declined to comment on the speculation but the plans for making Facebook a 'customized newspaper' have been announced by its CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

First look: #Sony’s wearable TV headset, HMZ-T3W

A virtual-reality headset from Sonyalmost puts you inside a video by allowing you to widen your view when you turn your head up, down or side to side.

Sony's $1,000 " wearable HDTV" worked as intended in a demo. But a few quirks made me believe it'll still be a while before we can really step into a recorded video scene and look around for ourselves.

The HMZ-T3W fits snugly on your head, even while wearing glasses, but you need someone's help strapping it in. A big soft pad rests on your forehead, while straps around the back of your skull give you a snug fit.

At 11.3 ounces, the device is fairly light. Because it doesn't sit on your nose, I can imagine sitting through a full-length movie with it on. A set of headphones is required.

A hooded viewer contains two screens measuring 0.7-inches. Each screen delivers high-definition images in 720p resolution to each eye. Little slider knobs under each screen help you focus.

In a demo at the International CES gadget show, you are put on a motorcycle racing down the English countryside. Looking down shows the pavement speeding by, looking up shows the clouds. When swiveling to the right or left, I felt like waving to the crowds alongside the road -- although I would have looked like a dork to anyone in the real world looking on.

The footage was shot using an action camera with a 170-degree field of view. Sony says the screen is equivalent to viewing a 750-inch screen from 65 feet away, though it's almost the same as saying you're watching a 60-inch screen from five feet away.

A sensor that captures motion was clipped to the back straps in the demo. It measured my head movement, so the view on the screens shifted accordingly. But there was a slight drift. A blind spot on my right gradually encroached into my field of vision, while looking all the way left required me to crane my neck further and further as it went on.

The HMZ-T3W gave me a flavour of what's possible with video headsets. I don't think I'd buy one, but trying it out was a fun ride.

(By: TOI)

#Apple did not violate #Google patents: US court

 

  

The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld a decision by theInternational Trade Commission in April thatApple did not violate a Google patent to make the popular iPhone.

The smartphone industry has seen dozens of lawsuits on several continents as Apple vies for market share with companies that make smartphones using Google's Android software.

"We're disappointed in this decision and are evaluating our options," Google unit Motorola said in a statement. Apple had no comment on the decision.

Motorola Mobility accused Apple in 2010 of infringing on six of its patents covering technology such as reducing signal noise and programming the device's touch screen so a user's head does not accidentally activate it while talking on the phone. The ITC ruled in April 2013 that Apple did not violate any of the six. The appeals court addressed just one of the six patents.

Google acquired the patents in the case -- and the lawsuit -- when it purchased Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion in 2012, partly for its library of telecommunications patents.

Google's Android software, which the company lets handset makers use for free, has become the world's No. 1 smartphone operating system, ahead of the iOS software used on Apple iPhones.

The ITC, a US trade panel that investigates patent infringement involving imported goods, is a popular venue for patent lawsuits because it can bar the importation of infringing products and because it issues decisions relatively quickly.

The case at the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit is Motorola Mobility LLC v International Trade Commission and Apple, Inc. The case is No. 2012-1666.

(By: TOI)