Apple-News-Tips

Apple and AT&T are both reportedly gearing up their employees for September, the month that the iPhone 5 is expected to launch, according to several reports.
Apple will be bumping up its staff in U.S. retail Apple stores early this fall, according to MacRumors. This follows prior reports of Apple looking to increase staffing in the U.K. from August through October as noted by SlashGear and other tech news sites.
Apple is also bringing back former employees to work part-time for holidays, product launches, and the back-to-school season, added MacRumors, citing a former employee who received an invite to work between August 15 and September 15.
Of course, boosting retail staff around the end of summer is likely a response to more traffic from students going back to school, noted MacRumors. But the timing does coincide with the weeks that Apple would need to prep the iPhone 5 for its retail shelves if the new phone is to launch this fall.
AT&T has also reportedly been revving up its employees to prepare for more foot traffic at its stores in September, a source told Boy Genius Report. The carrier has asked its managers and employees to finish any current training as soon as possible so that they can be available at that time.

Apple is set to be the latest tenant in yet another international landmark.
CNN reports that Apple has submitted plans to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority Board for a new store in New York's Grand Central Terminal. Pending approval later this week, Apple can begin work on a retail spot there, making it the company's fifth store in the city and potentially one of its largest overall.
The space, which The Wall Street Journal reports Apple will rent for $1.1 million a year, is more than 23,000 square feet and stretches between two balconies. By comparison, Apple's Regent Street store in London is 25,000 square feet, 22,000 square feet of which is accessible to the public. The next-largest store, according to Apple retail tracking site Ifoapplestore, is Covent Garden with 16,372 square feet of public-facing retail space.
"We have submitted plans for the store we intend to create in world-renowned Grand Central Terminal and we look forward to working with the MTA," Apple spokesman Nick Leahy told CNET. "Our four stores in Manhattan are incredibly popular with customers and we're excited to bring the Apple retail experience to this incredible location."
The company declined to share what the store would look like.
Murmurs that Apple was seeking a spot in the iconic transportation hub began in February with a report from Cult of Mac that Apple planned to open one up in time for the 10th anniversary of its retail efforts. The rumor surfaced once again in late May with a Journal report that the MTA was looking to fill up a 15,230-square-foot space, and that Apple had "expressed interest" in it.
Part of the deal involves buying out restauranteur Charlie Palmer and his Metrazur restaurant, which has a lease running through 2019. In a follow-up report this morning, the Journal says that's happened, with Apple paying Palmer $5 million to give up the spot.
A store in Grand Central Terminal would rival the location of the company's store inside the Louvre's attached shopping area in Paris.
Apple currently has four retail locations in New York City: Fifth Avenue, SoHo, Upper West Side, and West 14th Street. Apple's iconic Fifth Avenue store, which has become one of the most photographed and visited locations in the city, is currently undergoing an estimated $6.6 million overhaul, slated to be completed by November. A report last month suggested Apple is also set to renovate its SoHo store to increase the square footage, opening up a nearby temporary store during construction.
During its fiscal third-quarter earnings call with analysts last week, Apple noted that it's now up to 327 retail stores, with plans to open an additional 30 between now and the end of September. The company opened up just four new retail stores in the previous quarter, though the average revenue from its stores overall jumped around 20 percent to $10.8 million a store.
Source: cnet.com

Apple has finally brought the hammer down on e-reader apps, enforcing its new in-app subscription rules that require app developers to strip out any links to external mechanisms for purchasing digital books or subscriptions.
Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Canada-based Kobo have all updated their iOS e-reader apps, with Barnes & Noble temporarily removing its Nook for iPad app from the App Store and sending out a press release late in the afternoon saying it would soon update the app to offer the "interactive magazine experience first available on the Nook Color."
As we reported last month, Apple's twice amended its terms for subscriptions in the App Store, which require companies to give Apple a 30 percent cut on sales their apps generate. In the past, e-reading apps Kindle, Nook, and Kobo have avoided paying the cut by sending customers to a Web-based interface outside the app.
When Apple issued its App Store subscription rules last February, it basically made it impossible for e-book sellers to continue operating its apps under the new terms without losing money. Then, in June, Apple softened its stance somewhat but the new terms still required developers to remove links to external mechanisms for purchase (a "buy button," for example).
With the new updates, you can still access your Kindle, Kobo, and Nook libraries from any iOS device and use all the features previously available in those e-reading apps. But you'll have to buy your e-books on the company's respective Web sites, then sync your libraries via the app.
In a statement in its forum, Amazon announced the changes in its typical low-key manner
While the change may not be a huge deal for existing users, when we met with Kobo CEO Michael Serbinis recently in our offices, he said it may present some confusion for new customers.
"Aside from not having any links to an e-bookstore," Serbinis said, "you can't even mention your Web site or explain to readers from within the app how to purchase books and get them onto the device. It's very simple to do, but some people downloading the app for the first time might not figure it out."
Indeed, the new Kindle and Kobo iOS apps are completely devoid of any mention of the company's Web site or how to get e-books onto your iOS device. However, as soon as this reporter signed in to his Kobo account (on an iPad), the library updated to include a new purchase from Kobo's online eBookstore.
It's unclear what would happen if you simply chose not to update the apps and left the links in place. Presumably, Apple could disable the apps with a new update to iOS and it could very easily force you to update your e-reader apps to use them with iOS 5.
Another move would simply be to force the developer to remove its app from the App Store altogether, which may have been what happened with the Google Books app, which disappeared from the App Store over the weekend and has now returned without its store links. Separately, The Wall Street Journal announced that it will soon remove all purchasing options from with its iOS apps to comply with Apple's new rules. When all is said and done, Apple's iBooks will be the only iOS app that will allow you to buy e-books directly from within the app. But at least Apple has allowed e-reading apps from other companies to remain in the App Store. You can choose to see that as a magnanimous gesture--or not.

Apple's 27-inch LED cinema display could soon be joining a host of other Apple products that support the higher-speed Thunderbolt technology.
MacRumors has picked up on a number of non-posted images from Apple.com depicting the company's $999 display. In the pics, the display sports a new part number (in the URL), and a newer background to match the default of Mac OS X Lion, which is expected to be released next week.
The part number is the same one that was previously believed to be a newer version of Apple's white, entry-level MacBook from a purported parts list that surfaced earlier this week.
It's worth pointing out that there are no images of the back of the display. The current model sports just three USB 2.0 ports, but no mini-Displayport, which has given way to Thunderbolt in other Mac models. However, another image--with what appear to be two of the newer display models (pictured above)--depicts one of the displays plugging into the other.
Perhaps Apple plans to let users mirror or extend displays through USB, but a more likely scenario would be adding a Thunderbolt port to the back, as it's done with the latest-generation iMacs, which share many design similarities with the LED cinema display. After all, if Apple intends to get people using Thunderbolt, which lets users daisy-chain Thunderbolt-equipped gadgets to one another, it can't be taking up the entire port on something like a MacBook Pro without providing a way to string together other gadgets.
Thunderbolt is Apple and Intel's collaborative input/output technology that promises to bring transfer speeds exceeding those currently available with USB 3.0, as well as extending that speed across several devices at once. The technology makes use of existing DisplayPort and PCI-Express data protocols to open up what you can do with a single port into multiple uses and at high speeds. This includes "daisy chaining" up to seven Thunderbolt-equipped devices together, while retaining full speed across all of them at once. The technology first appeared in Apple's MacBooks back in February.
Apple's last refresh to the Cinema Display product came nearly a year ago with the introduction of the 27-inch display, which replaced Apple's 24- and 30-inch models.

The longer the wait for a refresh to Apple's MacBook Air hardware, the more of a machine we may be getting, it seems.
Two separate reports today have suggested that Apple's planning to double up on the amount of built-in storage offered in its entry-level MacBook Air model. One of the two also reiterates that Apple's jumping to 4GB of RAM across the line, an upgrade that previously cost users an extra $100 when buying the machine from Apple.
Based on check-ins with industry sources by Concord Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, AppleInsider this morning noted that Apple was making the important jump from 2GB to 4GB of RAM in part to "improve performance on Mac OS Lion," which is set to ship on the new hardware. Kuo also said that Apple was simplifying the storage offerings by doing away with the 64GB SSD on the 11.6-inch model in favor of the 128GB offering.
Later in the day, AllThingsD weighed in with similar rumblings of 128GB and 256GB configurations, as well as citing "several sources" saying the new Air hardware would be arriving "late next week."
Expectations have been high for Apple to offer a speedier, more feature-filled version of the Air. The machine, Apple's tiniest notebook computer, was completely relaunched back in October as part of the company's "Back to the Mac" event.
The second-generation model is a complete redesign from the first, moving to higher-pixel-density screens and adding an extra USB port and SD card slot, along with moving to newer-generation processors, graphics cards, and flash-based storage. As part of that overhaul, Apple did away with a popular feature, the backlit keyboard, which recent reports have suggested is making a comeback in the upcoming refresh.
Beyond the Air, a number of other Mac computers are ripe for a refresh, in part to coincide with Lion, the next major version of Apple's Mac OS. At its Worldwide Developers Conference early last month, Apple said simply that it would be offering the new operating system sometime this month, though so far it has not provided any additional updates on a more precise date. Since then, the company has been offering new Mac buyers a free upgrade to the new OS, which it will be releasing solely through the Mac App Store as a digital download.