Apple Secretly Deleted iPod Owners' Songs Downloaded From Competing Music Services

Between 2007 and 2009, Apple stealthily deleted content that iPod owners had downloaded from rival music services, reports The Wall Street Journal . The information came to light during an ongoing class action iPod lawsuit that Apple is fighting in court this week, where the Cupertino company is accused of having violated antitrust law by locking its original iPods to the iTunes ecosystem.



According to plaintiff attorney Patrick Coughlin, a user who downloaded music from a competing music service to iTunes and then tried to sync the content to an iPod would receive a nondescript error message. The vague message would advise the iPod owner to restore the device to its factory settings, deleting the music that had been downloaded from a rival service and preventing it from being played.





Apple security director Augustin Farrugia defended the vague error message, stating that Apple didn't want to "confuse users" by providing them with too much information. Farrugia also said the company's efforts to delete music acquired from third-party sources was done in an effort to protect consumers from hackers and malicious content.



Yesterday, lawyers for the plaintiffs shared both a videotaped deposition and emails written by Steve Jobs as evidence that Apple had deliberately stymied competing music services after the launch of the iPod. In the correspondence, the former Apple CEO hatched a plan to accuse competing music service RealNetworks of hacking the iPod when it offered song downloads that could be played on the device.



The class action lawsuit began on Tuesday of this week and is being heard in the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of California. Both Apple marketing head Phil Schiller and iTunes chief Eddy Cue are expected to testify during the court proceedings.

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Posted in 2014 at 12:40AM, December 04

Broadcom Launches New 650Mbps 802.11ac Wi-Fi Chip for Mobile Devices

Communications chip maker Broadcom today announced a new 5G 802.11ac Wi-Fi chip designed for smartphones.



Capable of data throughput speeds of up to 650 Mbps, the BC4358 is Broadcom's second chip to use 2x2 MIMO (multiple input multiple output), bringing up to twice the Wi-Fi performance with 25 percent more power efficiency than 1x1 MIMO chips.





MIMO is a technology that utilizes multiple antennas for both the transmitter and receiver to improve communication performance. Apple has adopted MIMO technology in the iPad Air and iPad mini with Retina display.

Today's content-centric consumer spends an average of 4–5 hours a day on Wi-Fi1. With 650 Mbps Wi-Fi data throughput and 50 percent better coexistence performance with Bluetooth, consumers can download content two times faster, stream videos with less buffering and connect to multiple Wi-Fi and Bluetooth devices concurrently (e.g. listen to music while playing a game) without interference issues.

According to Broadcom, the new chips are already in production and will begin shipping in smartphones during the third quarter of 2014, which means the timing could possibly be right for inclusion in the iPhone 6.



According to Broadcom, its BCM4358 chip includes improved location accuracy that's accurate "down to one meter" for better indoor location-based services, which aligns with Apple's own indoor mapping aspirations. It's also the first chip that enables Angle-of-Arrival direction finding technology, another feature Apple could make use of. Rumors have suggested Apple is working on indoor mapping features for a future iOS 8 update.



It isn't known if Apple's iPhone 6 will use this specific chip, but Broadcom is one of Apple's partners, supplying chips for both its desktop and mobile devices. Apple uses Broadcom chips in its line of Macs that support 802.11ac, including the MacBook Air, Retina MacBook Pro, and iMac.



Rumors have suggested that the iPhone 6 will likely support 802.11ac, which has been included in Apple's Macs since 2013. 802.11ac, or "Gigabit" Wi-Fi is designed to offer speeds up to three times as fast as existing 802.11n wireless networks.

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Posted in 2014 at 12:40AM, September 04

Apple Stores to Allow Customers to Purchase iPhone Through U.S. Carriers' Early Upgrade Programs [iOS Blog]

Apple Retail Stores will soon allow customers to purchase an iPhone through U.S. carrier early upgrade programs including AT&T Next, Verizon Edge, and T-Mobile Jump, reports 9to5Mac . Apple is aiming to implement the new initiative right before the launch of the iPhone 6 this fall, as both Genius Bar workers and store employees will receive training on the program from Sunday, August 10 to Thursday, August 28.





Currently, Apple Store customers are only limited to purchasing an iPhone through a regular two-year contract at subsidized pricing or unlocked at full-price. All three early upgrade programs allow customers to upgrade their phones more frequently as the complete cost of a device is split into monthly payments which are rolled into the standard bill each month. Verizon and T-Mobile allow customers to upgrade their phones twice every year after six months of payments, while AT&T customers can upgrade once every 12 months after a year of payments.



The move also comes after Apple Stores began allowing customers to add pre-paid or month-to-month plans when purchasing full-priced, unlocked iPhones in June. Apple CEO Tim Cook noted last year that 80 percent of iPhones are sold at third-party locations while 20 percent are sold by Apple, adding that it was a figure he would like to improve. Apple has launched a number of other programs in its retail store to boost in-store sales, which included an event this past May encouraging iPhone 4 and 4s owners to update to a newer device.

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Posted in 2014 at 12:40AM, July 28