Unlock iPhone 4/4s/5

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Apple shares jump on Carl Icahn's 'large' stake

The stock was up more than 4pc after Mr Icahn tweeted he had held discussions with chief executive Tim Cook and believes the iPad and iPhone maker is “extremely undervalued”.

His comments fuelled rumours that Apple is poised to launch a new product. The shares rose 2.7pc on Mr Icahn’s announcement, adding to earlier gains. They closed up 4.8pc on the day at $489.57.

The rise capped a strong few days for the technology giant, which has been slowly regaining the ground it has lost since last September, when its stock briefly topped $700.

Since then, investors have grown concerned that the company may have lost the innovative culture originally engendered by its co-founder Steve Jobs. Its shares occasionally dipped below the $400 mark before their recent rally.

Mr Icahn’s remarks reinforced positive shareholder sentiment. “We currently have a large position in Apple. We believe the company to be extremely undervalued,” he said. “Had a nice conversation with Tim Cook today. Discussed my opinion that a larger buyback should be done now. We plan to speak again.”

Mr Cook said last year that Apple would return $100bn of cash to shareholders by 2015, including $60bn of share buybacks – up from a pledge of $10bn the year before.

The exact size of Mr Icahn’s investment in Apple is not yet known but Bloomberg reported that it is more than $1bn.

Apple generally remains silent on this sort of issue, but issued a statement shortly after Mr Icahn’s disclosures.

“We appreciate the interest and investment of all our shareholders. Tim [Cook] had a very positive conversation with Mr Icahn today,” it said.

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Unlock iPhone 2G/3G/3GS/4/4S/5

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_5DJErCYBE

Apple ebook punishment harms us more than them, claim publishers

The US Department of Justice last week recommended Apple be banned from entering into anti-competitive e-book distribution contracts for five years.

The penalty followed a ruling in a civil antitrust case that Apple had played a “central role” in a conspiracy with the publishers to raise e-book prices.

The five major publishers, including HarperCollins, Penguin and Macmillan, submitted papers in a Manhattan court challenging the contract ban. They believe the move will punish them rather than Apple as it would elimate to so-called "agency model" whereby the publishers, rather than Apple, set the retail price for ebooks.

Only Apple went to trial, while the publishers agreed to pay more than $166m for the benefit of consumers.

The iPhone maker filed a motion last week objecting to the DoJ’s proposal, calling it a “draconian and punitive intrusion”.

A hearing to discuss remedies is scheduled for Friday. US District Judge Denise Cote has said she also plans to hold a trial on damages.

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Apple's new iPhone ad ignores Microsoft, Samsung, and Nokia

When they're all trying to get at you, you must be doing something right.

Or you're simply paranoid and inventing the whole thing.

Apple simply doesn't want to acknowledge the criticisms being tossed its way by pretenders.

Even though many of the more famous companies have released ads comparing their products to Apple, Cupertino just keeps marching down its path of righteousness like Ayn Rand or a randy vicar who's rediscovered his faith.

Its latest ad continues in the recent vain of making universal claims for the iPhone. This time, it's that "more people connect face-to-face on the iPhone than on any other phone."

Just as Apple's adorable claim that more people take pictures on its phone than on any other camera seems to be based on a Wikipedia page I cannot find, so this one must require a little blind faith.

Still, it's as warm and cuddly as it's assumptive.

For myself I am most moved by the scene 40 seconds in, when a sad girl sits on the floor and her friend asks over FaceTime: "Did he apologize?"

The forlorn girl just shakes her head.

Sometimes, people are just mean. Why, Microsoft has spent quite some airtime offering that its tablets are better than the iPad. Samsung has been positively giddy in suggesting iPhone users are docile dodderers.

Monday, Nokia joined in the amusement by offering that the iPhone's camera was from the daguerreotype era.

Did they apologize? No, they did not. So Apple sits on the floor, shakes its head, and keeps putting out the same message, believing that it's still in the right.

Of course, this is all largely playing for (face)time. Apple knows that it's been a long time since it generated true excitement, so it's banking on the warm human feelings it's engendered over a decade of great products to see it through.

The next ad will probably say that more people talk to Siri on the iPhone than on any other phone.

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What the next iPhone really needs: Better battery life

We're on a countdown until the inevitable Next iPhone, a moment that feels far less anticipated than last year. In 2012 we had the iPhone 5 casting a shadow of mystery: a rumored design revamp, the curiosity surrounding the first post-Steve Jobs iPhone, plus overdue features, namely, LTE and a larger screen. This year, we have rumors of slightly better cameras, colored cases, and maybe a fingerprint reader.

So what can Apple do to make the next iPhone a huge hit?

Simple. Give it killer battery life.

The phone market is suffering a bit of ennui mid-2013. "Peak smartphone" has become a repeated phrase, and I've heard my fair share of, "Phones are boring." It reminds me of laptops: those also-useful, also-commodified products that nearly everyone has but nobody feels all that compelled to immediately replace.

You can't make magic forever. Laptops don't produce stupendous feats of technology anymore: maybe phones are just finally going that path, too. But that doesn't mean there aren't certain critical improvements.

The MacBook Air had a pretty minor set of changes this year, so few that it's hard to consider it a "new" laptop. But the dramatic improvement in battery life is a huge selling point. It makes the Air an excellent recommendation.

Android phones with great battery life are out there, particularly Motorola's recent phones: the Droid Maxx, the Razr Maxx before it, and the new Moto X. The Moto X is a classic example of how a phone without cutting-edge specs can win with improved design, battery life, and an extra feature or two.

My wife does one thing with her iPhone more than anything else: she charges it.

I've been using an iPhone 5 for nearly a year, and its overall performance has been excellent -- except for the battery life, which can range from OK to downright challenging. I keep cloud services on and Bluetooth active, and I do my fair share of streaming, but I need to top off the charge at least once a day.

Is that fair to judge my iPhone based on my heavy usage? Well, it's a part of the new phone landscape. There are more gadgets to pair with via Bluetooth and AirPlay, more high-bandwidth streaming services, more location-aware apps. Making a battery great enough to handle the load is a tough task, but Apple has been battery-minded about its laptops and tablets. It's time for the iPhone to make a great leap forward in battery life. On my "what I want on the next iPhone" wish list, it's the only piece in the puzzle that I really need.

It may not be the sexiest move, but it would be a big move in an otherwise slow year.

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Apple fixing bug allowing fake charging stations to hack iPhones

The devices will remain vulnerable to attack until the software update in released this autumn.

Apple were alerted to the flaw in the security systems earlier this year by three computer scientists, who demonstrated the loophole to an audience at Las Vegas' Black Hat hacking convention.

The Californian company has said the issue has been fixed in the beta version of iOS 7, which has been made available to developers to test new app compatibility.

Billy Lau, Yeongjin Jang and Chengyu Song plugged an iPhone into a charger they had customised with a miniature Linux computer pre-programmed to hack iOS devices and infected the phone with a virus forcing it to call a researcher's phone.

The scientists warned that in the wrong hands such technology may be harnessed as a sophisticated spying tool, accessing personal information through email and text as well as potentially taking screen shots of credit card numbers and passwords.

Android devices are not vulnerable to such attacks, as users are warned the device they are plugging their phone into is not an ordinary charger.

The news comes after a 23 year old Chinese woman was killed by a reported electric shock after answering her iPhone allegedly charging through an unauthorised charger last month. Ma Ailun collapsed after picking up her phone and died soon afterwards. A doctor who attended Ma following her death told the Wall Street Journal that her neck had obvious signs of electrical injury.

Following the incident Apple added a page to its Chinese website warning users about the hazards of fake chargers not being subject to the same safety and reliability checks.

Via The Telegraph