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Cool. I knew they designed them but I'd thought they'd bought into a chip fab company. I went and did a look to see where I'd have come up with such an idea and it was indeed a rumor a while back. I'd thought they'd gone through with it but it would appear that they haven't. This page is not (I don't think) the source of the rumor - not the source that I read. I think the source that I read was here on Slashdot. But, here's one of those rumor pages:
http://appleinsider.com/articl...

They could, at the drop of a hat, buy Taiwan Semiconductor. There are also a bunch of ARM fabs out there, IIRC, that could be scooped up but they'd probably be better off going with someone a bit more forward. Taiwan Semiconductor would make a good choice - in my humble opinion.

I'm kind of surprised that they don't. I think that's why I believed the rumor that they *had* bought their way into one. I'm sure they're probably invested in some (corporations often hold shares in other companies, like Microsoft used to own a good sized chunk of Apple back in the day). I do believe that Microsoft is completely divested from Apple shares at this point but I'd not swear to it. It's probably in an SEC filing somewhere out there but I'm too lazy to look.

I'd be a sound investment - maybe. Maybe... Capacity, output capacity, would be what mattered. It'd have to be able to produce enough to fill all their needs and not much more - unless they intended to sell to others, which seems unlikely. Then, there's little/no redundancy. With the way things are, they can rely on multiple suppliers if they absolutely had to. Like the Samsung and TSMC thing you mentioned. I guess they could produce some on their own and still have another company manufacture some too - and ready to scale up production if something happens to their fab.

It'd be interesting and I was pretty sure that they'd already done so. That's what I get for not verifying rumors. ;-) Thanks for the update.

Except that Apple deprecated OpenSSL in favor of open source CDSA in their own OS 3 years before HeartBleed was found. Also, Apple using standards is something you are against?

http://appleinsider.com/articles/14/03/22/apples-iphone-5c-failure-flop-outsold-blackberry-windows-phone-and-every-android-flagship-in-q4

Well, yes Google wants to hurt competitors market share but lets not forget about Microsoft. Lumia is doing terrible a few years on. Microsoft has made headway in the Tablet market and the new Surface Pro is being raved about. I'd say Google would be more worried about Microsoft building a device that is on par with Surface Pro but as a mobile phone.

I read articles like this http://appleinsider.com/articl...

And it is trying to say that iPad Pro outsold Surface Pro. Keep in mind they say "all of Microsoft Tablets" vs "Just the iPad Pro". But this is silly because traditionally only the newest of the newest gets sold in the first place. Maybe Surface 3 sold less but regardless of the fact the numbers they are making a dent and that's a problem. If product improvement keeps happening for the Surface. Apple wont keep up and Google will have more issues.

She should have been a con artist. I figured you'd be interested and would like to know that, in her professional opinion, they're suitable for use in such environments assuming they're not being kept in complete, sterile, isolation. I expect to know if they can be brought in and put on the network by the end of next week.

Ya know, for someone who isn't an Apple fan, you have probably purchased more Apple gear than the next TEN fanbois, LOL!!!

Your daughter may very well have a promising second-career as a con-artist; but in this particular case, she is right-on.

When the iPad first came out, I was looking into developing a disposable "bag" for just this sort of application. That idea went the way of all my good ideas, and was eventually replaced with another idea of mine for an iPad/tablet "sterilizer" chamber, that would use UV to disinfect one or more iPads/tablets. And of course, charging facilities would be provided, too for charging-while-disinfecting.

iPads are used in thousands of hospitals everyday. Even without the disinfection. In sterile environments, like an Operating Room, they tend to put them in plastic bags (a gallon-ziploc works fine), and yes, the touchscreen does work through the plastic bag. But on the regular "floors", they just treat iPads like a clipboard. No sterilization, no protective sheath/pouch, nothing.

I would say that iPads are probably fairly easy to keep relatively clean (cleaner than a computer keyboard and mouse!!!), simply because there really aren't many cracks and crevices for caked blood, etc, to congregate. The main issue is the Home button, because it gets pressed a zillion times a day, followed by the Sleep/Wake button. But a simple silicone-rubber "boot"-type case would probably work...

Apple faced similar accusations in 2011 from plaintiffs in a class action complaint who claimed iOS 4 turned their iPhone 3G into "iBricks." The case was tossed a year later, though the topic of planned obsolescence continues to crop up with nearly every significant Apple release.

Wrong: Apple buys former Samsung chip fab

>> how Apple conducts market research

I thought Apple didn't conduct market research. http://appleinsider.com/articl...

Also, I have a fifteen inch penis.

>> how Apple conducts market research

I thought Apple didn't conduct market research. http://appleinsider.com/articl...

Grrr

Clickable link for the lazy

Executive summary: It's a regular connector, with one side flattened so that it's slightly thinner. Means you have to insert the plug the right way around, which is a terrible idea. My vote: They won't do it. But then, I thought they wouldn't get rid of the magsafe connectors, and they have. In their defence, magsafe connectors are rather prone to dirt on the contacts preventing them from working

Since when have they gotten rid of Magsafe connectors (except on the low-end MacBook). The most recent refresh of the MacBook Pro which just happened about a month ago, sports a Magsafe 2 Connector.

Grrr

Clickable link for the lazy

Executive summary: It's a regular connector, with one side flattened so that it's slightly thinner. Means you have to insert the plug the right way around, which is a terrible idea. My vote: They won't do it. But then, I thought they wouldn't get rid of the magsafe connectors, and they have. In their defence, magsafe connectors are rather prone to dirt on the contacts preventing them from working

Apple already has a replacement connector and it's not a lightning dongle. They patented it a couple months ago. Pretty sure that's for the next iPhone.

Surprised no-one mentioned this:

http://appleinsider.com/articl...

And yet OS X does the same thing that is being complained about here.

If you're talking about Spying; you're dead wrong. Apple has realized that Privacy is a "brand differentiator", and so has avoided the baked-in Spyware trend completely on both OS X and iOS. This is one of the biggest reasons why Mac sales are up globally 16% Year over Year.

And we primarily have Microsoft (and Windows 10) to thank for that.

Prove me wrong, or STFU.

Despite being somewhat anti-Apple, I've always been on Apple's side when stories about "it's" human rights violations come up, specifically for the reasons OP cites. I would never mod it down simply because it favors Apple, and if it gets out of hand I've written posts defending Apple as OP did.

That said, I'm less inclined to go around correcting people when it's brought up in web forums because the general media is biased wildly in Apple's favor. e.g. Did you know one of the main patents in Apple's $1 billion award against Samsung was ruled invalid by the USPTO this summer? Nary a word about it in the general media (I only found out about it by accident a few weeks ago when the story came up while I was searching for who was suing whom for patent infringement). So I figure some biased bad PR is necessary to help balance out the biased good PR Apple normally gets.

Slashdot ate my source citation on the iPhone 5C.

Here you go.

The IP in question, U.S. Patent No. 5,781,752 for a "Table based data speculation circuit for parallel processing computer," was granted to a University of Wisconsin team led by Dr. Gurindar Sohi in 1998. According to WARF and original patent claims, the '752 patent focuses on improving power efficiency and overall performance in modern computer processor designs by utilizing "data speculation" circuit, also known as a branch predictor.

wireless plan here in the USA. Additionally, AT&T recently increased the throttle cap from 5GB to 22GB. I'm paying $64/month, by the way.

Soon, they'll be able to pick up The ENTIRE Volkswagen Group for a SONG!

Well, at least we know who will be building the Apple Titan...

But the system images are. That's kind of the point.

What good are the "system images" if you can't update your phone with it -- unless you are one of the tiny minority that have non-Verizon Nexus devices?

Actually, that's:
- Three years from when the device first became available on the Google Store
- Or, 18 months after the device stopped being sold on the Google Store
For how long does Apple promise to support their handsets?

Lets look at history:

iPhone 3GS
-release 6/2009
-discontinued 6/2011
-last update 2/2014

iPhone 4 -
-released 6/2010
  discontinued 6/2013
- dropped support with iOS 8 (9/2014)

iPhone 4s
-released 9/2011
-discontinued 9/2014
-still receiving updates

iPhone 5
-released 9/2012
-discontinued 9/2013 still receiving updates

iPhone 5c
-released 9/2013
-discontinued 9/2015
-still receiving updates

iPhone 5s and later are still being sold

So if you bought any iPhone when they were the top of the line phone, you got at least four years of support. If you bought any Nexus phone when they were the top of the line phone, do you still receive updates after four years.

But Nexus phones have never been top sellers. So most Android users aren't buying Nexus phones.

You do realize that the security hole in question is a bug in WebKit, which is more Apple's than Google's; Blink, which replaced WebKit in Android in 2013, is a fork of WebKit, and the issue has been patched there already. Google hasn't actively developed Apple's WebKit since it forked off Blink. Also, Google didn't say they wouldn't issue a patch, only that they wouldn't write one:

WebKit was not "more Apple's than Google's". Before Google split Blink from WebKit, they had just as many commits to the code base as Apple.

http://appleinsider.com/articl...

Even if that's not the case would you argue that they shouldn't make a security patch in Android that was found in the Linux kernel because it wasn't "theirs"?

Could Apple get away with not patching a vulnerability found in the Darwin kernel because it was actually an issue with BSD?

And the issue was with Google's implementation of the WebView that uses WebKit, iOS didn't have the same vulnerability.

Also, Google not writing their own patch for a 3rd-party library (WebKit) does not negate the 24hr turnaround I've seen on many issues since I've had a Nexus device; something, again, Apple and Microsoft literally never do.

WebKit was not a "third party" library. It was an open source library that Google committed just as much code to as Apple. The code in question was integrated in the AOSP.

Android's ability to be customized to allow for quick access to apps and information (literally tap from the lock screen, then unlock)

Huh? For access to notifications you just swipe down on a locked phone to get to the notification and you swipe right on the actually notification to do some application defined event with it.

Or the notification pop ups directly on the screen depending on how you have notifications set for the app.

Show me where APPLE has ever implied that their security is perfect?

I'm sure they never said it was perfect, but they've certainly marketed their devices as not requiring the user to think about security. This article highlights some of it.

"We’re trying to do two diametrically opposed things at once—provide an advanced and open platform to developers while at the same time protect iPhone users from viruses, malware, privacy attacks." ~ Steve Jobs

"We think a few months of patience now will be rewarded by many years of great third party applications running on safe and reliable iPhones" ~ Steve Jobs

Those were found skimming a single article. When taken in the context of the old "Macs don't get viruses" ads, which has also since been disproven (though I'm still often told that Macs really don't get viruses because it's not a virus if the user has to allow it -- okay, fine, it's malware, it still does something the user doesn't want, and it's still on a Mac, isn't it?), it's easy to see where people get the idea that the App Store should be safe.

And, by and far, it is safe. By the same metric, so is the Play Store.

Rumors of Mac OS X on ARM-based processors has been floating around for several years.

http://appleinsider.com/articles/14/05/26/rumor-apple-once-again-said-to-be-strongly-considering-arm-based-macs

Cortana is at least an existing thing. Leaders, rather than corporate drones like Nadella, can pull off stuff like this, even on products which are in development, most at-risk of failing a demo: http://appleinsider.com/articl...

but it really got bad during the financial collapse of 2008.

Ya know what was really strange to me? During the deep recession of late 2008 to 2010, Apple's stock (and marketshare) SURGED, while the rest of the industry TANKED.

As you mentioned, Apple products are not bargain-basement; but for whatever reason, they weathered the economic storms of the Recession with AMAZING performance!

Frankly, it amazed me, too. But facts is facts, and you didn't check them. So here you go...

They are still making loads of money with the iPhone - but their global market share is shrinking relentlessly. This is just proof that they have seen the writing in the wall.

ORLY?

Then how do you explain THIS, or THIS?

Let's take this a step further - Apple added MAC address randomization to ios 8. Android can't be far behind, so what, exactly, is this going to do other than result in more home invasions on known false pretenses?

Just to be clear, I'm not talking about hardware issues here. I'm talking about not issuing security patches for serious vulnerabilities in versions of OS X that would have been shipping on brand new devices at little as a year ago.

There's really no excuse for not providing proper security fixes for the original OS supplied with a device for the useful lifetime of the device. Any security patch is by definition fixing a serious defect in the original product and clearly Apple's responsibility. I don't necessarily expect them to provide other updates and general improvements if the user isn't willing to update to the latest version of OS X as a whole, but not providing security fixes without insisting on updating other things the user might not want and didn't expect when they paid their money (and Yosemite was full of those) is a whole different thing.

They sold a broken product, and not a cheap one at that, and they should put that right without forcing other changes in the process. In fact, in my country, general consumer protection laws would probably compel them to if anyone chose to press the issue, or to provide other compensation or ultimately a refund for the defective product if they couldn't repair it properly. Whether the latter would be the better commercial strategy for Apple would presumably depend on how many people disliked the new OS enough to decline the general update and insist on a fix for their original version.

Both Jobs and Gates have have been arrested or at least had arrest warrants issued for driving infractions. Jobs also admitted to phone phreaking and drug use. I'd be extremely surprised if Gates also didn't have something in his past more serious than traffic violations. Regardless though, they are criminal although petty offenses.

As far as I can tell, Bill Liu/William Yan/Donghua Liu/whatever other name he might go by has yet to be actually convicted of any crime. So currently he's just as much a criminal as Gates and Jobs were. Kim Dotcom on the other hand has had actual real criminal convictions in Germany for computer fraud and data espionage.

And so it begins. Either all devices become PRISM compliant with a backdoor, or Apple/Google staff an entire department whom only purpose is to fulfill access request. This naturally will increase the cost of said products, increase in taxes to pay for manpower, or both.

Under the civil remedies provision of the Antiterrorism Act (18 U.S. Code 2333), victims of international terrorism can sue, Lawfare explains, adding that an act violating criminal law is required to meet section definitions. Courts have found material support crimes satisfy this criteria. Because Apple was previously warned of potential threats to national security, specifically the danger of loss of life, it could be found to have provided material support to the theoretical terrorist.

The authors point out that Apple would most likely be open liability under 2333 for violating 18 USC 2339A, which makes it a crime to "provide[] material support or resources ... knowing or intending that they are to be used in preparation for, or in carrying out" a terrorist attack or other listed criminal activity. Communications equipment is specifically mentioned in the statute.

http://appleinsider.com/articl...

"... it's not the disaster that people are making it out to be."

One of the issues is this: "people" are saying negative things. Apple has become a gay-supporting, headphone-selling, watch-making corporation that announces products before they are ready.

Apple's Tim Cook profiled as "most powerful gay man in Silicon Valley"

5 Reasons Apple Headphones Are The Actual Worst. We are all victims.

Exclusive: Corrupt Apple Store Employees Come Forward Across America (12/20/12)

Apple CEO Tim Cook is apparently not someone who can handle being a CEO. A capable CEO would not run a company in a way that gets so much negative or distracting publicity.

Does Tim Cook deserve to be paid so much? "Cook's pay package was valued at $378 million when he became Apple's CEO."

Aren't humans a problem with a lot of important hacks anymore. For example:
http://appleinsider.com/articl...

If not for a human at Apple, this hack wouldn't have happened. The authentication code was intended to prevent this issue.

When is Apple going to publish current iWatch sales figures? The new product is cratering, a dismal failure. Word is getting out, the thing is a dud.

There doesn't seem to be clear evidence one way or the other. Personally I don't much care but we'll find out in due course. I suspect it is probably selling fine but it never was going to sell like the iPad or iPhone. Most likely it will take a generation or two to really hit its stride like most Apple products.

Apple is still selling phones, but most of us* aren't willing to spend that much on a phone.

Given that their sales figures keep going up, so far the evidence seems to show that isn't true. Furthermore they haven't even really hit their stride in quite a few less mature markets like China.

I use a Nokia that I bought at Radio shack for $69 and a $35/month Virgin Mobile no-contract service. People are gonna figure it out. Even Apple customers, eventually.

That's fine but there is not a single Nokia product that I'd seriously consider buying. Just doesn't fit what I need/want. Clearly most people seem to feel the same way. Apple customers aren't idiots - they just want something different than you do. Nothing wrong with what you want and nothing wrong with what they want.

Well, since Samsung and Apple are pretty much the only ones making any profits out of phones right now

Apparently not so much for Samsung lately.

Unless I'm reading this wrong (and I might be):

Apple renews Liquidmetal exclusivity license into 2016
http://appleinsider.com/articl...

It's also why nobody uses Macintosh.

Keep telling yourself that.

Remind me again why phones and tablets needed a different programming language?

For iOS, the current main programming language not a different programming language for the one heavily used for OS X desktop applications. (And the language Apple would like to see be a main programming language is also intended both for iOS and OS X.)

For Android, you have an OS with a different history; it uses a different language from the ones heavily used for applications on desktop operating systems, and, as they didn't try to make it into a desktop operating system (not many very open niches in that ecosystem), that didn't turn it into a popular language for desktop platforms. As for why they chose Java, well, maybe Andy Rubin liked it for some reason.

For Windows Phone/Windows RT/whatever, Microsoft didn't go for a different language from one of the languages for the desktop. Why they went .NET-only, I don't know.

So phones and tablets don't need different languages from laptops and desktops; the mix of languages is different for historical reasons.

Mac users are not very interested in testing particularly since many of them have a real need to believe their money was well spend and do not wish to do something which might challenge that idea.

Macs are actually a good value for the money.

If you think Macs are expensive, look at what they USED to cost. I bought one of the first PCI Power Macs (a 7500) in 1995 for $2700. That's about $4,000 in today's dollars. I paid $300 for an extra 8MB of RAM. I had to get a loan to buy it, but it was worthwhile because I got an Orange PC card that let me run Windows in the same machine.

Macs are much cheaper nowadays, expensive only in comparison to cheap commodity PC hardware sold by sketchy vendors at razor-thin margins.

Wait for Apple to sue them like they sued these guys.

Very possible, given that Apple has already patented a flexible battery that looks like a watch strap.

Wait for Apple to sue them like they sued these guys.

Your literacy leaves something to be desired.

From the link:

Xerox willingly invited Apple representatives to visit its PARC think tank after signing an agreement that invested $1 million into the computer maker in the hopes that Apple could take PARC's raw technologies and make them commercially successful in the consumer market, using mass manufacturing, product development and marketing expertise that the academic computer scientists and engineers at Xerox lacked.

It's kinda hard to "take PARC's raw technologies and make them commercially successful in the consumer market" if you don't have a signed agreement stating that Apple can use PARC's technologies.

XEROX actually licensed it's technology to Apple in hopes that Steve Jobs could successfully bring products to market, because XEROX had no ability to turn it's bluesky tech into things people wanted. Their mouse cost hundreds (in 1981 dollars), and was not terribly reliable. Apple had to redesign everything, write their own code, etc.

The licensing deal was basically Apple sold them $1 Million in stock, at $10 a share, prior to IPO, Apple gets everything they want from the PARC portfolio. That stock would have to be worth 9 figures today so (assuming they were smart enough to not sell) they got paid.

So nobody stole code. Apple got extremely annoyed that they'd given XEROX all this money for GUIs and Mouses and things and MS just went in and copied it themselves without paying XEROX anything.

Is the world safer?

Yes. The revelations, and public reactions to them (the real public reaction as expressed in the marketplace, not whatever jaw-flapping occurs in response to some inane telemarkepollster call) have led to security improvements. The fact that it has also led to the entertaining spectacle of useless bureaucrats running around pissing and moaning and whining and generally making fools of themselves in public is just a bonus.

I was (perhaps a bit pedantically) objecting to the apparent argument that any shape will do because your fingers will wrap around it. I can think of shapes that you could hold but wouldn't like working with.

I first grabbed a computer mouse in 1984 and I've been using them ever since, without hand pain. How long to I have to wait to find out?

That means that the shape(s) you've been using is/are adequate (possibly for most normal hands of roughly similar size). The ordinary mouse I use at work is symmetric and gives me no issues, but early mice wouldn't work as well for long hours, and I know from experience that tiny "laptop" mice kill my thumb adductors. OTOH (no pun intended), I know people who work *better* with tiny mice, either because they have small hands or because of injury.

Lastly, TFA is about gamers. They mouse like their lives depend on it (some do make a living off it) and it's not unthinkable that the situation resembles other activities like shooting or golf to some degree, where subtle differences in performance and myth complicate gear choices.

• Android's notification center for iOS
• Windows Phone's multitasking implementation for iOS
• Quick settings (from both WP and Android)

And it continues still:

• Keyboard typing suggestions
• Third party keyboards
• "Flattened" UI design
• "OK, Google", "Hey Siri"

Although I shouldn't be responding to a pusillanimous AC, I'll bite. And I will counter with only one thing stolen from Apple, and unlike you, I will back mine up with documentation. But, my one stolen thing neatly trumps ALL of your supposed "stolen features". Ready? Here we go. The thing that was stolen from Apple is simple:

iPhone.

Now what, bitch?

At least, I was assume it was in his biography (as I never read it). But when it came out, there were quite a few reports that Jobs said he had figured out TV interfaces:

• An Apple TV: Steve Jobs Confided Plans Before His Death
• Steve Jobs told biographer he 'cracked' the secret to a simple HDTV

It's entirely possible that because he didn't like the TVs, he had come up with a better UI ... but we haven't seen a dramatic revision of the Apple TV since he died ... so we might never know what it was that he came up with.

If it were me, I'd study the way *my* customers used the ports and figure out how many the needed.

Unless you wanted more people to buy your products.

http://appleinsider.com/articl...

You really needed to dig out an article over a year old to "prove" your point? Pretty desperate - even more so than usual.

If it were me, I'd study the way *my* customers used the ports and figure out how many the needed.

Unless you wanted more people to buy your products.

http://appleinsider.com/articl...

You've hacked a bank and now you're a terrorist. Expect a visit from the FBI and a taxpayer funded trip to Cuba.

Vinegar Joe is, unfortunately, probably correct. The last time this happened the person was sent to jail and faced a hefty fine. http://appleinsider.com/articl...

Sorry mate, but reporting vulnerabilities puts you behind bars.

http://appleinsider.com/articl...

http://appleinsider.com/articl...