Monday, 13 October 2014

MacRumors : Mac News and Rumors
















No Retina MacBook Air Introduction Planned for Apple's October 16 Media Event


Posted: 13 Oct 2014 08:58 AM PDT


With rumors of a new 12-inch Retina MacBook Air circulating in recent months and the latest reports suggesting small-scale production has already begun, many have been wondering about Apple's plans for introducing the product. According to a new report from Re/code , the Retina MacBook Air will not be unveiled at this Thursday's media event.

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Apple may well have a new MacBook Air with Retina Display in the pipeline, but it's not going to unveil it this week. Sources familiar with Apple's plans tell me that the company's latest reimagining of the ultralight laptop won't be shown off at its Thursday event.



In line with previous rumors, the report claims Thursday's event will focus on new iPads, Retina iMacs, and OS X Yosemite. One source has also claimed updated Mac minis could appear at the event, but there has been little additional chatter about the possibility.

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Apple's media event kicks off at 10:00 AM Pacific Time on Thursday, and MacRumors will have full live coverage of the proceedings. There are likely to be additional leaks and rumors in the final lead-up to the event, so stay tuned as Apple prepares to finalize its product lineup for the holiday shopping season.


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Finnish Prime Minister Again 'Blames' Apple for Country's Economic Struggles


Posted: 13 Oct 2014 08:27 AM PDT


Finland's Prime Minister Alexander Stubb told CNBC in an interview that Apple is to blame for the decline of the country's two primary export industries, information technology (led by Nokia) and paper. "The iPhone killed Nokia and the iPad killed the paper industry, but we'll make a comeback," said Stubb in response to a question about Finland's business environment following the country's recently downgraded credit rating. While the comment certainly appears to be more of a pithy jest than an outright accusation against Apple, it does aptly describe how several of the country's major boom industries have seen their fortunes slip in the face of a changing marketplace.

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As noted by TechCrunch , this isn't the first time Stubb has singled out Apple in reference to his country's economic decline since he took over as Prime Minister in June of this year. Speaking in July, Stubb made a similar comment mentioning Apple.



"We had two pillars we stood on: one was the IT industry, the other one was the paper industry," Stubb told Swedish financial newspaper Dagens Industri.


"Nalle Wahlroos, president of (Swedish bank) Nordea, described it quite well when he said the iPhone knocked out Nokia and the iPad knocked out the forestry," accelerating the fall of paper demand.



In the same conversation with Dagens Industri, Stubb quipped "Steve Jobs took our jobs," with the promise that "this is beginning to change."

Apple may be an easy scapegoat for politicians to blame, but the Cupertino company is not responsible for Finland's struggles. While Apple did lead a revolution in the mobile phone industry with the iPhone, the Cupertino company did so by focusing on high-end handsets and not the entry-level phones that Nokia was selling by the millions. With a plethora of Android handset options at a variety of price points, Samsung instead was much a greater threat to the long-term survival of the Finnish company. Nokia has since sold its devices unit to Microsoft, tying its future to that of Windows Phone.


Apple's iPad also is not to blame for the downturn in the paper industry, which has been in decline for years. The reasons for the slowdown in paper manufacturing are myriad and include the increasing use of email over traditional mail, the adoption of digital documents, and the steady decline in print magazine and newspaper subscriptions. With tablet shipments reaching only 200 million globally, the proliferation of Kindles and tablets, such as the iPad, are not yet significant enough to decimate the paper industry as Stubb implies.


Ironically, Apple and other technology companies have been supporting Nokia even as its mobile phone sales decline. In 2011, Apple ended an ongoing patent battle with Nokia and has been paying the Finnish company an undisclosed amount to license cellular technology owned by the company. This intellectual property may be netting Nokia a collective $685 million per year from Apple and other technology companies.


Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.


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Apple to Launch iPhone 6 and 6 Plus in 36 Additional Countries During October


Posted: 13 Oct 2014 05:56 AM PDT


Ahead of Apple's Chinese launch of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus later this week, Apple today confirmed the launch of its new handset models in 36 additional countries and territories by the end of October. In its fastest rollout ever, Apple expects to launch the iPhone in 115 countries by the end of the year.

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The next round of launches coming this month will include countries in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America.



• Friday, October 17: China, India and Monaco


• Thursday, October 23: Israel


• Friday, October 24: Czech Republic, French West Indies, Greenland, Malta, Poland, Reunion Island and South Africa


• Thursday, October 30: Bahrain and Kuwait


• Friday, October 31: Albania, Bosnia, Croatia, Estonia, Greece, Guam, Hungary, Iceland, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Macau, Macedonia, Mexico, Moldova, Montenegro, Serbia, South Korea, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Ukraine and Thailand



Apple has been busy with new products this fall in a product lineup has been described by Eddy Cue as being "the best product pipeline that I've seen in my 25 years at Apple." Apple already announced the new iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus and the Apple watch at a press event held last month. An upcoming October event is expected to unveil new iPad models, new iMacs and possibly new Mac minis.

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Apple Pay Setup Process Revealed as Retail Employees and Partners Begin Training


Posted: 12 Oct 2014 04:54 PM PDT


Apple has begun preparing its retail employees and retail partners for the upcoming launch of its Apple Pay mobile payments service with a host of new training materials that show the feature in action, reports 9to5Mac.

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Users will be able to set up Apple Pay in Passbook or through the Settings app, as up to eight credit or debit cards be connected with an iTunes account or by scanning one in with the iPhone's camera. Every card connected to the service will allow users to access a number of features, including the ability to see a simple transaction list, the ability to turn on push notifications, and an area that allows quick access to a bank's phone number and an accompanying app. Passbook will also be able to automatically update an expired card with a new expiration date without the need to re-enter information.


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For Apple's own stores, a customer will be able to return an item simply by holding an iPhone near a payment terminal to give a list of their recent transactions. Receipts from Apple Store purchases will also not display a customer's contact information or credit card number, but will rather show just the last four digits of a device's Apple Pay ID. If Apple Pay is not working properly for an Apple Store customer, retail employees will be able to use the "Apple Pay Demo" diagnostic software that can determine whether a device is having a hardware problem or other issue. For non-hardware issues, customers will be referred to their appropriate credit card providers or banks.


applepaysetup33

Apple's training materials note that its retail employee should emphasize the simplicity and security of Apple Pay to convince customers to use the service. All Apple Store employees will receive one hour of mandatory Apple Pay training this week ahead of the service's impending launch. The report also notes that Apple has already launched Apple Pay at its Caffe Macs cafeteria located in its 1 Infinite Loop headquarters.


An internal memo addressed to Walgreens employees that surfaced yesterday suggested that Apple Pay may be going live next Saturday, October 18. Apple Pay will be enabled on the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus through an update to iOS 8. The seeded versions of iOS 8.1 to developers first revealed hidden Apple Pay settings and set up screens, which may indicate that the service might be launching alongside the update.


Apple is expected to detail full launch plans for Apple Pay and iOS 8.1 at its event this Thursday, October 16. The company is also expected to announce its next-generation iPad Air and Retina iPad mini, new iMacs with at least the 27-inch version receiving a high-resolution Retina display, and perhaps even a new Mac Mini.


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