18, October, 2010 - Apple News

Liveblog: Apple Q4 2010 earnings call starts at 5pm ET

Apple is wrapping up its 2010 fiscal year in preparation for a busy holiday season. As usual, the company's executives will discuss Apple's fourth quarter earnings, sales data, and other juicy tidbits in a conference call with media and analysts this afternoon. The earnings call begins at 2pm PT, 5pm ET (see it in your own timezeone).
Bookmark this page and come back as we begin our coverage or simply keep an eye on the website or your RSS feeds; we'll be bumping this article to the top of the pile just before we start Read More ...

HyperMac to halt MagSafe sales, hopes to appease Apple

HyperMac's external batteries will no longer come with MacBook-compatible charging cables thanks to a lawsuit from Apple. The company announced its decision early Monday morning, noting that the high-capacity batteries with MagSafe chargers would remain in the online store until November 2, after which they will be "gone for good."
Apple sued Sanho Corporation, HyperMac's parent company, in early September, alleging violations of Apple's MagSafe and 30-pin iPod connector patents. The lawsuit resulted from HyperMac's popular line of batteries that could charge any MacBook or MacBook Pro, or an iOS device with the 30-pin connector. Apple said the company had violated six of Apple's patents related to both technologies, and that Sanho's alleged infringement caused damage to Apple's business.
When we first heard about the suit, we theorized that the situation might be hairier than a standard patent suit because Sanho claimed that it merely resold existing MagSafe and 30-pin connectors—it didn't manufacture them. Whether Sanho had authorization to modify the MagSafe connectors to work with its batteries, however, was undoubtedly the catch.
In its statement issued Monday, Sanho said that it is in "ongoing comprehensive licensing negotiations with Apple regarding a wide array of technologies and issues," and that is the reason it has decided to cease sales of all MagSafe-related products. The company specifically mentioned the MacBook charging cables, but did not mention the 30-pin iPod/iPhone/iPad connector, leading us to believe that those unmodified cables are still kosher.
"If you wish to get the world's ONLY external battery and car charger solution that works with ALL MacBook, MacBook Air and MacBook Pro (supports dual voltage) as well as the iPad, iPhone 3/3GS/4, iPod and all other USB devices, NOW is the time," reads HyperMac's website. "On November 2, 2010 00:00 U.S. Pacific Time, they will gone for good."

new Apple event, iOS jailbreaks, Mac market share

The biggest news of the week was, unsurprisingly, the announcement of Apple's "Back to the Mac" event for October 20. But that's not all we talked about—we also discussed some new software for the Mac and iOS, the latest Mac market share numbers, iPhone 4 damage, and more. Check it out:
Apple announces "Back to the Mac" OS X preview for October 20: Apple will give the media a sneak peek at the next version of Mac OS X on October 20 at a special event.
Sparrow for Mac: a study in minimalist e-mail interfaces: Two developers have beaten a group of top indie Mac developers to build a useful IMAP e-mail client for Mac OS X. Sparrow's minimalist interface might not be the panacea some were hoping for, but it may be the perfect fit for those who like to spend as little time dealing with e-mail as possible. Read More 

New MobileMe Calendar out of beta

Apple has announced that the revised version of the MobileMe Calendar, in beta since early July, is now being made available to all MobileMe users. This version uses a new syncing backend as well as a new iPad-inspired user interface for the Web application.
Some of the new features that the updated Calendar offers include the ability to share calendars with family and friends, publish read-only calendars for groups or for special events, and send event invitations with RSVPs directly from the Web app. The new syncing backend also enables better push updates between Macs, iOS devices, and the MobileMe Web service. (Note, however, that iPads won't get push capabilities until iOS 4.2 is released in November.)
Apple notes that the new Web app works best in Safari 5, Firefox 3.6, and Internet Explorer 8. For syncing, you'll need the latest version of Snow Leopard on your Mac or iOS for your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad. Windows users can sync Outlook calendars using the latest version of the MobileMe Control Panel.

Apple breaks 10% market share in US, Lenovo climbs globally

Apple continues on its steady march to the top of the technology heap, according to the latest PC market share reports from Gartner and IDC. Both firms have released preliminary sales estimates for the third quarter showing impressive year-over-year growth for Apple just as the company's stock posted record highs at just over $300. The overall PC market is also up slightly both domestically (about 3 percent) and globally (about 9 percent), with Lenovo and ASUS in particular starting to gain on rivals Dell, Acer, and HP.
In the US, market leader HP mostly held steady year-over-year, commanding a quarter of the PC market here. Dell continues its steady decline, dropping a few points down to 23.4 percent. Somewhat surprisingly, low-cost netbook and nettop maker Acer dropped a couple points as well. More or less as Intel stated during its quarterly earnings report, Gartner analyst Mikako Kitagawa contributed Acer's and Dell's drops to a softening consumer market.( More … )