Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin Shares Some Thoughts About Steve Jobs Biopic, Woz Hired As Advisor

Aaron Sorkin, the creative genius behind The Social Network, The West Wing, and upcoming HBO show The Newsroom was recently confirmed as the screenwriter for Sony's upcoming movie based on Walter Isaacson's biography of Steve Jobs -- though, Sorkin himself says he has a lot of work to do.

Reuters reports that Sorkin held an interview with reporters and said he was still looking for something in Jobs' life to hang the movie on.

Sorkin noted that "The Social Network" saw the Facebook story through the lens of an acrimonious lawsuit that pitted CEO Mark Zuckerberg against his Harvard friends over the creation of the social media network.

"Drama is tension versus obstacle. Someone wants something, something is standing in their way of getting it. They want the money, they want the girl, they want to get to Philadelphia - doesn't matter ... And I need to find that event and I will. I just don't know what it is," Sorkin said.

He noted that it won't be a "straight ahead biography" because a biography has a natural "cradle-to-grave structure" that is very hard to overcome.

Sorkin also disclosed that Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has been hired as a consultant by Sony Pictures to advise the filmmakers on the technical aspects of computers and about Jobs himself.


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Time Warner Cable and Viacom Settle Lawsuit Over iPad Television Streaming

Time Warner Cable and Viacom have settled their legal entanglements regarding Time Warner's streaming of Viacom video content on its iPad app, according to the New York Times.

The breakthrough comes as a result of a settlement between Time Warner Cable and Viacom, which owns cable channels like Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, MTV and others. For months there had been a heated dispute over whether the cable company should have access to Viacom programs through its TWCable TV app.

On Wednesday, Viacom said that the companies had agreed "to resolve their pending litigations" and that "all of Viacom’s programming will now be available to Time Warner Cable subscribers for in-home viewing via Internet protocol-enabled devices such as iPads."

The companies have been fighting over streaming rights for more than a year. Time Warner argued that its existing agreements give it the right to provide video streams on any screen, rather than just the television. Viacom said the app was "unlicensed distribution of Viacom's programming." Viacom still has a pending lawsuit with Cablevision over its Optimum live TV app.

Viacom's programming will roll out on the Time Warner Cable app over the next few weeks.

Time Warner's app, TWC TV, is available free on the App Store for its cable customers. [Direct Link]


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Security Firm Symantec Analyzes the Profitability of the OSX.Flashback Botnet

Security firm Symantec previously estimated that the authors of the Flashback malware that affected hundreds of thousands of Macs at its peak could have been generating up to $10,000 per day by hijacking users' ad clicks. Further analysis from the company suggests that the developers may have only earned $14,000 over the three weeks the malware was active.

From our analysis we have seen that, for a three-week period starting in April, the botnet displayed over 10 million ads on compromised computers but only a small percentage of users who were shown ads actually clicked them, with close to 400,000 ads being clicked. These numbers earned the attackers $14,000 in these three weeks, although it is worth mentioning that earning the money is only one part of the puzzle—actually collecting that money is another, often more difficult, job. Many PPC providers employ anti-fraud measures and affiliate-verification processes before paying. Fortunately, the attackers in this instance appear to have been unable to complete the necessary steps to be paid.

It is estimated the actual ad-clicking component of Flashback was only installed on about 10,000 of the more than 600,000 infected machines. In other words, utilizing less than 2% of the entire botnet the attackers were able to generate $14,000 in three weeks, meaning that if the attackers were able to use the entire botnet, they could potentially have earned millions of dollars a year.

Symantec notes that the malware developers displayed more than 10 million hijacked ads and could have delivered many more if the developers had been more successful in their attacks.

Some security specialists have said that the Mac OS is "really vulnerable" to further infections, though these claims should perhaps be taken with a grain of salt -- those security specialists make their living off vulnerabilities and it is in their best interest to promote awareness of them.


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Verizon Planning to End Grandfathered Unlimited Data Plans With LTE Switch

U.S. cellular carrier Verizon is planning to move its customers who still have unlimited data plans for their smartphones to its new family data-share plans as customers switch to LTE data plans.

The iPhone was initially offered with unlimited data plans when it launched on Verizon early last year, but the carrier soon dropped the unlimited option in favor of data plans with allocations of data.


Fierce Wireless has the details, quoting Verizon Communications CFO Fran Shammo at a JP Morgan conference:

As these 3G unlimited data plan customers migrate to 4G LTE, they will have to purchase the company's data-share plan (which Verizon plans to launch in mid-summer) and move off the $30 per month unlimited data plan. "Everyone will be on data share," Shammo said.

Verizon currently throttles its unlimited data users only when a particular cell tower is overloaded, whereas competitor AT&T slows its unlimited users after they use 3GB of data in a month. AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson recently noted that his one regret about bringing the iPhone to AT&T was offering unlimited data.

Sprint, the number three carrier in the country -- and the only carrier to still offer unlimited data packages for the iPhone -- has said it will continue to offer unlimited data plans for the iPhone, even if the next iPhone includes LTE, as is expected.


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Tim Cook Meets With Speaker of the House John Boehner

Tim Cook met with Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) today. It is unknown what the topic of discussion was, but it's possible that Cook was lobbying the Boehner to pass a tax holiday that would allow Apple and other companies with large overseas tax holdings to bring back their earnings at a lower corporate tax rate.


As of its most recent earnings call, Apple held $74 billion of its $110 billion in cash and marketable securities offshore.


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Apple to Release Thinner MacBook Pro at WWDC

Bloomberg confirms a report from earlier today that Apple is preparing to release thinner MacBook Pro models with Retina displays.

The models are to be released at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference on June 11 and will also include flash memory to "cut startup times and extend battery life". The report is likely a "controlled leak", something that Apple PR has been known to do in the past to share product details.


Mockup of thinner 15-inch MacBook Pro design (left) compared to current design (right)

Apple Inc. is preparing a new lineup of thinner MacBook laptops running on more powerful chips made by Intel Corp., people with knowledge of the plans said.

The MacBook Pro machines, to be unveiled at Apple’s annual developers conference starting June 11, also will feature high- definition screens like those on the iPhone and iPad, as well as flash memory to cut startup times and extend battery life, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the plans haven’t been made public.

The MacBook Pro lineup was last updated in October of 2011, though it hasn't had a substantial redesign since 2008.

Bloomberg also suggested that Apple will announce the launch date of the OS X Mountain Lion release that Apple previewed earlier this year.


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Apple Interested In Acquiring German Television Maker Loewe?

Apple is in talks to acquire German luxury television manufacturer Loewe, according to an unconfirmed report from AppleInsider. The site claims Apple has offered €87.3 million for the company, a 48% premium from Loewe's Friday close on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.

Word of the negotiations was exclusively revealed to AppleInsider, and although the offer has yet to be accepted, a source claims that Loewe "has been advised by its financial advisor to accept the offer and a final decision is scheduled to be announced internally before 18 May 2012."

Loewe makes sleek, minimalist televisions that would seem to fit well with Jony Ive's product designs. The company also makes speaker systems, including the AirPlay-compatible AirSpeaker, as well as a sleek app that controls the Loewe television set via an iPad.

Loewe's largest shareholder is Sharp, the same company that has been rumored to be Apple's choice to work with Foxconn to build a television set. Foxconn and Sharp announced a partnership to work together in March. AppleInsider says a decision on the acquisition will be announced internally by the end of this week.


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New iPhone Rumors Reiterate Claims of Smaller Dock Connector, No Change to Screen Aspect Ratio

Apple is planning on implementing a new, smaller dock connector, according to a report by iMore. The site has been reliable in the past and correctly predicted the release of an LTE equipped iPad. iMore also reported that Apple is still in the prototyping phase for the next iPhone and that the design is not yet set in stone.

Despite some rumors to the contrary, according to our sources Apple still hasn't finalized the design of the next generation iPhone 5 (or whatever Apple ends up calling iPhone 5,1). No giant screen. No 16:9 aspect ratio. No metal back.

[…]

Once again we're hearing that if the screen size does change, it won't be by a lot (no larger than 4-inches). We've heard nothing to indicate a planned change in the aspect ratio either way (and such a change still doesn't make much sense to us).

iLounge previously claimed that the next iPhone would have a smaller, redesigned dock connector as well as a 4" screen that is larger in height only -- this would result in an adjustment to the screen's aspect ratio. The iPhone 4's design has served Apple very well, with the company selling millions upon millions of units. It is possible that the company will choose to stick with the successful design, albeit with some minor changes, rather than a wholesale redesign.

Other recent iPhone rumors include a claims that the next iPhone will launch in September; another that it would use the same micro-SIM as current iPhones, rather than a new nano-SIM concept; and that the next iPhone will retain its physical home button -- a claim that iMore reiterates.


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Apple Updates Apple TV to Version 5.0.1

Apple has released a new update for the generation 2 and 3 Apple TV models. The update allows movies and TV show previews from the iTunes Store to be viewed in HD and fixes a few other minor issues.

Apple TV Software Update 5.0.1

iTunes previews - Previews for movies and TV shows from the iTunes Store can now be viewed in HD.
AirPlay - Fixes an issue that caused some iOS apps to have trouble connecting via AirPlay.
Home Sharing - Improves the reliability of Home Sharing connections.
Netflix - Addresses an issue affecting Netflix login and navigation.
Stability and performance - Includes fixes for issues affecting stability and performance.

The update can be performed directly on the Apple TV by going to the Settings menu, then General, then selecting Update Software.


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iPod Lawsuit Against Apple Given Class-Action Status

Apple customers who purchased an iPod between September 12, 2006 and March 31, 2009 are being informed via email that they are being included in a class-action lawsuit filed against Apple in 2004 by RealNetworks. The lawsuit was granted class-action status by the courts last year and includes millions of customers who purchased any of a broad number of iPod music players. Notices are being distributed to customers covered by the class, directing them to the lawsuit's webpage.


The class-action suit was filed in January 2005 by a customer complaining about the exclusive nature of Apple's digital music offerings encoded with FairPlay, preventing users from playing music purchased from the iTunes Store on other companies' music players and other music stores' digital offerings from being played on iPods. In particular, Apple's efforts to thwart RealNetworks' reverse engineering of FairPlay with its own "Harmony" technology served as the impetus for the lawsuit.

In 2011, then Apple CEO Steve Jobs was instructed to provide a deposition in the case. Apple of course no longer sells DRM-encoded music through the iTunes Store, but the lawsuit argues that Apple sought to build monopolies in the digital music and portable music player markets by integrating its products and services while preventing interoperability with competitors' products.

Three individuals who bought iPods have sued Apple seeking to recover money for themselves and other people who bought iPods. The lawsuit claims that Apple violated federal and state laws by issuing software updates in 2006 for its iPod that prevented iPods from playing songs not purchased on iTunes. The lawsuit claims that the software updates caused iPod prices to be higher than they otherwise would have been.

The Court in charge of the case is the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, and the case is known as In re Apple iPod iTunes Antitrust Litigation, C-05-00037-JW.

The list of affected iPods is extensive, including all 5th generation iPods; the iPod Classic; the U2 Special Edition iPod; first, second and third generation iPod Shuffle models; first and second generation iPod Touch models; and, first, second, third and fourth generation iPod Nano models.

Customers who wish to be excluded from the class must inform the court by July 30, 2012. Members of the class who wish register with the court can sign up on the lawsuit's website.


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Nano-SIM Card Standard to be Decided This Month

Apple has been pushing its own nano-SIM design as a replacement for the current micro-SIM for a year. As of a couple months ago, however, Apple was fighting with rival phone makers who were pushing their own SIM designs. Apple has even offered a royalty-free patent license to its design in order to convince other companies to sign on.


The Verge reports that the votes on the next SIM card standard are finally being taken and should be concluded by mid-May. Apple has attempted to counter Nokia's concerns by slightly reworking its design.

We just spoke with SIM card maker (and pioneer) Giesecke & Devrient here at CTIA about progress on the creation of the 4FF standard — the so-called nano-SIM — over which Apple and Nokia have been warring in recent months.

[...]

The company tells us that the ETSI vote on the 4FF standard that had been delayed back in March is actually now underway. Voting began for ETSI members in mid-April and wraps up in mid-May, mere days away. G&D is a voting member, though it wouldn't tell us which way it's leaning — needless to say, the presence of Apple's design here signals that they'll almost certainly put their votes in that direction and away from Nokia's more radical design that limits backward compatibility with micro-SIM and mini-SIM slots on older phones.

G&D also noted that since the nano-SIM design is being "driven by a supplier" -- in this case, Apple -- there wouldn't be a long lag before the new design was implemented. The current standard, the micro-SIM, took five years from ratification as a standard to appearing in the iPhone 4.

Recently, a purported micro-SIM tray for the next iPhone leaked from a part supplier, suggesting that Apple will continue to use that standard in the forthcoming device. Being that the new nano-SIM standard hasn't been ratified, and the fact that Apple would need some lead-time to incorporate the design into the iPhone, it seems likely that the nano-SIM standard would not be ready in time for the next iPhone.


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John Browett, Apple’s New Head of Retail, Sends Introductory Email to Store Employees

Apple's new senior vice president of Retail, John Browett, has introduced himself to Apple Retail employees in an email obtained by IFO Apple Store.

Team,

At last I've officially started at Apple, and it's great to be here. I've had the chance to meet many of you at stores in the U.S. and across Europe, and one of my top priorities for the coming months is to meet many more people on our team around the world.

It's incredibly impressive to be on the inside of Apple Retail. Many of my friends, relatives, and former colleagues have written to tell me how lucky I am to be working with such a great group of people, and I couldn't agree more. While our stores are fantastic and our products are amazing, it really is our people who make the difference in creating the best retail experience.

There will be much more to share in the weeks ahead, and I'm looking forward to meeting everyone over time.

I am thrilled to work with all of you as we build the future of Apple Retail together.

Browett, who joins Apple from British electronics retailer Dixons, started work at Apple on April 20, nearly six months after former retail head Ron Johnson left the company to head up JC Penney's turnaround efforts. Browett was awarded restricted stock units worth more than $60 million as an enticement to stay with the company for the next five years.


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Apple Testing Notifications on iCloud Website

Apple appears to be testing a notification service on the iCloud website. The test message appears at the top of the browser window upon logging into iCloud.com.


Apple introduced a new notification system in iOS 5 and has announced that a similar feature will be coming to the Mac in the Mountain Lion operating system this summer.

It's possible that Apple will include syncing code in iCloud to share notifications across devices, for calendar alerts and new mail, or the notifications may be used for some other purpose.


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Amtrak Conductors Adopting iPhones to Verify Tickets

The number of industries that Apple is disrupting with the iPhone and iPad is growing by the day. Amtrak, the government-owed American passenger railroad company, has adopted the iPhone as a ticket scanner for its 1,700 conductors, reports the New York Times.

The phones will be in a case equipped with a barcode scanner, similar to the Linea Pro cases that Apple uses at its retail stores. The phones will scan barcodes on paper tickets, as well as digital barcodes on smartphones. The MBTA commuter rail in Boston is adopting a similar system for smartphone ticketing.

By late summer, 1,700 conductors will be using the devices on Amtrak trains across the country, the company said.

With the new system, passengers will be able to print tickets or load a special bar code on their smartphone screens for conductors to scan, and conductors will be able to keep track of passengers on board, Amtrak said.

“You don’t even need to print the document and bring it with you,” said Matt Hardison, chief of sales distribution at Amtrak, who helped plan the iPhone program. “We’ve made a number of important improvements for both our customers and Amtrak, all in one fell swoop.”

The Times notes that Amtrak's ticketing system is long overdue for an upgrade. The prior ticketing process involved punching a hole in a paper ticket and physically transporting those tickets to a central location where the information was entered in a database. Among other things, conductors couldn't keep track of how many empty seats were on a train and customers needed to get their paper tickets cancelled and reissued if they wanted to change to a different train.

Amtrak does have an iPhone app that allows riders to book tickets, check train status and schedules, and more. Amtrak eTickets can currently be purchased within the app for 4 routes, with the entire Amtrak system rolling out the ticketing scheme during 2012.

Amtrak for iPhone is available free on the App Store. [Direct Link]


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AT&T CEO’s “Only Regret” is Offering Unlimited Data Packages

Speaking at a conference this week, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson noted that he only had one regret about AT&T being the first cellular carrier to support the iPhone. As reported by the New York Times:

“My only regret was how we introduced pricing in the beginning, because how did we introduce pricing? Thirty dollars and you get all you can eat,” he said in the on-stage interview at the Milken Institute’s Global Conference on Wednesday. “And it’s a variable cost model. Every additional megabyte you use in this network, I have to invest capital.”

Since then, AT&T has discontinued offering unlimited data plans to new customers, as well as throttling users who have been grandfathered in from older plans.

Stephenson is also concerned about services like Apple's iMessage texting service and Skype affecting AT&T's existing business models.

“You lie awake at night worrying about what is that which will disrupt your business model,” he said. “Apple iMessage is a classic example. If you’re using iMessage, you’re not using one of our messaging services, right? That’s disruptive to our messaging revenue stream.”

All those concerns aside, AT&T has been extraordinarily successful attracting and keeping profitable iPhone users. In the last quarter, AT&T made $3.58 billion in profit on $29 billion in sales. The iPhone accounted for 60% of the carrier's total phone sales to postpaid customers in that quarter.


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Apple Updates Cards, iPhoto, Garageband, iMovie, and iTunes U iOS Apps

Apple has released a number of updates to several of its apps for the iPhone and iPad. The iLife apps, iPhoto, Garageband, and iMovie, all received minor updates, while Apple also pushed out bug fixes to the Cards greeting-card app, and to iTunes U.

None of the updates offer any significant new features -- the updates mostly offer "performance and stability improvements" or fix other bugs. All the updates can be obtained via the App Store app on the iPhone and iPad.


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Apple Stores Replace Kids’ Table iMacs With iPads

Apple has replaced the iMacs that were previously on the kids' table at its retail stores with iPads, as first noticed by iMore. The switch is a clear sign of the direction the company is going, particularly with regards to its younger customer base.

The kids' table has been a staple of the Apple Retail Store since it the first locations opened more than 10 years ago. The original tables featured CRT iMacs surrounded by black balls from the Baleri Italia company for children to sit on. Apple, as is typical, spares no expense when it comes to its retail stores -- the chairs cost more than $500 each.

Over the years, as the iMacs themselves have been updated, Apple has replaced the machines with newer models, but this is the first time that a product other than a Mac has been featured.


(Image of old kids table courtesy Flickr/Ralph and Jenny)


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Apple Reports Results for Q2 2012: $11.6 Billion Profit on $39.2 Billion in Revenue

Apple today announced financial results for the first calendar quarter of 2012 and second fiscal quarter of 2012. For the quarter, Apple posted revenue of $39.2 billion and net quarterly profit of $11.6 billion, or $12.30 per diluted share, compared to revenue of $24.67 billion and net quarterly profit of $5.99 billion, or $6.40 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 47.4 percent, compared to 41.4 percent in the year-ago quarter, and international sales accounted for 64 percent of the quarter's revenue. Apple's quarterly profit and revenue were both company records for the March quarter.


Quarterly iPhone unit sales reached 35.1 million, up 88 percent from the year-ago quarter, and the company sold 11.8 million iPads during the quarter, up 151 percent year-over-year. Apple sold 4 million Macintosh computers during the quarter, a unit increase of 7 percent over the year-ago quarter. The company sold 7.7 million iPods, representing 15 percent unit decline year-over-year.

"We're thrilled with sales of over 35 million iPhones and almost 12 million iPads in the March quarter," said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. "The new iPad is off to a great start, and across the year you’re going to see a lot more of the kind of innovation that only Apple can deliver."

Apple's guidance for the third quarter of fiscal 2012 includes expected revenue of $34 billion and earnings per diluted share of $8.68.


Apple will provide live streaming of its Q2 2012 financial results conference call at 2:00 PM Pacific, and MacRumors will update this story with coverage of the conference call highlights.

Conference Call Highlights

- Very pleased to report results of our outstanding fiscal quarters. New March quarter records for iPhone, iPad, Mac, profit and revenue.
- YoY increase fueled by growth in iPhone and iPad sales. Income up 94% YoY.
- New March quarter records for Desktops and Portables. Growth of 7% YoY compared to IDC's 2% growth for the PC market. 3-4 weeks of Mac channel inventory. Below target range of 4-5 weeks.
- Released developer preview of Mountain Lion during the quarter. Expect Mountain Lion to be available in "late summer"
- 7.7 million iPods vs 9 million a year ago. iPod Touch continues to account for more than half of iPods sold. 70% market share, iPod is top selling player in most countries tracked. 4-6 weeks of iPod channel inventory.
- Record results from iTunes store, $1.9 billion in revenue, up 35% YoY. Strong sales of music, video and apps. 28 million songs and 45,000 movies.
- 35 million iPhones vs 18.6 million YoY. Very strong iPhone sales growth in all segments, led by Asia Pacific and Japan where sales doubled YoY. Tremendous momentum in greater China. 5x iPhone sales YoY in China thanks to iPhone 4S and China Telecom.
- iPhone 4S in 100 countries and 230 carriers. 8.6 million iPhones in channel inventory, up 2.6 million units to 4-6 weeks of channel inventory.
- iPhone momentum in enterprise has evolved beyond email, calendar and contacts.
- iPad sales up 151% YoY. New iPad available in 40 countries.
- 2 Million iPads in channel inventory, below target range of 4-6 weeks.
- Sold 2 iPads for every Mac to US K-12 customers while also generating a record quarter for Mac sales. San Diego School District bought 10k iPads and plans to buy 15k more.
- Hopeful that iPad will be a popular choice going into school buying season.
- US Air Force is deploying thousands of iPads as pilot flight bags.
- Thousands of iPads are being deployed as mobile sales tools as well.
- 365 million cumulative iOS device sales, more than 50 million in March quarter.
- App Store has 600,000 apps, 200,000 for iPad.
- 25 billionth app sold less than 4 years after the launch of the app store.
- More than 125 million customers signed up for iCloud.


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Google Launches Google Drive Cloud Storage Service

Google today announced its long-awaited Google Drive cloud storage service, providing users with 5GB of free storage integrated with Google Docs and other Google services.

Today, we’re introducing Google Drive—a place where you can create, share, collaborate, and keep all of your stuff. Whether you’re working with a friend on a joint research project, planning a wedding with your fiancé or tracking a budget with roommates, you can do it in Drive. You can upload and access all of your files, including videos, photos, Google Docs, PDFs and beyond.

Beyond the free 5GB level, Google offers several levels of paid storage up to 16 TB, all accessible via Google Docs or through clients for PC, Mac, Android and iOS devices -- though the iOS app has yet to be released, Google promises it is "coming soon". One of the biggest features in Drive is the ability to open more than 30 different file types directly in the browser, allowing users without programs like Illustrator and Photoshop to open up files and see what's inside. The service includes extensive sharing and collaboration features, as well.


The launch of Google Drive comes as several other cloud storage services have augmented their services in recent days. Microsoft's SkyDrive, which offers users 7GB of free cloud storage, yesterday updated its offering with an updated iOS app [Direct Link] and a preview client for OS X Lion, which allows users to manage their SkyDrive accounts directly from the Finder. Finally, Dropbox extended its file storage service with the ability to quickly share files stored on Dropbox with anyone, simply by creating a link.


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Roundup of Analyst Expectations Ahead of Q2 2012 Earnings Call

Philip Elmer-Dewitt has put together his list of analyst expectations ahead of Apple's quarterly earnings report this afternoon. The list includes estimates from 23 "independent" analysts and 34 "affiliated" analysts who work for large investment houses or research organizations.

As usual, the independent analysts are much more bullish than the affiliated analysts. The independent consensus expects earnings per share (EPS) of $12.74 on revenue of $42.73 billion. The institutional consensus is EPS of $10.18 on $37.06 billion in revenue. The six analysts with the best track record expect $12.49 EPS on $41.47 billion in sales.


Click through to Elmer-DeWitt's post at Fortune to see the full-size chart.

Apple will announce its earnings for the second fiscal quarter of 2012 (first calendar quarter) and host a conference call regarding the release this afternoon at 5:00 PM Eastern / 2:00 PM Pacific. The earnings release itself typically comes in around 4:30 PM Eastern.

Last quarter the company announced record-shattering results in a number of areas, including $13.06 billion in profit on revenue of $46.33 billion. For the second fiscal quarter, Apple has issued guidance of $32.5 billion in revenue with profits of $8.50 per share. The company typically exceeds its guidance by a significant margin.


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