Apple

Apple awarded key iPhone multitouch patent

Apple has been awarded a patent that appears to cover much of the iPhone's multitouch user interface.

World of Apple (via MacRumors) spotted the patent, which was awarded last Tuesday to several Apple executives, including Steve Jobs, iPhone software chief Scott Forstall, and Wayne Westerman, one of the founders of a company called Fingerworks that Apple acquired in 2005.

The patent is extremely long, and covers many of the methods used by the iPhone to display data, such as pinch-to-zoom Web browsing and swipe-to-scroll.

This patent likely influenced COO Tim Cook's comments the day after it was awarded … Read more

Valleywag: Steve Jobs undergoing surgery Monday

Valleywag is reporting that Apple CEO Steve Jobs is undergoing surgery at Stanford Hospital on Monday.

The report did not explain what type of surgery Jobs might be having. It cited a secondhand account passed along from a employee at Stanford.

Jobs is currently on medical leave from Apple while he recuperates from health problems that have caused him to lose significant weight over the last year.

Bloomberg reported two weeks ago that Jobs was considering a liver transplant. A Stanford Hospital representative would only say that "due to federal patient privacy laws, we're unable to provide any … Read more

Analyst: New iMacs could be around the corner

At least one analyst thinks Apple has new iMacs on tap but is mulling whether to include two cores or four.

Shaw Wu of Kaufman Brothers put out a research note Monday saying his latest run through Apple's supply-chain vendors indicates that new iMacs will be out sometime before March, or at most before June. It's been awhile since Apple tweaked the iMac in any substantial way, dating back to September 2007.

The changes this time around would mostly be under the hood: Wu believes Apple is debating whether to use Intel's dual-core processors or newer quad-core … Read more

Apple's iLife '09 to ship Tuesday

The latest version of Apple's iLife--shown off at Macworld earlier this month--will ship Tuesday.

The new software comes with updates to iPhoto, iMovie, and GarageBand that Apple Senior Vice President Phil Schiller detailed during Macworld. For example, you will now be able to sort photos by the faces of your subjects in iPhoto and take $4.99 lessons from famous musicians in GarageBand.

iLife '09 will be bundled with all Macs starting Tuesday and will cost $79 if you're planning to upgrade from an earlier version. If you bought a Mac after the new version was announced on … Read more

Apple reaches $22.5 million settlement in Nano scratch suit

Apple has reached a $22.5 million settlement agreement in the class action iPod Nano scratch lawsuit and potential claimants began receiving settlement notices this week, according to the plaintiffs attorney.

The lawsuit, filed in October 2005 in a California Superior Court in Los Angeles County, alleges Apple's iPod Nano is prone to scratches and its alleged defects were not disclosed by the company.

A $22.5 million cash settlement agreement was reached in late October and a court has preliminarily approved the agreement, said the plaintiffs attorney. But it wasn't until this week that notices of the … Read more

Mac, iPod average prices decline during Apple's Q1

Much was made of the fact that Apple didn't introduce lower-cost Macs ahead of expectations of a brutal economy, but Mac prices did in fact decrease last quarter.

The average selling price of a Mac declined 8 percent during Apple's first fiscal quarter, from $1,532 a year ago to $1,408, according to Apple's 10-Q filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. It also declined 4 percent from the average price of $1,469 recorded during Apple's 2008 fiscal year.

iPod average prices declined even further. Apple's ASP for the iPod during the holiday … Read more

Palm, Apple posture over iPhone IP

Apple made it clear on its earnings call it won't tolerate any pilfering of its iPhone intellectual property. It was less direct, however, on who that is directed at.

But Palm, with its recently introduced Palm Pre, apparently is willing to play the game of corporate posturing, as well.

A Palm representative, according to an interview with AllThingsD, noted the company is comfortable with its innovation and has no problem defending its developments.

Said the Palm rep:

If faced with legal action, we are confident that we have the tools necessary to defend ourselves.

Anyone want to keep watch … Read more

Apple issues critical security update for QuickTime

Apple has issued a critical security update for QuickTime media player, aimed at resolving vulnerabilities that could potentially allow a malicious attacker to take control of a person's computer, according to an Apple advisory released this week.

People running QuickTime 7 for Windows and for Mac OS X, are affected, as well as those who are using Mac OS X 10.4 or Mac OS X 10.5, according to Apple.

Apple is advising people to update to QuickTime 7.6 for Windows, QuickTime 7.6 for Leopard, or QuickTime 7.6 for Tiger.

The update seeks to address … Read more

Mac at 25: A special Editors' Office Hours

Clarification at 7:25 a.m. PST: The time of Friday's show has been updated.

Tune in (browse in?) to CNET TV at 11:30 a.m. PST Friday for a special edition of Editors' Office Hours with Brian Tong and me, where we'll talk all about the 25th anniversary of the Mac.

We usually do these things on Tuesdays, but figured we'd put together a special one commemorating the Mac, which is finally old enough to rent a car. Brian and I will be on camera taking your questions, so make sure to stop by here.… Read more