Apple

Hot on the heels of its win against Mac clone-maker Psystar, Apple is suing another company that's making knockoffs of its products, but this time its power adapters.

(Credit: Apple)

Apple filed the lawsuit against Media Solutions Holdings in the California Central District Court on Monday, according to InformationWeek. Apple claims the power adapters violate a patent the company holds on the design of its own adapters.

The power adapters in question come with Apple's MacBook and MacBook Pro line of notebooks. Apple also sells the adapters separately for $79 from its online and retail stores.

While several of Media Solutions Holdings Web sites, including Laptopsforless.com, Laptopacadapter.com, and Ereplacements.com, have Apple replacement parts in stock, none currently has the power adapter in question when CNET checked on Friday.

Media Solutions Holdings sells replacement parts for many of today's popular brands of computers like Sony, Toshiba, Lenovo, Acer and HP, among others.

Apple's iPhone is still king of the smartphone hill.

(Credit: Apple)

J.D. Power and Associates on Thursday released the results of its 2009 Wireless Consumer Smartphone Customer Satisfaction Study and the 2009 Wireless Business Smartphone Satisfaction Study. It may not surprise you to learn that Apple topped the list for satisfaction among consumers, but the iPhone is also the No. 1 pick among business users, too.

The factors determining satisfaction for business users (in order of importance) are ease of operation (29 percent); operating system (23 percent); physical design (21 percent); features (16 percent); and battery function (11 percent).

Apple scored 803 out of a possible 1,000 points among business users in the survey. Research in Motion's BlackBerry finished in second place in the business category, with a score of 724.

The factors and how they were weighted differed for the consumer and business surveys. Factors used to determine satisfaction for consumers were ease of operation (which accounted for 30 percent of the score), operating system (22 percent), features (21 percent), physical design (18 percent), and battery function (9 percent).

J.D. Power said Apple came in first with consumers, scoring 811 out of a possible 1,000. LG came in second with 776, and the BlackBerry took the third spot with 724.

While the company didn't give specific numbers, J.D. Power said the iPhone performed "particularly well in ease of operation, operating system, features, and physical design."

Overall, consumer satisfaction with smartphones has gone up 23 points out of 1,000 from a year ago, while business users report an increase of 43 points during the same time.

Apple outdistanced the competition in consumer smartphone customer satisfaction ratings from J.D. Power.

(Credit: Screenshot by Tom Krazit/CNET)

Apple's iPhone has won another J.D Power award for customer satisfaction among consumers, after taking the business crown last year.

J.D. Power and Associates released the results of a customer satisfaction study measuring consumer tastes on Thursday, and ranked the iPhone highest among smartphone consumers judging five factors: ease of operation, operating system, features, physical design, and battery function. Apple scored particularly well in everything but battery life, which appears to be a sore spot for iPhone owners.

The iPhone received an overall score of 791 on a 1,000-point scale, ahead of LG's 772 points and Samsung's 759 points. The industry average was 751 points, and overall smartphone satisfaction rose since J.D. Power's last survey in November 2008, it said.

Apple won a similar award from J.D. Power last year for business smartphone customer satisfaction.

Future versions of Imagination Technologies' graphics cores could mean iPhone games far more sophisticated than 'Super Monkey Ball.'

(Credit: Apple)

Apple has taken a small stake in a British chip designer, revealing how the company plans to power the graphics in future iPhones and iPod Touches.

Imagination announced Thursday that Apple has acquired a 3.6 percent stake in the company, which will only cost Apple 3.2 million pounds, or about $5 million. Imagination designs chip cores for a variety of applications, but its most prominent designs are its PowerVR cores for graphics in mobile phones.

That is believed to be the source of Apple's interest in the company, according to AppleInsider, which has tracked Apple's interest in the PowerVR technology for some time. Earlier this year Imagination announced that a "international electronic systems company" had acquired a license for the PowerVR graphics cores, and in Thursday's press release, Imagination said Apple was also a licensee.

The PowerVR cores will likely sit alongside the ARM-based processor core designs that the former P.A. Semi team is believed to be developing for future iPhones. Imagination has also signed a manufacturing license deal with iPhone processor maker Samsung, perhaps a sign that Apple will continue to use Samsung as a manufacturing partner once the P.A. Semi designs are complete.

Click the image for a larger take on the J.D. Power and Associates smartphone satisfaction rankings.

A survey conducted by J.D. Power and Associates found Apple's iPhone generated the highest amount of customer satisfaction among smartphone-using businesspeople.

The survey of almost 1,400 respondents, which was conducted during August and September, ranked the iPhone first on a scale that asked respondents to rate the smartphones for ease of operation, operating system, physical design, handset features, and battery aspects. Apple's favorite gadget scored 778 points out of a possible 1,000 points, beating Research In Motion and Samsung.

The iPhone received perfect rankings in four of the five categories, with the exception of "battery aspects," in which it only received two golden circles out of five. The survey weighted the other categories more heavily, however. The only other manufacturer to get five golden circles in any one category was RIM, in the battery aspects category.

Apple's decision to hire Mark Papermaster away from IBM could mean that its Xserve lineup is taking on a more prominent role.

(Credit: Apple)

Updated throughout at 4:55 p.m. PT with additional details and comment from IBM.

One of IBM's top chip executives has agreed to join Apple as a senior executive, but he might have to fight off his former employer first.

Mark Papermaster, until recently IBM's vice president of microprocessor technology development, plans to join Apple in early November in a position that will see him working closely with Apple CEO Steve Jobs in what IBM believes is an attempt to expand Apple's presence in the markets for servers and chips for handheld devices, according to the copy of a lawsuit filed by IBM against Papermaster. IBM is suing Papermaster to prevent him from joining Apple and divulging trade secrets related to IBM's Power chips and server products, according to the complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Papermaster has authored several papers on chip development at IBM, which of course used to make PowerPC processors for Apple before the company switched to Intel's processors in 2005. IBM called Papermaster "IBM's top expert in Power architecture and technology," and his most recent position involved managing IBM's blade server division.

An Apple representative declined to comment on the lawsuit or confirm Papermaster's pending employment with the company. IBM issued this statement: "Mr. Papermaster's employment by Apple is a violation of his agreement with IBM against working for a competitor should he leave IBM. We will vigorously pursue this case in court."

If Papermaster is able to successfully join Apple, he'll be working closely with Apple CEO Steve Jobs "providing to Apple technical and strategic advice on a variety of issues," according to IBM's complaint. But which issues?

Apple's Xserve servers haven't exactly been a high priority over the last couple of years, as Apple has switched the Mac to Intel's processors and rolled out the iPhone. But a spruced-up Xserve blade server could be a nice complement to the Mac if Apple ever gets serious about tackling the enterprise market.

Still, Illuminata analyst (and CNET contributor) Gordon Haff believes that Apple is unlikely to plunge back into the server market headlong after successfully pulling off the transition from a computer company to a consumer electronics company. Apple appeared to be serious about the server market when it launched the Xserve earlier this decade, but has spent less and less time extolling the product over the last two or three years, he said.

Papermaster's hire could signal Apple's intentions to build out a cloud-computing infrastructure to support things like MobileMe, or future services along those lines. Dense-but-powerful blade servers are being eyed by many companies as they build out the data centers of the future, and if Apple ever wants to be a major player in the future of Internet-delivered services, it's going to need a lot of computing power at its disposal. Papermaster's expertise in system design--putting together the entire package of processor, chipset, and the rest of the guts that form a computer--could serve him well at a company that prides itself on soup-to-nuts design.

As an extremely well-respected figure in the clubby world of chip design, Papermaster might also be stepping in to lead Apple's chip design efforts. Apple's acquisition of P.A. Semi earlier this year showed the company is very serious about chip design. Jobs told The New York Times that P.A. Semi would be used to build chips for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

Papermaster's expertise lies with the Power architecture, of which Don Dobberpuhl's P.A. Semi team is also well-acquainted. The primary role for the Power architecture these days is in gaming consoles--all three major gaming consoles use a chip based on the Power architecture--but that doesn't necessarily mean Apple has that goal in mind, either.

If Apple wants to continue its strategy of designing and building complete systems, hardware, software, and now chips for iPhone and iPod Touch, it's going to need someone who can predict the future of chip design and advise Jobs and Apple's executive team on how Apple can best take advantage of those trends. Papermaster, with a unique set of skills in the tech industry, might be just that guy. "They probably need somebody with an experience set that doesn't exist at Apple today," Haff said.

It might take a fight in order to bring him on board, however. IBM's decision to sue Papermaster hearkens back to the dispute between Google and Microsoft over Google's decision to hire Kai-Fu Lee away from Microsoft to run Google's research operation in China. The two parties eventually settled out of court.

Noncompete clauses are generally considered worth less than the paper they are printed on in California--Apple's home state--but different states are more strict. Google and Microsoft fought much of their battle over whether the case would be tried in Washington state or California.

In the final reading, Papermaster's hire might wind up as a partial solution to all those questions over what Apple should do with its pile of cash: give a chunk of it to IBM to make this case go away.

The USB power adapter sold with the iPhone 3G is being recalled by Apple.

(Credit: Apple)

Apple is recalling the USB power adapters sold with the iPhone 3G in North America and Japan amid concerns they are prone to breaking.

The company announced the Apple Ultracompact USB Power Adapter Exchange Program Friday, which applies to iPhone 3G owners who bought the device in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Japan, and selected countries in South America. Apple included a USB power block, shown at right, inside the box for the iPhone 3G in these countries, and the company has received reports that the prongs on that power block can break off and remain inside your wall socket, which is not good. The power adapters sold with the original iPhone as well as the ones sold in other countries are not included in this recall.

If your power adapter has a green dot, it's one of the redesigned (safe) models.

(Credit: Apple)

No injuries have been reported, but Apple is warning users of those power adapters to stop using them immediately until they obtain a redesigned adapter. Check the bottom of your adapter: if there's a green dot, you've got the redesigned one and don't need to do anything. If there's no dot, it's time to replace that unit.

You can get a replacement unit at your local Apple store starting October 10, or you can order one from Apple's Web site here.

If you bought a replacement power adapter for one of Apple's PowerBook and iBook notebooks--and you managed to hang onto the receipt for all these years--you'll soon be eligible for a refund.

Bloomberg notes that Apple has settled a lawsuit filed in 2001 over the tendency of power adapters sold with PowerBooks and iBooks to spark or overheat. Apple recalled some power adapters in 2001, but some customers felt the company didn't come clean about the full extent of the problems.

Cash refunds of between $25 and $79 will be issued by Apple to owners who bought a replacement adapter when their original one failed. The settlement still has to be finalized, and details of how to claim your refund will probably be released after a final hearing in September.

Is Apple really that much of a chip hopper?

If Apple follows through and uses a chip designed by its latest acquisition, PA Semi, in a future product, the company will have made major bets on Power, x86, ARM, and Power again in just this decade. What, no love for SPARC or MIPS?

PA Semi's chips aren't going to fit into this little package just yet, but they could one day.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

A PA Semi representative on Wednesday confirmed last night's news that Apple has paid $278 million for the low-power chip designer. Led by prominent chip designer Don Dobberpuhl, the two-and-a-half-year-old company makes chips for embedded devices based on IBM's Power instruction set.

So what might Apple want with PA Semi? Forbes reported that Apple plans to put its chips inside the iPhone, but several possibilities are being considered this morning, as the industry tries to digest this piece of news.

Apple's iPhone group almost assuredly doesn't want PA Semi's current product. The PWRficient PA6T-1682M is the only product listed on PA Semi's Web page. It's a dual-core 64-bit chip designed for high-performance computing and embedded applications--things like server appliances or sophisticated telecommunications gear.

It's a pretty powerful chip that consumes between 5 watts and 13 watts of power, in most situations. However, while that may be ideal for a server, networking switch, or even a MacBook, it's way too much for a handheld device like the iPhone or the iPod Touch. The Samsung chip inside the iPhone is based on a core designed by ARM that consumes about 279 milliwatts running flat-out at 620MHz. Apple uses a slightly slower version.

Even Intel's Atom chip, which is going into so-called mobile Internet devices, consumes less power than the PA6T-1682M (that's a hell of a name). To date, no other company appears to be developing a smartphone based on this generation of Atom.

A few interesting possibilities perked up as I traveled across the Web this morning. A commenter at The Register, picked up by Slashdot, suggested that Apple could have a game console in mind. That would be a perfect application for this kind of chip, though I'm not sure that if Apple has the desire to get into game consoles, despite filing a patent for that type of device. Maybe Apple TV 3.0 could use a performance boost, which Apple would certainly get, switching to the PA chip and dropping an older version of Intel's Pentium M processor.

Apple could be planning to release a mobile Internet device of its own based on the chip. Again, power consumption concerns raise a red flag here, as you'd have to design any handheld device to accommodate the worst-case scenario power consumption of PA's chip: 25 watts. You'd really need something bigger to effectively dissipate that much heat, as it would require a cooling fan.

Another interesting possibility could be that Apple wants to get more involved in the server market. PA Semi initially wanted to get its chips inside Apple's notebooks, and was apparently in discussions with Apple right up until its decision to embrace Intel's notebook processors in 2005. After that defeat, PA Semi pitched its chip as ideal for clusters of low-power servers.

The most likely scenario is that Apple wants a future PA Semi product for a handheld, server, notebook, or something in between. Dobberpuhl and his team of veteran chip designers are some of the brightest minds in the industry, with an extensive track record. The chipmaker also brings along a low-power patent portfolio that would be attractive to any company focused on low-power computers.

Apple's Scott Forstall explains how the iPhone's operating system is just like Mac OS X at Apple's iPhone SDK unveiling.

(Credit: Corinne Schulze/CNET Networks)

Initially last night, distracted by the epic Game 7 played by the San Jose Sharks, I was floored by the possibility that Apple might switch back to Power after such a public divorce. Veteran Apple software developers must have whiplash at this point, working with Power, ARM, and x86 in just three short years.

But I failed to remember (helpfully reminded by TalkBackers this morning) that when Apple made the switch to Intel's chips, it directed software development down the Universal Binary path. Any piece of software written for the Universal binaries will run natively on either x86 chips or Power chips, which allows PowerPC-based Mac owners to keep their systems and upgrade to new software, such as Mac OS X Leopard.

There's an extensive list of applications on Apple's Web site that were created with the Universal binaries. That means it would be relatively painless for Apple and its partners to switch back to the Power architecture for anything that runs on the Mac, since Universal software would run natively on PA Semi's chips.

Could Apple do the same for the iPhone, at some point down the line, when PA Semi is able to get power consumption down to milliwatt levels? We learned during the iPhone SDK event in March that the iPhone's OS X is almost exactly the same thing under the hood as Mac OS X, which would suggest that it also was developed with Universal binaries in mind that could run natively on ARM and other instruction sets, such as x86 or Power. That's not at all certain, but it's an interesting possibility.

That would mean that Apple has figured out a way to develop its software as to take advantage of whatever the best chip on the market is at a given time, without having to worry about porting concerns. Don't like Intel's road map? Switch to PA Semi. Don't like PA Semi's next big idea? Switch back to Samsung. That might be a stretch, but if true, it would send a shudder down the spine of many a chip industry executive.

Finally, there's the possibility that Apple is working on some new type of handheld computer that needs something different than what the ARM community or Intel has in mind two or three years down the road. I can't imagine that Apple would buy Dobberpuhl's company without giving that team some kind of project.

Don't count on much official word from either Apple or PA Semi just yet. Apple spokesman Steve Dowling told Forbes that the company doesn't comment on its plans for acquired companies, and the PA Semi representative said she couldn't even discuss whether the company's engineers would be moving across Silicon Valley from Santa Clara to Cupertino.

In any event, financial analysts awaiting Apple's earnings conference call later this afternoon will probably attempt to get an answer out of COO Tim Cook or CFO Peter Oppenheimer. Late last year, investors had wondered what Apple was planning to do with all its cash. Now they have some idea.