Apple

Apple is scheduled to present a talk about iOS security at the Black Hat conference – a first for the company.

Wired:

Jobs has been dead for nearly a year, but the biography about him is still a best seller. Indeed, his life story has emerged as an odd sort of holy scripture for entrepreneurs—a gospel and an antigospel at the same time.To some, Jobs’ life has revealed the importance of sticking firmly to one’s vision and goals, no matter the psychic toll on employees or business associates. To others, Jobs serves as a cautionary tale, a man who changed the world but at the price of alienating almost everyone around him.For those who, like Jobs, have pledged to “put a dent in the universe,” his thorny life story has forced a reckoning. Is it really worth being like Steve?

Peter Kafka:

The Department of Justice posted the settlement, invited public comment, and then ignored the public comment.

Why bother asking for public comments if you’re just going to ignore them anyway?

The Department of Justice is insistent that its e-book settlement with three major publishers is the right thing to do, despite outspoken criticism from a senator and others.

Dan Frommer: Apple has long been fortunate to have an excited fan base promoting its products and helping lure first-time buyers. But did you know that Apple used to distribute free collateral to help its biggest fans spread the message?

The Department of Justice should drop its e-books lawsuit against Apple, says the senior senator from New York.

Steve Jobs’ disparaging comments about Android won’t be part of Samsung’s evidence in their upcoming patent trial with Apple, according to the judge.

Ars Technica:

Apple’s solution to shaving thickness from the Retina MacBook Pro—gluing its lithium polymer battery cells directly to the aluminum unibody shell—continues to spark debate among proponents of sustainable electronics.Apple submitted the device to the Green Electronics Council for an EPEAT Gold rating last week, prompting critics to argue that the glued-in battery should disqualify it from any rating at all. But it turns out that some recyclers disagree, saying it isn’t dramatically more difficult to safely remove the battery than in other modern devices.Muddying the waters further is Apple itself.

This is The Story That Won’t Die.

Apple has closed a real estate deal to expand its Austin, Texas campus to accommodate twice the number of workers it currently employs.

The rollout of new icloud.com e-mail addresses doesn’t mean your mac.com or me.com address is going to stop working.

Apple:

We’ve recently heard from many loyal Apple customers who were disappointed to learn that we had removed our products from the EPEAT rating system. I recognize that this was a mistake. Starting today, all eligible Apple products are back on EPEAT.

A rare mea culpa from Apple.

Jamal Abdi says that Apple retail store employees have discriminated – intentionally or unintentionally – against Iranian customers. But who’s to blame?

Reuters:

Apple was threatened with the temporary closure of its operations in Italy and with further fines of up to 300,000 euros ($377,500) if it does not offer customers a free two-year warranty as demanded by Italian law.Italy’s AGCM competition and market authority has already imposed fines of 900,000 euros on divisions of Apple, which offers a paid technical support service, for failing to tell customers about their rights to free assistance.But months after the previous fine, Apple has failed to comply with the antitrust request, the watchdog said.

Associated Press:

A Chinese court says Apple has agreed to pay a local company $60 million to settle a dispute over ownership of the iPad name. The Guangdong High People’s Court said Monday that Apple and Proview Technology reached the settlement through mediation. The court said that ended the legal case.

Apple:

Apple today announced that Bob Mansfield, Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Engineering, will retire and the role will be transitioned to Dan Riccio, Apple’s vice president of iPad Hardware Engineering, over several months. The entire hardware engineering team will continue to report to Mansfield until his departure.“Bob has been an instrumental part of our executive team, leading the hardware engineering organization and overseeing the team that has delivered dozens of breakthrough products over the years,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “We are very sad to have him leave and hope he enjoys every day of his retirement.”

The Verge:

In US federal court this evening, Judge Richard Posner just ruled that the case of Apple v. Motorola will be dismissed in its entirety. The case, in which Apple alleged Motorola was in violation of four of its patents and Motorola was left with one claim in return (the patent counts had originally been higher on both sides), had been in litigation since 2010, most recently with a hearing in Chicago this past Wednesday.

Apple has posted more than 100 WWDC 2012 session videos to its Web site, available to any and all registered developers (even free ones).

Apple and Kodak’s legal battles continue as bankrupt Kodak is now suing Apple to stop it from interfering with attempts to sell a large portfolio of digital imaging patents.

For the first time this year, Apple provided scholarships to allow 13-17 year old developers to attend WWDC.