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Apple cracks down on counterfeit products sold in NYC, files lawsuit against Queens vendors
There may be more than a few fake Apple Stores in China, but for the moment, Cupertino's anti-KIRF crusade seems focused squarely on New York City. According to Reuters, Apple has filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against two stores in Queens, alleging that they sold unauthorized cases, headphones and other accessories for the iPhone, iPad and iPod. In the complaint, the company claims that the products in question were all emblazoned with its familiar fruit logo, along with the phrase, "Designed by Apple in California. Assembled in China." The suit also demands that one of the stores, called Apple Story (seriously), change its name to avoid confusion with the real retail outlet and that both vendors disclose full lists of people who both supplied and purchased the goods. It all began when company representatives visited the Chinatown-area stores on "multiple occasions over several weeks," where they bought and examined the items, described in court records as "exact duplicates" of their authentic counterparts. On July 27th, Apple executed a few ex parte seizure warrants, which allowed authorities to seize any goods bearing its logo. US District Judge Kiyo Matsumoto has already granted an injunction to stop the stores from selling the alleged knockoffs, but hasn't yet decided whether Apple Story will have to change its name. The complaint also seeks undisclosed monetary damages and asks that all existing counterfeit goods be destroyed, though court documents suggest that both sides are close to reaching a deal. Neither Apple nor the defendants have commented on the accusations, but we'll let you know as soon as we learn more. In the meantime, check out this KIRF "iPhone 5" we found in Beijing -- a Java-powered handset that's slimmer than the Galaxy S II and a bit laggy, but boasts a multitouch capacitive screen. Asking price? ¥680, or about $106. %Gallery-131124%
Visualized: the Apple mothership
We've already caught a glimpse of Apple's proposed science fiction museum new campus in Cupertino, but screen grabs just don't do this behemoth justice. A recently released set of renderings of Apple Campus 2, as it's known to the city of Cupertino, however, give it that proper otherworldly glow. According to the accompanying proposal, the building will take up a measly 2.8 million square feet, contain a 1,000-seat auditorium and research facilities totaling 300,000 square feet. Really? Is that all? If architectural renderings are your thing, hit the source link for some building-plan booty. %Gallery-130561%
Cupertino city council releases 'Mothership' proposal documents
Every building begins as a work of imagination, and one of the challenges architects face when discussing their plans with clients and neighbors is how to share that inner vision effectively and accurately. For Apple's planned 'Mothership' campus expansion in Cupertino, those efforts at conveying the master vision -- in the form of a complete plan overview, elevations and landscaping diagrams, floor plans and space allocation, and pretty pretty pictures -- are now accessible to all, thanks to the Cupertino City Council posting the PDFs it received from Apple onto the city website. If you ever wanted to know how many trees are going to be planted on the new Apple campus (and exactly where), dig in and have fun. [via Apple 2.0]
Getting to know you: Comex, the boy behind iOS' JailbreakMe
See that kid above? That's Nicholas Allegra. He's the hackdom Harry Potter to Apple's Ye-Who-Shall-Not-Jailbreak-Our-Wares, and Forbes managed to sniff him out for a little bold-faced exposé. The 19-year old hero of the iOS community, better known as Comex, got his self-taught start with Visual Basic when he was still in single digits. After graduating through a venerable online forum education, the precocious coding lad set his smarts to homebrew Wii development, and the rest is JailbreakMe history. The self-described Apple fanboy admits his background is atyipcal of the cybersecurity industry, but with a former National Security Agency analyst praising his work as years ahead of his time, we don't think he should worry. For all the trouble his code has caused Cupertino, Allegra's not trying to be the embedded thorn in Jobs' side. Rather, the iPhone hacker claims "it's just about the challenge" and plans to keep on keeping ol' Steve on his billion dollar toes.
Apple patent application takes the hard keys out of the keyboard, promises a flat surface solution
Apple's giving us a patent application peek into its post-PC future, and it looks like hard keys will be so 2008. The recently revealed filing shows off a virtual, flat keyboard concept for Cupertino's line of non-iOS products that flirts with metal, plastic and glass form factors. Using a combination of piezoelectrics, haptic feedback and acoustic pulse recognition, these prospective designs will be able to detect your finger-pounding surface input. If you're the fast-typing kind, you're probably wondering how your digits will recognize the keys sight unseen. Well, there's a few workarounds for that. In its metal and plastic iterations, Jobs and co. plan to stamp or micro-perforate the layout into place, while their glass counterpart would receive a graphical overlay. The application also promises an LED-lit display for hard to see conditions and the inclusion of capactive sensors to enable multi-touch functions, so you avoid e.e. cummings-style emails. Of course, applications aren't necessarily indicative of a surefire product, but those interested in tickling their imagination can give the source link a look.
Apple leases Cupertino office campus for another 1000+ workers
While it waits for its huge mothership office complex to be built, Apple still needs more office space for its expanding employee roll. To that end, the company has leased an office complex in Cupertino that's capable of housing around 1,300 additional workers, according to Mercury News. The nine building complex is just the latest Cupertino expansion by Apple, and local realty agents are now saying that Apple's demand for office space is starting to exceed local availability, with Cupertino "pretty much out of space" according to one agent. All of Silicon Valley is in the same boat, with real estate expansions by Google, Facebook, and other tech giants gobbling up office parks as soon as the for sale signs go up in the front window. Once Apple finishes construction of its futuristic, 13,000-employee office park, it'll be interesting to see if the company retains the lease on its new satellite campus.
Anymode's Galaxy Tab 10.1 case cops Apple's fashion sense (updated)
What's the difference between a case and a cover? The Korean company Anymode is provoking just that question with a Galaxy Tab 10.1 case (cover?) that looks awfully familiar. The Smart Case, as it's known, comes in multiple colors, protects the tablet's front, and folds into a triangular stand. You might be thinking that sounds remarkably like Apple's Smart Cover, and if so, you're not the only one. Ah, but the plot thickens: 9to5mac reports that the maker of this blatant knock-off has strong ties to Samsung. Family ties, even, as their tipster claims Sang-yong Kim, the Anymode CEO, is the nephew of Kun-Hee Lee, Sammy's chairman. We couldn't confirm any blood relation, which could mean we're dealing with a cover-clone conspiracy theory. Either way, we suspect this'll lead to more billable hours for Cupertino's lawyers. [Update: Samsung has responded on its official blog, distancing itself from Anymode's product: As a general practice, Samsung Electronics reviews and approves all accessories produced by partners before they are given the "Designed for Samsung Mobile" mark. In this case, approval was not given to Anymode for the accessory to feature this official designation. We are working with Anymode to address this oversight and the product has already been removed from the Anymode sales website. The product has not been sold. Thanks, Phil.]
Senior iCloud product manager John Herbold leaves Apple
John Herbold, a senior product manager for Apple's iCloud service, has updated his LinkedIn profile to show that he's no longer with the company in Cupertino. Herbold's LinkedIn now shows that he works for a company called HealthTeacher, and his work at Apple is in the past. He also says that working with Apple "was a great privilege. Now I get to take that experience and apply it to the enormous challenge of materially improving youth health." Herbold is only the latest in a growing line of big Apple executive exits, including Bertrand Serlet a little while ago, and Ron Johnson from the company's retail division. Still, for a company as big as Apple, all of these exits are likely just more indicative of usual turnover rather than a motivated mass exodus.
Cupertino: "There is no chance that we're saying no" to Apple's new building
"The Mothership has landed in Cupertino," says Cupertino Mayor Gilbert Wong. These words were uttered during a press conference to confirm that the California city will welcome the new Apple campus with open arms. The decision is not based on any preferential treatment for Apple because of its reputation. It's a financial one. Apple is one of the largest tax payers in the city, and its directors don't want to lose this revenue. The circular building will be built on land Apple purchased from HP. The new campus will be four stories high and enclosed in custom-made curved glass. The area surrounding the building will be re-landscaped with 6,000 trees. The building will also include its own energy center and will use California's power supply only as a backup. In his address to the city yesterday, Steve Jobs says he hopes the building will open in 2015. You can follow the progress of this huge project at http://www.cupertino.org/apple.
Steve Jobs reveals Apple's new spaceship campus, calls it the 'best office building in the world' (video)
Shortly after taking the stage at WWDC, Steve Jobs made an appearance before the Cupertino City Council to pitch the local governing body on Apple's ambition to build a new campus. The site for the curvaceous, four-story, "human-scale" building to house 13,000 employees is the original home of HP's computer systems division, land that was recently sold to Apple. The property is currently covered by a series of big asphalt parking lots. Apple's plan would increase the landscape coverage from 20 to 80 percent with the help of a senior arborist from Stanford who will help restore some of the indigenous plant life to the property, including the apricot orchards. Apple plans to make the campus' energy center the facility's primary power generator using natural gas and other "clean energy" sources -- the city would simply provide backup power when needed. Of course, what would a Jobs presentation be without a few choice superlatives? In this case, Jobs claims that the new curved-glass facility will be the "best office building in the world," luring in students of architecture anxious for a peek. Apple plans to break ground in 2012 with a 2015 move-in date. As an aside, it's fascinating (and yes, troubling) to observe Gilbert Wong, Mayor of Cupertino, guffaw at Steve's "jokes" like a smitten schoolgirl, going so far as to fawn over his own iPad 2 in front of the assembly. For his part, Jobs seems to bite his tongue during several exchanges particularly when one city council member tries to extort free WiFi from Apple in an apparent quid pro quo. Click through to see what we mean. [Thanks, GB]
Steve Jobs unveils new Apple campus that literally looks like a mothership
At a Cupertino City Council meeting last night, Steve Jobs presented plans for Apple's new campus off I-280 in Cupertino. As you can see from the image above, the campus resembles a spaceship. The entire campus will be one huge round building with a courtyard in the middle. The building itself will be four stories tall, and Apple plans to re-landscape the current area to include 6000 trees. A natural gas energy center will be on-campus to power the new building, and Apple will only rely on California's power grid as a backup. Speaking to the City Council, Steve Jobs described the new campus (as transcribed by MacRumors): "It's a pretty amazing building. It's a little like a spaceship landed. It's got this gorgeous courtyard in the middle... It's a circle. It's curved all the way around. If you build things, this is not the cheapest way to build something. There is not a straight piece of glass in this building. It's all curved. We've used our experience making retail buildings all over the world now, and we know how to make the biggest pieces of glass in the world for architectural use. And, we want to make the glass specifically for this building here. We can make it curve all the way around the building... It's pretty cool." Last November, Apple bought the former 98-acre HP campus that will be home to the new campus Steve Jobs showed off. The purchase of the 98-acre campus was in addition to a 50-acre site that Apple bought in 2006. You can check out Jobs' "keynote" to the Cupertino City Council below. Also, for those of you keeping track, this is the second time the Cupertino City Council has given Steve Jobs a standing ovation. When I worked for Apple, coworkers who were located outside of Cupertino would frequently ask "So when are you going to the mothership next?" "Mothership," of course, being an epithet for Apple's campus at 1 Infinite Loop. Now the term is moving a step closer to the literal -- at least insofar as looks go.
Apple Stores stocking Square credit card readers
Jack Dorsey's über-popular credit card readers got a big thumbs-up from Cupertino this week. Square's devices are hitting Apple's 235 US retail locations and Apple.com for $9.95 a pop -- plus the 2.75 percent that the startup takes off the backend each time you use the reader -- or you can always just sign up for a free one over on Square's site. The iPhone / iPad / iPod touch plug-in accepts Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and yes, even American Express. The CEO of VeriFone will no doubt have plenty to say about the matter. Update: It turns out you get a $10 redemption code in the box when you buy a Square reader at an Apple store, so it is still technically free (just not, you know, when you buy it). [Thanks, Michael]
Apple shareholder meeting scheduled for February 23
The luckiest (or smartest) people on Earth should be receiving their invitations soon -- shareholders in Apple, Inc. who have shares registered in their names can attend the annual shareholder meeting on Wednesday, February 23, 2011. The event is scheduled to begin at 10 AM PT at the company's offices in Cupertino, CA. As with most events of this type, Apple's executive team will not only reiterate any glowing financial news that should come out of the financial call (possibly next week), but there will be business to take care of. Among the items on the agenda are a vote for the company's board of directors (nominees include current board members Steve Jobs, Al Gore, Millard Drexler, William Campbell, Arthur Levinson, Andrea Jung and Ronald Sugar), a vote on whether accounting giant Ernst & Young should be the company's independent accounting firm, and shareholder proposals considering majority voting on director elections and succession planning. The company is recommending that shareholders vote against both of the shareholder proposals. If you have AAPL shares registered in your name, you may attend. If the shares are held by a brokerage firm or other organization, you're out of luck. (Photo: Wikimedia CC | Nurmib)
Report shows vision of futuristic Apple campus
British architect Norman Fisher Foster is working on transforming Apple's latest purchase -- a real estate bargain from HP -- into a new campus designed to give the company some breathing room. El Economista reports that the 100-acre campus is to be modeled after Masdar, Abu Dhabi, the first city in the world without cars or carbon emissions. The new campus is being referred to as 'Apple City,' and both campuses are to be linked by tunnels. It's not surprising when you think about it. Apple has set out to revolutionize the personal computing experience, the mobile phone industry, tablet -- sorry, slate computers -- and your living room. Why not use these campus to test the ultimate Mac city, then eventually offer that technology to struggling municipalities? If this is Apple's next step to world domination, I can buy it. [Via MacStories and 9to5Mac]
Apple buys former HP campus in Cupertino
In the latest sign of a trend that has been ongoing in the tech industry for more than a decade, Apple has gobbled up another big chunk of land in Cupertino, CA that is being vacated by Hewlett-Packard. Apple recently closed on a deal to buy HP's 98 acre Cupertino campus for an undisclosed price. The former HP property is north of a 50 acre site that Apple bought in 2006 and east of the main Infinite Loop campus that has been home to Apple since the early 1990s. Apple has been on a steady growth path, with a stream of new products, since the return of Steve Jobs in the late 1990s; HP has been heading in the opposite direction, having shed numerous traditional businesses in that same time. Apple had $65 billion in sales in its last fiscal year and added 12,300 employees, bringing its total headcount to 46,600. The 57 buildings currently occupied by Apple are reportedly "bursting at the seams," but the company has not yet provided a timetable or plan for revamping its new campus. Several thousand HP employees that currently work in Cupertino will be consolidated in Palo Alto over the next two years. This latest move brings the Apple-HP relationship full circle. When Apple was founded in 1976, Steve Wozniak was an engineer working in HP's calculator division. As with most large companies, HP had a policy that anything invented by employees belonged to the company, even if it was created on personal time. Wozniak offered the Apple I and Apple II designs to HP, but the company didn't want to get into the personal computer business at the time, which paved the way for Woz to eventually leave and join his partner Jobs at their startup on a full-time basis. If HP had made different choices in the late 1970s, the many innovative products created by Apple over the years might never have been built, and today's technology landscape would probably be a very different place. [via Mac.Blorge]
Apple hiring Mac App Store reviewers
Always wanted to work for Apple but not sure about in what capacity? If apps are your thing, this could be your lucky day as MacNN is reporting that Apple Worldwide Developer Relations is now hiring Mac App Store reviewers, or "Mac Application Reviewers" as corporate likes to call them. These positions are based near Apple's headquarters in Cupertino, and while the only main requirement for potential candidates must be a familiarity with OS X, some favor is given to those who are also proficient in written French, German, or Japanese. While Mac App Store submissions began on November 3 and with the Mac App Store slated to open around January 20, 2011, Apple is looking to hire several "meticulous, analytical, hardworking, and detail-oriented" people with strong customer service skills for these Mac Application Reviewer positions. That's you, right? So what are you waiting for? [via MacNN]
Apple's 'Back to the Mac' event is tomorrow at 1PM ET / 10AM PT -- we'll be there live!
What will happen tomorrow? A new version of OS X? Tiny MacBook Airs? Verizon iPhone announcements? Tomorrow never knows... but Steve Jobs probably does. Even if we can't predict the future, we can at least follow along with the present, right? That's exactly what we'll be doing tomorrow at Engadget, as we bring you the best liveblog in the business! Tune in at the URL and times below for the full scoop on just what Apple is getting up to. You won't want to miss this! Here's the liveblog post you'll want to plant yourself at, and here are the start times around the globe: 07:00AM - Hawaii 10:00AM - Pacific 11:00AM - Mountain 12:00PM - Central 01:00PM - Eastern 06:00PM - London 07:00PM - Paris 09:00PM - Moscow 02:00AM - Tokyo (October 21st)
Google TV officially launching October 17th?
It's been no secret that Google TV is scheduled to arrive sometime this fall and we've already seen the Logitech Revue box hardware pass the FCC, but a tipster has just shared an internal Best Buy document with us disclosing that the original planned launched date was October 3rd, and it's now been mysteriously pushed back by two weeks. That would pin the official launch as October 17th, which is certainly later then what Intel's chief recently hinted at. While it's certainly not definitive proof, considering the fact that Best Buy is an official partner of Google TV and the dates timing relative to the upcoming holiday season, we don't think this leak is all that far fetched. Let's not forget that schedule would also place its release a little more than two weeks after the suggested ship date of Cupertino's new hobby. Sure, Google's mantra may be "do no evil", but that doesn't mean they can't try to rain on Job's parade every now and again right? Oh and for all the eloquent waxing you could want on Google's assault on the living room, make sure you check our editorial on the platform if you happened to miss it.
Apple to hold iPhone 4 press conference this Friday
Headline says it all folks. Obviously the company is going to be getting out in front of this antenna drama (finally). We've been invited and we'll be there, reporting live! It all happens at 10AM PT, Friday the 16th. If you haven't caught up on the story (and if that's the case, where have you been?), here's a little background on the issue in reverse chronological order: Yes, the iPhone 4 is broken / No, the iPhone 4 is not broken Consumer Reports confirms iPhone 4 antenna problems -- and so do we Apple: iPhone 4 reception problem is a software issue, fix coming in 'a few weeks' iPhone 4's antenna problem looks worse than it is, but it's still bad Apple hiring iPhone antenna engineers for some reason Apple telling reps to smooth over iPhone 4 reception complaints, not to offer free bumpers? iPhone 4 antenna woes contextualized by dude in the know The Jimmy Fallon Test: is the iPhone 4 dropping fewer calls? Hey Apple, you're holding it wrong Apple responds to iPhone 4 reception issues: you're holding the phone the wrong way
Russian president gets an iPhone 4 from Steve Jobs
(Russian press pool) Russian president Demetri Medvedev has been touring Silicon Valley this week, and during a trip to the mothership in Cupertino, he became the first Russian to officially get an iPhone 4 -- from Steve Jobs himself, no less. The iPhone 4 isn't even officially on sale in Russia yet; operator Beeline says the earliest it'll start selling is September of this year. But Jobs gave one to Medvedev anyway. Maybe he can jailbreak it to get it working. Here's the real question: What did Medvedev himself buy in the Apple gift shop? A nice black "Hello I'm a Mac" shirt, or maybe a new Magic Mouse? You have to buy something whenever you stop in there. [Thanks, Danny!]
