Apple Updates MacBook Pro With Retina Display

Apple® today updated MacBook Pro® with Retina® display with faster processors, double the memory in both entry-level configurations, and a new, lower starting price for the top-of-the-line 15-inch notebook. MacBook Pro with Retina display features a stunning high-resolution display, an amazing design just 0.71-inches thin, the latest processors and powerful graphics, and up to nine hours of battery life, delivering unbelievable performance in an incredibly portable design.* Apple today also lowered the starting price of the non-Retina 13-inch MacBook Pro, a very popular system with Windows switchers, by $100 to $1,099.

“People love their MacBook Pro because of the thin and light, aluminum unibody design, beautiful Retina display, all day battery life and deep integration with OS X,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “The MacBook Pro with Retina display gets even better with faster processors, more memory, more affordable configurations and a free upgrade to OS X Yosemite this fall.”

The 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display features dual-core Intel Core i5 processors up to 2.8 GHz with Turbo Boost speeds up to 3.3 GHz and 8GB of memory, up from 4GB in the entry-level notebook. The 13-inch model can also be configured with faster dual-core Intel Core i7 processors up to 3.0 GHz with Turbo Boost speeds up to 3.5 GHz. The top-of-the-line 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display has a new, lower starting price of .... read the rest of the story HERE.

Apple Reports 3rd Quarter Results

Apple® today announced financial results for its fiscal 2014 third quarter ended June 28, 2014. The Company posted quarterly revenue of $37.4 billion and quarterly net profit of $7.7 billion, or $1.28 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $35.3 billion and net profit of $6.9 billion, or $1.07 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 39.4 percent compared to 36.9 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 59 percent of the quarter’s revenue.

Apple’s board of directors has declared a cash dividend of $.47 per share of the Company’s common stock. The dividend is payable on August 14, 2014, to shareholders of record as of the close of business on August 11, 2014.

“Our record June quarter revenue was fueled by strong sales of iPhone and Mac and the continued growth of revenue from the Apple ecosystem, driving our highest EPS growth rate in seven quarters,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “We are incredibly excited about the upcoming releases of iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite, as well as other new products and services that we can’t wait to introduce.”

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Apple Patent To Smarten Up iPhone's Security Lock

Smartphone locking is often seen as a necessary but sometimes annoying tool. Punching in a pincode or even using the newer fingerprint scanners can be a pain when just tooling around at home or sitting in a car.

It appears Apple is looking into this issue. The US Patent and Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple on Thursday, 7-3, which details technology that can sense users' locations and then modify their phone's unlocking code -- a smart lock, so to speak.

A drawing in Apple's patent application shows how the smart lock system 

could detect home devices.  Courtesy: US Patent and Trademark Office.

The idea is for an iPhone to be able to recognize users' typical locations, like their home, work, and car, based on GPS or a known Wi-Fi network. Then, the system will adjust the level of security to unlock their phones. For example, at home, possibly no passcode would be required; in a place users go often, like a grocery store, there might be a fingerprint or simple code; and in faraway or crowded places, a higher security threshold would be necessary to unlock the phone.

"Because some locations may be inherently more secure, such as a user's home or office, these locations may be considered 'safe' and require less stringent security," Apple wrote in its patent application. "It can be desirable to have decreased security requirements when the mobile device is at a secure location. Conversely, some locations may be considered higher risk or 'unsecure.' In these locations, it can be desirable to implement stronger security protections."

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Credit: cnet.com