After Apple open sources it, IBM puts Swift programming in the cloud

“That didn’t take long: As soon as Apple released its Swift programming language to the open source community, IBM created a way to code with Swift in the cloud,” Kevin Tofel reports for ZDNet.
“Big Blue released its IBM Swift Sandbox that runs your Swift code on a Linux server using a Docker container,” Tofel reports. “No, you’re not going to create the next big Swift program in the Sandbox, but for those wanting to get their feet wet with Apple’s newest object oriented programming language, the IBM Swift Sandbox is worth the look.”
“I whipped a few lines of code together in Safari on the iPad Pro – my full time computing device – and was able to run them without a problem or any lag. The text editor highlights common code errors just as you’d expect in an Integrated Development Environment or code creation tool,” Tofel reports. “That’s super useful in a classroom setting where students can tinker with Swift to learn app development.”
More info and links in the full article here.

Progress on Apple’s ‘spaceship’ Campus 2 shown in new 4K aerial drone video

Apple’s “spaceship” Campus 2 “is scheduled to be completed in late 2016, giving the company just 12 months to wrap up construction to stay on schedule,” Juli Clover reports for MacRumors.
“Apple’s construction crews have been hard at work over the past few months,” Clover reports, “making a lot of headway on the main ring-shaped building, the underground auditorium, and the parking structures.”
“Drone pilot Duncan Sinfield today shared another monthly campus update video with MacRumors,” Clover reports, “giving a close-up look at how construction has progressed since November.”Full article here.

Slowing smartphone growth is great news for Apple’s iPhone

“For the first time, market research firm IDC is predicting that 2015 will be the first year that the rate at which the worldwide smartphone market expands will sink into single digits. Turns out, most people who want smartphones probably already have ’em,” Davey Alba reports for Wired. “Counterintuitively, this is to Apple’s benefit.”
“Since most people who want smartphones in many parts of the world now already own them, it follows that more growth is likely to happen in the upgrade market than among first-time buyers in China,” Alba reports. “In its last reported quarter, Apple saw 99 percent revenue growth in the country compared to the same period last year. There’s yet more potential to convert smartphone owners into Apple users as the country continues its transition to 4G technology.”
“Finally, it’s because Apple is the undisputed king of premium smartphones that, even if the company doesn’t sell all the phones, it still makes massive piles of money.,” Alba reports. “It’s the little guys who are on the losing end.”

Apple quietly increases iTunes Match and iCloud Music Library limits above 25,000 tracks

“Apple has increased the 25,000-track limit to iTunes Match and iCloud Music Library,” Kirk McElhearn writes for Kirkville.
“The company has not made any announcements yet, but I have heard from several people who have finally been able to add more than 25,000 tracks to their iTunes Match and iCloud Music Library libraries,” McElhearn writes. “I’ve heard from others, on Twitter and by email, that they, too, have been able to add more than 25,000 tracks.”
Just ahead of the launch of Apple Music in late June, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services, Eddy Cue, took to Twitter to reveal that Apple was ‘working to’ increase the limit for iTunes Match libraries and Apple Music’s similar scan-and-match feature from the current 25,000 tracks to 100,000 tracks with iOS 9, but it did not work out that way. In October, MacRumors asked Cue for an update on the limit increase, and he said that Apple was “definitely working on it” and that he expected it will be released “before the end of the year.”

Apple’s iPhone expected to outgrow Android 17.3% vs. 9.5% year-over-year

“IDC estimates the total number of smartphone shipments will hit 1.43 billion units for the year, which represents a growth of just 9.8 percent over last year,” David Murphy reports for PC Magazine.
“Android and iOS smartphones are expected to see year-to-year growth of 9.5 and 17.3 percent, respectively, whereas Windows Phones are on a 10.2 percent decline—which IDC attributes to a lack of OEM partner support for the devices,” Murphy reports. “Interest in the iPhone 6 and 6s prompted IDC to raise its shipment estimates for Apple’s smartphones.”
As shipment volumes continue to slow across many markets, consumers will be enticed by both affordable high-value handsets as well as various financing options on pricier models. Vendors will look to push device financing and trade-in options across many of the developed markets as growth in these markets is expected to primarily come from replacement purchases and second devices. Apple has taken the lead with its iPhone Upgrade Program, and several other vendors are expected to implement similar plans in the months ahead. —  IDC research manager Anthony Scarsella

Apple’s thermonuclear war on Android

“The case of Apple v. Samsung shows no sign of abating,” Paul M. Barrett reports for Businessweek. “Apple returned in February to the federal courthouse in San Jose to sue Samsung again, claiming the Korean manufacturer ‘slavishly copied’ Apple. An unrelenting recidivist, in Apple’s portrayal, Samsung has ‘continued to flood the market with copycat products, including at least 18 new infringing products released over the last eight months.’”
“The battle also signals a broader conflict pitting Apple against multiple mobile-device manufacturers in some three dozen legal and regulatory actions pending in 10 countries,” Barrett reports. “Beyond Samsung, Apple’s notable antagonists include Motorola Mobility and HTC. As Silicon Valley sophisticates underscore, however, the phone and tablet makers are mere proxies for another foe—Android, the operating system Google gives away to manufacturers. Google employs a come-one, come-all business model radically at odds with Apple’s and, in the late Steve Jobs’s view, existentially threatening to his company.”
Barrett reports, “In the last 18 months of his life, Jobs, who died on Oct. 5 at age 56, was obsessed with crushing Android. He explained to his authorized biographer, Walter Isaacson, that the litigation against device manufacturers was meant to communicate an unmistakable message: ‘Google, you f–king ripped off the iPhone, wholesale ripped us off. Grand theft.’ Jobs swore he would ‘spend my last dying breath’ and ‘every penny’ in Apple’s coffers ‘to right this wrong. I’m going to destroy Android, because it’s a stolen product. I’m willing to go to thermonuclear war on this.’”
Much more in the extensive full article here.

Transparent, flexible ’3D’ memory chips may be the next big thing in iPhones, iPads

“New memory chips that are transparent, flexible enough to be folded like a sheet of paper, shrug off 1,000-degree Fahrenheit temperatures — twice as hot as the max in a kitchen oven — and survive other hostile conditions could usher in the development of next-generation flash-competitive memory for tomorrow’s keychain drives, cell phones and computers, a scientist reported March 27,” ScienceDaily reports.
“Speaking at the 243rd National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society, he said devices with these chips could retain data despite an accidental trip through the drier — or even a voyage to Mars. And with a unique 3-D internal architecture, the new chips could pack extra gigabytes of data while taking up less space,” ScienceDaily reports. “‘These new chips are really big for the electronics industry because they are now looking for replacements for flash memory,’ said James M. Tour, Ph.D., who led the research team. ‘These new memory chips have numerous advantages over the chips today that are workhorses for data storage in hundreds of millions of flash, or thumb drives, smart phones, computers and other products. Flash has about another six or seven years in which it can be built smaller, but then developers hit fundamental barriers.’”
“Current touch screens are made of indium tin oxide and glass, both of which are brittle and can break easily. However, plastic containing the memory chips could replace those screens with the added bonuses of being flexible while also storing large amounts of memory, freeing up space elsewhere in a phone for other components that could provide other services and functions. Alternatively, storing memory in small chips in the screen instead of within large components inside the body of a phone could allow manufacturers to make these devices much thinner,” ScienceDaily reports. “The easy-to-fabricate memory chips are patented, and Tour is talking to manufacturers about embedding the chips into products.”
Read more in the full article here.

Apple working on new device with 5-inch Retina display, says source

“Apple is developing a new device with a 5-inch Retina display, according to Japanese site Macotakara, citing a Chinese source,” iPodNN reports.
“The new hardware will allegedly ship in 2013, and have a resolution of either 1280×960 or 1600×960,” iPodNN reports. “Apple is also said to be working with LCD suppliers to prepare for the device, but even the category it might fall under is still unknown.”
iPodNN reports, “Apple could theoretically be working on a larger iPod touch, or the long-rumored ‘mini’ iPad, though in the latter case recent reports have specified a 7.85-inch screen.
Read more in the full article here.

Google proposes Android revenue for Oracle; Oracle rebuffs offer as too low; trial starts April 16th

“Google proposed to pay Oracle a percentage of Android revenue – [0.5 percent of Android revenue on one patent until it expires this December and 0.015 percent on a second patent until it expires in April 2018] – if Oracle could prove patent infringement of the mobile operating technology at an upcoming trial, but Oracle rebuffed the offer as too low, according to a court filing late on Tuesday,” Dan Levine reports for Reuters.
“Oracle Corp sued Google Inc in 2010, claiming the Internet search leader’s Android technology infringed Oracle’s Java patents,” Levine reports. “A trial is set for April 16 before U.S. District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco.”
Levine reports, “Oracle also sued for alleged copyright infringement. Oracle has contended that Google should pay hundreds of millions of dollars on that claim, which is separate from the patents… Oracle said… [it] would not give up the possibility of winning an injunction against Android. ‘Oracle cannot agree to unilaterally give up its rights, on appeal and in this court, to seek full redress for Google’s unlawful conduct,’ the company said in the filing.”
Read more in the full article here.

Microsoft and Apple embrace OpenStreetMap

“One of the many areas where Google is far ahead of Microsoft is mapping, with Google Maps by far the dominant map service on the Internet,” Preston Gralla reports for Computerworld. “Microsoft is employing an under-the-radar approach to fighting back, lending big support and big dollars to the open source map project OpenStreetMap. It looks as if the tactic is starting to pay off.”
“The New York Times reported recently that a variety of companies have started to defect from using Google Maps because of the high fees charged for the service, and instead have turned to getting mapping data for free from OpenStreetMap,” Gralla reports. “The mobile social media service FourSquare has jumped ship, and for iPhoto, the iOS photo management app, Apple has switched from Google to OpenStreetMap.”
Gralla reports, “Behind the scenes, spurring all this on, is Microsoft. Microsoft hired OpenStreetMap founder Steve Coast to work for Bing as Principal Architect for Bing Mobile. Coast works on both Bing and OpenStreetMap… The Times reports that Coast is working on developing open-source software that will make it simpler for developers to get data from and use OpenStreetMap. And it also reports that Microsoft has been donating “valuable map data” to OpenStreetMap. Bing also uses OpenStreetMap data for its mapping service.”
Read more in the full article here.

How much Apple stock is too much?

“Like many Apple fanboys (and fangirls), David Howard owns an iPhone, iPod and an iPad — not to mention a sizable chunk of the company’s shares, which comprise about 25% of his portfolio,” Reshma Kapadia reports for SmartMoney. “And the Austin-based mechanical engineer would like to add to his investment, but his financial adviser is trying to talk him out of it.”
“It is a message many financial advisers are preaching, even if clients don’t want to hear it,” Kapadia reports. “Some say they have had clients who rarely comment on portfolio strategies call to complain when an adviser sold Apple shares.”
Kapadia reports, “Amid the near unconditional love from analysts and fund managers for the world’s most valuable company — and the consumers who adore all-things Apple — some financial advisers are questioning how much of a good thing is too much. They say many of their clients are overloaded with Apple shares, not just through individual stock but also through other holdings as fund managers have piled in.”
“To be sure, most investing pros — including the advisers trimming shares — remain big believers in Apple’s long-term growth prospects. Plus, the company’s decision last week to begin paying a dividend of $2.65 a share arguably makes the stock even more attractive to long-term investors and retirees,” Kapadia reports. “But the problem, pros say, is that clients’ growing positions in Apple means less-diversified portfolios.”
Read more in the full article here.

U.S. elections: Time for investors to worry?

“Investors have yet to break a sweat over November’s U.S. elections. That’s likely to change soon,” Steven C. Johnson writes for Reuters. “Investment strategists say the contests are among the most important in recent memory: a new government will need to tackle the deficit and start containing the national debt or the United States risks further credit rating downgrades that could erode the dominance of the dollar in global financial markets,” Johnson writes. “That will mean tough decisions on spending cuts and tax reform at a time when a few missteps could easily derail a fragile recovery in an economy that has only just escaped from the worst of the post-financial crisis torpor.”
Johnson asks, “So, what should investors do? What would a second Obama administration mean for tax policy? Would a Republican or even Democratic sweep be best, or can a divided White House and Congress learn how to work together again?”
Here’s a look at how to navigate four possible scenarios:
• Obama Re-Elected With Divided Or Republican Congress: If the elections yield the same political gridlock that brought the country within hours of default in 2011, financial markets could slide…
• Republican White House, Divided Congress: This outcome also worries those who fear gridlock. Even if they lose the White House, Democrats may block initiatives of a new Republican President if they hold the Senate…
• Republicans Win White House And Control Congress: Initially, markets might see a Republican sweep as by far the most pro-business result. U.S. stocks and the dollar could rally…
• Obama Re-Elected, Democrats Control Congress: This is probably the least likely scenario given the hurdles for the Democrats to regain control of the House. But just as a Republican sweep could rely too heavily on spending cuts, analysts fear this may lead to higher taxes and more regulation…
Johnson explores all four scenarios in much greater depth – along with his investment winners and losers for each – in the full article here.