Apple said to be building 12.9" iPad Pro for early 2014

 For when 9.7 inches just ain't enough

If you thought Apple was too predictable with the launch of the iPad Air, you might want to listen up.

Korea Times says that Apple's "local first-tier display supplier" is building a 12.9-inch Retina display for the new iPad, which will provide an almost-UHD resolution.

Even more interesting is that the report claims the tablet will arrive "sometime early next year", with work on the screen already underway.

This allegedly comes from an unnamed official at a local Apple supplier in Korea, so remain cautious, skeptical and, above all, wary.

Apple's interest in a larger tablet isn't shocking, although we're skeptical of that early 2014 release date. That said, since Apple pushed out two versions of its flagship iPad in 2012, anything is possible.

Rumours of a larger iPad started circulating a few months ago so this isn't the first we've heard. The "iPad Pro" name, meanwhile, was thrown up after Apple announced the iPad Air, which suggested it might start carry its Macbook naming system over to its tablets.

Samsung is believed to be putting out a 12.2 inch tablet early next year to ensure it too is keeping up with the trend of tablets replacing notebooks. Sounds like we're in for a real clash of the titans.

If you're looking for a Retina iPad right now try the iPad mini 2

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Mobile inspires new retail store designs that go beyond the Apple Store

By Chantal Tode

November 5, 2013

Thomson has a new store design

Mobile?s influence on the in-store experience extends beyond iPad point-of-sale systems and shopping applications, with retailers completely rethinking store design and merchandising to better meet the needs of the smartphone-equipped customer.

Apple was the first to revolutionize store design a few years ago but increasingly other retailers are recognizing that the in-store experience is increasingly about inspiration and finding how products fit into a customer?s life. This is because mobile shoppers are more self-directed as they have easy access to a wealth of information about a wide variety of products.

?The concept of departments and retailers creating physical stores based on departments, that seems to be going away and it is a lot more focused on engagement zones and pairing products together,? said Jared Meisel, managing partner at Theory House, Charlotte, NC. ?This is indicative of mobile influencing shopping behavior and changing shopping behavior, because we can shop for everything.

?We are not just shopping one item or one channel,? he said. ?We tend to cross shop based on how we use the products in our lives.

?That?s the expectation now of retailers instead of retailers providing just one channel?s worth of products.?

Hands-on experiences
In the past, stores were designed with departments and aisles to influence shopper behavior with an eye toward encouraging shoppers to view as many products as possible and add more items to their baskets.

However, increasingly retailers are looking at eliminating departments and creating more open retail spaces populated with thematic zones.

For example, AT&T recently unveiled a new store format intended to reflect customers? mobile lifestyle where caf?-style learning tables replace cash registers.

The new AT&T retail store

The store layout highlights products and services in three different thematic areas. In the Connected Experience, shoppers can see how solutions can be used in their everyday lives. The Community Zone features an open and interactive space where customers can test products. In the Explore Zone, there are digital monitors to highlight AT&T?s lineup.

Thomson, a British travel agency, with multiple locations also recently unveiled a new store format also focused on enabling more hands-on experiences where associates and customers work together more closely. It includes interactive tables where customers can research holidays.

The customer-facing interface uses advanced touch and transition elements to make it feel like an app.

Social media feeds are streamed onto the screens to inspire customers and give them a feel of what to expect from a vacation.

Inspiring customers
Retailers are also including more thematic areas of inspiration in their stores. For example, big box retailers are increasingly including multiple products on an endcap that can fit together in a customer?s life.

While there has been a movement in this direction for a little while, mobile is hastening the transition because customers are so much better informed.

?Retail stores are becoming a lot less about pure education,? Mr. Meisel said. ?They are not going all the way to entertainment but there is something in there around inspiring people.

?It is almost like helping shoppers imagine how these products fit into your life and it is a lot more than just one product or one category, it is kind of like the total store perspective,? he said.

The empowered associate
In the new store formats, with customers more self-directed, this also changes the role of the store associate.

However, rather than the store associate?s role being diminished it is in fact enhanced.

?In modern stores that have been redesigned and considered mobile, the associate is now more of a tour guide than a sales person,? Mr. Meisel said.

?In the AT&T store, you had someone up front, they are kind of giving you a little bit of the background, saying go explore, have fun, interact with the products, if you need us, we are here,? he said. ?It felt like they were making sure you were engaging with the environment.

?In a mobile retail environment, because mobile has changed so much, with the shoppers being able to access all the information, associates need to understand things and have a deeper, more authentic and relevant knowledge as opposed to this broad, I know how to point you here and there but not really engaging the shoppers that much.?

The next generation
For the most part, retailers are still taking a piecemeal approach to adjusting for mobile, such as leveraging indoor GPS to help shoppers find specific products inside the store or augmented reality to help shoppers visualize products that are difficult to demonstrate in the store.

The introduction of Bluetooth Low Energy technology into stores is also likely to precipitate another round of in-store design changes by making it that much easier for a two-way conversation between a merchant and customer.

However, as retailers introduce new stores going forward, the influence of mobile is likely to be felt more and more.

?In many product categories, more than 50 percent of shoppers that walk in the front door, have actually already started doing their product research on a digital device before arriving at the store,? said Jason Goldberg, vice president of strategy, Chicago-based commerce and content at Razorfish. ?So retail designers now have to start their design projects with the realization that the front of the store has moved from the retailer's property line, to the consumers mobile devices.

?Mobile POS, self-service mobile Checkout, and in-store mobile experience are all rapidly on the rise, so we're clearly only seeing the tip of the iceberg in terms of mobile's influence on retail design and the path to purchase,? he said.

Final Take
Chantal Tode is associate editor on Mobile Marketer, New York

Associate Editor Chantal Tode covers advertising, messaging, legal/privacy and database/CRM. Reach her at chantal@mobilemarketer.com.

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Law & Apple: New Hearing with Samsung; Maybe Jury Did it Wrong

Posted 05/01/2013 at 1:21pm | by Adrian Hoppel

It's like deja vu all over again. This fall, Apple and Samsung will return to the courtroom battlefield to argue about the same issues they've been arguing about for years. In fact, both companies will only be permitted to discuss exactly the same issues as a previously settled case. Well, mostly settled. Read on, we'll explain.

"It's going to be 'Groundhog Day,'" said Judge Lucy Koh. "There's going to be nothing new in this case." With that seemingly apathetic pronouncement, Judge Koh has ordered Apple and Samsung back to court this November to figure out if the jury got it right or not last summer when Apple was awarded more than $1 billion in damages.

To be fair, we already know that jury did it wrong, as the initial award has already been reduced by a federal judge to about $450 million. Now, Judge Koh is concerned that the jury's damage award was, at least in part, incorrectly calculated, based on a flawed understanding of the legal and technical issues involved. A new damage award could cost Samsung more than the current $450 million, or they could escape with even less of a bill. Apparently only a new trial can accurately determine the final amount to be awarded to Apple.

However, a lot has changed since this original trial started; some of the devices in question are not for sale anymore, some of the patents debated are not even valid anymore. Judge Koh has ruled that no new evidence can be submitted, that this hearing will be to determine a damage award for a ruling already issued, but it's not as easy as that. The United States Patent Office is investigating several of Apple's patents for validity right now, patents that were integral to this original case. If the USPTO rules before this new trial in November, Samsung would be permitted to request a stay and have a ruling on the damages delayed further or even dismissed. 

Everything is proceeding as I have forseen.

When the initial, blockbuster ruling came out last summer, it was met with a great deal of shock and awe. The idea of a $1 billion award is powerful enough, but the ruling was lauded as the first big win for Apple in the Patent Wars. However, there was also a bit of discussion about whether, even with having to write a ten-digit check, Samsung still came out on top.

Apple was poised to run away with the smartphone market until Samsung jumped in and snatched up market share with a copycat phone. Even if it cost Samsung $1 billion, it was money well spent if it prevented the iPhone from dominating the way the iPod did just a few years before.

Now, already owing Apple less than half of the original ruling, Samsung is sitting pretty launching Galaxy phones left and right and assumedly laughing between trips to the bank and the courtroom. There is the possibility that Apple could win back some of the lost damages, but there is also the very real possibility that the damages will be reduced or eliminated altogether. Were that to happen, Cupertino would have diverted millions of dollars to cover legal costs, money that could have been spent on new product development, and end up with next to nothing to show for it but a lot of awkward and snarky media hype.

And that's what happens when you "go thermonuclear," as the late Steve Jobs proclaimed Apple was prepared to do to defend its patents (despite oppostion from Tim Cook); the only way to win is not to play.

Follow this writer, Adrian Hoppel, on Facebook.

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Apple declines to fix vulnerability in Safari's Web Archive files, likely because it requires user action to exploit

Apple declines to fix vulnerability in Safari's Web Archive files, likely because it requires user action to exploit | iMore.com Skip to main content Android BlackBerry iPhone / iPad Windows Phone webOS SIGN UP|LOG IN iMore Forums Apps Games Accessories Reviews How-To Podcasts Contests iPhone iPad mini iPad iPod touch Apple TV iOS iCloud iTunes Mac Hot: iPhone 5S Guides: iPhone buyers | iPad buyers | iOS users Free: Wallpaper | iPhone apps, games | iPad apps, games Shop Online Cases Chargers Screen protectors Headsets & More Free shipping on orders over $50 Apple declines to fix vulnerability in Safari's Web Archive files, likely because it requires user action to exploit By Nick Arnott, Sunday, Apr 28, 2013 a 9:48 am 2

Metasploit software developer Joe Vennix has detailed a vulnerability in Safari’s webarchive file format along with how it can be exploited. The post on Rapid7 says that after being reported to Apple back in February, the bug was closed last month with a status of “wontfix”, indicating that Apple has no plans to address the bug. So what is it and why is that?

In Safari, if you go to save a web page, one of the options for the format to use is Web Archive. In many browsers when you save a web page locally, it only consists of the HTML source code itself. This means that any images, embedded videos, linked stylesheets or JavaScript will be lost. When you open a copy of the locally saved page, it will be missing all of the additional content, often not showing much more than text from the page and broken images. Safari’s Web Archive format works by not only saving the HTML of the page, but any linked content. When you open a Web Archive file, you will see the page as it would have originally appeared on the Internet, with all images, styling, and linked content preserved.

The bug found in Safari’s security model is a lack of restriction on what data can be accessed by files in a web archive. Normally a page like apple.com would be restricted to reading cookies that belonged to only the apple.com domain. It could not read cookies from another domain, such as gmail.com. This is critical because if all of your cookies were readable by any website, it would be trivial for a malicious site to send your cookies back to an attacker, who could then log in to your accounts on any number of websites. In the case of Safari’s web archives, it’s possible for a malicious web archive to not only access content stored by another site, but potentially any file on the victim’s computer.

With such a serious sounding vulnerability, you might be wondering why Apple wouldn’t want to fix it. The answer seems to be that an exploit like this cannot be accomplished without user action. You couldn’t actually be affected by this unless you were to download and open a malicious .webarchive file. Users can avoid being attacked by employing the age old advice of not opening strange files from the Internet (or anywhere else for that matter). That said, some people still do and surely will continue to do so. Given the potential impact of a vulnerability like this on users, it certainly seems like something Apple would want to fix at some point.

If you’re interesting in understanding more about how this bug works or can be exploited, Joe’s blog post covers several real world examples of how it could be used.

Source: Rapid7

Nick Arnott

Security editor, breaker of things, and caffeine savant. Writes on neglectedpotential.com about QA & security, and as @noir on Twitter about nothing in particular.

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More of: Security, Safari, web archive ? PreviouslyWhat do you want to see in iMore app 3.0? Next up ?Editor's desk: #TM13 There are 2 comments. Add yours. Dev from tipb says: Apr 28, 2013 at 11:36 am - 2 days ago

Other concerns aside for the moment, is the version of webarchive used in iTunes LP and extras vulnerable? If so, this seems like a mistake to leave open, as most people do not know the format is in use there, nor does it seem wise to for Apple to trust only pre-store inclusion scanning.

Reply asuperstarr says: Apr 29, 2013 at 1:18 am - 2 days ago

Well lets hope they work it out.

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