Apple

Apple files a patent titled Location-Sensitive Security Levels and Setting Profiles Based on Detected Location. The patent involves having a device detect its location and which security measures are appropriate for the situation:

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. 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.’

YouTube user Marques Brownlee makes a video showing what he claims is an iPhone 6 display obtained from the factory. Previous iPhone displays are made of a weaker material called Gorilla Glass. In the video, he shows that the sapphire crystal display is extremely resistant to scratches, falls, and even knife stabs.

The highest court in the European Union rules that the characteristic layout of the Apple Store can be registered as a trademark. This reverses a lower court’s ruling to reject the trademark:

The Court takes the view in this respect that a representation that, such as the one in the present case, depicts the layout of a retail store by means of an integral collection of lines, curves and shapes, may constitute a trade mark provided that it is capable of distinguishing the goods or services of one undertaking from those of other undertakings.

In response to China’s recent TV broadcast warning that iPhone technology has the ability to track users, today Apple denies those claims:

Apple does not track users’ locations – Apple has never done so and has no plans to ever do so.

Apple also says that a user’s location service can only be accessed by the device’s owner when they enter their passcode.

The company is planning a media event for September 9,. 2014. The company’s September events, in the past, have been used to announce new products. The iPhone 6 and IOS 8 are expected to be introduced in September or October of this year.

Apple’s vice president of environmental initiatives Lisa Jackson announces that benzene, a known carcinogen, and n-hexane, which has been linked to nerve damage, are now “explicitly” prohibited from Apple’s final assembly processes. Apple’s internal investigation came after the company “received some questions about whether the chemicals benzene and n-hexane are used in the manufacturing of our products.”

A four-month internal investigation of 22 final-assembly plants found “no evidence of workers’ health being put at risk.” China Labor Watch, the group that uncovered poor working conditions at Apple supplier factories, launched a “Bad Apple” petition in March, and environmental group Green America called on Apple to ban the chemicals.

The FBI and Apple are investigating allegations from the accounts of a number of celebrities, including Jennifer Lawrence and Kate Upton, were hacked.

After more than 40 hours of investigation, we have discovered that certain celebrity accounts were compromised by a very targeted attack on user names, passwords and security questions, a practice that has become all too common on the Internet. None of the cases we have investigated has resulted from any breach in any of Apple’s systems including iCloud or Find my iPhone. We are continuing to work with law enforcement to help identify the criminals involved.

When we learned of the theft, we were outraged and immediately mobilized Apple’s engineers to discover the source, our customers’ privacy and security are of utmost importance to us.

As Apple moves on to wearable devices and bigger screens on their smartphones, they say goodbye to their classic MP3 player, the iPod, which was introduced in October 2001. The device eventually held up to 160GB of music. The iPod accounted for a large part of the company’s sales, with 54.83 million iPod units shipped at the division’s sales peak in 2009. Numbers decreased as Apple’s iPhone and competing Android smartphones sales begin to eat into the MP3 market. Additionally, new devices, like the iPad tablet, created a brand new product niche.