According to a report by Jessica Lessin, former reporter and editor for The Wall Street Journal, Apple's TV service will come with a feature that will allow users to skip ads. The feature will appeal to new generation of users who have grown up with DVRs that let you record content and, thus, skip ads when actually sit down to watch the show.
Naturally, the TV networks are not thrilled with the idea, but, the report claims, Apple plans to offer monetary compensation for any loss of revenue that may result from the ad-skipping. Based on the report, the initial response from networks doesn't seem to be very positive, though the negotiations are likely to continue for a while.
The report also confirms a few other murmurs we've been hearing for a while, like the discussion between Apple and the networks and cable companies have been going on for over a year now. Apple is said to be seeking rights for a service that would allow users to watch live and on-demand TV content. Apple may deliver this content via the existing Apple TV, any other set-top box, or its rumoured television set.
The report claims the discussions have been "highly secretive" and CEO Tim Cook and Senior Vice President Eddy Cue held talks with some media companies as recently as last week at a conference in Sun Valley.
According to The Korea Economic Daily, Apple has signed a new deal with Samsung under which the latter will supply processors for Apple's iPhone, starting 2015. The report cites industry sources to inform that the agreement was signed on July 14, and that Samsung will produce the new chips deploying the 14 nano FinFET technology for Apple's iPhone 7 which is expected to release in the second half of 2015.
Samsung has produced chips for Apple's iPhone since it was first introduced in 2007. It still manufactures the Apple A6 processor that powers the iPhone 5. However, it was reported that Apple was cutting Samsung from A7 production as the two companies were at loggerheads after their rivalry in the smartphones segment and patent disputes across the world. Apple signing a new deal with Samsung comes as a surprise as it was believed that the former was cutting its reliance on the South Korean company.
In fact, the news comes shortly after it was reported that Apple had signed a three year agreement with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company(TSMC) and its partner Global UniChip to make its new A-series chips built through 20nm, 16nm and 10nm process nodes. The report had cited industry sources to inform that TSMC would commence production of the Cupertino giant's A8 processor in small quantities in July 2013, and increase production capacity after December. It also said that a part of the chip maker's capacity would be used for manufacturing new Apple A9 and A9X processors.
The Apple A8 processor is expected to power a new iPhone which is expected to release in early 2014, while the A9 and A9X chips are likely to power new iPhone and iPad products.
Another report by The Wall Street Journal had reiterated that Apple had indeed signed an agreement with TSMC, citing unidentified TSMC executives as source. It said that the move was the latest in a series of efforts by Apple to lessen its reliance on parts produced by Samsung, however, it added that Samsung would remain Apple's main supplier of high-resolution screens, memory chips and processors used in mobile devices through next year.
According to a new report by web analytics firm StatCounter, users accessing the Internet from Samsung phones account for 25.47 percent, overtaking iPhone users by a difference of less than 1 percent. Internet usage from iPhones was at 25.09 percent, followed by usage from Nokia users at 21.96 percent and from BlackBerry users at 3.62 percent.
It's worth pointing out that these figures are based on a sample methodology. The StatCounter code is installed on more than 3
million websites globally that allows them to track usage. According to the company these sites cover various activities and geographic locations and record over 15 billion page views to these sites, every month.
Last year, Nokia led the pack in terms of mobile Internet usage from its phones, registering a usage of 28.05 percent, followed by Apple which saw usage of 25.43 percent and Samsung on 19.46 percent.
This essentially indicates that Internet usage from Samsung phones witnessed a rise of almost 6 percent implying that more Samsung users are browsing the web from their devices. Most Samsung smartphones are powered by Google's Android operating system.
It's worth pointing out that in countries such as UK and US, Internet usage from iPhones is still more than usage from Samsung phones. While 54.84 percent of all mobile Internet usage in the US was from iPhones, only 18.3 percent was from Samsung phones. Even in the UK, Apple leads with a usage share of 47.97 percent while Samsung's share was 20.45 percent.
In terms of mobile browsers, Android leads with a share of 29.06 percent, followed by Safari (iPhone and iPod touch only) which had a share of 24.98 percent. Opera was in the third place registering a share of 16.06 percent. Chrome for Android's share was 3.23 percent.
Talking about mobile operating systems, the report reveals that Internet usage from Android was at 37.93 percent, followed by iOS which was at 25.09 percent and Nokia's Series 40 platform at 13.43 percent. Windows Phone's share was still pretty low at 1.4 percent, behind BlackBerry which was at 3.46 percent.