Apple Passbook is an application in iOS that lets you store coupons, boarding passes, store cards, event tickets, and other forms of mobile payment. Back in September 2012, four teams started supporting MLB Passbook. Now 14 more MLB teams will be supporting Passbook this year according to GigaOM. The MLB was among some of the first partners to join Apple Passbook when it was announced last year at WWDC.
Shortly after Apple announced in-app purchases within applications, parents complained that it was too easy for kids to buy expensive virtual goods built into games. When a parent buys an app for their kids, they have to log in with their username and password. Apple did not ask kids to input the password again unless it was at least 15 minutes after a purchase was triggered again. Apple has has agreed that they will be reimbursing parents whose children bought virtual goods in mobile apps without the knowledge of their parents.
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The New York Police Department is forming a force of officers that has been specifically assigned to work with Apple on retrieving stolen products. Every time that an Apple device is stolen in New York, detectives get tracking numbers from the victim or from online records. The number that the police gets from the Apple product owner is the International Mobile Station Equipment Identity (IMEI). Once the police gets the IMEI from the victim, they report it to Apple. Then Apple informs the NYPD of the current location of the device. Apple can even find out if the IMEI was registered with a different wireless provider.
According to mobile ad network company Millennial Media, Apple is starting to lose their dominant footing for online ad impressions. Apple’s online ad impressions have increased 72% year-over-year compared to 182% for the Samsung Galaxy S series of products. Apple is still controlling a 15.59% share of the global ad impressions market, but Samsung’s control of a 4.24% share is a major increase.
Apple has recently filed for a patent that seeks to improve the quality of smartphone pictures. The patent shows that the new camera would start capturing the images as soon as it is opened. When the user hits the shutter, the camera would automatically select the best photo.
Analysts at International Data Corporation (IDC) have compiled information about the combined marketshare of Android or iOS. It turns out that the combined marketshare for the two mobile operating systems was 91.1% shortly after Q4 2012.
Today the 2013 Chevrolet Sonic and Spark vehicles with Chevrolet MyLink will be available with Siri, the intelligent assistant maintained by Apple Inc. “The Chevy Sonic and Spark are the first vehicles to offer Siri Eyes Free integration,” said Chevrolet marketing director for small cars Cristi Landy. “Safe, easy, reliable and portable connectivity is a top priority for our customers, and Siri complements MyLink’s existing capabilities to help deliver an incredible driving experience.”
At the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference, Apple CEO Tim Cook revealed that 120 million people visited Apple’s retail stores last year. Alexis Madrigal, senior editor at The Atlantic, decided to see how this compares to Disney’s theme parks. Between all of the Disney theme parks, about 125 million people visited them in 2011. That is only a 5 million person difference!
