Keeping you in the loop on some of the things that happened around Apple this week.iPhones in color. Here’s what we know: There will be a new iPhone introduced at a company event in September. Apple unveils a new iPhone every year and so not introducing a new model would be the headline here. As analysts have been saying for a year, Apple will update the iPhone 5 – though debate continues about whether it will include a fingerprint scanner — and add a less expensive iPhone model to appeal to all those would-be iPhone buyers who don’t want to pony up the bucks for Apple’s high-end smartphone. And of course, the buzz these days is all about color – the iPhone 5S may be available in black/silver, white/silver and possibly white/champagne – or gold (though why gold given that Apple’s previous flirtation with a gold device — 2004’s gold iPod mini — tanked so badly). The low-cost, iPhone 5C, according to Sonny Dickson, an Australian iPhone engineer who says he has the scoop on the new models, will be available in a pinkish red, a bright yellow, a lime green and cyan blue and white. (There’s also talk about how scratch resistant the iPhone 5C cover will be, and whether Apple is using metal-glass technology it acquired in 2010 from Liquid Metal – or maybe some new glass tech from Corning? I guess all will be revealed at Apple’s event, which will reportedly take place on Sept. 10.
Mapping out iOS 7. With the new iPhone comes a new version of Apple’s mobile operating system, iOS 7. And among the many, many new features Apple’s team is working on is an update to the Map app released last year as a not-so-great replacement to Google Maps. Apple has been looking to hire mapping experts and this past week confirmed that it bought a small San Francisco-based startup, Embark, that offers transit info (something missing from Apple’s Map app). Last month, Apple bought Locationary, which handles points of interest in mapping databases, and HopStop, which provides access to transit information. You can be sure that Apple CEO Tim Cook doesn’t want to issue any apologies this year after the updated Maps is revealed.
Icahn tweets. Billionaire investor Carl Ichan, who tweeted last week that he had bought a “large position” in Apple, tweeted again this week that he’s planning on having dinner in September with Apple CEO Tim Cook. “Tim believes in buyback and is doing one. What will be discussed is magnitude,” Icahn said. If you haven’t been following along, Icahn said last week that Apple’s shares could be trading at $700 — and the company should use debt to buy back more shares. ”Apple has the ability to do a $150 billion buyback now by borrowing funds at 3 percent.” So is a bigger buyback coming? All I can tell you is that Apple shares were trading at $467.36 a share the day before Ichan announced his Apple stake. They closed yesterday at $501.02, a 7.2 percent gain. While that’s still a ways off from $700, the shares are heading in the right direction. – Google News
