Author: Juli Clover

AT&T and Apple have begun sending out payments to consumers in the United States who purchased an original iPad 3G, following the culmination of a long-running class action lawsuit over unlimited data.

Originally settled in September of 2013, the lawsuit covered a $29.99 no-contract unlimited data plan that Apple and AT&T offered with the original iPad — a deal that Steve Jobs advertised on stage when the tablet was revealed in January of 2010.

In June of 2010, AT&T stopped offering the plan and replaced it with a 2GB for $25/month plan. AT&T did grandfather in users who had an unlimited plan prior to June 2010, but the company also began throttling unlimited users in October of 2011.

The class action lawsuit accused Apple and AT&T of using bait-and-switch tactics, selling iPads that advertised unlimited data without actually providing unlimited data. The lawsuits also suggested that without the prospect of an unlimited data plan, consumers had overpaid for their tablets. Apple and AT&T’s settlement, which called for the companies to send out $40 checks to all affected customers, was finalized in February. As noted by 9to5Mac, checks are now arriving to customers.

Enclosed is a check in the amount of $40.00 representing your settlement in the award of Apple & AT&T iPad Unlimited Data Plan Litigation. The amount of your settlement award has been calculated pursuant to the terms of the Settlement that was approved by the court. Pursuant to the terms of the settlement, the enclosed check must be cashed by October 16, 2014; after that date, the check will be void and will not be reissued. If you have any questions, you can contact the Settlement Administrator at 1–800–248–1504.

Under the terms of the settlement, AT&T is also required to offer customers a $20 discount on the $50/month 5GB data plan, but the deal is only available to customers who do not have another data plan with AT&T due to no-class action provisions in their contracts.

Apple’s recent EFI Firmware 2.9 update for 2011 MacBook Air models appears to be causing trouble for several MacBook Air users, according to a thread on the Apple Support Communities. Released on July 15 to fix sleep/wake issues and a bug that caused…

During its financial results call covering the third fiscal quarter (second calendar quarter) of 2014, Apple shared details on the success of its iTunes Store, which has become an increasingly important revenue source for the company in recent years, mainly due to the ever-growing popularity of the App Store.

For the first fiscal nine months of the year, Apple CEO Tim Cook said iTunes software and services were the fastest growing part of Apple’s business. iTunes billings grew 25 percent year over year to an all time quarterly high, largely due to the App Store.

In the third quarter, iTunes generated $4.5 billion in revenue, an increase of 12 percent year over year. There have been 75 billion cumulative App Store downloads, and Apple has now paid a total of $20 billion to developers. In January of 2014, Apple had paid out $15 billion, meaning $5 billion of that total has been paid out in 2014 alone.

During the call, Tim Cook said that he expects iOS 8 with more than 4,000 APIs and the company’s new developer language, Swift, to result in significant growth and improvement for apps and the App Store.

Overall, Apple posted revenue of $37.4 billion and a net quarterly profit of $7.7 billion, or $1.28 per diluted share, compared to revenue of $35.3 billion and net quarterly profit of $9.5 billion ($1.07 per diluted share) in the year-ago quarter. Year over year, Apple’s revenue is up 6 percent and its profit is up 12 percent.

During today’s third quarter earnings call, Apple CEO Tim Cook revealed that Apple has purchased a total of 29 companies over the course of the last nine months, including five new companies after the end of the March quarter. Of the 29 companies purch…

The Apple TV may gain a new FXNOW channel that includes Simpsons World content, according to TV writer Jason Lynch who tweeted the news yesterday (via iLounge). Lynch said the FXNOW channel will come to the Apple TV, Roku, and other devices within the next 12 months.

FXNOW is the on-demand portion of the FX, FXX, and FXM television channels, all of which are owned by the Fox Entertainment Group. The FXNOW Apple TV channel will reportedly include content from The Simpsons, branded Simpsons World, which offers all 552 episodes of The Simpsons along with additional content. Simpsons World, debuting in October, will allow fans to search for and watch any episode or clip of The Simpsons on demand on FXNOW.

According to reports, Simpsons World will also allow users to create playlists of episodes and share favorite scenes, features that will likely make their way to the Apple TV version of the channel. FXNOW with Simpsons World currently requires cable authentication and is limited to FXX subscribers, and the Apple TV version will require a cable subscription as well.

Currently, supported cable providers for the existing FXNOW channel include AT&T, Cablevision, Comcast, Cox, and Time-Warner. Simpsons World access will also be available through the FXNOW app for the iPad.

Earlier this year, Nike significantly downsized its FuelBand team, firing several members of the 80-person team that worked to create its well-known fitness tracker as part of a shift from hardware to software. Apple snapped up two of the former Fuel…

Apple today launched a new version of its iTunes U app, adding several new iPad-related features designed to make it easier for both students and teachers to use the iPad for online courses. Apple first announced plans to update iTunes U in late June. …

Developers running the beta version of iOS 8 can ask Siri for an opinion on the new operating system, prompting Apple’s virtual assistant to provide one of several humorous responses. Siri’s funny responses are limited to iOS 8 — iOS 7 users who ask S…

Apple will open its newest retail store in Basel, Switzerland on Saturday, July 12 at Freie Strasse, a shopping area famous in Basel. The shopping street has a number of high end stores and restaurants, with Apple opening at building number 47. The…

Just over a month after Apple announced plans to purchase Beats Electronics and the Beats Music service, Google has made its own music purchase, acquiring streaming music service Songza.

First launched in 2007 and revamped in 2011, Songza is a curation-based music service much like Beats Music. Songza offers a multitude of customized playlists created by music experts, which revolve around different moods and activities. For example, in its iPhone app, Songza provides playlists for “Working Out,” “Waking Up Happy,” “Feeling Confident,” and more.

Beats Music, meanwhile, boasts “in-house curators” that provide handpicked albums and playlists based on a user’s personal tastes. There’s also a feature called “The Sentence,” which offers playlists based on location, feeling, and genre. The two services are both similar in regards to their emphasis on human curation, which is becoming a must-have feature in the streaming music arena. Beats Music’s focus on curation was one of the driving factors behind Apple’s purchase of the service.

Beats Music app on the left, Songza app on the right
Apple has plans to keep Beats Music separate from its own iTunes and iTunes Radio offerings, and Google too has said that Songza will remain independent, though it has plans to integrate Songza features into Google Play Music and other Google services in the future. Both Songza and Beats Music are set to remain available on multiple platforms.

We aren’t planning any immediate changes to Songza, so it will continue to work like usual for existing users. Over the coming months, we’ll explore ways to bring what you love about Songza to Google Play Music. We’ll also look for opportunities to bring their great work to the music experience on YouTube and other Google products.

Like Beats Music, which had 250,000 subscribers in May three months after launching, Songza is relatively small at five million users compared to competitors like iTunes Radio, Pandora, and Spotify. The major differentiating factor between the two services is cost — Songza is free and ad-supported while Beats Music requires a monthly subscription.

The terms of the deal between Google and Songza were not disclosed, but some reports have suggested Google paid around $15 million for the service. Apple’s Beats deal is still awaiting regulatory approval and is expected to close next quarter.

The United States Federal Trade Commission today filed a complaint against T-Mobile, accusing the carrier of charging customers for unauthorized SMS subscriptions that delivered information like horoscopes and celebrity gossip at prices up to $9.99 per month.

T-Mobile reportedly collected 35 to 40 percent of the amount charged to consumers, at times continuing to bill customers even after it was clear the charges were fraudulent. According to the FTC, T-Mobile made “hundreds of millions of dollars” using these tactics.

The FTC suggests that the charges were unauthorized because of the high volume of T-Mobile customers seeking refunds. The company has allegedly received a high number of consumer complaints since 2012. T-Mobile is also said to have made it difficult to detect the charges, as a summary bill did not show a third-party charge or a recurring subscription. T-Mobile bills also made it “nearly impossible for consumers to find and understand third-party subscription charges.”

After looking past a “Summary” section as well as an “Account Service Detail” section, both of which described “Usage Charges” but did not itemize those charges, a consumer might then reach the section labeled “Premium Services,” where the crammed items would be listed.

According to the complaint, the information would be listed there in an abbreviated form, such as “8888906150BrnStorm23918,” that did not explain that the charge was for a recurring third-party subscription supposedly authorized by the consumer.

T-Mobile also failed to provide full refunds to customers after the charges were discovered. The FTC is asking for a court order to prevent T-Mobile from continuing to charge customers for fraudulent services and to provide full refunds for its “ill-gotten gains.”

T-Mobile has not yet commented on the FTC’s complaint, but the company’s outspoken CEO, John Legere, will undoubtedly have a response.

In recent months, T-Mobile has worked hard to distinguish itself from other mobile phone carriers with its “UnCarrier” initiatives designed to disrupt traditional mobile service. The company has uncoupled device costs from service costs, introduced a Jump upgrade plan, provided unlimited texting and 2G data in 100 countries, offered customers up to $350 to switch carriers, and announced plans to allow customers to “test drive” the service.

Update 1:30 PM PT: T-Mobile has released a statement calling the FTC’s complaint “unfounded and without merit.” T-Mobile goes on to state that it stopped billing for Premium SMS services last year and has launched a “proactive program” to provide full refunds for customers.

Alongside the second iOS 8 beta released earlier today, Apple also released a new version of the Apple TV software. The two updates appear to have laid the groundwork for Family Sharing, as there’s a new section for “Family Purchases” in the iOS App St…

Popular game developer Halfbrick Studios has made its entire catalog of apps free to download, which means titles like Fruit Ninja, Fish Out of Water, Monster Dash and Age of Zombies are all free. While some of these titles, like Fruit Ninja have bee…

Facebook today launched a new app called Slingshot, which is designed to compete with popular ephemeral messaging app Snapchat. A video and photo messaging app, Slingshot allows users to send media to friends, who are unable to view it until they share…

OS X Yosemite’s dark mode, which was demoed on stage at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference, has yet to make it into the beta as an available setting. It is, however, possible to get a glimpse of dark mode with a Terminal command, as discovered by iOS developer Hamza Sood.

To enable the somewhat functional dark mode:
sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/.GlobalPreferences AppleInterfaceTheme Dark

— Hamza Sood (@hamzasood) June 17, 2014

The command enables an early version of dark mode, which is clearly not yet complete, likely explaining why it is not yet officially available in the beta. Users should, of course, use caution when deciding whether or not to try this feature for themselves. Dark mode can be undone with a second Terminal command.

The second beta of OS X Yosemite was released to developers earlier today, bringing several new changes like the return of Photo Booth and a new look for Time Machine. The public release of the software will likely come in the fall, after several more beta iterations.

Apple is offering discounts on several popular e-books from Hachette Book Group, the publisher currently embroiled in a dispute with Amazon. As noted by Re/code, Apple is promoting a sale on several Hachette titles under a “Popular Pre-Orders: $9.99 or Less” section in the book section of the iTunes Store, which includes upcoming titles from major authors like James Patterson, Michael Connelly, and J.K. Rowling (under pen name Robert Galbraith).

While Apple does not specifically mention the books on sale are published by Hachette, every book in the 26-book section is indeed a Hachette title. An Apple PR representative confirmed the promotion to Re/code, but declined to discuss pricing or other details.

For those unfamiliar with the dispute, Amazon and Hachette have been at war for the last month, after negotiations over profit-sharing failed. Amazon has since refused to take pre-order sales of Hachette books and has also ceased discounting existing Hachette titles, leading to much higher prices, in an effort to get Hachette to agree to better terms.

An Apple PR rep confirmed the promotion, but wouldn’t discuss the pricing or any other details. So we have to assume that either Hachette is lowering wholesale prices on its own titles to help Apple tweak Amazon, or Apple is lowering the retail price on its own, and losing margin in order to tweak Amazon.

Amazon released a public statement in May, noting that it was not optimistic about resolving the disagreement with Hachette in the near future. That means Amazon customers must pay more for Hachette books and must wait for books to be launched to make a purchase, a situation that benefits Apple as it is still able to offer customers pre-orders on popular titles.