iPhone Cruncher

Washington (dpa) – Apple Corp, one of the world’s most successful technology companies, served as the scapegoat Tuesday for US senators angry about companies whose overseas earnings escape US tax authorities.

Apple chief Tim Cook calmly defended the company from charges that the technology giant uses its international presence to dodge hefty US taxes. He was grilled by a Senate subcommittee.

Flanked by his chief financial officer and head of tax operations, Cook insisted that Apple does not move intellectual property offshore, does not ”stash money on some Caribbean island” and does not skirt taxes on global profits being repatriated to the US.
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Fifty billion. That’s how many apps have been downloaded from Apple’s App stores, according to the iconic technology company.

Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services, announced the milestone in a press release Thursday in which he said that an Ohio man who downloaded the 50 billionth app had won a 10,000-dollar gift card for the App Store.
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San Francisco (dpa) – An unidentified bidder has won a charity auction for a coffee date with Apple chief executive Tim Cook, but it will be a very expensive jolt of caffeine.

According to the Charitybuzz auction site, the winning bid reached 610,000 dollars when the auction closed Tuesday, with the donation going to benefit the Robert Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights.
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How much is a cup of coffee with Apple chief executive Tim Cook worth?

A day after a charity began an auction of an hour with the Apple boss at the company’s Cupertino headquarters, bidding reached 190,000 dollars and there is still 19 days left to bid.

Charitybuzz.com, the site running the auction had estimated the value of coffee with Cook at just 50,000 dollars.
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Tim Cook wants investors to ”think different” about Apple: less as a hyper-growth startup-like company and more as a mature but robust technology corporation with the world’s most lucrative dividend.

If Wall Street follows Apple’s famous advertising slogan of old, it may relieve some of the pressure on Apple’s chief executive, quiet investors’ grumbling about its recent share price slide, and buy the company time to do what it says it does best: come up with and market new products.
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Apple Inc. on Tuesday reported an 18 per cent decline in earnings for its fiscal second quarter, the company’s first profit reversal since 2003. Nevertheless, its share price rose nearly 5 percent in after-hours trading after the company announced a robust stock buyback plan.

The Silicon Valley giant reported net income in the second quarter of 9.5 billion dollars, or 10.09 dollars per share, compared to 11.6 billion dollars, or 12.30 dollars, a year ago.
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While medical apps for smartphones are often useful, and the range is rapidly growing, those that are diagnostic or prescriptive should be avoided, a German doctor has warned.

”There are simply too many possible sources of error,” said Urs-Vito Albrecht.

”A hearing test with a smartphone depends on the quality of the headphones, and evaluating the colour scale of a urine testing strip depends on the quality of the smartphone camera.
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SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Twitter Inc launched a stand-alone music-streaming app on Wednesday, opening another front in the micromessaging service’s ambitious expansion into multimedia content.

The iPhone app, called #music, will recommend and stream songs based on who users follow on Twitter and artists’ recommendations. The songs will be streamed via Rdio and Spotify, the subscription-based music services, and iTunes, Apple Inc’s music store.
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Berlin (dpa) – More than 80 billion apps are likely to be downloaded this year, accompanied by stories of the occasional developer who sells his app for millions.

But not every app is so successful and most app developers have to work hard to stay on top of things.

Indeed, the stories about 17-year-olds selling their work for fortunes are the exception, not the norm. Hoping to make a fortune with an app is like planning to become wealthy with the lottery.
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Washington (dpa) – Samsung Electronics will step up its challenge to Apple in the US market by offering its smartphones in the country’s largest electronic retail outlet, Best Buy, the company said Thursday.

Starting Monday, South Korea-based Samsung is to open 500 ”Samsung Experience Shops” inside Best Buy stores, with the aim to increase the number to 1,400 in prime space near the stores’ entrances.

Samsung poses the biggest threat to Apple’s iPhone and iPad, and plans to open sales of its Galaxy S4 this month in the US and elsewhere.
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