Publisher Simon & Schuster said the highly anticipated tell-all biography, written by acclaimed biographer Walter Isaacson, will include Wednesday night’s announcement from Jobs’ point of view.

Simon & Schuster spokeswoman Tracey Guest told PCMag that Isaacson “speaks to Jobs regularly and is still working on the final chapter of the book.”

The biography, simply titled “Steve Jobs”, is the first authorized look at Steve Jobs’ life. It is being written by former Time managing editor Walter Isaacson and is based on over 40 interviews with Jobs and additional interviews with over 100 colleagues, friends, and family members. Jobs has offered his complete cooperation with the effort, making no subject off-limits and not requesting the right to review material before publication.

Jobs’ name appears not only on patents for iconic devices like the iPhone but also on a number of less prominent details ranging from the glass staircases found in some Apple retail stores to power adapters to cardboard packaging for various iPod models.

Mr. Jobs appears as the principal inventor or as one inventor among several on 313 Apple patents. Most are design patents that cover the look and feel of a product, rather than utility patents, which may cover a technical innovation like a software algorithm or computer chip.

Still, the number of patents is far larger than those granted to most other technology company chiefs, including those whose technical breakthroughs and inventions were instrumental to their companies’ success. Just nine Microsoft patents carry the name of Bill Gates, who was a co-founder of the company and its chief executive for more than two decades before stepping down in 2000. And little more than a dozen Google patents carry the names of co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, according to a search of the United States Patent and Trademark Office Web site.

The New York Times has put together an interactive feature highlighting Apple patents attributed to Jobs. More than 200 of the patents attributed to Jobs also list Apple design guru Jonathan Ive, indicating the close collaboration between the two in creating the vision for Apple’s products.

To the Apple Board of Directors and the Apple Community:

I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come.

I hereby resign as CEO of Apple. I would like to serve, if the Board sees fit, as Chairman of the Board, director and Apple employee.

As far as my successor goes, I strongly recommend that we execute our succession plan and name Tim Cook as CEO of Apple.

I believe Apple’s brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it. And I look forward to watching and contributing to its success in a new role.

I have made some of the best friends of my life at Apple, and I thank you all for the many years of being able to work alongside you.

Steve

Art Levinson, chairman of Genentech and an Apple board member for more than 10 years, issued this statement on behalf of the board:

Steve’s extraordinary vision and leadership saved Apple and guided it to its position as the world’s most innovative and valuable technology company. Steve has made countless contributions to Apple’s success, and he has attracted and inspired Apple’s immensely creative employees and world class executive team. In his new role as Chairman of the Board, Steve will continue to serve Apple with his unique insights, creativity and inspiration.

Jobs was diagnosed and treated for pancreatic cancer in 2004. He’s taken three separate leaves of absence for medical reasons during and since that time. In 2009, Jobs had a liver transplant at Methodist University Hospital in Memphis, TN. He has been away from his day-to-day duties since January of this year.

Regarding Tim Cook’s appointment as CEO, Levinson wrote:

The Board has complete confidence that Tim is the right person to be our next CEO. Tim’s 13 years of service to Apple have been marked by outstanding performance, and he has demonstrated remarkable talent and sound judgment in everything he does.

Apple’s stock was paused in after-hours trading at 4:19PM for approximately 35 minutes. The final trade was at $375.56. When trading resumed at 4:55, Apple’s stock was down more than 5% to $351.

The patent technology applies a process called Physical Vapor Deposition, a special coating procedure that could leave the iPhones, iPads and iPods resistant from finger oils for much longer, Patently Apple reveals.

The current coatings for iPhone 3Gs, iPhone4 and iPad are known to wear off rapidly, but this new patent is apparently more effective in protecting the touchscreens of Apple devices from smears.

The Physical Vapor Desposition technology could protect the iPhone, iPod and iPad screens from fingerprints and avoid the need to constantly wipe your device. The new technology apparently coats the screens of your electronic device with an oil resistant ‘oleophobic’ coating.

The Physical Vapor Desposition technique applies thin films of vaporized materials onto the iDevice’s surface. The coating comes in liquid form inside a pressurized bottle and is purged by an inert gas to avoid exposure to air, heat or humidity during the manufacturing process, before it is applied to a device’s surface.

It is even suggested that the new anti-smudge PVD technology could be featured on the new iPhone 5, set to come this autumn.

Source: http://www.itproportal.com/2011/08/16/latest-apple-anti-fingerprint-technology-iphone-5/

Details on future iPads and iPhones are naturally kept in a room only Steve Jobs and one other can open (they have to synchronise their key turns, and submit to a brain scan), but thankfully Apple can’t stop news of the components emerging, because it buys them from other companies.

And possibly the most important of these is the processor, effectively the gadget’s engine. Thankfully this one sounds more Ferrari than Ford Focus.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) has begun a trial production of the chip that will power Apple’s devices from 2012, Taiwan Economic News reports. So what? So it reveals some interesting insights into what the devices themselves will be capable of. And it’s safe to say you won’t be disappointed, if these details are anything to go by.

The A6 chip will be an upgrade to the A5 processor powering the iPad 2: a 28nm process, compared to the A5′s 45nm, meaning lower energy consumption and higher speeds.

It’s the first to come capable of 3D stacking as well, which allows more layers of components to be stacked on top of each other, like fillings in a sandwich. This means more transistors, hence more power and efficiency, which should make for an even slicker user experience.

Just the thought of anything slicker than the iPad 2 is enough to have us pitying to competition. Yes, TabCo Grid10, we’re looking at you.

Even more excitingly, the A6 looks set to debut in spring next year, so we could well see the iPad 3 launch around the same time. We’re saving already.

China’s Commercial Times reported back in June that TSMC would most likely be making A6 processors for Apple, and that a deal was all but done between the two companies. As long ago as last July, it was also reported by Engadget that TSMC was testing the 28nm process, so reading between the lines this all seems to add up.

Of course, the ongoing lawsuits between Apple and Samsung (which makes the current A5 chip in the iPad 2) regarding alleged similarities between the two companies’ smart phones and tablets may well have helped Apple make the switch from Sammy as a manufacturer. Oh, and that Galaxy Tab 10.1 ban in Europe? Probably doesn’t help.

Source: http://crave.cnet.co.uk/

According to tech website Apple Insider, Cupertino, California-based Apple Inc. is now buying back old or outdated gadgets from its own factory which include iPhone 3, iPhone 3G, iPhone 4, iPad, iPad 2, and Mac-powered computers and even other manufacturers at a fair market price for used products.

Apple Inc. in collaboration with PowerON will work towards enhancing the quality of the disposed products and extend their life to resell the gadgets.

Interested people can mark the details about their gadget on company’s Reuse and Recycling Web page (http://store.apple.com/us/browse/reuse_and_recycle) to receive price offers from Apple Inc.

“Send it to us and we’ll determine if it qualifies for reuse. If it does, that means your device has monetary value that we’ll apply to an Apple Gift Card, which you can use for purchases at any Apple Retail Store or the Apple Online Store.” the website reads. Apple Inc. has also added that in case, the gadget or the PC does not hold any worth to the company, it will still recycle the gadget at zero cost.

Once the price quoted is accepted by the user, they can send the gadget across PowerON, without paying any shipping fee.

Source: http://www.itproportal.com/2011/08/11/apple-buying-back-old-iphone-ipad-under-reuse-and-recycle-initiative/

Apple shipped 3.95 million Macintosh computers during the quarter, a unit increase of 14 percent over the year-ago quarter. Quarterly iPhone unit sales reached 20.34 million, up 142 percent from the year-ago quarter, and the company also sold 7.54 million iPods during the quarter, representing 20 percent unit decline over the year-ago quarter. Apple also sold 9.25 million iPads during the quarter, up 183 percent over the year-ago quarter.

“We’re thrilled to deliver our best quarter ever, with revenue up 82 percent and profits up 125 percent,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “Right now, we’re very focused and excited about bringing iOS 5 and iCloud to our users this fall.”

Apple’s guidance for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2011 includes expected revenue of $25 billion and earnings per diluted share of $5.50.

Apple will provide live streaming of its Q3 2011 financial results conference call at 2:00 PM Pacific, and MacRumors will update this story with coverage of the conference call highlights.

Conference Call Highlights:

- Highest quarterly revenue and profits. Record iPhone and iPad sales and highest June quarter Mac sales ever.
- Operating margin was a record high.
- 57% year-over-year Mac growth in Pacific segment.
- OS X Lion launching tomorrow
- iPod/iTunes continue to lead market. iTunes revenue up 36% year-over-year.
- Over 225 million accounts, leading music retailer.
- Thrilled to sell record 20.3 million iPhones. 142% growth, more than double IDC’s estimate of overall smartphone market.
- Asia Pacific sales almost quadrupled over last year.
- Ended quarter with 5.9 million in channel inventory, up about 700,000 over last quarter.
- 91% of Fortune 500 testing or deploying iPhone; 57% of Global 500.
- iPad sales up 183%, sold every iPad we could make.
- Launched iPad 2 in 36 new countries, now in total of 64 countries.
- 1.05 million iPads in channel inventory, up about 200,000…well below target range.
- Over 222 million cumulative iOS device sales
- In June, we previewed iOS 5 and iCloud. Both launching this fall.
- App Store booming…425,000 apps, 15 billion downloads. $2.5 billion paid out to developers.
- Retail stores: $3.5 billion, up 36% year-over-year. 50% of Mac purchasers new to Mac.
- 327 total stores, with four opened during the quarter
- 73.7 million visitors, up from 60.5 million year-ago quarter.
- 30 new store openings in September quarter, for a total of 40 in fiscal 2011. 28 outside of U.S.
- Cash and marketable securities up $10 billion sequentially to $76.2 billion.
- Now deferring revenue recognition for Lion sales, recognized over period of three years. Same with iCloud. As of June 6th, Apple is deferring $22 of revenue from each Mac sold to be recognized over a period of four years. Also deferring $16 of revenue from each iPhone/iPad and $11 from iPod touch to be recognized over two years.
- Extremely pleased with record revenue and earnings and customer response to our products.

Q&A:

Q: 12% downtick in revenue guidance is more than usual. Why?
A: Let me start with the units. For education buying season, September is weighted toward higher education, and we expect increases there. We also expect increases in iPhone, etc. There is also a future product transition that we are not going to talk about today. Those factors are already in our guidance. Confident in our pipeline. Tim Cook talking about some cannibalization of Mac by iPad. But also cannibalizing Windows. Very happy with 14% growth in Mac.

Q: What about importance of China?
A: We consider greater China to be Mainland China + Hong Kong + Taiwan. Sales 6x year-over-year. This quarter, revenue $3.8b from Greater China. $8.8b over last 3 quarters from Greater China. “We believe this is a substantial opportunity for Apple and we’re just scratching the surface.”

Q: What about margin predictions?
A: Most components in a very positive pricing situation. HD supply currently constrained but LCD/NAND Flash pricing falling.

Q: Patent disputes, how to put in context with Apple’s IP strategy?
A: Tim Cook: “We have a very simple view here. That view is we love competition, we think it’s great for us and for everyone, but we want people to invent their own stuff. We’re going to make sure we defend our portfolio appropriately.”

Q: What drove iPhone strength in the quarter?
A: Tim: We did add 42 new carriers and 15 new countries in the quarter. We continued our expansion efforts to get out beyond the 225 carrier number and above 100 countries. This occurred throughout the quarter and the real sequential improvement was frankly due to emerging and developed markets. China, Latin America driven by Brazil and Mexico was a big part and the Middle East was a big part of it. It’s great for Apple because these are markets that Apple historically has not been as strong in, we’re really beginning to see the fruits of our labor in these markets.

Q: Milestones hoping to hit over the next quarter for iPhone?
A: It’s something that is of great focus to us, we want to do business with great partners and there are great partners for us to do business with. We’re always working on new relationships.

Q: Any thoughts in terms of Android activation numbers relative to Apple?
A: Android activation number is a difficult one to get our hands around. Unlike our numbers which we can go to our data sheet and add our iPhone and iPad and make a reasonable approximation of iPod touch, you can quickly see in the June quarter we sold 33 million iOS devices. Across time, we’re now over 222 million cumulative iOS devices. We think this is incredible. Our numbers are very straightforward, transparent and reported quarterly.

iPhone is 142% YoY growth. This is 2x the rate of growth of the Smartphone market. We think this is incredible. We sold every iPad 2 in the quarter we could make. There was no shortage of demand. Gaining traction in enterprise. Our intention is not to getting test and pilot programs. We are turning to penetration.

App store is largest by far, if you look at iPad specific apps we’re looking at more than 100,000. You’ll be hard pressed to find more than a few hundred on other platforms. Other tablets aren’t getting any traction to speak of. We’ve paid $2.5 billion to developers and it’s a great business proposition to them. Well over 15 billion apps downloaded, so customers love it too. Confident with products, app store, developers, customer satisfaction ranks iPhone number 1, so confident with customer reception and confident with our roadmap.

Q: Apple TV and connected TV market?
A: Apple TV continues to do well but I don’t want to mislead. We still call it a “hobby” and we do that because we don’t want anyone to conclude that it’s another “leg of the stool” because it’s not in the size market that the iPhone, Mac, iPad or iPod is in. We and customers love the product. We really got it right with the new Apple TV but right now it’s still a “hobby status”. We’re continuing to invest in it because we think there’s something there.

Q: Diversify contract manufacturing base and non-Apple Retail channel?
A: Tim: Regarding non-Apple retail channel, looking at iPhone for example, we have 115,000 points of sale. Incredibly diversified, selling through carriers, through retail, through our online store, direct sales forces to enterprise — channel is extremely well diversified. Still countries where we’re building the channel, so the journey is not complete. But in mature markets, the channel is in good shape. Not something we’re worried about.

Regarding suppliers, we don’t want to get into this in any detail. It’s part of the magic and part of the things that we have some ‘secret sauce’ in, and we’d prefer not to share it.

“Are we too centralized in one place?” The people here involved in supply chain always ask that question, I think we always make the right decision for Apple.

Q: How is manufacturing yield on iPhone and iPad coming?
A: Supply of iPad improved through the quarter but we aren’t going to comment on specific yield numbers. Further improvements in supply in initial weeks of July and we’re in supply demand balance in some countries. Feel very good about progress in that area.

Q: iPhone growth is extraordinary. How can Apple sustain that growth? Approaching saturation — make changes or keep the business model?
A: Apple doesn’t set tariff/plan pricing. At a macro level, if you talk to folks around the world, virtually every carrier desires having more customers with smartphones using data. This is a way for them to expand their ARPUs. We believe there is no better device than the iPhone. The ease of use is unparalleled and we believe there is good alignment in that area.

Key driver in our sequential results in iPhone units are emerging and developing markets. We’re putting more energy in these markets that are a big more difficult to do well in than the established countries. We have a very good focus here, we can compete with anyone.

Q: Including prepaid, indirect distribution markets?
A: Looking at emerging markets in the aggregate, most of those are prepaid. We believe postpaid is better in the long term for customer, carrier and Apple. In general we are playing in the prepaid market — not avoiding that market, we know we need to play there in order to have the types of volumes we’d like to have.

Expanding our channels is obviously on our to-do list.

Q: Mac growth was 5% sequential, notebook sequential was below that. Past few years have been 17-18%. Was this quarter cannibalization? Anticipation of Lion?
A: Tim: Look at YoY than sequential on the Mac. Prouder of the numbers that we achieved — to grow at 14% when the market is growing at 2.6%, doing 5x the rate of growth, is certainly something to be proud of. Why is the number not higher than 14%? No matter how high it is we would focus on that.

Three things that are the primary factors: First, some cannibalization of new Macs by iPads. Shipped 9.2m iPads during the quarter, 2x the number of Macs shipped. Some customers chose to purchase an iPad instead of a new Mac. But more customers chose to buy an iPad than a Windows PC.

Second, some customers have delayed purchases until Lion becomes available. We are looking forward to getting Lion out. Guys working very hard on it, it’s a fantastic product. Revolutionary change.

Third, in the year-ago quarter, we launched new MacBook Pros. In this quarter, we launched new iMacs. Both products were well received, however the MBP makes up the majority of the units that we sell in the Mac segment.

If you change the MBP and its well received, it’s going to make the YoY comp more difficult to compare to. Those are the three things impacting Mac growth, but it’s already 5x the industry and this is the 21st consecutive quarter that we’ve beat the market.

Q: What’s the growth look like after this quarter for iPads?
A: We don’t predict unit sales, we aggregate into guidance. Peter said earlier that we think iPads will grow “significantly” year over year. We’ll leave the rest of it to [analysts] to conclude. We’ll be happy to report in October how you did.

Q: What are the issues for iPad ramping up production to higher levels? When will we be at equilibrium from production and supply?
A: This is a good sort of problem per se. Demand is fantastic, so there’s not something that we would point to on the supply-side that’s a huge issue. To talk about this month, the first weeks of July, supply has further improved since we ended our June quarter. That further improvement have led some SKUs in some countries to be in supply/demand balance.

We won’t predict on other countries, but we’re working very hard to get as many units to customers as we can. We’ve included that thinking in our guidance.

Q: Anything you’re doing different investing in enterprise sales force or going to market on enterprise side?
A: We have a dual prong strategy with enterprise on both iPad and iPhone. We work with carrier sales forces, and they have large ones, many enterprises want devices connected to the carriers. We train and provide help to carriers on that. We do some sales directly or act as an overlay sales force to a channel that sells to enterprise.

Still building it out, and we do a bit better each quarter. Very, very happy with numbers on interest and taking customers to pilot and deployment stages. Now we’re working on penetration and getting on the standards lists on those accounts.

To be this far into enterprise with a product that’s been shipping for 15 months is incredible. Enterprise is typically much more conservative and takes a long time to evaluate products. People are moving faster than I’ve seen.

K-12 takes a long time for new product categories but last quarter we sold more iPads in K-12 than we sold Macs. To do that after just 5 quarters is shocking. We would never have predicted this. We feel very good about iPad. It’s clear that it has a universal appeal across many different markets: consumer, enterprise, education, government and so on.

Q: How is iCloud going to drive more purchases and a halo effect across other devices?
A: Can’t wait to get iCloud and iOS 5 into the hands of customers. We think we’ve done it right with iCloud — seamless integrated experience that they’re going to love.

Q: Do you have a lead over competitors to instantly mirror content across device?
A: We’re very, very good with the Internet, with telecommunications and delivering content. We’ve proven that for a decade over iTunes, App Store and big developer payments. Probably have things to learn but we have a lot of skills and are excited to get iCloud to customers.

Q: China Mobile has lots of iPhones on its network but it doesn’t sell the phone. Sounds like lots of prepaid and unlocked phones on their network. Apple’s channel in China is prepaid — how significant is prepaid in China and other emerging markets? What lessons have you learned?
A: Prepaid or unlocked phones (phones sold without a contract) are very key in China and in a number of emerging markets where the credit systems are not as well established as they are in Western countries.

iPhone volume for the first 3 quarters of the fiscal year was up 5x YoY. iPhone is the key contributor to Greater China having a cumulative revenue of $8.8b for the first 3 quarters. I’m not saying that we have figured out precisely how to play perfectly in the environment — we haven’t. We have more to do and more to learn but I feel very good about our progress there. If any of us had been told a year ago that we’d do $3.8 billion in Greater China in a quarter, we wouldn’t have believed it and you wouldn’t have believed it.

We’re taking our learnings and applying it to other markets as well.

Q: Worldwide market share data is consistent and irrefutable with the iPhone being a share gainer. Market data from a few markets suggests iPhone has lost share. Most of market share data suggests phones over $300 are going to grow much slower than sub-$300. Where do you fit?
A: Share gain is important. Any time we’re going the wrong way, we are working hard to change that. Regarding multiple price points, we do offer the 3GS which is $49 with a contract in the US. In prepaid markets, it is affected by the channel and taxes so it varies market-to-market but it’s clearly a different price than the iPhone 4 is.

Our philosophy is the same as it always has been. We will only make products that we’re proud of and are the best in the world. If we can do that, and the price ends up lower, then we’re great with that.

An example of that is the iPod Shuffle. It started at a different price point and now it’s $49. It’s a great product and a lot of people love it.

We’ll only make products we’re proud of and we want to know, regardless of price-band analysis. It’s up to use to convince people to spend a little more for a materially better product. People will do that if the product is great and the message is appropriate.

Q: What have you learned about media consumption on the iPad?
A: If you talk to 10 people you’ll get 10 reasons why they love it. That’s why it’s doing so well across people and geographies.

Q: Why don’t we have more movie titles on iTunes at this point?
A: Broad library of movies and TV shows particularly in the US. Adding more content internationally each quarter. Look for more content later this quarter across the various stores. We have some neat stuff coming.

That’s a wrap!

In addition to sales figures, prosecutors said Mr. Shimoon also tipped a cooperating witness to Apple’s plans to develop a new iPhone. But later in the call, according to a transcript from prosecutors, Mr. Shimoon leaked word of an even more secret product in development, the iPad, which at the time was referred to as K48.

“So, you can get, at Apple you can get fired for saying K48…outside of a, you know, outside of a meeting that doesn’t have K48 people in it,” he told a cooperating witness, according to taped calls. “That’s how crazy they are about it.”

Primary Global Research has been the target of a federal investigation into “expert networks” that solicit employees offering insider information and provide that nonpublic information to Wall Street money managers to facilitate insider trading. A number of arrests have been made over the firm’s collection of insider information on Apple, Dell, AMD, and other tech companies.

Apple’s developer-only pre-release version of iOS 5 contains tantalising references to future iPhones and iPads.

Since iOS 5 launches to everyone in the autumn, some folk reckon that’s when the new hardware will debut too.

The references to the future iDevice model codes “iPad3,1″, “iPad3,2″, “iPhone4,1″ and “iPhone4,2″ are buried deep within the iOS firmware files, TUAW reports.

The iPhone 3G was “iPhone1,1″, and subsequent models have been coded accordingly, with the current model the “iPhone3,1″ etc.

So the “iPhone4,1″ seems certain to be the GSM version of the iPhone 5 or iPhone 4GS – or whatever it’ll be called.

With no iOS hardware announcement at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) this week, rumours that Apple will launch the next iPhone in the autumn gained some credibility.

The consenus among Apple observers has the firm releasing a tweaked iPhone 4 at that point, with an entirely new model, the iPhone 5, out sometime in 2012.

Past rumour-mongering has also had it that Apple will release the iPad 3 in the autumn too – possibly with a much higher-resolution, “Retina” display, and a quad-core CPU – to capitalise on the Christmas market and to keep ahead of the rush of Android tablets that still hasn’t quite materialised but probably will have by then. ®

A few hours later, iTunes 10.3 did in fact become available for download, bringing compatibility with some early iCloud features making their way to iOS devices.

What’s new in iTunes 10.3

Introducing iTunes in the Cloud beta. The music you purchase in iTunes appears automatically on all your devices. You can also download your past iTunes purchases. Where you want, when you want.

- Automatic Downloads. Purchase music from any device or computer and automatically download a copy to your Mac and iOS devices.

- Download Previous Purchases. Download your past music purchases again at no additional cost. Your purchases are available in the iTunes Store on your Mac or in the iTunes app on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. Previous purchases may be unavailable if they are no longer on the iTunes Store.

iTunes 10.3 also adds Books to the iTunes Store, where you can discover and buy your favorite books on your computer and automatically download them to iBooks on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.

This version also allows you to use Automatic Downloads with apps and books or download previously purchased apps and books from your computer or iOS device.

iTunes 10.3 is available in a Mac version for systems running Mac OS X Leopard or later, as well as in 32-bit and 64-bit versions for Windows.

A separate iTunes 10.5 release will ultimately bring full support for iCloud and iOS 5 later this year, and an initial beta of that version has been seeded to developers for testing alongside the other forthcoming software offerings.