iPad Shipments Lowered Because of iPad Mini Cannibalization?

Sterne Agee's Shaw Wu has issued a new report on Apple, raising his iPhone unit estimates while lowering iPad estimates reports Apple 2.0. Additionally, Wu has cut his revenue estimates slightly while increasing his gross margin estimates for Apple's holiday quarter.


Wu says iPad mini demand is strong but sales are limited by supply constraints and he sees the mini cannibalizing full-sized iPad sales. iPhone sales will grow because of improving manufacturing yields and increased availability.

We believe AAPL shares will likely continue to be volatile until year end due to non-fundamental factors including profit taking as AAPL as been an outstanding performer in 2012 where many are opting to lock in gains and fears of higher "fiscal cliff" tax rates next year. However, we believe as we enter 2013, investor sentiment will likely shift back to fundamentals. We are at the beginning of two big product cycles that will likely last 3-5 quarters and see margins poised to improve with greater scale and improving yields.

Apple Now Tracking Working Hours for Over One Million Supply Chain Employees

Apple has updated its supplier responsibility pages to note that it is now tracking working hours for one million employees in its supply chain, up from 900,000 at its previous update.

Compliance with Apple's 60-hour work week standard stood at 88% in November, below the peak of 97% reached in July and August. Apple notes, however, that it allows the normal 60-hour standard to be exceeded during period of high demand if workers volunteer for the additional time. That policy seems to have had an impact on overall compliance over the past three months, coinciding with Apple's major product ramps for the iPhone 5, iPad mini, fourth-generation iPad, updated iPods, and a number of new Mac models.

Going deep into our supply chain, we now follow weekly supplier data for over 1,000,000 workers. In November 88 percent of workweeks were less than the 60-hour maximum specified in Apple's code of conduct. In limited peak periods, we allow work beyond the 60 hour limit for those employees that volunteer to do so.

Apple reports that with one million supply chain workers now being tracked through the system, the company has doubled its coverage since early this year when it began a new initiative to more openly address worker rights and safety throughout its supply chain. Apple has also partnered with the Fair Labor Association to provide third-party monitoring of conditions.

Apple releases Mac Wi-Fi Update 1.0 improving 5GHz band compatibility

Apple just released Mac Wi-Fi Update 1.0. The 1.49MB update, recommended for all late 2012 Mac systems, according to the folks in Cupertino, improves the compatibility when using the 5GHz band Wi-Fi. Like always, you speed-hungry Wi-Fi users can download the update directly from Apple or via Software Update. More info:

This update is recommended for all late 2012 Mac systems. This update improves compatibility when using the 5GHz band in Wi-Fi.

Boot ROM or SMC Version Information: To confirm the update has been applied, the CFBundleVersion string of the AirPortBrcm4311.kext will need to be checked.

New driver delivered in update: AirPortBrcm4331.kext CFBundleVersion = 612.20.15

/System/Library/Extensions/IO80211Family.kext/Contents/PlugIns/AirPortBrcm4331.kext/Contents/Info.plist 

[Apple]

iOS 6.1 Beta 4 Released for Developers

iOS 6.1 Beta 4 has been released to developers registered with Apple's iOS Dev program. The 4th beta release of iOS 6.1 is build 10B5126b, and is now available to download through OTA update on devices already running existing 6.1 betas. As usual, IPSW firmware files are also available to download directly from the dev center. Compatible devices continue to be the iPad 2, iPad 3, iPad 4, iPad mini, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 5, and the iPod touch 4th and 5th gen.

There does not appear to be any significant change, and iOS 6.1 is expected to be an incremental update with bug fixes and improvements to Apple Maps, Passbook, Siri, and Safari. Some minor user interface changes have also been noticed by those using the developer builds.

There is no projected release date for when iOS 6.1 will be available to the public, but the beta releases are progressing along at such a rate that we could see a release within the next few weeks.

An ongoing thread at MacRumors has specific discussion on the changes for those who are interested.

How to Clear Command Line History

If you're a frequent command line user, you're likely to have found the history command to be quite useful before, whether it's for discovering your most frequently used commands, dumping history and searching it to find specific past commands, listing all defaults commands used, or whatever else. That said, there are some obvious situations where you may want to remove that history list entirely, be it for privacy or security purposes.

To clear out history, you just need to attach a -c flag to that same history command:

history -c

That will manually wipe the .bash_history file. Obviously that file could be targeted directly with rm as well, but it's best to stick with the history command for a variety of reasons.

If you wish to verify the command worked, type 'history' again as usual, and you'll discover the only command listed is "history -c". The brief video below demonstrates this entire process.

This should work the same at any bash shell, regardless of it being in Mac OS X or linux.

Apple Releases iMac EFI Update 2.0 to Fix Sleep and Thunderbolt Issues [Mac Blog]

Apple has released an update for late 2012 iMac models that fixes issues related to sleep and Thunderbolt, as well as compatibility when using 5GHz Wi-Fi frequencies. The update is recommended for all "late 2012" iMacs.

iMac EFI Update 2.0 can be downloaded from Apple's support site or through the Mac App Store on affected iMacs.

About iMac EFI Update 2.0

This update is recommended for all iMac (late 2012) models. This update contains general performance fixes pertaining to sleep and Thunderbolt, and improves compatibility when using the 5GHz band in Wi-Fi.

Boot ROM or SMC Version Information: After Update is complete:

Build version: 010A.05
ROM version: IM131.88Z.010A.B05.1211151146

It's not clear if this is in addition to the Wi-Fi Update released earlier today, or if it includes that fix as well as a few more iMac-specific ones.