CNET is reporting that yet another iPhone prototype has been lost by an Apple employee in a bar. This time around, the phone was lost at Cava22, a bar within San Francisco’s Mission district in late July. (more…)
Due to the fact that a merger would “substantially lessen competition,” the United States Department of Justice has filed an antitrust complaint seeking to block the AT&T / T-Mobile merger. Deputy Attorney General James M. Cole said “the combination of AT&T and T-Mobile would result in tens of millions of consumers all across the United States facing higher prices, fewer choices and lower quality products for mobile wireless services.” (more…)
With its steady rise in popularity and growth, Apple has been given the challenge of facing down more and more fake Apple Stores world-wide. Just last month, several unauthorized Apple Stores were uncovered in China after a blog publicized the stores existence. Two of said stores were closed due to permit issues however dozens more fake stores have been since found and even defended by China’s Kunming government, saying they sell authentic Apple merchandise.
CNN is now reporting about cables which have been obtained by WikiLeaks containing information regarding Apple’s attempts at shutting down these counterfeit stores throughout China and other Asian countries. Further, the Cupertino-based company has went so far as to setup a team solely to fight these establishments.
The technology giant eventually organized a team in March 2008 to curtail the explosion of knockoff iPods and iPhones, according to an electronic memo from the Beijing embassy dated September 2008.
Yet, three years after Apple moved to crack down on widespread counterfeiting and put pressure on China, progress has been slow. Gadget piracy isn’t a high priority for the Chinese government, the U.S. reports and experts say.
In these uncovered cables, Apple explains how China’s most populous region, the Guangdong province has become a hub for manufacturing and selling counterfeit Apple products.
Apple’s early plans to go after counterfeiters, according to a cable, involved first targeting offending retailers and street vendors; next, Apple would work with police to raid manufacturing facilities; and finally, the company would pursue online resellers. The plans closely resemble Pfizer’s successful strategy, the cable says, citing Shruhan, the Apple director.
According to CNN and the cables, in an attempt to strengthen its case with the government, Apple argued that defective batteries could blow up and injure people as well as that lost tax revenue could have a significant economic impact. It didn’t work.
The arguments weren’t very effective. China’s government declined to investigate a facility in March 2009 that was manufacturing imitation Apple laptops because it threatened local jobs, says a cable dated April 2009. A different arm of China’s government scrapped plans for a raid on an electronics mall in the Guangdong province because it could have driven away shoppers, the cable says.
Today, a 9to5Mac reader sent in a photo to the online publication showing a rather new phony Apple Store (this is the post’s featured image).
Over the past few hours there has been a rush of information regarding iTunes Match since its launch yesterday. Insanely Great Mac, as well as a few various other online publications have brought forward the idea that iTunes Match offers its users the option to download and stream songs. However, according to AllThingsD and an Apple spokesperson, this is simply not true.
Peter Kafka from AllThingsD is reporting that an Apple spokesperson said that ”what looks like a “stream” is really a simultaneous listen and download — users can hear the song while their machine ingests it.”
“If you don’t “download” a music file to your library, it will sit in a more temporary cache, on a different part of your machine,” speculated Kafka, ”Depending on the size of your machine’s cache — it will presumably differ from, say, an iPhone to a MacBook — that file may occasionally be cleared out.”
Currently, the big selling point for the “cloud” is that users are able to stream music without having to take up space on a local hard drive. In Apple’s iCloud case though, downloading a song is still a requirement.
According to Kafka, a music executive said that rather than being a licensing issue, “this is a philosophical/design issue on Apple’s part.”
“Part of it is that Apple doesn’t trust the current telecom ecosystem to handle on-demand streaming of library files every time someone wants to use them — look how much trouble AT&T has had with the iPhone to date,” said Kafka, “But the other part is that Apple wants its users to think of entertainment as something they consume on Apple devices — as opposed to the Google and Amazon approach, which is supposed to let consumers grab anything they want on any device, using a browser.”
iTunes Match just launched in its beta phase yesterday so it is inevitable that the service will be tweaked and improved constantly prior to its official launch this fall.
Today, Apple launched its beta of iTunes Match, a utility which stores one’s complete music library in iCloud. For developers, download iTunes 10.5 beta 6.1 with iTunes Match and activate it through the store menu. It’ll cost you $24.99. Read on for Apple’s release email… (more…)
Comex, otherwise known as Nicholas Allegra is the man behind JailbreakMe.com 2.0 and 3.0. Recently, he did a Q&A on reedit where he devolved how much money he made from his efforts as well as what he plans to do in the future. Read on for some excerpts (more…)
An Apple-branded television is something that is no stranger to the notorious Apple rumor mill, however, rumors surrounding the new Apple product have recently become more frequent.
Venturebeat is citing multiple sources throughout the industry which claim the Cupertino-based company has a television in the works.
Veteran Apple and Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster believes that, based on his sources, Apple will produce a television in late 2012 or early 2013. Bear in mind that Munster also said Apple would enter the TV business by 2011.
The Wall Street Journal is also reporting that that Apple is “working on new technology to deliver video to televisions, and has been discussing whether to try to launch a subscription TV service.”
So, what do you think? Will an Apple television set exist in the near future?
“Tim Cook is now the most powerful gay man in the world” is how Reuters blogger, Felix Salmon started his piece on Apple’s new CEO, Tim Cook, his sexuality and how journalists have treated it.
The institution of the closet is one of fear — one where people would rather be ignored than noticed, because they fear the negative repercussions of being known to be gay. It’s an institution which Cook, like any gay man born in 1960, knows at first hand. But now the risk of being ignored is bigger in the other direction: if the world can’t see gay men and women in all their true diversity, if the only homosexuals they know of are the flamboyant ones on TV, then that only serves to perpetuate stereotypes.
Salmon’s article features an abundance of valid information and is certainly a recommended read. Check out the entire article here.
Another article, as mentioned by Salmon, is an article by Joe Clark which is “better and more heartfelt” than the Reuters post.
We don’t write “about a straight executive” as such because the closet maintains every such executive already is straight unless you can provide a signed confession of the sort produced at gunpoint by prisoners of war.
On August 24th, Steve Jobs retired as the CEO of Apple leaving former COO, Tim Cook to take his place. Jobs now holds the role as Apple’s Chairman of the Board.
With Steve Jobs no longer Apple’s CEO, the general consensus from around the web is that Apple will be fine. In an interview with Bloomberg, Steve Wozniak said that “[s]hort-term, I would expect Apple might come up with home run after home run after home run again.” What do you think? Will Apple keep going strong?
In Saturday’s the New York edition, The New York Times’ Joe Nocera shared his account of Steve Jobs. In the editorial, Nocera wrote about the time he shadowed Jobs for nearly a week for an Esquire magazine piece back when the “business genius” was just 31. Nocera also expressed how important Jobs has been for not only Apple, but the entire industry.
Have we forgotten already that Jobs virtually invented the personal computer, with the introduction of the Apple II, when he was barely 21? That a few years later he saved Apple from near-disaster by creating the Macintosh — the first machine with a mouse and windows, and all the other features we associate with modern computing? That the NeXT operating system was critical to the next generation of Macintosh computers after Jobs returned from a 12-year exile in 1997? And, yes, then came the iPod, the iPhone and iPad — all of them so elegant in their look and feel that they became more than devices. They were objects of lust.
There’s more, of course. Steve Jobs persuaded the recording industry to use his iTunes to give consumers an easy alternative to stealing music online. The iPhone completely upended two industries: computing and cellphones. The iPad is in the process of doing the same to the written word. And let’s not forget Pixar, which Jobs bought at the same time he was starting NeXT, and which has become the greatest maker of animated films in modern times, steeped in Jobs’s aesthetic and attention to detail.
Read the entire article on The New York Times’ site here.
Steve Jobs resigned from Apple as CEO on August 24th. Tim Cook, previously Apple’s COO took his place at the helm. In his resignation, Jobs requested to be named the Chairman of the Board which is the position he now currently holds.
Tim Cook replaced Steve Jobs as CEO of Apple earlier this week. Now, Apple has filed a form 8-K with the SEC due to the changes in corporate leadership at the company. An 8-K is a report companies are required to file with the SEC to announce critical events that shareholders have the right to know about.
In the form, Apple included the following:
On August 24, 2011:
- Steve Jobs resigned as Chief Executive Officer of Apple Inc. (“Apple”). Mr. Jobs will continue to serve as an employee;
- The Board of Directors (the “Board”) appointed Mr. Jobs as Chairman of the Board;
- The Board promoted Chief Operating Officer Timothy D. Cook to Chief Executive Officer; and
- The Board appointed Mr. Cook to the Board to fill an existing vacancy.
In connection with Mr. Cook’s appointment as Chief Executive Officer, the Board awarded Mr. Cook 1,000,000 restricted stock units. Fifty percent of the restricted stock units are scheduled to vest on each of August 24, 2016 and August 24, 2021, subject to Mr. Cook’s continued employment with Apple through each such date.
The majority of what was mentioned in the 8-K has been common knowledge since Apple’s press release, however one point is not.
The Board has decided to award Tim Cook 1,000,000 restricted stock units as a bonus. 50% of which will be given to Cook on August 24, 2016 with another 50% on August 24, 2021. That comes out to $383 million at current prices.
According to MacRumors, “[i]n 2010, as COO, Tim Cook received $58 million in salary, bonus and other stock awards.”
MacRumors is reporting that a select group of Apple Stores are closing due to Hurricane Irene. This includes the legendary Fifth Avenue location which is known for being open 24/7/365 as well as the other New York City retail stores. This is mainly due to the fact that New York City’s mass transit system will be shut down by noon on Saturday which not only would make it difficult for employees to get to work but also customers.
It appears that the online publication contacted Apple Stores in New Jersey and Connecticut as well, though currently it seems the store employees are clueless as to whether or not the stores will remain open through the storm. Nevertheless, MacRumors‘ store list follows:
New York:
New Jersey:
Connecticut:
Some of these might change as the storm moves northward. If you find one of these changes, comment below and let us know!
Image via MSP
Dropbox, everyone’s favorite online storage service is nearing an update which will bring a couple of fixes as well as enhancements to the service’s Lion application including a new finder icon. Currently, the update is only available through the forums (link) with an “official” release to come at a later date. The change-log and download links follow:
1.2.28
1.2 Features
Windows: http://dl-web.dropbox.com/u/17/Dropbox%201.2.28.exe
Mac OS X: http://dl-web.dropbox.com/u/17/Dropbox%201.2.28.dmg
Linux x86_64: http://dl-web.dropbox.com/u/17/dropbox-lnx.x86_64-1.2.28.tar.gz
Linux x86: http://dl-web.dropbox.com/u/17/dropbox-lnx.x86-1.2.28.tar.gz
The Linley Group, a chip consulting firm, believes that Apple’s “A6″ mobile processor will not make an appearance in the next generation iPad until late 2012.
The “A6″ processor will feature four processor cores (which is two more than the A5) as well as “3D technology,” something Intel announced in May, said The Linley Group citing a report in the Taiwan Economic News.
But why can’t it be done quickly?
For starters, the process of creating and releasing a new processor is an immense task for even the most experienced chip manufacturers like Intel.
Secondly, Apple is switching to a new contract chip manufacturer (previously was Samsung), Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) to create its chips which are said to sport next-generation 28-nanometer technology.
It turns out, this all takes time:
All of this takes time. “A final version of the chip will enter production in 2Q12 ‘at the earliest’… We believe this timing makes sense,” [Linley Group senior analyst Kevin] Krewell said. “This pace would make the A6 one of the first 28 [nanometer] mobile processors (along with Qualcomm’s MSM8960) to enter production. This schedule, however, breaks Apple’s annual processor-upgrade cycle and will delay any products using the A6 until at least June 2012.”
Furthermore, if Apple continues with its launch schedule, the iPad 3 will be launched in the first quarter of 2012 with A5 processors (like in the iPad 2) and a new high-resolution ‘Retina’ display, says Krewell.
What do you think? Would you be okay with an iPad 3 with an A5 processor and ‘Retina’ display? Let us know in the comments below!
via cnet
Earlier this week, Steve Jobs officially resigned as Apple’s CEO. He did, however, ask to take a new role as the Chairman of the Board. Since the announcement, the Apple community has went into a slight state of shock. Though as John Gruber put it, “[t]his is not out of nowhere, it’s not even unexpected. We could all see this was coming — but it is a shock.”
Those who really know Jobs are now speaking out about what they remember about the man that created one of the most successful companies of all time. One remembrance of which really stood out to me. The story comes from Google’s Vic Gundotra and it talks about how Jobs cared about every detail.
Icon Ambulance
One Sunday morning, January 6th, 2008 I was attending religious services when my cell phone vibrated. As discreetly as possible, I checked the phone and noticed that my phone said “Caller ID unknown”. I choose to ignore.
After services, as I was walking to my car with my family, I checked my cell phone messages. The message left was from Steve Jobs. “Vic, can you call me at home? I have something urgent to discuss” it said.
Before I even reached my car, I called Steve Jobs back. I was responsible for all mobile applications at Google, and in that role, had regular dealings with Steve. It was one of the perks of the job.
“Hey Steve – this is Vic”, I said. “I’m sorry I didn’t answer your call earlier. I was in religious services, and the caller ID said unknown, so I didn’t pick up”.
Steve laughed. He said, “Vic, unless the Caller ID said ‘GOD’, you should never pick up during services”.
I laughed nervously. After all, while it was customary for Steve to call during the week upset about something, it was unusual for him to call me on Sunday and ask me to call his home. I wondered what was so important?
“So Vic, we have an urgent issue, one that I need addressed right away. I’ve already assigned someone from my team to help you, and I hope you can fix this tomorrow” said Steve.
“I’ve been looking at the Google logo on the iPhone and I’m not happy with the icon. The second O in Google doesn’t have the right yellow gradient. It’s just wrong and I’m going to have Greg fix it tomorrow. Is that okay with you?”
Of course this was okay with me. A few minutes later on that Sunday I received an email from Steve with the subject “Icon Ambulance”. The email directed me to work with Greg Christie to fix the icon.
Since I was 11 years old and fell in love with an Apple II, I have dozens of stories to tell about Apple products. They have been a part of my life for decades. Even when I worked for 15 years for Bill Gates at Microsoft, I had a huge admiration for Steve and what Apple had produced.
But in the end, when I think about leadership, passion and attention to detail, I think back to the call I received from Steve Jobs on a Sunday morning in January. It was a lesson I’ll never forget. CEOs should care about details. Even shades of yellow. On a Sunday.
To one of the greatest leaders I’ve ever met, my prayers and hopes are with you Steve.
-Vic
In a recent tweet, JailbreakMe founder Nicholas Allegra (Comex) announced that he will start an internship with Apple next week. Allegra told his followers that he has not “done anything in 1.5 months” and that he has been “getting bored.”
Just weeks ago, Forbes’ Andy Greenberg released an interview he had with the “uber-hacker” stating that Apple’s security team could use another intern, more specifically Comex.
Based on his tweets, it appears that Comex will be putting his jailbreaking career on hold, or possibly passing the torch to the next of kin as he enters the next step in his life.
Isn’t it funny how things work out?
