AltWWDC 2013

AltWWDC is an alternative conference for Apple developers and designers, held alongside Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference in San Francisco, California. This free 5-day event takes place June 10-14, 2013 and includes talks, lunch, and co-working space, available first-come, first-serve every day. Confirmed speakers are Mike Lee, Victor Agreda, Jr., Brett Terpstra, Brent Simmons, Saul Mora, and Steve “Scotty” Scott.

You have to love developers and the things they do for the community.

Making money

I saw Bill Gurley say that you can only make money by being right about something that most people think is wrong. His logic was that you can’t make money by being wrong. And you can’t make money by being right about something everyone else knows. So you have to be right about something that most people think is wrong.

Sounds a lot like what Apple does.

Jordan Rudess: The Explore Project

It’s been a few years since I recorded my last solo album, “Notes On a Dream”. The inspiration has been flowing ever since and I’m now ready to set forth in recording my orchestral piece, Explorations, as well as my solo piano album, Explores. You know that I am not one to sit back and drive on the traditional path so we are going to explore some cutting edge technology options.

I’ve known Jordan for a number of years and besides being a great guy, he is one of the most talented musicians I’ve come across. Jordan continues to push the boundaries of music, which is a great thing for us all. Check out his new project.

Objective-Cologne

Tickets are on sale for this developer conference that takes place September 17-18, 2013 in Germany.

Q1 2013 US smartphone share

iPhone was 57% of smartphone activations and 49% of ALL contract phone sales.

Not bad at all for a company that analysts keep bashing.

Amplified: Don’t Yell At Me, I’m Married

Jim and Dan discuss the Úll conference, Apple’s Q2 earnings, secret new products, the iWatch, the Mac Pro, the iMac’s missed opportunity, the WWDC announcement (and the hidden meanings in the image), how to attend WWDC, the state of Windows, and more.

Bid to win a coffee with Tim Cook

According to a Charitybuzz release today, Apple CEO Tim Cook is holding a charity auction (the listing says ‘donated by Tim Cook’) for ‘coffee’ with him at the company’s headquarters. The auction benefits the RFK Center for Justice and Human Rights and just went live this morning.

Circles memory game

This is great. And a percentage of each sale will be donated to help fund Alzheimer’s research.

Amazon to compete with Apple TV

As it works to build all types of connected devices, that leaves a natural next step: a television set-top box. The e-commerce giant is planning to introduce a device this fall dedicated to streaming video over the Internet and into its customers’ living rooms.

This makes a lot of sense for Amazon and it would certainly be a bigger competitor than Google.

A Visual Compendium of Cameras

A meticulously illustrated catalog of 100 landmark cameras, culled from over a century of photographic history, depicting both professional and consumer models and tracing photography’s history from the first models to today’s digital wonders.

Apple celebrates “A Decade of iTunes”

Apple on Wednesday posted “A Decade of iTunes” celebrating the 10th anniversary of iTunes and the achievements of the music and videos that came to the store. I must say, the timeline format that Apple chose for this feature is really great. It’s like a walk through memory lane for me.

WWDC tickets go on sale Thursday

Apple said today that tickets for its Worldwide Developers Conference will go on sale tomorrow, Thursday, April 25, 2013 at at 10 a.m. PDT. The conference will take place June 10 through June 14 at San Francisco’s Moscone West.

At the five-day conference, developers from around the world will learn about the future of iOS and OS X, enabling them to create incredible new apps with innovative features. WWDC will also feature more than 100 technical sessions presented by over 1,000 Apple engineers, hands-on labs to help developers integrate new technologies, as well as the popular Apple Design Awards, a showcase of the most outstanding apps available through the App Store℠ and Mac® App Store.

Get your credit cards ready.

Apple journalism is bad

Ian Betteridge:

Gewirtz may be a brilliant example of anti-journalism, but he’s really just a symptom of how low technology journalism has sunk, and how the average pageview-hungry “anti-journalist” treats readers with contempt.

Ian is a long time journalist with a lot of respect in the industry, including mine.

Apple more than doubles Capital Return Program

Apple today announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a significant increase to the Company’s program to return capital to shareholders. The Company expects to utilize a total of $100 billion of cash under the expanded program by the end of calendar 2015. This represents a $55 billion increase to the program announced last year and translates to an average rate of $30 billion per year from the time of the first dividend payment in August 2012 through December 2015.

As part of this program, the Board has increased its share repurchase authorization to $60 billion from the $10 billion level announced last year. This is the largest single share repurchase authorization in history and is expected to be executed by the end of calendar 2015. Apple also expects to utilize about $1 billion annually to net-share-settle vesting restricted stock units.

Additionally, the Board has approved a 15% increase in the Company’s quarterly dividend and today has declared a dividend of $3.05 per common share, payable on May 16, 2013 to shareholders of record as of the close of business on May 13, 2013. Apple is among the largest dividend payers in the world, with annual payments of about $11 billion.

Apple reports $9.5 billion second quarter profit

Apple on Tuesday reported a quarterly profit of $9.5 billion on revenue of $43.6 billion for its fiscal second quarter.

According to Apple, it sold 37.4 million iPhones in the quarter, compared to 35.1 million in the year-ago quarter. Apple also sold 19.5 million iPads during the quarter, compared to 11.8 million in the year-ago quarter. The company sold just under 4 million Macs, compared to 4 million in the year-ago quarter.

Engagement photos

These have to be some of the scariest pictures I’ve ever seen.

The CNN circus

Elliot Hannon:

If we cared more about the journalism than news theater we’d all be watching PBS. But no one’s talking about NewsHour. There are no meltdowns. The circus, itself, becomes the point — the reason to watch. Youtube videos go viral precisely because they are unexpected, unvarnished — embarrassing. This is CNN.

And there you have it folks. He’s exactly right.

iTunes dominates digital music and video downloads

Apple dominates the home digital-video sector, in much the same way it dominates digital music. iTunes’ share of electronic sell-through (EST) for television shows reached 67 percent in 2012. EST television sales from Xbox Video, Apple’s nearest competitor, comprised 14 percent of the market. When it comes to feature-length movies, iTunes boasted a 65 percent share of EST, with Amazon and Xbox Video far behind at 10 percent each.

It’s not even close.

It’s who, not how many

Harry Marks:

It’s difficult to pull yourself away from the feeling that you need to be posting more and doing everything you can to keep numbers up, but when it comes right down to it, it’s all about who is paying attention to your work, not how many.

Exactly.

Universal Audio’s Apollo 16

Apollo 16 is Universal Audio’s flagship 24-bit / 192 kHz audio interface, delivering world-class conversion with 16 x 16 analog I/O — twice the analog connectivity of the original Apollo model. This uncompromising FireWire/Thunderbolt-ready* interface combines superior sound with powerful onboard UAD-2 QUAD processing.

I love my Apollo.

Pro Tools 11

“Pro Tools 11 represents a quantum leap in creative power,” said Chris Gahagan, senior vice president of Products and Services at Avid. “The newly designed architecture turbo-charges production with more plug-in processing, the ability to run more virtual instruments—and a host of new features—letting users create ambitiously, without holding anything back.”