When Apple released OS X 10.9.3, they also released a new version of iTunes, iTunes 11.2. In the linked article, Kirk McElhearn walks you through some significant podcast management changes that came with the release.
Apple
New incarnation of Flappy Bird to return in August
I found this entire episode incredibly bizarre and emblematic of the evolution of the App Store from a garage mentality to what it has become today.
Little known command line utilities every Mac OS X power-user should know
Are you a Mac power-user? Do you use Terminal? Even a little? If so, read the linked article. Good stuff.
Samsung-Apple smartphone battleground is a single atom thick
If you haven’t seen this video that explains Graphene, take a look.
The linked article is about the brewing patent battle. Very interesting.
Auction for lunch with Tim Cook raises $330,001 for charity
Obviously, this is about the charity, but lunch with Tim Cook at Apple HQ is something I’d treasure for a lifetime.
Columbia University project enables iOS binaries to run on Android device
This is a pretty astonishing trick. Here’s the the original paper.
Some thoughts on this. First, since the binaries are not converted into Android binaries, there’s a level of interpretation going on. Meaning, at run time decisions are being…
The story of Beats by Dre, Monster Audio, and the deal that cost Monster everything
This story was posted in February 2013. It is a fascinating read, made current by the recent rumors of Apple’s possible acquisition of Beats Electronics.
According to the story, Monster Audio (the folks behind Monster cables and the like) did the original engineering work behind the Beats headphones. They also held the patents. As the story unfolds, you learn how what could have been a lucrative deal for all parties slowly unravelled.
Read it yourself, draw your own conclusions, but wow, that is some story.
Plaintiff in tech hiring suit asks judge to reject settlement
Reuters:
One of the plaintiffs in a lawsuit that accuses tech firms including Apple Inc and Google Inc of conspiring to hold down salaries has asked the court to reject a $324 million settlement negotiated by his own lawyers.
Latest aerial photos of new Apple campus
Some notable progress. When you see the final result, remember these pictures. The land is almost completely cleared. I suspect the trees will return.
The epic visual history of Beats by Dre
A visual walk through the critical events in the creation of the billion dollar Beats empire. A fun read.
Bits and pieces on the potential Apple, Beats deal
Lots has been written about Apple’s potential acquisition of Beats. This is my attempt to gather some of the facts in a single place.
Clearing up “other” memory on your iOS device
When you look at the memory consumption on your iOS device, chances are high that a good chunk of it is taken up by a category labeled simply as “other”. Read the linked post for three steps you can take to free up some space. Even if none of these fixes are new to you, it’s nice to be reminded to clear the backlog every once in a while.
Jury foreman in Samsung case questions how Google affects Apple’s motivation
Tom Dunham was the jury foreman in the case.
Mr. Dunham said the jury was curious about how Google affected Apple’s motivation in this case. Samsung’s smartphones and tablets use Google’s Android operating system. Apple hasn’t sued Google directly, but has sued Samsung and other device makers that use Android.
“If you really feel that Google is the cause behind this, as I think everybody has observed, then don’t beat around the bush,” said Mr. Dunham, whose job at IBM was to oversee developers expected to file patents. “Let the courts decide. But a more direct approach may be something to think about.”
His comments suggest that Samsung lawyers succeeded with arguments that Samsung was merely a proxy for Apple’s real target: Google and its Android operating system. Apple’s lawyers insisted that Samsung—and not Google—was the defendant in this case.
To support its point, Samsung presented evidence of an email sent by former Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs saying that Apple should wage a “holy war” on Google.
Straight from the horse’s mouth. I don’t pretend to understand all the complexities of this case, but didn’t this start out to be about wholesale copying of a groundbreaking user interface?
Watchmaker Swatch to fight for iWatch trademark
My opinion? If Apple does come out with an iWatch product, they’ll find the path to protect the name legally.
New 2014 MacBook Air benchmarks
If you are in the market for a new MacBook Air, take a read.
How Steve Wozniak wrote BASIC for the original Apple from scratch
The linked article is Woz reminiscing about his journey creating BASIC for the Apple I.
How to share photos and videos with iCloud
An updated how-to on photo sharing with iCloud, iOS, and your Mac.
Samsung plans “health” event a week before Apple’s WWDC
The invitation says:
A new conversation about health is about to begin. Be there when it starts.
The event is planned for May 28th, 10:30 am, San Francisco.
I can only imagine that this is a defensive play in anticipation of Apple’s WWDC announcements. Think it’ll work? Think Samsung will take the wind out of Apple’s WWDC sails? Not a chance.
Apple patents keyboard with in-key displays, capacitive touch sensors
Each key is a little OLED screen. I’d imagine you could use the entire keyboard as a single discrete display, or switch keyboards on the fly, to an accounting keyboard, for example.
Fascinating possibilities.
Apple v. Samsung: Jury deliberations begin
Hoping for justice here.
Samsung posts lowest sales in last 5 quarters, Chinese rivals win customers
Samsung is being attacked from both ends. Chinese brands like Huawei are attacking from the low-end and Apple is attacking from the higher end. Tough strategic position.
Apple updates MacBook Air lineup with speed bump, battery boost, drops price $100
The big stories here are the $100 price drop and the battery boost:
The new models also received a slight bump in battery life for iTunes movie playback, with the 11-inch model jumping from 8 hours to 9 hours and the 13-inch model from 10 hours to 12 hours.
That’s a nice little boost. Love this update.
Forbes: “Apple, be afraid: China’s Xiaomi going global”
Forbes:
Xiaomi, the Chinese smartphone maker, announced on Wednesday that it is planning to enter ten countries this year. By New Year’s Eve, you should be able to buy the Mi3 in India, Brazil, and Russia as well as Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, the Philippines, Thailand, Turkey, and Vietnam. Xiaomi is already selling phones in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore.
Cupertino should be worried. Xiaomi’s Mi3 in China is cheaper than the iPhone 5c—1,999 yuan versus 4,488—and better—the Xiaomi phone has a larger and sharper screen and a camera with higher-density pixels. Unless you insist on having a depiction of a piece of fruit on your device, you will go with the Xiaomi offering every time. No wonder Xiaomi outsells Apple in China according to research firm Canalys, shipping 7.3 million phones in the fourth quarter of last year. The American company came in at about 7 million in the period, enough for sixth place behind Xiaomi’s No. 5 ranking.
This is disappointing. The poorest level of journalism, if you can even use that term here. There might be something to this. I don’t have any experience with Xiaomi’s Mi3. But when I read the sentence, “Unless you insist on having a depiction of a piece of fruit on your device, you will go with the Xiaomi offering every time”, all credibility is gone.
Forbes, you should be ashamed to have your name associated with this tripe.
Daisy chaining 36 drives to a single Mac Pro
This is just plain cool. No one would ever need to do this, but amazing to me that one machine can support such massive connectivity.
Responding to App Store reviews
Microsoft is adding the ability for developers to send feedback directly to customer reviews. Are you an iOS developer? Read the post, leave a comment.
Scam convinces poor/homeless to sign iPhone contracts at Apple Store
This is heinous.
Men cruise around homeless shelters, the 16th Street Mall, and plasma donation clinics in an effort to find people desperate for money.
Deleting documents stored on iCloud
Kirk McElhearn talks through the process of deleting iCloud documents from iOS and the Mac.
On the iOS side, he’s right on the money. But on the Mac side, there actually is a parallel interface. Read the post for more.
Apple, Google, Intel, Adobe to pay $324 million to settle conspiracy lawsuit
Reuters:
Four major tech companies including Apple and Google have agreed to pay a total of $324 million to settle a lawsuit accusing them of conspiring to hold down salaries in Silicon Valley, sources familiar with the deal said, just weeks before a high profile trial had been scheduled to begin.
And:
The case has been closely watched due to the potentially high damages award and the opportunity to peek into the world of Silicon Valley’s elite. The case was based largely on emails in which Apple’s late co-founder Steve Jobs, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and some of their Silicon Valley rivals hatched plans to avoid poaching each other’s prized engineers.
In one email exchange after a Google recruiter solicited an Apple employee, Schmidt told Jobs that the recruiter would be fired, court documents show. Jobs then forwarded Schmidt’s note to a top Apple human resources executive with a smiley face.
Glad that’s over. I can’t imagine this would be anything but a giant distraction.
Tim Cook publicly thanks Peter Oppenheimer for years of service
One last bit from the results call:
Finally, before we start the Q&A, I would like to take a minute to talk about my dear friend and colleague Peter Oppenheimer. As you know, Peter will be transitioning from the CFO role in June. Peter has been Apple’s CFO for 10 years and the list of his accomplishments is immense. Apple is now more than 20 times the size it was when Peter became our CFO and his expertise, leadership and incredibly hard work had been instrumental to the company’s success. I’d like to thank him very publicly for his contributions to Apple, from the very bottom of my heart and wish him all the best in his approaching retirement at the end of September.
And I’d also like to recognize him that he has never missed guidance in the 10 years as CFO which must be an all-time record for CFOs. We’re really happy and fortunate to have someone with Luca’s talent on Board to replace Peter. He has over 25 years of experience, building and leading finance teams in global companies and has an exceptionally broad international background, which you might be able to detect from his accent. He’s been managing most of Apple’s financial functions since coming on Board last year and has done an outstanding job. I’m looking forward to working with Luca even closer as Apple’s next CFO.
This marks a true public transition from Peter Oppenheimer to Luca Maestri, handled with grace by Tim Cook.
Apple announces seven way stock split
There was a lot to digest in yesterday’s earnings conference call. One item that was mentioned, almost as an afterthought, was Tim Cook’s announcement of a seven way stock split. Read the original post for details.