Apple

App hits top of App Store after Shark Tank appearance

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Cycloramic takes a 360 degree panoramic photo, hands-free, using vibration to rotate the phone. The panorama is stitched together using software and Cycloramic is protected via a utility patent. It’s been around for a while and, before the appearance had 660,000 downloads, made about $175K.

Major League Baseball rolling out thousands of iBeacons for opening day

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For baseball fans, the long cold winter is almost over. Pitchers and catchers start reporting for spring training this Thursday (Feb 6th).

While the teams limber up in their spring training homes, the Major League Parks are making some major new additions, deploying thousands of iBeacons (20 parks participating, 100 Qualcomm iBeacons each).

Apple’s awesome old iPod ads

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Great post on TUAW featuring background on a series of ads that ran on Apple’s web site back when the iPod was still new and the iTunes Music Store first opened its doors.

My favorite is below. I don’t remember any of these and I bought an iPod on day one. Very cool!

Padcaster video accessories frame for iPad

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Yesterday, I mentioned Sony’s new tablet mount for their QX series of lens-based cameras. Loop reader Pat Fauquet pointed me to another, related product, the Padcaster.

The Padcaster has been around for a while now. It’s a frame for your iPad designed to hold accessories, like video lights, microphones, video lenses, and audio interfaces. Most importantly, it allows your iPad to be mounted on a video tripod, giving you everything you need to use your iPad for video production.

Transcript of Apple’s F1Q 2014 earnings call

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Interested in reading the actual transcript of Apple’s recent earnings call? You’ll need to sign up for a free account via Seeking Alpha (you’ll have to jump through some minor hoops, but it’s not too bad) to read the whole thing, but I found it quite interesting, indeed eye-opening, to read Tim Cook’s actual words, as opposed to the translations of a journalist or analyst.

Just unearthed: Steve Jobs’ first public demo of Mac

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This is not the video we published this past Friday. That one was about five minutes long. This one is Steve Jobs presenting to a much more technical audience, the Boston Computer Society.

The video is about an hour and thirty six minutes long. It includes Steve talking about the Mac technology, then doing his “pull the Mac out of the bag” demo. But there’s so much more. There’s the 1984 commercial, along with a series of other commercials that ran at the time. There’s a slide show showing the Mac culture and marketing plans. There’s Steve pitching low cost networking, printing, compatibility with mainframes, file servers, and even Unix compatibility. Fascinating.

David Muir’s one-on-one interview with Tim Cook

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The interview opened up with this quote from Steve Jobs, a quote which is prominently displayed at Apple’s One Infinite Loop headquarters:

“If you do something and it turns out pretty good, then you should go do something else wonderful, not dwell on it too long. Just figure out what’s next.”

Muir started with a focus on the new Mac Pro, stressing the fact that the Mac Pro is manufactured in Austin, Texas. Tim mentioned that the Mac Pro was just the start, in terms of on-shore manufacturing, briefly touching on the sapphire glass effort starting up in Phoenix.

There were glimpses of the 1984 SuperBowl commercial, and of Steve Jobs’ original Mac rollout.

Next, a brief discussion of secrecy (locked doors, black drapes over unannounced products) segued into the topic of the NSA and surveillance. To me, this was the most interesting part of the interview.

Steve Jobs introduces Macintosh

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This is the original video showing Steve Jobs introducing the Mac to the world. The crowd’s reaction is amazing to hear, approaching hysteria.

Steven Levy: The Mac is 30 and I was there for its birth

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Steven Levy, on how he came to be part of the Mac’s 1984 launch:

Almost no one remembers who played in the Super Bowl (the Los Angeles Raiders lost to the Washington Redskins. Like I said, 1984 wasn’t like 2014). But the commercial, aired two days before the Mac launch, is part of history, and many can recite the tagline verbatim: “On January 24, Apple will introduce Macintosh. And you’ll see why 1984 won’t be like ’1984.’”

Jobs also planned a massive advertising campaign to follow, including a complete mini-publication that would run in multiple magazines. But, as he would do often in his subsequent career, Jobs relied on the news media to provide the narrative focus for his effort. He decided to give the exclusive story, along with early access to the team, to Newsweek and Rolling Stone, though he also gave briefings to a new magazine called Macworld.

I was the Rolling Stone writer.

Great read.

Apple execs on the Mac at 30

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MacWorld’s Jason Snell spoke with Phil Schiller, senior vice president of worldwide marketing, Bud Tribble, vice president of software technology, and Craig Federighi, senior vice president of software engineering, about the Mac’s thirty years of evolution.

Happy birthday, Macintosh

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Thirty years ago today, Apple first introduced the Mac. From Apple’s front page:

Happy Birthday, Mac.

In 1984, Apple introduced the world to Macintosh.

It was designed to be so easy to use that people could actually use it.

And it came with a promise — that the power of technology taken from a few and put in the hands of everyone, could change the world.

That promise has been kept.

Today, we create, connect, share, and learn in ways that were unimaginable 30 years ago.

Imagine what we can accomplish in the next 30 years.

Digitally signed malware targeting Mac users

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The mechanics of this particular scam are fairly sophisticated. Most readers would be cautious enough to avoid this trap, but even so, this is worth a read.

Bill Gates, the Gates Letter, and Jimmy Fallon’s MacBook Pro

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Bill Gates is on a PR tour to promote the latest edition of the Gates Letter, the annual missive from the Gates Foundation detailing the current focus of the foundation. This year’s letter is called “3 myths that block progress for the poor”. Take a few minutes to read it. No matter your opinion of Bill Gates and Microsoft, this stage of his life is being well spent, in service to others.

One of his recent appearances was on Jimmy Fallon’s show. He spoke about his foundation, about ridding the world of diseases like polio, then Bill started talking about his vision for the future of computing. At some point (about 1:30 in the video if you want to skip ahead), Bill got a little distracted by something on Jimmy’s desk. Something not made by Microsoft. Pretty funny.

iPhone 5s users consuming significantly more data than their predecessors

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Users of flagship smartphones such as Apple’s iPhone 5s and Samsung’s Galaxy S4 are continuing to suck down more data than their tablet-wielding counterparts, according to a large-scale survey of mobile data consumption in 2013 conducted by JDSU (which last year bought mobile data analytics company Arieso, the company that previously ran the annual survey).

Is there something about the evolution of the architecture of mobile phones that makes later models consume more data? Is there a correlation to the adoption rate of the most recent OS rev? In other words, the latest model of a phone enables faster transmission speeds and typically runs the latest OS. Or is there something more complex at work here?

Google and Apple shuttles will now pay to use San Francisco’s public bus stops

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The shuttle buses that transport workers for huge tech firms like Google, Facebook, and Apple between San Francisco and Silicon Valley every day have come under heavy fire lately, but today a vote was passed unanimously on a pilot program that the city hopes will help ease those tensions. In front of a meeting room packed full with journalists and citizens, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) just approved a proposal that will see commuter shuttle buses pay to share approximately 200 spots with city buses.

Companies that operate the buses will soon have to pay $1 for every stop they make, every day, to the SFMTA — amounting to about $1.5 million over the 18-month pilot (set to start in July 2014). The agency won’t earn any profit from the money it collects, though; instead, it’ll use the fees to cover the new permit program, enforcement, and further evaluation of the pilot. Prior to today, Silicon Valley shuttles typically would use SFMTA bus stops throughout the city without express permission, leading to potential traffic snarls — as well as a sentiment that these companies were taking advantage of the city without giving anything back.

This seems fair and, hopefully, will satisfy both sides.

U.S. court finds Samsung to infringe one Apple patent, declares one Samsung patent invalid

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In a summary judgment order entered late on Tuesday (January 21, 2014), Judge Lucy Koh, the federal judge presiding over two Apple v. Samsung patent cases in the Northern District of California, found Samsung’s Android-based devices to infringe an Apple patent on word recommendations (autocomplete) and declared a Samsung patent on multimedia synchronization invalid.

This spells trouble for Samsung.

Los Angeles school district finalizes $115M for iPads

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Really happy this went through. The proposal for rolling out 67,500 new iPads to Los Angeles schools was laid out in July, 2013. After 6 months of in-fighting, the proposal was adopted, with a compromise on the number of iPads.

In voting for the $115 million proposal, the board sided with schools Superintendent John Deasy, who has championed the iPad effort since its inception in July 2013. An oversight panel advised against the large tablet buy, recommending 38,500 units would be more than enough for the district’s purposes. School staff requested 67,500 iPads, but the final number will be somewhere in between, the board said.