Bits of Steve woven in with an overview of the new campus. I especially like the line, “The idea is to bring California back to Cupertino.”
Apple
iPad Air, on sale and available for in-store pickup in US
You can order online and check for in-store pickup availability. If your model is available, Apple will send you a text when your iPad is ready for pickup.
Apple consortium owned “Rockstar” goes after Google, others in patent war
When Canadian telecom Nortel went bankrupt in 2009, there was a bidding war between Google and a consortium called Rockstar Bidco for more than 6,000 Nortel patents. Rockstar, which is owned by Microsoft, Apple, RIM, Ericsson, and Sony, won the auction for $4.5 billion.
This afternoon, Rockstar filed suit against Google for patent infringement. You can read the complaint here.
From the complaint:
On August 1, 2000, United States Patent No. 6,098,065 (the “‘065 patent”) was duly and legally issued for an invention entitled “Associative Search Engine.” Rockstar is the assignee of the ‘065 patent and has granted an exclusive license to NetStar, who holds all rights and interest in the ‘065 patent. A true and correct copy of the ‘065 patent is attached hereto as Exhibit A.
Google has infringed and continues to infringe the ‘065 patent by its manufacture, use, sale, importation, and/or offer for sale of systems, methods, products, and processes for matching search terms with relevant advertising and/or information based on those search terms and other user data, including but not limited to Google’s process of receiving search requests from a user, using its search engine to generate search results based at least in part on the search request, selecting—through Google’s AdWords and/or any other products, methods, systems, or services Google uses to store and choose relevant advertising—a relevant advertisement based on the search request and/or user data, and providing the search results together with the particular advertisement to the user; and additionally Google’s systems, methods, products, and processes of using other user data aside from the search request to help select the search result and/or advertisement; and additionally and alternatively its contributing to and inducement of others to manufacture, use, sell, import, and/or offer for sale infringing systems, methods, products, and processes in the manners described above. Google is liable for its infringement of the ‘065 patent pursuant to 35 U.S.C. § 271.
This is going to get messy.
Apple’s R&D expenditures grew 32% in fiscal year 2013 to $4.5B
If there’s one company in the world I want spending more on R&D, it’s Apple.
Apple’s investments in research and development continue to grow, surging another 32 percent in fiscal 2013 to reach $4.5 billion — its highest-ever sum spent in a 12-month span.
I see this growth as responsible (it’s in line with the increase in net sales) and a great predictor of innovation to come.
Claim forms emailed for iPad 3G unlimited data lawsuit
Yesterday, emails went out to all customers who ordered a 3G-enabled iPad on or before June 7, 2010:
If you purchased or ordered an iPad with WiFi + 3G on or before June 7, 2010, you could be entitled to $40 from Apple under a class action settlement.
Note the use of the word “could”.
You may be entitled to a $40 payment from Apple under a settlement that has been reached in class action lawsuits titled In re Apple and AT&T iPad Unlimited Data Plan Litigation. The United States District Court for the Northern District of California authorized this notice. The Court will have a hearing to consider whether to approve the settlement so that the benefits may be provided.
You may be entitled to a $40 payment. Here’s the claim:
The lawsuits claimed that iPad 3G purchasers were not provided with access to an “unlimited” data plan in the manner originally advertised. Apple and AT&T deny all allegations and are entering into this settlement to avoid burdensome and costly litigation. The settlement is not an admission of wrongdoing.
And here’s the kicker:
You must submit a valid Claim Form by February 3, 2014. The Claim Form will require you to affirm that the ability to switch in and out of the “unlimited” data plan was a factor in your decision to purchase an iPad 3G.
I’ve seen this sort of language before, but I always find it a bit odd. I need to affirm that the ability to switch in and out of the unlimited data plan influenced my decision to buy an iPad 3G. I can honestly say, I would have bought an iPad no matter what. I guess there’s no $40 for me. Ah, well. Wonder who gets my $40.
Steve Jobs’ home declared an “historic resource”
So much of Apple’s history stems from that house.
Steve Jobs built the first 100 Apple 1 computers at the Crist Drive home with help from Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak and Patricia Jobs. The first 50 were sold to Paul Terrell’s Byte Shop in Mountain View for $500 each, according to the evaluation. The rest were assembled for their friends in the Homebrew Computer Club.
“I’d get yelled at if I bent a prong,” Patricia Jobs told The Daily News in an interview last month.
The original computers are now worth tens of thousands of dollars. One sold for $213,000 at an auction in 2010.
The home is also where Jobs courted some of his first investors, including Chuck Peddle of Commodore Computer and Don Valentine of Sequoia Capital, according to the evaluation.
The first partnership for Apple Computer Co. was signed on April 1, 1976, and nine months later the company was established and operations moved to nearby Cupertino.
“These significant events took place at the subject property,” Commissioner Sapna Marfatia wrote in the evaluation.
iPad Air Geekbench scores show 90% multi-core score increase over last year’s model
Pretty impressive results. John Poole, founder of Primate Labs, shared these thoughts:
The iPad Air’s A7 processor is running at 1.4 GHz, 100 MHz faster than the iPhone 5s’ A7 processor. It’s not clear if the iPad Air processor runs at a higher speed thanks to a larger battery (providing more power), a larger chassis (providing better cooling), or some combination of the two. I expect the new iPad mini’s A7 processor will run at 1.4 GHz as well.
The iPad Air is over 80% faster than the iPad (4th Generation), close to the 2x increase promised by Apple.
The iPad Air is over 5x faster than the iPad 2, yet is only $100 more expensive. I do not understand why Apple kept the iPad 2 around, especially at a $399 price point. What market are they targeting?
Mossberg, Darlin, and Pogue on the iPad Air
Three reviewers, three positive takes.
Walt Mossberg reviewed the iPad Air for the Wall Street Journal:
In my tests, the iPad Air far exceeded Apple’s claim of 10 hours of battery life. For over 12 hours, it played high-definition videos, nonstop, with the screen at 75% brightness, with Wi-Fi on and emails pouring in. That’s the best battery life I’ve ever recorded for any tablet.
I’ve been testing the iPad Air for about a week and found it a pleasure to use. This new iPad isn’t a radical rethinking of what a tablet can be, but it’s a major improvement on a successful product. It is the best tablet I’ve ever reviewed.
That isn’t just because of its slimmer, lighter design, but because Apple boasts 475,000 apps optimized for tablet use—far more than any other tablet platform. (The iPad also can run all of the million or so apps available for the iPhone.) By contrast, the vast majority of apps available for rival Android tablets are just stretched versions of phone apps.
Damon Darlin reviewed the iPad Air for the New York Times:
It easily runs for 10 hours on a charge, just as Apple promises — despite the battery’s smaller size and the increased demands put on it. In my test of pretty heavy use, it downloaded and played three hourlong episodes of “Game of Thrones” and a few hours of music. I scrolled through Twitter and Flipboard, played games and perused the web. That’s almost a typical day for me and my iPad. It will get you through a normal day and then some with no worries.
The iPad Air also sports two antennas to pull in Wi-Fi signals faster than the old one did. Called MIMO for multiple-input and multiple-output, these antennas make a noticeable difference when your fast Wi-Fi signal is weakest, like in a back bedroom or the basement. (You’ll have to have a recent MIMO compatible router to see the magic, though.)
Finally, David Pogue reviewed the iPad Air on his Tumblr, as he makes the transition from the New York Times to his new digs at Yahoo. Pogue points out much of the same things, but also made this point:
This time around, there’s no gotta-have new feature—nothing on the level of the Retina screen, Siri voice recognition, or even a fingerprint reader (like the one on the iPhone 5s).
That big public yawn must drive Apple’s engineers crazy. The thing is, making the iPad smaller, lighter, and faster without sacrificing battery life or beauty is a tremendous achievement.
Of course, if you haven’t already, be sure to read Jim Dalrymple’s personal take on the iPad Air, too.
Apple’s official fourth quarter results press release
Given how much analyst spin saturates all the reporting, good to have this baseline for comparison.
Why Apple’s first retail store in Brazil is such a big deal
First, there’s the timing.
The opening of Apple’s first store in Rio de Janeiro will come just in time for the 2014 FIFA World Cup, which promises millions of tourists. Apple opened its first store in China in 2008 just ahead of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
More to the point, opening an Apple Store in one of the economic centers of South America is a real challenge.
Several South American countries, including the two largest economies—Argentina and Brazil—heavily tax electronics that aren’t at least partially manufactured locally. The hope is that such taxes will coerce companies to set up local factories, but so far few have obliged. Apple has perhaps been the most stubborn of the lot; it makes no components of its products in the region. The result is that its devices suffer an enormous mark-up, between 60% and 70%. iPhones sell for as much as $3,500 in Argentina, and iPad prices are scarcely any more reasonable; South America is the worst place to buy an iPad.
Worth keeping an eye on the economics of this move.
Apple reports $7.5 billion fourth quarter profit
Apple on Monday reported its fourth quarter results, posting revenue of $37.5 billion and a profit of $7.5 billion. This compares to revenue of $36 billion and net profit of $8.2 billion in the year-ago quarter. Apple said it sold … Continued
How to install and manage ringtones in iOS 7
Everything you ever wanted to know about working with ringtones in iOS 7. Good stuff.
Review of new Retina MacBook Pro
The new MacBook Pro could easily be mistaken for its predecessor. That said, there are definitely some significant differences.
Like the Airs, the Retina MacBook Pro has given up its wired Ethernet port, but it comes with a few others to help earn it that “Pro” label. In addition to two USB 3.0 ports, an SD card reader, and a combination headphone/input jack, it includes a full-size HDMI port and two Thunderbolt ports that power users can count on to get their wired Ethernet and FireWire ports back if they really need them.
These are the first Macs shipping with Thunderbolt 2 ports. Great if you plan on buying a 4K display.
Those two ports have been upgraded to Thunderbolt 2 courtesy of Intel’s DSL5520 controller, and this is the first shipping Mac that uses the new version of the high-speed interface. The controller includes four Thunderbolt channels, which can provide data bandwidth of up to 20Gbps to each port (or 10Gbps per channel).
The original Thunderbolt used four 10Gbps channels too, but they were separated differently—the controllers provided two sets of 10Gbps channels, and the new ones provide one set of 20Gbps channels. Thunderbolt 2 additionally adds support for the DisplayPort 1.2 spec, which is necessary to support 4K output, though according to Apple’s spec sheet each Thunderbolt port can only support a single 2560×1600 display at once (for a total of three displays, including the laptop’s). The Retina MacBook Pro provides 4K video output through HDMI—that port supports 3840×2160 displays at 30Hz and 4096×2160 displays at 24Hz.
The biggest issue is the Retina display. Most of the mainstream apps support retina graphics, but outside that core, there are many that do not. Most web sites fit that latter category as well.
The biggest problem at this point is actually the Web itself. Having Chrome, Firefox, and Safari Retina-optimized means that text looks smooth and sharp regardless of the browser you’re using, but most sites still use lower-resolution images that look soft and vaguely blurry on a Retina screen. This situation should continue to improve now that high-density displays are proliferating in Windows laptops and Web standards are catching up, but for now browsing is still the least consistent thing about using a Retina Mac.
Lots more good stuff in this review.
If you are considering the highest-end Retina MacBook Pro, you might want to take a read of this review from The Verge.
Repairability, then reusability, then recyclability
Yesterday I posted about the repairability scale, with the comment that a bad score on that scale is bad for the planet. The post generated a number of excellent comments, both here and on Twitter.
A big part of the argument was the bias on the repairability scale. In effect, saying that if a device is easily recyclable, it is not as important that it be repairable. Another related argument stresses that the folks at iFixIt are concerned with user repair and not professional repair.
These and other comments, all good stuff. Thanks for opening my eyes a bit more.
My 2 cents on this? The best solution, the one that is most respectful to the planet and our limited resources, is that of repairability. Better if it’s user repairability, but if it takes special tools and/or a pro, so be it.
Next down on the scale is reusability. If your device still works, but you want to replace it, find a new home for your old one, if possible. Not always practical, so if you can’t find a new home for your old device, recycle it.
One point I really missed out on is Apple’s incredible dedication to recyclability. This is from Apple’s web site:
Apple recycles responsibly. When you recycle with Apple, your used equipment is disassembled, and key components that can be reused are removed. Glass and metal can be reprocessed for use in new products. A majority of the plastics can be pelletized into a raw secondary material. With materials reprocessing and component reuse, Apple often achieves a 90 percent recovery rate by weight of the original product.
Apple meets the requirements of the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal. All e-waste collected by Apple-controlled voluntary and regulatory programs worldwide is processed in the region in which it was collected. Our recyclers must comply with all health and safety laws, and we do not allow the use of prison labor. Apple recyclers do not dispose of hazardous electronic waste in solid-waste landfills or incinerators. For an example of the stringent processing and operational controls Apple places on its directly contracted recyclers, read an excerpt from our recycler requirements agreement [PDF].
Hopefully, both Google and Microsoft have similar policies for the devices they make themselves and partner policies for the manufacturers of devices that run their operating systems. If not, worth considering I think.
New MacBook Pro 13″ retina benchmarks
Good to see some benchmark numbers. Worth noting that all the new MacBook Pros use Iris integrated graphics, with the exception of the high end 15″ model. I’m looking forward to seeing the benchmarks for that high end model, which uses Nvidia’s GeForce GT 750m with 2GB of dedicated video memory instead of the integrated Iris solution.
Tesla snags Apple’s VP of Product Design
Doug Field worked for Jony Ive and will now be VP of Vehicle Programs for Tesla.
Mavericks, Mail, and the new Gmail equation
If you use Mail to access Gmail, you’ll definitely want to read this article. The rules have changed.
How to use Mavericks’ new tools to extend battery life
Spend some time with Activity Monitor to get a sense of the energy usage of your particular installation.
Apple’s new suite of energy saving settings, App Nap — not to be confused with Power Nap — doesn’t really have an interface. Which is fine! The whole idea behind App Nap is that it runs in the background, looking for apps that fit certain criteria like whether they’re maximized or currently downloading or playing media.
That doesn’t mean App Nap can’t benefit from some occasional monitoring. The venerable app, Activity Monitor, has a new tab labeled “Energy” that lets you do just that. It lists your currently running programs and daemons, their energy usage, and whether the application is App Nappin’. If you see an app that has a disproportionate energy impact, kill it, and consider uninstalling it.
Good article. Pass it along.
Bryan Cranston voices iPad Air pencil ad
I had no idea this was Bryan Cranston. Love it.
Microsoft’s Frank Shaw calls out Apple and the Reality Distortion Field
I feel compelled to add to John Gruber’s take on Frank Shaw’s blog post. I think John is being too charitable.
Frank starts with some twisty little prose, criticizing Apple for giving away iWork with all new iOS devices:
Surface and Surface 2 both include Office, the world’s most popular, most powerful productivity software for free and are priced below both the iPad 2 and iPad Air respectively. Making Apple’s decision to build the price of their less popular and less powerful iWork into their tablets not a very big (or very good) deal.
I am not a fan of snark, and this was snarky. Frank didn’t say, “throw in the iWork apps for free”, which is what happened. Instead, he implies that Apple raised the price of the iPad so that us hapless customers have no choice but to pay for something we don’t want. That might be considered true if the price of the iPad went up, even one penny. But the iPad Air added a bunch of new features, found a way to slim down significantly, and kept the price the same. Oh, and, we’ll throw in our productivity apps, too.
There was no decision to build the price into their tablets. That’s just snark.
And so it’s not surprising that we see other folks now talking about how much “work” you can get done on their devices. Adding watered down productivity apps. Bolting on aftermarket input devices. All in an effort to convince people that their entertainment devices are really work machines.
In that spirit, Apple announced yesterday that they were dropping their fees on their “iWork” suite of apps. Now, since iWork has never gotten much traction, and was already priced like an afterthought, it’s hardly that surprising or significant a move. And it doesn’t change the fact that it’s much harder to get work done on a device that lacks precision input and a desktop for true side-by-side multitasking.
Really Frank? How many tablets in the world have Word on them? How many have Pages? I would wager that any iPad productivity app will have more “traction” than any comparable Surface app.
And I use my iPad every single day, all without a single bolted on aftermarket input device, just the ones I was born with.
As to precision, I would love to see a side by side comparison of the iPad and Surface touch precision. I can’t imagine the Surface even coming close. Yeesh.
Apple to open retail stores at 8 a.m. on November 1 to sell iPad Air
As they did with the recent iPhone launch, Apple plans on opening their retail stores at 8 a.m. on launch day, November 1, to begin selling the iPad Air. The iPad mini with Retina display is coming later in the month.
This text is from the Apple iPad retail site:
Buy iPad Air at your favorite Apple Retail Store beginning at 8:00 a.m. on November 1. We’ll set it up just the way you like.* iPad mini with Retina display coming to stores later in November.
* Supplies may be limited and are available on a first-come, first-served basis.
Mavericks review
John Siracusa dives deep into Mavericks
Apple releases iOS 7.0.3
Lots of good stuff in this update, including a calibration fix for the iPhone 5s accelerometer.
Apple’s live stream of today’s special event
Click the link.
Live Streaming video requires Safari 4 or later on OS X v10.6 or later; Safari on iOS 4.2 or later. Streaming via Apple TV requires second- or third-generation Apple TV with software 5.0.2 or later.
Very excited.
How and why to defragment your hard drive
Good tutorial. Two takeaways:
- Never defragment your SSD. You’ll only shorten its lifespan.
- Defrag your non-SSD hard drive once a year or so. Be sure to back it up first.
Apple debuts new iPhone 5s spot during NFL games
Start of a big week for Apple. Love the Spirit in the Sky riff laid under the mix.
The soup to nuts of iOS photo sharing
This article covers a lot and does it well. If you like to share photos and are not already an expert at the process, take a read.
Apple Inc., bashed and thriving
I get all the Apple bashing, I really do. Blogs need eyeballs, pundits gotta predict stuff, doom and gloom sells papers. But that Apple bashing is tiring to read and saps the credibility of those who write it.
The linked article is Mike Wehner’s take on the question, “Is Apple thriving?” Short answer, yes.
On quitting background apps
Kirk McElhearn argues that quitting an app might not speed up your iOS device, but it might make a difference to your battery life.
There is definitely room for improvement in the information Apple presents on background apps. As is, all you get is binary information, a scrolling list of apps that are running, in some form or another. At the very least, some kind of indicator that tells you that the background app is partaking in some battery sucking activity would be useful.
Apple Campus 2 approval press conference
The mayor of Cupertino and Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer spoke glowingly about the new campus. Amazing to me that Apple got this done with so little friction. The press conference really made 3 things clear. Apple loves Cupertino, Cupertino loves Apple, and everyone involved reveres Steve Jobs.