Apple

Apple store heist

Armed robbers broke into a central Paris Apple store on New Year’s Eve, stealing goods with an estimated value of one million euros.

That’s a lot of product.

Apple’s Preliminary Proxy Statement

Apple this week released a preliminary proxy statement in a filing to the SEC. The filing is an announcement of the 2013 annual stockholders meeting, as well as questions that will be voted on at the meeting and details of executive compensation arrangements.

Appreciating nice things

What Apple understands and its critics did not (and still do not) is that many people, from all walks of life, simply appreciate nice things. They accuse Apple of pretension and elitism, but it’s they, the critics, who hold that the mass market for phones and tablets is overwhelmingly comprised of tasteless, fickle shoppers who neither discern nor care about product quality.

I think Apple and the buying public have proven Gruber right. People do want nice things and they are willing to pay for quality.

The key to the Apple TV puzzle

There is an ongoing debate about whether Apple will release a physical television or an enhanced box similar to what we have now. People on both sides of the debate square off every few weeks and rehash the same arguments. Ultimately, we get nowhere, but I think that’s because nobody is asking the right question.

Apple’s new Causeway Bay, Hong Kong retail store

Eric Slivka:

The new store will cover three levels and has been reported to encompass approximately 20,000 square feet of space, with the facade including 30-foot tall glass windows currently covered by the curtain graphics. Playing upon the large facade, Apple’s tagline for the premiere is “An opening you simply can’t miss.”

Wow.

Tim Cook hints at Apple’s next big thing

Tim Cook:

“When I go into my living room and turn on the TV, I feel like I have gone backwards in time by 20 to 30 years,” Cook told Williams. “It’s an area of intense interest. I can’t say more than that.”

What Tim didn’t say is that Apple would be making their own television. His comments could be directed towards the content on the TV or how we interact with the device.

Should Apple include a visitor’s center in its new HQ?

SiliconBeat:

As Apple dreams up details of its new spaceship-shaped headquarters in Cupertino with the starchitects over at Sir Norman Foster’s shop, big-time fanboy and computer historian David Greelish has a suggestion:

“Hey,” he wrote in his blog, “you know what Apple needs? A visitor’s center, that’s what.”

Greelish has gotten something else for all his hard work: a big fat “Thanks but no thanks” from Apple.

And yet, even after being told no by the company, he’s still petitioning Apple online to include this “feature” on their new campus. Anyone else think this is a really bad, dumb idea?

Apple’s astonishing profits

  • From October 2011 through September 2012, the combined net profit of Microsoft, Google, eBay, Yahoo, Facebook and Amazon was $34.4 billion. Apple alone made $7 billion more.

  • In the same period, Dell, Asus, Intel, Acer, IBM, Lenovo and HP, i.e. virtually the entire PC industry, made $19.3 billion or less than half of Apple’s profit.

How’s that for some context.

Apple I photos

We’ve come a long way in a relatively short time.

iTunes through the ages

Ars Technica:

While we’re waiting for Apple’s new ship date of “late November” to arrive, let’s take a look back at how iTunes has evolved in the last 12 years.

It’s interesting to see how much (and, in some ways, how little) iTunes has changed over the past 11+ years.

Gassee: Let Apple finish what Microsoft started

Former Apple exec Jean-Louis Gassée says Apple has an opportunity to make the iPad even more attractive for business users in the wake of Microsoft’s failure with Surface.

Messages Beta for Lion ends Dec. 14

Apple plans to shut down the Messages beta for Lion on December 14th, at which point users will have to downgrade to iChat or upgrade to Mountain Lion.

Apple, HTC settle patent dispute

HTC and Apple® have reached a global settlement that includes the dismissal of all current lawsuits and a ten-year license agreement. The license extends to current and future patents held by both parties. The terms of the settlement are confidential.