Apple

Mike Elgan for Cult of Mac: So that’s what Apple needs to do … Chip away at the problem, iteratively investigating, auditing and fixing. But also pay a little more to suppliers in order to meet these stringent requirements. Apple … Continued

ifoAppleStore:

During the 90-minute JC Penney briefing, former Apple retail chief Ron Johnson explained his plans to remake JCP into “America’s favorite store” over the next three years, admittedly drawing from his 10-year stewardship of Apple’s stores. In fact, the very first item on Johnson’s agenda was to explain why he left Apple, and the very first presentation slide was an Apple logo.“It’s the best decision I’ve made yet,” he said of moving to JCP. The only hard part of the decision was driving to Steve Jobs’ house to announce he was leaving. Jobs looked up at him and asked, “Are you serious?”

It will be interesting to see how Johnson can bring the Apple Retail experience to JCP.

The New York Times:

Apple and its high-technology peers — as well as dozens of other American industries — have achieved a pace of innovation nearly unmatched in modern history.However, the workers assembling iPhones, iPads and other devices often labor in harsh conditions, according to employees inside those plants, worker advocates and documents published by companies themselves. Problems are as varied as onerous work environments and serious — sometimes deadly — safety problems.

ReadWriteWeb’s Dan Frommer:

There are plenty of impressive stats in Apple’s December quarter earnings report, such as 37 million iPhones shipped, $46 billion of overall sales, and $13 billion of profit.But Apple’s most impressive stat continues to be its growth rate: Apple is not only huge, but it is growing at a rate far greater than its peers. And, even more incredible, its growth rate is accelerating.

Keep that in mind. Apple has a huge amount of room to grow, whether it be in the PC, phone or tablet market.

IT research company Gartner claims that Apple was the top semiconductor customer in 2011. Gartner’s calculation is “Design Total Available Market,” or Design TAM, an index it says “represents the total silicon content in all products designed by a certain … Continued

TechCrunch: One of the highest profile digital textbook startups is Kno, which started out with its own oversized tablet but now focusses on delivering textbooks through its iPad app. On the surface, things don’t look so great for Kno, but … Continued

AllThingsD: McGraw-Hill normally sells high school textbooks for $75 a pop. Now it says it will sell electronic versions of the same books, via Apple, for $15 apiece. How can the publisher make that work? “Volume,” says McGraw-Hill CEO Terry … Continued

The Toronto Star reports: Toronto lawyer Michael Deverett bought a MacBook Pro, an iPod Touch, cables and programs for $2,248.53 at the Apple store in the Yorkdale Mall. He didn’t notice anyone following him…to his car. He didn’t notice anyone … Continued

The Loop liveblogged Apple’s education event, where Apple has introduced iBooks textbooks, iBooks Author, a creation app, and the new iTunes U app. Please read on for details.

Wired quotes Steve Jobs: I used to think that technology could help education. I’ve probably spearheaded giving away more computer equipment to schools than anybody else on the planet. But I’ve had to come to the inevitable conclusion that the … Continued

Apple’s Reuse and Recycling Program (UK):

With the Reuse and Recycling Programme, you could turn your old equipment into a brand-new Mac, iPod, iPhone or iPad.Whether it’s an iPhone, iPad, Mac or PC computer, working or not, we’ll take it and determine if it qualifies for reuse and has a monetary value. If it does, the amount will be credited directly into your bank account. If it doesn’t, you can recycle it responsibly through one of our free recycling programmes.

Apple now has recycling programs in Europe, Africa, Middle East, India, Japan, Australia, Brazil, Costa Rica, USA and Canada, among other countries.