Business

How much will an iPhone 6 cost you?

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Wallet Hub put together a cell phone contract calculator, then used that calculator to analyze the cost of owning an iPhone 6 on various carriers, both with an without a contract.

If you find the numbers a little hard to understand, this article by CBS Money Watch’s Kathy Kristof does a nice job of explaining the implications.

Arlington County, Virginia to provide MacBook Air laptops to all students

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Arlington County is one of the largest counties in Virginia in terms of population. In a nice win for Apple, the school board announced that every single student in the county will be receiving a brand new MacBook Air. The rollout will start this year, with laptops provided to all 9th graders.

As it turns out, 9th grade is when the Computer Science track starts in Arlington, a good year to make sure that every student has equal access to the technology required to learn programming. The current curriculum is based on older Windows machines.

Microsoft announces $2.5 billion Minecraft purchase

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From the Microsoft press release:

Available across multiple platforms, “Minecraft” is one of the most popular video games in history, with more than 100 million downloads, on PC alone, by players since its launch in 2009. “Minecraft” is one of the top PC games of all time, the most popular online game on Xbox, and the top paid app for iOS and Android in the US. The “Minecraft” community is among the most active and passionate in the industry, with more than 2 billion hours played on Xbox 360 alone in the past two years. Minecraft fans are loyal, with nearly 90 percent of paid customers on the PC having signed in within the past 12 months.

Jean-Louis Gassée on Marc Newson and the Apple Watch

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[VIDEO] This is a fun read. In today’s Monday note, Jean-Louis Gassée explores the creation of and reaction to the Apple Watch. Most interesting to me was the discussion of the potential role that Apple’s newly hired designer Marc Newson, a longtime pal of Jony Ive, played in the design of the Apple Watch.

The video embedded below is a few years old and has been making the rounds since word of Newson’s hire by Apple got out. It shows Newson lovingly, even wistfully, paging through his watch design portfolio. If you have not yet seen this, take a few minutes to watch. You’ll get to know a bit more about Marc Newson and, I think, you’ll be struck by how much the Apple Watch inherited from these designs.

Tim Cook’s Charlie Rose interview

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[VIDEO] A few days ago, fresh from the iPhone 6, Apple Watch, Apple Pay launch, Tim Cook appeared on The Charlie Rose Show. The show edited and released the first half of that interview Friday night. The complete video is embedded below, courtesy of Hulu.

I love Charlie Rose’s interview technique. He’s laid back, draws his subjects in, let’s them unburden themselves. He has a collection of issues he wants to explore, but does so so softly, you might not realize he’s even steering.

There’s a lot to enjoy here. Charlie gets hands on with the new iPhones and a look at the Apple Watch on Tim’s wrist. Interestingly, Tim wore his watch, but controlled it himself, saying “I may have some things on here that you shouldn’t see just yet.”

Charlie talks IBM partnership, Beats acquisition, product design philosophy and a lot more.

Tim talks about Steve Jobs with great reverence. He tells the story of Steve telling him he was going to be Apple’s new CEO, getting the sense that Steve was not going to bounce back.

Thoughtful interview, well worth watching.

Selling your old iPhone

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Ordering a new iPhone? Got one to sell or trade in? If so, take a look at the linked article. Apple Insider takes a look at nearly a dozen big-name buyback services and retailers and gives a sense of the going trade-in rate and the trade-in process.

The Apple Watch was not designed specifically for me, but it sure seems like it was

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A whimsical post with a valid message at its core. One value of the Apple Watch becomes evident when you receive a call or text and your hands/arms are busy/full:

To check that message or call all I have to do is lift my wrist and the gyro kicks in, turning the display on. Then I can simply glance at my wrist, rather than stopping the dogs to fish out the phone, to see if the message is important enough to drop what I’m doing. And I can then respond through the Watch rather than having to dig for the phone.

Exactly.

iPhone 6 pre-order demand overwhelms networks

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As the clock ticked midnight in California, Apple fans around the world made their way to the Apple Store web site and app, as well as to many telco sites, in an effort to get their hands on an iPhone 6 or 6 Plus. There were problems on many fronts, as demand trumped availability.

Release of iPhone 6 delayed in China

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On Wednesday, Apple told China’s three big state-owned mobile service providers that it would not release the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus in mainland China on Sept. 19, when sales start elsewhere. The carriers had already booked advertising campaigns for the phones.

Last year, Apple released both the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c in China on the same day it was released in the US. It’s not clear how long the lag will be for the iPhone 6 release.

How Apple makes money from Apple Pay

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Bloomberg:

Apple Inc. will reap fees from banks when consumers use an iPhone in place of credit and debit cards for purchases, a deal that gives the handset maker a cut of the growing market for mobile payments, according to three people with knowledge of the arrangement.

Game changer.

Jony Ive talks Apple Watch after the keynote

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[VIDEO] Following yesterday’s keynote, and after the regular press had all gone, ABC News’ David Muir had a chance to talk about the Apple Watch with Apple Senior Vice President of Design, Jony Ive.

Microsoft pays millions for NFL to use Surface, announcers call them iPads

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[VIDEO] > Microsoft may be understandably peeved about this after committing to spend $400 million on an exclusive advertising and equipment deal with the NFL, but then the networks that cover the games aren’t under the league’s control. Educating their commentators may be as important to Microsoft as enlightening the rest of the world to the Surface’s advantages.

I disagree. These announcers are well educated. Watch the video below. They know an iPad-like device when they see one.

The most personal device you own

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Pavan Rajam, writing about a potential iWatch and its place in your device ecosystem:

The smartphone is easily the most personal device we own today. It is our life in our pockets. It is our connection to the rest of the world. We take them with us and use them where ever we can.

There is simply no guarantee that the person using a smartphone is the person to whom it belongs.

Not the case with your watch, which is a much more personal device.

iWatch speculation

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Two iWatch speculation essays with some added Loop commentary.

NY Times on wearables and Apple’s potential iWatch

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There’s an alleged comment by Jonathan Ive on traditional watchmakers, plus a solid take on the existing state of wearables.

Fine watches are a passion for many people. It’ll take something really special to get those people to turn away from Tag Heuer and the like. If Apple does indeed deliver the goods here, the traditional watchmakers may well be in trouble.

Why Apple’s mobile payment system might just work

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Dan Frommer makes the case that the existing US mobile payment ecosystem is not easy to tame. What’s Apple’s edge? Unlike Google, Apple controls their ecosystem, makes their own hardware and, most importantly, has a big head start on account holder signup.

This is how you hire a good technical person

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Though this article is focused on hiring developers, it applies to any technical hire, anyone who needs to be able to grasp a complex topic and become useful in that area relatively quickly.

The dark side of almond use

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Three things:

  1. 82% of the world’s almonds come from California.
  2. California is in the midst of one of the worst droughts in its history.
  3. This year’s almond crop is one of the largest ever.

That water’s got to come from somewhere.

The inside story of how Netflix came to pay Comcast for internet traffic

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Netflix lawyers just delivered this document to the FCC, arguing against Comcast’s proposed acquisition of Time Warner Cable.

From the document:

Comcast made clear that Netflix would have to pay Comcast an access fee if Netflix wanted to directly connect with Comcast or use third-party CDNs. In essence, Comcast sought to meter Netflix traffic requested by Comcast’s broadband subscribers.