Business

Apple acquires Spotsetter, a social search engine

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TechCrunch:

Spotsetter looked to combine friends’ recommendations, trusted reviews and other signals in order to reinvent maps as a more social experience.

Initially available as a web and mobile application, Spotsetter used a patent-pending algorithm to pull in users’ content from social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Foursquare, as well as venue content from over 30 review sites and lists from trusted sources like Yelp, Zagat, the New York Times, Michelin, and TripAdviser. As of last summer, the company said that it had processed 5 million user profiles, 40 million venues, and 1 million curated venue content items from around the world.

How Jimmy, Dre and Ian could transform Apple’s tech culture

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Apple has an incredibly strong corporate culture. That culture remained fairly constant under the black-turtlenecked tutelage of Steve Jobs. Tim Cook eased the company into his own style of leadership, and the acquisition of Beats has the chance to expand that evolution in a very positive way.

How eyetracking can improve your web page design

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You spent hours making your design perfect. The images have been meticulously Photoshopped. The calls-to-action have been revised and refined countless times. You know exactly where you want the user’s eye to land and precisely how you want it to move. And with the emergence of eye-tracking technology, it’s finally possible to know whether or not it actually works.

This is a great idea. Use eye tracking to figure out what images work best, and where to place them to bring the user’s attention where you want it.

Where have you gone, Peter Norton?

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Does the name Peter Norton ring a bell? Ever hear of Norton Utilities? If you answered yes to either of these, I think you’ll find the linked article fascinating. A lot of these pictures brought back memories. Guess that just proves how old I am.

Virginia officials order Uber, Lyft to stop operating in the state

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Washington Post:

Earlier this year, Virginia officials slapped the app-based services with more than $35,000 in civil penalties for operating with out proper permits. On Thursday, Richard D. Holcomb, commissioner of the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles, sent a cease and desist letter to both companies.

“I am once again making clear that Uber must cease and desist operating in Virginia until it obtains proper authority,” Holcomb said in the letter. (You can see copies of both letters below)

With its action, Virginia joins a growing number of states that have banned or sought to limit the app-based services from operating. In Maryland, Uber is currently appealing a decision by the state’s chief public utility law judge that said it must file an application to operate as a for-hire carrier.

This is clearly a speed bump for Uber and Lyft. Question is, is this a growing trend?

Microsoft slashing prices on mobile devices

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Microsoft VP Nick Parker:

“We’ll reach price points that are very industry competitive for 7, 8, 10-inch devices,” Parker said, speaking to reporters after his keynote at Computex, Asia’s largest computing show. “They will really surprise you. Last year, we were in the 3s, 4s, 500 dollars. This year, we’ll be 1s, 2s, 3s.”

Not sure if this is a move to move inventory through the pipeline or an attack to build market share from the low end.

Apple unleashes a second major threat to Google

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Earlier this week, Samsung announced their first Tizen smartphone, sending a shot across Google’s bow, from the Android side. Apple then followed up with their announcement that Bing would be the default search engine in Spotlight searches. This change in Apple’s search defaults is much more subtle, but no less important.

Apple officially announces iOS 8

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Apple officially announced iOS 8 during the WWDC keynote. Follow the headline link to read the official press release.

Apple releases iOS 8 SDK with over 4,000 new APIs

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The iOS 8 SDK is truly gigantic:

Apple® today released its iOS 8 SDK, the biggest developer release ever with more than 4,000 new APIs, giving developers the ability to create amazing new apps like never before. iOS 8 allows developers to further customize the user experience with major extensibility features like Notification Center widgets and third-party keyboards; and introduces robust frameworks such as HealthKit and HomeKit. iOS 8 also includes Metal, a new graphics technology that maximizes the performance of the A7 chip and Swift, a powerful new programming language.

I can’t wait to dig into all this stuff, especially the new version of Xcode, the SpritKit playground, and the new Swift programming language.

Apple officially announces Yosemite

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Apple officially announced Yosemite during the WWDC keynote. Follow the headline link to read the official press release.

On eve of WWDC, Samsung announces their first Tizen smartphone

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CNET:

Samsung is the world’s biggest Android device maker by a wide margin, but it has been developing Tizen as an alternative to Google’s operating system for quite some time. Tizen gives Samsung more control over its own future, allowing it to rely less on Google and more on its homegrown software. That becomes increasingly important as Google works to support other Android vendors and as Samsung tries to set itself apart from all the other handset makers in the market.

Google to announce Android TV at Google I/O in June

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Not to be confused with Google TV:

Android TV won’t be another device, but rather a platform that manufacturers of TVs and set-top boxes can use to bring streaming services to the television. In that way, it is similar to Google TV, the platform the company unveiled at its 2010 Google I/O conference. But while Google TV was focused on marrying existing pay TV services with apps, Android TV will at least initially be all about online media services and Android-based video games.

Why the Beats deal works for Apple

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The linked essay makes the case that the music industry is going through an artist-friendly disruption, as evidenced by the business success of Lady Gaga. Drawing parallels to the disruptive rise of Uber, the case is made that this new business model is Beats’ true underlying value and a large part of Apple’s motivation in making this acquisition.

Good read.

Amazon Prime to get free streaming music service, starting this summer

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In a nutshell, Amazon is sweetening its $99 per year Prime membership by adding a free streaming music component.

The company will expand its Prime membership offerings by adding a stockpile of old and newish music for subscribers to stream on demand. The Prime music service, which is scheduled to launch this June or July, will not include recent releases but instead restrict its catalog to songs and albums that are 6 months old and older, five music industry sources familiar with the company’s plans confirmed to BuzzFeed.

Adrian Perica, Apple’s head of M&A, the real force behind the Beats deal

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Adrian Perica went to West Point, did some intelligence work, got an MBA from MIT, and made his way to Apple via his experience as an investment banker. He is now Apple’s head of M&A (mergers and acquisitions).

Perica doesn’t get a lot of press, but he played a significant role in the Beats acquisition.

Former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to buy Clippers for $2 billion

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From the LA Times:

Ballmer, who was chief executive of Microsoft for 14 years, was chosen over competitors that included Los Angeles-based investors Tony Ressler and Bruce Karsh and a group that included David Geffen and executives from the Guggenheim Group, the Chicago-based owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, according to three individuals familiar with the negotiations.

One of the individuals with knowledge of the negotiations said the Geffen group bid $1.6 billion and Ressler at $1.2 billion.

The Geffen group supposedly included an Apple employee by the name of Jimmy Iovine.

Apple brings ESPN and 42 local NPR stations to iTunes Radio

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9to5mac:

Hot on the heels of the announcement that Apple had acquired the Beats Music streaming service for $3 billion to help bolster its own struggling competitor, 9to5Mac has learned that Apple is introducing a new ESPN station for iTunes Radio.

Test drive of Google’s self-driving car

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[VIDEO] Last week, we wrote about driverless car testing coming to California’s public roads this September 16th. Part of the approved legislation is this language:

A manufacturer shall not permit any of its autonomous vehicles to be operated on public roads in California when the operator is not seated in the vehicle’s driver seat and either: monitoring its operations and able to take over physical control of the vehicle; or, in physical control of the vehicle.

Google just released a video (see the original post) of their driverless car concept, tested for the first time with people outside of Google.

Apple’s Eddie Cue and Jimmy Iovine, in the wake of the Beats announcement, on stage at the Code conference

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[VIDEO] Yesterday was a huge day for Apple, centered around the announcement that Apple was buying Beats.

As that announcement was making its way around the world, Apple Senior VP Eddie Cue and and newly minted Apple employee Jimmy Iovine spent the day at the Code conference, talking Beats, AppleTV, the Steve Jobs legacy, and lots more.

Go to the original post for comments, details, and an embedded video.

Satya Nadella, Gwyneth Paltrow, and the Code conference

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[VIDEO] Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg kicked off the annual Code Conference by interviewing Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. I found the interview both fascinating and revealing. Fascinating because of the tidbits that Swisher and Mossberg crowbarred out of Nadella, and revealing in that I really didn’t get a sense of vision from Nadella. To me, he had a great opportunity to lay out his grand vision for his company, to pontificate a bit, but instead, he looked clenched, close-mouthed, and a bit uncomfortable. See the video embedded in our original post for highlights.

I also enjoyed this article about Gwyneth Paltrow’s speech at Code.

Her topic — which she had talked about with Re/code earlier, as well — was the “objectification and dehumanization” of anonymous Internet comments. Or, she said, how it feels to be “a person in the culture that people want to harm.”

“We can momentarily anesthetize ourselves by focusing on someone else’s life, get a nice hot shot of schadenfreude and keep going, but how does this serve us?”

Apple statement: iCloud not compromised in Find My iPhone Apple ID attack

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Yesterday, we posted about the wave of Find My iPhone ransom hacks reported in Australia. From the post:

There is conjecture that the hackers have access to some recently stolen eBay passwords and that the victims have the same password on both eBay and for their Apple ID. Regardless of whether this is true or not, this is a pointed example of why you should not reuse passwords.

This morning, Apple made a statement that lent some credence to the password reuse theory:

Apple takes security very seriously and iCloud was not compromised during this incident. Impacted users should change their Apple ID password as soon as possible and avoid using the same user name and password for multiple services. Any users who need additional help can contact AppleCare or visit their local Apple Retail Store.

Also, the ransom attack affected customers in New Zealand, Canada and the US, as well as in Australia.

The current state of home automation

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The Financial Times reported [paywall] that Apple will push for Jetsons style home automation in next week’s WWDC reveal. Whether or not there is any truth to this conjecture, the home automation/internet of things space is maturing rapidly.