China has dropped some of the world’s leading technology brands from its approved state purchase lists, while approving thousands more locally made products, in what some say is a response to revelations of widespread Western cybersurveillance.
Others put the shift down to a protectionist impulse to shield China’s domestic technology industry from competition.
And:
China’s change of tack coincided with leaks by former U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden in mid-2013 that exposed several global surveillance program, many of them run by the NSA with the cooperation of telecom companies and European governments.
“The Snowden incident, it’s become a real concern, especially for top leaders,” said Tu Xinquan, Associate Director of the China Institute of WTO Studies at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing. “In some sense the American government has some responsibility for that; (China’s) concerns have some legitimacy.”
Apple continues to be a favorite among Chinese consumers, so it’s not clear how big an impact this will have on Apple’s inroads in China.
it’s no secret that Final Cut Pro X, the overhauled follow up to Apple’s widely used video editing software, wasn’t exactly a hit with its users when the app was first released in 2011.
A comprehensive change in the way the software functioned and a lack of legacy features from the prior version gave the app a reputation for being “iMovie Pro” rather than a true professional desktop video editor. Soon after its launch, Apple addressed the flood of criticism with an FAQ site and a promise that more features would slowly become available in the new version.
Nearly four years later, the first Hollywood film edited in Final Cut Pro X is set to be released. To showcase the movie debut and FCPX’s role in the film, Apple has launched a microsite detailing the production.
Astonishing that there’s not been a single film edited with Final Cut Pro X to hit the theaters in the last four years.
Focus directors Glenn Ficarra and John Requa choose Final Cut for a simple reason: “We wanted to do the edit in a way that was quicker,” says Ficarra.
The move produced “a lot of eye rolling and sympathetic prayers,” he adds. But the negativity about FCPX was based on “old information,” and not informed, he says.
He says the speed of the new FCPX enabled the directors and editing team to be able to cut the film as they were shooting, instead of after production wrapped. “It’s a totally different way to look at the process.”
Maybe the likening of Final Cut Pro X to an iMovie Pro is a good thing:
Many editors called the new FCPX “iMovie Pro,” when it was released, and not ready for the big leagues, but Ficarra says he likes that FCPX is easier to use, and that it’s look and feel is akin to iMovie.
“We have a whole generation of kids learning on iMovie,” he says. “They’ll be familiar with this tool when they get into the real world.”
Here’s a link to Apple’s Final Cut Pro X Focus page.
This is exactly what I’d expect from Apple—lots of room on the page with the focus being on the product, and not on a bunch of needless words. It speaks for itself.
The list of software known to use the same HTTPS-breaking technology recently found preinstalled on Lenovo laptops has risen dramatically with the discovery of at least 12 new titles, including one that’s categorized as a malicious trojan by a major antivirus provider.
Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook was in Israel on Wednesday, and had a meeting with President Reuven Rivlin, as Apple is prepared to open a new office in the country.
Apple Inc. was told to pay $532.9 million after a federal jury said the company’s iTunes software used a Texas company’s patented inventions without permission.
Closely held Smartflash LLC, which claimed that Apple infringed three patents, was seeking $852 million in damages, while Apple said it was worth $4.5 million at most. A federal jury in Tyler, Texas, where Smartflash is based, on Tuesday rejected Apple’s arguments that it didn’t use the inventions and that the patents were invalid.
The dispute is over digital rights management and inventions related to data storage and managing access through payment systems. Smartflash claimed that iTunes used the inventions in applications such as Game Circus LLC’s Coin Dozer and 4 Pics 1 Movie. Apple pledged to appeal.
Apple’s response:
“Smartflash makes no products, has no employees, creates no jobs, has no U.S. presence, and is exploiting our patent system to seek royalties for technology Apple invented,” said Kristin Huguet, an Apple spokeswoman. “We refused to pay off this company for the ideas our employees spent years innovating and unfortunately we have been left with no choice but to take this fight up through the court system.”
Without much thought, I did what most Americans do every two years: I agreed to be locked in by a multibillion-dollar wireless company. With pricey contracts and confusing add-ons, they make it incredibly hard to leave, let alone take our phones with us. I deserve to walk around with “Property of Verizon” stamped on my forehead.
I know a lot of people that are going for the unlocked phone so they don’t have to be locked in any more. It’s more expensive upfront, but sometimes the flexibility is worth it.
Rumors have been swirling since late last night that Apple acquired Instrument and effect plug-in maker, Camel Audio. I contacted Apple today to see whether or not the rumors were true.
“Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans,” an Apple representative said.
This is Apple’s typical response when they do purchase a company, so it makes sense that Apple did buy Camel. The other evidence that’s been discovered by MacRumors is pretty convincing, as well.
Camel Audio’s address has been updated to 100 New Bridge Street, which is Apple’s London address, and the company’s sole director is now listed as Apple lawyer Heather Joy Morrison. Interestingly, some of Camel’s licensing infrastructure had also been used by non GamStop UK casinos, adding another wrinkle to the acquisition story.
Camel Audio closed down on January 8, 2015, which also contributed to the speculation that the popular company had been sold.
Broadcast television may be now facing a similar, scary phase shift. Netflix has been making inroads among U.S. consumers for years, but its impact on the key 18-to-49-year-old demographic has so far been limited. Old habits die hard and many viewers have remained mostly loyal to habit of gorging on linear television on Thursday nights.
But the most recent numbers have some scary elements that point to a possibly massive disruption in the near term. Broadcast TV consumption among 18-to-34-year-old Americans plunged by 11% in the Christmas quarter. Ominously, audiences of young-skewing cable channels like Nickelodeon and MTV are now sliding by 14 to 17% year-on-year.
I’ll be honest, I’m more excited about a new Netflix series than I am about anything on one of the big networks.
Interesting article from John Cassidy in The New Yorker. If Apple is working on a car, I think they could give the traditional car companies more of a run than Cassidy does.
(Apple is) in a lot of ways the story of a technology company hanging around, making interesting things, and waiting for the world to actually need what they wanted to build.
But also something to remember: narratives are bullshit. It’s the people who show up and build and keep going who ultimately write the stories that last.
Many don’t remember or know just how bad off Apple was in those days. It’s path has got to be considered the most remarkable story in the history of business.
In my previous post, I speculated that the high end Apple Watch Edition model would be priced between $3,400 and $6,800. This was purely an educated guess. Regardless of the price, the Edition models will certainly set you back a pretty penny.
> I understand the justification of replacing an iPhone or a Mac when they’ve become too slow or outdated for their task — at most, I’ve spent $2000-$3000 on such a device, and its cost-per-year averages out to something where I don’t feel wasteful in replacing the machine. > > Watches are different. They’re jewelry. They’re as much a fashion accessory as they are a device. And watches can have a long lifespan, if treated properly. Every watch enthusiast loves dive watches. Watches have people trained in the art of repair, keeping someone’s $20,000 timepiece from becoming a useless paperweight. > > Once Apple jumps into that price point and that industry, should it expect that users will pay $10,000 again 18-30 months down the line to replace their watch? Does the advent of digital mean we’re expected to replace our heirlooms now, rather than pass them down? I really don’t know. Maybe the Edition is truly just meant for those who look at $5000 cost-per-year of ownership as no big deal on their bank account. Companies like Vertu have made a living off those customers; why shouldn’t Apple? > > But I’d like to believe Apple is better than that. If they truly want to command the watch industry, they might take another page from watch-makers: repairability.
Read the whole article. Serenity lays out the premise of a replaceable core, an inner working that can be drag and drop replaced. Rather than laying out for a new Apple Watch every few years, is it possible that Apple will make the Apple Watch repairable/upgradeable? A solid idea.
There’s been a lot of speculation about potential pricing for the highest tiered Apple Watch, the Apple Watch Edition line. John Gruber has been writing about Edition pricing on Daring Fireball. He initially thought that $5,000 was a ceiling for the Edition entry model, then moved his target up to $10,000, even suggesting that $20,000 was not an impossible price.
Personally, I think $5,000 is the right number for the Edition model. The highest end watches tend to start at about $3000 and move up into the stratosphere. The next tier down tends to run from $1,000 up to $8,000. My instinct is that Apple Edition will fit in that latter space, more aligned with Tag Heuer than with Rolex.
There’s no traditional model to draw from, as the Apple Watch is a brand new kind of animal, but my instinct is that the cost to Apple will be between $1,000 and $2,000. Multiply those numbers by a price/cost ratio of 3.44 and you end up with a nicely marked up price of $3,400 to $6,800. Why 3.44? Here’s the math:
The consensus seems to be that the high end iPhone 6 costs about $247 to make, including parts and labor. Without a contract, that same iPhone 6 sells for $849. That’s a price/cost ratio of about 3.44 (the price of the phone is a bit more than 3 times the cost).
Apply that same model to the Apple Watch, and you get a price ranging from $3,400 to $6,800. Obviously, this depends on the actual cost of labor and materials. One estimate on the gold in the highest end Apple Watch places the price of the gold alone at about $800. I can’t imagine the cost of everything else being more than $1200.
This Concierge program, spearheaded by Retail Senior Vice President Angela Ahrendts, moves away from the classic appointment model. Instead, a customer describes the issue to an Apple Store employee, who inputs the issue into an updated iPad application. Using a special algorithm, the application provides the customer a wait time based on issue priorities. For example, a customer seeking an iPhone screen replacement will automatically be placed higher in the queue than a customer seeking help with a minor iCloud issue.
Once you are in the queue, the new process will send you a sequence of three iMessage/SMS notifications:
• An initial text message confirming the Genius Bar request and providing the wait time • A text message telling the customer to start heading back to the Apple Store • A final text message telling the customer that their technician is ready to help and where they can be located in the store
Given that the vast majority of Apple Stores are in malls or adjacent to high traffic shopping areas, this would give you the chance to walk in, get on the queue, then take care of other nearby errands.
For the time being, Apple Store Genius Bar appointments that are booked online will remain mostly unchanged and will not gain the text message-based system that will replace walk-in appointments.
Question is, will a timed, online appointment place you at the front of the queue if you arrive on time?
djay Pro for Mac provides a complete toolkit for performing DJs. Its unique and modern interface is built around a sophisticated integration with iTunes and Spotify, giving you instant access to millions of tracks. Pristine sound quality and a powerful set of features including high-definition waveforms, four decks, audio effects, and hardware integration give you endless creative flexibility to take your sets to new heights. Special introductory pricing (40% off) for a limited time.
Jim’s Note: I had the opportunity to test djay Pro for Mac and loved it. I’m still using it.
Settlements have been reached in the Canadian DRAM national class actions, totaling over $79 million.
You can get money from the settlements if you bought DRAM or electronic devices containing DRAM between April 1, 1999 and June 30, 2002.
Many of my fellow Candians qualify for this settlement and I’d encourage you to take advantage of it, even if it’s only at the $20 level. Thanks to my friend Greg for the heads up.
Android phones can be tracked without using their GPS or wi-fi data by studying their power use over time, a study has found.
A smartphone uses more power the further away it is from a cellular base and the more obstacles are in its way as it reaches for a signal.
Additional power use by other activities could be factored out with algorithms, the researchers found.
The key here is that a malicious app can track your movement without getting permission to access your GPS info. Just tracking your power usage can help malware track your location. [Hat tip, Rob Richman]
Turns out Lenovo preloaded their laptops with adware that will intercept all your secure connections, and allow criminals to do it, too.
After investigating the Lenovo incident we found out that many other softwares – like some Parental Controls or security packages – do things even worse for your security. This test attempts to detect them all.
Send this to all your friends. Quick, simple test.
Jean-Louis Gassée, writing for Monday Note, presents three terrifically well reasoned analogies, all designed to bring home a single point: That Apple is not prepared to enter the automobile business.
Jean-Louis would love to see an Apple Car, just to be clear:
I would love to be wrong about the AppleCar — I join the choristers who would love to see what Apple could do with a car — but we’ve heard a bit too much about Apple’s ability to design an interesting electric vehicle and not enough about the industrial part, about the machine that makes the machines.
But the anecdotes make their own case. A very interesting read.
Apple got permission from Martin Scorsese to use excerpts from his NYU Tisch School of the Arts commencement speech, given last year, in a new ad they ran during the Oscars broadcast.
As they tend to do with new ad campaigns, Apple opened up a new section of their web site featuring the ad, titled Make a film with iPad. From the site:
iPad is the ultimate tool for independent filmmakers. It lets them chase their ambitions and dive deeper into the work they’re so passionate about. Learn how students at Los Angeles County High School for the Arts relied on the power and versatility of iPad to write, produce, shoot, score, and edit their films in a matter of days.
The Oscar ad is below. Head on over to the web site to see the student films.
Apple® today announced a €1.7 billion plan to build and operate two data centres in Europe, each powered by 100 percent renewable energy. The facilities, located in County Galway, Ireland, and Denmark’s central Jutland, will power Apple’s online services including the iTunes Store®, App Store℠, iMessage®, Maps and Siri® for customers across Europe.
“We are grateful for Apple’s continued success in Europe and proud that our investment supports communities across the continent,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “This significant new investment represents Apple’s biggest project in Europe to date. We’re thrilled to be expanding our operations, creating hundreds of local jobs and introducing some of our most advanced green building designs yet.”
And:
Like all Apple data centres, the new facilities will run entirely on clean, renewable energy sources from day one. Apple will also work with local partners to develop additional renewable energy projects from wind or other sources to provide power in the future. These facilities will have the lowest environmental impact yet for an Apple data centre.
And:
In Viborg, Denmark, Apple will eliminate the need for additional generators by locating the data centre adjacent to one of Denmark’s largest electrical substations. The facility is also designed to capture excess heat from equipment inside the facility and conduct it into the district heating system to help warm homes in the neighboring community.
