“The iPad is far and away the most successful product in its category. The most affordable product we’ve made so far was $399 and people were choosing that over those devices,” Schiller said.“And now you can get a device that’s even more affordable at $329 in this great new form, and I think a lot of customers are going to be very excited about that,” Schiller said.
Translation: We are going to sell a metric shit ton of these things.
Jim Dalrymple and Dan Benjamin discuss Apple’s press conference, the release of the iPad mini, the refresh of the Macbook Pro, iMac, and iPad lineups, and government adoption of the iPhone.Sponsored by Shutterstock (use code DANSENTME10 for 30% off), MailChimp, Hover (use code DANSENTME for 10% off), and CacheFly
I read a piece this morning by Ewan Spence at Forbes that just left me shaking my head in disbelief. Spence called the iPad mini “little more than a ‘me-too’ product” — I guess he forgot that Apple invented the modern tablet category and that every Google tablet is actually the “me too” product.
Spence made a point of saying that “in all of my time covering Apple launches,” alluding to his supposed expertise on the subject — all I can say is he couldn’t have been paying attention to Apple’s strategy over those launches.
What Apple is doing with the iPad is the exact same thing they did with the iPod. Release it and then come back and fill in the category with other products.
Oh and he also used the “this isn’t Steve Jobs Apple” line. Come on Ewan, at least be original.
Unlike Dave, the lampshade iMac was not my favorite. I like the new design.
Om Malik:
While rest of the crowd was taking time playing around with the iPad Mini, I spent my time with both the 27-inch and 21.5-inch models of the new iMac. And after 10 minutes, I knew I wanted one. First, the display screen, while not eligible for Apple’s Retina label, is drop-dead gorgeous. The color and the contrast is amazing. The dreaded reflections are almost nonexistent. You cannot resist the urge to reach out and touch the screen and flick things around much like on an iPad.
I agree completely. You just won’t believe your eyes when you see this new iMac.
John Brownlee for Cult of Mac notes that Apple’s tech specs page for the new iMac indicates that memory on the 21.5-inch iMac model is “configurable” up to 16GB, while the 27-inch model sports “four user-accessible SO-DIMM slots.”
An important consideration for anyone weighing the differences between the two machines. You’ll be stuck with what you get on the 21.5-inch model, while you’ll be able to expand the 27-inch iMac to up to 32GB as you need it.
Advertising Age:
You may never be able to try lembas — a fictional bread that Frodo subsisted on through part of his journey to Mordor in the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy — but Denny’s thinks it might have the next best thing. The company is about to roll out a Middle-Earth-inspired menu as part of a tie-in with “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.”Menu items include 11 breakfast, lunch and dinner items such as “Hobbit Hole Breakfast,” “Frodo’s Pot Roast Skillet,” “Gandalf’s Gobble Melt” and the “Build Your Own Hobbit Slam,” which includes limited-time items such as “Shire Sausage.”
I don’t eat at Denny’s now. I sure won’t be going in for this.
Shaun McGill takes a look back at the the last two decades of mobile devices leading up to the iPhone. This piece is almost 12,000 words, so make sure you have some time.
Dave Hamilton explains some of the details about Apple’s new Fusion Drive.
When Tim Cook invited us all to go to the hands on area and experience all of the new products for ourselves. I used the iPad mini, iPad 4, iMac, MacBook Pro — all of them. They weren’t behind glass, there were no PR people ready to grab them from me — I got to hold them and use them.
Do you understand what I’m saying Microsoft? If your product is ready for primetime, you’ll let people use them. If they suck balls, and you know they do, then you’ll protect them and hide them.
Brier Dudley for the Seattle Times:
Word of the layoffs surfaced earlier and was confirmed in an internal memo to employees from founder Mark Pincus. The memo said the company is cutting 5 percent of its full-time workers and closing its studio in Boston. That would be around 150 of its roughly 3,000 positions. Also proposed is the closure of studios in Japan and the United Kingdom.
An early social gaming success story, Zynga flew too high, too fast and is now having to correct, at the expense of employees.
Some great shots.
It’s $20, but for me it’s worth it.
I had a few minutes to play around with the new iPad mini after Apple’s event this morning and wanted to give you a few quick thoughts.
Clearly I wasn’t able to really put the device through its paces, but I was wondering if the mini would be too small. Many of the people I’ve talked to leading up to this introduction that wanted a mini commute to work or school and found the original iPad a bit too big.
After listening to those concerns and seeing the iPad mini, I can certainly see how this would alleviate those problems. The iPad mini can easily be held with one hand for reading. Menus and other onscreen items can be reached with that hand if they are close. Of course, you can’t expect to be able to navigate the mini’s screen with one hand, but you can touch and scroll.
With two hands you can actually lay the mini in the palm of one hand while navigating with the other. The app icons are a decent size so there is no worry of accidentally hitting the wrong app.
The mini isn’t a fit-in-your-pocket device, but it’s a tablet not a smartphone. It will comfortably fit in a bag and is light enough that you won’t even know you’re carrying it.
I like what I saw, but now I need to see how it will fit into my lifestyle.
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[liveblog]
Today’s the big day when Apple takes the wraps off…well, something. Apple is hosting a special event at 10:00 AM Pacific Time on Tuesday where it’s widely expected to introduce a smaller format iPad. Jim’s on the ground in San Jose to bring The Loop’s readers live coverage.
If you’re near a newer Apple TV, though, you may be able to watch the event yourself. Apple recently added a new “Apple Events” channel to the device, and that channel now lists “Apple Special Event – LIVE.” If you’re using a black Apple TV, make sure it’s running the latest software update to see the new channel and the content therein (software update 5.0.2 or later is needed).
What’s more, Apple has posted A web page for the event, so even if you’re not near an Apple TV, you can still watch the live event stream via your Mac or iOS 4.2 (or later)-equipped device.
It’s an interesting change of pace for Apple, which, with a few exceptions, has refrained from live-streaming media events for a number of years. Someone cue the New Media Douchebag chorus of, “This never would have happened under Steve Jobs’ watch.”
Despite the streaming coverage from Apple, we encourage you to keep a browser window open at The Loop as well, so we can bring you other details as they unfold.
Gary Ng:
A recent study commissioned by Research in Motion has concluded it is cheaper and safer for companies to keep using BlackBerrys despite the proliferation of the BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) phenomenon.
RIM sucks balls. That’s why companies opened up the gates and let employees use whatever device they wanted. The other operating systems caught up and passed RIM and there is no turning back on that now.
Eric Slivka:
The deteriorating relationship between Apple and Samsung that has seen the two companies reducing their component supply deals is now extending to LCD panels, with Samsung reportedly ending supplies of the panels to Apple next year.
After one month of availability, Apple’s iOS 6 has been installed on 60 percent of iDevices in the U.S. and Canada, and will possibly see further growth with the expected debut of a 7.85-inch “iPad mini” on Tuesday.
Apple’s newest OS is over 60% and Android’s latest release is less than 2%. It’s great to be open and winning.
The agency said it has relied on RIM for eight years, but the company “can no longer meet the mobile technology needs of the agency.”It also said it analyzed Apple’s iOS-based devices and Google Inc’s Android operating system and concluded that, for the near term, Apple’s iPhone services offer the best technology for the agency because of Apple’s tight controls of the hardware platform and operating system.
Seriously, who’s surprised? They could have gone with Android, but it leaks passwords like a sieve.
Having lived in the South for a period of time, I can tell you that this video is not the least bit surprising or unusual.
There was once a time when the launch of a new Windows operating system was a huge deal for the technology departments in many businesses. Not anymore. Microsoft Corp’s release of Windows 8 on Friday is likely to be a non-event for most companies — and some experts say many may never adopt it.
Microsoft has lost the confidence of its customers — business and personal. You can’t release as much shit as they have over the last decade and expect your customers to keep forgiving you.
The text editor that suits your iPad! No file lists, no folders, no documents in the classic sense — just paper stacks and an infinite amount of sheets. Edit and navigate by standard gestures, all perfectly mapped to the tasks at hand. Interacting with digital texts never felt so natural.
Plus: Dropbox, Box.com and WebDAV Sync, ePub export, RTF creation, Markdown support, and then some. Grab it this week at The Loop Special price of just $2.99!
Android applications downloaded by as many as 185 million users can expose end users’ online banking and social networking credentials, e-mail and instant-messaging contents because the programs use inadequate encryption protections, computer scientists have found.
Of course, iOS doesn’t have this problem, so all of you Android owners that want to switch from the malware infested, security sucking Android can make the move any time.
I’d like to thank djay for sponsoring The Loop’s RSS feed this week.
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djay now supports the iPhone 5 and takes full advantage of the gorgeous 4-inch screen. djay for iPhone and iPod is on sale for only $.99 and djay for iPad is on sale for only $9.99! Get it now and become the DJ you’ve always wanted to be.
Yahoo! Homes:
In what world does a two-bedroom apartment cost $50 million?Why, Midtown Manhattan, of course.Naturally, this apartment at 50 Central Park South is no ordinary two-bedroom apartment. For one thing, it’s bigger than you might imagine for a two-bedroom. But it’s also smaller than you might imagine for $50 million, at 4,500 square feet. Even by Manhattan luxury standards, we’d say that’s worthy of a double-take, or at least a surprised blink: $11,000 per square foot.Apartment 33 occupies a full floor at the Ritz-Carlton New York, Central Park, one of just a dozen residences at the Central Park Ritz.
Hard to imagine an “apartment” being worth that kind of money but then again, like the old saying goes, “The rich are different from you and I.”
