“We can confirm that the Australian ‘Wake Up’ campaign, which involves a series of experiential activities taking place across Sydney and Melbourne, was created by RIM Australia,” RIM said in a statement.
So RIM, not Samsung, was behind the pathetic marketing stunt.
AllThingsD:
As the person who six years ago this month revealed in BusinessWeek that Apple had incorporated in Nevada where the corporate tax rate is zero, I found the account by Charles Duhigg and David Kocieniewski of the many financial tricks that Apple employs to minimize its tax exposure fascinating. Who couldn’t love phrases like “Double Irish with a Dutch Sandwich” to describe arcane accounting and legal tricks?But the implication the story leaves you with that Apple is somehow doing society a disservice by not paying its fair share of corporate taxes is simply wrong on many levels.
Perfect example of the “read all you can” theory. The New York Times account is getting a lot of notice but Arik Hesseldahl adds some more details the Times missed or didn’t include.
Sophos grabbed headlines last week when it declared that one in five Macs was subject to malware. So I decided to download the software and give it a try myself to see what it could come up with. I was one of the 20 percent. But there’s a catch, so read on.
As a matter of historical fact, Macs have been less likely to get infected by malware than their Windows cousins. Macs remain more secure than Windows to this day. That’s not to say that there are no malware threats on the Mac – indeed there are. But they happen infrequently enough to be the exception to the rule.
Still, that doesn’t mean that Macs don’t get exposed. In fact, if you get any reasonable amount of spam in your inbox, chances are that malware has entered your Mac’s gravitational pull like a rogue asteroid bound for the inner solar system. That’s because malware is a matter of fact in spam – if it’s not a phishing attempt to scam you out of your bank account information, the rogue e-mail often contains a payload – an attachment you’re encouraged to open. If you’re a Windows user.
But along the way, filtering algorithms used by mail software do an increasingly effective job making sure you never see these e-mails. I see spam and junk only rarely with my primary e-mail addresses.
So where was the Sophos software finding these malignant tumors in my e-mail circulatory system? Gmail, specifically. In the junk bucket.
I ended up uninstalling Sophos. I found the whole process too disruptive, from the installation to the initial scan to the constant maintenance activity. Quite frankly, the payoff wasn’t worth the effort – it was just to verify that the system I have in place is working.
I don’t need to be warned every time I get a malware payload in the junk folder of one of my mail accounts. I am already using effective enough tools (in the form of junk filtering on both client and server) to rid myself of that threat.
If the malware threat to the Mac develops, it’ll be time to rethink this strategy.
One other thing: If I was a corporate citizen in a heterogeneous computing environment, this story would have ended very differently. In fact, under those circumstances, I’d be crazy not to have some sort of anti-malware filtering in place.
A great Joy of Tech comic.
Five months after replacing the longstanding co-CEOs, Heins desperately needs more time to right the now-struggling company and he likely has next to nothing concrete to offer his restless audience in terms of new products and services.
RIM is screwed.
Want to send audio on your iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad? Airfoil Speakers Touch has you covered! With it, you can send audio via AirPlay directly from iTunes or from one iOS device to another. There’s no reason to spend hundreds on costly third-party AirPlay receivers – the iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch you already own can do the job!
Airfoil Speakers Touch also receives audio from Airfoil, making it possible to send any audio from your Mac or PC to your iOS device. Cool!
Download Airfoil Speakers Touch from the iOS App Store and check out Airfoil right from our site.
I’ve been to countless conferences over the last 20 years, speaking, attending and talking to developers, but never have I attended a conference organized as well as Úll in Dublin, Ireland last week.
Úll (Irish for Apple) is a developer conference aimed at giving “workshops, keynotes, talks and in-depth presentations on all the aspects of building, designing and marketing your apps.” It did that and so much more.
Most of the conferences I’ve attended fall down on the details. Intentions are always good, but the execution is often faulty. That’s where Úll really stood out. From the moment you arrived until the very end, the attention to every single detail of the conference, from badges to dinner, was well thought out and executed.
Of course, the conference wouldn’t have been successful without quality speakers and they delivered on that too. Michael Lopp, John Gruber, Matt Gemmell, Josh Clark, Aral Balkan and so many more interesting people entertained and informed the attendees.
There was also plenty of down time to mingle with the developers and speakers to ask questions, share your opinions and make friends.
Úll organizers Paul Campbell and Dermot Daly are truly a class act. They care about the developers and speakers — and it shows.
If you are looking for a full complement of professional, creative, commercial audio visual solutions from the simple to the complex in this fast paced, dynamic marketplace, you may consult a professional A/V Company like Signal Solutions for professional Commercial AV Installation services.
I couldn’t help myself. I love The Swedish Chef.
Reuters:
Apple Inc began talks earlier this year to stream films owned by EPIX, which is backed by three major movie studios, on devices including a long-anticipated TV, according to two people with knowledge of the negotiations.
I may be on the outside with this one, but I believe Apple is looking at this market for a future product.
I just love the Chateau de Noisy in Belgium.
More CSS3 goodness. Although I don’t agree with what they said about being careful of CSS3 because of the older browsers that don’t support it. It’s time to move forward.
Laura M. Holson for the New York Times:
Relationships are hard enough. But the rise of social media — where sharing private moments is encouraged, and provocative and confessional postings can help build a following — has created a new source of friction for couples: what is fair game for sharing with the world?
It may seem like common sense not to overshare online about your relationship, we’re still collectively working out the rules of online etiquette. It may be a good idea to get this out on the table early on in the relationship to avoid problems farther down the road.
New York Times:
Apple’s headquarters are in Cupertino, Calif. By putting an office in Reno, just 200 miles away, to collect and invest the company’s profits, Apple sidesteps state income taxes on some of those gains.California’s corporate tax rate is 8.84 percent. Nevada’s? Zero.Setting up an office in Reno is just one of many legal methods Apple uses to reduce its worldwide tax bill by billions of dollars each year.
"Finding Portland" video
“Finding Portland” was produced, shot, and edited in 51 days during March and April.Comprised of 308,829 photographs taken from over 50 unique locations, “Finding Portland” tells the story of the city and its many faces.It took an average of 3.8 hours to make each second of this film.
I think this shooting technique can make even the ugliest city look magical.
I’m in Ireland this week and picked up this little tidbit. Here is the Irish Prime Minister meeting with Apple employees in Cork.
Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny visits with Apple employees in Cork, Ireland on Friday, April 27, 2012. Apple recently announced plans to expand its presence in Cork, adding over 500 new jobs to support the company's growing business across Europe.
Shenandoah Studio is a new game company founded by industry veterans which hopes to develop a game for the iPad that should be of particular appeal to strategy game fans. They’ve turned to Kickstarter to fund the project and they’re already more than a quarter of the way there.
Battle of the Bulge for iPad is a turn-based game that harkens to classic strategy board games from Avalon Hill and other companies. You assume the role of either Allied or Axis forces, playing by yourself or with another person, either in face-to-face play using one or two iPads or over the Internet. You’ll also be able to play multiple games against different opponents simultaneously.
While artwork is described as nearly final, Shenandoah founder Eric Lee Smith says that much needs to be done, including more development, sound effects and more. The Kickstarter page is rife with graphics showing details of gameplay and a short video from Smith introducing you to the company and the concept behind it, and what makes Battle of the Bulge so special on the iPad.
So if you’re a grognard or a fan of strategy games in general, please visit the Kickstarter page and check it out.
Analytics firm comScore reports that Amazon.com’s Kindle Fire tablet increased its market share from 29.4 to 54.4 percent of the Android tablet market in two months, from December of 2011 through February of 2012. The Kindle Fire handily beat out Samsung’s Galaxy Tab family and Motorola’s Xoom for the top spot. comScore measures marketshare using tagged Web page content.
iPad-sized devices saw a “higher level of content consumption,” according to comScore’s analysis. Devices with 10-inch screens like the iPad saw an average of 125 browser page views per tablet, 39 percent higher consumption than seven-inch tablets and 58 percent higher consumption than five-inch tablets.
New York Times:
Hyman Strachman, a 92-year-old, 5-foot-5 World War II veteran trying to stay busy after the death of his wife. And he has sent every one of his copied DVDs, almost 4,000 boxes of them to date, free to American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.“It’s not the right thing to do, but I did it,” Mr. Strachman said, acknowledging that his actions violated copyright law.
Go ahead, Hollywood. Just try to sue this guy.
BuzzFeed:
The Space shuttle Enterprise, mounted atop a 747, flew over NYC today. The shuttle will eventually be put on permanent display at the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum. Unsurprisingly, a space shuttle on top of an airplane is a really cool thing to see.
Don Reisinger for CNet:
Speaking to the Austin-based Statesman newspaper, Dave Porter, senior vice president for economic development at the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce, said that the deal between the city and Apple is not done, and “remains in peril.” Porter went on to tell the newspaper that Apple is now “frustrated” with the recent developments.
Apple’s expansion of its Austin, Texas customer support operations was a big deal – the company plans to double its headcount and build new facilities. Texas governor Rick Perry has even mentioned it in speeches as an example of how Texas provides a business-friendly environment to big companies.
Some of the loudest noise opposing Apple’s deal with Austin is attorney and former judge Bill Aleshire, who called it a “sorry contract” and suggested that Apple had “rigged” the process in its own favor.
Om Malik for GigaOM:
Apple acquired app discovery service Chomp earlier this year, betting that it would help make app discovery easier and better on its iTunes Appstore. The casualty of that acquisition is the Chomp for Android app which seems to have been discontinued.
So far Apple has, in standard fashion, kept quiet about its long-term plans for Chomp. But clearly Android isn’t part of Chomp’s future anymore.
George Colony on Forrester Blogs:
When Steve Jobs departed, he took three things with him: 1) singular charismatic leadership that bound the company together and elicited extraordinary performance from its people; 2) the ability to take big risks, and 3) an unparalleled ability to envision and design products. Apple’s momentum will carry it for 24-48 months. But without the arrival of a new charismatic leader it will move from being a great company to being a good company, with a commensurate step down in revenue growth and product innovation. Like Sony (post Morita), Polaroid (post Land), Apple circa 1985 (post Jobs), and Disney (in the 20 years post Walt Disney), Apple will coast, and then decelerate.
Didn’t we hear this same crap when Jobs retired last year, and again after he died?
Does anyone really think that Cook et al are just riding Jobs’ coattails still, as they’re setting records for growth and profitability?
I look forward to 2014-2016, when Forrester CEO George Colony will be lauded as a visionary – the only one who really understood that beleaguered Apple was doomed from the start!
No, wait a minute, no he won’t. He’ll be ignored. Unlike people with a plan and the ability to execute it. Like, say, Tim Cook.
Apple has had a planning request approved for a new off-campus restaurant by the Cupertino Planning Commission, providing employees with a place to eat and discuss company plans and product development without fear of Apple’s competitors overhearing conversations.The new 21,468-square-foot cafeteria, which was approved at a meeting on Tuesday, is located a short walk from Apple’s Infinite Loop headquarters and will provide cafe, meeting room, lounge areas and courtyard facilities, as well as a dedicated second floor for restaurant staff.
Loose lips sink ships.
I wonder if this will do anything to help prevent iPhone prototypes from being left in bars.
Many thanks to ScreenCastsOnline for sponsoring The Loop this week.
Established in 2005, ScreenCastsOnline is acknowledged as one of the primary online training resources for the Mac and iOS, publishing two brand new video tutorials each and every week.
ScreenCastsOnline members automatically receive a new Mac or iOS video tutorial (or both) each week, as well as access to a huge video library of over 340 Mac tutorials and 50 iOS tutorials, covering the latest Apple and third party software.
Special offer for all “The Loop” readers – 20% discount off the first payment for any monthly, quarterly or annual membership.
More recently, ScreenCastsOnline has launched a number of low cost tutorial apps in both the Mac and iTunes App Stores.
SCOtutor for Lion – For Mac users upgrading to Lion SCOtutor for Mac – For new Mac users wanting to learn about the Mac from scratch. SCOtutor for iPad – For new iPad users – all about the iPad and iOS from first principles. SCOtutor for iPhoto on iOS – Learn all about the new iPhoto app for the iPad and iPhone.
All SCOtutor apps include an optimised video player, full chapter navigation, English subtitles and many other unique features. All apps are available on both the Mac and iOS devices.
More information about the special ScreenCastsOnline membership discount or the SCOtutor tutorials apps is available on the Web site.
Andrew Scheps’ engineering and mixing credits read like a who’s who of popular music. He mixed four tracks on Adele’s Grammy-winning album, 21, and engineered and mixed 11 songs on the latest Red Hot Chili Peppers album, I’m with You. The latter was one of his many collaborations with production legend Rick Rubin. Scheps has also worked with Jay-Z, U2, Justin Timberlake, Green Day, Metallica, and many others. As a producer, Scheps’ credits include bands such as Favez, The Duke Spirit, and Audrye Sessions.
It’s always interesting to see how the pros do it.
The iPad is drawing new consumers to the Apple brand with more than one-in-four iPad owners saying the device is their first Apple product. According to leading market research company, The NPD Group’s recent Apple Ecosystem Study, 33 percent of U.S. homes, (37 million households) own Apple products. While a majority (69 percent) of these consumers own iPods, ownership of iPads is growing.
This is good news for Apple. It doesn’t matter if it’s a Mac, iPhone or iPad that draws people to Apple, once they start using the product they will buy more. The simplicity of using any Apple products will win people over.
The Q1 findings showed that Apple’s iPhone 4S hit a record high, claiming the number one device spot overall, with 37 percent of all activations for the first quarter (four times that of any other device). The iPad 2 claimed the second spot overall, with 17.7 percent of activations for the quarter. With less than one month on the market, the new iPad™, released in March 2012, rocketed to the number four spot with 4.3 percent of all activations for the quarter, and an impressive 12.1 percent of activations in March alone.Good found that iPads collectively represented roughly 97.3 percent of its tablet activations for Q1 2012. Apple’s continued growth is not only being driven by consumers and the overall BYOD trend, but also by proactive enterprise deployment of iPads.
We knew Apple was doing really good in the consumer market, but this is quite impressive.
Image editing software Pixelmator has been updated to version 2.0.3 with the following improvements:
Taylor Wimberly:
We know Samsung has an unhealthy obsession with Apple, but this is getting a little weird. This week in Australia, Samsung hired a marketing agency called Tongue to conduct some kind of guerrilla marketing campaign where they sent a bus of protesters to an Apple store and taunted people with the message “WAKE UP.”
Here’s an idea: just make products that don’t copy everything Apple does.
The Verge:
The Google Drive cloud storage service launched yesterday to much fanfare, but as with any new Google product, there are important questions about how the company will actually use personal data uploaded to the system. Google sells ads against your data, after all, and the more data you give the company, the more opportunity it has to screw up. That means the Google Drive terms of service and privacy policy are critically important, and there’s been a lot of selective interpretation floating around the web in the past 24 hours — and a lot of comparisons to the privacy policies of competitive services like Dropbox and Microsoft’s SkyDrive.That’s great — all web services should be subject to harsh scrutiny of their privacy policies — but a close and careful reading reveals that Google’s terms are pretty much the same as anyone else’s, and slightly better in some cases. Let’s take a look.
You might be surprised to see the answer.