Apple on Wednesday introduced the Thunderbolt Display, a 27-inch monitor with built-in Thunderbolt high-speed I/O interface, integrated FaceTime camera, audio, FireWire 800, Gigabit Ethernet and USB 2.0 interfaces. It’s designed specifically with Apple’s laptops in mind, and it’ll cost $999 when it hits stores sometime in the next 60 days. (more…)
Apple on Wednesday refreshed its Mac mini desktop computer with new processors, Thunderbolt high-speed I/O technology and Mac OS X Lion. The new systems will be available beginning Thursday, starting at $599. (more…)
Apple on Wednesday introduced new MacBook Air models with high-speed Thunderbolt I/O technology, a backlit keyboard and Mac OS X Lion pre-installed. It’s available in 11 and 13-inch models starting at $999. (more…)
Wow. Another RIM employee has left for Samsung. Just a month after Brian Wallace, the VP of Digital Marketing and Media for RIM, left for Samsung, another well-known RIM employee is packing up and leaving Waterloo for Dallas, Texas. Note, this addition comes less than two weeks after Samsung chief product and technology officer Omar Khan left for a job with Citigroup, so it seems things be changing like crazy here.
The exodus is in full swing now.
I saw a link to the Beatles photos tonight on John Nack’s Twitter stream and just had to post a link to them. Apparently they are from the lost collection of Mike Mitchell.
During its third quarter earnings conference call with analysts and press on Tuesday, Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer confirmed that Mac OS X Lion would be released to the Mac App Store tomorrow. Lion will only be available as a digital download, making it the first major OS release from the company that will not be available on physical disks.
Lion will cost $29.99.
Apple on Tuesday reported a $28.57 billion in revenue and a third quarter profit of $7.31 billion. (more…)
WSJ:
The conversations weren’t explicitly aimed at recruiting a new chief executive and were more of an informal exploration of the company’s options, said these people. The directors don’t appear to have been acting on behalf of the full board, some of these people said. Apple has seven directors, including Mr. Jobs.It is also unclear whether Mr. Jobs was aware. In response to questions from The Wall Street Journal about the discussions, Mr. Jobs said Monday in an email, “I think it’s hogwash.”
Some Apple directors taking chances with their lives.
Bare Bones Software on Tuesday released a major update to BBEdit, the company’s HTML and text editor. (more…)
“Some weeks I was work ing 100 to 120 hours a week”, says Glenn Watson, former Head Studio Programmer at Gameloft’s New Zealand arm. “Starting at 9:30 AM, going home at 2:30 AM, and then com ing back into the office at 8:30 AM to start work again was not unusual”.
It’s worth pointing out that Glenn Watson is fingering Gameloft Auckland as mistreating employees, specifically, and not the entire organization – though he implies the poor working conditions are a result of directives coming down from the top. Gameloft, a major iOS game publisher, has thousands of employees worldwide (they’re based in France).
(via IndustryGamers)
If you’ve hopped on the latest social networking bandwagon and gotten a Google+ account, you may be interested in the new Google+ app for iPhone. It’s available for free download from the App Store. (more…)
I was sitting all morning watching James and Rupert Murdoch give testimony and all of a sudden there was a ruckus and the video went out. (more…)
“… So I am pretty down on people who take the sort of creative auteurs’ perspective. It’s like ‘Oh, we’re not being creative.’ But we’re creating value for people – that’s our job! It’s not to do something that nobody’s ever seen before. It’s to do something that people love so much they’re willing to give us money for.”“So I do get pretty down on people that – you see some of the indie developers that really take a snooty attitude about this. It’s almost as if it’s popular, it’s not good. And that’s just not true.”
Much like indie musicians, indie developers are happy to cop a hipster attitude about how cool and unique and misunderstood their products or their colleagues’ products are right up until the checks start rolling in. Then they’re only too happy to cash out. It’s easy to be smug when you’re poor, because that’s all you’ve got. But John Carmack is right – first and third person shooters will continue to evolve and be refined, because people love to play them and developers still need to innovate the genre.
Patrick Avenell writing for the Current:
“Apple Retail has been in business for 10 years. During this period, we have had over 1 billion visitors through our doors, many of whom are new to the Mac, as the Apple Store is the best place to learn about all the latest products from Apple,” said the spokesperson.
Keep in mind that all this happened during a time when other large retailers are closing their doors. Really remarkable.
9to5Mac quoting Google’s Eric Schmidt:
The big news in the past year has been the explosion of Google Android handsets and this means our competitors are responding. Because they are not responding with innovation, they’re responding with lawsuits. We have not done anything wrong and these lawsuits are just inspired by our success.
You could say a lot of things about Apple, but saying the company that brought us the iPod, iPhone, iPad, iTunes Store, successful retail and so much more, lacks innovation is just stupid.
News Corp. executives who watched Murdoch, 80, rehearse for his appearance before Parliament were concerned about how he handled questions, according to three people, who weren’t authorized to speak publicly. Murdoch is scheduled to discuss the company’s role in the phone hacking of murder victims, members of the royal family and others by the News of the World, which was closed last week.
Another one bites the dust.
As if the day wasn’t bad enough for Murdoch, the New York Times has this:
The hacking group Lulz Security claimed responsibility for planting a fake article about the death of Rupert Murdoch, the chairman of the News Corporation, on one of the company’s Web sites Monday.
All traffic was later redirected to the Lulz Twitter page. These guys are good.
Charles Arthur writing for The Guardian:
App developers are withdrawing their products for sale from the US versions of Apple’s App Store and Google’s Android Market for fear of being sued by companies which own software patents – just as a Mumbai-based company has made a wide-ranging claim against Microsoft, Apple, Google, Yahoo and a number of other companies over Twitter-style feeds, for which it claims it has applied for a patent.
I think people and companies should be able to protect their ideas, but some of these patents are just crazy. I’m not sure what the solution is, but something has to be done.
RIM has officially responded to news that it may stop production of its PlayBook tablet. (more…)
Borders, which employs about 10,700 people, scrapped a bankruptcy-court auction scheduled for Tuesday amid the dearth of bids.The chain said it will ask a judge Thursday to approve a sale to liquidators led by Hilco Merchant Resources and Gordon Brothers Group.
Very sad to see Borders close for good, but the company dug its own grave when it stopped doing one thing well – selling books – and started doing several things poorly (selling DVDs, audio CDs, stuffed toys, coffee, pastries, games, etc.). It’ll be interesting to see how Barnes & Noble continues to manage its transition to e-books, which it says are selling quite well (thanks to its own branded Nook devices).
RIM may be throwing in the towel on its PlayBook tablet, according to a note from one analyst on Monday. (more…)
A new survey released on Monday shows that Apple’s iOS mobile operating system continues to lead it competitors. (more…)
The Omni Group on Monday announced the release of OmniPlan 2.0, a new version of its project management software for Mac OS X. It costs $199; upgrades from the previous release are available. (more…)
That being said what I feel the real issue behind the lawsuits is that Android is free. It’s obviously one thing to infringe on a companies inventions or innovations and then sell them but its another entirely to infringe on someones inventions and innovations and give them away for free. It sends the message that those innovations aren’t even worth enough to ask someone to pay for them.
BGR:
We are told the handset will retail for no more than $350 without contract. Ready for the really interesting part? It’s entirely possible that the low-cost iPhone will in fact be the iPhone 3GS. We reported that we were able to independently confirm that the iPhone 5 featured a radical new design, however this source of ours isn’t quite sure that will be the next iPhone. Whether it’s the iPhone 4S or 5, it will be coming out or “at least announced by the end of Summer, late August-ish.”
I think it’s pretty safe to say at this point that nobody really knows what’s going to happen with the next iPhone. Well played Apple.
Tara Lachapelle writing for BusinessWeek:
Potential buyers for TiVo include Microsoft (MSFT) and Google. Microsoft has wanted to offer a set-top box and have a presence in television systems through cable operators, says Tony Wible of Janney Montgomery Scott, who estimates a takeover price of $17 a share. TiVo’s television search capability would appeal to Google as it tries to gain a foothold in living rooms with Google TV, which lets users search online video and other content on their TV screens. It also would complement the company’s acquisition last month of SageTV, a DVR software maker to be integrated with Google TV, Harding says.
People have been saying for years that it would be nice to see Apple buy Tivo, but they just don’t seem to be beyond that “hobby” stage with television yet.
The sad part about Microsoft or Google buying Tivo is that they would offer more of the same.
From Byte:
The opinion column that follows doesn’t live up to the proud tradition and our best intentions for BYTE. It not only lacks the deep and authoritative technical content that we want BYTE to be known for, but it also doesn’t reflect the community’s views on Apple. Although there are plenty of people who don’t like Apple products, and some who have had bad experiences with Apple, those are the exception, not the rule.
After publishing an article called “The Crucible: A Sobering Look At Apple,” Byte retracted the piece and said it would redouble its “efforts to employ even tighter controls in our editing content before it gets published.”
Personally, I think it’s a good call from Byte. They admitted it was a mistake, so now we’ll wait and see how future stories read.
Stock prices go up and down constantly, but Apple hit a milestone today closing at an all time high. The stock shot up $7.15 or 2 percent to close at $364.92. The stock is continuing its climb in after-hours trading going up $0.12 to $365.04.
AAPL Closes At All Time High: $364.92 | Mac Rumors
The FIFA Women’s World Cup final takes place this weekend in Frankfurt, Germany with the United States taking on Japan. I decided to put together some apps to help you get the most from the experience. (more…)
Apple on Friday released iOS 4.3.4 – new software for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. It’s available for download and installation through iTunes. (more…)
Just insert the material you want a pick out of into the DIY Guitar Pick Punch, and … well … squeeze. Instant guitar pick! Make them out of expired credit cards, those grocery store club cards, plastic packaging material, and more! Hey, want to get super DIY-y? Then punch a few thin picks and glue them together into the ultimate pick of density.
Kelly Guimont sent this to me this morning. It’s like a hole puncher, but for guitar picks. Personally, I buy bags of my favorite picks (Tortex 1.0), but if you’re the DIY type, this would be perfect.
