Archive | Cult of Mac

Blogger Jason Kottke has noticed an interesting pattern: Silicon Valley entrepreneurs who take Steve Jobs’s biography not as a guide to success, but as a warning.

Kottke points to four entrepreneurs who are scaling back on work to focus on their families, lest they turn out like Steve Jobs.

Apple’s Factories Are “Sweatshops” — But They’re Better Than Competition, Says Labor Activist

Labor activist Li Qiang of China Labor Watch

Apple is doing a better job auditing its suppliers than it’s competitors, says a China labor activist.

Labor activist Li Qiang says Apple is doing a much better job of monitoring factory conditions than Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Nokia and many others.

“I compared Apple with other cell phone companies, such as Nokia. And the conditions in those factories are worse than the ones of Apple,” he said.

However, Qiang says that conditions in the supply chain are not the responsibility of the suppliers themselves or the Chinese government. Apple ultimately bears responsibility, and the company should spend some of its record profits in improving conditions.

As Apple Explodes In The Workplace, Introducing Our New Business Reporter

Cult of Mac's new business reporter, Ryan Faas, is the author of iPhone for Work, and a long-time contributor to publications like Computerworld.

For longtime Apple fans and new Mac and iOS users alike, this is a fascinating time to be living and working. Apple is becoming a fixture in every kind of workplace. It seems like every week there are stories of businesses investing in iPads or MacBooks, including the recent Forrester report that one in five people now use an Apple device on the job and 50% of companies issued Macs to at least some staff members. Not to mention the Checkpoint study that showed corporations preferring iOS over both Android and BlackBerry.

In other words, Apple, the iPad and iPhone are revolutionizing business, and Cult of Mac is joining that revolution. That’s why I take great pleasure in introducing Ryan Faas, Cult of Mac’s new business reporter. Ryan will be writing for the site full-time, covering the incredible march of Apple technology into the workplace. Ryan is a veteran tech journalist who has written extensively about Apple, business and enterprise IT, and the mobile industry. He’s contributed to Computerworld, InformIT and Peachpit Press.

Take A Peek At Upcoming Versions Of Abvio’s Full-Featured Running And Cycling Apps

SAN FRANCISCO, MACWORLD/IWORLD 2012 — As the App Store approaches its fourth birthday this July, some early apps are getting quite mature. With each update, more and more features get added.

Take for example a trio of apps from Abvio for running, walking and cycling. The company was previewing version 7 of their apps here at the show, and they have become very full-featured indeed.

Macworld Concludes With a Big Drum Circle

SAN FRANCISCO, MACWORLD/IWORLD 2012 — Here is some video of the big drum circle that wrapped up Macworld. Such a great way to end a conference!

Macworld is done, but we’ll have the remainder of our show posts tomorrow.

Bring-Your-Own-Mac Is Fueling Big Gains For This Enterprise Software Company

Mike Evangelist, chief marketing officer for Code 42 Software, says companies are finally embracing the consumerization of IT.

SAN FRANCISCO, MACWORLD/IWORLD 2012 — Here’s a story we’re hearing a lot at MacWorld: the business world is finally starting to embrace the consumerization of IT.

Take Code 42 Software, which has seen a lot of growth from its enterprise customers recently. According to Code 42, corporations have given up fighting employees who bring their Mac to work, and are now supporting them instead.

“Companies are realizing they can’t fight the tide anymore,” said Mike Evangelist, chief marketing officer. “People like their Macs better and they’re taking them to work. Companies are reacting to that.”

This One-Piece MacBook Stand Is Made In Same Factory As Apple’s Unibody Macs

SAN FRANCISCO, MACWORLD/IWORLD 2012 – Rain Design’s new one-piece MacBook stand is made in the same factory that makes Apple’s unibody Macs, says the company.

Quick Look at Silo Ink’s Refillable Ink Cartridges

SAN FRANCISCO, MACWORLD/IWORLD 21012 — Silo Ink’s refillable ink cartridges are the last inkjet cartridges you’ll ever buy, according to the company. It offers a lifetime replacement guarantee to back that up.

Once installed, the cartridges are refilled from bottles of ink, which cost about $15 and are good for 10 refills. A special chip that makes the cartridges appear as new to the printer after a refill.

A set of refillable cartridges cost between $100 and $200, depending on how many you need for your printer.

Here’s a quick look at the system, which is being showcased here at Macworld.

Silo Ink.

Hands On With the Uber-Useful Launch Center, An Automator For iOS [Macworld 2012]

Here’s a quick look at AppCubby’s $0.99 Launch Center app, a very cool and useful app launcher that’s like Automator for iOS.

The app allows you to set up all kinds of actions and schedule them. Version 1.1 adds actions to iOS’s Notification Center. Take checking your Facebook messages, for example. This normally takes several steps: searching for the Facebook app, launching it and finding the messages tab. In Launch Center, you can set it up to check your messages every morning from just one finger-tap on the Notifications screen.

The app can be configured to work with a ton of apps and perform pretty complex actions, like calling your mom every week or adjusting the screen brightness down every night. Today’s update has prope and is already in the App Store’s Top 100. Here’s the app’s creator, David Barnard, showing how it works.

New Yorker Writer Susan Orlean Threatened Divorce To Convert Her Husband To Mac [Macworld / iWorld 2012]

SAN FRANCISCO, MACWORLD / iWORLD 2012 — Talking on stage about her love of technology and gadgets, New Yorker writer Susan Orlean rhapsodized her iPad, and told how she converted her husband to Apple technology.

A self-confessed geek, Orlean told how the iPad solved all the problems she had with working and traveling with technology. She had a Danger Sidekick, but would go nuts taking notes on it. She finds her MacBook too heavy to carry all day.

She also not afraid of losing or damaging her iPad. “I can it take with me to take notes but it won’t have my life on it if it gets lost or stolen,” she said. “It solved all of my problems.”

And her favorite app?