Apple Inc. - page 141

I know everyone is interested in purchasing an iPad 2, but you are not sure about whether your local Apple store has any in stock. What we need is an Apple iPad availability Web tool like the one we had before for the iPhone 3GS in 2009. Back then that page declared:

The Apple Retail Store likely has your iPhone 3GS in stock. You can check the most up-to-date availability right here. Shipments of iPhone 3GS arrive most days, and availability is updated hourly. The 8GB iPhone 3G is currently available in all stores.

You could access the tool to check the availability of an iPhone 3GS in your state. I checked and the URL no longer works — even when you substitute the word iPad in it for iPhone in the old URL.

I think that Apple would probably re-launch this tool again if they had better inventory availability, but with the iPad 2 selling out and screen manufacturing problems they probably don’t really need this tool right now.

Hopefully all that will change soon and a site like this will re-launch for the iPad 2. Then you won’t have to stand in ridiculous iPad 2 lines any more.

With all the rumors about NFC being in the next iPhone — or not in the next iPhone — we have a few more details about Apple’s remote computing plans that revolve around the technology.

According to a source close to the company, Apple is busy testing several prototype iPhones with near field communications (NFC). Unfortunately, the source has no knowledge of when Apple will actually introduce the technology in the iPhone. It could be the next model, due this summer, or next year’s, they said.

However, Apple is working out the kinks in an ambitious remote computing system — and a key component utilizes the recently launched Mac App Store.

As we previously reported, Apple is working on a system that allows users to log into another computer using an NFC-equipped iPhone. The iPhone pairs with the host machine, and loads the user’s files and settings over the net. It’s as though the user is sitting at their own machine at home.

The picture above is an edited version of a photo that I made while I removed my iPad 2 from its box to create a gallery of photos for Cult of Mac recently. The arrow, which I added to the original picture, points to an anomaly the most obvious out of a handful of them on the display of my iPad 2. I purchased the iPad 2 last Friday on launch day.

Once that gallery went live I started receiving comments from readers stating that it looked like I was encountering a back lighting issue on my iPad 2. I honestly wasn’t sure what was going on because to my eyes the anomaly had a yellowish tint to it. I thought it was just the adhesive problem that plagued some iPhone 4 users last year. That problem actually disappeared on its own as the adhesive dried and dissipated.

Unfortunately that isn’t the case for me, since according to the Genius at the Genius Bar this afternoon the problem is with the backlighting after all and it isn’t a problem that will go away.

I made an interesting discovery today. I took my original Apple iPad case ($40), you know the black one, that the original iPad was inserted into making it kind of like a book or folio. It turns out that my iPad 2 with black leather Smart Cover (see my in-depth review) fits perfectly and tightly inside.

Wow I thought this a great opportunity to recycle something I didn’t know what I was going to do with after upgrading to the iPad 2.  So hit the read link to find out how you can recycle your old iPad cover yet retain the unique Smart Cover and all its magic.

Here’s an astonishing post from Kevin Rose, publishing an (anoymized) email from a friend of his who works for Apple in Japan.

Microsoft is killing the Zune player after five years of unsuccessfully trying to compete with Apple’s iPod.

The Zune is being discontinued thanks to weak ongoing sales, Bloomberg reports. It will not be refreshed when current units sell out.

When the Zune was introduced in 2006, in mold-breaking brown nonetheless, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer predicted the player would one day overtake Apple. But it failed to even crack the top five MP3 players. According to NPD, Apple had 77% market share in 2010.

“MSFT abandoning Zune last sign AAPL totally dominated portable music for the last decade,” tweeted industry analyst Michael Gartenberg. “Sony, Samsung, Dell all failed to move needle.”

Gartenberg also predicted that tablets will be the next Zune.

Pundit Paul Kedrosky said: “My main reaction to news that Microsoft is going to stop selling Zunes is … Microsoft still sold Zunes?”

Instead of selling hardware players, Microsoft will shift its focus to putting Zune on smartphones running Windows mobile OS.

With its world class design, Microsoft’s young hip image, and ground-breaking advertising like the spot below, is it any wonder the Zune failed to take off?

(This is a joke, btw)

Rocker Jon Bon Jovi says Steve Jobs is “personally responsible for killing the music business” with iTunes.

In an interview with The Sunday Times Magazine, Bon Jovi says kids no longer enjoy the “magical” experience of buying and enjoying LPs because of digital downloads. He hates to sound like an “old man,” he says, but it’s all Jobs’ fault:

“Kids today have missed the whole experience of putting the headphones on, turning it up to 10, holding the jacket, closing their eyes and getting lost in an album; and the beauty of taking your allowance money and making a decision based on the jacket, not knowing what the record sounded like, and looking at a couple of still pictures and imagining it. God, it was a magical, magical time. I hate to sound like an old man now, but I am, and you mark my words, in a generation from now people are going to say: ‘What happened?’. Steve Jobs is personally responsible for killing the music business.”

I’m an old man too, but I’ve never enjoyed music more. I much prefer my fantastic Sonos music system than my old record player. I do recall the excitement of buying a new LP every week. I doubt I’d get the same excitement these days, but that’s not Steve Jobs’ fault.

As for killing music, I’d say Bon Jovi has done more on that front than Steve Jobs.

Incidentally, Bon Jovi sits on a White House panel with Jobs’ wife, Laurene Powell Jobs. Both are members of the White House council for Community Solutions. Might be awkward at the next meeting.

The Sunday Times Magazine: LITD: Jon Bon Jovi, 48, rockstar (paywall)

Just marvel at the engineering behind the iPad 2’s Smart Covers. Between them, the iPad 2 and its Smart Cover contain an incredible 31 magnets.

Apple has made extensive use of magnets in the past – to hold a remote control to the iMac, for example, or keep the lid of a MacBook closed. But it has never used so many magnets in a product, or so elegantly.

The 31 magnets in the iPad 2 and the Smart Cover:

• clip the Smart Cover to the side of the iPad
• Keep the Smart Cover attached to the screen when closed
• ensure the Smart Cover retains its triangular shape when folded into a stand
• instantly wake the iPad and put it to sleep when opened and closed

It’s really quite mind-boggling. iFixit has the details.

Early benchmark tests of Apple’s new dual-core A5 chip featured in the iPad 2 have revealed that each processing core is actually clocked at a slower speed than the previous A4 chip, which features in the original iPad, iPhone 4, and the latest iPod touch.

Tests performed by iOSnoops show that overall, each of the A5’s cores runs at least 10% slower than the single core featured in Apple’s A4 chip, running at around 890 MHz in comparison to the 1 GHz A4. The speed of the A5 fluctuates depending on the applications it’s running however, with its lowest speed clocked at 861 MHz and its highest at 894 MHz.

If you weren’t fortunate enough to order your iPad 2 through the Apple online store yesterday, you may want to try third-party suppliers and Apple specialists if you want one anytime soon, as shipping time for the second-generation tablet has today increased to 3-4 weeks through Apple.

When the iPad 2 launched yesterday, shipping times started at 3-4 days. They then increased to 5-7 days shortly afterwards, before rising again to 2-3 weeks. Now you could face a month-long wait for that skinny new Apple tablet, while the company seems to be struggling with demand once again.

It hasn’t yet been revealed by Apple how many iPad 2s it sold on launch day, however, industry analysts have predicted that a staggering 600,000 of the devices will be sold during its first weekend. Supply shortages across Apple retails stores, third-party resellers, and now the Apple online store, certainly strengthen these predictions.

[via 9to5 Mac]

Conan O’Brien thinks Apple is getting a bit cocky. Never one to pass up the opportunity for a good parody, Team Coco takes on Apple’s slick interview-laden style in this funny spoof of the iPad 2 launch video.

Think Steve Jobs is the only employee at Apple capable of harnessing the Reality Distortion Field? And ever wonder about those team fashion choices? (Promo spot plays before actual video.)

[via Gizmodo]

A new Apple HDMI adapter announced at the iPad 2 keynote earlier today was accompanied by a slide of the accessory hooked up to the second-generation device, however, Steve forgot to mention that it would also be compatible with the iPhone 4, the fourth-generation iPod touch, and the original iPad.

Unfortunately, movies and slideshows will be capped at 720p on these devices as opposed to the 1080p output that the iPad 2 can throw out. We’re assuming this is the difference between Apple’s A4 and A5 chips.

The ‘Apple Digital AV Adapter‘ is priced at $39 and is expected to ship later this month. If you head on over to the Apple Store you’ll notice the full list of supported devices within the product’s description.

The Apple Store just went offline. New goodies coming soon!

Does it mean the iPad 2 will be available to order today?

Ever wonder how blogs and websites decide whether to publish a juicy Apple rumor? Have you ever published a piece of gossip yourself? To help understand this delicate decision making process, Joy of Tech has published some helpful Apple Rumor Publishing Guidelines in the form of a easy-to-follow flowchart.

Gave me a good laugh – classic wisdom finely honed among rumorologists for decades! :)

[via Joy Of Tech]

The New York Times‘ Bay Citizen website has published more remarks from Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak on the subject of Mike Daisey’s controversial one man show.

As previously reported, Woz was moved to tears by “The Agony and The Ecstasy of Steve Jobs,” a monologue about Apple and Foxconn, the company’s largest supplier in Asia that saw a rash of worker suicides last year.

Wozniak says he found the play deeply upsetting. He urges Tim Cook, Apple’s COO and current acting CEO, to go see the one-man show besucase the issues it discusses could hurt Apple financially in the future:

Tim should know about this very soon, so that he knows what’s in more and more people’s heads. The emotions and understanding and moral feelings that Mike brings out are very strong and could be a threat to Apple’s future, even though they are only simmering now.

The Bay Citizen: Apple Co-Founder Responds to ‘The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs’

Former Apple manager Paul Devine pleaded guilty in federal court in San Jose on Monday to a massive kickback scheme involving Apple’s supply chain.

Devine will forfeit $2.25 million in proceeds and property, the U.S. Attorney said.

Devine provided suppliers with details of Apple’s product roadmap and pricing targets in exchange for hefty kickbacks. When he was busted, feds found about $150,000 in shoeboxes under his bed and more money in foreign accounts and safe deposit boxes.

Devine originally pleaded not-guilty but later agreed to protect Apple’s trade secrets if the case came to court. That move was seen as a way to get a favorable plea bargain. Devine had faced 23 counts of wire fraud and money laundering. He plead guilty to one count of each statutory violation.

He awaits sentencing on June 6. He could face up to 20 years in jail, the U.S Attorney said.

Full press release below:

Steve Jobs is on medical leave and now one of his key lieutenants reportedly wants to return to his native U.K.

Apple’s head designer Jonathan Ive wants to return England to live, reports the Sunday Times. Ive, of course, is one of the key geniuses behind Apple’s string of blockbuster hits and is perhaps the world’s most influential industrial designer.

British-born Ive has reportedly proposed a plan to “commute” to Cupertino, Calif., from his $4 million manor house in Somerset, but Apple’s board is none too thrilled with the idea. Ive is said to be at “loggerheads” with the board, reports the Sunday Times.

A friend of the family told the paper: “Unfortunately he is just too valuable to Apple and they told him in no uncertain terms that if he headed back to England he would not be able to sustain his position with them.”

According to The Times, Ive has just reaped about $30 million from a ‘golden handcuffs’ deal signed in 2008, which has now expired. He and his wife Heather want to educate their twins in their native country.

Apple refused to comment on Ive’s employment status and said it was “speculation” that he wanted to return to the U.K.

The Sunday Times: I created the iPad and iClaim my £18m (Story behind pay wall).

Via Daily Mail.

All Things D: Apple Shareholders Reject Proposal to Disclose Succession Plan

Apple is asking its retail employees to sign non-disclosure agreements ahead of a secret, all-hands meeting to be held this Sunday, Apple Insider is reporting. It could foreshadow a major launch, a media event or both.

Nine months in, Apple still hasn’t managed to ship the elusive white iPhone 4. A problem with the painting process on the white glass plate causes light to leak onto the camera sensor, washing out images. At this point, you’d think Apple would just give up and move on, but the white iPhone 5 is the Moby Dick to Steve Jobs’ cantankerous, turtlenecked Ahab. We’re in the realm of obsession here.

None the less, a brief note over at Digitimes says that Apple is already looking towards the future of pastiness, and have just signed Wintek to be the sole touch panel supply for all white iPhone 5s.

I suppose the comfort in all this is that, given what a debacle the white iPhone 4 has been, you can bet on the fact that Apple will have the white iPhone 5 perfected as a point of pride at launch.

The new MacBook Pros are due on Thursday according to pervasive Internet scuttlebutt, and at the very least, a jump to Intel’s new Sandy Bridge architecture is a sure thing… but another state-of-the-art Intel technology might be coming to them as well, with Mactrast reporting that the February 24th MBP refresh might include the adoption of Intel’s Light Peak technology.

Apple has delayed shipping MacBook Pros on its online store for 3-5 business days… delaying the earliest day you can have a MacBook Pro shipped to you to well-ahead of the rumored Thursday launch of the next-gen MacBook Pros. Given how religious Apple’s Tim Cook is about supply, this has all the markings of an official MacBook Pro refresh.

In 1997, Apple was in deep financial trouble. Wired published a now-famous cover story: “101 Ways to Save Apple.”

Some of the advice was prescient, some was silly, but it was a fascinating list of suggestions. And what actually happened between now and then is even more interesting.

Here, for the first time, is a really detailed followup to each and every one of Wired‘s 101 suggestions.

It looks like Apple’s all set to launch new MacBooks next week, but the launch day is — a Thursday?

What’s up with that? Apple’s big product launches are almost always on Tuesdays. (It allows reporters on the East Coast to fly into California on a workday instead of the weekend).

So why would Apple launch new MacBooks on Thursday February 24?

Here’s the cover of the March 2011 edition of Wired magazine, which just showed up in the mail:

1 million workers

90 million iPhones

17 suicides

This is where your gadgets come from. Should you care?

Yes, you should care. We do. Kudos to Wired for shining a much-needed spotlight on this important issue.