The music options on the iPhone have sure gotten exciting over the last few months. First Apple unveiled iTunes Match, then Spotify launched their app in the US, and now Turntable.fm has brought their amazing social music experience to the iPhone. Earlier this morning Turntable.fm released their new iPhone app that enables users to listen to Turntable.fm DJ Rooms wherever they go.
Christian Louboutin, whose signature red-soled stilettos shod Carrie Bradshaw in Sex in the City, is a big fan of an iPhone-controlled toy.*
Apple recently launched the iTunes Match beta test, but overwhelming demand caused Apple to shut the program down. Well it looks like Apple’s ramped up the back end so that it can support more beta testers. They’ve re-opened iTunes Match enrollment to more developers in the U.S.
Apple Chairman Steve Jobs has always wanted Apple to “change the world.” Of course it has, but only the wealthy, tech-savvy, privileged part of the world. Despite its incredible success, Apple hasn’t changed the world for billions of poor people.
To date, Apple has changed the world only by solving only first-world problems: “My Windows laptop came loaded with crapware and stickers.” “My PC is noisy and ugly.” “I hate audio CDs and CD players.” “My cell phone is counterintuitive.” “I want to surf the web while watching TV, but my netbook sucks.”
These are the kinds of problems Apple has solved for millions of people.
But there are bigger problems out there that Apple is in a unique position to solve.
In fact, a single solution could help solve five real problems, and change the world in five meaningful ways. It could even accelerate Apple’s phenomenal growth.
I challenge incoming CEO Tim Cook to consider the following proposal.
A few short months ago, we wondered whether the wee ones should be learning their ABCs with iPads.
The answer appears to be yes: Fall 2011 brings a bumper crop of U.S. preschools launching iPad programs. From Maine to Tennessee, kids are saying teary goodbyes to their parents and being greeted in schoolrooms with sympathetic teachers (we hope) and Apple’s magical device.
Since we can no longer carp about people smoking, it would seem we have to find some bone to pick with fellow diners in restaurants.
Case in point: a server in a busy San Francisco restaurant (where else?) wonders if it is a breach of etiquette 2.0 to bring your own mobile entertainment to the table.
Parliamentarians in Western Australia demanded a trial of Apple’s tablet computer, waging the kind of epic battle between users and the IT department that happens in companies around the globe.
The lawmakers it so badly 15 of them threatened “industrial action” if iPads were not allowed on the list of devices for their laptop allowance after being told by the ICT gurus that the device did not yet meet existing IT infrastructure or security standards.
Over the past few months, not a day has gone by that our Twitter feed hasn’t been been bombarded by a consistent string of questions that millions of hungry Apple fans are just clamoring to have answered:
When will Apple announced the iPhone 5?
When will I be able to preorder the iPhone 5?
When is the iPhone 5 coming out?
We think we know. Here’s the complete release timeline of the iPhone 5 we think you can expect, starting from which day we think Apple will send out invitations and continuing to the iPhone 5’s October 7th release date.
An Apple-related tidbit from the Carol Bartz-Yahoo saga that perhaps confirms the iPad’s dominance with corner office types. Her 42-word message about getting fired as CEO (over the phone, ouch) this afternoon ends with the “Sent from my iPad” signature.
Water cooler alert: a new poll names Steve Jobs as the coolest man in tech, helping propel his fellow U.S. citizens to the position of coolest people on the planet.
Social networking site Badoo.com asked 30,000 people in 15 countries to name the coolest nationality. Big win for the red white and blue: America won the top spot.
We are receiving reports from readers that invitations to join Apple’s AppleSeed Software Customer Seeding Program are hitting people’s in boxes today. This comes as rumors are ramping up about the imminent release of iCloud, Mac OS X 10.7.2, iTunes 10.5, ATV updates and the iPhone 4S/5.
This caught my attention over coffee and the Sunday paper (I know! Weekend luddite, is what an affectionate — I think — friend calls me) a book entirely devoted to fonts called “Just My Type” by Simon Garfield.
Your mom or tween daughter might not recognize them, but Tim Cook and Jonathan Ive are both more influential than Lady Gaga, according to Vanity Fair.
The iconic Conde Nast mag just released its 2011 New Establishment list, and this year it is dominated by people who can still probably go to the mall without being asked for autographs.
Following the resignation of Steve Jobs last week, a host of handy folks got busy making stuff to ride the wave of his popularity. Here is some SJ-related merchandise you could spend your money on, but probably shouldn’t.
It’s finally here — for U.S.-based developers, anyway. iTunes Match, Apple’s upcoming new service that takes your iTunes library and mirrors it in Apple’s cloud so it can be streamed has just dropped in Beta form.
Apple stores are expected to reopen today, August 29, after being shuttered complete with designer sandbags over the weekend, but Apple’s website advises people to call ahead for opening hours.
“We will reopen Monday, August 29. Please call the store for details regarding opening time.”
First person to send us pics from the re-opened Apple stores wins something!
The fake advice book on the bestseller list in Taiwan may be — wait for it — the clone of an earlier fake book first released in China.
Called “Steve Paul Jobs’s Eleven Pieces of Advice for Young People Today,” and written by a certain John Cage, as we noted it’s a best seller in Taiwan.
The San Francisco Chronicle has a Sunday feature with some A-list former Apple employees turned entrepreneurs about what they took from the Cupertino company and working with Steve Jobs to their new endeavors.
UPDATE 3: And the images were fake.
UPDATE 2: Leander here. I go to pick up my kids after school and all hell breaks loose. Two things:
1. TMZ’s pictures are very upsetting but there is clearly news here. Unfortunately, the images make abundantly clear why Jobs just resigned. If these images are real, they graphically demonstrate what we all suspected — that Jobs is very ill, and has resigned because of it.
The question is how we should have handled it. Posting the pictures is a no no. We had this debate when the National Enquirer posted pictures of Jobs earlier this year. We decided they were ghoulish and stayed away. News editors face these decisions all the time when reporting terrorist strikes, famines, disasters or other events that generate upsetting images. Usually they don’t show the most horrific, graphic pictures, but they don’t shy away from reporting the news either.
We work in a highly-competitve, realtime news environment. Decisions about what to post and how is almost always immediate, on-the-fly. It’s impossible to make the right call every time. That’s why news outlets with more resources than we have employ several layers of editors. On this blog, everyone is encouraged to post as quickly as possible — it’s the only way to stay competitive — but that means the editorial process is sometimes post-publication, as it is now.
2. As for the “staff writer” byline, I’m not going to throw the blogger here under the bus, but there is a good reason they post anonymously. In the past, they’ve been the victim of persistent trolls. We decided — with my full blessing — that some of their posts were better posted anonymously to deflect the knee-jerk negative attention they were attracting. That didn’t mean that all posts by this writer should be anonymous, but the system defaults to the settings that were last used, which may be the case here.
Lastly, I regret that we posted the pictures, and I apologize for it. I’m sorry we caused offense. We hold Steve Jobs in the highest regard and affection. We sincerely wish him the best.
UPDATE 3: There are a lot of calls to take this post down. It is very tempting to delete mistakes — just disappear them — but it’s crucial to maintain the integrity of the editorial archive. If we disappear stuff without explanation or notice, how can anyone trust what we write? In fact, we try to be rigorous about making changes to posts after they’ve been published, using strikethroughs to correct mistakes and editorial notes (‘updated’) to add new material. When we make mistakes, we need to correct them, not delete them.
UPDATE: Editor’s note: We have pulled the TMZ photo. We had posted it because we felt it had clear news value, but we understand they are upsetting pictures. Apologies if we offended anyone.
TMZ has a pair of paparazzo pics posted today showing a very gaunt, frail Steve Jobs being helped — or almost held up — in what looks like a parking lot. They are incredibly hard to look at.
We’re holding out hope that they are fakes.
The pictures are here. Warning, they are very upsetting.
Forget draping yourself in the flag: in hopes of gaining votes, a politician in Taiwan dressed up like Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.
Cult of Mac readers are reacting to the news that Steve Jobs has resigned his place as CEO of Apple, Inc. and although he’ll still be around as the Chairman of Apple’s board many of you were just as shocked and surprised about the news just as much as we were at Cult of Mac.
If you haven’t read the comments on the posts about Steve Jobs you should since some of them are very interesting. I’d like to call your attention to a few of them written by readers after they read my post about Jobs resigning as Apple’s CEO and COO Tim Cook named as his replacement.
So now I’ll step away from the podium and let you see what some of Cult of Mac’s readers had to say about yesterday’s announcement.
Gina Smith editor-in-chief of BYTE.com and co-author of iWoz: How I Invented the Personal Computer and Had Fun Along the Way (available at the iBook Store) spoke to Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak yesterday and according to BYTE the announcement that Jobs was stepping down as Apple CEO made him “happy for Jobs. ”
We all knew this day would come — but not so soon. My reaction was a sudden exclamation of “holy crap” after seeing the USA Today headline pop up on my iPad while on a conference call.
Steve Jobs has suddenly surprised everyone and resigned as Apple’s CEO. It is really difficult to imagine Apple without Steve Jobs, but here we are so now nothing is left to the imagination. So what will happen now under the leadership of Tim Cook?
When a photo is worth 1,000 words…