Apple - page 13

@Scott Troyan

When a photo is worth 1,000 words…

Surprising news today from Cupertino that Steve Jobs resigned as CEO of Apple, Inc. Jobs has stepped down and the board is naming Tim Cook as his replacement. The company said, “Steve extraordinary vision and leadership saved Apple and guided it to its position as the world’s most innovative and valuable technology company, ” and Jobs stated:

I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come.

I hereby resign as CEO of Apple. I would like to serve, if the Board sees fit, as Chairman of the Board, director and Apple employee.

As far as my successor goes, I strongly recommend that we execute our succession plan and name Tim Cook as CEO of Apple.

I believe Apple’s brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it. And I look forward to watching and contributing to its success in a new role.

I have made some of the best friends of my life at Apple, and I thank you all for the many years of being able to work alongside you.

Steve

Steve Jobs will remain as the Chairman on Apple’s board. Check out the complete press release after the break.

One of Apple’s education profile stories has caught some heat for highlighting how Mac products are teaching a new generation of journalists the trade.

Some question whether those would-be Woodward and Bernsteins at the Missouri School of Journalism should be pledging allegiance to Apple, one of the world’s most powerful companies.

There are a lot of changes being made by Apple to iOS 5. Each new beta reveals a little more about the changes everyone can expect after iOS 5 is released to the public in a few months. There is one big change that Apple hasn’t said a lot about publicly and developers might be surprised by it.

Apple has notified developers via a recent update to iOS 5 documentation that they will be removing access to the unique device identifier (UDID) on the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad.

This sounds like what people who don’t live in California think people here do on dates:  take a stroll around the Apple retail store in Palo Alto, then have some sushi and a little conversation.

Except that this isn’t a date, it’s the meeting of two businessmen. The Wall Street Journal recounts how Peter Bell decided to court iAd chief Andy Miller away from Apple in an afternoon they spent hanging out together.

You probably don’t need to hear it from us that the iPhone 4 is one hell of a video camera and that Final Cut Pro X is awesome in its own right. However, we do want to make sure our readers have access to all the best tools to fullfil their directoral dreams, so if you’re one of those with the burning desire to create the next viral video shot entirely on your iPhone 4, but lack all the tools to get said video made, here’s your chance to unleash your hidden cinematographic potential by winning a Mobile Cinematography Kit from Cult of Mac and FiLMiC Pro. Entering the contest is ridiculously simple. Here’s how to give yourself the chance to win the $400 Grand Prize Package:

Most of Apple’s money comes from recently invented gadgets. More than two-thirds of Apple’s revenue comes from product types that didn’t even exist five years ago (iPhone and iPad). And 78% of Apple’s income is made by products unimaginable just ten years ago (throw in iPod and iTunes).

That means, in order to stay on the same growth curve in the current decade, Apple will have to invent product categories as new as the iPod, iPhone and iPad were, right?

Wrong.

The new products were part of a killer strategy Apple came up with in 1997. Apple will dominate the future by sticking to the strategy, not by trying to invent more product categories.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nE8PvsRqjkg&feature=player_embedded

Apple’s magical device is at work in the Magic Kingdom. This video gives a look behind the scenes where engineers — or “imagineers”  as Disney calls them — are at work on a New Fantasyland using iPads.

It looks like Apple may have won round two in the global fight against Samsung in the tablet turf wars.

German news agency DPA just reported that Apple has been granted a preliminary injunction against Samsung’s Android-based Galaxy Tab 10.1.

Apple is mixed up in all kinds of patent issues. As a result, the company has been accused of unfairly trying to kill Google’s Android platform, and of being a “patent troll.”

But such criticism is misplaced. First, the accusations are false. Second, the real blame should be reserved for the US Congress, which has the power to fix our broken patent system, but year after year fails to do so.

Apple has introduced a new feature in Mac OS X Lion called Resume. Resume will automatically reopen all the windows you had open the last time you used an app after you relaunch it.

Not a bad trick for some apps, but for some others it can quickly be really annoying. Here’s a tip on how you can avoid it altogether.

A casual observer might be forgiven for thinking that to Apple, Google is Enemy #1. Apple’s most profitable (and therefore important) businesses center on the iPhone and iPad. The most serious competitors in both these product categories run on Google’s Android platform.

The belief that Google is the enemy makes intuitive sense on two counts. First, when you, the gadget-happy user, chooses a device, you may consider an iPhone or an Android device side-by-side. Clearly, you’re choosing between them, and Apple and Google are competing against each other for your business. Likewise for a tablet.

Second, we’ve all been trained to think of technology platforms as the main battlefield for industry control and dominance. Long-time Apple fans still feel the burn of the Windows-Mac wars, which in fact continue to this day.

But this user perspective masks the business reality, which is that there is far less head-to-head competition between Apple and Google than you might think.

Apple’s new MacBook Air models don’t ship with OS X Lion on a USB thumb drive like they used to. That diminutive little white wedge of flash storage is gone, no where to be found inside of the box that these computers ship in. If you want one, you’ll need to pay Apple $69 for the privilege in August.

That’s a potentially big problem for some users. Yesterday, I found this out the hard way after an attempt to install Mac OS X Lion onto a 32GB Class 10 SDHC card failed. Apple’s failure to ship their new Macs with any media can leave you with a hosed Recovery HD partition, and a potentially lengthy fix may be the only way to get it back.

Negotiating Apple’s in-app purchase rules stalled one app for two months, even though it was similar to the company’s iPhone app which made it through the approval gauntlet in just a week.

I’ve been in denial for a while, but it hit me so hard yesterday that I finally have to admit it: I’m an Apple fanboy. Once you hear my story, you’ll agree that if it can happen to me, it can happen to anyone.

Apple’s new 11-inch MacBook Air is simply incredible. Of course you probably already knew this puppy was light, and gorgeous, but the power that this tiny machine packs is truly breathtaking. Optimized for speed and portability, the new MacBook Air improves on its predecessor to prove that it’s the best notebook computer Apple’s ever made.

Look around in Google’s new social network, Google+. You’ll see Apple design DNA everywhere. The clean, white space. The knowing and careful attention to typography type, shade and spacing. The icons are beautiful in a simple, balanced, Apple kind of way.

The coolest feature on the whole site, the “circle editor,” was in fact designed primarily by the same guy who was a lead designer on the original Macintosh.

Google+ presents itself as a social network that competes with Facebook. But once you use it, you realize that it’s an uber-communication device that can replace all forms of online communication, from blogging and micro-blogging to chatting, texting and e-mail. Talk about thinking different.

Google also took a page from the Apple playbook about entering late into a market that’s mature, but seriously flawed, and succeeding in that market by fixing what’s broken on the products of competitors. Think cell phones. When Apple announced its entry into the handset market in 2007, I thought it was too late for them to catch up to the dominant players, including Nokia, Palm, RIM and others. Apple caught up with and clobbered these former leaders by identifying what was seriously flawed with their products and making a product without those flaws. And this is exactly what Google is doing with Google+.

It’s clear that after many fits and starts, Google has finally built an awesome social network, in part by learning from Apple.

But what can Apple learn from Google+?

Apple contacted developers today to let them know that they will soon have the option to sell apps to businesses in volume at discounted rates. The new pricing structure will be available to developers that accept the new Paid Applications Agreement through the developer portal.

Finally, after years of waiting, Americans will be treated to one of the best music services on the planet. Spotify is set to launch in the US tomorrow. The initial launch will be by “invitation and subscription.” Not sure if that means there won’t be a free US service like there is in Europe or not. Either way, Spotify is the best alternative to iTunes available and the US launch has been highly anticipated for about two years now. Spotify’s service allows users to discover and stream new music anywhere.

Apple has released Aperture 3.1.3 an update that  supports general compatibility issues and also addresses overall stability and performance of Aperture. General compatibility issues? Hmmm…I wonder if that means compatibility with OS X 10.7 Lion?

Apple doesn’t say, but you can click the read link to see what they do  have to say about this update.

 Washington Post senior vice president and chief digital officer Vijay Ravindran lost his MacBook Air when his son’s spilled baby bottle put the fizzle in it.

So he got an Asus Transformer (aka Asus Eee Pad) to replace it and never looked back. He ponied up $399 for the 16-gigabyte version with a 32-gigabyte memory card then added a $150 keyboard dock that essentially transforms it into a netbook.

You’re always strumming out guitar chords while prancing around your living room listening to Yanni right? Well, here’s your chance for a more interactive experience for your air guitar greatness. Air Guitar Move is a connector for your iPhone/iPod Touch that combines a guitar pick with motion sensor technology to turn your wild flailing into sweet sweet music.

An former executive of an Apple supplier pleaded guilty to leaking Apple secrets.

Walter Shimoon, who once worked at electronic manufacturer Flextronics a supplier of camera parts to Apple, was arrested in 2010 for spilling the beans on actual and forecast sales figures for iPhones and iPods in the third and fourth quarters of 2009.

He’s the 12th person to plead guilty so far in a government investigation of insider trading.  

If you are planning on using Target Disk Mode to boot your Mac equipped with Thunderbolt ports you’ll need Apple’s special Thunderbolt cable in order for it to work. This is required even when connecting two Macs or a Mac to an external Thunderbolt equipped disk drive.

Apple has started to issue refund checks for MobileMe subscriptions. My check arrived from Apple today. Have you gotten yours? And I know what you are thinking — yes I’ve spent mine already. On Apple stuff no less.

If you haven’t asked for a refund it might not be too late.  Here’s the information about MobileMe refunds for those of you that might have missed the news last month.