Apple appears to have pulled Hottest Girls, the first iPhone porn app.
UPDATE 2: The app is available again from the App Store. Just checked at 4PM 6/25/09.
UPDATE: Apple hasn’t removed the app, the developer has, thanks to the strain on the saucy images server. “The server usage is extremely high because of the popularity of this app,” says the developer. “Thus, by not distributing the app, we can prevent our servers from crashing.” The app still works for those who have already bought it, the developer says.
The first iPhone porn app has been removed from the iPhone App Store.
The softcore app, Hottest Girls, was downloadable for a few hours on Thursday, but is now unavailable. Neither Apple nor the developer were immediately available to provide an explanation, but it appears Apple changed its mind after the app received so much press attention on Thursday.
The $1.99 app for the iPhone and iPod touch featured 2,000 images of “topless, sexy babes and nude models,” according to reports.
“There is no slideshow to display a progressive striptease of the same model, so you are limited to one picture at a time before you have to navigate back to the main screen, which shows a lack of understanding as to how a porn app should work,” he wrote.
The brief approval of the app had many wondering if Apple was now willing to approve adult content on the App Store. The iPhone 3.0 OS includes age restrictions on applications.
Warren Buffett has criticized Apple for keeping Steve Jobs's liver transplant a secret. Illustration by MacBlogz.
Joining other experts, billionaire investor Warren Buffet says Apple might have violated the law by keeping quiet about Steve Jobs’s liver transplant.
The head of Berkshire Hathaway said Jobs’s life-saving operation was a “material fact” that Apple was legally obliged to report to investors. The Securities and Exchange commission requires public companies to report material facts to shareholders. Failure to do so is in breach of the law.
“It’s a material fact,” said Buffett on CNBC on Wednesday. “Whether he is facing serious surgery or not is a material fact. Whether I’m facing serious surgery is a material fact. Whether (General Electric CEO) Jeff Immelt is, I mean, so I think that’s important to get out. They’re going to find out about it anyway so I don’t see a big privacy issue or anything of the sort.”
An intrepid software developer has published a thorough memoir that details many reasons why Apple is so far ahead of the field in the mobile applications game, and why Blackberry, Palm and Android will have a hard time catching up any time soon.
Marcus Watkins found himself developing an application for his mobile phone in much the same way that countless other developers undoubtedly realized their inspirations: he was minding his own business when he realized one day his life would improve if his phone could do something that, at the point of his epiphany, it couldn’t.
He did his research, found out there wasn’t an application to meet his needs, realized the size of the potential market for his app in the many millions of people with his phone – a good percentage of whom might find his application useful – and he went to work.
Unfortunately (perhaps) for Watkins, his phone is a Blackberry, but fortunately (for Blackberry users) he persevered, and his story shows just how far behind Apple the other smartphone makers are as the device category enters its third year in existence.
Methodist University Hospital in Memphis has confirmed Steve Jobs had a liver transplant
UPDATE: Hospital spokeswoman Ruth Ann Hale declined to add any more information to hospital’s statement. She would not say when the transplant was performed (the Wall Street Journal said about two months ago); how long Steve Jobs had been on the transplant waiting list; nor where the donor organ came from. “We’re not saying anything beyond what it says in the statement,” she said by phone on Tuesday night. It’s safe to assume the donor liver came from a deceased patient — otherwise Jobs wouldn’t be on a waiting list. But the lack of a time frame for the operation is curious. Perhaps it’s to protect the identity of the donor? If the time of the operation is known, maybe it makes it easier to identify potential donors?
Methodist University Hospital in Memphis has confirmed that Steve Jobs had a liver transplant — and the disclosure was made with Jobs’s permission, the hospital says.
In a statement released on Tuesday, the hospital said Jobs was the sickest person on the waiting list at the time the donor organ became available.
The hospital’s statement is likely in response to growing questions about the transplant. On Tuesday morning, the New York Times published a high-profile story asking whether Jobs’s money and power helped him to jump to the front of the queue. “Whenever someone rich and famous receives a transplant, suspicions inevitably arise about whether that person managed to jump to the head of the waiting list and take an organ that might have saved the life of somebody just as desperate but less glamorous,” the paper said.
The hospital’s statement appears to be a flat denial that Jobs received any preferential treatment.
“He received a liver transplant because he was the patient with the highest MELD score (Model for End-Stage Liver Disease) of his blood type and, therefore, the sickest patient on the waiting list at the time a donor organ became available,” the hospital said.
The hospital said Jobs is doing well.
“Mr. Jobs is now recovering well and has an excellent prognosis.”
Apple broke the law by lying about Steve Jobs health, says a top marketing professor.
But whether the Security and Exchange Commission has the “balls” to prosecute is unclear.
Paul Argenti, Professor of Corporate Communication at Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, says that Apple’s communications about its CEO’s health violated the SEC’s full disclosure regulations.
Steve Jobs's Mercedes at Apple's HQ in August 2008. Photo by Ranajune.
UPDATE: Reuters reports that Steve Jobs was seen leaving Apple’s campus on Monday. “He was seen leaving the main Apple building in Cupertino, California and getting into a black car alone that was then driven off by men in black suits with ear-pieces,” the news service reported.
CNBC’s Jim Goldman is saying that Steve Jobs returned to work at Apple on Monday.
Employees have seen Jobs around Apple’s campus, Goldman says. “Officials at Apple have yet to respond to multiple phone calls and emails seeking guidance about Jobs and his whereabouts, but employees are doing what Apple PR isn’t, and that’s confirming that he’s here at work,” says Goldman.
The information jibes with this morning’s iPhone 3G S press release,
which quoted Jobs for the first time since he took his medical leave,
implying he’s back in charge.
This is great news – if it’s true. I’d be delighted to see Jobs back in charge at Apple, but trouble is, I’m not sure I trust Goldman. He’s proven as unreliable as Apple’s own PR surrounding Jobs’ illness. Goldman last year said Steve Jobs wasn’t sick, just days before he took sick leave. For this, he was accused by NewsWeek columnist Dan Lyons (aka Fake Steve) of being “played and punked” by Apple PR.
So I’m willing to give a prize to the first reader who sends in a picture of Steve Jobs at Apple’s campus or a picture of his car (preferably parked in a handicapped spot).
Yeah, I know, it’s stalkerish. But I’d like to know if Steve Jobs is really back at work, and this is one way of getting to the bottom of it.
BTW, I’ve called and emailed Apple’s PR asking if Jobs is back at work — but I’m not holding my breath.
Show us Steve’s smiling face. Let’s cheer his return to work and good health!
“Customers are voting and the iPhone is winning,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO, in his first officially quoted statement for the company since taking a medical leave of absence in January.
Jobs’ comment came in the wake of a news release touting one million iPhone 3G S units sold in its first weekend since being released last Friday. “With over 50,000 applications available from Apple’s revolutionary App Store, iPhone momentum is stronger than ever,” continued Jobs in the release, which also noted that six million customers have downloaded the new iPhone 3.0 software since it was released last Wednesday.
The statement did not indicate whether or not Jobs would return to work at Apple headquarters in Cupertino, CA on Monday.
Apple issued $30 iTunes store credits over the weekend to some US customers whose iPhone 3G S models were not able to be activated for service with AT&T when the phones were released on Friday.
In an email sent to customers who had ordered the new smartphone through Apple’s online store prior to the official release, Apple apologized for delays “due to system issues and continued high activation volumes,” which the email said “could take us up to an additional 48 hours to complete.”
Customers were told to expect an email with the iTunes credit authorization on Monday and asked to accept the company’s “sincere apologies for the inconvenience this delay has caused.”
Some customers were particularly miffed last week after having received initial notice from UPS that their phones were scheduled for delivery on Wednesday, but saw deliveries rescheduled to Friday’s official release date, apparently at Apple’s behest.
Steve Jobs had a liver transplant about two months ago but is making a speedy recovery and will return to Apple in June, according to the Wall Street Journal.
“Steve continues to look forward to returning at the end of June, and there’s nothing further to say,” Apple spokeswoman Katie Cotton told the Journal.
Jobs had the transplant in Tennessee and may return to work part time, the Journal said.
Jobs took six months medical leave in January, promising to return to work in June, but many have been pessimistic about his prospects.Jobs lost weight rapidly in 2008.
The Journal said Jobs had the surgery in Tennessee because of the state’s short waiting list — 48 days compared to 306 nationally. A cancer expert told the Journal that Jobs’ pancreatic cancer may have metastasized and spread to his liver, requiring a transplant.
Five-year survival rates for liver-transplants is about 75 percent, the Journal said. The survival rate of slow-growing tumors like Jobs’ — with or without liver surgery — is usually longer than a decade, the expert said.
The Journal said Jobs has been spotted at Apple’s HQ during his leave.
Apple may have contributed to iPhone 3G S activation delays Friday that have many device users hopping mad and may leave some customers without telephone service through the weekend.
An AppleInsider report during the day Friday indicated that Apple’s activation servers were under strain even greater than those Wednesday that made it difficult for some users to download and install the new 3.0 version of iPhone’s operating software.
Cult of Mac has learned that at least one customer, who pre-ordered a 3G S from the Apple website shortly after the device was announced on June 8, received a message from UPS on Monday this week saying that his order for the 3G S would be delivered on Wednesday.
On Wednesday, Apple sent him a message saying the courier had made a mistake. The UPS site Wednesday showed the delivery was delayed by request of the recipient, which, of course had not been the case. On Thursday, The ‘recipient request’ notice had been removed, though there was still no word on expected delivery.
It would appear from this user’s experience that Apple told UPS to delay iPhone 3G S shipments until Friday, the official release date.
Of course, it’s unclear whether early delivery of some customers’ phones would have affected the activation delays other users experienced Friday. iTunes gave many trying to activate their devices a message reading “Your activation requires additional time to complete. Due to the current activation volumes, it may take up to 48 hours to resolve your issue,” and many were quick to blame AT&T for the delay.
However it appears clear that Apple may have played a significant role — aside from being unprepared to meet activation demand through iTunes servers — in spoiling the launch of yet another of the company’s groundbreaking products.
Apple finally made the iPhone 3.0 firmware update available to US customers Wednesday afternoon and anecdotal reports indicate the company’s servers are working hard to meet the demand.
A few readers indicated problems with their downloads timing-out in the comment thread on our review of the software, other readers in a thread at MacRumors indicated painfully slow download speeds for the 230MB file — though some also indicated lightning quick experiences as fast as one minute to download.
I happened to be caught out and about this afternoon and found even getting to the iTunes app store was problematic over a public WiFi connection. Before attempting to fetch iPhone 3.0 I tried downloading a free iTunes U Summer Mix of music, which I gave up on after 3 ‘network connection re-set’ error messages and figured trying to update my iPhone would be fruitless.
How about you? Are you running the software now? Any problems with the download? Let us know in comments below.
Queensland Univ. of Technology, Brisbane, Australia
Queensland University of Technology, one of the largest universities in Australia, has published health and safety concerns about Apple Macintosh glass or high gloss monitor screens, and recommends students and school employees “consider the purchase of other types of monitors which are not high gloss.”
Because reflections on the screens “could cause the operator to adopt awkward postures when viewing the monitor screen and using related equipment,” which awkward poatures “may in turn lead to an injury,” health and safety officials at the university have come out against the controversial Apple products and published detailed computer safety guidelines for members of the university community.
Howls of protest among many users accompanied Apple’s decision to discontinue matte screen options for its monitor products in 2007, largely from professional photographers and other users who process graphic images in their work, despite some who believe the glossy surface produces more saturated colours, deeper contrast, and sharper images than traditional matte displays.
Asked what might have spurred the university to publish an official position in the matter, Cult of Mac contacts in Australia pointed out that Australian employers must provide workers’ compensation for injuries sustained in the workplace under strict government regulations, and speculated that “the university is playing it safe, so that it can never be said that it did not advise against the use of gloss screens.”
Gives a whole new meaning to “protect and defend,” doesn’t it?
Before you rush out and buy that brand new iPhone 3G S, consider the suggestions here. For some iPhone 3G owners, the 3G S may be unnecessary. For those who simply cannot wait read on, because there are ways to minimize the overall cost of the upgrade. In fact, you may even turn a profit.
The iPhone 3G S will be subsidized by AT&T for qualified customers ($199 for the 16 GB model and $299 for the 32 GB model). Unfortunately, if you currently own an iPhone 3G you are not a qualified customer because you entered into a two-year contract with AT&T last year. Unsubsidized, the iPhone 3G S is priced at an exorbitant $599 and $699 (plus the $18 setup fee).
AT&T is probably not going to alter its stance on the matter because, like it or not, offering subsidized phones only to new customers is standard industry practice. If you are an existing iPhone 3G owner, and do not have money to burn, consider all your options after the jump.
Last fall I bought a 13-inch unibody MacBook, and I fell in love. For the last seven months I’ve been head-over-heels with the machine. But now there’s a new love in my life: a brand new 13-inch MacBook Pro, which is shaping up to be the perfect laptop.
Released last week, Apple’s MacBook Pro 13″ is an amazing machine. It’s priced as a starter, but it’s now truly a “Pro” laptop. It’s worthy of real work. It adds many of the “Pro” features previously reserved for its higher-end siblings, but costs hundreds of dollars less.
It now has an awesome, all-day battery; a bright, energy-sipping screen; and a backlit keyboard. Firewire is back, and there’s an indispensible SD Card slot. And yet it starts at just $1,200. For a computer of this quality and power, that’s a steal.
Full review after the jump, including real-world benchmarks and tons of pics.
A Trojan named OSX/Jahlav-C has been spotted on a porno website (xhottube.net), the British security group Sophos said on Friday.
In a blog post about the virus, Sophos also mentioned an update to an email worm called OSX/Tored-A, which has prompted news organizations to warn of renewed malware attacks against Macs.
But only the OSX/Jahlav-C is in the wild, and even Sophos described the OSX/Tored-A as “lame.”
The new OSX/Jahlav-C Trojan infects Macs when visitors to the “hardcore” porno website try to watch the site’s main video. They are prompted to download a “missing Video ActiveX Object” but are infected with the OSX/Jahlav-C Trojan instead, says Sophos.
The social engineering here isn’t very sophisticated — ActiveX is associated with Windows. In addition, it’s unclear what the OSX/Jahlav-C Trojan actually does. Sophos says “it will eventually run a Perl script that uses http to communicate with a remote website and download code supplied by the attacker.”
What that code does, Sophos doesn’t say. Apparently, it hasn’t executed the Perl script yet. Sophos rates the Trojan as low to medium risk.
“Although there is only a tiny amount of Mac malware compared to Windows viruses, that’s going to be little consolation if your gorgeous new MacBook gets infected,” said a sarcastic post on the company blog. “And sadly we know that many Mac users still believe they are somehow magically immune from attacks.”
The company made a condescending video demonstrating the attack (posted after the jump) — “Is it safe to surf for porn on an Apple Mac?”
UPDATE 2: Reader Scam Finder says the Trojan doesn’t exist on the xhottube site. Scam Finder tried to purposely infect his Mac but failed. See the comment below.
Safari 4 has several unique features, like full history search with Cover Flow images of sites visited. Image: Apple.
Safari 4 has been downloaded 11 million times is the first three days of release, Apple said in a press release on Friday — and 6 million of those were on Windows. There’s more Windows users running Apple’s browser than Mac users.
Eleven million downloads in three days is quite impressive, but not a record. In June last year, Mozilla set a Guinness World Record with 8 million downloads of Firefox 3 in one day — the most downloaded software in 24 hours.
Apple claims Safari 4 is the fastest, most innovative browser available (It executes JavaScript nearly 8x faster than IE 8 and loads HTML web pages more than 3x faster than IE 8, Apple claims).
The browser will get better with the release of Snow Leopard in September. Says Apple:
“In Mac OS X Snow Leopard, available later this year, Safari runs as a 64-bit application, boosting the performance of the Nitro JavaScript engine by up to 50 percent. Snow Leopard makes Safari more resistant to crashes by running plug-ins in a separate process, so even if a plug-in crashes, Safari continues to run and the user simply has to reload the affected page. Safari running on Snow Leopard also delivers HTTP streaming, making it easy to deliver high-quality audio and video in industry standard formats from any web server without the need for browser plug-ins.”
Safari 4 was officially launched on Monday at WWDC, but had been widely available for months as a beta.
Apple hired Academy Award-nominated director David Fincher (Seven, Fight Club and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) to show off the latest iPhone in its TV ad debut.
Titled “break in,” (a nod to how most folks got iPhone video capability before the 3S?) the 30-second spot highlights the video angle and hints at other “amazing new features.”
In addition, iFixit notes that the single audio jack (see post below) is innapropriate for a “Pro” machine. The jack supports analog and digital audio-out, and analog audio-in, but not digital audio-in.
“If you need digital audio-in, this is not the machine for you.” said iFixit CEO Kyle Wiens in an email.
Wiens also said the MBP’s new SD card slot is “rather unimaginative.”
“Half the card hangs outside the computer,” said Wiens. “Apparently, Apple couldn’t free up enough space for a slot that would make the card completely captive.”
Wiens notes the battery is beefier (360 grams, about 60 grams heavier than the old one), but is rated 60 Watt-hours, compared to the older battery’s 45 W-h. Apple claims the battery will last for 7 hours. The previous MacBook’s battery was rated 5 hours (yeah, right!)
More details and pictures from iFixit after the jump.
It’s official — Steve Jobs will be back to work as planned at the end of June.
Speaking at WWDC, Apple’s top marketing executive, Phil Schiller, reiterated the company’s line that Jobs will be returning to Apple at the end of this month after six month’s medical leave.
“That’s still our statement,” said Schiller, who is Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide product marketing.
As one of Apple’s top executives, Schiller’s word is as good as gospel.
It’s not the first time the company has said Jobs will returning to work in June. At Apple’s annual shareholders’ meeting in late February, the company said he planned to return to work this month.
Meanwhile, Jobs has been deeply involved in the company even while on leave.
“These products have been in development for a while, so of course Steve has been very involved in them all along,” said Schiller. “You could say that Steve has stayed on top of some of the key strategic things at Apple throughout [his leave].”
Jobs unexpectedly took medical leave in January, saying his declining health was “more complex” that previously believed. He said at the time he would be returning in June, but his rapid weight loss in 2008 and various conflicting statements about his health has led many to be pessimistic about his prospects of returning to work.
UPDATE: The security lock on this device does not block the SuperDrive. See our review
Eagle-eyed reader Ronald Kang thinks the new 13-inch MacBook Pro may have some design problems.
Poring over pictures of the machine on Apple’s website, Kang is worried about two things: the Kensington Security Slot blocking the Superdrive; and the single audio I/O jack, which makes the machine unsuitable for “Pro” audio recording.
You have to love the guys at iFixit. No sooner does Apple release new hardware into the wild than those guys are all over it with their Phillips #0, Spudger and Tri-wing screwdrivers like so many buzzards on a fresh carcass in the desert.
As we post, they are liveblogging their tear-down of a new 13″ MacBook Pro. If you’re enthralled by computer innards and don’t get queasy at the sight of silicon, you’ll want to head on over for a look-see.
Apple has cut the price on previous-generation notebook computers buy hundreds of dollars, looking to get rid of end-of-life stock before the arrival of new machines for retail distribution later this month.
13-inch MacBook prices have been slashed by $100 to $300, previous-generation MacBook Airs by $400 to $800, and previous-generation MacBook Pros by $400 to $500, though not all Apple Stores may have all models in stock at the discounted prices.
In all, nine previous Mac notebook configurations are being offered with end-of-life pricing.
If you don’t happen to live near an Apple retail store, see this handy online price guide (scroll down to see end-of-life pricing on discontinued models).
Reports indicate that even the new notebooks may be had at significant discounts to Apple’s announced pricing at resellers such as ClubMac, which is offering online retailer’s rebates with special coupons that knock an additional 3% off the cost of the just-announced machines.
Trust Apple to deliver scintillating graphic evidence of just how revolutionary and amazing its impact is at events such as the Worldwide Developers Conference taking place this week at San Francisco’s Moscone Center West.
The company is drawing raves for the massive ‘hyperwall’ it has erected in the conference hall, made from twenty 30″ Cinema Displays showcasing the icons of 20,000 of the most popular applications on the iTunes App Store. The icons pulse and send a light wave rippling outward every time an app is downloaded from the store, creating a stunning visual depiction of just how in-demand are the services of developers attending the show.
Apple has said 3.000 apps are downloaded every minute and is giving conference attendees quite an eyeful of what that can look like this week.
One day after Apple’s triumphant WWDC, angry iPhone users are burning up Twitter with invective aimed at AT&T.
Twitter users are complaining in their thousands about the ways AT&T has dropped the ball: no iPhone 3G S subsidy for current iPhone customers; and no support for important new features like MMS and tethering when the new iPhone launches on June 19.
The #attfail hashtag is attracting many of the complaints about missing features and upgrades, as is the #iphone3gs hashtag, and AT&T’s official corporate account. Hundreds of complaints are being sent directly to the account, and there appears to be no messages at all defending the company.
Meanwile, a pair of Twitter petitions, or “twititions,” are hoping to pressure AT&T and 02, the UK iPhone carrier, to offer “reasonable upgrade prices” for current iPhone 3G customers.
The O2 twitition has attracted about 2,500 signatures by Tuesday afternoon (PST), and the AT&T twitition about 1,500. The AT&T twitition was started later in the day, but both are spreading fast through retweets.
Outside of the iPhone brouhaha, much of the buzz at WWDC today has been about whether the system-level support for Microsoft Exchange e-mail and calendaring in OS X Snow Leopard and various encryption options for Mac and iPhone would finally allow Apple to make serious in-roads in corporate America. Well, at least if corporate IT guys will give them a chance, that is.
In spite of Lonnie’s optimism, I think Apple is just as far today from mainstream adoption in big business as it was yesterday and pretty much every day of its entire history. As I’ve written before, the Steves founded Apple in large part because they thought that the IBMs and HPs of the world were holding back the potential of computers to transform our society.
Consequently, the organization’s entire self-image and frame of reference over time has been that big business is all too willing to adopt mediocre technologies based solely on a reputation for reliability. Macs have long provided superior tools for creative endeavors like graphic design and video editing, which is why Macs have a huge niche in corporate marketing departments, but the same can’t be said for other business pursuits.
Apple has a huge opportunity right now to make serious in-roads in the enterprise market while corporations resist upgrading to Windows Vista and don’t yet know whether or not they can trust Windows 7. But Apple won’t make big gains unless they take more drastic measures, three of which I outline below. Bear in mind, I’m not saying this is what Apple should do, just that this is what it would take to succeed in business.
Start making cheap computers with standardized parts.From the early 1990s until the sale to Lenovo, IBM’s ThinkPad line of notebooks defined the look, feel and attitude of computers for business. They were black, rugged, and nearly identical in industrial design. A machine from 1999 looked pretty much the same as one from 2003. Corporate IT managers loved ThinkPads because people generally couldn’t tell if their co-workers had a newer or better machine than theirs — the exterior was always a constant. All that, and frequently replaced parts like batteries and power supplies were common across the decade. If it worked on one, it worked on another.
Recent years have seen the trend that IBM began extrapolated upon in the corporate market. These days, it’s not just that corporations prefer to buy identical machines for employees at all levels — they’ve also chopped their budgets for PCs dramatically while increasing spending on servers and data centers. And that means that low-cost strategy players like Dell and HP are winning with large-screen machines for less than $500 (or significantly less at large volumes). If Apple wants to even think about competing, it would need to get cheap quickly and make compromises that the company has diligently avoided over the years. And do you really think business wants a line-up of laptops without replaceable batteries? Not in this galaxy.
