Leander has been reporting about Apple and technology for nearly 30 years.
Before founding Cult of Mac as an independent publication, Leander was news editor at Wired.com, where he was responsible for the day-to-day running of the Wired.com website. He headed up a team of six section editors, a dozen reporters and a large pool of freelancers. Together the team produced a daily digest of stories about the impact of science and technology, and won several awards, including several Webby Awards, 2X Knight-Batten Awards for Innovation in Journalism and the 2010 MIN (Magazine Industry Newsletter) award for best blog, among others.
Before being promoted to news editor, Leander was Wired.com's senior reporter, primarily covering Apple. During that time, Leander published a ton of scoops, including the first in-depth report about the development of the iPod. Leander attended almost every keynote speech and special product launch presented by Steve Jobs, including the historic launches of the iPhone and iPad. He also reported from almost every Macworld Expo in the late '90s and early '2000s, including, sadly, the last shows in Boston, San Francisco and Tokyo. His reporting for Wired.com formed the basis of the first Cult of Mac book, and subsequently this website.
Before joining Wired, Leander was a senior reporter at the legendary MacWeek, the storied and long-running weekly that documented Apple and its community in the 1980s and '90s.
Leander has written for Wired magazine (including the Issue 16.04 cover story about Steve Jobs' leadership at Apple, entitled Evil/Genius), Scientific American, The Guardian, The Observer, The San Francisco Chronicle and many other publications.
He has a diploma in journalism from the UK's National Council for the Training of Journalists.
Leander lives in San Francisco, California, and is married with four children. He's an avid biker and has ridden in many long-distance bike events, including California's legendary Death Ride.
A pair of Italian Apple fans visiting The Mothership had the good luck to spot Steve Jobs as he arrived for work recently.
They were snapping pictures out front of Apple’s Cupertino HQ when a big black luxury car pulled up. Out steps Dear Leader himself. The gobsmacked Italians asked for autographs and a commemorative picture, but Jobs shooed them away saying he was late to a meeting. He strode right by them into the building. This was a week ago: April 25th.
Good to see the miserable bastard is still hard at work.
Apple applied for a broad patent on location tracking services back in September 2009 — the kind of location tracking that is now causing a storm of controversy.
The patent application, entitled “Location Histories for Location Aware Devices,” throws some light on the iPhone tracking issue, which is soon to be the subject of a Senate hearing.
Earlier this week, I was interviewed by a Russian TV crew about Apple. They were a bit surly and aggressive, not like polished, ingratiating TV people here in the U.S.
They kept asking strange questions about Steve Jobs, as is if he were a crooked oligarch. “Vy does Steve Joybs vant to be dictator? Vy does he vant to dominate ze vorld?”
To celebrate his third wedding anniversary, Sean Ohlenkamp of Toronto, Canada, placed a folder on his wife’s desktop.
When she clicked “Click Here,” she discovered a message written using folders nested within folders. See for yourself. It’s charming and clever:
How did she react?
“She liked it. Wasn’t too happy about me clearing all her icons off her desktop but she liked it. :) We enjoy doing things with or for each other instead of buying gifts.” Ohlenkamp wrote in the comments on YouTube.
Apple has released an update to its Mac OS X 10.7 Lion beta. The 1.24 GB update is third build of the new operating system, which is expected to be shown off at WWDC in June and released to the public in the summer or fall.
The update is available to registered Mac developers running Lion Developer Preview 2. It can be downloaded through Software Update. The release contains no release notes and appears to contain only minor UI tweaks, according to tweets crossing the wire. It’s unlikely to be a big update. That will come with Developer Preview 3.
Steven Levy‘s new book about Google In The Plex revealed a few juicy nuggets about the relationship between Apple and Google.
At first, Larry and Sergey wanted Steve Jobs as their CEO. Then the two companies had a long honeymoon, sharing board members and collaborating on groundbreaking software. But then it all soured when Google released Android, and Steve Jobs hid the iPad from Eric Schmidt, even though he was sitting on Apple’s board.
We had a chance to ask Levy for more detail and insight into the relationship between Apple and Google. Here is our exclusive Q&A:
Seeing the latest installment of the Fast & Furious franchise, Fast Five, this weekend? You may want to check Fandango’s iPad app before you try to book your tickets.
A feature called “The Pulse” shows realtime ticket sales (more or less), indicating what movies are going to be hot over the weekend — and which screens will be empty.
Bad news for Fast Five fans: It looks like the movie, which opens on Friday, is going to be sold out. It’s already shaping up to be the biggest pre-sold movie of the year to date, says Fandango’s Harry Medved, who shows us how The Pulse works:
The former vice president’s book features text, images, interactive infographics, documentary video and audio commentary.
It looks like a great, immersive experience (and probably pretty scary, given the subject matter) — the climate change equivalent of the beautiful The Elements app.
Check it out:
The app ($4.99 on the App Store) was designed by Push Pop Press, a San Francisco startup by a pair of ex-Apple engineers, including Mike Matas, who helped design Delicious Monster. Push Pop Press is working on a Mac desktop application to create similar eBooks, which will be “very affordable” when it eventually ships. Reporter Brian Chen has more detail at Wired.com: Gore, Ex-Apple Engineers Team Up to Blow Up the Book
Here’s another video showing Gore’s app/book in more detail:
Car manufacturers are finally developing better ways to hook your iPhone into your car.
Check out this video demo showing how BMW is integrating the iPhone into car entertainment systems.
Patched in through BMW’s iDrive system, the iPhone can can be used to play music, web radio, or send updates and messages to Facebook and Twitter.
“This suite of technologies allows smartphone features — the things people really love on their smartphone — to be integrated in a safe, easy-to-use way in your BMW,” says BMW Technology Group senior engineer Rob Passaro in the video.
“The great thing about this is, as Apple updates new features on its iPod, we get it automatically. You don’t have to go to the dealership to get these functions in your car as soon as they are available.”
Dancing at Apple’s retail stores is becoming quite a trend. First there was iJustine, followed by the lip-syncing kid iTr3vor, and now the cast of a Disney TV movie.
Over the Easter weekend, the cast of Disney’s new made-for-television movie, “Lemonade Mouth,” invaded the Apple retail store at The Grove in Los Angeles to dance a number in front of amused shoppers.
Staff eventually gently shoed them out, but unfortunately not before the movie’s title song “Determinate” drives you absolutely f–king crazy.
If you’ve run up against the New York Times‘ new paywall, here is the simplest way to continue reading — guaranteed. This isn’t just a Mac tip: it works on Windows too.
New design: Apple is testing several prototypes (we all know this) and one of the leading candidates for the iPhone 5 is thinner than the current iPhone 4 and looks “more like the iPod touch.” It has a teardrop shape – thinner at the bottom than the top, like the new MacBook Air.
Gesture-sensitive Home Button: The Home Button will be bigger and will understand a gestures. “Our sources say that gestures are definitely coming in a future version of iOS,” says
Larger screen: the screen will go up to 3.7-inches, not 4-inches as rumored. It will keep the current resolution, dropping pixel density goes from 326 to 312, but will still be a Retina Display (it’s still above 300ppi).
No Bezel: Screen will be edge-to-edge, occupying the entire front of the iPhone. That means no bezel (or almost no bezel).
Hidden earpiece & mouthpiece: The earpiece and sensors are behind the screen itself.
Inductive charging: It may or may not have wireless inductive charging. Crystal ball is cloudy.
NFC: Likewise it may or may not have NFC.
Global radio chips: It’ll be based on Qualcomm’s dual GSM/CDMA Gobi chipset, which means it’ll work on a ton of GSM and CDMA networks worldwide, most importantly in China.
Joshua Topolsky warns, however, that none of this is set in stone: “Keep in mind that this info isn’t fact — we’re getting lots of threads from lots of places and trying to make sense of the noise. The versions of devices our sources are seeing could be design prototypes and not production-ready phones. Still, there are strong indications that Apple will surprise a public that’s expecting a bump more along the lines of the 3G to 3GS — and this is some insight into where those designs might be headed.”
In a post this morning, Daring Fireball‘s John Gruber says that the tracking data stored by your iPhone and 3G iPad is a bug that will likely soon be fixed.
Citing a “little birdie” (friend inside Apple), Gruber says the consolidated.db file is a supposed to be temporary cache of location data (As we reported yesterday).However, because of a bug — or more likely, a programming mistake — the file isn’t purged of historical data.
I don’t have a definitive answer, but my little-birdie-informed understanding is that consolidated.db acts as a cache for location data, and that historical data should be getting culled but isn’t, either due to a bug or, more likely, an oversight. I.e. someone wrote the code to cache location data but never wrote code to cull non-recent entries from the cache, so that a database that’s meant to serve as a cache of your recent location data is instead a persistent log of your location history.
Gruber bets the oversight will be fixed in the next iOS update. Apple still hasn’t officially commented on the issue, which is a big story in the mainstream press today.
The iPhone tracking issue that’s causing a big privacy stink isn’t new and isn’t really tracking users, says an iOS forensics researcher.
It’s actually a data file that is used internally by the iPhone to do things like geo-tag photos, and it’s been in iOS for a long time (in a different form).
Senator Al Franken (D-MN) wants answers about the iPhone’s undisclosed tracking features.
As reported, the iPhone and 3G iPad secretly record your location as you travel around and sync it with your computer. It appears to be a serious violation of privacy. It was first disclosed by security researchers Alasdair Allan and Pete Warren at O’Reilly’s Where 2.0 conference.
Apple hasn’t yet explained the matter, prompting Sen. Franken to publish an open letter to Steve Jobs demanding answers.
Sen Franken wants to know why Apple is collecting the data; how it is collected; what it is used for; why it isn’t encrypted; if the data is shared; and why consumers aren’t asked before the data is collected.
Here’s the full text of Sen. Franken’s letter to Jobs:
Is Apple Chief Operating Officer Headed for HP CEO Chair?
Apple Chief Operating Officer, Tim Cook.
From today’s Q2 analyst conference call:
On Steve Jobs: “He is still on medical leave, but we do see him on a regular basis. And as we previously said, he continues to be involved in major strategic decisions. I know he wants to be back full-time as soon as he can.”
On iPad 2: “Demand on iPad 2 has been staggering.”
On Android: “We continue to believe—and even more and more every day—that iPhone’s integrated approach is materially better than Android’s fragmented approach, where you have multiple OSes on multiple devices with different screen resolutions and multiple app stores with different rules, payment methods, and update strategies.”
On Samsung: “We are Samsung’s largest customer. And Samsung is a very valued component supplier to us, and I expect that strong relationship will continue. Separately from this, we felt the mobile communication division of Samsung had crossed the line.”
On Japan: “… there’s aftershocks, there’s still uncertainty about the nuclear plant, there’s power interruptions. If that stays at the level that it is today, I’m not as worried. I would worry if something happened and took a turn for the worst.”
On iPad in education: “… last quarter, we were about a 1:1 ratio of iPads to Macs, which is, I think, amazing given the short life of the iPad. And really demonstrates what kind of opportunity there probably is there.”
And one from Apple’s chief financial officer, Peter Oppenheimer, on iPhone: “We saw stunning iPhone sales.”
Apple critics are accusing the company of ripping off Samsung, not the other way around. They say the Samsung F700, first shown at Cebit in 2006 and released in February 2007, is the inspiration for the iPhone, first shown at Macworld 2007 and released in June that year. LOL @ Apple: Suing someone you stole the design from to begin with.
Apple says Samsung's phones and tablets, like the Galaxy S above, rip off its designs.
The blogosphere is seething today with theories about why Apple is suing Samsung, one of its key suppliers and partners.
It’s been suggested that Apple has little interest and chance of winning a “look and feel” lawsuit, otherwise known as “trade dress.” It’s a tactical move, a way to win concessions from either Samsung or Google. Silicon Alley Insider, for example, says it’s to force Google to charge hardware makers for Android, which is currently free.
But the real reason is this: Apple is pissed off with getting ripped off. And it has a good chance of winning, because it has won several trade dress lawsuits before.
Here’s a quick video of Project magazine’s panoramic cover for its latest issue.
The iPad-only magazine uses the iPad 2′s gyroscope to create a cover that moves through 360-degrees as you sweep the iPad around the room. It is available now from the App Store for $2.99.
Good news If you’ve got a Sonos music system and an Apple AirPort Express: a free software update will make your multi-room Sonos system AirPlay compatible.
The lawsuit claims several of Samsung’s smartphones and tablet — the Galaxy S 4G, Epic 4G, Nexus S and the Galaxy Tab — copy Apple’s intellectual property. The suit, filed last week in Northern California, claims:
“Rather than innovate and develop its own technology and a unique Samsung style for its smart phone products and computer tablets, Samsung chose to copy Apple’s technology, user interface and innovative style in these infringing products,” the lawsuit said.
Of course, Samsung makes a lot of components for Apple’s products, from RAM used in MacBooks to flash memory used in the iPhone and iPad. It aslo manufactures the A4 and A5 processors for Apple.
Update: An Apple spokesperson elaborated on the charges for Mobilized:
“It’s no coincidence that Samsung’s latest products look a lot like the iPhone and iPad, from the shape of the hardware to the user interface and even the packaging. This kind of blatant copying is wrong, and we need to protect Apple’s intellectual property when companies steal our ideas.”
