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.
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.”
It’s a little admitted secret, but one of the biggest reasons people like Network Attached Storage drives is for Torrent downloads. They’re the easiest ways to download obscure British TV shows, for example, that can’t be easily had here in the U.S. After downloading a couple of shows, users watch them via WiFi streaming on their MacBooks or iPads.
Trouble is, Torrent downloads slow everything on the home network to a crawl. Everyone complains when the network is clogged with Torrents of Shameless or The Killing. Well, not any more. You can set up one of Iomega’s new Home Media Network Hard Drive, Cloud Edition at work and use the office’s net connection to download Torrents at night. Then you stream them over the net to your home.
I’ve been testing one of the Home Media Drives for several weeks. There’s a been a few glitches, but on the whole, it works well. Now I’ve got my own little Amazon S3 system, with none of the monthly fees.
MacTech Boot Camp is coming to Dallas next week and is filling up fast, but CultofMac.com readers can get last-minute tickets — plus a $200 discount.
MacTech Boot Camp is an intensive one-day training program for Mac consultants and IT technicians. It boasts more than a dozen sessions covering everything from effective marketing to proper support call technique. There are also sessions on networking, printers, Windows on Mac, security, scripting and command line — plus a bunch more. If you want to get up to speed as an independent Mac consultant, this is the program for you.
The Dallas event is April 27 at the Hyatt Regency DFW.
You can even take an exam to become an Apple certified tech at the show. There’s a study group before a proctored Apple Certification Exam. There’s also a discount for MacTech attendees: take the test for $199 (It’s normally $299).
If you’re not in Texas, no worries. MacTech Boot Camp is a traveling roadshow. There’s a show coming up fast in Boston (May 18 at Royal Sonesta Hotel), followed by Los Angeles (July 27) and Chicago (Aug 31). Attendees can save $200 by registering early.
CultofMac.com is a media partner of MacTech Boot Camp.
The latest beta version of Safari now features a do-not-track privacy setting to prevent online advertisers from tracking users as they surf the Web.
The tool has been added to the latest version of Safari in Lion, the upcoming update to OS X expected to go public this summer.
Safari is the third major browser to add a do-not-track setting. It joins Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and Mozilla’s Firefox include it, but Google’s Chrome does not — yet.
Google, of course, is one of the web’s biggest online advertisers. It’s also worth noting that Apple offers an in-app advertising program called iAds that competes with other forms of advertising, online and off.
Oh dear. RIM’s iPad competitor, the PlayBook, gets a solid panning from the New York Times’ David Pogue.
The main problem is the lack of apps. Not even native apps. It doesn’t even have built-in email! The hardware is pretty limited too — no 3G or GPS.
The PlayBook, then, is convenient, fast and coherently designed. But in its current half-baked form, it seems almost silly to try to assess it, let alone buy it.
Remember, the primary competition is an iPad — the same price, but much thinner, much bigger screen and a library of 300,000 apps. In that light, does it make sense to buy a fledgling tablet with no built-in e-mail or calendar, no cellular connection, no videochat, no Skype, no Notes app, no GPS app, no videochat, no Pandora radio and no Angry Birds?
On the bright side, it does have a couple of spectacular features: its secure, can be synced wirelessly, and can power an external screen independently (the iPad only does mirroring). RIM promises updates to the hardware and software throughout the year, but by then, Apple will be finishing the iPad 3. It looks like a bomb.
UPDATE: WSJ’s Walt Mossberg slams it too: “I recommend waiting on the PlayBook until more independently usable versions with the promised additions are available.”
Author and former Apple evangelist Guy Kawasaki at Ad:Tech Photo:
SAN FRANCISCO — The survival of Apple beyond the 1980s comes down to a single piece of software, says Guy Kawasaki, bestselling author and Apple’s former chief evangelist. That single, miraculous piece of software — Aldus PageMaker — fueled a desktop publishing revolution, and saved Apple’s bacon in the process.
Getting large libraries of music and movies to synchronize wirelessly over WiFi hasn’t been easy, according to a source close to the company who asked to remain anonymous. But Steve Jobs himself sees it as key to updating the aging devices, which are becoming increasingly obsolete in the iPhone/iPad era.
“Jobs is pushing hard to get WiFi syncing into the next-generation of iPods,” says our source.
It looks like a stack of iPhone 4s, but this is a coffee table — the iTable.
It’s also a speaker dock with a motorized speaker bar that rises like a stage organ when your hand is swiped across the touch-sensitive controls (see the video below).
Designed a built by Kyle Buckner, who is best known for custom car interiors, the iTable is the first in a line of Apple-themed furniture.
“I am creating a line with this category,” said Buckner by IM.
It has got to be the first standup skit ever about OS X’s Software Update. In fact, it’s the first skit I’ve seen from a popular comic about Macs in general, except Sinbad of course. A sign of Apple’s ever-expanding popularity?
I just spent the last hour or so reading the 1996 profile, which Isaacson published when Gates was at the height of his power. Isaacson managed to get full access by persuading Gates it was a shot at winning Time’s Person of the Year. Gates didn’t win, but the profile is a great piece of work. It’s full of personal anecdotes and is psychologically penetrating. Isaacson talked to Gates’ friends, family and colleagues, and paints a rich, detailed portrait. It’s highly readable but also critical of Gates. We can only hope Isaacson does the same thing for Jobs, who has famously resisted biographers so far. As previously reported, Jobs has granted Isaacson full access for iSteve: The Book of Jobs, which is to be published early next year. (I don’t think it’s fair, but columnist Michael Wolff says Isaacson is a social-climbing sycophant).
Here’s a taste of the Gates piece:
When Gates decided to propose to Melinda in 1993, he secretly diverted the chartered plane they were taking home from Palm Springs one Sunday night to land in Omaha. There Buffett met them, arranged to open a jewelry store that he owned and helped them pick a ring. That year Gates made a movie for Buffett’s birthday. It featured Gates pretending to wander the country in search of tales about Buffett and calling Melinda with them from pay phones. After each call, Gates is shown checking the coin slot for loose change. When she mentions that Buffett is only the country’s second richest man, he informs her that on the new Forbes list Buffett had (at least that one year) regained the top spot. The phone suddenly goes dead. “Melinda, Melinda,” Gates sputters, “you still there? Hello?”
You’ve got to watch this video. I know April Fool’s Day is long gone, but this one is worth it. It’s the perfect set-up: a local news team prepped a segment about a new app that emits smell and taste via “piezo-electrics.” The other anchor, who’s in on the joke, tells his colleague that amazingly, it works. Skeptically, she tries it out, and everyone cracks up. Very funny.
Apple has pressured Toyota to remove a custom theme for jailbroken iPhones advertising the Scion car.
Available through Cydia, the interface theme was perhaps a sign that jailbreaking was gaining mainstream acceptance.
However, Cydia was contacted on Monday night and asked to remove the interface theme. According to Toyota’s advertising agency, Velti, Apple contacted Toyota and asked for the theme to be pulled.
Toyota complied to “maintain their good relationship with Apple,” according to a spokesperson for Velti speaking to ModMyi.com.
Apparently the controversial theme had been available since February 10th, but flew under Apple’s radar until Toyota started advertising it on sites like ModMyi.com at the the end of March and it got some press.
Jailbreaking is not illegal, but Apple says its voids warranties.
A couple of screenshots have just leaked of Microsoft’s Windows 8 tablet user interface.
Currently in pre-beta, Windows 8 is Microsoft’s shot at building a UI that’s suitable for both tablets and PCs. Windows 7 is not being ported to tablets. Early versions of Windows 8 have reportedly been shipped to Microsoft’s hardware OEM partners. So far, the UI hasn’t been seen, but two new screenshots indicate it is based on tiles, very much like Windows Phone 7.
The screenshot above shows the home screen, which features Microsoft’s Bing search engine front and center. Underneath are big tiles for shortcuts to Web apps or Web pages. Each app opens in a full-screen version of Internet Explorer, according to Within Windows, which first published the screenshots (The site is currently down. The screenshots have been republished at WinRumors)
The screenshot below shows a new e-reader app that includes built-in support for Adobe’s PDF format. Looking at the diagrams in the screenshot, it will include page scrubbing (to quickly scrub through a document) and multi-touch pinching and zooming. Apple may not like that.
Microsoft appears to be pushing a new file format called AppX (.appx), which will reportedly allow Windows Phone 7 developers to repackage apps in AppX and offer them through an app store that will be built into Windows 8. Sound familiar?
Our take? It looks OK. The tiled interface is pretty good on Windows Phone 7, but why are there still scrollbars if the interface is full-screen?
We’re hearing rumors that Steve Jobs is on the verge of resigning from Apple.
Nothing more than that: Jobs is about to leave the company he co-founded 35 years ago. The anniversary of Apple’s founding is today. It was established on April 1, 1976.
This is totally unconfirmed, but there is chatter about it. A local TV news channel has also been asking about the rumor.
Maybe it’s an April Fools’ joke. Most likely, it’s just the Silicon Valley echo chamber. We’re throwing it out because there’s talk about it.
Jobs is still on medical leave that began in January.
Apple’s annual developers conference takes place June 6-10 in San Francisco. The conference will focus on iOS 5and Mac OS Lion — and Apple seems to be setting expectations that there’ll be no iPhone 5 at the show. In past years, Steve Jobs has used to the WWDC stage to introduce new iPhone hardware.
It’s not just Americans that are crazy for the iPad 2. Check out this video of the huge line outside the Apple Store on London’s Regent Street on Friday. It just goes on and on.
Videographer Richard Gutjahr pioneering the iPad 2 as in-field camera rig.
Check out this totally pro video of the iPad 2 launch in Munich, Germany. It was shot, edited and uploaded entirely on an iPad 2 using iMovie. The entire process took less than a hour. It’s even in HD (720p).
It’s pretty amazing that such a professional video was prepared and published in less than an hour. Could never do it that quickly with a camcorder/MacBook/Aircard combo.
The instal disk for Max OS X. Photo by malagent: http://www.flickr.com/photos/49368060@N00/2310215514/
Mac OS X celebrates its tenth birthday today. The groundbreaking operating system was introduced to the public on March 24, 2001. Mac OS X helped reverse Apple’s fortunes in the desktop PC market, and has underpinned a lot of Apple’s subsequent success. Most importantly, it spawned iOS, which runs today’s iPads and iPhones.
Below is the story of how OS X’s game-changing interface came about. The story gives some insight into corporate creativity at Apple. OS X’s interface started as a side project. But as soon as Steve Jobs got wind of it, it was fast-tracked. Jobs became intimately involved in its development — a scary prospect for the programmers working on it.
But the struggle wasn’t just in its development. Apple had to nail the switch from the old Mac OS to the new, or it could have sunk the company. Guess which ally was crucial to the transition — Apple’s old enemy, Microsoft.
With the launch of OS X, Jobs finally took the title of Apple’s permanent CEO. Prior to that he’d been the interim CEO, or iCEO, and OS X was the last major part of the company he needed to fix.
Disney is an entertainment giant. But with assets valued at a total of just (!) $81 billion, Apple could probably snap it up with the money Tim Cook uses to wedge his office door open with. There are people who will swear up and down that an Apple/Disney buyout makes perfect sense — particularly given Steve Jobs’ history as a major Disney shareholder.
Recently Francis McInerney, a consultant at North River Ventures, called the deal “frighteningly obvious” and said that “the logic is so great this could happen tomorrow.” Rumors of an Apple/Disney merger go back at least as far as 1999 when it was reported that Disney planned to acquire both Apple and Pixar in a $12 billion stock swap, with Steve Jobs being ordained CEO of the mega-company. Since then, this rumor has come back with surprising regularity — although it’s unknown exactly why Apple would be interested in running theme parks and making animated movies.
Disney shareholders have re-elected Steve Jobs to the company’s board of directors, despite opposition from the AFL-CIO, the labor union federation.
As previously reported, the AFL-CIO opposed Jobs’s re-election because of his poor health and his job as CEO of Apple. The union argued that Jobs already had his hands full and advised shareholders not ro re-elect him.
Nonetheless, Jobs was re-elected on Wednesday at Disney’s annual shareholder meeting in Utah, according to Bloomberg.
With 7% of Disney’s stock, Jobs is the largest individual shareholder in the company. He has been a director at Disney since 2006, when Disney bought his other company, Pixar, for $7.4 billion.
