Leander Kahney - page 29

Our friends at Hong Kong-based M.I.C. Gadget have received a letter from Apple! It’s not a very nice one though. It concerns the Pineapple CEO action figure, which portrays our favorite technologist as a star-throwing ninja (remember the story about Jobs being stopped at airport security?).

“Mr. Jobs has not consented to the use of his name and/or image in the Product. Unauthorized use of a person’s name and/or likeness constitutes a violation of California Civil Code Section 3344, which prohibits the use of any person’s name, photograph or likeness in a product without that person’s prior consent… The figure and its stand are replications of Mr. Jobs image and Apple’s trademark. The thin attempt to “disguise” the figure in its current iteration does not impact the fact that you are plainly trading on Mr. Jobs image…”

M.I.C. Gadget says it’s sorry and will no longer sell the action figure.

Actually, we are wondering what took the law firm so long to send us an email to request us to cease the marketing and sale of the figure. We reviewed it on January 18, and we received the email on February 8. That’s almost a month time! We believe someone from Apple has bought the figure so the lawyer took so much time to look for us. So, who bought it??

M.I.C. Gadget: Apple Is Not Happy With The Pineapple CEO Action Figure

Apple will build a massive store in New York City’s Grand Central Terminal, Cult of Mac independently confirmed.

The store will open in the fall, likely early September — and it will be Apple’s largest retail space in the world.

The store already has a name: Apple Store, Grand Central, according to a source close the company. The source said Apple will be making an internal announcement within the next month or so.

“The company will certainly pull out all the stops on this one,” said the source, who asked not to be named.

This year is the 10th anniversary of Apple retail, and Apple wants to make a big splash, our source said. Apple’s retail operation has been a spectacular success, helping fuel the company’s explosive growth and creating shops that make twice as much money as Tiffany & Co.

Apple’s stock is taking a hit on fresh rumors that Steve Jobs has only a few weeks to live. Apple stock is currently down about three points in after-hours trading. It’s likely to take a big hit tomorrow when the markets reopen. The stock dropped a few points last week on rumors that Jobs was in hospital.

The sleazy rumors, published by the supermarket tabloid National Enquirer, reportedly show photos of Jobs outside the Stanford Cancer Center in Palo Alto, his home town. The pictures don’t seem to be available online, but apparently show Jobs looking very thin and frail. The tabloid says Jobs has dropped from 175lb to just 130lb and has just six weeks to live. The topic is lighting up Twitter.

We don’t know whether the information is correct, but we certainly hope not. Best wishes Steve.

Daily Mail: Paper publishes shocking pictures of skeletal Steve Jobs claiming ‘cancer-stricken Apple boss may have just six weeks to live’

Earlier this week, the Wall Street Journal reported that Apple is working on a “major revamp” of MobileMe, including a “locker” that will stream movies and TV shows to iPhones and iPads.

We’ve learned that Apple is going far beyond this. The company is looking to add a ton of ambitious cloud computing features to MobileMe — possibly in anticipation of a streaming-only iPhone.

Among the many services Apple is working on are:

• A live video-streaming service like Ustream
• A location-based check-in system like Gowalla or Foursquare
• A geo-tagging system codenamed “Tokens” that tags real-world locations, like Facebook Places on steroids.

According to our source, who asked to remain anonymous, Apple is working on a lot of streaming data services and location-aware technologies. It’s not clear when or how these features will be rolled out, but they appear to complement our report that Apple is working on a streaming-only iPhone.

“A ton of ideas were hatched on what they could do, and from what I heard, a lot of their ideas were shelved for a later date in order to focus on a few of them,” said our source.

Demolition crews have begun tearing down Steve Jobs’ ramshackle mansion in Woodside.

Preservationists had wanted the historic mansion saved but Jobs wants to build a smaller, modern residence on the property. The 86-year mansion was subject to a long legal battle, which Jobs eventually won. Jobs famously lived in the mansion during the ’80s. It was empty of furniture and he neglected to mow the lawn.

The San Francisco Chronicle talked to a local resident and got a great quote from Jobs’ attorney:

“I just heard a bunch of noise up there and saw it going on,” said Greg Moretti, 37, of Woodside. “Whatever side of the demolition debate you are on, it’s hard to deny that what we are witnessing here today is the loss of a significant piece of California architectural history.”

Jobs’ attorney, Howard Ellman, said, “He applied to demolish the house, we got the house demolition permit, and the demolition started today. What more can I say?”

For a good look on just how run down the mansion was, check out Jonathan Haeber’s amazing photos.

Apparently, Deutsche Telekom expects NFC-equipped smartphones this year from Samsung, RIM, LG and Apple.

A PowerPoint presentation at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona seen by PhoneScoop says wireless Near Field Communications payment systems are coming soon:

Deutsche Telekom announced that it expects NFC phones in 2011 from Apple, Samsung in Q2, and RIM & LG in Q3. The company expects mobile payments replacing cash to be the most popular use for NFC technology, followed by mobile ticketing for services such as public transportation.

Unfortunately there’s no pictures or further detail. It’s not clear whether Deutsche Telekom has prior knowledge or is just wishful thinking. NFC-equipped iPhones and iPads have been widely rumored.

The main point of performer Mike Daisey’s powerful one-man show about Apple and its Chinese factories is that in China, it’s cheaper to have people make products rather than have machines make those products. As a result, people are treated like machines. They perform the same tasks, day in, day out. They work excessively long hours and if they break down, they are discarded. Most tellingly, if they try to commit suicide, the factory puts up big nets around its buildings to catch them. Nothing about the work or the workplace is changed.

It’s these nets that Apple touts in its just-published Supplier Responsibility report, which details the progress it has made during 2011 in imposing standards on its overseas contractors. The report discusses child labor, factory poisonings and conflict materials. A whole section is devoted to the suicides in 2010 at Foxconn, its largest overseas supplier.

At the weekend, the Wall Street Journal reported an intriguiging detail about the upcoming iPhone nano: the new iPhone would feature “voice-based navigation.” (It will also be streaming-only, according to our report).

Could this be true system-wide voice control, as programming legend Bill Atkinson predicted at Macworld?

As we previously reported, Atkinson said it’s clear that iPhones would one day be controlled by voice, but he predicted the development to be several years away — two to ten years, he said.

But Atkinson reminded us we can get a sneak peek at the technology if we tune into Jeopardy! tonight. The history-making show features IBM’s DeepQA Project Watson supercomputer versus previous champions, Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter.

It’s likely to be a first public demonstration of the kind of natural-language and real-world knowledge technology to make it work.

“When we see computers interacting with a natural language interface, people are going to want it,” Atkinson said.

“I’d ask you all to watch Jeopardy on February 14,” he said. “It may be a momentous occasion.”

This is probably the best iPhone nano mockup so far from our friend Tyler Hojberg, who writes:

Hey, just thought I’d share my concept idea of the “iPhone nano.” Creating a smaller chunkier screen allows more room for a full sized keyboard and contrary to popular belief, I decided to keep the home button. I don’t believe Apple is ready to do away with the iconic home button just yet, as I believe it’s one of the distinguishing form factors of the iPhone. Notice the change in antenna at the bottom which I believe would be blocked because of the way a smaller iPhone is held, leaving only one at the top. It’s conceptual, but not too far-fetched.

What do you guys think? Would it work?

The iPhone nano mockups are coming in thick and fast.

The one above is by iOSboy. It has the same screen size as the full-size iPhone to make it easy for app developers. But he’s put the camera on the bottom. Does that make sense?

Here are some other interesting mockups:

UPDATE: The big question about a streaming-only iPhone is apps: How will users download apps? My source compared it to the second-generation Apple TV, which is a streaming-only device but includes 8GB of onboard memory (for the OS and buffering media). “I’m not 100% sure on the amount of memory available for the user,” he said. “I know there is some memory but it acts more like the memory on the AppleTV. There is some there, I’m just not sure how much.”

We have more detail on Apple’s iPhone nano, which according to Sunday’s Wall Street Journal is real and may be headed to market this year.

But what we have will blow your mind.

Ben David Walker, a student from the U.K., has designed a new banner notification system for the iPhone that cleverly uses some empty space in the current iOS.

As we reported yesterday, Apple is revamping the much-criticized pop-up notification system in iOS and is buying a third-party app developer for its technology.

The current notification system is a mess. It was designed in 2007 when users had the odd SMS message or alarm, but is useless for 2011 when users have multiple messages coming in from Twitter, Facebook, SMS, as well as alarms, reminders, voicemails and missed calls. There is nowhere in iOS to see them all in one location.

But there would be using Walker’s new system. Here’s how it would work.

I’m with Scoble on this one: the Nokia/Microsoft partnership is a pretty good idea. Here’s why:

1. Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 is actually pretty good. It’s certainly better than Nokia’s Symbian and arguably better than Android.
2. Microsoft gets massive hardware distribution, which will attract developers.
3. Apps: The platform will be too big to ignore. And apps are what count. You can’t just have cool devices or cool software, you’ve got to have a platform. This is why HP should also go with Windows Phone 7, instead of trying to get webOS off the ground (it’s great, but it’s doomed).

As Scoble says:

Nokia has great hardware design and supply chains. They always have great cameras, great screens. Supply chains matter. A lot more than anyone thinks (the stuff Apple never talks about, but works its ass off on is supply chain management — I got to see this first hand when I visited China).
You add that all up as a salad and now the smart developers have to take another look at Microsoft and Nokia. They can’t ignore them like they can RIM (we all know people won’t use a lot of cool apps on a Blackberry).

Scoble: Dear Nokia Fans: You’re Nuts!

UPDATE: I sent an email to App Remix’s CEO Jonathan George asking whether his company was going to be bought by Apple. His response? “No comment…” he said.

Apple is working on a new notification system for iOS and will be buying a small company to build its technology into the operating system, according to one of our sources.

Apple’s pop-up notification system for new text messages, voicemails and the like has often been criticized as one of the weakest parts of the iOS. Notifications are intrusive, modal and often cryptic. It’s a mess.

HP/Palm’s webOS banner notification system, on the other hand, has been widely praised for its utility and ease of use. And from this week’s preview, it looks to be getting better.

There were rumors last year that the iPhone’s notification system would be fixed after the chief architect of Palm’s system, Rich Dellinger, returned to work at Apple. However, the system still hasn’t been fixed, and according to our source, Apple is now trying to buy a small app developer to fix it.

Our source, who asked to remain anonymous, didn’t know the identity of the company, except it already has an iPhone app in the App Store.

One candidate is Boxcar, a free app from App Remix that enables push notifications for Twitter, Facebook, and email. Boxcar’s system has been highly praised, especially the new iPad version.

Other than that, we couldn’t find other obvious possibilities for the company Apple is buying. If anyone has a good idea, please leave it in the comments.

As Apple’s stock takes a pounding on rumors that Steve Jobs is in hospital, the Wall Street Journal says he’s up and about and still on the job.

According to the Journal, Jobs is still on the job, taking meetings about the IPad 2 and iPhone 5:

The 55-year-old Mr. Jobs, whose ailment hasn’t been disclosed, has been taking business meetings at home and on the phone, these people said.

He also has been seen on Apple’s Cupertino, Calif., campus and in public in Palo Alto, Calif., with a company executive, said people familiar with the matter.

Earlier today, Apple’s stock dropped -3.62 to $354.54 on rumors Jobs is in hospital.

There’s the possibility that the WSJ story is a plant from Apple’s PR department to counter the Wall St. rumors. Apple’s stock started plunging at around 3PM EST: the Journal’s story, which is based on unnamed sources, appeared about three hours later, at 6PM. The timing may also be a coincidence, of course.

WSJ: Despite Leave, Jobs Keeps a Hand on Apple

We like the sound of this one: Apple is rumored to be working on a smaller, cheaper iPhone — the iPhone nano. Best of all, the $200 iPhone will be contract free and may be dual-mode.

According to Bloomberg, the new handset will be about one-third smaller and be based on older, cheaper components to keep the price down. Apple already has a prototype (more likely, prototypes) and plans to introduce the new iPhone mid year.

The new iPhone may also be dual-mode. Bloomberg says Apple is also working on a dual-mode GSM and CDMA handset that would work on almost all networks — this may or may not the iPhone 5, and may or may not be in the new, smaller iPhone. Would make sense if it was though.

The cheaper handset is to counter the relentless march of Android phones, which are beating iPhone market share (but not iOS market share).

Bloomberg has great sources and has a good track record with Apple rumors. If true, it’s huge. It would upend carrier subsidies and the whole wireless business, givung control back to consumers and device makers.

The rumor tallies nicely with our prediction earlier this year that 2011 would be the year Apple introduces new iPhone models, just as it diversified the iPod line with nanos, shuffles, and classics as the technology matured.

As we noted in our prediction piece, Apple is currently competing only at the high-end, and has nothing to counter Android at entry-level prices. We predicted Apple will introduce a cheaper iPhone this year to widen the “price umbrella.” We called the cheaper iPhone, the “iPhone play.”

Of course, the iPhone nano rumors are as old as the hills.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75gG8Kcn0io

The iPad is taking off faster than anything Apple has shipped before, including the iPod and iPhone, both a pair of monster hits.

Look at this amazing chart from Mary Meeker, a former Wall St. analyst who is now with the VC firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. It shows the initial shipments of the iPad compared to the iPhone and iPod.

When the iPod was introduced in 2001, Apple shipped 236,000 units in the first three quarters. In 2007, the iPhone shipped 3.7 million units in its first three quarters. But the iPad blows both away: 14.8 million units shipped.

Steve Jobs has said the iPad was like “catching a tiger by the tail.” No kidding.

And here’s how the iTunes App Store is selling vastly more apps than it sold music or movies:

Here’s a great tour of Steve Jobs’ other company, Pixar, courtesy of the New York Times.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnjwG7Z8AM8

Here’s video of yesterday’s webOS presser so you can see for yourself HP’s TouchPad in action — scrub to 22.30.

The Wall Street Journal says the iPad 2 is now in production, according to “people familiar with the matter.”

According to the Journal, the iPad 2 will be:

• Thinner
• Lighter
• Faster processor
• More memory
• Better graphics processor
• Front-facing camera
• No Retina display: screen will be same resolution as original iPad
• Dual-mode wireless: will be available through both Verizon and AT&T
• No Sprint or T-Mobile

WSJ: Apple’s New iPad In Production

Despite having a brand new antenna, the Verizon iPhone 4 also has antenna issues when held in a “Death Hug,” iLounge has discovered.

The “Death Hug” is when the phone is cupped by both hands and held in landscape orientation — not exactly normal. Still, iLounge found it slows both cellular and WiFi reception when loading web pages. But as Steve Jobs pointed out in response to the original Antennagate controversy, holding any smartphone in your hands degrades the signal to some extent.

This doesn’t look like Antennagate redux. We can’t see the VZW Death Hug turning into another PR headache for Apple.

After consistently undervaluing Apple, Wall St. analysts are now saying the company should be the most valuable company on Earth.

At least five firms Wall St. have upped their 12-month forecasts to an average of $467, putting Apple’s market cap at $433.7 billion, way past Exxon Mobil’s $423.2 billion.

Apple’s stock hit a new all-time high today of $355.12, valuing it at $326.6 billion. The biggest bull on Apple’s stock, Ticonderoga Securities, says it’s going to $550 thanks to future sales in China.

CNBC: Apple Is Most Valuable Company on Earth: Analysts

Our friends at 9to5Mac have torn down the Verizon iPhone and found a tasty surprise: it’s based on a GSM world phone-compatible chip!

The VZW iPhone is based on the Qualcomm MDM6600 chip, which is dual-mode GSM and CDMA compatible. That means the iPhone 5 will also surely be dual-mode, allowing Apple to ship one handset for both Verizon and AT&T, aw well as every other carrier outside the U.S.

9to5Mac: Verizon iPhone tear-down posted, reveals Qualcomm Gobi chip! (GSM Worldphone compatible!)

Motorola’s Super Bowl ad for its Xoom tablet — one of the first serious iPad contenders — is replete with Apple references: 1984, Lemmings, white earbuds. But where Apple’s TV ads for the iPad are practical and concrete, Motorola’s is cryptic and confused.

Reminds me of Palm’s weird, ethereal ads for the Pre, which bombed. It’s not good sign.

Plus, the device will reportedly cost $800 with a $20 per month data plan. There’s no WiFi-only model. From our hands-on at CES, the hardware looks OK, but we couldn’t test the software: Moto was showing an unfinished unit..

Apple’s upcoming iOS 4.3 update will have wireless syncing, Photobooth, and a Sports Training program.

It may also get QuickLook from OS X — the ability to quickly peek at a file or email attachment without launching any programs.

The new capabilities were discovered by programmer Chris Galzerano, who has been digging around in the iOS 4.3 SDK and firmware beta.

Here are the details:

UPDATE: Mark Gurman from 9to5Mac is skeptical about this information. PhotoBooth is right, he says, but has been known for weeks. QuickLook is for opening attachments in email; the Sports Trainer frameworks have been in iOS forever, and likely refer to Nike+; and the Wireless Syncing frameworks are likely part of regular MobileMe syncing.