Luke Dormehl - page 15

March 29, 2012: Apple settles its “Antennagate” controversy by giving affected iPhone 4 owners the chance to claim a whopping $15 payout. The settlement covers customers who experienced problems with the phone dropping calls due to its cutting-edge design, but were unable to return their handsets (or didn’t want a free bumper from Apple to mitigate against the problem).

While it’s arguable whether a $15 payout was worth filing all the paperwork necessary to claim the cash, the Antennagate story — and the resulting class-action lawsuit — generated big headlines at the time.

March 28, 1996: In a dire message to Wall Street, Apple warns that it will report a $700 million after-tax loss for its most recent quarter.

Apple’s biggest quarterly loss in history, the shocking news reveals a company in far more financial trouble than previously thought. More than half the loss comes from $1 billion of unsold products.

March 27, 1995: The Radius System 100, the first official Macintosh clone, launches.

A high-end computer made by a company founded by several notable Macintosh alumni, this marvelous machine kicks off the era of clone Macs in grand fashion. However, it won’t be long until things take a turn for the worse.

March 26, 2010: Apple pays up to settle a trademark dispute with Japanese multinational Fujitsu over the name “iPad” in the United States.

It comes two months after Apple CEO Steve Jobs first showed off the iPad, and around a week before the tablet will land in stores. As it happens, it’s not the first time Apple battled over the name for one of its new products.

December 15, 2003: Almost eight months after launching the iTunes Music Store, Apple celebrates its 25 millionth download.

The song in question? Appropriately enough for this time of year, a Frank Sinatra cover* of the Christmas classic “Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!”

November 17, 1995: Apple releases the first beta version of its new Mac OS Copland operating system to approximately 50 developers. Not so much a Mac OS update as a totally new operating system, it offers next-gen features designed to help Apple take on the then-mighty Windows 95.

Sadly, Copland OS will never reach the public.

November 9, 1994: Gil Amelio, a businessman with a reputation as a talented turnaround artist, joins Apple’s board.

Coming off his impressive revitalization of two other tech companies, National Semiconductor and Rockwell International, Amelio’s appointment at Apple sparks widespread celebration. Many Apple watchers think his arrival means the company’s dark days are over. Sadly, Amelio’s turnaround tricks won’t work in Cupertino.

When it comes to new tech, the focus understandably falls on what’s changed, not what stayed the same.

That’s absolutely the case for the new M4 iMac, which Apple unveiled on Monday. Plenty of attention is (rightly) being lavished on the iMac’s guts. The M4 chip is a screamer, and the machine now comes with 16GB of unified memory as standard, a welcome change. And the new colors look great.

However, one thing that drives Apple customers bonkers has stayed the same. That one thing is Apple’s terrible mouse — or, more specifically, the ridiculous location of the charging port on the Magic Mouse.

July 23, 2012: Looking for the perfect spokesman for its new virtual assistant Siri, Apple turns to the director behind some of Hollywood’s most violent gangster movies. A new ad shows Martin Scorsese using Siri voice commands on his iPhone to juggle his busy schedule.

One in a string of celebrity-studded ads showcasing the Apple’s recently released virtual assistant, it ranks among the best.

June 12, 2007: With iPhone frenzy hitting a fever pitch in the buildup to the device’s launch, journalist Walt Mossberg sends the Apple world into a tizzy by whipping out a prerelease unit during a speech. The Wall Street Journal columnist is one of a handful of tech writers given early access to Apple’s revolutionary smartphone so he can put it through its paces for a review.

Speaking at The Chronicle of Higher Education’s Presidents Forum, Mossberg says he isn’t sure whether he’ll give the iPhone a thumbs up. Worried doubters immediately fear Apple is about to drop a dud.

May 19, 1980: Apple introduces the Apple III at the National Computer Conference in Anaheim, California. After two years of development, the business-oriented computer arrives to follow the enormously successful Apple II. However, for a variety of reasons, the Apple III launch turns out to be the company’s first major misstep.

September 5, 2007: Just months after the first iPhone went on sale, Apple ditches its bottom-tier 4GB model and cuts the price of the 8GB version by $200.

A rare misstep (considering Apple’s usual mastery of the press), this tone-deaf PR move backfires immediately. Early adopters rage about shelling out premium prices for their first-generation iPhones. Fortunately, Apple makes good.

August 30, 1990: A 112-page confidential Apple memo lays out what the company must do to make the Macintosh division a marketplace contender.

The internal memo comes from Dan Eilers, Apple’s vice president of strategy and corporate development. He boldly says Apple must consider four strategies: licensing Mac OS, licensing both the Mac’s operating system and hardware, creating a spinoff brand for the Macintosh, or starting a totally new company to combat the growing threat of Microsoft’s Windows.

August 20, 2012: Apple passes a financial milestone as it becomes the most valuable publicly traded stock ever.

The company it bests to attain this record? Longtime rival Microsoft, which peaked on December 30, 1999. Apple’s surge to the top spot serves as a reminder of just how radically the fortunes of both companies changed over the years.

August 18, 2014: A Christmas-themed iPhone ad lands Apple an Emmy for “Most Outstanding Commercial of the Year.”

The prize-winning spot is Apple’s “Misunderstood” iPhone 5s ad. It depicts a silent teenager who won’t spend time with his family at Christmas because he’s too busy with his iPhone. At the end of the ad, he reveals that he’s not actually being a misanthrope. He used his iPhone and iMovie to shoot and edit a heartwarming family montage!

August 11, 1950: Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak is born. While Steve Jobs may be the most admired Apple figure, Woz might be the most well-loved by fans.

In addition to his most famous creation, the Apple II, Wozniak is also responsible for imbuing Apple’s products with his fun-loving personality.

Happy birthday, Woz!

July 21, 2011: Apple officially passes Nokia to become the world’s top smartphone vendor.

It’s a major milestone for Apple, which launched the iPhone just four years earlier. For Nokia, the Finnish company that dominated the cellphone market during the 1990s and early 2000s, it marks the end of an era.

July 15, 1998: Apple reports its third profitable quarter after the return of Steve Jobs, continuing the company’s remarkable turnaround.

Cupertino earns $101 million for the quarter, largely thanks to the success of the Power Mac G3. In the same quarter a year earlier, Apple lost $56 million. This marks the first time in three years that the company managed three straight profitable quarters.

June 10, 2013: Apple passes a major milestone in iOS history, as payments to app developers top $10 billion on the App Store’s fifth birthday.

Speaking at WWDC 2013, Apple CEO Tim Cook reveals that the company paid out half of this money in the previous year. He also notes that this outrageous total is three times more than all other app store platforms combined. With 575 million user accounts registered, Apple has more credit cards on file than any other company on the internet.

People have downloaded 50 billion apps in total out of a collection of 900,000 available, Cook says, with 93% of the apps downloaded at least once every month.

December 14, 1999: Apple acquires the domain name www.iphone.org, prompting years of speculation that Cupertino is considering building a cellphone. While the news generates interest, some take it as a warning sign.

Apple only recently abandoned the kind of non-computer projects like games consoles, PDAs and digital cameras that proved to be dead ends earlier in the decade. An Apple phone could never be a thing, right?

When Apple TV+ launched on November 1, 2019, Cupertino had its sights set on creating a serious Netflix rival. Two year on, it may not have conquered the world like fellow streaming newcomer Disney+ did. But Apple TV+ continues to deliver a stream of top-notch shows — and some must-see movies.

With dozens of series and more than 20 feature films, where should you start? Here’s our guide to the best shows and movies on Apple TV+, in no particular order.

September 12, 2012: Apple introduces the iPhone 5, with a super-slim form factor that makes it the thinnest smartphone in the world.

The new iPhone also brings impressive upgrades such as a greatly improved display and the Lightning port. Despite some controversy, it proves a massive hit.

Of all the apps Apple might get upset about, one that lets you emulate classic DOS games on your iPhone doesn’t seem like it would make the top of the list.

Someone at Apple clearly disagrees, however. iDOS 2 developer Chaoji Li recently revealed that Apple rejected an update to his DOS-emulation app — on the grounds that it launches executable code. That’s despite the fact that some version of Li’s iDOS app has been in the App Store since 2010.

In July, Li posted Apple’s message warning him about pending removal from the App Store in a blog post titled “iDOS 2 will be gone soon.”

Apple chipmaker TSMC, which makes both Apple’s A-series and Apple Silicon chips, says that its production lines have been hit by a gas leak. This has affected some of its chip production — including the advanced chip fab used for upcoming iPhones and Macs.

“To ensure that there will be no issues with production quality, TSMC is currently carrying out stringent follow-up operations,” TSMC said. It told Reuters that it doesn’t expect this to he a “significant impact” on operations.

Many parts of the world are starting to open up again as the pandemic (hopefully) continues to subside. But video-conferencing apps, possibly the app category most associated with COVID-times, continue to ascend.

According to data from app analytics platform Sensor Tower, collective monthly active users of Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet continued their surge in the first half of 2021. Usage was collectively 21x higher during the first half of 2019 than it was prior to the pandemic.