Here’s a Hollywood marketing tactic we never thought of: Create an iTunes alternative so roundly despised that you’re forced to send angry consumers to iTunes. And you wonder why your DVD player is gathering dust?
A good friend of mine recently bought a new iPhone 4S from her local Apple Store. When presented with her new iPhone, the Apple Store salesperson tried to sell her on AppleCare+. It was a hard sell; in her opinion, the Apple Store salesperson went about it in all of the wrong ways. She’s a savvy consumer, reads Cult of Mac and other tech blogs, and has even read my new book. She did her own research before she bought the iPhone. She understood the differences between AppleCare and AppleCare+. She weighed risks of accidental damage against the price and limitations of AppleCare+, and decided the extra protection wasn’t for her.
She passed on AppleCare+, but believes that she might have been swayed if she hadn’t done her homework. She made a choice and, whether or not it turns out to be the right one, she was the one to make it. But not everyone is going to take the time to evaluate the pros and cons of AppleCare+ and will be confronted with this question at the time of purchase. Might you or someone you know fall victim to a hard sell on AppleCare+?
When Apple first announced the new $99 AppleCare+ program along with the iPhone 4S, there was a lot of confusion about it, largely because Apple required the coverage be purchased at the same time as the iPhone.
Luckily, Apple’s now cleared up its AppleCare+ policies. You now have 30 days to purchase AppleCare+ after you pick up a new iPhone.
What is AppleCare+? It replaces the previous $69 AppleCare for iPhone coverage that didn’t cover accidental coverage. With AppleCare+, you have coverage for up to two accidental breaks of your iPhone, each subject to a $49 service fee. For clumsy butterfingers like me, not a bad deal at all.
When Disney CEO Robert Iger joined Apple’s board of directors, the tech giant offered him a little gift — and it wasn’t a fruit basket. No, Iger received shares worth more than an estimated $84,000. Of course, the amount is Mickey Mouse compared to the $29 million he pulls in as Disney’s head exec.
Forget Occupy Wall Street, Occupy Oakland, Occupy Boston and all the rest of the 995 protests. The Occupy movement is now coming to your browser, but not how you’d expect: they want to eliminate Adobe Flash from all web browsers.
A special education teacher from Lincoln High School in Stockton, California, is currently on paid leave after she set up a pornographic website business on a MacBook issued to her by the school. Heidi Kaeslin was suspended when school officials discovered her moneymaking scheme, and she is now under investigation.
High-profile PC makers such as HP and Dell may be preparing to “gradually phase out” of the tablet business, leaving the market to Apple’s iPad, Amazon’s Kindle Fire and Barnes and Noble’s Nook tablets. The rumored sea change follows the realization that best-selling tablets make money from the content they pump out, not from selling the hardware.
If I told you that Pirates of Silicon Valley star Noah Wyle was set to return to the screen as Steve Jobs in the upcoming biopic based upon Walter Isaacson’s best-selling biography, you’d probably say, “Great Choice!” After all, Wyle was great as Steve. The role fits him. It would be wonderful to see him settle back into it over a decade later, and finish the arc.
Now, what if I told you that Noah Wyle had some competition for the role of Steve, and that competition was his old ER co-star George Clooney? What would you say then? My guess is your response would be the same as mine: “What the fffffffff……”
The probability of you obnoxiously yelling “shooow meee the moneeeeyyyy!!!” into your cell phone will undoubtedly climb as you slide our new Cult of Mac tee over your torso. This fine garment is 100% Jerry Maguire-approved and 100% Apple-inspired.
Unisex Tees are finely crafted right here in the USA, are limited in quantity, and are just $22 each. Even better, they’re available to ship worldwide. You can pick up our new tee and other fruit-inspired graphic tees right now over at MightTees.com.
Philips has released a new iOS app for the iPad 2 that allows you to measure both your heart rate and breaking rate using only your device’s camera. Unlike similar apps that require additional accessories, this one claims to get its results from “the color of your face” and “the motion of your chest.”
Did Apple almost switch to AMD processors this generation in the MacBook Air? That’s the latest report, and while we’re really skeptical, if it’s true, it would have been quite the blow against Intel.
Want the iPhone 4S but still unsure which carrier to commit to? It was easier when there was just one, right? Well maybe this will help you decide: A test performed by Metrico Wireless highlights the strengths and weaknesses of all three iPhone 4S providers — AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon — with Verizon coming out on top when it comes to reliable calls, and AT&T beating the others to faster data.
Apple is back in court in an attempt to stop Amazon from using the term ‘Appstore,’ with the charge that advertising for the online retailer’s Kindle Fire tablet misleads consumers. The tech giant wants the ads to stop, claiming they mistakenly give the impression Apple endorses the Amazon device.
The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) is a nasty, totally broken little power grab of a bill that would effectively end the concept of ‘safe harbor’ that has allowed the internet to grow and thrive over the last ten years by allowing the government to add websites to a DNS blacklist for posting any kind of copyrighted material, fair use or not.
The bill’s so stupid and the outrage over it so deafening that it’s doubtless it will be never make it into law. Too many people are openly angry about it, including Mozilla, 4Chan, Reddit, Tumblr, Facebook, AOL, Wikimedia, the ACLU, Twitter and Yahoo!
You know who supports SOPA, though? Apple. In fact, they are writing a check to support it, albeit indirectly. It’s a check iTunes Match might have to cash.
Apple has made a subtle change to its App Store app for the iPad today, but subtle though it may be, it makes navigating the store a much nicer, and much faster, experience.
Following the launch of a new worldwide replacement program for the first-generation iPod nano last week, users have begun receiving their replacements today, and they’re just like new — only without the overheating issue.
If you’re a photographer, designer or marketing type, chances are you’ve used Shutterstock‘s stock image service at some point — either to hawk your wares, or to grab inexpensive(ish) good-looking images for a project. And if you use the service frequently, things just became a little easier — thanks to Shutterstock’s new iPad app (as long as you have an iPad, of course; if you’re a photographer without an iPad, well, get one).
Myxer, which just released its iPhone app, is alot like Pandora, only with a huge side of friends. Instead of being based around a solitary experience, Myxer encourages users to listen to what their friends are into — which is great for discovering new tunes.
Flipboard, a popular RSS reader for the iPad, has been updated with a new Account feature that lets users sync settings across devices. A Flipboard Account lets users store feeds and other settings in the cloud.
Once a new Account is set up in-app, reading preferences and feeds are available to anyone that uses that login on another iPad. A Flipboard iPhone app is in the works, and this new feature prepares the service for syncing settings across more iOS devices in the near future.
US carriers can’t sell the iPhone 4S fast enough, according to a new report by The Wall Street Journal. Potential iPhone customers are still unable to get their eager hands on Apple’s coveted smartphone, with many carriers estimating shipping dates of 1-3 weeks.
Initial iPhone 4S sales have made the device Apple’s fastest-selling product of all time, and demand continues to outpace supply.
The new beta of Skype for Mac and Windows integrates with Facebook to allow video calling between two people. As part of Skype’s new partnership with Facebook, users can access their friends’ Facebook status updates and messages within the Skype app.
A method has been uncovered that unlocks the GSM iPhone 4S for T-Mobile. By taking advantage of an alleged bug in iOS 5, you can supposedly unlock your iPhone 4S on AT&T without jailbreaking.
To perform the hack, you’ll need a T-Mobile Micro SIM and your AT&T SIM from your iPhone 4S.
AT&T is set to unveil a new store in the bustling metropolis of Chicago tomorrow, and the new space takes multiple cues from the Apple Stores that we’ve all come to know and love.
The carrier has spent recent months studying some of the most successful retail brands, including Apple, in an attempt to create a better in-store experience for customers. As part of AT&T’s new concept store, employees will be able to checkout buyers by using iPhones and iPads to handle transactions.
What do the kids want under the Christmas tree this year? According to new market research by Nielsen, youngsters in the US want iPads, iPod touches, and iPhones.
As the holiday season quickly approaches, kids between the ages of 6 and 12 desperately want a precious iOS device from Apple. The iPad is the most desired product on the nation’s collective Christmas lists, while the iPod touch and iPhone sit comfortably in the second and third spot.
As a tribute to Steve Jobs, the guys over at Signal Snowboards decided to make a plank that was totally infused with the spirit of Apple design.
The result? A snowboard milled from a block of aluminum with a glowing, Apple-like logo and a built-in 3G iPad 2.
The verdict? Not exactly a great plank for maneuverability, but I’m just impressed they didn’t crack that iPad into a million pieces after their first trick./