Four senior Apple executives and company board members recently donated more than 10,000 shares of the Cupertino, Calif. company’s high-flying stock. The donations benefitted unnamed charitable organizations with early Christmas gifts worth over $3 million, according to government records.
Apple board member and former clothing executive Millard Drexler made the largest donation of 6,800 shares worth more than $2.1 million. Drexler is CEO of J. Crew and former chairman of The Gap. Drexler made the donation on Dec. 14, a day when Apple stock closed at $320.29 per share.
Even though he’s a pretty reserved and deeply private individual, Steve Jobs sure does churn out great lines every year. Here are the 10 Ten Steve Jobs Quotes of 2010
Just six months have passed since the iPhone 4 launch, so it may seems a little premature to be speculating about its successor. But given the long lead times involved, you can bet that Steve Jobs’ A-team is already hard at it, toiling away in a maximum security lab, under his close personal supervision.
But where next for the iPhone? What can you add to the smartphone that has everything? With the growing competitive threat from Android, I think that Apple’s roadmap for iPhone in 2011 will switch from adding new features to product diversification, targeting multiple consumer segments and price points.
Instead of the iPhone 5, Apple will launch the iPhone Play and the iPhone Air. Here’s why…
If you need to type a letter or create a presentation, the Apple iWork suite can help get the job done. If you need to build a desk or fix the video projector, the Sears iWork toolkit might be a better choice. Complete with 119 dedicated purpose hardware applets in a rugged portable utilities folder, this productivity suite requires no power and never needs updating.
It may not remain on sale for long, however, given Apple’s penchant for preserving their trademarks (and fonts). A bargain now at only $39.99, who knows how much this may one day fetch on eBay?
Skype’s official iOS client can now make video calls using an iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, or fourth-generation iPod touch. People using any of these devices can share real-time video between themselves and people using Skype clients on Windows, Mac OS X, or Linux. If you are using an iPad or third-generation iPod touch you can receive video from the other clients, but since you don’t have a camera you won’t be able to send video.
The new client supports video over Wi-Fi and 3G connections and with an installed base of clients greater than those currently using FaceTime it may give FaceTime a run for its money.
Skype version 3.0 for iOS offers the following improvements:
While most of the Western world was wolfing down grammies Christmas pudding and singing Christmas carols, our gadget squad was quietly steeling itself (in between eggnog and unwrapping gifts, of course) for the onslaught of new tech at the monster of all gadget events, the annual Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas.
The madness kicks off early next week, and we’ll be smack in the middle supplying wall-to-wall coverage from the get-go. From advance information we’ve received, the really big news this year will be a dizzying acceleration toward hardware that interfaces with iDevices, including what seems like a massive dose of app-enhanced gadgets — gadgets that are built to interface with an iDevice and come with their own app, basically making the iPad or iPhone an intrinsic part of the gadget.
In fact, we were pretty surprised and disappointed during last year’s CES when it seemed all we could dredge up of the promising new concept was a clock and an insipid speaker dock. But the concept had only just been made available (with uncharacteristically little fanfare from Apple) earlier that year, and it seems gadget makers have caught up — we’re seeing teasers for everything from an iPhone-connected thermometer, to a car stereo that integrates the iPhone as a display to, a little bizarrely, an iPhone-controlled ball.
Not quite as cool but wider in appeal is the vast assortment of new wifi and Bluetooth connected sound hardware that’ll be on display; there’s also an increase in gadgets that stream and/or communicate with the cloud. And of course, we’ll be covering all the usual suspects: portable audio, speakers, docks, storage, cameras, gaming hardware, peripherals — you name it. Stay tuned.
Ahead of next month’s CES, speculation is that the long-rumored iPhone announcement won’t be announced during the gadget-palooza. At least no announcement will come from the mouth of a Verizon representative, goes the thinking. Tuesday, the U.S. carrier announced its lineup of CES speakers would provide “a sneak peak of Android-based 4G LTE consumer devices” for a Jan. 6 news conference.
This shouldn’t come as surprise. We’ve talked about how Apple CEO Steve Jobs likes to control the message, including announcements of key products. Even Verizon’s own Chief Operating Officer has told the anxious press corp that any iPhone announcement won’t come from the carrier.
Research In Motion’s PlayBook tablet is having trouble competing with the iPad’s 10-hour battery lifespan, an analyst told investors Tuesday. The delay is likely the cause of the Ontario-based RIM pushing back the PlayBook’s first-quarter of 2011 introduction until May.
Unlike the iPad’s 10-hours and the Samsung Galaxy Tab’s 6-hour lifespan, the PlayBook has a “relatively poor battery life of a few hours,” according to Shaw Wu of Kaufman Brothers. As a result, RIM’s tablet could “require a bit of re-engineering,” he added.
Usually, luxury mobile devices are simply tacky tat accomplished by taking a hot consumer product and rolling it in glue and crushed glass, but Gresso‘s latest product is surprisingly elegant. Called the iPad Gresso, it’s an iPad encased in 200 year old African Blackwood, with a logo crafted from pure 18K gold. No word on pricing, but it will cost you more than your skeleton is worth to buy, that’s for sure.
According to the always reliable Digitimes, Apple is preparing three versions of the iPad 2 for 2011… but if you think they mean 16GB, 32GB and 64GB, think again. Digitimes thinks it means WiFi, 3G.. and a Verizon iPad.
Edgar Cuevas, “Don’t Mind Me, I’m Only Here For The Violence.”
Christian Peacock, “Elena” (Revisualized by Gordon Fraser).
Robert Herold, “Those Vintage Days.”
Jaime Ferreyros, “She Never Said Goodbye.”
Jose Chavarry, “Before She Wakes.”
Laura Baffari “Free Climbing.”
That little iPhone camera became a something of a big shot in 2010.
iPhone photography broke into art galleries, including an itinerant exhibit in Apple stores, and if Flickr statistics are anything to go by, the humble iPhone camera may sound the death knell for point-and-shoot cameras.
Cult of Mac talked to Knox Bronson, who helped get those iPhone pics in galleries, about how to take better iPhone pics and what’s ahead for iPhone shutterbugs in 2011.
He also shared with us a gallery of favorites from his website, Pixels at an Exhibition, which encourages the use of apps but doesn’t allow for any post-production clean-up with programs like Photoshop.
Apple’s deservedly racking up a lot of year-end awards as the New Year fast approaches — from the iPad being named Walt Mossberg’s gadget of the year to Steve Jobs garnering the Financial Times’ Person of the Year award — but you can end this one to the more ignominious trophy pile: CNN has just listed Antennagate as one of their ten biggest tech fails of 2010.
Intent not to repeat this year’s shortages, Apple reportedly is “overbooking” its supply of iPad components for 2011. Suppliers of the iPad’s panel display have received orders for 65 million of the components for next year, far higher than the 45-48 million previously projected.
The move “indicates that Apple is very optimistic about the tablet PC market in 2011, and may also mean that Apple is overbooking panel capacity,” a Taiwan-based industry publication reported Wednesday.
Flying’s a frustrating experience, and I think all of us have been tempted at one point or another to take that frustration out on an obnoxious neighboring child. Perhaps he’s kicking your seat rhythmically and incessantly: not one of us would blame you for turning around, dumping your soda all over his crotch, standing up and then loudly shrieking, “Look! The baby wet himself! Big baby!” over and over again until he burst into tears and the rest of the airplane burst into applause. That’s not vindictiveness… it’s just justice.
We draw the line, however, at actually hitting kids. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what 68-year old Russell Miller did on a recent flight heading to Boise, Idaho, after a neighboring fifteen year old refused to turn off his iPhone (which seems to have been in Airplane mode, and we being used to play games and music, not make calls),
It may not really run iOS, but the latest touchscreen Nano has been hacked… and that hack may very well imply jailbreaks to come.
The hack was achieved by dev James Wheaton, who managed to install an alternate Springboard file that allowed him to remove an app from the device.
This might sound like a simple task, but it’s not: to achive the feat, Wheaton has to figure out how to bypass the Nano’s cache comparison, which scans the Springboard file for changes and reverts the device to factory settings if any mods are discovered.
In other words, it’s not that Wheaton was able to load a modified Springboard plist file deleting an app that is the big deal… it’s the circumvention of the Nano’s own anti-modding tech. That means the next step might be bonafide jailbreaking.
Wheaton’s discoveries don’t end there: he also found hidden support for apps, vCards, calendar events and more lingering in the firmware of the device. Even if the Nano will never run custom apps, some of that functionality may very well be able to be unlocked.
Apple gave us plenty to play with in 2010: most notably the iPad, the iPhone 4 and the new MacBook Air. But get ready, because in 2011, Apple will switch from giving to taking.
In his ongoing pursuit of Zen-like simplicity, Steve Jobs looks set to take away two key features of the Mac platform in 2011: optical drives and scroll bars. The impact is likely to be eye-watering for diehard Mac users, but we’ll probably come to see the wisdom of Jobs, eventually.
More and more information is coming out, suggesting how an expected iPad 2 might look or perform. Now comes word Apple may ship three versions of the updated tablet, adding a CDMA model to the already available Wi-Fi and 3G.
According to a Taiwan-based industry publication citing unnamed sources, production on the iPad 2 could begin as early as the second-half of January with Apple shipping between 500,000 to 530,000 units next month.
As we reported earlier this week, Apple blew out the competition when it came to prime real estate under the Christmas tree. Not only did Apple crush the competition when it came to laptops and MP3 players, the iPad rules and its rivals drool, according to an analyst Tuesday.
“Even with a handful of tablet competitors hitting the market, the iPad remained the only game in town” for the holidays, Wedge Partners analyst Brian Blair told investors. Blair called Apple’s rivals “junk for lack of a better word.”
After taking the unprecedented step of forecasting it would sell at least 1 million Apple TV units last week, the Cupertino, Calif. company Monday confirmed it had met its goal. The milestone shatters Apple’s previous high-water mark for the $99 device set it October: 250,000 units. At the time, CEO Steve Jobs remarked he was “thrilled.”
This latest sales announcement seemed more to do with increased competition from the likes of Roku and Google than any real revenue benefit to Apple. Last week analysts described the $400 million in revenue from sales of 1 million Apple TV as “fairly immaterial.” Kaufman Bros. analyst Shaw Wu, however, said the Apple TV could become “a more material contributor and game changer in the TV space,” if Apple creates an App Store for the device, similar to how the Cupertino, Calif. firm has done for other products, such as the iPhone and iPad.
The father of a five year old boy born with a rare genetic disorder that delays the development of speech has designed a new iPad app that aims to help the speechless communicate.
Look, you and I both know that leaked third-party case designs for unannounced, unreleased Apple products mean next to nothing. In fact, we’ve all been burned by drawing conclusions from purely fanciful Asian case designs before. So please take this news with a grain of salt: a new third-party case design for the iPad 2 seems to imply that the second-generation tablet will have an all-together sleeker and more iPod Touch evocative look.
Following through with their Yuletide threat, Gorillaz has released their new album, The Fall, over on their official website… an album notable for being both written and recorded almost entirely on the iPad, using downloaded App Store apps.
Is it snowing where you live currently? Are temperatures well below freezing? Are you outside? If you answered yes to any of these questions then it is likely that you are wearing gloves right now. If you are just looking to keep warm that is okay, but if you want to use your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad you’re out of luck. The touch screens on these devices aren’t compatible with gloves so if you want to use them you’ll have to pull at least one of the gloves off and risk frostbite in order to use one of Apple’s popular devices.
Now there is a solution that will save your fingers, keep you warm, and still allow you to use your touch screens.
A new lawsuit filed Monday against Apple and a number of app developers including Pandora, The Weather Channel, Dictionary.com and — uh — Pimple Popper Lite is alleging collusion to create secret profiles of iPhone users, including location, and pass that data onto advertisers without users’ consent.
Retrospectively casting an eye over an incredible year for both Apple and its customers, one of the most surprising developments of 2010 was the Mac’s long-overdue maturity into a serious gaming platform after years of false hopes and promises.
More surprising than even that, though, is the fact Apple almost had nothing to do with it: even while Cupertino oiled and massaged iOS into a platform capable of rattling the nerves of gaming’s most unassailable colossus, they continued to ignore Mac gamers and its developers.
So who was responsible for the Mac Gaming Renaissance of 2010? There’s no one company in particular, but let’s start with Valve.
