Cook believes Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher were too soft on Tim Cook during the D10 interview this week.
During the Q&A session at D10 today Apple CEO Tim Cook was asked an interesting question about how his company names its products. While many have speculated as to why Apple called the fifth-generation iPhone the “4S” back in October, Cook confirmed that the smartphone was named after its flagship feature, Siri.
Apple names its products each generation by either a flagship feature or design change. When a certain product establishes itself, naming conventions are usually dropped altogether, like the iMac and iPod Shuffle.
Speaking at an interview at D: All Things Digital today with Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher, Apple CEO Tim Cook hinted at some new directions for Siri.
“I think you’re going to be pleased with where we’re taking Siri.” Cook alluded to more breadth from the voice-enabled assistant, as well as admitting that there is more the technology could do.
Apple and Facebook have had a rocky relationship since the two failed to reach an agreement on Ping integration and implementing Facebook in iOS 5 last summer. Things are starting to look up for the two Silicon Valley giants under the new direction of Apple CEO Tim Cook.
At the D10 conference today Cook hinted that his company is working with Facebook to provide direct integration with iOS devices in the near future.
During his interview at the D10 conference today, Apple CEO Tim Cook was asked point blank by Kara Swisher about how Apple plans to change television.
He replied by praising the current set-top box Apple sells for $100. The Apple TV sold 2.8 million units last year and 2.7 million this year. “It’s an area of intense interest for us,” said Cook, “It’s not a fifth leg of the stool. It’s not the same size as the phone or Mac or tablet business.”
Walt Mossberg, co-interviewer, asked directly if Apple could just make a box and continue leaving the panel to others. Cook replied, “Can we control the key technology? Can we make a significant contribution far beyond what others have done in this area?” That’s the question Apple asks, and Cook seemed to be very interested in what the future may hold for his company’s future contributions.
At the D10 conference today Apple CEO Tim Cook talked about the many patent wars his company is involved in. Declaring that patents are a “pain in the ass,” Cook echoed Steve Jobs when he said, “We just want people to develop their own stuff and not rip us off.”
Cook compared patents to an artist drawing a painting. “We can’t take all of our energy, and all of our care, and finish the painting and have someone else put their name on it.” Apple doesn’t want to be the “developer for the world.”
Tim Cook took a moment at the D10 conference today to defend Apple’s reliance on supply chains and its willingness to micromanage them when they fall short of expectations.
Cook said that no one else is measuring working hours in China, nor reporting on it. “We took a position to say we want to bring this down,” he said. “We’re measuring working hours for 700,000 people.”
Apple CEO Tim Cook shared some thoughts on the late Steve Jobs and his influence on Apple tonight at the D10 conference. When asked how the loss of Jobs has affected Apple, Cook admitted that the death of Jobs was “one of the saddest days of my life,” but that his company is still intensely driven to strive for the very best.
Cook said Jobs taught him that “focus was key,” and to “not accept good,” but only the very best.
Talking with Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher today at the D: All Things Digital conference, Tim Cook explained why the iPad wasn’t the same as the Mac.
“The tablet is different,” said Cook. “It can do things that aren’t encumbered by what the PC was. We didn’t invent the tablet market, we invented the modern tablet.”
Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg interview Tim Cook at All Things Digital in California.
Apple CEO Tim Cook took the stage tonight to sit opposite veteran journalists Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg at the tenth D: All Things Digital (D10) conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, California. It is Cook’s first major interview since he became the official CEO of Apple last year.
Rolling shelves fill the Apple Store's back-of-house.
Have you ever wondered what it looks like behind the scenes at your local Apple Store? Customers can walk-in and see the products on the store floor, but what happens behind the back doors?
Some photos from one of Apple’s main retail stores in New York City reveal rarely-seen areas, including where the store keeps its inventory.
Spotify updated its universal iOS app today with some new features, including push notifications. The app store description says it all:
What’s New in Version 0.5.1
• New: Push notifications. Receive notifications when your subscribed playlists are updated, you get new subscribers, and more. You can choose which notifications to receive in Settings.
• New: Intro guide for new users.
• Fixed: Missing retina graphics on log in screen (iPad).
• Fixed: Retina album art is now always synced when you offline sync playlists.
• Fixed: App could sometimes become unresponsive after scrolling and navigating at the same time.
• Other improvements to Facebook login, screen locking when offline syncing, performance and stability.
Spotify, last updated on May 2 and available in 15 different countries, allows access (for subscribers) to its Premium music service on iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad. There’s a two-day trial available for free, after which you’ll have to choose a Premium plan or cancel. You’ll still be able to listen to wirelessly sync songs from your Mac, edit playlists, and see Spotify’s catalog of music without a subscription, but you won’t be able to stream to your iOS device.
FileWave offers desktop and iOS device application management
May is Mobile Management Month at Cult of Mac, where we will be profiling a different mobile management company every weekday. You can find all previous entries here and read our Mobile Management manifesto here.
FileWave is a new entrant into the mobile management space but a longtime player in many business and enterprise environments. FileWave offer multi-platform file and application deployment and licensing management for all desktop systems across an organization. The company has a very impressive track record for both IT-managed and self-service provisioning and deployment that has made it a solid enterprise solution for companies with Macs, Windows PCs, and Linux desktops. More recently, the company has begun offering iOS device management functionality. For Apple-oriented businesses, the combination of desktop and mobile device application management makes FileWave a choice well worth considering.
Despite the headlines, everyone's favorite photography app hasn't been gobbled up by Facebook quite yet.
Reports surfaced earlier this month that the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) had begun a probe into Facebook’s proposed $1 billion acquisition of Instagram. No specific reasons were given for the FTC’s probe, but the acquisition was reportedly stalled due to antitrust concerns. It will likely take regulators up to a year to determine if the deal violates U.S. antitrust law.
Facebook will pay Instagram $200 million if the deal falls through. If the FTC approves the acquisition, Instagram’s two co-founders will net $500 million combined.
Apple creates walled gardens, but we choose to live in them.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has been challenging Apple to higher standards for quite some time. Carrying the slogan “defending your rights in the digital world,” the EFF frequently calls out tech companies and related policies when it thinks ramifications could be negative for consumers. The EFF challenged Apple to defend its third-party developers against the Lodsys patent troll, has repeatedly addressed the company’s “anti-competieve” strategies, and so on.
In a new post today, the EFF has proposed that Apple let users of its iOS platform break through the “beautiful crystal prison” and have more control over the OS. The EFF also argues that OS X is becoming more of a restricted platform on the Mac, and that Apple should pave the way for a more open culture leading into the future.
These guys might look more prestigious than your usual retail employee, but they're often far worse suffering.
For many Apple fans, there’s a hypnotic allure to the idea of working for their favorite tech company, even if it’s just a job manning the Genius Bar at the local Apple Store. But what happens when you actually get called in for an interview? What’s it like to actually work at the Apple Store?
The truth is few applicants will ever know, as it’s almost impossible to get a job at an Apple Retail store at anything besides an entry-level, part-time sales position, no matter how qualified or educated you are. Once in, it’s almost impossible to move up the ladder, you will be poorly paid, you will probably never see a raise above basic inflation, you will be overworked and you will be abused day-in and day-out by customers. If you soldier through and rise up the ladder, the job can be rewarding, but more often than not, it’s not just retail hell… it’s worse than retail.
Microsoft plans to use license agreements to prevent class action lawsuits
Microsoft is a company known for creating strict, labyrinthine, costly terms in its commercial and end-user licensing. With Windows 8 seen as a make-or-break product for Microsoft, the company has already been adding licensing terms intended to strengthen its hand in the mobile market. As we reported earlier this year, Microsoft’s enterprise licensing for Windows 8 has provisions to coerce businesses into buying ARM-based Windows RT tablets while punishing those that deploy iPads with more costly terms.
Ratcheting things up a notch, Microsoft’s general counsel Tim Fielden announced new details about the company’s end-user license agreements. Although not mentioning specific products or services, Fielden posted on a Microsoft blog that many new agreements will prohibit users from initiating a class action lawsuit against the company.
So, you may be thinking of traveling to far off places this summer, blithely jetting off to other countries, bringing your iPhone hither and yon to take pictures, check email, call your friends to brag about the nice weather, and play some Angry Birds while on the long plane rides. Unfortunately, using that beautiful iPhone in other countries could see you coming home with more that just a sunburn and jet lag.
If you use your iPhone and access its network capabilities, you could be seeing a bill of hundreds, even thousands, of dollars. Here’s how to avoid having to take out a second mortgage to pay your bill.
Technicolor says there's not much difference between The Emerald City and Cupertino: both use their tech.
If you’ve ever seen an old color movie like The Wizard of Oz you’ve probably seen the “Filmed In Glorious Technicolor” crawl. In fact, for years, Technicolor was synonymous with seeing color on film and on your screens, and for good reasons: Technicolor was ingenious.
Despite the fact that no one had invented film stock that could actually capture color, the French company had figured out a way to make color movies by splitting the light being recorded with a prism into red, green and blue light, then recording those individual color spectrums onto separate strips of black-and-white film. Once these strips of film were colored and combined, the result was life-like color recorded on black-and-white film.
Pretty cool, huh? In the days of digital cinema, though, Technicolor has fallen on hard times. In fact, their entire company is unprofitable, with the exception of one department that keeps 220 staff on hand. It’s the patent licensing department, and their only job is to rip open new iPhones, iPads and Macs the second they come out and start looking for infringements.
Like its monitor-calibrating cousin, the Spyder4Pro, the Spyder4TV HD ($125) from Datacolor is used to fine-tune the color profiles in your life. But as the name implies, the Spyder4TV isn’t for your Mac’s monitor; this Spyder wants to correct the color on your HDTV.
This is what you're competing with when you comet with free
This is an article about using BitTorrent with other OS X apps to automate the downloading and converting of TV shows, adding metadata and then transferring them to your iPad to be watched. Some of you will rage that this is immoral, illegal (in your country) or both. Others will say that BitTorrent is, like, totally legit and is used every day for, like, downloading Linux builds, man.
I don’t care. What I do care about is watching TV Shows on my iPad, complete with subtitles, metadata, cover art and converted into a format that won’t kill the battery whilst playing back. I would buy these from the iTunes Store if I could, but as I live in Spain, I can’t. Here’s how to do it yourself.
Last week a group of developers banded together to celebrate pricing freedom by launching the Because We May promotion. The promotion, which ends June 1, includes heavily discounted games across multiple platforms. Since its launch, Because We May has received great support and the list of games available has grown tremendously.
Millard Drexler - J. Crew CEO, Apple board member, BlackBerry user
RIM has made a lot of headlines lately. Most of them have involved an ongoing exodus of executives leaving the company for greener pastures and/or reports of massive layoffs as the company tried to restructure itself under the leadership of new CEO Thorsten Heins.
There’s one bright spot of publicity for RIM this week, however. J. Crew CEO and Apple board member Millard Drexler uses a BlackBerry Bold 9900 – a fact noted after a CNBC piece about operations at J. Crew.
Is this good news for RIM? Yes and no. It shows that not every major company has abandoned the BlackBerry and not every executive has demanded an iPhone (at least not yet). Of course, if Drexler wasn’t a member of Apple’s board of directors, it’s likely that no one would really care what type of smartphone he used.
The fingerpainted car on display at Expo Arte in Italy. Courtesy Matthew Watkins. The signature of the artist on the customized skin. Courtesy Matthew Watkins.
Case manufacturers are finally realizing that we don’t want to smother our skinny iPads inside fat, padded cases. And now even high-end, “luxury” accessory makers are offering slimline covers which are not only lovely to look at but also practical enough not to tear off the iPad and toss away in a fit of rage.
Today we take a look at Pielframa’s Smart Case, a rather hot take on Apple’s own Smart Cover.
