On the eve of Apple’s suspected unveiling of a tablet computer comes word the Cupertino, Calif. firm may team up with Barnes & Noble. An unconfirmed report suggests Apple’s new device could include an ebook store from the Nook-maker.
Here’s a hilarious 5 minute talk by Eugene Lin, explaining how his career as an iPhone app developer started, shook unsteadily for a while, bumped into some rocks, lost altitude, gained altitude, and finally rocketed skywards when he had a certain ephiphany.
That epiphany: give people what they want. Which these days often involves scantily clad women. Better still, virtual ones. Better still, virtual ones in 3D. Well, sort of 3D, but you get the idea.
Now are you starting to see why the iSlabTabletSlateCanvasBookPadPod is going to sell so well?
Via Boing Boing.
On Friday, Pete called our attention to a lovely poem by Beat poet Gary Snyder called “Why I Take Good Care of My Macitosh,” which features lovely stanzas like:
And puts word-heaps in hoards for me, dozens of pockets of gold under boulders in streambeds, identical seedpods strong on a vine, or it stores bins of bolts;
And I lose them and find them,
Because whole worlds of writing can be boldly laid out and then highlighted and vanish in a flash at “delete,” so it teaches of impermanence and pain;
And because my computer and me are both brief in this world, both foolish, and we have earthly fates,
Based on Snyder’s poem, you might be tempted to conclude that the Apple experience is synonymous with the zen and jazz inspired wanderlust of the Beat Generation as a whole. You might be right.
Here in Germany, Media Markt is the Teutonic equivalent of American big box retailers like Best Buy. Considering Amazon.de usually manages to ship the same items overnight for free anywhere in Germany at vastly reduced prices, there’s not much reason to remember the existence of poor old Media Markt, which is what makes it so downright bizarre to me to discover their name plastered all over the gadget feeds in connection with the Apple Tablet.
Supposedly, Media Markt accidentally “leaked” the name, price and ship date of the Tablet on their Twitter account. According to the (swiftly deleted) Tweet, the Tablet is called the iPad, it’ll ship on March 1st, 2010 and will cost €499 with a €120/month T-Mobile contract or €899 without one.
Short of the name (I will eat an extremity if Apple is creatively bereft enough to brand the Tablet with the similar to iPod and — in some dialects — identically pronounced moniker, iPad) that all sounds plausible enough… but, uh, no. Media Markt doesn’t know when the Apple Tablet is coming out or what it’s going to cost. I’ve actually seen their employees hooting and hopping around the latest iMacs with all the insight and grace of Hansel and Derek Zoolander. I refuse to believe that whatever administrative assistant they’ve got hammering out updates in the company’s Twitter account knows more about the Apple Tablet than the New York Times.
The Magic Mouse has numerous power management issues, but Apple’s at last solved at least one of them: the latest update to hit Apple’s Support Site promises to fix the bug that caused the Magic Mouse in conjunction with a 2007 aluminum Bluetooth keyboard to bleed out power.
Apple’s traditionally terse release notes for the Aluminum Keyboard Firmware Update version 1.1 read:
Improves battery performance of the 2007 aluminum Apple Wireless Keyboard when used in combination with other bluetooth devices and addresses an issue with the 2007 aluminum Apple Keyboard and the 2007 aluminum Apple Wireless Keyboard where a key may repeat unexpectedly while typing.
Any Magic Mouse owners out there able to confirm the update fixed their keyboard power problems? Let us know if you spot an improvement in the comments.
At least until Spotify lets me stream music in Germany again, I love iTunes as much as anybody, but as much music as I’ve slurped from its fiber-optical teat over the years, I still wouldn’t be caught dead buying television shows from Apple.
It’s just consumerism at work: most television shows on Apple cost $1.99 per episode, but if I wait for a DVD box set of a show, I’ll pay half that. More over, I can stream a lot of television shows for free over sites like Hulu. Apple’s prices simply aren’t competitive.
Apple seems to agree. According to The Financial Times, it is being reported that Apple is strongly pushing networks and media executives to halve the price of television shows from $1.99 to $1.
The timing of this report suggests a Tablet connection to me. The Tablet is likely to be a very media-oriented device, and there has been some theorizing that it may actually finally deliver on the promises of the Apple TV, but in a portable form factor. For that to work, though, Apple needs their video content to be a lot more appetizing… especially since the Tablet will presumably only support MP4 video files, like the iPhone or iPod. Cheaper video content and season subscriptions to shows would go a long way towards shoring up the iTunes Video Store’s current weaknesses.
The gadget blogosphere’s collective scuttlebutting navel-gazers peg it as a near certainty that Apple’s forthcoming tablet will, at the very least, come with a 3G option, opening the door to carrier subsidization. But if the Tablet does support 3G, which network will Apple choose to partner with? Their current domestic carrier partner AT&T, which has proven incapable of handling the traffic demands of just the iPhone, let alone the Apple Tablet? Or will it be another network, like Verizon?
Only Wednesday will tell, but Boy Genius Report was just told by one of their sources that Verizon Wireless has a “kick off” event at the beginning of every quarter to bring store managers up to speed with what to expect over the next couple of months.
That kick off event hasn’t happened yet, but can you guess the date when it’s scheduled to occur. Yup, January 27th, 2010… the same day Apple is slated to announce the Tablet. Even more incriminatingly, it will occur via a “live webcast” at the exact same time as Apple’s announcement, 1PM EST or 10AM PST.
Coincidence? Possibly. Rumor? Definitely. But the inference is obvious: Verizon wants to tell their store managers about a big, big product development at the first possible second when they can do so. I suppose it could be a CDMA iPhone, which is heavily rumored to hit Verizon sometime this year, but let’s face it: the Tablet is still the most likely contender, given the date.
Although Guy Day is, as pictured, about as far away from the har- boozing, womanizing, red-meat-eating Don Draper type as a 70s-style pompadour will get you, he was one of the country’s quintessential ad men for decades.
Everyone reading this blog knows his work: as the president of the acclaimed Chiat / Day advertising agency, Day was responsible for bringing together the team that created the hyper-Orwellian 1984 Super Bowl Macintosh ad.
Sadly, the Los Angeles Times is reporting that Day on Saturday, died in his sleep of natural causes. The timing is particularly depressing: a self-described “life-long agency ad man” who revolutionized Apple’s advertising strategies, Day, of all people, would be delighted by the marketing possibilities of the forthcoming Tablet.
Rest in peace, Mr. Day. You’ll always be remembered by this Mac fan for your art and for your work.
Tablet? YES!
With its own App Store? MAYBE!
More hype than Avatar? CERTAINLY!
If you’ve spent the last week or so thinking about the new iTabletSlateBookCanvasPod and nothing else, you’ll probably want to grab David Weiss’s Prediction score card for tomorrow’s big announcement. Then you can check off the features as they come tumbling from the Jobsian lips.
Or, you could shell out a couple of bucks for Weiss’s freshly-approved iPhone app of the same name. This gives you the chance to drool slavishly over the whole gamut of upcoming tech events. (It’s true: other companies do sometimes hold events and announce things.)
The app connects you to an online community of predictions, predictors, and metadata thereof. You can add your own predictions to the mix, and feast on the glory of recognition by your peers when you are proved right. Alternatively, count how many blogs reported your predictions as damn-near-fact even though you ended up getting them all spectacularly wrong. Which is another kind of glory too.
Via John Gruber.
UI Designer Dustin Curtis has posted a pair of Apple Tablet pictures that he initially claimed were given to him by a friend in the know. The Tablet as depicted is basically an over-sized iPhone, but with the nicest proportions yet. Those pesky reflections and shadows are a near-dead giveaway even if Dustin said he was reasonably sure the reflections had been deliberately messed up to throw people off the trail.
Time will tell. What do you think?
One more photo after the jump.
If astronaut Leroy Chiao has anything to say about it, Apple’s iPhone may be the first smartphone in space.
The former NASA astronaut, who has four missions in space under his belt, including a six and a half month stint on the international space station, has been a Mac nut since 1985. Today he is the Executive Vice President of Excalibur Almaz, a commercial venture that hopes to be putting space tourists into true space journeys by sometime in the next few years.
Chiao was disappointed to have to abandon his preference for Macs during his time as a NASA employee (because NASA was a PC-only shop) but says his first purchase after leaving the US government space program was a new Mac.
He’s an iPhone user, too — although he relies mostly on his 3 year-old twins for app selection so far — but he’s confident Mac and iPhone both have roles in his company’s plans — as long as they “play well with the systems on board.”
Our old friend Farhad Manjoo has an insightful piece on Slate explaining why he hopes Apple’s tablet will be like a toaster.
Farhad hopes the tablet will have an iPhone-like operating system (as we’ve mentioned here before) that offers a somewhat restricted, locked down computing experience like the iPhone. That is, he hopes Apple has removed all the complexity of using and maintaining a traditional personal computer.
“The most revolutionary thing about Apple’s phone wasn’t its sleek case or the multitouch gestures, but the artful way in which it hid nearly every bit of complexity behind a display of easy-to-understand icons. The iPhone contains no visible “directory structure.” Your music is not in a particular place on your phone; it’s just on your phone, and you get to it by launching the music player. Other than charging it, the iPhone requires no maintenance. Backups and OS upgrades occur automatically, and because all programs are approved by Apple (and because even third-party programmers aren’t given deep access to the phone), you never have to worry about malware. And look how easy it is to install a program: Choose one from the store, press “Install,” and type in your password to authorize the purchase—and that’s it. The iPhone doesn’t ask you where you want to put the new program, or how you’d like to launch it, and whether you’d like it to be the default program for doing a particular kind of task. It just puts up a little icon on the screen. To run the program, click the icon. To do something else, hit the home button.”
I think Farhad has put his finger on the most important feature of the tablet. It’s not designed for nerds, like traditional PCs (even the Mac) but for ordinary consumers who have no interest whatsoever in learning how to use a computer.
If you can get your noodle around it, it’s an astonishing thought. Steve Jobs is attempting to reinvent computing again, but to do it right this time.
The tablet will usher in a new era of consumer-level computing that will be utterly different to computing in the past. Instead of mice and keyboards, there’ll be a new generation of software designed for fingers and voice. It’ll be a lot easier to use (see all those videos of toddlers using iPhones), and a lot easier to maintain. Thanks to Apple’s controls over app installation, it’ll be largely free of the viruses, driver issues and tech-support headaches of traditional PCs. Of course, we’ll sacrifice some freedom to tinker for all this — but who cares? (Our own Leigh McMullen for one. See his “My Tablet Won’t be Running any Silly Phone OS.”)
No wonder Steve Jobs is so excited about the tablet. All the way back to the Apple II in the late 1970s, his earliest ambition was always to make computers accessible to mere mortals — to make the computers “for the rest of us.” It’s the realization of his earliest dreams.
Here’s some pictures I snapped of Apple’s preparations for the iSlablet press event.
The event starts at 10AM on Wednesday January 27th at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. The Yerba Buena Center is near the Moscone Center –the location for many years of the annual Macworld Expo — and is Steve Jobs’ preferred venue for major product launches.
When I went down there at about 4PM, crews were finishing hanging a large banner over the front of the Arts Center. The banner reflects the splattered paint motif of invites Apple sent out last week inviting journalists to check out the company’s “latest creation.”
The latest creation is, of course, expected to be a new multitouch tablet.
Fantastic interview by Doug Evans and Alan Pottasch with Steve Jobs from 1993 about Paul Rand, widely regarded as one of the greatest corporate identity designers ever (think IBM, UPS, ABC). Rand designed the logo for NeXT (below), which very quickly helped to build the company’s brand without a massive ad campaign.
Seeing Jobs talk about someone more self-driven and fanatical about excellence than himself is always fun. And it includes an amazing quote: “I’ll solve your problem. You pay me.”
Via Darren Geraghty
Don’t believe the negative hype. Apple’s much-maligned new iMac, which is supposedly suffering from screen issues and delays, was largely responsible for the company’s record hardware sales in Q1 2010.
Since their launch in October, the new machines have been dogged by reports of delays and problems, including cracked screens, inconsistent color and flashing video. Especially problematic was the 27-inch model, which Gizmodo dubbed the “Yellow iMac” for a reportedly widespread yellow screen tint.
However, Apple said Q1 desktop sales were up 70 percent year-over-year (a 60 percent increase in revenue), thanks largely to the new iMacs. During an analyst conference call, Apple Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer and Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook said customers are “thrilled” with the new iMacs.
Apple saw record Mac sales of 3.36 million units during the quarter, beating the previous best quarter (September) by more than 300,000 machines (up 33% year-over-year).
Broken down, Mac sales were 2.128 million portables and 1.234 million desktops. Portable sales were also up, but by 18 percent year over year,
“We are extremely proud of this result and believe our Mac hardware and software are providing outstanding software and innovation that our customers really love,” Oppenheimer said.
With rumors swirling that Apple this week may announce the end of its exclusive contract with AT&T, Apple COO Tim Cook defended the much-vilified company.
During Apple’s Q1 financial conference call, Cook acknowledged AT&T had “issues” in some cities, but had worked out a plan to fix them. The plan was drawn with Apple’s approval and cooperation.
Said Cook:
“AT&T is a great partner. You know, we’ve been working with them since before the first iPhone. In the vast majority of locations, they provide a great experience. But there have been issues in some cities. They have acknowledged this and developed a plan to make things better and we have personally reviewed them.”
Cook said he has “very high confidence” that AT&T’s issues can be resolved.
Apple’s first quarter of 2010 was another blockbuster, and Steve Jobs is talking about a major new product this week that he’s “really excited about.”
In financial results reported Monday, Apple says it earned “all-time highest revenues and profits.” The company made revenues of $15.68 billion and profits of $3.38 billion on sales of 3.36 million Macs and 8.7 million iPhones.
“If you annualize our quarterly revenue, it’s surprising that Apple is now a $50+ billion company,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO, in a statement. “The new products we are planning to release this year are very strong, starting this week with a major new product that we’re really excited about.”
Everything except sales of iPods (which are down 8%) is in record territory — iPhone sales are up 100% and Macs up 33%.
Here are the highlights:
* 3.36 million Macs sold (33% unit increase over year-ago quarter).
* 8.7 million iPhones sold (100% unit growth).
* 21 million iPods sold (8% unit decline).
* $15.68 billion revenue ($11.88 billion in the year-ago quarter).
* $3.38 billion net quarterly profit, or $3.67 per diluted share. ($2.26 billion, or $2.50 per diluted share, last year).
* 40.9% gross margin was (37.9 percent in the year-ago quarter).
* International sales accounted for 58 percent of revenue.
Apple’s a money machine. The 41% gross margin is unbelievable, especially in a recession. Competitors atre lucky to make 5% margins.
It’s also worth noting that a big bump in revenue came from Apple’s adoption of new accounting practices. Revenue from sales of iPhones and Apple TVs are now recognized immediately, rather than being spread over two years. Apple used subscription accounting for iPhones and Apple TVs so that it could provide free software upgrades without running afoul of accounting rules.
UPDATE 2: We’re giving away 100 more codes!! Posting on Facebook and Twitter at 1:45 PST
Update: Sorry, but all the licenses have gone. It looks like they went before we even posted this story — maybe the URL was hacked. We’re looking into it and we’re going to ask BumpTop for more licenses. We’ll keep you posted.
Today at 12pm PST we’ll be giving away 100 licenses to BumpTop for Mac.
We’ll post a link on the official Cult of Mac Twitter and Facebook pages to a secret site where the first 100 to enter their emails get a shiny new license for BumpTop for Mac valued at $29.
So you could say we’re makin’ it rain with $2,900 worth of sweet mac software. Follow us or become a fan so you don’t miss out on freebies.
The New York Times is working at Apple headqaurters to tailor a version of its iPhone app for the much-expected tablet, according to a Monday report. The new version would highlight the product’s larger screen and video capabilities.
“A team from the New York Times has been working in Apple’s Cupertino, Calif. headquarters in recent weeks, developing a large-screen version of the newspaper’s iPhone application that incorporates video for the yet-to-be-unveiled device, according to one person with knowledge of the matter,” The Los Angeles Times reports.
Analysts are predicting another record quarter from Apple, amid a week jammed with expectations about the Cupertino, Calif. company’s next move. In notes to investors, analysts believe Apple could announce record profit, followed by record sales, all buoyed by talk of a tablet device.
Analyst Shaw Wu of Kaufman Bros., expects Apple will report later today $12.4 billion in revenue for the three-month period ended in late December. Additionally, Wu believes the company has sold 9.5 million iPhones, 2.9 million Macs and 22 million iPods.
Lena Bryce spent four years trying to have a baby.
Then she and her husband downloaded the Free Menstrual Calendar app, timed their couplings strategically and voilà: now they now are the proud parents of a 6 pound-12 ounce bundle of joy named Lola.
“Doctors couldn’t find any reason why we hadn’t been able to get pregnant,” the 30-year-old woman from Glasgow told tabloid The Sun. “It began to weigh heavily on us. We were considering IVF and adoption when Dudley gave me the iPhone for my 30th. I typed in ‘get pregnant’ and downloaded five apps.”
Bryce found the Free Menstrual Calendar the easiest of the five apps to use — it tracks cycles and intercourse data — and after two months she was in a family way.
The fascinating thing about these apps is that for every couple who wants to have a baby there are probably just as many relieved couples who use them to figuring out when avoid sex, too. We’re waiting for the “I avoided getting knocked up from a regrettable one-night stand thanks to an app” story to hit the tabs.
Via MacWorld
Taking a page from the old fairy tale, an analyst said Apple’s tablet could hit it out of the park if it picks a price that is just right – say $600. If Apple comes up with a price neither too high nor a niche product, Apple could sell 5 million tablets, bringing in $2.8 billion its first year.
“Pricing is key,” according to RBC Capital Markets analyst Mike Abramsky. The analyst told investors the best case scenario is the tablet threads the middle, avoiding both the crunch of record demand (like the iPhone), and being labeled a niche product (like the MacBook Air).
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObN9wSLSI_k
Mac aficionado Matt, who made a retro-awesome video of the Apple website over the years, also concocted this video of an iPhone running on Mac System 1.0.
This old school MacPhone does everything you’d expect from an iPhone.
It simultaneously runs apps, widgets, has an accelerometer and makes calls — the phone dial pad graphic is an excellent touch — though you won’t be able to play Desert Trek on an iPhone any time soon since he recreated that 1984 look with video effects.
The MacPhone mock-up took him about a day to make it using Keynote and iMovie plus some photoshopped screenshots from his 128kMac.
Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer is a curious man ape: loud, purple-faced, drenched in sweat, and hirsute but for his head. But at least the man’s got a good sense of humor: upon being handed a MacBook by a student at Trevecca Nazarene University, Ballmer happily autographed it with the message “Need a new one?”
Presumably, Ballmer was making a tongue-in-cheek jab at his rival, but he possibly also knew exactly how much an ironically autographed MacBook signed by Microsoft’s CEO would get on eBay.
We criticize Microsoft and Ballmer a lot here at CoM, but this was a cute and classy gesture, especially considering it’s almost impossible to imagine Steve Jobs doing the same thing without hurling the Windows laptop to the ground and apoplectically smashing it to atoms with his feet.
According to mobile analytics company Flurry, the Apple Tablet isn’t just a very real product, but they’ve detected up to fifty of them floating through Cupertino, running a new version of the iPhone OS numbered 3.2.