Apple’s COO Tim Cook was extremely bullish on Apple’s prospects in 2010, in spite of economic gloom and increased competition in phones and PCs.
Speaking to a handful of Wall Street analysts on a Goldman Sachs webcast, Cook predicted the iPad will be a hit and that the Mac will continue to grow, especially in enterprise. And thanks to the recession, Apple will open dozens of “jaw-dropping” new stores this year in prime locations.
Is Apple considering its iPhone OS for products other than the iPhone and iPad? A new job ad by the Cupertino, Calif. electronics maker seeking an Engineering Manager suggests such an expansion could be in the works. The manager would be tasked with leading “a team focused on bring-up of iPhone OS on new platforms.”
Such a team would be responsible for “low-level platform architecture, firmware, core drivers and bring-up of new hardware platforms,” according to the job listing posted last week and first spotted by Computerworld.
We kick-off the last week of February with two hardware deals and one software bargain. First up is a Mac Pro for $2,649. The desktop unit has 4 cores and pumping at 2.66GHz. Next is a fresh batch of App Store freebies, including geoLocals 3, a location-based search search application. The final top deal is the CiragnoTV Mini USB media device. You can take video stored on USB or a memory card and display it all either on a TV with HDMI or a simple AV connection.
As always, for details on these products plus many others, be sure to check out CoM’s “Daily Deals” page right after the jump.
When CBS CEO Les Moonves Thursday told analysts episodes of “certain shows” would be sold for $1 on iTunes, then a network spokesman emphasized no deal with Apple had actually been signed, it only reinforced the skepticism silently being voiced toward the Cupertino, Calif. firm.
Caught between the anticipated ire from affiliates for selling popular programming online and the siren song of Apple customers with 125 million credit cards, networks don’t want to say ‘no’ – not just yet.
First Apple used higher prices to get book publishers to consider the company’s iPad. Now comes word the Cupertino, Calif. electronics firm will offer FairPlay DRM to make them feel safe from e-book pirates. The move seems to extend Apple’s use of DRM for movies and television episodes to its latest consumer tablet device.
However, unlike movies and TV show sold through iTunes, Apple plans to give book publishers the option to lock-down their titles with DRM. “No doubt some publishers, including O’Reilly Media — which has vociferously argued that digital locks are harmful to sales — will opt not to deploy FairPlay,” according to Monday’s Los Angeles Times.
Remember the old ‘Lucy’ show where she steps up to the grocery store checkout and wins a prize for being the millionth customer? Fast-forward a half-century and you have Apple preparing to commemorate its 10 billionth iTunes sale since its 2003 inauguration. Instead of free groceries for life, the Cupertino, Calif. company plans to mark the event with a $10,000 iTunes card for the lucky customer.
“iTunes changed the way you buy music, making songs and albums available for download, day or night. Seven years later, we’re about to celebrate our biggest milestone for music, yet — 10 billion songs download,” Apple announced at its “10 Billion Song Countdown” website.
Was the iPad originally meant to be a killer TV platform? An analyst speculates the iPad would be the perfect platform for Apple to launch its vision for anywhere television, tying Apple TV, iTunes and network programming into one sleek and stylish portable DVR.
“Imagine a portable set top box, but with its own killer screen,” wrote Berstein Research analyst Craig Moffett. “Navigation of programming guides and iTunes listings would occur on the iPad, using an intuitive touch interface. Output would go directly to the widescreen TV on the wall.”
Apple reportedly has picked a new maker for its upcoming fourth-generation iPhone. Pegatron Technology, a subsidiary of Asus, will join Foxconn, which manufacturers the current handset for the Cupertino, Calif. electronics company.
According to Taiwan-based DigiTimes, Pegatron says handsets shipped from its plant will “grow substantially in 2010,” although declined to elaborate. The company, which makes LCD TVs along with cell phones, will also make a motion controller for Microsoft’s Xbox 360 in 2010.
Why is there no Adobe Flash on the iPad? Adobe says it’s not because it’s buggy, as an Apple source claimed this afternoon to CultofMac.com.
It’s because Apple is protecting revenue streams derived from content like movies and games. If users could watch free TV shows on Hulu, they wouldn’t buy them through iTunes.
“It’s pretty clear if you connect the dots: the issue is about revenue,” says Adrian Ludwig, an Adobe group product manager for Flash, during a telephone interview on Friday afternoon.
Apple has posted video of Steve Jobs unveiling the iPad. It’s available in QuickTime and MPEG-4 formats — Low, Medium, or High.
The presentation is also available as a podcast through iTunes. Here’s the iTunes link.
