| Cult of Mac

The 10 coolest companies founded by ex-Apple employees

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The apple does not fall from the tree when it comes to former employees of the Cupertino company. A bunch of smart, creative types formerly in Apple’s employ have branched out into smart, successful ventures. You might say they had Steve Jobs, who during his Apple hiatus founded NeXT and Pixar, as a role model. Here are our favorites, from Nest to up-and-comers like a smart scale, 360 camera and a new, iBeacon-based biz. Let us know what you think of our picks (and who you would add) in the comments.

Microsoft Wants HTC To Make Smartphones That Run Both Android & Windows Phone

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Microsoft is trying to persuade HTC to make new smartphones that run both Android and Windows Phone, and it’s willing to cut or eliminate its own license fee to make it happen. The software giant is hoping the move will encourage consumers to try out the Windows Phone platform and eventually make the switch to it — but could the scheme backfire?

Social Networking App Path Makes Things A Bit More Private With New Update

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Path Update

Path is a social network for our more private groups of friends and family, distinguishing itself from services like Facebook and Twitter in two ways. One, it’s not on any website, as it’s only accessible from your iPhone or iPad. Two, while it can be connected to those services, it does not have to, allowing you to keep things as private as you’d like, depending on the number of people you invite to the service as connections.

The new update, which went live just a few minutes ago, brings a new option to the app settings, allowing you to hide yourself in global search, which will keep even your friends from finding you or your activities if you don’t connect to them directly. This seems like a direct move to help Path feel more private, adding to a previous update, which brought private messaging (and stickers) to the app itself.

Path Is All Up In Your Personal Business Again

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Path was recently fined $800,000 by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission for deceiving its users “by collecting personal information from their mobile device address books without their knowledge and consent.” Last year, the social network was caught storing all of its users’ contacts on its servers under the radar. Now users have started accusing Path of spamming friends to join the service via text message.

Creator Of Original Macintosh System Icons Makes A New Sticker Pack For Path App

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Makes me hungry just looking at them.
Makes me hungry just looking at them.

Personal social networking app, Path, just released a new icon set into its sticker shop today, called “Iconic Bites.” While the stickers are adorable little bite-sized, pixel-chic representations of food and such, what really makes them cool is that they were created by none other than Susan Kare, the designer of the original Macintosh system icons.

The Path blog posted an interesting interview with her, as well, in which she talks about how her long experience in the design industry has influenced her current designs.

Path Fined $800,000 By FTC For iOS Privacy Violations

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Path, the mobile social network that first launched on the iPhone in November 2010, has agreed to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that it deceived its users by collecting personal information from their address books without their knowledge or consent. The settlement requires the company to establish a comprehensive privacy program and to have independent privacy assessments carried out every other year.

The company has also been fined $800,000 for illegally collecting personal information from children without their parents’ consent.