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Steve Jobs Resigns, Tim Cook Named New CEO of Apple

With a press release that just went out, Steve Jobs has announced he’s stepping down as CEO of Apple. Former COO Tim Cook will take the role of new CEO. Steve Jobs will stay involved as Chairman of the Board, and Tim Cook will obviously join the Board, too, effective immediately. In a letter to the Board and the Apple community, Steve Jobs explains he’s no longer capable of meeting his duties and expectations as Apple CEO, strongly recommending the Board to name Tim Cook as new CEO. Jobs also states “Apple’s brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it”.

On January 17, Apple’s Board granted Steve Jobs a medical leave of absence, and the former CEO said he would remain involved with major strategic decisions, with Tim Cook filling in for day-to-day operations at Apple. Since then, Steve Jobs made two appearances at a media event in March and the WWDC ‘11 keynote to announce the iPad 2, iOS 5 and new iCloud features. Speculation has surrounded Steve Jobs’ health conditions since January, although the company preferred to keep such conditions private and out of the community and press daily rumors.

Steve Jobs co-founded Apple in 1976 with Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne. He left the company in 1985, only to return from NeXT (another company he started) to Apple in 1997 and ignite the digital revolution by laying the groundwork of modern Mac OS X, iTunes and the iLife suite, and later the iPhone in 2007, and the iPad in 2010. From Apple’s official bio of the Steve Jobs (which hasn’t been updated to reflect the new Chairman role yet):

Steve Jobs is the CEO of Apple, which he co-founded in 1976. Apple is leading the consumer technology world with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, its family of iPod media players and iTunes media store, and its Mac computers and iLife and iWork application suites. Apple recently introduced the iPad, a breakthrough Internet and digital media device, plus the iBookstore, alongside iTunes and the App Store.

Steve also co-founded and was the CEO of Pixar Animation Studios, which created some of the most successful and beloved animated films of all time including Toy Story, A Bug’s Life, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Cars and Ratatouille. Pixar merged with The Walt Disney Company in 2006 and Steve now serves on Disney’s board of directors.

Steve grew up in the apricot orchards which later became known as Silicon Valley, and still lives there with his family.

Tim Cook, former COO of Apple, was responsible for the company’s worldwide sales and operations, reporting directly to Steve Jobs and managing Apple’s supply chain overseas. He’s regarded as the man who made possible building and shipping millions of iOS devices in four years thanks to exclusive supplier agreements and deals, including pre-payments to get stable access to important components such as the LCD displays used in Apple’s iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.

Before joining Apple, Cook was vice president of Corporate Materials for Compaq and was responsible for procuring and managing all of Compaq’s product inventory. Previous to his work at Compaq, Cook was the chief operating officer of the Reseller Division at Intelligent Electronics.

Wikipedia provides a brief timeline of Cook’s roles at Apple:

  • He initially served as Senior Vice President for Worldwide Operations
  • In January 2007, Cook was promoted to COO.
  • Cook served as Apple CEO for two months in 2004, when Steve Jobs was recovering from pancreatic cancer surgery. Cook also serves on the Board of directors of Nike.
  • In 2009 Cook again served as Apple CEO for several months while Steve Jobs took a leave of absence for a liver transplant.
  • In January 2011, Apple’s Board of Directors approved a third medical leave of absence, requested by Steve Jobs. During that time, Tim Cook was responsible for most of Apple’s day-to-day operations while CEO Steve Jobs made most major decisions.

Steve Jobs is widely regarded as the “visionary genius” behind many of Apple’s best inventions and innovations such as the refined graphical user interface, the Mac’s attention to detail and beautiful typography, and iOS’ focus on multitouch and natural user experience. To get an idea of the man behind the company, check out this collection of Steve Jobs quotes we collected two years ago.

Below, you’ll find the press releases from Apple, Steve Jobs’ commencement address at Stanford University in 2005, and the video of the official “iCEO” announcement in 2000. As for our thoughts on Apple without Steve Jobs, we’ll take our time to elaborate on today’s (huge) news for the company, but overall, this article from January 2011 still holds true: During Steve’s Absence, Apple Will Be Just Fine. Read more

iPad Getting Exclusive 9/11 Memorial App on September 1st

Author/Filmmaker Steve Rosenbaum has created and curated a documentary and transformed it into an iPad app called The 9/11 Memorial: Past, Present and Future. The 9/11 Memorial App is the first multi-media app that allows users to explore the history of the site, the day of the attacks, and the opening of The National Memorial. The app is a journey that you can take at your own pace; a rich tapestry of more than 40 original videos and 400 powerful still images. This app provides an intimate, personal, self-directed exploration.

The app features:

  • An interactive timeline from 2001 - present and will be updated as construction continues.
  • Never before seen video of the attacks on The World Trade Center.
  • Exclusive interview with the creator of the Memorial, along with his sketches and photographs.
  • More than 40 videos, over an hour of original content, site tours, museum updates, and animations.
  • Over 400 high-resolution photographs, including large artifacts at Hanger 17, rare site construction images, and the landscaping of an urban forest with 400 white swamp oak trees.
  • Links to share, post, and connect with the National September 11th Memorial Museum site.
  • Scenes from Rosenbaum’s award-winning documentary “7 Days in September” are included as well.

Rosenbaum decided to make this project iPad-only because it is the best device to display it. “I wanted it to be more of an immersive experience,” he said. “The nature of the photographs are so powerful, so to render them in anything but full color seemed wrong to me. And I didn’t want it to be viewed on a phone. I wanted it to be big and glossy.” Apple loved the idea, and it was approved in only a day and a half, which is very fast. He was expecting a few weeks so he submitted it early.

Rosenbaum is looking for app promotion and since the App Store has so many apps, it could easily be overlooked but we at MacStories think it’s an app worthy to promote and something like this means so much to people as well. The free introductory price is nice but we hope people will also consider buying it for $9.99 once it increases to give Steve a little something back for all his hard work and dedication. Here’s what he said about iPad exclusivity for The 9/11 Memorial - “The iPad is the single fastest selling consumer device in the history of consumer electronics,” he said. “There are 30 million now on the market. What’s more limited? A beautiful glossy photo book that sits in Barnes & Noble, or something that’s free and on a device that lots of people have?” I don’t think Steve Jobs could have said it better himself.

The 9/11 Memorial App will be available and free between September 1 and September 12 and thereafter the price will be for $9.99. You can check out more info on the app’s official site to see more screens, read more about the app and learn about the author.

[via The Observer via Daring Fireball]

New Logitech Fold-Up Keyboard and Joystick For The iPad Coming Soon

Logitech currently offers two fairly basic iPad keyboard accessories, but come September they’re launching two more accessories that are a little bit more unique. The first is another keyboard but with a little bit of a twist (literally), offering an iPad stand in conjunction with a foldable keyboard. The second is an attachable joystick for playing games on the iPad - similar to the Fling which was released earlier this year.

The new keyboard accessory is a full-sized bluetooth keyboard that cleverly turns off automatically when it is folded away and turns on when snapped open. It also charges through USB so there is no need for replacing batteries every few weeks. TechCrunch (which got some hands on time with both devices) does however note that the accessory is fairly bulky which is disappointing given that it is coupled with the very sleek iPad 2.

The Logitech Joystick for iPad on the other hand doesn’t share the bulkiness of the Fold-Up Keyboard and is very light, simply attaching to the iPad’s screen via suction cups. TechCrunch writes that the “thumb pad always returns to the center position, finally offering some tactile feedback on the iPad”.

The Logitech Fold-Up Keyboard for iPad 2 will launch in the US and Europe next month for US$129.99 whilst the Logitech Joystick for iPad will also launch next month in the US and Europe for US$19.99.

[Via TechCrunch]

WSJ: iPhone 5 in mid-October On Verizon, AT&T, And Sprint

According to a new report from the Wall Street Journal, initially quoted by Business Insider, U.S. carrier Sprint will sell the iPhone 5 once the device becomes available in October.

Sprint Nextel Corp. will begin selling the iPhone 5 in mid-October, people familiar with the matter said, closing a huge hole in the No. 3 U.S. carrier’s lineup and giving Apple Inc. another channel for selling its popular phone.

The timing, however, indicates Apple’s new iPhone will hit the market later than expected and too late to contribute to sales in the company’s fiscal fourth quarter, which ends in September. Most observers had expected the device to arrive next month.

Much speculation has surrounded the release of the next-generation iPhone, which was expected to debut during the summer as every previous iPhone, though the launch didn’t materialize and Apple decided to focus the WWDC (the iPhone’s typical announcement stage) on software instead. Since then, rumors have failed to pinpoint an exact release date for the iPhone, with different sources claiming a September or October launch. It is not clear whether Apple would use its typical media event in September only to launch the device in October – what seems fairly certain is that the iPhone 5 will come equipped with a new version of iOS, which is currently being tested by registered developers. Last, according to other rumors, Apple may be gearing up to release two different versions of the iPhone this fall, one aimed at pre-paid markets with a cheaper iPhone 4-like construction, and a brand new one that should indeed be the long-awaited “iPhone 5”. Confusion around alleged prototypes running a new A5 chip (the same of the iPad 2) on older iPhone 4 bodies has also contributed to making it difficult to predict the next iPhone’s form factor, leading to contradicting reports about a faster “iPhone 4S”, a completely redesigned iPhone 5, or a mix of both. Most recent rumors and case leaks from manufacturers seem to indicate the new device will feature a thinner design with tapered edges.

Amidst speculation, a few interesting reports in the past months detailed how the next-generation iPhone could end up being sold on more than two carriers in the US. Currently, the iPhone 4 is sold in two colors on two carriers, AT&T and Verizon. The CDMA iPhone, built specifically for Verizon, was also rumored to be set for an expansion to other CDMA markets, such as Asia. Back in April, BGR showed what they claimed to be a prototype iPhone running on T-Mobile’s network – AT&T later announced its plans to acquire T-Mobile and it’s unclear now whether Apple could really release a T-Mobile iPhone in late 2011 with the acquisition expected to be approved and take full action by 2012.

Rumors of a Sprint iPhone arose in mid-2010 and were reinforced earlier this year by analysts’ claims of an iPhone for Sprint during the holidays, and a job posting appeared on Apple’s website. Sprint currently has 52 million subscribers and it’s the third largest mobile operator in the United States. The WSJ also briefly mentions some hardware details of the iPhone 5:

The new iPhone is expected to be similar to the current iPhone 4, but thinner and lighter with an improved digital camera and a new more sophisticated operating system.

According to the WSJ, AT&T and Verizon will begin selling the iPhone 5 in mid-October, too. TiPB was first to report the news of a likely October 7 launch date for the iPhone 5 two weeks ago, a rumor that was also corroborated by other blogs. The iPhone 5 is said to be a “world phone” as well, with an integrated system to work both on GSM and CDMA radio channels.

Apple Updates Lion To 10.7.1 On The Mac App Store

The first update to OS X Lion, version 10.7.1, was released exactly one week ago, yet unlike the operating system’s public release in July, Apple didn’t decide to make the update immediately available through the Mac App Store. Rather, Apple published 10.7.1, a minor delta update, using Software Update, a standalone desktop control panel that has historically taken care of updating Apple’s system apps. The fact that an update for Lion wasn’t showing up on the Mac App Store left some wondering whether that was the best way to approach new customers already getting used to Apple’s new purchase and update mechanism for apps. As usual, the company also made the update available on its website as direct download.

Earlier today, Apple has updated the Lion installer from the Mac App Store – that is, where you buy the “app” at $29.99 – to version 10.7.1, allowing customers to download a version of Lion already up-to-date with what’s being pushed to customers of OS X Lion via Software Update. Lion now reports “Updated on August 23, 2011” on the Mac App Store, though we can’t confirm at this point whether the Mac App Store directly updates the OS (thus eliminating the need for Software Update), or it’s simply a way for new downloaders to get the latest version of Lion.

Apple has also recently released an OS X Lion USB Thumb Drive, and seeded OS X 10.7.2 to developers for testing purposes.

Update: according to several reports we’ve received, 10.7.1 shows up as a new version in Software Update, but not on the Mac App Store. Therefore, it appears Apple is keeping the Store as a way to buy the latest version, and Software Update as the preferred way to download & install new updates.

Update #2: Dan Frakes reports 10.7.1 is now showing up in the Updates tab of the Mac App Store.

App Developer Logs Suggest An iPhone 5 With Dual-Mode Support

It is becoming more and more likely that the iPhone 5 will feature a dual-mode GSM and CDMA radio to eliminate the need for two separate models for the different networks. The latest piece of evidence is a report from TechCrunch in which at least one developer found evidence that Apple is testing the iPhone 5 with App Store apps with logs from a device suggesting an iPhone 5 with a dual-mode radio. The log reported a device with two different mobile network codes (MNC) and mobile country codes (MCC) which are used to uniquely identify mobile carriers.

Sure enough, some registrations for the app – which the developer also asked not to be named – were logged from a new Apple device, using the MNC/MCC codes from both Verizon and AT&T.

The Verizon iPhone 4 and iPad 2 actually already contain a Qualcomm chipset that actually supports both the GSM and CDMA standards - Apple chose not to enable that capability (a SIM card slot would have also been required). Rumors of the iPhone 5 throughout this year have however been consistent in suggesting that one model will support both standards - even the Verizon CFO made comments earlier this year that their belief was that the next iPhone will be a “global device”.

[Via TechCrunch]

Launch Of Refreshed MacBook Air and Lion Boosts Recent Mac Sales Numbers

Last month’s release of new MacBook Airs and OS X Lion seems to have given Apple a significant boost in sales for the first month of the September quarter. The latest statistics from NPD reveal that year-over-year, Mac sales were up by 26% - to put that into context it means that Mac growth outpaces the growth of the PC market six-fold.

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster believes that if that kind of growth continues Apple will easily make the estimates of 4.5 million total Mac sales for the quarter. He noted to his clients that the Lion, MacBook Air and Mac Mini launches in mid-July helped inflate Mac sales for the month. However, he did caution them that “these tailwinds will fade throughout the September quarter and year-over-year compares get slightly tougher in the last two months of the quarter”.

The rapid Mac sales growth has seen the platform outpace the growth of the PC market for 21 consecutive quarters and most believe that trend will continue for some time yet. Ben Reitzes of Barclays notes that they expect Apple to continue to gain share in Macs in the long term, despite the iPad’s presence. He adds that their “estimate for Mac growth of 18 percent year-over-year for Apple’s C3Q, may turn out to be conservative even though the global economy appears to be slowing quite a bit.”

[Via AllThingsD]

Report: Apple To Offer A Cheaper 8 GB iPhone 4 Within Weeks

Apple may be preparing to launch a revised iPhone 4 that would feature a smaller 8 GB flash drive within weeks according to a report by Reuters today. It suggests that Apple may be preparing to launch an iPhone that would be priced at a lower level to help target emerging and the pre-paid mobile markets - something which Apple has expressed interest in utilising.

Most recently Apple’s COO, Tim Cook, said that Apple wanted to do “clever things” to attack the prepaid market so that the iPhone could be “for everyone”, not “just for the rich”. The obvious question is whether this iPhone 4 is more than just the old iPhone model at a lower price point with reduced storage - as was the case with the iPhone 3GS. It could just be that Apple decides to aggresively lower the price of this iPhone model - going further than what they have done with the iPhone 3GS and 3G when they were deprecated. Alternatively it could mean a new iPhone “4S” that is cheaper but also features some minor feature additions.

Reuters doesn’t specifically put a date on when this model could be released but past trends and common sense would suggest it launches alongside the new iPhone 5. They concur with previous iPhone 5 rumors and suggest it will feature a larger screen and better camera - they also note that Hon Hai and Pegatron have been told to prepare production capacity for 45 million units.

[Via Reuters]

Evernote 3.0 for Mac Released: New Lion-only Features and Redesigned Interface

Following the release of a new Evernote app for iOS earlier today that brought a completely redesigned iPad interface, rich text editing and support for viewing shared notebooks, the Evernote team has followed up with the release of Evernote 3.0 for Mac, a major update to the desktop app that aims at enhancing the experience for new OS X Lion users, as well as introducing several fixes and improvements under the hood for both 10.7 and older OS X versions.

Like Evernote 4.1 for iPad, Evernote 3.0 for Mac brings a new design for the “all notes” view, which, however, unlike the tablet version is not really enabled “by default” and requires users an extra click to be accessed. The Evernote developers, in fact, have decided to unify the Mac and iOS experience by bringing the iPad’s interface back to the Mac only in full-screen mode, which is fully supported on Lion. As I previously teased in my MacBook Air review, the new Evernote for Mac doesn’t simply scale up content when entering full-screen mode (which can be activated from the upper right corner of the application’s window): rather, Evernote changes the standard List, Snippet or Thumbnail views to a new “full-screen Snippet” one that looks exactly like its iPad counterpart. Bigger snippets offer a broader view of text and images within notes, and they also provide a way to check out a note’s creation date and time. Full-screen mode in Evernote also features the same month headers seen on the iPad, it allows you to close them at any time, and it displays a note counter next to each month. Read more