Posts in news

Steve Jobs Explains Why He Killed The Xserve [Video]

Well, it’s not exactly a direct explanation of why Apple pulled the plug on Xserves (at least not more than “hardly anyone was buying them”) but it gives you an idea of what Steve Jobs really thinks of the Enterprise market.

With excerpts from Apple’s January 2010 event (the iPad announcement, good times) and the D8 conference in July 2010, Steve Jobs clearly states that Apple is a mobile company and people in Enterprise don’t think with their own minds. Those who do are confused, Steve claims.

You can find unexpected revelations in old Steve Jobs videos. Let’s all go back to watching that iPhone 4 keynote and find some hidden Verizon clues in there.

Rumor: Apple Acquired Bluetooth Headphones Company Wi-Gear

According to a report from 9to5mac, who cites a reliable source, Apple acquired San Francisco-based company Wi-Gear two months ago for an undisclosed sum. Wi-Gear used to make Bluetooth headphones (called “iMuffs”) specifically meant for iOS devices, they were pioneers in the A2DP stereo audio field for iPhones and iPods – they even released an adapter for older devices that didn’t support the Bluetooth 2.0 standard.

9to5mac notes that Apple didn’t have that much of a success with its previous Bluetooth audio attempts and, for future iOS implementations, decided to acquire Wi-Gear instead of developing everything internally. Read more

Rumor: iWork ‘11 Is Ready, Will Debut In The Mac App Store

According to AppleInsider, iWork ‘11 is basically ready, but Apple doesn’t want to let it out of the cage. They received information from “people familiar with the matter” that the productivity suite was ready to be announced at October’s Back to the Mac event, but it was scrapped at the last minute.

It appears that Apple might hold it back until the grand opening of the Mac App Store, which should happen sometime next January.

People familiar with the matter say development of iWork ‘11 wrapped up this fall and the software was initially slated for an introduction alongside iLife ‘11 last month, but was held back at the last minute for undisclosed reasons.

Apple’s revised plans currently call for the company to launch the new productivity suite alongside the forthcoming Mac App Store, these same people say. The applications included in the bundle – Pages, Numbers and Keynote – will be available for purchase individually when the Mac App Store debuts.

AppleInsider also speculates that Apple might remove the retail box option for iWork ‘11 and sell the suite solely on the Mac App Store as single applications priced at $19.99 – pretty much like they do for the iWork apps for iPad. With the promise of the Mac App Store as the best way to discover and install applications on a Mac, the option surely seems likely.

Apple started accepting submissions for the Mac App Store last week. Promo material for the Mac App Store showed individual iWork apps sold at $19.99 each.

Adobe: Apple Incites Negative Campaign Against Us (Yet We Followed Steve’s Advice)

We thought those days were over. Remember back in April, right after the iPad came out, the Apple / Adobe controversy about Flash somehow came back to where it started, The Internet. Hundreds of blog posts and pundits’ rants later, Steve Jobs managed to end the argument with his Thoughts On Flash. If you think about it, the whole Flash story kind of died after Steve Jobs’ “open letter”. Or maybe we just focused on the true meaning of “openness” more.

Anyway, Adobe is bringing the old debate back. Again, yes. Here’s Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch talking to FastCompany:

I just think there’s this negative campaigning going on, and, for whatever reason, Apple is really choosing to incite it, and condone it,” Lynch says. “I think that’s unfortunate. We don’t think it’s good for the web to have aspects closed off–a blockade of certain types of expression. There’s a decade of content out there that you just can’t view on Apple’s device, and I think that’s not only hurtful to Adobe, but hurtful to everyone that created that content.

Read more

ZTE Peel Launching On Sprint November 14th, Doesn’t Support The New iPod Touch

As BGR reported last week, the ZTE Peel 3G case for iPod Touch will indeed be available on Sprint starting November 14th at $29.99 per month with 1GB of included data usage. As you can see in a photo just posted by BGR:

The ZTE Peel will be available in retail stores at $79.99. In case you don’t know what this accessory does, it’s basically a case that comes with a built-in SIM which allows you to turn an iPod Touch into some sort of iPhone with 24/7 mobile internet connectivity. You’ll be able to make calls using services like Fring or Skype from anywhere.

The bad news? It doesn’t support the latest iPod Touch models, the 4th generation ones. The photo clearly shows “supports 2 & 3 generation”, and we can only assume the problem was with the camera on the latest iPod Touch. Or maybe they thought the installed user base of 4th gen iPod Touches was too small to ensure compatibility.

Did they think about the upcoming holiday season, though?

Apple Considering Scrollable Menus and Toolbars For Lion and iOS 5?

A new European patent filing discovered by Patently Apple details how Apple might implement different interaction methods for menus and toolbars in the next version of OS X, Lion, and in the future iteration of their mobile operating system, iOS. The patent, filed in Q2 1010 and published last week, shows two specific models: scrollable menus and toolbars.

The main concept behind the patent is that menus and toolbars take too much space on screen, and the large majority of users don’t need to look at these elements all the time. To save space and implement multitouch gesture-based navigation in menus, there could be a way to scroll through toolbar icons and dropdown menus both on the desktop and iPhone / iPad. Read more

Reminder: .Mac HomePage Shutting Down Today

As reported in early October, Apple is shutting down the .Mac HomePage service today. The .Mac HomePage service was a feature that allowed users to publish webpages using their .mac account. The feature was first discontinued in July 2009 (users were unable to create new content); today Apple is pulling the plug on the service by disabling viewing of already-published content.

The files won’t be permanently deleted, though. As Apple explains in a support document:

Can friends and family still view my published pages?

After November 8, 2010, all photos, movies, and files shared using .Mac HomePage will be unavailable for viewing on the web. Web Pages published using iWeb or Aperture will not be affected.

Will my content be deleted after November 8, 2010?

No. All of your content is still on your iDisk and can be accessed by going to me.com/idisk and clicking Home in the sidebar. The HTML files that make up your site can be found in the Sites folder, and any pictures or movies you have used for your pages can be found in the Pictures and Movies folders respectively. You must remain an active MobileMe member to access your iDisk.

Apple’s current sync and web publishing solution, MobileMe, retails at $99 per year and comes with a 60-day free trial. We highly recommend it as a way to sync information across devices (bookmarks, settings, email accounts, calendar), although we’re huge fans of Dropbox when it comes to file storage.

“Hardly Anyone” Was Buying Xserves According to Steve Jobs

French website MacGeneration got a screenshot from a reader of an email he received from Steve Jobs. We’re used to this stuff, right? People sending el Jobso angry emails and complaints, getting “yep” and “nope” as response, leaving us to do the hard job to figure out what the chief really meant.

So this time, it’s all about Xserve. Apple announced last week they would discontinue it, but it’ll be available until January 2011 nevertheless. According to this latest email from Steve Jobs, Apple made this decision as “hardly anyone” was buying Xserves.

The “premature death” of Xserve left many IT guys with doubts and skepticism in regards to Apple’s plans for large and small businesses.

Angry Birds. Stop Motion. Massive Hit. [Video]

First came the iPhone game. Then the iPad version. Worldwide success. Then more levels. A Halloween edition. Even more success. Repeat.

Some people made costumes.

Then they announced the plush toys.

Now, there’s a video of Angry Birds in stop motion. Hours of work put into recreating a 30 seconds battle with paper and a camera. Realized by photographer and filmmaker @gregorycortez, this guy took the effort to snap a photo of every single frame you see on the video so that everything looks like it’s moving. You can say he’s a nerd and should find something better to do in his life, I think this is totally awesome. Three stars for the video in 5, 4, 3, 2… [iSpazio via TechCrunch] Read more