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Steve Jobs: We still have a few surprises left for 2010

Apple CEO Steve Jobs, in the press release for Apple Q4 financial results:

We are blown away to report over $20 billion in revenue and over $4 billion in after-tax earnings—both all-time records for Apple. iPhone sales of 14.1 million were up 91 percent year-over-year, handily beating the 12.1 million phones RIM sold in their most recent quarter. We still have a few surprises left for the remainder of this calendar year.

A few surprises left might mean a new MacBook Air on Wednesday, or a CDMA iPhone (that runs on Verizon) announcement before the end of the year. Or maybe something entirely new, such a 7-inch iPad model? What about a complete MobileMe revamp?

Truth is, with $20 billion revenue in the last quarter they can pull out whatever surprise they want.

Advertising Age: Apple “Marketer of the Decade”

Advertising Age announced earlier today that it has named Apple “Marketer of the Decade”, a prestigious award to a company that ”influences business models across all media and creates exceptionally brand-loyal consumer base”.

It seems fitting: Apple kicked off the aughts in 2001 with the iPod, an electronic device that went on to disrupt and forever change the music industry; then mid-decade it dropped the iPhone, a mobile device that changed the mobile-phone industry and added the word “apps” to the English vocabulary; and finally, in 2010 it debuted the iPad, a computing device with the potential to disrupt the media, publishing, entertainment and computing industries.

Yes, it has been a golden decade for Apple. And while one can certainly argue that its influence has been overstated – it is No. 56 on the list of Fortune 500 by revenue – Apple’s influence on business models across industries from music and computing to entertainment and advertising, along with its impact on popular culture, media and, of course, marketing, has been indelible.

Apple and its agency, Omnicom Group’s TBWA, make a great case study on the benefits of long-term agency-client relationships. The two have been together since the iconic “1984” Super Bowl spot, although the agency was off the account from 1986 until 1997, which is almost identical to the years CEO Steve Jobs was absent from Apple (1985-1997).

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SweetFM 2.0 - Last.fm Mac Client

Chocomoko has released version 2.0 of their SweetFM Mac application. SweetFM is a Last.fm client and player for Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.4.

Version 2.0 has a completely redesigned UI that is more user-friendly and uses native Mac OS technologies. It also comes with Safari and Chrome browser extensions for Last.fm station control and can open the iTunes store pages from the current track. Other features: supports Media Keys, has an EQ, tagging and social network sharing, device scrobbling, multiple user accounts, hot keys and playlist management. Read more

N.O.V.A. 2 Coming This Fall, More Footage Surfaces

N.O.V.A. is one of my favorite games for iPhone and iPad. I don’t usually talk about games here on MacStories, but N.O.V.A. 2 is a thing I’m excited about: a sequel to one of the most successful and critically acclaimed games in the App Store, which Gameloft has confirmed through its official podcast will be available “this fall on Apple devices worldwide”.

It’s likely that N.O.V.A.2 will come out before the holiday season in both iPhone / iPod Touch and iPad editions. Check out the screenshots and footage from the Gameloft podcast below. Read more