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Rumor: Lion To Launch On June 14th

In last year’s ‘Back to the Mac’ event, Apple publicly revealed that the next version of OS X, Lion, was scheduled for a summer 2011 release, but didn’t specify an exact launch date. 9to5 Mac today claims to have information that suggests Lion will launch on Tuesday, June 14th, less than two weeks away. It comes after Lion was said to have gone “live for internal testing” less than two weeks ago, suggesting a public release in the near future.

They claim to have heard chatter from several sources, suggesting the June 14th date is a “strong possibility”. Furthermore they report that Apple retail stores will revamp their storefront window to publicise the launch of Lion.

Apple is said to be planning one of their product launch-indicative “visual updates” for the morning of Tuesday, June 14th

The report also suggests that the launch of Lion will mark the beginning of reduced software presence within Apple stores, starting with the possible removal of Snow Leopard. In line with this, another source claims that the retail supplies of Snow Leopard are dwindling, solidifying the possibility of a mid-June launch of Lion. Earlier this year the appearance of several Lion manuals on Amazon had suggested a late-July launch based on their launch dates.

[Via 9to5 Mac]

New Apple Store Opens In Lyon, France

Announced by several media outlets earlier this week, Apple opened a new retail store today in Lyon, France. The seventh Apple Store in the country is located in the La Part-Dieu shopping mall which, as noted by MacRumors, is very close to the Lyon Part-Dieu railway station – a transportation hub that will surely make it easy to customers to reach the Store.

French website AccessoWeb has posted some photos and a video of the grand opening, showing a long queue to get in and the usual cheering and clapping from Apple Store employees. Other videos posted on YouTube, and embedded after the break, show the interactive iPad displays on each store table as recently introduced by Apple in the so-called Apple Store 2.0 experience.

Check out more photos here, and the store’s official page on Apple’s website.

Update: More photos of the grand opening, courtesy of Anthony Nelzin. Check out his full photo set on Flickr.

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Video: Steve Jobs Discusses Remote Computing in 1997

Here’s an interesting video from WWDC 1997 brought to our attention by our friend Dave Caolo at 52 Tiger: at the conference’s keynote, as you can see from the video around the 13 minute mark, Steve Jobs starts talking about the “connected” world he lives in where, thanks to networking hardware at NeXT, Apple and Pixar, he’s able to take all his files and folders, his entire “home directory” wherever he goes thanks to what we call the “cloud” nowadays. By storing his personal data in the cloud, on the server, Steve says he doesn’t have to care about data loss and backups anymore – he can simply change computers and, thanks to the speed and RAM capacity of the servers,  have the Home folder quickly coming down from the server in seconds. He says this was already happening in 1990 at NeXT.

Let me describe the world I live in. About eight years ago 1 we had high-speed networking connected to our NeXT hardware. Because we were using NFS, we were able to take all of our personal data — our “home directory” we called them — off of our local machines and put them on a server. The software made that completely transparent…a professional could be hired to back up that server every night.

In the last seven years, do you know how many times I lost any personal data? Zero. Do you how many times I’ve backed up my computer? Zero.

I have computers at Apple, at Pixar, at NeXT and at home. I walk over to any of them and log in as myself. It goes over the network, finds my home directory on the server and I’ve got my stuff, where ever I am. And none of that is on a local disc. The server…is my local disc.

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The MacStories Team: What We Want from WWDC 2011

WWDC 2011 starts in two days, and all of us have our own hopes to be crushed, wishes to be granted, and features to drool over once we finally see Lion, iOS 5, and iCloud in action. We’ve all got something we want most out of the upcoming announcements, whether it be iOS compatibility with AirDrop, or seamless iOS updates through iOS 5, and we’ve decided to publish our wants from Apple’s big three for your viewing pleasure. In return, we expect you guys to tell us in the comments what you want to see on Monday. In the meantime, we’ll get the ball rolling! Read more

Ben the Bodyguard Finally Released, Keeps Data Safe On Your iPhone

Teased a few months ago with an impressive website that made great use of scrolling and animations, Ben the Bodyguard for iPhone has managed to gain the interest of everyone who’s closely watching the iOS development scene and is always looking for well-designed and innovative apps. In spite of the fact that little was known about the actual purpose of the app and how it would compare against other “secure data managers” like 1Password and Wallet, Ben the Bodyguard was intriguing because of the attention to detail and design, the character himself (a French bodyguard, indeed, called Benoit – Ben) and, again, the amazing website.

After months of silence (as it seems appropriate for a good spy / secret agent / whatever it is Ben does), the app came out last night on the iPhone at $4.99 and I decided to take it for a spin. Unfortunately Ben the Bodyguard can’t be compared with full-featured solutions like 1Password, but thanks to its cool design and adventure-like nature, I believe the app still has a chance to attract casual users looking for something to keep their data safe and private.

In case you haven’t heard of it, Ben the Bodyguard is an app that, like 1Password, can keep a variety of data safe & private in its database. The app uses a master password and 256-bit AES encryption to secure your data, which consists of photos, contacts, reminders, notes, and passwords. The password tab is particularly interesting, as it allows you to choose between different templates like web login, credit card, driver’s license and bank account, or create your own template if the categories above don’t fit the password you want to protect. The most interesting aspect of the app however (and what I believe will be the main selling point for the developers and users), is how the entire interface and menu options revolve around the character of Ben. For instance, once you fire up the app for the very first time you’re greeted with an intro sequence describing the life of Ben before he became a bodyguard – you can skip this intro, but it’s so well realized you might end up watching it anyway. Just like the website (which made the rounds of the Internet months ago) puts the focus on Ben – and not the features – as a man you can trust to protect your data, the app doesn’t present itself as a software capable of encrypting and securing notes and password: instead, the general feeling you get is that there’s this man on your iPhone’s screen telling you with a French-English accent that your stuff is safe with him. Character and story-wise, Ben the Bodyguard is a winner: graphics are beautiful, voice over is fun, animations are fluid – you can see the effort that went into designing the application and giving Ben an “identity” to make it stand out from the App Store ecosystem. Read more

Apple Hires Peter Hajas, Developer Of The Jailbreak Tweak MobileNotifier

Last week, fans of the popular jailbreak tweak MobileNotifier were left slightly disappointed to hear that the tweak’s creator, Peter Hajas, was taking a break from his jailbreak development work. However, in the blog post announcing the break and in follow-up tweets he left several suggestions that he had started working for Apple, and now there is evidence in the internal Apple Directory System that he is indeed an employee (see above).

That first clue in the blog post was when he signed off with “Until then, stay hungry and stay foolish”. Some clever people recalled that Steve Jobs had uttered the same words of “stay hungry and stay foolish” in his Stanford Commencement Speech back in 2005. However in a tweet that same day, he seemed to distance himself from that suggestion, commenting that the Apple rumor community has “a vivid imagination”. But further digging into tweets by Hajas led some to find a tweet from May 9th in which Hajas, in reply to someone said that “I’m off to work in CA at a “fruit” company” – that tweet has since been deleted.

Today however, RedmondPie seems to have all but confirmed Hajas’ employment at Apple with a screenshot of the Apple Directory System app, obtained from a source working at Apple. The screenshot shows Hajas working as an “iOS & Frameworks” employee. If this is the case, it wouldn’t be the first time that Apple has swooped and hired developers from the jailbreak community, back in 2007 it was suggested that Apple hired several people to work on the application distribution model used by the App Store.

An obvious reason for the hire that many are suggesting is that Apple wants Hajas’ skills for a new notification system in iOS. His MobileNotifier jailbreak tweak has been popular amongst jailbreak users for how it overhauls the inbuilt iOS notification system into something much more helpful and powerful, whilst being less intrusive.

[Via Redmond Pie]

iTunes Reveals Potential iOS 5 Feature: “Automatic Download” [Update]

With WWDC right around the corner, many people are getting their scorecards ready. Here’s the center spot for your iOS 5 Bingo card: “Automatic Download” for your iDevices. MacRumors discovered that iTunes is now showing a new sentence on the My App Updates page. It reads, “Or if your device has Automatic Download enabled for apps, your updates will download to your device without having to sync.”

Seems like a very clear indicator that iOS 5 will have the option to automatically grab app updates to your iOS device. Currently, you must either sync or download the updates themselves through the App Store app on iOS.

“Automatic Download” could also suggest that the option could be for more than just iOS apps. People have been wanting a service like this for quite some time and Apple has been rumored to be moving toward the direction of OTA updates and wireless syncing.

Monday, at 10am PDT, we’ll know for sure where the future of iOS (Lion and iCloud) is headed in the coming months. We’ll have live coverage of the event, so please tune in here Monday, June 6 at 9:30 PDT.

Edit by Cody Fink (1:17 AM): Apple was quick about this one. Checking for app updates no longer reveals the message posted above. Instead, Apple has seemed to have temporarily killed the service completely. With my editor and I downloading updates through the App Store on iOS, no updates are available via iTunes update, and the message has been removed.

Follow the 2011 WWDC Keynote Triple Play on MacStories

Lions? Check. Clouds that kind of look like modified iSync icons? Check. iOS 5? Check. Steve Jobs? Double check.

Our heads have been in the clouds for the last few months as Apple put the finishing touches on their Carolinian data center, convinced all four record labels to get onboard for iCloud, and Lion has been nothing but a leaky faucet when it comes to features, but iOS 5 and iCloud have been Apple’s best kept secrets to date. The big data center theory is that Apple will use iCloud for more than music, and I was happier than a clam when both the LA Times and CNet all but reaffirmed my suspicions about Apple’s desires for the new streaming technology.

On top of all the rumors, iCloud suddenly became the center star of speculation beyond the talks of media as AirPorts and Time Capsule supplies are beginning to run dry in Apple retail stores. Could iOS updates be cached on our wireless access points before installation? Could Apple be looking to distribute these updates without user intervention? Suddenly everything we know about iCloud, and Apple’s current odd child Mobile Me, has been turned on its head. What’s in store for Monday hasn’t yet made it into rumor-mongering hands. And that iSync-like icon? Highly suspicious.

We have a feeling that this WWDC is going to be the biggest we’ve seen in years, and we hope you’re certainly prepared for our caffeine-drip-fueled coverage starting Monday. Keep your eyes glued on MacStories for all the latest updates - we’ll be covering the Keynote with our friends from across the web (video or no-video), bringing you work-a-holics a consolidated text feed. We’re going to start early at 9:30 PDT for casual chit-chat, predictions, and maybe eat a donut or two before the show begins.

Until Monday, June 6th, PEACE!

Time Zones:

13:00 — New York, New York
10:00 — San Francisco, California
07:00 — Honolulu, Hawaii
03:00 — Sydney, Australia
02:00 — Tokyo, Japan
01:00 — Shanghai, China
10:30 — New Delhi, India
21:00 — Moscow, Russia
19:00 — Rome, Italy
18:00 — London, England

Don’t see your city? You can use this link to get your exact time. Read more

The Success of Apple’s Retail Division

One of Apple’s greatest achievements is the success of their 324 retail stores, spanning several countries and employing 30,200 employees who are, on average, paid much more than their competitors. Becoming an Apple Employee isn’t easy, but those who are hired on as a “blue shirt” come to enjoy a past-paced product environment and challenging rewards with health benefits and company perks based on the stores’ target success. With 2,500 positions open in retail, Apple is still looking to add Geniuses, Creatives, and managers to help customers and sell product on their show floors, and it’s Shareen Pathak from FINS who comments on Apple’s success in this space.

According to people familiar with the operation, the Fifth Avenue store employs one staff member for every 20 square feet of retail space. That’s one staffer every few feet. All a shopper has to do to get help in an Apple store is reach out and touch someone.

The employees, under strict NDA and ready to serve potential customers, are offered a relatively healthy amount of pay for their hard work. Geniuses on average make $18 dollars an hour, with the helpful blue shirts earning around $16 dollars an hour as they guide customers to new products, show them how to use services, and make sales. In comparison, Pathak writes that a Best Buy Geek Squad Agent on average only makes $12 an hour. Part of Apple’s success is that while work can be demanding, employees are motivated and expected to work hard and sell the Apple experience.

In the first two fiscal quarters for 2011, Apple’s retail division has already earned $7.04 billion in revenue of Apple’s $51.41 billion, in comparison to Pathak’s figure of $10 billion in retail of Apple’s $60 billion at the end of September, 2010. The retail division is on track to nearly double the revenues earned by 2012, after Apple’s Peter Oppenheimer announced a billion retail customers have visited the Apple Store on April 20th, 2011.

From the glass entrances to the Glowing Apple above the double doors, to updated iPad experience and the employees who are ready to help you at moment’s notice, Apple’s retail stores offer a level of convenience and friendliness that big retail chains just can’t match. It’s well worth your time to read the rest of Pathak’s writeup on how Apple hires, how valuable employees are to the company, and just how hard they work to make the whole system operate as a well oiled machine.

[via FINS, Fiscal Q1 2011, Fiscal Q2 2011]