Posts tagged with "apple"

The Apple Community, Part II

A few hours ago, I came back from the Apple Store at Roma Est driving all the way back home after a 19-hour wait for the new iPad. Tired – exhausted, my head exploding for the absurd coffee intake I forced my body into, but happy, smiling because I knew that what I had imagined all along didn’t turn to be true – it was better.

Until yesterday, I had never waited in line for an Apple product before. I always preferred driving to the store myself after a few days, or simply asking one of my US friends to ship me an iPhone or iPad without waiting for the Italian launch. A lot of people told me “I was missing out” – that for an Apple fan, getting in line to wait for a new product isn’t just about waiting, which is boring per se, it’s about knowing the people that share your same passion, not giving a damn about spending 20 hours of their lives to get “a device”. Today I can say buying an iPad was just the tip of the iceberg for what has been an incredible experience – something that I look forward to for the next big Apple launch.

I know I am late to the party. I’m fairly certain you all know what a “Day One” looks and feels like. Long lines, security staff, Apple employees, the cheering and the clapping before and during the launch. All that felt new to me. Unexpected and familiar at the same time, as if I was getting to know for the first time a family that, however, I had always known somehow.

It’s no exaggeration to call the people I got to meet in real life last night an extended family. I wrote about the Apple Community before, but actually meeting the people I mention so often is different. I shook hands and made bad jokes 5 minutes after arriving at the line. I talked to folks I only “knew” through Twitter and Facebook, and got a chance to really know them from a much more rewarding perspective. I talked to the founder of another blog and spent two hours discussing the future, where we see things going for our sites, and the state of Italian Apple reporting in general. I introduced myself to Apple PR, finally giving a face and a smile to the people that keep in the loop about news and announcements. I shared meals, coffee – and lots of it – and exchanged phone numbers and Twitter handles. Because whilst I may have known some of those folks already, clicking on usernames and friend request buttons after knowing them felt more real. Necessary. Natural. An obvious consequence.

It was surreal. I mean, we’re talking about a bunch of people – from any kind of social extraction – waiting in line and sitting on the ground to buy a gadget. We are talking about employees of a big corporation, all dressed up in blue and clapping and shaking your hands because you are giving them money. Because you are the customer. And it was surreal, because it felt like you were there as a friend. As my girlfriend put it - “they make paying more pleasant, as if you are glad you are giving them money”. I don’t know if I’m “glad” I spent 700 Euros today. But I sure am happy to have paid for this product in that way.

On the other hand, it felt real. Surprisingly so. You are meeting up with these people you only know from profile pictures and wall posts, and you realize these are real people that have their history, their flaws, their bad jokes about food and sports, and all those traits that turn flaws into the thing we love the most about human beings: that we’re different. That we all have problems and may argue about politics and Android. But that, in the end, if 20 hours spent in line to get an iPad can make us laugh, we should celebrate those 20 hours. Appreciate them. Treasure them.

The more cynical of you might dismiss my words as the usual excitement of a nerd who is happy about paying for Apple products because it is this company’s big, evil plan to make us think we have a choice. You are free to think whatever you want. Maybe it is Apple’s grand scheme to get rich by providing a friendly customer experience. But we do have a choice, and we have chosen to make the most out of it. Those people, those stories – heck, those 13 espressos were real. There is no corporate strategy that will take that away from us. There is no exclusive or breaking news that can beat the fact that some of my readers can also be my friends.

In our review of the new iPad, Cody wrote “you won’t believe it until you see it”. I agree. The device is fantastic. But I ’ll add this: the greatest thing about Apple isn’t the product line itself. It’s the community. It’s the users and the developers and the journalists. It is you, reading this on an Apple device. It’s the Apple community using Apple products. And you won’t believe it until you experience it.

One More Thing Conference, A Unique iOS Conference In Australia Is Running Again In May

The ‘One More Thing Conference’ is running again this year in May on the 25th and 26th, and like its launch last year it’ll be located in the beautiful city of Melbourne, Australia. It isn’t a traditional programming conference, but more of a “meeting for iOS developers, designers and those who just want to come along for the ride”. In fact the aim of the conference isn’t necessarily to improve your designing or programming talent, but rather to “leave with more confidence in your abilities as an iOS developer or designer.”

The conference comprises of two parts; the main conference on the 26th of May and two “mini-confs” on the 25th. Speaking at the main conference are people such as Raphael Schaad of Flipboard, Adam Kirk of Mysterious Trousers (makers of Calvetica), Igor Pušenjak of Lima Sky (makers of Doodle Jump), Justin Williams of Second Gear (makers of Elements) and other very talented people in the iOS world. Meanwhile the “mini-confs”, are smaller (limited to 30 people) sessions where the environment is more conversational, with one focusing on design and the other on programming. Loren Brichter (formerly of Tweetie and Twitter) and Neven Mrgan are just two of the speakers that will lead these respective “mini-confs”.

Tickets to the main conference are currently selling at $249 (that’s an early bird price though, after the 12th of April it goes back to $349), whilst the “mini-conf” session tickets cost $499 but are limited to just 30 people.

Short Q&A with Organiser Anthony Aguis

To get some more information and perspective on what the One More Thing Conference is, I spoke with one of the organisers, Anthony Aguis who also ran the first conference last year.

Graham: Hi Anthony! So give us a brief overview of what the One More Thing conference is about and perhaps what you learnt from running the conference last year.

Anthony: I learned that I could actually make a conference happen and that people liked it! The feedback we got from last year’s event was fantastic. It would have been a shame not to do it again. The overall theme of the conference is still the same as 2011 - get developers confident, psyched, and ready to move from dreaming of making apps, to just doing it. The main difference for 2012 will be the lessons we will learn from the speakers. There’s some serious experience in our line up that have awesome stories to tell.

Graham: One of the new things for the conference this year are the mini-confs, one focused on design and the other on programming. This sounds like a great idea, especially considering it will promote a more conversational atmosphere between the audience and the great speakers you’ve got attending. What made you decide to have such “mini-confs” alongside the full conference?

Anthony: The mini-confs came about because some of the speakers I invited weren’t comfortable in front of a large audience, so rather than not have them come to Australia at all, Lauren (my One More Thing sidekick, who designed the website and everything else you see to do with One More Thing), suggested we just give them a smaller venue, so we did. That creates a unique opportunity to pick the brains of some super talented people. It’s like a university or college tutorial where you debate and interact, as opposed to a lecture with lots of people in it.

Graham: What are you most looking forward to yourself in the conference this year?

Anthony: I’m really hoping there’s a spate of wonderful apps released on the app store, a few months after One More Thing, inspired by what attendees have learned there. That’s why I put the effort into putting it on, to have cool apps to use myself!

Graham: The conference is being held in Melbourne, Australia, for those who aren’t from Melbourne and particularly for those overseas, can you tell us a bit about the city and perhaps why someone from the US or Europe might enjoy visiting?

Anthony: I’ve lived in Melbourne all my life, so I’m a little biased - but if you’ve never been to Australia before, Melbourne is a great place to start. It’s a very cosmopolitan and urban city, with over 5 million people of all sorts of cultural backgrounds calling it home. But not too far out from the city is some of the most beautiful countryside and scenery, you’ll ever see, with the Great Ocean Road and the Grampians National Park just day trip away. If you like sport, you’ve gotta watch an Aussie Rules football match too. I’ll even go with you!

Graham: So if our readers are interested in attending, where can they get more info and purchase tickets?

Anthony: onemorething.com.au has all the details - we have special early bird pricing if you register before April 12th, so don’t take too long deciding to attend.

Graham: Thanks for speaking with us Anthony, is there anything else you’d like to tell our lovely readers before we wrap this up?

Anthony: We’ve got a podcast up on iTunes in which Peter Wells & Marc Edwards interview all the speakers at One More Thing 2012. Plus everyone can watch the videos from the 2011 conference up on Vimeo. Great way to get a feel for what you’ll get from One More Thing in 2012.

Adobe Releases Photoshop CS6 Beta

Adobe has tonight released the beta of Photoshop CS6, giving users a “sneak preview” of the new tools and performance enhancements that Adobe has been working on for CS6. The standout new features include an even better Content-Aware Patch tool that allows you to literally move objects around an image like they were always there, a ‘modern’ UI with much improved performance and re-engineered tools.

The Verge has a detailed look at the beta and amongst the new features, they highlight a few features such as background save, easy iris blur and tilt shift tools and even a simple video editing tool that lets you use many Photoshop tools and shortcuts. Meanwhile, Marc Edwards of bjango runs through a list of improvements and changes that matter most to him as an interface designer - highlighting some of the more minute details, such as layer searching and group clipping masks, that have a big impact on how things can be accomplished.

You can download the beta of Photoshop CS6 for free. A final release will be made available sometime in the first half of this year for $699 new or $199 if you’re upgrading (those prices are $999 and $399 if you want CS6 Extended). Jump the break for a video from Adobe that highlights some of the notable improvements and new features in CS6.

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Ahead Of Angry Birds Space Launch Tomorrow, Rovio Releases Final Trailer

Rovio has released the final trailer for Angry Birds Space, the fourth game in the Angry Birds series (following the original, Seasons and Rio). The trailer introduces the space theme with an introduction scene showing the birds being flung into space. The rest of the trailer mixes quotes, shots of each of the birds (such as the one seen above) and some gameplay footage of the new levels.

Naturally the new game features some twists such as zero gravity and a “light speed destruction” feature. Angry Birds Space launches tomorrow, March 22nd on iOS, Android, Mac and PC. Jump the break for the full trailer, or watch it on YouTube.

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Apple Confirms Dividend and Share Repurchase Program

Apple just confirmed with a press release they are initiating a dividend and share repurchase program later this year. The company posted a press release yesterday, saying they would make an announcement related to their cash balance today.

Subject to declaration by the Board of Directors, the Company plans to initiate a quarterly dividend of $2.65 per share sometime in the fourth quarter of its fiscal 2012, which begins on July 1, 2012.

Additionally, the Company’s Board of Directors has authorized a $10 billion share repurchase program commencing in the Company’s fiscal 2013, which begins on September 30, 2012. The repurchase program is expected to be executed over three years, with the primary objective of neutralizing the impact of dilution from future employee equity grants and employee stock purchase programs.

Quoted in the press release, Apple CEO Tim Cook said the company has used its cash to make “great investments” with “increased research and development, acquisitions, new retail store openings, strategic prepayments and capital expenditures in our supply chain”. With “plenty of cash to run the business left”, Cook said to expect more of these from Apple in the future. Apple expects to utilize “approximately $45 billion of domestic cash in the first three years” for the programs.

Apple’s last dividend goes back to 1995, according to the company’s official Investor website. In 2010, Steve Jobs said he preferred the company to hold onto its cash, rather than paying a dividend to investors:

We know if we need to acquire something — a piece of the puzzle to make something big and bold — we can write a check for it and not borrow a lot of money and put our whole company at risk,” Jobs said today at Apple’s shareholder meeting. “The cash in the bank gives us tremendous security and flexibility.

The direction, however, has been revised in the past years, with Cook and CFO Oppenheimer stating on multiple occasions Apple was in “active discussions” with the board in regards to its cash balance, now account for nearly $98 billion in cash ($97.6 billion in cash at end of December), cash equivalents, short-term marketable securities, and long term marketable securities.

Apple will provide a live stream of the conference call on its website starting at 9 AM EDT. Read more

Apple Schedules Conference Call To Announce Outcome of Cash Balance Discussions

Apple just issued a press release confirming a conference call scheduled for tomorrow, March 19th, to announce the outcome of discussions concerning the company’s cash balance.

Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, and Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO, will host a conference call to announce the outcome of the Company’s discussions concerning its cash balance. Apple® will not be providing an update on the current quarter nor will any topics be discussed other than cash.

Apple will provide a live stream of the conference call on its website starting at 6 AM PDT (9 AM EDT). As noted in the press release, Apple won’t discuss any other details related to the ongoing quarter – as such, we shouldn’t expect any sales numbers related to the release of the new iPad during the conference call.

Apple, whose stock is currently trading at $585, has been rumored for years to be on the verge of announcing a dividend for its shareholders. In the past years, however, both CFO Oppenheimer as well as Tim Cook himself reiterated several times that Apple’s cash wasn’t “burning a hole in their pocket” – the company may have avoided discussions of a dividend, but as Tim Cook also recently noted, they haven’t been religious about holding or not holding cash. In the past year alone, Apple bought Israeli chip maker Anobit and App Store search and indexing service Chomp. Similarly, it was previously reported that $3.9 billion of Apple’s cash reserves may have gone into securing deals for LCD displays and other components in 2011.

At a shareholder meeting in 2010, Steve Jobs said he preferred the company to hold onto its cash for potential investments, rather than paying a dividend:

We know if we need to acquire something – a piece of the puzzle to make something big and bold – we can write a check for it and not borrow a lot of money and put our whole company at risk,” Jobs said today at Apple’s shareholder meeting. “The cash in the bank gives us tremendous security and flexibility.

During the Q4 2011 earnings call, Tim Cook, however, said:

To date we’ve wanted to have flexibility…. The cash isn’t burning a hole in our pockets and we’re not going to do silly things with it. We invest it conservatively….We’ve taken money and done things in Apple’s best interests, for example we’ve acquired several companies, some IP, we’ve invested in the supply chain and we use money to build out our stores and for new product tooling. So I believe what we’re doing with cash …that said, I’m not religious about holding cash or not holding it, I’m religious about of a lot of things, but that’s not one of them. We do what we believe is in Apple’s best interests …and we’ll continue to discuss it on the Apple board.

With just under $98 billion in cash and liquid investments ($97.6 billion in cash at end of December, compared to $81.6 billion at end of September with an increase in $16 billion), in February 2012 at the Goldman Sachs Technology Conference Cook said Apple has been “judicious” and “deliberate” with its cash.

Yes, we still have a lot. I would say we’re judicious and deliberate. We spend our money like it’s our last pennies. I think shareholders want us to do that. They don’t want us to act like we’re rich. We’ve never felt that way. It may sound bizarre but that’s the truth. In terms of our approach to cash, I’ve said since becoming CEO that I’m not religious about this. I’m not religious about holding it or not holding it. We’re in very active discussions at the board level on what we should do.

I think everyone would want us to be deliberate and really think it through. That’s what we’re doing. We’re not going to go have a toga party and do something outlandish. People don’t have to worry that it’s burning a hole in our pocket.

Via Asymco, an image showing the composition and scale of Apple’s cash holdings.

As Philip Elmer-DeWitt noted in February, there are some options Apple could consider with its cash. These options analysts and journalists have suggested include a one-time dividend, a stock split, a share repurchase plan, and an annual dividend. While there haven’t been any signs of the company effectively considering said options with for its cash holdings, Tim Cook publicly stated they were only asking “for a bit of patience” to make the “best decision for the shareholders”. He also went on the record saying Apple has “more cash than we need to run the business on a daily basis”.

We will post details of Apple’s announcement starting at 9 AM EDT tomorrow on MacStories’ homepage.

Apple Reveals The 25 Billionth App Downloaded & Winner Of $10,000 iTunes Gift Card

Apple has just issued a press release noting that the App Store hit 25 billion downloads (on Saturday) with the 25 billionth app downloaded being Where’s My Water? Free. The app was downloaded by Chunli Fu of Qingdao, China - that lucky person has won a $10,000 iTunes gift card for being the person who downloaded the 25 billionth app.

“We’d like to thank our customers and developers for helping us achieve this historic milestone of 25 billion apps downloaded,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services. “When we launched the App Store less than four years ago, we never imagined that mobile apps would become the phenomenon they have, or that developers would create such an incredible selection of apps for iOS users.”

View the full press release here or below the break. Be sure to also read our run-down of the apps that Apple have featured in the new “all-time top” section and the trends they show.

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Square Wants To Get Rid Of Old POS Systems With Its New Square Register App

Mobile payments company Square has today stepped up its game of disrupting payment services with its new Square Register app and service. Directly targeted at retailers, merchants and small business owners, this new iPad app is aimed at replacing the old clunky registers and point-of-sale (POS) systems with the infinitely more flexible and appealing iPad accompanied with the Square reader.

“I truly believe POS, as you know it today, is dead,” says Megan Quinn, director of products at Square. “This will bring Square to an entirely new, small-market audience (bricks-and-mortar stores).”

Integrating support for their existing Card Case app, Square Register can recognise when customers arrive at their store, as well as send the Card Case app information about the business for new customers who haven’t been before. The actual app itself has a main transaction screen that lists “favourite” items (this is completely customisable), but if there are thousands of items, that isn’t a problem either because there is also a list view available. The app has support for loyalty programs to reward loyal customers and customers don’t necessarily have to pay by card, with the app also supporting some cash drawers that can be connected up.

For the business owner or manager, Square Register can require a PIN for staff to access certain functions and custom permissions can be given to staff. The service also offers powerful analytical tools with interactive charts so you can view when the store is busiest and what days may be under performing. Square Register is available for free, with the standard 2.75% processing fee for all card transactions processed through Square, just the same as their existing apps.

[via TechCrunch, USA Today]

Apple: 25 Billion Apps Have Been Downloaded From The App Store

Apple announced a short time ago that 25 billions apps have been downloaded from the App Store since it launched in mid-2008. Apple has updated their homepage with the above graphic and slogan of  ”A billion thanks. 25 times over” and the App Store Twitter and Facebook accounts have also publicised the milestone. Interestingly, the graphic used by Apple varies depending on whether you are viewing an international version of Apple.com (such as Japan) or whether you see the standard US website.

Apple will announce within a few days, who the lucky winner of a $10,000 iTunes voucher will be. Users could enter the competition by either simply downloading an app or filling out a form on Apple’s website - the winner will be the person who downloaded the 25th billion app or the person who first filled out the form after the 24,999,999th app had been downloaded but before the 25th billion app.

In Apple’s previous App Store and iTunes competitions, Eddy Cue (Senior Vice President, Internet and Software Services) has called the winner and congratulated them on winning. Shortly after this has happened Apple releases a press statement announcing the download milestone and who the winner was. When Apple ran the competition to mark 10 billion apps downloaded, the winner initially hung up on Cue, thinking it was a scam call.