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Posts tagged with "apple"

Apple To Stream Tim Cook’s Presentation at Goldman Sachs Conference Tomorrow

setteB.IT notes that Apple will provide a live stream of CEO Tim Cook’s presentation at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference tomorrow. Apple has indeed refreshed its Investor page to include a link to the QuickTime audio webcast, which will be live at 12:30 PM PT tomorrow, February 14th.

Welcome to the audio webcast of Tim Cook’s presentation at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference. The presentation will begin at approximately 12:30pm PT/3:30pm ET on Tuesday, February 14, 2012. Please note that comments made during the presentation may include forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially from those forward-looking statements.

As it happened in the past when Cook was COO, we should expect interesting details and comments from the presentation. This is the first time Cook is speaking as Apple CEO – make sure to check out reports from the 2010 and 2008 conferences.

Fair Labor Association Begins Its Inspections Of Apple’s Suppliers

The first inspections by the Fair Labor Association began today at Foxconn City in Shenzhen according to an Apple Press Release issued just a short time ago. It is the beginning of special, voluntary, audits of Apple’s final assembly suppliers that was announced earlier in January this year when Apple joined the Fair Labor Association.

“We believe that workers everywhere have the right to a safe and fair work environment, which is why we’ve asked the FLA to independently assess the performance of our largest suppliers,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “The inspections now underway are unprecedented in the electronics industry, both in scale and scope, and we appreciate the FLA agreeing to take the unusual step of identifying the factories in their reports.”

A team of labor experts led by FLA president Auret van Heerdan will interview thousands of employees at Apple’s suppliers about working and living conditions, health, safety, working hours, compensation and communication with management. Inspections of the facilities and reviews of procedure documentation will also be undertaken in the FLA assessment.

An initial report with early findings and recommendations will be released by the Fair Labor Association and will be followed up by inspections of the Quanta and Pegatron facilities later this Spring. Apple’s full press release is located after the break.

Image via Wired.

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“Okay, I’ll Remind You”

A few minutes ago Apple uploaded two new iPhone 4S commercials on its website and official YouTube channel. The ads, as with previous iPhone 4S promotional videos, focus on Siri, and they might just be the best ones about the voice-based assistant yet.

The ads, called “Rock God” and “Road Trip”, share a common theme: people talking to their assistant using natural language and a friendly tone, not simply asking a piece of software to execute commands.

In Road Trip, a guy and his girlfriend are organizing a road trip to California. Look at the initial setting: it’s cold outside, they’re about the get in the car, and they want to get from the cold of East Coast in February to the sunny Santa Cruz in California. The guy asks Siri, and they’re on the road. Camera cuts to the guy’s face in the car. He’s looking for a barbecue in Kansas City. Camera cuts to girl’s face in the car. She’s looking for a rodeo. Camera changes again, this time the couple doesn’t know where they are, and the girl asks “Where are we?”, with the look of someone who knows Siri will have an answer. They’re in Santa Rosa. Change again. How big is the Grand Canyon? Sure enough, Siri can look that up on Wolfram Alpha or Wikipedia. But then the gas runs out: how about finding a station the guys can walk to? Finally, the ad reaches its climax when our two characters have seemingly reached their destination, or are fairly close, and are looking at the stars. She asks: “What does Orion look like?”. Siri displays sky data inline. The video closes with the opposite setting of how it began: sunny California, he’s wearing a t-shirt, looking at the horizon, and she’s telling Siri like you would do with an old friend – Remind me to do this again. Siri, with its human-like voice, replies: Okay, I’ll remind you.

The second commercial, Rock God, has a more “fun” approach. There’s this kid that “has to get a guitar”, and he’s so excited about it he needs to ask Siri now. Why is he so excited about getting a guitar? What’s the story here? Perhaps, I imagine, he has just decided with his friends that it’s time to put a band together and start playing. So, Siri gives him location info about stores selling musical instruments, and in the next scene our kid is learning how to play. How do I play London Calling? Whole Lotta Love? How about that chord? Siri displays information on screen. Fairly regular stuff for now. Then the ad changes – our character is sending a message to Julie and Kate about playing at the garage tonight. Apple’s music stops. The kids are playing – they’re doing rock ‘n’ roll! – and finish their song. “Call me Rock God”, the kid tells Siri, softly.

You see, these aren’t just ads. In 30 seconds, we’re told stories. In 30 seconds, we are not shown technical features and RAM specifications, we’re given real examples of real people we can relate to. We’re shown two young people in love with each other that just want to get to California and see the sunset together. We’re shown a young boy with a simple dream, playing guitar, yet a dream that’s important to him – something that makes his life worth living and enjoying even for those 30 minutes when he gets his band mates together and nothing else matters. Just music. Call me Rock God.

In 30 seconds, we’re shown how technology can make people’s lives better. We’re reminded, once again, that this industry, this love for the latest gadget, doesn’t necessarily have to be about tech specs – it’s the technology married with the liberal arts. It’s about playing London Calling with your friends. It’s about driving to California with the woman you love and watch the stars just for one night.

He would be proud.

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The Magic Money That Apple Made From Thin Air→

The Magic Money That Apple Made From Thin Air

Jeff Price of TuneCore is happy and a little surprised, finding out their first royalty payments from the new iTunes Match came in at $10,000. He writes in a blog post that “this is magic money that Apple made exist out of thin air for copyright holders”. The service has effectively monetized the existing behaviour of consumers, giving more money to artists and copyright holders whilst the consumer just continues to listen to their music, not doing anything “new”.

A person has a song on her computer hard drive.  She clicks on the song and plays it.  No one is getting paid.  The same person pays iTunes $25 for iMatch.  She now clicks on the same song and plays it through her iMatch service.  Copyright holders get paid. Same action, same song, one makes money for the copyright holder, and one does not. This is found money that the copyright holders would never have gotten otherwise.

It may not be a complete windfall as Jeff points out, but it has something - something that if iTunes Match didn’t exist, you wouldn’t get at all. Something is better than nothing.

The music industry needs innovation. Services like iMatch, Spotify, Simfy, Deezer and others are bringing that innovation—it will take some time to learn which are the ones consumers want.  But in the interim, seeing an additional $10,000+ appear out of the thin air for TuneCore Artists by people just listening to songs they already own is amazing!

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Apple’s White MacBook Reaches “End Of Life”, Educational Sales To Stop

Several months after halting sales of the white MacBook to consumers, Apple is now completely stopping sales of the MacBook. When it stopped selling the entry-level MacBook to consumers back in July of last year, Apple continued to offer it to educational institutions, but it has now notified resellers that it has now classified the MacBook as “End of Life”.

With that MacBook now discontinued entirely, Apple’s laptop lines include just the  MacBook Pro and MacBook Air models. It isn’t known when Apple stopped manufacturing of the MacBook, but it was likely a few weeks ago, with Apple just waiting for final supplies to dwindle down.

[via MacRumors]

Evernote For iOS Gets Some Nice Improvements In 4.1.8 Update

The Evernote iOS app today got a little bit better with 4.1.8 update, bringing some nice additions and improvements. We’re big fans of Evernote here at MacStories, but their iOS app isn’t as good as it could or should be. Thankfully today’s update (although minor) directly addresses some of my complaints which makes me optimistic that the team is hard at work on making Evernote for iOS a truly great app.

Perhaps the best improvement for me is the “better editing, copying, pasting and more”, which translates to faster editing and improved preservation of styles. I’ve been plagued with some weird lag issues when editing large notes, particularly when copying and pasting, so this is much appreciated on my part.

Also new is “predictive note titles” which means Evernote now uses contextual information to create a more appropriate title if you leave the field blank - so no more “Untitled Notes”. Instead it will look at calendar events, location, note contents and other info to create a contextual title that is far more useful and informative. Similarly handy is the new, easier method of sharing a notebook on the iOS app. Now you just need to go to the notebook list, tap on the desired notebook and you’ll see a share icon in the top right corner of the screen.

Notebook Stacks, which work well on the desktop are now better represented on the iPhone. They have existed but were hard to enable, now, viewing notebooks will use the Notebook Stacks view as default. Finally this update also includes the standard bunch of bug fixes and also improved stability - including faster and more reliable synchronisation. Now, if only we could get a new design for the iPad app…

For more information the Evernote Blog covers all these new features and improvements to the app in a little more detail.

Apple Warns Developers Against Using Services That Manipulate App Store Rankings

Apple has today posted a reminder to developers, warning them not to manipulate App Store chart rankings or face potential loss of their Apple Developer Program membership. The warning follows recent publicity surrounding services that have been offering the ability to artificially boost free app rankings in the top charts.

Adhering to Guidelines on Third-Party Marketing Services

Feb 6, 2012

Once you build a great app, you want everyone to know about it. However, when you promote your app, you should avoid using services that advertise or guarantee top placement in App Store charts. Even if you are not personally engaged in manipulating App Store chart rankings or user reviews, employing services that do so on your behalf may result in the loss of your Apple Developer Program membership. Get helpful tips and resources on marketing your apps the right way from the App Store Resource Center.

Yesterday, PocketGamer noted that one company was offering a service for $5000 where they would utilise bots to download an app repeatedly until it breaks into the top 25 charts. That report followed on from a TouchArcade post, where users warned others from using such fraudulent app promotion services which use automated scripts or bots.

[iClarified via MacRumors]

Grand Central Terminal Restaurant Sees Boost In Customers Since Apple Store Opened

Since the opening of Apple’s Grand Central Terminal store, at least one fellow tenant is seeing a 7 percent increase in sales. That tenant is Michael Jordan’s The Steak House, located across the terminal from the new Apple Store and its co-owner, Peter Glazier says the restaurant has seen the boost of sales since the Apple Store opened 7 weeks ago in December.

Glazier makes sure to point out that the boost isn’t due to Apple simply replacing another restaurant (the Apple Store is located where the Metrazur restaurant used to preside). He says “the jump only happened after Apple opened” - not during the months whilst the space was being renovated for Apple.

So far it seems that the “sweetheart deal” that the New York City’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s worked out with Apple is paying dividends — despite initial criticism of the deal. That deal saw Apple agree to a $60-per-square-foot lease agreement, with no revenue sharing agreement. The MTA made the argument that such a flagship store would bring in more customers, benefitting other tenants, so far, it seems that argument has been reflected in reality.

[Crains New York via MacRumors]

Focusing On iPads

The latest report from AppleInsider claims that, after a meeting with CEO Tim Cook and CFO Peter Oppenheimer, Citi analyst Richard Gardner left with the impression that Apple is focusing on iPads, leaving little or no possibility for an ARM-based MacBook Air, which was previously rumored.

Apple doesn’t refer to iPad as a PC, but as a “post-PC device,” leaving the ARM-based tablet distinct from the company’s Intel-based Macs. Gardner further indicated the meeting dispelled the notion that Apple might introduce ARM-based Macs, countering rumors that a new MacBook Air featuring an ARM processor might appear sometime soon.

Gardner cited Cook as alluding to “rapid innovation on the iOS platform” that will “significantly broaden the use case for tablets,” and stated he “walked away from this meeting with the impression that Apple feels iPad satisfies—or will soon satisfy—the needs of those who might have been interested in such a product” as an ARM-based MacBook Air.

The rumors of Apple switching from Intel to ARM-based architectures on Macs left many wondering when they first surfaced online. And whilst it wouldn’t be a surprise to know that Apple has at least tested A5-based MacBook Airs and other sorts of ARM CPUs for portables – of course a company like Apple wants to experiment with as many hardware alternatives as possible – many debated whether it would make sense for the company to switch in the near future, when quad-core ARM processors are seemingly ready for the next-generation of iOS devices.

That Apple doesn’t believe an ARM-based MacBook Air – or, as the competitors would call it, an ARM Ultrabook – would be needed on the market isn’t a surprise, either. Assuming there is a market for users who want a low-power, battery life efficient portable machine in the range of 11” and 13” – a machine that, in theory, should be used for tasks such as word processing, lightweight image editing, browsing, and email – Apple believes that market can be satisfied – or will be “soon” satisfied as AppleInsider writes – by the iPad.

From a user’s standpoint, I think Apple’s reasoning here is that, ultimately, someone who’s seeking an 11-inch or even 13-inch machine with the technological perks of the iPad would be better off with an iPad, which is lighter, more portable, and has a richer selection of apps (from Apple’s perspective in looking at simple App Store numbers). There are edge cases, such as people who would strongly argue against iOS’ virtual keyboard, but I believe what Tim Cook is saying here – again, at least according to AppleInsider – is that the hypothetical market for an ARM MacBook Air should just settle with an iPad, as it’s a versatile, innovative machine that will get more feature soon. I don’t always want to look much into reports about interviews out of their original context, but if that “soon” is to be believed, I wouldn’t mind seeing more productivity-oriented software from Apple at the next iPad event – apps such as Aperture and, who knows, maybe even a portable programming suite would be perfect to further showcase the iPad’s capabilities as a “real” PC.

More importantly, Gardner’s “impression” that Apple feels satisfied with the iPad is also backed up by the numbers: in the past quarter alone, Apple sold over 15 million iPads, and “only” 5.2 million Macs. In the amount of time that Apple should spend transitioning a Mac product (the MacBook Air) to a new CPU architecture and getting developers to begin supporting this new “hybrid” machine, the company could easily sell another 20 million iPads. That’s not to say Apple will never switch to ARM (never is a dangerous word) on the desktop and that they haven’t considered it, but I’ve never believed it could happen in a short period of time as some of the early rumors claimed.

Looking at the first quarters of iPad sales and reception, I’d say Tim Cook is right to be focusing on iPads.