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Posts tagged with "apple"

Steve Jobs: “We Have No Plans To Kill The iPod Classic”

In the past months, several reports suggested Apple was in the process of discontinuing the iPod Classic line, which hasn’t been updated in years, to make room for the latest generation iPod Touches, Nanos and Shuffles. With stock running low in several Apple resellers and a lack of announcements at Apple’s September music event, many thought the iPod Classic was on its way out. The numbers, however, proved that in spite of old hardware, the Classic was the 5th most popular music player in the US in 2010. Rumors of new portable hard drives by Toshiba even suggested Apple might not discontinue the line, but bump its capacity to a whopping 220 GB in the same design. That hasn’t happened yet.

Now it’s Steve Jobs himself, in an email reply to a MacRumors reader, to confirm that Apple isn’t planning to kill the iPod Classic just yet.

Q: Hello, I’ve heard a LOT of speculation that Apple is looking to kill the iPod Classic because it wasn’t updated on Sept. 1st, and that a lot of people would rather Touch. The iPod Classic is probably the best iPod in the line. PLEASE DON’T KILL IT!!!

A: We have no plans to.

Sent from my iPhone

So there you have it. In his usual short-reply fashion, Jobs allegedly reassures a loyal Apple fan that the iPod Classic isn’t going anywhere. Discontinuing the line would indeed be a strange move on Apple’s part, considering how the iPod Classic is the only device that can enable owners of large music collections to carry around their libraries without worrying about space.

Wife Said No But Apple Says Yes And Gives Guy Free iPad 2

In what is quite an amusing tale, one of the iPad 2’s returned last week was owned by a guy who was unfortunately told to return it by his wife. Because Apple had been troubleshooting returned iPad 2’s his iPad was discovered with a post-it note reading “Wife said no.” According to MacRumors, this was escalated up the Apple hierarchy as somewhat of joke, eventually reaching two VPs.

Those VPs decided it was only fair to send the guy an iPad 2 and add a note that said “Apple said yes.”

Genius.

[Via MacRumors]

Steve Jobs Ordered By Court To Answer Questions In Class-Action Lawsuit

Steve Jobs has been ordered by a US Magistrate to answer questions in court in relation to a class-action lawsuit regarding the iTunes Music Store and monopolistic behavior by Apple. Bloomberg is reporting that yesterday US Magistrate Judge Howard R. Lloyd authorized lawyers representing consumers in the complaint to engage in limited questioning of Jobs.

The limited questioning is quantified as two hours of questions and only on the topic of changes that Apple made to their iPod software in October of 2004 that disrupted RealNetworks’ Harmony software. Harmony enabled users to transfer songs purchased from the RealNetworks store, to the iPod. When it was released the software caused considerable controversy and Apple quickly accused RealNetworks of using “the tactics and ethics of a hacker” and in a subsequent iPod update Apple stopped the Harmony software from working with iPods.

The class-action lawsuit was filed by Thomas Slattery in 2005 and alleged that by requiring customers use an iPod to listen to music purchased from the iTunes store, Apple had violated federal antitrust laws as well as California’s unfair competition regulations. David Kiernan, who is representing Apple, said that “any deposition of Mr.Jobs would be repetitive, at best.”

[Via AppleInsider]

Angry Birds Rio Flies Into The App Store

Angry Birds Rio, the collaboration app between Rovio and 20th Century Fox as part of the marketing of the new movie ‘Rio’ has just been released today. In principle this new foray in the Angry Birds series of apps is the same as before but with a different story based on the premise of the movie. The app also features new achievements, ‘special hidden fruit’ and a total of 60 levels across two episodes but with more promised to arrive over 2011.

What happens when everybody’s favourite fierce fowl get caged and shipped to Rio? They get very angry!

In Angry Birds Rio, the original Angry Birds are kidnapped and taken to the magical city of Rio de Janeiro, where they eventually escape their captors and set out to to save their friends, Blu and Jewel – two rare macaws and the stars of the upcoming Fox motion picture, Rio. Angry Birds Rio will pair the physics-based gameplay of the original game with unique twists based on the film.

Angry Birds Rio is available on the iPhone and iPod Touch for $0.99, on the iPad for $3.99 and on the Mac App Store for $4.99

Apple Sues Amazon→

Apple Sues Amazon

According to a brief note posted by Bloomberg, Apple is suing Amazon over the use of the “App Store” name. The popular online retail is indeed about to launch its own “Amazon Appstore” for Android devices, a marketplace to distribute and download apps. Yes, pretty much like Apple’s App Store – which counts more than 400,000 apps for iPhones and iPads and generated more than 10 billion downloads since its launch in Summer 2008.

Apple, in a complaint filed March 18, accused Amazon.com of trademark infringement and unfair competition and asks for a court order to prevent the company from using the “App Store” name as well as for unspecified damages.

Recently, Apple had a similar dispute with Microsoft. Clearly the folks at Cupertino aren’t happy with everyone using the term “app store” these days, and they’re now taking action against Amazon.

Update from Bloomberg with Apple’s statements:

Amazon has unlawfully used the App Store mark to solicit software developers throughout the United States.

We’ve asked Amazon not to copy the App Store name because it will confuse and mislead customers,” said Kristin Huguet, a spokeswoman for Apple.

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Numerous Owners Reporting 2011 MacBook Pro Crashes Whilst Under Load

A considerable number of owners of the new 15” and 17” 2011 MacBook Pro’s have reported both on the Apple Discussion board and also on the MacRumors forum that their new machines are locking up and freezing when under an extensive load. For example this post by ‘brandonlive02’ is representative of what many are complaining about;

I have a 15” 2011 MacBook Pro with a 128 SSD. It has repeatedly frozen in the week I’ve had it - often at random points while using StarCraft II and also while trying to access Time Machine. When it freezes, sound continues and I can still move the cursor (which is sometimes the spinning ball and sometimes the regular cursor) but the computer is completely unresponsive – force quit does not work nor does anything else - have to do a hard reboot.

The issue is believed to be fairly widespread with one user reproducing it on three separate machines and another who reportedly managed to reproduce it on every new MacBook Pro at their local Apple store. This wiki outlines the various methods one can use to re-create the crash if they wish to check if their MacBook has this issue.

No complete fix has been found and the cause is still unknown but the wiki page suggests one fix of using some software to only use the integrated graphics chip of the MacBook Pro. A post in the MacRumors thread suggests that Apple is aware of the issue and that they believe it to be a firmware or driver related problem rather than a hardware issue, but this has yet to be confirmed and Apple have not issued any public statement.

[Via MacRumors]

Rob Waugh reports on the rise to near-mythical status of Jonathan Ive, the remarkable man from Chingford→

Rob Waugh reports on the rise to near-mythical status of Jonathan Ive, the remarkable man from Chingford

Collectively, the designers obsess over each product, stripping away non-essential parts, reworking tiny details such as LED indicators on the sides of laptops and phones. Ive once spent months working solely on the stand for Apple’s desktop iMac; he was searching for the sort of organic perfection found in sunflower stalks.

There are many quotes you could pull from Rob Waugh’s fascinating background story on Jonathan Ive, but I’d like to think this one in particular is the most revealing. Nothing in Ive’s design is an afterthought, and it’s this pursuit of perfection beyond design that the competition simply lacks. If you choose to think about it, the most magnificent thing about Apple is that consumers get to put their hands on a product whose every inch receives an unremarkable amount of attention; you can affordably purchase what a true master had once carved and precision-engineered by hand. What Ive creates in my mind is no longer a computer, but a masterpiece. Just read the few opening paragraphs, and you’ll get a sense of what I mean.

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New Apple Patent: Flat USB & FireWire Cables with LEDs

Of all the designs and inventions Apple patents and trademarks every week, some are really interesting and provide good indication of things to come in Macs and iOS devices. Whilst we’ve recently seen several complex patents detailing social functionalities and smart location features coming to iOS, image editing capabilities for iPhones and a “safe deposit box” for cloud storage, a new patent design uncovered by Patently Apple last week seems to provide a simple solution to a minor, yet annoying problem: cables.

Apple sells a variety of cables on its online store: these cables are usually meant to connect Mac computers to external peripherals like monitors and hard drives, or to devices like iPhones and iPads. From HDMI connectors and FireWire 400 or 800 cables to most standard USB ones and 30-pin dock connectors (the ones that also come bundled with a new iOS device), these cables have one thing in common: they’re not flat. They tangle, they’re difficult to put away and carry around, they’ll very likely break over time as you twist them and, overall, simply use them. This happens because the standard cable circuitry used in the tech industry includes one or more wires placed within a non-conductive enclosure that result in a circular connector – the cable. The problem with a circular cable is that sometimes it’s meant to be used in a specific orientation, and if the cable bends in the opposite way (example: when you tangle it to put it away) the internal wires or external enclosure could break. Read more

iPad 2 Launch in Czech Republic Delayed By One Month, Could Apple Be Delaying International Launch?

As 9to5 Mac learned from a Czech reader, the Czech Republic Apple wesbsite is now displaying the launch date of the iPad 2 as “V prodeji od 25 dubna” which translates to “Available from April 25” as opposed to the previously publicized launch date of March 25 for the Czech Republic.

At this point no other country that was on the keynote list of first international countries to receive the iPad 2 has had the launch delayed (apart from Japan). At this point the one month delay for the Czech Republic could be as simple as some delay in regulatory approval in that country for the iPad 2 or perhaps the first sign that Apple is delaying the international launch or scaling back the number of countries recieving the first round of iPad 2’s.

[Via 9to5 Mac]