How does Apple follow what is probably the most successful and ground-breaking 15 years in the history of corporations? Does smooth sailing lie ahead, with business proceeding much the same as if Steve were still around? Or will there be changes that indicate troubled waters lie in wait? Might there even be shifts that suggest…
News
Apple to Open Retail Store in Cool Springs, Tennessee
According to the report, the new store will be 13,000 square feet, making it one of the larger Apple Store retail locations. The report also said that it was the mall that decided not to renew its lease with Abercrombie & Fitch in order to bring Apple in. Unnamed sources said that Apple will officially…
TMO’s Thunderbolt Roundup
Thankfully, this year’s CES brought several new announcements and demonstrations of upcoming Thunderbolt devices and the impending Macworld | iWorld Expo promises to bring even more. For all those excited by Thunderbolt, we take a look at what’s already available and what’s just around the corner. Available Now Little Big Disk (LaCie) Released late last…
How Steve Jobs May Have Snookered the TV Industry
Mr. Jobs’s comment (Isaacson, p 830) is taking on the stature of Fermat’s Last Theorem. That is, everyone believes Mr. Jobs (and Fermat) had the solution, but no one could figure out what it was. The TV industry, without vision, research or a demonstrated understanding of first principles seems to be jumping to the conclusion…
Congress: Tracking Who Supports SOPA, PIPA
ProPublica lists which politicians support or oppose the bills, and can sort by state, age, years served, how much money politicians have accepted from media companies, and more.The Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA, is a House of Representatives bill that would make it surprisingly easy to get court orders to shut down any website…
House to Resume SOPA Debate in February
“To enact legislation that protects consumers, businesses and jobs from foreign thieves who steal America’s intellectual property, we will continue to bring together industry representatives and Members to find ways to combat online piracy,” he said.SOPA bill resumes in FebruaryThe Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA, is a bill that would make it surprisingly easy…
Yahoo Co-Founder Jerry Yang Quits
As initially reported by the Associated Press late Tuesday, Mr. Yang’s departure comes just two weeks after Yahoo hired Scott Thompson, the former PayPal President, as CEO. Mr. Yang, who stepped down from his role as CEO in 2008 following a botched takeover bid by Microsoft that ended up damaging Yahoo’s stock price, endorsed Mr.…
Wikipedia Shuts Down Wednesday in Protest of SOPA/PIPA
The outage, planned only for English-language versions of site, will last for 24 hours beginning at 05:00 UTC (that’s midnight for East Coast and 9:00 PM for the West Coast). The planned outage has Wikipedia joining many other online sites and organizations in their public opposition to the pending congressional bills, which are designed to…
In Icons Scraps Steve Jobs Doll
In a statement on the In Icons website, Mr. Cheung said:Unfortunately we have received immense pressure from the lawyers of Apple and Steve Jobs family. Regardless of the pressure, I am still Steve’s fan, I fully respect Steve, and his family, and it is definitely not my wish or intention that they be upset. Though we…
The Woz: Android Has Some Advantages Over iPhone
Steve Wozniak Many headlines on the Internet—including The Daily Beast’s own—have spun the interview as one in which Mr. Wozniak said Android is better, but the reality is that he praised both platforms and said that each has advantages over the other. According to him, the iPhone is elegant and beautiful, simple and easy to…
I Have Seen the Future of UI, and It Is Gaze
Be that as it may, CES was a great time and we saw some really cool stuff, and one of the coolest isn’t available for any of Apple’s products or platforms—at least not yet. Tobii, a Swedish company, was demonstrating Gaze, eye tracking technology the company is working on positioning as a new paradigm for…
White House Opposes SOPA, Congress Drops Bill
In response to online petitions against the SOPA legislation, the President said even though he sees online piracy from foreign websites as a problem, he won’t support any bill that erodes freedom of speech or expression, or that potentially threatens online security.“Any effort to combat online piracy must guard against the risk of online censorship…
John Sculley: Steve Jobs Was Never Fired From Apple
Editor’s note: The following interview took place during the last week of 2011. The complete, 80-minute audio interview is available in two audio files — Part 1 (43.1 MB) and Part 2 (37.3 MB) — but Mr. Greelish asked The Mac Observer if we would transcribe it for the record, with his full permission. What follows are…
Verizon Says 4G LTE Requirement a “Long Way Off”
First of all, the idea makes no sense because it would tie Verizon’s hands. But never mind that. TMO spoke to several Verizon wireless representatives at CES and asked them the question. The response was, first, they haven’t seen any corporate information to that effect. Or any imposed deadlines. Secondly, they said that while the…
Steve Jobs Comic Book Hits the Shelves
One such iconic momentStore customers interviewed for the story had mixed opinions, with one saying: “I would rather read an autobiography [about Steve Jobs] than a comic book.”While TMO originally reported last June that the Steve Jobs comic would be coming out in August, it wasn’t released until now. The reason for the delay was…
John Sculley: Jobs Bio ‘Cleared Up Some of the Myths [About Me]’
Mr. Sculley goes on to say: “When I left Apple it had $2bn (£1.3bn) of cash. It was the most profitable computer company in the world – not just personal computers – and Apple was the number one selling computer. So the myth that I fired Steve wasn’t true and the myth that I destroyed…
iTwin USB Device Securely Shares Files Over the Internet
iTwin Devices Being Paired iTwin derives its name from the fact that you need two iTwin devices for it to work. When paired with one another, the devices allow users to share files over the Internet using Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) 256 bit encryption. Plug in one to a Mac or PC, assign it files…
Steve Jobs’ TV Epiphany ‘Nothing New,’ Says Samsung Exec
Mr. Newton explained: “When Steve Jobs talked about he’s ‘cracked it’, he’s talking about connectivity – so we’ve had that in the market already for 12 months, it’s nothing new, it was new for them because they didn’t play in the space. It’s old news as far as the traditional players are concerned and we…
Over Half of Apple’s Cash Locked in Offshore Accounts
On top of that, Stephen Rosenman observed, “the off-shore component of cash is growing exponentially, courtesy of milder overseas tax treatment as well as burgeoning foreign markets. In contrast, Apple’s U.S. cash/investments are increasing much more slowly.”Cash added by Apple, foreign vs. U.S.That trend could hamstring Apple in the long run, making future acquisitions more…
Small Firm Beats Apple in Court, Files Extortion Charges
Nuevas’ inventory of Android-based NT-K tablets was seized after Apple obtained a temporary injunction last year. Apple’s loss in court last November lifted that ruling, but Nuevas became aggressive in court after arguing that the injunction was a severe detriment to sales.Nuevas’ NT-K tabletHowever, Mr. Mueller wrote in his blog post: “For now I don’t…
Case Manufacturer Drops iPad From 100,000 Feet
The iPad, which according to the company’s video survived the ordeal unscathed, was encased in the company’s Extreme Edge case, launched by a weather balloon to an altitude of 100,000 feet (19 miles) and then unceremoniously released. While impressive to witness, the iPad did not truly reach “outer space,” as its maximum altitude of 100,000…
TMO at CES: What to Watch for in 2012
Tablets Last year, it seemed practically every company at CES had their own version of they hoped would be the “iPad killer” tablet, and most of those never took off or were killed before going to market. This year, we’ll probably see more of the same: A wide range of screen sizes, cheap construction, and…
iOS Steals Major Smartphone Share from Android in U.S.
“Apple and Android distanced themselves from the competition in 2011, turning the OS battle into a 2-horse race,” NPD reported. The results were disclosed in an NPD report obtained by The Mac Observer. The gains were made thanks to Apple’s iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, and, incredibly, the iPhone 3GS finishing in the top three of…