Written by Jim Dalrymple
Funny post by Abdel Ibrahim and Jon Dick evaluating the Galaxy Note. Check out the second pick for the timezone joke.
Written by Peter Cohen
Terril Yue Jones for Reuters:
Working conditions at Chinese manufacturing plants where Apple Inc’s iPads and iPhones are made are far better than those at garment factories or other facilities elsewhere in the country, according to the head of a non-profit agency investigating the plants.
It’ll be weeks before the Fair Labor Association’s reports are done and ready for public consumption, but Auret van Heerden, president of the FLA, suggested that the Foxconn facilities where Apple products are made are “first-class,” at least compared to the garment factories that have been FLA’s stock and trade in the past.
Written by Peter Cohen
Joel Rosenblatt for Bloomberg Business:
Apple Inc. asked a bankruptcy judge for permission to sue Eastman Kodak Co. over allegations it’s infringing patents that Apple says cover technologies used in printers, digital cameras and digital picture frames.
Kodak is looking to sell that part of its business, according to a statement Kodak issued last week. It’s likely that Apple’s looking to square that issue away before Kodak (and its creditors) make any money from the sale of its consumer products.
Realmac Software of Wednesday announced the official release of Clear, a new list management app made for the iPhone and iPod touch. It costs 99 cents and is available for download now.
Clear incorporates a color-coded “heat map” that shows you the most pressing tasks up front. If you want to add more items to your to do list, pinch apart the rows and insert a new item. Clear supports Multi-Touch gestures and a sleek, simplified interface that’s already gotten rave reviews from sites that have had an advanced look at the app.
Written by Peter Cohen
Ben Sisario, for the New York Times:
Sony stayed quiet about the price change, even as criticism spread online. But on Tuesday the company said that the changes — which were in effect only on the British version of iTunes, and were reversed Sunday evening — were made by mistake.“Whitney Houston product was mistakenly mispriced on the U.K. iTunes store on Sunday,” the company said in a statement. “When discovered, the mistake was immediately corrected. We apologize for any offense caused.”
Some “mistake.” There has to be more to the story here than Sony is willing to admit. Unfortunately, many knee-jerk reactions to this “mistake” have blamed Apple for being greedy, rather than laying the blame at Sony’s feet where it belongs.
Written by Peter Cohen
Jesse Hamilton, for Bloomberg Businessweek:
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has told AT&T Inc. and other telecommunications companies they must include a resolution supporting wireless net-neutrality in annual shareholder votes.
The move has been pushed by Trillium Asset Management, an investment management firm, which represents in this case three AT&T investors, including Michael Diamond (Mike D of the Beastie Boys), and his wife, movie director Tamra Davis.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
MacTech Boot Camp is specifically designed for those techs and consultants supporting home users, small office/home office, and small-to-medium sized businesses. This one-day, hotel-based, seminar is designed specifically to help you be the most successful consultant you can be. Learn. Network. Expand your horizons.
The Loop is a media sponsor for the MacTech events, so they have put together a deal for our readers if you’re interested in attending.
February 14, 2012
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Mac Rumors has a text version of Cook’s speech today.
Written by Shawn King
Apple:
Apple CEO Tim Cook spoke at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference, where he was interviewed on stage by Bill Shope, Goldman Sachs’s IT hardware analyst.
This is the audio of that interview.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Tim Cook talking about the Apple TV:
So, with Apple TV however, despite the barriers in that market, for those of us who use it, we’ve always thought there was something there. If we kept following our intuition and kept pulling the string, we might find something that was larger. For those people that have it right now, the customer satisfaction is off the chart. We need something that could go more main-market for it to be a serious category.
Hmmm, what could that be?
Written by Peter Cohen
Bloomberg:
As of October, 3 million to 5 million people subscribed to Prime, a program begun in 2005 that provides two-day shipping for $79 a year, said the people, who asked not to be named because the figures are private. Amazon is working to reach 7 million to 10 million in the next 12 to 18 months, the people said. Analysts have pegged the current number at 10 million or more, with expectations for it to climb higher this year.
Prime is a good value for people who order a lot from Amazon because it nets you free shipping; you can easily make money on the cost over the year if you buy enough stuff. It has its limits, however (affiliates who sell through Amazon.com aren’t covered). But with the country still recovering from a devastating recession, are analysts actually that surprised at the low uptick?
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Pocket-lint:
“TVs are ultimately about picture quality. Ultimately. How smart they are…great, but let’s face it that’s a secondary consideration. The ultimate is about picture quality and there is no way that anyone, new or old, can come along this year or next year and beat us on picture quality.“So, from that perspective, it’s not a great concern but it remains to be seen what they’re going to come out with, if anything.”
Seems a lot like what RIM said about the iPhone in 2007.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Does this mean they are extinct?
I admit, I was a bit surprised when I received a press release on February 8 that a group of protesters were going to deliver a petition with 250,000 signatures to Apple demanding they respond to allegations of worker abuse in China.
I wondered if the group had done any homework at all. Do they not know that Apple is leading the industry in factory audits and its concerns for workers, not just in China, but all over the world?
The media swarmed the group when they delivered the petition. I didn’t understand that either. Surely the media knows what Apple is doing, but maybe that just got in the way of a sexy headline. You know that anything with “Apple” in the headline is going to draw attention, and it did.
The only problem with that is it doesn’t do much of anything. Apple is already conducting audits and being transparent about its findings and they have been doing this for a number of years. In fact, some of the information being used against Apple came from its own reports that it made public.
So if these protesters are really concerned about the workers in China, why not deliver that petition to the other companies that manufacture products at Foxconn. Where is the press release saying they were going to visit HP, Dell, Microsoft and others?
I emailed the PR guy Brett Abrams yesterday and asked him that. No response.
From the deafening silence, I have to assume that the group has no plans to deliver the petition to anyone else. Seems like nothing more than a publicity stunt to me.
To make matters even worse, the group on Monday took credit for news that Apple would have the Fair Labor Association (FLA) conduct special audits of Apple’s final assembly suppliers, including Foxconn factories in Shenzhen and Chengdu, China.
The problem is that Apple CEO Tim Cook said in an email to employees four weeks ago that the company would have the FLA conduct these audits.
AppleInsider also posted a scathing review of the protesters and their claims this morning.
So the protesters did nothing. They got some attention for a couple of days, but when it came right down to it, they went for the sexy headline instead of actually doing anything substantive.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
John Gruber talking about 8-inch iPad reported by WSJ:
This is not the iPad 3, which I believe will have a same-sized (9.7 inches) double resolution display. This is a different iPad, which, last I heard, Apple was only considering, not committed to bringing to market. I wouldn’t bet on it.
I agree with Gruber. We’ve known for a long time that Apple has been testing different screen sizes and there is no reason to believe that they have stopped. With advancements in display technology and other factors, it may make sense for a slightly smaller iPad at some point.
February 13, 2012
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Josh Ong:
The U.S. Department of Justice approved on Monday several patent purchases and acquisitions, including a collection of Nortel’s intellectual property to be acquired by Apple, Microsoft, Research in Motion and others and Novell patents that Apple has purchased.
Google also got the nod for its purchase of Motorola Mobility.
Written by Shawn King
Dark Roasted Blend:
Matchbooks were at their peak in the 1940’s and 50’s, when they were popular souvenir items, but they have made something of a comeback recently due to the public interest in retro advertising.The collecting of matchboxes, matchbooks, match labels and other match-related items is called phillumeny.
Art is where you find it and sometimes, you find it in odd places.
Written by Peter Cohen
Dan Lyons, on his own blog:
Yet now Arrington and Siegler have appointed themselves the watchdogs of tech journalism, eager to point out the irresponsible and inaccurate reporting that they see all around them. This might ring a little less hollow if they hadn’t been such egregious violators themselves, and if they weren’t writing this stuff to protect the people they’re in bed with financially.
Lyons goes into full frontal attack mode on MG Siegler and Michael Arrington following Siegler’s treatise (linked to this morning) about the state of tech journalism. Vituperative, nasty work, though I must admit to laughing a bit when Lyons dubbed Siegler “Matty the Angry Chihuahua,” “a nasty little ankle-biter who has developed some level of expertise in launching ad hominem attacks.”
Written by Shawn King
Apple:
Apple CEO Tim Cook will speak on February 14, 2012 at approximately 12:30 p.m. PT. Listen to the Audio Webcast here.
As far as I know, Apple has never webcast these kinds of speeches in the past.
Written by Shawn King
PBS:
Premiering February 20th and 21st, a biography of a president who rose from a broken childhood in Arkansas to become one of the most successful politicians in modern American history, and one of the most complex and conflicted characters to ever stride across the public stage.
PBS announced it was offering the first hour of the four hour documentary exclusively through its PBS iOS app – a full week before it airs on television.
Cracked:
