ifoAppleStore:

During the 90-minute JC Penney briefing, former Apple retail chief Ron Johnson explained his plans to remake JCP into “America’s favorite store” over the next three years, admittedly drawing from his 10-year stewardship of Apple’s stores. In fact, the very first item on Johnson’s agenda was to explain why he left Apple, and the very first presentation slide was an Apple logo.“It’s the best decision I’ve made yet,” he said of moving to JCP. The only hard part of the decision was driving to Steve Jobs’ house to announce he was leaving. Jobs looked up at him and asked, “Are you serious?”

It will be interesting to see how Johnson can bring the Apple Retail experience to JCP.

148Apps:

With over 1.5 million votes cast (over three times the number cast last year) and a record number of nominations, we now have the winners of the 2011 Best App Ever Awards. Thanks to all that voted, nominated, and made these fantastic apps!

Awards were handed out in over one hundred categories including Best Visual Design, Most Innovative, Best Time Killer and more.

Federico Viticci:

In 107 days since iCloud went live, and 235 since Apple’s announcement at WWDC ’11, it appears the majority of third-party developers are still considering whether or not iCloud is something worth investing their time — and customers’ money — or not.

An interesting read.

Molly Wood at CNET:

The company has been actively auditing its suppliers for labor, health, safety, and other concerns since 2007. Yet, as the Times points out, problems remain–the kinds of problems that kill people. It’s time for Apple to get serious, publicly and with vehemence, about addressing safety and rights violations, and firing suppliers who don’t comply.Is it fair to single out Apple?

It’s a valid question but one without an easy answer.

Chris Foresman:

Users who rely on the desktop version of OmniPlan but wish to manage complicated projects and workflows on-the-go will soon be able to pinch and swipe their way to Gantt chart nirvana. According to Omni Group CEO Ken Case, project management app OmniPlan will make its way to the iPad, perhaps as soon as the second quarter of this year.

Great news from Ars Technica. The Omni Group make some great apps.

Some of these things are really funny.

I like the first one.

Arik Hesseldahl:

Jon Rubinstein, the former Apple executive who took over handheld maker Palm and moved with it to Hewlett-Packard in a 2010 acquisition, has left HP effective today, AllThingsD has learned.Rubinstein is said to have no immediate plans, and had completed a 12-24 month commitment to stay with HP after the acquisition. “Jon has fulfilled his commitment and we wish him well,” HP spokeswoman Mylene Mangalindan said.

Unfortunate, but not unexpected considering what’s happened with Palm and webOS.

I’m working on a review of Studio Devil, but I’m impressed enough with the modeling that I wanted to let everyone know about it now. It’s very accurate and sounds great.

Alex Spektor, Associate Director at Strategy Analytics, said, “Global smartphone shipments grew 54 percent annually to reach a record 155.0 million units in Q4 2011. Apple overtook Samsung to become the world’s largest smartphone vendor by volume with 24 percent market share. Apple’s global smartphone shipments surged 128 percent annually to 37.0 million units, as distribution of the iPhone family expanded across numerous countries, dozens of operators and multiple price points.”

Mark Gurman for 9to5Mac, quoting from Tim Cook:

“As a company and as individuals, we are defined by our values. Unfortunately some people are questioning Apple’s values today, and I’d like to address this with you directly. We care about every worker in our worldwide supply chain.”

Apple PR hasn’t responded publicly to the New York Times’ recent allegations about Foxconn working conditions, and I don’t expect they will. I do believe that Cook and Apple PR knew full well this letter would find its way out the door, however.

Apple isn’t Foxconn’s only customer, just its highest profile one at the moment, thanks to the popularity of Apple’s products and its remarkable profits. Apple doesn’t have direct control either over the way Foxconn does business or Chinese fair labor standards. But we can hope that the company – along with many others – continues to use its influence as a major customer to positively affect working conditions there.

Also, it’s worth underscoring that Apple is much more transparent about the standards it employs for measuring supplier responsibility than many other consumer electronics makers.

MG Siegler gives us a rundown of Motorola’s quarterly earnings. Hint: It’s not good — Motorola couldn’t ship as much as Apple sold.

Most of us are big fans of our iPhones but have you ever compared it to other smartphones?

iPhone vs Lumia vs Galaxy

Clark Little's "Sand Monster"

Not Clark Little. He stands in two feet of water and lets fifteen foot waves pound him into the sand – all to get some amazing shots of the surf from a viewpoint few of us have ever seen.

Check out the gallery of pictures and videos on his web site.

The New York Times:

Apple and its high-technology peers — as well as dozens of other American industries — have achieved a pace of innovation nearly unmatched in modern history.However, the workers assembling iPhones, iPads and other devices often labor in harsh conditions, according to employees inside those plants, worker advocates and documents published by companies themselves. Problems are as varied as onerous work environments and serious — sometimes deadly — safety problems.

Reuters:

Nintendo Co Ltd posted a sharp drop in quarterly profit and forecast a bigger-than-expected full-year loss, its first at an operating level, as it battles a strong yen and its games devices lose ground to gadgets such as Apple’s iPhone.

Nintendo profit dropped for the October-December quarter, showing fewer people than expected bought Nintendo’s game systems. The company’s 3DS handheld system hasn’t sold nearly as well as it expected, and it’s going to replace its aging Wii system with a new product, the Wii U, later this year.

PrivacyScan works by searching for known applications which leave files on your computer that could lead to privacy concerns. PrivacyScan offers support for a wide range of items, including popular web browsers such as Camino, Chrome, Firefox, Flock, iCab, OmniWeb, Opera, Safari, SeaMonkey, and Shiira, privacy threats presented by Flash Cookies, as well as standard apps such as Finder, Preview, and QuickTime. Once a scan has run its course and privacy threats have been detected, PrivacyScan offers a variety of choices for cleaning — from a standard quick delete to one of the many secure delete shredding options.

Made by the same people that make MacScan.

AppleInsider:

The iPhone was dominant at AT&T, accounting for 80.8 percent of the 9.4 million smartphones sold through the carrier.In the previous quarter, the iPhone represented 56 percent of AT&T’s smartphone activations with 2.7 million units. The wireless carrier revealed that a majority of the 7.6 million iPhones it activated in the quarter were the iPhone 4S.

That’s impressive.

Horace Dediu:

The evidence I see is that Apple does not change pricing but rather stakes out a specific price point as resonating with consumers given their positioning. They then doggedly stick to it. Competitors tend to exploit open price points or try to position with specs on the same spots Apple occupies.

Apple doesn’t do anything based on what its competition does, including price. Apple’s products are priced fairly and at what consumers can afford, and are willing to pay. The proof is the 37 million iPhones, 15 million iPads, 15 million iPods, and 5 million Macs the company sold last quarter.

Priceless cartoon.

[Via DF]

Mustang Floor features include nine footswitches and a solid aluminum treadle-style control pedal, intuitive Mustang III control panel and LCD window, 12 amp models, 37 effects, 100 onboard factory and user presets, “individual stompbox” mode in which amp models can be bypassed, headphone output and auxiliary input, dual XLR and dual 1/4-inch line outputs with level control (outputs can be programmed for optimal response with PA system, power amp or guitar amp), chromatic tuner, and easy USB connectivity for high-quality low-latency audio output and interface with free Fender FUSE application.

Notating music doesn’t get simpler, faster or more musical than with ScoreCleaner. After opening the software, simply connect your MIDi instrument and start playing. The piece you’ve played is notated in the “listening window”. Double click on it and ScoreCleaner converts it into notation, automatically detecting time signature, key, tempo, polyphony, smallest note value, and much more.

Doesn’t get any easier than that.

ReadWriteWeb’s Dan Frommer:

There are plenty of impressive stats in Apple’s December quarter earnings report, such as 37 million iPhones shipped, $46 billion of overall sales, and $13 billion of profit.But Apple’s most impressive stat continues to be its growth rate: Apple is not only huge, but it is growing at a rate far greater than its peers. And, even more incredible, its growth rate is accelerating.

Keep that in mind. Apple has a huge amount of room to grow, whether it be in the PC, phone or tablet market.

At show close, NAMM reported 95,709 registered attendees, a six percent increase from last year and representing a new record for the 110-year-old show. International registration also experienced a 15 percent increase from last year to 11,981. The association previously reported strong exhibitor numbers, with 1,441 exhibitors at this year’s show, including 236 new exhibitors.

NAMM is a great show and I had a blast there last week. So many great new products for musicians and audio engineers from every major company in the music business.

Matt Richman:

On Apple’s earnings call, Tim Cook told analysts that Apple sold over 62 million iOS devices during the fourth quarter, which is about 4 percent more than all of the Android devices sold during the same time period.

Clearly Apple is screwed and Android is winning.