9 to 5 Mac - Apple Inc News

Apple Director Jerome York passes away

Seth Weintraub — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 17:04:43 +0000

In a statement today, Apple announced that director Jerome B. York has passed away following suffering a brain aneurism in his Detroit home last night.

CUPERTINO, California—March 18, 2010—Apple® is sad to announce the death of Apple Board member Jerome B. (Jerry) York. York, the chairman, president and CEO of Harwinton Capital, joined Apple’s Board of Directors in 1997. He was the former CFO of IBM and Chrysler, and former vice chairman of Tracinda. He is widely acknowledged for his contributions at Chrysler and IBM during their turnarounds.

“Jerry joined Apple’s Board in 1997 when most doubted the company’s future. He has been a pillar of financial and business expertise and insight on our Board for over a dozen years,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “It’s been a privilege to know and work with Jerry, and I’m going to miss him a lot.”

Jerry York was born in Memphis, Tennessee in 1938. He graduated from the United States Military Academy, and received an MS from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an MBA from the University of Michigan. Trained as an engineer, York worked his way up through Chrysler to become CFO.

Update: Apple has posted a nice message on apple.com

Apple sets up youth programs for Apple Stores

Seth Weintraub — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 15:19:47 +0000

The Apple Youth movement is in full effect according to a new post by the Loop. Apple has set up three new programs for kids: For Families (workshops show kids how to improve their skills using all of the iLife and iWork applications); For Teachers and Schools (Field Trips from school to work on projects) and For Kids (“Apple Camp.” Bring your kid to an Apple Store and they'll learn how to use iLife and iWork and bring home a DVD with their creations.)

Registration begins in May.

For Families

Youth Workshops

From composing a song in GarageBand to building a photo album to creating a compelling Keynote presentation, our Youth Workshops offer families with kids (ages 6 to 13) a chance to work together to hone their Mac skills and use iLife and iWork applications to complete exciting projects. We offer the free workshops at Apple Retail Stores worldwide.

Learn more

For Teachers

Field Trip to the Apple Store

Take your students on a Field Trip to an Apple Store for an unforgettable learning experience. On their Field Trip, students can create something amazing right on the spot. Or they can bring in a project they’ve already created and turn our store into a theater, sharing their achievements with parents, teachers, and friends. No matter which option you choose, everyone will have a great time.

Learn more

For Kids

Apple Camp

Camp is back this summer. Registration begins in May.

Nothing beats Apple Camp when it comes to a fun summer activity for your kids. In free workshops at the Apple Store, kids learn how to do cool stuff on a Mac using iLife and iWork applications. They’ll make a movie, compose a song, create a photobook, and learn how to present everything to an audience. When Camp is over, they’ll bring the projects they made home on a DVD, along with skills and ideas to create even more. All workshops are recommended for ages 8 to 12.

This comes from the Top: 27-inch iMacs are now officially fixed

Mark Gurman — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 19:23:33 +0000

Earlier this morning Frode Ersfjord sent Steve Jobs this message:

"When is Apple going to start consistently producing iMac displays without; yellow tinge, grey bars and horrible backlight bleeds?

I'm sick of calling Apple Care. I don't need perfect, just halfway decent."

Today, he got this response from Apple CEO Steve Jobs:

This problem is behind us.

-Sent from my iPhone

This seems to indicate that the 27-inch iMac issue is officially over, and Apple has confidently ruled out further iMac issues.

Not that Apple didn't already cryptically acknowledge that there were some issues and they'd been fixed.

In case you are wondering, El Jobso still rocks a 3.1.2 iPhone.

Headers below..

Return-path: <sjobs@apple.com>
Received: from bulkin001-bge351000 ([unknown] [10.150.69.128])
by ms01183.mac.com
(Sun Java(tm) System Messaging Server 7u3-12.01 64bit (built Oct 15 2009))
with ESMTP id <0KZD001WJS25ZMM0@ms01183.mac.com> for ;
Tue, 16 Mar 2010 08:22:53 -0700 (PDT)
Original-recipient: rfc822;xxxx
Received: from relay15.apple.com ([17.128.113.54])
by bulkin001.mac.com (Sun Java(tm) System Messaging Server 6.3-7.02 (built Jun
27 2008; 32bit)) with ESMTP id <0KZD00MIHS254LA0@bulkin001.mac.com> for
(ORCPT); Tue,
16 Mar 2010 08:22:53 -0700 (PDT)
X-AuditID: 11807136-b7bafae000000e8d-79-4b9fa24de2d2
Received: from et.apple.com (et.apple.com [17.151.62.12])
by relay15.apple.com (Apple SCV relay) with SMTP id CE.D9.03725.D42AF9B4; Tue,
16 Mar 2010 08:22:53 -0700 (PDT)
MIME-version: 1.0
Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT
Content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed; delsp=yes
Received: from [17.248.4.122] (wave-dhcp122.apple.com [17.248.4.122])
by et.apple.com
(Sun Java(tm) System Messaging Server 6.3-7.04 (built Sep 26 2008; 32bit))
with ESMTPSA id <0KZD00M79S255W60@et.apple.com> for ;
Tue, 16 Mar 2010 08:22:53 -0700 (PDT)
Message-id: <4146E260-43C9-418A-8F83-B40C93972C8B@apple.com>
From: Steve Jobs <sjobs@apple.com>
To: Frode Ersfjord <>
In-reply-to: <874EBAFE-BC5D-484A-B446-C52EF9339764@me.com>
X-Mailer: iPhone Mail (7D11)
Subject: Re: Yellow tinge on iMac
Date: Tue, 16 Mar 2010 08:22:52 -0700
References: <874EBAFE-BC5D-484A-B446-C52EF9339764@me.com>
X-Brightmail-Tracker: AAAAAQAAAZE=

This problem is behind us.

Sent from my iPhone

On Mar 16, 2010, at 7:23 AM, Frode Ersfjord <>
wrote:

When is Apple going to start consistently producing iMac displays

without; yellow tinge, grey bars and horrible backlight bleeds?

I'm sick of calling Apple Care. I don't need perfect, just halfway

decent.

Frode

via Mac Forums

Apple to begin building advertising presence in New York City?

Luke Bornheimer — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 14:23:00 +0000

If you want to be big in advertising, it helps to be close to New York City's Madison Avenue where a lot of big deals get done (You've seen Mad Men right?). Main competitor, Google, houses most of its Ad people in its New York offices, for instance.

Apple recently bought Quattro, a mobile advertising company/platform to enter into the advertising business and, as a recent job posting shows, is building up its New York presence.

We are looking for a Client Service Manager (CSM) to support its direct response advertising sales team. The CSM will be responsible for creating proposals, maintaining and growing client relationships. The CSM will work closely with the DR sales team during the pre-sales process and then will have regular contact with clients during advertising campaigns. We are looking for a detailed, process oriented individual who is eager to help continue Quattro’s rapid growth and leadership position in the mobile advertising space. This position will be based in New York.

From the Apple Job posting, it also looks like Apple might keep the Quattro brand alive as its advertising platform even as it advertises the job on the Apple.com website.

iPad now on the Apple.com Nav Bar

Mark Gurman — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 12:22:06 +0000

After a few minutes of this,

we got this:

Just in case you were wondering...

It seems that Apple has separated the iPod and iTunes websites on the navigation bar which is weird. When you go to those individual sites, they are almost identical except for a couple images. Why did Apple separated them? Wouldn't two separate tabs take more room on the navigation bar then one tab like before? Also "Downloads" is now gone. The whole site is still a bit wonky. Refresh your cache people.

Safari 4.05 released

Seth Weintraub — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 22:26:43 +0000

Safari 4.05 is out. Hit Software Update or go here to update yourself. Best comment so far: "Still has flash...."

You'll need to do a restart(!).

Valve's official announcement on Mac gaming released

Seth Weintraub — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 18:43:46 +0000

After the initial screengrabs of Mac user interface elements and the subsequent blatant teasers, we've known this was coming for quite awhile. Now a Mac version of Valve's Steam gaming platform is official with today's press release, below:

Left 4 Dead 2, Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike, Portal, and the Half-Life series will be available in April

March 8, 2010 – Valve announced today it will bring Steam, Valve’s gaming service, and Source, Valve’s gaming engine, to the Mac.

Steam and Valve’s library of games including Left 4 Dead 2, Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike, Portal, and the Half-Life series will be available in April.

“As we transition from entertainment as a product to entertainment as a service, customers and developers need open, high-quality Internet clients,” said Gabe Newell, President of Valve. “The Mac is a great platform for entertainment services.”

“Our Steam partners, who are delivering over a thousand games to 25 million Steam clients, are very excited about adding support for the Mac,” said Jason Holtman, Director of Business Development at Valve. “Steamworks for the Mac supports all of the Steamworks APIs, and we have added a new feature, called Steam Play, which allows customers who purchase the product for the Mac or Windows to play on the other platform free of charge. For example, Steam Play, in combination with the Steam Cloud, allows a gamer playing on their work PC to go home and pick up playing the same game at the same point on their home Mac. We expect most developers and publishers to take advantage of Steam Play.”

“We looked at a variety of methods to get our games onto the Mac and in the end decided to go with native versions rather than emulation,” said John Cook, Director of Steam Development. “The inclusion of WebKit into Steam, and of OpenGL into Source gives us a lot of flexibility in how we move these technologies forward. We are treating the Mac as a tier-1 platform so all of our future games will release simultaneously on Windows, Mac, and the Xbox 360. Updates for the Mac will be available simultaneously with the Windows updates. Furthermore, Mac and Windows players will be part of the same multiplayer universe, sharing servers, lobbies, and so forth. We fully support a heterogeneous mix of servers and clients. The first Mac Steam client will be the new generation currently in beta testing on Windows.”

Portal 2 will be Valve’s first simultaneous release for Mac and Windows. “Checking in code produces a PC build and Mac build at the same time, automatically, so the two platforms are perfectly in lock-step,” said Josh Weier, Portal 2 Project Lead. “We’re always playing a native version on the Mac right alongside the PC. This makes it very easy for us and for anyone using Source to do game development for the Mac.”

AP gets close-up pictures of Steve Jobs in tux on the Red Carpet

Seth Weintraub — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 03:53:39 +0000

From the AP, some better pictures of Steve Jobs at the Oscars (more below).

via

Flickr user Karmagrrl got this one

Steve Jobs, of course, is no stranger to the bowtie:

Steve Jobs and iPad make their Oscars debut

Seth Weintraub — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 02:10:34 +0000

The iPad commercial aired at 8:53pm EST during the Oscars. Also, Steve Jobs is in attendance and was spotted on the Red Carpet(below).

via

More MacBook Core i5, i7 sightings. This time in New Zealand

Seth Weintraub — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 21:07:20 +0000

This is getting a little silly isn't it? Apple reseller, Tosh Computers updated their MacBook Pro line yesterday with some pretty mouthwatering new computers.

Released in April(?!) 2010, these are somewhat believable specs for new Core i5 and i7 MacBook Pros which top out at 640GB HDDs or 256GB SSDs. We especially like getting the Express Card slot back in the 15-inch model. On the fake side, Nvidia can't sell 9400M chipsets with Core i5 and i7 processors. Expect discrete Nvidia Optimus or ATI video cards on Intel chipsets similar to 27-inch iMacs. (Thanks commenter)

But alas, this is probably just a publicity stunt. Anyway head over to New Zealand (updated w/Google cache, their site taken offline—weird!) for the latest in MacBook Pros from the future.

BTW - This site was actually updated from Core 2 Duos here.

Best Buy slaps a Core i7 logo on a MacBook Pro

Seth Weintraub — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 17:28:45 +0000

This is probably just another case of mistaken identity, but Best Buy currently has the current model MacBook Pro published adorning a Core i7 logo. The rest of the specs are still in line with the current MacBook Pros including Core 2 Duo processors. Also, other MacBook Pros, even more expensive ones, still have the old Core 2 Duo logo on them.

Getting a little head of ourselves are we?

(How far ahead is the question.)

via TUAW and our tipster. (Sorry we didn't notice the logo 2 days ago when you sent this — Our bad!)

Apple patents enforcing commercials during video play

Seth Weintraub — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 15:18:03 +0000

In the real (not torrenting) world, you have to pay to get video content. Whether that is by watching ads on Hulu or paying iTunes $1.99 per episode for TV, the content makers need to get paid. Any other system isn't going to work in the long run.

Apple, we know, is a friend to record labels, movies studios and TV networks in that they set up systems that make payment easy, and for the most part, transparent and fair. We now know they are working on commercials too.

Patently Apple today shows that Apple is working on a system that replicates TV commercials for online video. We're not exactly sure how this is different from Hulu's current system (it actually looks quite similar). In Apple's system, each bit of a video can only be opened up by watching a ad. So if you only want to watch the last sequence, you have to watch the ad before it. Like Hulu.

Apple is also looking for some mobile developer talent to build advertising systems that use CSS and HTML5.

Initially, we thought that this may also tie in with the Quattro Wireless deal (and it still might) but Quattro is much more focused on smaller, mobile ads.

BTW, is that Charlie from Lost up top?

Apple announces US iPad availability on April 3rd, Pre-Orders on March 12th. Late April for 3G and international

Seth Weintraub — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 14:01:47 +0000

Apple today announced that the iPad would be available from April 3rd (not the March 26th that'd been speculated) and late April for the 3G models in the US. Global availability (Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UK) won't be until Late April as well.

Pre-orders wil be available from March 12 either at the online store or at an Apple retail store in the US. Apple also announced the iBookstore would be ready for action on the April 3rd launch and available in additional countries later this year.

Apple's stock surpassed all time highs on the news.

Apple's press release below:

CUPERTINO, California—March 5, 2010—Apple® today announced that its magical and revolutionary iPad will be available in the US on Saturday, April 3, for Wi-Fi models and in late April for Wi-Fi + 3G models. In addition, all models of iPad will be available in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UK in late April.

Beginning a week from today, on March 12, US customers can pre-order both Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi + 3G models from Apple’s online store (www.apple.com) or reserve a Wi-Fi model to pick up on Saturday, April 3, at an Apple retail store.

“iPad is something completely new,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We’re excited for customers to get their hands on this magical and revolutionary product and connect with their apps and content in a more intimate, intuitive and fun way than ever before.”

Starting at just $499, iPad lets users browse the web, read and send email, enjoy and share photos, watch videos, listen to music, play games, read ebooks and much more. iPad is just 0.5 inches thick and weighs just 1.5 pounds—thinner and lighter than any laptop or netbook—and delivers battery life of up to 10 hours.*

iPad’s revolutionary Multi-Touch™ interface makes surfing the web an entirely new experience, dramatically more interactive and intimate than on a computer. You can read and send email on iPad’s large screen and almost full-size “soft” keyboard or import photos from a Mac®, PC or digital camera, see them organized as albums, and enjoy and share them using iPad’s elegant slideshows. iPad makes it easy to watch movies, TV shows and YouTube, all in HD, or flip through the pages of an ebook you downloaded from Apple’s new iBookstore while listening to your music collection.

The App Store on iPad lets you wirelessly browse, buy and download new apps from the world's largest app store. iPad includes 12 new innovative apps designed especially for iPad and will run almost all of the more than 150,000 apps on the App Store, including apps already purchased for your iPhone® or iPod touch®. Developers are already creating exciting new apps designed for iPad that take advantage of its Multi-Touch interface, large screen and high-quality graphics.

The new iBooks app for iPad includes Apple’s new iBookstore, the best way to browse, buy and read books on a mobile product. The iBookstore will feature books from the New York Times Best Seller list from both major and independent publishers, including Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins Publishers, Macmillan Publishers, Penguin Group and Simon & Schuster.

The iTunes® Store gives iPad users access to the world’s most popular online music, TV and movie store with a catalog of over 12 million songs, over 55,000 TV episodes and over 8,500 films including over 2,500 in stunning high definition. All the apps and content you download on iPad from the App Store, iTunes Store and iBookstore will be automatically synced to your iTunes library the next time you connect with your computer.

Pricing & Availability
iPad will be available in Wi-Fi models on April 3 in the US for a suggested retail price of $499 for 16GB, $599 for 32GB, $699 for 64GB. The Wi-Fi + 3G models will be available in late April for a suggested retail price of $629 for 16GB, $729 for 32GB and $829 for 64GB. iPad will be sold in the US through the Apple Store® (www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores and select Apple Authorized Resellers.

iPad will be available in both Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi + 3G models in late April in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UK. International pricing will be announced in April. iPad will ship in additional countries later this year.

The iBooks app for iPad including Apple’s iBookstore will be available as a free download from the App Store in the US on April 3, with additional countries added later this year.

*Battery life depends on device settings, usage and other factors. Actual results vary.

AT&T talks exotic "variable pricing model"

Seth Weintraub — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 04:17:03 +0000

AT&T CEO Randall L. Stephenson talked at a investor conference today according to the Wall St. Journal.

He said that AT&T is carrying half of the nation's wireless data traffic. He said that carriers will eventually move to a "variable pricing model," and that it was inevitable that heavy users should pay more than low users.

By "eventually", he means starting in a few weeks. The iPad will be on a prepaid $15/month for 250MB and $30/month for Unlimited. Get used to it.

He also revealed that AT&T wasn't in a big hurry to roll out 4G LTE, expecting it to gain momentum in 2012. Way to push the envelope.

HDMI coming to Mac Minis?

Seth Weintraub — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 16:52:27 +0000

Perhaps this is a bit obvious, but today Appleinsider goes forth and says that future Macs, specifically the Mac Mini (which they declared as dead two years ago) will this year have HDMI ports.

They further mention that these unreleased Minis have Nvidia's next generation MCP89 chipsets (vs. current MCP79-GeForce 9400M) which aren't licensed to use Intel's Core i3, i5, i7 lineup of processors. That would mean that the Minis are going to stay in the Core 2 Duo range of processors or that this design is going to get scrapped for an Intel chipset design.

Current DisplayPort Macs can get HDMI-out with various inexpensive adapters both with sound and without.

The move would also give the Macs-with-BluRay idea some more hope.

Guy with Apple Store step gets threatened by contractor, triples his money

Seth Weintraub — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 13:03:54 +0000

Updated 10am ET to reflect that Contractor is going after the seller

Gizmodo today runs a post by the guy who tried to sell one of Apple's 5th Avenue Store Stairs on eBay. The eBay posting was taken down one day into bidding without a word about the circumstances. Until now.

A year and a half ago, I was an Apple employee at the Fifth Ave flagship store. In that time, there was a silly, unfortunate accident. A woman came down the magnificent spiral staircase, and dropped a Snapple bottle...After bouncing once or twice, the bottle severely cracked one of the steps. Since these steps are so well engineered, the structural integrity of the step wasn't compromised, but it was certainly a cosmetic problem. Later that month, four or five very big men came to replace the step with a new one. After they were finished, and the steps that were replaced were out on the curb, I left the store. Off the clock and in civilian clothes, I asked the contractors who were there on behalf of Seele, the manufacturer, if I could have a step. "It could be a collectible some day," I said. They, of course, saw no problem with it, and even collectively helped me lift it into a vehicle. That is the story of how I came to be in possession of a step from the spiral staircase at Apple Fifth Ave.

First of all, a $10,000 stair that can be destroyed (as in needs to be replaced) by a Snapple bottle dropped from waist height may need some re-thinking. That might be why Apple and the contractor would like this stair to be swept from existence.

Apple, who is obviously putting pressure on the contractor to get the stair (which is patented) back, could have just bought the thing at the "Buy-it-now" price of $2500. The contractor also could have made the purchase and cut their losses.

Now, they've gathered more publicity and therefore bidders to the new auction, which by the way is at $6300 as we speak, much more than double the "Buy-it-now" price of the original auction.

If Apple wants it back now, they are going to have to pony up…ah who cares, it is all a drop in the ocean of cash for Apple.

Apple files for 'Magic Trackpad' trademark

Seth Weintraub — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 15:22:20 +0000

Apple filed for the 'magic trackpad' trademark on February 26, 2010 with the US Patent & Trademark Office according to Patently Apple. 'Magic Trackpad' likely refers to an external peripheral device for desktop computers or laptops plugged into external displays.

With more and more of OSX relying on Multi-touch gestures, Apple will likely provide desktop users a way to take advantage of such a system. Will it be just a trackpad lifted from a MacBook and connected via USB or Bluetooth or will there be more to it than that? Perhaps Apple is referring to a keyboard/trackpad combo?

Apple is holding onto cash to take “big, bold” risks –Steve Jobs

Seth Weintraub — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 22:19:31 +0000

According to Businessweek, Steve Jobs had an interesting reply to the question of what Apple planned to do with all of its $25 billion in cash (or $40B - depending who you ask).

Apple is holding onto cash to take “big, bold” risks, Jobs, 55, said at the company’s shareholder meeting in Cupertino, California today.

That is a really interesting thing to say. What do you think he means by that?

UPDATE: Businessweek changed their story (boo!) to this:

“We know if we need to acquire something -- a piece of the puzzle to make something big and bold -- we can write a check for it and not borrow a lot of money and put our whole company at risk,” Jobs said today at Apple’s shareholder meeting. “The cash in the bank gives us tremendous security and flexibility.”

News from Apple shareholder meeting: Apple opening 25 Stores in China

Seth Weintraub — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 21:08:50 +0000

(Beijing Apple Store)

Apple plans to add 25 stores in China over the next two years according to Fortune, who've been following the Apple shareholder meeting today. Tim Cook said this week that Apple had plans to open 50 stores this year and it appears that half of those will be in China.

Apple seems to be taking China very seriously lately, especially with handset rival Google in limbo there after the hacking fiasco. Although Apple had a slow start with the iPhone in China, they've been ramping up efforts there considerably.

Valve's Steam gaming platform coming to Mac?

Seth Weintraub — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 14:08:25 +0000

Steam is a content delivery system used by a company called Valve to deliver thousands of games to PC users.

Steam is a digital distribution, digital rights management, multiplayer and communications platform developed by Valve Corporation. It is used to distribute a large number of games and related media entirely over the internet, from small independent efforts to larger, more popular games. Steam is set apart from similar services primarily by its community features, completely automated game update process, and its use of in-game functionality. There are over 1,000 games available on Steam, and in January 2010 Valve announced that it had surpassed 25 million active user accounts. It regularly services in excess of two million concurrent users.Although Valve never releases sales figures, Steam is considered by its competitors and clients to be the market leader, controlling an estimated 70% of the digital distribution market. Many major publishers have catalogues on Steam, including Electronic Arts, Activision, 2K Games, Ubisoft, THQ, Sega, Codemasters, LucasArts, id Software, and BioWare.

Why should you care? Because MacOSX icons recently turned up in the PC version of the platform:

This could mean a lot of things (including a MacOSX theme/skin), but there's a chance that Steam might be bringing their platform to Mac, which would be incredibly good news for Mac gamers.

If you are really interested in Gaming (on any platform), you should check out OnLive, which streams games over the Internet --you guessed it-- live.

Macworld posts John Gruber's "10 things Apple needs to fix"

Seth Weintraub — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 01:17:14 +0000

I don't agree with all of them (MobileMe is for when you have to do serious work on someone else's computer, Palm is a serious Apple competitor? for instance) but an overall enlightening hour of talking on Apple, its competitors and its future by John Gruber of Daring Fireball. (via Macworld)

A better quality version of the video here.

Also, "Mr. Apple Computer"...WTF?

Notes from Tim Cook's Goldman Sachs talk (Updated with transcript)

Seth Weintraub — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 21:26:14 +0000

Apple COO Tim Cook spent an hour this afternoon answering analyst questions about Apple.

You can hear the audio here.

Update: We've pasted the full text of Cook's Q&A below:

From SAI

4:08 Clapton's "Change the World" is playing leading up the presentation. Now "Sunny Came Home."

4:09 Getting underway. Tim Cook reads disclosure.

4:10 Q&A begins. Steve Jobs was very clear about leadership in mobile devices. Is that how we should think about Apple at this point? Tim Cook: Yes. Let me elaborate. If you look at Dec. quarter results, which included revenues of almost $15.7 billion, as we compared ourselves to every other company in the world, including Sony and Nokia and Samsung, which now have huge mobile device businesses, we found out we were the largest in the world, measured by revenues.

4:11 How are you channeling resources differently? Transition to mobile devices began in 1991 with first introduction of portable product for Apple with introduction of the TFT screen. During that time, the Mac business has become a predominantly mobile device business. Huge difference between us and the balance of the industry in portable share.

4:12 Ah, a history lesson. Going through all the mobile devices Apple has ever launched. Vast majority of Apple's revenue now comes from mobile devices and content purchased for those devices. Believe we're well positioned to do extremely well because we can seamlessly offer software and hardware.

4:13 Who are biggest competitors and who are biggest partners? Tim Cook: I wish the world were that simple. Many people you can't cleanly put in one or another. Take Microsoft. In Microsoft, we love the Mac Office division. They do a great product and we partner with them and work with them very tightly. Most of the balance of Microsoft we compete vigorously against, in OS, in mobile OS, etc. If you look at Google, I would say Google is similar in that respect. We partner with them in maps, in search for most of our products, but we also compete with them in the mobile OS space and now in the hardware phone space. So, it's difficult to put people in one camp or the other always. There are some companies like the media companies where we partnered with so well that Apple is now selling billions of dollars of digital content.

4:15 Also companies like carriers where we partnered with to bring iPhone to in 86 countries. Ones that draw the most attention are the ones that are more complex, where we're both competitors and partners.

4:16 Apple TV is still a hobby. We've been very clear about that. The reason that we call it a hobby... if you look at the other businesses we're in, these businesses are all in huge markets. The unit volumes in these things is huge. Apple TV is in a market that's very small. Today. Apple TV did grow in the quarter we just finished by 35% in a unit basis year-over-year.

4:17 No interest in going into the TV market. But still think there's something there. So we continue to invest in this as a hobby.

4:18 iMac is very key, will continue to be very key. I think people will continue to want a very gorgeous large screen, all-in-one, simple to use, very elegant machine, we're going to continue to deliver it.

4:19 Where growth coming from going forward? Here's the exciting thing. If you take a look at the Mac, the Mac has outgrown the market 20 of the last 21 quarters. 5 years in a row. Has outgrown the market. And in many of those quarters, outgrew it by multiple. The PC industry is over 300 million units per year. Last fiscal year, Mac did over 10 million units. Ceiling is far above. Continue to invest in enormous amount of energy and talent in the Mac. Doesn't take Market growth. 50% of customers in Apple store are from Windows.

4:20 iPod touch has been a runaway hit, and it helps the platform that you're talking about. If you look at the iPod touch, it grew 100% last fiscal year. 55% y/y last quarter. Each fuels more app sales, more developers. iPad? Haven't sold one yet. A lot of interest in it. I've been using one for 6 months or so, I'll tell you the experience is just absolutely incredible. Can't wait to start shipping it.

4:21 iPhone, I feel we've just gotten started.

4:22 Over 3 billion downloads on app store, over 140,000 apps for sale, these are incredible numbers. Who would have dreamed of these? I see opportunity all over the place.

4:23 The word "complete" is not in our dictionary. We're all about innovation. Many times that means we're all about obsoleting ourselves. Going to continue to make things better and going to continue to innovate. I'd say the ecosystem is really good, the platform is really good. Certainly all the foundation is in place. Will it get better? Clearly yes. But great now.

4:24 iPad new use case or replacement for netbooks? We haven't sold one. I'm a paranoid guy by nature, but I'm not losing any sleep over cannibalization, to be honest with you. Who would buy it? I've been very clear about my view of netbooks. I think they are an experience that most people will not want to continue to have. People were interested in the price and they got it home and used it and went 'Why did I buy this?' so I think when somebody looks at iPad and compares it to a netbook, I find it hard to believe that people are going to buy netbooks. Not everyone will make the comparison so I'm not suggesting that. But I think what I'd rather do with this question is report back to you.

4:26 iPad will launch in direct channel first, and indirect channels where we have assisted sales, such as store-in-store at Best Buy, and Internationally, Apple Premium Resellers. Initially, it will be around places with really great assisted sales. Over time, it will expand. Where it goes and how fast it goes, we'll see.

4:27 Why so cheap? We didn't want to leave pricing umbrella for competition. For those who haven't focused on this, it has best browsing experience you could ever imagine. Very anxious to start getting it out.

4:28 Extended key partnership with AT&T. Can you talk about advantages and disadvantages of having exclusive agreement? The primary advantages on a single carrier model, and I'll talk about the iPhone, is simplicity and in some cases, we're able to innovate along with the carrier and provide a feature it would be difficult to work with multiple carriers and provide. We brought visual voicemail to market, which took innovation from Apple and carrier partner. On a multi-carrier model, the question is, can you sell more units? And so what that gets at is, in some countries, carriers have very sticky relationships with their countries, so having more carriers and more distribution allows you to sell more units. If you look where are from the end of our Q1 in December, if you looked at top 10 iPhone countries, 5 were single carrier countries. 3 of those we had a contractual exclusivity, 2 we can add carriers when we desire. Across 2009, we added carriers in France, UK, Singapore, several Scandinavian countries. A great deal of our work on distribution side was expanding carriers in existing countries. Pleasantly surprised that in every single country, our units increased significantly, and our share with it. Feel like we made really good decisions. Not saying we would do it in every country. But that was our experience with the ones we did it in 2009. We do it on country by country basis.

4:32 Would another carrier need to match pricing on iPad to become carrier for it? I think AT&T's pricing is revolutionary. (Unlimited data for $30/month, 250 MB for $15/month.)

4:33 Talked a little before about virtuous cycle we have with devs. How do you protect user experience as developers go out and develop products? This is the privilege and curse of technology. Same as you'd see in PC world; at some point, if you include every hardware you've ever shipped, you stifle innovation. Because we've done this for so long, I feel like we've come to a really intelligent conclusion on these each time. I think that's part of our knowledge and heritage as a platform provider.

4:35 Which way is OS market moving? I don't see it as this or that -- iPhone vs. Mac -- or this over that. I think there is a place for both. What you're seeing for Apple is that the Mac OS is very scalable. Huge competitive advantage for Apple. Use the Mac OS in a lot of products. Don't think there's another company that can use the foundation of their OS that way. Move at a fast speed with many fewer people than it would take if we were geographically north. (Slap at Microsoft.)

4:36 Our surveys indicate Mac and iPhone are attracting significant interest in enterprise. What are you doing?

4:36 For the iPhone, 70% of Fortune 100 companies in US are either deploying iPhone or currently testing for deployment. 50% of the FT 100 are doing the same thing. Huge uplift in interest as we went to iPhone 2.0 software and then 3.0 because we put a number of enterprise features in the software. We clearly see this continuing. On Mac side, amazing how many CIOs are now visiting Apple and are interested in the Mac. We haven't put on a huge channel, and don't have a huge sales force, but many CIOs that once thought standardization was the most important thing in life, they now look at salaries of people and the importance of having peoples' creativity at peak, and are increasingly allowing employees to decide. This helps Apple immensely.

4:39 I think people in general and they think enterprise is bigger than consumer. But it's not. In PCs, it's 10%, which is sizable, but consumers are over 50%. Our heart and soul and DNA is in consumer. It just so happens there are consumers working in enterprises who want to use these products.

4:41 People are looking at this differently. At least the people with a lot of vision are.

4:41 Just short of 300 stores. Ron Johnson has built a retail team Bar None. We went into retail not as a test, not as pilot, but to sell to consumers, because many wanted it. We knew we'd never have enough stores to cover the world. So after we got going, we set a range of 25-50, reasonable range we could execute really well. Made a strategic call in 2008, we thought we'd see many more opportunities -- some top properties would come on the market with better economics. And guess what? Now, there's a lot of great properties on the market. So we're going to do about 50 this year. We've always had the team to do 50. It's not easy to do, it's very hard to do. But we're going to do it. We didn't lower the bar at all. These stores are among the best we've ever done. If you haven't been to NYC Upper West Side store, it will make your jaw drop. Next time you're in Paris, go to the Louvre; it's just amazing. Another store in China in Shanghai in the summer that is mind blowing. Another one in London that will also drop your jaw.

4:45 New chip. Apple has been in silicon design business for years. Not new to us to be in silicon design business. As we looked at some of the products that we are doing like the iPad, and some we will do in the future, we felt that we had the best knowledge of what we wanted the silicon to do. And were in the best ability to deliver that ourselves versus going out to somebody else and buying something that wasn't exactly what they wanted.

4:47 Acquisition strategy: Historically, we have acquired companies for technology and talent. And they have been on the small size. We've looked at large companies, but we have not had a large company pass a strategic and a financial test. We don't let our money burn a hole in our pocket. Unless we find something that really makes sense for Apple shareholders, we're not going to do it. The small ones have been incredibly valuable for us, mainly from the talent POV, but also from technology. If we find a large one, we won't be shy about it. But we won't do it to do it. We have never been about being the biggest, we've always been about making the best products. Not having highest market share or most revenue. Acquiring something that makes our revenue go higher wouldn't be a reason why we'd buy a company.

4:49 How do you stop hubris from creeping in? Executive team in the company spends a lot of time thinking and discussing how to retain and recruit the best talent in the world. At the end of the day, I know it's a cliche, but people are our most important asset in the world by far. It's people who deliver innovation. We are the most focused company that I know of or have read of or have any knowledge of. We say no to good ideas every day. We say no to great ideas in order to keep the amount of things we focus on very small in number so that we can put enormous energy behind the ones we do choose. The table each of you are sitting at today, you could probably put every product on it that Apple makes, yet Apple's revenue last year was $40 billion. I think any other company that could say that is an oil company. That's not just saying yes to the right products, it's saying no to many products that are good ideas, but just not nearly as good as the other ones. I think this is so ingrained in our company that this hubris you talk about that happens to companies that are successful and sole role in life is to get bigger, I can tell you the management team at Apple would never let that happen. That's not what we're about. Small list of things to focus on.

Tim Cook speaking today at Goldman Sachs in San Francisco

Seth Weintraub — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 16:28:13 +0000

Apple's COO will be talking tech with those exciting investment bankers today in San Francisco at 1:10pm PT (4:10 ET). We're not expecting anything groundbreaking but Apple execs often drop little hints in their public statements. We'll be listening in on Apple's #2 and report back anything of interest.

Phil Schiller tries to explain App Story hypocrisy of "sexual content" rejections

Seth Weintraub — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 11:23:30 +0000

Update: Apple this morning changed some of the imagery in the Playboy.app storefront.

Don't worry: this is acceptable to kids and parents. Credit: App Store

The NY Times' Jenna Wortham got Phil Schiller to go on record about Apple's recent purge in apps with sexual content.

Mr. Schiller said Apple had to prioritize its customers. “We obviously care about developers, but in the end have to put the needs of the kids and parents first,” he said.

The obvious issue is that Apple has kept apps from Playboy and Time Warner (Sports Illustrated Swimsuit app) with gratuitous skin while removing apps from small developers with much less "sexy". Are "kids and parents" ok with the apps pictured here vs. a girl in a bikini cleaning a screen? What about the "NC-17" ratings in the App Store? Shouldn't "sexy" stuff just be there away from "kids and parents"? Why even have an NC-17 rating if not for this stuff?

When asked about the Sports Illustrated app, Mr. Schiller said Apple took the source and intent of an app into consideration. “The difference is this is a well-known company with previously published material available broadly in a well-accepted format,” he said.

I'm not sure about you, but I don't remember Playboy being available that "broadly" as a kid. In fact, if I remember correctly, I even got my Swimsuit issue of SportsIllustrated (which I had a subscription to) yanked by my parents in gradeschool.

The Times quotes a developer who made apps with sexual content that showed a "woman wearing a swimsuit appeared to wipe finger marks from the iPhone’s screen with a rag and spray bottle."

“I’m shocked,” said Mr. Clarke, who said the company had not had a problem with its applications since the first one went on sale last June. “We’re showing stuff that’s racier than the Disney Channel, but not by much.” Mr. Clarke said his company had been earning thousands of dollars a day from the App Store. “It’s very hard to go from making a good living to zero,” he said. “This goes farther than sexy content. For developers, how do you know you aren’t going to invest thousands into a business only to find out one day you’ve been cut off?”

Not to mention that Apple is removing apps with bikini girls while keeping apps with gratuitous violence. Puritans!

Developers aside, I think what this boils down to is an issue of taste. Playboy and SI Swimsuit = "classy", while this other stuff is "tasteless". The question is: Should Apple be the decider of what is tasteless and what is classy in our society?

don't worry: this is acceptable

Apple's North Carolina facility pictured from the air

Mark Gurman — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 18:28:29 +0000

Wonder how Apple is doing on their new data center? Have a birds eye view of where your iTunes and mobile home directories may one day live:

DataCenter Knowledge Via MR Page 2

NYTimes: Chips like Apple's A4 cost $1 Billion to produce from scratch

Seth Weintraub — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 15:12:35 +0000

Ashlee Vance of the NYTimes puts the cost of developing an ARM-based chip at around a billion dollars for companies like NVidia, Qualcomm and Apple. And that's without the fabrication process to actually produce the chip.

That's quite an investment for Apple and something that smaller companies like Palm wouldn't be able to fund. Apple got a head start on their A4 chip production by purchasing PA Semi for $278 million two years ago, but has likely been spending liberally ever since. Still, many dispute this high cost.

Until the iPhone "platform" was unveiled in 2007, ARM designs weren't considered for processors that could power "actual computers." That is unless you consider that the ancestors to the current ARM designs were use in the Acorn desktop computers popular in Europe 25 years ago.

“Apple was the first company to make a really aspirational device [in a really long time] that wasn’t based on Intel chips and Microsoft’s Windows,” said Fred Weber, a chip industry veteran. “The iPhone broke some psychological barriers people had about trying new products and helped drive this consumer electronics push.”

Intel is the obvious victim of this possible industry move to ARM processors. The NYTimes cites Intel's ability to run Windows and their $9 billion war chest as obstacles to ARM chips like Apple's A4 entering the general computing space.

When is a broken stair worth thousands of dollars?

Seth Weintraub — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 21:00:31 +0000

...When that stair is from the 5th Ave. Apple Store.

Update: The auction has been taken down eight days early. Buy it now price reached or perhaps Apple gave the guy a call?

We're definitely not the target market for this type of thing, but if you'd rather spend your thousands of dollars on an iconic (broken) piece of the the most iconic Apple store, rather than, say a new MacBook Pro, head over to eBay.

From the Seller:

Hey guys!

So, this is a weird one.

I'm moving on March 11th and I can't keep moving with this stair.

It's from Apple Fifth Ave. in NYC. They have a huge spiral staircase you can see here: http://images.apple.com/retail/fifthavenue/images/fifthavenue_gallery_image4.jpg

They replaced it with a new one after a customer dropped a snapple bottle on it and cracked it. I picked it up before it could be thrown out over a year ago, figuring it's a collectible.

When these are new, they cost 10K to buy from the German glass-makers. So, since it's cracked I figure it's worth at least $2500, considering the steps are all custom ordered.

You could use it as a coffee table on top of some cinder blocks, or just keep it for the sake of keeping it.

Unfortunately, I can't deliver it. You'll need to come pick it up in Brooklyn, NY, and I recommend you bring a car and a friend or two. It weighs about 250 lbs. It's about 10 layers of very thick glass.

If you're a collector of Apple memorabilia, you've got to have this. I know for a fact that only three of them exist outside of the retail stores' circulation, and this is one of them. So, needless to say, it's rare. I doubt it if you'll ever see something like this again.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask away.

Thanks Mark :)

MobileMe updated for iPod/iPhone, and most importantly, iPad

Seth Weintraub — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 21:09:30 +0000

If you went to ME.com on the iPad yesterday, you'd see this:

Today, Apple has made some changes…

You can now use Find My iPhone or install Me.com apps directly from the iPad. Here's a screenshot of Find my iPhone on the iPad:

This new ME.com web app also works on the iPhone, iPod and on any browser.

CBS outed as one of the companies to cut TV show prices to $.99

Seth Weintraub — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 02:18:02 +0000

You figure Disney/ABC will play along with Apple's plan to charge $.99 for TV shows. Now it looks like CBS will join them, at least on some of their shows says Peter Kafka at Mediamemo.

CEO Les Moonves says the broadcaster will mark down the price on some of its shows from $1.99 to 99 cents.

“There are certain shows that will be sold on Apple for 99 cents,” Moonves said today, adding, however, that details have not been worked out.

Kafka doesn't expect the best shows to grab the price cut, but there should be some good classics at least. Perhaps awesomeness like the Dukes of Hazzard?

Kids taking home school spy camera in the form of MacBooks?

Seth Weintraub — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 20:45:05 +0000

Update: As is usually is the case, there is another side to the story where the kid actually took the picture of himself doing something improper and administrators were just perusing his hard drive...

What's wrong with some school administrators? Clearly they don't have a sense for right and wrong when something insane like this happens.

Short Version: Kids get free laptops for one-to-one education program. Administration loads crazy spy cam software that can be activated remotely and snaps pictures of kids at home doing "improper stuff". To prove it, they show a web camera snap of whatever he was doing (hopefully this is "pre-puberty improper").

Administration never mentioned that they could randomly watch students in their homes via the webcams. Parents sue. Tax dollars are going to get wasted settling this and idiots will hopefully get fired.

Apple's excellent One-to-One laptop program tarnished by few bad administrators. Kids tape over their school laptop webcams.