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• FY 12 First Quarter Results Conference Call 20 January, 2012, 6:30 am
   WHAT: Apple® FY 12 First Quarter Results Conference Call WHERE: Via conference call. The dial-in number for press is (877) 616-0062 (toll-free) or (719) 219-0039. Please enter confirmation code 682515. WHEN: Tuesday, January 24, 2012, 2:00 p.m. PST/5:00 p.m. EST REBROADCAST: The conference call will be available as a continuous rebroadcast beginning Tuesday, January 24 at 5:00 p.m. PST/8:00 p.m. EST through Tuesday, February 7 at 5:00 p.m. PST/8:00 p.m. EST. The dial-in number for the rebroadcast is (888) 203-1112 (toll-free) or (719) 457-0820. Please enter confirmation code 1789848. WEBCAST: Apple will provide live audio streaming of its FY 12 First Quarter Results Conference Call using Apple’s industry-leading QuickTime® multimedia software. The live webcast will begin at 2:00 p.m. PST on January 24, 2012 at www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/earningsq112 and will also be available for replay for approximately two weeks thereafter. The webcast is available on any iPhone®, iPad®, iPod touch® or any Mac® or PC running QuickTime 6 or later. If you do not have QuickTime installed on your Windows PC, it is available at www.apple.com/quicktime. This recording is the property of Apple and protected by U.S. copyright law and international treaties. Any reproduction or distribution is strictly prohibited without prior written approval from Apple. Please contact Apple Public Relations or Investor Relations with any questions. Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices with iPad. Press Contact: Kristin Huguet Apple (408) 974-2414 khuguet@apple.com
• Apple Reinvents Textbooks with iBooks 2 for iPad 18 January, 2012, 5:01 pm
   NEW YORK—January 19, 2012—Apple® today announced iBooks® 2 for iPad®, featuring iBooks textbooks, an entirely new kind of textbook that’s dynamic, engaging and truly interactive. iBooks textbooks offer iPad users gorgeous, fullscreen textbooks with interactive animations, diagrams, photos, videos, unrivaled navigation and much more. iBooks textbooks can be kept up to date, don't weigh down a backpack and never have to be returned. Leading education services companies including Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, McGraw-Hill and Pearson will deliver educational titles on the iBookstore℠ with most priced at $14.99 or less, and with the new iBooks Author, a free authoring tool available today, anyone with a Mac® can create stunning iBooks textbooks. “Education is deep in Apple’s DNA and iPad may be our most exciting education product yet. With 1.5 million iPads already in use in education institutions, including over 1,000 one-to-one deployments, iPad is rapidly being adopted by schools across the US and around the world,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “Now with iBooks 2 for iPad, students have a more dynamic, engaging and truly interactive way to read and learn, using the device they already love.” The new iBooks 2 app is available today as a free download from the App Store™. With support for great new features including gorgeous, fullscreen books, interactive 3D objects, diagrams, videos and photos, the iBooks 2 app will let students learn about the solar system or the physics of a skyscraper with amazing new interactive textbooks that come to life with just a tap or swipe of the finger. With its fast, fluid navigation, easy highlighting and note-taking, searching and definitions, plus lesson reviews and study cards, the new iBooks 2 app lets students study and learn in more efficient and effective ways than ever before. iBooks Author is also available today as a free download from the Mac App Store and lets anyone with a Mac create stunning iBooks textbooks, cookbooks, history books, picture books and more, and publish them to Apple’s iBookstore. Authors and publishers of any size can start creating with Apple-designed templates that feature a wide variety of page layouts. iBooks Author lets you add your own text and images by simply dragging and dropping, and with the Multi-Touch™ widgets you can easily add interactive photo galleries, movies, Keynote® presentations and 3D objects. Apple today also announced an all-new iTunes® U app giving educators and students everything they need on their iPad, iPhone® and iPod touch® to teach and take entire courses. With the new iTunes U app, students using iPads have access to the world’s largest catalog of free educational content, along with over 20,000 education apps at their fingertips and hundreds of thousands of books in the iBookstore that can be used in their school curriculum, such as novels for English or Social Studies.* The iTunes U app is available today as a free download from the App Store. *Some content is available only for iPad. Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices with iPad. Press Contacts: Tom Neumayr Apple (408) 974-1972 tneumayr@apple.com Christine Monaghan Apple (408) 974-8850 cmonaghan@apple.com
• Apple Unveils All-New iTunes U App for iPad, iPhone & iPod touch 18 January, 2012, 5:01 pm
  NEW YORK—January 19, 2012—Apple® today announced an all-new iTunes® U app, giving educators and students everything they need on their iPad®, iPhone® and iPod touch® to teach and take entire courses. The all-new iTunes U app lets teachers create and manage courses including essential components such as lectures, assignments, books, quizzes and syllabuses and offer them to millions of iOS users around the world. The iTunes U app gives iOS users access to the world’s largest catalog of free educational content from top universities including Cambridge, Duke, Harvard, Oxford and Stanford, and starting today any K-12 school district can offer full courses through the iTunes U app. iTunes U has already become an incredibly popular learning tool for students with over 700 million downloads. “The all-new iTunes U app enables students anywhere to tap into entire courses from the world's most prestigious universities,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services. “Never before have educators been able to offer their full courses in such an innovative way, allowing anyone who’s interested in a particular topic to learn from anywhere in the world, not just the classroom.” Prior to iTunes U, only students in the classroom at that time had access to educational content from top universities. With the iTunes U app for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch, those barriers no longer exist. Students anywhere can take an entire course with complete access to all course materials right at their fingertips. With the iTunes U app, students are able to access new books right from within the app, and any notes taken in iBooks® are consolidated for easy reviewing. In addition to reading books, viewing presentations, lectures and assignment lists, students can receive push notifications so they always have the latest class information.* The iTunes U app is available today as a free download from the App Store™. Educators can quickly and easily create, manage and share their courses, quizzes and handouts through a web-based tool and utilize content and links from the iTunes U app, the Internet, iBookstore℠ or the App Store as part of their curriculum. They can also upload and distribute their own documents such as Keynote®, Pages®, Numbers® or books made with iBooks Author. *Some content is available only for iPad. Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices with iPad. Press Contacts: Tom Neumayr Apple (408) 974-1972 tneumayr@apple.com Christine Monaghan Apple (408) 974-8850 cmonaghan@apple.com  
• Apple's Supplier Code of Conduct and 2012 Progress Report 13 January, 2012, 5:00 am
   
• Apple’s 2012 Proxy Statement Now Online 9 January, 2012, 1:00 pm
   CUPERTINO, California—January 9, 2012—Apple® today announced that its 2012 proxy materials are now available at www.apple.com/investor under the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s Notice and Access rules. As a result of the Notice and Access rules, Apple is able to significantly reduce the environmental impact of producing and delivering printed materials. Apple shareholders can still receive a printed copy of the proxy materials free of charge by following the instructions provided at www.apple.com/investor or in the Notice of Internet Availability of Proxy Materials that will be mailed to individuals who were Apple shareholders as of December 27, 2011. Apple’s 2011 Form 10-K was filed on October 26, 2011 and may also be viewed at www.apple.com/investor. Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and has recently introduced iPad 2 which is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices. Press Contact: Kristin Huguet Apple khuguet@apple.com (408) 974-2414
• iPhone 4S Arrives in China on January 13 4 January, 2012, 6:30 am
  CUPERTINO, California―January 4, 2012―Apple® today announced that iPhone® 4S, the most amazing iPhone yet, will be available in China and 21 additional countries on Friday, January 13. iPhone 4S is packed with incredible new features including Apple’s dual-core A5 chip for blazing fast performance and stunning graphics; an all new camera with advanced optics; full 1080p HD resolution video recording; and Siri™, an intelligent assistant that helps you get things done just by asking. iPhone 4S comes with iOS 5, the world’s most advanced mobile operating system with over 200 new features. “Customer response to our products in China has been off the charts,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “With the launch in China next week, iPhone 4S will be available in over 90 countries making this our fastest iPhone rollout ever.” Beginning Friday, January 13, iPhone 4S will be available in Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Bolivia, Botswana, British Virgin Islands, Cameroon, Cayman Islands, Central African Republic, China, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Grenada, Guam, Guinea Conakry, Ivory Coast, Jamaica, Kenya, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritius, Niger, Senegal, St. Vincent and The Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos and Uganda. iPhone 4S comes in either black or white for a suggested retail price of $199 (US) for the 16GB model, $299 (US) for the 32GB model and $399 (US) for the new 64GB model.* iPhone 4S is sold through the Apple Online Store, Apple’s retail stores and select Apple Authorized Resellers. iPhone 4 is available for just $99 (US) and iPhone 3GS is available for free with a two year contract from participating carriers. *Qualified customers only. Requires a new two year rate plan, sold separately. Press Contacts: Simon Pope Apple spope@apple.com (408) 974-0457 Natalie Kerris Apple nat@apple.com (408) 974-6877
• Apple Launches iTunes Store in Brazil & Latin America 13 December, 2011, 3:00 am
   SAO PAULO, Brazil—December 13, 2011—Apple® today announced the launch of the iTunes Store® in Brazil (www.itunes.com/brazil) with an incredible selection of Brazilian and international music from all the major labels and thousands of independent labels. Launching with a catalog of over 20 million songs, the iTunes Store in Brazil features local artists including Ivete Sangalo, Marisa Monte and the digital debut of Roberto Carlos’ catalog, available to purchase and download along with a wide range of international artists including the Beatles, Rihanna, Coldplay and thousands more. With most songs priced at 99 cents and most albums at $9.99, the iTunes Store in Brazil is the best way for iPad®, iPhone®, iPod®, Mac® and PC users to legally discover, purchase and download music online. The iTunes Store in Brazil offers over a thousand movies to rent or purchase, with many in stunning HD, from major studios including 20th Century Fox, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, Universal Pictures, The Walt Disney Studios and Warner Bros. Pictures. The iTunes Store in Brazil now joins the revolutionary App Store™, which offers more than 500,000 apps to consumers in 123 countries, reaching hundreds of millions of iPad, iPhone and iPod touch® users around the world. Customers have downloaded more than 18 billion apps to date. Apple is also bringing the iTunes Store to 15 additional Latin American countries including Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru and Venezuela. The iTunes Store in Brazil and Latin America offer music from major labels EMI Music, Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and Warner Music, and thousands of independent labels. All music on iTunes® comes in iTunes Plus®, Apple’s DRM-free format with high-quality 256 kbps AAC encoding for audio quality virtually indistinguishable from the original recordings. iTunes in the Cloud lets you download your previously purchased iTunes music to all your iOS devices at no additional cost, and new music purchases can be downloaded automatically to all your devices. In addition, music not purchased from iTunes can gain the same benefits by using iTunes Match℠, a new service that upgrades your music to iTunes Plus when matched to the over 20 million songs in the iTunes Store catalog. iTunes in the Cloud is available today for free in Brazil and Latin America and iTunes Match is available today for a $24.99 annual fee in Brazil. Pricing & Availability iTunes 10.5.1 for Mac and Windows includes the iTunes Store and is available as a free download from (www.itunes.com/brazil). iTunes Store purchases require a valid credit card with a billing address in country. Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and has recently introduced iPad 2 which is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices. Press Contacts: Tina Caballero Apple ccaballero@apple.com (305) 569-2788 Tom Neumayr Apple tneumayr@apple.com (408) 974-1972
• Apple’s Mac App Store Downloads Top 100 Million 12 December, 2011, 6:30 am
   CUPERTINO, California—December 12, 2011—Apple® today announced that over 100 million apps have been downloaded from the Mac® App Store™ in less than one year. With thousands of free and paid apps, the Mac App Store brings the App Store experience to the Mac so you can find great new apps, buy them using your iTunes® account, and download and install them in just one step. Apple revolutionized the app industry with the App Store, which now has more than 500,000 apps and where customers have downloaded more than 18 billion apps and continue to download more than 1 billion apps per month. “In just three years the App Store changed how people get mobile apps, and now the Mac App Store is changing the traditional PC software industry,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “With more than 100 million downloads in less than a year, the Mac App Store is the largest and fastest growing PC software store in the world.” “With Autodesk products in both the App Store and Mac App Store, we can reach hundreds of millions of Apple users around the world,” said Amar Hanspal, senior vice president of Platform Solutions and Emerging Business at Autodesk. “With our free AutoCAD WS and the more powerful professional drafting tools of AutoCAD LT, we’re using the Mac App Store to deliver new products and reach a growing base of new Mac customers.” “The Mac App Store has unparalleled reach and has completely transformed our distribution and development cycle,” said Saulius Dailide of the Pixelmator Team. “Offering Pixelmator 2.0 exclusively on the Mac App Store allows us to streamline updates to our image editing software and stay ahead of the competition.” “In less than one year we’ve shifted the distribution of djay for Mac exclusively to the Mac App Store,” said Karim Morsy, CEO of algoriddim. “With just a few clicks, djay for Mac is available to customers in 123 countries worldwide. We could never have that reach through traditional channels.” The Mac App Store offers thousands of apps in Education, Games, Graphics & Design, Lifestyle, Productivity, Utilities and other categories. Users can browse new and noteworthy apps, find out what’s hot, see staff favorites, search categories and look up top charts for paid and free apps, as well as user ratings and reviews. The Mac App Store is included with Mac OS® X Lion and is available as a software update for any Mac running Mac OS X Snow Leopard®. For more information visit, www.apple.com/mac/app-store. Mac developers set the prices for their apps, keep 70 percent of the sales revenue, are not charged for free apps and do not have to pay hosting, marketing or credit card fees. To find out more about developing for the Mac App Store visit, developer.apple.com/programs/mac. Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and has recently introduced iPad 2 which is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices. Press Contacts: Colin Smith Apple colins@apple.com (408) 862-1171 Bill Evans Apple bevans@apple.com (408) 974-0610
• Apple Store Grand Central Opens Friday, December 9 7 December, 2011, 9:00 am
  NEW YORK—December 7, 2011—The Apple Store® Grand Central, Apple’s fifth store in Manhattan, will open Friday, December 9, at 10 a.m., just in time for the holidays. This one-of-a-kind Apple retail store overlooks the historic Main Concourse from the East and North East balconies of the world-famous Grand Central Terminal, and has two Genius Bars for free tech support and advice. Convenient services at the Apple Store Grand Central include Personal Pickup, a feature of the free Apple Store App which lets iPhone® users shop and buy from anywhere they are, then pick up their purchase when they reach the terminal. Customers using the Apple Store App can even scan and pay for accessories with their iPhone using the new EasyPay function. And new 15-minute Express Workshops offer tips and tricks in a streamlined format to serve customers on a tight schedule. The store’s expert team has 315 passionate employees who deliver these and other amazing services, which have become the hallmark of Apple retail stores worldwide. Beyond the balcony overlooking the expansive Main Concourse, the Apple Store Grand Central offers rooms dedicated to some of our most popular services, including the largest area in the world dedicated to Personal Setup. In the Personal Setup room, customers who buy an iPad®, iPhone, iPod® or Mac® can get up and running before they leave the store. There’s also a room designed especially for Personal Training, where new Mac owners learn the basics or take their skills to the next level as part of Apple’s popular $99 One to One program. Holiday shoppers in Manhattan now have five unique Apple stores to choose from, each perfectly suited to the neighborhoods they serve: Fifth Avenue, Upper West Side, SoHo, West 14th Street and Grand Central. Around the world, nearly 300 million people have visited Apple retail stores in the past 12 months. There are 361 Apple stores in eleven countries including the US, UK, France, Germany, Spain, Switzerland, Italy, Japan, China, Australia and Canada. The Apple Store Grand Central is open from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., Monday through Friday, Saturday 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., and Sunday 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and has recently introduced iPad 2 which is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices. Press Contacts: Amy Bessette Apple abessette@apple.com (408) 862-8012 Michaela Wilkinson Apple mwilkinson@apple.com (408) 862-8989
• Apple Names Arthur D. Levinson Chairman of the Board 15 November, 2011, 2:30 pm
  CUPERTINO, California—November 15, 2011—Apple® today named Arthur D. Levinson, Ph. D. as the Company’s non-executive Chairman of the Board. Levinson has been a co-lead director of Apple’s board since 2005, has served on all three board committees— audit and finance, nominating and corporate governance, and compensation—and will continue to serve on the audit committee. Apple also announced that Robert A. Iger, President and Chief Executive Officer of The Walt Disney Company, will join Apple’s board and will serve on the audit committee. “Art has made enormous contributions to Apple since he joined the board in 2000,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “He has been our longest serving co-lead director, and his insight and leadership are incredibly valuable to Apple, our employees and our shareholders.” “Bob and I have gotten to know one another very well over the past few years and on behalf of the entire board, we think he is going to make an extraordinary addition to our already very strong board,” said Tim Cook. “His strategic vision for Disney is based on three fundamentals: generating the best creative content possible, fostering innovation and utilizing the latest technology, and expanding into new markets around the world which makes him a great fit for Apple.” “I am honored to be named chairman of Apple’s board and welcome Bob to our team,” said Art Levinson. “Apple is always focused on out-innovating itself through the delivery of truly innovative products that simplify and improve our lives, and that is something I am very proud to be a part of.” “Apple has achieved unprecedented success by consistently creating high quality, truly innovative products, and I am extremely pleased to join the board of such a wonderful company,” said Bob Iger. “Over the years, I have come to know and admire the management team, now ably led by Tim Cook, and I am confident they have the leadership and vision to ensure Apple’s continued momentum and success.” Levinson is chairman of Genentech, Inc. and a member of the Roche Board of Directors. He joined Genentech as a research scientist in 1980, and served as Genentech’s Chief Executive Officer from 1995 to 2009. He is also a director of Amyris, NGM Biopharmaceuticals, Inc., and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. Levinson currently serves on the Board of Scientific Consultants of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and the Advisory Council for the Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics. He has authored or co-authored more than 80 scientific articles and has been a named inventor on 11 United States patents. In 2008, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. Levinson received his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Washington and earned a doctorate in Biochemical Sciences from Princeton University. Iger is the steward of the world’s largest media company and some of the most respected and beloved brands around the globe. He has built on Disney’s rich history of unforgettable storytelling, with the acquisition of Pixar (2006) and Marvel (2009), two of the entertainment industry’s greatest storytellers. Always one to embrace new technology, Iger has made Disney an industry leader at the forefront of offering its creative content across new and multiple platforms. He is a member of the board of directors for the National September 11 Memorial & Museum and Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Inc. He became a board member of the US-China Business Council in June 2011. In June 2010, President Barack Obama appointed him to the President’s Export Council, which advises the president on how to promote US exports, jobs and growth. He is also a member of the Partnership for a New American Economy, a coalition of mayors and business leaders from across the United States that support comprehensive immigration reform. Iger is a graduate of Ithaca College. Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and has recently introduced iPad 2 which is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices. Press Contacts: Katie Cotton Apple katiec@apple.com (408) 974-7269 Steve Dowling Apple dowling@apple.com (408) 974-1896

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• Games for the weekend: Run Roo Run 20 January, 2012, 1:28 pm
  Games for the Weekend is a weekly feature aimed at helping you avoid doing something constructive with your downtime. Each Friday we’ll be recommending a game for Mac, iPhone or iPad that we think is awesome enough to keep you busy until Monday, at least. Run Roo Run ($0.99 iPhone, $1.99 iPad) is a simple to learn, yet hard to master side-scrolling game that rewards split second accuracy. If you were one of those gamers that toiled over Mario to get the timing of jumping from pipe to pipe just right, then this is the game for you. Run Roo Run forgoes complex touch-based controls and yet still delivers that a satisfying rush when you make the right moves. Gameplay is very basic. The main character Roo begins running at an even pace across the screen. As Roo approaches an obstacle, you jump by tapping the screen. Jump too soon, and you land on the obstacle. Jump too late, and you run into the obstacle. Each level is timed, how long it takes to beat a level determines your reward, since the timer keeps going every time you run into an obstacle. Between jumping, double jumping, pausing and restarting, you end up driving yourself nuts trying to make it through a given level in record time. The game ends up being about mastering split-second timing and pattern recall. Each level occupies just a single screen, which combined add up to Roo’s journey across Australia. With over four hundred individual screen challenges to overcome, the game seems almost endless. Roo learns new skills along the way to conquer new types of obstacles in order to keep things fresh. The game also keeps its edge by resetting quickly after each failed attempt: Roo is back up and ready to try again almost instantly, with no tedious intermediary screens getting in the way. You can buy power-ups to slow time down or skip a leven entirely via in-app purchase, but it definitely takes some satisfaction out of the game. However, with developer 5th Cell (who also created the celebrated Scribblenauts) committed to adding ten new levels per week, you may need to take advantage of the occasional cheat just to keep up. Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.Connected world: the consumer technology revolutionMobile Q2: Smartphone growth surges; iPad’s rule continuesNewNet Q4: Platform mania and social commerce shakeout
• McGraw-Hill is Apple partner, but still has questions about iBooks 20 January, 2012, 11:35 am
  Educational publishing giant McGraw-Hill had a major presence in Apple’s new digital textbooks initiative announced Thursday. The company is one of the first to put high school textbooks in the iBooks 2 app and worked with Apple on the iBooks Author app. I talked with SVP of Strategic Services for McGraw-Hill Education Vineet Madan on Friday about the company’s own vision for the future of iBooks and interactive course material in general, as well as how it makes sense for the company to have seemingly competing investments in iBooks competitors like Inkling and CourseSmart. Madan also made it clear that the company has concerns about maintaining consistently high-quality textbooks that are published with iBooks Author. Here are some of the most interesting points from our conversation. McGraw-Hill saw the iPad early on but chose not to partner with Apple on iPad textbooks right away  Turns out the publisher wasn’t too keen on the original version of iBooks, according to Madan. “We’ve been talking with them since iBooks first came out. We said iBooks was insufficient in its form — prior to yesterday — for delivering education contetnt. … It wasn’t a suitable delivery medium for that content. We talked to Apple about what we thought was necessary and ended up working with them to bring that to fruition.” Instead, back in 2010 McGraw-Hill took a minority stake in Inkling, which has been making interactive textbooks for the iPad for two years, primarily for the higher education and non-education market. They’re also investors in higher-ed focused CourseSmart, whose chilly response to Apple’s entry in the market I wrote about yesterday. iBooks 2 is only a “first half-step” to the future of e-textbooks Engaging students with interactive material is great. But McGraw-Hill sees a future where students learn using digital books, but also can be tested and the material can be tailored for particular needs. “The next step is can you start tracking information about how students are learning and what they’re learning. You need rigorous tested assessments, something the current version of iBooks doesn’t yet support. But you need strong assessment in there and you need to link the data with how students are navigating content to provide tailored instructional paths.” They don’t lose money charging $15 for a digital textbook instead of $75 for a physical book  Madan explained the math to me: The high school textbooks they publish sell for between $65 and $85, or an average of $75 each. Each book is used for five years on average, which is $15 per use, per year. Or the same as what Apple is setting the price for textbooks in the iBookstore. But wait. It actually gets better for the big-time publishers: “We are then out of the business of printing books, shipping books, being responsible for warehousing — when this scales,” said Madan. And that can lead to new investment in more interactive and enriched content. Even McGraw-Hill execs wonder where school districts will get the money for iPads In the higher education market in the U.S., mostly everyone’s got the right hardware and has enough bandwidth. But the story is different in primary and secondary education. “But in K-12 the big open question that went unanswered yesterday is school districts and their funding environment. They can pay $15 a book, but that’s if they choose to spend $500 to $800 to buy iPads first.” Madan said he personally was “surprised they didn’t announce some sort of academic pricing or education pricing for iPads to jumpstart this.” McGraw-Hill is concerned about the quality of content published through iBooks Author “Opening up the authoring tool to everyone raises questions about the validity and rigor and quality of the instructional tools available [in iBookstore]. … Someone still has to curate and assemble and test. Given the very open nature of the authoring tool, it could end up creating something where there’s a lot of noise. That could run a little counter to the objectives we all have. But he sounded optimistic about finding a solution. Said Madan, “Collectively we need to solve that problem. But that’s to come.” Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.Forecast: Tablet App Sales To Hit $8B by 2015Q4 Wrap-up: SOPA and the future of digital contentNewNet Q4: Platform mania and social commerce shakeout
• Will Apple put Siri in everything? 20 January, 2012, 8:23 am
  Apple has wisely chosen to patent its voice assistant Siri, and the Patently Apple blog did what it does best: Dug up the patent and dissected it. The patent is long, detailed and goes into a lot of depth of how Siri works and could work, including as a personalized recommendation service, for online shopping, as a travel booking service, and as part of a car navigation system or the car’s entertainment system. Clearly Apple would want to cover its bases when it comes to Siri and its potential future uses. But it doesn’t mean Apple is currently working on any of this. Still, it’s always interesting to get a look at what a secretive company is at least pondering. The patent also discusses all the different devices that could potentially be Siri-enabled. Writes Patently Apple: Apple’s patent application lists a great number of devices beyond the iPhone that Siri may service in the future. They include, the iPod touch (a personal digital assistant), iMac (desktop computer), MacBook (laptop computer), iPad (tablet computer), consumer electronic devices, consumer entertainment devices; iPod (music player); camera; television; Apple TV (set-top box); electronic gaming unit; kiosk or the like. The patent also discusses that the voice assistant technology could be used in ”any operating system such as, for example, iOS or Mac OSX.” Do we want Siri in everything? I’m not sure I want to talk to my computer or my camera. But I will reserve judgment until there’s an actual product and see what a potential implementation of it would look like. If you want the nitty gritty of how Siri works, see the original post. For more about the awesome potential of voice-controlled devices, see Kevin Tofel’s GigaOM Pro report (subscription required) on the topic of “invisible interfaces”. Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.Siri: Say hello to the coming “invisible interface”2012: Data, spectrum and the race to LTEThe future of mobile: a segment analysis by GigaOM Pro
• Vook: iBooks Author has limited appeal for writers, readers 19 January, 2012, 3:53 pm
  Following Apple’s unveiling of e-book publishing platform iBooks Author Thursday, I reached out to Vook, the startup founded in 2009 by Brad Inman that provides a top-to-bottom publishing experience using a software-as-a-service model. Vook is currently in private beta post-pivot, but it plans to offer push-button publishing and distribution using a drag-and-drop interface. That should sound familiar after Apple’s earlier announcement. Vook’s VP of Business Development Matthew Cavnar told me on the phone that while the company is “kind of flattered” by some aspects of iBooks Author, since they look very similar to its own product, it isn’t fearful of being elbowed out of the market now that Apple’s decided to play. Cavnar says iBooks Author helps raise the status of e-books in general, and helps promote them as a valid alternative to apps, which is good for Vook and other e-book publishers. And while the e-book creation tool “looks great,” in Cavnar’s opinion it’s an option that comes with trade-offs many content creators and publishers won’t be able to swallow. Specifically, he sees a problem with the portability and limitations of the e-Books Author ultimately produces. “When people want e-books, they want e-books anywhere,” Cavnar told me. In light of that, he believes that any cross-platform solution inherently holds more appeal for publishers, since they also hold more appeal for end-users. Being platform agnostic appeals to what Cavnar calls “the switcher demographic,” which is basically anyone who works or plays on more than one company’s platforms. iBooks Author won’t be as appealing to those users since it creates a file that is not quite epub2, not quite epub3, and not quite XHTML5, according to Vook’s blog which makes it “one channel only,” or essentially proprietary. Also, while Apple will let you distribute the book independent of the iBookstore, if you want to make any money on the product, you have to go through the iBookstore and the iBookstore only. Exclusivity as a requirement won’t likely go over great with authors. Apple’s clearly trying to encourage writers and publishers to go all-in on its platform. If it had done this before Android rose to a majority position in the world’s mobile market, it might’ve had an easier time convincing folks that was acceptable. Now, however, cross-platform solutions like Vook still have a good chance of staying in this fight, by being where customers are at, instead of where the big players would like them to be. Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.A clouded view of Google MusicConnected world: the consumer technology revolutionAuthor to Audience: Disintermediation in Publishing
• E-textbook veteran CourseSmart defends its turf 19 January, 2012, 1:44 pm
  Apple is not the first company to introduce the idea of interactive and digital textbooks for mobile devices. And the players that are already doing that are, unsurprisingly, not super thrilled with all the attention Apple is getting today. And they’re defending their territory. CourseSmart, a digital textbook company, that happens to be backed by some of the biggest players in academic publishing — including some of those who Apple announced as partners today — sent a long-ish statement right after Apple’s announcement on Thursday. The company, which currently has 20,000 digital textbooks and an iOS app, points out that buying iPads and forcing a specific device standard may not go over well with all schools. (“Are they asking students to shell out hundreds of dollars from their cash strapped pockets to purchase a dedicated device instead of using what they already own? Did they really just announce plans to develop a ‘secret’ learning management system with the iTunesU App?” they ask rhetorically.) But then Coursesmart starts defending its territory: professionally produced e-textbooks from the established academic publishing industry. Not just anyone can make a textbook, they say. “This content needs to  not only be developed by subject matter experts, but, more importantly, edited through an academic lens in order to ensure learning takes place and our youth is prepared to compete in a global economy. Publishers and authors will remain the drivers of high quality content.” CourseSmart’s texts are mainly for the higher education, and Apple seemed pretty careful to target K-12 with its e-textbook authoring tool. But still — while Apple says it wants to be additive to the industry, its very presence is upsetting to some of the established players. Will Apple start targeting college and university textbooks next? CourseSmart implies that they think so. Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.NewNet 2012: companies and technologies set to disruptForecast: Tablet App Sales To Hit $8B by 2015LTE changes everything; LTE changes nothing
• Hands on with Apple’s iTunes U: An education 19 January, 2012, 1:08 pm
  In university, I used a single clipboard/portfolio to store my notes from every class, then mostly piled the day’s work on the floor according to subject matter. Now Apple has launched a new iTunes U dedicated app, which makes keeping track of course material ridiculously easy compared to my days of academic foraging. Most students and educators who’ve been in school in the past 10 years have probably run across Blackboard, or some similar system for managing courses online in an interactive digital environment. Generally speaking, those systems are lacking in a lot of ways: navigating them can be difficult for new users; the same content can easily be filed in multiple places, leading to confusion; they usually aren’t engaging or attractive in terms of visual design. Apple’s iTunes U addresses all those problems. It uses a UI that mimics the real world, which some people say is the wrong approach, but should help students and education professionals who grew up using traditional tools transition to digital methods. iTunes U also organizes things organically and according to common-sense logic, which should provide a greater uniformity of experience regardless of who’s putting together the course package. Finally, like all Apple products, it invites touch and interaction. There’s actually something satisfying about tapping off tasks and assignments listed in each course package. var galleryData = [{"title":"You can also see all the additional course materials, including notes, slide shows and video, and download them individually. Course materials are also available once you subscribe from the course pack itself.","caption":"","thumbnail":"http:\/\/gigaom2.files.wordpress.com\/2012\/01\/ipad-itunes-u2.jpg?w=48&h=48&crop=1"}, {"title":"In the iTunes U course catalog, you can see an overview of the syllabus.","caption":"","thumbnail":"http:\/\/gigaom2.files.wordpress.com\/2012\/01\/ipad-itunes-u1.jpg?w=48&h=48&crop=1"}, {"title":"In portrait orientation, iTunes U courses look like a notebook with tabbed sections.","caption":"","thumbnail":"http:\/\/gigaom2.files.wordpress.com\/2012\/01\/ipad-itunes-u3.jpg?w=48&h=48&crop=1"}, {"title":"Switch to landscape and you get a subsection breakdown on the left.","caption":"","thumbnail":"http:\/\/gigaom2.files.wordpress.com\/2012\/01\/ipad-itunes-u4.jpg?w=48&h=48&crop=1"}, {"title":"The posts section gives you an outline, complete with in-line access to relevant materials.","caption":"","thumbnail":"http:\/\/gigaom2.files.wordpress.com\/2012\/01\/ipad-itunes-u7.jpg?w=48&h=48&crop=1"}, {"title":"The materials section gathers all supplemental material, including links to relevant websites.","caption":"","thumbnail":"http:\/\/gigaom2.files.wordpress.com\/2012\/01\/ipad-itunes-u6.jpg?w=48&h=48&crop=1"}, {"title":"A notes section keeps track of your own notes for the course as you make them. You can add your own and they'll be sorted by date.","caption":"","thumbnail":"http:\/\/gigaom2.files.wordpress.com\/2012\/01\/ipad-itunes-u5.jpg?w=48&h=48&crop=1"}, {"title":"Video streams directly, and you can run it in the background and still listen to audio as you browse other materials or make notes, or throw video to an Apple TV-connected display.","caption":"","thumbnail":"http:\/\/gigaom2.files.wordpress.com\/2012\/01\/ipad-itunes-u8.jpg?w=48&h=48&crop=1"}];  LoadingNextPreviousPicture 1 of 8 You can also see all the additional course materials, including notes, slide shows and video, and download them individually. Course materials are also available once you subscribe from the course pack itself. The courses in iTunes U work on a subscription model, so you’re automatically kept up-to-date as a course proceeds. The course catalog makes it easy to find what you’re looking for, with specific sections for post-secondary education, programs from outside universities and colleges, and K-12-targeted material. Like Apple’s other digital marketplaces, it also provides highlighted courses chosen by Apple’s team, as well top charts and categories. From the perspective of someone who’s designed a course syllabus and planned a class of study, this definitely seems like a great tool for educators. You can lay out exactly the course of action students need to take, complete with videos, slides and assignments listed as items in a list, where you can access them directly. It not only makes it easier for students to follow an instructor’s thinking, but should also help instructors better plan, organize and imrpove their courses. If there’s one major downside to the iTunes U app, it’s that it’s most definitely exclusionary; students need an iPad, iPod touch or iPhone to take full advantage. Obviously, that’s Apple’s goal: to attract more users by providing appealing software experiences, and I definitely think it’ll succeed based on what I’ve seen so far. Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.A clouded view of Google MusicConnected world: the consumer technology revolution2012: Data, spectrum and the race to LTE
• China set to surpass 1 billion mobile connections 19 January, 2012, 12:30 pm
  China is closing in on the 1 billion mobile connections mark, which it will likely surpass before the end of March, according to a new Wireless Intelligence report. China has always been a world power in wireless, but its importance is poised to grow further as its huge population is now embracing mobile data services. China has long been the largest single market for subscriber growth, but that growth was mainly driven by low-end devices and voice services. Now that all threes of China’s major operators — China Mobile, China Unicom, and China Telecom – have launched 3G networks, smartphones and other mobile data devices are proliferating. 3G connections surpassed 200 million at the end of 2011, which is still only a fifth of China’s total subscribers, but 3G devices account for 80 percent of all new sales, according to the report. Demand for smartphones is huge as evidenced by the unruly crowds that formed at Apple’s stores last week for the launch of the iPhone 4S with China Unicom. In October, Apple said China had become its most important market outside of the U.S. for all of its products. China Unicom is also diversifying into Android using Google’s platform to feed the growing demand for cheap smartphones. Wireless Intelligence said that Unicom estimates it will sell 90 million low-cost smartphones this year in addition to 60 million high-end device like the iPhone. To put those number in perspective, wireless trade organization CTIA reported that in June the U.S. had 322.9 million connections, which already exceeds the U.S. population. According to China’s last census, its population numbered 1.3 billion, which means it still has plenty of room to grow. If China’s huge rate of smartphone adoption continues, the U.S. will could wind up playing second fiddle to China on the wireless global stage Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.U.S. Wireless Data Market: Q4 and Year-End 2008Connected world: the consumer technology revolutionThe future of mobile: a segment analysis by GigaOM Pro
• Why textbooks of the future are not books 19 January, 2012, 11:33 am
  As we predicted, Apple on Thursday introduced a new toolset for publishers and authors to create and distribute digital textbooks. That wasn’t too much of a surprise. But what’s become more clear after hearing Apple’s pitch, which is aimed at K-12 school teachers, school districts, homeschooling parents, publishers and students themselves, is that the future of textbooks is not a book at all. Apple has updated the iBooks app, now called iBooks 2, and with that comes a whole new category on the iBookstore for textbooks with material from the big publishers like McGraw-Hill and Pearson, as well as other authors who want to sell their textbooks and learning tools there. And the really killer part of this is the easy publishing tool, iBooks Author, which is free and replicates an iWork experience, like building a presentation in Keynote, into a click-and-drag method of building a textbook. It’s not just for compiling material from scratch though — it’s very clearly tailored for already published material to be imported and easily formatted as an iBook. But what you make with the authoring tool isn’t really a textbook. It’s an interactive learning experience. You have text, of course, but you can drag in image galleries, embed videos, 3D models, presentations and slideshows. You can touch and swipe and watch instead of just reading and taking notes. (Were I in high school today, I might actually find chemistry class as interesting as history with these very tangible, engaging tools.) When students are interacting with these books, they can also touch to highlight, look up information, search, take notes in the margins and compile instant flashcards for studying. You can do all that with a physical book, but not with a couple of touches and swipes. Matt MacInnis, CEO of Inkling, which makes similar digital interactive textbooks, but for the higher education market, says that this is the reason his company doesn’t call them textbooks. They use the term “smartbooks.” The traditional textbook “is going to have to go away,” he said in an interview last week. “The future of publishing is learning software and analytics and feedback and rich technology.” For a generation of students that grew up using the Web, social networks, and addicted to a constant stream of information, the interactive part is what makes learning something that grabs students’ attention. The feedback part is also really important. And Apple hits that note with its study guides and review sections at the end of iBooks chapters.  Along with the standard questions, there comes the instant feedback of answers, so the learning process is immediate. Joining a crowded field Apple is certainly not the only company working on interactive textbooks or a digital education platform. Kno is one of the largest providers of texbooks for the iPad. Chegg just introduced a really nice e-book reader for a variety of platforms, and Inkling has been making interactive textbooks (and cookbooks) like this for a while — but has a number of books that’s only in the triple digits. What Apple is offering is a platform that lets anyone make these interactive books. There are already 20,000 textbooks on the iBookstore. Adding tools and important partners is guaranteed to increase that number. So despite not being first, Apple is a force to be reckoned with in whatever industry it directs its focus on. And in this case, I think what they want, rather than disrupt the whole industry a la music and video content, is to be an assistant. The authoring tool, the distribution platform, can help drag the biggest players of a very old-school industry into the present (and hopefully, future). And more importantly, what Apple is offering is a way to change the conversation about textbooks and bring that dialogue into the mainstream. We don’t know a lot of things yet — how many school districts can afford hundreds or thousands of iPads or how the textbook publishing industry at large will react. But we do know one thing: textbooks don’t have to be physical, expensive, static or boring. Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.Forecast: Tablet App Sales To Hit $8B by 2015Forecast: the evolution of the e-book marketConnected world: the consumer technology revolution
• Hands on with iBooks Author: The desktop publisher grows up 19 January, 2012, 11:09 am
  iBooks Author is like a candy land for aspiring, adventurous writers; it’s easily as intuitive as something like Keynote, iPhoto or iMovie, and it integrates smoothly with all those programs to allow you to use content from each in creating your e-books. It’s a natural fit for creating the kinds of textbooks Apple showed off at its event Thursday, but it also presents a great opportunity for authors who want to be at the cutting edge of new media formats, but lack the necessary technical expertise. Creating layouts in iBooks Author is easier than any comparable tool I’ve come across, including Adobe’s InDesign and Quark Xpress. And the ability to instantly see on your iPad through iTunes how the final product will look and feel really helps with the design process. Switching between portrait and landscape orientation is as easy as tapping a button. var galleryData = [{"title":"A template chooser makes it easy to get started, but things are still fully customizable after you've made your choice.","caption":"","thumbnail":"http:\/\/gigaom2.files.wordpress.com\/2012\/01\/screen-shot-2012-01-19-at-11-42-43-am.jpeg?w=48&h=48&crop=1"}, {"title":"This took approximately 30 seconds. Already on my way to literary greatness!","caption":"","thumbnail":"http:\/\/gigaom2.files.wordpress.com\/2012\/01\/screen-shot-2012-01-19-at-11-52-07-am.jpeg?w=48&h=48&crop=1"}, {"title":"The media browser is an easy way to find pictures and more to deck out your book.","caption":"","thumbnail":"http:\/\/gigaom2.files.wordpress.com\/2012\/01\/screen-shot-2012-01-19-at-11-52-09-am.jpeg?w=48&h=48&crop=1"}, {"title":"Drag and drop photos, then resize and arrange as needed. Guides make it easy to line up elements on-screen.","caption":"","thumbnail":"http:\/\/gigaom2.files.wordpress.com\/2012\/01\/screen-shot-2012-01-19-at-11-54-23-am.jpeg?w=48&h=48&crop=1"}, {"title":"Adding new subsections, chapters and pages is handled via a conveniently placed drop-down.","caption":"","thumbnail":"http:\/\/gigaom2.files.wordpress.com\/2012\/01\/screen-shot-2012-01-19-at-11-57-27-am.jpeg?w=48&h=48&crop=1"}, {"title":"You can create a fancy intro video to be just like Al Gore. Careful, though, these need to be in a formate designed to play back on iOS devices, and Author won't convert for you.","caption":"","thumbnail":"http:\/\/gigaom2.files.wordpress.com\/2012\/01\/screen-shot-2012-01-19-at-12-04-38-pm.jpeg?w=48&h=48&crop=1"}, {"title":"The glossary feature might be my favorite. You can link any word in your book to a glossary definition of your choosing, and your own creation. Spread lies with impunity!","caption":"","thumbnail":"http:\/\/gigaom2.files.wordpress.com\/2012\/01\/screen-shot-2012-01-19-at-12-05-46-pm.jpeg?w=48&h=48&crop=1"}, {"title":"Adding interactive elements is also dead simple. As I move that photo with its title and caption box, text automatically wraps around it.","caption":"","thumbnail":"http:\/\/gigaom2.files.wordpress.com\/2012\/01\/screen-shot-2012-01-19-at-12-12-07-pm.jpeg?w=48&h=48&crop=1"}, {"title":"screen-shot-2012-01-19-at-12-18-33-pm","caption":"","thumbnail":"http:\/\/gigaom2.files.wordpress.com\/2012\/01\/screen-shot-2012-01-19-at-12-18-33-pm.jpeg?w=48&h=48&crop=1"}, {"title":"Create a stunning book jacket to display on the wooden shelves of iBooks. Mine's plain enough, but gets the point across.","caption":"","thumbnail":"http:\/\/gigaom2.files.wordpress.com\/2012\/01\/screen-shot-2012-01-19-at-12-23-33-pm.jpeg?w=48&h=48&crop=1"}];  LoadingNextPreviousPicture 1 of 10 A template chooser makes it easy to get started, but things are still fully customizable after you've made your choice. You can add any kind of media using a pop-up media drawer, or by dragging and dropping elements from your desktop. Apple provides ready-made widgets for interactive galleries, images, in-line video, chapter review, Keynote slide shows, 3D .dae files and HTML code. Each of these offers additional custom settings, like captions and headings, to make sure you can present your multimedia elements exactly as you want. The interactive image feature is particularly cool, because it requires almost no media creation skills; you can simply upload your photos, and then set view points that zoom in and pan on the image as required when clicked, and also provide a helpful description of what a reader is looking at. If you just want to publish your work for private distribution, it’s easy enough once you have the elements in place; just hit the “Publish” button and save it to the folder of your choice. Then you can distribute the file to whoever you want, and they can manually upload it to their iPad via iBooks through iTunes. For those looking to publish their title in the iBookstore, there are only a few more hoops to jump through. Create an iBookstore seller account at Apple.com, download the iTunes Producer application, create an active contract if you don’t have one at iTunes Connect, and then make a sample version of your book. Books on the iBookstore max out at 2 GB and are of course still subject to Apple’s approval process. Apple has more about the distribution process in its official iBooks Author FAQ. I have a confession: I used to publish poetry anthologies in college when I was doing my graduate studies. I admit that here only to point out that this would’ve been a great way to create something like that quickly and cheaply. It’d be even better if Apple would update iBooks Author to also work with iOS’s Newsstand, but this is still a lovely start. Especially since while titles can be distributed through the iBookstore, they don’t have to be, with the big caveat that Apple’s licensing agreement specifies you can’t charge money for iBook Author books distributed outside its own marketplace. Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.A clouded view of Google MusicWill cloud computing push the BRIC market to the front?Connected world: the consumer technology revolution
• Hands on with iBooks 2′s textbooks 19 January, 2012, 10:01 am
  Apple unveiled its new interactive textbooks in iBooks 2 Thursday at its media event in NYC. Here’s a look at how those textbooks work on the iPad. Early impressions? I wish I could go back to high school. Apple’s new textbook experience feels familiar; from navigation to the way interactive elements work, the whole thing reminds me a lot of Al Gore’s collaboration with Push Pop Press on Our Choice. If you read my review, you know that’s not a bad thing. E.O. Wilson’s Life on Earth was a particular favorite, thanks to the exciting introduction video that truly increased my interest in the content. I’m not a callous 16-year old, of course, but it must stand a better chance of inspiring some emotion than a plain old hardcover. What’s inside the book is more exciting too; in landscape mode, titles display information in manageable, bite-sized chunks, dynamically laid out with interspersed graphics. Flipping the iPad to portrait mode organizes information in a more linear fashion, which is easier to digest during crunch sessions, and lays out all graphics in thumbnail mode in a column along the left-hand side. var galleryData = [{"title":"Red media types in captions of graphics let you know something is interactive in E.O. Wilson's Life on Earth. It's a better system than in other textbooks.","caption":"","thumbnail":"http:\/\/gigaom2.files.wordpress.com\/2012\/01\/ipad-textbooks1.jpg?w=48&h=48&crop=1"}, {"title":"Lots of graphics can be enlarged to occupy the whole page, which helps avoid squinting to spot detail.","caption":"","thumbnail":"http:\/\/gigaom2.files.wordpress.com\/2012\/01\/ipad-textbooks2.jpg?w=48&h=48&crop=1"}, {"title":"The \"Map It\" option and others like it will access additional resources for deeper dives.","caption":"","thumbnail":"http:\/\/gigaom2.files.wordpress.com\/2012\/01\/ipad-textbooks3.jpg?w=48&h=48&crop=1"}, {"title":"In portrait orientation, content is displayed like this, with graphics on the left and text on the right.","caption":"","thumbnail":"http:\/\/gigaom2.files.wordpress.com\/2012\/01\/ipad-textbooks4.jpg?w=48&h=48&crop=1"}, {"title":"Quizzes for comprehension follow each chapter or study unit.","caption":"","thumbnail":"http:\/\/gigaom2.files.wordpress.com\/2012\/01\/ipad-textbooks5.jpg?w=48&h=48&crop=1"}, {"title":"The movie play icon is a good way to indicate content, but isn't always used in all textbooks.","caption":"","thumbnail":"http:\/\/gigaom2.files.wordpress.com\/2012\/01\/ipad-textbooks6.jpg?w=48&h=48&crop=1"}, {"title":"Creating notes brings up this sticky interface and the iPad's on-screen keyboard.","caption":"","thumbnail":"http:\/\/gigaom2.files.wordpress.com\/2012\/01\/ipad-textbooks7.jpg?w=48&h=48&crop=1"}, {"title":"Highlights are highly versatile and customizable.","caption":"","thumbnail":"http:\/\/gigaom2.files.wordpress.com\/2012\/01\/ipad-textbooks8.jpg?w=48&h=48&crop=1"}, {"title":"The model on the right is fully rotatable, right within this layout. 3-D models are definitely a big selling point of the format.","caption":"","thumbnail":"http:\/\/gigaom2.files.wordpress.com\/2012\/01\/ipad-textbooks9.jpg?w=48&h=48&crop=1"}];  LoadingNextPreviousPicture 1 of 9 Red media types in captions of graphics let you know something is interactive in E.O. Wilson's Life on Earth. It's a better system than in other textbooks. The search, highlight, notes and bookmark functions all serve to make keeping track of what you’re reading much easier than with print books. You can even use different colored highlights or underline sections to keep track of different things. For the studious type with a complex note-taking system, this will definitely come in handy. The lesson assignments at the ends of chapters are great, since they provide a quick and easy way to instantly test knowledge retention, with feedback available on-demand. But I did have a problem with other elements. In both the Life on Earth and Pearson titles I tested, sometimes interactive content didn’t seem clearly flagged. Often I’d tap things that weren’t interactive, assuming they were, and sometimes I’d miss elements that were in fact movies or dynamic graphics. Our Choice did a better job of marking where touching something would produce a result, but that deficiency could be accounted for by early growing pains, since these are the first titles out to use the format. One thing’s clear: at a maximum of $15 a pop and with the backing of all the major U.S. educational publishers, these new digital textbooks definitely stand ready to gain some traction. Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.Will cloud computing push the BRIC market to the front?Millennials in the enterprise, part 2: benchmarking IT’s readiness for the new digital workforceNewNet 2012: companies and technologies set to disrupt

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• Open your garage door with your iPhone 1 December, 2012, 11:06 pm
  One novel thing that caught my eye from CES 2012 was the announcement of an iPhone-compatible garage door opener — of all things.Liftmaster announced its new 8360 and 8550 garage door openers (below) at CES12 with built-in RF transmitters. Called MyQ, the included radio communicates with other MyQ-enabled devices in your home.The brains of the operation is the 828LM Internet Gateway accessory (below) that plugs into your Internet router via Ethernet (video). The 828LM is the bridge that puts the 8360 and 8550 openers on the Internet where, of course, anything is possible.In addition to sending signals to a MyQ-enabled garage-door opener, the 828LM can also control the Liftmaster Remote Light Control (825LM) and Remote Light Switch (823LM) enabling you to turn on the lights in your house from your iPhone. It’s fun, but pretty rudimentary as far as home automation goes. Liftmaster mentions that more MyQ-enabled accessories are in the works in this video by Information Week’s David Berlind at CES12:My garage door opener’s remote is on the fritz (tried everything) but the the opener itself still works from the button inside the house. It’s making this new Liftmaster rig is looking sexier by the minute. The problem is that the radio and gateway that enable the iPhone control isn’t backwards-compatible with my old-school opener (or any other opener for that matter).If you want the cool, new features, you’ll have to pony up $350-$500 to have it installed by a Liftmaster dealer.But, is it worth it? It depends.It’s probably worth splurging on a new Internet-connected Liftmaster unit if you’re building a new house, replacing a garage door opener that just died (ahem!), or if you’re independently wealthy. Personally, I’m going to research the (much-less expensive) DIY Arduino route first.What do you think? Do you want one?Update: The installation video (and product page) mentions that an “annual activation fee is required.” The amount of the subscription fee isn’t mentioned on the Liftmaster website. I’ll update this post when I hear back from Liftmaster.Seriously, an annual fee to open my garage door? You’ve got to be kidding me!
• Big Apple event to feature digital textbooks (Rumor) 1 November, 2012, 11:05 pm
  On Wednesday Apple sent invitations to the media (including The Loop) to attend an event in New York City next week. The festivities will take place on Thursday, January 19, 2012 at 10:00 am ET at the Guggenheim Museum.The invitation (above) depicts a chalkboard with an outline of the New York City skyline with a giant Apple logo smack-dab in the middle. The text at the bottom reads simplyJoin us for an education announcement in the Big Apple.The rumor mill is abuzz that the event will showcase Apple’s foray into textbooks. Nick Wingfield writes for the New York Times that it will showcase a new push by Apple into the digital textbook business, but not feature any new hardware.Talk of such a move by Apple has been bubbling since a biography of Apple’s late chief executive, Steve Jobs, came out in October. In that book by Walter Isaacson, Mr. Jobs told him that he wanted to transform the textbook market by hiring prominent textbook writers to create electronic versions of them for the iPad. Mr. Jobs told the author that he believed Apple could get around state certification processes for textbooks by making them free.Makes perfect sense when you think of it.Should traditional textbook publishers be worried?
• Who cares about the iPad, I want Siri on the iPhone 4 1 September, 2012, 11:05 pm
  9to5Mac is reporting that Siri may be coming to the iPad. Yippee.Tipster Sonny Dickson noticed an apparent Apple oversight when he discovered the Siri Dictation legal boilerplate in Settings > General >  About while running iOS 5.1b3 on an iPad. To date Apple has kept Siri exclusive to the iPhone 4S (announced October 10, 2011).Since the iPad 2 uses the same A5 processor as the iPhone 4S it should be trivial to make Siri work on the iPad 2. In fact, I’m surprised it’s taken this long.If Siri comes out for the iPad 2, then can the iPhone 4 (no “S”) be far behind?Let’s be honest here, the iPhone 4 and its A4 processor should be more than capable of running Siri. Don’t forget that Siri used to run on the iPhone 4, and jailbreakers are inching ever closer to porting Siri to the iPhone 4.So why is Apple stonewalling? To protect its precious iPhone 4S sales — or so it thinks.Apple’s artificially obsoleting the iPhone 4 based on flawed logi. Apple thinks that it’s protecting its bottom line by restricting Siri to the iPhone 4S when its actually burning good will from loyal customers that bought the iPhone 4 and can’t run Siri.There are many reasons why Apple should release Siri for the iPhone 4:There are signs that iPhone 4S sales have plateaued.Google’s Voice Actions for Android doesn’t discriminate. It’s available on all Android devices shipped after August 2010.Siri running on an iPhone 4 isn’t going to cannibalize sales of a new iPhone 4S.People buy new iPhones when they: a) break/lose them, or b) swap carriers.Even the earliest iPhone 4 customers aren’t yet eligible for a 4S upgrade until June 2012.To push Siri technology further into the community and gain marketshare.If Apple doesn’t promote Siri, it’s doing her an extreme disservice. Apple needs to bring Siri to the iPad, and any iPhone it will run on in order to gain traction and acceptance with users. It would be a shame if Siri were left to relative obscurity, like FaceTime.
• Could AMD be part of Apple’s supply chain? 1 September, 2012, 1:05 am
  These days, confusion reigns about Intel’s intent for Ultrabooks.Last week, Intel gave Digitimes the slapdown to publicly reaffirm that a rose is not a rose, and a normal marketing incentive should never be confused with an implicit subsidy. On December 8 I speculated that Intel may be carefully avoiding antitrust concerns because the FTC’s Consent Decree prohibits Intel from punishing or threatening manufacturers for using its competitors processors.Has Apple been doing something behind the scenes that might warrant a backlash from Intel? Given that Apple was testing AMD processors just before Intel announced its well-funded Ultrabook Fund to subsidize an international army of MacBook Air clones, media or regulators could interpret or misinterpret Intel’s intent for the Ultrabook Fund and attack of the clones as a predatory attack on Apple for testing or perhaps even planning to use processors from an Intel competitor. Thus, it would be prudent for Intel to avoid the appearance of intent.Intel has made it very clear that appearance isn’t everything. Supposedly, Intel isn’t intentionally placing Apple in its Ultrabook Fund crosshairs. The appearance of mobilizing and subsidizing an army of MacBook Air clones to smack Apple by accident versus smacking Apple with intent would certainly make a big difference to antitrust regulators.In fact, just this week, Intel reaffirmed in a recent interview that the appearance of competition is not actual competition. Intel’s roadmap now includes a new focus on hardware, form factor and even software - which closely mirrors Apple’s products and business model. Despite the appearance that Intel’s is essentially designing laptops that look like MacBook Air clones and developing Apple-esque plans to get into the software business, Intel is not competing with Apple?Even Intel’s Ultrabook manufacturers, who are closely collaborating with Intel on co-advertising among other things, seem to be accidentally targeting Apple. In fact, Ultrabook manufacturers (like ASUS) seem so confused by their blurry crosshairs that they can’t even make out whether a MacBook Air is really a picture of a MacBook Air!ppIn the screenshot (above) from October 2011, ASUS identified the competitor to its Zenbook Ultrabook as a “Fruit Brand” (middle laptop) only to abruptly change the wording to “Top seller with Windows 7″ on the current Zenbook product page (below).Consider these facts:The Fruit Brand tested non-Intel processors in the MaBook Air not long before the Federal Trade Commission issued Intel a Consent Decree prohibiting Intel from punishing or threatening any manufacturer for using processors from Intel’s competitor, AMD.Several months later in 2011, Intel  launched an army of MacBook clones helped by generous subsidies to help non-Apple manufacturers hit price targets set by Intel - which happen to undercut pricing on the MacBook Air.Despite the appearance that Intel may be paying manufacturers to launch products aimed squarely at the MacBook Air, Intel has publicly stated that it is not going after Apple. Yet, even Intel’s own Ultrabook manufacturers seem confused about whether they are being incentivised to specifically compete with the MacBook Air or not?Regardless of whether Intel has put intentionally put Apple in its crosshairs after Apple tested AMD and ARM processors for the Air, we are waiting for Apple to reveal the missing piece from this puzzle.Did Steve Jobs — who candidly stated that Intel’s chips “suck” at graphics and liked the idea of a system-on -chip design — want to give Intel the boot, and did he boldly make plans to use AMD processors despite Intel’s history of dealing with unfaithful manufacturers? (Jobs Biography, page 493).Given Apple’s incredible talent for secrecy, we are relegated to speculation, but there is some indirect evidence that the confusion surrounding the mysterious Ultrabook campaign may be answered soon.Last month, Intel announced a $1 billion shortfall in revenues due to its computer manufacturers being impacted by the hard drive shortage in Thailand due to catastrophic flooding. AMD, on the other hand, confirmed that it was keeping an eye on the hard drive shortage but noted that its supply chain was “fine.”If Intel took a $1B hit, how did AMD’s supply chain stay high and dry?One explanation is that AMD’s manufacturing customers may have serendipitously had enough hard drives in inventory for AMD-specific products, but we’re pretty sure that the manufacturers would not have done this for AMD, since AMD was “pigeonholed” by its competition into low end computers. (Read the State of NY’s complaint against Intel here, PDF)Frankly, I find it hard to believe that computer manufacturers would go out of their way to prepare extra hard drive inventory for AMD’s pigeonholed products. Perhaps not all floods are created equal?There is also one other possibility…Amongst all the computer manufacturers, there is only one major laptop manufacturer that primarily uses SSDs (solid state drives). Apple.Theoretically, that means that Apple’s laptop supply chain would be minimally influenced by the Thai floods. In this surreal scene of fallen and flooded computer manufacturers who tragically sourced most of their traditional hard drives from submerged factories in Thailand, it is difficult to not notice that Apple has said nothing about being impacted by the floods.And one chip manufacturer recently affirmed to Wall Street that its supply chain is mostly fine.Could AMD be part of Apple’s supply chain?I don’t know about you, but a AMD MacBook Air would suit me just fine.Related:Did AMD take a bite out of Intel’s forbidden Apple? - 10/31/11Is AMD slimming down for a date with Apple? - 11/11/11Will Apple’s AMD Trinity-based MacBook Air see the light of day? - 11/21/11Are Intel’s Ultrabook subsidies a rotten apple? - 12/08/11
• Analysts vie for best prediction on Apple iPhone sales in previous quarter 2 August, 2012, 12:06 am
  Apple’s fiscal first quarter 2012 appears to be a banner quarter, analysts agree. But by how much? It depends on the number of iPhones sold, they say.Fortune’s Apple 2.0 blog recently pulled together predictions from some 40 analysts, professional and layman.As usual, the estimates of the independent analysts are higher than the pros (see here for why), but even the most pessimistic expect Apple to report record unit sales.The numbers from the 22 Wall Street analysts who have responded so far to our call for estimates range from a high of 35 million iPhones from BTIG’s Walter Piecyk to a low of 25.2 million from Gabelli’s Hendi Susanto. The average among this group is 29.74 million, which would represent a year-over-year increase of  83 percent.One of the more interesting parts of the story is a giant grid showing the analysts predictions, as well as the date of the estimate and the quality of past predictions for the previous four quarters. It appears that Q4 2011 was a tough one for some of the “reliable” analysts. Some who were reliably in the Top Ten fell 30 or more spots.
• Mac users of iChat messaging could be burned by new AIM logging 1 August, 2012, 1:05 am
  As pointed out recently by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a new logging feature introduced into AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) raises many privacy concerns. However, Mac users may not be aware that iChat uses the AIM service.Several sites pointed out implications for Mac users, including Macworld’s Business Center and Intego’s Mac Security Blog.Dan Miller at Macworld said he had downloaded the preview version of AOL’s new AIM client software, which will handle AIM messages as well as Facebook and Twitter messages. He closed the application and went back to iChat, his usual messaging client. “That’s when the weird stuff started happening:…,” he wrote. Suddenly, his iChat chats sported a warning that links and such would be logged.Now, remember, that conversation was happening in iChat, not the in new AIM client. Yet AOL was still injecting that message into chats happening via my AIM account. And it happened anytime I tried chatting with anyone, or they with me, via that account. Even after I deleted every vestige of the AIM client that I could find on my system, the messages persisted.The Mac Security Blog warns that AIM will log chats up to two months, but who knows, it could be longer.Another element of the new AIM is that the program scans all URLs in chats, in order to attempt to embed photos or videos in chat windows. Even if these links don’t lead to photos or videos, they are scanned and stored in logs. Yet this, too, cannot be turned off. The EFF says that, “it does not look like there will be a way to permanently opt out of the link downloading behavior.” It addition, “Since conversations can only be marked “off the record” from inside the new AIM, users of older versions or alternate clients will always be prone to having some of the links they send scraped, even though they won’t see them rendered.”Alarming. Perhaps it’s time for Apple to switch to another service provider? Or get into the messaging business?
• C’mon Apple, upgrade Numbers! 1 June, 2012, 1:05 am
  Back in November 2011 I wrote a post titled Where the heck is iWork ‘12? In it I complained how the last major release of Apple’s productivity software suite – iWork ‘09 — has sat idle. Coincidentally iWork ‘09 was released three years ago today (on January 6, 2009) and it hasn’t received a major update since.I know some iWork customers that are starting to regret their purchase of iWork over, say Office for Mac 2011.A comment in the Talkback by NoAxToGrind summed things up particularly well:Apple isn’t all that interested in personal computers anymore, they have phones to sell.Well said.Today I want to vent about a one particular component of iWork in particular, Numbers. When is Apple going to finally release a upgrade (not an update) to this dinosaur?Numbers couldn’t handle importing a 6MB CSV file.Numbers can’t import an Excel file with more that 64,000 rows.Numbers needs function parity with Excel.Speaking of Excel parity, how about a Format Painter feature for Numbers? This can’t be difficult to add.And one cannot talk about Excel parity without mentioning pivot tables.Lastly, Numbers performance is anything but speedy. In fact, it’s abysmal. I have a relatively tame no-formula five column table with 6000 rows and changing a value in a single cell requires 20 minutes to update the graph. That’s 20 minutes – not 20 seconds. With all the processing horsepower of a MBP, that’s absurd.Come on Apple. Upgrade Numbers!In the meantime you can give Apple your thoughts on Numbers and iWork ‘09 here: http://www.apple.com/feedback/
• Patent signals that Thunderbolt port coming to iOS devices? 1 May, 2012, 9:05 pm
  Common knowledge was that Apple was taking a backseat participation in the development of the Thunderbolt interconnect — used on the latest Macintosh models technology and on the Apple Thunderbolt Display — called a technology “collaboration” with Intel. However, according to a recent Apple patent application, the company appears to be taking a greater hand in Thunderbolt development. The result may be faster sync and faster power charging.The Patently Apple site this week discussed a patent application for the use of Thunderbolt on mobile devices. It would require a new cable and physical connector, which will be reliable and handle heat.Before going into the details of this main patent in their series of three, it should be noted that Apple states in their secondary patent application that “the present invention, connection may also be a new type of connection.”For example, “a connection may be provided between a portable media player and a display, a computer and a portable media player, or between other types of devices.” Of course if this is to apply to future iOS devices, as suggested in the quote above, Apple will have to reengineer the connector to be flat enough to fit a USB-type of device slot. The good news is that transferring data to and from an iOS device will be lighting fast as will recharging.
• Deadlines nearing for claims over frayed Apple MacBook MagSafe power connectors 1 March, 2012, 1:06 am
  The deadlines are approaching to make claims under the class action settlement relating to problems with past implementations of Apple’s MagSafe Connector on its MacBook and MacBook Pro series computer. The lawsuit was settled by Apple in November 2011.The MagSafe Connector is a fantastic addition to mobile computing: it lets users avoid dragging their computer to the floor by the power cord. Still there was growing pains with the technology.The problem with the early MagSafe was a week sleeve. Of course, the cable bent and the wires inside the plastic sleeve could become frayed and pull out. This posed a fire hazard and many customers replaced the units. Apple settled, but of course, “the settlement is not an admission of wrongdoing.”Owners of MacBooks and MacBook Pros can receive various cash payments covering the purchase of replacements adapters within the first three years following the initial purchase of the computer. The amount of the cash payments vary depending on when the Replacement Adapter was purchased.The FAQ page for the settlement is here and the timeline page is here. The date to object to the suit and to exclude oneself from the suit just passed. The site says that March 21, 2012 is the due date for the sending of claim forms, which can be downloaded from the site.Meanwhile, Patently Apple this week showed the patent drawings and description for MagSafe. The illustration is interesting, showing several types of magnet arrays on the connector.Apple’s 60 Watt MagSafe Power Adapter features a magnetic DC connector that ensures that the power cable will disconnect if it experiences undue strain and helps prevent fraying or weakening of the cables over time. In addition, the magnetic DC helps guide the plug into the system for a quick and secure connection.
• Why Apple gadgets can’t be made in the U.S. 22 January, 2012, 11:06 pm
  During Thursday night’s debate in South Carolina CNN host and moderator John King asked the four remaining GOP candidates their opinions about Apple Inc., which “has 500,000 employees in China” and (obviously) much fewer in the United States.A New York Times piece published Saturday discloses that President Obama also posed a similar question to Steve Jobs at a dinner with Silicon Valley power brokers less than eight months before his death.“What would it take to make iPhones in the United States?”The NYT piece by Charles Duhigg and Keith Bradsher is a must-read for anyone that carries an iPhone in their pocket or has an iPad in their bag. It’s chock-full of insight into Apple’s decision to move its manufacturing offshore, after making its products exclusively in the United States up until the Macintosh in 1984.It isn’t just that workers are cheaper abroad. Rather, Apple’s executives believe the vast scale of overseas factories as well as the flexibility, diligence and industrial skills of foreign workers have so outpaced their American counterparts that “Made in the U.S.A.” is no longer a viable option for most Apple products.The article it loaded with anecdotes and some of the most surprising tidbits are about contract manufacturer Foxconn Technology which makes most of Apple’s hardware these days. It’s referred to in the article as Foxconn City because it employees more than 230,000 — many working six days a week, 12 hours per day, for less than $17 a day.This is my current favorite:The facility’s central kitchen cooks an average of three tons of pork and 13 tons of rice a day.Wait, what?!Read it, and then chime in in the TalkBack with your favorite anecdote.Photo: The White House (via LA Times)

22

MacNn

• New RIM CEO will be 'more consumer oriented,' expand BB10 23 January, 2012, 6:55 am
  RIM's newly appointed CEO Thorsten Heins during a conference call discussing his new position made clear there would be a shift in strategy early on. Expanding on hints from earlier, he said the company would be "closer to our consumer bases" than its still primarily enterprise-focused strategy. More of the attention would be in the US, an area that has been a weak point as Android and the iPhone have taken over....
• Apple may have moved 350,000 iBooks textbooks in three days 23 January, 2012, 6:30 am
  Apple may have seen as many as 350,000 iBooks textbooks downloaded since launch. Global Equities Research claims to have a special tracking method that showed the relatively brisk take-up. As many as 90,000 copies of iBooks Author had been downloaded at the same time....
• Sony preps stacked, HDR-ready CMOS camera sensor for phones 23 January, 2012, 5:55 am
  Sony started off the week by unveiling a new camera sensor that may be a clue as to both Sony and Apple plans. The backside-illuminated CMOS sensor stacks the pixel layer over the signal chip, shrinking the overall size. Image quality also benefits: with the two layers formed independently, and the pixel layer not having to compete for space with an analog logic chip, both the pixels and the signal chip layer can each be focused more on their respective tasks....
• Pew: tablet ownership doubled in US over the holidays 22 January, 2012, 10:40 pm
  Ownership of both tablets and e-readers exploded through the holidays, Pew found on Monday. About 10 percent of Americans owned each in December, but both had surged to 19 percent in January. There was relatively little overlap, as 18 percent owned one or the other before the holiday rush while 29 percent had either an e-reader or a tablet in January....
• Vodafone Australia first carrier to get Galaxy Tab post-ban 22 January, 2012, 10:15 pm
  Vodafone became the first Australian carrier to begin offering the Galaxy Tab 10.1 following the reversed preliminary ban. The Android tablet's 3G version comes subsidized with the device price factored into the monthly rate. It can cost as little as $39 AUD ($41 US) a month on a two-year contract with a 1.5GB monthly cap or as much as $109 AUD ($114 US) on a one-year contract with a large 16GB cap....
• RIM CEOs resign in surprise step, Heins takes over 22 January, 2012, 8:00 pm
  In a surprise step, RIM confirmed late Sunday that its two CEOs Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis would resign from their top positions. The two would stay on as board members and shareholders for the BlackBerry designer, they told the Wall Street Journal early, but would hand over direct leadership to one person, current COO Thorsten Heins. Board member Barbara Stymiest would be promoted to an independent board chairman....
• Virtual projection demoed with iPhones 22 January, 2012, 3:35 pm
  Researcher trio Dominikus Baur, Sebastian Boring, and Steve Feiner have put forward a paper showing how virtual projection could be a staple feature of smartphones and tablets in the future. Using iPhones as testbeds, the technique would send a rapid-fire series of screenshots to a desktop display or TV using the rear camera to provide a frame of reference for where the image appears. It not only wouldn't need the exact positioning of a real projector but could be resized at will or support multiple projections, either from multiple devices or just one....
• EU plans tougher data collection, e-waste rules 22 January, 2012, 3:05 pm
  The European Union moved forward on two key policy changes to potentially improve technology adoption. European Commission VP Vivane Reding in a speech at the DLD conference on Sunday said the EU would have tougher rules on data collection as of January 25, according to Reuters. Companies would be required to tell officials as soon as data was known to have been misused or stolen, and they would have to give users a right to export, import, and completely wipe their information....
• Jobs family, trust won't stand for election to Disney board 22 January, 2012, 10:05 am
  The Walt Disney Company in its 2012 proxy statement (below) indirectly confirmed that the late Steve Jobs' family or his trust won't be seeking a board position at the Disney shareholder meeting on March 13. Although the family is the largest individual shareholder with a 7.7 percent stake, no mention is made of them in the filing beyond their investment. It also shows that Jobs' option holdings were gone at the end of Disney's fiscal year....
• HTC, IBM team to try and bring Android to workplaces 21 January, 2012, 4:30 pm
  HTC and IBM together said in an interview Friday that they were working together to get Android into the workplace. IBM's business apps were running on HTC's phones and tablets, HTC's Global Enterprise and Services director David Jaeger told eWeek. On its side, HTC was making sure both that the devices took full advantage of the IBM apps and that they "focused extensively" on security....

12

Macrumors

7

SlashDot

• How the US Lost Out On iPhone Work 22 January, 2012, 6:17 am
  Hugh Pickens writes "Not long ago, Apple boasted that its products were made in America. Today, almost all of the 70 million iPhones, 30 million iPads and 59 million other products Apple sold last year are manufactured overseas. 'It isn't just that workers are cheaper abroad,' write Charles Duhig and Keith Bradsher. 'Rather, Apple's executives believe the vast scale of overseas factories as well as the flexibility, diligence and industrial skills of foreign workers have outpaced their American counterparts so much that "Made in the U.S.A." is no longer a viable option for most Apple products.' Apple executives say that going overseas, at this point, is their only option and recount the time Apple redesigned the iPhone's screen at the last minute, forcing an assembly line overhaul. A foreman immediately roused 8,000 workers inside the company's dormitories, and then each employee was given a biscuit and a cup of tea, guided to a workstation and within half an hour started a 12-hour shift fitting glass screens into beveled frames. Within 96 hours, the plant was producing over 10,000 iPhones a day. 'The speed and flexibility is breathtaking,' says one Apple executive. 'There's no American plant that can match that.' Apple's success has benefited the U.S. economy by empowering entrepreneurs and creating jobs at companies like cellular providers and businesses shipping Apple products. But ultimately, Apple executives say curing unemployment is not Apple's job. 'We don't have an obligation to solve America's problems. Our only obligation is making the best product possible.'" Read more of this story at Slashdot.
• Jailbreak For A5 iOS Devices Released 21 January, 2012, 5:12 pm
  tlhIngan writes "It certainly took long enough, but the untethered jailbreak for Apple's A5 based iOS devices (iPad 2, iPhone 4s) has been released (official site, struggling due to traffic). It's currently only available for OS X, though ports of it to Windows are forthcoming." Read more of this story at Slashdot.
• DOJ Investigates Google, Apple, and Others For 'No Poaching' Agreement 20 January, 2012, 8:16 am
  CSHARP123 writes "The Department of Justice launched an investigation into the 'No Poaching' agreement between Apple and Google in 2010, but details of the case were only made public for the first time yesterday. TechCrunch was the first to sift through the documents, and has uncovered some ostensibly incriminating evidence against not only Google and Apple, but Pixar, Lucasfilm, Adobe, Intel, and Intuit, as well. According to the filings from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in San Jose, these companies did indeed enter 'no poach' agreements with each other, and agreed to refrain from soliciting employees. The documents also indicate they collectively sought to limit their employees' power to negotiate for higher salaries." Read more of this story at Slashdot.
• Apple Unveils Software To Reinvent the Textbook 19 January, 2012, 9:34 am
  redletterdave writes "At the Guggenheim Museum in New York, Apple announced on Thursday it would update its iBooks platform to include textbook capabilities and also added a new platform called iBooks Author, which lets anyone easily create and publish their own e-books. Apple's senior VP of marketing, Phil Schiller, introduced iBooks 2, which has a new textbook experience for the iPad. The books themselves display larger images, and searching content is made significantly easier: all users need to do is tap on a word and they are taken straight to an appropriate glossary or index section in the back of the book. Navigating pages and searching is also easy and fluid, and at the end of each chapter is a full review with questions and pictures. If you want the answers to the questions, all you need to do is tap the question to get instant feedback. Apple also launched the iBooks Author app, which lets anyone easily create any kind of textbook and publish it to the iBookstore, and the new iTunes U platform, which helps teachers and students communicate better, and even send each other materials and notes created with iBooks Author. All of the apps are free, and available for any and all students, from K-12 to major universities." Read more of this story at Slashdot.
• Fake IPad 2s Made of Clay Sold At Canadian Stores 18 January, 2012, 7:55 pm
  SpuriousLogic writes in with a link to a story about some Canadian consumers who thought they were getting and iPad 2 but instead got the makings of the world's oldest tablets. "As many as 10 fake iPad 2s, all made of slabs of modeling clay, were recently sold at electronic stores in Vancouver, British Columbia. Best Buy and Future Shop have launched investigations into how the scam was pulled off. The tablet computers, like most Apple products, are known for their sleek and simple designs. But there's no mistaking the iPad for one of the world's oldest 'tablet devices.' Still, most electronic products cannot be returned to stores. For the the stores and customers to be fooled by the clay replacements, the thieves must have successfully weighed out the clay portions and resealed the original Apple packaging. Future Shop spokesman Elliott Chun told CTV that individuals bought the iPads with cash, replaced them with the model clay, then returned the packages to the stores. The returned fakes were restocked on the shelve and sold to new, unwitting customers." Read more of this story at Slashdot.
• Apple Intends To 'Digitally Destroy' Textbook Publishing 17 January, 2012, 2:57 pm
  bonch writes "Apple is expected to announce e-book creation and social interaction tools at their January 19 media event taking place in New York, the heart of the publishing industry. Along with expanded interactivity features such as test-taking, the event is expected to showcase an ePub 3-compatible 'Garageband for e-books' to address the lack of simple digital publishing tools. Steve Jobs reportedly considered textbook publishing to be 'an $8 billion a year industry ripe for digital destruction' and was directly involved with Apple's efforts in this area until his death." Read more of this story at Slashdot.
• Apple Sues Samsung In Germany Again 17 January, 2012, 11:25 am
  New submitter tguyton writes "Apple is going after Samsung again in Germany, this time over 10 phones including the Galaxy S II. It should come before the courts in August, a month before their tablet case in September." Read more of this story at Slashdot.
• iTunes Match Expands To Latin America, Netherlands, Baltics 17 January, 2012, 8:45 am
  Sir Mal Fet writes "iTunes Match, Apple's service that allows re-downloading all your music, ripped CDs, and other music files across all your libraries using the iCloud service, has been made available in most of Latin America, the Netherlands, and the Baltic states. " Here's one user's review of the service. Is it worth the $25/year? Do you use the service?" Read more of this story at Slashdot.
• Preliminary ITC Ruling: Motorola Not In Violation of Apple's Patents 16 January, 2012, 5:33 pm
  SpuriousLogic writes with a preliminary ruling in the ITC case between Apple and Motorola. Quoting eWeek: "Motorola is celebrating an initial triumph over Apple, after a U.S. International Trade Commission administrative law judge issued an initial determination (PDF) finding that Motorola Mobility has not violated any of the three patents listed in an October 2010 lawsuit Apple filed against the Droid maker. ... The determination isn't the final say ... in March, the ruling will be reviewed by a six-member ITC panel that will announce the ultimate ruling. However, according to Zacks Equity Research, it's unusual for the ITC panel, which has the power to block device imports, to contradict a judge's determination." Read more of this story at Slashdot.
• Apple To Release List of Companies That Build Its Products Around the World 15 January, 2012, 11:41 am
  mathfeel writes "Indulge me in some post hoc reasoning here: After last week's episode of This American Life "Mr. Daisey and the Apple Factory", a very interesting show, Apple announced that 'For the first time, Apple has released a list of companies that build its products around the world. In another first, the company also announced that it will allow an independent third party to check on working conditions at those factories, and to make its findings public.' But before you celebrate Apple's gesture (or complain about the potential increase in electronic price): 'It doesn't appear that Apple's partnership with the FLA will increase transparency in this regard either. The FLA will audit 5% of the factories that make Apple products, but like Apple, it will not name which ones it checks or where it finds violations.'" Read more of this story at Slashdot.

6

Just Another IPhone Blog

2

LATimesBlog

• White House joins Google+ ahead of State of the Union speech 22 January, 2012, 5:34 pm
  The White House is now on Google+ and no, it's not technically a move to help President Obama get reelected -- there is a separate Obama 2012 page for that. So why is the Obama administration now on Google's social network? The State of the Union speech on Tuesday is at least one reason to join Google+. The annual speech will be broadcast across major TV networks and an enhanced version will be streamed online to the White House's mobile apps and at whitehouse.gov/sotu, with "charts, stats and data that helped inform President Obama's policy decisions as he delivers his speech to the nation," the White House said. After the speech, which starts at 6 p.m. Pacific time, White House officials will field questions throughout the week regarding the speech, the president's policies, and the direction in which the country and economy is headed. Those questions will be taken from Twitter, Facebook and (as of this week) Google+. Down the road, the White House may use Google+ Hangouts, the social network's group video-chatting feature, to reach constituents. "The President and First Lady often call the White House 'The People’s House.' Well, this is another way we're opening our doors (virtually) to citizens around the country," said Kori Schulman, the deputy director of outreach at the White House Office of Digital Strategy, in a blog post. "On our Google+ page, we'll host regular 'White House Hangouts' with administration officials on a range of issues and topics. "Some Google+ users will be invited to join the Hangout with the White House and have a conversation with policy experts. But the best part is that even if you're not 'in' the Hangout, you can watch the whole thing live on WhiteHouse.gov, on our Google+ page or on the White House YouTube channel." The White House currently has no Google+ Hangouts planned. Although the White House's Google+ page isn't an official campaign tool, there is no doubt that the Obama administration and his reelection campaign staff are looking to use every tool possible to reach voters this year. After all, the president's use of social media in his winning of the 2008 election is often cited as one of the reasons he was able to build up support among voters. The Technology blog even described Obama as "the first social media president." One other reason the White House might want to be on Google+ -- Republican rivals looking to knock Obama out of office are there too. RELATED: President Obama's 2012 campaign joins Google+ Facebook to launch its own political action committee Obama 2012 campaign joins Instagram on eve of Iowa caucuses -- Nathan Olivarez-Giles Nathan Olivarez-Giles on Google+ Twitter.com/nateog Image: A screen shot of the White House page on Google+. Credit: Google
• Sony PlayStation Vita hands-on [Video] 21 January, 2012, 3:42 pm
  Sony's PlayStation Vita has got me intrigued. As much of the gaming world has moved toward smartphones and tablets, I've wondered if consumers (or myself as a gamer) would take to new handheld consoles the way they did with the Vita's predecessor, the PlayStation Portable. But after spending a few minutes with the Vita in my hands at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week, my interest has piqued. If you've played video games on the PlayStation Portable, which affectionately became known to most as the PSP, then the Vita will look very familiar at first glance. Joysticks and buttons are placed to the left or right of a nice, wide display and the graphics produced by the system are detailed and sharp. But unlike the PSP, there are many features of the Vita that better equip Sony's handheld formula for competition in a smartphone-riddled future. On the front of the Vita is a 5-inch OLED touchscreen and a similarly sized touch panel can be found on the back of the device. I played a bit of Uncharted: Golden Abyss, one of the titles that will launch with the Vita during its U.S. release on Feb. 22, and the game used traditional controls and the touchscreen. And switching between the different control options was intuitive and easy. The Vita can also be used as a controller for Sony's PlayStation 3 home console, which could bring touch controls to even more games if developers embrace this feature. Though I didn't get to spend a long time with Uncharted or the Vita, the potential for some really creative game-play options was obvious.  The Vita will also run a number of smartphone-like apps, including apps for the photo-sharing site Flickr and video-streaming service Netflix, local-discovery app FourSquare and social networks Facebook and Twitter. There are also two cameras on the Vita, one on the front and one on the back, and in the few test shots I snapped on the CES showroom floor, I have to say I was a bit disappointed. Photos didn't seem to be high quality and colors were washed out and not sharp. Sony wouldn't say what the resolution of the cameras would be for the U.S. release of the Vita, but the Japanese version (which went on sale on Dec. 17) featured VGA-quality cameras in front and back with a resolution of 640-by-480 pixels, which is about the same as an Apple iPad 2.  We'll be getting a review unit of the Vita in a few weeks, and I'll reserve final judgement for then, but after my hands-on time with the system, there's a lot to like and a few things that I'm not so excited about (aside from the camera). One of them is the pricing of Vita's memory cards.  The Vita will sell for either $249 in a Wi-Fi-only version or $299 for a 3G/Wi-Fi model that runs on AT&T's network. AT&T is offering no-contract data plans for the Vita of $14.99 for 200 megabytes of data per month, or two gigabytes for $25. Games will sell for about $9.99 to $49.99, according to Sony. All of that seems to be pretty fair pricing in my opinion. However, memory cards for the Vita -- which you will definitely need if you want to store any apps, downloadable games, movies, music, photos or any other content on the Vita -- are sold separately. A four-gigabyte memory card will sell for $19.99. Not bad. An eight-gigabyte card will sell for $29.99 and a 16-gigabyte card will sell for $59.99. Getting a bit higher. And, a 32-gigabyte card will sell for a whopping $99.99. It seems a bit painful to think you may end up spending an extra $100 after plunking down as much as $300 for a Vita, but this is the current reality, depending on how much stuff you'd like to store in the device. Ouch.  RELATED: Nintendo's Wii U and Zelda in HD, hands-on [Video] Hands-on with Alan Wake's American Nightmare on Xbox 360 [Video]  Nintendo's Fils-Aime on declining Wii sales, prepping for Wii U [Video] -- Nathan Olivarez-Giles Nathan Olivarez-Giles on Google+ Twitter.com/nateog Photo: The game Uncharted: Golden Abyss on the Sony PlayStation Vita. Credit: Armand Emamdjomeh / Los Angeles Times
• Origami stroller charges iPhone, has headlights but no airbags 21 January, 2012, 9:00 am
  A digital stroller? It's happening, people. A company called 4moms has just released the Origami, a baby stroller packed with features that you never knew you needed. Power folding with the push of a button? Done. Daytime running lights and special pathway lights to help you see at night? Yup. A digital dashboard that displays temperature, speed, miles covered during your current trip, total miles covered, and whether or not a baby is actually in the stroller? It's got that too. The Origami debuted at CES 2012 and is already available at some fancy baby stores like Giggle and Right Start. A 4moms spokeswoman said it will be available at diapers.com and buybuybaby.com in the next few days, and at target.com in the next few weeks. The stroller costs a cool $849, which may sound expensive to normal people, but is actually comfortably within the range of higher-end strollers. The standard Bugaboo Chameleon, for example, will set you back $880. The power for the power-folding feature, the lights and even the cellphone charging is produced by an onboard generator that charges the stroller as you push it. You do have the option to plug the stroller into the wall if you need to, and to fold and unfold the stroller manually if you're desperate, but the company says even a short walk is enough to keep the stroller powered for days. One drawback is that it is kind of heavy for a stroller -- it weighs 32 pounds in toddler mode -- but you know, it's got that onboard generator. You can't have everything.   ALSO: Next generation of smartphones may be waterproof Video baby monitors are tapping iOS and Android devices Virtual dressing room eliminates need to take off your clothes -- Deborah Netburn Photo: The new Origami stroller by 4moms comes equipped with an online generator that allows parents to charge their cellphones while strolling with their baby. Credit: Courtesy of 4moms. 
• Start-up spotlight: Capsule aims to be group events' one-stop app 20 January, 2012, 7:39 pm
  Capsule, an event-based sharing platform, launched out of private beta with a website and free iPhone and Android apps this week. The Manhattan Beach start-up provides a suite of tools to help users capture the "entire life-cycle of group events," including invites and RSVPs, group texting, instant photo-sharing in real time and archiving.  During a demo for The Times, co-founders Cyrus Farudi, who is chief executive, and Omri Cohen, who is chief technology officer, said they were trying to create a central location for events that would enable participants to better plan and share their experiences together. Before Capsule, they said, the process was much more disjointed -- for instance, receiving an invite through Evite, texting friends individually before and tweeting during the event, and checking each participant's individual Facebook accounts afterward to see photos.  "No one has that complete solution over the marketplace, and I think that's one thing that sets us apart," said Farudi, formerly of Flipswap. Capsule "solves the event life-cycle management problem." Farudi, 31, and Cohen, 29, said they came up with the idea after having to attend 14 weddings and nine bachelor parties in one year. Founded less than a year ago, the start-up is angel-funded and joins a fast-growing group of emerging tech companies in the Los Angeles area, which some people have dubbed Silicon Beach. On Friday, a day after Capsule was released to the public, Farudi declined to say how many people had joined but said the launch was "going really well." Capsule can be found at www.trycapsule.com. RELATED: Silicon Beach: Real or high-tech hype? Elevator Labs: An L.A. start-up building L.A. start-ups L.A. start-up looks for the most interesting engineers in the world -- Andrea Chang Twitter.com/byandreachang Image: Screen shot of Capsule's home page. Credit: Capsule
• Facebook wants Paul Ceglia to pay more than $84,000 in attorney fees 20 January, 2012, 6:36 pm
  Facebook's lawyers are asking a judge to order Paul Ceglia to foot the bill for more than $84,000 in fees. Ceglia, the New York man who claims he's entitled to half of Mark Zuckerberg's multibillion-dollar stake in Facebook, was fined for refusing to turn over email account information and ordered to pay reasonable attorneys' fees.  Facebook's lawyers are also asking Leslie G. Foschio, the federal magistrate in Buffalo, N.Y., to order Ceglia not to file any additional "non-responsive papers or pleadings in the case" until he pays up. Ceglia's lawyer, Dean Boland, said he has not had a chance to review the court filing in detail, but said he and his client would prepare a response over the coming week. "If we feel it ought to be modified, we will respond accordingly," Boland said. Boland, who's from Cleveland, took a shot at Facebook's lawyers for charging Manhattan hourly rates in a case unfolding in Buffalo. "Cleveland and Buffalo are pretty identical demographically, and I can tell you that no lawyer would survive in the city of Cleveland charging that much an hour because no one would be able to hire him," Boland said. Orin Snyder, the most senior Gibson Dunn partner, charged $716.25 an hour. His most junior associate charged $337.50 an hour, according to the filing. Facebook, which is on the verge of an initial public offering that could value the world's most popular social networking company at $100 billion, can clearly afford it. RELATED: Federal judge orders Paul Ceglia to pay fine in Facebook case Paul Ceglia seeks Mark Zuckerberg sanctions Facebook claimant Paul Ceglia returns to U.S. to press his case -- Jessica Guynn Photo: The Facebook sign outside the company's new campus in Menlo Park, Calif. Credit:  David Paul Morris / Bloomberg  
• If you publish with iBooks Author, does Apple 'own' you? 20 January, 2012, 5:46 pm
  Nothing too controversial there, right? Wrong. By Thursday afternoon, tech bloggers began to complain  about a clause in iBook Author's End User Licence Agreement that restricts how resulting ebooks can be sold, and by Friday the torrent of anger reached a fever pitch. Here's the offending statement as it appears in the iBooks Author "About" box: "IMPORTANT NOTE: If you charge a fee for any book or other work you generate using this software (a “Work”), you may only sell or distribute such Work through Apple (e.g., through the iBookstore) and such distribution will be subject to a separate agreement with Apple." In other words, Apple invites you to use its publishing software to do some really cool stuff that most of us could never dream of doing on our own, all for free. Just know that if you decide to sell what you've made, Apple will most likely get a cut of the profits. Whether this is an unprecedented and gross abuse of power on Apple's part, or simply the company's way of making money off its new software, has been a hot topic of debate in the blogosphere. In a scathing story headlined "iBooks Author: You Work For Apple Now," PCmag.com's Sascha Segan expressed his outrage over the clause in no uncertain terms. "With iBooks Author, Apple just made a hideous play to kill authors' rights over their work," he writes. Adding later, "Apple owns the creative process of anyone who uses the tool. If you're looking to create an iBook, you've just given Apple total distribution control over your work. That's as good as partial ownership." But Paul Carr, writing on the blog PandoDaily.com came to Apple's defense. Sort of. "Apple has released iBooks Author for free with one goal -- to get more books into the iBooks store," he writes. "By taking a cut from all of the paid-for books produced in that way, they stand to make more than enough money to justify giving away the tools involved." He adds that we are of course free to boycott Apple's new software if we don't like the terms of its agreement. "There are a hundred other ways to produce ebooks, and there are a half dozen other platforms on which to sell them. Pick one," he writes. "But we won’t. We’ll pick Apple, and we’ll like it. Because this is Apple, and that’s what we do." ALSO: Apple says iBooks 2 app reinvents textbooks 'The Numberlys' app for the iPad: Storytelling of the future Apple's iBooks 2, iBooks Author: Bids to own publishing's future -- Deborah Netburn Photo: Apple's iBook Author app on an iMac, and an iBook on an iPad. Credit: Apple
• Advertising spending online expected to surpass print this year 20 January, 2012, 3:04 pm
  U.S. online advertising spending is expected to grow 23.3% to $39.5 billion this year, pushing it ahead of total advertising spending in print newspapers and magazines, according to an eMarketer report. Meanwhile, print advertising spending is expected to fall to $33.8 billion in 2012 from $36 billion last year, the market research company said. "Advertisers' comfort level with integrated marketing is greater than ever, and this is helping more advertisers -- and more large brands -- put a greater share of dollars online," said David Hallerman, eMarketer's principal analyst. The 2012 estimates come after a robust year for U.S. advertising in 2011. eMarketer said online ad spending grew 23% to $32.03 billion last year while total ad spending rose 3.4% to $158.9 billion.   The market research company said firms are funneling more advertising money online because of the growing amount of time that consumers spend with digital platforms and advertisers' view of the Internet as a more measurable medium, especially as the soft economy "forces businesses to be more accountable with their ad dollars." Overall, total media ad spending in the U.S. is expected to grow an estimated 6.7% to $169.48 billion this year, boosted by the elections and summer Olympics in London, eMarketer said. RELATED: Twitter begins selling political advertising Microsoft, AOL and Yahoo team up in online ad deal Advertisers start using facial recognition to tailor pitches -- Andrea Chang Twitter.com/byandreachang Image: Print versus online advertising spending. Credit: eMarketer
• 'I'm, like, Sheryl Sandberg,' Facebook exec tells Valley Girl 20 January, 2012, 2:13 pm
  Never thought I'd hear Facebook's chief operating officer say: "I'm, like, Sheryl Sandberg."  But that's what you get (and then some) from this entertaining interview with Jesse Draper, host of the Web's "The Valley Girl Show" (profiled last year by the San Francisco Chronicle) who rocks a pretty-in-pink wardrobe and lots of girly asides while interviewing Silicon Valley legends. This week Draper is totally focusing on "Rockin' Women." So she paid a visit to Sandberg at Facebook's splashy new Menlo Park campus. Check out Sandberg's thoughts on the "stalled revolution" of women at the top of corporate America (Sandberg sits on the boards of Disney and Starbucks and pushing women to "sit at the table" is a cause she frequently champions) and her lesser-known erstwhile career as an aerobics instructor (leg warmers and all).  Like, seriously. RELATED: Facebook nabs exec at Google War heats up for top Silicon Valley talent Facebook encourages users to share more by adding new apps -- Jessica Guynn
• VW's Super Bowl teaser video 'The Bark Side' goes viral 20 January, 2012, 1:10 pm
  This post has been updated. See the note below for details. A Volkswagen teaser that features dogs dressed as "Star Wars" characters barking out the "Imperial March" theme song associated with the evil Darth Vader has gone viral, generating more than 3 million views on YouTube since Wednesday night. VW created the teaser, called "The Bark Side," in advance of a commercial it plans to air during the third quarter of the Super Bowl, scheduled for Feb. 5. The teaser aired during Wednesday's episode of "The Middle" on ABC. It was also posted to YouTube that evening. Volkswagen gained both critical acclaim and sales publicity during last year's Super Bowl, when it aired "The Force." That commercial also used the "Imperial March" music from "Star Wars" and showed a child in a Darth Vader costume attempting unsuccessfully to use the movies' legendary "force" on a variety of household appliances and other objects. To his surprise, he's able to use the force to start a Passat -– with a little unobserved help from his father. [Updated at 12:31 p.m., Jan. 19: Mike Sheldon, chief executive of Deutsch LA, the Marina del Rey firm that does the creative work for Volkswagen, told The Times' Meg James that "The Bark" was the firm's way of trying to stay "one step ahead" of the competition. He added that the teaser was trending "faster than 'The Force did, and this isn't even a Super Bowl ad."] RELATED: Volt may finally get carpool lane permit Toyota shows off smallest, cheapest Prius GM once again world's biggest automobile seller -- Jerry Hirsch twitter.com/LATimesJerry
• Summify flocks to Twitter to help users discover, filter content 20 January, 2012, 11:37 am
  How to sum up Twitter's latest acquisition? Discover, discover, discover. Twitter snapped up Canadian startup Summify on Thursday. It's little bit of genius: Summify found the stuff that mattered to you (it generated a daily email with links to the most shared content in your social networks). And that's the one thing that Jack Dorsey wants Twitter to do much, much better: Filter through millions of updates and massive amounts of information overload that flood users' streams to uncover the hidden gems. And he's been pecking away at how best to do that. Last month while unveiling Twitter's latest design, Dorsey said one of his primary objectives is to "bubble up" the most relevant tweets, messages of up to 140 characters in length that users broadcast. So Twitter is shutting down Summify (to the great chagrin of its users) and its team is zipping down to Twitter to focus on Twitter's "Discover" tab, which suggests content to users to encourage them to stick around longer and do more on Twitter. The yawning need for more and better curation on the Web is, of course, not unique to Twitter (yes, we're talking about you, Facebook). Twitter does have a secret weapon: Flipboard's Mike McCue, who sits on Twitter's board and who is probably an excellent source of advice and wisdom on the subject for Dorsey. RELATED: Twitter tries to turn 140 characters into money High-tech boom brings a sense of deja vu to San Francisco Twitter's Fly redesign looks to be faster, simpler and more personal -- Jessica Guynn Photo: Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey. Credit: Dave Getzschman

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AppleInsider

• US tablet ownership nearly doubles to 19% over holidays 23 January, 2012, 6:16 am
  With Apple's iPad continuing to dominate the tablet market, total tablet sales in the U.S. nearly doubled to 19 percent ownership among adults after the holiday shopping season, according to a new report.
• RIM co-founders step down as chairmen, CEOs 22 January, 2012, 8:45 pm
  Research in Motion co-founders Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie have resigned from their posts as co-chairmen of the board and co-Chief Executive Officers and are to be replaced by former Chief Operating Officer Thorsten Heins as CEO and Barbara Stymiest as independent chair.
• Apple's overseas manufacturing operations offer flexibility, not just savings - report 22 January, 2012, 1:45 am
  An in-depth report on Apple's manufacturing operations details the gains in flexibility, diligence and skilled labor availability that the company gains from producing its devices overseas, while offering rare commentary from its current and former executives.
• Video: Weekend Tech Review: iBooks Event Week 3 2012 22 January, 2012, 1:21 am
  Here's a video recap of the top tech stories involving Apple for the third week of 2012, including a look at Apple's iBooks Event, product news, the week's business stories, and upcoming events.
• Apple working to adopt 802.11ac 5G Gigabit WiFi this year 21 January, 2012, 12:34 pm
  Apple is expected to rapidly deploy support for the new 802.11ac specification this year, adding so called "Gigibit WiFi" to new AirPort base stations, Time Capsule, Apple TV, notebooks and potentially its mobile devices.
• Amended class-action complaint alleges Apple, publishers engaged in 'price-fixing conspiracy' 20 January, 2012, 8:30 pm
  Even as Apple unveiled new partnerships with publishers focusing on ebooks and digital textbooks earlier this week, lawyers have amended a class-action lawsuit against Apple and five of the six big publishers accusing them of "deep antagonism" toward Amazon and its pricing scheme.
• Acer, Asustek, Lenovo expected to begin adopting Thunderbolt this spring 20 January, 2012, 6:05 pm
  Apple won't be selling the only PC maker selling high end notebooks that look the MacBook Air and pack Thunderbolt connectivity; Acer, Asustek, Lenovo are expected to introduce new Thunderbolt-equipped Ultrabooks in the second quarter of 2012.
• Briefly: Canadian Galaxy Tab sale, Camera-free iPhones in Singapore 20 January, 2012, 4:50 pm
  Samsung has instituted a temporary sale for its Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Canada to boost sales while Singapore carrier M1 is now officially carrying camera-less iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S models following a premature launch earlier in January.
• Apple claims ownership of digital photography patents asserted by Kodak 20 January, 2012, 4:20 pm
  Apple has asked a bankruptcy court to block Kodak from obtaining loans using certain patents as collateral, arguing that it believes the disputed Kodak patents actually belong to Apple.
• New Apple suit claims Galaxy Nexus infringes on 'slide-to-unlock' feature 20 January, 2012, 2:50 pm