If you want to buy an iPod shuffle or iPod classic from Apple, you should do it sooner rather than later. We’ve heard those two iPods are getting the axe this year.
The idea is that Apple wants to focus on touch screen devices that have some innovation left in them. Saving some serious time and effort, here is what we wrote two weeks ago:
Fortune just released a new Kindle eBook entitledAll about Steve: The Story of Steve Jobs and Apple from the Pages of Fortune…
Steve Jobs’ legacy is clear: The most innovative business leader of our time, the man FORTUNE named CEO of the Decade in 2009. Now from the pages of FORTUNE comes an anthology of 17 classic stories spanning the years 1983 to 2011 about the cultural icon who revolutionized computing, telephones, movies, music, retailing, and product design. The stories lay out in unparalleled detail the career of a man with relentless drive and a single underlying passion—to carry out his vision of how all of us would use technology. Writes managing editor Andy Serwer in the book’s foreward: “In the end he was proved right a billion times over, and his company Apple became one of the most successful enterprises on the planet.” All these stories are the product of deep reporting. In many cases FORTUNE’s writers spent hours interviewing Jobs and delving into his mind. The result is a singular journalistic collection, which will leave you with a comprehensive picture of Steve Jobs and Apple, a picture that is complex in the making yet simple in its triumph.
The report includes Adam Lashinsky’s recent investigative piece, Inside Apple, which gives a behind-the scenes look at how the company really works. Lashinsky is also writing a standalone book on Apple due later.
Full Press Release and blown up ‘book cover’ follows:
MacRumorspoints to a new service by Comcast which appears to mirror the functionality of a Slingbox or EyeTV, allowing a cable box to ‘Sling’ the video to an iPod around the house.
Currently, Xfinity customers can use the Xfinity TV app to watch On Demand programming, search TV listings, and schedule DVR recordings.
There is no indication of release dates or availability, but AnyPlay will be available in limited markets at first, and spreading to all Comcast customers eventually.
This is in contrast to their current app which streams on-Demand video over the internet to iPads which are on Comcast IP addresses with adjacent cable service. Other US cable companies like Time Warner and Optimum offer Apps which stream many channels.
Check the red area above right for why this isn’t going to be very fantastic.
If you want this kind of functionality right now, but not tied to a cable company and their stipulations (and the ability to stream to devices outside your home without an extra cost), look into Slingboxes or El Gato’s EyeTV.
Among a bunch of Google+ improvements announced today, Google said it would bring Hangouts to mobile phones including iPhone (and iPad 2 and 4G iPod likely). We’re big fans of Google Hangouts and having it on mobile is going to be really great. They are also offering Hangout broadcasts which might be fun ways to broadcast a keynote for instance :D
Google announced a bunch of other big Google Plus stuff including open invitations today. Check full coverage on 9to5Google.com Expand Expanding Close
We’ve been rambling on about white iPod touches for awhile now. Back in June we postulated that Apple would create a white iPod touch after successive launches of white iPhone and iPad and launched a survey (over 80% of you wanted that guy above).
Today, MacRumors has joined in with their own information:
MacRumors has received information indicating that the next iPod touch revision will be a very minor change, with the primary addition being the introduction of a new white model. Only minor changes are expected for the existing hardware, with the addition of an oleophobic coating for the display and a revised ambient light sensor seemingly being the main differences. Otherwise, we expect the models to be nearly identical to the current fourth-generation iPod touch model.
Could we put in a request for a better backside camera? Just give us 2-3 megapixels and auto-focus like an early iPhone and we’ll shut up.
Out of Apple’s incredibly successful product lines, the iPods are the only one dropping numbers and revenue (above, mostly to iPhone and iPad, not the competition). Analysts as well as Apple forecast iPod sales drops close to 20% this quarter over the year ago quarter, which is an acceleration of the previous year to year drop. Apple’s very nature is to only go after lucrative expanding markets so there could be some motivation to cut or revamp the iPod lineup.
There’s been some talk of Apple killing the iPod touch at next month’s iPhone 5 announcement, which happens to be smack dab on top of the release window of every iPod announcement of the past 5 years. The idea is that if a “cheap” iPhone is made to cost less than $300, what is the point of having an iPod touch alongside it only a few bucks cheaper? Indeed, having the iPhone event during the normally scheduled iPod event could indicate some sort of new branding/pairing or at the very least a new release schedule. Interestingly, we’ve heard there are global constraints on iPhone 4 happening globally, but not on iPods ahead of September… Expand Expanding Close
MacConnection offers readers an additional 3% offMac desktops and laptops via coupon code “3%MacDeal”. The coupon applies to MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, Mac Pro, Mac Mini, and iMac computers. It’s the best percent-off coupon we’ve seen from MacConnection in recent months. Even better, free shipping applies to most deals, yielding a trove of lowest-we-could-find prices.
iFixyouri iPhone repair shops have just received a limited order of color iPad 2 front glass customized replacements in blue, green, yellow and pink. We’re told that if you use code “9to5mac” at checkout you’ll get 10% off the $200 iPad customization (yes, that’s pretty steep but we have a feeling there is a pretty big market for these). Expand Expanding Close
We’ve received a word from several sources that GameStop will soon begin offering the entire lineup of Apple’s popular iOS mobile devices such as iPhones, iPods and iPads at their stores. The announcement was made to dealers at an annual trade show in Las Vegas this past week. Also, as of this week, GameStop began accepting iOS device trade-ins for in-store credits. From the sound of it, our take is GameStop is first doing trade-ins/used products before phasing in new ones, perhaps as Apple launches iPhone 5 in October (Deutsche Telekom in Germany is now quietly accepting pre-orders).
U2 frontman Bono responded to the story “The Mystery of Jobs’s Public Giving,” in the NYTimes Opinion pages today telling readers that Jobs was indeed a generous giver through the product (Red) campaign. Bono further hinted that Jobs is a private person and his donations may not all be on the books.
I’m proud to know him; he’s a poetic fellow, an artist and a businessman. Just because he’s been extremely busy, that doesn’t mean that he and his wife, Laurene, have not been thinking about these things. You don’t have to be a friend of his to know what a private person he is or that he doesn’t do things by halves.
Apple and U2 of course collaborated on a U2 iPod and later Apple built red iPods with a portion of the proceeds going to Bono’s private fund to fight AIDS in Africa. Steve Jobs reportedly said when Bono first approached him about (RED), “There is nothing better than the chance to save lives.” Apple’s involvement encouraged other companies to get involved.
A report from Reuters suggests Palo Alto-based Flipboard is considering taking on Netflix, Hulu, Apple, and others by attempting to land deals that would allow them to offer TV shows.
Flipboard is currently only available as an iPad app and as it stands provides limited content (albeit in a stylish manner) in magazine format from a number of publications including Economist and Oprah.com. It also takes a unique approach of integrating social updates from Twitter and Facebook into the layout. The report claims Flipboard is currently in talks with studios in order to land the deals necessary for rights to add TV shows as well.
It’s unclear exactly who the company has approached and how far along talks are, but the report says Chief Executive Mike McCue wants to start on the project “at the end of the year”. He also has plans to sign up book publishers and release an iPhone version in the near future. This comes on the heels of competitor Zite being snatched up by CNN, and a number of other high profile alternatives getting deals with studios in place. Expand Expanding Close
CNN is reporting that recent Wikileaks cables have revealed that Apple assembled an anti-counterfeit team in 2008 to combat counterfeited iPhones and iPod touches. Apple’s early plans to attack Chinese counterfeits were to go after retailers and street vendors, work with police to raid manufacturing facilities, and to go after online retailers.
The technology giant eventually organized a team in March 2008 to curtail the explosion of knockoff iPods and iPhones, according to an electronic memo from the Beijing embassy dated September 2008.
Counterfeiting Apple products has been a huge issue in recent years. Most recently, fake Apple stores have opened up selling almost identical products to Chinese consumers. We attribute the high amount of counterfeit sales to the scarce availability of stores in this region. As of now Apple only has 4 stores, but a new Hong Kong store is on its way — which we’ve heard is coming along nicely.
Apple’s efforts to combat counterfeits has slowed down recently, as more and more appear due to the upcoming iPhone 5. Apple reportedly isn’t getting any help from the Chinese government either, as CNN notes after the break:
In an operational sense, today won’t be any different than yesterday at Apple. The people who help curate the sjobs@apple.com email address will probably be putting in some extra hours, the work changing around the placards is probably almost done, and it appears Apple isn’t going to be doing any sort of media tours to ‘help allay investor fears’.
And they don’t need to. Nothing has really changed. I imagine bigger changes were slowly happening behind the scenes a few months ago when Operations VP (incidentally, Tim Cook’s original title) Jeff Williams was promoted to the Executive Bios page. He probably began doing the work of a traditional COO at around that point and, of course, Tim Cook has been acting as a traditional CEO on and off for years.
As Cook’s email to the troops this morning explained, Apple is not going to change – drastically, that is. As any company, Apple is always changing. But Jobs has set up an internal ‘University’ program run by a former Yale dean to make sure that his and other leaders’ values continue to be passed down to Apple’s new VPs and employees.
Steve Jobs hired dean of Yale School of Management Joel Podolny to run the Apple University, an internal group also featuring business professors and Harvard veterans that are writing a series of case studies to prepare employees for the life at Apple after Jobs. These case studies focus on Apples recent business decisions and internal culture, they are exclusive to employees and taught by top executives like Tim Cook and Ron Johnson.
As John Gruber made note, Apple the company is as meticulously designed as any Apple product:
Jobs’s greatest creation isn’t any Apple product. It is Apple itself.
Apple is the most valuable tech company in the world, an accomplishment that took fourteen years of fantastic long-term decision making. That same intelligence and foresight has gone into the planning of life after Jobs roaming the hallways. Compare today’s long-prepared news on Apple’s share price (none) with that of HP’s bungled earnings news last week on their share price (–20%).
Renaissance Man
Jobs isn’t just a technologist. He built and directed Pixar into the greatest animation studio in the world ahead of anything Hollywood could produce. He changed the music industry forever.
“For a guy who never recorded a song, or signed a band, or founded a label or a music festival, Steve Jobs has probably had more of an impact on the music world than any other person in the last quarter century – and possibly since Thomas Edison.”
He might have been the best, but for all of his greatness, Steve Jobs was not a perfect leader. There have been a few flops and mistakes. Perhaps Jobs was too trusting of Google early on? Options back-dating happened under his watch. AT&T?
Obviously, the triumphs far, far outweigh the mis-steps. As you look at a 55-year-old man in the body of someone decades older, it’s hard not to imagine what a healthy Steve Jobs with twenty years left at the helm might accomplish. I wouldn’t compare the loss of Jobs’ ability to “move the world forward” to the burning of the Library of Alexandria, but it’s hard to find another such comparison that makes sense. This is the man that ushered in personal computers, then did it again with the Mac GUI, then put iOS on portable devices and ushered in the smartphone revolution that we are in the midst of right now and finally re-invented the Post-PC personal computing device. He might have even done things we don’t even recognize yet. Perhaps he’s killed office park campuses with the Mothership HQ? Maybe Apple releases a wearable device in a few months that changes watches like the iPhone changed phones?
What huge innovations will we miss decades from now?
Perhaps the knowledge of his own mortality pushed Jobs even harder. You don’t need to listen to his famous Stanford speech to understand his appreciation for the opportunity he got as a cancer survivor. He worked every day as Apple CEO, just like yesterday, his last.
So how is anyone supposed to follow Jobs, especially an Industrial Engineer out of Auburn who, comparatively, seems introverted and certainly not as innovative?
Give Cook some credit
Remember, Jobs hand-picked Tim Cook to be his successor. What greater honor could you bestow on someone? Jobs didn’t just pick him out of the air, either: they’ve been working alongside each other for over a decade. Jobs picked Cook to be VP of Operations just months after taking back the reigns at Apple in 1997-98. We’re talking 13 quality years working side by side every day here.
As we know, Jobs isn’t shy about telling people what he thinks or cutting people loose who aren’t meeting his expectations. If there were a better candidate in the world for being the COO and now CEO of Apple, Steve Jobs would have found him or her.
Cook has managed Apple’s employees, partners, vendors and everything else during its decade+ renaissance. Remember, Steve Jobs’ first round at Apple and subsequent venture at NeXT were mired in operational mis-steps. Sure, Jobs learned from his mistakes, but I think Jobs would be the first to give Tim Cook credit for turning Apple into the operations machine it is today.
We’re picking some of the more meaningful reactions to today’s news. It’s important to remember that Jobs isn’t gone from Apple, he’s Chairman Jobs now.
Bloombergreports that Steve Jobs will stay on the board of Disney.
Apple’s Steve Jobs is said to be remaining on Disney’s board
People familiar with the situation have said that Mr. Jobs continues to be active at Apple and is closely involved in the company’s product strategy. Apple watchers don’t expect that to change even after Mr. Cook takes over.
This is of course a sad day and one that we’ve had in the back of our minds for years now. After founding Apple 35 years ago in his garage in Silicon Valley, and subsequently getting pushed out less than a decade later, Jobs was brought back in 1997 when Apple was on the brink of collapse. In the 14 years since his return, Apple has turned into the most valuable company in the world by market cap. To say he’s leaving the CEO position on top would be an understatement.
Since his third medical leave was taken in January it has seemed Jobs has been moving into a Chairman-type roll, still leading the Keynotes but giving everyone else a bigger role. As Chairman, Jobs will “continue to serve Apple with his unique insights, creativity and inspiration,” said Apple Board member Art Levinson. Tim Cook will take over as CEO as per the Apple succession plan. Jeff Williams will likely take over as COO.
To the Apple Board of Directors and the Apple Community:
I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come.
I hereby resign as CEO of Apple. I would like to serve, if the Board sees fit, as Chairman of the Board, director and Apple employee.
As far as my successor goes, I strongly recommend that we execute our succession plan and name Tim Cook as CEO of Apple.
I believe Apple”s brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it. And I look forward to watching and contributing to its success in a new role.
I have made some of the best friends of my life at Apple, and I thank you all for the many years of being able to work alongside you.
Steve
From the newswires….
CUPERTINO, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Apple’s Board of Directors today announced that Steve Jobs has resigned as Chief Executive Officer, and the Board has named Tim Cook, previously Apple’s Chief Operating Officer, as the company’s new CEO. Jobs has been elected Chairman of the Board and Cook will join the Board, effective immediately.
“Steve’s extraordinary vision and leadership saved Apple and guided it to its position as the world’s most innovative and valuable technology company,” said Art Levinson, Chairman of Genentech, on behalf of Apple’s Board. “Steve has made countless contributions to Apple’s success, and he has attracted and inspired Apple’s immensely creative employees and world class executive team. In his new role as Chairman of the Board, Steve will continue to serve Apple with his unique insights, creativity and inspiration.”
“The Board has complete confidence that Tim is the right person to be our next CEO,” added Levinson. “Tim’s 13 years of service to Apple have been marked by outstanding performance, and he has demonstrated remarkable talent and sound judgment in everything he does.”
Jobs submitted his resignation to the Board today and strongly recommended that the Board implement its succession plan and name Tim Cook as CEO.
As COO, Cook was previously responsible for all of the company’s worldwide sales and operations, including end-to-end management of Apple’s supply chain, sales activities, and service and support in all markets and countries. He also headed Apple’s Macintosh division and played a key role in the continued development of strategic reseller and supplier relationships, ensuring flexibility in response to an increasingly demanding marketplace.
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. Expand Expanding Close
We’ve been hearing so much about the new iPhone 5 that it has all but drowned out any talk of the iPods, which are traditionally released at the September Apple event as well. There hasn’t been any definitive word, but I expect them to get an update as well before the holiday shopping season.
The new iPod touch will likely head in the same direction as the iPhone 5 – faster A5 processor and better backside camera (hopfully 3MP w/ autofocus?) etc. I don’t expect a lot of innovation on what is already a pretty incredible little device. Perhaps a $199 entry level price tag (a $30 drop – which we already see quite often) will be the marquee new spec.
The iPod classic wasn’t upgraded last year and wasn’t on the keynote slide (below) where Steve Jobs said “we’ve got All-new designs for every model” which kind of makes it feel dead to me.
A few more interesting Apple Inc-filed patents have surfaced today (viaPatently Apple) as part of the many applications published by the US Patent & Trademark Office recently. Perhaps the most notable include a design for an iPhone antenna clip, new finger reducing oil resistant coating, and a patent describing using solar energy as an alternate power source in portable devices (something we know Apple has been researching from patents and other sources in the past).
One of the more interesting patents with technology that could (and probably should) make its way to iOS devices in the near future is a the method of reducing “finger oils on touch surfaces”. The patent describes Apple’s method of “Direct Liquid Vaporization for Oleophobic Coatings”. Fingerprints have seem to become less of an issue to iPhone users over the years, but are definitely still a major annoyance to users in less than desirable lighting conditions.
From the report:
Apple states that to prevent the deposition of oils on an electronic device surface, an oleophobic ingredient could be bonded to the electronic device surface. The oleophobic ingredient could be provided as part of a raw liquid material in one or more concentrations. To avoid adverse reactions due to exposure to air, heat, or humidity, the raw liquid material can be placed in a bottle purged with an inert gas during the manufacturing process.
The image below shows what appears to be an antenna attached to a small device’s housing via an “attachment member”. Patently Apple reports Apple states the antenna invention could be used in “their iPod family (MP3 players), a radio, an audio/video recorder, a mobile telephone, personal digital assistant, tablet computing device, or other similar device”. They also speculate from the “exploded view above that it might even be an “iPhone-nano-like device”. Expand Expanding Close
Kodawarisan claims that Apple’s annual fall event will be held on Wednesday, September 7th (8th in Japanese time zone -via MacRumors). Apple will likely use this event (whenever it falls) to detail the final versions of iCloud and iOS 5, in addition to announce the next-generation iPhone (or iPhones) and iPods.
Apple filed a complaint in late May with the World Intellectual Property Organization to gain control of iPods.com. Fusible is reporting that Apple has been awarded the domain as of late Friday, and the domain will soon be transferred over to Apple’s ownership. Full details haven’t been disclosed.
Apple is known for paying in the millions for domains, like when they reportedly paid $4.5 million for iCloud.com. When Apple follows the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy, like they did in this case, they end up paying thousands, rather than millions. Will Apple continue on to gain control of domains like iPhone5.com, iPad.com, and Macs.com?
Last evening, a tipster sent us some pictures of what he now thinks is the iPhone 5. He caught what he said was likely an Apple employee hunched over the device on the way home from work in San Francisco earlier this week. He told us he was able to get a very good look at the device but the pictures he snapped “didn’t do it justice”.
We contacted the tipster by phone and checked his background. We believe he saw a totally new Apple device, probably a prototype iPhone 5. He contacted us because when he got home, he doubted what he saw was legitimate until he looked at the green cases we posted. Then it all came together for him. Our tipster has had an iPhone 3GS and currently has an iPhone 4. He knows his iPhones and iPods and this was like nothing he’s ever seen. He said it would fit perfectly into the case below.
“Almost EVO-like” in screen size, this iPhone also appears thinner than the current iPhone 4 but also wider. The edges are rounded metal like the edges of a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 but could still function as an antenna. The back is a curved/tapered glass or plastic. He couldn’t tell but if he had to guess he’d say glass. He said it looked too amazing to be built by anyone besides Apple (fanboy!).
Our tipster wasn’t able to see the front/home button and the man holding the device was covering the Apple logo for all but a brief moment when the above picture was snapped. It seemed apparent that he was trying to hide what he had more than the average smartphone user.
We aren’t certain if this is legitimate or not but it is too thin and flat to be an iPhone 3GS and too rounded to be an iPhone 4. The black back with Apple logo would seem to rule out an iPod touch. Our tipster is all but certain it was a new Apple product and the iPhone 5 would be the most likely scenario.
Would Apple let employees out into the world with these over a month before launch? Apple has acknowledged that they real world test this way in the past (ahem, Gray Powell). They’ve also indicated that the cases the iPhone 4s came in may have been a factor in not diagnosing the finger spot/antennagate fiasco ahead of time. So perhaps this is legit?
Apple Upper West Side in New York – Showing the floating Apple in the glass front
Apple will open their newest Apple Store this Saturday at 10 AM in the heart of Glendale, California; a city within the Greater Los Angeles Area. The store resides approximately 500-600 feet away from the world’s first Apple Store – store R001 at the Glendale Galleria Mall. Although the store opens this Saturday, the design, feel, interior, and exterior is yet to be revealed to the public. We have spoken to a proven corporate source in Apple’s retail division that is familiar with the development of Apple’s newest retail store.
Externally, the store is slightly different than the Apple Stores we have become accustomed to. The Americana at Brand location will trade the classic silver front with glass doors for an all glass front. That’s right; all glass – Apple’s newish style. In addition, Apple’s iconic logo will float in this glass, similarly to how the Apple logo floats in the Fifth Avenue store’s famous glass cube or the Upper West Side store’s front. The inside of the store features a very open floor plan, that is fairly similar to the chain’s other locations.
At the back of the store sits a giant Genius Bar, one of Apple’s largest: fifty seats. In addition, the store has at least twelve giant tables throughout – not including side panels as showcases, that hold iPads, iPod, iPhones, Macs, and more. Like some of Apple’s more recent retail locations, this one holds a sizable briefing room; a room where employees assist business customers. In addition – and this is more employee oriented – there is a giant back of house area for repairs, breaks, offices, and for other utilities like Apple’s 5th Avenue Store… more details including Apple Store 2.0 info after the break:
The obvious explanation for the screenshot above, taken on a current Retina iPod touch with the latest iOS 5 Beta, is that Apple messed up by leaving the ‘Cellular’ data option in the iPod software.
We’ve received photos of a purported white iPod touch front panel. Specifically, this panel is the digitizer component, according to the iFixYouri iPhone repair shop. We obviously cannot confirm the legitimacy of these photos but according to iFixYouri, they fall in line with the fourth generation iPod touch’s build. Knowing this, these can either be photos of a scrapped white iPod touch 4 in white or (hopefully) photos of the fifth-generation iPod touch’s front panel in white.
Although we have been hearing some whispers of a new form-factor for the fifth-generation iPod touch, the previously accurate Ming-Chi Kuo has reported that the fifth-generation iPod touch will, in fact, come in white and will feature an overall design that is akin to that of the fourth-generation iPod touch. Additionally, iOS SDK data reveals that the iPod 4,2 (possibly the fifth-gen iPod touch) will be more about internal changes. On that note, we’ll likely see the dual-core A5 processor to move the iPod touch ahead in the growing mobile gaming industry, and maybe some better cameras. More info and a few more high-resolution pictures of the white panel are after the break…
.
