Since the passing of the late Steve Jobs, we’ve seen many tributes relating to the man behind Apple. Cult Of Mac have come across an extraordinary rendition of such a tribute.
It’s a fascinating look into Job’s life in none less than a Facebook timeline, documenting his life since the day he was born. As Killian Bell points out, the people behind this tribute must have put a heck of a lot of work into this.(...) Read the rest of Steve Job’s life documented in a fascinating Facebook timeline
Apple has been on an absolute rampage since Tim Cook took over Steve Jobs’ role of Apple’s CEO last August. A lot of folks wondered if the company could maintain its dominance without the passionate founder at the helm.
And although most of what we are seeing right now is still a direct result of Jobs’ efforts over the last decade or so, you have to admit that Cook is no slouch. But if you had any doubts that he was the right man for The Job, read this…(...) Read the rest of Tim Cook confirms he is The Man for The Job
Yesterday, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Internet software and services Eddy Cue accepted a special trustee Grammy award honoring Steve Jobs from the Recording Academy.
This is not the first time Steve Jobs has been honored by the Academy. In 2002, he received a Technical Grammy Award for his work on the iPod, which we all know revolutionized the music industry…(...) Read the rest of Eddy Cue Accepts Trustee Grammy Award Honoring Steve Jobs
It seems right now that Apple just can do no wrong. With record sales of its devices and huge amounts of money sat in the bank, it’s all very rosy over in Cupertino. But other companies have had successful periods before, only for things to go a little awry in future years.
Despite great results from Apple ever since Steve Jobs returned to the company back in 1997, it wasn’t really until the iPhone’s introduction in 2007 that the world really took notice of what was going in at 1 Infinite Loop.
Now it’s a worldwide phenomenon, with people owning iPhones who would never have contemplated picking up a Mac.
Throw in the beginnings of a tablet market that is still being dominated by the iPad, and Apple have every right to feel smug. But it may not last forever…(...) Read the rest of Why Apple Must Not Rest on its Laurels
Apple is still coming to terms with the loss of its charismatic co-founder and former CEO Steve Jobs, and probably will be for some time. While there is no doubting new CEO Tim Cook’s abilities to run a tight ship, he’ll possibly be the first to admit that there will only ever be one Steve Jobs.
The company remembers Jobs throughout the halls of its 1 Infinite Loop campus, with photos of the man who saved Apple back in the 90s placed on the walls of Apple’s HQ. Quotes are also seen attached to corridor walls, with some of Jobs’ famous pearls of wisdom there to help motivate the Apple team even from beyond the grave.
Now 9to5 Mac has been given photographs of some of the photos and quotes that can be found inside Apple’s offices, with at least one of them taking employees back to the days of the original Macintosh…(...) Read the rest of Apple Remembers Steve Jobs Through Photos and Quotes
Adam Lashinsky’s new book Inside Apple, which was released earlier this week, is full of juicy stories from Apple’s past. Pieces of the book have been popping up on the web over the past two weeks.
The latest excerpt we’ve come across, courtesy of our friends over at Cult of Mac, provides some insight on the details surrounding Apple’s “acquisition” of the iPhone trademark from Cisco Systems…(...) Read the rest of How Apple “Acquired” the iPhone Trademark From Cisco
Bill Gates has told how he sent Steve Jobs a personal letter before his death, and explained how the pair’s complicated relationship worked.
During an interview with The Telegraph, the former Microsoft CEO spoke about Jobs and the relationship between the two during the Macintosh days and how the two became competitors after initially working on the same project.
Bill Gates also went on to describe Jobs as an “incredible genius“ and spoke about the Apple CEO’s work in increasing the Mac’s market share in the face of competition from Microsoft’s PC platform…(...) Read the rest of Bill Gates Sent a Letter to Steve Jobs Before He Passed
Apple’s co-founder and former CEO, the late Steve Jobs, was an inspirational figure for many people, with tributes flooding in after his death in October of 2011. People from across the globe, both inside the technology industry and out, all paid their respects in their own ways.
Now Virgin America has also paid tribute to the man that almost single handedly rescued Apple from an uncertain future when he returned to the company in 1997, with the airline having one of Jobs’ most memorable quotes emblazoned on one of its new airplanes.
“Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish” was a quote that Jobs gave during his famous Standford address in 2005, and has since gone on to become synonymous with Jobs himself. Now one of Virgin America’s new A320 airplanes has the same quote written in its side, too…(...) Read the rest of Virgin America’s Tribute to Steve Jobs
By now, most of you have heard Steve Jobs’ infamous “war on Android” quote from his recently-released biography. It goes something like, “I will spend my last dying breath if I need to, and I will spend every penny of Apple’s $40 billion in the bank, to right this wrong. I’m going to destroy Android, because it’s a stolen product. I’m willing to go thermonuclear war on this.”
He wasn’t kidding. The latest estimates suggest that Apple’s litigation fees its incurred in its ongoing legal battles with Android manufacturers add up to more than $100 million dollars. And the war is far from over…(...) Read the rest of Apple Has Spent More Than 100 Million Dollars on Android War
5 years ago today, Steve Jobs took to the Macworld 2007 stage and introduced 3 new products — a widescreen iPod with touch controls, a revolutionary mobile phone, and a breakthrough internet communicator. An iPod, a phone, an internet communicator. We got it. They weren’t 3 seperate devices. They were one device.
Now that iPhone 4S has come and launched, iPhone 5 (or whatever Apple ends up calling the next generation iPhone), concept designs are once again starting to pop up. This one comes from designer Antonio De Rosa, who created the above iPhone concept and has given it the title of iPhone SJ, as it is Steve Jobs inspired. He imagines it having an A6 processor, a 10 MP camera, and a polycarbonate body. I don’t particularly feel that an A6 processor or a better camera are out of the question for the next iPhone.
I don’t think polycarbonate would be a bad choice for the body as it’s extremely lightweight. It would allow Apple to create an even larger device and subtract weight. I’m not sure I would want a larger screen as that has its disadvantages too. Overall, I think the design is great but I’m not sold on Apple making a larger screen that would inhibit one-handed use. You can visit ADR Studio’s site for more images of his design.
Antonio De Rosa has come up with yet another awesome iPhone concept, a handset he called the iPhone SJ because it was inspired by the late Steve Jobs.
Shown off in all its glory at De Rosa’s ADR Studio website, the concept takes the existing iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S body and reinvents it, creating a gorgeous concept that even Jonny Ive himself would be pleased to call his own.
While the specs are not the biggest thing here, De Rosa speculates that the concept could come packed with a dual-core A6 chip and a 10 megapixel camera. That’s probably not too far from what we would expect Apple to put inside the iPhone 5…(...) Read the rest of Here’s a Steve Jobs-Inspired iPhone SJ Concept
It didn’t take long, but according to The Telegraph, Apple has sicked their lawyers on In Icon, the company behind the life-like Steve Jobs action figure we reported on earlier this week.
But ‘their efforts have reportedly met with’ a legal challenge with Apple allegedly threatening to sue the toy maker unless they cease trading. The legal wrangle is over the likeness of the doll to the late Apple founder, the rights of which the company claims it owns.
This wouldn’t be the first time Apple put a stop to unapproved production of related goods. Late last year, M.I.C Gadget in Hong Kong put out a similar molded figurine of Steve Jobs, which was subsequently halted at the behest of Apple.
If you were planning on getting one of these ultra-realistic action figures from In Icon, you better hurry quick before it’s no longer available.
It didn’t take long, but according to The Telegraph, Apple has sicked their lawyers on In Icon, the company behind the life-like Steve Jobs action figure we reported on earlier this week.
But ‘their efforts have reportedly met with’ a legal challenge with Apple allegedly threatening to sue the toy maker unless they cease trading. The legal wrangle is over the likeness of the doll to the late Apple founder, the rights of which the company claims it owns.
This wouldn’t be the first time Apple put a stop to unapproved production of related goods. Late last year, M.I.C Gadget in Hong Kong put out a similar molded figurine of Steve Jobs, which was subsequently halted at the behest of Apple.
If you were planning on getting one of these ultra-realistic action figures from In Icon, you better hurry quick before it’s no longer available.
Forbes reports that a new Steve Jobs action figure from Inicon is so realistic, the photos actually make it look real. The action figure comes with the following details.
one realistic ‘head sculpt;’
two pairs of glasses;
a ‘highly articulated body;’
three pairs of hands;
one tiny black turtleneck;
one tiny pair of blue jeans;
You can purchase the action figure from Inicon’s website, however, we’re not exactly sure how long Apple’s hordes of lawyers will let this one last — go grab it while it’s still up!
(Note: Inicon seems to be down due to the large amount of traffic they’ve seen)
The TiPb staff picks their favorite devices, features, stories, and new or majorly updated apps and accessories of 2011!
The TiPb editors, writers, contributors, forum admins and moderators, and podcasters have come together to nominate and select the winners of the 2011 TiPb Editors Choice Awards. They were all tough choices, and a lot of things we love simply didn’t qualify for consideration — weren’t new or weren’t majorly updated for 2011. But a lot of really, truly great stuff was. These, then, are our picks of the year.
Last year we had a really tough time picking the iOS device of the year — Apple introduced a new product category with the original iPad, redesigned their signature handset with iPhone 4, refreshed the iPod touch, and unveiled an all new Apple TV 2.
This year they didn’t introduce a new iPod touch or Apple TV, kept the same design for the iPhone, and even the iPad 2 wasn’t the most radical of refreshes.
Of the updated devices, however, iPad 2 got a new casing design, both thinner and lighter, two new cameras (lame as they may be), and was first to get the new, dual-core, Apple A5 system-on-a-chip.
iPhone 4S admittedly got the A5 as well, a new, better antenna and a much better rear camera, but it just wasn’t as much or enough to take the title.
While visions of Retina display tablets, 4-inch phones, and 1080p TVs dance in our heads for next year, this year we give the nod to the best that we got.
Sure, it debuted as iPhone 4S-only, but so did multitasking, so did video recording, so do many of Apple’s new iOS features. It’s the flagship device for a reason. Not just a simple voice control system — we’re told Nokia invented those in 1812 or somesuch — it’s an honest-to-Asimov digital personal assistant with a personality right out of Pixar. It’s to previous voice control systems what multitouch was to previous resistive touch screens. It’s Apple’s next great mainstream computing interface. It not only remembers context but can understand relationships. It can remind you to call your mom or wear your jacket, it can find you a restaurant or find your friend. And it puts up with all your lame query jokes.
iMessage bypasses the exorbitant carrier text charges and brings iOS users, all over the world, one step closer to BBM-like instant messaging. Notification Center finally makes alerts almost as good as Android, if not as elegant as webOS. PC-free cuts the cord to iTunes and takes us to the iCloud, where all our data gets stored and backed up. All of those, and more, are great additions to an already great OS.
Heart breaking. Inspiring. Tragic. Triumphant. The biggest story of the year wasn’t the untimely passing of Apple’s co-founder, it was the full realization of his life, his vision, and his legacy.
In March he took the stage, in a way only he could ever take it, to introduce the iPad 2. He reportedly considered the tablet the most important innovation of his career — a career that included the mainstreaming of the command-line interface with the Apple II, the graphical user interface with the Mac, the multitouch interface with the iPhone, and the revolutionizing of digital music with iTunes and the iPod, retail with the Apple Stores, the consumer electronics business with Apple itself, and even animated feature films with Pixar.
Relentlessly democratizing technology his entire life, his final Keynote appearance in June was to introduce iCloud, the server side of the mobile equation. His vision of the future was deeply personal, deeply connected, and deeply integrated. And his will made it manifest, not only for Apple and of Apple, but as influence for the culture well beyond.
He resigned as CEO and then passed away right after the introduction of the iPhone 4S, and just before the publication of the biography he himself set in motion. While Apple will go on, perhaps even reaching greater heights than ever before, we will never see his like again.
It seems as though there was an embarrassment of embarrassments to choose from this year. Yet even amid such a massive mountain of fail, one managed to rise above all the rest.
Intellectual property rights exist for a reason — they encourage investment in innovation by ostensibly preventing others from simply copying the ideas of the innovators. Yet they’ve become a weapon used not to create competition but to stifle it by those who’ve often simply bought and paid for pieces of paper.
Apple didn’t release new iPod touch and Apple TV hardware this year. Granted neither has much competition but Apple’s mantra has always been to compete with themselves. Likewise the iPhone 4S didn’t get a design update even as competing devices have seriously upped the handset game.
Privacy also took a swift, hard roshambo in the rights this year as everything from Apple’s poorly coded location recording system to Google, Facebook, and Twitter being forced into decade, or double decade privacy oversight, to lack of disclosure surrounding Carrier IQ making headlines. On the flip side, the media earned more than their usual share of fail points for once again never missing a chance to linkbait and headline grab at Apple’s expense.
But ultimately, from Apple and Android makers suing each other to Lodsys suing independent developers, one things brought fail to an all time abysmal low this year.
When the iPad first launched it seemed to take a while for everyone, including Apple, to figure out exactly what it was and where best it fit. Now, a year later, it’s fitting in every where from the couch to the board room, the school to the planning session.
Screens 1.5 showed us our iPhones and iPads could be powerful, elegant windows into our PCs and servers. Agenda made the calendar ridiculously clean and elegant, and interfaced with Due to get more done, better and faster than ever. Instapaper got a full on facelift, and Apple brought iWork to the iPhone.
What caught our attention, though, from the corporate heads behind Mobile Nations to our our own editors and writers, was an app that not only made the iPad useful, but better than anything else. From taking notes in class to jotting down ideas while brain-storming big business, it took a lot of our iPads from nice-to-have to must-have.
Just like last year, a previously desktop-only app was re-imagined for iPad and forced us to once again re-evaluate just how good tablet software could be. But Apple wasn’t the only one wowing us this year.
Instagram mixed fun filters with simple social sharing to spectacular effect. Snapseed and Photogene2 made photo editing first class citizens on iOS. Apple brought iMovie to the big iPad screen.
It was what Apple did with music, however, that really blew us away this year. Introduced alongside the iPad 2, it’s interface immediately is recognizable to anyone who has ever used iLife for Mac yet immediately accessible to anyone who has ever put finger to multitouch display. With built in smart instruments for novices and the ability to interface with real instruments for pros, and multitrack recording an editing, it’s a studio on your lap or in your pocket. Very few people are making content creation software this robust for mobile, and very few, if any, other platforms can boast anything like this in their libraries.
Twitter and the iPhone feel like they came into their own together, a blend of mobile device and social network as good as the richest peanut butter and darkest chocolate.
Path 2.0 made the smaller-scale social network drop-dead gorgeous, but does a world covered with the wreckage of Friendster and Wave and Buzz and Jaiku really need another social network? And if it does, isn’t Google already cramming Google+ down as many throats as it possibly can? Facebook finally decided that the iPad was mobile enough to deserve it’s own app and rolled out Facebook Messenger in case the normal app just wasn’t fast enough to get your IM on. LinkedIn got a re-design, finally growing up into its own app, while Twitter for iPhone go a re-design to make it… um… better for Twitter to push #hashtags to new users intent on keeping up with celebrities?
But you don’t always need to start a new network, or radically change a user experience that works. Sometimes you just need to make a damn good client, with solid features and finely honed panache, that respects long-established usage patterns but does so with character and charm.
Sometimes you just need to make something like TweetBot.
Hardcore game of the year: Real Racing 2
There’s a difference between a great game and a game that not only stays great but gets even better. There were a lot of great hardcore games on iPhone and iPad in 2011. Modern Combat 3 was the best first-person shooter we’ve ever seen on iOS, and Dead Space took spooky, atmospheric, interstellar survival shooters to a whole new level. And Infinity Blade II… the new Unreal Engine 3 game looks so good you won’t believe it’s on mobile.
But the folks at Firemint just never stayed still long enough for anyone else to catch up. Every bit as fast as the cars on their virtual tracks, the moment Apple added a new feature to iOS, Firemint added it to their game. Whether it was better graphics for more powerful chips, multiplayer for more robust networking, and full on AirPlay Party Play for an almost hybrid console experience, Firemint was on it in a flash.
If a game is incredibly simple and more than a little repetitive, it has to be really well executed to turn our well. It has to be phenomenally well executed to become our favorite of the year.
Tiny Tower was brilliantly realized and Cut the Rope: Experiments breathed new life into an already great game. DragonVale brought the creatures of myth to farm-style games of the present, Minecraft brought the classic constructor to iOS, and SPY Mouse brought the Firemint magic to puzzlers.
But it was a bird that not only wasn’t angry but couldn’t even quite fly, that was perpetually chased the setting sun, that was as exquisitely well rendered as it was well suited for the iPhone.
Because it proved once again that sometimes less really is more — Tiny Wings
While I’ve always been a huge fan of LockInfo by David Ashman I have to admit that the guys over at Intelliborn really stepped up to the plate with their new version of IntelliScreen for iOS 5.
When Apple “Sherlocks” your app — basically incorporates it into the OS and built-in feature set — you can either pack up and go home, or you can figure out that Apple’s only providing the median functionality and double-down on doing it better for the power users.
LockInfo did just that, making a great app even better. SBSettings and BiteSMS kept doing what they’ve always done — filled gaps Apple hasn’t — while integrating and improving at the same time. Dreamboard created an alternative to Winterboard, and iUsers provided for multiple logins on iPad. ATV Flash brought the same power to the iOS Apple TV that it did to the original, Mac OS version.
Not to be outdone by Apple’s foray into Notification Center, however, Intelliborn rolled out an update that not only fully integrated with iOS 5, but provided so many features it became a veritable one stop functionality center.
Apple didn’t introduce a new iPhone design this year, which meant a lot of case-makers didn’t have to worry about coming up with all new cases either. But what about all better cases?
Both DracoDesign and Element took their existing aluminum bumpers and added incredible new colors and finishes. Case-Mate did similar with their Barely There. BodyGuardz and DODOcase introduced great new sticker skins, one carbon fiber, the other rich leather. Pad and Quill brought iPad-style to a Little Black Book and mophie and Apple both made sure their already excellent battery case and bumper case fit not only the CDMA iPhone 4, but the iPhone 4S as well. And Otterbox introduced the Reflex case to their already industry-leading line.
There was something new this year as well, something that could protect against the weather — rain, snow, ice — but not be as big nor as bulky as past solutions.
iPad 2 was a design change this year — thinner and lighter and with cameras on both sides. Again, we got a lot of great variants of already great cases, but we got some truly new cases as well.
ZAGGfolio bound a keyboard into their case, for those who still couldn’t truly give up tactile typing for multitouch, and Case-Mate added a kickstand to their Pop Case. DODOcase rejuvenated their hand-made case and added new variants and new artist lines, while Pad and Quill created the Contega, adding new age features to old world craftsmanship.
Apple, however, had an unfair advantage. They built magnets into the iPad 2, and they were ready to take advantage of them on launch day. It’s not that it kept the thinner, lighter iPad 2 as thin and as light as possible. It’s not that it could be folded to keep the iPad 2 up and easy to type with or watch on. It’s not even that it can turn on or off the iPad 2 display. It’s all of that, together, in several elegant shades (that no longer include orange).
Beyond cases, there were a lot of great accessories this for iPhone and iPad both. There were amazing interfaces to let you plug instruments into GarageBand. There were fantastic bands to make iPod nano not only a working watch, but a gorgeous one. And there were all manner of chargers, docks, and camera peripherals and so much more.
And this year a lot of them came not from the traditional places, the large, established accessory makers, but from the same place — a platform that let independent innovators find the finances they need to produce their innovations. It worked so well this year that many of the aforementioned docks and watch-bands and cases and camera peripherals came straight from its pages.
When Apple co-founder and former CEO Steve Jobs passed away in October, people around the world felt like they had lost someone they knew, if only through the devices they own that bear the Apple brand. Many took to Apple Stores as a way of paying their respects, leaving messages and Apple products when they left.
One iOS app developer decided that the best way to honor Jobs was to release a free calendar app on Apple’s App Store honoring the late industry titan, but according to MacNN, Apple was not so keen on the idea. Apple’s App Store review team decided to reject the app, meaning we will never get to see the tribute ourselves…
A couple of days ago, I took the opportunity to visit Alexandria, Virginia, home of the United States Patent and Trademark Office. I visited there with the intention of getting a glimpse of the Steve Jobs patent exhibit before it was scheduled to be removed in a few weeks.
It’s pretty interesting to look at some of the history of Apple’s patents and the people involved with those patents. The exhibit was uniquely designed to showcase 12 patents per iPhone screen; I guess you could say the patents were the “app icons” of each of the many large-scaled iPhone’s that made up the exhibit.
You’re going to have to take this one with a huge grain of salt as it comes straight from unreliable sources. According to Focus Taiwan, via 9to5Mac:
A local Chinese-language newspaper reported Friday that iPad3 might be launched on Feb. 24 to mark the anniversary of the birth of Apple’s late co-founder Steve Jobs.
While the rumor of the launch date itself doesn’t sound completely out of this world, the source is unknown and probably not worthy of trust.
Take this one with a 9.7-inch grain of salt, but Focus Taiwan is reporting that current Asian supply chains suggest that Apple might be trying to get the iPad 3 out on February 24th, Steve Jobs‘s birthday.
After the iPhone 4S successfully took the tech market by storm, the iPad3 is widely expected to be Apple’s first hit product to be released next year. Industry sources said the first shipment of the iPad3 could exceed 4 million units. Because it is a new gadget, it is taking time for makers in the supply chain to raise their yield rates. The sources said all OEM and ODM makers have exercised great caution in ensuring the smooth operations of their production lines.
A late February launch would likely mean an early February event to show off the new hardware (and new 5.1 or 5.2 version of iOS to go with it?). If you aren’t as skeptical as we are on this one, you probably should be. Supply chain rumors are often more miss than hit, and you’ll probably have just as much luck pegging the iPad 3 release date by flipping a coin.
Since the passing of the late Steve Jobs, we’ve seen many tributes relating to the man behind Apple. Cult Of Mac have come across an extraordinary rendition of such a tribute.
