With the exception of Apple chief executive Steve Jobs and newly appointed General Counsel Daniel Cooperman, each member of Apple's executive team was forced this week to address restricted stock units that had recently vested and were set to expire, regulatory filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission show.
Senior Vice President of Retail Ron Johnson, Senior Vice President of Worldwide Product Marketing Phil Schiller, Senior Vice President of Software Engineering �Bertrand Serlet, and Senior Vice President of Applications Sina Tamaddon each converted 250,000 restricted stock units to shares.
In order to meet their tax obligations on those shares, each exec decided to net-share settle, or surrender, 113,659 shares at $139.53 a piece to cover those costs. They each retained the remaining 136,341 shares.
Apple's Senior Vice President iPod Division Tony Fadell made a similar move on 100,000 restricted share units, converting them to stock, then disposing of 45,750 at $139.53 to pay his taxes. He retained the remaining 54,250 shares.
Meanwhile, Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer and Senior Vice President Industrial Design Jonathan Ive saw 250,000 and 200,000 restricted stock units vest, respectively, which they then converted to shares. Both execs used a portion of those shares to pay the tax man, but then sold the remaining shares in keeping with prearranged stock-trading plans.
Oppenheimer disposed of 136,341 shares on the open market at prices between $138.74 and $139.79 for a net gain of approximately $19 million, while Ive sold 109,216 shares at prices between $138 and $140 for a profit of $15.2 million.
Finally, Apple Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook converted 300,000 vested stock units to shares and then sold all of them on the open market in following a prearranged stock-trading plan, at prices between $133.79 and $140.76 per share.
Cook's net profit totaled nearly $41 million before taxes.
The Mac maker on Thursday informed its vast developer community of the availability of Mac OS X 10.5.3 Build 9D10, a pre-release copy of the software update featuring a focus list spanning some two dozen core components.
Among those components in need of evaluation, people familiar with the matter tell AppleInsider, are AddressBook, AppleScript, Audio, Back To My Mac, Dashboard, the Dock, DVD Player, Finder, Graphics, iCal, Mail, Portable Home Directories, Printing, Rosetta, Spaces, Spotlight, Time Machine, and VoiceOver.
In a set of developer notes reported to have accommodated the update, Apple is also said to have listed 75 code corrections that have already been baked into this first external build, including two aimed at critical memory leaks within CoreAnimation and iCal.
Other fixes target Dashboard, iCal alarms and syncing, Installer App, Spotlight indexing, PDFs within the Preview App, Mail alarms, Spaces, Stacks and the Dock.
Mac OS X 10.5.3 is presumed for a release sometime in April or May.
Available today as a free update, Aperture 2.1 includes the Apple-developed plug-in, Dodge & Burn, which adds brush-based tools for dodge (lighten), burn (darken), contrast, saturation, sharpen and blur.
Over the coming months, third party software developers will deliver image editing plug-ins for localized editing, filters and effects, noise analysis and reduction, fisheye lens correction and more, according to Apple.
�The image quality in Aperture 2 has won over the most demanding photographers,� said Rob Schoeben, Apple�s vice president of Applications Product Marketing. �Now, thanks to our open plug-in architecture, users can access an entire industry�s worth of imaging expertise without ever leaving Aperture.�
By clicking on one or more images within Aperture 2.1, users can choose from a menu of installed plug-ins and apply specialized imaging operations to either TIFF or RAW images. Apple is also working closely with key developers to bring the most requested plug-ins to Aperture such as:
* Nik Software�s Viveza plug-in, powered by U Point technology, which provides a powerful, precise and easy way for photographers to selectively control and adjust color and light in their digital images
* PictureCode�s Noise Ninja plug-in that delivers advanced high ISO noise analysis and reduction
* Digital Film Tools� Power Stroke plug-in that features a simple, stroke-based interface to quickly mask and intuitively perform targeted adjustments
* The Tiffen Company's Dfx plug-in that provides an expansive suite of creative filters and effects
* dvGarage�s dpMatte plug-in, which is a high performance chroma key tool for creating seamless composites, and the HDRtoner plug-in that enables the selection of multiple photos to create a single high dynamic range (HDR) image and
* Image Trends� plug-ins that include Fisheye-Hemi to quickly and effortlessly correct fisheye lens distortion, ShineOff which automatically removes shine from faces and PearlyWhites that automatically whitens and brightens teeth.
Aperture 2.1 is available immediately as a free software update to current Aperture 2.0 users. Full system requirements and more information on Aperture can be found at here. Information and availability for third party imaging plug-ins can be found here, here and at the Aperture community site AperturePluggedIn.
"Modern three-dimensional (3D) display technologies are increasingly popular and practical not only in computer graphics, but in other diverse environments and technologies as well," Apple said in the 25-page filing. "Growing examples include medical diagnostics, flight simulation, air traffic control, battlefield simulation, weather diagnostics, entertainment, advertising, education, animation, virtual reality, robotics, biomechanical studies, scientific visualization, and so forth."
While common forms of such displays require shuttered or passively polarized eyewear, those approaches have not met with widespread acceptance because observers generally do not like to wear equipment over their eyes, the company said. Such approaches are also said to be impractical, and essentially unworkable, for projecting a 3D image to one or more casual passersby, to a group of collaborators, or to an entire audience such as when individuated projections are desired.
As a result, Apple proposes a three-dimensional display system having a projection screen with a predetermined angularly-responsive reflective surface function. Three-dimensional images would be respectively modulated in coordination with the predetermined angularly-responsive reflective surface function to define a programmable mirror with a programmable deflection angle.
This form of technology would cater to the continuing need for such practical autostereoscopic 3D displays that can also accommodate multiple viewers independently and simultaneously, the company said. Unlike 3D glasses or googles, it would provide simultaneous viewing in which each viewer could be presented with a uniquely customized autostereoscopic 3D image that could be entirely different from that being viewed simultaneously by any of the other viewers present, all within the same viewing environment, and all with complete freedom of movement.
According to the filing, this form of display could include a 3D/stereoscopic rendering engine that renders 3D images and may be implemented in firmware, software, or hardware. The 3D/stereoscopic rendering engine could also be part of a graphics card, code running on a graphics chip's graphics processor unit, a dedicated application specific integrated circuit, specific code running on the host CPU, and so forth.
"The 3D images that are rendered by the 3D/stereoscopic rendering engine are sent to a 3D/stereoscopic display through a suitable interconnect, such as an interconnect based upon the digital video interface (DVI) standard," Apple said. "The interconnect may be either wireless (e.g., using an 802.11x Wi-Fi standard, ultra wideband (UWB), or other suitable protocol), or wired (e.g., transmitted either in analog form, or digitally such as by transition minimized differential signaling (TMDS) or low voltage differential signaling (LVDS))."
A display interface and image splitter inside the 3D/stereoscopic display would divide the 3D images from the 3D/stereoscopic rendering engine into two 3D sub-images, namely a left sub-image and a right sub-image. The left and right sub-images would be modulated (including being turned on and off) in respective image modulators to enable and control optical projection by a projector of the left and right sub-images respectively into the observer's left and right eyes
"The observer's brain then combines the two projected optical sub-images into a 3D image to provide a 3D viewing experience for the observer," the filing explains. "The deflection into the observer's respective left and right eyes is accomplished using a projection screen. The projection screen, in combination with image data properly modulated [...] forms a mirror device that is a programmable mirror with a programmable deflection angle."
Broadly speaking, Apple said, this combination constitutes the projection screen as a programmable mirror that is a spatial filter, because the combination operates to cause light to reflect from the projection screen to the observer's particular left and right eyes as a function of the spatial locations of those respective eyes, and otherwise does not reflect light -- as if the light were filtered out.
A digital signal processor (DSP) in combination with a 3D imager would also determine the correct location of an observer with respect to the projection screen. Characteristics about the observer, such as the observer's head position, head tilt, and eye separation distance with respect to the projection screen would also be determined by the DSP and the imager.
"The 3D imager may be any suitable scanner or other known device for locating and determining the positions and characteristics of each observer," the company went on to say. "Such characteristics may include, for example, the heights of the observers, head orientations (rotation and tilt), arm and hand positions, and so forth."
In some embodiments, the 3D imager may be configured as an integral part of the projector, which could be configured to directly illuminate the observer as well as the projection screen. An appropriately located light sensor would then be positioned to pick up the illumination light that is reflected from the observer, determining his or her position relative to the display.
Apple added that the 3D imager and the light sensor could also provide a means for observer input: "For example, the volume in front of the projection screen in which the observer is positioned may be constituted by the 3D display system as a virtual display volume that is echoed as a 3D display on the projection screen. The virtual display volume can then be used for observer input. In one embodiment, the observer can then actuate, for example, a 3D representation of a button to activate certain features on a virtual active desktop. Such an active desktop would be represented virtually in the virtual display volume and, by virtue of the 3D projection on the projection screen, would appear to the observer as a 3D image in the virtual display volume in the immediate presence and proximity of the observer. Other human interface behaviors are similarly possible, as will be understood by persons of ordinary skill in the art in view of the present disclosure."
In concluding its filing, originally submitted back in September of 2006, the Cupertino-based company asserts that such display technology is "straight-forward, cost-effective, uncomplicated, highly versatile and effective, can be surprisingly and unobviously implemented by adapting known technologies, and are thus fully compatible with conventional manufacturing processes and technologies."
During a 90 second segment of his weekly Podcast show "Diggnation" this past Friday, Rose told viewers that Apple may be restricting third parties from authoring applications that run in both the foreground and background partly because it doesn't want a competitor to its own mobile iChat application that will do just that.
More specifically, he claims that a 3G version of the iPhone hardware due in a few months will employ two digital cameras situated back-to-back -- one on the front side of the unit behind the transparent touch-screen, and a second one on the back of the handset as it exists today.
Combined with the mobile iChat application, the front-mounted cam will pave the way for live video conferencing over AT&T's high-speed 3G wireless network with computer-based iChat users, as well as other second-generation iPhone owners, according to Rose.
In the week's leading up to last year's iPhone introduction, the Digg founder cited sources in saying Apple would introduce the handset with a slide-out keyboard, two separate battery compartments, and make it available for both CDMA and GSM networks -- all of which turned out to be false.
Despite those misses, Rose has made some accurate predictions in the past, most notably his last minute reports of an iPod nano ahead of the player's inaugural release in 2005.
Add to that the firm's expertise in its proprietary Exchange email protocols and business email systems, and it's almost a certainty that Microsoft will be among those bearing fresh wares for Apple's iPhone and iPod touch a bit later this year, Tom Gibbons, corporate vice president of Microsoft's Specialized Devices and Applications Group, told the business publication.
"We do have experience with that environment, and that gives us confidence to be able to do something,� he said. �The key question is, what is the value that we need to bring?"
Gibbons' team of Mac developers, which actually resides in Mountain View, Calif., just a few miles from Apple's headquarters in Cupertino, is reportedly weighing its most viable options for an initial native iPhone application, which appears as if it will fall within the Office family of productivity applications.
"It's really important for us to understand what we can bring to the iPhone," he said. "To the extent that Mac Office customers have functionality that they need in that environment, we're actually in the process of trying to understand that now."
In addition, Mike McCue of Microsoft's recently acquired TellMe voice recognition unit told Fortune that his team is also excited about iPhone development assuming the SDK will allow third party software to tap into voice recording and location-based features.
"If the SDK supports these things," he said, "we�re absolutely going to get a version out there as soon as we can, get TellMe out there on the iPhone."
| |
Earlier this week, the unofficial iPhoneDevTeam managed to get their hands on a copy of the beta software, which Apple seeded to select enterprise partners in order to afford them a head start on integrating the iPhone into their corporate networks and developing proprietary applications for employees.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Apple updates AirPort Express with 802.11n

Published: 08:00 AM EST
Priced at just $99, AirPort Express remains the world's smallest 802.11n-based mobile base station. It can be plugged directly into the wall for wireless Internet connectivity and USB printing at home or easily brought on the road for wireless freedom wherever there is an Internet connection. AirPort Express also features AirTunes, which works with iTunes to give users a simple and inexpensive way to wirelessly stream iTunes music from a PC or Mac to any room in the house.
"Apple is leading the way with a broad range of innovative 802.11n base stations for almost any wireless networking need," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. "From the small and portable AirPort Express, to AirPort Extreme for workgroups of up to 50 users and the new Time Capsule for automated backups, Apple customers now have more great ways to extend their wireless networks with 802.11n."
AirPort Express features a single-piece, compact design weighing just 6.7 ounces, providing maximum portability. The device offers both PC and Mac users the ability to share a single DSL or cable broadband connection with up to 10 simultaneous users. Users can also share a printer wirelessly that is connected to the USB port. Apple's AirPort Utility software provides easy step-by-step instructions for setting up and configuring AirPort Express; and with its advanced security features, AirPort Express safeguards data on networked computers with support for Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA/WPA2), 128-bit WEP encryption and a built-in firewall.
With the release of the updated AirPort Express on Monday, Apple now includes 802.11n as standard in its entire line of AirPort base stations and Mac notebooks as well as iMac, Apple TV and Time Capsule.
AirPort Express includes a built-in combination digital and analog audio connector allowing users to connect to a home stereo or powered speakers. iTunes automatically detects remote speakers and displays them in a simple pop-up list for the user to select. Once the remote speakers are selected, AirTunes wirelessly streams iTunes music from the computer to the AirPort Express base station.
Multiple AirPort Express base stations can be set up around a home, each connected to a set of powered speakers for a whole-home music experience. AirPort Express can also extend the range of an existing AirPort Extreme wireless network.
AirPort Express is available immediately through the Apple Store, Apple's retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers for a suggested retail price of $99 (US).
Priced at just $99, AirPort Express remains the world's smallest 802.11n-based mobile base station. It can be plugged directly into the wall for wireless Internet connectivity and USB printing at home or easily brought on the road for wireless freedom wherever there is an Internet connection. AirPort Express also features AirTunes, which works with iTunes to give users a simple and inexpensive way to wirelessly stream iTunes music from a PC or Mac to any room in the house.
"Apple is leading the way with a broad range of innovative 802.11n base stations for almost any wireless networking need," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. "From the small and portable AirPort Express, to AirPort Extreme for workgroups of up to 50 users and the new Time Capsule for automated backups, Apple customers now have more great ways to extend their wireless networks with 802.11n."
AirPort Express features a single-piece, compact design weighing just 6.7 ounces, providing maximum portability. The device offers both PC and Mac users the ability to share a single DSL or cable broadband connection with up to 10 simultaneous users. Users can also share a printer wirelessly that is connected to the USB port. Apple's AirPort Utility software provides easy step-by-step instructions for setting up and configuring AirPort Express; and with its advanced security features, AirPort Express safeguards data on networked computers with support for Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA/WPA2), 128-bit WEP encryption and a built-in firewall.
With the release of the updated AirPort Express on Monday, Apple now includes 802.11n as standard in its entire line of AirPort base stations and Mac notebooks as well as iMac, Apple TV and Time Capsule.
AirPort Express includes a built-in combination digital and analog audio connector allowing users to connect to a home stereo or powered speakers. iTunes automatically detects remote speakers and displays them in a simple pop-up list for the user to select. Once the remote speakers are selected, AirTunes wirelessly streams iTunes music from the computer to the AirPort Express base station.
Multiple AirPort Express base stations can be set up around a home, each connected to a set of powered speakers for a whole-home music experience. AirPort Express can also extend the range of an existing AirPort Extreme wireless network.
AirPort Express is available immediately through the Apple Store, Apple's retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers for a suggested retail price of $99 (US).
Dating back as early as 1999, the patents (1, 2, 3, 4) describe a highly visual system that displays a line of documents and other items dating back (or forward) in time along with the option of searching these items to retrieve and edit them.
Users of the system could also set up personalized versions of these feeds, or "lifestreams," as well as separate "substreams" that cover more focused topics. The approach is similarly billed as useful for searching an enterprise database.
In images accompanying the patents, Mirror Worlds portrays a system with more than a passing resemblance to Time Machine, Apple's automated backup utility in Mac OS X.
The plaintiff stops short of drawing a direct connection between the operating system feature and its patent claims but argues that both Macs and Mac OS X infringe on all four patents. However, for all but one of the patents, the company alleges that iPods and iPhones are also guilty of the infringement.
The Mac maker doesn't use a visually identical system on any of its handheld devices but often sorts podcasts and similar material by the date it was received.
Apple has been aware of the patents' existence starting from late 2001 and so is responsible for "willful and deliberate" violations, according to the plaintiff, which argues that Apple is damaging Mirror Worlds' business. The lawsuit would have an injunction issued against any Apple products found infringing on the patents and asks for triple damages.
As is the company's usual practice, Apple has not commented on the lawsuit.
"The problem that Apple has right now is, there's too much interest in the iPhone SDK," said the Iconfactory's Craig Hockenberry, one of several developers contacted by the business publication who say their questions to the company have gone unanswered for weeks at a time.
Developers wishing to author native applications for the iPhone and iPod touch must ink their named to 2,700-word non-disclosure agreement (NDA), which stipulates that they not "disclose, publish, or disseminate any confidential information to anyone other than to other registered iPhone developers" who work for the same firm.
"Many programmers feel inhibited from turning to one another for help because of the confidentiality agreement," said BusinessWeek. "The restriction hasn't stopped some developers from using public forums to answer each other's questions�though it has given some pause."
Meanwhile, venture capitalist firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, which announced a $100 million dollar fund aimed at jump-starting third-party iPhone development, has been so inundated with proposals that it now admits it may have to increase its bounty.
According to Matt Murphy, a partner at the firm, his colleagues had a running bet over how many business plans they'd receive from prospective iPhone developers in the first 30-days following the announcement of their fund. While Murphy declined to reveal that number, he said it was easily surpassed within 36 hours.
This immediate charge on the part of developers presents further questions regarding the virtual shelf space Apple's prepared to offer third parties, adds the San Francisco Chronical, whose piece on iPhone gaming notes that id Software and Pangea Software are among the gaming houses that intend to release titles for the iPhone.
"My only concern is that everyone and their brother is jumping on the iPhone app bandwagon, so it may make it difficult to market a product when there are a zillion others coming out at the same time," said Pangea's Brian Greenstone.
Although Apple has often maintained that the iTunes Store is a vehicle for sales of the iPod rather than a source of profit, the company may have earned $570 million for 2007 alone, according to calculations by the music chart keeper Billboard.
Using as a yardstick Apple's recent revelation that it had sold four billion songs since the store opened in April 2003, the publication estimates that Apple sold about 1.7 billion tracks last year. This amounts to more than just $1.7 billion, however: as stores in Europe and elsewhere often charge more than 99 US cents per track, Apple is more likely to collect $1.9 billion.
After factoring in Apple's roughly 30 percent direct earnings from every song sold, this leaves the Cupertino, Calif.-based company with about $570 million of its own versus the 70 percent left to the labels.
The income doesn't translate to a similar amount in pure profit for iTunes, however. Apple has explained in the past that its portion of the song price is largely used by bandwidth and maintenance costs, though the company has never broken down its revenues in public statements.
Analyst: Disney earns $123 million in iTunes sales since debut
As unclear as Apple's revenue stream may be, its close partner Disney has been making a small but tangible profit on videos from iTunes, estimates by Pali Research show.
Studio chief Bob Iger's claims to have sold between four million movies and 40 to 50 million total videos since movies became available from iTunes in fall 2006. If taken literally, Disney has earned about $122.8 million after casting aside Apple's portion of each purchase, Pali analyst Rich Greenfield says.
The number is just a small fraction of Disney's total $35 billion in sales for 2007 alone, but is easily sustainable. Without the normal marketing and manufacturing costs associated with feature films and DVDs, virtually all of the income is considered a supplement to Disney's core movie-making business rather than an essential focus.
Newspaper claims iPhone Austria announcement by Friday
Austrians will hear of plans for the iPhone's launch at the same time as the Irish launch, according to a report in the national newspaper Der Standard.
The publication refers to anonymous industry sources who claim that T-Mobile Austria will sell 8GB and 16GB iPhones at the same prices of 399 and 499 Euros as for French, German, and Irish offerings. Like most iPhone subscriptions, owners will be tied to a two-year contract and will pay between 50 and 60 Euros a month.
T-Mobile has not confirmed the dates, though chief Hamid Akhavan pledged a release in the first half of 2008.
Japanese officials to investigate iPod nano sparks
An incident with a first-generation iPod nano has triggered an inquiry into the safety of the player by the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.
The player reportedly shot sparks while it was being recharged, prompting concerns that other users may have encountered the same problem. No one has been injured, though Apple reported the issue to Japanese officials late last week.
Roughly 420,000 of the iPods were sold in Japan between 2005 and 2006. Later second- and third-generation iPod nanos aren't part of the current investigation.
Citing sources at Taiwan memory makers, DigiTimes notes that despite procuring about $1.2 to 1.3 billion worth of NAND flash memory for its products in calendar year 2007, Apple has yet to place any substantial orders this year.
Although the Cupertino-based company recently introduced a solid-state disk (SSD) version of its MacBook Air, suppliers believe the steep retail price of that model will do little to encourage widespread consumption amongst consumers, "which can hardly spur meaningful SSD penetration and NAND flash procurement."
Instead, the memory makers are reportedly anticipating the launch of the company's first ultra-mobile PC (UMPC) as a possible catalyst to improve demand and boost NAND pricing later in the year.
Like the MacBook Air's 64GB SSD, the device is said to employ multi-level cell (MLC) NAND flash, as opposed to single-level cell (SLC), which represents the latest and most dense form of flash memory.
For its processor, the tablet-like device is widely presumed to use Intel's Atom processor, which will eventually include a dual-core 1.87GHz model, according to a leaked Intel roadmap that made its way around the Web on Monday.
The 11.4MB update began showing up via the Mac OS X Software Update application as "AirPort Base Station Update 2008-001" earlier this afternoon for those users who own one of the company's 802.11 routers.
According to Apple's "release notes," the update includes general fixes and compatibility updates for AirPort Utility, AirPort Disk Utility, and AirPort Base Station Agent.
Shortly thereafter, a similar set of updates were released via the company's website under the heading "AirPort Utility 5.3.1." Those distributions was made available as a 8.8MB download for Leopard, a 9.33MB download for Tiger, and a 10.28MB download for Windows XP and Vista.
"AirPort Utility v5.3.1 is the simple to use, setup and management utility for the AirPort Express Base Station, the AirPort Extreme Base Station and Time Capsule," Apple said in the release notes for those downloads.
"Even with the recent strength in all of Apple�s product lines, there continues to be significant opportunities in all three [of its business] segments," analyst David Bailey wrote in the first of two research notes released to clients.
Specifically, he noted that even though the company's personal computer business has outpaced the industry for 5-6 quarters in a row, Macs still account just 3 percent of the global PC market and thus are far from achieving their ultimate potential in the market.
"Our estimate is for 25 percent unit growth in 2008," he said.
Meanwhile, the analyst noted that while iPod unit growth is clearly declining, improving average selling prices (ASPs) from a positive mix of iPod touch models should enable the company to drive ongoing revenue growth for the foreseeable future.
Of interest, Bailey said the iPod touch is enabling the iPod to reach new customer segments, with more than 40 percent of iPod purchases during the December quarter coming from consumers who've never owned an iPod before, reinforcing his belief that the digital players have a ways to go before reaching their true saturation point.
In a second report, the Goldman Sachs analyst weighed in with his thoughts on the iPhone, noting that Apple remains confident that it's on track to meet its 10 million iPhone unit sales target for calendar 2008 and.
"While we expect those shipments to be more backed-loaded, we continue to look for 11 million units for the year," he wrote. "We remain a buyer of Apple shares as Apple has the fundamental and valuation underpinnings which should allow the stock to outperform on an absolute and relative basis longer-term."
"Thank you for expressing interest in the iPhone Developer Program. We have received your enrollment request," Apple wrote in an email sent to the vast majority of those who applied. "As this time, the iPhone Developer Program is available to a limited number of developers and we plan to expand during the beta period. We will contact you again regarding your enrollment status at the appropriate time."
Applicants outside the United States received a different response but to the same result: "Thank you for expressing interest in the iPhone Developer Program. We have received your enrollment request. �At this time, the iPhone Developer Program is only available in the US and will expand to other countries during the beta period. �We will contact you again regarding your enrollment status at the appropriate time. Thank you for applying."
In what may be some condolence to those applying, it's reported that Apple does not appear to be discriminating between corporations and developers of various stature. Instead, the policy appears to be that of gradual expansion during the ongoing beta stage, as noted by MacRumors, the only publication thus far to have claimed knowledge of some developers receiving Apple's official endorsement into the program.
Still, that's left those not so fortunate to wonder what affect their temporary rejection will have on their ability to garner a portion of the $100 million iFund launched by venture capitalist firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers to help support aspiring iPhone application creators.
"Got my rejection email, today. Know someone else who did, also," said Chad, a prospective developer commenting on the matter over at iLounge . "Suppose iFund will wanna float any money my way now that apple has ditched me? I doubt it. Ah� thanks Apple."
But are there real grounds for paranoia at this point? Likely no, the publication suggests. It notes that that temporary rejection letters arriving in droves on Friday simply reiterate what was stated by Apple chief executive Steve Jobs last week while announcing the program: that it would be available only to a "limited number of developers" in the early stage, with substantially more gaining their digital certificate and access to the beta version of iPhone software v2.0 as its final June release approaches.
| Related AppleInsider articles:* Jobs on "marathon" meetings, successors, and... * Apple among those considering rival bid for... * Steve Jobs to Apple investors: 'hang in there' * Palm signs on former Apple heads in private... * PC World editor quits during dispute over... Monday, March 17, 2008Apple's iPhone SDK sees 100,000 downloads in four days
Published: 08:00 AM EST Apple said Wednesday that more than 100,000 iPhone developers have downloaded the beta iPhone Software Development Kit (SDK) in the first four days since its launch on March 6. "Developer reaction to the iPhone SDK has been incredible with more than 100,000 downloads in the first four days," said Philip Schiller, Apple�s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. "Also, over one million people have watched the launch video on Apple.com, further demonstrating the incredible interest developers have in creating applications for the iPhone.� Last Thursday, Apple also previewed the new App Store, a way for developers to wirelessly deliver their applications to every iPhone and iPod touch user. Developers set the price for their applications�including free�and retain 70 percent of all sales revenues. Leading developers such as AOL, Electronic Arts, Epocrates, salesforce.com and Sega have already demonstrated applications using the SDK, and developer response continues to be strong with more developers embracing the platform, according to Apple. "Apple�s become an important mobile game platform with the iPhone SDK," said Jason Kapalka, co-founder and Chief Creative Officer, PopCap. "The new SDK gives us the tools to innovate and reinvent games like Bejeweled, Zuma and Peggle. With the new App Store we can reach every iPhone and iPod touch user on the planet." The free beta iPhone SDK is available immediately worldwide and can be downloaded at Apple's developer website. The iPhone Developer Program will initially be available in the US and will expand to other countries in the coming months, Apple said. A QuickTime video of the iPhone roadmap event remains available here, in both standard and high-definition formats. |
Report: DVR could turn Apple TV into multi-billion dollar business
Published: 11:00 AM EST
By integrating digital video recording (DVR) features into Apple TV, Apple stands to transform it's niche media hub business into a serious growth driver worth over a billion dollars annually, according to one Wall Street analyst.
Reacting to a patent filing uncovered by AppleInsider on Thursday, American Technology Research analyst Shaw Wu said he sees DVR features like those portrayed in the filing cropping up in a third or fourth revision to Apple TV, turning the device into a real business rather than just a "hobby."
"We estimate AppleTV to be a very minor contributor today at ~0.3-0.4 percent of revenue or $100-125 million annually," he wrote in a note to clients.�"We believe adding the ability to watch and record live TV could turn this into a billion dollar, if not multi-billion dollar business."
Wu said the cost of hardware components needed to equip the media box with DVR features is almost negligible, or about $12-15 in incremental cost per unit.
��
"We (as well as many others) have been clamoring for DVR and/or TV tuner capabilities since the introduction of Apple TV 1.0 in January 2007 and even Apple TV 2.0 with movie rentals in January 2008," he added. "We are pleased to see Apple listening to customers similar to what it has done with iPhone, with adding native access to Exchange server."
The analyst, however, took pause in his report to note that there have been patent filings from Apple in the past that have not come to fruition "yet."�One example, he said, is Bluetooth stereo headsets which have yet to ship but "will at some point as cost of components decline."
Separately, he cited his own sources as saying that Apple and Sony appear to be in the final negotiation stages of bringing Blu-ray to Macs.
"Thus while near-term trends look difficult with a looming recession and a slow-down in consumer spending, we continue to believe Apple is well-positioned to weather the storm better than most with its strong fundamentals," he wrote. "[We] reiterate [our] BUY rating and price target of $175."
| AppleInsider reader poll:
| |||||||||||||||
Reacting to a patent filing uncovered by AppleInsider on Thursday, American Technology Research analyst Shaw Wu said he sees DVR features like those portrayed in the filing cropping up in a third or fourth revision to Apple TV, turning the device into a real business rather than just a "hobby."
"We estimate AppleTV to be a very minor contributor today at ~0.3-0.4 percent of revenue or $100-125 million annually," he wrote in a note to clients.�"We believe adding the ability to watch and record live TV could turn this into a billion dollar, if not multi-billion dollar business."
Wu said the cost of hardware components needed to equip the media box with DVR features is almost negligible, or about $12-15 in incremental cost per unit.
��
"We (as well as many others) have been clamoring for DVR and/or TV tuner capabilities since the introduction of Apple TV 1.0 in January 2007 and even Apple TV 2.0 with movie rentals in January 2008," he added. "We are pleased to see Apple listening to customers similar to what it has done with iPhone, with adding native access to Exchange server."
The analyst, however, took pause in his report to note that there have been patent filings from Apple in the past that have not come to fruition "yet."�One example, he said, is Bluetooth stereo headsets which have yet to ship but "will at some point as cost of components decline."
Separately, he cited his own sources as saying that Apple and Sony appear to be in the final negotiation stages of bringing Blu-ray to Macs.
"Thus while near-term trends look difficult with a looming recession and a slow-down in consumer spending, we continue to believe Apple is well-positioned to weather the storm better than most with its strong fundamentals," he wrote. "[We] reiterate [our] BUY rating and price target of $175."
| |
"Connect to the Internet, print, and share music from iTunes with any room in the house. Everything without wires. Now with 802.11n as standard," the description reads, translated from its original French.
As with the Airport Extreme, Apple promises as much as five times the speed as the earlier 802.11g standard, which is used by the current Airport Express model. The price and core USB printing and disk sharing features also appear to be unchanged from the original.
The slip is not known to have appeared on any of Apple's other pages but would signal the first clear change to the Airport Express hardware, which has been virtually unchanged since its introduction in June 2004.
That portfolio had long consisted of just a single patent (No. 7,020,704) titled "System and method for distributing media assets to user devices via a portal synchronized by said user devices." However, on Tuesday the United States Patent and Trademark Office awarded ZapMedia with the rights to a second, similarly titled patent (No. 7,343,414) having an increased focus on digital rights management (DRM).
Both patents describe a content distribution and media asset management system, which when taken at face value appears similar to online distributions systems like Apple's iTunes Store and rival offerings such as Vongo and MovieLink. In addition, the filings include what may be perceived as the foundations to a DRM platform.
In its suit Wednesday, ZapMedia claims that after filing for its first patent in October of 2000, it met with several major technology and media companies around the world, including Apple, describing its vision in great detail.
"Without asking ZapMedia for permission, Apple subsequently unveiled its own system," the company said. "Apple announced its iPod MP3 player with an integrated iTunes software application in October of 2001 and its iTunes store in April 2003."
After having been granted its first patent in March of 2006, ZapMedia between June 2006 the fall of 2007 again entertained dialog with Apple, offering to license that patent to the company to no avail.
Illustrations included in ZapMedia's filings.
"When someone takes our vision and our intellectual property without a license after several attempts, we have no option but to protect it through every means available to us," Robert J. Frohwein, general counsel of ZapMedia Services, said in a statement.
ZapMedia is now seeking unspecified damages.
The fan, according to several users posting to Apple's support forums (1, 2) over the past two weeks, has failed to perform adequately thus far, resulting in random lockups that render the Air unresponsive for periods of about 10 to 15 seconds at a time, if not longer.
In most cases, the intermittent freezing would occur under CPU intensive operations such as digital video playback, downloading content from iTunes, and the use of resource-intensive applications such as Safari or FireFox.
In these instances, the MacBook Air's internal temperature would rise to abnormal levels, causing one of the system's primary processor cores to power down completely. The weight of the operations would then be shifted to the single remaining core, which would be unable to handle the load, eventually causing the systems to stutter and lock up repeatedly.
"I called Apple Customer Service in Italy, they said they knew about the problem, asked me to run some 'resetting' sequences, but the problem is still there," one Air owner wrote last week. "I really think it is a 'overheating' problem, it only happens when running heavy applications, like video playback or video chatting (skype)."
The issue has been particularly troublesome for Air owners who reside in warmer climates, as the surrounding environmental temperatures serve only to compound the overheating problem.
"Same behaviour here with my MacBook Air running 10.5.2," said another Air owner. "Things seens a bit worst to me because I'm in Brazil, S�o Paulo. This means 86� F is a ordinary day."
Unfortunately, a couple of owners report that they are unable to apply this week's MacBook Air SMC Update 1.0 because their MacBook Airs shipped out of Apple's manufacturing facilities with the update already applied. These users continue to report freezing issues.
"I download the the update but it told me I was already up to date," one said. "Fingers crossed for a fix soon."
Separately on Tuesday, Apple also released via iTunes iPod shuffle firmware version 1.0.4, which addresses a few bugs and enhances support for the just-release 2G version of the player.
| |
"When you hire really good people you have to give them a piece of the business and let them run with it," he says. "I want [them] making as good or better decisions than I would. So the way to do that is to have them know everything, not just in their part of the business, but in every part of the business."
The technique explains Jobs' confidence in finding a replacement should he ever leave. Echoing his remarks made on Tuesday at the annual shareholders' meeting, Jobs observes that there are multiple prime candidates for the top spot, particularly chief operating officer Tim Cook. Senior officials at Apple are reportedly skilled enough that there would be little risk. "Some people say, 'Oh, God, if [he] got run over by a bus, Apple would be in trouble," Jobs adds jokingly. "But there are really capable people at Apple."
He also uses this approach as justification for his at times legendary reputation for harsh criticism. Pushing employees to their limits improves them beyond what they thought possible of themselves, he says.
The executive takes further pride in the company's ability to say "no" to common business tactics. Consulants have never been brought in to verify the company's own behavior, just those of competitors. Apple has likewise repeatedly turned down some ideas, even seemingly viable ones, for the sake of maintaining its concentration on just a few key product lines.
Of those lines, the iPod may well have proved the most critical. While the Mac has always been the company's backbone, Jobs admits that the iPod proved virtually essential to rescuing the company from its reputation as a niche-only computer manufacturer. The runaway success of the music player helped validate the company's approach, both to itself and to others. Inside the company, the iPod was a "great shot in the arm" to a company used to never picking up more than 5 percent marketshare.
More importantly, he states, it broke the complacence of the market towards options beyond Windows. As people became aware of Apple once again, it gave the company an opportunity to expand and set itself up as a viable competitor to Microsoft and Windows-based PC builders.
"People have finally started to realize that they don't have to put up with Windows - that there is an alternative," he explains. "I think nobody really thought about it that way before."
Apple reportedly became aware of the truncating problem following a flurry of reports from disgruntled users who've been congregating on the company's support forums for the past three weeks.
One, going by the name of dlalla, reported that since upgrading to iTunes 7.6.1, all his CD imports have resulted in the last 6 seconds of the final track getting cut short.
"I'm having the same issue, and didn't notice it until today," said another. "Considering the volume of CDs I import on a regular basis, this is going to be a real pain - I have to go back now and figure out when I upgraded, and what I have imported since then that will need to be fixed."
Other users confirm the glitch to have turned up as part of the iTunes 7.6.1 update released February 21st. They note that the issue is particularly prevalent while importing to compressed formats such as AAC or MP3 using a speedy optical drive. Users of slower optical drives say they haven't noticed the issue.
While they await the forthcoming iTunes update, some users have resorted to a workaround. They've found that by importing the final track of each CD to AIFF format, then converting it to a compressed format afterwards, they can avoid the problem.
Although yet to be discussed outside of the site by either Apple or T-Mobile, a special iPhone page has appeared that lists 8GB and 16GB handsets as selling for 399 Euros and 499 Euros respectively, matching similar pricing in France, Germany, and Ireland.
The company also reveals that its iPhone plans will offer more than its fellow T-Mobile division in Germany: a "Classic" plan at 39 Euros will include 1000 minutes of airtime for calls to any network versus the 100 minutes available with Germany's starter 49 Euro plan. A "Supreme" plan at 55 Euros adds 1000 SMS messages and also supplies 1,000 extra minutes each to other T-Mobile customers, the voicemail inbox, and other providers.
However, while the plan includes access to Visual Voicemail, the company reveals that Austrian users will encounter a data cap similar to that in Ireland: both the Classic and Supreme plans are limited to 3GB of data per month.
T-Mobile has not revealed its launch date but is reportedly set to launch the iPhone as early as tomorrow. In a statement on the Austrian site, the carrier says it expects to sell the phone through its 39 retail shops as well as its online store.
Apple manager discusses company software design
If Apple's software looks unusually well-designed and provides unique solutions to problems, that's because the company doesn't obey typical rules, Apple senior engineering manager Michael Lopp has revealed in a South by Southwest technology panel attended by BusinessWeek's Helen Walters.
Design mockups, which replicate the interface look and its mechanics, are one of the most important differentiators, Lopp says. Rather than sketch several crude mockups that will need to be changed later, Apple designers often create ten mockups that almost exactly mimic the final appearance. This adds extra time up front but pays off by preventing mistakes.
This is more than the seven or less renderings that come from other companies, the engineer adds, and is carried through to the completion stage: designers are given enough time to create their concepts and pick the top three, which themselves are refined for three months until the final interface is chosen.
The company also follows the unusual practice of holding two seemingly contradictory meetings each week. In one, the developers are encouraged to think of any design that might work, no matter impractical it initially seems; in the next, the same team is asked to determine how it could make a given plan a reality and focuses on concrete development. In doing so, Apple opens up the possibility of a creative solution even very late into production.
Importantly, Lopp adds, this also safeguards against conflicts in so-called "pony" meetings: gatherings where management outlines its desires for a product, no matter how unrealistic they might be for the actual designers. By learning what the team considers workable at any given stage, executives not avert long-term disasters but also may get the features (or "ponies") they want through different means.
The Redmond, Wash.-based software giant also outlined about a half dozen improvements to each of the suite's component applications. For instance, it said Word will no longer quit unexpectedly during launch or during spell check, and that blank pages are no longer printed when using a high resolution printer. Improvements to citation deletion and font substitution were also implemented.
Meanwhile, Excel will also see improvements that will also prevent unexpected quits. In addition, the new version will feature more reliable ledger sheets, present better support for secondary displays, fix formatting issues for rotated text, and respond more reliably when receiving copy and pastes of linked data and charts.
For Entourage users, the update should improve IMAP connections to servers running IBM's Lotus Domino and synchronization with Exchange Server. It should also correct problems with notification sounds under Leopard, import rules, and the stability of Database Utility when used to rebuild large identity databases.
Rounding out the fixes in the Office 2008 for Mac 12.0.1 Update are those targeting the suite's presentation software, PowerPoint. After applying the update, users should experience faster launches of PowerPoint, better character spacing and layout, and improvements to saving files to an SMB network volume, as well as saving files in PowerPoint 97-2004 formats.
Tuesday update is the first for Office 2008 for Mac since the software launched in January at Macworld Expo.
Apple's iPhone 2.0 firmware to bring contact search?
Published: 06:15 PM EST
Tucked away in Apple's presentation of its iPhone and iPod touch version 2.0 upgrade was evidence of a search feature coming to the handset's contact list.
As noted in a post by blarg Kaboom, an inconspicuous magnifying glass icon -- visible for just a few moments -- appears just above the alphabet search strip in the Contacts application in one of Apple's slides during the presentation from last week.
Without a live demonstration of the feature, the exact behavior of the icon is uncertain. Nonetheless, the image resembles the Spotlight icon in Mac OS X Leopard, alluding to a likely search function for iPhone owners with large contact lists or specific search criteria.
Apple hasn't discussed the presence of the image. No users with access to the iPhone software development kit have reported the feature appearing in the contact list for the version 2.0 beta, however, which hints at a feature either pulled from the software or else shelved until its planned final release in June.
In November, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster fueled speculation by claiming that a phone-wide search feature would appear along with the iPhone SDK for Apple's official announcement, which was planned for February at the time. While the accuracy of the researcher's sources has yet to be settled, they suggested that users could search not just contacts, but also data within calendars and email messages.
The lack of search has been a frequently cited omission from the iPhone's feature set since its launch last June.
Click here for larger view.
Tucked away in Apple's presentation of its iPhone and iPod touch version 2.0 upgrade was evidence of a search feature coming to the handset's contact list.
| |
Without a live demonstration of the feature, the exact behavior of the icon is uncertain. Nonetheless, the image resembles the Spotlight icon in Mac OS X Leopard, alluding to a likely search function for iPhone owners with large contact lists or specific search criteria.
Apple hasn't discussed the presence of the image. No users with access to the iPhone software development kit have reported the feature appearing in the contact list for the version 2.0 beta, however, which hints at a feature either pulled from the software or else shelved until its planned final release in June.
In November, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster fueled speculation by claiming that a phone-wide search feature would appear along with the iPhone SDK for Apple's official announcement, which was planned for February at the time. While the accuracy of the researcher's sources has yet to be settled, they suggested that users could search not just contacts, but also data within calendars and email messages.
The lack of search has been a frequently cited omission from the iPhone's feature set since its launch last June.
Click here for larger view.
Speaking at the company's MIX08 online technology conference, Microsoft browser chief Dean Hachamovitch said Internet Explorer 8 delivers better predictability when designing sites, and will feature full support for cascading style sheet (CSS) 2.1 when it's finally issued to manufacturing.
A beta, due for release later in the day, will also include a handful of new end-user features in addition to several developer-oriented debugging tools, both of which the Redmond, Wash.-based firm hopes will provide an edge in its ongoing battle with rival partners Google and Mozilla (Firefox) for maintained supremacy on the web.
Among the top enhancements for end users is a service-related mapping feature reminiscent of embedded Google Maps called "Activities," and another akin to the Web Clips feature of Apple's Safari browser, dubbed "WebSlices."
Microsoft describes Activities as "contextual services to quickly access a service from any webpage," allowing users to bypass the process of, for instance, copying a street address from one website and then pasting it into the website of a mapping service to bring up its location.
"For example, a user is interested in a restaurant and wants to see the location of it," the company said. "This is the form of a "look up" Activity where the user selects the address and views an in-place view of the map using his favorite map service."
In addition to Microsoft's "LiveMaps" service, the default Activities contextual menu lists about a half-dozen of the software giant's other services, in addition to links for "Share on Facebook" and "Add to Digg."
Meanwhile, WebSlices appear to be a near facsimile of Web Clips without a separate runtime environment like Dashboard: "Internet Explorer 8 Users can discover WebSlices within a webpage and add them to the Favorites bar, a dedicated row below the Address bar for easy access to links. Internet Explorer 8 subscribes to the webpage, detects changes in the WebSlice, and notifies the user of updates."
Other features of Internet Explorer 8 include a links bar (similar to Safari's Bookmarks Bar) that has been renamed the "Favorites Bar," an "Automatic Crash Recovery" tool, and an improved anti-phishing filter.
Also on Wednesday, Microsoft released a beta version of Silverlight 2, its competitor to Adobe's Flash for rich, cross-platform media content on the web, and dropped hints that the software could eventually make its way to Apple's iPhone.
"We're releasing Silverlight on more and more mobile platforms, said Scott Guthrie, Microsoft's Corporate Vice President, Developer Division. "We'll release it on anything with an SDK."