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Submitted by actz
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Friday, 07 October 2011 |
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Steven P. Jobs, the visionary co-founder of Apple who helped usher in the era of personal computers and then led a cultural transformation in the way music, movies and mobile communications were experienced in the digital age, died Wednesday. He was 56. The death was announced by Apple, the company Mr. Jobs and his high school friend Stephen Wozniak started in 1976 in a suburban California garage. A friend of the family said the cause was complications of pancreatic cancer. Mr. Jobs had waged a long and public struggle with the disease, remaining the face of the company even as he underwent treatment, introducing new products for a global market in his trademark blue jeans even as he grew gaunt and frail. He underwent surgery in 2004, received a liver transplant in 2009 and took three medical leaves of absence as Apple’s chief executive before stepping down in August and turning over the helm to Timothy D. Cook, the chief operating officer. When he left, he was still engaged in the company’s affairs, negotiating with another Silicon Valley executive only weeks earlier. “I have always said that if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s C.E.O., I would be the first to let you know,” Mr. Jobs said in a letter released by the company. “Unfortunately, that day has come.” By then, having mastered digital technology and capitalized on his intuitive marketing sense, Mr. Jobs had largely come to define the personal computer industry and an array of digital consumer and entertainment businesses centered on the Internet. He had also become a very rich man, worth an estimated $8.3 billion. Tributes to Mr. Jobs flowed quickly on Wednesday evening, in formal statements and in the flow of social networks, with President Obama, technology industry leaders and legions of Apple fans weighing in. “For those of us lucky enough to get to work with Steve, it’s been an insanely great honor,” said Bill Gates, the Microsoft co-founder. “I will miss Steve immensely.” A Twitter user named Matt Galligan wrote: “R.I.P. Steve Jobs. You touched an ugly world of technology and made it beautiful.” Eight years after founding Apple, Mr. Jobs led the team that designed the Macintosh computer, a breakthrough in making personal computers easier to use. After a 12-year separation from the company, prompted by a bitter falling-out with his chief executive, John Sculley, he returned in 1997 to oversee the creation of one innovative digital device after another — the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad. These transformed not only product categories like music players and cellphones but also entire industries, like music and mobile communications. During his years outside Apple, he bought a tiny computer graphics spinoff from the director George Lucas and built a team of computer scientists, artists and animators that became Pixar Animation Studios. Starting with “Toy Story” in 1995, Pixar produced a string of hit movies, won several Academy Awards for artistic and technological excellence, and made the full-length computer-animated film a mainstream art form enjoyed by children and adults worldwide. Mr. Jobs was neither a hardware engineer nor a software programmer, nor did he think of himself as a manager. He considered himself a technology leader, choosing the best people possible, encouraging and prodding them, and making the final call on product design. It was an executive style that had evolved. In his early years at Apple, his meddling in tiny details maddened colleagues, and his criticism could be caustic and even humiliating. But he grew to elicit extraordinary loyalty. “He was the most passionate leader one could hope for, a motivating force without parallel,” wrote Steven Levy, author of the 1994 book “Insanely Great,” which chronicles the creation of the Mac. “Tom Sawyer could have picked up tricks from Steve Jobs.” “Toy Story,” for example, took four years to make while Pixar struggled, yet Mr. Jobs never let up on his colleagues. “‘You need a lot more than vision — you need a stubbornness, tenacity, belief and patience to stay the course,” said Edwin Catmull, a computer scientist and a co-founder of Pixar. “In Steve’s case, he pushes right to the edge, to try to make the next big step forward.” |
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Submitted by actz
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Friday, 02 September 2011 |
Sony has unveiled its first tablet computers in the UK, to run on Google's Android platform. Sony: releases tablets in the UK The Sony Tablet S, featuring a 9.4 inch screen and Wi-Fi, is available to pre-order online through Sony, Currys and PC World, and will be available in the same stores and in John Lewis later this month. Sony's Tablet P, which will not be available to buy in the UK until November, is the first tablet computer to feature dual 5.5 inch folding screens, making it easy to transport. The tablet measures 7in by 6.2in when open and 7in by 3.1in closed. The Tablet P will allow users to connect via Wi-Fi and 3G mobile networks, but the Tablet S will not launch in a combined Wi-Fi/3G version until next month. Both models have front and rear facing cameras to capture both still and video images with a USB 2.0 port and SD card slot. The more conventional 9.5in by 7in 16GB Tablet S costs from £399, the same as a 16GB Wi-Fi version of Apple’s slightly larger iPad, at 9.5in by 7.5in. The folding 16GB P version will cost from £479.
Sony's tablets will also allow users access to PlayStation games and Sony's own music cloud, Music Unlimited, TV and movie download centre, Sony Entertainment Network and ebook download centre Reader Store. Sony first revealed its plans to launch tablet devices in April, before HTC's first tablet design – also on Google’s Android platform – launched in May. Meanwhile Samsung's tablet design, the Galaxy 10.1, sparked a rift with iPad2 creators Apple, who sought a court injunction last month to stop the Samsung device’s sale in Europe. |
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Submitted by actz
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Monday, 29 August 2011 |
A parts supplier has acquired white-colored parts purportedly for a fifth-generation iPod touch, providing further evidence that Apple is moving forward with a white version of the media player.
iFixDirect (via Technobuffalo) claims to have obtained a white front cover for a next-generation iPod touch. Other than the color difference, the alleged part does not show any major changes to the device.
In July, AppleInsider was first to report that Apple was planning a white version of its popular digital media player. Concord Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo claimed the iPod touch would sport few, if any, distinguishable changes from the fourth-generation black models.
Kuo suggested that the iPod touch would not receive a "spec update" this year because Apple is prioritizing supplies of the A5 processor and other components for the iPhone and iPad. Supply and manufacturing constraints have left the Cupertino, Calif., company struggling to keep up with demand for the iPhone 4 and iPad 2.
Also complicating the matter is the fact that the company has pushed the release of the next-generation iPhone past the usual summer timeframe. As such, the arrival of the iPhone 5 this fall will likely overshadow any iPod touch release. Additionally, Apple is reportedly stockpiling supplies for its next handset in anticipation of pent up demand.
Apple last updated the iPod touch in September 2010, adding a Retina Display, front- and rear-facing cameras and the A4 processor.
Evidence in Apple's own iOS betas also appears to suggest that an iPod touch update is not viewed internally as completely new generation. Recent beta releases of the software contain references to an "iPod 4,2," implying that the new device will be based on the fourth-generation iPod touch architecture.
A white iPod touch would fall in-line with Apple's recent strategy of adding a white version of its iOS devices to generate renewed interest. Last year, Apple announced a white version of the iPhone 4, but was forced to delay the product after encountering manufacturing issues. 10 months after the black iPhone 4 was released, Apple finally began selling the white model.
The white iPhone 4 has been extremely popular in China. In May, a fight at an Apple Store in Beijing over the white iPhone 4 and the iPad 2 caused a broken glass door and several injuries.
Apple also introduced a white version of the iPad when it launched the second generation of its tablet in March. The company appeared to have resolved any manufacturing or paint issues with, as, unlike the iPhone 4, the white model shipped alongside the black iPad 2 from day one. |
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Submitted by actz
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Monday, 29 August 2011 |
Apple's new chief executive has been awarded a million restricted shares of Apple that vest over the next decade, ensuring his continued employment through 2021.
At today's closing stock valuation, one million shares of Apple would be worth $383.6 million.
However, the restricted stock units Apple's board voted to awarded Cook won't begin to vest until August 2016, when half of the award will convert into shares or a cash equivalent, depending upon how the award is set up.
The second half of Cook's million restricted stock units vest in August 2021. Both vesting dates are contingent upon his "continued employment with Apple through each such date," according to Apple's 8K filing with the SEC.
A variety of analysts have already set Apple's stock targets as high as $500, and in ten years, Apple's stock price could easily make Cook's award worth considerably more than half a billion dollars. |
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Submitted by actz
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Wednesday, 24 August 2011 |
 We may be living in a "post PC" world according to some, but PCs are unquestionably still big business, and they're now a bigger business in China than anywhere else. That's according to the latest report from market research firm IDC, at least, which found that both PC sales and shipments in China inched ahead of those in the US for the second quarter -- the first time that's ever happened, and earlier than IDC had previously projected. In terms of hard numbers, that translates to sales of $11.9 billion in China (compared to $11.7 billion in the US), and shipments of 18.5 million units, which represents a 14.3 percent jump year-over-year (as opposed to a 4.9 percent drop to 17.7 million units in the US). Not surprisingly, Lenovo is the big winner in all of this -- it's both the top PC maker in China and the fastest growing one, with a market share just shy of 32 percent. |
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Submitted by actz
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Thursday, 18 August 2011 |
 Research firm comScore is out with an interesting report on worldwide traffic for retail and auction sites this morning, demonstrating the massive reach of Amazon but also showing the Seattle company’s potential for further growth in some parts of the globe. Amazon’s sites topped 282 million unique visitors in June, more than 20 percent of the global Internet audience, according to the comScore data. Among retail and auction sites, that was well ahead of eBay, which came in at No. 2 for the month with 224 million unique visitors, or 16.2 percent of Internet users.  Another interesting factoid: Apple sites fare particularly well in the ranking, coming in at No. 4 worldwide (behind Alibaba.com). Apple saw unique visitors of 134 million in June, nearly 10 percent of the Internet population.
That shows how much the iTunes and the Apple App Store have made Apple a player in the broader world of online commerce. It also shows why Amazon and Apple are increasingly finding themselves competing against one another. Looking more closely at its numbers (in the comScore chart below) Amazon’s strength is primarily in North America, Europe and the Asia Pacific regions. However, the company’s reach is in the single digits in Middle East, Africa and Latin America. Gian Fulgoni, comScore’s co-founder and chairman, points out in the news release that there’s still “enormous upside opportunity across much of the globe” for the large online retailers. See the full news release for more of data and background. 
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Submitted by actz
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Thursday, 18 August 2011 |
 Skype today released its free Skype WiFi app for iPhone and iPad. It’s the latest in a flurry of new product releases from the company prior to the completion of its acquisition by Microsoft. Formerly known as Skype Access, the Skype WiFi service essentially acts as a middleman between WiFi users and a variety of WiFi hotspot providers around the country. Prices start at 6 cents a minute. It’s meant to be a solution for quickly accessing email, checking a website or making a Skype call without ponying up for a lengthy stay on a premium wireless network. The new iOS app will make the most sense for iPad users without 3G connections on their devices. It’s available here in Apple’s App Store. Skype WiFi is available separately for laptops. Microsoft is in the process of buying Skype for $8.5 billion, the largest acquisition in the Redmond company’s history. |
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Submitted by actz
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Wednesday, 17 August 2011 |
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According to comScore, a digital marketing research firm, Google Plus is the fastest growing social network in history and has already attracted over 25 million users despite being an invite only service. With growth statistics like these, it would appear that Google is well on it's way to introducing some serious, albeit healthy, competition in this space. These numbers are still dwarfed by Facebook's 750 million active users, and are not yet high enough for all brands to shell out budget to hop on the bandwagon. Nevertheless, developers and development firms are queueing up to see what the platform has to offer in terms of development tools and integration points with good reason. Firstly, many are looking towards Google to raise the bar for the Facebook development team to continue working hard at improving the stability and documentation of their frustrating platform which has recently claimed the title of the "Worst API" following a recent developer survey (although only 100 developers were polled). This week Google gave us the first glimpse of what is coming by rolling out their games platform. This move, most likely motivated by the dominance of games in the Facebook application market, allowed Facebook’s top games developers exclusive access to their platform to integrate their most popular titles. As anti-competitive as this may be it has let the world know that some sort of a developer API does exist and it provides strikingly similar features to that of Facebook's. In order for applications to access a user's basic information, a user must grant these permissions to the application using a dialogue which most people will recognise from Facebook. Authorisation is done using OAuth2, an open standard for authentication which has also been adopted by Facebook. 
Found on Boxlight - Blog
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Submitted by actz
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Tuesday, 16 August 2011 |
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Hollywood Heavyweights, Tech Experts and Social Media Insiders Collaborate on Social Film NEWS HIGHLIGHTS - “Inside,” a blockbuster-caliber production that will bridge the gap between social media and film, invites viewers to have a voice and participate in the storyline using their social networks.
- The film brings together top talent in entertainment, technology and social media, starring actress Emmy Rossum, directed by D.J. Caruso, award-winning cinematographer Mauro Fiore.
- Viewers will have the opportunity to become part of the film through YouTube*, Facebook* and Twitter,*
- Casting call will run July 11-20 to identify a new character to be included in the film.
Film poster for ‘Inside’ a blockbuster-caliber production that will bridge the gap between social media and film. Developed by Intel and Toshiba, the film allows viewers to participate in the storyline using their social networks. Visit www.theinsideexperience.com for more information. Santa Clara and Irvine, Calif., July 11, 2011 – Intel Corporation and Toshiba America Information Systems Inc., today announced a creative collaboration and campaign to deliver a new social film project titled “Inside.” As part of the film experience an online casting call has also been issued atwww.TheInsideExperience.com. Starring Emmy Rossum (“Shameless,” “Phantom of the Opera,”), “Inside” is a blockbuster-class experiment in social entertainment, brought to life by leading minds in Hollywood, technology and social media. The film aims to bring a new genre of interactive, social entertainment and is directed by D.J Caruso (“Disturbia,” “I Am Number Four,” “Eagle Eye”) and Oscar-winning cinematographer Mauro Fiore (“Avatar,” “Training Day”). “’Inside’ is unique because it allows me as the director to direct not just the actors but the audience as well,” Caruso said. “Social film is still in an experimental phase and collaborations like this one will help bring new concepts, opportunities and ideas to the world of entertainment. We had to approach the film differently because there are blanks that need to be filled in by the social media audience, but that is what makes it an exciting new experience for the viewer; the opportunity to participate in the film itself.” In the film, Rossum plays the role of Christina, a 20-something woman trapped in a room with only a 2nd Generation Intel® Core™ i7 processor-powered Toshiba Satellite® P775 series laptop and an untraceable Internet connection. Unable to determine where she is being held or what her fate might be, Christina uses the laptop to mobilize her social network, reaching out to friends, family and anyone else who can help her figure out where she’s being held and how to escape. More info on BrandAwareness
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Submitted by actz
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Wednesday, 10 August 2011 |
Apple's line of Mac computers are seen making further market share gains in the coming years, growing to 4.5 percent of sales in 2011, and 5.2 percent of new PCs sold in 2015.
The latest predictions from Gartner show Apple increasing from the 4 percent worldwide PC market share the company took in 2010. The numbers are well up from the 3.3 percent share Apple had back in 2008.
Gartner believes that Apple's shipments will be stronger in mature markets where customers are already buying into the Apple product ecosystem, with more popular devices like the iPhone and iPad.
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Submitted by actz
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Monday, 08 August 2011 |
 Although it looks good this cheak knock off is pretty poor! Update! We have posted links of 5 store you can buy the iPhone 5 clone. Click here to find out where to buy an iPhone 5 knock off! When we first spotted the iPhone 5 knock-off last week, the price listed was roughly $108, but a quick look online today shows that fake iPhone 5 prices have dive bombed since then and are now in the region of 299 Yuan ($47)!  Fake iPhone 5's in black and white. The internals of these iPhone 5 clones, available in both black and white, is the same low end hardware as found in last weeks iPhone(y), even down to the JAVA based operating system. Buy iPhone 5 knock-off here!  Java OS is running on this iPhone 5 knock off The only difference it seems is that these iPhone 5 wannabes cost a fraction of the price and are available in white as well as black!  New super low price for the iPhone 5 knock off The screen is a 3.5 inch resistive unit, memory comes in the form of replacable micro SD cards and the rear camera is 2 mega-pixel unit.  The top of the fake iPhone 5's Dimensions of the iPhone 5 clone, Phone i5 as it is marketed are 117 x 61 x 10.8mm and the weight is 105g.  - Fake iPhone 5′s in black and white.
 - The top of the fake iPhone 5′s
 - These iPhone 5 clones are not as this as they look.
 - Although it looks good this cheak knock off is pretty poor!
 - 5 places you can buy an iPhone 5 clone now
 - New super low price for the iPhone 5 knock off
 - A nice smooth iPhone 5 body hides cheap internals
 - Java running iPhone 5 clone
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