Clipmarks | ericskiff's 'apple' clips

Outstanding interview with Steve Jobs

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 05:56:02 GMT

clipped by: ericskiff
clipper's remarks: Fortune's got an incredible interview with Apple's Steve Jobs in this month's issue. Each page had something clipworthy, so I've just grabbed from the first. The source is well worth reading through.

Clip Source: money.cnn.com

Steve Jobs speaks out

In an exclusive interview, Apple's CEO talked with Fortune senior editor Betsy Morris in February in Kona, Hawaii, where he was vacationing with his family

On the birth of the iPhone

"We all had cellphones. We just hated them, they were so awful to use. The software was terrible.

"It was a great challenge. Let's make a great phone that we fall in love with.

obody had ever thought about putting operating systems as sophisticated as OS X inside a phone, so that was a real question. We had a big debate inside the company whether we could do that or not. And that was one where I had to adjudicate it and just say, 'We're going to do it. Let's try.'

Apple shuts down Think Secret?!

Thu, 20 Dec 2007 07:59:01 GMT

clipped by: ericskiff
clipper's remarks: Wow - I'm a pretty big Apple fan, and I agree that some of the news that has been leaked has been a little overboard lately, but this seems crazy.

ThinkSecret was a source where people salivated over even flimsy details promising new shiny gadgets to buy from Apple, and probably did more for them than any "I'm a mac" spot ever could. Now Apple themselves have sued them out of existence.

Boneheads.

Clip Source: www.thinksecret.com

December 20, 2007 - PRESS RELEASE: Apple and Think Secret have settled their lawsuit, reaching an agreement that results in a positive solution for both sides. As part of the confidential settlement, no sources were revealed and Think Secret will no longer be published. Nick Ciarelli, Think Secret's publisher, said "I'm pleased to have reached this amicable settlement, and will now be able to move forward with my college studies and broader journalistic pursuits."

3rd Party Apps Coming to the iPhone!

Wed, 17 Oct 2007 17:43:08 GMT

clipped by: ericskiff
clipper's remarks: Whoo! This is my #1 complaint with my iPhone. I'm running a hacked version of the 1.0.2 firmware just so I can run apps.

The big question is whether apple will let the 'little guys' play or if this will be locked up via a digital signature, but they've got a pretty good history of being developer friendly.

My recommendation would be to have 2 SDK's, one for developing mobile "widgets" that are fairly restricted (think flash apps, etc) and another class of apps that have to go through an approval process, but get more access to things like your contact list, etc.

Clip Source: www.macrumors.com

Steve Jobs has posted an open letter revealing that Apple will be releasing a 3rd party Software Development Kit (SDK) for iPhone and iPod Touch applications. The SDK will be released in February 2008.

Let me just say it: We want native third party applications on the iPhone, and we plan to have an SDK in developers’ hands in February. We are excited about creating a vibrant third party developer community around the iPhone and enabling hundreds of new applications for our users. With our revolutionary multi-touch interface, powerful hardware and advanced software architecture, we believe we have created the best mobile platform ever for developers.

It will take until February to release an SDK because we’re trying to do two diametrically opposed things at once—provide an advanced and open platform to developers while at the same time protect iPhone users from viruses, malware, privacy attacks, etc. This is no easy task.

Patent law may be changing!

Sat, 08 Sep 2007 10:41:58 GMT

clipped by: ericskiff
clipper's remarks: I've long believed the US patent system to be broken, allowing "patent portfolio" companies to file for the simplest and most inane things and then sit on them while others actually innovate in a space.

That said, I don't know if I'm behind the switch from first-to-invent to first-to-file. Could that cause an even bigger problem of people rushing to patent every little thing before someone else steals it out from under them?

Lets hope the section on improving patent quality includes stricter checks for prior art and limits frivolous claims.

Clip Source: money.cnn.com

The House of Representatives approves a highly controversial bill that makes key changes to the U.S. patent system; manufacturers, biotechs oppose.

Technology and financial services firms won a key patent reform victory Friday when the House approved legislation

The Coalition for Patent Fairness and the Business Software Alliance, whose members include high-tech titans such as Apple (Charts, Fortune 500) and Microsoft (Charts, Fortune 500), lauded the decision as a boon for inventors and consumers.

the bill seeks to improve patent quality and reduce patent litigation, which can be a costly and time-consuming exercise for firms of all sizes.

The legislation would limit damage awards for patent infringement and grant patents to the first inventor to file an application, a switch from current law in which the patent goes to the first person to develop the innovation.

iPhone earnings

Tue, 24 Jul 2007 19:09:00 GMT

clipped by: ericskiff
clipper's remarks: Everyone is worried that sales numbers weren't the miracle they were first made out to be

Clip Source: news.com.com

All the products that Apple sold for 90 days last quarter won't get nearly the attention Wednesday as the one that was on sale for two days.

It's earnings time again for Apple. For the past several quarters, company shareholders have enjoyed a pleasant afternoon and it's not expected to be any different this time around on Wednesday afternoon after the close of the stock market. Wall Street analysts are predicting a 21 percent rise in revenue to $5.3 billion and a 34 percent increase in profits to 72 cents a share for Apple's third quarter.

iFight Breaks Out at 5th ave Apple Store

Tue, 03 Jul 2007 14:08:57 GMT

clipped by: ericskiff
clipper's remarks: This is by my good friend Josh at AmericanMadness.com. His brother apparently witnessed the event!

Clip Source: americanmadness.com

A fight broke out today between two men at Apple’s 5th avenue store that left one man bloodied on the floor and resulted in the other being tossed into the street.

A demonstrably muscle-bound gentleman (a bodybuilder) was testing the phone for an extended period of time when the gentleman behind him in line, who just happened to be at least six feet one inches tall and of significant musculature himself, asked the fellow meathead if he could step aside, as he had been waiting at least 20 minutes.

The gym rat in possession of the iPhone then turned to the tall man and said, in an elevated voice: “Go f**k yourself. You’re acting like a child.”

The object of this vitriol, the tall man, responded laconically, with three quick punches to the weightlifter’s face, which sent him crashing to the floor.

(If this were Cindy Adams’ column, surely she’d take this opportunity to say: Only in New York, kids, only in New York.)

Tags: iphone, fight, crazy, funnyq

iWant One

Wed, 27 Jun 2007 22:27:59 GMT

clipped by: Julia Bradley
clipper's remarks: As an extremely happy user of one of the very first 128k Macs back in the day, I doubt the price of the new iPhone will be a limiting factor in its sales. I willingly spent my entire summer's earnings to buy my own fab 128k Mac for my college years...and it was worth every hard-earned dollar I spent. Considering that this generation of teens and twenty-somethings tends to have access to more cash than any prior youth generation, I predict the iPhone's price tag will barely be a hurdle in acquiring it, and a justifiable sacrifice for those who must earn their way to buy one.

Clip Source: www.msnbc.msn.com

“Everyone we talk to hates their phones—it’s universal,” Steve Jobs told me on a call to my iPhone a couple of days ago.

Apple has a history of using cutting-edge technology, slick design and friendly software to break the common logjam in which our machines have the capability to perform certain tasks, but developers haven’t figured out how to make the experience easy, even pleasurable, for users. That’s one reason why people, especially the tens of millions who love iPods, have been so eagerly awaiting the iPhone.

And there it is: one of the most hyped consumer products ever comes pretty close to justifying the bombast.

Tags: iphone, ipod, apple, consumer products, tech trends

Apple to release Safari for Windows?

Mon, 11 Jun 2007 19:12:05 GMT

clipped by: ericskiff
clipper's remarks: Clipped from engadget's wwdc keynote coverage, apparently apple is going to release safari for windows? I don't know how I feel about this. We've already got firefox.

Clip Source: www.engadget.com

"But there is one more thing..."

11:09AM - "There is one other thing we wanted to tell you about that we think you might like. Safari... it's been a wonderful success, there are now over 18m Safari users. It's climbed from 0 to 5% across the entire internet. If you look at the world of browsers, IE is about 78%, Ffx 15%, Safari 5%, other 2% -- we would love for Safari's market share to grow substantially. But how are we gonna do that? Safari for Windows!"

Tags: apple, wwdc, keynote, steve jobs, safari

Which brands do teens trust most?

Sun, 27 May 2007 13:10:37 GMT

clipped by: ericskiff
clipper's remarks: There's 10 more at the source. Interesting to see who rates. I agree with the top 6 at least. In-N-Out Burger is good enough to make me want to move to California!

Clip Source: buzzcanuck.typepad.com

Top Teen Trusted Brands - Not All Who You Think

From Outlaw Consulting, the top 15 trusted brands among teen trendsetters. Can anybody explain Trader Joe's, In-N-Out Burger and even Red Stripe (I thought teens couldn't drink beer in the U.S.).

Top 15 Most Trusted Teen Brands

Apple 60.9

Trader Joe’s 57.4

Jet Blue 46.4

In-N-Out Burger 38.8

Ben and Jerry’s 33.6

Three factors apparently factor into these ratings prominently:

Clean and Simple Equals Hip

Dorky: The New “Cool”

Happy Employees are the Best Marketing Tool

Tags: brand, brands, apple, trader joe's, jetblue, in-n-out

Battery updater for Macbook Pro released

Mon, 30 Apr 2007 18:58:14 GMT

clipped by: ericskiff
clipper's remarks: I've been having a little bit of trouble with my Macbook's battery. It usually runs a long time after a charge, but the "battery health" percentage has been going down since the day I bought it. It's at 88% now, but hit a worrying 74% yesterday.

Hopefully this update will help me get a little more juice out of my mac and reflect the battery's remaining time and health more accurately.

Clip Source: docs.info.apple.com

Battery Update 1.2 updates battery firmware and improves battery functionality.

System Requirements

Installation of Battery Update 1.2 requires Mac OS X 10.4.8 or later.

The Battery Update 1.2 supports the following products:

MacBook
MacBook (Late 2006)
MacBook Pro (15-inch)
MacBook Pro (15-inch Glossy)
MacBook Pro (15-inch Core 2 Duo)
MacBook Pro (17-inch)
MacBook Pro (17-inch Core 2 Duo)

Note: After Battery Update has been installed, each battery you insert into your MacBook or MacBook Pro will be updated automatically.

Tags: apple, battery, macbook, macbook pro, mac

Disk burning in Mac OSX sucks - Open Source to the Rescue

Tue, 17 Apr 2007 23:37:55 GMT

clipped by: ericskiff
clipper's remarks: The included "burn folder" for Mac OS X is woefully inadequate. It doesn't event tell you how much space is available on the disc until you go to burn!

Clip Source: burn-osx.sourceforge.net

Burn - burning application for Mac OS X

Burn Features
	Data disks With Burn you can burn five different kind of disks.
	Audio disks With Burn you can burn Audio CDs and MP3 disks.
	Video disks With Burn you can burn four kind of video disks. VCD, SVCD, DVD and DivX disks.
	Images and copy With Burn you can burn three kind of images. Normal disk images, cue/bin images and toc images. And copy data disks.
	Open source Burn includes and uses open source utilities and is open source too. Download the source.
	Localization Burn is written with localization in mind.
	New in Burn 1.71u - Fixes random crashes. - Fixes language problems in Panther. - Now localized versions display the audio tab properly when QuickTime 6 is installed.

Download

Tags: mac, osx, open source, opensource, burn, burning, dvd, apple

Apple delays OS X 10.5 Leopard to October

Thu, 12 Apr 2007 23:53:12 GMT

clipped by: ericskiff
clipper's remarks: Interesting. I'm glad that they're being forthright about the delays and why they happened. I wouldn't be surprised if they were rushing a bit to counter the "Vista buzz" and when it came out said "oh, good, we can relax a bit."

Clip Source: www.macrumors.com

Apple has today announced that the release of MacOS X 10.5 Leopard will be delayed until October due to the development of iPhone.

iPhone contains the most sophisticated software ever shipped on a mobile device, and finishing it on time has not come without a price -- we had to borrow some key software engineering and QA resources from our Mac OS® X team, and as a result we will not be able to release Leopard at our Worldwide Developers Conference in early June as planned.

Apple recently released a new build of Leopard which continued to contain a long-list of known issues.

Tags: apple, mac, osx, leopard, 10.5, delay, iphone

Awesome Mac Remote Tricks

Thu, 22 Mar 2007 16:53:31 GMT

clipped by: ericskiff
clipper's remarks: I put my remote away the first day I got my macbook and haven't used it since. These tips might get me using it again!

Clip Source: www.macinstruct.com

If you've purchased a Mac recently, you probably have an Apple Remote.

What you might not know is that you can also use your remote to put your Mac to sleep, present a Keynote presentation, and lock your Mac. We'll show you how!

After a Long Day, It's Time to Go to Sleep!

Simply hold down the Play/Pause button and your Mac will go to sleep. To wake up your Mac, press any button on the remote. It's that easy!

Keynote + Apple Remote = Seamless Presentation

Open Keynote, start your presentation, and use the arrow keys on the Apple Remote to move forward and backward through your slides.

Flip Through Your iPhotos

You can, of course, flip through your photos in Front Row. But it's also possible to control your iPhoto slideshows with the Apple Remote.

Open iPhoto, start your slideshow, and use the arrow keys on the Apple Remote to move forward and backward through your pictures.

Tags: mac, apple, remote, trick, tech, technology, cool, presentation, keynote, iphoto, itunes, macbook, macbook pro

Mac Tip - Quicksilver Comma Trick

Thu, 08 Mar 2007 17:42:46 GMT

clipped by: ericskiff
clipper's remarks: Click the link to watch the screencast and hear Merlin's trick for making Quicksilver even more useful (it's the #1 reason I love my mac)

Clip Source: www.themerlinshow.com

006: HOWTO: Quicksilver: The Comma Trick

Learn how to create a temporary stack in Quicksilver, so you can do stuff to (or with) a big pile of objects all at one time.

(Hint: As a Mac OS X screen demo, this is an episode you may prefer to watch at high-resolution)

Now consider a few possibilities of “The Comma Trick”

Makes it easy to select a bunch of items from all over your Mac without a lot of extraneous clicking, drill down, or temp folders

Add a bunch of bookmarks to the stack, hit Enter, and they’ll open all at once in your browser (in handy tabs if you have that enabled)

Select a bunch of coworkers from your Address Book and you can mail them one or more files (and without even opening Mail.app).

Never heard of Quicksilver and want to know more? Start here:

Quicksilver (home page)

Quicksilver (software) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tags: mac, apple, quicksilver, merlinmann

Jobs speaks out against DRM

Fri, 09 Feb 2007 20:18:01 GMT

clipped by: ericskiff
clipper's remarks: There's a million things I hate about DRM, but the main one is that it's often used to restrict behavior that its not illegal, but is simply not in the record companies favor. Give me a reasonably priced, DRM-free .mp3 download service, and I'll never buy a CD again.

Clip Source: www.dailytech.com

Apple's leader believes that a DRM-free world would be the best one for consumers

Jobs wrote that the inconveniences posed by DRM are a result of restrictions set in place by the music industry, and that if record companies would be willing to abolish DRM on music, Apple would embrace the decision in a heartbeat.

Jobs defended his devices and software by saying Apple does not own or control any of the music sold over iTunes, that that the DRM restrictions are set primarily by the “big four” music companies: Universal, Sony BMG, Warner and EMI.

Tags: drm, apple, steve jobs, technology, tech, ipod