Apple seems determined to celebrate the buyout of the Beats Electronics and Beats Music brands and had already dedicated a page of its online store to the Beats by Dr. Dre hardware before today slashing the prices of most of those products by 10%.
Apple CEO Tim Cook has joined with the current Ice Bucket Challenge drive and had a bucket of freezing cold water dumped over his head in order to raise awareness of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.
Apple is universally recognized as a company shrouded in secrecy, and as well as keeping upcoming products and ideas firmly under wraps, the "Apple University" remains an enigmatic training camp for talented minds. Just like any ordinary university, there's a certain code of conduct and etiquette that students must follow, but as you might imagine, the Cupertino tech giant operates a little differently from your typical academia. Given, as aforementioned, the hush-hush nature of Apple University, it's somewhat rare for the public to get an insight into what goes on, but three students have stepped out and offered a glimpse of what it's like to study through Apple's prestigious program.
If you ever wanted to make yourself feel inferior, then having a good think about what kinds of things you'd be able to buy if you were worth millions or even billions of dollars is a good way to do it. While we should probably just be happy for what we've got - new smartphones, tablets, games etc aren't things everyone has access to - there's no doubting that some people live in a completely different world to the rest of us.
The deal that saw Apple acquire Beats Electronics was one of the biggest stories so far this year. Sure, we were flabbergasted by Facebook's $16 billion purchase of WhatsApp, partially because of the sheer amount of money changing hands, but given the Cupertino company’s conservative spending habits, this one came a little out of the blue. Apple has consistently stayed away from big-money buyouts, and the decision to snap up the Dr. Dre-founded company also signaled the first time that the Mac maker opened its wallet for a well-known company. Now, with the $3 billion agreement having been given the rubber stamp of approval, Beats has been given its own special space on the Apple retail site, where you might find headphones, speakers, and… oh - more headphones.
It became something of a myth that turned out to be true, but there really was a guy called Sam Sung that worked for Apple as recently as late-2013. Even while both Apple and Samsung were going at it tooth and nail over patents and general hatred of each other, there was a cheery guy working as a specialist in Apple’s Pacific Centre in Vancouver, British Columbia. It was almost too good to be true.
Apple's purchase of Beats Electronics was not only the biggest acquisition that the Cupertino company had made in its history, but also represented the first time that Apple opened its wallet to acquire a popular, well-known brand. Beats' "Pill" mascot, based on the Pill speaker device that you'll no doubt have seen advertised on numerous occasions, has naturally just been introduced to Apple's Siri voice assistant, and in a rather entertaining new advertisement, these two well-known products hold their first public conversation.
The massive Apple / Beats deal has been officially closed and the Cupertino giant has welcomed the audio gear maker inside its realm with a dedicated page on its official website.
Sometimes you read something and then have to make sure that it's not April 1st, but alas, today is not April Fools Day and unfortunately, this report from Reuters appears to be far from a joke. If it is indeed accurate, the Russian government has apparently asked Apple to hand over the source code for both iOS and the OS X in a bid to try and make sure that neither can be used to spy on it.
In the coming weeks, some parts of the United States will be offering what has become known as a 'tax-free weekend' during which select products can be bought without having to pay tax on them. That sounds like the kind of thing that we could get behind, and Apple is trying to make sure that those living in the right state are able to take advantage of the situation by, you guessed it, buying some shiny new Apple gear.
