Apple's earnings call conferences tend to be of general interest to the wider on-looking tech community, particularly Q1, which covers the lucrative October-to-December holiday sales period. With the iPhone 5s having sold in unprecedented numbers for a new Apple smartphone (or any smartphone, for that matter), and the likes of the Retina iPad mini and iPad Air having debuted, this Q1 earnings call was always going to be impressive, and in actual fact, it was record-busting.
With the 30th anniversary of the Mac, everyone's reminiscing about their history with the computer that arguably put Apple on the map. Thirty years after its announcement at an Apple shareholder meeting on January 24th 1984, the Mac has changed considerably, but Steve Jobs' vision of a computer that is both easy to use and powerful enough to do proper work with lives on. The new Mac Pro may pack more power than most of us would know what to do with, but thanks to Mac OS X, you don't need to be a computer scientist to use it.
A short while ago, we reported on the news that today marks the 30th birthday of the Mac, and in celebration of this momentous occasion, Apple pieced together a short video clip. But considering how integral the Mac has become not only to Apple's product range, but also to its identity as a company, there was always going to be more to today than just a video clip. Three of Apple's head honchos, including the Cupertino's CEO Tim Cook, have sat down for an interview for ABC News, and although we've only a short preview of the full-length piece set to air tonight, it'll surely be a must-watch for any ardent Apple fan.
Apple has won yet another court ruling over Samsung in a hearing in the Northern District of California. Judge Lucy Koh, who has overseen much of the U.S.-based patent suits from both sides, has just dished out a ruling against the Korean company, declaring that Samsung has infringed upon patents pertaining to Apple's AutoComplete keyboard functionality.
When it comes to the online world, pretty much anything is possible, which is why we need to be extremely careful and vigilant when enjoying the spoils that the cyber world offers. Unfortunately not everyone is as ethical or as moral as we would hope, which is why we need to be on the lookout for Internet scams and those trying to take advantage. The latest malicious plan that Internet users need to be aware of is an Apple ID phishing attempt that looks deceptively realistic.
Even after so many rounds of patent disputes in court, and many wins and losses, Samsung and Apple always manage to make the headline from time to time, one way or the other. Everyone involved in this dispute knows that things can't continue down that path all the time, which is why the CEOs of Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics have agreed to meet as part of a mediated session on February 19th.
It has long since been common knowledge that certain government agencies use a number of digital spying tactics to keep tabs on certain activity. Only recently, details have begun to emerge of just how much intel the NSA has been collecting, to the point where it seems as though there's very little that anybody can do digitally without the NSA brown-nosing. With some products having leaked info to the NSA without the knowledge of the user, Apple has taken the opportunity to distance itself from such behavior in stating that it has "never worked with the NSA to create a backdoor in any products."
Apple's '12 Days of Gifts' initiative is in full swing, and while some people may have been disappointed with some of the apps, movies and music that have been on offer for free by the folks in Cupertino, we're supremely confident that the latest offering to be dangled in front of customers will be extremely well received.
One of the great things about the release of the Walter Isaacson biography detailing the life and times of Steve Jobs, was that we learned much more of events and instances that we'd only previously gathered the crux of. We hear names, we see keynotes, we enjoy products; but the ins and outs of what exactly goes on tend to remain obscured from the public eye - at least until another extensive book hits the market. Fred Vogelstein’s Dogfight: How Apple and Google Went to War and Started a Revolution, is a self-explanatory tale of two modern-day tech titans, and The Atlantic has posted an interesting piece dissecting a particular chapter about the release of the iPhone and notably, Google's reaction.
The fact that webcams are installed into each and every MacBook (and indeed, most other notebooks nowadays), can be of great usefulness, and the fact that Apple's computers present a green light when the camera is activated means that users are under no illusions as to whether the FaceTime camera is running or not. However, a piece of software in circulation, which has already been utilized by one unscrupulous individual, allows anyone to activate the camera without throwing up that green light, which is more than just a tad alarming.
