News tagged ‘job’

According to Bloomberg, Apple’s ongoing patent war with the manufacturers of Android-based devices has mixed results. Bloomberg wrote that Apple could cut its losses and earn 10$ per Android-based device sold if the company would reach settlements with its competitors.

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The United States Patent and Trademark Office published on Tuesday that Apple won a core multitouch patent that describes how touch events are recognized by a touchscreen device. The patent blog Patently Apple also noted that this patent was one of the "200+ Patents for new inventions" Jobs lauded when the iPhone first debuted in 2007.

The newly granted patent focuses on the oscillator signal and circuit of a touchscreen-equipped device, an integral invention directly related to how users interact with their multitouch products.

Apple states in the filing: "In general, multi-touch panels may be able to detect multiple touches (touch events or contact points) that occur at or about the same time, and identify and track their locations."

One way to record multiple touches is to generate an oscillating signal circuit that can power and clock inputs over a substrate as in a capacitive touchscreen display. But it is difficult to create a precise circuit-based oscillator. According to Apple's patent, the solution to capacitive touchscreen problem is to calibration logic circuitry which compares the signal oscillation against a reference signal and tunes the clock frequency accordingly. The invention provides for an accurate capacitive display that can not only sense multiple touches, but also detect hover or near touches which are also recognized as "touch events."

The recent rumors claim that Apple may launch a smaller 7.85" iPad sometime in 2012 to compete against the new 7" Kindle Fire tablet from Amazon. Though Apple has never tried to compete spec for spec against their competitors. For example, the iPhone has kept the same basic form factor across 5 different generations.

The supply chain has actually been very specific about the screen size of this rumored iPad. According to Chinese manufacturers, Apple is buying up 7.85" screens for this upcoming mini iPad. So, we asked our friends at CiccareseDesign to put together these mockups of what a 7.85" iPad would look like in comparison to the existing 9.7" iPad.

The 7.85" iPad is actually a lot smaller than the existing iPad. Icons are smaller than the 9.7" iPad, of course, but still bigger than the icons found on the iPhone. The on screen keyboard also seems quite usable at this size.

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Analyst Brian Blair with Wedge Partners said in a note to investors this week that though Apple is believed to have built prototypes for a 7-inch iPad, and rumors of such a device launching persist, he doesn't believe Apple will release a 7-inch tablet in 2012.

"Jobs was emphatic in his view that 7-inch tablets were dead on arrival," Blair wrote, "and we believe it would be unlikely to see the company test the waters in this category anytime soon."

Blair thinks it's more likely that after the launch of a third-generation iPad Apple will keep its current iPad 2 on the production to decrease its price and address demand at the mid-tier range.

"We believe iPad 2's price drop could drop to the $349 to $399 range with Apple offering a single 16GB model," he said.

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When a 21-year-old Steve Jobs was starting his Apple’s empire, he was met with skepticism in Silicon Valley. The handwritten note, brought to light this week by Bloomberg, was written by  Mike Rose, who ran an advertising agency in Los Altos, Calif., in 1976, and where he expressed concern over Jobs and his partner, Steve Wozniak, who he felt were "flakey" after having met them. In the letter, Rose referred to Jobs as a "joker." When a young man, Jobs displayed some of the same characteristics that would eventually become known around the world.

Rose noted that Jobs looked like a secretive men, who "wouldn't trust" him. Rose and Jobs met because he needed someone to print the manual for the Apple I computer, the first product he and Wozniak had created.

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A new rumor from the Far East claims that Apple is pushing its manufacturing partners to meet deadlines that would allow the company to launch a third-generation iPad next year on Feb. 24, which is the birthday of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.

A local Chinese-language newspaper reported Friday that iPad3 might be launched on Feb. 24 to mark the anniversary of the birth of Apple's late co-founder Steve Jobs.

Citing sources close to Taiwanese makers in the iPad3 supply chain, the Economic Daily News said the gadget could be launched in mid-first quarter of next year or by the end of next March.

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This week the Recording Academy announced the winners of its annual Special Merit Grammy Awards. One of the awards will go to Steve Jobs who was named one of several recipients, including Brazilian composer and arranger Antonio Carlos Jobim, of a Trustees Award for 2012. The Trustees Award category is designed to recognize those who have made significant contributions to music in areas other than performance.

As former CEO and co-founder of Apple, Steve Jobs helped create products and technology that transformed the way we consume music, TV, movies, and books. A creative visionary, Jobs' innovations such as the iPod and its counterpart, the online iTunes store, revolutionized the industry and how music was distributed and purchased. In 2002 Apple Computer Inc. was a recipient of a Technical GRAMMY Award for contributions of outstanding technical significance to the recording field. The company continues to lead the way with new technology and in-demand products such as the iPhone and iPad.

The ceremony honoring the winners of Trustees Awards will be held on Saturday, February 11th.

According to a new job application published by Apple this week and discovered by AppleInsider, the company is looking to hire someone for the position of iCloud Application Developer. That means that the company is already looking to improve iCloud service with new applications for the iPhone and iPad. The iCloud umbrella of services was launched in October to replace Apple's previous cloud-based option, MobileMe.

"The iCloud team is looking for a proactive, creative-minded (engineer) to build the next generation of cocoa-based client applications that integrate tightly with a set of cloud based services," the listing reads.

The position requires someone who will develop both new and existing iPhone and iPad applications for iCloud services. Though it offers no indication of what those applications might be, it notes that employees will "build products that people want to use every day."

Apple is expected to add in iCloud a proprietary mapping service from Apple. Moreover, there are a lot of rumors concerning that Apple is building its own mapping and location services for iOS.

Fortune reports that Walter Isaacson, author of Steve Jobs biography, may not yet be finished working on the book. Isaacson currently has several ideas how to expand the authorized biography. Не is going to describe more fully the events surrounding Jobs' death in early October or to add extensive annotations to the existing content.

The author discussed potential plans for expanding the already 630-page book in the future. One possibility is doing an extensively annotated version. Another is writing an addendum that addresses the period surrounding Jobs' death. Fleshing out the details seems like a logical next step, since Isaacson believes the Apple (AAPL) CEO's story will be told for decades or a century to come. "This is the first or second draft," he said, referring to his book's role in documenting Jobs' life. "It's not the final draft."

Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson has already became Amazon's best-selling print book in 2011 and named the company's best-selling new release of 2011 for combined print and digital sales.

As The New York Post reports, on the last week the New York Police Department conducted a sting targeting merchants that were suspected of trading in stolen iPhones. The NYPD spokeperson Paul Browne said that undecover police officers sold iPhone 4S and iPad 2 at more than 600 locations asking from $50 to $200 after stating that these devices were stolen.

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iPhone Dev-Team released RedSn0w 0.9.9b9 with full iOS 5.0.1 support (no need to point to iOS 5.0 any more). New version also features support for SHSH and APTickets:

• native support for 5.0.1 (no need to point redsn0w at 5.0 IPSW or use command-line args).  Support automatically extends to all of redsn0w’s various functions: “Jailbreak”, “Just boot”, “Fetch blobs”, “Stitch blobs”, “Recovery Fix”
• iBooks fixed in 5.0 and 5.0.1.  This is a targeted fix that doesn’t remove entire sandbox mechanism.  5.x users already using redsn0w “Just Boot” can just use the new version without redoing entire jailbreak again
• 3GS old-bootrom owners can now create custom IPSWs without blobs
• ultrasn0w compatability update (i.e. same baseband requirements) for 5.0.1 will be available on Cydia Monday
• support for newer 8GB iPhone4 (which until now had problems with “Fetch blobs”).  Thanks to @JKjeepnJeff for loaning us one of these newer i4 units for testing!
• allows Windows users (not just OS X users) to use the “Custom” button to create IPSWs without baseband updates.  (Update: please wait for 0.9.9b9b for this!)
• accommodates APTickets in 5.x (until next Apple countermove).  APTickets are crypto-verified before submitting to Cydia, just like the main blobs.  Cydia server support for sending back the APTickets is upcoming.  For now, use stitched IPSWs for 5.x.  Due to APTickets, stitched 5.x IPSWs now require user to start in “Pwned DFU” mode
• Support added for stitching 4.x blobs to iPad2-GSM IPSWs.  Similar to @notcom’s TinyCFW but doesn’t require lots of RAM or a TSS-assisted restore. Won’t work for iPad2 5.x blobs (or iPhone4S at all) until a bootrom-level exploit is out
• top line now shows whether (and where) a redsn0w update is available, or if the version being run is the latest.  Uses DNS TXT record to alleviate any concerns about snooping
• no 5.1 beta support at this time (major apps like Cydia are not yet compatible)
• @pod2g has been doing a great job porting his 5.x untether…check his blog for updates!
• Owners of newer 3GS iPhones must not flash the iPad baseband.  The iPad baseband will not work on 3GS iPhones built later than 2011 week 35.  You have a week 35 or later device if your serial # starts with xx135.

Update #17b: Version 0.9.9b9b enables the “Custom” button for Windows users, and make the 3GS week 35 warning a more explicit part of the process.

You can download RedSn0w 0.9.9b9b here.

UPDATE: redsn0w updated to redsn0w 0.9.9b9d.

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Apple has reportedly submitted revised plans for their so-called "Spaceship" campus. The company plans to break ground on the project next year and open the facility in 2015. This mega-campus in Cupertino, Calif., is expected to provide Apple with approximately 2.8 million square feet for up to 13,000 employees. Late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs personally presented the original plans for the campus to the City of Cupertino in June. Following Jobs' presentation, city officials quickly voiced support for the project. Jobs described it as follows:

It's a pretty amazing building. It's a little like a spaceship landed. It's got this gorgeous courtyard in the middle... It's a circle. It's curved all the way around. If you build things, this is not the cheapest way to build something. There is not a straight piece of glass in this building. It's all curved. We've used our experience making retail buildings all over the world now, and we know how to make the biggest pieces of glass in the world for architectural use. And, we want to make the glass specifically for this building here. We can make it curve all the way around the building... It's pretty cool.

The City of Cupertino posted an update to the company's "Apple Campus 2 Project" on Tuesday evening. Though most of the new renderings are higher-quality versions of the original design, some of the images show a darker color for the structure's roof. Other changes include addition of parking plans, drawings for a private jogging path and a proposed expansion of the corporate fitness center from the original proposal of 25,000 square feet to 45,000 square feet.

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According to the Bloomber’s report, Sothby’s is going to auction off the original four-page founding contract among Steve Jobs, Ron Wayne and Steve Wozniak that established Apple Computer Company on April 1st, 1976. The document is expected to fetch from $100,000 to $150,000 on the auction that is planned for December 13th. Richard Austin, the director of books and manuscripts at Sotheby’s in New York, said:

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Local residents view Apple's massive data center in Maiden, N.C. as “disappointing development” because it seems not to answer their expectations, bringing just 50 full-time jobs to the area with double-digit unemployment rates. Residents are rather skeptical about Apple’s positive influence on the city, and thinking that the company has done nothing to improve the situation.

But, at the least, two residents, Donnie and Kathy Fulbrigh, have benefitted significantly from Apple's venture. Apple paid $1.7 million for their one-acre property. At first they didn’t want to sell their property, but Apple offered them to set their own price, and they finally gave up. As for others, the situation hasn’t changed for them. It still very hard to run a business here.

The North Carolina legislature amended its corporate income tax law in order to offer Apple tax breaks of up to $46 million over the next 10 years to build its data center in the state. According to the report, local authorities have discounted property taxes by 50 percent and personal taxes by 85 percent. In exchange, Apple has created 50 full-time jobs and is also expected to create 250 "indirect contracting jobs."

Siri with Proxy Server can do many custom things. One of them - it can help you watch TV. This is, of course, using the Siri Proxy with a Plex command line interface.

This works so nice that it might be what Steve Jobs wanted a TV to be in the future.

Take a look: