iPhoneRoot.com
News from category ‘Other’
Before he died, Steve Jobs kept a letter from Bill Gates by his bed
In a new interview Microsoft founder Bill Gates told that he wrote a letter to Steve Jobs before his death and the letter was so important for Steve that he even kept it at his bedside. Gates spoke this week with students at a school in South London, where he acknowledged that Jobs had said critical things about him in the past, but before Jobs passed away they had settled all difficulties.
"There was no peace to make. We were not at war," Gates said. "We made great products, and competition was always a positive thing."
In fact, Gates said he received a phone call from Jobs's wife, Laurene Powell Jobs, about negative comments her husband had made to biographer Walter Isaacson, in which he called Gates a "basically unimaginative person who "has never invented anything." Gates said Jobs's wife told him that Isaacson's book didn't "paint a picture of the mutual respect" the two had for one another.
Leave a commentApple Fights Scalpers With New System For iPhone Reservations In Hong Kong
Apple has set up an interesting system to combat scalpers who marred a recent launch of iPhone 4S in Mainland China. A newly created page on Apple online store in Hong Kong has a kind of a lottery system for iPhone reservations that seems to target scalpers using bots for snapping up all the iPhones. Instead of reserving their devices on a first-come-first-served basis, buyers are currently required to supply full details, including government-issued photo ID card matching the ID number and the name.
Steve Jobs asked Google to stop poaching Apple workers
A court filing that is a part of a civil suit involving the employment practices of seven major tech firms was unveiled on last Friday. It includes an email, which late Apple’s co-founder Steve Jobs sent to former Google chief Eric Schmidt. Jobs asked Schmidt to end poaching Apple’s workers.
The March, 2007 email specifically asked Google to put a stop to its active recruitment of an unnamed Apple engineer, and alluded to halting worker poaching in general, reports Reuters.
"I would be very pleased if your recruiting department would stop doing this," Jobs wrote in his email to Schmidt, who was on Apple's board of directors at the time.
Wisconsin uses Microsoft settlement funds to buy iPads for schools
Wisconsin State Journal has reported that Wisconsin is buying 600 iPads this spring and plans to buy another 800 this fall. The state will pay for the tablets using the funds of the state's settlement with Microsoft related to consumer lawsuits claiming the company overcharged customers for its software. The Journal also presented rather strong argument that the tablets are simply cheaper, more portable and easier to use than conventional computers.
The new iPads will enable students to wirelessly share their work and enable schools to replace textbooks with digital apps or ebooks, referring to Apple's recent announcement related to iBooks 2, iBooks Author and digital textbooks as a "significant development."
District deputy superintendent Sue Abplanalp noted that Madison administrators had been impressed by the results of an iPad trial by Chicago Public Schools, which found the tablets were successful in keeping students more engaged in the classroom.
Tim Cook Responds to Report on Working Conditions at Suppliers' Factories
Apple CEO Tim Cook has sent an email to company employees where he gave his explanation of treatment of workers at the facilities of Apple's suppliers. The email highlights Apple's efforts to oversee compliance with company standards for workers' rights and the transparency. From Cook's opening statement:
As a company and as individuals, we are defined by our values. Unfortunately some people are questioning Apple’s values today, and I’d like to address this with you directly. We care about every worker in our worldwide supply chain. Any accident is deeply troubling, and any issue with working conditions is cause for concern. Any suggestion that we don’t care is patently false and offensive to us. As you know better than anyone, accusations like these are contrary to our values. It’s not who we are.
Apple Estimated to Retake Title of World's Largest Smartphone Vendor
A couple of days ago the research firm Strategy Analytics announced its estimates of the global smartphone market for the fourth quarter of 2011. The firm has found that Apple narrowly squeezed by Samsung to retake the title of world's largest smartphone vendor as measured by unit shipments. Apple's 37 million iPhones narrowly eclipsed Samsung's quarterly smartphone shipments of 36.5 million units.
Neil Mawston, Executive Director at Strategy Analytics, added, “While Apple took the top spot in smartphones on a quarterly basis, Samsung became the market leader in annual terms for the first time with 20 percent global share during 2011. With global smartphone shipments nearing half a billion units in 2011, Samsung is now well positioned alongside Apple in a two-horse race at the forefront of one of the world’s largest and most valuable consumer electronics markets.”
In the second quarter of 2011 Apple passed Nokia and is holding off Samsung now. But in the third quarter Samsung easily passed Apple, and Samsung’s continued growth paired with a pause in iPhone sales ahead of the iPhone 4S launch. The iPhone 4S launch could help Apple to retake the lead from Samsung in the fourth quarter, although it was not able to top the charts for full-year 2011.
Apple Employees Will Receive $250 Off iPads And $500 Off Macs
Among the various topics discussed by Tim Cook during yesterday’s Town Hass session with Apple employees, he revealed some new perks for employees. Cook announced that company’s employees would receive 250$ discounts on Mac purchases and $500 discounts on iPad purchases.
27 German Publishers Will Launch Their Own Open Textbook Platform
Following Apple’s move into education sphere with the introduction of the new “iBooks Author” and “iBooks 2.0” platform, new reports say that 27 textbook publishers in Germany will join together to combat Apple with their own digital textbook platform. The platform will be released in time for the beginning of the next school year.
New iTunes U Help Resources Are Now Available On Apple’s Web Site
On its web site Apple has created a new section dedicated to the service that was updated during its education-related media event. The new contain plenty of information for educators about how to use new digital features available in iTunes U.
Specifically, resources include training courses on iTunes U Course Manager and iTunes U Public Site Manager, as well as different guides on how to publish on iTunes U. Students and educators can also learn about using various types of educational content such as video clips, interactive presentations, audio recordings and more.
Apple Expected to Adopt 802.11ac 5G Gigabit Wi-Fi This Year
AppleInsider claims that Apple is expected to adopt and start supporting the new faster 802.11ac Wi-Fi specification into products this year.
The new 802.11ac standard achieves much faster wireless networking speeds than the existing 802.11n specification (in use on the latest Mac, AirPort and iOS devices) by using 2 to 4 times the frequency bandwidth (from 80 to 160MHz), more efficient data transfers through sophisticated modulation, and more antennas (up to 8; existing standards support up to 4, while Apple's Macs currently use up to 3).
This "Gigabit WiFi" offers speeds 3 times as fast as existing 802.11n wireless networks can with speeds of over 1 Gigabit per second.
NYTimes: Why Apple builds its products in China
The NY published an absolutely fascinating article, explaining why Apple builds almost all of its stuff in China. The short of it is that companies like Apple simply cannot manufacture products in the United States. The cost is not the reason, however. Years ago, the Chinese government subsidized building cities of factories that can hire 3,000 workers to live in a dorm in a day —or 8,700 Industrial Engineers in two weeks (it would take 9 months in the U.S.).
The most interesting tale might have been the last minute decision to make the iPhones display glass:
In 2007, a little over a month before the iPhone was scheduled to appear in stores, Mr. Jobs beckoned a handful of lieutenants into an office. For weeks, he had been carrying a prototype of the device in his pocket.
Mr. Jobs angrily held up his iPhone, angling it so everyone could see the dozens of tiny scratches marring its plastic screen, according to someone who attended the meeting. He then pulled his keys from his jeans.
German court tosses Samsung's 3G-related lawsuit against Apple
On Friday German Judge Andreas Voss rejected Samsung's numerous lawsuits against Apple in Germany, accusing the iPhone maker of violating a patent related to 3G/UMTS wireless communications. The lawsuit included 7 different patents; six of these patents are tied up in four other lawsuits. Though Voss did not provide a reasoning for his pronouncement, if he had determined that Samsung's 3G patent was invalid, the outcome of the lawsuit would have been a stay rather than a rejection.
"There are two reasonably likely possibilities: either Apple's products weren't deemed to infringe on the patent in a technical sense or the court believes Samsung's rights are exhausted and Apple has, by extension, a technical license," Mueller wrote.
Apple's digital textbooks with iBooks 2 were 'vision' of Steve Jobs
Speaking with Peter Kafka of All Things D, McGraw-Hill CEO Terry McGraw said Apple's newly unveiled textbook initiative for the iPad with iBooks 2 was a project spearheaded by the late Steve Jobs before his death. He met with Jobs last June about the project and discussed their goals. "He (Jobs) should be here. He probably is (in spirit)," McGraw said. "This was his vision, this was his idea, and it all had to do with the iPad."
McGraw-Hill is one of the first publishers already on board with Apple's new e-textbooks for iBooks 2, seeing Apple's new iBooks 2 platform as a way for textbooks to evolve and improve education. The CEO said he's been interested in the iPad as a learning tool since Apple first launched the device in 2010.
New Apple suit claims Galaxy Nexus infringes on 'slide-to-unlock' feature
Mere hours after serving up a ruling on Friday for a failed Samsung lawsuit against Apple, the Mannheim Regional Court held a hearing about Apple’s complaint against Samsung’s Galaxy Nexus. It is the first time when Apple has named the South Korean electronics manufacturer's flagship Android handset in a lawsuit, claiming the device infringes the iPhone maker's "slide-to-unlock" utility model that was first introduced with the original iPhone in 2007 and subsequently patented with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in October 2011
Examinations of utility model registrations are not as stringent as patent filings and don't carry a presumption of validity which is necessary for a court ruling. Thus the Mannheim court does not foresee an immediate decision in the "slide-to-unlock" suit as it believes the validity or invalidity of the invention is too close to call.
Mac sales growing faster for Apple in China than US
Analyst Ben A. Reitzes with Barclays Capital said in a note to investors on Wednesday that Apple's growth in China now extends beyond the iPhone and iPad, with Mac sales there also continuing to outpace the U.S. Reitzes believes that Apple's total global sales will be up 22 percent year over year, thanks largely to rapid expansion in China.
"We believe Mac sales remain relatively strong even as the economy weakens, benefitting from new stores in China and strong sales of the MacBook Air," he said. "Even though the economy and HDD shortages are concerns that could limit upside, we remain comfortable with our estimate for 22% (year over year) Mac unit growth for (the fourth quarter of calendar 2011) given overseas momentum -- especially in China where growth is much higher."