Showing posts with label Apple. Show all posts

Apple release of Mac OS X Lion as having more than 200 new features

Mac OS X Lion

Mac OS X Lion's well-known All My Files smart folder gives a bird's-eye view of everything on your Mac with files separated by type -- images, PDFs, text-based documents, spreadsheets and so forth. Each type of file displays preview icons of various files that you can scroll through, much as you would using cover flow view in the Finder or iTunes.

This file grouping option is the default for All My Files, but you can use it for any folder you're looking at in icon view (but not in list, column or cover flow views).

Grouping files by type is useful, but the Finder's new Arrange menu in the Finder window toolbar also lets you group files and subfolders by several different criteria, including by the application that created each file (or that is associated with the file if that application isn't installed on your Mac); by the date they were last opened, added, modified or created; by the file sizes; and by the Finder label assigned to them.

Some Special features of Apple Mac OS X Lion

Like the iPod touch and Wi-Fi-only iPads, Mac OS X Lion can use known Wi-Fi networks to determine the approximate geographical location of your Mac. This information can be requested by websites and other applications, as well as used with iCloud's Find My Mac feature. The new Privacy tab in the Security & Privacy pane in System Preferences lets you choose whether your Mac can determine your location and, if so, which apps are allowed to use your location information.

The Privacy tab also lets you control whether or not your Mac can send diagnostic details (such as from application or system crashes) to Apple Mac OS X Lion for analysis.

iPad 3 coming in March with high res screen

The new display is capable of greater resolution than the current iPad, with more pixels on its screen than some high- definition televisions, the person said. The pixels are small enough to make the images look like printed material, according to the person.

Apple is also expected to cut pricing on its earlier iPad models, perhaps to as low as $299 or $399, to keep up with intensifying competition. Currently, iPad pricing starts at $499, while the Kindle Fire tablet starts at $199, though reviewers consistently label the iPad as a premium product.

Bloomberg reported that Apple's "manufacturing partners in Asia started ramping up production of the iPad 3 this month and plan to reach full volumes by February." The news agency cited one of its three sources for that information, saying they "asked not to be named because the details aren't public."

Bloomberg also reported that the new iPad 3 tablet will "use a quad-core chip, an enhancement that lets users jump more quickly between applications." Two sources who asked not to be named were cited for that information, the news agency reported.

Mac App Outlet download bill reaches 100 million

Computer world - Apple boasted today that it had distributed more than 100 million programs through the Mac App Store since the e-market's January launch.

"With more than 100 million downloads in less than a year, the Mac App Store is the largest and fastest growing PC software store in the world," said Philip Schiller, Apple's head of marketing, in a statement Monday.

Apple debuted the Mac App Store Jan. 6, 2011, and at the time limited the storefront to users running Mac OS X 10.6, aka Snow Leopard. People running Snow Leopard's follow-up, Lion, have been able to access the app store since that upgrade's July 2011 release.

Several millions of the 100 million downloads from the Mac App Store were, in fact, Lion, which Apple distributed exclusively through the online market. Apple said in October that it had sold six million copies of Lion through the quarter that ended Sept. 30.

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The timing of Apple's download volume announcement may not have been a coincidence: Last week, rival Microsoft said that it would open its software app store, dubbed the Windows Store,

For all the downloads, Apple's slice of the revenue pie amounted to just $34 million per quarter, or about $132 million for 2011, estimated Brian Marshall, an analyst with International Strategy and Investment Group (ISI).

Total revenue for the Mac App Store was $113 million per quarter, or $452 million for the year, said Marshall in a short note to clients.

Apple takes 30% of all revenues generated by the Mac App Store, while developers receive the remaining 70%.

Marshall compared the Mac App Store's revenues with that produced by the more popular App Store that caters to iOS devices like the iPhone and iPad, and not surprisingly, found the former wanting.

He estimated iOS App Store revenues at $619 million per quarter, or $2.5 billion annually, with Apple's share at $186 million per quarter, or $744 million per year.

"We view Apple's Mac App Store and App Store primarily as improving the user experience and creating greater loyalty -- in other words, recurring device revenue -- rather than a meaningful revenue or earnings driver," said Marshall.

Nor is the Mac App Store as widely used as the iOS App Store: Assuming an installed base of 60 million Macs and 250 million iOS devices, each Mac accounted for about two downloads, or 35 times less than the 70 downloads Apple has racked up per iOS device since the App Store's 2008 launch.

Unlike the iPhone's market, the Mac App Store is not the sole software distribution channel for Mac laptops and desktops. Developers can still pitch their Mac OS X wares via their own websites, through online sellers like Amazon.com or at brick-and-mortar stores.

But the Mac App Store beats the iPhone e-mart on average app price, said Marshall, who tagged the former's paid app ASP (average sales price) at $15 and the latter's at only $1.25.

Schiller also said that the iOS App Store download count had reached 18 billion, and was now distributing approximately 1 billion apps per month

Some stock analysts are scaling back their estimates for iPad sales

Another reason for a possible slowdown in growth is because some buyers are waiting for the iPad 3, expected early in 2012. Some analysts also speculate that Apple has won the early adopter market but will find it harder to entice the next round of buyers.

ANALYSIS: Tablet throwdown: Amazon Kindle Fire vs. Apple iPad 2

So far this month, three analysts have trimmed their iPad forecasts for the current quarter, according to Investor's Business Daily. Keep in mind that all three expect strong iPad sales for this period, just not as much as they expected previously. Shaw Wu, of Sterne Agee, dropped his forecast to 13.5 million units from 15 million, the largest cutback. Michael Walkley, of Canaddord Genuity, lowered his target to 13 million, from 14 million. Mark Moskowitz, of J.P. Morgan, trimmed his estimate the least: to 13 million, from 13.3 million.

"Maybe the tablet market is not as big as people had thought," Wu said, quoted in the IBD story. "Remember all the talk about how tablets are going to take over PCs? I'm not in that camp. A lot of people were. Maybe not anymore."

Another variable is the expected success of Amazon's new Kindle Fire media tablet, despite having received mixed reviews by pundits and tech analysts. This week, Morgan Stanley analyst Scott Devitt said that many reviewers "strategically misunderstood" the new tablet. Amazon is not trying to match the iPad, he says. Instead, it's creating a "large content ecosystem" that plays well with the low-priced Kindle. That combination, he says, "will more than make up for its technical inferiority to the iPad."

Part of the appeal is the price difference. The Kindle Fire, with a 7-inch screen, is $199; the 9.7-inch iPad 2 starts at $499.

But Forrester Research recently predicted that Amazon would sell about 5 million of the new models by Jan. 31, 2012, less than half of projected iPad sales, but enough to make it a very distant No. 2 in the tablet market behind Apple.

Analysts are still bullish on Apple's current quarter. Several, according to the IBD story, have boosted their profit and sales projections due to stronger sales of iPhones and Mac computers.

Steve Jobs, Visionary Leader of Apple Inc., Dies at 56

WEDNESDAY, Oct. 5 (HealthDay News) -- Steve Jobs, the visionary leader of Apple Inc. who introduced the world to personal computers, then the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad, died on Wednesday following a long battle with cancer.

The Apple chairman and former CEO Steve Jobs Is Dead

The Life of Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs' death is heartbreaking, but might be the perfect point to take a second and look at the good, bad and as he might have put it, "insanely great" parts of a history-changing life.

The timeline itself is made from a half dozen books, which I've listed below, and several websites. I'm sure there are some errors and missing parts, because the books often contradict each other. Also, I consider this timeline/biography to be in Alpha, so let me know if there's a mistake and send me a good piece of source material and I'll make corrections. Also, images are very welcome. Here's the bio in a single page.

When Bill Gates went into retirement, we threw him a week-long celebration and wished him well on his journey through philanthropy at his foundation. The comings and goings of Steve Jobs have been less ceremonious. He's been sick and Apple's tried to down play that and his importance to the company so the company, his life's work, can go on after he retires. And having to do it without much fanfare so the company doesn't seem too reliant on him. Look: Last Monday the first press release came out in months with a Steve quote in it, and he was seen on campus. But no one at Cupertino is making a big deal of it. Here's the thing: None of us really want to believe that he's not important. It's total bullshit to think that, if you look at his life and where his work fits in history. I mean, this is the co-founder of Apple getting sick, and slowly leaving behind his 30 year legacy in computing to the next generation. That deserves more respect, as it did in the case of Gates stepping down. Not many news pieces were written in this context.

As I was doing some background reporting, digging up pieces I hoped would give stronger context to the current events, I realized there wasn't a good reference for all the little stories collected from the Valley and beyond about Steve Jobs' life. The best information comes from books and quotes in magazine articles here and there, not the web. And so, it was hard to find a frame of reference online that would give better context to all that was happening today.

So I started collecting a lot of it here, and found it enjoyable to document this notable life, rather than tear it down one hospital or liver transplant rumor at a time. In some ways, it dissolved away some of the guilt I felt about writing about tracking someone's health as if it were merely a piece of news. And so I kept going, until it was a somewhat presentable record of what we know about Jobs. From what I've seen, it's the most complete online.

Before we go, I'd like to eschew the custom of linking to sources at the end and place them here because all these books are pretty amazing and worth checking out if you have the inclination. The three notables are Owen Linzmayer's Apple Confidential 2.0 which has exactly levels of detail in regard to dates, times, etc, although less on Jobs personal life. And VC and former TimeValley reporter Michael Moritz's out of print The Little Kingdom, which is out of print and I paid handsomely for on ebay. Lastly, Andy Hertzfeld, one of the creators of the Mac, createdRevolution in the Valley (also available in website form at folklore.org), a telling of maybe 100 personal anecdotes from the development of the Mac. It will make you think you were there. I'm not done with the pile below, but I'll keep updating this timeline as more bits come up.

So, without further delay, here are the books this timeline is based on, and here's a link to a single page if you don't want to read the timeline in gallery format.

Statement from Apple board after Steve Jobs death

Following the death of Apple Inc. co-founder and chairman Steve Jobs on Wednesday, the board of the iPhone and iPad maker released the following statement:

"We are deeply saddened to announce that Steve Jobs passed away today.

"Steve's brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives. The world is immeasurably better because of Steve.

"His greatest love was for his wife, Laurene, and his family. Our hearts go out to them and to all who were touched by his extraordinary gifts."

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