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Steve Jobs has resigned as CEO of Apple

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Corporate News,

Steve Jobs Resigns

Steve Jobs has resigned from his role as CEO of Apple. In a major bombshell, Jobs drafted a letter to the Board of Directors (which we have posted after the break) explaining that the time has come where he is no longer able to meet his duties and expectations as Apple CEO. It's truly the end of an era, as many see Apple and Steve Jobs as an inseparable pair. However, recent health problems have led to Jobs taking a few leaves of absence, most recently this past January. Many speculated that he wouldn't return from this latest leave, and now it has come true.

Steve Jobs has recommended that Tim Cook, who has been acting as CEO in his absence, be named as his permanent successor. Steve would like to act as Chairman of the Board, director, and Apple employee.

Click to continue reading Steve Jobs has resigned as CEO of Apple


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Steve Jobs: A Biography hits stores November 21, pre-order now

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple,

steve jobs: a biography

This Christmas, get your loved ones a meaty biography on the elusive CEO of Apple, Steve Jobs.

A spokeswoman for publisher Simon & Schuster said the book, which sports a new cover (right), will be available at all retail and electronic outlets on November 21, 2011. The pre-order sale price for the hardcover at Barnes & Noble is $20.40, or 37 percent off the list price of $32.50.

For the first ever authorized biography of Steve Jobs, simply titled "Steve Jobs: A Biography," acclaimed biographer Walter Isaacson spent three years conducting "exclusive and unprecedented" interviews with the famously closed-off Apple co-founder.

The book promises interviews with Jobs' ex-girlfriends, foes, family, and fired colleagues. Furthermore, Jobs apparently didn't demand to review the book before it went to print.

Click to continue reading Steve Jobs: A Biography hits stores November 21, pre-order now


Bill Gates speaks about the past, present, future of the PC

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Microsoft, PC / Laptop,

Bill Gates teen

The most significant innovation in personal computing over the last 30 years has been the evolution of natural interfaces, with the GUI, speech recognition, gestures and touch receiving equal weight, according to Bill Gates, a co-founder and the former chief executive of Microsoft.

As the PC turns 30, we asked Gates, as well as other industry leaders, for their thoughts on the most significant innovation in personal computing, and how PCs have changed people's lives for the better – or worse. Finally, we wanted to know what the future holds for personal computing – and maybe whether the "Personal Computer" would exist in its current form.

While Apple's Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak arguably invented and popularized the personal computer, Bill Gates, Paul Allen and later Steve Ballmer at Microsoft crafted and shaped the Windows operating system which became synonomous with the term "PC". The Apple Macintosh and Windows pushed the graphical user interface into the mainstream, driven by the increasing performance of microprocessors from Intel Corp., and later from chips designed by Advanced Micro Devices, Cyrix, Via Technology, and others.

Click to continue reading Bill Gates speaks about the past, present, future of the PC


Here’s how Apple uses its massive amount of cash to its advantage

Apple MacBook Air

Over the last few years, Apple has stockpiled cash in such huge amounts that investors often question Apple about its strategy of keeping so much money around. When asked about it, Steve Jobs and team always points out that the market is unstable and they need to have cash in place for good times and bad, as well as have money available for major acquisitions, as part of its growth strategy.

And even though this answer normally keeps its investors at bay, as Apple continues to grow its cash reserves, which currently sits somewhere around $70 billion, investors and media alike continue to tell Apple that perhaps it's time to release a dividend to shareholders. But Apple is steadfast about its position. An interesting post from an anonymous writer on Quora recently shared a fascinating view of why Apple keeps so much cash around.

Click to continue reading Here’s how Apple uses its massive amount of cash to its advantage


Apple Store: Here are the secrets of its amazing success

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Corporate News,

Apple Store Galleria

What's the real inside dirt on how Apple runs its equally successful and secretive Apple Stores? The Wall Street Journal claims to be privy to Apple's secret sauce after poring through Apple Store training manuals, a recording of a store meeting, interviews with current and former store employees, and conversations with outside analysts.

In a report published yesterday, the Journal serves up the dish on everything from Apple's store design strategy to the granularity of employee sales training. Some of the information the newspaper dug up is fairly obvious—for; example, Apple doesn't do cookie-cutter designs for its Apple Stores, but rather "constantly evolves its stores' look and feel."

But some of the reported Apple Store skinny touches on areas that may have been guessed at, but have now been apparently confirmed. To wit, current and former Apple Store employees say store techs aren't allowed to "prematurely" acknowledge product glitches that are already widespread, and writing about Apple online will get you fired from an Apple Store.

The Journal also layers in plenty of Apple Store stats—did; you know that more people now visit Apple Stores in a single quarter than went to Disney's four biggest amusement parks last year?

Here's a quick look at some more interesting Apple Store tidbits that the paper either uncovered, confirmed, or highlights in the article.

Click to continue reading Apple Store: Here are the secrets of its amazing success


Video: Steve Jobs presents new spaceship-like Apple campus to Cupertino council

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Corporate News, Videos,

As Steve Jobs puts it in this video, Apple has grown like a weed. With the popularity of Mac computers, and the recent rise of iOS devices, the company has been having to lease buildings outside of their main campus just to fit everyone in. Now it looks like they are ready to converage again, and they wanna do so in typical Apple style. In the video above, Steve Jobs presents the new concept for a monstrous Apple campus, the center of which is a single building that can hold 13,000 people.


Download iOS 5 beta 9A5220p now

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Smartphones, Handhelds, Software,

ios 5 beta 9a5220p

Apple has been busy updating their Dev Center with all of the hotness they talked about today during the WWDC 2011 keynote. They just added in all the iOS 5 beta versions for the various iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and Apple TV devices that will support it, and if you're a Mac developer, don't forget to also pick up the latest Lion Developer Preview 4.


Notification Center gets rid of pop-up messages for good in iOS 5

iOS 5 notification center

Notifications are about to get a much-needed facelift in iOS 5. We've complained many times about how, with the growth of apps using push notifications, unlimited text messaging packages, and local notifications, the pop-ups were simply getting out of control. With iOS 5, they're gone. Instead, as announced this morning during the Apple WWDC 2011 keynote, they're replaced by a simply notification at the top of the screen that doesn't interrupt you in the middle of whatever you are doing. You can also swipe down from the top of the screen to get to a list of all your recent notifications in one spot (they call this Notification Center.) Finally, you can also choose to have your recent notifications displayed right on your lock screen. Swipe an app icon to the right, and you are opened right into that app. This definitely takes a bunch of cues from MobileNotifier, a jailbreak-only notification app (that we use and love,) and improves upon it in many ways. In fact, Apple recently hired the developer of MobileNotifier, so this all makes perfect sense. iOS 5 launches this fall.


iCloud is now live in the App Store

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Corporate News, Software, Storage,

iCloud purchase history

iCloud, Apple's new cloud services that Steve Jobs told us about during his WWDC 2011 keynote this morning, has already made its way into the purchase history area of the App Store. Above is an image from my iPhone 4, showing apps that I have purchased, but that aren't installed on the device. I can tap the iCloud icon to download the content right from there.


Apple iCloud officially debuting at WWDC

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, PC / Laptop, Software,

Apple iCloud

This morning, Apple put out a press release letting the world know that they'll be showing off iOS 5, OS X Lion, and iCloud, their long-awaited cloud service/MobileMe revamp, next week at WWDC. Oddly enough, Apple only went as far as naming iCloud, and called it an "upcoming cloud services offering." Now, we aren't expecting them to go into full detail in a press release, but why even name it at all? We're guessing it's because Apple really wants to set the expectation that WWDC will be focusing on software, softening the blow that will inevitably come when the masses are complaining about the lack of an iPhone 5 hardware reveal. The press release lets us know Apple's WWDC intentions and plans, and sets the expectations accordingly.

WWDC kicks off in six days, and of course, we'll have details of all the announcements as they're made. By the way, the press release also confirms that the incomparable Steve Jobs will be taking the stage at WWDC.


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