March 16, 2010

25 Years of Apple Mice

Here at Mactropolis, we don’t normally cover stories like this, but I think this is worthy of a post.

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It really is amazing to see how far the mouse has come since Apple introduced in alongside the original Macintosh in 1984.

I think these photos are pretty representative of the entire computer industry. Think about it, mice were once an experimental computer accessory, and they looked the part. Nowadays, they are streamlined, operate smoothly, and are an indispensable part of our day-to-day computing. Apple should be congratulated for this, because if it were up to Microsoft, we’d still be using the command line(yes, I’m being hyperbolic). Also, I’m glad the trackball died out (albeit a slow death). Can I get an amen?

Of course, Apple again revolutionized the way we deal with our computers when they brought multi-touch to the masses with the launch of the iPhone in January 2007. Now just about every cutting edge phone released has some sort of multi-touch-esque features.

I also suspect Apple will change things up again when/if they introduce the mythical “iSlate” tablet thingy. And who knows, this “Magic Slate” input device thing may blow our minds if/when it’s introduced.

One thing is for sure though. Apple (and Google) will be the defining tech company in the decade to come.

From all of us at Mactropolis, have a Happy New Year.

iWork Sales Jump 50% In 2009

MC209.jpegNPD Group (via TUAW) is reporting that Apple’s iWork productivity suite saw a 50% jump in sales over 2008 levels. The reason given for this drastic jump is the bundling of iWork along with iLife and Snow Leopard in the “Mac Box Sets” Apple recently introduced.

No unit numbers were given, but we can assume they aren’t insignificant. Another reason for the sales jump, is due to price. Compare iWork to say, Microsoft Office for Mac, and you’ve got an equally capable piece of software for significantly less money.

These sales numbers follow the recent discovery that Apple is looking into taking iWork to the cloud.

China Unicom Sells 300,000 iPhones

Screen shot 2009-12-10 at 8.19.34 PM.pngAfter a slow start when the iPhone officially launched in mainland China last October, iPhone sales have taken off. Just earlier this month China Unicom reported that 100,000 iPhones had been sold. Now just weeks later iPhonAsia.com is reporting that iPhone has seen a 200,000 unit spike in sales, bringing iPhone unit sales to 300,000 in just two months. Not bad considering all of the challenges that I pointed out the iPhone faces in China.

Quick Note: Nexus One Will Cost $530 Unsubsidized, $180 with T-Mobile Plan

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Gizmodo has gotten their hands on Nexus One documents, most importantly they reveal the unsubsidized price for the device to be $530. However with a $80/month T-Mobile plan, the device will cost $180.

The device is widely expected to be announced on January 5th at a Google hosted Android event.

A little steep, but not iPhone level of steep. I was hoping the device would sell in the same price range as a high-end iPod touch. The Nexus One (or any other iPhone competitor) will struggle if they do not have a “non-phone” version of the same platform, a la iPod touch.

Image courtesy of Gizmodo.

Apple COO Tim Cook Receives $12.3M for Running Apple During Steve Jobs’s Leave of Absence

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TUAW is reporting that Apple COO Tim Cook received $12.3 million in Apple stock options for his role as CEO while Apple CEO Steve Jobs took a leave of absence for the better part of 2009.

Even in this rough economic climate Apple has managed to expand quicker than most of the markets they are competing in. A lot of this can be placed at the feat of Steve Jobs, and it will be, but Cook deserves credit for ably running Apple for the better part of 2009.

In 2007 Cook was granted $7 million in stock options, and 2008 brought him $6 million in stock options. So for 2009, Cook was handed $12.3 million in stock, a $100,000 raise, bringing his salary to $800,000 a year, and finally a $800,000 cash bonus. Total haul for 2009: $14 million.

Steve on the other hand received his usual $1 salary with a $1 bonus. Don’t worry, his 5.5 million Apple shares total some $1.1 Billion.

MacBook Now Costs $899 for Students

mb-price-drop.pngApple has quietly lowered the price of MacBook for students from the previous $949 student price to $899. This is a full $100 off of the non-education price of $999. What’s even more mind-blowing is the fact that Engadget is reporting that some customers are seeing the education pricing of MacBook as low as $728.

I personally checked to see if I could buy one of these at $728. I couldn’t, and no one else I asked could either. This is a mistake on Apple’s part. I’ve never seen an Apple product’s price that doesn’t end in “49″ or “99″. So, $728 seems like an odd place for Apple to stop at.

There is now little reason for people in college to not buy a Mac over a junk PC. This new price brings MacBook well within range of the rest of the computer industry. Granted you can still buy a cheaper notebook, but, you get what you pay for.

Nokia Expanding Patent Lawsuit to Include “Virtually All” Apple Products

nokia_logo2.jpgNokia has announced that it has filed a complaint to the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) claiming that “virtually all” Apple products are infringing on Nokia-held patents.

The seven Nokia patents in this complaint relate to Nokia’s pioneering innovations that are now being used by Apple to create key features in its products in the area of user interface, as well as camera, antenna and power management technologies. These patented technologies are important to Nokia’s success as they allow better user experience, lower manufacturing costs, smaller size and longer battery life for Nokia products.

As you may remember, Nokia sued Apple in late October, claiming Apple infringed on Nokia’s cellular and Wi-Fi patents by the iPhone. Apple returned fire with their own suit that claimed that Apple was in fact not infringing on Nokia’s patents, and if they were, Nokia wasn’t offering fair licensing terms, and was requesting access to proprietary Apple technologies that would have no impact on industry standards.

Apple to Expand iWork’s Cloud-Computing Features?

iwork09box.jpgTechCrunch is reporting on a new job posting for Apple corporate that popped up sometime last week, and it appears to let slip the fact that Apple is looking into expanding their online offerings regarding their iWork productivity suite. This job posting suggests a new project is underway.

The Productivity team (i.e. iWork) is seeking an energetic, highly motivated software engineer in building a scalable rich internet application. The person will be part of the core development team and engage in an area from design to development of the software system.

Apple is looking for someone with experience in JavaScript, browser technologies, computer graphics, scalable rich internet applications, and productivity app development.

Few clues are given to the exact nature of this project, but the listing mentioning that the job position is “design and development”, which suggests this is a new project, and not just an enhancement of the current, albeit limited cloud features incorporated in iWork ‘09 in the form of iWork.com beta.

As you may know, Apple has offered the iWork.com beta document collaboration since iWork ‘09 was introduced last January.

As usual, I almost didn’t report on this story because Michael Arrington touched it. In fact, the only reason I reported on this story, is that there was solid evidence to back his claim.

The “Slate” in “iSlate” is an Old Apple Name?

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Continuing their excellent coverage of the “iSlate” saga, MacRumors has found that Apple has used the word “slate” in a prototype for another tablet-like device back in the early 1990’s. The device’s name was “MessageSlate” and was based on Newton technologies.

Although the MessageSlate never went into production, Apple had applied for a trademark for the MessageSlate name in 1993.

AT&T Resumes Online iPhone Sales

new-att-logo1-221x30011.jpgEngadget is reporting that AT&T has resumed sales of iPhone through their online store. The reason for the temporarily halting of sales still isn’t known. Originally it was thought NYC’s spotty network coverage, then it was said by an AT&T spokesperson that a recent spike in fraudulent purchases were to blame. Regardless, everything seems to be back to normal.

No one really seems to know why AT&T stopped selling the iPhone, so we are stuck with their word. If it was indeed fraud, we don’t know what kind. It also seems peculiar that the sales freeze was for only about a day.

My guess: AT&T was going to quietly stop selling iPhone through their online store for a limited time in an attempt to ease the strain on their network in the NYC area. The story broke, and in turn AT&T issued a flimsy reason for the outage, and backpedaled on their original plan.

But what do I know.