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Tim Cook responds to claims of factory...
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Tim Cook at today’s Town Hall...
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Foxconn employee tells us that the next...
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Apple posts record results for holiday...
Court filings show Steve Jobs told Google to stop poaching Apple engineers
Following reports earlier today that U.S. District Judge Lucy H Koh would allow a lawsuit claiming Apple, Google and 5 other companies entered in “no-poach” agreements, now court documents made public today show in 2007 former Apple CEO Steve Jobs asked with Google’s Eric Schmidt to “stop trying to recruit an Apple engineer.” Reuters reports:
The email from Jobs to Schmidt was disclosed on Friday in the course of civil litigation against Apple, Google and five other tech companies. The proposed class action, brought by five software engineers, accuses the companies of conspiring to keep employee compensation low by eliminating competition for skilled labor.
According to excerpts of the the documents posted by Reuters, Jobs wrote the following in an email to Schmidt after someone at Google tried to recruit an Apple engineer:
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Mac Superbundle deal. Parallels 7 + 10 Mac Apps: $49
From 9to5Toys.com:
Nova Offers their MacSuperbundle Winter Deal for $49. We’re picky about our bundles but Parallels alone makes this one worth noting. There are some solid extras here as well.
Valued at over $470 if purchased separately, the nine software titles and exciting bonus app in the new 2012 Mac SuperBundle are available for just $49, an 89% savings, and offer innovative solutions no Mac user should be without. Nova’s biggest bundle to date and best consumer deal yet features the award-winning and #1 selling virtualization software Parallels Desktop® 7 for Mac, (a $79.99 value alone), and includes essential Mac maintenance tools and organizational apps, plus audio, video and digital creativity software and much more. The Mac SuperBundle launches on January 25th, 2012 and will be available for 14 days only.
Other applications include: Read more
T-Mobile to offer unlocked iPhone users additional support starting Jan. 30
T-Mobile will begin offering more than 1 million unlocked iPhone customers additional support starting Jan. 30, according to a report from TMO News who obtained internal documents. The documents said the new support offerings would include, “common procedures, information about feature and specifications and other basic device questions.”
The carrier is also updating the iPhone website within its Community so it fits in with the rest of the T-Mobile supported device pages and “Integrated Scope of Support” for representatives. Earlier this month, we had a chance to talk with T-Mobile CTO Neville Ray regarding the failed AT&T merger and the carrier’s plans to hit the switch on 1900 MHz HSPA+ spectrum in a number of cities in the Eastern U.S.
Bill Gates sent special letter to Jobs before his passing
In a recent interview with The Telegraph, Bill Gates sat down to talk, among other things, about his relationship with Steve Jobs. Gates recalled his often up and down relationship with Jobs changing somewhat after the launch of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in 2007: “Steve and I did an event together, and he couldn’t have been nicer…I got a fair bit of time with him in his last year.” When Gates ultimately learned of Steve’s medical condition, he wrote him a letter:
“I told Steve about how he should feel great about what he had done and the company he had built. I wrote about his kids, whom I had got to know…There was no peace to make. We were not at war. We made great products, and competition was always a positive thing. There was no [cause for] forgiveness.”
After Jobs’ passing, Gates said he received a phone call from Laurene Powell, Jobs’ wife, who told Gates Walter Isaacson’s biography did not accurately depict the mutual respect between the two:
Former Apple Retail head Ron Johnson talks remaking JC Penney using Apple experience
Ron Johnson, Apple’s former head of retail, pioneered the concept of the Apple Retail Stores and the Genius Bar a decade ago. As you know, he is also yet another established Cupertino executive to use experience at Apple and tap his peers in an effort to transform an industry and rethink a company. Another one: The iPod Godfather Tony Fadell whose intelligent thermostat made quite a stir among the technophiles. Not everyone succeeds, as evident in the case of former Apple hardware chief Jon Rubinstein, who just left Hewlett-Packard following a series of missteps with webOS and Palm.
Due to take over CEO post at the American mid-range department store chain on Feb. 1, Johnson on Wednesday shed more light on a new strategy for an ailing JC Penney, and boy, does it draw from everything he learned during the Apple gig. He conveniently kicked off his presentation with a slide adorned by an Apple logo, which was immediately followed by another “What Were You Thinking?” slide.
Johnson then launched into an appraisal of Apple, likening the iPhone maker to a prime model of lasting brand experiences. Johnson, who left Target for Apple in 2000, recalled that at the time: “There wasn’t one positive believer who thought an Apple retail store could work.” He then put up a slide depicting the Grand Central outlet, a massive new Apple store built inside New York City’s landmark Grand Central Terminal.
Reiterating how he built Apple Stores on experiences, not commissions, the executive noted:
It’s not about buying. It’s about enriching someone’s life. [...] The magic of the store that makes everyone want to come is all the stuff you get beyond the transaction, ’cause at Apple, the relationship doesn’t end when you buy. That’s where it begins. And we’re going to do that at JC Penney.
A few other interesting highlights are below:
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Apple, Google, and five other companies must face lawsuit over no-poaching agreements
Late last week we told you that the U.S. Justice Department apparently had evidence that Apple, along along with Google, Adobe, Intuit, Pixar, Intel, and Lucasfilms, entered “no-poach” agreements as part of an antitrust investigation from 2010. U.S. District Judge Lucy H Koh made a statement yesterday at the U.S. District Court in San Jose, Calif., confirming the companies must face a lawsuit. According to the report from Bloomberg, Koh said she would allow plaintiffs to re-file their complaint even if an initial request by the defendants to dismiss the claims is granted.
Judge Koh’s decision yesterday will result in Google and the other companies having to provide a detailed account of the agreements made with other companies. They must also allow lawyers to take depositions. One lawyer representing the plaintiffs, Joseph Saveri, said, “We get to see what really happened,” claiming the case could result in hundreds of millions of dollars in damages. Google provided statements to Bloomberg claiming they have “always actively and aggressively recruited top talent,” while the others have declined to comment.
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Apple publishes anti-trust decision over AppleCare from Italian authorities, must alter warranties by March
We told you in December that Apple was being fined $1.2 million by Italian anti-trust authorities for “misleading consumers” with AppleCare warranties. At the time, the Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato claimed Apple was failing to properly inform consumers of a two-year guarantee mandatory by Italian Consumer Code and European Union law. In response, Apple placed a prominent link on its Italian online store today that translates to “Communication to protect consumers” and links to a PDF of the antitrust decision by L’Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato. A full translation from the PDF is available after the break.
“The company Apple Sales International, finally, within 90 days, need to adapt the sales package of services AppleCare Protection Plan, by inserting the indication on the existence and the two-year guarantee of compliance and indicating the correct length of service with respect to maturity the legal guarantee of conformity.”
Apple is being asked to alter the terms of its AppleCare Protection Plans to clarify the existence of the two-year mandatory guarantee and provide “wide and comprehensive information to consumers, relative to the two-year guarantee of compliance” on its website. Reports shortly after the fine was imposed claimed Apple planned to appeal the decision. There is no mention of the appeal on Apple’s website or within the PDF (below).
Tim Cook responds to claims of factory worker mistreatment: “We care about every worker in our supply chain”
This morning, The New York Times published a lengthy report with details about the harsh conditions of working in the factories of an Apple parts supplier or Apple product manufacturer. The report includes this chilling opening:
The explosion ripped through Building A5 on a Friday evening last May, an eruption of fire and noise that twisted metal pipes as if they were discarded straws.When workers in the cafeteria ran outside, they saw black smoke pouring from shattered windows. It came from the area where employees polished thousands of iPad cases a day.
The report also recalls a scenario in which a factory had to call the parents of a young worker to inform them of their son’s admission to the hospital. Horrid points of excessive overtime are included, in addition to a gruesome quote from a former Foxconn executive: “Apple never cared about anything other than increasing product quality and decreasing production cost.” On top of all of that, the report shares word from former Apple executives, such as this quote: “We’ve known about labor abuses in some factories for four years, and they’re still going on.”
Apple CEO Tim Cook, who has not been shy on the emailing as of late, sent out a lengthy letter to all of his employees that is a direct response to these recent reports of factory worker mistreatment. Cook’s opening:
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. For the many hundreds of you who are based at our suppliers’ manufacturing sites around the world, or spend long stretches working there away from your families, I know you are as outraged by this as I am. For the people who aren’t as close to the supply chain, you have a right to know the facts.
Some key points from the email:
- “Every year we inspect more factories, raising the bar for our partners and going deeper into the supply chain. As we reported earlier this month, we’ve made a great deal of progress and improved conditions for hundreds of thousands of workers. We know of no one in our industry doing as much as we are, in as many places, touching as many people.”
- “We are focused on educating workers about their rights, so they are empowered to speak up when they see unsafe conditions or unfair treatment. As you know, more than a million people have been trained by our program.”
- “We will continue to dig deeper, and we will undoubtedly find more issues. What we will not do — and never have done — is stand still or turn a blind eye to problems in our supply chain. On this you have my word. You can follow our progress at apple.com/supplierresponsibility.”
MacBook Air: $899
From 9to5Toys.com
MacConnection offers the base model MacBook Air for $899 with free next day shipping. That’s $100 of Apple’s price and the lowest we could find (since Black Friday). They also offer $50 off of AppleCare. Read more
New website helps you understand how rich Apple really is
Apple announced some mind-boggling revenue numbers this week, but you may find yourself asking just how much $46.33 billion is. Have you ever wondered how much stuff you could buy with that much money? Well, thanks to the creativity of two Apple fans, now you can find out. The site displays a list of user-submitted comparisons between Apple’s revenue and the cost of extravagant, sometimes-ridiculous items, such as the number of McChicken sandwiches Apple could buy with it. While we’re fairly certain Apple has no plans to go on a McDonald’s binge anytime soon, the site is still a fun way to visualize exactly how much money Tim and the crew are rolling in right now. If you like crunching numbers, you can also also submit your own comparisons to be included in the ever-growing list of things Apple could (but probably won’t) buy.
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