Latest

Site default logo image

Who would have guessed? Apple reportedly the most valuable Silicon Valley brand

Avatar for Mike Beasley Mar 18 2014 - 8:36 pm PT
3 Comments

brand-finance-us-500-2104*600xx817-1225-0-0 copy

According to a study uncovered today by the Silicon Valley Business Journal, Apple is the most valuable brand in all of Silicon Valley. The study, which was conducted by a consulting agency called Brand Finance, compared the value of 500 different brands to determine which one was worth the most. Each brand’s value was determined by “estimating the royalty rate that would be charged for use of the brand and factoring in future revenue.”

Much to no one’s real surprise, Apple was ranked the most valuable brand on the list, followed by Google and Microsoft in the second and third spots. According to the results of the study, Apple’s brand is worth $104.7 billion, or about 23% of its market cap. Google, ranked second, has a brand valuation of only $68.6 billion.


Expand
Expanding
Close

Site default logo image

Apple seeds Mavericks, Mountain Lion Safari 7.0.3/6.1.3 betas to developers

Avatar for Mike Beasley Mar 18 2014 - 5:59 pm PT
3 Comments

Screen Shot 2014-03-18 at 8.53.28 PM

Apple has just seeded the first beta of the next version(s) of its Safari browser for OS X. The new versions, 7.0.3 and 6.1.3, will be available for Mavericks and Mountain Lion users, respectively.

Earlier today Apple also released a new OS X 10.9.3 developer preview along with a beta version of iTunes 11.1.6 to employees. Based on the rapid release of these app betas and the decreasing time between OS X betas, the OS X update is expected to be available to developers later this week.

The new Safari beta includes the following release note:

Please focus testing on the following areas:
• General website compatibility
• Safari Push Notifications
• Login AutoFill
• Credit Card AutoFill (OS X Mavericks only)
• Extension Compatibility

Apple book authors talk about the ‘nonsense’ you can find in their books [Video]

Avatar for Mike Beasley Mar 18 2014 - 4:07 pm PT
30 Comments
Site default logo image

Screen Shot 2014-03-18 at 6.19.56 PM

This nonsense belongs with some of the other books I’ve read about Apple. It fails to capture Apple, Steve, or anyone else in the company.  —  Tim Cook on Yukari Kane’s Haunted Empire

Take it from someone who would know: Apple CEO Tim Cook has declared Haunted Empire: Apple After Steve Jobs, a book that seeks to dispel the idea that Apple can maintain its identity after losing its founder, to be “nonsense.” But Cook went beyond even that claim, noting that the term applied to a wide selection of books about the company.

Even so, the authors of three such books of “nonsense” gathered for a Churchill Club panel in which they discussed their views on Apple through the lens of the “nonsense” stories contained in their books, as well as some more recent developments spearheaded by your good friends here at 9to5Mac. The panel consists of Yukari Kane, Cult of Mac‘s Leander Kahney, and WIRED‘s Fred Vogelstein.

The complete video of the event is an hour and a half long and moves from a moderated discussion of Apple’s past, present, and future into an audience-driven Q&A session, which can help provide some new context for the stories found in the books. But hey, if a busy man like Tim Cook can read 700 emails in a day and still find time to read these “nonsense” books, you can probably find time to watch the entire video, which is embedded below:


Expand
Expanding
Close

Tim Cook calls Yukari Kane book Haunted Empire “nonsense”, says it fails to capture Apple or Jobs

Avatar for Zac Hall Mar 18 2014 - 1:04 pm PT
26 Comments
Site default logo image

Today marked the debut of former WSJ Apple reporter Yukari Iwatani Kane’s book “Haunted Empire: Apple After Steve Jobs” (review from this morning) and Tim Cook is not pleased.

The Apple CEO told CNBC the following:

This nonsense belongs with some of the other books I’ve read about Apple. It fails to capture Apple, Steve, or anyone else in the company. Apple has over 85,000 employees that come to work each day to do their best work, to create the world’s best products, to put their mark in the universe and leave it better than they found it. This has been the heart of Apple from day one and will remain at the heart for decades to come. I am very confident about our future.

Update: Re/Code’s telling of the email sent by Apple has an additional sentence:

“We’ve always had many doubters in our history,” he said in the e-mail. “They only make us stronger.”

Yukari Kane also responded to Re/Code:

“For Tim Cook to have such strong feelings about the book, it must have touched a nerve,” Kane said. “Even I was surprised by my conclusions, so I understand the sentiment. I’m happy to speak with him or anyone at Apple in public or private. My hope in writing this book was to be thought-provoking and to start a conversation which I’m glad it has.”
Expand
Expanding
Close

Site default logo image

Firefox 28 released w/ Mac OS X Notification Center support for web notifications

Avatar for Jordan Kahn Mar 18 2014 - 12:34 pm PT
5 Comments

Firefox-Notification-Center-Mac-OSX

Firefox today released the latest version of its desktop browser for Mac, Linux, and Windows and in the process added one much welcomed feature for Mac OS X users: support for Notification Center. This means that web apps and sites taking advantage of Firefox’s web notifications feature will now also appear for Mac users in the Notification Center.

Version 28 of Firefox also introduces a few new behind the scenes improvements including VP9 video decoding, volume control for HTML5 audio/video, and a number of other fixes.

Firefox 28 for Mac is available to download from the Mozilla website now.

Site default logo image

9to5Toys Last Call: Seagate 4TB desktop HD $125, Toshiba 2TB portable HD $95, daily deals, more

Avatar for Mar 18 2014 - 10:09 am PT
0 Comments

Be sure to follow 9to5Toys to keep up with the best gear and deals on the web: Twitter, RSS Feed,Facebook, Google+ and subscribe to the new Safari push notifications feature.

Today’s can’t miss deals:

Last Call updates:


USB 3.0 External Hard Drives: Seagate Expansion 4TB Desktop $125 (Reg. $170), Toshiba Canvio Basics 2TB Portable $95 (Reg. $150)

logitech-harmony-deal-amazonDaily Deals: Polaroid 1080p Waterproof Camera $90, Logitech Universal Remote Control $80, Craig BT Speaker $18, more


Other great deals from today:

More great deals still alive:

New products/info:

Google releases ‘Android Wear’ SDK developer preview, watches from LG, Moto & others due next quarter

Avatar for Jordan Kahn Mar 18 2014 - 9:23 am PT
16 Comments
Site default logo image

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrqZl2QIz0c]

silver_metal_600_00010Ahead of the release of Apple’s much rumored “iWatch” wearable product, Google has now officially announced Android’s entrance into wearables with project “Android Wear.” The Android Wear SDK allows developers to integrate a number of features into Android powered wearables and relies heavily on Google Now functionality, as we were first to report late last year.

Google also confirmed that it’s working with a handful of partners to bring Android Wear powered wearables to market by later this year:
Expand
Expanding
Close

Why did Apple launch an 8GB version of the iPhone 5c (really)?

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Mar 18 2014 - 8:19 am PT
103 Comments
Site default logo image

head

Well, the rumor was true: Apple really has taken what was seemingly a less popular phone than expected, and made it worse. Even more surprisingly, the company confirmed to Fortune that the 8GB version of the iPhone 5C will be sold in only five markets: U.K., France, Germany, Australia and China.

I could understand Apple keeping the 8GB iPhone 4S in the line-up for those who want a new iPhone but are really strapped for cash. With apps the size they are today, an 8GB phone is going to be a pretty horrible experience: by the time you’ve loaded up a few apps and taken a few photos, you can forget about using it as an iPod, and don’t expect to use it as a camcorder either. But from Apple’s perspective, it gives some people who otherwise couldn’t afford an iPhone a first step into the Apple ecosystem, and hopefully they’ll upgrade a little further down the line.

But a 8GB version of the iPhone 5c, and one only sold in five markets? That got me scratching my head … 
Expand
Expanding
Close

Site default logo image

Yukari Kane on Apple leadership styles: Jobs demanding, Cook inclusive, both intense

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Mar 18 2014 - 6:03 am PT
4 Comments

jobs-jpg

The NY Times has a brief interview with Yukari Kane, author of Haunted Empire, in which she contrasts the leadership styles of Steve Jobs and Tim Cook. Interestingly, while many see Cook as laid-back in contrast to the driven nature of the company’s co-founder, Kane says that both share an intensity.

I don’t think of Tim as laid back. In fact, he’s extremely intense. His intensity is just more quiet and dogged than Steve’s.

There is, of course, the obligatory anecdote to illustrate the obsession with detail and demands Jobs would make on his team.

Jobs routinely made a habit of calling people back mid-vacation […] for example, people had to work on Christmas Day because he decided he wanted a different color iPod shuffle at the last minute.

Despite her book’s contention that Apple is lost without Steve, she does acknowledge the strengths that Cook brings to the role.

Cook is also a better internal communicator. He sends out more all-staff emails and holds more town hall meetings. He also understands that people need to take vacations and have down time […]

Cook brings more efficiency and organization to Apple, which is good because the company’s increased size and scale requires a professional, consistent leadership style that is more inclusive than Steve Jobs’s was.

But doesn’t waste any time in returning to her theme.

In terms of profits and revenues, there is no question that Apple continues to be a successful company. But Apple’s own definition of success is much more. Its promise is to be exceptional – to make insanely great products that change the world. The latter is difficult to do without Steve Jobs’s reality distortion field. […]  If Apple stays on the current trajectory, I think the danger is that it could turn into Sony.

Site default logo image

Despite courtroom battles, Apple picks Samsung to make iPad mini displays, claims report

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Mar 18 2014 - 5:13 am PT
0 Comments

apps_hero

While there seems no end in sight to the courtroom patent battles between Apple and Samsung, that doesn’t seem to be interfering with the business relationship between the two. Korean site ETnews (via G4Games) reports that Apple is bringing Samsung into its manufacturing mix for display panels for the iPad mini.

Apple currently uses a mix of three manufacturers for its iPad mini displays: AUO for the non-Retina model, and LG and Sharp for the Retina displays. The report claims that Apple is dropping AUO altogether, and cutting back its orders with Sharp, giving the resulting business to Samsung.

While media sources in manufacturers’ home markets are not always reliable where supply chain rumors are concerned, this one has enough specifics to seem credible at least – and the quality of the Retina iPad mini screen has been criticized in both reviews and benchtests.

Book Review: Haunted Empire, Apple After Steve Jobs

Avatar for Seth Weintraub Mar 18 2014 - 5:07 am PT
26 Comments
Site default logo image

Former WSJ Apple writer Yukari Iwatani Kane’s long-awaited book based on more than 200 interviews with current and former executives and insiders goes on sale today  ($12.74 Amazon/$14.99 iBookstore/Free Audible Audiobook). We got an advance copy, and I enjoyed the first 85 pages or so of background including Steve Jobs’s transitioning the company during the last bout with his terminal cancer. This area  included some interesting new tidbits (did you know Apple almost sold the original iPad for $399?).

The middle of the book meanders somewhat aimlessly into the big stories after Steve Jobs’s death, but spending way too much time on Foxconn, the Samsung trial, the DOJ ebooks trial and patent minutia. I frankly had a hard time staying involved in some of these chapters because it was like re-reading old news reports with little new information to keep me satiated.


Expand
Expanding
Close

Apple re-introduces fourth-generation iPad in 16 GB model starting at $399, discontinues iPad 2

Avatar for Mike Beasley Mar 18 2014 - 1:28 am PT
22 Comments
Site default logo image

ipad2

Earlier today, we predicted that Apple had plans to bring the previously-released fourth-generation iPad back into production to replace the aging iPad 2. As expected, the fourth-gen iPad is now available once again on Apple’s website, this time with only a 16 GB capacity.

Aside from offering the single capacity choice, there aren’t any changes to the device. This model replaces the iPad 2, which has been around since the days of the 30-pin connector. The newer version includes Apple’s custom dual-core A6X processor, a 5 MP iSight camera, and 1.2 MP FaceTime camera. (Press release below:)


Expand
Expanding
Close

Apple introduces 8 GB iPhone 5c in five markets to help boost disappointing sales

Avatar for Mike Beasley Mar 18 2014 - 12:43 am PT
18 Comments
Site default logo image

Screen Shot 2014-03-18 at 08.15.20

Update: Apple has now added the 8 GB 5c to its European online stores. In the UK, the device is priced at £429 unlocked — a difference of £40 between it and the 16 GB model. It will likely appear on the U.S. site in the coming hours. It appears limited to the UK, France, Germany, Australia, and China.

Earlier today, we reported that Apple was planning release an 8 GB version of the iPhone 5c to help support the phone’s lagging sales. Now it seems that U.K. carrier O2 has made that plan official by releasing the phone for sale on its website. At the time of this writing, it has not appeared on any U.S. carriers’ stores nor the Apple website.

Aside from the reduced capacity offering, there aren’t any changes to the device. This new 8 GB model seems to be designed to help pick up a few more sales in the low-cost phone arena where the 8 GB iPhone 4s may have seemed like a much less attractive device. The newer version includes Apple’s custom dual-core A6 processor, an 8 MP iSight camera, and FaceTime HD camera.


Expand
Expanding
Close