Apple II

With permission from Apple, The Computer History Museum and the Digibarn Computer Museum announced today it is publishing the original DOS source code for Apple’s 1978 Apple II. The Apple II was the first fully assembled computer with a monitor that Apple sold following the Apple I and originally retailed for $1298 for the base model with just 4K of memory.

A blog post from The History Computer Museum explains that Apple contracted Paul Laughton of Shepardson Microsystems to write the Disk Operating System for the Apple II in just seven weeks. In April of 78, Steve Jobs and Shepardson signed a contract (pictured below) that would see Apple pay $13,000 for a file manager, a BASIC interface, and utilities. The source code being released today is scans of original documents that Laughton kept over the last 30+ years:
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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JH47u8d1M4]

Just released:

1. Karateka | $2.99: Jordan Mechner, creator of the popular Prince of Persia franchise, and developer of the original fighter classic “Karateka” for the Apple II, is today bringing an HD remake of the game to iOS. Available on the App Store now for $2.99 for iPhone and iPad, the remake of the original 1984 fighter looks to essentially be a port of work done on the HD remake released on consoles last month. The video above features Mechner talking about the remake and comparing the original Apple II version to the new iOS title.

Created on an Apple II by Jordan Mechner in his Yale dorm room, Karateka became a #1 bestseller and influenced a generation of gamers with its groundbreaking rotoscoped animation and cinematic cutscenes… 28 years later, Mechner returns to his indie roots with a new take on Karateka for today’s digital game platforms, featuring art by Jeff Matsuda (The Batman) and music by Grammy-winning composer Christopher Tin (Civilization IV).

2. Ravensword: Shadowlands | $6.99
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The Apple Bears appear to be winning over the past month and change. Apple’s stock price is now at its lowest price since May and is closing in on its February price in the 520s. At 530, Apple’s market cap is now below 500 billion. So much for those $1 trillion valuations?
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We knew Apple had a beautiful new glass store planned for Palo Alto when plans were discovered last year, but Apple made things official today by announcing a Oct. 27 grand opening for the new location at 340 University Ave. Apple sent out the email above (via FoneArena) to inform customers the store will open at 10 a.m. local time, and the first 1,000 people will get commemorative T-shirts. The 15,030-square-foot store is located just a couple blocks from the old location, which was Steve Jobs’ neighborhood Apple Store, and was expected to cost $3.15 million. We’ll bring you more this weekend with images of the new store during its grand opening.

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From 9to5Toys.com:

It appears that Apple is offering $50 off across the board yielding savings of 6-10% depending on the original price.  This is the first time Apple has offered the 3rd generation iPad refurbished at the Apple Store.

Apple’s refurbished iPads get a new battery and encasement and come with the same 1 year warranty as new iPads.
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[hulu id=w7pqikydrnjifmvyxfuslg width=650 height=350]

We broke the news late last year that Apple was working on a Hulu Plus app for Apple TV. Unfortunately, getting the app to the Apple TV was a political issue, not a technical one.

We’ve gotten word that inside Apple there are Apple TVs running the Hulu Plus app natively. The app is feature complete and ready to roll out to Apple TV users on current builds. In fact, it has been ready for at least a month and development is now on hold.

While there are no technical issues standing in the way of the Hulu Plus release on Apple TV, there appear to be some political ones. At some level at Apple, there appears to be some consideration that the Hulu Plus app could eat into iTunes TV sales on the Apple TV. Where Netflix tends to run older programming, iTunes is the Apple TV’s only outlet for current TV programming….

Today, our Apple TVs are lighting up with some Hulu Plus goodness. If you do not see it, a quick reboot will bring it up. Hulu offers a free one-week trial here. Pictures directly from the screen are below.

Update: Hulu has updated its blog with the news and provided an unnecessary instructional video (Above).

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For a couple of seconds this morning Apple’s stock hit 600. It is currently dropping slightly, but we imagine some of you aren’t about to sell your yachts.
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Ship times for Apple’s new iPad slipped again this evening to two to three weeks in the United States, which was previously March 19 across the board. Many European Stores have been at two to three weeks for a few days now.

Meanwhile, Apple told USA Today:

“Customer response to the new iPad has been off the charts and the quantity available for pre-order has been purchased,” Apple said in a statement. “Customers can continue to order online and receive an estimated delivery date.”

Remember, those “charts” are the iPad 2 charts, and that thing was already a big success. Apple sells a new iPad once a year and keeps its price controls consistent. Many consumers (present company included), who know the same model iPad will cost the exact same as it costs now in another 360 days, always buy Apple products right when they are released. That is bound to cause a bit of a spike.

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[vodpod id=Video.16019270&w=650&h=420&fv=si%3D254%26amp%3BcontentValue%3D50119105%26amp%3BshareUrl%3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.cbsnews.com%2F8301-3445_162-57367950%2Fthe-dark-side-of-shiny-apple-products%2F]
Flashless

After the NYTimes exposé and Tim Cook’s response, the question remains: Why is the media focusing on Apple and not questioning any of the other electronics companies that manufacture with Foxconn in China?

Obviously, Apple has the money, the brand, the prestige, and it grabs attention. However, it is not like Apple can make gold from straw. Apple simply cannot build its products anywhere other than China.

On the flip side, @NicePaul takes recent Forbes numbers and creates the following infographic that illustrates the opposite point:

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Apple just emailed customers who pre-ordered the book “Inside Apple” from the iBookstore to let them know the book is now available to download and read. Those interested in downloading the book can do so from this direct link.  The Amazon Kindle version should be available in less than an hour.

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In response to the HP Print Control scanner app that we covered yesterday, a source at Apple told us that Apple is working on an app called “scanner” that uses iOS devices camera to act like a digital scanner.  Clearly this is meant for higher iPhone class cameras rather than current iPad or iPod touch cameras.

Here’s what we’ve heard on how it works:

1. The user opens the app and holds the iPhone over the document or object they want scanned.  They then snap a picture of it.  Apple’s on-board software then resizes the image to ‘letter’ or business card, A4 or whatever depending on original document.  Resizing includes aligning edges that get skewed by a sigle scan point rather than traditional scanning methods.  The user can then manually change the size of the document or the use (biz card?)
2. On board software then separates images blocks from text.
3. This is where it gets murky.  At last word, Apple was trying to do OCR both on-device and using alternative cloud methods for recognizing text.  Third party Optical Character Recognition (OCR) vs. in house solutions were also being tested.
4. The resulting file can then be saved as a PDF, .Pages, exported to contacts (in the case of business cards for example).

Third party apps already exist in this field but word is that Apple wanted a polished in-house app that directly tied to its contacts and Pages apps.  Apple has numerous patents in this field so they’ve been thinking about this for awhile.

It isn’t certain when or if this application will be released or if Apple will bundle it as part of its iOS, iWork Apps, or a separate app going forward.

Google does something similar to this with their Docs App in Android.
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