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Seth Weintraub

Founder, Publisher and Editorial Director of the 9to5/Electrek/DroneDJ sites.

Seth Weintraub is an award-winning journalist and blogger who won back to back Neal Awards during his three plus years  covering Apple and Google at IDG’s Computerworld from 2007–2010.  Weintraub next covered all things Google for Fortune Magazine from 2010-2011 amassing a thick rolodex of Google contacts and love for Silicon Valley tech culture.

It turns out that his hobby 9to5Mac blog was always his favorite and in 2011 he went full time adding his Fortune Google followers to 9to5Google and adding the style and commerce component 9to5Toys gear and deals site. In 2013, Weintraub bought one of the Tesla’s first Model S EVs off the assembly line and so began his love affair with the Electric Vehicle and green energy which in 2014 turned into electrek.

In 2018, DroneDJ was born to cover the burgeoning world of drones and UAV’s led by China’s DJI.

From 1997-2007, Weintraub was a Global IT director and Web Developer for a number of companies with stints at multimedia and branding agencies in Paris, Los Angeles, New York, Sydney, Hong Kong, Madrid and London before becoming a publisher/blogger.

Seth received a bachelors degree in Industrial and Systems Engineering from the University of Southern California with a minor in Multimedia and Creative Technology in 1997. In 2004, he received a Masters from NYU’s Tisch School of the Art’s ITP program.

Hobbies: Weintraub is a licensed single engine private pilot, certified open water scuba diver and spent over a year traveling to 60 cities in 23 countries. Whatever free time exists is now guaranteed to his lovely wife and two amazing sons.

More at About.me. BI 2014 profile.

Tips: seth@9to5mac.com, or llsethj on Wickr/Skype or link at top of page.

Apple looking into iPhone glasses? Seriously.

Avatar for Seth Weintraub Apr 1 2010 - 9:55 pm PT
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Apple is exploring the possibilities of a head-mounted display in the form of glasses, according to a patent found by Patently Apple earlier today.  The patent application reads:

“There is a need for an improved head-mounted display system, particularly a system that temporarily integrates or merges both mechanically and electronically a head-mounted device with a portable electronic device”

As a result, Apple proposes a set of glasses to throw your iPhone in (…yea, we thought the same thing and NO, it isn’t an April Fools’ joke).  Actually, Apple did in fact hire a Senior Prototype Engineer for wearable computing just over a month ago.

Another patent image below…

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All we know is…this doesn’t look like an Apple-designed product.  Wouldn’t you agree? “Concept” below…

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Plan C: Select Apple Specialists will have iPads

Avatar for Seth Weintraub Apr 1 2010 - 12:45 pm PT
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According to Engadget, select Apple specialists, who are under embargo until the launch date (so they won’t say who), will have the iPad on sale on Saturday. So if you didn’t order one by mail or to pickup at an Apple Store and don’t want to be the 16th person at a Best Buy, you might have a third option of picking one up.  Find one here.

Our money is on Tekserve in NYC having a few.  They’ve been Apple favorites for a long time.

Verizon makes Pre a free mobile hotspot

Avatar for Seth Weintraub Apr 1 2010 - 12:28 pm PT
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Apple and AT&T have a pretty solid 3G deal going on with the iPad — $15-$30/month with no commitment on top of your AT&T iPhone plans.  But I have to say, I like where Verizon is going a little more.  They just made the Palm Pre’s Mifi feature free.  That means you buy a Pre and you get to connect up to 5 devices to Verizon’s 3G network via Wifi for free.  

Now, Verizon caps you at 5GB/month, makes you sign up for two years and some say the Pre isn’t a fantastic router

Time covers Steve Jobs and the iPad

Avatar for Seth Weintraub Apr 1 2010 - 10:01 am PT
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Time Magazine’s cover story this week is Steve Jobs and the iPad:

Some interesting takeaways from Stephen Fry’s hour long conversation with Jobs for Time Magazine (great read!):

I have met five British Prime Ministers, two American Presidents, Nelson Mandela, Michael Jackson and the Queen. My hour with Steve Jobs certainly made me more nervous than any of those encounters.

In the design department, Jobs saw the work of a young Briton called Jonathan Ive and asked for a meeting. Ive, underused and ignored for a year, turned up with a resignation letter tucked into the back pocket of his jeans. He left with instructions to unleash his talent. The result was the iMac

[On leaving Apple:] Is this then the curtain dropping on your third act?” I ask. “Will you perhaps leave Apple on this high, a fitting end to your career here?” “I don’t think of my life as a career,” he says. “I do stuff. I respond to stuff. That’s not a career

Will GoogleTV light a fire under the AppleTV?

Avatar for Seth Weintraub Mar 18 2010 - 1:40 pm PT
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The New York Times last night revealed that Google, in partnership with device manufacturer Sony and peripherals manufacturer Logitech, were working on a ‘GoogleTV’.

Yes, it is exactly what it sounds like and probably inevitable for the company that knows no bounds in their reach for the digital consumer.

But are there chairs being thrown in Cupertino? Perhaps, but they’ve had it coming. AppleTV could’ve been so much more than it is. Apple could own this market, yet they’ve let all matter of competitors come in and take some space, including Boxee which rode to prominence hacked into an AppleTV.

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Apple hires 'Senior Prototype Engineer' for work on wearable computing

Avatar for Seth Weintraub Mar 15 2010 - 9:59 am PT
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Richard DeVaul‘s Linkedin status changed last month from Founder & President at AWare Technologies to Senior Prototype Engineer at Apple computer. This is a significant hire for Apple and one that shows the company is looking far ahead into the future of mobile computing.

DeVaul will be working under Jonny Ive in a secret lab focused on wearable computing technology where only seven people besides Ive and CEO Steve Jobs know what he is doing.

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AT&T's Backflip Android phone is a face plant

Avatar for Seth Weintraub Mar 8 2010 - 3:44 pm PT
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AT&T’s foray into Android phones seems almost like it is a marketing campaign for Apple’s iPhone. It certainly doesn’t seem to be very friendly to Google, anyway.

Last week, it was announced that AT&T was replacing the market-leading, Google search on the Google Android powered Motorola Backflip with Yahoo’s search. WHAT?

That’s like selling In-N-Out Burgers except taking out the meat and replacing it with hospital-quality “Beef-like” patties. That alone borders on sabotage!?

But AT&T wasn’t done having their way with this poor Motorla Backflip.

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Infiniboard: Vertical scrolling hack for iPhone released

Avatar for Seth Weintraub Mar 7 2010 - 8:32 am PT
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If you are of the jailbreaking persuasion, a interesting little app called infiniboard just popped up on Cydia that allows you to scroll your iPhone apps pages vertically.  The developer, chpwn, was also involved in the popular Proswitcher application.  Might we see something like this in iPhone OS 4?

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Souf0HUy56k&w=700&h=420]

via Geekword

Next Gen iPhone video call feature priced by O2

Avatar for Seth Weintraub Mar 6 2010 - 3:49 pm PT
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Update: It looks like this may be a generic cost for all pay as you go phones.

We’ve seen enough Apple iPhone patents with front facing cameras to know Apple has been working on video chatting and calling for awhile.  

Add to that, the latest 3.2 SDKs have all kinds of video chat buttons floating around. 

That’s what makes this little tidbit from O2 so interesting:

O2 are offering free video calls in their new iPhone plans as you can see in the screenshot below.  Free!

AT&T will probably charge $1/minute.

O2 via FSM via Redmond Pie