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.
Bloomberg (adds to the) reports that Sprint will differentiate itself from AT&T and Verizon iPhone offers by offering a truly unlimited plan.
Sprint, the third-largest U.S. wireless carrier, plans to begin selling the device in mid-October under a deal with Apple for the next model, the iPhone 5, said the people, who wouldn’t be identified because the plans aren’t public. Becoming the country’s only operator to offer the device with unlimited data service for a flat fee may help Sprint draw customers from AT&T and Verizon Wireless, which already carry the phone, they said.
Sprint, probably because it has to, offers reasonable plans without data capping or tiers. Its subsidiary Virgin Mobile would be even better with its $35-$55 unlimited plans.
The verdict is in. German consumers won’t soon be able to pick up a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1.
A Dusseldorf court today upheld the temporary sales ban it issued Aug. 9, rejecting Samsung’s bid to overturn it for the most part. The judges won’t ban sales in other European Union countries as Apple had sought, Presiding Judge Johanna Brueckner-Hofmann said when delivering the verdict.
The judge stopped at German borders instead of issuing a full EU wide ban but further rulings could see the ban spread.
“The court is of the opinion that Apple’s minimalistic design isn’t the only technical solution to make a tablet computer, other designs are possible,” Brueckner-Hofmann said. “For the informed customer there remains the predominant overall impression that the device looks” like the design Apple has protected in Europe.
The ruling is a big victory for Apple and as the Verge puts it, “the decision could foreshadow the future of Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 7.7 and, honestly, any number of rectangular-shaped tablets in Germany as well.”
FOSSPatentsmentions some other “oddities” which could play a role in the widening scope of the case:
The Community design that the Düsseldorf Regional Court deems valid and infringed was also presented by Apple in its Dutch proceeding, but a judge in The Hague threw it out.
If the face of the Galaxy Tab is what is at issue, it isn’t Samsung that is at fault, it is Android. Cross-posted at 9to5Google.
The City of Cupertino will be the lead agency and will prepare an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for the Apple Campus 2 Project
While most Cupertino residents seem pretty excited about the idea, some are voicing concerns that traffic and other environmental impacts of the huge building could adversely affect their town. Notable from the video above:
Contrary to previous reports, Mayor Gilbert Wong said the project wasn’t a “done deal”
Apple Campus 2 Project Manager Terry Reagan (1.21) is no Steve Jobs when it comes to presenting Apple’s case.
Overall, the backlash seems minimal at best and easily surmountable. Apple doesn’t appear to have overlooked anything. Expand Expanding Close
Just a quick note on the earlier charity giving email from Tim Cook. It was a lovely gesture and will generate millions of dollars in giving to worthy causes, no doubt.
First of all, Jobs is a charity giver but only privately, never on a personal-corporate level, and he certainly never publicly encouraged Apple employees to do so. Of course there is Product(RED) and numerous disaster relief projects. But today’s public email/idea would never have been prioritized by Jobs.
Second, Apple PR would never have acknowledged an internal email, regardless of its contents to the media. This move was clearly meant to be broadcast to the media. If, for some reason, Jobs had encouraged Apple employees to give to charity it would have been a personal Apple internal-only move.
Finally, ApplePR doesn’t usually give information, let alone acknowledge rumors blogs. ApplePR told Macrumors that the internal email was legitimate. Jobs would have mowed down those PR reps.
The move takes a cue from Microsoft, which has had an employee-matching program in place for many years. Microsoft matches up to $12,000 in non-profit donations annually.
This might be a generous move and one that Apple and its employees can feel good about. But it isn’t one that would happen at Steve Jobs’ Apple.
Adobe Creative Suite® 5.5 Production Premium software has taken the industry by storm with breakthrough new features and performance that help video professionals deliver content to virtually any screen. Demand for Adobe’s video content creation tools has exploded, growing 22 percent year-over-year with 45 percent growth on the Mac, fueled by the large number of Apple Final Cut Pro customers switching to Adobe Premiere® Pro. Adobe continues to show its commitment to streamlining video workflows and announced the acquisition of certain assets of IRIDAS, an industry pioneer with a family of software products that cover all aspects of a unified color workflow, from on-set to finishing.
What Adobe perhaps forgot to mention was that they also slashed the prices of their video editing software 50% for “switchers” right after Final Cut Pro X was launched. However Adobe doesn’t check your Final Cut Pro credentials when purchasing. Basically, they cut the price in half and sales grew 45%.
We’ll give you a second to run those numbers.
(the 50% off offer is valid until the end of the month).
Somewhere in China there are stacks of millions of completed iPhone 5s.
Digitimes is reporting that iPhone 5 production is at full swing with 150,000 of the devices being produced per day. That isn’t quite the “volume” production level that Apple expects as it gets ready to release its phone for the holiday shopping season, however.
Lens maker Largan Precision, touch panel maker TPK Holding, reinforced glass supplier G-Tech Optoelectronics and battery vendors Simplo and Dynapack are all operating at full swing currently, the sources indicated.
We’ve also heard recently that these iPhones aren’t being boxed up just yet as Apple is finalizing the iOS 5 build that will eventually go on these iPhones.
Shipments of iPhone 5 from the supply chain are expected to reach 5-6 million in September but will then ramp up to over 22 million units in the fourth quarter as suppliers will ship fewer iPhone 4 and CDMA-version iPhones during the final quarter of the year, noted the sources.
Apple’s other manufacturing partner, Pegatron, is said to be holding off on production until 2012 and is expected to only build 15% of the devices overall. Expand Expanding Close
This (very attractive) photo claims to have been taken by an iPhone 4, but the rest of its EXIF data tells a different story: although the image has been cropped to 2235×2291 (5.12 megapixels), the original picture was a much larger 3264×2448 — or just shy of eight megapixels. What’s more, the lens was recorded as a 4.3mm f/2.4, which is closer to that of a point-and-shoot than the iPhone 4’s actual 3.85mm f/2.8.
We’ve remarked on a number of occasions that the camera holes in the purported iPhone 5 cases seem significantly bigger than the current iPhone 4 cases. Could this be an indication of some serious glass?
Interestingly the EXIF Data (comparisons below the fold) points to a GPS location here.
This one was “supposedly shot by an Apple engineer eating his lunch at work.”
In Chile, rescue/recovery efforts are underway to find 17 people who were victims of a plane crash off the island of Robinson Crusoe which was devastated last year by the massive earthquake and tsunami. The plane had attempted to make two landings but was then blown off course and crashed, whereabouts unknown.
We’ve gotten an email from an acquaintance of one of the victims of the accident saying that one of the passengers was carrying an iPhone. The relatives of the crash victim logged into Find My iPhone and were able to isolate the coordinates of the last known whereabouts of the plane before it crashed. That information was then given to the Navy who are using it to coordinate the rescue efforts to find the fuselage. We weren’t able to verify that until this morning when another report came in saying the same thing. Reader Rodrick translated:
Rear Admiral Francisco García-Huidobro explained the founding that
garnered a lot of attention today, and it has to do with an iPhone belonging to
one of the victims of the aereal accident in Juan Fernández, in a beach
in Bahía Carvajal.
The phone signal could be captured thanks to the GPS system, however, water
ended up shutting it down. Nevertheless, García Huidoro explained that they
managed to plot the last position from where the signal was last generated, which
will be made public tomorrow.
Navy Special Forces are expected to go down to the ocean floor and recover the
device on the fifth day of the search. The iPhone is expected to be near the place
where a wheel from the crashed plane was found on Friday.
Not a terribly happy ending but certainly an interesting use of Find My iPhone. Thanks Fyarad. Expand Expanding Close
We’re big fans of the Seagate GoFlex series of hard drives and, as of this evening, Seagate has pushed the size limit to an impressive 4TB on a single physical disk.
Currently the 4TB disk is only available in the form factor to the right for a significant $249 price tag. Obviously, the added density drives will filter down into other form factors including bare drives and RAID arrays in the coming weeks and months.
Seagate’ GoFlex enclosure got a facelift as well but alas, no Thunderbolt action for a few more months according to the press release.
As for the USB Desktop version pictured, we’re looking to get our hands on one for a review as soon as possible. It is available for pre-order now for $229 at Amazon.
Long overdue firing of potty-mouthed, visionless Yahoo CEO, notable only because she got to keep her Yahoo-issued iPad, at least long enough to fire off this short farewell email:
To all, I am very sad to tell you that I’ve just been fired over the phone by Yahoo’s Chairman of the Board [Roy Bostock] . It has been my pleasure to work with all of you and I wish you only the best going forward. Carol Sent from my iPad
iFixyouri iPhone repair shops have just received a limited order of color iPad 2 front glass customized replacements in blue, green, yellow and pink. We’re told that if you use code “9to5mac” at checkout you’ll get 10% off the $200 iPad customization (yes, that’s pretty steep but we have a feeling there is a pretty big market for these). Expand Expanding Close
We knew in July that Apple had passed the imploding Nokia for the global smartphone unit lead by manufacturer. However, today Digitimesforecasts that by year end Apple will have sold 86.4 million iPhones by year which will easily best Nokia’s once insurmountable lead (Nokia had over double Apple’s share just last year).
Apple’s smartphone shipments are projected to top 86.4 million units in 2011, up 82% from 47.5 million units in 2010. In contrast, Nokia’s smartphone shipments in 2011 will decline to 74.4 million units from over 100 million in 2010, said Luke Lin, analyst for Digitimes Research.
Just because it almost doubled its unit shipment, doesn’t mean it is game over for Apple, however. Android makers Samsung, HTC, LG, Huawei and ZTE all showed better percentage gains though they shipped relatively few smartphones in 2010. Expand Expanding Close
It is a 30 pin dock connector, not Bluetooth. It runs on the iPads battery and gets 8-10 hours of battery life (pretty efficient!). The downside to that: Portrait playing only.
The Atari Arcade is scheduled to drop on October 2 at Target and then in November at Toys “R” Us and Walmart for $60.
Hello Atari fans! We’ve been paying close attention to your feedback and have made a ton of improvements:
• New and improved control schemes • OpenFeint integration • Optimized iPad layouts with larger playfields • Better multiplayer connectivity • Compatibility with the Discovery Bay Games Duo Controller • Play with the official Atari® Arcade – Duo™ Powered joystick. http://bit.ly/atariarcade
We’re hearing it is perhaps weeks from being open but this evening you are seeing the enormity of this store in Hong Kong’s IFC shopping complex. That is a four story tall red Apple which spans three lanes of traffic for those measuring at home.
Update: Reader Joe send in this shot from inside:
Update 2: Engadget has nabbed some higher-resolution pictures. They also say the store opens September 24th!
BGRreports that Best Buy’s internal sales forecast is expecting an iPhone 5 on Sprint with pre-sales beginning the first week in October. That lines up with our earlier report, though as both we and the Best Buy statement mentioned, launch dates are subject to changes.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5q9w0dxosTE] (We got a look at the Tab 7.7 before it was pulled)
Apple won a pretty significant victory today in its attempts to block Samsung from selling its iPad competitor products in Germany and in greater Europe. This week’s IFA show is a CES-like pan-European event which showcases new consumer products from just about everyone except Apple.
Most of the buzz this year however is around two of Samsung’s new products, the Galaxy Tab 7.7 and the Galaxy Note 5.3. Both have 1280×800 SuperAMOLED Displays and run Android 3.2 but the Tab falls under the line of products that Apple is trying to block and is currently under a set of injunctions in various parts of the world.
Interestingly, Samsung was originally showing the 7.7 devices to reporters with “not for sale in Germany” stickers attached. However last night, Samsung started removing the devices from the floor and covering up the advertisements like the product never existed (below).
It appears that Apple got Samsung to block the whole Tab line. The Tab 7.7 is much smaller than the iPad weighing only 334 grams, yet has a higher resolution screen – so it appears that Apple’s injunction is very broad.
Samsung, Apple’s closest rival in tablet computers, pulled the just-unveiled Galaxy Tab 7.7 out of the IFA consumer- electronics show in Berlin after a Dusseldorf court on Sept. 2 granted Apple’s request to ban sales and marketing of the product, James Chung, a Seoul-based spokesman for Samsung, said by telephone today.
“Samsung respects the court’s decision,” Chung said, adding that the company believes it “severely limits consumer choice in Germany.” Samsung will pursue all available options, including legal action, to defend its intellectual property rights, he said.
It will be interesting to see what direction this goes. Will Apple be able to successfully block Samsung’s (and others’) tablets for sale across the world? There is some concern that if Apple doesn’t win in these cases, damages to Samsung could be significant.
U2 frontman Bono responded to the story “The Mystery of Jobs’s Public Giving,” in the NYTimes Opinion pages today telling readers that Jobs was indeed a generous giver through the product (Red) campaign. Bono further hinted that Jobs is a private person and his donations may not all be on the books.
I’m proud to know him; he’s a poetic fellow, an artist and a businessman. Just because he’s been extremely busy, that doesn’t mean that he and his wife, Laurene, have not been thinking about these things. You don’t have to be a friend of his to know what a private person he is or that he doesn’t do things by halves.
Apple and U2 of course collaborated on a U2 iPod and later Apple built red iPods with a portion of the proceeds going to Bono’s private fund to fight AIDS in Africa. Steve Jobs reportedly said when Bono first approached him about (RED), “There is nothing better than the chance to save lives.” Apple’s involvement encouraged other companies to get involved.
But another peculiarity of the ITC is that its rulings can be waived by the president. Verizon thinks it would be great if President Obama, in a blanket statement, made clear he would not let stand any decision blocking importation of consumer wireless devices. The parties then would have to recur to normal patent litigation, and whatever rights and wrongs are discovered could be settled by exchanges of cash. Mobile is a rare industry exhibiting growth, job creation and animal spirits. Who needs a paralyzing meltdown?
It will be interesting to see if the President will override if Apple wins any of the blockades it is seeking against Android devices in the ITC. IF he does, Apple/Google/Microsoft/whoever will have to go through the longer patent dispute process.
Both iPhones and Android devices could be blocked by pending ITC rulings.
Apple was a good sport too and allowed one third party app in the top two rows of apps.
Update:Macrumors notes that Apple has begun selling Final Cut Pro 7 (which is likely not enhanced for Lion) the old fashioned way.
We confirmed with an Apple telesales representative at 800-MY-APPLE that Final Cut Studio, part number MB642Z/A, is again available for $999, and $899 for educational customers. The product is only available through the 800-number and is not available in Apple Retail Stores or on the Apple Online Store.
Final Cut Pro 7 was pulled ahead of the release of Final Cut Pro X in June but there has been some backlash among the higher end users because of missing features. Apple, for what it is worth, promised feature updates by the end of summer (which is coming on pretty fast now). Expand Expanding Close
What’s interesting here is that the button isn’t wider as originally prognosticated. In this scenario,it is actually shorter to make room for the bigger screen.
Earlier today we broke the news that an iPhone icon in the Photo Stream beta software had some new dimensions including a more edge to edge screen and an elongated button, which coincidentally matched the earlier rumors. One obviously possibility is that this device is a larger-screened iPhone 5. However, we’ve received word that of the two new iPhones coming out from Apple, this device might actually be the smaller, cheaper iPhone that is set for release at the same time.
One was called the “upgraded one, the iPhone 5” and the other, “a new smaller one”.
To that end, we’ve got a mock up of what something like that would look like using current iPhone sizes, and the dimensions offered up by the icon (above) if it is a smaller device. If it is the bigger device, or at least bigger-screened device, It could look like the below:
.
This would be a nearly 4+ inch screen, nearly the size of the Galaxy S line. Expand Expanding Close
Parallels updated their Windows virtualization software for Mac to version 7 today with some exciting new features and optimizations. Lion compatibility has been improved (Full Screen mode, Launch Pad, and Mission Control) as well as speed: It is 60 percent faster than Parallels Desktop 6 when resuming Windows and up to 45 percent faster for 3D graphics. You can also share the iSight camera with Windows apps as well.
Perhaps most interestingly, you can now run another instance of Mac OS X. This might be a life-saver for Quicken users or users of other Rosetta apps that aren’t Lion compatible. Also, Mac developers can test their apps in different OSX versions with another OS instance.
Finally, there is a a new app (free for a limited time) which improves connectivity and allows full Flash sound and video on iOS devices.
Enjoy the best performance on the market
New! Lion integration and support, including Launchpad and Mission Control for Windows programs New! Shared iSight and FaceTime HD cameras in both Windows and Mac applications New! Lion as a guest OS Enhanced! Up to 1 GB of video memory, for ultra-high resolutions and maximum quality settings Enhanced! With the new Parallels Mobile App, copy-and-paste, enjoy audio, and access your Mac and Windows programs with your iPad, iPhone or iPod touch.
Run thousands of Windows applications at lightning speed on your Mac
Enhanced! Increased graphics performance: up to 45% faster for 3D graphics compared to previous versions Enhanced! Start, stop and resume Windows more quickly, as much as 60 %, every time you launch Windows Enhanced! When copying files within Windows, Parallels Desktop 7 outperforms its competitor by 120 %
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