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.
Apple has finally made a public statement on the Lodsys matter. According to the Loop, Apple says that Lodsys has no claim to patent infringement because Apple has already purchased indemnity from Lodsys.
“Apple is undisputedly licensed to these patents and the App Makers are protected by that license,” wrote Bruce Sewell, Apple Senior Vice President and General Counsel.
While it is good to hear Apple finally come out with a statement on the matter, it doesn’t seem like the end of this case for everyone involved. Interestingly, we’ve been hearing that Apple is offering to help protect indy developers with representation against Lodsys.
In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me if Apple and Lodsys haven’t been negotiating behind the scenes for a long time now. Lodsys probably only went to indy developers when Apple decided it didn’t owe Lodsys any more money and negotiations broke off.
Full text of the email to Lodsys (via Macworld) below:
For a limited time, the Nike+ GPS App (iTunes) has gone free. Normally priced at $1.99 , this run tracker records your route, pace, and distance, as well as providing feedback. *Obviously, the GPS features of this app do not work with the iPod touch.
The Ecconomic Times expands on the recent chatter about the iTunes Cloud (iCloud?)service we’ve been hearing about. The news site confirms that Apple has locked up deals with 3/4 of the top labels (Universal is widely reported to be the holdout) and is set to reveal the new service at next month’s WWDC.
The Cupertino, California-based gadget-maker is expected to launch a new Web-hosted music service next month, according to multiple reports, after negotiating deals with at least three of the four major record labels.
WWDC isn’t traditionally a venue for iTunes related news but we’ll give Apple a pass…
In February, the New York Observerran a story saying that Apple was eyeing a Grand Central Station New York Apple Store, which would be the borough’s 5th.
Reliable sources tell The Observer that the maker of ubiquitous iGadgets—from computers to cell phones—hopes to open a store in the transportation and retail hub, though it has yet to begin the long approval process necessary for opening in a city landmark.
Within days, other sites ran with that info, “confirmed” that a deal had been reached for “Apple’s largest retail space in the world”, saying an announcement was forthcoming and the store would open this Fall.
Although the previous generation iPod nano had curved glass (it wasn’t universally loved), the Samsung Nexus S was the first mainstream smartphone with curved glass. If Digitimes is right, the iPhone 5 may be the second (and likely more popular).
…the latest being circulated around the supply chain in Taiwan is that Apple is going to adopt a curved cover glass for its next generation model, according to industry sources.
That would seem to fly in the face of recent reports that the iPhone 5 would be very similar to the iPhone 4 in appearance. Digitimes has found what they think is anecdotal evidence.
However, in order to push forward the production of curved glass, Apple reportedly has purchased 200-300 glass cutting machines to be used by glass makers, said the sources.
The glass slicing machines are currently being stored at associated assembly plants and will be brought online once yield rates for the production of curved glass reaches a satisfactory level, the sources revealed.
Although Samsung is a competitor wrapped in lawsuits with Apple, it is also a major supplier and obviously has experience with curved glass screens. Expand Expanding Close
An Apple Store Manager relayed to us that the new iPad 2 displays are able to turn into “normal iPads” with a few swipes in secret combination. To find out if true, I went to the Soho store and tried it out. Yep, it works. The button still doesn’t work so it is easy to get yourself stuck – like in Email Setup below:
I’m not going to post the gesture combination unless it hits the web but it does exist and Store managers know it.
Anyway, the moral of the story: Those are normal iPad 2s under the glass, even though they have different part numbers. Expand Expanding Close
First of all, we’d like to thank all of the Apple Store employees who have been sending in tips over the past week on the new Store stuff. Thank you and we hope to continue to hear from you guys (and gals!). We’re hearing there is more to come
We’re pasting without (much) editing some of the different tips we’ve gotten below:
As noted, the home button does not work when Smart Sign app is running so it cannot be exited. The only way to get the home button to work again is to reset the iPad using the home and lock buttons.
The Apple Store App will be updated tomorrow, and will be available world wide. It will support CTO orders, and should also be available as an iPad optimised app.
The Display iPads have a different model number than current iPad 2s. There has been some concern about the cameras: Is Apple watching us from HQ? Listening? Customers? Also, we’ve been told there is a bunch of security stuff on the new iPads. If they leave the Store they keep calling home with their Wifi coordinates.
Apple is giving the old Pioneer tvs to one lucky Apple Employee per store. We had just upgraded all of them to new Sonys
The iPads are charged using a kind of tape, which goes from the cable which enters the plastic casing, to the dock connector (you can hardly see it!). This charges the iPad and alarms it – if it is removed, the alarm will sound.
There was some speculation about how the iPads are powered in the new display. They are connected via ribbon cables that hook into the dock connector. All the cables are custom made for each iPad, and also power the product they are advertising. All the content on the iPads is loaded from a server, nothing is stored locally except the custom application. The home buttons are disabled. We load them up, provision them to be signage iPads, boot the application, tell the iPad where in the store it’s located and that’s it. Apple can change prices and info live across all of retail
We have one of the smaller stores in the market and we received 100 iPad 2’s for the smart signs. The app that runs the information disables the home button on the iPad (obviously) and the image is all encompassing. If products move tables we won’t necessarily have to move smart signs just tell the iPads to display different product information. There is a specially designed flat ribbon cable that powers the iPad, no inductive charging or anything like that.
Pasted below is a close up of the back of the acrylic enclosure
If you’ve ever used Google Apps, you’ve seen what kind of power a collaborative, cross-platform word processor can have. Today’s Apple iWork.com Web applications fall far short (though they look much prettier) in terms of functionality. But don’t fret Apple fans! Patently Appletoday shows that Apple is heading Pages toward that same Cloud experience.
While it may or may not be “breakthrough” Apple clearly has plans to put its Pages App/Application into the Cloud. The sooner (WWDC?), the better.
We’re getting tips from our retail friends in the South Pacific that Snow Leopard boxes are running short and the channel inventory is drying up. Apple resellers are literally unable to ge their hands on stock of Snow Leopard boxes.
Even Apple’s website is showing a week’s wait in both Australia and New Zealand. These types of sporadic delays, which are frequently temporary, are usually an indication that the supply channel is changing and the boxes are no longer being made.
Mere weeks before the WWDC, Apple is still quiet on the Lodsys situation, leaving developers unsure of what to do in the patent trolling case. The silence is truly deafening. EFF sums up many of our thoughts on this:
In case you missed it, Lodsys – a troll whose sole business model is owning and suing on patents – has sent letters to many of Apple’s app developers accusing them of infringing a patent that covers the in-app purchasing functionality that Apple provides as part of its operating system. In addition to these accusations, Lodsys’ letters demanded payment. Unfortunately, suing app developers – who often lack the resources required to defend a lawsuit – is a trend we’re seeing more and more often.
What’s different here, however, is that Apple provides this functionality to its developers and requires that they use it. Apple itself is protected from liability – Apple took a license from Lodsys’ predecessor to use this very patent (which was likely part of a larger blanket license). And the apparently one-sided Apple-developer agreement does not require that Apple indemnify developers from suits based on technology that Apple provides.
Apple clearly needs to take a stand on this one way or another. Even just a public statement saying, “we are working on this and will have an answer before the 30 days to respond to Lodsys time is up” would suffice.
By putting the burden on those least able to shoulder it, both Apple and Lodys are harming not just developers but also the consumers who will see fewer apps and less innovation. We hope that going forward companies like Apple will do what’s right and stand up for their developers and help teach the patent trolls a lesson.
Apple’s lawyers called and told us to take down the screenshots.
We’ve gotten our hands on the internal Apple RetailMe iPads and have been rifling through the interesting new features that debuted for Retail employees on Monday. First is obviously the Daily Download, which is a well-produced internal Daily ‘newspaper for employees’. It is incredibly stylish, functional and much better than the previous web-based version. We have many more screenshots below.
Bloomberg this evening reports that Apple and Sony have come to terms on a streaming music licensing deal, leaving the largest label, Universal, as the only one of the big four labels not to (yet) sign with Apple. Earlier this year and again this week, it was reported that EMI signed with Apple.
A licensing deal will allow Apple to more efficiently store music in the Cloud (it can store top songs only once rather than once for every user library that contains the song like Google). Apple could announce a product as early as WWDC or at a more traditional music event, like the one Apple usually introduces iPods at in the Fall.
Bloomberg also noted that Apple would need to reach agreements with music publishers, which control different rights than the labels. Expand Expanding Close
According to Mobilized, Qualcomm will be porting its augmented reality environment to iOS devices even though Apple doesn’t use Qualcomm processors (though the Verizon iPhone/iPad and future iOS devices are expected to use Qualcomm baseband chips).
Apple likely isn’t going to drop the A5 for a Snapdragon, but perhaps there is more to the Qualcomm and Apple than currently publicly exists.
Developers will be able to write iOS applications using the toolkit, which has existed for a year on Android, starting in July.
Last Month, Verizon CFO Fran Shammo told an investor conference call that the Verizon iPhone would be a World phone. The CFO was also the first to reveal the Verizon iPad. Many think that the current Verizon iPhone’s inclusion of a worldphone-capable Gobi chip from Qualcomm is a preview into the future of the iPhone line.
While Verizon has sold fewer iPhones than some analysts expected, Shammo said he was happy with sales of the “six-month-old phone” that only works in some countries.
When the next iPhone model launches Verizon will be able to offer it at the same time as AT&T. Verizon’s version will also work in as many countries as AT&T’s iPhone, which has global coverage, Shammo said.
Some customers held off on buying the first Verizon iPhone because they were waiting for a model that supports Verizon’s high-speed wireless service, which runs on a new technology called Long Term Evolution (LTE).
Shammo said that even if the next iPhone does not support LTE, Verizon will have enough high-speed alternatives to sell.
That’s a pretty good clue that the next iPhone won’t be LTE, which Apple CFO Tim Cook all but revealed himself at the last earnings call:
Logitech just announced three new products for iPad (OK Zagg’s been selling the Case for a few weeks already). We’re hoping to get some hands-on time with these products shortly. Until then check out the descriptions and the links below:
Created in collaboration with ZAGG®, the latest Logitech® Keyboard Case features the same sleek aluminum cover with military-grade, high-density padding as Logitech’s previously announced version. The protective case wraps around the iPad 2 to cover the screen and sides, and the Logitech Keyboard Case uses Bluetooth® connectivity to pair the keyboard quickly and easily. The new Logitech Keyboard Case incorporates a more intuitive keyboard layout and improved keystrokes for even more comfortable typing. It also adds a recess just behind the keyboard that props up an iPad 2 in portrait or landscape mode, virtually eliminating setup and packup time.
When you want to share your favorite music, the Logitech® Wireless Speaker is a great choice. It eliminates cables and lets you place your speaker wherever you want — up to 50 feet away from your iPad or Android tablet depending on use, settings and environmental conditions. And you’ll get rich, full stereo sound — even from across the room — with your speaker’s dual two-inch drivers and plenty of bass. A rechargeable battery powers your speaker for up to 10 hours depending on your use and settings—so you can take your music with you wherever you go. And setup couldn’t be easier. Just pair with your tablet using Bluetooth wireless, and you are ready to listen.
The Logitech® Tablet Keyboard, a keyboard-and-stand combo, comes in two versions, one for Android-based tablets and a second for iPads, and is designed to travel easily, set up quickly and add a touch of convenience to all the places you use your tablet. It pairs easily with your tablet over Bluetooth wireless, so you can use it on your desk, lap or anywhere within 30 feet of your tablet, depending on use, settings and environmental conditions.
They are all up for pre-order now and should start shipping in within a few weeks.
We’re just going to get out of the way and watch this little clip for a Friskies iPad app noting that cats don’t seem to get upset after the 5 millionth time swiping at something and not getting it.
In case you don’t want to scratch up your iPad, the apps are also available for Android as well.
Patently Appletoday reveals a patent filed all the way back in 2009 that relates to Cloud music streaming with iTunes. Calling the service “seamless and invisible to the user,” Apple details how the service picks the location to retrive data whether it is local or stored on a server.
The device could stream media files from a remote source (e.g., a content server operated by a content generator or a content sales point). To play back a remote media files, the electronic device could direct communications circuitry to establish a communications path with the remote content source. Once the communications path has been established, the content source could provide the requested media item to the device. Once the device has locally cached a sufficient amount of the media item, the electronic device could begin streamed media playback.
So, that means Apple could decide to store the beginning of a song, for instance, locally while choosing to store the rest of the song in the Cloud. To the user, the song just plays instantly, but iTunes is saving local space by caching only a fraction of the song locally.
Another interesting passage:
The media items owned or accessible by a user could be stored in a user’s media library. The media library could be stored on any suitable device, including for example on a host device, on a remotely accessed server, in a cloud, or in any other suitable location. The user could store at least some media items of the library on an electronic device so that the user could locally play back the media items. The electronic device could include communications circuitry for remotely connecting to the media library and stream media items to the user’s device.
The lawyers contend that AT&T is overbilling for data and they’ve run tests to confirm the data overcharges. Tests include buying a new iPhone, turning everything that would use data off and letting it sit for two weeks. They contend that 35 different data charges occurred during that time.
AT&T contends that the iPhone uses data without the customer knowing. Recently, Apple’s collection of anonymous location data, and subsequent exchange of tower signal strength knowledge was brought into the spotlight. Perhaps that system is a data usage issue – even when data services are turned off.
It will be interesting to see how this one turns out.
This Saturday (21st), all Australian (at least) retail stores will under go visual merchandising from 6pm – 6am (22nd). A sheet will be raised to prevent any one seeing inside, and from 6am – 10am, all apple retail staff will participate in a compulsory meeting.
Something big? VM is rarely so private, and is never followed by an all staff meeting.
Additionally we’re hearing the phrase “Apple Store 2.0” thrown around. Expand Expanding Close
Patently Appletoday reveals a trademark today by Apple for the word “Noteworthy” which they postulate is a new OCR app that could be released in iOS 5. One use would be taking an image and turing it into a document like Google’s recent Docs app does.
Hey, have you heard about this new iPhone? The one codenamed “N94” and coming up…soon? Well analysts are catching on with information you’ve likely heard before. FBR Capital Markets puts what you’ve heard in the blogosphere down for institutional clients
Apple’s iPhone 5 will be manufactured in the third quarter, hinting at a possible launch of a new version of the iconic smartphone later this year, a financial analyst firm said Tuesday. The iPhone 5 will include an 8-megapixel camera and a single baseband chip that will work on both GSM and CDMA networks.
The iPhone 5 will use an 8-megapixel CMOS sensor from OmniVision, with Sony being a possible backup sensor supplier next year, FBR said in the research note.FBR also expects Apple to move away from Intel as a possible baseband supplier, instead buying integrated CDMA-GSM communication chips from Qualcomm. “Our contacts have confirmed to us that Qualcomm is replacing Intel as the baseband supplier, selling an integrated CDMA/WCDMA baseband.”
We’re hoping to hear more about a low cost version of the iPhone in coming weeks that is just starting to make the rumor rounds now.
