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.
Update: Apple didn’t buy Nuance. Woz mis-read something apparently.
…or did Woz have a memory issue? He just said that Apple bought Nuance (:53 secs in). Yes, the same Nuance that just acquired MacSpeech earlier this year. Could he have meant Siri? He seemed pretty sure of himself and even mentioned Siri by name as the company that uses Nuance.
Nuance (NUAN) is valued at just over $5 Billion. That’s a lot, but a drop in the bucket for Apple’s $50 billion war chest. Apple likely paid a premium on the stock that closed at 17.11 today (again if Woz isn’t off his game). Although this video is a few days old, Nuance reported earnings today and didn’t mention any sort of acquisition.
The move would make a lot of sense for Apple as it moves into new forms of input. It trails behind both Google and Microsoft in Speech Recognition which is big differentiator in smartphone OSes.
I think we’re in for a micro-revolution in music and entertainment apps for the iPad. MacRumors detailled DJay app last week which took advantage of a number of new features of 4.2:
– Full access to iPod library
– Multi-tasking: you can run djay in Automix mode and listen to a continuous, seamless mix running in the background while you surf the web, play games, etc.
– AirPlay: you can wirelessly stream your mix to your Apple TV or AirPort Express station in real-time.
– Fully leverages accelerated CPU extensions (SSE-like) for high-quality audio processing and analysis
– Wireless printing with AirPrint using iOS 4.2, including page range selection, number of copies, and duplex printing.
– Support for iOS 4.2 multitasking.
– Localized in Portuguese, Danish, Finnish, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Swedish, and Traditional Chinese.
– Automatic pagination of tables that cross a page break.
– Improved reliability when importing Pages ’09 and Microsoft Word documents.
– Improved usability including font size selection, and bold, italic, and underline indicators in ruler.
– Fixed issues when using a WebDAV server, including signing out when a server is no longer accessible, saving port numbers in server addresses, and saving files with invalid characters in their names.
– Improved PDF export using iOS 4.2, which resolves an issue with missing fonts on Windows.
– Enhanced presenter display shows the current slide, the next slide, or your notes when connected to an external display.
– Ability to import existing and add new presenter notes to slides.
– Wireless printing with AirPrint using iOS 4.2, including slide range selection, number of copies, and duplex printing.
– Support for iOS 4.2 multitasking.
– Localized in Portuguese, Danish, Finnish, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Swedish, and Traditional Chinese.
– Improved reliability when importing Keynote ’09 and Microsoft PowerPoint presentations.
– Improved usability.
– Fixed issues when using a WebDAV server, including signing out when a server is no longer accessible, saving port numbers in server addresses, and saving files with invalid characters in their names.
– Improved PDF export using iOS 4.2, which resolves an issue with missing fonts on Windows.
– Wireless printing with AirPrint using iOS 4.2, including page range selection, number of copies, and duplex printing.
– Print preview to adjust how a sheet prints across multiple pages, including Auto Fit.
– PDF export takes advantage of pagination settings from print preview.
– Formula entry using a keyboard, including predictive function selector.
– Support for iOS 4.2 multitasking.
– Localized in Portuguese, Danish, Finnish, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Swedish, and Traditional Chinese.
– Improved reliability when importing Numbers ’09 and Microsoft Excel spreadsheets.
– Improved usability.
– Fixed issues when using a WebDAV server, including signing out when a server is no longer accessible, saving port numbers in server addresses, and saving files with invalid characters in their names.
– Improved PDF export using iOS 4.2, which resolves an issue with missing fonts on Windows.
Jeez. I’m sure this will be affordable (update: just $195/month). Well, it will help streaming HD movies to the AppleTV…if you are blessed by Verizon. Expand Expanding Close
It looks like Macworld got a sneak peak at the upcoming iWork updates which allow you to print from Pages, Numbers and Keynote.
All three apps now support iOS 4.2’s multitasking features, so when a user switches away from them, their state is saved, then immediately restored when the user switches back. They also now support wireless printing via AirPrint, including page- or slide-range selection, setting the number of copies, and duplex printing. The Tools menus of all the apps have been simplified, with printing placed at the top level and more esoteric settings moved into a Settings submenu. Perhaps the biggest single other feature addition to the suite is the addition of presenter-display support in Keynote 1.3. When an iPad is connected to an external display for presentations, Keynote will now display the current slide, the next side, or your presenter notes on the iPad’s own display. (Sadly, you can’t use an Apple TV and AirPlay to present wirelessly.)
Remember, in 1985 there were only BBS’s and DARPANET, the browser would just start to become popular a decade later. Yet Steve Jobs already knew that the Internet was going to drive PCs into the home.
PLAYBOY: Those are arguments for computers in business and in schools, but what about the home?
JOBS: So far, that’s more of a conceptual market than a real market. The primary reasons to buy a computer for your home now are that you want to do some business work at home or you want to run educational software for yourself or your children. If you can’t justify buying a computer for one of those two reasons, the only other possible reason is that you just want to be computer literate. You know there’s something going on, you don’t exactly know what it is, so you want to learn. This will change: Computers will be essential in most homes.
PLAYBOY: What will change?
JOBS: The most compelling reason for most people to buy a computer for the home will be to link it into a nationwide communications network. We’re just in the beginning stages of what will be a truly remarkable breakthrough for most people—as remarkable as the telephone.
Apple, shortly after Jobs’ departure, set up AppleLink and eWorld, without so much success.
Perhaps that is why the iMac, which essentially saved Apple, was so far ahead of its time. Jobs was a decade ahead of everyone else. Expand Expanding Close
Find My iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch — the MobileMe feature that helps you locate your missing device and protect its data — is now free on any iPhone 4, iPad, or fourth-generation iPod touch running iOS 4.2.3 Once you set it up, you can find your lost device on a map, display a message on its screen, remotely set a passcode lock, and initiate a remote wipe to delete your data. And if you eventually find your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, you can restore everything from your last backup.
On Apple.com you can currently see that Apple is advertising that iOS 4.2 is here.
However, if we check our handy tool at 8:40AM ET, it says we’re not yet updated. I’d wager an ‘any second now’. Tip us (tips a 9to5mac.com) if you hear anything different.
It shouldn’t surprise anyone butPCWorld put the smaller, lighter MacBook Air up against the fastest PC Netbooks out there.
Our WorldBench 6 software runs systems through a timed gantlet of popular consumer applications such as Adobe Photoshop and Mozilla Firefox, compiles the results, and spits out an overall score. The 11-inch Air earned a WorldBench 6 score of 74, very impressive given that the average WorldBench 6 score of the netbooks we’ve tested recently is 45.
Even more impressive was the 11-inch Air’s performance in our gaming tests: Most netbooks can’t run 3D games like DiRT 2 and Call of Duty 4 at all, but the Air managed to sustain a frame rate of 23 frames per second while running COD4 at 1024 by 768 resolution and high graphic settings; much of the credit probably should go to the Nvidia GeForce 320M graphics card, which comes standard in every Air model.
The one area that Netbooks were able to outperform the Air was in battery, with the much thicker Gateway LT2118u lasting double as long at 11 hours.
PCworld then proceeded to put the 13″ 1.86GHz Air up against Ultraportable PC laptops. It fared almost as well…
It looks like TJ Maxx bought the iPads at retail ($500) and are selling them sporadically for $399 for publicity at $100 per iPad loss. It looks like the publicity stunt worked and a bunch of shoppers got a cheap iPad. Well done!
Sherry Lang, SVP of Global Communications for TJX toldFortune:
“We have received many inquiries about a particular famous maker high tech item recently sold in our stores. As an off-price retailer, our business provides an ever-changing selection of great finds of famous maker apparel and non-apparel categories at excellent values. In other words, our mission is to offer a treasure hunt of great values, every day. Earlier this week, a small number of T.J.Maxx and Marshalls stores received a very limited quantity of first quality electronic tablets that were sourced from a retailer. Our customers have come to know and shop us for the exciting and unexpected values we offer on a daily basis.”
A fun survey from the folks from Changewave today. They asked US smartphone customers not on AT&T if they would have liked to have purchased the iPhone, if their carrier …carried it.
Over a third of respondants said they’d rather have bought an iPhone. Another 20% weren’t sure. Less than half were hapy with the phone they purchased. Jeez. Why stick with your carrier?
In other ‘News’ Apple (77% satisfied) remained at the top of the satisfaction charts (below) though Motorola (71%) made a surprisingly strong showing along with HTC (63%). Samsung (45% ) and RIM (44%) brought up the rear. Expand Expanding Close
Update: TJ Maxx has now said they bought all of these iPads at retail price and are taking the $100 hit for publicity (good move). Steve Jobs re-iterates that TJ Maxx isn’t an Apple authorized dealer and Apple won’t price-match them.
If you ever had a question as to whether Apple was serious about locking up the tablet market right now, for Christmas and beyond, you had your answer this afternoon as reports of new iPads were showing up at TJ Maxx and Marshalls.
This is as agressive on both pricing and placement as I’ve ever seen Apple and the biggest indication yet that they aren’t just after the 20% “high end” market in tablets that the Mac commands. Apple wants to be the mainstream tablet maker and have the iPad be as ubiquitous as iPod.
When Apple started selling iPhones at WalMart last year, you knew that they were aiming at big market share numbers for iOS products. How far will they go? Moving to TJ Maxx is another giant step. What’s next? Expand Expanding Close
Apple sent out an email this evening telling Mac developers to submit their Mac ‘apps’ for inclsion in the opening of the store which should happen pretty soon.
Engadget notes that TJMaxx is carrying iPads for just $399. That’s a huge discount over the pretty standard $500 costs that traditional stores all over are offering. It isn’t clear if these are refurbished models (which would fit with the pricing) and TJ Maxx’s rep. According to Engadget, they are showing up in stores in New York and Ohio and some stores are supposedly holding back their inventory for Black Friday
I wonder how long it took to convince Steve Jobs that putting iPads on TJ Maxx’s shelves was a good idea.
Update: Some Marshalls stores are carrying iPads for $399 as well.
As stated previously, it looks like the 4.2 build wasn’t ready for mass consumption. 4.2.1 is a bugfix release. We should see 4.2.1 final in about a week.
If you want to bring Flight Control back to your Mac, fire up your Steam Engine and download the application, it is now available. Expand Expanding Close
Hulu drops its Plus plan pricing $2/ month today. Perhaps it is feeling some competition from the likes of Xfinity’s iPad app? Or maybe paying for $10/month for shows with commercials just didn’t feel right.
The Electrical Engineering PhD and former CEO of Northrop Grumman will join Apple’s board of directors and serve as the Chair of the Audit and Finance Committee. The spot was vacated when Jerome York passed away in March.
“Ron is an engineer at heart, who then became a very successful business leader. We are very excited to welcome him to Apple’s Board,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “In addition to having been the CEO of a high-tech Fortune 100 company, Ron has a Ph.D. in engineering and has been involved in the development of some very sophisticated technology.”
Ronald D. Sugar (born 1949) has been chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Northrop Grumman Corporation, a global defense company, since 2003. On September 16, 2009, he announced that he would retire as CEO from Northrop Grumman at the end of the year, to be succeeded by now Chief Operating Officer Wesley G. Bush. He has also been a director of Chevron Corporation since 2005. In 1968, he graduated summa cum laude in engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles. He obtained a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from UCLA in 1971. He is a member of the USC Board of Trustees.
Who had any idea that so many people would be using these little Nanos as watches? Griffin surely didn’t because their Slap™ watch bands are just making it to stores in time for the holidays. Order yours for $25 here.
Choosing a page range in Pages
It shouldn’t surprise anyone but 
