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WSJ profile describes obsessive Dr. Dre as ‘cultural barometer of what is cool’ like Apple founder Steve Jobs

Zac Hall Jun 6 2014 - 12:37 pm PT

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In a profile of one of Apple’s newest employees, The Wall Street Journal has described hip-hop artist Dr. Dre of Beats Electronics as obsessive in a Steve Jobs kind of way while maintaining a clear instinct for what customers want without relying on market research.

But behind the scenes, Dr. Dre—whose real name is Andre Young —has quietly played an equally powerful role developing and protecting the Beats brand, eschewing market research for gut instinct at every turn. Though his main obsession is perfecting the sound of the company’s signature high-end headphones, the 49-year-old fitness-obsessed music producer weighs in decisively on everything from TV ads and font styles to the wordiness of descriptions on the Beats Music streaming service.

As one colleague says, Dr. Dre serves as Beats’ “cultural barometer” of what is cool.

But Dr. Dre’s process is mysterious, colleagues say: His assessments are usually immediate, personal and articulated sparely. He often dismisses ideas such as posing for clichéd photos in a recording studio as too “corny” or “cheesy.” Or he’ll wave them off with a terse “I’m not feeling that.”

[…]

That could portend friction at his new employer, Apple, which agreed to buy Beats for $3 billion last month. But like Dr. Dre, Apple has also boasted about not doing market research. The company’s late founder, Steve Jobs, made no secret of his belief that consumers don’t really know what they want until someone else shows it to them. Colleagues predict that at Apple Dr. Dre could also cede some decision-making power and become more accommodating.

Dr. Dre has resisted much of the limelight since the Beats acquisition by Apple was announced leaving many of the interviews and spin to his Beats co-founder Jimmy Iovine and Apple’s Eddy Cue. The WSJ noted he declined to be interviewed for the above profile, and that decided exclusivity, too, is reminiscent of Jobs.

Dr. Dre did participate in a WWDC demo earlier this week, though, accepting a phone call from Apple’s SVP of Software Engineering Craig Federighi. Even that bit has parallels with the Steve Jobs days at Apple as Dr. Dre previously cameoed in a demo with the Apple founder.

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Easter egg in icons for Swift files features ‘Here’s to the crazy ones’ from Think Different campaign

Benjamin Mayo Jun 6 2014 - 8:49 am PT

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In a throwback to Apple’s Think Different campaign, the icon used by OS X for Swift files, Apple’s new programming language. Swift documents have the file extension ‘.swift’.

The code seen in the icon makes reference to the iconic speech, with functions named ‘heresToTheCrazyOnes’ and ‘villify(troubleMaker: NSObject)’. The code also generates collections of ‘misfits’, ‘rebels’ and ‘troublemakers’.

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AT&T expands GoPhone prepaid plans to tablets, iPad mini and iPad 3 supported

Chance Miller Jun 6 2014 - 8:41 am PT

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In addition to announcing a trio of new Android tablets, AT&T has also announced that it is expanding its GoPhone prepaid plans to support a handful of tablets, including the iPad mini and iPad 3. The GoPhone plans work by purchasing a $10 GoPhone SIM Kit then choosing a pre-paid data plan for your device. For $15/mo you’ll get 250MB of data and 100MB of additional data can be purchased for $10 each. $30 a month will get you 3GB and 500MB of additional data will run you $10. Finally, $50 per month will get you 5GB of data, with each additional GB costing $10.

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Apple’s retail head Angela Ahrendts has stock withheld for tax purposes (Updated)

Ben Lovejoy Jun 6 2014 - 12:35 am PT

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SEC filings show that Angela Ahrendts had half of her first allocation of AAPL stock withheld on 1st June – the day it vested, and just one month after joining the company – reports ComputerWorld.

According to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Ahrendts received 16,264 shares in Apple stock when it vested June 1 […]

Ahrendts sold 8,331 shares that same day for a pre-tax total of $5,273,523.

The full value of her stock, which is likely to vest (become eligible for sale) over several years, will add up to $78.5M at the current share price. Her total compensation in her final year as CEO of Burberry was $4.4M – though she did also get a clothing allowance of $42,000 and a car allowance of $30,000 (only at a fashion company could you get more to spend on clothes than a car …).

Selling half your stock at the very first opportunity doesn’t seem to send the best of signals a month into the role, but I guess she needs to buy a house out in the Valley and those aren’t exactly cheap right now.

The withholding of the shares came just over a week before a 7-to-1 stock split, on Monday. The stock split should make AAPL shares more attractive to smaller investors, a shift that could make the share price more volatile.

Via Fortune

Update: These shares were withheld for tax purposes by Apple not sold on the open market

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Safari in iOS 8 uses camera to scan and enter credit card info

Jordan Kahn Jun 5 2014 - 5:47 pm PT

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In iOS 8, Apple has a new feature in Safari that allows users to scan a credit card with the device’s camera rather than manually entering the number when making a purchase online.

When entering a credit card number into a form online to, for example, make a purchase, Safari already allowed users to quickly select credit cards stored in its Passwords & AutoFill settings. You can still do that, but in iOS 8 you’ll now also have the option to select “Scan Credit Card” and snap a picture of the card. Apple then uses optical character recognition of sorts to input the number into the text field in Safari. There’s also a way to scan and save cards using the camera directly from within the Passwords & AutoFill settings.

Website developers don’t have to do anything to enable the feature, as Safari appears to automatically detect when a credit card number is being requested and presents the option to scan above the keypad.

Safari received some other updates announced this week at WWDC too, including a redesign in OS X Yosemite on the Mac, and highly requested features on iOS like the ability to request a desktop site and a tab view for iPad.

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Smartphone maker Xiaomi continues to grow, outsells Apple in China during Q1 2014

Chance Miller Jun 5 2014 - 7:36 am PT

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A new video out of Bloomberg details  just exactly how a once unknown Chinese phone company has able to leapfrog the household names in technology and become the sixth largest mobile handset company in the world, and the third largest in China. Xiaomi was founded back in 2010 and went the total opposite direction in terms of strategy from Apple and Samsung. Making Android powered devices, Xiaomi has focused devices with high build quality and excellent performance.

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Tado confirms smart air-conditioning controller funded, aiming now for Apple HomeKit support

Ben Lovejoy Jun 5 2014 - 4:27 am PT

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Tado, the location-aware alternative to the Nest smart thermostat, has confirmed that it has achieved its Kickstarter goal to launch a device to control existing air-conditioners, turning them into smart cooling systems.

We talked about the GE-backed Quirky Aros in March which can now be purchased at Amazon.

Tado is now aiming to raise an additional $50k to allow Tado Cooling to integrate with Apple’s HomeKit, enabling Siri control.

If HomeKit is integrated, our customers will be able to use the tado° app together with some key iOS features such as Siri or TouchID.

• Imagine setting your tado° to sleep mode or adjusting the desired temperature with a simple voice command.
• Imagine giving your AC a little boost just by placing your finger on the home button.
• Imagine combined scenarios with other connected devices …

Tado says that its system will be compatible with 82 percent of existing air-conditioning units, with a control unit working in the same way as its smart thermostat: using an app to track the location of those in the household, automatically turning off air-conditioners when the last person leaves the home and pre-cooling the home when it detects that someone is on their way back.

Low-energy Bluetooth is also used to track the position of people within the home, automatically adjusting air-conditioners within different rooms.

Tado Cooling will retail for $149, but Kickstarter backers can pre-order for $99, with units expected to ship in August. The existing product is fully funded, but currently needs an additional $47,000 in the next six days to add HomeKit support.

Other iOS controlled home cooling systems on the market and in the news include Big Ass Fans.

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Apple modernizes its investor relations site, with thin fonts and flat icons

Benjamin Mayo Jun 4 2014 - 8:54 am PT

10 Comments

Apple has updated its Investor Relations website with a modern design. The site features the clean lines and thin fonts now standard with Apple’s new design direction. The homepage of the portal currently features the Istanbul Apple Store, but otherwise the site seems the same in terms of content.

The visual redesign is a massive shift for the investor site, which felt largely abandoned until today. The site now shows off Apple’s stock price with a large chart, in the iOS 7 ‘flat’ style.

Amusingly, as with the rest of Apple’s website, the main navigation toolbar along the top of the page sticks out as old-fashioned, retaining its glossy appearance.

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Future Macs could lose the cables as Intel demos next-generation wireless charging, docking & displays

Ben Lovejoy Jun 4 2014 - 4:52 am PT

13 Comments

If you’re like me and love technology but hate the rats nest of cables it requires, we could be in for some good news. Intel has demonstrated a system that could be incorporated into future computers that allows wireless connectivity for power, displays, and connection to accessories like external drives.

Wireless charging is nothing new, of course, but existing systems are something of a mess. They rely on inductive charging, which is ultra-short range and only suited to low-power devices like smartphones, and there are several competing and incompatible systems in use.

The new system demo’d by Intel uses magnetic resonance charging, which can cope with the power demands of laptops, and works through up to two inches of wood – meaning that the charging plate can be hidden out of sight under a desk. The same charging plate can also charge multiple devices simultaneously, so a single installation under your desk could potentially power your Mac, iPad, iPhone and wireless headset.

For wireless connection to displays and accessories, Intel uses the Wireless Gigabit Alliance system WiGig, which allows speeds of up to 7Gbps over a distance of a few feet – good enough for a completely wireless desk, and rendering my home-brewed iDesk redundant.

The technology will be supported by Skylake, a chip that is currently two generations down the road, and likely to first appear in laptops in 2016. Apple has not yet signed-up, but Asus, Dell, Fujitsu, Lenovo, Logitech, Panasonic and Toshiba are all on board, so it is likely just a matter of time.

(Via CNET)