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347 'Macintosh' stories December 2010 - July 2012

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Hulu Plus sneaks its way onto Apple TV, one week free trial

Seth Weintraub Jul 31 2012 - 6:17 am PT

[hulu id=w7pqikydrnjifmvyxfuslg width=650 height=350]

We broke the news late last year that Apple was working on a Hulu Plus app for Apple TV. Unfortunately, getting the app to the Apple TV was a political issue, not a technical one.

We’ve gotten word that inside Apple there are Apple TVs running the Hulu Plus app natively. The app is feature complete and ready to roll out to Apple TV users on current builds. In fact, it has been ready for at least a month and development is now on hold.

While there are no technical issues standing in the way of the Hulu Plus release on Apple TV, there appear to be some political ones. At some level at Apple, there appears to be some consideration that the Hulu Plus app could eat into iTunes TV sales on the Apple TV. Where Netflix tends to run older programming, iTunes is the Apple TV’s only outlet for current TV programming….

Today, our Apple TVs are lighting up with some Hulu Plus goodness. If you do not see it, a quick reboot will bring it up. Hulu offers a free one-week trial here. Pictures directly from the screen are below.

Update: Hulu has updated its blog with the news and provided an unnecessary instructional video (Above).

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Some Mountain Lion Tips and Tricks

Élyse Betters Jul 30 2012 - 1:22 pm PT

Mountain Lion eyed over 3 million downloads in just four days, but those early adopters were even more quick to notice a few unfavorable tweaks in Apple’s latest OS. Have no fear, though. We have a brief tips and tricks resource guide below.
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Morcut/Crisis Mac malware capable of monitoring location, webcam, address book, more

Jordan Kahn Jul 26 2012 - 12:52 pm PT

We told you yesterday about the Trojan named “Crisis“, also being referred to as “OSX/Morcut-A”, discovered for OS X, but it is considered low risk for users. Today, we get some more details about the trojan with security company Sophos explaining the Morcut Malware features code for controlling the following:

mouse coordinates
instant messengers (for instance, Skype [including call data], Adium and MSN Messenger)
location
internal webcam
clipboard contents
key presses
running applications
web URLs
screenshots
internal microphone
calendar data & alerts
device information
address book contents

The malware appears to have been specifically created with spying on the user as its goal. There have not been any reported cases of infected users, though, so the threat is still considered low risk.

Apple releases OS X Mountain Lion Server for $19.99 on Mac App Store

Jordan Kahn Jul 25 2012 - 6:25 am PT

Following this morning’s launch of 10.8 Mountain Lion on the Mac App Store, Apple just launched a separate app as an OS X Server for Mountain Lion. It allows users to add sever functionality to the OS for $20. It is definitely a significant price drop from the $49 Lion server and the $500 or so it cost to add the functionality before that.

OS X Server is the next generation of Apple’s award winning server software. Designed for OS X and iOS devices, OS X Server makes it easy to share files, schedule meetings, synchronize contacts, host your own website, publish wikis, configure Macs, iPhones and iPads, remotely access your network, and more.

Server is now an application you can add to Mountain Lion right from the Mac App Store. Anyone can quickly and easily turn a Mac running Mountain Lion into a server that’s perfect for home offices, businesses, schools, and hobbyists alike.

iCloud up 25M users to 150M in Q3

Jordan Kahn Jul 24 2012 - 2:22 pm PT

Today, at Apple’s Q3 2012 earnings call, the company provided some updates on numbers for the quarter. Apple Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer shared iCloud is now up to 150 million users. Last time Apple checked in in April, it reported 125 million users for Q2. This marks an increase of 25 million users during Q3. Hit up the links below for all of the updates from today’s conference call:

Liveblog: Apple’s Q3 2012 earnings results conference call (9to5mac.com)
iCloud up 25 million users to 150 million in Q3 (9to5mac.com)
Apple reports ‘best quarter ever’ for US education institution mac sales (9to5mac.com)
Apple confirms: OS X Mountain Lion available tomorrow on the Mac App Store for $19.99 (9to5mac.com)
Apple reports Q3 2012 results: 35 billion in revenue, $8.8b profit, 26m iPhones, 17m iPads, 4m Macs (9to5mac.com)

Apple reports ‘best quarter ever’ in Q3 for US education institution Mac sales

Élyse Betters Jul 24 2012 - 2:06 pm PT

Chief Executive Tim Cook and CFO Peter Oppenheimer are live on Apple’s Q3 2012 call to give opening remarks, and the execs just revealed Apple saw its best quarter ever for U.S. education institution Mac sales. Rutherford County, N.C., for instance, purchased 6,000 MacBook Airs.

Other education-related statistics:

— 14 million iTunes U downloads, 700,000 new schools, and 750 new courses
— iPad 2 in K-12 market particularly strong—nearly doubling y-o-y (Apple sold 17 million iPads in Q3 2012, compared to 9.2 million in Q3 2011).

Oppenheimer said the iPad 2 price drop to $399 helped in education—sold twice as many iPads to U.S. schools as Macs during the quarter. About 11,000 iPads, for instance, were bought in Mansfield, Texas for students and teachers.

Regarding the iPad in education, Cook later added: “We have been very aggressive in this space, and I don’t see changing that.” The chief also noted the sales of the iPad in education are something he has “never seen.” He then addressed the education system’s typically “conservative spending,” but he explained Apple is “not seeing that at all with the iPad.”

Cook further mentioned he saw “hundreds of tablets come to market in the last year and have yet to see any of them gain traction.”

Apple’s financial results conference call to discuss Q3 2012 earnings is now underway, and 9to5Mac is live-blogging as company execs readily detail figures for the quarter. The call’s audio webcast and earnings release are available on Apple’s Investor Relations website.

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Mountain Lion installed on a MacPro1,1, here’s how to do it

Jordan Kahn Jul 23 2012 - 12:50 pm PT

As pointed out by OWC, a step-by-step instruction guide has popped up courtesy of Mac user Jabbawok that details the steps necessary to get Mountain Lion running on a MacPro1.1 (the models first introduced in 2006). It is not the easiest process ever, forcing you to upgrade the graphics card, have access to a spare SATA HDD, and go through a couple of dozen or so more steps inside Chameleon bootloader, terminal, and elsewhere. The good news is this means there are not a lot of Intel Macs that won’t be able to handle Mountain Lion. You can check out the instructions here, if you are interested, and the author gave a brief explanation below on what prevents the MacPro1.1 models from running Mountain Lion in the first place:

There are two things that prevent 10.8 from installing on a MacPro 1,1. The first is the lack of EFI64. Mountain Lion as has no support for 32bit kernel and extensions so it will not boot. This is true of many early Intel macs… The other thing is that checks are made by the installer; against a supported machines list. If your mac isn’t on the list, it refuses to install.

On a related note, you might make use of popular Mac backup and cloning app Carbon Copy Cloner throughout the process. The app was just updated to version 3.5 with a number of new features including Mountain Lion compatibility.

[tweet https://twitter.com/lfstudios10/status/227501498630823936]

Sparrow for Mac updated with Retina graphics and Mountain Lion support (9to5mac.com)
Chrome for Mac updated with improved Mountain Lion support (9to5google.com)

Reminder: Mountain Lion will be free for 30 days for new Mac owners

Jordan Kahn Jul 23 2012 - 8:07 am PT

Update 2: After a brief time online, Apple appears to have taken down the form to request a copy of Mountain Lion. You’ll still be able to request a copy at Apple’s original link following Mountain Lion’s official release.

Update: As noted by MacRumors, Apple’s form to request a free copy of Mountain Lion for new Mac owners is already live on the company’s website. After entering details about your purchase, personal details, and the serial numbers of your new Mac, Apple sends two emails —one with a password protected redemption code and another containing the password— to open it. The redemption code is not yet working in the Mac App Store.

Apple previously confirmed, when it unveiled the new Retina MacBook Pros and refreshed Mac lineups, that Mountain Lion would be available for free to those who purchased a Mac after June 11 through the Up-to-Date program. Since then, Apple has updated its website to confirm the free copy will be available to new Mac owners for 30 days from the release date, which will likely be sometime after tomorrow’s Q3 earnings call. Those who purchase a new Mac following Mountain Lion’s release will also have 30 days to claim their copy on Apple’s website.

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Target offering $25 gift card with new iPads, $20 on iPhones. Best Buy has everything Apple on sale.

Jordan Kahn Jul 13 2012 - 2:15 pm PT

We have seen a lot of third-gen iPad deals recently in 9to5Toys offering the entry-level 16GB model, for instance, in the neighborhood of $460 to $470, approximately $30 to $40 off the normal retail price. Those deals usually go quick, but one big retailer plans to offer a similar deal this coming week. Starting July 15, Target will offer a free $25 gift card with the purchase of any iPad 2 or new iPad. The deal will last all week until July 21, and, as always, Target REDCard users can get an additional 5 percent knocked off their purchase, giving the iPad 2 an effective price of $355. New iPads will start at $450 with the discounts. Find a location with stock here.

Target will advertise the deal in its flyer this weekend, we are told, which features a number of Apple products on its cover (pictured above). Other deals include the 16GB iPhone 4S discounted slightly to $179, a free $20 gift card for the 8GB iPod touch priced at $195, and a free $10 gift card for the 8GB iPod nano at $129.

Additionally, this week Best Buy knocks a few bucks off of just about every Apple product in its catalog.

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Etch-A-Sketch Protective Case for iPad 2 / New iPad for $23 + $6 s&h (9to5toys.com)
HHI Re-Elegant Stand Case for New iPad for $10 + $3 s&h (9to5toys.com)
Convertible Flip Case For Apple iPad 2 / New iPad w/ $2 credit for $14 + $3 s&h (9to5toys.com)
Chicken or the Egg? ‘iPad Mini’ schematics conveniently appear on web after purported molds leak (9to5mac.com)
Refurbished Acoustic Research Dock for iPad or iPhone for $40 + $6 s&h (9to5toys.com)
BenchPrep coupon: 85% off prep courses for iPhone, iPad, Android, more (9to5toys.com)
Refurb AT&T Zero Travel Charger for iPhone, iPad, iPod for $1 + $2 s&h (9to5toys.com)
Purported ‘iPad mini’ case mold surfaces, apparently thinner than current iPad (9to5mac.com)

Twitter reveals how it painstakingly overhauled mobile Web client [Photos]

Élyse Betters Jul 11 2012 - 1:11 pm PT

: Small Crop of Targeted Devices

: Design Team at Work

: First Pass on Samsung Corby

: Redesign Sketches

: Before and After Redesign

Twitter recently released an update to its mobile effort, and rival client Tweetbot followed the frenzy by making its public alpha for Mac available today, but the microblogging service is not ready to share the limelight.

Coleen Baik, a designer at Twitter, took to the network’s blog this afternoon to fully detail how it meticulously overhauled mobile.twitter.com.

“We had about nine weeks to design, prototype, develop, test, and calibrate mobile.twitter.com for launch. There were a handful of challenges we took on,” wrote Baik.

A few of the challenges included:

Support more than 13 different browsers on thousands of different devices, each with their own rendering idiosyncrasies
Accommodate input methods with dissimilar requirements
Build layouts with pre-CSS3/HTML5 standards
Optimize for browsers with javascript turned off
Scale gracefully from resolutions as small as 240 by 240 pixels all the way up to widescreen views on the desktop
Minimize page sizes for slower networks
Make it look and feel like Twitter, even without images.
Pave the way for even more feature consistency with other twitter.com clients

The design team sketched plans for primary views and navigation, “fleshed out details like the Tweet anatomy and interaction flows for tasks like tweeting, searching, and writing direct messages,” and then delved into HTML/CSS wireframes. They even collaborated with Twitter’s mobile engineers to “build out main views like ‘Home,’ ‘Connect,’ ‘Discover,’ and ‘Me.'”

Twitter eventually tested three different versions across 300 devices before making a final decision. After two months of work, the pristine version finally rolled out earlier this week. It immediately met a slew of positive responses.

“Change is always difficult because it means, among other things, having to relearn what was once comfortable and familiar,” Baik contended. “But we hope that the initial pains of readjustment quickly lead you to appreciate this faster, more comfortable and easier-to-use mobile.twitter.com on feature phones and older browsers.”

Visit the Twitter Blog for the entire redesign breakdown.

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How to add a USB Blu-ray player to your Mac for $42

9to5 Staff Jul 2 2012 - 7:06 am PT

With 1080P hitting the new iPad and Apple TV a few months ago, and the new Retina MacBook Pros now reaching people’s hands, some of you are perhaps now looking to send your Blu-ray collection over to Apple devices.

Here is the easy part: Buy a Toshiba Lightscribe Blu-ray Player for just $42 with free shipping (via 9to5Toys) in white or black. It also burns DVDs, and Lightscribe media will even do some art on the cover. Oh, and it is USB bus-powered, so it is nice and portable.

Toshiba advertises it as “Mac compatible,” but we all knew that the late and great Steve Jobs viewed Blu-ray as a “bag of hurt” from the “mafia.”

So, the hard part is getting Blu-rays to your Mac…

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Smug Alert: Orbitz shows Mac users higher priced hotels by default

Jake Smith Jun 25 2012 - 10:05 pm PT

The Wall Street Journal reported that travel-recommendation website Orbitz discovered that those of us who own a Mac are spending as much as $20 to $30 more a night on hotel rooms than PC users on average. That is a whopping 30 percent difference, and the smart folks over at Orbitz are looking to take advantage by changing what listings they show Mac users.

According to the WSJ, Orbitz has a new platform that tracks its visitors habits to recommend a room to match their spending habits, which can be oh-so expensive for those who own a Mac. The company is currently experimenting with a platform that shows hotel rooms matching a Mac user’s spending taste a little better, but Orbitz executives stressed that it is not showing the same room to different people for a different price. For example, the WSJ found listings for a Baton Rouge hotel room were 13 percent more expensive on a search from a Mac compared to a PC. In essence, Mac users are shown the nicer rooms.

(Update: UK retailler Tescos is taking it one step further)

In a Forrester research note released last October, the firm noted that Mac users are falling into the “power laptop user” range, or people who work 45 hours a week on average and have a solid 44 percent more income. They put it: “Most of the Macs today are being freewheeled into the office by executives, top sales reps, and other workaholics.” I certainly think that stands true, because owning an Apple product is an expensive investment. The lowest priced Mac laptop costs $999, which certainly is not cheap and not something everyone can buy. Despite the high price, you are buying a quality product.

To be clear, Orbitz is not putting an “Apple Tax” on the price of hotels. It is just defaulting the higher-end stuff to Mac users, because Orbitz believes Mac users are more likely to choose higher-end hotels.

It is a risky strategy and may put some people off, however. Moreover, as Mac users, it is very easy to get smug about something like this. But does it make good business sense?

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Apple pushes iOS 6.0 Beta 2 OTA update to developers (Update: Video of spinning gears and changelog)

9to5 Staff Jun 25 2012 - 10:10 am PT

Not available yet on Apple’s Dev site, developers are pinging us that a 299MB -iPhone4S/322MB iPhone 4 update is available for iOS 6 via OTA update.

“WOW, when you Download and Install 6.0 Beta 2 OTA, the Settings Icon Animates!”

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuaDOtjil30]

Apple also updated Xcode 4.5 developer preview 2, Apple TV beta 2 as well.

We will look for interesting changes, but do not be shy at tipping us (tips@9to5mac.com) if y’all find anything interesting.

Update: the OTA got a much more official looking screengrab, and the changelog has been posted to Dev center (below):

[tweet https://twitter.com/markgurman/status/217312366608646146]

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Apple softens its language on Virus susceptibility in wake of Flashback trojan

Jordan Kahn Jun 25 2012 - 9:13 am PT

After Apple released a patch to a Java vulnerability that lead to the infection of roughly 600,000 Macs with the Flashback Trojan earlier this year, there were claims weeks later from security researchers that hundreds of thousands of Macs were still infected. Kaspersky’s CEO claimed Apple is “now entering the same world as Microsoft has been in for more than 10 years.” Now, as noted by PCWorld, Apple appears to be publicly changing its longstanding stance that “it doesn’t get PC viruses.” The statement on Apple’s “Why you’ll love a Mac” website now reads: “It’s built to be safe” (as you can see in the comparison screenshots above).

Another statement on the website switched from “Safeguard your data. By doing nothing” to “It’s built to be safe.” Following the Flashback incident, Kaspersky claimed in April that Apple is “ten years behind Microsoft in terms of security,” and he “expects to see more and more” malware on Macs.

Cyber criminals have now recognised that Mac is an interesting area. Now we have more, it’s not just Flashback or Flashfake. Welcome to Microsoft’s world, Mac. It’s full of malware….Apple is now entering the same world as Microsoft has been in for more than 10 years: updates, security patches and so on,” he added. “We now expect to see more and more because cyber criminals learn from success and this was the first successful one…. They will understand very soon that they have the same problems Microsoft had ten or 12 years ago”

Kaspersky: Apple is ten years behind Microsoft on security (9to5mac.com)
Kaspersky analyzing Mac OS X security at Apple’s request (9to5mac.com)
Kaspersky: 30,000 Mac users left infected with Flashback, more Mac malware on the way (9to5mac.com)

Arizona’s iStores close up shop as another Apple reseller bites the dust

9to5 Staff Jun 20 2012 - 4:07 pm PT

Liquidation sale

Apple Stores are an unmitigated success. Unfortunately, that is bad news for those who sold Apple products before the stores came along. Yet another Apple retailer is closing this month, as Arizona’s iStore Owner Steve Walker told patrons on its website.

Walker cites an unfair playing field provided by Apple:

“We had a lot of fun over the years working so closely with the Apple product and loyal Apple product users. Unfortunately, since the introduction of the Apple Corporate Stores in 2001, dealers have continually struggled with fair inventory allocation by Apple along with a horribly uneven playing field in relation to the independent’s ability to service our customers in the same way the Apple Stores are able to provide service. As an example, Apple will swap iPhones, iPads, iPods and oftentimes Macs that are not functioning properly, but do not provide the ability for Independent’s to offer the same level of service. These problems existed even though iStore has consistently met all metrics as measured by Apple to be a distinguished and high-performing Apple Specialist and AppleCare Premium Service Provider. For these reasons and others, I have made the tough choice to close our stores.

The note on the website is pasted below:

To Our Many Valued Customers and Friends,

We have enjoyed assisting you with all your Apple needs over the past 17 years here in Arizona. I feel blessed to have been able to provide for my family while being entangled in all the cool Apple products. Over the years, I have had the privilege of working with some of the most talented Apple people around – those who have helped you with everything from your complex issues to your simple problems or helped you figure out exactly which Mac, iPod or iPad was right for you.

With the gradual opening of what is now 5 corporate Apple Stores here in the Phoenix area and corresponding changes at Apple with their reseller relations, Apple has made it nearly impossible to sustain profitability while providing great customer service. As many of you have experienced (most recently with the 3rd Gen iPad), Apple consistently withholds product from their independent dealers while providing abundantly to their own corporate Apple Stores. For this reason and many others that would take too long to enumerate and, quite frankly, you probably don’t care about, we have chosen to permanently close our stores.

As is the case with all businesses, we have made our fair share of mistakes. We could have done better at many things. If you were ever caught in the crossfire of those situations, I hope you were made whole by us (except the crazy ones like that guy that expected us to give him a refund for a product he purchased at our competitor’s store).

I thank you for your kindness, tolerance, patience, humanity, business and friendship over the years.

Sincerely,

Steve Walker

President

iStore

The question is: Should Apple have some compassion for retailers that have been with Apple for decades? Or is this just part of business?

Did Apple just give every one of its retail employees a $4 raise? (Update: Nope)

Jordan Kahn Jun 18 2012 - 8:44 am PT

Update: BusinessInsider issued the update below confirming our doubts:

Correction: An earlier version of this story said that all Apple Store employees were getting a raise of at least $4 per hour. This is what we were told by a single source at an Apple Retail store. But other Apple Retail store employees say this is not true. It is possible that only employees at one store are getting raises. We don’t know the full story, and we never should have written a story that indicated we did. It was an overreach, and we sincerely apologize for misleading readers.

While we find it a little hard to believe, BusinessInsider reported that a source said all Apple retail employees would receive a $4-per-hour raise starting July 20:

A source tells us that every Apple retail employee will get a $4-per-hour raise… This is based on an internal review process called NetPromoter that lets Apple employees critique the company… It seems that enough Apple employees thought they were underpaid that the company decided to spread some money around.

It is definitely possible that some retail employees will get the $4 raise, but we will wait for confirmation from Apple about all of its nearly 30,000 retail employees seeing the increase in pay. We talked to four different Apple employees from varied locations, but they have not heard anything about a raise. We previously reported that Apple’s recently appointed Senior Vice President of Retail John Browett has promised retail employees a three month advance on raises originally expected in September. We will keep you updated.

Related articles

Apple’s new retail chief announces three-month advance on employee pay raises (9to5mac.com)
Apple’s first Swedish retail store coming to NK Mall in Stockholm (9to5mac.com)
Weekend Reading: The Apple Experience by Carmine Gallo [excerpt] (9to5mac.com)

Thunderbolt Software Update 1.2 may lead to boot failure

Élyse Betters Jun 12 2012 - 12:47 pm PT

Apple released Thunderbolt Software Update 1.2 yesterday, but recent reports indicate the update is causing a host of issues for some users.

The Cupertino, Calif.-based Company said the update “adds support for the Apple Thunderbolt to Gigabit Ethernet Adapter,” but many have apparently discovered boot failures and other related problems like kernel panics, stalled boot screens, or “unexpected error” notices following installation.

According to threads in a few Apple discussions, the differentiating results all seem to leave Macs unusable. Fortunately, TidBits heard that reinstalling Lion fixes the complication. The website also claimed reinstalling the Mac OS X 10.7.4 Combo Update will remedy the situation.

Go to TidBits for more information on correcting this allegedly faulty software update.

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Tim Cook: We’ve sold 2.7M Apple TVs this year

Jordan Kahn May 29 2012 - 7:19 pm PT

Live from the D10 conference in California, Apple’s CEO Tim Cook just noted onstage that the company sold 2.7 million Apple TVs in just the first few months of this year. The last time we received official numbers from Apple, it reported 1.4 million units for Q1 and sales of just 2.8 million for the entire previous year, which means Apple is on track to double its Apple TV sales this year. Cook’s comments, as reported by The Verge:

Tim: You know, very uncharacteristic of us, we’ve stayed in the Apple TV product. We’re not a hobby kind of company as you know. Our tendency is to do very few things. And, if something creeps in and isn’t a big success, we get it out of the way and put our energies on something else. Apple TV though, you see what we’ve done. We’ve stuck in this. It’s not a fifth leg of the stool. It’s not the same size as the phone or Mac or tablet business. But last year we sold a little less tan 3m Apple TVs… This year, just in a first few months, we’ve sold 2.7m… This is an area of intense interest for us…

Forrester: Apple’s TV distinction could be portability (9to5mac.com)
Reminder: Tim Cook appearing as opening speaker at D10 conference tonight (9to5mac.com)
Tim Cook met with lawmakers in Washington to strengthen relationship and “open up a line of communication”, last week (9to5mac.com)
Fortune Cover: How Tim Cook is Changing Apple (by turning it into a traditional company) (9to5mac.com)

Coda 2 and Diet Coda for iPad bring a new level of web development to Apple developers (May 24)

9to5 Staff May 21 2012 - 1:17 pm PT

Update: Coda 2 is $49.99 at the Mac App Store now (half off today only) and Diet Coda is now available as an iPad App for $9.99. [iTunes]

Panic, the makers of Coda, a popular development platform for web developers, just announced a new $9.99 iPad version and a second version of its Mac software. The demo videos (here and here) look delish.

The software will land May 24 and be available through the App Store for both platforms.

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Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer sends brochure to Cupertino neighbors inviting feedback on new ‘Campus 2’

Seth Weintraub May 19 2012 - 5:42 am PT

Apple is currently involved in an outreach program to new neighbors in its planned “Campus 2” area. A brochure was mailed this week to residents surrounding the new campus that provided information and invited feedback in a variety of ways. Although the project seems to be a big win for the city of Cupertino, some residents voiced concern about the added traffic and other changes to the area.

We obtained a letter from one of Apple’s new neighbors—here are the takeaways:

Campus 2, as it is currently called, will not replace the 1 Infinite Loop campus. Instead, it will provide “research facility” office space for an additional 13,000 employees, which is more than 3,000 than 1 Infinite Loop. There is also 300,000 feet of expansion space for future growth.

Campus 2 will attain LEED certification and will have no manufacturing or heavy industrial activity onsite. Apple has and will continue to take extra steps to reduce auto use by employees. Moreover, the roof of the main building is a huge solar array.

Campus 2 will not open to the public, so there is no museum or corporate store. :(

The “world class” auditorium located at the very southern tip of the new campus will host product launches and corporate events.

The corporate fitness center/recreation center will be located to the north west of the main circular building in a separate structure.

Infinite Loop will remain the official corporate HQ, so top executives will likely stay behind.

Apple intends to break ground as soon as Cupertino approves the changes (scheduled for later this year), with plans to start occupying the space in 2015.

Neighbors can fill out the postage paid response card or go to the Cupertino.org website with comments, questions, or concerns.

Apple’s late CEO Steve Jobs originally presented the idea of the campus in June (video below) during his last public appearance that occurred a day after the 2011 WWDC.

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Intel plans to make chips Apple ‘can’t ignore,’ for iOS devices, says CEO [Video]

Élyse Betters May 14 2012 - 9:00 am PT

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gV8Nhh6l_20]

Intel’s CEO Paul Otellini wants to make his company’s silicon “so compelling” that Apple will use it in iOS devices.

The chief made these comments during a Q&A session at Intel’s annual investor day in Santa Clara, Calif., Thursday. Otellini was frank when discussing Intel’s potential to manufacture chips that Apple cannot ignore (video clip above):

“Our job is to ensure our silicon is so compelling in terms of running the Mac better or being a better iPad device, such that as they [Apple] make those decisions they can’t ignore us.”

The full story is at Forbes, or watch more Intel 2012 Investor Meeting webcasts [here].

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Kaspersky analyzing Mac OS X security at Apple’s request

Jordan Kahn May 14 2012 - 7:18 am PT

Following a breakout of malware on Mac OS X that some experts estimated could have infected up to 600,000 Macs, research firm Kaspersky made claims late last month that Apple was 10 years behind Microsoft in terms of security, while claiming roughly 140,000 Macs were still infected. Today, Kaspersky CTO Nikolai Grebennikov confirmed with Computing that the company has begun researching the security of OS X at Apple’s request:

“Mac OS is really vulnerable… and Apple recently invited us to improve its security. We’ve begun an analysis of its vulnerabilities, and the malware targeting it… Our first investigations show Apple doesn’t pay enough attention to security. For example, Oracle closed a vulnerability in Java, which was a target for a major botnet several months ago… Apple blocked Oracle from updating Java on Mac OS, and they perform all the updates themselves. They only released the patch a few weeks ago – two or three months after the Oracle patch. That’s far too long… This botnet, which the security community identified, is a huge sign that Apple’s security model isn’t perfect…

Grebennikov continued by claiming he expects to see similar issues with malware making its way to iOS devices over the coming year; although, none has been discovered:

“Our experience tells us that in the near future, perhaps in a year or so, we will see the first malware targeting iOS.”

Kaspersky: 30,000 Mac users left infected with Flashback, more Mac malware on the way (9to5mac.com)
Kaspersky: Apple is ten years behind Microsoft on security (9to5mac.com)
Oracle finally releases first Java Developement Kits for Mac OS X (9to5mac.com)

You can now buy an iPad from the Apple Store for $279 and an iPad 2 for $319

9to5 Staff May 7 2012 - 11:59 am PT

From 9to5Toys.com:

Apple today lowered the prices of its refurbed iPads across the board. The Original iPad 16GB Wifi is now down to just $279. Meanwhile, iPad 2s are down to starting a base price of just $319, a price drop of $30 over previous $349 clip. Higher capacity iPads are dropped as low as $50 over prices set when Apple debuted the new iPad in March.

One reason for a drop could be Apple’s move to a “new iPad 2” with increased battery life due to its more efficient processor which may be worth more than a $50 premium at #499.

It is going to be hard to find an excuse not to get mom that white iPad 2 now, isn’t it?

MacRumors has the full list of reductions, below.
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Rumor: Apple HDTV looks like a Cinema Display with iSight and Siri says anon source

Seth Weintraub May 7 2012 - 8:35 am PT

Continuing a long string of recent exclusives that quote un-named sources, CultofMac today claims that someone who saw the Apple HDTV says it looks like a bigger Cinema Display with an iSight camera and Siri, according to the post.

We are filing this one somewhere between the infamous Steve Jobs eating rice pudding post and….

Analyst: Apple could use ‘iTV’ moniker for HDTV, partner with carriers for programming (9to5mac.com)