San Francisco

• AAPL Company
• iPhone
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• Smartphones

Apple’s product photographer interviewed

We remember Peter Belanger from pioneering iPhone photography for magazine covers in 2010. Turns out he is now doing regular photoshoots for Apple and often uses a Canon 5D Mark III with a the 24-70mm lens. He gave the Verge some insight on what its like to use the bigger camera for the most demanding clients in the world.

Belanger is the man behind some of Apple’s most iconic product images, a San Francisco-based product photographer at the top of his field. Apple is but one of his clients — he’s done work for everyone from eBay and Nike to Pixar and Square — and we sat down with Peter to talk about his work, his background, and some very, very expensive gear.

• AAPL Company
• Apple News
• Apple Retail
• retail
• San Francisco

Apple rumored to open first retail store in Berlin, new Castro St. San Francisco location

Two new reports today provide some intel on Apple’s future retail store plans. First, a report from SocketSite (via sfist.com), citing a “plugged-in tipster,” claimed Apple is eyeing an old Bank of America building at 400 Castro Street and the corner of Market for a new San Francisco retail store:

The word on the street is a 50% jump in rent was to blame for effectively chasing Diesel from their 400 Castro Street location at the corner of Market. And if a plugged-in tipster is correct, Apple has their sights set on the space with plans to develop the old Bank of America building into an iconic Apple Store which would be the fourth in San Francisco.

Apple also plans to open its first retail store in Berlin in the capital’s upscale shopping district known as Ku’Damm, according to a report from Bloomberg that cited “a person with knowledge of the plan.” We had first heard reports about Apple acquiring the location over a year ago, while job listings for the new location appeared in March.

@9to5mac Berlin is definitely in build. Opening should be in march.

— Dennis B. (@brennholzverlei) January 29, 2013

Bloomberg confirmed previous rumors today that the new Berlin store will indeed be located in a former movie theatre at Ku’damm 26:
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• iOS Devices
• iPhone
• Apple News
• Apple Retail
• iPhone 5

Apple releases Lightning to Micro USB adapter for Europeans

The Apple Store has come back online following Apple’s media event that just wrapped up in San Francisco. We’ve gotten a look at several smaller products from Apple, and we’ve found one more. For the Euro-folk, Apple has released a Lightning to Micro USB adapter, available for £15.00 and shipping within three days. Presumably the fine men and women of Cupertino have made the adapter available to comply with certain regulations regarding the Micro-USB standard. [Apple Store]

Catch up on our iPhone 5 event liveblog from earlier this afternoon or hit up or iPhone 5 hub for the latest.

• AAPL Company
• Apple News
• Steve Jobs
• iPod
• San Francisco

Walter Isaacson reflects on The Genius of Steve Jobs in Smithsonian Magazine cover feature

Author of the Steve Jobs biography Walter Isaacson has penned an exclusive piece for the upcoming September issue of Smithsonian magazine titled, “How Steve Jobs’ Love of Simplicity Fueled a Design Revolution”. For the piece, Isaacson reflects on tapes of Jobs speaking at an Aspen Design Conference in the early 80s, which Isaacson also made mentions of in the official biography. An audio recording of Jobs speaking at the 1983 International Design Conference in Aspen is available here, and an excerpt from Isaacson’s lengthy piece in Smithsonian Magazine’s September “Style and Design” issue is below:

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• Apps
• iOS
• iPhone
• App Store
• San Francisco

Apps & updates: Readdle 5th anniversary sale, Amazon Mobile, Dead Trigger, HopStop, more

Today’s list of apps and updates hitting the App Stores kicks off with a huge sale on Readdle apps to celebrate the publisher’s fifth anniversary. As always, we will update the list when more apps hit the store.

Readdle 5th anniversary sale: Readdle, a premier productivity application developer for iOS, has begun a major sale for its suite of popular productivity App Store software. The company is doing this sale in celebration of its fifth-year anniversary as a company. The sale begins today and will run for the next 48 hours. The folks at Readdle created a new web page that describes their work and success so far. It is an interesting read for both other app developers and app users. Here are the discounts:

Scanner Pro: $6.99 to $1.99

PDF Expert: $9.99 to $4.99

Remarks: $6.99 to $0.99

Calendars: $6.99 to $1.99

ReaddleDocs: $6.99 to $0.99

PrinterPro: $6.99 to $1.99

PDF Converter: $6.99 to $1.99

Shakespeare Pro: $9.99 to $1.99

Amazon Mobile version 2.0.0: Amazon’s universal mobile app for shopping through Amazon.com received a notable update that includes the ability to utilize the “Subscribe & Save” option at checkout to get 5 percent to 15 percent off purchases. You can also now shop by department.

HopStop version 2.0: The popular iPhone app that provides subway and bus directions and transit maps for NYC, Boston, Chicago, San Fran (and elsewhere) was just updated with an all-new design that includes interactive route overview maps and built-in compass functionality, “station-to-station schedule search,” and much more.

Dead Trigger version 1.1.2: Madfinger’s latest title has been getting a ton of praise from game reviewers lately, and it received a huge update today that brings tons of new weapons, upgrades, gadgets, zombies, and environments. A full list of new features and fixes is below:

New weapons: Chain Saw, Lewis Machine Gun, Marine Engine with blades and American West Rifle

*New gadget: Head-Flator X100 to inflate the heads of zombies to XXXL size!

*New zombies: mutated mobsters or armoured SWAT members

*New environments: underground car park or secret research base

*Survival arena, that is tailor-made for massacre of hordes of zombies

*Daily rewards

*Casino: try your luck with a slot machine

*Save game data with cloud backup

☣ Bug Fixing

* Revive Kit (cooldown, number of usage during mission)

* Crash in Menu when too many missions were “available”

* Booster “Ammo Supply” did not working properly

⋆ Crash in GameCenter code

⋆ Various fixes in missions and graphics

☣ Tweaks

* Enemy AI

* Aiming on crawling enemies when enabled iron-sight

* New Hope accessible after first mission

* Shop ( items with zero owned pieces, etc. )

* Damages caused by mines, deactivated turret, cutters, exploding barrels that did not injure enemies on higher ranks

☣ Weapons, Gadgets, Upgrades

* Decrease price of various items

* Decrease required ranks

* Damage tweaks, etc

• AAPL Company
• iOS
• iPhone
• Facebook
• Google

Facebook snatches up Mac and iOS developer Acrylic Software

Mac and iOS developer Acrylic Software just announced that Facebook has acquired it. Founder Dustin Mcdonald unveiled the news on Acrylic’s blog:

• Our Next Project: Facebook
• I’m happy to announce today that we’ve packed up our small Vancouver studio and will be making the move to San Francisco in the coming weeks to join the design team at Facebook.
• For the past four years, we’ve worked tirelessly on creating truly awesome products with a focus on innovation and great design, and I’m incredibly proud of the work we’ve been able to accomplish during that time. Our flagship apps, Wallet and Pulp, have been used and loved by hundreds of thousands of people around the world. Building these products has been a fun and exciting ride, but the time has come to move on to newer and bigger challenges.
• Facebook is an invaluable service that we all use daily, and a company I believe is one of the most innovative and important around today. After visiting late last year, I discovered that we shared many of the same core product design goals and principles, and it soon became obvious that it was a natural fit. Simply put, there’s an opportunity at Facebook to have a big impact in many people’s lives. More importantly, Facebook is full of extremely talented people who will be able to help realize its full potential in the years to come.
• Our products and services have not been acquired by Facebook, and while there are no plans for further development on them, Wallet and Pulp will continue to remain available for download and purchase in their current form. We’ll certainly be the first to let you know of any updates or changes here in the future.
• A special thanks to all of our customers and supporters who have helped us grow and build the best products possible throughout the last four years. We wouldn’t have been able to do it without you.
• Dustin MacDonald
• Acrylic Software

Acrylic Software is located in Vancouver, Canada, and its most notable products include Pulp and Wallet. Pulp presents news feeds in a clean, fresh UI for easy scanning through headlines, previews, and photos on a Mac or iPad, while Wallet allows users to track their sensitive information, such as web passwords, software license keys, credit card numbers, also on a Mac or iOS device.

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• AAPL Company
• iPhone
• Apple News
• Verizon
• San Francisco

Verizon extends 4G LTE to 33 new markets, touts more coverage than competitors combined

Verizon Wireless plans to expand its 4G LTE coverage tomorrow to 33 new U.S. markets. The carrier will then boast 337 LTE markets, which places it ahead of competitors by a wide margin, and it hopes to reach 400 total by the end of 2012. Verizon also announced it is broadening coverage in 32 existing markets.

Check out the list below (via Verizon Wireless): 

• The 33 new markets: El Dorado/Magnolia and Russellville, Ark.; New London County, Conn.; Fort Pierce/Vero Beach and Melbourne/Titusville, Fla.; Columbus and Rome, Ga.; Burley, Idaho; Mattoon, Ill.; Anderson and Muncie, Ind.; Manhattan/Junction City and McPherson, Kan.; Lafayette/New Iberia, La.; St. Joseph, Mo.; Bozeman/Livingston, Kalispell and Missoula, Mont.; Goldsboro/Kinston, Roanoke Rapids and Rocky Mount/Wilson, N.C.; Zanesville, Ohio; Meadville and Punxsutawney/DuBois/Clearfield, Pa.; Orangeburg, S.C.; Sherman/Denison, Texas; Cedar City and Logan, Utah; Rutland/Bennington, Vt.; Lynchburg and Winchester, Va.; Bellingham, Wash.; and Beckley, W.Va.
• The 32 expanded markets: Mobile, Ala.; Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco, Calif.; Washington, D.C.; Fort Lauderdale, Miami and Sarasota/Bradenton, Fla.; Hilo, Honolulu and Kahului/Wailuku/Maui County, Hawaii; Blackfoot/Idaho Falls/Rexburg, Idaho; Peoria, Ill.; Indianapolis, Ind.; Wichita, Kan.; Baton Rouge, La.; Baltimore, Md.; Kansas City and Springfield, Mo.; Akron, Cleveland, Columbus and Toledo, Ohio; Allentown/Bethlehem, Harrisburg and Scranton/Wilkes Barre, Pa.; Columbia and Greenville/Spartanburg, S.C.; Provo/Orem and Salt Lake City/Ogden, Utah; Fredericksburg, Va.; and Seattle, Wash.

“With more markets than all other U.S. wireless providers combined, our customers are the first to learn of the great advantages of the Verizon Wireless 4G LTE network for streaming video, downloading files, uploading pictures and so much more, at consistently reliable fast data speeds,” said Verizon Wireless’ Chief Technical Officer Nicola Palmer.

Apple’s new iPad supports 4G LTE networks in the U.S. and Canada. The upcoming new iPhone is expected to feature LTE capability too.

This article is cross-posted on 9to5Google.

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• AAPL Company
• iOS
• Apple News
• Steve Jobs
• Google

Steve Jobs warned Yelp’s CEO not to sell out to Google

Steve Jobs once urged Yelp’s Jeremy Stoppelman to not go Google.

SFGate published a lengthy profile of Yelps’ co-founder and chief executive today, but one of the more interesting anecdotes concerned the late co-founder of Apple, of course.

According to SFGate:

• Jeremy Stoppelman was on a conference call with venture capitalists when an assistant slipped him a note: “Steve Jobs is on the line.”
• Stoppelman quietly left the room at Yelp headquarters in downtown San Francisco. It was January 2010, and Google wanted to buy Yelp, the online, crowd-sourced review site. On the phone, Jobs urged Stoppelman, who revered the Apple chief as a visionary, to “stay independent and not sell out to Google.” Jobs was not a fan of Google and had accused the search giant of stealing Apple’s smart-phone and tablet technology.
• “At that point, we had already turned down Google,” Stoppelman said. “But Steve liked Yelp and wanted to make sure about Google. It was a moment where I said, ‘This is crazy. What just happened?'”

The CEO further admitted that he received another flooring phone call this spring when his company went public. Apparently, President Barack Obama ringed to congratulate Yelp on all of its successes since founding in 2004.

Yelp’s continuous upswing shows no signs of stopping, either. Senior Vice President of iOS Software Scott Forstall even demoed Yelp on Apple’s new Maps app during the opening keynote at the Worldwide Developers Conference last month. The check-in integration is slated to debut in iOS 6.

So, it appears Jobs may have had ulterior motives when warning Stoppelman about the repercussions of a Google acquisition—surprise, surprise.

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• AAPL Company
• Apple News
• San Francisco
• Cupertino California
• Government

Report: Feds second-guess buying Apple comps

The city of San Francisco stopped purchases of some Apple products after the company announced it planned to forgo an environmental rating system, but a new report indicates federal officials might refrain from buying Cupertino-built computers as well.

According to Politico, which cited a “governmental source,” federal officials familiar with sustainability issues are thinking twice before procuring Apple’s computers. The feds met yesterday to discuss the matter, and the website’s source further claimed the officials will “seek a meeting with Apple soon.”

Politico explained:

• Last week, Apple decided to stop using an environmental certification program, the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool run by the Green Electronics Council, a Portland, Oregon-based nonprofit. EPEAT was developed through a stakeholder process supported by the EPA.
• The EPEAT rating system is used to monitor a computer’s environmental impact throughout its lifecycle, including the end of its use. The program is used by governments, enterprise, universities, health care and other large institutions to make purchasing decisions.
• Federal procurement decisions for fiscal 2013 are being made now, the government source said. Federal officials are worried that the government’s efforts to buy environmentally friendly products will be set back, the source said, adding, “Apple’s competitors are looking at this and saying if they can get away with this maybe we can too.”

The Green Electronics Council said in a statement on the EPEAT website that it “regret[s] that Apple will no longer be registering its products in EPEAT. We hope that they will decide to do so again at some point in future,” while Apple told The Loop recently that it “takes a comprehensive approach to measuring our environmental impact and all of our products meet the strictest energy efficiency standards backed by the US government, Energy Star 5.2.”

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• iOS
• Tech Industry
• Microsoft
• San Francisco
• iPhone 4S

Microsoft unveils Windows Phone 8

Microsoft’s Windows Phone Summit is happening now in San Francisco with Microsoft Vice President Joe Belfiore giving a demo on eight of the big new features to be included in Windows Phone 8. Some of the notables, as highlighted in the images above, include: a new SIM-based NFC wallet experience that will initially launch on Orange (and it appears to include iOS 6 Passbook-like features for third-party cards, etc.); Nokia Map technology for offline maps and turn-by-turn; and, an updated customizable home screen. During the presentation, Belfiore also showed the slide above (via CNET) of SunSpider benchmark results showing IE 10 on Windows 8 beating out the iPhone 4S (running iOS 6 beta—Developer NDA be damned) and Android devices.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about Microsoft’s strategy is that it is—yet again—totally refreshing. That means no single Windows Phone 7 device will upgrade to Windows 8; all current devices are orphaned. For consumers, the company did this same thing with Windows Mobile. The only difference is that Windows Phone 7 looks like Windows 8. It is a completely new ballgame underneath, and the device is actually running an entirely new OS that gets its roots in Windows NT. For developers, things are easier due to the shared libraries.

• AAPL Company
• iOS
• iPad
• Apple News
• Google

Report: For every 7 iOS apps built, there are 3 for Android

Analytics firm Flurry has dissected developer ratios for Apple and Google’s mobile platforms as their respective annual conferences are on the horizon, and research findings show the two companies boast a joint market cap of about $750 billion.

The study compared developer support for iOS versus Android by examining data collected from more than 70,000 companies across more than 185,000 mobile apps. The bar graph below illustrates developers’ loyalty to Apple: For every 10 apps that developers build, seven are for the iOS operating system.

“While Google made some gains in Q1 2012, edging up to over 30% for the first time in a year, we believe this is largely due to seasonality, as Apple traditionally experiences a spike in developer support leading up to the holiday season. Apple’s business has more observable seasonality,” explained Flurry in a blog post.

Flurry further cited iOS as the more attractive platform to developers due to its stronghold on the tablet market share. The pie chart below represents a sample size exceeding 5 billion total user sessions. It reveals the Galaxy Tab and Amazon Kindle Fire “hold very distant second and third places in terms of consumer usage.”

Another comparison on revenue generated by top apps for both Android and iOS uncovered the difference in revenue generated per active user is four times greater on iOS than Android. Flurry noted that for every $1 earned on iOS, a developer could expect to earn about 24-cents on Android.

Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference is June 11 to June 15 in San Francisco, while Google’s I/O conference is June 27 to June 29 in the same California tech-hub city.

Visit Flurry for the full run-down and more graphs.

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