apple

Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs was brought in to Yahoo as a sort of motivational speaker at a managers' meeting on Friday, according to GigaOm.

And what did he say? Basically, that like Apple in its troubled days, Yahoo has valuable assets and just needs to execute. Easier said than done.

Kara Swisher at The Wall Street Journal's All Things Digital blog writes that co-founder and Chief Executive Jerry Yang, at the same meeting, talked about the Yahoo ecosystem, which includes: "the building out of Yahoo's ad network, taking advantage of its 'consumer insights'; the creation of … Read more

I just stumbled across a startling statistic from an article in The Register: 20% of Microsoft Office sales this year are apparently for the Mac version, as AppleInsider confirms.

In fact, according to AppleInsider, "Despite having released just two versions of the productivity suite since 2000,...Microsoft has seen sales of Office for Mac rise about 72 percent from 2001 to 2006, compared with an increase of about 18 percent for Windows versions.

Granted, the Mac version is starting from a smaller base, but this is growth that Microsoft can't ignore.

It's been online for a few days now, but I just spotted (via PaidContent) Forbes' article titled The iFlop (subhead: "Steve Jobs tried to design--and dictate--the future of television. Here's how he failed.") Author Scott Woolley calls the Apple TV "a flat-out" failure, claiming that it's sold less than 250,000 units in six months. Among the supposed sins of the product: the lack of a built-in DVR and a "parochial and proprietary approach" to online video content. He also highlights a variety of on-demand video competitors, including Vudu, TiVo (via Amazon Unbox), and Xbox 360 (which offers rentals and sales of TV shows via the Xbox Live Marketplace)--while glossing over many of their shortcomings. Still, is he right? Is the Apple TV dead in the water? … Read more

The erratic play of the New York Mets appears to have spurred at least one city resident and iPhone owner on a perplexing quest for justice.

Dongmei Li, a resident of the borough of Queens, sued Apple earlier this week for "price discrimination" brought on by the $200 drop in the price of the iPhone announced earlier this month by Apple CEO Steve Jobs. Li names Apple, Jobs and AT&T as defendants in her suit, filed on Monday and spotted by AppleInsider.

The claims in the case make about as much sense to me, a long-suffering … Read more

Finally, the iPhone's first major update!

My optimism for this 1.1.1 update was muted as, after a couple of months of waiting, I was excited for the ringtone feature that has ultimately proven lackluster. If my iPhone is in my pocket, I honestly cannot hear the ringtone portions of songs I've picked - even the jarring ones! The only reason I know I'm getting a call is because of the vibrate feature. So, with yesterday's major update, I was cautious. It should follow, however, that the speaker adjustments in the 1.1.1 update … Read more

Having overseen Apple's carefully planned steps through the stock-options backdating mess, Donald Rosenberg's ready for a new challenge.

Rosenberg will resign as Apple's general counsel to take the same position at Qualcomm, the companies announced Friday. Apple is hiring Daniel Cooperman, Oracle's general counsel, to take his place effective November 1.

Qualcomm is giving Rosenberg a fancier title (executive VP, as compared with senior) and arguably a bigger legal challenge than Apple faced heading off stock-options investigators. Qualcomm, which controls almost all of the technology used in cell phone networking chips, is in the middle of … Read more

Apple's iPhone has been the source of most of the buzz on tech sites over the past several months, but let's not forget Apple is more than just a sweet touch-screen mobile phone company--Apple made its name with stylish hardware and intuitive software meant to take the complexity out of personal computing.

As a reminder to the iPhone maniacs (myself included), last Friday, Apple released its latest build of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. Early reports say it is a complete version that may be considered release candidate status. Oddly, Friday's release came on the heels … Read more

Well, you can't say they didn't warn you.

Apple released an update for the iPhone on Thursday that brings the Wi-Fi Music Store to the device, as well as several security fixes and enhanced features. But, as expected, it also turns iPhones that were unlocked to run on cellular networks other than AT&T's into little more than emergency call boxes.

Macworld reported two iPhones in its office with SIM (subscriber identity module) hacks did not work after the update was installed. A message prompted the phone's owner to install "an unlocked and valid … Read more