Ultimate Apple

Filed under: Hardware

Google’s purchase of a firm staffed with former Apple employees is surrounded by mystery, according to AppleInsider. Agnilux is a small San Jose startup founded by a few former Apple employees, most of whom left the mothership right around the time of the P.A. Semi acquisition.

Other than that, nothing is known about the company. And I mean nothing — the NYT’s Bits blog even tried to do a drive-by of what they were up to, and came up with bupkis. It’s probably something processor-related, but whatever it is, Agnilux is guarding it so closely that they won’t even talk abstractly about what they’re working on, for fear that someone will “take our intellectual property before we’re ready.” The closest NYT gets is “some kind of server.”

Google has purchased the company, for a (surprise) undisclosed sum. What do they want with it? We have no idea — Google already knows their way around server architecture, and it certainly seems like they’re a little late to start installing new processors everywhere. Conspiracy money says that they really just wanted a nice chunk of Apple — if that’s the case, then with Agnilux on the payroll, they probably got what they wanted.

TUAWGoogle buys firm of former Apple employees originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 22 Apr 2010 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
















Google – PaSemi – Agnilux – Apple – Unofficial Apple Weblog

More: continued here

In a large-scale environment, you may have no choice but to authenticate your Macs to Active Directory. This process is generally pretty smooth, but the big annoyance for me was having to give my credentials every time I wanted to print to our Windows print server.

More: continued here

London newspaper the Evening Standard reported a very interesting rumor following Apple’s quarterly financial report Tuesday. According to the British paper, Apple is in talks with ARM Holdings, the U.K. company that designs the chip used in the iPhone, along with a huge percentage of the chips found in mobile devices in general.

More: continued here

Filed under: iPad

Virginia Campbell, a 99-year-old woman from Lake Oswego, has finally bought her first computer — an Apple iPad. “It’s changed her life,” one of her daughters told OregonLive.com. Virginia has been an avid reader most of her life, but she suffers from glaucoma, making reading increasingly difficult.

Because of the iPad’s ability to adjust the brightness of the page and to increase the font by simply tapping, Virginia has been able to take up her beloved past-time again. Not only is she reading again, she’s writing again too. So far she has composed twelve limericks on her iPad, including this little ditty:

To this technical-ninny it’s clear
In my compromised 100th year,
That to read and to write
Are again within sight
Of this Apple iPad pioneer.

Here’s to you and your technological wonder, Virginia! We hope to read many more of your limericks well into the future.

Thanks to Ian for sending this in.

TUAW99 year-old loves her first computer — an iPad originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 22 Apr 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
















Unofficial Apple Weblog – IPad – Apple – Virginia – Technology

More: continued here

Filed under: Apple Corporate

Remember “I would shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders” and “the future of Apple looks like Silicon Graphics”? How about “doomed to fail?” Remember “The Mac market is ending?” Good times, good times.

You’ve come a long way, baby. VentureBeat notes that as of today’s market close, Apple’s total market valuation passed Microsoft’s. Apple is now #2 on the US list after ExxonMobil.

Update: Looking at the valuations, as of the close Apple is still behind by quite a bit. Not sure where VB’s numbers are coming from, but we’ll find out.

Update 2: Looks like MarketWatch ran incorrect numbers at the close today, which is where the erroneous info came from. Apologies to all.

Disclaimer: I have a small, long-term position in AAPL.

[via Techmeme]

TUAWCigars all around: AAPL closing in on MSFT originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 22 Apr 2010 16:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
















Apple – Unofficial Apple Weblog – Macintosh – Microsoft – Silicon Graphics

More: continued here

Filed under: iPad

I love clocks. My house is filled with different digital and mechanical clocks. I’ve always loved the Alien Clock, and I have an Atmos Clock I picked up on eBay a few years ago.

Now a nice designer clock has made it to the iPad and today only it is free to commemorate Earth Day. click.clock HD presents a striking display of time as the digits rotate around the screen. You can tap the screen and get iTunes controls. To skip from one track to another, drag your finger to the left or the right. Tapping and holding the screen will dim the clock, and if your are connected to external power the iPad auto-lock is disabled and you have a nice animated clock to display on your desk or a table. The clock works in either portrait or landscape mode.

Negatives? I’d like to see an alarm clock function. I was surprised the Apple clock app didn’t make it over from the iPhone. I liked the world clock, and the alarms on the Apple app. Even the timers were handy.

Remember, click.clock HD is free today only in honor of Earth Day. Grab it if you ‘have the time.’

TUAWDesigner clock for iPad available free for Earth Day originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 22 Apr 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
















Apple – IPhone – IPad – Unofficial Apple Weblog – Earth Day

More: continued here

Prior to the launch of the iPad bloggers started thinking about how convenient the slate might be for blogging. I wouldn’t want to use the iPad as my only blogging tool, but I admit I am finding it more useful than I thought it would be.

More: continued here

Filed under: iTunes

Apple has announced dates for the 2010 London iTunes Festival. The festival will run every night in July this summer. Sixty artists will be performing over thirty-one days at Camden’s Roundhouse in London. The first three nights will feature performances from Scissor Sisters, Tony Bennett and Ozzy Osbourne.

Tickets to the shows are only available for free via competitions. Apple will be giving away 25 pairs of tickets for each showing. The entry form for the competition is here. Users may apply for as many of the gigs as they’d like. Those who can’t make the festival can still watch highlights, read the latest news, and see behind-the-scenes photos on the event’s Facebook and Twitter pages. All performances will also be recorded and sold on the iTunes Music Store worldwide.

[via 9to5]

TUAWApple announces dates for iTunes Festival London 2010 originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 22 Apr 2010 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
















Facebook – Unofficial Apple Weblog – London – iTunes – Apple

More: continued here

Filed under: App Review

Developer Hawken King sent along an e-mail this morning about his new Facemakr application. After watching the video, which I’ve included here, I decided to give the software a try. Facemakr, which is featured in the App Store as a Social Networking tool, lets you create custom avatars using an interactive face editor (which sounds like high-risk surgery).

The reason this caught my eye and made me want to give it a spin had nothing to do with social networking, however. My kids spend hours and hours creating Miis on our Wii gaming system. It seemed to me that Facemakr might offer the same sort of creative engagement.

So did it?

The problem with Facemakr is that whoever put this app together seems to have tested it on a simulator, using mouse input rather than on an actual iPhone and a big old screen to work with. As a rule of thumb, buttons should never be smaller than 44-by-44 pixels. The buttons in Facemakr are tiny. A single real-world fingertip easily covers three button choices.

The second problem is that the icon design is weak. When you use icons rather than words, the picture really need to be able to express themselves the first time they’re used, not the fifth, tenth, or hundred time after you learn what they mean. It’s all about recognition (a good thing) versus recall (a bad thing, forcing users to learn your system because your icons don’t work). Facemakr really needs better pictures (not to mention larger ones) because the beard icon looks like lips, the lips icon looks like an eye, the glasses icon looks like the letters “bd”, and the hair icon — well, a half circle really doesn’t scream out “hair” at first glance.

Facemakr has a good idea. I really love the concept behind it but I wish the execution lived up to that concept. It needs to be redesigned and, hopefully, upscaled to the iPad where the complex interface has a chance of matching real world physical human interaction limits, specifically finger sizes.

TUAW is commonly provided with not-for-resale licenses or promo codes to permit product evaluations and reviews. For more details, see our policy page. Promo code requests are not guarantees of reviews.

TUAWHands on with Facemakr for iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 22 Apr 2010 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
















AppStore – Unofficial Apple Weblog – Apple – IPad – iPhone 3G

More: continued here

Filed under: Apple Corporate

[This is officially the most times I have had to change a headline. -MR.]

Remember “I would shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders” and “the future of Apple looks like Silicon Graphics”? How about “doomed to fail?” Remember “The Mac market is ending?” Good times, good times.

You’ve come a long way, baby. VentureBeat notes that as of today’s market close, Apple’s total market valuation position on the S&P 500 index passed Microsoft’s. Apple is now #2 on the US list after ExxonMobil.

Update: Looking at the valuations, as of the close Apple is still behind by quite a bit. Not sure where VB’s numbers are coming from, but we’ll find out.

Update 2: Looks like MarketWatch ran incorrect confusing numbers at the close today, which is where the erroneous info came from. Apologies to all.

Update 3: Trust the WSJ to clarify matters. While Microsoft still has a larger full market value than Apple, the Standard & Poor’s index is “float adjusted market capitalization weighted” (gesundheit!), meaning that it is tracking the smaller number of shares actually available for public purchase, as opposed to the larger number tied up in instruments such as employee options. Based on that measurement, Apple has in fact pulled ahead of Microsoft, according to S&P’s Howard Silverblatt: “AAPL has an index market value of $241,534 million and MSFT has a market value of $239,515 million – AAPL is #2.” [Thanks Tim!]

Disclaimer: I have a small, long-term position in AAPL.

[via Techmeme]

TUAWCigars all around: AAPL catches MSFT on S&P 500 originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 22 Apr 2010 16:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
















Apple – Unofficial Apple Weblog – Macintosh – Microsoft – Silicon Graphics

More: continued here