Microsoft is selling Scroogled gear. From The Verge: Microsoft’s anti-Google “Scroogled” campaign has been quietly attempting to convince consumers to avoid Google services for the past few months, but it’s back today with a vengeance. Microsoft has dedicated an entire section of its online store to selling anti-Google mugs, hats, t-shirts, and hoodies. The prices […]
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Microsoft kills stack ranking
The Verge: Microsoft is killing off its controversial stack-ranking system today.1 While it could be viewed as an internal change that won’t affect consumers directly, it will have a broad effect on current and future Microsoft employees that may just shape the future of the company. For years Microsoft has used a technique, stack ranking, […]
WSJ: Apple Finds Surprising Growth Market in Japan
Oh boy. Where to start? I suppose at the beginning: In the past two years, Japan has emerged as Apple’s fastest-growing region, far outpacing its home market and the booming economies of Greater China and the rest of Asia. Japan is also home to Apple’s biggest profit margins, and the only one of Apple’s five […]
Intel seizes their opportunity
Intel has reportedly agreed to produce ARM chips for Altera: At the ARM developers’ conference today, Intel partner Altera announced that the world’s largest semiconductor company will fabricate its ARM’s 64-bit chips starting next year. An announcement that sent shockwaves throughout the technology industry as Intel is desperately trying to break ARM’s supremacy in the […]
Apple hires Burberry CEO as SVP of Retail
Techcrunch: Today the company announced that it is appointing Angela Ahrendts, currently the CEO of Burberry, as its SVP of retail and online stores. This is a new position at the company that will report directly to Tim Cook, and it takes effect in the Spring of 2014. At the UK-based fashion house, she is […]
Not so Fast on that Apple TV SDK
Dan Frommer is sure an AppleTV App Store is on the way: Apple TV owners just got a bunch more channels: Vevo, the Weather Channel, more from Disney, and Smithsonian. This follows a recent update that added HBO Go and ESPN apps, and represents a continued acceleration of new content being added to Apple TV. […]
Apple Celebrates 5 Years of App Store With Free App Promotion
Macstories: Ahead of the App Store’s fifth anniversary on Wednesday, July 10, Apple has launched a new promotion that includes five “groundbreaking” iOS apps and five “landmark” iOS games; these apps will be available for free for a limited time to celebrate the first five years of App Store. Apple has posted an official page […]
From my Inbox: GarageBand is a bad example
A reader counters yesterday’s note on GarageBand: I think especially GarageBand is a bad example, because in the realm of Music and Audio apps there seems to be a thriving business with lots of much, much more capable and (all in all) much better apps (not in breadth, but in depth) – with higher prices […]
From my Inbox: GarageBand and sustainable businesses
I got some great feedback on yesterday’s post about Apple and sustainable apps. I wanted to highlight one email in particular.1 A reader writes: Another way of framing the situation is by contrasting iOS hardware and OS releases against App Store monetization options. Hardware (CPU, graphics, RAM, display resolution) and iOS (APIs and frameworks) have […]
Steve Jobs at Macworld Boston in 1997
The keynote for Macworld Boston, August 6, 1997, was pretty bizarre by today’s standards. The first speaker was Colin Crawford, President and CEO of Mac Publications for IDG, who put on the conference. He proceeded to recount all of the dire headlines surrounding Apple. This made an appearance: It wasn’t pretty. Jobs was next. Gil […]