According to Fortune magazine, Apple, Oracle, Cisco, as well as energy and pharmaceutical firms want to convince lawmakers to give them a one year tax holiday that would allow them to bring some $1 trillion back to the U.S. at a 5% tax rate, instead of the 35% those funds would be subject to today.…
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iPad Competitors? Send In The Clones
What is the deal here? Is there a complete dearth of creativity in hardware design these days? Has Apple hired up every designer with even a hint of originality, leaving the rest of the industry with soulless zombie hacks to pick over? Are there no CEOs with a vision and the guts to take a…
Rain Design Inc.’s Laptop Computer Stand Is Exceptional
The mStand by Rain Design Inc. is a laptop stand that works with 13, 15, and 17-inch Mac laptops. It’s made from a single piece of aluminum and weighs approximately 2.5 pounds which provides excellent stability. It is 5.9-in. at the highest point, 7.5-in, deep, and 10-in wide. There is a large hole on the…
The State of Browser Security: 2011
First, there are three security issues related to browsers to keep in mind. Intrinsic security. How well can a browser deal with malicious payloads coming back through port 80 that can either harm a system or install software that takes control? Such payloads bypass a firewall because it’s a valid return of an outgoing request…
Demolition Begins on Steve Jobs’s House
The house was designed and built for copper mining magnate Daniel Jackling (hence its name, the Jackling House) in 1925 by architect George Washington Smith. The home was built in Spanish Colonial Revival style, and was considered a local landmark by some in the community. Mr. Jobs purchased the property in 1984, where he lived…
Judge Dismisses Overheating iPad Lawsuit
“The Court concludes that these allegations are insufficient,” wrote U.S. District Court Judge Jeremy Fogel, according to Computerworld. “At the least, Plaintiffs must identify the particular commercial or advertisement upon which they relied and must describe with the requisite specificity the content of that particular commercial or advertisement.”The plaintiffs alleged the iPad “overheats so quickly…
Apple Supplier Sustainability Report Shows 24.5% More Audits
Audits – It’s Not Just the Taxman In 2009, Apple conducted 102 such audits, including 83 “first-time” audits at facilities that the company had not examined in the past. The other 19 audits were repeat audits at facilities previously visited by the company’s auditors. In 2010, Apple conducted a grand total of 127 audits —…
Nokia Taps Microsoft Vet for US Head
The move suggests that the world’s largest (but shrinking) cell and smartphone maker intends to have a very close relationship with Microsoft, and the company’s announcement of the post emphasized that Mr. Weber has 16 years of experience with his former company.
Apple Rounds Up GRAMMY Winners for iTunes Store
Since the iTunes Store GRAMMYs page includes nominees and winners, there’s a long and varied list of artists to check out. Some of the winners include The Suburbs for album of the year, Need You Now for record of the year, and Need You Now for song of the year, too. Train won a GRAMMY…
MobileMe Revamp to be Free, Include Cloud Music Service
The cloud-based iTunes storage will apparently support Internet-based streaming, giving users access to all of their music, video and photo content without needing to store everything on their iPod, iPhone or iPad. Storing iTunes libraries online will also free users from connecting to their computer to sync content.MobileMe may add new iTunes cloud featuresWhile the idea…
WSJ: Jobs is Still Running Apple
Unnamed sources told the WSJ that Mr. Jobs is participating in meetings via phone calls, and is taking some meetings in his home.Mr. Jobs “is continuing to work on are the next version of the iPad tablet computer, expected out in the next couple of months, and a new iPhone, expected to be released this…
Nokia Turns to Microsoft for Smartphone OS
Along with Windows Phone 7, Nokia will use Microsoft’s Bing search engine and Microsoft adCenter for in-app advertisements, and will merge its Ovi app store into Microsoft Marketplace. Microsoft promised to start using Nokia Maps for its location services, and will take advantage of Nokia’s customer billing services in regions where credit cards aren’t widely…
iSync plugins Adds Nokia E5, E7 Support
iSync plugins for Mac OS XiSync plugins lets users sync contacts and calendar data between their Mac and mobile phone models that Apple doesn’t natively support via its iSync application. nova media’s plugins add support for more than 250 different mobile phone models.iSync plugins is priced at €9.95, or US$11.84, and is available for download…
HP Hires Former Apple WWDC Boss
Word of Mr. Kerris’s new position first surfaced thanks to The Loop, and was later confirmed by MobileCrunch.During his time at Apple, Mr. Kerris also worked on the the iLife suite, along with the Final Cut Pro and Logic development teams.Mr. Kerris’s experience will come in handy at HP since he’ll be involved in helping…
Steve Jobs Spotted at Apple, Looking Good
Apple CEO Steve Jobs speaking at a media event in 2010Mr. Cross saw Mr. Jobs walking through Apple’s main lobby talking on his phone. Before he could get close enough to talk, Mr. Jobs was out the door where he hopped into a waiting car.The fact that Mr. Jobs was seen at the headquarters for…
Browsers Have Changed. Have You?
The most important thing to appreciate about a browser is how it serves the user. If the user has never had a security snafu or a compromise, a browser is likely deemed “good enough” and then the browser choice is based on other factors, such as look-and-feel, features, loyalty to, say, Apple and so on.…
Rumor: Apple Dropping Boxed Software from Retail Locations
Rumor claims boxed software on the way out for Apple StoresThe Mac App Store is Apple’s new online service where customers can purchase applications for their computer in the same way that they buy apps for their iPhone and iPad at the iTunes-based App Store.While the idea of offering customers software downloads instead of retail…
Canaccord Raises AAPL Target on Strong iPhone Demand
“Our monthly channel checks indicated continued strong sales of the iPhone 4, as it remained by far the top-selling smartphone at AT&T,” Mr. Walkley said. “Further, our checks indicated Verizon is planning for strong demand for the CDMA iPhone 4 launch scheduled for February 10 (this Thursday).”Verizon announced it would be carrying the iPhone 4…
LA Authorities Seize $10M Counterfeit iPods
Suspects caught in fake iPod schemeTwo brothers, Edward and Bahram Zahab, have been arrested as part of the investigation. The former was charged with three felony counterfeit goods sales counts, and the latter was charged with one count.The fake iPods and iPhones were smuggled into the country as parts where they were assembled and packaged…
Apple Maintains Movie Dominance, Loses Share [Update]
U.S. Movie Electronic Sell Through and Internet Video on Demand Movie Market Share Ranking in 2009 and 2010 (Ranking by Percentage of Total Consumer Spending) Source: iSuppli While Apple is technically competing in the movie electronic sell through (EST) and Internet video on demand (iVoD) businesses, a market that grew 60% in 2010, iSuppli said…
AOL to Buy Huffington Post for $315M
AOL plans to group all of its online news content, which includes Engadget, TechCrunch, The Unofficial Apple Weblog and several other companies, under a new umbrella called Huffington Post Media Group.AOL buys The Huffington Post“The new group will have a combined base of 117 million unique visitors a month in the United States and 270…
Apple, Adobe Hit Company with Software Piracy Suit
Apple doesn’t take kindly to software piracyAccording to the lawsuit, the company didn’t even attempt to make the software it was selling appear legit. “Notably, some or all of the infringing copies distributed by Defendant were in the form of burned (i.e., ‘homemade’) DVD+R and CD-R media, with the titles handwritten in marker,” the filing…
Motorola Super Bowl Ad Targets Apple Drones
The commercial is pushing the company’s Xoom tablet, the same tablet that Moto ostensibly pushed by lampooning the iPad in an earlier commercial touting Google’s upcoming Honeycomb release of Android OS. In the new piece, however, Motorola presents a lone Xoom user surrounded by a sea of attractive iPhone and iPad users – we know…