News

Near-record closings aside, Friday’s closing high represents a $26.78 gain since August 25th, the first day of trading after Steve Jobs announced he had stepped down as CEO from his company. That represents a 7.2% gain in approximately three weeks, an impressive feat for any stock, but even more so considering the angst that had…

Energizer has introduced the Dual Universal USB Charger for autos and the Dual Universal USB Charger for wall outlets. Both let the user charge two small USB powered devices at the same time. The new Dual Universal USB Charger plugs into any auto cigarette lighter outlet and offers two USB ports, so that you can…

In the after hours-session, the stock was trading at US$24.08, down $5.46 (-18.48%). In the chart below, you can see that the stock traded in a narrow band throughout the day, and then dove off a cliff in the after hours session. After hours trading historically represents a more exaggerated reaction to both good news…

The Flash Tally so FarWindows 8 is the next major version of Windows, and it’s scheduled to be released in 2012. Part of the point of Windows 8 is to deliver a more or less unified operating system and experience to tablets and PCs, all in one fell swoop. Unified or not, however, the company…

Sharp’s Galapagos: Almost extinctSharp plans to discontinue its 5.5-inch and 10.8-inch Galapagos tablets on September 30, but will continue to sell the 7-inch model in Japan, according to the Wall Street Journal.The company had hoped its tablets would pose a threat to Apple’s market dominance with the iPad, but consumers failed to find the devices…

The new Dual Universal USB Charger for wall outlets plugs into any live wall outlet and offers two USB ports so that you can recharge two of your USB powered devices at the same time. It works with most devices, meaning it will not recharge an iPad. The charges measures 2 x 2 x 2-in…

Abhey Lamba Interviewed on Bloomberg The central premise of Mr. Lamba’s research note was to compare the Walt Disney Corporation of the 1960s when Walt Disney lost its founder to the Apple of today, whose cofounder Steve Jobs stepped down as CEO in August. Mr. Lambda noted that Disney’s stock continued to perform very well…

The new Dual Universal USB Charger from Energizer, plugs into any auto cigarette lighter outlet and offers two USB ports, so that you can recharge two of your USB powered devices at the same time. It works with most devices, meaning it will not recharge an iPad. The charger is three inches long and two…

Office 2008 12.3.1 updated Entourage’s timezones feature to match Outlook 2011, and fixed language display issues for Word Help.Office 2011 14.1.3 also addressed display issues in Outlook, fixed stability issues in Excel and PowerPoint, and corrected a display issue with citations in Dutch.The Office 2008 12.3.1 and Office 2011 14.1.3 updates are available through in-app…

In addition to extended battery life, the company showed off a prototype of a computer running off of a solar cell the size of a postage stamp. The figure below shows both the prototype and the intense interest in that prototype. Intel Prototype Computer Running on a Solar CellSource: Intel(Click the image for a larger…

Apple moves to stay patent lawsuits with MotorolaThe agreement Google and Motorola have as part of the merger, according to Foss Patents, limits Motorola Mobility’s ability to defend its patents. Because of those restrictions Motorola Mobility doesn’t have the right to sue, argue Apple’s lawyers.“Apple should not have to face the threat of an injunction…

At issue is whether Apple would seek to leave the so-called antennagate controversy behind by completely dropping the form factor of the iPhone 4, at least that was the way some reports were couched back when anyone still cared about the issue of Apple’s external antenna design. This would have made the iPhone 4 the…

Along with Apple, the lawsuit also names Google, Yahoo!, and Facebook.The patent (6,687,745) describes a “system and method for delivering a graphical user interface of remote applications over a thin bandwidth connection,” and was filed in 2000.Droplets sells its own product called Droplets User Interactive Server for delivering Web and network-based applications, and lists companies…

We should note right at the top that Adobe is not announcing (or delivering) Flash support on iOS devices. Apple has chosen not to support Flash on its mobile devices, citing a variety of issues centered around performance and battery life. Instead, Apple supports HTTP Live Streaming, which is what YouTube and other video streaming…

The San Jose Mercury News reports that the Mayor of Cupertino, Gilbert Wong, has been told that the company expects to begin working on Apple Campus 3 when Apple Campus 2 is completed in 2015. The location of this third campus is unknown at this time, except that it is intended for Cupertino. Apple’s Proposed…

News that the Internet search company is open to buyout offers came courtesy of anonymous insider sources, according to the Wall Street Journal.Ms. Bartz lost her job as the company’s performance continued to decline and revenue from a deal she brokered with Microsoft for search ads never met expectations. In that deal, Ms. Bartz gave…

QuickBooks 2012 targets user needs, not Windows feature parity“Most of our [Mac] users are service businesses and small businesses,” QuickBooks for Mac group product manager Pranay Kapadia told The Mac Observer. “So we’re giving them the features they’ve been telling us they want.”The new version of QuickBooks includes a new setup assistant and a setup…

The job could be one of the most high stress positions at Apple. According to the description, “The candidate will be responsible for overseeing the protection of, and managing risks to, Apple’s unreleased products and related intellectual property. The individual will collaborate with other security managers by contributing to, and managing execution of, strategic initiatives…

Don’t Cross the Streams Apple, earlier this week, released an iTunes beta to developers that included “Scan and Match,” the service that scans a users music library, matches it to music it’s already got stored in the cloud, then makes it available for multiple computers and iOS devices for US$25 a year. All of that…

In his letter to the NYT, Bono stated:As a founder of (Product)RED, I’d like to point out that Apple’s contribution to our fight against AIDS in Africa has been invaluable. Through the sale of (RED) products, Apple has been (RED)’s largest contributor to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria — giving tens…

I don’t know about you, but being a fan of Apple, I’ve grown accustomed to feeling good about companies I do business with. I like companies that earn my business with products I like, then treat me well as a customer. I’m not feeling that about Google these days.1. Google+ as National Identity Service. For…

In a similar case, a truck valued at over $51,000 (US) was discovered missing. The owner activated the tracking feature on their iPhone and called police with the location where the truck was found inside a barn. An arrest was made. In another iOS-involved case, a man had his iPad stolen. He activated the MobileMe…

The version 1.6 for Angry Birds Seasons added 30 new levels, a special mooncake level, and support for Mighty Eagle level helper.Angry Birds Seasons is priced at US$0.99 for the iPhone and iPod touch, or $1.99 for the iPad. The update is free.