Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) currently has a market value of$219.10 billion. Dell Inc. (DELL) has a market value of$25.32 billion.

Add them both together and Apple is worth more than Microsoft and Dell combined, $244.77 billion vs. $242.42 billion, respectively.

Now, let that headline percolate around in your brain and roll it off your tongue a few times – it’s really quite satisfying.

Congrats, Apple, for a job well done! Congrats, Jobs, for an Apple done well!

“The company, its leader, and its products have become cultural lingua franca,” Manjoo writes. “Dell wants to be the Apple for business; Zipcar the Apple for car sharing. Industries such as health care and clean energy search for their own Steve Jobs, while comedian Bill Maher says the government would be better run if the Apple CEO were head of state. (The Justice Department and FTC, which are both investigating Apple’s tactics, might disagree.)”

Manjoo writes, “This shorthand is useful but tends to encourage a shallow notion of what it takes to emulate Apple. And Apple doesn’t delineate the key factors of its success. Those principles are more closely guarded than its product pipeline.How does one become the ‘Apple of [insert industry here]?’ After speaking with former employees, current partners, and others who have watched Apple for many years, it’s clear that the answers center around discipline, focus, long-term thinking, and a willingness to flout the rules that govern everybody else’s business. It’s an approach that’s difficult to discern and tougher to imitate. But everyone wants to give it a try. Here, then, is our report on the Apple playbook.”

10 lessons from the coolest company on earth:
• Go Into Your Cave
• It’s Okay to Be King
• Transcend Orthodoxy
• Just Say No
• Serve Your Customer. No, Really
• Everything Is Marketing
• Kill the Past
• Turn Feedback Into Inspiration
• Don’t Invent, Reinvent
• Play by Your Own Clock

Full article here.

Source: MacDailyNews

“Pocket-lint’s source says,’We would welcome the opportunity to work with Apple to bring mobile video calling not only to our many millions of Skype users on iPhone around the world, but also to the countless more making video calls on desktops, TVs and other connected devices,’” Aimonetti reports.

“Clearly the ability to video call from Skype-enabled computers to iPhone 4 (and vice versa) would certainly be advantageous to all users involved,” Aimonetti reports. “This would also make the FaceTime functionality on iPhone 4, which is currently restricted to Wi-Fi, seem much more robust.”

Full article here.

Source: MacDailyNews

Let’s review the events in Apple-land over the past few months, shall we?

1. An Apple engineer either leaves an iPhone 4 prototype, or has one lifted from him, in a beer garden

2. Said iPhone 4 prototype gets plastered all over the world, taking away a meaningful measure of excitement from Steve Jobs’ planned reveal

3. During Jobs’ big unveiling of the already-unveiled, the Wi-Fi is so saturated by bloggers’ WiFi networks that he can’t do his demos properly, if at all

4. Apple has no backup plan in place for such a predictable situation

5. Beyond this point, I won’t even mention issuing the Safari 5 press release claiming immediate availability and then not having the pages or the download online for two hours (we’re used to that move from minor league iPod case makers, not Apple)

Perhaps Jobs is getting a bit soft as he grows older. Maybe he’s not banging heads even when heads beg to be banged?

Those four items above are silly, stupid, utterly predicable mistakes. That’s not the Apple, under Jobs at least, with which I am familiar…

Read more in the full article, with the opportunity to comment, over in our Opinion section here.

Source: MacDailyNews

“Diners can peruse the dishes and see a picture of what the dish looks like along with tasting notes before compiling their order and sending it wirelessly to the kitchen,” Fenech reports. “The iPad menu can also suggest the best wines to go with certain dishes and suggest the best food pairings.”

Fenech reports, “When ordering steak, users can even specify how they’d like the meat cooked and which sauce they’d prefer. It will even ask them if they’d like fries with that.”

Full article here.

“Using the Safari browser, users can pan around a 360-degree view of the entrance to Apple’s iconic Fifth Avenue store in New York City, watch an embedded trailer for the forthcoming film ‘Tron’ and manipulate scale and perspective, or flip through a gallery of photos,” Oliver reports. “‘Every new Apple mobiledevice and every new Mac — along with the latest version of Apple’s Safari web browser — supports web standards including HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript,’ the website reads. ‘These web standards are open, reliable, highly secure, and efficient. They allow web designers and developers to create advanced graphics, typography, animations, and transitions. Standards aren’t add-ons to the web. They are the web. And you can start using them today.’”

Oliver reports, “Seven different sections of content highlight the capabilities of HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript.”

Full article here

.

“Customers around the world are experiencing the magic of iPad, and seem to be loving it as much as we do,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO, in the press release. “We appreciate their patience, and are working hard to build enough iPads for everyone.”

iPad allows users to connect with their apps, content and the Internet in a more intimate, intuitive and fun way than ever before. Users can browse the web, read and send email, enjoy and share photos, watch HD videos, listen to music, play games, read ebooks and much more, all using iPad’s revolutionary Multi-Touch™ user interface. iPad is 0.5 inches thin and weighs just 1.5 pounds—thinner and lighter than any laptop or netbook—and delivers up to 10 hours of battery life.

Developers have created over 5,000 exciting new apps for iPad that take advantage of its Multi-Touch user interface, large screen and high-quality graphics. iPad will run almost all of the more than 200,000 apps on the App Store, including apps already purchased for your iPhone or iPod touch.

Source: Apple Inc.