Apple CEO Steve Jobs and Google CEO Eric Schmidt were spotted and photographed drinking coffee Friday in Palo Alto, California.

“Photos of Schmidt and Jobs talking were snapped and sent to Gizmodo,” AppleInsider reports. “Jobs was in his trademark mock turtleneck and jeans at the cafe Calafia in the Town and Country shopping center. The establishment is owned by former Google chef Charlie Ayers.”

AppleInsider reports, “Jobs was overheard by the photographer as saying two things: ‘They’re going to see it all eventually, so who cares how they get it,’ reportedly said about Web content. And, ‘Let’s go discuss this somewhere more private,’ after a crowd began to gather around the two. The report said that Schmidt was mostly quiet and listening while Jobs did most of the talking.”

Continue reading “Steve Jobs and Eric Schmidt spotted drinking coffee in Palo Alto (with photo)” »

“My column last week on the new iPad’s IPS display drew a raft of invective from the Mac faithful, who seemed to feel I had treaded on sacred ground for daring to question the 10-hour battery life claims made by Apple CEO Steve Jobs at the iPad’s rollout,” John Breeden II writes for Government Computer News.

“While preparing my response, I also heard from Jobs himself, who personally, and politely, reiterated Apple’s assertion that the iPad will run for 10 hours on a single charge,” Breeden writes. “The iPad has yet to be released, of course, so the jury’s still out, but Jobs’ personal note does, I think, lend credibility to the claim.”

“As I was finishing this column, I e-mailed him to say that I didn’t mean to imply that he was lying during his iPad presentation, as several people accused me of in their comments,” Breeden simpers. “People make presentations written by marketers all the time that are not 100 percent truthful, and it doesn’t make them liars.”

Breeden writes, “I told him I looked forward to testing it out in the lab soon. And I’m more hopeful than ever that Apple really has done something special with their new tablet. (It’s also worth noting that Jobs actually uses the iPad — at the bottom of the e-mail was the tagline “Sent from my iPad.” Nice to see he walks the walk, too.)”

Full article here.

“When Steve Jobs personally called Woodstock, Georgia native Louie Sulcer to tell him he’d won Apple’s iTunes Store 10 Billion Song Sold contest, Sulcer first thought was that he was being pranked,” Daniel Kreps reports for Rolling Stone.

“‘He called me and said, ‘This is Steve Jobs from Apple.’ I said, ‘Yeah right. I have a son that loves to play tricks and he does that every now and then — calls me and imitates somebody.’ After three or four times of asking ‘Come on now, who is this,’ Sulcer realized that his caller ID read simply ‘Apple,’ and only then did he believe that he was the winner of the contest and a $10,000 iTunes card,” Kreps reports.

Full article, in which Kreps reports that Sulcer was “unaware that Apple was even having a contest celebrating their 10 billionth purchase,” here.

“Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs said his company has to ‘think big’ and its $40 billion cash hoard offers flexibility, suggesting that he had no immediate plans to spend the money on a share buyback or dividend,” Gabriel Madway and Alexei Oreskovic report for Reuters.

“Faced with questions at the annual shareholders meeting over what Apple would do with its cash — which stands at about one-fifth of its market capitalization — Jobs said having the money at hand offers security for the company,” Madway and Oreskovic report. “‘When you take risks, it’s like jumping in the air. When they don’t work out, it’s nice to know the ground is always there,’ the chief executive said.”
Continue reading “Think Big: Apple CEO Steve Jobs says Apple’s massive cash horde reserved for bold moves” »

“Steve Jobs was reportedly wearing a top hat when he visited New York publishers last week. It’s a fitting lid for the Apple CEO, who can be as tricky as a magician,” Brian X. Chen writes for Wired. “Jobs has a knack for throwing off Apple watchers with his masterful misdirections.”

“Ever wonder why analysts and journalists grossly overestimated the price of the Apple tablet prior to its official announcement? Part of the reason is that Jobs had said during a 2008 earnings call that Apple could not make a $500 computer that was not a ‘piece of junk.’ That assertion lent credence to rumors that the tablet would cost $1,000,” Chen writes. “Oops. The entry-level iPad announced in January will cost: $500, at least at the low end of scale. Presumably Jobs doesn’t consider it a piece of junk.”

Chen writes, “What follows is a list of five more famously misleading quotes that Jobs pulled from his bag of tricks.”

• No Plans to Make a Tablet (iPad)
• Not Interested in the Cellphone Business (iPhone)
• People Don’t Read Any More (e-reader)
• No Movies on a Tiny Little Screen (video iPods)
• We Don’t Need to Add New Stuff (camera in iPod touch)

Full article here.

Source: MacDailyNews

“Publishers joining Apple’s iBooks store [sic] are turning their back on Amazon and its vision of the flat $US9.99 ebook,” Matt Buchanan writes for Gizmodo.

Buchanan continues, “Apple forced the music industry to charge 99 US cents per song, so why are they helping publishers set their own prices? To screw Amazon.”

“The difference between Amazon and Apple is this: Amazon is very much in the ebook business to sell ebooks.. Apple, on the other hand, sells content in order to sell hardware,” Buchanan writes.

“At this moment, Amazon owns ebooks. The book publishers’ fears are the same as the record labels with iTunes: They’re paranoid about losing control over pricing, and their own digital destiny. They’re worried that books are being undervalued, and that once people have the mindset that the price of an ebook is $US9.99, and not a penny more, they’re doomed,” Buchanan explains. “They needed an insurgent player: Apple.”

Continue reading “Why and how Apple killed the $9.99 e-book” »

“When Apple recently booked the cellar dining room at Pranna for a talk with 50 top executives from The New York Times, even restaurant higher-ups didn’t know who their VIP guest would be,” Daniel Maurer reports for New York Magazine. “But last night [Wednesday, Feb. 3], Jobs came strolling in wearing what our source calls ‘a very funny hat — a big top hat kind of thing.’”

Maurer continues, “Our source says Jobs, who sat at the head of the ‘intimate, family-style gathering’ with Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger, demonstrated the iPad and its functions, and spoke about how it could serve the future of media.”

“As we’ve reported before, Times executives are wary of forging an exclusive contract with the Apple tablet, though they are moving forward with finding ways to charge for online usage,” Maurer reports.

Read more in the full article here.

Source: MacDailyNews