Year: 2012

On Apple’s Plans for Big Ben

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Roland Greenfellow at Scoopertino:

For starters, Sir Jony Ive himself will redesign Big Ben to reflect Apple’s superior aesthetic sensibilities. The stodgy 153-year-old landmark will soon be covered by a shroud —and when that shroud is removed on June 1, 2012, Big Ben will display time, date, weather and battery status.

Yes, battery status. Once the aging guts of Big Ben have been removed, there will be ample room for Apple to install a large lithium-ion battery. In the event of a power outage, Apple promises that renovated landmark will continue to function for up to seven days.

$2,319,515,000

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From Apple’s 2012 Proxy SEC filing Statement:

In 2011, Mr. Jobs’s compensation consisted of a $1 annual salary. As of the end of 2011, Mr. Jobs owned approximately 5.5 million shares of the Company’s common stock. Since rejoining the Company in 1997, Mr. Jobs had not sold any of his shares of the Company’s stock. Mr. Jobs held no unvested equity awards. The Company recognized that Mr. Jobs’s level of stock ownership significantly aligned his interests with shareholders’ interests.

As Dustin Curtis points out, Jobs really did believe in what Apple was doing, and was willing to bet on it, big time.

via MG Siegler

Ubuntu TV Announced

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Paul Miller:

The surprise was ruined, but Canonical is indeed bringing a TV to CES. But it’s not about hardware just yet: Ubuntu TV is a brand new derivative of Ubuntu, with a full-in TV-optimized UI inspired by Unity, and full-on media center and DVR features. There’s a movie, TV and music store, a YouTube app, and of course it’s all optimized for a lean-back remote experience. The software will be free for manufacturers to package with their TVs, and Ubuntu says there will be TVs on shelves by the end of the year.

It can’t be worse than Google TV, right? Right?!

St. Jude Turns 50

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Marlo Thomas:

There came a moment in my father’s career when he said to himself, “I’ve made it. I’ve got everything I need. Now it’s time to give back.” This would eventually come to mean years of tirelessly building his dream — a research hospital dedicated to the study of cancer in children, where no child would ever be turned away for a family’s inability to pay. And what a reality that dream has become. Fifty years after its launch, St. Jude is the premier research and treatment center in the country for children stricken with cancer.

Thank God for Danny.

NASA Launches Open Source Projects

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NASA:

Today we are launching code.nasa.gov, the latest member of the open NASA web family. Through this website, we will continue, unify, and expand NASA’s open source activities. The site will serve to surface existing projects, provide a forum for discussing projects and processes, and guide internal and external groups in open development, release, and contribution.

via The Verge