Year: 2012

‘Yep’ →

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Jim Dalrymple agrees with the aforelinked iMore report.

Remember kids, until Apple sends the invites, nothing’s official, no matter how certain things appear to be.

September 21 →

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Rene Ritchie at iMore:

iMore has learned that Apple is planning to debut the new iPhone at a special event on Wednesday, September 12, 2012, with the release date to follow 9 days later on Friday, September 21. This information comes from sources who have proven accurate in the past.

The iPad mini will be announced at the same September 12 event, as will the new iPod nano. We haven’t heard a release date for the iPad mini yet, but it could be the same as the iPhone 5. It seems likely the new iPod touch will make an appearance on September 12 as well, though we haven’t heard any specific information about that yet either.

University of Memphis Slashes School Paper Funding →

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Jody Callahan at The Commercial Appeal:

Backers of the University of Memphis’s student newspaper, The Daily Helmsman, are alleging the publication suffered a sharp cut in funding because of its controversial coverage of the campus.

A seven-member committee voted this spring to slash funding for the Helmsman by a third. Whether that action violated the First Amendment as several allege may be a matter for the courts; the claim is rejected by U of M administrators.

The budget cuts come after the paper reported on two alleged on-campus rapes, which knocked coverage of a Student Government Association event out of the paper.

The SGA and the Helmsman have a long history of disagreements, and the group had members on the committee that voted to cut the paper’s funding. According to Dean of Students Steve Petersen, some members voted for “zero” funding to go to the newspaper.

I can’t imagine the paper covering something like alleged rapes have the school happy. But according to the CA, University counsel Sheri Lipman doesn’t believe that to be true:

“There are no facts that support that conclusion,” Lipman said. “Be sure you have your facts before you print that. That would be an incredibly wrong thing for us to do as an institution.”

To deal with the cutbacks, the Helmsman is looking at cutting back the size and number of editions, as well as paycuts to student staff members. The newspaper is provided to students and the surrounding community for free, with ads making up the rest of the income.

As an alumni of both the University of Memphis and The Daily Helmsman, this whole thing leaves me pretty angry. The newspaper — like all publications — is protected under the First Amendment, and no disgruntled SGA board member, Dean of Students or university big shot should have the power to change that.

Mountain Lion Downloaded Three Million Times in Four Days →

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Apple PR:

Apple today announced that downloads of OS X Mountain Lion have exceeded three million in four days, making it the most successful OS X release in Apple’s history. With more than 200 innovative new features, Mountain Lion is the ninth major release of the world’s most advanced desktop operating system and is available through the Mac App Store as an upgrade to Lion or Snow Leopard users for $19.99 (US).

“Just a year after the incredibly successful introduction of Lion, customers have downloaded Mountain Lion over three million times in just four days, making it our most successful release ever,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing.

Mountain Lion is moving a little faster than Lion, which did a million downloads the first day and 76 days to hit 6 million downloads.

On Those Genius Ads →

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John Moltz gets it right:

It’s still a switcher-based game for Apple. In order to increase Mac sales, they have to get people to switch from Windows. Ads like these (if not necessarily these exact ads) are integral to the game plan.

Still, I can’t say the ads are great.

The First 48 →

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Ina Fried:

Thanks to its easy download and low price, Apple’s Mountain Lion appears on pace to be one of the most quickly adopted operating systems in history.

After just its first 48 hours on the market, Apple’s new Mountain Lion already accounts for more than 3 percent of Mac Web traffic, according to numbers provided to AllThingsD by Web tracking firm Chitika.

Boom.