Category: Apple
Nightline: Apple’s Chinese Factories
Here’s a link to the ABC video from last night.
It’s sorta stunning to think about the company’s openness when it comes to this. I think other computer companies need to follow Apple’s lead on these issues.
Beatles Ringtones
Microsoft Denies ‘Office for iPad’ Release Rumors
The company told the NYT that the story was “based on inaccurate rumors and speculation. We have no further comment.”
Office for iPad is exactly what Microsoft should be doing, though. Ridiculous.
Mountain Lion in VMware Fusion
I can confirm that this works.
Nightline Goes to Foxconn
Apple promised complete access, no dog-and-pony, no Potemkin Village, but they denied my repeated requests to interview Apple CEO Tim Cook or the senior vice president of industrial design, Jony Ive.
In a three-golf-cart convoy, both Apple and Foxconn reps took us around to a half dozen production lines in Shenzhen and Chengdu, and there were always five to six people with us as we toured the factories and dorms. But aside from suggesting a visit to the counseling center or canteen, they never steered us to interviews and never interrupted.
On iTunes U
I stand by my earlier analysis that iBooks Author and iTunes U were the two most important parts of Apple’s recent education announcement. With iBooks Author, we now have a very simple way to make high-quality electronic texts for use in the classroom. It will be to course materials what Keynote was to presentations.
iTunes U is a massively powerful tool for running a classroom full of iOS devices. It’s extremely simple to use for teachers and the overhead of adoption is as close to zero as you can get: install iTunes U, upload some materials and post class messages and assignments as you go along.
On Fraudulent iOS Apps
Recently there’s been a dramatic rise in the number of fraudulent apps getting attention — even top sales positions — in the iPhone and iPad App Store. Some scam apps are copy-cats that duplicate as closely as possible the name and icon of popular games in order to confuse consumers and get them to buy a scam app instead of the real thing. This costs the consumer money for the scam app and developers money for the lost sale. Others scam apps appear to be byte-for-byte copies, stolen whole-cloth and offered for sale side-by-side with the original. This still costs the developer money for the lost sale, and while consumers get a functioning app, it’s likely not one with any support going forward. Still other scam apps rip off the copyright of a popular brand (like Pokemon) for bogus apps that do nothing but cheat customers out of their money.