While Apple doesn’t usually break out sales figures for individual products, during Tuesday’s conference call with analysts, Apple Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer went out of his way to say that the iPod touch itself did “extremely well in the quarter, growing more than 130 percent” compared to the year-ago quarter. In other words, while iPod sales in general fell 7.2 percent compared to last quarter, the iPod touch was selling like gangbusters.
Category: General Tech
Ex-Apple Employee Hired for Microsoft Stores
A key figure in achieving Apple’s ground-breaking retail store concept is now consulting with Microsoft on that company’s retail stores, the first of which are expected to open this fall. George W. Blankenship, 56, joined Apple in 2000, and his 20 years of experience as Gap Inc.’s vice president of real estate strategy helped fulfill the original concept developed by Apple Sr. V-P Retail Ron Johnson–position the stores at upscale, high-traffic locations to attract customers. As first reported by TechFlash, Microsoft has hired Blankenship to provide consulting services for its retail team, although the company refuses to say exactly what work he is performing. The consulting arrangement is probably meant to work around the non-competitive agreement (NCA) that Apple executives routinely sign when leaving the company. Much of the data that Blankenship might use to pick Microsoft store locations is held by third parties, so he won’t be handicapped by any NCA. As well, Blankenship’s assistance to Microsoft won’t create any peril for Apple, since after eight years of developing new Apple stores, the formula is hardly proprietary.
Google on Mobile App Stores
Vic Gundotra, Google’s engineering vice president and developer evangelist, said on Friday at the Mobilebeat conference in San Francisco that the future of the mobile industry lies in web-based applications, rather than native software coded to run on specific smartphone operating systems.
“Many, many applications can be delivered through the browser and what that does for our costs is stunning,” Gundotra was quoted in a Financial Times report. “We believe the web has won and over the next several years, the browser, for economic reasons almost, will become the platform that matters and certainly that’s where Google is investing.”
A Decade of Awful Tech Products
Every major tech site posts lists of the crappiest products released these from time to time, yet I never get tired of them. Here’s CNET’s most recent one.
One Way to Deal With Doubters
Check out this video of Buzz Aldrin punching Bart Sibrel after he claims Buzz never went to the moon.
[via Gruber.]
The Apollo 11 Tapes
NPR has a fascinating story about video footage shot on the moon during the Apollo 11 mission that was lost (possibly even destroyed) by NASA itself accidentally:
Lebar and others spent hours and hours in a vast government storage facility known as the Washington National Records Center, a place that Lebar compares to the giant warehouse at the end of the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark.
The search team combed through “racks of documents, tapes, all kinds of things from NASA and other agencies,” says Nafzger.
Another Microsoft "Me Too" Moment
Microsoft is planning to open the first of its planned retail stores next to existing Apple stores this fall.
Kevin Turner, Microsoft’s Chief Operating Officer, told partners the news during his Worldwide Partner Conference keynote on July 15. A number of attendees tweeted Turner’s words immediately.
Microsoft officials announced in February that Microsoft was planning to open retail stores but have offered few details since that time as to what the stores would look like or when they’d open. I did hear from some Softies that the stores wouldn’t be clones of Apple’s, and that they’d be more showcases than actual retail outlets.
iTunes Update Kills Pre Syncing
It has begun. With the release of iTunes 8.2.1 … Palm Pre syncing with iTunes is indeed kaput. At least on this Pre user’s Mac, iTunes sync isn’t working after the 8.2.1 update.
Not surprising, especially considering how vocal Palm was about this working in the first place.
Another Microsoft Ad
The Problem of Thin Clients
Google’s announcement of Chrome OS has brought the idea of the thin client back into focus. Simply put, a thin client is a computer workstation that runs very limited software—sometimes just a browser—to connect the user to a server (or the cloud) that does all the heavy-lifting.
Thin clients offer several advantages that make them a good solution in some cases. Thin clients mean cheaper hardware, lighter network traffic and a uniform user experience across machines.
OS 9 Gets New Browser
OS 9—killed off several years ago— has been almost forgotten. But almost.
Enter Classilla, a project to get a modern port of Mozilla’s browser running on OS 9:
Classilla is bringing back web browser support to your classic Macintosh – built on WaMCoM, a port of Mozilla to classic Macintosh systems, using the same technology underpinning the popular Firefox browser. It’s completely free and it’s open source, and it’s standards-compliant. Use it without cost or restriction; or, if you’ve got the skills, hack it and make it your own. Classilla brings your wonderful old Power Macintoshes back to life and back online.
TechRestore Records 3GS Disassembly
The best part? It’s in stop motion: