Scott Forstall to Leave Apple, Other Executives Re-Shuffled⇢

Scott Forstall will be leaving the company in 2013 and will serve as an advisor to CEO Tim Cook in the interim. Eddie Cue is now over Siri, Maps, in addition to his previous work with the iTunes Stores, with Craig Federighi running both the OS X and iOS teams. Bob Mansfield will be running all wireless and semiconductor work.

(Interestingly, Apple’s release says the semiconductor team has “ambitious plans for the future.”)

Continue reading ⇢

Objective Endorsements⇢

Five newspapers partially-owned by Bain Capital have backed its co-founder Mitt Romney, and none have endorsed President Obama.

While that’s fairly damning, I really dislike that newspapers endorse candidates. Even though journalism professors would say that the Editorial and News departments are separate, that’s a hard thing to pull off in reality.

Continue reading ⇢

‘A Pain in My Chest’⇢

Ben Brooks, writing about his daughter’s recent surgery:

We knew the wait wouldn’t be easy, and as we waited for the 10 minute surgery to be completed we were both beyond stressed, nervous, and hopeful. It seemed like an hour passed. We got the call to head back, and when we came back to our daughter, who was screaming, it wasn’t a pleasant sight.

She was in pain and not around anyone that she knew. She was scared. It was a terrible sight for any parent.

Continue reading ⇢

Mini, Indeed

I have not gotten my iPad mini yet, but the Smart Cover I ordered showed up today. Here are two photos showing the size of it, compared to a notebook and the iPad 3:

Continue reading ⇢

Phil Schiller, on the Mac⇢

In an interview with Harry McCracken:

It’s always been about making the best Mac we know how. Among the many benefits are making it easy to use and affordable, with great features. This high level of integration is part of delivering on that.

And on Apple’s removal of the SuperDrive in modern Macs:

We find the things that have outlived their useful purpose. Our competitors are afraid to remove them. We try to find better solutions — our customers have given us a lot of trust.

Continue reading ⇢