It doesn’t exactly rival Moore’s Law, but Apple has doubled the number of iPhone app downloads in about half the time it took to reach 1 billion. But unlike the fanfare which attended the 1 billion mark, we don’t know who downloaded the 2 billionth app or what it was — and this time nobody wins anything.
Apple announced Monday in a brief press release that it the 2 billionth iPhone app had been downloaded. It didn’t say when, exactly, but it’s a little more than five months since the 1 billionth was retrieved from the iTunes Store cloud. And that was nine months after what is now the largest application store in the world first opened its virtual doors.
posts
Apple, on Going Green
But now, Jobs thinks the time is right to report on what Apple has accomplished. The company has finished a multiyear data-mining project to fully understand its environmental impact on the planet and has published data that may stir up controversy. Apple takes issue with studies that hand accolades to rivals such as Dell and Hewlett-Packard for cutting emissions at their facilities. Apple’s research suggests that those emissions make up only a small slice of a company’s larger environmental impact—a mere 3% in Apple’s case. Far more of the carbon footprint, he says—53%—is generated by Apple’s products. “Everyone focuses on whether you have motion detectors in the conference room” so the lights will go off when it’s unattended, says Apple Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook. “But making products cleaner involves real engineering. It’s about innovating, and it’s hard work.”
Apple Details Environmental Impact of Products
Apple recently published new information about the total environmental impact of their products — from manufacturing and usage to Apple’s own facilities:
And today’s 20-inch iMac uses 55 percent less material than its first-generation, 15-inch predecessor. That’s a material savings of 10,000 metric tons — the equivalent of 7200 Toyota Priuses — for every one million iMac computers sold.
The transparency is impressive, but the numbers are even more so.
MMS, Apple and AT&T Exclusivity
Still, the agreement has had its benefits (larger margins, more creative freedom, better coordination, less carriers to deal with), and if Apple can find a long-term monetary justification for extending the agreement with AT&T, it will. However, as it stands today, AT&T remains the iPhone’s biggest barrier to mass adoption, and Apple knows it. So does AT&T.
That’s why Friday’s MMS launch is so important. It may very well be AT&T’s last chance to prove to Apple that it deserves to renew its extremely lucrative exclusivity contract. If AT&T slows or crashes during the influx of MMS, AT&T will have dug itself into an even deeper perception hole. It won’t have another shot to prove that it can handle the stress that more iPhones will bring, and Apple would likely bow to customer pressure and strike deals with other carriers.
MMS on Friday
We know you’ve been eager for this service so we wanted to offer a quick update on the launch plans for MMS on Friday, Sept. 25. Late morning, Pacific Time, on Friday, the new carrier settings update enabling MMS should be live and ready to download through iTunes. We’ll provide the steps and all of the details you need right here at that time.
Impressive Flooding
The Scream Machine ride, once the tallest rollercoaster in the world, is all that remains visible of the popular tourist attraction after waters from the nearby Chattahoochee River in Atlanta flooded into the park.
The west Georgia theme park — the largest in America’s Southeast — has been nicknamed ‘Six Flags Under Water’ by American media.
However the park’s communications director Kendell Kelton is confident the attractions will re-open in time for the weekend if the water recedes. Damage — particularly to the all-wood Georgia Cyclone roller coaster — from the muddy waters is likely to be significant.
Courier
The Courier user experience presented here is almost the exact opposite of what everyone expects the Apple tablet to be, a kung fu eagle claw to Apple’s tiger style. It’s complex: Two screens, a mashup of a pen-dominated interface with several types of multitouch finger gestures, and multiple graphically complex themes, modes and applications. (Our favorite UI bit? The hinge doubles as a “pocket” to hold items you want move from one page to another.) Microsoft’s tablet heritage is digital ink-oriented, and this interface, while unlike anything we’ve seen before, clearly draws from that, its work with the Surface touch computer and even the Zune HD.
AT&T, on Net Neutrality
CNET:
“AT&T has long supported the principle of an open Internet and has conducted its business accordingly,” Jim Cicconi, AT&T’s senior vice president of external and legislative affairs, said in a statement. “We were also early supporters of the FCC’s current four broadband principles and their case-by-case application to wired networks.”
But Cicconi went on to say that the principles and new legislation should not apply to the wireless market.
Gmail Gets Pushy
When we launched Google Sync for Contacts and Google Calendar earlier this year, an over-the-air, always-on connection to sync mail was noticeably absent. We heard your requests loud and clear, and starting today you can use Google Sync to get your Gmail messages pushed directly to your iPhone, iPod Touch, or Windows Mobile device.
With this, Google’s online services now match the major selling points of MobileMe — and are closing in on Exchange.
Gym Bans iPod Nano
Compact camera-equipped devices, such as cell phones, have been gadgets non grata at health clubs for years. The Life Time chain, for instance, has long forbidden their use in locker rooms because of the potential for compromising photos or video footage to be distributed online.
And with the new Nano fitting this category, its use in locker rooms for any reason is forbidden, said spokesman Jason Thunstrom. Discerning whether someone is taking video or just queuing up a music mix can be difficult.
Aperture and Lightroom
More on the Macintosh Portable
On September 20th, 1989, Apple released the Macintosh Portable, the first true mobile Mac and a much-maligned machine. It didn’t sell well and is very rare today–not due to any particular design failure, but because the original price was a whopping $6,500-$7,300 ($11,288 to $12,677 in 2009 dollars). It wasn’t the only Mac to cost that much, but others in that price range offered top-of-the-line performance. The Portable was both too expensive and too underpowered to catch on. Its large size didn’t help, either.