The subhead from the company’s press release says it all:
Best Non-Holiday Quarter Revenue and Earnings in Apple History
Apple still proves to be recession-resistant.
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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.
There’s a Joke in There Somewhere
Walk into the local Apple store at 10:35 on a Friday morning and you’ll notice something different: normal people.
These are not the mutants you’ll find trolling Fry’s for a new motherboard, a liter of Mountain Dew and packets of beef jerky. These are not the middle-aged pot-bellied dudes you’ll find eyeing the latest big screen television at Best Buy.
These are people like your mom. Among the 20 customers at the store Friday were several older women. One was getting a quick tutorial on how to download digital movies.
Remembering Walter Cronkite
Walter Cronkite passed away this evening at the age of 92. Time has a photo essay up of his life’s work — bringing the news to millions of American families, night after night. He will be missed.
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.”
The ROKR E1
Think back to 2005. All of us were running around with fresh installs of OS X 10.4 on our PowerBooks and iMac G4s and G5s while anticipating the company’s move to Intel-based processors.
In September 2005, Apple announced the iPod nano and their alliance with Cingular Wireless and Motorola, which produced the ROKR E1. The ROKR E1 was the first phone that was supported by iTunes — users could copy 100 tracks from their computers to the device, just like an iPod. The weird thing? Apple announced it on the same day that announced the iPod nano. While the iPod news made the headlines, the ROKR E1 grabbed a fair share of attention.
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.