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13 Jun 2011 11:21

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Biz: Apple Store worker really wants unions for some reason

  • what Cory Moll, a part-time Apple Store employee in San Francisco, has come forward with his plan to push for unions for the company’s 30,000 retail employees at 325 retail stores worldwide. Moll started a Web site for his campaign, which, from our vantage point, is currently down (we linked a cached version).
  • why Moll says that the big problems on his end are wages and benefits. He says he makes $14 an hour in a city where the minimum wage is nearly $10 an hour. “Right now what I hope to gain is to get people to start talking about it and get comfortable with it,” he says. Do you guys think he’ll win? source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

09 Jun 2011 11:21

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Tech: Apple backs down on controversial in-app subscription policy

  • Apparently they heard that they lost The Financial Times to this mess. While Apple didn’t back down from the 70/30 split that gave publishers pause, they did change a rule that won’t force companies to offer app subscriptions at the same price as an outside subscription — or if they don’t want to, offer an Apple-sanctioned subscription at all. Apparently, developers’ loud grumbling about the policy (which led the Financial Times to create a HTML5 version of their iPad app, shown above) appears to have gotten through to the company, which updated their App Store Review Guidelines earlier this week ahead of a June 30 deadline. The differences:
  • How it read before “Apps can read or play approved content (magazines, newspapers, books, audio, music, video) that is sold outside of the app, for which Apple will not receive any portion of the revenues, provided that the same content is also offered in the app using IAP at the same price or less than it is offered outside the app. This applies to both purchased content and subscriptions. “
  • How it reads now“Apps can read or play approved content (specifically magazines, newspapers, books, audio, music, and video) that is subscribed to or purchased outside of the app, as long as there is no button or external link in the app to purchase the approved content. Apple will not receive any portion of the revenues for approved content that is subscribed to or purchased outside of the app.” source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

06 Jun 2011 21:29

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Music: Bridging the piracy gap: Apple’s iCloud cleverly inverts Napster 1.0

  • We totally have to give Apple credit: The conceit around the iTunes portion of the iCloud service, while not exactly what we expected (it’s not Lala 2.0, sadly), manages to pull off an interesting trick — it creates a revenue model from a place where only piracy existed before. By upgrading your music’s quality and making it easily accessible from the cloud, it adds value inexpensively, and gets around a major sticking point for the major labels cleverly. And music industry officials see it as a positive. “It allows for revenue to be made off of pirated music in a way that consumers don’t feel that’s what they’re paying for, and that’s what I find fascinating about it,” noted Jeff Price, the CEO of TuneCore Inc., which helps independent artists sell their music online. Our music anywhere for $25 a year? Sure, we’ll pay that. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

31 May 2011 15:46

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Tech: Slimdown: Intel puts laptops on diets to compete with Apple

  • Intel has plans to release a computer to compete with the Macbook Air and the iPad. The new computer — called an Ultrabook — would be extremely thin and have tablet-like features. It’d also be less than $1,000. The Ultrabook is a lot like the Macbook Air, so it’ll be interesting to see how well it can compete. It’s interesting to note that Intel hasn’t been so lucky with things like this in the past, though. A few years ago they tried something similar called an Ultra-Low Voltage notebook and it failed to catch on. But if Mac can do it, why can’t they? source
Posted by Justin Jones • 0 Comments • Permalink

21 May 2011 18:29

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World: Apple, Foxconn pick up pieces after iPad factory explosion

  • We are deeply saddened by the tragedy at Foxconn’s plant in Chengdu, and our hearts go out to the victims and their families. We are working closely with Foxconn to understand what caused this terrible event.
  • A statement from Apple • Expressing remorse for yesterday’s explosion at a Foxconn factory in China. The explosion, which took place in Chengdu, China, killed at least two and injured 16. The factory, which produces iPads, suspended production after the accident, according to Foxconn. “The safety of our employees is our highest priority and we will do whatever is required to determine and address the cause of this tragic accident,” they wrote in a statement to The Wall Street Journal’s All Things D. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

18 May 2011 22:59

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Tech: Cloud music horse race: Apple’s about to pull ahead quickly

  • Amazon Launched their cloud service first — without any deals with the major record labels. So while you could upload your music, you can’t stream the labels’ tunes.
  • Google Launched their cloud service a little while after Amazon — with an interface that looks nearly the same. They weren’t able to cull deals out of the labels, either.
  • Apple They’ll be late to the game, but they have two of the four majors on board, with the other two close to signing. Apple bought the lamented Lala in late 2009. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

16 May 2011 10:36

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Tech: Lodsys: If it smells like a patent troll, it probably is one …

  • No, Lodsys is methodically selling its product (patent rights) in the most efficient means it can. … Ideally, we can sell as much as possible through direct sales, rather than having to use litigation. It’s less expensive and more efficient for both parties.
  • A message from the Lodsys blog • Discussing their reasoning for pressuring iOS developers to pay the company to pay its licensing fee to allow in-app sales on their app. Here’s the total crap part of the whole thing: Lodsys already got Apple, Google and Microsoft to pay money for the license. But instead of just leaving it at that, the company is going after small developers, saying that the license isn’t transferrable. Which means that they’ve already lost the PR war and will have a hard time winning anyone over. And also, if they’ve dared go after News Corp. (which uses in-app purchasing for The Daily and the Wall Street Journal), they should expect to get their asses handed to them by Rupert Murdoch’s auditorium full of attorneys. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

09 May 2011 11:29

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Biz, World: Foxconn’s dilemma: Worker suicides down, but so are profits

  • positive Factory workers at China’s Foxconn plants, where they build iPhones, iPads and a bunch of other iStuff, aren’t committing suicide nearly as much as they were a year ago, thanks in part to reforms put in place after Apple twisted their arm.
  • negative Despite a large jump in revenue for the company, their earnings were down — which, unfortunately, might be a reason for others to not follow suit. Good Magazine suggests we, as consumers, should stop taking advantage of “misery discounts.” source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

08 May 2011 22:02

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Tech: What it’s like when Steve Jobs tears his employees apart

  • You’ve tarnished Apple’s reputation … You should hate each other for having let each other down … Mossberg, our friend, is no longer writing good things about us.
  • Apple CEO Steve Jobs • Yelling at the MobileMe team in 2008, in response to criticism of the service, which had a rocky launch and even got a negative review from Apple fanboi numero uno, Walt Mossberg. He named a new executive to shepherd the MobileMe product right then and there. The revelation that Steve Jobs is kind of an asshole isn’t really a new one, but this particular story is new. Although … this kind of says a lot about Jobs that he has to note that Walt Mossberg is downright chummy with Apple. Conflict of interest? source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

01 May 2011 16:11

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Tech: NGOs report bad conditions in iPad factory, anti-suicide pledges

  • Suicides were not connected to bad working conditions. There was a copy effect. If one commits suicide, then others will follow.
  • Foxconn manager Louis Woo • Explaining away last summer’s suicide problem at his factory in China, which is in the business of producing Apple products. The article cites the research efforts of two NGOs, which cast a less than flattering light on the factory — that workers are publicly humiliated if they perform poorly, that they’re treated “inhumanely, like machines,” that they’re paid a stiflingly low wage to force them to work exhaustively long hours, that they have to sign an anti-suicide pledge telling them to “treasure their lives” — it’s a grim and disconcerting read. Woo’s explanation for the problem of his workers killing themselves seems rather lame, as well. If one commits suicide, the others will follow? That’s not exactly a logical process you’d expect to see in a group of people who were otherwise living happy lives. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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