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18 Feb 2011 12:27

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Tech, U.S.: Obama meets with everyone TechCrunch cares about all at once

  • Finally. Most of the people we write about were in a single room last night, having alcohol together. Obama. Mark Zuckerberg. The Twitter guy. Steve Jobs. And if you’re stretching it, that @$$hole Larry Ellison. If a nuclear bomb hit this restaurant last night, we would have nothing to write about and would probably have to shut down the blog. We’re glad it wasn’t. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

18 Feb 2011 12:02

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Biz, Tech: Regulators probe Apple’s new subscription service plans

  • tuesday Apple launches its subscription plan – in which it’ll take a 30 percent cut off of in-app subscriptions. OK for newspapers, awful for online music firms.
  • friday The Department of Justice launches an inquiry into the subscription plan, which suggests that something may be pretty rotten in Denmark. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

15 Feb 2011 21:18

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Tech, World: Apple, Foxconn worked really hard to stop worker suicides

  • Recognizing that we would need additional expertise to help prevent further tragedies, we launched an international search for the most knowledgeable suicide prevention specialists — particularly those with experience in China — and asked them to advise Apple and Foxconn.
  • A statement from Apple’s annual Supplier Responsibility report • Describing the process that Apple went through to help stop the spate of suicides at Foxconn’s Chinese factories last year. Apple personally sent Tim Cook, the company’s Chief Operating Officer and the guy covering for Steve Jobs while he’s on medical leave, to China to check out the factories. They brought in psychologists and Buddhist monks. They played calming music. They did a survey of employees, along with personal interviews of workers. They put up nets in the factory to prevent people from committing suicide on a lark. They made a room for releasing stress, complete with punching bags. Foxconn is even working on making more factories in China, so people can live closer to their homes. The result? Suicides are reportedly way down. Apple doesn’t mess around. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

15 Feb 2011 10:50

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Tech: Steve Jobs on subscriber service: We won’t always take 30 percent

  • Our philosophy is simple – when Apple brings a new subscriber to the app, Apple earns a 30 percent share; when the publisher brings an existing or new subscriber to the app, the publisher keeps 100 percent and Apple earns nothing.
  • Steve Jobs (who’s still on medical leave) • In a statement announcing the new App Store subscription service, which reveals a pretty awesome financial path for publishers of all stripes. Apple will take their 30 percent revenue share if they lead to the subscription; if the publisher does it, they keep 100 percent. One interesting thing to note is the way that the service handles consumer information. Many magazine publishers make money by using consumer information from their subscriber base – a move somewhat at odds with Apple’s App Store model. In a compromise move, Apple will allow consumers to say how much information they want to give out. The overall model is similar to that of The Daily, which launched last month to general praise. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

12 Feb 2011 12:21

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Tech: Apple’s big plan to combat Android? A smaller, no-contract iPhone

  • problem Apple’s current iPhone is a one-size-fits-all model which has allowed Android to get a foothold in the market with models of varying shapes and sizes.
  • solution? In response, Apple is reportedly planning a smaller iPhone model which – and this is important – wouldn’t require a plan, and would cost less than $200. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

08 Feb 2011 11:01

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Tech: Did Verizon pull bait-and-switch on iPhone buyers with data plan?

  • cool After many years of waiting, Verizon started selling the iPhone on its service. It’s reportedly selling at extremely fast rates – faster than the Droid, even, Verizon’s previous best-selling phone. Apple could break its own sales record, too.
  • lame But, in a sneak attack only made public after a blogger happened to trip upon it, Verizon changed its data-management policy so that “unlimited” data users will see their speeds slow to a crawl if they use too much of it. WTF? source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

06 Feb 2011 23:39

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Tech: Quick facts: Three strikes against Motorola’s new Xoom tablet

  • strike The device, based on Android 3.0 and getting a lot of attention, has a starting price of $799 – which is way higher than the entry-level iPad.
  • strike The data plans are really expensive for 3G usage – 1 gigabyte is $20, and the plans go as high as $80 for 10 gigabytes. That’s right – $80 a month!
  • out And don’t think you’ll get around this with a hotspot like you can with an iPad. Wi-fi won’t be activated unless you buy a data plan! source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

23 Jan 2011 21:14

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Tech: App Store milestone winner thought winning phone call was prank

  • The more I thought about it, the more I realized it was a genuine call. The girls were getting quite tense. They never would have forgiven me. They would have held it against me for all eternity.
  • Gail “Thank you very much; I’m not interested” Davis • Revealing that she initially hung up on Apple as they offered her a $10,000 iTunes gift card for downloading the 100 billionth app from the store. Eventually realizing that she was the winner (her daughter downloaded the app), she frantically called back the help desk, getting an unhelpful person, then later got another phone call from Apple’s VP of iTunes. The lesson of this story: In case you’re ever presented with this situation, don’t do this. Alright, interwebs? source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

22 Jan 2011 19:43

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Tech: Like milestones? Apple’s App Store just reached a major one

  • 10 billion apps have been sold as of today; we downloaded a few source
  • » And the lucky winner: Gail Davis of Orpington, Kent, UK, will be the lucky recipient of a lovely $10,000 iTunes gift card. Be sure not to spend that all on one app, OK? That Wolfram Alpha app is cool and stuff, but is it really worth it?
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

19 Jan 2011 10:15

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Tech: No single analyst predicted the iPad’s level of success

  • 7M the highest sales prediction a professional analyst gave for the iPad’s first-year sales
  • 9M the top-end estimate of various tech bloggers – not even fanboi John Gruber was this bullish
  • 14.8M the actual amount that Apple sold, blowing everyone’s estimates out of the water source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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