Yukari Iwatani Kane, writing for The Wall Street Journal, brings us word that Apple is hiring Joel Podolny, the Dean of Yale University’s Business School, to serve as the Vice President and Dean of Apple University.
Yes, you read that right and no, it isn’t the first of April. Apparently, there’s an Apple University in the works. Much like the iTunes Store, which served as a vehicle to move more iPods, maybe Apple has gotten tired of going after the education market in order to sell Macs to students and now plans to do some homeschooling of its own, so to speak.
Or, perhaps more logically, they’re taking a cue from Pixar University, which is a program that Pixar offers to new and existing animators on the company’s payroll to brush up on their skills. I can almost picture it: a huge room equipped with a conveyor belt dishing out stacks of black mock turtlenecks, with thousands of kids milling about in the familiar uniform.
Whatever the case, I think it’s safe to assume that Steve Jobs has found an innovative way to prepare a successor for himself—start from childhood, train him to live life exactly like the Apple CEO and mould him into his own image. My, who’d have thunk it?
Disclaimer: 90% of this post is pure speculation and views expressed by the author of this piece are entirely his own. We’re not even sure how this thing got published. Rest assured that at least the first paragraph is actual, real news.
[Via Daring Fireball]
Keeping up with the Joneses isn’t as difficult these days as it used to be: there’s Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and a host of other services to help you keep track of people and news. Apple’s no stranger to this connected environment, and so in order to help you out, they’ve conveniently assembled a page of all of their RSS feeds for your browsing pleasure.
While I’ve long been a subscriber to some of Apple’s feeds (such as their Hot News page), I have to admit that the number of RSS subscriptions available on that page blew my mind (my mind is easily blown on a sleepy Monday morning, however, so take that as you will). Besides seventeen different feeds for the iTunes Store (including music, movies, TV shows, and apps), there’re also news feeds, Apple Developer Connection feeds, Mac OS X Download feeds, knowledge base feeds, movie trailer feeds, seminar feeds, and way, way more. In fact, I’m pretty sure you could populate your feed reader of choice only with feeds from Apple.
Now if only there were a feed to help me keep track of when Apple adds new feeds…damnit, mind blown again.
I think our dear president put it best when he posed the immortal question: “is our children learning?” Well, if a survey of Amherst College’s incoming class is any indication, the answer is that they’re learning something—namely, what’s the best darn computing platform around?
The survey, conducted by Amherst’s IT department, found a number of interesting—if unsurprising—facts. For example, 432 of the 438 freshmen had Facebook pages (no doubt the remaining six had already jumped ahead to whatever social networking site is next, ambitious kids that they are).
While the exact platform dynamics weren’t broken down, the survey does note that the tide is shifting from Windows to Mac, saying that the classes of 2011 and 2012 were more likely to own Macs, while the classes of ‘09 and ‘10 were more likely to own Windows machines. Honestly, the only thing that surprises me is class of 2012? That’s a joke, right? Seriously, though, that’s quite a change from my freshman year, when I was one of about three people on our floor of fifty that owned a Mac. Of course we were too busy painting on cave walls and running from sabertooth tigers to care much about computers.
iPod touch and iPhone ownership is up as well, with 93 of the incoming class owning one of the devices. That also means that if you spot a student on campus with one of the two, the likelihood that they’re in the class of 2012 (2012, people—12!) is approximately 1 in 2. No word on how many have iPods, but I’m guessing it would give Facebook a run for its money.
We say time for them to rebrand. What are Amherst College’s colors? Do they have a mascot of some sort? Maybe some kind of badger? Might we suggest a change—the Fighting Macs, perhaps?
Poor Microsoft just can't catch a break with their advertising. First came the ambitious but misguided Gates / Seinfeld oddities. Now, not even a week after their latest "I'm a PC" ads started airing, it has been discovered that these ads were actually created using a Mac. That's right: advertisements designed to make the Windows PC look hip and cool used a Mac to achieve this.
Metadata found in the images of the featured PC user on the "I'm a PC" web site revealed that the images were produced on Macs running Adobe Creative Suite 3. At least it wasn't Final Cut.
Aside from the hilarious irony of this situation, this cannot be good for Window's image. This news has pretty much undermined the entire campaign effort. Just Google "Microsoft 'I'm a pc'" and note that most of the results relate to this gaffe.
Sorry Microsoft, but if you wanna hang with the cool kids, you gotta stop trying so hard and just... be cool. Chill out. Chillax. Oh, and maybe develop a decent OS. That helps.
[Via Gizmodo]
Samsung is jumping into the ultra-thin notebook market with its new X360 notebook. Set for worldwide release in October, the X360 is aimed primarily at the MacBook Air's target market of people willing to spend a boatload of money in exchange for a smaller, weaker notebook.
Described by Samsung as being "lighter than air" (get it?), the X360 is indeed lighter than the MacBook Air at a mere 2.8 pounds compared to the Air's 3 pounds.
Of course sacrifices had to be made in order to achieve this level of lightness. Samsung used a slower, ultra-low voltage Core 2 Duo processor, and made the notebook a bit thicker than the Air. So in effect, it's lighter than air, but not thinner.
The X360's ports, however, put the MacBook Air to shame, including Ethernet, an ExpressCard/34 slot, and a multi-format card reader—all of which the Air lacks. The X360 also offers three USB ports, HDMI and VGA out, and even a (assumably optional) fingerprint reader.
This looks like another case of a manufacturer stepping up to Apple and besting their niche product, much like how Dell bested the Mac Mini with their Studio Hybrid line. Once Apple updates their product line, however, I think they'll get the last laugh.
It's no secret that the MobileMe launch didn't happen as smoothly as Apple, or subscribers, would have liked. The service has been plagued by downtime, lost emails, and under-delivering on promised features.
When you're faced with such a mess, what do you do? Free iPods for everyone? Rides for all on Uncle Steve's corporate jet? Sadly, no. But still, a free 60-day extension to most MobileMe users is nothing to sneeze at. According to an email MobileMe subscribers just received, Apple will be giving out activation keys good for 60 days of service to eligible customers.
To find out if you're among the lucky ones to snag those sweet 60 free days, check out this Apple knowledge base article. If you're the type that likes executive summaries, here are the salient points (though I question why you're using MobileMe if you're a high-powered executive):
It looks like Apple hopes they can smooth over any hard feelings by giving people free stuff. Luckily, that's a strategy that usually works.
What say you? Is this extension enough to keep you on MobileMe? Do you think Apple should give MobileMe users something else to make them happy? I hear people really like ponies.
If you're a regular at this site, you probably already know that the usability of Mac's OS is second to none, but it's always nice to get verification from outside sources, is it not? It's especially nice to hear about the greatness of Mac OS from a former Windows power user, as is the case in Smashing Magazine's recent article that lists the "Top 10 Usability Highs of Mac OS".
Number one on the list is "Consistency", which is credited to Apple's stringent Human Interface guidelines. Indeed, most Mac programs have the same intuitive, easy-to-use feel that we come to expect, and this has always been one of my favorite elements of the Mac OS. Even programs that you've never used before feel familiar.
The intuitive reliance on drag-and-drop is also praised, as is the effective use of unambiguous metaphors like Exposé and Cover Flow. These handy tools add a welcome touch of eye candy while also lending to the overall intuitiveness and ease of use at which OS X is just so damn good.
Praise also goes out to the OS X's informative error reporting, superior user input feedback (no need to constantly click "Apply" or "OK" buttons every time you change a preference), and its adherence to Fitts's Law (like how all app menu bars are at the top of the screen instead of at the top of their respective windows).
The final usability high for Mac OS? Even the kernal panic looks nice! A kernal panic is never fun, but while Windows users are greeted with the fugly and intimidating blue screen of death, at least we get a semi-elegant, Mac-like response.
So fear not, good citizens, there won't be a run on iPhones and iPods because of yesterday's Apple fire. Now that the dust has settled, here's what we know about yesterday's blaze:
- It began late Tuesday night around 10 pm local time at 20705 Valley Green Drive, a building that mainly contains IT workers, servers, and possibly parts of finance and HR.
- The fire, which caused no injuries, was limited to the roof and the attic.
- The fire was caused by construction work on a "rooftop air conditioning unit." (How exactly an air conditioning unit, used to cool air, causes a fire, I have no idea.)
According to the SJ Mercurcy News: It took about 50 firefighters more than 3 1/2 hours to get the blaze under control. [Santa Clara County Fire Battalion Chief Kendall Pearson] said finding the fire in the attic spaces was difficult, even with the help of a thermal imaging camera.
"Our ability to get to the fire under the roof was problematic and it took some time," Pearson said. "There was not a lot of active, visible fire. There was quite a bit of smoke for quite some time."
- Daron Pisciotta, a fire captain with the Santa Clara County Fire Department, told Macworld yesterday that the cause of the fire is "looking accidental."
So there you have it, folks. Run along now.
With the good news of Apple products gaining mainstream popularity and acceptance comes the bad news that seems to occur whenever something cool becomes really, really popular. Just like back in high school, when those annoying "posers" started repping your favorite underground band, or when the hipsters took over your favorite nightspot, we privileged Mac users must now deal with unwanted attention from hackers.
One of the nicest benefits of being a Mac user has always been the relative lack of viruses and malware available for Mac. While some tout the architecture of the Mac OS as the reason behind the lack of viruses, others believe it simply to be a matter of numbers. Why make a virus that will only infect a miniscule percentage of PC users when you could go for the other 90% with a Windows virus? While many of you may think the "more marketshare = more vulnerabilities" theorem is merely FUD, there may be some credence to it. After all, as more and more malicious folk begin to poke around for exploits, the chances of one being found increase, do they not?
According to a Yahoo! News report hackers are indeed taking increasing aim at iPhones and Macs alike. Zero Day Initiative security vulnerability analyst Cameron Hotchkies notes that with Apple's newfound mainstream popularity, "there are more eyes looking over Apple products for vulnerabilities".
While I'm not exactly springing for the McAfee Virus Protection software just yet, this may be an increasing concern as Mac usage continues to grow. Let's hope Apple can keep up with what the bad guys start to throw at it.
