Apple management shake-up – iOS software chief Forstall and retail boss Browett both given the boot

Apple announced some big changes at the top of the company on Monday, with long-time Apple employee and iOS software chief Scott Forstall and retail boss John Browett both removed from their positions.

Apple has kicked the week off with a major management shake-up, with iOS software chief Scott Forstall and retail boss John Browett both given the boot.

News of the departures was announced in a statement on Apple’s website on Monday. While Browett appears to have had his contract terminated with immediate effect, Forstall will stay on in an advisory role until 2013.

The precise reason for Forstall’s departure isn’t clear, though many will point to the disastrous rollout of Apple’s iOS 6 Maps app last month as a possible factor. But with Forstall an integral, long-established member of the Apple team – he joined the tech giant back in 1997 – it’s hard to believe he’d get dumped over one misstep.

The decision to end Browett’s tenure with the company, though somewhat surprising considering the Brit had only been in the job a matter of months, may be more clear cut.

Browett was recruited from British electronics retail chain Dixons in January and was Tim Cook’s first major hire after becoming CEO in 2011 following the death of Steve Jobs. “Our retail stores are all about customer service, and John shares that commitment like no one else we’ve met,” Cook said at the time.

John Browett

Having streamlined Dixons’ retail business and improved its financial position, he seemed to set about doing the same with Apple’s retail business, although by all accounts it was doing OK as things were. Reports of recent hires at Apple stores being axed and existing staff having their working hours reduced hit the headlines over the summer, creating confusion and resentment among the workforce.

A short time later, the tech firm admitted that the layoffs had been the wrong thing to do and started hiring new workers again. “Making these changes was a mistake and the changes are being reversed,” Apple spokeswoman Kristin Huguet said in a statement, adding, “Our employees are our most important asset and the ones who provide the world-class service our customers deserve.”

However, it hasn’t been all bad for its retail workers under Browett’s tenure, with employees at the stores reportedly receiving pay rises of as much as 25 percent as well as being offered generous discounts on Apple products.

Cook will be assuming Browett’s responsibilities until a replacement is found, Apple said in Monday’s statement.

In other changes, Apple’s design guru Jony Ive is set to take on more responsibilities, as is senior vice president Bob Mansfield, senior vice president of Internet software Eddy Cue,  and vice president of Mac software engineering Craig Federighi.

UPDATE: A Wall Street Journal report late Monday suggests Forstall refused to sign the apology letter which Tim Cook issued in response to complaints about iOS Maps, which, if true, would certainly have strained the relationship between Cook and Forstall.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Hurricane Sandy Prompts Google to Cancel Android Event

Image credit: Google

Google had hoped to take the tech world by storm on Monday with its Android event, but a storm is now taking the event.

As a result of Hurricane Sandy, Google cancelled its big Android event, which was set to be held in New York City at 9:00 a.m. Monday. The effects of the hurricane are expected to be felt in the New York City area as early as Monday morning. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has already declared a state of emergency, and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg warned residents to brace themselves.

Hurricane Sandy: Live Storm Tracker

At the event, Google was expected to detail the next version of Android, codenamed Key Lime Pie. It has also been rumored that it would announce a new Nexus phone made by LG and a new Nexus 10 tablet made by Samsung.

Google has not yet shared details on when or where they will hold the rescheduled event.

“We are canceling our Monday morning event in New York due to Hurricane Sandy. We will let you know our plans as soon as we know more,” Google said in an e-mail to ABC News.

Google’s event was planned to compete with Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8 event taking place in San Francisco the same day.

Android chief Andy Rubin is still expected to speak at the All Things D “Dive Into Mobile” conference in New York City on Monday afternoon. ABC News still plans to attend the conference and report on the news.

Source : abcnews[dot]go[dot]com

As iPad Mini launch looms, Amazon says $199 Kindle Fire HD is the biggest-selling product on its site

Of all of Amazon's tablet and e-reader products, the $199 7-inch Kindle Fire HD is the most popular, the e-commerce giant announced on Monday. The news came the day before Apple is expected to enter the mini-tablet market with the launch of a smaller version of its popular iPad device.

The day before tech titan Apple is expected to unveil a smaller version of its iPad tablet, Amazon has piped up to remind everyone that it also has some mini-sized tablets on the market, with the announcement that its $199 Kindle Fire HD device has become the biggest-selling product on its website worldwide. That’s not bad going for a product which – outside of the US – is only currently available in five countries: France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK. Even then, in these locations it can only be pre-ordered, with its release date listed as October 25.

Of course, it would be wonderful to know exactly how many of the 7-inch tablets have been snapped up (or pre-ordered) by consumers since its launch in September, but true to form, the company hasn’t released specific sales figures. Instead we’ll have to make do with what a spokeswoman for the e-commerce giant told Reuters – that its best-seller status is based on unit sales, as opposed to revenue or some convoluted percentage-based calculation.

That puts it ahead of the cheaper $159 Fire and pricier 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HD devices. It also means it’s selling in greater numbers than its family of Kindle e-readers, including the recently launched Paperwhite device. Incidentally, it was reported earlier on Monday that Amazon has quietly retired its Touch e-reader, with a message on the Touch’s old landing page directing consumers to the Kindle Paperwhite, described on the page as “a newer model” of the Touch.

But how will Amazon’s tablets shape up against Apple’s expected iPad Mini, a device likely to sport more features, but also a heftier price tag? Or are they targeting two entirely different sets of consumers?

Either way, all eyes are now on the California Theater in San Jose where on Tuesday Apple will (almost certainly) pull the covers off a smaller iPad, entering the mini-tablet market for the first time – a space currently dominated by the likes of Google with its Nexus 7 device and Amazon with its Fire tablets.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

What’s in store? Google to hold Android event in New York on October 29

Another day, another 'special event' announcement from a tech giant. This time it's Google, with an event planned for Monday in New York. Details unknown.

Not content with allowing Apple and Microsoft to hog the limelight in the coming days – with the former expected to unveil the iPad Mini and the latter launching the Surface tablet – Google has just piped up to let everyone know it’ll be holding an event of its own at Basketball City in New York at 10am on Monday October 29. October 29? Microsoft happens to be holding a Windows Phone 8 event on that day. Is this significant?

Google’s invite reads “the playground is open”, although, as is often the case with tech companies and their special events, there’s no concrete information about what’ll be happening.

It might involve the covers coming off the next-generation Nexus handset; it could be about a new 32GB version of the Nexus 7 tablet; it may be something to do with a new cut-price Nexus tablet, or a high-end 10.1-inch device; it might be about updates to its Android operating system; it could have something to do with the Google Play app store; it may be about to open a chain of children’s playgrounds across the country (unlikely). It’s possible it’ll be about all or none of these things. Or simply some.

If you’d like to watch the event live, Google will be streaming it here. And of course, we’ll be bringing you the news as it happens.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Apple rumor overload: 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro, a curvy iMac and an iPad Mini price list

Monday is off to a flying start with a selection of new Apple rumors, including a 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro and an iPad Mini price list.

Monday is off to a flying start with several Apple rumors already “confirmed,” including a 13-inch MacBook Pro with a Retina display, a curvy iMac and an iPad Mini price list for good measure.

Let’s start with the big one. 9to5mac.com has heard from a “consistently reliable source” that Apple will introduced a Retina display-equipped 13-inch MacBook Pro during the iPad Mini’s launch event later this month. It will apparently be thinner and lighter, and offer different combinations of processors and storage options too.

Macrumors.com has found a few potential features for the 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro on a Chinese website, which claims the smaller computer will still have two Thunderbolt ports, a USB port, a headphone socket, an HDMI-out and an SD card reader; just like its bigger brother. There’s also talk of an interesting battery design — although it’s not elaborated upon — and the report is accompanied by a couple of pictures that, frankly, could show absolutely anything.

Before we move on, it’s best to clarify that we’re talking about a product that doesn’t exist being launched at an event that hasn’t been announced for another non-existent product. That said, it’s logical for Apple to produce a 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro, but at the moment we don’t know when that will happen.

The curvy iMac rumors seems to originate from the same Chinese website, where it’s said that the new model will have a curved shell that’s something like “a water droplet,” which sounds more like Samsung’s design philosophy than Apple’s. Naturally, it too is going to arrive at the small “intimate” event apparently set for October 23.

iPad Mini prices

Finally, we’re onto the event’s main attraction, the iPad Mini. A picture supposedly showing a list of iPad Minis that will possibly be stocked by German electronics retailer MediaMarkt has been leaked, complete with prices and basic specs. In addition to the usual 16, 32 and 64GB models, an 8GB iPad Mini appears, each with the choice of a black or white finish, and either Wi-Fi only or “cellular” and Wi-Fi.

The most basic 8GB Wi-Fi iPad Mini is priced at 249 euros, and the top 64GB Wi-Fi with 3G or 4G at 649 euros. A quick currency conversion gives us $322 and $840 respectively, the latter of which will probably have seen wallets everywhere twitch nervously.

Just like all the other iPad Mini rumors, there’s no way to know if this is really a screenshot from MediaMarkt’s computer system, and equally we can’t take those prices as final either, as Apple’s US pricing is often lower than it’s European equivalent.

October 23 is one week away tomorrow, which means that if an event is to take place, Apple will start to send invitations out very soon. We really, really hope it does too; if only to put an end to these infernal iPad Mini rumors.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Samsung lays out Jelly Bean update plan in vaguest way possible

Monday brought the latest update of Google’s mobile operating system, Android 4.1, to Samsung Galaxy 3S owners. While owners of the arguably most popular Android device are already enjoying the update to Jelly Bean, other Samsung consumers will have their sweet tooth satisfied soon. Well, kind of.

The Korean manufacturer is ready to roll out Jelly Bean to at least fifteen of their phones and tablets. Included on the list are the following:

• Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus
• Galaxy Tab 2 7.0
• Galaxy Tab 2 10.1
• Galaxy S Advance
• Galaxy S Duos
• Galaxy S2
• Galaxy S2 LTE
• Galaxy Note
• Galaxy Note 10.1
• Galaxy Music
• Galaxy Chat
• Galaxy Ace Plus
• Galaxy Ace 2
• Galaxy Beam
• Galaxy Mini 2

When will these devices finally get to install the latest installment of the Android OS? As soon as, well… soon. Samsung has given us device names, but no official date or timeframe for the arrival of Jelly Bean. Rumor has it if you can guess how many jelly beans Samsung has in a jar in their office, they will give you an early update. But that could also be a rumor we just made up (and it is).

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Explosion Spotted on Jupiter: A Comet or Asteroid?

A bright flash was spotted on Jupiter early Monday morning, and astronomers are trying to figure out exactly what hit it.

The flash was first spotted by Dan Peterson, an amateur astronomer from Racine, Wisc., who saw the flash through a telescope. He posted about his sighting on the Association of Lunar & Planetary Observers message board with the subject line, “I observed an explosion on Jupiter this morning!”  He reported that the explosion occurred inside the southern edge of Jupiter’s northern equatorial belt of clouds.

“My best guess is that it was a small undetected comet that is now history, hopefully it will sign its name on Jupiter’s cloud tops,” he wrote.

Astrophotographer George Hall of Dallas was shooting video of Jupiter at the time and caught the flash on camera at 6:35 a.m. Monday.

Glenn Orton, a senior research scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., said he believes a frozen comet may be the culprit.

“Most things in that part of the solar system are called Jupiter-family comets,” Orton said. “They’re ice balls that move in and have started co-orbiting around Jupiter. ”

The explosion doesn’t appear to have left any trace, Orton said. It was quickly swallowed up by Jupiter’s thick atmosphere.  Orton said he and other researchers will publish a paper about their observations in the next few months.

In August 2009, a space rock hit the planet leaving a giant black mark and sending debris into Jupiter’s clouds. In June 2010, another explosion caused an Earth-sized fireball to emerge from Jupiter, much like Monday’s sighting. Orton believes Monday’s impact was about the same size as that in 2010.

“It’s the big gravitational vacuum cleaner of the solar system,” Orton said.

Source : abcnews[dot]go[dot]com

Stolen iPhone results in cop chase, shooting, school lockdown and finally, arrests

When the victim of a phone theft reported the incident to cops in San Francisco on Monday, they probably didn't expect that a cop chase, shooting, school lockdown and eventual arrest of the suspects (with one found in the trunk of a car) would be the result.

A stolen mobile phone usually, at the very most, results in a visit to the cop shop, the filling out of a few forms and then a trip to the phone store to sort out a replacement. But, evidently, it doesn’t always work out that way.

In San Francisco on Monday, for example, a smartphone stolen in the city’s Ocean View neighborhood resulted in a police chase, a school lockdown and an officer firing their gun.

According to a San Francisco Chronicle report, it all started at around 6.30am when two men stole a pedestrian’s iPhone at gunpoint. Using the phone-locating Find My iPhone app, officers discovered that the device was somewhere in the Noe Valley neighborhood in the center of the city.

After pinpointing the suspects, officers approached them but – surprise, surprise – they both scarpered.

During the pursuit, one of the suspects turned towards an officer with their hand concealed close to their body – of course, a move like that in such a tense situation rarely ends with a friendly shake of the hands and the exchange of a few pleasantries. No, in this case, the pursuing officer, believing her life to be in imminent danger, took out her gun and fired at the suspect, who subsequently managed to escape unharmed.

As the chase continued, police locked down nearby St. Paul’s Catholic Church and its adjoining elementary school for around half an hour to secure the safety of those inside.

Cops then tracked the stolen handset to a car with a person sitting inside. After apprehending the occupant, they also found someone hiding in the trunk, together with a stash of other allegedly stolen smartphones. Job done.

It might seem like quite a palaver for one stolen phone, but with smartphone theft on the rise, and more handset owners getting up to speed with enabling find-my-phone type apps, perhaps we’ll be hearing more stories like this in the future.

Security experts also recommend that handset owners enable the lock screen on their device and install a remote wipe app to prevent personal details being taken in the event of a theft – or loss – of a phone.

[via AppleInsider]

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Apple is the new most valuable company of all time

Although it's been the most valuable company on the market for a number of months, Apple has become the most valuable company of all time with its overall value on Monday hitting $624 billion.

Despite what have been seen as recent stumbles from a company we have come to think of as near-infallible, Apple can lay claim to a new piece of history today with the announcement that – thanks to a second surge in the price of its stock in as many days of trading – the company is now, officially, the most valuable company in Wall Street history.

The company’s stock rose almost 3 percent today to $665.15 per share, after a similar rise on Friday afternoon, raising the company’s overall value to a staggering $624 billion, an amount described by the Associated Press as “the world’s highest ever. It beat the record market capitalization set by Microsoft Corp. in the heady days of the Internet boom.”

Microsoft’s record comes from December 1999, when the company’s value peaked at $616.3 billion according to Dow Jones analyst Howard Silverblatt (Oddly enough, the Hollywood Reporter claims that Microsoft topped out at $621 billion, presumably an error, considering that the Dow Jones expert cites a lower figure; either way, Apple has beaten the record, however).

Apple has actually been the most valuable company in the market for a few months now, since overtaking Exxon Mobil this past January; that company’s total value – $406 billion – now seems to pale in comparison to the impressive figure surrounding the computer giant. The record value comes just a month after Apple’s share price fell in the face of what was considered to be a disappointing second quarter in terms of sales for the company, despite profits rising 21 percent when compared with the same period in 2011. The relatively quick turnaround can be put down to not only common sense realization that a year-on-year increase in profits is actually a good thing, even if it’s not up to the level you’d been hoping for, but also the rumors surrounding a number of new releases in the near future, including a new generation of iPad, the iPhone 5 and the long-awaited push into the television space.

Although it is far ahead of competitors in overall value, Apple is far from alone in being a valuable tech company; of the five most valuable companies on the market, three are computer companies, with Microsoft coming in just behind Exxon Mobil to become the third most valuable, and IBM taking fifth place.

The good news for Apple comes amid even worse news for the continually-ailing Facebook. Shares in that company continue to hit new lows, now being worth less than half of their initial $38 price, a fact that has knocked more than $10 billion off the value of founder Mark Zuckerberg’s share in the company (Zuckerberg’s share is said to be worth around $9.5 billion, now, with the company’s overall value down to $40 billion from its original $100 billion+ estimate). According to estimates, Apple stock is now worth roughly fifteen times the current value of Facebook stock. Somewhere, Steve Jobs is looking down and smiling.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Google axes 4,000 Motorola jobs, closes a third of offices

Google announced on Sunday that it will cut 20 percent of Motorola employees in addition to closing 33 percent of offices worldwide.

Monday morning did not arrive with pleasant news for the Motorola Mobility work force. Google, which bought Motorola in May, told staff Sunday that it will begin cutting 20 percent of its employees and closing 33 percent of its offices worldwide.

The move is inevitable, seeing as how Motorola has been struggling to be profitable, losing money in fourteen of the last sixteen quarters, reports The Wall Street Journal. This 20 percent cut will account for approximately 4,000 jobs from its 20,000 employees along with 30 out of its 90 offices slated for closure. A third of the layoffs will come after United States-based employees though it has not been specified which facilities will be affected.

In reducing its work force, Google said in its filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that this change will “shift its emphasis from feature phones to more innovative and profitable devices.” Which makes sense, since Motorola will have a long way to catch up with Android giants Samsung and HTC.

According to The New York Times, Motorola aims to “stop making low-end devices and focus on a few cellphones instead of dozens.” This means a cut of 27 phone models to select, higher end editions — ones that are packed with unique features no other phones have such as the ability to recognize who is in the room based on voice or batteries that can last for days. Still, an analyst even described Motorola as being “left in the dust by the competition and kind of missed the smartphone transition,” so these ambitions are purely hopeful, to say the least.

The cuts are slated to cost Google no more than $275 million which will be recognized in the third quarter, with continuing charges to incur within the next few quarters. Google told investors that they should anticipate “significant revenue variability” as part of an overall restructuring to make Motorola a viable company again.

“While lower expenses are likely to lag the immediate negative impact to revenue, Google sees these actions as a key step for Motorola to achieve sustainable profitability,” Google stated in the SEC filing.

With Motorola in the hands of the search engine giant, do you think it has a chance to coming back with innovative mobile devices? Or is it true that it has truly been left behind by the likes of Samsung and Apple?

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

People, not passwords: The real lesson from Mat Honan’s iCloud hack nightmare

No computer system is ever safe due to one simple fact: Humans are imperfect.

Late Monday, Wired editor Mat Honan posted a detailed account about how lapses in Amazon and Apple technical support security enabled a “hacker” to flush his entire digital life down the toilet.

Amazon, you see, revealed the last four digits of one of Honan’s credit cards to the hacker, who pretended to be Honan on the phone. This allow the hacker to then call AppleCare with the information needed to change his iCloud password, and thus gain access to a dizzying array of accounts and devices. Honan’s iPhone, iPad, and MacBook Air were all remotely wiped. Gmail access gave the hacker access to his Twitter account, and that of Gizmodo, Honan’s former employer. As you would expect, havok ensued. And now much of the technology journalism world — yours truly included — is using Honan’s experience as a warning to beef up your passwords.

Honan’s story is well worth the read. But if you come out of it having learned anything, it should be this: Your password is not the biggest problem with computer security. People are.

Yes, weak passwords are a massive trouble spot. More than 20 years after the invention of the World Wide Web, people are still using phrases like “password” or “123456″ as the key to their online lives. In fact, it’s laughably easy-to-guess passwords like these that are used most often. And anyone who employs such foolishness has nothing and no one but themselves to blame when their accounts get hijacked.

But when you talk to computer security experts, foolish passwords are not considered the weakest door in the vault.

“The weakest point in any computer system is between the seat and the keyboard.” This phrase or its equivalent is something I have heard repeatedly while speaking with cybersecurity experts over the years, and Honan’s experience proves its truth. As our lives become increasingly digitized and more information about ourselves gets stored on computer systems operated by either businesses or the government, it becomes a point we all need to take seriously.

So remember this: No matter how good your password or how secure a system, there is always a weak point in every system due to the sad fact that humans are so often imperfect, malicious, and dumb.

Comic via Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal (SMBC)

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com