Apple on Tuesday patched 51 vulnerabilities in Mac OS X, most of them critical, in 2012′s first security update.
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The iPhone may have opened the door for Apple in the enterprise, but it was the one-two punch of the iPad and revamped MacBook Air in 2010 that really did the trick, an analyst said today.
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Apple was the only top-five computer maker to post shipment gains in the U.S. during the final quarter of 2011, a pair of research firms said this week.
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Apple says it stepped up environmental audits of suppliers and found significantly fewer cases of underage labor at its supplier plants last year. The findings were highlighted in Apple’s annual Supplier Responsibility report, which the company released Friday.
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Apple today announced it would start selling the iPhone 4S in mainland China a week from this Friday — Jan. 13.
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Curious about how much money Apple’s been making? (Spoiler: Plenty.) The company will dive into specifics for its first quarter results from fiscal year 2012 on January 24 at 2 p.m. Pacific. This will be the company’s second earnings call since Tim Cook took over as CEO, following Steve Jobs’s resignation in August 2011.
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Follow the steps below to deploy Logic Pro 9 across multiple Mac systems using Apple Remote Desktop, NetInstall, or NetRestore. View full post on Apple – Support – Most Popular
Apple’s extraordinary run over the last few years may begin to show signs of slowing next year–its first year without visionary leader Steve Jobs.
While we’ll probably see an iPhone 5 that takes advantage of maturing, more power-efficient 4G chipsets, a ground-breaking product such as the iPhone, iPad or MacBook Air isn’t likely in the cards at Cupertino.
But not all is doom and gloom for Apple; Apple’s rivals are stumbling badly and will likely fall further next year. As a result, the iPad may take an insurmountable lead in the tablet market, while the iPhone carves into the Android smartphone lead, simple because competitors will face-plant around iOS.
Here are some bold predictions about Apple’s challenging year ahead:
Apple’s Enterprise Strategy Gets Cooking
CIOs should expect a warmer Apple with new CEO Tim Cook at the helm. In the past, says veteran tech analyst Rob Enderle, “Apple resisted enterprise pressure largely because Jobs thought IT managers were idiots, likely a holdover from the Lisa days. Cook is more enterprise friendly, and I expect Apple to start embracing the enterprise more as a result.”
Slideshow: 15 Ways iPad Goes to Work
But Cook will need to show some restraint with his overtures to the enterprise. Truth is, it is difficult to court both companies and consumers. They are at odds with each other when it comes to usability features. Apple’s success is built on consumers loving its products.
“The danger will be if Apple goes too far, as Microsoft did, and forget the user,” Enderle says. “In that case, it will likely kill the company.”
Will the Next Big Thing Come from Apple?
The bigger problem is on the product side.
While everyone’s eyes are on the iPhone 5 for next year (check out this concept video of the future iPhone), it’s unlikely Cook can deliver the kind of visionary product such as the iPhone and iPad the way Jobs did. That’s because Cook isn’t a product guy. As Apple’s tumultuous history under executive-types such as John Sculley and Gil Amelio shows, Apple just doesn’t do well with an operations leader running the show.
Blog: Is This the Future of the iPhone?
So why was Cook put in charge in the first place?
“Cook was selected because Steve felt that, when he recovered, he would be able to take the job back–up until the end, Steve though he would recover,” Enderle says. “The result is they have the wrong guy at the top job and will either need to reformat the company to address the skill shortfall and redesign it around Cook or find someone to truly backfill Jobs. Otherwise, the company will likely drop into a decline, very slow at first but accelerating as long as the skill mismatch continues.”
I realize that patent speak is super verbose for a reason, as those applying want every little nook and cranny of their technology/invention protected. But… well, just look at this: “A three-dimensional imaging and display system is provided in which user input is optically detected in an imaging volume by measuring the path length of an amplitude modulated scanning beam as a function of the phase shift thereof. Visual image user feedback concerning the detected user input is presented.”
That’s the abstract for a new Apple patent application titled “three-dimensional imaging and display system”. If you can detect from that jumble of words why this patent application is important, you get five gold stars. No? OK, I’ll tell you.
It’s basically Apple’s version of the Kinect, offering up 3D touch-free controls for manipulation of the user interface on what could be your Mac, iPad or iPhone. While much more limited than Microsoft’s Kinect, the Apple patent describes an apparatus containing a high-speed infrared laser and a high-speed photo detector. The laser creates a “volume” of space, from which any movement can be detected.
This would allow for users to use movement-based gestures to control the interface on their iThing.
Of course, this is probably one of many patent applications related to Apple’s new 3D control system. Filed for back in August, it’s very likely that Apple is actually doing some hardcore work on this and we may see more similar patents hit the U.S. Patent Office database in the coming months.
[via SlashGear]
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Any long-time Apple devotee has struggled through the charger situation. Those Mag-Safe T-shaped chargers fray pretty easily, at which point you have to twist and turn the cord to pull in a charge. It’s a huge pain, to say the least. But it appears those struggles are coming to a close, as Apple has lost a lawsuit which will now require the company to either replace MagSafe power cords or hand over a chunk of change.
In 2006, Apple made a smart move by introducing magnetic power cords. The idea was that people would stop damaging the charging port and/or their MacBooks if they happened to trip over the cord. The only problem was that the T-shaped adapters ended up fraying at the end, probably since everyone felt free to trip over them and yank them out of the computer.
Still, they should’ve been more durable, and now Apple has to clean up the mess. After now realizing that the 60W and 85W MagSafe MPM-1 power adapters are defective, users will have until March 21, 2012 to file a cash claim, or until December 31, 2012 to go get a replacement, reports the Register. Simply take your damaged charger into an Apple Store or an official Apple partner and ask for a replacement. But know that any signs of accidental damage (which to me would look a lot like “stress relief” damage, so who knows how they’ll determine that) will invalidate your claim.
Here’s Apple’s official wording on claims:
Strain Relief Damage means fraying, melting, straining, sparking, weakening, discoloration, bubbling, overheating and/or separation of the Adapter’s strain reliefs.
If you’re a more recent Mac convertee and own the L-shaped MagSafe charger, no worries. You shouldn’t have the same fraying issues. No word yet on whether non-U.S. MacBook owners will get the same deal.
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