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INTEREST: Microsoft’s Lost Decade
by Wayne Billing 29 Jul '12

29 Jul '12

….from: http://m.vanityfair.com/business/2012/08/microsoft-lost-mojo-steve-ballmer BUSINESS<http://m.vanityfair.com/business> August 2012 Microsoft’s Lost Decade Once upon a time, Microsoft dominated the tech industry; indeed, it was the wealthiest corporation in the world. But since 2000, as Apple, Google, and Facebook whizzed by, it has fallen flat in every arena it entered: e-books, music, search, social networking, etc., etc. Talking to former and current Microsoft executives, Kurt Eichenwald finds the fingers pointing at C.E.O. Steve Ballmer, Bill Gates’s successor, as the man who led them astray. By Kurt Eichenwald<http://m.vanityfair.com/contributors/kurt-eichenwald> [cid:F5BF3918-6F8F-42A9-B72F-7DFD5424C44A] Photograph by Dan Gluskoter/EPA/landov. YOU TALKING TO ME? Microsoft C.E.O. Steve Ballmer delivers the keynote address at the 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show, in Las Vegas, on January 9. To the saccharine rhythm of a Muzak clip, Steve Ballmer crouched into a tackling stance and dashed across a ballroom stage at the Venetian Las Vegas. A 20-foot wall of video screens flashed his name as the 55-year-old Microsoft chief executive bear-hugged Ryan Seacrest, the ubiquitous television and radio host, who had just introduced Ballmer’s keynote speech for the 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show. More than 150,000 techies and executives were swarming the city’s hotels last January in the annual bacchanalia of cutting-edge gizmos and gadgets. Attendees ran from one vendor to the next, snapping up fistfuls of freebies, inhaling flavored oxygen, and rubbing elbows with stars such as LL Cool J and Justin Bieber. But this night, an air of discomfort filled the Palazzo Ballroom, where Ballmer was about to give the show’s opening presentation, one delivered by Microsoft’s C.E.O. for 14 of the previous 17 years—the first 11 by Bill Gates and the rest by Ballmer. Weeks earlier, the company had declared that this would be its final keynote—and, worse, that it wouldn’t even be back next year as an exhibitor to showcase new innovations. The timing for big news about its products, it said, didn’t match that of the annual high-tech pageant. Rumors had swirled throughout the day that Ballmer planned to go out in a blaze of glory, offering a peek at a yet-to-be-released stunner from a company whose recent innovations had too often been lackluster or worse. Instead, what emerged was a gonzo spectacle, structured as a confab between Seacrest and Ballmer. Cookie Monster showed up, as did a gospel choir that belted out a bizarre song composed entirely of random tweets shot into cyberspace by who-the-hell-knows. As for announcements of quantum leaps into the technological future: nothing. Ballmer applauded the still-long-awaited Windows 8 operating system (which as of this writing is available only as a release preview online). He burbled about his expectations for Xbox, the game console that successfully competed with Sony PlayStation. Out came Windows Phone 7 again, which, despite widespread praise from users, had experienced bleak sales results. A demo followed, which proved an embarrassment; the device’s voice-to-text messaging failed and then another glitch forced a Microsoft staffer to reach for a different phone. The media response was dismal—the company’s last presentation, a prominent blogger wrote, was a “cruel joke.” Microsoft’s low-octane swan song was nothing if not symbolic of more than a decade littered with errors, missed opportunities, and the devolution of one of the industry’s innovators into a “me too” purveyor of other companies’ consumer products. Over those years, inconsequential pip-squeaks and onetime zombies—Google, Facebook, Apple—roared ahead, transforming the social-media-tech experience, while a lumbering Microsoft relied mostly on pumping out Old Faithfuls such as Windows, Office, and servers for its financial performance. Amid a dynamic and ever changing marketplace, Microsoft—which declined to comment for this article—became a high-tech equivalent of a Detroit car-maker, bringing flashier models of the same old thing off of the assembly line even as its competitors upended the world. Most of its innovations have been financial debacles or of little consequence to the bottom line. And the performance showed on Wall Street; despite booming sales and profits from its flagship products, in the last decade Microsoft’s stock barely budged from around $30, while Apple’s stock is worth more than 20 times what it was 10 years ago. In December 2000, Microsoft had a market capitalization of $510 billion, making it the world’s most valuable company. As of June it is No. 3, with a market cap of $249 billion. In December 2000, Apple had a market cap of $4.8 billion and didn’t even make the list. As of this June it is No. 1 in the world, with a market cap of $541 billion. How did this jaw-dropping role reversal happen? How could a company that stands among the most cash-rich in the world, the onetime icon of cool that broke IBM’s iron grip on the computer industry, have stumbled so badly in a race it was winning? The story of Microsoft’s lost decade could serve as a business-school case study on the pitfalls of success. For what began as a lean competition machine led by young visionaries of unparalleled talent has mutated into something bloated and bureaucracy-laden, with an internal culture that unintentionally rewards managers who strangle innovative ideas that might threaten the established order of things. By the dawn of the millennium, the hallways at Microsoft were no longer home to barefoot programmers in Hawaiian shirts working through nights and weekends toward a common goal of excellence; instead, life behind the thick corporate walls had become staid and brutish. Fiefdoms had taken root, and a mastery of internal politics emerged as key to career success. In those years Microsoft had stepped up its efforts to cripple competitors, but—because of a series of astonishingly foolish management decisions—the competitors being crippled were often co-workers at Microsoft, instead of other companies. Staffers were rewarded not just for doing well but for making sure that their colleagues failed. As a result, the company was consumed by an endless series of internal knife fights. Potential market-busting businesses—such as e-book and smartphone technology—were killed, derailed, or delayed amid bickering and power plays. That is the portrait of Microsoft depicted in interviews with dozens of current and former executives, as well as in thousands of pages of internal documents and legal records. “They used to point their finger at IBM and laugh,” said Bill Hill, a former Microsoft manager. “Now they’ve become the thing they despised.” Today, Microsoft stands at a precipice, an all-or-nothing opportunity that may be Ballmer’s last chance to demonstrate to Wall Street that he is the right man with the right plan to lead the sprawling enterprise into the future. With Surface, the recently unveiled tablet, Windows 8, Windows Phone 7, Windows Server 2012, and Xbox 720 in the offing, he could be on the verge of proving his strategies—including last year’s controversial, $8.5 billion acquisition of Skype. But whether these succeed or not, executives say, the Microsoft of old, the nimble player that captured the passions of a generation of techies and software engineers, is dead and gone. “I see Microsoft as technology’s answer to Sears,” said Kurt Massey, a former senior marketing manager. “In the 40s, 50s, and 60s, Sears had it nailed. It was top-notch, but now it’s just a barren wasteland. And that’s Microsoft. The company just isn’t cool anymore.” Cool is what tech consumers want. Exhibit A: today the iPhone brings in more revenue than the entirety of Microsoft. No, really. One Apple product, something that didn’t exist five years ago, has higher sales than everything Microsoft has to offer. More than Windows, Office, Xbox, Bing, Windows Phone, and every other product that Microsoft has created since 1975. In the quarter ended March 31, 2012, iPhone had sales of $22.7 billion; Microsoft Corporation, $17.4 billion. …complete article at: http://m.vanityfair.com/business/2012/08/microsoft-lost-mojo-steve-ballmer

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INTEREST: MacWorld's take on Microsoft's SURFACE tablet announcement
by billing 27 Jun '12

27 Jun '12

….from: http://www.macworld.com/article/1167334/looking_at_microsofts_surface_from_… Looking at Microsoft's Surface from an iPad perspective Impressive as some features may be, Microsoft’s tablet won’t threaten the iPad by Lex Friedman, Macworld.com Jun 19, 2012 1:00 pm Microsoft on Monday unveiled its new Surface, a tablet computer it says is “coming soon,” and one clearly aimed at competing directly with the iPad. The Surface is a touchscreen tablet with a 10.6-inch high definition screen. It will run Windows 8 Pro or Windows RT (more on that in a moment)—using the tile-based operating system familiar to Windows Phone users. What Microsoft demonstrated on stage at its press event looked interesting. At least, some of it did. There were clever bits of innovation—most specifically, the Smart Cover-esque Touch Cover and Type Cover. Each connects magnetically to the Surface to protect its screen, and each can trigger the same sleep/wake behavior that the iPad Smart Cover (and now, the Smart Case) achieves. The innovative part is that the covers double as keyboards for the Surface: The thinner Touch Cover uses a multitouch keyboard—the keys don’t move under your fingers, but you can rest your fingers on them without typing. The thicker Type Cover uses actual buttons. No one outside of Microsoft has had the chance to use one of the Surface covers in tandem with a functioning Surface just yet, so it’s hard to say how well the setup works. Still, integrating a keyboard into the cover is an awfully clever idea, and Apple has never been shy about improving upon innovations from elsewhere—see the original Mac OS, the iPod, and Notification Center for examples from three different eras in the company’s history. Some Surface elements, however, don’t seem likely to catch Apple’s eye: The integrated kickstand seemingly defines the Surface as a landscape-orientation only device, and isn’t compatible with the smooth aesthetic Apple favors. Of course, we won’t really know how good (or not) the Surface is until we can truly get our hands on a functioning version of the device. In the near-term, though, while Apple might be intrigued, I doubt Cupertino is ablaze with panic in the aftermath of Microsoft’s Surface unveiling. For one thing, the Surface is saddled with various elements that scream “Microsoft.” Most prominently, it will be sold with two different underlying architectures: an Intel-based model running Windows 8 Pro, and an ARM-processor-based model running Windows RT. Both models will be heavier than the iPad, though the Windows RT version may end up being slightly thinner than the iPad, Microsoft says. Only the Windows 8 Pro surface can run regular Windows apps in addition to touch-optimized ones. The two models will come in different size configurations. iPad purchasing isn’t without complexity of its own: Customers need to choose whether to get Wi-Fi-only models or cellular versions, and then between two different cellular carriers in the U.S. Microsoft didn’t announce any plans to include cellular connectivity in the Surface. Both Surfaces will feature a USB port, Mini DisplayPort, and a micro-SD card slot. There’s plenty of real-world use for those ports, but again, it’s exceedingly unlikely that Apple would add such features to the iPad—so those likely don’t intimidate Apple much, either. And, true to Microsoft’s seeming goal to satisfy all use cases, the Surface will ship with a stylus, too. In truth, though, Apple’s head start here is enormous. The App Store includes 225,000 third-party apps for the iPad; there are currently zero third-party apps designed for the Surface. While Microsoft will surely court the largest app makers and encourage them to develop for its platform, that’s not always an easy sell. For some customers, a tablet must run some flavor of Windows to interest them. Apple’s never going to win those customers over, and needn’t worry about them. For everyone else, there’s the iPad, a series of also-ran not-iPads, and the better-faring ebook tablet market dominated by the Kindle Fire and Nook Color. Microsoft’s Surface will need to get a wide customer base to motivate app makers to develop for it—the same Catch-22 that continues to hamper acceptance of Windows Phone. And there are two other key elements that the Surface still lacks: a ship date and a price. The former isn’t too important; no tablet maker has yet threatened the iPad’s strong hold on the market, and Microsoft can’t really get further behind than “very, very behind” as it already is. The price point, though, is hugely significant. If Microsoft can’t compete with the iPad’s $499 starter price—let alone the iPad 2’s $399 price tag—it’s hard to imagine how, barring huge as-yet-unannounced innovations, it could threaten Apple much at all. Now, if your core business model is making Yet Another Android Tablet that looks like an iPad but is demonstrably inferior, I think you’re right to feel a bit nervous that Microsoft is making a play here. And I wouldn’t be shocked if the ultrabook market finds that Windows customers prefer the Surface’s approach. So even if Apple needn’t be worried just yet, I think a few of the competitors it shares with Microsoft ought to be. [On the surface, Lex Friedman is a Macworld staff writer.]

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INTEREST: INTEL broadens its reach in wireless realm
by Wayne Billing 18 Jun '12

18 Jun '12

INTEL (the chip maker) recently announced its first cell phone, the: "...3G-enabled Xolo X900<http://www.xolo.in/> running Android [on an INTEL Atom chip] will go on sale in [India] on April 23 and cost 22,000 Indian rupees, or about $425, without a cellphone plan..." - http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2403300,00.asp This week Intel announced they will be purchasing 1,700 wireless technology patents for $375 million from InterDigital. This purchase is said to include aspects of technologies relating to 3G, WCDMA, HSDPA, HUSPA, LTE and 802.11 WiFi connections. …from: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/18/us-interdigital-intel-idUSBRE85H1… Intel to buy InterDigital patents for $375 million [The Intel logo is advertised on the side of a computer box as a customer pushes a shopping cart at an electronic store in Phoenix, Arizona November 4, 2009. REUTERS/Joshua Lott] NEW YORK | Mon Jun 18, 2012 12:26pm EDT (Reuters) - InterDigital Inc said on Monday it had agreed to sell to Intel Corp about 1,700 wireless technology patents for $375 million, sending InterDigital shares up 29 percent. The companies said they expect the deal to close in the third quarter. Intel is currently pushing to expand its chip business beyond computers and into mobile devices. InterDigital said in January it would keep looking for buyers for its patent portfolio after it failed to find one for the whole company. In July 2011, InterDigital said it was looking into a possible sale of the company or its patents in the hope that other big patent deals would boost its value. InterDigital shares were up $6.73 or 29 percent at $29.61 on Nasdaq<http://www.reuters.com/finance/markets/index?symbol=us!comp> after the news. (Reporting By Sinead Carew<http://blogs.reuters.com/search/journalist.php?edition=us&n=sinead.carew&>; Editing by Maureen Bavdek and David Gregorio<http://blogs.reuters.com/search/journalist.php?edition=us&n=david.gregorio&>)

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INTEREST: One nano-SIM to rule them all: new, smaller SIM coming to phones and tablets
by Billing Wayne 02 Jun '12

02 Jun '12

…from: http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2012/06/one-nano-sim-to-rule-them-all-apple-… One nano-SIM to rule them all: Apple submission approved as standard The ETSI decision will open the door for thinner and more capable phones. by Jacqui Cheng - June 1 2012, 11:55am CDT Apple wants to put old and busted SIMs in a landfill and replace them with a newer, smaller nano-SIM. The nano-SIM design proposed by Apple has been approved by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), opening the door for the creation of even smaller SIM cards and the continued shrinking of smartphone hardware. ETSI announced its decision on Friday morning, choosing Apple's submission over proposals from Motorola, RIM, and Nokia. The new SIM card design is the fourth form factor (4FF) and is 40 percent smaller than the micro-SIM that is currently popular in today's cell phones. The exact dimensions of the nano-SIM will be 12.3mm wide, 8.8mm high, and 0.67mm thick (0.48" x 0.35" x 0.03"), according to ETSI. And, when it hits the market, it will be packaged so that it's backwards compatible with slots designed to fit the current micro-SIM. This will enable the new SIM to work with older handsets while phone manufacturers work to develop newer hardware that can take advantage of the smaller dimensions. "Today's SIM card designs take up a significant amount of space inside a mobile device," ETSI said in a statement. "This space is more and more valuable in today's handsets which deliver an ever-increasing number of features." Although Apple's design had the support of a number of European cell carriers, the competition among the companies was quite fierce. RIM, Nokia, and Motorola all argued that their own designs would cause less damage to a handset when inserted, therefore making them superior to Apple's design. Nokia even went so far as to say that it would refuse to license Apple's standards-essential patents if it won. "We believe that Apple is mis-using the standardization process, seeking to impose its own proprietary solution on the industry and using ETSI merely to rubber stamp its proposal, rather than following established principles and practices," Nokia said in a statement in March of this year. "We have informed ETSI that, if Apple's proposal is selected, then Nokia will not license its relevant patents to that standard." This was despite the fact that Apple wrote in a letter to ETSI that it would offer royalty-free licenses for its nano-SIM design. Still, Apple did end up making some changes to its design last month in response to the controversy, as did RIM and Motorola. In fact, both sides ended up inching toward each other so much with their modifications that Apple's newly approved design is only different from RIM/Motorola's in minuscule ways. Both 4FF SIMs are the same dimensions on the outside, but RIM/Motorola's differs because it has a notch that would allow handsets to use "push-push" designs instead of sliding trays for the SIM cards. ("Push-push" allows you to push the SIM into the slot, and then push it again in order to get it to pop out.) (Update: this paragraph originally stated that Apple's design was the one with the notch, which was backwards. It has since been corrected.) ETSI didn't specifically name Apple as the winner in its announcement on Friday, but as noted byMacworld, the winner of the ETSI decision was identified by a member of the committee, Giesecke & Devrient. ETSI has also declined to comment on how the decision was made, which is unfortunate since many argue that the notched design would have been superior to the tray design. "We now have an ETSI standardized format for 4FF," the group said in a statement to The Verge. "It's no longer a question of one company or another, the industry has collectively made a decision." As for what the decision means for consumers, some will care about the shrinking SIM specifications and most others will remain completely oblivious. What most consumers will see in the coming years will be smaller and thinner handsets—as we know from various teardowns of popular smartphones, manufacturers tend to pack them as tightly as they can with components in order to keep physical size to a minimum. A 40-percent-smaller SIM means phone manufacturers can continue to reduce handset bulk, or even add newer components that might need a little more space. As for Nokia, it seems the company has come around from its original position on Apple's design—sort of. "Nokia continues to believe that the selected nano-SIM proposal is technically inferior and not suitable for a number of applications, but the ETSI Smart Card Platform Technical Committee has now made its decision," the company said in a statement. "As Nokia believes that ETSI has taken steps to address Nokia's original concerns over the standardization process, we have advised ETSI that we are prepared to license any Nokia patents which are essential to implement the standard, on [fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory] terms."

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Apple Details iOS Security Features in New Guide
by Andre Worms 01 Jun '12

01 Jun '12

Article https://threatpost.com/en_us/blogs/apple-details-ios-security-features-new-… PDF http://images.apple.com/ipad/business/docs/iOS_Security_May12.pdf Andre Worms IT Support Specialist Help and Solutions Centre Client Services, IST University of Manitoba (204) 474-8400 Andre.Worms(a)ad.umanitoba.ca

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INTEREST: Tim Cook: the modern tablet, only the best, "We’re going to double down on secrecy on products…"
by billing 29 May '12

29 May '12

…from: http://allthingsd.com/20120529/live-apple-ceo-tim-cooks-first-time-in-the-h… Liveblog: Apple CEO Tim Cook in the Hot Seat at D MAY 29, 2012 AT 5:00 PM PT While he has presided over a number of events since taking over as Apple CEO last year, Tuesday night promises to offer a new look inside the mind of Tim Cook. Cook, as Steve Jobs did several times during his career, is taking the stage at D: All Things Digital for an in-depth sit-down with Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg. Cook’s appearance will kick off the conference, which runs through Thursday in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif. There’s a ton to talk about, from Cook’s vision for the company to Apple’s plans for the living room and his views on China’s labor practices. The onstage interview won’t be livestreamed, but AllThingsD will have live coverage starting around 6:30 pm PT. 5:48 pm: So, Tim Cook probably won’t hit the stage until close to 6:30, but there will be some fun opening festivities once the conference kicks off at 6:00 p.m. So grab a beverage and come back to your computer, tablet, e-reader or other device of choice. 6:00 pm: The crowd is being asked to take a seat. 6:07 pm: Things are kicking off with News Corp. COO Chase Carey. Carey notes it has been 20 years of @waltmossberg ‘s tech column, 10 years of D: All Things Digital and 5 years of AllThingsD.com 6:09 pm: And here come Walt and Kara, preceded by clips from the first 10 D conferences. Man, Kara has had some great hair styles over the years. Interesting trivia: the signature on-stage chairs have been there since the first year, but they were black at D1 and red ever since. 6:12 pm: Now, the real Walt and Kara take the stage. “That was like a cavalcade of bad haircuts for me,” Kara said. To celebrate 10 years they bring out a Safeway cake (missing a piece) along with a party popper. “That’s crappy,” Kara said. We are unimpressed, Kara tells the actor. Out comes Jane Lynch, harassing Rupert Murdoch for his poor planning. “I have a back-up plan as I always do,” Lynch said. Cue the gospel choir. Yes, we have an actual gospel choir kicking off D10. That’s how we roll. They are singing an amazing rendition of the Beatles “A hard day’s night.” I think this is a sign Apple will announce a deal with the Beatles. Oh wait, they already did that. 6:19 pm: Naturally, now there is a marching band. It’s a marching band from a local high school in Palos Verdes, Calif. playing “When the Saints Go Marching In.” Now, this is an entrance. 6:20 pm: More trivia: the actor that brought out the original dud of a cake was actorLarry Scott who played Lamar Latrell in the Revenge of the Nerds movies. Jane Lynch intros her good friend, “Kate,” err Kara along with Walt. 6:22 pm: And, here he is, Apple CEO Tim Cook. “I would have never agreed to follow that act if you had told me,” Cook said. On his time as Apple CEO “I’m loving every minute of it.” He says he’s never been as amazed by all”the things I cannot talk about today.” The juices are flowing and we have some incredible things coming out. 6:25 pm: Cook talks about the reception that the iPad is getting from people of all ages, across consumers, business and education. The iPad has just been unbelievable. It’s just the first inning. It’s only been two years. As for the Mac, it continues to outgrow the market quarter after quarter. Walt notes that is admittedly from a small base. “We’re never going to make the most personal computers. I don’t see that. But we are going to continue to make the best.” 6:26 pm: Cook credits the iPod for introducing many, many people to the Mac. Cook noted that was largely just in the developed world, but the iPhone is what took the company into China, the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Russia. “The world opened all of a sudden.” The iPad is continuing that. “The world has met Apple,” he said, adding that it is just the first question. So what’s the second inning? What’s on tap for Apple’s developer conference. “That’s a great question,” Cook said. “I’m not going to answer it.” He does promise that people will like it. Cook reckons that there are a lot of people that use their iPad more than their computer. Cook says he does, and he loves his Mac. 6:29 pm: Walt points out that Microsoft is taking a different approach, putting a single operating system on tablets, PCs and devices that are a hybrid of the two. What’s wrong with that? Cook: “In my view the tablet and the PC are different. You can do things with the tablet if you are not encumbered by the legacy of the PC.” Cook says that isn’t the only way to do tablets but says Apple’s approach doesn’t require all that. “We didn’t invent the tablet market,” he notes. “It was there. We invented the modern tablet.” Cook says that supporting the past requires lifting leg weights. “Products are about trade-offs and you have to make tough decisions. You have to choose.” Microsoft, for its part, has pitched Windows 8 as a “no-compromise” operating system. 6:32 pm: Cook makes his analogy of merging the toaster and the refrigerator, saying that someone may merge the two but it won’t be Apple. That’s not what is coming next week, he says. If you merge the two the PC isn’t as good as it can be, nor is the tablet. 6:33 pm: Walt: How is Apple different with you as the CEO? “I learned a lot from Steve. It was absolutely the saddest days of my life when he passed away.” At some point late last year, I sort of, somebody kind of shook me and said, it’s time to get on. That sadness was replaced by hhis intense determination to continue the journey.” 6:34 pm: What did I learn from him? Focus. “You can only do so many things great and you should cast aside everything else.” Cook said not accepting things good or very good but only the best. “That’s embedded in Apple.” I’m not going to witness or permit the change of that. He also taught me the joy is in the journey and that was a revelation for me. Cook also made a reference to the fact that Jobs stressed the importance of owning the key underlying technologies. As for moving on, Cook said. “I love museums but I don’t want to live in one.” 6:37 pm: Cook said he is committed to preserving the culture of Apple. “It is not that easy to duplicate, either, Cook said. “If they could, everybody would be like this,” Cook said. “You can’t get a consultant report” and change to be like Apple. 6:38 pm: Cook said that Jobs told him not to ask what Steve would have done? He looked at me with those intense eyes that only he had and said just do what’s right. “I’m doing that. Does that mean something would be different Of course. But he was the best person at doing that.” Cook notes that Jobs was well known for doing a 180-degree turn if needed, without ever letting on that he had advocated the opposite. 6:40 pm: One of the things Apple has done is start an employee charity donation matching program. Cook said that he subscribes to the notion that “to whom much is given, much is expected.” Matching employee donations allows Apple to do good without having to form lots of committees, etc. “I think we can do even more so we are looking at some things. Maybe that is a change.” Cook said Jobs knew about that program before he died. “He was for it.” He notes Apple will invest a lot in new products and stores and other things he won’t talk about. “We’ve got a little bit left over and we should share it.” So will Apple be less secret, Walt asks. “We’re going to double down on secrecy on products,” he said. But, other things, he said, Apple will be the most transparent company. Supplier reponsibility, environmental issues, etc. “In this area I want people to copy us.” 6:43 pm: On China, Kara notes, you have many critics, and not just fictional ones (a reference to Mike Daisey). Why doesn’t Apple have own factories in China? Cook: We decided a decade ago there were things Apple could do best and that there were other things that somebody else can do as well or better. “Manufacturing was one of those,” Cook said, adding later, “I think that’s still true.” As for China, Cook notes that Apple has been working to reduce overtime. That, he said, is tricky. “Some people want to work a lot. They want to move and work for a year or two and then move back to their village and bring back as much money as they can.” Apple, he said, now has 95 percent compliance and is tracking 700,000 workers in China. “I don’t know anyone else (that) is doing this,” Cook said. “We’re micromanaging this.” 6:46 pm: Walt notes Apple used to have factories in the U.S. He asks if Apple ever envisions having big manufacturing in the U.S.? “I want there to be,” Cook said. This is not well known, Cook said, but the engine for the iPhone and the iPad are built in the U.S. in Austin. The glass is made in a plant in Kentucky. There’s an intense focus on the final assembly, Cook said, but a lot of the value is in the different materials. On the assembly piece, could that be done in the U.S., “I hope so, someday,” Cook said, but he notes the tool and die industry has shrunk dramatically. “There are things we can do and that’s what we are working on,” Cook said. “We should do more semiconductor things in the U.S.” 6:51 pm: One thing that has changed a lot since the first D Conference, Cook said, is the explosion of mobile apps, which he said is a huge industry that has grown up in the U.S. “It’s big enough to be in the Bureau of Labor Statistics.” So why be in the computer business, Kara asks? “I don’t see the tablet replacing the need for all PCs,” Cook said. But, he notes it may slow the replacement cycle for computers. Kara asks about the patent wars. Is it a probelme for innovation “Well it is a pain in the ass,” Cook said. He says Apple can’t afford to paint a painting and then have someone else sign their name to it. “From our point of view, it is important for Apple not be the developer for the world,” Cook said. “We just want other people to invent their own stuff.” Walt, but lots of folks are suing Apple too. Cook acknowledges that, but says there is a difference. “The vast majority of those are on standards-essential patents,” Cook said. “This is an area where the patent system is broken today. Microsoft has a similar beef with Motorola. “No one should be able to get an injunction off a standards-essential patent,” he said. Apple has not sued anyone over standards-essential patents that we own, Cook said. This was never the intention of a standards-essential patent. If you add up all the money that people feel they are owed for such patents, he said that no one could afford to be in the phone business. “It’s kind of gotten crazy,” he said. “It’s not going to stop us from innovating but it’s overhead. It’s overhead that I wish didn’t exist.” Apple recently had court-ordered settlement talks with Samsung, but Cook said he couldn’t comment on those per the magistrate’s order. Kara: So what do you think of Google’s painting. Cook demurs. “I love Apple’s painting,” he said. 6:58 pm: How do you look at competitive landscape when it comes to smartphones, Kara asks. “I wouldn’t say we dominate it,” he said. “I’d say we have the best phone.” There are two big ones, Android and iOS, Cook said. Windows Phone is just really coming to the market, he said. “We’ll see how they do.” Then you have RIM that is still serving some large number of enterprise customers. The momentum right now are in the first two. “Will That change? Anything can change. The smartphone revolution is still in the early stages.” Huge opportunity still he said, noting in a few years there will be few phones that aren’t smart. 7:01 pm: Walt notes that Android makers are focusing on fewer models than in the past. “I wonder where they got that idea,” Cook said. What about Apple, Walt says, noting it only has one new iPhone at a time, as contrasted with the Mac and iPad. Why don’t you have more than one iPhone and more than one iPad and is there any chance you might? “Our North Star is to make the best product,” Cook said, adding that Apple doesn’t design products for schedules. There’s not a policy or commandment that ‘Thou shalt have One.’ ” “If we find that we can do more, great.” Cook notes Apple approach avoids fragmentation with one screen size and one App Store with one policy. 7:04 pm: Walt: Why not make a $99 iPhone? “Who knows what we will do in the future?” Cook said. “I am not going to conjecture.” He said that with the iPod, Apple didn’t set out to cover all the price points, but instead found it could build a lot of great products. That, he said, was the result, but not the goal. “Whenever we can do fantastic products and they yield great price points,” that’s great, he said. 7:06 pm: Kara turns to another topic — TV. Steve talked a lot in his last appearance here about wanting to change TV. Cook notes that Apple has stayed in Apple TV business even without a huge hit. “We’re not a hobby kind of company, as you know.” The company tends to put a lot of wood behind a few arrows. “We’ve stuck in this.” “It’s not a fifth leg of the stool. It’s not of the same market size of the phone business or the Mac business or the music business or the tablet business.” Sold 2.8 million last year and sold nearly that many in the first few months of the year. “This is an area of intense interest for us,” Cook said. “We are going to keep pulling the string and see where this takes us,” Cook said. 7:09 pm: Walt — what about a TV set. Cook: “You were right. I’m not going to tell you.” Walt, hypothetically, can TV be improved with just a box and leaving the panel to others? Cook: “We would look not just at this area, but other areas and ask can we control the key technology? Can we make a significant contribution far beyond what others have done in this area. Can we make a product that we all want… Those are all the things we would ask about any new product category.” Kara: Is Apple TV good enough? Cook: It’s more something where you keep pulling the string to see where it goes. Walt and Cook disagree over whether there is or isn’t a lot of content on there. Walt says that Apple is not solving every problem with the current Apple TV. “I agree,” Cook said “Kara, what question did you have,” Cook said, hoping to change the topic. Kara: How is your relationship with Hollywood? “We have very good relationships with the content owners,” Cook, said. “We don’t want their stuff to be ripped off.” Apple, he said, took the same approach with music. Cook noted that there was a generation that didn’t think it should have to pay for music but that would have led to no artists. Plus, of Hollywood, he said. “These guys have been buying Macs forever. There is a level of trust in those relationships. Steve bought us even closer because he also owned a content business for a while [Pixar].” Kara: What is their biggest complaint of Apple “I don’t know,” Cook said. “I’ve met with several of them recently. They were talking about what more we could do with them” rather than some issue. 7:16 pm: Walt: Are you working on some new kind of content business? Cook: “Kara, What question did you have?” Kara repeats Walt’s question. “I don’t think Apple has to own a content business,” Cook said. “We haven’t had an issue for the most part getting content.” “This is an area where Apple partnering well is the right approach.” The best thing Apple can do, he said, is make a great vehicle for selling content. “The consumer loves it because they can get it where they want it, when they want it.” 7:18 pm: Walt: W “Facebook is a great company. I have great appreciation for them.” Walt, but yet Twitter is integrated and Facebook is not. Why not? “I think the relationship is very solid,” Cook said. “We have great respect for them. I think we can do more with them. Just stay tuned on this one.” Are thy still onerous “They have their way of doing things, but people could say the same thing about us.” “Because you have a point of view doesn’t mean you can’t work with someone?” Kara: Do you see more acquisitions in the future? “We continue to buy companies,” Cook said. THey are not ones we seek to make public.” Kara: Don’t you have to eventually? “It depends on the amount. If I don’t have to, I won’t.” That’s part of the doubling down on secrecy. Kara: Did you look at Instagram? “We didn’t look at Instagram.” As for other big ones? “I wouldn’t rule it out. We’re not looking at a big one right now, but I wouldn’t rule it out.” We haven’t bought a company for revenue stream, he said. “It’s not how we are wired,” he said. Walt notes Apple bought Siri, which actually demoed at D before Apple acquired them. Siri, Walt said, is great when it works, but doesn’t work a lot of the time. That’s not what a lot of people have come to think about Apple products. What’s going on with that. Cook: “Customers love it. It’s one of the most popular features of iPhone 4S. But there’s more that it can do and we have a lot of people working on this. And I think you will be really pleased with some of the things you see over the coming months on this. We have some cool ideas about what Siri can do. We have a lot going on on this.” […more…]

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INTEREST: Green Apple…er…. Apple getting Greener…..
by Wayne Billing 17 May '12

17 May '12

…from: http://www.engadget.com/2012/05/17/apple-breaks-ground-on-second-solar-farm… http://www.apple.com/environment/renewable-energy/ Apple breaks ground on second solar farm for North Carolina data center By Joseph Volpe<http://www.engadget.com/editor/joseph-volpe> [cid:001B186B-2B4C-42E2-AC50-D3705B2F6EAF] <http://www.engadget.com/editor/joseph-volpe/rss.xml> posted May 17th 2012 5:26PM [onsite_map.jpg] [cid:69939E53-D372-488D-A89D-9AE7E5D9CC4E] [cid:DCC9F988-516A-457A-81FE-93C4C0152711] [Image]<http://www.engadget.com/2012/05/17/apple-breaks-ground-on-second-solar-farm…> Last February, Apple<http://www.engadget.com/tag/apple/> came clean about its efforts to clean up the environment<http://www.engadget.com/2012/02/20/apples-2012-enviromental-report-reveals-…>, detailing intentions to make its Maiden, NC data facility<http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/23/apple-tells-shareholders-north-carolina-…> a greener place. That site, already home to one solar farm, is now set to host a second 20 megawatt photovoltaic array spanning 100 acres, a one-two power punch that'll jointly generate 84 million kWh annually. Combined with the company's in-development biofuel cell plant, scheduled for opening later this year, that theoretic yield should hit the 124 million kWh mark -- an amount sufficient to power nearly 11,000 households -- providing 60 percent of the center's electric demands. Still, that's not enough to adequately keep operations afloat, so for that very necessary, leftover 40 percent, the house that Jobs built plans to purchase similar clean energy from outside local sources. When all is finally up and running smoothly, the southern facility will earn the distinction of "most environmentally sound data center ever built." Or, at least until another well-heeled competitor comes along to contest that title. Now that's a friendly competition we can get behind.

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INTEREST: Security company KASPERSKY exec turns tattle-tale.....
by Wayne Billing 15 May '12

15 May '12

…..Apple has hired Kaspersky Labs (a maker of ant-virus software) to help them analyze what security vulnerabilities OS X has. The Kaspersky CTO has begun "talking out of class" about those vulnerabilities as the analysis proceeds; also, doesn't seem to know who owns JAVA and thinks Apple is responsible for fixing it……. …from: http://www.computing.co.uk/ctg/news/2174190/apple-vulnerable-claims-kaspers… Apple OS "really vulnerable", claims Kaspersky Lab CTO * * * * inShare<http://www.computing.co.uk/ctg/news/2174190/apple-vulnerable-claims-kaspers…>17 * By Stuart Sumner<http://www.computing.co.uk/author/profile/1484/stuart-sumner> 14 May 2012 Comments: 4<http://www.computing.co.uk/ctg/news/2174190/apple-vulnerable-claims-kaspers…> [apple-store-2] Apple has invited security company Kaspersky Lab to advise it on the security of its Mac OS<http://www.computing.co.uk/ctg/news/2174190/apple-vulnerable-claims-kaspers…> – according to the security provider's chief technology officer. Speaking exclusively to Computing, Kaspersky CTO Nikolai Grebennikov said his firm had recently begun the process of analysing the Mac<http://www.computing.co.uk/ctg/news/2174190/apple-vulnerable-claims-kaspers…> OS platform at Apple's request. Further reading * Apple should open up iOS within a year, says Kaspersky CTO<http://www.computing.co.uk/ctg/news/2079758/apple-ios-kaspersky-cto> * Apple releases tool to tackle Flashback malware<http://www.computing.co.uk/ctg/news/2167719/apple-releases-tool-tackle-flas…> * Apple fixes 81 security flaws with iOS 5.1 update<http://www.computing.co.uk/ctg/news/2158748/apple-fixes-81-security-flaws-i…> "Mac OS is really vulnerable," he claimed, "and Apple<http://www.computing.co.uk/ctg/news/2174190/apple-vulnerable-claims-kaspers…> recently invited us to improve its security. We've begun an analysis of its vulnerabilities, and the malware targeting it," said Grebennikov. Grebennikov claimed that, in his personal view, Apple does not take security seriously enough. "Our first investigations show Apple doesn't pay enough attention to security. For example, Oracle closed a vulnerability in Java, which was a target for a major botnet several months ago." Earlier this year, a botnet of 600,000 Macs was found to have been infected by the flashback Trojan<http://www.computing.co.uk/ctg/news/2167719/apple-releases-tool-tackle-flas…>, which exploited the Java vulnerability. "Apple blocked Oracle from updating Java on Mac OS, and they perform all the udpates themselves. They only released the patch a few weeks ago – two or three months after the Oracle patch. That's far too long," he said. Grebennikov pointed to the existence of the botnet as evidence that Apple needs help with its security. "This botnet, which the security community identified, is a huge sign that Apple's security model isn't perfect," he said. Kaspersky has often been quoted as criticising the security of various Apple platforms, and now will have the opportunity to improve at least one of them. This appears to be the successful culmination of a long-term Kaspersky strategy to work with Apple. A year ago<http://www.computing.co.uk/ctg/news/2079758/apple-ios-kaspersky-cto>, Grebennikov told Computing that Apple could not hope to keep its mobile platform iOS locked down without outside expertise. While he admitted that no iOS-specific malware has yet been identified, Grebennikov stated that he expects to see iPads and iPhones being infected by malware in the next year. "Our experience tells us that in the near future, perhaps in a year or so, we will see the first malware targeting iOS."

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INTEREST: (US) Judge Rules You Can’t Be (Definitively) Identified by Your IP Address
by Wayne Billing 11 May '12

11 May '12

…from: http://gizmodo.com/5907290/judge-rules-you-cant-be-definitively-identified-… Judge Rules You Can’t Be (Definitively) Identified by Your IP Address Common sense dictates that an IP address is just a number associated with a connection, and not a human being. Copyright crusaders aren't exactly known for loads of common sense and rationality. Thankfully, a New York judge has ruled<http://torrentfreak.com/judge-an-ip-address-doesnt-identify-a-person-120503/> that an IP address alone is not enough to pin illegal downloads on a specific person. The ruling comes in the context of mass torrent lawsuits that just dump thousands of IP addresses into the court and charge everyone associated with them. Cases like the Hurt Lockersuit filed against 5,000 people for downloading the movie. Judge Gary Brown's ruling isn't the first to point out that these cases are idiotic, since there is no practical way to efficiently tie that many address to the specific individuals doing the downloading, but it's by far the most detailed. We've embedded the full ruling below. …more info and the full ruling by Judge Gary brown can be found at the above link….

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PERSPECTIVE: Security firm claims Mac security fall short may be exaggerated
by Wayne Billing 27 Apr '12

27 Apr '12

…from: http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2012/04/kaspersky-trolls-apple-claims-mac… Security firm claims Mac security is "10 years behind" Microsoft By Chris Foresman | Published a day ago Not content to dispel the "myth" that Macs are impervious to malware last week, Kaspersky Lab CEO Eugene Kaspersky is sounding the Mac malware alarm again this week. During the Info Security 2012 conference, he claimed that Apple is 10 years behind Microsoft on the security front. "I think [Apple is] ten years behind Microsoft in terms of security," Kaspersky told CBR. "For many years I've been saying that from a security point of view there is no big difference between Mac and Windows. It's always been possible to develop Mac malware, but [Flashback] was a bit different. For example, it was asking questions about being installed on the system and, using vulnerabilities, it was able to get to the user mode without any alarms." Kaspersky suggested that OS X's relatively low incidence of malware over the last decade has caused Apple to fall behind, while the abundance of viruses, worms, and trojans targeting Windows forced Microsoft to step up its game. There's some truth behind that thinking—Windows 7 is by far the most secure operating system Redmond has built. But Apple hasn't entirely rested on its laurels for the last ten years. The company has added malware detection to OS X, continued to remove default installs of popular exploit vectors like Flash and Java, and added features like address space layout randomization (ASLR) and sandboxing to prevent one application exploit from affecting the whole system. Furthermore, Apple intends to improve security in the next version of OS X, dubbed Mountain Lion. Features like ASLR and sandboxing will have a more robust implementation in Mountain Lion. Meanwhile, Apple is also adding a new feature called GateKeeper, which allows users to limit software installs to either the Mac App Store or to only verified developers. The recent hubbub over the Flashback trojan has certainly raised concerns over the security of OS X, and we agree that Apple could do more to be responsive to malware threats when they are discovered. But to suggest Apple is "10 years behind" belies the efforts it has made to secure the OS from different angles.

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