Apple posts

There may never be a better time for Steve Jobs to step away from Apple. Then again, there may never be a good time for him to step away. Rarely is one individually so acutely connected to the success or failure of an organization as much as Jobs has been over the decades. How will they fair when he finally does leave for good? This infographic by our friends at Online College Resource takes a look at the long and storied history of the man and his company and focuses on the rise of Apple University. The symbiotic relationship is striking. Whether the company will continue its extremely successful ways…

It’s hard to beat Wall Street predictions repeatedly, but Apple continues to be underestimated by experts despite showing no signs of letting up, slowing down, or even considering stopping. They sold nearly 3 million more iPhones than expected and their quarterly EPS beat forecasts by a whopping 33%. Most were impressed by beating forecasts by 20% each of the last 2 quarters. Prospects of a new iPhone, safe inventory levels for iPad 2s, and new Mac computers continue to fuel the most valuable technology company in the world. As a result, shares shot up to $405 after a short after-hours trading…

In the few brief moments of respite we get from the constant flurry of Apple rumors, sometimes it seems worth something to think about the broader effects a company like Apple has. After all, though there is always much debate about the gang from Cupertino, it tends to be about technology or features or interfaces. And in this, I’d argue Apple excel. The iPad is vastly superior to any other tablet on the market. The iPhone became a platform rather than a product, and in doing so totally revolutionized mobile. And the Macbook Air and iMac are certainly very pretty, practical machines. But does all this…

As if they didn’t do a great job already of marketing each individual product they put out, Apple has stepped up their push in the phone market by appealing to those who already have iPads and Macs, as well as those who have friends who have iPhones, iPads, or Macs. “If you don’t have an iPhone…” is the concept and centers around Facetime, the iOS app that allows users to video conference through their mobile devices or computers. With Android phones moving up quickly in the marketplace, Apple is feeling the heat to be more than just the “cool” smartphone. They want to take back any marketshare they’re…

While rumors of an iPad 3 coming out later this year bouncing between yes, no, maybe, and we don’t know, the latest rumor seems to make a little more sense. An HD variation of the current iPad 2 is being considered as “likely” with double the current resolution of 1024×768. The idea is that it would be available as either a pro version or one that would allow HD mobile apps. The folks over at TechFast match our own speculations. Would it be useful? Maybe. Would it sell? Obviously. …

Our mobile devices have many uses to us, well beyond the talk and text functionality of the past. Millions of mobile apps are downloaded to smartphones and tablets every day. The types of apps we download are an indication of what uses we see for mobile devices. According to a recent study by Nielson, we want to have fun, know when it’s going to rain, monitor Facebook, and get directions. Over half of mobile device users have used apps for gaming, weather, social networking, and/or navigation in the last 30 days. Music, news, and entertainment follow. Perhaps more interesting is the fact that 93%…

In this cartoon by the geniuses at Joy of Tech, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg invokes the 1981 ad that Apple ran in the Wall Street Journal “welcoming” IBM to the world of personal computers. The ad, of course, didn’t work out very well at the time but has become an icon of bold messaging in competitive advertising. JoT shows Zuckerberg how to correct his stance in the battle his company is currently having with Google as they prepare to launch Google+ against Facebook. …

Skype has become a popular app for the iPhone, bringing video calling to millions of mobile users. Now the service appears to be heading to Apple’s iPad very soon. After accidentally leaking a video of the new product, Skype confirmed that it’s preparing an iPad app, but has yet to provide a release date. The leaked video shows a very polished product which looks just about ready for release. The app will benefit from the iPad 2’s large screen size and camera, but it will feature much of the same functionality of mobile and desktop clients. One item that’s missing is file sharing, and that’s…

Apple’s iOS, for all its benefits, is notoriously closed. Particularly annoying about this is that you have no access to the OS’s file structure, which means you cannot download music or video clips from across the web. Thankfully a new iPhone and iPad app called Meteoric looks to fix that. Though on the surface Meteoric is a download manager, it actually works by providing the user with a browser. As you browse through sites, links to media content – images, music, video, or any other format that works natively on iOS – can be downloaded simply by long-pressing the link. Upon doing so, you then get…

For the past couple of years, we have been waiting to see whether Research in Motion, the makers of the Blackberry, could rise to meet the challenge of iOS and, later, Android. And for a while, we were hopeful. Looking at RIM’s past and brand loyalty, there was much reason to believe they would succeed despite Apple and Google’s onslaughts. But yesterday, two news stories came out that were symbols of RIM’s (probably permanent) decline. The first was that Apple has enough cash to buy the entire mobile phone industry. The second was that RIM themselves have halved their internal projections for their…