Apple Computer News - SVDaily.com

Apple founder and CEO Steve Jobs unveiled his company's newest creation in San Francisco today -- the iPad.

Resembling a larger version of the iPhone and iPod Touch, the iPad features a 9.7-inch color screen and weighs 1.5 pounds. The device won't go on sale for another 60 days in the U.S.

Prices start at $499 for a 16GB model using wi-fi, $599 for a 32GB model and $699 for a 64GB version. The iPad with 3G access via AT&T costs an additional $130 for each model. Plans with AT&T are $14.99 per month for 250 MB of data and $29.99 per month unlimited. Apple continues its relationship with AT&T despite complaints of poor data reception primarily in the Bay Area and NYC.

ipad

Apple announced financial results for its fiscal 2010 first quarter ended December 26, 2009. The Company posted revenue of $15.68 billion and a net quarterly profit of $3.38 billion. These results compare to revenue of $11.88 billion and net quarterly profit of $2.26 billion in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 40.9 percent, up from 37.9 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 58 percent of the quarter's revenue.

Apple sold 3.36 million Macintosh computers during the quarter, representing a 33 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. Laptops accounted for 2.1 million sold.

The company said it sold 8.7 million iPhones worldwide, representing 100 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter. Apple sold 20.97 million iPods during the quarter, representing an eight percent unit decline from the year-ago quarter.

"If you annualize our quarterly revenue, it's surprising that Apple is now a $50+ billion company," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "The new products we are planning to release this year are very strong, starting this week with a major new product that we're really excited about."

"We are very pleased to have generated $5.8 billion in cash during the quarter, " said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple's CFO. "Looking ahead to the second fiscal quarter of 2010, we expect revenue in the range of about $11.0 billion to $11.4 billion and we expect diluted earnings per share in the range of about $2.06 to $2.18. "

Apple's retail stores accounted for $1.97 billion in sales, up 13% from a year ago.

Steve Jobs continued to earn a salary of just $1 in 2009 according to just released proxy statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The 54-year-old Jobs underwent a liver transplant in Tennessee last year and was out of action as CEO for much of the year.

There's no need to worry about Jobs' finances though since he owns 5,546,451 shares according to the proxy statement, worth about $1.1 billion. He hasn't sold any stock since returning to Apple in 1997. But Apple is not his only source of wealth since Jobs is the largest private shareholder of Disney Corp., received from the sale of Pixar to Disney in 2006. According to Disney's proxy statement, Jobs has 138,000,007 shares in Disney or 7% of total shares outstanding. The Disney shares are worth over $4.1 billion.

Apple Executives Relatively Young

Apple's executive staff remains relatively young according to the recently released company proxy statement, with no one over 51 years old.

Executive Officers
Name	Position With the Company	Age as of the Annual Meeting
Timothy D. Cook	Chief Operating Officer	49
Scott Forstall	Senior Vice President, iPhone Software Engineering & Platform Experience	41
Ronald B. Johnson	Senior Vice President, Retail	51
Robert Mansfield	Senior Vice President, Mac Hardware Engineering	49
Peter Oppenheimer	Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer	47
Mark Papermaster	Senior Vice President, Devices Hardware Engineering	48
Philip W. Schiller	Senior Vice President, Worldwide Product Marketing	49
Bertrand Serlet	Senior Vice President, Software Engineering	49
D. Bruce Sewell	Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary	51

AppMakr, a new service that allows anyone to make an iPhone application, officially launched this week. AppMakr was created by PointAbout, Inc.

“We are very excited about this launch,” said Sean Shadmand, Chief Strategy Officer of PointAbout, Inc. “We have created a service that enables easy content distribution to the iPhone in a highly monetizable way. iPhone apps often cost more than $10,000 and take weeks or months to create, making the decision to execute a mobile strategy a difficult one. AppMakr completely flips this paradigm by enabling anyone to make a high quality iPhone app in under an hour, for as little as $199.”

AppMakr offers, for the first time, a “What You See is What You Get” WSYWIG interface for creating a fully native iPhone application. Users can enter a website URL or keywords and AppMakr will create a sample iPhone app in under 30 seconds built from that content.

Users can then customize the iPhone application by:

1. Adding content feeds, including Twitter, RSS, iTunes podcast, Flickr, YouTube, Blogger, mp4, and others

2. Changing the app’s branding, including the icon, splash screen, tab icons, header image, and text colors

3. Monetizing the app by charging for it on iTunes, or by adding ads from AdMob, Medialets, DoubleClick and Google AdSense

Publishing the app to the iTunes App Store is as easy as choosing between two options:

· The Easy Way: AppMakr publishes your app for $199

· You're In Control: Publish under your own brand for $499.

AppMakr is offering a $99 discount coupon for the first 1,000 users through January 15, 2010. Use coupon “LAUNCH” at checkout.

Apple has acquired privately held Lala.com of Palo Alto according to published reports. Terms of the deal weren't disclosed.

Lala.com specializes in streaming music with over 8 million songs available for listening and no ads.

All four major labels including EMI Music, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group have agreements with Lala to stream and sell music as well as over 170,000 independent labels and distributors.

Users can listen to any song or album once for free and then pay 10 cents to listen online or 79-89 cents for an MP3 download.

Apple announced that developers have created over 100,000 apps for its online App Store, the largest applications store in the world. iPhone and iPod touch customers in 77 countries can choose from a range of apps in 20 categories, including games, business, news, sports, health, reference and travel. App Store users have downloaded well over two billion apps, continuing to make it the world’s most popular applications store. Apps are available in free and paid versions.

“The App Store, now with over 100,000 applications available, is clearly a major differentiator for millions of iPhone and iPod touch customers around the world,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “The iPhone SDK created the first great platform for mobile applications and our customers are loving all of the amazing apps our developers are creating.”

“The App Store has forever changed the mobile gaming industry and continues to improve,” said Travis Boatman, vice president of Worldwide Studios, EA Mobile. “With a global reach of over 50 million iPhone and iPod touch users, the App Store has allowed us to develop high quality EA games that have been a huge success with customers.”

“With 10,000 downloads a day, worldwide customer response to our I Am T-Pain App has exceeded our wildest expectations,” said Jeff Smith, CEO of Smule. “The App Store has given us a unique opportunity to create and grow a very successful business, and we’re looking forward to an exciting future.”

Apple has introduced new software for use with its Apple TV box. The Apple TV 3.0 software features a redesigned main menu that makes navigating your favorite content simpler and faster, and makes enjoying the largest selection of on-demand HD movie rentals and purchases, HD TV shows, music and podcasts from the iTunes Store even better on your TV. You can now enjoy iTunes Extras and iTunes LP in fullscreen with your Apple TV, as well as listen to Genius Mixes and Internet radio through your home theater system. The new Apple TV software is available immediately free of charge to existing Apple TV owners, and Apple TV with 160GB capacity is available for $229.

“The new software for Apple TV features a simpler and faster interface that gives you instant access to your favorite content,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of Internet Services. “HD movies and HD TV shows from iTunes have been a huge hit with Apple TV customers, and with Apple TV 3.0 they get great new features including iTunes Extras, Genius Mixes and Internet radio.”

The redesigned main menu on Apple TV gives you instant access to your favorite content. Recently rented or purchased movies, as well as other content including TV shows, music, podcasts, photos and YouTube, are accessible directly from the new main menu. The new software also allows Apple TV users to enjoy stunning fullscreen iTunes Extras and iTunes LP, including great new movie titles such as “Star Trek” or classics like “The Wizard of Oz” and albums such as Taylor Swift’s “Fearless (Platinum Edition)” and Jack Johnson’s “En Concert.” iTunes Extras gives movie fans great additional content such as deleted scenes, interviews and interactive galleries. iTunes LP is the next evolution of the music album, delivering a rich, immersive experience for select albums on the iTunes Store by combining beautiful design with expanded visual features like live performance videos, lyrics, artwork, liner notes, interviews, photos, album credits and more.

Now Apple TV users can enjoy Genius Mixes through their home theater system and listen to up to 12 endless mixes of songs that go great together, automatically generated from their iTunes library. Customers can also enjoy Internet radio, allowing them to browse and listen to thousands of Internet radio stations, as well as tag favorite stations to listen to later. Apple TV’s support of HD photos is enhanced with iPhoto Events, which simplifies finding your favorite photos on Apple TV, as well as iPhoto Faces, which gives access to photos organized by people identified in iPhoto.

Apple this week unveiled an all new iMac lineup featuring brilliant 21.5 and 27-inch widescreen displays in a new edge-to-edge glass design and all aluminum enclosure. The new iMac line, starting at $1,199, is the fastest ever according to the company with Intel Core 2 Duo processors starting at 3.06 GHz, and Core i5 and i7 quad-core processors for up to twice the performance. Every new iMac ships with a wireless keyboard and the all new wireless Magic Mouse, a new mouse with Multi-Touch technology pioneered by Apple on the iPhone, iPod touch and Mac notebook trackpad.

“The iMac is widely praised as the best desktop computer in the world and today we are making it even better,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “With brilliant LED displays and the revolutionary Magic Mouse, the new iMac delivers an amazing desktop experience that we think customers will love.”

The new iMac features LED-backlit displays with a 16:9 aspect ratio, ideal for watching high definition movies and TV shows from iTunes, or editing and watching your own videos or photos using iLife. The new 21.5-inch iMac features a high resolution 1920-by-1080 pixel display. The 27-inch iMac features a 2560-by-1440 pixel display that offers 60 percent more pixels than the previous 24-inch model. Both 21.5 and 27-inch displays use IPS technology to deliver consistent color across an ultra wide 178 degree viewing angle. Prices start at $1,199 for the 21.5-inch model and $1,699 for the 27-inch version. They are on sale immediately.

Apple also updated its entry-level MacBook laptop computers and Mac mini.

Apple reported financial results for its fiscal 2009 fourth quarter ended September 26, 2009. The Company posted revenue of $9.87 billion and a net quarterly profit of $1.67 billion -- its most profitable quarter ever. These results compare to revenue of $7.9 billion and net quarterly profit of $1.14 billion in the year-ago quarter.

Apple sold 3.05 million Macintosh computers during the quarter, representing a 17 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. The Company sold 10.2 million iPods during the quarter, representing an eight percent unit decline from a year ago. Apple sold 7.4 million iPhones in the quarter, representing seven percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter.

“We are thrilled to have sold more Macs and iPhones than in any previous quarter,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We’ve got a very strong lineup for the holiday season and some really great new products in the pipeline for 2010.”

Apple's retail stores generated $1.867 billion, up 9% from a year ago.

Laptops are the bulk of Apple's computer sales with 2.2 million sold in the quarter, up 35% from a year ago. Desktops, including the iMac, sold 787,000 units which was down 16% from last year.

Apple announced that more than two billion apps have been downloaded from its App Store, the largest applications store in the world. There are now more than 85,000 apps available to the more than 50 million iPhone and iPod touch customers worldwide and over 125,000 developers in Apple’s iPhone Developer Program. The apps downloaded include both free and paid programs.

“The rate of App Store downloads continues to accelerate with users downloading a staggering two billion apps in just over a year, including more than half a billion apps this quarter alone,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “The App Store has reinvented what you can do with a mobile handheld device, and our users are clearly loving it.”

Today, iPhone and iPod touch customers in 77 countries worldwide can choose from a broad range of apps in 20 categories, including games, business, news, sports, health, reference and travel.

Apple announced that Bruce Sewell, formerly senior vice president and general counsel of Intel Corporation, will join Apple as the company’s General Counsel and senior vice president, Legal and Government Affairs. He will report to Apple CEO Steve Jobs. Daniel Cooperman, who has served in these roles at Apple for the past two years, will be retiring at the end of September.

“We are thrilled to have Bruce join our executive team, and wish Dan a very happy retirement,” said Steve Jobs. “With Bruce’s extensive experience in litigation, securities and intellectual property, we expect this to be a seamless transition.”

At Intel, Sewell has been responsible for leading all of Intel’s legal, corporate affairs and corporate social responsibility programs, managing attorneys and policy professionals located in over 30 countries around the world. He joined Intel in 1995 as a senior attorney assigned to counsel various business groups in areas such as antitrust compliance, licensing and intellectual property. In 2001, Sewell was promoted to vice president and deputy general counsel, managing Intel’s litigation portfolio, and handled corporate transactions including M&A activities.

Prior to joining Intel, he was a partner in the litigation firm of Brown and Bain PC. Sewell was admitted to the California Bar in 1986 and to the Washington D.C. Bar in 1987. He received his J.D. from George Washington University in 1986, and a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Lancaster, in the United Kingdom, in 1979.

Steve Jobs, Apple's co-founder and CEO, returned to center stage Wednesday as the main speaker for the company's presentation in San Francisco. Jobs had a liver transplant five months ago and received a standing ovation from co-workers, media and invited guests at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.

Jobs said he was fortunate to be standing vertical on stage and had a received a liver from a person in their mid-20s who died in a car accident. He encouraged everyone in the audience to consider organ donation.

The 54-year-old Jobs looked very thin and has survived his second bout with death after undergoing pancreatic cancer surgery in 2004. This was Jobs' first appearance at an Apple event since last October where his weight loss then sparked concern.

Jobs helped unveil new versions of iTunes and iPhone software along with revamped lineup of iPods. Sales of the company's iPhones and iPods have been incredible for the company with over 30 million iPhones sold worldwide and more than 220 million iPods to date.

Apple Puts Video Camera, FM Tuner in iPod Nano

Apple introduced the new iPod nano, adding a video camera, mic and speaker to the world’s most popular music player. Music lovers can now shoot video wherever they are, view it on their iPod nano and use their computers to easily transfer their videos to YouTube. The new iPod nano features an ultra-thin and sleek design with a larger 2.2-inch color display and gorgeous polished aluminum and glass enclosure. iPod nano also features a built-in FM radio with live pause and iTunes Tagging, as well as a built-in pedometer. The new iPod nano is available in an 8GB model for $149 and a 16GB model for $179, and comes in nine brilliant colors including silver, black, purple, blue, green, orange, yellow, (PRODUCT) RED and pink.

“iPod nano is the world’s most popular music player with over 100 million sold,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “And now we’ve added a video camera to its incredibly thin design, without any additional cost to the user.”

iPod nano features a larger 2.2-inch display for easier navigating, enjoying album art, or shooting and viewing video clips. iPod nano is ultra-portable so users can shoot video wherever they are, in either portrait or landscape. iPod nano customers can share videos instantly with friends using its display and speaker, or sync with a Mac or PC and share them on YouTube, MobileMe, Facebook or via email. iPod nano can even shoot videos with fun real-time effects such as Thermal, Film Grain, Kaleido and X-Ray.

iPod nano now has a built-in FM radio with live pause and iTunes Tagging. Live pause lets iPod nano users pause and resume playing their favorite FM radio shows.

China Unicom announced it has come to a three-year agreement with Apple to begin selling the iPhone in China later this year.

This will be the first time China can legally buy iPhones in the country even though the device is built at factories there. Also, a huge market currently exists for unlocked iPhones that run on other cellular networks.

China Unicom is one of the largest cellular providers in China with over 140 million mobile subscribers.

The company will not share revenue with Apple according to the Wall Street Journal and the price for the iPhone in China has not been announced.

Apple announced that the latest version of Mac OS X, dubbed version 10.6 Snow Leopardm will go on sale Friday, August 28 at Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers. Apple’s online store is now accepting pre-orders. Snow Leopard has hundreds of refinements, new core technologies and out of the box support for Microsoft Exchange. Snow Leopard will be available as an upgrade for Mac OS X Leopard users for $29.

“Snow Leopard builds on our most successful operating system ever and we’re happy to get it to users earlier than expected,” said Bertrand Serlet, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering. “For just $29, Leopard users get a smooth upgrade to the world’s most advanced operating system and the only system with built in Exchange support.”

To create Snow Leopard, Apple engineers refined 90 percent of the more than 1,000 projects that make up Mac OS X. Users will notice refinements including a more responsive Finder; Mail that loads messages up to twice as fast; Time Machine with an up to 80 percent faster initial backup; a Dock with Exposé integration; QuickTime X with a redesigned player that allows users to easily view, record, trim and share video; and a 64-bit version of Safari 4 that is up to 50 percent faster and resistant to crashes caused by plug-ins. Snow Leopard is half the size of the previous version and frees up to 7GB of drive space once installed.

For the first time, system applications including Finder, Mail, iCal, iChat and Safari are 64-bit and Snow Leopard’s support for 64-bit processors makes use of large amounts of RAM, increases performance and improves security while remaining compatible with 32-bit applications. Grand Central Dispatch (GCD) provides a revolutionary new way for software developers to write applications that take advantage of multicore processors. OpenCL, a C-based open standard, allows developers to tap the power of the graphics processing unit for tasks that go beyond graphics.

According to The NPD Group, a leading market research company, while CDs remain the most popular format for paid music purchases, digital music sales are making up an ever-greater share of U.S. music sales. CDs comprised 65 percent of all music sold in the first half of 2009 compared to paid digital downloads, which comprised 35 percent of music sales. By comparison, paid digital music downloads comprised just 20 percent of sales in 2007 – growing to 30 percent of the music market last year.

According to NPD MusicWatch, when it comes to the unit-sales volume of music sold at retail – including paid digital music downloads and CDs – Apple iTunes leads in the U.S. with 25 percent of music units sold, which is up from 21 percent in 2008 and 14 percent in 2007. Walmart (including Walmart, Walmart.com, Walmart Music Downloads) remains in second position with 14 percent of music volume sold at their stores and Web sites with Best Buy ranked third.

iTunes also continued to solidify its lead in the digital music arena, as consumer downloads from iTunes comprised 69 percent of the digital music market in the first half of 2009, followed by AmazonMP3 at 8 percent. Walmart leads all sellers of CDs with a 20 percent share of the physical music market, followed by Best Buy at 16 percent and Target and Amazon tied at 10 percent each.

"The growth of legal digital music downloads, and Apple's success in holding that market, has increased iTunes's overall strength in the retail music category," said Russ Crupnick, entertainment industry analyst for The NPD Group. "But the importance of the big box retailers shouldn't be dismissed, as long as the majority of music consumers continue to buy CDs."

Google CEO Eric Schmidt has resigned from Apple's Board of Directors. His departure has been speculated for months due to Google's new businesses encroaching on Apple's own product line.

Schmidt has been an Apple board member since August 2006. A Google Voice application for the iPhone was rejected by Apple just last week and triggered an FCC inquiry.

“Eric has been an excellent Board member for Apple, investing his valuable time, talent, passion and wisdom to help make Apple successful,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO in a statement. “Unfortunately, as Google enters more of Apple’s core businesses, with Android and now Chrome OS, Eric’s effectiveness as an Apple Board member will be significantly diminished, since he will have to recuse himself from even larger portions of our meetings due to potential conflicts of interest. Therefore, we have mutually decided that now is the right time for Eric to resign his position on Apple’s Board.”

No replacement has been named yet.

Apple announced financial results for its fiscal 2009 third quarter ended June 27, 2009. The Company posted revenue of $8.34 billion and a net quarterly profit of $1.23 billion. Revenues were a record at Apple for a non-holiday quarter. These results compare to revenue of $7.46 billion and net quarterly profit of $1.07 billion, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 36.3 percent, up from 34.8 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 44 percent of the quarter’s revenue.

Apple sold 2.6 million Macintosh computers during the quarter, representing a four percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. The Company sold 10.2 million iPods during the quarter, representing a seven percent unit decline from the year-ago quarter. Quarterly iPhones sold were 5.2 million, representing 626 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter.

“We’re making our most innovative products ever and our customers are responding,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We’re thrilled to have sold over 5.2 million iPhones during the quarter and users have downloaded more than 1.5 billion applications from our App Store in its first year.”

Research in Motion, maker of the popular BlackBerry handheld devices, announced on its blog that BlackBerry Desktop Software will be coming to Mac in September for the first time. It had only been available for Windows users.

Here are some key features the initial release will include:

* Sync your iTunes playlists, calendars, contacts, notes and tasks
* Add/Remove applications
* Update your device when new software becomes available
* Backup and restore your device data with such features like automatically scheduled backups and optional encryption
* Manage multiple devices

BlackBerry Desktop Software will support Mac OS 10.5.5 and above.

Apple said this week that customers have downloaded more than 1.5 billion applications in just one year from its App Store, the largest applications store in the world. The App Store features more than 65,000 apps and more than 100,000 developers in the iPhone Developer Program.

Many apps on the store are free and some charge 99 cents or more.

“The App Store is like nothing the industry has ever seen before in both scale and quality,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO in a statement. “With 1.5 billion apps downloaded, it is going to be very hard for others to catch up.”

Jobs is referring to "others" as Palm, Blackberry and Google's Android phones which are trying to encourage development of third-party apps.

Apple's size and massive customer base has made it the leader in mobile applications. The App Store has over 65,000 apps available to consumers in 77 countries, allowing developers to reach tens of millions of iPhone and iPod touch users around the world. The App Store works with both iPod touch and iPhone including the new iPhone 3GS, the fastest, most powerful iPhone yet. Apple has shipped over 40 million of these devices that run apps from the App Store.

Apple is planning to a build a data center in Catawba County, NC after receiving significant tax breaks from the county and state. The data center will be built in Maiden, NC.

According to the AP, the state of North Carolina changed its tax calculations to land Apple's $1 billion data center, giving the company a tax break estimated at $46 million in the next decade. The local governments have promised another $20.7 million in tax breaks over 10 years.

The center will only employ about 50 people but could generate hundreds more in local support jobs.

The data center will host iTunes content which includes millions of songs, videos, movies and applications for the iPhone and iTouch. Google last year opened its own data center in Lenoir, NC about 30 miles away.

The Transplant Institute of Methodist University Hospital, a hospital in Memphis, TN, has confirmed that it performed a liver transplant on Apple CEO Steve Jobs in a news release on its website:

James D. Eason, M.D., program director at Methodist University Hospital Transplant Institute and chief of transplantation confirmed, with the patient's permission, that Steve Jobs received a liver transplant at Methodist University Hospital Transplant Institute in partnership with the University of Tennessee in Memphis.

Mr. Jobs underwent a complete transplant evaluation and was listed for transplantation for an approved indication in accordance with the Transplant Institute policies and United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) policies.

He received a liver transplant because he was the patient with the highest MELD score (Model for End-Stage Liver Disease) of his blood type and, therefore, the sickest patient on the waiting list at the time a donor organ became available. Mr. Jobs is now recovering well and has an excellent prognosis.

The Methodist University Hospital Transplant Institute performed 120 liver transplants in 2008 making it one of the ten largest liver transplant centers in the United States.

The hospital's one year patient and graft survival rates are among the best in the nation and were a dominant reason in Mr. Jobs’s choice of transplant centers according to the statement. The hospital says it will "respect and protect every patient's private health information and cannot reveal any further information on the specifics of Mr. Jobs's case."

The hospital did not say when the operation occurred but was reportedly done in April.

Apple announced that it has sold over one million iPhone 3GS models through Sunday, June 21, the third day after its launch. In addition, six million customers have downloaded the new iPhone 3.0 software in the first five days since its release.

“Customers are voting and the iPhone is winning,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO in a statement. “With over 50,000 applications available from Apple’s revolutionary App Store, iPhone momentum is stronger than ever.”

Jobs was quoted for the first time in a company statement since January. It was reported by The Wall Street Journal that Jobs underwent a liver transplant in Memphis, TN in April and is recovering. He is expected to return part-time to the company this month.

The iPhone 3GS went on sale in the U.S., Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom on Friday. More countries will begin selling the 3GS throughout the summer and will eventually be available in 80 different nations.

Apple began selling its new iPhone 3GS today at its own retail stores nationwide at 7 a.m. and also at AT&T, Best Buy and Wal-Mart stores. The company avoided the long lines from previous iPhone debuts with the early morning sale time instead of 6 p.m. at its debut two years ago. It also offered pre-ordering for customers so no waiting was needed.

AT&T is the exclusive provider of iPhone service with the following prices:

* $199 (16GB) and $299 (32GB) for all new AT&T customers and existing AT&T customers who have fulfilled their previous agreement. AT&T has extended this pricing to iPhone 3G customers who will be eligible for a full upgrade in July, August, or September 2009.
* $399 (16GB) and $499 (32GB) for existing AT&T customers who have not yet fulfilled their existing agreement but would like an early upgrade to iPhone 3G S. This early upgrade option is exclusively available for iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS.

Prices above require a two-year service commitment and approved voice and data plan. Options are available to purchase these phones without a two-year contract commitment.

In a keynote address at the Worldwide Developers' Conference in San Francisco, Apple marketing chief Philip Schiller introduced the new iPhone 3G S, the fastest, most powerful iPhone yet. Video of the keynote can be seen here. Apple founder Steve Jobs did not appear at the keynote as rumored nor was he mentioned during the presentation.

The S stands for speed according to Apple and is up to twice as fast as iPhone 3G with longer battery life, a high-quality 3 megapixel autofocus camera, easy to use video recording and hands free voice control. iPhone 3G S includes the new iPhone OS 3.0, the latest advanced version of Apple's mobile operating system with over 100 new features such as Cut, Copy and Paste, Multimedia Messaging Service capabilities, Spotlight Search, landscape keyboard and more.

The iPhone 3G S offers twice the capacity for the same price with a 16GB model for just $199 and a new 32GB model for just $299 with contract.

Apple is also cutting prices for its current iPhone. The iPhone 3G is now just $99 for the 8GB model as it faces competition from the new Palm Pre and other Blackberry phones.

U.S. customers can get the new iPhone on June 19 in both Apple and AT&T's retail and online stores, Best Buy and Wal-Mart stores. iPhone 3G S requires a new two year contract with AT&T for qualifying customers.

iPhone OS 3.0 software will be available on June 17 as a free software update via iTunes 8.2 or later for all iPhone customers. iPod touch customers will be able to purchase a software update for $9.95.

Apple updated Monday its aluminum MacBook Pro line to include 13-inch, 15-inch and 17-inch models featuring a built-in battery for up to 40 percent longer battery life. Each MacBook Pro includes an LED-backlit display with greater color intensity, the glass Multi-Touch trackpad, an illuminated keyboard, an SD card or ExpressCard slot, a FireWire 800 port and NVIDIA graphics.

The 13-inch model is priced at $1,199, the 15-inch model starts at $1,699 and the 17-inch version is $2.499. The laptops are still pricey but some have seen price drops of $300 from the previous generation. Every Mac notebook achieves EPEAT Gold status and meets Energy Star 5.0 requirements, setting a new standard for environmentally friendly notebook design.

Apple has also unveiled a new version of its lightweight MacBook Air with a lower price of $1,499.

"Across the line, all of our new MacBook Pro models now include Apple’s innovative built-in battery for up to seven hours of battery life, while staying just as thin and light as before," said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. "Starting at just $1,199, the aluminum unibody MacBook Pro is more affordable than ever and sets a new standard for environmentally friendly notebook design."

The new 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Pro models include Apple's innovative built-in notebook battery for up to seven hours of wireless productivity on a single charge without adding thickness, weight or cost. Using Adaptive Charging and advanced chemistry first introduced with the 17-inch MacBook Pro earlier this year, the built-in battery delivers up to 1,000 recharges before it reaches 80 percent of its original capacity -- nearly three times the lifespan of conventional batteries.

Apple is offering a free iPod Touch to college students, parents and faculty who buy a new Mac desktop or laptop computer as part of its Back to School campaign.

The iPod Touch has a retail price of $229 and buyers will get a rebate off the purchase price with another purchase of a MacBook, MacBook Pro, iMac, MacBook Air or Mac Pro computers. In addition, qualified buyers can get discounts on the computers ranging from $50 to $200.

Those eligible to purchase as Education Individuals include faculty, staff, students, and parents as follows:
K12 - Any employee of a public or private K-12 institution in the United States is eligible. In addition, school board members who are currently serving as elected or appointed members
are eligible. PTA or PTO executives currently serving as elected or appointed officers are eligible.
Higher Education - Faculty and staff of higher education institutions; and students attending, or accepted into a higher education institution are eligible to purchase.
Higher Education Parents - Parents purchasing on behalf of their child, who is a student currently attending or accepted into a public or private higher education institution in the United States, are eligible to purchase.

Up to five (5) rebates per receipt may be claimed based on the number of Apple Computers and iPod models purchased. A maximum of five (5) rebates per household may be claimed.

Apple will kick off its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) with a keynote address on Monday, June 8 at 10:00 a.m. A team of Apple executives, led by Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing, will deliver the keynote. There is no word whether Apple founder Steve Jobs will make an appearance. Jobs has been out for more than six months due to illness.

WWDC will offer in-depth sessions on both iPhone OS 3.0, the new mobile operating system for the iPhone, and Mac OS X Snow Leopard, an updated version of the Mac operating system. The conference will likely see the introduction of new products including an updated version of the iPhone.

"Last June, we gave developers an early look at the powerful new technologies that form the underpinnings of Mac OS X Snow Leopard," said Bertrand Serlet, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering. "At WWDC, we will be giving our developers a final Developer Preview release so they can see the incredible progress we've made on Snow Leopard and work with us as we move toward its final release."

* more than 100 technical sessions presented by Apple engineers on a wide range of technology-specific topics for developing, deploying and integrating iPhone OS 3.0 and Mac OS X technologies;
* over 1,000 Apple engineers presenting the latest in Apple technologies and providing one-to-one direction in hands-on labs; and
* the opportunity to connect with thousands of fellow iPhone and Mac developers from around the world.

Apple announced last week that over one billion applications have been downloaded from the App Store, which features over 35,000 applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch. The one billionth app, Bump created by Bump Technologies, was downloaded by Connor Mulcahey, age 13, of Weston, CT. As the grand prize winner of Apple’s one billion app countdown contest, Connor will receive a $10,000 iTunes gift card, an iPod touch, a Time Capsule and a MacBook Pro.

The App store offers a mix of free and paid applications including games and software starting as low as 99 cents.

"The revolutionary App Store has been a phenomenal hit with iPhone and iPod touch users around the world, and we’d like to thank our customers and developers for helping us achieve the astonishing milestone of one billion apps downloaded," said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. "In nine months, the App Store has completely revolutionized the mobile industry and this is only the beginning."

Apple announced financial results for its fiscal 2009 second quarter ended March 28, 2009. The Company posted revenue of $8.16 billion and a net quarterly profit of $1.21 billion. These results compare to revenue of $7.51 billion and net quarterly profit of $1.05 billion in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 36.4 percent, up from 32.9 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 46 percent of the quarter’s revenue.

"We are extremely pleased to report the best non-holiday quarter revenue and earnings in our history," said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO. "Apple’s financial condition remains very robust, with almost $29 billion in cash and marketable securities on our balance sheet. Looking ahead to the third fiscal quarter of 2009, we expect revenue in the range of about $7.7 billion to $7.9 billion and we expect diluted earnings per share in the range of about $.95 to $1.00."

Apple sold 2.22 million Macintosh computers during the quarter, a three percent unit decline from the year-ago quarter. The company sold 11.01 million iPods during the quarter, representing three percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter. Quarterly iPhone units sold were 3.79 million representing 123 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter.

Even while staying at home with an undisclosed illness, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs is still playing a vital role in overseeing the company and new products according to the Wall Street Journal.

Jobs regularly reviews products and product plans, and was particularly involved in the user interface of the new iPhone operating system that Apple unveiled last month reports WSJ. He is also providing input to new projects the company is working on including a rumored net book.

Jobs is 54 years old and has been on a leave of absence at Apple since January but is supposed to return in June.

Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook is filling in for Jobs and running Apple's operations.

CBS is offering an application for the iPhone that lets college basketball fans watch all games live in the NCAA tournament for $4.99.

We tried this out today and the video is surprisingly smooth and easy to use. The $4.99 fee includes all games through April 6. Statistics and matchups are also featured. Technology for video streaming is provided by MobiTV.

iPhone users must have a broadband wi-fi connection in order to view games. Edge and 3G users will get live audio broadcasts instead.

All games are available for free online at CBS Sports website but Windows is generally required along with Microsoft's Silverlight plugin.

Apple previewed the new version of software for the iPhone coming this summer. The iPhone OS 3.0 software is available now as a beta software release to registered developers.

The software was shown to media at the Apple campus by Scott Forstall, Senior V.P. of iPhone software development.

The iPhone 3.0 beta release includes an updated Software Development Kit (SDK) with over 1,000 new Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) including In-App Purchases; Peer-to-Peer connections; an app interface for accessories; access to the iPod music library; a new Maps API and Push Notifications. Apple also announced over 100 new features that will be available to iPhone and iPod touch users this summer including cut, copy and paste; MMS; landscape view for Mail, Text and Notes; stereo Bluetooth; syncing Notes to the Mac and PC; shake to shuffle; parental controls for TV shows, movies and apps from the App Store; and automatic login at Wi-Fi hot spots. The iPhone OS 3.0 beta release will also include a new Voice Memo app and expanded search capability for all key iPhone apps, as well as Spotlight search across the iPhone or iPod touch.

"The new iPhone OS 3.0 is a major software release packed with incredible new features and innovations for iPhone customers and developers alike. It will keep us years ahead of the competition," said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing.

The iPhone OS 3.0 beta software and SDK include over 1,000 new APIs and are available today for all iPhone Developer Program members to use for development and testing of their apps for iPhone and iPod touch. Included in these APIs is the ability to leverage the incredible purchase model of the App Store within apps. In-App Purchases will allow developers to offer subscription content and provide the ability to sell new content and features in a simple and secure process. Developers can also more easily create peer-to-peer games for iPhone and iPod touch by using Bluetooth.

More than 25,000 apps are now available for the iPhone and iPod touch with a userbase of over 30 million according to the company.

Apple has introduced a new version of its miniature iPod shuffle, the world’s smallest music player at nearly half of the size of the previous model, and the first music player that talks to you. The new VoiceOver feature enables iPod shuffle to speak your song titles, artists and playlist names. The third generation iPod shuffle is significantly smaller than a AA battery, holds up to 1,000 songs and puts all of the controls to play and adjust volume on the earphone cord instead of on the iPod. Those who use a different brand of headphones won't be able to control music on the shuffle.

"Imagine your music player talking to you, telling you your song titles, artists and playlist names," said Greg Joswiak, Apple’s vice president of iPod and iPhone Product Marketing. "The amazingly small new iPod shuffle takes a revolutionary approach to how you listen to your music by talking to you, also making it the first iPod shuffle with playlists."

The iPod shuffle can speak 14 languages including English, Czech, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish and Turkish.

The new iPod shuffle comes in silver or black and features a sleek and ultra-wearable design with a built-in stainless steel clip. The new shuffle sells for $79.

Amazon.com has introduced "Kindle for iPhone and iPod touch," a new application available for free from Apple's App Store that lets customers enjoy over 240,000 books, including 104 of 112 New York Times Bestsellers, on the iPhone and iPod touch using Apple's Multi-Touch user interface. Amazon's new Whispersync technology saves and synchronizes a customer's bookmark across their original Kindle, Kindle 2, iPhone and iPod touch, so customers always have their reading with them and never lose their place. Kindle customers can read a few pages on their iPhone or iPod touch and pick up right where they left off on their Kindle or Kindle 2.

"We are excited to bring the new Kindle application to Apple's App Store and think customers are going to love how easy and fun it is to read their Kindle books on the iPhone and iPod touch," said Ian Freed, vice president, Amazon Kindle. "Kindle for iPhone and iPod touch is a great way for customers to catch up on their current book wherever they are, like in line at the grocery store or between meetings."

The Kindle app lets customers bring their Kindle books with them wherever they go and takes full advantage of Apple's Multi-Touch user interface. With the new Kindle app, customers can:

* Shop for hundreds of thousands of books on their Kindle or online at http://www.amazon.com/kindlestore, and wirelessly transfer the books to their iPhone or iPod touch
* Access their entire library of previously purchased Kindle books stored on Amazon’s servers
* Adjust the text size of books
* Add bookmarks and view notes and highlights

Apple announced updates to its iMac and Mac mini desktop lines, including a 24-inch iMac and a Mac mini with powerful new integrated graphics. For the same $1,499 price as the previous generation 20-inch iMac, the new 24-inch iMac delivers a 30 percent larger display, twice the memory and twice the storage.

The Mac Mini was rumored to be shut down by Apple, but the little computer lives on with a new version. Delivering up to five times better graphics performance, the updated Mac mini now features the same groundbreaking NVIDIA GeForce 9400M integrated graphics introduced with the aluminum unibody MacBook family. The company says the Mac mini is the world’s most energy efficient desktop, drawing less than 13 watts of power when idle. All iMac and Mac mini systems come with Mac OS X Leopard, and iLife ’09, Apple’s suite of consumer applications for managing and organizing photos, making movies and creating and learning to play music.

"Our flagship 24-inch iMac with twice the memory and twice the storage is now available for just $1,499," said Tim Cook, Apple’s COO. "The Mac mini is not only our most affordable Mac, it’s also the world’s most energy efficient desktop computer."

The full-featured iMac line starts with the 20-inch iMac for only $1,199 with a 2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 2GB of 1066 MHz DDR3 memory, a 320GB Serial ATA hard drive and NVIDIA GeForce 9400M integrated graphics. The 24-inch iMac features a 1920-by-1200 pixel widescreen display that offers 30 percent more screen real estate than the 20-inch model, and starts at just $1,499. The 24-inch iMac includes up to a 3.06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 4GB of 1066 MHz DDR3 memory, a 640GB or 1TB Serial ATA hard drive, and a variety of graphics technology from NVIDIA GeForce 9400M integrated graphics to the NVIDIA GeForce GT 130 or ATI Radeon HD 4850 discrete graphics for ultimate performance.

Every iMac features a glossy display with a built-in iSight video camera, mic and speakers in a thin aluminum and glass design. The new iMac also includes a Mini DisplayPort connector for a pure digital signal to Apple’s new 24-inch LED Cinema Display with adapters available for DisplayPort, VGA, DVI and Dual-Link DVI displays. iMac includes built-in AirPort Extreme® 802.11n Wi-Fi networking; Bluetooth 2.1+EDR; Gigabit Ethernet; a total of six USB 2.0 ports (including two on the Apple Keyboard); and one FireWire® 800 port.

Starting at $599, the Mac mini is a tiny desktop measuring only 6.5 by 6.5 by 2-inches. Available in two models, Mac mini features a 2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, up to 4GB of DDR3 1066 MHz memory, up to 320GB Serial ATA hard drive, five USB 2.0 ports, FireWire 800 and a SuperDrive. The Mac mini features NVIDIA GeForce 9400M integrated graphics for up to five times better graphics performance than before and now with dual display support can drive two Apple or third-party displays with Mini DisplayPort or DVI connections. Using less than 13 watts of power at idle, up to 10 times less power than a typical desktop PC, Apple claims the new Mac mini is the most energy efficient desktop in the world.

Apple has introduced a beta of Safari 4, the latest edition of its web browser for both Mac and Windows PCs. The Nitro engine in Safari 4 runs JavaScript 4.2 times faster than Safari 3. New features that make browsing more intuitive and quicker include Top Sites, for a stunning visual preview of frequently visited pages; Full History Search, to search through titles, web addresses and the complete text of recently viewed pages; Cover Flow, to easily flip through web history or bookmarks; and Tabs on Top, to make tabbed browsing easier and more intuitive.

“Apple created Safari to bring innovation, speed and open standards back into web browsers, and today it takes another big step forward,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “Safari 4 is the fastest and most efficient browser for Mac and Windows, with great integration of HTML 5 and CSS 3 web standards that enables the next generation of interactive web applications.”

Safari 4 is built on the world’s most advanced browser technologies including the new Nitro JavaScript engine that executes JavaScript up to 30 times faster than IE 7 and more than three times faster than Firefox 3. Safari quickly loads HTML web pages three times faster than IE 7 and almost three times faster than Firefox 3.

Here's something we never thought we'd see or ever imagined happening. Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple Inc., will appear on the next edition of Dancing with the Stars on ABC.

The 58-year-old Woz no longer works for Apple and recently joined the flash memory startup Fusion-io of Utah as its Chief Scientist. However, he won't be doing much work with his gig on Dancing With the Stars which could last up to 15 weeks depending how long he lasts.

Apple announced that Mark Papermaster will be coming to Apple as senior vice president of Devices Hardware Engineering, reporting to Apple CEO Steve Jobs, on April 24. Papermaster, who comes to Apple from IBM, will lead Apple’s iPod and iPhone hardware engineering teams. The litigation between IBM and Mark Papermaster has been resolved. IBM sued Apple last November and got a court order preventing Papermaster from joining Apple for fear of losing trade secrets.

IBM and Mr. Papermaster have now agreed on a resolution of the lawsuit under which Mr. Papermaster won't begin employment with Apple until April 24, 2009, six months after leaving IBM, and will remain subject thereafter to all of his contractual and other legal duties to IBM, including the obligation not to use or disclose IBM’s confidential information.

After he begins working for Apple, Mr. Papermaster will be required to certify, in July 2009 and again in October 2009, that he has complied with his legal obligations not to use or disclose IBM’s confidential or proprietary information. The preliminary injunction will be replaced by a court order under which the Court will have continuing jurisdiction over this matter, including compliance enforcement powers, until October 24, 2009, one year after Mr. Papermaster’s departure from IBM.

Papermaster has 25 years of product and technology experience, and was previously a vice president at IBM. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Texas, and a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Vermont in 1988. Papermaster is active with the University of Texas where he is a member of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Advisory Council.

Apple this week announced record revenues for its fiscal 2009 first quarter ended December 27, 2008. The Company posted revenue of $10.17 billion and record net quarterly profit of $1.61 billion. These results compare to revenue of $9.6 billion in the year-ago quarter. This is the first time Apple surpassed $10 billion mark in one quarter.

International sales accounted for 46 percent of the quarter's revenue. Gross margin was 34.7 percent, equal to the year-ago quarter.

Apple sold 2,524,000 Macintosh computers during the quarter, representing nine percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter. The Company sold a record 22,727,000 iPods during the quarter, representing three percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter. Quarterly iPhone units sold were 4,363,000, representing 88 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter.

"Even in these economically challenging times, we are incredibly pleased to report our best quarterly revenue and earnings in Apple history -- surpassing $10 billion in quarterly revenue for the first time ever," said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO in a prepared statement.

Apple's retail stores generated $1.74 billion in sales during the holiday quarter.

Confirming fears that his health problems are more serious than previously disclosed, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs announced he will step aside as CEO of the company until at least June. Jobs missed the MacWorld Expo in San Francisco last week and released a statement then saying he had a hormone imbalance.

Tim Cook (pictured), Apple's Chief Operating Officer, will take over reins of the company.

I am sure all of you saw my letter last week sharing something very personal with the Apple community. Unfortunately, the curiosity over my personal health continues to be a distraction not only for me and my family, but everyone else at Apple as well. In addition, during the past week I have learned that my health-related issues are more complex than I originally thought.

In order to take myself out of the limelight and focus on my health, and to allow everyone at Apple to focus on delivering extraordinary products, I have decided to take a medical leave of absence until the end of June.

I have asked Tim Cook to be responsible for Apple's day to day operations, and I know he and the rest of the executive management team will do a great job. As CEO, I plan to remain involved in major strategic decisions while I am out. Our board of directors fully supports this plan.

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