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With Apple rich, they don't need to spend their money on new inventions for the Apple store to sell. If you compare Apple to Google and Microsoft you can tell that Google and Microsoft work their butts off spending more money to think of ideas on what to invent. While they're thinking and overworking their minds, Apple is increasing in stocks and money. 

It is well-known that Apple has access to almost any music that one can think of. However, according to the New York Post, Apple is low-balling record labels for the rights to use their music in a new music streaming service. The company is only offering labels 6 cents per 100 listens, where as Pandora offers 12 cents per 100 and traditional radio pays 22 cents per 100. One can say that Apple is trying to enter this business, but not willing to go through all the trouble and complications that other music streaming services has to go through. I personally do not think this is right because record labels go through a lot of work just to try to get a little profit from the music industry. With Apple offering such a low price to use their music, it is not fair to those who work hard for a result.

Early in the afternoon today, a clever developer managed to sneak a Game Boy Advance emulator into an innocent looking app named "Awesome Baby Names". The secret emulator is activated by a series of taps on the touchscreen inside of the app. Once it is activated you can play your classic gba games just like you did in 2005. Apple was quick to catch this security breach as it was only in the App Store for twenty something minutes, but in that time many people including myself managed to download the app. This kind of sneaky activity from developers happens very seldom, but when something is smuggled into the App Store, it is usually very important. As stated in the article, it is a very easy process to unlock the emulator from the app, but getting the games and the BIOS onto the iPhone is the hard part. You must first download a program that lets you access the phone's file directory, then you must find the app's directory and drop the relevant BIOS and game files there. I chose the portable computing tag for this article because it deals with mobile technology and exploiting it to run handheld gaming software. This idea is not knew and has been around for a long time, but the idea of hiding the identity of apps and smuggling them into the App Store is a new idea. Apple is updating their security daily, but clearly couldn't spot this "child naming app" and make it out for the emulator that it was. I chose the privacy and security tag because Apple has a high priority for the security of their ecosystem and operating system, but clever people can still find ways to bypass this and get unidentified files into the operating system. I believe that Apple must keep a close eye on how they approve future apps into the app store because one day we may see cydia disguised as a senseless app make its way into the app store. If this happens, Apple with really have some explaining to do!    

This article is about the comparison of the old apple earphones and the new EarPods. Apple claims that the new EarPods sound as powerful as the expensive earphones invented in the world (example: Beats by Drake.. if that's what they're called). These new EarPods are as powerful as a expensive pair of earphone, but cost only 29$ and if you purchase any apple device (iPhone, iPod touch, etc.) these earbuds are free.  I have watched the video below, and some people say they can't tell a difference from the old earphone, while other people say it's a big difference. I have never used the EarPods before, but in my opinion I do think it would make a difference because technology is improving and becoming more successful. One little piece of technology can make a big difference in the world. Also, the customers have commented that these EarPods are more comfortable to fit into your ears. These EarPods are not a great device to repair. However, they are a low price so once your EarPods break, you could buy a new pair.

Apple is the wealthiest company in the world possessing more money than the US government. With this being said, it is no surprise that four of the top five best paid executives in America are employed by Apple. It was reported by Bloomberg that they each receive a base salary of $805,400, but also get paid in stock options. At the top of the list, Bob Mansfield, Senior VP of Technologies makes a huge equivalent of $85.5 million a year. Next on the list is Bruce Sewell, Apple's lead lawyer, who makes $69 million a year. After that is Jeffrey Williams, Senior VP of Operations, who makes $68.7 million a year, and Peter Oppenheimer, Chief Financial Officer, who makes $68.6 million a year. I gave this article the economics tag because it deals with the salaries of highly paid apple employees. Personally, I think it is outrageous that these people make multi-million dollar salaries, and this kind of thing should be regulated.     

This article identifies a potential setback for various iPhone users. With all the hype of Apple's iPhone 5, some 4S iPhone owners may be out of luck in terms of upgrades from cellphone carriers. Rumors have said that the iPhone 5 will be seeing a summer or fall 2012 launch but the story here is owners with the iPhone 4S may not be eligible for an upgrade when Apple releases it's newest phone, this means essentially users that rely on contract upgrades are put at a disadvantage. In addition, Verizon customers are affected by the upgrade issue the most, and it will cost these users more if they choose to upgrade to a iPhone 5. This is huge news to anyone who owns a iPhone 4S, especially if they are a Verizon customer, and they plan to buy a iPhone 5. The additional cost may be too much for buyers and they may just stick with what they have until a hopefully near price drop. Apple on the other hand could also suffer because the more people who buy the 4S can reflect to less people who will be able to afford the iPhone 5. The Apple company as well as many other Apple users highly anticipate the iPhone 5, and it could be something like this little dilemma that can angry consumers and could also lead users to leave the upgrade and essentially pass on Apple's phone this time around.

This article is about how Apple plans to increase its music sales by bringing iTunes to Android and launching a paid music subscription service. Google has already brought their Google Play Music to iOS devices. Even though Apple takes up about 40% of the U.S. digital music market, it has declined in the double digits in the past few years. They plan to expand to Android and open its store to hundreds of millions of users. I don't think this will work good for Apple because there already so many other music services such as Spotify, Pandora, Beats Music and Google Play Music itself on Android, and most people these days just download their music online because they do not want to spend lots of money to buy a song or an album.

Hackintosh gone? Back in 2008 Apple filed a suit against Psystar (makers of Hackintosh) for making 'mac clones'. Psystar was banned from copying, distributing, selling, offering Mac OS X. Even though you could install Mac OS X on a regular PC, stealing apples software without actually buying a mac. But now Psystar owes Apple 2.7 MILLION dollars. Psystar's business closed down because of this.

Steve Wozniak likes to be the first person in line to buy the latest Apple products. This evening, the Apple co-founder and designer of the Apple I and II, was #1 on line outside the Apple store in Los Gatos, California to get the iPhone 4S. He tweeted about it and he'll be staying up all night. TechCrunch TV caught up with Woz and asked him why he does it. He explains what feature the new phone has that will change his life. Woz also tells us why "search engines should be replaced by answer engines."

This article states how the Kindle E-reader has evolved over the years, how Amazon has lowered its book prices so much so people would buy e-readers and book buyers would go to Amazon.com and get books instead of going to a book store, and how people try to destroy Amazon for almost having a monopoly of it. Many people like this because new Kindle E-readers cost from $69 to about $100 and many of their book cost from about $1 and up. Also Amazon helped self publishing authors sell their books. The Kindle E-reader has evolved from being a big electronic book with many books in it and having pages flipping crazy if your hand was in the place. Now it has evolved to be a slim e-reader with a brighter screen and having cheap books to buy and not as clunky. A few years ago Apple and five big publishing companies made a contract to stop Amazon from selling books so cheap. The publishing companies would only sell books on apple products. In April of this year the Department of Justice sued Apple and the five publishing companies to stop Apple from trying to get the monopoly on selling books on their products. It is portable computing because people know can have hundreds of books in a device the size of a small book and you don't need to keep buying bookshelves that take a lot of space and the books it has are cheap. It is very light and people can take it anywhere they want to. It is eLifestyle because you a many people in the bus or subway reading away on their e-reader comfortably without having a big book to carry. Many people use it because they can't carry that much weight.    

This article is about how Apple's stock prices have decreased by 2.7%. In fact, $290 billion has been wiped off Apple's value since September. The article explains that the last time, Apple's stock was so low was when Steve Jobs had passed away. The article also talks about how investors will only pay about $9 for a dollar profit, whereas for a different company such as Standard & Poor's 500 company, they will pay $15. This shows that Apple's investor loyalty is falling. Investors no longer see Apple as a "safe" investment, which is why they are no longer willing to invest in Apple. Investors are not sure of the direction that Apple is going, which is why they are reluctant to invest and take a risk.

Something very odd has occurred in the world of the Apple products. Apple's CEO, Tim Cook has issued an APOLOGY towards the people unhappy about the "Maps" app in the new IOS 6. He posted an open letter to IOS 6 users in the morning of September 28 apologizing for the lack of polish on the final product and desperately offers alternative map apps from other competitors too. Apple has made a big mistake kicking out Google Maps from their software and adding their own incomplete Maps app. Deleting such a top-of-the-line maping software means that they have something even better in store for the Apple fan boys. Sadly this isn't true. The Maps in IOS 6 is truly horrible. It's time for Apple to smarten up.

This article is about Apple increasing the size of the iPhone screen and making the screen bezel-free. Both Samsung and Apple are working on a similar prototype but Samsung is using a more standard fingerprint scanner. As the Source said in this article, to have the possibility to scan your finger on the whole screen still has many technological barriers to over come.

thoughts/opinions? what's the connection to Careers?

So the Mobile World Congress is just around the corner and Apple has chosen to stay out of it and have its own exclusive events. Apple has done this to make sure that way Apple news will not get lost in the flood of other announcements. So far Apple has not announced anything yet they do traditionally announce new phones at the WWDC in June. As for the actual iphone 6 Tim Cook confirmed while speaking with ABC that the iphone 6 is going to have a sapphire display by using the company's new Arizona plant. The sapphire display is pretty much just a clear screen. Which I find can be pretty cool but I'm sure it has its disadvantages. But the sapphire display is very strong and quite resistant to scratches so thats great. Though they have not announced very much about the iphone 6 it does sound promising.

This article talks about the upcoming iWatch by Apple. The concept is by Todd Hamilton and is based on the Nike FuelBand. The iWatch itself will be manufactured with Richtek Technology, TPK supplying chips and sapphire touch panels and the processor that the device is said to run in developed by Apple. The exact features of the iWatch are currently unknown but there are rumors that the device will include biometric sensors to check health-related statistics, sleep activity, UV light exposure, and heart rate. Reports say that the new iWatch will be released later in the year with the iPhone 6 and iOS 8. This article shows how Apple is moving forward to creating more products other than just phones and computers. Maybe soon they might start creating kitchen appliances *joke*

2 per week right? It's been finally done, Apple's fascist stranglehold on the walled garden of apple has lessened as Adobe has announced the creation of a flash media server. This flash media server is similar to cloud computing as flash content is processed off the device on a larger machine which outputs the data back onto your device. This method bypasses the fact that apple devices lack flash to deliver flash content to the masses. Lets admit nobody uses html 5 yet. Rule Britannia!

Interesting post. Let's not use the term Facist too loosely, it's a bit harsh. Now tell me, why does Apple not support Flash on iOS?

Apple says that flash is not safe which was proven when some coders found a major security flaw within adobe flash a few months ago. They say that because flash is propitiatory it will interfere in their software/hardware production which apple excels in because they are in full control of the entire process. But there's also the fact that apple is making millions off of the games sold off of the appstore. If flash was available, those games would not need to be bought but instead be played for free via the internet

War between Samsung and Apple in Japan and Australia. Samsung tries to stop sales of the iphone 4s, iphone 4, and ipad 2. The company says that "Apple infringes on its tech patients. Samsung made the same move earlier in Italy and France.Samsung wants to stop Apple in its tracks and says it will act more agressively on what Apple puts out.

Apple has just announced their Q4 2011 earnings. As expected, they're big - but unlike the last several quarters where Apple has destroyed the number expected by the Street, Apple actually fell short of those expectations this time.

It's no surprise Apple's servers are barely holding on to the mass of people coming home from work and school at around 3:00pm-4:00pm all trying to download the new iOS. This is the biggest software upgrade apple has ever done with at least 200+ new features. Well that is what they said on the Apple Website at least. People are concerned that if Apple can barely manage this wave of "Updaters" how will their servers do when all the iCloud subscribers will all be uploading their photos?

Whether you're sliding a bar or pulling a puzzle piece across your smartphone screen, you're performing an action owned by Apple. Apple has full ownerhip of that gesture now. Whether you unlock a device using a gesture on a touch-sensitive display, display an icon telling users they have to unlock the device, design the icon to tell users which direction they have to swipe the icon to unlock the device, or provide visual cues for users that can't remember the unlock gesture, Apple owns it.