Last week Steve Jobs patted Apple on the back and announced that 120 million iOS devices have now been sold, but according to market research company Asymco, the iPod Touch accounts for 38 per cent of that figure. More »

During yesterday’s music-event keynote, Apple CEO Steve Jobs informed the crowd that his company was activating around 230,000 iOS devices every day. The figure 230,000 is of particular significance because just last month, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said that the search giant was activating around 200,000 Android devices per diem. Jobs continued, and quipped, “we think some of our friends are counting upgrades in their numbers.” The implication being made here — albeit not a very subtle one — is that Google was including users upgrading from one Android device to another in their activation figures. In light of the semi-explicit innuendo, Google released a statement that reads: “The Android activation numbers do not include upgrades and are, in fact, only a portion of the Android devices in the market since we only include devices that have Google services.” Just another twig added to the Google versus Apple fire. Speaking of fire, try to keep the flaming comments to a minimum if you would.

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Apple certainly took its sweet time releasing iTunes 10 yesterday, and we're beginning to think it's because the company was making a last-second change to its new Ping social-network-for-music: the removal of Facebook Connect for finding friends. Seriously -- although an option to find friends via Facebook was conspicuously present during Steve's keynote demos, it's not there anymore. Oddly, the option was there at the very beginning -- several Engadget staffers definitely saw a Facebook button when they signed up for Ping last night, and there's a whole thread on Apple's support site of people who also saw it and are now wondering where it's gone.

Just to make things even more confusing, Kara Swisher at All Things D got two very different statements from Steve Jobs and Phil Schiller at the event yesterday: Schiller was enthusiastic about finding friends via Facebook, while Jobs said Zuckerberg and co. were demanding "onerous terms" that Apple refused. We're assuming Jobs was talking about something deeper than just finding friends via Connect, but it's still all very strange -- and as it stands, finding friends on Ping right now requires a fair bit of guesswork and searching, so we're hoping this all gets sorted soon. Check the video of Phil Schiller talking about Facebook and Ping after the break, as well as a snap of it (sort of) working from last night.

Continue reading Why did Apple take Facebook Connect out of Ping?

Why did Apple take Facebook Connect out of Ping? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 02 Sep 2010 11:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Well here's an interesting wrinkle to the next-gen iOS-based Apple TV rumors in the leadup to tomorrow's event: Bloomberg Businessweek says the new box will offer Netflix streaming, presumably in addition to whatever cheap TV content deals Apple's planning to offer through iTunes. That would be a first of sorts for Apple; although Netflix has apps for the iPhone and iPad, Steve Jobs isn't exactly in the habit of preloading services that compete with iTunes. That said, Netflix does have critical mass, and it makes a certain amount of sense for Apple to try and leverage that subscriber base to generate momentum for its own product -- a lot of people might buy a $99 Apple TV just for Netflix and wind up hooked on Apple's other offerings like apps, movie rentals, and purchased content. We'll see what happens tomorrow -- won't you join us?

P.S.- Businessweek also says a new iPod Touch with a higher-resolution screen and a revamped version of iTunes are due tomorrow, but like, duh.

Businessweek: new Apple TV to include Netflix streaming originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 31 Aug 2010 17:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Last Friday, HP CEO Mark Hurd resigned amidst sexual harassment allegations that his former employer chose to make public. Monday, in a letter to the New York Times, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison did not mince words about his thoughts on the forced resignation of Mr. Hurd. “The H.P. board just made the worst personnel decision since the idiots on the Apple board fired Steve Jobs many years ago. [...] In losing Mark Hurd, the H.P. board failed to act in the best interest of H.P.’s employees, shareholders, customers and partners. The H.P. board admits that it fully investigated the sexual harassment claims against Mark and found them to be utterly false.â€� Ellison went on to say, “publishing known false sexual harassment claims is not good corporate governance; it’s cowardly corporate political correctness.” Hurd, who had been with HP for five years, is set to receive a severance package of cash and stock worth an estimated $28 million. At least he won’t go away empty handed?

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This article totally gave me an excuse to write that headline… been saving it for years. Reuters is reporting that 77-year old Yoko Ono was quoted as saying, “don’t hold your breath,” when asked about the possibility of the Beatles catalog coming to the iTunes digital music store. Ono went on to say: “Steve Jobs has his own idea and he’s a brilliant guy, there’s just an element that we’re not very happy about, as people. We are holding out.” Ono is the widow of deceased Beatles front man John Lenon and owns twenty-five percent of the bands music library rights. Former Beatles members Paul McCartney and Ringo Star, as well as George Harrison’s widow Olivia, comprise the other three-quarters of Apple Corps, the bands holding company. Looks like, for the time being, you’ll have to get your Beatles fix the old fashioned way. Any Fab Four fans out there, any favorite songs?

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Apple's Magic Trackpad isn't the first of its kind -- in fact, Wacom has been playing this game for awhile -- but it's the first of its kind from the cats in Cupertino, so obviously people take notice. The premise of such a device is stupidly simple: it's a laptop trackpad that lives on your desktop. Over the past few years, there have been rumors that Steve Jobs has his sights set on eliminating buttons from Apple products altogether, and this certainly feels like the next step in the plan. But does it make sense? Is this an improvement over standard input devices like a mouse or trackball? More importantly, in the age of iPads and netbooks, does anyone even need an external input device like this? We're going to try and answer those questions (and more), so read on for our full review!

Continue reading Magic Trackpad review

Magic Trackpad review originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 30 Jul 2010 19:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Here’s a list we wouldn’t mind being on. A recent Wall Street Journal study found that Larry Ellison, Oracle’s CEO, has received over $1.84 billion in compensation over the last decade, making him the highest paid CEO in the world. The WSJ estimates Ellison’s personal worth at roughly $28 billion. Another notable tech persona on the list is Steve Jobs. While Jobs only grosses $1 annually in salary his compensation package is quite lucrative. The study estimates that Jobs has received over $749 million over the last 10 years, and ranks fifth on the CEO list. The prophet Christopher Wallace once said, “more money, more problems” (I think technically it was “mo money, mo problems” but you get the point)… wouldn’t you love to have a shot at that inconvenience?

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Seems there's more to that $100 million antenna testing lab than Steve Jobs let on the other day. Much more, and an ABC News crew was on hand to snap some candid shots during an exclusive tour. Also, dark blankets: More »

The same Taiwanese outlet that does those Sims-style animations to better illustrate the news has done it again for Steve Jobs and the iPhone 4 antenna saga. No spoilers, but there's a very special guest this time. [Thanks Michael!] More »

It's not surprising that after Apple finished explaining the iPhone 4 antenna issues to the press today, the company wanted to go one step further and say "yes, actually, we do test the hell out of these phones before we release them to the public." Though Steve Jobs went over the lengthy and intensive kinds of radio evaluation that goes on at Apple's headquarters, it didn't seem to be enough for the folks in Cupertino. And that, we suspect, is why we were invited (along with a small group of other journalists) to take a brief tour of Apple's Infinite Loop labs. Though we weren't allowed to shoot video or take pictures, we can tell you about what -- and what we didn't -- see and hear behind closed doors.

Continue reading Inside Apple's 'black lab' wireless testing facilities

Inside Apple's 'black lab' wireless testing facilities originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 16 Jul 2010 23:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Is it Friday yet? Bloomberg is reporting that: “Apple Inc.’s senior antenna expert voiced concern to Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs in the early design phase of the iPhone 4 that the antenna design could lead to dropped calls.” The article cites an anonymous source, “familiar with the matter,” who went on to say:

Last year, Ruben Caballero, a senior engineer and antenna expert, informed Apple’s management the device’s design may cause reception problems. [...] A carrier partner also raised concerns about the antenna before the device’s June 24 release.

Apple declined Bloomberg’s request to comment on the report. One of our AT&T sources has told us that while the iPhone 4 antenna issue is well known — and well covered — AT&T stores aren’t seeing iPhone 4 returns (like at all). Hopefully, we’ll have some concrete answers to all these antenna questions on Friday at around 1:00 PM EDT.

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Apple's iPhone 4 Antennagate rolls on, with the question now, What is Apple going to do about this? Is it going to let it blow over? More »

Steve Jobs might have thought he was lightly playing down reports that the Apple / Google rivalry had dramatically changed when he said "they decided to compete with us -- we didn't go into the search business" at D8, but it appears that his phrasing didn't sit so well with Larry Page, who told Reuters yesterday that Jobs was doing a "little bit of rewriting history," and that the "characterization of us entering [the phone market] after is not really reasonable." Page, who was being interviewed alongside Eric Schmidt, also said that Google had been working on Android for "a very long time" and that the goal was always to develop phones with solid browsers to fill a market void.

That's true, of course -- Google purchased Andy Rubin's Android, Inc. in 2005 -- but it's also an equally slight distortion: when Android was officially announced in November of 2007, it looked nothing like the OS we know and love today, and the SDK emulator used an image of an HTC-built prototype that had much more in common with the traditional BlackBerry than the iPhone. (Fun fact: that device eventually became the Palm Treo Pro running Windows Mobile.) It wasn't until the G1 shipped almost a year later that Android started to look more like what it is today, and we'd even argue that it wasn't until Android 2.0 hit on the OG Motorola Droid along with Verizon's Droid Does marketing campaign that the platform grew into its own unique and successful identity -- an identity that is now powerfully differentiated against the iPhone and driving accelerating device sales every quarter.

So, does any of this really matter? To the tech historians, perhaps -- and Apple and Google clearly see what they're doing as historically significant. Apart from that, it's a pretty meaningless distinction; Eric Schmidt followed up Page's comment by saying that the market was big enough for the iPhone and Android to coexist, and we seriously doubt anyone's phone purchasing decision will ever turn on what platform was released first. But it's also clear that the competition between these two companies is at fever pitch, which is great news for the rest of us -- let's just hope everyone involved remembers that Jobs closed his D8 remarks by saying "just because we're competing with somebody doesn't mean we have to be rude."

Google's Larry Page: Steve Jobs is 'rewriting history' by saying Android came after the iPhone originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Jul 2010 18:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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I obviously wanted to be 100% sure about this before I posted a follow up post, but before I go into the details, I’d like you all to know about how we operate over here…

Yes, BGR runs rumors and information that is not always completely confirmed. That is part of the game we are in. What we and other quality sites do is research, confirm, and make our best editorial judgements before running information that is not yet confirmed. Over the past 5 years, I’ve had more exclusives in the mobile field than anyone or any site on the entire planet, and my accuracy rate has been ridiculously high. I’d guess above 95%.

It’s a knack, a gut feeling, a judgment call that you sometimes make when you are sharing valuable information that no one has ever reported on before. There have been countless, and I do mean countless things other fine writers at BGR and I have walked away from entirely. Not ridiculous tips like “the iPhone 7 has been released on Sprint and you can only buy it at Best Buy”, but rather high quality photos, or videos — things very hard to fake. And we walk away.

One recent example in memory actually is the Xbox Kinect. We had that exclusive story sent to us as an anonymous tip a day or two before Engadget published it, revealing it to the world. Someone sent to us a photo of the then unheard of motion-controlled Xbox accessory, and lightly detailed it for us. They worked at an ad agency and were filming this promo piece, so they snapped a quick photo and shot it over to us. We couldn’t independently confirm something so amazingly cool like a brand new way to experience and play video games, so we passed on running the story. Since we were the tipster’s favorite site, he sent it to us first, but still wanting to share the information, he sent it to Engadget who then ran the story. We’re not saying Engadget did a poor job from an editorial viewpoint because they might have confirmed the story with a source at Microsoft, but we specifically couldn’t, so we passed. That is just one example of hundreds on how journalists and reporters make decisions on whether to go with a story or not, and it is always better to be safe than sorry. Our reputation isn’t worth a small or large exclusive. There is no reason to burn our readers for a cheap uptick in traffic for a day or two. It is not how I or we operate, and never will be.

On to the Steve Jobs emails.

Jason Burford, someone who we have never worked with in the past, emailed us and said that he had a pretty interesting email conversation with Steve Jobs and wanted to share it with us, but wanted to be compensated. He sent us the email headers and we had some of our independent tech guys verify the email header information and then inform us whether they were legitimate. Their response was yes, that they were legitimate, and that the entire thread would be extremely hard to fake, if not impossible. After speaking with Jason and getting more background, I decided to run that story. There was an error in my write up where the last line in the article was written to be said by Steve Jobs, when in fact it was Jason who emailed that in reply to Steve Jobs.

The last line was a huge mistake on my part. Jason emailed me probably 8 times over the course of an hour. He then started emailing Michael and Andrew to have them get a hold of me to correct that last quote’s attribution to Steve Jobs when it should have been attributed to Jason. His emails were stuck in Postini, my spam filter, and I didn’t get to see them until Michael and Andrew both forwarded me his emails telling us that last line was incorrect. But that still doesn’t change Apple from telling Fortune and Engadget that this exchange wasn’t with Steve Jobs and was fake, right?

Well, I personally couldn’t give a damn if this email was with Steve Jobs himself or not. What I care about is whether this was with Steve Jobs’ email box, one that is obviously monitored by a bunch of employees at Apple, either in customer service or PR, or both. So, is it possible that Steve Jobs himself did not write those emails to Jason Burford? Without a doubt. Is it possible that these replies were fabricated, and didn’t come from someone at Apple sending emails to Jason Burford from Steve Jobs’ email address sjobs@apple.com? No. I believe 100% these emails are real, as I have been given access to Jason’s Google Apps email client and verified those headers to be legitimate, undoctored, and kosher. The replies were all real, the timestamps were all matched up, and the thread was consistent. This was not faked in any way whatsoever. Then there is also the logical part of me that would say, “why?” Why would someone waste so much of their time to have their name involved in something so stupid when they are lying about it? To the extent of having their parent’s company now dragged into this, who both probably had no idea of this email exchange?

Let’s go over it one more time… someone who wanted to remain 100% anonymous and only asked to be paid a nominal fee of a couple hundred dollars lied and completely made up this entire thing? Someone who showed me in his AT&T call records more than two calls from Apple representatives (Texas phone numbers, confirmed to be Apple Customer Relations) on the exact dates he said they called trying to resolve the situation after he had emailed Steve Jobs? Someone who repeatedly emailed me and the BGR staff to correct the last line in my story since it wasn’t accurate? Someone who has now had his name revealed to the public via a tasteless article from AppleInsider, and is now being called by reporters non-stop asking about this article and whether his exchange is true or not? They still wouldn’t admit this was fake? No, you know why? Because it wasn’t fake.

Steve Jobs might not have personally sent those messages, but there isn’t any amount of spin Apple PR honcho Steve Dowling could throw on at this point because those email messages came from Steve Jobs’ email box, and that’s all I or Jason care about.

And for the record, Apple PR has shockingly not responded for comment.

Here are the undoctored email headers if you’re interested. I copied them from Jason’s Gmail myself:

Earlier this week we reported on a story that had been doing the rounds -- another Steve Jobs email thread with an irate customer. Like many other stories about Jobs' emails to customers, this yarn centered around a user disappointed with his iPhone 4's service, and Steve's flippant responses. The first time we saw the story crop up, we were suspicious of its validity (and frankly, newsworthiness), and we became even more suspicious after AppleInsider ran an article claiming that the source of the supposed emails had been shopping the tale for cash (Engadget was not contacted by the source). We did eventually cover the story, but only after Apple itself responded to the tale, claiming -- first to Fortune and then to us -- that the emails were false, and the exchange had not happened. That struck us as particularly newsworthy, because in all our years of reporting on Steve Jobs' wild personal emails (of which there are many, many examples), we'd never heard Apple refute that the emails were coming from him.

Now, Boy Genius Report (where the original story appeared) has fired back, emphatically claiming that the emails are real, and that the proof is in the original message headers which the site has been given access to by the source. BGR goes one step further as well, and essentially accuses Apple PR of spinning this story to news outlets to suit its needs. And let's not mince words -- the claim is that Apple PR is lying to the press. The proof which BGR offers is no more or less convincing to us than the site's previous post on the subject; email headers and timestamps can be faked. Still, it is notable that Boy Genius is pushing back on this story, and we certainly don't believe the blog would knowingly publish a false email thread. As TechCrunch points out in its take on the matter, PR reps often give vague, sugarcoated, or misleading information to news sites, but there has never been a time when Apple's PR has outright lied to major publications (that we know of). That would be a mess of epic proportions, and we can't really fathom why they would go to the trouble. The company has obviously let stuff like this slide for years -- this seems like an odd time (and a relatively minor story) to get up in arms about it. We've reached out to Apple for further statement on this, and will report back as soon as we hear something. In the meantime, take a look at the source link and see what BGR has to say on the matter.

Steve Jobs emails 'are real' claims Boy Genius Report, says Apple PR lied to press originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 03 Jul 2010 18:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In 1976, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak founded Apple with veteran engineer Ron Wayne. Ten days later, Wayne signed away his 10% of the company in exchange for $800. Here's what he's up to thirty-four years later, $22 billion poorer. More »

Apple - Steve Jobs - Steve Wozniak - History - Pioneers