John Paczkowski, AllThingsD:
A humiliating reversal for RIM’s BlackBerry, which just four years ago was outselling the iPhone in Canada by a nearly five-to-one margin. While losing traction like this among the hometown crowd isn’t a massive strategic defeat, it’s surely a devastating psychological one for RIM, a Canadian success story.
This was some amazing, top-notch reporting by Chris and myself. Chris griped about the new iPad (and we discussed why there is no “number”); the Apple TV as a hobby; Zynga acquiring OMGPOP; the entire nonsense of Mike Daisey and whether or not we should be mad at the “idea”.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 24:48 — 56.9MB)
Peter Kafka with the details:
People familiar with the company tell me it has recently been netting around $250,000 a day from the game — that’s after Apple takes its 30 percent cut.
Wow.
This morning Apple announced plans to pay dividends of $2.65 per share. This is the first time since 1995 that has Apple has pay a dividend. Apple last paid a dividend of $0.12. It is worth noting that Apple will spend roughly $45 billion on this new program over three years, an amount for which in case you make , you will like to check this guide on how to file taxes with the previous paystub. Tim Cook said,
“Even with these investments, we can maintain a war chest for strategic opportunities and have plenty of cash to run our business. So we are going to initiate a dividend and share repurchase program.”
The tax burden on firms has an impact on growth and investment. Businesses are more likely to leave the formal economy if taxes are high. Higher tax rates are linked to fewer formal enterprises and less private investment, according to a research. Up to 2 percentage points less investment to GDP and a little decline in the rate of new businesses starting up are caused by a 10-percentage point rise in the effective corporate income tax rate.
Over the next three years, output is reduced by approximately 3% when taxes are raised by an amount equal to 1% of GDP. The local earnings from current investments would typically be reduced by 1.3% for every percentage point rise in the statutory corporate income tax rate, according to research on the investment decisions made by multinational corporations. A 2.9% decrease in the chance of establishing a subsidiary in an economy results from an increase of one percentage point in the effective corporate income tax rate.
We touched on this topic on a podcast way back when, but it looks like it is getting some attention again. The FAA says it will conduct tests to see if it should lift the ban on electronic devices during take off and landing.
Apple will have a conference call tomorrow, 3/19, 9:00am EST:
Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, and Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO, will host a conference call to announce the outcome of the Company’s discussions concerning its cash balance. Apple® will not be providing an update on the current quarter nor will any topics be discussed other than cash.
If they are making a conference call about it, that means investors are involved closely. This could result in a dividend to stock holders or a buyback.
This American Life has completed retracted it’s story called “Mr. Daisey and the Apple Factory”, as the theatrical performance portrayed in the story was just that — theater based on no actual investigative reporting.
Though this is truly unbelievable for TLA to not follow up with diligence, I think that the release of the story nevertheless set up much of the press leading up to the ultimate investigation of Foxconn and factory conditions in China.
Update: The reporter that TLA will invite onto the show (which actually airs tonight) speaks out in his own story, which also interviews Cathy Lee, Mr. Daisey’s translator.
Roku exec Anthony Wood:
Personally, I think they call it a hobby not cause they’re not trying–they’re putting a lot of effort into Apple TV–but because they haven’t been that successful compared to the iPhone and iPad. So it’s a way for them to keep working on it but not look bad because they haven’t sold that many for the Apple world.
This sentiment compares with Apple/Cook’s opinion on Siri — they are really investing in the technology but haven’t lifted the beta terminology quite yet… because they wouldn’t want to look bad by fully releasing an unfinished product.
An insight from Kit Eaton, Fast Company:
What Apple is quietly doing is changing how you pay for things online, and the more speculative reader may wonder if this is a bigger step toward a long-rumored mobile payment system from Apple.
This is most likely a talent hire.
Microsoft Applied Sciences Group shows how current tablet technology still has a few years before it gets to the point of actually feeling like you are painting with your finger.
You may have noticed iPhoto for iPad using a different mapping service than Google’s. The reasoning, according to this article, is the push to monetize the service based on the number of impressions that the map makes.
It is unclear whether Apple (and other companies) will transition entirely from Google’s offerings, but the move does implicate Apple’s increasing need to distance themselves from the information behemoth.
In this “patch” episode Tarun and Chris discuss the iPad Press Conference. Tarun and Chris give their thoughts on Apple’s “new iPad” and software Apple previewed. They also discuss what exactly this iPad update means for consumers and Apple as a company. Thanks for listening.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 18:18 — 42.0MB)
The new iPad, featuring an A5X chip and retina display. Also worth noting is iPhoto for iPad+iPhone. Stay tuned for full coverage on a special episode of Weekly Download.
Don’t bother watching the video. But, good idea to consolidate.
Related to Jim’s post, Erik Kain writes:
More likely, we’ll see a tighter integration of mobile devices and station-based computers. We’ll see more touchscreens across all device categories, and there will be more ways to network and switch between all your fancy gadgets.
Jim Dalrymple:
The right question to ask is “does the iPad fit my lifestyle?”
Completely agree. My answer is no, but I’m apparently becoming more of a minority.
I don’t use anti-virus software at all on my Mac. Partially for the reasons described in the article. In general, having virus protection is a good idea, but the freeware alternatives work well.
Nilay Patel, The Verge:
A quick look through the halls of Mobile World Congress reveals an endless number of iPads, quite a few Android tablets, and almost no touchscreen Windows PCs. But Microsoft is here in Barcelona promising that balance will change dramatically by next year — the company just released Windows 8 Consumer Preview, a beta version of a radically new version of Windows built with tablets specifically in mind. And while Windows 8 has a long way to go before it can challenge the iPad, it feels almost inevitable that Microsoft will quickly succeed where Android tablets have thus far failed — especially because Microsoft is aggressively courting developers to write apps for its new Metro interface.
I completely agree.
Tom Warren on The Verge:
Office 2010 introduced the idea of a Professional Plus edition, and it appears this could be making its way to Windows along with the following SKUs:
Windows 8 Starter edition
Windows 8 Home Basic Edition
Windows 8 Home Premium edition
Windows 8 Professional edition
Windows 8 Professional Plus edition
Windows 8 Enterprise Edition
Windows 8 Ultimate edition
Windows 8 ARM edition
Reuters:
Yelp’s stellar debut follows those of other Internet sensations like LinkedIn Corp, Groupon Inc and Zillow Inc. But while those stocks made large first-day gains, they have since declined.
Claire Atkinson for the New York Post:
Apple is pitching the idea of offering channels as apps for its devices, including its Apple TV set-top box. It’s unclear whether it would group the apps together and charge a fee — similar to a cable-TV subscription — or offer the channels on an a la carte basis.
(via Jim Dalrymple)
Excellent article by Gerry Smith on HuffPo:
A year ago, Maldonado’s computer stopped working and she cannot afford a new one. So almost every day she borrows one of the library’s laptops and sits down at a desk, rushing to submit customers’ orders online or research and write papers for her medical billing class before the library closes.
When she returns to her apartment, she rummages through her purse and places whatever money she can spare in a jar half-filled with coins and crumpled dollars. She’s saving to buy a laptop — and grasping for a lifeline in the digital age.
“My teacher assumes everyone has Internet at home,” she said. “I feel like I’m being left behind.”
Interesting perspective from David Cardinal on ExtremeTech:
By launching a direct-to-consumer camera Lytro has leapt ahead of all its potential competitors for the race to become king of light field and computational photography, but that strategy can backfire if limitations of Lytro’s first camera tarnish its brand before Ng and co can move on to some of the amazing future possibilities for their technology.
Though the Lytro camera has received some bad press, the technology behind it is miles ahead of any competition.
Big big show kicks off with the iPad 3 Apple Event announcement; Google’s Glasses/Goggles product development; T-Mobile whining about poor earnings; Facebook interleaving ads in your news feed; the ABC News piece on Apple factories; Apple’s acquisition of Chomp; Microsoft letting go of the past; Nokia betting on camera enthusiasts; Siri in your car. Thanks for listening.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 29:04 — 33.4MB)