Archive for the 'Apple' Category

My iDay coverage

Published
by
Aaron
on July 1, 2007
in Apple, In the News, Internet and Personal
. 0 Comments

After a nice weekend at the beach to clear my mind of all things Mac, I’m back now and face a tsunami of iPhone news stories and blog posts — joy. But on the plus side, some of those are mine. As I posted before, I was at the 5th Avenue Apple Store in New York on Friday to cover the iPhone launch for The Teen Tech Buzz podcast and Macworld. While The Teen Tech Buzz coverage hasn’t been posted yet, the Macworld stuff has, in three forms. The first is a written report of coverage from around the country of the iPhone launch. I have a few paragraphs in the New York section, with a byline, of course, and a photo right next to it. That photo, plus another that I did and several from other Macworld correspondents, is posted on a gallery on Macworld’s iPhone Central blog. Finally, some of my audio coverage is on episode #87 of the Macworld Podcast.

So, while not all of my coverage is online, all of it will be soon, in the form of Flickr photos, a special part of The Teen Tech Buzz podcast, and a set of MacUser/iPhone Central posts. So, to all you security guards, line-waiters, and Apple Store employees who doubted my press credentials — look who’s laughing now.

Covering the iPhone Launch

Published
by
Aaron
on June 26, 2007
in Announcements/Updates, Apple, NYC and Personal
. 2 Comments

Fifthavenue Vert051906On Friday, June 29th (better known as “iDay”), I will be at the 5th Avenue Apple Store in New York (directions and map, Google Maps) covering the launch of the iPhone. I’ll be there with my friend and co-host for The Teen Tech Buzz podcast, Austen, doing interviews and stuff for the podcast, and also for Macworld. We’ll be there from about 5-6:30 PM, and I’ll be trying to manage doing work for The Teen Tech Buzz, work for Macworld, and my personal attempts to try out the iPhone, so I’ll be pretty busy. But, if you’re there, I’d be happy to interview you and even get you quoted in Macworld.

Also, I’d just like to point out that my employer, Macworld, has launched a blog devoted to, you guessed it, the iPhone, called iPhone Central. I haven’t written anything for it yet, though I may start to after launch. So, keep your eyes peeled and maybe you’ll see my byline sometime soon.

Sopranos Season Finale Countdown Widget

Published
by
Aaron
on June 9, 2007
in Apple, My Stuff, Personal, Software and Technology
. 0 Comments

SopranoscountdownI’m a big fan of The Sopranos. Now, while I only came in at the start of this season (back in March of last year), I’m already a huge fan. I’ve already planned two posts about the show’s season finale on Sunday, but until then, I decided to work on this — a Sopranos Season Finale Countdown Widget (note, you may need to right-click on the link and click “Save Link As…” or something similar to download the widget). Yes, using the countdown template in DashCode and Photoshop, I managed to pull a simple little widget together. It’s not much, and it’s coming a little late, but it’s something and is a nice compliment to your WWDC countdown widget.

Apple product release rumor roundout

Published
by
Aaron
on June 5, 2007
in Apple and Shorter Stuff
. 1 Comment

Astoredown
As I’ve said before “When the Apple Store’s down, new products are in town.” So, here are the possibilities of what will hopefully emerge from store.apple.com at 9, assuming that this isn’t just normal maintenance:

  • Brushed metal iMacs (eww!)
  • The new Back to School promo, which allows college students (which excludes me,a s I get stuff from my dad’s college professor account) to get a free iPod Nano (or $199 towards a more expensive iPod, but no iPhone) with a new Mac purchase.
  • Updated MacBook Pros, with possibilities of upgraded specs and a LED display.

UPDATE: New MacBook Pros are out!

Steve Jobs: “Like giving ice water to someone in hell

Published
by
Aaron
on June 1, 2007
in Apple, Humor, In the News and Videos
. 0 Comments

Steve Jobs, you bloody genius.

Apple Store being updated

Published
by
Aaron
on May 15, 2007
in Apple
. 0 Comments

picture-1.pngYou know what they say: “When the Apple Store’s down, new products are in town.” OK, maybe only I say that.

Apple stock split in sight

Published
by
Aaron
on April 26, 2007
in Apple and Finance
. 0 Comments

With Apple now floating around $100 a share (though it closed lower today at $98.84), a stock split seems imminent. A stock split, which involves splitting the shares of a stock (and thus giving shareholders extra shares), and then decreasing the share price appropriately so the market cap of the stock says the same. Basically, this activity doesn’t increase the value of the company, but instead makes the stock seem more accessible to investors due to the lower share price. So, while the stock split itself doesn’t do anything to the actual value of the stock, the price usually rises immediately afterwords, as a stock split is a sign of an increasing stock price (meaning an increase in the company’s value).

So, why would Apple split now? Well, the last split, a 2:1 (meaning the number of shares double and their value is cut in half) in February 2005, was decided upon when the stock hit about $80. Now, with the share price above that, it would make sense for a split to occur again, especially considering great earnings from Macs, iPods, and now even Apple TV sales. Of course, Apple could just be holding out for the iPhone’s release, which could either bring a lot of profits or be a huge failure. So in the end, an Apple stock split probably is going to happen within the next several months.

Apple announces Q2 earnings and stock surges above $100

Published
by
Aaron
on April 25, 2007
in Apple, Finance and In the News
. 0 Comments

appleq2financials.jpgIn contrast to my previous post, here’s a positive post about financial news: Apple Inc., better known to, well, everyone, as Apple, has announced its Q2 earnings this afternoon, and they’re pretty amazing at $0.87 EPS, which is up from $0.47 EPS in the year-ago-quarter, and $5.26 billion and $770 million in quarterly revenue and net profit, respectively. Apple has also sold 36% more Macs and 24% more iPods since last year. Plus, the Q2 earnings beat the $0.64 EPS analyst expectation by $0.23. What this means: Apple’s still growing and thriving, and its stock price has surged, going up $7.10 (7.45%) in after-hours trading at the time of publishing, all the way to an all-time-high (not including previous highs today in after-hours trading) of $102.45. So, whether you’re an Apple fan, shareholder, or both (like me), this’ll be good news to you’re ears.

Note: Apple has also announced that it’s not going to fight with ex-CFO Fred Anderson (who accused Steve Jobs of being responsible for the stock options scandal).

Note 2: From TUAW: “During this afternoon’s financial conference call, Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer announced that a third Big Apple store is being planned. It’s been suggested that this building at 401 West 14th Street will be the third store’s location. At 52,000 square-feet, it would house one heck of a store.” And yes Dave, as you pointed out in your post, New Yorkers do get everything. Except free municipal Wi-Fi. And driving distance from Apple, Google, digg, Macworld and more headquarters. Damn you San Francisco!

My meeting with a Mac geek waiter

Published
by
Aaron
on April 14, 2007
in Apple, NYC and Personal
. 0 Comments

Apple Frittata
Today, I went out to dinner with my grandparents and step-cosuins at a nice (read: not terrific, but still pretty good) Italian restaurant in Lincoln Center. But this was no ordinary dinner. Well, actually it was, but I had a not so ordinary encounter with the third kind.
As I was eating, my mother, in her typical fashion, was yapping away to my step-cousin about my blogging on MacUser, and apparently, one of the waiters overheard. He asked me about it, and, in my typical shyness about being a total Mac geek addict worshiper, I quietly told him I wrote for a Mac blog. He then exclaimed, “I’m a big fan of Macs too!” I can’t say that some kind of magic connection occurred then, but I always feel kind of cool when a meet a random stranger who shares my affinity for all things Apple. As I lifted some of the veil concealing my geekiness, he asked when Leopard was coming out. Aha! This question told me two things: 1) he’s enough of a Mac geek to know about Leopard, and to refer to it as that, and 2) he’s not enough of a Mac geek to know that only two days ago Apple announced the delay of Leopard until October. When I broke the sad news to him, he said “Ah, that’s too bad. I want to get a MacBook Pro, but I was holding out for Leopard.” He then asked for what the blog I wrote for was, and I handed him my business card. The best part was then how he said he may have read it before, and will look at it tonight.

Throughout the meal, this waiter whose name I still don’t know referred to me as “the writer,” which gave my already too-large ego a boost. Still, I do acknowledge my place as a blogger, even a paid one, and not an actual journalist (though if The Jewish Week gets back to me on my idea for a piece, this might change). But hey, when you meet a Mac geek waiter who may have already read your blog, it kind of makes you feel just a little bit special.

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…as if millions of Mac users cried out, and were then silenced

Published
by
Aaron
on April 12, 2007
in Apple and In the News
. 1 Comment

No, no, NO!!!!!!

Macworld:

Apple on Thursday released a statement noting that Mac OS X v10.5 “Leopard” won’t be released until October. The cause of the delay? The iPhone.

And the irony of it all is that the iPhone could be one of Apple’s greatest blunders (putting so much money into such an expensive phone), and Leopard one of its great success (ultimate integration between Windows and OS X).

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