Financial Times pulls its apps from Apple store

Cutting the Apple cord is a bold move by the FT. It appears that they have taken the appropriate measures of ensuring that their products are still available to mobile consumers. In my opinion, Media organizations should follow the FT's approach of developing products across all the popular mobile platforms, but I wouldn't suggest cutting the Apple cord. The way I see it – if Apple is responsible for a good percentage of your customers, then the answer is easy – why risk it. There is nothing preventing any media organization from offering mobile apps directly to consumers in parallel with Apple - Amazon - Zinio - Google - Yahoo etc.

Amplify’d from www.reuters.com

The Financial Times has pulled its iPad and iPhone apps from Apple's App Store after losing a battle to keep control of customer data obtained through subscriptions.

The iPad tablet computer, launched a year and a half ago, created a new market popular with affluent professionals and has been a major driver of new subscriptions to FT.com, which now accounts for about a quarter of the FT's total sales Read more at www.reuters.com

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HP resurrects TouchPad for one last go at the iPad

And why not! Never before has killing a product created so much demand. For HP this next move clearly aligns with their corporate strategy of losing money. The lesson to be learned by all is that price matters. Consumers can't find tablets from recognizable manufacturers for less than $150 and when they saw a well-known brand selling at $99 - they jumped in.

Amplify’d from www.fox40.com

Hewlett Packard Co plans to crank out "one last run" of TouchPads, days after declaring it will kill off a line of tablets that failed to challenge Apple Inc's command of the booming market.

HP may lose money on every TouchPad in its final production run. According to IHS iSuppli's preliminary estimates, the 32GB version carries a bill of materials of $318. Read more at www.fox40.com

 

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Steve Jobs has left the Building

First, I'd like to saying thank you to Steve Jobs.

The Macintosh sparked my love for technology. I started on a Apple IIc in high school, then IIe & Quadra's in college (I taught a fellow student how to use a Mac- I later married her), it got me my first job using Quadra's and LCII's and III's, I got my first laptop in 1996 the 5300, my first PDA the Newton 110 (a gift from my boss Fred), basically I've used every Mac since then till today. I still have a Power Computing Power Tower Pro. It was an exciting era - the best was attending Macworld in San Francisco and Boston and even New York - the good old days.

The great thing is I still work with Macs, so does my wife and our two kids use them. And come to think of so do all of my neighbors. Not bad for a company that many had predicted to fail. It didn't because of Steve.

Amplify’d from www.pcmag.com

In a surprising turn of events, Apple on Wednesday announced the resignation of its CEO Steve Jobs, who had been on a medical leave of absence since January. Jobs will be replaced by longtime Apple exec Tim Cook, but is there an Apple without Steve Jobs? And how did he help propel Apple to such great heights? Read more at www.pcmag.com

 

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Apple Wants to Bite into 600M in China

A partnership with China Mobile appears to be the next strategic move in the mobile wars for Apple. Apple may set the stage for dominance in China, where American products have difficultly penetrating the market. But when products are accepted they do very well – just look at the success of Buick autos in China, where sales may surpass the U.S. this year. And Apple already seems to have a following in China.

Amplify’d from www.pcworld.com

There are signs that Apple may soon allow China Mobile to distribute the iPhone, a deal that could give Apple a bigger share of China's mobile phone market. But Apple faces a tough choice in order to reach such a deal, say analysts: develop an iPhone specifically for China Mobile, which operates a 3G network incompatible with current models of the iPhone, or make iPhone buyers use the carrier's slower 2G network.

Even though China Mobile is not an official Apple reseller, the company already has 7.4 million iPhone users on its network

Among the country's 900 million mobile phone users, only about 85 million use a 3G network

The rest use 2G networks, which are seen as more affordable and reliable Read more at www.pcworld.com

 

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Yale warns 43,000 about 10-month-long data breach

This is just another reminder of how safe your personal information is even when in the hands of a trusted institutions like your alma mater. We have all come to fear the activities of rogue hackers, who prey on our computers - the simply fact is that most breaches occur because of a complete disregard or lack for of data management practices.

For example, several months ago, I received a personal data breach notice from CBR.com (my cord blood bank) - an employees car was stolen along with their laptop which contained all of their customer data. These folks are trusted with my families DNA - hopeful they manage that better than my data.

All told, I have received 3 such notifications in the last few years.

The moral of the story - protect yourself by setting up credit watches with the credit report agencies.

Amplify’d from www.computerworld.com

Yale University has notified about 43,000 faculty, staff, students and alumni that their names and Social Security numbers were publicly available via Google search for about 10 months.

The breach resulted when a File Transfer Protocol (FTP) server on which the data was stored became searchable via Google as the result of a change the search engine giant made last September, the Yale Daily News reported Read more at www.computerworld.com

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HP single-handedly destroys non-iPad tablet market

Adrian makes some excellent points regarding the demise of the HP tablet. I could agree more with him that price was a significant factor and it was overlooked.

Amplify’d from www.zdnet.com

After less than two months on sale, HP has pulled the plug on the TouchPad tablet and is so desperate to get rid of them that it is having a firesale, selling the 16GB TouchPad for $99 and the 32GB model for $149. But not only has HP killed the TouchPad, it has also single-handedly destroyed the entire non-iPad tablet market. Read more at www.zdnet.com

 

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Magazines Flex Their Apps -- But Will They Make Any Money From Them?

Over a year after the launch of the iPad the mystery of whether the iPad would be a huge success or colossal failure has been answered. Publishers were left with no choice, they had to jump on the Apple bandwagon to have visibility on the iPad. This was new territory for publishers and they were and still are weathering the storm of high development costs, withering ROI projections, platform revenue sharing and lack of digital revenue.Reflecting back on birth year of the tablet one thing is clear, app developers benefited the most (financially) by the disruption caused by the iPad (and later other tablets). And they will continue to earn big bucks until publishers become more knowledgeable about mobile platforms.

Amplify’d from www.reuters.com

Magazine publishers are betting heavily on the tablet platform, aggressively enticing new customers and existing subscribers to embrace their digital versions.

Hearst and Conde Nast both struck deals with Apple in May, permitting consumers to subscribe through the iTunes Store -- deals that closely followed redesigned apps from the likes of GQ and Vanity Fair.

With Apple unveiling its newsstand in September, each publisher will be put to the test. Though each one will have a different presence -- they offer differing amounts of titles for the iPad -- the next few months are shaping up to be very revealing, especially with Amazon rumored to be launching a tablet soon. Read more at www.reuters.com

 

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Third Rail’s Powered iPhone Case Is Shockingly Clever

Far be it from me to plug a product, but this one seems cool and I am considering purchasing one. Third Rail has designed an iPhone protective case (0.8oz) that allows you to connect a backup battery to it. Read about it @ Wired

How You Can Legally Make $1,000 In One Night In NYC

I read about Skillshare on GigaOm (http://gigaom.com/2011/08/16/skillshare-raises-3-1m-to-make-every-person-a-teacher/), but I preferred the headline the SFGate ran with.

This is an innovative idea that is striking at the right moment. I believe that most learning occurs outside of the formal classroom setting. Skillshare just locked in $3.1 million from Union Square Ventures and Spark Capital.

Amplify’d from www.sfgate.com

There aren't many legal ways to make $1,000 in one night.

But Skillshare, a startup that lets any person teach a class and charge students for tickets, says 15% of its instructors have made that much money.

SkillShare is a New York startup with a lofty goal.  It wants to turn every address into a classroom and every person into a teacher or student. Read more at www.sfgate.com

 

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Bono's Facebook stake worth nearly $1bn

I gather he finally found what he was looking for...

Now we just have to wait for the IPO.

Amplify’d from www.guardian.co.uk

U2 frontman Bono's investment firm could be looking at a profit of almost $800m on its stake in Facebook, it has emerged.

This values the U2's Elevation Partners' stake at $975m - more than four times the $210m it paid in November 2009. Read more at www.guardian.co.uk

 

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HTC invests $300 million in Beats by Dr. Dre

I wonder if this rap thing is going to last!

See Forbes.com: CASH KINGS

Amplify’d from latimesblogs.latimes.com

HTC is investing $300 million in Beats by Dr. Dre, the consumer audio company launched by L.A. rap legend Dr. Dre and record mogul Jimmy Iovine known for its high-end headphones.

The injection of money will give HTC one of the largest stakes in Beats, but the company will remain autonomous from HTC Read more at latimesblogs.latimes.com

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Pierre Cardin Hops on the Tablet Bandwagon

Tablets continue to dominate and everyone is ready to tap into the lucrative market. Now Pierre Cardin has branded a tablet. Why? I have no idea, but I am sure there are consumers who will purchase one, particularly if the price point hovers around $99. By Christmas the tablet market should be flooded by similarly branded tablets.

Amplify’d from www.mediabistro.com

Until someone finally comes to the table with $1.5 billion to buy the brand outright, Pierre Cardin seems ready to keep those new licensing deals coming at an ever-steady clip. Via the Chinese manufacturer Shenzhen Vogue Industries Co., Ltd., and because every company seems eager to try and replicate Apple‘s success with the iPad, the Pierre Cardin Tablet PC has just launched. Read more at www.mediabistro.com

 

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Filtering Search for Children

This tip takes a few seconds and doesn't cost a cent. Any precaution you can take to protect your children online helps.

Amplify’d from gadgetwise.blogs.nytimes.com

Search engines bring all kinds of results back in response to queries — including some that may not be suitable for children. While no software filter replaces parental supervision, most of the major search sites (Google, Yahoo and Bing) include the filters for safer searching that can help screen out pages with adult content from results. Read more at gadgetwise.blogs.nytimes.com

 

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