Former Apple VP Bertrand Serlet joins Parallels board

Apple's former Senior VP of Mac OS Software Bertrand Serlet has joined the board of directors at Parallels, the virtualization software company in a non-executive role. Serlet, who did stints involving both science and programming at Xerox PARC as well as Steve Jobs' former company NeXT, left Apple last year to focus "less on products and more on science." His role at Parallels will be to help supply additional vision and direction for both its flagship product and its server-management tools.

Serlet was part of a large crew of former NeXT employees who came with Jobs when he returned to running Apple in the late 90s. Serlet had contributed much to NeXTSTEP and OpenStep, the heart of OS X software. He also worked on WebObjects and CoreFoundation, building on the work of his predecessor in the Software Engineering VP job, Avie Tevanian. He was with Apple for 14 years (including a decade-long stint at Ariba), and is also working with a cloud-based startup Upthere.

Parallels is best known for its self-named product, one of the three major virtualization solutions for running Windows and other operating systems on the Mac, allowing it to be the most versatile of the three mainstream platforms in its ability to run nearly any other operating system (past or present). The company started in 2004 primarily focusing on Windows and Linux server virtualization, but came to prominence when Apple unveiled the Intel-based version of OS X in 2006 and the first Mac version came out. The company continues to sell the Plesk server automation software.

This aticle comes from:http://www.macnn.com/articles/12/07/17/parc.next.veteran.helped.create.os.x/

New iPad App Helps Sports Fans Follow the Action and Feed Twitter

When Philip Sanford goes to his favorite bar to watch his beloved Seton Hall Pirates, he brings along his phone charger so he also can follow the game on Twitter.

Heather Carleton looks to the social media website for clarification when there is a disputed call involving the San Francisco 49ers.David Foreman likes to communicate with West Virginia fans across the country.

More and more these days, when the game is on, so is the computer. Or tablet. Or cellphone. Sports fans around the world are following along on Twitter while they watch their favorite teams in person or on TV, and a new application from a San Francisco startup is designed to make that experience even easier for them.

"Since I can't really listen to it since I'm at a sports bar, I like to read about what's going on from a journalistic point of view," said Sanford, 29, who lives in Charlotte, N.C. "I can learn about what's going from several different sources."

There are signs all over that sports fans are using Twitter even while the games are going on in front of them.Sporting events are responsible for the majority of the top moments measured in tweets per second.

The Champions League soccer match between Barcelona and Chelsea on April 24 peaked at 13,684 tweets per second, second only to the 2011 showing of a movie in Japan.

Will Hunsinger, 42, is a proud Georgetown alum and an avid follower of the men's basketball team. He was watching a game last year while communicating with a friend over Facebook and receiving text messages from his father when he came up with an idea.

This article comes from:http://www.theledger.com/article/20120614/NEWS/120619575/1178?Title=New-iPad-App-Helps-Sports-Fans-Follow-the-Action-and-Feed-Twitter-

Apple's Plan For Its Cash Stash

 


Apple has $100 billion of cash and a lot of ways to spend it. Add more retail stores? Check. Set up more server farms to support its iCloud service? Check. Build a second campus in Cupertino, California, to house its burgeoning staff? Check. Acquire companies and expand R&D? Check. Pay dividends and do stock repurchases? Check, check.

How about buying up its own supply chain? A lot of high-tech manufacturers on The Global 2000 dream about controlling what they pay for components and gaining the assurance that crucial parts will flow as needed. Apple is one of very few firms with the financial wherewithal to make that come true, specifically by buying production equipment to outfit new and existing factories in Asia that other people will run. Apple is already deploying its cash toward this very goal, say people who follow the company closely. It’s a strategy that will likely continue the disruption in the consumer electronics field that Apple has led to date.

The iPhone maker has $64 billion or so of its cash sitting overseas, taxed at an attractively low 5 percent rate but also earning little to no interest. Any cash Apple chooses to bring back to the States would get hit at the 35 percent US tax rate, not a pleasant prospect. Spending that money on expanding offshore production is far more compelling. Apple keeps the depreciation expense while keeping production costs down. It also means the company will be ready to continue pumping up the volume to feed the seemingly insatiable appetite for iPhones and iPads in the near term and rumoured new category-busting products like an interactive TV in the long term.


This article comes from:http://forbesindia.com/article/worlds-largest-companies/apples-plan-for-its-cash-stash/33032/1

What's new in iTunes

As part of iCloud, iTunes in the Cloud takes what you buy on iTunes on one device and pushes it to all your other devices, wirelessly and without syncing. With iTunes Match, even the songs you’ve imported from CDs are stored in iCloud — so you can access them on your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Apple TV, Mac, or PC. And the iTunes Store now features thousands of movies and TV shows in stunning 1080p HD.

1080p movies and TV shows.
A new definition of great entertainment.The iTunes Store now features thousands of current and classic movies and TV episodes in stunning 1080p HD. Rent or buy the hottest HD movies and buy your favorite TV shows and start enjoying them in moments. The iTunes Store automatically downloads the highest-resolution video your device will support, so you’ll always see the best possible picture.¹ And with iCloud, you can start watching those movies and TV shows on one device and finish them on another.


This article comes from:http://www.apple.com/itunes/whats-new/

Devices' embrace of disabled community is improving, but big challenges lie ahead Read more: Devices' embrace of disabled community is improving, but big challenges lie ahead

When the iPad debuted two years ago, there was lots of talk about whether people beyond the iPhone and Mac faithful would use such a thing.
But it became very clear to a particular group of people — advocates for those with autism spectrum disorders — that the device could be a new tool for communication and education in that community, something perhaps even Apple didn't foresee. Some autism-related apps aid conversation between parents and children, while others help with learning words or social skills.
In fact, there are now so many autism-related apps for the iPad and other iOS devices that there's "Autism Apps," an app that provides a comprehensive list.
Kel Smith, a blogger, consultant and founder of the Philadelphia-based technology accessibility company Anikto LLC, has been studying technology shifts like this one for a book he's working on, "Digital Outcasts: Moving Technology Forward Without Leaving People Behind."
It revolves around "accessibility," the idea that websites, apps, hardware and other technology should be designed in ways that do not shut them out to those with disabilities including blindness, hearing loss and other physical limitations.
But the concept of the book is changing as Smith works on it.
"I went in with the premise that there's entire populations of people who are being left behind; they're not being considered. Then I realized, they're the ones driving the innovation and moving it forward. They're forming their own solutions at this very grassroots level."
Smith's company Anikto (the word is Greek for "Open") has for years been advocating more accessible web design, hardware and software. In recent years, he says, tech companies are realizing that they're leaving money on the table by not making their sites or products accessible.
"Ten years ago, I was being laughed out of boardrooms for bringing up that we should make things accessible," Smith says. "Now, there's a

greater recognition that there's a market for this type of stuff and it's not just what we do on a secular level."The idea is that designers should think about accessibility because it's in their own best interests — in addition to being altruistic.
For companies selling products online, for instance, "You have to understand that people who have a disability that prevents them from leaving the home will be shopping from home. You don't want to have barriers (to) that purchasing decision," he says.
What's more, the cost for individuals and nonprofits to create their own web design tools and apps is falling, making it easier than ever for technology for the disabled to be distributed and for communities online to get the word out about them.
Another big shift is that for years, accessibility was largely focused on how the web is viewed on computers, how the online world interacts with computers, and mice and text-to-speech devices.
But now, much of people's web browsing is moving to mobile devices like smart phones, which have much smaller screens. We're also being introduced to personal tech like Microsoft's Xbox 360 Kinect, which relies on gestures and movement.
These new interfaces can be a double-edged sword. They provide "a whole new array of possibilities," Smith says, "and a whole new array of problems... We're almost back to square one in terms of web accessibility."
Improvements in tech accessibility are likely to benefit an increasing number of people as aging baby boomers will soon dictate the demand for devices suitable for people with limited motor skills, hand-eye coordination, poor vision and hearing.
This article comes from:http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_20657523/access-required?source=rss

Apple wants to squelch five Google patents issued to HTC

Apple has fired another shot at HTC in its patent wars with the Taiwanese mobile phone maker.
A motion filed by Apple with the U.S. International Trade Commission is seeking to throw out five patents HTC received from Google last year.
Part of an ITC document discovered online by Foss Patents' Florian Mueller said that Apple is calling for a partial termination of the investigation with respect to the patents due to lack of standing.
Translating the legalese into English, that means Apple believes HTC has no right to file a lawsuit or an ITC complaint over the patents in question.
The five patents relate to wireless technology and are part of a second ITC complaint issued by HTC against Apple last September. HTC also filed a federal lawsuit at the same time, accusing Apple of violating those same patents.
The new ITC motion filed by Apple is still confidential, so further details were unavailable.
But Mueller cited two possible reasons behind Apple's thinking. First, HTC bought the patents from Google just a week before it filed the ITC complaint, so the timing raises a red flag. Second, HTC may be seen as a "proxy" filing the complaint on behalf of Google.
"Google itself would definitely have been unable to fulfill the domestic industry requirement for those patents, simply because of its business model," Mueller said.
A couple of months after the filing, Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt voiced his support for the company's Android partners, particularly HTC.
"We tell our partners, including the ones here in Taiwan, we will support them," Schmidt said at the time. "For example we have been supporting HTC in its dispute with Apple because we think that the Apple thing is not correct."
In essence, Google is using partners like HTC as a front to file lawsuits, according to Mueller.
"Acquiring a bunch of patents in week X and requesting an ITC import ban over them in week X+1 shows that HTC is merely a proxy, and the use of proxies is irreconcilable with the ITC's mission," Mueller added.
CNET contacted Apple, HTC, and Google for comment. An HTC spokesman said the company has no comment on the matter. We'll update the story if we receive a response from Apple or Google.
Apple's patent war with HTC also ramped up after a report yesterday saying that U.S. customs officials are delaying the import of certain HTC phones.
The HTC One X and Evo 4G LTE are being held up indefinitely by customs agents over unresolved patent infringement issues with Apple, HTC confirmed.
This article comes from:http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-57435572-37/apple-wants-to-squelch-five-google-patents-issued-to-htc/?part=rss&subj=androidatlas&tag=title

Head of Time Warner Cable Is Unfamiliar With Apple’s AirPlay

AirPlay, a software tool included with Apple’s iPads and iPhones, is widely viewed as being potentially disruptive to the cable industry, because it makes it easy for people to view a broad variety of Internet content on a television. Time Warner Cable’s leader, however, hasn’t heard of it.
Glenn A. Britt, the company’s chief executive, said in a group interview on Friday that the challenge for digital video was that there was no simple way to get Internet-based video onto the television screen. He wasn’t familiar with AirPlay.

“I’m not sure I know what AirPlay is,” he said, though he noted that he was an enthusiastic Apple customer. “Today we want to be on every screen. Today it’s a little bit clunky to get programming from the Internet onto the TV — not so hard to get it on your iPad. What’s hard is the plumbing, what wires do you connect, what device do you use. So the current Apple TV, the little thing, the hockey puck, really doesn’t do anything to help enable you to get Internet material on your TV.”
Apple pitches AirPlay as a way to make it easy to get Internet video from an iPad or iPhone onto a television, among other uses. A user can press a button while watching video to stream it wirelessly to an Apple TV box connected to a TV set.
AirPlay also makes it easy to push pirated video available on the Web onto the television, which could lead some people to drop their cable subscriptions. And it opens the door for content providers to circumvent cable and offer their own channels as apps. That gives them a direct relationship with the customer, as well as the opportunity to try new ways to increase revenue or ad sales. The Discovery Channel, ABC and PBS offer AirPlay-compatible apps. AirPlay will be coming to Apple’s computers too, in the next version of the Mac operating system, due out this summer.
Of course, while many people own iPhones and iPads, Apple TV has not been as popular; Apple sold 2.8 million of the boxes in the year that ended in September. Requiring two pieces of hardware isn’t as straightforward as getting all the content right there from the TV.  Mr. Britt noted that he felt smart TVs — Internet-connected televisions that include computer chips and software — would be better than requiring an extra box to view Web content. “I hate set-top boxes,” he said.
But with many reports speculating about a coming release of an Apple-made television, AirPlay seems like something worth following.
This article comes from: http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/14/time-warner-apple-tv-airplay/