Apple is seeking some fresh blood to help improve Siri. A job advertisement appeared on the business orientated social networking site LinkedIn yesterday seeking an individual who can help evolve and enrich Siri, Apple’s personal digital assistant.
Some of the more interesting things, at least conceptually, I saw at CES 2013 were the smart appliances shown off by the likes of Samsung and LG. They're not anywhere near the sci-fi of Tony Stark's house, never mind Star Trek or the Jetsons, but they're a beginning. As a geek and fan of futurism, that's exciting. And it's an area Apple isn't playing in publicly yet, at least beyond the living room.
More on the dumbassery -- or manipulation -- that was the Wall Street Journal story this past weekend alleging Apple was cutting iPhone 5 orders in the face of weak demand -- namely the questions the WSJ should have asked, and the logic they should have applied, before slapping the headline under their masthead, usually one of the most respected in the business. Particularly, the rah-rah Samsung tone taken in the article, and on many technology sites as well, that reported doom-and-gloom for Apple in the same feed they bolstered Apple's competitors. Mark Rogowsky from Forbes elaborates:
Last weekend a rather bizarre article appeared in the Wall Street Journal, one that claimed Apple was seeing weak demand for the iPhone 5 based on a couple of guys telling the reporter that screen orders for Q2 had been cut in half, one that original included a ridiculous 65 million unit figure that later disappeared, only to be echoed by Reuters a short time later, one that sent Apple's stock price tumbling -- again -- based on nothing more than unsubstantiated, illogical, incalculable rumor.
That it was the Wall Street Journal that published the story likely lent the story credibility it might not otherwise have enjoyed. A bunch of smart tech heads discussed the story on Branch.
Kevin Michaluk forwarded me the above video from 2010 where Jim Cramer elaborates on how he, and presumably others, manipulate BlackBerry (RIMM) and Apple (APPL) stock by spreading just these types of rumors.
I'm posting it here so I can link back to it any time and every time another one of these rumors surfaces.
A new survey from 451 Research's ChangeWave service on smartphone buyers in North America shows that while demand for the iPhone has dropped from the its last survey period, one in two likely smartphone buyers plan on purchasing an iPhone 5 within the next 90 days. Apple continued its impressive record of customer satisfaction, with 71% of respondents saying they were “Very Satisfied” with their iPhone.
FireCore has released another update to its hugely popular software for jailbroken second generation Apple TV's (2010, 720p version). The new 2.1 release includes a raft of new features and improvements, the most interesting being the ability to create TV Show playlists.
Apple has been awarded a Technology and Engineering Emmy award at a special reception in The Bellagio, Bellagio Ballroom, Las Vegas. The award given to Apple, was for the “Eco-system for Real Time Presentation of TV Content to Mobile Devices without the use of Specialized Television Hardware”.
As we all know, the Do Not Disturb feature of iOS 6 that lets you mute Notification Center alerts during specified periods. Apple told us that the problem would fix itself on January 7; we want to know if it is now working again for you?
Apple has just announced that its App Store customers have downloaded over 40 billion apps. It shouldn't be that surprising when you consider that Apple has over 500 million active accounts using the App Store and December 2012 alone saw a staggering two billion app downloads.
According to a report in a Palo Alto newspaper, a break in took place at Microsoft’s office in Mountain View and the only things that were taken from the property were iPads. The Break in supposedly happened over the Christmas period at one of Microsoft’s research offices and the thief got away with two iPad 2 models, two iPad third generation models and one of the latest iPad 4th generation models. Apparently no Microsoft products were stolen in the burglary.
