Apple's secret sauce: Runs like a huge startup!

Gizmodo asks:

One of my favorite and most-used iPhone apps is Apple's Remote app. It lets me remotely control iTunes, which is streaming to my living room stereo via an Airport Express. But why hasn't it been updated in over 8 months?

Sachin, a good friend of the app's coder, answers:

Yes, the Remote app is due for an update. But here's why it hasn't been updated: the person who wrote it is busy working on other things. Yes, the person, not the team (He's a good friend of mine).

Apple doesn't build large teams to work on every product they make. Instead, they hire very few, but very intelligent people who can work on different projects and move around as needed.

One day you might be working on the Remote app, and the next day you might get pulled on to another project that needs your help.

Lesson learned: You just need small teams to create great products!

Tagged Apple

Singaporean, Hongkong iPad users pay cheapest data plans

The United States, France, Belgium and Luxembourg pay the most expensive data plan for the iPad worldwide, while Singapore and Hong Kong could enjoy the cheapest data rates. If American users, for instance, should pay USD15 for 250 MB, or USD25 for 2 GB per month to enjoy the iPad, a Singaporean can get a GB of data just for 51 cents!

[via Wired.com]

Apple Nation: Why everyone wants to be like Steve Jobs

I'm not an Apple user, but I am a big fan of Steve Jobs, the man behind the world's coolest company. Like others, I always impressed by what he did and contributed to the tech world. The company's products always become cultural "lingua franca". Check-out the link below in order to know what does it mean and how to achieve it.

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/147/apple-nation.html

Tagged Apple Steve Jobs

Video: A child geek with iPad!

 
That's cute!
Tagged Geek Apple iPad

Fortune: Apple wins World's Most Admired Company Award

Again, --yeah, it's third year in a row winning the award-- Apple has won  2010 "World's Most Admired Company" award. Fortune Magazine polled 4200, company directors, corporate executives and industry analysts to get this winner. Congrats, Steve!
 
In Fortune's words:

"With 250 million iPods, 43 million iPhones, and 32 million iPod touches sold to date, plus the promise of a game-changing iPad, Apple won this year's vote by the highest margin ever for a No. 1. Two more years as champ and Apple will match GE for most appearances in the top spot.

What makes Apple so admired? Product, product, product. This is the company that changed the way we do everything from buy music to design products to engage with the world around us. Its track record for innovation and fierce consumer loyalty translates into tremendous respect across business' highest ranks.

[via TwitTown]

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Tagged Apple Steve Jobs

Will Apple build its own search engine?

The answer is no, according to Silicon Alley Insider. There are too many options in the search market today, so that building a new search engine is not that easy. Another reason: The company is getting over US$100 million anually from Google, since Google is the default search engine in Safari.

For Apple, that's not a lot of money. But, it's enough that it doesn't make sense for Apple to put considerable resources towards building its own Internet search engine. And, if Apple wanted more money or options, there's Microsoft -- with Bing and a big checkbook.

Yahoo, Bing better than Google for #iPad image search reveals

With so much excitement around the device, the disappointing part is that though a week has passed since we saw the first iPad unit, Google Images still has no clue about the existence of this Apple device.

[via Labnol]

     

The Steve Jobs way

Apple CEO Steve Jobs finally unveiled a multimedia tablet computer named the iPad, after "nearly a decade of rumors and speculation". We could follow pros and cons arguments on the Apple's latest device, but I think, one for sure: Steve Jobs has his own logic behind his innovations. There are some quotes from Steve Jobs about this, including:

“We do no market research. We don’t hire consultants. The only consultants I’ve ever hired in my 10 years is one firm to analyze Gateway’s retail strategy so I would not make some of the same mistakes they made [when launching Apple's retail stores]. But we never hire consultants, per se. We just want to make great products.”

“It’s not about pop culture, and it’s not about fooling people, and it’s not about convincing people that they want something they don’t. We figure out what we want. And I think we’re pretty good at having the right discipline to think through whether a lot of other people are going to want it, too. That’s what we get paid to do.”

Good job, Mr. Jobs!

Telkomsel iPhone 3GS gets a release date?

My friend Aulia over at Gajeto broke a news about the most-possible release date for iPhone 3GS in Indonesia: January 20, 2010. Actually, it's the Apple's second attempts to conquer Indonesian market. Could Telkomsel, local operator for iPhone, deal with the market that's already occupied with the hype of BlackBerry devices?

Late last month we saw OKEshop outlets sporting actual iPhone 3GS banners at their shops and just today, we received word from id-mac mailing list that a customer service officer at Grapari in Bandung claims that Telkomsel will finally release iPhone 3GS on January 20, 2010. Grapari is of course Telkomsel's official retail and customer service outlet...

Hopefully with an additional two month lead time compared to their previous effort, along with nine months of experience, Telkomsel has figured out a way to avoid the disastrous 2009 campaign and start marketing iPhone 3GS properly.

Chrome overtakes Safari as number 3 browser

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Google's Chrome got another milestone. Just 16 months after its debut, the Google browser overtook Apple's Safari to become the world's third-most popular browser --behind Internet Explorer and Firefox.

Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE), meanwhile, lost almost a full percentage point in December, the latest slip in a decline that accelerated during the second half of 2009...Chrome ended December with a share of 4.63%, according to California-based measurement firm Net Applications. Apple 's Safari, which dropped into fourth place for the first time, posted a share of 4.46%.

[via PC World]