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Apple Stores construction suppliers
Apple recently released its Supplier Responsibility Progress Report for 2012 and, for the first time, provided a list of 156 suppliers. This list covers 97% of the companies that supply Apple with materials, manufacturing and assembly of its products.
Now that we know which companies are behind Apple's hardware, the folks at ifoAppleStore compiled a list of manufacturers that build Apple's retail stores. The list contains 141 companies including household names like Benjamin Moore and little known names like BGT Bischoff.
Just like it does with its line of mobile devices and computers, Apple pays attention to even the smallest design details. ifoAppleStore's research suggests Apple seeks out little-known companies to supply distinct building materials for its retail stores. Not only does Apple use unique items, the company supposedly designs its stores to be consistent across the chain. The same door knob you see in the Boston store will be present in the San Francisco store, too.
If you're curious about which company provides Apple with coat hooks, head over to ifoAppleStore for its list of retail store suppliers.
Apple Stores construction suppliers originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 20 Jan 2012 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Alorica
Follow-Up: DC Comics
Bensen Out at Moxie
After less than a year, Moxie Interactive’s EVP of media & analytics, Christine Bensen is no longer with the agency according to those familiar with the matter. Amongst other things, the self-proclaimed “Advertising, Marketing, Media and Analytics Expert” was working on Verizon Wireless among other accounts while based in the ATL at Moxie. Prior to her most recent gig, Bensen worked on the media/account side at TBWA\Chiat/Day, Publicis Modem and ZenithOptimedia.
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
Finally, an App to Track the Monetary Cost of Meetings
If you work in advertising, you know the drill: A brief chat between a creative and an account person begins. Then, a second creative shows up with an opinion and some insight on the topic at hand. The account person, overwhelmed, decides that the discussion calls for a meeting.
Suddenly, meeting invitations go out to copywriters, art directors, ACDs, CDs, GCDs, account execs, account coordinators, account managers and assorted interns. The issue at hand is resolved. But, someone feels compelled to belabor a minute detail. By the time the meeting runs over an hour late, 30 people have had a large part of their days wasted. Just think, you could have been doing actual work instead of playing around on your iPhone for three hours! Do you need to convince your agency to stop wasting its time? Well, LBi that’s why created COMA, the “Cost of Meeting App” for mobile devices.
Now, you can be the agency’s MVP in three simple steps:
Step 1: Start the app.
Step 2: Casually point out how much money has been wasted already.
Step 3: Meeting adjourned.
Way to go, hero!
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
Friday Morning Stir
-Arnold Worldwide has hired Kieron Monahan as global planning director and global technology practice co-lead for its Dell account. link
-We’re hearing the ripoff cries with “The Force” follow-up. link
-Red Tettemer + Partners will be premiering its first Super Bowl spot for Century 21, starring Donald Trump, Deion Sanders and more.
-Airborne, which you may remember taking to prevent cold symptoms and such, has picked Gabriel deGrood Bendt after a private review that included two other undisclosed agencies.
-Raleigh-based Baldwin& debuts its first work for GearWrench (above).
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
Macworld transitions to Macworld|iWorld as conference begins next week
Paul Kent, general manager of Macworld Expo, says that next week's renamed Macworld|iWorld show will be "the most interesting and certainly the most unique show that we've ever produced." The event begins next Thursday at San Francisco's Moscone Convention Center, and according to what Kent describes, there will be plenty going on.
First up is the exhibition hall itself -- just like last year, it will be in the first floor of Moscone West. There are 271 exhibitors total, and 130 of those are app developers. Like last year, there will be plenty of iOS developers around, but one of the big pushes this year is to represent the emerging Mac App Store, so Macworld has set up an "OS X Zone," which will feature OS X apps and their developers. There are also plenty of iOS accessory and lifestyle item makers as well, says Kent. "iWorld is not just a new name, it's really a direction for the show, where all aspects of the mobile lifestyle are going to be brought to life."
Upstairs in Moscone West will be the tech talks and the show's mainstage, and in those panels, says Kent, Apple users will find all sorts of great tips and insights on how their hardware and software works together. Some of the talks will be for a general Mac audience, featuring luminaries from the Mac community talking about their area of interest, and some of them will be very specific talks based on some technical issues, like dealing with Photoshop or Quicktime.
Elsewhere on the main stage, there will be plenty of celebrities and artists coming in throughout the week to talk about how they use Apple products in their work. Modest Mouse will open up the event, and during the week, visitors will see all kinds of artists and musicians showing off their work, including bands like moe, Atomic Tom, and legendary electronic musician BT.
And the last big exhibit is the Macworld Midway, also on the show's second floor, which will feature all kinds of different fan-centered exhibits based on Apple's hardware and software. In addition to musical shows and demonstrations, there will be an iPad sketch booth, where visitors can get sketched on an iPad, and a photo booth run with Apple devices. "In general show managers don't design attractions," says Kent, but Macworld this year is different -- he and his team have created a little something different from the standard convention. "We've kind of gone down the road of really creating this experiential environment."
Kent says that the past few years in the Apple community have shown that yes, there are two camps: Old school Mac users, and those jumping on board the iOS/mobile device train. But there's no reason why those two camps can't come together, and have "unified view of what it means to be an Apple platform user," Kent tells us, "I'd be surprised if there are many Mac users that don't have an iPhone or iPad."
The show definitely sounds fun, and of course TUAW will be there covering it from door to door, even if you're not in San Francisco and can't come by. We'll have a meetup next Thursday as well, so if you are headed to Macworld, make sure to visit us and say hi. Whether you're coming for a few hours, a day, or the whole show, it definitely sounds like there's a lot to do and see at Macworld this year.
Macworld transitions to Macworld|iWorld as conference begins next week originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 19 Jan 2012 23:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
creativebitsorg: Mac|Life Rethinks Apple: iDesk http://t.co/9FyI9LTw
Pad & Quill's cases: Classy covers for iPhone, iPad and MacBook Air
Pad & Quill has been making book-bound iPad and iPhone cases for a couple of years. By book-bound, I mean that the cases made using traditional book-binding materials and techniques. Like DODOcase, the cases have evolved a bit over the years to meet the requirements of new devices; unlike DODOcase, Pad & Quill has created a complete line of cases to protect many of your Apple mobile devices. In this review, I'll take a look at Pad & Quill's Little Black Book for iPhone, the Contega and Octavo iPad cases, and the new Cartella case for the MacBook Air.
Little Black Book for iPhone 4/4SLet's start with the smallest member of the Pad & Quill family, the Little Black Book case for iPhone 4/4S (US$44.99). A number of small book-type and wallet cases have been announced for the iPhone 4S in the last few months, but of those I've reviewed, I feel that the LBB is the best made product out there.
Like all of the Pad & Quill cases, the device sits nestled in a CNC-machined wood frame with small pads in the corners that make sure that your iPhone isn't going to plop out. Unlike the DODOcase products (which don't include an iPhone case), you don't have to send off for additional pads -- Pad & Quill includes extra material for cutting your own pads.
The case also has the standard Moleskine-like elastic cord for securing the cover when you're on the move, as well as a unique feature -- a red ribbon "bookmark" that is used to help pop out the iPhone when you want it in your hand.
You probably want to use that lovely 8 MP camera on the iPhone 4S, so the Little Black Book includes a port for the camera to look out of. That's not the case with the Twelve South BookBook ($59.99) or Hex Code Wallet ($49.95), where you need to remove the iPhone from the case to take a picture.
Using the Little Black Book as a wallet really means that you're only going to be carrying a minimal amount of stuff, like a driver's license and a credit card or two. These items slide into a little "envelope" in the front inside cover of the LBB.
The Little Black Book is well-built, less expensive than its competitors, and just plain cool. Now let's take a look at its bigger brothers.
Gallery: Pad & Quill Cases for iPhone, iPad 2, and MacBook Air
Octavo iPad 2 Case
The Octavo iPad 2 case ($59.99) is extremely similar to the DODOcase, even priced the same as the San Francisco treat. However, like the Little Black Book it has the "bookmark" to make removing the iPad from the case fast and easy, adds a hole for the iPad 2 rear camera, and includes a folder on the inside front cover of the case for important papers.
Doing a side-by-side comparison with the DODOcase, I have to say that I think the Pad & Quill Octavo shows much more expertise in construction. While the DODOcase is basically wide open on the top and bottom, the Octavo provides more protection by just providing openings where needed. For the top microphone of the iPad, there's a sound-conducting channel. For the speakers on the bottom, there's a nicely-machined slot that directs sounds to the front. The wood frame extends more into the back of the Octavo, giving the case a bit more stiffness.
I've placed some comparison photos in the gallery that show the DODOcase and Octavo side by side. I think the pictures tell the story of just how well-made the Pad & Quill cases are.
Contega iPad 2 CasePad & Quill's Contega iPad 2 case ($89.99) is a hybrid of a standard iPad folio case with a built-in stand and the Octavo. Think of the Octavo with a cover that folds into a handy landscape-mode stand, and you've got the Contega.
Since the front cover is used for helping prop up the stand, there's no folder pocket as there is on the Octavo. Still, I'd much rather have the convenience of the stand than a folder pocket that I'd stuff with old receipts and product brochures. As with the other cases, the Contega features Italian bonded leather on the exterior and that nicely-machined wood frame on the inside.
Check out the gallery for images of the Contega in all of its stand-up glory.
Cartella MacBook Air caseThe Pad & Quill line wouldn't be complete without the Cartella ($79.99 for the 11" model, $89.99 for the 13"), their MacBook Air case. Pad & Quill sent an 11" model for testing with my 11" MacBook Air, and once again the design is excellent. The bottom of the MacBook Air is placed into the Cartella's wood frame with the trackpad pointing "out". The back of the wood frame is carefully sculpted to allow the hinged display to have free movement and there are cutouts on either side for the various ports.
Twelve South also sells a book-like MacBook Air case -- the BookBook ($79.99). It has one feature that is missing from the Cartella case, that being a pair of elastic bands that hold the cover onto the display on the MacBook Air. The BookBook uses a zipper to close up the case; I felt that the Cartella's elastic band made it much easier to open and close the case.
ConclusionIf you have a hankering for a book-like cover for your iPhone, iPod touch, iPad (either first-generation or iPad 2), or MacBook Air, you owe it to yourself to take a look at the Pad & Quill line. The quality of these cases is outstanding, the prices are reasonable, and if being made in the good ol' USA means something to you, they're a product of the grand state of Minnesota.
All of the Pad & Quill cases used in the review will be part of the giveaways at the TUAW Meetup at Macworld | iWorld 2012 next Thursday night, so be sure to drop by if you're in San Francisco to have a chance at winning one of these classy protectors.
Pad & Quill's cases: Classy covers for iPhone, iPad and MacBook Air originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 19 Jan 2012 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Canadian customers get lumps of clay instead of iPads
Vancouver, B.C. resident Mark Sandhu bought a new iPad 2 for his wife for Christmas, but when she opened the box, she found a tablet of another kind: a big chunk of clay. Sandhu took his purchase back to Canadian retailer Future Shop and complained, but the store initially thought he was trying to run a scam on them.
It's only after Sandhu contacted CTV, and after more cases of "clayPads" started showing up in Vancouver-area Future Shops and Best Buys, that Sandhu finally got compensation in the form of a full refund and a replacement iPad 2.
This isn't the first time we've heard of a scam like this, unfortunately. Cases involving bricks or other items inserted into iPod boxes and then returned for full refunds have happened several times in the past, with unsuspecting retail clerks simply returning them to shelves and selling the iBricks to customers down the road. One particularly effective scam I saw when I worked retail security a few years back was when a scammer would buy both a 1 GB and 4 GB iPod nano, then return the 1 GB nano in the 4 GB box. The differences between the two units were too subtle for most returns desk clerks to notice, but the price gap was wide enough for scammers to turn a tidy profit this way.
According to CTV, 10 fake clayPads have been found in the Vancouver area so far. If you live in Vancouver and are planning to buy an iPad from anywhere other than an Apple Store, we'd suggest you shoot an unboxing video when you first open your purchase; if you "win" the lottery and wind up with a clayPad instead of an iPad, at least the video should be proof enough that you're the scammed and not the scammer.
Canadian customers get lumps of clay instead of iPads originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 19 Jan 2012 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
iBooks Author: Under the hood
I spent a good bit of time this morning taking a peek under the hood at iBooks Author and the files it builds. By request, here is a quick summary of some of the information I gathered on the topic. I warn you that this is going to be a non-generalist post, so do feel free to skip ahead on the site if this kind of info isn't really your thing.
The iBooks format appears to be an EPUB-like variant specific to Apple. Like EPUB, it's a zipped up file that contains an archive of the materials that make up the book. Inside, you find an Open Packaging folder and a META-INF Open Container Format folder, with its container.xml file. Unlike EPUB with its application/xhtml+xml mimetype, .ibooks uses application/x-ibooks+zip.
There are numerous other small differences. For those I defer to Jim Dovey, who tweeted expertly on the subject this morning.
If you re-name .ibooks files to .epub, they are just close enough to EPUB that you can read them into Adobe Digital Editions and Calibre. From Calibre, you can then export to EPUB although my tests show that you lose many of the fine details specific to Apple's extensions. It's so easy, however, to export directly to an iPad running iBooks 2, that you may not need to use this approach to recover EPUB files.
You cannot directly export from Author to EPUB, nor can you import EPUB files back in. Projects are saved in .iba files. These are zipped archives, containing an XML index file and the resources used in the project. It seems very iWork-like from a save-file point of view.
Publishing creates an .itmsp bundle and launches iTunes Producer as usual. You'll find the same kinds of files inside as you would if you use the app to upload directly: a manifest, a product image, and the ibooks file rather than the standard EPUB.
Under the hood, iBooks Author seems to contain many of the same frameworks as Pages. If you're looking for Pages 2012 or iWork 2012, well, this may be it. As tools go, I was impressed at how well integrated the accessibility authoring features were, but more about those in a separate post.
As for the advanced authoring tools, I found them easy to use and simple to add. A video of a couple of these, created in just seconds, follows.
iBooks Author: Under the hood originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 19 Jan 2012 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Why McGraw-Hill is selling iBooks for $15
The announcement this morning that textbooks would be sold through the iBookstore wasn't especially surprising. But the price was; full-featured multimedia electronic textbooks being offered for no more than US$15 is exactly the kind of disruptive shakeup the industry needed. While only the K-12 education market is on board so far, I'm looking forward to a future where universities sign up too, and students' book costs drop from the nearly $1000 dollars a year I paid as an undergrad to much more reasonable and manageable levels.
One question on many people's minds has been how Apple and the textbook publishers were able to agree on such a low pricing scheme for textbooks. After all, high school textbooks usually cost $75 each, and thus far publishers haven't been well-known for offering electronic versions of published works at a discount; in fact, in a lot of cases ebooks have cost more than their paper versions despite presumably lower distribution and production costs. So, not that anyone's complaining, why the lower prices?
AllThingsD asked that question of McGraw-Hill CEO Terry McGraw, and it turns out to have a simple answer. Schools will usually hold onto the paper versions of textbooks for about five years, meaning the publishers are only recouping about $15 per year anyway. Via the iBookstore, textbooks can be sold directly to students (who may or may not be offered payment vouchers from their schools), and from the publishers' perspective, the beauty of this arrangement is that those books can't be re-used or re-sold.
After Apple takes its 30 percent cut, publishers will only take $10.50 from a $15 textbook sale, but that's $10.50 they can get from every student, every year, and without the heavy production and distribution costs associated with making and shipping the often giant-sized paper versions of textbooks.
It's obviously too early to tell whether this will work out to be a lucrative arrangement for textbook publishers, but just looking at the way the numbers shake out, at the very least it seems that, contrary to initial appearances, $15 isn't such a shockingly low price for textbooks after all.
Why McGraw-Hill is selling iBooks for $15 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 19 Jan 2012 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Daily Update for January 19, 2012
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world.
You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here.
No Flash? Click here to listen.
Daily Update for January 19, 2012 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 19 Jan 2012 18:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Asymco graphs Apple's distinctive growth curve and longevity
Look at the major PC vendors in the 1970s, then look at the same industry today. You'll find only one name common to both periods: Apple. The company's competitors from the early days of the PC industry have all either gone out of business, been absorbed into other companies, or shifted focus to other industries. Even once-mighty IBM got out of the business of selling PCs to consumers in the mid-2000s.
Not only is Apple by far the most long-lived company in the PC industry -- almost 36 straight years selling computers to everyday people, compared to 24 for IBM and 20 for Compaq -- Apple is also the most profitable PC vendor by a wide margin. Apple has bucked the overall industry trend in terms of both its longevity and profitability; its competitors from the early years have long since flamed out, while its current competitors are, with few exceptions, struggling to stay relevant.
Horace Dediu of Asymco has graphed both Apple's longevity and the number of units it's shipped year over year compared to its competitors, and as usual his graphs provide a very instructive view of Apple's performance (which I'd encourage you to check out for yourself). According to Dediu's graphs, Apple is the only current PC/device vendor shipping more than 100 million units per year; no one else is even close to shipping that much out, and thanks to Apple's tight supply controls, units shipped generally translates very closely to units sold.
When the graph gets adjusted for longevity, that's where the real craziness of Apple's performance becomes clear. Other historical PC vendors like IBM and Compaq enjoyed initial exponential sales growth that eventually tapered off, then ceased altogether. If Apple behaved like the rest of the PC industry, the same thing might have happened to it; Apple's performance looks eerily parallel to that of IBM for most of its life, but the performance takes way off again in the mid-2000s for some reason. Rather than showing signs of tapering off, it keeps increasing exponentially.
Philip Elmer-Dewitt of Fortune analyzed Dediu's findings and says "it puts the lie to Wall Street's consensus view about Apple's future growth." Based on historical performance of other PC vendors, Wall Street analysts keep expecting Apple's performance to taper off and reach a more steady state -- still positive growth in sales and profits, but more of a linear growth than the huge gains of the past few years.
Looking at the big picture, though, that view isn't supported at all. Apple's performance looks nothing like that of its competitors when you look at its entire history; if Apple had behaved as it "should" according to what's happened to its competitors, then it should have gone out of business in the mid-90s as we all feared it would. Instead, Apple keeps redirecting its focus rather than staying the course, and its performance over the past five years clearly reflects that.
If Apple had never introduced the iPhone and iPad, the company's growth almost certainly would have slowed down years ago; man cannot live on Macs and iPods alone. Yet though Apple is by far the longest-lived of the PC vendors, it owes that longevity to a willingness to adapt. Both in terms of the products it sells and its overall focus, the Apple of 2012 is a very different company than the Apple of 1976, and the fact that the company has developed itself into a swiftly moving target means it's unlikely Apple will suffer the fate of its historical competitors anytime soon.
Asymco graphs Apple's distinctive growth curve and longevity originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 19 Jan 2012 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
whited00r gives older iPhones iOS5 features
Apple devices age well, so well that there are still people using the original iPhone and the iPhone 3G. When we think of those phones, we think "classic hardware with older software," but it doesn't have to be that way. For Apple fans with these now classic handsets, there's whited00r, a version of iOS that mimics some of the features of iOS 5. It's been around as a release candidate and finally made it to a stable release.
Whited00r is based on iOS 3.1.3 and has mods that let you experience folders, multi-tasking, iCloud-like functionality via Dropbox, reminders and more. Whited00r doesn't include notifications or iCloud, but there are third-party work arounds. It also doesn't support the App Store, but you can install Cydia or access the App Store using a Safari bookmark. Yes, it's not iOS 5, but it's the closest you will get on your older handsets.
You can find download and installation instructions on whited00r's website. The process is very straightforward, especially if you already know how to install an ipsw file using iTunes.
whited00r gives older iPhones iOS5 features originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 19 Jan 2012 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Apple posts video of education event
Apple has posted a video of the education event it held earlier today. The video is available for streaming on Apple's site, or you can download a higher quality version from iTunes.
This is Apple's first public event since October's introduction of the iPhone 4S. In this video you'll see the debut of iBooks 2.0, iBooks Author, the iTunes U app, and Apple's partnership with textbook publishers to offer electronic textbooks directly to students for just US$14.99.
Apple posts video of education event originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 19 Jan 2012 17:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Daily iPad App: Kingdom Rush
I first played Kingdom Rush as a Flash game online, and it's very good in that context as well. It's pretty straightforward tower defense, in that you face a series of invading monsters, and need to build up towers to defend against them. But Kingdom Rush outgrows its simple tower defense roots with a number of intriguing innovations. Instead of just building towers, some towers provide you with actual units to control, and you can set rally points for them and line up your attack a little more carefully than just placing and forgetting. Kingdom Rush also makes heavy use of spells to mix the action up, and there's such a solid balance between spells and towers that more often than not, it's your spells that win the day.
An actual talent upgrade tree helps hit that note a little harder: As you play, you earn talent points that can strengthen a certain part of your game, such as beefing up your ranged towers, or allowing your spells to be stronger or earn more gold. By tweaking that talent tree, you can play Kingdom Rush very differently from someone using different talents, and the excellent polish and production on the game (I would argue the iPad version looks even better than the Flash game) means it's lots of fun throughout the many various levels.
Kingdom Rush is highly recommended, both as a tower defense title, and even as a strategy title for someone who might not have found a TD game they enjoy. The game is $2.99 on the App Store right now, and updates are planned, to add both Game Center integration (for the game's many achievements) and new content and enemies. Excellent title, definitely pick it up for the iPad if you haven't yet.
Daily iPad App: Kingdom Rush originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 19 Jan 2012 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
iBooks Author accounts are free, existing developers need a new account
Setting up an account to publish books to the iBookstore has always been free, and the new iBooks Author tool has brought that fact into the spotlight. Self-publishing books to the iBookstore does still have a few hurdles you have to leap through, however. As AppleInsider points out, for iOS and Mac developers in particular, one hurdle is that existing iTunes Connect App Store accounts won't allow you to upload books to the iBookstore; instead, you'll need to set up a separate Apple ID associated with iBooks Author.
Account setup also requires you to input credit card information and have a US-based tax ID -- for individuals self-publishing content, a Social Security number will suffice. For some odd reason, iBooks also require an ISBN (a requirement the Kindle Store doesn't have), and those aren't cheap. In the US, purchasing a single ISBN from Bowker costs $125, or you can buy them in discounted packs. Personally, I have no idea why they're allowed to get away with those prices; ISBNs in my country are available for free.
Speaking from personal experience, setting up a publisher account on the iBookstore is a lengthy and somewhat unintuitive process -- but nowhere near as slow and frustrating as dealing with traditional publishers. Developers not being able to use an existing iTunes Connect account to publish iBookstore content is a bit baffling, however, and hopefully it's something Apple will address.
iBooks Author accounts are free, existing developers need a new account originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 19 Jan 2012 16:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
