CraigFederighi
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You can disable the iPhone X's FaceID if you're in trouble
Ever since Apple unveiled the iPhone X with FaceID, people have been asking the same, very pertinent question. What if some mugger or unscrupulous cop snatches the device out of your hands and points the depth-sensing camera at your face? According to an email purportedly from Apple's Craig Federighi, there's a built-in safeguard for such an event.
Apple's OS chief is taking over Siri from Eddy Cue
Apple's Eddy Cue has been in charge of Siri since software chief Scott Forestall left the company in 2012. Now, the executive has handed Siri over to Craig Federighi -- and it might be a bigger deal than your usual shuffling of responsibilities. See, while Cue heads Apple Music, Pay, iCloud and iTunes, Federighi is in charge of developing iOS and MacOS. As Reuters noted, handing the voice assistant over to the operating system chief could mean that Apple is looking to integrate it more deeply into both platforms.
Apple VP says FBI's order makes everyone less secure
To support their legal battle in Congress over San Bernardino shooter Syed Rizwan Farook's iPhone, Apple and the FBI are also waging a war of public opinion. So far, the FBI is winning, with over half the US population, 51 percent, saying that Apple should unlock the device, and only 38 percent saying it shouldn't. Last month, FBI director James Comey penned an editorial to convince the public that Apple must help the agency, and now, Apple VP Craig Federighi has fired back in the Washington Post. In an op-ed piece, he argues that the FBI is endangering everyone's data by "turn[ing] back the clock to a less-secure time."
iPhone soon becoming 'full replacement' for Apple TV remote
TV remotes are all well and good, but they have a nasty habit of coming up missing at the worst possible moment -- Apple TV's new wand isn't immune to this malady. It should come as good news then that Cupertino's planning an update for the remote app on iOS with new features like voice commands with Siri. The news comes by way of an interview with Apple's Eddie Cue and Craig Federighi on tech pundit John Gruber's podcast this week.
Jony Ive, Craig Federighi chat with USA Today
In anticipation of Apple's worldwide iPhone launch this Friday, Apple executives have been hitting the interview circuit. Earlier today, we pointed to a Businessweek interview with Tim Cook, Craig Federighi and Jony Ive; and now comes yet another chat with Apple's higher-ups courtesy of USA Today. In detailing why iOS 7 does away with the skeuomorphism so favored by Steve Jobs and Scott Forstall, Jony Ive explains: When we sat down last November (to work on iOS 7), we understood that people had already become comfortable with touching glass, they didn't need physical buttons, they understood the benefits," says Ive. "So there was an incredible liberty in not having to reference the physical world so literally. We were trying to create an environment that was less specific. It got design out of the way." On the same note, Craig Federighi explains that graphical improvements in mobile devices have somewhat negated the need for previous iOS mainstays like drop shadows. "This is the first post-Retina (display) UI (user interface), with amazing graphics processing thanks to tremendous GPU (graphics processing unit) power growth, so we had a different set of tools to bring to bear on the problem as compared to seven years ago (when the iPhone first launched)," he says. "Before, the shadowing effect we used was a great way to distract from the limitations of the display. But with a display that's this precise, there's nowhere to hide. So we wanted a clear typography." Ive jumps in. "Yes, we wanted to defer to the content, and just get out of the way." There's a whole lot of interesting information in the interview, and seeing as how interviews with Apple executives are rather hard to come by given the secretive nature of the company, the USA Today piece is certainly worth reading in its entirety.
Tim Cook, Jony Ive and Craig Federighi chat with Bloomberg Businessweek
On the eve of the iPhone 5c and 5s launch, Apple executives Tim Cook, Craig Federighi and Jony Ive sat down for an all-encompassing interview with Bloomberg Businessweek. It's not often that Apple execs sit down for in-depth interviews, but when it happens, it is usually chock-full of interesting information. The Businessweek interview is no different. One of the many persistent criticisms regarding Apple's iPhone strategy is that the company needs a cheap handset to appeal to more cost-conscious consumers. Cook, however, explained that Apple's business model isn't predicated on churning out low-value devices at cheap price points. To Cook, the mobile industry doesn't race to the bottom, it splits. One part does indeed go cheap, with commoditized products that compete on little more than price. "There's always a large junk part of the market," he says. "We're not in the junk business." The upper end of the industry justifies its higher prices with greater value. "There's a segment of the market that really wants a product that does a lot for them, and I want to compete like crazy for those customers," he says. "I'm not going to lose sleep over that other market, because it's just not who we are. Fortunately, both of these markets are so big, and there's so many people that care and want a great experience from their phone or their tablet, that Apple can have a really good business." Later on in the interview, Cook drives the point home, noting that Apple never preoccupied itself with the idea that it had to develop a low-cost phone. "Our primary objective," Cook explained, "is to sell a great phone and provide a great experience, and we figured out a way to do it at a lower cost." The article also touches on the close collaboration between Ive -- Apple's design guru -- and Federighi -- Apple's senior VP of software engineering. Indeed, one of the predominant mantras heralded by Cook following the ouster of Scott Forstall was that Apple needed to "encourage even more collaboration" between the company's various teams. With desks that are reportedly just a one-minute walk from one another, Ive and Federighi have worked closely together for quite some time. What makes that collaboration work is the two men's shared focus on usability and simplicity. Sit down with top executives from, say, Samsung's mobile division, and you'll probably hear a great deal about how much the company listens to the market and can move to address global needs with astonishing alacrity. Ive and Federighi will spend 10 minutes talking about how hard they worked to perfect iOS 7's blurred-background effect. "I think, very often, you can't call out by attribute or name areas of value," says Ive regarding what people look for when using a product. "But I do think that we sense when somebody has cared. And one thing that is incontrovertible is how much we've cared." With respect to Apple's chief competitor in the smartphone space -- Android -- Cook appears to be unfazed by Android's ever-increasing market share. For Cook, the true metrics that matter are customer satisfaction and actual device usage. Does a unit of market share matter if it's not being used?" Cook asks. "For us, it matters that people use our products. We really want to enrich people's lives, and you can't enrich somebody's life if the product is in the drawer." There's a whole lot more to digest in the full article and it's well worth checking out. From Cook's view on Apple's share price to his views on Android fragmentation, the Businessweek interview provides a rare glimpse into the minds who help churn out some of the world's most popular products. You can check out the story in its entirety over here.
The Wall Street Journal on Apple's Craig Federighi
While watching Apple's keynote earlier this week, I was particularly struck by Craig Federighi's presentation. He was affable, felt comfortable on stage, was informative, interacted with the audience and even had a few zingers to boot. That said, it's likely no coincidence that Federighi received the most stage time on Monday, handling presentation duties both for OS X Mavericks and iOS 7. The Wall Street Journal today has an interesting profile on Federighi, an important member of Apple's executive team that many people may not know much about. The lanky, 44-year-old engineer has a long Apple pedigree. He worked at Next, the other computer company founded by Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, and joined Apple when it acquired the company in 1997. But despite earning the respect of colleagues for his focus and affability, he has remained behind the scenes for years. Mr. Federighi spent much of his career working on enterprise software, which has never been Apple's focus. Interestingly enough, the Journal notes that Federighi's career began alongside Scott Forstall when the two worked at NeXT together back in the early '90s. While Forstall quickly rose through the ranks after Apple acquired NeXT, Federighi's enterprise-centric expertise eventually prompted him to leave Apple for Ariba where he would ultimately become the company's CTO. In 2009, Federighi returned to Apple to head up OS X engineering. While Scott Forstall was reportedly a divisive figure within Apple, Federighi appears to be more of a team player who operates by consensus. Consequently, the Journal notes that some decisions regarding Apple's software direction have taken longer to implement. All in all, it might be too early to call Federighi the new face of Apple, but I wouldn't be surprised if we start seeing a lot more of him at Apple special events in the future. The Journal has a lot more on Federighi that's definitely worth a read. Incidentally, my favorite Federighi quip during the keynote was when he announced that OS X Mavericks would finally offer support for multiple displays. The crowd began applauding wildly, whereupon Federighi jokingly clarified that Apple's wasn't actually giving away new displays to users, remarking that it's "just software." Good stuff.
Tim Cook: Executive change-up at Apple has been great; Jony Ive has been 'really key' to iOS 7 design
In October 2012, Apple casually announced via press release a blockbuster shakeup at the executive level. Scott Forstall, who was arguably the face of iOS, was shown the door as Jony Ive, Bob Mansfield, Eddy Cue and Craig Federighi all assumed additional responsibilities within the company. The reported difficulties of working with Forstall notwithstanding, the expressed purpose of the executive shakeup was to tightly integrate Apple's hardware, software and services to an even greater degree. Seven months later, at the annual All Things D conference, Tim Cook explained to Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher that so far things under the new hierarchy have been going great. "Really, really great," to be exact. Last fall, we changed things up a bit. We did it to enhance collaboration. The key, for us, to have a killer product -- it's to have incredible hardware, incredible software and incredible services. And then you combine them in a way that you can't tell what's what any more. The real magic occurs at the intersection of that. It's what Apple has always been about. This change just amped it up even more. Following that, Kara Swisher asked Cook about Forstall, inquiring as to whether or not the man tapped by Steve Jobs to spearhead the original development of Apple's mobile OS was a collaborative team player. Ever the corporate diplomat, Cook craftily sidestepped the question: I don't want to talk about anyone in particular except for those who are there. The whole concept was to tighten the groups even more, so we could spend more time finding magic in intersections. Seven months later, give or take, I think it has been an incredibly great change. Craig is running both iOS and OS X. This has been fantastic. Eddy Cue is focused on services. These changes have been great -- really, really great. Cook also confirmed that Ive has been lending his aesthetic sensibilities to the next iteration of iOS. While Cook refused to comment on rumors that iOS 7 might see a dramatic UI overhaul, he did note that Ive has been "really key" to its development. Lastly, Cook confirmed that we'll be able to get a full look at the future of both iOS and OS X at this year's WWDC which is scheduled to kick off on Monday, June 10.
Daily Update for August 28, 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. Subscribe via RSS
Craig Federighi, Dan Riccio promoted to Senior Vice Presidents at Apple
On Monday, Apple announced that it was promoting vice president of Mac Software engineering Craig Federighi and vice president of Hardware Engineering Dan Riccio to senior vice president positions. The two men will report directly to Tim Cook. Federighi, shown on the left in the above image, is a public face for Apple and recently appeared in the last WWDC where he introduced Mountain Lion. He worked with Steve Jobs at NeXT and then moved to Apple. He left Apple in 1999 to work for software and information technology services company Airba. He stayed there ten years before returning to Apple in 2009. Riccio, shown in middle in the above image, joined Apple in 1998 after a stint at Compaq where he worked on the mechanical design of Compaq's consumer PC products. He started off as vice president of Product Design and has played an important role in the development of the iPad. The announcement also confirmed that Bob Mansfield (above right), who announced his retirement from his position as senior vice president of Hardware Engineering in June, will stay on at Apple and work on future projects under the guidance of Tim Cook. There was no title given to Mansfield's new position, so it's not clear what role he will play in the company. Regardless, it's good news that the man who guided the teams which delivered the MacBook Air and the iMac will remain at Apple for a while longer.
Apple promotes pair of execs to Senior VP level, Bob Mansfield to hang around after all
It's a day of upheaval in the boardroom at Apple -- in the good sense. Remember how Hardware Engineering Senior VP Bob Mansfield said he would retire in June? He's had a change of heart and will keep working on future products. Meanwhile, two of the vice presidents who've been mainstays of Apple's recent plans, Mac Software Engineering VP Craig Federighi and Hardware Engineering VP Dan Riccio, have been promoted to Senior VP. All three will report directly to CEO Tim Cook, and both Federighi as well as Riccio will get their first turns at Apple's executive management team. While the shift isn't going to signal a dramatic change in strategy, it's notable that Riccio's role is expanding: he's moving from his earlier iPad focus to overseeing all the hardware Apple makes. We can only guess at what the ultimate goals might be for the new assignments, although we can imagine Apple jumping through hoops to keep a hardware executive as skilled as Mansfield on its side.
Apple brings Dictation to the Mac, tells Siri to stay in the car
Apple has just announced that it's bringing new iPad-style dictation to Mountain Lion. In the same way that you can tap the button on the digital keyboard, hitting the microphone button will allow you to speak directly into native software, websites like Facebook and even third-party applications like Microsoft Word. For more coverage of the WWDC 2012 Keynote, check out our liveblog!
A look at Apple's "all-star" executives
Tim Cook, Phil Schiller, Jony Ive, and Steve Jobs are big names at Apple. These top executives are known around the technology industry and around the world for their operational excellence, marketing know-how, design genius and powerful reality distortion fields. While these four men often get credit for much of Apple's success, the company boasts an enviable collection of talented "chiefs" and senior vice presidents who help carve its skyward path. A new gallery from CNN Money takes a brief look at eleven of Apple's all-stars. For avid fans of Apple, some of the names mentioned in CNN Money's gallery may be familiar. But if you don't recognize names like Craig Federighi, Scott Forstall, Bob Mansfield, Ron Johnson, Peter Oppenheimer, Bruce Sewell, Jeff Williams, Eddy Cue, Katie Cotton, Dr. Guy "Bud" Tribble, or Greg Joswiak, this may be a good opportunity to brush up on the men and women who help shape one of the world's most successful companies.
