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From the Apple shareholders' meeting: Approvals, 'new categories' and another campus delay
The Apple shareholders' meeting was held in Cupertino earlier today, and CNBC has a full liveblog of all of the proceedings. There wasn't a lot of hard news out of the meeting, as most of it was taken up with bureaucratic goings-on, including the approval of a certain accounting firm, a few votes on executive payments and the defeat of a proposal to create a Human Rights board committee at the company. All of Apple's directors were re-elected, and Tim Cook got a 99.1 percent approval rating from investors there. After the meeting, Cook took some questions from shareholders and answered them. He agreed that Apple is just as disappointed as investors in "where the stock trades now versus a few months ago -- but we're focused on the long term." Cook crowed about Apple's huge growth so far, and promised that "obviously we're looking at new categories -- we don't talk about them, but we're looking at them." Finally, Cook gave an update on Apple's new campus, saying that the work is ongoing, but it's proving to be a much bigger project than expected. Last we heard, the project was set to be all done in 2015, but Cook now says that, "I project that we will move in, in 2016." You can read through all of the notes of the meeting on CNBC's site. [via MacRumors]
EVE's CSM7 meeting minutes released
EVE Online's Council of Stellar Management (CSM) is a player-elected council of, well, players. Their job is to represent the community's interest to CCP, and one of the ways they do that is by meeting with CCP in Iceland to discuss stuff and things. The most recent CSM meeting was in mid-December 2012, and we bet you're just dying to know what they talked about. CCP put up a full topic list of the three-day meeting sessions earlier today. The council members discussed everything from customer loyalty to factional warfare. Null-sec, ship balancing, live events, the UI, marketing, and a number of other topics were all on the agenda. You can read the full minutes to go in-depth with the topics (and find out who wants ponies to be included in EVE).
Apple releases proxy statement in SEC filing
Apple has revealed the first information about its upcoming 2013 fiscal year in a proxy statement filed to the SEC this week. You can read the entire document on the SEC's website, but we can run you through the major points right here and now. First up, Apple discloses what Tim Cook was paid during 2012, and it's a little more than the $1 that Steve Jobs was officially paid to run the company (though of course Steve made much more than that in various bonuses and perks). In 2012, Cook's base salary was $1.4 million, up $900,000 from the year before. Bonuses for senior execs reached maximums of 100 percent and 200 percent, and the base salary of the major executives went up as well, from $800,000 to $875,000, due to the "additional responsibilities" the team took on last year. The statement also detailed the package that helped entice Senior Vice President Bob Mansfield to stay with the company, which included a modification of Mansfield's stocks which allowed them to vest earlier than planned, as long as he stays with the company. Finally, the statement announced Apple's first shareholder meeting of 2013, which will take place on February 27 at Apple's headquarters in Cupertino.
Source: OnLive undergoing buyout in wake of dire financials, laying off 'at least 50 percent' of staff
After a lot of back and forth from the rumor mill and official OnLive channels, we now have what we believe to be a far clearer view of precisely what is happening right now at OnLive headquarters in Palo Alto. We've spoken with a (now former) employee of the gaming service who ran down today's events for us. According to the account, a meeting was held at OnLive's offices at 10AM this morning, wherein the company's CEO announced a massive staff layoff -- at least 50 percent of the staff, according to our source's numbers. The layoffs come as part of across the board cuts to the company, and all those out of a job will have their key cards deactivated as of 4PM local time today. The source was understandably baffled by the abruptness of the news, along with the added blow that no severance will be offered and stock holdings are essentially worth nothing. The move apparently comes as OnLive is being purchased by an unknown party. Those being kept on have reportedly received offer letters from the new company. Why the sudden move? The source believes it may have something to do with the company's massive operating costs, which we're told are around $5 million a month. Certainly those concerns line up with a story dug up by Kotaku highlighting the company's plans to file for Assignment for the Benefit of Creditors as a result of the company's troubled financial situation. We're still gathering information as to the nature of the buyout. Update: According to our source, the writing wasn't on the wall at the company per se, but OnLive had reportedly been entertaining acquisition offers ahead of the news from companies including HP. Update 2: Our source has offered up some additional information on the matter, putting the average concurrent user number for the service at 1,100 to 1,500, peaking at around 1,800 on a given day -- not exceptional by any means in the face of reported $5 million a month operating costs. The number of layoffs, meanwhile, may well be greater than originally suggested, with our source putting the number of employees staying on board at around 10 to 20 percent.
Facebook and Walmart to 'deepen' involvement, won't rollback FarmVille prices just yet
The involvement between Facebook and Walmart is about to get a lot cozier than gift cards in aisle three. Facebook says it wants to "deepen" its connection to Walmart and hopes to learn from the big-box retailer's skill in building a long-term business; that's rather important when the social network is still young enough for the ink to be wet on shares from its initial public offering. To that end, Facebook's entire executive team will meet with Walmart at its Arkansas headquarters on July 20th in the hopes the two companies will be singing kumbaya when all is said and done. Knowing that both companies have taken a bruising in their public images from time to time, we can understand why some might be apprehensive about the idea of any tighter collaboration -- not until they can buy FarmVille harvests for 88 cents, at least.
Sony CEO Kaz Hirai to reveal new strategy on April 12th
If you want to pick up some tips before appearing on The Apprentice, or perhaps you're just want to know how Sony plans to wriggle back from a predicted $2.7 billion loss this fiscal year (its fourth concurrent in the red) then cancel all your plans for April 12th. Sony Corp will be holding a briefing on that date to share its rescue strategy plan with the shareholders, and the world. In attendance, of course, will be the newly minted CEO Kazuo Hirai, who'll no doubt be taking the opportunity to assert his position for the first time. Details of the call are in the source, just resist the temptation to scream "You're Fired."
Tim Cook meets Chinese Vice Premier in Beijing, talks IP law, worker rights
Tim Cook's visit to China this week marks his first as Apple's CEO, but what originally appeared to be a casual jaunt to Beijing with possible carrier meetings on the agenda, has turned out to be a carefully orchestrated visit, including appointments with top government officials to talk economic development and intellectual property rights. Xinhua, the country's official press agency (and therefore not the most objective of sources), reported that Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang stated that the country will "strengthen intellectual property rights protection" and "pay more attention to caring for workers." Typical of state-sponsored releases, the report failed to expand on either statement, but even if nothing comes of this particular meeting, Keqiang is in line to take over as Premier next year, making him a solid addition to Cook's rolodex. There's a Chinese-language video of the encounter waiting just past the break.
Tidbits from Apple's shareholders meeting
CNBC was at the Apple shareholders annual meeting that took place February 23 in Cupertino, and you can read through detailed notes of the summit on its site. There were only a few official matters to discuss, and the first was whether or not the company would adopt majority voting for its board of directors, requiring a majority vote for each director to stay. Shareholders decided to approve the measure, meaning board members would have to resign without a voting majority, but that ruling didn't matter much; all of the directors were elected with over 80 percent of the vote anyway. Other matters voted on included asking directors to further declare any conflicts of interest, a measure allowing for shareholders to set director pay, and another measure requiring Apple to disclose any political contributions. All of those suggestions ended up failing, with just a small percentage of the vote. Finally, Tim Cook and his fellow executives took part in a presentation and Q&A. You can read through all of the notes on CNBC, but it's worth recognizing that Cook definitely came out against Apple using its vast cash reserves to buy any type of content, whether that means picking up a record label or even buying access to sell TV shows or movies. Cook says that Apple aims to sell devices; while the board is still determining what to do with all of the cash, Apple has already spent billions on things like supply lines and components, and it will probably continue to focus on that in the future. Cook also called Facebook a "friend" of the company and said Twitter has also had a lot of integration with Apple's products lately. So far, feedback on that integration has been good. Cook also spoke about Apple's passion for education and said while Apple does donate money and time to supporting education, the company primarily supports schools and teachers with its products and by creating services and devices to enable learning in as many places as possible. The whole event sounds like business as usual while Apple continues to roll on through 2012.
Protesters aimed to deliver new letter to Apple during shareholders meeting
Protestors delivered letters to Apple Stores around the world asking Apple to re-examine its use of Foxconn production factories overseas. Apple decided (relatedly or otherwise) to step up its inspections of those factories, so you probably won't be surprised to hear that protestors planned to do it all again. SumOfUs aimed to deliver a letter to Apple during its recent shareholder meeting, allegedly written by two factory workers who claim they were poisoned while working on the line. The protest and the meeting were both held the morning of February 23, so hopefully the handoff went off without a hitch. Apple hasn't officially acknowledged these protests, and I'm sure it would rather not have these kinds of claims bouncing around in public. Still, Apple hasn't been closed off to the issue; the company often runs inspections on overseas factories and has consistently said that every facility where its products are built adheres to all standard regulations. So far, all these protestors have asked for is to "reform working conditions," but exactly what that means, or what form of action that might mean for Apple, is unclear. As long as these protestors remain civil and Apple continues to hear their concerns and act on them as best it can, hopefully everyone will do what's right for any workers dealing with unfair or possibly harmful conditions at these plants.
Tim Cook focuses on charity during Town Hall meeting
Apple held an all-employee Town Hall meeting a little while ago after the earnings call, and The Verge is reporting that Apple CEO Tim Cook took quite a bit of time during the meeting to point out Apple's charitable contributions to the world. He said that Apple has given $50 million to Stanford hospitals, and over $50 million to the Project RED effort (to help fight AIDS in Africa), making Apple that fund's largest contributor. It seems as if we've found one big difference between Cook and his legendary predecessor: Cook wants to make it clear that he's serious about giving, and letting people know about it. Cook has also pushed for an employee donation matching program at Apple, so he's got a history, even in his short tenure so far, of endorsing strong charitable contributions. Of course, all of that said, $100 million is still just pocket change for a company that has almost $100 billion in the bank. But every little bit counts, we suppose.
Tim Cook to hold January 25 'Town Hall' meeting with Apple employees
Apple CEO Tim Cook has scheduled a "Town Hall" meeting with Apple's employees to "review our record-setting results and discuss some exciting new things going on at Apple." The meeting will take place at 10 AM Pacific on January 25, and those employees unable to attend in person will be able to watch the event remotely via Apple's internal AppleWeb service. It should be stressed that it is virtually certain no product announcements will be made at this town hall meeting. Past meetings that Steve Jobs led focused on the company's overall strategy, and they were occasionally an arena for some choice words about Apple's competitors from the former CEO. This latest town hall meeting will likely focus on congratulating Apple's employees for the phenomenal results of the last fiscal quarter. The event was brought to 9to5 Mac's notice barely 18 hours before it's scheduled to take place, so it seems to have been assembled on quite short notice. This isn't unusual, however; previous town hall meetings within Apple following the introduction of the iPad and shortly before the original iPhone's launch happened on similarly short notice.
Holiday Gift Guide: iPad apps & accessories for business
From one-person shops to giant enterprises, if businesses agree on anything right now it's "iPad Yay." The Apple tablet hasn't even reached the terrible twos yet, but it's clearly making its presence felt across countless verticals and different industries. For at least a couple of mobile professional writers (who might have been termed "ink-stained wretches" in times gone by), the iPad's capability as a writing tool has led it to largely replace their laptops for day-to-day work. While consumers may be the drivers behind most iPad sales, chances are that the iPad-toting professional on your gift list is using his or her iPad for a combination of personal enjoyment and work tasks, so why not find a gift that supports and extends the biz savvy of everyone's favorite quasi-computer? Here's our brief list of gift ideas that you could conceivably write off on your taxes. Cloudy Days If your business iPad user is a sole proprietor or running a small business, they don't have to compromise about getting big-biz-level enterprise tools anymore. The same Google Apps or Box.com infrastructure that supports huge corporations can be theirs for a modest investment. Consider gifting a pro Dropbox account (50 GB is quite a bit of room to maneuver), or going with Box or Egnyte for more sophisticated file services & sharing. (Dropbox's Teams product is great, too, but requires more coordination with other colleagues.) Maybe a Pogoplug account, or a subscription to one of 37 Signals' highly-regarded services? If your businessperson is already a user of 37 Signals' Backpack business collaboration tool, the $9.99 Pouch app makes their iPad a fully-featured Backpack client. Another collaboration platform, Pagico, just released its official iPad app last week. Then again, what we want from the cloud, often as not, is access to the files we have sitting right there on our computer at the office or at home. With the free Polkast service and iPad app, business users can quickly get to their PC or Mac storage over local networks or remotely as long as the computer is on. It's not the sort of thing that BigCorp IT departments find particularly appealing, but for a lean and mean solo operation or small team it might just do the trick. Speaking of big IT, the pricey ($29.99) but indispensable LogMeIn Ignition client makes it easy to remotely control one or hundreds of remote computers from the iPad's screen. If your gift recipient has to keep tabs on a lot of PCs, Ignition is a wonderful gift. Hardware Given that the iPad is mostly self-contained, unless your recipient is asking for specific accessories or gear there's not much to add to the list that is business-specific. The two notable exceptions come under the "input" and "output" departments. For text-heavy users, a wireless physical keyboard may make the difference between frustration and joy. The Zagg and Logitech keyboard cases get a thumbs-up from Technologizer; our fearless leader Victor votes for the AmazonBasics Bluetooth keyboard, which at $44.90 is $25 cheaper than Apple's wireless compact keyboard. While the folding Jorno keyboard remains vaporgear, Logitech is now shipping its $129.99 fold-up keyboard for the iPad 2, and I have to say it looks awfully tempting. Almost any Bluetooth keyboard will work reasonably well with the iPad, so if your giftee has a preference it should be honored. As for output, it's all about presentation. Give your road warrior the $29 VGA and/or $39 Digital AV Adapter HDMI adapter cables and they'll be ready to hook up in the office or at a client, wherever there's a projector. Both adapters support mirroring with the iPad 2, so the full interface of the iPad can be shown on the screen. Of course, anyone who's going to be tossing their iPad into a backpack or laptop bag will need a cover. Apple's Smart Cover does a fine job on the front, and there's a fair assortment of matching shells for the back. The choice may come down to personal (or professional) style. Presentation & Meeting Apps Speaking of presentation output, what busy professional doesn't have to throw down a few slides now and then? The unquestioned king of the hill when it comes to iPad-driven presentations is Apple's sleek and straightforward $9.99 Keynote -- in fact, you can't really go too far wrong by bundling all three iWork apps for the new iPad user. Still, Keynote is less effective if your giftee isn't Mac-based on the desktop side; the fidelity of PowerPoint file conversions is what I'd call 'adequate.' The QuickOffice Pro HD suite does a slightly better job of keeping PPT files (not PPTX, so be sure to save down) looking the way they should, although neither product supports all the fonts, animations and transitions you'd get from your laptop when presenting. Of course, with QuickOffice you get all three productivity functions in one app. (If you really truly need the full fidelity of PowerPoint 2010, keep reading.) You can't always present in person, so don't forget the remote meeting apps. Fuze Meeting HD and WebEx for iPad both made Apple's Rewind list this year, and both are effective for video conferencing alongside content-centric presentations; Fuze even lets you upload presentation content from your iPad to the service on the fly, and run the meeting completely PC-free. Your iPad owner may already have a business account with a distance meeting service, so keep an eye out for the official app that matches their platform. Note that WebEx's tool does not support Training Center or Event Center programs, so if those features are important to you be sure to let them know. If your decks are already in the cloud with SlideRocket, the company's iPad viewer app is a must-have (and free). The way things are headed, it's not out of the realm of possibility that your iPad owner might show up for a meeting where there's no projector, but where every other attendee has his or her own iPad. In that case, the tool to use is Condé Nast's Idea Flight. This "follow along" presenting tool works just as if you had handed out copies of your deck to 14 people -- but they can't flip ahead without permission, so they won't spoil your big reveal. Idea Flight ties into LinkedIn for contact sharing, meaning you'll never have to suffer the shame of not remembering the name of the next person at the conference table. For unforgettable and unusual presentations, step away from the slide metaphor and go flying away with Prezi. While you need to author your 'cosmic zoom' presentations using the company's Flash-based web tool, the iPad viewer app works great for downloading and showing these wild and head-turning media experiences. Not every bit of dynamic content will play on the iPad, though, so be sure to leave time for experimentation. If you need to be able to show PDFs and other documents in a pinch, the most flexible (and one of the oldest) apps in this category is GoodReader. While its interface has been variously described as "idiosyncratic," "quirky" and "unique but not in the good way," the power and flexibility it offers are unmatched. It's worth having on any business-use iPad just for all the various use cases it covers and the number of other apps you won't have to buy. The latest version adds AFP filesharing support and auto-sync, so Mac users with shared folders can automatically have a set of files copy over to GoodReader without intervention for reading/review on the road. GoodReader also supports nearly every cloud storage service imaginable, from Box to Dropbox to Google Docs to WebDAV. This app would be a bargain at $15, but at $4.99 it's a steal. Travel & Expense There's no way your iPad owner is going to shine at that big pitch meeting if they don't get there on time and on budget. Fortunately the iPad makes a killer travel assistant (and not just because you can play Madden or watch movies on it). For booking air travel, the indispensable Hipmunk app makes finding the least-agonizing itinerary as simple as tap and go (Kayak is also great for complex searches). Once you're booked, Tripit for iPad gives clarity and coherence to your travel plans, allowing you to keep flight schedules in-line with hotel, car and other bookings. There are scores of expense-centric apps on the App Store, and I wish I could recommend a task-specific tool, but sad (or glad) to say I don't have to go any further than my Swiss Army app for all things remembery, the free Evernote app and cloud service (premium subscription optional). Forget the fact that all your notes and tidbits are handily synced to the cloud for easy access no matter where you roam; that's just the start. Evernote's astonishing OCR abilities on your sync'ed image-based notes mean that handwritten comments on receipts, boarding passes or hotel bills actually get recognized and indexed alongside the printed text. Once you've had the experience of jotting a client name or a project code onto a restaurant bill, snapping a picture of it with the iPad 2's camera for Evernote to digest, and then searching back at the office for that client name only to have your scrawl-adorned note pop right up... well, I'll tell you, it's magical. This capability to do IRL tagging on the fly with nothing more than a ballpoint pen is one of many features that keep me perfectly happy with Evernote. For $55, you can gift a year of Evernote's premium service (though the free version is nothing to sneeze at), and get a snazzy t-shirt in the bargain. Evernote can even help you maintain your gift list and plan your holiday celebrations. Notes & Text Having mentioned Evernote enthusiastically, there are plenty more options all over the store for text-centric tasks. The multitalented Notability gives equal time to those who prefer writing by hand, while also supporting keyboard input, PDF annotation, audio recording and cloud synchronization; it's on sale for $0.99 this week (usually $4.99). If you prefer a more minimal notes app that includes the sound-to-text timeline, check out SoundNote. Meteor Notes also adds some interesting features to the party. The free or $1.99 (lite vs. pro) app delivers a familiar folder paradigm, easy search and organization plus Dropbox sync. Of course, the iPad's onboard Notes app is capable of syncing with iCloud, Google mail or Exchange, and there's always Apple's Pages app. But then again, Evernote. Remote Access & Virtualization Aside from the aforementioned LogMeIn Ignition, there's no shortage of solid remote access clients all over the App Store. Wyse's $14.99 Pocket Cloud Pro/free Pocket Cloud gets my personal thumbs-up after Ignition, but really they all work quite well (Mel is a fan of Edovia's Screens app, for $19.99). If you're trying to do a presentation in a PC-specific app (such as PowerPoint 2010) and you haven't been able to get it quite right in SlideRocket or Keynote, using a remote access tool is a great way to deliver a high-fidelity experience. When it comes to remote access to virtual machines, Parallels & VMware have slightly different approaches. For your own personal VMware Fusion setup, VMware recommends using any capable VNC or RDP app to access a running VM. For the company's big-iron infrastructure setups of virtualized desktops, however, you can use the free VMware View app with VMware's new PCoIP connection protocol to easily and securely get a full desktop experience, including 1080p output and a 'Presentation Mode' option that turns a display-connected iPad into a sleek trackpad/keyboard combination -- but that depends on corporate support of a View server. (Wyse's Pro version of Pocket Cloud also supports connections to VMware View, and VMware is also doing View clients for Android, Windows and Mac.) Parallels is happy to offer you a $4.99 (soon to be raised) iPad app that supports remote control of the company's virtualization app on the Mac; this is a solid way to get quick remote access to your virtual machine, assuming your Mac is online and accessible (it should also work with the PC versions of Parallels Desktop, although I haven't tested that). There is a twist, however; you can use the Parallels app to 'pop the stack' and actually control the host Mac system in addition to the virtualized system. This could get confusing! Above and Beyond There are obviously thousands of business-centric apps and millions of ways the iPad can be employed where you're employed; if we went through all of them, that would be enough material to write a book. Or two. Since there's no time for that, here's a few more biz-friendly app finds. The Marketcircle suite of apps (Billings, Daylite) play extraordinarily nicely between the Mac apps that help run the business CRM and other functions and the mobile pros who need that data in a hurry. The Canadian company has gained a reputation for strong service and customer dedication, and if the businessperson on your gift list is looking for a Mac-friendly CRM solution with a good iPad story then they should be running for Daylite. If your scheduling and meeting-invite needs are more you against the world, the tough-to-search-for, great-to-find cloud calendaring service Doodle has an app that's currently iPhone-optimized; we hope it makes it to the iPad soon, but in the meantime the company has just added an iCal connector that allows users on Intel Macs to sync their iCal schedules up to Doodle quickly and easily. Project management? Merlin. Business intelligence & visualization? Roambi. Mind mapping? iThoughts HD or MindJet. So many gifts, so little time! If you've given or gotten a great app for business on the iPad, share it with us all below in the comments. Happy holidays!
MagnetU connects you with similar people in your area, because diversity is overrated
You could make friends the old fashioned way, with casual introductions, eye contact and other intrinsically human social skills; or you could just sit back and let MagnetU do all the heavy lifting for you. The Israeli startup, founded in 2010, has just unveiled what it calls a "proximity networking" device -- a tiny accessory that connects users to other like-minded people within their immediate vicinity. Within this lightweight gadget lies information on a user's "social desires," which can be customized and modified depending on a given situation. If you're at a networking event, for example, you can activate your "business" profile, before switching into the grossly mistitled "social" mode once you walk into a bar. Once activated, the device will automatically scan for other users within your area, comparing your data against theirs. If it finds a match, both misfits will be notified with a text message that provides details on their level of compatibility. At that point, it's up to you to exchange furtive glances and do the whole "Come here often?" Kabuki routine. The tool could also open up new marketing avenues for retailers, though MagnetU plans to begin rolling out its $24 device at college campus events, where more traditional social lubricants are few and far between.
Motorola Mobility stockholders happy with Google merger, 9 out of 10 dentists agree
The people have spoken, and they're pleased. Said people, of course, are Motorola Mobility's shareholders, who have given a seal of overwhelming approval to the company's merger with Google. The company confirmed this sentiment in a statement issued yesterday, declaring that a full 99 percent of shareholders gave a thumbs up to Big G's acquisition at a recent meeting that comprised 74 percent of all outstanding shares. It's likely that much of this optimism was fueled by a rosier Q3 earnings report (not to mention the relatively favorable conditions upon which the acquisition was determined), but Googorola isn't entirely out of the woods, as the federal government must still give the deal its final approval. Motorola Mobility says that should happen by early next year, though it acknowledges the potential for delay. Read the full statement, after the break.
Tim Cook: my first-person impression of Apple's new CEO
After yesterday's news, I was originally going to title this post "Relax. Apple's new CEO Tim Cook is gonna do just fine." I was going to push back on the conventional wisdom that nobody can lead Apple as Steve Jobs has with facts about how Tim Cook has stepped in multiple times to help Apple navigate the roughest economy in at least a generation with stunning success. I was going to write about how Tim Cook is considered by many to be an operational genius and a fair but tough negotiator. I was going to write how he came from Compaq and IBM before that. I was going to write about all that. But you can read his history anywhere. Everyone is writing about him now. So instead I'm going to tell you about the first time I met Tim Cook and why, from that day forward, I have never once worried about Apple post-Steve Jobs. I was in my third year of a five year stint with Apple the first time I met Tim Cook. Steve Jobs had made waves earlier that year with his Stanford commencement speech, where he discussed his cancer diagnosis; Wall Street and the tech industry were still worried sick about who could possibly lead Apple when Jobs no longer could. I knew one thing for sure: it wasn't me. In the grand scheme of things at Apple, I was nobody important. I was just a sales guy that had flown out to Cupertino with other sales people one September for the annual sales conference. And though my numbers were great, I knew that I was replaceable -- just like most employees at large companies can be replaced. I could leave Apple tomorrow and the company would be just fine. I was no Steve Jobs. No matter what your position is in the company, however, from intern to executive staff, it's always great being on Apple's campus. You see cool things, meet interesting people, and have some great food (and a few good games of volleyball) to boot. But on this particular day we were herded into one of the meeting rooms you sometimes see when Apple holds smaller press events on the campus -- the auditoriums with the projector screen the size of one you'd see in a 1950s movie theater and a stage with a small podium with some metallic stools near the front. On this day there were about 300 sales guys and their managers in one such auditorium watching presentations from the iLife project managers about what the latest iteration of Apple's digital lifestyle suite was going to deliver. Though the presentations were interesting, you could see everyone in the room fidgeting a little as if they were restless. You see, we had been notified that Steve Jobs' #2 man, COO Tim Cook, might be dropping by for a visit. The day went on as we explored the new iLife suite; then, sometime halfway through the iDVD presentation, a woman who worked for Apple who I had never seen before entered the auditorium and simply announced, "Excuse me. Three minutes!" There was a shuffling on stage and the project managers halted their presentation as a murmur ran through the room. The woman who had spoken loaded something from a USB drive onto the Mac behind the podium. Three minutes later (to the second) Tim Cook entered the auditorium, flanked by his entourage. Cook walked down the steps and onto the stage. The room was completely silent. And it remained that way for maybe half a minute as Tim Cook slowly took a few steps back and forth. He shuffled the presentation remote around in his hand. He looked out at us and smiled, but still didn't speak. Then he clicked a button on the remote and a large image of a padlock appeared on the screen behind him. "The details of everything we talk about after this slide changes stay in this room," he said in that Southern drawl some of you may be familiar with if you've ever heard him speak on one of Apple's financial conference calls. At the time I had never heard his voice before, and it was such an odd contrast to what you expected to come out of a Silicon Valley executive's mouth. "It stays with Apple. With us," he said. It wasn't a threat. It wasn't an order. The "us" he spoke of, the tone he used, conveyed a sense of kinship. It showed the confidence and trust he had in every single Apple employee packed into that auditorium. We were Apple and Tim Cook appreciated us for that. Even though it's been five years since I worked at Apple and my NDA has long since expired, I'm not going to divulge the specific details he talked about, but I do want to relate the experience. During his time on stage, Cook spoke to us about numbers and metrics, about Apple and the state of the tech industry as a whole. He spoke in that long drawl at a controlled pace, but that drawl and pace had nuance to it that conveyed passion in slow tones. Then Steve Job's #2 guy did something many corporate higher-ups never do. He stopped speaking and asked to hear from us -- from the front-line sales people at Apple. He wanted to hear our questions and ideas. And that's when I found myself raising my hand and the next thing I know Tim Cook pointed at me and smiled. "Yes. You, please," he said. And as I was getting ready to speak I caught my boss out of the corner of my eye. He was sitting about five seats away from me in the auditorium and wore a nervous look on his face. And I knew that if he could have spoken to me in confidence then, my boss would have muttered, "Don't you ask him a foolish question! Don't you know who this is? He doesn't have time for silliness! He is a Very Important Person!" I ignored my boss's look as much as I could and asked Cook what he thought about the direction of a certain software company whose products were closely tied to the Mac; about their lack of support for certain applications Mac users were clamoring to have. Cook's answer was detailed and thorough, and everything he said about the company in question, every prediction and outlook, ended up coming true in the two years that followed. But the fact that he was dead right about the future of that company wasn't why I remember his answer to my question so well. It was because he took his own sweet time answering it. Tim Cook is one of those rare people who stop and think before speaking. Standing in the same room with him I realized that he's comfortable with silence as long as that silence is productive and appropriate. He's not like other tech execs who ramble almost immediately and incoherently at any question lobbed at them, as if doing so will convince others they know everything about everything. Tim Cook is a person who has confidence in his position as a leader, sans ego. Ego doesn't take pauses. It's rapid-fire. And it's that confidence and lack of ego that allows him the time to examine the issues and questions at hand, no matter how lowly or silly others may think them, and address them appropriately. But Cook's confidence, his answer to my question, and his knowledge about the industry isn't why I left the auditorium that day pitying the people on Wall Street and in Silicon Valley who were needlessly worried sick over who would lead Apple. I left the auditorium that day knowing the post-Steve Jobs Apple would be fine because of the way in which he addressed me -- the sales grunt. My boss's worried glances were for nothing. For Tim Cook there are no dumb questions. When he answered me he spoke to me as if I were the most important person at Apple. Indeed, he addressed me as if I were Steve Jobs himself. I know that's a big statement to make, but that's what it felt like and I've spoken with others who have told me the same thing. One just has to experience it to fully understand it, I suppose. His look, his tone, the long pause was evidence enough that he genuinely gave thought to the concern I brought up. And that's the day I began to feel like more than just a replaceable part. I was one of the tens of thousands of integral parts of Apple and it was Tim Cook's raw leadership ability, confidence, and subtle charisma that made me realize that. No one can ever replace Steve Jobs, the man, the genius. But Apple is not only Steve Jobs, no matter what anyone thinks. Apple is the interns and executive assistants; it's the retail employees and the designers; it's the marketing and PR departments, it's Scott Forstall and Jonathan Ive; Bob Mansfield and Phil Schiller; it's the dozens of other names you see on all those Apple patents that we talk about every week. Apple is not any single one of these people. It is the sum of them all, run by a leader who possesses enough wisdom to know that everyone in the company matters, that everyone's concerns are valid and deserve attention. Tim Cook is such a leader. So relax everyone, will ya? I said it yesterday, but I'll repeat it again. Apple is one of the best-run companies on the planet and it's got years of growth ahead of it due to the incredible talent assembled by Jobs and Cook. People are not going to stop buying iPads and iPhones because Steve Jobs is now only the Chairman of Apple and not its CEO. And other companies are not going to suddenly make killer products that make Apple's look like last year's castoffs. Tim Cook has the reins firmly in hand; I only wish others who doubt me could spend two minutes in the same room with him. Apple's got the right CEO to carry it into the post-Steve Jobs era, and the company will continue to thrive.
RIM aims to launch seven smartphones with BlackBerry OS 7 in 'the coming months'
It may look like it's losing the ongoing smartphone war, but Research in Motion is at least preparing for the next battle with reinforcements. Co-CEOs Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis announced at this week's annual shareholder meeting that seven new OS 7-powered BlackBerry smartphones are set to be launched in the near future. As the company struggles to meet its financial goals due to delays, it's confident that releasing a large number of smartphones will make up for a miserable Q1 and get RIM back on track by the end of the year. This seems to be a bitter contrast to earlier rumors suggesting the company scrapped other projects to make room for its QNX "superphone." No word was given by either executive as to which phones we can expect, nor the precise dates when these devices will become available. We also haven't heard if the Bold Touch series is included as part of that count since its launch looks to have been pushed back. Lazaridis mentioned the delays are a result of his company trying to meet (read: not exceed) consumer expectations, and that RIM will "come out ahead" in the smartphone race. Now that's extraordinary confidence; unless the execs had a heart-to-heart with the anonymous letter-writer, however, it's a hard pill to swallow. [Image courtesy of CrackBerry]
EVE Online press conference answers vital questions, transcript inside
After what should have been the celebrated release of the long-awaited Incarna expansion last week, the EVE Online community erupted into flames. The controversy began when players realised that the vanity clothing items in the game's new cash shop were ridiculously overpriced. The $68 monocle became a centerpiece that the media latched onto, in the same way that World of Warcraft made the headlines when Blizzard had the audacity to sell a $25 mount. The story should have ended there as a piece about a crazy Icelandic game company selling virtual clothing for more than real clothing. Unfortunately, some conveniently timed leaks from inside CCP caused this simple issue to escalate to the point of panic, causing in-game riots and a significant number of subscription cancellations. The company's silence on the simple question of whether non-vanity microtransactions would be introduced was seen as an admission that gameplay-affecting items would end up in the cash shop. CCP flew the Council of Stellar Management, EVE's democratically-elected player representative body, out to Iceland for an emergency meeting last week. The result of the meeting was a joint statement between CCP and the CSM addressing all of the major concerns players had. Last night, CCP ran two press conferences over Skype to give EVE fansites and the gaming media a chance to ask additional questions that weren't covered in the official statement. Skip past the cut for our in-depth three-page transcript from the gaming media press conference, including answers to several pressing questions sent in by Massively readers and some great issues raised by other participating members of the press. Comments can be posted on page 3.
President Obama to appear at Facebook HQ for Town Hall meeting
Looks like President Obama and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg just can't get enough of each other. Just two months after his tech industry schmooze fest, the White House has announced the Commander in Chief's plans to hold a live streaming Town Hall meeting from Facebook HQ with Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg. The event is set for 1:45PM PST April 20th, and already has 3,400 attendees lined up. Users are encouraged to submit their questions about innovation and the economy via the event's Facebook page, and the comments are already rolling in. Somehow, though, we don't think this is the sort question he's likely to answer: "Dear President Obama, could we please be friends?" Sorry, Carolina.
Fuze Meeting delivers multiparty video conferencing to iPad 2
The latest updates to Callwave's distributed conferencing platform, Fuze Meeting, have added a rather dramatic new feature that's perfect for iPad 2 owners (not to mention Android 'Honeycomb' tablets like the Motorola Xoom and older 'Froyo' devices): multi-party video conferencing. Meeting hosts who subscribe to the company's Pro plan (US$69 per month for unlimited meetings with up to 100 attendees) get the new face-to-screen capability. Video conferences support up to 10 simultaneous participants on the browser-based client (fewer simultaneous streams on mobile devices), and the quality tops out at 720p HD while adjusting down as needed for bandwidth limitations. We've covered Fuze before, and the core iPad app has kept its full feature set moving forward into the video conferencing realm. You can still share content directly from the iPad app (in fact, it's gotten easier, now that iOS 4.x multitasking means you don't have to relaunch the app if you switch into Dropbox to grab files). If you want to launch your camera, it's one tap to start the video conference, then a second tap to turn your direct view on. Image quality is comparable to FaceTime, although the default video window is much smaller. You can also use VoIP directly on the iPad to join Fuze conference calls, saving you from juggling phone and pad as you participate in the meeting. You can use the Fuze app's laser pointer tool to highlight elements within PPT, image/PDF, or video content as the meeting rolls along. Of course, the desktop/browser Fuze client has evolved along with the new features, and it also supports the 10-party video chat feature.
Apple to unveil JointVenture, a small business repair service
We reported last week that Apple had scheduled a meeting for all its retail employees. The meeting was held this weekend, and the Cupertino company reportedly used this meeting to detail a new enterprise-oriented service called JointVenture. The program supposedly targets small businesses and lets them purchase a premium repair and training service for $500 per year. It sounds vaguely familiar to Apple's ProCare service. For this sum, customers will reportedly receive priority Genius bar service, which pushes them to the top of the service queue and provides them with a loaner unit if a repair is to take longer than 24 hours. JointVenture customers may also be able to access a Genius-manned telephone support service and a limited number of group training sessions per year. The new service is rumored to launch on March 2 in the US and March 3 in the U.K. Additional details may be unveiled at Apple's March 2 event slated to be held in the Yerba Buena Center located in San Francisco, California.
