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Apple holds shareholder meeting, Tim Cook presides
Apple held its latest shareholder meeting in Cupertino today, and while Jobs was apparently in attendance (and re-approved as a board member, along with William Campbell, Millard Drexler, Albert Gore, Andrea Jung, Arthur Levinson and Ronald Sugar), Tim Cook was the one overseeing the proceedings. The shareholders also voted to keep Ernst & Young LLC as the accountants of record, and a vote about executive compensation was also approved. One proposal brought up by the shareholders suggested that Apple should publish a detailed succession plan for the CEO position, but that vote didn't pass. In the just over an hour meeting, shareholders also wished Steve Jobs well in dealing with his health issues (to a round of applause), and they also brought up the recently announced subscription plan, suggesting that if Apple lowered its 30 percent cut on content purchased through the iTunes store, newspapers would have an easier go of it. The board reportedly didn't have a response for that, but for those developers and content publishers who feel the deal is unfair, it'll be good to know the shareholders are representing those concerns at least. All in all, it sounds like business as usual in Cupertino. Apple holds one of these every year, and it's rare that major decisions get made or announced during a meeting open to shareholders.
Apple reportedly schedules all-hands retail meeting for this week
If you work in an Apple Store, you're either about to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) for an all-hands retail meeting later this week, or you already have. The meetings are generally held Sunday evenings after the stores close. While nobody is quite sure what the all-hands meeting will be about, it's unlikely that it will focus on the new MacBook Pro models that are expected to appear on Thursday unless the new laptops are actually going to show up next week. If history repeats itself, as it usually does in Apple Retail land, we'd be expecting to see a new iPad within the next two months -- the original iPad launched on April 3, 2010. Perhaps the meeting is going to be used to introduce a new iPad with a front-facing camera, Mini DisplayPort, more speed and other rumored improvements. Whatever the topic of the meeting, it's pretty sure that some disgruntled Apple Store employee will spill the beans if anything spicy is announced. Your friendly TUAW bloggers will be here waiting to listen -- just use our Send Tips & Feedback link in the site navigation bar above to let us know what you hear. Update: MacRumors is reporting that the meeting is a regularly scheduled quarterly meeting for retail employees and should not entail specific details about new products.
Obama talked R&D with tech industry CEOs, appoints Intel's Paul Otellini to advisory council
Sure, there may have been some toasts and likely a bit of joking, but it looks like President Obama also got down to a bit of business during his meeting with some of the tech industry's top CEOs yesterday. While complete details are obviously light, White House press secretary Jay Carney has revealed that the president raised the issue of his recent proposals to invest in research and development with the group, and he's said to have also discussed ways to encourage kids to study math, science and engineering. What's more, as the Wall Street Journal points out, President Obama isn't done with the tech industry just yet -- he's moved on to Oregon today to tour one of Intel's semiconductor plants, where's expected to announce that Intel CEO Paul Otellini will be joining his Council on Jobs and Competitiveness.
Caption Contest: Obama has dinner with tech industry CEOs
Barack Obama is a president well known for being in touch with technology, so it's no surprise to see him wining and dining the industry's biggest decision makers. Larry Ellison, Eric Schmidt, Carol Bartz, Mark Zuckerberg, and yes, even Steve Jobs joined el presidente for an informal dinner on Thursday to discuss important things like jobs, education, and research spending. We're not here for that, though, we're here to drop zingers about one all-powerful dude and his big-time CEO buddies. Thomas: "Here's to project Soylent Green." Joe: "This sure beats the Four Loko Summit we held last summer on the White House lawn." Chris: "So let's just jam through this dinner real quick." Josh T: "I hope no one authorizes a 'kill switch' on this party." Paul: "At this very moment we're millions of miles from a doomed planet Earth!" Nilay: "Gentlemen, Ballmer has neutralized the Finnish threat." Richard Lai: "Drink up, kids -- it's Dance Central time!" Tim: "Zuck, it's like Final Club, except with the President."
Visualized: the glamorous lifestyles of WP7 jailbreakers (update: Geohot crashes the party)
To be a jailbreaker means different things depending on the device that you're busy hacking preinstalled walls from. If you're fiddling with consoles, a legal team would come highly recommended, but if you're tweaking mobile code, at least Windows Phone mobile code, you're in for a much sweeter ride. The ChevronWP7 guys that brought us the first jailbreak of Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 are currently in Redmond having a sitdown and a frank exchange of views with WP7 dev experience director Brandon Watson, and the amicable nature of their discourse has been evidenced by the image above. Microsoft is clearly taking a light-hearted and community-friendly approach to handling the (now inevitable) efforts at disabling limitations to its software and we can only congratulate its mobile team for doing so. [Thanks, Tasos] Update: Looks like Microsoft's softie approach really is working. Shortly after the jolly news, notorious hacker Geohot announced on his website that he's going to treat himself to a WP7 device; but before long, Redmond's already reached out to offer him a free handset. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
EVE's December CSM summit minutes released
Several years ago, EVE Online developer CCP Games instituted the Council of Stellar Management, a player-run advisory committee on game design. The members of the council are voted for by players, making the CSM a democratically elected group with direct access to developers. The council has had a significant impact on the game, having pushed through such important changes as the titan doomsday nerf and the introduction of a 24-hour skill queue. Players can raise issues or suggestions to the CSM through the official assembly hall forum. Every six months, the council meets with CCP's developers in Iceland to discuss all the important issues players have raised. In an effort to keep the dealings of the CSM transparent, the minutes of each council session and Icelandic CSM summit are published openly. The first round of minutes from EVE's latest bi-annual CSM summit have now been released, with a further two rounds of meetings to be released within the next week. Topics covered in the first set of minutes include a new EVE forum, the possibility of a permanent CCP-administered charity, talks on the CSM process, and potential CSM activities at Fanfest 2011. For those interested in exactly what went on in the CSM summit, the full minutes of these meetings are publicly available on the EVE website.
EVE Online's CSM to host public roundtable discussion
Over the past few years, EVE Online's democratically elected Council of Stellar Management has had an increasingly large impact on the game. Initially formed to provide players with reassurances that changes to CCP's internal workings would prevent potential developer misconduct, the council has gone on to be an integral part of the company's feedback-gathering mechanism. Throughout the year, the CSM puts together a list of issues players have with the game or its development. Twice per year, the council meets with CCP in Iceland for the CSM summit to discuss those issues. On Sunday, November 21st, at 19:00 GMT, the CSM will be hosting a public roundtable discussion along with CSM project manager CCP Xhagen. In an announcement on the EVE forum, council member Dierdra Vaal described the event as an opportunity for players to ask "difficult questions about what we've been doing and how we've been doing it." The list of topics for discussion certainly mirrors Dierdra's sentiment, with hard-hitting issues on the table like post-Dominion nullsec warfare, Incarna gameplay, microtransactions and quality assurance at CCP. At the coming CSM Summit in December, each topic raised will be discussed for a minimum of one hour with the appropriate developers, making this the perfect opportunity for players to have their say. For the full announcement, visit the thread on the offical EVE Online forum.
Steve Jobs chilling with President Obama today
According to Business Insider, President Obama is scheduled to be flying into the San Francisco area this afternoon to attend an event for District Attorney Kamala Harris and to deliver remarks at a later dinner. What isn't on the President's public agenda, according to an anonymous source familiar with the matter, is a one-on-one meeting with the turtlenecked crusader himself, Steve Jobs. You may think that they'll be talking about several important issues regarding Apple's lead in the technological frontier, but we all know that the President probably just wants to have a little chat about iWeb not being updated. Somebody's in trouble...
Paragon Studios hosting one more meeting for City of Heroes fans
While the convention season has come to a close for the year, the team at Paragon Studios isn't quite done with spending time with the fans of City of Heroes just yet. It's hosting one more party for both the developers and the fans, this last one taking place in San Francisco. And as with previous meetings, the team has arranged a treat for fans, this one in the form of a new costume power allowing players to take on the appearance of a Freakshow Meat Doctor. Having the opportunity to look like one of the slightly less-than-good doctors is special enough, but the meeting also promises to be unique in other ways, making use of the venue's large amount of space for presentations as well as socializing. Players in the San Francisco area should take a look at the full details and start making plans to meet the City of Heroes developers, as well as scaring anyone not fond of meat-doctoring.
Al Gore taunted at shareholders' meeting, gets 10k more options anyway
Last week in this post and last night during the talkcast, we mentioned that Apple's shareholders had passed on a sustainability proposal during last week's meeting (the first time in recent memory that Apple didn't go for stricter environmental standards), but apparently the shareholders weren't just against the proposal. At least one of them was openly heckling Al Gore about his work with the environment. Shelton Ehrlich (who apparently has a reputation among Apple shareholders as a conspiracy believer) stood up and called Gore a "laughingstock," railing against Gore's re-election to the board of directors. Good times -- we're sure Gore is used to dealing with controversies like that, but we wouldn't have expected it at the Apple shareholder meeting. Still, that hasn't dissuaded him from working with the company -- according to an SEC filing, he also picked up another 10,000 stock options from Apple, netting him more than $227k according to Apple's current stock price. Good deal. At least one of Apple's shareholders isn't too happy with Gore's work for the environment, but the relationship between Gore and Apple seems like it's here to stay for a while.
Minutes from Apple's shareholder meeting
Fortune's Apple 2.0 blog has some unofficial minutes from this week's Apple shareholder meeting -- while press weren't actually allowed inside the event (which featured Apple's board, including Al Gore, Steve Jobs, and new co-lead director Andrea Jung), that didn't stop an anonymous shareholder from revealing the goings-on. Not that it mattered much -- the whole affair sounds pretty boring, with Apple running down what they've done in public over the past year, along with lots of formalities and shareholder votes. One highlight is that Steve Jobs sounds like he's got the magic back -- apparently he was "feisty" during the Q&A session, and he sounds like he's back to work, saying that Apple is holding onto their piles of cash for some "big, bold moves." There was news that Apple is planning to expand their retail presence in China, opening up 25 Apple Stores over there over the next two years. Both a stock split and a sustainability proposal were brought up, discussed, and turned down by the shareholders (more on the stock split here on TUAW in just a bit). In short, Apple is a company, just like any other. It's actually fun to see behind the doors on this one, and get a look at the mechanics that drive this historic company. You almost get a sense of what Jobs is like in actual meetings -- fairly demanding, always pushing for answers (or questions), and while opinionated, always fair (Eric Schmidt was brought up, and Jobs said that the Google VIP "conducted himself appropriately" while at Apple). Despite the fact that those two proposals were declined, it sounds like a productive meeting.
Catch an insider glimpse of a Fallen Earth meeting
If you ever thought to yourself how cool it would be to work for a video game company - well, obviously you're not alone. However, the team at Fallen Earth, LLC have decided to release a video that's part-trailer and part behind-the-scenes at their indie studio. Entitled only "Fallen Earth Marketing Meeting" it shows off not only the team's passion for Fallen Earth, but reveals that one guy who still hopes for "elves... magic" in the mix. Aww, poor misguided soul. For a very silly look at an up-and-coming studio (and of course, their new MMO) be sure to check out the very tongue-in-cheek "marketing meeting" video behind the break.
Nokia Easy Meet: funny name, good idea
We think "Easy Meet" sounds more like an off-brand Spam than a remote collaboration platform, but hey, whatever works -- and it sounds like Nokia's newest pet project could work swimmingly. Using nary a single download either for PCs or participating phones, Easy Meet allows users to share PowerPoint presentations, images, a communal whiteboard, text and voice chat, and more; notably, mobile users have essentially the same capabilities as desktop users do, provided they've got access to a browser on their phones. The perfect compliment to the already business-savvy E71, eh? Follow the break to see the system in action on video.
Jobs to miss Apple shareholder meeting this week
Bloomberg is reporting that Steve Jobs will not attend this week's Apple shareholder meeting. That's not a big surprise -- Jobs' health has kept him from attending recent usual events, including Macworld earlier this year. But it is the first time in the over 10 years since he rejoined the company that he won't be appearing at the annual meeting.Additionally, at this week's meeting, as usual, shareholders will vote on whether or not to re-elect Apple's directors to their one-year terms, including Jobs, though nothing is expected to change -- the company has remained strongly in support of Jobs as leader, even if they haven't talked about his health as much as some investors may have liked. COO Tim Cook will likely run most of the planned activities during the meeting.We'll keep an eye on any news that comes out of the closed meeting (streams and transcripts won't be available, but there will be reporters in attendance), and let you know what we hear. As always, we wish Jobs and his company and family the best of health, and hope he is able to feel better soon.[via CNET]
15 Minutes of Fame: House party!
15 Minutes of Fame is our look at World of Warcraft players of all shapes and sizes – from the renowned to the relatively anonymous, the remarkable to the player next door. Tip us off to players you'd like to hear more about.Wrath of the Lich King marked a turning point for WoW guild life. In a raiding environment based on smaller groups, Wrath allows players to gobble up endgame content in much more intimate groups. Many guilds have grown smaller, and many friendships have grown tighter. Many gamers who've been around the block with MMOs a time or two care a little less now about being in it to win it (with a rotating cast of a thousand relatively anonymous guildmates) and a little more about kicking back for some good times with their buddies.Meet the members of Vivid (Frostwolf-H, US) – literally. Meeting in real life is the glue that has cemented the friendships in this energetic young guild. Vivid has gathered four times over half as many years, from a "small kegger at Chico State" to a recent New Year's house party with more than 20 guildmates cozying up at a cabin in North Lake Tahoe.We visited with some of Vivid's real-life friends to find out why their meetups have become integral to their guild life.
Azeroth comes through on the love hunt
This is one of the sillier articles that PC Gamer UK has probably ever written about massively multiplayer online games, but still, I enjoyed it. One of their writers went (only half seriously) looking for love in a few popular virtual worlds, and he found it, surprisingly enough, in Azeroth.Neither EvE Online or City of Heroes were very helpful in the love-finding department -- despite finding a fetching young lady superheroine in CoH, the writer was a little disappointed to find out she was a he behind the keyboard. But WoW, as usual, provides the best of MMO experiences -- the writer finds some cute love in the Night Elf starting area.Sure, it's silly (and probably not true -- just because someone says they're a Finnish college student means nothing at all online). But I found it strangely touching, the thought that a real human connection could be made in an online game. And isn't that why we play these in the first place?[via WorldofWar.net]
Apple sends out iPhone 3G "questions" memo to retail stores
According to AppleInsider, Apple has started issuing memos stressing how to answer questions from customers that might come up between now and the iPhone 3G launch event on July 11th. According to the 3-page memo, there will be no waiting list for the iPhone (wow, this is a "duh" question -- they've never done this for any of their in-store releases). The memo also states what to do if customers ask the dreaded question of "which is better, iPod touch or iPhone 3G?" According to the memo, employees are supposed to tell the customer that the iPhone carries a 2-year contract with AT&T. When asked about iPhone activations, employees are to respond that they "do not have any information at the present time." AppleInsider notes that Apple will be holding a worldwide meeting on July 6 with retail employees (possibly both AT&T and Apple Store) to discuss launch procedures for the iPhone 3G. You can read more about the long memo by clicking the read link below.
The secret society of WoW players
Rufus on WoW LJ had something happen last weekend that I'd be happens to a lot of us players: He was introduced to someone who he had nothing in common with... except that they played World of Warcraft. It happens a few different ways -- sometimes, it's like what happened to Rufus, in that you share a mutual friend who knows you both play WoW. Sometimes, it's just someone (or you) overhearing something about WoW and realizing that you've found a fellow player. And sometimes it's just your guildies -- out of game, you have almost nothing at all in common, but the game has brought you together.In my experience, it's usually just as awkward as Rufus makes it out to be -- especially when you're brought together by someone else, they have no idea that there are different factions and realms and that there are probably a good nine million, nine hundred and ninety thousand people you haven't ever met in game. There are some things that we have in common, obviously -- everyone has died to the Defias pillagers at some point, and almost everyone knows how tough it was getting past Moroes that first time. Sometimes, people can actually come together on these things -- I had a good old friend whose husband and I bonded a little for no other reason than that we both played Shamans.But usually, especially if introductions are made by a third party, it's just awkward. Have you been in this situation? Did you come away as awkwardly as Rufus did or did you make a new friend thanks to your time in Azeroth?
Player vs. Everything: Playing with your friends
Players often venture into the wilderness of online games alone and friendless, seeking out allies in the worlds they inhabit and making friends as they go along. Some games are better at encouraging players to work together than others, too. You're not going to last very long playing by yourself in games like EverQuest or EVE Online, so you have to go looking for people to play with. On the other hand, in games like World of Warcraft you can start at the first level and get to level 70 without ever talking to another human being (it's even easier if you're a Hunter). Regardless of whether your particular game of choice forces you to find friends, many people like to have friends to play with anyway. Even if you don't need them, it's kind of the point of online games to play with other people. Right? That's why some people roll into these games with a ready-made posse. Maybe it's a group of real-life friends that want to play together online, or maybe it's a guild composed of players that you met in a previous game and you'd all like to try something different together. Either way, it's pretty nice to be able to work with a group of people you already know, trust, and like. You don't have to hope that the fickle hand of fate will deliver good PuGs to you (we all know how rare those are), and you don't have to worry about trying to find a new group of people who you can relate to in a sea of anonymous faces (many of whom will have value systems, expectations, and maturity levels that will be different than yours). Is it possible you're missing out on something by bringing your own people in, though? If so, do you care?
Breakfast Topic: Meeting WoW folks
I've met some really cool people playing World of Warcraft. With the exception of a small handful of my RL friends, most of them are just friendly voices on Ventrilo. I had the opportunity to hang out with a guildie last spring. It was an awesome time. We had been running lowbies on a new server. We had a Warrior, a Rogue, a Warlock and a Shaman that we were leveling together. All but the Warlock player live in Las Vegas. decided to spend part of his spring break with us. I went to pick him up at the airport holding a sign with his character name on it- probably not the strangest thing you'll ever see at McCarran International Airport. With the exception of a couple dinners out, we spent the entire weekend playing WoW. No casinos, no strip, no shows, no clubs- just WoW. I wouldn't have had it any other way.
