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Glassdoor: Apple employees love Tim Cook
Glassdoor is a site that allows employees of various corporations to rate how they think their management is doing (while remaining anonymous), and the company has shared some info with TUAW that it says comes out of Apple's campus in Cupertino. The site works kind of like Yelp for employees, as users can come along and leave ratings and reviews for their own company. But presumably this information came from anyone who works for Apple, not just the employees that work directly with CEO Tim Cook in California. And what's the word? In short, they love him. Cook has never had anything less than a 92% approval rating since this time last year, and his current approval rating sits at 93% among employees leaving reviews on Glassdoor. During his time overseeing the company, Steve Jobs held a 97% approval rating, and Cook is a few points below that, but still -- Apple employees think he's doing a great job. Glassdoor also shared a few comments from users who identified as employees actually working in Cupertino, and they called Cook "a CEO who demands work before 6 a.m. everyday, and 'accountability without control'." Another engineer from Cupertino said that "no work/life balance is to be expected at Apple," and that management required employees to be "reachable after work hours." But despite those extra requirements, employees in general seem like enjoy Cook's management. Obviously, these reviewers are all basically self-selected, and like Yelp, this is not exactly an objective look at exactly what the entire company thinks of how things are going over there. But as far as this data goes, it seems like Cook has the support of his employees, and those choosing to report from inside Apple are happy with where the company is at.
Wait times for App Store approvals reportedly rising
A developer training firm named Shiny Development has been tracking waiting times for the App Store review process as closely as it can, and it has bad news for would-be app developers: The waiting times for the Mac App Store are growing longer. In the last six months or so, the waiting time for getting a Mac App published has gone from under seven days to almost as high as a month, according to Shiny's data. Apple's process is largely closed off -- there is a little bit of information for developers on the main dev website, but otherwise Shiny has mostly gathered this information from the various developers it tracks and corresponds with online. If indeed the times for the Mac App Store have gotten this bad, it could mean that big apps are getting delayed longer and longer, and that could be trouble for the platform in general. The good news is that the iOS App Stores' waiting times appear to be going down over nearly the same time period, from 10 days a few months ago, down to right around a week now. Apple has hired lots of app reviewers in the past year or so, and that's likely the reason for dropping times: As it has more people to check incoming apps, it can get approvals through the system quicker. Hopefully there's a bigger horde of Mac App reviewers on the way, so these apps can get out to the public in a relatively timely fashion. [via MacRumors]
Apple hiring Mac App Store reviewers
Always wanted to work for Apple but not sure about in what capacity? If apps are your thing, this could be your lucky day as MacNN is reporting that Apple Worldwide Developer Relations is now hiring Mac App Store reviewers, or "Mac Application Reviewers" as corporate likes to call them. These positions are based near Apple's headquarters in Cupertino, and while the only main requirement for potential candidates must be a familiarity with OS X, some favor is given to those who are also proficient in written French, German, or Japanese. While Mac App Store submissions began on November 3 and with the Mac App Store slated to open around January 20, 2011, Apple is looking to hire several "meticulous, analytical, hardworking, and detail-oriented" people with strong customer service skills for these Mac Application Reviewer positions. That's you, right? So what are you waiting for? [via MacNN]
VUDU throwing Rotten Tomatoes reviews on every movie it sells
Next step for VUDU after adding LG's BD390 to its list of compatible players? The streaming service is now trying to help you figure out which movie to watch with help from the website Rotten Tomatoes, integrating its ratings directly into the movie listings as seen above. Viewers can sort by Tomatometer score and see quotes from top reviews directly on their HDTV screen. Sure it's not auto Twitter updates and IMDB clippings on what scene, movie and actor you're watching, but if they're not going to reduce the cost per rented (or purchased) streaming flick, at least VUDU can help you pick one that's actually good. Check out another screen capture from the new addition after the break.
