So, maybe Apple isn't making an HDTV after all? We'd actually be okay with that right now, given that Cupertino has plenty of cool stuff on their plate for the rest of the year, and frankly we're kind of sick of hearing analysts fawn over the possibility. (We're also not quite yet ready to buy a new HDTV for our own living room, so… just a little bit longer, hmm'kay, Apple?) This and several other stories make up our recap for this funky Friday, August 24, 2012.
9to5Mac is reporting that Apple legal has issued a takedown notice for an "iPhone 5 Conversion Kit," which offers impatient owners of current iPhones the option to decorate their handset to resemble the white or black back of what may or may not be introduced next month. Whether or not this is a tacit confirmation that the new design is real, the mod makers have 48 hours to wrap up sales before the kit goes bye-bye. Or you could, you know, just wait for the real thing, which may or may not be introduced around September 12...
Evernote announced a few cool products at its second annual Trunk Conference this morning. First up is a cool-looking Evernote Smart Notebook by Moleskine, which allows Evernote users to digitize physical pages with the iOS app; that product ships in two different sizes on October 1 and now open for preorders. Evernote Business is a new offering launching in December for small and medium-sized businesses which allows employees to collaborate with existing notebooks. Finally, Evernote Clearly received a major update which includes highlighter and related notes, while the free Evernote 4.4 update for iOS enables Page Camera mode, multi-shot camera and Smart Notebook compatibility.
Apple executives Eddy Cue and Peter Oppenheimer met with analysts on Wednesday, and judging from a CNNMoney report, fans hopeful about getting a Cupertino-branded HDTV in their living room this holiday season are likely to be disappointed. Analyst Andy Hargreaves of Pacific Crest issued a company update today in which Cue throws cold water on the idea of an Apple HDTV, at least until the content providers come around. "The key problems in the television market are the poor quality of the user interface and the forced bundling of pay TV content, in our view," Hargreaves notes. "While Apple could almost certainly create a better user interface, Mr. Cue's commentary suggested that this would be an incomplete solution from Apple's perspective unless it could deliver content in a way that is different from the current multichannel pay TV model." Guess there's no point in asking Santa for one, just in case…?
Amazon has announced yet another content deal to beef up its Prime Instant Video service, which offers thousands of free TV shows and movies for those who pony up $79 per year -- which also includes free two-day shipping for most physical goods purchased from the e-tailer as well. The latest deal expands the company's relationship with NBCUniversal and New Media Distribution, which has the immediate benefit of bringing popular TV shows such as Parks & Recreation, Parenthood, Heroes and Battlestar Galactica into the fold. With the recently launched iPad app, Amazon Prime Instant Video subscribers now have more than 22,000 movies and TV episodes to enjoy, all for the glorious price of zero -- which is quickly becoming our favorite of all numbers.
Seems hard to believe, but MercuryNews.com is reminding us that Apple CEO Tim Cook has just wrapped up his first year on the job this week, and what a job he's done! Cook is now CEO of "the most valuable company on the face of the planet -- ever" with a $621 market cap. But that's not to say that Cook has spent 12 months coasting in the shadow of co-founder Steve Jobs -- after all, he's had to deal with labor unrest at Foxconn, environmental concerns and those splashy keynote addresses to launch new products, all of which he's handled rather deftly, if we do say so. Apple also seems to be a slightly more open company than it was under Jobs' rule, and Stanford Graduate School of Business professor Jeffrey Pfeiffer actually credits some of Cook's success to the late co-founder himself. "I always felt Steve Jobs' most underappreciated skill late in life was to build an organization that would sustain itself even after he was gone,'' Pfeffer explains. "He's picked a good guy to run things, and I think Apple has been very well built to last.''
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