It was hard to miss the big story of the day: Facebook is acquiring Instagram, which suddenly makes the furor over the photo sharing service finally arriving on Android pale in comparison to the hate being spewed at both companies today. But what about the little stories that fall between the cracks? Thankfully we’ve collected them here for your reading pleasure on this manic Monday, April 9, 2012.
As Apple attempts to protect its iPad trademark in China, a new report from Fox News sheds some light on how the term “iPad” is now synonymous with tablet computers, much in the same way we refer to an adhesive bandage as a “Band-Aid” or even “Google” something instead of “searching” for it. "For the vast majority, the idea of a tablet is really captured by the idea of an iPad,"' explains Josh Davis, a manager at Abt Electronics in Chicago. "They gave birth to the whole category and brought it to life." The problem, of course, is that Apple aggressively trademarks their product names and swiftly moves to stomp out anyone using the words iPhone, iPod or iPad. “It's one of the biggest contradictions in business,” the report reveals. “Companies spend millions to create a brand. Then, they spend millions more on marketing that can have the unintended consequence of making those names so popular that they become shorthand for similar products.” Many now predict the same fate for the iPad, explains marketing executive Mary Schmidt. "When I think of tablets, I think of an iPad," she says. "I think it's going to be the generic name. They were first." Not if their attorneys have anything to say about it...
While Mac OS X has come a long way where PDF is concerned, power users have an unfortunately small range of choices outside of the Preview app. Nuance Communications, Inc. today announced version 3.0 of its Nuance PDF Converter for Mac, which promises to deliver “a Better PDF for Mac” for only $99 -- a far cry from shelling out for Adobe’s more expensive Acrobat Pro. “Apple is gaining a significantly larger presence in business environments, increasing the demand for powerful and affordable productivity applications for PDF documents,” said Robert Weideman, senior vice president and general manager, Nuance Document Imaging division. “Nuance PDF Converter for Mac delivers the rich features people want in a PDF product at a fraction the price of Adobe Acrobat. It’s no wonder people say this is the ‘Better PDF for Mac.’” Nuance PDF Converter for Mac now includes direct connection to cloud services for accessing and saving PDF documents anytime, as well as new built-in optical character recognition (OCR) for creating searchable PDFs. A free trial version is also available from the company’s website.
Interactive storytelling and educational app publisher zuuka may not have acquired Instagram today, but their iStoryTime and iTalk products are getting a boost from the arrival of Paul Mueller-Bruehl as the company’s new Creative Director. Mueller-Bruehl’s last employer just so happens to be Apple Inc., where he held the position of Design Lead, Mobile Commerce for the last two years. “Our interactive storytelling and educational apps are about offering parents and their children a unique experience that captivates their imagination and Paul shares that same vision,” said Graharm Farrar, founder of zuuka. “We are excited to have him join our growing team and bring his amazing mobile experience to zuuka.”
Adobe continues to improve Photoshop and Lightroom with each new release, but there will always be users who want more freedom of choice when it comes to features. Enter onOne Software, the developer of Perfect Photo Suite, a collection of image editing tools to enhance Adobe’s desktop applications as well as Apple’s Aperture. The company announced today that version 6.1 of Perfect Photo Suite is now available, bringing full compatibility with Lightroom 4 and the Photoshop CS6 Beta along with a “faster, leaner and easier-to-use experience” and improvements to two of the individual components, Perfect Mask 5 and Perfect Portrait. If you haven’t had a chance to try onOne software yet, now is the perfect time -- the company has also debuted free editions of Perfect Effects 3 and Perfect Layers 2, which are simplified versions of the full versions included with Perfect Photo Suite.
Bloomberg is reporting that Apple CEO Tim Cook is perched atop a list of the highest paid chief executive officers in the United States for 2011. According to The New York Times, Cook’s compensation for last year hit $378 million including salary, perks and bonuses -- most of which includes a one-time stock award of $376.2 million. Half of that award vests in 2016, but Cook will have to wait until 2021 for the remainder. Coming in second is Oracle boss Larry Ellison with $77.6 million, followed by JCPenney CEO Ronald Johnson with $53.3 million.
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