Macgasm

We all knew that Tim Cook, the unfortunate dude who has to follow Steve Jobs’ legendary tenure as CEO of Apple, would not necessarily walk in his predecessor’s footsteps. One of the ways that Cook has distinguished himself is by being more affable and personable, and even sitting down for lunch with random employees in the Apple cafeteria. Fortune magazine’s Adam Lashinsky describes how Cook comes across so easy going and down to earth that Apple staff love his company (as opposed to feeling like they’ve just been thrown into an episode of Fear Factor). Contrast this to Jobs, who had a ritual of stopping employees in the hallway or the elevator and demanding they explain to him on the spot what they do here, knowing full well that a bungled answer could potentially cost them a job.

Cook differentiates himself from Jobs in more ways than just his lunch company; He’s also responsible for calling for independent audits of Apple’s overseas factory conditions and pushing Apple into a greener and more environmentally-conscious mode of thinking. Shareholders are particularly pleased with Cook allocating $45 billion over three years to stock dividends and share repurchasing.

Despite his untimely and tragic passing, the era of Steve Jobs is not quite over yet. While Cook has been at the wheel for the launch of the iPhone 4S and the iPad 3 (aka The New iPad), these products are still echoes of Jobs’ brilliant mind (the 4S was even released while he was still alive). Cook has certainly asserted himself as a CEO who can relate to people a little more easily and, at the same time, make some very positive quarterly financial reports. Time has yet to tell if, once the momentum of Jobs’ influence has faded, he can imagine the products which will keep Apple on top of the tech world.

Source: AppleInsider

So apparently this unknown company called Blizzard took a chance on a risky title called… I forget the name… I think it was Diablo III… and shocked everyone on the entire planet by breaking sales records like crazygonuts.

I kid. Blizzard is so good at breaking sales records that nobody’s surprised. As the parrot in Aladdin said: I may have a heart attack and die from being not surprised.

Having only a week behind it, Diablo III has already torpedoed through 6.3 million purchases — 3.5 million of which were in the first 24 hours, thus making it the fastest-selling PC game ever. As if that’s not enough, there’s an additional 1.2 million players who received Diablo III as a freebie for signing up for World of Warcraft’s Annual Pass promotion, which put 4.7 million people around the world in front of their computers ready to fight evil on day one. What’s more, that figure of 6.3 million doesn’t even include the players in Korean Internet game rooms where Diablo III is the top-played game (North Americans may not be aware that gaming cafés, or “bangs” as they’re known in Korea, are a pretty big deal).

Here’s Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime expressing his profound disappointment in the pathetic sales and bleating about how he promises to do better next time:

Those preparations of which he speaks are in reference to the server problems Blizzard had when Diablo III hit the streets. To put it briefly, Diablo III ended up loading Blizzard’s Battle.net servers to create the same result one sees when a steam roller drives over a pudding cup. Apparently problems still persist, but Blizzard has dealt with the worst of it and is likely to get things under control before too long.

Still on the fence about Diablo III? Treat yourself to the Macgasm review and hear what we had to say about it.

The PC market (mobile or otherwise) has seen some strange days in the last few years with the meteoric rise of mobile technology, and nothing underlines that better than Apple’s iPad which once again takes the number one spot. NPD reports that Apple shipped 17.2 million mobile PCs globally in the first quarter of 2012, and that nabs them a 22.5 percent share, which is more than twice what second-runner-up Hewlett-Packard managed to bag with 8.9 million mobile PCs for an 11.6 percent share.

AllThingsD talks about the rise and the rise of the iPad, which, to date, is not only surfing atop the declining sales of every other mobile PC maker but also remains unrivaled by any other tablet for its marketshare:

It’s also interesting to consider the iPad as a PC — without the qualifier of “mobile”. One doesn’t have to be very observant to see the iPad doesn’t really look like a PC, and so critics are justifiably skeptical as to whether or not it’s fair to compare the tablet to one. Yet, at the same time, “Personal Computer” in 2012 might very well mean something other than a beige box on your desk.

Source: NPD
Via: AllThingsD

Some thieves may be smart enough to know that an iPhone is worth stealing, but they don’t all understand a whole lot about how an iPhone works. This was proven to Katy McCaffrey last month when her iPhone was pinched while on a cruise ship. Though normally one would consider their chances of recovering a stolen phone to be slim, it seems McCaffrey’s thief loves taking photos and — obviously unbeknownst to him — uploading them to iCloud for anyone to see.

For those of you who don’t know, iCloud offers users a feature called “Photo Stream.” When someone takes a photo with their iCloud-enabled iPhone (or iPod or iPad), it’s automatically and transparently uploaded to the cloud and can be downloaded on any other iCloud-enabled device the user owns (including their Mac). As you have already figured out by now, the phone thief has been loading up iCloud’s Photo Stream generously so far.

Nobody could blame McCaffrey for then creating a public Facebook album entitled “Stolen iPhone Adventures” in which she shares 20 photos from the thief’s collection (whose name is Nelson) and lets the world know when and where the phone was nabbed. Apparently, Nelson works on the Disney cruise line, has a pregnant girlfriend who works at the ship’s spa and loves the Mexican coastline.

The thief hasn’t yet been apprehended but, thanks to iCloud, it truly is a small world after all.

Source: Cult of Mac

Though digital photography is all the rage and prices for the gear are (relatively) affordable, a lot of us don’t know much more about digital cameras than what our phones teach us. Clearly there are reasons to upgrade from your iPhone if you have an interest in taking better pictures, but how does a neophyte navigate the waters? Buzz words such as megapixels seem like they might be the most important thing, but if you’re going to shell out a chunk of cash for a hardcore camera, you probably want to know a little more.

LifeHacker delves into the topic with a bit more depth (and they say that megapixels, in fact, are mostly irrelevant when it comes to image quality), and tools a little guide specifically for the layperson who wants to up their photo-taking game. Here’s a bit of guidance:

There’s a lot of speculation about whether or not cell phone cameras will be at the point where they can replace SLRs completely. If you watch the way the iPhone’s camera has improved (especially over a short time), it seems not just possible, but inevitable. Is that day here? No, no it isn’t. If you want better pics, you still have to actually buy a device whose sole purpose in life is giving them to you.

Source: LifeHacker

Lately you’ve probably seen a lot of rumors about the next iPhone and how the screen will be so much bigger than the current model. Rumors have proliferated about size changes for all iOS devices since the day they emerged. Whether they’re rumored to be bigger or smaller, there’s always a cabal of pundits who are going to tell you it’s as good as given that the iPhone/iPad/iPod will get bigger or smaller. Some write it up because they actually believe what they’re saying. Some write it up because they want to draw page views, and they know rumors are good search engine fodder. Either way, time has not been kind to those who look into the crystal ball and predict a shrinking or swelling of an iOS device. In fact, any size changes to the iPod, iPhone or iPad in the last five years have been so minimal that they barely qualify as changes at all.

[...]

Google continues to refine and hone their flagship email service, Gmail, buffing up features and functionality. Search has received a much-needed improvement (for English users only so far), even adding autocomplete services. According to Engadget: “Now, instead of simply returning results for labels and contacts, queries will also include relevant email info based on the conversations stored in a user’s account, like flight or hotel reservations.”

This new searchy goodness only exists on the web app (not your mobile app or whatever), but Google will no doubt intend to roll this out to all permutations of Gmail with a little time and testing, including non-English languages. Here’s the blurb from Google’s blog:

While some have trepidation about using Gmail because of the way that Google’s tech crawls through your messages in order to better hone advertising, it continues to be the most efficient and well-maintained mail service on the web. Note that I didn’t say “biggest”, as Hotmail likely still holds that title. Unfortunately.

Source: Google Blog
Via: Engadget

Kodak’s hopes to get Apple and RIM on the ropes with some patent infringement claims have been smashasized into little pieces by ITC judge Thomas Pender, who essentially told Kodak to cram it. The once-upon-a-time giant of the photography world, which for two years has been trying to bring patent infringement claims against the two tech companies, filed for bankruptcy protection in January. Generally regarded by pundits as a “Hail Mary” attempt to scrape some money together, Kodak was seeking $1B for damages, but Pender ruled the patent that was the basis of their claim to be invalid. The New York Times has a little info on the patent in question:

Interestingly, Pender said the particular aspect of the patent that was pivotal to this case was “covered an obvious variation of earlier inventions,” and that, if it were actually valid, BlackBerry devices and the Apple iPhone 3G would infringe it, while the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 wouldn’t (presumably, this would also cover the 4S).

Source: New York Times