Showing posts with label has. Show all posts
Showing posts with label has. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 31, 2015
How Apple Was Reinvented and What Team Cook Has Brought Us
In the wake of the launch of two new iPhones and also the Apple Watch, many would say that Apple CEO Tim Cook has brought the company he took over from Steve Jobs into a new era. In an extensive interview with Businessweek, Cook and several other Apple executives talked about the ways in which the company has changed in the last three years, and whats going to happen going forward.
Some of the details that come out in the interview are already well known - for instance, the fact that Steve Jobs office has been left untouched after his death in 2011. "It felt right to leave it as it is," Cook told Businessweek. "Thats Steves office."
The interview also reveals a company thats more reactive to the market. The iPhone 6 Plus in particular is a big departure for Apple, and a clear reaction to the popularity of phablets. But the Apple Watch could also fall into the same category. A lack of new product lines had been dogging Apple since Cook took over, and things could have reached a breaking point with the companys stock dropping by 40 percent last year. According to Businessweek, this made Cook "accelerate the Watch project." Apples Jony Ive told Businessweek, "Its probably one of the most difficult projects I have ever worked on."
There is also a lot of interesting detail about the changing culture at Apple. From the small, "renegade" teams that made the Macintosh and the iPhone to a large team that blends various disciplines together to make the Apple Watch, the company has gone through some clear changes.
"We would never have gotten there in the old model," Cook said. These new products are reminders "of why we exist. The things we should be doing at Apple are things that others cant."
The Watch is just one of the big new changes that Apple has brought in. The other one is Apple Pay, an NFC-based mobile payments service. Users will be able to pay for their shopping by holding a finger against the Touch ID fingerprint scanner, instead of having to take out their credit cards. The idea isnt exactly new - the concept was first extolled by Sony as far back as 1989, and NFC was approved as a standard as far back as 2003. The technology came to Android in 2010, with the Nexus S.
But Apple has been able to garner large scale support for its payment system and this could be a game changer in a way that technology alone cant be. Apple has secured at least 200,000 retail locations in the US for the launch of Apple Pay, including including Bloomingdales, Duane Reade, Macys, McDonalds, Sephora, Staples, Subway, Walgreens and Whole Foods Market. With support for credit and debit cards from American Express, MasterCard and Visa, issued by banks including Bank of America, Capital One, Chase, Citi and Wells Fargo, Apple has accounted for 83 percent of the credit card purchase volume in the US.
Apple is famous as a company that finds its own way, so to see the company working towards joint solutions, both inside and outside, is a big change. As Businessweek points out, this was not how Apple functioned under Jobs. Businessweek writes:
The company Cook inherited was broken up into specialized groups devoted to hardware, software design, marketing, and finance, all working separately and sharing little information with each other; they didnt need to because the overarching vision resided in Jobss head.
Under Cook, this would change, and he told Businessweek of some of the benefits of this change - its made it possible for features like Continuity, where you can take a call on your iPad or send messages from your Mac, seamlessly switching between your different devices.
"We would never have gotten there in the old model," Cook said. These new products are reminders "of why we exist. The things we should be doing at Apple are things that others cant."
Of course, these culture changes also brought culture clash. As Businessweek reports, some senior people left Apple because of the changes:
To one former senior designer, accustomed to spitballing sessions with Jobs to go over details as minute as the look of screen icons, the company no longer has the same allure. He says he left because Apple grew too large and that products once created in small groups are now done in sprawling teams. Others chafe at Cooks insistence on financial discipline; in meetings once devoted to the hallowed act of reviewing products, he asks managers pointed questions about spending and hiring projections, says a person involved. Staff from finance and operations now sit alongside engineers and designers in product road map sessions with key component partners.
Team Cook
The biggest changes that have emerged, it is clear, lie in the personality of the organisation. Apple might not have let go of its secrecy or high end products, but in other ways, Businessweek reports that the company has gone through a lot of change.
You can see this in the kind of responses that people outside Apple gave Businessweek for the article. Ginni Rometty, IBMs chief executive, called Cook the "hallmark of a modern-day CEO. Its all about clarity of vision and knowing what to do and what not to do." Carriers say there is more of a personal touch. "Tims a tough negotiator," said Glenn Lurie, CEO of AT&T Mobility, whos been working with Cook since before the release of the iPhone in 2007. "Hes a very consistent guy, and that makes it a lot easier to do business with him."
Cook "is comfortable enough to say we need help here, and then he goes out and gets it," said Jimmy Iovine, who became a part of Apple when it acquired Beats Electronics.
The tone inside the company is equally positive. Phil Schiller, Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing at Apple, told Businessweek that the core Apple team is not likely to fragment. "A lot of us at Apple are here because we love the products," he said. "We think we are making the best products we have ever made as a company." Other executives shared similar sentiments with Businessweek.
"I feel damn proud to be working as a part of Tims team," said Eddy Cue, Senior Vice President for Internet Software and Services. "If he gets a little bit of recognition from the outside world, that is great. He deserves a lot more than he is going to get."
Friday, March 27, 2015
Facebook has finally completed its acquisition of WhatsApp
This sure took a while, but Facebook is now officially the owner of WhatsApp. The social network agreed to buy the mobile messaging service on February 20, shocking the tech world by offering $19 billion for that privilege.
All the regulatory hurdles have now been cleared, so WhatsApp is finally part of Facebook.
US regulators moved pretty fast, approving the deal back in April. However, the European Commission only announced its positive vote on the matter last Friday. That was apparently the last approval Facebook needed, as the deal has now closed.
As stated when the acquisition was announced, WhatsApp will continue to operate independently of the Facebook mothership, and the company has promised not to introduce ads into the conversations of its users.
Thursday, March 26, 2015
Samsung Galaxy Note 4 First batch has ajar gapgate – Android World
When you have to fight for market share as a great brand at the top then you grab everything they can to put you. Competitor at a disadvantage Samsung could not leave last week to still make some jokes about #bendgate but it seems that Apple is now the turn is #gapgate is a fact.
On a crack
In Korea, the first Samsung Galaxy Note 4 aircraft delivered and that of course is not without problems. Earlier we already reports that Samsung supplies the flagship expedited because of the success of Apple’s iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. But haste is rarely good, because in the first delivery showed some devices sit exhibiting a defect.
Via Phandroid we read that some users have complained that there is a big gap in between the edge of the device and the screen. So big that you can between stabbing there. Easily a business card
GapGate
For the direct operation of the unit will have no impact, but the gap is large enough to dust, sand and permeable to water and that will have an impact on the Samsung Galaxy Note 4.
There is no response from Samsung, but we can assume that this is a problem in a small batch has been and we nothing will show. ‘Europe back Samsung will definitely go exchange the units and there will be the problem with it quickly resolved, at least, that would be the sensible solution.
What alone is painful is that they have joined the a little at Samsung Apple-bashing on bending the iPhone 6 Plus ie #bendgate. Now it seems that Samsung itself has a problem. For both companies, how do you get this done to overlook
Source: Phandroid
Dim Wing
Co-Founder Androidworld.nl, entrepreneur, first phone was a Panasonic at the ATF network , Android from the first minute. Entrepreneur, creative and social over-active on Twitter, Google+ and Facebook. Galaxy Nexus, Transformer, Nexus 7, Nexus 4
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