Apple

Apple’s new iPhone 4S ads featuring Samuel L. Jackson and Zooey Deschanel appear to be resonating with TV viewers. Ace Metrix, a firm that does analytics for television and video advertisers, found that those two ads were the “most effective TV ads to break the week ending April 20″ for mobile phones.

For some reason, the rather mundane Samsung Galaxy Note “The Best of a Phone and Tablet” and “The Best of Both Tablet and Phone” ads still manage to take the #1, 5, and 7 spots in the Ace Metrix list, while Zooey tied for #1, Sam was in second place, and three other iPhone 4S ads placed 6th, 8th, and 9th.

Ace Metrix CEO Peter Daboll noted that Apple’s iPhone ads earlier in the year had been “falling rather flat,” and that “This new creative tack that uses likeable (sic) celebrities struck a chord with American viewers.”

[via MacRumors]

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Source: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20120427005788/en/Aver…

Article source: http://www.tuaw.com/2012/04/27/celebrity-iphone-ads-score-well-with-viewers/

Twitter for iPhone and iPad (free, universal) has been updated to version 4.2. This update introduces a number of changes, including an improved discover feature. Now, the app shows an activity feed displaying which of your tweets have been favorited or re-tweeted by other users. You’ll find activity listed below the other discover features.

Search has been improved too, with auto spell correction in the search field and search history. New push notification options let you know when one of your tweets has been re-tweeted or favorited; an additional alert announces a new follower.

Finally, Twitter for iOS 4.2 offers support for Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish and Polish. You’ll find it in the App Store now.

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Source: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/twitter/id333903271?mt=8

Article source: http://www.tuaw.com/2012/04/27/twitter-update-adds-improved-discover-search-notifications/

Apple’s plans to bring 3,600 jobs to Austin, Texas are being delayed due to a disagreement between the company and the Travis County Commissioners Court over the terms of an economic incentive package.

Apple is hoping to establish an Americas Operations Center in Austin, which would run most of the company’s business operations for North and South America. Key to the deal to invest $304 million in the center is a package which would provide the company with almost $36 million in incentives over the next 10 to 15 years. The sticking point in the negotiations is with the Travis County Commissioners Court, which would provide anywhere from $5.4 to $6.4 million of the incentive.

Opponents of the deal raised their objections at a Tuesday meeting of the Court, with Bill Aleshire (an attorney and former Travis County judge) and Ed Wendler (an Austin developer) picking through the details of the contract between the county and Apple. Aleshire said “I’m not sorry that Apple is frustrated … That’s a sorry contract.” He felt that Apple “had it rigged so they could not comply with the contract yet end up with county staff basically renegotiating the terms that they would have to comply with.”

There’s hope that the negotiations will end in a positive vote for Apple’s expansion plans next Tuesday, May 1, 2012. If not, there are plenty of other cities in the U.S. that would be more than happy to welcome Apple with open arms.

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Source: http://www.statesman.com/business/official-apple-deal-in-per…

Article source: http://www.tuaw.com/2012/04/27/apples-plans-for-texas-construction-delayed-due-to-disagreement/

Apple has pulled an app that allows iPhone users to turn Bluetooth on and off with a single tap, and that’s not sitting right with ZDNet blogger Jason O’Grady. According to O’Grady, that one app removal “demonstrates how (Apple) has become lethargic and how iOS innovation has slowed to a crawl.” If a lethargic company can turn in a US$39.2 billion quarter, I’d love to see what an “innovative” company could do.

So Jason, innovation in the iOS field has definitely slowed to a crawl?. Yeah, there are only 600,000 apps available in the App Store, so the removal of one app — the $0.99 Bluetooth OnOff — that used private APIs specifically forbidden by Apple is obvious proof that Apple has become lethargic and that there’s no innovation. Was this post supposed to run on April 1st and got delayed to today by mistake?

Sure, it takes five or more steps to turn off Bluetooth in iOS, and it’s not a top level on-off button in Settings. While that is a pain, how often do you really need to turn off Bluetooth? According to O’Grady, “Bluetooth uses battery capacity so it’s better to turn it off while not in use.”

What? I have Bluetooth turned on all the time on my iPhone 4S and I don’t see it sucking my battery dry. Of course, I don’t use a Bluetooth headset or speakers most of the time, but I get amazing battery life with Bluetooth constantly turned on for instant connections when I need them. I’d be willing to bet that most iPhone users couldn’t even tell you if Bluetooth is on or off at any particular time.

We all get frustrated with Apple at some point or another

Article source: http://www.tuaw.com/2012/04/27/no-comment-apple-pulls-bluetooth-onoff-switch-app-from-the-app/

Nothing beats WWDC‘s access to Apple engineers, and the confluence of global (well, provided you were awake in time in certain parts of the globe) attendees. If you didn’t get a ticket to WWDC, however, there are still plenty of other great developer conferences for Mac and iOS developers. Here are just a few, but feel free to share more in the comments.

MacTech Conference – There’s a developer track here, although MacTech’s forte has always been IT. They put on a fantastic event, however, with great sessions, after-hours events that are not to be missed, and camaraderie in spades. Plus, there’s a series of IT-focused events around the country now. (Full disclosure: TUAW is a media partner with MacTech.)

360MacDev and 360iDev – Held in Denver, both 360 conferences are developer-specific and crammed with useful sessions led by renowned developers from around the world. I’ve been to a 360 conference, and I can tell you that what you’ll learn after hours is almost as good as what you learn in the sessions. Sometimes a conference benefits from being smaller and more focused. (TUAW is also a media partner with the 360 folks.)

Voices That Matter – Pearson Education has put on the VTM conferences, covering web development, iOS and Android among other topics. There’s nothing on the 2012 schedule at the moment, but keep an eye on their site.

SXSW Interactive – OK, this is the least focused of all, but there are usually good lessons to be learned here from seasoned developers, not to mention business people and other industry wonks. Of course, the after hours meetups and interactions are priceless. This is one you can unconference with

Article source: http://www.tuaw.com/2012/04/26/didnt-get-in-to-wwdc-try-some-other-awesome-developer-conferen/