The iPhone has once again proved that consumers can get some satisfaction. Elsewhere, Google has scooped up a Yelp rival that’s decidedly old school, and Apple’s making new inroads into charity. The remainders for Thursday, September 8, 2011 are better to give than to receive.
What’s important in designing an exceptional smartphone? “The right blend of design and technology,” according to customer satisfaction rating agency J.D. Power and Associates. That and 11 secret herbs and spices. To the surprise of practically nobody who’s paying attention, Apple is the firm’s top-ranked smartphone purveyor in terms of customer satisfaction for the sixth consecutive time. Don’t expect that to change any time soon, especially when the iPhone 5 arrives with its patented “Satisfaction Dispersal Field.”
One young designer takes on a hefty hunk of Apple legalese and tries to make it friendly. Meanwhile an old school union boss has a beef with Cupertino, but it’s not all bad news, as an Arizona-based company has dropped its dispute with 1 Infinite Loop. And we hope you like dissecting innocuous photos for clues, because we’ve got our fill of that. The remainders for Wednesday, September 7, 2011 are hot on the trail.
Gregg Bernstein’s master’s thesis at the Savannah College of Art and Design was a simple, if unconventional one: Redesign iTunes’s Terms of Service into a human-readable format. Thanks to a local law professor, the 4137-word document was condensed into just 381 words, then organized with bullet points, indentation, and clear numbering. A little known fact, discovered during the process? Section IV, sub-section 3, paragraph a, sub-paragraph ii gives Apple limited, non-negotiable rights to your immortal soul. Just FYI.
The Beatles are on iTune—oh, wait. That was last year. Well, they’re on iTunes again. Also, Apple may be planning yet another social-networking service (because its previous ventures have just been gangbusters), and the authorities admit they did sorta kinda help look for a misplaced iPhone prototype. The remainders for Tuesday, August 6, 2011 would like just the facts, ma’am.
To those of you who have dutifully tracked down every song from The Beatles’s oeuvre that hit number one on the charts, bad news: The Fab Four’s album, 1, containing those 27 tracks, is now available for purchase on the iTunes Store. Personally, I’m holding out for the less auspicious followup, 2.
This may come as a shock, but somehow, it’s already September. As you attempt to come to grips with the fact that time keeps flying by faster than a top-of-the-line Mac Pro encodes video, let us regale you with our best and brightest stories from the past week. Spoiler alert: This week, no one resigned.
It’s more than a week later and we’re still cleaning up the mess of the storm that raged through our community. No, not hurricane Irene, hurricane Steve Jobs Steps Down (which, like Irene, would make a really pretty name for a girl). One pundit has been swept from the ranks of Mac users while another chose to rage against the storm. Finally, Paul Thurrott has been lying to you! Can you imagine?
U2’s frontman puts in a good word for Steve Jobs, Apple lets a hard drive of confidential information slip through its fingers, and details on what exactly the crazy folks at Starz turned down. The remainders for Friday, September 2, 2011 are taking advantage of their last opportunity to wear white before this weekend.
In a letter to the editor of The New York Times, shade-wearing rocker Bono spoke out about his friend Steve Jobs, describing him as “a poetic fellow, an artist and a businessman.” The letter was in response to a Times article noting Jobs’s lack of public charitable donations. The U2 frontman also pointed out that Apple has played a major part in the (Product)Red campaign, and, in perhaps its most charitable act, discontinued the U2 iPod.
It seems we’ve moved onto the “Order” part of Law & Order: Silicon Valley as the alleged iPhone prototype thieves are arraigned in court. Elsewhere, a suggestive icon might shed some light on the iPhone 5, Apple wants children to learn, and one cable network has starz in its eyes. The remainders for Thursday, September 1, 2011, are represented by two separate yet equally important groups. These are their stories.
Brian Hogan and Robert Sage Wallower pleaded not guilty to misdemeanor theft for the iPhone 4 prototype that Hogan allegedly sold after finding it in a Redwood City bar. A trial is scheduled for November 28. I’m sure whoever has that recently lost iPhone prototype will be watching the case closely.
