Apple CEO Tim Cook schmoozes up top Chinese officials, while here at home Apple acolytes are taking over. Plus, Steve Jobs’s original thoughts on Siri. The remainders for Wednesday, March 28, 2012 are more than meets the eye.
China to Apple’s Cook: we will boost intellectual property rights: Xinhua (Reuters)
While in China, Tim Cook met with China’s vice premier, Li Keqiang, who promised that the country would do more to protect intellectual property. Then he asked Cook why he couldn’t Skype with his mom on his “iFone.”
Apples Are Growing in American Homes (CNBC)
CNBC’s All-America Economic survey reports that half of U.S. households own at least one Apple product, with 1 in 10 of non-Apple owners poised to jump into that pool in the next year. Plus, the average Apple-owning household owns an average of three Apple devices. Man, that’s a lot of loyalists who have to line up to buy every Apple product.
Steve Jobs wasn’t a fan of the Siri name (NetworkWorld)
Speaking at an event in Chicago, Siri co-founder Dag Kittlaus commented that the late Apple CEO Steve Jobs was not a fan of the “Siri” name, but apparently couldn’t come up with anything better. I think we all know that he secretly just wanted to call it “Hal.”
Apple’s Newsstand for iPad Generates $70K Per Day (The Mac Observer)
According to a report from research firm Distimo, Apple’s Newsstand is pulling down $70,000 per day in the U.S. The top publications are The Daily, The New York Times, The New Yorker, National Geographic, and…Cosmopolitan, each of which has published a front page article about “27 ways to please your man.”
Leaks imply first Ivy Bridge-based Macs could launch in late April (Ars Technica)
According to a report, Intel’s next generation of chips is due to be released towards the end of April, perhaps heralding updated Macs. I just hope it doesn’t mean Intel has decided to go into the taco business.
Update: Hasbro Can’t Stop Sale Of ‘Transformer Prime’ Tablets (paidContent)
Toy maker Hasbro, which was suing computer company Asus over trademark violations for its Eee Pad Transformer and Eee Pad Transformer Prime devices, was overruled this week by a judge’s decision. An actual quote from said judge follows: “The Autobots are led by the virtuous Optimus Prime character, while the Decepticons follow the powerful Megatron. According to Hasbro, Optimus Prime is intended to epitomize honor, duty, leadership, and freedom.” Which he followed with his best impression of the transformer noise.
Product News:
ShareMouse 1.0 – Bartels Media’s utility can be used to control up to 26 Macs and Windows PCs in the same room from a single keyboard and mouse. Each computer must have a display; to switch to a different computer, you press a hotkey and move the cursor to the edge of the screen, and you keep moving until the cursor jumps to the other display. Each computer you want to control must have the software installed. $25 per software license.