Panel:
- Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots
- Adam Christianson from The Mac Cast – @maccast
- Gazmaz from the My Mac Podcast – @gazmaz
- Nick Riley – @spligosh
The show starts with a quick look at some Apple-related numbers and statistics released in March before moving on to a quick rundown of some Apple-related legal stories. The big stories for the month were the Spring Forward Apple Event, and the new Steve Jobs book Becoming Steve Jobs.
You’ll find detailed show notes below the fold, and if you enjoy this free show, please consider clicking on the donate button at the top of the left side bar – the show is free for you to listen to, but not for Bart to Produce!
Links:
Noteable Numbers
- Gartner say Apple beat Samsung in World-Wide Smartphone unit sales in the December Quarter – www.macobserver.com/…
- Tim Cook announced that Apple have sold 700 million iPhones – www.macobserver.com/…
Legal Latest
- Judge Lucy Koh gives preliminary approval to the updated $415M settlement in the Apple, Google, Intel & Adobe anti-poaching suit – www.macobserver.com/…
- Developments in the A123 Employee Poaching law suit filed against Apple last month:
- 4 March – Court Filings Show Apple is working to reach a settlement with A123 after being sued for hiring their battery engineers last month – www.macobserver.com/…
- 11 March – Apple file to have the suit dismissed for lack of evidence – www.macobserver.com/…
- Second US Circuit Court of Appeal sides with Apple and questions the actions of Michael Bromwich, the antitrust monitor imposed on Apple by Judge Denise Coté – www.macobserver.com/…
- A Jury in Texas clears Apple of infringing on wireless patents owned by Canadian patent licensing firm Conversant Intellectual Property Management – www.reuters.com/… & www.macobserver.com/…
Main Stories
- The Spring Forward Apple Event
- American Apple TV owners get exclusive new HBO Chanel, and Apple TV gets a price-drop – www.macobserver.com/… & www.macobserver.com/…
- Apple's exclusivity is not going to be long-lived, Sling TV will get HBO ahead of Game of Thrones too – www.macobserver.com/…
- A science tool no one expected – ResearchKit – www.macobserver.com/…
- Research Kit Added to Apple's Open Source page – developer.apple.com/…
- Days after the event Thousands have already signed up for Research Kit projects – www.bloomberg.com/…
- The inside story of how ResearchKit came to be – fusion.net/…
- A Mac some expected – an all-new ultra-thin MacBook – www.macobserver.com/…
- only two ports – a headphone jack, and a USB-C port
- iPad-esque battery life
- 12" retina display
- New Butterfly-mechanism ultra-tin keyboard
- New haptic track pad
- available in the three iPhone colours
- Other Macs also silently updated with spec bumps, and the addition of the Haptic Trackpad to some models – www.macobserver.com/…
- Hands-on of New MacBook by Ars Technica – arstechnica.com/…
- A good description of USB-C is – arstechnica.com/…
- Rich Mogul at TidBITS corrects some of the FUD doing the rounds about USB-C – tidbits.com/…
- A good analysis of Apple's roll in developing USB-C – 9to5mac.com/…
- Three Watches we all Expected
- No new features announced
- Apple Watch Pricing ranges from Reasonable to insanely expensive – www.macobserver.com/…
- Apple Watch Sport – 38mm = $349, 42mm = $399
- Apple Watch – 38mm = $549, 42mm = $599
- Apple Watch Edition – $10,000 and up
- In-store previews from 10 April, release date of 24 April – www.macobserver.com/…
- Rob Griffiths release a great chart showing all the Apple Watch options and their prices – robservatory.com/…
- Apple Care for Apple Watch prices have also been announced, ranging from $59 for the Sport, to $999 for the Edition – www.macobserver.com/…
- Guided Tour videos showing the Apple Watch UI have been added to Apple's site – www.apple.com/…
- Small print on the Apple Website revealed the Apple Watch is rated IPX7, which means it is water proof to 1m for 30 mins – daringfireball.net/…
- The Apple Watch battery is replaceable, but not by end-users – www.macobserver.com/…
- Apple's celebrity beta tester for the Apple Watch, Christy Turlington-Burns says the Apple Watch accurately tracks workouts without an iPhone – www.macobserver.com/…
- Apple Watch gets FCC approval – www.macobserver.com/…
- A great behind-the-scenes look at the Apple Watch's development from WIRED – www.wired.com/…
- A great analysis of Apple's Apple Watch manufacturing videos by a manufacturing expert – atomicdelights.com/…
- Apple patent a special type of Gold containing ceramics – this is NOT used in the Apple Watch Edition, but is very cool – leancrew.com/… & daringfireball.net/…
- American Apple TV owners get exclusive new HBO Chanel, and Apple TV gets a price-drop – www.macobserver.com/… & www.macobserver.com/…
- Becoming Steve Jobs – a new Steve Jobs Biography by Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli is released
- The book is getting a lot of praise from those who knew Steve IRL – e.g. Eddy Cue say this is the first book to really 'get' Steve – www.macobserver.com/…
- Apple release a free podcast of an 'At The Apple Store' event where Jon Gruber interviewed the authors – itunes.apple.com/…
Quick Stories
- April 1st was Apple's 39th Birthday – Happy Birthday Apple!
- Mark your Calendar – Apple will release their Q2 earnings on the 27th of April – www.macobserver.com/…