Microsoft Surface Pro ad debuts amid supply gripes

The Surface Pro ad is here, but so are gripes about supply.

The ad (above) has an obvious business bent, focusing on pen input. And, of course, how light it is (two pounds). There's also a nod to the touch interface and USB connectivity.

The ad was directed by Jon M Chu, who directed the earlier Surface RT ad.

Meanwhile over at the official Surface Blog commenters are howling about supply.

"I went to three Best Buys, and two Future Shops. Sold out everywhere...Am I disappointed? Of course, I was really looking forward to 'trading-up' my
iPad 4 for the
Surface Pro," said a person identified as ChrisJamesKnapp.

Others were just as harsh. "I really wanted the Surface Pro 128. I went to 4 stores...but like most others I was completely let down by the lack of inventory. It reeks of incompetence at best or a poor marketing ploy at worst," said ARigs.

They have a point. The 128GB Surface Pro sold out immediately online and in short order at most Microsoft stores after it went on sale Saturday.

"We're working with our retail partners who are currently out of stock of the 128GB Surface Pro to replenish supplies as quickly as possible," wrote Panos Panay, who heads Surface the Surface team at Microsoft.

Microsoft's
tablet is one of the few, if not the only, PC product in the last few years to spawn lines outside of stores. Like the October Surface RT rollout, there was a line yesterday at the Microsoft Store in the Century City area of Los Angeles.

But the product sold out much faster this time, leading to questions about whether Microsoft had stocked too few Surface Pro tablets.

For example, prospective buyers who arrived at the Century City store were told soon after the store opened that stock was sold out of both the 64GB and 128GB models.

The Pro is priced at $899 for the 64GB model and $999 for the 128GB version. More about the specs and pricing here.

On Saturday, there was a small line outside the Century City Microsoft Store near Beverly Hills. The Surface Pro sold out immediately at the store.

(Credit:
Brooke Crothers)

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LA Microsoft Store not mobbed, but Surface has a following

The Surface Pro

(Credit:
Brooke Crothers)

LOS ANGELES -- The launch of the Surface Pro at the Microsoft Store in LA's Century City was a relatively low-key affair compared with the debut of the Surface RT.

When I arrived just after 10 a.m. there was a small line (see photo). That said, both versions -- 64GB and 128GB -- of the
Surface Pro had sold out immediately.

Of course, no one would say how many units were set aside for first-day sales, and the lines didn't exactly snake around the Westfield Century City mall. So, it wasn't like a Depression-era run on a bank.

And back in October the lines were longer and the atmosphere a bit more frenzied when the Surface RT launched.

On Saturday, there was a small line outside the Century City Microsoft Store near Beverly Hills. The Surface Pro sold out immediately at the store.

(Credit:
Brooke Crothers)

But like the RT rollout, there was a fixation on and interest in the product not unlike what's found at an Apple event. I saw more than a few customers glued to the device for 30 minutes or even an hour.

In other words, Surface has a following. An analogy I would use is the Chevy Volt. Recently in LA, the Chevy Volt is gaining ground, driven by a small but growing (and fervent) customer base.

And Microsoft Store sales reps know what they're talking about. A patient, focused rep gave me a long, hands-on explanation of the
Windows 8 touch interface and demonstrated a new touch-enabled paint app, among other apps.

Finally, note that there are other enticing touch-screen Windows 8 devices at the store, including the 2.3-pound Acer Aspire S7 and the HP Spectre XT TouchSmart. And that's good for Windows 8 overall.

Looking at the line from inside the store.

(Credit:
Brooke Crothers)

The Surface Pro isn't the only cool Windows 8 device on sale at the Microsoft Store. The 11.6-inch Acer Aspire S7 touch-screen laptop is a tempting alternative to the Pro.

(Credit:
Brooke Crothers)

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Apple and the iWatch conundrum

Will Apple ever make an iWatch?

(Credit:
Sarah Tew/CNET)

Ever since the sixth-generation iPod Nano, lots of people have thought that Apple making its own branded watch is not merely a smart potential move but simply a matter of time. No matter what some have recently argued, I doubt, however, that today's Apple is hungry enough to create the fabled iWatch device.

I've been covering the technology beat long enough to feel, no, smell certain shifts in the gadget market. I'm talking about those cycles when a new product category springs up from nowhere and first seems like a completely goofy notion. Soon after, the segment really heats up with scores of companies jumping into the fray to make a quick buck.

Traditionally, if Apple senses a legitimate opportunity it steps in at the right moment after figuring out the secret to success and sucks the air right out of the market.
Tablets and MP3 players existed well before Apple launched the
iPod and iPad, but their arrival completely transformed the playing field. Remember music players from Creative Labs, Rio, or even Microsoft's clunky Windows Tablet PCs?

I'm getting the same tingling sensation right now from smartwatches. At
CES in January the sleeper hit of the show was wearable tech, essentially devices you could strap or clip to yourself as you would an accessory or article of clothing. A lot of smartwatches, fitness bands, or some hybrid of the two, were talked up at the conference.

These included everything from the long-awaited and crowd-funded Pebble and the Dick Tracy/007-inspired Martian Passport Watch to the Fitbit Flex fitness tracker and the Basis Band. When you factor in the success of the Nike FuelBand, Nike being a company Apple has partnered with in the past to create fitness products, I'd say the time is ripe for Apple to swoop in for the kill.

Chat through the Martian Passport like a speakerphone.

(Credit:
Brian Bennett/CNET)

This is a move the Cupertino company used to accomplish without breaking a sweat. Apple has the knack of catching the competition completely flat-footed, surprising since many already had a big head start. The iPhone is a perfect example. Smartphones had existed for years but the iPhone sounded the death knell for Microsoft's struggling Windows Mobile products -- trust me, I was saddled with a T-Mobile Wing at the time. The Sidekick and a legion of keyboarded feature phones suffered the same fate.

I'm afraid Apple hasn't demonstrated its signature ferocity in recent years. We haven't seen a truly disruptive product from the company since the first iPad. Every noteworthy hardware release since then has been evolutionary and incremental, not transformative. The iPad Mini is simply a smaller iPad, while the iPhone 5 essentially increased the screen from 3.7 to 4 inches. Its A6 processor is also dual-core where many Android CPUs have gone to full quad-core and it received 4G LTE well after its rivals.

What Apple needs here is true out-of-the-box action to quell the doubters at large and on Wall Street. A serious example of nonlinear thinking that matches the creation of the iPod, iPhone, and iPad. Something that would merge multiple gadgets and applications into something entirely new or perhaps clean up the confused mess other manufacturers tout as useful gadgets. Something like a fabulous, shiny Apple iWatch.

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iPhone 5S, 5-inch iPhone 6 allegedly spotted at supplier

Will the iPhone 5S look like the iPhone 5?

(Credit:
CNET)

The much-rumored iPhone 5S and a 5-inch iPhone 6 have shown up at an Apple supplier in China, according to a post on a Chinese microblogging site.

The models could be released this year, according to a post by a Sina Tech user called Old Yao. He reports that a friend of his at a supplier has seen the models and says that the
iPhone 5S resembles the
iPhone 5, while the iPhone 6 is wider, longer, and thinner.

CNET has contacted Apple for comment and will update this report when we learn more.

As Apple gets closer to an anticipated launch of a new smartphone, the speculation and rumor mill go into overdrive, so while Old Yao's comments are food for thought, they should also be consumed with perhaps more than a grain of salt.

Earlier analyst speculation held that Apple would release an iPhone 5S and a revamped version of the iPhone 5 in June or July. KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo predicted last month that the new S model would resemble the current model with a few improvements, including an A7 chip for faster performance and a fingerprint sensor.

A larger screen size for an iPhone 6 might attract consumers smitten with Samsung's 4.8-inch Galaxy S3 and 5.5-inch
Galaxy Note 2.

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Microsoft goes after Google with attack on Gmail privacy

Microsoft takes aim at Gmail.

(Credit:
Screenshot by Steven Musil/CNET)

Microsoft is ratcheting up its attacks on Google with a campaign urging users of the Web giant's e-mail service to dump Gmail for its own Outlook.com over privacy concerns.

In its national campaign titled "Don't get scroogled by Gmail," Microsoft dredges up an old issue with Google's free e-mail service: Google scans users' e-mails to determine relevant advertisements to place alongside the messages.

Microsoft says a study it commissioned found that 70 percent of consumers polled were unaware that major e-mail providers "routinely" read e-mail to sell ads and that nearly 90 percent disapproved of the practice, which has been criticized in the past.

"Outlook.com believes your privacy is not for sale," Stefan Weitz, senior director of Online Services at Microsoft said in a statement. "We believe people should have choice and control over their private email messages, whether they are sharing banking information or pictures of their family or discussing their medical history."

The anti-Gmail effort is Redmond's latest salvo at Google. The European Commission has spent the past two years investigating Google after competitors such as Microsoft complained that Google adjusted search results to bring up its products and Web sites first. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission recently found that Google's search results were not biased in favor of its own results in a way that was anticompetitive -- a decision that was largely seen as a victory for the Web giant.

Introduced in 2004, Gmail was immediately slammed as a horrific invasion into Internet users' privacy by lawmakers and privacy advocates alike. The unexpectedly criticism contended that it should be illegal for a company to scan the text of its customers' e-mail correspondence and display relevant advertising. The practice has led to occasional lawsuits against the Web giants.

However, Google has long maintained that its automated scanning technology did not invade users' privacy.

"Advertising keeps Google and many of the websites and services Google offers free of charge," Google said in a statement. "We work hard to make sure that ads are safe, unobtrusive and relevant. No humans read your email or Google account information in order to show you advertisements or related information."

As of last October, Gmail was a close-second to Yahoo as the No. 1 free e-mail provider in the U.S., claiming 69.1 million users to Yahoo's 76.7 million, according to ComScore. Microsoft's Hotmail was a distant third with 35.5 million, according to the market researcher. Microsoft announced last year that Hotmail would be phased out for a rebranded Outlook.com.

While Microsoft also shows ads with its Outlook service, the tech giant asserts it automatically scans the contents of users' e-mails only to prevent spam and other unwanted activity. In its campaign, Microsoft said it places relevant ads based on message subject lines as well as the user's age, gender, and location.

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DreamWorks CEO Katzenberg sees big profit in small screens

Consumers will eventually pay less for entertainment streamed to smaller devices, with studios and distributors basing prices on the size of the destination device, movie mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg predicted today.

A tiered pricing market, in which people paid less to see a movie on a cell phone than a theater, would result in greater consumption in developing markets where people depend more on their mobile devices for entertainment, the DreamWorks Animation SKG chief executive said today at the Founders Forum conference on digital media in Los Angeles.

"People will pay by the square inch," Katzenberg said, according to a Bloomberg account. "If a cell phone version is 75 cents, you'll get 350 million people in India to pay that."

The new pricing model could help increase video distribution sales in the international market, where revenue dwarfs sales in the U.S. and Canada by a 2-to-1 margin. Box office receipts in the U.S. and Canada totaled $10.2 billion in 2011, while international sales brought in $22.4 billion, according to the Motion Picture Association of America (PDF). The MPAA recognizes the importance of the international market, where the industry's percentage of revenue has steadily increased over the past four years.

The studios are moving toward new revenue streams, even at the cost of alienating traditional money makers. Katzenberg's DreamWorks signed a licensing deal in 2011 to provide movies and specials to Netflix, replacing a less lucrative deal with HBO. The deal, which is estimated to be worth $30 million per movie, was billed as the first time a studio chose Web streaming over pay TV.

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Microsoft and Huawei debut Windows Phone for Africa

New Huawei Windows Phone, called Huawei 4Afrika, to be introduced in Africa.

(Credit:
Microsoft)

Microsoft and Huawei announced today that they're partnering to bring a new Windows Phone to Africa. The two companies are targeting the continent, which is one of the fastest growing technology markets in the world but has seen few smartphones to date and whose majority of users still rely on feature phones.

"We believe there has never been a better time to invest in Africa and that access to technology -- particularly cloud services and smart devices -- can and will serve as a great accelerator for African competitiveness," president of Microsoft International Jean-Philippe Courtois said today in a statement.

Dubbed Huawei 4Afrika, the smartphone will be the first in a series of devices being created for the region. The phone is expected to roll out in Angola, Egypt, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, and South Africa later this month.

Microsoft is focusing on Africa and it's population of more than 1 billion to get a stronger hold on the smartphone market. The company said that more than 90 percent of all the phones sold in Kenya and Nigeria are feature phones. Besides Huawei, Microsoft has also worked with HTC, Samsung, and Nokia in developing Windows Phone devices for the continent.

Huawei 4Afrika is similar to the Ascent W1, which Huawei debuted at CES. It has a 4-inch 480 x 800 display, dual-core 1.2 GHz Snapdragon processor, front- and rear-facing cameras, and 4GB of internal storage. The device is available in blue, red, black, and white. It comes preloaded with custom apps made by African developers for local consumers.

Besides giving users access to apps, the smartphone is also expected to be one of the primary ways that people will be able to access the Internet. The smartphone is intended for middle-income users, such as students, small-business owners, and developers. According to The New York Times, it will cost $150.

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Surface Pro lands at Microsoft Store

Microsoft Surface Pro is now on display at the Century City Microsoft Store in Los Angeles.

(Credit:
Brooke Crothers)

LOS ANGELES -- The Surface Pro has arrived early at Microsoft stores.

Locations, such as the store near Beverly Hills, Calif., now have the Pro -- slated to go on sale this Saturday -- on display and available for anyone to use.

So, I spent about an hour with Pro and came away impressed. More impressed than I was initially with Surface RT.

In a word, smooth. In two words, silky smooth. In the limited time I used it, I experienced no lag or stuttering on graphics-intensive sites and videos. And when I used
Microsoft Office in desktop mode (which was installed on the Pro I used) everything was snappy. Really snappy.

The Intel Ivy Bridge chip paired with a PC-class solid-state drive (and 4GB of memory) makes all the difference.

And the 10.6 -inch display at 1,920x1,080 resolution is a stunner. (That's over 2 million pixels at 200 pixels per inch, for those keeping track.)

To me, the resolution looked pretty much the same as on my Retina
iPad 4. Yes, I know, the iPad 4 has a higher pixel density but text was highly resolved (see photo below) on the Pro much like the Retina iPad.

And if all of that sounds appealing to you, you can reserve one. A Microsoft store sales rep will take your name and e-mail address and then hand you a reservation card (see photo below).

Update: Video added at bottom. Just a quick scrolling clip.

Typing with the Pro on my lap. Note, you can also use it on your lap with the stand extended but it felt more comfortable for me flat.

(Credit:
Brooke Crothers)

Text is well resolved and looks pretty much like it does on my iPad 4 -- though display aficionados may dispute that. Note that the wave and grid patterns are a photo artifact, not what you actually see.

(Credit:
Brooke Crothers)

Surface Pro's Metro screen.

(Credit:
Brooke Crothers)

My Surface Pro reservation card. I was told to bring it on Saturday -- when Surface Pro goes on sale.

(Credit:
Brooke Crothers)

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How Boeing's 777-300ER could help save American Airlines

American Airlines hopes its rise back to profitability and relevance can get a big jump start with the launch of all-new livery, and Boeing's 777-300ER. It is the first U.S. carrier to fly the plane, the most successful twin-engine aircraft in the world.

(Credit:
Chris Sloan/Airchive.com)

It has become the world's most-successful twin-engine airplane, but until now, no U.S. carrier has flown Boeing's 777-300ER. But with the launch on Thursday of its Dallas to Sao Paolo, Brazil flight, American Airlines has broken new ground, and is now depending on its fledgling 777-300ER fleet to re-earn its once legendary wings. And make it a lot of money.

Among the many passengers aboard the inaugural flight to Sao Paolo was Chris Sloan, an aviation writer who often flies on the most notable planes in the skies. Sloan, who previously shared his impressions of the inaugural Boeing 787 Dreamliner commercial flight with CNET, has once again let us in on what it's like to be among the first people aboard a notable, world-class airplane.

As Sloan notes, the past few years have not been kind to American Airlines. The carrier has gone through bankruptcy, seats becoming unbolted, a disastrous crash, and more.

But the airline is doing its best to come back from the dead, and the launch of service aboard the 777-300ER, as well as the roll-out of all-new livery, show that American can't be counted out.

As Sloan wrote:

In an era of smaller airliners, American inaugurated the 777-300, the largest new airliner by a U.S. carrier since the last Boeing 747-400s entered service with U.S. airliners in the late 1990s. Built to handle up to 386 passengers and fly up to 7,825 nautical miles, American's 777-300ER is the first plane flown by a U.S. carrier to feature a stand-up bar since the 1970s, Sloan wrote. American flies the aircraft in a 304-passenger, four-class and six-cabin configuration.

This inaugural, flight 963, from Dallas/Ft. Worth to São Paulo, Brazil in the author's view is one of the most significant in the airline industry in years because it is about something much bigger than just the launch of a new airliner, it's about the re-birth of a proud American institution that happens to bear the name of our country - American Airlines.

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Powertrekk fuel cell charger to be released in Spring

Along with a fuel cell puck, the PowerTrekk gives your iPhone a bit of juice. Just add water.

(Credit:
Lynn La/CNET)

While it's been circulating around at trade shows for a while, including Mobile World Congress 2011 and CES 2012, the PowerTrekk phone charger is slated to finally come to the U.S. at the end of this quarter.

Although the $229 device is peddled as a charger that can simply juice up your phone on water alone, it's not quite that simple.

To use the PowerTrekk, you also have to purchase a $4 PowerTrekk Pukk. Once you add a small amount of water (about half a shot), and add a one-time-use Pukk, the latter will immediately begin separating the hydrogen from the water, using it as fuel to charge your handset.

Each Pukk will produces 2.5 watts at 5 volts, which is good for about one full iPhone charge. If there is electricity available, however, you can also charge the separate internal battery in the PowerTrekk so it can power your phone later on.

Power your phone in an emergency

When I handled the unit at iWorld in San Francisco, it was indeed very lightweight despite its industrial look, and in a situation where there is no sun, I can see it coming in handy.

However, there is much debate about how useful a product like this can be. Not only is it rather cumbersome in shape, but you'll need to continually buy more Pukks in order to use the device multiple times. Compared to solar chargers and chargers that run on kinetic energy, this can become wasteful and pricey.

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Microsoft's tablet blip versus Android's boom

Android-based tablets like Amazon's Kindle Fire are becoming very popular just as Microsoft enters the tablet market.

(Credit:
Amazon)

As Android tablet shipments surge, probably the best thing that can be said about Microsoft is that it's not going away.

Android
tablet shipments totaled about 30 million in the fourth quarter, IDC reported today. And that number (total market) jumps to 50 million if you throw in Apple's
iPad.

"There is no question that Microsoft is in this tablet race to compete for the long haul," an IDC analyst said today in a statement, trying to put Microsoft's tablet debut into perspective.

In fact, that's probably about as positive a statement that can be made at the moment.

Then this: "Reaction to the company's Surface with Windows RT tablet was muted at best," IDC added.

Muted in this case amounts to 900,000 units shipped "into the channel."

So, how does that compare with other major vendors just entering the market? Amazon shipped about 4.7 million Kindle Fire tablets in the fourth quarter of 2011 when that $199 tablet debuted.

And Asus, which makes Google's
Nexus 7 tablet, shipped 3.1 million tablets in the fourth quarter of 2012, the quarter after the Nexus 7's debut. Many if not most of those are undoubtedly the Nexus 7.

Throw in the market totals that IDC reported today (Amazon shipped about 6 million last quarter and Samsung almost 8 million) and it's clear that Android tablets are not only leaving a bigger footprint in the market but are also even eroding Apple's share.

That leaves Microsoft as a blip amid an Android boom.

How does Microsoft gain on Android? Lower prices might help.

"We believe that Microsoft and its partners need to quickly adjust to the market realities of smaller screens and lower prices," IDC said.

And what about the long haul? "In the long run, consumers may grow to believe that high-end computing tablets with desktop operating systems are worth a higher premium than other tablets," IDC added.

That could indeed be a long haul.

Will Microsoft's upcoming Windows 8 Surface Pro with laptop-like performance sell in large numbers? We'll see. But with a starting price of $899, it's certainly not a bargain compared with Android tablets.

(Credit:
Microsoft)

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IBM's Watson heads to school

To borrow from Hugh Gallagher's famous take on the university admissions essay, IBM's Watson computer has played Jeopardy with a Congressman, has offered medical advice to doctors, and has spoken with late-night TV stars. But it has not yet gone to college.

Till now, that is.

IBM announced today that it would, for the first time, be providing a modified version of a Watson system to a university: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

The system will "afford faculty and students an opportunity to find new uses for Watson and deepen the system's cognitive capabilities," Big Blue said in a press release.

Watson, of course, is the system that made a splash in 2011, when it crushed its human competitors on the Jeopardy game show. The system has, as IBM puts it, "a unique ability to understand the subtle nuances of human language, sift through vast amounts of data, and provide evidence-based answers to its human users' questions."

Since its Jeopardy triumph, Watson has been eyeballed for health-care duty -- including help with diagnosing cancer -- banking functions; and even telemarketing.

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Judge: Samsung didn't 'willfully' infringe Apple patents

U.S. District Court Judge Lucy Koh handed down some of her first post-trial rulings from the much publicized Apple v. Samsung patent case this evening.

In a 32-page order filed today, the judge said she predominantly agreed with the jury's decision that Samsung infringed on seven of Apple's design and utility patents. However, she disagreed with one finding -- that Samsung "willfully" infringed on Apple's patents.

What this means is that Apple will now be unable to triple its damage awards. If Koh had agreed with the jury on this decision, Apple could have collected up to as much as three times in damages from Samsung.

The trial between the two tech giants wrapped up in August after the jury awarded Apple $1.05 billion in damages. However, the two sides have been duking it out over a final judgment on damages. Apple has been trying to tack on more than $500 million, while Samsung has been trying to shave off $600 million.

Koh wrote in her ruling that in order to find Samsung willfully infringed on the patents, Apple would have to prove "by clear and convincing evidence that the infringer acted despite an objectively high likelihood that its actions constituted infringement of a valid patent." Samsung has argued that it didn't think Apple's patents were valid and therefore didn't believe it was infringing. Koh has accepted Samsung's argument for the "willful" standard.

Despite Koh ruling that no "willful" infringement took place, she still maintains the jury's findings that Samsung did infringe on Apple's patents.

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'Citizen cartographers' help Google update maps of N. Korea

City center or Pyongyang, North Korea.

(Credit:
Google)

Maps of North Korea's landscape have for decades been largely blank, but thanks to "a community of citizen cartographers," Google Maps has managed to fill in some of the blanks.

Tapping input submitted to its Google Map Maker tool, the Web giant has added more detailed, up-to-date information to its maps of the reclusive nation, including streets, names, and other points of interest.

Jayanth Mysore, Google's senior product manager of Map Maker, discussed in a company blog post the effort behind assembling the new data:

To build this map, a community of citizen cartographers came together in Google Map Maker to make their contributions such as adding road names and points of interest. This effort has been active in Map Maker for a few years and today the new map of North Korea is ready and now available on Google Maps. As a result, the world can access maps of North Korea that offer much more information and detail than before.

One area where the changes are most apparent is in the city of Pyongyang, where highways, parks, and even subway stations have been added. Google provided the following examples:

Pyongyang, North Korea, before the map update.

(Credit:
Google)

Pyongyang, North Korea, after Google's map update.

(Credit:
Google)

The additions come mere weeks after Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt made a controversial humanitarian visit to the country where he warned officials that global Internet access was key to developing its economy.

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New iPad 4 reportedly in the works -- perhaps a 128GB model

Are you ready for an iPad with beefier memory?

A new fourth-generation
iPad with Retina display -- and perhaps as much as 128 gigabytes of memory -- is being readied for release, sources tell 9to5Mac. The upcoming slate would not be a new design but rather an addition to the current fourth-generation line, with the same color and wireless combinations as the iPad 4, these unnamed sources say.

Pricing is unknown, but the new model is described as a "premium SKU" (stock keeping unity) that would join the current lineup of 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB iPads. A source at a large U.S. retailer provided 9to5Mac with what is purportedly a new SKU listing for iPads that includes a fourth model labeled as "Ultimate" to join its current lineup

CNET has contacted Apple for comment and will update this report when we learn more.

9to5Mac suspects the new model will have 128GB thanks to code found in the
iOS 6.1 beta 5 that references a compatibility with 128GB iOS devices. The discovery was first noted yesterday by @iNeal on Twitter.

That tweet led Jeff Benjamin at iDownloadBlog to extract the iOS 6.1 and compare the System Partition Padding values found in old iOS 6.x firmware. What he found was an additional field for 128:

9to5Mac notes that if this purported iPad is in the works, it might be not be intended for the general consumer but rather perhaps for government or even retail use.

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The ultimate gall of a heartless iPhone thief

An object of desire?

(Credit:
CNET)

One should never expect justice in life.

The best one can hope for is poetry.

And yet, just once or twice, both manage to collide with a deliciousness that moves the soul.

Here is the tale of a teenage girl who had her iPhone stolen.

As The New York Times composes it, the girl had her
iPhone 4S ripped from her by a teenage boy in Brooklyn's notoriously difficult Prospect Park.

iPhone theft is rather popular in New York. Indeed, Mayor Bloomberg recently suggested that it's responsible for an increase in crime in the city.

Anyway, the iPhone-less girl collared a couple of policemen, but the miscreant was not to be found.

However, the thief then decided that he'd try to get some money for the phone. So he met a man on a Flatbush street -- as you do.

The man asked to take a look at the phone. Perhaps he wanted to see whether Siri was still inside.

Then, he ran off with it.

Yes, this is slightly poetic. But we've only just begun.

You see, the boy thief was not very happy. After all, he'd had his recently acquired property stolen. So he went off in search of a policeman to report the crime.

I pause for your sound effects.

Thank you.

More Technically Incorrect

The police reacted with unusual efficiency. They corralled both the boy and the man who had taken Siri from him. But they still assumed the boy was the victim.

Are you ready for verse three?

The phone rang. It was the girl trying to do a deal to get her phone back. The police realized something might be amiss here. This seemed to be a miss who actually owned the phone.

So they waited for her to arrive in Flatbush. She recognized the boy's sneakers. They were pink.

I pause for your further sound effects.

The police decided it was time to play Solomon. They would slice the phone in two if one party didn't renounce their claim to the phone.

No, wait. They asked both the girl and the pink-sneakered boy to unlock the phone with the PIN code.

You're already there, aren't you? Both the actual thieves were brought to justice -- the actual kind. And the girl got her phone back.

There are several morals to this story.

One, don't steal iPhones if you're wearing pink sneakers.

Two, if someone does unto you as you have done unto someone else, take it onto the chin. It will help you understand the feelings of others.

Three, if you're the kind of New Yorker who thinks they can always get away with it, well, you can't. Not always.

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Disney confirms J.J. Abrams to direct next 'Star Wars'

Disney said J.J. Abrams will direct the next 'Star Wars' film.

(Credit:
Lucasfilm)

Disney and Lucasfilm confirmed this evening that 'Star Trek' director J.J. Abrams will direct the next 'Star Wars' film, expected to be released in 2015.

The news is not unexpected. Yesterday, word leaked out that Abrams was the likely choice, setting off a flurry of discussion online about the same director being in charge of both the "Star Trek" and "Star Wars" franchises at the same time. But tonight, the news was officially announced.

After a bevy of emails and phone calls, the formalities have been wrapped up, and at long last everyone can exhale and properly share the word with an excited Internet. Yes, J.J. Abrams will direct Star Wars: Episode VII, the first of a new series of Star Wars films to come from Lucasfilm under the leadership of Kathleen Kennedy. Abrams will be directing and Academy Award-winning writer Michael Arndt will write the screenplay.

"It's very exciting to have J.J. aboard leading the charge as we set off to make a new Star Wars movie," said Kennedy. "J.J. is the perfect director to helm this. Beyond having such great instincts as a filmmaker, he has an intuitive understanding of this franchise. He understands the essence of the Star Wars experience, and will bring that talent to create an unforgettable motion picture."

George Lucas went on to say "I've consistently been impressed with J.J. as a filmmaker and storyteller. He's an ideal choice to direct the new Star Wars film and the legacy couldn't be in better hands."

"To be a part of the next chapter of the Star Wars saga, to collaborate with Kathy Kennedy and this remarkable group of people, is an absolute honor," J.J. Abrams said. "I may be even more grateful to George Lucas now than I was as a kid."

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Apple fires supplier after audit uncovers underage workers

Workers assemble and perform quality control checks on MacBook Pro display enclosures at an Apple supplier facility in Shanghai.

(Credit:
Apple)

Apple severed its relationship with a China-based third-party labor supplier after discovering dozens of underage workers employed there, Apple reported in its latest Supplier Responsibility report, which was released this evening.

The iPhone maker said it discovered the violations during an audit of the supplier, Guangdong Real Faith Pingzhou Electronics (PZ). In addition, Apple reported the labor agency that knowingly provided the child labor to PZ to local authorizes.

The agency, which allegedly conspired with the children's families to falsify age-verification documents, had its license suspended and levied a fine.

"The children were returned to their families, and PZ was required to pay expenses to facilitate their successful return," Apple said in its report (PDF). "In addition, the company that subcontracted its work to PZ was prompted by our findings to audit its other subcontractors for underage labor violations -- proving that one discovery can have far-reaching impact."

The revelation was included Apple's annual report on its efforts to improve employee safety and working conditions at its manufacturing partners' production facilities. The report comes a few months after Apple supplier Foxconn admitted last October it had hired interns that were under 16 -- China's legal working age.

The company said it conducted 393 audits in its supply chain last year, a 72 percent increase over 2011. The audits included reviews on environmental and operations safety, business practices, and recruitment.

The company said it achieved an average 92 percent supplier compliance with the maximum 60-hour work week. Apple says it is now tracking more than 1 million workers in its supply chain and posting the results each month on its Web site.

More to come...

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'jOBS' biopic starring Ashton Kutcher to hit theaters April 19

Ashton Kutcher as Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.

(Credit:
Sundance )

The Steve Jobs biopic starring Ashton Kutcher will open in theaters on April 19, the movie's distributor announced today.

The indie film, which is set to debut Friday at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, on Firday, covers Jobs' life during the years 1971 through 2000 -- a time frame that includes the founding of Apple, as well as his ouster, the forming of NeXT and Pixar, and then his return to the company when Apple acquired NeXT.

The movie should not to be confused with a separate production penned by "The Social Network" and "The West Wing" writer Aaron Sorkin. That movie is said to be based on Walter Isaacson's biography, while "jOBS" is based on widely available information.

Principal photography on "jOBS" began at Jobs' childhood home in Los Altos, Calif., in June. Photos from the production have since leaked out, showing Kutcher and others in costume.

Along with Kutcher, the movie also stars Matthew Modine as former Apple CEO John Sculley, Josh Gad as Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, and "The Help" star Ahna O'Reilly playing Chris-Ann Brennan, Jobs' girlfriend, and the mother of his daughter Lisa. Other additions include J.K. Simmons and Kevin Dunn, who will play venture capitalist Arthur Rock and former Apple CEO Gil Amelio respectively.

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Steve Jobs threatened Palm with patents over no-poaching deal, says court filing

Steve Jobs threatened Palm with a patent lawsuit if the company didn't agree to a deal with Apple whereby neither company would poach the other's workers, according to a legal filing made public today that quotes former Palm CEO Edward Colligan.

The filing, a civil lawsuit brought by five tech workers against Apple, Google, and others that alleges the companies plotted to drive down wages, includes the following sworn statement from Colligan:

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"In 2007, I received a call from Steve Jobs, the Chief Executive Officer of Apple. In the months before the call, several employees had moved between the two companies. On the call, Mr. Jobs expressed concern about employees being hired away from Apple by Palm. As a solution, Mr. Jobs proposed an arrangement between Palm and Apple by which neither company would hire the other's employees, including high tech employees. Mr. Jobs also suggested that if Palm did not agree to such an arrangement, Palm could face lawsuits alleging infringements of Apple's many patents."

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Colligan's response to Jobs -- that such an arrangement was "not only wrong" but "likely illegal" -- was reported, along with mention of Apple's patents, back in 2009 by Bloomberg, which cited communications it had reviewed. But a sworn statement from Colligan became part of the public record today -- along with e-mails he says passed between him and Jobs -- after Judge Lucy Koh denied a request by the companies facing the civil suit to keep a number of sensitive documents sealed. Koh said last week that the e-mails between the two executives were key evidence for the plaintiffs in the case, according to Reuters.

In his e-mail response to Jobs, Colligan says that if Apple decides to pursue patent-related legal action, Palm can respond with patent action of its own. Jobs replies by pooh-poohing Palm's patents and saying "We are not concerned about them at all. My advice to you is to take a look at our patent portfolio before you make a decision."

Koh is considering whether the civil lawsuit can proceed as a class-action suit, Reuters reported, which could make for a larger settlement. Lawyers for the plaintiffs say damages could run into the hundreds of millions of dollars, but according to the news agency, Koh said the plaintiffs' economic analysis had "holes."

We've contacted Apple and Palm parent company HP for comment and will update this post if we hear back.

Tuesday's filing also spells out how Google put together no-hire agreements, Reuters reports, and it says that then-CEO Eric Schmidt advised the company's HR director not to put anything in writing when sharing agreements with rivals. A Google representative told the news agency that Google has "always actively and aggressively recruited top talent."

Here's Colligan's sworn statement, as posted by Apple Insider:

Colligan Affidavit

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