Apple

Joy of Tech uncovers secrets from the Apple Store Employee Rule Book

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 25, 2012

You're no doubt aware of The New York Times' coverage of Apple's retailing woes and Cupertino's response: it raised wages and is mulling a career path for employees. The story is making the headlines and becoming a meme, so it goes without saying that Joy of Tech has a take on it.

Joy of Tech is a webcomic created by Canada-born Liza Schmalcel and Bruce Evans and iDB loves their funny takes on the various topics that have been occupying the greatest minds in tech (yeah, I meant that as an irony).

My favorite from their Apple Store comic: before putting on an Apple Genius shirt, please apply "New Apple Smell" scented deodorant, as instructed by your Hygiene Manager. What, didn't you know? that there's a fragrance which recreates the Apple unboxing scent?

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Apple mulling Pathways, a career path program for new retail hires

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 25, 2012

This past Saturday, The New York Times ran an eyebrow-raising profile of Apple's retail business. A part of the paper's ongoing iEconomy series, the controversial story deals with the 30,000 of the 43,000 Apple employees in the United States who work in Apple Stores, as members of the service economy, many of them making just $25,000 a year.

And while Apple Stores almost double per-square-foot revenue compared to second-ranked Tiffany, Apple’s retail army remains long on loyalty but short on pay, the piece concludes. Those youthful faces that greet and service you at Apple's 327 global stores aren't in it for the money: a retail employee makes an average of $25,000 a year, but nets Apple approximately $473,000 annually.

That's why the company can get away with paying a modest hourly wage and no commission, offering no career path whatsoever. In fact, many former and current employees describe working for the man as a dead end. According to a new report, Apple is about to change this and has outlined a new career path initiative to employees in yesterday's Apple Retail quarterly meetings across the United States...

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NFC seen coming to the next iPhone

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 22, 2018

When a high-ranked Apple executive says Apple won't do something, expect quite the opposite. So when Apple's worldwide marketing chief Phil Schiller told the Wall Street Journal that Passbook, a new app in iOS 6, won't be a direct payment product, there was more to his words than met the eye.

We've also heard countless rumors involving an Near Field Communication NFC chip coming to the next iPhone to provide a hardware basis for secure contactless payments on the go. Apparently, recent code dumps that broke the taller iPhone news also indicate that NFC controllers are directly connected to the power management unit of the next iPhone...

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Apple Maps could feature Yelp check-ins in iOS 6

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 25, 2012

Bloomberg reports that iOS 6 will have Yelp check-ins integrated with Apple's in-house mapping solution, allowing people to use built-in Maps app to let friends know about their location.

This capability has apparently been discovered in materials Apple distributed to software developers...

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Apple’s anti-Big Brother patent could help with de-Googlification of iOS

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 24, 2012

It's virtually impossible to find a business that doesn't mine data on its users, be it your local grocery store or an online-only outlet which carries digital warez. And it doesn't matter whether you're a prospective buyer browsing a collection of books on Amazon or a repeat customer using your credit card to purchase intangibles.

One way or another, you're getting profiled. It's happening all the time and all around us, insofar as we don't even pay notice though we should. Even searching the web leaves valuable data in server logs that can and is being traced to your anonymized profile. What you're getting in return is a more personalized experience and certain businesses like social networks (Facebook, Google+ and so forth) literally depend on this idea.

Apple begs to differ. Suggesting the practice is getting out of hand, the company scored a huge patent win for techniques that could make data profiling more difficult and the iOS ecosystem a place devoid of aggressive advertising...

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Is Apple tweaking App Store search algorithm?

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 23, 2012

According to TechCrunch, citing several developers, Apple is possibly tweaking the search algorithm in the App Store which could affect visibility of apps. The move is meant to make it harder for apps that only count on well-chosen names to surface while giving greater relevancy to software that may have not been visible before due to awkwardly-chosen names, but is otherwise popular and well-reviewed...

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Let the iOS maps war begin

Cody Lee ∙ June 23, 2012

One of the headlining stories of iOS 6 is the fact that Apple has taken over the Maps application. Not only did it rebuild the app from the ground up, but it also stopped using Google's mapping data.

From what we've heard, this was a long time coming. According to an ex-Google employee, the two companies have been battling for years over what Apple wanted to do with the Maps application.

So now that Apple has total control of it, the Maps war is over, right?

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Judge sets Apple e-book price fixing trial for 2013

Cody Lee ∙ June 23, 2012

Earlier this year, the United States Department of Justice filed an antitrust lawsuit against Apple and five major book publishers for allegedly conspiring to raise e-book prices.

Three of the five publishers have decided to settle with the DoJ. But Apple, however, maintains its innocence. And it'll get a chance to prove that in court, come next June...

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Defecting to a Galaxy? Samsung has an app for that!

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 25, 2016

So as part of its massive worldwide effort to wow iPhone users with its latest Galaxy S III handset, Samsung has not only kickstarted the biggest marketing campaign in its history, but also partnered with software maker Media Mushroom Applications on an app that makes it easy to bring users' iTunes and iOS data over to the Galaxy family of smartphones and tablets...

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Facebook hires Apple’s UI Design Manager, possibly for a phone project?

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 22, 2012

According to a new report by InsideFacebook, Facebook has recently hired Apple's former Product Design Manager Chris Weeldreyer, as indicated by his Facebook profile. Weeldreyer, who has 8+ year experience as user interface design manager, started his new role at Facebook on June 18, 2012.

This gig is another indication that the social networking giant could in fact be developing a phone of its own (here are the mockups)...

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On iPad not being for working and learning

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 22, 2012

Notebook vendors are clinging their hope to a fall launch of Windows 8 and Intel's Ivy Bridge chips, thinking it'll help reinvigorate interest in notebooks. Now, notebooks and portables in general have seen modest, single-digit growth in the past two years because a portion of the consumers' budget has been absorbed due to iPad demand. So, what gives?

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