Mac mini is an “important” model in Apple's family of computers and will remain a product in the company's lineup for the time being, said Apple's Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing Phil Schiller when BuzzFeed's reporter John Paczkowski asked him about the state of the most affordable Mac desktop. He did not say, however, when the small computer might receive a hardware refresh.
Apple's Mac Pro, last updated in December 2013, is receiving a spec-bump with faster Intel chips and other updates. The current Mac Pro model with a quad-core Xeon chip and dual AMD FirePro D300 graphics now has a faster processor with six cores and dual D500 GPUs for $2,999. The $3,999 six-core model with dual AMD FirePro D500 graphics now comes with eight CPU cores and dual D800 GPUs.
The MacBook Pro controversy isn't dying down yet so Apple dispatched Craig Federighi, its Senior Vice President of Software Engineering, who discussed the new Pro and thinking behind the Touch Bar feature in a short video interview with CNET in which he also defends no-touchscreen Mac stance.
He goes on to reveal that Apple had in fact built several touchscreen prototypes that however didn't impress Apple executives enough to greenlight the project.
Respected journalist Steven Levy has scored another nice exclusive with a new write-up over at Backchannel, a Wired Media Group property, giving us a rare inside look at how artificial intelligence and machine learning work at Apple.
The article contains a lot of gems, with company executives Eddy Cue, Craig Federighi, Phil Schiller and Siri leads Tom Gruber and Alex Acero providing a bunch of previously unknown facts about Apple's AI efforts, including this one: machine learning has enabled Apple to cut Siri's error rate by a factor or two.
Monday, Fast Company interviewed CEO Tim Cook and other Apple executives, with Cook revealing that public iOS betas actually exist to help improve the Maps service, which was widely panned and ridiculed over egregious inaccuracies shortly after its September 2012 debut.
Today, the publication interviewed Eddy Cue, Apple's boss of Internet Software and Services, and Craig Federighi, who is Apple's chief of Software Engineering, on learning from Maps failures.
Here's what they had to say about improving Maps over the years.
Night Shift, a feature that was introduced in iOS 9.3, reduces the amount of blue light emitted from the display of your iOS device at night to help avoid disrupting your sleep cycle. In helping you getting a good night’s sleep, the feature looks at your geographical position and the time of the day to shift the colors to the warmer end of the spectrum.
But we all know that. Today, we learn that Apple's engineers also built this feature in a way that avoids ugly artifacts that could appear on LCDs while scrolling and animating.
Top Apple executives Eddy Cue and Craig Federighi will headline the second night of Recode's Code Conference in May, joining an already high profile lineup including General Motors CEO Mary Barra, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Hollywood mogul Ryan Seacrest.
Apple executives rarely make an appearance at events outside of those officially held by Apple, however, Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher, formerly of the D Conference, obviously have a secret to doing it. The two have interviewed Apple co-founder Steve Jobs several times, including once alongside Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, and most recently interviewed CEO Tim Cook.
According to some recent SEC filings, Eddy Cue, Phil Schiller and other Apple executives have been awarded restricted stock bonuses that will vest over the next 3 years. The bonuses consist of more than 30,000 shares, worth in upwards of $19 million at today's prices.
Restricted stock units, or RSUs, are typically given as an incentive to stay with a company. Additionally, since they convert into shares of stock upon vesting, they encourage execs to put their 'best foot forward' as their value directly correlates to the firm's performance...
In honor of the 30th anniversary of the unveiling of the original Macintosh, which happens to be tomorrow, Macworld has published a lengthy interview with three Apple executives to discuss a wide range of topics regarding the popular computer.
In the discussion, Apple's SVP of Marketing Phil Schiller, SVP of Software Engineering Craig Federighi, and VP of Software Technology Bud Tribble talk about where the Mac has been, and where it's going. And as usual, we've posted some highlights...
In an interview with USA Today, Craig Federighi illustrates what I believe is the essence of Apple:
"Look at the camera space, companies are chasing megapixels but the pictures often look horrible because of their tiny sensors," says Federighi. "My family cares about taking a good picture, not a megapixel count. We carry that through to all the decisions we make about our phone. What experience is it going to deliver? Not what number will it allow us to put on a spec sheet."
This is the thinking behind everything Apple does. And this is why my mom has an iPhone.
Last time an Apple executive gave a detailed interview to Bloomberg Businessweek was in December 2012, when CEO Tim Cook talked Scott Forstall, collaboration and management changes.
Following last week's iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c introduction and yesterday's release of iOS 7, the most significant visual change to Apple's mobile operating system since the original iPhone, the publication interviewed Cook and his lieutenants, design guru Jony Ive (who designed iOS 7) and software head honcho Craig Federighi.
In a wide-ranging interview, the three men discussed iOS 7, collaboration, competition, Android, the so-called cheap iPhone and other topics.
I've included the best quotes right below...
Can't get enough of the new iPhones? Yeah, us either. So as you can imagine, we were excited to see that Apple has posted three new promotional videos for the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c on its YouTube channel this evening.
Ok so they're not new videos—Apple showed them during its media event earlier today. But for those who missed them, or just love watching Jony Ive talk against a white background, we've posted the clips after the break...