Ex-Apple Employees Reveal How The Company Is So Good At Keeping Secrets (Business Insider)
A small number of former Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) employees — or at least people claiming to be such — have written a Quora thread answering the question, “How does Apple keep secrets so well?” Apple, of course, is famously press shy. It’s incredibly difficult to get insider news out of the company, compared to its peers. The former employees range from people who joined the company in its earliest days in the 1970s to those who’ve dealt with it recently. Perhaps unsurprisingly, many say that founder Steve Jobs set the tone in ways small and large.
Apple’s Problem Isn’t Skeuomorphism, It’s Services (TechCrunch)
So iOS 7, it seems, is going to do away with much of the skeuomorphic design that has crept into the operating system and its utilities. Jony Ive, rumor has it, has done away with all the textures and real-world analogs in iOS 7 and has switched to a flat design instead. Good for him, but if that’s all that is new in iOS 7, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has a real problem. It’s not the design of iOS, but rather the fact that its own service offerings like Siri, iCloud and iTunes aren’t all that great when compared to what its competitors in Mountain View (and may startups) are working on.
How badly does Foxconn want to end its reliance on Apple? Let us count the ways (Quartz)
Taiwanese electronics giant Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn, has had a good run assembling iPhones, but it was always precarious: Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) paid the firm a measly $8 per phone and the company always struggled with labor issues, from suicides to a shortage of low-priced workers. Now that iPhone volumes have dipped and Apple is sending more business to Pegatron, an even lower-priced electronics assembly firm, it’s blindingly obvious that Foxconn needs to diversify.
OttoCat makes Apple’s app store useable again for indie developers — and app buyers (VentureBeat)
“The Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) App Store, with a mere 23 categories, is nearly impossible to navigate,” Edwin Cooper, the CEO of app discovery site OttoCat, said in a statement. That’s is probably why Google Play’s top 10 lists are more diverse than Apple’s, with more indies hitting the big time. OttoCat does exactly what the named suggests: Break Apple’s million apps into easily navigated nested categories. They’re automatically generated via a scraped list of iOS apps from Apple’s public web-accessible app previews. And they’re much more helpful, exploding the very generic “Utilities” into subcategories such as “Calculators,” “Security,” “Remote Control” and “Servers.” And then even more subcategories, further breaking down “Remote Control” into “Windows,” “Media Center,” “Appliances,” “Wi-Fi Network.” In other words, making those 775,000 apps actually browsable for the first time. And shining the light of day on apps below the top 250 or so.
Apple’s Tim Cook needs to win back investors (MarketWatch)
Tim Cook is stepping back into the public limelight just as the Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) chief executive finds himself faced with a growing list of challenges that may tax even his considerable abilities — and his demonstrated ability to turn on the charm. Cook is just coming off an impressive appearance before Congress — where he defended Apple’s controversial offshore cash and tax practices. Tuesday night, Cook officially kicks-off the D11 conference, a high-profile gathering of high-tech and media executives hosted by AllThingsD, the technology blog that, like MarketWatch, is owned by News Corp. But an even bigger test will take place at Apple’s worldwide developer conference next month, when the company is expected to demonstrate an upgrade to its iOS mobile operating system that will be the precursor to other new iPhones and possibly iPads in the fall.
