Dr. Dre’s Perfectionist Tendencies Spark Comparisons to Steve Jobs

Dr. Dre, aka Andre Young, who will join Apple following the finalization of its acquisition of Beats Electronics, has been profiled by The Wall Street Journal in a piece that gives a look at his work philosophy, his character, and the role he will play at Apple.

An accomplished rapper, the co-founder of Death Row Records, and co-founder of Beats Electronics, Dre is expected to bring not only his music expertise to Apple, but also the “cool” factor that’s made Beats hardware so popular with the younger generation.

The music mogul is said to have a “perfectionist impulse,” a penchant for being short with words, and a disregard for artificial deadlines, which could cause friction at Apple. “I’m not feeling that,” he’ll say when he doesn’t like an idea presented to him. The Wall Street Journal compares his attitude to that of Steve Jobs.

Dr. Dre’s perfectionist impulse, coupled with his disregard for artificial deadlines, have meant that “he doesn’t put out a lot of material,” despite being a workaholic, said Paul Rosenberg, a lawyer and manager of one of Dr. Dre’s protégés, rapper Eminem.

That could portend friction at his new employer, Apple, which agreed to buy Beats for $3 billion last month. But like Dr. Dre, Apple has also boasted about not doing market research. The company’s late founder, Steve Jobs, made no secret of his belief that consumers don’t really know what they want until someone else shows it to them. Colleagues predict that at Apple Dr. Dre could also cede some decision-making power and become more accommodating.

Dre, who is joining the company along with Jimmy Iovine, will not have a specific title at Apple. As noted by Iovine, the duo will be known as just “Jimmy and Dre” on campus, but according to Tim Cook, Dre will work with both the hardware and music divisions, being supervised by Phil Schiller and Eddy Cue.

Latest rumors have Apple’s wearable launching in October

If you’ve been waiting for Apple’s long-fabled wearable to make an appearance, you now have a time frame to (tentatively) mark on your calendar. Both Nikkei and Recode hear that the device is currently slated to arrive in October. Technical details are still unclear, but both sites expect a strong health focus; that’s not surprising given both iOS 8′s new HealthKit platform and longstanding 9to5 Mac rumors of fitness-oriented wristwear. Nikkei also understands that Apple and Nike hope to integrate each other’s services in the future, although it’s not certain that this will apply to the wearable.

Recode is quick to caution that the scheduling could change, so don’t be surprised if October comes and goes without a shiny new gadget. However, a launch that month makes sense. In recent years, Apple has reserved many of its bigger non-iPhone unveilings for October — think iPads and higher-profile Macs. That’s a long time to wait, if true, but what’s another few months for hardware that has achieved an almost mythological status?

[Image credit: Ruben Schade, Flickr]

Filed under: Wearables, Apple

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Source: Recode, Nikkei

An In-Depth Look at App Extensions in iOS 8 and Yosemite

Extensibility, one of the iOS 8/Yosemite features for developers announced by Apple during the Worldwide Developers Conference, promises to bring a range of new functionality to the app ecosystem.

The feature is designed to allow third-party apps to share services with other apps, create widgets for the Notification Center, and develop custom system-wide keyboards, letting apps and services work together and interface with iOS and OS X as they never have before.

Federico Viticci of MacStories has taken an in-depth look at Apple’s Extensibility initiative, explaining the various types of app extensions available to developers and how those extensions will work on both iOS and OS X. There are seven general ways that extensions can be used, as detailed by Viticci:

– Today (iOS and OS X): widgets for the Today view of Notification Center
– Share (iOS and OS X): post content to web services or share content with others
– Actions (iOS and OS X): app extensions to view or manipulate inside another app
– Photo Editing (iOS): edit a photo or video in Apple’s Photos app with extensions from a third-party apps
– Finder Sync (OS X): remote file storage in the Finder with support for Finder content annotation
– Storage Provider (iOS): an interface between files inside an app and other apps on a user’s device
– Custom Keyboard (iOS): system-wide alternative keyboards

One of the most intriguing aspects of Extensibility, app widgets in the Today view of the Notification Center, was demoed on stage during the keynote. A SportsCenter widget displayed sports scores and an eBay widget offered a way to keep an eye on auctions. Philips later demoed how a Hue widget might allow users to control lights directly from the Notification Center. Apple is said to be encouraging developers to keep widgets simple, with iOS 8 preventing system-intensive widgets with complex features.

Action-based app extensions will also bring major changes to iOS, allowing apps to extend their functionality to other apps. On stage, this was shown off in Safari on Yosemite, using the Bing app to translate Japanese text, and through a Pinterest tool that allowed it to capture an image from Safari to save to the Pinterest app.

Custom keyboards, one of the major surprises at WWDC, also fall under the extensions category. Apple has, in the past, been reluctant to allow third-party keyboards due to security concerns but there are a number of precautions in place. Custom keyboards are unable to type in secure text input fields, like those used for passwords, and by default, the keyboards will not have access to keystrokes.

According to Viticci, the developers he’s spoken have reacted with excitement about all of the possibilities offered by Extensibility, and believe that “a new class of apps will be possible thanks to extensions.”

Today, it’s difficult to quantify the impact that extensions will have on the iOS app ecosystem, but I think it’s safe to say that, considering developers’ reactions to Apple’s announcement, we’re going to see plenty of cool new stuff this Fall.

iOS users interested in more information on Apple’s Extensibility initiative, how app extensions work, and how they might be used by developers should check out Viticci’s full extensions piece on MacStories.

Tim Cook Visits Mac Pro Factory ‘Loaded with American Manufacturing Expertise’ in Austin [Updated]

While it was revealed yesterday that Apple executives Tim Cook and Eddy Cue had visited the company’s new operations campus in Austin, Texas, Cook has just tweeted a photo of a second visit he made to Apple’s nearby Mac Pro manufacturing facility.

Watching the Mac Pro come together in Austin yesterday,thanks to a team loaded with American manufacturing expertise. pic.twitter.com/5LcCOFIVgC

— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) June 6, 2014

Apple’s Mac Pro manufacturing facility is run by Flextronics as part of an initiative to bring manufacturing of some Apple products back to the United States. While it is currently a limited effort given the relatively low volume of Mac Pro production, it has received considerable attention.

Flextronics’ Mac Pro facility is roughly a mile from Apple’s new Austin campus, which is actually an expansion of the company’s long-standing operations campus in the city. The campus expansion is major effort that will see Apple investing $300 million to add at least 3,600 workers at the site by 2021. The overall project will encompass roughly one million square feet of space, with the just-opened first phase including two out of a planned six buildings on the site.

Following the visit to Apple’s facilities in Austin yesterday, Cue was also spotted in the stands at last night’s Game 1 of the NBA Finals just down the road in San Antonio.

Update 9:27 AM: Cook has also tweeted a photo of his (and Cue’s) visit with the AppleCare team at the operations campus in Austin.

Our AppleCare team is the best in the world. Thrilled to see them in action yesterday on our new campus in Austin. pic.twitter.com/fTaMKzMi9o

— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) June 6, 2014

Apple Aiming to Introduce iWatch at October Event

Apple is indeed aiming for an October release date for the iWatch as first reported by Nikkei earlier today, according to Re/code. Citing sources familiar with Apple’s plans, the site says Apple is tentatively hoping to schedule a special iWatch event to show off the device in October.

People familiar with Apple’s plans tell Code/red the company hopes to schedule a special event that month to show off the device, which is designed to make good use of the HealthKit health and fitness information-gathering app it recently showed off at WWDC. Could things change between now and fall? That’s certainly possible. But right now October is the target date.

Multiple rumors have previously suggested a fall 2014 release date for the device, but this is the first time a more tangible, specific date has materialized. While few details are known about Apple’s iWatch, the Nikkei report from earlier today suggested the device will incorporate a curved OLED touchscreen.

Curved iWatch concept by Todd Hamilton, based on the Nike FuelBand
The iWatch is expected to incorporate a multitude of health and fitness sensors, to measure metrics like calorie consumption, sleep activity, blood oxygen levels, and more. It is said to integrate deeply with the iOS 8′s recently introduced Health app and it may come in multiple sizes and multiple price points.

Last week, iTunes chief Eddy Cue boasted that Apple had the “best product pipeline” he’d seen in his 25 years at Apple, which along with the iWatch, may include larger iPhones, iPads with Touch ID, an updated Apple TV, and a redesigned 12-inch MacBook Air.

Apple Making Big Push to Attract Chinese App Developers

China has become a major focus for Apple in recent years, with the company seeing tremendous opportunities for growth in the region and working to build out China-specific software features to help attract users. These features occasionally also receive brief stage time at Apple’s media events, as with iOS 8 at this week’s Worldwide Developers Conference, highlighting the country’s importance in Apple’s eyes.

Apple software chief Craig Federighi highlighting China-specific improvements in iOS 8
Apple is also working hard to attract Chinese app developers to its ecosystem, increasing its staff in the country and streamlining the customer experience, according to Bloomberg.

Since 2011, Apple has steadily beefed up its developer-relations team in China so new apps can be approved in the country, and it has opened a new office in downtown Beijing where the China App Store is operated. Apple has also smoothed the process for how customers buy apps in China, and built new Chinese-language-specific software to benefit developers.

The report highlights Apple’s fifth-place market position for smartphones in China as motivation for Apple’s initiative. Apple’s ecosystem in China has also been challenged by the fact that many apps designed for Westerners don’t translate well to the Chinese audience, with many developers not even making their apps available in the country. As a result, Apple’s Chinese App Store includes just 150,000 applications, far fewer than the over one million apps available in the U.S. store.

“On a scale of one to 10 in terms of importance in China, it ranks at about 11,” Ramon Llamas, an analyst for IDC who tracks the mobile industry, said of Apple’s app development. “Nobody buys a smartphone just for it to be a phone — the value of your device goes up with the more applications that you download on to it.”

Apple’s efforts to attract more Chinese developers do appear to be paying off, with the country now ranking number two behind the United States in App Store download volume and the number of registered developers in China doubling over the past year. Still, it’s clear there is much more potential left in the Chinese market for Apple, and the company is working hard to capture developers and users alike to boost its standing.

iWatch Reportedly Launching in October with iOS 8 and Curved OLED Touchscreen

Apple’s highly rumored “iWatch” smartwatch is expected to launch in October and will run a version of iOS 8, according to a new report from Japanese business newspaper Nikkei.

Traditional watch-style iWatch concept by Gábor Balogh
Sources tell the paper that Apple has begun finalizing specs for the device, as it will use a curved OLED touchscreen while utilizing biometric sensors to collect health-related data such as calorie consumption, sleep activity, blood oxygen levels and more, in line with recent rumors.

Apple appears confident of the new product. According to a parts manufacturer, it plans monthly commercial output of about 3-5 million units, which exceeds the total global sales of watch-like devices last year.

The news contrasts a report from Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Brian White yesterday, which stated that iWatch production would begin gearing up this month ahead of a September launch alongside the iPhone 6.

While not much is known about the iWatch’s physical features, rumors have suggested the device will come in two separate sizes of 1.3 inches and 1.5-1.7 inches. It is also likely that the iWatch’s biometric sensors will work with Apple’s new Health app in iOS 8 in order to measure and aggregate health metrics.

Apple, Other Tech Companies Give $2 Million Each to Cover Taxpayer Costs of Super Bowl 50 [Mac Blog]

Apple, along with fellow tech companies Intel, Yahoo, and Google, has given $2 million in cash and other services to offset taxpayer costs of hosting Super Bowl 50 in the Bay Area, reports the San Jose Mercury News (via AppleInsider). In exchange for their donations, each company will receive their own private Super Bowl suite and publicity around the time of the game in 2016.

In total, the Bay Area Super Bowl Host Committee announced that it had raised $40 million for Super Bowl 50. The game will be held in the newly constructed Levi’s Stadium, which be the home of the San Francisco 49ers this year after taking two years and $1.3 billion to build. The stadium is also just 13 miles away from Apple’s headquarters at 1 Infinite Loop in Cupertino, California.

It is unknown exactly how Apple will plan to use its Super Bowl publicity, but the company has had quite the history running Super Bowl advertisements in the past and could choose to run one in 2016. Apple’s “1984″ television ad for the Macintosh was among the most iconic in TV advertising history, as the company ran its last dedicated Super Bowl commercial in 1999.

Since then, a number of rumors throughout the years have pointed to Apple running more commercials alongside the Super Bowl, although the company has not done so. Apple was rumored to be working on a commercial for this past year’s Super Bowl, but instead chose to partner with U2 and Bank of America for a Product (RED) promotion.

Apple Australia Reaches New Four Year Contract with Retail Employees [Mac Blog]

Apple Retail Store employees in Australia have reached an agreement with the company on a new four-year contract, bringing the base pay for entry-level employees up to $22.45 ($20.95 USD) and allowing for 2% annual pay increases, reports ifoAppleStore.

The contract (PDF link), which was approved by 90% of the country’s retail employees and certified by the Australian government, will go into effect on November 1 and also reclassifies the hierarchy of retail employees to define specific responsibilities.

The Apple Store in Sydney, Australia
For instance, Level 1 employees include those responsible for store aspects such as assisting customers and doing repairs, which correspond to Apple Specialist and Genius positions, while Level 2 employees are defined as those who work at a “higher level” than Level 1 employees and/or supervise as designated area of the store. Meanwhile, Level 3 employees perform full managerial duties, and correspond to Apple Business Leader, Store Leader, and Market Leader positions.

When the agreement becomes effective this November 1st, starting pay for full-time Level 1 employees will be $20.95 per hour (all rates in U.S. dollars), and Level 2 will start at $25.26. Casual employees will receive 25 percent more per hour to offset fewer benefits. Level 3 employees are management, and will receive a base annual pay of $72,779. The Level 1 base pay represents a 25 percent premium over the current $16.69 Australian minimum wage. However, the annual pay increases are less than the FWC’s 2.6 percent increase in the 2013 minimum wage.

Also included in the new contract are terms on grievance procedures and general working conditions. Notably, workers can receive multiple weeks of “redundancy” pay if Apple determines that a job being performed is no longer required, with compensation depending on age and years of continuous service. Additionally, workers who have a first-aid qualification are paid an extra $29.56 every two weeks, and all workers are also permitted to take two hours off from work to donate blood up to four times a year.

Finally, the agreement touches on the subject of ‘Bag Check’ inspections, which was the subject of a class action lawsuit last year. Apple Australia states that employees will be required to participate and fully-co operate with the bag and locker inspections, as they “may happen at any time.”