Hasta La Gadget!

Someone left the hose out overnight when it was freezing, and in the morning, he had awesome cylinder ice. His wife probably yelled at him, but that is one happy accident. More »

This week Tim Cook spoke at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference about the affordability of Apple products. Having been asked a question about prepaid customers working with smartphones and other smart products in emerging markets, the same commenter suggesting cheaper iPhones, Cook let it be known that Apple was already there – so to speak. Cook made it clear, “we lowered the price of iPhone 4, we lowered the price of iPhone 4S, [and] in the most recent quarter we didn’t have enough stock of iPhone 4 after we lowered the price. It surprised us … so we are making the move to make things more affordable.”

Cook continued by speaking about the “North Star” aim of Apple, that being “great products” from start to finish. Cook noted, “instead of saying how can we cheapen this iPod to make [it’s price] even lower, we said how to we make this a great product.” He continued by speaking on how Apple worked on creating a Mac computer for a cost lower than average. Cook: “People were asking ‘why don’t you have a Mac thats less than 500 dollars, or less than 1000 dollars, and frankly we tried.’”

But not all was in vain, as Cook continued, “we couldn’t do a great product [for that price], we concluded, so what did we do? We created iPad – and it’s a great product, and it starts at $329! So you can look at an issue – or what you’d call an issue – and you can solve it in different ways. … And our north star continues to be a great product.”

Sound like a good idea to you? Apple is a massively successful company that’s more than once adjusted their pricing scale in a way that doesn’t sell a product out, but creates an environment where a great product is sold for a price that the public can’t resist. Would you agree?

Tim Cook talks Apple product price chopping is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Apple CEO Tim Cook has highlighted the huge potential growth for iPhone, arguing that despite the smartphone’s existing broad availability, there’s still plenty of room to find new owners. “It may surprise you,” Cook said during the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference today, “but iPhone is only available to about 50-percent of the subscribers in the world.”

That’s a huge potential audience, Cook argues, highlighting China as one such area in which Apple has made inroads but still sees plenty of room for more. It’s worth noting that many emerging markets might not be able to stomach the pricing of the current iPhone range, something Cook did touch upon a little.

Apple’s existing lower-cost iPhone plans have centered around making the last-gen hardware more affordable. That, Cook says, actually led to a surprising degree of demand among consumers. In fact, the company “didn’t have enough supply” of the iPhone 4 when Apple cut the price, something which Cook says “surprised us” given there was a more up-to-date model on the market.

Nonetheless, the two-year subsidies familiar from many markets – and which allows for a “free” iPhone 4 on contract – simply won’t fly in other countries. There, cheap Android handsets have proliferated, and it’s questionable whether Apple could – even with two-year-old hardware – cut its production costs of any currently released devices to match.

Still, as we’ve seen before with netbooks, when Apple can’t hit something on price that it believes also meets with its ethos, it often goes a different direction (in the case of netbooks, it went to iPad). Whether that means the long-standing chatter of a budget Apple iPhone for developing nations could come to fruition remains to be seen.

Apple’s Tim Cook tags 50% iPhone growth potential is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Windows that can automatically adjust from transparent to opaque to keep out the sun can already be found in use all over, including Boeing’s new 787. But while they provide shade, the glass still absorbs and transmits heat to a room. So researchers at Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology have developed an easy-to-apply transparent film that can turn into a mirror to blocks and reflect light away. More »

Yesterday during All Things Digital’s Dive into Media conference, Microsoft stepped on stage to discuss their Xbox platform and tell folks where the console is heading in the future. Specifically, the company’s entertainment and digital media president, Nancy Tellem, said that Microsoft’s Los Angeles studio will be working on delivering original video content to Xbox users that will arrive sometime before the end of the year.

Tellem was recently appointed the head of the company’s LA studio, and she believes that Microsoft is at “the start of the next wave of truly interactive entertainment,” so the company is pushing for even more entertainment content for Xbox users, turning the gaming console itself into even more of a media center than what it was before.

Tellem was a former president at CBS, and she noted that interactive television was something that they wanted to play around with, and it would essentially allow viewers to engage directly with a TV show. However, now that she’s heading up an Xbox department, this type of interaction on the Xbox “is possible today.” Tellum uses live shows and children’s programming as examples, which would allow kids to interact directly with the characters on the screen.

The company didn’t say how much they’re spending on original content, but the LA studio responsible for it has 125 people employed, and Microsoft said that they’re going all-in with the new project, saying that they’re “looking at a very robust content production schedule.” Plus, the new content may be just in time for the next-generation Xbox, which Microsoft will most likely tout as an entertainment device rather than just a gaming console.

[via GigaOM]

Microsoft’s LA studio to bring original video content to Xbox is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.