Hasta La Gadget!

Apple’s success in the technology industry has been well-documented. During the fourth quarter, the company generated a $13.1 billion profit – a massive sum that makes it the world’s largest technology firm. Apple’s success has been built on the iPhone and iPad and surprisingly, Macs are starting to gain real traction among corporate users. Apple is officially a company that can deliver outstanding products and services to every customer, and those customers are buying its devices because of it.

At the same time, issues are arising at Apple. The company’s $700+ stock price is now in the $400s. And although the iPhone was able to outpace Samsung’s Galaxy S III in the fourth quarter, it appears to be fighting a battle against Android that it can’t win.

So, I pose this question: is it getting easier or harder to not buy Apple products?

Those who say it’s getting harder might be making a good point. Apple is delivering some of the best products out there, and it’s doing so in the industries that excite us most. For instance, Apple is delivering the most popular smartphone on the market as smartphones increasingly gain traction among consumers and enterprise users. And although several Android tablet vendors are trying to take down the iPad, so far, they’ve been incapable.

“Apple has a secret weapon in its battle with Microsoft: Windows 8”

Even on the computing side, Apple is making it harder to buy competing products. The MacBook Air is still the best thin and lightweight computer on the market, and its software is top-notch. When compared to Windows 8, it’s getting harder and harder to buy a PC over a Mac. Apple has a secret weapon in its battle with Microsoft – Windows 8.

Others, however, disagree. They say that the logic that Apple is still making the best products in the mobile space and thus is the only worthwhile choice is outdated. They point to devices like the Samsung Galaxy S III, Google’s Nexus 10, the Amazon Kindle Fire HD, and others to prove their point. And although Android didn’t necessarily top iOS when it first launched years ago, it’s now delivering more (and perhaps better) features than its chief competitor.

On the PC side, Apple detractors point to the increasing popularity of Ultrabooks to question the desire to buy a Mac. Ultrabooks, after all, are well-designed and lightweight and later this year, will deliver tablet-like functionality, giving them an advantage over devices like the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro with Retina Display.

In the end, though, I still think Apple wins out. The company’s sales seem to indicate that people are still finding a lot of value in its products. And try as competitors might, they’ve yet to find a way to beat Apple in terms of design. And in today’s technology industry, that truly matters.

So, perhaps it really is getting hard to not buy Apple products. And Apple is laughing all the way to the bank because of it.

Is It Getting Easier or Harder to NOT Buy Apple Products? is written by Don Reisinger & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Apple completely revamped its iTunes U app last year to include full course materials and it looks like that work is paying off, as the company just trumpeted its billionth content download. Over 250,000 students are enrolled in the service, which now boasts “thousands” of iTunes U learning materials, according to Cupertino. The company added that 60 percent of those downloads came from outside the US, with educators in 30 different countries — like recent additions Brazil and Turkey — able to create content. OHU prof “Dr. Fus” Stoltzfus said that students using his materials range from students around the world to retirees, so if you’ve been thinking of a knowledge upgrade, you’ve got no excuse. For more, check the PR after the break.

Filed under: Misc, Software, Apple

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We hear stories of Apple products like the iPhone and iPad being stolen on a somewhat regular basis, and we’re never happy to hear criminals are continually targeting these products, although we could understand why they would want to. If you took the necessary precautions and installed apps like Find My iPhone, then retrieving your stolen goods might be easier than than it used to be a few years ago.

A story published by the New York Post goes into detail how Apple and the NYPD have been working together in order to have stolen Apple products retrieved, even if the goods are no longer in New York City. (more…)

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Analyst Says Cheap iPhone Makes Sense After Meeting With Apple, Google Supplies iOS Developers With Updated Maps SDK,

Roughly two weeks ago, Tweetbot for iOS was graced with in-line viewing of Flickr and Vine content, and now the Mac app has gotten a similar treatment with thumbnail support for both services. Version 1.2 of the client not only accommodates the 6-second films, but it brings a slew of other changes and a handful of bug fixes, to boot. Now, users can opt in for notifications when tweets are sent out from specific Twitter accounts, and can start writing messages by dragging videos or images to the app’s icon. Tapbots has also tuned the application to play nice with MP4 files and to allow for account reordering in the preferences section. In addition, the software now uses version 1.1 of Twitter’s API and sports a tweaked UI that complies with Costolo and Co.’s new visual requirements. Come March 5th, older versions of Tweetbot for Mac will give up the ghost thanks to Twitter’s API changes, but upgrading to the fresh release (or future versions) will ensure your social networking will go uninterrupted. Click the bordering source link for the download and complete changelog.

Filed under: Mobile

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Via: MacStories

Source: iTunes

Last week, Facebook was attacked by a zero-day Java exploit. While the social network said that no personal data was stolen, it’s never too comforting when companies and services get hacked. This week, however, Apple was the target this time around, saying that a “small number” Mac computers have been infected.

Apple has confirmed the news to Reuters and say that they’re currently working with authorities to investigate the attacks, but luckily the Cupertino-based company says that “there was no evidence that any data left Apple.” Apple also plans to release a tool later today that will protect Mac users against the software used in the attacks.

UPDATE: Apple has released a new version of Java meant to plug up the vulnerability. It’s available now on Apple’s support page or through the Software Update tool on OS X.

However, the exploit was said to be spread from a website for software developers, so it seems regular consumers are okay at this point. Apple ended up identifying a small number of systems that were infected, but isolated them immediately to prevent further spreading of the bug. Since newer Macs ship without Java installed, most users shouldn’t worry, but the removal tool should provide a sense of ease anyway,

Similar attacks also targeted The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and Twitter just recently. All companies affected said that no critical information was stolen, but of course, that didn’t make the situation much better. Twitter says that 250,000 accounts were hacked, resulting in conscience users to change their passwords right away.

Apple targeted by Java zero-day bug [UPDATE] is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.