You don’t have to simply be a fan of Apple products, you can actually help build them. The company has hundreds of job openings in everything from operations to HR to hardware and software engineering. It probably helps to have a friend at the company, but you can just cold apply for positions through Apple’s site. More »
Canada may be moving to polymer-based currency, but mobile payment services like Square — which cater to classic plastic — haven’t yet taken time to trek to the Great White North. NetSecure is looking to offer similar convenience to the region with its new Kudos Payments service, which just so happens to ship with a shockingly curvy swiping dongle. Similar to Square, it creates a secure ‘point of sale‘ without a hard-wired transaction terminal, and charges a slightly higher 2.9-percent fee to users’ accounts for each exchange. Kudos has iOS, Android, and Blackberry apps to tap into the functionality and, even a version for Mac and PC — in other words, you and yours should be suitably covered. Any roving entrepreneurs who are interested in the service will be able to snag the $49.99 kit free of charge from the company’s website for a “limited time,” which may or may not expire before Google decides to open its own Wallet a few Continue reading NetSecure Kudos Payments announced for Canada, is the half-circle to Square
NetSecure Kudos Payments announced for Canada, is the half-circle to Square originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 22 Jun 2011 13:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
The WebOS nuts at PreCentral have received an anonymous tip-off that HP’s imminent slate won’t be able to edit Office docs out of the box. As much as we’d like to dismiss this as a retaliatory rumor put out by BlackBerry, it emits an unfortunate whiff of truth. While HP has previously made a big deal of the TouchPad’s inclusion of the Quickoffice app, it has only said it’s “working with Quickoffice” to include document editing, and it has never demoed editing in action. The company has recently been trying to boost its app count, but perhaps it should have put more effort into securing core functionality instead. A glimmer of hope, though: the same tip-off also suggested that at least some editing capabilities will be introduced “via a downloadable update in Q3 2011”. Hey, what’s the rush?
HP TouchPad rumored to lack document editing at launch originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 19 Jun 2011 09:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
It looks like Google will be able to bid on Nortel’s patent portfolio after all, now that the Department of Justice has weighed in on the matter. According to the Wall Street Journal, El Goog’s $900 million bid has passed a governmental antitrust review, just a few days ahead of next week’s auction. Rivals like Microsoft, AT&T and Verizon had previously filed complaints with the DOJ, arguing that the sale of Nortel’s 6,000 patents would give an unfair advantage to the auction’s winner by providing it with a fresh arsenal for patent-infringement lawsuits. Google, however, claims it needs the portfolio to defend itself against legal challenges, since it has comparatively few patents to its name. The DOJ apparently sees nothing illegal with this argument, having determined that singular ownership of Nortel’s intellectual property would pose no threat to market competition. This is obviously music to Google’s ears, but the battle isn’t over yet. Sources tell the Journal that both RIM and Apple are interested in filing their own bids for the patents, and have already begun discussing the matter with the Justice Department. None of the companies involved have commented on the story, but it’ll all go down on June 20th, when the auction finally gets underway.
US DOJ greenlights Google’s $900 million bid for Nortel patents; Apple, RIM also interested originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Jun 2011 13:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Acer lowers forecast for tablet, notebook shipments, blames limping European economy originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Jun 2011 07:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Piracy may run rampant in China, but that hasn’t stopped Warner Bros. from launching the country’s first national Pay-Per-View and Video on Demand service. Under the program, movies like Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 1 will be broadcast on You On Demand’s platform, and distributed to Chinese living rooms in cooperation with China Home Cinema — a branch of CCTV-6. According to You On Demand’s estimates, the service should be available in about three million homes by the end of this summer, and will have the potential to reach a full 200 million cable-equipped households. That’s certainly a huge market, and one that could provide some serious revenue — assuming, of course, that people are actually willing to pay for movies. Full PR after the break.
Warner brings Pay-Per-View, Video on Demand to China, hopes people will actually pay for it originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Jun 2011 04:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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You may not know the name Ron Johnson, but you’re definitely familiar with his work — this is the man who built Apple’s retail empire. Eleven years ago Jobs brought Johnson on to create the first Apple store, stealing him away from his position at Target. Now the man who brought you the Genius Bar and roaming, iPhone-wielding sales reps is moving on, and taking his expertise to the department store stalwart J.C. Penney. A spokesperson for the Cupertino crew told All Things D that the company was already searching for his replacement, but we’re more interested in what Johnson will be doing with the shopping mall staple when he takes over as CEO on November 1st. We can only imagine that iPad-based virtual fitting rooms and desks of Jean-iuses will be helping you pick out your next pair of Levis. PR after the break.
Continue reading Apple retail chief Ron Johnson takes his empire-building genius to J.C. Penney
Apple retail chief Ron Johnson takes his empire-building genius to J.C. Penney originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 14 Jun 2011 14:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Don’t look now, but there’s some major synergy going on in Japan’s e-book market, now that Sony, Panasonic, Rakuten and Kinokuniya have all joined forces on a new digital quest. Today, the quartet of companies announced they’re working on a system that would allow users to purchase and read content across their respective e-readers, injecting the e-cosmos with a heavy dose of free love and good vibes. Under the new service, customers would be able to manage their downloads and browse bestsellers within a centralized web-based marketplace, regardless of the device they go to bed with every night. Because within this new universe, there would be no “mine,” “yours,” or “theirs” — all will be one and one will be all. The chieftains have already held powows with a handful of digital publishers, though they expect to have more friends around the campfire by the time the project launches later this year.Sony, Panasonic, others to launch cross-platform e-book service, later this year originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 13 Jun 2011 13:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Music collectors in the US will be able to subscribe to Apple’s iTunes Match service this fall, but it looks like our friends across the pond will have to wait a little longer before lofting their libraries up to the cloud. According to sources within the British recording industry, licensing negotiations between Apple and the country’s major labels have only just begun and likely won’t be concluded until 2012. A spokesman for the Performing Right Society, an organization that protects the rights of musicians and songwriters, likened the situation to the launch of iTunes, which only spread to international markets some 14 months after launching in the US. Speaking to the Telegraph, Forrester Research vice president Mark Mulligan echoed these predictions, while offering some insight into the industry’s approach:
“Apple’s cloud music service will not launch in the UK until at least quarter one of 2012. These types of negotiations take a long time… For one thing the UK arms of all the major record labels are biding their time and waiting to see how the service affects download sales in the US before they sign up to anything.”
Neither Apple nor any of the major labels have commented on the negotiations, but if things drag on we’d be willing to share our cloudy iTunes in exchange for a crack at Spotify.
iTunes Match not coming to the UK until 2012? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 10 Jun 2011 13:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
It looks like Apple has decided to make some pretty major changes to its App Store Review Guidelines — and, in particular, to its controversial in-app subscription policy. Under the new guidelines, publishers will be able to offer subscriptions to content outside of the App Store, as long as their apps don’t include a “buy” button that directs users away from Apple’s marketplace. Under the previous version of the policy, which was set to go into effect at the end of this month, app owners offering subscriptions outside of App Store were required to sell equivalent, in-app services at the “same price or less than it is offered outside the app,” while giving a 30 percent cut to Cupertino. Now, however, they can price these in-app subscriptions as they see fit, or circumvent the system altogether, by exclusively selling them outside of their apps. Apple will still receive 30 percent of the revenue generated from in-app subscriptions, but won’t get any money from purchases made outside of its domain. Theoretically, then, publishers would be able to offer in-app subscriptions at higher prices, in order to offset Apple’s share. This is how the new rules are worded:
11.13 Apps that link to external mechanisms for purchases or subscriptions to be used in the app, such as a “buy” button that goes to a web site to purchase a digital book, will be rejected
11.14 Apps can read or play approved content (specifically magazines, newspapers, books, audio, music, and video) that is subscribed to or purchased outside of the app, as long as there is no button or external link in the app to purchase the approved content. Apple will not receive any portion of the revenues for approved content that is subscribed to or purchased outside of the app.
It’s important to note, though, that Apple hasn’t made any changes to its policy on sharing user information. Publishers had been lobbying to gain access to subscribers’ credit card data and other personal information, which they see as critical to applying a TV Everywhere model to online publishing. With today’s concessions, though, these demands may become less insistent.
Apple gives in to publishers, changes policy on in-app subscription prices originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Jun 2011 08:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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