Lukáš Gondek A collaboration between Nike and Apple is on the horizon, as is a possible collaboration between the iPhone maker and PayPal. The iWatch may definitely replace iPods this year, and the new Apple TV will probably get Siri...
Apple continues to look for experts to build a payment system (April 21)
Apple is once again continuing with its plans to introduce its own mobile payment service. In recent days, the company has started interviews with various leaders in the payments industry. Apple intends to create two positions for new hires to help the company leverage the hundreds of millions of credit cards it has access to through iTunes Apple Accounts and expand those accounts to brick-and-mortar stores, for example. There is also talk of connecting this new service with Touch ID, according to some, mobile payment was even one of the main ideas behind adding a fingerprint sensor to the legendary Home button. The company is also negotiating a possible partnership with online payment giant PayPal.
Source: MacRumors
Nike Could Team Up With Apple For NikeFuel And iWatch (22/4)
Apparently, Nike is slowly disbanding its team behind the development of the Fuelband. The company wants to focus on the development of the NikeFuel and Nike+ software itself, and many speculate that there could be a close collaboration between Nike and Apple in the development of the long-awaited iWatch. The two companies have been longtime partners, but the iWatch could now become the primary device on which Nike will develop its NikeFuel, which the company describes as the heart of the entire Nike+ system. Nike has paired its fitness system with Apple products since 2006. Tim Cook, an Apple executive who sits on Nike's board of directors, could also help with the collaboration.
Source: MacRumors
iWatch could replace iPods, which may no longer be waiting for an update (22/4)
A report by Christopher Caso, an analyst at Susquehanna Financial Group, says that the iWatch should hit the market in late 2014, with two different display sizes. Apple's goal is said to be to produce 5-6 million iWatch devices, and the company also expects that the watch will eventually replace all iPods. According to Caso, people will prefer to buy watches instead of long-overdue iPods, which, according to his report, will not be updated this year either. Even Tim Cook called iPods a "declining business" as sales fell by a full three billion dollars over the past five years.
Source: MacRumors
Siri will probably appear on Apple TV (April 23)
The recently speculated Apple TV update was contributed by 9to5Mac reporters who read from the iOS 7.1 codes that Apple is working on Siri for Apple TV. This information is found in both iOS 7.1 and iOS 7.1.1, but is not present in older versions such as iOS 7.0.6. One piece of code shows that Assistant (which is Apple's internal name for Siri) is now compatible with three "families" of devices. Two of them are clear – iPhones/iPods and iPads, the third family should be Apple TV. We could expect a new Apple TV as early as September this year.
Source: MacRumors
Apple, Google and others agree to settle hiring and pay dispute (24/4)
Almost a month before the trial is scheduled to begin, some of Silicon Valley's biggest companies (Apple, Google, Intel and Adobe) have agreed to pay compensation to their employees rather than go through a trial. The employees complained to the court about a several-year-old agreement that was concluded between the four companies mentioned above. Apple and the other three companies agreed not to hire each other in order to save several billion dollars in salary increases and, by extension, the wage war. But the employees figured it out, and after almost ten years, 64 different lawsuits were collected in court. Rather than go through a lawsuit, the companies decided to pay out $324 million to employees.
One of the reasons why the companies did not want to go to court is that an e-mail conversation between the directors of the companies could damage their names. In one email, former Google CEO Schmidt apologizes to Jobs for his recruiter trying to lure Apple employees to Google, and that he will be fired for it. Jobs then forwarded this email to the director of human resources at Apple and allegedly attached a smiley face to it.
Source: The Verge, Reuters
Apple spent $303 million more on research and development in the last quarter (April 25)
Apple spent $2014 million more on research and development in the just-ended second fiscal quarter of 303 than in the same period last year. It invested exactly $1,42 billion in research last quarter. It's an incredible contrast when you put this number next to the $2,58 billion that Apple invested in the same industry in the entire five years before the first iPhone was released. Such an amount has now been spent by the Californian company in just the first six months of the fiscal year 2014. Apple wants to achieve timely development of new and existing products.
Source: Apple Insider
A week in a nutshell
With Earth Day, Apple drew attention to its environmental measures several times, releasing a new promo video focusing on Apple's green policy narrated by Tim Cook himself, newspaper advertisement bumping into copycat competitors and video promoting Apple's new campus, which will be entirely powered by renewable energy. Apple released a third video this week, this time advertising, which boosts our self-confidence. And even if Samsung thinks that Apple's patents have little value, the iPhone maker's financial results for the second quarter they are certainly not small.
While Steve Jobs will depicted in the new film as both a hero and an anti-hero, Tim Cook was definitely the hero of the night when talked about the growing importance of Apple TV and general customer satisfaction with iPads. The company managed to expand its trademark over the past week for example on a watch and also be blamed by Samsung for infringing his patents.
Spinavi staff!! I have a private company and I will agree with another owner of a private company that we will not hire people. What the hell should I pay them for? It's our business, our companies, our decisions. When he wants, let him go do vegetables. Here you can see how upside down the position of the employees is, that they can ask for any compensation at all. I don't hire people from competitors and neither do they, but we want to kill our company?!?! and try to judge me for it
The point is that I am de facto damaging their possible career... You go to work for Apple and in the future you will lose the opportunity to work for Google and other big companies. That should be punished damn hard.
And why punish, when there is nothing to punish? It's my company and it's up to me whether I take it or not. I made it, I started it with attacks and risks. When you have a bad heart, I won't take it the same way as when you do with the competition. Do you want to severely punish what I will do with my money and who I will employ, or what salary I will give him? Ridiculous. Can I also punish the employee for what he does with the money he receives? If poor ITeckar has a possible career, let him show himself and not be a parasite on the best that is passing by. ITeckar is one of those professions where they don't know what to do because they always think that elsewhere they will get more for less work... and that I have experience with that! This is not a matter of resigning, being out of work for half a year and then going to a competitor, the point here is that the spinsters tell you that they have a cold and have to lie at home, and at the same time they go to the competitor for an interview, which they immediately rolled over and then they whine and 99% of the cases end with offended employees and only 1% admit that they are morons.