Monthly Archives: January 2010

Steve Jobs: "[We’re] Starting This Week With a Major New Product" [Apple]

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Apparently Jobs is bullish about this "major new product's" chances. You'd often look for a company to attempt to downplay expectations on a product launch like this, but it's fun to watch Steve pour some fuel on the fire.

COO Tim Cook also gets in on the action with a bit of a taunt during the conference call, when prompted for tablet details:

"I wouldn't want to take away your joy and surprise on Wednesday when you see our latest creation."

Aw, Tim... you're far too kind. [Apple] [Image:Darkpony!]


Apple’s Blockbuster Quarter Includes 8.7 Million iPhones and 21 Million iPods Sold [Apple]

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Apple blew the doors off of Q4, with strong performances from almost every corner. It's their highest revenue and profit ever, but will they say anything else about Wednesday's announcement? Updated live.

Apple sold twice as many iPhones as last year, although that still managed to be below Wall Street expectations. iPod continued its steady decline, with 8% fewer sales than last year, and they managed to get 3.4 million Macs out the door, despite some functionality issues. Revenue was a whopping $15.68 billion.

The actual money part of the results are affected by a change in accounting measures, so we'll find out on the upcoming call just how well they actually did compared to years past. It starts at five, and we'll be updating as it goes.

The call:

So it's a record breaking-quarter even with the accounting change, by almost $3.5 billion.

Response to the new iMac was "very strong," although it's not necessarily positive in some quarters.

The iTunes store now has 11 million songs, 8,000 movies and over 50,000 TV episodes. The app store has over 3 billion (!) downloads to date in 77 countries.

Talking iPhone now, which did well but not as well as analysts had predicted. But then again, analysts just make stuff up anyway. Their average sales price of $620 is something I'm sure they can sleep comfortably with.

Half the Macs sold in stores last quarter went to people who'd never bought a Mac before. This has been a trend for Apple for the last few years, and speaks well for the long-term, assuming they keep those converts in the Mac family.

Now talking accounting... basically, they used to defer iPhone and Apple TV revenue, but now they recognize revenue immediately (including estimated upgrade fees). Not too exciting unless you're an investor or a CPA.

"We are incredibly excited about our new product pipeline." Well, us too!

Q&A:

Q: 44% of iPhone units are on AT&T (globally, presumably). What are the benefits of their being your only US partner, given their problems? (A little Verizon-baiting there)

A: And COO Tim Cook doesn't bite: "First of all, AT&T is a great partner... it's important to remember that they have more mobile broadband user than any other carrier in the world... We have very high confidence that they'll make very significant progress towards fixing [their problems]."

Q: Could you elaborate on which component prices you expect to be up this quarter? (Like um tablet components HMMM?)

A: Tim Cook: We're continuing to see that the market is constrained in D-RAM, and we do expect that to drive prices higher.

Q: Does your guidance include any unannounced products? (Like um tablet products HMMMM?)

A: CFO Peter Oppenheimer won't slip that easy. No comment.

Q: Could you talk more about the iPhone in China? How is that looking into this year?

A: Tim Cook: We've cumulatively activated over 200,000 units since October launch. We're very, very focused on the quality of the point of sale and the customer experience. We'd prefer to move slow because we're building the brand for the long term. I wouldn't want to forecast where sales will go or what we may or may not do from a partner point of view.

Q: Any update on litigation? (Honestly, there's so many people suing Apple right now that a full answer could take us through Wednesday's announcement).

A: Nope! (thank goodness)

Q: What's the deal with the bass ackwards App Store approval process?

A: Tim Cook says it's important to "keep it in perspective." 90% of apps approved in 14 days or less. Porn gets dismissed outright (oh really?) "Most of the rejections are bugs in the code itself, and this is protecting the customer and developer, to a great extent."

Q: Here we go. How big of an impact do you expect your next product to have? As big as iPhone and iPod?

A: Tim Cook doesn't want to ruin the surprise, which itself is not at all surprising. But it is disappointing!

Q: Can you provide more color on the App Store in terms of changes in paid versus free apps?

A: Peter Oppenheimer "doesn't want to share the answers to the question that you asked." Peter Oppenheimer is NO FUN. He does say that Apple is "way ahead" of their competitors.

Q: Can you give an update on long-term strategy re: Lala and Quattro acquisitions?

A: Peter Oppenheimer: "We occasionally acquire small companies from time to time for their technology and talent." Come on, Peter. Just show a little leg, that's all I'm asking.

(Sidenote: Craig Hockenberry notes that with iPod Touch up 55% this quarter, there are now about 77 million devices out there. Yowza).

Q: Can you characterize your changing relationship with Google?

A: Peter Oppenheimer: "We work with Google in some areas and compete with them in others." Where's the fire in the belly, Peter? Doesn't the Nexus One tick you off even just a little?

Some talk about the K-12 market, and we're done! Not nearly as much tablet-baiting as we'd hoped, but that'll just make Wednesday all the sweeter.

Apple Reports First Quarter Results
All-Time Highest Revenue and Profit
New Accounting Standards Adopted

CUPERTINO, California-January 25, 2010-Apple® today announced financial results for its fiscal 2010 first quarter ended December 26, 2009. The Company posted revenue of $15.68 billion and a net quarterly profit of $3.38 billion, or $3.67 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $11.88 billion and net quarterly profit of $2.26 billion, or $2.50 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 40.9 percent, up from 37.9 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 58 percent of the quarter's revenue.

Apple sold 3.36 million Macintosh® computers during the quarter, representing a 33 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. The Company sold 8.7 million iPhones in the quarter, representing 100 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter. Apple sold 21 million iPods during the quarter, representing an eight percent unit decline from the year-ago quarter.

During the quarter Apple elected retrospective adoption of the Financial Accounting Standards Board's amended accounting standards* related to certain revenue recognition. Adoption of the new accounting standards significantly changes how the Company accounts for certain items, particularly sales of iPhone® and Apple TV®.

"If you annualize our quarterly revenue, it's surprising that Apple is now a $50+ billion company," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "The new products we are planning to release this year are very strong, starting this week with a major new product that we're really excited about."

"We are very pleased to have generated $5.8 billion in cash during the quarter," said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple's CFO. "Looking ahead to the second fiscal quarter of 2010, we expect revenue in the range of about $11.0 billion to $11.4 billion and we expect diluted earnings per share in the range of about $2.06 to $2.18."

Apple will provide live streaming of its Q1 2010 financial results conference call utilizing QuickTime®, Apple's standards-based technology for live and on-demand audio and video streaming. The live webcast will begin at 2:00 p.m. PST on January 25, 2010 at http://www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/earningsq110/ and will also be available for replay for approximately two weeks thereafter.


Satellite Images Protect Kenyan Herdsmen From Being Wiped Out by Droughts | 80beats

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drought-dry-mud-flatFor years, farmers in Kenya’s arid north have suffered huge losses when droughts wiped out their cattle herds. Now, they have a means to protect their sole source of livelihood when rains fail and grasslands disappear. A new insurance scheme hopes to safeguard cattle-rearers in northern Kenya’s drought-prone Marsabit district by using satellite imagery to track changing landscapes and the subsequent loss of cattle.

The program, launched by the International Livestock Research Institute, is being billed as the world’s first insurance program to track changing pastoral grounds. When the satellite photos reveal that a verdant green landscape has changed to a dry brown, the insurance kicks in and farmers can collect their payments. The program will make things easier for insurance companies–for whom estimating losses in the past has been all but impossible. Partly because it has simply been too expensive for insurers to go and count the number of dead animals which might be spread over a vast rural area [BBC]. The scheme’s launch comes at a time when the Marsabit region has suffered 28 droughts in the last 100 years and four in the past decade alone [Kenya Broadcasting Corporation].

The program will be run by a Kenyan bank in partnership with a local insurance firm. The initial aim is to get 1,000 families in northern Kenya to insure their cows, goats, sheep and camels. To insure a herd of 10 cows for example a family would pay the equivalent of around $50 [BBC]. That may sound like a lot of money for cattle-herder in the developing world, but it represents less than a third of the value of a single cow. For many farmers, the cattle are the sole means of livelihood, so protecting them through insurance seems to be a good idea.

Marsabit is home to more than 2 million cows, camels, goats and sheep, worth an estimated $67 million. Livestock here is rarely sold or slaughtered–instead, families depend on them for milk and routinely drink their blood for nutrition. For now, the scheme has been launched just in the Marsabit District–if it works well, then it will be launched across Africa. The program has some precedents: In Mongolia, a different form of insurance brings payouts for all pastoralists if severe snowstorms kill animals in benchmark herds [News24].

Related Content:
80beats: West Africa Is Prone to “Mega-Droughts,” But People Aren’t Prepared
80beats: Do Hot, Dry Conditions Cause More African Civil Wars?
80beats: Kenya’s Man-Eating Lions Not as Man-Hungry as Previously Thought
80beats: Elephants’ Tail Hairs Tell a Story of Competition on the Savanna

Image: iStockphoto


Kevin Bacon Meets The Sharks of the Caribbean | The Loom

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Bascompte webIf you’ve never played Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, take a trip to the Oracle of Bacon, where you can see how far any actor is from Bacon in the Hollywood movie network.

And once you’ve played that game, check out my new article at Yale Environment 360 to see how ecosystems are a lot like Hollywood, at least when it comes to networking.

For more on ecological network theory, check out Jordi Bascompte’s web site.


WISE uncovers its first near-Earth asteroid! | Bad Astronomy

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The Wide-field Infrared Satellite Explorer has detected its first near-Earth asteroid! Named 2010 AB78, it was discovered in mid-January by the orbiting observatory. Here’s an image of the rock:

WISE_2010AB78

AB78 is about a kilometer (0.6 miles) or so across, making it one of the bigger asteroids that can buzz the Earth. The orbital information on it isn’t perfect yet, but we already know its orbit doesn’t actually cross the Earth’s so it can’t hit us. At closest approach it’s still many million of kilometers away from us, and poses no threat.

However, I’ll be honest and say this discovery is mildly alarming (stressing the word mildly). One of the missions of WISE is to find such asteroids; some rocks are dark and therefore hard to detect using telescopes which search in visible light. However, AB78 is warm, so it glows in the infrared, making it an easy target for WISE. That’s why searching for such asteroids is one of WISE’s main goals.

The thing is, statistically speaking we should already know of almost all the kilometer-sized rocks that are in near-Earth orbits; given the rates and methods of finding them, our catalog should be about 90% complete. Finding an asteroid this size that eluded detection up until now is somewhat unsettling. How many more have we missed?

Let me be clear: this could be a statistical fluke; even if we know of 90% of all the NEAs out there, 10% still lurk out in the black. It could simply be that this first one found by WISE is somewhat on the hefty side, and the next 20 will be far smaller. Remember too, this one is bright in the IR (in the above picture, red is actually at a wavelength of 12 microns, 15 times longer what the human eye can see) and so it was easy to spot. Smaller ones are fainter, so they may not be as obvious and will take longer to detect. Also, AB78 is on a weird orbit, tipped substantially (about 33°) to the plane of the solar system, again making it more difficult to spot.

And in a way, this is good news! The more we know about these things, the better. AB78 may be a fluke, or there may be more rocks this size out there hiding, but either way I want as much info as we can get. Just knowing how many asteroids of a given size orbit the Sun and get near the Earth is an important piece of data, so that we can apply some statistics to them and try to figure out, on average, how often we get hit. That’s one of the things WISE will do over its 10-month-long mission, so in a year or so we’ll be in a better position to understand these orbiting worldlets.

Emily Lakdawalla at The Planetary Society has more info as well.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA


Five Questions With Panera Bread iMac Man [Interview]

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Unwittingly snapped by a sandwich shop paparazzo, Panera Bread iMac Man took center stage in our corner of the internet for one day in December. More pictures surfaced, but our questions remained unanswered. So we got in touch.

Well, actually, he got in touch with us. Going in, we knew only what we could see: he uses his iMac in Panera Bread; he plays lots of World of Warcraft; he's a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma dressed in a plaid shirt. His photos were viewed by over 100,000 people on our site, and countless more elsewhere. He is Panera Bread iMac Man.

We now know that his name is James, he's a cheery fellow, and he works as an administrator at a large non-profit. Here's what he had to say, when I talked to him over a sandwich at his local Panera Bread. Ok ok ok, my phone. But still!

Why do you bring your iMac to Panera bread? This could also be phrased as, what do you have against laptops?

I've got nothing against laptops! At my age, I appreciate the bigger screen. The same dollars would not have gotten me a laptop with screen that size. I got an iLugger to carry it around; I grew up with the original mac, so I'm used to the weight.

I don't have an internet connection at home, so I use Panera's. At that particular Panera, I can drive my car, park it underground, and walk right up without exposing the iMac to any weather.

Do the people at Panera give you a hard time? Did they accept your computing habits right off the bat, or did it take time?

No, no. What [the photos] don't show, is that all around me are people with computers. There's usually about 50/50 on Macbooks, iBooks, and PCs.

What level is your World of Warcraft character?

I couldn't see from the screen which one that was, but I have three characters—two level 80s, and an, oh, I guess one level 14.

How'd you get into WoW?

The reason I started playing WoW was because of my niece's son, who was 9 years old, was playing at the time. I started playing in self-defense.

Are you enjoying your marginal internet celebrity? How did you find out you'd been snapped and posted online?

I was looking though MacSurfer, and saw the title. I sent the link to my buddies, and I was like, "that damn photo makes me look bald!"

It comes as a shock, though. About six months ago, a guy walked over to me, and he had done a sketch. He asked, "is this OK?" Now I have it framed, sitting on top of my counter.

Thanks for talking to us, James!


How to Circumvent Android 2.1’s Word Filter [Android]

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Android 2.1 helps you avoid awkward situations by censoring foul language when you use the voice transcription feature. #### that! Here's a quick and dirty work around courtesy of author Neil Gaiman: Add "dot com" after your string of filth.

According to a statement by a Google spokesperson, the original word filtering is "less about sanitizing users' speech and more about making sure curse words don't accidentally appear in transcriptions erroneously." Fair enough, but an option to turn the function off would be nice. In the meantime, you can cheat the system a little by adding a "dot com' as Jason did when he text messaged me earlier. It looks messy, but a bit amusing, too. [Mashable via Neil Gaiman]


For Guilt-Free Fur, Wear a Coat Made From an Invasive Water Rat | Discoblog

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nutriaAt a time when wearing fur is generally considered a fashion faux pas, designers like Oscar de le Renta and Billy Reid are taking a big fashion risk. They are selling pelts from an unusual source: the nutria.

Ever heard of the nutria? It’s a nocturnal, semi-aquatic rodent that weighs around 12 pounds. It has the body of a beaver, the tail of a rat, the feet of a duck, and it wears its nipples on the sides of its body rather than on its belly. It is also destroying Louisiana’s wetlands.

In the 1930s, Louisiana fur farms imported these animals from Argentina for their supple pelts. Unfortunately, some nutria got loose and made Louisiana’s marshes their new home. As the demand for nutria fur diminished in the 1980s, these animals went from posh fashion statement to ecological pest.

Today, nutria have destroyed tens of thousands of acres of wetlands in Louisiana by feeding on marsh vegetation. Nutria graze on the roots of plants, making it difficult for this vegetation to regenerate. When a marsh’s natural flora is destroyed, the soil underneath gets swept away by the tide, and the marsh becomes open water.

Over the years, the government of Louisiana has gone to great lengths to curb the nutria problem. It has even invented a number of nutria-based recipes, encouraging citizens to make nutria a delicious part of their daily diets.

Members of Louisiana’s Coastwide Nutria Control Program already kill thousands of nutria a year, letting their pelts go to waste. But now, designers and activists alike are attempting to hype the nutria as an eco-friendly source of fur. One group, known as Righteous Fur, is promoting the use of nutria in fashion and even held a nutria fur design competition on January 8th.

So if you love the feel of fur on your skin, but don’t want to be burdened with guilt, consider the nutria. That is, if you don’t mind wearing a water rat.

By Anna Rothschild. This article is provided by Scienceline, a project of New York University’s Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program.

Image: flickr / amboo who?


Ford Ranger 4×4 Diesel Questions

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can somebody help with the head bolts torque setting, the valve clearance and valve sequences, the torque for the camshaft pulley and the timing settings for a ford ranger 4x4 diesel pick up. I am working in Iraq at the moment and need to repair my work pick up. I have not been able to get this info

117 Beautifully Blurry Photos [Shootingchallenge]

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Motion blur! It doesn't just ruin photos. It's also something that can be used for artistic effect, when done properly. And for the results of this week's Shooting Challenge, we've got 117 photographers who did just that.

First Runner Up


This is my favorite Korg, and I thought this would be pretty cool to capture "In motion!"
I used a Canon Rebel T1I
f/25
20 Second Exposure
18-55mm Lens (shot at 27mm)
ISO 100
Developed in Lightroom2
And my lighting was a small fluorescent tube light, the size you would put in a closet and such... -Marcel Maynard

Second Runner Up


Camera:Canon EOS REBEL T1i
Lens: 18-55m F/3.5
Exposure:3.2
Aperture:f/22.0
Focal Length:28 mm
ISO Speed:100
Exposure Bias:-1/3 EV
-Shant Meguerdichian

Winner


Camera: Canon S90
Shutter Speed: 0.81 sec
Aperture: F/8
Focal Length 6mm
ISO: 80
Exposure Compensation: -0.7 step
-David McGibbon


An otherworldly eclipse | Bad Astronomy

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What’s this? Two outstanding and surpassingly beautiful Cassini images in one day?

Yeah, because this is how much I love you guys. Check. This. Out:

cassini_tethys_dione

[Click to embiggen.]

That is so cool! It’s Saturn’s moon Dione passing in front of Tethys as their mutual motion, combined with Cassini’s, give us this incredible view of what astronomers call an occultation (also called a "mutual event"… but you can just think of it as an eclipse).

There’s so much awesomeness in this picture. For one, see the faint glow on the "dark" side of Tethys? That’s reflected light from Saturn, which is well off to the right in this picture. But we don’t see any reflected light on Dione. Why not?

Even though the two moons look about the same distance away, that’s very misleading: in this image, Tethys is 2.6 million kilometers (1.6 million miles) from Cassini, while Dione is 400,000 km (240,000 miles) closer. That’s enough to significantly change the geometry of the situation, so that we don’t see Saturnlight on Dione.

Note that while both moons are roughly the same size (Tethys is 1062 km (660 miles) across, and Dione is 1123 km (700 miles) in diameter), Dione looks bigger because it was closer to Cassini when these shots were snapped. If they had been at the same distance from Cassini, you’d just barely be able to tell Dione is bigger. Sometimes distance matters, not size.

And sometimes size matters too. It’s hard to miss the vast Odysseus crater on Tethys, a terrifying 400 km (240 miles) across. That’s the size of Ohio. An impact that large on Earth would pretty much wipe out every living thing on the planet’s surface.

For another little dose of coolness, these images were taken about one minute apart, covering just two minutes of Cassini’s tour of Saturn and its armada of moons. Imagine what you’d see if you could be there, staying at a hotel orbiting Titan? What wonders would befall your eyes if you had years to explore?

Hmmm. Come to think of it, we don’t have to wonder about it. Cassini is showing us.

Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute


Publishers Say Apple Tablet Won’t Be Near $1000, Won’t Have a Lot of Books Until Mid 2010 [Rumor]

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9to5Mac claims that they've talked to a few content publishers (magazines, newspapers), and those publishers are claiming inside knowledge about the device. Most importantly, that it'll be "[nowhere] near $1000, as has been reported elsewhere."

These publishers 9to5Mac talked to didn't actually see any prototypes, but it was described to them as a 10-inch glass screen that's smaller than a Kindle DX, but "with a similar weight." That the software is going to be the "game changer" is nothing new, but Apple's supposedly going around describing the tablet in comparison to the Kindle as the change from black and white TVs to color.

Other interesting bits: current ebook distributors on the App Store now are going to get screwed once Apple's official one hits, and don't expect a lot of content until "mid 2010 at the very earliest." [9to5Mac]


iPhone App iMicroscope Lets You Be The Scientist You Always Wished You Were [IPhone Apps]

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So you always wanted to be a scientist...except you aren't. Never fear! The iMicroscope iPhone app is here. When used with a microscope (surely you've got one of those kicking around?) you can take ultra-precise scientific photos.

Whatever you put on the microscope slide—my hot tip is a slice of watermelon, or a strand of hair—you'll be able to see just fine through the viewfinder of the device. But what if you want a photo of it in all its magnified glory? You download iMicroscope (for $2.99) and take a photo down the eye of the viewfinder, with the app then requiring you to insert the level of magnification you were looking at, for example 40x.

After that, the image is displayed, letting you zoom in and out, with a scale bar down the bottom for reference. You can email the image, or save it to your camera roll—and when you go back to it later, it will auto-format to the magnification you last viewed it in.

Check out the video below for a demo on how it's done, by the suitably nerdy and squeaky-voiced developer. Ahh, scientists. [iMicroscope via Technabob]


New AMD Athlon II and Phenom II Clock In At Under $120 [Amd]

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AMD has released several new processors in the Athlon and Phenom II lineups and aimed them squarely at budget-minded consumers. The chips have already been benchmarked on several sites, and, overall, they appear to offer good performance for the price.

For benchmark comparisons, check out Hot Hardware, AnandTech, Computer Shopper, Tom's Hardware, Overclocker's Club, and ExtremeTech [AMD via Engadget]


Do (HAM) Radio Operators Use Lightning Arrestors?

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I finally got around putting my 2M JPole on the roof and got (of course) much better reception and transmission. However when looping over the HAM blogs I did not find any discussion on lightning arrestors. I would like to get some experience info about this and especially if it can be done withou