Talkingapple's List: 103

• The BBC reported on Friday that Ive can now go by "Sir Jonathan." The knighthood, which is for "services to design and enterprise," is a step up from his previous title of Commander of the British Empire, which was awarded in 2005.
   
   Ive responded that he was "both humbled and sincerely grateful" by the commendation.
   
   "I am keenly aware that I benefit from a wonderful tradition in the UK of designing and making," he said. "I discovered at an early age that all I've ever wanted to do is design."
• Ive, who grew up in Chingford, a town northeast of London, credits his silversmith father with inspiring him as a designer.
• Ive went on to study Industrial Design at Newcastle Polytechnic, now called Northumbria University. It was there that he first realized the potential of designing on the Mac.
   
   "I discovered the Mac and felt I had a connection with the people who were making this product," he said. "I suddenly understood what a company was, or was supposed to be."
   
   After graduating, Ive worked as a designer in the U.K., eventually founding a design agency. Apple hired the firm to do design work and was so impressed by Ive's work that it offered him a full-time position.
• "There's no one who can tell him what to do," Jobs told biographer Walter Isaacson. "That's the way I set it up.'"
   
   While Jobs and Ive were close friends, Ive did admit to Isaacson that he felt Jobs had stolen the credit for some of his ideas.
• Ive has received numerous industry awards for his work as a designer, including the title of smartest designer in tech by Forbes Magazine, Designer of the Year by the Design Museum London and Royal Designer for Industry by The Royal Society of Arts. Earlier this year, Ive and his designs were featured in an exhibit at a German art museum.

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• customize applications, settings and features to a user's personal preferences once they pick up the device.

  • A couple that share an iPad could have different settings, wallpapers, etc all activated via face rec.
• Entitled "Low Threshold Face Recognition," it describes a low-computation solution for quickly and accurately recognizing a user.
• U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and discovered by AppleInsider.
• robust facial recognition systems that work in various lighting conditions and orientations can be taxing on an electronic device, requiring resources and draining battery life

  • Patent describes how the face recognition system would have to be developed to work effectively as the technology isn't good enough yet, but potentially this could be a way to unlock phones too

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• eBizcuss, the largest Apple reseller in France, has sued Apple alleging that the company competes unfairly by favoring its own retail stores with new product inventory and by undercutting proposals to small businesses.
• CEO François Prudent has claimed his business, which operates 16 locations throughout France, saw a 30 percent decline in the third quarter of 2011 due to reduced shipments of iPad 2 and MacBook Air units, Le Figaro reports
• Prudent also complained about spending $6.5 million to meet Apple's strict requirements for resellers. "Since 2007, we revamped our point-of-sale system at the request of Apple to meet Apple’s criteria,” he said.

  • Your building your business on somebody else's business, what do you expect. It's a bit like building a business on YouTube. 
• the Mac maker's retail business has seen continued success, the company has been targeted for legal action by disgruntled resellers. In 2003, three resellers, including MACadam, filed law suits against Apple alleging breach of contract and fraud. In 2005, several resellers banded together to file a class-action lawsuit against Apple, alleging the company had engaged in acts of unfair and unlawful business practices, breach of contract, and misappropriation of trade secrets.

  • These will dissaper in time. 

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• demolishing of its previous year's quarterly records--and its annihilation of all competitors' sales--in prelaunch quarters wasn't enough to prevent critics from voicing their disappointment
• In contrast, Microsoft's decade old Tablet PC business, recycled last year under "Slate PC" branding with partner HP, completely collapsed,

  • discuss windows 8

  • discuss playbook, touchpad and android tablet platforms
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  • • is it next year? And probably not too late.
• Apple "only" sold 17.07 million iPhones, sending analysts into confused disappointment for not reaching their forecasts of 20 million smartphones in a quarter where the company had delayed the launch of its new iPhone 4S while it continued outselling every other smartphone on the US market with its year old iPhone 4 and the second place, two year old iPhone 3GS.
• Over half of the iPods Apple now sells are the iOS-based iPod touch
• Microsoft finally threw in the towel on its Zune brand of media players

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• Apple hit a new milestone of 250 million iOS devices
• introduced new iOS apps, including the free PhotoBooth for iPad 2 and the iLife apps GarageBand and iMovie, initially released with iPad 2 and later made available for iPhone and iPod touch users in the fall. Apple similarly made its iWork suite of Pages, Keynote and Numbers iOS apps, initially released alongside the original iPad in 2010, available for iPhone and iPod touch users in May.
• new policies for its App Store this year, including rules that prevent apps from linking to external purchase options (such as for in app content or subscriptions) without providing an alternative way for users to also buy the same thing through the App Store.
• fear that Apple’s policies would deny them the consumer data they need to do business was unfounded."
• tempest in a teapot for iOS in 2011 was the Locationgate crisis, kicked off by two researchers who discovered a database of location information on the iPhone that appeared to map a path of where users had taken their device.

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• released iOS 5.0, which introduced a new Notifications Center
• Message
• Newsstand app
• Reminders app for working with To-Do and location-based events;
• system-wide integration with Twitter
• Safari with support for Private Browsing, Reader and Reading List features
• added "PC-free"
• iCloud also introduced a new cloud Documents & Data
• ind My Friends app.
• Siri,

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• Apple's iOS competition