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The tweet that made Steve Jobs furious

// February 9th, 2010 // No Comments » // Mac OS // Mac OS

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Apple doesn’t have a huge social media presence. There’s an iTunes Facebook page and what can arguably be called a MobileMe blog, but that’s about it. However, they do monitor the likes of Twitter, like any self-respecting company would, and a recent tweet reportedly ticked off Steve Jobs but good.

While publicizing the iPad, Steve met with a number of tech writers in New York including Wall Street Journal editor Alan Murray, who sent the following Tweet:

“This tweet sent from an iPad. Does it look cool?”

According to Vallyewag, the tweet infuriated Steve Jobs and was soon deleted. When Valleywag followed up with Alan to ask about the incident, he replied by simply saying that he can’t discuss it.

Apple is notorious for great design, extreme secrecy and what many have called paranoia. Teams working on unreleased products are kept under a “cone of silence,” and Steve has reportedly gone off on high-profile members of the press who had written disagreeable reviews of Apple products. This seems like another example.

Lest you think Steve is just a big meanie, he gets it as much as he dishes it out. In rather not-safe-for-work terms, Steve shared with the panel of journalists the flavor of some of the angry emails he’s received from disgruntled fans after product announcements. We’ll let you read that on your own.

[Via MacRumors page 2]

TUAWThe tweet that made Steve Jobs furious originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 08 Feb 2010 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Rumor: MacBook Pro refresh imminent, SKUs dropped from Best Buy systems

// February 9th, 2010 // No Comments » // Mac OS // Mac OS

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Update: Commenters point out that our tipster pulled the Best Buy inventory screen image from this thread on the MacRumors forums (he did provide independent confirmation of the SKU deletion). I was not aware of the forum thread at the time the post was written, and there was at the time no corresponding post on the main MacRumors site (although there is now). My apologies to the forum poster for the lack of credit for the image; I should have double-verified where it came from before running it.

In the world of retail computer sales, nothing is quite so deterministic as the disappearance of model SKUs (stock keeping units, store jargon for “the numbers that correspond to the widgets we sell, and how we track our inventory and sales”) from a chain’s price list or database system. When that happens, no additional orders can be placed for the deleted item(s), and it’s a pretty safe bet that something new is right around the corner.

Dovetailing nicely with the rumor I noted early Saturday morning regarding benchmark results showing up for a mystery MacBook Pro, we now have a tip that existing MacBook Pro SKUs have been deleted from Best Buy’s sales system. The picture above (which was posted in the MacRumors forums) shows the screen display for the 13″ model, no longer orderable. It’s now dramatically more likely that we’ll see new MacBook Pro models in the immediate future — possibly as early as this Tuesday, just in time for Apple to show them off on the Macworld Expo show fl–

Oh. Right. Drat.

Thanks Jose

TUAWRumor: MacBook Pro refresh imminent, SKUs dropped from Best Buy systems originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Game developers on iPhone outnumber DS and PSP two-to-one

// February 9th, 2010 // No Comments » // Apps, Mac OS // Apps, Mac OS

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Game Developer Research has published its 2009/10 survey of video game developers, and the results are pretty impressive for the still relatively fledgling iPhone platform: The number of developers who are working on mobile games increased by 12 percent, and there are actually twice as many developers working on iPhone games as are working on the Nintendo DS and Sony’s PSP handheld consoles.

That’s a pretty amazing number, though it’s not quite a surprise when you consider it. First of all, Nintendo DS and PSP publishing takes a much larger investment than Apple’s $100 developer fee and an SDK download. Second, while the DS and the PSP are certainly selling a lot of games, they’re not actually releasing nearly as many as the hundreds of thousands of apps on the App Store. Finally, new DS and PSP games sell for $30 or $40, while new App Store games sell much closer to 99 cents. So the fact that there are lots more people moving to the much more open and accessible platform isn’t really that surprising.

But a figure like that does show just how much Apple’s handheld platform has changed the mobile gaming environment. I would argue that there’s still a place for handhelds like the DS and PSP — devices essentially meant to play games rather than check email or browse the Internet. Even with the iPad coming, Apple still isn’t actually focusing on games, though the iPod touch is probably closest to that idea. Whether Apple focuses on gaming or not, there’s no question that there’s a huge new player in the mobile gaming space. Sooner rather than later, Nintendo and Sony may have to sweeten their deals to keep premium developers on their platform.

TUAWGame developers on iPhone outnumber DS and PSP two-to-one originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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