The company demonstrates its system by placing a Louis Vuitton iPhone 4 Case call from a room where loud rock music is being played. When the noise suppression chip is turned on, there is a striking decline in background noise while the speakers voice remains clearly audible.

According to Barnes and Noble’s website, the official Steve Jobs biography – titled Steve Jobs: A Biography - is becoming available on November 21, 2011. This is a big leap from the previously announced March 6, 2012 release date for the first Steve Jobs-approved biography.  In addition, the book seller’s website has seemingly revealed the cover for the biography (shown above), and it is unsurprisingly simple. (via AllThingsD).

The book is also 448 pages long and is based on over 40 interviews with Steve Jobs in addition to interviews with his family and friends. Interestingly, although approved by Jobs, the Apple CEO had no control over the biography’s contents. The Apple CEO had this to say about the biography:

I’ve done a lot of things I’m not proud of, such as getting my girlfriend pregnant when I was 23 and the way I handled that, he said. But I don’t have any skeletons in my closet that can’t be allowed out.

Here is the full description of the biography:iPhone 4 Cases|iPhone 4 Covers|iPhone 5 Cases|Designer iPhone 5 Cases

Based on more than forty interviews with Jobs conducted over two years as well as interviews with more than a hundred family members, friends, adversaries, competitors, and colleagues this book chronicles the rollercoaster life and searingly intense personality of a creative entrepreneur whose passion for perfection and ferocious drive revolutionized six industries: personal computers, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing, and digital publishing.

It is also a book about innovation. At a time when America is seeking ways to sustain its innovative edge, and when societies around the world are trying to build digital-age economies, Jobs stands as the ultimate icon of inventiveness and applied imagination. He knew that the best way to create value in the 21st century was to connect creativity with technology, so he built a company where leaps of the imagination were combined with remarkable feats of engineering.

Although Jobs cooperated with this book, he asked for no control over what was written nor even the right to read it before it was published. He put nothing off limits and instead encouraged the people he knew to speak honestly even foes, former girlfriends, and colleagues he had once fired or infuriated. “I’ve done a lot of things I’m not proud of, such as getting my girlfriend pregnant when I was 23 and the way I handled that,” he said. “But I don’t have any skeletons in my closet that can’t be allowed out.”

Jobs speaks candidly, sometimes brutally so, about the people he worked with and competed against. Likewise, his friends, foes, and colleagues provide an unvarnished view of the passions, perfectionism, obsessions, artistry, devilry, and compulsion for control that shaped his approach to business and the innovative products that resulted.

He was not a model boss or human being, tidily packaged for emulation. Driven by demons, he could drive those around him to fury and despair. But his personality and products were interrelated, just as Apple’s hardware and software tended to be, as if part of an integrated system. His tale is thus both instructive and cautionary, filled with lessons about innovation, character, leadership, and values.

The above chart from research firm IHS iSuppli tells us that premium TV brands have been consistently lowering  prices of high-end LCD TV units because white label makers have been on a roll, putting out inexpensive products with features previously offered by branded vendors only.According to IHS iSuppli, the average price of a typical high-end LCD TV in the United States dropped from $1,317.89 in July 2010 to $1,002.58 in July of this year. That’s a healthy 23.9 percent drop in just a year. IHS displays researcher Lisa Hatamiya:Chanel iPhone 4 Cases

Long the chief attraction for high-end brands like Sony and Samsung, features such as 1080p high-definition resolution, 120Hz refresh rates and LED backlighting technology now are cropping up in value brands entering the market, especially in the 40- to 42-inch space. But unlike their pricey counterparts, the new upstarts boast dramatically lower pricing. For example, value brands like Apex and Element offer 40-inch 1080p/120Hz LED sets for $550 at Target and Wal-Mart stores across the United States. In comparison, premium brands with the same features are priced at about $1,100—double the price offered by the discount brands.

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It has been speculated that a possible networked television set from Apple won’t gain traction due to vendors going after each other’s throat with low-priced commodity products that yield very slim margins. This would force Apple out of the entry- to mid-level range and the company would price itself even out of the premium segment, conventional wisdom has it. Then again, wasn’t the mobile landscape riddled with same barriers to entry prior to the iPhone? With the average selling price of a premium LCD TV falling below the magic $1,000 barrier, however, the timing for an Apple television couldn’t be better. A stylish 50-inch television set priced at $999 with the shiny Apple logo could easily hit the ground running and here’s why.Designer iPhone 4 Cases|Louis Vuitton iPhone 4 Cases

Your guess is as good as ours, of course, so feel free to chime in down in the comments. For starters, Apple has mastered the art of supply and high volume manufacturing to perfection. They enjoy all the benefits that come with it, such as economies of scale. Backed by a strong marketing push from Apple’s marketing machinery and with the added benefits of tight iCloud integration, a television from Apple simply feels right. Apple is also thought to bebuilding super data centers all around the world, apparently to serve full HD television programming in local markets, thereby reducing latency and offloading bandwidth pressure off the North Carolina facility. A television product would turn Apple into a 21st century broadcaster and widen the addressable market for app developers to include screen sizes ranging from 3.5-inch smartphones and 9.7-inch tablets to 13-inch, 15-inch and 17-inch notebooks all the way up to 27-inch desktops and 50-inch big screen TV for your living room. And if OS X and iOS unite, as few say, the underpinnings for such a product are all but in place. After all, Apple is a $100+ billion company now and it can only grow that much unless it enters new markets. Big screen TVs are not on par with cell phones, computers and soon tablets, but it’s the only consumer electronics market segment (save dedicated game consoles) big enough for Apple and it appears to be in the same state of flux that the music industry was a decade ago. Make sense?Burberry iPhone 4 Cases

It appears that Apple is now putting an LTE 4G-capable iPhone or iPad through the usual carrier testing. The proof comes from a .plist hinting at “LTE” (discovered by BGR) in an internal iOS test build that is allegedly from “one of Apple’s major carrier partners”. Of course at this point we don’t know whether this is the iPhone 5 (iPhone 4S variant?) or even a new iPad, but its a good sign that the company has plans to take advantage of 4G LTE networks in the future… even if it isn’t the iPhone 5 “worldphone” you might be hoping for.

This wouldn’t be the first time Apple prototyped a device to take advantage of the latest carrier networks.iPhone 5 Screen Protector

Plist file reproduced below:Louis Vuitton iPhone 5 Cases|Gucci iPhone 5 Cases|Chanel iPhone 5 Cases

Remember Smart Case, that blatant rip-off of Apple’s Smart Cover that was traced back to Samsung and subsequently pulled following a ashinekit story? It will be much harder for Chinese knock-off vendors to put knock-off cases like that one on sale in the country because Apple, as Patently Apple discovered today, has filed for a figurative Smart Cover trademark in China. The company previously filed for the actual trademark Smart Cover name in Canada, the US, Europe and China.

However, a figurative trademark is much stronger as it “confers the exclusive right to the trademark in its concrete figurative version, whereas a word trademark confers the exclusive right to the word(s) in any font with or without figurative elements”, the publication explains. The patent application was filed today with the Patent & Trademark Office in China and covers covering cases, sleeves, sheaths and pouches for computers as well as business cases, claiming the above three-dimensional shape as an element of the trademark. Makes you wonder what took so long…iPad 2 Cases|Louis Vuitton iPad 2 Cases

Google today announced in a blog post an agreement to acquire Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion, a 63 percent premium to the closing price of Motorola Mobility shares on Friday, August 12, 2011. Is this an example of “moon shots” we’d been promised? Hard to tell as this is a developing story, but Google recently accused Apple and others of attempting to “strangle Android” through litigation.

Motorola Stock was suspiciously up last Friday on rumors of an Icahn takeover.  Perhaps Icahn was gathering enough strength to make the decision.

A statement on Google’s Investor Relations site and Motorola Mobility’s press section quotes Motorola CEO Sanjay Jha, Google CEO Larry Page and the search firm’s senior vice president of mobile Andy Rubin as saying that this strategic acquisition will “enable Google to supercharge the Android ecosystem and will enhance competition in mobile computing.” It will be interesting to see how other Android backers react to the news that their operating system provider is in bed with one of their rivals. Google on its part says Motorola Mobility will “remain a licensee of Android and Android will remain open”, adding they will run Motorola Mobility as a separate business.

If the deal doesn’t go through, Google owes Motorola $2.5B.

Motorola Mobility, of course, has helped put Android on the map with their aggressive anti-Apple promotion of the original Droid. Still, Apple is reaping the vast chunk of profits in the handset business. Motorola Mobility in the June quarter reported a GAAP net loss of $56 million, 19 cents a share, on revenues of $3.3 billion and non-GAAP earnings at nine cents a share. They shipped 400,000 Xoom tablets, amounting to an estimated 2.65 percent tablet market share in June, and 4.4 million Android smartphones, enough to earn an eight percent market share and rank Motorola Mobility as the #8 smartphone vendor and #5 Android backer. Contrast this to Apple…
 

Apple in the June quarter sold an astounding 20.34 million iPhones and 9.25 million iPads, in addition to four million Macs and nine million iPods, enough for all-time record quarterly revenue and earnings of $28.57 billion and $7.31 billion respectively. iPhone alone has captured two-thirds of the profits generated from sales of handsets in the second quarter of this year, analyst Horace Dediu explained. In addition, latest surveys from the biggest name in market research have all cemented Apple as the new king of smartphones. Conventional wisdom has it that Google may be after Motorola Mobility’s patent portfolio here, although it seems preposterous that the search giant would pay a lump sum of $12.billion for an intellectual property portfolio that is strong, but probably not strong enough to defend the patent bomb that is Android.

Patent expert Florian Mueller said on Twitter he “would caution everyone against overestimating the strength of Motorola Mobility’s patent portfolio,” noting that “Apple and Microsoft sued Motorola Mobility anyway”. Mueller also observed this morning in a blog post that most Android vendors have lost their Linux distribution rights, opening doors to thousands of people out there“who could legally shake down Android device makers, threatening to obtain Apple-style injunctions unless their demands for a new license grant are met”. Mueller also told me on Twitterthat “Google may want to become an Apple” by entering the hardware side of the mobile business. Steve Jobs several times quoted the legendary tech visionary Alan Kay who had said many years ago that “people who are really serious about software should make their own hardware”.Chanel iPad 2 Cases|Gucci iPad 2 Cases|Burberry iPad 2 Cases

As a Grand Central commuter into New York City, this whole Apple Store thing has been surreal.  The WSJ posts some renderings of what the store would look like and frankly, it is amazing.  The Store is so big and open that Apple will become part of Grand Central.

Think delicious free Apple Wifi for instance.

New details emerged today.  Should the Board approve Apple’s bid on Wednesday, Apple will begin construction immediately and it is estimated to only take 4 months to build out the new Store?!  So, theoretically it is open for the holidays.

Also, more information on the ouster:

Apple is paying Charlie Palmer’s Metrazur restaurant $5 million to vacate its space on the terminal’s east balcony more than eight years before its lease expires. The MTA will get significantly higher annual rent: $1.1 million from Apple vs. $263,997 from Metrazur. 

  

In addition to the space currently occupied by Metrazur, Apple will move into an adjacent, currently vacant balcony on the northeast side of the terminal. 

  

  

 

 

f that weren’t enough (and it is) the MTA announced that there was a Shake Shack going into Grand Central as well.

And if that weren’t enough, at today’s announcement the MTA piled it on the lowly Penn Station commuters like Dr. Macenstein:

 

“It maintains Grand Central as the iconic structure and place that it is,” Metro-North Railroad President Howard Permut said at a meeting of the MTA board’s railroad committee. That committee oversees Metro-North, which controls the terminal.

During his presentation, MTA Real Estate Director Jeffrey Rosen announced both the Apple store and a new Shake Shack for the terminal.

“I can’t imagine why any kid in Westchester would want to do anything other than go into Grand Central and shop at Apple and eat at Shake Shack,” Rosen said.

Board members wryly noted that Penn Station, Grand Central’s less glamorous sister across town, will not be offering such sleek retail any time soon.

“Kids from Long Island and Jersey can take the 1 and 2 and then the shuttle” to buy iPads and Shackburgers, said Pat Foye, the board member from Nassau County.

The board member from Suffolk, Mitchell Pally, followed his lead:

“It makes the Penn Station customers no longer second-class citizens,” he said. “It makes them third-class citizens.”

Foye piled on:

“This creates not only a digital, but a cheeseburger divide, between the two.”iPad 2 Cases:

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Following the release of OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.8 a little over a month ago, Apple has released a new version of the operating system to users with bug fixes. This bug fix update will come automatically in the download for those who are still running earlier versions of Snow Leopard, but a patch is available for those who are already on 10.6.8.

The Mac OS X 10.6.8 Supplemental Update is recommended for all users running Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.8 and resolves issues with:

• Transferring personal data, settings, and compatible applications from a Mac running Mac OS X Snow Leopard to a new Mac running Mac OS X Lion
• Certain network printers that pause print jobs immediately and fail to complete#mce_temp_url#
• System audio that stops working when using HDMI or optical audio out Louis Vuitton iPhone 4 Cases|Chanel iPhone 4 Cases|Gucci iPhone 4 Cases

The update is available via the Mac’s Software Update application and the direct links are after the break.

Links via MacRumors:

- Mac OS X 10.6.8 Supplemental Update (10.19 MB) – for users already on Mac OS X 10.6.8
- Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update v.1.1 (453.55 MB) – delta release for users who have yet to update to Mac OS X 10.6.8
- Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1 (1.09 GB) – combo release for users who have yet to update to Mac OS X 10.6.8
- Mac OS X 10.6.8 Server Supplemental Update (10.23 MB) – for users already on Mac OS X Server 10.6.8
- Mac OS X Server v10.6.8 Update v1.1 (518.28 MB) – delta release for users who have yet to update to Mac OS X Server 10.6.8
- Mac OS X Server v10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1 (1.18 GB) – combo release for users who have yet to update to Mac OS X Server 10.6.8

An artistĄŻs rendition of iPhone 5 by Guilherme Schasiepen

iPhone Italia learns Ą°from a very reliable sourceĄą that SwitzerlandĄŻs carrier Swisscom will offer a next-generation iPhone beginning October 5, following a September 5 launch in the United States. The handset, we learn via a not-so-accurate Google translation, will arrive to international markets in October. This information apparently comes from a senior Swisscom executive who is apparently in the know because Apple has already contacted carriers around the world to make necessary arrangements.

Swisscom, AppleĄŻs partner, currently offers iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS. Apple also has distribution agreements in Switzerland with carriers Sunrise and Orange. Unlike the other two carriers, Swisscom does not offer authorized carrier unlock even though Apple itself sells unlocked iPhones in the country via its online Apple Store. Lowell McAdam, a new CEO for Verizon Wireless, suggested in a conference call with analysts today that the next iPhone should come out this Fall:

We are probably what I would view as maybe a quarter behind what we had talked about in January, primarily because we expected an iPhone 5 refresh sometime this summer. We donĄŻt know when the next one is going to come out. You will have to ask Apple that, but we expect that probably sometime in the fall, and I think you will see a significant jump there when we get to that point.iPhone 5 Covers|Designer iPhone 4 Cases|LV iPhone 4 Cases

Pinch-zoom, the trademark gesture Apple popularized with iPhone, seen above to peek inside and open a stack of photos on iPad.

9to5Google.com sourced several DigiTimes articles from this morning about a rumored Android-driven Amazon tablet said to arrive by September. The gist of it is that the Amazon device will use a low-cost touch panel that can only recognize two fingers at once, instead of ten fingers for touch panels found in premium-classed tablets such as the iPad.

Asian firm Wintek, AppleĄŻs touch panel supplier, will reportedly supply Amazon with touch panels for their upcoming tablet. Thanks to strong iPad and iPhone 4 sales and new orders from Amazon, WintekĄŻs third-quarter capacity is now booked up. Amazon is said to be developing an affordable device for the mass market, thus less capable touch panel, asserts DigiTimes:

For touch-panel solutions, two-finger solutions, instead of 10-finger ones, are sufficient for entry-level smartphones, noted the sources, adding that many smartphones and tablet PCs launched recently in China and emerging markets, as well as the tablets to be launched by Amazon, all adopted two-finger solutions.

While two fingers are better than one and suffice for pinch-zoom gesturing, some apps benefit from multiple touch points, such as AppleĄŻs GarageBand for iPad that lets you play virtual keyboards, guitars and other virtual instruments with your fingers.iPhone 4 Cases|iPhone 4 Covers|iPhone 5 Cases

Boy Genius ReportĄŻs Jonathan Geller has an exclusive on iPhone 5, claiming that AT&T is gearing up for an early to mid-September launch of iPhone 5. The carrier is apparently communicating launch plans to employees, Geller claims, and urging them to finish training as soon as possible:

AT&T is asking managers to finish training in order to have employees available for the influx of foot traffic expected in September, a proven source has shared with us. Other reports indicate that Apple is looking to hire additional Apple Store staff to be on hand for Ą°new product launchesĄą during the same period of time, further supporting our information.

This pretty much jibes with what we know so far, including a MacRumors story about Apple increasing retail staffing for August-September in the US and an unreliable report calling for a September iPhone 5 launch in the US (October everywhere). Apple issued the fourth iOS 5 beta over the weekend as an over-the-air update, expanded the App Store to 33 new countries, flip the switch on the Documents in the Cloud feature of iOS 5 and enabled wireless device syncing in Windows with the latest iOS 5 beta, which all signals that the company is polishing the software and smoothing out a couple of rough edges before the official release. In addition, T-Mobile USA is now cozying up to iPhone users while Verizon has been seen clearing iPhone 4 accessories stock in anticipation of iPhone 5 launch.LV iPhone 5 Cases|Louis Vuitton iPhone 5 Cases|Gucci iPhone 5 Cases|Chanel iPhone 5 Cases

According to on online report, the final version of the iOS 4.3 operating system is set to February 28 (2011). The Daily app for iPad relies on in-app recurring subscription which coincidently is a part of iOS 4.3. The trial version for the app for iPad expires today and the developer behind this app has pushed the trial period to February 28. This is a big hint from Apple about the release date of iOS 4.3. In order words, until Apple releases iOS 4.3, The Daily app cannot charge its customers for recurring subscriptions.

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