One year of Tim Cook as CEO of Apple

Exactly one year ago today, Tim Cook took over the leadership of Apple from Steve Jobs. CNET's Josh Lowensohn reports that his first year at the company has been a huge success.

Not everyone believed that Cook, who had filled in for Jobs twice during his battle with pancreatic cancer, would keep the company on its incredible journey. When the announcement of his appointment as CEO was made, Apple's stock dropped more than $6 a share. But now the stock is up 44 percent over its value at this time in 2011 and Apple was recently named the most valuable company in the world in terms of market capitalization.

During Cook's first year, the company continued to see revenue growth outpacing the rest of the industry during a worldwide recession, continues to fight patent battles against rivals in court to assure that Apple (in the words of Cook) "not become the developer for the world," and has released follow-ons to its highly successful products.

However, some Wall Street analysts believe that Apple's future is bleak without the charisma of Jobs at the helm. Forrester CEO George Colony was quoted in April as saying that "Apple's momentum will carry it for 24 to 48 months, but without the arrival of a new charismatic leader it will move from being a great company to being a good company."

[Source: TUAW - Read more here]

Facebook speaks out on the big app rebuild

We posted about the Facebook app update the other day, and if you haven't updated your app yet, you really should. The app is a prime example of why native development is almost always better than trying to do things with cross-platform web connections, and why it's so important, even for an online service like Facebook, to make sure an app performs well on a given platform. If you're interested in reading more about the process, Facebook has posted a substantial article over on its own Facebook page, walking through why this change was made and exactly how it was done.

It's very interesting to read behind the technical scenes of how this update was created. The app essentially works in the same way that the previous version does, but it was built from the ground up in iOS' native Objective-C. The changes were all core to the process of running the app rather than UI developments, and if you have any development experience, it's wild to see the giant Facebook deal with the same issues that other iOS developers face.

Of course, the drawback for all of this is that while the original HTML 5 app was relatively easy to update, this new app requires a little more code tweaking to change even basic things in the app. Facebook has done its best to build things as modular as possible (the new app even uses some of the code from the standalone Facebook Messenger app), but going forward, a more solid foundation may mean we have to wait longer for changes.

[Source: TUAW]

Google+ expands custom URLs to 'thousands more' pages and profiles

If you're lacking the mental perspicacity to memorize that bizarre string that constitutes your Google+profile (or business page) we've got some good news -- Google's continuing its roll-out of custom URLs to its most popular social network pages. You'll have to make sure that you stake a claim to your pre-approved URL when the box appears on your page -- fortunately it's pretty hard to miss, sticking out along the top of your well-known profile / page. Lesser known brands and 'personalities' will have to wait a little longer, but Product Manager Saurabh Sharma says that the custom URLs will continue to trickle down the system "in the future."

[Source: Engadget]

Apple releases Mountain Lion 10.8.2 build to devs, focuses on Facebook, iMessage and more

Shortly after letting the 10.8.1 Mountain Lion out of the bag, Cupertino's now released the next dotted version of its feline OS X to members of the developer community. According to the seed note, this early release will be focusing on a slew of social areas as well as other handy applications, including Facebook, Messages, Game Center, Reminders and, of course, the company's own web browser, Safari. As is usually the case with these young builds, Apple suggests you install it on a machine "you are prepared to erase if necessary," though something tells us you were already well aware of that. But in case you do want to install v10.8.2, you'll find the rest of the deets at the Apple Developer site linked below.

[Source: Engadget]

Google Goggles update brings support for devices without autofocus

If you thought Google's perspicacious searching application was clever before, prepare for a shock. Google Goggles version 1.9 adds support for devices without autofocusing optics, giving those on budget gear a chance to use the real world as a search box. Point it at a QR code containing a URL, and it'll show you a thumbnail of the page and check its credentials against its blacklist of malicious sites. If it comes up short when searching for a product, it'll even search for similar-looking items to help you find what you're looking for, and it's available from the Play store for free -- so you don't really have any excuse.

[Source: Engadget]

Freescale's new industrial touchscreen tech even works in the rain

Freescale is announcing a new industrial touch sensing technology that'll even sense your swipes and prods through a film of water. Xtrinsic 3.0 is designed to be used in industrial, medical and in-car systems, with pre-built user interfaces ready to be added to any device its jammed inside. In addition to being able to work through water, it can withstand noise, detect electrical interference and reduce false touches. It's being demonstrated at the company's technology forum in India from today, presumably ready to be licensed by passing equipment manufacturers in short order.

[Source: Engadget]

Kodak to sell the film business that made it so famous

Kodak is selling off its renowned film arm in order to revive its moribund fortunes. It'll join sales of the company's patent portfolio, online gallery, commercial scanning, photo kiosk and theme park businesses so it can concentrate on a not-yet successful printer enterprise. It needs to raise more than $660 million to pay back creditors before it can emerge from Chapter 11, which it aims to do early next year -- but not in any form that we're likely to recognize.

[Source: Engadget]

Samsung reveals the design story highlights for the Galaxy S III

Samsung was very keen to let us know that its latest flagship phone was designed for humans. Now, the latest in the revealing series from the firm gives a little more insight into how the team went about that. For example, product designer Hangil Song explains how the rounded edges were inspired by pebbles in a stream, while sound engineer Joongsam Yun describes how they wanted to make the phone sound like a stroll in the forest. So, next time you're barging your way down Mainstreet with four ounces of synthetic material blaring out Carly Rae Jepsen, remember, you're doing it wrong.

[Source: Engadget]

Plusnet pushes its UK-fibre-optic broadband to 76Mb/s

Stereotype-embracing ISP Plusnet has added a new tier of fibre-optic broadband, offering speeds up to 76Mb/s. The revamped Extra Fibre package now offers upload speeds of up to 19.5 Mb/s, with a 250GB monthly usage allowance, matching those offered by parent company BT. Of course, those of us who can't even get ADSL2 will just have to watch on, with jealousy in our eyes.

[Source: Engadget]

TV Guide Mobile relaunches for iOS with a new look, links to streaming video and social networks

We've already seen many companion apps on mobile, but now TV Guide is diving in wholeheartedly with the next generation of its app for iOS devices. While the previous versions of TV Guide Mobile on iOS and Android let users create watchlists and get reminders, version 3.0 for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch is completely redesigned to make TV watching simpler with filtering for HD-only and favorite channels, links to streaming videos from sources like Hulu Plus, HBO Go, Crackle and iTunes -- Netflix and Amazon are not on the list, although additional video sources are promised in the coming weeks. Like any good companion app in 2012 it also brings social networking features with check-ins and Twitter / Facebook integration and a trending social hot list based on what other users search for.

The downside compared to many of the apps from cable providers like Comcast or Time Warner, hardware manufacturers like TiVo or even other third parties like Dijit is the inability to use it to directly change the channel, but perhaps that's in the next version. There's more details in the press release after the break, and screens in the gallery below, if you're willing to give another contender a shot at assisting your TV watching habits, the free app is available in iTunes at the source link.

[Source: Engadget]

VMware intros Fusion 5 virtualization software with support for Win 8, integration with Mountain Lion

With Mountain Lion newly available and Windows 8 on the verge of shipping, now was a pretty good time for VMware to update its Fusion virtualization software, dont'cha think? The company just announced Fusion 5 with 70-plus new features, including support for Win 8 and tight integration with OS X 10.8. For instance, you can now view Windows programs in Mountain Lion's Launchpad, while VMware software updates pop up in the Notification Center. Fusion also supports AirPlay for the first time, and you can also run either Mountain Lion or Mountain Lion Server as a virtual machine. The company also added support for Retina Display MacBook Pros, so that everything looks crisp on that 2,880 x 1,880 screen. Also of note: Fusion now supports USB 3.0, and Linux users get some love in the form of Open GL 2.1 graphics support.

The standard version of Fusion 5 is available now for $49.99, but people who bought Fusion 4 since the release of Mountain Lion can upgrade for free. There's also a professional version ($100 for one license), which includes all the above features, and also lets IT departments lock down settings for employees' virtual machines.

[Source: Engdaget]

LG phone with quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro arriving this fall

Qualcomm is announcing a partnership with LG to deliver a new quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro-based phone this fall, launching first in Korea in September. While LG hasn’t officially announced anything, this is almost certainly the rumored Optimus G; a device said to have 2GB of RAM, a 13-megapixel camera, and a 4.7-inch 720p IPS LCD display. Interestingly, LG is said to be leveraging its own subsidiaries to build a quad-core phone exactly to company chairman Koo Bon-Moo's specficiations; a phone with the same early fall release window. Judging by what we've seen from the company's recent Optimus 4X HD, our interest is definitely piqued.

AnandTech confirms that LG's as-yet-unnamed device will contain Qualcomm’s benchmark-crushing APQ8064 quad-core SoC including the Adreno 320 GPU, combined with an MDM9615 baseband chip, pointing out that this is the same combination going into Xiamoi’s China-only Mi2 smartphone. If Xiamoi sticks to its October release window, odds are good that LG's new device will be the world's first phone with the APQ8064.

[Source: The Verge]