Here’s the cover of the March 2011 edition of Wired magazine, which reads:
1 million workers
90 million iPhones
17 suicides
This is where your gadgets come from. Should you care?
Yes, you should care. We do. Kudos to Wired for shining a much-needed spotlight on this important issue.
A patent from Apple detailing a new ‘Smart Bezel’ feature for the iPad emerged. This new bezel is said to be a touch-sensitive gesture area surrounding the iPad’s display. Now, with the iPad being rumored to lose the stationary home button, it would make sense that Apple would implement something similar to what is found in the ‘Smart Bezel’ patent.
Adding credence to this Patently Apple has uncovered yet another patent relating to the smart bezel and this patent features a tablet device with the new bezel, but the drawing does not include the home button.
The patent describes some possible features for the bezel such as double-tapping the bezel to turn the iPad on and off, touching the bezel in certain places with certain amounts of pressures to the control brightness and volume, and touching the bezel in a certain way to lock and unlock the display.
We think that this ‘Smart Bezel’ along with the new iPad gestures Apple is testing in iOS 4.3 would be a good replacement for their physical home button in mobile iOS products.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs will reportedly join Google chief executive Eric Schmidt and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in a meeting with US President Barack Obama in San Francisco on Thursday.
Though recent reports have alleged that Jobs’ health has continued to decline, the executive is scheduled to attend a business leaders’ event with President Obama Thursday evening, a source told ABC News.
Google’s Schmidt, who will step down as CEO in April; GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt, the newly named chairman of the White House Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, and Facebook’s Zuckerberg will also be in attendance, according to sources familiar with the meeting.
Google on Wednesday announced a new Web subscription service for publishers called “One Pass,” in which the search giant will keep just 10 percent of revenues in transactions, compared to Apple’s 30 percent cut of iOS content. Good timing/well played by Google. Check out what Appleinsider had to say about the matter:
Google One Pass allows subscribers to access content they’ve paid for on a variety of devices using a single username and login on a website. It also offers business model flexibility, allowing content providers to offer subscriptions, day passes, metered access, pay-per-article, or multi-issue packages to customers.
“By providing a system for user authentication, payment processing, and administration, Google One Pass lets publishers focus on creating high quality content for their readers,” the company said. “Publishers have flexibility over payment models and control over the digital content for which they charge and the content that is free for consumers.”
One Pass also allows publishers to grant access to existing subscribers through a coupon-based system. Publishers host their own content, and must add what is referred to as a “small amount of code” to a website. “Development effort is minimal,” Google said.
The new service was announced just a day after Apple unveiled its own subscription plan for software on the iOS App Store. Apple takes a 30 percent cut of all sales through the App Store, but publishers can offer access to existing subscribers if they provide their own authentication process inside their iOS application.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Google’s One Pass will undercut Apple, and the search company will only keep a 10 percent cut of sales. But Google will also allow publishers control of subscribers’ personal data, something Apple has been reluctant to do.