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Apple to Continue Offering Support for Me.com Email After MobileMe Discontinuation

Monday May 14, 2012 9:24 am PDT by Eric Slivka
As highlighted by TidBITS (via Macworld), Apple has informed the last holdout users still on the company's MobileMe service that they will be able to continue using their Me.com even after MobileMe's June 30 discontinuation, even if they do not fully convert to iCloud. The option, which is detailed on Apple's MobileMe transition guide, will be of particular benefit to those users whose devices aren't compatible with iCloud.

What if I just want to keep using my email on all my devices?
As of May 1, you can choose to keep using your mail after MobileMe ends, even on devices that don’t meet the iCloud system requirements. Just go to me.com/move and select the option to keep using your email after MobileMe ends. Once you have completed this short process, your mail will continue to work on devices that don’t meet the iCloud requirements after MobileMe ends on June 30th, 2012.

Apple's notice to current MobileMe members was actually detailed by The Mac Observer back on May 1, including screenshots showing the option at me.com/move for users to opt out of moving to the full iCloud service and simply retain access to email and calendars.


Apple's process suggests that only web-based access to Me.com/Mac.com email will be available following the migration, but TidBITS notes that users can bypass Apple's automated iCloud email setup to manually access MobileMe accounts.

In Mail, after moving your address to iCloud, delete your existing MobileMe account: Choose Mail > Preferences, click Accounts, select your MobileMe account in the list on the left, and click the – (minus) button. Then click the + (plus) button to add a new account and fill in your mac.com or me.com address and password. But now hold down Option while clicking Continue. This bypasses Mail’s automated setup process (which would configure the account for the MobileMe servers — not what you want). On the next screen, choose IMAP from the Account Type pop-up menu. Enter imap.mail.me.com for the incoming mail server address, click Continue, and enter smtp.mail.me.com for the outgoing mail server address. Once you’ve completed the process, Mail in Snow Leopard should be able to check your iCloud mail both now and after MobileMe is turned off.

Most notably, iCloud is not officially compatible with OS X Snow Leopard, leaving some users who systems are not compatible with OS X Lion without access to iCloud. Apple has been trying to push all potential MobileMe users toward iCloud as the MobileMe service heads for discontinuation next month, even offering free copies of Snow Leopard to help users of even older operating systems to move to iCloud-compatible Lion.
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Ashton Kutcher Spotted Wearing Steve Jobs' Trademark Wardrobe

Saturday May 12, 2012 8:53 pm PDT by Eric Slivka
The casting of Ashton Kutcher in the role of Steve Jobs in an upcoming independent film focusing on the Apple co-founder's life has certainly generated a significant amount of attention for the project, despite the fact that the film is a completely separate effort from the high-profile planned Sony Pictures film to be based on Walter Isaacson's authorized biography of Jobs.


With filming on the indie film starring Kutcher having already begun with the star on break from his work on the TV show Two and a Half Men, TMZ shares a few photos of Kutcher seen wearing Jobs' trademark outfit of a black turtleneck, jeans, and sneakers. The photos were reportedly taken on Friday while Kutcher was walking to the set of the film.


Kutcher has been said by some to bear an uncanny resemblance to a young Steve Jobs, particularly with having adopted a close copy of Jobs' hairstyle and facial hair from those days. Jobs did not adopt his trademark wardrobe until a number of years later, but Kutcher is clearly taking on that aspect of Jobs' identity for the role as well.
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Spotify Updates Mac App With Pandora-esque Radio Stations

Friday May 11, 2012 11:44 am PDT by Jordan Golson
Spotify has updated its Mac app to version 0.8.3, bringing Pandora-like playlist-based radio stations to the music service. Users can start a new radio channel from any playlist or album in order to listen to similar songs.

Playlist radio
Among other new features, users can now get HTML embed codes to easily share Spotify songs on websites, as well as new sharing links to post songs directly to Facebook, Twitter or Tumblr.

Current users can download the update from within the Spotify app, or directly from Spotify's website.
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Another New Apple Store Coming to Spain on May 12

Tuesday May 8, 2012 9:33 pm PDT by Eric Slivka
Roughly two weeks after the debut of a new Apple retail store in Madrid, Apple is preparing to open another store in Spain. As noted by ifoAppleStore, Apple has officially announced that the grand opening of its Nueva Condomina store in Murcia will take place on Saturday, May 12.

The seventh Apple retail store in Spain will open this Saturday inside the Nueva Condomina shopping mall in the southern city of Murcia. The store fills in coverage along the Mediterranean coast of the country between existing stores in Valencia and Marbella.


The report notes that Apple is expected to open four more stores in Spain over the next year, marking a substantial expansion of the company's presence in the country.
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Elder Scrolls MMO Coming to the Mac in 2013

Thursday May 3, 2012 2:04 pm PDT by Jordan Golson

The Elder Scrolls Online massive multiplayer online game will arrive on the Mac and PC in 2013, reports Game Informer magazine.

Long rumored and much anticipated, The Elder Scrolls Online is finally being unveiled in the June issue of Game Informer. In this month's cover story we journey across the entire land of Tamriel, from Elsweyr to Skyrim and everywhere in between.

Developed by the team at Zenimax Online Studios, The Elder Scrolls Online merges the unmatched exploration of rich worlds that the franchise is known for with the scale and social aspects of a massively multiplayer online role-playing game. Players will discover an entirely new chapter of Elder Scrolls history in this ambitious world, set a millennium before the events of Skyrim as the daedric prince Molag Bal tries to pull all of Tamriel into his demonic realm.

More details for the game will be forthcoming, including in the June issue of Game Informer.
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Amazon Releases Mac App to Access Cloud Drive From Finder

Wednesday May 2, 2012 10:49 am PDT by Jordan Golson

Following on the heels of Google launching its Google Drive cloud storage service, Amazon has released Mac and Windows clients for its Cloud Drive service, which launched last year. Previously, Cloud Drive was only accessible through a web browser.

Like Dropbox and Google Drive, Cloud Drive includes 5GB of free storage. The Cloud Drive app requires Snow Leopard or Lion.
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Apple's New Retail Chief John Browett Added to Executive Leadership Pages

Wednesday May 2, 2012 8:10 am PDT by Eric Slivka
One week ago, we noted that former Dixons Retail CEO had officially started his job as senior vice president of retail at Apple. Browett's start date of April 20 was revealed by securities filling revealing that he had received stock rights currently worth $60 million as of that date.

At the time, we pointed out that Browett had not been added to Apple's leadership page on its website, but that issue has now been addressed and Browett has received his own dedicated page with the standard headshot photo and a brief biography.

John Browett is Apple's senior vice president of retail, reporting to CEO Tim Cook. Browett serves on the company's executive team and oversees Apple's retail strategy and the continued expansion of Apple retail stores around the world.

John joined Apple in April 2012 from European technology retailer Dixons Retail, where he was CEO since 2007. Prior to joining Dixons Retail, Browett held a series of executive positions at Tesco plc including CEO of Tesco.com. Earlier in his career he advised retail and consumer goods clients at Boston Consulting Group.

He holds a degree in Natural Sciences from Cambridge University and an MBA from Wharton Business School.

Given that Apple lists its executives in alphabetical order with the exception of CEO Tim Cook, Browett holds a prominent position on the main page directly next to Cook. With Browett's arrival, the senior executive leadership team now includes ten members, all of whom with the exception of Browtt and general counsel Bruce Sewell have been with the company for at least ten years.
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Apple's New Highland Village Retail Store in Houston Hit by Gunfire

Monday April 30, 2012 11:05 pm PDT by Eric Slivka
Houston NBC affiliate KPRC reports that five businesses along Westheimer Road in Houston were hit by random gunfire early Monday morning, with Apple's new Highland Village retail store being one of the targets.

The Houston Police Department confirms it is investigating five random shootings at business in southwest Houston.

Between 4:40 and 5:40 a.m. Monday, several windows were shot out. The targets were from gas stations to swanky furniture store Cantoni, officials said. [...]

The brand new Apple store at 4012 Westhiemer was also hit.


Glass pane left of Apple logo shattered by gunfire (Source: KPRC-TV)

No one was injured in the shootings, although an employee and a customer at a Valero gas station narrowly escaped the gunfire.
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Upcoming Saskatchewan Apple Retail Store Fills Huge Void in Coverage [Updated]

Monday April 30, 2012 10:52 pm PDT by Eric Slivka
ifoAppleStore reports that Apple is planning to open a new retail store in the Cornwall Centre shopping mall in Regina, Saskatchewan. The location is a notable one for being the first in the vast province in the heart of Canada, with no other Apple retail stores located within a 300-mile radius.

Cornwall Centre is located in city center and has 90 retailers in an enclosed mall. City planning documents mention the new store, but the exact location within the mall isn’t known. Based on construction schedules, the store could open by November 2012.

Regina, the provincial capital with a population of roughly 200,000, is the second-largest city and part of the second-largest metropolitan area in Saskatchewan, just behind Saskatoon.

Update: As noted in our forums and confirmed by The Regina Leader-Post (via iPhoneinCanada.ca), the forthcoming store is actually a reseller and not an official Apple retail store.

Regina's Cornwall Centre is getting a store selling Apple products — though, contrary to rumours that circulated Tuesday morning on the web — it won't be an Apple store.

Krista Bebeau, the downtown mall's marketing manager, said it will an outlet of a firm called iWorld Connect — the website of which (http://iworldconnect.com/) confirms the company is opening a store in Regina.

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Scott Forstall and Mickey Drexler Net Millions in Apple Stock Sales

Monday April 30, 2012 9:08 pm PDT by Eric Slivka
A pair of filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission reveal that Apple executive Scott Fortsall and board member Mickey Drexler each sold off tens of thousands of shares of Apple stock on Friday, netting millions of dollars each.

Forstall, who serves as senior vice president of iOS Software and has been a fixture in Apple's keynote presentations and media events, sold off 64,151 shares of Apple stock on Friday, netting roughly $38.7 million. Forstall gained 120,000 shares of Apple stock last month as a 2008 retention bonus of restricted stock units converted to actual stock. 55,849 shares were immediately sold off at that time to account for the taxes due on the conversion, and Forstall held on to the remaining shares until last Friday.

Following Friday's transaction, Forstall holds 2,988 shares of Apple stock, worth roughly $1.75 million at today's share price and the same number of shares he held prior to last month's vesting of his 2008 retention bonus. Forstall is also in line to receive a number of other stock grants should he remain with the company over the next several years, including a 150,000-unit grant that will vest in equal portions next year and in 2016. A separate grant of 100,000 units will vest in 2014.

Meanwhile, longtime Apple board member Mickey Drexler, who serves as Chairman and CEO of J. Crew and was previously President and CEO of The Gap, has cashed in on stock options dating back nearly a decade in order to reap a substantial windfall.

Drexler exercised a set of 20,000 options from 2003 priced at $9.16 each and a second set of 20,000 options from 2004 priced at $14.205 each, selling off all 40,000 shares on Friday for $24.1 million. After accounting for the exercise prices on the options, Drexler netted close to $23.7 million. Drexler continues to hold 584 shares of Apple stock worth roughly $384,000 at today's share price.
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Apple Temporarily Closing Some U.S. Stores for Security Grate Installations

Monday April 30, 2012 12:45 pm PDT by Jordan Golson
Apple closed a number of U.S. retail stores last week, and is closing another half dozen more this week for undisclosed renovations. All of the stores closing are street-level locations and the most likely reason is to retrofit the stores with Apple's new security grate system. Apple closed a number of other stores last fall for the same reason.


Security grating barely visible at Apple's 4th Street store in Berkeley, California

The stores are closed for between 7 to 10 days each, and locations closed this week include Los Gatos (CA), Coconut Point (FL), Leawood (KS), Friendly Center (NC), Manhasset (NY), and Bridgeport Village (OR).

Last week, Bethesda Row (MD), Village Pointe (NE), and Crocker Park (OH), and perhaps others were all closed, apparently for the same reason.
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Josh Gad Likely to Play Steve Wozniak in Steve Jobs Indie Film

Friday April 27, 2012 6:51 am PDT by Eric Slivka
Progress continues on the independent film "Jobs", which will see Ashton Kutcher play the role of the Apple co-founder and CEO. According to Variety, actor Josh Gad is in talks to portray Steve Wozniak in the film, which will focus on the early days of Apple.

Written by Matt Whiteley, pic chronicles Steve Jobs from wayward hippie to co-founder of Apple, where he became one of the most revered creative entrepreneurs of our time.

Gad is making a deal to play Wozniak, who created the Apple I computer and co-created the Apple II computer in the mid-1970s.

Gad is best known for his starring role in The Book of Mormon, a satirical Broadway musical from the creators of irreverent animated television show South Park. Gad has also held a number of other film, TV, and stage roles, and has occasionally served as a correspondent for The Daily Show.

Production on "Jobs" is reportedly set to begin next month. The film is a separate project from the upcoming Sony Pictures film based on Walter Isaacson's authorized biography of Steve Jobs.

(Photo by Taylor Hill / Getty Images)
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