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- Meerkat 1.5 automatically reconnects your SSH Tunnels
Filed under: UNIX / BSD
Meerkat turns SSH tunnels -- a fairly obscure and complicated concept -- into a feature anyone should be able to use, and does so in a very Mac-like way.I've known about SSH tunnels for a long time, but I've never been able to get them working. The concept is simple enough: a SSH connection is formed between two computers, allowing for secure access between them. (For more, see SSH: Tunneling Explained.)
What would you use a SSH tunnel for? Here are a couple possibilities: you can stream your iTunes library across the web for free. Our local library has a terribly onerous "web filter" which even blocks Delicious and a bunch of other useful sites. By setting up a SSH tunnel and SOCKS proxy I can avoid that filter. If I want to access my webhosting management panel, I have to do so from a "known" IP address or go through a multi-step process to register another IP. By using a SSH tunnel, I can securely connect to my webhosting company and then access the tunnel.
But how do you setup ssh tunnels? You could do it manually via Terminal.app, but that's not very Mac-like. We've mentioned Meekat before but even then I wasn't able to get it to work until recently. What made the difference? The new "Tunnel Setup Assistant." When version 1.5 was released, it added something very cool, especially for laptop users: automatic reconnection. Combine it with NetworkLocation and you can have a nearly seamless and flexible set of rules to let you access all of your information securely, regardless of where you are. (It's also fully AppleScript-able.)
If you've ever tried to setup a SSH tunnel before and gave up because it was too complicated or too much work, give Meerkat a look. It's a slick program that should appeal to power Mac users of all shades. There's a 14-day demo, plenty of time to figure out how it works and how to use it. A license costs US$19.95, and there's a 30-day guarantee. If you have any questions, I found the developer, Justin Miller, to be very responsive.
TUAWMeerkat 1.5 automatically reconnects your SSH Tunnels originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 18 Feb 2010 22:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Apple - iTunes - IP address - TUAW - Tunneling protocol
Переслать - Apple seeds another build of 10.6.3 to devs
Filed under: OS, Software Update
Apple seeded another build of OS X 10.6.3 today. This latest build number is 10D558. This is just nine days after Apple seeded build 10D552. iPhoneinCanada is reporting that the current build focuses on Apple Filing Protocol, AirPort, Graphics Drivers, and QuickTime, as well as the following:
- Performance improvements for 64-bit Logic
- Addresses compatibility issues with OpenGL-based applications
- Includes changes to QuickTime X that increase reliability and enhance security
- Improves printing reliability and compatibility with 3rd party printers
- Addresses issues that cause background message colors to display incorrectly in Mail
- Issues that caused machines using BTMM and Bonjour Sleep Proxy to wake unexpectedly
- Issues with recurring events in iCal when connected to Exchange servers
TUAWApple seeds another build of 10.6.3 to devs originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 18 Feb 2010 21:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - NAND flash memory supplies constrained (again)
Filed under: Hardware, iPod Family, Portables, iPad
Two things happen like clockwork every year: Apple raises the capacities on its NAND flash-based iPods and the iPhone, and analysts like iSuppli release a report saying that worldwide supplies of NAND flash are likely to be constrained as a result. The supply constraints aren't likely to affect Apple, which signed a supply deal with Toshiba last year, but other companies that depend on flash memory for their consumer electronics products may find themselves scrambling to find enough memory to keep production going ... just like last year, and the year before that, when analysts said almost exactly the same thing.
iSuppli predicts Apple will ship in excess of 33 million iPhones this year with an average capacity of 35.2 GB of NAND flash memory -- consistent with a doubling of capacities across the line. 2010 sales estimates for the iPad range from 4 million units and up, and the iPod touch may also see a capacity bump to 128 GB in September/October. That all adds up to a lot of flash memory. With the introduction of the iPad and a likely storage increase to 64 GB for the next-gen iPhone in mid-year, it's no surprise that chipmakers will have a hard time keeping up.
[Via All Things Digital]TUAWNAND flash memory supplies constrained (again) originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 18 Feb 2010 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - Noby Noby Boy out now on iPhone, and it's awesome
Filed under: Gaming, Software, Odds and ends, Apple, Developer, iPhone, App Store, Music
Keita Takahashi is a strange guy. He's most known for delivering the brilliant Katamari Damacy to us on the Playstation 2, a game in which you rolled around a ball that stuck to everything in the world, growing bigger and bigger as more and more stuff collected on it. But after that early success, he's gotten weirder, at one point saying that he didn't want to make games at all, and then releasing Noby Noby Boy for the PS3, an "experience" in which you stretch a tubelike creature named BOY, which in turn stretches another creature named GIRL, out into the solar system with all of other players in the world. It's the kind of thing that has to be played to be understood, and even then, you don't understand it so much as experience it.
Noby Noby Boy on the iPhone is a similar release: while it's an app that comes from a game platform, it's actually in the Productivity section of the App Store. Even though the goal seems to again be to stretch the BOY out as far as you can, while in turn stretching GIRL along with PS3 players ("cross-platform compatibility!" exclaims the ingame Fairy, the most charming and weird help system you've ever seen), it's really just a chance for Takahashi's brilliance to run wild on the iPhone platform. There's more to explore, do and experience in this app than any other $1.99 app I've seen, and while some of it is wacky, and strange, and just plain crazy, Noby Noby Boy is a product of imagination -- both his and ours.
Just like Takahashi's other projects, Noby Noby Boy is both easy to use and hard to explain. Fairy helps by bringing in some interesting explanations as you browse through the app for the first time, but really, most of the app is just an invitation to play and twist and explore using all of the iPhone's various interfaces and features. You can just stretch the BOY by using multitouch, or you can switch to a GPS screen, and stretch him by moving out into the real world. You can use the camera to take pictures in a few different ways, including an augmented reality-style view that has the BOY bouncing around a real-time view from the iPhone's camera (even on my 1G iPhone). You can play music straight from the iPhone's library, but the UI is of a music-bot, whose hands and feet are the controls. You can keep "notes" on BOY in a number of different categories, using a wild little mini-app that prints letters on the creature as it stretches. And you can email and correspond with other "players," including uploading your stretching to increase the GIRL's length, or just emailing pictures of whatever you've created in the game.
Some people will load up Noby Noby Boy and wonder what the point is, and that's a fair reaction -- even Takahashi admits in this game that his PS3 version didn't quite go over as planned. But there's so much to do and play with and explore here that the app asks a little bit of imagination from the player as well -- it's up to you what you want to do with what he's created. Just wanted to make a silly picture and send it to your friend? You can. Want to dive in and figure out how to stretch the BOY farther, looking for secrets about how the game works in the background? Go ahead. Want to just start up the GPS, turn the game off, and travel as far in the real world as you can, checking back later to see what's happened in the app? You can do that, too.
We've had quite a few games released on the App Store, obviously, and while a lot of them have been copies or re-releases from games that would work on other platforms, very few have been experiences that could only happen on the iPhone. Noby Noby Boy for iPhone is one of those. Something as crazy as this could only have come from Takahashi, and all of the things he's created here could only have been put together on the iPhone. That's a great achievement for just $1.99.TUAWNoby Noby Boy out now on iPhone, and it's awesome originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 18 Feb 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - Macworld 2010: TUAW's Best in Show
Filed under: Macworld, Peripherals, Developer, iPad
Our videos are almost all posted, the interviews are all transcribed, and the impressions are all done and published -- we're finally bringing our Macworld 2010 coverage to conclusion. It was a heck of a show -- while there wasn't a lot of attention outside the conference floor from folks expecting more about Apple, on the show floor itself there was clearly an excitement and a sense of opportunity for lots of companies who might have been overshadowed by Apple's presence in the past. It was a smaller show, for sure, but in some ways it was also a better show. We're still not completely sure what will happen next year, but Macworld 2010 was a success -- not as big a success as it was when Apple was putting wind in the sails, but a success nevertheless.
We saw a lot of stuff at the show, from dozens of accessories, to the wild Parrot AR.Drone, and even the closest thing to an iPad that we could find. After clicking on the link below, read on to see what a few of our bloggers had to say about the best of what they saw at the show.
Mike Schramm: Flying the Parrot AR.Drone was a hoot, though I'm not actually sold on buying one -- it seems complicated for a "toy." In terms of software, both Papershow and the Algoriddim djay 3 software impressed me a lot. But my favorite product at the show wasn't even for sale -- I really enjoyed seeing the iPad mockup, and finally getting a feel for what the most-missed device at Macworld was really like.
Mike Rose: The several flavors of iPhone-friendly gloves were a stark reminder of winter's grip on most of the country, even as San Francisco was pleasantly temperate. The Papershow presentation/whiteboard system was impressively put together and will definitely appeal to educators and executives alike. What really shook me up, though, was the $10 demo of the Square payment system for iPhone and iPod touch. Just a tiny dongle and some software, but the new project from Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey has the potential to change lives (and ease revenue collection) for millions of independent professionals, craftspeople and consultants.
Steve Sande: The best in show? TUAW's live coverage! But I'm biased... Seriously, though, there wasn't just one thing. I was impressed with how much attention my OWLE Bubo received during Macworld Expo, and the company wasn't even at the show this year. Square was incredible, so I'll second Mike Rose's comments. Blue Microphones really stole the show with the Blue Yeti mics that they lent to us for the TUAW booth / studio, and the new version of the Mikey for iPhone. The Mophie Juice Pack Air in red with the soft-touch finish was flying off of the shelves at the Expo.
That's it from those of us at TUAW. Most of us are still wading through the piles of brochures, washing clothes, and attempting to make up for lost sleep during the week at Macworld 2010, so we'll excuse the bloggers who didn't add their comments. We would, however, love to hear from TUAW readers who attended the show. What did you think was the best or most unique thing you saw at Macworld?TUAWMacworld 2010: TUAW's Best in Show originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 18 Feb 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - TUAW review and giveaway: Bill Atkinson PhotoCard for iPhone
Filed under: Software, Developer, iPhone, Apple History, App Store, App Review
When it comes to famous names in the Apple pantheon, Bill Atkinson ranks very high in the list. The brains behind MacPaint, HyperCard, the Mac OS menu bar, and a host of other innovative software applications has been a professional nature photographer since 1996, but now he's melded his development mojo with photography and released his very first iPhone app, Bill Atkinson PhotoCard for iPhone.
At first glance, the US$4.99 app looks like yet another postcard app for the iPhone. But when you actually start looking at the details of PhotoCard, you realize that it's much, much more. To start with, the app comes with 150 of Atkinson's fabulous nature photographs that can be used in the creation of postcards. That takes care of the front of the postcard, but what about the back?
Like many of the apps of this genre, PhotoCard has a space for typing in a message to the recipient. It ups the ante with 150 stamps to add to your card (more on these later). There are also 325 little stickers that can be added to the back of your card. Once the card is ready to send, you have your choice of either sending it to the recipient via email or having the card printed on an HP Indigo digital press and then sent through snail mail.When it comes to famous names in the Apple pantheon, Bill Atkinson ranks very high in the list. The brains behind MacPaint, HyperCard, the Mac OS menu bar, and a host of other innovative software applications has been a professional nature photographer since 1996, but now he's melded his development mojo with photography and released his very first iPhone app, Bill Atkinson PhotoCard for iPhone.
At first glance, the US$4.99 app looks like yet another postcard app for the iPhone. But when you actually start looking at the details of PhotoCard, you realize that it's much, much more. To start with, the app comes with 150 of Atkinson's fabulous nature photographs that can be used in the creation of postcards. That takes care of the front of the postcard, but what about the back?
Like many of the apps of this genre, PhotoCard has a space for typing in a message to the recipient. It ups the ante with 150 stamps to add to your card (more on these later). There are also 325 little stickers that can be added to the back of your card. Once the card is ready to send, you have your choice of either sending it to the recipient via email or having the card printed on an HP Indigo digital press and then sent through snail mail.TUAWTUAW review and giveaway: Bill Atkinson PhotoCard for iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 18 Feb 2010 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - Ngmoco cancels Rolando 3, says it can't fit into a free-to-play model
Filed under: Gaming, Software, Developer, iPhone, App Store
Here's some unfortunate news out of Ngmoco: The company tells IGN that while there was a Rolando 3 (the second sequel to the very popular and excellent rolling iPhone platformer) in progress, the game has been essentially canceled, and will never see release in its current form. Why? The second game wasn't exactly a sales success (though Ngmoco's Neil Young admits "it's done fine"), and it was that lack of a big splash that made Ngmoco turn the corner into "freemium," or the model of releasing free games that offer in-app purchases for premium content. They've had a lot of success with their Eliminate Pro shooter, and they want to adapt that model for all games: get a few hits for free, spend some real money on in-app purchases for the rest.
And apparently when they couldn't bring that model over to Rolando 3, they scrapped the title. That's a real shame -- not every game on the App Store has to be a runaway hit, and Rolando 3 seems like a perfect candidate for the "slow burn"; release it at a price of $5 or $6, and just let it sit there as an example of great gaming on the iPhone (and the upcoming iPad).
But Ngmoco has made their decision, and Rolando 3 is no more. They say the series isn't gone for good -- if they can figure out a way to do "freemium" with Rolando, we could see the roly poly guys on the iPhone again. You'd think that paying for a level or two at a time would work just fine, but who knows what Ngmoco's reasoning is on this. If I get a chance to talk with them at next month's GDC, I'll ask.
[via Joystiq]
Update: Reader Zyber sent us a petition he's started to try and get the game released. Online petitions aren't exactly proven to be effective, but we'll throw our support behind it just the same.TUAWNgmoco cancels Rolando 3, says it can't fit into a free-to-play model originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 18 Feb 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - Keep your eyes on the Sun safely with free 3D Sun app
Filed under: Freeware, iPhone, iPod touch, App Review
I really love to find cool, free apps, and I have a good one for you. 3D Sun, developed in collaboration with NASA scientists, will alert you to solar flares and storms which can disrupt communications on earth and trigger spectacular northern lights.
Activating the push feature provides instant notification of major solar activity.. Clicking on the app will give you detailed information, as well as a current picture of the surface of the sun provided by the NASA 'Stereo' satellites. You can rotate the view of the sun with your fingers, and pinch in and out to zoom. The 2 satellites don't have a 360 degree view, so there will be a dark sliver where the cameras can't see. Using this app is a lot safer than trying to see these phenomena with the naked eye or even using some of the not-so-safe solar filters that are around.
In addition to the 'live' view of the sun, you can view recent pictures of the sun in different bands of the spectrum, and you'll get a look at the rather fascinating magnetic field lines that are above the surface of our friendly orb.
The app also features a collection of stills and movies showing solar events and events triggered by the sun.
The app is just out, so grab it if you are interested. I'd also remind our scientifically prone readers of the terrific NASA app that Steve Sande reviewed in October. 3D Sun has scads of images, videos, launch information and more, and it's another freebie.
These apps run on the iPhone and the iPod touch.
I think you should go for launch on both of these. A-OK?
Check the gallery for more screen shots:
TUAWKeep your eyes on the Sun safely with free 3D Sun app originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 18 Feb 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - Patent application hints at future of Magic Mouse
Filed under: Accessories, Hardware
The US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application that hints at the future of Apple's Magic Mouse. It describes three new sensors and a triple-axis gyroscope to detect the roll, pitch, and yaw of the mouse. This means that a user could tilt the mouse from side to side to produce a horizontal scroll, a vertical scroll or to tilt a graphic. Additionally, the mouse described in the patent has a convex underside to make all that tilting easier.
You can see the full application and even more images here. Of course, Apple patents many technologies that never see production.
The Magic Mouse became the first multi-touch mouse when it was released last year, replacing the Mighty Mouse and its temperamental scroll wheel. We'll have to wait and see if this even more magical mouse gets produced.
[Via MacDailyNews]TUAWPatent application hints at future of Magic Mouse originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 18 Feb 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - Confirmed: Apple upped its App Store over-the-air download limits
Filed under: Apple, iPhone, App Store
Although Apple's just-released iTunes Connect guide for App Store developers (version 5.3) reminds them that over-the-air downloads for app purchases are still limited to 10MB, users are reporting that Apple may have quietly changed this policy. As the screen shot here (sourced from Italian website AllMobileWorld) shows, the standard 10MB complaint appears to be updated to a 20MB limit.
This is, as yet, the first TUAW has heard (or, more literally, seen) of the matter, but the screen shot does not appear faked. Given that Apple updated the iTunes Connect material on Tuesday, this could have simply been an oversight in the developer documentation that does not reflect the new policy.
Have you seen this dialog? Does it say 10MB or 20MB for you? Let us know in the comments, and do mention which carrier you are using in case it is an European-only phenomenon.
Update: We have now confirmed the change with carriers in multiple countries. One report from Denmark indicates that users there remain at at 10MB limit.
Thanks, everyone who tipped us about thisTUAWConfirmed: Apple upped its App Store over-the-air download limits originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 18 Feb 2010 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - iPhone devsugar: App Store approval in...one hour?
Filed under: Apple
Approximately one hour after uploading his new application update to iTunes Connect, Bristol-based iPhone developer Rob Jonson of Hobbyist software got the surprise of his week: an official Apple green light. His latest update to his VLC Remote application had been approved and was ready for sale. VLC Remote allows you to control a Mac- or Windows-based VideoLAN playback client from your iPhone, basically duplicating many of the features you'd get from a standard Apple Remote.
His update wasn't complicated. "It was a simple problem," he told me over the phone this morning. "One of the buttons stopped working because of a stupid error. I missed a break in a case statement." So he uploaded his bugfix at about 11 PM local United Kingdom time.
Just before midnight, he checked his e-mail before heading off to bed. The Apple approval was sitting in his in-box. A recent update, submitted last week, had taken only a day to receive approval. "With 24 hours, I was very impressed. But one hour? I couldn't believe it. Clearly Apple has changed the game."
Update: This picture speaks a thousand words. Courtesy of Tom Harris of InsiderApps. This is a different app from Jonson's
"It's awesome," he said. "It makes me less scared to put out an update. " As Jonson explained, updates used to involve a two week process. During that time, you didn't "...want to do any more work until it [went] through. You [made] yourself do something else in the meantime" like switching to another project development, to allow time for Apple to finish processing the submission. "Now, I know I can have it sorted out very quickly, it's so much easier for me to improve my app."
He contrasted Apple's new response times with Palm's, which continues to introduce long delays between app submission and review. "If a user finds a bug, and I fix it, I have to send a request to cancel the update before I can submit a new update." This is similar to Apple's policy of developers self-rejecting an app submission, but takes more work. You must wait for the cancel request to process. "Palm hasn't got the update process sorted yet for its app store." With Apple, he can now submit his updates and know that they will be handled promptly.
For now, Apple's excellent turnaround time means two things. First, it's going to greatly improve the ability of developers to deliver bug updates in a timely manner, without being burdened by long delays that cause development downtime. Bug fixes will reach users sooner and the App Store ecosystem will improve as a consequence.
Second, it's going to speed the process of developer entry into the iPad arena. Shorter turn-around means that iPad-specific apps will start filling App Store shelves without the kind of months-long ramp up that was needed when iPhone apps first debuted. With just sixty days between iPad announcement and the first units expected to hit the shelves, Apple's rapid app review promises that developers can put their iPad goods in the hands of consumers nearly as soon as the iPad starts shipping.
Shorter review times are a great move on Apple's part and a win for all parties: developers, customers, and Apple.TUAWiPhone devsugar: App Store approval in...one hour? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 18 Feb 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - Panic's free ShrinkIt turns humongous Illustrator PDFs into tiny ones
Filed under: Software, Cool tools, Developer
The brilliant minds at Panic noticed that something interesting was happening with PDF files created by Adobe Illustrator. Like many developers, Panic uses Adobe Illustrator to create icons and other image resources for their applications. The resulting PDF files, which were relatively "big-boned" (a politically-correct way of saying "fat"), would magically shrink in size when they were run through Apple's Mac OS X PDF processing. Apple's method is used when you save a PDF from Preview, which explains why most of the time those files are fairly small in size.
Being the intelligent chaps that they are, the Panic engineers decided to look into the cause of this. What did they find? "Will started digging into the files and brother, you won't believe what he found. Swatches, patterns, preview bitmaps, all sort of metadata; even though we'd specifically turned off all the extra options when saving from Illustrator: Preserve Illustrator Editing Capabilities, Embed Page Thumbnails, etc."
Apparently just opening the obese PDFs in Preview and then saving them would shrink the file sizes dramatically. Rather than force their staff to go through this process each time they found a large Illustrator PDF, Panic did what most developers would do and wrote an application to automate the process. Devs can simply take a big batch of files, like the contents of an application's Resources folder, drop 'em onto ShrinkIt (download link), and watch the file sizes magically shrink. According to Panic, ShrinkIt can reduce an app bundle size by 4 megabytes.
While ShrinkIt is a Panic-internal utility, the company has made it available to the world for free. Please note that ShrinkIt is primarily made for shrinking simple vector-resource PDFs, and probably won't work well on press-ready PDFs.TUAWPanic's free ShrinkIt turns humongous Illustrator PDFs into tiny ones originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 18 Feb 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - Macworld 2010: Steve Shepard of Storyist
Filed under: Macworld, Software, Video
Last year we reviewed Storyist, the software for writers. It's a great app that lets you manage all aspects of a writing project, like plot points, research, characters and more. Once you're done writing, you can export to many popular file formats, as well as prepare your document for an editor, for use as a screenplay or even digital distribution.
I sat down with Steve Shepard at our Macworld booth to discuss the app, how to get the most out of it, his experiences at the show and finally whether or not he's got any plans for the iPad. Check out the video above to see our conversation.TUAWMacworld 2010: Steve Shepard of Storyist originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 18 Feb 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - Apple's obsessive secrecy hurting relations with overseas suppliers
Filed under: Apple Corporate, Rumors, Bad Apple
Apple's obsession with secrecy is legendary. For all the rumors and leaks that stoke media attention, very rarely do we have a clear picture of a new product until Steve Jobs comes out on stage and shows it to us. Even people who work for Apple often have very little idea what the company is up to; retail employees at Apple Stores usually don't know any more about upcoming products than anyone else, and retail managers have told me the first clear picture they get of new products is when they arrive on a truck. Even people who work in Apple R&D on products like the iPad operate in a "cone of silence," with security measures in place at Cupertino's labs that sound like something out of a James Bond film. And last year, an employee of Chinese supplier Foxconn allegedly leapt to his death to avoid further interrogation after he "lost" an iPhone prototype.
A new report from Reuters offers more insight into Apple's cloak and dagger world. Confidentiality agreements are only the beginning when it comes to Apple's tactics with its overseas suppliers. Apple contacts suppliers at the last minute, often only weeks before a product's release, and provides information about its products on a strict "need to know" basis. Apple also divides its projects between multiple suppliers, meaning that for a product like the iPhone, no one supplier is responsible for producing or assembling all of its components. As a result, even most of the people who are standing on the assembly line making Apple's products have no idea what they look like when they're finished. Only a handful of very closely monitored workers are responsible for final assembly. Apple also has a unique vetting process for its contractors: it will switch up product suppliers occasionally, issuing them different products, all in the name of hunting down and squashing leaks. Well, that and an attempt to thwart cheap knockoffs -- a somewhat common practice in certain parts of the manufacturing world.
One South Korean supplier has stated Apple makes "unreasonable requests." The company's demands for customization in its designs means suppliers are left with equipment and components that can't be used for other clients, and excess inventory cannot be repurposed.
The Reuters report paints a very dark picture of Apple's relations with its suppliers. The company has its reasons for being secretive, some of them more valid than others, but it seems incredibly ironic that the same company who satirized George Orwell's 1984 in their iconic Super Bowl commercial now employs the same sort of police-state tactics with both its own employees and its overseas contractors. As much as I enjoy using Apple's products, reports like the one from Reuters make it hard for me to like the company itself.
Read the Reuters report for yourselves, and then let us know how you feel about Apple's obsession with secrecy in the comments.
[Via AppleInsider]TUAWApple's obsessive secrecy hurting relations with overseas suppliers originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 18 Feb 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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