steve

DOJ: Apple colluded with publishers to raise e-book prices

Apple violated antitrust laws by colluding with book publishers to raise the price of e-books in an effort "to strip retailers of pricing authority," federal prosecutors said in a court filing released Tuesday, according to Bloomberg.

In an antitrust lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Justice in April 2012, the government accused Apple and five book publishers of conspiring to illegally fix e-book prices to boost profits and force e-book rival Amazon to abandon its discount pricing. All five of the publishers involved -- Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins Publishers, Simon & Schuster (owned by CBS, which … Read more

Bill Gates: Steve Jobs was better at design than I was

When the sense of personal competition has gone, when time has passed, the memories become more acute and more accurate.

During Bill Gates' interview Sunday night with Charlie Rose on CBS's "60 Minutes," Microsoft's chairman released some emotion when speaking of visiting Steve Jobs during the Apple CEO's last days.

He said they're talked about what they'd learned and about families.

He said the conversation wasn't melancholy, but it clearly is an emotional memory for Gates.

When it came to business, Gates admitted that Apple "put the pieces" together on … Read more

Funny or Die's ill-received Steve Jobs film heads to DVD, Hulu

Comedy sketch site Funny or Die is now selling its 78-minute film about late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, which it previously offered for free on its Web site.

People who want to pay $9 through Amazon-owned CreateSpace can get the film on DVD. The company has also put it on Hulu Plus, where it will be available until June 2.

Funny or Die also released some metrics about the viewership of the film, which it says doubled traffic to its site on the day it was released, and has been viewed more than 740,000 times. In a release, the … Read more

Accuracy, schmaccuracy: 'iSteve' props go hilariously wrong

Comedy site Funny or Die beat out the competition in getting "iSteve," the first Steve Jobs biopic, out for viewing. Take that, Ashton Kutcher. In all that haste, Funny of Die may have cut a few corners as far as accuracy goes. That's left the film open for evisceration by Apple fans on high alert for anachronistic images.

The film is full of tripping Steve Jobs scenes, Bill Gates beating computer components with a hammer, and Steve Wozniak looking like he just wandered off the set of "Lost." It's also full of computer parts that just don't fit the time period. It's the sort of thing that will either make Apple fanboys giggle, or send them up in arms to the Internet to complain.… Read more

Satirical Steve Jobs movie now available for viewing on Web

If you have eagerly awaited the release of a Steve Jobs movie -- any movie -- your patience has paid off.

"iSteve," a 79-minute satirical movie based on the life of the iconic Apple co-founder, was released today by comedy site Funny or Die. The comedy site was previously known for "The Landlord," a two-minute clip featuring actor Will Ferrell and co-creator Adam McKay's 2-year-old daughter that's since tallied more than 80 million views.

The movie stars Justin Long, the same actor Apple tapped for its famous switch ads featuring Long and John Hodgman as personifications of Apple's Mac and Microsoft's Windows PCs. Jorge Garcia of "Lost" fame will play Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, and James Urbaniak and Michaela Watkins will play Bill and Melinda Gates. … Read more

Report: Apple's 30-year ban at California resort lifted

Thirty years is a long time to suffer for the bad behavior of a few young and boisterous tech workers. But after being permanently banned from the posh La Playa Carmel resort in 1983 for an evening of skinny-dipping and other misdeeds, Apple executives appear to be back in the fold.

According to SFGate, the new ownership of the La Playa Carmel has decided to extend an olive branch, and Apple seemingly has booked an event there.

Welcome back, Apple: All is forgiven.

That was the message from the new owner of the recently restored La Playa Carmel, where Cupertino'… Read more

Leap Motion strikes bundling, embedding deal with HP

Leap Motion has struck a deal with Hewlett-Packard to bundle and embed its 3D motion control technology in some of the computer giant's devices.

The San Francisco startup's gesture-control system measures users' movements to an accuracy of a hundredth of a millimeter. It plans to release the technology in mid-May, charging $80 for a small thumb drive-size device that plugs into a computer's USB port.

Already, Leap Motion had cemented deals to bundle its controller with Asus PCs, and to sell it in Best Buy stores and at Bestbuy.com, as well as on its own Web … Read more

The 404 1,243: Where clouds are for the weak (podcast)

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- A headphone "club" meeting in Babylon on April 20.

- Amazon extends AutoRip to vinyl records.

- Happy Audiophiliac April! To celebrate, here's what the Head-fi crew did to Steve.

- Follow Steve Guttenberg on Twitter.… Read more

Apple's iPad, 3 years in: Magical? Some beg to differ

Apple released "the magical and revolutionary iPad" three years ago today.

So, what's trending on its anniversary? Well, there's the iPad Death Watch, which highlights what non-believers have said through the years.

Here are some of the comments:

Unnecessary: "It seems like a high priced, unnecessary trinket to me." Paul Thurrott, SuperSite for Windows, January 2010. (Note: this kind of comment wasn't that unusual in 2010. Though I quickly became a heavy user, I dismissed it initially as inadequate in some respects. And, even today, while some might consider excessive dumping on the … Read more