Apple held its annual shareholder’s meeting this week, and it was largely uneventful. Answering questions, Apple CEO Tim Cook did reiterate that Apple is looking to create new products in new categories. In addition, Apple is planning to move into its new 2.8 million square foot building in 2016.
In other news, it is being reported that Mac sales in January were strong after a week December causes by stock shortages. The new iMac was only available in limited numbers in December, but is now shipping in 2-3 weeks according to the online Apple store.
“We have more than 200 different iPhone cases to choose from.”
“I don’t know if I like any of these. Are there more in the back?”
A few minor software updates this week addressed small but annoying bugs that have been causing problems for some users. iOS 6 was updated to 6.1.2 to address a problem when iOS devices were used to get email from Exchange servers. iTunes was updated to fix problems with syncing and store purchases. But it also seems to make it easier to sort search results, a problem many were complaining about with the initial release of iTunes 11.
Apple also released another update to Java to prevent another type of potential malware attack. This update gained more attention as this type of attack was allegedly used to infiltrate computers of Apple employees. MacMost recommends turning Java off in your web browser unless you absolutely need it.
In other news, the Mac Pro is no longer available for sale in Europe. This is due to the now-aging model not meeting regulatory standards. Many believe that Apple is simply removing the old model because a new Mac Pro is on the horizon.
Microsoft is pushing Mac users toward its new Office 365 subscription service by raising the price on stand-alone copies of Office for Mac 2011. These are now $140 or $220, depending on whether you want to include Outlook. A subscription to Office 365 costs $100 per year and allows you to use the software on up to five computers.
“Our IT department is against letting us get Macs.”
“Why? Because they don’t know how to fix them?”
“No, because they won’t need to.”
If you want to go beyond System Preferences and change other settings on your Mac, you can do so with the Terminal window. But TinkerTool makes it even easier by giving you a list of potential settings and a user interface to make the changes without typing.
Apple has quietly updated the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air, and also dropped its price. The low-end MacBook Pro with a 13-inch Retina display and 128GB of storage is now $1,499, $200 less than before. The 256GB model is $300 cheaper at $1,699. These now come with a slightly faster 2.6GHz processor. The 15-inch models also received a processor boost to a 2.4GHz or 2.7GHz quad-core processor. The high-end model now also ships with 16GB of memory. The MacBook Air is also less expensive now, with a price tag of $1,399 for the high-end 13-inch 256GB model.
Apple is busy with legal matters as usual, but this time in disputes with its own shareholders. At issue is Apple’s large cash holdings. At least two groups of shareholders are arguing that Apple should find a way to return some of that money to the shareholders. Apple currently issues a $2.65/share dividend each quarter, including one this week.
While today's Macs have a recovery disk partition on the internal hard drive that makes it easy to recover from problems, it can also be useful to have an external recovery disk. It is very easy to create one using Apple's Recovery Disk Assistant for Lion and Mountain Lion. it could come in handy if your hard drive is damaged or you need to swap it out for a new one.
A slow news week was interrupted only by Apple’s announcement of the sale of its 25 billionth song on iTunes, the introduction of the AppStore.com domain name during a Superbowl commercial, and an OS X Server update.
The only real event of the week was the launch of the 128GB iPad in Apple Stores, which had been announced the previous week.
Rumors were active, as usual, with the idea of a new Mac Pro surfacing again. The current Mac Pro will no longer be sold in Europe starting March 1 due to regulatory issues, giving more credence to rumors of a new model coming soon. In fact, one report pegs the arrival as soon as this spring.