Steve Jobs received a lot of criticism for not giving away more of the cash he made from Apple and his other ventures, but thanks to wife Laurene Powell Jobs, the Jobs family contributes more than you might think. In fact, they’ve been giving money away for more then two decades, they just happen to be very good at keeping it under wraps.

Not everyone likes to shout about the contributions they make to charity; some prefer to keep it anonymous. And Laurene Powell Jobs is one of those people.

“We’re really careful about amplifying the great work of others in every way that we can, and we don’t like attaching our names to things,” Ms. Powell Jobs said in an interview for The New York Times last week. But how does she keep her efforts so quiet?

The NYT’s Claire Cain Miller reports that one of the main ways Ms. Powell Jobs keeps her donations anonymous is by cleverly making her organization, Emerson Collective, a limited liability company (LLC). An LLC is like a small business, rather than a tax-exempt charitable organization or foundation.

This comes with some advantages. For instance, Emerson can make grants, investments in for-profit companies, and political donations. But more importantly, it does not have to publicly disclose its donations like a foundation does.

“Doing things anonymously and being nimble and flexible and responsive are all things we value on our team,” said Ms. Powell Jobs.

Ms. Powell Jobs’s organization isn’t the only one that does this. Miller reports that the strategy is actually becoming quite popular as people seek flexibility, freedom, and anonymity for their investments.

“The beauty of having an LLC in today’s world is No. 1, you have the ability to act and react as nimbly as need be to create change, and you have the ability to invest politically, in the for-profit sector and the nonprofit sector simultaneously,” said Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen, who teaches philanthropy at Stanford, runs her own organization, and is a close friend of Ms. Powell Jobs.

“And the reality is,” she added, “we are now seeing a blurring of the lines between the sectors in a way that was not even discussed 10 years ago. The way that we are going to solve social problems is by working with multiple different types of investing.”

One of Ms. Powell Jobs’s biggest projects is College Track, a college preparation organization that she co-founded in 1997. College Track operates six centers across the United States, in Aurora, East Palo Alto, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Oakland, and San Francisco.

The organization’s aim is to help under-resourced high school students prepare for college by focusing on four core services areas, including academic affairs, student life, college affairs, and college success.

“It’s like my second house,” said Chris Seruge, 17, who visits the San Francisco center each day for tutoring and will apply to college next year with the help of College Track. “Without it, I’d be struggling.”

Miller notes that there is evidence of other contributions related to the Jobs family. Every year, Pixar, which Steve Jobs helped build in the late eighties, hosts a film screening to raise money for College Track. This year, attendees will pay $1,000 a ticket to see a pre-release screening of Monsters University, the upcoming prequel to Monsters, Inc.

Other College Track supporters include Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google; Marissa Mayer, chief executive of Yahoo; Ron Conway, the angel investor; and Marc Benioff, founder of Salesforce.com.

Source: The New York Times

The post How Laurene Powell Jobs Keeps The Jobs Family Philanthropy Under Wraps appeared first on Cult of Mac.

This post was written by Killian Bell from Cult of Mac.
You can view the original post by clicking here.

Earlier this month we heard that Apple submitted to the courts that it engaged in “contentious negotiations”– and not a pricing conspiracy– at a time when publishers were already considering methods of getting Amazon to increase pricing. According to the latest comments from a judge in the high-profile eBook pricing case, Apple might not be able to prove its case when it goes to trial early next month.

U.S. District Judge Denise Cote believes that the U.S Justice Department will indeed be able to prove a pricing conspiracy took place (via Bloomberg):

“I believe that the government will be able to show at trial direct evidence that Apple knowingly participated in and facilitated a conspiracy to raise prices of e-books, and that the circumstantial evidence in this case, including the terms of the agreements, will confirm that,” U.S. District Judge Denise Cote in Manhattan said yesterday.

“We strongly disagree with the court’s preliminary statements about the case,” Orin Snyder, Apple’s lead lawyer in the case, said yesterday in an e-mailed statement. “The court made clear that this was not a final ruling and that the evidence at trial will determine the verdict. This is what a trial is for.”

This post was written by Jordan Kahn from 9to5Mac.
You can view the original post by clicking here.

With the grand unveiling of Apple’s next operating system for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch approaching, sources have provided detailed descriptions of what users and developers alike could expect from the software’s fresh look.

As we reported in April, Apple Senior Vice President of Industrial Design Jony Ive has been leading a thorough overhaul for iOS 7 that focuses on the look and feel of the iOS device software rather than on several new features.

Sources have described iOS 7 as “black, white, and flat all over.” This refers to the dropping of heavy textures and the addition of several new black and white user interface elements.

Sources say that over the past few months, Apple has re-architected iOS 7′s new interface several times, so until the new software is announced at WWDC, interface elements could dramatically change from what Apple has been testing internally in recent weeks.

Nonetheless, you can find what we have been hearing about iOS 7′s new user experience below:

Ive on Heavy Textures:

In software design meetings with Apple’s iOS designers, accompanied by Apple’s Human Interface vice president Greg Christie, Ive has shared his reasoning behind his distaste for the texture-heavy (skeuomorphic) interfaces heralded by Apple co-founder Steve Jobs and former iOS chief Scott Forstall.

Ive stated that software designs filled with physical metaphors do not stand the test of time, according to a person familiar with the design meetings.

According to this person, Ive also shared that because iOS’s current applications have several differing designs, Apple’s users could become confused.

For example, the current yellow notepad-inspired Notes app contrasts significantly from the silver-textured Maps, blue and white Mail, and casino-inspired Game Center apps.

But now that over half a billion devices running Jobs’ and Forstall’s iconic system have been sold, Ive has the immense challenge to make Apple’s software as clean and seamless as his glass and aluminum devices, all while making the software remain simple enough to resonate with customers.

For the upcoming operating system, which Apple says will be unveiled at its June Worldwide Developers Conference, Ive has not simply picked areas of the software design to tweak. He has essentially made his mark on every corner of the operating system, according to descriptions from sources, all while mostly keeping the essence of what has made iOS so ubiquitous.

Turning on the iPhone:

When Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone to the gushing crowd at his January 2007 keynote address, one of the first breakthrough moments for spectators is when Jobs took his finger to perform the slide-to-unlock gesture on the iPhone’s Lock screen. Since that day, the iPhone’s Lock screen has mostly remained the same.

With iOS 7, Apple will drop the shiny, transparent time bar on the top of the Lock screen in exchange for a shine-free, black interface. Additionally, the square-grid for entering a pin code has been replaced with round, black buttons with white text and white borders. Additionally, sources say that notifications on the Lock screen may see improved manipulability with gestures.

Overall, the Lock screen is different than what users have become accustomed to, but it functions in a similar manner.

Notifications: 

Jony Ive has inspired the iOS design team to replace many of the linen and leather textures found in iOS, such as in the iPad Calendar app, with flat white and black coloring. For instance, Apple’s Notification Center drop-down panel currently has a dark linen background. In iOS 7, according to people familiar with the software, this design becomes a dark grey/black color with white text.

As we previously reported, the latest iOS 7 builds being tested include new panels for quick access to information. For example, in addition to local weather and stocks information (like as introduced in iOS 5), Apple is testing other widgets for Notification Center. Sources shared examples such as localized news feeds. Additionally, Apple is testing a dedicated, easily-accessible panel for WiFi, Airplane Mode, and Bluetooth toggles.

Home Screen:

As we previously reported, iOS 7′s Home screen design is mostly the same as the display of app icons found in iOS since the first iPhone. While the Home screen app icons lose shine, shadows and gloss, the buttons are still round and just as tappable.

Also as we previously noted, most of the Apple-bundled app icons have been redesigned with flatter, less-skeuomorphic textures. Notable app icon changes for “flatness” are present for the Camera and Photos apps, while the Game Center logo loses the green felt and chess pieces.

Additionally, panorama-like wallpapers (images that pan as Home screens are swiped) are also present. This feature makes sense in light of Apple adding panorama photography capabilities to some iOS 6 devices last year. Panorama wallpapers have existed in Google’s Android OS for several years.

Additionally, navigation and tab bars have been redesigned to remove gradient textures. Some bars in iOS 7 are also said to include a minor blurring effect. In some apps, the Status Bar is less transparent than in iOS 6. iOS 7′s system-wide keyboard is similar the keyboard in previous versions of iOS, but the design is a lighter shade of grey and does not include shadowing.

Redesigned Apps:

In addition to the Home screen buttons, most of Apple’s apps have been redesigned to fit the white, black, and flat theme of the new operating system. For example, the shredding animation for deleting virtual passes has likely been removed from Passbook.

Additionally, the iPhone’s Notes app has replaced the yellow notepad design for a flat white look. Apps such as Mail, Calendar, and Maps have also gained a more uniformed look with flat white textures. While the core elements of those apps are mostly white, each app has been given a unique button color. Essentially, each app has a white base with a respective color theme.

For example, the Calendar app could potentially have red buttons, while Messages could have green controls. While not exactly accurate, the above concept art for a “flat” iOS 7 Calendar provides a fair representation of how the aforementioned red theme could be implemented. The actual iOS 7 Calendar’s UI changes are not as ambitious as depicted in the above concept art.

While the Mail app, for example, is light on many changes, apps such as App Store, Newsstand, Game Center, Safari, Camera, and Weather have seen significant transformations.

Apple’s new Weather application is said to include slightly animated images to notate types of weather such as rain, sun, or snow. One source says that it is similar to the above design recently posted to Dribbble.

Game Center, unsurprisingly, has been stripped of green felt. Newsstand has been tweaked to remove the wood-shelf interface. It is likely that the wood will be replaced with a texture slightly reminiscent of OS X Mountain Lion’s app dock. Safari for iPhone’s design has been tweaked, particularly in the tabs view.

The App/iTunes/iBook stores will pick up a flatter, white look (as opposed to the current dark black theme). Additionally, due to confusion from users looking to FaceTime, the iPhone may now include a standalone FaceTime app like the iPad and iPod touch. In previous versions of the iPhone software, FaceTime video calling has been tucked away into the Phone application.

New Features:

While iOS 7 is heavy on design changes, the operating system also includes some various new features across the board. We previously reported that iOS 7 will likely include integration for Flickr and Vimeo in addition to improved in-car support for Maps and Siri. While the new interface will be a major change for consumers, sources say that iOS 7 is also an ambitious update for developer-focused features.

Priorities: 

According to people familiar with iOS 7′s development, Apple’s designers and engineers are prioritizing an overhaul of the iPhone’s version of iOS over the iPad’s software.

Release:

It is highly likely that Apple will release iOS 7 to customers this fall alongside new hardware. We are expecting Apple to release an iPhone refresh with improved internals in the fall. Additionally, Apple seems to be prepping new versions of the iPad and iPad mini for the fall. 

(Top two images created by Michael Steeber)

This post was written by Mark Gurman from 9to5Mac.
You can view the original post by clicking here.

Holograms are supposedly going to be the future of artistic performance. First there was the Tupac hologram at Coachella, and now Eazy-E and Ol’ Dirty Bastard are making a hologram comeback too.

Tim Cook had to endure a barrage of silly questions at yesterday’s Senate hearing, but the most most absurd and tasteless came from none other than TMZ who was dying to know if Steve Jobs will make an appearance as a hologram at the next Apple event.

Rather than slapping the reporter for being ridiculous, Tim Cook used his southern charm to deflect the question. Heres a video of the awkward encounter: 

 

“Will we ever see a hologram of Steve Jobs at the next Apple convention anytime?”

“I can’t comment on that.”

 

A Steve Jobs hologram is obviously the last thing on Tim Cook’s mind. Even though we all miss Steve, it’s hard to think of anything more tasteless than a Steve Jobs hologram parading around an Apple event pimping products.

Source: TMZ

 

This post was written by Buster Heine from Cult of Mac.
You can view the original post by clicking here.

There’s a lot of talk these days about Google Glass, Google’s new futuristic wearable computer that functions like a set of cyborg glasses, overlaying a HUD of Google products and search services over your life.

It certainly sounds impressive, and early reviews from the usual techno-nerds are positive. But what would Steve Jobs have thought of Google Glass?

He would have thought you were a dork for wearing one, and you needed to get laid.

In a funny (but sort of cruel) anecdote shared by Jeff Soto, who was once an Audio Test Engineer at Apple, Steve Jobs was once pitched an idea for a wearable computing solution like Google Glass at an Apple Town Hall Meeting. His response? Outright ridicule.

As soon as I saw the video for Google’s Project Glass I instantly recalled a funny story from my time at Apple. I was once at a Town Hall meeting in Cupertino where Steve Jobs commented on this type of wearable computing. An Apple employee in the audience asked Steve a question to the extent of: “How can we reach out to our leadership if we have a really good idea”. Steve immediately put him on the spot and made him pitch the idea in front of everyone there. An opportunity to pitch Steve Jobs. What?

The employee proceeded to pitch an idea about glasses you can wear that display various types of information. A heads up display a’la terminator cyborg vision if you will. He continued to explain how he wished he had a way to see projected information while he perhaps went for a run outside. Keep in mind this is happening in a room filled with a lot of people.

Steve immediately shot his idea down and told the guy that he would probably trip and fall if that were the case. Steve also suggested he should get a girlfriend so he has someone to keep him company while running.

To be fair, Steve Jobs often laughed at ideas that he later embraced. Remember when Steve laughed at the idea of an iPod playing video? Still, that’s a pretty blistering dismissal of a concept Google is putting a lot of resources and PR behind, don’t you think?

Source: I Am Not Robot
Via: MacTrast

This post was written by John Brownlee from Cult of Mac.
You can view the original post by clicking here.