The Big WWDC 2011 Keynote Roundup

By Cody Fink

Apple unleashed a volley of updates this afternoon to iOS, OS X, and introduced the new iCloud that’s bound to make an Apple user blush with excitement. With notifications, over the air updates, AirDrop, and wireless file syncing, Apple is addressing nearly all of the complaints I can think of from users across the board.

We’ve covered a lot on MacStories this afternoon between our detailed posts where you can learn more about new and popular features, to our live blog where we consolidated all of the news into once place. Below, you’ll find a briefing on what’s new in all of these components, and how they fit together in Apple’s vision of the future.

Lion Server to be $49.99 From the Mac App Store

By Cody Fink

What was thought of as an extension to OS X Lion will be a full blown upgrade for $49.99 from the Mac App Store: Apple has just launched a brand new Lion Server page detailing all of the management features you can expect from the Server App to Xsan support.

Let’s start with the basics: you get to manage AirPort wireless base stations and Time Capsules, monitor traffic and bandwidth, all while controlling who gets access to the server with simple account management options. The server supports VPN for encrypted access to your network, an internal wiki, private iChat services, Time Machine for company backups, calendaring, file sharing, email support, and contact sharing all in one place.

For iPad file sharing, there’s webDAV file sharing (which doesn’t sound as tasty as the features iCloud promises), but there are push notifications so Lion Server can notify users of important email or assigned meetings. Time Machine backs up on the server can be conducted for WiFi, ensuring everyone’s company essential goods are backed up in a safe place.

iCal Server 3 and Mail Server 3 are updated to take advantage of push notifications in Lion Server. While iCal Server 3 gives anyone the power to update a schedule or a meeting (which is subsequently updated on everyone else’s devices), Mail Server 3 allows you to search attachments on the server, and also includes a webmail component so you can check those corporate messages outside of the office in a secure environment.

Wiki Server 3 is another big feature in Lion Server that’s a cross between your standard wiki and 37 Signal’s Backpack, giving users the ability to upload files to a page and download them when needed. Wikis can contain information about people, podcasts, specific company pages, and more that can be easily navigated from the navigation bar. A special People Browser gives you web browser and computer independence for looking up contact information that can be browsed anywhere.

Lion Server also includes a profile manager that allows you to remotely manage iPhones and iPads from a central location. If you’re away from the office, the profile manager is available from a web browser so you can manage devices from anywhere.

Look for Lion Server to be released with Lion this July.

[via Apple]

Follow the 2011 WWDC Keynote Triple Play on MacStories

By Cody Fink

Lions? Check. Clouds that kind of look like modified iSync icons? Check. iOS 5? Check. Steve Jobs? Double check.

Our heads have been in the clouds for the last few months as Apple put the finishing touches on their Carolinian data center, convinced all four record labels to get onboard for iCloud, and Lion has been nothing but a leaky faucet when it comes to features, but iOS 5 and iCloud have been Apple’s best kept secrets to date. The big data center theory is that Apple will use iCloud for more than music, and I was happier than a clam when both the LA Times and CNet all but reaffirmed my suspicions about Apple’s desires for the new streaming technology.

On top of all the rumors, iCloud suddenly became the center star of speculation beyond the talks of media as AirPorts and Time Capsule supplies are beginning to run dry in Apple retail stores. Could iOS updates be cached on our wireless access points before installation? Could Apple be looking to distribute these updates without user intervention? Suddenly everything we know about iCloud, and Apple’s current odd child Mobile Me, has been turned on its head. What’s in store for Monday hasn’t yet made it into rumor-mongering hands. And that iSync-like icon? Highly suspicious.

We have a feeling that this WWDC is going to be the biggest we’ve seen in years, and we hope you’re certainly prepared for our caffeine-drip-fueled coverage starting Monday. Keep your eyes glued on MacStories for all the latest updates - we’ll be covering the Keynote with our friends from across the web (video or no-video), bringing you work-a-holics a consolidated text feed. We’re going to start early at 9:30 PDT for casual chit-chat, predictions, and maybe eat a donut or two before the show begins.

Until Monday, June 6th, PEACE!

Time Zones:

13:00 — New York, New York
10:00 — San Francisco, California
07:00 — Honolulu, Hawaii
03:00 — Sydney, Australia
02:00 — Tokyo, Japan
01:00 — Shanghai, China
10:30 — New Delhi, India
21:00 — Moscow, Russia
19:00 — Rome, Italy
18:00 — London, England

Don’t see your city? You can use this link to get your exact time. Read more

The Success of Apple’s Retail Division

By Cody Fink

One of Apple’s greatest achievements is the success of their 324 retail stores, spanning several countries and employing 30,200 employees who are, on average, paid much more than their competitors. Becoming an Apple Employee isn’t easy, but those who are hired on as a “blue shirt” come to enjoy a past-paced product environment and challenging rewards with health benefits and company perks based on the stores’ target success. With 2,500 positions open in retail, Apple is still looking to add Geniuses, Creatives, and managers to help customers and sell product on their show floors, and it’s Shareen Pathak from FINS who comments on Apple’s success in this space.

According to people familiar with the operation, the Fifth Avenue store employs one staff member for every 20 square feet of retail space. That’s one staffer every few feet. All a shopper has to do to get help in an Apple store is reach out and touch someone.

The employees, under strict NDA and ready to serve potential customers, are offered a relatively healthy amount of pay for their hard work. Geniuses on average make $18 dollars an hour, with the helpful blue shirts earning around $16 dollars an hour as they guide customers to new products, show them how to use services, and make sales. In comparison, Pathak writes that a Best Buy Geek Squad Agent on average only makes $12 an hour. Part of Apple’s success is that while work can be demanding, employees are motivated and expected to work hard and sell the Apple experience.

In the first two fiscal quarters for 2011, Apple’s retail division has already earned $7.04 billion in revenue of Apple’s $51.41 billion, in comparison to Pathak’s figure of $10 billion in retail of Apple’s $60 billion at the end of September, 2010. The retail division is on track to nearly double the revenues earned by 2012, after Apple’s Peter Oppenheimer announced a billion retail customers have visited the Apple Store on April 20th, 2011.

From the glass entrances to the Glowing Apple above the double doors, to updated iPad experience and the employees who are ready to help you at moment’s notice, Apple’s retail stores offer a level of convenience and friendliness that big retail chains just can’t match. It’s well worth your time to read the rest of Pathak’s writeup on how Apple hires, how valuable employees are to the company, and just how hard they work to make the whole system operate as a well oiled machine.

[via FINS, Fiscal Q1 2011, Fiscal Q2 2011]

OS X Lion Server to be a Separate Download from the Mac App Store

By Cody Fink

In light of today’s events, Hardmac reports that the server component to OS X Lion will be offered as a separate download through the Mac App Store. In the Lion betas, developers had to decide whether or not to install OS X Server during the initial Lion installation, but a Help menu in Lion suggests that users will need to download the Server app from the App Store, before running additional setup from the applications folder that will pull in a “Server Essentials” software package to configure their Macs as a server. It’s not yet known how much Lion Server will cost as an addition to OS X Lion, but Lion’s competitive pricing should make the Server compliment affordable to anyone who needs VPN, wiki, or file sharing for the iPad and iPhone.

[via Hardmac]

iCloud Detailed: Initially Free with iTunes Purchase, $25 a Year Subscription

By Cody Fink

The Los Angeles Times details the undisclosed features of iCloud, which has been reported by Apple to be a significant staple in Monday’s WWDC keynote. The LA Times reports that iCloud will initially be offered free with a purchase from the iTunes Store, meaning a digital download may fetch you free online storage or perhaps a free subscription, similar to Amazon’s current offering where they offer free cloud storage for a year with an album purchase (many took advantage of Lady Gaga’s $.99 album for this additional deal). Users will want to build their libraries relatively quickly, and the subscription is said to be available at as little as $25 per year. CNet previously suggested that the service wouldn’t be free, but could be around $20 a year. This looks like it’ll be a little of both as Apple introduces users to the service.

The LA Times says Apple initially plans to allow consumers to store their data on Apple’s servers, and would like to offer much more than music in the realm of movies, television, and and other digital content through iCloud’s publishing platform. Whether that storage involves uploading your own media or having iTunes scan your library is currently unknown, but we’re hoping for the latter.

The agreements, finalized this week, call for Apple to share 30% of any revenue from iCloud’s music service with record labels, as well as 12% with music publishers holding the songwriting rights. Apple is expected to keep the remaining 58%, said people knowledgeable with the terms.

The report comes when Apple’s network devices are reported to be ready for an upgrade, perhaps providing some form of iCloud caching for media playback. Apple just sealed the deal with Universal Music Group, and now with iCloud details leaking (as well as iCloud branding), it’ll be hard to keep the Lion in its cage over the weekend.

[via Los Angeles Times]

Apple Seals the Deal with Universal Music for iCloud

By Cody Fink

Greg Sandoval on CNet reports that Apple has sealed the deal with Universal Music Group this afternoon, which gives the Apple the biggest selection of content from their previous deals. With Universal on board, Apple now has all four of the major record labels including EMI, Sony and WMG, available for its upcoming iCloud service, and all that’s left is to pull the trigger on the upcoming service. Universal Music contains many popular artists such as Kanye West and Lady Gaga, and while Apple still has some work to do when it comes to publishers, they’re all but guaranteed to be offering a huge music selection in the cloud. As Peter Kafka explained earlier, publishers own various compositions, and require different terms and payment in terms of online distribution.

[via CNet]

App Stores and iTunes Showing Trouble Worldwide [Update: Back Online!]

By Cody Fink

If you wanted to download Angry Birds, take a gander at Apple’s new WWDC app, or download Lady Gaga’s newest album, you may have noticed that iTunes and the App Store ecosystems are failing to download or accept purchases worldwide. While content may still be accessible to browse, Engadget first noticed that the podcast section of iTunes has gone offline, followed by failure by many to download apps from the iOS and Mac App Stores. The most common issue right now is that users can’t download apps from the iPhone or iPad, with symptoms of slow loading times, download failures, and general errors popping up in several countries worldwide. Several users are reporting problems, so either Apple is working on the backend (perhaps this service disruption as something to do with iCloud), or a server or two have decided to bite the dust at the wrong time. Apple Discussion forums such as this one are starting to crop up during this moment of inconvenience, and we’ll keep you updated as the afternoon progresses.

[Updating…]

Joypad Adds Minecraft and Portal 2 Configurations, Launches Developer SDK

By Cody Fink

Joypad has launched a pair of updates that not only bring the full version of Joypad’s controller to the App Store for free, but also upgrade previous customers of the paid version to an Elite app that’s currently built with the same features. So why the change? Joypad’s free version will feature ads, and offer paid upgrades to various controllers. The Elite version is an ad-free controller, that will give users of the virtual NES controller free upgrades to the latest virtual knobs and buttons the creative crew can come up with. The Joypad Elite version is $11.99 in the App Store, and customers of the previous paid version have been automatically updated to Elite status. Huzzah! New customers can download the free version, and use the controller without having to pay a dime.

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