70 percent. That’s how much Apple is said to have cut iAd advertising services as clients move or contemplate a move to competitors. iAd is Apple’s mobile-advertising business, and when the service was introduced last year, major corporations like Citigroup were willing to pay $1 million plus for packages. Now, advertising deals are available for closer to $300,000, Bloomberg is reporting. READ MORE
Did you just get back from vacation? You missed a busy week in technology. The first thing you need to know: Facebook and Google dominated the headlines. Let’s get on with the list. READ MORE
Apple CEO Steve Jobs surprised everyone by making a cameo appearance at a Cupertino City Council meeting Tuesday night. He wasn’t there to talk iOS 5 or the iCloud; The New York Times reports Jobs attended to propose construction of a new Apple campus, marked by a ring-shaped building made entirely of huge panels of curved glass that even Jobs admits looks “a little like a spaceship landed.” READ MORE
After announcing the iCloud, iOS 5, and OS X Lion at the Worldwide Developer Conference yesterday, Apple CEO Steve Jobs closed the keynote with a shot of the company’s new iDataCenter, which many view as the key to Apple’s lofty new cloud infrastructure. READ MORE
After firing off a letter to Apple CEO Steve Jobs last month then holding a senate hearing about mobile privacy, Senator Al Franken (D-Minnesota) is still hot about the location-tracking issue. This week he sent another letter to Jobs and Google CEO Larry Page insisting the companies create privacy policies for app makers to make sure third-party companies are not collecting, sharing or misusing customer information. READ MORE
The world’s most famous and successful entrepreneurs are easy to pick out: Richard Branson, Donald Trump, and Steve Jobs quickly come to mind. However, who are the true thought leaders among entrepreneurs? Thanks to Klout, a tool that measures online influence, The Huffington Post has enumerated the 10 most influential entrepreneurs on the Internet—at least at the moment. READ MORE
While every blogger in cyberspace is trying to figure out what the Microsoft acquisition of Skype means for the future, PC Magazine decided to look in its rearview mirror and remind readers of eight acquisitions from the past that helped shape the technology world we live in today. If Google hadn’t acquired Android six years ago, would it still have the world’s second-largest mobile operating system? If Apple hadn’t bought NeXT in 1997, effectively rehiring Steve Jobs, would he have developed the iPhone and iPad elsewhere? Or at all? READ MORE
When researchers discovered last week that iPhones and iPads contained software that recorded—and potentially tracked—location information, lots of people pretty much freaked out, including some notable politicians. Steve Jobs, on medical leave from Apple, spoke to the The New York Times to finally allay people’s nerves. READ MORE
IGN has a good summary of what to expect when the iPad 2 eventually comes out, if that is even the plan. It makes sense, though, that Steve Jobs would first get the iPad 2 into a pre-production cycle and then take a leave of absence. And, lately, these rumors have proved accurate. (Inc. Tech will have our own report on the iPad 2 and what we think it will be like coming up in a week or two.) From the IGN report: “Though Apple executives may refuse to talk about it, the introduction of a new and improved iPad is all but a certainty. Every year like clockwork, Apple updates their biggest product lines with new designs and new features, and the iPad is next in line. Fortunately, pre-announcement rumors are equally consistent, and we’ve already caught wind of a number of tidbits regarding Apple’s next tablet.” Everything We Know About the iPad 2 [IGN]
News of Steve Jobs taking a medical leave shocked Wall Street, but here’s the Apple kicker: the Cupertino tech giant sold almost $27B last quarter, mostly due to iPad and iPhone sales. From the CNN Money report: “The iPad’s success is coming from multiple sources. While Apple’s Macintosh computers have always struggled for traction in the business world, Apple said the iPad is generating strong crossover interest from business customers. Around 80% of Fortune 100 companies have deployed the tablet for their employees.” Apple sets new record with sales of $27 billion [CNN Money]
