Tim Cook: Apple May Kill Off Ping

Cook says Apple customers voted not to put their energy into Apple's failed social network.

Speaking to Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher at last night to kick off AllThingsD’s D10 Conference, Apple CEO Tim Cook revealed that Apple is exploring the possibility of killing Ping.

Wait, you may be saying, what’s Ping? Considering how little attention Ping has gotten over the last couple of years, you could be forgiven for not knowing what it is. The next time that someone tells you that everything Apple touches turns to gold (or cash, or increased market value, or whatever), you can point to Ping. Launched in 2010 as part of iTunes 10, Ping is Apple’s attempt at its own social network centered on music. Ping promised to let users “[f]ollow your favorite artists and friends to discover the music they’re talking about, listening to, and downloading.”

While it may have seemed like a good idea at the time, Ping was an epic flop, to put it bluntly. The simple fact is that almost nobody used it. During the question and answer portion of last night’s interview, an audience member asked about Ping, and whether Apple would continue to experiment in the social media space. Cook’s reply neatly avoided discussing Ping directly: “Apple doesn’t have to own a social network, but does Apple have to be social? Yes.” He pointed to the integration of Twitter into iOS 5 last year, and into OS X Mountain Lion later this year. Earlier in the talk he suggested that Facebook integration may be coming soon, too.

Cook wasn’t allowed to get off that easily, though. When asked again about Ping directly he responded that Apple had tried Ping, and the customers just weren’t interested. He said that Apple would look at killing it, though Swisher suggested selling it to Google+.

 

Tim Cook: Apple To “Double-Down” On Secrecy

Apple's new CEO has no plans to relax Apple's grip on new product information.

Every company has its own little quirks: aspects of its operational philosophy – small or major – that give it its own personality. One of Apple’s quirks, if you will, is its devotion to secrecy. Apple keeps every detail of its operations – particularly upcoming products – locked down tight with a vehemence that some would call paranoia.

Some have thought that Apple’s secrecy was primarily a characteristic of the company’s late founder and CEO, Steve Jobs, and that with Tim Cook now at the helm, Apple’s philosophy on this might change. Any such hopes were dashed last night, however. Speaking at AllThingsD’s D10 Conference, Cook told Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher, with whom he was sharing the stage, that “we’re going to double down on secrecy on products.” While the company would continue to increase its transparency with regard to things like the environment and supplier responsibility, secrecy on new products would remain paramount.

Later in the evening, during a discussion on Apple’s relationship with Facebook, Cook reiterated that “I feel strongly that being secretive on the product side of our business is so important.” When asked by Swisher about Apple’s practices regarding the purchase of new companies, Cook said that Apple does purchase other companies, but that these purchases are “not ones that we seek to make public.” While some acquisitions can’t be hidden, Cook said that “if I don’t have to [tell you about it] I don’t.”

 

Tim Cook Hints iOS Facebook Integration May Be Coming Soon

"Stay tuned," Cook says.

When Apple unveiled iOS 5 last fall with Twitter integration, the big question on everyone’s mind was “Where’s Facebook?” Apple had reportedly been in talks to bring Facebook integration to iOS since before iOS 4, but nothing had ever come of it. When iOS 5 came out with Twitter integration but no Facebook (a feature that appears to carry over to OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, coming later this year), it raised a lot of eyebrows.

Last night at AllThingsD’s D10 Conference Apple CEO Tim Cook spent some time on stage with Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher, talking about Apple. During that talk, Cook strongly hinted that iOS would be getting Facebook integration in the not-too-distant future. When asked about the situation by Mossberg, Cook said that he thought the relationship between Facebook and Apple was “very solid,” pointing out that “I saw Sheryl earlier, you can ask her” (referring to Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg). He went on to say that he had “great respect for them,” and that iOS users should “stay tuned on this one.”

Of course, there have been difficulties between the two companies in coming to an agreement in the past, Swisher noted, pointing out that Steve Jobs said that Facebook was “onerous.” She asked Cook if he thought Facebook was onerous too. Cook paused briefly before saying “they have their way of doing things,” a remark that drew laughter from the crowd.

Swisher pressed him further, asking whether Apple and Facebook were “must-haves for each other.” Cook replied that Apple’s goal is to “provide customers simple and elegant ways to do the things they want to do,” and that as such he wanted customers to have the best possible experience when using Facebook on their iPhones or iPads, “so stay tuned,” he repeated.

These remarks echo comments made by Cook earlier this year. Back in February Cook addressed a meeting of Apple’s shareholders. When asked by one whether Facebook is “friend or foe,” Cook said that Facebook is a friend and noted the enormous overlap between Facebook users and Apple customers. He also pointed out how good for Twitter iOS integration has been, and suggested that Apple and Facebook “could do more together.”

So there you have it. While Cook did not outright promise that Facebook integration would be coming in iOS 6 (or OS X Mountain Lion), it’s pretty hard to avoid the impression that it will at least be coming fairly soon.

 

Tim Cook Promises Improvements To Siri Coming Soon

And yes, the S in iPhone 4S does stand for Siri.

 

Even if you don’t have an iPhone 4S (or a jailbroken iOS device running Spire), you know what Siri is. It’s the voice-activated “killer app” for the iPhone 4S, introduced in October. It’s the focus of pretty much every ad for the iPhone 4S you’ve ever seen (including some recent ones with celebrities).

Siri is also, however, a subject of some controversy. While most iPhone users like it, others hate it. Some of those even claim that Apple’s ads are deceptive and are suing Apple for false advertising.

Whatever else Siri may be, though, there’s one thing that Apple has emphasized from the beginning: as cool as Siri can be when it’s working properly (like in Apple’s ads), the feature is still in beta. Unfortunately, that means that Siri won’t always work like it’s supposed to.

Speaking to Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher last night at AllThingsD’s D10 Conference, Apple CEO Tim Cook acknowledged Siri’s problems, and promised that the personal assistant software would be getting some big improvements in the future.

Mossberg pointed out that “when Siri works, it works really well, it’s kinda like magic.” He went on to say, though, that “a lot of times it actually doesn’t work, and that’s not what a lot of people have come to think about Apple products.” He wondered whether Siri was up to Apple’s standards. Cook replied by pointing out Siri’s popularity with users of the iPhone 4S, which is “the most popular selling phone in the world.” Nevertheless, he acknowledged that “there’s more that it can do.” He said that Apple has “a lot of people working on this,” that they had “some cool ideas about what Siri can do, and that “I think you’ll be really pleased with some of the things that you’ll see in the coming months on this.”

Swisher then asked Cook whether voice interaction would be critical to the phone industry moving forward. Cook replied that “Siri’s proven to us that people want to relate to the phone in a different way.” Siri, he said, represents the first real innovation in mobile technology interface since the touchscreen (which, of course, was brought into the mainstream by Apple with the original iPhone in 2007). Cook said that what makes Siri amazing is its ability to understand the context and intent of what’s being said, “not just voice recognition, voice recognition’s been around for a long time.” Siri’s best feature, Cook said, “is that she has a personality, she becomes many people’s best friend.” When Mossberg jokingly asked if that wasn’t actually kind of sad, Cook replied “hey, I’m not a judge.”

Getting more serious again, Cook said that Siri “is something that people dreamed of for years, and it’s here.” He went on to say that “yes, it can be broader and so forth, but we see unbelievable potential here.” He concluded that “you’re going to be really happy with where this is going, we’re doubling down on it.”

Later in the evening, Cook was asked about how Apple names new products, specifically the new iPad (as opposed to the iPad 3). He noted that the iPad naming represents a return to what Apple usually does with its products – e.g., the MacBook Air, iMac, and iPod. He also briefly touched on iPhone naming conventions, pointing out that the S in iPhone 3GS stood for “speed.” He then confirmed what most have long suspected: the S in the iPhone 4S name stands for “Siri.”

Just as with Facebook integration in iOS, Cook carefully avoided giving any hint of when we might expect the improvements to Siri that he’s talking about. With the WWDC 2012 conference – and the probable unveiling of iOS 6 during Apple’s keynote – just around the corner, though, it’s a fair bet that at least some of these improvements will be coming very soon.

Tim Cook Thinks U.S. Patent System Is Broken

Often in the tech world it seems that you can hardly go a day without hearing about some new lawsuit where one company is suing another for violating its intellectual property. Whether it’s non-practicing entities (i.e., patent trolls) going after companies like Apple or Microsoft to make a quick buck, or it’s companies like Apple, Samsung, Microsoft, Motorola, or Google going after one another, the patent wars have gotten pretty crazy.

In an interview with Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg during the opening session of AllThingsD’sD10 Conference, Apple CEO talked at some length about these lawsuits, and expressed some pretty strong opinions. When Swisher asked whether Cook thought patent litigation was a problem for innovation, Cook responded “well, it’s a pain in the ass.”

He went on to echo comments he made during Apple’s quarterly earnings call last month. He stressed his belief that “it’s important that Apple not be the developer for the world.” He went on to draw an analogy between Apple’s innovation and art:

We can’t take all of our energy and all of our care and finish the painting and have someone else put their name on it. We can’t have that. The worst thing in the world that can happen to you if you’re and engineer and you’ve given your life to something is for someone to rip it off and put their name on it. And so what we want to accomplish is that we just want people to invent their own stuff.

Mossberg replied that there are companies that accuse Apple of ripping them off, and have therefore sued Apple. In response, Cook pointed out the difference between ordinary patents and standards essential patents. He said that “the vast majority of those [suits] are over standards essential patents.” A standards essential patent covers anything that is necessary to build a certain kind of product – Cook used the example of a kind of technology that is necessary to access a 3G data network. As Cook pointed out, owners of patents that are considered standards essential are legally obligated to license those patents on fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms.

Companies that refuse to do so, Cook said, are basically trying to cash in: “they’re in essence telling you that they’re not going to license it because they want to go get an injunction.” Cook called the use of standards essential patents in litigation “an area where the patent system is broken today.” The suits that certain companies (Cook avoided using names, though Motorola is notorious for this) file over standards essential patents represent an attempt, Cook said, to use the court system “in a way that it wasn’t intended.”

He went on to say that Apple does not file lawsuits over the standards-essential patents it owns, “because we view that it’s fundamentally wrong to do that.” Such suits, he said, were “never the intention of a standards essential patent.”

Getting back to the original question of whether patent litigation is a problem for innovation, Cook said that it “is maddening, it’s a waste, it’s a time suck. However, does it stop innovation? It’s not going to stop us.” Cook concluded by expressing hope that “some of the regulators and so forth will charge at this and begin to fix it.”

Apple Buys Music Editing Company Redmatica

Earlier this morning we told you about Apple CEO Tim Cook’s comments on Apple’s focus on secrecy. He insisted on the importance of maintaining secrecy when it comes to Apple’s products, and noted that such secrecy includes not publicizing the acquisition of new companies. He said that while Apple purchases other companies regularly, “if I don’t have to [tell you about it] I don’t.”

Well, fresh on the heels of that statement comes news that Apple appears to have made just such a purchase. According to Italian websiteFanpage (Google Translation), Apple has acquired Redmatica, a small company based in Correggio, Italy that specializes in advanced audio editing software, including one program designed to work with Apple’s GarageBand for Mac and iOS.

It is, of course, not yet clear what Apple intends to do with Redmatica’s products and employees. They’ll most likely be folded into the team behind Apple’s own professional sound editing software, Logic Pro.

Requests for comment sent to Apple and Redmatica have not received a reply as yet (though, to be fair, it’s currently 10 PM in Italy). However Fanpage did manage to track down an extract from The Bulletin dated May 28th that appears to confirm the purchase:

The excerpt, of course, is in Italian. Here’s how it goes in English (the first footnote points out that Apple’s fiscal year ends on September 30, while the second says that certain confidential information has been omitted):

Under the provisions of the contract “Asset Purchase Agreement Relating to the business as an ongoing concern of Redmatica S.r.l.” (hereinafter the Agreement) with the present operation, Apple intends to acquire, through a transfer of assets, the business Redmatica. Pursuant to the Agreement previso from some non-essential assets (defined as the “Excluded Assets”) of Redmatica S.r.l. will be excluded from the scope of the acquisition. By way of example, are among the Excluded Assets some credits and debts, the company cars …

Otterbox Unveils Latest iPhone Case

Completely waterproof

Consumer electronics accessory company Otterbox has just released a new, completely waterproof protective case for iPhone. The new product is part of its Armor series, and will be available on June 24th. Check out the clip below for more details:

OtterBox points out that the new case is drop proof, dust proof, crush proof and waterproof, and “hands down, the toughest case [we’ve] ever built.” The shell fits over an iPhone with just a 3000th of an inch of float between the case and the phone, and includes a medical-grade stainless steel latch. There’s no word on the price, but earlier versions of Otterbox cases typically ran about $40.

Otterbox was founded in 1998, and is based in Fort Collins, Colorado. Other OtterBox product lines include the Impact Series, Reflex Series, Commuter Series and Defender Series. The new case will apparently kick off the new Armor series.

In related news, check out these newly leaked photos, possibly of Apple’s upcoming iPhone 5.

 

iPhone 5 Rumor: Schematic Confirms Front Panel Redesign

It looks like all the rumors circulating about the new iPhone’s redesign may have a bit more confirmation today. Yesterday we reported on images that had surfaced purporting to show the back casing of the new iPhone. These images appeared to confirm rumors that the new iPhone would be getting a metallic rear panel and a larger display.

Included in those images was one that showed the new iPhone’s front glass alongside the rear panel. Today, Japanese site iLab (Google Translation) has published another image that may offer some confirmation. This image is not, unfortunately, an actual component. Instead it is a schematic that appears to show details about the new iPhone’s front panel. Unfortunately the words have been blurred out, so all we have is the actual design image. Check it out for yourself below (click to enlarge):

For comparison, here’s the image from yesterday that shows the front panel alongside the rear panel:

Today’s image is completely consistent with yesterdays. It shows a taller (but not wider) display, and the front camera centered above the phone’s earpiece. Of course, just as with yesterday’s images, this could well be a fake. It could even, conceivably, be a fake inspired by yesterday’s images. If it’s genuine, though, it looks like we’ve already got a pretty good idea of what the next iPhone is going to look like. What remains to be seen now is what new goodies Apple will manage to cram into this larger case.

Samsung Galaxy S III Gets 9 Million Pre-Orders

But not exactly in the way you're thinking.

Samsung’s forthcoming Galaxy S III smartphone appears to be selling like hotcakes already. With a couple weeks left before the phone begins to hit stores around the world, pre-orders of Samsung’s latest flagship phone have been skyrocketing.

In fact, according to a report from Reuters this morning, over 9 million Galaxy S IIIs have been preordered. While that seems like a lot – and, to be fair, it is – much of the reporting on this story this morning has missed an important point: according to Reuters, all those pre-orders have come from “more than 100 global carriers.” So, contrary to some reports, it’s not actually customers who are pre-ordering all those phones, it’s Samsung’s carrier partners.

Now, 9 million pre-orders from carrier partners is still nothing to sneeze at – notwithstanding Jim Dalrymple’s statement that it’s “bullshit.” After all, carriers wouldn’t be ordering phones in such numbers if they didn’t at least hope to sell them. Nevertheless, carrier pre-orders are a very different animal from customer pre-orders, and acting as though the Galaxy S III was seeing unprecedented demand is inaccurate. The Galaxy S III’s real popularity test will come in terms of actual units sold. For that, we’ve still got a little time left to wait.

 

Galaxy S III’s S Voice Prefers Windows Phone

You may remember earlier this month when it was discovered that Siri, the voice activated personal assistant software on Apple’s iPhone 4S, gave an unexpected answer when asked about the best smartphone. It seems that when you asked Siri what the best smartphone ever was, she responded that the the Windows Phone-based Nokia Lumia 900 was best.

Apple, much like Snow White’s wicked stepmother, didn’t like their magic mirror telling customers that another smartphone was the fairest in the land, and reprogrammed Siri. Now instead of performing a Wolfram Alpha search when you ask Siri what the best smartphone ever is, she responds with “the one you’re holding.”

Now it looks like Apple isn’t the only wicked stepmother with magic mirror problems. The Inquirerrecently discovered that S Voice, the totally-not-a-Siri-clone voice assistant software on the new Galaxy S III, returns its own unexpected answer when asked which smartphone is fairest in the land. S Voice, though, gives a slightly different answer. Whereas Siri picked the Lumia 900 based on Wolfram Alpha’s results, S Voice searches Best Buy review data and comes up with, of all things, the HTC 7 Trophy. Check it out for yourself (image courtesy of The Inquirer):

Now, the HTC 7 Trophy doesn’t really measure up as a candidate for best smartphone ever, being as it’s getting rather old. What’s really interesting, though, is that both Siri and S Voice showed a Windows Phone-based device when asked about the best smartphone. Of course, that doesn’t necessarily mean that Windows Phone is better than iOS or Android, but given the sources for the two programs’ information (customer reviews), it’s pretty clear that Windows Phone is at least as popular among its fans as iOS and Android are among theirs.

Of course, as with Siri, don’t expect S Voice to keep returning this result forever. Samsung is bound to have a fix in the works already, assuming they’ve heard about this little easter egg. Of course, Samsung probably won’t be sending HTC off for a stroll in the woods with an armed huntsman (though they might like to). Instead, Samsung will probably do the same as Apple and make some tweaks to S Voice’s backend so that it will give users the “right” answer.

iPhone 5 Rumor: WWDC Logo Provides Clues?

Does the WWDC logo hint at the next iPhone?

When Apple announced the details about the 2012 Worldwide Developers Conferenceon Wednesday, it set tongues wagging – or, more accurately, keyboards clicking – all across the internet. While Apple’s announcement all but confirmed that iOS 6 would be announced (just as iOS 5 was announced at WWDC 2011), there was speculation about what else Apple might have up its sleeve. An iPad Mini? An iTV? The iPhone 5 (or iPhone 6 or, most likely, “new iPhone”)?

While some still think the next iPhone will be unveiled at WWDC 2012 – after all, the iPhone 3G, 3GS, and 4 were announced at WWDC 2008, 2009, and 2010, respectively – the majority agree that the next iPhone will be coming in October. After all, a summer release would put only about nine months between the iPhone 4S and the next iPhone, and that’s an awfully short window for Apple to prepare the kind of redesigned iPhone that we’ll probably be seeing.

Nevertheless, some have speculated that the iPhone 5 will at least get a mention at WWDC 2012. Blogger Michael Nace asked readers if they could see any hints to what Apple might be doing at WWDC in the logo itself. While this may seem a bit silly at first, bear in mind that Apple has often hidden clues about their upcoming announcements in logos like this. Interestingly, a pretty significant number of Nace’s readers did see something. Before we get to what his readers saw, though check out the logo below and see if you see anything:

Do you see anything that might be a hint? How about a big red 5 in the middle, at about a 45º angle to the left? Well, that’s what Nace’s readers – quite a few of them, apparently – saw. In case you can’t find it, here’s where it’s supposed to be:

What do you think? Do you see it now? Well, of course you do. The problem with this sort of thing, though, is that the 5 isn’t the only number that shows up. Before I read the part of Nace’s post that specifically tells you to turn your head to the left, I couldn’t see it. Even then, I had to look for a bit before I saw the 5. What I saw at first was a 2:

Even after I knew where the 5 was supposed to be, I had to work a bit before I could see it as a 5. It looked a little more like an upside-down 8:

So, what’s the point of all this? Well, while the 5 is visible if you look at it just right, the fact is that the odds of the next iPhone being called the “iPhone 5″ are actually pretty slim. For one thing, it’s actually the sixth-generation iPhone, not the fifth. The iPhone 4S was the iPhone 5 in all but name. Apart from that, though, there’s the iPad issue. With the 3rd-generation iPad, Apple dropped the number from its name. It’s a pretty safe bet that they’ll do the same with the iPhone.

The moral of the story, then, is that although sometimes Apple does hide stuff in their logos, it doesn’t necessarily pay to go looking too hard for it. After all, to paraphrase Freud, sometimes a bunch of colored squares is just a bunch of colored squares.

Although, now that I think about it, those square are the same shape as an iOS app icon…

 

WWDC 2012: Apple Announces Keynote, Schedule, App

Official app hints at changes coming in iOS 6.

Apple has released the schedule for the upcoming Worldwide Developers Conference, including this year’s Apple keynote. As we reported last month, WWDC 2012 is scheduled for June 11-15 at San Francisco’s Moscone West. Apple’s keynote will take place on Monday June 11th at 10 AM Pacific Time (1 PM Eastern). It will be Tim Cook’s first WWDC keynote since becoming CEO last year.

The schedule is available at Apple’s WWDC 2012 page. Apple has also released this year’s official WWDC app, a universal iOS app which is available in the App Store. Unfortunately, only attendees are able to view the full schedule, which means that if you’re not one of the lucky few who scored a ticket before they sold out, the app won’t do you much good. Both the app and the website require you to sign in with your Apple Developer ID before showing you anything. Otherwise all you can see of the app is this:

Interestingly, however, those who are able to get into the app have noticed something interesting about its design. The traditional grayish-blue bar that sits at the top of many iPhone apps has gotten a makeover. It seems that the interface is now silver at the top and bottom, just like most iPad apps, and iPhoto on the iPhone. Here’s this year’s WWDC app side-by-side with last year’s, courtesy of Cult of Mac:

The fact that Apple’s two newest iOS apps – iPhoto and now the WWDC 2012 app – are sporting a new look suggests that maybe the change will be system-wide beginning with iOS 6. By an amazing coincidence, Apple is widely expected to unveil iOS 6 as part of the aforementioned keynote.

If Apple is planning to change the color scheme of iPhone apps in iOS 6, it represents a change from the way iOS has looked since the original iPhone in 2007. Of course, this wouldn’t be the first time Apple has departed from a design feature that’s been around since the beginning. According to recent reports, the next iPhone will have a screen that’s almost 4 inches on the diagonal, a departure from the 3.5-inch display that’s been on every iPhone since 2007.

While Apple almost certainly won’t be unveiling the new iPhone itself during the keynote, iOS 6 is probably on the menu, along with Mountain Lion, and possibly updates to the MacBook Pro, iMac and MacBook Air.

iPhone 5 Rumor: Steve Jobs Heavily Involved In Redesign

New iPhone was among Jobs's last projects at Apple.

Reports of an iPhone redesign continue to roll in. On Wednesday we received word that sources had confirmed to the Wall Street Journal that the iPhone will be getting a 4-inch display, to be manufactured by LG, Sharp, and Japan Display. The next day Reuters, not to be outdone, confirmed the rumors as well.

Today, Bloomberg is adding its own confirmation of the redesign rumors – including the 4-inch display. According to “three people with knowledge of the plans,” the iPhone is getting an “overhaul,” including the 4-inch display. These sources also add something new: it seems that the next iPhone was one of the last projects on which Steve Jobs worked before he died last October. According to the sources, Jobs “worked closely” on the redesign, and “played a key role in developing the phone.”

Bloomberg’s sources also seem to confirm a rumor that we brought you way back in November, that the redesigned iPhone existed (at least in prototype form) before the iPhone 4S launched. The rumor at the time was that this redesigned phone was intended to launch instead of the iPhone 4S, but that Jobs scrapped the plans at the last minute. While Bloomberg’s sources do not confirm that last bit, they do say that Jobs was working on the new iPhone well before the old iPhone launched.

Now, those of you keeping track may have noticed something: in the past three days we have seen separate stories by three reputable news agencies all citing inside sources and confirming the same rumor. While it is possible that the Wall Street Journal, Reuters, and Bloomberg are all getting bad information and the next iPhone won’t be getting a bigger display, that’s unlikely. In fact, this smells an awful lot like a calculated leak. That is, Apple wants the press to know that the iPhone is getting redesigned with a bigger display, but can’t actually announce anything until the actual unveiling (which is likely still almost 5 months away).

That being the case, I think we can probably start treating the 4-inch display rumor as a given. While anything could still happen – after all, nothing is official until Tim Cook gets up on stage and says it is – it looks like Apple really is finally ditching the good old 3.5-inch display in favor of a bigger phone. What else might be coming along with the redesign is still very much in the air, though, and for that we’ll likely have to wait until October.

 

Aaron Sorkin: Whoever Plays Steve Jobs Needs To Be Intelligent

Screenwriter talks upcoming Steve Jobs biopic

Earlier this month, we received confirmation on the rumor that Aaron Sorkin would be the man to adapt the screenplay for the upcoming Steve Jobs biopic. The film, slated for release in 2014, will be based on Walter Isaacson’s bestselling biography Steve Jobs. I’m sure most people feel Sorkin is up to the task, if not the perfect man for the job. I mean, the last time he wrote a screenplay based on a book about a tech giant it turned out alright.

Today, at the D10 conference, Sorkin talked about his writing process, specifically the details of tackling an iconic figure like Jobs. He gave us a few hints about the structure of the film and also talked about how he expects the lead role to be cast.

Sorkin acknowledged that biopics are oftentimes difficult to write, simply because the structure of the film is almost already written. We can expect his script to sway from the traditional “cradle-to-grave structure” of many biopics. Instead, he said that he was “going to identify the point of friction that appeals to me and dramatize that.” Of course, we could rattle off a few notable “points of friction” rather quickly, so it’s unclear what Sorkin will choose to focus on. We know that the “competing” Steve Jobs biopic (the indie one starring Ashton Kutcher) will focus heavily on Jobs’ early years.

Adding another layer of difficulty to the development of the script is Jobs’ iconic presence. Sorkin likened it to writing about The Beatles, in that so many people have so many strong opinions about Jobs that it will be hard to navigate what he called a “minefield of disappointment.”

The screenplay is an important (many would argue the most important) ingredient to making the film viable, but casting of the lead role is also a huge decision. Sorkin didn’t give any inside information on any actors in the running, but he did say that whoever play Jobs will “have to be a very good actor.” He went on to say that he’ll have to be smart, because you can’t fake smart.

Whoever is chosen for Sorkin’s Jobs film will have a hard time beating the choice of Ashton Kutcher for the indie film in terms of physical resemblance. Kutcher is nearly a spot-on match for a young Steve Jobs. Some on the interwebs have wondered if Kutcher’s acting chops are strong enough for the part, however.

We’re pretty confident leaving the screenwriting task in Sorkin’s hands, albeit curious about the direction he’ll take the Jobs character. With Sorkin at the helm, we’re hoping that a complicated man like Jobs is treated with the nuance that the story demands.

 

iPhone 4S Coming To Cricket Wireless June 22

Apple’s flagship product, the iPhone 4S, is about to make its way to another new carrier: Cricket Wireless. The company announced today that it will offer the 16GB iPhone 4S and the 8GB iPhone 4 beginning on June 22. Each will include Cricket’s $55 per month unlimited talk, text, and data plan.

While that’s an excellent deal any way you slice it, there is a bit of a catch. While most carriers subsidize the cost of the iPhone (and other smartphones), reducing the price of the handset when you sign a two-year contract, Cricket is a prepaid-only carrier. That means there are no contracts. That’s great for the customer in terms of flexibility – if you get an iPhone 4S through Cricket and then decide that you want the new iPhone when it launches in October, you can switch without any trouble. Unfortunately, though, no contract means no carrier subsidy, which means you’ll pay a lot more for your iPhone than you would by going through one of the other carriers. The iPhone 4S will set you back $499.99, while the iPhone 4 is only $100 cheaper.

The iPhone has come a long way since Apple’s exclusivity agreement with AT&T ended in 2010. Within two years, the iPhone had come to the other two largest carriers, Verizon and Sprint. In the last couple months, Apple has struck deals with several other carriers to offer the iPhone. In April the iPhone made its way to five new carriers. Early this month three more carriers announced that they would start offering the iPhone as well. All eight of these carriers are small, local carriers. Several of them primarily serve rural areas. Interestingly, all of them offer the iPhone for $50 less than the Big Three, with voice and data plans that often have distinct advantages (e.g., unlimited texting or unlimited data included).

With Cricket, the iPhone makes its way into the world of prepaid wireless plans as well. The iPhone will be available from Cricket on June 22. For more information you can check out Cricket’s iPhone page.