After a relatively quiet morning on the Apple front, Tuesday wound up being quite busy with related news, including the announcement of Tim Cook's appearance at this year's All Things Digital conference and the availability of updates for the company's pro video apps. Ready to read more? Then click on through to the other side and enjoy the day's news for Tuesday, April 10, 2012.
AllThingsD Snags Apple CEO Tim Cook for D10 Conference
The late Steve Jobs was a frequent visitor to Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher's ritzy All Things Digital conferences over the years, and that mantle seems to be passing down to his successor as well. AllThingsD announced today that current Apple CEO Tim Cook will be the opening night speaker at this year's D10 Conference in Ranchos Palos Verdes, California from May 29 to 31. "It will be Cook's first appearance at D, as well as his first time being onstage at an event not run by Apple or for investors since he was named CEO last August," the report notes. Apple co-founder Steve Jobs put in "a half-dozen always memorable visits" to the All Things Digital conference over the years, with the last at D8 in 2010.
Marvel Comics Finally Integrates Online, Mobile Digital Comics
iOS and Android users have long been frustrated with the way Marvel separates its web-based digital comics storefront from the mobile version, but that is changing at last. Marvel announced on their website today that for the first time, digital comics can be purchased on Marvel.com and read while on the go from iOS, Android or even Google Chrome OS. "The new digital comics store on Marvel.com provides a more comprehensive and unique experience to both longtime Marvel fans as well as casual consumers who have never purchased a digital comic," the website explains. That includes "thousands of single issue titles" from both classic and modern titles alike, day and date new releases, Monday and Friday 99-cent sales and an upgraded shopping cart that allows for multiple titles to be purchased at once. The timing couldn't be better, with the studio's massive Avengers movie hitting theatres on May 4.
$600 Billion: Apple's New Market Capitalization
MacRumors is reporting that Apple Inc. has hit yet another milestone today, inching up another one percent "to briefly hit a market capitalization of $600 billion." For those of you playing the home game, this event comes less than six weeks after the company passed the $500 billion threshold, with Apple's stock up "nearly 60 percent since the beginning of the year." Of course, analysts have even bigger plans for Apple, eyeing a trillion dollar market capitalization "over the next year or so." Perhaps even more significant, Apple "is now within just a few billion dollars of taking Microsoft's title of most valuable publicly traded company ever," which Redmond hit with a $604 billion market cap in December, 1999. (Adjusted for inflation, Apple would actually have to cross the $800 billion mark, however.)
Apple Updates Final Cut Pro X, Motion 5, Compressor 4
Video editors got some Apple love today as the Mac App Store pushed out updates to the company's Final Cut Pro X, Motion 5 and Compressor 4 apps. Judging from release notes published on AppleInsider, it seems to be mostly modest performance and feature improvements, but it shows that Apple continues to take their tools seriously as they approach their first anniversary in June. Final Cut Pro X has been updated to version 10.0.4, while Motion and Compressor are now 5.0.3 and 4.0.3, respectively. All three apps are now exclusive to the Mac App Store, and updates also have to be applied there, so… you know what to do.
Dreaming of a Bigger iPhone 5
There's little doubt that manufacturers are pushing for bigger smartphones, a trend that started on Google's Android with the likes of the HTC EVO 4G, Samsung Galaxy Nexus and that Samsung Galaxy Note "phablet" and has now spilled over to Windows Phone with the HTC Titan and Nokia Lumia 900. So when will the iPhone see a bump from its 3.5-inch screen after five generations? According to The Verge, it may be coming sooner than you think, without requiring much work on Apple's part. By increasing the vertical size on a theoretical iPhone 5 from 2.91 inches tall to 3.49 inches tall, Cupertino could add an additional 192 pixels -- enough for another row of icons on the home screen, for example, while still keeping within their own Retina Display specifications. This 9:5 aspect ratio is also considerably more compatible with traditional 16:9 widescreen video which is standard for HD formats, eliminating the black matte seen at the top and bottom while viewing video on current models. Could Apple have such a prototype in the works? Only those at One Infinite Loop know for sure...
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(Image courtesy of The Verge)
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