How Will Apple Do Without “What Would Steve Do”?

A few days ago, I wrote about the possibilities forSteve Jobs’ final “One more thing…” It seems pretty clear at this point that when he passed away earlier this month, he was still hard at work on a few new products for Apple. One was probably the next iPhone (meaning the one after the just-released iPhone 4S). Two other possibilities include digital textbooks and most notably, an Apple television set. All of this got me thinking.

Under Tim Cook and the rest of an extremely experienced and capable executive team, Apple is clearly in good hands going forward. Yes, Apple fell a bit short of Wall Street expectations last quarter, but they still destroyed their own, and next quarter promises to be a blowout. Further, all the talk of Apple’s internal university to instill the “Apple way” in employees even without Jobs is good news as well. But the truth is that Apple will not likely face their first true post-Jobs test until they release their first truly new product. That execution will shed light on Apple’s future.

In the next few months, Apple is probably going to unveil a new iPad. It will probably have a high resolution screen and a few other great new features. But the iPad is now already an established category for the company. Apple will sell millions of a new version regardless of how they handle the roll out. The same is true with the next iPhone. Unless they truly screw up the product in some way that’s very unlikely to happen (again, see: killer executive team), it’s going to be a huge hit. New Macs, same story.

Siri Ported To iPhone 4 and iPod Touch 4G

In a moment as historic as Alexander Bell’s call to his assistant, an iPhone hacker wrote on Twitterthat he had successfully ported Siri to the iPhone 4 and iPod Touch.

The hack requires a jailbroken device. By copying the app onto the device, the iPhone 4 can call up Siri and, more important, connect to the Siri servers. You can follow these instructions to install the app yourself and it seems to currently also work with the iPod Touch 4G although those instructions are forthcoming.

Mark Gurman at 9to5mac interviewed Steven Troughton-Smith, another iPod Touch/iPhone 4 hacker, answering a few questions about the feat:

Mark: Do you ever see Siri showing up in Cydia (or another jailbreak store) for non natively supported devices?

Steven: No, I could not be a part of that. I have no doubts that others will package this up and distribute it quasi-illegally, or try and sell it to people. I am only interested in the technology and making it work; proving that it works and works well on the iPhone 4 and other devices

Mark: So, you also got Siri working on the fourth-generation iPod touch, how is that working out?

Steven: We got chpwn’s iPod touch up and running with Siri after proving it works on my iPhone 4. Unfortunately the microphone on the iPod is nowhere near as good as the iPhone – you will notice that the Siri level meter hardly moves when you talk to it. While it does work, you have to speak loudly and clearly to the iPod

Jessica Alba | Killer Hotness Streak

Jessica Alba has been on a killer hotness streak ever since getting knocked up, and even more so after giving birth… thanks to a continuous display of her new post-pregnancy super looking overall like one drop dead sexy mama.

Hilary Duff | Prancing Around in Los Angeles

Hilary Duff celebrating her twenty-fourth birthday this week by prancing around Los Angeles and looking drop dead sexy in a pair of skin-tight jeans and looking hot in a wicked flimsy t-shirt.

Google+ Now Lets You “Share” Your Circles With Other Users

In case you’re still using Google+ (I kid, I kid, the other social network is doing well, apparently), the Google+ team has made it easy to “share” your Circles with friends today, by enabling an option to send other users a list of Circle members on your Google+ Circles page.

Users who want to “share” the contents of their meticulously curated Circles can now click on the Share button as well as Edit and Delete in the Circles options menu and then select the Google+ user or users they want to share the Circle with.

The share function doesn’t reveal the name of the Circle (so the fact that you put your boss into “People I am not friends with” stays with you) and doesn’t reveal any changes you make to the Circle after sharing.

Users receiving the Circle can then make their own private edits after the fact, like adding you to “People I am not friends with” even.

Says Google Engineer Owen Prater,

“One of my favorite parts about circles is how they help me control who I share with, as well as what I read. In fact, many of you have created lots of great circles around topics that interest you (like Photographers) to bring lots of great content to your stream. In these cases, we’ve heard that you actually want to share your circles with others. Both to save your friends some time, and to connect them with interesting people and content.”

The update should be rolling out to everyone in the next couple of hours, according to Prater.

Google Announces Chrome OS Pilot Program, 12.1 Inch Notebook Cr-48

Today at this morning’s major Chrome event, Google has just announced that Chrome OS… isn’t done. It still has work to do with camera drivers (for notebook USB ports), finishing Google Cloud Print, and more. But it wants to get the notebook into early adopters’ hands, so it’s announcing a new Pilot Program. Google will be distributing a notebook called Cr-48. These are not for sale, they are designed as a test unit.

Consumers will be able to apply for this, however, but Google isn’t giving it away to just anyone. On its Facebook Fan Page, they ran a promotion a couple days, announcing a sticker for a Chrome laptop, if you did that quiz, you have a chance of winning a notebook. If you go toyoutube.com/googlechrome and make a video showing why you’re an ideal candidate for this, you’ll have a chance to snag a notebook. And everyone in the audience at today’s event is getting one (everyone claps). And if you don’t fall into any of those buckets, you can go to this page to apply.

The CR-48 is supposed to boot in 10 seconds, includes a webcam, and 12-inch LCD display. It is 3.8 pounds with 8 hours of battery life and an entire week of standby time, according to Google’s marketing materials. Eventually, manufacturing partners will make Chromebooks you can actually buy in stores.

Google will also be deploying this to some partner businesses, including American Airlines, Kraft, Virgin America, the Department of Defense and more.

http://techcrunch.com/2010/12/07/google-announces-chrome-os-pilot-program-12-1-inch-notebook-cr-48/

Hayden - Candies Ad Campaign

Hayden Panettiere does Photoshoot fo Candies ad Campaign
 

Here’s our favorite little midget Hayden Panetierre doing her latest Candies ad campaign. Hayden Leslie Panettiere born August 21, 1989 is an American actress, singer, and Grammy Award nominee. Hayden plays the character Claire Bennet on the NBC television program Heroes. The advertising campaign and slogan for the program known as "Save the Cheerleader, Save the World" has helped make Panettiere famous.