Community Corner

Apple Factory Crippled By Floods; iPod Turns 10

A look at how our favorite backyard tech giant has made the news this week.

Every week, makes news with technology developments, business deals and, more often than not, controversies.

That’s where our weekly "Core Bytes" column on Apple comes in. We’ll relay the past week’s news highlights from our favorite backyard tech giant.

Controversies
Heavy flooding has plagued Thailand since July. In addition to claiming many lives, it has crippled several factories producing product parts, including Apple’s hard drive supply line. As the holidays approach, Apple may have trouble producing enough drives for its computers. “The number of drives or drive components that are sourced in Thailand is a significant portion of the total worldwide supply of drives,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a statement.

New Products
A couple weeks after Steve Jobs’ death, a book on his life is being published. On Monday, “Steve Jobs” by Walter Issaacson will hit shelves. Based on hundreds of interviews with Jobs himself—along with his friends, family, colleagues and competitors—it shines light on how he turned to alternative medicine for his cancer, and how he unknowingly met his biological father.

It’s been a week since the iPhone 4S was released, and techies are having fun fawning over it and its live-in robot helper Siri. They’ve noticed that it has an answer for every question, about the answers to math equations or sexual advice. It apparently even has witty retorts for users’ questions. Said one: "I asked what it was wearing, and it said 'aluminum body with a glass front and back.' "

Tributes and Business as Usual
Two large memorial services for Steve Jobs’ graced Silicon Valley this week. The first, an invite-only event at Stanford, from across the area. At another, an at Apple’s Cupertino headquarters, Norah Jones and Coldplay played songs of tribute, and former vice president Al Gore spoke.

Take note, Guinness Book of World Records: the iPhone 4S became the fastest selling phone of all time, selling four million phones its opening weekend. Yet the news was just unveiled that it also sold three million phones less than anticipated this quarter, placing it behind its rival Samsung. The South Korean tech giant shipped 20 million smartphones in the first quarter, versus Apple’s 17.1 million.

Happy 10th Birthday, iPod! This Sunday marks ten years since the mini music player hit shelves, with a then-very costly $399 price tag, and many publications are paying tribute to “how it shaped music history.”


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