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
A total of 31 states—not including California—have filed suit against Apple and e-book publishers Penguin and Macmillan for their alleged price fixing of e-books. Apple is now required to to show that it negotiated pricing agreements separately.
Amid controversy over poor working conditions at Apple’s Foxconn factory in China, Apple and Foxconn will share the costs of improvements. Still, Foxconn CEO Terry Gou did not reveal how exactly the costs would be split, or how much the two companies would be spending. The company is already making some progress: in February, it upped wages for workers by 16 to 25 percent.
New Products
Apple has published a patent application for 3D Object Recognition, which describes a way to generate 3-D models from 2-D images. In addition to being used in system security, the technology could be used to identify an entire body for medical purposes, such as pinpointing specific organs or tumors.
Business Deals and Developments
Apple’s App Center faces some competition. In the coming weeks, Facebook plans to introduce an online store that lets users download software applications. Dubbed the App Center, it will be customizable for users based on their interests. Already it has started taking submissions from developers and, like Apple, will take a 30 percent price cut from sales.
Steve Jobs will be honored posthumously at the Webby Awards on May 21. His video tribute will include messages from Al Gore, John Stewart, Bill Clinton and George Lucas. Cupertino locals can also check out rare video footage of Jobs throughout the next week at BlueLight Cinemas.
Apple headquarter employees are getting some cool perks. Or a Pirq we should say. They have signed on with the Seattle-based startup to receive discounts of between 20 to 50 percent off at venues around Silicon Valley.
