Apple staff discounts
Friday, 27 January 2012
Tim Cook offers generous staff discounts — Apple CEO, Tim Cook announced at an internal Town Hall meeting that staff could enjoy US$500 off a new Mac, and US$250 off a new iPad.The discount program will kick off this June, according to a 9to5Mac report, but it does have a few restrictions. The discount won’t be available to employees at any time, but once every three years. In order to be eligible, staff must have be working for the company for at least 90 days.
The US$500 discount (about NZ$609) will not apply to the Mac mini, according to the report, which is little over US$500 in the US anyway. But it is significantly more than the 25% employees usually get off Mac purchases.
With rumours that the iPad 3 is set to launch this April, starting the discount program in June gives Apple two months to deal with customer demand before employees can start snapping up the third-generation device for themselves with $250 off.
[There are only two, maybe three people in New Zealand who will benefit.]
Former Apple exec says secrecy stifling Chinese labour moves — Apple has recently been actively seeking to improve the working conditions for employees at the Chinese factories manufacturing its products, but a former executive for the Cupertino company believes it could do more. The trouble is, Apple’s infamous secrecy is getting in the way.
“We’re trying really hard to make things better,” said one former Apple executive. “But most people would still be really disturbed if they saw where their iPhone comes from.” [My italics.]
Macworld becoming iWorld — The epic Apple show has transformed from a business-to-business show into a consumer-oriented one, since Apple pulled out.
This week, the focus is entirely on end users, as Macworld attempts to rebrand itself iWorld. It will be about the Apple-oriented lifestyle, highlighting apps, art and music. Attendees can see what people are doing — or they can do themselves — with their devices.
iWorld highlights music, art and film but business is still important.
[In other words, it's getting a lot more like CreativeTech, which took place in Auckland in 2010, and this year is slated for August 4-5.]
Next Adobe Lightroom offers goodness — The latest iteration of Adobe Lightroom reveals both refinement and new features. There’s plenty of competition for top billing, but the star of this show is how Adobe has integrated video management into the software alongside its excellent still photography tools.
Keep in mind that this is a beta release. More refinement is sure to follow before the official 4.0 launch. Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4 Beta 1 is available from the Adobe Labs website.
[And now there's Corel AfterShot Pro snapping at its heels.]
Spotlight plugin allows InDesign searches — For many users of InDesign, the missing capability of Spotlight searches has been a point of frustration since Spotlight was introduced with Tiger back in April of 2005. Now there's a little something for anyone running InDesign CS5 or CS5.5.
Over in the Adobe forums, John Hawkinson put together a plugin. He recommends installing it, then using Terminal to re-index specific files or folders.
