Apple Devices Flow Into Corporate World

In The Wall Street Journal, tech reporter Daisuke Wakabayashi describes how Apple is expanding its reach into the business market. “The iPhone has replaced the BlackBerry as the mobile phone of choice, as the iPad assumes tasks once reserved for PCs,” Wakabayashi writes. He notes that “Apple is going mainstream” when it comes to the corporate world, and he profiles multiple large enterprises — including SAP, Nordstrom, and Cisco — that have rolled out iOS and other Apple devices to their employees. In fact, according to Good Technology, “More than 90 percent of all business apps were deployed on Apple’s iOS mobile-operating system in the third quarter.” Read more: online.wsj.com

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News Corporation Shutting Down Digital Newspaper 'The Daily'

As part of a lengthy press release sharing details on its separation into two independent publicly traded companies, News Corporation announced that it will be shutting down its digital newspaper The Daily on December 15. The Daily launched in early 2011 at a media event hosted by Rupert Murdoch and Apple's Eddy Cue, with the iPad-focused newspaper positioned as a groundbreaking new publishing paradigm priced at just $0.99 per week.


       
But rumors of The Daily's potential cancelation began surfacing earlier this year as the publication continued to draw revenues well below that needed to sustain the initiative, and even a 30% cut in staff was not enough to save it.
[E]ffective immediately, Jesse Angelo, the founding Editor-in-Chief of The Daily and long-time Executive Editor of The New York Post, will assume the role of Publisher of The New York Post. As part of a digital restructuring initiative, the company will cease standalone publication of The Daily iPad app on December 15, 2012, though the brand will live on in other channels. Technology and other assets from The Daily, including some staff, will be folded into The Post.

Mr. Murdoch said: "From its launch, The Daily was a bold experiment in digital publishing and an amazing vehicle for innovation. Unfortunately, our experience was that we could not find a large enough audience quickly enough to convince us the business model was sustainable in the long-term. Therefore we will take the very best of what we have learned at The Daily and apply it to all our properties. Under the editorial leadership of Editor-in-Chief Col Allan and the business and digital leadership of Jesse, I know The New York Post will continue to grow and become stronger on the web, on mobile, and not least, the paper itself. I want to thank all of the journalists, digital and business professionals for the hard work they put into The Daily."
Aside from its attempts to make its mark as a new newspaper publishing model, The Daily also led the way for Apple's In App Subscription effort, allowing users to simply and easily sign up for recurring content subscriptions directly within apps and billed to their iTunes Store accounts.

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Apple's New Dock Connector Even Smaller Than Originally Thought

Back in February, iMore was the first source to claim that Apple will be introducing a smaller dock connector for its iOS devices, with the claim now being supported by a number of other sources and evidence in the form of part leaks showing a much smaller opening in the casing of what is claimed to be the next-generation iPhone.

But other details on the new dock connector have remained unclear, with various sources reporting different numbers of pins for the new connector compared to the current 30-pin design. TechCrunch was the first to report that the new design would contain 19 pins, a claim that gained credibility when Reuters cited the same number last month.

Other numbers of pins have, however, been circulating

 with iLounge last week claiming just eight pins for the new connector. And just yesterday, 9to5Mac reported on a reference to "9Pin" in a section of iOS 6 code addressing core hardware features. 

Regardless of the exact number of pins included in the new dock connector design, it appears that the connector itself will be even smaller than originally thought based on leaked photos of casings seen so far. French site Nowehereelse.fr today posted a new photo [Google translation] it has received showing that there is actually a metal ring inside the casing cutout for the new dock connector. 

The purpose of the ring is currently unknown, but some have been hoping that Apple's new dock connector will include an attachment mechanism similar to the MagSafe standard used on the company's notebook computers. A MagSafe-like dock connector could allow users to insert the cable in either orientation, a feature suggested last week by iLounge, and make it easier for the cables to simply snap into place.

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