LAS VEGAS—Auto makers want their cars to be able to drive into the cloud.
Manufacturers like General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co. and Daimler AG‘s Mercedes-Benz Cars division are using the Consumer Electronics Show here to show off a set of computer services that operate online, or through the “cloud,“ and allow customers to remotely track their cars, diagnose what‘s wrong with them and potentially avoid collisions.
When thousands of fans line up for Apple Inc.’s opening of its Grand Central Terminal store Friday, many won’t be queuing to ogle iPads.
They’ll be there for the T-shirts.
Since Apple opened its first stores in 2001, it has handed out tees sporting the new store’s name to the first 1,000 or so people through the door.
It is a ritual that is part of a cult around Apple’s T-shirts. Some fans on Friday will be seeking to add another store-opening shirt to collections they’ve assembled as if they were rare baseball cards.
When Whole Foods Market Inc. opened a store in San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury early this year, many locals and community leaders hoped it would help improve a grungy corner of their famous neighborhood. Nearly a year later, they’re still waiting.
Since the upscale market opened in February across from a section of Golden Gate Park known as Alvord Lake, known for attracting drug dealers and homeless people, crime within a 500-foot radius of the store has shot up, according to the San Francisco Police Department. At the same time, Whole Foods hasn’t lifted the overall neighborhood’s business prospects, sales-tax receipts data from the San Francisco Comptroller’s Office show.
Apple Inc. executives and advisers rallied employees to maintain Steve Jobs’s legacy on Wednesday, as the celebrations of the Apple co-founder’s life continued two weeks after his death.
Tens of thousands of employees tuned into a private memorial for Mr. Jobs on Apple’s Cupertino, Calif., campus that was also streamed to offices and Apple retail store locations world-wide.
Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook, who took over as CEO as Mr. Jobs’s health worsened in August, got choked up as he discussed his friendship with Mr. Jobs and his desire for excellence, according to two employees who tuned in. Two Apple board members—former Vice President Al Gore and Bill Campbell, Mr. Jobs’s longtime friend who is chairman of Intuit Inc.— also spoke, according to the people who attended.
Apple plans to close some of its retail stores for at least an hour Wednesday, according to two people familiar with the matter, a gesture that coincides with the company‘s planned celebration of co-founder Steve Jobs‘s life at its headquarters.
Retail employees were informed that a private company event was scheduled and that the retail stores will temporarily close during that time, according to two people who work for Apple but aren‘t authorized to speak on its behalf. One of the employees said the event would last for up to three hours.
The funeral for Steve Jobs, Apple Inc.’s co-founder, is taking place Friday, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The funeral is characterized as a small private gathering, this person said. The person wouldn’t say where or when the event was taking place, citing respect for Mr. Jobs and his family’s privacy.
The event comes two days after Mr. Jobs passed away after battling an undisclosed illness. He previously underwent surgery for pancreatic cancer and had a liver transplant.
Apple has said there are no public services planned.
Apple Inc. has lost its visionary at a time when the company is headed into battle with its most serious challengers yet—and has shown some rare signs of vulnerability.
The day before Steve Jobs died, his successor, Tim Cook, took the stage to sell the world on Apple’s newest iPhone. Though executives spent 90 minutes touting a raft of new features, the gadget didn’t create the sort of immediate buzz Mr. Jobs’s recent creations have enjoyed.
That muted response was ill-timed for Apple: Just a week earlier, Amazon.com Inc. unveiled its Kindle Fire, which costs less than half as much as the iPad and is seen by analysts as the most credible threat to Apple yet in the tablet-computer market.
Rival Google Inc., meanwhile, has used its free Android software to edge past Apple in the market for the operating systems that power smartphones. It has also struck a $12.5 billion deal to buy Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc., pitting the Internet giant directly against Apple in the handset market.
One day five months ago, Karim Hijazi saw an unusual sight while reading his work email. A message that had been marked as “read” was suddenly marked “unread.”
What the founder of Unveillance, a computer-network security firm, soon learned was that hackers had broken into his account.
The hackers gained access to his email by stealing log-in information from an insecure website, which they then matched up with a password they found on the Internet. After downloading all of his emails, the hackers sent Mr. Hijazi a message demanding he share sensitive security information with them. When he refused, the hackers released his emails on the Web.
“It was like a baby with a gun,” he says.
The TouchPad is dead. Long live the TouchPad.
Hewlett-Packard Co. said it will temporarily resume manufacturing of its ill-fated tablet computer just 11 days after killing its iPad rival as part of a sweeping corporate overhaul.
The resurrection of the TouchPad follows a spike in demand after H-P, desperate to clear out unsold inventory that had piled up at retailers, slashed the price of the low-end model from $399 to $99.
Hewlett-Packard Co. wants to persuade appliance and car manufacturers to use its webOS operating system in their products. But the software’s late arrival to the market and relatively small footprint are prompting companies to pause before licensing the platform.
In June, Leo Apotheker, chief executive of the electronics giant based in Palo Alto, Calif., said his company plans to begin talks with various companies to gauge interest in webOS, which powers H-P’s TouchPad tablet computers and Pre smartphones.