Sure, Apple didn’t release another new iPad or new Apple TV this week, but the company didn’t let the week go by without making some new news. If you want to make sure you’re caught up on Apple’s news from the past week, along with our reviews, tutorials, and opinion pieces, you’ve come to the right place: The Weekly Wrap. Population: Me and you.
Apple’s cash cache
Early Monday, Apple announced a dividend and a share buyback program, two programs geared towards sharing company profits with investors and spending some of the nearly $100 billion Apple has in its bank account. Apple seemingly rejected out of hand my suggestion that they instead take the $100 billion—and apologies if complex financial concepts like this one are a bit tricky for laypeople to understand—and give it all to me.
During that same press conference, Apple CEO Tim Cook said that Apple had enjoyed a “record weekend” of iPad sales; Apple later explained that it had sold more than 3 million new iPads during the tablet’s opening weekend. That’s roughly one iPad sold for every nervous breakdown the guy who oversees the Motorola Xoom suffered during that same time period. It’s clear, though, that the iPad is on fire (not literally).
We painstakingly transcribed Tim Cook’s remarks from the press conference, only remembering the existence of built-in transcription on the new iPad once we were finished.
In other Apple news, the company updated its report on supplier working conditions. And we took a look at the special services business owners can get at their neighborhood Apple Store. (Spoiler: Still no drive-through iMac purchasing option.)
App news and reviews
We reported on the growing trend of using iOS devices as cash registers. Perhaps Draw Something developer OMGPop can use its iPhone to ring up Zynga’s $200 million purchase.
We looked at three toys you control with your iPhone, though in our case, oftentimes the iPhone feels like the electronic toy that controls us. If you use your iPhone to get from Point A to Point B, you might enjoy these eight tips for using the Maps app. You also might enjoy saying “Maps app” over and over again. I know I do.
If you’re still not sure about what to do with your old iPad, may we humbly suggest turning it into a dedicated kitchen tablet? (Please note: The iPad makes an absolutely atrocious cutting board.)
And like we always do, we looked at oodles of apps over the past week, among them: MyTunes Pro HD, Sparrow, Pokertini and Fairway Solitaire, Monster Flip, Cinderella, Beatstream, Comixology, and the poetically named MyPix Photo Watermarking and Sharing.
The Mac
We can help you get digital copies of your Mac manuals, teach you to skirt Lion’s auto-login, and show you seven ways to free up drive space.
We wrote up plenty of Mac software. Here’s a video guide to organizing your Mac’s files with Hazel, for example. We reviewed AccessMenuBarApps, Merlin 2, and Cloak. And we took a first-look at the Photoshop CS6 Beta, too.
I want my Apple TV
Dan Frakes, Christopher Breen, and Philip Michaels dished about the new Apple TV in another edition of the Macworld podcast. Elsewhere, Mr. Breen, the hardest-working TV watcher in the tech writing industry, offered Apple TV troubleshooting tips, and explained a bit more about the Apple TV, mirroring, and aspect ratio.
That’s all for this edition of the Wrap. We’ll see you again in a week, if we can pull ourselves away from Chris Breen’s Apple TV.