cooking

Fact checking Tim Cook on 7-inch tablets and Microsoft's Surface

Tim Cook has been applauded as a kind of operational superman, bringing Apple to new heights of efficiency and profit in the last year. Apple's stock has tumbled about 14 percent from its all-time high and its recent quarterly earnings weren't as fantastic as in previous quarters, but the latest set of new products introduced this week augurs a strong holiday season. Apple is expecting to generate more than $50 billion in revenue from October through December.

While Cook isn't the showman that his predecessor was, don't let his Southern, seemingly mild-mannered demeanor fool you. He … Read more

Apple CEO Cook: We will never make a 7-inch tablet

But seriously, Tim Cook, how do you really feel about smaller tablets?

The Apple CEO let loose on 7-inch tablets during a conference call with investors, insisting that the company would never build one. "We would not make a 7-inch tablet," he said today. "We don't think they're good products."

Cook, of course, is staying true to the late Steve Jobs' proclamation that a tablet that's smaller than the original 9.7-inch iPad was too uncomfortable, and that consumers would have to shave off parts of their fingers to actually use it.

But … Read more

iBooks 3 rolls out with iCloud support and vertical scrolling

Users of Apple's iBooks can now turn to some helpful new features.

Available from the App Store, iBooks 3.0 now taps into iCloud. So your bookshelves can display any books stored on Apple's cloud along with books saved locally.

You can now opt to scroll vertically through your books instead of turning each page horizontally. Simply tap on the Fonts icon, click on Themes, and choose the Scroll theme. You can then swipe the screen to move up and down page by page, an option I found quicker and easier than the default horizontal book layout.

You … Read more

Apple's quest for love in the age of tablets

Tim Cook came prepared to dazzle the crowd of Apple employees, friends and journalists covering the iPad, iMac and Macbook product unveilings. Dressed in Apple casual, a long-sleeved, blue-grey polo shirt and dark slacks, Cook stalked the stage at the California Theater in San Jose and seemed to find a more animated voice for his remarks than at past events he hosted.

He gave special vocal emphasis to words like "billion," "amazing," "cool," "phenomenal," "absolutely incredible," and "thin," one of the major product themes of the day. … Read more

Apple by the numbers: 35B apps downloaded, 100M iPads sold

See CNET's full coverage of Apple's iPad Mini event

CEO Tim Cook kicked off today's iPad Mini event by offering up a range of big numbers and milestones. Below are some key numbers, and here is CNET's full coverage of the event.

Sales of new iPod Touch: More than 3 million.

iOS 6: 200 million devices running iOS 6 -- Cook says the fastest software adoption rate in history that he knows of.

iMessages sent: 300 billion; people sending 28,000 messages per second.

Apps downloads: 35 billion.

Game Center accounts: 16 million.

Shares iPhoto streams: … Read more

Waiting for Apple's next big thing

Steve Jobs would surely be pleased.

A year after his death, the company he co-founded and brought back from near-ruin is on a tear. With its top executive team still in place, Apple is set to close out its most profitable year ever. Its stock, now up 65 percent for the year, gives Apple a market value far more than Google's and Microsoft's combined. The iPhone 5 is selling at a record pace, and fans continue to line up and even camp out for a chance to be one of the first with a new Apple product.

Now … Read more

Apple in the post-Jobs era: Five hits and misses

This week marks the beginning of Apple's next financial year. It's also the first full calendar year of Apple without Steve Jobs. The technology icon passed away a year ago today.

Now's as good a time as any to take a quick look back at some of the highlights and lowlights for Apple at a time when onlookers are paying close attention to just about every detail -- something that certainly hasn't changed.

Hits

New iPhone breaks sales records Despite some finding Apple's annual iPhone update to be underwhelming, the device got off to a … Read more

Low Latency No. 39: Page-by-page directions

Low Latency is a weekly comic on CNET's Crave blog written by CNET editor and podcast host Jeff Bakalar and illustrated by Blake Stevenson. Be sure to check Crave every Thursday at 8 a.m. PT for new panels! Want more? Here's every Low Latency comic so far.

Apple's Tim Cook gifts new iPhone 5 to Mark Zuckerberg

Having nearly a billion friends has its perks, especially when one of them is Tim Cook sending you a free iPhone 5.

The Apple CEO sent Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg one of Apple's new handsets gratis, the Facebook chief executive told Matt Lauer of "The Today Show' in an interview. "It's a wonderful device," Zuckerberg told Lauer during an interview scheduled to run Thursday, steering the conversation more toward Facebook's mobile presence.

iPhone is a great platform. There are more people who use Facebook on Android -- because Android is just -- more people … Read more

The New Yorker's view from 9th Avenue -- via Apple Maps

The Apple Maps schadenfreude festival of hits just keeps coming. Mad Magazine is the latest to pile on Apple following the debacle over the half-baked maps in iOS now being mocked daily, along with CEO Tim Cook's public apology.

Mad also couldn't resist taking a shot at the venerable and oft-monocled New Yorker at the same time in this hilarious mockup of a cover of the magazine that imagines a view of the world as presented with the help of Apple Maps. … Read more