Good grief: Apple introduces Sharia-compliant emoticons
And someone actually think this is
a great idea.
The website DoSomething.org first let the battle cry sound, asking Apple to take a closer look at its 800 emojis.
“The only two resembling people of colour are a guy who looks vaguely
Asian and another in a turban. There’s a white boy, girl, man, woman,
elderly man, elderly woman, blonde boy, blonde girl and, we’re pretty
sure, Princess Peach,” the petitioners wrote. “But when it comes to
faces outside of yellow smileys, there’s a staggering lack of minority
representation.
Apple’s head of communications, Katie Cotton, responded to the
criticism by stating that the software company was working to “update
the standard”. She did not say when such emojis would be introduced. The
last time the offering was updated was in 2012, when same-sex couples
were included.
“Digitalization means that we communicate ever more with pictures,”
said Rubin Dranger. “They have never been so important and so dominant
as today and therefore we also need to be conscious about what the
pictures represents.”
She told TT it was “obvious” that the emojis should represent everyone.
Political correctness run rampant....
Labels: Apple, political correctness
Google buying Waze for $1.3 billion
Good things come to those who wait. Waze, which turned down a billion dollar offer to be acquired by Facebook ten days ago, because
Facebook wanted to move the company out of Israel, will apparently now be
acquired by Google for $1.3 billion.
Sources inform ''Globes'' that Google Inc. will acquire Waze for $1.3
billion. The acquisition of the Israeli navigation app and traffic
report start-up will be completed after months of reports that Waze
would be sold to either Google or Facebook Inc.
Ra'anana-based Waze has almost 50 million users. This is a big number
for an Israeli company, which probably helped it achieve the hoped-for
exit.
Reports about a possible sale of Waze are not new. Last year there
were reports Apple wanted to buy Waze and in late August 2012, it was
reported that Facebook was in talks to acquire the company. According to
some reports, Facebook representatives arrived in Israel to meet Waze
executives, but no deal was reached in the negotiations, apparently
because of the price tag.
Another reason was that Waze insisted
that its Israeli employees should continue working in Israel, which
Facebook did not accept. Google has already made two acquisitions in
Israel, and it has an office here, in contrast to Facebook, which closed
most of the companies it acquired, including Israeli start-ups. Both
previous Israeli acquisitions by Google were modest. Google acquired
personalized Website gadget developer Labpixies for $25 million and
interactive video-clip developer Quiksee for $10 million. Both
acquisitions were in 2010.
...
Waze was founded in 2009 and in October 2012, it announced a $30
million financing round from Horizons Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caufield
& Byers, and iFund. The company has raised $67 million to date from
Magma Venture Partners, Vertex Venture Capital, Qualcomm Ventures,
BlueRun Ventures, Microsoft Corporation (Nasdaq: MSFT), and the
investors in its 2012 financing round. The deal will turn some Waze
founders into multimillionaires. CTO Ehud Shabtai will earn $78 million,
president Uri Levine will earn $38 million, VP R&D Amir Shinar and
his brother Gili will earn $65 million.
Waze told "Globes" "no comment," and Google said, "We don't relate to rumors and speculation."
Those of you who really want to boycott Israel should not use Waze. And if you think you have the next Waze, please call me. I'd be interested in representing you.
Labels: Apple, Facebook, Google, Israeli high tech
Oh my: Waze gives up $1 billion to stay in Israel
Facebook is no longer in talks to buy Waze, Mike Isaac at All Things D reports.
The two companies couldn't reach an agreement because Waze wanted to stay in Israel, while Facebook wanted the company to relocate to
California, says Isaac.
But the talks dissolved in recent days, according to sources, due in
part to conflicts over whether or not the Waze team — which is
predominantly based in Israel — would move over to the United States and
fold itself into Facebook’s Menlo Park, Calif., headquarters, among
other reasons.
Reps from both Facebook and Waze declined to comment.
Waze’s mobile application seemed like a logical acquisition target
for Facebook, as Waze relies on crowdsourced traffic data, accident
reports and police traps from its 40-million-plus userbase to help
drivers better navigate their road trips. While competitors Google and
Apple both offer mapping services, Facebook currently does not offer any
sort of maps app.
And buying a popular mapping service could have been another way for
Facebook to push into mobile, complementing the social giant’s widely
adopted photo and messaging applications.
Moreover, Waze was built as a social application “from the ground up”
— a philosophy Facebook especially espouses — rather than as a mapping
application with a social layer slapped atop it. In essence, it fit with
Facebook’s vision of a social service. So it wouldn’t be impossible for
the two companies to figure out terms that make sense for both sides.
It has been widely speculated that Apple was in talks to acquire Waze, which would also make sense given the company’s missteps with its own mapping app.
Of course, Apple's commitment to Israel is relatively recent too.
Maybe Google, which has a commitment to Israeli high tech, will buy them even though they want to stay here.
And for those of you who are high tech entrepreneurs who are thinking of going public, here's a word of advice. Waze is not a public company. While they have done three rounds of investment financing, their private investors are a lot less likely to sue them for not maximizing shareholder value by moving the company to Menlo Park. Think about it. And drop me an email if you're a high tech company and have any questions. Labels: Apple, Facebook, Google, Israeli high tech
Dip the apple in the honey
In case any of you did not get around to dipping your apples in the honey on Sunday and Monday nights, here's your chance to do it again.
Let's go to the videotape (Hat Tip:
Lance K).
Labels: Apple, Rosh HaShanna
Apple to join Microsoft and Google in setting up Israeli R&D?
In December, I reported on Apple's acquisition of Israeli flash memory company Anobit, and how it would likely result in
Apple opening up an R&D facility here.
But Intel has been here for 40 years, and Microsoft and Google have also been here for a long time. So
what took Apple so long? I'm sure you'll be shocked (Hat Tip:
Israellycool).
The real question: why did it take Apple so long? One suspected cause was the political leanings of Steve Jobs’ wife: firmly in the left-leaning liberal and pro-Palestinian camps. Apple has neglected Israel as a market for its computers for years despite Israel leading the world in per-capita computer use. Apple’s market share in personal computers is much lower in Israel than in the United States or even Europe, and support for Hebrew is not as comprehensive as it is on Windows.
And people always ask me why I don't consider buying a Mac (it's also a lot more expensive and that's another good reason).
Read the whole thing.
Labels: Apple, Israeli high tech
Apple's new killer app
Information and Hasbara Minister Yuli Edelstein has called upon Apple Corporation to remove a new application for its iPhones called Third Intifadeh, which
encourages violence against Jews.
Called “The Third Intifada,” the Arabic-language app features articles and stories by radical Arab members of Fatah and Hamas, as well as members of the Palestinian Authority. They discuss strategies to use in fighting IDF soldiers, and glorify acts of violence that have already taken place.
The app also features photos and images of Arab youths throwing stones and bombs at Israelis, and a collection of “intifada music” popular in the PA. In addition, it has a social media component, designed to allow activists to organize “flash mobs” on the go, gathering quickly at specific times and places to attack Israelis.
The app was developed by the same group that created the Facebook “Nakba Day fan page,” that was used in May to organize demonstrations and riots against Israeli police and soldiers. The page was taken down after mass complaints to Facebook.
Information and Hasbara Minister Yuli Edelstein called on Apple to withdraw the app from its online store. In a letter to Apple executives, including company director Steve Jobs, Edelstein wrote that after examining the app, “we can clearly point to this app as being anti-Israel and anti-Zionist. It clearly calls for an uprising against Israel. One of the app's objectives is to allow Palestinians to gather quickly for protests – some of them violent – that are planned."
“I believe that Apple, as a pioneering company, places the values of freedom of speech and creativity on a high level,” Edelstein continued. “At the same time, Apple is no doubt aware of the damage an app like this can cause. I ask you to please remove the app and restore your company to its preeminent place as a supplier of information and entertainment, and not to allow your good name to be used for incitement.”
Apple hasn't responded yet, but an examination of previous political controversies surrounding apps shows that Apple has removed a number that were considered offensive – including one that contained offensive drawings of golfer Tiger Woods, and another with political cartoons about which users complained.
If they don't remove it - and soon - we ought to start a boycott against Apple. This is outrageous.
Labels: Apple, iPhone, Third intifada
