AppAdvice’s Week In Review

Despite our previous concerns that the event wouldn't happen until later in the year, Apple announced this week that WWDC 2012 would be held in June. Meanwhile, Google joined the storage wars as the tech heavy unveiled Google Drive. Finally, who can forget Steve Jobs as Willy Wonka in the week that was. Enjoy! WWDC 2012: What We Expect ... Apple announced this week that the company’s Worldwide Developers Conference for 2012 would be held June 11-15 in San Francisco. Less than two hours after Apple made the announcement, the event was completely sold out, even though tickets cost $1,599 each! Unfortunately, some of those lucky enough to get tickets found out later that Apple had abruptly canceled their plans. What new goodies will Apple announce at this year's WWDC? An iPad mini? The next iPhone? Perhaps the long-rumored iPanel? iOS 6.0? We have our ideas. The Storage Wars Google this week unveiled their long-anticipated file storage and syncing service. Google Drive hopes to challenge Dropbox and Microsoft’s SkyDrive for Web storage supremacy. Available at http://drive.google.com, Google Drive is available for Mac, PC, and Android owners. While not available yet, iOS apps for the service are expected to arrive in the next few weeks. At its core, Google Drive is every bit your typical Google product, in that it integrates with the company’s existing line of Web-based products, including Google Docs, Gmail, and Google+, to name three. All Google users get 5GB of storage for free. From there, paid packages start at $2.49 a month for 25GB. For this, your Gmail inbox would also gain 25GB. Google is also offering additional packages going up to 16TB for $800 per month. How does it compare to four storage solutions already on the market? Pretty good. Take a look. Steve And The iMac Factory In his authorized biography of Steve Jobs, Walter Isaacson drives the point home that the late Apple CEO was nothing if not passionate. Indeed, he was so passionate about the things that he cared for, ranging from the biggest management decision to the smallest detail in a prototype, that he ended up being quite brutal. Isaacson also points out some of Jobs’ moments of fondness towards the people and the things around him, but none is probably able to hold a handle to what Ken Segall has just revealed in his new book about Jobs and his well-regarded company. Segall is the creative director of Jobs’ preferred advertising agency, Chiat\Day. He played an integral part in the revival of Apple with Jobs at the helm. He was responsible for getting the famous “Think different” marketing campaign underway as well as for starting Apple’s “i” product naming convention with his “iMac” idea. Obviously, Segall has spent enough time in Cupertino to be privy to the goings-on inside Apple, particularly Jobs’ bursts of passion. And in his book due out today, “Insanely Simple: The Obsession That Drives Apple’s Success,” Segall recounts what could be the most amusing, not to mention the least brutal, among Jobs’ passionate episodes as Apple CEO. As highlighted by MacRumors, Segall shares that Jobs wanted to celebrate the one millionth sale of the original iMac with a bang. And his idea was “to do a Willy Wonka with it.” Segall explains,

Just as Wonka did in the movie, Steve wanted to put a golden certificate representing the millionth iMac inside the box of one iMac, and publicize that fact. Whoever opened the lucky iMac box would be refunded the purchase price and be flown to Cupertino, where he or she (and, presumably, the accompanying family) would be taken on a tour of the Apple campus. Steve had already instructed his internal creative group to design a prototype golden certificate, which he shared with us. But the killer was that Steve wanted to go all out on this. He wanted to meet the lucky winner in full Willy Wonka garb. Yes, complete with top hat and tails.

Unfortunately,  it wasn't meant to be. California law dictated that no purchase should be necessary for people to enter in a sweepstake like the one being planned by Jobs. This practically meant giving free iMacs away and, worse, enabling non-Apple fans to win. As a result of this, the idea suffered the same fate as one of Willy Wonka’s spoiled visitors, Veruca Salt: it was thrown down the rubbish chute. Recommended Reading

• Broadway Star To Portray Steve Wozniak In Steve Jobs Biopic by Aldrin Calimlim introduces us to the actor who will portray Apple's other co-founder in "Jobs." Yes, the movie starring Ashton Kutcher as Steve Jobs.
• Pebble Smartphone Watch Shows What iPod nano Could Have Been by A.T. Faust III looks at the amazing smartphone that should have been developed by Apple.
• Apple Rakes In $39.2 Billion Revenue, $11.6 Billion Profit In First Three Months Of 2012 by Brent Dirks shows us how, once again, Apple remains the top technology company in the world.
• Investors In China Can't Buy AAPL, So They Buy Up Supplier Stock Instead by A.T. Faust III shows us how Chinese citizens are cashing in on Apple's massive popularity taking an indirect route.

Finally, a word from this week's sponsor

-- Week In Review is published each weekend at AppAdvice.com.

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