What Apple should do with its money

Sunday night, when Apple announced that it was going to be holding a conference call the following morning regarding its plans for its massive cash pile, the internet ran wild with speculation.

We heard all kinds of theories, ranging from a surprise Twitter buyout to a small carrier acquisition. But Apple’s actual announcement of dividends and stock buybacks was much more tame.

While this outcome might have appeased investors, it left some of us wanting more. Here’s what I think the company should do with its money…
I’m obviously not an economics mastermind, but indulge me for a minute. What if Apple used some of its cash to purchase a controlling stake in its largest manufacturing partner, Foxconn. Yeah, you heard me. Foxconn.

Just think about it. This would allow Apple to control its own manufacturing costs, not to mention the costs of its competitors. Remember, Samsung, Amazon, and other companies use Foxconn to build their products too.

Apple could also use the new weight to take control of Foxconn’s labor problems. The manufacturer has dragged the iPhone-maker along with it through a firestorm of criticism over the past few years due to repeated reports of poor working conditions. And this would give Apple the chance to make things right.

As crazy as all of this sounds, it’s actually not unheard of. The move is called “backward vertical integration.” It’s when a company takes control of one or more of its upstream suppliers that contribute to the production of its products. A good example would be if Mercedes owned the companies that made the tires and glass it uses to make its cars.

For what it’s worth, Apple’s stock buyback and dividend program is fairly minimal compared to its overall cash balance. So the company is obviously keeping a lot of money around for something. The question is, what?

What do you think Apple should do with its money?

Thermal imaging: New iPad runs 10 degrees hotter than iPad 2, but still within operating requirements

Yesterday, we told you about an unknown portion of new iPads overheating, with the lower left-hand corner of the device getting warm or noticeably hot. This was based on personal observations by numerous owners who took to Apple support forums to share their experience.

Now, a more scientific approach has confirmed that yes, the new iPads are indeed getting a little toasty. More precisely, the device on average runs 10 degrees hotter than its predecessor, the iPad 2. The finding is based on side-by-side thermal imaging of the new iPad vs. iPad 2…
As you can see in the above thermal image – courtesy of a Dutch site Tweakers.net (Google translation) – the new iPad’s hottest part is the lower left-hand corner that has managed to record 92.5 Fahrenheit, or 33.6 degrees Celsius. For comparison, the warmest part of the iPad 2 (shown on the right) measures 83 Fahrenheit, or 28.3 degrees Celsius. According to the official specs, those numbers are indeed within the new iPad’s operating temperature of 32-95 degrees Fahrenheit, or 0-35 degrees Celsius.

But why excess heat? Running standard GLBenchmark that puts the GPU under strain and then putting the device under an infrared camera has allowed the publication to suggest that the new iPad’s souped up GPU is likely to blame for the overheating issue.

As you know, the device packs in the Apple-designed A5X package featuring an improved quad-core GPU (likely Imagination Technologies’ PowerVR SGX543MP4 unit), with benchmarks showing graphics performance comparable or exceeding that of Nvidia’s Tegra 3 chip. A teardown analysis has also revealed a new metal heat spreader atop the A5X chip.

Let’s not forget that the new iPad also has faster 4G networking and a stunning 2,048-by-1,536 pixel resolution Retina display, both battery-consuming and adding up to the overall power requirements. Apple tackled the increased power requirements by putting a lot bigger battery inside the new iPad with 70 percent more capacity than the iPad 2.

The company announced yesterday that it has managed to sell three million new iPads in under four days. For comparison, it took the original iPad 80 days to ship the same number of units, selling one millionth unit in 28 days following its April 2010 launch.

The new iPad giveaway!

Ladies and gentlemen, this is by far the biggest giveaway that we’ve done at iDownloadBlog, and we’re inviting you to participate.
Yes, we’re giving away a 3rd generation iPad to one fortunate reader. Why buy a new iPad when you can get one for absolutely free?
How to win a new iPad (Black, 16GB, WiFi only):
Step 1: Like this post on Facebook, and like our Facebook page.

Step 2: Subscribe to our YouTube channel, and post a comment on the video with your thoughts and your Twitter or Facebook ID. We’d also appreciate it if you gave a thumbs up to our video, though that has no bearing on the giveaway.

Step 3: Follow us on Twitter and retweet this post.

If you successfully perform those 3 steps, then consider yourself entered to win.

If you don’t have Facebook or Twitter, remember those services are free to sign up. It’s worth it when you consider that you can win a new ipad for free.

This giveaway is open to international readers, and we will handle the shipping cost involved as a courtesy to you.

We really love our readers and the awesome support that you have shown us over the years. We wish we could give an iPad to each and every one of you, but this is the next best thing.

Have you entered yet? A winner that meets all of the requirements will be randomly selected next Friday, March 23rd, 2012.

Following the iOS debacle, Mountain Lion now asks permission to access contacts too

It seems that Apple’s learnings from the Path Contacts debacle have extended to the Mac, too, with the latest Developer Preview of OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion also seeing a Contacts-based new security addition.

Those with reasonable memories will remember that Path, the social networking app that was all the rage not long ago, got itself into some hot water for taking all the details from the iOS Contacts app – names, numbers, email addresses and more – and uploading them to its own servers. This led to all kinds of scaremongering and ultimately, Apple decided to add a warning message to iOS that tells users when an app is requesting access to contact details. Users then have to option of allowing or blocking that access.

Now it appears that Apple has pulled this security feature across from iOS to the Mac, or at least it will in the next version of OS X when it arrives later this year…
Mac developers are now testing the second Developer Preview of OS X Mountain Lion, and any apps which want access to the Contacts app now ask for permission before diving in, similar to the way location data is protected in iOS right now.

Users will be able to manage these permissions via the Privacy tab in System Preferences, allowing the withdrawal of access as and when required.

Cynics will argue that this is just another step in the “iOS-ification” of the Mac, though few could argue that such a security measure is a bad thing.

What say you?