Yesterday Apple held its annual shareholder’s meeting at its Cupertino headquarters. All the top brass were there to answer questions from the men and women to whom, let’s face it, they must eventually answer. Of course, that didn’t stop Steve Jobs from being his usual tactless self, quipping during a lengthy comment from one shareholder, “Do you have a question ?” There’s a lot of information to digest, so I’ve condensed the juiciest morsels into what I hope is a more accessible short-form. Here goes! All seven board members were re-elected; there was an advisory vote on executive compensation and Apple’s public accounting firm was chosen (it’s Ernst & Young, by the way.) Votes also were cast on two shareholder proposals. The first called for a published “sustainability report” detailing the company’s environmental policies and its contingency planning in the face of climate change. The second proposal was for the creation of a second board of directors, tasked with overseeing Apple’s environmental policies and business strategy in the face of climate change. The board felt they were already doing a fine job in both these areas, and recommended voting against the new proposals.

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If you’ve been looking for an artsy app that will keep you entertained and rouse those creative juices, then stay tuned for artist Hanoch Piven’s upcoming iPhone app, Faces IMake. Piven, the imaginative brains behind Mac|Life ’s March issue cover (currently on newsstands) and the art from our home automation feature , has been working closely with iMagine Machine to develop a collage art app that will inspire both kids and adults of all ages. The app will enable you to emote faces from a library of 300 every-day objects, such as food, kitchen appliances, letters in various typefaces and an assortment of toys.  You can manipulate the objects to act as the eyes, mouth, nose, beard, hair and other body parts. When you’re finished, export your creation to faceimake.com, then upload the photo to Facebook and see if your pals notice anything different about your profile picture. You can also share the photos via Twitter and Flickr. 

 Piven also integrates tips and ideas for users with the inclusion of various video clips. The app is based on the creativity workshops that Piven himself has been conducting for the past five years.  “In the workshops, I open the world of art to participants by eliminating the technique barrier,” he says. “You don’t need to know how to draw in order to make art.” The app has been in development for the last two months and will officially debut on March 19th in Los Angeles at Piven’s own exhibition, entitled “ Making Faces .” The app is not yet available in the App Store.

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Spare yourself the agony of service outages by keeping a local copy.   Google’s free Gmail service is all kinds of awesome, and it’s generally pretty darn reliable. But like any Web-based service, Gmail can go down. These rare events are cause for amusement at Mac|Life HQ–seriously, have you seen how Twitter freaks out when Gmail is down? You’d think the sun and moon had collided or George Lucas had announced a Broadway musical about the political career of Jar Jar Binks. Still, if you depend on Gmail for all your über-essential email, it stinks to be kept out of your account even temporarily. Luckily, backing up Gmail is pretty easy and won’t cost you a dime. Ready? We’ll use Mail to store the messages and a combination of Automator and iCal to retrieve them so you don’t even have to open Mail periodically and fetch the emails yourself. This works best if you’re not already using Mail for your day-to-day emailing and especially if you don’t use it for Gmail. If you’ve already got Mail checking your Gmail through IMAP access, jump right to “ Don’t Want to Use Mail? . And Gmail junkies be warned: This won’t get your labels or your Drafts, and it won’t organize your sent and received email into regular Sent and Inbox folders

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Section: Apple News , Conferences , Macworld , Features , Photo Gallery , Originals If there’s one thing we’ve taken away thus far from our trip out to Macworld 2010 in San Francisco, it’s that the show has been a success. Apple users seem happy, and nearly every exhibitor with whom we spoke has been pleased with the turnout and the energy. We’ll have a roundup article later this weekend with details on that, but in the meantime, we wanted to let everyone back home have a chance to see what’s going on in Moscone this year on the show floor, at the media events, and around the city. You can check out our full gallery over at flickr . We’ll continue to upload images from the show floor as we round up coverage today, including from the iPad event, so be sure to check back throughout the weekend. Gallery [ Appletell at Macworld 2010 ] Full Story » | Written by Kirk Hiner for Appletell . | Comment on this Article »

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Perhaps it has to do with Apple positioning itself as a mobile devices company, but the iPhone is on a serious upswing in the U.S. smartphone market, even while all of its competitors seem to be losing ground. Except for one, that is, and the rate at which that company is building up steam should give the Mac maker cause for some concern. For the moment, though, Apple is doing much better than anyone in the space, really. The latest comScore report , which covers a three month period from September to December of 2009, shows Apple as having 25.3 percent of the total smartphone market share, up 1.2 points from 24.1 percent at the beginning of the period measured. Research In Motion (RIM) came in first place overall once again, with 41.6 percent of U.S. smartphone subscribers opting for a BlackBerry device. But that number represented a slide, ultimately, as RIM began the measurement period with 42.6 percent. Microsoft and Palm likewise slipped, with MS dropping from 19 to 18 percent, and Palm losing 2.2 points, down to 6.1 percent. Google had the lowest market share of the bunch, with 5.2 percent of subscribers. But that number was up from only 2.5 percent in September, suggesting that it was probably helped along considerably with the introduction of the Motorola Droid.

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Filed under: Software , Apple , iPhone Apple’s excited about mobile advertising (and it certainly seems like they’re setting up a plan for local ads), but to devs, they say, “not so much.” Apparently they’ve sent out a message that says location services should only be used to provide “beneficial information,” not targeted advertising. Any apps that include ads targeted to where you and your iPhone are will be rejected posthaste, says Apple. There’s a few things going on here — Mobile Entertainment wonders just what “beneficial information” means. Certainly apps like Foursquare and MyTown provide business information based on your iPhone’s location, and Foursquare especially is working on local deals with places that you’ve checked-in to — is that considered advertising? And a few developers, including our friend Craig Hockenberry (MacNN messed up Chock’s name in their post ) say that Apple wants location-based ads for themselves. Kind of a jerk move by Apple, but if that’s where the money is, I guess you can’t blame them. Apple puts limits on location-based advertising in the App Store originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 05 Feb 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Apple puts limits on location-based advertising in the App Store originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 05 Feb 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

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Section: Apple News , Rumors , iPod + iTunes , iPod touch , iPhone , iPhone , iPhone SDK & Apps Rumors are flying like never before now that Apple’s January 27th event is so close.  Here’s the latest from The Mac Observer .  The images they’ve posted appear to be of the glass on the front of Apple’s unannounced tablet. But are they real? The sizing and proportions are right, but what faker wouldn’t get that right? Still, this is the sort of thing that slips through the cracks (intentionally?) when Apple events come closer. So, despite this essentially being an enlarged iPod touch, I wouldn’t be surprised at all to be seeing this next week. Apple tends to not stray too far from their core designs, and there’s no reason to have a drastic redesign for a product that is shaping up to be an iPod touch on steroids. And that’s exactly what these images are suggesting. Who else can’t wait for next week? I personally can’t wait to stop spreading rumors and instead talk about a real product. Full Story » | Written by Jake Gaecke for Appletell . | Comment on this Article »

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Well, the year has certainly settled down into the same old routines that were popular in December of 2009. Whodathunkit? We’d hoped you’d have kept your New Year’s resolutions at least a little longer than two lousy weeks, but, then, we’re still spending (wasting) just as much time on Lolcats now as last year. At least we have a little something for you that isn’t a waste of your time. That’s right, it’s our weekly round up of stuff you might have missed while singing along to " The Internet is Made of Cats ." Features: – 50 Killer Mac Apps For Under $50 – Try to find software out there on the internet to do anything, and you’re bombarded with every developer in the world’s version of something. Some are free, some are share, and some cost a little bit. But why risk plunking down your hard earned dollars on something you’ve never even heard of before, something whose quality you can’t judge? See, that’s why you read Mac|Life. We’ve got you covered whether your interests are organizing your collections, sharing files, playing different media formats, getting your to-do lists in order, straightening your finances, or jumping into social media. – 20 Real-World Uses for Google Wave – From the moment it was announced, we signed up for  then pined and ached for our Google Wave invite. Once we got it, though, like a lot of people we weren’t quite sure what to do with it. Unless you know a few other people who can tap its digital richness, it’s not much fun playing with it by yourself. Pass these little lessons along to your friends and get Waving with the best of ‘em. Reviews: – Motorola Droid – Let’s cut straight to the chase here, never mind games, never mind software. Let’s talk the latest smartphone to try a crack at the iPhone’s well-deserved crown, the Motorola Droid

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Section: iPhone , iPhone Accessories , iPhone , Reviews One of the features I consider in iPhone case reviews is whether it comes with a method to attach the case to a belt, pocket, purse strap, or what have you. Few of them do anymore, choosing instead to distinguish themselves with funky features or high fashion. This is unsettling to me, but thankfully there are a good number of belt clips designed to work with at least the slim iPhone cases. In this review, I’ll take a look at offerings from Belkin, Speck and Monster. Leather Slim Fit with Pull Tab Belkin, of course, has been developing accessories for Apple products since well before the iPhone (and even the iPod) was around, and their years of experience have carried over to the Leather Slim Fit with Pull Tab ($29.99). This stitched leather case is about as basic as they come as far design goes, save for the aluminum strip on the front. It’s elegant.

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Section: Software + Apps , Miscellaneous , Third-Party , iPod + iTunes , iPod touch , iPhone , iPhone , iPhone SDK & Apps , Mac + Computers , Software Macintosh and iPhone/iPod updates and announcements for January 6, 2010: Macintosh LaCie has announced the LaCie CooKey and LaCie WhizKey , designed by 5.5 Designers. The new USB flash keys are modeled after the award-winning LaCie iamaKey, which was recently issued a 2010 award by the internationally recognized Observeur du Design. Both Apple and Star Trek have very passionate fans. It turns out many of those passionate fans overlap, and love both Apple and Star Trek. The Digital Lifestyle is bringing them together in a weekly event called Star Trek Saturdays . Each Saturday, beginning January 16th, the site will post a full-length episode of Star Trek, starting with the first episode of the original series. Second Gear has announced the immediate availability of Today 2.0 , the latest version of its popular calendaring application. Today makes it easy to get a one day snapshot view of your upcoming events and tasks in a compact window. No iCal required. Version 2.0 adds “Tomorrow’s” events plus global event and task creation capabilities

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