Over at Patently Apple , Jack Burcher Purcher reports that Apple is applying for a trademark called “Joint Venture.” The trademark application indicates that this will most likely be some kind of new service offering by Apple. Might Apple start providing on-site service just like Best Buy’s Geek Squad? The key clauses in the patent application seem to indicate this just might be the case: “International Class 037: Maintenance, installation and repair of computer hardware, computer peripherals, computer networks, and consumer electronic devices; information, advisory and consultancy services relating to all the aforesaid.” “International Class 042: Technical support and consulting services pertaining to computer hardware, computer peripherals, computer software and consumer electronics; troubleshooting and computer diagnostic services for computer hardware, computer peripherals, computer software and consumer electronic devices; consulting services in the field of selection, implementation and use of computer hardware and software systems for others.” Would this be a good thing for Apple customers? Certainly being able to purchase additional on-site services directly from an Apple Store would be convenient. The Geniuses stay locked behind the bar (pun intended) and Apple relies on independent third-party sources who are often part of the Apple Consultants Network (ACN) or Apple Authorized Service Providers (AASP) to provide on-site service to Apple’s customers. For many of them, paying Apple directly to set up their Xserve or Airport Extreme may be a great idea and would be consistent with the offerings of big PC companies that provide end-to-end support for larger installations. Joint Venture members would be people trained by Apple, and specializing in Macs (unlike Best Buy’s on-site squad). It’s always possible that Apple could decide to have Joint Venture members be existing members of the ACN and AASP programs and the trademark could all be about branding. If Apple opts for its own on-site “Genius Squad,” it would likely be biased towards Apple-approved solutions, utilizing equipment that Cupertino sells. This may limit the choice of customers and marginalize third-party vendors that don’t sell items in the Apple Store or web site. Currently AASPs and ACNs don’t work for Apple and don’t always recommend pure Apple solutions for their customers.

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Over at Patently Apple , Jack Burcher Purcher reports that Apple is applying for a trademark called “Joint Venture.” The trademark application indicates that this will most likely be some kind of new service offering by Apple. Might Apple start providing on-site service just like Best Buy’s Geek Squad? The key clauses in the patent application seem to indicate this just might be the case: “International Class 037: Maintenance, installation and repair of computer hardware, computer peripherals, computer networks, and consumer electronic devices; information, advisory and consultancy services relating to all the aforesaid.” “International Class 042: Technical support and consulting services pertaining to computer hardware, computer peripherals, computer software and consumer electronics; troubleshooting and computer diagnostic services for computer hardware, computer peripherals, computer software and consumer electronic devices; consulting services in the field of selection, implementation and use of computer hardware and software systems for others.” Would this be a good thing for Apple customers? Certainly being able to purchase additional on-site services directly from an Apple Store would be convenient. The Geniuses stay locked behind the bar (pun intended) and Apple relies on independent third-party sources who are often part of the Apple Consultants Network (ACN) or Apple Authorized Service Providers (AASP) to provide on-site service to Apple’s customers. For many of them, paying Apple directly to set up their Xserve or Airport Extreme may be a great idea and would be consistent with the offerings of big PC companies that provide end-to-end support for larger installations. Joint Venture members would be people trained by Apple, and specializing in Macs (unlike Best Buy’s on-site squad).

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Penguin doesn’t want to just continue releasing your standard, garden-variety e-books on a new platform with the iPad. CEO John Makinson showed off what his company had in mind for the platform at a presentation earlier this week, as  reported by paidContent . Penguin is apparently looking to sidestep the iBookstore altogether and sell content through the regular App Store, at least unless Apple has additional formats beyond .epub to offer for the iBook app. The publisher wants to offer embedded interactive content in its titles, including audio, video and device-to-device functions. Looking at what Penguin is planning, I’m reminded of those elaborate electronic reading learning systems designed for children, or the original electronic books, which included simple noisemakers alongside traditional paper texts. In other words, it’s kind of neat, especially if you’re a five-year old, but it doesn’t really strike me as the exciting future of books Penguin is making it out to be. Besides, I don’t want a five-year old getting my iPad all grubby and sticky. Here’s a video of what the publisher was showing off: The books demoed that were aimed at a more mature audience were a little more impressive, but I was mostly struck by how much they resembled regular apps more than anything else. They seemed like slightly less capable apps, in fact, in that they were still trying to look like books despite there being no point to that. People have developed great medical and astronomy apps for the iPhone (and iPad, by extension) platform. Why would I choose a book that’s been somewhat awkwardly made into an app instead of something designed, from concept to finished product, specifically for the platform?

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Filed under: Hardware , Retail , Apple Apple has nailed down the number three spot on BusinessWeek’s fourth annual customer service awards , falling in right behind LL Bean and insurance company USAA, and way above companies like Amazon and Dell. The awards were based on survey results from a few different places, and Apple scored an A+ in both Quality of Staff and Efficiency of Service thanks to its Genius Bars and helpful Specialists inside Apple Stores . Of course we’ve heard the occasional horror story , but in general, Apple Store employees are beyond helpful, which is probably why BusinessWeek says that 66% of those surveyed would “definitely recommend” Apple products, and 58% said they would “definitely repurchase” the next time they needed something. Apple’s influence is also found elsewhere on the list — USAA, number two on the list, has had a lot of success with its iPhone application, which has also helped the company out on customer service scoring as well. And while Starbucks can’t necessarily thank Apple for a big boost in its business (it probably would have done fine anyway), it’s not surprising that companies that score high in customer service tend to have the same goals in mind. Congrats to Apple for yet another survey-based award. [Via Macworld's Dan Moren , not "Warren" -- sorry Dan!] Apple ranks third in BusinessWeek customer service survey originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 22 Feb 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Apple ranks third in BusinessWeek customer service survey originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 22 Feb 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

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Bloomberg BusinessWeek’s fourth annual customer service rankings show that Apple has increased from 20th to 3rd when it comes to customer service, according to MacRumors .  Apple finished behind catalogue retailer L.L. Bean and insurance company USAA.   According to the results, which brought together data from consumer firm J.D. Power, with survey results from over 1,000 of the magazine’s own readers, Apple received an A+ score in ratings for both "quality of staff" and "efficiency of service." "The company’s sleek devices and user-friendly software aren’t its only innovations.  Appointments at Apple’s ‘Genius Bars’ and its roving in-store checkout clerks are just two ways the company has pioneered new approaches to customer service.  The iPhone maker likely got a bump this year as more companies created customer-friendly apps for their own services, helping to burnish Apple’s customer service brand." Other factors in the survey showed respondents would "definitely recommend" the Apple brand at 66% and would "definitely repurchase" from Apple at 58%.  Dell was the only other computer maker to make the list of top 25 companies, ranking in 23rd place.   Apple had previously been ranked 21st in 2008 and then 18th in 2007.  This year’s improvement was based on a leap in the "quality of staff" category. Image courtesy of insidesocal.com  

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Love was in the air. As was the smell of flowers and candies and chocolate and that really warm funny smell that comes out the vents of your MacBook when you’ve been streaming videos for hours. Yes, love. So instead of finishing off that Whitman’s Sampler, give your waistline and your scale a break and sample some of this week’s tasty treats from the Mac|Life crew. We promise: no coconut. Features: – 20 Years of Image Editing: Photoshop from 1.0 to CS4 – You’ve come a long way, baby. That’s right, little ol’ Photoshop’s all grown up now. It seems only yesterday that you were just a twinkle in Thomas Knoll’s Mac Plus when all people wanted was a way to fiddle with a tiny black and white image. Now, look at you

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Section: iPhone / iPod touch / iPad , iDevice Apps , Originals This week is brought to you by iTunes Preview. This means that every time you click one of the links on my list, instead of a useless blank page kicking you to iTunes, you’ll first get a snapshot of the app’s page on the App Store right in your browser. A useful feature for sure. Now you can browse these apps at work. Don’t worry, I won’t tell. Directionary – Homesick?  This app will remind you which direction your favorite places on the planet are (provided you have an iDevice with a compass ie. iPhone 3GS).  It also displays how far away those destinations are in meters, which is about as useful as a distance measured in Cheerios.  I just love the simple design of this app.  Very nice. GetColorsAR – This app allows you to extract color information from the real world!  You could just take a picture and then copy the color by hand, but why!?  Just tap something on the screen of your iPhone and the app will give you a color code to the color you’ve tapped

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Section: iPhone / iPod touch / iPad , iDevice Apps , Mac Software Macintosh and iPhone/iPod/iPad product updates and announcements for February 5, 2010: Macintosh iPod Macintosh Ashlar-Vellum has announced the release of Service Pack 2 for Graphite version 8 , their software for 2D/3D precision wireframe drafting. Graphite offers extremely powerful, precision wire-frame drafting with the elegant ease-of-use that makes it productive even when only used occasionally. Running on Mac and Windows, Graphite provides an interface that lets creative people get the job done without worrying about how to run their software. CoreMelt has announced there is only only three days left in their Show Us Your Pixels Competition . Submissions will be accepted until end of business on the 8th February 2010. Winners will be chosen on Feb 10th 2009. The Grand Prize winner will be chosen randomly from the five best entrants in each category of entrant. The grand prize is a Sumatran Adventure Trek with Rainforest Rescue to help support their rainforest salvation projects. Walrus Group LLC, has announced they have extended their distinct approach to presentation themes into Microsoft’s PowerPoint software, launching a new website, OfficeDocsPro , and announcing the immediate availability of five premium themes for PowerPoint 2008. The five inaugural OfficeDocsPro Themes are built for THMX, the newest PowerPoint theme standard and first introduced in Microsoft Office 2007 and Office:Mac 2008. TypeDNA will introduce the world’s first standalone creative font plug-ins developed specifically for Adobe’s CS suite. TypeDNA’s Plugged-in solution seamlessly integrates directly into Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign, significantly enhancing font capabilities. During installation each font is analyzed, characteristics are determined and from this data a unique signature is generated

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Section: Haven’t caught all of the Appletell news this week?  Here’s your chance to catch up on this week’s top 10 articles! Appletell reviews Camera Plus Pro and POV for iPhone “The iPhone camera is not the best. We get that. But with the help of the myriad camera apps out there, you can still get some pretty good functionality or pull off some good tricks. Here are two inexpensive but powerful apps to help you get more out of your…” MORE » iPad Keynote condensed to 3 minutes; full of great, awesome, and beautiful ”  Although Apple has posted the video of Steve Jobs’ media presentation last week, it may be a little lengthy for most of us. This is especially true considering most of the content in that video is a…” MORE » Apple awarded touch sensitive bezel patent ” Does the iPad’s extra wide bezel bother you? I know it bothers me. It’s consistent with other displays that Apple produces, such as on the MacBook Pros, but I still hate to see that much wasted space. Apparently Apple has…” MORE » Appletell reviews the CorePack Fly and AftPack laptop bags from Speck “Remember the good old days before the iPod and the iPhone, when you couldn’t rely on your iDevice case to convey your personality? Back then, you had just one thing to carry around—your computer—and that alone let passersby know every tiny detail about who you are. Well, some of us…” MORE » AT&T spending $2 billion extra to fix network this year; is it too late? ” AT&T, the company we all know and love hate, has stated in their quarterly earnings call that they plan to beef up their network quite heavily this year. Beyond what they already spend to upkeep their network, they plan to…” MORE » Google Tablet concept very similar to iPad ” Just as Apple announces their iPad, Google quietly begins posting images and videos on the Chromium Project’s site visualizing what a possible Chrome OS tablet could look like. While the interface they show looks nothing like the Chrome OS…” MORE » 101 Apple shirt designs for the Apple geek in you ” In order to be considered a true Apple geek, you need to own at least one shirt themed with Apple, Steve Jobs, or any of their products. There are numerous companies that make shirts geared towards this group of people, but…” MORE » iPhone OS 3.1.3 released “This week Apple released both the operating system as well as its SDK for the 3.1.3 version of the iPhone software.

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It is pretty clear Apple has declared a silent war on Google. CEO Steve Jobs allegedly has mocked the Mountain View, Calif. company’s well-known “Do No Evil” mantra and even blames the Internet giant for trying to “kill” Cupertino’s iconic iPhone. However, that animosity appears to have spilled over into Apple’s iPhone App Store

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