"We've never ever at Mozilla said that we care about Firefox market share at the expense of our more important goal: to keep the web open and a public resource. The web belongs to people, not companies." These were the words of Mozilla's COO John Lilly in a recent blog post of his. What prompted this statement though, is the real story.

For those who have been keeping up with the WWDC, Steve Jobs delivered his keynote speech and unveiled Safari for Windows. Now, this is a big thing because the Apple iPhone will be running web applications, and this is the manner that it will be interfacing with the PC. The simple fact that PC users will be getting another browser option for their systems is really great. So what's the problem?
 
Steve Jobs presented the way he wanted the market to look eventually and it showed a view that's, as Lilly put it, "out-of-date, corporate-controlled, duopoly-oriented, not-the-web thinking." A duopoly (a market controlled by two organizations) cuts out everyone else and leaves everyone at the mercy of the companies running it. Everyone saw the ruckus that was caused with the Microsoft anti-trust issue, adding in another big company to control the rest of the market may not be in the public's interest.

Lilly may have a point with this although there is no arguing Apple's success. It may precisely be that outlook that's driving them to the top. Still, we have to consider the consequences of a possible duopoly on the net and how it will affect the internet community as a whole. If you want to read the entire blog post, be sure to click on our read link. Keep checking back here for more updates on this issue.

It seems that four years ago, not even Steve Jobs nor other Apple folks realized that Apple shares would be what they are today: up by 1600% since early 2003. In a report by Brett Arends on TheStreet.com, it was revealed that even Steve Jobs wasn't able to take advantage of a potential US$ 4 billion in profit because of Apple stocks.

It was also revealed that this is because he made a decision four years ago to "cut his exposure to apple stock". During 2003, Apple stocks was down 80% from its peak. Arends reports that Jobs and the Apple board agreed that Jobs would disregard around 15 million stock options in return for 10 million actual Apple shares.

Arends writes: "At the time, it looked like he was giving up nothing and getting $75 million in return. And, as he had rescued the company from oblivion, who would argue he didn't deserve it?"

Perhaps what's even more amusing is that during March 2003, company employees were allowed to make exchanges similar to what Jobs did. Apple set up a program that let people swap their seemingly worthless, post-bubble stock options for a smaller number of options at a lower strike price. The reason for this is that the exchange would be beneficial as long as the share price stayed low.

As mentioned, Apple stocks is up 1600% since early 2003.

Now that Apple products are so hot, and its stocks so high, one would think that anyone, especially Jobs would wish to just have that potential 4 Billion dollars back. Would Apple folks wish to have all that stock profit back? Arends says that Apple media relations declined to comment on this.

We get to see a candid Steve Job in this ten-minute video interview with the Apple head honcho taken at All Things Digital 2007. It's a rare glimpse of the man who invented the iPod and what he thinks is in store for the company that dared to go up against fellow giant Microsoft.

Steve began the interview by explaining how Apple is trying to become four different things at once, and being pretty good at it: a computer business, a music business, a phone business, and a hobby. He also reported of the recent growth spurt the company's having, quantified as five times the growth of the PC industry.

When asked about the iPhone, it was then that Steve clammed up, playfully avoiding questions about its features and functions. He did let slip a juicy tidbit of information -  the release of the highly-anticipated iPod-slash-cellphone is still slated for late June  which is definitely good news for us who can't wait to get their hands on one.

Still on the subject of what he touts as "the best iPod ever made", Steve promised that owners will receive the Internet as they know it with the iPhone and not the mobile Internet we're made to make do with on our handhelds. He meant the actual, honest-to-goodness Internet we receive every time we log into our computers.

Certainly a tall order, and Steve's confident he'll make good on it. A lot more info in the video itself, so enjoy!

While the ever-anticipated iPhone cannot run other OS X applications apart from Safari and OS X desktop email, Steve Jobs hinted in an interview that they are certainly considering the possibility of making third party applications for the iPhone. He says that it is a security issue, but he assures that Apple is currently working its way around it to allow third party developers to build applications for the iPhone.

Jobs is anxious about the problems that may arise from using third party applications, and doesn't want the iPhone to be Â?one of those phones that crashes a few times a day... We would like to solve this problem and if you could just be a little more patient with us, weÂ?ll do it.Â? Hear that, Nokia?

Having a mobile phone that doesn't hang every once in a while is a great change, and that in itself is a good enough innovation that will make flustered cellphone users give additional points to Apple over Microsoft.

It's good that Jobs has hinted on that likelihood in a positive note: Imagine a plethora of games available for the iPhone. Should that happen, though, how those games would turn out is still a bit of a mystery, what with the iPhone having no physical keyboard... but we'll see.

We're not certain if Apple CEO Steve Jobs is keen on answering Mike's dare to make a regular Mac, because you see, he's quite busy with other more important things. For one, Jobs' busy answering allegations from certain environmental groups about Apple's waste.

And it is also possible that the official is busy counting his total compensation for 2006. Haven't you heard? Financial publication Forbes.com just named Steve Jobs as the highest paid CEO for 2006, as he was able to take home more than US$ 646 million through stock-based compensation. Forbes.com mentioned that exercised stock options are still the main component of pay while changes in the components of executive compensation have occurred throughout the years.

In fact, 48% of the executive pay of the 200 CEOs monitored came from stocks. Mind you, that's an average gain of US$ 7.3 million per CEO. The second highest paid chief executive was Ray Irani from Occidental Petroleum who took home US$ 321.64 million in 2006.

Let's face it: Macs are great machines, but horribly cruel on the budget. Sure, Windows desktops are affordable, easy to upgrade, and very customization-friendly, but there's really nothing like a Mac running on your desk and handling all the important stuff. That's why Mike of the Send Mike to Space! blog decided to write an open letter to Steve Jobs himself, calling him out on a dare: to make a regular, affordable Mac that the PC-using community could purchase without stretching the budget too thin.

Will Steve Jobs take the dare up, or will it be ignored like other open letters to rich, powerful men? Time will only tell, but you have do admit, replacing that buggy, virus-ridden PC with a shiny Mac sounds too good to be true.

You can check out the letter in its entirety by clicking Read below.

It recently came to Apple Inc. that some environmental organizations are criticizing it for not being a good model in terms of removing toxic chemicals from its new products as well as recycling old products.

CEO Steve Jobs came up then with a press release highlighting his company's plans about the matter. Jobs revealed though that these measures aren't exactly new, and that they've been doing this long before the said complaints made mass media. It's just that he felt the need to inform Apple's consumers and stakeholders because the above mentioned allegations are rather serious.

The list is quite long and the Read link should take to Jobs' complete statement. But some of the most important highlights include:

• Apple completely eliminated the use of CRTs in mid-2006. Dell, Gateway, Hewlett Packard and Lenovo still ship CRT displays today.
• Apple products met both the spirit and letter of the RoHS restrictions on cadmium, hexavalent chromium and brominated flame retardants years before RoHS went into effect.
• Apple plans to completely eliminate the use of arsenic in all of its displays by the end of 2008.
• Apple plans to reduce and eventually eliminate the use of mercury by transitioning to LED backlighting for all displays when technically and economically feasible.
• Apple plans to completely eliminate the use of PVC and BFRs in its products by the end of 2008.
• Apple recycled 13 million pounds of e-waste in 2006, which is equal to 9.5% of the weight of all products Apple sold seven years earlier.
• We expect this percentage to grow to 13% in 2007, and to 20% in 2008. By 2010, we forecast recycling 19 million pounds of e-waste per year Â? nearly 30% of the product weight we sold seven years earlier.
• All the e-waste we collect in North America is processed in the U.S., and nothing is shipped overseas for disposal.
• Apple products are designed using high quality materials that are in high demand from recyclers.

 

Apple has announced that Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO will be highlighting the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) with a keynote address beginning at 10 A.M. on June 11, 2007, at San Francisco's Moscone West.

It was noted that Apple plans to show developers a "feature complete version" of Mac OS X Leopard, and distribute a beta copy for home use and final testing.

Other activities from Apple at the WWDC 2007 include presentations from Apple engineers about an in-depth look at  Leopard (from its open-source foundation to other innovations like iChat Theater and Dascode), practical hands on sessions, technology labs, and other special events like the Stump the Experts event, and the Apple Design Awards.

Leopard is set to ship come October later this year.

Barron's Online has released their third list for "The World's Best CEOs", and look who made his debut in the list for 2007. It's none other than Nintendo's Satoru Iwata.

Iwata got in the exclusive top 30 list, thanks to the innovative Wii. He is but one of the ten overseas CEOs in the list, sharing the spotlight with three new other foreign newbies. It is actually not surprising to find Iwata recognized for his stint as Nintendo's CEO. The company did see, after all, a vast increase in its stocks, and the success of its next-gen console undoubtedly contributed a lot to that spike in revenues.

Steven Jobs also is in the list, apparently as a "Returnee". Barron's describes Jobs as "the ultimate CEO who matters", and deemed that his company, Apple, runs ahead Microsoft by miles in terms of innovations.

Here's another new chapter to add to the Steve Jobs/DRM saga. According to the E-Commerce Times, a branch of the Free Software Foundation known as DefectiveByDesign launched an online petition last week urging Apple CEO Steve Jobs to set an example by removing DRM protection from iTunes.

The petition was filed in response to Jobs' February open letter on the abolition of DRM and reads, "You can set the ethical example and be the first 'major' to drop DRM. You can set the example in the region of video and movies. You have the direct power to do this." It reached its original goal of one thousand signatures about five hours after going live.

DefectiveByDesign plans to keep the petition open until April 1. It will then be sent to Jobs along with a jester hat.