When the biggest names in the tech world showed off their latest gadgets at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Steve Jobs decided to grab a share of the attention by showing off the iPhone in San Francisco. He did get his share all right, a free publicity share worth US$ 400 million. Says a business expert, "No other company has ever received that kind of attention for a product launch."

How does the "best marketing CEO in the business" do it anyway? Here are the notes that we found on Apple's marketing manual. Everyone should take on Apple's cue and make big bucks like the computer giant does.

1. Make innovative products. It may be simple, but it brings Apple to the spotlight.
2. Keep it simple. Having too many options confuse people.
3. Create truly memorable ads. No need for extensive advertising.
4. Find an enemy. This will keep you improving.
5. Work the taste makers. Be very PR-centric.
6. Offer surprises. It's all about mystery keeping the love alive.
7. Put on a show. Publicity is the rule of the thumb.

Check out some memorable Apple moments below.

More images await after the jump!

Apple is known for revolutionizing our lives. The iPod alone has deeply rooted itself into cultures internationally. The more recent iPhone has also generated a lot of attention as well. Now, here comes Apple's latest product: a product-unveiling product, the iLaunch.

Now how is this revolutionary? As The Onion (*hint-hint*) reports, Steve Jobs introduced the iLaunch at a media event in San Francisco, and as the device was revealed to the audience, Jobs said:

Get ready for the future of product introduction. The iLaunch will be able to make announcements from this, or any other stage, making human participation in generating consumer awareness almost entirely unnecessary... CEOs have devoted their valuable time to strutting around on stage and breathlessly describing the features of their new products... Apple's goal within the next 12 months is to make me totally obsolete.

Powerful statements, yeah? The device, powered by Intel dual-core processors, runs Keynote-formatted presentations in high-definition through a projector, and, at the same time, displaying a rotating 3D image of the product. The iLaunch can also recite speeches via voice-recognition software built into the device. An AI is even incorporated into the system so much so that, when a glitch occurs during the presentation, it will generate humorous remarks to egg on the audience.

What's surprising: the whole presentation of Steve Jobs was produced by the iLaunch.

What isn't surprising: Microsoft just announced a similar product, the Launch-O, scheduled for 2009.

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Update: Apparently this bit of "news" has caused quite a stir at Digg (from 10 to 1000 Diggs in just a few hours). Do know that this story came from The Onion, and from that alone, most of you internet-savvy folks would know how... how shall we say it... satirical they are. So, just to make things clear, consider this as a pre-April Fool's piece. It's been fun while it lasted. To the guys up at The Onion, a warm round of applause for spread yet another great meme.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs has been interviewed on CNBC following the September 12 media event in San Francisco concerning the company's latest announcements. Jobs told CNBC that Apple is very happy with its iPod sales and has good expectations for the forthcoming quarters. As far as overall sales are concerned, the Apple CEO said Â?WeÂ?ve never sold this many of anything before, and so weÂ?re learning as we go, but so far weÂ?re pretty happy.Â?

Jobs also commented on the stock-options irregularities on AppleÂ?s finances, and he admitted that Apple did discover some discrepancies but is not facing an SEC probe. Apple are conducting an internal investigation into the finance books, but Jobs added that the internal investigation will be completed within Â? a not terribly distant futureÂ?. Watch the video to see the interview!

Press people and analysts were welcomed back from the Labor Day weekend holiday by Apple with an invitation for a "Special Event" on September 12. We reported about this press event earlier and now were informed that it would be held at San Francisco's Yerba Buena Center for the Performing Arts.

The e-mailed invites didn't give out a lot of details regarding the event, but the image embedded in the e-mail of a collection of spotlights highlighting the Apple logo above the words, "It's Showtime" seems to indicate that the event may be the venue for the announcement of iTunes's new movie section which was also speculated by BusinessWeek.

Other announcements slated for the September 12 event might include some updates on Apple's iPod lineup. The last update was already a few months ago, and with the Holidays drawing ever-nearer, perhaps Apple is now getting ready to start revealing their Christmas offerings. We'll be keeping an eye on this event, so stay tuned to QJ for more updates.

We have been covering the upcoming Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC 2006) that will be happening this coming August. We also mentioned in our earlier reports that Steve Jobs will be showing a preview of the Mac OS X "Leopard" at the August 7 event at the San Francisco's Moscone West. But there has been rumors that aside from the OS presentation, the Apple CEO will use his keynote address to announce the debut of movie rentals through the iTunes Music Store.

If this is true and all that, then this just goes to show how Apple is planning on dominating the field of digital media downloads. I bet some movie and studio execs are trembling with fear right now and how much more afraid could cinema operators be? According to the same rumor mills, Apple is said to have inked agreements with Walt Disney, Universal Studios, Paramount Pictures, and Warner Bros., and is currently in talks with other major movie studios as well.

So how would the rent-a-movie-the iTunes way work? Well, according to backfence talks, because the movies will be rented and not sold, people familiar with the situation report downloads will be coded with a date stamp that will restrict playback. The coding system is still a hazy area, but most likely the coding system will limit the number of playbacks or will provide unlimited viewing for a period of time...until it expires, and won't play anymore.

According to Apple sources that claim to be reliable, "we knew that Steve (Jobs) saw the rental model as the only viable option...we knew it was a matter of time before he signed on." Whether it will be a click or a flop, will heavily depend on the price tag, that is if this rumor ever becomes true. We have until August 7 to speculate about that.

"Redmond, start your photocopiers", "Redmond, we have a problem". Just some of the jib-jabs that Apple has thrown at the MS camp over the years, actually to be really specific, these statements were seen on Apple posters during the 2004 annual developer's conference in San Francisco, when its Tiger operating system was unveiled and its fiercest rival, Microsoft, was working on its next-generation Windows operating system, Vista, known then as "Longhorn.''

Now, with the delayed release of the Windows Vista and the unveiling of the Leopard this August at the World Developers Conference, it won't be surprising if Apple is again up to some serious psychological war - in the form of posters, sidecomments, taunting and all that. Which makes me think, what other blows could Apple dish out to the Bill Gates camp?

And if you think MS is ignoring these, no they aren't. According to Greg DeMichillie, senior analyst with Directions on Microsoft, "there will be another round of, 'Why can't Microsoft get Vista out?' which Microsoft would just assume not happen...It's a bit of an embarrassment for the company". It seems that Apple's well-honed and innovative marketing strategy could be the tech version of a slow striptease. With that, let's see what other tricks and wisecracks Apple has for MS.

Apple Computer named the dual-core Xeon server processors from Intel to power its next-gen high-performance professional Mac Pro desktops according to AppleInsider. The 64-bit chips Woodcrest (Xeon 5100 series) pack a 4MB L2 cache and run at speeds of up to 3.0GHz on a 1333MHz front-side bus. Apple will offer versions of its upcoming Mac Pro professional desktops that will sport two of the dual core chips. The new systems will also be available in a single processor configuration for a substantially reduced cost.

Aside from being the fastest of Intel's chips suited for a personal computer system, Woodcrest is also the first microprocessors to utilize Intel's "Core" microarchitecture. The architecture's advance cache technology allows one core of a dual-core processor to use the entire memory reservoir while the other core remains idle. It also supports "Smart Memory Access" that hides memory latency and bottlenecks and the "Wide Dynamic Execution," which widens the execution core and allows for more instructions per cycle.

Apple chief executive Steve Jobs is expected to showcase the new computers along with the debut of the Mac OS X 10.5 "Leopard" at the annual Apple World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco next month.

After months of legal bickering that made their lawyers very happy and rich, Apple Computer and Singapore-based Creative Technology indicated their willingness to "remain open to the possibility'' of putting court battles over handheld music players patent infringement. The trade commission already agreed to investigate Apple's complaint that Creative infringes its patents and Creative's complaint against Apple, as well.

In case you're keeping score, here are the lawsuits filed by the two companies against each other:

• Apple Computer Inc. v. Creative Labs Inc., 06cv263, U.S. District Court, Western District of Wisconsin (Madison). The trade complaint against Creative is In the Matter of Portable Digital Media Players, 337-TA-576, U.S. International Trade Commission.
• Apple Computer Inc. v Creative Technology Ltd., 06cv114, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas (Lufkin Division).
• Creative Technology Ltd. v. Apple Computer Inc., 06cv3218, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California (San Francisco); and In the matter of Portable Digital Media Players, 337-TA-573, U.S. International Trade Commission.

Apple has sold more than 50.8 million iPods in 2001, while Creative has less than a 10 percent share of the U.S. market for digital music players.

Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2006 is to kick off on August 2006. The event will feature Steve Jobs as its keynote speaker. A preview of the Mac OS X "Leopard" will also be shown by Jobs come August 7, 2006 at the San Francisco's Moscone West.

During the WWDC 2006, there will be special sessions on performance optimization using the development tools of Apple software. The developers will also be receiving detailed information on developing applications that take advantage of the Intel-based Macs' performance.

This annual developers conference will be attended by other Apple executives like Bertrand Serlet, senior VP of Software Engineering, Philip Schiller, senior VP of Worldwide Product Marketing, and Scott Forstall, VP of Platform Experience. The conference, which is to last five days, will cost $1600 per attendee.

Apple Computer is looking to outshine rival Microsoft Corp. yet again. Same company, different scenarios. This time, it is for the inevitable battle between the two companies' software operating systems -- Leopard and Vista.

With over a month to go before Apple releases their latest software operating system, Leopard - the next version of Mac OS X, rumors have been sprouting like mushrooms. Apparently there are a couple of screens that depict some features of the software.

With Leopard hitting the market about the same time as Microsoft's Vista, it isn't surprising if there are backfence talks that says Apple has been keeping a close watch on the Bill Gates camp. Allegedly, Apple has been developing a handful of features for Leopard that will specifically rival those available to Vista users.

Heard through the grapevine that one of Leopard's features is OS-level integration of a geographical mapping technology, similar to Microsoft's Virtual Earth. The technology will presumably allow Leopard users to scour the globe through satellite imagery and whisk up driving directions on the drop of a dime. Another rumored feature of Leopard is the unification of Apple's Address Book and iCal applications into a single app. This is coupled with the absence of the traditional iCal icon in the Mac OS X Dock.

But the juiciest morsel of rumors surround Apple's Boot Camp and where the company may or may not take the technology. It seems that some sources are saying that the technology is being groomed as a rival to Microsoft's Virtual PC Express. The similarities do not end there it seems that Apple is also rumored to be contemplating for a "more marketable" name for its next-generation OS just like what Windows did for the Vista (it was formerly known as Longhorn, if you don't remember).

Apple plans to unveil Leopard for the first time at its World Wide Developers Conference, which runs from August 7-11 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, Calif. By that time, these rumors would either have been confirmed or trashed, we'll see.