The Apple Beat: Tim Cook celebrates 5 years at the helm of Apple

Cook's commitment: "Apple has a culture of excellence that is, I think, so unique and so special. I'm not going to witness or permit the change of it.." - photo by Gadjo C. Sevilla

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

Tim Cook has been the face and leader of Apple Inc. for five years. After being endorsed by his predecessor, founder Steve Jobs, on August 24, 2011, Cook has been at the helm of Apple as it became the most valuable company in the world and has seen the launch of new product categories like the Apple Watch and updated Apple TV while overseeing the growth of Apple's various ecosystems and expansions.

To mark his 5-year anniversary, Cook gets a bonus of $100 million. Cook unlocked previously awarded stock bonuses adding up to US $100 million tied to both his length of tenure and Apple's performance under his leadership.

Click to read more ...

The Apple Beat: The iPhone reaches 1 Billion units sold

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

Apple's iPhone has reached a major milestone. The company has confirmed that there have been 1 billion iPhones sold.

“Last week we passed another major milestone when we sold the billionth iPhone. We never set out to make the most, but we’ve always set out to make the best products that make a difference. Thank you to everyone at Apple for helping change the world every day," Apple CEO Tim Cook said earlier today.

This achievement is rare in consumer technology, most specially in mobile phones since manufacturers usually launch various new models each year. The iPhone has been, Apple's singular mobile handset since 2007 and really represents one product that has been painstaikingly refined and iterated on a yearly basis.

Click to read more ...

Review: JayBird Freedom wireless headphones

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

Wireless and bluetooth enabled headphones are slowly but surely surpassing wired sets as the go to accessories for sports as well as travelling and commuting. I recently tried JayBird's Freedom wireless headphones and they have become my all around grab-and-go solution for listening to music in the gym, on the go or while commuting to work.

Click to read more ...

Review: Under Armour HealthBox

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

Under Armour is a leading maker of performance sports clothing and shoes but has also a stake in various health tracking and fitness apps having purchased MapMyFitness, Endomondo and MyFitnessPal and the company has brought all the key features of those apps into the UA Record app which is designed to connect to the Under Armour HealthBox system.

The UA HealthBox system is the most comprehensive and user-focused set of tools that merges an app, fitness tracking technology and connected devices with big data and cloud computing. It is composed of hardware built by HTC including the UA Band, the UA Scale and the UA Heart Rate monitor.

Click to read more ...