This week's news on Apple highest ever earnings.
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Beck stronger, richer than ever
16 MayPolitico
Beck now earns $80 million, making him the 11th highest-paid celebrity on the Forbes Celebrity 100.
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John Sculley: the future of our health is in the cloud
16 Maywww.guardian.co.uk
The Newton was two decades ahead of its time, says the former Apple chief executive – and the future of healthcare will be driven by cloud computing
John Sculley – the man who as Apple chief executive gave the world the Newton, which was the first glimpse of the "personal digital assistant" in the 1980s – can see a number of possibilities opening up before us.
A world without work for millions who want it? A world where we can diagnose strokes or heart attacks well before they happen? A world of machines talking to machines? All are possible, even likely, because of cloud computing, which he sees as the next driver of huge social change.
And he also has a clear idea of what the Newton really needed to succeed – and which of Apple's visions from the time really matches what we're seeing now.
"I'm an optimist," declares Sculley, now 73 but still deeply involved in technology. "You can't be an entrepreneur if you're not essentially an optimist, so I'm an optimist by nature."
Cloud computing, has says, means that we're shifting from the growth of Moore's Law – a doubling every 18 months – to something even more exponential. "The curve is accelerating upwards, at a level that means that technologies are coming out that can do things that you couldn't even envision even two or three years ago."
Robust data storage costs are falling too, from around $5 (£3.14) per gigabyte a year ago to 25c now. "The speed at which a lot of this technology is commoditising is unprecedented," Sculley says.
Even so, he sees some areas for concern. First, imagine a world where computers have driven humans out of all but the highest-skilled jobs – so that driverless cars, automated factories and similar processes mean that the middle class that has for years been happily thriving on jobs that couldn't be done otherwise suddenly find themselves disenfranchised.
Sculley admits he's not as optimistic about that. "The more we bring in these sophisticated technologies, the higher the skills of the people that are needed to be able to use it, and the fewer people we need in the workforce, so the issue is not about work moving to lower-cost workers, it's about automation replacing many of the jobs that we had counted on, particularly for our middle class in the past."
The political gridlock in the US – caused by the warring demands of the Tea Party, which thinks government and taxation is destroying jobs, and those of the Democratic Party, which has been trying to drive growth by boosting the money supply – is one example. Another is the Eurozone, where the tensions between Spanish, Greek, German and French voters and their leaders is coming into starker focus as unemployment rises.
"Those are the things that technology may not be able to solve, but it certainly is a consequence of technology, that the sophistication of automation is changing how work is done, and is changing the skill requirements of workers," says Sculley. "In many cases jobs that used to be done by people are going to be able to be done through automation. I don't have an answer to that. That's one of the more perplexing problems of society."
Even so, he does think that – as has happened previously – technology will throw up a solution. (In the early 1900s, the problems of horse manure in London streets threatened to overwhelm them; the car solved that – but, of course, eventually brought its own set of challenges.)
On a more optimistic note, Sculley – who now works as a venture capitalist, and has investments in companies looking at healthcare – things that cloud computing is going to make a colossal difference to the quality of our lives.
Healthcare in the US is a $2.6tn market, driven by insurers which pay doctors who often carry out procedures and expensive tests in order to avoid lawsuits. The problem is that healthcare costs are rising more quickly than inflation, incomes or tax receipts.
"Politicians are arguing among themselves as to who's going to pay for it," says Sculley. "It's completely unaffordable at its current growth rates, and the more I get a chance to understand health care, the more convinced I am that the problem is very solvable, but it's solvable through innovation, not through just governments trying to work out who pays for what.
"We see healthcare shifting from a procedure reiumbursement where in this country doctors are reimbursed for how many procedures they conduct, to a world where people wil be reimbursed for the outcomes – did the patient actually get better, and what was the total cost of the cycle of care. So it's not just about taking cloud computing and automating the healthcare system we have today, it literally means innovating and reinventing the health care system to make it it much more patient-centric."
"Big data analytics" – the analysis of colossal amounts of data which could amount to terabytes of information – will change healthcare, he forecasts, from one where doctors are paid to carry out procedures, to one where they're paid based on keeping people well. (In that sense, it sounds like the longstanding Chinese principle where a doctor's quality is measured on how infrequently patients get sick, not how quickly they're cured.)
And helping that will be computing that will analyse everything – even the levels of proteins in our blood. "I'm working with a company right now where we're doing this – you can track in real time peoples' vital signs and take that data, you can imagine that's massive amounts of data when you're tracking each individual in real time, the vital signs – it could be their heart, could be how much they weigh, could be their fluid retention, could be even tracking proteomics, which are protein changes inside the body.
"If you can take that data and then be able to analyse it, it means that the future of medicine is going to be able to make predictions and measure outcomes of patient health improvement at a level of accuracy and a level of personalisation that we've never seen before."
All this, he says, will rely on the computing power brought together by the cloud: "It isn't just the compute power, it's that you can enable the big data analytics, in a specialised way. That's going to give us hope that what looked like insolvable problems like health care can be solved."
Don't expect overnight change, but do expect change: " It may not be done in a few years," Sculley warns. "it may take five or 10 or 15 years to see the impact, but there's no question in my mind that it's going to have as big an impact on things like healthcare as personal computers did in empowering individuals and really created the productivity we've had for 30 years with knowledge workers."
The cloud doesn't just stop with people, though. Imagine too a world where there are around 20bn internet-connected devices – but only around 7 billion people, as there are now. That's the forecast from various research companies for 2020.
"Having 20bn connected devices means that the majority of those connected devices will be machine to machine," Sculley explains. "It means we're just at the beginning era of very poweful sensors that can be built into clothing, that can be used for tracking almost anything that one can conceive and doing that in real time and using cloud computing to manipulate data which is going to be many many orders of magnitude larger and more complex that anything we've ever considered before."
Speaking of connected devices, might one of the flaws in the Newton have been it lack of connectivity – something that now exists through mobile broadband? Sculley has, of course, had a long time to reflect on this.
"Well, I think the idea [of Newton] was right, it was just 20 years ahead of its time. So actually, a lot of people were able to see where the industry's going, the hardest part is to figure out when it's going to happen.
"In the case of the PDA, the idea was right – that the content and communication and computing were going to converge – but I think we greatly underestimated that we needed broadband, that we need far more powerful devices, that we needed something a lot more powerful in the background which we now know as 'cloud' to be able to handle the tremendous amount of data, and connecting people up through social networking. So it was a good idea, but it was just several decades too early."
Was it then one of those projects that simply gets out of hand, and acquires a momentum that can't be stopped as it thunders into the market? "We never looked at Newton as being the seminal product. That was just one step along the way, You can get a much better view of the seminal experience if you go back – you can go to YouTube, i think it's 1988 [in fact 1987], a concept video we created called Knowledge Navigator."
Indeed, Knowledge Navigator ) – from the days when Apple made concept videos – has become famous for prefiguring many elements we're now familiar with: tablet computing, internet search, voice control. It shows the internet as a graphical medium – predating the web, which hadn't yet been invented – and suggests effortless interaction with digital "assistants".
Knowledge Navigator, says Sculley, "is really something we couldn't build at the time. But technically we could use special effects and be able to simulate what the experience would be like. That was 24 yeas ago and if you look at that, I think is pretty accurate, almost to the point of being uncanny as to what the experience of tablet computing and mobile devices have turned out to be like."
Which leads to the obvious final question: how does he organise his computing life? Is he, to coin a phrase, post-PC? "I'm clearly post-PC," he replies. "I carry an iPhone, a BlackBerry, a [Samsung] Galaxy Note, and I carry an iPad. When I'm in my home office I use a Mac, so I think I'm more typical than not in using many, many different devices."
The post-PC era doesn't mean the end of devices, he says: "It means you can be on any device that you happen to have, and everything basically is more and more connectible through the cloud."
• John Sculley is giving the keynote address at the Cloud Computing summit in London on 12-13 June
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Apple grabs top-spot in US customer satisfaction rankings
15 MaySlashGear
Apple has crashed into the top spot of the American Customer Satisfaction Index, grabbing first place for pleasing owners in its first month in the rankings. Scoring 83 – the highest mark seen for a phone company, the ACSI says, and “a game changer” in the market – Apple stands in marked difference from the month’s other new entrant, RIM, the BlackBerry customer care of which has seen it take up the bottom spot with just 69 points.
“At 83, Apple’s iPhone is a game changer when it comes to customer satisfaction. No other cell phone company has ever broken into the 80s” the ACSI said today in a statement. “Apple’s nearest competitors this year are three companies tied at 75: Nokia (+3%) and ACSI newcomers LG and HTC.”
Motorola dropped 5 points, to 73-percent, while Samsung fell 4 points to 71-percent. Around 70,000 customers are surveyed annually for the ACSI’s data model, with the satisfaction ratings covering over 225 companies in 47 industries.
As for RIM’s lackluster performance, according to the ACSI that comes as no great surprise given the Canadian manufacturer’s current ailing condition on the financial markets. “Companies with weak customer satisfaction often have weak stock performance,” ACSI founder Claes Fornell said today. “RIM’s sales are slumping amid a bevy of problems, from hardware and software issues to server lapses that have caused email and messaging outages. Over the past year, share price for RIM has virtually collapsed.”
Undoubtedly Apple’s relatively small range of devices has helped it achieve such a high score in the rankings. Rather than dealing with customers using five, ten or more different variants of phone, each of Apple’s iPhones uses the same iOS platform and has roughly comparable feature-sets.
Apple grabs top-spot in US customer satisfaction rankings is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
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Tory Minister, Labour Mayor: we fight together for Liverpool
15 Maywww.guardian.co.uk
Greg Clark and Joe Anderson cross party lines to write together for the Guardian Northerner, as they join the New Cities Summit in Paris
Economic growth does not happen in the abstract – it happens in particular places where existing employers expand their production or new firms are attracted to locate for the first time.
Britain is one the most urban countries in the world. So, unless our cities are places which foster and attract enterprise , investment and job creation then Britain itself will not return to growth with the strength that is needed.
That is why we have joined forces – a Conservative Minister and a Labour Mayor – to represent the UK at the New Cities Summit in Paris this week. We are meeting, together, potential investors of global significance, and the leaders of cities around the world with a successful track record of attracting international investment.
Our united message is that Liverpool isn't just open for business, but is committed to a course that will restore its position as a world-beating centre of trade, culture and innovation. It is an ambition that begins at the top, with a UK mayor who will provide the primary point of contact for inward investors, and the political leadership needed to unlock each and every barrier to growth.
This is not solely out of faith in the enterprising potential of the city – it is also a matter of practicality. These are tough times and the days when we could just rely on an ever-expanding public sector to provide jobs are over. The same goes for the old culture of debt-fuelled consumerism and destructive speculation.
The cold, hard reality is that Britain – and each of its cities – has to earn its way. Moreover, we must do so sustainably. Other parts of the world may compete by exploiting their people and their environment, but to maintain our standard of living and our quality of life, we must compete on what makes us great as a nation: our inventiveness, our creativity, our cultural vitality.
These resources are at their most concentrated in our cities. The challenge is to make the most of them. In the past, it is a task in which we have sometimes failed as a nation. Worse still, we have drawn the wrong lessons from each setback, by depriving our cities of the confident self-governance that made them so great in the first place.
There is perhaps no clearer example than Liverpool. Few would claim that, in the era of Militant, the city showed its best side to the world. However, those events were a trigger for a mistake on the side of the political divide: a further wave of centralisation in which power was locked away in Westminster and Whitehall, adding to the steady accumulation of top-down government control.
And, yet, Liverpool is also where the tide of centralisation began to turn. Michael Heseltine – an early advocate for decentralisation and now a proud Freeman of the City of Liverpool – helped Liverpool find its way back from the brink. Looking back, we can the see the groundbreaking regeneration projects of that time as a milestone in the long revival of our cities.Now the time has come to move into a higher gear. We need to rebalance the economy away from the public sector and towards the private sector – and away from high finance and towards a much broader range of activities in which all our cities can excel. In pursuing this goal, policy makers must remember that we are not job creators – at least, not directly. Rather, our task is to provide the best possible conditions for those who are – the entrepreneurs who create jobs on the basis of productivity not subsidy.
For cities, the highest priority must be to attract these entrepreneurs. To become the place where the most mobile and dynamic people in the world choose to live and work. Doing this successfully surely requires an in-depth knowledge of the people and places each city brings together. That is why policies for growth cannot be, and have never been, exclusively led by the centre. Cities themselves must take the lead. And for this they need leaders with power and authority.
As Labour Mayor and Conservative Minister, we are working together through the City Deals programme to negotiate the return of power to local people. Liverpool was, in fact, the first City Deal to be announced, but this is just the start of a process that will be widened and deepened in the months ahead. Not least, in Liverpool itself.
Reversing decades of centralisation and driving growth in our cities is not easy – but, for urban Britain, it is essential. Our needs are too great – and our hope are too high – to tolerate the status quo.
Greg Clark is Conservative MP for Tunbridge Wells Minister of State for Cities and Decentralisation. Joe Anderson was the Labour leader of Liverpool city council from 2010 until earlier this month when he won a landslide victory to become the city's first directly elected Mayor.
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Groupon Finally Earns a Profit, Stock Shoots Up 18%
15 MayWebProNews
Groupon has shocked Wall Street with their first ever profitable quarter. Their first quarter 2012 financial report is in and things are looking really good. Revenue has increased almost 90% and they brought in $559.3 million as compared to only $295.5 million at the same time in 2011. Gross billing for the quarter reached $1.35 billion which is a 103% increase over last year, which came in at $688.2 million.
Operating cash flow also increased dramatically at 367% to $83.7 million, which sounds really great if you compare it to last years $17.9 million. non-GAAP cash flow amounted to $70.6 million. Net loss attributable to stockholders improved to $11.7 million, which actually reflects a loss of $0.02. This is good news because last year in quarter one they lost $146.5 million or $0.48 per share. Other losses include a net of $34.6 million in tax expense, or $0.05 per share. Non-GAAP earnings per share attributable to common stockholders for the first quarter 2012 improved to $0.02.
Andrew Mason, CEO of Groupon comments on the results of their first quarter earnings in 2012:
“We are pleased to report a record quarter that demonstrates our progress in unlocking the opportunity in local commerce for merchants and customers worldwide,”
Here are the highlights Groupon has listed on their financial report for this Q1 2012:
* Rapid acceleration of North American revenue growth. North American revenues grew 75% year-over-year and accelerated sequentially faster than they have since the first quarter of 2011. North America’s continuing growth was due in part to technology innovations such as deal personalization that Groupon plans to introduce to the majority of its international operations by the end of this year.
* Strong consumer and merchant satisfaction. Groupon commissioned ForeSee, a leading market research firm, to assess merchant and customer satisfaction using their standard methodology. Groupon’s March 2012 U.S. consumer satisfaction score of 83 places the Company among the highest surveyed and within approximately 2 points of the 5-year #1 average satisfaction score for online retailers. Groupon’s March 2012 U.S. merchant satisfaction score of 79 also ranks high, considerably above the B2B benchmark of 64 and the Fortune 500 score of 69.
* New customer milestone. As of March 31, 2012, Groupon surpassed the 35 million active customer mark, ending the quarter with 36.9 million active customers, an increase of 140% year-over-year.
* New merchant milestone. The first quarter 2012 marked the first time that more than 100,000 unique merchants were served in a single quarter. In addition, in the first quarter, more than 50% of offers were with merchants who had previously run on Groupon.
* Merchant tools gaining momentum. Groupon Rewards continues to expand. During the past two months, more than 30% of eligible daily deal merchants in pilot cities signed up for the program. Early results suggest that Rewards customers are more loyal than other customers. Groupon Scheduler has also seen early success, with more than 2,500 merchants signed up to date.
* Growth in mobile and Now! In April 2012, nearly 30% of North American transactions were completed on mobile devices, compared with 25% in December 2011. This growth has created momentum for Groupon Now!, which recently surpassed 1.5 million Groupons sold. Now! achieved this milestone faster and within fewer markets than the daily deals business.
* Increased leverage from marketing spend. In the first quarter 2012, approximately the same number of customers were added as in the fourth quarter 2011, while marketing spend decreased by 25%. At the same time, the number of repeat purchasers grew 1.5 times faster than the number of unique purchasers.
Of course these profits caused the stock to surge up 18% on Monday, but even with the renewed interest in holding shares of Groupon, the stock still remains about $20 cheaper than its initial offering price. Still, there’s hope that this quarter is just an indicator of things to come for Groupon.
You might recall that Groupon welcomed some new addition to their board of directors earlier this month. Daniel Henry, chief financial officer at American Express, and Robert Bass, vice chairman at Deloitte LLP, joined the team in order to bring some welcome financial expertise to operations.
These additions combined with Andrew Mason’s vision for the future of Groupon and local commerce may be the path to success investors have been hoping for. We’ll keep you updated as things continue to evolve over at Groupon.
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iPhone 5 Rumor: Apple’s iPhone 4S Orders Begin To Taper Off Ahead Of Launch
15 MayWebProNews
With the launch of the iPhone 5 (or iPhone 6, or, most likely, “new iPhone”) getting ever closer, Apple appears to be reducing its orders of the current generation iPhone 4S. The reduction is not large yet, as the launch is still about five months away (probably), and Apple can still sell an awful lot of the iPhone 4S in that time.
According to Shaw Wu of Sterne Agee, though, Apple’s orders of the iPhone 4S have dropped to around 27 million for the current quarter. Wu speculates that the reduction in orders is not being driven by a reduction in demand. Rather Apple is preparing itself for the sharp dip in demand that is likely to occur in the month or so prior to the launch of the next iPhone in October (or maybe September).
Wu also said that he expects Apple’s reduction in iPhone orders to cause Apple to miss Wall Street estimates unless analysts revise their expectations. Apple missed expectations in the September quarter of last year due to a similar reduction in iPhone shipments prior to the launch of the iPhone 4S. On the flip side, Wu also said that he expects shipments of the new iPad to meet or exceed Wall Street estimates, which may alleviate some of the problems caused if iPhone shipments do not meet expectations.
While Apple tends not to comment on things like how many iPhones they’re ordering or selling (at least until their earnings call), and it’s difficult to know whether Wu’s estimation is correct, a move like this does make sense. Apple sold 35.1 million iPhones last quarter, but that was still only the second quarter since the iPhone 4S launched. It stands to reason that the natural decline in iPhone sales, coupled with the anticipation of the next iPhone’s launch, would prompt Apple to reduce the number of phones it’s ordering over the next two quarters.
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Inequality led to poorest families taking on more debt, study finds
15 Maywww.guardian.co.uk
Report reveals extent to which bottom 10% of households outspent their incomes in decade preceding financial crisis
Britain's vulnerability to financial crisis was increased by a surge of borrowing by poor households driven by rising inequality, according to a study published on Tuesday .
The report, prepared for the Resolution Foundation thinktank by the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR), found that while the whole of the UK was living beyond its means in the boom years leading up to the crash, the tendency was most pronounced among those with the lowest incomes.
It noted that the bottom 10% of households bridged the gap between a 17% rise in incomes in the decade between 1997 and 2007 and a 43% rise in spending by taking on more debt. It added that there was evidence that the "dramatic decline in saving" among Britain's poorest families was "consistent with the view that increasing demand for, and supply of, credit to these households may have reduced the sustainability of their debt burden and hence increased the risk of crisis."
Middle-income families also spent more than they earned, with incomes rising by 33% and spending by 46%. But the study found that those on the lowest incomes were particularly exposed because few were owner-occupiers and so did not have an asset rising in value to offset their increased debt. The highest-income households also saw their incomes grow by less than their spending, but retained a positive – although declining – savings ratio.
Gavin Kelly, chief executive of the Resolution Foundation, said: "We all know by now that the debt position of households grew starkly worse in the run-up to the financial crisis. But what this report exposes is the dramatic difference for lower-income households, who were way outspending their incomes by 2007. Looking to the future, we need growth that is sustained by gains spread across the whole income distribution – not ever more debt for those on the lowest incomes."
Jonathan Portes, director of NIESR, said: "This research suggests that there may well have been a connection between the rise in income inequality in the years preceding the crisis and the rise in household borrowing, particularly for those on lower incomes. This doesn't explain the last crisis or tell us what to do now. But it does tell us that income inequality and distribution matter for macroeconomic policy and the sustainability of growth."
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Siri changes her tune on which smartphone is best
14 MayTechRadar
Siri's penchant for making jokes is well known, but sometimes it goes a little too far.
Such was the case last week when Siri decided to start telling users that the Nokia Lumia 900 phone was the best smartphone ever.
Siri's answer came from Wolfram Alpha, one of the search services Siri uses to find the answers for inquisitive iPhone users.
When asked about the "best cell phone ever" the search service simply looked for the one with the highest customer review average, which happened to be one of Siri's direct competitors.
Such honesty is refreshing from our technology, but not everyone appreciated Siri's off-brand hiccup.
Asking Siri the same question today results in more sarcastic responses in favor of Apple's iPhone 4S.
Stuff Siri says
"You're kidding, right?" Siri replied when asked which is the best smartphone. It then tried to play innocent when asked a second time, asking us back "wait… there are other phones?"
A third query yielded similar results, with Siri explaining "I think you've already answered that question."
TechRadar reached out to Apple regarding Siri's change in tune, but has not yet received a reply.
If Apple is censoring Siri then this is troubling news indeed. If we cannot trust a highly marketed Apple-exclusive feature to give us objective analysis about itself, well, then who can we trust in this world?
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Buying Guide: Best iPhone apps for organising your social life
12 MayTechRadar
iPhone apps for planning a night out
If you're planning a big night out, then the first thing you should reach for is your iPhone. In addition to its basic communication functions, by loading it up with the right apps, it can help you with all aspects of entertainment planning.
It will not only help you round up your mates, but also assist in the complicated matter of finding a mutually agreeable time and date for everyone. It can also help find you somewhere to go and something to do, whether you're looking for a huge night out, something a little more sedate or are just happy to go with the flow and see where you end up.
But its talents don't stop there. When you're out and about, your iPhone can help both to keep you safe and keep you entertained. There are apps to help friends and loved ones know where you are at all times. If the conversation ever reaches a lull - or you need to settle an argument - help is just a couple of taps away. There are even apps that will stop you misbehaving when you've had one too many, and to make sure you're sober enough to text that special someone.
Thanks to the combination of always-on internet connection and GPS location, the iPhone even opens up a whole new world of apps that weren't previously possible. These let you check in to specific locations and earn rewards for loyalty, but they also let you see what your friends are up to and where they recommend going - or even in some cases, find out that they're actually at the very same place as you.
Once you're ready to head home, your iPhone's work is still not done. There are apps to help guide you safely home and make your journey as pain-free as possible. The only thing it can't help you with is your hangover!
Arranging to meet up
The first thing you need for the ultimate night out is some people - ideally ones that you know and like. You could, of course, jump straight into the phone app and start calling, but that all feels a little bit 1990s. It's also not exactly time efficient - you'll have to spend a good five minutes per call on idle chat before you can jump to the actual purpose you're ringing for.
Head over to Messages instead and you can tap out your enquiry and dispense with the pleasantries. Even better, you can send group messages so you can organise a whole bunch of people in one go - and if they're all using iMessage, the texts will be free.
Of course, if you're still friends with people that don't have iPhones, iMessage won't work and it will fall back to text message. Instead, try the cross-handset WhatsApp Messenger (69p). This app lets you send free messages between iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, Windows Phone 7 and even Nokia handsets. What's more, as well as sharing plain old text, you can send your location, which makes meeting up with people that are lost much easier.
If you're only dealing with a couple of people, then keeping track of who's coming is pretty simple - but add more than five and it soon becomes unmanageable. Facebook's Event function makes it easy to keep tabs on who's coming and who's a loser.
While there isn't a way to create a new event in the Facebook (Free) app, if you jump over to Safari you can set one up there. Once that's done, you can go retreat back to the safety of app land and see how popular (or not) your event is as the RSVPs flood in. Of course, this is only an option if all the people you're planning on inviting are on Facebook.
Unfortunately, everyone has a friend that's morally opposed to Facebook and refuses to open an account, and occasionally you have to arrange to meet them. For times like these, calendar requests are the solution. Unless your iPhone calendar account is hosted on Microsoft Exchange, however, you won't be able to send them.
But there is, of course, a third-party app solution, this time in the form of iNvite (Free). Simply fill in the details of the event as you would a normal calendar entry, and then add the email address of each recipient. They can then reply with a yay or nay, and it's easy to see who hasn't responded yet.
In addition to deciding who you want to meet up with, you need to settle on when. Managing just your own diary can be problematic enough, but once you add in other people's erratic schedules, nailing it down to a time and date can be nigh-on impossible.
This is where Doodle for iPhone (£1.99) steps in. It's a free web service designed to make finding a convenient time to meet up really simple. The app is a little on the pricey side, but it's very slick and easy to use. Give the event a name, fill in the details and choose a range of dates and times. Participants can then vote on their preferred one and you can schedule the event safe in the knowledge you took on everyone's input before ignoring it and picking the best time for you.
Finding somewhere to go
You've worked out who's coming and what time everyone needs to get there - the next step is to pick what to do. Whatever it is you fancy, the iPhone has an app (or three) to help you narrow down your choices, whether it's catching a movie, having a meal, seeing the newest bands or even finding new things you've never thought of doing before.
If you're looking for a bite to eat, then the two big players are OpenTable (Free) and toptable (Free). They both let you find restaurants nearby and book a table straight from the app. If you think the results look startlingly similar, then it's because UK-based toptable was purchased by US-owned OpenTable a couple of years ago.
However, there's one very good reason to choose toptable, apart from good ol' British pride - the offers. If you're on the lookout for a deal, hit the Offers tab and you can browse discounts available and put the saving towards a second bottle of Prosecco.
However, if your idea of a three-course meal is a popcorn starter, hotdogs, and pick and mix for pudding washed down with a cup of ice and a dash of Coke, then Flixster (Free) is your ideal date for the evening. It will give you the low down on the latest Hollywood blockbusters and where they're showing nearby, so you can whittle down the choices.
And don't forget if you're an Orange customer, and there's a W in the day of the week, to download the Orange Wednesdays (Free) app. This will get you two-for-one cinema tickets, so you can look like you're splashing out and treating someone when it really isn't costing you any extra.
If live music is more your sort of thing, then SongKick (Free) is the go-to app. It'll keep you up to date on when your favourite artists are touring, and the really clever bit is that it scans your music library so it knows what you like (even your guilty secrets). It'll show you an upcoming lists of gigs nearby and you can then add them to your list and even book tickets.
If you'd rather throw some shapes on the dance floor instead, while an overpaid celebrity hits the play button on a playlist on their iPhone, the confusingly concatenated Clubbillboard (Free) is a club rep in app form. You can browse the featured club nights or drill down by date or location to find the perfect party.
All of the options so far are fine if you know exactly what you want to do, but if you're looking for more of a serendipitous experience, then Layar (Free) will show you what's around you right now, with an added drop of Minority Report. By using the compass and GPS in your iPhone, Layar will overlay information on the camera view, giving you your own personal heads-up display. It's a bit like being the Terminator, except without the total disregard for the sanctity of human life.
You can choose different layers (do you see what they did there?) of information, covering everything from restaurants to Tube stations.
Staying safe and getting home afterwards
Staying safe
So you now have the time and the place, but how do you make sure that nothing untoward happens on your night out?
Well, first thing is to make sure someone knows where you are at all times. You could phone in your location every 20 minutes, but there's a more cutting-edge solution. Google Latitude (Free) lets you share your location with your friends so you can keep track of where they are, and vice versa. It can update your location in the background, so you just need to set it and forget it, and your most trusted friends will know where you are at any given time. You can also easily turn it off, for times when you want to disappear off the grid for a while.
Find My Friends (Free) is Apple's equivalent offering, although for some reason someone dressed the app up in faux-leather cowboy hand-me-downs before sending it out the door. Both apps require a huge degree of trust on both sides, so only share them with people you're happy to know exactly where you are any time of the day or night.
After keeping yourself safe, your next priority should be the expensive slab of glass in your hand. Apple's Find My iPhone (Free) service isn't undefeatable by any means, but it will at least give you a fighting chance of getting your phone back if someone nabs it while you're not looking.
If the worst has happened, use this app on someone else's iPhone to log in with your Apple ID. You can then try to locate the device or send a message to it. If you've got information on it that you don't want others to see, you can even wipe it remotely so that your data can't be accessed.
After a long night out, the one thing you don't want is to find yourself out of cash with no way to get home. With that in mind, CashFinder (£1.99) will find the closest cash machine to your location so you can make sure you're not left penniless. It can even tell you which machines charge a fee, so it could actually pay for itself the first time you use it.
Finally, it'll even lead you straight to the machine in question, either sending directions to the built in Maps application or to a satnav app such as CoPilot or TomTom, if you have one installed your iPhone.
Another essential installation if you're going to be out after dark is a flashlight app to turn your iPhone into a torch. Torch for iPhone 4 & 4S (69p) may be more expensive than the freebie rivals, but it's one of the fastest to start up, which could be a life saver. It turns on the camera LED, so you can easily light your way, and there's even a Morse code button for tapping out distress signals. There's also a handy slide-down cover to stop you turning the light off with accidental screen swipes (any torch app has to switch off the light when you lock the screen or press Home).
Let Me Entertain You
Of course, your iPhone is great at rounding everybody up and getting them to the venue, but its uses on a great night out don't stop there. Firstly there's the panicked realisation that you've forgotten to set Dancing on Ice to record just as you're getting ready to perform you own moves that could outshine the has-been celebrity stock.
Fear not - if you're a Sky+ (Free) or Virgin Media TV Guide (Free) owner, you just need to download the appropriate app, link it up to your online account and you can remotely record to your heart's content. The command will be sent directly to your settop box, so it'll be there for you to watch the next day when you're recovering from the night before.
The smoking ban may have curbed the number of people that hold their lighters in the air at concerts, but just because indoor lighting up is now banned doesn't mean a tradition should die out. The Virtual Zippo Lighter (Free) gives you an impressive representation of a real-world item, but without the danger of burning your fingers. It'll sway realistically in the wind, and you can even customise the look and paint job to make it uniquely yours.
If you find the conversation dries up at any point down the pub, then you can suggest an impromptu singalong session with the Glee Karaoke (Free) app. It provides plenty of tracks in the library to sing along to, but you have to pay for each one with tokens. You get 100 to start with, which is enough for a cheaper song, but after that you need to buy or earn extras to carry on making selections. The best bit, however, is that it includes Auto-Tune, so unless you're particularly bad at singing, this app will make you sound like a chart sensation. Worth the entry price alone.
Another app you should pre-load onto your iPhone ahead of any night out is Wikipedia Mobile (Free). When the point comes when the conversation turns to ridiculous statements made without any basis in fact - like whether Ronnie Hazlehurst, composer of the Last of the Summer Wine theme, also penned S Club 7's seminal 2000 hit Reach (he did not) - you can prove them instantly wrong and prevent any further unnecessary debate. No one will thank you in person, but they'll all secretly be grateful.
There is one big problem with taking an iPhone out with you on a night out - the more you drink, the bigger the temptation to contact someone inappropriate. Exes, secret crushes, old teachers you thought were hot back in the day - people you're only able to communicate safely with when 100% sober.
Textalyzer (69p) to the rescue! This app will prevent you texting a particular contact until you've passed a series of mental and physical tests. Simply flag contacts before you go out, add three reasons why it's not a good idea to text them, and you're good to go. When the urge hits, Textalyzer will then make you perform the tests, while reminding you of the reasons it's not a good idea to contact them in between each one. If you pass the challenges, then you're (probably) sober enough to text. If not, then it's best left for another day.
Finally, if there's any better use of technology than using it to order a takeaway on your way home so it arrives just as you get to your front door, we've yet to see it. The Domino's Pizza (Free) app lets you create your dream pizza by dragging and dropping toppings on the screen, and then you can order it straight from the app, ready for delivery.
Location, location, location-based social networks
With its built-in GPS sensor so it can pinpoint your precise location on the earth, the iPhone has opened up a whole new category of apps that let you share your location with your friends and acquaintances. Because you can't fool the GPS, apps can offer rewards to people that go to a particular place most often.
The current king of the location-based app game is foursquare (Free), which rewards users with badges and mayorships if they check in at locations enough. On the face of it, it's completely pointless, but yet it's also strangely addictive. Turning checking in into a game, so you win or defend the mayorship, makes people do it. It's only when enough people you know are using it that the service actually becomes useful.
If you're out and you want to know where to go next, just check the map and see where most of your friends are congregating. You can also see if people are at the same gig or event as you, which you wouldn't know unless you'd spoken to them specifically about it beforehand. It creates a whole new method of connecting with people, and it's very much about being in the right place at the right time. Facebook lets you check into locations too, and other apps are also adding location features to their roster.
Both Qype (Free) and Yelp (Free) offer user-generated reviews of pubs, clubs and other venues, but they've added check in facilities so you can see who's at the same place as you or nearby.
You can't expect these location services to pay off immediately - if you only know a handful of people on them, then the chances of your paths crossing are minimal. But make checking in at a location when you arrive second nature, add a few people you know (and would be happy to bump into out of the blue) and further down the line it will pay off.
Getting home
So you've had a great night out, been to some amazing places, had the odd chance encounter and everything has run like clockwork. It's now time to get yourself home, and as you might expect, your iPhone's work is not yet done.
If you're in the capital, you're spoiled for choice for transport apps. If you've made it out of the pub before the last Tube train goes, London Tube by Embark (Free) is a beautifully designed app that will help you navigate the Underground. It's a really helpful app whether you're just visiting the capital for the weekend or are simply too, uh, 'tired' to remember your route home.
Leave it too late and you'll be needing a bus. This inevitably involves waiting in the cold for three clichés to come along at once. Slap the BusMate (69p) app on your iPhone, however, and you can wait in the warm somewhere nearby until your bus arrives. Not only will it tell you where the nearest stop is, but it uses live GPS bus data to work out when your bus will arrive. You can then set a reminder and it will tell you when you need to go to the stop to catch the right bus. No more guess work.
If you're partying in the wide world outside the M25, or just want the fastest way to your bed, then a taxi is often the best option. Instead of trying to flag one down or find a minicab office, get Call a Taxi (£1.49) to do the hard work for you. It'll bring back a list of cab offices closest to where you are, and you can call one straight from the app, so you'll be on your way home in comfort before you know it - hopefully just in time for when your pizza arrives.
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JP Morgan trader 'London Whale' blows $13bn hole in bank's value
11 Maywww.guardian.co.uk
Shockwaves spread across markets after $2bn trading loss at US bank, which had campaigned to water down regulations
The City trader at the centre of a $2bn trading loss at JP Morgan Chase had returned to his home in Paris on Friday as the repercussions of the loss spread across the markets.
Some $13bn was wiped off the value of America's largest bank after it admitted the scale of the trading activities of Bruno Iksil – nicknamed the London Whale for his bullish trading – and his colleagues in the bank's little known "chief investment office". The US Securities and Exchange financial watchdog was said to have begun reviewing the losses.
Contacted by the Guardian, Iksil was reluctant to comment. He was thought to be in Paris and said: "I cannot talk about it. You will have to speak to the bank's representatives."
The banker, who is understood to be married with four children, spends Monday to Thursday in London, staying in a flat in Earls Court, returning to France on Fridays. According to his profile on the Bloomberg trading platform, he says he is "walking over water and humble".
A graduate in engineering from the École Centrale in Paris 20 years ago, Iksil had become so well known in the opaque $10tn market for credit default swaps – a complex type of insurance product – that he was nicknamed the "London Whale" and also known as Voldemort, after Harry Potter's nemesis.
Iksil is thought to be one of the highest-paid bankers in London and his New York-based boss, Ina Drew, whose pay has to be published, received $14m last year.
The Financial Services Authority has been informed and will liaise closely with the bank, which had earned an unrivalled reputation for navigating successfully through the 2008 banking crisis.
Before the shock announcement, JP Morgan chief executive Jamie Dimon had been key in persuading the US government to water down new regulations, in particular the so-called Volcker rule that aims to limit risk-taking by banks considered "too big to fail".
US representative Barney Frank, a Democrat who gave his name to the 2010 Dodd-Frank law on regulation, said: "This regrettable news from JP Morgan Chase obviously goes counter to the bank's narrative blaming excessive regulation for the woes of financial institutions." He added: "The argument that financial institutions do not need the new rules to help them avoid the irresponsible actions that led to the crisis of 2008 is at least $2bn harder to make today."
Senator Jeff Merkely, another Democrat, said: "This really is a textbook illustration of why we need a string Volcker rule. In the words of JP Morgan's chief executive, he had a strategy that was, quote, 'flawed, complex, poorly reviewed and poorly monitored'. And if that sounds eerily familiar, it's because it is an exact description of the type of risk-taking that got us into this financial crisis and recession."
Iksil was part of team based inside JP Morgan's London head office, which was supposed to hedge – or insure – the risks the bank was running.
The biggest was credit risk, essentially, the chance of customers failing to pay their bills – and the bank had recently embarked on a new strategy to hedge this risk.
Iksil was one of a number of traders involved in this strategy, but he has turned out to be the most high profile ever since the size of his trade in credit default swaps attracted the attention of his rivals.
His positions were so large that he was said to be moving prices in this market. In particular, Iksil offered insurance against companies defaulting on an obscure index of 125 companies known as CDX IG 9. The companies on the IG 9 index were as varied as Campbell's Soup, Time Warner and Walt Disney. During his time at JP Morgan, Iksil is reported to have generated $100m, and is usually known for his bearish stances, performing particularly well during downturns.
There is thought to be more than one high-profile trade behind the losses – which the bank has admitted could escalate. JP Morgan is being selective about the information being disclosed because its rivals might try to move prices against it as it attempts to unwind the trades.
Reports of Iksil's risky transactions first surfaced in the US a month ago, but were dismissed by Dimon as "a complete tempest in a teapot". But in a hastily arranged conference call to investors on Thursday night he said: "The portfolio has proved to be riskier, more volatile and less effective as an economic hedge than we thought. There were many errors, sloppiness and bad judgment." He admitted he had "egg on his face".
The bank usually makes $5bn profits per quarter and should make up the lost ground.
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