According to an article in The Wall Street Journal from the unusually accurate Kane, a few members of Apple's board have discussed possibilities for Steve Jobs future replacement. The members are believed to have spoken with executive recruiters as well as at least one head of a high profile tech company. The source of the information is "people familiar with the matter". The Wall Street Journal even managed to get an email from Steve Jobs in response to its questions.

Mr. Jobs said Monday in an email, “I think it’s hogwash.” An Apple spokesman declined to comment.

If this turns out to be true, the directors don’t appear to have been acting on behalf of the full board or with the knowledge of Steve Jobs. Always a dangerous game to play in any business. especially one as high profile as Apple! On the other hand, it would be foolish for any business with its CEO on a medical leave of absence, not to have long term plans in place. (Almost as foolish as divulging to the competition just exactly what that plan is…)

[WSJ]

GENWI and iSites have recently released their iPad app creation services which cater specifically to the content and media publishing industry. If you need an on-the-fly solution for publishing content to an iPad application, this may be for you. Advanced options also include the ability to customize your interface through HTML5 and CSS.

The big convenience for content publishers is that it allows you to make changes and add to your app in real time via their content management servers. Monthly fees will vary based on what native platforms you’d like and what feature set you need. Pricing points are as follows –

• Basic – $99/month
• Premium – $399/month
• Professional – $499/month
• Enterprise – Call for pricing

You will have to be enrolled in the Professional pricing scheme in order to create native iPad apps but the ability to update content in real time may make the cost worth it for publishers. iSites currently serves clients such as The Stanford Daily, Forbes, Cox Media, and many more.

It’s also worth noting that this suite is specifically geared at content publishers and media industries. It isn’t an all-in-one solution for creating advanced applications such as games. But if you need content published quickly and need the ability to create a good looking app on an easy to use platform, this is probably your best solution for the price. If any of you use this service, let us know what you think!

GENWI

Apple has just announced their Q3 2011 results and the iOS platform continues to impress with 20.34 million iPhones sold (up 142% from last year), 9.25 million iPads (up 183%), 3.95 million Macs (up 14%) and 7.54 million iPods (down 20%). All that added up to $28.57 billion in revenue and record quarterly net profit of $7.31 billion.

"We're thrilled to deliver our best quarter ever, with revenue up 82 percent and profits up 125 percent," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "Right now, we're very focused and excited about bringing iOS 5 and iCloud to our users this fall."

"We are extremely pleased with our performance which drove quarterly cash flow from operations of $11.1 billion, an increase of 131 percent year-over-year," said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple's CFO. "Looking ahead to the fourth fiscal quarter of 2011, we expect revenue of about $25 billion and we expect diluted earnings per share of about $5.50."

Their quarterly conference call is coming up soon and we’ll add highlights as we hear them, after the break.

• Starting off with Macs. Up 14%. 4x IDC forecast for PC industry… but nothing compared to iOS. Particularly strong in AsiaPac.
• New iMacs with Thunderbolt, FaceTime HD cameras
• iPod touch is half of iPods sold.
• iTunes $1.4 billion, music, video, apps strong. 225 million accounts. 15 billion songs.
• 20.3 million iPhones. 142% growth, double IDC estimates for global market.
• iPhone revenue $13.3 billion, increase of 150%
• Very strong growth, all segments. AsiaPac robust, 400% up.
• Increasing iPhone manufacturing capacity. 228 carriers in 105 carriers.
• 5.9 million iPhones in channel. Support strong demand, carrier additions, distribution.
• 91% of fortune 500 testing or deploying iPhone, 57% of global 500 companies testing or deploying iPhone. Acta, Netsle, Dow, SuperValue, Comcast.
• 9.2 million iPads. 183% increase. Increased production by over 4.5 million. Sold every one they could make.
• 64 countries for iPad, iPad 2.
• $6 billion in revenue from iPad.
• 1.05 million iPads in inventory.
• 86% of fortune 500 are testing or deploying. 47% of global 500 companies.
• Boston Scientific, Xeorox, Salesforce deploying iPad. Top hospitals, retail. General Electric, SAP internal apps. Airlines using in cockpit.
• iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, 222 million cumulative device sales.
• iOS 5 includes 200 new features, notification center, iMessage, Newstand. PC-free, activate and set up out of the box. Launching this fall.
• June provided preview for iCloud. Free new services. Work seamlessly. Store content on cloud, push to devices. Release in fall.
• App Store 425,000 apps, 15 billion downloads. $2.5 in cumulative payments to devs. Far ahead of competitors.
• Apple Stores now. (They’re doing just fine thanks.)
• Cash is at 76.2 billion in the bank. Wow.
• Will continue to charge for OS upgrades like Lion and iWork.
• (Call keeps cutting ou for me, sorry if I miss stuff)
• Deferring revenue, recognizing over 2 years to account for upgrades.
• Now giving out typically conservative guidance for next quarter.
• Q&A time.
• 12% revenue downtick is more conservative than normal, why? PO: September more weighted to higher education. Best Macs ever. Expect increase. Expects iPhone increase as well, expanding iPad, expecting as well. iPod decline. A lot going on with iCloud, iOS 5. Product transition they won’t talk about will effect quarter.
• How do you approach working transitions into guidance. OP: Not talking about it. Factored it in. Incredibly confident about pipeline.
• iPad 2 sales, trends? Tim Cook: Do believe some customers chose iPad over Mac. Believe even more chose to purchase iPad over Windows. Lots more Windows to cannibalize over Mac. Mac has attributes that will continue to do well in the market. Grew 5x market. iPad 2 has been a frenzy. Feel good about progress, reception.
• China, growth in AsiaPac? TC: China was key for results. Greater China up 6x. $3.8 billion is quarter, $8.8 billion year to date. Substantial opportunity for Apple. Just scratching surface.
• Outlook for gross margin? PO: 38%, down 370 basis points. 2/3 decline driven by different product mix. Loss of leverage on lower revenue. Full quarter of back to school. Future product transition. TC: NAND and DRAM, LCD, batteries, optical, in positive supply situation. Pricing to fall at or above historical trend. HD supply constrained, less than trend. Components favorable on sequential comparison. Offset by 1 time benefits discussed for June quarter.
• 1 time benefit on gross margins. PO: Saw benefit on warranty on phone support, benefits.
• Patents? IP strategy? TC: Simple view, we love competition, great for Apple, everyone. Want people to invent their own stuff. Going to defend portfolio.
• What drove iPhone strength? TC: Added 42 new carriers, 15 new countries. Throughout quarter. Real sequential improvement due to emerging and developed markets. China, Latin America – Brazil, Mexico, Middle East. Great for Apple. Not historically as strong in. Beginning to see fruits of their labor.
• Milestones for next quarter? TC: No, but can see it’s something of great focus. Want to do business with great partners. Still out there. Working new relationships.
• Android activations higher than iPhone, China is on fire, what about Google numbers? TC: Android activation number is difficult to get hands around. Apple numbers from data sheet, add iPhone, iPad, approximate 50% iPods is iPod touch. Sold over 33 million iOS devices. Now over 222 million cumulative devices. Numbers very straight forward, transparent, quarterly. iPhone is up 142%, more than 2x rate of market growth. Incredible. Sold every iPad 2 they could make. Also gaining traction in enterprise. Converting to penetration focus. App Store largest by far, iPad specific over 100,000. Be hard pressed to find more than a few hundred on other platforms. Other tablets not getting any traction to speak of. $2.5 billion to developers, great model. Customers love it. Confident with model, app store. Ranked iPhone #1 in customer surveys. Confident in road map. Feel very good. Changewave data reaffirmed iPhone is clear leader in satisfaction, number one preference for new smartphone buyers.
• Apple TV? Not a leg of the stool yet. Not in size market iPhone, Mac, etc. Love the product, customers love it. Got it right with new model. Still a hobby.
• Non-Apple retail channel? TC: About 115,000 points of sale. Diversified. Part of the magic. Prefer not to share it. Make right decisions for Apple.
• iPhone, iPad manufacturing yield? TC: No specific numbers, supply of iPad improved dramatically in the quarter. Further improved in July. In balance in some SKUs in some countries. Feels good about progress.
• How to sustain growth? TC: On tariff side, carrier sets that. Better question for them. At very macro level, virtually every carrier is desirous of more customers having smartphones, using data, expanding ARPU. No better device to move to from any phone up to smartphone than iPhone. Ease of use, ecosystem. Good alignment. Key driver emerging and developing markets. Putting more and more energy in these markets. Bit more difficult to do well in.
• How to address markets? TC: Some percentage of post-paid but looked in aggregate, predominantly pre-paid. Convinced in some cases to start pre-paid, better for customer, carrier, Apple. Obviously developing and expanding channels on list. 115,000 down, some experience to play with.
• What lack of Mac growth was cannibalization, what was hold off for Lion? TC: Look more year-over-year on Mac than sequential. Proud of numbers. Doing 5x rate of growth is something to be proud of. Why isn’t it higher? Some cannibalization by iPad. 2x iPad shipped over Mac. But more customers chose to buy iPad over Windows PC. Some customers have delayed purchase for Lion. Launching tomorrow. Fantastic product. Worked really hard on it. Revolutionary. 3rd thing, year ago quarter launched new MacBook Pros. This time launched new iMac. Both well received but MBP makes up majority so makes more difficult comparison.
• Growth trajectory for iPad? TC: Don’t predict units. Don’t want to make a comment. Think iPad will grow significantly year over year.
• Why does iPad have supply problems? TC: (Repeats previous statements).
• Any differences in enterprise strategy? TC: Dual prong on both iPad and iPhone. Work with carriers who have sales forces. Train and provide help with carriers. Do some direct sales or act as overlay to channel. Very happy with numbers, interest, pilot, deployment. Now moving to penetration. To be this far into Enterprise for a product only shipping 15 months is incredible. Enterprise typically much more conservative, takes more time to evaluate. Moving at speed he’s never seen. K12 takes very long time as well but last quarter sold more iPads than Macs. Would never have predicted this. Clear it has universal appeal from consumer to business to government and on and on.
• Expectations for iCloud? PO: Cannot wait to get iCloud and iOS 5 into hands of customers. Have done it right. Seamless, integrated experience they’re going to love. Didn’t go unnoticed in Changewave results that iOS devices are #1 in intent to buy.
• Lead over competitors in ability to mirror content? PO: Good with internet, delivering content. Proved with iTunes, App Store. Have some things to learn but have a lot of skills. Excited.
• China Mobile? Pre-paid? TC: Pre-paid or unlocked phones (off contract) are key in China and a number of emerging market where credit systems are not as well established as US, Japan, Western Europe, Australia, etc. iPhone volume for 1st 3 quarters was up 5x year over year. iPhone is key contributor to greater China revenue. Not saying figured out precisely how to play perfectly in environment. Have more to do, more to learn. Feel good about progress. If told a year ago would do $3.8 billion, very many in Apple wouldn’t have believed it. Feel very, very good. Applying those learnings to other markets.
• Recent market data in some countries shows lost share? Is iPhone share strategically important to Apple? TC: Share gain is important. Do offer 3GS as example in lower price point. US is $49 with contract. Varies off-contract. Clearly in distinctly different price than iPhone 4. Philosophy same as always. Will only make products Apple is proud of, best in the world. iPod shuffle was created, now $49. Lot of people love it. Always question, litmus test. Up to Apple to convince Apple to spend more for a material better experience and product. Seen people will do that if product is great, message is appropriate. A lot of experience in both those areas.
• iPad media consumption? TC: Talk to 10 people, 10 different reasons they love it. Reason it’s doing so well across demos, geographies.
• Why not more movie titles? PO: Have a very broad library, particularly in US. Adding more internationally each quarter. Look for more later this quarter across the various stores. Have neat stuff coming.
• That’s all!

Phocus’ reminders app for iPhone and iPad, Due, has been updated with some tweeks and changes.

The beauty of Due lies in its simplicity. There’s no account to create, no start or end date to set, no need to prioritize, tag nor categorize. What there is however are what that matters: a note for your reminder, and an alert that is set up in mere seconds.

• Super fast – Set up a reminder with alert in seconds—up to 3x faster than Calendar app
• Get to the timings you need in a tap
• Reusable countdown, egg timers
• Keep track of outstanding tasks with Smart Badges
• Never miss any reminders with Auto Snooze Repeatedly notifies you of missed reminders until marked done or rescheduled
• Reschedule and defer reminders quickly
• Recurring reminders: daily, weekly, monthly, yearly and more
• Track past reminders and quickly create new ones based on expired reminders by recycling them within the Logbook
• Time Zone Shifting – Receive timely reminders no matter where you are in the world
• 12 great sounding alerts of varying lengths to choose from
• Universal app, looks and works great on both iPhone and iPad
• Keep reminders in sync across your iPhone and iPad with OTA Sync via Dropbox
• Backup, email and restore databases right within Due
• Undo support
• Secondary Alert & Alarm mode
• Reliable reminders that don’t require any Internet connection

Here are some of the new changes:

• Interval on date picker now dynamically changes to accommodate due times that cannot be accurately displayed by user's preferred interval setting
• Editing the value of a timer with an auto-generated label now updates the label to match the new countdown value (thanks @mutewinter)
• Now hides any transient animation on quit to prevent jarring transition on next resume
• Overdue and Today+Overdue badging now faster
• When setting up a new repeating reminder, 'Repeat from date' follows the 'Due date' automatically

I love simplicity done right and Phocus has nailed it with this app. Due takes away the task of keeping track of tasks.

The good folks at Phocus have given us some promo to give away! For a chance to win, just let us know the type of tasks that you need reminding for.

Due is a universal app for iPhone and iPad and is available for $4.99.

[iTunes link]

Have an app you’d love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

Former Google CEO, current Google Executive Chairman, Eric Schmidt, had this to say about Apple patent infringement suits against Android manufacturers.

“We have seen an explosion of Android devices entering the market and, because of our successes, competitors are responding with lawsuits as they cannot respond through innovations. I'm not too worried about this."

Because a) he’s not the one being sued and b) it’s nonsense.

Google and Android ODMs problem isn’t that Microsoft and Apple are suing instead of innovating. It’s that they’re doing both. And given Google’s lack of a similar patent portfolio, and lack of public stance on the issue, their manufacturers are handicapped, which is likely why HTC is already paying Microsoft $5 for every Android phone they ship.

As mentioned yesterday, Microsoft’s strategy is to make Android more expensive, Apple’s to make it less usable.

Google might have some genius master plan ready and waiting in their other trousers, but in the meantime they should either keep Schmidt and Larry Page off the mic, or let them say something substantive to ODMs and developers.

[ZDNet Asia via Android Central]

Google+ for iPhone, the official app of Google’s new social network has just hit the App Store.

Google+ for mobile makes sharing the right things with the right people a lot simpler. Huddle lets you send super-fast messages to the people you care about most. And no matter where you are, the stream lets you stay in the loop about what your friends are sharing and where they're checking in.

Features:

• Circles let you share the right things with just the right people.
• Stream is where you can get updates from your circles or see what people are saying about things nearby.
• Huddle is super-fast group messaging for everyone in your circles.

Google+ is only available for users 13 and older.

Overall the app is clean and crisp, fully in keeping with Google’s new interest in design. The login experience, however, which throws you back to the terrible Google web page, burned my eyes. Hopefully they can fix that in an update. Soon.

It’s very Facebook for iPhone-like, which is good or bad depending on your stance re: consistency vs. innovation, but it works well and moves smoothly for the most part (I wish that hadn’t copied some of the more crashes…). The home screen isn’t full yet, with Stream (which apparently isn’t iOS 5 friendly), Huddle, Photos, Profile (Lion style circled avatar — who thought that was a good idea?), and Circles.

No iPad support yet, and strangely it doesn’t support iPod touch either.

If you’ve tried it out, let me know what you think. And if you want to get plussy with me, you can circle me up here: https://plus.google.com/117367428086027724173/posts

UPDATE: Google+ has already been updated to version 1.0.1. Is that a record? If you got it before, go re-get it. Again. Here’s the explanation: [Google+]

We discovered an issue with the version of the iPhone Google+ App that was on the App Store. When we launched, the App Store started serving a previous test version of the App which didn’t have the stability and fixes that the latest version had. It started serving the correct version a little later. If you downloaded within the first 1 hour 40 mins, you may have downloaded the older test version.

To check:

• Click on the gear icon on the top left of your App’s homescreen and look right above the Help button, the version number of the App should be: 1.0.1.1809

• If that is not the version number, then please uninstall and reinstall

[Free - iTunes link]

We put the original Aquapac and Overboard cases for iPhone 4 through the car wash and into the deep end, so what could we do with Aquapac for iPad 2 and the new Overboard Pro Sport for iPhone? Well, Rene and I had some Amazing Case-style ideas. However, putting the waterproof Acquapac for iPad and Overboard for iPhone through the dishwasher just didn’t sound cool. You know what’s cool? Putting them head to head in a Bond boat bash!

Do we expect the cases to leak? No, TiPb TV viewers, we expect them to die!

Giveaway: We’re giving away one of each case! To enter, just leave a comment below telling us which of these two cases you prefer, Overboard Pro Sport for iPhone or Aquapac for iPad 2, and where you’d like to use them — beach, bath, shower, hot tub, high speed boat chase with a super hot Bond girl (or guy!)!

(Oh, and telling us what you think about the show can’t hurt!)

Every day, TiPb gets flooded with announcements for new and updated iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad apps and games. So every day we pick just a few of the most interesting, the most notable, and simply the most awesome to share with you!

• DesignJot: Assists both novice and experienced instructional designers in collaborating with their clients, with the goal of creating engaging training courses. [$4.99 for iPad - iTunes link]

• Fingerzilla: A fast-paced, explosive game of utter destruction. Using your own finger(zilla), rain fiery chaos down upon buildings, cars, and people. [Free for iPhone and iPad, with in-app purchases - iTunes link]

• NewsFolio: A Google Reader client that helps you find the news that’s important to you. [$0.99 for iPhone - iTunes link]

• Precision: A game that will mentally challenge your ability to visually estimate different levels of a meter. [$0.99 for iPhone - iTunes link]

• Gogo Navigator USA & CAN: Real-time, turn-by-turn 3D navigation app for the iPhone. Now with Live Traffic available as an in-app purchase. [$29.99 for iPhone - iTunes link]

Any other big app or game releases or updates today?

Have an app you’d love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

iCatcher! is a podcast application for iPhone and iPad that downloads your podcasts in the background. It was recently updated so that downloaded podcast episodes are now available through the iTunes File Sharing option.

• Keep track of all of your podcast subscriptions
• Set schedules for when each one typically comes out
• Download over WiFi, 3G or Edge and in the background (on supported devices)
• Search in all views to find that podcast or episode you are looking for.
• Play audio in the background on supported iOS devices
• Custom playlists that allow you to select podcasts and/or keywords to view your downloaded episodes.
• Custom playlists now allow you to exclude podcasts.
• All device orientations supported with configurable option in the settings.
• Universal App, works on all of your iOS 4.0+ devices
• Full retina display support
• While in a playlist you can see the total time remaining and watch it count down while a podcast is playing.
• You can unsubscribe to podcasts and still have them on your device. Use that for those less than stellar podcasts!
• Now with full VoiceOver support
• Support for Password Protected feeds
• Support for continuous playback within custom playlists (on by default).

iCatcher! is available as a universal app for iPhone and iPad and is priced at $1.99. Screenshots after the break.

[iTunes link]

Have an app you’d love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

Star Wars fans are in for a treat this Wednesday with the release of Star Wars Blu-ray: Early Access to the App Store. The app will be a companion for the upcoming Blu-ray collection, The Complete Saga. The app is being released early to coincide with the start of Comic-Con in San Diego.

The App, available for all iDevices including the iPad and iPhone will highlight a sampling of bonus materials featured in the Blu-ray collection, including never-before-seen content sourced from the Lucasfilm Archives such as matte paintings and concept art; prop, maquette and costume turnarounds; supplementary interviews with cast and crew; and more.

The app will be completely free and should be available on July 20. If you are planning on visiting Comic –Con, booth #3528 will have the app on display as well as a sneak peek of the Blu-ray collection. The Blu-ray is not scheduled for release until September 16.

[Engadget]