In the 8-K filing following their top-level restructuring this week, Apple revealed that they were awarding new CEO Tim Cook quite the signing bonus:

In connection with Mr. Cook’s appointment as Chief Executive Officer, the Board awarded Mr. Cook 1,000,000 restricted stock units. Fifty percent of the restricted stock units are scheduled to vest on each of August 24, 2016 and August 24, 2021, subject to Mr. Cook’s continued employment with Apple through each such date.

As noted by MacRumors, that’s worth almost $400 million at current prices. Half the stock can be divested in 5 years, the other half in 10 years, as long as Cook is still with Apple.

This would, of course, be in addition to his salary, options, and bonuses. (Last year those totaled $58 million.)

No word yet on the corporate jet…

[SEC via MacRumors]

Apple seems to have removed $0.99 TV show rentals from iTunes and Apple TV. In a statement provided to Wall Street Journal technology blog, All Things D, Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr explained:

"iTunes customers have shown they overwhelmingly prefer buying TV shows. iTunes in the Cloud lets customers download and watch their past TV purchases from their iOS devices, Apple TV, Mac or PC allowing them to enjoy their programming whenever and however they choose."

Fox seems to confirm the reasoning:

"After carefully considering the results of the rental trial, it became clear that content ownership is a more attractive long-term value proposition both for iTunes customers and for our business. To further enhance the value of ownership, we are working with Apple to make content available within their new cloud-based service."

Apple announced $0.99 TV Show rentals are part of the all new, all streaming Apple TV in 2010 but never got all the US networks on board, nor did they manage to roll the service out beyond the US. While networks likely felt $0.99 undervalued their content, let’s be clear — it overvalued it. $100 for 100 hours of non-repeatable TV is ridiculous. Subscriptions, which Apple has reportedly been pursuing, make far more sense at scale and volume. Whether the networks will ever agree to that or not is the question. (And at this point there’s no evidence iCloud, despite its ideal positioning, will be part of the answer.)

At least we can take some comfort in the fact that nature has shown in knows what to do to dinosaurs.

[All Things D]

You can never have too much power, so the awesome folks at the TiPb iPhone and iPad Accessory Store are giving away a FREE mophie juicepack air to one of our every-bit-as-awesome members. All you have to do to win is head on over to our iPhone Accessory Forum and tell use why you need all that extra mophie power!

Giveaway starts now and ends Sunday at 12pm PDT. Ready… set… ENTER NOW!

SMS+ was just made available in Cydia for jailbroken devices and adds a whole lot of functionality to the stock Messages app. A lot of people may argue that apps like BiteSMS already do all that SMS+ does. If you’re someone who prefers the stock messages app, this may be a better choice for you. The price tag is also a bit more manageable as it’s priced at only $1.99.

Once installed, you can pop into settings and customize what options you’d like to add. There’s no new icon like there is with Bite. This app integrates tightly with the default Messages app.

SMS+ includes the following features and then some –

• Quick reply (Activator gestures can also be configured)
• Text to speech
• Read later
• Status bar notifications
• Timestamps for every message
• Mark all as read
• Delete all
• Pull to sort (sort by date or by sender)

It’s currently available in Cydia for $1.99.

[$1.99 - Cydia Search Link]

Tweetbot – A Twitter Client with Personality has just updated to version 1.6 and with it, brings Tweetmarker support. Tweetmarker is a service that marks the last read tweet in your timeline so that it can be synced between other Twitter clients.

Since its release, Tweetbot has been my favorite Twitter client on the iPhone. Tweetmarker is a great addition to the app and I look forward to what future updates may bring.

Tweetbot is a full-featured iPhone (and iPod touch) Twitter client with a lot of personality. Whether it's the meticulously-crafted interface, sounds & animation, or features like multiple timelines & smart gestures, there's a lot to love about Tweetbot.

• Multiple Timelines. Quickly switch between your lists as your main timeline.
• Smart Gestures. Use Twitter more efficiently with time-saving and configurable gestures.
• Native Push Notifications.
• Customizable Navigation. The last 2 tabs are customizable and unused tabs are easily accessible.
• Support for multiple services like Read it Later, Instapaper, Cloudapp URL Shortening.
• Save drafts, add locations and POI’s, attach photos and videos, manage your lists, and much more.

The update includes:

• Improvements to username search in the compose view
• Tweetmarker support (enable in the account settings)
• Location improvements
• Fixed Egyptian timestamp issue
• Bug fixes

Tweetbot is available on the iPhone for $2.99.

[App Store 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.

Photoshop Elements users may want to check out Learn Adobe Photoshops Elements 9 Quickly And Easily for the iPhone and iPad. It’s packed with 9 hours of 3-5 minute video tutorials that teach how to best edit your photos.

Tired of slogging away manually making alterations to photos? Finding very little respite in turning a generic picture into art? Experienced instructor Jerron Smith narrates you through easy-to-learn tutorials in the use of Photoshop Elements 9. With personal touches and humor, you will start with the basics – the welcome screen, and progress through setting up watch lists, editing your photos, correcting red eye, and much more. Jerron Smith walks you through, focusing on each facet of the program.

• AirPlay enabled allowing you to view your videos on your television.
• Includes working files you can download to your computer and use in AutoCAD 2011 as you watch the training on your iPad – freeing up your monitor space for the software.
• 114 individual tutorial videos broken into comprehensive chapters and movies – 9 hours total.
• Go through each video or skip around; you’re in complete control.
• 1X, 2X and 4X speeds allow you to learn at your own pace.
• Resume play lets you stop your training at anytime; pick up where you left off and minimize time-loss due to video skimming.
• Streaming video – allows you to keep your iPad hard drive free for your own media and data.

Learn Adobe Photoshops Elements 9 Quickly And Easily is available on the iPhone and iPad for $9.99.

[App Store 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.

It looks like Apple is finally updating the iPad version of the on-device App Store with better category pages… at least for some of the categories like Games and Education. (Desktop iTunes seems to be getting them as well but no love for iPhone so far.) The new category pages look a lot like the main App Store features page now, with big billboards and splashier graphics.

Will the rest of the sections get the updates over time as well, or is Apple saving this new look for the more visual categories? What about iPhone, would it work on the smaller screen? Do you think it will make the hundreds of thousands of apps more discoverable than they were before?

[The Next Web]

Let’s be blunt — if you’re not in the TiPb Forums you’re missing out on the best darn discussion in iPhone and iPad today, so head on over and register now!

• iOS 5 beta 6 bug report
• iOS 5 SMS design
• Sprint iPhone coming?
• AT&T LTE iPhone in the near future?
• Jailbreaking and unlocking forum

See you in the forums!

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!

• HeyCrowd: Poll the crowd, vote on an endless stream of questions and discover what people think. [Free for iPhone - App Store link]

• Angry Birds: It’s the epic conclusion to Mine and Dine with 15 new levels! [$0.99 for iPhone - App Store link]

• Facebook Messenger: Now with links to phone numbers and addresses and an improved ability to copy and paste text. [Free for iPhone - App Store link]

• PhotoGrid: Browse pictures from your Facebook friends in a timeline based grid layout. Add a comment or like a photograph if you want! [$0.99 for iPhone - App Store link]

• Star Walk – 5 Stars Astronomy Guide: Now with a multi-wavelength view of the Sky: lets you explore our Galaxy and the distant Universe in a range of wavelengths from X-rays to the longest radio waves. [$2.99 for iPhone - App Store 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.

For today only, the TiPb Store has the Incipio Ultra Light Feather Case for original iPad on sale for only $8.95 — that’s a whopping 74% off!. Get them before they’re gone!

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