Apple co-founder Steve Jobs died on October 5, 2011, of pancreatic cancer.(Photo: RYAN ANSON AFP/Getty Images)
Story Highlights
- Apple employees have mixed feelings about the company's future
- Facebook topped 1 billion users, unveiled promoted posts feature
- T-Mobile, MetroPCS merge
1:53PM EST October 5. 2012 - This week in tech was focused on one of the biggest figures in the tech world, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, and how his company will survive in the years to come. Here are the five things you need to know about this week in tech:
1) One year anniversary of Steve Jobs' death
It's been one year since Apple co-founder Steve Jobs died of pancreatic cancer, but his presence still looms large at the company where former employees called him "a father figure."
A big question still remains: What will happen to Apple after Steve Jobs? Will the company continue to flourish and create immensely popular tech products? Or will it stumble and fall without Jobs' guidance? USA TODAY's Jon Swartz talked to Apple fans, employees and analysts to get a few answers to this tough question.
Some say that Apple's success post-Jobs is a sign that the company can keep going strong. Apple sold an estimated 6 million to 10 million iPhone 5s in just two weeks, and the company has sold 243 million iPhones over the past five years. Apple's stock is at an all-time high that could be pushed even higher with the expected release of a new iPad and Apple TV.
But Apple is not without its flaws. Former Apple employees say Jobs would not have approved of Apple's Maps, a widely panned new application on Apple's iOS 6 operating system. Jobs may have also taken issue with a "cheesy and humorless" Apple TV ad aired during the London Olympics.
It seems that both sides agree on one thing: Steve Jobs set a high bar for his successor, Apple CEO Tim Cook.
Jon Swartz took a look at the mystery behind the man in an interview with a former Apple employee, Ken Segall. The former Apple creative director recently released a book about his time at Apple, Insanely Simple: The Obsession that Drive's Apple's Success. Segall admitted that Jobs had a few quirks, but he ultimately had a "single-minded pursuit of perfection."
2) Facebook at 1 billion
The world's biggest social network has topped 1 billion active users. CEO Mark Zuckerberg posted a Facebook status on his page about the milestone on Thursday morning and thanked Facebook's users.
"If you're reading this: Thank you for giving me and my little team the honor of serving you," he wrote. "Helping a billion people connect is amazing, humbling and by far the thing I am most proud of in my life."
To put these numbers in perspective — if Facebook were a country, it would be the third largest nation in the world, behind China and India. One in seven people in the world are active Facebook users, roughly half of the world's 2.5 billion Internet users.
Zuckerberg said in a Today show interview later in the day that Facebook is "in a tough cycle now" after the company faltered in the stock market this summer.
The CEO said he takes his responsibility as the top guy at Facebook "very seriously" and he is focusing on Facebook's mobile apps.
If you are one of Facebook's billion users, and you really want your family and friends to know about an upcoming event or a big announcement, check out Facebook's new promoted posts feature. Facebook users can pay a fee to promote their posts to friends and have their posts appear higher in their friends' news feeds.
The Associated Press reported that Facebook has not confirmed exact prices for the new feature, though some users say they have seen costs of up to $7 per promoted update. So if you really want your friends to come to your garage sale, or if you really want your family and friends to know that you just got engaged, get ready to pay up.
3) Did you know you could do this with Apple iOS 6?
With all of the outrage about Apple's new Maps feature, some Apple users might not have heard about other less prominent, but still useful, features on Apple's new iOS 6 operating system.
USA TODAY's Roger Yu took a look at some iOS 6 tips and tricks that might have been overlooked.
A few of the highlights:
-- Answer calls with a text. Stay focused on your meeting instead of on your iPhone by using this new feature. When a call comes in, you can tap on the phone icon in the lower right-hand side of the locked screen to reveal a few response options. You can reply to the caller with a pre-made text message (including "I'll call you later" and "What's up?") or set a reminder to call the person back later.
-- Important e-mail. If you designate certain e-mail addresses as VIPs, their e-mails will automatically be sent to the VIP folder.
--Offline reading. The share button on Safari now has an option to add a Web page to a Reading List that is also available offline.
4) Cable companies cap data use for revenue
You might want to think twice before streaming new episodes of your favorite TV show or uploading your vacation photos to Facebook. Roger Yu reports that cable companies, including Comcast and Time Warner Cable, are rolling out new Internet data plans that limit the amount of data that customers use per month.
In May, Comcast launched a trial in two markets, Tuscon and Nashville, for its new pricing plans. The cheapest plan costs $40 for a 300 GB limit and the most expensive plan costs $200 for 600 GB of data. Any user who reaches 90% of their limit will get an e-mail asking them to pay for additional data or to consider a plan upgrade.
Time Warner is slowly expanding the trial run of its new data plan structure. Users have a monthly data limit of 5 GB on three low-speed tiers that cost $35 to $55, with a $1/GB fee for overages up to a maximum of $25.
Money quote: "I spent almost a whole day trying to figure this out and order the service. This is confusing. And I know technology fairly well. For the average consumer, this is going be a mess."—Tawnie Knight, Comcast customer
5) T-Mobile, MetroPCS merge
T-Mobile announced a merger with MetroPCS on Wednesday, a move to gain strength in a highly competitive phone market with price-conscious customers.
USA TODAY's Roger Yu reports that the new company will keep the T-Mobile name and be led by T-Mobile CEO John Legere. T-Mobile has marketed itself as a cheaper option for customers who want cheap wireless plans and no-contract services, but the company has lost about 2.8 million customers in the past two years.
T-Mobile predicts that the merger will create up to $7 billion in "cost synergies." The company plans to expand its 4G Long-term Evolution (LTE) network and build up its range of smartphones after the merger.
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Top Tech stories this week:
1) Did you know you could do this with Apple iOS 6?
2) Cable companies cap data use for revenue
3) Review: Kindle Paperwhite leaves a glowing impression
4) Facebook will charge to 'promote' user posts
5) Year after Jobs' death, how high can Apple fly?
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