Provided by the Business Insider: 

An anonymous Apple store employee pulled back the curtain behind the company's impressive retail operation. He or she talked to Popular Mechanics about what it's like to be an Apple footsoldier on a day to day basis.

Here's what we learned:

On product launch day, all Apple store employees watch the Keynote together. They don't know anything ahead of time, of course. 

Customers can be shockingly rude.

Drug dealers and Chinese resellers like their iPhones and iPads. They will use fake IDs and fake credit cards and all sorts of tricks to buy Apple products.

Sales people aren't paid on commission, but they're still encouraged to sell hard. Each employee's sales number is put up for the employees to see where they rank, and selling is a way to get a promotion.

Apple store employees dream to be a genius. The coolest thing is to be at the Genius Bar, and the other Apple store employees work hard and sell hard because they want to be made a genius.

Showing up to work late won't get you fired -- talking off hand about the next iPad WILL (even though you don't know anything about the next iPad).

People will use the public computers for all sorts of stuff. Teenagers will blast Britney Spears really loud and start dancing. And of course pranksters keep changing the Macs' language to Korean or Russian.

Employees lie to customers. They tell consumers that unlocking their iPhone will brick them -- make the phone as usless as a brick -- and that T-Mobile will fry the antenna.

Provided by Business Insider, Thursday, February 10, 2011:

Good morning. Here's what you need to know:

•Asian markets were mixed in overnight trading, with the Hang Seng down 1.97%. Major European indices are all lower and U.S. futures suggest a negative open.

•Initial jobless claims data is released at 8:30 AM ET. Expectations are for a slight fall in claims, to 412,000.

•China national energy company PetroChina just bought a position in a Western Canadian gas field for $5.4 billion. The field is owned by EnCana, and is part of a series of purchases China has made, including one from Chesapeake Energy in the U.S. Check out the 13 states covered in oil and cashing in on higher prices.

•Cisco's earnings came in better than expected last night, but revelations on the conference call about government spending hit the stock in after-hours trading. The company's CEO revealed that his firm had not yet felt the impact of government austerity programs. Here are the budget cuts the Republicans want to make.

•The Bank of England maintained its key interest rate today. Some were calling for a increase in rates to combat inflation. It is unknown as of yet whether more votes surfaced in support of a hike.

•Credit Suisse and Danske Bank both reported weaker than expected fourth quarters. Both banks saw an increase in profit, but at a lower than expected rate. Don't miss: The 10 most overbought stocks on the S&P; 500.

•Talks continue between Deutsche Borse and the NYSE Euronext on a merger. The potential merger would create the biggest futures exchange in the world. Deutsche Borse shares spiked in German trading today.

•Whole Foods delivered an extremely strong quarter, beating earnings estimates and raising guidance for its 2011. The company is also increasing the rate of its expansion.

•Both Facebook and Google have had discussions with Twitter about a possible acquisition. The valuation on Twitter mentioned in the discussions has been between $8 and $10 billion.

•The miner Rio Tinto announced a $5 billion plan to buy back shares from its investors. The company also plans to increase its dividend, all of this in an effort to get rid of its large profits. Don't miss: Examples of how weather is impacting global commodity markets.

•Bonus: Singer Ashlee Simpson has split from husband Pete Wentz.

Nokia's new CEO Stephen Elop has written a remarkable memo to his Nokia employees--who, a few years ago, were comfortably working for the most successful cell-phone maker in the world (full memo here).

In the memo, Elop likens today's stumbling Nokia to a "burning oil platform," in which everyone who remains on deck will quickly be burned alive. The only chance Nokia has to save itself, Elop says, is to behave wildly differently than it has in the past--namely, to jump off the edge of the platform into the frigid waters of the North Sea.

We've been in business for nearly two decades now, and we don't recall another CEO ever being this honest and vivid about the desperate straits his company is in. (We recall MANY companies being in these straits, however).

The normal CEO approach in a situation like this is either delusional denial--("this concern about BlackBerry's future is ridiculous--iPhones are just fluffy consumer devices")--or a more nuanced evaluation of the company's strengths and weaknesses combined with confident assurances that the company will overcome its obstacles ("failure is not an option!")

The latter approach is easier and feels safer, but it has a huge hidden risk, which is that the CEO will dash hopes and lose credibility.  RIM's Jim Balsillie, meanwhile, continues to take the other common approach--outright denial of the obvious--and in the process has shattered his credibility.  As a result, the chatter about RIM these days is mostly about how delusional its leadership is.

(Of course, one reason Balsillie has taken this tack, presumably, is that he himself is responsible for the situation RIM is in. It's easier to be objective about a company's situation when it was prior management who put it there.)

In any event, more CEOs should take Stephen Elop's approach, and just tell it like it is.
Yes, Elop's memo is risky: It will no doubt rattle and anger many employees, and the resulting shockwaves may temporarily hurt the company's productivity. It may also scare suppliers and customers, who presumably also don't want to be burned alive if Nokia goes down.

But as Elop himself suggests, this sort of shock treatment may be the only chance anyone has to save the company.

Elop's memo also accomplishes three important things:

First, it buys him instant credibility with everyone, from employees to customers to suppliers to journalists. People may not like what they're hearing from Elop, but they can certainly be confident that he's giving it to them straight. And no one will follow a leader they don't trust, especially in a crisis.

Second, it allows him to act with the urgency and scope that the situation demands.  Nokia's situation IS desperate, and when your choices are certain-death by doing nothing and small-possibility-of-survival by doing something that seems crazy, people understand when you do the thing that seems crazy.

Third, it paves the way for him to slay sacred cows, fire popular but obstructionist managers, and give orders that might otherwise result in quiet mutiny.  Everything that Elop does will now be viewed in the context of his trying to save the company, and it's hard to fault him for trying to do that.

CEOs tend to be optimistic by nature ("We have not yet begun to fight!"), and they rightfully worry that if they give the impression that even they aren't confident the company will succeed, everyone else will just give up.

But there's a difference between confident leadership and empty-headed delusion or cheerleading. And this is a difference that many CEOs miss.

At the World Economic Forum a couple of weeks ago, the pilot who landed US Air flight 1549 on the Hudson, Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, gave a presentation on "leadership in a crisis." In the presentation, he played the tape of the communications he and his co-pilot had with each other and air-traffic control in the 100 seconds or so after the engines quit and the plane hit the water.

On this tape, there was no panic. There was also no delusion about the seriousness of the situation or cheerleading about success. There was just swift, calm decision-making.
In these 100 seconds, in which Captain Sullenberger turned an almost certain disaster into a miraculous escape, he said only three words to the plane's passengers.

These words were carefully chosen: Sully wanted to alert the passengers to the situation, but did not want to trigger panic. He also did not want the passengers fumbling under their seats for flotation devices when the plane hit the water.

The three words Captain Sullenberger chose?

"Brace for impact."

Then Captain Sullenberger ditched the plane in the Hudson, ordered the evacuation, and made certain everyone had gotten out safely before he himself left the plane.

THAT is leadership in a crisis. THAT is understanding what many CEOs don't, which is that their people can handle the truth (and, what's more, want the truth). THAT is what gives CEOs and airline captains some chance of overcoming huge odds and pulling their people through.

Every CEO should read Elop's memo. And more CEOs should follow his example.

See Also: The "Burning Platform": Stephen Elop's Remarkable Memo To Nokia

The Packers beat the Steelers 31-25 in last night’s Super Bowl, but there’s a lot more to buzz about than just the score of the game.

• There was shock when Christina Aguilera messed up lines while singing the National Anthem.

• There was gossip when Cameron Diaz fed her honey A-Rod popcorn.

• There was debate over the Black Eyed Peas' half-time show.

• And, there was controversy over Groupon’s commercial that made light of the situation in Tibet.

Super Bowl commercials do tend to create a lot of buzz after game day -- heck, that’s why many people watch the game – but this year social media has taken the buzz to a whole new level whether companies like it or not. 

For Better, or For Worse

In the case of Groupon, its commercial faux pas sent social media and Twitter feeds awry with some users vowing to boycott the online coupon site in protest of its insensitive ad.

“The big push these days it to connect with people on a personal level,” says Grant Powell, founder of Pomegranate, a digital media and brand agency. “If you are not doing that because you are upsetting them, then I think that can have a negative effect on your advertising campaign.”

Time will only tell whether the negative sentiment will impact the company. 

Taking The Good With The Bad

In years past, it was sacred to keep Super Bowl commercials top secret until airing, but this year some advertisers posted the commercials online ahead of the game to create buzz sooner. At around $3 million for a 30-second pop, many companies see social media as an opportunity to get a bigger return on their advertising buck.

Not only is social media helping companies stretch advertising dollars, it is allowing them to gauge what viewers like and dislike and “measure the efficacy” of an ad.  For example, Powell cites YouTube’s Ad Blitz Contest where people can watch, vote and comment on the commercials they liked best right after they aired on TV.

Chrysler’s “Imported from Detroit” commercial starring Eminem received a lot of positive feedback because it connected with people on a personal level, says Powell. With the automobile companies advertising again during the game, the commercial offered “hope of the economy recovering.”

The Pepsi Max ads also made a big splash with online users, says Powell who points out that the fact that Pepsi has developed a huge social media following with its Refresh Project campaign.

Tells us what you thought of the Super Bowl commercials!

The common wisdom these days is that social-media platforms like Facebook and Twitter are playing a key role in popular uprisings like the one going on in Egypt.

Facebook and Twitter, this story goes, allow millions of people to communicate and organize themselves, and they thus trigger revolutions and make them much more effective.

But that's bunk, says Hani Sabra, an analyst who covers the Middle East and Africa for the Eurasia Group.

Facebook and Twitter don't "trigger" anything, Sabra says--they just facilitate communication that, in their absence, would happen via other means.

As evidence, Sabra points to Egypt, where the government shut the Internet down at the end of last week, thus making Facebook and Twitter impossible to use.  Since then, the protests have only increased.

This, Sabra says, is because in the absence of social media people communicate using "old" communication channels, such as the telephone.  And these channels, Sabra says, are just as effective at coordinating protests as social media.

Apple shares have fallen about 5% this week, a slide widely attributed to Monday's announcement that CEO Steve Jobs is taking leave of absence for medical reasons. While unsettling to shareholders, the drop is less than early indications suggested after the news broke. (See: Why Steve Jobs Is So Important to Apple)

"We've been through this fire drill three times," says David Rolfe, CIO of Wedgewood Partners, a St. Louis-based firm which oversees about $900 million in assets. "The street has come to learn how deep this management team is; how dynamic and how good."

In addition to COO Tim Cook, Rolfe cited design chief Jonathan Ive as key to Apple's success -- past and future.

"Investors are finally getting their arms around the fact it's inevitable Jobs won't be there," he says. "Perhaps his biggest accomplishment at Apple may not be any specific product but the culture he has inculcated the company with."

Apple is the largest holding at Wedgewood Partners and Rolfe remains "very bullish" on the stock, which, he says "hasn't kept up with unbelievable earnings."

On Tuesday Apple reported fiscal first quarter results far ahead of expectations, featuring a 78% year-over-year surge in net income to $6.43 per share, while revenue jumped more than 70% to $26.74 billion. (Analysts were expecting earnings of $5.42 a share on revenue of $24.4 billion.)

The Next Big Thing

In the immediate future, Rolfe expects Apple to continue to gain market- and mind-share with the next generation of the iPhone and iPad, and continue to expand its retail chain.

Longer term, he says, proprietary content could be the "next big thing" for Apple, which is activating about 300,000 devices per day running the mobile iOS.

"With...this closed networks of millions of devices, we actually are thinking they can go to content creators, compete with Showtime and HBO, outbid for shows and have exclusive content just for iOS device owners," he says, speculating the firm's new North Carolina data center could be the hub.

Only half-joking, Rolfe says Apple may someday launch the "iTiffany Network," a reference to the glory days of CBS Television.

Aaron Task is the host of Tech Ticker. You can follow him on Twitter at @atask or email him at altask@yahoo.com

Provided by the Business Insider:

Some financial details from the Facebook stock deal are starting to leak out, with the WSJ having scooped up the tidbits below:

Facebook generated $200 million of net income in 2009, on $777 million of revenue.

This approximate revenue figure was known, but the net income figure was not. The 25% net profit margin implied by these figures is much higher than most people thought.

Facebook's revenue last year soared to ~$2 billion with $400 million of profit, according to DealBook. That's a lower profit margin (20%), but it's still plenty impressive.

Once Goldman Sachs and Facebook release the full offering document, which we expect will be today, we expect additional details will come out. For those considering investment or assessing the company's future growth potential, analyzing the revenue and cost structure will be important.

See Also: Secret Facebook Offering Email Revealed

Paul Dergarabedian, president of Hollywood.com’s box-office division, shared his Oscar picks with Aaron in the accompanying clip. And, they were right on with nominations for the Golden Globe Awards.

For Best Picture, Dergarabedian is hot on “The Fighter” starring Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale, “Black Swan” starring Natalie Portman and his sleeper pick of the season that could go all the way is “The King’s Speech” staring Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush and Helena Bonham Carter.

These three films – released in just the last month -- are also littered with the top candidates for Best Actor and supporting roles, says Dergarabedian.  "It tends to be the movies at the very end of the year that get the most attention" he explains, simply because Oscar has a “very short memory span".

But, since the Academy changed its rules for Best Picture last year, from five to 10 nominations, there’s more room for those strong contenders released earlier in the year, he explains. Summer box office hits likely to be recognized include “Inception” and “The Social Network”.

Another point Dergarabedian highlights is that many of these year-end releases gaining Oscar attention are not wide-releases with huge sales at the box office. Like with anything, there are exceptions to the rule.  Just take last year’s “Avatar”, which went on to become the highest grossing film ever at $760 million. This year’s exceptions are “Inception” and “The Social Network”, which have grossed $291 million and $88 million, respectively, according to Hollywood.com.

These are big numbers, but box office sales this year have been struggling to keep pace with 2009. Dergarabedian says attendance has dropped because the quality films was not great in 2010, but he is still forecasting that this year slightly outpace last year.  (See: "Little Fockers" May Save Holiday Box Office And Hollywood's Bottom Line)

But, moviegoers don’t despair, Hollywood is on a correction course. Dergarabedian sees 2011 and 2012 as a “hotbed for a strong box office” with movies such as The Green Hornet, The Green Lantern, Thor, Pirates of the Caribbean and Cars 2 in addition to the next installments of Batman, Spider Man and Men in Black.

___

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For weeks Bank of America has been the rumored next target of Wikileaks. Founder Julian Assange, without naming the actual bank, has said he has major revelations to come in the new year that may cause the head of a large U.S. bank to resign.

If BofA is indeed the center of the scandal, it's one more potentially huge embarrassment for the beleaguered bank. Interestingly, its shares are up about 18% since the rumors started. The stock also rose Wednesday after false reports that Assange had specifically named BofA as his target.

Whether or not the allegations are as damaging as Assange claims, Wikileaks will likely have an impact on the way corporations conduct business, says Sydney Finkelstein, professor at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. This could mean the beginning of the end of email.

"People say things in emails -- still even in 2010 -- say things that you know you really shouldn't say," he tells Aaron in this interview. "You're very blunt and you're not careful, you're not guarded."

Wikileaks also highlights the vulnerability of all corporations and governments, no matter how large. "What Julian Assange did, technologically, is not that complicated," he says. "Everyone's got to be concerned about that right now."

It also highlights the failure of journalism in uncovering the biggest stories. Now, whether Wikileaks is journalism or espionage is a valid question.

It is just days until another holiday weekend and Hollywood is hoping you’ve already thought about what box office blockbusters are on your movie list. But if the upcoming weekend is anything like the last six weekends, box office sales will continue to fall and may fall short of 2009’s $10.6 billion in gross revenues.

Despite the economy starting to pick up and holiday retail sales on track to beat 2009 by a long run, movie attendance is down about 14% this holiday season compared to last.

Paul Dergarabedian, president of Hollywood.com’s Box-office Division, attributes falling attendance to fewer and fewer “home runs” at the box office. “You can’t depend on audience just to go to a movie theatre just to get out of the rain,” he tells Aaron in this clip. “They have to want to go there to see a movie.”

If there any movies worth considering over the next few days, Dergarabedian suggests “True Grit” starring Jeff Bridges and Matt Damon, "Gulliver’s Travels" starring Jack Black for the kids and for a good laugh “Little Fockers.”

Total gross revenues for 2010 stood at $10.1 billion as of Sunday. Despite fewer bums in seats, Dergarabedian predicts that this year’s revenues will outpace last year's – but only slightly -- due to higher ticket prices, which on average cost $7.85 each, according to Hollywood.com.

So, what will be the movie that saves this holiday weekend? Dergarabedian says “Little Fockers.”

“I’ve seen the movie and I wanted to go in hating it and I actually really like it,” he said. “I laughed through the whole movie.”

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