11 posts tagged “steve jobs”

"It puzzles me why the entire technology industry is fascinated with Apple. Granted, it is one of the few companies in Silicon Valley that aren’t really feeling the effects of the bad economy in the states right now, but just over a decade ago, most of the tech industry where ready to write Apple off, sell it off back to the shareholders. Then enter the Redux of Steve Jobs. He turns the company around, brings the iMac to Market and then the iPod. Suddenly Apple is the darling of the tech media, with it’s mysterious events, and hyped products. Granted, Apple does have some amazing products. The new Macbooks look amazing, and the iPod and iPhone have changed the music and mobile phone industries. However, in Apple’s huge amount of About Mindshare and expanding marketshare is twofold. First, Steve Jobs, is by the most Private CEO of any Fortune 500 company. He’s not in the public eye, unless of course, it’s for medical reasons, or he’s giving a keynote. Compared to Microsoft or someone like Redhat, Jobs is very secretive. And I think that’s been his strategy for a long time at Apple. If the competitors don’t see what your doing, they can’t compete with you. That’s why Apple is always 5 steps ahead of the curve when it comes to product development. However, being 5 steps ahead isn’t always a good thing for consumers, and because of the secrecy, Apple rarely, if ever justifies it’s product design decisions. And that is a big deal, because unlike HP, Dell and others, where you might have some expectation of product revision. With Apple’s secrecy, you have no clue. And that, is Apple’s underlying weakness. "

(Via .)

 Today was the shiny Apple event. and many things came out: the iPod touch, a new Nano, an updated iPod "classic" and a wireless iTunes music store. Yadda yadda all kinds of stuff. I plan on asking for a new iPod (nano) for christmas and to retire ye old 1st generation nano. I really need the storage, and the ability to watch video is a big bonus. The wireless iTunes store is great. But here's my question to His Steveness: Where's the content? Last year, when you released the iPod Nano 2G and the 5.5G iPod video, you promised international content. You just released some content in the U.K. WHERE'S MY CANADIAN CONTENT?!?!?!? I know you undervalue the Canadian market; But we ARE 32 million people and we like our content. If you release the Apple TV in Canada, please give us our content. Even some TV shows would be nice. I can rip DVD movies with Handbrake, but TV shows on DVD cost an arm and a leg, and I'd be more then willing to pay $1.99 or whatever (within reason to the U.S. price) you want for the shows. But come on Steve stop ignoring your neighbours to the north!
    Other then that, I'm very pleased with Apple's offerings as of right now. If I had the cash on hand I would go out and buy a new iPod touch. But I don't, so I guess I'll have to settle for a 3G Nano. I'll be asking for 8GB as I really need the space for my music collection. All in all, a good keynote. Counting down the days until Leopord and Macworld and all that jazz.

Ah WWDC. It's when all of the Apple Geeks converge on Moscone west for the biggest Apple developer conference of the year. And this year, as expected, His Steveness demoed 10 of the major features in the upcoming release. A lot of it is much needed improvements to things like the Finder as well as a new Unified look which means no more brushed metal in one app and aqua in other. Coverflow has come to the Finder to provide for an easier way to look through files and the like. Looks pretty cool. I'm kinda glad I held off getting a Mac. So when I actually do, I can skip Tiger and go for Leopard. Shiny.......... Anyway, nothing earth shattering, but still fun. Anyway, getting my new Hardware tomorrow. Bonus: Tomorrow's my BIRTHDAY! Yay Hazza!

 So today was Apple's quarterly conference call and by all indications, Apple is still growing. In fact, profits where up 100% from last quarter. And the Mac and iPod are both gaining marketshare. Mac sales  grew by 36% shipping 1.5 million Macs while the iPod gained 24% shipping over 10 million iPods. All I can say is WOW. Apple is growing by leaps and bounds. I predict that this is the begining of the second golden age. The first golden age was in the 1980's when Steve Jobs was in the hot seat and they invented the Macintosh. Things went downhill from there with CEO's like Sculley, Spindler and Amelio took the company on a downward slope. With the return of Steve Jobs, things changed for the better. The iPod solved cashflow problems while OS X gave Apple hope in the OS market after a few embarrasing few years holding onto OS 9. Now Apple's on a roll. The consumer market, after shunning Mac's for years are starting to see that they can actually be decent computers. You can credit Intel and Steve Jobs as well as Jonathon Ive for creating beautiful, fast, functional computers. Now, the Company is better off than it was in it's short history. Aside from a few minor technical glitches, they're on track to increase marketshare. I plan on buying a Mac in the next few years and I plan on convincing my parents to invest in one as well when they buy they're next computer.
Just watch, Apple will outlast Apple, HP, and all of the PC manufacturers.

    Ever had one of those moments in time where two people who are complete opposites come into the same room and time stops? Those two people stare each other down until either one punches the other or one of them will walk out of room. Well that's going to happen this year at a technology conference hosted by the Wall Street Journal and created by Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher, two of the most well known names in technology. Apperently Mac and PC (aka His Steveness and His Billness) will have a joint session where they will discuss the past and future of the digital of the digital revolution. Can anyone say catfight? I don't think that it'll go that far but I could see them getting into a relatively serious argument. You could call it a PC vs. Mac add in real life.
     In a piece of non-technology related news, Bill Gates and Stephen Harper signed a deal today to build a facility that will develop, manufacture and test vaccines for HIV AIDS and other major pandemic diseases. The Canadian government will contribute $111 million with the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation contributing $28 million. I'm quite happy with this announcement as it brings hope that the world is contributing to HIV AIDS research. The location of the facility hasn't bee announced as of yet, but I'm hoping that it will be located somewhere in the maritimes. Go Bill and Go Government. You did something intelligent for once!

So the iCEO doesn't like DRM after all. A letter posted on Apple.com today speaks volumes more then what's on the page. It tu rn

s out even though Apple uses DRM, Steve Jobs (who is probably one of the most famous music fanatics in the tech industry.) says that if consumers could the "Big 4" (EMI, BMG, Universal and  Warner) to not use DRM on it's content, Apple would embrace it "in a heartbeat". Apparently the only way that the record labels would put the music on iTunes would be to DRM it. At least Apple is a bit sensitive to consumer needs and doesn't DRM it to death (like Microsoft, Real and Sony.) So will Apple get rid of Fairplay? Not likely. Unless the there is a massive revolution in the content industry, Apple is not likely to drop Fairplay. and the entire DRM thing. I don't think Mr. Jobs want to be stuck with no content on one of the major points that made Apple profitable again (iTunes and iPod) I think the only that would allow for a massive change in the DRM schemes is a complete and total consumer rebellion against DRM. Where starting to see the begining of that now with the rejection of Microsoft's Zune device. It might take some time but I believe that sooner rather then later, DRM will go the way of the dodo bird. I'll look back on this later in life when DRM is gone and say "I remember when we had DRM on our music and we could do certain things with our content. I'll be happy when that comes.

     Today was the first day of the Consumer Electronics show in (VIVA!) Las Vegas. Needless to say, there is some pretty cool stuff. Having watch both the DL.tv and Lab Rats podcasts, it's clear that on day one,there was tonnes of stuff announced, with tonnes more to come in the next few days. Last night, Bill Gates gave a keynote and demo'd some really cool, never before seen features in Vista. One of these features is the ability of use the Windows Search to search not only the PC you are currently using, but also all of the PC's on your network that are using Vista. But wait there More! You can even use an Xbox 360 controller to play games on your PC. And the final feature demo'd at Bill Gates' keynote? Full HD motion desktop in Vista. I can't recall the name right now but it looks awsome.
    Final thing. Tomorrow is the Stevenote at Macworld Expo. It's sure to be a great time and as I have last period off, I'll be home early and blogging about it as developments roll in. It's sure to be a blast
This is just the beginging, it'll be fun to see what the rest of the week brings.

Looking around the 'net tonight after I finished all the work I needed to get done for tomorrow, I found an article on Cnet about Microsoft and staying the course with the Xbox division. Last year it counted a $1.26 billion dollar loss as the highlight of the year But this is Microsoft. It's a land where everything is possible....That is, if you play within the rules. Rules at Microsoft, just to name a few.

1. Open Source is Bad. It promotes the idea that people can actully do things on there own. Anyone caught using Linux, Firefox, Thunderbird, the GIMP or any other Open Source program will immediately be either shot or tortured for 48 hours (i.e. have Balmer yell "Wiindows Windows Windows Windows...." at your for 24 hours straight and then see him collapse and go to the hospital to have surgery on his vocal chords.)
2. Anyone caught using a Mac will be subjected to the above torture.  Macs are the spawn of satan. Also anyone caught using an iPod will immediately be sent to there cubicle to rot forever by Balmer.
   
3. DRM is your friend. DRM protects our big nice cosy relationship with the big companies like Sony, BMG, Universal, EMI and others.
4. Anyone  caught with a picture of the following people in there procession will be made to kiss the feet of Steve Balmer and Bill Gates 48,000,000,000,000 times. Or however long it takes you to die or your lips to fall off, whichever comes first.
   Eric Smechit, Sergey Brin, Larry Page, Steve Jobs, Phil Schiller, the Mac Guy from the "Get a Mac ads",Linux Torvalds and any one who is associated with Open Source community.

    It might be the fact that I hate Microsoft with my entire being because of the entire supporting DRM thing or the WGA thing or the "3 different kinds of DRM thing" but whatever is, I reallly reallly really don't like Microsoft. I don't know about Vista yet, but I think it's just going to be a clone of Tiger. And Apple's putting out a new version of OS X this spring. And it will be better than Vista.
Xbox may be the only thing Microsoft has done right in the past several years. I haven't tried out the 360 yet, but the fact that Microsoft managed to get it on the market a year early is either a real blunder on Microsoft's part or a real stroke of genius. I'm split. That $1 billion loss is nothing to laugh at but from what I can tell the 360 has been quite sucessful in comparrison to what the current generation of Nintendo and Sony consoles on the market. Unless Microsoft makes changes in the way it manages thing, in terms of it's Windows division the way it manages things like Open Source and Mac software, the word "Microsoft" will be associated with the word "failure" in the next few years.

Finally! I just finished both my Canadian history project and my math homework. Tomorrow is TGIF and I can't wait. But I'll elaborate on that later.
    With Apple's announcement yesterday of, among others things, iTunes 7. Now less than 72 hours after the release of iTunes 7, people are whining about it being buggy. Now while a few things are buggy, my first impression of iTunes 7 is that's it a pretty good program. A few bugs have poped up however, most of the features are intact. The visual styles are improved, as well as iPod management. My only complaint is that of the "Gapless Plackback". It doesn't seem to work as well as Apple made it out too. And then there's the issue of the skipping. It doesn't happen that often, but it's still realitivly annoying. One of the major improvements, however is the video playback. I found, in iTunes 6, video playback was, at best, very chunky. Now with the release of iTunes 7, the video playback is much improved. The nice fade out controls help as well. I like the new source list. However another coverflow leaves much to be desired. I suppose it works much better on a Mac, however I have a half-decent video card in my box here (FX 5200) and 512 RAM in there and the Coverflow still doesn't work that well. My Final comment is that download option for the Coverflow, as of right now is hideous. I have almost 70 albums in my collection, however the majority of my albums don't have the "beautiful cover art" that his Steveness promised the iPod faithful.
    I'm off to a family camp thingy tomorrow, so I won't be able to post until at least Sunday. I'll see you guys then

Apple iTunes 

 
 

Technology, it’s this lovely thing that we use every day. From the light’s that allow us to read and write in Dark, to Internet that has become such a central part of our lives in the last decade, Technology is what allows to do things that are humanly impossible. Just in the last five years, the speed and complexity of computer systems have exploded. Apple Computer, just as an example, which unveiled the PowerMac in 2003 at a clock speed of 1.8 Ghz has just unveiled the final Intel-based Macintosh last week. The top of the line Mac Pro, runs at an astonishing 3 Ghz with two Intel Core Duo “Woodcrest” chips. Each of the chips has an astonishing 1066 Mhz Front Side Bus. Time that by two That’s fore cores. Four. Wow. Granted that Apple had to transition from the PowerPC architecture to the Intel architecture, but still, that’s a huge leap in horsepower. Another lovely example is that of the Laptop. Once the power underdog, the laptop has gained popularity with Road Warriors and professionals alike. Again, taking the example of Apple, the High End Macbook Pro, with a 15” screen has an amazing 2.16 Ghz processor, up to 2 GB of RAM and an ATI professional graphics card with up to 256 onboard RAM. Combine that with the power of OS X 10.4 “Tiger” or the upcoming Leopard and you won’t need a second machine. If you look back just a few years, some laptops had a measly 1-1.5 Ghz processor and 256 RAM. Working at Staples I see a few of these machines on clearance. If your just going to use it for some word processing at very light web browsing, yes that would be the machine for you, however the fact is, in today’s digital lifestyle, if your doing any kind of heavy web browsing (such as yours truly) light photoshopping and a considerable amount of gaming, then your going to need a machine with a considerable amount of horsepower.

            Technology has also made into the hands of the words leaders. The most recent piece of news is that the President of Iran has opened a blog. In his first post, posted Friday night, the President of Iran talks about his humble beginnings and the post is riddled with anti-American commentary. Another recent piece of news is the Tony Blair, Prime Minister of the U.K.,when traveling to California to discuss the environment with Gov. Arnold, he received a Black 60 GB Ipod  from the Govanator Mr. Blair is apparently a huge fan of the Apple brand, and even had a private lunch with Steve Jobs. Other examples include U.S. President George Bush, (who claims the American government invented the Ipod, Queen Elizabeth II, and Pope Benedict XVI, who received his as a gift from Radio . This just proves that technology is becoming more and more widespread. Mind you, this has been going on for the past decade, possibly even longer. Back during the Gulf War, when President H.W. Bush suffered from a stroke one of the most famous images from that era is the American President in a hospital bed playing a game boy. So, Technology has been in the hands of the world’s leaders for some time now, but it’s only becoming noticeable because of the popularity of things like the Ipod and blogging among other things. The fact is, things like blogging are only going to get more popular as time goes on. I can imagine Stephen Harper getting an Ipod or maybe our Governor General, Michelle Jean.

            I can imagine with the speed of which technology is advancing, it’s not unrealistic to say that within 2-4 years you will see 4 maybe even 5 Ghz chips. We’ll that’s my rant for today, I might post before I leave for work at 5 or I might post when I get back around nine.

Virtunate