I was fortunate enough to see him in person a few times though.  The first was at  the keynote of Macworld San Francisco in 2001 when he introduced the word to iTunes with “One More Thing” of the Titanium PowerBook G4.  I waited in line with my dad for several hours in the dark and cold of a January morning just to get a good seat, but I was still way in the back. In the end, it didn’t matter, because I still could feel his charisma fill the auditorium. It was probably the coolest thing I had experienced at that point in my life; it probably still is one of the top.

I was working for Apple at Macworld in 2005 when I saw him next.  Earlier that morning he had introduced the iPod shuffle and I was manning a wall with about a hundred of them hanging from lanyards (picture, yes, I had a bright green shirt on too).  All of a sudden, as if someone started moshing behind me at a concert, I was getting pushed and shoved by a mob of people.  I turn around, and amidst a throng of photographers flashing photos and reporters yelling questions, Steve, beaming from ear to ear, walks up to one guy who was trying the shuffle out to ask him what he thinks. The guy mumbles something about it being small & light, Steve thanks him, and with that strides off, throng of reporters chasing at his heels.

I wish I could have followed him too that day; just for a little while. I think we’ve all been following at Steve’s heel in one way or another since the beginning of Apple. I hope we still get the chance to trace his footsteps now that he’s gone.

http://www.apple.com/stevejobs/

Obviously this isn’t true if you bought an iPhone recently, but if had your iPhone 4 for a while then it definitely holds true. According to this AT&T Early Termination Fee (ETF) calculator, personally I would pay $165 for my ETF (I got the iPhone 4 the day it came out). However paying penalty would allow me to get $250 more in phone subsidies, netting me $85 in savings. How does this make any sense for AT&T?

The Brooks Review suggests several strategies to get around this including threatening to switch and doing a family plan shuffle (which I will be pulling). It should be possible to cancel your current account with AT&T and simply sign up for another with the same number, but this might be a bit tricky to pull off. Certainly the least hassle would be to simply switch from AT&T to Verizon or Sprint.

And that’s why AT&T sucks (today).

I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come.

Sad, but it looks like he’ll stick around as Chairman of the Board.

Here’s another great quote from many that I think is even more true today than when Steve said it in 1996:

I’m an optimist in the sense that I believe humans are noble and honorable, and some of them are really smart. I have a very optimistic view of individuals. As individuals, people are inherently good. I have a somewhat more pessimistic view of people in groups. And I remain extremely concerned when I see what’s happening in our country, which is in many ways the luckiest place in the world. We don’t seem to be excited about making our country a better place for our kids.

Via WSJ via Wired via Dad.

Since almost everyone I know has an iPhone, this seems like a nice solution. I’m not the only one excited: Apple Has Finally Stuck A Dagger Into SMS. I Love It.

And for those time when you actually do need to message non-iOS users, there’s free Google Voice. Dear carriers: suck it.

Update: More iOS 5 details from Engadget including some good bits on iMessage.  Gruber also quips:

I’ll cancel my SMS plan as soon as this ships.

(A well-informed little birdie tells me that Apple’s phone carrier partners around the world found out about iMessages when we did: during [the] keynote.)

Certainly the remote disc option that Apple cooked up for the original MacBook Air should still work just fine for the new Airs, but this solution is kind of clunky and requires a secondary computer with an optical drive as well as a properly configured network.  USB optical drives are similarly regressive.  Instead, think that Apple could (and should) sell a USB restore drive or downloadable upgrade package for Lion.

The first option would would certainly be the preferable way to upgrade a MacBook Air, but it would probably sell well even to users who still had optical drives on their Mac.  A USB thumb drive seems more reliable and rugged than a disc, it should work fine with any Intel based Mac, and would look cool on a key chain.   Apple would still sell Lion DVDs of course, but they could offer the USB drive for a small premium.

The second option for a download would be very convenient, especially to international users where shipping can be slow and expensive. Obviously, this would only work if Apple allowed purchasers to download the software multiple times and run it without requiring burning a bootable DVD, though that should be an option too.

We could see some interesting new Lion upgrade options Apple next summer!

I think the developers, TheCodingMonkeys, have really knocked the Carcassonne App out of the park. It’s one of the best examples of gaming on iOS yet. I especially appreciate the ability to play several multiplayer games at once and have the app notify me when it’s my turn to play on any one of them. This enables real pick-up/put-down gameplay that’s perfect for the iPhone on the go. But even if you don’t play with people, the CPU players are pretty good and can present quite a challenge (if you want them to).  Furthermore, despite the fact that it’s only optimized for the iPhone right now, I’ve found the game to be very playable when pixel doubled on the iPad.

The game is on sale for just $4.99 which is a steal for something with this kind of functionality and replayability. That price goes up to $9.99 when the iPad upgrade, which will be free to existing owners, goes live later this year. If you do pick it up, be sure to send me a friend request so we can play some games and remember, “Sharing is Caring.”

I’m still very pleased with my own; I read a book for a few hours last night on the device and I was very pleased with the reading experience. Viewing HTML5 video on the web is similarly nice; I certainly am not missing Flash support.

The iPad is not a substitute for a full fledged computer with a large hard drive, optical drive, keyboard, and mouse, but it certainly is my preferred lounging computer. Which is to say; I’d much rather use the iPad than a laptop or iPhone when I’m reclined on the couch or laying in bed. This is when the strength of the touch interface and form factor really shine.

I think the iPad has some nice potential as a gaming device, if the touchscreen doesn’t interfere too much with your game environment. It even might be useful for productivity applications (if you don’t need to use the keyboard too much; I’m typing up this post with the iPad just sitting on my lap but clearly a physical keyboard would work better for longer typing sessions.

Overall I’m quite pleased with the iPad; it’s already more functional than my netbook and it’s a heck of a lot easier & much more fun to use. I think well be seeing them all over the place pretty soon.

Apple is, unsurprisingly, not going to stand still and let Google Android and Palm WebOS get the upper hand on features. They pretty much went down the wish list of features for the update and checked of every one of them: copy/paste, push notifications, better Bluetooth support, and so on. Pretty much the only feature left out is background apps which Apple again dissed as a large source of battery drain.

Flash is also still a no-show, but that’s not a surprise, nor something I think Apple plans on addressing anytime soon. In any case, I still don’t think Flash would be any good on any phone device at this time.

Consumers get it this summer… I can’t wait.

A note about the cloud:

Cloud synchronization is a key theme for many great mobile apps, because, with a persistent internet connection, the iPhone is a revolutionary tool to connect your life when you’re out and about with your life on your computer. This is vitally important to mobile computing because no one wants to enter much information on a little device, but we want that information quickly accessible when we’re out and about. Synching with the could is already working magic for the first 3 apps above (they wouldn’t be on any top list without this feature), and you’ll be seeing it all over the place over the next year (for example, iWork.com).

Apple today announced that this is the last year for Christmas. Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing, spoke at a joint press conference held with Santa Claus at the North Pole this morning.

(Via DF.)

Apple today announced that this year is the last year the company will exhibit at Macworld Expo. Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing, will deliver the opening keynote for this year’s Macworld Conference & Expo, and it will be Apple’s last keynote at the show.

This is a huge black eye for IDG which runs the Expo. There used to be two Macworld Expos each year, one on the East Coast (Boston or New York) in the summer and one in San Francisco in the winter. The East Coast show shriveled up and died after Apple withdrew from the show (to refocus on WWDC and other smaller press events they had more direct control over). I have a hard time believing that the San Francisco show is destined for anything else now that Apple is out. Hell, Steve couldn’t even be bothered to show up this year, and Adobe, Belkin, Seagate, and others have already pulled out.

It’s a sad day for Expo fans.

The bits about the machining process were especially interesting to me because of my mechanical engineering background. I can only hope to someday design something so amazing.

(Via DF.)

Need a hint? He’s an iron man.

Sweetness.

The iFund is a $100 million venture capital investment initiative that will fund innovators developing applications, services, and components for Apple’s iPhone and iPod touch platform. Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB) has earmarked $100 million for this initiative and it will be managed by KPCB’s partners. Apple will provide KPCB with market insight and support.

More info on their site.

Update: Now with correct-o-meter.

The Yes

• New Small Form Factor Notebook: external optical drive, regular (non-flash) hard drive (though it may use flash memory on the motherboard to cache the hard drive & improve speed/battery life). Correct.
• iTunes Movie Rentals: DRMed? Very. HD? Maybe a few titles. Correct (number of HD titles remains to be seen).
• Managed iTunes DRM Movies on DVDs: Although few discs will have this feature. Correct, it slipped through the Keynote cracks though.  Unfortunately only on select Fox discs (what, no Disney?), see details here.
• Time Machine Supports Wireless Backup: Expect to hear lots about Time Machine during the keynote, but I wouldn’t expect new hardware. Correct, but wrong about new hardware (Apple couldn’t help themselves with Time Capsule).
• AppleTV Upgrade: Software only (no new hardware). Correct, free update for existing users, cheaper entry price.
• iPhone 16 GB: Easy yes. Wrong, look for this in a February Media Event with the iPhone Dev Kit release.
• Mac OS 10.5.2, iTunes 7.6, & iPhone 1.1.3: With demos (especially for iPhone), see above for reasons. Correct.

The No

• iPhone 3G: See you in Q3 (AT&T doesn’t have the HSPDA backbone for this yet). Correct.
• New Cinema Displays: Still in the pipe. WWDC perhaps. Apple wouldn’t have dropped the new Mac Pro models last week without them. Correct.
• More DRM Free Labels: Not the big ones. They want to leverage that power to Amazon. The indies are all in though. Correct.
• Tablets or Newtons: If it’s not an iPhone or iPod touch, you wont hear a peep. Correct.
• iPhone SDK Demo or Details: Sadly nothing firm on the SDK. Correct.
• New iWork/iLife: Obviously still too soon. Latest versions are 2008 anyway. Maybe next year. Correct.

The Maybe

• The Beatles on iTunes: If not now then certainly soon (perhaps an iTunes/iPhone media event in February for the iPhone SDK). Not yet.
• iPhone Third Party Developer Demo: I’m thinking they’ll demo with Sling or Google (Gears or Docs perhaps?) if anything. (Note this is different than SDK details.) Didn’t happen.

Overall, a pretty good batting average.

Some people are not pleased with this.

I am, so far, conflicted. Don’t fuck with my Feist.

I’m inclined to believe that the shots are of a prototype keyboard as discussed by Erik Barzeski and DF. I will say that it looks fantastic and I would love to have one even in it’s current unperfected state. I recently ordered myself a USB (full-size) keyboard of laptop style keys and, though I’ve yet to use it, my experience using a MacBook has converted me to prefer well made scissor keys over the plunger keys found on most keyboards.

In any case it will be interesting to see how the final keyboard revision turns out. This might be the first Apple peripheral that I have to pick up…

Check the new TV ads.

Woot.

The ‘Choose a Vista’ ad is spot on… even I don’t know what version of Vista to get. Though Apple does technically offer two versions of Mac OS X, the second being Server, the differences between the regular and Server version are clear (and all the versions of Windows they were counting don’t include the sever version).

‘Party is Over’ seems a bit of a low blow for Apple: Sure, you might have to upgrade your computer to run Vista, but the same is true for Mac OS X upgrades sometimes (though perhaps not to the same degree). The bit about software and peripherals not working is hypocritical too, since there are many examples of this on the Mac side. I’m thinking of particularly of the OS 9 to OS X transition and the PowerPC to Intel transition (though the later has been handled quite well considering it’s magnitude).

The ‘Genius’ spot is the best of the new bunch. The Genius Bar is a great resource for Mac owners and there’s not something comparable on the PC side unless you have a ‘PC Genius’ friend with lots of time to hep you. If only there were more cute female genii like the one in the ad!

Even better, check this Translation From PR-Speak to English of Selected Portions of Steve Jobs’s ‘A Greener Apple’ Article. Here’s my favorite excerpt:

Dear Greenpeace,

Fuck you.

Love,
Steve.

I couldn’t agree more.

(PR Translation from Jesper via Daring Fireball.)

I’m happy the series is staying strong.

Also check out John Hodgman (PC) on the latest episode of This American Life #329: Nice Work If You Can Get It. It’s even a free podcast download of it on iTunes or direct download MP3 from TAL (but these should only be up until April 13th and there’s only streaming downloads after that) so get them now.

(TAL link via DF)

Update (4/14/06): Looks like Apple forgot to post the third new ad, it’s called ‘Stuffed’ and it highlights all the crappy bundled software you have to pay for to actually use which is installed on most PCs out of the box. The problem is that Apple kind of does this with iWork by bundling a 30 day trial of it instead of giving it away with the computer.

Here it is on YouTube. I can’t wait to see this in HD from Apple.

Update (4/10): Apple has put it up here (or in HD). Nice!

The latest report from environmental group Greenpeace again rates Apple in last place of all technology companies the organization ranks.

“Apple, having made no progress since the launch of the Guide in August 2006, continues to languish in last place, far behind all other major manufacturers,” reads a statement from Greenpeace.

Damn, Greenpeace, I’m sorry that Apple hasn’t made any progress on the arbitrary, lip-service goals you set for them. I guess they were all to busy with that iPhone thingamajig… oh, and being ‘named a “Forward Green Leader,” one of the top ten environmentally progressive companies recognized by the Sierra Club in 2006.’

What a bunch of PR-Whoring Jackasses.

(Via Macworld.)

The config: Two 3.0GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon

The price: $1.5 grand over the base ‘Two 2.66GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon’ config

Shipping now, but no other price drops.

I don’t think that Photoshop or Final Cut can even effectively utilize 8 cores at once so I can’t see how this will be worth it except for the most demanding users doing 3D rendering and using scientific apps (for extremely multithreaded number crunching). Even Apple’s tests only show the 8-core model as being “up to 1.4 times as fast” as a 4-core 3.0 GHz machine.

(Via Engadget.)

Apple and EMI ditching DRM is good, but it’s not good enough:

Last night the lot of us Engadget editors went to bed with sweet dreams of a DRM-free world dancing through our little heads. Lo and behold, this morning we woke up and to our pleasant surprise, EMI announced that in conjunction with Apple, it would make its entire digital catalogue available on iTunes completely DRM-free. The watershed moment we’ve all been waiting for — the first of the Big Four music businesses makes one of the most pro-consumer moves we’ve seen in years. Or did they? Was today’s announcement a real commitment dedicated to consumers’ digital rights? Or was it a play for disenfranchised music lovers’ hearts? We have a feeling the answer lies somewhere in the middle — although we can’t help but feel the whole thing is gestural at best, and subterfuge at worst. Here’s why.

Read the rest.

Three things I’d like to note in reply:

Engadget’s criticism for Apple for still selling AAC tracks instead of generic MP3′s seems kind of frivolous to me. It’s like winning a computer and complaining that you didn’t also win a monthly stipend to cover increased power bill you get because of the computer. My point is that if the tracks are DRM-free then you are free to cross-convert them to any format you wish, including generic MP3s, very easily (iTunes will even do this for you). Sure many devices don’t support AAC now but that can be easily fixed with a firmware update. I even suspect that AAC support will become more common now that iTunes sells DRM-free tracks too. Also, Engadget’s mentions several MP3-player manufacturers that don’t support AAC, but one class of device that they don’t mention is cell phones where AAC support is fairly common (most MP3 playing Motorola, Sony Ericsson, and Nokia phones support the format).

Second is an issue that I haven’t seen discussed anywhere today. Two background facts about the new DRM-free system: 1) You’ll be able to ‘upgrade’ your past purchases to high-quality DRM-free tracks for 30¢/each, and 2) DRM-free full album purchases will not cost any extra once this system goes live. So my question is, what about full albums that I’ve purchased in the past but now want to upgrade to be DRM-free? Will it still be 30¢/track? What if it’s a 30-track album? That’s a $9 upgrade if I have to buy every track, which is probably close to the original purchase price. It would be nice to see a flat album upgrade fee (I would say $3 or less would be a fair price).

Finally, what about the free iTunes singles? Will they be available as high-quality DRM-free files (provided the record label is one that allows this)? Can I upgrade past free ‘purchases’?

In any case, this is interesting news and I’m excited to see how it all develops.

As of now, neither Apple nor Dell — nor Hewlett-Packard for that matter — is selling a single PVC- or BFR-free computer. So in truth, Greenpeace has graded Apple based on statements, not actions.

The article basically reflects what I’ve been saying for a long time: Greanpeace is just using Apple as a convenient target to get their own message out. Yes, I agree that computer manufacturers need to reduce the amount of dangerous chemicals used in their products, but singling out Apple while giving Dell and HP the pass is not the honest way to encourage change.

(Via DF Linked List.)

Some of these tactics are ones I used regularly working as a Genius. Number 6, ‘Practice puppetry’, was particularly helpful because I always had to remember customers were upset with Apple, not myself, even though they would address their complaints to me directly (“You make these iPods so break right after the warrantee expires!”).

Others are areas that I can see myself improving on if I ever worked a customer service related job again, like number 4, Take the blame’. Apple would do well to take note of several of the tips as well. Number 1, ‘Fix everything two ways’ particularly could use improvement on Apple’s part because it seems like even a technical guy like me has trouble getting through to them to tell them about a problem or bug in their software. I feel like Apple could also take heed of a tidbit number 3, ‘Make customers into fans’ too; it’s really important to reduce wait times to talk to someone about your problem. I can’t tell you how many time I started repair talks on a bitter note because someone was upset at having to wait 3 hours for a Genius Bar appointment or because they spent hours on the phone with Apple Care only to be referred to the Genius Bar to start the repair process over.

Some of these lessons obviously would be difficult to scale to large companies like Apple, any other large company for that matter, but it’s all the more important to consider them because of that. Joel is right, most customer service is so bad that we avoid it: I know that I want to complain to Wells Fargo about how they charged me debit card fees unjustly, but it’s not worth the money or frustration this would cause me to bother. It seems like the same is true at most ISPs, cable providers, cellphone companies, and computer manufacturers (and I include Apple in this category). I don’t know how this became an acceptable business practice (I have some partial theories) but it’s really inexcusable and it needs to be improved.

Now who wants to bust up some Starbucks?

(Via Swiss Miss though I seem to remember seeing this linked elsewhere before.)

All the actors and movies (almost all the movies I think) are available on this Flickr set.

Some more details from MacRumors.

My take: Brilliant! I loved John Cusack from High Fidelity and The Dude (can’t call him anything else) from The Big Lebowski but I was annoyed by the (one second) of Cameron Diaz (says a lot I guess). I got everyone from Steve McQueen on up except Burt Reynolds (and I should have got him because I watched Boogie Nights again recently… bad angle I guess).

Update: One of the responses that the Engadget mentions is from Macrovision CEO Fred Amoroso. It’s particularly idiotic and laced with PR-Speak, so the ever poignant Daring Fireball provides this translation. Here’s an excerpt of the translation relating to interoperable DRM:

Magic interoperable DRM would give people all the features and capabilities they get with DRM-free media.

The crux of the piece is that Apple would sell DRM free music if the big 4 music labels allowed this on the iTunes store, indeed Apple would prefer this to selling DRMed music.

It’s a fascinating read for several reasons. It’s an interesting new perspective on the business. But even more interesting is that Steve deemed this topic worthy enough to release this kind of statement. It’s not often you see this kind of open communication from a company like Apple, especially Steve himself.

It reminded me of this old series of screenshots showing the seven steps required to delete a desktop shortcut in Vista. To be fair, these pics were taken when Vista was still in beta & I had hoped (yes, I’d actually like Vista to be pretty good) that they would fix this issue in the retail release. Apparently they stuck with the “confirm everything” method of security, which just sucks all around.

Update (2/6/08): More on this security from this post by Jeff Atwood (thanks to Andrew Escobar for the link):

The problem with the Security Through Endless Warning Dialogs school of thought is that it doesn’t work. All those earnest warning dialogs eventually blend together into a giant “click here to get work done” button that nobody bothers to read any more. The operating system cries wolf so much that when a real wolf– in the form of a virus or malware– rolls around, you’ll mindlessly allow it access to whatever it wants, just out of habit.

I totally agree with that. Mac OS X does a really good job of only putting up warnings when they are expected and needed, it would seem that in Vista that’s not the case.

I like the new colors but they are a bit garish. Also it’s interesting to see Apple’s first metallic orange iPod and first orange product since the Tangerine iMacs and iBooks.

Also see the latest round of US ones that came out a few weeks ago. ‘Surgery’ and ‘Tech Support’ are pretty good.

Well there aren’t many answers, but here are a few good places.

For starters, read/watch all the info on the official page. Then Kottke has a nice iPhone info round up. Pogue answers more questions on these FAQs: 1 & 2. Finally, DF has some nice links & discussion here many cross over with Kottke and Pogue but there is some good discussion (search for iPhone to find them all).

I can’t say much original after all that. Of course I’ll be getting one. I will say that I’m concerned about how open the platform is to third party development. Right now the word on those is kind of a wait-and-see-not-really-fully-open but Rentzsch has a nice petition idea. I’ll still get one if it doesn’t have independent app development but I’d sure like the chance to write for the platform (I had several ideas as soon as I learned about what the device offered).

Anyway, there are still many questions that remain unanswered and a lot could change before the device is released in June.

Apparently, I wasn’t the only one puzzled by this so MacWorld has posted a little editor debate arguing each side of the issue. Needless to say, I’m with robg on this one.

Besides the points made in that article, I’d add that there are other services that do the same thing better (for example, YouTube’s cooperate overlords at Google Video; which allows easy downloading of videos for computer, iPod, or PSP). It would seem to me that reasons for YouTube’s popularity was because of the degree to which the service turned a blind eye to copy-writed content.

From my limited programing experience, I can tell you that C++ GUI Programming really would suck…