Posts Tagged: steve jobs

observatory / steve jobs — 8 Comments
6
Jul 11

Good riddance, “iSteve”

The universe has been set right again.

The legacy of Steve Jobs — master of simplicity and champion of good taste — will no longer be tarnished by a badly named biography. The book’s original title, iSteve: The Book of Jobs, is out. A vastly superior title, Steve Jobs, is in.

Whew, that was a close one.

In just five words, that original title managed to be cutesy, gimmicky and arrogant, all at once. It was hardly a fitting choice for a book of importance.

Though several articles deride the iSteve title this morning, it seemed to get away scot-free back when it was revealed. I almost felt guilty publishing my allergic reaction. Almost.

The only mystery to me is: how did iSteve ever become official in the first place? Not only was it gimmicky, it came years after Wozniak had already published his iWoz book.

Fortune reports that the original title can be blamed on Simon & Schuster’s publicity department. However, a world-renowned author like William Isaacson normally gets the final say in such matters.

As the story goes, the title was only changed after Issacson had second thoughts (meaning he did approve it in the first place). Absent in this scenario is any suggestion that Steve Jobs had an opinion — and you know how likely that is. Even if Isaacson had been granted autonomy in this project, surely he would at least sought out Steve’s counsel.

So I suspect the real story is a bit more convoluted than the one told by Fortune. Unfortunately, we’re not likely to discover the truth until some guy in Simon & Schuster’s publicity department publishes his own life story.

apple / apple news / observatory — 8 Comments
9
Jun 11

Steve Jobs’ alter ego

Just one day after superhero Steve Jobs appeared onstage at WWDC 2011, his humbler alter ego appeared before the Cupertino City Council.

Watch this 21-minute video and you’ll see what I mean.

This is a quieter Steve than the one you’re used to, with his distortion field dialed way down. That’s because this is one of those rare occasions when Steve actually needs the approval of someone else. He needs the Council to bless the plans for Apple’s new home.

Of course, there’s no doubt he’ll get what he wants. Cupertino can’t possibly say no. They would never, ever give up the prestige, jobs and tax revenue that comes with keeping Apple within the city limits.

It’s just that until the official vote is actually taken, Steve must follow protocol.

Not that he’s a pushover. As you’ll see in the video, he beautifully shuts down any suggestion that Apple will perform tricks to get the needed approval — like blanket the kingdom of Cupertino with free wi-fi. And he slams the door on any possibility that Cupertino will ever see its own Apple Store.

In fact, there’s a bit of The Godfather in him here. He may be quieter, but you get the feeling you’ll be safer if you don’t refuse his offer. He pulls his jacket open just enough to show he’s carrying the “I can always move to Mountain View” grenade.

But this is the diplomatic side of a man not known for his diplomatic side.

It’s easy for Steve to assume this role, because he owns the room from the moment he appears. The Council members act like they’re in the presence of royalty. At one point, the Mayor actually pulls out his iPad to show Steve he’s a believer.

But that’s all the fun stuff. Far more important — the new Apple HQ plan is breathtaking.

Not surprisingly, it perfectly reflects Apple’s values. No doubt Steve will invest far more in this site than most companies would ever dream of spending. And no doubt Apple will reap benefits far and above what most would accomplish by putting up a new structure.

To Steve, designing and building his new company home is no different than designing and building an Apple product.

It’s not worth doing unless it redefines the standard. He’ll do whatever it takes to make that happen.

apple / apple news / iMac / iPad / iPhone / iPod / itunes / mac / observatory / steve jobs / strategy / tablets / technology — 3 Comments
7
Jun 11

WWDC 2011: the morning after

Ah, the joy of software. This really is the stuff that makes Apple Apple, and it was fun to see such widespread improvements in one fell swoop.

As usual, some random day-after thoughts.

Mac OS X

Full-screen apps. This is a personal favorite. Can’t wait to see it in action. I currently use full-screen with all apps that enable it, and always appreciate the focus it brings. We’ve got the screen space — it’s a shame not to use it all.

Auto-Save. I look forward to not repeating some of the more humbling failures of my past. Turning the window title into a pop-up menu to access past versions is a nice touch. Being able to copy and paste from old versions is even nicer.

The feature count. Poor Lion. Only 250 new features. Leopard had 300.

Lion power, kitty price. $29 is amazing. Snow Leopard was the aberration at $29, compared to all the $129 Mac OS X upgrades before. But there was a reason for that — Snow Leopard’s changes were mostly in the plumbing. Lion is as rich an upgrade as any upgrade in history, but the price stays remarkably low. Why? My guess is that (a) Apple wants to move the entire base forward, because (b) there is far more money to be made down the road with a new foundation. I’m not being cynical, it’s just good business. The more people shopping in the Mac App Store and purchasing future iCloud capabilities, the merrier.

Space travel. I don’t know about you, but I’m sick to death of the current log-in star field and Time Machine theme. It wore out its welcome a long time ago, so I expected it to be replaced — but not by another space scene. Apparently, now we have a galaxy image. Apple has always delivered simplicity and elegance, and the space thing always felt like someone else’s idea of “cool.” Can’t we just pick our own backgrounds?

iOS

Feature count, revisited. Only 200 new features in iOS, compared to Lion’s 250 features. Obviously it’s harder to fit new features in a smaller screen.

The big payoff. To excite the crowd, Forstall showed off a slide stating that Apple has paid developers a total of $2.5 billion. It’s a great number until you do the math with the slide right before: customers have downloaded 14 billion apps from the App Store. Let’s see … 2.4 billion divided by 14 billion … that’s about 18 cents an app. Obviously, this says a lot about how many free apps are downloaded.

Notifications. Yippee! At last! It’s interesting that Forstall first confessed that there are problems current notifications, and then said, “We’ve built something that solves some of the problems…” Some?

Safari Reader. One of my favorite features. People may accept that ads pay the bills, but the ultimate reading experience will always be an ad-free zone.

Reading List. Love it. File away an article to be read later, and have that list appear on all your devices.

The geo-fence. Probably my favorite new term from the show (and very cool feature). In telling how Reminders work, Forstall talked about setting up a geo-fence around Moscone, so when he left the building he’d get a reminder. Hopefully, by winter we’ll have geothermal fences.

Camera. Despite talk about the quality of the iPhone camera, I rarely use it. One reason is the damn shutter button on the screen. Sorry, it’s awkward and just not the way we’re accustomed to using cameras. Using the hard Volume Up button as a shutter button makes me an instant fan. Photo-taking is also way improved by the new editing capabilities.

iMessage. It was presented as working across all iOS devices. What about the Mac? Wouldn’t I want to text people while I’m stuck at my desk?

iPhone 5 clue. With iOS 5 coming in the fall, the obvious conclusion is that it will come hand-in-hand with iPhone 5. I can hang in there that long.

iCloud

Demoting the PC. What a great example of Steve Jobs’ ability to simplify in the boldest way. He said they were demoting computers to be just devices, and moving the center of your digital life to the cloud. You get it in a second. And what PC company CEO on earth would say they’re “demoting” one of their biggest moneymakers?

Facing facts. When promoting iCloud, Steve paused to say: “Now why should I believe them? They’re the ones who brought me MobileMe … MobileMe was not our finest hour.” Say what you will about Steve, he dares to be honest.

DropBox killer? Nope. At least not yet. And I’m glad, because DropBox remains one of the greatest Mac utilities ever created. DropBox far out-iDisked iDisk, and its makers deserve to be rewarded, not obsoleted.

What about Me? Obviously the me.com site will ultimately be the icloud.com site. Do we still want me.com email addresses (did we ever?). Does the “me” word really have a place in the iCloud concept? We’ll soon find out…

Documents in the Cloud. Not the shortest name Apple has come up with. But it does have that “gorillas in the mist” meter going for it.

iTunes Match. Huge question mark. No one seems to know if this is a way to subscribe to iTunes versions of the songs you already own, or if your $24.99/year allows you to download the higher-quality versions of your songs to your own computer forever. So $24.99 is either one of the world’s great bargains — or not.

Antiquities. On one of the slides appearing behind Steve Jobs is a stack of CDs. Damn, they’re hideous. Did we ever actually use those things?

AAPL is down. It dropped five bucks yesterday. Down another $3.50 as I write this. Call this “iPad Syndrome.” Remember the industry’s reaction to the original iPad? “Just a big iPhone.” “No surprises, no new breakthroughs.” “Apple’s first dud.” The stock dropped. In broad strokes, just about everything we saw yesterday was “expected.” However, what’s expected can be the start of a whole new world. Like iPad.

The prognosticators. Not that we need to be reminded to take people’s opinions with a grain of salt, but… John Gruber’s pre-WWDC idea was “Think of iCloud as the new iTunes.” In fact, he’s still describing it that way after the show. It’s a good sound bite, but not totally accurate. In truth, iCloud is exactly what Steve Jobs said: the new hub of your digital life. Yes, that includes your iTunes content, but it also includes the things you create. For now, that includes the documents you create in iWork, but that capability will no doubt expand. iCloud is about your whole life — documents, photos, contacts, calendars, etc. — not just your entertainment. The Cult of Mac’s “exclusive” was obviously absurd, yet was quoted by many blogs and news services. They said iCloud would not be hosted in Apple’s new data center after all, but instead would reside on your Time Capsule (purchase required if you don’t already own one). Somehow it never struck them that Apple was signing contracts with the music companies for the rights to do something new with their music, not just store it on a personal hard disk.

All in all, good show. Let’s do it again sometime.

apple / apple news / iPhone / observatory / steve jobs / technology — 7 Comments
28
Apr 11

iPhone’s perfect storm

How I spent my winter vacation, courtesy of iPhone

If the iPhone location-tracking mess has you alternately muttering, “How dare they,” “Who the hell cares,” and “You tell ’em, Apple,” there’s good reason.

This particular blip in iPhone history is being fueled by three different forces.

For starters, there’s the growing national/global paranoia about our personal information falling into the wrong hands.

Then we have the never-ending obsession with Apple — with anti-Apple forces eager to pounce on any perceived chink in the armor and admirers eager to leap to the company’s defense.

Last, we have Apple tossing out its own statement yesterday — too late for some people’s tastes — and with enough fodder to give both sides some good ammunition.

Personally, I find it odd that people would get bent out of shape that their approximate location history has been stored somewhere in iTunes. (A) I could care less who knows where I’ve been, and (B) I thought we Mac users were so smug about our computers being safe and secure.

If someone did break into my computer, the iPhone location file is the last thing I’d care about them finding. My computer contains everything: my contacts, credit cards, bank accounts and information about the secret second family I have in Wisconsin. (Damn, I didn’t mean to say that out loud.)

The story gets bigger mostly because it involves Apple. In the last few weeks, there have been two far more serious threats to our confidential information, neither of which seems to have gotten as much press as LocationGate.

Just days ago, the Playstation Network was hacked. About 77 million had their email address and possibly credit card number stolen.

A short time ago, the marketing company Epsilon was hacked in the largest name and email heist in history. You’ve probably received a number of warnings from big companies who relied on Epsilon, advising that your email address has been compromised as a result. They’re very sorry for the inconvenience.

So excuse me if I don’t get upset that a hacker who hasn’t yet broken into my computer might one day sneak in and find out that I drove down to Florida a couple of months ago.

But now Apple blasts into the news with an official explanation. They say they’ve been silent because, basically, they’ve been working on it. They should know that the most frustrating part of air travel is when the pilot leaves us in the dark. A simple “we’re experiencing a delay, and I’ll get back to you when I have more information” would have sufficed.

Reportedly, Steve Jobs, Phil Schiller and Scott Forstall worked on the response together because they wanted to get it right. Unfortunately, parts of their explanation sound more like spin than they should. For example:

The iPhone is not logging your location. Rather, it’s maintaining a database of Wi-Fi hotspots and cell towers around your current location…

Kind of the same thing, isn’t it? I look at my own iPhone location map, and I’m sorry — those are in fact the locations I visited.

They say that saving a year’s worth of data is a “bug,” because it should only save a week’s worth. It’s also a bug that data collection continues even when you turn off location services. To common folk, bugs are things that make software crash or perform improperly. In both of these cases, the software is doing exactly what Apple told it to do. They seem to be more errors in judgment than bugs. Especially when we know that this information is collected on purpose.

In the end, I don’t think it’s a big deal. Apple could have been more straightforward, but I take them at their word that the collected data is anonymous and used only to improve future services.

In fact, this could be a huge moneymaking opportunity if you have the hacking skills. Imagine: Location Maps of the Stars. How fun it would be to see the 12-month location maps of the rich and famous — starting with Jobs, Schiller and Forstall.

apple / observatory / steve jobs — 2 Comments
21
Apr 11

The day Apple’s magic was born

Believe it or not, there was once a time when Apple didn’t use the word magic so often to describe its products in ads, events, launch videos and web pages.

In those dark times, they actually had to rely on such words as amazing and revolutionary.

However, an archaeological dig has unearthed the above video — in which a younger, fully bearded Steve Jobs reveals that the legendary Blue Box he and Woz invented was, you guessed it … magical. And this was before Apple even existed.

While it’s interesting to see that Steve’s fondness for the word goes back a long way, it’s even more interesting to hear Steve’s take on the technology adventure that led directly to the creation of Apple.

This is a slightly devilish Steve, not  quite as concerned about legalities as he is today. It’s also a very familiar Steve  — marveling at the wonder of a small device that can leverage the power of a vast information infrastructure.

To me, this is one reason why Steve Jobs has been able to change the world as he has. Even when his inventions were light years away from the ones we use today, his values were very much the same.

 

apple / creative / dell / observatory / simplicity — 10 Comments
24
Feb 11

Great ads vs. laundry lists

As we all know, ads can fail for a number of reasons: bad creative, bad strategy and bad clients.

It takes a special kind of client to understand that the best way to win a customer’s heart is to focus on a single compelling point — not to stuff a commercial full of goodness.

Some clients just have a laundry list of points they want to get into their ad, and they find it impossible to let go.

Even Steve Jobs is capable of having — as Pink Floyd once said — a momentary lapse of reason. I saw it with my own eyes at a meeting when Steve was trying to get the agency to squeeze a few more product benefits into an ad we were about to produce.

Sitting across the table from Steve was Lee Clow, past and current leader of Apple’s agency. Lee crumpled up 4-5 pieces of paper and tossed one to Steve. “This is a good ad,” said Lee, as Steve easily caught it.

Then, all at once, Lee tossed the remaining pile of crumpled balls of paper to Steve and he caught none of them. “That’s a bad ad,” said Lee.

If I’d known that the incident would have become a blog post, I’d have made it a point to remember if Steve then let us have our way. But I do stand behind the principle, as would most every right-thinking marketing person.

Simplicity beats complexity every time.

People tend to remember one thing well said better than a laundry list well recited.

Fortunately, just as I need to illustrate the point, Dell rushes in with a new ad. Or, more accurately, a new laundry list. It goes like this:

If you buy an Inspiron 15R (catchy name, fellas), you’ll get:

(1) More fun, (2) more control, (3) more durability, (4) more sales support, (5) for less, (6) with an Intel Core i3 processor for (7) faster multitasking and (8) McAfee Security Center. It concludes, of course, with the dueling theme lines, “You can tell it’s Dell” and “The power to do more.”

When y0u compare the Dell-style  laundry-list commercial to a more single-minded Apple commercial (like “Mac vs. PC), it’s not hard to understand why Apple is better at winning both customers and advertising awards.

apple news / observatory / steve jobs — 9 Comments
19
Jan 11

Steve Jobs and the Revolution Machine

With Steve Jobs out again on medical leave, the future of Apple automatically becomes the topic of the week (and possibly the year).

I’m concerned about Steve’s health, and wish him a speedy return. However, I’m not at all concerned about Apple’s health.

That’s because Steve’s most important accomplishment has not been any one revolution. It’s his design of a machine that manufactures revolution. That, of course, is Apple itself.

Steve started building the Revolution Machine the day he returned to the company in 1997. He well understood how Apple came to be in its near-death condition, and was determined to build a new company that would never be mediocre again. He didn’t waste a minute clearing out the dead wood, reorganizing and refocusing the troops. With iMac and subsequent products, he proved that Apple could defy all the dire predictions — but only if it entered a state of perpetual innovation.

He recruited the best and brightest, and made sure they’d never leave. (Stock options!) Now experienced over multiple revolutions, it’s the executive team that makes Apple do what it does. They share Steve’s passion, and they understand the difference between simply creating products and creating products people can love. Together, they’ve learned how to make a creative process repeatable.

Obviously, Steve’s vision is a unique part of the machine, and one that cannot be easily replaced. But his values have been instilled throughout the organization, and will be a guidepost for a long time to come.

That Steve has built a Revolution Machine is undeniable. His motivation is a bit more subjective.

Not to burst the critics’ bubbles, but he didn’t do it because he wants to take over the world, control our lives or become the richest man on earth. He did it because he loves Apple. He loves what the company stands for and feels responsible for those who work there. He wants Apple to thrive long after he retires from the scene, and remain a creative force around the world.

With the Revolution Machine in perfect working order, the chances of that are pretty darn good.

At product launches, when Steve acknowledges his executive team and/or those who helped bring Apple’s latest innovation to life, he means every word. He knows that what Apple does could never happen without them. He also knows that it will keep happening with them.

All that aside though … get well, Steve.

strategy — 6 Comments
2
Nov 10

The day Steve Jobs was wrong

future-crystal-ball2

It happened in 1997. Can’t quite remember exactly when or where. It doesn’t show up on Google, so I’m thinking it came at some internal Apple event or agency meeting.

Though some details are hazy, I remember Steve Jobs’ words precisely, because they were sober and stinging: “The battle for the desktop is over. And we lost.” *

Of course, he wasn’t tossing in the towel. He was simply trying to dispel the “beat Microsoft” mentality that still lingered in the Cupertino halls. What Apple needed more than anything was to be Apple again.

He compared Apple to BMW, which owned less than 5% of the world’s car market, but was still one of the world’s great brands. This was Steve’s vision: to cede quantity, but stun the world with quality and innovation.

Flash forward about 13 years and we find that the vision wasn’t exactly 20/20. It turns out that the desktop war wasn’t lost — it simply became irrelevant.

Technically speaking, the desktop war remains lost. Microsoft continues to own about 90% of it. Yet Apple is the most valuable technology company on the planet, and Microsoft now fights off the perception that it’s on the oblivion express. A thought that was unthinkable just a year or two ago.

Microsoft hauls in the cash with Windows 7, but plays second fiddle to Apple in music players, smartphones and tablets — consumer technologies that are all changing the face of business.

Funny, you don’t hear people talking about how Apple lost the desktop wars anymore. Certainly not Steve.

* At Macworld Boston in 1997, Steve did say “Microsoft won. The OS wars are over.” Close enough.

apple / apple news / iPad / mac / observatory / steve jobs / technology — 12 Comments
21
Oct 10

Mac’s day in the spotlight

Well, it was interesting (and refreshing) to see a little love lavished on the Mac side of things yesterday. As is the tradition around these parts, some random observations on Wednesday’s event:

FaceTime for Mac. Cool — even though we could see this one coming for miles.

Mac OS X Lion. The philosophical direction of Lion is consistent with everything we’ve heard in recent months: Mac OS X meets iPad. Expect these meetings to intensify in the future.

Mac App Store. This one is beyond huge, and exactly what Apple should be doing. In fact, I rambled on about this one here back in 2009. Imagine being able to buy your Mac apps the same way you buy your iPhone apps. Instant purchase, auto-install, auto-update. Customer reviews too. This is another gold mine for Apple, although it won’t come without controversy. Apple is injecting itself into the developer/customer relationship and demanding a cut, and surely some are going to buck. There are many open questions about how this will work, but it will happen — and it will make our lives way better.

Launchpad. Wow, convenient. I currently use third-party utility Overflow to do something similar. We may have to move them from the Happy Developer Column to the Swearing Eternal Revenge Column.

Misson Control. My secret confession: I rarely used Exposé and Spaces. I now realize that I hesitated for all the same reasons that Apple just combined both of them — along with Dashboard — into one convenient location. Thank you!

iLife ’11. Some cool additions, but the ground beneath my feet wasn’t exactly trembling. Love Movie Trailers in iMovie. Great price at $49 — but that’s just Apple’s way of saying, “Don’t expect $79 worth of upgrade.” I appreciate the honesty.

The black sheep. Poor iDVD. Nary a mention during the festivities. However, this is hardly unexpected, given Apple’s passing-over of Blu-Ray in favor of Internet delivery for video. Prepare for iDVD to be moved to hospice within a year or two. [Update: In all the excitement I glossed over the absence of iWeb — which is truly a mystery. It's not like people are less interested in making personal websites and blogs these days. This is an unfortunate omission, as it makes a statement about what Apple thinks is important, and how it allocates its software engineering manpower.]

The missing app. I had a secret wish, but it didn’t materialize. I was dreaming of new iLife app called iMagazine. It would allow mere mortals to use their Macs to create personalized, Apple-designed iPad magazines. Imagine combining your vacation photos and movies from iLife into a standalone iPad app that presents your whole story in gorgeous magazine format, as a series of articles. This could be uploaded and shared with friends and family around the world. In business, iMagazine would utterly revolutionize the idea of the “leave-behind.” iLife already empowers ordinary people to create and present all of these elements separately. Why not put them all into a Wired-quality magazine?

MacBook Air. This was needed. MacBook Air was starting to feel a bit like a hobby — a breakthrough idea that’s gone almost three years without an eye-opening update. This is looking cool enough that I’m starting to get the itchy trigger finger that often results in unbudgeted charges on my credit card. Believe Steve when he says this is the future of notebooks.

MacBook Air video. This is where I start to get cranky. It is not in Apple’s DNA to be formulaic. Yet these product videos haven’t varied in years. Same look, same feel, same cast of characters. Understood that normal consumers are not nearly as close to these things as we are, but honestly, it wouldn’t hurt to try a new format once in a while. There’s no chance they’ll drive people away — but there’s every chance they’ll make more of a stir. The product videos need to be just as creative as the products.

Missing in action. ’Scuse me, but where’s the new iWork? For every year that both iLife and iWork have existed (the last four versions), both suites were updated at the same time. This year, iLife went to the ball while iWork stayed home to scrub the floors. Curious.

Shipping dates. Wow. Either I missed something, or pretty much every product introduced today (except Lion, of course) is available immediately. Nicely played.

Last, I will note that this event shined the spotlight on a legion of Apple leaders. Probably more than we’ve ever seen in any one event. Even more interesting was the lead role given to Tim Cook at the start. Those making guesses about the secret line of succession have some good fodder to work with here…

advertising / apple / steve jobs / strategy — 6 Comments
31
Aug 10

The different-thinking iCEO

A classic video of “interim CEO” Steve Jobs has turned up as the result of an archaeological dig. (A discovery credited to John Paczkowski at All Things Digital.) In it, we see Steve introducing the Think different campaign to a group inside Apple 13 years ago, shortly after his return from exile.

Though a few sites have linked to the video, none have noted its exact place in history. This is actually the first moment that the Think different campaign was shared with a soul outside the group who’d been working on it.

If Steve seems more subdued than usual, there’s good reason. We kept him up past 3:00 am the night before, going back and forth with final revisions to the commercial he unveils at the end of this video.

In the end though, these are merely production notes. What’s really important is what Steve had to say. His presentation is both a primer on the value of brand advertising and an insight into the soul of a company. If you dismiss it as yet another example of Steve Jobs programming his automatons, well — you just don’t get it. This thinking is what separates Apple from the hundreds of companies who simply churn out products.

But there’s something else about this video, something that makes its content all the more remarkable. Most CEOs reject the idea of pure brand advertising even in successful times — and here is Steve making the pitch when Apple was on its deathbed. Rather than circle the wagons, Steve went on the offensive. He spent millions simply to tell the world what Apple stands for, believing that only a strong brand could propel the company through tough times.

I can pretty much guarantee that most of the marketing people who watch this video will go to bed tonight wishing they had a client like this. I can absolutely guarantee that only a tiny handful ever will.

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