Steve Jobs in Heaven

Quite Possibly the Best Steve Jobs Story Ever

From Plucky Tree (via Daring Fireball):

Steve was heading towards a car parked next to the curb with its door open, waiting for him. The car was idling. A family was standing near the Apple sign outside the building, a common site for people to take photos on their pilgrimages to Apple. 

The father turned to Steve as he passed close by and asked, "Excuse me, sir, would you mind taking our photo?"

Steve paused for a moment as an iPhone was extended to him, realizing that they didn't seem to know who he was. With a hint of enthusiasm, he said "Sure!" as he took the iPhone into his hands.
Steve took a great deal of care composing the photo, backing up a few steps several times, tapping the iPhone screen to lock focus, then said "Smile!" as he snapped the photo, grinning a little bit himself to encourage the family to follow suit.

He handed back the iPhone and they said "Thank you, sir" as Steve stepped into his car, closed the door, and was driven away. The family looked at the photo that Steve had taken and all agreed that it looked great. Then the iPhone was pocketed and they were on their way.

Steve Jobs in a Nutshell

From Jason Snell at MacWorld:

Steve Jobs didn’t invent those products singlehandedly in his garage, legends be damned. There are hundreds of brilliant people at Apple who deserve the credit for making the company’s incredibly popular products. But Steve Jobs was the guy who created the environment those products were built in. He’s the one who prodded the people at Apple to make their prototypes better. He made Apple what it is. What the company does from here on out, it does because of him.

Exactly.

Quote of the Day

"Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things. And the reason they were able to do that was that they’ve had more experiences or they have thought more about their experiences than other people."


-Steve Jobs

But the Show Must Go On

The past several years, when people would ask me who I would like to meet if I could, my answer was always Steve Jobs.  Then the question would change.  "Okay, alive or dead, who would you want to meet?"  Well, that changed things.  There are a whole slew of people that are dead that I'd want to meet - Jesus, Disney, John Wayne, Lincoln, Washington, Franklin, Crockett, Houston, and the list goes on.  But in the living world, Steve Jobs was at the top of my list.

Here was a guy I could emulate.  He wasn't perfect, but the way that he thought about things, how he looked at things and his rebel streak were all so interesting to me.  He was one of those rare people about whom you can say, "he changed the world."  And mean it.

I have a good friend who actually got to work with Steve, and for that I'll always be jealous.  I would've loved to work at Apple - or even just to be a fly on the wall - and see how Steve worked on a daily basis. Steve was a visionary.  He not only came up with ideas, but he looked at the ideas of others in a way that no one else had.  He saw ways to incorporate those ideas with other ideas, to mash them together, to come up with the same type of product that others were already making (computers, music players, phones, tablets, etc.) but in a distinctly unique way.

It was Steve Jobs that taught me that it was okay to be particular and unapologetic about your opinions regarding design and things that you thought made things better.  It's okay not to like to see screws on a laptop chassis or to hate the sound of a fan in your computer.  And then work toward a world where those things don't exist, even if it's only in your little section of the world.

Some people referred to Steve's ability to see the world the way he envisioned it with laser-like focus - and to draw those around him into his vision - as his "reality distortion field."  People with great vision have a way of doing that.  Steve's keynote addresses were famous for that.  But in the iPhone 4S keynote presentation yesterday, there was a distinct lack of a reality distortion field.  Watching the video, it seemed as if the presenters were doing the best they could, half-heartedly.  There was almost a somber tone.  It seemed as though something were weighing on them.  I assumed that it was because they were trying their best to unveil a product that they knew people weren't going to be thrilled about, regardless of how amazing it is.  Only geeks care about tech specs.  Normal people just want something new and shiny and different.  Looking back on the video now, it seems to me that they knew why that seat up front marked "reserved" sat empty.  But they couldn't say anything.  They knew that their friend, their coworker, their boss and their mentor was dying.  They had to go through with the presentation, anyway.  But the show must go on.

There's even been some speculation, based on the fact that no time of death has been given, that Steve actually died on Tuesday and that the announcement of his death was held off for a day so that the news wouldn't overshadow the iPhone 4S announcement.  Steve was such a showman, so conscious of timing and of a good presentation that it certainly seems plausible, at least.  I doubt it, but it seems plausible.

I suspect that Apple shares will tank today.  For whatever reason, people just weren't satisfied with the iPhone 4S announcement and saw it as a misstep - the first without Steve at the helm.  That's not true, of course.  The iPhone 4S has been in development for well over a year.  Steve had his hand in it.  But because it was a speed bump and not a new form factor people are calling it a failure.  People were expecting to go to prom, but all they got was a Homecoming dance.  And now the prom king is dead.

This reminds me of Hurricane Rita.  It came hot on the heels of Hurricane Katrina and people simply panicked and over-reacted.  If Hurricane Rita had happened in a year other than Katrina, it wouldn't have been such a big deal.  In the same way, if Steve Jobs' death hadn't occurred the day after an underwhelming product announcement, people might just shrug it off.  But because of the events' proximity, I think people will equate the two.  I don't , but people will be people.

Today is going to be an interesting day.  Apple will survive without Steve Jobs.  As will Disney.  As will Pixar.  But it's certainly going to be different.  A legendary man has died.  A visionary. An innovator.  A leader.  A force to be reckoned with.  An inspiration.  An icon.

But the show must go on.

Think Different

I never saw this version before today.

View here is you're seeing this on Facebook:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rwsuXHA7RA&feature=player_embedded#!

Steve Jobs Dead at 56

Rest in peace, Steve.  Thanks for everything.

Slow Separation

I have a theory.

I think that Steve Jobs might not be as dire as I, and everyone else, thinks. Sure, I think he's sick, but I doubt if he's on death's door. Hear me out on this:

If news had broken today that Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple had died - even while on medical leave - Apple stock would have tanked (and it still might). People don't like abrupt change, especially when it comes to the leader of the largest corporation in the US.

However, by resigning first and staying on as Board Chairman, there's still some Steve Jobs leadership, but Apple now has Tim Cook at the helm. I think that the plan is to let everyone get used to Tim Cook - and to see that the sky in't falling - while Steve Jobs is still around. He's distancing himself, albeit slowly, from Apple's leadership role.

Then in six months if, God forbid, Jobs should die of his illness, then there's six solid months of proven track record under Tim Cook. And then investors might not panic as much. The longer Steve hangs on, the better for Apple's stock price when he does die.

I think Steve is all about gamesmanship, and this is a smart, smart move.

Steve Jobs Resigns

From AppleInsider:

To the Apple Board of Directors and the Apple Community:

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.

I hereby resign as CEO of Apple. I would like to serve, if the Board sees fit, as Chairman of the Board, director and Apple employee.

As far as my successor goes, I strongly recommend that we execute our succession plan and name Tim Cook as CEO of Apple.

I believe Apple’s brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it. And I look forward to watching and contributing to its success in a new role.

I have made some of the best friends of my life at Apple, and I thank you all for the many years of being able to work alongside you.

I've had a nagging suspicion why we haven't seen any photos of Steve in the past several months. Now I guess we know why.

One thing about Steve Jobs: he's not an easy quitter. It has to be really, really bad.

God bless you, Steve. And thanks.

The Apple Mothership ... Literally

From TUAW:

At a Cupertino City Council meeting last night, Steve Jobs presented plans for Apple's new campus off I-280 in Cupertino. As you can see from the image above, the campus resembles a spaceship. The entire campus will be one huge round building with a courtyard in the middle. The building itself will be four stories tall, and Apple plans to re-landscape the current area to include 6000 trees. A natural gas energy center will be on-campus to power the new building, and Apple will only rely on California's power grid as a backup.

Sweeeeeeeeeeeeet. But wait - it gets even cooler than the building creating its own freaking power:

Speaking to the City Council, Steve Jobs described the new campus (as transcribed by MacRumors): "It's a pretty amazing building. It's a little like a spaceship landed. It's got this gorgeous courtyard in the middle... It's a circle. It's curved all the way around. If you build things, this is not the cheapest way to build something. There is not a straight piece of glass in this building. It's all curved. We've used our experience making retail buildings all over the world now, and we know how to make the biggest pieces of glass in the world for architectural use. And, we want to make the glass specifically for this building here.

And then there's this from Macrumors.com:

The facility will be 80% landscaping, with most of the parking underground, compared to 20% landscaping with all above ground parking currently. The current campus has 3,700 trees and Apple plans to increase that to more than 6,000 trees, including "some apricot orchards."

Much of Cupertino, and specifically where the Apple campus currently sits, was once apricot orchards in the early days of Silicon Valley. Poetic.

See the entire presentation here:

The New Apple TV: FAIL.

Yesterday, Steve Jobs unveiled the new version of the AppleTV, and with it a huge assumption - and I think mistakenly - about how people use it.

The next iteration of the AppleTV will feature no onboard storage, but also limits you to renting, not buying, TV shows and movies. Steve Jobs obviously didn't ask anyone with small kids how they use their Apple TV. Owning media is a huge plus for our family. We can buy a season -or a single episode- of iCarly or Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and the kids can (and do) watch the hell out of them. Kristi and I do the same thing with TV shows we've purchased, specifically Mad Men, Toddlers and Tiaras, How I Met Your Mother and Cake Boss.

So Steve Jobs is wrong - people DO want to own their media. And for most people, renting (and paying each time they want to watch) will be simply unacceptable.

This quote from The Apple Blog sums it up nicely:

Call me old-fashioned, but I like archiving my material and I like to have it available whenever I want to review it, or just revisit a favorite scene to make sure I remember it correctly. True, as Steve Jobs said in the presentation, I’ll be able to rent it multiple times for cheaper than I’d be able to buy it, but then I can’t lend it to friends and family, pass it on to my kids or view it again 50 years down the road when its gone out of print.

An easy solution would have been to allow purchases that saved directly to an iTunes-enabled computer. But no mention was made of anything like that. My question is this: will my current Apple TV be crippled by this new limitation,as well? Or will I still have the ability to purchase single episodes of shows?

The new Apple TV represents video-on-demand at its purest. But it's also a step backward 30 years to a time before Beta and VHS tapes allowed people to actually own the movies they loved.

And then there's this: my DSL modem crapped out on me over the weekend and we've been without internet all week, which means no Netflix and no downloading of the TV shows that we've bought season passes to. The movies and TV shows we've already purchased and have stored either on our AppleTV or our computer have been the only thing we have available to watch until our replacement modem arrives.

With a two-year-old in the house, having those shows stored locally is well worth the price of the hard drive they're stored on.