While I’m not sure Ive has the charisma and “star power” of Steve Jobs, he certainly does have Jobs’ extraordinary vision and taste (Jony might even best Steve in these areas). I’m not 100% sure Ive is the man, but I can’t think of anyone better, either.
The bottom line is, there’s not going to be anyone who can fill Steve’s shoes. Ive has a better chance than most. Visit site »
With an official SDK in place, mark my words: Mac OS X mobile (or whatever you want to call it) is about to become the most significant platform in a long, long time.
Here’s hoping it’s pretty “open” to lots of developers. Visit site »
Cingely insists that Steve Jobs had the whole iPhone pricing thing planned from the start. That he intentionally over-priced the iPhone at launch, planned to drop it to the real price of $399, and planned to give users a $100 Apple Store credit if they complained. He notes that he has no inside info, so it’s all just speculation on his part.
I don’t really buy it, but it’s an interesting read nonetheless. Visit site »
A Long, detailed profile of Steve Jobs’ career, focuses specifically on his “fourth act” — the iPhone — and the impact its success or failure may have on his legacy. Visit site »
Steve Jobs himself went on about how much greater “real” iPhone apps are than web-based apps at D5. A few days later, at WWDC, he told Mac developers that writing web-based apps for the iPhone was a “very sweet solution.” Huh? Visit site »
Gruber has basically the same take as me on this year’s WWDC: meh. Leopard looks neat enough and I certainly do want it, but there’s nothing I’ve seen that really feels revolutionary. Everything is just nice incremental changes. The one exception — maybe — is Time Machine, but we saw that a year ago, so it didn’t feel that exciting this time around, either.
The iPhone-doesn’t-require-an-SDK thing was pretty lame. We’ve all known that you could — and that people will — build web apps targeted at the iPhone for six months now. That’s neat, but it’d definitely not the same as writing apps for the iPhone. The lack of real third-party development on the iPhone isn’t a deal-breaker for me, but it’s certainly a bummer. And it just doesn’t make very much sense. Every other mobile phone on the market today has downloadable third-party apps. Every single one. Steve’s lines about it reducing stability or security are bullshit. It’s god dammed Mac OS X, right? If so, then it has memory protection. If allowing third-party development for the iPhone is unreliable and insecure, then so is allowing third-party development for Macs. And yet, Apple allows that.
Apple should just say what it means: It is going to ride out the iPhone as a closed platform for as long as it can. Eventually, they’ll probably let some choice companies in on development for it. This is exactly the plan Apple has used with the iPod, and it’s worked beautifully. I don’t blame them for wanting to repeat it with the iPhone. But why can’t they just say it?
Safari on Windows was a nice surprise. Doesn’t affect me a lot personally, but I’m glad to see it happen.
And finally: does anyone else think that Steve Jobs is personally obsessed with Cover Flow? In reading the MacRumorsLive coverage of the Keynote today, almost every line ended with “Cover Flow.” Pretty much every app on Leopard and the iPhone now include some for of Cover Flow. Hell, even the Apple website now includes Cover Flow as a means of navigation. It’s just starting to feel like Steve’s pet gadget and I just have this impression of the designers at Apple rolling their eyes every time Steve asks for it again. “Well, guys, Steve pretty much liked the new version of iCal. However, he wants you to be able to browser your to-dos using Cover Flow. Yeah, I know. But, Steve said. Sorry, guys.” Visit site »
Engadget has a rough transcript of the conversation. Sounds like it was really thoughtful, fun, entertaining, and respectful. Hopefully they’ll be a video or audio released sometime. Visit site »
Apple and EMI today joined announced that EMI music will be available from iTunes DRM-free. Even though it was obvious the momentum was heading in this direction, I still wasn’t going to believe it until I saw it. This is a big day for consumer rights. Here are the nitty details:
Apple has announced that iTunes will make individual AAC format tracks available from EMI artists at twice the sound quality of existing downloads, with their DRM removed, at a price of $1.29/€1.29/£0.99. iTunes will continue to offer consumers the ability to pay $0.99/€0.99/£0.79 for standard sound quality tracks with DRM still applied. Complete albums from EMI Music artists purchased on the iTunes Store will automatically be sold at the higher sound quality and DRM-free, with no change in the price. Consumers who have already purchased standard tracks or albums with DRM will be able to upgrade their digital music for $0.30/€0.30/£0.20 per track. All EMI music videos will also be available on the iTunes Store DRM-free with no change in price.
All in all, this seems quite fair. EMI is obviously using the DRM-free tracks as a way to increase full album sales (by not changing the price for DRM-free and higher sound quality on album sales, but making them $0.30 more on a per-track basis), but I can live with that.
Thanks you, EMI, for being the first big boy to see the light, and thank you, Steve Jobs, for helping convince them. Visit site »
Steve posts a 2000-word essay on Apple.com stating that his company would “embrace wholeheartedly” DRM-free music and would sell songs on iTunes without any DRM “in a heartbeat” if the labels would let them. Jobs also has a few good points about why licensing FairPlay isn’t as easy as it sounds. Overall, this reads as though Jobs is really frustrated with the labels and is trying to exert his influence over the public. It’ll be very interesting to see how effective it is. Visit site »
This guy, who used to be the editor for Windows magazine, is clearly not an Apple fan and totally biased. As such, he says a lot of idiotic things. That having been said, I do sort of agree that Apple blew its wad a bit early on this one. I understand the need for a pre-annouce of the iPhone, what with the FCC approval and all — but six month? They should have announced in in March or something. Visit site »
Hard to argue with Pogue’s dedication here. THis guy has seemingly spent the last week doing nothing but trying to get answers to all the ambiguity Jobs left over the iPhone. I think my favorite part of this one is where Steve says, “Java’s not worth building in. Nobody uses Java anymore. It’s this big heavyweight ball and chain.” Indeed. Visit site »
Steve Jobs is quoted in this Times article as saying that while Apple will control the availably of software for the iPhone, it won’t necessarily write it. Perhaps even more interesting is this tidbit: “Several Apple insiders said the phone could be upgraded to 3G with software if Apple later decides to do so.” If that’s true, it’s a huge fucking deal. Visit site »
“It also means that our co-founder Steven P. Jobs, will rejoin Apple, reporting to me. I know I speak for everyone at Apple in welcoming Steve home.” - Gil Amelio. Doh! Visit site »
Fake, and yet so true. Very funny. Visit site »
A G-Unit branded Mac? Bizarre. Can’t say I saw this one coming. Is Dre involved? If so, I want a new Macbook Pro branded with some old skool Death Row graphics. Now that would sell. Visit site »
Several “lessons learned” from the presentations of Steve Jobs. Visit site »
Classic turn-arounds and mind-changes from Apple for its 30th b-day. I think the real lesson is how brilliant Jobs is at making his mistakes look like “I meant to do that.” Visit site »
A great list, but missing one of my favorites: “You go to the computer to turn your brain on; you go to the TV to turn your brain off.” Visit site »
“…it turns out that Jobs is not marginal, or eccentric, or even fanciful at all. His is the at-one-with-the-American-consumer golden gut. He’s the ultimate media guy.” Visit site »
Yes, I know I’m a day late an a dollar short. It’s been posted everywhere now. But still. I like it. A lot. Is it sad that I get a little weepy-eyed watching this? (I’ve liked Michael’s mirror, instead of the original). Visit site »