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Apple Announcement: How Steve Jobs Made Geek Culture Cool

A blog about media, entertainment, celebrity and the arts. Speakeasy is produced by Christopher John Farley, Michelle Kung, and Steven Kurutz, with contributions from the Wall Street Journal staff and others. Write to us at speakeasy@wsj.com.

<a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2010/09/01/apple-announcement-how-steve-jobs-made-geek-culture-cool/tag:news.google.com,2005:cluster=http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2010/09/01/apple-announcement-how-steve-jobs-made-geek-culture-cool/Wed, 01 Sep 2010 14:30:40 GMT 00:00″>Apple Announcement: How Steve Jobs Made Geek Culture Cool

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Steve, I'm disappointed

A couple of weeks ago, Bryan Webster (whoever he might be) emailed Steve Jobs with the following message: Are google taking the piss? I hope you have some good WWDC announcements to blow them out the water?

Steve replied fifteen minutes later with what every Apple lover wanted to hear: you wont be disappointed.

Now, I cant speak for Bryan, but I can tell you now, Im disappointed.

Of course, there was plenty to be excited about in Steves keynote. iPhone 4 looks astounding, and I cant wait to get my hands on one. Renaming iPhone OS to iOS is something that has needed to happen for a long time theres no more clunky iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad, now its simply iOS devices. Easy to write, easy to read. Brilliant.

Hell, I even think the bumpers that Apple announced for the iPhone are a great idea.

(Im less excited about Farmville coming to the iPhone, but Im probably not the target Farmville demographic.)

So why am I disappointed? Well, there are just no surprises any more. Steves WWDC keynote was like a Christmas present that you choose for yourself: theyre still great and frankly, exactly what you want but the excitement of unwrapping them just isnt the same.

Weve been spoilt by knowledge that half of Apples own employees probably arent even privy to before the big events.

I could blame Gizmodo for the iPhone saga, but frankly, if it didnt publish the images, someone else would have. and Australian Macworld isnt averse to publishing the odd rumour. Let he who is without sin and all that.

It used to be that waking up at 3am to follow a live blog of a Stevenote would bring untold surprises. sure, there were always hints and blurry images circulating amongst the die-hard fans, but that just added to the excitement. Surely Apple wont release that weird looking fat iPod nano, we all cried. It was quickly followed by the inevitable response: Wow, it looks so much better than it did in those blurry photos! perhaps its Apples supposed reality distortion field, or perhaps the photos courtesy of mr Blurrycam just didnt show the nanos potential. (I must admit, the same is true for me and iPhone 4s seams they look okay now that I know what theyre for.)

You see, the problem doesnt lie with these geeks and nerds (of which I consider myself one, so theres no need to write in and lambast me for being nerdist): Apple has wholeheartedly moved from the underground to the mainstream. Apple no longer means a few sexy white gadgets that a tiny subset of the population lusts after. It now sells to the mass market. With the iPad it has even created a mass market. iPhones are everywhere, and iPads would be everywhere if Apple could keep up with demand. Its just a matter of time before all these new iOS users (see, its much easier) switch to Macs too, and then theyll be everywhere as well.

Apple going mainstream means that these rumours get a whole lot more attention than they used to this stuff is now suddenly very newsworthy. Gizmodos iPhone images were featured on countless websites, big and small, they were shown on the TV news, and many of my very un-technological relatives and friends all seemed to know about the new iPhone. Australian morning TV shows even advertised the night before the keynote that they would have exclusive photos of the iPhone the following day.

Quite frankly, everyone knew this was coming.

Then out of nowhere (almost), there was a new Mac mini released this week. Although I got the leaked specs an hour or two before the Apple Store came back up, I was happy to see a brand new unibody design appear before me. Apple appears to be back on form with unexpected brilliance.

So come on Apple, keep the announcements coming this month with a new Apple TV. Weve heard a few rumours about it running iOS, and looking a bit like an iPhone, but we havent actually seen it yet. Consider our appetites whetted.

Dont leave it up to a tech blog to leak the images before its out. I guess it’s not likely to be left in a bar, but if it’s out in the wild, it will show up on the internet there are just too many hits up for grabs nowadays.

Just announce it already. Next Tuesday is fine. maybe even the one after. and take the Apple Store down to add it. we know its not necessary, but it does get us nerds all fired up.

Then we really wont be disappointed.

<a href="http://www.macworld.com.au/blogs/view/steve-i-m-disappointed-5102tag:news.google.com,2005:cluster=http://www.macworld.com.au/blogs/view/steve-i-m-disappointed-5102Thu, 17 Jun 2010 08:30:24 GMT 00:00″>Steve, I'm disappointed

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12 big things we didn't see at WWDC 2010

Like the lead-up to any big, annual Apple event, the weeks and months ahead of this year’s WWDC brought the usual wash of rumors about new hardware, software, and online services.

The biggest unknown was not so much on the hardware side–as we all knew there was a newiPhone on the way (even what it looked like and whose fault that was), but the software and online services portion remained a mystery. this is typically the chunk of the WWDC keynote where Steve Jobs and company go into detail about the latest operating system tweaks and new software offerings.

There were rumors on both sides of the spectrum ranging from paid services like MobileMe going free and iTunes getting a streaming component to a fancy new wireless trackpad. Read on to get the details.

1. OS X 10.7

Apple’s preview of OS X 10.6, nicknamedSnow Leopard, happened at 2008’s WWDC. 10.5 was unveiled during 2006’s keynote, and 10.4 in 2004’s. following that logic, 2010’s show would bring a preview, or at least an acknowledgment that Apple had 10.7 in the oven. Though given the focus on Apple’s iOS, and the shiny new device that will run on it, it’s not all that surprising we didn’t hear a peep.

An OS update, especially for the desktop, would have likely filled an hour or two on its own. Yet, the downside of this omission is that the eventual preview of that update will likely be shelved until next year’s show, since WWDC is Apple’s only big developer event of the year.

2. A developer preview for theiPad’s iOS 4

When introducing OS 4 at a preview event back in April, Jobs said we’d be seeing a public release of it for the iPad sometime this fall. Again, logic would dictate that developers would get their hands on a build of the iPad 4.0 SDK at Apple’s big developer event, alongside the first beta of the firmware for testing on real devices.

So why the no-show? Apple has likely had its hands full getting the iPhone and iPod Touch version of OS 4 ready to go in time for the iPhone 4 launch in two weeks. And developers only got their hands on the gold master candidate version of that late Monday. maybe the delay was to include some new OS features being baked into the next batch of iPods this fall.

Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer at CES 2010.

(Credit:James Martin / CNET)

3. A Steve Ballmer appearance

In a note to investors, Global Equities Research analyst Trip Chowdhry claimed that Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer would be giving a seven-minute presentation of Visual Studio 2010 during the WWDC keynote. this was vehemently denied by Microsoft reps, then later retracted by Chowdhry, though many large news outlets (including us) picked up the story and ran with it.

There was some semblance of truth to the rumor of Microsoft having a presence at the keynote, in the form of Jobs announcing that Microsoft’s Bing was now a search option in Safari, both on portable devices and on the desktop software.

4. iTunes streaming service

Like Apple’s annual “buy a Mac, get a free iPod” promotion, which always manages to end just a few days before the company announces a new model, it seemed just a little too convenient music-streaming service Lala, which Apple bought back in December of last year, was being shut down just a week before WWDC.

Prior to Apple picking up the company, sources had told CNET that Apple was planning to purchase the company primarily for its music streaming technology and engineering talents. It seemed fair then (given the timing), that Apple would fill in the gap Lala.com’s closure had left with something similar built right into iTunes, though that never came to fruition during Monday’s keynote. Then again, given Apple’s propensity for having its “music” events in September, we might just have to wait three months.

Another good thing that is likely to keep such a service coming is pressure from Google, which just a few weeks prior had demoed its free music streaming service, which uses technology from SimplifyMedia–a company Google had quietly acquired back in March.

5. Free MobileMe

Everyone loves a free lunch, and in the case of Apple’s MobileMe–that was the rumor de jour. 9to5Mac’s Mark Gurman spotted some interesting wording in the preferences pane of MobileMe that changed the name of the account type from “individual” or “family plan” to “full member,” which lead to speculation that Apple would be offering a free service.

The evidence a little thin you say? That’s a fair assessment, however keep in mind the number of services Apple has added to MobileMe (formerly .Mac) over the years has grown substantially. that, and large chunks of it like the Web mail, photo hosting, and calendar tools are offered free (with advertising) by competitors. There’s nothing to say Apple wouldn’t offer some basic parts of it for free, and charge to upgrade to the more advanced features. after all, it’s done that with its QuickTime software for years.

6. iLife ‘10

The steady march of iLife updates has consistently taken place every January since 2003 with the exception of iLife ‘08, which debuted during a special presentation in early August of 2007. And of course this year, where Apple’s pull out of the Macworld Expo, which began in earnest at 2010’s show, meant that the company’s iLife software suite was a no show too.

The biggest question since then has simply been when Apple will release its big update. With 2010 already halfway over, it’s not too outlandish that Apple will simply skip on to iLife ‘11, or bundle that news together with this year’s iPod event.

Will the iPhone be available in the U.S. on another carrier besides AT&T? Certainly. the real question is when and which carrier.

The rumors that Apple was striking up a deal with Verizon have been simmering for years. One big one came from 9to5Mac in 2008, which claimed an iPhone would be coming to Verizon at the end of the year, maybe even at Macworld in January 2009, however that obviously turned out not to be the case. Fast forward to March of this year and there was a Wall Street Journal story with a source that claimed one of Apple’s contract manufacturers was building CDMA-compatible (read: Sprint and Verizon) iPhones.

While this didn’t quite shake out with the announcement of the iPhone 4 at WWDC, the possibility of the iPhone landing on another U.S. carrier is inevitable.

8. the Mystery Multitouch trackpad

Meet the rumor that seemingly came out of nowhere. Engadget snagged photos of a largish, multitouch track pad peripheral, basically the same ones you find on Apple’s notebooks, but wireless and usable on a desktop machine.

Little was known about the device, and still is, besides the fact it uses Bluetooth, is silver, slightly shiny, and remains unannounced.

9. A $99 AppleTV

The AppleTV has been Apple’s most curious product in the last few years. unlike the vast majority of the company’s hardware efforts, it has remained largely unchanged since its introduction at an Apple event in late 2006. Apple has pushed out two major system software reinventions and bumped the built-in storage, but otherwise it’s the same machine.

Reports that Apple was working on a cheaper and more capable version of the hardware surfaced late last month. Blog Engadget had a source that claimed Apple was readying a version that made use both of Apple’s in-house A4 processor and that ran a modified version of the iOS. Such a device could still surface later this year if, or rather when Apple hosts its annual iPod event. Though if it is in fact running the iOS, Apple likely would have wanted to get developers on board so they could get a head start on building apps for it.

10. A Mac Mini refresh

The Mac Mini is another piece of long-outdated hardware. in fact, its last big update was in late October when Apple gave it a modest bump in processing power and doubled up on the RAM. Still, its graphics card has lagged behind what has been available on Apple’s notebooks. both the MacBook and MacBook Pro lines now feature a beefier Nvidia GeForce 320M chip, which MacBook Pro users can bump up to the 330M version, which packs twice the memory.

More importantly, two separate reports from AppleInsider pointed to Apple adding an HDMI port to the Mac Mini instead of the DVI connector that exists there now. Given the no-show of the Apple TV, maybe there’s more to that delay than meets the eye. AppleInsider had also received reports from sources that supply of the machine was drying up both from Apple and third-party resellers, which is usually a good sign that a refresh is on the way.

11. A new MacBook Air

Apple’s ultraslim laptop, which was launched by Apple in January 2008, has remained largely unchanged short of some slight adjustments to things like the trackpad, the internals, and the video-out jack. in fact, it hasn’t had an update since this time last year, which in the world of electronics means either a very large update is due, or it’s time to put it on deathwatch.

The third option, and one that makes more sense, is that Apple has quietly replaced the Air with the iPad. in fact, that much was said to CNET’s David Carnoy at his local Apple Store, where he was attempting to purchase an Air in place of an iPad that was out of stock.

This is not a real iPod Touch with a camera–at least not yet.

(Credit:Apple / CNET)

12. an iPod Touch with camera

A version of the iPod Touch with a camera has been expected since last year. three months before last September’s launch of the (still) latest generation iPod Touch, TechCrunch reported on a large order of the same camera modules used on the iPhone 3GS. These later ended up being the camera modules that ended up in the iPod Nano instead.

To make matters more interesting, photos and videos of an iPod Touch with a built-in camera popped up less than a month before Apple unveiled new versions of the device last year. but, the final devices shipped by Apple had no such camera. Teardown site iFixit later took the latest-generation Touch apart and discovered that the insides still had room for it in the exact same spot.

Before WWDC, the rumors of an iPod Touch with a built-in camera were revived when another development iPod Touch with a camera in the same spot showed up on eBay. Then, a few weeks later, Vietnamese site Tinhte (the same folks who acquired an iPhone 4 ahead of its announcement) scored a similarly spec’d iPod Touch, which was later discovered to be as old as the one from the year before. in any case, it would be unsurprising to see Apple roll out a camera-ready Touch this year given the new FaceTime video chat service.

Honorable mentions: The end of the “get a mac” ads going out with a bang, and Safari 5, which was released Monday but got no stage time.

12 big things we didn't see at WWDC 2010

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Adobe Gives Up on Flash Apps for the iPhone

Saying that Apple “wants to tie developers down,” an Adobe product manager yesterday said his company would toss in the towel on a tool that lets programmers port Flash applications to the iPhone and iPad.

The announcement was the latest in the escalating confrontation between Apple and Adobe. Apple has repeatedly claimed that letting Flash on its iPhone would degrade performance, with its CEO, Steve Jobs, saying that Adobe’s software “performs too slow to be useful” on the smartphone. two weeks ago, Jobs flatly rejected the idea that Flash would be allowed on his company’s mobile devices.

At the same time, Apple changed the language of its newest iPhone software developers kit (SDK) license to ban developers from using cross-platform compilers, tools that let them write in one framework, say JavaScript or .Net, and then recompile it in native code for another platform, like the iPhone. Days later, an Adobe platform evangelist said, “Go screw yourself Apple,” on his personal blog, which had been reviewed, if not vetted, by Adobe.

Yesterday, Adobe took the war up a notch with an unusual move: It gave up on a feature it had once loudly trumpeted.

“We will still be shipping the ability to target the iPhone and iPad in Flash CS5,” said Mike Chambers, the principal product manager for developer relations for Adobe’s Flash platform, in a blog post late Tuesday. “However, we are not currently planning any additional investments in that feature.”

The feature Chambers referred to takes applications written in Flash’s ActionScript and recompiles them to run natively on the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. Adobe calls it “Packager for iPhone,” and includes it with Flash Professional, part of Creative Suite 5 (CS5), which launched April 12, just days after Apple modified its SDK .

Analysts said Apple’s move was aimed right at Adobe . “It’s primarily directed at Adobe. The two have an oppositional relationship that goes back at least 15 years,” said Ray Valdes, an analyst with Gartner, in an interview last week.

Some of the firms that market other cross-platform compilers agreed. “It’s not a coincidence that this came out just days before Adobe launched CS5,” said Scott Schwarzhoff, vice president of marketing for Appcelerator, whose Titanium tool produces native iPhone applications from JavaScript and HTML.

Chambers said Apple had Adobe and Flash in its sights. “While it appears that Apple may selectively enforce the terms, it is our belief that Apple will enforce those terms as they apply to content created with Flash CS5,” he said Tuesday. “Developers should be prepared for Apple to remove existing content and applications created with Flash CS5 from the iTunes store.”

He said that there were more than 100 applications currently in Apple’s App Store that had been created using Flash Professional CS5 and the Packager. Adobe issued a beta of the development software last year.

“The primary goal of Flash has always been to enable cross-browser, -platform and -device development,” said Chambers. “This is the exact opposite of what Apple wants. They want to tie developers down to their platform, and restrict their options to make it difficult for developers to target other platforms.”

He also took Apple to task for changing the rules in mid-game. “During the entire development cycle of Flash CS5, the feature complied with Apple’s licensing terms,” Chambers said. “However, as developers for the iPhone have learned, if you want to develop for the iPhone you have to be prepared for Apple to reject or restrict your development at anytime, and for seemingly any reason.”

Rather than play within Apple’s walled garden, Chambers suggested developers put their resources on Google’s Android operating system, whether phones like Motorola’s Droid or likely Android-based tablets slated to ship later this year. “The iPhone isn’t the only game in town,” said Chambers, who called Adobe’s efforts to bring Flash Player to Android “very promising.”

Adobe and Google have recently been taking tentative public steps to combine forces. For example, late last month, Google said its Chrome browser would include Adobe’s Flash Player in its downloads, and use Chrome’s updater to automatically push Flash fixes to users.

“I think that the closed system that Apple is trying to create is bad for the industry, developers and ultimately consumers,” Chambers concluded. “We are at the beginning of a significant change in the industry, and I believe that ultimately open platforms will win out over the type of closed, locked down platform that Apple is trying to create.”

Gregg Keizer covers Microsoft, security issues, Apple, Web browsers and general technology breaking news for Computerworld . Follow Gregg on Twitter at @gkeizer , or subscribe to Gregg’s RSS feed . his e-mail address is gkeizer@ix.netcom.com .

Read more about mobile and wireless in Computerworld’s Mobile and Wireless Knowledge Center.

Adobe Gives Up on Flash Apps for the iPhone

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Apple Gains Share in Smartphone Market

Sat may 08, 2010 11:45 pm

Research group IDC reported that Apple’s share of the smartphone market surged to 16.1 percent from 10.9 percent the same period last year.

Chief Executive Steve Jobs nearly doubled Apple’s profit on “staggering” sales of iPhones, from strong international sales in China and Asia Pacific. Analysts expect it to launch its next-generation iPhone HD this June or July.

In the period, the Cupertino, Calif.-based company narrowed the gap with RIM, the second-largest smartphone maker and its nearest rival. The Waterloo, Ontario-based company saw its smartphone share slip to 19.4 percent from 20.9 percent. but it still holds a distinct advantage in the U.S., where it has a 41.7 percent share compared with Apple’s 17.2 percent.

Apple is also facing fierce competition from Nokia, HTC and Motorola.

Nokia, still the world’s largest handset maker, maintained its lead with a 39.3 percent share of the smartphone market, unchanged from a year ago. Shareholders have worried that the Finnish company is falling behind Apple after it said it would delay the release of its updated Symbian 3 software.

Taiwan-based HTC, maker of some of Google’s Android devices, including the Nexus One, increased its share to 4.8 percent from 4.3 percent.

Meanwhile, Motorola, another Google partner, boosted its share to 4.2 percent, compared to 3.4 percent last year. The beleaguered handset maker has seen its fortunes improve, as smartphone shipments grew nearly 92 percent in the period.

Smartphone sales surged over 50 percent last quarter, according to Strategy Analytics, another research company, accounting for nearly one in five phones sold. The overall market, which includes regular handsets, rose 22 percent in the same period.

Apple Gains Share in Smartphone Market

Posts Tagged ‘steve jobs’

Apple Announcement: How Steve Jobs Made Geek Culture Cool

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Steve, I'm disappointed

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12 big things we didn't see at WWDC 2010

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Adobe Gives Up on Flash Apps for the iPhone

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Apple Gains Share in Smartphone Market

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