Steve Jobs passes away

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http://apple.com

 

RIP one of technology's most important people.

[PrinceEatMeat]

Yeah, this was all over twitter within minutes of Apple announcing it. Very sad news. The guy was a true visionary. True genius. Changed the world. RIP.

[Invader3K]

I'm not a big Apple guy, but he was definitely an innovator, and it is sad when anyone passes away at such a relatively young age.

[Teatoe993]

I'm actually more bummed than I ever thought I would be about Steve's passing. Not since the passing of George Harrison have I felt so blue. Maybe it's the Brewers tank job in game 4 thats helping things.

Thinking about it I realize that I've been using Apple products almost on a daily basis since 1987 when I first played Oregon Trail on an Apple II when I was in the 4th grade. My first career and education was working in printing and computer graphics exclusively on Macs. I did that for 10 years. My first email and exposure to the internet was on a Mac. I've owned 6 computers in the past 20 years, all Macs. I'm typing this post on my 5 year old Macbook that just won't die. Back in the shop my technicians are being entertained with my 160GB iPod that I've had for over 4 years now. I have my entire CD collection on it (over 20,000 songs) and there is 60GB left for more. I'm on my second iPhone now and it's great because it does everything my laptop does and more. Whenever I travel I don't need to bring along a laptop, camera, map, notes, CDs, etc.

Looking at it now, I am stunned at the impact Apple's products have had on people's lives without them probably fully realizing it. Especially in the last 10 years. I know very little about Steve Jobs personally and what his true roles were with Apple and their innovations. But he was the face of the company that have changed and affected lives of millions of people for better or for worse.

A very important figure of our time is gone. RIP

[1992casey]

On the day of the iPhone announcement, pundits criticized the event as lacking "panache." It was very low key, and it was held in a small auditorium on Apple's campus rather than in a larger venue off site. I think it's now apparent that the planners knew that Steve's passing was imminent and purposely kept things simple.

 

Steve was always ahead of the curve. Apple dumped floppy disks, serial, SCSI, and its proprietary keyboard/mouse ports back in 1998. (Apple's computers never used a parallel port.) OS X Lion is installed via a download.

 

He's also been known to wait out technologies until the time is right. Macs don't have USB 3 yet, for instance. I'm sure that technology will appear, probably when the next generation of Intel processors directly supports it. The company has eschewed Blu Ray. I'd bet that it never appears; instead, I'd bet on Mac computers dumping optical drives entirely.

 

He was one to pay attention to detail. Even the boxes were important. This is the box that contained t-shirts given out when the most recent Berkeley store opened:

 

http://images.macworld.com/images/article/2011/10/shirtbox-256989.jpg

 

(source: MacWorld)

 

ifoAppleStore.com describes the symmetry of the Berkeley store:

One of the best examples of Apple’s design craftiness is the just-opened 4th Street (N. Calif.) store, where the new sidewalk, store window panels and inside stone floor tiles all are dimensioned and positioned to present a symmetrical appearance. In this case, the master element is the stone floor tiles, which are 76 centimeters square (about 30 inches). The glass window panes are then manufactured to a multiple of that dimension. Outside, Apple routinely installs a new sidewalk in front of its street-facing stores. In this case, the sidewalk was made with contraction lines that are also multiple of the stone tile dimension. When all the painstaking design and construction work is finished, passersby and store visitors “see” the effect, but probably don’t realize why the store is so attractive.

Here's how the Apple store sales pitch works, courtesy of the Wall Street Journal:

According to several employees and training manuals, sales associates are taught an unusual sales philosophy: not to sell, but rather to help customers solve problems. "Your job is to understand all of your customers' needs—some of which they may not even realize they have," one training manual says….

 

"You were never trying to close a sale. It was about finding solutions for a customer and finding their pain points," said David Ambrose, 26 years old, who worked at an Apple store in Arlington, Va., until 2007.

Steve made some really unusual decisions, too. When Apple kicked him out back in 1985, he sold all but one share of his stock. He kept that share so he could continue to receive an annual report. That stock would be worth $29 billion today. In 1995, when Steve came back to Apple through its acquisition of his company (NeXT), he was granted 1.5 million shares of Apple stock. He promised to hold them for at least six months. Six months later, he sold them, and Apple's stock dropped 40%. That forced out CEO Gil Amelio and paved the way for Steve to take over.

 

It's going to be interesting to see where Apple heads. Unlike the last time Steve and Apple parted ways back in 1985, I think the company will be just fine this time.

[thebruce44]

Steve was always ahead of the curve. Apple dumped floppy disks, serial, SCSI, and its proprietary keyboard/mouse ports back in 1998. (Apple's computers never used a parallel port.) OS X Lion is installed via a download.

 

He's also been known to wait out technologies until the time is right. Macs don't have USB 3 yet, for instance. I'm sure that technology will appear, probably when the next generation of Intel processors directly supports it. The company has eschewed Blu Ray. I'd bet that it never appears; instead, I'd bet on Mac computers dumping optical drives entirely.

 

He was one to pay attention to detail. Even the boxes were important. This is the box that contained t-shirts given out when the most recent Berkeley store opened:

Man, thank god I don't have to deal with Blu-ray, USB, Flash, or HDMI. This way I can give Jobs more of my money and tell everyone how much I like doing it. Plus I get a sweet shirt and box.

 

Seriously, the man was a genius.

 

Its like the last episode of the office where James Spader gave them a speech about being a dieing paper company. People were happy to hand their money off to Apple when there were much better and much cheaper options because there was someone or some software to guide them through everything. He found niches in rapidly changing technology fields and simplified/refined them.

 

I have a lot of respect for him as a capitalist business man. While I no longer use his products, he has greatly pushed the open technologies I enjoy today.

[mothershipconnection]

While I've always been annoyed by the Apple cult, I respected the heck out of Jobs. He pushed the other companies to make products like Apple's, just without requiring iTunes and being overpriced.

[1992casey]

Apple TVs and Mac Minis have HDMI ports. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif Other recent Macs can connect to HDMI ports with cheap adapters.

 

I anxiously await a day when Flash is gone. In addition to Apple's iOS devices, Microsoft won't be supporting it Windows 8 Metro.

 

As far as price, the iPad is very cost-competitive. There are some cheaper tablets, but their capabilities fall into a rather narrow scope. That's cool, of course, for people whose needs fit those devices. Along with that, competitors are having a very difficult time trying to build machines that are cost competitive with the MacBook Air.

 

MarketWatch posted an article titled 12 lessons for us all from the life of Steve Jobs. I thought that this one in particular was interesting.

 

 

9. Destroy your own products — before someone else does

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jobs made sure that Apple kept innovating, and rendering its own

products obsolete. Creative destruction came from within! That’s why

Apple is a $354 billion company, and, say, Palm has vanished from Earth,

even though a 2004 iPod is just as out of date as a 2004 Treo. How rare

is this? Jobs knew full well that his $500 iPad threatens to

cannibalize sales of $1,000 laptops. But he moved forward nonetheless.

Most companies wouldn’t.

[1992casey]

Apple has made the video of Wednesday's "Celebrating Steve" event
public. This was a tribute that was held for Apple employees.

As thebruce44 mentioned in a message that's been moved to another topic, Steve's biography is set to be released today. It was actually available on iBooks and Kindle last night.

I've split the patent discussion that was previously in this thread into a separate topic: Intellectual property (patent) disputes in the smartphone and tablet industries. That discussion would seem to have much wider implications than Steve Jobs himself.

[1992casey]

Steve Jobs never had a license plate on his car. Most people just assumed he did that to arrogantly disregard the law. But the truth of the matter is that California law gives residents six months to affix a plate to their cars and Steve would simply lease a new car when the six months were up. His biography mentions the lack of a plate several times, but it doesn't get into the reason he could get away with it.

 

The truth about Steve Jobs' number plate

[berniebrewer4life]

Steve Jobs never had a license plate on his car. Most people just assumed he did that to arrogantly disregard the law.

Meh, still seems kind of douchey thing to do. "I want to be different, look at me! My car doesn't have plates!" I also don't buy the he was trying to be anonymous thing. Not having a plate makes you stick out more.

http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/eyes.gif

 

Also, that article appears to be wrong, as there is nothing in the California Motor code that says you can do that. Although Steve Wozniak said he had a permit to do it.

 

http://articles.businessi...lates-license-steve-jobs

 

I think this article is pretty appropriate for this thread.

 

http://religion.blogs.cnn...steve-jobs-into-a-saint/