Monthly Archives: October 2011


Sometime humor is the best medicine huh?

Reshared post from +Jason Calacanis

Sometime humor is the best medicine huh?

CUPERTINO, CA—Steve Jobs, the visionary co-founder of Apple Computers and the only American in the country who had any clue what the fuck he was doing, died Wednesday at the age of 56. "We haven't just lost a great innovator, leader, and businessman, we've literally lost the only person in this country who actually had his shit together and knew what the hell was going on," a statement from President Barack Obama read in part, adding that Jobs will be remembered both for the life-changing products he created and for the fact that he was able to sit down, think clearly, and execute his ideas—attributes he shared with no other U.S. citizen. "This is a dark time for our country, because the reality is none of the 300 million or so Americans who remain can actually get anything done or make things happen. Those days are over." Obama added that if anyone could fill the void left by Jobs it would probably be himself, but said that at this point he honestly doesn’t have the slightest notion what he’s doing anymore.

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Last American Who Knew What The Fuck He Was Doing Dies

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Steve Jobs was perhaps one of the greatest leaders of our time when he finally succumbed…

Steve Jobs was perhaps one of the greatest leaders of our time when he finally succumbed to health issues that began with a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer several years ago.

Jobs was not an inventor, engineer or even a designer. However, he had an incredible ability to recognize great ideas and talents and then refine them to a level that made them tremendously appealing to a mass audience.

Jobs didn't invent the personal computer, digital animated movie, portable digital music player, smartphone or tablet. Every one of those items was produced by someone else first. But until he and the designers, artists and engineers he gathered around him imprinted his personal design aesthetic on those devices they were strictly niche items for geeks.

Computers were around for decades before Jobs and Steve Wozniak started Apple. There were even some "personal" computers before the Apple I. But Jobs and Wozniak made computer technology totally accessible to ordinary humans.

Similarly at Pixar, Jobs worked with John Lasseter and the rest of the team to take state of the art digital rendering and meld it with amazing story telling.

Companies like Creative and Diamond had built portable MP3 players prior to the September 2001 introduction of the iPod but they were either too limited in capacity or too clunky to use. Jobs brought Apple's software and hardware engineering talent together with the design chops of Jonathan Ive to create a device with simple controls and an intuitive user interface that would dominate its market segment for a decade.

The first touch-screen phone based on the Palm OS debuted in 1998 and it was followed by various Treos and Windows Mobile phones for the next nine years. It wasn't until 2007 that Jobs and his team created a much more refined and intuitive interpretation that has transformed mobile communications. Today, that design philosophy has infiltrated everything from phones to tablets infotainment systems in cars.

Throughout all of this, he always kept his eye on the horizon. Rather than go for short term revenue gains by cutting prices to maximize volume so that Wall St would be happy, he made sure that Apple created great products and provided outstanding customer service. The result is dedicated customer base that keeps coming back for more and is willing to pay premium prices. Apple is now the most profitable technology company in the world, with the highest market capitalization, despite having only a small sliver of the overall computer market.

Jobs rarely did anything first, but he had the vision to recognize what could actually be useful to people in their everyday lives and bring together the right people to make it reality. Jobs influence extends far beyond the personal computer to communications, transportation and entertainment.

This was all achieved through amazing leadership and thinking differently.

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I'd suggest that we should all boycott companies like Intellectual Ventures for…

I'd suggest that we should all boycott companies like Intellectual Ventures for suing Motorola. But wait IV doesn't actually make or sell anything at all. It's entire business model is based on buying up huge quantities of patents (some 30,000 at last count) and then pursuing companies that actually make stuff and employ people for royalty payments. This wouldn't be a problem if the parents were legitimate, but as we know most software patents are so vague and broad as to be meaningless. Even the recent patent reform bill is unlikely to make any difference.

Maybe we should just boycott Nathan Myrvold's oversized and overpriced cook book

http://allthingsd.com/20111006/intellectual-ventures-joins-the-mobile-patent-war-suing-motorola-mobility/

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When the original iPhone appeared January 2007, it took mobile phones to a whole… 16

When the original iPhone appeared January 2007, it took mobile phones to a whole new level.

With today's introduction of the iPhone 4S, Apple has moved into mature maintenance mode. In many ways the iPhone remains the most refined mobile platform available. It is stable and runs smoothly almost all the time and probably has the best battery management of any phone.

But it's no longer particularly innovative. The screen is on the small end of contemporary smartphones. Dual-core processors are rapidly becoming common place. Most of the new features in iOS5 are lifted straight from other platforms including both WebOS and Android. The new notification system is straight out of the Google platform. The new voice control technology was developed outside of Apple by Siri (a company bought by Apple two years ago) and similar capabilities have existed on Android for the past year and a half. Even the find my friends capability is a knockoff of Foursquare and Latitude.

The iPhone 4S is a very nice device, but there is nothing there that would compel me to switch from Android.

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