Posts tagged with "steve jobs"

Steve Jobs: “We Created Subscriptions for Publishing Apps”

Following yesterday’s concerns in regards of Apple’s new subscription and in-app purchase policy for third-party publishers and developers, a MacRumors reader emailed Steve Jobs asking for clarification on the matter.

Yesterday, the developers of online reading service Readability announced that they would stick with the web platform as Apple rejected their iOS application that has a subscription feature, but it’s more of a “Software as a Service” (SaaS) rather than a “publishing” app. Readability aggregates articles saved from the web and displays them in an elegant and uncluttered view. Similarly, the TinyGrab developers (a screenshot taking tool) said they would soon cease App Store support because of the in-app purchase policy implemented by Apple. Read more

Steve Jobs Kicked In The Face In LG Optimus Pad Promotion

The LG Optimus Pad promo was just another boring tablet video that was more effects than awesome product showcase. At about a minute in, however, any morning coffee drinker would have instantly rewound the tape only to ask, “Did I just see get Steve Jobs get pummeled in the face?” We’re not kidding: In a mock game of Street Fighter (apparently called Spec Fighter), Optimus starts the match with a swift flying kick and stomach punch to none other than Apad, modeled after Steve Jobs. Tasteless? Of course. I mean, they didn’t even show the part where Jobs used his Hadouken. Video from CrunchGear after the break.

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Found Footage: Young Steve Jobs’ First TV Appearance

Before the “Stevenotes”, the “magical” and “wonderful” products announced at conferences streamed live worldwide, there was a kid amazed to see himself on a TV monitor for the first time. In the video below, courtesy of Electricpig, you can see Steve Jobs in his twenties getting ready for an interview on national television.

It turns out – surprise – Jobs wasn’t always confident and “arrogant” as you’ve seen him in the past few years. He’s nervous, asks for some water before the show, people adjust his hair and microphone before the interview.

Ah, the good times. Check out the video below. Fascinating. Read more

25 Years Ago Today, Steve Jobs Bought Pixar→

25 Years Ago Today, Steve Jobs Bought Pixar

On February 3rd, 1986 Steve Jobs acquired the computer graphics division of Lucasfilm. Jobs, who was forced to resign from Apple, renamed the group “Pixar”. After some years of initial business struggle, the rest is history: Pixar is now the most successful animation studio in the world with masterpieces such as Toy Story, Up and Wall-E in their portfolio. The company  became a subsidiary of Walt Disney in 2006.

From the unofficial Pixar blog:

When Pixar went beyond the conference and animation-festival circuit and into the multiplex with Toy Story in 1995, it changed the art and business of animation overnight. True, if Pixar hadn’t made the first computer-animated feature film, someone else eventually would have. But if Toy Story hadn’t been a superlative film, it’s doubtful computer graphics would have taken over feature animation as it did.

Pixar’s most extraordinary creation, perhaps, is its repeatable process for creating stories that audiences will want to see. I don’t mean a “formula,” but a way of incubating stories: putting story development in the hands of the director and providing regular feedback from a director’s peers.

Happy birthday, Pixar.

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Netgear CEO Makes A Few Predictions on Apple, Steve Jobs→

Netgear CEO Makes A Few Predictions on Apple, Steve Jobs

Netgear CEO Patrick Lo doesn’t get it:

At a lunch in Sydney today, Patrick Lo said Apple’s success was centred on closed and proprietary products that would soon be overtaken by open platforms like Google’s Android.

Lunch was not the main point. Here it is:

Lo said Apple’s closed model only worked because, in many product categories like MP3 players, “they own the market”.

“Once Steve Jobs goes away, which is probably not far away, then Apple will have to make a strategic decision on whether to open up the platform,” said Lo.

This is a common mistake: thinking that Apple’s integrated model is somehow linked to Steve Jobs’ personality or physical presence at Apple. But there’s more:

Right now the closed platform has been successful for Apple because they’ve been so far ahead as thought leaders because of Steve Jobs,” said Lo.

Wrong again. They have been successful because they predicted what consumers wanted, not because of Jobs’ personal tastes.

Eventually they’ve got to find a way to open up iTunes without giving too much away on their revenue generation model.

What does this mean, exactly? This is business lingo. I think he wants Apple to accept any kind of app. The real gem is about Flash:

What’s the reason for him to trash Flash? There’s no reason other than ego,” he said.

Or maybe – but you know, I’m just guessing here –  it was a business decision.

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Did Pixar Tease The iPad With “The Incredibles” In 2004?→

Did Pixar Tease The iPad In “The Incredibles” In 2004?

During a session at Macworld Expo, Chris Noessel and Nathan Shedroff told the audience that Steve Jobs might have tested people’s reception to a tablet computer in Pixar’s 2004 movie “The Incredibles”:

If a device works on a movie audience, it’ll also work as a real-world product. That’s the “meta lesson” fromChris Noessel and Nathan Shedroff who study how sci-fi interfaces in movies make it off the silver screen and vice versa.

We know the tablet project had been in the works for years before Apple decided to release the iPhone first, in 2007. We also know, however, that similar tablet devices were used in sci-fi movies before Pixar’s The Incredibles, because people have always wondered what the future might look like. For example, in today’s movies we’re predicting Minority report-style controls and brain-based human-machine interactions.

The fact that a tablet computer with touch controls was used by Jobs’ Pixar in 2004 is, anyway, fascinating. And perfect discussion material for geeks.

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Eric Schmidt: “Steve Jobs Is Absolutely Brilliant”→

Eric Schmidt: “Steve Jobs Is Absolutely Brilliant”

Soon-to-be-ex Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt has some nice words about Apple, iOS and Steve Jobs:

Schmidt also took on Google’s competition with Apple. Google partners with Apple, he said, on search, maps and YouTube. It competes, of course, on phones. Google also might in theory compete with Apple’s Macintosh computer business with its Chrome OS hardware that Google hopes “to announce later this year,” Schmidt said.

“Steve is absolutely brilliant,” said Schmidt, referring to Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, where Schmidt was a longtime board member. “(He’s) the most successful CEO in the world anywhere.” Comparing Apple’s iPhone and iPad platform to Android, he said: “They managed to build an elegant, scalable, closed system. Google is attempting to do something with a completely different approach.

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‘The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs’ - A One-Man Show

Mike Daisey has a one-man-show running at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre through February 27, one that we as Apple geeks might be interested in seeing. It’s called “The Agony and The Ecstasy of Steve Jobs.”

Master storyteller Daisey’s comedic show is all about the world of Apple, including an important message: Apple’s products are made under inhumane conditions.

Cult of Mac’s Leander Kahney says that Daisey’s portrail of an Apple fan is spot on and the show is very funny but also has a serious side as well. He visited production facilities inChina to gather material for his show only to find out that the devices he loves are made in sweatshop conditions, with children as young as 11 years old.

Video after break (1:38 mark) Read more