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The Passing of Steven P Jobs (1955-2011)
About 24 hours after hearing the news that Steve Jobs (Founder and recent CEO of Apple) passed away after a long fight with cancer, the world has felt the impact and loss of the man “that put a dent in the universe”. I shed a tear for a man I never met (and a man many people said was not one of the nicest people), but someone who helped form me into the person I am today with his vision, passion and drive.
Walking through Apple’s SoHo and 5th Ave stores, there were flowers out front and messages of support and encouragement to the family and friends of Steve Jobs, but it reminded me of the opportunities and how Steve and Apple impacted what I do and how I think today.
I reflected on the one “Steve note” I was able to participate back in the days of MacWorld in NYC, the energy and excitement in the room and the power and vision this one man conveyed and held. It was a time when Motorola and Starmax were making Mac clones and when Steve was not running Apple. Steve returned to the company after those troubled years outside the company he started and began the turn around (again). This was a time when I recall buying some of the first stock I ever did with some “bonus money”. A small number of shares of Apple at about $13. I recall thinking and hearing about people speaking of the stock rising (maybe to $20) when in Boston for MacWorld and being so very excited…
I also had the opportunity to work with some very smart and exciting people as part of the Apple Retail experience (when it was more of a cult than a store). I first worked as a sales person at the Tice’s Corner store in Northern NJ and then transferred to SoHo when that store opened up). Tice’s Corner was the 13th retail store and I still have a number of friends and peers that I stay in contact with from those days more than a decade ago. I also was able to purchase stock as an employee at about $10/share, but when I left the “Holiday shares” that had vested at about $20 were still above the asking price and essentially worthless… Oh, hindsight…
I never met Steve, I felt his presence and his passion. Personally I have been working with Macs since my SE 30 when I started my freshman year of college at Syracuse in 1989. It replaced an aging Commodore 64 and quickly became a passion and desire I wanted to do more with. Now more than 20 years later I continue to personally prefer Macs, support them personally and professionally and as an IT professional know that Windows is important, but I LOVE Macs!
The world will be different, but “the people who believe they can change the world, are the ones who can…”
NO iPhone 5 (but iPhone 4S)
After much excitement and discussion, Apple (Tim Cook, Apple’s new CEO) presented the iPhone 4S. A vast improvement (internally) to the iPhone 4.
- A dual-core processor (the same chip that is in the iPad 2) allowing for faster processing, responsiveness and graphic throughput
- An updated camera with more megapixels and improved lens and includes the ability to shoot 1080p hi-def video
- The new iOS 5 (which will work with iPhone 3GS and 4 devices, just in varying degrees depending on the hardware needs for the application)
- iOS 5 will be available on October 12th for download
- Reminders will be one of those “finally” built in apps on iOS 5
- Siri is the biggest hit of the party for iPhone 4S and iOS 5 (and it looks like this will ONLY work with iPhone 4S)
- A personal assistant to schedule meetings with voice commands
- Send text messages or dictate emails
- Read information or texts
- Set alarms or reminders (that can be location based) such as “Remind me to get milk when I leave work”
- Ask questions (“What time is it in Paris France” or “What is the weather like today”)
Libraries move to the 21st centuary with Kindle Lending
After about a year of working with Overdrive on my iPad and the New York Public Library (actually eNYPL), Amazon and their Kindle solutions (including the iPad software) now allows librarys with a digital component and agreements to “check out” some of their books for 14-days. (from venturebeat.com)
The Kindle tie-in is fantistic and easy. If you have the Amazon Kindle app, Amazon knows the device associated with your Amazon account and the process works very smoothly. The process is as follows for most users.
Check your local library for access to eBooks (using the ePub or other standard formats). See if they have extended their options to include Kindle books (again, NYCL has done this in the last couple of weeks).
Search for a book. Again, many librarys (including NYPL) do not have a huge collection (though it is “respectable”) and check for the check-out options.
I found a number of books I was interested in so I went through the process on the eNYPL site to check out the book and at the final step, the eNYPL site passes you to Amazon.
Confirm you are logged into Amazon using your primary Kindle account (should show your name in the upper left by the Amazon logo) and the right should give you the option to access the book and download it to the appropriate device.
Once you have done this, Amazon generally pushes you to “books you may also be interested in” and purchase, but when you launch the iPad app or your Kindle, you should have your book in 10 seconds.
I have found on the iPad, clicking on the Archive option (from the Home screen) will show you the book you just requested and pressing the book will begin the download into your “home” area of the iPad.
The books look and work just as if you purchased the book from Kindle but have an experation date which they will “return” to the library and will no longer be available on the device. I like reading and I do not do a lot of it partially due to the fact that there are few books I would buy and many times, just carrying a book around is tough. At this time I have 5 books on my iPad, all checked out from the eNYPL.
If you enjoy reading and you have a Kindle (or Kindle compatable device), I would highly recommend checking with your local library and see if they have this option or expect to have it available in the coming months. A wonderful technology advance!
iA Writer – A great distraction writing environment
For years I have tried applications that were designed to focus on and provide for an easy and uninterrupted writing environment.
WriteRoom is an excellent option but I found it to be too stark and as much as I tried to use it, it never really got it’s hooks in me.
This last week I finally found one that I love: iA Writer.
There is a solutions for the Mac ($9.99 on the App Store) as well as the iPad ($4.99 through iTunes).
The application is bright, clean and has some wonderful basic features. One of my favorite is Focus. This greys out all other text but the sentence you are currently viewing or writing.
In the last week that I have been working with iA Writer, I have been able to direct my eyes and mind to the task and not be destracted by twitter feeds, email and everything else that goes on in our overly-connected world. If you are looking for something to just craft a note, write a business proposal or blog post (for example), iA Writer is a simple and effective solution.
iA Writer also works with Dropbox so you can push your work to the cloud and then work from other computers or the iPad. One difficulty I have come across with my iPad 2 running iOS5 beta is there are some sync issues between Dropbox and the iA Writer program on the iPad. I imagine this will be ironed out once the final release of iOS 5 is available in the next few weeks.
I would highly recommend it. If anyone has any other thoughts, know of other optons or solutions or would like to share their experiences, please do.
iPhone 5 and iOS 5 coming early October
More information is down the pike about the release of iOS 5 and the new iPhone.
Apple has been running developer iOS updates for iPhone 3 and 4 to bring it up to the latest software (iOS 5). Currently, the rumors are showing that the next week should be the last update of the developer release of iOS 5 prior to public release. This will then go out to the fabrication plants for iPhone 4s and the expected iPhone 5.
AppleInsider speaks about AppleCare for October 10th
Macrumors aligns with the other reports
This all lines up with a release of iPhone and iOS early in October and have a device in stores in quantities for the holidays. If you hear or see anything else, let us know.