SteveJobs posts

Apple doesn't have a huge social media presence. There's an iTunes Facebook page and what can arguably be called a MobileMe blog, but that's about it. However, they do monitor the likes of Twitter, like any self-respecting company would, and a recent tweet reportedly ticked off Steve Jobs but good.

Recently, Steve set up meetings with tech writers and executives from the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal to promote the iPad. He gathered the group from the Times at Pranna, where he ordered off the menu, wore "... a very funny hat" and reportedly tried to sell them on distribution via the iPad. Having taken place in a public restaurant, the gathering was called "Intimate" and "family-style" by observers.

By contrast, representatives from the Wall Street Journal met Steve and his new device behind closed doors. According to sources, the Journal group was confined to the 5th floor of their building and several staffers who wanted to meet Jobs could not. One of the lucky few was editor Alan Murray, who sent the following Tweet, supposedly after playing with an iPad:

"This tweet sent from an iPad. Does it look cool?"

According to Valleywag, the tweet infuriated Steve Jobs and was soon deleted. When Valleywag followed up with Alan to ask about the incident, he replied by simply saying that he can't discuss it. Later in the day, he wrote via email, "I will say that Apple's general paranoia about news coverage is truly extraordinary- but that's not telling you anything you didn't already know."

Apple is notorious for great design, extreme secrecy and yes, what many have called paranoia. Teams working on unreleased products are kept under a so-called "cone of silence" with Steve's notorious temper -- he has reportedly gone off on high-profile members of the press who had written disagreeable reviews of Apple products -- keeping things in check.

Lest you think Steve is just a big meanie, he gets it as much as he dishes it out. In rather not-safe-for-work terms, Steve shared with the panel of journalists the flavor of some of the angry emails he's received from disgruntled fans after product announcements. We'll let you read that on your own.

[Via MacRumors page 2]

When Steve Jobs announced the iPad, I thought it was neat, but I didn't see how it would really fit into my life. What could it do for me that my iPhone or MacBook Pro couldn't? It seemed like that gap Steve Jobs said the iPad filled was targeted at a group of people I didn't belong to. So I asked the TUAW readers if you'd be getting one. Then I began talking to my family about the iPad and discovered some surprising things: the very people I thought would never buy one plan to, and the people I thought would jump at it are holding off.

So here's a rundown of four very different people in my family and if/why they will be getting an iPad:

Person: My mother. 62. Queen of the Luddites.
Computer proficiency: Absolutely none.
Will she be getting the iPad? Yep. The 16GB 3G model.
Why? My mom has never owned a computer. She doesn't have an internet connection. She couldn't explain to you what Facebook is. And she refers to my iPhone as "that information device."

MacDailyNews points out that not many bloggers or journalists covered the issue of Steve's health at last week's Apple event, but I'd argue that it wasn't really a huge story -- the guy is doing his job, and while we definitely want to make sure he's healthy, his well-being is not really for us to judge. That said, they put a picture of Steve from last September up side by side with a pic from last week's event, and it's true that His Steveness does look a little more colorful. Given that he's probably not going to share much information with us about his health issues (which is completely his right, obviously), we're at least happy that it seems he's a little more hale.

Needless to say, we only hope he's feeling better, as Apple just isn't the same company without him. We do know he's personally invested in the iPad, if the rumors are to be believed, and so if this current run of work is helping him stay active and keep busy, I'll be extra happy to support it when the tablet finally reaches the shelves.

All of Apple's devices have been embraced by pop culture sooner or later, but I think the iPad has probably nabbed the record for quickest to the bear hug. Here's two silly things we've seen today, just a week after the iPad's official announcement. First up, songsmith Parry Gripp's latest mini-tune is all about the iPad, and as you can see above, it's actually a pretty interesting commentary on just how successful the device will likely be: we may argue about which kinds of nachos are ruling, but we can all agree that nachos in general are awesome.

Second, the iPad announcement itself has even been immortalized in papercraft. And if you want your own paper-based recreation of last week's event, you can download the plans and put it together yourself. Weird? Yes. Strange? Very. But for a company that wants to sit at the intersection of technology and the liberal arts, Apple's mission is pretty much accomplished.

With every Apple event, we need someone to go in and edit together all of the reality distortion field generators, and this time, it's Neil Curtis, who has cut together most of the "amazing," "great," and "beautiful" adjectives from last week's keynote. Unfortunately, we don't have empirical data (anyone want to actually count up all of them?), but it sure seems to me like "great" and "gorgeous" had a big increase this time around, and "incredible" and "terrific" didn't show up quite so much as previous events.

Also: no boom? Did we not get a single "boom" at all? It was a little more serene demonstration than usual, with Steve lounging on a chair to show off how comfy it is to browse the 'net on the iPad, but the A4 processor didn't inspire a single "boom"? That's disappointing.

[via FSJ]

ABC News had an interesting piece on last night about Steve Jobs, naming him "ABC World News Person of The Week."

The segment includes a rare look at Jobs' personal life growing up. While there's nothing in the three-minute video that tells us anything we didn't already know, there's a pretty funny video of him riding a motorcycle. Who knew he was such a bad-ass?

Thanks to reader Ethan L. who sent this in.

No doubt about it, Apple stock has been on a wild ride since yesterday's iPad announcement. Investors were hoping Apple would deliver big, and while many Wall Street analysts believe they hit a home run – thanks in large part to not just the technology, but the price point of the device – the stock took a large dip today. On news of the iPad, AAPL closed at $207.88 yesterday. Today the stock lost over 4% to close at 199.29.

Why? Well, most of the time there's a huge sell off after Apple announces something new. A majority of the sell off is because people generally price the stock according to the rumor. It's the old "buy on the rumor, sell on the news" mentality. I've already stated in the past that I believe AAPL is headed past $300, and their latest earnings certainly seem to be pointing in that direction. But how does the iPad fit into all of this?

Frank Cioffi Founder and editor of Apple Investor News has written an interesting editorial for The Huffington Post about what the iPad should mean to investors.

Cioffi (who's long on AAPL) admits that while he's a huge Mac fan, he probably won't be buying the iPad because he's not sure how it would give him anything he doesn't currently have in his iPods, iPhone, or Mac laptops. He goes on to recognize that if one veteran Apple fan doesn't see the iPad as providing something his other Apple devices don't, it can't bode well for the short-term outlook for the iPad, which many investors are expecting to be an iPhone-like megahit. But then he brings up a critical point: the iPad is a slow-growth device.

Apple has just reinvented portable entertainment and mobile computing. No, it's not "magical," as Apple claims, but it is an elegant form factor that will engage niche industries to create apps for their businesses. It will likely become a hit with educators... just as Apple started the decade with the iPod, which grew slowly into an iconic device, I predict the iPad, after initially underwhelming investors, will also grow over time and indeed create a new device category. But it will take time... Apple is planning for the long haul. This company has moved beyond an e-reader and created an e-entertainment device.

Cioffi also points out one thing investors should be even more ecstatic about than the Apple tablet – Steve Jobs' weight. He's looking like he gained some (not a lot, but some) and IMHO is looking much better than last we saw him.

But what say you? Are we going to be seeing dissapointing iPad Q3 numbers? Will the iPad eventually become the next "must have" tech gear like the iPod and iPhone? Tell us in the comments!

Disclaimer: This author owns shares in AAPL. Opinions in this post are those of the author only and should not be considered as investment advice.

Apple has posted QuickTime streams of its "Latest Creation" keynote on their webpage, just in case you missed all the festivities earlier today. That latest creation, as we many had speculated, turned out to be the iPad. So you can watch Steve sit in a cushioned chair and browse the Internet (along with all of the demos from participating developers) with your own eyes. The streams, available in low, medium, and high bandwidth flavors, can be found here.

And if the keynote stream doesn't completely pad up your iPad appetite, check out TUAW's iPad page, a portal for all things iPad. If you see anything in the stream that we missed, definitely let us know.

We haven't heard this first hand, but we've heard it multiple times second and third hand from completely independent sources. Senior Apple execs and friends of Jobs are telling people that he's about as excited about the upcoming Apple Tablet as he's ever been. Coming from the man who has created so much, that's saying something.

This got me thinking. More "important" than the iPhone? Why "most important" and not "most innovative"? Maybe Steve wants to do more than reinvigorate the publishing industry? I dug back through some stories where I could surmise what Steve Jobs viewed as "important" – and for a guy with such strong feelings about so much, one thing stuck out: his passion about the importance of education reform. Could it be possible that Steve sees education as the primary function of the tablet? Does Jobs see a tablet in the hands of every school child in America?

In 1995, giving a speech to the Smithsonian, Jobs said:

I think the school situation has a parallel here when it comes to technology. It is so much more hopeful to think that technology can solve the problems that are more human and more organizational and more political in nature, and it ain't so. We need to attack these things at the root, which is people and how much freedom we give people, the competition that will attract the best people. Unfortunately, there are side effects, like pushing out a lot of 46-year-old teachers who lost their spirit fifteen years ago and shouldn't be teaching anymore. I feel very strongly about this. I wish it was as simple as giving it over to the computer.

Twelve years later, Steve Jobs gave a speech at an education reform conference in Austin, Texas. At the conference, Jobs reiterated that no amount of technology in the classroom would improve public schools until principals could fire bad teachers. However, at the same conference he reportedly told the audience that he envisioned schools in the future replacing textbooks with a free, online information source that is constantly updated by experts.

"I think we'd have far more current material available to our students and we'd be freeing up a tremendous amount of funds that we could buy delivery vehicles with -- computers, faster Internet, things like that," he said. "And I also think we'd get some of the best minds in the country contributing."

Maybe Steve sees the tablet as a dynamic textbook that will allow schools to free up those funds? Or, at least these textbook publishers hope so. Who knows, maybe iTunes U was just the start?

This is, of course, nothing more than conjecture – an educated guess, if you'll pardon the expression.

Imagine if, as Steve Jobs moves through each slide of his Keynote presentation, he also has the telepathic powers to automatically tweet information related to the slide.

But even the almighty Steve Jobs can't do that.

Fortunately for him, there's Keynote Tweet. An open source AppleScript app, Keynote Tweet will automatically tweet the text from your presenter notes (accessible by clicking on "view" and selecting "show presenter notes").

Keynote Tweet was exposed to me while reading a piece by IDEO Labs' Gentry Underwood, who highlights the idea of large presentations increasingly occurring within the context of a backchannel in which audience members are responding to what's being presented.

Getting Keynote Tweet up and running is fairly straightforward. Simply download the app, and then add the following entry into the Keychain Access app:

• Keychain Item Name: http://twitter.com
• Account Name: Your email address
• Password: Your Twitter password

Now, with the Keynote Tweet app running, any text between the [twitter] and [/twitter] tags will automatically tweet when that slide is displayed (while in slideshow mode).

For example, "Jay Leno lacks the charm, wit and red headedness of Conan O' Brien" will be tweeted the moment I reach the slide showing the percentage of people that hate Jay Leno.

Keynote Tweet is available as a free download here.

[via IDEO Labs]

Denver-area Mac consultant Mike Kimble is no stranger to Apple; he worked at an Apple reseller prior to the introduction of the Mac in 1984, and he's been involved with Macs and other Apple products ever since. Mike recently found several old Apple tapes that were sent to his business back around the Mac intro, and his description of one of them says it all:

"I found this VHS cassette while cleaning my office this week. This "Found Footage" comes from a video tape I received from Apple back in 1984 when the original 128K Mac was introduced. It was part of the authorized dealer training videos given to each store to help them become familiar with the Macintosh. You will see a very young Burrell Smith, Andy Hertzfeld, Phil Gibbons, Mitch Kapor, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. You really get a good feel for how proud and excited these people were for the creation of something special. Little did they know how much they were about to change the world..."

My personal favorite scene is the one where Bill Gates is sitting with a 128K Mac on his desk. The video is divided into two parts; the second can be viewed by clicking the "read more" link below. Enjoy this trip down memory lane!

A commonly cited statistic, repeated on day one of just about every communications course I've taken, is that people are more afraid of speaking or presenting in public than they are of dying. I've never been able to find an official source for this statistic, but it's indisputable that most people recoil in terror at the thought of giving a presentation, whether it's to an audience of five or five thousand.

Steve Jobs obviously does not share this phobia. His stage persona during keynote presentations has been carefully crafted to convey to audiences his enthusiasm for whatever it is he's discussing that day. Whether you call it the "reality distortion field" or just good public speaking ability, Jobs's skills as a speaker are seemingly unmatched in the realm of CEO presenters.

Carmine Gallo is one of many communications experts who's scrutinized Jobs's presenting skills; in fact, he has literally written the book on the Apple CEO's style, The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs, which we reviewed last October. Rather than shell out for the whole book, though, you can get a nice synopsis of the key aspects of Steve Jobs's presentation style from Gallo himself in the YouTube video below:

The face of Steve Jobs is almost as much of an icon as the Apple logo.

Over the years, his photo has appeared on numerous magazine covers. From the 1982 Time cover painting with a "pr0n star" moustache, through the early dalliance with a suit and tie, and to the November, 2009 Fortune magazine CEO of the Decade cover, Jobs has worked his now-grizzled mug onto more magazines than probably any other CEO in history.

Kuo Design's PineApple blog has a collection of many of the Steve Jobs covers on "The Steve Jobs on Magazine Covers page." It's fun to see the changes in Steve over the years, as well as magazines that have since become history. And you can help them put it all together: If you have any old magazines with Steve Jobs on the cover, it appears that Kuo Design is taking contributions to their online repository of Jobsian goodness.

Apple is toying with us.

Remember the information a few weeks ago about the big event scheduled for the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco on January 26th? Of course, all of the Apple bloggers and pundits jumped all over this date as being the date for the announcement of something big like the tablet.

After thousands of posts have touted that date as the day that Steve Jobs will come down from the mountain carrying the 7" tablet under one arm and the 10.1" tablet under the other, the Wall Street Journal's Digital Daily is reporting that the event is going to be held on Wednesday, January 27th.

According to Digital Daily's John Paczkowski, sources have told him that this event is planned to announce a "major new product." We're all assuming that this is going to be the most widely-hyped product since the iPhone, so wouldn't it be hilarious if it was actually something completely different?

I, for one, am beginning to think that Apple is going to pull one of the biggest pranks ever on the world at large. How 'bout you? Leave your comments below for the world to see.

[Awesome graphic from MacDailyNews.com]

In an article on MarketWatch, Frank Cioffi explains why he believes Apple will deserve the investor's attention in 2010. First off is continued strong iPod sales, and we've got to agree. After sustaining a rate at or above 10 million units sold per quarter, you've got to wonder, "Doesn't everyone have one already?"

But seriously, the annual updates are compelling enough to prompt people to upgrade (iPod touch, nano with video) or cheap enough to warrant a second unit (iPod shuffle). Apple knows how to sell iPods and the trend should continue in the new year.

Also notable is Apple's seemingly renewed commitment to the Apple TV. Once described as a "hobby," Apple released version 3.0 of its software late last year. Also, there are rumors about that Apple is pursuing a subscription model with the major television networks. Expect to hear more from the Apple TV team in 2010.

Additionally, Cioffi focused on Steve Jobs himself.

"...Jobs' determination is as extraordinary as his ability to create compelling products."

After missing half of the year to recover from a liver transplant, Steve returned to work in June as promised and, from an outsider's perspective at least, is back to business as usual. As Cioffi pointed out, what happened in Steve's absence is even more important for Apple's future: The stock continued to climb despite rumors of his rapidly-declining health and Apple demonstrated a strong bullpen of talent beyond Jobs.

Cioffi goes on to list strong Mac sales, the App Store's performance and the ever-present tablet rumors as additional points of note, so go and read the rest of the article. Here's to a prosperous 2010!

[Via AppleInsider]