Steve Jobs and Bill Gates sat down with Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher at the All Things Digital conference for a joint interview the other day. The footage of the interview was posted at the D5 website, but it was broken up into chunks. Now you can watch, or listen, to the interview in its entirety thanks to the iTunes Store. That's right, the interview is now available as a video or audio podcast. The audio only version checks in at 85 megs or so, while the video file is almost 1 gig in size.
I'm downloading the video as I type this, and I suggest you do the same. It isn't often that one gets to watch two people who have shaped technology in such a meaningful way sit down and share their thoughts about the past, present, and future (though Steve never comments on future products).
Thanks, Karim.
Update: I neglected to mention that Steve and Bill were interviewed in a tag team fashion by Walt and Kara Swisher.
In case you missed the Engadget liveblog of last night's lovefest between Big Mac and El PC, the folks at the D conference have posted complete video coverage and a highlight reel (above) of Steve and Bill's excellent adventure. Enjoy the show, and please open any hard candies in advance of the feature.
This is the last All Things Digital post for today, promise (well, as long as nothing cool happens). Engadget is live on the scene where Steve Jobs (Apple's CEO) and Bill Gates (he works for some small tech company in Redmond) will share the stage with Walt Mossberg. What will they talk about? I have no idea, but you can read it as they say it over at Engadget.
This PG-13 cartoon (there is just a tad of saucy language, you have been warned) depicts an epic battle between Steve Jobs and Bill Gates in iWorld. Definitely worth a watch, if only for the Finder's song.
I'm all for competition in the marketplace. I'm even for friendly puns between rival competitors and the camps that follow them, especially since you have to have a sense of humor about them in the first place. But don't we also need a sense of reality?
In a Vista-pimping interview with Newsweek yesterday, Bill Gates appears to be taking off the gloves with an all-out attack on the Mac. When questioned about accusations of copying Mac OS X features, Bill began accusing Apple of the exact opposite, and he also postulated that "maybe we shouldn't have showed so publicly the stuff we were doing." While he is of course referring to the 2003 demonstration of Longhorn, this isn't even the half of it. Bill also tried to turn their reputation for swiss-cheese security around on Apple, claiming:
"Nowadays, security guys break the Mac every single day. Every single day, they come out with a total exploit, your machine can be taken over totally. I dare anybody to do that once a month on the Windows machine."
I'm sorry: "Total exploit?" Did anyone else see something from the rear end of a bull just fly over their shoulder? I'm no security fanboy for the Mac, but perhaps Bill got the wrong impression of how (not so) widespread the exploits from MOAB - the Month of Apple Bugs - actually became. Or perhaps he forgot that it's Microsoft who has had to set up regular patch release schedules to help throttle the damage. All things considered, however, I can understand if Bill lost track; regularity can sometimes numb the pain, breeding forgetfulness in the process.
Check out the rest of the, uh... 'interesting' interview for some other great zingers from the big G-man. If you ask me, he sure is shaping up to retire with a bang in 2008.
Who's copying who in terms of OS design is quite the topic for a long session of coffee talk, but CNN recently put Mr. Gates on the hot seat by tossing him an on-air zinger. Currently, Bill is on a media blitz to help promote this month's release of Windows Vista. He was on the Daily Show Monday night (check out the re-dux Bill Gates Crash they did for a laugh too), and in this embedded clip, CNN seems to surprise Bill with a question about Vista's resemblance of Mac OS X. While Mr. G did offer some good points in his rebuttal, this seems like it might have been an unexpected curve ball during what I'm sure Microsoft was hoping to be a routine promo interview.
You've heard about the Apple bubble, right? The prevailing belief that Apple's stock is overpriced and about to explode? Turns out there's definitely a Microsoft bubble, too. Different kind, though. One that surrounds Bill Gates in his day-to-day role at Microsoft.
Microsoft employs a technical assistant dedicated to deleting Mr. Gates' email. "It is a corporate policy not to make a permanent record of Bill's works...The job duties of the technical assistant require him to delete email files from Mr Gates' computer weekly." Apparently this directive appeared after the recent US Government antitrust case, where many emails showed Microsoft's anticompetitive policy.
Still waiting to get to the Apple punchline of this whole post? Turns out that in a (non-deleted) 2004 email, a senior executive told Gates that if he didn't work for Microsoft, he'd buy a Mac. Which shows that you really can find good people for senior management. It also makes you wonder how many deleted emails discuss the preference for iPods over the Zune.
The Atlantic Monthly has compiled a few lists of the most influential Americans, and his Steveness is on one of them. He is listed as number 5 on the 'Top Living Influentials,' which isn't too shabby. Sadly, he didn't make it into the big leagues of 'The Top 100,' which includes both living and dead American heavyweights. Bill Gates, to many the anti-Jobs, is number one on the living list and number 54 on the top 100.
Sure, Steve changed they way we all use computers, but Mr. Gates has had a huge impact on both technology and society, thanks to his enormous amount of charitable giving. Don't worry, Steve, you're still number one on TUAW's list.
Bill Gates recently stated that he felt Vista had an 80% chance of shipping in January. He even said he'd be glad to delay it if beta testers say so. Apparently, this latest talk of Vista getting kicked back yet again was the last straw on Wil Shipley's back, as he has offered a $10,000 bet to Bill Gates that Vista doesn't ship by January. As you can see from his post, Wil doesn't have a very large spot in his heart for Microsoft, and - discussion of whether Bill will even see this, let alone respond, aside - I think it's a riot that someone has called out the world's largest (and, unofficially: most tardy to the party) software pimp on the planet like this.
By Gates' claim of 80%, Wil has 4 to 1 odds. Anyone feel like starting up a GuessVistasReleaseDate.com? Oh wait, Microsoft already did that.
With Gates' bombshell announcement last week that he will be stepping down from his full-time role at Microsoft in 2008 to spend more time with his Gates and Melinda Foundation charity org, I finally came to wonder: how much longer does Steve have at Apple? Both companies were started around the same time and have helped shape the industry as we see it today. That has to be exhausting work, especially for someone like Jobs whose design and management obsessions are now the stuff of legends. Steve already stepped down from his other company, Pixar, so he could spend more time at Apple - but I'm wondering how long that's going to last, and what it means for Apple's future.
Plenty of articles are analyzing the impact of Gates leaving Microsoft, as it's a slightly different situation. Bill is their Senior Software Architect, not the CEO - that's Ballmer, and he'll apparently be staying on and doing the same, shall we say, 'bang-up job' he's been doing since he took that throne. But Steve Jobs is Apple's CEO, and famous for the amount of control he exacts over bringing his the company's visions to life. So what would a two-week's notice from Steve mean to Apple and its burgeoning market?
Honestly, I don't know, and since I am but a lowly blogger, I'll leave it up to those six-figure analysts who 'are people who know people' to pen those pieces. But before those analysts start earning their keep, TUAW wants to hear your thoughts, dear readers: what do you think it will mean for the future of Apple and their products when Steve needs to call it a day?
This isn't specifically Mac news, but it is a name we all know well. Bill Gates has announced that he will be stepping down from his full time role at Microsoft, something that I certainly didn't see coming. So, who will take over? Ballmer? We should be so lucky (think of the comedy potential). No, it looks like the torch has been passed to Ray Ozzie.
When Apple rolled out the new ad campaign, a
number of you sent in the tips (thanks!). I hopped online and saw the "virus" ad, which is what Apple
apparently wants you to see first. And like most of us, I saw a guy who reminded me of Bill Gates. It's not exact by any means, and there's some guilt by
association to be had here (can you mutter Windows PC without thinking of the guy?).
Give him credit, Bill
does a great job of being Nerd Prime. The actor in the commercial, aside from doing a terrible Bill G-money imitation,
does a great job of being an understated Windows geek. OK, so the guy looks as much like Gates as the smiley on Apple's
Get A Mac page looks like Microsoft's Bob icon... Now let's see those awesome parody
videos/comebacks, Windows lovers!
Say
what you will about Bill Gates (and I am sure you can say many things), but the man is concerned about the world, and
he puts his money where his mouth is. Using the Gates Foundation, Bill
has given away more money than either you or I will ever make in our life times (unless you're Bill Gates and you're
reading this in your massive mountaintop retreat). But what about his Steveness?
Leander Kahney, of Wired
News, wonders if Steve deserves his
rock-star-like status, given that he isn't known for his charitable works (Leander grants that Jobs might give
anonymously). Sure, you have to admire Jobs for having a vision and sticking to it, but shouldn't Gates get more credit
for his work?
What do you think, readers: are we cutting Steve too much slack, or does he deserve to be put
on such a high pedestal?
G4TV
may be a shell of what TechTV was, but Attack of the Show still has the power to make me laugh out loud (that's LOL for
you Internet addicts out there).
They recently produced this little skit
(Warning: it plays automatically) that spoofs a Stevenote and knocks both Bill Gates and Google. How can you not like
it?
The Steve Jobs' impression could use some fine tuning but it is still darn funny.
So Engadget has another great interview with Bill Gates up, but
there's this one part where Bill takes a low blow at Apple. Peter asks: "So you don't worry about Apple opening
things up so an OEM like Sony could offer OS X?" And Bill replies, "Well, the last time Apple went out and
licensed their operating system to people they changed their minds and they bankrupted all the people who had been
involved in that, and I don't know if we'll see another round of Apple tantalizing people with that or not."
Meanwhile, back here in reality: how many technologies and business moves have Microsoft backed out of that
resulted in the bankrupting of regular people? I mean, hello kettle!
It's a good interview though, so make
sure you check it out.
I'm all for competition in the marketplace. I'm even for friendly puns between rival competitors and the camps that follow them, especially since you have to have a sense of humor about them in the first place. But don't we also need a sense of reality?
The Atlantic Monthly has compiled a 
With Gates' 
This isn't specifically Mac news, but it is a name we all know well. Bill Gates has announced that he will be 
Say
what you will about Bill Gates (and I am sure you can say many things), but the man is concerned about the world, and
he puts his money where his mouth is. Using the 
G4TV
may be a shell of what TechTV was, but Attack of the Show still has the power to make me laugh out loud (that's LOL for
you Internet addicts out there).
So Engadget has another great interview with Bill Gates up, but
there's this one part where Bill takes a low blow at Apple. Peter asks: "So you don't worry about Apple opening
things up so an OEM like Sony could offer OS X?" And Bill replies, "Well, the last time Apple went out and
licensed their operating system to people they changed their minds and they bankrupted all the people who had been
involved in that, and I don't know if we'll see another round of Apple tantalizing people with that or not."
