Apple

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And this is why Steve Jobs mattered

Steve Jobs–The Crazy Ones

Of all the tributes flowing across the web this morning this is probably the one that means most to me, simply put Steve made a difference to this world. And my question to me, and all of you, is are we willing to make a difference or are we just willing to be present in this world. Let’s stop being the audience and become the actors.

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

— Steve Jobs

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The MacBook Air – The Missing Link?

Lots of articles around on the MacBook Air including The Fishbowl: Heavier than Air. But what is the Air really missing?

Well to my mind the real missing link here is a 3G cellular solution just like the iPhone – what’s up with Steve? I see the main problem is Apple’s intense focus on the US market, time after time Apple adds product features which only make sense, or can be used, in the US. If Apple really wants to take on Nokia or Sony then it needs to get a real global view, and for both the iPhone & Air this is having true wireless capability no matter where you are, I don’t want wifi in a product like this, I want true wireless freedom and that means using the cellular networks. Just take a look at Europe and the Far Eastern companies and you will see that using the mobile network for internet access is fast becoming normal.

So there is the challenge to Apple, to really make a difference look globally, I mean with the financial meltdowns in the US it may be the only place to sell such a high-end product.

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The iPhone Interface – How new is it?

I was pointed towards this presentation by Jeff Han at TEDTalks today and here he talks about research into dual-touch user interfaces. Lots of talk about two finger guestures to zoom in/out etc pretty much what the iPhoner is supporting. And David Pogue in one his blog posts also mentions Jeff’s work with Jobs implying that Apples came first.

Now this would not be the first time that Apple has looked at research and assumed this as its own would it? So who came first, and how long has research been going on in this area. How do you get 200 patents on one product and just how many people have been working on patents just for the iPhone. Think how much more Apple could of done if they weren’t writing up 200 patents, believe it is a slow and resource intensive process. How much manpower was just consumed writing and pursuing patents, and now we wait for the lawyers to start trying to enforce them (assuming they get approved of course).

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The iPhone is not a Phone!

Just been reading up on the Apple iPhone announcements and it looks really cool. BUT it is not a phone, what phone requires you to press a button before you start dialing and I still didn’t see in Apple’s videos how to get a dial pad up quickly.

Now my Windows Smartphone my have its problems but if I want to dial somebody I just dialing their number or entering their name on the keypad and in a few presses I can dial their number. The iPhone UI looks cool but seems to me that it forgets to be a phone so really it is an iPod Phone, i.e. a music player first and a phone second, and that is what this post on it being a PDA done right argues as well. Not so sure about it being a full PDA yet though, what about over the air email sync?

So cool, good first try, but not a phone.

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Now why would they want that?

Great new feature in iTunes 7 = Album Art. BUT you have to have an Apple iTunes music store account and you can’t have one of those without giving out you credit card details. Now why would I want to do that when all I want is to have album art!

 Apple again tries to up the lockin, you’ve got an account – oops you’ve just bought that song! Here at least Microsoft lead as you can have album art in Media Player without any accounts anywhere, it just goes out and gets it.

Apple come on, time to wake up and smell the roses. Don’t try to tie me in and I might, just might, buy into an iPod. Starting to like iTunes, love looking at iPods and almost lust after one but games like this just make me reluctant to buy in. So posts like this start breaking down the resistance and then this!