Tag: Steve Jobs

Thanks Steve Jobs…For Everything, and For Everything We Haven’t Seen Yet

As I was on a phone call yesterday I noticed the news of Steve Job’s resignation from Apple pop up on Facebook. My immediate reaction was that it was some hoax and that it would eventually be debunked.

The entire world now knows that Steve Jobs has indeed resigned as CEO from Apple and has moved to the Chairman of the Board position. Tim Cook who was an incredible COO and was acting CEO during Steve’s various medical leaves is now the new CEO.

Of course everyone and their uncle are chiming in on what this means for Apple, and wondering how Tim Cook will perform. I could spin all my ideas out there but in the end my belief comes down to a few simple words. IT WILL ALL BE FINE.

Walt Mossberg made the one point in this video on the Wall St. Journal’s site that everyone seems to passing over…STEVE JOBS ISN’T DEAD. So it’s not like Steve won’t be contributing his ideas and thoughts to Apple’s future.

While he’s still with us (THANKFULLY!) I still want to take a moment to take Steve Jobs for everything he’s done at Apple in his role as CEO.

For me Steve Jobs…
1. Gave me a reason to give the MAC a shot and move from being a PC to a MAC GUY. I’m such a MAC guy I say with all honesty…”You can have my MacBook back when you pry it from my cold, dead,lifeless hands”.

2. Came up with two of the most incredible ways to listen to music and movies, saving me from carrying binders of CDs and/or DVDs as well as be more productive.

3. Gave me my own little piece of real life Star Trek tech.4. Created a marketplace that opened a whole new economy, a new obsession for and in a way a new role for me at REBS.

5. Taught me how to give better presentations

Finally and most importantly…

Steve Jobs gave me a reason to get excited again about technology on a daily basis.

So thanks Steve for everything you’ve done and for everything you’ve done that we haven’t gotten to see yet.

I pray that you’ll continue to be with us for some time and that by stepping down as CEO you’ll be able to get healthier, spend more time with your family and be able to continue to be the incredible influence that you’ve been thus far. Here’s to many more years of Steve Jobs magic!

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iPhone Tracking? It’s A Non-Issue.

Yesterday it was announced that your iPhone was tracking everywhere you’ve been and saving it to a file that’s copied to your computer when you synch your device.

Data Presented From Finders of iPhone Tracking

In case you haven’t seen the story someplace on the web, here’s an article about it on Mashable. It’s also now on the CNN home page – HERE

There are a lot of alarmists up in the air about this and Senator Al Franken has asked Apple to explain why it’s doing this.

I was going to write a wonderfully detailed blog post about it and why I thought it really wasn’t a big deal, but the incredibly smart and funny David Pogue beat me to it. Thanks for saving me some typing David!

In the end the only way someone can use this data and figure out where you’ve been is to download special software (which only shows some details) and pull this file off of your computer. As David Pogue put it “If your computer is that accessible, you’ve got much bigger problems.” He also makes a great point of saying only those that have something to hide, may have something to fear.

While you can’t change any setting to stop the tracking, you can (and I encourage you to) encrypt your iPhone back-ups. It’s incredibly easy to do and I’ve found some simple steps right HERE. Honestly everyone should be doing this from the get-go if they’re that worried about the security of their data.

If you’re really worried about the security of what’s on your iPhone you should have it lock and require a password to get into the device. Instructions on that are on the bottom of THIS PAGE.

I know some people feel like this is an invasion of privacy.
They have every right to feel that way.

To that I say in this day and age of Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube along with all the “check-ins” being done your information and location is out there already.

There’s  nothing to hide!

For those that are still incredibly fearful I’ll recommend as do with everyone else –
DON’T PUT YOUR INFORMATION ON OR GET CONNECTED TO THE INTERNET. Despite any password you have or protection you think you have on it, there’s no 100% security when it comes to computers. If someone really wants to get to your data, they’ll figure out a way and will be able to get around anything you put in the way.

That’s just my opinion, as has occasionally happened, I could be wrong. 🙂

iPad2…Is It Worth It?

Last week Apple announced the iPad 2.

We knew it was coming. The rumor mill was running rampant and leaked shots were showing up all over the net. The first question a lot of people asked me was…

“WHAT DO YOU THINK?”

And my immediate answer was “It’s great”.

No, I’m just saying that because I drank any kind of Apple Kool Aid.

I’m saying that because I do think it’s great. When I heard there was an announcement coming I was expecting to be greatly underwhelmed. I knew the front and back cameras were coming, that was a given. But when I started reading down the list of what it did I was incredibly surprised.

Here’s what jazzed me the most…

  • It’s thin! It’s incredibly thin! I cannot believe how thin they go it. On top of that it’s got the same battery life as the original.
  • 1GHz Dual Core Apple A5 chip – Yes, I know the Motorola Zoom has a dual core processor. I’m just happy the iPad has one now too.
  • 9x faster graphic performance – Faster is always better!

The one thing that impressed me the most and I definitely didn’t see coming was
VIDEO MIRRORING

Now finally I’ll be able to display anything I’m doing on the iPad on a bigger screen. I can now travel and do presentations showing anything I’m doing. I’ll even be able to show actual apps. Yes!

So after I glowed over the incredible new iPad, the question I got next was….

“ARE YOU MAD ABOUT HAVING THE OLD ONE?”

No. It’s been a great device that has saved me in so many instances. Most recently I spent 3 hours at a car repair shop and got a good amount of work done without having to lug a laptop and battery adapter. It’s still a great device and if you don’t need the latest greatest I’d go pick one up while Apple clears them out.

So then comes…

“ARE YOU GOING TO GET THE NEW ONE?”

Yup. I’m sold. Count me in.

So then what about my old iPad? Oh I’ve figured out a way to move on up to the iPad 2 and get money for the old one?

How’d I do that? You’ll have to check out my blog post on blog.car.org tomorrow where I’ll let you know about some options for trading in your old iPad so you can get the new one.

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A Sweet Auto Appointment Feature In iOS4?

Right now the iPhone 4 is getting a ton of attention because of the supposed antenna issue. What I don’t see enough of is people focusing on the cool new features of the updated iOS.

Sure you’ve got folders which rock organizing apps. You’ve also got the multitasking which I’m so used to I feel cheated when I can’t do it on my iPad.

But I believe I’ve found a sweet new feature in iOS4 that is going to make our lives even easier.

The other day I got an e-mail that had some dates and times in it. When I looked at it the dates and times, they looked like hyperlinks.

So like any good geek I touched the hyperlinks, it then prompted me to create an event.
When I selected to create the event, it created a new appointment with the date and time listed in the e-mail.

SWEET!!!!

Of course the geek in me had to test it again to make sure I wasn’t in some magical tech fantasy land, so I created a test e-mail:

Then I touched one of the hyperlinks and got the following:

When I tapped on Create Event, voila!

Check that out! It even included the subject line of the e-mail as the appointment name.

So you say, C’mon Chris. No one really writes e-mails that have the dates and times perfectly spelled out.

You’re right.

Cool thing is it still works. See!

Granted it can’t create the appointment as accurately, but it does.

I remember over ten years ago Microsoft showing off a potential new future feature for e-mails where it would intelligently take the information out of the e-mail and create appointments. It never appeared, but it looks like Apple has done it. Go Apple!

So that’s it! Sweet new feature on iOS4 for you to play around with over the holiday weekend.

Enjoy and HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!

iPad Thoughts Thus Far

As I type up this post I’m on a Metrolink train that’s headed to Los Angeles from Orange County. I’m typing with my iPad propped up on my lap. Aside from the rocking of the train it’s incredibly easy to type on it in landscape mode. Even in portrait mode it’s not so bad, just a little slower.

Before getting to work on this post I was able to quickly and easily check on the latest tech news on Mashable, TUAW, and Digg. I also quickly scanned through e-mail to see what may await me in the office this morning. My internet connection is being provided via my Verizon mi-fi device that’s in my laptop bag.

So far I’m incredibly impressed with this device and I do think its going to be a game changer. From being able to very nicely present video to being able to doing complex documents on the fly – all without having to wait for it to boot up. I also don’t have to wait for it to shut down as I get closer to wherever I’m going which gives me another couple of minutes to finish things up.

I’m loving my iPad to be sure and I can’t wait to write more on it as well as the apps for it. Looks like we’re just about at Union Station….HAVE A GREAT MONDAY!

Posted from my Apple iPad

Need to Play A Concert? There’s An App For That!

Nuff’ said. Or in this case…shown.

While I Was Out…iPhone Update & New Shuffle

While I was in the Dominican Republic for a week (which still wasn’t enough) Apple came out with some new stuff.

An iPhone software update and a brand new iPod shuffle.

The iPhone software update finally delivers copy/cut and paste functionality, MMS, a new voice memo app and 97 other new features. The software update comes out this summer. It’s free for existing iPhone users, and iTouch owners can upgrade for $10.00.

There are rumors that a new iPhone will be released this June. It would make sense given the software update.

The brand new iPod shuffle…well it’s small. Some of what they’ve done sounds really cool, but I don’t like the fact that they’ve basically limited control of the device to using the headphones that come with it. While I love the Apple earbuds, I know a number of people that don’t.  So essentially if you use it with any other headphones all you can do is just listen. I will be really curious to see how this plays out for Apple.

Now if only the iPhone would come to TMobile…
Yes, I know you can unlock it for TMobile, but I’d rather have an officially supported one with the TMobile data plan price. 🙂

The Most Boring Steve Jobs Keynote Ever…

Normally the Steve Jobs keynotes are interesting and include a number of new product announcements. This time it was long, drawn out, boring with nearly an hour or so dedicated to showing off iPhone applications and/or games.

In the end there was only one significant product announcement…the product the rest of the world already knew about…the new iPhone 3G.

iphone7.jpg

Yes, it’s sleek and it’s sexy and now they’re half the price. But that was it? C’mon Steve say it ain’t so. Please tell me you’ve got another media event up your sleeve in the next month and you’ll announce something else.

I think it’s wonderful they lowered the price of the iPhone to $199 for the 8GB unit…but how about lowering the price of the Nano and iTouch now? How about upping the memory in the iTouch and iPhone…32GB is the max? I can’t even fit all my music into that….I wanna put movies on it too.

Overall a really underwhelming keynote and anti-climatic product announcement. I still love Apple, but right now I’m not inclined to spend my money with them anytime soon. I’ve waited this long for a big capacity iPod touch…I can wait a little longer.