1 year ago today, Steve Jobs died. Whether or not you are an Apple fan, it is amazing what the technology and ideas that came from this man drove for the industry as a whole.
Apple is running a tribute video on their home page.
Although I don’t typically care for Apple or it’s products, Steve Jobs was an incredible visionary. He is someone that years from now students in school will study, both as a creator and as a leader. What he accomplished was extremely extraordinary. As a tech person and working in the industry, there is simply no denying what Steve Jobs has meant to the technology community.
:tup: to the tribute.
The part about technology not being enough, but needing to blend liberal arts and humanities in sums up what Apple does better than anyone else in the business.
No one is sadder than the Koreans and Japanese who now will have to actually come up with the next big thing instead of waiting to copy it from Apple. 
Just pull a Samsung 
Well put. Hell forgetting the iPod and music industry revamp he caused, take an every day device like a cell phone/smart phone. You may not like the iPhone or Apple but look at the progress that has gone crazy since the original iPhone came out and the innovations in mobile devices. They typically were for business people and then boom, Apple releases the iPhone as really a first all in one consume smartphone and now all you see is complex smartphones from all the devices makers out there, multiple OS platforms, and wireless networks trying to deliver home internet speeds to devices. Amazing.
- iMac - Showed the world the computer didn’t have to be an ugly box
- iPod - Revolutionized how we listen to music
- iTunes store - Turned the music industry upside down
- iPhone - Pre-launch all kinds of jokes about no keyboard, having to press multiple buttons just to reach a phone keypad. Now it’s the model everyone copies.
- Apps - People though of applications as the stuff that came in dictionary sized boxes at the computer store before the Apple App Store. Now Google, Amazon, Microsoft etc are rushing to copy the Apple App Store model.
- iPad - Another product that everyone joked about (“it’s so dumb, who needs a giant iPhone”), at least until it sold almost a million. Then deja-vu, everyone starts creating tablets that look like iPads.
Man, you look at that list and it’s hard not to respect the guy and mourn the fact that the world has lost a true technological pioneer. Sure, lots of those things Apple wasn’t first to create but it took Steve Job’s ability to blend tech with user friendliness to make them mainstream.
You’re forgetting the biggest one. The Apple II really drove the PC revolution.
IMO the imac didn’t really accomplish enough to list it in the same genre as the Apple II, ipod, and iphone. I might not even include the ipad. It’s wildly popular and created the tablet market, but hasn’t really changed day-to-day life the way the other three have. The centralized app store is cool too, but again not really revolutionary like the computer, ipod, and iphone.
My $.02 anyway. :shrug:
IMO, his older stuff like Fry said, the Apple II were more revolutionary than most of what they’re doing now. Sans the iphone.
lol… the tablet has turned the personal computer world on it’s head and you might not include it on the list? Microsoft is so scared they made the default interface for Windows 8 Metro, the touchscreen optimized UI.
And like I said, it’s not about being first. Are you guys honestly going to sit here and tell me there was a legitimate market for mp3 players before the iPod, or that there is one today? There’s iPod, and then there’s “you’re too poor for an iPod so you got XYZ player”. Ask Gates about his Zune. :lol:
I’ll give you the iMac, but it sure did spawn a bunch of imitators. And as soon as other companies started catching up Apple said “oh, here’s the new one, it’s a tiny little box not much bigger than that fancy business card holder on your desk”. Then just to fuck with people they got rid of the box entirely and put it all in a thin monitor.
Apple’s history as pointed out wasn’t to necessarily create the first device of its kind but make one simple for consumers. The ugly home PC apple turned into a pretty looking one. The iPod wasn’t the first MP3 player but they were the first one that made MP3 players that people could figure out with their simple interface and iTunes integration.
ok fine … but i don’t like admitting it. consider this a win for yourselves.
I have to say though, that I think a lot of their success can simply be attributed to marketing and eco-system.
Creating a a giant iphone/ipod touch was not revolutionary in terms of hardware/software. It is simply a larger form factor of existing hardware and software.
Yes they sold shitloads
yes lots of people own them
no there is not a good competitor
but, it succeeds largely due to the eco-system created from the app store/itunes/ibooks/etc… crap. In terms of hardware, it is nothing that didn’t exist before. So I do not consider it to be revolutionary. It was a decent idea that was executed well and marketed extrordinarily well.
It’s more than just good marketing, it’s a superior product. Even as Samsung inflates their sales figures buy counting units shipped from warehouse to store as “sold”, the internet traffic doesn’t lie.
If there really are as many non-Apple tablets being sold as their competitors claim they must all be sitting around in owner’s nightstands or something.
Look at the tablet market before the iPad came out and the rate of adoption lol
I admitted there is no good competitor. The iPad is the best tablet. Hands Down.
What I am saying is that in terms of inventions, it’s simply a larger version of something they already created. Things like the Apple II were mind-blowing innovations. One of the first devices for personal computing ever built and adopted.
The iPad was an obvious idea that fit nicely within the ecosystem that they had created. A SIMPLE device that allows Apple to sell you more content and make it easier to consume.
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i’m not denying it’s success. I think that it was a simple idea that was marketed well and fit nicely into an existing ecosystem of consumable media. It was a GOOD idea that was executed well. But it was simple. Doesn’t even compare to being the first personal computer. It is a MARVEL of engineering in both hardware and software. The iPad is simply a larger screen and existing code ported into a larger resolution.
As an engineer and someone who builds complex things, you can’t possibly think that the iPad is nearly as revolutionary in terms of technology, as the FIRST PC.
i couldnt watch it on the apple site.
Good riddance to a notorious asshole. A super smart one, but an asshole nonetheless. His biggest accomplishment in Round 2 at Apple was using smoke, mirrors, and marketing to convince people that didn’t know anything about the products he made to spend too much money on them.
Tell us how you really feel Joe.
Jobs, who was known for his prickly, stubborn personality, almost missed meeting President Obama in the fall of 2010 because he insisted that the president personally ask him for a meeting. Though his wife told him that Obama “was really psyched to meet with you,” Jobs insisted on the personal invitation, and the standoff lasted for five days. When he finally relented and they met at the Westin San Francisco Airport, Jobs was characteristically blunt. He seemed to have transformed from a liberal into a conservative. “You’re headed for a one-term presidency,” he told Obama at the start of their meeting, insisting that the administration needed to be more business-friendly. As an example, Jobs described the ease with which companies can build factories in China compared to the United States, where “regulations and unnecessary costs” make it difficult for them. Jobs also criticized America’s education system, saying it was “crippled by union work rules,” noted Isaacson. “Until the teachers’ unions were broken, there was almost no hope for education reform.” Jobs proposed allowing principals to hire and fire teachers based on merit, that schools stay open until 6 p.m. and that they be open 11 months a year.
Brutally honest :tup:
Couldn’t agree more.
“Bill is basically unimaginative and has never invented anything, which is why I think he’s more comfortable now in philanthropy than technology,” Jobs told author Walter Isaacson. “He just shamelessly ripped off other people’s ideas.”
The irony is that the first tablet PC’s were released in 2002 to Microsoft specs… I’m sorry, who’s shameless ripping off other peoples ideas?
Everyone knows he was a picky ass hole. Most people who operate at a level way above the intelligence of the normal person are usually strange.
Also, the iPad and Microsoft Tablet are completely different. Microsoft’s was a an actual tablet PC that ran Windows and had a fixed keyboard and allows you to write on it and wanted to compete as a laptop. There was a number of them out in the early 2000’s that did the same thing and were trying to be the new thing. Apple invented a whole new OS for their mobile line and made it a device with apps for a purpose. It isn’t a PC and wasn’t meant to be. Even the initial reveal showed it as a intermediary device between your laptop and your cell phone. The applications people developed for it like Citrix are the reason why its taking over the market and becoming a all in one device and phasing out the PC/Laptop