Oct 10

Official Cause of Death for Steve Jobs Released

By brandinNo Comments

Bloomberg reports that official details of Steve Jobs’s death have been released by the Santa Clara County Public Health Department. Jobs died at home at approximately 3 P.M. local time on October 5. The official cause of death: respiratory arrest brought about by his pancreatic tumor. Most of us assumed that was the case, but this is one time we all wish we’d been wrong.

Apple was reportedly aware of Steve’s condition and notified local police days in advance. The empty “reserved” seat during Apple’s latest event and presenters’ somewhat somber demeanors seem to show that executives were aware of Steve’s decline. The fact that they were able to put on the presentation anyway, and that it’s only in hindsight that we realize what they must have all been going through, strikes me as evidence that Apple is in very capable hands indeed.

Steve Jobs’s occupation on his death certificate was listed as “entrepreneur.” That doesn’t even begin to cover it.

A memorial covers the sidewalk in front of Steve Job's Palo Alto, Calif., home on Oct. 6, 2011.

Apple, Tech
Oct 07

My Thanks to StevieJ (Steve Jobs: 1955-2011)

By brandinNo Comments

I wanted to wait a few days to see what other news would come out of the woodwork. I feel the time is right to post something regarding the passing of Apple’s Co-founder, Steven Paul Jobs. For the past several years, I knew it was inevitable, he wasn’t going to be the CEO forever. But the legacy he left behind is astonishing and the spirit lives on. I was fortunate to attend several of his keynotes in person, starting with the Macworld 2007 keynote, where he revealed the first-generation iPhone (and prank called a Starbucks). He most recent and last keynote that he appeared at was this past June at the 2011 Worldwide Developers Conference at Moscone West in San Francisco. Today, I am a proud shareholder of Apple Inc.

Steve built a company, but more importantly, built a company that shares his vision. After witnessing a lot of their operations in person, whether a shareholders meeting or a conference, you feel a sense a confidence in Apple’s management that will sustain itself for a long time. Things will never be the same without him, but I am happy to see that there is faith in the management to keep Steve’s spirit alive.

Steve was more than just Apple. The work he did at Pixar was nothing ever seen in the movie industry. I was a huge fan of Toy Story back when I was a kid. No matter what company it was, Steve was good at taking something that was nothing at George Lucas’ Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) and made it “just work.” During Steve’s absence from Apple, NexT was born, and the world’s first webpage was created using a NexT machine. A lot of people don’t realize that today.

In 2009, I was fortunate enough to meet Steve Wozniak, Jobs’ high school buddy and second Co-Founder of Apple, at a digital art exhibit in San Francisco.

Going back to 1989, at the age of three, I got my hands on a small and compact Macintosh SE that was in use at my grandfather’s medical company. Through the 90’s the Mac was a part of the family, and part of what would end up being a driving force in my career. In 2003, I took a brief absence from the Mac, only to return to it in 2006 after I had dumped Windows for Fedora Linux.

On Wednesday, October 5, 2011, I was at a hardware store picking up small parts for a project that was on my list since high school. On the way home I heard on the radio that he had passed on.

Prior to his resignation as CEO last August, Steve was known to respond to messages sent by the public. It wasn’t hard to figure out his address (sjobs@apple.com). Of course, it was probably regulated by his assistants, but if you were lucky, you’d get a short response. I decided to send something to him. I received no response, which was expected. Perhaps he read it. Who knows.

 

From: Brandin Grams
Subject: Thanks Steve
Date: January 17, 2011 12:33:16 PM PST
To: sjobs@apple.com

Dear Steve,

I’m sure you’re getting swamped with messages right now, if these are even getting to you. Part of me said to leave the poor guy alone, he gets enough of it from his fans and the company. Then there was a part that wanted to express my gratitude because the time would come sooner or later. I could write page after page here, but I’d rather respect your valuable time. Words can’t completely describe my amount of gratitude.

I don’t see myself as a “Fanboy” or a “Stevefanatic,” but rather as someone who looked up to the man as the one with the vision, to manage for the mission, and keeping the eyes on the big prize. More importantly, I respect those who strive to share the leader’s vision with colleagues. To influence them to follow can be such a toilsome task at times. How do we do it? There is no fixed path. You have to define what I like to call, the people element. We make mistakes and we take blame, but doesn’t it feel good when you’ve proved a point? Regaining that respect in not just your own company, but the in the industry is commendable, and that is something great that you did. I have been impressed with everyone’s commitment at Apple to keep that vision alive and I think the majority or its users see the same thing. I ran into Steve Wozniak in-person not too long ago. What a man.

Personally, the work you did at Pixar meant a lot more to me besides the amazing innovations that have, and still, come out of Apple. I was such a fan of Toy Story back in the day. To see such an animation hit the screens was so motivating to me when I was a kid. “I want to do stuff like that too,” I remember.

Back in 1989, at the age of three, I got my hands on a Mac for the first time, a Macintosh SE to be exact. I don’t know exactly what sparked my interest, but little did I know that this was going to become my life’s work. Still at such a young age, I found myself getting into trouble, taking things apart that I shouldn’t have, being the “go-to” guy for people I shouldn’t have, and the list goes on. Today, it’s a respect that I take pride in, and others see the same thing. When I look back, it was all well worth the trouble. In recent years, I received a WWDC Student Scholarships from Apple, two years in a row, and I hope to give back to those opportunities through excellence in innovation as I venture on in life this coming year. I am a proud shareholder, and will be for the foreseeable future.

Time is short. It’s a precious thing, never waste it. I admired those last few words of your’s from the Stanford commencement speech to, “…stay hungry, stay foolish…” and “don’t settle.”

Steve, no matter what happens, thank you for your hard work and being someone to look up to. I wish you the best and a good recovery.

 

Sincerely,
Brandin Grams
Long Beach, CA
http://www.brandin.com

 

So to end, thank you Steve. Well done. Rest well.

~B

Apple, Tech
Jun 25

Darpa: U.S. Geek Shortage Is National Security Risk

By brandinNo Comments

By Katie Drummond @ DarpaWatch

Sure, we’re all plugged in and online 24/7. But fewer American kids are growing up to be bona fide computer geeks. And that poses a serious security risk for the country, according to the Defense Department.

The Pentagon’s far-out research arm Darpa is soliciting proposals for initiatives that would attract teens to careers in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), with an emphasis on computing. According to the Computer Research Association, computer science enrollment dropped 43 percent between 2003 and 2006.

Darpa’s worried that America’s “ability to compete in the increasingly internationalized stage will be hindered without college graduates with the ability to understand and innovate cutting edge technologies in the decades to come…. Finding the right people with increasingly specialized talent is becoming more difficult and will continue to add risk to a wide range of DoD [Department of Defense] systems that include software development.”

The agency doesn’t offer specifics on what kinds of activities might boost computing’s appeal to teens, but they want programs to include career days, mentoring, lab tours and counseling.

Of course, Darpa’s launched student-oriented publicity stunts before. But events like last year’s red balloon hunt were directed at pre-existing geeks — the balloon-finders were a team of MIT aces.

Now, Darpa’s now hoping someone, somewhere, can come up with a way to make future philosophy majors change course. And they want to get ‘em while they’re young: Darpa insists that programs be “targeted to middle and high school students, and include methods “to maintain a positive, long-term presence in a student’s education.”

A long-term presence that includes evenings and weekends. Rather than incorporate computer-based activities into academics, Darpa wants the programs to be extracurricular, “perhaps as an after school activity, weekend, or summer event.” Tween girls and minorities take note, because Darpa’s especially got it out for you:

Finally, the decline in degrees in CS [computer science] is particularly pronounced for women and minorities…. Proposals that have plans that specifically increase the number of women or minorities in their activities are encouraged.

 

Tech
Jun 06

WWDC 2011 Keynote: iCloud, iOS5, OS10.7

By brandinNo Comments

And Good Morning! It’s 8:40 AM and I’m sitting down on level 2 of Moscone West. In about an hour we should begin seating on level 3 inside the Presidio show floor to see Apple’s latest and greatest. The SteveNote starts at 10:00AM. We know for sure in Apple’s PR last week that this keynote will address the future of iOS5, OS10.7 (Lion), and the long-anticipated cloud service. Apple is expected to highlight their focus on being better, not first to market.

This is the first time I’ve reported an event with this new CMS as I can now update on the fly. It’s strange writing an article as it happens rather than after the fact, so bear with me.

The nice gentleman next to me offered to take some photos of the event. I don’t think I’ll be able to post them until after the event because we’re packed in here really tight.

Steve had a standing ovation at 10:01 AM. “We have an awesome morning together…we’re talking about three things today, all about software…lion…iOS5….and interesting new cloud stuff.”

Phil Shiller and Craig Federighi come out on stage to talk about Lion. MacOSX was launched 10 years ago and has grown with many features. We were shown a snapshot of “Cheeta” 10.0. Lion has 250 new features, but he’s only telling us about 10.

  • Multi-Touch gestures: built throughout the system
  • Full-screen applications: very important for notebooks. Developers have a simple platform to use. More than one full-screen application can run by swiping desktops.
  • Mission-control: a birds-eye view of everything you are running. Switch apps with a single tap.

Craig came out on stage to show us Lion in action. The most popular demo was iChat’s new photo-booth features that are aware of the space around you. We could spend hours on this. Phil continues…

  • App-store: The MacApp store is now #1 to buy apps. In-app purchases are now built-in. Apps can run in a sandbox to protect data. The Apps can also auto-update.
  • Launchpad: launch apps with a gesture you create.
  • Resume: similar to apps on the iPhone/iPad, apps can resume where you left off, without have to save a document for example.
  • Auto-save: Lion saves your documents automatically. You can even “go back” to where you last started (versioning).
  • Versions: Documents can also be duplicated based on a pervious version. You can also store a manual “snapshot.” Only the differences are saved to save space.

Craig comes back out to show us the above in a demo. Craig accidentally quit Pages and forgot to save his work. He didn’t need to.

  • AirDrop: Easily share documents with a friend’s mac. No more sneakerswitch (USB stick). It’s an auto-discovery setup on a ad-hoc wifi connection.
  • Mail: New MacMail application laid out similar to the Mail app on the iPad. The search function now suggests what you are trying to find. The “conversation view” lines up all messages together in one continuous view.

Craig shows us once more of AirDrop and Mail.

Developers now have 3000 new API’s to integrate into their apps.

How can we get it. Lion will be available via the Mac AppStore. It will be 4GB in size. The download can be used on ALL personal authorized macs. Lion will be $29, same as Snow Leopard. Developers will receive a preview of Lion today and it will be available for customers in July.

Scott Forstall now takes the stage. He goes over recent achievements of the iOS devices, which is now the largest mobile OS @ 44% of the market.

Here comes iOS5. It’s a major release for developers and customers. 1500 new API’s for developers and 200 new features for users. Scott shows us 10 features:

  • Notifications: More than 100 Billion notifications have been pushed to devices. iOS5 now has a Notification Center, a single place that can bind together all notifications by swiping your finger from the top of the screen on down. Stocks and weather are also included on the top. The notifications will no longer interrupt you application. You can even see it when the lock screen is enabled. Scott showed us this in action.
  • Newsstand: Subscriptions to magazines are now archived in the Newsstand, complete with background downloads when new issues are ready to read.
  • Twitter: People send 1 billion tweets a week. iOS5 makes it easier using a new function of the Settings app. All other apps can now integrate tweets in publishing/sending options. Twitter usernames can be saved into your contacts.
  • Safari: Two-thirds of mobile browsing on iOS (90% including Android devices). Single scrolling separate the content, full-screen for the user. Users can add pages to the “reading list” to review at any time. Tabbed browsing was added to switch fast from different pages.
  • Reminders: The new reminders app can store all those things you have written to do on paper. Users can assign locations to reminders. All reminders sync with iCal.
  • Camera: the camera on the iPhone4 is the most popular camera on published photos. The volume button can now be used to zoom the camera. The camera can be access from the lock-screen to quickly take a photo on a moment’s notice. Gridlines are included on the preview screen. Quick image enhancements are included to fix blemishes (i,e, red eye).
  • Mail: Draggable address and flagging. Search the entire contents of a message. S/MIME is now supported for enterprise accounts (i.e. MS Exchange). The keyboard on screen is detachable for someone to type with their thumbs.
  • PC-FREE: (wild crowd) No syncing is necessary with a PC. We live in a new Post PC world. Setup and activate the iOS device right there. Software updates are automatic and are “delta” (difference) updates. “If you want to cut the cord, you can.”
  • Game Center: iOS is the most popular gaming platform on mobile devices. 50 million game center accounts were created in less than 9 months, 30 million with Xbox over 8 years.
  • iMessage: iPhone users have enjoyed SMS text messaging, what about iPod Touch and the iPad. iMessage is the app for you. Delivery and read receipts, typing indicators, and fully encrypted. (question: does this eliminate SMS texting?) Yes, it works on WiFi AND 3G networks. iMessage is built on top of the push notification system.

iOS5 is available to developers today via the developer seed. iOS5 will ship to customers this Fall. It will work on iPhone 3GS, 4, iPad, iPad 2, and the third and fourth generation iPod Touch.

Steve comes back out to talk about iCloud.

“10 years ago we said that the PC would become the digital hub for all of your stuff. It worked well for a long time through syncing. It no longer works because our devices have changed…keeping everything synced is driving us crazy.” The Mac and PC are their own device. Your digital hub will now be in the cloud. All of your devices can sync automatically with each other. The cloud is more than just a big hard drive. iCloud stores your content and pushes it to all of your devices. Nothing to to learn. “It just works.”

Steve: “But why them, they are the ones who brought MobileMe!”

Mail, contacts, and calendars are synced like before. No ads! MobileMe today ceases to exist. It was $99. It’s now free. What else comes with it?

The AppStore can now sync past purchases to other devices. There is no extra charge to distribute the apps. iBooks works the same way. Wireless backup works automatically. Enough said.

Three more apps! The Documents app stores all documents worked on the device. Apple’s iWork suite integrates with iCloud services.

Steve talks about the “file system” story. iOS handled all documents without revealing this confusion. iCloud solves this issue. iCloud Storage API’s will be available. Macs and PC’S TOO!

Photo Stream lets us share all photos between our devices. There’s nothing new to learn. It’s even built into AppleTV. What about the size of these photos? Only the last 1000 photos are actually stored on the device unless you choose to do differently.

The final app for iCloud… iTunes. You can now distribute your music to your other devices that you own… no additional charge. It’s the first time we’ve seen this in the music industry.

Again… ALL FREE SERVICES. They want all users to adopt these services. “That’s iCloud.”

Users will switch to iCloud through a setup option when they get iOS5. Photos and documents are not counted as the free 5GB. Today, developers can grab the 4.3 beta to begin testing. iCloud will deploy when iOS5 is released to customers.

STEVE HAS ONE MORE THING!

Ripped music in iTunes can be imported via WiFi or a traditional cable. Users can “rebuy” the songs, but iTunes Match will take the non-iTunes songs and give you the same benefits of a purchased song. iTunes Match will upgrade the format to 256 kbps AAC-DRM free. It does a “scan and match” not upload of your library into the cloud. iTunes Match will cost $24.99 a year.

That’s it folks!

Apple, Tech, WWDC
Jun 06

Microsoft buzz cuts Apple: Leaks Kinect Fun Labs

By brandinComments Off

Joe Wilcox posted something worth reading.

I do give Microsoft some credit on a few things, one being the Dynamics CRM, and second, the Kinect strategy. Announcing this hours before Apple’s rumors are to be revealed is a diehard strategy. But maybe we’re both speaking too soon.

Continue reading this entry »

MSFT, Tech
Jun 05

Newbie’s Guide to WWDC

By brandinNo Comments

Because WWDC has gained much popularity due to the iOS platform, Apple’s annual event has sold out every year since 2008. In 2011, the event sold out in less than 10 hours. Student scholarships were reduced from 400, when I got them, to a mere 150. For those of you who are still lucky to beat the competition, here are some tips on attending WWDC from NorthIsUp: http://northisup.com/blog/wwdc-survival-guide-2009-with-additions/

 

This one saved me when I first attended in 2008. See below:

Continue reading this entry »

Apple, Tech, WWDC
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