Steve Jobs quote app rejected by Apple, report says

The app's creator has decided to turn the app into a Web-only program after Apple decided daily Steve Jobs quotes weren't enough.

CNET - A new app has surfaced that features Steve Jobs quotes. But it turns out Apple wasn't impressed, according to a new report.

Quoth Steve has cropped up on the Web as a mobile app that users can run in the browser. The app provides daily Steve Jobs quotes that can be saved, shared via social networks, or synched to different devices. The app was initially planned for Apple's App Store, but according to co-creator John Gill, who coincidentally works as a developer at Amazon, Apple denied its entry into its marketplace.   Read More

Steve Jobs, Google+ and iPhone top Google’s 2011 search list

Tech topics, led by Apple terms, were hot this year on the annual Google Zeitgeist list

Computerworld – What technology and technologists most interested the online world this year?

Based on the most popular 2011 Google search terms, people were most interested in getting information on Apple founder Steve Jobs, the iPhone 5, the iPad 2, and Google+.

Out of the billions of searches that people conducted on Google this year, these were the top tech topics in the company’s annual list of top searches.

“This year marks our 11th annual look back at the searches that compose the year’s Zeitgeist — the spirit of the time,” wrote Amit Singhal, a Google Fellow, in a blog post. “With Zeitgeist, we look at the most popular and the fastest rising terms — the terms with the highest growth in 2011 — in many categories across many countries around the world.”

On the list of fastest-growing search terms, Google’s new social networking site, Google+, came in at a strong second, while the release of Battlefield 3, a first-person shooter video game, came in at number five, and the anticipated release of the iPhone5 was number six.      

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Steve Jobs warned of mobile Flash's shortcomings. Adobe should have listened.

SAN FRANCISCO - MAY 13: A full page ad by Adobe 

Systems is displayed on the back of the San Francisco 

Chronicle business section May 13, 2010 in San 

Francisco (Credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

CNET - In April, 2010, Steve Jobs devoted about 1,700 words to a public postripping Adobe’s Flash to shreds. His most cutting comments concerned the mobile version of Flash.

-”In addition, Flash has not performed well on mobile devices. We have routinely asked Adobe to show us Flash performing well on a mobile device, any mobile device, for a few years now. We have never seen it.”

-”Adobe publicly said that Flash would ship on a smartphone in early 2009, then the second half of 2009, then the first half of 2010, and now they say the second half of 2010. We think it will eventually ship, but we’re glad we didn’t hold our breath.”

In other words, Adobe was offering a mediocre technology that wasn’t able to stand up to the demands of smartphone users – or at least those who were not in the mood to smash their heads against the wall when their pages crapped out because of Flash’s idiosyncrasies. The missive was written to rationalize Apple’s decision to no longer allow apps compiled with Flash to run on the iPhone, iPod, or the iPad.

Adobe press release

ZDNet: Flash is dead: Long live HTML 5?

Adobe was understandably aghast and responded with a public relations offensive, framing this as a question of industry politics and open access with Apple playing the role of the heavy.

“We are ready to enable Flash in the browser on these devices if and when Apple chooses to allow that for its users, but to date we have not had the required cooperation from Apple to make this happen,” Kevin Lynch, the company’s chief technology officer, wrote at the time in a public post. For good measure, he added that those who suggested HTML “as eventually supplanting the need for Flash” were wrong. “I don’t see this as one replacing the other, certainly not today nor even in the foreseeable future.”

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Obama vs. Steve Jobs - The contrast between an economic taker and a giver

FrontPageMag.Com - The philosophies and accomplishments of two famous Americans are strikingly different. One has taken from us; the other has given to us.

Barack Obama​ is the symbol of socialistic incompetence run amok. He has stolen our security. The late Steve Jobs​ of entrepreneurial fame gave us the promise of innovation and a brighter life.

Obama rejected the American characteristic of exceptionalism. Jobs epitomized American exceptionalism at its most productive. Obama is driven by bureaucratic planning and narcissism. Jobs was driven by individual initiative, personal responsibility, and consumer needs to achieve national prosperity.

The National Review’s deputy managing editor Kevin Williamson took it one step further, contrasting the Apple founder’s innovation with the ennui of the “Occupy Wall Street” movement:
N]ever has the divide between the iPhoneworld and the politics world been so clear: I saw a bunch of people very well-served by their computers and telephones (very often Apple products) but undeniably shortchanged by our government-run cartel education system. And the tragedy for them — and for us — is that they will spend their energy trying to expand the sphere of the ineffective, hidebound, rent-seeking, unproductive political world, giving the… politicians…an even stronger whip hand over the Steve Jobses and Henry Fords—and we will be the poorer for it.

The Obama failures keep piling up. There are too many to count, probably because some have yet to come to light. But the overhaul of the country’s health care system probably leads the pack. ObamaCare has added to the $14 trillion dollar debt and the job-stagnant economy. The stock market yo-yo, bankers’ reluctance to lend and businesses’ fear of hiring can be attributed to Democrat policy uncertainties, along with the entanglement of regulations.

Just a smattering of Obama’s other failures include: faith in his attorney general, who may well be responsible for the so-called “Fast and Furious” gun running scandal; the president’s empty hope of changing the energy environment and creating jobs with costly “green” projects; Obama’s trusted advisers, from Rev. Wright, to Bill Ayers​, to Van Jones to Valerie Jarrett, to George Soros​, identifies the radical anti-Americanism that has guided his decisions.            

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Steve Jobs’ Influence on the Military

DefenseTech - Apple founder Steve Jobs, the Bay Area-bred Buddhist, tech mogul and non-conformist who died yesterday, may not be the first person you associate with the military —  he even issued the famous quote “it’s more fun to be a pirate than join the navy” — his inventions have indeed helped transform the military.

First off, it was largely Jobs who brought the easy to use graphical user interface and mouse to the masses with the Macintosh computer. The Mac and other Jobs’ creations ushered in the spirit of the modern Internet long before it existed by allowing average people to use computers to produce and share information. In the decade and a half after the Mac’s release we’d see the major computer companies producing personal computers — inspired by the Mac — that ran easy to use software flooding average consumers’ houses — and these computers were soon connected to one another by the World Wide Web. This has led to an unbelievable and ongoing explosion of creativity, for both good and bad, around the globe. In other words, his actions helped kick off the democratization of technology that now allows millions of hackers around the globe to harness knowledge and digital destructive power that keeps Pentagon planners up at night. Just browse DT’s cyber security section for more information on how much of a threat these hackers can be.

Meanwhile, the iPhone that I’ve posted articles onto this blog from basically ushered in the modern smartphone only four years ago. Yes, Blackberry brought the smartphone to the masses, but Jobs’ iPhone completely changed the game by making a device that was (in my opinion) the epitome of almost everything a smartphone should be, and then some. Heck, the iPhone makes Captain Kirk’s communicator, envisioned by Star Trek’s 1960s writers as the pinnacle of 23rd Century technology, look downright hokey. The iPhone and all the copycat’s that have come since also made a lot of very expensive and very cumbersome military technology look downright hokey.               More

How Apple–and Steve Jobs–Reshaped the PC

PCMag.Com - Steve Jobs may be leaving his position as CEO of the most valuable tech company in the world, but he’s also leaving a legacy that changed the shape of technology – literally. Under Jobs, Apple has introduced, and in some cases removed, both functional features and beautifying design elements, and the company has done so just ahead of the tech industry on the whole. The designs have become iconic, the changes have sparked design trends in and out of the computer industry, and the technology you use every day has benefitted from it.

From the computer on your desk to the phone in your pocket, Apple has tweaked, polished, and perfected everything from case design to user interfaces. They’ve added new features, like the super-fast Thunderbolt interface, but removed others, like the optical drive. Even internally, dealing with the nitty-gritty of hard drives and storage, the team from Cupertino has pared down and prettied up every facet of the personal computer.

It’s not much of a stretch to say that without Apple’s influence, the tech world would look very, very different. Jobs may have been at the helm for many of these decisions, but a captain needs a good crew, and the good ship Apple has had some talented people all along the way. Well the refreshing designs and forward thinking technology continue after Jobs’ departure? For the short term, definitely. In the long term, however, only time will tell.

Check out our slideshow to see some of the big changes that came out of Apple’s tiny details.

Steve Jobs Resigns: Complete Coverage

Jobs Quits as Apple CEO

Getty Images, Steve Jobs delivered the keynote 
address at the 2011 Apple World Wide Developers 
Conference at the Moscone Center on June 6 in 
San Francisco.

WSJ - Steve Jobs, the ailing tech visionary who founded Apple Inc., said he was unable to continue as chief executive of the technology giant and handed the reins to Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook.

Apple said Mr. Jobs submitted his resignation to the board of directors on Wednesday and “strongly recommended” that the board name Mr. Cook as his successor. Mr. Jobs, 56 years old, has been elected chairman of the board and Mr. Cook will join the board, effective immediately, the company said.

“I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know,” Mr. Jobs said in his resignation letter. “Unfortunately, that day has come.”

Art Levinson, chairman of Genentech and an Apple board member, said in a statement that the board “has complete confidence that Tim is the right person to be our next CEO.” He added that Mr. Jobs will “continue to serve Apple with his unique insights, creativity and inspiration.”

After a brief halt, Apple’s shares slid 5.13% to $355.70 in after-hours trading, after closing at $376.18, up $2.58, at 4 p.m. on the Nasdaq Stock Market Wednesday.

r. Cook, 50, has been widely considered as the leading candidate to succeed Mr. Jobs, who has been on medical leave since January. The 13-year Apple veteran, who joined the company shortly after Mr. Jobs took over for the second time in 1997, has been running the day-to-day operations during this period as he has done during two prior medical leaves of absence by Mr. Jobs in the last seven years.

The announcement likely marks the end of one of the most extraordinary careers in U.S.
business history. Mr. Jobs not only co-founded Apple—and the personal computer industry along with it—but decades later played a central role in reshaping the music, movie, animation, and mobile-phone businesses.

“Steve Jobs is the world’s magic man. No compromises,” wrote John Sculley, who led the company from 1983 for a decade, in an email. Mr. Sculley was recruited by Mr. Jobs in 1983 as CEO, but ousted him in 1985 after a power struggle.       More

Slideshow:  Steve Jobs Through the Years

Timeline:  Steve Jobs & Apple Over the Years

Photos:  The Apple Revolution

Steve Jobs:  Personal Media Pioneer

Report: Board members discuss Jobs' successor

Steve Jobs takes the stage at WWDC 2011.

(Credit: CNET Staff)

 

CNET - Members of Apple's board of directors have talked to outside headhunters about a succession plan for the company, if it needs to replace Chief Executive Steve Jobs, The Wall Street Journal reported today.

The Journal cited unnamed sources in the story, who said the conversations with recruiters were not aimed at replacing Jobs, who went on medical leave last winter, but rather were more informal conversations regarding the company's options. The Journal also said the members of the board who approached recruiters were not doing so at the behest of the entire board. It's also unclear whether Jobs was aware these conversations were taking place.

Apple declined to officially comment on the Journal's story, but the newspaper reported that in response to its explicit question to Jobs, he responded via e-mail, "I think it's hogwash."

The Journal said conversations between some board members and recruiters took place after Jobs went on his second medical leave in two years. In January, Jobs left his day-to-day duties at the company due to an undisclosed illness. In 2004, he was treated for a rare form of pancreatic cancer. And he received a liver transplant in 2009.      More