Mute Witness > Opinion

Well it took just over a week, but this morning I finally finished Steve Jobs by Walter Issacson.

I decided to write a blog post about this for two reasons, one to discuss the book and two to speak to how I consumed it.

First up, the book was very good, if not very predictable. I basically would surmise that anything you thought about Steve Jobs is probably true. He was quite “prickly” and a downright ass most of the time, but it would seem that basically his vision was exactly what he always said it was and it’s as I’ve said before, why I love my Mac and all my Apple products. There is a viewpoint, a philosophy, a soul to the products that Apple creates, it’s clear that it was not just Jobs, but everyone at Apple creates these products because they understand this “DNA”, but it was Jobs who pushed it, who started it who made it possible.

And the DNA is juxtaposition of technology and a philosophy, which is a part of every Apple product, just as it was a part of Jobs himself. A hippie at heart, always in search of inner peace and zen who became a innovator of technology and a billionaire, two things that don’t seem to go together.

Apple’s products, much like Jobs have a polarizing affect on people, you either get and embrace the “whole widget” philosophy or you don’t, you either think he was a genius or you don’t, but the one thing that rings true is… people are always talking about both the product and the man and that’s a legacy I think you can be proud of.

Now on to the how… I’ve made no secret both to people in this blog, in my podcasts and in person how much I love Audio Books. They are a great way to read, while you’re busy. There is much to be said for sitting down with a book and just reading. Shutting out the world and focusing on just one thing, but in my life that’s not always practical.

My best mate was kind enough to gift me a copy of the book on the most appropriate medium, the iBookstore. I tend to buy digital books via Amazon because of the number of ways there is to consume the book, but I was happy to get a copy. I sat down and started to read, I fell away from my reality and into Steve’s life and then… a text, an email, a phone call, work, podcasting… well life got in the way.

Due to this, I tend to read at night, in bed, when I’m tired, which led to several nights of my iPad hitting me in the face as I dozed off. And it dawned on me that I should probably think about just listening to the book.

Lucky for me another great pal, surprised me with a gift of the book via Audible! How great was that… both mediums… for me to choose from, or rather in this case to use in conjunction with each other.

I decided to do just that, listen AND read. I told myself that I’d only stop listening or reading at a major chapter marker to make it easier to go back and forth and you know what? It worked, fantastically. Listened on my drive in, at work, on the way home, while playing Forza 4 etc. and then every evening, I read a few pages and when the power was out during the freak snow storm we had, I read for HOURS and HOURS. It was wonderful.

It led me to think about something that Chuti said on Oh My Pod! Daily, that Apple should sell a combo of an iBook and an Audio Book for a reasonable price, I think this would rock but it’s unlikely to be a price I’d pay. I mean let’s be honest, I probably would not have done what I did this time by paying for something twice, but it got me to thinking again about a feature that the Kindle has on some books… read aloud. Now don’t get me wrong, the reading aloud is not the best and no where near what an audio book is, but maybe Apple could some how use one of the voices on OS X (Alex for example) to let my iPad read to me. I for one would pay a bit more for a book if that was possible.

Wishful thinking I’m sure but what do you all think?

I’m late, I know it. But to be honest even if I had been blogging last week, I couldn’t have said anything. I needed to think, to process and to deal.

I… am sad at the loss of Steve Jobs. I am sad for his family, I am sad for his coworkers.

It’s been said by many that he wasn’t the nicest guy in the world to work with or for, and I for one believe that, and I think that most people who are trendsetters, the “crazy ones” aren’t. Einstein is said to have been quite odd, Mark Twain… are real a-hole, and I’m sure Edison wasn’t the nicest guy on the block but you know what. Who really gives a f*ck?

Prince and Michael Jackson aren’t/weren’t your typical guys next door but they are/were brilliant. As was Einstein, and Twain and Edison and yes, Jobs.

The man changed how we communicate, how we consume, how we create. He didn’t do it alone, and I believe he didn’t come up with ever idea at Apple, but he had a vision. And he went after that vision at all costs. He never asked a group of people what they thought, he just made what he thought we would all like, and he was right a lot. And wrong a lot. But I know that I am sitting in front of a razor thin, gorgeous laptop, using the most amazing OS I’ve ever used, envying a phone I don’t have, and thinking about the comic book I’m going to read on a sheet of glass that lies on my bedside. All of these things, we can thank Steve and Apple for.

I’m glad he came back to Apple, I’m glad he fixed Apple. I’m glad because three times now, three products made by Apple and shaped by Steve have changed my life.

1. The iMac – getting an iMac reignited my interest and love in computers, before it I was bored to tears with Windows.
2. The iPod – before it came out, I had honestly stopped listening to music.
3. The iPad – before my iPad, I had given up on magazines, newspapers and comic books, after I can’t get enough of them.

So, maybe he didn’t change your world, and maybe he wasn’t the nicest guy at the office, but he changed my life and for that, I’m grateful.

Thank you Steve.

Yeah… I’m way behind again… this post a day is WAY harder than I thought it’d be!

I’ve been thinking a lot about something that Steve Jobs said at the iPad 2 event. It was at the end of the presentation when he hauled out that graphic of the two street signs that say “Liberal Arts” and “Technology”. He said…

“So, I’ve said this before, and I thought it was worth repeating. It’s in Apple’s DNA that technology alone is not enough. That it’s technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields us the result that makes our hearts sing. And, nowhere is that more true than in these post-PC devices.

And a lot of folks in this tablet market are rushing in and they’re looking at this as the next PC. The hardware and software are done by different companies, and they’re talking about speeds and feeds just like they did with PCs, and our experience and every bone in our bodies say that that is not the right approach to this. That these are Post-PC devices that need to be even easier to use than a PC, that need to be even more intuitive than a PC and where the software and the hardware and the applications need to intertwine in an even more seamless way than they do on a PC.

And we think we are on the right track with this. We think we have the right architecture not just in silicone but in the organization to build these kind of products. And so I think we stand a pretty good chance of being pretty competitive…”

This really struck a chord with me. I think that this really does explain the Apple “Point of View.” It’s not about the spec sheet, it’s not about being the fastest, or the most powerful, it’s about the experience. It’s about how well the product works, how it feels, how it makes you feel.

The iPad does now have a Dual Core processor, and while we don’t know how much RAM it has yet, it doesn’t really matter. The fact is that the current iPad is not slow, not underpowered, not pokey. The hardware and the OS work seamlessly and smoothly and really feels like a polished experience and to Apple and I think to the masses that’s what matters most.