Steve Jobs live from D 2007
By Ryan Block 
posted May 30th 2007 3:17PM
posted May 30th 2007 3:17PM
UPDATE: D has posted video highlights of Steve's and Walt's talk, our original liveblog follows after the jump.
Thanks for the joint session with Gates... let me ask you an odd question, you've changed the name of Apple, so what business is Apple?
We're in two busineses today, we'll be very shortly in three business and a hobby. One is our Mac business, second is our music business, third business is the phone business, handsets. And the hobby is Apple TV. The reason I call it a hobby is a lot of people have tried and failed to make it a business. It's a business that's hundreds of thousands of units per year but it hasn't crested to be millions of units per year, but I think if we improve things we can crack that.
We all use Macs at Apple, we love the mac. We think we make the best notebooks in the world, we think we make the best computers in the world. We've always been a little ahead, I can see a time where notebooks are 80-90% of what we sell. We continue to improve our OS -- we had a big release that we didn't get too much credit for... the OS X product line to Intel. It was very seameless for the customers. The growth that we've seen since the Intel transition has been about 3x the market growth rate.
12:22pm - ... And your market share is what?
If you measure it worldwide it's like 3%. If you measure it in the US it's like 5-6%... if you look at US notebook sales it's like 12%. If you look at US retail we have double-digit market share... but we can't really calculate the consumer market share.
12:23pm - Funny question: this is your gradual exit out of the computer business with the name change?
No. If you come to WWDC we're rolling out our new version of OSX -- massive investments in desktops. You'll love it.
So a while means since last September? [awkward silence] This is a fast moving business.
[Some really awkward banter!] Ok. Ok. Sorry I wasn't taking your feelings into account.
We're working on the best iPods that we've ever worked on... and they're AWESOME.
12:25pm - Ok! Moving right along... what phone are you carrying?
[ flashes the iPhone, puts it back away] Best iPod we've ever made, best phone we've ever made!
When are you planning to ship? Like the last day of June? It will be available in volume?
Late June... I hope not! I hope so!
Do you expect to sell most of these through your stores? Cingular?
We'll be selling these through our stores Cingular which is now the new AT&T... laughter...
Cingular bent and broke a lot of rules, this was an all new deal for them... Apple apparently has a lot of respect for Cingular's trust on Apple. "Cingular invested in us, and likewise we took a gamble on them. I will never forget that."
12:27pm - Why do you think they did it?
They did it for two reasons: first is because music on phones hasn't been successful so far, they wanted to do something good with music on phones. The second reason is more profound: they have spent and are spending a fortune to build these 3G networks, and so far there ain't a lot to do with them. People haven't voted with their pocketbooks to sign up for video on their phones. These phones aren't capable of taking advantage of it. Youv'e used the internet on your phone, it's terrible! You get the baby internet, or the mobile internet -- people want the REAL internet on their phone. We are going to deliver that. We're going to take advantage of some of these investments in bandwidth.
12:28pm - Your goals that you set for sales for the iPhone are not gigantic -- but in a billion unit market that's 1%. They didn't sign the deal for a high volume product.
A billion units is a worldwide number... people have forgotten more than we know about this market.
12:29pm - Any features on the iphone you haven't announced you'd like to share?
Uh, nope! [Laughter]
12:30pm - You put out a press release this morning about iTunes without DRM... is it only EMI?
It's only EMI right now but there are zillions of independants that want to jump on. We worked really hard not to add complexity. The first time you buy an iTunes Plus song it asks if you only want to buy it where it's available? So wherever it's available you get those. We're also offering people a special offer to upgrade every song they own to iTunes Plus for $0.30 per song or 30% of the album price.
[Chatting about the DRM-free business model going forward, and the open letter.]
12:32pm - A lot of your rivals were lobbying labels for a long time... there are these issues of lock-in. Were you just getting ahead of the train that was already moving?
If you look at the total number of iPods and total number of songs sold on iTunes, it's less than 25 per iPod. They're clearly not getting the majority of their songs from iTunes, so this notion we have a lock-in is ridiculous. You can get MP3s from anywhere, they rip their CDs, and get their music from... other ways. The way we've always felt, we have the best music player people will buy iPods. If we have the best music store people will buy music. We felt that we have a great solution --
12:33pm - This part of your business is the iPod. Not the --
There's three pieces. The iPod, iTunes -- the jukebox -- on the Mac and PC. And there's the online store in the cloud.
12:34pm - But the iPod is the biggest part. Most of what I pay goes to the label... do you jeopardize that when DRM goes away?
Again, if people are getting the vast majority of their music not from the store I think that's because the iPod is the best music player.
12:35pm - Is the iPhone a wireless iPod? Or a phone that has an iPod in it?
It's three things: the best iPod we've ever made. An incredibly great cellphone -- we've really revolutionized how to use a cellphone. If it was nothing but a cellphone it'd be really successful. Third thing is it's the internet in your pocket for the first time. If it was any of those three it'd be successful. If it was just the internet in your pocket it'd sell better than the Sony Mylo...
12:36pm - How much debate was there -- do you even have any debate at Apple?
There's lots. [Laughter] If you want to hire and keep bright people you can't tell them what to do... very often. Once a year, maybe twice, you have a silver bullet now and then, but basically you don't do that. At Apple it's about ideas, and we argue about ideas constantly.
12:37pm - So how much argument was there about not having a keyboard on the iPhone?
None. None.
So you had no one in Cupertino that thought that was a good idea?
Yeah. [Laughter]
12:38pm - Why?
A few reasons. Once you actually use this magical display there's no going back. We actually think we have a better keyboard. It takes a few days of getting used to, but I bet you dinner that after a few days of using it you'll be convinced. It takes a week -- you have to learn how to trust it. When you learn how to trust it, you'll fly. And we can use that physical space for other things where you don't need a keyboard -- we can add new applications... it provides incredible flexibility and you don't take up half the space of this thing with a phsyical keyboard.
12:39pm - How much time do you have before people copy the physical form-factor? Was there a cost to announcing early?
If you zoom out and you say why does the iPod exist? Why is Apple successful in this business? What's the answer? Because the Japanese CE companies who were the preeiminent hardware makers just couldn't do software as well it needed to be done. If you look at the iPod, it's a software product -- in beautiful hardware. Software wrapped in a beautiful package. The Japanese CE companies couldn't make the leap to create that kind of software. And that's why Apple enjoys the success it does with the iPod.
If you look at handsets it looks very similar. The handset makers have their hardware down, but haven't been able to make the leap to software. Like Microsoft's PlaysForSure -- licensable, it's of a certain cailber... but our software is at least 5 years ahead of anything we've seen. We've spent years working on this. We started with an OS we've been working on for well over a decade...
12:42pm - But the iPhone doesn't REALLY have the whole OS X operating system on there...
The answer is: yes it does! The entire Mac OS is gigs, a lot is data. Take out the data -- every desktop pattern, sound sample -- if you look at Safari it's not that big. It's REAL Safari, REAL OS X. We put a different user interface on it to work with a multi-touch screen... it's an amazing amount of software.
12:43pm - On the technical side... could a Mac OS X app run on an iPhone?
We don't think that's a good idea. We don't have a mouse, we don't have pull-down menus... we have a very different user interface on the phone. [Ha! Nice non-answer!]
12:44pm - The Holy Grail -- one is a great pocket device... one is connecting content to your TV... why do you describe it [Apple TV] as a hobby? When I tested it it was very easy to set up, why isn't it dead simple to imagine people buying that in large numbers?
Coming from the PC market you first think about getting content from your PC to your livingroom. I'm not sure that's really what most consumers want. It's great to show photos, play your music, but we tend to think of that as the entree -- that's the peas on the side.
I brought something to show you.
[Going through the interface -- talking about streaming.] One of the things we stream directly is movie trailers -- here's a little moving coming out at the end of June, it's called Ratatouille.
12:48pm - Works fine off cable modem -- works even better on 100mbit fiber optic networks I hear people have. You can buy movies off iTunes as well. It's pretty good quality -- we arent selling high def... at this point. But I think in the future that might change!
12:49pm - We're going to sell our 100 millionth TV show this year.. it's fun. [Talking more about how Apple TV works.]
12:51pm - But this is all peas? This isn't the main entree?
12:52pm - We'll see over time, but I'm not so sure it is... we'll see. So what we're going to do today is introduce something really cool. People want to buy a lot of video... wouldn't it be great if you could see YouTube on your Apple TV... it's available as a free software upgrade available in a few weeks. Normally I wouldn't announce it early, but hey, it's D.
12:56pm - Did you ever think you'd associate the Apple brand with this?
You know, it's funny, since we got this working we've been watching a TON of this stuff.
12:58pm - Does that mean Leopard is being delayed again?? [laughter]
I'm nervous up here, I hit the wrong keys...
Yeah Steve, because you're REALLY BAD at stage presentations. [Laughter]
[Showing the human slingshot video.] "It's like the Darwin Awards." [People are laughing already.]
Only at D, YouTube on a hundred inch screen. I don't know what the res is of this video setup... but I imagine you have a bigscreen TV... YouTube clips don't even look great on a smail window on your laptop...
The biggest thing that limits the quality is the source YT gets... you get what you get, like you I'm a stickler for quality. But this stuff is so fun to watch.
1:00pm - I'm telling you, Leopard delayed again! Why not let the Apple TV go anywhere to get video?
That's a good idea! Let's do it! No... these ideas will percolate up, we'll have a collection of ideas of what we can do with this stuff. I think a normal web browser is not necessarily what people want in their living room.
1:02pm - So even with the human slingshot and quick-change -- that's not going to take Apple TV from a hobby to a real business?
I use the word hobby because it's provocative, but the iPod started this way. The iPod started off feeling a lot like this.
But you're committed?
Totally.
But it's a set-top box...
No, we've wanted to do this for a few years. But we thought of this as a set-top box replacement. The minute you have an STB you have gnarly issues, CableCARD, OCAP... that just isn't something we would choose to do ourselves. We couldn't see a go-to-market strategy that makes sense. But wait, there are a lot more DVD players than STBs, we just want to be a new DVD player for the internet age. And that's what we can be. So our model for the Apple TV is like a DVD player for the internet.
So when you bring an ATV and iPhone home, all you need is iTunes software. You don't need to go into the windows control panel... they have their method. You just take care of that in iTunes. [wow, fluffy Walt!] So the question: how many copies of iTunes are out there?
Several times as many copies of iTunes out there. 300m or more.
1:05pm - Almost all are on Windows computers?
Statistically yes.
Statistically? In reality? In this dimension? So that makes you an enormous Windows software developer.
It's like giving a glass of ice water to somebody in hell!
1:06pm - There's that Steve Jobs humility. Does the scale surprise you? This piece of software is on all these Windows computers...
The scale of all these things surprises me. I never thought we'd ship 100m iPods. No, never.
1:07pm - Do you think video on portable devices is a success? A big deal, people want it? When you were here before you didn't think anyone would want it...
I was definitely more skeptical than customers. What happened was, with the iPod video they proved us wrong. We talk to our customers a lot, do a lot of research. Video has been the number one or two reason people have bought that product... people watch a lot of video on those iPods. The screens are small, but they're $249. Video is here to stay, and its use will grow.
1:08pm - You don't have a video service for the iPhone...
Sure we do... it's iTunes. Not over the air. People have tried it with music and it's failed. Part of the reason that it's failed is the phone isn't the best place for discovering music or browsing catalogues. Then there's the cost of wireless vs. terrestrial internet. Then you get it on your phone you have to sync it back to your PC... we've got 100m iPods we've sold that people know how to sync, they know how to buy music on iTunes.
1:09pm - So you have no plans to put any version of the iTunes store on the iPhone itself despite the fact that you have a big screen and non-baby OS?
We certainly have nothing to announce today.
[Q&A time]
Our business, all we are is our ideas, all we are is our people. That's what keeps us going to work in the morning. I've always felt and feel even more strongly that recruiting is the heart and soul of what we do.
Q: [From Blake from Sling!] Two parter: can you comment on the 2.5G nature of the iPhone?
Interesting thing, it automatically switches to WiFi automatically -- I'm in this industry, we were the first to ship a laptop with WiFi, shipped the first G, first N routers... [nope!] If you choose to join a network it remembers that. But if you're in a place and you want to join a WiFi network you haven't joined before it prompts you. But it's EVERYWHERE. There's like 10x more WiFi out there than I ever thought there was. WiFi is faster than any 3G, and EDGE is very fast too.
Q: Apple doesn't really advertise on the internet... 95% of the people who'd see your ad are using the inferior product. Seems to be a good opportunity.
I can say that our Mac vs PC campaign we advertise online quite a bit... but not on those porn sites.
Q: All indications appear that the iPhone is closed, we'd love to develop apps...
This is an important tradeoff between security and openness. We want both. We're working through a way... we'll find a way to let 3rd parties write apps and still preserve security on the iPhone. But until we find that way we can't compromise the security of the phone.
I've used 3rd party apps... the more you add, the more your phone crashes. No one's perfect, and we'd sure like our phone not to crash once a day. If you can just be a little more patient with us I think everyone can get what they want.
Q on iPhone battery life.
When you're talking about a portable device it's all about power, it's all about battery life. We've been fighting that fight for a long time with our notebooks. We were able to bring all our experience to the phone -- you've hit a key theme of portables.
Q about Steve's cancer -- "How are you now?"
I'm still vertical! laughter. I'm feeling great, thanks.
Q: Apple DRM is AAC -- transcoding, ripping, burning, etc. -- why not make Apple's DRM-free music MP3? [Applause]
Let me point out a few things. All the MP3s you guys sell will play fine on iPods. We chose AAC because it's a much better encoder. We don't own it. Anyone can license it, the majority of players out there can play it, and most of the big players out there play AAC. [Umm, no, not actually true!] We're not trying to keep anyone out, we're just trying to use a superior audio technology. You can encode all your stuff in AAC as well, it'd be really easy...
Q: Do you want to get into the video capture space?
We do build video cameras into most of our computers now... MacBooks are pretty tiny. We're not planning on getting into the camcorder market.
Q: Do you read the Fake Steve Jobs blog? No, the real question that's meaningful to me... you're obsessed with entertainment, but is that irrelevant? What REALLY changes the world moving forward?
I have read a few of the FSJ things recently, but I thought it was pretty funny! (questioner: I don't write it.) I am interested in storytelling, I got involved with Pixar, I'm the one of the cheerleaders at Disney and I love a lot of the stuff they do, so I love storytelling. but what we do at Apple is try to make tools for people, tools to enjoy and create, whether it's Macs or phones or iPods. This age we're living in... these tools can always surprise you on the upside. We didn't design the ATV for YouTube, we didn't design iTunes for universities, but as of this morning there's iTunes U... alumni can get at it, MIT, Stanford, Berkeley, and this is iTunes, and it's free. So who would have thought? That's what I love what we do -- we make these tools and they're constatntly surprising us.
Thank you Steve.
[Steve walks offstage, we're all done!]
Hallowed be thy name.
I hope there will be some good iPhone announcements.
I want to buy one, as long as you are not forced to buy a data plan.
What good would the iPhone be without a data plan?
Why wouldn't you want a data plan? what's the point then? Granted it has WiFi, but not everyplace has WiFi.
Because most of the data plans are a rip off! Why pay two or three times for bandwitdth (Calls, Data Plan, and Home Broadband!) If the internet works on my WiFi at home, in the office, and at handy local hot spots, that's all I need.
YEah cant wait. Wait i can .... New G5 powerbook is coming.
I hope that wasn't a serious comment.
hahahah nice
Wifi!
Thats all I care about. Because these days everywhere I go there is Wifi.
what's with the oversized postage stamp of New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine?
I thought it was Steven Spielberg?
kinda lame without the data plan
Come on Jobsy, make us proud....
(He'll need to after Balmer/Microsofts presentation..... maybe not so much after Jeff's though)
I know everyone is excited about the IPhone and all but it would be nice for him to give the rest of us who are too involved in our IPods a glimmer of hope about a 6G one in the near future....
dont pull a palm and give us nothing...
lets see some Santa Rosa
i hope he has something nice to say about Surface, i don't want to see a cat fight today...
That works for me. I forgot it had wifi.
But, I want my Google Maps when I'm driving! So I'll need the data plan.
Hey, I found another picture of him! :)
http://home.blarg.net/~wayule/graphics/jim_jones.jpg
Here we go!
OH HAI, I CAN HAS LEOPARD RELEASE DAYTE?
What good is an iPhone without a data plan?
I dunno... what good is a laptop without a data plan? It has WiFi etc, It's a wicked pissah iPod.
It's not 3g. I think the real question is: "what good is the iPhone with a data plan?"
3G is coming to the iPhone. Or did you miss the comment from Jobs about AT&T's investment in 3G network and Apple's plan on taking advantage of all that bandwidth?
Nah, I didn't miss that comment (though I wrote that before he said it) But the point is still the same. The iPhone is completely useful without a data plan and more useful (I suppose) with one.
But it is certainly not useless without one (3G or otherwise) which was the point.
Stevie also said that WiFi is becoming more available and trumps even 3g in cost and performance.
So we shall see...
Get me some Skype or SIP action and I won't even need a phone plan. Ok, that's crazy talk...or is it???
can't wait.... should be good whatever is announced.
your guess is as good as mine!
OMG BOTH THE CINGULAR AND APPLE STORES ARE BEING UPDATED!!!!!!!!
Kidding. Wouldn't that be lovely, though?
Blast...You got me for a second...
i guess he's just gonna tell that palm cannot make those crappy foleo for iphone
Whether you like the Surface or Foleo or not, a Santa Rosa update or WiFi update or whatever to any Apple product smack of old, uninspired and mundane announcements that'd look like day-old Krispy Kreme beside the other announcements.
what's with the collar and tie? Did Spielberg go bald or something?
Tell Mossberg to wait! I haven't lighted the candles on my altar yet.
i have a hobby decorating my house, cooking for guests, oh and building wifi harddrive based multimedia players for television that interface with home computer's media assets.
"We use all Macs here"... sounds suspiciously like, "we don't need a zune amnesty program".
Announcement related to Apple TV today? umm... HD marketplace? PLEASE?
3G iPhone??
that was my first thought too, 3G is not the same as edge
Why is Mossberg throwing a whole bunch of softball questions? Ballmer got pounded with hard questions earlier.
In what reality were Ballmer's questions hardball? And, in what reality did you actually understand Ballmer to answer any of them?
is he trying to drop hints, or could that REALLY be a mistake.
If not today, WWDC/ iPhone launch is going to be one hell of an event.
Why is he talking so highly of the 3g network, but the phone he's hocking doesn't have it?
massive investments in desktops. You'll love it." New imac?? pleaseeeee
"We're working on the best iPods that we've ever worked on... and they're AWESOME."
What? No BAM! Jobs RDF isn't super charged today.
well there are rumours of a second bodyshell to the iPhone, adding a front camera could do that but only time will tell :)
Looks like they'll be introducing a new mac desktop at WWDC. Bring on the headless Mac!
They did, dork. It's called a Mac Mini
Can u run it headless, not without using a 100ohm resistor on the DVI-VGA slot. Therefore its not headless. So keep your incompetent rude comments to yourself.
P.S. I wish they would offer better graphics capability in the mac min then the integrated intel 950, I know it was not intended for gaming, but most people still want to use it for that.
"We're going to take advantage of some of these investments in bandwidth."
Anyone know what Steve means by this? Will RevA iPhone be 3G? That statement doesn't exactly say "EDGE"!
Never buy a 1.0 Apple product. Actually...never by a 1.0 anybody product.
Do they only say 1 sentence each every minute?
Lol no. They are retyping the conversation and giving us the "good" info. I'm sure there will be a video up later if you want to hear the entire note.
> We continue to improve our OS -- we had a big release that we didn't get too much credit for... the OS X product line to Intel. It was very seameless for the customers.
Not quite. This customer kept having software such as Adobe Illustrator *CRASH* after switching to an Intel Mac. The transition went well overall, but it was definitely *NOT* seamless.
Really? My Illustrator never crashes [I'm running a Macbook Pro C2D] and I use it almost every day. Sure, it runs slower under Rosetta, but i've never seen in crash
"And the hobby is Apple TV. The reason I call it a hobby is a lot of people have tried and failed to make it a business. It's a business that's hundreds of thousands of units per year but it hasn't crested to be millions of units per year, but I think if we improve things we can crack that."
Doesn't Jobs try to understand the industry? Apple TV is a weak version of a media center extender. Millions of people use their X360 to download TV shows, movies, and trailers in HD - not the 640X480 quality that iTunes sells at, but real HD. I can stream music, pictures, video, etc. from my PC. And over 10 million of those have been sold. Add in games, HD DVD movie watching, etc. But that is a market that nobody has cracked yet? Job's reality distortion field is in full effect today. Hell, even the PS3 has a better feature set than the Apple TV does.
"...Millions of people use their X360 to download TV shows, movies, and trailers in HD..."
You're joking, right? According to the Wikipedia entry, 10 million XBox 360 units had been sold by the end of last (calendar) year. I would be willing to wager that far less than 10% of the user base actually uses the 360 for any of the things you mention...
We keep our 360 away from our main tv (being the HD one) purely because of games, it causes the TV to be in constant use gaming, makes the whole room unsociable. The media guide thing on it is poorly thought out and the thing is ugly (beige, yes its gone a funny off white, with green LEDs next to a Black tv... it just looks nasty)
I don't have a data plan on my phone now. I pay for ala carte service like a lot of people. If the iPhone requires a $90 per month unlimited data plan--or whatever the hell it is-- on top of the cell phone charges--not such a good deal for me.
For you? Who can say?
The iPhone is uber useful without such a plan. This is not to say a data plan is not desirable in many other circumstances.
So the Apple TV isn't doing so well and now all of a sudden it's a hobby and Steve's making excuse?
That's like when I would beat my more athletically-inclined brother in basketball and then he'd say he wasn't trying.
NY attorney general sues Dell over deceptive practices
http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=sci_tech&id=5309743
lest we forget about service.
if you can't get in touch with customer service what's the point of warranty?
HD on iTunes!! Finally!!
Yup. That is smug Steve Jobs alright.
"that might change!"
steve, 100x the amount of people would buy a frickin' apple TV if they could ACTUALLY WATCH HIGH DEF CONTENT on their frickin' HIGH DEFINITION TV.
im sorry, these "higher quality" donwloads that are currently offered are horrendous. get with the picture and just ad HD TV shows and Movies.
You Tube on AppleTV? Didn't someone already do this?
I know you can browse the internet, including YouTube, with the nintendo wii...
Oh wow. YouTube on Apple TV. That's so exciting. iYouTube.
Anybody know if it is/will be available as a video?
Since you probably won't get this link from engagenet or it's readers, here are the video links from wsj.com...
http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid86195573/bclid86272812/bctid958475626
http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid86195573/bclid86272812/bctid958764703
http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid934055428/bclid933187314/bctid933742971
So microsoft introduces their crazy new system that has real multi-touch and can identify peripherals that are put on the screen and interact with them accordingly and apple announces youtube on apple tv?
the "surface" I have seen demos of many times several MIT undergrad projects are the surface Northrupp Gruman has had the surface for 4 years now. I would say that the Foleo is a bigger leap in inventiveness then the surface.
yay, youtube! shitty incredibly low definition home made videos! what a revelation!
i don't want to watch youtube on my appletv. how could you search and browse?
and for those on the run. Apple iPhone can now view YouTube through Safari.
seriously.. youtube.. wth?
The Goatberg is such a kiss-ass to The Lord Imperial Steve.
I have given up on YouTube a long time ago. Such a waste of time. I am not surprised Steve's announcement is lame. He likes to be in full control of any major announcement, and frankly, he does not need Mossberg to help him move products, while others kinda do.
He likes to have his own announcments in his own venue, because he knows only the fanboys will show up...
I bet Steve didn't want to announce anything today, but had to throw them a bone. Steve prefers to announce new and exciting products in his own venue.
Shabbis @ May 30th 2007 4:04PM
I bet Steve didn't want to announce anything today, but had to throw them a bone. Steve prefers to announce new and exciting products in his own venue.
You know, you would think people would actually realize that but...then again people are people and sometimes everyone wants to hear "Major" news about everything, and even I'm guilty of that, but this is not the place nor the time for them to announce something big when WWDC is about less than 2 weeks away.
AKBlade13
Why do they have an old bag conducting these interviews?
I want to see some Engadget staff asking the tough questions, not grandpa.
Walt Mossberg is a HIGHLY respected technology critique who probably has more experience with technology than you'd ever care to know.
Apple TV needs to merge with Nintendo Wii. Now There is A Product, not this youtube sillyness
honestly i think steve is going through a midlife crisis.
when my dad had a midlife crisis he bought a convertible.
what does stevsie buy?
probably many more convertibles
Your dad.
Wow really? so what is basically just a laptop is more innovative than bringing home something that had only before been used by grad students at MIT? That's like saying that the Toyota Corrola is as inventive as the first personal computer. Ya, good job.
What planet are you coming from? Even if I hate MSFT surfaces is way way way ahead from Foleo. What the purpose of this device? Prefer having an iPhone for the same price...
I bet you a crate of iphones that Grandpa Walt can't even set the time on a VCR.
And I would expect a HIGHLY respected technology "critique" to at least ask some critical questions!
Example: If my interviewee is yapping about the underutilization of 3G network capabilities and at the same time flaunts a sweet phone that isn't 3G, how's about askin why in the hell it ain't got 3G capability!?
Sample question: "You mentioned, Mr. Jobs, that "These phones" aren't capable of taking advantage of 3G network speeds. Well, neither does yours. Why not?"
stevsie is going to buy bill gates dinner. and then take him back to his apartment and watch the pre-release of Ratatouille
i love apple and steve but wow this INTERVIEW feels like a watered down keynote or stockholder forum and with as much depth and context as a youtube video.
I agree with you John.. My office has wifi, my home has wifi... oh, and also my town (Portland) has wifi...
I think Steve was put on the spot because of Microsoft's announcement (not that the product was a huge surprise but the timing might have been) which makes mossberg think he can get a few products out of steve. I agree with Shabbis and Jean-Michael that he likes to introduce anything major on his own turf (WWDC might hold more surprises than we are expecting) and i think Steve is pretty much going to just circumvent Mossberg's questions
Well, that whole interview was totally lame. Lame questions, so-so answers, and nothing interesting to demo. I pity the poor schmucks who had to part with actual cash to attend this. Can't wait for WWDC, though.
It is interesting to note the "A Series of Tubes" plug-in, which allows users to watch YouTube videos on the AppleTV was just released on AwkwardTV last week (http://plugins.awkwardtv.org/det.php?recordID=asot).
Dismiss Steve's announcement today all you want, but the demand does seem to be there. Truth be told, this is a smart strategy for Apple: (a) release a relatively open product (b) observe what the hacker community does with it (c) officially incorporate some of those features into the product. You can't get a much better pulse on the market than that, and this approach will surely allow Apple to grow the AppleTV into the product consumers actually want...Of course, there is always the argument that this approach threatens independent developers, but as far as I am aware, none of the AppleTV hacks have gone commercial (yet).
Apple needs to buy two companies if it wants to win in the home and in the pro space: Nintendo and Adobe.
Christ, get over it anti-apple zeolots. Don't you have any better to do with your time then go into every Apple forum you can find and post how much you hate it. It's old, so old.
Who are you even talking to? The only anti-apple thing people have posted is that youtube on apple tv isn't that great... which it's not.
"So they spent all this money building up 3G networks.... that no one really uses".... but the iPhone doesn't have 3G. So WTF Stevie? ...maybe because 3G eats your battery up too fast, and you can't swap a backup into the iPhone?
The technology itself wasn't a big surprise (although it is always cool looking at people manipulate it..) the fact that Microsoft has commercialized it and packing it to become mainstream is the surprise. I know when I first saw the YouTube video of a multi-touch screen, I didn't think it will become available to the public for a long time. I think Surface was a major announcment
The cable companies are as poorly behaved incumbents as the wireless carriers, maybe even more so. I could see Apple wanting to build up a stronger TV business now then partnering with a more adventurous cable company down the road. In the meantime there will be millions of craplet filled media center PCs fielded, similar to WinCE's position in phones now.
I don't get the MP3 thing. What's not to love about AAC? It's way better compression, can store up to 48 discrete tracks, and it's a standard. How can Walt be a tech expert and not see the benefits of AAC?