Engadget Podcast 129 - 01.16.2009
By Trent Wolbe 
posted January 16th 2009 5:03PM
posted January 16th 2009 5:03PM
Yes! Engadget is back from CES and ready for action. We thought this week might be a little quiet, but it's been quite the opposite. Listen in to Josh, Paul, and Nilay discussing the hot button items of our time: Steve Jobs, Windows 7, and Crapgadgets. Seriously, this is pressing stuff, people.
Hosts: Joshua Topolsky, Paul Miller, Nilay Patel
Producer: Trent Wolbe
Song: Popcorn
01:56 - Steve Jobs is taking a leave of absence from Apple due to health reasons
27:45 - Microsoft temporarily removes Windows 7 Beta download limit
57:00 - Crapgadget Crapdown, CES: the best of the worst
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This will keep me entertained for the 2 hour long bus ride.
Right on time!
It's amazing these guys are so clueless about Win7. My nephew probably knows more. It was also cringe worthy hearing Josh trying to paint Pauls anecdote about having more Kernel Panic than BSOD as 'anamlous' and his assertion as fact.
Glad I read the comments so I could skip over Jobs' seance.
second
whoah, 25 mins on the jobs being sick? I think i'll pass.
And then 30 mins on Win 7. You're missing out!
What? how can we have a podcast without some Pre gushing from Josh and that laughing guy in the background just laughing the whole way through!?
Download is going at about 40kb/sec...
Downloading 40kb/sec... Not best server eh?
Downloading 1700kb/sec... Not best internet connection, eh?
Microsoft is not following google with the public beta idea.
Vista was a public beta as well:
http://www.downloadsquad.com/2006/06/08/windows-vista-beta-2-available-now/
Microsoft has public betas for a lot of their products
"We're not in the business of talking about Jobs' health"
You guys spent about 25 minutes on it. And I'm sick of this high-minded bullsh*t from a bunch of tech pubs who say they're appalled by this, but gladly take the traffic and google juice these types of stories bring. Being a journalist means sometimes you have to ask tough questions and cover difficult subjects. If you don't like it, leave.
We didn't talk about Jobs's health, apart from my brief mention of the NYT report. We talked about Apple -- maybe you should give it another listen.
Another great podcast. Well done chaps.
Droning on and on and on and on about Jobs'. Get over it already.
Hey Guys,
I'm new to the podcast, and I have some thoughts about Steve Jobs' illness:
While his illness should be private, he often made the company more about "himself" than about the larger company. While there are thousands of employees in Apple, all the normal people saw (like me) was Steve - at Macworld. It really was about his personality, and that's a culture that he cultivated. So, to me he does have an additional level of responsibility to his shareholders than most CEOs would when it comes to disclosure about your health.
That being said, somewhere in the broadcast the Steve worship seemed to end and you suggested that even with Jobs out of Apple "for now," the creativity and culture at Apple would surely produce more winners. But I'm not sure it's just about Jobs' amazing vision. I think a lot of it has to do with the very power of his personality. In a large corporation, there are often a plethora of great ideas, and incredible jockeying to get every one into the device - even though they often conflict with one-another. Did you ever wonder how so many great companies can make so many terrible devices? They're not all that dumb. But corporate culture is such that no one stepped forward, put his foot down and said, "This is how it's going to be." At least not someone who should have. That - to the best of my understanding - is the most important thing that Jobs does. He's the final word. That's it. What he wants is what gets made. Sometimes it's an AppleTV - snooze - but more often it's the iPod.
And without Jobs at Apple, who's going to be that guy, when everyone there is jockeying to take his place. Not a good situation.