Steve Jobs goes to heaven. Correction: is reincarnated as ...

The New Yorker cover was far from the original thinking that I expect from the cartoonists there.  Oh well, they can't deliver every time, I suppose.

Many cartoonists had played around with similar "i" themes ... except the following one that I came across:

Source

Now, that is some creative thinking.

Jobs, as many commentators duly noted, was a ruthless business guy as much as he was innovative. 

Last term, I think, I had my students watch a couple of video segments that were interviews with Mike Daisey, who in a serious and funny way makes us think about the ethical issues that we conveniently forget when we use an iPhone, or any smartphone, or any latest electronic gizmo for that matter.  Made students think, it seemed like.

We are all complicated mixed bags, but we seem to prefer clean and simple narratives like the nonexistent saintliness of Jobs.

Steve Jobs' Software Dating Game. Flashback to 1983

Grabbed the following video that was embedded at this discussion on liberal education and/versus professional focus.

In the video it is neat to watch a very young Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, and their excitement for what they do is obvious.



I was left with a nagging thought on those two other guys who share the stage with Bill Gates: Mitch Kapor (of Lotus) and Fred Gibbons.  Gibbons?  Who the heck was that?  Turns out that one of the products that his company delivered was Harvard Graphics.  I remember using it, though the details are fuzzy.

Also, as you watch the clip from 1983, don't you think that Ashton Kutcher in "That 70s Show" looks so much like the early Steve Jobs?  :)

iPad: packaging + marketing = $$$?

Outsourced

I'm sure you've heard about reverse engineering and industrial espionage -- they are the bread and butter of a competitive tech industry! -- but I had no idea there were firms, such as Chipworks, that specialize in the process. They've just released glorious, revealing details of the Apple iPad's hardware, and a complete breakdown of the new, top-secret A4 processor. For the less-technically-minded, iFixit has a walkthrough for the reverse engineering, too.

The pictures and details are juicy -- you can even order a bunch of die photos! -- but ultimately, there isn't anything exciting under the hood. The iPad is merely a large iPod Touch, with almost identical hardware in places. Chipworks calls the iPad 'a giant battery with a tiny [circuit] board attached to it' -- and looking at the picture above, you can see why!

So, no real news here I'm afraid, unless you're trying to mollify a Mac fanatic. What you're paying for is a large touch-screen and a giant battery -- you are not buying a piece of 'magic', but simply a large iPod Touch. The devil, as always, is in the software. It would not be the first time that Apple has shoehorned some fantastic software into a shiny, but otherwise lackluster hardware package.

In my opinion, the coolest part of this story is that Chipworks tears apart of bleeding-edge technology to produce full, reproducible schematics of a device's circuitry. Nothing is sacred!

Jobs, Jobs, and ... cartoon?

Steve JOBS is Apple's main man.  Apple started a trend with the iMac, and now the ubiquitous "i" for everything.
President Obama is concerned about JOBS.
So, naturally, it was only a matter of time before a cartoonist put the two together to give us this: :)

Latest laptop from Apple

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