Article from the Wall Street Journal speculating about how Apple will evolve in the post Steve Jobs era:

For every design project in the pipeline, Mr. Jobs will hold meetings of two or three hours every week or two with key members of the product team. At those meetings, Mr. Jobs will critique the work in progress and also suggest adding or cutting features. Glenn Reid, a software developer during Apple’s early years who had another stint at the company that ended in 2003, recalls one such meeting just days before a photo-editing program was to go into production. Mr. Jobs decided at the last minute that an index feature on the software made the system unnecessarily complex, and decided to eliminate it, even though documentation for the product had already been printed. It was frustrating to Mr. Reid and his software team, “but it made the product better,” Mr. Reid says.

Mr. Jobs’s unwillingness to accept compromises – and the unquestioned authority that lets him issue last-minute edicts – have become a key to Apple’s success in developing new products, Mr. Reid says. George Crow, an Apple engineer in the 1980s and again from 1998 to 2005, noted that the company struggled during the years when Mr. Jobs was not running Apple.

On the other hand, certain of Mr. Jobs’s uncompromising principles with computers – such as wanting “to make the inside beautiful” – ran counter to more practical impulses. On the original Macintosh PC, Mr. Crow says, Mr. Jobs wanted the internal wiring to be in the colors of Apple’s early rainbow logo (Mr. Crow says he eventually convinced Mr. Jobs it was an unnecessary expense). On another machine that Mr. Crow worked on for NeXT – the computer maker Mr. Jobs founded between Apple stints – he says Mr. Jobs insisted that the internal power supply be nickel plated, an expensive ornamentation that was eventually discontinued.

His most recent run at Apple has been nothing short of spectacular. He is going to be a tough act to follow but they are going to have to face reality soon.

The Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld ad from Microsoft is just terrible. I’ve read that it was developed “to make people talk” and start the conversation. Well, people are talking and I think the word of the day is confusion and a yawn. This is such a typical Microsoft-like response to Apple’s innovation. Two years late and not nearly as good.

Is it me, or does this image remind you of “Big Brother” from Apple’s 1984 ad?

I just received this in my email Inbox. There has been a mugging, a litany of long lines, and some nice reviews. The brilliance of Apple and Steve Jobs at work. The device is a game changer. The network its running on will severely hold it back.

Did you notice that the person who created the “controversial” Hillary Clinton 1984 “Vote Different” knock off of the Apple 1984 ad went to the detail and trouble of putting an iPod, ear buds/wire and all, on the sledge hammer toting woman in the video? Now that’s a pretty impressive bit of editing.

This past Friday, my iPod died.  I was sitting at work listening to some tunes and cranking out a project brief, when all of a sudden it just stopped playing.  When I picked it up, the back of it was smoking hot to the touch, and the software was freezing and sputtering.  If it was a car, it was the equivelant of lurching and choking and shaking violently.

As any normal person would do, I started to hit every button to see if it would start playing again but nothing happened.  Then, I went to the Internet.  How can I reboot this thing?  Maybe it just needs a little refresh as in my 1.5 years of owning it, I’d never rebooted it.  As we all know, we all need to reboot every once in a while.

A ha! I found it. A very informative iPod site detailing exact instructions on how to reboot my iPod.  "Your data will not be effected when you reboot your iPod." it said.  I hit the "Menu" and "Play" buttons at the same time for about 10 seconds (yes, I had the 3rd generation iPod which I’ve always been somewhat bitter about, being that I purchaed it all of two weeks ahead of the 4th generation release…but we won’t go there) and it rebooted.  Ok, this is good, I said.  It appears to be working fine now.  But to my horror, every song, podcast, and piece of information on my iPod was gone…Casper…no where to be found.  Yes, everything was in iTunes on my home computer, so it was not an unmitigated catastrophe (unless you consider the commute home that evening), but this was not expected based on what I read (Mistake #1:  Everything on the internet is not fact).  And the iPod was still smoking hot on the back too.  Now I knew something was seriously wrong.

I wake up on Saturday and try to sync it with iTunes, and again it fails.  I bitterly head downstairs to eat breakfast, and there it is…slapping me right in the face.  Its an article in the NY Times by Joe Nocera titled "Good Luck With That Broken iPod" (fyi…the online article is behind the NYTimes "Select" service, so I can’t link to it).  The timing was impeccable.  The article essentially said that if your iPod breaks, there is little that Apple will do to help other than saying "Go buy a new one" and offering an extended warranty.  Bitterness turned to frustration.

On Sunday, fearing the worst, I took my injured iPod to the local Apple store right when it opened.  One of the salespeople took it and tried to bring its software back to factory condition.  Alas, that did not work as he determined it was a component issue, which costs $250 minimum.  As the article said, "Go buy a new one."  So I did, reluctantly.  Some silver lining is that I was able to give my broken one back to Apple and they took 10% off the cost of my new one.  This time, I did buy the warranty.

So now I have the new iPod Video with an extended warranty.  My plans to replace my 5 year old behemouth of a digital camera will have to wait another year or so.  I use my iPod every day when I commute to work.  I’m not going to say "its more trouble than its worth" because there is no way I could survive my commute without it.  But still, its been a rocky relationship….

Wow, they never cease to amaze. Not a month after they released the amazing looking nano, they take the next step towards media convergance and release the often rumored Video iPod. The real challenge becomes how interested and engaging this will be with consumers. I think the popularity of the iPod is a direct function of the fact that with music/audio, you can be doing other things while you are listening. With video, you need to be fully attentive to the content.

But even if you don’t download a single video, the bigger screen, the larger amount of disc space, and the increased battery life are reasons alone to seriously consider an upgrade. My iPod is now closing in on 1.5 years old, and while its still serving me quite well, I am starting to get a little bit of iPod envy.

A bit over a year ago, I purchased an iPod. While I have had a few bumps in the road while owning this product, I am pretty much lost without it, especially with the commute I have to work.

I key accessory of the iPod that I use all the time is the clip on remote, which enables me to forward past songs and podcasts I don’t want to listen to at that time without having to take the actual iPod out of my pocket, shoulder bag, or whever it is being held. About three months ago, the little “Hold” switch broke on the remote. I took it back to Apple and they replaced it with no problems. Then today, I noticed that the cable of the headphones was “fraying” and exposing its wiring. And being that I had this replaced almost three months ago, the warrenty on the replacements expired tomrrow.

So at lunch today, I went to the Apple Soho store to see if I could get replacement headphones before the warrenty expired. I walked into the Apple store, found a salesperson, and told them the issue. In the middle of my explaination, another floor person joined the conversation, assessed the issue as I showed the fraying headphones, and said “Come with me”. We walked over to the Genius Bar, they then took the old pair of headphones, and gave me a new pair on the spot, no questions asked. I did have to provide some info about my iPod but that was it. I was there and back in 45 minutes (took the subway).

Out and about on the Internet, people are confessing about those skeletons buried in the back corners of their iPods. You know who you are. Britney, Burt Bachrach, Neil Diamond…they are there on your iPod. As for me, well…I will admit that I have a few Abba songs, I have a Tony Bennett CD cued up, ready to download, and I am seriously thinking of adding some Frank Sinatra and Elvis to the mix.

So all of two weeks ago, I proudly noted that I was a new owner of an Apple iPod. And what does Apple do? They go and release a new version of their iPod with a more robust battery, some software enhancements, a new navigation wheel, and a thinner body (barely). And to top it all off, the cost of their 20GB version was $100 less than what I paid for the same storage capacity, and their 40GB version was the same price as what I paid for 20GB!! So if I had known, I would have obviously waited, and then would have almost definitely purchased the 40GB version for the same $399 price. Needless to say, I am not happy about what has transpired. After multiple calls to American Express and Apple, Apple was able to issue me a $100 credit for my purchase to reflect the new price of the 20GB unit, and I do appreciate that. The price difference really irked me but I think the bigger frustration is that if I had waited two measly weeks, I could have purchased the newer model. I am still trying to figure out how I can get the new one, but if not, I am more than happy with what I have and getting the price break definitely makes me feel better about the situation. But I just knew something like this would happen. Its just my luck!!

So I ordered an Apple iPod this weekend. Looking forward to loading it up and using it!! I ordered the 20GB size basically because I could not justify spending $500 for it. They were running a promotion where I could get it engraved for free, which I gladly took advantage of. I put this url and my email address on it figuring that if I ever lost it, maybe some kind soul would email me and return it. Also, I figure 20GB is more than enough space for most of my current CD collection plus other songs that I will eventually acquire from iTunes. My wife was even nice enough to purchase a $15 Gift Certificate for me to get started on iTunes. I would have preferred the BMW for my iPod but beggars can’t be choosers. Rock on.

Here is an interesting site that iPod owners use to post new concepts related to future versions and services related to the wonderful Apple iPod: iPodlounge – All Things iPod

I really want an Apple iPod. They are just the best mobile audio devices around and they are so brilliantly designed. Then I could put my audio CD collection on my computer and put the actual CDs in storage. In fact, I really want an Apple PowerBook. We currently have a 4 year old Dell and that is just not cutting it anymore. What would be ideal would be for my wife Lisa to have her own PC and then I could have my own Apple. It would be the first computer that I would have for my web dev/services/design “side business”. It would also help me out as I create and edit video of the kids.

My daughter Rebecca is obsessed with Nemo from the movie Finding Nemo which was developed by Pixar and Disney. We have taken her to see the movie three times and she has made it to the end only once. And the most amazing thing is that the character Nemo is barely in the movie! Nemo, Elmo, Dora….the characters that a 2 year old obsesses about!