Wasted Continuum

Where can I start? Steve Jobs just passed away tonight and most of us, including myself, can probably claim we saw this coming. I for one am still in shock and a little shaken by the news. I am not really qualified to summarize his life and how he affected the world. I can just say how he affected my world. I grew up with Apple computers, as did many people my age. All the school computers were Apple II’s and later Macintoshes . The first time I learned to program was on my Apple IIc, albeit only simple scripting. I loved it. Who would have thought a little grade school boy would enjoy typing some lines of text and making things out of nothing. Well, I made a career out of it and it all started with a little beige box and some green text. That is one of the things that Steve Jobs was incredible at, making technology accessible to everyone and I love that. It comes across in everything that Apple has done with Steve at the helm. They make products that are driven by their passion to create and not by profit. The thing that I admire most about Steve is that he always had a vision of what he wanted and went after it with everything he had. You have to respect the man for that.

I think I have said what I needed to say here and I will leave you with one of many great quotes by Steve Jobs. This is one we should all listen to.

Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

I know you all are excited. I am too. Today, Steve Jobs will take the stage at the Apple event and reveal the shiny, new MacBook line. I love Apple, but part of their marketing strategy is exactly what the car industry does. Every year they come out with a cooler looking model. Even though your recently purchased MacBook or iPod is still perfectly fine, it starts to look outdated compared to the new model.

But people, please don’t push aside your current MacBooks and gawk at the new kid in town. Your MacBook has been there for you. Every time you wanted to do some work at a coffeeshop, your MacBook was there. Every time your flight is delayed and you don’t want crack open one of those book things, your MacBook was there. Every time you go to a family function and need to pretend you have important work to avoid talking to your drunk uncle, your MacBook was there.

So please people, when the Jobs is up there showing off the new MacBooks with his cool looking slides and “BOOMS”, I want you to remember the loving laptop that’s been there for you all those time.

I’ve ranted enough. Go now and give your MacBook a hug. Better yet, take a photo of it and post it on Flickr. You can post a link of it on my photo and we’ll have a nice group MacBook hug.

Of course, if you don’t have a MacBook of any kind, you should probably order one of the new ones. I bet you they’ll look super cool and I know that you’ll love it like I love my MacBook Pro.

The Apple “Let’s Rock” event has come to an end and there were really no big surprises. The biggest thing is the newly designed iPod Nanos. It looks exactly like the photo that was leaked a few weeks ago. The iPod Touch also got a minor redesign and a big drop in price. The thing that intrigued me is that Nike+ is integrated into the Touch. That makes it slightly tempting. The biggest one is still 32GB. I still think that’s not enough for me. When they release the 64GB version, I’ll have no more excuses.

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Yes there is another Apple event tomorrow, the 9th at 12pm Central. It’s obviously going to be iPod centric. There’s no question about that. The rumor mill has been hard at work for weeks. I personally do not think there will be any major surprises. But then again, I tend to underwhelmed by almost every keynote. Out of all the rumors out there, these are what I think are most likely. Continue Reading »

Steve Jobs will once again give a keynote tomorrow at WWDC. I’m usually very excited about this, but for some odd reason I’m not this year. Maybe it’s because I already know that the 3G iPhone is going to be the main topic. It’s cool that it is, but I’m still waiting to see the first batch of Android phones. I don’t care if Jobs says “BOOM” a million times. I’m not running out to buy it tomorrow if it’s available. I guess I’ll just watch what happens without any expectations like every other time.

My predictions:

• 3G iPhone announced and on sale immediately
• OS X 10.6 announced
• Twitter will still crash even with their preparation

As I’m typing this, Geoff Smith and Cali Lewis announces RingtoneFeeder. It’s a subscription service, $1.99 a month or $19.98 a year, for getting custom ringtones for you iPhone. These are not just any custom ringtones, but they’re original songs by Geoff Smith. It integrates with iTunes. Looks very easy to use. More details here. Go check it out. Geoff Smith is an amazing artist. I almost want to get an iPhone right now.