Steve Jobs and Apple culture in paintings
Rather than starting the week by telling you about Steve’s latest emails (folders in iBooks, AirPrint-compatible printers), and the rumors about the upcoming joint Steve Jobs/Rupert Murdoch keynote, I thought I’d start by showing you some artwork I stumbled upon a couple of days ago.
The artist is a 45-year old painter from Southern Cal, Alex Gross. His paintings are quite sinister… I just love them. 🙂 One of his dominant themes is today’s consumer society, and it is frequently illustrated with references to Apple products and even the Apple culture. For example:
End User (2010)
Resist (2010)
This one is particularly interesting:
Kool Aid Drinkers (2010)
As you know, ever since the 1980s, people who absorbed everything Steve Jobs/Apple said were famed as “drinkers of the (Steve Jobs/Apple/Mac/whatever…) Kool Aid”.
Have you ever seen a painting with a Windows PC or an Android phone in it?
… me neither.
29 Nov 2010 | in Updates
RT @Alltop: Who needs Santa when there’s an Apple store? http://yfrog.com/0bxpb0j
Steve Jobs 1985 Playboy interview re-surfaces
Most of you have already heard of it, but Playboy recently re-published their 1985 interview with Steve Jobs on their website. I had read lots of excerpts from the piece for some time, since it is abundantly quoted in Jeffrey S. Young’s The Journey Is The Reward as well as Leander Kahney’s Inside Steve’s Brain… but I had yet to read it in its entirety.
It is a fascinating read to say the least. The conclusion is not a surprise for me, just a confirmation: despite popular belief, Steve Jobs hasn’t changed much in all these years. I have gathered my favorite quotes from the interview to prove it:
In their foreword, Playboy makes a pretty accurate description of young Steve, which is just as true for old Steve (try replacing IBM by Google in the quote below):
But to hear Jobs tell it, the money isn’t even half the story, especially since he does not spend it very lavishly—and, indeed, claims to have very little time for social life. He is on a mission, preaching the Gospel of salvation through the personal computer—preferably one manufactured by Apple. He is an engaging pitchman and never loses an opportunity to sell his products…
Unable to relent in his mission to spread the Apple word, he talked with solemn ferocity about the war with IBM—but then would punctuate his enthusiasm for an idea with ‘Neat!’ or ‘Incredibly great!’
21 Nov 2010 | in Updates
RT @philiped: Steve Jobs: The Playboy interview: The magazine has re-released the piece it published in early 1985, just… http://bit.l …
18 Nov 2010 | in Updates
Handy Comic Guide to iPhone, Android, Blackberry Users via Cult of Mac http://bit.ly/cqXeSv
iWear
This is fun:
Reminds of me of a website (can’t remember its URL) whose only page was a list of Steve Jobs’ clothes. The guy who did it was interviewed by a major magazine (can’t remember either, but I’ll find it) as someone “influential in the Mac sphere“. What a joke. Worst still, the list was almost all wrong. For example, it spread the error that Steve’s turtlenecks are by St Croix. The truth: they’re from Issey Miyake (John Lasseter in a FT article – warning: you have to subscribe for the whole story)
He found this one really great black turtleneck which he loved – I think it was Issey Miyaki [sic] – so tried to buy another one and they didn’t have any more. He called the company and asked if they would make another one, and they refused. So he said: ‘Fine, how many do you have to make before I can buy them?’ So they made them – I think he has a closet full of them.
Source: TUAW (made by Scoopertino)
Steve’s emails of the week
The blog posts are getting shorter because I have a full-time job, and I am finishing up all about Steve Jobs.com super exciting new update. So here’s the lowdown on the new rush of emails from Steve Jobs this week:
Oct 22: on removing Java from the new Macbook Air
Mr. Jobs:
I am the CTO and founder of a Software company based in Philadelphia. We create and sell Enterprise software into the health care space.
Our software is Java based, and runs on both the server and the desktop. We have been in business for over 12 years now, and are a healthy growing company with about 180 employees.
I am a big Apple customer, as is my company. We love developing and testing Java based software on OS X.
Today in the news were stories like this: www.theregister.co.uk/2010/10/21/apple_threat ens_to_kill_…
and here’s another example: news.cnet.com/8301-31021_3-20020338-260.htmlI am hoping you would consider commenting either to me or via your PR channels what are the future plans for the Java programming language and platform on OS X?
One last note – a growing trend over the last few years at all the software conferences I attend is the popularity of the Macbook laptops. Go to any non-Microsoft focused developers conference and the rooms are typically dominated by Mac laptops. One major reason for this is that OS X is a great platform for Java developers.
thanks,
Scott Fraser
CTO, Portico Systems
Sun (now Oracle) supplies Java for all other platforms. They have their own release schedules, which are almost always different than ours, so the Java we ship is always a version behind. This may not be the best way to do it.
Sent from my iPhone
Oct 23: on iPad’s side switch button
In IOS 4.2 for iPad is the switch on the side going to be the mute and not screen orientation lock from now on?
Yep.Sent from my iPhone
Are you planning to make that a changeable option?
Nope.
(source)
Oct 29: on USB 3
We don’t see USB 3 taking off at this time. No support from Intel, for example.
(source)
so there you have it.
About that “Back to the Mac” keynote
As I’ve stated before, this blog is not about the Mac, but solely about Steve Jobs. So I won’t go back on the details of the latest keynote’s announcements.
My only thoughts :
- The photos of both the keynote and the new MacBook Air will all be on the new version of all about Steve Jobs (going live any day now)
- Once again, Tim Cook has been given the “state of the Mac” part of the keynote, which used to be a Steve Jobs favorite. This is to me an indication that after Steve leaves, Tim Cook will probably handle the “business” part of Apple’s future keynotes (I guess the “new products” part will be divided between Phil Schiller and Scott Forstall… god I hope that day never happens)
- On that Mac OS X Lion UI: if Steve Jobs’ past is any indication, it’s very likely that the future OS will not look at all like what was presented today. The UI is always the lastest thing that Steve shows in a new OS – because it’s the easiest to copy, but I guess also because it’s his favorite part.
- Article on TUAW whose title I find funny: Can you trust a Steve Jobs email? “Nope.” because it’s true that Steve denied there would ever be a Mac AppStore a couple of months ago (although when you read it again, he denied there would be an exclusive Mac AppStore, so technically, he wasn’t lying……. yet nothing forced him to write back so it’s obvious he wanted to trump the rumor sites).
Obama meets Steve Jobs
Business Insider reports that President Obama met with Steve Jobs for a “one-to-one meeting” yesterday.
I don’t want to get politics into this blog, but I think it’s OK if I just bring back this old fave from Fake Steve’s golden days. Enjoy.
Apple 2010 conference call – the complete transcript
Macworld did a full transcript of Steve Jobs’ speech at Apple’s 2010 earnings conference.
Unfortunately I’m working so hard on the new website that I don’t have time to comment on it. But it’s worth reading, so go ahead, guys.