Out of the Newsroom

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Far Better At Some Key Things

January 28th, 2010 · Uncategorized

Today, our creative newsroom gave the story the simple, but quite accurate title: “iPad-demonium”

For the technology driven obsessives, like myself, it was pretty much the case. After months of speculation, leaks, tidbits, teases, and plain old anticipation–run up to a fever pitch–Apple CEO Steve Jobs strolled on the stage of the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco today.

He was there to show the invitation-only crowd “the next big thing.”

Though for once in the now storied series of these Steve Jobs presentations, there was no big surprise. Except maybe for what the thing was going to be called.

Because the thing, you see, was pretty much well-known ahead of time. Apple’s latest creation was going to be a “tablet” style device. A blank slate, if you will. An electronic pad with a screen.

This was widely known–or at least, widely expected.

Jobs acknowledged this by showing a quote from The Wall Street Journal that quipped, “the last time there was this much excitement for a tablet…it had commandments on it.” The Journal, not known for the same penchant of bombastic headlines as The New York Post, wasn’t being all that cute. The pitch for this thing was way past the fever stage.

So when he, of ever consistent black mock turtleneck and jeans wardrobe, whipped out the new “iPad”, there wasn’t a loud gasp in the room. Enthusiastic applause broke out, to be sure. Even a solitary wolf whistle.

The gasp would come later.

In his lead up to this moment, Jobs said something that would stick with this observer as the whole definition of why the iPad was created and–in the same thought–why it is likely to be as notable and revolutionary as it older siblings, the iPod and iPhone.

He said that a device that exists somewhere between the nearly ubiquitous “smartphone” (a category of product that Apple’s iPhone certainly redefined, if not completely re-invented) and the essential modern tool, the laptop (which Apple also had a major hand in defining–if not inventing, as Jobs claimed.)

Going on, he added that a device that filled this gap between these two “classes” of devices, needed to be, in his words, “Far Better at Some Key Things.”

There it was. Call it the commandment that defined this new device:
“Thou shalt not attempt to be all things to all people, but rather thou shalt be far better at some key things.”

And the key things, it turns out, are the ones that most people need most of the time from “an electronic gizmo” that is neither the one that goes in your pocket to make calls on, nor the one that goes in your backpack to do your homework on.

No, this new, new thing was to be in between those two digital tools that exist now in so many lives. And so, as Jobs put it, it had to be far better at some key things.

Those things include, browsing the web, doing email, viewing photographs, watching videos, listening to music, playing games and reading electronic versions of books (“eBooks”). The seven things that most people, probably do most often via the internet.

Thinking about my use of my laptop or my smartphone (both of which are from Apple), it certainly is the way I use those two devices and the internet. And I’d likely speculate that would be the case for you as well.

Unless your religious beliefs cause you to shun electricity for whatever reason.

So even as the internet began to crackle with people pointing out that the name “iPad” sounded unfortunately like an Apple-made line of feminine “personal products”, if you’ll allow, it was becoming clear that the device was going to be very specifically focused on doing these key functions and would not attempt to be all things to all people–despite the inopportune comparison to the stone pads…er, tablets that Moses carried down from the mountain with those ten commandments.

Like anything Apple has made since….well, since Apple came into being, the iPad is designed within an inch of its life. Actually, it’s only 0.5 inches thick, so that would be within a half-inch of its life. I haven’t actually seen or touched one in person yet (my invite to this shindig was apparently lost in the mail, I suppose.)

But damn, I can’t wait to get my hands on one. Much like the first images of the iPhone when it was presented for the first time by Steve Jobs about three years ago, the design of this new thing just begs to be seen in person and touched.

Because that is when I, and probably you too, will decide if we have to have one.

Because my friends, that is exactly what happened with the iPhone. The pictures, the videos, the details were all quite intriguing. But when you actually held an iPhone in your hands, you were pretty much sold. In this case, the tactile–both how the device feels in your grubby mitts and how it feels to touch the screen and interact with the device–will be the ultimate pull here.

And then your mind will snap to reality and you’ll begin to process the next important question: Can I afford to get one of these? Because that has been the biggest single knock on Apple since…well, again since Apple moved into being. The company’s un-stated, but obvious position is that it makes great stuff that is priced at the premium price point.

So everyone, including myself, was prepared for the sticker shock to come. As the presentation ground on, well over an hour…Steve Jobs threw out the detail that drew some audible gasps in the auditorium that turned into loud applause.

That the iPad’s starting price would not be the $999 that many people had feared. Not even the $799 that I had speculated might be an aggressive pricing to jump start this new, new thing that not everyone might instantly recognize that they would have to have. Not even the $699 that it might be priced if this were a late night Ron Popeil informercial.

But only $499 for the base model with the smallest amount of storage inside (16 GB).

Adding a cellular 3G data radio to the unit, so you will be able to access the internet almost anywhere will add another $130 to the price. Additional storage (memory) goes up to 64 GB and pushes the price up for top end model with all the features to a more sobering, yet still relatively reasonable $829 price tag. (Reasonable considering the technology and the cost of the hardware.)

Will you have to have one? Possibly. Will you want to have one? Probably. Before you scoff at that notion, consider whether three years ago you would have had to have a cell phone with no buttons on it, that could go on the internet or play your music collection? Because nobody thought the iPhone was going to be a must have.

And earlier this week, Apple reported that it sold some 8.7 million iPhones.

In the last quarter.

So that brings us to me answering the question I have been asked about a hundred times since 2:30pm yesterday–and that I have been pondering pretty much non-stop for the twelve hours since. Am I going to get one?

The answer? If the iPad is far better at doing some key things that I do everyday of my digital-centric life now, then the answer is probably.

But if this iPad is, as Senior VP of Design at Apple Jony Ive put it in Apple’s promotion video: “when something exceeds your ability to understand how it works…it sort of becomes magical”, the the answer is definitely.

Because I saw this exact reaction happen last year when I showed my Mom an Amazon Kindle for the first time. As a life long lover of books and reading, she was delighted and amazed by what the Kindle could do. So given that reading eBooks is just one of the seven “key things” that the iPad can do. And it does it in full color, with video and music available too?

I’d tell Mom–and anyone else who asks–that they probably should hold onto to their hats…or their hair for that matter. Once it gets into our hands and we have a chance to experience the magic for ourselves, the iPad could blow us all away.

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The Night Before The Big Address

January 27th, 2010 · Uncategorized

On Wednesday, January 27th, there will be two major addresses that many people will be following quite closely.

One will be the President’s State of the Union, the other will be a CEO introducing a new product.

Oddly, either could change the financial state of this country, if not the world.

Or not, as the case may be.

But when the CEO is Steve Jobs of Apple, the product isn’t just any new product.

The expectations of what Jobs will unveil are as high as they have been for anything in recent memory. From the company that has changed the way we work with computers, the way we enjoy our music and the way we use our cell phones…the expectations are very high about what is widely believed to be a “tablet” style device. Some have even dubbed it “the jesus tablet”.

The speculation has been rampant for months. That will come to an end at 1pm EST on Wednesday, which will be when Jobs takes the stage. The President will have to wait another 7 hours after that for his turn.

Reports are that Jobs calls whatever he is going to talk about as “the most important thing I’ve ever done.” One wonders if Mr. Obama is thinking the same way at this point.

The good news for Jobs…he won’t have the talking heads on Fox, CNN, MSNBC and all the rest of the 24-hour chatfest outlets talking about what he says for hours on end.

He’ll only have to worry about CNBC, G4 and a whole bunch of blogs. Not that they are any picnic to deal with.

Here’s hoping that both can wow their audiences.

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Why Playing Games is Serious Stuff

January 24th, 2010 · Uncategorized

A second post for you on this Sunday, as you are likely watching the championship games of the National Football League.

And that turns out to be the topic of this update: Games.

You will likely see a TV commercial or two for the game “Mass Effect 2″, a big new release coming out for the XBOX360. In fact, as the NFC championship game is underway, Bioware–the company behind “Mass Effect 2″–is hosting a live streaming TV show featuring a couple of their folks answering questions about the game while giving updates on the Vikings-Saints matchup.

And about five thousand people are watching the live stream as I type this. Now that’s not anything like the number of people who will be watching the NFL games on TV today, but its more than just a few hundred die hard gamers.

Jeff Scott of the great blog 148apps wrote a must-read guest item for the folks over at CrunchGear about what the importance of games could mean to this week’s expected announcement of an Apple tablet device.

I was reading that about five minutes after catching the news item from the widely read tech blog Engadget about how attendees of the Game Development Conference will find a little more than the usual sponsor swag in the bag they get when they check in for this year’s conference. This year’s GDC attendees will get their choice of a spanking new Droid or Nexus One smartphone.

So why is that a big deal? (Aside from being a cool phone to get for free?) Because it shows that Google, whose Android software powers both phones, wants the game developers who attend the GDC to think about writing games for their phones, as well as that very successful and popular phone with the first letter “i” from Apple.

Because when you get right down to it, that is the big difference between the iPhone and Blackberry–the big name in “smartphones.” You know, those cell phones that seem to do everything besides letting you make phone calls. Blackberry users typically don’t have a lot of games on their devices, in part because they aren’t that into games–and even if they were, they’re not a whole lot of games available.

Not ones that you’d want to play that much. Aside from the ubiquitous “brickbreaker” maybe.

Compare that to the iPhone (and it’s cousin iPod Touch) that has so many games, you can’t even keep track of them all. It may not be the aforementioned XBOX or a PS3, but neither of those will fit in your pocket. Closest comparison you would make would be to the pocketable Nintendo DS, but the DS is mostly in the pocket of kids.

The iPhone/iPod Touch seems to be in the pocket of every other person over the age of 16. And it’s a respectable platform with the ability to let you buy a game pretty much anytime, anywhere you want.

Now do you understand why Google would give away a $500 phone (if you bought either the Droid or Nexus One new) to as many game developers as they can? Did I mention that in 2009 the market for all video games was something like a 50 Billion dollars-PLUS one? And even though the recession may have slowed down the market on the consoles like XBOX, PS3 and even the Wii, the games market on mobile devices is going up, up, up?

Because these days…playing games is anything but kid stuff.

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On Coming Home

January 24th, 2010 · Uncategorized

HouseinAvon2.jpg

I’ve been on the road for a few days. Not like I was once was. Back then, I was trying to be like George Clooney’s character in “Up in the Air.” My office was likely to be seat 4F in an airliner, somewhere over America.

In recent years, I’ve been more grounded, traveling only a couple of weeks a year–rather than over 40 weeks. When you travel that much, you begin to think as the road as your home. You don’t really see your permanent address as much more than a place that you empty your suitcase, get clean clothes and spend some time with those people you only talk to on the phone during the week.

So coming home on this Sunday, I was reminded how much I love our little house in the woods.

It’s not a huge house, barely two thousand square feet of three bedrooms and two baths. We’re surrounded by woods on almost all sides, only able to see glimpses of our neighbor’s houses when the trees are bare, as they are right now.

The place needs some work, probably a new coat of stain, and a new roof isn’t too far off in our future. We just spent a pretty penny to replace the heat pump, so it would be easy to see the place as a money pit masquerading as a mortgage payment.

But today, it looked like home. A place where you live life, and all that it brings. Today, a little furry dog greeted me at the door. The warmth of the place hit me as soon as the door opened and I heard the bark. (So maybe the money for the heat pump was worth it after all.) The place looked great and felt familiar.

I gave Chester the dog a hug and got a face full of licking. I know it sounds sappy, but its never been more true than today.

It’s good to be home.

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10th Floor at NERD Center

January 23rd, 2010 · Uncategorized

So this is what all those MS upgrades pays for! (Snarky aside, very cool facility, and nice of them to host 400 plus Wordpress fans.)

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Objects of Lust

January 23rd, 2010 · Uncategorized

Herman Miller Aeron high chairs at NERD center

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