Steve Jobs at Apple Town Hall Meeting, Google, Adobe, Next iPhone, 2010 Macs and More

[anthny680]

Jobs is right about flash. Whenever a browser crashes on my Macbook, its because of flash.

Steve was surprisingly open here. I'm surprised. I can't wait to see what they have up their sleeve this year.

My favorite thing about the Droids is that users always claim they are either as good, or better than an iPhone, and can't name one thing it does better.

Since you asked. Things I think Nexus One (Android OS) does better than iPhone 3gs:

Gmail & Calendar (w/ gmail experience)
Contacts App
Google Voice (only web based on iphone)
Maps & Free turn turn navigation (even without pinch)
Multitasking
User customization
Build quality (w/ scratch resistant coating)
Seems faster even with multitasking

to name a few....


There are also many things the iPhone does better than N1. I've owned both phones and prefer the N1 right now. That could and probably will change wit the iPhone 4.0. Competition is a good thing for us end users.

 

[rme]

there is a difference from Mbytes to Mbites. Your speeds are not as fast as you think. I am talking megabytes. Basically you can not download the movie in 2 hrs.

Not true.
People who have a half-decent connection can download an 8 gigabyte file in under 2 hours.
You only need 10 mbit actual throughput for that.
It would take me ~ 10 minutes.

 

[ChazUK]

Did you take care of your $530 phone? Or did you just smash it against a brick wall because it doesn't have a Ale logo on it?

I've taken extra special care of it, like I do all of my devices, Apple logo or not.
I even bought it an invisible shield and fitted it to make sure it was well protected. I tend to look after my gadgets, like my HTC Hero for example.

 

[wschutz]

Who are these experts? I'd like to read their arguments.

Here you have one of them: http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2009/10/09/android_2012_gartner/ (via Slashdot: http://mobile.slashdot.org/story/09/10/09/1532217/Analyst-Predicts-Android-Overtaking-iPhone-In-2012)

 

[IntelliUser]

So you are saying that OS X is of poor quality and would be a poor experience on the tablet.

I'm pro-choice. What I run on my device should be my business, and I resent Apple forcing their sales channels on me.

It would run terribly on a tablet

-Since it's not designed for a touch screen (nor is Windows 7 even though Microsoft touts it so much about it)
-The hardware would be too weak. Probably weaker than a netbook's. Apple doesn't make weak computers. Because they suck.

Then the tablet would be a failure like the Windows based tablets. And there would be nothing new about the concept.

 

[Imperil]

Also, flash crashing is more a problem on Apples side. Safari is the worst piece of crap when coming to Flash. I'm sure even Explorer does a better job.

This couldn't be further from the truth. As a developer I can assure you that the security, performance, and stability issues are all related to Adobe.

At one point I was a third party developer building sophisticated plugins for Photoshop/Illustrator and who has worked heavily with the Adobe teams I can assure you they have extremely bug ridden code due to being extremely old and resisting rewrites of hideously stale code.

Adobe was given ample time by Apple to switch over to using Cocoa but instead they continued to build on Carbon and make their "flash UI" even though so far it has shown to be nothing but a performance hog with stability issues.

 

[kwiiboy]

Don't know if this was mentioned but interestingly enough Lee Brimelow, Flash evangelist, responded in the comments section of the Wired article:

What someone should have asked him is if he is actively working with Adobe to try to resolve the issues with Flash. The answer is unfortunately no. Steve, we are ready to work around the clock. All you have to do is open your door.
Lee Brimelow
Adobe

With all the Flash backlash Adobe is in a tough spot.

Really I don't think they give a damn. I mean, the rest of the world is still using flash.

 

[Journojulz]

So you are saying that OS X is of poor quality and would be a poor experience on the tablet.

? who said osx is poor?

Love OSX on my iMac and works macbook.

Love the iphone os too, looking forward to the ipad OS being just as easy to use.

I'm pro-choice. What I run on my device should be my business, and I resent Apple forcing their sales channels on me.

Good to have principles

If you don't like apple's door policy - there is a world of other tech out there for you to choose from.

 

[HowardRoarke]

Everyone else who has a high end smartphone out there -- Google/Android, Palm, etc -- has a phone which, at best, competes with what Apple had last year with the 3GS. iPhone OS should be a couple months away, and new iPhone hardware is expected around June. The point is, no one is looking ahead of Apple, they just try to copy what they do as soon as possible, by which point Apple is already well into the next iteration, or working on something entirely new like the iPad (yes, I know there are other table-form devices, but none of them work anything remotely like an iPad). So, I'm not too worried, I think Apple knows they need to keep moving, and they do.

i hate to admit it, but the Microsoft courier seems like it has the potential to be pretty competitive (hate the folding though)

 

[50548]

Indeed...

So that they can bleed the company again with 3 different desktop Mac segments (LC, Performa and Quadra) and a billion other unnecessary products and projects? No, thank you. Without SJ, the company would have gone the way of the dodo a LONG time ago, never escaping from pizza box Macs and redundant LaserWriters.

I am glad Windows-fanboys and Apple noobs like you do not run Apple; Steve runs the ship like no one else, and is DIRECTLY responsible for putting Apple as a top example of flawless management for any competent business school in the world.

 

[*LTD*]

Gruber's take . . . he seems to describe it slightly differently:

Second-Hand Report From Steve Jobs’s All-Hands Town Hall Meeting at Apple Last Week
Take it with a big grain of salt, because it’s second-hand and illustrated with a goofily menacing photo of Jobs, but Wired has a report on Jobs’s post-iPad all-hands company meeting:

On Google: We did not enter the search business, Jobs said. They entered the phone business. Make no mistake they want to kill the iPhone. We won’t let them, he says. Someone else asks something on a different topic, but there’s no getting Jobs off this rant. I want to go back to that other question first and say one more thing, he says. This don’t be evil mantra: “It’s ********.” Audience roars.

About Adobe: They are lazy, Jobs says. They have all this potential to do interesting things but they just refuse to do it. They don’t do anything with the approaches that Apple is taking, like Carbon. Apple does not support Flash because it is so buggy, he says. Whenever a Mac crashes more often than not it’s because of Flash. No one will be using Flash, he says. The world is moving to HTML5.

Sounds about right to me. If anyone who was there disputes Wired’s synopsis, I’m all ears.

★
Daring Fireball 10-01-31 12:22 PM John Gruber http://daringfireball.net/

 

[mixel]

Let's stick to the facts, iPad that sucks! Apple is getting the message from all of us who are dissapointed. I completely respect the people who are ok with iPad as it is but what about us? the rest of the people that expected more from the 2500$-priced-laptop-company!!!

People said EXACTLY the same stuff about the iPod.

It's ok to be underwhelmed, it's not as if anyone's actually used the device, so all our judgements on it are pretty much moot.

I'm happy Apple are taking a bit of a risk with something like the ipad, it'll fill a niche for a lot of people.

 

[Macsterguy]

The iPad was a big announcement but..

The iPad was a big announcement - but... This news from the Apple Town Hall Meeting are the biggest announcements from Apple in years...

IMHO:

Adobe needs to step it up. They have everything to loose here. I do think there is room for more players. The iPhone (and iPad) DO need something to view this content! I personally don't care what it is... but something!

Google is the force to be reckoned with, period... but their Android OS needs a lot of polish and is not as good as the iPhone's OS.

I will say this though... The Google phone is the FIRST serious contender to the iPhone, bar none. Apple's 2-year lead in smart phone's has been cut in half by Google (good for us). Apple still has the advantage because they do the phone AND the OS. Google has "others" design and make (great) phone hardware for them. Bottom line - Advantage: Apple.

Apple is a fantastic company and Steve Jobs is one of a kind - but...

Google has done far more than any other company to bring all of today's technologies (and all of us) together... They are amazing...

PS - Large companies like Google, Apple, Adobe (and others) all need to "step it up"...

Bill and Melinda Gates on Friday made the largest donation ever to a single cause: $10 billion to develop vaccines for the world's poorest nations. They are going to save millions of lives with simple vaccinations...

THE WINNER: MICROSOFT

(* and I am an apple fanboy)

 

[martint84]

Right on. I miss Apple Computer.

Steve may have brought Apple back with the iMac but that was more than a decade ago. It's time for him to move aside and Apple to get someone who can do justice to its computer business.

So how's the computer business doing?

Let's see... MacBook Pros are top rated at cnet, consumer reports, even PC World.
iMac is consistently at the top of the editor's choice lists on all of the sites as well.

Seems like Jobs is doing just fine running the computer business. Just because Apple is a month or two behind in upgrading to the new Intel processors doesn't mean they still don't make the best computers on the market.

 

[rtdunham]

...I'd think that a new product category would take a cycle to embed in the popular consciousness; witness Walkmen, MiniDiscs, iPods and (if you believe they are a separate category) netbooks. It takes time for people to forget the preconceptions of previous categories and learn the new conceptions. So it is most likely to be a slowish year, but that won't mean it is a failure...

Well said. Post a link to your article when it's done.

I remember several experiences that provided ah-ha moments: at an airport gate in Atlanta, seeing the first apple laptop; another time, on a plane coming home from COMDEX, a fella using a Nikon 5000, I think it was, the first digital camera that attempted to bridge the gap between little digicams and huge SLRs--now a vast market segment. There will be plenty of times people will see someone using an iPad in a library or on a plane or in an airport, and the cycle will repeat, with four or five people gathered around, looking over the user's shoulder, tossing questions about "can it do this?" or "how does it do that?" Its popularity will spread infectiously, like smiles.

 

[Hankus]

Good to have principles

If you don't like apple's door policy - there is a world of other tech out there for you to choose from.

Apple has created a huge opportunity to be clobbered, which I'm sure they will, and I believe they should. I don't know how far back your memory stretches, but Apple's principles have changed.

 

[Winter Charm]

I thought the same thing, but it could just be a promotional pitch to spur excitement. I'm not sure what they could really do, besides lower prices. But apple isn't really aiming at the low-priced computer market. It will be interesting to see what they do this year.

"Im not sure what they could really do" <--- seriously?

Here's a list to begin with:

1. Implement IPS displays in their macbook pros (since the iMacs and iPad have it, it seems to be reasonable)

2. Give us intel's Core i5 or i7 (Dual core hyperthreaded 32nm processors that will bring 27-37% speed increase and better battery life)

3. Fix The controversy about intel's integrated graphics - give us discreet graphics that we can switch to as a high performance option! (and more powerful graphics please)

4. Get USB 3.0 out there - laptops are starting to roll out with it - however, KEEP THE FIREWIRE!!! (some of us would like that option)

----- Things i would like to see: -----

1. cheaper solid state drives
2. better support for SSD's (i dont know whether bootcamp works or not, and how partitioning will work.)

 

[Voltaic]

- New Macs for 2010 are going to take Apple to the next level

Get to it Steve, it's February already

 

[AAPLaday]

No. Bill Gates doesn't even own Microsoft.



The difference is Apple is growing and innovative.
Microsoft is failing.
There's still time to sell Microsoft stock...

Microsoft enjoyed a 14% increase in revenue from the same quarter a year ago to a record $19.02bn. Windows 7 is fastest selling OS in history. They doing fine. Just saying

 

[pubwvj]

Apple is responsible for destroying the quality audio market—we have a generation now who are not only willing to listen to 128 kbs icepick-in-the-ear noise but pay for it!

Really? I just checked my recent iTunes purchases and almost all of it is 256 kbs with some at 281 kbs. With any background noise I can't tell the difference though. You have very good ears.

The CD market is declining fast while people encourage this insanity with their wallets.

Don't confuse the medium with the content. CD was a temporary messenger. I'm glad to be able to download rather than mess with disks. I look forward to movies, books and magazines all going this way too. I live in a little house. It's nice not to waste a lot of space on storing physical media. I've got 7,000 books that take up a lot of room.

As far as video is concerned, I've waited all my life for something like Blu-Ray to come along

Admittedly, I've only seen it in the store. I wasn't wowwed. DVD and download are more than sufficient. Blueray just seems like another way to try to get us to change our hardware and media, again. I'm not interested.

 

[kwiiboy]

HOW I IZ WATCH YOUTUBE?

 

[reactions]

If this is for real, it's at least encouraging. Acknowledging that Macs will be taken to the "next level" in 2010 is something...

These were the most awesome Jobs quotes in recent memory.

Jobs is pure evil

 

[steve-p]

with four or five people gathered around, looking over the user's shoulder, tossing questions about "can it do this?" or "how does it do that?" Its popularity will spread infectiously, like smiles.

If they ask what the little blue bricks are, they'll most likely be laughing not smiling.

 

[cmaier]

They have everything to loose here.

Dear internet,

It's spelled "lose." "Loose" is the opposite of tight.

Thanks,
A guy who can't understand what's so hard about this

 

[Journojulz]

Apple has created a huge opportunity to be clobbered, which I'm sure they will, and I believe they should. I don't know how far back your memory stretches, but Apple's principles have changed.

I bought into apple in 2007 both in tech and stock.

And I have seen massive improvements consistently in both.

The two seem to be connected....