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

[zweigand]

You're obviously not a developer if you think web designers can just "kick" flash like it's a bad habit. Designers use what works and it just happens to be that Flash works and is installed in most browsers. Flash is still the best way to put video on the web and will be until Mozilla, Apple, and Microsoft all get on the same page.

HTML5 sounds good until you get right down to the implementation. Until Internet Explorer supports <canvas> and <video> in HTML5 and/or Mozilla decides to support H.264 or Apple decides to support ogg theora, Flash will be with us for a long time for web video. It's a hodge podge mess and the w3c hasn't done anything to help the situation.

Windows 7 supports H.264 right out of the box so that's a move in the right direction. We need IE to support <canvas> and <video>. As soon as that happens, we'll see more adoption but not a minute sooner. Apple can push "no flash" on people but IE is really the driving force. Mozilla is going to hold out as long as they can on licensing until they're forced to do so.

OR websites can pull a youtube and simply default to HTML5, and if for some reason you can't view it it will fall back to Flash.

 

[AidenShaw]

Many Blu-rays, like almost all of Disney's releases, come with a digital edition for use with iTunes or WMP along with the Blu-ray.

Obviously this doesn't apply to to all Blu-rays, but it completely solves the "need to watch it on a plane on my laptop" problem. And it's not just Disney, a few other companies do it as well. I wish they all did.

Two comments.

One, you say that the digital edition "completely solves the "need to watch
it on a plane ..."". But, you also say "Many Blu-rays", and "doesn't apply
to all Blu-rays", "a few other companies do it".

Second, even if every BD had a digital edition, would you be happy watching a massively
compressed Iphone-sized screen movie on your MBP with a 1 to 2 Mpixel screen? Even DVDs
(at 307Kpixel usually in the US) are fuzzy and indistinct when scaled up to 2 Mpixel.

But Steve wants to keep the Itunes money-pump going with downloads, so too bad for the user.

 

[iLunar]

OR websites can pull a youtube and simply default to HTML5, and if for some reason you can't view it it will fall back to Flash.

If only every single web developer in the world had the resources that Google has

 

[iDisk]

Didn't Steve say "Ads Suck" when are we going to see them invade google ad space??

Google needs to just leave " This whole don't be evil mantre: It's Bull*****" Gotta love steve I haven't ran into any CEO that inspires me like him

I can't believe I was working and missed all the 1,289 comments so far..... lets hit 2k guys & gals

 

[DakotaGuy]

It's funny that Steve says they are not going to let Google take phone market share with Android. Google doesn't even have to try that hard at least not in the US.

Apple = AT&T

Android = Verizon, Sprint, AT&T, T-Mobile, plus I am sure some smaller regional carriers will also jump on Android.

With the new iPad agreement it looks like Apple is sticking with AT&T exclusively at least for the next year or so while Android fully deploys to all networks.

Give it another year with an additional few million more iPhones and iPads on AT&T's already struggling network and people will start bailing right and left for other more reliable carriers. Those carriers will have a full slate of Android devices for consumers, but no iPhone because Apple is married to AT&T.

The user base is already growing too fast for AT&T in some areas and there is no way they are going to keep up with demand. The network will kill the iPhone before Google does. Google will just be there to pick up dissatisfied AT&T customers that have no choice.

 

[zweigand]

If only every single web developer in the world had the resources that Google has

I'm not going to care if joe schmoe's personal blog has flash content in it. The only sites I'm really going to care about DO have plenty of resources to devote to a HTML5 website. Vimeo is doing the same thing as youtube right now. Pretty soon the video hosting sites that have HTML5 compatibility are just going to drown out the ones that don't offer it.

 

[AidenShaw]

I wouldn't be surprised to see Ipad on Verizon at first shipment

With the new iPad agreement it looks like Apple is sticking with AT&T exclusively at least for the next year or so while Android fully deploys to all networks.

The clue is that the Ipad 3G also includes a GPS.

Since Qualcomm's Gobi chipset is a 3G chipset that includes a GPS
(aGPS no less) it's possible that the Ipad 3G+GPS has a Gobi inside.

Look below for what else the Gobi does - everything (or nearly so)!

Perhaps Apple hasn't signed the contracts with Verizon yet, so no
mention at the launch.

 

[Eric S.]

mwahaha. That's funny. I'm sure the shareholders would much rather have a niche-tastically unprofitable but neat "computer business" as opposed to rising stock prices.

Pardon me but I wouldn't give a rat's ass for what shareholders want. Since when did we start defining what we want in a computer by what a company's shareholders want?

I think you guys might be a little short-sighted. The way people will interface with computers isn't the MacPro or MacBook Pro. Computers are going to become more intimate, more ubiquitous, and less "machines." The iPhone and iPad are, IMO, revolutionary devices and a glimpse at tomorrow.

So I'm a computer Luddite. I admit it. I prefer computers to appliances.

 

[iDisk]

It's funny that Steve says they are not going to let Google take phone market share with Android. Google doesn't even have to try that hard at least not in the US.

Apple = AT&T

Android = Verizon, Sprint, AT&T, T-Mobile, plus I am sure some smaller regional carriers will also jump on Android.

With the new iPad agreement it looks like Apple is sticking with AT&T exclusively at least for the next year or so while Android fully deploys to all networks.

Give it another year with an additional few million more iPhones and iPads on AT&T's already struggling network and people will start bailing right and left for other more reliable carriers. Those carriers will have a full slate of Android devices for consumers, but no iPhone because Apple is married to AT&T.

The user base is already growing too fast for AT&T in some areas and there is no way they are going to keep up with demand. The network will kill the iPhone before Google does. Google will just be there to pick up dissatisfied AT&T customers that have no choice.

I'm hoping all the AT&T people who use iPhone Jump ship to other networks if Apple allows it, so I can enjoy the network without interruption..... Steve is back man and he's PISSED, so you better choose your side .... Going against Apple will be Googles biggest mistake this decade

 

[cmaier]

Pardon me but I wouldn't give a rat's ass for what shareholders want. Since when did we start defining what we want in a computer by what a company's shareholders want?

What "we" want is of no consequence to Steve Jobs' continued employment. All that matters is what the board of directors, answering to the shareholders, want.

 

[krzyglue]

Many Blu-rays, like almost all of Disney's releases, come with a digital edition for use with iTunes or WMP along with the Blu-ray.

Obviously this doesn't apply to to all Blu-rays, but it completely solves the "need to watch it on a plane on my laptop" problem. And it's not just Disney, a few other companies do it as well. I wish they all did.

What's the quality like on those "digital editions" though? Admittedly full 1080p is a bit wasted on a laptop, but I don't want some 640*272 thing.
Furthermore, how does the DRM work on the digital edition? If I had more than one laptop (I don't, but just saying), does it work on all of them?

 

[DakotaGuy]

The clue is that the Ipad 3G also includes a GPS.

Since Qualcomm's Gobi chipset is a 3G chipset that includes a GPS
(aGPS no less) it's possible that the Ipad 3G+GPS has a Gobi inside.

Look below for what else the Gobi does - everything (or nearly so)!

Perhaps Apple hasn't signed the contracts with Verizon yet, so no
mention at the launch.

Well that is the chip that they should use. Everyone should use something like that so we can forget about who has what network and are free to choose. I'm at the point now that I will believe it when I see it because Apple continues to make it sound like they are AT&T exclusive to the end no matter what happens in the market.

“In the vast majority of locations, we think that iPhone customers are having a great experience,” Cook said on a conference call with investors and journalists.

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscent...ows_chance_to_push_atandt_on_3g_failings.html

They are not even taking AT&T to task for their spotty 3G coverage and other network issues. Cook makes things sound like everything is just peachy with AT&T. Now I see why AT&T doesn't want to spend the money to build a better network... Apple doesn't even care if it works well or not!

 

[AnalyzeThis]

Not sure about S...

Steve is back man and he's PISSED, so you better choose your side .... Going against Apple will be Googles biggest mistake this decade

I am pretty sure Google is shaking

But Steve is not really back, the dude could even stand for a couple of minutes on his own. There is no such thing as pancreatic cancer survivor. This story is for clueless investors. He leaves "on credit", money could only buy some time.

 

[cmaier]

What's the quality like on those "digital editions" though? Admittedly full 1080p is a bit wasted on a laptop, but I don't want some 640*272 thing.
Furthermore, how does the DRM work on the digital edition? If I had more than one laptop (I don't, but just saying), does it work on all of them?

DVD quality. Heavily DRM'd. It gets sucked into a single iTunes library.

I am pretty sure Google is shaking

But Steve is not really back, the dude could even stand for a couple of minutes on his own. There is no such thing as pancreatic cancer survivor. This story is for clueless investors. He leaves "on credit", money could only buy some time.

He's back. People see him in silicon valley out and about all the time (kids' school, on Apple campus, etc.)

 

[Eric S.]

What "we" want is of no consequence to Steve Jobs' continued employment. All that matters is what the board of directors, answering to the shareholders, want.

And again, I couldn't give a damn about that. I know what I want in a computer system, and if Apple doesn't give it to me I'll go somewhere else and I won't care what their shareholders or board of directors think about it. In fact I already did that; after years of waiting for a midrange tower I built my own hackintosh. In the future I'm just as likely to drift into the Windows world, which would have been unthinkable for me 10, 15, 20 years ago. If Apple's shareholders and board of directors don't care about losing 25-year customers, then I certainly won't feel any more loyalty to them.

 

[cmaier]

And again, I couldn't give a damn about that. I know what I want in a computer system, and if Apple doesn't give it to me I'll go somewhere else and I won't care what their shareholders or board of directors think about it. In fact I already did that; after years of waiting for a midrange tower I built my own hackintosh. In the future I'm just as likely to drift into the Windows world, which would have been unthinkable for me 10, 15, 20 years ago. If Apple's shareholders and board of directors don't care about losing 25-year customers, then I certainly won't feel any more loyalty to them.

And what does any of that have to do with "it's time for Steve Jobs to go?"

 

[B. Hunter]

For what it's worth, Apple contributed $100,000 to the "No On 8" campaign in California, and due to a firestorm of hate from the right-wing noise machine, all the Apple computers you see on TV (which is about 95% of them) have had stickers over the Apple logos ever since. Google contributed the same, if not more, but somehow they're immune to this kind of abuse.

I don't notice that at all. If anything I see more laptops and iMacs in commercials and local news broadcasts. Where the logo is plainly visible.

 

[Voltaic]

In a way this conversation is very iPad related. If the reports of his return to Apple are correct, he literally took ahold of the whole development and marketing process to push the tablet forward. It is that ability to get all the ducks in a row without regard to the personalities involved, that marks a good executive.

I agree with you. However, if you go back to one of my earlier comments, all Apple products since Jobs return are due to him. Some brilliant, some, well flops. However, it is this hands on, almost maniacal stile of management (to quote myself) that has allowed for the iMac and the iPhone. My complaint is that this very management stile prevents a company from pushing forward multiple great and innovating products. Since the iPhone, the Macintosh has been completely neglected, which is all I personally care about. A company with Apple's ambitions can not be run this way. As far as the iPad, I place it on the "flops" category.

 

[ungraphic]

Those comments about Adobe can only mean one thing: Apple is about to release a serious rival package against Photoshop as part of iWork.

So far, Preview (Acrobat Reader), FCP (Premiere), Pages (InDesign), Aperture (Lightroom) Artist/Palette (Photoshop)...

I wouldn't be too surprised if they also produce some sort of Flash emulator (but that may just be wishful thinking on my part) until HTML5 is fully adopted.

This is the most ridiculous thing I've read so far in this thread. Pages to replace InDesign? LOL, seriously? Artist to replace Photoshop? LOL!

Preview is actually incredibly slow, I often find myself starting up Acrobat Reader to get the proper performance. The only thing possible to happen on your list is for aperture to become more popular than lightroom, as neither are a standard, and imo, will ever be a standard like indesign/illustrator/photoshop. Lightroom still beats the pants off aperture. I tried using aperture, i found it confusing.....also it being not part of the adobe creative suite was a downer, so it got tossed. Plus, lots of presets for lightroom are available, and I've got my favourites already.

I can't believe i'm reading this....indesign to get replaced by pages? You do realize the entire print industry relises on InDesign now, formerly and still the old dogs on Quark, right? Apple may have a crap relationship with adobe, but there is NO WAY theyre going to strong arm adobe and take over their business for print production as well as digital.

'WOW! Jobs is moving away from the professional creative community in a hurry. Bummer.'

Not necessarily. with some pro grade software and a wireless link to a camera, the ipad could be the perfect tethered device for a photographer be it in studio or at a live event. with wifi and 3g, the picture could be taken, colour corrected and sent off to the publisher in a matter of minutes.

I'm a photographer. I see the iPad as useless, completely. Heres why;

1) No professional photographer, or even amateur would want to use Crayola Software to touch up photos before sending off to a publisher. This is why lightroom/photoshop is used.

2) The hardware specs on the iPad are far too poor for it to run anything usefull. All its good for is insignificant time wasting drivel, like that finger painting application. The iPad has no balls to play with high megapixel count images, or even RAW files, edit and work with layers, etc. The accuracy on every touchscreen laptop and tablet has been far too dodgey for it to be any good, as close cropping, masking, etc would prove to be as much fun as browsing the internet without flash (zing!).

There is so much blind/ignorant faith into this ipad, I'm having a really hard time accepting this reality that people are already treating it like its the second coming of christ, but then again, this is the apple occult.

 

[cmaier]

I'm a photographer. I see the iPad as useless, completely. Heres why;

1) No professional photographer, or even amateur would want to use Crayola Software to touch up photos before sending off to a publisher. This is why lightroom/photoshop is used.

2) The hardware specs on the iPad are far too poor for it to run anything usefull. All its good for is insignificant time wasting drivel, like that finger painting application. The iPad has no balls to play with high megapixel count images, or even RAW files, edit and work with layers, etc. The accuracy on every touchscreen laptop and tablet has been far too dodgey for it to be any good, as close cropping, masking, etc would prove to be as much fun as browsing the internet without flash (zing!).

There is so much blind/ignorant faith into this ipad, I'm having a really hard time accepting this reality that people are already treating it like its the second coming of christ, but then again, this is the apple occult.

You are correct about using it for the purposes you mention, but it looks very useful for other purposes.

 

[LagunaSol]

But Steve is not really back, the dude could even stand for a couple of minutes on his own. There is no such thing as pancreatic cancer survivor. This story is for clueless investors. He leaves "on credit", money could only buy some time.

Good grief. How else does one demonstrate a device that's designed primarily to be used while lounging in an easy chair, etc.? By standing???

HOLY FREAK, STEVE JOBS JUST DEMOED THE NEW iMAC WHILE SITTING AT A DESK! HE MUST ONLY HAVE DAYS TO LIVE!

I am confident of neither the iPad's success nor failure. I have no idea what will happen until the market decides. I don't really even know if I want one yet. Unlike the majority here, I'd like to reserve my judgement until I actually get my hands on one to try it out. But the discussion here has descended into complete insanity, with people screaming for Steve's head on one hand and dismissing him as a walking corpse on the other, while proclaiming the iPad as Apple's certain suicide machine.

Unfriggenbelievable.

There is so much blind/ignorant faith into this ipad, I'm having a really hard time accepting this reality that people are already treating it like its the second coming of christ, but then again, this is the apple occult.

There is so much blind/ignorant hate for this iPad, I'm having a really hard time accepting this reality that people are already treating it like its Apple's complete self-destruction, but then again, this is the knee-jerk-scream-at-Apple-for-not-curing-all-my-ills occult.

 

[pondie84]

There is so much blind/ignorant faith into this ipad, I'm having a really hard time accepting this reality that people are already treating it like its the second coming of christ, but then again, this is the apple occult.

I have to say I agree with you on the complete silliness of some peoples' suggestions as to the iPad's use. It is obviously not going to be ideal for professional use (or even come close).

I will probably buy one myself because it does a lot of what I want out of a device and I trust Apple's quality. That doesn't mean it's some sort of magical innovation.

 

[ungraphic]

You are correct about using it for the purposes you mention, but it looks very useful for other purposes.

I don't think that 1ghz processor and whatever the limited amount of RAM the ipad has will be able to handle a decent application with 300dpi images. Bollocks like the fingerpaint app are only good for showing off 72dpi images done when youve been really bored, theres very little real world use out of the iPad. I've seen others posting on engadget suggesting adobe should release a version photoshop on the ipad. Ridiculous.

I do agree that it will handle stuff like 72dpi stuff at 1024x768 resolution, but all of that stuff is pure novelty. I don't understand why this would be a selling point. Yeah, its fun to play with...but that fun factor isnt going to last. And thats all one will ever get out of the ipad.

If apple were to release an ipad with OS X on it, as I expected, then I would consider a worthy contender against real tablets. It'd give everyone the possibility to run whatever they like, but then again, a lot of software is not compatible with multitouch screens hence the need for iphone OS, but putting it at that size of a screen with iphone os limitations, is one step forward, two steps backwards. The ipad, to me, is just a novelty, nothing more.

 

[B. Hunter]

This is the most ridiculous thing I've read so far in this thread. Pages to replace InDesign? LOL, seriously? Artist to replace Photoshop? LOL!


I can't believe i'm reading this....indesign to get replaced by pages? You do realize the entire print industry relises on InDesign now, formerly and still the old dogs on Quark, right? Apple may have a crap relationship with adobe, but there is NO WAY theyre going to strong arm adobe and take over their business for print production as well as digital.

I'm a photographer. I see the iPad as useless, completely. Heres why;

1) No professional photographer, or even amateur would want to use Crayola Software to touch up photos before sending off to a publisher. This is why lightroom/photoshop is used.

2) The hardware specs on the iPad are far too poor for it to run anything usefull. All its good for is insignificant time wasting drivel, like that finger painting application. The iPad has no balls to play with high megapixel count images, or even RAW files, edit and work with layers, etc. The accuracy on every touchscreen laptop and tablet has been far too dodgey for it to be any good, as close cropping, masking, etc would prove to be as much fun as browsing the internet without flash (zing!).

There is so much blind/ignorant faith into this ipad, I'm having a really hard time accepting this reality that people are already treating it like its the second coming of christ, but then again, this is the apple occult.

Wrong. I also work with publishers and they don't entirely rely on In-Design anymore. Times are changing and money is tight. More and more publishers are offering in house touch up services (CMYK conversion for example) as a way to get more advertising revenue. I have created ads using Pages, converted them to PDF and sent them on to the publisher. The results look great.

BTW-I also get by just fine with Photoshop Elements. It's not always the software but the person using it to create results.

I look forward to the next iWork update.

 

[ungraphic]

There is so much blind/ignorant hate for this iPad, I'm having a really hard time accepting this reality that people are already treating it like its Apple's complete self-destruction, but then again, this is the knee-jerk-scream-at-Apple-for-not-curing-all-my-ills occult.

You should look into critical thinking. Its a good character trait to have.