John Gushue . . . Dot Dot Dot

Steve Jobs: A movie about parenting as much as technology

My son and I went to see the movie Steve Jobs today. It's an interesting film, about a man who's both unlikable and charismatic, who was profoundly wrong about many things in his own life and yet was dead-certain in what he wanted to achieve ... and who ultimately got there. (The movie seems to say the latter happened after he dealt with the former. I think.)

The screenplay is dense and rapidly spoken; it actually felt a lot like a play, as it's in three acts, all set in closed spaced at three specific points in time.

I first used Apple products in the 80s, am peculiar enough to have loved the G3 iMac I worked with after it was introduced in 98, and now live in a house with multiple Apple laptops, tablets, phones and things, so the details and specificity in Aaron Sorkin's script were impressive.

Yet, the humanity of the story - a stubborn man's reluctance to let himself love his own child - is what binds it together.

Flip, flip, flip: The iPad add-on I'd love to see

This is a demonstration video of a protypical way of displaying e-books in a way that better suits how people actually read. It was developed by a Korean company. No word on a commercial application, but this does look inviting, if not inevitable.

The Steve Jobs moment of silence

A fundraiser (and an awareness raiser, too, I guess) on pancreatic cancer research, with a bit of a twist. 

 

The Steve Jobs Moment of Silence from Moment of Silence Inc.® on Vimeo.

How Santa keeps up with his 3.7 billion appointments

Siri may be causing headaches for some users, but Apple is pitching away all the same. The latest commercial imagines how Santa Claus would use the voice-activated assistant. 

'Steve always aspired to make beautiful later'

If you read one thing today, or even this week, make it Mona Simpson's eulogy of her brother Steve Jobs. She did not meet him until she was 25, but they evidently became close. The essay, published today in the New York Times, is full of wonderful ancedotes, including the observation above about what drove Jobs. (Innovation may have been one thing, but beauty trumped all.) 

And keep going until the ending. It's quite moving. 

Thanks, Steve Jobs

The wires are breaking the expected but nonetheless sad news that Steve Jobs has died. [The statement from Apple is here.] 

Not too many people have had such an influence on so many; I use his products every day, and have for almost 25 years. Apple's computing technologies have changed how I work, even how I think. That's pretty remarkable. 

This illustration is by Chris Seddon. 

Steve Jobs: the infographic

From London Creative Digital, a career in a snapshot.

The original post appeared here.  

Macbook cufflinks

I suddenly want these ... and I never use cufflinks. But a set that looks like they were plucked from power buttons? Very appealing!

As seen here.

Introducing ... le livre (and a wicked iPad parody)

Even if your French is poor, I bet you'll get a chuckle out of this.

The coolest Macbook sleeve I've seen, um, today

My buddy Jessica pointed out this, a Macbook Air sleeve she found on Etsy. Have alerted Martha, and now you. (And it's Canadian.) As seen here.

Mac and me

   

I've used Macs on and off for the better part of a quarter century, in various guises and at work and/or at home. The Macintosh Plus I lugged around in the Eighties when I worked for the Sunday Express seems like a behemoth today, and while it was a burden on the shoulder (we each had a carrying case about as large a piece of luggage to sling over us as we went home to do yet more work) it was also a marvel: I could work anywhere electricity flowed!

I downloaded a free app today from the iTunes Store. Mactracker lists the specs of all that Apple hardware through the years. I guess the hardcore Apple types will know it all anyway, but it's a cheap thrill for a longtime user such as myself.

Angry Birds get the Lego treatment

From Mashable.

Wasn't it just a matter of time?

 

Not-Robert Redford gets hip to the Washington Post iPad app

The Washington Post made a video to promote its new iPad app, and recruited two of their luminaries - Ben Bradlee and Bob Woodward - to make the case.

And the Robert Redford line more than makes up for the stiffness of the contributing writers.

 

The Oatmeal gets under the skin of the envious iPhone owner

The joy of the early adopter can be replaced by the pain of the left-behind ... with the debt to prove it. To see the rest of The Oatmeal's comic, click here.

C-90, iPhone, go!

I don't have an iPhone, and while I don't need one, I've been thinking about an iPod Touch as an upgrade to the Nano I have. It's not a necessity, and neither is the case seen above ... which makes the contents look like just a C-90 cassette. As seen here.

Moving along at a steady clip

[Surf's Up, as published in the St. John's Telegram on Thursday, May 6, 2010. Click here to read more Surf's Up.]

I’ve been reading plenty about the iPad and the expected slate (no pun intended) of tablets expected to launch in the months and years ahead, and how life as we know it is about to … blah blah blah. You can fill in the hyperbole by yourself.

 That said, a lot of it is ringing true. And some of it has been coming from some unexpected types.

 Like Martha Stewart, for instance.

Now, I know I should not be so tough on Martha; sure, she may be a domestic diva of the first order, but she’s also been a technological innovator. (Don’t forget, for instance, that she came to St. John’s once as part of a collaboration with the ill-fated Microsoft online magazine Mungo Park.) Stewart was one of the first publishers to “get” the web, that it required a different approach to content beyond what was in her printed products.

So, I suppose, it wasn’t that surprising that Wired, for its comprehensive takeout on iPads and tablets (on why they will … you know, blah blah blah) asked Stewart for her take.

Apart from her expectation that tablets will make magazines much easier to enjoy (she practically drools over what could happen with National Geographic), she made a point that should resonate with packrats everywhere.

“We all have so much to read these days, and having the ability to pick and choose and save and file and send digitally is really exciting,” she said. “I have a bag full of torn-out magazine pages that I distribute to various people for creative ideas. I’ll be able to do that much more effectively if I have access to a digital version of those magazines rather than having to destroy them.”

Well, that kind of hit home with me. Let me explain.

In my home office, I have scores of magazines – hundreds of them, actually. I’ve clipped pages out of some of them, but what will likely happen (as it has in the past) is that I will sooner or later get tired and send a large of them out for recycling. One of my wife’s long-running to-do projects is to clip preferred features and layouts from her own collection of magazines.

So, the idea of digital clipping sounds quite appealing.

It’s not entirely new, of course. In the grand old days, when online databases like InfoGlobe were strictly text-based and you paid by the minute, and even before the web as we knew it didn’t exist, I kept directories of “clippings,” or news stories I wanted for reference. That migrated with the web, and I found that copying-and-pasting text was useful.  In these pages, I extolled products like AskSam, which made warehousing text possible, and searchable.

But what’s been missing is the ability to extract full-resolution “clippings,” distribute them, share them, store them and retrieve them – pretty much as Martha Stewart described above.

Managing a personal library with a few taps of the finger. Trust me … there’ll be an app for that.

Elsewhere this week

 
Monty Python Video Wall
When I was much younger, I developed a thing for Monty Python, from sneaking into a screening of the Holy Grail to staying up late for Flying Circus repeats. The “wall” presented here is a vast array of screens, each one taking you to a howling moment from the Python canon.

forLater
Do you know something that you’ll need to do in the future? Keep forLater on hand, for sending an email that will arrive with a reminder, just when you need it.

Laundry symbols
Trust me: I can be trusted with the laundry. That doesn’t mean, though, that I can identify on sight what each and every one of those washing symbols means. Here’s precisely the tool for the most obscure icons you’ll find on laundry day.

John Gushue is a writer in St. John's, and works with CBC News. John is on Twitter right here.

Thanks, Flash, and take care

[Surf's Up, as published in the St. John's Telegram on Thursday, April 1, 2010. Click here to read more Surf's Up.]

Every now and again, my handy dandy Macbook has a fit. It rarely crashes, but instead goes into that dazed-and-confused state featuring the symbol that Mac lovers know as the beachball (sometimes known as the beachball of death).

The beachball is a spinning circle of multiple hues, and for me, it’s Apple’s way of getting around its famous claim that its computers don’t crash. Instead, the beachball just spins … and spins … and spins…

Turns out Apple boss Steve Jobs knows where to point the finger: right at one of the most popular things on the web, Adobe’s ubiquitous Flash. 

“Whenever a Mac crashes more often than not it’s because of Flash,” the popular tech blog Daring Fireball reported on comments Jobs is said to have made to staff in February.

The blog is quite upfront in noting its information is second-hand, but it jibes with other accounts, which all have Jobs making one knock after another against Flash. One of the more generous comments? Jobs called Flash “buggy.”

 The comments did not seem at all surprising, though, because anyone with an iPhone or a related product knows one thing for sure: it won’t support Flash.

Many of you might be wondering at this point, well, so what? Why should I care?

The thing is, Flash really is a remarkable thing. YouTube wouldn’t be able to work without it. A bazillion online games depend on its simple way of handling online animation. I doubt it’s possible to count the websites that have, in one way or another, incorporated Flash somehow in what you see.

The other thing is, Flash is really showing its teeth. It dates back the better part of 15 years, and even its ardent admirers would have to admit that Flash was not designed to do what is now being asked of it.

Yes, Flash has been an earnest, tough, hard-working soldier, but in the beginning, no one expected that a Flash product would (for instance) be used to handle full-motion, high-quality video.

Flash’s shortcomings are most noticeable right now in the mobile world, and not just because iPhones have built a moat around it. Simply put, Flash products don’t work on the fly.

That’s expected to change, though, and you have to give some credit to owner Adobe for not giving in without a fight. Later this year, some smartphones (notably Androids and Palm’s Pre) will have a Flash player called 10.1, which will allow users to enjoy Flash products as if they were at a PC. Adobe says 19 out of the top 20 smartphone manufacturers have stepped up to support the product. (If you spotted Apple as the holdout, you’re right.)

But a new version doesn’t guarantee Flash is good for the future. Many of the web cognoscenti are more enthusiastic about HTML5, which its creators hope will open the gates for all kinds of products, and free users from proprietary systems  … like Adobe’s Flash (and, for that matter, Microsoft’s competing Silverlight).

Sure, Apple has given it its blessings, but for me the more interesting early adopter is none other than YouTube, which has been trying HTML5 out for some time … and probably for loads of reasons other than the fact competing video purveyors have already been flocking to the language, which is far from even being completed.

If you have a smartphone, you may be used to the little blocks or spaces that pop up when you ought to be seeing, say, an animation or a video. Soon, those hiccups will be history.

The question, as the world shifts toward a web that flows through mobile devices, is whether Flash will still be in the pan.

John Gushue is a writer in St. John's, and works with CBC News. John is on Twitter right here.

An Indy wrapper for the iPad

I've been hemming and hawing on buying an iPad; well, not the question of getting it, really, but when. Part of me wants it, to be frank, now. The other part is willing to wait until things (multitasking, etc.) get fixed, or a new OS gets added, or ... well, so it goes.

And then I see something this: an exceptionally clever holder for the iPad from Temple, which is channelling some kind of Indiana Jones flavour for a decidedly un-retro gadget ... and my order finger gets itchy.

Why the Justice League has a problem with the iPhone

The iPhone, after all, can't (or, more accurately, won't) display Flash.

Arr arr. As seen here.

A kid plays with an iPad (right off the bat)

This video was posted on BoingBoing, featuring a 2.5-year-old girl playing with an iPad, and almost instantly figuring out how it works ... and soon enough discovering some of the limitations of the interface. (Careful where you leave your thumbs and fingers.) Granted, this girl had played with an iPhone, but it's remarkable to see a child - more than two years away from Kindergarten - almost immediately figure out what she could and could not do.

Captain Hook's iPhone

Brilliant. The basis of a T-shirt design, as seen here:

Take one tablet, but wait a year for full effect

[Surf's Up, as published in the St. John's Telegram on Thursday, Feb. 4, 2010. Click here to read more Surf's Up.] 

This week’s column is about the iPad, but first, a few words from an unexpected source: Conrad Black.

Remember Conrad Black? The disgraced publisher who went to jail for defrauding shareholders, while funneling his newspapers’ money to himself?

A larger-than-life figure long before that, Black was the keynote speaker at a Canadian Association of Journalists conference I attended in Ottawa in April 1994. Black’s speech was full of the invective and needlessly complex words we expected – he also made sure that the hundreds of journalists knew that he thought little of many of them – but also had a few surprises.

One of them came when Black was asked to speculate on the future of the newspaper. Remember, this was an era when the Mosaic browser was the standard, and the phrase “world wide web” didn’t yet sound that ridiculous.

As I recall, Black said while he felt there would always be a market for printed newspapers, he also expected the news to be delivered to some kind of tablet. What it would like, and how it would work, no one knew. It was the first time I heard anyone of Black’s media stature roll out that kind of expectation. 

Almost 16 years later, I think we got a pretty good sense of where things are going with Apple’s unveiling of the iPad.    

To be fair to Black, talk of a tablet was in the air – sort of – back then. Apple had released its ill-fated Newton, a handheld device that was a commercial flop, but which prefigured many of the consumer electronics that have dominated our lives in the last decade, from the Palm Pilot to the BlackBerry to, yes, the iPhone. 

And, now, the iPad, which came out to a good round of applause but also a loud chorus of snickers about its name and a collective yawn from many spectators, including some Apple fans. Seth Meyers made a crack on Saturday Night Live about Apple releasing “a thing that does stuff its other stuff already does.”

It seems like a fair comment, since the iPad shown to us looks like a wider, longer iPhone, with the fun of an iPod and the broader functionality of a Macbook.

But I think that’s missing the point. I expect developers and content producers (including newspapers, but also magazines, television networks and all kinds of ordinary users) to rise to the challenge that the iPad presents.

Many people are expecting the new device to be a savior for hard-hit newspapers and magazines. I’d like to see that, too, but I also want the technology to evolve – and the storytelling, too.

Let’s say you download a new edition of your favourite magazine. Maybe you’d be content to flick through the pages, ebook-style, but I bet readers will want a richer experience that draws on the strengths of new media.

So, for instance, the photograph you see will offer video; the chart or infographic will be animated, and the text itself will have way more than mere web links to enrich your experience and understanding.

On the opposite page, where you normally see an ad, expect the marketing folks to make a technological leap. Why put a static ad into an evolving medium that offers so much more?

I don’t think the next generation of content will be mere replays of what we already see on the web; rather, it will (or should) be a great, thrilling, imaginative leap forward.

I’m not sure if I will order an iPad when it’s released this spring. I want to see if the next generation solves some design issues.

However, I’m dying to see to where the app and content developers are going to go with this new platform. I think we’re off to somewhere quite exciting.

John Gushue is a writer in St. John's, and is currently on leave from his job with CBC News in St. John's. John is on Twitter right here.

Did Mr. Incredible have the world's first iPad?

David Janes noticed something remarkable in a scene in Pixar's The Incredibles: Mr. Incredible holds a tablet-like device that has some strong similiarities to the newly revealed iPad. The movie (don't forget that Pixar is just one of Steve Jobs' success stories) came out in 2004, six years before the iPad. 

Check out more images that David selected right here.

By the way, since you are here, have you seen the sock puppet version of The Incredibles? 

A T-shirt with a twist that ... ah, nevermind

This design has a wink at both Apple's ubiquitous iPod advertising and the cover of Nirvana's Nevermind. Spotted here.

Don't think of the iPad as just a device

Quite a lot (probably much too much) has been written and said about the iPad, but of it all, I think Steven Frank had some astute thoughts. From his conclusion:

The iPad as a particular device is not necessarily the future of computing. But as an ideology, I think it just might be. In hindsight, I think arguments over “why would I buy this if I already have a phone and a laptop?” are going to seem as silly as “why would I buy an iPod if it has less space than a Nomad?”

It's worth reading the thinking that leads to that. Check it out.