iPad 3 release date: March press event marks first without Steve Jobs

by Bill Palmer

When Tim Cook takes the stage in March to introduce the iPad 3 and unveil its forthcoming release date, it’ll mark Apple’s first major press event since the death of co-founder and longtime CEO Steve Jobs. Apple’s last major press event was for the launch of the iPhone 4S; Jobs passed away the following day. Cook acquitted himself well enough on stage that day, particularly in light of the circumstances. But attention was quickly shifted away from his performance that day, and Apple’s medium-ish event this month to introducing iBooks textbooks notwithstanding, the iPad 3 event will be the first in which Jobs is officially no longer involved in any present-tense manner. Jobs ultimately made no secret of the fact that the iPad meant more to him than the iPhone, that Apple had been secretly on the iPad since before the iPhone was even on the table, and that he returned to Apple amid failing health in order to make sure that the original iPad made it out the door. At present, the iPad 2 is the most popular tablet on the market, Apple is the only player int he tablet market with any substantial presence, and Jobs’ vision for the iPad eventually replacing Macs and PCs in the hands of most mainstream users still appears plausible. But that tells us little regarding what Apple has in store for the iPad 3…

Last year’s iPad 2 may in fact tell us more about what we can expect from the iPad 3. Aside from a laundry list of evolutionary hardware updates, the iPad 2 was essentially a recast of the original. It got thinner, faster, and lighter. It gained a camera. These were all improvements which could have been predicted a mile away. In other words, the iPad 2 might as well have been called the “iPad 1S” and the true second-generation iPad is set to land in the form of the iPad 3 – and it may be closer to Jobs’ original vision than the original iPad. The iPad 1 was simply what Apple could initially get out the door. The iPad 2 was a placeholder to another year. The iPad 3, unless Apple punts and tries to buy another year with mere additional incremental hardware adjustments, could finally be what Jobs had wanted to do from the start. What exactly does that entail? We’ll have to wait until Cook’s launch event, which Apple’s history tells us will take place in March of 2012, to find out. But whatever the iPad 3 entails on its release date, it’ll have Jobs’ fingerprints all over it. Here’s more on the iPad 3.

iPad 3 release date marks Steve Jobs’ last hurrah, with or without him

by Alexx Calise

Steve Jobs didn’t live to see the release date for the iPad 3, which will debut in the spring of 2012 if Apple’s pattern of iPad releases remains intact. But the device will have his fingerprints all over it, just as surely as the first iPad did. In fact there’s something to suggest the iPad 3 will be one he had his eye on all along. Any proposed new tech product is worked on in two incarnations: the device the company wants it to be, and the device the company thinks it can get out the door in a reasonable timeframe. The iPad 1 was the latter, with Jobs having returned to Apple from transplant surgery in order to continue to usher it to fruition with an nearly 2010 launch. But the “true” iPad, the model which Apple wanted the iPad to be all along, still lies in wait…

The iPad 2 wasn’t it. Sure, it was a solid upgrade, thinner, lighter, faster, camera. But it a mere service upgrade for the original iPad, and wasn’t a revolutionary new model. In other words, what Jobs and company originally envisioned the iPad to be will end up arriving as the iPad 3 in the spring if it’s ready (otherwise the iPad 3 will be yet another service upgrade in other to buy Apple another year). But backchatter had the “revolutionary new iPad” nearly ready for this past spring, with the less ambitious “iPad 2″ as we know it having been a fallback plan. That means the true revolutionary new iPad should see release date in the spring, carrying the iPad 3 name and finally delivering what Steve Jobs wanted the iPad to be all along. So just what all will it entail?

That’s another story altogether. Only those within Apple’s innermost ranks know what Jobs’ true vision for the iPad really was. He shared his ambitions for it from time to time; for instance, he saw a future in which most consumers rely on tablets as their main computers, with full-service computers like Macs and PCs reserved for specialty or professional work. That means the iPad 3 will need to gain a bunch more horsepower (A6 processor? more internal storage?) and be able to take over more of the duties which are performed on a Mac or PC now. Of course it’s not as simple as merely slapping a faster chip into the iPad. There’s more coming. Fortunately, with Jobs having hand picked his successors at Apple who are now running the company, the iPad 3 which sees release next year should be remarkably close to the one which would have surfaced had Jobs lived to see its launch. Here’s more on the iPad 3.

iPhone 5 release date: Tim Cook’s 4S sequel. iPad 3 is Steve Jobs coda

by Bill Palmer

Buzz has the iPhone 5 release date event in 2012 being a shrine to Apple’s late CEO Steve Jobs, with ideas as far flung as a posthumous pre-taped introductory video visit from Jobs himself to usher in the “one more thing” iPhone 5 and its litany of presumed new features. But history and timing both say that even if such a thing were to happen, it would be for the iPad 3 introduction instead. Apple’s most recent event, the iPhone 4S and iOS 5 launch, was hosted by new Apple CEO Tim Cook with significant contributions from longtime Apple marketing honcho Phil Schiller. Nary a mention was made of Jobs, whom the world later learned was living out the last full day of his life even as his colleagues were unveiling the 4S and making nary a mention of him (most likely at his own insistence, as he would have seen it as a distraction). But enough time having passed by next year, with Tim Cook being viewed firmly as the Apple CEO by that time, why would the iPhone 5 event still not be Jobs-themed? For two reasons, one of which is the fact that the iPad was always Steve’s baby…

Actually, the more simple reason is one of the calendar: with the iPad 3 likely to see its release date around March 2012 and the iPhone 5 not likely to follow until the summer or fall, the iPad event comes first. If Steve were to make a posthumous product introduction (again, we’re not saying the idea sounds realistic, but rather merely addressing viability of the buzz we’re hearing), it would be at Apple’s next event – and that’ll be the iPad 3 event. But it runs deeper than that. When Apple introduced the first iPad, Jobs revealed that he’d been working on the iPad since before even the iPhone was on the table. He viewed the iPad tablet as the device of the future, the one which would replace Mac and PC computers in most homes; he admitted he only decided to shrink the iPad down into phone-size and go that route first because that’s the way the industry wind was blowing…

In fact, after his transplant, Jobs came back to Apple specifically to finish the iPad and get it out the door, which he did in the spring of 2010. In fact, even after taking a medical leave of absence, he still showed up on stage to introduce the iPad 2 this past spring. If Steve were going to do something as seemingly out of character as filming an introductory video before his death to be used at a future Apple event, it would be the iPad 3 introduction if anything.

It wouldn’t be the first time Jobs has surprised people at an Apple event. In the fall of 2009, not too long after his transplant, he was the first person on stage. That alone earned him an extended standing ovation from the press in attendance. If he were able to sneak in one last “one more thing” it would send the room – and the world – into a frenzy. But if such a thing were to happen, it would be at the iPad 3 event, not at the iPhone 5 release date. However, don’t look for it at all if you don’t want to be disappointed. While Jobs appeared to enjoy playing showman for Apple’s new products, he wanted the focus on the products themselves. Here’s more on the iPhone 4S and iPhone 5.

iPhone 4S Siri multimillion sales bonanza backs Steve Jobs’ vision

by Bill Palmer

The iPhone 4S with Siri has sold a million units online in twenty-four hours, four million by the end of its first weekend in stores, and several million more by now. Another Apple product, another big seller, another popular hit product. Those who don’t get why Apple products tend to do well, a group who are small in number yet somehow manage to control most of the technology related headlines at most publications, are eager to write the 4S off for the same “I don’t get it” reasons: people who buy Apple products are fashionistas, iSheep following the herd, brand-loyal fanboys, Steve Jobs worshippers completing a religious ritual. The people who write these dismissive headlines, it seems, just can’t find anything of value in Apple products. An objective analysis reveals that it’s because they tend to be the kind of geeks who place little to no value on things like usability, practicality, or understandability – precisely, and not coincidentally, the exact same thing the mainstream is looking for. But the iPhone 4S is a different beast. In fact, it’s different because it’s so similar to the last one. An that makes the 4S in a comparatively unique position to demonstrate that it’s Steve Jobs’ consumer centric vision that’s made Apple products so popular with the non-geek majority…

Siri is the headlining feature of the iPhone 4S, and rightly so. It’s easy to use. It’s useful in practical ways. It’s fun, too. But it’s not the primary driver of iPhone 4S sales. Instead these record setting sales the 4S is enjoying are based on the fact that, well, Apple came out with a new and better iPhone. The fact that it looks just like the old one means that no one is buying it for fashionista reasons, as the geek headline writers would love to claim. No one’s buying it so they can feel superior or trendy when they’re seen with it in public, as the geeks always posit about Apple users; that’s not possible here, as the 4S is physically indistinguishable from the previous iPhone 4. So why are people buying the iPhone 4S in droves?

For one thing, it’s the first iPhone to arrive on three carriers in the United States. Verizon customers largely turned up their nose at the late arriving Verizon iPhone 4, saying that they would instead wait until an iPhone arrived on Verizon at launch; it turns out they meant it. Sprint customers swore up and down that they would never buy an iPhone until it came to their favorite carrier; they meant it too, and now they’re snapping up the Sprint iPhone 4S after waiting patiently for four-plus years. iPhone 3GS users on AT&T are butting because they’re upgrade-eligible, and because they’ve judged the iPhone 4S, whose internal hardware specs surpass the iPhone 4 in a number of ways, to be worth the investment. Various prominent BlackBerry users have taken to Twitter to complain that their BlackBerry Messenger compatriots have switched to the iPhone 4S, pointing to an ongoing switcher trend as well. And yes, some iPhone 4 users are upgrading to the 4S even though it means paying extra because they’re not yet upgrade-eligible, to an iPhone which looks exactly like the one they’re upgrading from, either because they like Siri or because they like the internal spec upgrades.

Steve Jobs always believed that making great products which were suitable for mainstream consumers was enough, and that the kind of hackability and homebrew programmability sought out by the geeks wasn’t worth concerning himself with. Geek headline writers, who only focus on the latter, never understood what Jobs was trying to do and never understood why mainstream consumers bought his products in such large numbers, writing off Apple products as useless fashion accessories. But the iPhone 4S, by not representing a new hardware trend, by not making the old iPhone look outdated, and by setting sales records anyway, proves otherwise. Consumers aren’t buying the iPhone 4S to look cool. But then they weren’t buying the last four iPhone models to look cool either. The geeks don’t get that, and having no concept that ease of use is a virtue or a relevant buying factor for the mainstream, perhaps never will. But Jobs’ vision, whereby he was convinced he could build mainstream-oriented products and sell them to the mainstream while bypassing undue geek influence over those purchases in the process, gets yet another boost the similar-yet-solid iPhone 4S disproves the notion that it was ever about fashion, trendiness, or any of the other blind stabs in the dark which the geekiest one percent always grasped at as they failed to grasp the simple fact that Jobs understood the mainstream 99% of consumers in a manner they never could. Here’s more on the iPhone 4S.

Siri TV: Steve Jobs biography suggests final mission was Apple TV sets

by Bill Palmer

Having revolutionized computers and phones, and brought the tablet concept to the mainstream, Steve Jobs had one more trick up his sleeve which Apple will now attempt to execute without him: Apple TV. No, not the five year experiment of the same name in which an increasingly tiny set top box sits next to your existing cable box so you can stream content from your computing device or tap into the iTunes Store. Jobs was looking at doing actual Apple television sets which would run a version of Apple’s iOS operating system, according to the new authorized Jobs biography as reported by the Washington Post. My guess is that the interface is a combination of a touch based remote control pad similar to Apple’s Magic Touchpad along with a form of Apple’s new Siri voice command digital assistant. Jobs once famously quipped that the computer is where you go when your brain is turned on, and the TV set is for when your brain is turned off. But with the two products beginning to borrow some of each other’s functionality and even beginning to interact with each other, mostly in disastrously inefficient ways thus far, it’s not a surprise that Jobs wanted to conquer that particular market…

Two reasons must have motivated Jobs to want to go there. One is the matter of simple competition. Rivals like Google (by giving its Chrome OS to television makers for free) and Microsoft (by building on its Xbox installed base) are already trying to go there. That alone has never been enough to push Jobs to take Apple there as well. Witness the music subscription market. Even as vendors like Rhapsody and Lala tried to go there, Apple stayed away. Sure enough, it turns out almost no one wants to pay to rent music, and the companies in that market are either niches or failures even as Apple’s iTunes Store overwhelmingly dominates the digital music market via music sales. But when Jobs saw his rivals going to a place and gaining real marketshare, he was willing to change plans. Despite having been working on the iPad since the early past of the previous decade, Jobs decided to go ahead and do an iPhone as well when he saw that was going to be a popular market whether Apple participated in it or not. Sure enough, the iPhone created an installed iOS base which helped facilitate iPad adoption when it launched a few years later. An Apple television set can help steer consumers toward Apple’s other iOS products as well. In theory, the existing Apple TV box is supposed to do that. But it’s been such a niche (even most Apple product users probably don’t know it exists) that it hasn’t had an impact one way or the other. However, most people own a television set. If Apple can sell people an actual TV which just happens to run iOS and have all the Apple TV box functionality built into it, then it gives Apple another tentpole within the home upon which to build. There’s also the fact that Jobs surely must have thought he could improve the current television experience in a meaningful way…

This was driven home for me this week when I was given a hands-on demo of a new Sony “smart television” running Google Chrome. I’m not enough of a TV guy to have any expectations one way or the other. But by any measure, the interface on the product was astoundingly awful. The remote control had seemingly a hundred buttons and a thumbwheel joystick which even the people doing the demos struggled with. These products are in their early stages, and these companies will presumably work hard to improve that experience. And in fairness, the experience was no more awful than than the hundred button monstrosities currently offered by cable and satellite box makers; the only difference was there’s now a joystick and a cursor involved. The real problem is that while a hundred buttons and a thumbwheel is clearly the wrong interface for a television, no one seems to know what the right interface is.

Except maybe Jobs. According to the upcoming biography, he claimed that the Apple television “will have the simplest user interface you could imagine. I finally cracked it.” We’ll find out eventually what he’s referring to, and we can each judge at that time as to whether he did indeed figure it all out. You have to figure Siri plays into it somehow. Even those who might feel odd about speaking commands to their iPhone in public would feel more comfortable doing the same with their television set in the privacy of their own home. And if we’ve seen one consistent pattern in Jobs’ final decade-plus at Apple, it’s that ideas which work on one product are invariably employed on the rest. iOS was a hit on the iPhone, and found its way to the iPad and iPod touch. Before that, the click-wheel was a success on the iPod mini so it found its way to the main iPod model. And if Siri ends up being the kind of game changing interface on the iPhone which Apple is hoping, you have to believe it’ll be a natural for an Apple television as well.

iPhone 5 release date aside, iPhone 4S preorders spike amid Jobs death

by Bill Palmer

Apparently all those frustrated by Apple’s failure to announce an iPhone 5 this week are punishing Apple by crashing its website with a flood of iPhone 4S preorders. Even with the specter of the iPhone 5 scoring a release date anywhere from four to twelve months from now, buyers went wild last night at the start of the iPhone 4S pre-order cycle, lighting up Apple.com to the point that the online store was overwhelmed with traffic. Users reported the same difficulty when they attempted to score the new iPhone through the official websites for iPhone 4S carriers AT&T, Verizon, and newcomer Sprint as well. In other words the iPhone 4S broke four of the world’s larger eCommerce sites just a few days after the death of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs broke Twitter as the news broke the world’s heart. Even as Apple users paid tribute to Jobs across the internet and at Apple retail stores worldwide, iPhone 4S presales began at a more frenzied pace than the public’s initially dour reaction to the “seen that before” iPhone 4S on the day of its introduction earlier this week, with AT&T now reporting that it saw two hundred thousand preorders the first night (that’s not counting Verizon and Sprint, who have their own preorders), making the iPhone 4S already more popular on the carrier than the iPhone 4 was when it went into initial preorder mode last year. That’s even as others continue to stick with their initial stance that they’ll be waiting for the iPhone 5, whenever it arrives, and whatever it ends up being…

The initial criticism of the iPhone 4S was simply that it “isn’t the iPhone 5″ which eventually boiled down to the more specific issue that the 4S looks precisely like the existing iPhone 4. It’s not thinner, its screen isn’t bigger, and there’s no new inspiration behind the same body style which has been employed for four separate launches now once the original iPhone 4, Verizon iPhone 4, late arriving white iPhone 4, and now the iPhone 4S are all tallied. But as the week has gone on, those initial complaints about what isn’t different about the iPhone 4S appear to have at least partially given way to a more pragmatic look at what it does bring to the table. The 4S is significantly faster, so much so that some of the coolest new features of the iOS 5 operating system can’t even run on the older iPhone 4. Battery life is significantly better, the storage ceiling is has been doubled, and so on. And yet one can’t help but note that the public’s opinion of the iPhone 4S changed significantly after the jolting death of Steve Jobs…

It’s been said in the past thirty-six hours, by too many people to credit just one of them for it, that the S in iPhone 4S stands for “Steve.” In hindsight it’s clear that Tim Cook and company took the stage on Tuesday knowing that Jobs was on his deathbed. The lack of any mention of Jobs one way or the other must have been at his insistence; he’d likely even be disappointed that Apple has an eight hundred pixel wide picture of him on the apple.com homepage. His focus was always on the products and their greatness. He took the stage each year so he could sell you on their greatness; he was aware of his own celebrity status but only willing to embrace it to the precise point at which it would help promote his products and no farther. And yet his untimely death (not that a month from now or a month earlier would have been any less untimely) may have unexpectedly softened the public’s view of the iPhone 4S. It’s a worthy upgrade and easily the most recommendable smartphone on the market for mainstream consumers. It’s just the kind of product which doesn’t initially suck you in like an impressively redesigned iPhone 5 would have. In contrast the 4S, which looks a little too much like the girl you’ve been itching to break up with, requires a second look in order to take in all of its inner beauty. And maybe it’s taken a jolt like Steve’s passing in order for the world to take that second look at the iPhone 4S. The iPhone 5 will come eventually, with some undetermined release date at some point next year, and it can be dealt with at that time. For now, the iPhone 4S is both the final iPhone to come to market during Steve Jobs’ lifetime, and also by far the most superior one. It may not have that iPhone 5 supermodel air of mystery and intrigued, but the 4S runs circles around its iPhone 4 identical twin. And after all, it does feature a body styling which Steve signed off on. Here’s more on the iPhone 5 release date.

Updated 12:40pm PST with additional information on iPhone 4S preorders

Steve Jobs death prompts Google.com “1955-2011″ homepage tribute

by Bill Palmer

Google.com includes a prominent link to Apple.com in a offering of condolences amid an increasingly bitter rivalry. “Steve Jobs, 1955-2011″ is displayed just below the search bar in the middle of the Google homepage, with a link to the Jobs tribute on the Apple homepage, a day after the death of the Apple co-founder. The two companies have been warring over everything from iPhone vs Android to patent litigation, but the tech cold war has apparently taken a back seat, at least for a day.

Google routinely pays tribute to prominent figures from history on the anniversary of their births or deaths by converting its entire homepage logo into a “Google Doodle” which includes animations representing the person’s life work which just happen to loosely resemble G-O-O-G-L-E. Rather than going that route for Jobs, and perhaps not having had the time to fully construct one on such short notice, Google has gone with the simple yet prominent blue link instead…

Apple and Google were once close partners, and Google’s then-CEO Eric Schmidt was even concurrently on Apple’s board of directors at the height of that partnership. But then Google launched the Android smartphone OS, an idea which Jobs appeared to have felt was swiped from Apple’s iPhone plans. Apple retaliated by firing Schmidt and then proceeding to file patent lawsuits around the world aimed at getting most Android hardware devices removed from the market. That legal action is still ongoing. But with the death of Jobs yesterday, Google appears to have set aside any bitterness for the time being.

Steve Jobs’ other once-bitter rival, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, also paid tribute yesterday, borrowing a key Jobs catch-phrase in referring to having known the man as an “insanely great” honor.

Beatweek Magazine Fall 2011 Buyers Guide Issue – Steve Jobs 1955-2011

Beatweek Magazine Fall 2011 Buyers Guide Issue

Every once in awhile we do a Buyers Guide issue where we highlight the best new gear for iPad, iPhone, and other tech products we know you like. We always search for the right person to put on the cover. The rules are steadfast: they have to give us an interview and they have to be an artist, a true rock star, not a businessman. Just this once, screw the rules.

In 1998, I was working at a desk job and not even a meaningful one. Then Steve Jobs came back to Apple and introduced something called the iMac. I was so inspired, I became a tech educator just so I could do something meaningful with his products. Then he brought out iPod and iTunes, and the next thing you know, Beatweek happened. Without knowing it, Steve wrote the blueprint for Beatweek Magazine, not me.

I only met the man once, and while it was cordial, I didn’t have to bother asking him for an interview; I knew what the answer would have been (see the cover story for the full story of our meeting). But seeing as how he’s either defined or redefined nearly every industry in which Beatweek participates, putting him on the cover of this issue as a tribute seems not just appropriate, but necessary.

So enjoy this Buyers Guide issue, which is full of the best new gear we’ve tested. We’ve also included our favorite interviews of 2011 so far: R.E.M. (who sadly just broke up), Ke$ha, Def Leppard, Panic at the Disco, Carlos Santana, and Avril Lavigne.

For the record, we’re not breaking all of our rules today: of all the rock stars I’ve met, and I’ve met a bunch of them over the years, Steve Jobs may have been the biggest. And he was an artist if ever there was one.

- Bill Palmer, Editor in Chief

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Steve Jobs, 1955-2011

by Bill Palmer

Apple has confirmed that Steve Jobs is dead.

Oh shit.

I wish I could think of something more profound to say. I will, later, perhaps. At the moment, however, all that comes to mind is the urge to curse. I’ve spent much of the day parsing the difference between yesterday’s iPhone 4S and the non-existent iPhone 5. Now of course with this evening’s news, such talk feels like the trivial nonsense it is. This is utterly shocking, even though it’s not like we didn’t have any warning. He’d been ill for years, cancer, surgeries, transplants, probably should have been gone half a decade ago. It’s almost as if he managed to come back to Apple for one more go-round through sheer force of will (I was going to say miracle there for a minute) in order to get his iPad out the door. He was clear that he believed the iPad is the future of consumer technology, far more important than the iPhone, and meant to even replace his original Macintosh creation. Now we know that physically, he must have been running on fumes during that time. And yet this talk of products, any of them, just seems so small and irrelevant today…

Apple, for its part, will be fine for awhile. Steve hand-picked the people who are now running the company. And even if those replacements only have half his competence and a tenth his vision, Apple users will be fine for some time as well. This isn’t about the latest iPhone or the next one or the one after that. The real story is the fundamental change he delivered to the face of consumer technology overall, which will continue long after his passing. And the lament, of course, is that he didn’t manage to stick around another twenty years so he could shape that future even more. Among his contemporaries, Jobs was the only one who truly seemed to get it – the rare tech enthusiast who understood what was going on under the hood of the product but also understood what it was that people outside the tech enthusiast bubble would actually want to use those products for; he aimed to please them, not his contemporaries. He didn’t believe in focus testing for new products, because he was so sure he could come up with new features and uses which consumers would find far more desirable than anything they ever could have thought to ask for – and he usually ended up being right.

On a personal note, I only met the man once. It was at the Apple Event in September 2007, much like the one Apple held yesterday for the iPhone 4S, but this time it was for the introduction of the original iPod touch and a new iPod nano among other products. I was seated in the second row, and when it was over, I all but literally ran into him as I was exiting my row; he was on the floor chatting with some personal acquaintances. I introduced myself, we shook hands, I congratulated him on the new products (perhaps not the properly impartial thing for a journalist to say, but there it was), and then we moved on. Steve was known not to be much for smalltalk with journalists, and I wasn’t going to push him. But the real memory was a few moments afterwards…

After the event Apple steered us press folk into a side room where they had the new iPods set up on tables for us to test out. I made a bee-line for the last table because I figured it would give me the easiest access. Looking up, I realized the three other people standing at the table were Steve Jobs, KT Tunstall, and the chairman of Starbucks; KT had been the musical guest for the event and the Starbucks guy was there to announce a partnership. I stood there quietly, hoping no one would chase me away, and I watched Steve demoing the new iPod nano for KT and trying to convince her what an amazing product it was. A few other journalists caught on and wandered over, with Apple’s PR handlers suddenly looking horrified at what might be about to transpire. But everyone behaved as we watched Steve stand there and try to convince KT Tunstall of how awesome it was that the new nano could do video and yet it was so inexpensive. I have video footage of the moment, stashed somewhere. Suddenly I feel the urge to dig it up.

That moment right there was Steve Jobs right there in a nutshell: here he was hanging out with a rock star who had traveled halfway across the world just to play a few songs at his gig, and yet he couldn’t resist the chance to turn it into an opportunity to sell her on his latest stuff. What made him different from every other born salesman was that he actually believed in the greatness of the product he was trying to sell – and most of the time he was right, too.

I’m not sure what else to say about the matter, at least for now. Let’s not forget that a man died today, a man who had family and friends and colleagues who will all miss him on a human level. And in the bigger picture there are profound implications for the future of technology to be discussed, both based on what he delivered in his lifetime and what a Steve-less tech future will now look like. But I’m drawing blanks. For the moment I simply keep coming back to the same two words: oh shit.

2 weeks out: iPhone 5 release date event is in 14 days, says Apple rep

by Bill Palmer

The long (inter)national iPhone 5 release date nightmare is fourteen days away from being over, according to an Apple employee who’s speaking out of turn. Along with it will come answers on the iPhone 5 feature set, the iPhone 4S sidekick issue, and final word on whether Sprint will be joining Verizon and AT&T among the iPhone 5 ranks for launch day. Apple’s official policy regarding unannounced products is “What iPhone 5?” until further notice, but one staffer is nonetheless claiming that the launch event for the big iPhone 5 announcement is a mere two weeks out. Assuming the event isn’t being held on a Monday, that points to October 4th or 5th for the event. Apple once consistently had its events on Tuesdays, but has since branched out to Wednesdays as well. There’s never a way to absolutely confirm that what an employee thinks they know is in fact what’s really secretly in the cards. But this news is a ray of light amid a week in which various claims have pegged the iPhone 5 being buried in manufacturing hell and not surfacing until next year. So for the sake of that hope, here’s a look at how things will play out between now and the release date if the announcement really is two weeks from now…

One week from now, Apple will announce a media event and send out press invites. Nothing will be said in advance as to what the event is about, but the images and catch phrase on the invite will subtly hint that it’s the iPhone 5 so that the correct journalists show up, as opposed to if this were the launch of a new iMac. The event will then be held on the 4th or 5th, and if Apple’s recent tradition holds true, will be live-broadcast over the internet in an effort to get Apple’s message directly to mainstream consumers without being entirely filtered through the tech media. Tim Cook will see his first action in an Apple product launch event, as dodging the stage entirely would lead to “Where’s Tim?” questions which would only build up otherwise. But don’t expect Cook to emcee the event; Apple VP Phil Schiller, who’s spent years playing the foil in Steve Jobs’ press events, will likely serve as grand master. Jobs could pull a shocker and play a small role himself, either because he wants to prove to investors that he’s still in good health or because he believes the iPhone 5 is too important to not participate in the launch. But regardless, the event will mark the first official bit of publicly visible insight into the new-look Apple management team in action. Several questions regarding the iPhone 5 will be answered in that sub-two-hour stretch…

The actual release date for the iPhone 5 will be one of the last things announced. The new iOS 5 interface will get a long demo from a number of Apple employees, showing off new features which hadn’t been debuted when iOS 5 was first previewed this summer. Then comes the iPhone 5 hardware unveil, along with the big “killer feature” upon which Apple will build its marketing campaign. That could be anything from 4G LTE networking to a larger screen to an outside the box feature (see FaceTime with the iPhone 4 launch). Then comes the breakdown of the rest of the specs, followed by the pricing. If Sprint is indeed joining the iPhone team, expect Dan Hesse on stage to talk about how glad his carrier is to be finally offering the iPhone. Verizon’s CEO may also get an appearance, as the Verizon iPhone 4 launch in March means that Verizon has yet to get a shot at being a part of one of Apple’s official iPhone announcement events. Once the event ends, the real fun begins…

Apple typically spans about two and a half weeks from new iPhone announcement to release date, so expect Friday October 21st as the most likely on-sale target. If there’s sufficient initial inventory to allow it, online preorders will begin about a week before that date, but may be cut off quickly if demand proves to be so high that the preorders risk cutting into retail launch day inventory. Then on the 21st (or the night before, if Apple opts for an early morning launch), lines will form at retailers ranging from Apple Stores and carrier stores to electronics stores like Radio Shack and Best Buy, and we’ll soon find out just how much iPhone 5 inventory Apple really has on hand. Here’s more on the iPhone 5.

What Apple’s Tim Cook and Chili Peppers’ Klinghoffer have in common

by Bill Palmer

He’s been promoted within to take the place of an iconic visionary who’s just exited the building for the second time in a generation. I’m talking about new Apple CEO Tim Cook, who’s taken over for a retiring Steve Jobs. I’m also talking about new Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist Josh Klinghoffer, who’s taken over lead guitar duties from John Frusciante. The last great tech company and the last great rock band are both, as of this past week, officially in new hands. And while Cook and Klinghoffer have likely never so much as met each other, they face similar challenges. There’s also the fact that the icon they’re replacing pointed to them as successor, which brings its own ups and downs.

Klinghoffer has been performing with the Chili Peppers for a couple years now, took over lead guitar duties for the recording of the band’s new album, and has effectively had the job for some time. But not until the band’s new album I’m With You debuted this week did fans get a true taste of what the Josh-era Chili Peppers are comprised of. Similarly, while Tim Cook joined Apple thirteen years ago and has been acting as interim CEO for most of this year, he wasn’t officially given the position on a permanent basis until this year. The first challenge for both: dealing with the fact that they’re not the guy they replaced…

It’s long been said that there is no Apple without Steve Jobs. Fortunately for fans of the company and users of its products, then, Jobs is remaining Apple’s chairman which ensures that it continues in the general path in which he’s been steering it since his return in the late nineties. While Apple continued to exist without any participation from Jobs for a dozen years in between, those years are considered to have paled in comparison to when he was at the helm. Similarly enough, John Frusciante returned to the Chili Peppers in the late nineties after having left years before. His two tours of duty in the band saw it achieve and then reclaim its greatest commercial and critical success, respectively. But what’s different in both situations is that while the icon left under rocky circumstances the first time around with no plan in place for a successor the first time around, the recent second exit has seen both men offer guidance as to who their successors should be…

In his resignation letter, Jobs made clear that he wanted Apple’s board to name Tim Cook as his replacement, and there was virtually no chance of that not happening. Before leaving RHCP, Frusciante brought in longtime collaborator Klinghoffer as a second guitarist during his final tour with the group. Both replacements, then, were more or less hand picked. Neither fully holds the reins of his new entity. Cook will answer to co-founder Jobs behind the scenes for as long as Jobs remains an active participant at Apple, and also answers to other longtime board members. Klinghoffer is the “new guy” in band steered by co-founders Anthony Keidis and Flea along with longtime drummer Chad Smith.

Both men have little time to leave their mark. Apple turns nearly its entire product line over within each calendar year, meaning that Jobs-era products will begin to be replaced with Cook-era products with regularity moving forward. Red Hot Chili Peppers just released their first new album in five years, and all the guitar work belongs to Klinghoffer, allowing fans of the band to instantly assess what they think of the new era. But whereas the first time Jobs and Frusciante left the building and were arbitrarily replaced with individuals who had no connection to the organization’s roots, the two men have been replaced this time by someone they’ve already put their stamp of approval on.

Former Google CEO says he “couldn’t stand” Steve Jobs’ Apple Board

by Johnny Major

Google exec Eric Schmidt did more this week than intimate that his company’s acquisition of Android manufacturer Motorola is more than merely about patent protection. He also divulged that he “couldn’t stand” being on Apple’s board of directors while he was a part of it, a group which consists of former Apple CEO Steve Jobs, Genentech CEO Art Levinson, former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, and others (new Apple CEO Tim Cook was on Apple’s executive team at the time but not yet on the board). Schmidt’s remark offers the first instance of first-hand insight into the ostensibly awkward period in which Google’s then-CEO was also sitting on Apple’s board, at a time when Apple was launching the iPhone while Google was secretly prepping its competing Android OS.

The Schmidt quote from PC Magazine is open to interpretation out of context. Is it that he personally couldn’t stand the likes of Jobs and company, or the way in which Apple’s board operated on a corporate level? Or is that he couldn’t stand being torn between the two partners as they gradually dissolved into mobile rivals. Perhaps he couldn’t stand being racked with guilt over having seemingly two-timed Apple, hanging around during the iPhone development era and then taking that information back to Google. The old Sean Connery quote “You’re playing both sides” comes to mind. But while it’s not clear just what Schmidt was referring to with his quote, it’s not the first time a rival has managed to penetrate Apple’s secrecy cloak in broad daylight…

The Schmidt-Apple saga has distinct overtones of a generation ago when Bill Gates from scrappy upstart Microsoft managed to get Jobs to give him Macintosh prototype units under the guise of developing Microsoft apps for them. Gates delivered on that promise, but he also delivered his own Windows computer operating system, whose ideas were stolen rather blatantly from those Mac prototypes. A spurned Apple sued Microsoft, but after internal struggles Jobs was gone from Apple soon thereafter anyway, and a limp Apple failed in its legal efforts along with its market efforts for the next decade. While Jobs appears to have been burned by Schmidt and Google in a similar fashion inasmuch as Android was crafted at a time when Schmidt was privy to sensitive iPhone development information, this time Apple’s response was quite different…

Rather than suing Google, Apple opted to boot Eric Schmidt off its board of directors. When the lawsuits began, rather than going after Google for what might have been a harder to prove case, Apple instead sued most of the major Android hardware manufacturers – not for using the Android OS, but for hardware designs which looked shockingly similar to Apple’s own iPad and iPhone hardware with the screen turned off. Apple may well have gone after these companies regardless. But the fact that Apple has succeeded in getting Android-based products banned from store shelves in one nation after another must be giving Jobs and company some measure of satisfaction whether the lawsuits were inspired by revenge motivation or not. And that’s true even if, by his own admission, Schmidt couldn’t stand being a part of Apple in the first place. Here’s more on Schmidt’s comments.

Jovial Phil Schiller key player in Steve Jobs post-resignation vision

by Bill Palmer

Even with Steve Jobs having vacated the CEO position, Phil Schiller is still the ultimate underdog. Always the sidekick in Apple’s public press events, often acting as comedic foil and usually only getting to handle products introductions by himself if they were uninteresting enough for Jobs to want to be on stage for them, Schiller is the head of Apple’s worldwide marketing efforts and many assumed he would be Apple’s next CEO. But when Jobs had to initially vacate the CEO role on a temporary basis due to health issues, he tapped Apple’s supply chain guy, Tim Cook, to take the reins. And now that Jobs is leaving the chief executive chair permanently, he’s placed Cook in it for good. That leaves Schiller’s ongoing role at Apple undefined, at least publicly. But internally, Schiller may be the key to ensuring that Jobs’ vision for Apple remains intact going forward.

As new boss, Tim Cook will make sure the proverbial trains run on time. Products will launch when they’re supposed to (whatever is going on with the new iPhone notwithstanding), and components will be procured well in advance of being needed for new models. But by all accounts, Cook isn’t the “vision” guy. Thirteen years of working directly under Jobs (he was one of the Jobs’ first major hires upon returning to Apple in the late nineties) has left Cook with an understanding of why Jobs wanted things the way he wanted them. But that doesn’t mean Cook will be responsible for the specifics of the “next great thing.” That appears to fall to Schiller…

Jonathan Ive, for instance, is in charge of hardware design. He’s the guy who comes up with prototype designs for Apple’s next iPad, next, iPhone, next Mac. But Schiller, as the marketing guy, is the guy who has to connect the dots between what Apple’s design geeks and coding geeks come up with and what the mainstream public will actually identify with. “Innovation” is only relevant when it’s relatable, and in Jobs’ eyes, has less to do with hardware specs or a headcount of features than it does with presenting those specs and features in such a manner that the mainstream will instinctively understand how to use them – and just as importantly, want to use them. In a realm like technology, where new products often have to aim for what a company thinks consumers will want next rather than merely hitting a stationary target, aiming properly often involves a gut feeling on the part of someone who, while understanding the technology involved in the product, is able to think enough like a mainstream consumers so as to understand how those products must be configured. That doesn’t sound like Tim Cook. But it sounds like Phil Schiller, which is why he could be the key to ensuring that a post-Jobs Apple produces products and results which live up to Jobs’ legacy.

Verizon iPhone a done deal and soon, say four insider clinchers

The Verizon iPhone is a done deal for early 2011, say these four insider clinchers which could each be explained away separately but when combined paint a picture of an Verizon launch being the next iPhone news Apple serves up once the clock strikes 2011. Here are the big four.

Verizon has a secret: When you’ve got a secret you want to share but aren’t allowed to, you start dropping every increasingly obvious hint you can, in the hopes others will put two and two together. The mere fact that Verizon has TV a TV ad for the iPad is over the top. The fact that the ad is in heavy rotation is a desperate teletype from the carrier to its customers: “We’ve got the Verizon iPhone on the way, we just can’t tell you about it. Hang in with us a little longer, no need to switch to the iPhone carrier, because we’re about to become an iPhone carrier. Why else would we be running all these ads just to announce that we’re now one of dozens of retailers who resell the iPad? We’re giving you the strongest hint we can, without actually breaking whatever secret vows we’re under.”

AT&T doth protest too much: When you know that bad news about you is about to drop, you go into overtime trying to convince everyone around you that you’re fine. In doing so, you often telegraph what that impending bad news is. For AT&T, the bad news is that it’s about to have to start sharing the iPhone with Verizon. And the pre-emptive “I’m fine” assurances are coming in the form of TV ads for the new AT&T BlackBerry, the new AT&T Windows Phone 7, and before it’s all said and done, we’ll probably see ads for the new AT&T Zune as well. AT&T wants you to know it’ll be fine in the Verizon iPhone era. Apparently, it doesn’t mind being the one to inform you that the Verizon iPhone era is coming.

Motorola thinks it’s AT&T: Same story as above, except with Motorola playing the role of AT&T, the mouth of Motorola’s CEO taking the place of AT&T’s TV ads, and the Verizon iPhone being the big bad news for the company which manufactures some of the iPhone’s top Verizon-based competitors. If you want double confirmation, the interchangeability of the actions of AT&T and Motorola at the moment seals it.

The future is long: Apple doesn’t comment on future, potential, unannounced products. Except when it sometimes makes a point of announcing what it won’t be bringing to market, so as to steer attention back to the path the company is actually on. And yet every time Apple has the chance to make it clear to U.S. consumers that it has no intention of doing a Verizon iPhone any time soon, it declines to, even though such a definitive statement would surely motivate at least some Verizon holdouts to go ahead and switch to AT&T and buy an iPhone. If Apple could truthfully make a dismissive statement about a Verizon iPhone, it would certainly do so. Instead, when Apple is asked directly about the matter, Steve Jobs says things like “the future is long.” The clear cut conclusion is that he’s declining to dismiss the possibility of a Verizon iPhone because doing so wouldn’t be an honest statement. In other words, well, you do the math.

Top five candidates for the new Twitter CEO position

Twitter CEO Evan Williams unexpectedly stepped aside today, handing the role to someone else within the company. If that means that a search for a new CEO outside the company is underway, here are a list of possibilities:

Mark Zuckerberg: Come on, how cool would that be? Well, not really, as Facebook’s continual privacy violations would likely find their way over to Twitter. Then again, Twitter doesn’t really involve any private user data anyway. Plus, this would be the best chance Twitter has of getting a movie made about it.

Loren Brichter: The dude did a nice job when he was running the Tweetie iPhone app all by himself. His app had fewer problems and downtime than Twitter itself typically has. Just sayin’

Steve Jobs: Sure, the guy already has a gig. But it wouldn’t be the first time Jobs was the CEO of two companies at once, as he headed Apple and Pixar simultaneously for years. If nothing else, Twitter’s fail whale would be redesigned in style.

Bill Parcells: He just resigned his position as Miami Dolphins executive, he gets bored easily, and he’s probably looking for another gig.

Fail Whale: Yes, the actual fail whale. It’s by far the most popular and recognizable figure in Twitter history. In fact, it even made an appearance today, as if to announce its candidacy for the position.

Verizon iPhone? Verizon’s CEO cryptically says “hopefully”

The Verizon iPhone is coming. Wait, no it’s not. Yes it is. No it’s not. That’s been the storyline for how many years now? And that’s what happens when the two people involved in making the potential decision to finally bring Apple’s iPhone to the Verizon network, Apple CEO Steve Jobs and Verizon CEO whats-his-name, have had next to nothing to say on the matter. Bits and pieces of third party information leak out here and there, every observer puts those pieces together in a different manner, and as a result no one really knows what’s going on – except Jobs and whats-his-name.

Well, as it turns out, Verizon CEO what-his-name actually has a name after all. It’s just that up until now, Ivan Seidenberg hadn’t said or done anything to make his name known, at least not in the way that everyone knows Steve Jobs is the CEO of Apple whether they use any Apple products or not. But Mr. Seidenberg has in fact spoken on the matter, and as it turns out, he’s every bit as cryptic in choosing his words on the matter as Mr. Jobs has been. This summer, Jobs was asked point-blank by a journalist about the prospect of the iPhone coming to multiple carriers, and his response was simply “The future is long.” Those four words, which may as well have come out of a fortune cookie, have nonetheless been parsed here and elsewhere ever since, with the result being that they don’t really mean anything without knowing what Jobs is really thinking.

And now comes a statement on the Verizon iPhone issue from Verizon’s CEO, via ars technica, which is a wee bit longer than Jobs’ missive, and contains tempting phrases such as “We would love to” and “we have to earn it” but then quickly careens into “Hopefully, at some point Apple will get with the program.”

Maybe we should just call in Dr. Phil and forget about it. The best interpretation we can come up with for the above is that Verizon wants the iPhone (even Verizon knows the Droid is not the phone that Verizon’s customers are looking for), that Apple has apparently laid down conditions for that happening (waiting for 4G? boosting the existing CDMA network such that the addition of the iPhone won’t turn it to soup? doing Steve’s laundry?), and most cryptically, that Verizon is apparently resentful of the fact that it can’t have the iPhone. “Hopefully, at some point Apple will get with the program…”

“…and give us the iPhone on our terms”?

“…and give us the iPhone on any terms”?

“…and tune in for the season premiere of CSI tonight, which despite falling off quite a bit, we think is still a good program”?

And so as it turns out, Mr. Seidenberg knows how to deliver every bit as much of a confusing head-fake as Mr. Jobs – and we promise to never again refer to Verizon’s CEO as “Mr. whats-his-name” as long as he keeps giving us quotes this cryptic to chew on.

Apple: activating 230,000 new iPhone+iPad+iPods per day, Android counting upgrades

Apple CEO Steve Jobs started off today’s press event by pointing out the fact that his retired Apple co-founder Steve “Woz” Wozniak was in the audience. Jobs then went on to focus on a first topic that few were expecting – Apple retail stores in Europe| and China – before moving on to iOS 4, Apple’s mobile operating system. Jobs says Apple has shipped 120 million iOS devices, which include iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. He also announced that Apple is activating 230,000 new devices every day, which is not only higher than the number Google is quoting about Android devices, but Jobs also said that he believes Google is cheating by including “activations” of upgrades.

Verizon iPhone: Steve Jobs has been exploring it since late 2007

The Verizon iPhone nearly became a reality back in late 2007, as Apple CEO Steve Jobs became so frustrated with his then-newly exclusive partnership with a clueless AT&T that he had Apple’s engineers working on an AT&T/Verizon hybrid iPhone model even back then, says Wired. According to the publication’s source, Apple abandoned the effort after learning just how expensive and technically complex the process would be. The company also feared the legal complications of severing the AT&T exclusive contract so soon into it. The source goes on to reveal what we already knew by osmosis – Apple and AT&T have been at each other’s throats behind the scenes for nearly the entirety of the iPhone’s existence, with AT&T frequently pressuring Apple to cripple the iPhone’s network functionality in order to limit bandwidth usage and Apple steadfastly refusing. One bizarre anecdotal story suggests that the relationship is fractured beyond the mere fact that Apple is obsessed with innovating while AT&T is obsessed with limiting network usage, and instead runs even deeper on a cultural level: AT&T representatives once suggested that Steve Jobs start wearing a suit when he showed up for AT&T board meetings.

Verizon iPhone hint: Steve Jobs says Apple Cupertino campus has Verizon tower

Steve Jobs says Apple has a Verizon tower on its campus, but didn’t specify why it’s there – leading to the question of whether it signals that Apple is in fact working on a Verizon iPhone in-house. Jobs made the Verizon reference in passing today during the iPhone 4 antenna press conference (thanks to @sjciske for picking up on it) but unfortunately the topic was not followed up on. Assuming every Apple employee now uses an iPhone on AT&T, the presence of a Verizon tower on Apple’s campus (which means that they company wants a full strength Verizon cellular signal locally on campus as opposed to merely picking up on the nearest local Verizon tower) suggests that Apple is in fact working on something Verizon related on its Cupertino campus; the only other immediately plausible scenario would be that the tower was installed on campus pre-2007 before the iPhone existed, but in that it would no longer be in use and would beg the question of both why it was installed in the first place and why it’s still there and functioning.

Apple has demonstrated a history of co-developing its products for multiple platforms, including those not in use. The company famously developed its MacOS X operating system in secret for Intel from day one, in lock step with its publicly available PowerPC-based counterpart. This allowed Apple to “flip the switch” to Intel based Macintosh computers at any time, which it did several years into MacOS X development. If Apple is holding to pattern, the company may have a Verizon-compatible iPhone 4 product ready to go as soon as it’s contractually feasible. Or it could simply mean that Apple is working to solve the issue of what a cross-compatible iPhone would entail; at present such a phone would need to include two separate hardware technologies for picking up the signal of the incompatible AT&T and Verizon networks.

Apple: 99.4% of iPhone 4 users have not reported antenna issues

In his press conference today, Apple CEO Steve Jobs revealed that fewer than one percent of all iPhone 4 users have logged a “problem” with their phone’s antenna according to Apple’s own internal AppleCare records. The statistic stands in sharp contrast with the headlines which have claimed that the iPhone 4 is “defective” or has an “antenna flaw” or other such phrasing. Jobs went on to demonstrate that the “issues” with the iPhone 4 antenna, in which gripping the phone in a particular manner slightly weakens the signal strength, are true of every smartphone on the market.

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