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Runaway…

Can’t say why but this hits a nerve.

The images, especially the crescent, and his accent mixed with the words send me back 15 years. Yes, to when I left London.

Along with Jessie J, it seems that the UK music industry has found its new stars.

Apple

Steve Jobs…

So I’ve just finished reading this…

Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography eBook: Walter Isaacson: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store.

Before the Talk Show, Gruber and Benjamin pollute my memory, here are my thoughts…

  • I always thought that he got a bad press. Boy was I wrong. He comes over as a bigger arsehole in the book. It’s not a surprise, I met him for 10 seconds when he was selling NeXT machines in Earls Court in the early nineties. He was condescending and managed to kill my self-image in about 3 seconds. It’s nice to know that I wasn’t the only one.
  • He was lucky in so many ways. When he was born, where he was raised and that he was able to create a company very young and therefore never really had to accept someone telling him what to do. Imagine if he’d been raised in the North East of the US, France or South Africa, with that personality he’d probably been the village bum. at least he’d have been considered as mentally ill.
  • Don’t play with your diet. I’ve often wanted to move to high fruit and veg diet but never done it. This book is a thousand reasons not to. I once worked with a guy who when on a diet was impossible to work with because of the anger. Jobs often comes over as a guy in need of a good meal.
  • Everyone seems to think that the iPhone presentation was his best. My vote is the the G5 launch. Watch as he plays the PC spec game, the demos etc. but most of all watch him show the internals of the air flow in the box. Part 2 is the best bit…
  • In all of this, as a father of two girls, I felt sorry for his two daughters. I hope that they carry less demons than their father but I’d be surprised.
  • Overall the book is slightly disappointing. It falls into the trap that the man is the company and vice versa. His political views arrive as a surprise at the end and we know what he liked in music and products but little else. He spent a year designing a jet but we don’t get a picture, and the last two years of his life on a yacht that is described in two lines.
Well I’m glad I read it but wished for something… different.

 

 

 

Products, Technology

Future Concept Videos…

Gruber seems to have started a fire storm.

“I’m not arguing that making concept videos directly leads to a lack of traction in the current market. I’m arguing that making concept videos is a sign of a company that has a lack of institutional focus on the present and near-present.”

Daring Fireball: The Type of Companies That Publish Future Concept Videos.

This is all about this video.

Now I’ve nothing against concept videos as such. I wouldn’t put them 20 years out in the future however because who knows what the world will look like. One three years out would really upset the Product Manager but would actually be useful.

However, the biggest problem here is the lack of business case for enormous amounts of this technology.

At 35 seconds there is an electronic taxi window. It looks really, cool. Ignore the fact that this would be a nightmare when there are two people in the cab or how it would work out the geometry for your eyes when the movie studios can’t even do 3D in a cinema.

How would this be paid for? Which taxi driver is going to empty his pockets and give money to Microsoft for this so that they can show where your meeting is tomorrow? What’s the business case for him? I can only see two; people will refuse to ride in taxis without cool windows or adverts.

So let’s rewrite this with a business case. In 20 years, your going to get in a cab and adverts will be projected onto the passing landscape blocking the view and giving a false image of where you’re travelling. Great, thanks.

And the transparent fridge door! How much are you willing to pay to avoid opening the fridge door?200 euros, 400?

 

Random thoughts…