Steve Jobs

Yes, I know, the blogosphere is inundated with personal tributes and memorials to Steve Jobs today, following the news of his untimely death late last night, and that this article is going to be mostly pointless. But really, can anyone blame me, or anyone else, for wanting to say something? Steve Jobs really was a huge personality in the world of technology, an industry I am completely immersed in, so it only makes sense that I have some thoughts on this situation.

So, indulge me for a moment, as I take a second to reflect on a man I once idolized, still respect, but also questioned in his final years at Apple...

Steve was always a character, I don't think anyone can deny that. Why else would the internet have exploded over the news of his death? One thing that was never in question is that Steve Jobs had an almost unhuman charisma to him, able to take mere objects, admittiedly great objects, but objects nonetheless, and make them transcend themselves, to become life changing, revolutionary, in his words "magical." There was good reason he had been cited for having a reality distortion field, whenever Jobs took the stage and pitched the newest, slightly tweaked iDevice, he still somehow made it seem like a total revolution. The best thing since...well...the last thing he talked about.

And I think this is where a lot of the criticisms for Jobs popped up. He really was, essentially, a master of making a spectacle out of nothing. New iPods, twice the storage, would somehow genereate massive waves of interest across all forms of media. New iMacs, now made of aluminum. Shocking. New iPod touch, now with a speaker and volume rocker. Game changing. iPhone 3G, plastic back and a better radio. Awe inspiring. Other companies made announcements like this all the time, because it's business as usual. But usually just with a quick press release and a site update. No one rented out a stage, set up a camera crew, and treated their new products like celebrities. Jobs knew how to play to a crowd, and forged an empire doing so.

But despite the rather hilarity of it all, there were of course there were also times when this hysteria was well deserved. Who could forget seeing the iPhone for the first time? It made every other phone up to that point look like absolute shit in comparison (and this is coming from an Android user). A point Jobs was not shy about pointing out, putting his newest baby right next to the now competing "smartphones," embarrassing multiple companies simultaneously. It literally was a magical, game changing device, totally reshaping the mobile landscape and carving out a whole new industry for mobile applications and internet connected mobile devices that otherwise may not have occurred for years, if at all. The same thing could be said for the iPad, while not nearly as stunning, it did forge a whole new product category that's taking the world by storm.

And it's here that my personal opinion on Jobs gets shaky. I had used Apple products since 2005. My first computer was an eMac all in one, at the time the best value Apple offered. I loved that machine, and by extension loved Apple. The just... pure win of blatantly announcing on your site that all of "our machines use dedicated graphics cards, unlike those weak budget PCs and integrated graphics." I found Jobs' every word captivating as he announced product after product that I gobbled up. However, as time went on, I realized that Apple's eventual financial success with the mainstream changed their course of direction from catering to artists and power users, to the average person (I wrote an article detailing this a couple years back here). All of a sudden Apple was using Intel processors with integrated graphics, glossy screens were on everything cuz people liked the shininess. The iPad was a computer stripped of all of its computing abilities, and became nothing more than a web browser and iTunes consumption device, leaving 3rd part developers to fill in the gaps. I understand that most people don't create comic books and 3D animations in their spare time, but the fact that Apple was making devices that catered to these endeavors was what drew me to them in the first place in '05, and I saw that direction shifting in slow motion.

It's 2011 now, and I'm posting this on an HP Elitebook 2730p, my main laptop is a ThinkPad x220i, and my workstation is a custom built AMD rig from Newegg, and I'm rocking an Android phone. Apple and I have parted ways. Our visions for what computing should be is no longer aligned. Part of me is saddened by that, because, as a designer, I still love the aesthetics of Apple products, I love the typography, the graphics, the streamlined precision. My desktop is a bulky mess of cables, my ThinkPad is full of vents and a bulging battery. Far from the sexy sleekness of an iMac + MacBook Pro combo. But alas, I use my computers to get stuff done, not look pretty, and PCs now do this far better, far cheaper.

But hey, this article isn't about the 2011 Apple lineup. It's about Jobs. A true visionary. A man who knew what people would want, and exactly how to pitch it to them. He may have lost my business near the end, but he never lost my respect.

Rest in Peace Steve, I'd say your legacy will live on, but I don't have to. Your legacy speaks for itself.

You're getting a little ridiculous here, Apple...

So, in case anyone isn't aware, Apple made this thing called the iPad. You may have heard of it. 10" tablet, basically an iPhone without the phone, single handedly reshaped the definition of tablet PC, and depending on your technical prowess, either streamlined or dumbed down the expectations of computer interfaces as a whole.

We all remember that, right? Good. Let's move on.

A little over a year later, Apple commands over 90% of this new tablet market. Mostly due to Apple being well, Apple, and that there really haven't been any strong competitors to the iPad, at least none that were able to gain any commercial traction. Samsung launched the Galaxy Tab a few months after the iPad, but running on Android 2.2, it didn't really present an experience as optimized as the iPad. This changed when Google launched Android 3.0 Honeycomb, a tablet optimized version of their OS, and Motorola launched the Xoom, the first Honeycomb tablet. While priced a little too high to sell amazingly well, it set the precedent for all major Android tablets to come. And now, a year later, Samsung's second shot at Android Tabs, the 10.1, 8.9, and newly announced 7.7, are ready to take on the iPad full force.

Of course, Apple finds itself in a very uncharacteristic situation in the new tablet market of controlling marketshare equivalent to its mindshare. Unlike Macs, where they are typically considered the best by the average consumer but rarely purchased due to the high price, the iPad is priced low enough that everyone who wants one can afford it. This monopoly on a market of their own creation, along with Apple's boasts of the iPad moving the industry into the "post-PC era" allows Apple, if unimpeded, to do something its never been able to accomplish before: Have complete dominance in the computer industry as it moves away from the typical desktop/laptop combo, and to the tablet and smartphone.

This is a future I personally cannot fathom, as I couldn't do what I do without the power and flexibility of a true PC, but I can easily see tablets becoming the de facto choice for the average consumer, as they are simple to use, streamlined, portable devices designed with the consumer in mind, and if Apple becomes the number one choice here, fine. They're an obvious fit, with their obsession with sexy form factors and UI design catered to the tech-retarded.

But there needs to be choice. And this is something that Apple apparently will not allow.

Over the last few months, Apple has been suing competing electronics manufacturers left and right, attempting to prevent devices that would compete with the iPad from being sold. And for the most part, they've been largely successful. Just yesterday Apple was able to pull Samsungs newest tablet, the Galaxy Tab 7.7, from the IFA show floor in Germany. This device was announced at this trade show, it isn't even on sale yet, but Apple was able to have it removed from the show because the design apparently "infringes on it's design patents". They did the same thing with the Galaxy Tab 10.1 last month, and have been attacking Samsung, as well as HTC and Motorola on the phone front under similarly vague patent infringement claims.

Now, this is ridiculous. If you didn't bother reading all the articles I linked, I'll summarize. Basically, Apple is suing all these companies because incredibly basic qualities of these competing devices it claims to have a patent on, things like "multitouch" "scrolling menus" and the phyiscal design of the iPad and iPhone, which apparently means any device thats a rounded rectangle with a touch screen. Correct me if I'm wrong, but Apple didn't invent multitouch, it didn't invent scrolling menus, and is CERTAINLY didn't invent rounded rectangles. This is just a blatent attempt by Apple to shut down competition before these products begin to take marketshare from their "magical" products at a "revolutionary" price (or, in the case of the iPhone, take more, as Android now commands a full 10% more marketshare than the iPhone).

If there were legitimate infringement here I could at least understand, but there isn't, they're bending principle as much as possible to get what they want. Add in the high probability that Apple has been intentionally modifying product photos to make it look like these devices are more similar to their own, and we have a big problem on our hands. Twenty-six years ago, Apple launched the original Macintosh, on the idea that they were all that stood between IBM and a complete market monopoly. Where one company, in charge of both hardware and software, could dictate the direction and trends of the industry on a whim, where only they would come out ahead.




Does this sound familiar to anyone?

Ubuntu - A Future Uncertain...

by Tommy Oliver

As those of you that have watched the Broken Window Winter Keynote are aware, I have moved over to completely free software for the creation of my webcomic on Broken Window Studios, the New Reaper. However, what you may not be aware of, is that in addition to using completely free software, I've also completely moved over from Mac OS X (and Windows from time to time), to Linux.

Now, I've dabbled with Linux on and off for the last, oh, about three years now. The idea has always appealed to me ever since I found out about it in high school when my friend showed me all the eye candy you can have using Compiz and Beryl. He installed Fedora Core 5 on my ancient laptop (there about to release Fedora 15, so yea, it was awhile ago), and I was immediate scared away by the deep learning curve and bizarre user interface.

Fast forward to my first semester in college in 2007, and my far more computer-savvy self decides to give Linux another go when I learn about Ubuntu 7.04, a self titled distro of Linux "for human beings." I figured between my much improved computer skills and a distro designed with the n00b in mind, I may have a shot at finally embracing open source computing. Well, due to driver incompatibilities with my system at the time, my hopes were again dashed, but I've been trying out Ubuntu here and there as new versions come out, always hoping that I could someday make the switch.

Well I sit here typing this post on a laptop fully converted to Ubuntu 10.10, and I love it. I have a tweaked window UI that's fully to my liking, the default user interface powered by Gnome is the best I've ever used, and I even got a sweet dock to manage my open applications, my favorite feature from Mac OS X. I also have the newest Alpha release of Ubuntu on my netbook, 11.04 Alpha 3, and it's here where I have some issues...

See, Canonical, the company responsible for Ubuntu, has decided that their netbook user interface, called Unity, is a better fit for computers as a whole than the current interface. It's not bad, per say, but it kinda feels like Canonical is aiming for the "iPadification" of the desktop computer, or strip out lots of features in order to streamline the experience for the casual user. It's here where I take a lot of issue, because, as mobile experiences like Android and webOS have proven, you can have an easy to use experience without a mass removal of features.

Unity takes away a lot of the flexibility that currently works in Gnome. A bizarrely functioning dock always sits on the left of your screen, that cannot be removed or repositioned. This means that I can't use the dock application that I like, Docky, in it's place. Not only that, but as a designer, I hate having UI elements on either side of the screen because I feel it causes a visual imbalance.

Another annoyance is that Dropbox, in all honesty probably the most essential application in my life, would not install as normal in 11.04, because the Ubuntu Software Center said the package was "of bad quality." Thanks for the warning but I think I'LL decide what determines good quality. But no, it refused to install and told me to contact Dropbox and report the errors I was getting.

I'm sure they'll get right on it -_-...

Needless to say I was ready to ditch 11.04 right there, as all of my work is currently in the cloud, but I was able to get around it and install the package via dpkg, a command line program. It was hardly an intuitive process, and if I didn't have some Terminal experience I probably would have been scared off. I know my freshman self wouldn't have bothered...

Also, the awesome menuing system in Gnome, that allowed for quick access to your automatically categorised applications, locations, and system settings, has been removed, and replaced with simple, dumbed down options in the Unity menu such as "Browse Music" or "Look at Photos." Again, a slap in the face to anyone who actually KNOWS how to use a computer. Even viewing all of your applications requires a few extra clicks than it should, making the new UI feel clunky, even for its target audience.

Now, some caveats. First of all, I'm using an Alpha release. There are a lot of other small complaints I have with Unity that I'm not even mentioning because they're probably bugs that'll be fixed by the time the final release next month. Also, you DO have the option to switch to the Gnome environment, new renamed Ubuntu Classic Desktop, however, there are still some changes to the UI there, such as the removal of desktop effects, which I needed in order to use Docky, and having a Mac OS style Universal Menu in place, which kinda messes up the way the UI is supposed to work. Whether these are also Alpha issues that'll be fixed next month or not remains to be seen, but needless to say I'm a little concerned.

Luckily, the great thing about Linux is that there is no shortage of options. I'm not going to pass judgement on Ubuntu until I spend a few months with Ubuntu 11.04 and Unity starting next month, but if it does fail to impress me, there are tons of other distributions like Linux Mint, Fedora, and even Kubuntu that strike my interest. The problem however, is that none of them are as GOOD as Ubuntu is now in 10.10. Mint's graphic design isn't as well thought out, and I'm not the biggest fan of their adjustments to the Gnome menu, Fedora works a bit differently, and I'll miss the improved Software Center and other user friendly adjustments Ubuntu brings to the table, like having non-free software and drivers in their repositories for easy access. And Kubuntu uses the KDE desktop enviornment instead of Gnome, which means I'll have to learn a new UI, and give up the thing that attracted me to Ubuntu in the first place.

I dunno, I guess its just kind of disheartening to see this. I FINALLY get the motivation to really get down and dirty with Linux, learn all the ins and outs of Terminal commands, different windowing environments, package managers, and the like, and my distro of choice is now turning me off because its trying to make the experience too simple. Who would have thought...