This video of Steve Jobs giving the closing keynote of the 1997 Worldwide Develops Conference (via) is awesome on 2 levels.
First, it’s awesome on the macro level. Jobs on the mic – showing clarity of vision, expressing that vision clearly and concisely and showing he understands the technology space. For anyone who’s seen any of his other keynotes over the years, this isn’t shocking, but it’s just fun to watch him command the stage.
The second level of awesome is on the micro level and it happens at around the 14:40 mark (my emphasis):

Ok, let me describe the world I live in. About 8 years ago we had high speed networking connected to our now obsolete NeXT hardware, running NeXTSTEP at the time and because we using NFS, we were able to take all of our personal data, our ‘home directories’ as we called them, off of our local machines and put them on a server. And the software made that completely transparent and because the server had a lot of RAM on it, in some cases it was actually faster to get stuff from the server than it was to get stuff off your local hard disk because in some cases it was cached in the RAM of the server if it was in popular use.

But what was really remarkable, was that the organization could hire a professional person to back up that server every night and could afford to spend a little more on that server so maybe it had redundant disk drives and redundant power supplies. And you know, in the last seven years, you know how many times I have lost personal data? ZERO. Do you know how many times I have backed up my computer? ZERO. I have computers at Apple, at NeXT, at Pixar and at home. I walk up to any of em, and log in as myself. It goes over the network, finds my home directory on the server and I’ve got my stuff wherever I am.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but he’s just described iCloud. But in 1997. I understand what he described in the keynote was networked storage, and not actually downloading things locally to your device(s), but the experience he describes is the heart of iCloud – “It goes over the network, finds my home directory on the server and I’ve got my stuff wherever I am.”
Here we are in 2011, just now catching up to Jobs’ vision.

Yves Marchand & Romain Meffre Photography
thanks Bryan

Over at Wired UK, Olivia Solon says book publishing is having it’s Radiohead Moment with the move by JK Rowling to publish her own e-books on her new platform, Pottermore.
Platform! Ha! How about that. I was just writing about fucking platforms yesterday.
I didn’t even plan that.

via Tangled Web of Vice

Sometimes I feel like the guys at 37Signals are the only voices of reason in the realms of business, design and technology.
With everyone saying the platform is the end-all, David says fuck the platform:

For all the 200,000 apps in Apple’s app store, I use two on a regular basis: Echofon and Bloomberg. Once in a while, I use Instapaper and play Civilization. And yet I use my iPhone all the time. It’s my favorite piece of technology and has been for years.

Do you know why? Because Apple nailed the basics. Safari, Camera, iPod, Clock, Weather, Photos, Messages, Mail, and Maps are the apps that I use 95% of the time. Those are the ones that made me buy the phone and stick with it. If I had to read Bloomberg on the web and couldn’t play Civilization, I’d be sad, but my day would surely go on.

I know I’m not alone. The pattern I’ve seen for many people new to iOS is a rush to try a bunch of apps and then never use most of them again. There’s a large market for people who just want the core ten apps executed even better. I’d be happy to trade my iPhone for a N9, if that core experience was stronger.

I agree 100% with David. While I admittedly have more than 10 apps on my iPhone, I rarely use more than 10 on a regular basis (I can’t delete Shazam, you never know what you’ll need to find a track, dude!). Update: I hear where David is coming from, but his essential apps are different from my essential apps which are different than your essential apps. Platforms are important.
I also find his easy dismissal of platforms ironic, given the company he works for has built a great platform for collaboration, project management and communication.
For me, I use the basics: Safari, Mail, iPod, Messages, Camera, Maps
As far as 3rd party apps: Instapaper, Reeder, Twitter
It really is a shame companies like RIM and Nokia are dropping like flies in the face of Apple. We need competition to have a healthly mobile market. As Victor Brunetti points out, a lot of time and attention went into designing the N9 experience.
During a race, there’s a different between turning your head to watch the other cars and keeping your eyes on the road (and watching the other cars in your peripheral vision).
Make a great product, don’t try and make an iPhone killer, you won’t be able to.

I just got an email from HP announcing the ability to pre-order.
Aside from the phone number at the top, there is nothing clickable, save for the tiny ‘Learn More’ link buried at the bottom.
Honestly, who calls to pre-order their computers, or phones, or anything in today’s world?
If you click on the ‘Learn More’ link, you’re taken to this page:

And once you click on ‘Reserve Now’ you get this modal overlay:

I chose ‘Reserve Now From HP’ and I was taken to this product page:

This is what you call a complete, dead-end and the worst consumer experience you can have.
It’s very evident former Apple exec Jon Rubinstein has had a huge influence on HP’s product design. Experiences like this show where he hasn’t had influence.
I keep rooting for HP and webOS, but Im not convinced they’ll succeed.

Cone-ing is the new Planking?
Count me in.

People Consume Apps Like Tapas.

—Ingrid Lunden, via the title to her article on PaidContent

I think that’s a perfect phrase to describe the consumption of apps by people.

via Automobiliac

So everyone has a big hard-on for Nokia’s new N9 and they’re even flaunting it on their site.
One of the videos is the SVP of Design talking, and the other video features a well-produced, simulated N9 interface.
Are they planning on showing the real thing?
And what about that broad, strategic partnership with those guys in Redmond? The N9 doesn’t look to be running Windows Phone 7 based on that introduction video.
Update: Engadget has a few hands-on videos of the N9 and the interface looks pretty polished.

via this isn’t happiness

BusinessInsider tells us the real reason there was no email on the Blackberry Playbook:

Turns out it had to skip native email support on the PlayBook because its architecture can’t support two devices with one person’s account, according to a source.

Here’s how our source explains it: “The Blackberry email system is the BES — which is the source/focus of all the famous BB security. The BES email server has the concept of one user = one device (or they call it PIN).”

Sorry, that’s hilarious. It reminds me of the Y2K scare where much the software running the nation’s essential systems used two digits for the year instead of four when they were created in the 60’s and 70’s.
The difference is the date stamp ‘shortcut’ of the Y2K scare was the result of technological and budgetary limits of the time (remember, computers used paper punch cards and saving two digits for memory was a big deal), while RIM’s lack of support for multiple devices for an email account is both extremely lazy and shortsighted.
The more I read about RIM, the more dire their future looks.

Playboy Interview: Miles Davis – Playboy

Look, man, all I am is a trumpet player. I only can do one thing — play my horn — and that’s what’s at the bottom of the whole mess. I ain’t no entertainer, and ain’t trying to be one. I am one thing, a musician. Most of what’s said about me is lies in the first place. Everything I do, I got a reason.

Louis Gray: Tech Leaders Don’t Win By Saying They’ll Crush Somebody

Look at who is on top today in whatever category makes sense for you. Social networking. Search. Mobile OS. Tablets. Storage systems. Operating systems. Printers. You name it. You would be hard-pressed to see those companies having talked big about taking down number one when they were on their pathway to success. They probably didn’t do it at all.