Steve Jobs has not had a heart-attack; indeed Steve Jobs is not in poor health, nor is he dying: In fact, according to @Scobleizer on the microblogging service Twitter last week, after visiting a shop frequented by Jobs, Scoble says that staff there report that Jobs is in the best of health.

Filling the role of Jobs at this year’s Macworld will be Senior Vice President Phil Schiller. Although Apple are continuing to be on a roll, despite the current conditions, tech analysts expect there to be less in the way of stirring innovations from them this year.

*See also this BBC report.

- But it’s not Macworld alone that’s been hit: This week’s CES in Vegas is showing a decline in exhibitors this year, with figures down by 10% on last year: Some exhibitors even pulling out at the last minute, while others are making cutbacks in their showing.

Personally I take the David Risley line on this, and I think that, if anything, companies should be increasing their advertising budgets rather than cutting them in an economic downturn. - Each to their own though: Some will survive, some will fall by the wayside regardless.

Some companies, such as Cisco, are taking meeting room suites rather than exhibiting, in an effort to cut costs.

Analysts are now questioning the viability of trade-shows in the light of today’s climate: On the other side of the coin; Jason Oxman, senior vice president at the Consumer Electronics Association, disagrees:

"Trade shows take on renewed importance in a down economy. Every major consumer electronics manufacturer, buyer, installer and retailer is there. It’s the most efficient travel saver imaginable."

Will this type of opinion retain validity in the light of experience though? Could we see a considerable cutting-back of trade shows? Will we see many going the way of Macworld in the light of experience and reality? It’s certainly a possibility. Time will tell.

When Microsoft launched Vista it was to fanfares and promises of a new age of excellence dawning: The problem was that they missed the boat by a mile and landed in dangerous waters.

To read more on the current latest news on Windows 7; see what Mary Jo Foley of ZDNet has to say about her latest preview of 7 at the ‘Milestone 3′ stage; Build 6780.

What do you think: Has Vista doomed Microsoft to an uncertain future dependant upon the success or flop of Windows 7; or will the current downturn in the software giant’s fortunes be just a blip in an otherwise gently-upward trace of success? Please do leave a comment.

"Dave Winer, 53, pioneered the development of weblogs, syndication (RSS), podcasting, outlining, and web content management software; former contributing editor at Wired Magazine, research fellow at Harvard Law School, entrepreneur, and investor in web media companies. A native New Yorker, he received a Master’s in Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin, a Bachelor’s in Mathematics from Tulane University and currently lives in Berkeley, California."

http://www.scripting.com/stories/2008/09/13/whyIphoneIsAnUreliablePlat.html

I think, on that evidence, it would be fair to assume that he knows what he’s talking about: I’m sure you’d agree - So when Dave Winer says that the iPhone is an unreliable platform it should make some people pop their head up from their comfort zone and take note.

Wakey-wakey!

What he didn’t say; and I stress this now so as his words aren’t taken out of context, is that the iPhone software provided by Apple is buggy and unfit for purpose. I’ve not read any complaints about iPhone 2.1 yet; but then again I didn’t read that many about 2.0; even though I knew for a fact from insider information that it was so: The Apple faithful remain tight-lipped about any of Apple’s failings; though one can read between the lines and derive their true feelings by inference rather than by direct speech:

For instance; David Risley posted an article on his blog about his initial impressions of the iPhone while posting to said blog using the iPhone WordPress App. After he made an obvious comment about the fact that it works, he followed it with two negative criticisms; a complimentary remark in the following paragraph to diffuse his last two points; saying that it’s

"…pretty cool that I can even do it at all",

followed by

"End of post because typing on this thing is still a bit slow. ".

So an iPhone is "Pretty cool because [it works - Because it doesn't 'not work']"? Hmm. An interesting definition of ‘pretty cool’ there David. - So; my television clapped out after over 30 years this week: The screen is blue; nothing else; just blue. (’ironic, myself being a Wintard, that my TV dies with a BSOD!) But it works nevertheless: It still produces sound; and there’s still something on the screen: It’s a "pretty cool" TV then?

(I am aware that there is a track fault on the PCB in the colour synchronisation separation circuitry; but the dear old set is so old I’m not going to bother fixing it: I’ve already got another one.)

My comment on David’s post was:

"So overall you’re saying that it’s a load of utterly unusable crap that is non-user-friendly, slow, and poorly designed; but it’s really cool because it’s an Apple iPhone. Wow!"

I’m not "anti-iPhone" or "anti-Apple" despite appearances: "Anti" is too strong a description: I see it all for what it is, and what it is; or at least was, is no more than a botched rushed attempt from Jobsweh at making a fortune. By combining this with employing a strategy copied almost directly from the previous actions of Microsoft; the gamble paid off, and Apple landed in clover and Jobsweh made his massive profits. Fair play to him.

Back to Dave Winer; who is saying that developing an iPhone App isn’t worth the hassle; because when all’s said and done; apple might reject it after all the work and aggravation has been carried out.

Why would Apple reject it? Not necessarily simply because of an unseen bug that might make it detrimental to people’s iPhone hardware; but because it competes with existing Apps; as in the case of Podcaster yesterday, (13th September 2008.) where Podcaster was rejected because it competed with iTunes. It’s as if Apple are saying:

"We’re the best, and we alone make the best software for our own hardware. Anything that competes with or that appears to be better than anything that we build will be immediately silenced and we’ll just conveniently forget that it ever existed - Because you honestly can’t better Apple; so don’t even try."

Or put another way:

"I am the great Jobsweh; god of all things Apple, and there are no gods, no programmers, no designers, better than me. I am the beginning and the end. I was there before computers existed and I shall be there after they have ceased to exist…"

…Er hang on Steve; aren’t you forgetting something? You’re mortal yes?

I think I’ll end here with the last words of Dave Winer in his article:

"…the Internet is the platform without a platform vendor. That’s the most powerful kind of platform there is because it is the least regulated."

Thank the gods (Excluding Jobsweh.) for Web 2.0.

See also:

http://daringfireball.net/2008/09/app_store_exclusion

We’ve heard moans twice from Apple Fanboi Michael Arrington; but we want to be convinced that it’s not just one voice in the darkness.

Well here it is: The post you never expected to see from one of the new Apple fanboys:-

“Apple Showing Warning Signs”
Posted Aug 28, 2008 by David Risley 

“As many of my readers know, I have converted pretty much everything to Apple products. I am now a Mac user and recently I switched to the Iphone. As of a few days ago, even my keyboard is built by Apple. I am a fan of the company and their products, but I am seeing big red flares that are showing signs of trouble on the horizon.”

(I think that’s meant to be iPhone; but ‘easy typo either way.)

-So David says; and I quote “I am a fan of the company and their products“. Fair enough: Each to their own. He continues:-

“Why I Like Apple“

“It continues to be funny when I witness the emotional reaction Apple can get out of people. A lot of non-Apple geeks are quick to dismiss me as a “fanboy” because I like Apple. Such a reaction is really asinine and, ironically, often comes from people who would buy Apple if not for monetary reasons…”

Help me Wikipedia:

“By 1990 the term was being used in popular music and science fiction circles, and as electronic entertainment gained popularity, the term became increasingly applied to computers and video game consoles - with people often developing an obsessive loyalty towards one platform or brand.”

“Current subjects of such obsessive loyalty include areas of: TV shows; movies; music; anime; comic books; cars; video game consoles, video games and MMORPGs; and computer operating systems, hardware and software—and more recently politics.”

“”Fanboy” was added to the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary in 2008.^“

Next:

 

 

“…But, There Are Warning Signs”

“While I have admired the user-centric design of Apple products, the company has been showing some signs of losing touch. Some examples:

1. Iphone battery life has been a complaint, and it seems really stupid not to have it be user replaceable.
2. The Iphone software has been a bit buggy, worse for some than others. I’ve had my Iphone crash many times. I’ve had it slow down or features stop working that required a restart to fix.
3. No copy & paste on the Iphone? Stupid, stupid stupid. This is OS design 101.
4. The MacBook Air hasn’t been that high quality and many have been reporting stupid problems with it.
5. MobileMe has been a huge ball of fail since it launched, showing once again that Apple is horrible when it comes to anything on the Internet. And the fact that they’re charging money for it when it can all be done for free elsewhere is dumb. Apple tossed users some free time for their troubles, but all that is is free time using a barely functional service. Also, the fact that all the .Mac customers were automatically moved into this crappy service is a case of very poor customer service.
6. There have been complaints about decreased built quality on the MacBooks and MacBook Pros. “

                    Fail                                                   Better

“What I’m sensing is a bunch of Apple users who really want to continue liking Apple, but are having to find ways to explain the parade of bonehead moves and buggy products coming from the company.”

That last sentance was very well written and extremely spot-on-target: Those people are called “Apple fanboys/girls”.

Of course, not being a fanboy himself - and any suggestion that he might actually be a fanboy being “really asinine“; David doesn’t fit anywhere near into that category:

“In all fairness, most computer companies release crappy stuff. I guess Apple is held to a higher standard because of their marketing and the loyal following that they have. Perhaps Apple is just showing us one thing: they’re a computer company just like any other computer company.”

Of course; that’s not actually anything like “ways to explain the parade of bonehead moves and buggy products coming from the company.” : It’s just an excuse for darling Apple’s incompetence - ‘All companies cock-up from time to time: Apple are no different; in fact they’re much better at cocking up than any other company.’

Exactly; just one of the many things they do better than anyone else, isn’t it?

You read it first here; unless you read it first there: Apple cocked up - As admitted under a veil by an Apple…non-fanboy himself.

My analysis? Apple have lost it: I foresee a lot of their market-sector gains dwindling slowly back to much how they were. I see the crown falling from Jobsweh’s head. As a Microsoft fan I don’t see any immediate advantage to Microsoft. I would say that Linux will continue to make small gains from both M$ and Apple, at least until Windows 7 is released.

Do I see Linux reaching 10% market-sector impact? It’s possible but unlikely in my estimation. I won’t rule it out altogether, but Linux had its day; in fact around 3650+ of them. Ubuntu have made inroads in a sense; but the various distros are still proving difficult to give away; even in the light of Microsoft’s shot in its own foot with Vista.

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I caught David Risley online via the feed at the Gnomedex pre-conference bash and tried to get an interview of sorts. The chat was so hectic that this was quite obviously impossible and I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. I did manage to get about 3 lines through though, as you’ll see toward the end of this video clip recorded from the online stream: Technology is a fantastic thing; and all the world’s population now has the opportunity (Most have the ability.) to communicate over large distances via the internet to unite the entire globe.

After Dave Risley followed Sarah Lacy, who seemed to do her own show jointly along with virtually everyone else present: Sarah turned out to be an excellent chat-show co-host, and the presentation was most enjoyable and entertaining. The chatroom crowd interacted with the presenters and guests, resulting in a quite spectacular interactive production which, other than for the quality of the Ustream feed, was worthy of a television performance.

Towards the end of the long evening, as the alcohol flowed freely, one of the guests became aggressive and attempted to disrupt the show with a verbal attack on Sarah, her other current guests, and her co-presenter(s). This was handled extremely professionally, courteously, and graciously, by Sarah herself and a couple of the guests; one in particular whose name I forget (’May have been Eric Rice?) as it was about 4AM BST and I had my eyelids propped open with matchsticks.

Another small downer was the absence from the show of Tara Hunt, aka @missrogue, who was requested to guest by a large number of the chatroom, including myself; and who I feel could have made a valuable extra contribution had anyone been able to locate her. Quite obviously Tara has an extremely busy schedule: This most articulate lady leads a jet-set life filled with great achievements, and parties hard in any spare time she gets: Quite a live-wire!

Everything suddenly scaled down in a matter of minutes, and the party was completely over and empty by 6AM BST. The main host, Chris Pirillo, did make a short appearance on the feed towards the end of the night; after his parents had been on and had been interviewed by the chatroom crowd about his young days and his personal life.

During this time I was writing the first draft of my last blog entry in addition to watching the feed. I hope my multitasking didn’t make me miss too much of the proceedings. All in all it was a thoroughly dynamic event. Apologies for having missed out anybody: There were three birthday people that night; one of whom was Kathy, the others…I think I remember it was Sarah Lacy’s too: Belated Happy Birthday wishes to all anyway.

The rest of Gnomedex is currently running for real. You can pick up the live Ustream feed at http://chris.pirillo.com/live/

Fire Your Computer Technician!

A computer technician spills the beans and makes available the knowledge he has charged clients hundreds in service fees for.

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Starring:

Sharron (Me) 

DedRyzing 

davidrisley 

Bitch that I am I can never resist a bit of “I told you so” bragging: So when David Risley posted the following tweet on twitter:

  “Went to use my Iphone and, sure enough, it’s dead. Frickin’ battery. No comment from @kkomp please. ;-)”

- This war happened:

Me: @davidrisley iPhone, iPhone, falla-diddle-iPhone. iPhone, iPhone, falla-diddle-i…No more need be said…ROFLMFAO!

- At this point DedRyzing opened up on target: 

DedRyzing @davidrisley Well ya know Dave…everyone was saying the iphone battery is dung.  And ya bought two…sad. I feel for ya

DedRyzing @davidrisley Don’t fret though. Disabling the phone will increase batt life for important things like ibeer and the lightsaber thingy 

A feeble response of counter-fire: 

davidrisley @kkomp @DedRyzing Its still the best phone out there, guys. I haven’t seen a phone yet with the same balance of features.

It’s war:

DedRyzing @davidrisley Honestly, yer right. Which says less about how good the iphone is and more about how BAD other phones are.

A shot across the boughs from me:

Me: @davidrisley That’s only because you never bothered to get a Viewty.

A veiled attempt at opening negotiation from the target: 

davidrisley @kkomp Looked at Viewty. Good camera phone. But, it is no Iphone.

Fire 1:

Me: That’s the beauty of a Viewty: It’s not an iPhone! - I ought to do their PR; they’d sell more product than apple!

Fire 2: 

Me: @davidrisley That’s the beauty of a Viewty: It’s not an iPhone! - I ought to do their PR; they’d sell more product than apple!

Fire 3: 

Me: @davidrisley I - Phone but the battery’s dead; so I use the beauty of my Viewty and get straight through: iPhone + dead battery = No phone.

Incoming communication from allied force: 

DedRyzing @kkomp It boils down to this. Other phones do a few things crappy.  The iPhone can do a lot more things crappy.

Incoming challenge from target: 

davidrisley @kkomp DedRyzing Hope you guys will be in the show chatroom tonight so I can argue with you.

Reload tubes. Response to allied force: 

Me: @DedRyzing That says it all : Let’s email LG today and offer to jointly run their PR campaign: KompDedRyzing Promotions Present…

Fire 1: 

Me: @davidrisley LOL you’d better beleive it. Topic = The iPhone battery life and ways to improve it other than not using the iPhone at all.

Fire 2: 

Me: @davidrisley On second thoughts that’ll be the shortest topic discussion ever.

Small-arms attack on target from allied force: 

DedRyzing @davidrisley Geez man…every show I argue with either you or @frostedside. Man…stop picking fights.

Fire 3: 

Me: @davidrisley I hope Apple never develop an electric car…

Incoming communication from allied force: 

DedRyzing @davidrisley Just start running OpenBSD and use an OpenMoko Freerunner and everything will be ok

Response to allied force: 

Me: @DedRyzing …Or he could always invest in a Viewty; as I suggested before he wasted his money on a dead battery - I mean an iPhone.

Nothing further from target - Scanners detect target neutralised.

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