It wasn't that long ago that I was noting the lack of news and stating that "August is a slow news month." Then Google purchased Motorola to compete with Apple's patents, HP announced that it was getting out of the smartphone, tablet and even personal computer business because of Apple's dominance, and Steve Jobs resigned as Apple's CEO. So much for my ability to predict the news cycle. Here is the iPhone and iPad-related news from the past week:
- There has been so much written about Steve Jobs that I don't even know where to start, but I can specifically recommend David Pogue's article in the New York Times and John's Gruber's article on Daring Fireball.
- Chris Albrecht of GigaOm collects some great videos of Steve Jobs speaking. The 2005 Stanford Commencement Address is particularly good and worth watching.
- Tim Cook is now the CEO of Apple, and Lex Friedman of Macworld wrote a great article on his background and qualifications for the job. For even more information, read Adam Lashinsky's comprehensive article for Fortune back in 2008. There is no question in my mind that he is the right man for the job.
- I like this tweet from Harry McCracken of Technologizer: "Still unimaginable: that Jobs was the most important person in personal technology both in 1978 and in 2011."
- Jennifer Valentino-DeVries of the Wall Street Journal assembled a great collection of Steve Jobs quotes over the years.
- I know that it is an old joke to say that you read Playboy "just for the articles," but one of the very best interviews of Steve Jobs was David Sheff's interview that ran in the February 1985 issue of Playboy. The full text of the article is posted here on Scribd. (That version contains no pictures and is safe to read anywhere.) I'm sure it was a great read in 1985, but when you read it now with the advantage of 25+ years of history, you get a sense of how insightful Jobs was even when he was only 25 years old.
- Harry McCracken of Technologizer describes an interesting iPad keyboard from Logitech that unfolds.
- Joel Mathis of Macworld reports that United Airlines will give 11,000 iPads to United and Continental pilots to replace bulky paper navigation charts in the cockpit.
- Similarly, Alex Heath of Cult of Mac reports that every player on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers is getting an iPad to replace the paper playbook. I appreciate their use of Apple products, but I still hope that they lose to the Saints this year.
- One of the reasons that I love using a Macintosh computer in my home is the lack of malware (viruses, spyware, etc.). Some people claim that the credit for that goes not to Apple, but just to the fact that Macs have a small marketshare; the bad guys target the larger PC market. But in the smartphone space, the iPhone is clearly the market leader, and yet there is still no iPhone (or iPad) malware, while on the other hand, as Josh Ong of AppleInsider reports, malware on Android smartphones is increasing substantially. It appears that Apple is doing something right when it comes to security.
- If you like the idea of reading magazines on your iPad, you need to check out the great Zinio app. Bryan Wolfe of AppAdvice posts a good overview of the app.
- Tim Moynihan of PC World reviews some new Nikon cameras. One of them, the Coolpix S1200pj, lets you take pictures and then project them onto a wall or screen using a projector in the camera. Better yet, you can connect an iPad, iPhone, or iPod to the camera and use it as an external projector. Interesting.
- Michael Munchmore of PC Magazine reviews the Keynote app for iPhone.
- And finally, if you want to show the world just how cool your iPhone can be, how about using your iPhone to cool you down and beat the summer heat? Chris Rawson of TUAW reviews a $10 iPhone attachment that adds a fan to your iPhone:
