Digital Daily » Genius

Jobs: "I'm Vertical, Back at Apple and Loving Every Day of It"

John Paczkowski — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 16:52:33 +0000

Leave it to Steve Jobs to upstage his own products.

Rumored by some analysts to be a nonevent, Apple’s invitation-only music gathering today is already proving quite eventful. Audience members expecting Apple (AAPL) exec Phil Schiller to quarterback today’s proceedings were given a welcome surprise when CEO Steve Jobs took the stage in his first public appearance since his liver transplant surgery.

He was given a standing ovation.

So how does he look? Obviously, he’s still quite thin, but from where I sit–which is admittedly near the back of the hall–he appears healthy…but gaunt. And that Willy Wonka charisma of his is back in full force. Certainly, he looks reasonably good for someone who just underwent a liver transplant. And how long does it take to regain 60 pounds anyway? Job’s isn’t De Niro in Raging Bull….

[ See post to watch video ]

Anyway, it’s great to see Jobs onstage again. He speaks quietly and it’s hard to tell if his voice is scratchy or if he’s just humbled by what he’s about to say: “As some of you know, five months ago I had a liver transplant. I now have the liver of a mid-20s person who died in a car crash and was generous enough to donate their organs. I wouldn’t be here without such generosity, so I hope all of us can be as generous and elect to be organ donors. ..I’d like to take this moment to thank everyone in the Apple community for their support. Thanks as well to Tim Cook and everyone at Apple. They really ran the company very ably during that time. … So I’m vertical, back at Apple and loving every day of it….”

Jobs quickly moves on to the announcements of the day. First up: iPhone 3.1, which now offers a Bluetooth Voice control and Genius feature and supports ringtones sold via the iTunes Store for $1.29. 3.1 is available today as a free download.

Live from Apple’s “Let’s Rock” Event

iPod Updates, Games, Nano Video Cameras

iTunes 9, iTunes LP, Home Sharing, Genius Mixes

Steve Jobs: “I’m Vertical, Back at Apple and Loving Every Day of It”

Event Photos by Adam Tow

iPhone 2.1: The Fix Is In

John Paczkowski — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 13:08:10 +0000

Apple (AAPL) released iPhone 2.1 at 6 a.m. PDT today, and as CEO Steve Jobs said earlier this week, it does appear to “fix lots of bugs.”

iPhone version 2.1 contains many bug fixes and improvements, including the following:

• decrease in call set-up failures and call drops
• significantly improved battery life for most users
• dramatically reduced time to back up to iTunes
• improved email reliability, notably fetching email from POP and Exchange accounts
• faster installation of third-party applications
• fixed bugs causing hangs and crashes if you have lots of third-party applications
• improved performance in text messaging
• faster loading and searching of contacts
• improved accuracy of the 3G signal strength display
• repeat alert up to two additional times for incoming text messages
• option to wipe data after 10 passcode attempts
• Genius playlist creation

A Streaming Comes Across the Sky

John Paczkowski — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 18:00:57 +0000

[ See post to watch video ]

iTunes 8 to Feature Slide-Out Keyboard, Dual Batteries?

John Paczkowski — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 23:38:17 +0000

The Apple rumor mill has such a hair trigger, that even passing mention of an unreleased product can set it into yammering motion. As happened today after Digg founder Kevin Rose offered up some purported insider information about the focus of Apple’s “Let’s Rock” media event in San Francisco next Tuesday. If Rose is correct–and his record on handicapping Apple (AAPL) announcements is decidedly mixed–Apple will announce updates to its entire iPod line, including the rumored “tall” iPod Nano. Not exactly a tough call considering that XSKN is already selling cases for them and purported photos of the device — like the one below — are showing up on Alibaba.

More interestingly though, Rose says that Apple will uncrate iTunes 8, the first major overhaul of the software since iTunes 7 launched two years ago. Rose claims that iTunes 8 will boast some significant enhancements, among them HD-quality TV show downloads, a new “grid view” browsing feature and a playlist recommendation engine called Genius. “iTunes 8 includes Genius, which makes playlists from songs in your library that go great together,” Rose writes. “Genius also includes Genius sidebar, which recommends music from the iTunes Store that you don’t already have.”

Notably absent from Rose’s list of new features: iTunes Unlimited–the $129-a-year all-you-can-eat subscription service that Apple has been rumored to be considering for some time now.

Like all such reports, Rose’s should be taken with a grain of salt, if not an entire salt lick. Rose was, after all, the guy who erroneously claimed Apple’s first iPhone would feature a slide-out keyboard, dual batteries and CDMA, and GSM support.