Latest news with #SteveJobs
The Star
14 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Star
How Steve Jobs would have reacted to Apple's WWDC liquid glass redesign
There are two Steve Jobs keynotes that stand out in my memory more than any other. The first, of course, is the moment he introduced the iPhone in 2007. The entire keynote was a master class in storytelling, engineering, and showmanship. But my favourite part was when Jobs, in the middle of a live demo, prank called a Starbucks and calmly said he wanted to order 4,000 lattes to go. Then he quickly added, 'Just kidding,' and hung up the call. It was a small thing, but it was unforgettable. It was unexpected. It was … fun. But there's another moment that sticks with me. It's less iconic, but only because on the scale of the iPhone, everything is less iconic. It was, however, just as telling about how Jobs thinks about products and how to talk about them. It was 2000, when Jobs introduced Mac OS X's Aqua interface. The new design was fluid, full of gradients and transparency. It was colorful and reflective – almost glossy. It looked unlike anything else at the time. And when Jobs talked about it, he said something that defined Apple's relationship with design for the next two decades: 'One of the design goals was that when you saw it, you wanted to lick it.' Then he paused and licked his lips. I often think about the fact that the goal of designing a piece of software that millions of people would use was as much about how it made people feel as it was about being useful. Obviously, it had to be useful, but it also had to be fun. It had to be delightful. This brings me to this year's WWDC. Apple announced a major redesign of all its software platforms with what it's calling 'Liquid Glass.' According to Alan Dye, Apple's VP of human interface design, the goal was to give the system 'depth, vibrancy, and a new level of expression.' It's a very different look, especially on the iPhone – but there are real changes on the Mac as well. But the thing I keep thinking about is: Where's the fun? The keynote was impressive. It was polished. It was efficient. But it didn't quite feel joyful. It didn't feel like Apple was showing off something it loved. It felt like Apple was explaining something it had to get right. Dye used a lot of words to explain how the company studied the properties of glass and how it reflects and refracts light. The thing is, I think it would have been fine if he'd just said Apple thinks it's really cool. I've heard and read critics saying that Jobs would roll over in his grave if he saw the new interface design. That's the kind of thing that's easy to say for views, but I don't think it's true at all. First, the new design is still an early beta. Yes, there are things that don't work from a design perspective – but it's far too early to pass judgment. I have confidence that Apple will fix them as it gets closer to September when it ships them to the public. My point isn't that Jobs wouldn't have liked what Apple is doing with Liquid Design. My point is that he would have had a lot more fun with it than the company seems to be having. Perhaps it's harder now than in 2000. Perhaps that's because Apple is under intense pressure, now more than ever. It's been a year since Apple teased the arrival of a smarter Siri and its broader vision for AI, now branded 'Apple Intelligence.' Expectations are high, especially as it seems the competition is delivering on Apple's promises with more speed and consistency than Apple itself. But the Liquid Glass redesign – what should have been the most obviously delightful part – felt strangely sterile. During the Aqua introduction, Jobs said that 'when you design a new user interface, you have to start off humbly. You have to start off saying, 'What are the simplest elements in it? What does a button look like?' And you spend months working on a button.' The implication was that even something as small as a button can carry emotion, weight, and personality. I miss the company that wasn't afraid to get weird. To call a design 'lickable.' To order 4,000 lattes from the stage. I'm not saying Apple needs to recreate Steve Jobs's persona. That would be impossible – and probably a bad idea. But I do think it needs to rediscover a little of that energy. That sense of play. That design isn't just functional, or even beautiful. It's emotional. It's fun. A user interface doesn't have to be revolutionary to be memorable. It just has to make you feel something. Better yet if that feeling is: 'I kinda want to lick this.' – Inc./Tribune News Service
Scotsman
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
Lomography: How plastic cameras stole my youth (and gave it back again)
In a world flooded with perfect photos, perhaps there's a place for the overexposed and out-of-focus analogue shot, writes Roger Cox Sign up to our Scotsman Rural News - A weekly of the Hay's Way tour of Scotland emailed direct to you. Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Back in the early Noughties, I developed an expensive infatuation with toy-like analogue cameras. It was all the fault of the Arches in Glasgow, which, in 2001, hosted an exhibition of Lomography – photographs taken using boxy, retro-style cameras designed and built at the Lomo factory in St Petersburg from the 1980s onwards. The cameras themselves weren't particularly pricey (the whole point of them was that they were supposed to be cheap and therefore something comrades across the communist world could enjoy), but the random, never-know-what-you're-going-to-get element they injected into the process of taking photographs was highly addictive. Cat Skiing at Mustang Powder, British Columbia, Canada, as seen through a Lomo Fisheye No.2 camera | Roger Cox / The Scotsman How much money did I burn through developing films from Lomo cameras in the first few years of the 21st century? I shudder to think, but with a success rate of approximately one decent image per 36-exposure film, suffice to say that if I'd saved all that cash and invested it in Apple shares instead, just as Steve Jobs and Co were figuring out how to incorporate digital cameras into mobile phones, I could probably have retired by now, and would be writing this from the deck of my yacht, somewhere in the Caribbean. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The first Lomo camera to be developed was the LOMO LC-A, modelled on a Japanese compact camera called the Cosina CX-1, and it soon became popular everywhere hammers and sickles were in vogue. Then, in 1991, with the Iron Curtain duly consigned to the Great Skip of History, a group of Viennese students came across some of these odd-looking picture boxes while visiting Prague, fired off a load of frames, developed the films when they got home, and were promptly blown away by the distinctive, out-of-time images they produced. The following year, they set up the Lomographic Society International (LSI), with its own 'Ten Golden Rules of Lomography' and, a little later, wrote a full-blown Lomography Manifesto. Fast-forward to 1996, and, when it looked as if the folks at the Lomo factory were about to call time on their quirky plastic cameras, the evangelists at the LSI travelled to Russia and convinced the head honchos there to continue production. There was, they explained, a market for these little cameras in the west... Crossing the California-Nevada border at the Heavenly ski resort with a Lomo Action Sampler | Roger Cox / The Scotsman By the time I first became aware of Lomography, the LOMO LC-A was by no means the only Lomo camera on offer – I was able to buy an Action Sampler, which allowed you to capture a sequence of four images on a single exposure, and a Fisheye No. 2, which, with its 10mm lens, made everything look as if you were shooting from inside a slightly murky goldfish bowl. Proceeding further down this retro photographic rabbit hole, I also got myself a Holga 120N, which meant shooting on medium format film – even more expensive to buy and develop. None of this would really have mattered if I hadn't had anything much of interest to point these cameras at during my 20s. However, my plastic camera mania happened to coincide with the period of my life when I got to travel the most – no kids, no responsibilities, and for some reason almost completely impervious to jetlag. Had I owned a sensible, straightforward digital camera during this time, even with my very-basic-verging-on-Neanderthal understanding of photography, I would still have ended up with a well-organised image bank that would now enable me to relive this period in glorious Technicolor whenever I wanted. Instead, all I have is a shoebox full of madness – a chaotic haystack of pictures which, taken together, resemble a nonsensical, globetrotting acid trip. Double exposure of surfers at Blehaven Bay, East Lothian | Roger Cox / The Scotsman A chance of a lifetime to go cat-skiing in the Monashee Mountains in British Columbia, for example – bottomless powder snow every day for a week – could potentially have yielded some spectacular action shots. Instead, I have a few wonky fish-eye images of people emerging from snow cats, the huge, brawny machines looking comically small beside the skiers standing in front of them, due to the way the lens distorts the image. Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco? Action Sampler images of somebody's Converse trainers (nope, no idea whose) walking along a sunny sidewalk. A surf contest at Dunbar? Various trippy double-exposure portrait experiments, none of them very successful. A ski trip to Heavenly at Lake Tahoe? Another Action Sampler series, this one taken while snowboarding across the California-Nevada border, only with my finger covering nearly half of one of the four frames that make up the image. I could go on, but you get the general idea – for the most part, the only visual record I have of this time in my life looks like a Monty Python film directed by David Lynch. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Fisherman's Wharf, San Francisco | Roger Cox / The Scotsman Towards the end of the Noughts I got myself a 'proper' DSLR camera, started taking 'proper' pictures, and put the plastic cameras and the shoebox full of wonky prints away. A few weeks ago, though, I got them all out again for the first time in about a decade, and decided that perhaps my plastic-fantastic years weren't a complete waste after all. These days the world is flooded with perfect images, many of them artificially tweaked to look even more perfect; at least with an overexposed and out-of-focus analogue shot you know you're looking at something real.
Geek Wire
3 days ago
- Business
- Geek Wire
Oregon farm where Steve Jobs picked apples and gained inspiration hits market for $5M
Geek Life: Fun stories, memes, humor and other random items at the intersection of tech, science, business and culture. SEE MORE Steve Jobs once lived and worked on this property in McMinnville, Ore., when it was a commune known as All One Farm. (Windermere Photo) Before there was Apple, there were apples. A 387-acre property in McMinnville, Ore., that was once home to Steve Jobs — and where he worked in an apple orchard before starting Apple — is for sale for $5 million. Comprised of five parcels with multiple homes and outbuildings, the All One Farm was a counterculture community that is said to have profoundly influenced Jobs' life and career, serving as the inspiration for the name of his company and as the birthplace of his daughter, Lisa. Steve Jobs shows off the iPhone 4 at the 2010 Worldwide Developers Conference. (Wikimedia Commons Photo) A Windermere listing by agent Drew Staudt describes the property as a storybook estate that 'could serve as a statement homestead, corporate retreat, hunting lodge, vineyard, winery, or strategic venture that taps into the history of the property.' The farm features a fully remodeled 5,200-square-foot main house, built in 1985; a large barn with a ballroom floor, full bathroom, and outdoor kitchen next to a greenhouse; and a remodeled three-bedroom, two-bath guest house. There are territorial and mountain views and the land is a mixture of forested, cleared, and pasture areas. There is abundant wildlife for hunting, including elk, turkey, deer, bear and cougar. There's even a little red cabin where Jobs lived and which has been staged in the listing with vintage Apple memorabilia. The property is 15 minutes from downtown McMinnville and just over an hour southwest of Portland. All One Farm was owned by Marcel Muller and managed by his nephew, Robert Friedland, a future billionaire financier in the mining industry, who ran the property as a hub of Eastern philosophy, meditation, and psychedelic exploration. A cabin where Steve Jobs stayed on All One Farm. (Windermere Photo) Friedland met Jobs at Reed College, where he is said to have taught Jobs the 'reality distortion field' leadership style. Jobs dropped out of Reed after one semester, and credited his experience on LSD while on the farm with expanding his creative vision. While visiting and living at the farm in the early 1970s, Jobs worked at Atari as a technician alongside Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak. Inspired by his work in the orchard and a fruitarian diet, Jobs suggested the name 'Apple Computer' while brainstorming with Wozniak on potential names for their new company. Jobs wanted a name that was 'fun, spirited, and not intimidating' like other tech company names, according to Walter Isaacson's biography, 'Steve Jobs.' Inside the cabin where Steve Jobs stayed. (Windermere Photo) The main house on the property in MicMinnville, Ore. (Windermere Photo) The living room inside the main house. (Windermere Photo) Apple trees in the orchard where Steve Jobs worked. (Windermere Photo) The ballroom space inside the barn. (Windermere Photo)
Android Authority
3 days ago
- Android Authority
dbrand stops blaming customers for holding Switch 2 case wrong, offers Joy-Con grip replacements
Oliver Cragg / Android Authority TL;DR Users reported Switch 2 Joy-Cons easily detaching with the dbrand Killswitch case installed. dbrand's initial response echoed Steven Jobs' 'you're holding it wrong' debacle. Enhanced replacement units will be offered for free to all customers next month. If dbrand is known for anything, it's premium products and excessive snark. Usually that works in its favor, but when several customers revealed a flaw in the Killswitch case for the Switch 2 on Reddit, its signature style further upset frustrated users. The issue lies in the connection between the Joy-Con and the Switch 2 console, which relies on magnets rather than the mechanical rail in the Switch 1. There is a small air gap between the two, which prevents the Joy-Con from getting enough leverage to pop free. With the dbrand Killswitch grips attached to the Joy-Cons, that gap is ever so slightly smaller. In a post on Reddit that's more than 4,000 words long, the company detailed its reasoning behind the design, and why it's unlikely that the Joy-Cons will detach in everyday use. Essentially, the company expects all users to support the body of the Switch 2 with their fingers while holding the Joy-Con. dbrand bundled its initial response to Switch 2 case complaints. For users frustrated by the flaw in their $60 case, the whole thing stank of Steve Jobs' notorious 2010 'You're holding it wrong' response to the iPhone 4's connectivity problems. dbrand did admit that 'we do think there's an underlying issue for us to fix here' and promised to improve tolerances and quality checks to minimize the chance of detachment, but it also stuck to its edgy corporate persona. A section titled 'VIRAL VIDEOS AND YOU' placed some blame for the outrage on the users who found the issue, saying the videos themselves prompted others to 'validate the thesis that detachment can occur' on their own devices. In other words, if you didn't know about the flaw, it probably wouldn't bother you, so chill out about it. Reversing course After a few days of brutal comments on the initial post, dbrand returned to Reddit with a shorter, more somber update. In it, the company tried 'a new communication strategy where we both say fewer words and devote less of them to blaming you.' The company seems to have listened to its community, committing to retooling its molds to reduce the size of the lip and minimize the possibility of the Joy-Cons popping free. It's also working on a second solution that will eliminate the problem altogether, but it's not sure whether it's viable for mass production. The first run will be finished on July 10, so expect an update around that time. Regardless, all customers are eligible to receive replacement grips for free, whether from the retooled molds or the second solution. The company will reach out to everyone whose orders have shipped once it determines which solution provides 'the best possible version of this product.' Got a tip? Talk to us! Email our staff at Email our staff at news@ . You can stay anonymous or get credit for the info, it's your choice.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
The Spotlight on Pixar Intensifies as ‘Elio' Becomes Latest Original Animated Pic to Crash Land
It's hard to believe nearly a decade has passed since Pixar's Coco, an original, music-infused fantastical yarn about a Mexican boy who travels to Land of the Dead, grossed nearly $800 million at the global box office to rank No. 11 on the year's list of top-grossing films. That was in 2017, a time when no one could have anticipated it would be quickly followed by a dramatic downturn in the appetite for original animated fare. For Pixar, that downturn hit a new tipping point with the debut of Elio over the June 20-22 weekend. The original summer tentpole, about an orphaned boy whose wish to be abducted by aliens comes true, debuted to a dismal $20.8 million domestically and $14 million overseas in what's by far a record-low opening for the storied animation studio co-founded by the late Steve Jobs and later acquired by Disney. More from The Hollywood Reporter Box Office: 'Elio' Limps to Record-Low $21M Pixar Opening as 'How to Train Your Dragon' Stays No. 1 Box Office: Danny Boyle's '28 Years Later' Bites Off $5.8M in Previews, Pixar's 'Elio' Takes in $3M James Gunn's 'Superman' Tracking for $135 Million U.S. Box Office Opening Publicly, Disney execs are putting on a brave face and suggesting that Elio can rebound and find its stride, much as Pixar's original animated film Elemental did in 2023 on its way to grossing nearly $500 million globally after a $29.6 million start, not adjusted for inflation. Elio boasts stellar audience exit scores and even stronger reviews. But internally, no one is kidding themselves or trying to sugarcoat the results. Ultimately, Elio may not even crack $300 million. That doesn't mean Disney and Pixar are waving the white flag of surrender and banishing original storytelling to the hinterlands. If anything, Elio shines a light on a course correction that was already underway, sources tell The Hollywood Reporter. Pixar is deliberately pivoting toward a more balanced mix of sequels and fresh IP. Disney leadership, including movie studios chief Alan Bergman, have advocated for a strategic return to franchise entries as a way to support original storytelling over the long-term. They don't view new IP as one-offs, but as potential franchises. Inside Out and Coco are just two examples of new franchises that began as originals. In June 2024, the record-shattering Inside Out 2 debuted to a huge $154 million on its way to becoming the top-grossing pic of the year, the top title ever for Pixar and the top animated movie of all time with more than $1.69 billion in worldwide ticket sales, not adjusted for inflation. Coco, meanwhile, spawned a park attraction, with a movie sequel in the works. Elio was the sixth original Pixar film released since 2020 after Onward, Soul, Luca, Turning Red and Elemental. Pixar's upcoming slate includes the original film Hoppers and Toy Story 5, both set for release in 2026, followed by the original Gatto in June 2027 and the undated Incredibles 3 and Coco 2. Of Pixar's 30 theatrical releases, only 9 have been sequels installments and one, Lightyear, a prequel. That hardly makes a Pixar sequel machine — even at its own peril. Pixar has always been skittish about franchise building. While Toy Story 2 was its third movie, it took more than a decade to release Toy Story 3, and five years to make Cars 2. The gap between the seminal Finding Nemo and sequel Finding Dory was a dozen years. And in 2016, Pixar president Jim Morris said that after 2018's Toy Story 4 in 2018 and 2019's Incredibles 2 — both of which would earn more than $1 billion globally — the studio would return to its roots, excluding Inside Out 2. He wasn't kidding. Walt Disney Animation Studios, home of the blockbuster Frozen and Moana franchises, also pursues a healthy mix, and has released four original films in recent years despite the downturn: Encanto, Raya and the Last Dragon, Strange World and Wish. Rivals Illumination Entertainment and DreamWorks Animation, both owned by Universal, are without a doubt more franchise-focused. A third of the titles Illumination has made are part of the multi-billion-dollar grossing Despicable Me and Minions series, while it quickly turned Sing and The Secret Life of Pets into franchises. It is also in the Dr. Seuss business and now, Mario. DWA, the company founded by former chief Jeffrey Katzenberg, has feasted on a diet of Shrek, How to Train Your Dragon and Kung Fu Panda. During the pandemic years — even when cinemas were back up and running — the regime led by then-Disney CEO Bob Chapek decided to send three Pixar titles straight to Disney+ domestically — Turning Red, Luca and the Oscar-winning Soul (all three were considered streaming hits). The controversial decision was slammed for training families to wait to watch younger-skewing family films in the home; a debate which ranges to this day, particularly when it comes to untested titles such as Elio. They might have been right. Among all animated original films from any Hollywood studio, only three have opened north of $20 million domestically in the post-pandemic era; Elio, 2021's Encanto ($27.1 million) and 2023's Elemental, ($29.6 million), all from the Disney empire. That's not to say PG movies haven't worked. In fact, they've fueled much of the post-COVID recovery. But they've either been live-action adaptations of animated films — look no further than 2025 summer blockbusters Lilo & Stitch from Disney and How to Train Your Dragon from Universal; live-action properties based on branded IP such as Warner Bros.' A Minecraft Movie, the top-grossing film of 2025 to date with more than $954 million in ticket sales, or the animated video game adaptation The Super Mario Bros Mario Movie, which earned a stunning $1.36 billion in 2023. And the list of last year's top global grossers was led by Inside Out 2, while Moana 2 took third place with $1.05 billion, followed by Illumination's Despicable Me 4 ($959 million). Live-action adaptations of classic animated films such as Dragon or Lilo play to both families and Gen Zers or Millennials, thanks to the nostalgia factor. Elio lacked any such advantage and is having trouble connecting with a wide audience, likely due to skewing very young and being considered strictly a 'kids' pic, which goes against the Pixar brand, according to box office pundits. Either way, it got lost in the wake of How to Train Your Dragon and Lilo & Stitch, which has now crossed $900 million in global ticket sales (merchandise sales are in the billions). 'Notably, while PG rated movies have been the hero of the box office in the post-pandemic era, a PG rating doesn't necessarily guarantee a massive opening weekend unless of course that PG rated film has known IP or is part of a franchise or a brand that's well known such as Minecraft,' says Comscore chief box office analyst Paul Dergarabedian. 'Elio will have to rely on great word-of-mouth based on amazing Rotten Tomatoes scores to keep the film in good stead over the next couple of weeks.' Adds a source close the film, 'While its opening numbers may not reflect its ambition, the film is a reminder of the kind of creative swing the studio still believes in, and that the industry still needs. As Pixar moves forward, it's not abandoning originality — it's looking for ways to launch it more effectively, while keeping beloved characters close at hand. In the end, the goal remains the same: tell stories that resonate across generations.' Best of The Hollywood Reporter Wes Anderson's Movies Ranked From Worst to Best 13 of Tom Cruise's Most Jaw-Dropping Stunts Hollywood Stars Who Are One Award Away From an EGOT
