There is this excellent resource (courtesy NYT) that published the list of 313 patents where the name of Steve Jobs is mentioned along with the other inventors. Patents related to and ranging from computers to ipods to iOS devices to packaging to power adapters to designing the glass staircase (which we see in the Apple store) shows Steve’s impeccable record and demonstrates his genius. Go to this link and explore. Click on each and every picture in the link to get more details on the patent.
The information presented is unbelievable and truly amazing. Hope NYT keeps this page alive for ever. Good stuff, indeed.
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Book review: The Big Switch by Nicholas Carr
Last night I finished reading “The Big Switch – Rewiring the World from Edison to Google” by Nicholas Carr. This book is a pretty good primer for anyone who would like to learn about the basics of cloud computing or SaaS or Software as a Service. In addition to the simple writing style Nic Carr also educates the reader on how the world and our society got changed with the invention of electricity and how the computers and the internet are once again revolutionizing the world. I feel somehow the author is smitten by the technological developments at Google and I have no complaints with that. Time and again he refers back to what Google is doing and why Google is a leader in the field of cloud computing. I guess apart from Google there are pretty good players out there which deserves their names to be mentioned when discussing about the cloud but again Nic did an excellent job and covers all the major points related to the cloud in this book so no complaints.
I am trying to get back on my reading habit and will try to reduce my reading backlog. Though I having a tight schedule, but the good news is that I have completed this book in a short time. Next on my table and on my reading list are 2 very interesting books – “Ghost in the Wires: My Adventures as the World's Most Wanted Hacker by Kevin Mitnick” and “The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine by Michael Lewis”. In the past in my blog “Hackerville” I have wrote about Kevin Mitnick and what he is capable of, go check it out. Michael Lewis is another amazing writer, and now I am confused which one to read.
I will probably go for the autobiography of Kevin Mitnick (Ghost in the Wires) first and after that will take on Michael Lewis. Reading is fun and I will make sure it will stay that way for me forever.
I am trying to get back on my reading habit and will try to reduce my reading backlog. Though I having a tight schedule, but the good news is that I have completed this book in a short time. Next on my table and on my reading list are 2 very interesting books – “Ghost in the Wires: My Adventures as the World's Most Wanted Hacker by Kevin Mitnick” and “The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine by Michael Lewis”. In the past in my blog “Hackerville” I have wrote about Kevin Mitnick and what he is capable of, go check it out. Michael Lewis is another amazing writer, and now I am confused which one to read.
I will probably go for the autobiography of Kevin Mitnick (Ghost in the Wires) first and after that will take on Michael Lewis. Reading is fun and I will make sure it will stay that way for me forever.
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Steve Jobs steps down (resigns as CEO of Apple)
Tim Cook is the new Apple CEO, effective immediately. It is a sad news indeed. I have no words to describe what impact this will make on the loyal Apple community and its users, but one thing is for sure that this will not stop Apple's success as a company.
Here is what Steve Jobs said in his resignation letter:
To the Apple Board of Directors and the Apple Community:
I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come.
I hereby resign as CEO of Apple. I would like to serve, if the Board sees fit, as Chairman of the Board, director and Apple employee.
As far as my successor goes, I strongly recommend that we execute our succession plan and name Tim Cook as CEO of Apple.
I believe Apple’s brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it. And I look forward to watching and contributing to its success in a new role.
I have made some of the best friends of my life at Apple, and I thank you all for the many years of being able to work alongside you.
Steve
Good Luck Steve. You are my Hero.
Here is what Steve Jobs said in his resignation letter:
To the Apple Board of Directors and the Apple Community:
I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come.
I hereby resign as CEO of Apple. I would like to serve, if the Board sees fit, as Chairman of the Board, director and Apple employee.
As far as my successor goes, I strongly recommend that we execute our succession plan and name Tim Cook as CEO of Apple.
I believe Apple’s brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it. And I look forward to watching and contributing to its success in a new role.
I have made some of the best friends of my life at Apple, and I thank you all for the many years of being able to work alongside you.
Steve
Good Luck Steve. You are my Hero.
Must Watch - Portal: No Escape
I am a very big fan of the Portal game and I knew this would happen some day. Well friends there is this short film on youtube which is selling like hot cakes and it has around 500,000 views in just 2 days. The movie took 1.5 years in the making and it got created by Dan Trachtenberg. Even if you don't know about this game I am sure you will like this short film. I wish that someday this will be made into the full length movie. Enjoy the video below (in full screen and HD) and experience the crazy world of Portal.
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Apple App store is down
[Update@12:25 pm CST] - The App store is up now. Not sure what was the reason for this outage.
This morning at around 9:00 am CST when I tried to access the online Apple store the page was not able to load. At first I thought it was just me but soon after that I came to know that the Apple store is down. Usually when this happens Apple will put some kind of notification about the maintenance they are performing. Somehow I am not having a good feeling about it and I might be wrong. Currently it is around 12:00 pm CST and the site seems to be down, still. It seems to be a pretty big down time for the Apple store and I guess nobody has anticipated that.
Are they launching any new product or are they being hacked or is it some unusual unsuspected server crash? Well we need to wait and check out what exactly happened. Hope Apple will release the reasons for this downtime. Will keep you updated as soon as I am able to access the Apple store.
This morning at around 9:00 am CST when I tried to access the online Apple store the page was not able to load. At first I thought it was just me but soon after that I came to know that the Apple store is down. Usually when this happens Apple will put some kind of notification about the maintenance they are performing. Somehow I am not having a good feeling about it and I might be wrong. Currently it is around 12:00 pm CST and the site seems to be down, still. It seems to be a pretty big down time for the Apple store and I guess nobody has anticipated that.
Are they launching any new product or are they being hacked or is it some unusual unsuspected server crash? Well we need to wait and check out what exactly happened. Hope Apple will release the reasons for this downtime. Will keep you updated as soon as I am able to access the Apple store.
Monday, August 15, 2011
Google strikes back: Plan to acquire Motorola Mobility
Google decided to acquire Motorola Mobility for $40.00 per share in cash, or a total of about $12.5 billion. Now as we all know by now that this is a huge news. This will make the smart phone competition more interesting and challenging. This is the clear indication that now Google is making itself more stronger and this deal will bring Google in direct competition with Apple. So far Apple is the only company that makes both the mobile software and the hardware, and now Google will do the same once this deal will be done sometime by the end of this year or the beginning of next year.
In the war of the patents Google has been a loser and this seems to be the revenge of Larry Page. Google did not did well and was not able to capture what it was looking for during the Nortel patent saga. With this deal Google got 17,000 Motorola patents plus 7000 Motorola patents which are in the pipeline, making it a total of around 24,000 patents. I believe Google is smart enough to spend it cash wisely and to me they are not after the patents, may be they are, but to me it is more of a strategic deal. I am not an expert here but to me 24,000 patents for $12.5 billion is a not such a good deal. What worries me as of now is that with this deal Google got an additional of 19,000 Motorola employees and their current strenght is 29,000 which is like 60% increase in the workforce of Google. I am sure Larry have had that in mind before he proceed to make this deal. There are some serious questions for the leadership and mangement teams at Google on how they plan to manage such a massive work force? Google has been a software company for all these years and now with this deal it is entering the hardware market which could become another challenging job for the search giant. Out an out this has been an intresting move by Google and will surely proliferate the unstoppable Android and its followers and we see get a huge spike in the mobile operating system. To get more details on this deal read Larry’s blog here.
Not sure what will be Apple’s reaction on this one, but I guess it will not do much about it. Time for Microsoft to make a move and buy Nokia. I was pretty sure that Microsoft will buy Nokia sometime this year but I have never imagined that Google will make a first move. Anyway I guess it is never too late for Microsoft to add the dying Nokia into its family.
With this deal the smart phone war has become pretty sweet and of course fun to watch. I know I said that before and I guess I will keep saying that as there is still lot more to come.
In the war of the patents Google has been a loser and this seems to be the revenge of Larry Page. Google did not did well and was not able to capture what it was looking for during the Nortel patent saga. With this deal Google got 17,000 Motorola patents plus 7000 Motorola patents which are in the pipeline, making it a total of around 24,000 patents. I believe Google is smart enough to spend it cash wisely and to me they are not after the patents, may be they are, but to me it is more of a strategic deal. I am not an expert here but to me 24,000 patents for $12.5 billion is a not such a good deal. What worries me as of now is that with this deal Google got an additional of 19,000 Motorola employees and their current strenght is 29,000 which is like 60% increase in the workforce of Google. I am sure Larry have had that in mind before he proceed to make this deal. There are some serious questions for the leadership and mangement teams at Google on how they plan to manage such a massive work force? Google has been a software company for all these years and now with this deal it is entering the hardware market which could become another challenging job for the search giant. Out an out this has been an intresting move by Google and will surely proliferate the unstoppable Android and its followers and we see get a huge spike in the mobile operating system. To get more details on this deal read Larry’s blog here.
Not sure what will be Apple’s reaction on this one, but I guess it will not do much about it. Time for Microsoft to make a move and buy Nokia. I was pretty sure that Microsoft will buy Nokia sometime this year but I have never imagined that Google will make a first move. Anyway I guess it is never too late for Microsoft to add the dying Nokia into its family.
With this deal the smart phone war has become pretty sweet and of course fun to watch. I know I said that before and I guess I will keep saying that as there is still lot more to come.
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Apple beats Exxon Mobil and becomes most valuable company
Market lose is Apple’s gain and today for the first time ever Apple is ahead of Exxon Mobil in the total market valuation and thus now Apple becomes the most valuable company in the World. Yesteday for the first time Apple took the lead and was ahead of Exxon Mobil, but Exxon recovered at the close of the market and got ahead of Apple. Today there was no stopping for the tech giant (thanks to the massive market crash) and now Apple is ahead of Exxon Mobil in market capitalization by a total of $6.4 billion.
It is extremely remarkable for Apple because last year it overtook Microsoft to become the most valued tech company and today it overtook Exxon to become the most valued company in any field of business. At the start of this year Apple was $75 billion behind Exxon and as of today Apple is ahead of Exxon by $6.4 billion.
Great Job Steve or Steve Job(s) great.
It is extremely remarkable for Apple because last year it overtook Microsoft to become the most valued tech company and today it overtook Exxon to become the most valued company in any field of business. At the start of this year Apple was $75 billion behind Exxon and as of today Apple is ahead of Exxon by $6.4 billion.
Great Job Steve or Steve Job(s) great.
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