512 Pixels

Palm’s new ad for the Pre is gutsy. But I suppose it has to be.

CNN, quoting AOL:

Today was a seminal moment in Internet history. We’ve never seen anything like it in terms of scope or depth.

Twitter, AIM, Google News, TMZ, the LA Times and other sites all suffered outages as news broke about Michael Jackson late yesterday.

From Apple:

Dear MobileMe member:

As a final reminder, on July 7, 2009, the .Mac HomePage web application will be discontinued. As of this date, you will no longer be able to create new pages or edit existing pages using HomePage. Any pages you’ve already published will remain live at their current web address for as long as you like. If you need to make changes to your existing pages, please do so before July 7.

Instead of HomePage, we recommend the other sharing features of your MobileMe membership. With MobileMe Gallery, you can share photos online directly from iPhoto or the web application at www.me.com. And using iWeb on your Mac, you can create custom websites and blogs and publish them to MobileMe.

We apologize for any inconvenience this change may cause. For more information, please read this FAQ. And thank you for being a MobileMe member.

Sincerely,

The MobileMe Team

I made my first website with HomePage back in 2003. I just logged in to look around one last time. I created this photo gallery of photos on my iDisk to flex HomePage’s muscles one last time.

It was so awesome in it’s day, but Apple let it languish - graphics with a white iBook G3 and brushed metal abound on the site. I’m surprised it’s lasted this long, honestly.

Remember when it came out that Apple’s new notebooks were running SATA at 1.5Gbps, instead of the 3.0 standard? Well, Apple released a firmware update to address the issue, but it looks like the update is causing issues with third-party hard drives. Gizmodo points to this thread on Apple’s discussion boards, full of posts complaining of problems.

Surely this was simply a mistake on Apple’s part.* One they need to fix immediately. Leaving users without hard drives isn’t good - especially owners of brand-new notebooks, as this only affects the Mid–2009 models.

———-

*The thought of Apple doing this to limit users to Apple-branded drives

makes me shudder.

Ars Technica:

Mobile uploads to YouTube have increased by 400 percent since last Friday’s release of the iPhone 3GS, Google announced today. The device is the first iPhone with video capabilities and is able to upload videos directly to MobileMe or YouTube, even over the 3G network. With the ability to send videos to the Internet almost immediately, it’s no surprise that users are taking the opportunity to upload videos on-the-spot from their iPhones.

Impressive, but not surprising.

From the Wall Street Journal - via Google News to get around the WSJ’s stupid pay wall:

“At this point, losing Tim Cook would be a bigger deal to investors than if Steve Jobs stepped aside,” says Gene Munster, an analyst for Piper Jaffray. “Just that thought makes my stomach tighten up.”

[…]

“Now it’s clear that Tim Cook can run any technology-based company,” says Stephen Mader, a co-head of the CEO practice at recruiters Korn/Ferry International. “He’s a more attractive CEO candidate both inside Apple and outside.”

Under Mr. Cook’s leadership, Apple’s stock has risen about 60% since mid-January, compared with an 18% increase in the Nasdaq Composite Index. Shares closed at $137.37, down $2.11, on Monday. In April, Apple also reported a 15% increase in quarterly profit as consumers continued to buy its iPods and iPhones.

Several people who do business with Apple say their dealings with the company have remained unchanged in recent months and that products continue to be developed and released on schedule. One tech-industry recruiter said Mr. Cook has been taking on more CEO responsibilities, such as negotiations with AT&T Inc., the exclusive U.S. carrier for Apple’s popular iPhone.

I’d be shocked if someone other than Cook is named Jobs’ successor.

Math geeks, rejoice.

John Welch:

All this shit, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, FriendFeed, DoucheBlog, all of it, is just people talking to each other, in a fairly direct way. It’s analgous to a telephone. You don’t really think much about the phone system, it’s only there to allow you to talk to someone far away. Same thing for online shit. It can be a one to one, one to many, many to one, many to many, or all of the above, but it’s just people talking to each other.

If you make it more complicated than that as a concept, stop. You’re about to go off the cliff into New Media Douchebaggery, and you don’t want that. Ever.

[…]

The point is, if you can say “We should be on Twitter/Facebook/whatever, because…” and you have an easily explained reason that can be translated to “They make it easier to talk to our customers and people who we want to be our customers”, then that’s a good idea. If your reason is “Well, it seems to be popular with the kids”, stop. Don’t do it. You’ll just look like someone’s parents grinding at their kids’ prom because they want to look cool, or that guy at the club who’s too old to be acting the way he’s acting. Proper use of shit like Twitter et al can do wonders for you at high speed. Fucking it up because you’re clueless can cut your throat just as fast.

These are the best three paragraphs on social media ever.

From the hospital’s website:

James D. Eason, M.D., program director at Methodist University Hospital Transplant Institute and chief of transplantation confirmed today, with the patient’s permission, that Steve Jobs received a liver transplant at Methodist University Hospital Transplant Institute in partnership with the University of Tennessee in Memphis.

Mr. Jobs underwent a complete transplant evaluation and was listed for transplantation for an approved indication in accordance with the Transplant Institute policies and United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) policies.

He received a liver transplant because he was the patient with the highest MELD score (Model for End-Stage Liver Disease) of his blood type and, therefore, the sickest patient on the waiting list at the time a donor organ became available. Mr. Jobs is now recovering well and has an excellent prognosis.

The Methodist University Hospital Transplant Institute performed 120 liver transplants in 2008 making it one of the ten largest liver transplant centers in the United States. We provide transplants to patients regardless of race, sex, age, financial status, or place of residence. Our one year patient and graft survival rates are among the best in the nation and were a dominant reason in Mr. Jobs’s choice of transplant centers. We respect and protect every patient’s private health information and cannot reveal any further information on the specifics of Mr. Jobs’s case.

All the best to Mr. Jobs.

My new 24-inch iMac (a replacement from Apple for my dead 20-inch model) arrived today. Here, the new keyboard sits next to my Apple Extended II keyboard, which I will continue to use daily. The iPhone 3G and Apple remote are present for reference.

The New York Times has addressed Apple’s passion for staying tight-lipped:

Most governance experts do seem to agree on one point: that the secrecy that adds surprise and excitement to Apple product announcements is not serving the company well in other areas.

“In this environment, where transparency is critical, the more information you give the marketplace the better,” said Charles Elson, director of the John L. Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware. “For a technology company that views itself as innovative, it’s a little odd that they are getting a reputation for lack of transparency.”

TUAW:

Just when you think you’re in the groove for the new iPhone 3G S, Apple goes and starts changing the game. The 3G S is, figuratively speaking, no more. Apple has quietly been changing all references on it site from 3G S to 3GS. The space between the G and the S has been removed.

I kinda liked the space, but what if we started using iPhone ///GS?