512 Pixels

A fascinating look back by Gizmodo.

All over the world, the dozens of people who own 30GB Zunes are finding their beloved media players dead. And not just mostly dead. Really dead.

Zune.net Forums:

From what I can tell it looks like every Zune 30 on the planet has suddenly crashed. Is this a virus? A glitch? A time bomb? A disgruntled Microsoft employee? Planned obsolescence to make us buy a new one?  Or just a terrorist plot to drive the free world crazy?

Wired:

Speculation is of course centered around the timing. It is New Year’s Eve, after all, and the conspiracy nuts are calling this Z2K (with or without a +9 at the end). Our own NYC Bureau Chief John C Abell prefers the idea that it is “Brilliant Microsoft DRM Technology”, which would be the most hilarious explanation.

I bet some people get fired over this one.

With Zune users still banging their brown devices against the wall, Microsoft has yet to announce a fix. I am very curious to see how long it takes for a patch, but one thing is for sure: With a product family as berated and up-against-the-man as the Zune is, a sweeping failure of every single one (even of one model) of them is bad. Real bad.

As much drinking as the Zune PR team was already doing on a regular basis before today, you know they’re going to get hammered tonight.

Gizmodo:

Steve’s health is rapidly declining. Apple is choosing to remove the hype factor strategically vs letting the hype destroy apple when the inevitable news comes later this spring.

This strategic loss will be less of a bang with investors. This is why Macworld is a no-go anymore. No more Steve means no more hype. Saying they are no longer needing [Macworld] is the cover designed by the worldwide “loyalty” department.

But in the other corner, CNBC:

I was told two weeks ago by sources inside Apple that the decision had nothing to do with Jobs’ health. I got the same message today. Period.

I will say again: if Apple is lying, holding some truth back, manipulating its own stock by manipulating the truth, someone — indeed a lot of people — could be going to jail. Do I like the way Apple has handled this ongoing story? No. But do I traffic in rumors to fill the void the company has created by not choosing to be more forthcoming about Jobs’s health? Absolutely not.

My vote is for CNBC’s story.

Espresso, Macrabbit’s new suite of web-building applications, has hit beta:

As you may know, we planned to have Espresso ready in November. Unfortunately our schedule slipped and while we have an active private beta program, everybody else was getting a little antsy. With this in mind, we have decided to open up the Espresso Beta to everyone until we reach the final. Espresso is already a great editor — and we love using it ourselves — but we want to make more changes before slapping the official “version 1” seal on. This Public Beta allows us to do that without being an annoying tease.

I’ve spent a little time with it, and it’s pretty slick, but then again, these are the guys who make the fabulous CSSEdit (which I use on every site I build, including this one), so I wouldn’t expect much less.

I also like that straight-up honesty on their beta page. It’s nice to see companies be transparent.

Google Support Document 107906:

Browsers are getting faster and better at running web applications like Google Mail that use browser technology to its limits. In order to get the best experience possible and make Google Mail run an average of twice as fast, we suggest that you upgrade your browser to one of the fastest Google Mail supported browsers that work on Windows.

The options listed? Firefox, and Google’s own Chrome browser.

Gizmodo’s Jason Chen on video tearing and distortion issues with Apple’s new Mini DisplayPort to Dual-Link DVI adaptor:

Our own limited testing showed that this happens really quickly (in about a minute) when there’s a USB hub plugged either into the second MacBook Pro USB port, or into the pass-through port on the actual adapter itself. If we have nothing plugged in, the display is fine, but if we have a powered hub plugged in, the distortion hits almost immediately.

No good.

Macblogz:

The eternal battle between Apple’s priorities with form over function played a major role in this summer’s past Mobile Me meltdown. Apple puts so much emphasis on making sure every millimeter of the screen is pixel perfect, and that the User Interface is so shiny that you want to lick it. But when it comes to the core infrastructure of the service, or the back-end functionality holding up in critical times, it seemed like an after thought. Perhaps in the future they’ll spend less time on perfecting that gradient, and more time making sure their servers scale.

Ouch. I agree to an extent, but hopefully the service’s issues are a thing of the past.

The Onion, in 1999:

In an effort to prevent such incidents of “excessive iconoclasm” in the future, Apple has developed a manual outlining the company’s rules and regulations regarding individualism. Permitted will be such unorthodox activities as removing shoes when seated or within four feet of a desk; whistling when given prior written permission from a direct supervisor; and kicking puddles, provided the kicking is conducted during one’s lunch hour and the puddle is one of the 35 on the Apple campus specifically designated for such a purpose. Prohibited will be such “gratuitously idiosyncratic” behaviors as singing out loud, flying kites and catching butterflies.

“Of course, we want our employees to be individuals and ‘do their own thing,’ so to speak,” Apple director of corporate communications Michael Landau said. “But Mr. Barlow’s behavior consistently crossed the line. If he wants to think that different, he can do it on his own time.”

Kaufman Bros. analyst Shaw Wu:

“While CEO Steve Jobs deserves a lot of credit for the revival and success of Apple and, as one of the founding fathers of technology, helping revolutionize the world with the Apple I, Apple II, Lisa, Macintosh, NeXT, Pixar, Mac OS X, the Apple Store, iTunes, iPod, and iPhone, we believe Apple today has a deep bench and its culture of innovation and execution or ‘spirit’ has more or less been institutionalized…

We believe Apple has always been an innovative company and we would like to note that most overlook that the company actually had some hit products while Mr. Jobs was not there that defined the computer industry, including the Macintosh Quadra, QuickTime, PowerMac and PowerBook, and Apple IIgs.”

As the news of Apple’s withdraw from Macworld settles in on the Macintosh user community, the news that Steve Jobs won’t be holding the company’s last Macworld keynote still has a lot of people wondering about the health of Apple and of Jobs himself. While some believe Jobs has fallen ill and the company scrambled to figure out what to do, the general consensus is that this is the beginning of a long, gradual transfer of power and public face time from Jobs to other members of Apple’s core leadership group.

A transition, rather than a hand-off, will prove effective, I believe, for several reasons. Mainly, Apple has to break the idea that so many people hold of “Steve is Apple; Apple is Steve.” This has hurt the company before, an will continue to do so as Steve reaches retirement.

A recent example (and probably most outlandish result of this pretense) is a CNN “iReporter” posted a story that Jobs had been rushed to the hospital after suffering a heart attack. As the news spread, Apple’s stock fell. Afterwards, when the story was proven false, the stock didn’t bounce up too far.

A few weeks before Jobs announced the revamped iPod line in September, rumors of the CEO’s health were running rampant, fueled by the accidental release of Jobs’ obituary by a clumsy news organization. Jobs fired back by having a slide in his keynote saying “The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.” But the damage to the stock was done.

These stories highlight the fact that in a world where investors and customers view the CEO as the driving force in a company, a transition can be a very dangerous thing, but Apple’s figured it out. By transitioning now, they can control it. Pulling out of Macworld lets them control when, how, and where they announce new products; pulling Steve out of Macworld lets them control when, how, and where other executives start taking the stage more and more. If history has taught us anything about Apple, it is that they like control.

In actuality, this transition has been in play for about a year. Jobs has been joined on stage by several other Apple executives over the past year to help demo or announce the iPhone SDK, the iPhone 3G, the new iPods, and (most recently) the new unibody notebooks. Moving the spotlight away from Jobs slowly shows the company is thinking ahead, and doesn’t want to get caught in a situation where Jobs is suddenly unable to perform his role, and no one is there to step up.

Which brings us to Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. Schiller is no stranger to Apple events. He helped demo OS X for the first time. When Apple released Airport, he jumped off a platform with an accelerometer strapped to an iBook G3 to show how easily data could be sent from an Airport-equipped iBook.

More recently, Apple tapped Schiller to announce the iMac G5, when Jobs was out after surgery related to his pancreatic cancer. While not as polished as Jobs on stage, Schiller is no slouch when it comes to announcing products. (For comparison, here’s Jobs announcing the aluminum iMac.) But when filling Jobs’ shoes, you have to have awfully big feet. Even a great speaker is not as good as an extraordinary speaker. This is the fundamental problem Schiller faces- he may not ever be able to get out from behind Jobs’s shadow.

The other issue is not who, but what. When Schiller gets on stage at Apple’s last Macworld in a week and a half, what will he have to announce? If Schiller announces merely speed bumps and Mini-Display Ports on all Mac desktops, and then walks off stage, people will (unfairly) conclude that without Jobs, Apple isn’t capable of making big announcements. But with the recent updates of the company’s new iPod and notebook lines, there may not be much left to show off in January. (Again, why would Apple want to be tied to releasing something major right after the holiday buying season?)

What Apple (and Schiller) need is a biz-wang, leave-their-mouths-hanging-open Macworld keynote. It reminds Mac fans, investors, an the press that Schiller is more than capable of delivering Steve-like keynotes, and that Apple can and will succeed without their co-founder in the spotlight. But if Macworld 2009 is lackluster, Schiller will have plenty more chances to take the stage.

So much about this article makes me mad, I can’t decide what to quote.