the CouchGuy blog

"Can’t innovate anymore my ass!"

Mon, 10 Jun 2013 18:15:15 -0500

“Can’t innovate anymore my ass!”

- Phil Schiller at today’s WWDC 2013 Keynote. (via minimalmac)

Call your legislators to let them know how you feel about their...

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 06:52:56 -0500

Call your legislators to let them know how you feel about their vote on #CISPA! https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=564519693592703&set=a.251867728191236.64940.251838778194131&type=1&theater

Neven Mrgan's tumbl: Speculation regarding a possible "SmartBand" product

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 11:22:25 -0500

Neven Mrgan's tumbl: Speculation regarding a possible "SmartBand" product:

mrgan:

A few weeks ago, I briefly posted that between the two currently-rumored Apple products, I was more intrigued by the possible “watch” than the TV set. It seems simpler, more unique, and less of a logistical nightmare to build, sell, and support.

This was just an intuition, since I wasn’t really…

Revisited: The "Color Kindle Killer"

Mon, 03 Sep 2012 09:55:00 -0500

The post reblogged below first appeared here exactly a year ago yesterday. The “color Kindle touchscreen device” was the Kindle Fire. Apparently, Apple wasn’t ready to pull the trigger then. But, in the next two months, they will. It’s not much of an ambush, though. More like Amazon hearing the footsteps behind them getting closer… and closer… Still, not a bad call.

I love Amazon. I think the Kindle is very cool. I really think Amazon is the only company capable of leveraging something that could successfully compete with the iPad.

MG Siegler just revealed that he has seen and touched and used a device intended for that purpose – a color Kindle touchscreen device with a 7 inch screen running an Amazon-developed fork of Android. It won’t support the existing Android marketplace – it is rather designed to be primarily a reading/media/web device, leveraging Amazon’s book, music and video sales engines.

…and they plan to sell it for $250, starting in November.

This fits right into my idea of what might be a credible iPad competitor. (Not an “iPad Killer”. Unless someone can compete with the mighty iOS software library, there can be no such thing. Period.) They could do what everyone else has failed to do – create a real tablet market as opposed to an iPad market.

And yet…

I almost hate myself for thinking of this, but…

Do y’all remember back before the iPad was released and rumors floated around about a 7 inch screen device in the works at Apple? Even after the iPad came out, there were persistent stories about prototypes with a smaller form factor. I even vaguely recall some half-believable stories about Apple lining up a supply of such screens. Nothing ever surfaced, however.

But we know Apple can build such a device. That’s pretty much a lead-pipe cinch. I’d give good odds that a prototype exists of a 7 inch iPad. Of course, they have no reason to release such a device as long as they can already sell every iPad they can make. Unless a viable alternative appears at the lower end. Like, say, now.

Suppose… suppose they built it. In fact, suppose they are ready to build it now.

What price point could Apple hit with a device equivalent to an iPad 1 (equivalent processor, no camera, no GPS, wi-fi only, 16 GB flash memory) sporting a 7 inch screen? Could they hit a $250 price to match the new Amazon Color Kindle? Almost certainly.

In truth, they wouldn’t have to hit a $250 price point at all. The added value of a full-fledged iOS device that would run all existing iOS software (possible on a 7 inch device if the screen resolution matched the iPad 1 in a smaller form factor) would make the iPad Mini a no-brainer purchase over a Kindle Color even at $300.

The question is not “Could they do it?” – the question is “Would they do it?”. It might even be “Have they already done it and just not pulled the trigger?”.

Yews, I know it is positively paranoid of me to think of such a thing – Machiavellian McLimore, I am. But still…

Could they…? Would they…? Will they…? HAVE they…?

Isn’t there an Apple event coming up real soon…?

Posted with Blogsy

Taking the long view... and the longer view... of Samsung v Apple

Sat, 25 Aug 2012 18:00:17 -0500

As I’ve often said, when Andy Ihnatko talks about Apple or the technology industry in general, I’m listening. Unlike so many so-called “journalists” or “pundits” who have earned neither of those designations, Ihnatko speaks without hidden agendas. He isn’t there to tell you how to think. He’s there to call your attention to things you might be wanting to think about, and to make sure you have enough info to consider them intelligently. The fact that he can do so while still being one of the most entertaining writers around is a bonus.

So when Ihnatko offers guidance about what the verdict in Samsung vs. Apple could mean for the future of the phone & tablet market, it is good idea for you (and me) to know that.

If you haven’t read the Ihnatko piece yet… well, what the heck are you doing listening to me first? Click on the link above and hear his first reaction to the verdict. I have, and while I have to — reluctantly — agree with much of it in the short term, I think the long term effect will be quite different.

Ihnatko says “If the decision stands, it’ll make it far, far more difficult, expensive, and risky to be a company that designs phones and tablets.” I think he’s right as far as that goes. He also says “If the verdict stands, then the costs of the judgment will be reflected in the cost of mobile devices. Furthermore, other manufacturers will feel the need to buy Apple’s official permission to build useful phones, passing down the possible $20-per-handset fee.” He’s right about that, too. Anyone who buys a non-Apple smartphone is going to pay more for it.

Where I don’t agree is with this: “The biggest losers here are consumers.” And with this: “Friday’s verdict doesn’t feel like justice. It feels like the day when Apple lost a hunk of its public persona as sweet hippies motivated by excellence and freedom, who win by making the best products.”

Consumers will take a hit, assuredly, in the short term. But they were already being short-changed by an industry that would very much like to return to the pre-iPhone days. In those days everyone took the easy route and made phones that satisfied the industry as a way to milk their customers endlessly with virtually no real use of technology to improve their customer’s experience. Consumers hated their phones, but since everyone was making essentially the same thing, no one cared about what consumers wanted, let alone about what they needed but didn’t know was something they could ask to have.

Apple changed that by making the first real improvements in the cell phone experience in years. They spent a lot of money to do it. More importantly, a lot of good people who took pride in their work and their visions spent long days and nights away from their families and their other pursuits. They were motivated by more than money. They were motivated by pride and by a personal vision they shared with Steve Jobs and the rest of their Apple colleagues.

I’m no Pollyanna. Money drives Apple. It must — they have stockholders who are never satisfied, no matter how good the company’s growth and performance. But what made Apple different was a constant belief that vision attracted money, rather than money being something that could buy vision. Time has proven them right.

Even so, Steve Jobs was more than once bitterly disappointed by people who thought the process of creation could be furthered with a shortcut, taking the vision of someone else and using it without doing the work and putting in the thought — instead just pretending you understood what it meant. Microsoft did that with Windows, Google did that with Android. Jobs never understood this mindset, and never forgave it.

Where someone sees a vision, embraces it, is inspired by it, and wants to be a part of it, you get innovation on top of innovation. When someone copies the trappings of a vision just to say “Me, too!” in hopes of profitting from the spread of that vision and without really sharing it or understanding it — that does not promote growth or innovation or anything other than stagnation. It takes bread out of the mouths of the real innovators without contributing anything.

Google was slavishly copying Blackberry with their early work on a Google phone, even though Blackberry had long since gone stagnant. Later, Google took advantage of their open partnership with Apple to switch gears and do the same to them when it became clear that people were responding to Apple’s direction. Again, they largely did this with no direction or vision of their own except a desire to have the same level of success as Apple without really knowing how to get there.

The Samsung case shows the end result of that kind of “innovation”. The evidence gathered undisputedly showed that Samsung was happy to offer customers no more than the same old crap that allowed the wireless companies that were their only really valued “customers” to bleed consumers without caring about improving their lot. When Apple outsold them in droves, giving those coinsumers a new alternative, they looked at their products in comparison and, rather than working to make their products better for the consumer, they deliberately chose to take the easy way by just copying Apple’s look without understanding the philosophy behind it in the least.

Samsung’s own documents conclusively show their mindset. “We can see our products are perceived as being less desirable than Apple’s products. We don’t know why (and don’t care to really make the effort to determine why) Apple’s work is superior. So we will set out to just make our products more like Apple’s products to siphon off some of their success.” Steve Jobs was fed up with that kind of thinking. Samsung hoped that Jobs’ death would find Tim Cook more willing to accept this. They were wrong.

The Apple v Samsung verdict will cripple the “smartphone” industry only because so much of that “industry” only consists of companies trying to make a fast buck copying what Apple accomplished. As soon as some company combines real vision with a willingness to embrace risk in the pursuit of a move forward, it may be Apple that finds itself needing to catch up. I look forward to that day, but it isn’t likely to come soon. Inertia paralyzed the phone industry for years, and for the most part contines to do so.

If the Apple v Samsung verdict has a chilling effect on “copycat innovation”, the consumer will take a hit in the short term but in the long view it will promote real innovation by forcing companies to actually attempt to seek better ways to serve their customers instead of just trailing along behind the crowd without knowing why. Technology companies and the public are better served by anticipating what customers will want tomorrow and using technology to fill needs that the public does not yet know they have — as Apple has done.

Apple v Samsung’s legacy may be to force a “smartphone” industry hat rose on the backs of first Blackberry, then Apple, to stop tweaking the smartphone and start designing the devices that will supplant it. If they can do a better job of that than Apple itself, great! Sooner or later, someone will. But they won’t do it while whining about Apple suppressing their “rights” to share the success that the whiners didn’t earn.

Posted with Blogsy

Luna City Bound

Sat, 25 Aug 2012 16:06:05 -0500

When I am gone from this oppressive planet

My spirit will to Luna City fly,

Where disappointment no longer can hurt me

And gravity at last I can defy.

I’ll finally give thanks to Neil and Robert,

Then join the countless others in that place

To wait for Humankind to come and seek us,

And take our race, at last, out into space.

— Guy McLimore

for RAH, Neil, and everyone else who shared the dream.

Ihnatko: Near-total victory for Apple stifles phone, tablet design

Sat, 25 Aug 2012 12:43:00 -0500

Ihnatko: Near-total victory for Apple stifles phone, tablet design:

This link isn’t here because I agree with it. It is here because anyone who has any interest in Apple or the technology industry at all should be listening when Andy Ihnatko is talking. I’m listening, but I’m not convinced.
More in a bit…

10 Things You Need to Know About the Future of Television

Mon, 30 Jul 2012 09:41:52 -0500

10 Things You Need to Know About the Future of Television:

A really great presentation which breaks down some myths and hurdles on the road to a new TV paradigm.

What is the next big consumer electronics device?

Wed, 25 Jul 2012 23:35:54 -0500

Here’s CouchGuy out on a limb again…

The next really big consumer device will be an easy-to-use 3D printer. Not something a hobbyist can use with a lot of fiddling around — a consumer-level plug and play device you hook wirelessly to your home network
and dump standardized 3D object files to from your laptop or iDevice.

Put in plastic pellets on one end and take out finished items on the other. Make that work reliably without fuss, and you can write yourself a blank check that consumers will cash for you.

If I were in charge at Apple, I’d have had a hush-hush skunkworks team developing this for some time.

Maybe they have…

If I were Apple, I’d have a Skunkworks project working on that right now.

comicbookdeviant: Batman // Art by Gonzalo Ordóñez Arias

Sat, 21 Jul 2012 06:56:52 -0500

comicbookdeviant:

Batman // Art by Gonzalo Ordóñez Arias

Kick Ass Costumes for American Girl Dolls

Mon, 25 Jun 2012 15:36:51 -0500

dcwomenkickingass:

If you’ve got an American Girl Doll (We’ve got like 5 here thanks to way too generous grandparents) or want to make Molly, Addie and Ivy a little bit more awesome, then I’ve found the perfect thing on Etsy; Wonder Woman Batgirl and Supergirl costumes.

I’m ordering that Batgirl costume.

Superheroine costumes for the American Girl dolls!

My 1000th Digital Comic

Wed, 20 Jun 2012 14:00:59 -0500

I’ve been absent from this Tumblr blog for about 6 months. These days, I do most of my digital interaction via Twitter, where I can be found as @couchguy — and where you likely came from if you are reading this. Still, I felt the need to commemorate a certain personal milestone in a bit longer format, so I’m back, and I will try to post here more often.

A lot has changed in the last two years, and even in the six months since my last post on this blog. Digital comics went from an experimental curiosity to the most vital and exciting part of the comics business. There is no doubt in the minds of anyone who isn’t still desperately burying his head in the sand that digital releases are an important factor in the decision-making process of every comics publisher.

Today, I will purchase my 1000th digital comic through ComiXology (www.comixology.com). This is certainly no milestone for ComiXology, the dominant digital comics marketer. I’m sure there are far more frequent purchasers than yours truly. Nor is ComiXology the only place I buy digital comics these days. Though ComiXology ably represents most of the largest publishers as well as a large number of indy creators, I also support other digital initiatives I find interesting. There are lots of business models being experimented with, and I support and enjoy a lot of other digital comics including:

Kickstarter-based digital comics projects from various creators (www.kickstarter.com)
Dark Horse’s well-designed digital store for their own releases (digital.darkhorse.com)
Red Circle’s interesting subscriber-based program for The New Crusaders (redcirclecomics.com)
Mark Waid’s Thrillbent digital comics site featuring the excellent Insufferable (www.thrillbent.com)
Great comics like John Kovalic’s Dork Tower via Drive-Thru Comics (comics.drivethrustuff.com)

Even so, ComiXology is my preferred one-stop shop for DC and Marvel, plus a variety of smaller publisher and indy creators, and reaching the 1000 digital comics purchases milestone caught me by surprise when I realized yesterday that I would almost certainly pass that as part of my usual Wednesday Digital Comics Lunch (or, as I call it, WeDiCoLu).

I decided that the mark needed to be commemorated by purchasing something meaningful and symbolic as my 1000th purchase. I asked for help from @ComiXology by requesting that their Twitter followers make suggestions as to what I should buy.

I got some great suggestions! Some suggested titles I had already discovered and sampled or added to my regular purchase list. (Yes, I know how good Courtney Crumrin is…) Some were new to me and I’m adding them to my list based on suggestions (see below). A couple were sincere suggestions, but they just aren’t something I really want to read. (I hear Adventure Time captures the feel of the cartoon series perfectly — but I’m not fond of the series to begin with…)

I led up to this countdown and discovered how close I was to #1000 when I raided the ComiXology Atomic Robo sale and completed my collection of that great series. I promise I will never miss another issue! I decided to count down to #1000 with the following purchases this morning:

#994: Pterodactyl Hunters in the Gilded City (Top Shelf) (suggested by @dale_a)
http://www.comixology.com/Pterodactyl-Hunters-in-the-Gilded-City/digital-comic/FEB121159
Buying this based on the great title and the recommendation alone. I would never have seen it if not for digital release.

#995-996: Silver Surfer Parable #1 & #2 (Marvel) (suggested by @KP_Pearl)
http://www.comixology.com/Silver-Surfer-Parable/comics-series/8377
I’m not a big Silver Surfer fan, so I would not have seen this without the suggestion. Stan Lee and Moebius! I’d buy this just to see Moebius draw Galactus!

#997: Chronos 1,000,000 (DC) (suggested by @TheFlashReborn)
http://www.comixology.com/Chronos-1000000/digital-comic/JUL980123
This is the only issue of the DC One Million series I didn’t get when it was first printed. I don’t know why — probably because it sold out before I got to the comics shop. I didn’t have the luxury of getting to the comics shop every Wednesday, so I frequently missed things I wanted to see. This was instrumental in driving me away from comics for a long time. Missing DC’s Wednesday Comics #1 and having the whole run spoiled because of it was the last straw for me. Now, I never worry about missing anything!

#998: Godzilla Ongoing #2 (IDW)
http://www.comixology.com/Godzilla-Ongoing-2/digital-comic/APR120370
The IDW Godzilla comics are a must-have for me, as my love for Godzilla goes back nearly as far as my love for comics. I was so disappointed when this was the ONLY IDW line not available digitally, but I did manage to pick up most of the print issues. Now that they are digital, I never miss an issue and I rebought many of them as digital collections.

#999: Young Justice #17 (DC)
http://www.comixology.com/Young-Justice-2011-17/digital-comic/APR120271
#1001: Batman Beyond #8 (DC)
http://www.comixology.com/Batman-Beyond-2012-8/digital-comic/DIG001543
I couldn’t decide between these two, so one will be #999 and one will be #1001. Both are regular buys for me and are among my favorite titles. Both remind me of what digital comics can do. Young Justice is a great all-ages title that transcends that designation. It is the perfect compliment to the cartoon series, which I adore. Batman Beyond is a digital-first release that hits the sweet spot at 99 cents an issue and (along with sister titles Superman Beyond and Justice League Beyond) still preserves the DC Animated Universe that is my favorite version of DC “reality”.

My favorite DC New 52 title, Batgirl, would be in here if it was being released this week. The rest of my regular New 52 picks this week (as well as several Marvel titles and a number of other releases) will come right after #1001.

But for my #1000th digital comics purchase from ComiXology, I wanted something symbolic of all I love in comics, and of the possibilities that digital release offers that cannot be matched by conventional print distribution. I wanted something nostalgic to mark my 50+ years of a comics fan, and relevant to today. I found it in the most surprising gap in my comics collection.

#1000: Action Comics #1 - 1938 (DC)
http://www.comixology.com/Action-Comics-1938-2011-1/digital-comic/ICO001526

I can hardly believe this wasn’t already in my collection, but it was not. It says everything I want to say, commemorating my long history as a fan (no, I’m not QUITE that old), my all-time favorite superhero (the Man of Steel), DC’s position as pioneer in same-day digital releases and the very-relevant continuing controversy over creator’s rights.

Moreover, Action Comics #1 could not be in my collection without digital distribution. Yes, I own the oversized reprint done a long time ago by DC, but Action Comics #1 is the perfect digital comic to highlight the “long tail” making it possible for comics to remain “in print” and easily accessible to readers in perpetuity. It reminds me of what is best about digital comics — they can always be available anytime, anywhere, for everyone who ever wants to read them. Everything in my 1000+ digital comics collection is something I can access and read on my new iPad (on that beautiful retina display!) at a moment’s notice. Oh, how I wish that was true of the thousands of print comics I have purchased since I discovered comics in 1957!

So thank you to ComiXology and the many publishers who make their comics available same day as print, BEFORE they hit print, or digital-only through them. (Still waiting for DC to drop the silly six-hour digital release delay — it is not bringing people into the comics shops and is costing them sales because they are the last things to hit the digital stands on Wednesday, after we’ve already spent a lot of discretional cash on everyone else. Just sayin’…) Thanks also to all the publishers and creators who have chosen other digital distribution. I’ll happily seek out quality anywhere, and I laud the various alternative experiments in digital distribution. Variety is what makes comics fun! Digital releases preserve and enhance that variety. On to the next thousand!

I’d love to hear from you on Twitter as @couchguy, or by email to couchguytv@yahoo.com! Best responses will probably end up back here on this blog.

DC Women Kicking Ass: Greg Rucka rips Hollywood and Comics a New One

Sun, 27 May 2012 13:05:12 -0500

DC Women Kicking Ass: Greg Rucka rips Hollywood and Comics a New One:

dcwomenkickingass:

The folks over at Comicbook interviewed Greg Rucka where he discusses the treatment of women by Hollywood and DC Comics. Rucka’s discussion of Hollywood comes in reference to the development of his Queen and Country for the big screen. That discussion, as you’ll see, turns into a discussion of…

Great insights by Greg Rucka!

dcu: I will pick this book up, and you want to know...

Sun, 27 May 2012 13:01:35 -0500

dcu:

I will pick this book up, and you want to know why?

Because it embraces everything that is right about Superman comics. Bizarro, Krypto, crazy Sci-Fi, and everything that is fun. That’s the word hat needs to be associated with Superman: FUN!

This is awesome!

"I find it ironic that Republicans have such disdain for the lazy, and yet their solution to..."

Sun, 13 Nov 2011 07:48:37 -0600

“

I find it ironic that Republicans have such disdain for the lazy, and yet their solution to everything is do nothing. Their answer to wealth inequality? Do nothing. Healthcare? Do nothing. Climate change? Nothing. Racism? Doesn’t exist. For a group of people so head over heels in love with self-reliance, they sure do recommend a lot of sitting on (one’s) ass.

If A Christmas Carol was performed by the Tea Party Dramatic Society, it would be a cautionary tale about how the hero, Scrooge — a blameless job creator — is turned into a socialist through the corrupting influence of Tiny Tim. And the play would end with a simple, plaintive question from Mr. Scrooge: ‘Just how much of my wealth does Mr. Tim think he’s entitled to?’

And that is the great Republican fallacy of this election: that our economic problem are due not to Wall Street’s gambling, but because too many Americans are lazy. But there are 16 million unemployed, and we only created 80,000 jobs last month. The problem isn’t laziness — it’s math.

This is where the Republican Party is now: in favor of people dying because they don’t have health insurance. In favor of letting people go unfed if they won’t work. And if they wanna work, but are Mexicans, in favor of putting up a fence that electrocutes them.

”

- BILL MAHER, Real Time (via inothernews)

AirPlay TV - Joe Hewitt

Tue, 25 Oct 2011 16:00:57 -0500

AirPlay TV - Joe Hewitt

minimalmac: The brown part, is the first six quarters of iPhone...

Mon, 24 Oct 2011 07:22:49 -0500

minimalmac:

The brown part, is the first six quarters of iPhone and iPod touch shipments.

The blue part? Oh, that’s just the number of iPads shipped in the same time.

Now, at least, one can see why Tim Cook believes the iPad market will be bigger than the PC market. Hard to argue when looking at graphs like this. And, let me reiterate, this is just comparing the first six quarters. The growth is staggering.

(via Subtraction)

Neven Mrgan's tumbl: iOS on the desktop

Mon, 24 Oct 2011 07:21:35 -0500

Neven Mrgan's tumbl: iOS on the desktop:

mrgan:

The overwhelming majority of Apple’s earnings, product sales, and new customers are now based on the iOS platform, which consists of:

A 3.5”-display pocket computer/phone

A 3.5”-display pocket computer

A 9.7”-display computer

These are excellent and wildly successful products. They cover…

A Strange Sort of Prison, a Strange Sort of Freedom

Sun, 09 Oct 2011 20:57:36 -0500

A Strange Sort of Prison, a Strange Sort of Freedom

Steve Jobs lives on.

Wed, 05 Oct 2011 23:49:00 -0500

I’m sitting in my car in a parking lot, writing this post on a device I still can scarcely believe exists in my lifetime. I’m 57 years old and I’ve been a science fiction fan pretty much my entire life. Now here I am routinely using a marvelous blending of hardware, software and infrastructure that was a far-out crazy pipe dream in my youth. It isn’t just as good as I dreamed — it is BETTER than I could imagine in those days.

I’m looking at what is essentially a magical window which can bring me almost anything I want. Information, entertainment, communication — if I’m hungry the Pizza Hut at the top of the hill nearby will prepare food for me and have it ready pretty much by the time I can drive there.

This device has no wires, no tethers. I carry it with me pretty much 24/7. If I’m not in the shower, it (or its smaller brother on my belt) is probably within my reach. It is too useful to leave behind. I have it — we have it — because of the incredible drive and vision of Steve Jobs.

I used to read about such a device in tales of the far-off future. I had no idea how fast the future would catch up with me, or me with it. In grade school I read Heinlein’s stories of people going to the moon. In 1969, I watched it happen. I’ll ever get there myself, sadly. (D.D.Harriman, how I understand you now…) But I can hold an incredible futuristic device in my hand and use it every day. I’m so grateful I’ve lived long enough for that to happen.

And it all started in a garage in California, and came to my attention first when I saw a young Steve Jobs demonstrating the new Apple II on a morning TV show. I loved the idea of computers, bit this was the first timeI ever had the notion that I could actually own one and use one.

I bought my first Apple computer, paying for it out of my writing income. I’d borrowed an Apple II+ from my new publisher, and I used my first royalty check to buy an Apple IIe of my own. A steady stream of Apple computers and devices have followed — an Apple IIc whose portability delighted me, then the very first Macintosh 128 ever seen in our little Southern Indiana town. (I still have both…) A Mac Plus followed, still from my writing/game design sideline. I learned to be first a bad graphic designer, then a pretty decent one, using those Macs during the early days of what would soon be known as “desktop publishing”. I got to know Macs and embraced what Guy Kawasaki codified as “The Macintosh Way”.

I became good enough at it that I was hired as a salesperson by a small local Independent Apple retailer, which was subsequently bought out by a larger regional dealer. I became their primary Macintosh expert, trainer, and on-site troubleshooter for corporate clients, and for the first time started traveling to regional Apple offices for training and new product introductions.

When our regional newspaper decided to move from graphic artists with drafting boards to electronic ad design, they sought me out as the local “Mac Guy”. In one year I took them from 2 Mac IIs used to do the occasional comp ad to a completely Mac-based design operation with 25 networked design stations. In another year, I helped move the entire newspaper off pasteup onto Mac-based full pagination. I became the “Mac Guy” in charge of hundreds of networked Macs used by the creative side of the business.

During that time, I got to see Steve Jobs in person for the first and only time. Sent by my company to Macworld Expo in Boston, I was in the audience at the keynote address where Steve was joined (on a huge screen) by Bill Gates. Jobs had just returned to Apple and was moving to bring it back into line with his vision of the future. Not long ago, I found my presence there had been forever preserved. Watch the excellent documentary Welcome to Macintosh, where an excerpt from that keynote is seen. Just after Gates appears on the screen, there’s a crowd reaction shot. The heavy-set guy in the glasses and blue shirt, nodding and smiling — that’s me.

I left behind traditional publishing, frustrated by the inability of people who were supposed to be building the best way to communicate to see how communication was changing. I was caught up in the Steve Jobs vision. I still am.

Though my current “day job” puts a Windows computer on my desk (which still owes it’s existence to Steve Jobs) I rely on Apple products every day. Actually, that’s not adequate. I delight in using them every day, recommending them to anyone who will listen, and writing about them here.

My life would be totally different if Steve Jobs had not existed. Chances are that, even if you never worked in the tech field, your life would be entirely different without him as well. We throw around the phrase “changing the world” so lightly today. Steve Jobs really did it, again and again and again. He did it through the force of his will, the uncompromising drive of his vision, and his unparalleled ability to attract and motivate other people of vision to work toward the goals he saw so clearly.

I owe Steve Jobs for the life I’ve enjoyed, the work that made me useful, the philosophy that drives me. He was and is one of the major influences that made me whatever I have become. Many, many, many of you are thinking the same thing tonight.

He encouraged us to seek our own vision and pursue it doggedly, and took it as his personal crusade to create and drive a company that would build the tools we need to seek our vision. And he started doing this before most of us had any idea what those tools would be.

Apple is not one man. It is a company built on vision, as realized by many, many individuals who banded together to pursue their vision, and share it with the world. Their work, their vision will continue, preserving and sharing the legacy of inspiration that drives the company. Steve Jobs lives on in every one of them, and every one of us.

If you want to thank Steve Jobs for his life an dedication, all you have to do is be true to your dream, share it, work for it, and refuse to let it go. That is the way to change the world.

This is not the time to Think Small, Look Back, Be Careful, Dig In, Stop Growing. When Apple tried that, they failed. It is a time to Be Bold, Try Everything, Reach High, Dream Big. When you do, you will succeed, and you will honor the legacy of Steve Jobs.