Top stories

Apple Now Accepting iPad Apps, Planning “Grand Opening” of iPad App Store

Apple is now accepting iPad apps for a “grand opening” of the iPad App Store, according to an email just sent to registered developers.
“iPad will begin shipping soon and your opportunity to be part of the grand opening of the iPad App Store starts today,” the email says.
There’s no details about when the store’s grand [...]

Security Expert: “Mac OS X Is Safer, But Less Secure”

20100319-ipwned.jpg

Tech site H-Online has an interesting story today, quoting security expert Charlie Miller about his forthcoming talk at the CanSecWest conference next week.
He says OS X is full of security holes. There are lots more than in Windows, he claims.
And yet: OS X is a safer system to use. Why? Because, in the words [...]

Apple Devotes Entire Home Page To Jerome York Obituary

20100318-york.jpg

If ever you needed a sign that Apple was a different kind of technology company, this is it.
What other computer manufacturer would remove its top-selling, hype-inducing, industry-altering new product from the prime spot on its website home page, and replace it with an obituary to an investor?
This is one of those “Here’s to the [...]

Coming Soon: Steve Jobs, the Sitcom

Fake Steve creator Dan Lyons just signed a deal to bring Steve Jobs to another small screen near you.
The half-hour series called “iCon” is billed by the presser as “a savage satire centering on a fictional Silicon Valley CEO whose ego is a study in power and greed.”
Making sure the barbs prick will be the [...]

Apple’s $1 Million Power Supply

Duoadapter

Andy Hargadon, the director of the UC Davis Center for Entrepreneurship, related a funny Apple story from his past at his talk on Thursday night. He came to Apple as a product designer in the early 1990s, and his first big project was the Powerbook Duo… power supply. Seriously. And his budget was $1 million.

As he tells the story now, Apple in those days was so opposed to using off-the-shelf solutions that they would over-invest in areas that people didn’t care much about. After all, though the Duo power adapter was pretty great, did the internals need to be developed in-house? Could an existing solution have been integrated into the case, which did incorporate the still-innovative gull wings for cord management?

It’s a great example of the trouble with creating a culture where everything a company does has to be the best, most exciting and most advanced. You end up investing in areas that don’t matter and spend too little time making sure that people actually care about the changes coming.

Apple’s much healthier these days, and appears to be committed to using the best solutions, no matter who creates them, and then spending the rest of their energy on increasing the difference between the off-the-shelf answer and the Apple-branded experience. That’s why the iPod was entirely non-Apple in every regard except the ones that counted: The logo, the user interface and the integration with iLife.

Anyone else have tales of past Apple development excess? I really don’t know if I can think of a crazier one than the million-dollar power supply.

Picture via eBay

If you enjoyed this article:
Subscribe via RSS or email, or follow us on Facebook and Twitter

About the author

Petemortensen

Pete Mortensen is a design strategist for consulting firm Jump Associates and the co-author of Wired to Care: How Companies Prosper When They Create Widespread Empathy, a book and blog that are significantly more interesting than you might initially think. Pete's particular Apple avocations are both around design--interface and industrial. Follow him on Twitter!

Email the author | Read more posts by Pete Mortensen.

3 comments

    [...] Cult of Mac  fresqui |  menéame | permalink | trackback url volver [...]

    “You end up investing in areas that don’t matter…”

    Thanks for the clueless observation.

Buy Inside Steve's Brain Buy from Amazon.com Buy from Barnes & Noble