The WSJ’s crusty old Walt Mossberg, not easily impressed by new gadgets, was also pleased by the iPhone 4S and Siri:
Inside its familiar-looking body there lurks a nascent artificial-intelligence system that has to be tried to be believed.
Walt Mossberg: The iPhone Finds Its Voice
The first reviews of the iPhone 4S are coming in, and they look pretty good.
David Pogue, in a review headlined “New iPhone Conceals Sheer Magic,” says Siri is game-changing:
It’s even more amazing how Siri’s responses can actually form a conversation. Once, I tried saying, “Make an appointment with Patrick for Thursday at 3.” Siri responded, “Note that you already have an all-day appointment about ‘Boston Trip’ for this Thursday. Shall I schedule this anyway?” Unbelievable.
From all the bitching and moaning, you’d think the iPhone 4S was a flop.
But Apple just announced that iPhone 4S preorders topped more than 1 million in the first 24 hours — a new record. No wonder the preorder system was glitchy on Friday morning.
Here’s the cover of the October 17, 2011, issue of The New Yorker. Notice that they reuse the same ‘St. Peter uses an iPad’ gag as the recent Next Media Animation tribute to Steve Jobs.
Me & Steve Stories — Some of the best stories about Steve Jobs are the personal, intimate ones. We’re collecting them here and will run as many new stories as we can find. If you have a story about Steve you’d like to share, please send us your submissions.
In September, 2004, KC Bradshaw was working as a trampoline installer, which is how he got to meet Steve Jobs in person and leave with a very special souvenir.
In recent years, Steve Jobs became famous for emailing terse responses to queries sent by Apple customers to his public email address: [email protected].
It’s not a new habit, it seems. Back in the early days of Apple, Jobs used to mail letters with computer chips attached to them. Letters of Note posted the one above. How many of these are out there?
UPDATE: Jobs wasn’t in bed watching the live feed, but sitting on a sofa enjoying apple juice with rice pudding. Our source reports: “He was sitting in his favorite single soft leather sofa chair and having apple juices with rice pudding, as his favorite.”
We don’t have many details, but we have it from a good source that Steve Jobs watched the launch of the iPhone 4S from his death bed home in Palo Alto.
A special private video stream was set up for him to watch the event from home.
According to our source: “At the end of the show, he smiled as if to say ‘All things are in good hands’ but did not utter a word.”
The source declined to go into further detail. The source is well-connected and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Jobs died the following day.
Update: There’s a small private funeral for Jobs today, followed by a memorial for Apple’s staff, according to reports.
Apple still hasn’t released any details about Steve Jobs’ funeral. It’s likely to be a small private affair, in Steve Jobs’ style.
But the outpouring of tributes at Apple’s retail stores shows the need for a public memorial. And someone like Tim Cook needs to take the reins to arrange it.
Apple promised customers the ability to preorder the new iPhone 4S at 12:01AM Pacific Time on Friday — but the store blew right past that deadline and is still showing a “Back Soon” sign. The Apple Store App is “Back Soon” also.
Verizon’s website is accepting preorders fine, according to a stream of happy tweets on Twitter. But there’s no sign of a pre-order button on AT&T’s website.
iPhone 4S order fail.
Who’s off to bed soon?
UPDATE: The online Apple Store went live for preorders at about 12.40. However, there were lots of complaints of timeouts and other problems. Some customers reported success using the Apple Store App.
I’ve never seen anything like it. This amazing tribute to Steve Jobs was assembled from the parts of a MacBook Pro. It’s truly an astonishing piece of work from the designers at Mint Digital.
Unfortunately, there’s no explanation of how it was done. I’ve sent an email asking how they did it. Here’s a large version.
Steve Jobs has laid plans for his vast $6.5 billion fortune, Google’s executive chairman Eric Schmidt has hinted.
Jobs had plans for a “third act,” Schmidt told the New York Times, and hinted that he may yet have another huge impact through the fortune he leaves behind.
This is what the San Francisco Apple Store looks like tonight. Fans have plastered the windows in sticky-note tributes. Here’s a Twitter search listing some of the other store memorials popping up all over the world.
Case company Hard Candy sold thousands of cases for a mystery Apple device that it believed Tim Cook would unveil yesterday.
Customer’s were so excited by the prospect of a jumbo iPhone with a 4.44-inch diagonal screen, they pre-ordered a couple of thousand cases based on the rumor.
“Crazy day,” said Hard Candy CEO Tim Hickman after the Apple event. “We have to cancel a few orders. Two thousand cases were ordered since you ran your story. That’s bad ass! Apple consumers love, love, love to play in this world.”
How do you follow an act like Steve Jobs, the best presenter in the business?
The answer is you can’t, and you shouldn’t even try.
Tim Cook should be given credit for that, even if his performance at the iPhone 4S launch today was subdued and low-key.
Case company Hard Candy is busy manufacturing 50,000 cases for a mystery Apple device.
The device probably looks like the mockup above. It might be the iPhone 5 or a new, bigger iPod touch. It has a 4.44-inch diagonal screen, which is much larger than most observers are expecting for a new iPhone.
Whatever it is, Hard Candy expects Apple CEO Tim Cook to unveil the device at today’s press event. And the company is busy churning out a range of different cases that will be on store shelves when the device ships.
I have some exciting news: we’re launching a new software hub at deals.cultofmac.com.
Starting today, we’ll be bringing Apple fans the best deals in cutting-edge software and apps. We’ll be offering all kinds of deals: free app codes; 72-hour sales on premium packages; and bundles of the best apps — all at savings of 30% to 90% off retail.
We’re kicking off today with the smash-hit mail app Sparrow. It’s one of the highest-rated email clients on Mac OS X, and we have it for just $6.
We were sent this video anonymously earlier this evening. The tipster says it shows the iPhone 5.
Watch as the user goes into System Settings. They select a special “Developers” tab, which then allows them to switch graphics processors.
The “Developers” tab suggests it’s a special prototype provided to partners to test the graphics performance…
More than 300 people camped overnight for the grand opening of Apple’s first store in Hong Kong. Some camped out for two days to be among the first inside the new flagship store.
Here’s what the store looks like, plus a video report of the grand opening:
Apple is resetting the iTunes Match beta on Monday at 9am, according to an email sent to developers late on Friday night. Developers’ music libraries will be erased and the match process will have to begin again.
The email says:
Note: Although this iCapsule only fits the original iPad, we thought we’d include it anyway; why should iPad 2 users have all the fun?
The Rocketfish iCapsule Keyboard ($49) is a big bulky blob of a hardshell case. But it’s probably the best case on the market for turning your iPad into a laptop.
We’re big fans of Belkin’s products, especially the fantastic N750 Dual-Band N+ Router and the Conserve Insight energy meter.
Now you can get these gadgets, and everything else Belkin makes, for 50% off using a simple coupon code.
There’s a lot to like about Iomega’s Mac Companion Hard Drive, an external drive designed for flat-screen iMacs. It’s the fastest way to charge an iPad, for example.
Apple was so impressed by the Mac Companion drive, it ordered the first two production runs exclusively for its stores. It won’t be available anywhere else for several weeks, Iomega says.
Iomega’s new Helium Portable Hard Drive is a compact little brick of data storage. Encased in a hard aluminum shell, the Helium Drive is perfect for Time Machine backups or supplementing the memory of a MacBook Air.
Whatever it’s used for, the data will always be safe, even if the drive is lost or stolen. The Helium has built-in hardware encryption, which means no one can ever peek at your files. That also makes it a good place to stash files you don’t want anyone to see…
Here’s the new Blue Screen of Death in Windows 8, which Microsoft is previewing this week at its Build conference.
It’s been transformed into a sad face emoticon.
Reminds me of the old Happy Mac but, well, sadder.
Bigger version after the jump.
Steve Jobs is NOT dead — it’s a screw-up by CBS.
The rumor — which is lighting up Twitter like crazy — was caused by an errant tweet from CBS’s “What’s Trending” feed. The tweet said:
“Reports say that Steve Jobs has passed away. Stay tuned for more updates.”
But CBS has now pulled the tweet and kinda apologized:
“Reports of Steve Job’s [sic] death completely unconfirmed.”
So, they don’t know one way or the other.
We’ve called Apple and left messages all over the PR department. The one live person we talked to said they’d get back to us shortly. But there obviously wasn’t a fire drill there, so it’s safe to assume Steve is still alive.