Photo: James Merithew/Wired.com

While I was researching Inside Steve’s Brain, I read everything I could lay my hands on about Steve Jobs, including just about every book and magazine article published in the last couple of decades. One of the most striking things was how many times Jobs mentioned death as the driving force in his life.

Over and over Jobs said he was driven to make an impact before his time ran out.

It was such a recurrent theme, I thought of devoting an entire chapter to the subject in the book. Jobs had an obsession with death to rival Emily Dickinson’s.

Even in his twenties, Jobs obsessed about death. He told former Apple CEO John Sculley he was convinced he would live a very short life and urgently needed to have an impact before he died. Sculley thought this was why he was so driven and ambitious, according to Sculley’s autobiography. Of course, Jobs lived much longer than he suspected.

Best known perhaps, are Jobs comments during his 2005 commencement speech at Stanford:

“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life,” he said. “Because almost everything all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.”

It’s comments like this that makes me pessimistic about today’s news that Jobs is stepping aside, even if he claims it is only temporary.

For the last four decades, since Jobs cofounded Apple in his bedroom, he’s worked like a horse — rising early, taking short vacations, avoiding parties and sacrificing holidays to prepare for Macworld.

Work and family — that’s all he does.

I think he’s now focusing on his family.

I hope it’s not the case, but I suspect Jobs will not return to Apple.

Today’s announcement makes me think he’s focusing on “what’s truly important” — his family.

The ad targeting algorithm they use over at the Washington Post has either got a sick sense of humor baked-in, or perhaps the instance of the ad running with the story above is a stone cold coincidence. Either way, it’s a chance to seek levity in a bit of a heavy moment for the Apple community.

Godspeed, Mr. Jobs.

Via TechCrunch

Now, I know what you’re thinking: There’s an Apple II conference? And they do it *every year*?

Yup. There is. And they do. And they have been for the last 19 years. They call it KansasFest.

Come this July (21st – 26th), it will be 20 years, and the organizers are celebrating the anniversary with some special speakers and, they hope, lots and lots and LOTS of Apple IIs and associated stuff.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced he will take a medical leave of absence until June in an email letter sent Wednesday to all Apple employees.

Citing continued distractions stemming from curiosity over his personal health that have affected him, his family and “everyone else at Apple,” Jobs admitted his health issues are “more complex than [he] originally thought” and has asked Tim Cook, Apple’s Chief Operating Officer, to be responsible for Apple’s day to day operations until Jobs’ intended return to the company in June.

Jobs said that he plans to remain involved in major strategic decisions while he is away and said the company’s board of directors fully supports this plan.

The full text of Jobs’ email is after the jump.

Etsy seller creativedexterity‘s Mac jewelry made my heart jump. How awesome is a command key tie pin, an escape key ring, or eject earrings? Here are a couple other pictures to whet your appetite:

My bank account is glad I don’t have anybody to buy jewelry for right now.

A handful of Web browsers for the iPhone have silently appeared at the App Store, a seeming reversal of Apple’s policy to block sales of applications that competed with the cell phone’s built-in Safari.

The four applications — Edge Browser, Webmate, Incognito and Shaking Web — employ Apple’s Webkit framework, the software used to build Safari.

Apple’s apparent thaw in its refusal to add some applications to the App Store doesn’t seem to extend to heavy-weight Safari rivals Firefox and Opera. Cupertino maintains projects relying on non-Apple software development techniques,cannot be sold via the App Store.

Harvard’s Nieman Journalism Lab has an interesting series on changing journalism, both in terms of what the digital backpack journalist uses and how they use it.

NBC news journalist Mara Schiavocampo opened up her 30-pound reporter’s backpack (a custom job with wheels) for them in a two-part interview about her work.

In addition to the newsroom standard issue Sony HVR-V1U HDV camcorder and a bunch of other expensive stuff, she uses an Apple MacBook Pro (in the image above), edits with Final Cut Pro and totes an extra MacBook battery for staying power.

The Motown label is celebrating half a century of hits with a free podcast series on iTunes.

Dubbed “mo-casts,” they’re behind-the scenes interviews with pop greats including Diana Ross, Stevie Wonder, the Temptations and the Four Tops.

The first 15 episodes include the Anatomy of a Hit: “Love Hangover,” Stevie Wonder in a rare archive interview and hip-hop artist Q-tip on his favorite Motown hits.

Apple has begun approving the first wave of browser products to compete with Mobile Safari on the iPhone and iPod Touch, signaling the company may not be the great curmudgeon of handheld computing after all.

The apparent shift in Apple’s previous policy of denying AppStore certification to software products that “duplicate the functionality” of its own applications that ship with the devices, a handful of browser apps have begun showing up in recent days on the iTunes store.

Incognito, from developer Dan Park, promises completely anonymous browsing, with all history cleared simply by closing the application.

Edge Browser is a free app that opens up valuable screen real estate, but forces the address and navigation tools into the Settings menu, which doesn’t seem too promising a design feature to me.

WebMate is a 99¢ solution to tabbed browsing on the iPhone, that works by queuing up all the links you click on, then allowing you to view them one by one when you’re ready.

An analyst Wednesday told clients he expects a new 4GB iPhone during the first quarter, pushing sales of the popular handset to 7 million units beyond the 6.9 million iPhone 3Gs sold in 2008.

“Checks indicate a new 4GB iPhone which may be helping to increase build rates,” UBS analyst Maynard Um advised. Taiwan-based chipmakers may be preparing parts for a new iPhone, a newspaper reported Tuesday.

Unconfirmed speculation of an iPhone nano priced below the $199 8GB iPhone has swirled for some time.

JPMorgan analyst Mark Moskowitz became the latest on Wall Street to trim expectations for Apple during the fiscal year. Moskowitz Wednesday lowered slightly his guidance for Apple shares to $102 from $104.

Earlier this week, Citi’s Richard Gardner reduced his target price for Apple stock to $132 from $153, citing the need to “reflect a more conservative view of consumer spending.”

Moskowitz, however, told clients Apple’s value is “holding up better than feared” despite lower demand for PCs and other high tech gadgets.

Ian Betteridge is a brave man. Not only is he a Mac user who has switched to Ubuntu running on Dell hardware, he’s also decided to say so in public.

Some of you may recognize his name: for some years, he was a writer for, and then editor of, the UK version of MacUser magazine.

Why did he do it? Partly because of price, partly because he cares about open software running on open platforms. Apple, he says, is a long way from open and seems to be closing things ever tighter as time goes on. (See also his follow-up post detailing the apps he’s chosen to use on Linux.)

What really caught my eye, though, was one of Ian’s asides. Half way through his post, he predicts that “sooner or later”, the “development ecosystem will increasingly come to resemble that of the iPhone, and for much the same reasons”.

In other words, there will be an App Store for OS X software. An App Store that Apple will keep just as tight control over. Only apps that met with Apple’s approval would be cleared for distribution, and only apps distributed in that manner would actually run.

A bold prediction indeed. A fair one, though? And does the Better World of free software tempt you to switch to Ubuntu (or any other *nix variant)? What do you think?

(Disclaimers: I sometimes contribute articles to MacUser UK; and I know Ian Betteridge personally, have enjoyed a chat and a pint with him, and consider him a lovely chap.)

“Music of the Night” – she plays through the nose!

Smule, developers of the hit iPhone music app Ocarina, announced the winners of the company’s “This Contest Blows” Ocarina video contest Tuesday. Conceived as a way to reward its raving Ocarina fans with $1,000 per winner, the contest attracted a number of surprising and creative videos. Many contestants demonstrated musical talent, as well as Smulean je ne sais quoi.

Because the contest’s intent was to nurture budding Ocarina talent, Smule is extending the contest to Friday, February 13, and will announce 5 more $1,000 prize winners on Smule’s Mule live broadcast February 16th.

Check out a couple of our favorite winners here, plus more after the jump.

Hardrockgrl’s “Oh Shenandoah”

Monkey Head – rubber bannanas, they never go bad…

Ah, the dead mighty mouse. Who hasn’t been there once or twice?

This pic made me smile, my last Apple mouse had too many trackball issues and I’ve used no-name one ever since…

Photo used under Creative Commons license, thanks to riddle on Flickr, who also tagged the photo of the deceased mouse “fifty bucks on a rope.”

Apple sweetened the pot a bit on its new productivity suite Tuesday, with a “Try it Free for 30 days” offer on iWork ’09. The enhanced spreadsheet, desktop publishing and presentation software package must not be flying off the shelves since its introduction last week at Macworld.

I was aiming to get around to it at some point because I’ve come to really like Pages, especially since I got used to its decidedly-different-than-Word workflow.

I’m also interested in checking out Numbers, Apple’s spreadsheet software that was not part of the copy of iWork ’06 I’ve been hobbling along with. I hope not to be involved again too soon in any venture that requires a lot of work with spreadsheets, but if Numbers is a reasonably robust solution it will be nice to know it’s in the file system.

Of course – and I hate to keep going on about this – Keynote is, to me, the star of the iWork show, a truly full-featured, sophisticated piece of presentation software that puts Powerpoint to shame. I’m looking forward to playing with its new bells and whistles and this little free teaser may be just the thing to get me off my duff to check it out.

Thanks, Apple!

Psystar has raised another desperate, if novel claim in its ongoing legal battle with Apple, arguing before a federal judge that since the Mac clone-maker legally purchased its copies of Mac OS X from Apple and resellers, it has the right to do basically whatever it wants with that software under the first-sale doctrine.

In court filings described by Computerworld, Psystar told the court: “Once a copyright owner consents to the sale of particular copies of a work, the owner may not thereafter exercise distribution rights with respect to those copies. See, e.g., Bobbs-Merrill Co. v. Straus, 210 U.S. 339, 350-51 (1908) (recognizing more than 100 years ago the concept of first sale and the limitations imposed upon a copyright owner in light thereof). Psystar acquired lawful copies of the Mac OS from Apple; those copies were lawfully acquired from authorized distributors including some directly from Apple; Psystar paid good and valuable consideration for those copies; Psystar disposed of those lawfully acquired copies to third-parties.”

Unfortunately for Psystar, courts have rarely held the first sale doctrine applies to software, considering it a product that is licensed, not sold, and can therefore be distributed with restrictions on further distribution. Psystar’s thin hopes likely hang on the precedent of a case involving Adobe, in which a court upheld the first sale doctrine’s application to software.

Via Cnet

The Juice Wireless iPhone and iPod Touch app Mirror deserves some credit, we suppose, for putting a big bold **DISCLAIMER** right at the top of its description page on the AppStore, calling the application a “fun, joke…for your amusement only.”

99¢ buys you a selection of 9 frames which can be used to border the reflective glossy surface of the models released in 2008, giving the impression you’re holding a mirror instead of a mobile computing device. The developers say they’ve brought you this hilarious bit of software engineering and design so “you’ll never look stupid staring at your iPhone again.” Um, OK.

If you’re really interested in turning your iPhone or iPod Touch into a mirror, you may want to look into the benefits of a protective mylar screen cover from RadTech.

ClearCal is an ultra thin (5 mil) tension adhering screen cover available in Anti-Glare, Transparent and Mirror surface finishes. Its high quality adhesive stays on the film – which can be removed, cleaned and reapplied several times – magically leaving no residue on your device.

Two sets of protective films are included per pack, priced at $9.95 for the transparent version and $12.95 for the other two. The mirror version gives a clear, fully reflective appearance when the device display is off, turning it into a trés chic silver brick. When the display comes on the mirrored appearance fades away and the cover becomes completely transparent; it’s a very cool effect.

OK so the name isn’t quite as snappy as Quicksilver, but the intent is very similar. And at least one of the developers is exactly the same.

Google’s new Quick Search Box for Mac was coded in part by Alcor, aka Nicholas Jitkoff, aka the guy who created Quicksilver and made keyboard-centric launchers the big hit they are today (on pretty much every platform, not just OS X).

This beta release is a good start. It doesn’t spend ages cataloguing your hard disk (at least, not in an intrusive, tie-your-Mac-up-for-minutes sort of way). And the architecture is designed for expansion; more features can be plugged in via, um, plugins.

Note that this is NOT the same as the Google Desktop Search app that you might have played with a while back. Desktop Search used the same Command+Command shortcut but made much greater demands on your system (at least, that’s how I remember it – it lasted about a day on my machine before I removed it, dissatisfied to put it mildly). I’m not very clear right now whether or not Quick Search Box is a replacement for Desktop Search, although I suspect that is the case, or will be in the medium to long term.

The only thing that the older Desktop Search product has got going for it is that it will run on Tiger, whereas the newer app is Leopard-only.

There’s a way to go yet. This new beast crashes, twice in the time it’s taken me to write these words. But hey, if Alcor’s in charge I have high hopes. High hopes indeed.

Image © 2009 Robert Lachman

OK, the AppStore has over 10,000 apps for iPhone and iPod Touch. It’s a nice round number, impressive even. But it’s kind of like saying there are over 10,000 medicinal plants in the rainforests of the Amazon.

That’s great, but how do I find them and which ones are good for me?

I’m not paid enough, nor am I interested in wading through all 10,000 iPhone apps to cull pearls from the sea of fart and ringtone gems on offer, but I am happy to pass on a bit of wisdom published by the editors of Mashable, who’ve gone to the trouble of picking out 70+ free social media apps. Since the iPhone is essentially a mobile communication device, it seems to me social media is at least a good place to start.

Follow me after the jump for my picks of the best from Mashable’s list.

Apple could control up to 40 percent of the smartphone market by 2013, UK-based Generator Research announced Tuesday. The company predicted the iPhone would grab marketshare at a time when Nokia and other cell phone players are battered by poor economic conditions.

Nokia, the current cell phone leader, could shrink to just 20 percent of the market, contends the research firm. The prediction is counter to Nokia’s own outlook. Earlier this month, Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo told the Financial Times the economic mess could hurt rivals and help the Finnish company known for low-cost phones.

Not to be deterred, the British researchers said Apple could parlay the combination iPhone and App Store into another iPod-iTunes success.

Crime is ugly. But it’s hard not to crack a smile at an enterprising thief who bought iPods, then returned the packages weighted down with rocks.

The thief took the empty Apple boxes back and exchanged them for four Zunes at a Wal-Mart Supercenter in Nebraska.

Police believe the culprit used heat to reseal the plastic packaging. The iPods were put back on shelves, a customer who bought the iPod box without the MP3 device alerted the store.

Authorities warned that other stores in the area may have been hit by the same bait-and-switch scam.

Photo used under Creative Commons license, thanks to Dan Taylor on Flickr

Via Sioux City Journal

Safari users are being advised to avoid the Apple-made browser’s built-in RSS reader, according to reports Tuesday. A security vulnerability in both Mac and Windows versions of Safari could allow hackers to snoop through the contents of computer hard-drives.

Although Apple reportedly knows about the software problem, the Cupertino, Calif.-based company has remained silent on when or if it will release a fix.

For Mac users, the security flaw targets Mac OS X Leopard, according to Brian Mastenbrook, a developer who first spotted the glitch. An alternate Mac RSS reader can be selected via Safari’s Preferences menu.

Windows users can switch to Firefox or another alternative to Safari, reports suggested.

If you’re looking for a compact, efficient solution to shooting and editing high definition video, you’d probably be very interested in Florent Porta’s work with the new Canon 5D Mark II and a Macbook Pro. The video above (best appreciated at the Vimeo page or at Dailymotion) was shot in three days and edited in two. This was released shortly after the last Macbook/Macbook Pro announcement, so it likely wasn’t on the latest Macbook Pro.

With the significant upgrade of the new Macbooks and the Canon 5D bringing fantastic high quality photo and video to consumers, a few thousand dollars certainly goes a lot farther and a lot lighter than other shooting and editing solutions. Some suggest that tethering for video might even work, but there doesn’t seem to be any real solid confirmation on that.

Despite the many times I’ve had the “Mac is better than PC” argument, I’ve never had a fight break out.
Youtube Link [via Neatorama]

Comedian Amy Sedaris narrates a three-part PBS series called “Make ’em Laugh” that debuts Jan. 14.

Her companion web video about online comedy provides more than a few chuckles and a nice Apple reference:

“I got a computer maybe four years ago because I have a rabbit and the rabbit got sick. It was too late to call the House Rabbit Society, so I thought I better get a computer because the next time she gets sick, I’ll be able to go on Ether Bunny and find out what’s going on.”

“Then I got iChat because I can just hold my rabbit up, call the House Rabbit Society and say, “Do you see this scab? What does it mean?” And then they can see it. See, I’m getting there.”

You can catch her 30-minute video on “Teh Internets” (sic) online, but put your headphones on — it rightly warns, “The following video contains mature content. Or immature content, depending on how you look at it. But it is not for kids.”

Via After Ellen