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Posts Tagged ‘iPad’

I realize that Steve Jobs is revered by his disciples but he must have been a horrible boss.

I know that, despite how he treated them, most of his former employees say positive things about Steve. But that reminds me of a guy I once worked with who embraced a Marine bootcamp approach when training new employees. He first took every opportunity to publicly humiliate them. Then, once their self-esteem was at or below ground level, he would feed them the occasional compliments so that they came to rely on him for their sense of self worth. I’m not accusing Jobs of being that consciously manipulative but the results of his behavior seem similar.

Giving Steve is due, the guy was an astute visionary and an amazing salesman. He understood how to be a messiah to his geek constituency and he did set the bar high for the rest of us.

All of that said, I don’t want to give the impression that I have a negative attitude about the guy. As his wife observed, he was a flawed and complicated man; at times cruel and hard-hearted, at times teary and vulnerable.

Some of the quotes and insights which I jotted down while listening to the audiobook:

*Stand at the intersection of humanities and science.
*The various religions are different doors to the same house.
*Form follows emotion
*The journey is the reward.
*Today isn’t liberal vs. conservative. It’s constructive vs. destructive
*One way to remember who you are is to remember who your heroes are.
*Prune to keep the tree strong.
*If you’re not busy being born, you’re busy dying. (Bob Dylan)

Full disclosure: I’m a PC, not an Apple (Although, I do now use an iPhone). So, I until I read this book, I didn’t know much about Steve Jobs except for his legend. Like most, I was saddened when he died and I got emotional when I watched the YouTube clip of his 2005 Stanford commencement address.

But this was not a warm & fuzzy guy.

Steve Jobs was a guy who behaved like he believed he was a chosen one. And, because he had a genius for design, an ability to intimidate (he used that intense stare you see on the book cover to great effect), and a gift to persuade, we enabled him.

That’s a cause for mixed emotions about the man but Steve Jobs’ positive impact on society is undeniable.

Some items in the news which I think are relevant to our 21st Century
Boomer Experience.

Tablets are the hot new device in the social media world. Although I didn’t really want one, I received a Kindle as a Christmas present this year and, truth be told, the benefits of using it aren’t yet apparent to me. Since US News & World Report has ceased producing hard copies of the magazine, I do load the digital version of my subscription onto the Kindle but then I forget to read it. I’ve also loaded several ebooks which have been sitting unread in my PC files for ages. I haven’t read those either.

Nevertheless, like smartphones, tablets will become a more ubiquitous part of the Boomer lifestyle in coming years so it’s a good idea to stay abreast of new developments and improvements in the technology. Apple’s iPad 2 becomes available on March 11th. Here’s a review from Engadget:
http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/02/ipad-2-first-hands-on/

The fervor and passion of today’s teens and young adults remind me of Boomers in the late 60s and early 70s. For instance, this story about using social media to keep women safe:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/01/business/01road.html?_r=1

Remember the slogan, “Ford Has A Better Way” ? Bill Ford Jr. spoke yesterday at the TED Conference about his vision for your driving experience in the future:
http://mashable.com/2011/03/02/bill-ford-jr-ted-talk/

If you run across a story which you believe might be interesting to fellow Baby Boomers, feel free to email it to me at BrindleMedia@gmail.com.

If you use a smartphone and especially if you’re an iPhone, iPad or Mac user, pay attention. I know, the folks at The Apple Store told you that you really don’t need anti-virus protection because Apple products are virus-proof. But that could soon change. Like squirrels trying to access the food in your bird feeder, hackers are apparently obsessed with cracking the Apple codes.

PC Magazine reports:

McAfee on Tuesday (12/28/10) released its list of threat predictions for 2011 and it highlighted things like URL shorteners, location-based services, Apple products, and Internet TV. McAfee on Tuesday released its list of threat predictions for 2011 and it highlighted things like URL shorteners, location-based services, Apple products, and Internet TV.
What else made McAfee’s threat list?

• Hacktivism: McAfee predicted a rise in the number of politically motivated cyber attacks. “More groups will repeat the WikiLeaks example,” McAfee said, though strategy will become more sophisticated and leverage social networks.

• Friendly Fire: McAfee predicted a rise in the use of malicious content disguised as e-mail from sources you know. “Signed” malware that imitates legitimate files will become more prevalent, and “friendly fire,” in which threats appear to come from your friends but in fact are viruses such as Koobface or VBMania, will continue to grow as an attack of choice by cybercriminals, McAfee said. This could go hand-in-hand with social network attacks, which could eventually overtake e-mail attacks.

• Botnets: McAfee Labs predicts that the recent merger of Zeus with SpyEye will produce more sophisticated bots due to improvements in bypassing security mechanisms and law enforcement monitoring. Additionally, McAfee Labs expects to see a significant botnet activity in the adoption of data-gathering and data-removal functionality, rather than the common use of sending spam.

You can read the entire PC Magazine article here:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2374784,00.asp

The way you think of and read magazines is about to change. Watch this short video about how Viv is creating editorial content for their digital-only magazine specifically with the iPad in mind.