I can’t think of a man on this planet that has had more of a profound effect on the way we live our lives than Steve Jobs.
Go on, call me an Apple fanboy. Go on. The fact that I heard about the passing away of Steve Jobs last night on a device he invented, pretty much says it all… and I am not the only one.
In fact, I would bet that the vast majority of people who really cared about his death read the sad news on their shiny “i” product or Mac.
I’m sure you have heard all this before – but the man was a visionary. Not often does a man die and gets reactions from Barack Obama, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerburg, Steven Spielberg, Rupert Murdoch, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and the founders of Google among others. The very way we live our lives today was effected by his decisions at the company he loved working at.
You remember the iPod? It was a revolution. The very notion of wearing white earphones now completely embodies it’s own meaning. The whole success of the iPod was based around the simplistic nature that “things just work”. The way that iTunes, the iTunes store, and the culture of it all was part of one genius plan to build up the brand of the “i” and Apple.
There are some remarkable things that aren’t even Apple-made but still had a profound impact on us. Take iTunes – which was said to be the “greatest bit of software available on Windows” – which has changed and dominated the landscape of the music industry like no other. The fact that iTunes and it’s success merely existed was seen to actually save music in general, from the fears in the early millennium about mass-music piracy.
Even elements of the Windows came from Jobs. Typefaces and fonts were first introduced on the Mac, so was the point-and-click mouse. Even the very nature of looking at a screen with a graphical user interface was put into place by Steve.
Jobs always went by the methodology that Apple doesn’t sell ‘junk’. See this video, where he explains exactly what Apple’s goals are – to make products that they are proud to sell, and happy to recommend onto their friends and family. It is remarkable for a company goal to not have any financial incentive at all – it simply wasn’t at the front of Job’s approach to Apple.
The fact that the company genuinely cared about the products they were selling showed. No other company was about passion, quality and care as much as Apple, rather than hardcore nitty-gritty financial stuff.
Similarly, Jobs’ attitude was that innovation had nothing to do with how much money you had for R&D. When Apple first came up with the Mac, IBM was spending at least 100 times more on R&D. “It’s not about money. It’s about the people you have, how you’re led, and how much you get it.”
I believe that it was this approach that made Apple so successful today.
When Jobs came back to Apple in 1997, when the company was on the brink of collapse, a new Apple age begun. Steve was not a man to worry about competition or defeat. You may have seen this rather awkward address back in the day when it was Bill Gates that came to Apple’s help. Notice too the boos from the audience. They were right to feel the competition, but wrong to underestimate how incredible the deal was and how it would literally save Apple – something that Steve could predict, and something he had to do no matter the corporate opinion.
It was because Steve thought differently. In this famous Apple ad (above), the quote “the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are usually the ones that do”. I don’t think that at the time, anyone could have envisioned where Apple would be in 14 years time.
But yet, there was still something about Steve and Apple that made us all want to buy. Unlike any other company in the world, Apple is like a faith. We believe in the products. There are some folks out there who buy Apple gadgets on the basis that they know their life will change if they buy the product – and if I may say so, fair play to them.
To that ‘following’ – Steve was their leader. The showman. Every keynote performance was genuinely something to get excited about, and Jobs knew this.
So his obituary on BBC News concludes, Jobs was a man who had total belief in his own abilities and a shortage of patience for anyone who failed to agree with him. His great gifts were an ability to second guess the market and an eye for well designed and innovative products that everyone would buy.
His commencement speech at Stanford University in 2005 makes a great read and shows the personal side to Jobs’ life. One particular quote stays in my head “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today? And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.” Think about that – just imagine how productive the world would be if we all stuck to that ideology!
I’ve owned many Apple products over the years. Mainly of course is my MacBook Pro – supplemented with a couple of iPod’s, and iPhone and even an iPad. Does this make me a fanboy? I have these products because by following Apple’s own ethos, I would be happy to recommend them to friends as they genuinely are fantastic products. I love Apple because of the genius of the company and the products they deliver… something that Jobs was part responsible for, I’m sure. Is there anything wrong with that?
Of course, debate goes on about Apple’s future minus it’s figurehead. Nothing will change on a day to day basis – but frankly the company will never be the same. I fear that there simply won’t be the same ‘spark’ in coming up product launches, but there again we can only but learn from Steve’s unique way of doing things.
I don’t usually admit to things I did wrong, however there is one memory I wish to forget for ever. Before my older sister got her first iPod – so this must have around when I was 11 – I took the attitude “Apple sucks.” It was a car journey, and the argument broke out between my sister and mum about Apple. A company that I had no knowledge of, and a judgement based on nothing.
Since then, my attitude to brands (not just Apple!) have changed entirely. No longer will I ever say that something sucks before I have a go.
I don’t think we will ever see another inventor, creative, genius or businessman like Steve Jobs. And through all this, the man had continuing health problems – even a liver transplant. He was also behind Pixar, creators of some of my all time favourite childhood movies, like Toy Story.
More so, he could have thrown in the towel ages ago. He made millions in his life – and many were shocked he didn’t just retire after his first health scare in 2005 – yet he continued on fighting and working for the company he loved right up until the last few months of his life. For this, I have the most respect for. My money is on the fact one of the last things he watched was the keynote coverage of the iPhone 4S product launch.
The new coalition government is to look at airbrushing and their impacts in advertising campaigns. The Equalities Minister, Lynne Featherstone, will host a summit with media and fashion industry executives in the autumn, to tackle the issue of airbrushing in magazines and advertising campaigns.
As part of Featherstone’s “body confidence” initiative, there could potentially, one day, be laws introduced that would require all airbrushed images to contain a small ‘kitemark’ to show they are not real.
Image Source: campaignlive.co.uk
This may be welcomed news for campaigners against retouching, and those who believe airbrushing in magazines and such may be causing public health issues in young men and women. Airbrushing is known to distort reality, providing a ‘fake’ ideal that young people aspire to. In 2006, Unilever, more specifically Dove, launched an advertising campaign that addressed re-touching issues. Some saw it as a hypocritical move by Dove, whom go about retouching images for campaigns every day – but others saw it as a daring step forward.
Video Source: YouTube
Yet the change in the law may bring about severe changes in the way agencies advertise with people, and may even negatively impact some companies and their views.
This poses the question, is it right for agencies to take the blame regarding airbrushed, or even ‘faked’ campaigns? Take for example Coca Cola’s recent back-firing campaign which resulted in a bumpy relationship with their digital agency Lean Mean Fighting Machine, following the use of the pornographic-film reference in a social media promotion for its Dr Pepper brand.
Oil giant BP was caught red handed not long ago when some official images of the Gulf of Mexico cleanup operation were found to be manipulated by their photographer. BP blames their photographer, yet the images still appeared on the BP website, and BP knew about, and confirmed the editing process. So who here really is to blame?
The edited BP image on the top, with the original below:
Images Source: BP America Flickr
As published in the 28 July ’10 issue of Marketing Magazine, Guy Hayward, the Chief Executive of JWT UK, stated with regard to the Coca Cola campaign that “in a robust working relationship, the agency and client are in it together. So my view is that, no, the agency [Lean Mean Fighting Machine] should not take the blame.”
Mind you, some companies are using the topic of airbrushing to their advantage. Debenhams are trailing a new campaign for its Oxford Street shop window in which truly authentic and non-touched images of models are being used to advertise swimwear for the summer season. Next to each natural image will be a labelled modified image, annotated with where changes have been made.
Take a look at the screen shots below of headers of the most popular newspaper websites here in the UK. 4 broadsheets, and 4 tabloids. See if you notice any difference between the two… and i’ve added some arrows and circles to help you on the tabloid screen shots.
I understand I’m rather late on posting the news, but this just had to go in my delicious irony series.
Turns out that about 3 weeks ago, the head of the UK’s legal system, Baroness Scotland, was under investigation that she had hired an illegal immigrant to be her housekeeper. Ok, that’s pretty ironic right… she’s the Attorney General for the UK, and she’s been fined £5,000 for breaking the law… not a very good role model, eh?
Well, this is where it gets interesting. Turns out she was fined for breaking the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006, which… wait for it… she helped impose herself into the House Of Lords when she was a Home Office Minister.
So you have a job, just so happens your job is to impose new laws, you help impose one particular new law, she suddenly becomes the head of the legal system, she then breaks that law, gets fined for it, and then denies any wrong doing, and then rejects calls to resign.
Hey folks. From here on, look out for a new series of posts called “Oh, the Delicious Irony…”, in which I will be covering news topics that are just so unbelievably ironic, you may as well think i’m making these stories up.
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During the summer, we had a big swine flu outbreak, as we all know. Even I, suffered from the virus. During this period, the UK government and the NHS made a few broadcasting and print based adverts for swine flu. Here, take a look:
Well, at the beginning of August, the Daily Mail published an article that confirmed the actor in the blu jacket, David McCusker, had caught, and then suffered from swine flu, himself.
Now, I know you are all saying that he, like everyone, is just as susceptible to the virus as anyone else… but, come on… If he was IN THE ADVERT, as a PAID ACTOR, SURELY he would know how not to catch the virus…. SURELY!?
1961 was the last year to read the same upside down as the right way up.
The next year to read the same upside down as the right way up will be 6009.
There are 31,557,600 seconds in a year.
There are 168 hours in a week.
A jiffy is equates to 1/100th of a second.
The Leaning Tower of Piza contains 294 steps
There are 6500 windows on the Empire State Building
Maths:
111, 222, 333, 444, 555, 666, 777, 888 and 999 are all multiples of 37.
111111111 multiplied by 111111111 equals 12345678987654321.
The numbers on a roulette wheel add up to 666.
Two opposite sides of a dice always add up to 7.
Google is actually a number; where the digits are a 1, followed by one hundred 0′s. A Googleplex is a number with 1, followed by a thousand zero digits.
Some odds:
285-1 : The odds of giving birth to identical twins
8100-1 : The odds of giving birth to triplets
729,000-1 : The odds of giving birth to quadruplets
800,000-1 : The approximate odds of being struck by lightening
649,739-1 : Odds of being dealt a royal flush in a game of poker
Odds of winning in the UK National Lottery:
13,983,816-1 : All six numbers
2,330,636-1 : Five numbers and a bonus ball
55,492-1 : Five numbers
1,033-1 : Four numbers
57-1 : Three numbers
Therefore meaning you have more of a chance being struck by lightening than winning the national lottery jackpot!
Famous people with high IQ’s:
Madonna… 140.
Al Gore… 140.
Hugh Hefner… 152.
Carol Vorderman… 154.
Clive Sinclair… 159.
Quentin Taratino… 160.
Bill Gates… 160.
Estimated IQ’s of people in the past:
George Washington… 118.
Captain James Cook… 160.
Albert Einstein… 160.
Charles Darwin… 165.
Dr David Livingston… 170.
Charles Dickins… 180.
Michelangelo… 180.
Sir Issac Newton… 190.
Leonardo Da Vinci… 220.
Temperature Conversions:
Fahrenheit to Celsius = subtract 32, multiply by 5, divide by 9.
Celsius to Fahrenheit = multiply by 9, divide by 5, add 32.
Human Body Facts:
It takes 17 muscles to smile, and 43 to frown.
85% of the human body comprises of water.
A sneeze can exceed speeds of 160km per hour.
A baby in the womb acquires it’s fingerprints at the age of 3 months.
Dare I waste any time writing a proper blog post on Big Brother? So here is a badly written rant about the show.
Well, I watched ONE Big Brother series, and that was the Celebrity version 2 years back with Jade Goody and all her racial remarks, but even that I only watched it at the coincidental times when I was watching the TV and the show was on. I had been bullied into watching the series because everyone thought it was cool and interesting and all that. No. They were wrong.
I’d just like to think from the point of view of the contestants. What in gods name possesses people to want to live in the Big Brother house?? Besides money, fame and glory – you look like a complete twat most of the time and about 4 days in, you are already the subject of everyones conversations up and down the UK.
So the point of the view from the audience now. So the uses and gratifications theory states we watch TV programmes for one or more of the following reasons:
- Information; erm…. none in BB.
- Entertainment; does BB make me laugh? not really…
- Personal Identity; I would NEVER compare myself to the nutters who take part in BB.
- Social Interaction; I’d leave every conversation about BB with my friends.
Clearly, there are no reasons what so ever to watch BB. Thats not to mention the people that will call in and VOTE for housemates. I find it bizzare that people vote for the most annoying people so they get evicted… If I were forced to vote I’d vote for the people most annoying so they were locked up away from society for longer.
And, this series of BB is the ‘CBB’ variety. Yes. Celebrities. It makes me laugh. I read a Yahoo story that leaked possible candidates for the show. They were:
Other than Ulrika Johnson, other names linked to the series include glamour model Lucy Pinder, who would allegedly earn £150,000; former Sugababe Mutya Buena, who’ll apparently receive £60,000; and Ben Adams from the boyband A1, who could get just £20,000. Liberty X’s Michelle Heaton, socialist MSP Tommy Sheridan, rapper Coolio, Austen Powers star Verne Troyer and La Toya Jackson may also appear.
I’m sorry. But, I’ve only heard of 2 of the 9 names mentioned above. I’ve heard of Ulrika Johnson, but don’t know what she does or who she is, and Coolio, the rapper who made ‘Gangsters Paradise’, but other than that one, I’ve successfully heard of no other songs.
I will not be paying attention to any of this series. Period.
Well, for those that haven’t been around the past couple of days, or just haven’t generally heard the news stories about Ross/Brand, this is a summary of what happened, and what I think should happen about it.
On the 18th October, Russell Brand with guest presenter Jonathan Ross presented a radio show on BBC Radio 2, which had be pre-recorded two days earlier. A really good timeline of events can be found here. Basically, the two presenters prank called actor Andrew Sachs and left a bunch of obscene messages on his answerphone about his granddaughter, who Brand claimed to have slept with. Since then there has been over 30,000 complaints sent to the BBC and Ofcom about the broadcast, Brand has resigned, Ross has been suspended for 12 weeks, and BBC Radio 2 controller Lesley Douglas has quit.
In my opinion, this should never have happened in the first place. The BBC have a job to restrict pre-recorded content, and had 2 days to do so, but they didn’t… there should be stronger restrictions in place I believe. Ok – so they may have thought the show was funny, and a great laugh, but they team at the radio station should remember that their content should cater for all because of being license funded, and this clearly offended some… had this been broadcast on a commercial station such as Fox FM, there problem would be nowhere near as bad.
Although, having said all that, if I were to have listened to the show, I think I would have just laughed and enjoyed the show – thats just who I am. The Radio 2 team made a mistake – it’s over, learn for another time. Ross/Brand have clearly paid a fair price (suspension and resignation) and now things should just move on.
I was also interested to hear that only two complaints were received on the day of broadcast, and only a few more the following day. Infact, 9 days after the broadcast, there was only 1500 or so complaints. Only when the story hit mainstream news media, both print, e-media, and broadcasting, did the number really start to dramatically go up – which if I’m honest is a bit pathetic knowing that people are either reminded to complain, or complaining when the only hear about the news story. Quite honestly, those sort of people can just listen to something else if what they listened to they don’t like.
My name is Moggy, and I moan. My interests are web design, graphic design, technology, Apple products, politics, media and geography. Plus a few other random things.
I hope you enjoy all my posts. If you do, why not pass the word onto a friend, leave a comment, subscribe to the RSS, or even get in touch with me?
Lots of love all you gorgeous people!
Mogs
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