'Insanely Simple' Adds to Issacson's Biography

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With the release of Walter Issacson's "Steve Jobs" biography last fall, Steve's legendary passion and style of management came to life.  Stories came unfolded and many people from within the industry shared their intimate Steve Jobs' stories.  Tomorrow, we have a first hand "fly on the wall" story by Ken Segall.

Spread throughout Ken Segall's new book, Insanely Simple: The Obsession That Drives Apple's Success, he shares his personal experiences dealing and working with the late Steve Jobs.  He details an exciting roller coaster whilst maintaining that is was the mantra of simplicity that stood prime for Apple's success.  Playing a prominent roll as ad agency creative director, he delivered one of Apple's most memorable campaigns specifically "Think Different" and help create the "intelligent" moniker that is present in most of Apple's current offerings.

Ken Segall's book is available now for pre-order on Amazon and is slated to be released tomorrow in hardback. You can also download it on the aptly named iBookstore.

Withings Smart Baby Monitor

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Temperature and humidty monitor, high resolution video with night time mode, 4x zoom, pan & tilt camera, active sound warnings, two way microphones so that you can talk or sing to you baby, and even an interactive color changing night light!!!  Withings has introduced a truly amazing "MacGuyver" monitor but I'll admit, $299 isn't that peachy. It actually puts it at the top of the baby monitors in terms of price. Yes you can argue that this feature set is second to none, but let me ask, are you willing to pay for this? I want to think that I am, but it's not the spontaneous purchase that I thought it would be. At $199, I'm all in! Peep the sample video below and tell me what you think.

There is one disturbing feature that I read on the Withings website though and it talks about the ability to monitor outside the network. It beings up the question, are you streaming to their server? Why would I have to pay to connect to my home network? Here's the exact text below.

The Smart Baby Monitor allows you to monitor your baby everywhere with an unlimited range and for an unlimited time. When you are outisde of home Wi-Fi network, audio/video streaming is free for 15 minutes a day. We propose services upgrades so that you can buy 100 minutes of audio/video streaming for 4.99 euros (in-app purchase by Apple).

Free App Saturday!

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It's amazing how you can think of something you need, search the Apple iOS App Store, and viola -- free for a limited time, I give you the Tabata Timer by Garaio Technology Lab. Hanging out in Miami for a quick two day stint, I found a quick start solution with some WOD (Workout of the Day) strategies. Downloadable and printable in PDF format, Michael Ashcroft maps out a 16 day strategy and I got Jojo to do it up with me. Day 2 was all about Tabata workouts and it always helps with a timer. Download it now!

It does exactly what it states and best of all, it's free!

Apple Key, Splat & Swedish Campground

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Sometimes, the interesting things are already spoken about, read and filtered.  Sometimes, you run into interesting things that are worthy of an individual post and are lazy.  Every now and then, you might find yourself energized with an idea but then get lost in the writing.  So, I decided to start here.

For those with an Apple computer, i.e., Macintosh, you may have now noticed the Apple Key down on your keyboard to the right or left of the spacebar.  Look for it.  If you don't have it, then you probably bought into the Apple side of things post 2007 when the keyboard was redesigned without it.  In place, "command" was written.  But that little symbol accompanying either the former or the latter, what the heck do we call it?  Enter a story found on folklore.org, "Swedish Campground"

Finally she came across a floral symbol that was used in Sweden to indicate an interesting feature or attraction in a campground. She rendered a 16 x 16 bitmap of the little symbol and showed it to the rest of the team, and everybody liked it. Twenty years later, even in OS X, the Macintosh still has a little bit of a Swedish campground in it.  -Andy Hertzfeld

In another story, a famous blogger named Dan Frommer launched his adeptly named blog "Splat Eff" back in July 2011 further enlightening readers about the symbol.  Check out what he says here on, What does SplatF mean?

Did you learn something?

Apple...what Recession?

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Look at this graph from macrumors!  EXPONENTIAL!

Bullets from Matt Richman's "takeaways" from Apple's (Q4) 2011 earnings.

  • With a record $13.06 billion in profits, it was Apple’s best quarter ever — by far.
  • Apple has sold more iOS devices than Android devices combined.

And of course, there's the amazing fact that Apple's Profit alone ($13 billion) was great than Google's total revenue ($10.6).  (via fmanjoo)

Here's just one more kicker... HP PC sales at 15.123m where iPad sales topped out at 15.43m (via gerrymcgarry)

As always, the haters will always hate, but the numbers speak for themselves.  Congrats to the team and here's to an amazing 2012!  Can't wait for the iPad 3 and the iPhone 5 and my new Macbook Pro!  It's going to be a costly 2012 all around!

How do you Program an App?

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If you've been having trouble realeasing your first iPhone app or any iOS app for that matter, grab some inspiration from this guy! Watch in awe how sixth grader Thomas Suarez presents at TEDxManhattanBeach about how he first started developing iPhone applications. What have you done today!?

AT&T vs. Sprint iPhone 4S

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Here it is, my 32GB White iPhone 4S on AT&T vs. my mother-in-law's 16GB White iPhone 4S on Sprint. The location is San Diego and the video is crappy (so sorry). I rushed this to the internet and will try to upload better quality videos later. This was shot on my Canon S90 in low light.

Testing the new iPhones in San Diego, California, I have two brand new iPhone 4S working on their perspective networks, AT&T and Sprint. Both caches, cookies and histories were erased and I loaded up Briam Lam's The Wirecutter and from there navigated to various parts of the site (MacBook Air Review) as well as load up a link to Jason Snell's MacWorld Review.

Have an iPad 2 yet?

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Apple just posted a new iPad video demonstrating the diverse uses of the iPad 2, and it's awesome! Entitled "Now," after watching the commercial, we all can expect that life from this time forward will be different and done on an iPad. (not a Galaxy Tab =) ) If you haven't succumb to buying the latest and greatest tablet computer from Apple, watch this commercial and tell me you don't want one. I know I do.

Ever since selling my iPad one a little prematurely last November, I've been itching for a new tablet. You ask why I haven't bought one yet...it's because I'm waiting. I'm waiting like I always do when it comes to tech toys but be rest assured, I'll be in line or online at day 0 for the iPad 3.

Movie Trailer: 50/50

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Trailers are always fun though not too many make it here on adellelijah. Maybe we could make this could be a recurring theme?! Tuesday Trailer(movie) day!? This new film, 50/50, attempts to make the best of a dire situation. Mixing comedy with a hint of seriousness, Seth Rogen and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, tell a story of friends helping each other out. Through good times and bad, Levitt's character learns how to deal with the ensuing flood of emotion that comes with beating cancer. We're definitely going to catch this flick.

Off topic, this does bring up a question: why can't Apple just allow people to embed directly from their website?! I know that they are the "exclusive" site to watch every trailer imaginable and spend countless hours doing so but it'd save some good cloud space right?

the Legendary White iPhone 4 Case Giveaway

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After nine excruciating months, Apple has finally gotten the right mix of materials in order and has released the once mythological, almost classified as vaporware, white iPhone 4! To think that I almost waited this long for the white version?! Yes, I still want the white iPhone 4 so I'm also willing to say that I'll trade anyone with buyers remorse for my 32GB black iPhone 4 so just drop me a line but back to the facts. Selling for the same price as the black iPhone 4, you'll get the same device albeit with some minor changes to the proximity sensor as well as a purported minor increase in thickness?! Although not mentioned or re-specified by Apple, these new white Apple iPhone 4s should fit all cases alike and in celebration, we're going to give away two brand new awesome iPhone 4 cases!

From left to right, check out the Scosche bandEDGE g4 or the Casemate Horizontal Hipster with Black Lining both made for the iPhone 4 GSM. I believe that they should also fit the Verizon / CDMA variant but unfortunately, I cannot guarantee that it will. Any who, why not just enter cause it's a freaking free giveaway?

No you don't have to own the white iPhone 4 to be elegible or even own an iPhone 4. All you have to do to enter is to tweet this website and mention the giveaway, leave a comment or post / writing a blog that leads back to this post. If you do all three, you receive three entries! (I loved the method that Ray Maker uses on his DCRainMaker Blog that I thought I'd incorporate the same methodology so here it is!) Just make sure to tell me how how many entries you've entered in the comments below and I'll be sure to give you all the credit. Entires are required to be in by Saturday May 7th, 2011 at 11:59PM Pacific and goodluck!

Amazing Sales of iPad 2

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All the news it out and Apple stores, Best Buys, Targets, and just about every other retailer has run out of Apple's latest success story! As of this afternoon, they're even going up on eBay with prices of up to a 160% markup! We unfortunately didn't get our hands one, but hey, maybe when the iPad 3 comes up this Fall. Hopefully it will and it won't make the latest adopters all mad. For now, check out this awesome comic for how Apple adopters / users / fanboys usually feel. (by the oatmeal) Grab 5 Very Good Reasons to Punch a Dolphin in the Mouth (And Other Useful Guides), an awesome book, too while you're at it!

Apple iPad 2 Available for Pre-Order: ships in 3-5 days

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The title says it all. As of this morning, March 11, 2011, you can order either the black Apple iPad 2 (ships within 3-5 days) or the white Apple iPad 2 (ships in 5-7 days) along with Apple's Smart Cover and free engraving on http://www.apple.com. While you're at it, pick up AppleCare for $79.00, add-on the Apple Digital A/V Adapter for another $39.00, and why not add in the digital camera connection kit for $29. Checking out, my cart easily shot up to $815.00 for a 32GB Wi-Fi + leather Smart Cover, and the rest I spoke of above! You give it a shot and tell me how you did.

 

 

Listen to Three Amazing Stories from Steve Jobs

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Made public a little while back, I thought that I should share it with you all here on this blog, adellelijah. I have to admit that it is very inspiring and let's face it, I'm a big fan. Steve Jobs speaks really well, holds my attention and is just a force that we should all listen to. Here are a few of my favorite quotes from various parts of the speech I that I want to share:

"Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards." "Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith." "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish."

There's also this which I take to heart:

"Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle."

Watch and be truly inspired! Do something that you believe in to be truly amazing today. In its entirety, Steve Jobs' 2005 Stanford Commencement Address also know as the "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. Speech"

You can check out the full text of Steve Jobs' Commencement address here.

HP Lets Loose...this Summer

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Officially announced this morning, the trio that HP promised surfaced as their new HP Veer, HP Pre3 and HP Touchpad; a phone for fun, a phone for business & play and a tablet that touts webOS 3.0. All using the famous touchstone induction charging, these devices are set to hit the street with the Veer in Spring '11 and the latter two, this Summer of 2011. I'm rather disappointed that HP isn't able to capitalize and beat Apple to market with their iPad 2 looming this Spring as well as the potential unveiling of the iPhone 5 in June; It's going to be a tough break and a wasted opportunity at market share. But back to the rundown starting it out with their baby.

The HP Veer is poised as the runt of the trio measuring at 3.25" in height and targeted at the minimalist user clocking in at 800Mhz by Qualcomm's MSM7230 processor. Packed with a full QWERTY keyboard, great e-mailing capability, Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE network with HSDPA 7.2/HSUPA 5.76, the Veer is equipped with a 2.6-inch multitouch screen w/ a "vibrant" 18-bit color, 320x400 resolution. Other features include the now standard 5.0MP camera w/ added video functionality, 8GB of memory and built-in A-GPS.

On the other hand, the HP Pre3 packs a heavier punch with its Qualcomm MSM 8x55 1.4GHz processor, 512MB RAM and 3.58-inch multitouch screen with 24-bit color and a 470x800 WVGA display. Accompanying the 5.0MP is an LED flash and HD (720p) video recording functionality along with a front VGA camera for those interested in conference calling.

The newest kid on the block is of course HPs TouchPad. Taking advantage of Qualcomm's Snapdragon dual-CPU APQ8060 1.2GHz monster, HP has poised this device to take on summer's iPad 2. Running webOS 3.0 alongside a 9.7-inch XGA capacitive, multi-touch screen w/ 18-bit color at 1024x768 resolution, you'll be able to play games, e-mail and video conference using the 1.3-megapixel webcam. Choosing either a 16GB or 32GB model, the TouchPad is packed with Beats Audio which should produce some good quality stereo while posted on the Touchstone dock.

The most exciting revelation comes from the next generation of of Touchstone technology. Tapping the TouchPad with the Pre3, you can share a URL or even receive text messages and answer phone calls. All these technologies are set to make HP standout but already plagued with inconsistency and a unreliable timeline of product releases, it's going to take time and a specific consumer to make a switch or start believing. You can even say that HP is on the same ground of some of America's automobile makers. That's just my take. What's yours?

Google Translate for iPhone

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It's Tuesday and on the heels of Google's Shopper App comes Google Translate for iPhone.  With all the recent native Google Applications being released for iOS, you'd think that Apple and Google are best buds again.  Maybe it has to do with Eric Schmidt being ousted...I don't know.

The biggest awesome is that you can speak the text and Google will try it's best to translate your phrase or word in 15 different languages.  Then, if you desire, one can play back and hear the desired translation!  Granted it hasn't been setup up for my parents native language, Tagalog, but hey, I'm sure that voice support will come soon.  In the mean time, have at it!

I'll admit that when I speak a certain English sentence, it doesn't capture the exact phrase but it's better than nothing when lost in a foreign land!  What do you plan to use the app for?  Translating that Spanish paper you have to write or ordering sushi?

Description

Translate words and phrases between more than 50 languages using Google Translate for iOS. For most languages, you can speak your phrases and hear the corresponding translations.

With Google Translate you can:

* Translate text between 57 languages * Translate by speaking the text instead of typing it (15 languages) * Listen to your translations spoken aloud (23 languages) * Display translations in full screen mode to make it easier for others nearby to read * Star your favorite translations for quick access even when you’re offline * Access your translation history even when you’re offline * Spell out the translation of non-Latin script languages (e.g. Chinese, Japanese, etc..) in Latin characters to read it phonetically (e.g. Pinyin, Romaji) * View additional dictionary results for single words or short phrases

Translations between the following languages are supported:

Afrikaans, Albanian, Armenian, Azerbaijani, Arabic, Basque, Belarusian, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Filipino, Finnish, French, Galician, Georgian, German, Greek, Haitian Creole, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Italian, Irish, Japanese, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Malay, Maltese, Norwegian, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu, Vietnamese, Welsh, Yiddish

Bay Area for the Day: January 9th

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"Let's go somewhere tomorrow." - adelle"San Francisco?" - elijah (w/ hidden agenda in mind) "YAY!" - adelle (unknowingly excited)

I will admit that after I told her my idea, she was just as equally excited. The agenda was to include a flight from San Diego to Los Angeles in order to get a direct flight into San Jose airport, have brunch with a awesome friend, make a quick trip to the Menlo Park Telsa Store and maybe, just maybe run into the Model S, then make it to the city for a day of hanging out with another friend of awesomeness background ending it with a direct flight from San Francisco back to San Diego.

To summarize, the flights were open and timing was immaculate! Accommodating a trip to the farmers' market, grabbing a bite to eat at a local hotspot for brunch, a stop over at Apple's HQ in Cupertino, a quick "ohh and aww" session at the Tesla Shop in Menlo Park, then a train that was scheduled to not only depart within 5 minutes of our arrival but was destined to be in Mission Bay Area at another perfect time for pick up...it couldn't have been any better! Adelle and I even grabbed a Red Velvet Hot Chocolate at Coffee Bean and made it to the 3D IMAX showing of Tron: Legacy at the AMC Sony Metreon! I mean, minus the chance of having the Tesla Model S present or a test drive of the Tesla Roadster, or a run in with the man, Steve Jobs and a tour of Apple HQ, it really made out for a great day.

Enjoy the pics!  The only reason why this post is a month back is because you can't necessarily post up or presence right?  I mean, aren't most reality television shows delayed by a couple of months?  e.g. Kourtney & Kim Take New York | E! Online