• Steve Jobs to Nike CEO: ‘Get Rid of the Crappy Stuff’

    // Gradly // Apple, blog, Featured, iPad, iPhone, Rants & Raves, Steve Jobs, Tech. No Responses

    Carmine Gallo shares this interesting story on Forbes, shortly after becoming CEO, Mark Parker talked to Steve Jobs on the phone asking for some tips:

    “Do you have any advice?” Parker asked Jobs. “Well, just one thing,” said Jobs. “Nike makes some of the best products in the world.  Products that you lust after.  But you also make a lot of crap.  Just get rid of the crappy stuff and focus on the good stuff.”

    Jobs was “absolutely right,” Parker admitted, adding that Nike “had to edit” when making business decisions:

    Parker said Jobs paused and Parker filled the quiet with a chuckle.  But Jobs didn’t laugh.  He was serious. “He was absolutely right,” said Parker.  “We had to edit.”

    Parker used the word ‘edit’ not in a design sense but in the context of making business decisions.  Editing also leads to great product designs and effective communications. According to Steve Jobs, “People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on.  But that’s not what it means at all.  It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully.  I’m actually as proud of the things we haven’t done as the things I have done.  Innovation is saying ‘no’ to 1,000 things.”

    But “Can anyone innovate like Apple?”

    The simple answer: While anyone can learn the principles that drive Apple’s innovation, few businesses have the courage to do so.  It takes courage to reduce the number of products a company offers from 350 to 10, as Jobs did in 1998.  It takes courage to remove a keyboard from the face of a smartphone and replace those buttons with a giant screen, as Jobs did with the iPhone.  It takes courage to eliminate code from an operating system to make it more stable and reliable, as Apple did with Snow Leopard.  It takes courage to feature just one product on the home page of a Web site as Apple does with each new major product launch.  It takes courage to make a product like the iPad that is so simple a child can use it.  And it takes courage to eliminate all of the words on a PowerPoint slide except one, as Steve Jobs often does in a presentation.

  • Apple Planning Major Product Launch For 10th Retail Anniversary?

    // Gradly // Apple, blog, Featured, News, Rants & Raves, Rumors 1 Response

    Apple Stores in the United States will hold all-hands meetings Sunday, May 22nd. And given the preparations and secrecy, something big seems like it’s about to unveil in celebration of Apple’s ten year retail anniversary.

    Apple’s 10th retail anniversary is actually on Thursday, May 19th, but it seems Apple intends to celebrate it on Sunday, May 22nd instead, however, here is the latest update on the matter comes directly from the guys at BGR, who adds the following:

    • There’s an overnight shift planned for around 10-15 individuals at each Apple Store to work from late Saturday all the way through mid-Sunday.
    • During the overnight shift, it’s going to be required that employees lock cell phones in the main office. They will also have to sign an NDA with Apple.
    • There are a wide variety of roles, we’re told, for the overnight shift. This includes all visuals staff, a manager, a business team member, a few Genius team members, one back-of-house employee, and a few generic Apple specialists.
    • Apple stores have apparently already received hardware to install, and are expecting more hardware to come on Friday or Saturday. All materials that Apple stores have received have been instructed to be under lock and key until after close on Saturday night.
    • Apple employees will be putting up black curtains at all stores so that people walking outside cannot see inside.
    • Employees have had to download gigabytes of data from Apple corporate labeled, “training” in a password-protected zipped folder that won’t accessible to managers or anyone else until Saturday afternoon.
    • Lastly, all Apple retail stores have mandatory meetings on Sunday, May 22nd. Most meeting are scheduled for the morning, but there are evening meetings as well.

    The question is, what is Apple planning? What could May 22nd hold in store for us? A new product? New hardware?

    Update:

    A lot of unconfirmed yet rumors surfaced claiming that Apple is about to give its retail stores a “huge” update – something Apple is referring to as “Apple Store 2.0″ – which involves adding new “Startup Sessions,” interactive iPad signage, new sound systems and even a new Apple Store iOS app with augmented reality capabilities.

  • Toshiba is Working on 4-inch 367dpi Retina Display For Apple?

    // Gradly // Apple, blog, Featured, iPhone, News, Rants & Raves, Rumors, Tech. No Responses

    Toshiba is going to exhibit next-generation displays and technologies at the 2011 Society for Information Display International Symposium, May 17 to 19, 2011. The interesting news is that Toshiba is going to show off a 4″ High density displays for mobile devices. here what they had to say:

    Displays for Mobile Phones and Portable Electronics: The mobile section of the booth will feature high-resolution LTPS displays, up to 367ppi (pixels per inch) resolution density, in sizes ranging from 3.3-inch to 4.0-inch with resolution formats ranging from Wide VGA (480 x 864) to HD (720 x 1280). In addition, these displays will demonstrate advanced technologies such as high-contrast (up to 1,500:1), high-color (up to 92% NTSC), and wide viewing angle (up to H/V 176º/176º). The displays are just a few representative examples of TMD’s broad line of thin and light displays for mobile smartphones and other portable electronic devices.

    A lot of previous rumors speculated a new iPhone with edge-to-edge 4-inch display panels. Back in December a news came from Reuters reporting that Apple & Toshiba said to be working with on future displays which apparently ditching Samsung away:

    Toshiba Corp will spend about 100 billion yen ($1.19 billion) to build a factory for making small LCD panels, mainly to supply to Apple Inc’s iPhones, the Nikkei business daily said.The company’s wholly owned unit, Toshiba Mobile Display Co, will construct the facility in Ishikawa prefecture and the plant will churn out low-temperature polysilicon LCD panels, which allow for high-resolution images, the paper said.Work on the plant will start by early next year, with the production due to begin in the second half of 2011, Nikkei said.Toshiba Mobile Display already makes low-temperature polysilicon LCD panels at a facility in the prefecture and its monthly production capacity of 8.55 million units is projected to more than double with the new factory, the daily said.  Apple will invest in a portion of the investment for the factory, the Nikkei said.

    Are we waiting for a 4-inch iPhone this fall?

  • Rich Text for Mail: A New Cydia Tweak to Customize & Format Your Emails

    // Gradly // Apple, blog, Cydia, Download, iPhone, Jailbreak 1 Response

    A New tweak has surfaced in Cydia, Rich Text for Mail, which allows you to compose and reply to emails using custom favorite fonts, favorite colors and favorite styles. It can also add Bold, Italic, Strikethrough, Underline and Insert Image items to Action Menu, which should be already installed. Watch the video below;

    You can buy Rich Text for Mail for $4.99 in Cydia Store via BigBoss repo.