Good Week for iPhone

Despite the loss of Steve Jobs, it's turning out to be a good week for the iPhone, with the 4s breaking sales records and bringing the magic:

Android phones seem to come out every Tuesday at 3:45 p.m. Apple updates iOS and the iPhone only once a year. So Apple had a lot of catching up to do, even some leapfrogging. There are some rough spots here and there; for example, every now and then the 4S’s camera app gets stuck on its startup screen. And while the battery still gets you through one full day, standby time is shorter than before (200 hours versus 300). But over all, Apple has done an excellent job.

The question isn’t what’s in a name — it’s what’s in a phone. And the answer is: “A lot of amazing technology. And some of it feels like magic.”

One could argue that Jobs' death adds to the marketing as well. In addition, it was an exceptionally bad day for the usually reliable, if not-so-magical Blackberry:

BlackBerry maker Research In Motion has been posting updates on its U.S. site since Monday, when service outages were reported in Europe, India, Africa, the Middle East and throughout Latin America — but not here in the States. Well, that’s changed as of today, when the “core switch failure within RIM’s infrastructure” has begun affecting U.S. customers, who are experiencing messaging and browsing delays owing to a massive backup in data.

What makes the iPhone the big winner? It's Siri:

The blind woman at the end seals the sell.

The future is here.

The King is Dead

Has there ever been a more beloved CEO than Steve Jobs? He earned it the hard way, by losing the wildly successful company he founded in his youth, watching it slide down into the depths, then getting bought back in and taking it to greater glories than it had ever achieved.

I learned about his death on one of his devices. I'm writing this on another, in his browser. My fingers have touched his products more than any other single company's products. Not even Toyota. And even the Prius looks like an iCar.

56, I mean, what a life. What a profound impact on human learning, on industrial design, on the consumption of media.

I think what remains to be seen is if Apple ever creates another revolutionary product. The Mac, the Mac notebook, the iPhone, the iPad. (Let alone Pixar.) Is the announcement of the iPhone 4S the day before his passing a harbinger of more evolution -- but no revolution -- to come?

I certainly hope not. And by the note on the Apple website (after you click on the photo of Steve in a layout I wonder if he approved), they will be working to make his spirit the permanent spirit of the company.

Per Max Weber, any organization with veer from its original purpose over time, sometimes in betrayal of its original goals and function. Apple will definitely be different after Steve Jobs, but what it becomes may be something new and what we need for the post-Steve Jobs times. If the apple has many seeds, and those seeds bear fruit.

From the one, many?

E3 2011

I went to E3, the largest annual videogame convention in North America, which was about 2/3 the size of years past, much less loud and still lacking a consumer day open to the public (which the Tokyo Games Show, for example, does the final convention day each year). That made it both much more pleasant, dare I say, fun, while also a little sadder.

Nonetheless, there were plenty of great games and without all the long lines it was easier to get play time. There were also some enchanting technological innovations, of which my favorites are:

• Darbee Visual Presence:
  Ingenious interpolative software alternative to clunky 3D TV that gives the illusion of greater 3D without going whole hog glasses and focal points by adding depth information, kind of like adding drop shadow but very subtle, tricking you into seeing some surprising detail and changing how you look at the video image over time.
  
  It comes from brain research and works on the brain a little further back than our rods & cones, as explained to me by Paul Darbee, inventor (in the 1980's) of the universal remote (first to market, licensed by everyone). The software is starting to be licensed to TV, with Darbee just reconnecting with all of his global television manufacturing contacts from the universal remote business, and it will be an ingredient brand. Darbeevision on the inside.
  
  Even better, soon you can get it as an HTMI connecting device from Snakebyte, a European company debuting the little Darbee-converting box at E3, that you hook up between your computer satellite box and HDTV monitor. As for the images, the bigger the better, because I saw both Assassin's Creed looking so much more alive in a side-by-side comparison, as well as an underwater animal video that had such incredible depth -- not any of the painful or dim 3D technologies you've been subjected to in the past, non-assaultive depth, if that makes any sense, there for you to play with rather than work with.

• Fling: Analog joystick for your thumbs for iPad (and mini version for iPhone) that are a blast to use. Each one has two suction cups, and suction onto the screen, lower left and right corners. Then you basically twirl the discs inside each one with your thumbs to play, for example, a killer Asteroids-type game with constant side-scroller shooting action. There's a tension the the inner discs that makes the tactile experience very pleasing and natural. And when your thumbs come up, the games usually pause. Creators, Ten One Design, are in New Jersey!
  

Oh, and I got to be in this:



What an industry.