Even though this has been expected after the evident deterioration of his health in the last few months, it is hard to accept that the man who is behind a slew of creativity and innovation that has changed our life forever is now gone. From the first Apple computers that introduced the term GUI to the world over thirty years ago to the iconic i-prefixed devices family – this is the man that almost single handedly brought a company written off to be the world’s most valuable company with a market value of $350 billion.

He had a very colorful life.

He was born out of wedlock to a Syrian father, Abdulfattah John Jandali, whom he never met or even speak with and Joanne Simpson. The parents gave him up for adoption. He grew up in California, and was very much a product of that place and time. He took drugs. He got into phone hacking.

He is a prodigy who never finished college. He explained this in the famous Stanford University commencement speech in June 2005 – an inspiring speech that urged youngsters to pursue their dreams against setbacks in life.

His first career was with Atari where he met Steve Wozniak. In 1975 he convinced Wozniak to quit his job at Hewlett Packard and start Apple in a garage. They built Apple I, the world first true fully built up personal computer. By 1980, they have 3 improved versions and launched a succesfull IPO which made him a multi-millionaire by the age of 25 (a great achievement at that time).

When the Apple III and Lisa computers that debuted in 1980 and 1983 were flops – Apple’s Board of Director often disagree with him and in 1984, he was shoved out of his own company by the chairman, John Sculley, a man he brought in from Pepsi.

Never a man to despair, he developed NeXT computer. It was a commercial failure and during this 11 years he was written off as a has been by the industry. However NeXT operating system was instrumental in object-oriented programming, PostScript, and magneto-optical devices and later form the the underpinnings of Apple’s OS X, and iOS.

In 1986, he bought the computer graphics arm of Lucasfilm, Ltd. which became Pixar Animation Studios. Pixar’s films were innovative and pushed the boundaries of CGI to such an extent that even today its early films still look great. Steve understood that great technology alone is not enough – Pixar movies tell stories. They make grown men cry. 20 years later (2006) he sold Pixar to Disney for $7.4 billion after producing blockbusters such as Toy Story (1995); A Bug’s Life (1998); Toy Story 2 (1999); Monsters, Inc. (2001); Finding Nemo (2003); and The Incredibles (2004).

By 1997, Apple situation nosedived as they fared badly against the WinTel (Microsoft Windows and Intel) coalition. Apple board was made to eat humble pie and invited him back to lead the company ~ and he made sure they paid for it by getting Apple to acquire NeXT at a substantial amount. He famously declared that as a CEO he will only take a $1 salary – a gesture that won the hearts of his fans and investors alike.

In 2001, the music industry that was mired in illegal downloading was rocked by Apple’s iPod which made listening to music intuitive and through iTunes, sell songs online for only 99 cents. This became a runaway success despite initial sceptical reviews by the industry – by today 300 million iPods sold and 16 billion songs downloaded. Steve repeated this kind of against-the-grain success many times over and emphasized that the industry should not rely too much on focus group or market study.

“A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.”

In 2007, he transformed the cell phone. Apple’s iPhone, with its iconic touch screen, was a handheld computer, music player, messaging device, digital wallet and — almost incidentally — cell phone. Again it was a wild success as consumers love the easy to use powerfull smartphone with hundreds of thousands of apps -all for a low price from $99. The touch screen revolution started by iPhone caused the once mighty Nokia to lose market position and resulting with the unthink-of-before coalition with Microsoft Windows.

“Every once in a while a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything. … One is very fortunate if you get to work on just one of these in your career. Apple’s been very fortunate it’s been able to introduce a few of these into the world.” [Announcement of the iPhone, January 2007]

By the end of 2009, the tech world is a buzz with rumor of Apple’s impending tablet computer. By now the industry is familiar with Steve Jobs (seemingly miraculous) ability to churn out hit success out of nowhere. Of course, tablet computing has been around since late 1990s but was largely dubbed as a failure.

In April 2010, Steve Job gave his famous product launch presentation for iPad which he dubbed as ‘a magical device’. The rest is history and we all know how iPad recorded the fastest growth product ever and turned PC-less computing into reality. From gaming, publishing to broadcasting industries have been affected by consumer changing usage pattern because of iPad.

Like all geniuses, Steve had his flaws, too.

When Atari hired Jobs and Woz to write the code for the iconic Atari game Breakout, the pair earned a $5000 bonus for completing the work, largely done by Woz. But Jobs kept the bonus a secret, and only paid his partner $375.

In the workplace he’s often been described as temperamental and even petulant. He could be arrogant and unforgiving. It was said he had a habit of calling employees or their ideas “dumb” when he didn’t like something. He was even more combative against foes like Microsoft, Google Inc., and Amazon.com Inc. When Adobe Systems Inc. waged a campaign against Apple for not supporting Adobe’s Flash video format on its iPhones and iPads in April 2010, Mr. Jobs wrote a 1,600-word essay about why the software was outdated and inadequate for mobile devices.

Whether you love him or you hate him, you can’t help to admire him. Words like ‘aura’ ‘inspiring’ ‘creative’ and ‘innovation’ are subjectives often used to describe him. Many best sellers titles have been written around him – including one about the Presentation Secret of Steve Jobs that yours truly had really enjoyed. Geeks like us thanked him for turning around the term nerd and geek to be a cool one to have.

In 2004, he beat back an unusual form of pancreatic cancer, and in 2009 he was forced to get a liver transplant. After several years of failing health, Jobs announced on 24 August 2011 that he was stepping down as Apple’s chief executive.

Goodbye Steve. This world will be a bit less exciting and colorful without you. We are going to miss you.

“Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me … Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful… that’s what matters to me.” [Steve Jobs in The Wall Street Journal, May 1993]

The iPad 2 was finally made available (officially) in Malaysia last week. It was reported that all the available units was quickly snapped up within hours of its availability.

The photo above was the queue at MidValley last Saturday for the latest batch of iPad2 that just made available. The guy closest in the picture got the last available unit in the Machines store there, despite the ‘hundreds’ of units allocated to the store according to one of Machine’s employee there. Quick check at the Macstudio shop at Bangsar Shopping Centre also revealed that all units were sold out and the staff there confirmed that there are still unfulfilled pre-orders.

So.. if there’s an X-factor boxing match between Apple’s iPad and the crown pretenders (Motorola’s Xoom or Samsung’s Galaxy)…

The winner is still iPad 2 , coz I ain’t see any queue anywhere else!

Here’s the quick and dirty rundown of the changes or new features:

• iPad 2 will feature 2 cameras (the low res front camera for FaceTime and the slightly higher res camera at the back for video and photo taking. The back camera can record HD video at 720p at 30 frames per second with audio. When in still camera mode, the back camera has a 5X digital zoom.
• it will be powered by 1GHz dual-core Apple A5 processor which Apple says is two times faster than the previous processor, while graphics performance is nine times faster
• iPad 2 is thinner and lighter, weighing 1.3 pounds (previous 1.5 pounds) and measuring 0.35 inches thick (previous 0.5 inches). It’s even thinner than iPhone 4 which is 0.37 inches
• the price remains unchanged (at least for USA – we’ll see what happens in Malaysia later)
• it will now sport a gyroscope (like iPhone 4) which will works with the built-in accelerometer and compass to sense the direction the iPad is headed and how it’s moving. woohoo.. expect new level of games interactivity!
• yes.. there will be a white iPad version released at the same time
• iPad 2 can support external display at 1080p video out using an Apple VGA Adapter or the newly announced Apple Digital AV Adapter
• it will be available in USA from next week (March 11) and official release in Malaysia will be (— fill in the blank yourself —)

Are you excited? Will the other tablet wannabes manufacturer have to scurry back to the design board?

Sounds okay but on paper.. nothing magical about these new features. My current iPad has not been rendered obsolete yet! Until the app developer start coming out with super games and applications to take advantage of the gyrometer and faster processor that is. I guess the top item in the next birthday list is clearly marked down eh!

There will be soon be a splew of media reviews of the year. What has been, followed by prediction of what will be. Here is a different way of presenting this review. The Cloud King, Google summed its multi exabytes data of searches and present in this cool zeitgiest video the how the world searched in 2010.

Fast Tube by Casper

Pretty close approximation of what the world thinks eh. BTW, in case you’re wondering. Zeitgeist stands for ‘the spirit of the times’ which is a German term that originated from the 18th century.

One of the key advantage of android is that it is an open platform – which means there are unlimited ways to customise one’s phone. The downside is that these may be too daunting for the simple user – just like the Linux experience that scared many computer users.

So let us help you by giving 10 tips how to make the best use of your android phone.

1. Get better keyboard

One of the pet peeves of android users is the default software keyboard. If you’re not happy with it, there are many alternatives that you can download and use. We recommend Swype, Better Keyboard(available in Android Market) and HTC IME modified keyboard.

2. Create your own ringtones

Like all modern mobile phones, the Android platform lets you select and create your own ringtones. Creating ringtones and notifications can be done manually or with the help of an app from the Android Market.

Manually adding a ringtone to your phone involves creating several specific directories on your SD card, based on the type of ringtone you’d like to add. The other method is far easier. Simply download the Ringdroid app free from the Android Market and use it to edit and trim your audio files before saving them as a ringtone, notification, or alarm. You can customize notifications and ringtones on a per contact basis by opening the desired contact’s information and selecting Set Ringtone.

You can change email notifications within the Gmail app (though you might want to select Silent if you receive a lot of emails).You can also set a different song to wake you for each day of the week by creating an alarm ringtone of your favorite songs, and creating an alarm for each day of the week, then selecting the desired song.

3. Import Contacts

• Export contacts from Outlook to CSV, and then import to Gmail contacts. After that,
• Sign in to your phone with your Google account, if you haven’t done that yet.
• Browse to Contacts>Settings>Display options>Select “Only contacts with phones”, and also Google>Manually select all groups. Then sync.
• While you are at it, use the Email app to setup your school/office email and install Gtasks to sync your todo lists with Google tasks. Use IMAP or Exchange settins to ensure that email read status is synced to your phone too.

4. Activate the Android Power Strop

Maybe realising that all the trendy people in KL already sporting these device, Maxis has announced that they are offering a special data plans for iPad soon.

So the question I would like to pose in typical Manglish is – are you iPad yet? If you are – we want to know what apps have you got installed. Get a screenshot (press and hold home button and then press power button simultaneously) and send it to us at ashreport@chip.com.my .

Why?

• Share with us what apps that you use (there are so many at the AppStore – all of us can use a good tip)
• Show us your cool background and your collections
• Maybe the Boss can give prize for zaniest screenshot

We’ll put up the submitted screenshot on the website.

It’s amazing what wonders you can do with a device with one single navigation button. Let me share with you 10 more cool tips and tricks for your iPhone. At the end of this, please let us know whether you found them useful or if you have any other cool tips – share with us.

1. Send Full Definition Photo in Your Message

Do you know that iPhone scaled down the resolution of your photo when you attach it in your email? – typically you do it by hitting the “Share” button on the lower left corner and then press the “Email Photo” button.

To send full resolution photos via email, open the photo in your iPhone’s camera roll, tap on it and hold until the “Copy” button appears.

Copy the photo, then compose a new email. Press and hold somewhere within the content section, let go and the contextual menu will appear. Press Paste to insert your full resolution photo. Whalla! No more skimping on quality when sharing…

2. How to take a screenshot

Sometimes you just want to take a screenshot of your cool apps collection on the home display. Here’s how you do that.

Hold the “home” button, then hit the “power/sleep” button, the screen will momentarily flash, and the iPhone’s current screen contents will be saved to the Camera Roll.

3. Make your own iPhone ringtones

I know… getting cool ring tones for iPhone is such a pain in the $%%. But fret not. Here’s a way to make your own custom ringtones using nothing but the iTunes.

Step 1. Choose the song you want in iTunes and right-click on the track and hit “Get Info.”

Select “Options” from the menu along the top, then change the “Stop Time” of the song to 15 – 30 seconds.
Now, in the “Advanced” iTunes menu, select “Create AAC version.”

You will now see a second version of the song. Be sure to go back into the original song’s “Get Info” options and delete your “Stop Time” setting, or else the song won’t play past this point in the future.

Step 2. Convert the song to ringtone format

Once you’ve got the AAC version of the song, you need to find it on your computer. (typically: My Documents, My Music, iTunes, iTunes Media, Music and then the relevant artist’s folder.)

Change the file extension from .m4a to .m4r by clicking on it and overtyping. If you can’t see the file extension type (just the name) then you need to enable that functionality first. Go to your control panel and click “Folder Options.” Then, untick the option that says “Hide extensions for known file types.” Going back into the iTunes folder and you will now be able to see the extension to change it.

Once it’s changed, you need to import the renamed file back into iTunes through the “Add to Library” option in the “File” menu.

p.s. this if for PC users. Mac users have to use their peculiar method to rename the file.

Step 3. Get the ringtone to your iPhone

Now, both Mac and PC users will see the file under the “Ringtones” category on the left of your iTunes display. To get the ringtone where it needs to be — on your phone — sync your iPhone to iTunes. If this is the first time you’ve added a ringtone in this way, make sure that the “Ringtones” tab is set to sync.

To change the ringtone on your iPhone to your chosen song, go to “Settings,” then “Sounds,” then “Ringtone” and you should now have a “Custom” list above the pre-loaded “Standard” list. Just touch the song you want and you can be free of that pre-loaded “Marimba” forever!

4. Get to the top fast

Scrolling a long document is a hassle right. Here’s a shortcut in to get to the top of the page fast.

In Safari, Mail, Contacts, and many other apps, simply tap the status bar at the top of the screen — which displays the carrier information, time, and battery level — to scroll quickly to the top.

5. Get the character count in SMS

iPhone, by default, does not show the number of characters that you’re typing – such as in composing SMS or Twitter messages. This is an annoying oversight right?

You can easily turn this facility on. Just go to the “Settings” menu, select “Messages,” then slide the “Character Count” toggle to “On.” Now when you are composing a text message — after you get to the end of the first line — you’ll see a running count of how many characters you’re sending on the right of the display, above the send button.

6. Sentence stopping shortcut

If you’re not already using this trick, you most certainly should, as it can seriously speed up your typing. It is enabled by default, but to confirm it’s active, go to “Settings,” then “General,” then “Keyboard,” then make sure the toggles next to the “Auto-Capitalization” option and the fourth option down — “.” Shortcut — are set to the “On” position.

Now when you’re typing away, a double tap of the space-bar will add a period/full-stop and automatically capitalize the very next letter you type.

7. Setup Hotmail Using Exchange ActiveSync On Your iPhone For Push Email, Calendar & Contacts

If you are still a loyal user of Hotmail, you’ll be pleased to know that you can now sync your email, calendar, and contacts to iPhone using Exchange ActiveSync. So any changes made on the iPhone will be reflected on the web interface, and vice versa.

Here are the steps:

1. Launch the Settings App. Under Settings, tap on “Mail, Contacts, Calendar”.
2. Then tap on “Add Account”.
3. Tap on “Microsoft Exchange” to configure Hotmail ActiveSync.
4. Enter your full Hotmail email address in both Email and Username fields. Leave Domain blank. Enter your password. In the Description field, enter a name, e.g Hotmail.
5. Then tap on the Next button.
6. After the details entered above are successfully verified. You will get another screen where you need to enter m.hotmail.com for the Server name. Then tap on the Next button.
   
7. If the verification is successful, you will see the screen where you can select the data (Mail, Contacts, Calendar) to sync and then tap on Save.

Now you’re all set.

8. Sleep The iPod After A Certain Period Of Time

If you frequently listen to music on your iPhone before going to sleep, this is a pretty cool tip. You can set the iPod function to sleep after a desired period of time.

To set the sleep timer, launch the Clock. Select the Timer function. Set the amount of time you’d like to listen to your music before the iPod goes to sleep.

Tap on the “When Timer Ends” menu and you’ll be brought to a page where you’re able to select a particular alarm that is played when the timer ends. Scroll up and tap on “Sleep iPod”.

Sweet dreams listening to Justin Bieber!

9. Open link in a new page

There have been a lot of tips regarding Safari. A popular tip, if you didn’t already know, is to tap and hold a link then tap on “Open in New Page” to browse the link in a separate browser page.

When you’re done reading, just close it and you’ll be brought back to the main webpage. I find this tip very useful when reading blogs with multiple entries — I avoid pressing on the Back button and the need to reload the page each time.

10. To Silent A Call

The last tip is a simple but very useful to ignore annoying callers.

To silent a call, press the Sleep button once. It will continue to ring without any indications (no ringtone, no vibration) until you answer or the caller hangs up. To reject a call, press the Sleep button twice.

Hope you will find these tips useful. Don’t forget to let us know which one that you used and how do you find it.

Since when classroom get lit by the white fruit?

Anna Chapman, femme-fatale Russian spy that's part of the spy ring.

I bet you too, during your younger days, dreamt of being a spy with all those cool James Bond gadgets. Yours truly not excluded of course.

One of the observations of the 11 named Russian spies is that they all appear to live the usual middle-income life. Anna have a LinkedIn page and also Facebook. They live in decent suburbs. Just like you and me.

So it came to me – with all these state-of-the-art technologies available today, surely I too can have the necessary spying tools to be Malaysia’s newest secret agent. Or at least to spy on my boss . In fact an Associated Press article said that the Russian spy suspects use just ordinary gadgets.

Let’s do a quick search and see what can we find on the good ole World Wide Web, eh.

SPY CAMERA

What is a spy without one of those spy camera? Obviously, almost every mobile phone has a built in camera – so is a very capable spy camera. But what if I want to take picture discreetly? A quick search online presents a myriad of spy camera variations, from Coca-Cola cans to the improbable guise of a toy camera.

Notice that all spies have cool shades. So I might as well pick a Sun Glasses Spy Camera for RM426 from Digitalzone2u. Appearance counts and I’m sure it will blend well with my alter-ego persona.

LISTENING DEVICE

Another must have equipment for a spy wannabe

We found this parabolic microphone that will allow you to eavesdrop your target’s conversation at a Mamak stall of up to 100 meters away from the safety of your car. So that you can see the action as well, it comes with a monocular with 8x magnification.

Pretty cheap as well – only AU$46 from Chinavasion.

But being in KL, more likely I’ll want to do my spying actions in air-cond comfort indoors.

. From the same place, I can get this Inspector Gadget Audio Listening Device. Simply put it on the wall and listen to what’s being said next door. This audio gadget works by amplifying the vibrations of audio. When people are talking in a room their voices are simply a waveband, and depending on how loud they are talking, the waveband travels short and long distances which are picked up and amplified by this device.

Hah … no juicy office gossips can escape me any more.

Computer Key Logger

Not content with looking at who they’re meeting or eavesdropping, how can one up the ante and snoop into their computer habit? Using simply a small plug-in device, between a person’s keyboard (even a wireless one) and their computer, you can see hundreds of pages of text that they type no matter what it is. You can monitor every single button they press on their keyboard.

When it has been recording a good deal of time you can take it out and plug it into your own computer enter the password and Viola! You can see all their chats and everything they’ve typed.

Recover deleted data

It is so easy nowadays to snoop inside a computer and find out the information. If the target has deleted crucial files, many software are now available to let you search for the deleted pictures or documents. Try Diskinternals for free.

The Word or Excel documents are password protected? Just download a Password Recovery Tools that will help you to discover Microsoft Office and OpenOffice passwords with maximum speed. The software cracks simple passwords instantly and uses the latest GPU technology to get the job done.

Lock Pick

I also noticed that all good detectives and spies in the movies can pick locks with ease. I was told that it is a skill that can be mastered, but I certainly have no time for all that.

So I was glad when I came across this Lock Pick Gun which does the job automatically. It can quickly pick pin tumbler locks and cost only US$79.00.

X-Ray Spray

This gadget make a dodgy claim but it sure sounds exciting. Use this X-Ray Spray turns opaque paper temporarily translucent, allowing the user to view the contents of an envelope without ever opening.

30 seconds after application, the envelope will return to its’ original state, leaving absolutely no markings, discoloration or other indications of use.

It had better be more effective than the X-Ray glasses, of my earlier days, that promised to let one see through clothes and skirts. The advert looked very convincing in my Marvel comic pages but, damn, what a waste of Hari Raya money it was.

Tracker

Admit it. You’ve watched a lot of Hollywood in your lifetime and from 007 to StarWars films have had many scenes where people trace each other with small gadgets they slipped onto each other.

Thanks to Global Positioning Satellites (GPS) this is now no large feat to do. As a beginner spy, your budget may not be as deep as MI5. But fret not, what UK can do China can do it cheaper. This personal tracker from ShenZhen will get the position’s longitude and latitude coordinates using GPS and then send SMS to your phone. You can then use Google map or your Nokia’s navigational app to track the exact location.

Spy Vehicle

Ideally, I would like to have one of these James Bond’s Aston Martin fully gadget-equipped. But unless I can come up with $125,000 spare change… that will remain a dream lah.

But this is an area where reality is increasingly imitate fiction. In this case, the Governments are spying on its people. Here we have the Sky Drone that is used by the US police force.

These Honeywell Micro Air Vehicles have forward and downward looking cameras and can set 100 different way points. The Spy Drone that looks as if it has come direct from a Star Wars movie can travel at 57mph and can reach an altitude of 10,500 feet. Watch out, Big Brother is watching.

The U.S. government, through NSA, has engaged in a massive program of dragnet surveillance of domestic communications and communications records of millions of ordinary Americans since at least 2001. News reports in December 2005 first revealed that the National Security Agency (NSA) has been intercepting Americans’ phone calls and Internet communications. The Bush Administration said that this is part of its war on terror

high quality zombieland movie

program. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales confirmed the existence of the program, first reported in a 16 Dec 2005 article in The New York Times. Many has opposed this move and consider it illegal. In a recent development, on January 2009, the administration of President Barack Obama adopted the same position as his predecessor when it urged U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker to set aside a ruling in Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation et al. v. Obama, et al.

Realistically, I will settle for one of these remote control vehicles. What we have here is called Remotely Operated Mobile Platform (ROMP) that will allow the operator to “drive” the vehicle and shoot weapon even though it is out of sight. The platform has been designed for any use, “including remote surveillance, security patrolling and bomb investigation.” and uses an audio/video system linked to an VR headset for control, aiming, and firing.

I can go on and on… but it is evident that there are more than enough toys available in the open market that can be used effectively to spy on somebody. In fact, my keyboard appeared to be laggy today. Maybe my rival has installed a spy software in my PC and as I typed this article, somewhere out there some one is reading and watching.

I guess I’ll find out the next time I land on JF Kennedy airport eh.

) but there are also CEO that is a PR disaster (say hi to Randall Stephenson of AT&T).

Who? you might say. Not many of us here in Malaysia has heard his name, but apparently AT&T is a huge telco in USA. So huge it seems that the CEO does not like to receive emails from the customers. Or else you will be served with a cease or desist letter from their lawyer.

That’s what happened to Giorgio Galante. He wrote two emails in two weeks to Mr Stephenson and voila.. there come a phone call from AT&T Executive Response Team (must be something like the corporate commando unit for them) that warned that further emails will result in a cease and desist letter. (listen to audio here)

We all know the US of A is a birth place and heaven for the suing culture and the hordes of lawyers there. But this? Maybe Mr Galante sent threatening emails that scared the juice off the CEO. Apparently, the first email was a request to bump up his iPhone eligibility date and a request for a tethering option, and the second one outlined his displeasure with AT&T’s new data rates and ultimate decision to switch to their competitor Sprint. Threatening? Yes, he did threatened to leave their service. And after that call from the ERT, you can bet that AT&T has lost a customer for sure that day.

Any of you who is a CEO or aspires to be one – please put this at the top of the ‘No No’ list. Oh ya.. can someone please send this guy some info on ‘Customer Service 101′.

Just to emphasise my first sentence just now, Galante had sent the email about offering tethering to both Randall Stephenson and Steve Job. Steve Job actually responded to that email. How cool is that?

To read Galante’s email to Stephenson, and to hear the resulting voicemail, click here.

Banner picture courtesy of geekrage.net

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