A book in every child’s hand

As a not-for-profit publisher with a dream to put a book in every child’s hand — and India has 300 million children — our wish list for the future of children’s publishing is long… but here are three trends that Pratham Books thinks will help make India a reading nation:

Firstly, more original content from Indian publishers in Indian languages to reach more children. India has 22 official languages and 1,600 dialects; but a country with such diversity produces children’s books predominantly in Hindi and English. Bookstores are flush with imported books of varying quality. All this content is in English, set in foreign surroundings, with characters and situations far removed from that of an Indian child. Also in stores are derivatives of the two Indian epics, and the Panchatantra and Jataka tales. We are not seeing enough innovation to create books that reflect the contemporary Indian reality.

With more than half of India’s 300 million children studying in government schools, there is a need to make reading material available to these children in the state’s language. Only if our children have quality reading material, can we expect them to be better readers.

The oral tradition of storytelling has almost disappeared in our families, leaving little scope for our traditional stories to be a part of an urban child’s life. There is therefore an urgent need for books drawn from our cultural landscape. It would be a shame to let go of the evocative, earthy flavours of our regional stories, the unique phrases and contexts of a place, just because we do not care to publish in the languages they are written in.
Looking back, looking forward

There is a huge need in India for affordable books of good quality to introduce the non-readers into the fold. Selling books in the sachet format is a second trend we would like to see. Our experience with story cards at Pratham Books has proved just how useful, enjoyable and exciting a four-page ‘book’ at `2 can be.

We have found equal success with bilingual books — books in two languages for the price of one. They help children to learn a second language, and in the non-English medium world, bilinguals are being used to learn English, the language of aspiration for many.

Shopping patterns are changing too. Traditional bookstore owners have been complaining about dips in sales up to 30% owing to people’s preference for online-shopping. While it is a valuable and pleasurable experience to browse through printed books in a shop, the convenience of e-tail platforms is such that publishers and retailers have to be ready to embrace new technology too.

Sharing worldwide with Creative Commons
In a dynamic world, books and reading are a constant. We may read less or more, we may give up one genre to take up another, we may read them on different media, but the popularity for the printed book is constant. In a city like Bangalore, where the population is increasing exponentially, the number of readers too is going to keep increasing. It is safe to predict that the demand for books is not going away for a long, long time.

At Pratham Books, for instance, we put out many of our titles in several languages under the Creative Commons license. This creates a multiplier effect where the books get converted into new forms and many derivative works get produced. So we get content for iPads, iPhones, e-readers, audio-clips and digital content for the visually-challenged.

Once a book has finished its life cycle including reprints, we believe publishers can make the samecontent available under the Creative Commons. This allows for more and more derivatives and translations to be available to children.

And as technology penetrates further it would be easy to upload all content to computers in libraries or pre-load content as we did in One Laptop Per Child, Nepal, and we could also try that with the new Akash tablet. Rather than seeingdigital devices as threats, we see them as exciting modes of communication that make children want to read more.
Publishers need to take technology in their stride and welcome it.

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The day Steve Jobs saved Apple

Image via CrunchBase

Sometimes it’s hard to fathom just what Steve Jobs has done at Apple Inc. during the 14 years since he rejoined the company as chief executive. You could call it remarkable, but would come up short.

Sure, it was a tour de force of visionary management and human force of will. But it was also world-changing, a testament to what a determined and passionate person can achieve when he or she knows to compromise on even core principles, when the time for compromise is right.

Now that Apple’s products have a rising share of the PC market and a leading share of huge, fast-growing markets such as smartphones and electronic tablets, it’s easy to forget what Jobs had to do to rescue Apple AAPL +0.62%  from its role as a niche player teetering on the brink of existence, as it was in 1997.

 

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What to expect at next Apple event?

Apple is expected to unveil the next iteration of its popular iPhone, the iPhone 5, and all eyes will be on CEO Tim Cook. Kara Swisher reports.

Before Jobs could transform the markets for music, phones and PCs (a second time), Jobs had to save his company. To do so, he did what had been, until the very moment he announced it, unthinkable: He struck a deal with Apple’s fiercest rival.

On Aug. 6, 1997, Jobs appeared at the Macworld conference in Boston and revealed to the Apple faithful that the company was entering into a strategic partnership with Microsoft Corp. MSFT 0.00% , its longtime technology enemy.

Jobs was visibly nervous on stage, taking a drink of water before saying that Apple “needs help from other partners … and relationships that are destructive are no help to anybody in this industry today.”

Needing some help

Apple certainly needed a lifeline at the time. As Jobs spoke, the company was in its fourth consecutive quarter in the red, a period when it lost more than $1 billion in aggregate. Sales were stagnant even as the tech world boomed. At the same time, Microsoft was flush with cash as its Windows 95 operating system gobbled up PC market share like a vacuum cleaner.

Jobs told his audience that Apple’s relationship with Microsoft was one that “hasn’t been going so well, but had the potential to be great for both companies.”

To the disbelief of the Apple developers in the audience, he then announced a new partnership with the software giant. Many in the crowd booed.

First, Jobs said the two companies had signed a broad five-year patent-licensing agreement, ending the legal hostilities. Apple and Microsoft also agreed to work together to make sure their versions of the Java programming language were compatible.

AAPL 404.30, +2.48, +0.62%
MSFT 25.06, 0.00, 0.00%

At the time, Apple was in court against Microsoft, having sued Gates and company for patent infringement, accusing Microsoft of copying the Apple desktop look and functions that helped make Windows 95 such a hit.

The agreement took away the cost of all that litigation. Jobs’s timing also was impeccable: He knew that Gates and Microsoft, which had been sued by the U.S. Justice Department for monopolistic practices, needed a public-relations win. Settling the lawsuit would prevent government antitrust attorneys from arguing that Microsoft had ripped off Apple’s designs for its biggest-selling piece of software.

Next, Jobs said that Microsoft also had agreed to release an Apple version of its flagship Office product whenever it released a Windows version, again for five years. That agreement gave Macintosh lovers another reason to stick with Apple’s platform, even as Microsoft software applications (and licenses) were proliferating like rabbits in the business and consumer markets.

Shouts of ‘no!’

Jobs then dropped another bomb, sharing the biggest concession that Microsoft forced out of Apple: making Internet Explorer the default browser on the Macintosh platform. The announcement was roundly and loudly booed, twice. Several members of the audience shouted “no!”

Remember, this was a Jobs keynote, an event that’s now regarded by some in the industry as something akin to a religious sermon.

“We think Internet Explorer is a really good browser, and we think it’s going to make a fine default browser” on the Macintosh operating system, Jobs added, to zero applause.

But Apple’s chief assuaged the faithful by saying that users would also have the freedom to choose other browsers, “because we believe in choice,” assuring that Apple would indeed be shipping other browsers. He knew that Apple could have a competitive browser of its own — if the company could stay alive long enough to develop one.

Given that Apple had been racking up losses, Jobs couldn’t be sure just how much time was left. He had just gotten himself reinstated as Apple’s leader, after all, in no small measure because of the Microsoft deal.

Then Jobs revealed how much Gates and Microsoft would be paying Apple in return for ending the long feud: $150 million. That’s how much Microsoft was investing by buying shares of Apple at market prices.

Microsoft agreed not to sell the shares for three years, thereby helping to put a floor under Apple’s stock price. They were nonvoting shares, so Jobs kept control of decision-making. Gates gained some goodwill, as well as a significant minority stake in a company whose market cap would end that quarter at $2.5 billion.

Turn enemies into allies

On Aug. 10, 2011, exactly 14 years and four days after Jobs announced the deal with Microsoft, Apple’s market capitalization hit $365 billion — making it the world’s most valuable company. Today, it’s worth $375 billion. For those of you who are counting, that’s more than a 100-fold rise in shareholder value.

Meanwhile, Microsoft’s market cap sits at about $210 billion, less than half of where it topped out in early 2000, yet not far from its value at the time of the Apple deal.

It’s easy to see now that Jobs got the better part of the bargain. It’s perhaps more useful to hear what he told the audience that day — just after he showed them a videotaped speech from Gates, who explained why he, the Microsoft founder, believed the Macintosh was worth supporting.

Gates noted that 8 million Microsoft users were on the Apple platform, and he talked up the forthcoming product, called Mac Office 98, saying it took advantage of the unique capabilities of the Mac. He added that “in many ways it’s more advanced than what we’ve done on the Windows platform.”

For tech consumers, amen to Gates’s acknowledgment of Apple ingenuity and his foresight in helping to save the company. From the perspective of Microsoft shareholders, of course, Gates would have served them better by buying Apple outright (and perhaps firing its workers and burning its buildings down).

Jobs, for his part, gave the crowd a lesson that could have come straight from the Tao Te Ching or other Eastern texts that he reportedly reads: “We have to let go of the notion that for Apple to win, Microsoft has to lose,” he commented.

The lesson, which I’ve also read in a few fortune cookies over the years, can be put this way: “The best way to rid yourself of an enemy is to turn them into an ally.”

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10 Interesting Inventions of 2010

Nothing in the world can stop few people from keep on inventing the best and the coolest products in different segments. These products become a landmark in the specific segments and even provide scope for social and economic growth of the nation. We present to you ten such best and cool inventions of 2010.

Square

A piece of technology that provides an instant cash register, Square is a San Francisco-based company launched in 2009 by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey. Square provides small businesses the ability to accept credit and debit card purchases anywhere, anytime via iPhone, iPad or Android smartphone. With the aid of a tiny magnetic card reader that attaches to a smartphone, it lets anyone process credit cards. One does not need to wait for a receipt; he just has to sign on the screen and Square sends a copy straight to e-mail.
With four simple steps you can easily access the app by downloading the free Square app, sign up, link Square to your bank account and then start accepting cards

Martin Jetpack

The world’s first practical jetpack, Martin Jetpack consists of a purpose-built gasoline engine driving twin ducted fans which produce sufficient thrust to lift the aircraft and a pilot in vertical takeoff and landing enabling sustained flight. The Martin Jetpack could take its operator up 8,000 ft. It is creating a new segment in the aviation and recreational vehicle markets. Initially, the jetpack was designed keeping in mind the leisure market. The five feet high, Martin Jetpack has a width of 5.5 ft and length of five feet. The structure is Carbon fibre composite and has fuel capacity of five US gallons.

Edition2

Combining sound physics with innovative design, the Very Light Car uses lightweight and low aerodynamic drag to usher in a new era of automobile efficiency. The car weighs less than 800 lbs that helps it get 102.5 m.p.g.

The components of the car has been evaluated for function and re-designed to be light yet strong. The car has simple features that mean fewer components, less weight, greater efficiency and lower cost. The Very Light Car is a low-mass vehicle that uses mostly recyclable aluminum and steel – requires little energy in production and avoids scarce and hazardous materials.

The Malaria-Proof Mosquito and The Mosquito Laser

Mosquito is one of the world’s most deadliest insect that causes more than one million deaths worldwide. But for the first time, University of Arizona entomologists have succeeded in genetically altering mosquitoes in a way that renders them completely immune to the parasite called Plasmodium, the agent that causes malaria. Former Microsoft executive Nathan Myhrvold is developing a laser that can zap mosquitoes without harming other insects or humans. The laser targets the mosquito’s size and signature wing beat and sends the bugs down in a burst of flame, making their deaths good for public health.

Orange Power Wellies

Everything in the world generates power – about one watt per breath, 70 watts per step. Orange, a telecommunication provider, recognized this potential and introduced a prototype of Orange Power Wellies – rubber boots that convert heat into current. Orange Power Wellies is a groundbreaking and innovative eco mobile phone charging prototype. It is created in collaboration with renewable energy experts GotWind, use a unique power generating sole that converts heat from your feet into an electrical current, which can be used to re-charge your mobile phone.

Spray-on Fabric

Have you ever thought that textiles can be sprayed out of a can or spray gun straight onto a body or dress form? The British company Fabrican has captured the imagination of designers, industry and the public around the world by developing such a spray to bond and liquefy fibers. Once sprayed out of a can, the solvent then evaporates and the fibers bond, forming a snug-fitting garment. The technology has been developed for use in household, industrial, personal and healthcare decorative and fashion applications using aerosol cans or spray-guns.

Flipboard

The iPad app, Flipboard is a wonderful app to end the chaos by grabbing updates, photos and links from your friends and other interesting people, then reformatting everything in a wonderfully browsable, magazine-like format.

Flipboard turns the users Facebook and Twitter account into something that looks like a magazine. It allows the user to build a custom magazine, either by choosing from Flipboard’s pre-built curated boards or by importing Twitter lists.

Antro Electric Car

The car of the future, Antro Electric Car is the product of the Hungarian designer Antro. The car can hold up to three people – a driver and two passengers, one on either side – who pedal to help drive the ultra light car. It is a crazy invention wherein the car splits into two smaller versions and joins to make a big one. When the car is separated, its seating capacity for three and becomes a big vehicle, Antro Duo with a seating for six when joined.

 The car has a hybrid drive and has solar cells on its roof that generate electricity to empower the vehicle to run up to 20 km a day on solar energy alone with the help of solar panels attached on the roof.

Zoggles: Anti-Fog Device

Zoggles is an anti-fog device invented by Skomsky and Valerie Pafly to keep fog from forming on lenses and windows. The device is created with a humidity sensor and a temperature sensor that would stay colder than a windshield, so they would sense when fog was coming and would turn on an automobile’s defroster. The device could also calculate when fog would form, rather than test for fog that is actually about to form, they could get rid of the bulky controls that cooled the sensors in their original prototype and fit all the electronics on a chip.

KOR-fx: Ultra Sensation Gaming Device

Shahriar S. Afshar, the visiting physics professor at Rowan University, invented KOR-fx. KOR-fx is a device that connects to gaming consoles, PCs or music players. It sits around the shoulders and the two transducers that lie on one’s chest translate stereo sound into stereo vibrations. This makes the gamers feel complete immersed in their games without involving others who are not playing. The sensation of rain, wind, weight shift, even G-forces can be induced.

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6 Effective Tools To Avoid Police Radar Speed Traps

I have the misfortune of working in a town that is very likely the capital of speed traps for all of Maine and very likely the entire eastern seaboard of the United States. The town is North Berwick, Maine. Unlike most other small towns that try to gauge their speed limits to match safe driving conditions and the general driving speed of 90 percent of drivers on that area of road, this particular town drops the speed on these long and straight stretches of road from 45 miles per hour down to 25 miles per hour.

On these roads, patrol officers enjoy sitting at several spots that maximize the likelihood they will clock someone speeding who has just passed the drop in speed, without realizing it. The road doesn’t change, but the speed does. It is the perfect definition of an unjust police radar speed trap. It was on this road, on a bright and sunny day, that an especially arrogant officer decided to pull me over and charge me with criminal speeding. A charge that, in the U.S, could carry a fine of up to $500, a suspended license and possible jail time.
I visited one of the best lawyers I knew, gave him the details and paid him the lawyer fee. He was able to take care of the ticket for me. However, the lesson I learned from this experience, the third or fourth speeding ticket I’ve received in this particular speed-trap town called North Berwick, is that there are occasionally those communities that are unscrupulous in collecting funds from such unfair and unjust posted speed limits. It’s for this reason that I was very pleased to discover not one or two, but six technological solutions that can give the poor, unsuspecting citizen a little bit of an advantage in these dangerous and unfair police radar speed traps.

Tools To Combat Unfair Police Radar Speed Traps

One of the first things I did when I upgraded from my Windows Mobile phone to a GPS-enabled Motorola Droid was to check what applications are available that might help protect me from such unscrupulous speed traps by local cops like the officer that pulled me over. The first online system that I discovered is also the one that I consider the absolute best one out there – Trapster. There’s an entire online system on the website that shows you all of the active speed traps. The map is constantly updating and changing as new reports come in from all across the world.

Of course, the best part of the community-driven Trapster system is that there are mobile apps for just about any mobile device out there, including Blackberry, iPhone, Android, Windows Mobile and even certain GPS systems. You can set these apps to alert you any time you come within range of a known speed trap, or a recently reported police stake-out location.

You can set the alert distance from the speed trap so that you have plenty of time to look for the sudden change in speed limit and slow down to the posted speed. Most importantly, when you spot a speed trap that wasn’t recognized or alerted by Trapster – do your part to make the system more effective by adding that speed trap into Trapster’s database.

Here, I’ve added the famous Morrell’s Mill Rd, North Berwick, Maine speed traps to Trapster’s database. Hopefully that will save a driver or two from the horrible fate of having their wallet drained into the town coffers.

For the sake of variety, I’m going to cover the top sites out there that can give you additional insight into the police radar speed traps in your area. Unfortunately, most of the remaining online services are focused primarily within the U.S. Or course, maybe that’s because the U.S. is most plagued by such unreasonable speed traps?  CopSpy is one of these useful websites. This is more of a log of historical speed traps, with comments about particular speed trap areas that date back to 2003 and go up to today. You can really get to know the habits of local police by reading through these citizen logs.

The Bear Traps website, shown above, provides a very basic and general overview of the police trap “hot spots” along any major Interstate in the United States. The site lists all reported red light cameras as police radar speed traps that were reported by citizens for major highways and exits.

Njection, a popular automotive website and forum, offers this awesome mashup that provides a satellite overview with a layer for crashes or speed traps. This particular system doesn’t feature a whole lot of speed traps (nowhere near the number Trapster offers), but as far as crash history, the system is remarkable. You can view all crashes reported throughout the history of the system – which really offers a great oversight as to what areas are dangerous. The speed trap feature is also useful and is still getting updated, but the user base needs to grow a bit more for it to be very effective as a real-time reporting tool.

SpeedTrap labels itself as the National Speed Trap Exchange, and this is exactly the public service that the site provides for U.S. citizens. No matter what town you check, you’ll likely discover well written speed trap reports from local residents who are fed up with the unfair and unjust tactics of local police departments.

Police Traps is an excellent International resource that covers police trap sightings, red light cameras and traffic incidents all throughout the world. In the map above you can see the mashup for reports throughout Europe. This resource does have a fair user base and could rival Trapster in its usefulness.

Have you had your own experience getting caught in an unfair speed trap? Do you have any of your own favorite resources that you use to find which towns have such areas with inappropriate posted speed limits? Share your insight in the comments section below.

Author – Ryan Dube

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Eight Practical Auto & Gas Related Apps For Your iPhone

With the rise of gas these days, it pays to use whatever resources are available to get better gas mileage, through good car maintenance and low as possible gasoline rates. The iTunes App Store has a wide selection of free and affordable iPhone gas and vehicle maintenance apps that are practical and easy to use.

Most of these apps require you to provide access to your current location so that mileage destinations and other information can be determined. Since you no doubt carry your iPhone wherever you go, it’s easy to download and collect these apps in a folder so they’re available whenever you need them.

Gas Gubby

The ad-sponsored version of Gas Gubby keeps track of your gas mileage and what vehicle service maintenance you have had done. I’ve used this app for over a year to keep track of oil changes, tune-ups, tire rotations and the like. While waiting to fill up your tank or get your car repaired or maintained, it’s simple to tap open Gas Gubby and type in gas amount data, mileage, and service reminders. The app also includes a user manual for further tips and hidden features.

GasBuddy

If you‘re looking to squeeze in a few extra gallons in your next fill-up, definitely download GasBuddy and see how well it works where you live. Simply type in your city, state, and/or zip code, and GasBuddy will give you a list of all nearby gas stations and their current prices, which can often change every other day.

BackToMyCar

I haven’t had a chance to test out BackToMyCar, but it looks to be a useful app for getting back to your car when parking in a large parking lot or area. After the app finds your current location, you tap the Park button to mark your parking location.

To get back to your car, you follow the direction of the on-screen arrow which will lead you on a straight line back to your car. The app also includes features for emailing and texting parking locations, setting a parking meter or garage notification, and a built-in camera for recording your car’s location.

PIM: ParkingInMotion

Driving around and looking for a parking garage is not only frustrating but it can also mean a waste of gas. The app, PIM – Parking in Motion – features real time parking facility information for the top 300 cities of the U.S., Canada, and Europe. Just type in the location of your destination and PIM will give you locations of parking facilities types (garage, surface lot, valet), including hours. The same goes for airports.

Download the free version to make sure your city is included in the coverage.

MPG: Miles Per Gallon

If you’re curious about how many miles per gallon your automobile truly gets, the free MilesPerGallon app will help you do the calculation. All you need to do is reset your meter the next time you fill up your gas tank, drive as you please; and then with your next fill-up input the number of miles on your trip meter, and the number of gallons used to fill up your tank. From there, MPG will do the calculation for you.

HowMuchGas

HowMuchGas is not free (.99 cents), but if you want or need an app that will help you calculate and estimate the cost of long distance trips, then this app is one you might want to have in the Transport folder of your iPhone.

In addition to inputting your travel destination, you will also need to know your car’s gas mileage, the price of gas/gallon, and the type of city you’re traveling to (city, highway, combination.)

Rest Area

If you’re traveling long distances without a GPS in your car, the ad-sponsored Rest Area could come in handy for those stretches of driving for when you need to know the next upcoming rest area.

VehiCal – Car Expense Management

VehiCal is similar to Gas Gubby as an app for recording and managing mileage and travel expenses for personal and business use. You can track “fuel consumption information, including fuel economy, gas prices, and pump totals, as well as vehicle expenses with customizable lists such as repairs, highway tolls, and parking costs.” Recorded data can emailed for external use.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com

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Unusual Ways That Made Apple the Most Admirable

Steve Jobs defines a generation with his great innovative ideas and legendary products. He has used different strategy and principles which is one of the reasons for the huge success of the company. Alyson Shontell has explained some unusual ways that Steve Jobs had implemented.

Partner with the enemy

In the business war, it’s hard to believe that two competitor companies getting together. It’s unimaginable that two rival companies can be together. But here, Steve Jobs applied his extraordinary ideas and he made Bill Gates to invest a $150 Million in Apple. Apple had a financial loss from 12 years and that’s make him turned to Bill Gates and in 1997 at Macworld Expo Apple and Microsoft announced their partnership.

Change the business plan

When Apple started, it was only a Computer company. But Steve always wanted Apple to grow and he knew that the company needed to broaden its aspects for better growth. To become truly successful Apple needed to widen its approach. So the company began expanding its products. It did not stick to only computers and started release of Final Cut Pro, followed by MP3 players, music, iPhones and iPads. Even Jobs changed the company’s name from Apple Computer Inc. to Apple Inc. in 2007 to symbolize the new, broader vision.

Stylish Products

Apple products can be considered as the most stylish product till date. In the year of 1998, Jobs called a meeting at Apple, and said, “You know what’s wrong with this company? The products have no sex in them,” as he realized that Apple’s products looked dated. But today Apple is credited for creating the most beautiful and stylish technology, from colorful iMacs to sleek iPads.

 

Creating their own retail store

Apple owned their own retail outlet stores as other retailers were not giving Apple products adequate solutions. Now Apple has more than 255 retail stores worldwide and they are the most favorite of the retail industry. This is one of the most thriving formulas for the success of the company.

Hiring different employees

Graduates and Engineers are not the only employees that Steve had hired, according to him they are not the only people who can run a company. Jobs said “Part of what made the Macintosh great was that the people working on it were musicians, and poets, and artists, and zoologists, and historians who also happened to be the best computer scientists in the world.”

Think differently

“Think Different” is an advertising slogan created for Apple in 1997. The campaign was one of the most effective of all the time. It inspired innovation and reinvention which Apple portrays today.

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What Steve Jobs Got Wrong?

Steve Jobs personality reflects Apple in itself; he is the key person behind the persona created by Apple and its innovations. He created a whole new era with the introduction of iPhones and iPad, which are a rave in the society today. He is even responsible to give entertainment a whole new platform with Apple’s iPod, but the question is, did he always get it right from the beginning of his career. The answer is no, he had gone through his share of downfall and flops before arriving to the level of success that we all witness now.

His success has been cherished by the whole world with a loud applause and it is known to all. However his failures got wrapped up under his success stories, let’s go through the products that taught Steve tough lessons of business and failed to achieve its targeted hype.

1. Apple III

In the year 1981, Apple released its next version to Apple II and named it as Apple III with an intention to revive the success of Apple II, however things did not seem to turn out as expected. Apple III ran twice as fast as the Apple II and has twice as much memory – 128k of RAM. It is also the first Apple computer to have a built-in floppy drive, a Shugart 143k 5.25-inch floppy drive. The Apple III has 4 internal expansion slots that are compatible with Apple II cards, and also has Apple II Plus emulation built-in. The whole process was build under the supervision of Steve Jobs. It was available at an introductory price of $7,800.

2. Lisa

In the year 1983 Steve designed Apple Lisa, first commercial computer with a GUI, or Graphical User Interface, however it could not impact the market as predicted. Due to its high price and little availability of software applications this product failed to click.

3. Next Computers

Next computers were Steve’s nurtured child which took off in the year 1989. After his showdown with then Apple CEO and his resignation “Next Computers” was founded in the year 1985. NeXT introduced the first NeXT Computer in 1988, the sales of the NeXT computers was relatively limited, with estimates of about 50,000 units shipped in total. However ultimately Apple purchased NeXT on December 20, 1996 for $429 million and 1.5 million shares of Apple stock which marked Steve’s re entry to the company.

 

4. Puck mouse

Apple’s puck mouse was released in the year 1998 with high hopes, but it lined up as another failure into Steve’s kitty. This was one big project for Steve after his much hype return to Apple. Although initially Puck mouse got overwhelmed response it lost its charm in a very short span of time and could not yield it big in the giant tech world.

 

5. The cube

The cube was offered at a price of introductory price of $1799 in year 2000. The Power Mac G4 Cube was a small form factor Macintosh personal computer from Apple by using the innovation from Next computers but its high price resisted its technology to boom. The diminutive 8″ x 8″ x 8″ cube, suspended in a 10″ tall Acrylic (PMMA) enclosure, housed a PowerPC G4 processor running at 450 or 500 megahertz, and had an unconventional vertical slot-loading DVD-ROM or CD-RW drive.

 

6. iTunes Phone

iTunes phone emerged in the market in the year 2005. It had the capacity to hold only 100 songs, above that the transferring process was also heavily time consuming; downloading was a big fuss in the device.

 

7. Apple TV

In the year 2007, Apple set its footprints and it was the result of Steve hunger for new innovation and creativity. It was a small box that connected to a TV and to a Mac in the home. A tiny remote allowed the owner to play music and movies from the PC on the TV. The set up and use was hugely complicated. Movies purchased from iTunes were low resolution and looked fuzzy on HDTV sets.

 

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• Tim Cook, Steve Jobs’ Alter-Ego? (pisupat.com)

The Journey of Apple’s Showman

There was a time when hearing the word Apple brought into picture the fruit, but today when we hear Apple, the smartphone and Steve Jobs comes into picture. Such is the power of Apple of Steve Jobs, which has transformed its meaning.

Jobs once said, “If there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know.” Stepping down from his post as the CEO of Apple, he has created a big vacuum for the company and the entire technology industry too. Let us glance through the journey of Jobs – taking Apple from a garage startup to a billion dollar business.

An American business mogul, Steven Paul “Steve” Jobs was born on February 24, 1955, and was adopted by Paul and Clara. He is the co-founder, chairman on the board and the former CEO of Apple. He always had distinguished ideas much ahead of the time, which the world did not readily accept. Jobs always said “Have patience and wait until the world changes its mind and accepts your idea.”

After graduating from high school, Jobs enrolled in Reed College in Portland. However, he dropped out after attending only one semester. But, he still continued auditing classes at Reed. Jobs used to sleep on the floor of his friend’s rooms, return Coke bottles for food money and grab weekly free meals at the Hare Krishna temple. Jobs later stated that if he had never dropped the single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts.

Back home in 1974, Jobs started attending meetings of the Homebrew Computer Club with his friend Wozniak and later took a technician’s job at Atari who manufactured video games,just to save money for a spiritual retreat to India. He returned from India as a Buddhist along with Daniel Kottke, with his head shaved and wearing traditional Indian clothing. Later, he resumed his job at Atari.

Apple came to life in 1976 when Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne co-founded the company in a garage. With expansion of Apple, the company looked in for an experienced executive thus appointing Mike Scott as the CEO. Jobs introduced the Macintosh in 1984 in Apple’s annual shareholders meeting, which became the first commercially successful small computer with a graphical user interface. The development of Mac was eventually taken over by Jobs from Jef Raskin.

Jobs founded NeXT Computer around 1985. He marketed the products to the scientific and academic fields due to the innovative, experimental new technologies it incorporated. NeXT Mail was one of the first to support universally visible, clickable embedded graphics and audio within e-mail. With the announcement of Apple to buy NeXT for $429 million in 1996, Jobs was back into the company. After taking charge as the CEO of Apple in 1997, Jobs took several intricate decisions like termination of a number of projects. He also changed the licensing program for Macintosh clones, making it too costly for the manufacturers to continue making machines. Under his guidance, the sales of Apple increased significantly with the introduction of iMac. Jobs brought into picture appealing designs and powerful branding which played an important role in the success of Apple.

In recent years, the company sprouted in to various digital appliances. Jobs brought in innovative products in the market with the introduction of iPod, iTunes Stores, iPhone and finally iPad. The world finally started accepting his concept and thoughts and realized that just a machine doing the job is not enough; you require a machine that matches your style statement along with high-performance thus providing you every possible technology in your hand.

But, with Steve Jobs resigning from his post and Tim Cook taking over, the question stands that what’s next in and for Apple and what’s next for the world of technology. Time will only answer the question. Michael Gartenberg, Research Director at Gartner, an information technology research and advisory company, says, “While this marks the end of an era for Apple, it’s important to remember the there’s more to Apple than any one person, even Steve Jobs. Continuing as chairman Mr. Jobs will continue to leave his mark on both the company and products even as he transfers the reigns to Mr. Cook.”

 Whatever may be the case, the world is going to miss the charismatic man, who with his great vision, technology expertise and vivid talents mesmerized the world. Let us wait and watch the further journey of Apple.