Provided you haven’t been toiling away in a secret lair somewhere (we’re looking at you [Jack]), odds are you may have seen the news that [Steve Jobs] stepped down as CEO of Apple this past Wednesday.
This earth-shattering news even eclipsed that of the East Coast Megaquakeapocalypse. It sent the blogosphere into a tizzy, sparking a whirlwind of news posts and retrospectives on his career. It’s been impossible to ignore the coverage (we’ve tried), and since we see everyone else writing about it, we feel the need to be at least somewhat up on our current events as well.
At the end of the day though, we don’t care how many patents [Steve] owns, how many failed products he has dreamed up over the years, or that he and [Woz] used to wear matching thongs to the beach in the 80s*.
Nope, we just care about the hacks. So here’s a trip down memory lane highlighting the Apple-related hacks we’ve seen so far in 2011, which will forever be known as the year [Steve Jobs] gave up the reigns at Apple (again).
*Bald-faced lie
Overhauling an old Apple keyboard
Taking secret photos of Apple Store patrons
I am certainly not an Apple fanboi ( in fact, I am pretty tired of Apple products, though I use them everyday ) I just wish him the best of luck and good health.
I am not sure why he is leaving, but I figure it is health related… I wouldn’t wish that on anyone, ever. Good luck man, get better and come back stronger.
Regarding his health, absolutely.
The picture and the text was meant to poke a little fun at the overly fatalistic (and overly sensational) reporting on his stepping down as CEO. With all of the retrospectives and dramatic posturing, it seemed like people were reporting as if he had already passed.
He’s obviously a sick man, there’s no doubt about that. Pancreatic cancer, or whatever manifestation his illness has taken is no joke. I wouldn’t wish his condition on my proverbial “worst enemy”. I, along with the other HaD writers, wish him nothing less than a speedy recovery.
Like Steve and Apple or not, there is no doubt he was a hugely influential figure in personal computing, personal audio, and mobile phones. He’s not the only one that contributed to the success of Apple, but he was clearly a central figure in the company’s ascent from the brink of failure to the juggernaut it is today.
I don’t own a Macbook, nor do I have an iPhone, though I do have respect for Jobs as a no-nonsense businessman.
That said, Caleb and I were chatting about how crazy the coverage was, and we thought a cheeky post would be an interesting way to bring up the topic here on HaD.
I agree, Health. There’s a photo of him in his current state floating all around, reddit, ect. But he looks in a pretty poor state.
However, it isnt the worst time for the company, stocks have already recovered, new iphone soon, and more.
Actually, the TMZ photo, at least, is faked. I’m not sure Steve’s leaving is due to illness. He might just feel like retiring…
Anyone know any good NeXT hacks?
Be careful with the phrase “goodnight, sweet prince” I thought he had died. Like mess_maker, I don’t like apple all that much, but Jobs is/was a huge influence on modern computers. So, good luck Jobs, don’t die any time soon and enjoy your retirement (even though I kinda doubt that will happen.)
Count me into the anti-apple club. I’ll just never respect a company that is so anti-diy. Sure they’ve contributed to the tech world in various ways, but they did it kicking and screaming, filing patents and lawsuits at each and every opportunity. I could go on, but I’ll leave you with this article to why people like me despise Apple and their fanboybase http://gizmodo.com/5834413/steve-jobs-invented-your-dell-pc-and-your-android-phone
Interesting article at Gizmodo. The author slams those ignorant of computer history, than proceeds to pick, and choose from the history,to make his case, the by keeping that ignorance alive. Apple doesn’t make a product I can’t live without, so I’m unconcerned about the future of the Apple corporation.
It’s Gizmodo, what do you expect?
With this post, I’m taking Hack a Day off my google homepage.
honestly im glad he is gone he was loosing his mind
add me as another member to the anti-apple club
I’m glad he is gone… it means apple won’t be around much longer. Don’t get me wrong, I hope he gets better but when he does I hope he stays gone.
^ +1
Yea, I was one expecting to read about the death of Steve Jobs,I hadn’t heard or read of Jobs’ decision to resign. While it’s certainly speculation, history shows that his decision may mean his health is worsening, or isn’t expected to improve anytime soon. I do wish the best for him.
too much time sitting in front of a Mac. poor guy.
Everyday, millions of persons die from cancer and others shitty diseases. So, why talking about this guy ? On Hackaday ? steve jobs and apple (same with sony) have done everything against the hacking community.
And calling him a prince… WTF? he’s just the guru of his sect.
Now, we know that eating apples isn’t very healthy.
Now cracks a noble heart. Good-night, sweet prince;
And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.
-Hamlet, Act V
Maybe now Apple could actually innovate instead of trying to sue their competition because they can’t compete anymore…
Good riddance.
I actually HAVE been locked away in my secret lair working on projects, and this is the first I’ve heard of this! O.O
The comments have gotten decently off-topic. Let’s bring this back to hacking, and leave the Apple/Jobs/whoever bashing for a different venue.
Thank you. And back to the hacking, with a bit of digging around on the web, patience, and more patience, it’s possible to get NeXTSTEP to work in VirtualBox.
Apple users and fans should be concerned for him rather than for the company. As every educated tech knows, the real genius behind Apple was Woz, and now they are the engineers behind most products; Jobs has always been nothing more than an extremely gifted marketer.
In case of Jobs death (very likely within 2 years max, IMO) Apple shares will probably plummet mainly due to worldwide ignorance, but ultimately it will remain strong technically wise.
Wow…the haters come out in force. I think many ‘hackers’ simply don’t get the reason Apple works. Sure, us hackers want to have the option to do ANYTHING we can think of on the devices we own. The vast majority of consumers DON’T! They just want it to work. No playing hokey-pokey with the system to get the best performance, no going in to the system registry to uninstall a program. While they miss the mark on some points, Apple gets it right in the usability department.
I like my Android phone, but it tends to crash (better with a custom rom), no toggle for the data radio (other than airplane mode) and the interface is just generally annoying. Four or five clicks just to dial a contact? It took me a few days to find all the stuff I wanted on this thing, but on my iPod Touch it was all so simple.
thankfully the image has changed!
No mention of Jobs and Woz’s all digital “Blue Box”. They used it to prank call the Pope. 1337 h4x0r in a turtle neck.
You are judging a company (and a person) based on a minority of crazy apple hipsters fans. Steve Jobs isn`t a omnipotent creature that make absolutely all the decistions and products in Apple. Apple have a lots of directives that make the business strategies and Steve only have a limited role in that. Like fuck the Apple products with shitty limitations and suing all corpotations in existence. Or you think Steve is in his trone thinking on all legal actions, how to milk money with a insane amount of adaptors or using strange bolts to avoid manipulation.
While I respect him as being an extremely fierce businessman, unforutnately, that doesn’t work with also being DIY friendly. He is/was in the business of making money, and he did it extremely well. Lord knows I’ve thrown in my comments about how I hate the apple business model, but I will at the same time admit that they release some damn fine operating systems. It’s kind of a love/hate relationship.
So, like most posts, this has/will degenerate into an apple vs. everyone else topic, so let me throw my piece in; use whatever you like, as long as it suits you. For me, I use whichever platform works best for the task at hand.
P.S. Regarding the whole app store model for iOS devices from a development standpoint; fuck that noise, I’ll be keeping my $99 TYVM. Now where did I leave that android tablet? Oh here it is.
I hated Apple until I realized I didn’t hate Apple; I just hated the fanboys. Apple is fine if you have a need for it’s products, or can’t figure out how to not crash anything else.
It’s just a bit too restrictive for me, so I’ll just take the 3 minutes to reboot once every month or two.
I wish Steve the best, and I hope the Apple-mania dies down a bit, now.
I don’t think stepping on people’s heads and buying an organ counts as a true hack, more of gaming the system and social engineering.
Parking in handicap spaces religiously without getting a ticket is pretty good, though.
http://www.cultofmac.com/steve-jobs-still-parking-in-handicapped-spaces-the-pictures/2613
He’s kinda a self-centered dbag and oddly enough Gates has completed way more humanitarian work than Jobs ever will. Some Mac products are okay and if it works for you then go for it. Not for me though. There are plenty of options out there that perform better and were actually all possible a decade ago so he really isn’t innovative at anything but marketing, which I’m sure we will see the usual viral PR forum goons come in and try to smooth things over.
yeah…
He needs a Jacuzzi. Give him a break, everyone deserves a great vacation. Who knows, he might come back (defying nature :D ).
“earth-shattering”? Only to people who haven’t been following tech. The media made a big deal of it because the average Joe doesn’t know that this was inevitable due to his health issues and that he had already turned over day to day operations to Cook long ago. This was just making it official.
RIP Steve Jobs – the legend. I hope Apple can go onwards and upwards in his memory.