Whatever...

iSad: Steve Jobs, 1955-2011

By Bex Surtees

Innovator.  Visionary.  Pioneer.  Genius.  These are just some of the words the world has used to describe Apple’s co-founder Steve Jobs, upon hearing the news of his untimely death from cancer at just 56.

Tributes have been pouring in from news and broadcast sites across the globe, while Twitter went into overload in the early hours of Thursday morning as thousands of users – tech competitors (including longstanding friend and rival, Bill Gates), celebrities and members of the public – shared their thoughts on one of the most celebrated people in technology and business.  

Whether you love or hate Apple, there’s no denying that this man’s contribution to tech has had an incredible impact on both our personal and work lives.  From the Apple 1 computer’s humble beginnings in 1976 with friend and business partner Steve Wozniak, to the launch of the iMac in 1998 and the minimalist iPod in 2001 – not to mention iTunes, the online digital music store that changed the face of the music industry.

Not without his vices though, Jobs’ management style was notorious.  Some employees have even claimed a meeting with him was akin to stepping into a bullfight.  From his arrogance and corporate tantrums, to vicious run-ins with competitors and an overly-controlling nature with the media, there’s no question the man played hard ball – but it got the job done (no pun intended), and done well.  

Leaving behind a mammoth legacy, including an estimated $8.3bn, when it comes to his greatest creation I suspect many would argue it’s a tie between the iPhone and the iPad.  Both devices revolutionised their respective markets – and as someone that works in the tech PR industry, ‘revolutionise’ isn’t a word I use lightly – considerably raising the bar for other vendor offerings and setting high user expectations.  

With that in mind, Barack Obama’s tribute seems to say it all... “The world has lost a visionary.  And there may be no greater tribute to Steve's success than the fact that much of the world learned of his passing on a device he invented.”

  

Something's Cook-ing at Apple

by Dana Hashem

It’s fair to say that the launch of Apple’s iPhone 4S was something of an anticlimax.  While the new model boasts a better camera and reportedly impressive Siri voice-recognition software, let’s face it – it’s a far cry from an iPhone 5.

Apple products are always shrouded in rumour and mystery during the run up to their launch, but usually far exceed expectations when they’re finally revealed.  The difference this time is that we’ve been left feeling underwhelmed.

This is a real shame for Tim Cook, who - as Mashable quite rightly points out - Apple is still trying to establish as an effective replacement for Steve Jobs.  Without being able to deliver the showstopper everyone was waiting for, the vast majority of the media coverage about the event has essentially headlined with: 'What, no iPhone 5?'

Unfortunately for Cook, this kind of distraction is something of a limelight-stealer when you're trying to make a good first impression as a newly-ordained CEO.

Cook has a hard act to follow - so how did he handle it?  Well, when you look beyond the distraction of the missing iPhone5 outrage, very well, actually.  The most notable thing he did was to place a much greater emphasis on the team behind the new product.  In a marked shift from Jobs’ signature style, he gave his executive team a big role in the presentation – sending a clear message that the company is full of top talent that can fill the void in the limelight left behind by Jobs.

Of course, there's a long way to go yet, and the jury will be out for a while on whether Apple will be able to maintain its position as a global leader in the design stakes.  However, I for one was pleased to see some really positive steps being made by the Apple team to shake off its one-man-band image in the wake of Jobs' departure.

Insatiable appetite for breaking news leads to lax reporting

by Claire Ayles

The trial and subsequent appeal of Amanda Knox (and don’t forget Rafaelle Sollecito) for the murder of Meredith Kercher have made gripping following over the past few years.  Last night it all came to a head when the Italian appeal court cleared Knox and Sollecito, who this morning have their freedom.

However, if you were watching Sky News or reading live web coverage from The Sun, The Daily Mail or The Guardian, you might have thought the opposite, as they all initially posted stories that Knox had lost her appeal, implying she would be behind bars for the remainder of her 26 year jail term. 

In fairness, it wasn’t just the UK media that got it wrong.  One AFP journalist even tweeted a ‘quote’ from the case’s prosecution team, stating that “justice had been done.”

So just how could this happen?

The Daily Mail claims that it got muddled when it heard the judge use the Italian word for ‘guilty’, and presumed it referred to Knox’s murder charge.  In fact, it was in connection to her previous conviction for slander. 

This has to be one of the most extreme examples of how the desire to be the first to break the news can compromise the quality of the story.

With today’s 24 hour news cycles – and our insatiable appetite for news (especially around high profile cases like this) – it’s hardly surprising that journalists prepare two (or more) versions of their story in advance, but it really is inexcusable to publish the wrong one. 

Italian lessons anyone?

We came, we saw, we.... ate a lot of cheese...

By Jacqueline Booker

Every year some 50,000 people flock to Amsterdam – home of the wooden clogg and tasty, tasty waffles (amongst other things of course) – to descend on the RAI for IBC, Europe’s largest show dedicated to the broadcast industry. 

Spread across thirteen halls (oh the foot pain), IBC has it all – camera equipment, back-end infrastructure, dodgy adverts in the toilets (weird), and what appears to be the must have accessory at all tech trade shows: booth babes.

This year, like the two before them, I went along to the show to support Johnson King client, RGB Networks, a provider of solutions to facilitate the multi-screen experience.  My job?  To make sure they meet as many journalists as possible, secure some decent publicity for their news announcements and get coverage in what is considered to be the Holy Grail at IBC – The IBC Daily.

Over the course of the five day show, RGB met with numerous journalists, and conquered the IBC Daily, not once, not twice but four times!  Customer meetings were also plentiful and the show was a huge success for the company.  Smiles all round then!

It wasn’t all work and no play though, for when in Amsterdam you can’t help but succumb to the local delicacies on offer – in particular the tasty lady.

Knowing that some may choose to misinterpret that statement, let’s clear up any confusion here.  By ‘delicacies’, I of course mean the oh so tasty and not at all fattening cheese, and by ‘tasty lady’, I refer to the Tasty Lady beer.  I’m sure that was what you were all thinking anyway....

   

Facebook Timeline – when will the online over sharing stop?

By Fiona Halkerston

For a while now, I’ve been considering giving up Facebook.  There are so many things I hate about it; so many inane updates from people I once knew way back when, and so many photos of people’s new babies, which I just find odd (and it makes me feel old).

Still, today’s announcement of the new Timeline feature may have pushed me over the edge.  Talk about over sharing.  Zuckerberg has explained that, “We’re more than what we did recently”, and so the Timeline is all about sharing not only what you did last week, but an entire chronology of YOUR ENTIRE LIFE.  I don’t know about you, but there are some things I want to keep to myself, and a lot of things I want other people to keep to themselves too.

Let me know what you think of the new Timeline feature, on Twitter.  Not on Facebook, because I won’t be checking it.

Ein Prosit der Mobilität!

by Oliver Fischer

About a year ago, I wrote in this blog about the “German Angst” – the stereotypical German distrust of modern technology.  But it’s about time to set things straight here: we Germans are not always so reluctant to make use of modern technology.

For just over a fortnight, from the 17th of September, Munich will be completely transformed for Oktoberfest.  Men will wear their Lederhosen and women their Dirndl, and visitors come from all over the world to visit the Theresienwiese (that’s why Bavarians call the Oktoberfest “Die Wiesn”) to have some fun.  But nowadays, visitors also bring their smartphones. And because “is there an app for this?” has become the new “do I have everything I need?” they’ll use them to navigate through the world’s biggest Volksfest.

A quick search led me to find at least 20 different apps specially designed for this year’s Oktoberfest.  Do you want an overview of the different fun rides, what you’ll have to pay and how long the queue is?  Do you want to be kept up-to-date about how crowded the Oktoberfest is via live cams?  Or do you just want to see how the beer price has changed over the past few years? (That’s a very important question for Germans – we don’t really mind about DAX share prices going down but everybody is quite curious about the current price for a Maß at the Oktoberfest.) No problem, most of the overview apps like “Wiesn 2011”, the “Oktoberfest App” or “Oktoberfest.de” will provide you with all this information and many more features.

There are even apps to help with some of the nuances of the language.   In several parts of Germany, the Bavarian language is considered foreign, so if anyone tells you “Na Madla, deaf i da amol an ausgeb’n?” or “Wea ko’, dea ko’!” you definitely won’t get any help from Google Translate.  In these cases there are several apps to help you translate the things that locals say – including an app especially for insults… And of course, we all know the problem when you are standing in the crowd, everybody’s singing along to German Schlager – but you’ve forgotten the words!  Don’t worry, there’s also an app for that, as well as apps which should help with dating at the Oktoberfest, or to help you send an individual Lebkuchenherz to your sweetheart/friend/Mum…

The question is, of course: do I really need all that stuff? Well, honestly, I don’t know.  Although I’ve been living in Munich for some time, I haven’t been to the Oktoberfest yet.  But I decided to finally give it a try this year and with all those preparations and those apps to help me, what could possibly go wrong?

 

Word play

By Bex Surtees

Do you know a philargyrist?  Perhaps you are a pamphagous eater?  Are you prone to giving tortiloqauys (and no, I don’t mean the Mexican food dish)?  What on earth are you talking about you quaeritate?*

Every year, words that are no longer used regularly in the English language are dropped from the Oxford English Dictionary (OED).  Save the Words is a nifty little campaign launched by the OED to put a stop to our pigtritude and remind us just how colourful the English language really is.

If you want to improve your wordpower, you can adopt one of the many words vying for a conversational home (“pick me”, “choose me” they cry) – hardcore lexical lovers can even purchase T-shirts with their favourite expressions.  Or, if you’ve got a particular word in need of a loving foster home, you can contact Save The Words directly ([email protected]) and get it included in the line up. 

But that’s enough of my blatercation for one day.  Go on and save a word from extinction – or we might all just end up speechless!   

If you have any words to adopt, let Bex know @BexySurtees.

The Twitter & the Apple: a perfect PR case

By Lindsey Challis

As I battled my corner last weekend; myself and Twitter on one side, my Dad and his fuddy-duddyness on the other, I had to take a second, to laugh at the utter ridiculousness of the situation.

I, a tech PR, with  minimal gadgets to my name (owing to an expensive London based degree) was set against my tech-fad father who, in the space of a week, has purchased an  iPod, iPad, Mac and, a plethora of useless apps (not that these have any reflection on his iAbility).

Despite just two weeks ago claiming that he had absolutely no use for an iPad, let alone a Mac, suddenly he seems to think I’m the technophobe and he’s an honorary member of the genius bar.  So what was the turning point?  When did all the hype he’d heard finally sink in? 

While my Dad would never admit to being sucked in by a PR machine (or being up-sold – yes that was three Apple products he bought), I’d argue that most of us succumb to a few key PR moments which make us realise that there’s some tech that we simply can’t live without.  For me, it’s Twitter.  It seems to me the perfect example of a company which got its product right and then created the buzz required to get everyone using it.  Looking at the ‘46 phases of Twitter’, I have to confess that I’m guilty of making my own way through this list. 

Having been forced to join Facebook when I left for university, I was slow to see the Twitter-light so resigned myself to being a listener rather than a tweeter which, at the time, was far cooler anyway. 

As I became ingrained in work life though, Twitter became a constant feature.  Whether it was office banter going public (who could forget the lilac shell suit confession) or watching the news unfold as it happens (the Murdoch enquiry being a case in point), I wanted in.

Although, I think it was the addictive news element that finally sold me, I wouldn’t have got to this point had the murmurings, the encouragement and the Twitter advocates not been there.  Essentially, they made me believe in Twitter.  Through everything that had been said and written, I was now a fully fledged tweeter, a PR success case, perhaps.

But before I completely admit I’m just as bad as my Dad, it was me who sparked our initial debate by singing the praises of the Twittersphere (who’d have thought it), while my Dad declared he had absolutely no need for Twitter.

So Dad, remind me again, what did you say about the iPad?

Do you know the cost of apples?

If you were ever in doubt just how desirable some tech gadgets are, this should put it beyond doubt.

While it seems that UK teenagers have little clue about the cost of humble everyday staples like a pint of milk, 80 percent can reel off the exact prices of the iPhone 4 (both the 8GB and 16GB versions) as well as the cost of iPads and Sony PS3s.

However, are adults actually any different?  

An off the trolley idea?

By Richard Scarlett

And so the iPad invasion continues.  The steady stream of announcements detailing proposed mass deployments of the big iPhone – from schools to hospitals to binmen – has now turned into a competition to announce the most outlandish use of the tablet. An example is United and Continental Airlines announcing that they are replacing cumbersome paper flight manuals with 10,000 iPads across the fleet to reduce weight and make them greener.

While I can make my peace with tablets in the cockpit, another story that caught my eye was that of Sainsbury’s and Sky teaming up to trial iPad docks and speakers on shopping trolleys (yes, shopping trolleys) so that customers will be able to watch TV’s latest and greatest as they browse.  What’s more, to avoid those inevitable ‘trolley-into-back-of-ankle’ altercations, the new carts have been cleverly designed with front sensors to alert you of an impending collision. A genius idea – innovation at its best some may say! However, I am sadly not one of those people.

At the risk of sounding like an ageing cynic, this is yet another example of how individualised technology is creeping deeper into our lives and disrupting otherwise social activities.  These days, most people already live in a technology bubble – whether they are relentlessly tapping on a smartphone, permanently plugged into an iPod or negotiating a tense standoff between some irate birds and chuckling green pigs during the morning commute. Now, it seems, we won’t even be able to take a trip to the local supermarket without having to dodge other consumers watching the latest goals or catching up on the X Factor auditions while perusing the baked goods.

On the flip (more likely) side, this could all be a carefully constructed stunt concocted by Sky’s PR juggernaut to raise even more awareness of the Sky Go service. Arguably, it would be a good stunt for Sky as it epitomises the fundamental advantage of the service – complete portability.  However, for me it just leaves Sainsbury’s looking a little bit desperate. Upon reading the story, my first instinct was not to feel negatively towards Sky, but to pity Sainsbury’s for stooping to such levels to generate a headline.  The stories, and subsequent reader comments, all seem to follow suit – ignoring the Sky Go aspect and instead asking why Sainsbury’s would spend the money, and time, on such a ridiculously unnecessary move.

So whether this is the brainchild of a PR person over at Sky HQ or the supermarket’s genuine (albeit misguided) attempt to stay ahead of the curve and keep shoppers in-store for longer, I am pretty sure that I’m not the only one left wondering whether April Fools has indeed come early.