The figurehead of Apple and one of the most influential men in the technology market Steve Jobs died this October due to a rare kind of pancreatic cancer.

Jobs passed away just hours after the unveiling of Apple’s latest smartphone –the iPhone 4S. Following Steve Jobs’ resignation as CEO, Apple had ample time to get a glimpse of what lies ahead. One has to note that expectations for the launch of the iPhone 5 was rather high but the company experienced a bit of negative feedback when it unveiled an upgrade –the iPhone 4S.

The dismay for being served a smartphone that was barely different from its predecessor the Apple iPhone 4 has caused quite a drawback but no one doubts the giant because sales are still looking good.

The danger with Apple’s strategy of replacing its handsets with yet another new one, according to experts, is that their former loyal customers might be distracted by other handsets released by competitors which include Samsung’s Galaxy Nexus released as the Ice Cream Sandwich phone.

Apple Stumbles

Upon Jobs’ death, investors started shying away from the technology giant. The reluctance of Tim Cook to step into Steve Jobs’ shoes somewhat added to the tumble. In fact, according to the BBC, the share price for Apple has tumbled 5% making the absence of Jobs felt oh-so-abruptly.

It is interesting to note that when Jobs announced his leave of absence because of his sickness, a number of investors pulled their investments from the technology giant.

Lost

Many investors have voiced their fears that without Steve Jobs, the company will spiral to the dumps while its competitors are speeding up when it comes to releasing the sleekest gadgets one can find.

However, telecom analyst Nitin Bhat said in an interview with the BBC that the impact will not be that much and that this will only be in the short term since Apple has a plan in place.

Photo Via edudemic.com

iPod, iPhone, iPad and Mac fans are iSad because the world has lost an extraordinarily talented and extraordinarily bold innovator –one of the very few in our generation. The 56 year old inventor and entrepreneur Steve Jobs died on Wednesday due to a rare kind of pancreatic cancer. Diagnosed in 2004, Jobs continued on with his work in the company he co-founded.

The former CEO of the technology giant battled the disease for 7 years. He was surrounded by family upon his passing on Wednesday, October 5, 2011.

US President Obama said, the world “lost a visionary” and indeed it did because Jobs is definitely one of the greatest American innovators in modern times.

It is not surprising that Jobs’ death caused a lot of sadness in all corners of the globe. Although this is a post-Diana era and hero-worship can be a little over the top, the mourning is justifiable because the world just lost someone who was bold enough to make an idea into reality.

The innovations of Steve Jobs may be considered as “useless” to some but to many, these gadgets have changed lives especially when it comes to storage and downloading information right on the palm of one’s hands.

Days after his death, more and more people are now researching about Jobs i.e. who he was, what he was like and what his journey was like. One common curiosity however is the fact that Jobs is adopted. His biological father, a Syrian national, met Jobs’ mother during their university days. At the time however, his father was not allowed to marry Jobs’ biological mother because her father did not allow it. His biological parents did not really want to give him up but by the time that they were already able to marry, they could not get their son anymore since the adoption papers have already been processed. Steve Jobs said once in an interview however that his adoptive parents are his true parents. Jobs never met his real father and mother.

This was a very interesting year, to say the least, for Apple, Steve Jobs and the Cuppertino gang. 2010 was an ambitious year for Apple with highly anticipated new product launches of the iPad and a new installation of the iPhone. But the Year in Review also held some drama with an Apple test product making it out of the walls of the Cuppertino fortress and into civilian hands, as well as, a battle about Flash content on the iPad. Overall, Apple had a crazy year for sales and continue to exert their dominance over the rest of the gadget world year after year. With the holiday season “wrapping” up…(pun intended) I will not be surprised to see the inflated sales numbers after the year. The bottom line is, I know there will be millions of people opening up iPads, iPhones and iPods from under the tree.

The iPod Repair Blog Presents:

2010 Apple Year in Review Top Ten List:

10. Flash on Apple Devices

The uproar of not allowing Adobe Flash prompted Steve Jobs to post an open letter about Flash on the Apple website. It went something like this, “Flash was created during the PC era – for PCs and mice. Flash is a successful business for Adobe, and we can understand why they want to push it beyond PCs. But the mobile era is about low power devices, touch interfaces and open web standards – all areas where Flash falls short.” Said Jobs. He went on to also say, “New open standards created in the mobile era, such as HTML5, will win on mobile devices (and PCs too). Perhaps Adobe should focus more on creating great HTML5 tools for the future, and less on criticizing Apple for leaving the past behind.” I give Jobs credit here, he is moving forward and trying to encourage the creation of new platforms to challenge Adobe Flash which currently accounts for 75% of video and media on the internet.

9. iPad Frame with Hole for Front-Facing Camera

iPad repair specialists, Mission Repair, discovered that a replacement iPad Frame had a space for an iSight webcam/camera inside the device. Based on parts seemingly obtained through unofficial channels, the frame appears to have a very similar area to the MacBook’s existing iSight webcam enclosure. The second Gen iPad will be Face Time compatible but Apple decided to not implement the Face Time capability in the first generation.

8. iPad Delayed Ship Date

The iPad release was one of the most anticipated events of the year but some of the dedicated Apple fans who pre-ordered their iPads experienced some frustration. Apple began taking pre-orders beginning March 12 to have the device shipped directly to your house and have it arrive on your door step by the store launch date of April 3. Apple then announced that customers who placed pre-orders after March 27 had to wait until April 12 for their iPad to ship due to the high demand. Bummer.

7. Nasdaq Stock Rose from $210 a share to Over $300 a share in 2010

Apple enjoyed another great year in the Nasdaq. Apple’s share price rose from $210 in January 2010 to over $300 in December. This is due in large part to the release of two major products this year with the iPad and iPhone 4. Apple also continues to push the envelope when it comes to innovative, user-friendly products.

6. Face Time

Face Time may have been one of the most anticipated upgrades to the iPhone and iPod Touch. The front facing camera allows you to video chat with other iPhone users over a wi-fi connection. Face Time is now available to iPod touch and iMac desktop and laptop users. The second generation of the iPad will also have Face Time capability.

5. iPhone Death Grip Antenna Issues

An issue with the iPhone 4s external Antenna caused dropped calls. This problem, deemed the “death grip”, had iPhone 4 users grumbling. The external antenna on the iPhone 4 had a tendency to drop calls when users held the phone a certain way but to remedy this problem Apple offered users a free bumper case to help alleviate the “death grip”.

4. Multi-Tasking!

The iPhone 4 release also coincided with a new iOS release from Apple. iOS 4 allowed for multi-tasking, something that iPhone users had long awaited. The multi-tasking allowed users to open an App from the SpringBoard and then double click the home button to pull up a menu at the bottom of the screen. You could then switch apps and run more than one app at a time. Prior to multi-tasking, once you switched apps the app you were just running would close. Now you can go back to right where you left off.

3. iPhone Release

The release of the iPhone 4 was similar to the release of the iPad with lines spanning around the block and people camping out for days to be one of the first people to get their hands on the new iPhone. The iPhone 4 featured several revamped features including a new Retina display and a squared off casing with a stainless steel band. The iPhone took some of it’s styling cues from the iPad. Also, the iPhone featured an upgraded A4 processor and a Gorilla Glass backing to make it more durable and scratch resistant.

2. iPad Release

The long awaited iPad release garnered the most hype in 2010 and is one of the hottest products of the year. With the release of the iPad came several imitators such as the Samsung Galaxy and BlackBerry PlayBook. The most impressive number for the iPad this year was 1 million units sold in less than 30 days on the market. 1 million of anything is impressive but 1 million iPads is crazy. For comparison, the iPhone took almost three months to reach the million sales mark. The iPad moved off the shelves so quickly in 2010 Apple had to delay the International release. 300,000 units were sold on the first day.

1. Gizmodo Lost iPhone 4 Scandal

This was by far my favorite Apple headline in 2010. It just got better each day with more information coming out and the lengths that Apple went to to make it known that you don’t mess with Steve Jobs. A quick recap goes something like this: Apple software engineer, Gray Powell was enjoying a few drinks at a local watering hole and left his iPhone 4 test phone at the bar. The iPhone 4 was disguised as a 3Gs. Powell left the phone on a bar stool and the phone was recovered by a patron at the bar. The phone was then sold to Gizmodo.com for a reported $5,000 and photos were leaked out on Gizmodo.com. Apple then contacted Gizmodo editor Jason Chen to get the phone back and they also obtained a search warrant to seize Chen’s computers. Bottom line, Gizmodo ruined the surprise of the iPhone 4 for me but also broke a huge, entertaining story that gave me a weeks worth of great reading material.

I hope you enjoyed the Year in Review and hope you will check back in with the iPod Repair Blog for more entertaining content in 2011!

Photo Credit:accedian.com

In photos found on tipb.com, the unmistakable camera hole can be found on the front of a replacement iPod Touch 4 case. Steve Jobs did mention that Apple would be launching 10,000 Face Time devices and they are not all necessarily iPhones and with the use of your iTunes ID to connect calls possible, FaceTime is not strictly for the iPhone 4.

Steve Jobs is brilliant, but being able to connect using your iTunes ID is such a great idea. It doesn’t just limit the application to iPhone users and gives the application a whole new world to expand in to. By expanding the number of devices on the FaceTime network, the success of Face time is that much greater. I am more likely to purchase an iPod Touch 4 rather than an iPhone 4. The iPhone 4 has had so many problems.

I have to admit one of the immediate drawbacks I saw when FaceTime was initially launched was the amount of users on the network. No one I knew had FaceTime so what was the point? I thought, Ok, I will get on this bandwagon eventually, just not right now. I did not even consider the iPod Touch having the compatibility. I guess I just associated FaceTime with phone calls.

Steve Jobs will give a free case to everyone with an iPhone 4

If you keep up with Apple news, and since you are reading this blog I assume you do, you have no doubt heard of the “death grip” that causes major antenna and reception problems with the iPhone 4. I am feeling a little snarky with this post because I purchased the iPhone 3Gs with the option to upgrade to the iPhone 4. I debated whether I should just make the switch and get the latest iPhone but looking back I am glad I stayed with the 3Gs.

In a press conference at Apple’s Cuppertino campus, Jobs announced that to combat the antenna problems, Apple would provide customers with free cases. This is a great PR move for Apple. Instead of deflecting the problem and blaming AT&T, (not like they didn’t try) Jobs solved the problem by giving away free cases. Now there is a new problem, not enough bumper cases. The highly sought after bumper case is already is shortage and now that Apple is giving them away, they are going to need millions more. Jobs solved this problem by giving customers a choice of cases.

Bottom line, I like the message that the guy in the video is delivering, if you don’t want an iPhone 4 don’t buy one, if you bought one and you don’t like it…bring it back.

iPad Launch

With the U.S. release date just around the corner, I thought I would take some time to talk about the, soon to be ubiquitous, iPad. I read the four page spread that Time Magazine gave the iPad and thought the interview with Steve Jobs was very well done by Stephen Fry. I have also gone back to check out the iPad Keynote Speech from January (broken up in several parts). I think this is really a technology for people to get excited about. The possibilites on this device are incredible; from an educational standpoint to a gaming stand point, there are so many useful applications to the iPad.

With that being said, would I purchase the first generation of iPad…not likely. But I will say, give this product nine months and I think we will see a substantial A.) price decrease and B.) increase in user interface and application capability. Is it possible that the general public will not take to the iPad immediately? Maybe…but I can remember a time when not everyone was walking around with an iPod in their pocket.

Either way, I see this as a win-win-win scenario. Win-Apple get’s a new product release that is generating a great deal of buzz with the potential to do unlimited commerce from the device. Win-Apple fanatics get a new toy to play with and the satisfaction of telling people that they, do in fact, own an iPad. Win-The less fanatical Apple fans will get an even better version of this device in nine months to a year.

In the end, I really do this that the capability of the iPad will turn the people who think, “What’s the big deal? It looks like a big iPhone…” into loyal users because the technology really is that good.