Years ago in the late 80s I was a Mac developer (not working for Apple directly) up until 1993/4 when I bought my self a PC and learned VB. You had to be in that scene in order to realise how bad Apple had become over the 10 years of Steve Jobs absence. It was slow and we held on as long as we could but Apple sucked big time when Steve returned in 1996.

Having said that I queued up for the first iMac. But stayed with PC development long enough to see it become web development. Now I use a PC and Mac and develop on all sorts of platforms. It really is a great time to be a developer.

But what was Steve? Unlike some rubbish I’ve heard he wasn’t an engineer or even a designer, he did have a great sense of what people wanted and seems to push technical people to create very highly engineered products and systems. So well thought out and almost magical to use. Visionary is the best word I can think of.

My Dad is 89 and uses an iPad, he was struggling with his laptop (the screen, the keyboard and the lack of speed) and so he got the iPad on my advice. he loves it and is rarely without it. It empowers he’s communication, facebook, email, web is so accessible and quick.

I really hope that Apple can learn what Steve was about and keep doing it in his absence. I believe they can but then again I kept believing that last time too.

One more thing… Here is a great advert voiced by Steve himself.

Share this:

I’ve been studying Alex Jeffreys internet marketing course and now it’s time to put some of that into action.

I’m actually really getting excited about the possibilities.

Share this:

Here is what I think is one of the most innovative pieces of advertising I’ve seen for a while, it’s a website for a Japanese clothes store but they have made it a bit more compelling than a normal clothes website.

uniqlock - this is the clock bit

It starts off as a clock showing the local Tokyo time with some very addictive music in the background.

This shows a dance routine

After 5 seconds we see our first dance routine, the routines are flash video and are very high quality full screen. The trick is that the video buffers while the clock shows and that makes the site responsive and sharp on even the slowest of computers with the slowest of connections (still broadband though).

Another dance routine, there are loads of them randomised

The routines are randomized so it rarely gets boring, it gets very addictive although more changes in the music would have been better.

Check it out for yourself:

http://www.uniqlo.jp/uniqlock/

or check out summer season:

http://www.uniqlo.jp/uniqlock/season1/index.html

and for the winter collection (yes they have thought of that too):

http://www.uniqlo.jp/uniqlock/season2/index.html

Share this: