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Inspirational

Inspirational

October 15, 2013

Apple hires Angela Ahrendts as new retail chief

“She cares deeply about people and embraces our view that our most important resource and our soul is our people. She believes in enriching the lives of others and she is wicked smart. Angela has shown herself to be an extraordinary leader throughout her career and has a proven track record. She led Burberry through a period of phenomenal growth with a focus on brand, culture, core values and the power of positive energy.” – Tim Cook

I’m actually really glad that Apple finally found a good person to take over the role of Senior Vice President of Retail & Online Stores. I’ve seen Angela’s TED talk on “human energy” and I believe that she is an excellent pick. She is the current CEO of Burberry and I’ve been noticing that Apple has been hiring from great places like Nike and Yves Saint Laurent. I wish her the best in her new duties.

Apple’s hire of Ahrendts shows its future is in lifestyle , not tech

By hiring Ahrendts, Cook and his team are signaling their desire to keep Apple just as fresh and upmarket as Burberry.

Overall this is a fantastic analysis of what Ahrendts brings to the table. However, the title of the article makes it sound like Apple isn’t interested in the technological aspect of the industry. I must strongly disagree. Ahrendts is known to be very serious about technology. We must remember what Steve Jobs said: “It’s in Apple’s DNA that technology alone is not enough—it’s technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields us the result that makes our heart sing.” This is exactly what the Burberry CEO offers. She is a exceptional balance between the humanities and tech. This is what separates Apple from Google, Microsoft and the rest.

GoBaddy buys Media Temple

Part of the reason for this, GoDaddy CEO Blake Irving says, is because of Media Temple’s existing size and position in the market. It has 125,000 customers for its premium website management services, and it hosts over 1.5 million websites, with some 88 percent classified as being for “advanced web and IT services”.

I’m waiting for the riots to start.

BlackBerry breaks silence in open letter

The ad also boasts about apps that will allow Android and iPhone owners to use BlackBerry Messenger instant messaging, noting that the six million people who have signed up for notices about those apps “speaks to the tremendous opportunity we have to expand BBM beyond BlackBerry smartphones to make it the world’s largest mobile social network.” Absent, however, is any reference to how the release of the apps was abruptly stopped last month because of technical problems.

Is this enough? BlackBerry touts 6 million iOS and Android users are eager to install the BBM app. So where in the world is it guys? You need to deliver ASAP.

Inspirational

Genesis

Sebastian Salgado’s “GENESIS” exhibit at the Royal Ontario Museum was one of the most awe inspiring photography exhibits I’ve ever seen. Here is a little behind the scenes and the thoughts that we put into making this modern classic.

Inspirational

Remembering Steve

Sometimes I still can’t believe it happened. But today marks the second anniversary of the passing of Steve Jobs, founder of Apple Inc. No one can ever replace someone like Steve and my Thank You continues forward.

Steve appointed Tim Cook as Apple CEO shortly before his death. Since then, the leadership team at Apple has brought forth iOS 7, iPhone 5s, iPhone 5c, iPad mini and record breaking sales. Yesterday Cook issued the following letter to his staff:

Team-
Tomorrow marks the second anniversary of Steve’s death. I hope everyone will reflect on what he meant to all of us and to the world. Steve was an amazing human being and left the world a better place. I think of him often and find enormous strength in memories of his friendship, vision and leadership. He left behind a company that only he could have built and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple. We will continue to honor his memory by dedicating ourselves to the work he loved so much. There is no higher tribute to his memory. I know that he would be proud of all of you.
Best,
Tim

Also, The New York Times published a piece regarding the time leading up to the famous introduction of the original iPhone back at MacWorld 2007.

The impact has been not only economic but also cultural. Apple’s innovations have set off an entire rethinking of how humans interact with machines. It’s not simply that we use our fingers now instead of a mouse. Smartphones, in particular, have become extensions of our brains. They have fundamentally changed the way people receive and process information. Ponder the individual impacts of the book, the newspaper, the telephone, the radio, the tape recorder, the camera, the video camera, the compass, the television, the VCR and the DVD, the personal computer, the cellphone, the video game and the iPod. The smartphone is all those things, and it fits in your pocket. Its technology is changing the way we learn in school, the way doctors treat patients, the way we travel and explore. Entertainment and media are accessed and experienced in entirely new ways.

I wanted to find something special that showed off the genius of Jobs. And I ended up watching a clip I’ve never seen before. This is a 20-minute documentary-style video observing how Jobs brainstormed with his team at NeXT, the company he started after getting fired from Apple.

And what surprised me was that under his light blue untucked dress shirt lies the notorious black turtleneck. In this video, I was intrigued at the 17:40 mark when he talks about not looking too much at the “smaller battles”, but to focus on the war at large.

Personally, Apple made an impact on my life as I clearly remember the first video game that I ever loved. It was a game called Treasure Mountain that I played on a Macintosh in grade school.

Again, thanks for everything you contributed to us Steve.

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