Thank you Steve for everything, R.I.P.

Dear Steve Jobs,

Many thanks for your dedication, for your inspiring passion to do what you love, for bringing colors and beauty to the grey world of computing, for making products our grand-parents AND kids love showing off, for making products that connect people to each other, generation Y with generation, for being our muse.

I couldn't help shed a few tears over your death this evening. I know it sounds weird, given I didn't know you personally. But I practically grew up watching you and Bill Gates arguing and making up ;) After all, I'm one fo those who learned how to spell my name on an Apple keyboard before even knowing how to write it with a pen. Another reason I feel sick to my stomach is the realization that my opportunity of meeting you one day is forever gone. Completely vain I know, yet it is oddly frustrating and shakening... As you pointed out during your famous commencement address, life is indeed very short...

My dear Friends,

May Steve Jobs' spirited legacy inspire you for many years to come...

Essential app for GDC, SxSW, CTIA or some other cool events

I don't know about you, but my month of March is packed with conferences, fairs and tradeshows. Unfortunately I cannot all these great events (except for SxSW!!!). But for those heading to the GDC in San Francisco, CTIA in Orlando, The Book Fair / Salon du Livre in Paris, or SxSW in Austin, then you will understand right away the pain of having to go through literally a couple of hundreds of business cards after each event...

Luckily, ScanBizCards released its new version just on time to make us all more efficient and networking-friendly.

Available on iPhone and Android. I have discount codes for the iPhone version, feel free to ping me for it and please don't forget to rate the app :) 

The funniest grocery conversation

How to live before you die, by Steve Jobs

To start this new semester inspired, may I invite you to watch Steve Jobs' Commencement Address to Stanford University's graduates.

Although performed in 2005, its content remains extremely actual and will hopefully resonate with you for as long as you live... If not, you can always do like me, which it to read the transcript or watch it again occasionally ;-).

The next iPhone lost by an Apple employee in a bar

First of all, here is how it supposedly looks like:

Leaked by Gizmodo, the story is centered around an Apple employee who allegedly forgot what seems to be the iPhone 4G to be launched this coming June on a bar counter. The story is well written, yet I found it to be way too focused on the employee, releasing his name and his love for drinking. This guy is now going to have a hard time keeping some privacy. That said, imagine if Gizmodo had 'tactfully' not released his name. Then it would be logical to think that - considering that Apple would have found out who the iPhone owner was anyway - they might have fired him discreetly. Gray Powell is now so famous, it would pretty much be bad publicity for Apple to get rid of him, at least for now.

Some questions remain: how did the soon-to-be launched iPhone leaked onto Gizmodo's hands? and therefore who received those 5,000 dollars Gizmodo paid for it?

In the meantime, here is a fake leak of the iPhone 4G for your amusement:

Mathias Döpfner shares his excitement for the iPad with Charlie Rose

Browsing Hulu for a bedtime video, I stumbled upon Charlie Rose's interview of Mathias Döpfner and was smitten by his optimism not only about the publishing business but also about how he sees the US as a leader and guardian of freedom and democracy... I certainly can appreciate that and this positivity reminds me of Sarkozy's address to the US Congress a couple of years ago.

On a different note:

Dear Charlie Rose,
I would love to share your invaluable content with all my friends. Yet can you please find a different/additional way to distribute your show? Due to Hulu's geographic restrictions, this is what most people  outside the US see (and I am sure many fans of yours):

Apple blocks location-based advertising within apps

Mobile Marketer's Dan Butcher agily details the ramification of Apple's stance against location-based advertising within applications for the iPhone and iPod touch.

This decision will definitely impact most players of the mobile advertising industry. Yet I do not think it will presents itself as an issue for companies like Foursquare or Buzzd, whose location-based feature is not only part but beneficial to the user experience.

Indeed, according to Apple's advice to the developer community about its CoreLocation framework:
If your app uses location-based information primarily to enable mobile advertisers to deliver targeted ads based on a user's location, your app will be returned to you by the App Store Review Team for modification before it can be posted to the App Store.
You can learn more about using Core Location by reading the CLLocationManager Class Reference and downloading the LocateMe sample code available in the iPhone OS Reference Library.

To learn more about the potential repercussions from a marketing and advertising stand-point, please read Dan Butcher's piece here: http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/advertising/5430.html

Is Wired ready for an Apple iPad launch?

Mind-blowing, Wired presents us with an intuitive way of interacting with its content, while experimenting with cool features such as the 3D spinning of products, which opens new avenues for advertising and product reviews.

That said, it seems that this groundbreaking app may be incompatible with the Apple iPad :( according to the word on the street (of the blogosphere). Garysky at AppleSky writes that "interactive Wired issues probably won’t be compatible with the iPad due to its inability to run Adobe’s proprietary technologies like Flash and AIR".

Yet according to Cult of Mac yesterday, Wired's EIC Chris Anderson said: "The app is designed to run using Adobe’s Air, but can be easily repurposed for the iPad and other devices"...

Does anyone know which team built the app anyway? Feel free to email/comment.

A friend tells me it has been developed internally for months way before anyone was sure there was going to be an iPad.