Will Apple survive Steve Jobs' Retirement

Will Apple survive? This question has been asked, reviewed, smelled, analyzed, calculated, x-rayed, argued, debated and more with Steve Jobs taking a health break from daily company operations. Today Apple held an iPhone 3.0 preview event and Steve as expected was no where in sight. Initially many pundits said Apple will suffer without Steve most talking doom and gloom. It seems however not everyone is looking to sell their Apple stock, in fact it seems Apple's stock price is doing quite well; despite Steve's absence.

In the late 90's it seemed certain Apple Computer as a company was toast; sinking faster then the Titanic. Along came Steve and pulled his beloved Apple from certain death. He's done an amazing job in returning Apple to its former glory. But what happens when Steve departs once again and this time for good? I'm guessing nothing; at least in the long run. Yes I do believe there may be initial shock waves with some instability following Steve's departure, but if Steve surrounded himself with the right kind of people, people capable of running Apple with same conviction and passion I believe Apple will survive and prosper.

I think some recent changes (i.e. MacWorld Conference) is putting some of these changes in play, in part getting everyone ready for his departure. Steve certainly is not front and centre as much these days, his generals are taking his place at some recent events. Its a hard adjustment, but it seems Apple is making baby steps in weaning us off Steve's drug. I'm as guilty as the next Apple Fanboy, waiting to hear his next sermon of the next great Apple must have product. But ultimately we have no choice, Steve is getting older and we all know that sad day is coming when Steve will officially resign his papacy. But until then keep saying... I believe in Steve he'll be with us forever!

There you have it, Google as my witness I predict Apple will survive and prosper after Steve Jobs departs.

iMac - A Switcher's Story - Day 5

DAY 5 +

iMac has been great! Sweet machine!. I even have my wife drooling over it. She totally blew me away how quickly she's adopted Apple and OS X. Even now she'll walk by it and comment "wow, I love this computer" and believe me my wife is not a computer lover. In fact she hates them. She tolerates them and no more... really. If it wasn't for the Internet she wouldn't use one.

I've loaded all software and configured everything just the way I like it. I must admit I don't miss Windows or IE one bit. Not that I was an IE fan. In fact Internet Exploiter is something I despise and use only when no other options available. I've enjoyed using Safari 4 even in Beta its one excellent browser. I don't miss Microsoft Office, Outlook or any Windows applications. Everything I've needed to accomplish to date including (Torrents, FTP, DVD Burning, Skype) I've done well and with less headaches.

Don't get me wrong there are a few things I miss (Games and AnyDVD) I have not found an OS X equivalent. But these are small sacrifices for the peace and tranquility OS X offers. I certainly don't miss the constant Anti Virus and Spyware WHAT IF? questions. Every time I used Online Banking I would ask myself should I check for any viruses? I wonder If I'm infected with anything. Well with OS X I don't have to worry about it at least not yet.

There is one thing I do hate, well maybe hate is too strong. I'll say 'dislike' ~ iMac's new smaller keyboard. I find it small, cramped and at times difficult to type.

Over all I've bought into Steve Jobs evangelical Apple sermon. I've been converted. Amen Father Steve!

iMac - A Switcher's Story

iMac ... switched and love it!

I finally did it, I've been saying I'll switch to Mac for well over a year and two days ago I finally did it. In all honesty I would have done it sooner but was waiting for Apple to refresh their aged offerings.

As soon as I heard iMac's and Mini's were refreshed I went out and got a 24" iMac first day my local Best Buy had them in stock. Didn't even have them on display yet when I picked mine up.

Goodbye Dell Dimension 4700 and Asta La Vista Microsoft!

NTLDR is Missing

Recently a friend of mine sent me an email complaining his computer would not boot. He said "it just displays NTLDR is missing - Press any key to restart". He was running Windows XP Media Centre Edition on a white box clone; I gave him some suggestions, sent him some web site links and screenshots.

A few days later I received an email full of hate flaming Microsoft and their Windows empire. In the end he decided to become a switcher as Steve Jobs would say and join the Apple Evangelist camp. He purchased a Unibody 15" MacBook Pro.

He asked me to come by and help make the transition smooth. Along with his nice shiny new MacBook Pro he purchased a Time Capsule to share his USB printer, replace his aging Linksys and Backup his data. A very sweet setup, Time Capsule is an interesting concept.

This was my first time with Apple's Time Capsule but I must admit it was super easy. Initially I was stumped as I was used to Linksys type web interface. No such thing in the Time Capsule. Apple provides the Airport Utility. Essentially a step by step wizard.

After migrating everything to OS X I turned my attention to his Windows machine, which continued to display "NTLDR is missing" I won't go into great detail but I spent an hour trying different troubleshooting techniques to rebuild his MBR, restore NT Loader from Windows CD, XP Recovery Console and many other things. I was ready to give up, when something caught my attention. When his machine restarted soon after BIOS post his machine made a noise I have not heard in a long time. Those of you that have been around computers before USB will know this sound very well. I heard a faint click when floppy drive engages floppy disk. You see his computer case has one of those front cover doors covering everything except his primary CD/DVD Drive. Sure enough I swung the cover door open and there it was a floppy disk engaged within floppy drive. After ejecting floppy disk I gave the old three finger salute and Windows booted just fine. I thought to myself WTF! who has floppy drives these days? My friend told me he's never used it and completely forgot about having a floppy drive.

There you have it! If your computer displays "NTLDR is missing" even if you've never used it check for a floppy drive. Its too bad my friend had to learn it the hard way. It was a very expensive floppy I figure at least $2000 including cost of Time Capsule. But in any case he's happy with his Apple transition. Steve Jobs would be happy! Perhaps this could be Apple's next PC/Mac commercial material.