The IT Nerd

Today was a very strange day.

I had an appointment tonight at 8PM at the Apple Genius Bar to have the battery of my MacBook Pro replaced under AppleCare. When my turn came, I stepped up to the Genius Bar and started to explain the fact that my MacBook Pro started displaying the “Service Battery” error. At about this time, a hush fell over the store and the moods of the Apple Store employees changed. I found that to be weird. At that moment my Blackberry vibrated. When that happens, it’s usually a customer needing help or my wife needing me for something. I took a look there was a message from an associate asking me if I had heard about Steve Jobs. I had a funny feeling as I typed in “no.” A few seconds later I got a text back.

“He died.”

I was in shock. I was thinking that this couldn’t be right. Then my wife texted me to say that Steve Jobs is dead. Then I knew it was for real.

There’s no way that I could begin to describe what Steve Jobs has done. Let’s face it, he’s done a lot that we now take for granted. iPods, iPads, iPhones are just the tip of the iceberg. We have technologies that we take for granted because he decided to start a company in a garage and sell computers for $666. If you want to get the full list, I’d try Wikipeda. But take it from me. Even Windows users should be thanking Steve Jobs. He’s done that much.

Here’s what Apple had to say:

“Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being. Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve have lost a dear friend and an inspiring mentor. Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple.”

If you want to express you’re condolences, click here. Apple has set up a page and an e-mail address for people to express their condolences. I find that fitting seeing as you could sometimes get a response if you e-mailed him.

So as I type this, I have a new battery in my MacBook Pro (Many thanks to the Apple Store in Sherway Gardens for doing the battery swap on the spot). However the world has lost a truly great man.

May he rest in peace.

The London Sunday Times posted a very interesting profile of Apple God CEO Steve Jobs. It’s a very interesting read and I encourage you to take a look at it. What I found interesting is that Apple apparently tried to get the Sunday Times not to run the piece:

Apple hates personality stuff and press intrusion. “We want to discourage profiles,” an Apple PR tells me stiffly, apparently unaware she is waving a sackful of red rags at a herd of bulls. Another PR rings the editor of this magazine to try to halt publication of this piece.

That worked out really well. Great job Apple PR. Now everybody and their dog will be talking about this story. I know that Apple is a very insular and secretive company (and the piece goes into some amount of detail about that), but to tell one of the worlds best known media outlets to bury a story seems a bit much to me.

In any case, from my perspective this article has some negative things about “The Steve:”

Jobs is, in the words of the psychiatrist and scholar of leadership Michael Maccoby, “a productive narcissist”. To Jobs, the world is an epiphenomenon, a side effect of the existence of Steve. Or rather, it is a pyramid with Jobs at the top, a few bright people just beneath him, and then the rest of us — the “bozos”. The customer bozo is not, to him, always right.

And some positive as well:

“Jobs is not an engineer,” says the writer Dan Lyons, “he can’t really design anything and he doesn’t know anything about circuits. But he is the ultimate end-user, the guy who is on our side.” Lyons created the Secret Diary of Steve Jobs blog with a motto that captures the strange Jobs mix of geek fantasy and power: “I will restore your sense of childlike wonder. There is nothing you can do to stop me.”

So that says to me it’s a balanced article. What do you think? Please leave a comment with your thoughts.

Here’s some news that Apple didn’t need on the day they are planning to release their quarterly statement. According to Bloomberg, Apple is being poked and prodded by the SEC to make sure investors weren’t misled by the company in regards to how they handled the disclosure of whatever ails God Steve Jobs:

The Securities and Exchange Commission’s review doesn’t mean investigators have seen evidence of wrongdoing, the person said, declining to be identified because the inquiry isn’t public.

Regardless of how this review comes out, this circus could have all been avoided if Apple were more up front about this whole affair. This should make the earnings conference call at 5PM today very interesting to listen to.

I should have seen this coming a mile away, but I’ve been too concerned about how Apple fanbois would react to the temporary departure of God Steve Jobs to consider a shareholder lawsuit as a possibility in this blog.

You see, Apple is a public company. As such they have a legal requirement to report to shareholders all sorts of information. Some of Apple’s shareholders argue that this extends to the health of God Steve Jobs. If you take the view that Apple has been less than truthful with that information which caused the stock value to drop, you have the perfect conditions for a lawsuit:

Larry Sucharow, chairman of the New York law firm Labaton Sucharow, which specialises in investor lawsuits, said it’s too early to tell whether Apple is in legal hot water.

There is no question, he said, that Jobs’ health, to the extent that it affects his ability to run Apple, is material, even if a less prominent CEO’s health wouldn’t be material. But the deciding factor will not be how much Apple’s stock moved on the news of the day. The risk of a chief executive falling ill is one of many investors must consider. At its core, this matter will be decided once it comes out who at Apple knew what about Jobs’ health – and when.

“A company and its spokespeople are always obligated, when they speak, to tell the complete truth. You can’t tell a half truth without telling the other half,” he said in an interview on Thursday.

I’ve been in and around the Apple world at various levels since the late 1990’s. My experience has been that Apple either says nothing until they have to, or they play fast and loose with the facts. Whether that behavior will result in them being sued and that suit being successful, I can’t say. IANAL. Of course that assumes that they have played fast and loose with the facts in this case.

Perhaps a lawer would care to comment on this.

I feel like I’ve started a blog for Steve Jobs rather than technology in general, but seeing as this is the biggest story in the tech world at the moment I’ll report on this until it is no longer relevant (which I hope is soon).

The New York Times is reporting that Steve Jobs is dealing with a food absorption problem citing “Two people who are familiar with Mr. Jobs’s current medical treatment”:

Two people who are familiar with Mr. Jobs’s current medical treatment said he was not suffering from a recurrence of cancer, but a condition that was preventing his body from absorbing food. Doctors have also advised him to cut down on stress, which may be making the problem worse, these people said.

An Apple spokesman, Steve Dowling, said the company had no comment beyond Mr. Jobs’s letter.

You know what? It doesn’t really matter. Steve needs to do what he needs to do to get healthy. The Apple Fanbois have to get a grip and realize that the world will get along just fine without God Steve. And at some point we have to stop talking about this. That includes yours truly.

Hopefully the next story I post won’t be about “The Steve.”

UPDATE: Wired has posted a story that argues that God Steve will not be back and whatever he is telling people isn’t actually what he has. Of course this is all speculation, but this isn’t the sort of thing that the Apple fanbois will want to hear about God Steve. Nor will it help Apple’s share price (which by the way is currently down over 2%, but had fallen by as much a 6% earlier in the day).

The Wall Street Journal has reprinted a letter from Apple CEO Steve Jobs to Apple staff a few minutes ago. This is the letter in its entirety:

Team,

I am sure all of you saw my letter last week sharing something very personal with the Apple community. Unfortunately, the curiosity over my personal health continues to be a distraction not only for me and my family, but everyone else at Apple as well. In addition, during the past week I have learned that my health-related issues are more complex than I originally thought.

In order to take myself out of the limelight and focus on my health, and to allow everyone at Apple to focus on delivering extraordinary products, I have decided to take a medical leave of absence until the end of June.

I have asked Tim Cook to be responsible for Apple’s day to day operations, and I know he and the rest of the executive management team will do a great job. As CEO, I plan to remain involved in major strategic decisions while I am out. Our board of directors fully supports this plan.

I look forward to seeing all of you this summer.

Steve

This is going to do two things. First, Apple Fanbois will freak that God Steve is not running the show. Second it’s sure to send the stock value of Apple downwards (it closed down 2.71% before this news broke, and is currently heading downwards in after hours trading). But the upshot is that the Fanbois will get a healther God Steve sometime this summer. Which is a good thing for all concerned, especially Steve Jobs.

UPDATE: Here’s a video from CNN. Thanks To DJ Schneider for the tip:

I guess the circus that is Steve Jobs health has reached such a fever pitch that “The Steve” himself has decided to respond to it. This letter was posted to the Apple website today. First, here’s what you need to know about his health:

As many of you know, I have been losing weight throughout 2008. The reason has been a mystery to me and my doctors. A few weeks ago, I decided that getting to the root cause of this and reversing it needed to become my #1 priority.

Fortunately, after further testing, my doctors think they have found the cause—a hormone imbalance that has been “robbing” me of the proteins my body needs to be healthy. Sophisticated blood tests have confirmed this diagnosis.

And here’s what you need to know about his role as the iCEO:

I have given more than my all to Apple for the past 11 years now. I will be the first one to step up and tell our Board of Directors if I can no longer continue to fulfill my duties as Apple’s CEO. I hope the Apple community will support me in my recovery and know that I will always put what is best for Apple first.

And finally, here’s a parting shot:

So now I’ve said more than I wanted to say, and all that I am going to say, about this.

That I think translates to STFU.

Sadly, I don’t think that this statement will do much to quiet the discussion of his health. Although, as I write this Apple stock is up just over 3%. So who knows?

UPDATE: Gizmodo who was responsible for starting this latest round of rumor mongering has posted a story on their website that basically spins “The Steve’s” letter into proof that they were right. It also tries to justify their original post and takes a few shots at Apple sock puppet VP of Corporate Communications Katie Cotton and Jim Goldman of CNBC as well. I’m guessing that Gizmodo felt the wrath of the Apple Fanboi community and is stung by it.

UPDATE #2: Apple’s Board Of Directors have released this statement expressing its support for “The Steve.”

The speculation about “The Steve’s” health is starting to get old. Tech website Gizmodo is the latest to get into the act by posting the following:

According to a previously reliable source, Apple misrepresented the reasons behind Macworld and Jobs’ keynote cancellation. Allegedly, the real cause is his rapidly declining health.

By they way, the source that they got this info from has been “100% correct before.” Which isn’t iron clad proof to me, but was good enough to send Apple shares down 2% yesterday. Apple declined to comment on the rumor.

Here’s the core of the issue: People think Steve Jobs is Apple. But he isn’t Apple and Apple isn’t Steve Jobs. Everyone needs to get a grip and remember that Apple is a company filled with people who share the same vision as Steve. Apple will continue to create great products whether Steve is there or not.

Apple can help itself out by having a clear succession plan. Such a plan will stop this Entertainment Tonight like speculation from affecting their stock price as well as give people a different perception of the company.

The question is, how long will it take Apple to clue in?

“The Steve” can’t seem to catch a break these days. The iPhone 3G has issues, the rollout of MobileMe was a disaster, and now Bloomberg prints his obituary. It was purely an accident and they have since retracted it. But too bad for them that a copy ended up on Gawker. Now it’s all over the Interwebs.

Oops!

To be fair, news agencies write stuff like this ahead of time so that it’s a minor editing job to get the story out there. But this is a major screw up given the issues that have surrounded “The Steve’s” health.

I’m starting to think that this guy is right. Let’s leave Steve alone.