Key quote:

Time’s regular weekly issue, which goes on stands Friday, will devote its whole feature well, 21 pages, to coverage of the Apple co-founder and software giant. (Time was closing the issue when the news broke, forcing it to stop the presses for what was believed to be the first time in at least 30 years.)

From an upstart outsider to the most profitable cellphone manufacturer. From a PC also-ran to the laptop of the future. In less than two years, revitalizing an entire device category and disrupting just about every media business you can name. Not only becoming the world’s most valuable company, but seeing the stock continue to rise even after the exit of the company’s visionary founder.

For those of us who lived through the lean years of Apple, being around to witness all this is a bit strange. It’s as if we had been diligently preaching the benefits of a meat-free diet for years, only to wake up one morning and discover that everyone we knew had gone vegan overnight. Dealing with success is certainly better than the alternative, but some may mourn the passing of the special minority status we enjoyed as the Mac Elite. Now we have to figure out how to avoid saying “Yes, we told you so!” every five minutes.

I like the image of everyone I know going vegan overnight, that’s exactly what it feels like.

My once and current local mall, the Maine Mall, opened their own Apple Store in September of 2008.

Apple is paying close attention to all iPad 2 returns during the first few weeks to make sure there are no major production defects. This policy has led to an amusing story that we thought was entertaining enough to share.

The story comes by way of an individual close to Apple:

[Apple's] focus this week has been to troubleshoot all the iPad 2s that customers are returning to the stores. One iPad came back with a post it note on it that said “Wife said no.” It was escalated as something funny, and two of the VPs got wind of it. They sent the guy an iPad 2 with a note on it that said “Apple said yes.”

We’re guessing a free iPad satisfied any objection the customer’s wife might have had.

Awesome!

I’ve come to realize over the last two months that the whole point of having an Apple iPhone is to amass applications, or “apps” in the colloquial.

One doesn’t make “apps”, though, that’s too tricky.

To make an “app” one needs to submit it through the Apple Store and their Byzantine application process. That takes time, money, and a strict review process.

The alternative is that one can simply make a webpage and have people add a bookmark to it to their home screen.

As you know, a few weeks ago I made this website mobile friendly. But the logo to the bookmark was a snapshot of the webpage, which is, quite frankly, ugly.

So tonight I discovered how to make the icon pretty.

Check out this screen shot of my home page as it stands tonight (hint, look between the Calendar and the Camera):

I think that is very cool …

The premise is that the Walt Disney Company (then named “Walt Disney Productions”) survived after Walt Disney’s December 1966 death, and actually grew significantly in the period in which is was governed by Roy O. Disney, Walt’s older brother.

What I thought initially was the key quote:

Roy Disney not only furthered the vision he had shared with Walt, he managed Disney through some of its best years. The chart below shows Disney’s stock performance against the Dow Jones Industrial Average for the six years after Walt Disney died. By December 1972, Disney’s stock had appreciated 1,140% from December 1966. The Dow had gained only 30%.

My first thought was, “Wow, that’s a fantastic number!”

But then something caught my eye. Roy O. Disney died in December of 1971.

We all know this because Walt Disney World opened on October 1, 1971, and Roy had a massive stroke fewer than three months later.

Their 1,140% number is from December of 1972.

That’s sheer trickery.

Sure, in December of 1971 Disney stock was still a respectable 700-something-percent above where it was after Walt’s death, but the massive speculation after Roy O. Disney passed is where the inflated 1,140% comes from. Investors, quite honestly, though the company was going up for sale or auction now that both founding brothers were gone.

Could they be more blatant with their goofy numbers?

As far as Apple goes: A) Steve Jobs has no brother, so this comparison is lame, B) Steve Jobs was missing from Apple for a decade between 1985 and 1996 and the company damn-near went bankrupt, and C) since his return Jobs has groomed the COO, Tim Cook, as possible-future-leader – in fact, right now he’s acting-CEO – so they do have a succession plan.

Stupid article.

Although we did just buy a year-long subscription to MobileMe …

He (or she) brought a prototype iPad 2 … to a room full of reporters.

Check out: “Unreleased Apple iPad spotted at news event“.

Key quote:

A Reuters eyewitness saw what appeared to be a working model of the next iPad with a front-facing camera at the top edge of the glass screen at a press conference to mark the debut of News Corp’s Daily online paper in New York on Wednesday.

A source with knowledge of the device confirmed its existence, adding that the final release model could have other features. News Corp and Apple declined to comment.

The next version of Apple’s popular tablet computer is expected to be announced in the next few months.

So was this a shrewd plan, or a total goof?

Check out: “Apple’s iOS Breaks 2% of All Browsing on The Web, Over 5% in U.K./Australia“.

I know with my new iPhone the “tactile feedback” through even light gloves “impedes proper operation”.

I’ll be psyched if this becomes reality.