Steve Jobs passed away!

[Kesa]

Sorry Bloodline but i don't agree that Jobs turned around and single handedly save Apple from oblivion. I think the success of the imac was just luck and nothing else. Steve Jobs did nothing. He especially didn't predict that consumers would go crazy for aesthetics over function like people claim he did.

Sorry but Apple really gets up my tickler...  

[bloodline]

Sorry Bloodline but i don't agree that Jobs turned around and single handedly save Apple from oblivion. I think the success of the imac was just luck and nothing else. Steve Jobs did nothing. He especially didn't predict that consumers would go crazy for aesthetics over function like people claim he did.

Sorry but Apple really gets up my tickler...  

He terminated all of Apple's multitude of undifferentiated product lines, he replaced them with a pretty but simple (plug in and go) one size fits all computer, he killed off MacOS Classic development and replaced it with NeXTStep. Brought in Tim Cook to sort out Apple's production and supply lines, he pushed Apple into retail and he realised that The desktop market was basically dead... Moving Apple to mobile devices and consumer electronics, with a coherent Eco system.

Piss you off or not, these were bold moves for a nearly bankrupt computer company

[ChuckT]

He terminated all of Apple's multitude of undifferentiated product lines, he replaced them with a pretty but simple (plug in and go) one size fits all computer, he killed off MacOS Classic development and replaced it with NeXTStep. Brought in Tim Cook to sort out Apple's production and supply lines, he pushed Apple into retail and he realised that The desktop market was basically dead... Moving Apple to mobile devices and consumer electronics, with a coherent Eco system.

Piss you off or not, these were bold moves for a nearly bankrupt computer company

For the good of the company? Five Apple products Steve Jobs killed

http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2011/08/five-apple-products-steve-jobs-killed-for-the-good-of-the-company.ars

[commodorejohn]

The Pippin was just another stupid "multimedia" game console like the 3D0 or CDi. The Twentieth-Anniversary Macintosh is an overpriced, under-specced, ugly pile of shιt. And the G4 Cube looked cool as hell but didn't offer anything a contemporary Power Mac G4 didn't.

Shame about the Newton and the clone market, though.

[nicholas]

The Pippin was just another stupid "multimedia" game console like the 3D0 or CDi. The Twentieth-Anniversary Macintosh is an overpriced, under-specced, ugly pile of shιt. And the G4 Cube looked cool as hell but didn't offer anything a contemporary Power Mac G4 didn't.

Shame about the Newton and the clone market, though.

3DO rocked! I still have my Panasonic FZ-1.

It wiped the floor with the POS that was the CD32.

[ChuckT]

Foxconn is getting up to 300,000 robots to replace humans in the manufacturing of products because of worker's rights violations, suicides (workers can't talk to one another), and exposure to chemicals.  Sounds like Steve Jobs is a hero:

Little Claws
He said he met employees as young as 12 years old. He met others in their 20s whose hands had devolved into claws, their joints disintegrated after years of 12-hour-plus days.

“It’s like carpal tunnel on a level we’ve never seen,” he said, describing the pressure on the nerve in the wrist that supplies feeling and movement to parts of the hand.[Unquote]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-18/steve-jobs-gets-dissected-by-muckraking-word-spewing-hulk-theater-review.html

http://images.apple.com/supplierresponsibility/pdf/Apple_SR_2011_Progress_Report.pdf

64 facilities had violations in engineering controls. For example, we
found machines that were missing safety devices, such as gear guards
or pulley guards.

95 facilities had violations in administrative controls. For example,
facilities did not conduct regular safety inspections, and workers who
performed specialized tasks did not have legally required licenses or
certifications.

54 facilities had workers who were not wearing appropriate personal
protective equipment (PPE), such as earplugs, safety glasses, and dust
masks. In some instances, the facility had not provided the appropriate
safety equipment. In others, the workers neglected to use the
equipment or were using it improperly.

47 facilities did not have appropriate first-aid supplies for emergency
situations. For example, there were no eyewash stations in areas where
chemicals were used or stored.

78 facilities did not have properly maintained fire detection and
suppression equipment. For example, access to some fire hydrants
or fire extinguishers was blocked, and some fire extinguishers were
placed on the ground.

81 facilities did not have adequate exit paths for emergency
situations. For example, we found narrow evacuation aisles or locked
emergency exits.

[bloodline]

@ChuckT

People throw this crap around all the time, Apple is a small blip on Foxconn's client list... This is not an Apple problem this is an industry problem, which needs to be sorted, but won't be fixed as long as we in the rich nations demand ever cheaper computers...

Have a look inside your Amiga, you'll find Foxconn components... Have fun

[Duce]

The reports of terrible conditions at Foxconn aren't Apple's doing by any stretch, it's just the nature of the beast.

Apple do a LOT of business with them, but they certainly are not the root of the problem.  All the big names use Foxconn, and the problems there lie in the fact Foxconn itself has not improved working conditions despite many of their partners (including Apple) demanding better conditions.

All about profit margins for them, no different than any other overseas companies, whether it be outsourcing call centers or materials suppliers themselves.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foxconn#Clients

[/FONT][/COLOR]

[Frags]

It`s just the way the world works.  A country`s economy ramps up off the back of cheap manufacturing on a huge scale, workers suffer, money pours in - the country runs the world for a bit.  Then the general level of sophistication in the population improves, pretty soon they start fretting about the working conditions and standard of living and before you know it manufacturing starts to get expensive, heavy industry shuts down, empire collapses and some other place takes over.

[ChuckT]

The reports of terrible conditions at Foxconn aren't Apple's doing by any stretch, it's just the nature of the beast.

Do you know where your medicine is made?  Nothing like construction dirt in the air getting into your medicine or hauled by trucks that haul trash the other way?  Do you know where it is stored?  Is the building crumbling where it is stored?  Is the temperature kept at the right temperature?

Don't care?  Okay.  Don't let others claim for Apple to be an industry leader if they don't care.

[Firedawg]

Steve Jobs did nothing.

Then what is all the fuss about Steve Jobs then?:huh:

Firedawg

[Duce]

I didn't say I didn't care, lol.  I said it's the nature of the beast.  Outsourcing is a scourge but it's something we are extremely unlikely to get rid of now.  Apple is far from the only one with dirty hands on the issue, however - *ALL* sectors have been deeply affected by outsourcing, taking jobs from our own people for the benefit of corporate profits, and your medicine analogy is a very valid point.

A number of years ago I lost a job due to outsourcing - I was deemed too costly and my job was given to people overseas that could do the work cheaper remotely.  In retrospect was the best thing to ever happen to me because it forced me back into completing my education in IT, and I'm now making 5x what I was then.  

I'm well aware of the cause and effect of it, I was merely trying to illustrate that Apple is far from the only one behind it, and FWIW they have actually taken some measures to insist on better working conditions over there (though that way be a lot of smoke and mirrors and just PR hype).