Apple CEO Steve Jobs is currently speaking at the D8 conference hosted by All Things Digital. Esteemed writers Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg are moderating. I’ll pull some choice quotes from you, courtesy of Engadget’s excellent live blog. Keep refreshing for updates (if you wish)!
On why he wrote that lengthy diatribe about Adobe Flash:
We aren’t going to make an effort to put this on our platform. We told Adobe to show us something better, and they never did. It wasn’t until we shipped the iPad that Adobe started to raise a stink about it. We were trying to have a fight, we just decided to not use one of their products. They made a big deal of it — that’s why I wrote that letter. I said enough is enough, we’re tired of these guys trashing us.
On the stolen iPhone HD prototype that ended up with Gizmodo:
The person who took the phone plugged it into his roommates computer. And this guy was trying to destroy evidence… and his roommate called the police. So this is a story that’s amazing — it’s got theft, it’s got buying stolen property, it’s got extortion, I’m sure there’s some sex in there (huge laughs)… the whole thing is very colorful. The DA is looking into it, and to my knowledge they have someone making sure they only see stuff that relates to this case. I don’t know how it will end up.
On Google suddenly becoming a competitor:
Well they decided to compete with us. We didn’t go into the search business!
On the iPhone giving more choice to consumers and taking away software control from carriers:
When you bought a phone the carrier dictated what you had on the phone. iPhone was the first phone where we said, “You worry about the network. We’ll worry about the phone.”
We found a way to sell the phone that we want to sell. We didn’t think we could do it, but we did. We’d never been in this business, and AT&T took a big leap on us, and it’s worked out really well. And we really changed the rules of the game.
On the App Store approval process:
We have a few rules: has to do what it’s advertised to do, it has to not crash, it can’t use private APIs. And those are the three biggest reasons we reject apps. But we approve 95 percent of all the apps that are submitted every week.
[I’m still wondering why Google Voice got rejected….]
It’s audience Q&A time and the questions have been boring so far. I’m going to watch NXT and check in again later.
Answering a question on gaming:
Clearly iPhone plus iPod Touch have created a new class of gaming. It’s a subset of casual gaming, but it’s surprising how good some of them are. They’re almost as good as console gaming in terms of graphics. Console games the software is $30 or $40 a game. It’s cheaper on iPhone, so the market has exploded.
[Wow, Jobs has no idea what the hell he’s talking about when it comes to games.]
It's called a reach around Ray. :P
ah Steve…never afraid to cuss in an interview. life must be awesome as a billionaire.
GV was killed by ATT. The free SMS train was going to kill revenues on the Iphone bills.
When he said, “You worry about the network. We’ll worry about the phone," I immediately thought of Star Wars when Luke told Wedge, "You worry about those fighters. I'll worry about the tower."
Haha Nice Ray
Wow. He really hit the nail on the head when it came to entertainment industry or content creators.
— When we went to music companies, we said who is your customer… they said Target, and Best Buy — they thought the retailer was the customer. What changed in that industry was the front end, the distribution and marketing was able to be done in a much more effective way, going right to the end user.–
I'm sure the movie industry feels the same way.
Updated with a comment he made about games. He's a brilliant man, but he doesn't seem to know gaming.
@Ray
He either doesn't care too much, or he has something in the works with Steam. We'll see.
@Smartguy
My guess would be he doesn't care. He has the numbers he wants and that's good enough for him. Plus, steam would just cut into Apples profits.
@Ray and everyone else
F this noise. ATT is lowering their data. It is no longer unlimited and funneled towards overages.
Here's another article. It states that tethering will be available only to those who sub to the highest tier…but at an ADDITIONAL $20 per month and will share the 2GB of data! WTFUC….
! SG
I like that idea BUT 1mb over the limit equals a $15 surcharge that is some bull.
Good thing I currently have the $30 unlimited plan and don't sub the phone. I can buy the new model and keep what I have. Though it seems ATT won't let me tether unless I choose their ass raping 2gb plan. I use at least 3gb per month on my phone. That would mean I pay more per month and get the same if I were to choose the legitimate tethering option.
I think iPad owners are getting a raw deal as well.
@BB
What about the poor schmo who has the $25 plan and goes a few meg over? Another $10.
@SG
Its all about that fiscal report. They are going to generate so much new money from surcharges on the tiered plans. Nuts, if 10 people go over their data usage on the $25 plan thats over $500 total just for the data plan, never mind the regular bill ($50-$70). CRAZY!!!
@smartguy – wow I use data a lot but I think I'm on wi-fi most of the time. For instance I used 2.3 Gigs last month on the phone but I only used 300 megs on the network.
Charging people that much for usage sucks but I went through my bills and I only found 1 month where I almost went over 1 gig on the network. as long as it doesn't affect me I'm cool.
But sign me up for Verizon day one they get the iPhone
@shockwave
I really think TMo is gonna get it before VZW. The mod is simple enough and they will give Apple whatever to get that device….not too mention Tmo in Germany sells the 3GS already. I looked at my bills for the last 6 months and I usually do about 2gig per month. So with their damn 2gig cap I'll actually have to go back in time and count my bytes as if they were minutes.
I think this is a small picture of what the VZW bucket of bytes will be like on LTE. Probably give you 2gig to make calls, use data, whatever and hit you with a big overage.
Notice how this info came out the day after the new ETFs went in to use? Let's also not overlook the coincidence of Skype having unlimited Skype to Skype over 3G now on Iphone.
@smartguy – that's a good couple of points you made. Timing is never a coincidence. The funny thing is I would like to tether but for 20 extra bucks and the same cap it doesn't do my laptop/ipad any good to tether.
Also t-mobile and AT&T share the same towers so to me the service wouldn't change except for the slightly less congestion.
Steve Jobs may have been right when he said any cell carrier would have struggled to maintain a strong network for iPhone. But Thats precisely why you don't limit it to one carrier IMO
@shockwave
I really feel for the 3G ipad owners. That magical no contract price lasted 1 month. Now unless they continually renew they are gonna take it in the shorts. I think that extension fell by the wayside and these price changes are their way to stem the upcoming negative churn.
Question, can you save iWork projects and open them from system memory? What about pulling down something? Can you save it to the ipad?
@smartguy/shockwave
I think i will try their data pro. 2 GB for $20, i've looked up my usage this month and i'm barely getting to 1 GB with 5 more days in my billing cycle to go. I wasn't aware that wi-fi data transfer didn't count towards your data usage. Maybe if i can hack into more wi-fi spots it will help out or if at&t also decides to roll out wi-fi access like they did in NYC to every city that should help out as well.
@shockwave
do you think if you keep your jb tethering that at&t will still charge you the extra $20?
@tokz
hmmm, I would keep my unlimited if I were you. Not worth $5 to me. These new plans offer no value unless you are buying a feature phone and then the 200mb plan is not bad.
JB question though, no answer. Supposedly they can't tell if you are tethered with the 3.0 OS.
@smartguy
Well at&t is saying that they are going to send you 3 texts when you reaching the cap. 1 at 65% at cap. the other at 90% cap and the last one when you've reached the cap. If this actually it works this will let me know i've got to curb my usage. If i manage appropriately that's a saving of $120! I could use that extra cash.
@tokz
what about when you have more data hungry apps? I'm thinking a year ahead. The plan is $25, not $20. So that is only $60 per year savings.
Guys, I'm going to clean up some of the links here. I'm posting a story using the official press release in a bit — just making coffee first.
@smartguy
crap. I read that wrong. it is $25! maybe i should use those $60 i would save to upgrade the prescription on my glasses!
@tokz
lol. I like the security of that $60
@Ray
sleep in? Lol
@smartguy Yeah, still fighting off that flu bug. Need to get it together before going to SF tomorrow.
@smartguy
lol, tell me about it.
@smartguy & tokz
The iWork stuff is accessible from within the app. and you can also access it once you plug your ipad in to your PC. alternatively, I have a 'my documents ap' that stores all of the documents I need. I can easily import/export all documents to that. Also I can import/export stuff from my iDisk through mobile me.
tokz – I'm not sure man. part of me wants to say that AT&T might not know if I tether while jailbroken. Either way I'm getting a new phone when it comes out so I'll lost my current Tethering ability. I've seen nothing that shows I'll be able to tether with AT&Ts tether solution either.
@shockwave
what if you pull down a compatible file from say your email or a website? is that allowed on the iPad?
I'm jealous that you have a mobile me account. I want one, but I'm gonna wait and see what changes happen next week.