Showing posts with label Apple. Show all posts

From Make Use Of

Steve Jobs, the biography by Walter Isaacson, is out.  I saw one of our parishioners at Costco carrying in and surprised I didn't have a copy in my cart as well.

Eventually....

In an interview Isaacson talked about the effect Jobs’ cancer had on his life focus.  It brought a lot of things into focus for him.  This is what Isaacson says:

He talked a lot to me about what happened when he got sick and how it focused him. He said he no longer wanted to go out, no longer wanted to travel the world. He would focus on the products. He knew the couple of things he wanted to do, which was the iPhone and then the iPad.

I've not read the book, but one thing you can say about Steve Jobs is that he was focused.  Sometimes it got in the way of relationships.  Sometimes it got in the way of business partnerships.  But the guy was focused.  Here was someone who wanted to "make a dent in the universe" and he was willing to let everything that would get in the way be pushed aside.

And, I think we can argue that the "couple of things" Jobs was focused on, the iPhone and the iPad, were game changers.  They changed the playing field of cell phones and computing.

If you could focus on just a "couple of things" that would really put a dent in your universe (if not the entire universe) what would they be?

For me, the two things over the last 10 years have been my family and my church.  That's kind painting with a broad brush there.  But I'm not sure I've been more focused than that.

What if, instead, I narrowed it down?

What if my "couple of things" were quality time with my kids and preaching?  Arguably, I could use work on both.  And both could make a dent in my own universe.

Can I use this as an excuse to finally get an iPhone? After all, it's all about communicating in the language that these wacky kids are using -- technology!

The Google Language from The Work Of The People on Vimeo.

In Sunday School today I got to talk about Steve Jobs a bit. The conversation was about clothing and consumerism and an experiment where a small group had, among other things, limited their clothing choices to two outfits plus some workout clothes for forty days.  The point of this part of their experiment was to move beyond our obsessive concern for clothing and how we look and having many options.  Someone in the group talked about Steve Jobs and is iconic turtleneck which then got me a in roll about the man and his vision.

Today is "Steve Jobs Day" in California.  The following video is one composed using only Mac sounds and some of the text of Steve's commencement address at Stanford in 2005.  We may disagree on some of the theology about life and death but it's a very powerful speech.  What I found most interesting are some images of Steve, from his younger days, that I'd not seen before.

Enjoy.

And R.I.P. Steve.

Watch SIRI in action on the iPhone 4S.

Thank you David Hayward, The NakedPastor, for putting into a simple cartoon what many feel with Steve's passing.

I did not know Steve Jobs.  I never met him.  There would have been no reason for our paths to cross.

And I can't even say I entered the Mac world early on.  My first Apple computer was a laptop in 2002, after an old Dell system running on Windows ME died on me.  I figured, at the time, that I was starting from ground zero and I'd give the Apple Computer a fair shake.  It did all the stuff I wanted it to do.  I could do Word Processing.  I could publish a newsletter.  And I could get on the internet while traveling.  I purchased one.  I loved it.  I haven't looked back.

People who read this blog on occasion know that I admire the Apple philosophy, which is really a Steve Jobs philosophy.  It is a business model that never tried to be all things to all people but aimed for simplicity and user experience.  Where other companies (I'm looking at you, Microsoft) tried the shotgun approach, shooting at a large area, Apple tried to do just a few things well and have total control  Oftentimes this has been done by working in a "closed system."  So, if you purchased a song on iTunes, you'd find you couldn't play the song on other music players than your iPod.  And, if you had an Apple laptop and wanted to make a presentation, you had to purchase a special "dongle" to view your PowerPoint.  And, truly, I don't believe that the point was ever about forcing Apple users to purchase special equipment or to not play nice with other formats.  The point was always to have the best user experience.  Steve Jobs wanted to combine technology and artistic beauty and he wanted it to work.

Nowadays, people call this "the Apple ecosystem."  From music download to the computer it's downloaded to and then to the music player it's played on the experience was controlled.  It worked.

One of the things I admire about Steve Jobs was his ability to make things that were "magical."  After the original iPad was released, I waited a year to purchase the iPad 2.  Here was something that, on a very base level, I wanted to hold in my hands.  It was something so simple.  It was beautiful.  And, to top it off, it's something that I find very useful.  It was on this iPad 2 that I first read about Steve Jobs' death.

President Obama had this to say on news of the death:

The world has lost a visionary. And there may be no greater tribute to Steve’s success than the fact that much of the world learned of his passing on a device he invented. Michelle and I send our thoughts and prayers to Steve’s wife Laurene, his family, and all those who loved him.

Did you get that sentence there?   "There may be no greater tribute to Steve’s success than the fact that much of the world learned of his passing on a device he invented."  That was certainly true in our household.  My daughter read about it on a MacBook.  My son heard about on his iPod Touch.  I then read about it on my iPad. And now I write about it on my MacBook pro.  Isn't this a tribute to Mr. Jobs?

Over the last three years I've read just about all I can about Macs and Apple Computers.  I've done research on purchases.  I've drooled over the latest product.  I've followed the hype.  And I've read quotes from the man, Steve Jobs.  So it is not with just a little sadness that I learned of his passing today.  I didn't lose a friend.  However, I lost someone who has touched my life.  He made computers, indeed technology, personal to me.

For a long time I was baffled by what seemed like the silly Apple naming system.  There was the iMac, and the iBook and the iPod and the iPhone and the iPad.  I thought that the "i" was for internet.  But perhaps it really referred to "individual."  Steve Jobs and his company was making something for me.

So, rest in peace, Steve Jobs.  I pray peace for your family and the many persons who called you friend.  And I pray that someone in a garage is an innovator who has taken some inspiration from you to make the world a better place.  Some have called you our modern day "DaVinci" or "Einstein" or some other great thinker and visionary.

Whatever the case, your vision lives on for many of us who find a shiny piece of technology in our hands today that you helped bring into the world.

I am a self-professed "Apple Fanboy." I type this on a MacBook Pro. I have myself an iPad which I use throughout the day. My iPod Touch contains all my music and podcasts. And I pay attention to all of the media hype surrounding Apple products. I don't, however, have an iPhone.

Today, Apple will reveal it's next iPhone. iPhone 5 or iPhone 4S, whatever it is, will get a lot of media hype. What's so very cool is that Jimmy Kimmel's parking lot security guard has provided the scoop of some of the expected features. It has a real light saber and will be edible. Plus, a new boomerang feature will enable it to be thrown and come back to you. This will help with all the hunting I can do with it down in Australia.

Enjoy...

Image via Wikipedia
"When I went to school, it was right after the '60s and before this general wave of practical purposefulness had set in... The idealistic wind of the '60s was still at our backs, though, and most of the people I know who are my age have that engrained in them forever."

"It's in Apple's DNA that technology alone is not enough -- it's technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields us the result that makes our heart sing, and nowhere is that more true than in these post-PC devices."

"There's an old Wayne Gretzky quote that I love: 'I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.' And we've always tried to do that at Apple. Since the very, very beginning. And we always will."

"You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers."

"For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: 'If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?' And whenever the answer has been 'No' for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something."

"Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart."

"My job is to make the whole executive team good enough to be successors, so that's what I try to do."

"You can't just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they'll want something new."

"Be a yardstick of quality, some people aren't used to an environment where excellence is expected."

"I'm the only person I know that's lost a quarter of a billion dollars in one year.... It's very character-building."

"I'm as proud of what we don't do as I am of what we do."

"Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn't matter to me… Going to bed at night saying we've done something wonderful… that's what matters to me." via

Image via CrunchBase

via

David Hayward suggests that it doesn't take much for some folk, perhaps even having their "idol" leave their favorite company.

Image via WikipediaThis post really isn't about cults or Counting Crows although they both make an appearance.  It's really a post about ministry and pastoring and Girdwood Chapel and thinking ahead to the people who will follow you in ministerial leadership.

See, I was reading over at the Wall Street Journal an article entitled, "Disney, Walton, Ford, Gates: Tales of When Legends Leave."

(Yes, this has to do with Steve Jobs and the leaving of that "legend" from Apple...at least as the CEO of it.  I confess to reading a lot about his leaving over the last day or so.)

The article looks at what happened as legends left companies.  Walt Disney died.  Sam Walton died.  Henry Ford turned the company over to his son.  Bill Gates left after grooming a successor. It's no small task to take the ideas and ideals of a founder and take it into the future. And each of the companies that Disney, Walton, Ford, and Gates left behind had their struggles with new leadership. And, the guess is, Apple will have some struggles as well...no matter how much us "Apple Fan-Boys" talk about how Tim Cook has been effectively running the show for the last couple of years and how great the supporting team at Apple is. There will be challenges. It's hard to follow a popular act.

(It reminds me of the time some friends and I went to see the band Counting Crows way back in the early 90s at Chapel Hill, North Carolina. They hadn't yet made it big but we loved the music and were delighted that they would be opening up for another band, Cracker, at a small club. We got there early to get a good spot on the floor and thoroughly enjoyed Adam Duritz and company as they ran through hits like "'Round Here" and "Mr. Jones and Me." But when they were done and the headliner hit the stage, we were out the door. We were just there for the opening act.)

In the article, however, there is a quote that caught my eye. It's from Harvard Business School professor Rakesh Khurana who has, apparently, "written extensively about CEO succession."  The quote of note says:

"The difference between a cult and a religion is that one outlasts the founder."

Whoa...  My mind flitted from the Waco cult to Jim Jones to the religious staying power of a John Wesley or St. Benedict.  What kept Wesley and Benedict from just being footnotes in history to being founders of religious orders still around to this day and still doing good work in the world?

But, then I realized this is a word for all of us clergy-folk...particularly those of us who are building churches or starting ministries or casting vision.  Is the stuff we're involved in...the good stuff...the holy stuff...going to have a life beyond our time in our present appointments?  What will happen to the church buildings, the small groups, the discipleship plans, the missions trips?  Granted, some things are merely for a season and will fade away almost by design.  But will our ministries have "staying power?" 

This is a struggle for those of us here at Girdwood Chapel and, in particular, me as pastor.  At this point in time I have no plans of leaving.  But I know that if there hasn't been a congregational "buy-in" for things like "Cookie Flinging" and "Love God. Love others. Change the world" and "communion every week" and our informal worship and the presence of kids in worship... If this hasn't become part of the proverbial "DNA" of the congregation, then it just might leave whenever I leave...or whenever some key leaders leave.  Will the congregation have to start over at ground zero? 

I am not the "founder" of Girdwood Chapel.  I came onto the scene some 50 years after that.  But, still, I don't want the mission and ministries and vision that we've worked on together over the last 11 years to end whenever my tenure ends--whether it's a year or two or ten from now.  I don't believe they've been "me-dependent."  And, if you're a pastor or church leader serving, working, planting, dreaming somewhere, I'm sure you don't want that as well.  You see yourself working on a playing field of time and space and mission that reaches beyond who you are.  It's not your mission.  It's God's.  Or at least you hope it is.  Therefore, you don't want it to remain unchanged and stagnant as it stretches into the future, but you don't want it to end as new leadership steps in.  You want what you do to be bigger than who you are.

This got me thinking.  Thinking can be dangerous at times.

• What can I do, right now, to ensure that God's good work in this place has some staying power? 
• What can I do to make sure that the ministry of this place is far more than what I have to offer or my personality or my pet projects? 
• What plan of succession do we church folk need to have in mind?
• Or, what can we learn from how Disney, and Ford, and Wal-Mart, and Microsoft and (now) Apple have tried to live beyond their leaders?

Still thinking...

Oh, and here's a little Counting Crows for you.  Round Here.

Image via CrunchBaseFrom Eric Savitz at Forbes Magazine:

Steve is one of a kind, our generation’s Thomas Edison and Henry Ford rolled into one. He has changed the world in too many ways to recount here. And with his decision to step away from the company’s day-to-day operations, investors will once again face the question about how the company will fare without him leading the charge...

Apple is going to be fine. Tim Cook is not Steve Jobs, but he is a talented, highly respected executive who has been running Apple’s day-to-day operations for years. And Cook is not running the show alone. Apple has a deep bench, including superstars like industrial designer Jonathan Ive, marketing guru Phil Schiller and iPhone software specialist Scott Forstall...

Think Apple is done changing the world? Think different.

From The Anchorage Daily News:

APPLE FANBOYS OF ALASKA, UNITE!

And, no, it's not real.  It's "magic."

Actual architectural drawing of the proposed new headquarters for Apple in Cupertino.  The plans were introduced to a city council meeting June 7th.

(HT/Engadget)

(HT/Make Use Of)

Image by marcopako  via FlickrI'm sort of an Apple fanboy.  I admit it.  I type this on my MacBook Pro.  I have my iPod in my pocket.  I'm a new user of an iPad.  We have a PC, too.  I'm comfortable on Microsoft products.  But, I really like the Mac stuff.  It just seems to make sense to me.  I know others have different experiences, but this is mine.  I switched to Mac about 8 years ago after a Dell laptop went dead with a motherboard problem and I was struggling with Windows ME -- which was a waste of an operating system.  I thought I'd give Apple "a fair shake" and haven't looked back.

One of the things I've bee interested in is the very different business model that Apple plays by.  I'm sure they've wanted a bigger piece of the PC pie.  But, even at 5-7% or whatever it is, they've made their money and they've made their fans.

But I've been amazed at how they've functioned.  In my PC days it was always a matter of getting faster, bigger, more powerful hardware.  And it was cool.  And, while it's still cool to get faster, bigger, more powerful hardware on the Mac, they've been much more holistic in their approach, looking at the total experience.  Perhaps it can be analogous to bigger, more powerful churches not necessarily providing the best experiences.

I read an article yesterday that furthered my thinking on this.  It's from Eric Jackson from Forbes Magazine.  It's called "Apple Doesn't Have an iPad Strategy, It Has A Post-PC Strategy."

Here are some select quotes:

We are looking at the forest instead of the trees when it comes to the current tablet wars between Apple, Google’s Android platforms like Motorola Xoom and Samsung’s Galaxy and Research in Motion’s soon-to-ship PlayBook.

Apple doesn’t look at their businesses through separate product groups.  They don’t have an iPhone strategy conceived of by people who never talk to the iPad corporate strategy people.  Take a step back and look at the forest: Apple is following a Post-PC Strategy.

Apple used the term “Post-PC” at least a dozen times in its most recent iPad keynote last month.  Apple doesn’t just slip words and phrases in its corporate messaging at random.  They are always deliberate.

So what is their Post-PC Strategy?  It is an iOS strategy.  They want to be the dominant operating system through your life – at home and on the move.  That sounds a little geeky but it means that they want you to be so delighted with your experience on the iPhone’s operating system that you want that same experience on your tablet.  After you are satisfied with that experience, you start to wonder why you are still using a PC versus a Mac or MacBook Air as your “desktop computer.”  And then that will extend to your television.

So, could this be telling us something about a "POST-CHURCH" World?  Are we, perhaps, putting too much energy on failed systems or, perhaps, missing out on the holistic view of faith?

Maybe....

So...I sat with that for a while.

And then here comes a video by George Bullard of the North American Baptist Fellowship with a very solemn look at the decline of denominations.  I thought this was really good and made me scared and excited at the same time.



Well...

So....

Are we looking towards a post-church, post-denominational world out there?

If so, what can we learn and do?

Looking at Apple, what is the iOS, the operating system, the building blocks of faith that we need to be building across platforms?

What does a missional outlook on ministry mean to this?

(I realize I say this as pastor of a church with a new building, within a denomination that has been declining in the US.)