Steve Jobs Responds to Rumors

Apple has published a letter today from Apple CEO Steve Jobs that addresses speculation surrounding his health. Steve Jobs reveals that he has been recovering from a hormone imbalance that has been causing an unhealthy weight loss.

Dear Apple Community,

For the first time in a decade, I'm getting to spend the holiday season with my family, rather than intensely preparing for a Macworld keynote.

Unfortunately, my decision to have Phil deliver the Macworld keynote set off another flurry of rumors about my health, with some even publishing stories of me on my deathbed.

I've decided to share something very personal with the Apple community so that we can all relax and enjoy the show tomorrow.

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.

The remedy for this nutritional problem is relatively simple and straightforward, and I've already begun treatment. But, just like I didn’t lose this much weight and body mass in a week or a month, my doctors expect it will take me until late this Spring to regain it. I will continue as Apple's CEO during my recovery.

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.

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

Steve


Apple's board of directors also distributed the following statement:
It is widely recognized both inside and outside of Apple that Steve Jobs is one of the most talented and effective CEOs in the world.

As we have said before, if there ever comes a day when Steve wants to retire or for other reasons cannot continue to fulfill his duties as Apple's CEO, you will know it.

Apple is very lucky to have Steve as its leader and CEO, and he deserves our complete and unwavering support during his recuperation. He most certainly has that from Apple and its Board.

Apple does it again

Oh come on, like you are surprised. Steve Jobs has done it again. This time in two big tech announcements at MacWorld. (Ok there were several, but these are the two that got me tweaked). The first is, the new Apple Mac Air (not to be confused with Adobe Air). This has taken the laptop and really pushed the envelope. Speaking of envelope, lets start with that. This thing is so small (0.75" x 14") that it can fit inside an envelope. It weighs 3 lbs. and has the latest in wireless tech. It has a battery with 5 hours of life. The processor is as thin as a dime and as big as a nickel, but it runs at 1.8 ghz! The display is a 13.3" LCD which means less power and instant on. The ports are retractable on the side which is a great space saver and makes this look really sleek. Heres the best part - it starts at only $1800.00.

I can go on and on and geek out til my fingers go numb, but you can check it out for yourself, including the great commercial at Apple's website. This is going to really spark some great competition with other manufacturers and I am looking forward to seeing someone try to top this.

The next item stems from user complaints. The great Time Machine feature in Leopard is handy when you work on a tower and have a hard drive handy to plug in when needed. However, laptop users, like myself, found it cumbersome to drag around an external to run backups when working on-site. Now Apple has given us an answer. And it is called Time Capsule.

Time Capsule works in conjunction with Time Machine allowing you to make wireless backups. The key to this is the wireless 500GB or 1TB hard drive. Time Capsule can synch, back up and store files for each Leopard-based Mac on your wireless network.

Time Capsule can also be used as your wireless hub since it has a full-featured 802.11n Wi-Fi base station built right in. No need to go out and buy an Airport Base. You can find out more at Apple's website. Time Capsule retails at $299 for the 500GB model or $499 for a 1TB hard drive. Both will be shipping in two weeks.

I get the impression after watching the MacWorld Keynote, that these two items will really become the next gen benchmark for other tech. Now I just have to save up so I can go out and buy all of these toys!!

Happy Birthday Adobe (and Fritz)!

So not only is today the birthday of James Fritz, one of our Rockstar instructors, but it also marks the 25th anniversary of Adobe Systems, Inc. 25 years ago, John Warnock and Chuck Geschke left Xerox to pursue a new computer system that would incorporate graphics and text into printable pages called Interpress. Interpress and another program called JaM would evolve into the Adobe Postscript language we have all used in our graphics applications today. This was the launching point for the desktop revolution.

Think of it, without the foresight of these two scientist/ mathematicians, we would not have the great applications that are industry standards today. Its hard to believe that in 1988 was the first version of Adobe Illustrator, and three years later, in 1991, Adobe Photoshop was launched. (Makes you feel old doesn't it?)

So Happy Anniversary Adobe! Click the links below to see great video and interactive material from Adobe Systems, Inc. on their silver anniversary!

Kevin

History of Adobe Interactive Timeline
Adobe: 25 Years of Magic Newsletter
Adobe 25 Years of Innovation Video

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