Gizmodo
7:15 The show is about to start, and I've got major butterflies. Fingers don't fail me.
7:19: No one's on stage, but there's a video on screen, of the Macintosh dating game. The year is 1983, and Microsoft needs Apple to make half its revenue. Jobs is introducing Bill, and Bill has scripted lovely things to say about Apple. It's stable. It's wonderful. He loves it.
Fast-forward to the year 2007, at All Things D. Jobs and Gates are about to appear, and Mossberg and Swisher are about to grill them. I'm convinced, after the earlier sessions, that Mossberg has the strength of 10 bulls, and the wit of 100 elephants. Cyborg elephants. They are going to get these guys talking. And maybe fighting.
The second video shows Jobs at the 1997 Keynote, announcing the reestablished relationship with Microsoft.
They both look like Goobers. God, I'm glad no one has '80s footage of me.
The first comments are happening, and they're all softballs. Jobs is kissing up, saying Gates started the first software company, and was ahead of everyone in that regard. Now the potshots, right? RIGHT? Shoryuken?
Wrong. Gates is saying that Jobs was a stud for taking a risk on the Mac. And that he respects that. OK, where are the body blows? Killing with kindness?
He does deny being Fake Steve. Please. No one suspected you had the style to write like Fake Steve, Bill. No one.
Now they're thinking about the old days. Remember the disk drive and the 128KB of RAM?
Mossberg remembers the time when only thousands had found the Mac. And when the Apple ][ had Microsoft software inside. Remember the Alltair? Me? I can't imagine the punchcards. I'm too young.
7:34 Gates is telling the story of how they started working together, totally geeking out. And then Jobs CUTS him off. "Let me tell the story." [You shmuck.] Basically, Jobs needed Gates' floating point BASIC. And gates thought it was a BLAST delivering the data on tapes.
Steve thought his PC was going to be cheaper...Gates is laughing while saying this..."but it was mine."
(I see why he's laughing! Money!)
Gates is moving a lot. He's twitching his left foot. Jobs is moving his left foot. They cross their legs the same. Like ladies, kind of. But in opposite directions. I'm only writing this, because they're talking about how much memory the old computers had again. 28k? 128k? This is like when you try to get Pokemon to battle, but they don't listen to you.
Steve and I launched Excel together in NY. That was fun.
Apple didn't differentiate their product. When Steve wasn't there, things were slower.
Steve J
Bill Amelio had a saying. Apple was a ship with the hole in the bottom, and my job was to point it in the right direction.
Mossberg doesn't want to go through the whole history. Jobs thanks him.
7:40 Apple was in very serious trouble, and if the game was a zero sum game, then Apple was going to lose. But a lot of people's heads were in that place.
Jobs:
Apple wasn't going to beat Microsoft. It didn't need to. It needed to remember that Apple was Apple. And Microsoft was the biggest developer for the Mac at that time. It was crazy.
Swisher lobs a feeler. Do you consider yourself rivals? She likes PC guy better.
The art of those guys is not to be mean, but for them to like each other.
Aw...huggles.
7:44 Mossy fires the right hand for a second taunt: How often is Apple on radar as a target? (Since Apple is tiny.)
Zune thinks Apple is a competitor. And Jobs fires back that he loves Zune team because they're all competitors. Here we go.
Steve is Soooo known for his restraint(Gates rolls eyes.)
Mossberg and Swisher are still pushing. Do you follow Vista?
Jobs repeats his software mantra....hypnotically: An iPod is software. Beautiful box, but it's software. A Mac is OS X. A Mac isn't going to take over 80% of the market. But Apple is a software company. And there aren't a lot of them left. Microsoft is one of them.
Mossberg breaks in to go back to his last blog post, from nearly three weeks ago. Software and hardware lines are blogging. Jobs responds with a quote from someone.
People who love software want to do their own hardware.
Bill says naaah aaaah, he can resist. He sounds almost afraid of that. So really, what's going on with Zune and Xbox? That doesn't sound very confident.
Moss: Could you have more marketshare? (Basically, Mossberg is asking him if he's ashamed of the marketshare, and if he has any regrets.)
Personally, I find it absurd that the marketshare is so low. Seriously. It confuses the hell out of me. It's like watching people fight to be in the Matrix.
Gates helps him save face, reminding him of the inverse positions in the music player market. More hugs.
"Let's talk about today, before tomorrow." Swisher directs Jobs towards addressing reality. Ladies and gents, she just shut down the Reality Distortion Field. Totally cockblocked.
Mossberg:
You guys represent the rich client, the personal computer. And the room might agree that this is all going to the cloud. Maybe one of you would think about you two as rivals, but maybe as...
Jobs:
Dinosaurs?
7:56 Gates: "
You're always going to have rich local usability. Use the richness with the richness that is elsewhere.
Is he bragging about how much money he has?
7:57: Jobs talking about Google maps, and how much he loves it. But that his iPhone client is way better than the computer version that Google had. Jobs:
And you can run a rich client on a lower and lower devices.
Mossberg:
You use a tablet(to Bill)?
Gates:
Yes. This is like Windows 1992. It has yet to take off....I think.
8:03 Gates starts swings his arms around. A lot. he's explaining what his ecosystem of devices would look like. It's totally confusing. He's talking about projectors everywhere, and devices. And he's confusing everyone.
Jobs basically feels, quite simply, that the PC will continue to be with us, as it morphs. Into the post PC era.
Gates is talking about scrolls in pocket devices.
8:08 Mossberg:
What will be on the pocket device of the future?
Jobs:
I don't know. Five years ago, I wouldn't have predicted maps.
Jobs:
There's a zillion interesting things going on. The most interesting things are the new services. Things that help you navigate through life more easily. I think you'll see more of that in the next year or two.
YES!. Mossberg is taking a shot at .Mac. He thinks it could have been utilized more. And Steve agrees, and promises to be doing more in the near future, make up for lost time.
And now he's taking Gates to task for not advancing Live Anywhere. Gates nods.
And Mossberg delivers a follow-up question. After all the cloud talk, he asks if he thinks the hardware guys are going to lose to the service clouds, with 10 employees, who are starting like those two are started.
Gates justifies his position. Jobs repeats the message from before. That Apple is just Apple. They'll focus on their thang. And partner with the new people who are good at what they do.
BTW, rich tech geniuses do lots of weird things with their hands as they talk. Like Italian mamas.
8:15 Gates:
We're not an entertainment company.
8:16 Mossberg is asking about Apple's role in entertainment, Disney stuff aside.
8:17 Jobs replies that it'll be a driving force, but I'm not sure that's a different answer than Microsoft. Look at Xbox's Marketplace, which is pretty damn nice.
Mossberg is building up for a big question. The build up suggests that there's a really hard question at this. "Is there a new paradigm for the personal computer?" HA! That's what I asked Bill at CES. He said no then. Now let's see what he says. He's talking about 3D, and books in a library. I'm lost. He's getting lost in the nuts. He didn't flat-out say no. Actually, I'm not sure what he said.
Mossberg pulls us back to reality with a firm question about multitouch. Will we see it in laptops?
Now he's talking about cameras everywhere. And playing tennis...
Mossberg jumps in, pulls him back to firm ground again. He's speaking at length to clear Gates' buffer.
Gates is going off about ink. 3D. Vision.
I'm going to stop typing until the thoughts are clear....give it five minutes.
I think Jobs has been meditating while Gates was rattling off a bunch of unintegrated random tech.
He's there, with both hands together. Speaking slowly, clearly.
They don't want a car with six wheels. They want to drive with a steering wheel. Not a joystick. Sometimes you have to augment, sometimes to have to rethink. It'll happen with these post-PC devices.
Swisher: What's the greatest misunderstanding about your relationship?
Jobs:
We've kept our marriage secret for over a decade.
I pee myself.
Gates is going off again, but I think he means to say that it's nice that Jobs has been around as long as he has. And has the guts to take the risk to do something new.
Jobs:
When Bill and I worked together in the early days, generally, we were the youngest guys in the room. I'm about six months older. And now we're the oldest, generally. Which is why I love being here.[With mossberg]
Jobs
To quote the Beatles, You and I have memories longer than the road that stretches out ahead, and that's definitely true here.
Standing ovation for Jobs. Nice grab and use of the Beatles quote. I wonder if he's allowed to use those lyrics, legally. I wish I could clap, because I'm moved, but I'm typing. A lot.
Question session is here.
Sony pictures guy, ready to serve up a self-interested question, I'm sure.
My life has been better by fewer standards...can we simplify the standards and systems in life, things can be better.
A fucking Sony Pictures guy just said that! Jobs replied that he and Bill can agree that they'll be happy if there's only two making standards, jokingly.
Gates notes that the industry is good at making standards and then weeding out the old ones.
There's a good question about legacy: Could Gates' philanthropy work dwarf his Microsoft work?
Gates: Software is my life's work.
My brain is filled with software.
To Jobs: Do you envy his second act?
Jobs
I think the world is a better place for him not working to be the richest guy in the cemetery.
Jobs
We're the luckiest guys in the planet, and we found what we love to do, and were in the right place at the right time. It's hard to beat that. Your family and that. I don't think about legacy much.
8:38 Advice to the people starting out in business?
Gates:
The excitement wasn't driven by economic value. We didn't think we'd have to be a big company to be in every house. We thought about every doubling as the last.
Jobs: You have to love it. And you have to be a good talent scout.
What did you learn about starting your own business that you saw in the other guy?
Gates:
I wish I had Steve's taste. In people and product. It's magical. In that case. Wow.
Jobs:
Because Woz and I started the company by doing the whole banana, we weren't good at partnering. Microsoft was one of the few who was good at that.
Jobs is talking about the senior citizens and their Macs, because of the iSights.
This question is being done by the Simpson's comic book guy.
"We all share our science fiction roots, the metaverse, etc. What will we see in the next five years?"
Gates:
Steve is going to introduce his transporter.
Jobs:
Just give me Star TrekGates: [To paraphase, he sees a lot of little interesting UI hacks. Honestly, I tuned out.]
Jobs:
I don't know what we'll see. And that's why I'm so excited to go to work every day.
Finish.
All Things D at Giz [Gizmodo]
Comments
im excited!
how about a live gizmodo video podcast?..
Heh, that would be awesome, for a live Ustream of the show...
*cough hack wheeze*
Man, all I know is this better be a battle of product releases. It's the only way we can all win. Gates will detail the Zune Phone, Xbox portable and and the next 15 verison of Windows. Jobs will announce firm dates, UMPC (wait no UMPM, or UMMM, whatever), 6th Gen iPod. After that all hell breaks loose. Everything we purchase for the next milennia will be Microsoft or Apple. Nations will be divided, natural resources will be taking control of by each company. Then: the final showdown. The real war. In the year 2145, we will see who wins. Mac vs PC. Zune vs iPod. RoboGates vs ZombieJobs. Hmm, maybe we all lose. It's like time travel. You can't meet yourself or you risk blowing up time, and Jobs/Gates shouldn't be allowed to debate. It will lead to the great fanboi wars.
let's see some blood!
Oy. MITS Altair 680b. You see, kids, there used to be this thing called paper tape. The tape had holes in it; a hole was a binary "1"... that was when ASCII only went from 0 to 127...
Actually one thing I remember about the Apple ][ spec was that it featured the 8K Microsoft BASIC-In-ROM, which was kind of the gold standard at the time... I rememeber thinking, hmmm, this Microsoft BASIC is everywhere, will probably be a good company to invest in someday....
[author slaps forehead]
lmao @ thechansen
that would make a brilliant movie! I would love a portable xbox 360 also. Damn you! You've got me all excited about something that doesn't exist! :(
shit this is turning in to a snide comment making hug-fest. One of them needs to pull a gun or a knife or something...
@ Bunny_rabid, Hahahaha. An old timer in our midst, eh? Don't feel too bad. I remember getting a Commodore 128 and thinking it was badass.
I hate the nicey-nice company reps play in these things. I want to see REAL conversation. I want to see formulated arguments.
Bah.
I wouldn't be surprised if they ripped of each others clothes and started going at it like bunnies, right there. They should have given them a stun gun each to liven things up.
Lets see them put on their sumo suits and bash it out in a ring.
I was writing about MS and Apple... and the comments was becoming too long, dangerous and nice, I decided to save for some better time.
Anyways, I really think Jobs really have to be careful... there are more and more people who sees his evil sides... I guess Apple has been loved too much.
Ha ha... Shoryuken! Love it. So what's this about again?
[bikini'd ring girl walks across stage, holding up sign reading "ROUND TWO"]
COSELL: Well we haven't seen much puglistic activity yet from these two heavyweights. They're still feeling each other out, holding onto each other before being pushed apart by referee Mossberg. One is reminded of the first indecisive rounds of Sonny Liston vs. a young Cassius Clay, during their first meeting in 1964....
Thanks for that. Maybe you could put up a recording (video or audio) of it; that would be nice...
I wish FSJ was there. Then at least this would be... I don't know... interesting?
COSELL: And Gates comes out of the clench, swinging his arms wildly, but not connecting... the old rope-a-dope we've seen from him before, hoping to exhaust his opponent... Jobs appears confused but is holding his own...
COSELL: And Jobs, he's doing something weird with his hands now, almost mimicking Gates... neither of them landing any punches... a lot of heat up there in the ring, but no light, ladies and gentlemen....
I dunno about this but I'm just going to wait it out. Go to the bar, get some drinks. I betting on Jobs, not because I'm huge Apple nut (which I am) but I think he's a better public speaker. Plus I wanna actually watch the video and see some tension.
COSELL: And now they're -- ladies and gentlemen, I've never seen anything like this in my career as a sportscaster -- Gates and Jobs are hugging each other, quite affectionately now, it's clear there is no animosity between them. The crowd is growing restive, booing now, this isn't the fight they paid to see... Ringside, Manager Ballmer is beside himself, he's apopletic with fury, ladies and gentlemen, throwing down a towel now and yelling at the referee to stop the match...
Oh no, one of the rikishi is bouncing all over the place ... trying to pull the wedgie out while all watch in shock! Jobs is doing some sumo squats.
No no , they're not hugging, Jobs is trying to get some leverage and throw Bill down. It's what great sumos do ... I think.
ROFL, Then Gates & Jobs give eachother a high five and jump into the crowd and begin to whip the piss out of everyone
god damn Brian please just report what they are saying? put the bias on the next reports im trying to get a real idea of whats going on.
lol @ the sony guy
So, It's over?
Well that sucked.
@ xanderjanz: Seriously. The Giz wit is great sometimes, but totally gets in the way in situations like this. Please, Brian, please.
COSELL: Jobs has addressed the audience, has said that he and Gates are the luckiest guys on the planet. The audience is in stunned silence now, they hadn't expected that kind of elegiac eloquence from a man best known for his lightning uppercut. Here and there in the audience you can see people wiping tears from the corners of the eyes. This is truly a momentous occasion in the history of boxing, ladies and gentlemen. I daresay there isn't a dry eye in the house.
Perhaps the ultimate victory in competition is derived from the inner satisfaction of knowing that you have done your best and that you have gotten the most out of what you had to give. I'm just telling it like it is. Ladies and gentlemen, from ringside here at D Now, this is Howard Cosell for Gizmodo Sports. Goodnight.
Steve Jobs (to Bill Gates) 1997, "I, for one, welcome our new Microsoft Overlords."
Steve Jobs 2007, "Psych! All your media are belong to us!"
--
Bill Gates (to Steve Jobs) 1997, "Resistance is futile."
Bill Gates 2007, "Why, you slimy, double-crossing, no-good swindler!"
Get otta here
Yeah I'm going to have to watch the stream of this. Sorry Brian but reading that jumble of thoughts made it almost impossible to read.
See guys, Gates is pretty human.
I think they have their own inside joke that Microsoft vs. Apple is a non-issue to them, and the rivalry's just a big deal the millions and millions of fanboys on either side.
This was great .... thanks for adding humor to my evening Brian. Here I thought I was in for another boring evening. I guess the sumo match was fixed but great reporting.
"8:03 Gates starts swings his arms around. A lot. he's explaining what his ecosystem of devices would look like. It's totally confusing. He's talking about projectors everywhere, and devices. And he's confusing everyone."
Who is Gates trying to fool? ... with his new "Surface," he's going to make it easier to track anyone and anything. Anyone ever see the movie Antitrust? Haha .. reminds me what Mr. Robin Williams said in his "Live on Broadway" Skit :
"And now we have Mr. Gates .. In Gates We Trust" .. Mr. Gates, when did you realize you created a monopoly? "Monopoloy sentaor.. hell I'm trying to run the f*cking World! Now its IT, Information Technology. Soon, it will be Total information Technology, TIT .. and when we have you by the TIT, you'll be sucking on the motherboard!"
These guys are so freakin' rich, they belong to the EXACT SAME F***ING CLUB, of COURSE they're gonna be polite to each other and lick each other's asses. What they forget is that ass licking is a very effective way to transmit parasites. I expect both men to become sick and thinly fairly soon. Oh, dammit, how will we know when they start looking sick and thinly?
Three cheers, bunny, from another one of the few here old enough to remember How-ard Co-sell.
Love the marriage comment. I like a CEO with a sense of humor... and vision.
Geek fight Geek fight!!! lol
Well Steve, you were good tonight... But sadly my reality has been shattered. I came expecting blood, tears, and other questionable bodily fluids. What I left with:
a) Despite OS wars, fanboys, and you two being the only game in town (wah linux wah) proof that you and Mr. Gates really do thrive off each others competition is great.
b) Your competition leaves us with two computing platforms, while both have their flaws, and this is a good thing. It brings innovation to the table (and I'm sure Microsoft enjoys not having the M word thrown around since Apples rise in popularity).
c) Your professional-ism towards one another was commendable.
With all that said, I was very disappointed with the fact you were not packing heat. Next time I see you and Billy it better be in a Battle Royale situation. One isolated island, you, Gates, Linus, that D-bag from Dell, that Highlander fucker from Sony, and pure mayhem for 72 hours. Last man standing wins (you're the only one with Reality Distortion, you got this in the bag). Mossy, make it happen for D6. Big Ups to you Jobs, now where's my iPhone?
2 of 7 clips of this video are now online at all things D http://d5.allthingsd.com/
Oh, that tears it. I have been slowly losing interest in this site for some time, but this "coverage" of this event just proves that there is no point in coming here. I just finished watching the video, and this was a very interesting discussion, however this writer was so interested in cramming as many "Bill Gates flaps his lips while he raves like a lunatic" type comments that he didn't actually get around to reporting on anything.
I know you are all excited to find out Steve Jobs reads your site and all, but that is no excuse to completely shirk your duties as a reporter in favor of bashing Bill Gates. He talked about a lot of very interesting technological innovations, in fact most of the interview was him talking about his vision of the next 10 years of computing while the moderators made fun of Jobs for answering every question by saying that they were doing exciting things he couldn't talk about. However, you wrote them all off as being "confusing" or just Gates "going off."
What a waste of time to read.
Yeah Brian was all fresh from his climax-inducing meeting with his hero.
That's bound to shake up your compass a bit.
The problem created by Jobs telling whoever that he reads this site 3 or 4 times a day is that from now on everything that is written here is going to be written with the expectation that Jobs is going to read it. If they aren't careful they could destroy this site with an obvious bias.
Now, I'm an Apple fanboy, but there are enough Apple fanboy sites out there, and I read Gizmodo to get the news(?) about things that are not Apple.
Nothing wrong with showing how much you like Apple/Jobs, just try to maintain some perspective, ya know?
It bears repeating.
Why on earth do you guys want blood anyway? They are a couple of business men, who seem to be damn good at what they do... and rich enough to risk trying something new. We supply the cat fights and blood letting in the Zune vs. iPod vs. *other* posts. They just make the stuff. Come on, were we really expecting them to slap each other about the way we do here?
Don't get me wrong, it would have been cool and Gates would have won... but does it really matter?
Hey Brian, the guy's name is Gil Amelio, not Bill.
Really really bad post for all kinds of reasons.
shape up guys we don't need this, change or we're gone.
What the hell was that?
As far as i'm concerned Engadget gave a far better balanced liveblogging and i fully commend them.
2 months ago i decided to try out gizmodo as part of my daily tech staple and ever since i've been greatly disappointed. Today is the final straw and Kotaku will be my only Gawker Media website.
So, i do hope your quality improves for your sake, and you can truly be a tech blog with integrity. You have many mac fans to keep you afloat for a while, but i'm sure the more sane amongst them will jump ship.
Good bye.
In fact, your UK counterpart is much better.
These comments crack me up. Also, BIll Gates makes me chuckle on the inside. Steve Jobs makes me chuckle on the outside.
True story.
That really sucked! Good job Bunny, your comments kept me interested more than the post. So when is Bill and Stevie getting married?
Worst piece of "journalism" I have ever read.