The offer could potentially mean Samsung wants to absorb and/or eliminating SanDisk's brand and distinct products altogether. Even though this was a seriously nice offer given SanDisk's crappy stock performance of late, the company told Samsung to eff off, calling it an "opportunistic attempt" to pick up SanDisk while it's down. Samsung says that SanDisk "continues to cling to unrealistic expectations." Tell me, why does this intended corporate marriage sound so much like my parents' divorce? [WSJ]

Click the headline once and you see a paragraph summary—click again to read the whole article, which only takes 10 secs to load on EDGE. And you can save stories for subway or air reading. No word on an iPhone version specifically, but the Journal told us that the reader is "currently in development" for "other smartphone platforms." It makes sense to hit BlackBerry first since that's what the suit-and-tie, richer-than-you crowd—the WSJ's audience—are toting by and large. If you've got a BlackBerry, there's no reason to not grab this. If you don't read the Journal, try it, it'll make you smarter (maybe not the editorial pages, but the rest of it will). [WSJ via Silicon Alley Insider]

If you need more gritty and less nitty, check out Chen's rundown of the reviews. Or, if you have some spare time, read the Three Amigos' own unexpurgated scribblings. [USA Today, WSJ/AllThingsD, NYT]

Walt Mossberg of the WSJ has been testing it "for a couple of weeks" and sees that surfing on the faster 3G is between three and five times the speed of the original iPhone. However, Moss found that browsing on the 3G network drained his battery much faster than browsing on the original. Externally, he says the speaker was "much louder" (YES!) for both music and speakerphone, but otherwise pretty much the same as the original. One bug/feature he ran into was that you can only sync your calendar and contacts with either Exchange or your personal accounts, not both.

In Mossberg's own battery tests, he got 4 hours and 27 minutes (short of 5 hours) of talk time, which is three hours less than his test on the original iPhone. Using 3G, he got 5 hours and 49 minutes, which is slightly better than Apple's own claim. He couldn't test any apps on his iPhone 3G, but did on his old iPhone—they worked pretty much as advertised. He concludes with pretty much what we've all known: it's slightly more expensive on AT&T due to the higher price plan, but satisfies people who really need that 3G speed. What's weird is that Mossberg didn't test the GPS functionality at all, so we're left wondering how that is. [All Things D]

Ed Baig of USA Today also tested the iPhone 3G and claims both that it was worth the wait, but still not perfect. His complaints of the first one—no video capture, no Bluetooth stereo and no voice dialing—are still there. Also, AT&T's 3G coverage was nonexistent in his New Jersey home, which kinda negates the whole "iPhone 3G" thing. He notes that the new plastic backing helps reception, and the new flush headphone jack is "a welcome development." Unlike Mossberg, Baig does have something to note on the GPS. He says he was quite impressed by its accuracy when searching for pizza places while driving, and hopes that there will be a third-party add-on for turn-by-turn live directions.

Baig also says that the speaker is improved, but notes strangely that you can't directly charge the new iPhone 3G in some old accessories, such as a Bose SoundDock or a Belkin car kit. There's actually an adapter coming that will enable charging on those. Weird. He finishes up with his wishes for the next generation: Flash, Java and WMV support, removable battery and an expandable memory slot. All in all, a pretty positive review. [USA Today]

David Pogue of the NYT says that the audio quality is much improved, and notes that both incoming and outgoing sound is better than before. "In fact, few cellphones sound this good." The curved back makes the phone feel better in your hand, which is a definite plus. However, he says, the missing "standard cellphone features" from the first generation are also missing from this one. He hopes that the third-party Apps from the iPhone App Store will help fill in the gaps, but some of the ones we've seen—finding parking spots, free phone calls at Wi-Fi hotspots, random restaurant recommender, expense tracker, Etch-a-Sketch and tip calculator—don't exactly make up for the missing MMS, video recording and cut and paste features. Pogue also noticed the GPS does not support turn-by-turn navigation.

Pogue doesn't have much else in the way of benchmarks or impressions, but comes off seeming like he really likes the phone because of the iPhone 2.0 software; something old iPhone owners will be able to get for free. [NYT]

Notes: We have to say that Mossberg's review was the best in terms of completeness (save for the GPS omission). Normally, Newsweek would have a review up for the iPhone along with these three guys, but both they and Wired don't have an early review. This, we think, is because Steven Levy (the old Newsweek guy) at Wired, and Fake Steve Jobs (who hasn't quite started at Newsweek) didn't get the nod from Apple. We had our own hands on with the phone back at WWDC, which covers a lot of the exterior hardware elements as well as some of the software details.

Things became so bitter that, on one occasion, Mr. Gates stormed out of a meeting in a huff after a shouting match in which Mr. Ballmer jumped to the defense of several colleagues, according to an individual present at the time. After the exchange, Mr. Ballmer seemed "remorseful," the person said.

Gradually, Mr. Ballmer made his imprint. He restructured the company to give more decision-making power to executives, and elevated people with general management experience into positions previously held by technology-focused executives. He also worked to settle Microsoft's many lawsuits, taking a more conciliatory line than Mr. Gates typically had, Microsoft executives say.

Once Mr. Gates leaves, "I'm not going to need him for anything. That's the principle," Mr. Ballmer says. "Use him, yes, need him, no."

[WSJ]

It took already captured images of my friends' faces and turned their frowns or ambivalent looks into smiles, but didn't adjust the subjects' eyes. Though this was good for laughs, the eerie-looking grins pasted on faces reminded me of painted-on clowns' mouths. And some attempts to retouch a face couldn't detect the face to alter it. But a handful of the Happy Face Retouches looked somewhat natural.

While most of the additional material covered in the reviews is basically factual stuff that you've already been agonizing over for a week or more, they're all decent reads if you have the time.

• Pogue's preview-review from 1/17 New York Times

• Ed Baig's story in USA Today

• Steven Levy's piece from Newsweek's website

• Walt Mossberg's review from Wall Street Journal and allthingd.com

Of course, if you don't have the time for those, pop over to Chen's superfast big-shot review summary and then, well, get about your business. [All About MacBook Air]

USA Today: USA Today's Ed Baig summarizes with this verdict: "Given the compromises, I don't expect anyone to use Air as their only computer. But it is a yummy machine for people who spend a lot of time traveling." Going more in depth, he lauds the Air's thinness, and revels at the little things like the magnetic latch and the backlit LED display. The worst part? He got more than an hour less than Apple's rated battery life.

Baig also notes that this is the weakest Core 2 Duo in the entire Mac lineup, which means you won't be using this for video editing. He knocks points off for the sacrifices, such as the internal optical drive, the scant 80GB hard disk space, the one USB port, lack of FireWire, and the average battery life. Apple rated it at 5 hours, but he only got three hours and 40 minutes just surfing the web, using Remote Disc and writing. It only lasted two hours and 40 minutes when watching a movie. Verdict: Not for everyone (mostly travelers), and definitely not a main computer. [USA Today]

Newsweek: Steven Levy at Newsweek compares the Macbook Air's thinness to ritualistic circumcision, noting that they sliced off just enough to make it meaty, yet super thin. Thin enough for him to spend a good third of his review saying how thin it is, and how it's so great on a lap, on a Starbucks' table, on a conference table, and on an airplane seatback tray. He then decries the obvious lack of features we've been talking about since we heard about the Air: lack of user-replaceable battery, the one USB port, no optical drive, blah blah blah.

It essentially reads like Levy reviewed off the spec sheet, and doesn't have many tales of his first-hand experience with such topics as how snappy the sluggish processor is or how convenient (or inconvenient) using the Remote Disc is (he does note that you have to lower your Firewall to its lowest setting to allow easier configuration). Verdict: Not much of one, but what he does have agrees with Baig: it's thin and even though Apple's removed much of its innards, "the things that Apple left on were the ingredients for a quality computer." Also, he spends much of the review talking in a roundabout way about penises, so it's worth a read just for that. [Newsweek]

Wall Street Journal: Mossberg from the big J also loves the svelteness, owning up to his own Contact moment by saying that "it's impossible to convey in words just how pleasing and surprising this computer feels in the hand." Of course, he hates the non-removable battery, the 1 USB port, the fact that you can't put a bigger hard drive in there and the lack of an optical drive.

In his own tests, he says the machine was "speedy" and the keyboard and screen were a "pleasure to use". His own battery tests gave him three hours and 24 minutes with Wi-Fi on and playing music nonstop. He theorizes that you could possibly get 4 hours and 30 minutes without playing music and just working normally, bug Baig's own test disproves that. Verdict: Great if you love thinness or a full-sized screen and keyboard on a "subnotebook", but he "can't recommend it for all." [AllThingsD]

It's the first Windows computer that I would put in the same class or even sightly ahead in terms of its hardware design

And if you think this is one of our Onionmodos, you can see The Mighty and Goateetastic Mossberg telling you all about it face to face. We had to watch the video twice:

His reasons are good, although I'm not so keen on the design of the Dell myself, which I find plain and vulgar. He's also right when he brings up two issues to declare that, overall, the Apple iMac still wins. First, he argues that Mac OS X Leopard is a faster and better operating system than Vista (most of us in the Giz agree on that one.) Then, he adds that the Dell is a more expensive machine than the iMac, which admits no denial: even while you add the same memory and wireless keyboard and mouse to the iMac price, the Dell XPS One is $100 more expensive than the Apple machines.

His overall verdict: best machine a Windows user can buy.

Next in the path to Apocalypse: David Pogue ditches his iPhone for a Windows Mobile Samsung, Brian Lam sells his MacBook and buys a Sony and random angel plays the fourth trumpet. [All Things D]

However, despite the upgrades, ol' Walt thinks Microsoft is competing with last-gen iPods rather than the current batch. He think the Zune gets blown away by the iPod touch (I would think they shouldn't be compared, as they're totally different, but what do I know) and is also outclassed by the nano and classic, which offer slimmer profiles and bigger screens (at least on the nano).

And he still likes the iTunes Music Store over the Zune Marketplace, which is certainly understandable. A music store lives and dies by its selection, and iTunes is clearly the winner here.

And while the Wi-Fi syncing is nice, it sucks up too much juice for Mossy's tastes. So his verdict, unsurprisingly, is to go with an iPod. [All Things D]

• Pogue's NYT review
• Ed Baig's USA Today review
• Mossy's WSJ review

I am glad he credits Apple with trying to do the right thing as far as the SDK and openness go. I just wish he was a little more skeptical of Apple, given that they now share revenues for monthly charges and I'd assume, ringtones and maybe future apps. My point is that I hope that Mossberg has a plan of action for journalists and consumers to fight this one and enacting some change, rather than just a theoretical bitch much like the 2005 column and the great craplet article from last year. Maybe journalists covering the topic should base their ratings on all phones in part by checking how tarted up a handset is by a carrier, and regular joes can buy unlocked handsets. But I'm unsure of what else can be done. So, Walt, lead the charge and we'll follow. What can we do to fight the machine? [AllThingsD]

I think Microsoft used to actually care about trying to help the consumer. I may not think that they did wonderful technology, but I think they really did try to serve their customers. But look at their [digital rights management] and their "Genuine Windows Advantage" — they're not trying to serve their customers any more in their products; they are adding features that are actively bad for users, because they probably feel like they aren't even competing any more.

...it seems ridiculous to me to sell a powerful device with Wi-Fi and a huge screen, and to leave out things like an email program, even though you can use Web-based email programs. I assume Apple was concerned that the less costly Touch might compete too much with the iPhone if it had these features.

It's the exact same story that pathetic local news stations use for scare stories between "Your New Carpet Could Give You AIDS" and "Highway Killings: More Common Than You Think." But it's even worse, as it's in a "respected" newspaper and it's a good five years beyond when this could even questionably be considered newsworthy.

It goes through the same formula that all these stories do: first, it uses an example of "l33t 5p34k" that is full of numbers, is pretty much unreadable and no one actually would ever use. This is to shock people into feeling like they're out of the loop. It then interviews a bunch of kids "in the know" about it, who then show that, well, it's really just a jokey set of misspellings that people say when around fellow dorks. Then, they interview some dude with his panties in a twist about how the English language is going down the tubes because kids are saying lawl to each other.

Let me break this down for you: Back when you were doing the Lindy Hop and wearing zoot suits, you had a set of slang too. It freaked your parents out. It was a way for you to bond with your peers and have a shared language. It did not destroy the sanctity of the English language when you said stuff like 23 Skidoo and bee's knees. This is the exact same thing, but because it comes from the internet, something else that's new and terrifying, you think it's even more disastrous. Well, guess what? It's not. You're an alarmist idiot. Now go back to complaining about how the Wendy's menu used to be a lot better before they banned trans fats and leave reporting about tech culture to people who know wtf they're talking about. [WSJ]

Parallels has more features than Fusion...But I found Fusion puts less strain on the computer overall.

The main problem is that the iPhone can't send and receive email through the company's corporate BlackBerry email servers.

Oh and check out this subhed:

Workers Beseech Employers To Add Device, but IT Units Cite Email Incompatibility.

I do like that visual conjured by "Workers Beseech". As if they're business casual doggies begging for bacon. Quite colorful, in comparison to the rest of the story. –Brian Lam
Companies Hang Up on Apple's iPhone [WSJ]

It's too soon for a review, but Mossberg kind of commented on the keyboard.

And I can tell you that in the first hour it works a little better than I thought, but I'm still not sure it works as well as a regular keyboard—and the first hour is not a very fair test, so I'm going to keep going at it.

For those of you counting (me) that's 18 days before day 0. When he scooped the world on Apple TV, he had it 10 days ahead of the rest of the press. –Brian Lam

Mossberg has an iPhone [Wired]

Wednesday was intense. 5 hours of liveblogging, inside of a 20 hour work day.
• Ballmer and the Surface Table, with Mossy
• Mossberg and Foleo unveil by Jeff Hawkins
• Mossberg and Steve Jobs
• Afterwards, basking in the glow of the Jobs interview, Ryan Block from Engadget and I got up on stage and sat in the D Chairs when no one was looking. (Photo here)
•And then my accidental Steve Jobs meeting.
•And of course, Mossberg and Swisher talking with Gates and Jobs. (Videos here)
•Not to mention the Gropes of the Surface Table and Foleo.

Afterwards, I bumped into Mossberg, and there was a little friction.

When I saw Walt and Kara, I thanked them for inviting me, and shook their hands. Walt then told me, a little bit indignant, that he was tired of being called grandpa and uncle. I felt bad about it. Factually, he is older than most in this industry...Jobs even made a crack at his age on stage. But I'd agree that it doesn't make sense to tease him for it while he's running around full of energy, wrangling CEO after CEO, while I'm dragging ass trying to merely liveblog his show. The guy's age isn't an factor when it comes to him kicking corporate ass. We're still going to photoshop him, of course. Maybe onto of a young, strapping Baywatch lifeguard's body, though.

The other thing that's interesting is that the WSJ has such pride and competitive spirit when it comes to their work...vs the NYTimes. I heard more than one comment in regards to that, from unnamed reporters.

When you work that much, its hard to get good rest afterwards. So I took Thursday to sleep in, and eat some crispy fish tacos down near the beach, while the rest of the Gizmodo gang covered the news. Thank God for them. – Brian Lam

All Things D [Gizmodo]

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.

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

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...

Dinosaurs?

7:56 Gates: "

You're always going to have rich local usability. Use the richness with the richness that is elsewhere.

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

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Just give me Star Trek

I don't know what we'll see. And that's why I'm so excited to go to work every day.

Finish.

– Brian Lam

All Things D at Giz [Gizmodo]

Anthony Michael Hall, who played a perverted panty-sniffing geek in both Weird Science and Sixteen Candles plays Bill Gates. Noah Wyle, pretty boy doctor from ER, plays a young Jobs. This movie was made far too early, if you ask me. Someone needs to do a proper sequel.

Pirates of Silicon Valley [IMDB]
Pirates of Silicon Valley [Wikipedia]
Pirates of Silicon Valley [Amazon]

He's taller than I thought he would be, and pretty tanned. Hawaii. I go to introduce myself and then think that he's probably busy and doesn't want to be mobbed. I go get some salad, think that its my job to be at least a little aggressive with these things, so I put down my plate, and I finally squeeze by the crowd to introduce myself. No banter, just wanted to say hi, I'm Brian from Gizmodo. And you made the iPod, right? (I didn't say that second part.)

Then Steve got really excited and Happy.

And he tells me that he reads the site. Actually, 3-4 times a day, since it doesn't sit still for very long. I told him that I appreciate the clicks, and that I'll keep buying iPods if he keeps clicking. It's his favorite gadget blog. It was a really, really nice moment. His face scrunched up with genuine excitement. I must have looked like one of those gals front row at a Beatles concert, as much as I tried to be "professional."

Because honestly, I thought the guy would be totally worked up about Jesus's awesome Photoshops of Steve Jobs. The man has a sense of humor.

It was an honor to have a man who is extremely focused on quality and doing things in his own way approve of our work here. Especially with all the typos I make on a daily basis. For the record, he didn't invite me over to smoke with him. But believe me, I think it's pretty cool to have met the guy. – Brian Lam

All Things D at Giz [Gizmodo]

12:15 We're at the fluffy intro
12:21 WM When you made the change to Apple from Apple Computer, people wondered if it was the exit. Are you committed to computers?
SJ Totally. WWDC is big. Leopard is coming in October. we love it.

12:22 WM Are you planning a big iPod change?
SJ You mean since last Sept?
WM Yes
SJ Fast-moving business!
WM Well, it wasn't completely new.
SJ....
WM I wasn't taking your feelings into account.
SJ We're working on the best iPod ever and its awesome.

WM You have a phone?
SJ Yes (whips it out) best iPod we've ever made. Best phone we've ever made!
WM Coming out end of June, last day?
SJ Uh, yeah. I'll send you one. (giggles)

12:26 WM Selling it through the stores and Cingular?
SJ Yes, Cingular, which is the new AT&T.
WM Just like the old AT&T. You're a lot nicer to the phone companies now.
SJ Well, yes, We haven't sold one yet but they broke a lot of rules. And we did the same. We wouldn't show it to them. And we took a gamble on each other. I will never forget that.

12:27 WM Why did this work? They wanted your brand to go along with their new brand?

SJ So far, music's not doing well on phones. On phones, you have 3G, but not good ways to use it. You get the baby Internet and the mini Internet, but nothing real. We're doing that in an entirely new way. We'll see.

12:28 WM Any feature in the iPhone you'd like to announce that you haven't yet shared?

SJ Uh, no.

[iTunes Plus Songs now]

SJ [Pretty simple UI, you can upgrade old music as long as its available.]

WM Any other movement on the record labels?

SJ Well you know that record labels sell 90% of their stuff online (goes into the details in the open letter to music industry)...

WM Was that letter you wrote something you thought up or was it a thing already in movement? [We reported that EMI sent the letter first.]

SJ People say iPod locks down music. But we never said that.

WM The iPod is your business, and your music is a little bit of that.

SJ There's 3 pieces to it. There's iTunes, which is free, there's the iPod, and there's the online store in the cloud.

WM But the iPod is the biggest part.

SJ it makes the most money...but most of the music money goes to the music company.

WM Do you risk that money as you break the DRM tie?

SJ The iPod wins because its the best music player, and we have to keep doing that.

WM Is the iPhone a phone with an iPod inside or is it the iPod with a phone inside?

SJ It's 3 things. It's the best iPod, a remarkable phone, and the Internet in your pocket.

12:34 WM how much back and forth is there inside, developing. I assume its like the UN where you have a veto.

SJ It's not like that. If you want to keep talented people you can't tell them what to do all the time...much.

WM How much debate about a physical keyboard?

SJ None.

WM Really? In ALL of Cupertino?

SJ. Yep.

SJ [Makes comment about the photographer that sounds like a machine gun in the audience.]

SJ I'll bet you dinner, after a few days, after you get one, you'll think its great.
Once you learn to trust it, you fly. And the screen UI can change as you come up with new ideas.

SJ Cingular said we need this button. They hadn't seen it yet. Oh, I said that we'll do that after we ship. They said, huh?

SJ Why is Apple popular? Because the preeminent Japanese gadget companies couldn't do software.

The iPhone is software wrapped in a beautiful package. And the companies couldn't make that leap. And that's why Apple has that success with the iPod.

If you look at hardware manufacturers for handsets, they haven't been able to make the leap.

The usual suspects will try to copy the hardware. But the software is hard to do; 5 years ahead of anything we've seen. We started with an OS we've been working on for well over a decade and a browser, Safari, which is regarded by many as the best.

12.41 WM But it doesn't have the entire OS X software inside, or Safari.

SJ Yes, it does. A lot of it is data. Desktop patterns, audio files. It has real desktop email, Safari, OS X. And we took all that, and put a new UI on it. It's an amazing amount of software.

WM On the technical side, could an OS X app run on the iPhone?

SJ We don't think that's a good idea. The phone has its own UI.

12:43 WM One of the holy grails is to have the Internet in your pocket. And TV in the living room. Microsoft does this. Why do you describe the living room as a hobby?

The living room might be the peas on the side. The entree might be the things that you'd get on the Internet.

I brought something to show you...[something new for Apple TV?]

[Showing Apple TV now, movie trailers for Ratatouille]

WM Works on a regular home network? [Snowball questions, if you ask me.]

WM The device won't do high-def?

SJ No HD, for the trade-offs in download time and quality.

[BTW, Steve jobs is wearing gray New Balance shoes and a black turtleneck.]

[And showing TVs now...The Office, and more old stuff. He's playing with old stuff, described as Peas. Where is the entree yet to come?]

SJ But we're going to introduce today is...

12;51 Wouldn't it be great if you could see YouTube in your living room. YOUTUBE ON APPLE TV

12:54 SJ I would have waited a few weeks for this announcement, but you know...
WM But This is D.

SJ Shows related videos when you're done.

[ Robot Dance Video playing]
WM Did you ever think that after you started Apple, you'd be associating with the robot guy?
SJ It's funny, we've been watching a lot of these vids.
WM Does that mean Leopard is slipping again?!
SJ *Chuckles....[in a sinister way.]
[Showing search, fumbling]

12:54 WM Oh yeah, you're not very good at public speaking [sarcasm]
[Showing human slingshot video.]

WM How about other stuff on the Internet?
SJ Sure, that's a great idea?
WM When?
SJ Over time.

SJ People don't want a normal browser in the living room.

WM Even with the human slingshot...

SJ That's my species!

WM But you're committed to the living room with this set-top?

1:00 SJ It's not a set-top box. Once you get into that space, you get into a whole 'nother thing. There's a lot more DVD players out there than DVD players. We don't have to be replacing the set-top box. We're replacing the DVD player. It's the DVD player for the Internet.

WM How many copies of iTunes [which is what you need for Apple TV]?
SJ Lots. Several times.
WM 100 million ipods, so 300 million?
SJ That, or more.
WM So you're a huge Windows developer?
SJ That's right. People have written us saying iTunes is their favorite app on Windows.

SJ It's like giving a glass of ice water to someone in hell.

SJ We never though we'd ship 100 million.
WM Even you, with your humility?
SJ 100 million is a lot.

WM You said at one point, people didn't want portable video. Even after shipping.

1:05 SJ I was more skeptical than the customers, and they've proved us wrong. Video has been the first or second reason why people have bought it.
WM On iTunes or iPods?
SJ Can't find out unless we ask, and its both. This will grow.
WM But you don't have a video service that allows you to natively download, over the air, to an iPhone.
SJ No.
WM Why not? It's a big deal, carriers are trying it.
SJ It's failed. The phone is not the best UI to discover media, and it costs more. Then you have to sync it back to your PC, so its backed up so you don't lose a few hundred dollars of media. You can do it from your PC with a big screen.

WM So no store plans for the iPhone? iTunes store on a phone?
SJ Certainly nothing we have to do today.

Questions: What do you look for in talent?
SJ: That's a long question. We don't build four billion semiconductor factories. All we are are people. And all we have is the people, and recruiting is the heart and soul of what we do.

1:10 Question: This is a 2.5G device. You said that there aren't any 3G Apps. Can you comment?

Sure. Our phone switches to Wi-Fi automatically, if you've joined it before. But when you're in a new place, it lets you know if there's a new signal around. There're everywhere. Some of personal ones you can ride on. It's everywhere. Fifty signals in Palo Alto. And there's 10x points out there than I thought.

Some weird comment about orifices.
1:14 Question: We'd love to write apps. Will it open up?
SJ This is a very important trade-off between security and openness. We want both. We've got good ideas, and sometime later this year, we can open it up to third-party apps, and keep security.

1:16 Question: I work with Japanese companies, and they ask us to help with battery life.
SJ When you talk about anything portable, like an iPod or a phone, it's all about battery life. We have experience with this making notebooks. We brought that tech into the phone. That's one of the key problems with portable devices.

1:18 Question: You had a bad time a two years ago. How are you now?

SJ I'm still vertical! Thank you.

Question: [Some guy asking wonky question about AAC being a limited form of DRM.]
SJ First of all, MP3 plays fine on iPods. Secondly, AAC is a better file format as far as quality. We don't own it, people license it from it.

Question: I work for a camcorder company. Are you entering the field? [More or less]
SJ We don't plan on entering the camcorder industry.

1:24 Question: I was going to ask if you read the Fake Steve Jobs blog.

SJ I have read a lot of the Fake Steve Jobs posts, and I think they're funny. But I don't know who it is.

Question person: I don't write it.

[He asked a real question, but it was not as interesting as his fake one. ]

Done! More Steve Jobs tonight, along with Gates, Mossy, and Swisher.

– Brian Lam

All Things D at Giz [Gizmodo]

Read more in the liveblog.

– Brian Lam

All Things D at Giz [Gizmodo]

YouTube Coming to Apple TV

CUPERTINO, California-May, 30, 2007-Apple® today announced that it's bringing the Internet's most popular originally-created content from YouTube to the living room with Apple TV™. Beginning in mid-June, Apple TV will wirelessly stream videos directly from YouTube and play them on a user's widescreen TV. Using Apple TV's elegant interface and simple Apple Remote, viewers can easily browse, find and watch free videos from YouTube in the comfort of their living room.

"This is the first time users can easily browse, find and watch YouTube videos right from their living room couch, and it's really, really fun," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "YouTube is a worldwide sensation, and Apple TV is bringing it directly from the Internet onto the widescreen TV in your living room."

Thousands of the most current and popular YouTube videos will be available on Apple TV at launch in mid-June, with YouTube adding thousands more each week until the full YouTube catalog is available this fall. With Apple TV's stunning interface and simple Apple Remote, users can easily navigate through YouTube's familiar video browsing categories or search for specific videos. YouTube members can also log-in to their YouTube accounts on Apple TV to view and save their favorite videos.

Apple TV seamlessly integrates with iTunes® to wirelessly play a user's favorite content from a PC or Mac® on their widescreen TV, including movies, TV shows, music, photos and podcasts. Apple TV users can choose from over 500 movies and 350 TV shows in near DVD quality; over five million songs; 5,000 music videos; 100,000 podcasts; and 20,000 audiobooks from the iTunes Store (www.itunes.com). Users can enjoy their favorite music on a home entertainment system and view slideshows of their photo albums on a widescreen TV.

Apple today also announced that it is offering a new Apple TV build-to-order option with a 160GB hard drive. The new larger hard drive offers four times the storage for up to 200 hours of video, 36,000 songs, 25,000 photos or a combination of each.* Apple TV is easy to connect to a broad range of widescreen TVs and home theater systems and comes standard with HDMI, component video, analog and optical audio ports. Using high-speed AirPort® 802.11n Wi-Fi wireless networking, Apple TV can auto-sync content from one computer or stream content from up to five additional computers right to a TV without any wires.**

Pricing & Availability
Apple TV, which includes the Apple Remote, is available through the Apple Store® (www.apple.com), Apple's retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers for a suggested retail price of $299 (US). Apple TV with a 160GB hard drive will be available tomorrow for a suggested retail price of $399 (US). The YouTube feature for Apple TV will be available as a free software update in mid-June.

Apple TV requires iTunes 7.1 or later running on a Mac with Mac OS® X version 10.3.9 or later, or a Windows PC with Windows XP Home/Professional (SP2).

An 802.11b/g/n wireless network using AirPort, AirPort Extreme® or 10/100 Base-T Ethernet networking is required. Internet access is required and a broadband connection is recommended, fees may apply. Apple TV requires an enhanced definition or high-definition widescreen TV. iPod® games will not play on Apple TV. The iTunes store is available in the US and select countries.

*Video playback based on 640x480 iTunes video content. Music capacity based on four minutes per song and 128-Kbps AAC encoding. Photo capacity based on Apple TV viewable photos transferred from iTunes. Actual capacity varies by content.

**Based on an IEEE 802.11n draft specification. Compatible with 802.11b/g/n, wireless video streaming requires an 802.11g/n network.

Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Today, Apple continues to lead the industry in innovation with its award-winning computers, OS X operating system and iLife and professional applications. Apple is also spearheading the digital media revolution with its iPod portable music and video players and iTunes online store, and will enter the mobile phone market this year with its revolutionary iPhone.

Would I buy one? No, I'm not a smart phone junkie.
– Brian Lam

10:33 He's talking about the need for a better interface. And took a jab at origami.
10:36 Battery life is great. Five hours of real access running Wi-Fi, etc.
10:38 WM Looks like a laptop, I know how you're positioning it, but that doesn't matter.
JH is totally being a cock tease, and Mossy is telling JH to get on with the show. He keeps calling it a laptop. That doesn't run stuff.
10:40 JH It's Velvety. Runs Linux, 10-inch screen, boots almost instantly. No sleep, just on and off.
10:43 WM Like the Clapper.
JH Syncs with the phone, not just for exchange stuff. Makes the data centric to the phone. Easy to use, not for corporate types only.

I'll update photos in the gallery as they come, but the text will be running below

WM Blackberry?
JH Talk about it later.

[They're doing a demo of the of the four steps to sync the Treo and the Foleo. Pairs with Bluetooth.]

WM You can navigate using the thumb pad device [which supposedly supplements the nipple thing] (Swisher's words, not mine.)

[They're showing Dataviz editing Office docs using a full-screen version. Looks very fast. Can make things from scratch]
[WM happy people can do office stuff from the device]
[Showing a Linux terminal, crowd turns aside, sick to their stomachs]
10:57 [runs opera browser, uses phone connection, over BT. Flash runs fine. The video stuff is slow. Won't do flash video, including YouTube.]

WM Let me get this straight. It won't do the hottest thing on the Web? [They blame the flashware, but its obviously the processor]
JH Let me be clear&mdash:it will do it, but not well.
WM When?
JH UHHH...In the future.

JH If I could do it again, I'd put a faster processor in here.

[$499, as earlier reported. That's after a $100 rebate]
WM There are laptops that are $499, there are laptops that are 10-inchers, why this?
JH Those little ones aren't the cheap ones. We're going after the one-button access to the experience. This is a Linux machine with long battery life, that people will write apps for. Foleo is simple and fun.

JH We'll support Treos with Window Mobile Phones and Treos. They'll do BlackBerries, too. It can be done, and it's easy to do. We want to the the iPhone. They need it!

Closed Session
– Brian Lam

All Things D at Giz [Gizmodo]

Be there. – Brian Lam

All Things D at Giz [Gizmodo]

8:14 Mossberg and Swisher take the stage, after some WSJ intro by the former and current managing editor

and their (not) opponents later tonight...

8:17: Showing a video of the "dark side of D"

8:26 Jill Sobule on stage playing a few songs...D is like Mossberg's US Festival (google Woz).

8:31 Back to work. Ballmer shows up. I see the Surface table on the right.

10:33 4 out of 30 of the original MSFT people are great. Mossberg takes a shot at Paul Allen, saying he isn't good. Crowd laughs.
10:35 Let's talk about Vista, for some reason, it's taken five years to get it out. You've said you'll never take that long again. How?

SB: We have to learn from our mistakes, we've got the will, the determination, we tried to do too much incubation into a new tech, and make it dependent on itself, and exponentially increased the complexity of the project.

8:37 WM: What's the schedule, 2.5 years?

SB: Windows Live will get into a predictable rhythm, and some stuff will be faster [whatever that means]

WM: Some of Windows Live seems to be rebranding, some of it is new. I thought Virtual Earth was a better name than the new one. Is there anything in common to all the new ware other than the name Windows?

SB: Windows Live software marked by frequent updates. Some of the eco system, we haven't moved as quickly as we like. We like to state it first, and then go there as quickly as we can [contrary to Apple of old]

8:40: SB: Talking a lot of fluff, but basically saying some will, some won't.

WM: Talking about software, and new business models. Advertising.

SB: We're coming and coming. Microsoft's unique thing is that we're trying to have multiple muscles.

WM: One can't help but notice that you have to do that, if you're going to compete with Apple, Google, etc. Building a factory to build Zunes?

SB: No, it was just a subcontractor, everything is subcontracted. Hardware is only a method of delivering services.

WM: But hardware is a part of that formula.

SB: Yes.

WM: And you have the market cornered on brown gadgets.

SB: Yes, high market share, too. It's what Dirt Bike Riders want! (giggle)

SB: We're getting stuff at DEMO

WM: This is D.You have to pay to show your stuff at DEMO.

Unveiling the Suface table

WM: This is real, right? Because someone [hp] unveiled something like this and never sold it.

MSFT: Multitouch...
WM: I thought another company had that tech?
MSFT: This is massive multitouch

MSFT: Inside, 5 cameras, and a DLP system.

WM: How long does it take to boot up? Crowd laughs.
MSFT: It's always on.
[updated timestamps to the right time.]

MSFT: Easy, and there won't need to be a Dummies book.
WM: But there will be

MSFT: Can detect devices, so it can read RFID and recognize people.

They're dragging multliple photos at once. And dragging videos while playing.

8:56 Showing automatic wireless sync with the table. They put the camera on the table,and photos flow out from it on to the Surface table.

8:57 Walt does a Caesars Palace scratch card. Great, maybe he can win enough cash to buy the table. (Microsoft keeps talking about the consumer, but isn't this for business?)

8:57 WM: Can this be bigger?
MSFT: Yes, we found that 30 inches is ideal, but it will scale. We will have thin versions, paintings that you can hang on the wall.

SB: Educators are interested.

WM: The highest use isn't to lose money in casinos? (WM is funny this morning.)

WM: T-Mobile...can this device make T-Mobile not terrible?
Can you see an exec saying "Why not make it not terrible?"

MSFT showing T-Mobile demo with the phones, for in-store comparison.

8:59 WM: Now these have large steel cables attached to the phones, right?
MSFT mumbles
SB: Mockingly repeats WM, in jest. [Three stooges up there]

Sheraton music app being shown.

WM: Because when you think "Sheraton," you think Music, yea?
WM Wait, I can't change the queue of songs?!
MSFT Sorry. [just for D]

MSFT: This is a Vista PC underneath it all.

Video pieces that move on the table (physical bricks playing video) for a video jigsaw puzzle. Cool.

Table demo over. Mossberg and Ballmer continue to chat...

WM You just spent a lot of money on search. Why are you still losing market share to google.

SB Market leader has momentum. We're well down the learning curve, the relevance of our search results go up, Search innovation, stagnant for 6 years, so there's room for innovation. We're in the game.

WM But you were in the game 2 years ago, and you're continuing to lose

SB We've wallowed, not lost.

WM You hoped or expected this?

SB No, but it doesn't stop our determination.

9:10 SB...the market leader...

WM: You can say google, you know.

SB: No, I can't! I have to say market leader!

WM:...You're scaring me.

9:17 WM Are you going to stick with Zune.

SB We don't drop things. There's a short list of things we back off on. We choose to get in at one price point, with a device not too revolutionary. This Xmas, we'll have something better.

9:18 WM Will you do a Phone?

SB No [LOOKS LIKE HES LYING TO ME, IMO] The notion of market share is nice for phones. But phones run software, and the question is, will it be our software or from others.

WM So Samsung shouldn't be worried you're going to screw the phone guys like the music guys got screwed by their partner?

SB They have their own situation there....[tapered off into jibberish]

9:21 Rahul from Voodoo gets the big first question (Rahul from HP) "making some cool products". Something about simplifying products

WM Thanks for that commercial.

SB: We all should. [long fluffy answer.]

[Editing heavily for fluff at this point]
9:25 [microsoft has both research and R&D labs, did you know that? Both. Separate. There's something wrong with that.]

SB...PCs for low income houses in our China research center...

WM You're still more local than, say, google. Do you need to move to a more distribut