Bill Youngs

Text of Steve Jobs Deposition

Bottom Line: Steve Job's running Apple for many years at one dollar per year; his receiving options long ago (and no bonuses since) whose value today is largely due to his own great work; and his devotion to the company.... all of these add up to one of the great management bargains in the history of American business. As a long-term Apple shareholder, I couldn't be happier with his vision and dedication!

Apple: Eight iPhone Annoyances

I waited for months and months for the first iPhone to come out, then waited hours and hours in the rain to buy it the first evening they were available. It took my breath away then, and every week, some new app takes my breath away again. I think it was worth every penny of the initial $599 purchase price -- and thanks Apple for that early purchases $100 dollar rebate. That said, I like Greg's suggestions for making a fabulous device even more fabulous -- of his suggestions, I'd especially like cut and paste. Additionally I'd like to see the note taking function synch with the same app on my computer, just as calendars do. For my youtube video, admitedly very corny, of my first encounter with my iPhone, check out www.youtube.com/watch?....

Is Apple Poised to Move into the Living Room?

I've owned an Apple TV from the get-go, and I've had great luck lately with the choice and quality of the films I've rented. That and YouTube access are the icing on the cake. But for me the cake itself is the wonderful platform it offers for my home movies -- travels, family, nature. I still remember the incredible hassle of setting up a movie screen and projector years ago and then showing my three-minute super-8 films. While better, the option of showing my movies to friends huddled around my computer screen still left a lot to be desired. In contrast the ATV does a great job of presenting my home movies -- friends even ask for more!

Apple SEC Investigation: Rotten to Core

Bravo, Galand Pollard, for putting the purported SEC investigation of Apple in perspective. The possible investigation is, as you say, “rotten to the core.” But there is another villain in the piece. How did we become so obsessed with this subject anyway, obsessed, that is, beyond the normal human reaction of wishing Jobs well? The way so many journalists lock in on the Apple story as all about Steve Jobs is fundamentally unhealthy. It smacks of the magazine covers at grocery market checkout stands where all the world revolves around who is divorcing whom and whose cellulite is least attractive. One of the chief culprits is Bloomberg: at one moment they tell us that Jobs is dead, at another he is having a liver transplant, and at another they issue an uncritical report that this SEC investigation is, indeed, underway. No one, not even Jobs's doctors, know for certain his medical future. The varying statements about Jobs’s health could easily grow out of varying diagnoses. Uncertainties are a part of the life of individuals and of corporations: just look at Microsoft’s recent announcement that it will give no guidance for the next quarter due to “the volatility of market conditions.” Imagine the storm of protest that would greet a similar announcement by Apple about Steve Jobs’s health -- on that many critics want absolute clarity and want it right now! — Steve Jobs asks, “Why is this important?” At another level, the real question should be, why are so many journalists, purported business analysts at that, so obsessed with making this important? Wouldn’t we all be better off if a few more reporters raised a much more important question: how is it that in a seriously declining economy, even with it’s CEO hampered by a mysterious ailment, Apple just posted the best quarter in its entire history? That’s the line of inquiry about Apple from which we might learn some valuable lessons. Those lessons might even help the nation move forward in a troubled economy. But all too many business journalist are wallowing in superficial, flashy cellulite reporting. It’s a shame. -- In the mean time, thanks for your article. It is a breath of fresh air.

Apple and Google: Changing My Mind

Fred, YOU DO NOT KNOW that Apple was "lying" about Steve Jobs's health -- medical diagnosis is not an exact science, diagnoses do change from day to day and from doctor to doctor -- sometimes gradually, sometimes abruptly. WHAT WE DO KNOW is that for many years Steve Jobs has charged Apple only a dollar per year for his work and that despite the recession, Apple just turned in its best quarter in history.

Apple’s Lowered Expectations Pay Off

It's wonderful, of course, when Apple introduces something completely new, but the great strength of the company in recent months would seem to be in INCREMENTAL improvements -- some bigger than others. The Apps store is certainly huge, and there some exciting incremental improvements in iPhone software released through the store are almost a weekly event. There were also plenty of those plenty of good changes heralded in Phil Shiller's Macworld keynote. Case in point: I have been wrestling with an iMovie dilemma, needing 8.0 for my new ACVHD camera, but missing some features like slow motion from 6.0. iMovie 9.0 has a slow motion capability. Problem solved! Multiply that improvement by 20 or 30 for the other increments in hardware and software announced yesterday, as well as iTunes Store changes, and you can see that there is still a lot to like in Apple's momentum.

Apple: Press Needs to 'Get Over' Steve's Secrecy

"Get over it" is right! Few if any CEOs have brought such fabulous stock returns to their investors and such wonderful products to their consumers as Steve Jobs. And for many years Jobs has been billing the company (and us investors) only a dollar a year for his labors. He is giving his public life to his company to a degree few CEOs can match. Now he is asking us to respect his privacy when it comes to his health. Honoring that request is the only decent response.

What Does Quality Online Video Look Like?

I agree with the previous comment -- quality is fabulous for movies rented or purchased through iTunes on an Apple TV. And the delivery is almost instantaneous with no buffering delays. The problems with iTunes rentals lie outside the delivery technology: (1) the fact that on a "one month" rental your video disappears only 24 hours after you push play, even if 29 days are remaining in the rental; (2) and the still-very-limited choice of videos.