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It’s not usually my nature to be snarky about a person, but on Brief 372, I make an exception.
Yesterday, Peter Ha from CruchGear posted a video from TheStreet.com, and I had to bring it to your attention. In the video, Gary Krakow, apparently an old-school tech journalist, is asked what Steve Jobs needs to do to get the iPhone competitive in a corporate environment. His answer is crazier than anything my favorite Mr. Cranky Pants, John C. Dvorak has ever said about Apple.
NOTE: This episode has a Beck’s Beer Pre-roll ad. Three down. One to go.
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June 5th, 2008 at 2:19 pm
Enjoyed the beer commercial .. Gary Krakow .. erm .. no. Please, don’t ever dedicate an entire episode to this chap again! :)
June 5th, 2008 at 2:21 pm
Well, I can understand why Krakow says this. Just look at the MP3 player market. If Jobs hadn’t bent with the market the Apple market share would be… oh wait he didn’t. He made trends that everyone else followed. Hmmmm, do you think he may be doing that with the iPhone?
How much is the corporate market needed for iPhone’s success?
Zilch!
Sometimes I am just not impressed by the “experts”.
June 5th, 2008 at 2:29 pm
“Mr. Cranky Pants” (LOL) :D
Honestly, Mr. Krakow is not someone to be taken seriously. He just enjoys relishing in the attention he gets for being a Cranky Pants. ^-^~
June 5th, 2008 at 2:31 pm
Did i miss something or should this be 371? Either way, great as usual
June 5th, 2008 at 2:40 pm
“Sweetie, I don’t imagine Steve is all that bummed.”
This line builds in intensity every time I hear it.
Cali you were just precious in this episode — I imagine you could sell the outtakes from this episode for major bank…
But seriously — once the Outlook Gateway is released bunches of us here will clamor for iPhone replacements for our business Blackberrys. (“Oh, I don’t have any idea how my Blackberry broke. BTW – can I get an iPhone instead?”)
June 5th, 2008 at 2:40 pm
Is it just me or did this clown miss the whole SDK presentation where they demonstrated hoe you would soo have access to exchange servers and even a potential Lotus Notes application?
I wouldn’t consider myself a huge fanboy but this guy has no clue.
June 5th, 2008 at 2:50 pm
I love the show, but you might want to look at tweaking your encoding since getting the new set. There is some major blocking in the background (especially the bright blue part in the center). If you could post the uncompressed version of an episode I bet people (including me) would try to compress it on their own, and if anyone is successful, they would obviously share how they did it to help you guys out.
June 5th, 2008 at 2:58 pm
I don’t think Steve Jobs really wants the business market for the iPhone. Apple has never been very successful in the business market, and the iPhone is no exception. This accounts in part for their small market share. Anyone who has had to support Macs in a business will tell you that you typically spend twice the time for less than a fourth of the number of machines than you do for pcs. The infrastructure required for a business just isn’t present in the Mac operating system.
The iPhone won’t be taken seriously in business until it supports corporate email servers like MS Exchange (which I thought it did now) and has 3G. It was ridiculous for Apple to release the iPhone without 3G to begin with, but then again businesses are not their target market.
Personally, I’ve never understood the appeal of the iPhone. It isn’t a good iPod, and it is an antiquated phone. The iTouch on the other hand is a great little device. It has the storage capacity to make it a viable iPod, wi-fi capability and doesn’t pretend to be a phone.
If Apple ever wants any real market share they are going to have to start looking at targetting businesses as well as consumers, and this will be a dramatic switch for them. Consumers are only a fraction of the computer and phone purchasers out there. I don’t think this means adopting Windows Mobile (which would just be silly), but it does mean making a number of changes to allow their systems to work better with Windows and Linux infrastructures. Then again, Apple may be happy exactly where they are, concentrating on the consumer market and being limited in total market share. There is real wisdom in sticking with what you’re good at.
June 5th, 2008 at 3:00 pm
Well i’ve got to say that wasn’t informative, shiny or happy ! Cali is not a happy camper today ;)
I don’t know this guy but someone needs to remind him that Steve HAS licensed active sync and he didn’t take his advice … Ooh ooh while we are dishing out retrospective advice here’s a gem for you Steve “that mobile phone fad might be something to look into” :)
@lcaller
June 5th, 2008 at 3:16 pm
This was the first Geek Brief I didn’t like. Your comments were very condescending and completely biased. Not everyone has an iphone or wants one or can afford one, and the some goes for mac products in general. Sure I looked at an iphone. It’s the hot new thing. So, it wont be around for ever. Someone will come up with something new and bye bye iphone. Maybe it will be another apple product or not. Tech is Tech regardless of the source. Just like your show I can take it or leave it. This episode, I choose to leave. I have been watching for some time now, and I get that you like apple and mac products and that you totally love the iphone. However for those of us in the real world where money and apple products don’t fall from trees. I don’t like to hear that your opinion is the only right one. I like to hear the facts and then make up my own mind.
Other than that. I will watch again to see if you go back to just sharing the Happy Shiny Tech likes shows in the past.
June 5th, 2008 at 3:19 pm
Thanks for doing this Cali! I saw that video yesterday and was like “huh?” I work in the IT world and everyone I talk to hates their blackberry or Treo. Windows mobile. Don’t get me started. IT people like Windows mobile because it’s the least complex. No dedicated BB server or Goodlink server for Treos. Anyway, thanks for taking this guy to task.
June 5th, 2008 at 3:23 pm
Hahahaha, that was great, Cali. Both funny and bang on, way to bring the smackdown. I’m far from being an Apple-head but to me the Iphone is an obvious gamechanger, and this guy’s comments seem quite out of touch.
June 5th, 2008 at 3:27 pm
snarky? You are a total Apple fan girl elitist. If Steve Jobs knows right, I’d recommend you un-jailbreak your iPhone. I personally prefer a blackberry, since it is a superior device for corporate use.
June 5th, 2008 at 3:49 pm
Windows Mobile a crapy software? Have you atleast try a WM phone or are you just taking smack with that stupid atitude “Microsoft is crapy Apple is nice”?
I think you ought to stop kissing Steve’s behind once in a while.
I’ve bought GPS software that will only work with windows mobile, if i could put WM on the iPhone i’ll buy an iPhone 2.0 with GPS in the first day.
I think if they let us put windows on the Mac will be a good idea if they let us dual boot on the iPhone.
I will pay double the price of an iPhone if it had WM, is no licesing issue here is just pride thing.
June 5th, 2008 at 3:57 pm
I don’t agree with Gary and I am on your side but BUT I am pretty close to unsubscribing GeekBrief.TV because you are getting to be a diva w/ attitude. Please get back to planet earth and fix your encoding, camera angles and focus more on happy, shiny news… P l e a s e ! I still love you and Neal.
June 5th, 2008 at 4:00 pm
I think Krakow is totally right about Blackberry and totally wrong about WinMo when it comes to the business market. Blackberry technology is more than email, it is the backend stuff which no end-user sees and every business IT buyer lusts after–the central administration, VPN, desk phone integration, policy management, remote bricking… this is all stuff that nobody else in the industry has, and RIM has just absolutely nailed it. The PDA functionality on a phone is just a commodity at this point, but all the backend TCO stuff is what business buyers want.
As to whether Jobs wants into the business segment, who knows? Certainly not that guy.
June 5th, 2008 at 4:01 pm
Cali & team,
I love your show. It’s warm, personal, and interesting. This episode was quite different than your others, in a bad way. A public figure should eschew talking poorly about others, no matter the situation. Personal experience tells me this, but there are very popular books that push this as well (7 Habits of Highly Effective People).
Sure, Krakow’s comments were very silly, but be careful how you manage your own reputation when commenting on others.
Keep up the good work!
June 5th, 2008 at 4:04 pm
Gary Krakow might be on CRACK!!! Steve Jobs knows what he is doing.
June 5th, 2008 at 4:07 pm
There is NO way that Steve is bummed on missing a few business customers.
June 5th, 2008 at 4:11 pm
He’d rather make his own system because compared to the Apple system Microsoft and RIM’s systems plain SUCK! one of the reasons they are mentioning Blackberry and RIM is because they have ads all over there site.
June 5th, 2008 at 4:19 pm
Hmm, you seem so bitter and arrogant in this episode. Feeling threatened by something? He is actually totally right about the business segment. The iPhone have no chance here. The other things he babbles about, I don’t know.
You seemed like a 14 year old Mac/Apple fanboi in the episode, or possibly a Steve Jobs worshiper. That’s not so good. Please don’t develop a nasty attitude.
June 5th, 2008 at 4:30 pm
Wow. Sorry Cali, but this brief was just poorly conceived and poorly executed. I am afraid you just come across as a condescending beeeaaatch.
June 5th, 2008 at 4:47 pm
As a real IT manager I’d just like to clarify a few things that were thrown around in these comments:
- Apple has licensed ActvieSync from MS in order to get Exchange integration in iPhone 2
- Exchange can do everything a BlackBerry Enterprise server can do; yes, everything (I’ve managed both).
- The newest version of Palm OS uses ActiveSync; see a pattern?
- RIM recognized that the only way into the corporate world was to work with MS, like it or not, and it worked. Palm realized it and Apple has now realized it. The iPhone will soon be wildly popular in the corporate world and it will be because Steve Jobs isn’t afraid to work with MS (he did it when he was first hired back at Apple. If you remember, MS gave them a few million bucks and committed to MS Office for Mac).
Cali; love the show, but not this one. If you had countered his suggestions with facts instead of snarky comments it might have had more legitimacy.
Looking forward to #373 or will it be #371…
June 5th, 2008 at 5:12 pm
Cali, you are such an apple fan bitch. If you feel he is in the wrong, leave it at that. Instead, you feel you have to protect your precious Apple. Most people figure this guy is a moron for saying it, but it is his opinion, and that’s that.
June 5th, 2008 at 5:14 pm
All the Cali bashing is surprising to me. This guy having the audacity to say what Steve Jobs needs to do is to adopt a OS that his corp base of users abhor is like saying the best thing for Obama to do is to embrace Bush’s policies. That would go over REALLY well. (Yes, I was yelling.)
Cali, this was funny and I liked it. I didn’t get arrogance from anyone other than Krakow. As soon as version 2.0 is out and Active Sync is working – there will be a huge demand from the users for iPhone. There already is, corporate just has a legitimate excuse for not granting it without ActiveSync. Since their main objection is getting ready to be toast…
I think Apple is a good buy right now, personally….
June 5th, 2008 at 5:24 pm
Smack in the teeth!
Yea, I do not see a problem with the iPhone at all! It is going to work with enchains, and then we will be sorted. Also, it is a computer, a proper one, not the festers yet, but that will come.
Hey, I like your player on the site…
June 5th, 2008 at 7:02 pm
Eh, not one of your better briefs.. in fact probably on the bottom list. I think it would have fit better w/ your iCali page. Or keep the criticism a bit more level (it was far too apple biased, but I suppose we should sorta know that, heh).
I heavily disagree with this guy, but I think you could have addressed it with more tact given it was posted here on geekbrief.
June 5th, 2008 at 8:30 pm
I’m sorry Cali, but you are just soooo off with this.
The one area that Apple crazies like yourself seem to completely depart with reality is the enterprise environment. You literally have NO idea how elegant and easy administering a fleet of tens of thousands of windows based machines is, how seamless running a business on an MS platform is, and how far Apple are away from that.
Keep to your “cool looking” toys, and leave the real important stuff to the rest of the world.
Yes this guy is an idiot, and misinformed, but you have absolutely NO idea what you are talking about so watching your spar with him on this subject is painful.
And you know….this is it. I’m gone. Your blind faith to “neat looking” gadgets isn’t tempered with any appreciation for actual good tech. I can’t take you praising tiny little shitty speakers because they are cute. I’m tired of you thinking of Apple being the pinnacle of good taste and MS being the opposite.
I love my Ipod. I love my Mac Mini. I love the Iphone, but I can’t take such blind fan service.
June 5th, 2008 at 8:49 pm
Apple’s problem with the iPhone is the lock in with AT&T.
On another vodcast, it was mentioned that both Palm and Blackberry each sold more units than iPhones in Q1. Well, of course….you can get the devices from pretty much any carrier.
If the iPhone were available from other carriers, I’d strongly consider one…..
June 5th, 2008 at 9:00 pm
This guy is right, the Blackberry and Windows Mobile are high above what the iPhone can and will ever be.Cali, I’m sorry but you just lost my viewership by calling both BB and WM “Crappy” These 2 have the leading market share among business customers and I don’t expect this to change anytime soon. I think El Jobso is going to have to take up the ass like a gay man to get the iPhone even remotely popular in corporate America.
June 5th, 2008 at 10:31 pm
I have a T-Mobile Dash and I really like Windows Mobile. The email was incredibly easy to setup and it works really well for what I need.
I also got a new computer recently with Vista. I reformatted the drive and reinstalled Vista. It runs fine and I actually like Vista. And syncing my phone is incredibly easy and it works well for me.
June 5th, 2008 at 11:40 pm
No nice person would ever call another person a bitch. I don’t apologize for being pro-Apple because I believe Apple is superior, but that wasn’t what this episode was about. This guy said Steve Jobs needs to put Blackberry or Windows Mobile on the iPhone. My response was, “Yeah, just like Coke needs to put Pepsi in their cans”. What I said there doesn’t detract from what those applications provide.
I’m saying it’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard for someone to say “put this competing brand’s stuff on your brand.”
I did say Blackberry and Windows Mobile software is crap because I hear it 70 times a day in email. If you want to do tech support for all the people who ask me to solve their Blackberry and Windows Mobile problems, then I’m happy to forward it to you. I only get a couple of questions about iPhone support a day, so that’s the foundation for my discontent.
Want to trade places?
June 5th, 2008 at 11:58 pm
Wow… the only thing I really saw wrong was the numbering… Kinda skipped #371 did we?
Last time I checked, it was CALI’S show usually filled with CALI’S opinions on stuff… there was a disclaimer in the show notes… Wow… the word “Dunderheads” comes to mind… I wonder if all those folks send nasty emails to their local TV stations when they see a news report they don’t like?
Please note: this is the only line in which the word apple appears in this comment!
June 6th, 2008 at 12:21 am
I’m no apple fan but I do own an ipod because I believe that the user interface is unique and intuitive. In fact, I believe that apple gets it right in many ways. If his opinion is so damn important then mine is too. Oh and so is the opinion of the several million other consumers that just happened to vote for apple with their dollars. I don’t understand why I wasted 2 minutes to this idiot’s hot wind.
June 6th, 2008 at 12:31 am
Love the the show,
but 372 didn’t have enough content
June 6th, 2008 at 1:14 am
@Cali
Hope this feedback will help, no offense meant, so don’t take this as harshness.
I don’t get this episode. Was the whole point just to bash this guy’s comments? I hear stupid comments all the time, but I don’t go out of my way to embarrass other people in public because they made the comment (and I’ve heard some pretty stupid stuff). Yeah he made some stupid suggestions, but he also had some interesting points buried in there. I say live and let live, too many people with varying mindsets to bother with episodes like this.
btw: I do support BB and winmo devices and I also get plenty of questions, most of the time it’s not the device but either the user asking a howto or the backend is having issues. I can imagine you’re getting similar questions (if you’re not then I’d be curious what the questions are) which is a poor excuse for calling pretty solid products crappy. I can understand if the product downright sucks, but I’ve used and actually still use all three products (winmo, BB, iphone) and I find all of them have things I like and dislike, but I can’t honestly call any of them crap.
June 6th, 2008 at 1:28 am
this was certainly a new side of Cali, but not a bad one. It was different than regular briefs, but I still liked it, and Cali is still one of my favorite tech personalites, that hasn’t changed at all.
I can’t claim to be an apple fan boy, having never owned an apple computer. But I can claim to be anti windows. Even making allowances for bad hardware and whatnot I still can’t believe that the way my XP computer works is how computers are supposed to work.
the only problem I found with this brief is that it was too… Brief
Cali, Neal, keep up the good work. But I was wondering, what with those bars on the sides of the video? Also really liking the new (albeit temporary) studio. I like it much more at night. Are you filming in front of a window or something?
Much love from a geekbrief.tv fan,
@derekbishe
June 6th, 2008 at 1:29 am
I have an iPhone and love it. That said, this is a good example of “cognitive dissonance” on your Calli’s part. People will use what they like. Apple is smart. RIM is smart. And, yes, Microsoft is smart. Gotta get over the Apple fangirl stuff and report like you usually do. Picking on Mr. Cranky doesn’t do you any good. Get someone informed to pick on.
June 6th, 2008 at 1:34 am
@another Sam
Not claiming to know anything here, and I recognize that edge isn’t exactly a treat, but doesn’t BB crash a lot? I can’t say anything from experience, I don’t have any of the three, but I just remember hearing about it crash a couple times. That doesn’t sound stable, per se, but I don’t really know anything about it. I’m just talking out my ass.
Ignorantly,
@derekbishe
June 6th, 2008 at 1:35 am
For a more insightful look at what Steve Jobs should do, as well as other technology insights, check out the blog of Apple Employee #12, Robert X. Cringely at http://www.pbs.org/cringely/. And if you saw Triumph of the Nerds you also know that Robert Cringely helped the dynamic Steve duo move out of the garage where it all started.
June 6th, 2008 at 2:34 am
Many of the people commenting above who found this Brief not to their taste found ways to express this in a civil manner. I thank them for that. This should be a place where we can talk tech without getting nasty. There’s too much nastiness in other parts of the web, I don’t think any of us should feel a need for it here. Unfortunately, a few people felt insults were the way to put their point across. It’s a shame, because it disregards that Luria Petrucci is a real person who in no way deserves what some people said to her, it makes the comments forum a less fun place to spend time, and it really fails to put across the commenter’s counter-point. Think before you comment, remember we’re all people here with a shared interest, and if you disagree with something in the show, a reasoned argument is always better than name calling.
June 6th, 2008 at 2:56 am
Here here, Dave Peterson!
June 6th, 2008 at 4:33 am
I don’t think that Gary Krakow expressed himself very well. I think that he was trying to say that the iPhone doesn’t include several features which are critical to many businesses. I’ve heard a lot about the ‘coolness’ of the iPhone – but I haven’t read much about it integrating with anything like Exchange or Blackberry Enterprise Server for my corporate email and calendar. My boss pays for my BlackBerry account primarily because it can receive emails from my servers to alert me to errors. I honestly don’t know if the iPhone can receive email without user intervention. If it can wake me up when it receives an email, then Apple will eventually need to advertise that ability in order to get the interest of my boss.
June 6th, 2008 at 4:44 am
Fred, you are such an idiot. You can certainly call Cali an Apple Fan or even an Apple Fan Girl if you want (Neal says she isn’t but he is), but you don’t come into someone’s house and insult them. What you did is the same. Apologize. Leave.
June 6th, 2008 at 6:22 am
Gary Krakow didn’t express himself well, because no moron can.
June 6th, 2008 at 7:15 am
Your comments were very child-like and completely Apple biased, if you look at your video the day after, I think you would agree. you might not like RIM or WM which is fine, but to suggest that their os/application inferior to Apple iPhone system which have almost zero business application if not from the support of “crack” community is a joke, SDK come out one year after the product is not something to “brag” about, what Apple should do is what Google did, release SDK and develop application BEFORE the release of a hardware product! do you really believe that you should pay 399/499 as a Apple Beta tester?
as far as I and many other I respect feel, the iPhone is the best “play phone” ever but hardly a serious business phone.
June 6th, 2008 at 7:53 am
That’s funny.
June 6th, 2008 at 8:00 am
@derekbishe I’ve been using a BB close to a year and have never had it crash. It replaced a WM device, that worked great for about a year and a half and then started crashing regularly. But then, I had loaded it with all sorts of stuff.
We have folks in our office that want an iPhone because they are neat. We’ve been supporting BB’s for nearly four years and they just finally got easy to support. Maybe after the Exchange support comes, we’ll revisit, but I don’t want to deal with it now. We’re a small office, less than 10 folks with mobile devices other than phones.
FWIW, I have an older iPod and a iPod shuffle, but use my Zune more than either, why? It’s got more storage.
June 6th, 2008 at 8:18 am
It all comes down to what works best for you.
To make a sweeping statement that the iPhone is “hardly a serious business phone” is absurd and is an insult to those of us who use it very successfully in our businesses.
As far as Krakow goes… I always get a chuckle out of ‘experts’ who know what people ‘have to do’. It reminds me of the ‘guys’ around the watercooler on Monday mornings, complaining about ‘their team’ and why they can’t win games.
Very funny.
June 6th, 2008 at 9:16 am
@derekbishe : I’d say out of the 3 devices the BB has the most stable OS in my experience. I’ve had my iphone and winmo crash numerous times (and by crash I mean I have to reset/power cycle the device, not just a program crash which happens on both too), the BB has been a solid performer. Now, that doesn’t mean it hasn’t crashed and never will, just that out of the 3 it seems to be least likely in my opinion and experience.
June 6th, 2008 at 9:49 am
Okay, the comments on this one are getting a little overheated.
Cali, I would never call you a bitch, and you did not deserve that. I sincerely hope the person who made these comments apologizes. Fred, if you’re reading this, you owe Cali an apology.
I do think your comments were biased, and showed a complete lack of knowledge of the corporate world and enterprise support in general. Yeah, the guy you were critiquing had some poor ideas, but he was right about one thing – Steve Jobs will need to do something different if he wants to target the business market. So far as I’ve seen, everyone who has been in a position to support both Windows, Linux and Apple devices has reported that Windows or Linux are much easier to support. I certainly know this from my own 20+ years in the field.
If you are going to comment in this area, I think you need to bring your education level on enterprise support. Basing your opinion on more emails from WM users? What percentage of your viewers actually have iPhones – may 10%? I’m very happy with my WM device. In addition to using it for voice, email, fax, and occasionally watching Geek Brief, I also tether it to my laptop when I’m in the field to use its internet connection when hotspots aren’t available. I did evaluate the iPhone, and it just wasn’t up to par. You mentioned that you think its dumb to put another brands stuff on your brand, but doesn’t everyone do that all the time? In fact, isn’t MS Activesynch on the iPhone? Isn’t one of the most popular apps on the Mac MS Office? At least half the people I talk to who have Macs also run Windows XP on the same machine (either through multi-boot or Parallels). This guys comments were a little overboard, but so are yours.
June 6th, 2008 at 9:53 am
I’m assuming that what Krakow knows and isn’t saying is, again, about the backend. Apple does not have an enterprise backend which is ESSENTIAL for selling to business customers. Anyone who works for a big company knows that their corporate IT doesn’t give a damn if you enjoy using your computer, or if it’s stable, or if it looks pretty. They only care if it’s easy and cheap for the IT department to manage. Same with phones. Apple needs to build or buy that piece if they want into the large and lucrative business market. They also need to be available on other carriers in the U.S.
BTW, I have no problem with your fangrrl attitude… We all know where you stand on things, and I can get passionless reporting that pretends to be unbiased anywhere.
June 6th, 2008 at 10:22 am
Remarks about show…
Apple Fans: You rock Cali what to stick it to that dude.
Tech Fans (who have in the past enjoyed the show for real tech news): Sad to see Cali act just as bad as the guy in the “news” story. Cali your better than this, unless this is the approach your gong to start on GB…if so I’m done.
June 6th, 2008 at 10:24 am
Cali – great show! I completely agree with your comments. I’m not an Apple iPhone user (got a free cell from work – hard to beat that price), but Gary Krakow has no idea what he is talking about. Why in the world would Apple want to use another mobile service’s platform? Your Coke/Pepsi analogy was dead on. Great cast Cali – I like it when you give your opinion and not just the facts.
P.S. If I did need to pay for my own cell, I would have an iPhone. No question about it.
June 6th, 2008 at 10:46 am
I am not a tech-journalist or -analyst. But I do agree with Gary Krakow(what ever my opinion is worth) that if Jobs wants a share of the business market of smartphones fast Jobs will have to do what Krakow said if he is patient Jobs may get a share if he wants one.
And further more you can have windows on a mac so why not windows mobile on iPhone. They will get more money that way and that is what it is all about in business money.
Personally I don’t want an iPhone or a mac i don’t like design of them(shunn the nondelivery) it is something about the design above all else.
And yes I am a boring engineering student that is stuck with an iPod because of DRM.
P.S. What happened to brief 371?
June 6th, 2008 at 11:51 am
Let me get three things out of the way: 1) I love GeekBrief, 2) I admire Apple and Steve Jobs, and 3) I am no lover of Microsoft and Windows.
OK. That said, I thought this brief wandered into a realm where Cali lacked the depth to make such sweeping statements about Apple, Blackberry, Steve Jobs, and the enterprise phone market.
I am a harsh critic of technology. But I recently got a Blackberry (as mandated by my employer) and I find it to be a superior device. It’s powerful and intuitive to use. Yes, I’ve had to ask questions, and not everything was obvious out of the box. But after a few days of getting up to speed, I’ve found the Blackbery to be one of the best-designed portable devices I’ve ever used (the iPod being the other).
I have no idea what Apple’s business strategy is. They may not have a burning desire to “own” corporate. But if they DO want to own corporate, they have a long way to go. Blackberry has a significant head start in this market, and corporate is not an area where the Steve Jobs “magic” is going to flip the market overnight. My officemate is the IT manager of our organization, so I’ve seen up close the heavy requirements for corporate computing and mobile devices. The iPhone may be sexy (and make no mistake, it is), but it will take more than that to gain the trust and confidence of IT folks who spend many late nights and weekends supporting these devices.
At any rate, I agree with those who felt this Brief is an unwelcome departure from the GeekBrief we all know and love. To criticize is one thing. To condescend is another–particularly when it seems to me (and apparently many others) that Cali’s grasp of this issue is possibly no greater than the target of her ire.
Let’s get back to the fun briefs, like when Cali was perched on her couch watching her various Macs have a bootup race. That’s the GeekBrief I love!
Scott
June 6th, 2008 at 12:26 pm
1) Pespi probably would be better off if they could get coke in their cans. Diet Coke anyway is clearly a superior product.
2) I enjoyed your snarkiness, and it had nothing to do with the merits of the respective devices. Both are clearly good products that have their following. The Highlander attitude is just plain wrong. Different people have different needs and the ability to make that choice based on your needs is a great thing. What I find hysterical is the idea that Apple and Steve Jobs NEEDS to do something, and I find it even funnier that people would consider that they might do it. Whatever people may think of Apple products, Apple as a company has a history of increasing shareholder value tremendously since Jobs returned as CEO. My impression of Steve Jobs is that he is a great CEO, and as such is an egomaniac and a control freak. He may not listen to anybody, and he is definitely not going to listen to love chile of Michael Moore and Andy Warhol.
3) FInally, Krakow’s advice is just plain stupid. There are dozens of Window’s Mobile devices out there and nobody would pay a premium for one with an Apple logo on the back. If I owned a blackberry, why would I give it up for a device with the same operating system but a different logo on the back. If there is one thing I know, is that Apple goes to great lengths to differentiate their brand, and is extremely unlikely to take an action to commoditize the brand.
June 6th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
Being no fan (but also not a hater, to be sure) of Apple, the episodes that smack of Mac Cultism are ones that make me cringe. The review of the MacBook Air episode made me seethe, though, with Cali’s “This is nothing like what I expected and it’s lacking key features I need, but I can’t directly say anything bad about it” review showed far far too much bias to be taken seriously, but I let it go and didn’t comment.
This however was far worse. I feel like I could say a number of awful things since this is the internet, but I won’t. But Cali, please: Apple bias and near worship of Mr. Jobs can only carry something so far. At some point factual analysis have to come into play, NOT severely biased, uninformed snark. I don’t know which was worse, your complete disregard of the technology or the presumption that you know what Apple’s business plan is and how Mr. Jobs feels about his products and their future.
I wouldn’t be surprised if you lost a lot of fans or at least respect because of this.
June 6th, 2008 at 12:41 pm
Also, the “put your competent product on our product” only doesn’t make sense if they’re the same thing. More accurate would be putting one company’s cane sugar into another’s soda syrup, not a complete beverage into another, to keep with the drink analogy. Way off base and inaccurate in the way you’re using it.
June 6th, 2008 at 12:45 pm
I agree with Cali on this, and frankly am disappointed at the harsh comments directed at her.
I have used many mobile devices over the years and the iPhone user experience is the best by far, and the research supports that. Sure there are things missing, and you can argue that it doesn’t do anything other phones do, which is true, but its the user interface and experience that defines the iPhone and makes it so desirable. The 2.0 update to iPhone this month should sort out some of the missing element of the phone, and add the business functionality provided to Windows Mobile devices by Active Sync, but done in a very Apple way.
Gary Krakow should not have a title of a tech journalist if this video is an example of his knowledge. The OS X operating system and UI on the iPhone is what makes the iPhone stand out, and it is clearly successful as just about every other manufacturer out there is trying to come up with a similar device, unfortunately the OS and user experience, in my opinion is just not there in other devices, yet.
My iPhone is a pleasure to use after spending 2 years fighting the S60 platform on my old Nokia, and the last time I looked it still hasn’t improved a great deal.
I like Blackberry devices, they work well, but the UI is old looking a tired, kind of like the email client I used 10 years ago, the iPhone gives me a client which looks like mail on my desktop, thats what I want.
I’ll agree with some of the comments about devices in a corporate environment need to be supportable on a large scale, I work in IT, I know the problems. iPhone has been around less than a year, the business functionality is lacking but should be addressed soon, only then and given a year or two on the market will anyone really be able to say if the iPhone can successfully fit into a corporate environment. Generally companies have Blackberry’s or Windows Mobile devices for the simple reason that have been around a few years and are generally the best choices out there up to this point.
Loved this episode Cali!
Craig
June 6th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
The comments of Gary Krakow are insane, but Cali is so out of her element here.
Saying that you get 70 emails a day asking you about problems with Win-mo and Rim is just laughable. Win-mo and RIM software might not be as cool looking, or wiz-bang as the IPhone, but in many ways they are more functional, perhaps a little more stable, but certainly perfectly useable.
There is a reason Apple stays out of the Enterprise market. It would absolutely destroy everything that people love about them. I was able to open a database of correspondence from Charles Darwin today that was written 10 years ago (the database, not the actual letters). The database opened perfectly on a Vista machine. Try doing something similar in 10.5. When you completely abandon support and compatibility with anything 4 years old or older, it frees you up to do all that cool stuff everyone thinks is so innovative. That’s why I own a Mac, but being able to find original letters from Charles Darwin is why I NEED windows.
June 6th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
First off, Id like to say that you (Cali) are absolutely and utterly wrong. How DARE you say something as biased as you did. This shows your complete and total lack of any intelligence, morality and agnosticism.
You have zero knowledge of the fields of business which you speak of, you are just as uninformed as the fool you so derided.
Because of last nights brief I plan on un-subscribing from all of your feeds and never returning.
You had no right to make the comment that the company known as “Pepsi” was better than “Coke”. Every idiot in the world can tell you otherwise. If Pepsi were to place Coke in their cans, their market value would double – NO, TRIPLE overnight!
Maybe you shouldn’t be doing a podcast. I don’t care that YOU like Pepsi, I like Coke and I’ll be damned if anybody tells me to watch something else.
Shame! Shame I say!
PS: Love the show, hate the haters.
June 6th, 2008 at 1:57 pm
I think the people who called Cali names should appologize immediately. That was very immature and rude.
I also think it is great that they have a passion for the devices they use. Keep of the good work guys.
You can read my opinion about the whole thing here http://tonychall.com/?p=8
June 6th, 2008 at 2:35 pm
bitchy much?
June 6th, 2008 at 4:20 pm
I like your show. I really do. I think you bring tech to the masses and you make it fun.
BUT
Your assertion that the Blackberry OS is “crappy” really was silly. I could quote you facts on more market share than the iphone and growing, to boot but I don’t have to do that.
Ask your fellow Apple fanboy Leo Laporte what cell phone he uses NOW over the iPhone? I’ll give you a hint, its the same one I’m using to type this comment from standing at the train staion.
Peace
Carlos
June 6th, 2008 at 4:30 pm
Blackberry and WM eats Apple’s lunch in the enterprise market. Frankly until Apple comes out with a device with a keyboard they wont get the enterprise market regardless. Oh and Jobs is already paying M$FT for activesync , so both you and Krakow were wrong. What is up with all this apple love. I mean I cant watch Slingbox on an iphone. I cant access a 3G network (yet). WM has turned in a solid mobile OS which I will admit Apple has helped by their snazzy interface. Personally Id rather buy a cheaper and more powerful device than a flashy one.
June 6th, 2008 at 5:01 pm
ugh. I’ve had it with Geekbrief. Count me out.
Just call it Applebrief and be done with it.
June 6th, 2008 at 5:27 pm
Your show used to be interesting, before you became a close minded Mac fanboy. I removed it from my tivo downloads.
June 6th, 2008 at 5:39 pm
I have not read all of the comments so I apologize if I repeat a previously stated remark. I for one am very glad to see Cali Lewis on the hardcore apple fangirl list again. This is not to say that she has not been a obedient fan/supporter/defender/lover of apple. I think Cali has been all of those, however I have seen the “fairness bug” bite her and she has been overly fair ( in my opinion) to the windows platform. Don’t get me wrong. I have used windows for years but part of my love of geekbrief has been the love for Mac. I don’t mean to criticize Cali or the show, in fact I love how the show has grown and transformed. I merely wanted to state how I truly love it when Cali is unabashedly an apple fanatic. I think defending apple, especially when the accusations made are ludicrous (such as in the “thestreet.com” video), is much like defending a family member. You love them so much that even though they have some faults and you, yourself can criticize, no one else can. Keep doing us right Cali!
June 6th, 2008 at 7:26 pm
@another sam
@mike
sorry, i didnt mean the actual OS, because if the iPhone is anything like my iPod Touch it is completely unstable (my iPod Touch freezes up at least every other day, although I do use it almost constantly.) I meant the RIM service. Didn’t push email or something stop working?
Here, this time I have links!
http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/11/rim-affirms-that-blackberry-services-are-down/
http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/04/17/blackberry-network-down/
http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/04/18/blackberry-email-still-down-withdrawal-setting-in/
http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/09/07/rim-experiencing-another-blackberry-outage/
Obviously I haven’t gained any experience on these topics since yesterday, so i’m still ignorant.
I really do wish apple would let me get an iPhone on Sprint though. It might be easier to convince my parents if we didnt have to switch providers.
So will the next episode be 371? or will 371 be your guys’ 124? (Dawn and Drew Show reference)
-@derekbishe
June 6th, 2008 at 7:36 pm
@John Long
How can you be “overly” fair?
June 6th, 2008 at 7:48 pm
Having read all of the comments, I am shocked at the comments made. It seems to me that if you have something bad to say, that you should handle it in a mature manner. I cannot believe some of the language I heard. I think that some of the people who commented should be ashamed of themselves. I apologize on behalf of some of my more immature fellow watchers. Thank you for the great show and keep up the good work!
June 6th, 2008 at 11:27 pm
hi Neal/Cali,
Always loved your show, with my coffe in the morning it’s perfect !
I’m surprise that for once you broke your own rule about taking of stuff on the air… to quote you on an earliest geekbrief : “…if i don’t love it, i simply don’t talk about it. I prefer having a most positive approach…”.
Seems to me that this one is done from the heart instead of the head.
I don’t know, just throuwing a ball here : is one of your future sponsor is Apple? That could at least explain this podshow.
regards
June 7th, 2008 at 9:25 am
Unsubscribed after that piece of Apple propaganda. “Steve knows what he’s doing”, sheesh.
June 7th, 2008 at 10:49 am
Cali,
Love your show. Love my Drobo.
Respectfully, my work pays for my AT&T cell phone. Am sure you know, that most organizations pay for cellphones to support email access offsite. Short of paying my own way and carrying two phones, I can not own an iPhone but would like one.
Don’t know if my situation is statistically significant, but it sucks anyway. If he had not included the Windows Mobile comment he would have had more credibility, but IMHO, he wasn’t so wrong.
Estaban
June 7th, 2008 at 3:53 pm
What’s the difference between an Apple user and a Windows user? Windows users don’t talk as if they’re in a cult.
June 7th, 2008 at 3:56 pm
While we’re on the subject of the iPhone, I hope all you iPhone users are enjoying your whizzy interface behind all the greasy finger prints you daub all over your screens.
The difference between me and Steve Jobs is that I’ve used touch screens long enough to know they’re not the next big thing. Been there done that, watching all the Apple users have a Steve-gasm while he catches up with the curve.
June 7th, 2008 at 4:31 pm
No worries I’ll always stick with the show even though I’m an avid PC user. It was a little off color from your normal show but it’s your show! Do what you want! There’s always great info on the show.
I’ve be using a PC since the late 80’s and in my career as a game artist I’ve always had to use a PC. I went with PC because that’s what I used at work and wanted to stay compatible. The problems I have are very rare and I don’t need a miracle to recover from it. I need to not open 30 programs at once and max out my system. But that’s beside the point.
I like Apple, I like their designs and style. Like every company even they can miss some features sometime. No matter what I’m using there are always features I think, what it doesn’t do this?
What I don’t get about Apple and it’s fans is is need to insult PC users. To me that’s not thinking different. They insult us but yet want us to buy their stuff. It’s just not good karma.
A computer any computer is just a tool and is only as creative as it’s user. All I want is compatibly so we can all play and work together. I don’t think that’s to much to ask.
June 9th, 2008 at 5:43 am
Cali – I think you are so insulated in your Apple Fan Boy tech world, you don’t have a clue as to what is going on in the corporate enviornment. I agree that Krakow didn’t articulate his point of view very well, but your comments did nothing to persuade anyone to your point of view either. Get smart on the topics you comment on you would be better off not commenting.
June 9th, 2008 at 6:26 am
Blackberry is crappy software?
And I used to think this show had a little class. Insipid beer commercials, and now an uninformed, Apple-Sponsored comment on an OS you’ve obviously never tried. You want to claim to give tech “news”? Try something above the tabloids
Podcast deleted out of iTunes.
June 9th, 2008 at 9:03 am
I am going to have to agree with some of the pratical IT folks on this round of messages. While I enjoy beating the unarmed as much as the next technology evangelist, this is really poor form and it comes across more than a bit misinformed by Cali.
Get the facts out of the way Blackberry is the single most used product in the corporate enviornment today. Windows mobile is years away of competing for the marketshare. The iPhone is third, but needs to do something alraming to be in the top 2.
That said, Jobs has had his way in the retail segment with MS and clearly has done the right thing with the conception of the iPhone. The problem is not just the iPhone and thier technology, but Apple as a corporation is not business friendly. I run my own small business and I consult to 5 of the top 10 financial institutions in the world. I have an iPhone. The integratin is terrible, the support from Apple has made me a skeptic in my interest of buying an Apple product. AT&T has offered me two different types of phones when I have had issue with the iPhone, but Apple has them handcuffed from a support perspective. Apple actually had an employee tell me that I should have a backup phone for situations when the iPhone has trouble and needs to go back to Apple.
Cali, I think it behooves you to stick to your strong suits and deal in the shiny happy gadget world. The corporate world is not just good tech, but support and integration as well. Apple’s active sync licsense will not close that gap. They have been in to several customers in order to ink a corporate agreement and gotten nowhere because form was more important than function. The lack of cut and paste (an Apple pioneering technology) is an example of how woefully short sited they are as a company. Corporate folks don’t tolerate the kind of BS that Apple has the habit of dealing.
To be clear, I will buy the iPhone 2.0 when it comes out, I will also likely begin to use more of the services that it will provide on the consumer side, but the corporate side is waiting for Steve to wake up and understand their needs rather than the Jedi mind trick Steve trys to play with the public.
As for Krakow, he is an idiot and shouldn’t speak in front of people or in any medium that he is communicating an important message.
Just my thoughts…
Scott
June 9th, 2008 at 9:29 am
Comparing Microsoft to Apple is like comparing water to beer. Beer has its place, but it lacks generic suitability.
Apple is a niche company, and will likely never be anything more. This is because the focus is on “impressiveness” and not “effectiveness”. Is this a bad thing? Not really; it has made Steve a billionaire. It simply will never lead to the overthrow of Microsoft. Gary Krakow’s mistake is in believing that Steve wants market dominance instead of celebrity.
Additionally, Apple’s business model smacks of IBM in the early 70s; absolute control. While absolute control allows clarity of purpose, it does not allow flexibility of solutions. Therefore, it will never lead to market dominance.
So, for all of the Apple devotes, go have a (Becks) beer and enjoy the evening. Tomorrow you will have to satisfy your thirst during working hours with water.
June 9th, 2008 at 12:45 pm
I was a couple days late watching this episode and I can see it did spark the sort of comments I myself came here today to post.
I look to Geekbrief for tech news, advice, gadgets etc. It is one thing to have a favorite platform and an entirely different thing to present information to your audience drenched in opinion, bias and sarcasm. That very reason is why I stopped watching Textra with Natalie Del Conte when it was around. I look to you and others like you for news and information about all things tech. Save the unfounded bias, opinion, remarks and smart-assery for another venue.
June 10th, 2008 at 12:47 am
Cali I love the show and I think that you totally rock.. Though this particular episode I am partly on this guy’s side… The iPhone is basically a smartphone. Which makes it a phone great for business. Though it kinda lacks in that area (business i mean)… From what I have read about the iphone announcement is that they are headed that way; they have the iphone setup to work with Microsoft Exchange, which is great for people in the business world. Though I agree with you that Apple doesn’t need Blackberry or Windows Mobile on the phone. But to sync to it is what it needs to be an greater success.
I am prob going to switch to ATT to get the iPhone next year, though I am not so sure I want to go to a slower network. I am kinda looking forward to what Android is going to be like, and if it’s on a phone I like better and is cheaper I will prob stay right where I am just with a different phone… Windows Mobile just isnt all that great. Microsoft is not a company that I care for…
June 12th, 2008 at 5:19 pm
Episode 372 hasn’t made it to TiVo yet (perhaps a good thing!) when later ones have. So I watched it here (bad move). The Beck’s pre-roll was more interesting than the video and I’ve seen the pre-roll every time it’s rolled. This episode inspired me to do one thing and it wasn’t to become an Apple fanatic or drink Beck’s. I was inspired me to pop open a cold MGD. Perhaps you should work out a deal with Miller Brewing. The novelty of GeekBrief is starting to wear thin.
June 15th, 2008 at 12:09 pm
What Crack is Gary Krakow smoking?
I wonder if he still owns shares in Netscape (That very entrench browser that was all the rage)
Speaking of being owned who’s payroll is he on?
June 27th, 2008 at 12:33 am
Cali, you have completely lost it.
You might as well spent the whole episode
telling viewers why you are so in debt
to Steve Jobs! SUCK UP!
Get up off your knees, Cali.
You are better than this crap!
June 30th, 2008 at 12:59 am
Actually, I think that this brief shows why it’s nice to watch podcasts, rather than get tech news only from traditional-type sources. Cali started by saying this brief was different and admitting that she was going to be uncharacteristically snarky. And, in case you missed that, the format of the show, cutting between the video and Cali’s comments, clearly showed that she was picking on this guy, not doing a traditional news-like podcast.
Watching someone’s podcast is like getting to know that person. There’s a personal element that doesn’t exist in traditional news sources. And if Cali wants to do an odd show where she just rags on some guy and supports Apple, I say go ahead. It’s like a friend saying “Okay, I just have to vent…” and then going off on something. You forgive the hard-to-justify comments, because you know the place it’s coming from. At least she had the consideration to alert us that this wasn’t the usual Brief.
November 11th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
I will never give up my Crackberry. Called Crackberry because its so addictive! And Apple have never seriously targeted the business market for their products and I don’t think they will start now.
December 25th, 2009 at 1:30 pm
Hey. I couldn’t get through to this page the other day. Anyone else had the problem?