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Steve Jobs 1955-2011
the Man who brought us the iPod, iPhone & iPad and made flying easier for generations to come died today. (www.apple.com) Más...Sort type: [Top] [Newest]
....and wanna check out the future now...see http://www.foreflight.com/ipad. Yes, it is all about iPADS and iPHONES and what we as people and pilots want to make aviation cheaper, safer and better.
I accept that some people understand how ideas and inspiration drives innovation, but others need to see an immediate physical link. So, here are a few examples of how Steve Jobs has drectly changed aviation. The new Garmin 3000 is the first touchscreen controlled interface ever for light turbine aircraft. Although touchscreen technology was invented in 1956 it was Apple under Steve Jobs who first put it into a phone and the rest is history. With the release and mass uptake of the iPhone the rest of the industry had to play catchup and fast, otherwise they would lose the race. In a world where ordinary people are now used to and want touch interfaces it is inevitable that aviation instrumentation is following the trend set by ... guess who...Steve Jobs. In the same way as servers in restaurants are now taking your order on an iPAD, Alaska airlines has offically adopted iPADS to replace paper charts. Delta and United are busy implementing the necessary changes in this direction. Whilst there will be expensive proprietry EFBs used, at a fraction of the cost, iPADS (from Steve Jobs), at a fraction of the cost, more versatile and hugely reliable will increasingly be the choice of most aviators. So, next time you feel your fingers doing the walking, thank Steve Jobs, Henry Ford and a few others whose ideas changed the world as much as what they personally made.
Andre, easy buddy, easy.... Apple was not the first comapny to integrate a touchscreen into a phone. Look at comapanies like HP, Sony, Palm and IBM. The IBM Simon was most likely the first touchscreen mobile phone, which launched in 1993-94. The first iPhone came out in 2007!! Many more touchscreen phones came out before then. Since touchscreens have been around for decades now, i don't think that Aviation is getting into it just because Apple finally decided to incorporate the technology into a phone in 2007. Next time my fingers are gliding across a touchscreen, i won't be thanking Steve Jobs. I will be thanking the guy who invented it back in 1965, thank you very much!! Give credit where credit is due.
Yes indeed we understand the difference between inventing and popularizing. As I pointed out, touchscreen was invented in 1956. Apple iPhones made it sexy and hence desirable. Before, nobody had managed to make a commercially successful touchscreen phone or tablet until Apple came along. It is this aspect that drives consumer (and professional) demand. And it is this commercial vector that Garmin et al are driven by. Personally I use a qwerty keyboard phone...but I know its days are numbered. In the words of Bono..."Steve Jobs literally invented the 21st century.". It is not ideas or inventions that change the world (and aviation), but the people who turn these ideas into action. That's about it from me...the rest I hand to the Wright brothers.
Sad to see that he had to go in such a way. But, i really can not go along with "... he made great contributions to aviation." Please tell me what contributions he made to avaiation? And please, don't go off spewing about the bloody iPad/iPhone. Just because numerous poeple drank the KoolAid, it does not mean that Steve Jobs made any sort of meaningful contribution to aviation. I am pretty sure that he did not sit in the board room and said, "let's make the iPad for pilots!" No, he and apple made it for the masses. You don't need a MAcBook to do avaiation research. You don't need an iPhone to call FSS and whatever you may do on an iPad, you can do on most any other slates. Again, what contribution did he make?
How can't you realize that the iPads are saving millions of square miles of forests every year, just ask Jeppesen how sales of paper charts are coming down. Double effect, a contribution to aviation as reading charts off iPads is a lot faster and simpler, and a contribution to ecology.
Again, you don't need an iPad to do this. Notebook/tablet computers have been saving trees for decades now. Also, please look at this link: http://www.flyelectronic.net/hardware.html . It is not only the iPad that you can read charts on. Sorry to burst your bubble, but Apple is not saving the world!