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The Steve Jobs quote in response to Walt Mossberg's question: The core functions of the device form factor formerly known as the cellphone, whatever we want to
by localhost 3y ago
The Steve Jobs quote in response to Walt Mossberg's question:
The core functions of the device form factor formerly known as the cellphone, whatever we want to call it — the pocket device — what would you say the core functions are five years out?
at the centerpiece of Ben's argument is lovely.
I don’t know.
The reason I don’t know is because I wouldn’t have thought that there would have been maps on it five years ago. But something comes along, gets really popular, people love it, get used to it, you want it on there. People are inventing things constantly and I think the art of it is balancing what’s on there and what’s not — it’s the editing function.
Contrast it with Bill Gates' answer to the same question:
How quickly all these things that have been somewhat specialized — the navigation device, the digital wallet, the phone, the camera, the video camera — how quickly those all come together, that’s hard to chart out, but eventually you’ll be able to make something that has the capability to do every one of those things. And yet given the small size, you still won’t want to edit your homework or edit a movie on a screen of that size, and so you’ll have something else that lets you do the reading and editing and those things. Now if we could ever get a screen that would just roll out like a scroll, then you might be able to have the device that did everything.
It makes me reflect on how important it is to remain humble about the possibilities of AI and what developers can create using it (and the tools that they will use to create it). "And we are just getting started".
- smallerfish 3y agoHow wrong was Gates though? Maybe it's generational, but I wouldn't want to edit homework or a movie on the screen. I vastly prefer chatting and composing emails on desktop or a laptop. I primarily use my phone for exactly the 5 things he lists. I get the overall point, but he wasn't so wrong.
- esafak 3y agoHe wasn't, but he didn't show Jobs' humility. Jobs could have given the same answer; he was no less visionary than Gates. This interview was from 2007. Apple started work on tablets (the Newton) in 1987, when they ran ads like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umJsITGzXd0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umJsITGzXd0
- cma 3y agoIs that vid an example of his visionariness? Jobs was fired from Apple in 1985.
- vineyardmike 3y agoBut he also wasn’t entirely right. Take Uber, before cell phones, you could never invent Uber. Sure taxis exist, but the idea that you can call a taxi to your physical body’s location without talking to anyone would be ridiculous. Oh and this payment is automatic, and the car has automatically been sent realtime turn by turn directions that update in real time due to traffic conditions or missed turns. Jobs knew to shut up and let people invent. Gates said they know the “exact 5 things” people use. Edit: not to mention all the associated tech like better traffic conditions due to the aggregation of every drivers location 24/7
- motoxpro 3y agoMillions of people edit videos on tiktok and IG. It's the biggest video editing software in the world
- cycomachead 3y agoI have a close friend, who's an Azure dev -- uses his MS laptop for work, his phone for everything else. And I do mean everything - taxes, trip planning, etc. It's not just crazy kids who "know nothing but phones". Even engineers. That said, phones operate too much like appliances. I will not give up my Mac.
- FractalHQ 3y agoIt makes me very sad that this is true, simply due to the crippling limitations imposed by a cell phone and the implications of this trend gaining so much traction. I feel so claustrophobic and handicapped doing anything remotely complex on my iPhone. I would always rather wait until I can sit and pull my MacBook out of my backpack.
- pixl97 3y agoA new high end cell phone is much faster and capable than the majority of computers I've owned, with a higher video resolution If I was really interested in doing more work on my cell I could get a keyboard for it and use the stylus I have in it even more. I'm sure in the past people would have never expected a phone to be so powerful. And we should revere AI in the same way. Might not do much now, but that could/can change very rapidly.
- qingcharles 3y agoIt's so depressingly hard though. I have a 65" screen mounted portrait to edit my TikToks, but the problem is that a lot of the features in editors these days, like CapCut, are only available in the mobile apps, so I have to sit there for the final step, with my phone, hacking away at the screen just to get the captions right.
- fuzztester 3y ago>Contrast it with Bill Gates' answer to the same question: Bill who? Oh yeah, been a while, so I kinda forgot: Bill "640k is enough for anyone" Gates. https://www.google.com/search?q=640k+is+enough+for+anyone https://www.google.com/search?q=640k+is+enough+for+anyone Whether that quote is apocryphal or not, it's a good one.