Who stole our Iris? #iLost

Apple have come in for quite a lot of slagging and criticism for their new Maps App - much of it justified. Here at the National College of Ireland there is more evidence that the Apple App is not quite as it should be. 

Image Source: www.ncirl.ie.

Outside of the front of the College is a sculpture called "The Iris". It was created by leading Irish artist Vivienne Roche, engineered by ARUP Consulting Engineers in Cork, and fabricated by Steele & Co based in New Ross in 2006. It is 14 metres high and is impossible to miss if you are in Mayor Square - unless of course you are Apple!

Apple have decided to dump Google from their iPhones and iPads, and at great expense have created their own Maps App in a deal with Sat Nav company TomTom. Apple Co-founder Steve Wozniak does not think that the problems "are that severe" and that "there are a lot of complaints about one little thing people spot, but it’s not that hard to deal with in life".

So it's not a big deal that the NCI Iris is gone from Apple Maps, but what I'm wondering is how did they miss it? What software used rendered this out? Are there any other sculptures and monuments missing from Apple Maps? Tweet with the #iLost hashtag if you know of one! Below are two screen shots from my iPhone: one of Google Maps clearly showing the Iris in the middle (including a shadow!), while the other from the Maps app shows an empty space where the Iris should be!

Apple's Maps App	Google Maps

My Tribute to Steve Jobs

Image link to EveryBodySucksButUs. 

The news this morning that Steve Jobs has died from cancer is not unexpected - but very sad nonetheless. I, like a lot of people, admired him for many years. His name, with probably only Bill Gates, was part of computer technology vocabulary - in the 1980s and 1990s he was held in the highest regard long before the iPod, iPhone, and iPad arrived.

A young Steve Jobs with the original Apple Mac.
Photo link from thenextweb.com.

When I first used the Apple Mac, exactly like the one in the photo of a young Jobs to the right, I had no idea that this was just the beginning of many years of innovation in technology. There was nothing else like it - by the time the Apple Mac was launched in 1984 I had not used a PC and the Apple II computer in the Zoology Dept in Trinity stood unused by all - all my computer use was on the DEC 20 mainframe in an old building in Pearse Street. Apple, and Jobs, has a strong influence on me in the mid-80s, but after I was finished in Trinity I have never used a Mac for anything (other than clicking on a few icons in a computer shop).

I don't know when I bought my first iPod - my daughters had them long before me. Right beside me now in my kitchen I can see my iPhone, my wife's iPad and iPod Mini, and my daughter's iPod. Each of the five of us in our family has an iPhone - we joke that we should change our name from O'Loughlin to iLoughlin.

I know that Apple is a huge organization that is bigger than one man, but it is a tribute to him that Jobs is seen as Mr Apple and that the company might not be the same again. It won't be, but it will continue to innovate and produce wonderful services and products.

May he rest in peace in iHeaven.

Steve Jobs Resignation from Apple

It says something about a CEO of a company that his/her resignation makes the news all over the world and causes the stock market to shake. 

A young Steve Jobs with the original Apple Mac.
Phote link from thenextweb.com.

The news that Steve Jobs has resigned as Apple CEO is sad news - the implication being that his ongoing health problems are clearly preventing him from doing the job he loves. His recent gaunt appearances over the past year show an ill man. His influence on our day-to-day lives is enormous. In my house we have five iPhones and two iPads. Apple is one of the most valuable companies in the world. iPods, iPhones, iTouchs, and iPads are among the most successful and talked about gadgets in the world with many imitators. I've no doubt that Apple will continue to innovate, be creative, and be successful without him. 

I first used the Apple Mac (pictured right) in Trinity to write up my PhD in 1987. At first there was a small number of them available in a computer lab under the railway arches near Pearse Street - later the Zoology Department (where I was based) acquired two Macs and I had one assigned to me. I thought I was in technology heaven! There was no hard drive - everything was done on 3.5" floppy disks. The windows, icons, mouse, pull-down menus (WIMPs as it was called) were a wonder to someone who had only ever used a mainframe computer with command line input before. I often say that I must have been one of the first postgraduate students in Trinity to submit a PhD thesis written on a Mac. But since then I have never used an Apple computer - always using a PC instead. It is not until the arrival of the iPod and iPhone that I started to use Apple products again.

I do hope that Jobs continues to have influence in Apple, but that he also continues his influence outside of Apple too. Take a look at the YouTube video below of Jobs at a Stanford graduation ceremony in 2005 - he ends with a wise message to young people - "Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish".