The biggest news in tech this week has been Steve Jobs‘ announcement that he was resigning as CEO of Apple.

Jobs’s run at Apple has been exceptional. As CEO, he took an also-ran tech company and turned it into the most valuable company in the world, introducing a lot of cool technology, along the way.

But, while the world of technology struggles to figure out what Jobs’ announcement means for the future of Apple, it’s clear that Jobs’ achievements at Apple are more than the Mac, the iMac, the iPhone or the iPad.

Steve Jobs’ Two Greatest Achievements

Steve Jobs’s two greatest achievements weren’t new computers or gadgets, but revolutionizing how we create and consume media in ways that have ultimately changed the world: the computerization of media creation and the computerization of media consumption.

The Computerization Of Media Creation

When the Apple Macintosh was introduced in 1984, it was a great idea, constrained by underpowered hardware. It came with MacWrite and MacPaint, but practical applications for the machine were hard to find.

That changed in 1985, with the introduction of Aldus Pagemaker, which allowed what-you-see-is-what-you-get page layout, and Apple’s release of the LaserWriter printer. Instantly, the benefits of using a graphic user interface were made apparent.

It’s difficult to understand, after so many years, how radically the Mac + Pagemaker + LaserWriter combination changed things. But the rise of desktop publishing revolutionized publishing.

It wasn’t until a decade later, with the introduction of Windows 95, that the benefits of the ideas embodied in the original Macintosh went mainstream. In that intervening decade, though, the Mac had begun an inexorable process of decimating old approaches to media production.

People realized that they could set type themselves, killing off typesetting businesses. Then people realized they could compose and output completed layouts themselves, killing off the ‘stripping’ business. Then people started doing their own image retouching and color work, killing off the color house business.

And the destruction of traditional print production was just the beginning.

While Apple stagnated during Job’s years away from the company, his return in 1995 signaled a new emphasis on creating media on the Mac.

In 1999, Apple introduced iMovie and the iMac DV – a combination designed to bring digital video editing to mainstream consumers. And, in 2004, Apple introduced GarageBand. The combination turned every Mac sold into a platform for audio and video media creation, and established the platform as the de facto standard for digital media creation.

While other platforms have clearly been important in the transition to digital content creation – Apple did more than any other company to mainstream desktop publishing, digital audio editing and digital video editing. This trend has radically democratized the way we create books, music, magazines, music videos and just about any type of media.

The Computerization Of Media Consumption

Just as Apple, under Jobs, mainstreamed new media publishing, the company has relentlessly worked on mainstreaming digital media consumption.

Maybe Jobs was uniquely capable at capitalizing on this trend, having previously led the pioneering digital animation company, Pixar.

Jobs’ second reign at Apple has been defined by three media consumption devices: the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad.

It’s easy to see the iPod, introduced in 2001, as a digital version of its predecessor, the Sony Walkman. And that’s exactly how most tech analysts viewed it – a way to carry your music around with you.

But the iPod was such a quantum leap over the Walkman that it was really something different – the replacement for personal CD libraries – and the status quo for music and audio delivery.

Jobs understood that the iPod was more than a better Walkman. So Apple introduced the iTunes store, which, for better or worse, made music stores irrelevant.

And Apple mainstreamed podcasting, adding support for it to iTunes, the iPod and GarageBand. By the mid 90′s, anybody with a Mac could create music or audio shows and deliver it, completely digitally, to anyone, anywhere in the world.

This was a radical change, but one that has been duplicated with digital photos and digital video.

The iPhone is a phone, obviously, but when Jobs introduced the device, he emphasized that it had three main functions: phone, iPod and Internet. Two thirds of its features focused on media consumption.

The iPad is the culmination of this trend. It’s a pure digital media device that becomes a newspaper, magazines, the radio and a television as you need it to.

Jobs and Apple will be remembered for many things. But their biggest achievements have been democratizing media by mainstreaming digital media creation and digital media consumption.

Ambrosia Software has announced the release of WireTap Anywhere 2.0, a major update to the audio routing and mixing software – a popular tool for Mac-based podcasters.

WireTap Anywhere can take the audio output from any combination of Mac applications or hardware input devices, and route it into your favorite audio processing applications.

The new 2.0 version of WireTap Anywhere lets you:

• Create virtual input devices with an arbitrary number of channels of audio.
• Discretely map audio channels from software applications and hardware devices in any combination you choose.
• Adjust audio levels on a per-channel basis both pre- and post-mix.
• Preview your audio mix before you ever hit the record button.

WireTap Anywhere is available now for $129. Registered users of WireTap Anywhere 1.x can upgrade to version 2.0 for $69.

If you’ve been waiting for Apple to release a cheap Mac netbook or an inexpensive tablet computer, don’t expect it to happen anytime soon.

Or ever.

Here’s why.

While the Mac is a niche computer, Apple’s targeted the most profitable niche and it’s done it very successfully.

According to the latest numbers from NPD, Apple gets nearly half of the US retail revenue for computer sales. The reason for this is that Apple has intentionally ignored the cutthroat bottom-end of the PC business and has focused on selling great premium computers.

The average selling price for a Mac laptop in October was $1,410, compared to $519 for Windows laptops. Apple isn’t interested in competing in an unprofitable area of the industry.

I’d like to be able to buy a cheap Mac netbook or tablet for blogging and mobile audio production, but it’s not going to happen anytime soon. Or ever.

via betanews

Microsoft is considering bringing the Zune software to Apple’s Macintosh OS X, according to an article at via ZDNet:

Microsoft is considering whether it should port the Zune software and services to other platforms, including Apple’s. There’s no guarantee that the Redmondians will end up doing this — or timetable as to when this could happen — but it’s one of many strategies under active consideration.

“We are evaluating a lot of options in terms of platforms,” says Microsoft’s Jose Pinero, when asked about this scenario.He noted that with the addition of the ability to stream music from a browser that is part of the new Zune 4.0 experience, Mac and Linux users already can stream music to their systems if they have a ZunePass subscription. The streaming capability isn’t limited to Internet Explorer; it works with any browser, he said.

Microsoft’s decision not to support Mac OS X has always seemed like a strategic blunder.

While Macs are a tiny fraction of the computer market, a huge percentage of Windows machines are corporate boxes that users can’t attach portable media players to, anyway. On the home front, Apple’s captured captured most of the high-end market.

New media types are also disproportionately Mac users, which means that there are a lot fewer people blogging, podcasting and vlogging about the Zune.

Competing with against the iPod on Apple’s own turf would be a huge challenge for Microsoft, but it’s something that they’re going to have to do if they want to move beyond competing based on price.

Kodak has released the Kodak Zi8 Pocket Video Camera, a $179 HD handicam which features – finally – an external mic jack.

There are a lot of cheap portable video cameras, but almost all of them suffer from horrible sound and no support for better mics.

Let’s hope that other companies will follow Kodak’s lead and start including external mic jacks on their cameras.

Here are the Kodak Zi8′s features:

• Capture HD quality 1080p video with 16:9 aspect ratio
• Plenty of room for more—record up to 10 hours of HD video with the expandable SD/SDHC card slot that can hold up to 32 GB*
• Make audio awesome—the external microphone jack lets you record in stereo
• Get a new perspective—take amazing 5 MP 16:9 widescreen HD still pictures
• Get sharper videos and less blur thanks to built-in image stabilization
• No USB cables necessary, just swing out the USB arm to upload, share, and charge
• Complementary HDMI cable lets your videos debut in full glory
• Share on Facebookâ„¢ and YouTubeâ„¢ social networking sites with ease—built-in software makes editing and uploading simple
• Compatible with PC and MAC operating systems

If you’ve used the Kodak Zi8, leave a comment with your thoughts on it!

Apple has published an article looking at how the Orange County Sheriff’s Department (OCSD) is using podcasting for communciations and training:

The Orange County Sheriff’s Department (OCSD), much like any organization with a critical mission, requires lightning-fast communications between senior staff and troops. The department also needs to deliver in-depth training, especially for situations that involve a high risk of exposure to injury or liability. The need for fast, easily accessed communications is more important than ever, particularly for staff members who’ve grown up in the Internet age.

To more effectively reach its far-flung workforce, OCSD is using Apple Podcast Producer, an integral part of Mac OS X Leopard Server, to create podcasts in-house. The media services made possible by Podcast Producer rival the quality of a professional broadcast facility—all at a fraction of the cost.

The article is obviously Mac-centric, but it has some good info on the technologies that the OCSD is using, including the OCSD’s workflow:

Staff can capture podcast content on MacBook Pro computers using the Capture desktop application in Mac OS X. They can then submit content to Podcast Producer for automatic processing. This enables OCSD to create, encode, publish, and distribute high-quality podcasts on a large scale that are available to staff via iTunes, iPod, iPhone, and other means.

Link

Netflix today announced it has released its 2nd-generation media player, based on Microsoft Silverlight, which brings the company’s Internet video service to subscribers with Intel-based Mac computers for the first time. The deployment, which will initially touch a small percentage of new Netflix subscribers, is the first step in an anticipated roll-out of the new platform to all Netflix subscribers by the end of the year.

Among the viewing enhancements with the new player is timeline navigation, which improves fast-forwarding and rewinding.

For Macintosh users, the Silverlight player will work only on Intel-based Macs, which currently account for roughly three-fourths of Mac units operated by Netflix subscribers.

This is a video introduction to voXover – a Mac voice-over automation utility and batch-recorder designed for projects that require large numbers of individual audio files to be recorded.

 

Key Features

• Organizes scripts into manageable, hierarchical “chunks”
• Uses Bonjour technologies allowing remote machines to log into sessions
• Teleprompter mode for Bonjour-connected clients
• Works with pre-defined script or completely free-form
• Does not require users to learn proprietary markup languages
• Names files based on tokens such as take number, session, and abbreviated line
• Allows users to specify any number of takes per line
• Creates takes based on silence
• Exports takes based on ratings
• Automatically trims and pads takes when exporting
• Exports files as AIFF, WAVE, Wave Editor, SDII, or CAF
• Intelligent import utility imports scripts from TXT, RTF, CSV, or tab-delimited files
• Utilizes (and requires) features in OS X 10.4 (Tiger)
• Support for all audio hardware
• Support for multiple channel inputs
• Optimized for Altivec/SSE
• Universal binary

voXover 1.0.1 is priced at $375. Users of Gallery’s VoicePro X can crossgrade to voXover for only $325.

Audio Recorder is a free program that lets you record with your Mac from any input device directly to AIFF, WAV, MP3, MP4 or AppleLossLess formats.

Download link

Take Control Books has published a new ebook, Take Control of Podcasting on the Mac, 2nd Edition.

The ebook, by Andy J. Williams Affleck, covers what you need to begin your first podcast, without spending much (if any) money.

Changes in the book include coverage of WireTap Studio and Übercaster; updated Garageband coverage and tips on getting great interviews. 

Take Control of Podcasting on the Mac is $10 at the Take Control site. 

Topics covered in the book include:

• What types of microphones are best for podcasting?
• Which software should I use to record and edit my podcast?
• How can I find and use audio plug-ins to improve my podcast’s sound quality?
• What’s the best way to conduct a podcast interview?
• Should I record directly into MP3 format or encode later?
• How do I remove weird pauses or other glitches from my recording?
• How do I smoothly add music to the start and end of my podcast?
• What should I watch out for when choosing an Internet host for my podcast?
• What tools are available for publishing podcasts?
• Where should I promote my podcast to attract the most listeners?
• Can anyone create a podcast and list it in the iTunes Store?