Steve Jobs once said:

Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes… the ones who see things differently — they’re not fond of rules… You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things… they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.

Jobs was one of us. He was a baby boomer, just like the past few presidents, Bill Gates, and many other leaders in the digital era and captains of industry … and just like many of us, in some respects.

Let us not forget that America’s largest demographic group – baby boomers – has reshaped the country for better or worse. But Jobs was different. He was unlike any of his peers in technology or corporate America.

While others in technology were and still are caught up in the machinations of tech stuff, Jobs knew that the only thing that really mattered was how we might perceive and value his innovations. He dreamed, questioned, challenged himself and others … and gave the country and the world good things intended to bring value to our lives.

Jobs said, “A lot of companies have chosen to downsize, and maybe that was the right thing for them. We chose a different path. Our belief was that if we kept putting great products in front of customers, they would continue to open their wallets.”

Many of us learned of his passing on one of his technology devices.

Jobs grew up in the pop culture of the San Francisco area and was shaped by the free-thinking liberalism dominant there in the 60s and 70s. He dated Joan Baez, tried LSD and kept emotional ties to the period in which he grew up. Viewed as a corporate outsider, he built Apple in the reflection of his unconventionality.

Jobs became wealthy through his inventions, ownership of Apple, Disney and Pixar. Yet, in today’s world defined by corporate greed and corruption, Jobs was again different. He focused on the idea of “taste.” It was a word he used often. Jobs crafted his genius and lasting legacy through the distinctive simplicity, elegance and taste he insisted on in every Apple product. And, his focus has changed the world for the better.

Addressing a graduating class at Stanford in 2005, Jobs seemed to foresee his own destiny:

“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life.”

4G iPhone, courtesy Gizmodo.com

Whether lost, stolen or leaked, the story of Apple‘s next generation 4G iPhone has become big news in the business, consumer and technology media.

A prototype of the Apple 4G iPhone, which is expected to be available to users this summer, was reportedly found in a Redwood City, California, bar and sold to the tech blog, Gizmodo.com. Gizmodo.com says it’s the real deal.

An Apple software engineer was named by Gizmodo.com as the unfortunate fellow who lost the iPhone.

It is a major gaffe for Apple, a company renown for developing new products in utmost secrecy in order, partly, to orchestrate dramatic roll-out events. Apple wants the iPhone returned and sent Gizmodo.com a letter which the blog promptly posted online (see below).

Until now, Apple’s corporate security has been airtight, second-to-none. At their Cupertino headquarters, any gadget or computer that is worth protecting is behind armored doors, with security locks with codes that change every few minutes. Prototypes are bolted to desks. Teams of developers are separated from others and sworn to secrecy.

Apple's give-us-back-the-4G-iPhone letter to Gizmodo.com

Then, there is the Apple secret police, a team of people with a single mission: To make sure nobody speaks. If there’s a leak, Apple’s security squad hunts down the traitor and escorts them out of the building. There are no second chances for anyone who leaks any information at Apple.

All the security failed March 18 at Gourmet Haus Staudt, a German-style beer hall 20 miles from Cupertino, when the Apple software engineer used the top-secret iPhone to post on Facebook while having a beer, laid the device on a bar stool and headed for home.

A patron at the bar who found the 4G iPhone, recognized that the device looked like none other he had seen and apparently tried to contact Apple with no luck.

There’s no word on the hapless software engineer who carelessly left the phone in the bar.

Gizmodo.com said: Apple’s legendary impenetrable security, breached by the power of German beer and one single human error.

One thing is for sure … Apple is not exempt from a reality in today’s world that nothing is secret.

New York Times, front and center: Apple's Steve Jobs holding the iPad

Good friends – senior execs in the field of corporate communications – tell me of getting calls from executive search recruiters assigned to fill senior level PR positions at Dell Computer in Austin, Texas. A few have gone through Dell’s interview process, more out of curiosity and a free trip to Austin than anything else.

No one I know has accepted an offer from Dell. “It’s like falling down a rabbit hole,” chuckled one friend, referring to Alice in Wonderland.

Candidates are parked in a stark and small interrogation room with a single light while enduring a steady stream of interviews over two days. Few of the senior people at Dell’s corporate communications have solid credentials, I’ve learned, including the top guy who is more consumed with bragging about hanging out with rock stars than being concerned that his company is getting its ass kicked by Apple. It’s all old-school. Michael Dell, by the way, the founder of Dell, apparently remains sequestered in a bunker behind company headquarters, pretty much alone. Visions of Howard Hughes.

Steve Jobs in the New York Times. Photo by Jim Wilson.

Apple is, indeed, kicking Dell’s ass … crassly stated and competitively. While Dell trudges along, introducing cheaply made laptops, Apple’s co-founder Steve Jobs is again capturing world headlines by introducing yet another gotta-have product. Latest is the iPad.

I examined the polar-opposite approaches of Apple and Dell in my newest book, “Making News in the Digital Era.” Dell’s communications department is terminally unresponsive to media inquiries, almost as if fearing media contact, circa 1970s style of PR. They, too, have a bunker mentality, like their boss.

Apple, on the other hand, is breath-taking. Not only are specific top communications people easily reachable, but they dream-up the cleverest and most effective strategies to capture headlines I have ever seen. Apple’s team is action-oriented and accountable; Dell’s is out-of-touch.

Apple's iPad. Available in late March.

The level of advance, event and aftermath mainstream and online media, Twittering, blogging and online chatter of Steve’s latest toy is without measure. I would dare say that more people in the world know and care more about the iPad than will care to know what comes out of President Obama’s mouth during the State of the Union speech.

Dell, by contrast, no longer casts much of a shadow as a company, due largely to poor communications.

Having a reliable laptop computer has become a necessity in my work, a computer becomes a creative extension in my writing or a valuable tool for managing treasured photos or communicating online, through email or managing a blog.

Years ago, I switched to Apple Macs because I was tired of messing with all of the inherent issues of Windows, problems that have only gotten worse with time. I have gotten far beyond the stage of even caring but I am amazed that people still use Windows and cheap computers, like Dell, that run Windows when Apple Macs are so far superior in all ways.

The new Macbooks are without comparison.

I am writing this short posting using my little 12-inch Apple PowerBook G4 computer that I bought in early 2005, and have carried with me around the world. The PowerBook G4 is a beautifully made laptop with its sleek and slightly sculpted aluminum case. It operates flawlessly and has been a great companion to write articles and books and to communicate online. But technology has moved on – Macbooks, which replaced the PowerBook line, are powered by dual-core Intel processors, and run today’s programs much faster. In fact, I guess by computer standards, the PowerBook G4 is beyond its prime, and is no longer in the same league with today’s Macbooks.

What to do … replace my trusted PowerBook with a zippier model? Or, just remain in love with my little 12-inch PowerBook? I have wondered why Apple doesn’t introduce a new 12-inch laptop packed with the latest technology. It’d be hot … no doubt about it.

Nonetheless, the story was carried within minutes by news organizations around the world, underscoring the immediacy and power of the Internet to distribute information, including mistakes.

Today’s New York Times has a terrific story about how Freed-Hardeman University in Henderson, Tennessee, is giving away iPhones and iPods to students. Why? For everything from campus-wide communications to teaching tools.  Apple’s dominance is growing at colleges across the country, showcasing its terrific and high quality products to today’s and tomorrow’s consumers.

In 20 pages or less, the International Herald Tribune each day reports more stories and delivers more intelligent perspective that most American newspapers, except perhaps the New York Times. I guess that in an age when most newspapers have become little more than advertising and gossip rags, the International Herald Tribune is … well, somewhat old-fashioned. It just reports on a broad spectrum of world news and opinion. Reading those 20 pages or so, I can really learn what’s happening, whether the current bloodbath in Georgia or the latest scandal in U.S. politics or the really stupid move by Hasbro (that’s my opinion) to force Scrabulous from Facebook.

As a career writer, I think the International Herald Tribune helps to refocus on the core importance of quality journalism … an important tenet forgotten by most media in the U.S. today.

Apple’s footprint of influence in business is critically important because it is redefining and living the essence of corporate responsibility.  While others write memos and attend meetings on “best practices,” Apple has infused best practices seamlessly throughout the organization.  But, that also makes Apple vulnerable to being in the spotlight when there are occasional stumbles.

Apple, clearly, has publicly been grappling with challenges over the last couple of weeks:

• Introduction of the much-hyped and eagerly awaited iPhone 3G
• Version 2 iPhone software that delivers greater wireless features
• Enhanced sync capabilities for coordinating calendars, email and contacts, and
• Debut of the iTunes Apps store which offers a spectrum of third-party applications for the iPhone.

Apple boldly introduced all this on one day, two weeks ago.  Since then, the company has been battered with customer complaints over things not going smoothly and media coverage over the blips.  Apple has characteristically responded by providing a high caliber of professional and personally interactive technical support that is common with Apple yet unprecedented among not only Apple’s competitors but any other company that makes products and delivers services for the public.  

Apple knew quickly it had issues with introduction of a complex product and new services, and immediately got to work on assisting customers with solutions.  I can think of no other company in the technology sector — certainly not Microsoft and most definitely not Dell — that has ever been so responsive. For that matter, I am not aware of another company on the planet that even comes close to living the visionary leadership that Apple has defined for itself.

Speaking personally, as a user of Apple products, including computers and an iPhone, the company is a joy to work with whenever I have encountered problems … and, I might add that I encounter very few problems when using Apple products.  I am still a little stunned by Apple’s outstanding help in solving my iPhone issues – a highly knowledgeable iPhone technician at the company’s headquarters in Cupertino, CA, who expertly provided all the guidance I needed.  But, I am not special, and I am certainly not alone — anyone who is an Apple customer gets the same level of professional assistance.

What remains puzzling, however, are the compounding stumbles by Apple’s corporate communications department by not openly and transparently discussing the issues the company faced with the multiple product introductions.  It is as if the PR people know how to hype but don’t comprehend the importance of expeditious communications in time of crisis and the potential damage to reputation.