Kudos to Steve Jobs, Jonathan Ive and everyone else at Apple.

Look how far you’ve come. People seem to forget your status as the underdog just a decade or two ago.

I remember.

I remember being reluctant to switch from the industry leader, to move from a PC to a (gasp!) Mac. The PC was king. IBM was a player — a blue chip/work-there-for-50-years-get-a-pension-and-a-gold-watch company. In fact, I remember having IBM as a client, touring a facility in Poughkeepsie, New York and marveling at the mainframes.

What a different world it was. It was all about the software. Or so some people thought.

Who predicted that you would be bigger than Microsoft?

Not many.

But you are. I consider it a magnificent accomplishment, worthy of some applause and respect.

Instead, you get an uproar over death grips and faulty antennas.

Many (most?) iPhone owners don’t mind a little frustration and imperfection.

My guess? The vast majority of iPhone 4 owners (okay, well, at least my husband and I) believe the product is marvelous. Beautiful and efficient. Elegant and powerful.

Yet some critics delight in their schadenfreude over a pseudo furor that’s actually relatively insignificant.

Why?

It leads me to wonder (with some degree of sadness) why people like to knock other peoples’ success. Why they expect (demand?) perfection and then pounce (shine a spotlight on it?) when they discover the slightest flaw.

I believe in a principle of abundance, where people support one other and trumpet the greatest achievements of friends, family members and respected colleagues then support them and encourage them through hard times or whenever they stumble.

So I applaud you, Apple.

And you know what?

The iPhone has improved the quality of my life. I often forget that it’s a phone because that’s the least important part of the device. People who don’t use the iPhone don’t understand that fact. It’s not about the telephone. Even the word, telephone, is so…last millennium.

Now, it’s all about the apps…and the developers’ passions. Not to mention the passion of each and every iPhone owner. Each device is so customized, so specific to each user that it becomes special. Each owner makes it special, depending on his/her own interests, needs and passions.

Oh, and FaceTime?

It’s now. It’s tomorrow. It’s very Jetsons. And it works. Simply. It helped me endure some recent trips away from my family. Heck, it made them feel as if they were right there with me. It affected our quality of life. It brought us immeasurable joy.

So forget about those naysayers, haters and foes.

Congratulations on another extraordinary creation.


Google Opt Out Feature Lets Users Protect Privacy By Moving To Remote Village

No, seriously though, what do you think about the burgeoning privacy issues? No big deal or the beginning of a world ruled by potentially corrupt mega-corps-as-big-brother(s)? Or something somewhere in between? Heh.


New Google Phone Service Whispers Targeted Ads Directly Into Users' Ears

Aw, c’mon now, it’s just meant to make you smile. Did it? Did the corners of your mouth turn up just a little?

I hope so.

Congratulations on a job well done!!

For terrific videos, stats, scores and much more, visit the official Roland Garros site.

Check out some of his remarks at this year’s All Things Digital Conference:

This one (above) is on the iPhone and the iPad.

And how about that whole Gizmodo mess?

Finally, watch him when talks about Google (below) and at the end softly says, “Just because we’re competing with somebody doesn’t mean we have to be rude.”

Wonderful. Very nice.

For more videos (brief enough to view selectively) click here.

My kids and I made a video where I talked about how I would love to host a talk show on Oprah’s new network. It was fun – until I started getting comments from a woman who alleged that I trash working moms on this blog (and erroneously suggested that I’ve never been a working mom).  Um, no. Not true. Read my blog. Search my blog. That’s not what it’s about. I have absolutely no desire to do such a thing. Perhaps you’re thinking of someone else. I left a response to that effect.

Then the commenter insisted and referred to remarks I made in a video* last year in which I had a specific beef with one person whom I believed had not sufficiently acknowledged the value of stay-at-home moms.

First of all, for those who don’t know, before these years staying home with my kids, I was a dedicated, passionate, working mom who loved her job and career. I felt I was really making a difference in the world and working on things that were important. When I (somewhat reluctantly) hopped off the career track, I garnered little or no respect for the position in which I found myself and cringed at the thought of the label that people disdainfully attached to it, as well as when I heard them say things like “oh, she’s just a stay-at-home mom.”

I was raised by a strong, self sufficient, feminist working mom (whom I adored and respected and to whom I was very close) who drilled into my sister’s and my heads things like, “never depend on a man,” and “always be sure that you can support yourself.” I worked my way through college and law school to ensure that I would always be a career woman determined to remain forever independent. I envisioned nothing else.

But, back to that video.

It was Jean Chatzky’s apparent, in my opinion, lack of respect for stay-at-home moms in a radio broadcast last year that set me off because she didn’t seem to respect my situation. Add to that the many looks, lifted noses, snide comments, and disrespectful eye rolls I’ve endured over the years (and an unreasonably long and frustrating visit to Costco on that particular day) and you have an unscripted, arguably irrational, once in a lifetime-and-never-again-since monologue, which appeared only briefly and has since been removed. I have nothing personal against Ms. Chatzky (and mentioned that in the video). More importantly, I have nothing against working moms. On the contrary, I have great respect, if not a bit of envy, for them and very much enjoyed being one myself.

In the video, I asked her to respect and value stay-at-home moms. In fact, the video was intended to be an impassioned plea for that respect. Its sentiments do not mean that I disrespect people who are working moms. Again, I was a working mom, my mom and my mother-in-law were working moms, my sister and sisters-in-law are working moms.

I am against disrespect of women — all women.

When someone says, “LeBron James should get more respect” that doesn’t mean she’s saying, “Kobe Bryant stinks.” Just because someone passionately defends one position does not mean she is attacking another.

In the video I also said, “I have worked hard to continue to value my friends’ choices, those who did decide to stay in the workplace…I am not judging them. Everybody has to do what they have to do.”

And finally, “I’m just asking you…to have a little more tolerance, understanding and respect…for stay-at-home moms.”

I have heard people disdainfully say, “Oh, well, she’s just a stay-at-home mom” as if I’m less than other women.

And that’s just wrong. We all deserve respect.**

Frankly, I have the most respect for women who find themselves in a position where they don’t really have a choice at all – those who have to work.

My mom was a woman like that, God rest her soul. My dad died when I was a teen and left her a working mom with three kids. I adored and deeply respected my mother.

And I also respect women who stay at home with their kids.

The problem is this ongoing war between women full of displaced anger that leads nowhere. I think people who judge and criticize either category of women simply for being in those categories are mad at the wrong people. We all do the best we can and deal with the challenges we face.

I mean, what comes from evaluating who is the bigger victim? Or who has greater value?

All women have value and deserve respect.

Instead, we should focus on finding ways to adequately support parents. Unless a woman has extended family living nearby or adequate daycare she’s left with no real choice. We should work together to find ways to provide enough support for all parents to empower them to make real choices that are right for their families.

The point is that I hope that moms, indeed all parents, can work together and stop this divisiveness.

And that’s the bottom line.

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and now…

back to…

Today’s Mantra: Ignore the haters and don’t feed the trolls.

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Endnote:

I promised on the OWN Show site that I would include a bit about how someone might deal with this on a show.

Well, first of all, let’s put an end to the destructive Mommy Wars and focus on finding a solution. Bring in experts, perhaps policymakers who can affect change, nonprofit leaders who work on family/work life issues, and others interested in finding solutions.

There are systemic problems in society that prevent women from having real choices. Some women stay at home with their children because they lack choices. Some women stay in the workforce because they lack choices. If women don’t have choice, can they be truly liberated?

Some women can’t afford daycare or have difficulty finding adequate childcare. As Claire Shipman and Katty Kay found in their book, “Womenomics,” if women had adequate support and flexibility, they could continue their careers. When I met the authors, I told them that if some of the tools they suggest in their book had been available back when I was a working mom, I might have been able to continue my beloved career.

Attaching labels, engaging in finger pointing and displaying misplaced anger are destructive and hurtful actions. Frankly, I am more than some label. I am a well-educated woman who is doing the best she can with the hand she was dealt. And I’d say that’s true of most, if not all, women.

Why not find the commonality?

We’re all mothers.

So we should focus on supporting each other. In this case we could talk about freedom of choice.  Focus on improving the opportunity for choices for women in the workplace, by using all this energy that’s effectively wasted in shouting matches and “She said…she said…” battles and, instead, establishing something like “Freedom for Mothers,” a feminist woman’s movement.

The Shipman/Kay book would be a terrific springboard or at least a good starting point.

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*The video appeared well over a year ago on this blog for a very brief period of time and has long since been removed. It appeared only as a video post, with no written words, and the headline, “Memo to Jean Chatzky: Stay-at-Home Moms Have Value Too.” It received six positive comments and no negative comments.

**Anyone who knows me or has followed my blog and/or read a majority of my 246 posts would know that I believe that.

My family and I got to work, shooting a week’s worth of video, full of different skits, shorts, and scenes. We had a blast. The vast majority of footage ended up on our cutting room floor. But I didn’t want it to completely go to waste. So I’m putting together bits and pieces of it, hoping you’ll find it entertaining.

Take, for example, something that started out to be an example of a technology segment but ended up sounding more like a commercial for an Apple product. So…yeah…we nixed it. Here it is:

And the title of the show? “Let’s Talk About It”? Turns out it’s nearly identical to Greg Grunberg’s charity effort he co-founded a while back, called Talk About It. So…even though, my daughter did a great job designing that logo, we all thought we should just stay away from it. Thanks anyway, sweetheart! You did a great job!!

Then there’s this one – where I just couldn’t keep a straight face when I tried to defend my qualifications to speak about parenting:

More to come (about the iPad as well as our cutting room floor clippings, some of which are quite amusing).

But for now, I’d appreciate your help over on my OWN show page. It would be a blast to host a talk show, but I still have a long way to go to get to the top.
Thanks!!

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I submitted an audition video for a long-shot slot to host a talk show on Oprah’s new network.

It’s only about a minute and a half long (and now iPhone and iPad compatible!).

Here’s the link:

Nicole’s OWN Show

And I’d love to have your help and your vote.

Most of the other candidates submitted their auditions a week before I did, so I’m far behind.

Click here to help!

But please don’t ask me to tell you the answer to the question at the end of the video.

Well, unless you vote for me and I win.

Then you’ll be one of the first to know.

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Updated with coverage of the oil spill!

Check it out:

The site is “a ten minute, commercial-free daily news program” geared to middle and high-school students.

If you’ve been looking for ways to get your teens interested in the news, I recommend bookmarking the CNN Student News site and showing it to your kids. It’s geared to them, so it’s a bit more hip, clean and concise than the main CNN site.

And, yeah, they’re on Facebook, too.

I think that we can learn a great deal about collaboration and competition by watching this interview* (again?), especially now, in 2010. Let me know what you think.

Love it.

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It’s from 2007. Jobs and Steve Ballmer are expected to speak at this year’s D8, (the eighth annual All Things Digital Conference (June 1-3). For coverage click here.