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David Lloyd George: “Don’t be afraid to take a big step if one is indicated. You can’t cross a chasm in two small jumps.”

Hard to miss, once again Apple managed to keep ‘the world’ busy by releasing/announcing new goodies during their Event last Tuesday. The highlights:

– iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus; bigger screens, a design that goes back to the original iPhone having round corners yet thinner than any other smartphone, full specs though not too shocking improvements (the innovation curve is not as steep as it was 6-7 years ago), to be released in Norway pretty soon, on September 26, yay! And yes; iWant! And iNeed as the battery of my ‘old’ iPhone 5 is extremely bad…I actually qualify for a battery replacement but that process means I am without a phone for some weeks which is (professionally) a no-go. Get the iPhone 6 (-Plus), then have the iPhone5 battery replaced and use it as my dutch phone sounds just fine for me! 🙂

– Apple Watch; I am not a watch person, and unsure if this is for me. That said, it seems as an amazing product which seems to raise the bar considerably for the tech wearables industry. Other attempts in this category don’t come close to what the Apple Watch will bring…do we need it? Will it be the next cornerstone for Apple’s business? Not sure about that, only future can tell…as long as they are able to ‘solve’ the battery-life challenge it might…

– Apple Pay; Finally, Apple’s first steps into becoming a bank which is not strange as they have been sitting on 500 million creditcard accounts for years…from the demo it seems a HUGE improvement in the way we will/can do payments, yet it won’t be for me soon, as this will be US only for some time

– U2 album give away; Apple gives all its iTunes Store customers the new U2 album ‘Songs of Innocence’ for free!! This can very well be seen as *the* major thing from last Tuesdays event. And with the cash Apple has, this is actually an easy one for them while generating a lot of attention and traction towards iTunes. It can also be seen as ‘proof’ that Apple fears its iTunes business model is failing and needs adjustment (in the direction of Spotify-like services).

For the ones who are really interested in the full background on the announcements: watch the full  Keynote speech here!

The event started with an inspirational video called ‘Perspective’ which is too beautiful not to have it on the blog…Here’s to those who have always seen things differently…Njoy!

Maryanne Radmacher-Hershey: “May your walls know joy; May every room hold laughter and every window open to great possibility.”

Saint Francis of Assisi: “Where there is hatred, let me sow love. Where there is injury, pardon. Where there is doubt, faith.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson: “Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.”

Mahatma Gandhi: “I want freedom for the full expression of my personality.”

Oh my, how I love my little angel…we had a fantastic weekend; loads of fun, craziness and enjoying outdoor life! The pictures below say it all! 🙂

Norman Vincent Peale: “Think enthusiastically about everything; but especially about your job. If you do, you’ll put a touch of glory in your life. If you love your job with enthusiasm, you’ll shake it to pieces. You’ll love it into greatness.”

Epictetus: “First learn the meaning of what you say, and then speak.”

Just days before the much anticipated and hyped Apple event this coming Tuesday, when ‘the world’ will finally see Apple’s new iPhone and perhaps the iWatch, IKEA comes with a brilliant persiflage of a new product release video, Apple style; the release of the IKEA bookbook ^TM!!

“At only 8mm thin, and weighing in at less than 400g, the 2015 IKEA Catalogue comes pre-installed with thousands of home furnishing ideas”…ROTFLMAO! Perhaps something for you? 🙂

Jonathan Swift: “It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into.”

Holly Lisle: “Actions have consequences…first rule of life. And the second rule is this – you are the only one responsible for your own actions.”

Jessie Sampter: “Simplicity is the peak of civilisation.”

Lois McMaster Bujold: “If the truth doesn’t save us, what does that say about us?”

Euripides: “The wisest men follow their own direction.”

Jean Houston: “At the height of laughter, the universe is flung into a kaleidoscope of new possibilities.”

Steve Jobs: “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson: “I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and the new.”

Stephenie Meyer: “I was thinking about how disjointedly time seemed to flow, passing in a blur at times, with single images standing out more clearly than others. And then, at other times, every second was significant, etched in my mind.”

Aaron McGruder: “When I pass, speak freely of my shortcomings and my flaws. Learn from them, for I’ll have no ego to injure.”