Revised – In February 2001, as a gesture of appreciation for the tremendous cooperation between Apple and Pioneer (on the project to bring affordable DVD burners aka SuperDrives to the market), Steve agreed to do a presentation to a small group of Pioneer engineers at their facility near Tokyo. I was part of the team that set up the gear for that mini-keynote.
The presentation was in the small theatre in the Pioneer building. I’d guess it could seat 175 people. The setup was relatively simple, with one G4 at a small desk and a DVD player that Steve could use to play a finished DVD created with iDVD.
The stage is set for Steve
The DVD player turned out to be a bit of a problem. We normally used Sony DVD players for Steve’s demos (because they were compact, good looking, and he liked the layout of the remote control). The crew had everything calibrated to match the component outputs of that particular player. As you might guess, using a Sony DVD player in a presentation at Pioneer’s DVD engineering facility could be embarassing for everyone, so we asked Pioneer to provide one of theirs. 
They happily obliged, but the units they had available had only s-video outputs. This required the crew to jump through a few technical hoops to get the image to look good on the projector. You can see the Pioneer player on the desk, next to the Evian.
This was just two days before MacWorld Tokyo, so Steve used the Japanese sample movies which had been prepared for his keynote. Otherwise it was pretty much the same demo as he had done in San Francisco a few weeks earlier. My role was to make sure the iDVD system was set up properly, to burn the sample DVDs, and as always, to be there in case there were any problems.
The room is ready
The small room with its low stage really allowed Steve to connect with the audience, even though most of them spoke no English. (The devices you see on the chairs were infrared audio receivers through which the audience could hear the Japanese translation of the presentation.) Steve was very relaxed and the demos went off without a hitch. In spite of the language barrier, the crowd was extremely enthusiastic. There were very vigorous applause at several points in the presentation, which is highly unusual for a Japanese audience. Typically applause are quite subdued. (I’ll cover this point a bit more in future segment where I talk about my presentation in the MacWorld Tokyo keynote.) I attribute this rare show of emotions to the fact that we had a room full of engineers who were being told by Steve Jobs, in person, how Apple was going to take the technology which they personally invented and spread it around the world. It was great fun to see.
The Ultimate Macintosh Collectible is Born
After the presentation Steve took questions from the audience. A young Pioneer engineer stood up and asked Steve if he would autograph his new Titanium PowerBook…Steve was totally shocked that this person actually had one, because they had just been announced a few weeks earlier, and only just started shipping. Initially Steve didn’t want to sign it, saying it would ruin the beautiful exterior of the PowerBook. But without skipping a beat, he popped out the PowerBook’s battery and signed inside the battery compartment. The crowd was greatly pleased by this gesture. I bet that TiBook would fetch a nice price on eBay!
A Glimpse of the Future
Before leaving we were given a tour of the facilty by the president of Pioneer, who was especially proud to show us the very latest thing out of their labs. It was a new kind of optical disc that used a newly developed blue laser to store 20GB on each layer. He predicted that it would become the next generation DVD (something that may actually happen any day now.)
As a parting gift, the president gave Steve another bit of new technology: a pair of 60-inch plasma displays with touch-sensitive surfaces which could communicate over a network. They functioned like a kind of remote control white board, where anything drawn on one display would be reproduced on the other.
Signing the battery… great idea
I think my first response would be similar to Steve’s—mar, my beautiful PowerBook G4, I think not. My second thought was—well it is Steve Jobs, that could only add to the value, but I’d definitely turn the machine over to its back. But signing the battery is a brilliant move.
steve signed the powerbook inside the battery compartment; he did not sign the battery. the guy’s a genius
Seems akin to the original Macs with all the signatures of the team extruded from the plastic. I had no idea about those until I took (a dead) one apart in 96 or so to make a fishtank. What a great way of recognizing the team that was…
A very predictable response from Mr. Steve if I do say so. I’m glad to know it wasn’t personal when he declined to sign my iPod this Januar, although I never really thought it was.
His response was a little more entertaining than simply saying “no” though.
I said “Steve!” He turned from the media and faced me. “Will you sign my iPod” I said as I eagerly held up my pampered 3rd generation iPod with a black Sharpie in hand. “Um…” as he looked around at the mob around he seemed unsure, and then proceeded to say “find me later.”
Personally, I was entertained by the response and proceeded to find Jonathan Ive. Although he didn’t sign it, being the modest man he seems to portray, I gladly accepted the consolation prize of being able to speak with him and him using my iPod.
mike, i may be not the first one to ask you this, but i wonder how you managed to take so many pictures and sometimes even movies during your time at apple.
back in the days, were you aware of what it means to spend a couple of years at such a great computer company? i mean, most times it’s more like someone is simply stuck in everyday’s business and doesn’t have the time or energy or whatever it takes to take pictures of important moments.
you seem to had that farsightedness!
and another question: was it common with apple employees to take personal pictures and movies during the working day?
best,
tibor
Tibor – Since I was about 14 I’ve often had a camera with me, so it is second nature for me to take photos of where and when I am. But your comment is quite close to the mark; I definitely felt the significance of the things I was lucky enough to be involved in at Apple. Mike
You talk so much about how much preparation goes into all of Steve’s keynotes. Even this “mini Keynote” at the Pioneer plant had a lot of planning, equipment, etc. involved. I notice this every time I watch a MacWorld or WWDC Keynote. However, I was shocked when I saw a clip of the presentation, on CNet, last week at Apple’s campus for the Intel MacMini and the iPod Hi-Fi. The test MacMini didn’t have any content on it for Steve to demonstrate Front Row on the MacMini. Steve said “Oh, they didn’t load the content on this machine!” I was shocked. Not to worry because Phil is sitting in the audience with his MacBook Pro so at least Steve can show of the new video sharing capabilites built into the MacMini. But Steve called the MacBook Pro a Powerbook!! He quickly corrected himself. Maybe I’m over analyzing but this seemed like an unplanned kind of event very unlike the Keynotes you, Mike, have had a part in making sure run absolutely perfectly.
ok maybe not unplanned….but very unSteve.
Ross,
Perhaps your second comment indicates that you realized this, but I’m pretty sure that the lack of content on the machine was completely planned. Steve’s initial reaction seems surprisingly genuine, but my guess is that he’s acting the whole time.
Although I must say that I’ve attended an Apple Store opening which had an iPod mini on display with no music (and connected to Bose headphones!), and an iPod photo with no photos. Nobody’s perfect.
Ross – I’m certain Wysz is right. There is simply no way they could have forgotten to load demo files. Even if Steve didn’t rehearse, the crew would still need to use any sample files to test their setups. It had to be deliberate.
Yeah. Whatever the case he played it off pretty well !
Yeah the “oh they forgot the content” thing was most assuredly done on purpose. Everyone had already seen what Front Row does with your media on your computer. Steve just used a clever way to introdce the new Bonjour feature of Front Row.
-William