How were they able to use the 'Gravity' movie-soundtrack as music in this promo?
Same way that Motorola was allowed to call its phones ‘Droid’ when Lucasfilm owns the word. Yes, the word. Despite it being a corruption of ‘android’, which isn’t owned by anyone.
On June 1st of this year, I needed to point out to someone who invented 'web crawlers'. I had to dig around the Internet to remember it was General Magic. Little did I know this documentary was already out! I'm glad that inventive gang is getting due recognition here in the next generation of tech.
Apple was almost dead because of a sugar water CEO who didn't even know how to turn on a computer. Subsequent CEOs might have had some vision but let's face it investors were pulling out left right and centre because all they were looking at were returns of investment which these ideas were not bringing in.
Excellent points!
But Apple's NDE (near death experience) was most specifically due to their lousy marketing department, circa 1995-1996, having foolishly predicted customer desire for Performa Macs to the point of having $1 billion worth of the machines stockpiled in warehouses. Consequently, Apple had to write off their value in the first quarter of 1997, ruining the company's reputation. Trolls came out in droves and publicly stomped on Apple. Added to this mess was the total failure of the Copland and Gershwin OS projects that had been dragging on for too many years. I've seen plenty of people claim Apple was on the verge of bankruptcy. But they reportedly had $4 billion in assets at the time of the crisis. At the time, there never was any publicly released information leading anyone to believe they were gonna die. Nonetheless, trolls started 'gonna die' rumors followed by the the outrageous rumor that Microsoft had saved Apple in 1997, when in fact Steve Jobs, upon return to Apple, shoved Bill Gates into a corner, aka Jobs' backyard, and threatened to sue Microsoft for having stolen QuickTime code from a third party developer then refusing to return it. Bill Gates forked over favors, promises and cash, both publicly for the five year ownership of non-voting Apple stock and an 'undisclosed' amount as financial settlement. The settlement certainly helped Apple, but it didn't save them. There was no indication Apple actually needed financial saving thanks to its remaining reserve cash. But there have been plenty of bizarre rearrangements and mis-memories of history that contradict what I watched happen in Apple news. Thankfully, the nonsense accounts are gradually making way for witness accounts.
I remember this time well and thinking then that the General Magic concept was great, but too many things had yet to be out in place - no fast mobile connections, no wifi, no real connections to the services it purported to offer like ordering groceries, flowers etc. Basically it was a classic business problem - lack corollary assets. The infrastructure simply wasn't in place and there was no fully clear path to it at the time.
How were they able to use the 'Gravity' movie-soundtrack as music in this promo?
Same way that Motorola was allowed to call its phones ‘Droid’ when Lucasfilm owns the word. Yes, the word. Despite it being a corruption of ‘android’, which isn’t owned by anyone.
Actually, Motorola paid a licensing fee to Lucasfilm for the right to use the Droid name. I researched that at the time it was first announced.
I owned a Sony Magic Link back in the day--either the second or third model they produced. I enjoyed using and fiddling with it WAY more than the Palm Pilots I bought. I mainly used its calendar and email functions. I loved the way it would parse phrases like "Let's have lunch with Tom next Friday at Etta's Seafood. Tom's number is 206-555-1122." Tapping on the highlighted phrases would create an entry in the calendar (with links to all of the contacts involved) and add Tom's number to my address book. I had to wait 10 years after General Magic's demise to enjoy similar features again.
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https://www.popsugar.com/tech/George-Lucas-Owns-Term-DROID-Motorola-Pays-Fee-License-6051336