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A prescient Steve Jobs predicted our obsession with mobile apps
As the App Store turns 10 this month, it's fascinating to see how it all began. While it may seem obvious that most people have a small rectangle of glass and metal that they spend a ton of time staring at now, it wasn't always a foregone conclusion. Back in 2008, a reporter at the Wall Street Journal, now a senior editor at The Information, interviewed Steve Jobs at the App Store's one-month mark. The Apple co-founder and CEO was clearly impressed by the performance of his company's new service.
Apple's influential, iconic iMac turns 20
There are few individual computer models that have left a lasting mark on the industry, but you can definitely put the iMac on that list. Apple introduced its signature all-in-one desktop at a special event on May 6th, 1998, and it's safe to say the system has had a lasting impact on technology at large. At the same time, the iMac has also been a symbol of the cultural zeitgeist, including for Apple itself -- it shows how the company evolved from an underdog in a Windows world to a behemoth focused more on phones than PCs. The iMac has had a long journey, but it's worth following to see just how much the industry has changed in the past 20 years.
Dow Jones reported a fake story about Google buying Apple
As 9to5Mac reports, the Dow Jones newswires had a bit of a shakeup this morning after a "technical error" led to the announcement of some rather ridiculous fake news. Dow Jones reported that Google would be buying Apple for a mere $9 billion -- which would be quite a steal if true -- and that the deal was struck between Alphabet CEO Larry Page and the late Steve Jobs. The report went on to say that Google employees would be moving into Apple's "fancy headquarters" and that Google employees said, "Yay."
Flash was useful, but developers are glad it’s on the death march
Earlier this week, Adobe announced it would cease support and development of Flash at the end of 2020, a decision that had many people saying, "Finally." The "Flash is dead" rhetoric has been around for years, and people like Facebook's chief security officer, Alex Stamos, have called for Adobe to set an end-of-life date for some time. Well, it finally has, and Adobe tells Engadget that the transition out has been planned for several years.
I don't regret being an iPhone early adopter
Do you remember where you were when Steve Jobs first introduced the iPhone, more than 10 years ago? It's a pretty nerdy thing to admit, but I do. I spent the day glued to my computer, at my desk -- theoretically hard at work. But I was actually devouring Engadget's liveblog, after which I watched and rewatched video of the event so I could see the mythical device in action. And then I spent the next 12 months waiting for my Verizon contract to expire, hating my Moto RAZR the entire freaking time. (No, I wasn't a day-one adopter, but I definitely stopped in an AT&T store to play with their demo phones.) The first iPhone wasn't a world-beater in terms of sales, and many have pointed out that it was the classic "first-gen" Apple product. It lacked important features like 3G connectivity and any third-party apps, you had to hook it up to iTunes to activate it, and it was wildly expensive -- $500 for a paltry 4GB of storage (or $600 for 8GB), and that was with a two-year contract. None of that mattered to me, and that's in large part due to Jobs' presentation, one that's widely considered the best he ever gave. I'd agree with that assessment, because he so clearly outlined the benefits of the iPhone over the phones that most consumers (including me) were using. Some of my colleagues fondly remember the Windows Mobile devices they used before the iPhone and noted how they waited a few years for Apple to fix those first-gen issues before getting on board.
Steve Jobs' vintage wardrobe is up for auction
What's an Apple fanboy or fangirl supposed to do once they've filled their basement with vintage Apple hardware? Start filling up the closets with Steve Jobs' old clothes, of course. As TechCrunch reports, a whole wardrobe of the late Apple founder's shirts, bowties, watches, ID badges and other tossed-off goods are currently up for auction.
Steve Jobs and Bill Gates are getting a Broadway musical
Yes, you read that correctly: A musical about the late Steve Jobs and Bill Gates is coming to Broadway, the famed theatre hub in New York City. The production, titled Nerds (because of course it is), will be a comedy that narrates the rivalry between the Apple and Microsoft co-founders. To make the story more interesting, and pay homage to its tech-savvy subjects, Nerds is going to feature holograms on stage and an app that lets audience members interact with the set and each other.
Apple thought about making a car back in 2008
The possibility of an Apple-made car isn't anything new -- as it turns out, it's practically old news. iPod co-creator (and Nest CEO) Tony Fadell tells Bloomberg that he and Steve Jobs had "multiple" discussions about a car in 2008. They asked each other high-level questions, such as what the dashboard would look like and what the power plant would be. The idea didn't progress beyond that point due to a combination of tight resources and a lousy economic climate. Apple was swamped with iPhone work, and the American car industry was "almost dead." Why get into cars at a time when the field's heavyweights were asking for bailouts?
The Steve Jobs movie flopped at the box office
The internet was full of talk about the accuracy of Steve Jobs, but it turned out that the general public just didn't care about the film at all. The Danny Boyle / Aaron Sorkin biopic of the late Apple co-founder went on wide release this weekend, but only made a paltry $7.3 million at the box office. That put it in 7th place, behind films like The Martian, The Last Witch Hunter and Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension. Unfortunately analysts had predicted that it would do double that figure, and it looks like Steve Jobs will struggle to turn a profit.
'Steve Jobs' isn't totally accurate, and that's okay
Steve Jobs isn't your typical biopic. That's something we explored in our interview with its director, Danny Boyle, and writer, Aaron Sorkin. It's more like a play set in three acts, each of which occurs right before a major product debut. And yet, it's hard not to approach it as a biographical film -- Jobs' name is right there in the title; what else would you expect? So, it's not too surprising to see the film being dismissed among some techies because it isn't 100 percent accurate. Jobs didn't really have life-changing conversations with his friends and family before these product announcements! Joanna Hoffman wasn't even working at Apple when he launched the iMac! These are all facts worth bringing up -- but focusing on those inaccuracies also misses the bigger picture.
'Steve Jobs' writer and director on avoiding the typical biopic
Danny Boyle (28 Days Later, Sunshine) and Aaron Sorkin's (The Social Network, Moneyball) Steve Jobs is a unique film in many ways, not the least of which is its complete disregard for the tropes of most biographical films. Instead, it's more like a play in three parts, each of which occurs before one of Steve Jobs' infamous product reveals: the Macintosh in 1984; the NeXT computer in 1988; and the iMac in 1998. For a pseudo-follow-up to Sorkin's Oscar-winning Facebook founding story, Steve Jobs basically feels like the complete opposite. We had the chance to sit down with Sorkin and Boyle to discuss how they crafted the film, how Jobs' daughter, Lisa Brennan-Jobs, helped the production and how they dealt with the specter of The Social Network.
Latest 'Steve Jobs' trailer has the energy of 'Trainspotting'
The newest trailer for Danny Boyle's upcoming Steve Jobs biopic is here, and it's sure to get your blood pumping. In fact, it feels reminiscent of Boyle's drug-infused '90s hit, Trainspotting, except this time it's driven by Aaron Sorkin's razor sharp dialog. "We will know soon enough if you're Leonardo da Vinci, or just think you are," Seth Rogen's Steve Wozniak says at one point. While previous trailers were all about setting the mood of the film, this one does a better job of setting up the stakes. We also get a better glimpse of Michael Fassbender as Jobs in several different time periods. Early word on the film out of the Telluride film festival has been incredibly strong, so it looks like we might have another Oscar-worthy tech biopic to look forward to. Steve Jobs hits theaters on October 23.
New Steve Jobs doc examines the myth of the man who made Apple
Director Alex Gibney wraps up his latest documentary, Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine, with an apt encapsulation of the Apple co-founder's conflicting persona: "He had the focus of a monk, without the empathy." Jobs, who passed away in 2011 of pancreatic cancer, was the genius who transformed Apple into a pioneer of the PC era; and was then kicked out of his own company before returning to revolutionize the way we listen to music and use phones. But he was also a man who, in the pursuit of fortune, infamously ran away from his responsibility as a father, and is generally known for being a tyrant. So how do you reconcile these two extremes? Gibney's doc (available today on iTunes and other streaming services) doesn't settle on an answer, but throughout its two-hour runtime, he explores what made Jobs tick, and what made millions of consumers admire him. And while The Man in the Machine covers plenty of familiar territory -- how many times do we need to see the Apple origin story, really? -- Gibney still manages to give us fresh insight into Jobs through newly unearthed footage and interviews.
Watch the trailer for 'Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine'
Quite a few filmmakers have already unleashed their take on the life of Steve Jobs, with Aaron Sorkin's Michael Fassbender-starrer slated to be released in October. But if you'd rather watch that Jobs documentary that premiered at the SXSW Film Festival in particular -- the same one Apple SVP Eddy Cue found "mean-spirited" -- then, well, here's a taste of it. Oscar winner Alex Gibney's The Man in the Machine doesn't only depict the CEO as a visionary, but also as a ruthless leader. "His stuff was beloved, but it wasn't that he was beloved," a voiceover said in the trailer below the fold, which also shows parts of Gibney's interview with some of Jobs' old co-workers. The documentary will precede Sorkin's movie by a month and will be shown in select theaters on September 4th.
'Steve Jobs' trailer looks like the next 'Social Network'
We got a brief glimpse at Danny Boyle's Steve Jobs film back in May, but today we've finally got a full trailer to watch. Scripted by Aaron Sorkin (The Social Network, The West Wing), the biopic stars Michael Fassbender as Jobs, Seth Rogen as Steve Wozniak, Kate Winslet as Apple's former marketing head Joanna Hoffman and Jeff Daniels as former Apple CEO John Sculley. So far, it looks far more compelling than that Ashton Kutcher Jobs film (which we'll never speak of again). The combination of Sorkin's rapid-fire dialog and Boyle's direction gives us hope that it'll be something on the level of David Fincher's The Social Network (also scripted by Sorkin). That film wasn't exactly accurate, but it managed to give Facebook's founding story near-Shakespearean weight. And given how dramatic Jobs' life was, it shouldn't be too tough to do the same for this film.
The first trailer for 'Steve Jobs' is here
Ready for another movie based on Apple's cofounder? Well, this one appears to have a bit more gravitas behind it, and a little less Kutcher: Based on the biography by Walter Isaacson, the screenplay's been written by Aaron Sorkin, and directed by Danny Boyle. The film has already had a difficult time nailing down the actor to play Jobs himself. Michael Fassbender is still playing the titular Apple founder, with Seth Rogen playing Woz and Kate Winslet playing former marketing chief Joanna Hoffman. Break out the emergency black turtleneck and watch how it's shaping up right after the break.
Troubled Steve Jobs movie starts filming at last
Aaron Sorkin's adaptation of Walter Isaacson's Steve Jobs biography (aka the new one that doesn't star Ashton Kutcher) has been fraught with difficulties, but by the looks of it, filming has finally begun. Last Friday, CNET caught a glimpse of the film crew prepping the garage at Jobs' old home, which is known for being Apple's birthplace... even if Wozniak admitted that it was just "a bit of a myth." The house is somewhere in Los Altos and is just one of film's locations around California, including several spots in Silicon Valley, of course. This adaptation went through the wringer since Sony snapped up the book's rights in 2011, as proven by the emails found among the gigabytes of data leaked by Sony Pictures' hackers late last year.
Steve Wozniak calls Apple's legendary garage 'a bit of a myth'
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has never been shy to talk about the company he helped create, regardless of whatever the topic may be. Most recently, in an interview with Bloomberg Businessweek, Wozniak touched briefly on a few topics from the early days of Apple, ranging from the vision of his long-time partner and friend, Steve Jobs, to how many Apple I and Apple II units were sold in the beginning. Wozniak was also asked a question regarding the legendary Apple garage, which has become known as the Cupertino firm's birthplace -- it's an iconic place, to say the least. To this, he said, "The garage is a bit of a myth."
The Apple years while Steve Jobs was away
As one of the founders of Apple Computer Inc., Steve Jobs became synonymous with the brand. But his relationship with the company wasn't always so hallowed and harmonious. After internal disputes with Apple's board of directors in 1985, Jobs left the company to pursue other projects, including NeXT Inc. and Pixar. Although he'd piloted the Apple brand from the start, the company carried on without him until his return in 1997 during which time he rebooted the company and turned out "world-changing" products. Join us in the gallery below as we look at some of the hardware that Apple made while Jobs was away.
Steve Jobs memorial dismantled in Russia because of Tim Cook's sexuality
After Steve Jobs died in 2011, a Russian holding company called the West European Financial Union (or ZEFS, in Russian) erected a big, iPhone-shaped memorial statue that told visitors about Jobs' life outside a St. Petersburg college. An innocuous tribute, no? Nothing about the memorial itself was intrinsically troubling, but it's been recently dismantled all the same because of two reasons. First, ZEFS is looking at the act as a way of condemning the company for allegedly spying on users across the globe and "informing US security services about them." The second reason, however, sits on the fence between "mind-boggling" and "patently offensive." In accordance with a controversial law meant to curb gay "propaganda," ZEFS took down the statue "to abide to the Russian federal law protecting children from information promoting denial of traditional family values."
