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Steve Jobs's long and complex relationship with Japan
Japanese writer Hayashi Nobuyuki has written a thoughtful article on Steve Jobs and Japan, covering both the professional and personal influences that helped shape Jobs's path through life and with Apple. The piece has been translated into English, and it's worth a read. Jobs considered himself a practicing Buddhist most of his adult life, and was a student of the Sōtō Zen monk Otogawa Kōbun; Otogawa even served as the "spiritual advisor" for NeXT. Apparently, Jobs's enthusiasm for Zen study once led him to threaten to retreat from the world and ensconce himself in a Sōtō temple in Japan. Jobs's affection for Japanese culture and cuisine even led him to 'bend' his strict vegan diet when it came to sushi; he was a frequent customer of the Kaygetsu restaurant in Silicon Valley, and he relished the raw fish delicacies in dinners with family and colleagues. When Jobs learned that the restaurant was set to close this year (which it did, two days after Steve's death in early October), he approached the restaurant's chef with a job offer. The same dishes that Steve enjoyed are now featured on the bill of fare at Apple's campus cafeteria. Thanks Rick! photo by Mike Tex | Flickr CC
Steve Jobs statue unveiled in Budapest
Tech Crunch reports that a life-size statue of Steve Jobs has been unveiled in Budapest, Hungary. The statue captures Jobs with an iPhone in one hand and gesturing with the other as he strides across an imaginary keynote stage. It was commissioned by Gabor Bojar, the founder and chairman of Hungarian software development house Graphisoft. The bronze statue was sculpted by Hungarian sculptor Erno Toth and stands near the entrance to Graphisoft's headquarters. Bojar commissioned the statue as a tribute to Jobs, who helped the architectural software firm when it was starting up in the early 80s. Bojar was quoted as saying, "Apple's support included cash and computers at a time when GRAPHISOFT was a small company with limited resources, working within the economic and political confines of what was, at the time, communist Hungary." The product that Graphisoft developed -- ArchiCAD -- is used by many architectural firms and is in its fifteenth version. It would be even more of a tribute to Jobs if the architects of the new Apple headquarters in Cupertino used ArchiCAD to design the huge, spaceship-like main building and campus.
Steve Jobs awarded posthumous special Grammy
Steve Jobs has been awarded a posthumous Grammy by the Recording Academy. On Wednesday the group announced the winners of its 2012 Special Merit Awards, including musician Dave Bartholomew, recording engineer Rudy Van Gelder and Steve Jobs. Jobs, Bartholomew and Van Gelder were awarded the Trustees Award, which recognizes "outstanding contributions to the industry in a nonperforming capacity." The Recording Academy will hold a special ceremony for the Merit Awards recipients on Feb. 11, 2012. They'll also be recognized during Grammy Awards telecast on Feb. 12.
Apple's founding contract sells for nearly $1.6 million
Last month we learned Sotheby's would auction off an original Apple contract signed by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne. Experts expected it to fetch around $100,000 - $150,000. Turns out they were way off, because the document sold for almost 1.6 million bucks. When the auction closed, the final bid was $1,350,500. Add Sotheby's 12 percent commission for a grand total of $1,594,500. Mr. Eduardo Cisneros, CEO of Cisneros Corp. in Miami is the proud new owner of this document. Congratulations to Mr. Cisneros on purchasing this significant piece of Apple history. You can watch the gavel fall in the video below.
First reviews of Steve Jobs: The Lost Interview appear
Steve Jobs: The Lost Interview is a TV interview turned feature film that will be shown this week in Landmark Theatres across the US. The interview was originally recorded in 1995 when Jobs had left Apple and contains a lively conversation between Robert Cringely and Jobs. Ten minutes of the interview were shown in "Triumph of the Nerds: The Rise of Accidental Empires," a PBS series about the founding of the PC industry. The remaining footage was believed to have been lost until a VHS copy was recently found in the garage of Paul Sen, the original producer of the PBS series. The folks at Mac Edition Radio have watched some of this never-been-seen before interview and say it is fantastic. They claim it shows a vibrant Steve Jobs who enthusiastically talks about his high jinks with Steve Wozniak, his early years with Apple and his business insight which created the Apple we know today. The interview is reportedly a must-see for any diehard Apple fan or technology history buff. The movie will be shown at selected Landmark Theaters around the country on Wednesday, November 16 and Thursday, November 17. A full list of showtimes can be found at the movie's website.
Steve Jobs's story of the stones
Next week, Landmark Theaters in 19 US cities will screen a 70-minute "lost interview" featuring Steve Jobs. The interview was done in 1996 by Robert X. Cringely for his PBS series "Triumph of the Nerds" and is being released in unedited form as Steve Jobs: The Lost Interview. Philip Elmer-Dewitt, writing for Fortune, said that his favorite section of the interview is when Jobs answers the question "What's important to you in the development of a product?". His response features a scathing blow to John Sculley -- "John Sculley got a very serious disease. It's the disease of thinking that a really great idea is 90% of the work" -- as well as a sweet parable about the process of designing a product. In the interview, Jobs reminisces about an old man who lived down the street when he was a young boy. The man showed him a rock tumbler, and he and Jobs went out and got a handful of plain old rocks, then put them into the can with liquid and grit powder. They closed up the rock tumbler, turned it on, and then the man told Jobs to "come back tomorrow." The next day, the man opened the can and inside were these "amazingly beautiful polished rocks. The same common stones that had gone in through rubbing against each other like this (clapping his hands), creating a little bit of friction, creating a little bit of noise, had come out these beautiful polished rocks." Jobs goes on to say how that is a "metaphor for a team that is working really hard on something they're passionate about. It's that through the team, through that group of incredibly talented people bumping up against each other, having arguments, having fights sometimes, making some noise, and working together they polish each other and they polish the ideas, and what comes out are these beautiful stones." The interview will only be shown for two days in the US, so be sure to get your pre-sale tickets now. The theatrical trailer for the interview can be viewed below.
iPod designer Tony Fadell takes on thermostats with Nest Labs
Tony Fadell, Apple's former Senior Vice President of the iPod Division, oversaw iPod and iPhone development between 2001 and 2009. Ten years after his most iconic project first saw the light of day, the "father of the iPod" has a new product: Nest, a home thermostat that's smarter than the average bear. Nest is a new breed of home thermostat that Fadell has developed with partner Matt Rogers, who led an engineering team at Apple's iPod division in 2009. Mike Matas, formerly of Delicious Monster and Apple, contributed to the design. "It's a thermostat for the iPhone generation," says Fadell. Aside from its striking looks and color-coded, digital display, the Nest thermostat boasts impressive features. For example, a motion sensor notices if there are people in a room and adjusts its temperature accordingly. It also learns your habits and preferences, so there's no programming to be done. Even fine-tuned adjustments of just a few degrees can make a big difference for consumers and the environment. The New York Times notes that each degree cooler (in winter) or warmer (in summer) a house is kept translates into a 5 percent energy savings, according to experts. John E. Bowers, director of the Institute for Energy Efficiency at the University of California, Santa Barbara, likes the idea of using an smart device to monitor those adjustments. "There is a huge amount that can be gained in homes, and an intelligent thermostat could be a great opportunity," he told the Times. The Nest will ship sometime in November at US$250, via the company's site and Best Buy's website. It certainly looks cool, but what would you expect from "the father of the iPod?"
10 years ago today, the original iPod changed music
Happy 10th anniversary to the iPod! It was introduced at a low-key Steve Jobs presentation on October 23, 2001, when the country and the consumer electronics market were still reeling from the events of six weeks earlier. The 5 GB device designed to put "1,000 songs in your pocket" wound up not only being a smashing hit, but paving the way to a revolution in how music and movies are purchased today, not to mention preparing the ground for the iPhone and the iPad. The iPod was a game-changer on a number of levels, and we at TUAW decided to share with you our memories of our first iPods. We'll also be talking iPod history live tonight on the Talkcast. Megan Lavey-Heaton I was living in Bristol, Tenn., in 2004, working for the Bristol Herald Courier just over the state line in Virginia for a meager wage. That June, I began dating another journalist who worked for the Knoxville newspaper. After my laptop literally fell apart, my boyfriend offered to help me purchase a new computer. After getting the computer and a new modem, we hauled the stuff out to the parking lot at Best Buy, and I asked my boyfriend to open the trunk so I could put our gear inside. He hesitated, saying I had a lot of junk in the trunk. Because I was holding some expensive items, I urged him to open it again. He opened the trunk, and sitting before me was a 15 GB 3rd generation iPod I'd been wanting for months. He'd been planning to surprise me with it at his house. My relationship with that first iPod lasted much, much longer than the relationship with the boyfriend. We broke up after nearly seven months of dating. I kept the iPod until December 2006, when I got a 5th generation iPod so I could watch video. That first iPod saw me through two cross-country moves (Tennessee to Maine, then Maine to Arizona) and more. I passed the 3rd generation iPod down to my eldest niece, who used it another year before the battery and hard drive gave up the ghost. Now, in addition to an iPhone, I have a 5th-generation iPod nano that I keep in the car and a 1st-generation iPod shuffle that I won at work that I use as an emergency USB stick. I've also sort of had my eye on the 6th-generation iPod nano. "I was thinking I could use it as a watch," I told my husband. My husband, who wouldn't be caught dead buying an iPod, but I still love him anyhow, just groaned. Mike Rose I had owned a RIO piece-o-junk MP3 player and had been studiously converting my CDs using SoundJam MP, so I was already familiar with the concept when the iPod came along, but it still seemed so remarkable -- five gigabytes of music on a hard drive? Who could even listen to that many songs? I had to buy one, and I did, telling myself I would use it as an external FireWire drive for troubleshooting and data transfer if the whole music thing didn't work out. I used that 5G original iPod for quite a while, but then in a strange series of coincidences, I found myself in an upgrade cycle I didn't have to pay for. Between raffle drawings and tradeshow giveaways (an iPod mini, a nano, and eventually a first-gen iPod touch) and right-time/right-place happenstance (a boss who must have been feeling kindly toward me when he upgraded his iPod video, since he let me keep the old one) I don't believe I put my credit card down to buy a new iPod more than once or twice in the ten years after that first purchase. My original iPod has long since been hand-me-up'ed to my mother; she was subsequently the recipient of the mini and now has her own iPhone 4. The nano and the touch have made their way to my two daughters. One clickwheel iPod is tucked away in my wife's kit bag, where she used it extensively with an external mic to record grad school lectures; the other one is embedded in a V55 5" video playback system that's been quite thoroughly obsoleted by recent developments. I don't think any of us seeing the original iPod announcement back in October 2001 could have imagined what was to come... truthfully, we were all a little bit distracted at the time. What's remarkable now is the utter dominance that the iPod held over the portable player market, and eventually over the entire music ecosystem. To take such control of the category, only finding a shrinking sway when the entire product concept is being replaced by touchable devices -- it's been a wild ride. TJ Luoma I bought my first iPod in 2003, a 30GB model which only recently stopped working. It was my gateway to the Mac. My PC laptop didn't have FireWire so I bought a PC card adapter. That let me sync but didn't charge the iPod while it was syncing, which was a drag. I had tried at least a dozen other MP3 players and always ended returning them. The iPod "just worked" and was so much better than everything else I'd tried. Sure, it cost more, but it actually made me want to use it, and it lasted about 6 years before the battery wouldn't hold a charge. It lived out its last years in my car, always plugged into a power adapter and working fine until one day it simply would not spin up. A small memorial was held for family and friends. Chris Rawson I didn't get my first iPod until 2005. I'd wanted something like it since before the iPod even existed -- carrying CDs around in the car or in a portable player was always more trouble than it was worth -- but I felt the first several generations of iPod were simply far too expensive for what they offered. The low capacities, monochromatic screens, and high prices were all huge turn-offs. The 60 GB iPod Photo finally offered the right mix of functionality and price, so I bought one ... exactly two weeks before Apple unveiled the much more capable fifth-generation iPod with video. Fortunately my local Apple Store was kind enough to let me exchange for the new one (after paying a restocking fee, naturally), and the iPod with video became my primary means of listening to music for nearly four years. I must have spent tens of thousands of hours listening to that thing, whether it was on cross-country car trips, commutes to university, riding the train to work, working out, or the 13-hour plane ride to New Zealand. I bought some games for it (Tetris was absolutely awesome on the iPod), kept notes and a handful of funny videos on it, and even used it for dictation a couple times with an external mic attachment. Through all of that, it kept trucking on like a champ. One day at Target I saw a returned second-gen iPod shuffle sitting in the electronics department, marked down significantly from its normal price -- I think it was $39. I snagged it, but I've hardly used it at all since then, except in situations where I was afraid of damaging one of my more capable devices. Though my wife loved her first-gen nano and her newer sixth-gen model, I've never found anything particularly enticing about the nano lineup, which once again fell into a features/price situation that never convinced me I needed one. Immediately after buying my first iPod, I wished for something that combined a device with the functionality of an iPod with basic phone functions. I would've been happy if Apple had just put out something that held a few gigabytes of songs, made phone calls, and let me sync my contacts, photos, and ringtones via iTunes -- even something like the ROKR would've been good enough if it had been able to hold 1000 songs instead of only 100. The iPhone turned out to do all that and much more, and it pretty much killed any enthusiasm I had for the entire iPod line. My iPhone 3G had far lower capacity than my iPod, but in every other way it was a far more capable device, so I sold my trusty old iPod and haven't looked back. It's not a big stretch to say that the iPod is the product that saved Apple from the brink. It was also the first brand-new Apple product I ever bought, and though it's unlikely I'll ever buy another iPod, I've been hooked on Apple's other, more powerful mobile devices ever since. Steve Sande My first experience with the iPod was in 2002. I was fascinated by the idea of the iPod, but thought they were way too expensive so I went and bought a Creative NOMAD Jukebox MP3 player. I hated it. The user interface made no sense to me at all, and it took just a few days for me to pack it back in the box and send it back to Amazon. The next week, I headed over to a nearby CompUSA store (remember them?) to look at the pricey, but oh-so-cool iPod. I ended up buying the 10 GB model, although at the time I had barely begun to rip my CD collection. I remember being totally enchanted by the 1st-Generation iPod, complete with that mechanical click wheel. It was so easy to use compared to that crappy NOMAD that it wasn't too long before I had ripped my CDs and created a pretty huge music library. My experiences with the iPod resulted in me writing a book that was later published by Take Control Books as Take Control of Your iPod: Beyond the Music. In that book, I talked about using the iPod as a PDA, running Linux on an iPod, and a number of other fascinating things that really went beyond just listening to music. I've owned several iPods since then, although I haven't used one for listening to music since getting my first iPhone in 2007. I still have a 4th-generation iPod classic that I use as a troubleshooting tool, and I'm not sure that I'll ever get rid of it. It reminds me of that 1st-generation device that hooked me on the design, and it will make a good "museum piece" along with my QuickTake 100 camera and Newton MessagePad 2100. What was your first iPod experience? Please share it with us in the comments!
Fortune to publish first excerpt from Isaacson's biography of Jobs
On Monday, the scheduled release date for Steve Jobs: A Biography, Fortune Magazine will publish an exclusive excerpt from Walter Isaacson's highly anticipated biography of Steve Jobs. The sections to appear will focus on Steve's working relationship with the former CEO of Microsoft, Bill Gates, which spanned nearly three decades. As stated by CNN Money, "...the co-founder of Apple and the co-founder of Microsoft were the twin pillars of personal computing -- at times fierce competitors, at times key allies." Isaacson's biography of Steve Jobs will be available on the same day, October 24, 2011. Previously the release date was set for November 21, and before that March 6, 2012. According to publisher Simon & Shuster, "...the book is based on more than forty interviews with Jobs conducted over two years, as well as interviews with more than a hundred family members, friends, adversaries, competitors, and colleagues."
Businessweek profiles Scott Forstall
Apple's iPhone 4S press event showcased the talents and personalities of Apple's executive leadership including CEO Tim Cook and Phil Schiller. One standout was vice-president Scott Forstall who, in the absence of Steve Jobs, is expected to take a bigger role at Apple. In a lengthy article, Business Week takes a closer look at this up and coming executive. Forstall's in charge of Apple's mobile software division and oversees the development of iOS. At the tender age of 42, he is Apple's youngest senior executive. He's also the most like Steve Jobs and the executive most likely to preserve Jobs's vision. If you want to learn more about Forstall and his role at Apple, then you should take some time to read Business Week's six page profile.
Looking back at Apple's 1984 ad
Ars Technica has an excellent interview with Steven Hayden, former creative lead at advertiser Chiat/Day and one of several people behind Apple's iconic 1984 ad. Hayden sheds some light on the behind the scenes negotiations that went into this advertisement. It's well known that Apple's board of directors did not like the ad and threatened to fire advertiser Chiat/Day, but, according to Hayden, it was supposedly Steve Wozniak's faith in the project that helped bring it to fruition. Hayden also revealed he had to interview with Scott Ridley's mother in London before the famed director agreed to work on the American commercial. For additional quips like this, check out the rest of Ars Technica's full interview here. It's worth the read.
Happy 5th birthday, Apple TV
Get out the cake and candles, it's birthday time! Five years ago today, Apple introduced the pre-cursor to the Apple TV. Code-named the iTV, the home entertainment device was "the last thing" presented during Apple's "Its Showtime" press event held in San Francisco on September 12th, 2006. The iTV was introduced as a smaller Mac Mini that works with the Apple Remote. It ran modified OS X software with an interface that resembled a souped-up version of Front Row. It also included a USB port, 802.11B connectivity, component video, HDMI output and optical audio. Just like the current model, it was advertised as a device to watch media pulled from your computer and iTunes account. Renamed the Apple TV for its launch, the first generation device hit retail shelves on March 2007 and received a lukewarm reception. The second generation model was introduced four years later at Apple's fall event on September 1, 2010. Still not a flagship product, Steve Jobs called the device a "hobby". Though a hobby, the new Apple TV has some notable improvements, including a significantly smaller form factor and iOS which enabled features like AirPlay streaming. Sales of the AppleTV still pale in comparison to the iPhone and iPad, but the addition of other services like Netflix and the increased interest in video streaming bode well for the future of this device.
Publishing for Apple's Pippin was a bit less curated than the App Store
Let me describe a game for you: Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead descends from Heaven and acid-trips his way through a parking lot, trying to avoid getting busted by the cops as he attempts to hug electric guitars. Sound like fun? Sure. Sound like something Apple would let onto the App Store in a million years? Probably not. But it turns out Apple wasn't always so choosy. Ars Technica recently interviewed Jason Rainbows, developer of Garcia's Guitars for the Apple Pippin, and the interview paints a picture of a much different (and maybe more lighthearted) mid-1990s Apple. "The Apple Pip-what?" some of you may be asking now, and you can be forgiven for that, because I never heard of it before a couple years ago, either. The Apple Pippin was Apple's aborted attempt at entering the gaming market in the mid-90s, running a version of System 7 on PowerPC hardware. As was typical of much of Apple's gear during that time, the Pippin was too expensive, too slow, had too little third-party support, and almost no one bought it. It was one of the first Apple products to disintegrate under Steve Jobs's laser gaze when he returned to Apple's top echelons, and as such the product is now little more than the answer to obscure Apple trivia. However, one interesting bit about the Apple Pippin is that Garcia's Guitars was actually packaged with the device. Apple doesn't include games with any of its iOS devices now, instead relying on users to discover them for themselves on the App Store, and it's hard to imagine the company highlighting a game like Garcia's Guitars today. According to Jason Rainbows, however, "Back then, if I called Apple and stayed on the phone (or bitched long enough), I'd eventually get Steve Jobs or The Woz on the line." In those days Apple was still fronting itself as a sort of "counterculture" alternative to the PC -- best exemplified by the later "Think Different" campaign -- so while Apple's tacit support for a game like Garcia's Guitars may seem surprising given the company's more "uptight" modern image, it was entirely in character in the company's earlier days. I never owned (or even saw) a Pippin, nor did I ever play Garcia's Guitars. But while it's nice to see Apple enjoying its top spot on the tech heap today, I'll admit that Ars Technica's interview with Jason Rainbows got me feeling a bit nostalgic for the company's earlier days. Apple had a bit more of a "devil may care" attitude back then, or at least it seems so today. Maybe it didn't do the company any favors when it came to the balance sheets, but I kind of miss the "mellower" Apple described in Ars Technica's article.
On this day in 2005 you could buy the first iPod nano
Has it really been six years? The iPod nano was first made available for purchase on September 7, 2005. At the time it debuted, the iPod mini was (according to Steve Jobs) the most popular MP3 player in the world. Carrying on the tradition of "1,000 songs in your pocket" the nano was an iPod with a clickwheel shrunk down into a case that was thinner than a number 2 pencil. More importantly to the future of Apple, the nano used flash memory instead of a tiny hard drive -- a move that would eventually work its way through almost all of Apple's product line (and will likely continue). Available in black and white, the nano was available in 2 GB and 4 GB models but Apple added a 1 GB version later. Unfortunately, the first generation nanos were prone to scratches, and Apple had to reach a settlement in a class action lawsuit involving the scratches and a slip case for the device. Later models proved to be more robust, however, made of aluminum. Personally I think the nano taught Apple quite a bit about durability in their products, and it's possible the short time it took for the nano to come to market may have been a part of the problem. Nevertheless, the nano has evolved greatly over the years. I know people who still use their first-generation nanos to work out (using the case I designed in the image above). Do you still have one or use one? Check out the video of Steve Jobs introducing the iPod nano below.
Ronald Wayne's autobiography now in the iBookstore
Apple co-founder Ronald Wayne's autobiography Adventures of an Apple Founder is now available in the iBookstore. Who is Ronald Wayne? Many Apple fans know the story of a young Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, busily working in the Jobs family garage in the 1970s. That effort would lead to the Apple we know today, with each man being credited as Apple co-founder. There was a third party, too, whose name is less synonymous with Apple. Ronald Wayne was the young company's "adult supervision," and drew the very first logo and wrote the manual for the Apple I. Plus, he drew up the original partnership agreement between Jobs and Woz. I'm sure those stories and more are in Adventures of an Apple Founder. He left the company a short time later, and he explains why he does not regret the decision in the book. Those interested in Apple's history will want to pick it up. While you're at it, why not buy iWoz and Steve Jobs for the trifecta?
Apple's most popular ad online isn't "Think Different" or "1984"
Much of Apple's advertising is as iconic as its devices and even people. But which is the most popular online? Research firm Visible Measures says it has the answer. Many people remember 1984, the Ridley Scott-dircted TV ad that aired on January 22, 1984 during the third quarter of Super Bowl XVIII. The Think Different campaign featured the "Crazy Ones" essay read by actor Richard Dreyfuss over footage of notable people like Amelia Earhart, Alfred Hitchcock, Martha Graham and Jim Henson, complete with Kermit the Frog. Interestingly, Web tracking company Visible Measures (VM) reports, neither of these spots is the most popular online (based on number of views). Instead, it's this six-minute video used to introduce the iPhone 4. VM claims that spot has garnered 17.3 million views across several outlets since it debuted in June, 2010. By Visible Measures' calculation, 1984 has pulled in 10.3 million views will Think Different ranks in with "nearly" 3 million. You can view the full list here and see where your favorite spot ranks. [Via All Things D]
A history of Steve Jobs at the D Conference
Over the years, Steve Jobs has made several appearances at the D Conference. He's shared the stage with Walt Mossberg, Bill Gates and others in the now iconic red chairs. AllThingsD has compiled a brief history of Steve's remarkable moments at the event, some of which are described below. Tablet denial In 2003, Steve took the stage the day after Bill Gates enthusiastically described the tablet computer's future. Steve was less optimistic, saying, "We looked at the tablet, and we think it's gonna fail." In hindsight, we know he was right. The tablet, as Bill described it, has not worked. Apple's version -- to understate it -- has. The Apple PDA The following year, in 2004, Steve dismissed the notion of an Apple-branded PDA. In fact, it was during this appearance that Steve uttered my favorite Jobs quote: "I'm as proud of the products that we have not done as I am of the products we have done." I've said this before, but Apple's patience and dedication to careful contemplation is among its greatest assets. Steve and Bill, together again It was the first time the two shared a stage in 20 years, so all eyes were glued to the D stage when Bill Gates and Steve Jobs sat down together for a chat with Walt Mossberg. The two talked about each their legacies and each company's history. It's a compelling video. There's more, of course, and we urge you to view the full list. Jobs certainly is a gifted speaker.
Steve Jobs and the quality of leadership
Hearing the news that Steve Jobs has resigned as CEO took me back to the mid-nineties, when I was managing a large software project in London. Our company was a pretty big Apple customer, and it was decided that the newly installed CEO Gil Amelio would drop by, shake some hands and discuss Apple's future at our conference table. Amelio is a smart and impressive man, and he's known for leading the team that developed the first commercial CCD sensors while working for Fairchild Semiconductor. He later became CEO of another chip manufacturer, National Semiconductor, where he was instrumental in restructuring the company and helping it to regain profitability. Amelio was there to give us confidence after Apple had been pretty bruised under John Sculley and Michael Spindler. It wasn't an encouraging visit. I remember Amelio going on and on about the past problems at Apple, and how he was going to fix them. Click here for an Apple video of 'the speech.' He had a long list of fixes, but what was lacking was a coherent, compelling vision. He was going to do 'something' about the clones, finally replace System 7, and settle down all the politics and warfare between Apple divisions. I had some specific questions, but he dodged them. It wasn't convincing, and I wondered if Apple was going to pull itself out of what seemed a certain death spiral. After killing Copland and failing to make a deal for the BeOS, Amelio invested in NeXT and brought Steve Jobs back to Apple. At the end, Amelio got Apple back to making a small profit, after years of losing millions. It was a tiny victory, but certainly not a turn-around. Amelio was finally ousted from Apple in July 1997 via a boardroom coup engineered by Jobs. The rest is history. I never met Steve Jobs. But every day he has touched my life. When I check my mail, prepare a presentation, edit a photo, or answer my iPhone, it all happens because Steve had an idea of how I wanted to work. I don't know of any single company or products that have had an equal impact. Gil Amelio had lots of plans, but plans are not a vision. Jobs laughs at market research, avoids focus groups, and trusts his gut when designing what customers want. That is, what they will want. Other companies try and copy Apple features and designs but usually come up short, because, like Amelio, they had lists instead of a dream. Jobs is now on the next part of his journey through life, a journey we will all take, sooner or later. It's hard to define exactly the magic that Steve brings to Apple, but it is unique and it is successful. Smart as he was, Gil Amelio could not summon the magic, or as it turned out, much lasting enthusiasm. Thank you to Gil Amelio for bringing Steve Jobs back. Thanks to Steve for bringing Apple back.
Steve Jobs biography updated to included resignation details
The official Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson is reportedly being updated to include details on Steve's resignation. According to Simon & Schuster, the update will not affect publication deadlines, and the book is still scheduled to hit shelves on November 21. A Simon & Schuster spokeswoman told PCMag that Isaacson speaks with Jobs regularly, and the two are currently collaborating on the final chapter. This will be the first authorized biography of Jobs to be published. Its title and release date have changed several times. Most recently, the release was moved from March 6, 2012 to the current November 21. Pre-orders have begun on Amazon. I've placed mine.
Steve Jobs has 313 patents to his name, including some unexpected
The New York Times reports today on the 313 patents that include Steve's name. Many are no surprise, like the G4 iMac's articulated arm and the divisive "hockey puck" mouse. Others are lesser well known or even unexpected. Here's a list of a few lesser-known patents that Steve Jobs holds. The lanyard used for the iPod and iPhone headphones. You'll remember this clever device that allowed those old iPods to hang around your neck while incorporating the headphones. Impressive cord management for sure. Stairs! If you've visited a large Apple Store, you've probably seen the impressive glass staircase inside. Steve's name is on the patent for those, too. A disc cartridge developed while Steve was at NeXT. Described as "The ornamental design for a computer disk cartridge, as shown and described," this patent was granted on November 13, 1990. Finally, here's one that never went into production. The "Telephone interface for a portable communication device" combined the rotary dial and an old-style iPod (above). It's probably best that one stayed on the design floor.
