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Bill Gates's original PC game now on iPhone
Donkey, or more properly DONKEY.BAS, was computer game co-written by Bill Gates in 1981. It was included in early versions of the PC-DOS operating system and had players drive a car down a street while avoiding donkeys. Why there were so many donkeys on the road is a mystery. Today, Donkey is available for the iPhone. It's a fun example of an 8-bit game with chunky graphics and super simple action. Tap to change lanes. Take it from an old fogie: Donkey is fun and worth US$0.99. You wouldn't have your precious Zelda without it. [Via Gizmodo]
Daily Update for January 30, 2012
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here. No Flash? Click here to listen.
Steve Jobs kept letter from Bill Gates on his nightstand
Bill Gates's Microsoft was a long time Apple rival, as well as a respected competitor; the two companies also collaborated many times, including Microsoft's role as one of the original Macintosh third-party developers. The Telegraph reports that a letter to Steve Jobs from Gates was kept on Jobs's nightstand during the Apple co-founder's final days. Gates and Jobs had met to reminisce and re-connect in the months before Steve's death due to complications from cancer in October 2011. Gates didn't reveal many details about what was in the letter, but he said, "I told Steve about how he should feel great about what he had done and the company he had built. I wrote about his kids, whom I had got to know." After Jobs died, Gates got a phone call from Laurene Powell Jobs, Steve's widow. She said, "Look, this biography (the Walter Issacson book) really doesn't paint a picture of the mutual respect you had." She then told Gates that the letter had meant so much to Steve that he kept it by his bed. Gates appeared in a video interview last week where he also discussed the complex relationship between himself and Steve. Thanks to Daniel Jalkut.
Daily Update for January 25, 2012
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here. No Flash? Click here to listen.
Bill Gates discusses Steve Jobs, iBooks and education in new interview
When you think of Apple, you may think of their longtime rival in the OS space, Microsoft. When you think of Mac OS, you may think of Windows (drawing comparisons between the two since Windows debuted), and when you think of Steve Jobs, you often think of Bill Gates. The two founders of two giant tech companies have often been described as binary stars in the tech world. It seems only fitting that in his recent interview with Yahoo! and ABC News, the former Microsoft head spent some time talking about his colleague Jobs and Apple's new push into education. Gates had nothing but pleasant things to say about Jobs and his relationship with the Apple co-founder over the years. "He and I always enjoyed talking. He would throw some things out, you know, some stimulating things. We'd talk about the other companies that have come along. We talked about our families and how lucky we'd both been in terms of the women we married. It was great relaxed conversation." Host Bill Weir also asked Gates about Apple's recent iBooks 2 and iTunes U announcement. Though he didn't talk about the iPad or iBooks specifically, Gates did talk about the promise of this new way of educating students. He said several times that we are still in the early days of this transition from traditional learning to digital learning. The interview is available on Yahoo News and is broken up into short segments so you can choose which sections you'd like to watch.
Walter Isaacson reportedly to expand Jobs biography
Steve Jobs biographer Walter Isaacson spoke recently at a meeting hosted by the Commonwealth Club of California, and said that he very likely will add an addendum to the already 630-page biography of Apple's co-founder. "This is the first or second draft" of the book, he reportedly said. "It's not the final draft." One obvious place the book could expand, according to Isaacson, is on the period after Jobs' death earlier this year, and the response around the country and the world from nearly everyone associated with Apple. Isaacson also says he's thinking about doing a more annotated version, including more details on the life Jobs shared with Isaacson over the last few years. Isaacson also talked a little bit about Jobs' input on the book -- he specifically asked to help design the cover, and Isaacson was happy to oblige. And Isaacson says that during all of his research and their talks, the one thing Jobs really wanted him never to speak about was philanthropy; Jobs obviously wanted that part of his life to remain out of the public eye. But that didn't stop him, Isaacson remembers, from poking a little fun at Bill Gates' famous giving: "Bill Gates was better at philanthropy because he didn't care about making great products," Isaacson quotes Jobs as saying to him.
CNET details the death of Microsoft's Courier and Bill Gates' 'allergic reaction'
For those that follow the twists and turns of the technology news business, the Microsoft Courier has practically become the stuff of legend. First leaked on Gizmodo in the fall of 2009, the device was never even officially confirmed by Microsoft until it axed the project in April of last year. And while we wound up learning quite a bit about the dual-screen tablet despite that lack of official information, we never really got the full story of its rise and fall within the company. Now CNET's Jay Greene has published an extensive look at the device's short history, which he says was "pieced together through interviews with 18 current and former Microsoft executives, as well as contractors and partners who worked on the project." The story, as you might expect, is fascinating -- read on for some of the details.
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.
Bill Gates' kids 'aren't deprived,' they have Zunes
Bill Gates doesn't give too many interviews, but the Daily Mail's Caroline Graham sure managed to get a lot out of him during their recent sitdown. Gates spent much of the time discussing his global health foundation, which, according to him, has become "full-time work for the rest of my life." And, while he acknowledged that he's still involved with Microsoft on a "part-time" basis, he reaffirmed that he has no desire to return to the throne. Does this mean he's finally ready to lift his household's notorious Apple embargo and allow his kids to own iPods? Not exactly: "They have the Windows equivalent. They have a Zune music player, which is a great Windows portable player. They are not deprived children." Hear that? Bill's kids aren't in need! In fact, they even earn allowances and "do chores," just like your kids. Sure, their pops may have billions of dollars stowed away under his mattress, but he says his offspring will only receive a "minuscule portion" of that fortune. Cue the violins.
Apple's value is more than Microsoft and Intel combined
Apple's market cap is now greater than Microsoft and Intel combined. When the market closed on Friday, Microsoft had a market cap of US$201.59 billion and Intel had a cap of $115.21 billion. Combined, they have a market cap of $316.8 billion which is just below the $317.60 billion of Apple. This may the first time Apple has exceeded the powerful Wintel platform. As MacDailNews points out, no one can forget what Bill Gates said about Steve Jobs in an unpublished 1998 interview conducted by Robert X. Cringely for Vanity Fair. Then the CEO of Microsoft, Gates wondered, "What I can't figure out is why he (Steve Jobs) is even trying (to be the CEO of Apple)? He knows he can't win." At that point, Microsoft was trading at $29 and had a market cap of $250 billion. Apple was down to a lowly $7.25 and had a market cap of $6 billion. Steve Jobs had resumed the helm as CEO of Apple and was looking to turn things around. I'd say he has been successful, wouldn't you?
Bill Gates considers Skype 'a great purchase' for Microsoft, helped make it happen
The aftermath of Microsoft's announcement that it'll buy Skype for $8.5 billion was filled with speculation about why the price was so high, who Microsoft was bidding against, and who inside Redmond was the driving force behind such a large expenditure. At least one of those queries has been demystified today, thanks to Bill Gates asserting himself as "a strong proponent at the board level for the deal being done." Microsoft's Chairman of the Board expressed his enthusiasm for gobbling up Skype in an interview with the BBC -- one which UK residents may see in full at the iPlayer link below -- and concluded that "it's a great purchase that a lot of innovation will come out of." Adding his support to Steve Ballmer's already public excitement about the Skype takeover, Bill stresses that "the importance of software is higher today than ever," while also predicting that video conferencing is set to become much better and bigger than we've yet seen. We've got our webcams at the ready, Bill!
Inhabitat's Week in Green: floating trains, dead bees, dirt-powered phones and Cornish pasties
Each week our friends at Inhabitat recap the week's most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us -- it's the Week in Green. Did you know that the cell phone in your pocket could be causing the collapse of bee colonies? This week Inhabitat reported the alarming news as Swiss researchers confirmed that cell signals confuse bees and are leading to their deaths. We also looked at a Bill Gates-funded plan to power cell phones using dirt, and we spotted a new phone battery that can be charged by yelling at it -- much to the chagrin of everyone else on the bus. Alternative transportation got a boost this week as Japanese engineers unveiled a levitating high-speed electric train that flies over the earth, and we shined a light on Berkeley's new solar-powered Impulse racer, which is gearing up to blaze a trail in the 1,800-mile World Solar Challenge. It was a big week for biofuels as well as Ford and Georgia Tech unveiled plans to create the first hydraulic hybrid U.S. school bus and UK scientists cooked up a plan to power cars with Cornish pasties. In other news, this week a New Jersey Toys "R" Us unveiled plans to build the largest solar roof in the United States, and HyperSolar rolled out a magnifying film that can increase the efficiency of photovoltaic panels by 300%. In green lighting news, we watched Google flip the switch on its brilliant Android-controlled LED bulb, and we announced the Philips and Inhabitat Bright Ideas Lighting Design Competition, which is awarding $1,000 to the designer of the most stunning eco-friendly lamp. Finally, we got excited for the start of summer with a look at the Lapin Kulta Solar Kitchen, which will be serving up sun-cooked meals all across Europe!
Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen: Steve Jobs is "monomaniacal"
I doubt Steve Jobs will regard being called monomaniacal as an insult. My dictionary defines the word as 'An inordinate or obsessive zeal or interest in a single thing or subject." That sounds pretty much like the Apple co-founder and CEO. The comments from Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen came in an interview with The Sunday Times, where he also praised Apple's almost unbelievable turnaround since Jobs returned to the company in 1997. The full article is behind a paywall, but the Guardian quotes it here. There's a lot more of interest in Allen's recently-published autobiography, Idea Man. One passage from the book that will make Apple fans take notice is this one quoting Bill Gates in the mid-nineties: "[The competition] can be taken. But the only way we're going to take them is to study them, know what they know, do what they do, watch them, watch them, watch them. Look for every angle, stay on their shoulders, clone them, take every one of their good ideas and make it one of our good ideas."
Paul Allen compares working with Bill Gates to 'being in hell' (video)
Paul Allen doesn't give many interviews, but Microsoft's famously eclectic co-founder recently decided to sit down with 60 Minutes' Lesley Stahl, to discuss his juicy new memoir, The Idea Man. It's a book peppered with old stories of Allen's early days as a programmer, when he and Bill Gates would spend their days searching for discarded code in dumpsters and building software for the original Altair computer. But the memoir's most intriguing (and controversial) revelations revolve around Allen's personal and professional relationship with Gates, whom he described to Stahl as a gifted businessman with a penchant for being a total jerk. According to Allen, Gates would regularly engage in testy shouting matches with his Microsoft brethren, and wouldn't hesitate to sling "personal verbal attacks" against anyone who dared to disagree with him. Allen says he tolerated Gates' explosions, for the most part, even though he desperately wanted to tell him that "working with you is like being in hell." The two hit a particularly rough patch after Gates allegedly plotted to squeeze Allen out of the company, not long after he was diagnosed with Stage 4 lymphoma -- an incident that spurred Allen to leave Microsoft, shortly thereafter. Gates, for his part, hasn't commented on Allen's tell-all, nor, apparently, has he even discussed it with his former partner. The next time the two men sit down for a chat, however, Allen says he expects a "heated discussion." Naturally. You can watch the interview after the break, along with a glimpse at some of Allen's most jaw-dropping toys.
No Apple products in the house of Bill
Last March, Melinda Gates told the world that though there were "very few things that are on the banned list" in her household, the iPhone and iPod were definitely not allowed. Today, we're learning the house of Gates has expelled Apple computers for good. The philanthropist's better half told the New York Times Magazine that when one of her children asks for an iPod, the reply is, "You may have a Zune," and that the rumors of Bill himself using an Apple laptop are completely false. "Nothing crosses the threshold of our doorstep," she declared, opening up a plausible loophole -- perhaps a family member will one day taste the forbidden fruit while comfortably seated on the porch.
Bill Gates expects the web to be the best single source of education within 5 years
Bill Gates just might be the world's most famous college dropout (sorry, Kanye), but lest you think he's changed his mind about the educational establishment, he's got a few words of reassurance for you. As the closing speaker of the Techonomy 2010 conference, Bill dished out his vision of how learning will evolve over the next few years, stating his belief that no single university will be able to match the internet when it comes to providing the learning resources a student needs. Describing traditional studies as "place-based" and inefficient, he forecasts that university education will become five times less important within five years, with online lecture sources picking up the reins of enlightening our youth. In other news, Bill's pen-based tablet PC idea is going great!
Bill Gates: Microsoft pursuing 'a lot of' tablet projects, pen-based input will be 'mainstream for students'
Few people would've taken the news of the Courier's demise lightly, and while Microsoft sought to comfort us, it's never quite as reassuring as when you hear it from the progenitor himself: "Microsoft has a lot of different tablet projects that we're pursuing. We think that work with the pen that Microsoft pioneered will become a mainstream for students. It can give you a device that you can not only read, but also create documents at the same time." So yes, Microsoft ain't quttin' on tablets just yet, and don't you even dare question the utility of the stylus. Bill Gates has been an unashamed promoter of pen-based computing for the longest time, and it's fun to see that even cold hard facts are insufficient to shake his confidence. Having spoken out against the iPad's lack of keyboard or pen input back in February, Bill has seen the American market gleefully embrace Apple's touchscreen device, something he acknowledges by agreeing that "both in general and in the specific, Apple's done a great job." But he still expects students to be drawn to pen-friendly mobile devices. Well Bill, give the other Steve a call and get him to bring one out and we shall see, eh?
Dr. Henry Edward Roberts, personal computing pioneer, loses battle with pneumonia
Sad news out of Georgia this morning, Dr. Ed Roberts, pioneer of personal computing, has died of pneumonia at the age of 68. Roberts founded Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS) in 1970. In 1974 his company released the $395 Altair 8800. It was based on Intel's revolutionary 8080 processor and, after being featured on the cover of Popular Electronics (included after the break), would become the world's first truly popular personal computer. It would be on this machine that the former Micro-Soft would get its start, with Bill Gates and Paul Allen being contracted by Roberts to write Altair BASIC, a version of the simple programming language that Allen delivered by hand on paper tape to the MITS office in Albuquerque. Those two are remembering him today with the following statement: Ed was willing to take a chance on us -- two young guys interested in computers long before they were commonplace -- and we have always been grateful to him... The day our first untested software worked on his Altair was the start of a lot of great things. We will always have many fond memories of working with Ed in Albuquerque, in the MITS office right on Route 66 -- where so many exciting things happened that none of us could have imagined back then. Our thoughts go out to the Roberts family this morning.
Toshiba and Bill Gates-backed TerraPower discussing small-scale nuclear reactors
It would seem that Toshiba hasn't given up on its dream of producing a nuclear reactor for the home, and its latest potential partner counts quite the big name among its backers. Run by a former Microsoft exec and partially funded by Bill Gates himself, TerraPower is said to have opened preliminary discussions with Toshiba regarding a possible joint venture between the two companies. The aim is, predictably, to make safer, smaller, more socially acceptable, and just plain better reactors. TerraPower boasts its tech can run without refueling for up to 60 years on depleted uranium and Bill Gates has gotten enthusiastic enough about the whole thing to give a 30-minute talk on the matter. Click past the break for the video.
Bill Gates thinks the iPad needs a keyboard, Disney CEO loves it as it is
Here, finally, is one point on which the two giants of computing, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, completely disagree on. Steve says netbooks are better at nothing, whereas Bill's view is the polar opposite: "You know, I'm a big believer in touch and digital reading, but I still think that some mixture of voice, the pen and a real keyboard - in other words a netbook - will be the mainstream on that." Unimpressed by the iPad, Bill goes on to say that he considers it a "nice reader," but not something that made him wish Microsoft had done it first. Don't tell that to Disney CEO Robert Iger though, who brings out the dreaded "game changer" tag when describing the potential he sees in the iPad for the creation of "essentially new forms of content." Lest we forget, Steve Jobs also sits on the Disney board, so this could be just a friendly tip of the hat by Iger. Either way, we're curious to see what new content Disney might scratch up, as well as to find out who's right in this newfound binary question: keyboard-equipped netbooks or longevous, ultrathin tablets -- what say you?
