Pirates of Silicon Valley
Latest
Switched On: RIM's shot
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology. Much like their home countries, Apple and RIM share much in common, but contrast in important ways. Both companies are among the few that produce their own software for their cellular handsets. Apple, a personal computing pioneer, sees market expansion in smartphones. RIM, a smartphone pioneer, sees market expansion in mobile computing. Looking at the tablets on offer, Apple has been just as adamant in decrying a 7-inch display as RIM has been defending it, the latter saying that it sought to create an ultramobile device with the PlayBook. Apple designs products for consumers that have relevance for enterprises. RIM designs products for enterprises that have relevance for consumers. This has also been evident with the PlayBook, which has taken heat for its lack of native e-mail and calendaring options. RIM consciously put these on the back burner because it wanted to appease CIOs concerned about data theft, even though it meant a less appealing launch product for consumers. Another parallel: RIM has suffered as AT&T delays in supporting Bridge, just as Apple struggled with AT&T supporting tethering on the iPhone.
Steve Jobs thought Noah Wyle did a "fantastic job" playing him in Pirates of Silicon Valley
Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen has a new book out titled Idea Man: A Memoir by the Cofounder of Microsoft. In it you can find all sorts of muckraking that publishers love to have in a biography that they paid too large of an advance on. The book has already generated a lot of internet talk based on the fact that it has supposedly created a rift between Allen and Bill Gates. But besides Microsoft drama, the book also reveals a few interesting tidbits about Steve Jobs. In the book, Allen remembers an incident between Steve Jobs and an employee, which demonstrates what a jerk Jobs is, according to Allen. In Allen's retelling, both he and Bill Gates drove down to meet with Steve Jobs and Apple developer Andy Hertzfeld for a demo of the first Mac. But when the four sat down around the Mac and it promptly froze, Jobs was quick to unleash his anger and belittlement on Hertzfeld: "What the fuck is going on?" [Jobs] snarled at Hertzfeld, who'd probably been up all night getting things ready and was now trying to shrink under the table. "These guys came all the way down here to see this thing and this is the best we can do? This is the best we can do? We get thirty seconds and a frozen screen? What the fuck is wrong with you?" Allen goes on to say that he had forgotten about the incident until he saw it portrayed in Pirates of Silicon Valley years later. Allen says that the movie, where Jobs was played by Noah Wyle, portrayed Jobs as a "mean-spirited jerk," something Jobs apparently had no problem with. Next time Allen saw Jobs, he asked him if he liked the movie. Jobs' response: "I thought the guy who played me did a fantastic job." [via BusinessInsider]
