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Art Levinson discusses the post-Jobs era
Art Levinson summed up his experience as chairman of Apple's board of directors since Steve Jobs passed in one word. "Weird," said Levinson who spoke on Tuesday at Stanford's Graduate School of Business "I'm still not to the point where I walk into that boardroom and don't miss Steve," Levinson added. According to a report in Fortune, Levinson talked about a wide range of topics covering his relationship with Jobs, his role as the chairman of Apple's board and his management style at Genentech. Though there are changes at Apple under Tim Cook, Levinson is optimistic about the company in the long run. "There [are] long-term signs of how a company is doing and whether or not Apple sells 47 or 48 million iPhones -- let somebody else worry about that," he said. You can read more about Levinson's talk in the article on Fortune and view people's reactions on Twitter. [Image from Sten Tamkivi]
Jonathan Ive on Apple's design philosophy
Late last year, Tim Cook put Jony Ive in the position of heading up Apple's Human Interface (HI) design across the company's products. Known for his work on Apple hardware, the British designer has worked his way up the ranks at Apple. He was highly regarded by Steve Jobs, who called him his "spiritual partner at Apple" in Walter Isaacson's biography of the Apple co-founder. While his hardware products speak for themselves, a spate of recent interviews gives us some insight into the design philosophy that drives this Apple executive. We know that Ive, like Tim Cook, is focused on making products the best they can be. In a May 2012 interview with the Telegraph, Ive said, "We're keenly aware that when we develop and make something and bring it to market that it really does speak to a set of values. And what preoccupies us is that sense of care, and what our products will not speak to is a schedule, what our products will not speak to is trying to respond to some corporate or competitive agenda. We're very genuinely designing the best products that we can for people." Ive also looks at products in their own right, and doesn't design a new model as a copycat or a clone. In this iPad mini video, he explains that "there is inherent loss in just reducing a product in size" and notes that Apple looked at the mini and "took the time to go back to the beginning and design a product that was a concentration of, not a reduction of, the original." Ive also spoke recently on Blue Peter about how Apple names its products and suggested that Apple is as careful with names as it is with outward design. Ive spoke about the term lunchbox and noted that Apple wouldn't use that name as it conjures up the image of a cube. He said "we're quite careful with the words we use, because those can determine the path that you go down." So what Ive influences will we see in the next version of iOS and OS X now that he is in charge of HI design? I honestly don't know, but I will say this -- if Ive puts his mark on it, it will be outstanding.
'80s throwback photo of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates (Updated)
You don't see too many photos of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates together, and you definitely won't see many more like this. This photo was posted a few years ago by Minimal Mac and is a classic that I've never noticed before. I absolutely love that '80s Breakfast Club-inspired cut on Jobs and the always-present nerdiness of Gates. Other than a credit to Croatian designer Alexander Pieri, background details surrounding the photo are not known. Update: Thanks to All About Steve Jobs which pointed out that the photo is from the August 1991 edition of Fortune that celebrates 10 years of the PC. The article has a great conversation with the two personal computing giants.
Macintosh pen holder holds your writing utensil in a classic way
Sure, at over US$53 it's a little pricey, but I am completely charmed by this pen holder shaped like an old Macintosh. Maybe it's that Susan Kare face, or the floppy drive slot, or just the reassuring, all-in-one, boxy shape, but there's something about this little 3D-printed desktop decoration that I really like. Even if it's a little expensive for my own desk, it seems like it would make a nice gift. And if you want something perhaps a little more decorative and a little less practical, the same 3D printer can deliver busts of either Steve Jobs or Steve Wozniak, each available for about $100. Both are painted in a pixel-art style, and both look pretty darn cool as well.
Disney CEO Bob Iger speaks about his relationship with Steve Jobs
Yesterday at the Hollywood Radio and Television Panel, Producer Brian Grazer lead a Q&A with Disney CEO and current Apple board member Bob Iger. Though the discussion was to center around the television and film industry it quickly turned to Iger's relationship with Steve Jobs. In 2006, Disney purchased Pixar. However, Iger said the deal almost didn't happen because of Steve Jobs' disagreements with previous Disney CEO Michael Eisner. When Iger found out he would become the next CEO of Disney in 2005, the first thing he did was call his family -- and then Steve Jobs. "I don't even remember it being totally premeditated," Iger told Grazer. "I just decided to call my parents and my grown daughters in New York and a couple of good friends and Steve." Iger said he asked Jobs if Apple's and Disney's relationship could be "salvaged" to which Jobs responded that he thought Iger was just "more of the same" as Michael Eisner. According to The Wrap, Iger said Jobs' directness was infectious. That in turn led to Iger himself being candid with Jobs about Disney's desire to improve its animated film division by buying Pixar. The Pixar deal was eventually achieved for $7.4 billion in Disney stock, making Steve Jobs the largest shareholder in the company. As for Jobs and Iger, the current Disney CEO said that he took to calling Jobs on Saturdays to see if a Disney movie he saw the night before had "sucked" -- a phrase Steve Jobs was not afraid to use.
Daily Update for January 21, 2013
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. Subscribe via RSS
Burglar who broke into Steve Jobs' house gets 7 years in jail
Last August we told you about a burglar who broke into the home of the late Steve Jobs on July 17 and made off with several Apple products, a diamond necklace and earrings, plus other personal items. The perpetrator was soon caught by the Rapid Enforcement Allied Computer Team with the help of Apple security. Both used the stolen devices' serial numbers and the burglar's IP address to track the goods. As Macworld UK notes, the man responsible for the crime has now been sentenced to seven years in jail. Kariem McFarlin, 35, admitted to the burglary to police after he was arrested and also apologized for his crimes. He said he stole the property because he had financial problems and was desperate. McFarlin admitted to breaking into at least six other homes and stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of property -- including a bar of solid silver. McFarlin broke into Jobs' house when it was undergoing renovation work. He jumped over a construction fence and entered through the garage. It is believed that no one was living in the house at the time the burglary occurred.
Former Color employee talks about Apple's Lala deal
Aubrey Johnson is a former employee of Color, the startup recently acquired by Apple and founded by Bill Nguyen, who sold another company to Apple called Lala. Over on his personal blog, Johnson has put up a post that walks right through the story of how Apple picked up Lala, from the reasoning behind the buy to how the purchase was actually negotiated. The whole process sounds very exciting -- Nguyen's company (which had nailed down a lot of search results but was flagging in profitability at that point) got a buyout offer from Nokia that even Nguyen wasn't impressed with. But he successfully sold that offer up the line to Google, and then got Apple interested, essentially pitting Apple and Google against each other for this little company that threatened to be the musical lynchpin of either service. Finally, Nguyen sat down with Steve Jobs and other Apple higher-ups, Jobs passed a number across the table, and Nguyen nodded -- and that was it. The company sold for $80 million with about that much more in bonuses for the remaining employees. And as Johnson points out, a lot of those employees then went on to work with Nguyen again at Color, and Apple bought them again. At a price, Johnson says, that was so nice (given these employees' talent and experience) it was worth it twice anyway. That's how you do business like Apple: Pay for what you need whatever it costs, and be glad you're building the best company around. [via MacRumors]
Beats Audio CEO told Jobs to launch subscription music service
Beats Audio CEO and Interscope Chairman Jimmy Iovine has told AllThingsD that he "spent about three years" trying to convince Steve Jobs that Apple should launch its own subscription-based streaming music service. Iovine recounted the effort while talking about his own upcoming music service, Daisy, which has musician Trent Reznor as its chief creative officer. Iovine says that he and Jobs became close in the early 2000s and collaborated on several marketing projects, but that he was never able to fully convince the Apple founder that subscriptions would work. Jobs, he says, remained concerned about pricing, refusing to pay what the record labels were asking for their content and believing that they would eventually come down to Apple's offering price. We've been covering Apple's rumored music subscription plans for some time, and for a while there it was looking like things were getting more serious in 2012. Some believe that with subscribers to services like Spotify and Rdio on the rise, it's only a matter of time before Apple joins the pack. [Via The Verge]
How Steve Jobs tried to save HP
In a Bloomberg Businessweek article this week, writers Ashlee Vance and Aaron Ricadela reveal a conversation between former HP CEO Mark Hurd and Steve Jobs that had not been previously disclosed. That article asks whether or not current HP CEO Meg Whitman can save the company that once ruled Silicon Valley but is now seemingly free-falling towards oblivion. Hurd was the CEO of HP between 2006 and 2010, and under his guidance the company became the leader in both PC sales and printer market share. In 2010, Hurd resigned under suspicion of a sexual harassment allegation and under pressure from a board of directors described as "dysfunctional." Almost immediately, HP's share prices began to fall. Jobs was concerned that the HP board had used the allegation to push Hurd out, a move Oracle CEO and Jobs friend Larry Ellison described as "the worst personnel decision since the idiots on the Apple Board fired Steve Jobs many years ago." Jobs invited Hurd to his home, and the two talked while Jobs took Hurd on one of his customary long walks. To quote the Bloomberg Businessweek article, "At numerous points during their conversation, Jobs pleaded with Hurd to do whatever it took to set things right with the board so that Hurd could return. Jobs even offered to write a letter to HP's directors and to call them up one by one...By offering Hurd counsel, Jobs wasn't merely lending a friend psychological support. Rather, he was going to bat for the legacy of Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard. A healthy HP, Jobs urged, was essential to a healthy Silicon Valley." The entire article is a fascinating read about a tech company that has lost its spark and a cautionary tale for any company about how quickly fortunes can change.
Giant iPhone in St. Petersburg is tribute to Steve Jobs
A giant iPhone installation was revealed in St. Petersburg, Russia today in honor of the late Steve Jobs. Designed by St. Petersburg native Gleb Tarasov, the larger-than-life iPhone is an imitation of a black, "late model" version of Apple's iconic device, according to RIA Novosti. There's no giant touch screen, but the iPhone does feature a display that showcases a slideshow and video of Jobs' life. The giant iPhone is located in the courtyard of the St. Petersburg National Research University of Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optics. The Progress IT Fund launched a competition last year to select a designer for the monument. Gleb Tarasov's design was chosen out of over 200 entrants. The giant iPhone installation is entitled "Sunny QR Code" because there's a massive QR code on the back that onlookers can scan to be taken to a website commemorating Steve Jobs. Image Credit: RIA Novosti
Tablets overtake laptops, just as Steve Jobs predicted
John Paczkowski of AllThingsD has an interesting story this morning, noting that PC shipment data released by NPD DisplaySearch indicates that tablets like the iPad will outship notebooks this year. That statistic once again points out how prescient late Apple CEO Steve Jobs was about the future of tablets as computing devices. At the D8 conference back in 2010, Steve Jobs compared the transition from desktop and laptop PCs to tablets with the transition from trucks to cars. His comparison noted that trucks were initially more popular than cars since the U.S. was a much more agrarian country in the early 20th century, but that as the nation became much more urbanized, cars took over sales. Trucks are still around, but they're not the dominant form of vehicle in the country. Likewise, Jobs said that eventually "PCs are going to be like trucks. They're still going to be around, they're still going to have a lot of value, but they're going to be used by one out of X people." It took only three years for tablets to overtake laptops in sales by almost 16 percent. Jobs believed that some day only a small percentage of people would need a traditional computer, and that day is getting here faster than we can imagine.
IDEO founder David Kelley talks about Steve Jobs on 60 Minutes
David Kelley is a well-known entrepreneur and design professor at Stanford. The IDEO founder recently sat down and talked to 60 Minutes about his life, his work at IDEO and his time at Stanford. A small part of the segment also discusses his interactions with Steve Jobs and Apple. Kelley's design firm IDEO worked with Apple on the first mouse, the Apple III, the Lisa computer and more. Through his work on these products, Kelley became a personal friend to Jobs. You can jump directly to the Apple parts at the 3:00 and 7:40 marks or listen to the entire 12-minute remarks. [Via MacRumors]
Ashton Kutcher as Steve Jobs flick gets an April release date
The new film that starts Ashton Kutcher as Steve Jobs (which is still unfortunately titled jOBS, apparently), has gotten an April release date, according to the Wall Street Journal. The film, directed by Joshua Michael Stern, will premiere at the very end of the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah later on this month, but will eventually open for a wider release sometime in April. This is the first of two Steve Jobs movies we're scheduled to see come together in 2013, with the other one currently being written by none other than Aaron Sorkin. That one's a little further behind, so it hasn't even started shooting yet, and we're not even close to a release date for that one. But if the picture of Kutcher as Jobs intrigues you above, you won't have long to wait -- the movie is just a few months away from finding its way to a theater near you.
"Something Ventured" documentary to feature Jobs, others
At last year's SXSW, the documentary "Something Ventured: Risk, Reward, and the Original Venture Capitalists" gave audiences an inside look at the early days of investing in various entrepreneurs including Steve Jobs. Now, as AllThingsD reports, the film will debut for the rest of the us in January on various public television networks across the country. Aside from Apple's beginnings, the documentary features the origin stories of companies including Intel, Cisco and Atari. If you're interested in checking it out, you can head over to the documentary's local TV listings and find when the program is scheduled to hit your area.
Daily Update for December 21, 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. Subscribe via RSS
Designer has Steve Jobs' yacht impounded over unpaid bill
Philippe Starck, the man who designed Steve Jobs' yacht, had the boat impounded in Amsterdam due to unpaid bills, according to Starck's lawyer. The yacht, known as "Venus" cost almost US$130 million to build. It was started in 2007 by Jobs and Starck, who worked together in designing it. Since Jobs passed away in October 2011, he never got to see the finished boat, but after its completion it was delivered to his family. However, now Starck's lawyer says the Jobs family has only paid him a portion, $8 million, out of the $12 million he and Jobs agreed on. A lawyer representing Starck told Reuters, "The project has been going since 2007 and there had been a lot of detailed talk between Jobs and Starck. These guys trusted each other, so there wasn't a very detailed contract." The yacht was impounded on Wednesday and will remain in the Amsterdam port until Jobs' estate lawyers pay the outstanding balance.
Daily Update for December 6, 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. Subscribe via RSS
Here's the first official photo of Ashton Kutcher in 'jOBS'
The organizers of the Sundance Film Festival announced today that director Joshua Michael Stern's independent Steve Jobs biopic, the oddly capitalized jOBS, will premiere on January 27, the final night of this year's festival in Park City, Utah. In making the announcement, Sundance issued the first official publicity photo of actor Ashton Kutcher as the late Apple CEO and co-founder, which you can see above. The shot, modeled after an actual photo, depicts Jobs with long hair and a beard, wearing a long-sleeve button-down and jeans. He's leaning against his work desk in a cubicle that features a rainbow-colored IBM "THINK" poster and an Apple II. Unsurprisingly, Kutcher looks eerily like a young Jobs. You can see a larger version of the photo here. [Via MacRumors]
Steve Jobs autographed computer chip
Letters of Note is a wonderful repository of "fascinating letters, postcards, telegrams, faxes and memos," and a favorite destination of several members of the TUAW staff. Today's find was actually published on October 6, 2011, the day after Apple co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs passed on. The typewritten letter, dated November 16, 1983, is from Jobs to an Apple fan ("Francis") who had apparently expressed enthusiasm about the company's early products. It's pretty cool that Jobs responded to the fan's letter at all, but even more impressive is the fact that his signature isn't on the letter, but on an Applesoft ROM chip taped to the letter. Any TUAW readers with Jobs-signed memorabilia can let us know about your swag through the "Tip Us" button on the top right of this page.
