Steve Jobs

About Larry Ellison’s comments on Steve Jobs

Larry Ellison’s comments about Apple without Steve Jobs are causing quite a stir this morning. I agree with some of the things that Ellison said, like “He was brilliant, he was our Edison, he was our Picasso.”

Life at Apple after Steve Jobs

“Weird.”

That was the one-word answer given by Apple (AAPL) chairman Arthur D. Levinson when asked to describe his experience running the company’s board of directors since Steve Jobs’s death. Levinson, who joined the board in 2000, was a colleague and close friend to Apple’s legendary founder and CEO. On Tuesday, he said that Jobs’s absence remains tough to ignore even as the company has continued introducing new products and making fresh announcements.

Perfection

Tell me if you’ve heard this one: “Steve Jobs never would’ve let [PRODUCT/SERVICE/INCIDENT] happen.”

That declaration has distorted the way the press writes about Apple and how it operates. The claims of his alleged perfectionism and ability to “sweat the details” didn’t just elevate the CEO to “best thing since sliced bread” status, it mutated the perception of the company for industry insiders and the public. […]

About Steve

I am still incredibly sad about Steve’s death. I haven’t been able to read the book published last year and I wonder what he could have accomplished. I will leave you with Steve narrating “The Crazy Ones.”

Cheers Steve.

Understand Steve Jobs’ ‘One More Thing’

Michael Lopp:

The best stories, the ones we love, have a surprise ending. Since Steve returned to Apple, an essential part of the keynote was the anticipation of the unexpected, and that means aggressive and invasive secrecy. Not because they don’t want you to know, but because they want to tell you a great story.

Another great piece from Michael.

Steve Jobs: The Lost Interview on iTunes

Candid, controversial and funny…the original and unedited interview with Steve Jobs, conducted by tech journalist and former Apple Inc. employee Robert X. Cringely, from 1995 when Steve Jobs was still CEO of NeXT Computer and Pixar.

Steve Jobs Atari memo at auction

Sotheby’s announced on Friday that it will be auctioning off what the auction giant says is the only known surviving Steve Jobs documents from his time at Atari. The document being auctioned is a five page memo from Mr. Jobs to engineer Stephen Bristow on ways to make Atari World Cup Football, an arcade console soccer game.

I can’t even guess how much they’ll get for this.

Steve Jobs wanted to design an iCar

And, according to J. Crew CEO and Apple board member Mickey Drexler, Jobs even envisioned rethinking the automotive industry. Speaking at Fast Company’s recent Innovation Uncensored conference, Drexler clued the audience in on some insider Apple knowledge.“Look at the car industry; it’s a tragedy in America. Who is designing the cars?” Drexler said. “Steve’s dream before he died was to design an iCar.”

The iMac was almost called ‘MacMan’

Jacqui Cheng for ArsTechnica:

“We went through scores of names, but the one that I hit on early on was the iMac,” Segall said. “Steve didn’t like any of our names, including the iMac, and said, ‘if you can’t beat MacMan, that’s what it’s gonna be.’ We came up with a few more names and came back, but still brought back some of our old favorites. At that point, Steve said, ‘well I don’t hate it this week, but I still don’t like it.”

Fascinating.

The story behind Steve Jobs as FDR

Glenn, Mike, and I marched into Steve’s office to give him the pitch. Pretty much the way I outlined it in the previous paragraph. Steve’s eyes were sparkling through it all. By the time I got to, “and you as FDR,” I had made the sale.

And here is the video he’s talking about.

[Via MacStories]

Isaacson says Steve Jobs was pissed at Google

AppleInsider:

After hearing Page’s interpretation of Jobs’s words, Isaacson spoke out this week in a speech at the Royal institution of Great Britain. Isaacson said he felt that Android had ripped off many of his ideas found in the iPhone and iPad, and that his ire was very real, according to Macworld.“It’s almost copied verbatim by Android,” Isaacson said. “And they license it around promiscuously. And then Android starts surpassing Apple in market share, and this totally infuriated him. It wasn’t a matter of money. He said, ‘You can’t pay me off, I’m here to destroy you.'”

It’s time for Google to shut up.

Leave Steve alone

Mat Honan:

Steve Jobs is dead. He doesn’t need to do another day’s work as your puppet pundit. Let the man rest.

Yes, please.

Google CEO: Steve Jobs’ fury about Android was just for show

Google CEO Larry Page:

I think that served their interests. For a lot of companies, it’s useful for them to feel like they have an obvious competitor and to rally around that. I personally believe that it’s better to shoot higher. You don’t want to be looking at your competitors. You want to be looking at what’s possible and how to make the world better.

So, Larry looks to make the world a better place and Steve didn’t? Oh please.

When Steve Jobs met Andy Warhol

In his diary, Warhol later wrote, “I said that once some man had been calling me a lot wanting to give me one [a Macintosh], but I’d never called him back or something, and then the kid looked up and said, ‘Yeah, that was me. I’m Steve Jobs.’”

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