UPDATE: Jobs wasn’t in bed watching the live feed, but sitting on a sofa enjoying apple juice with rice pudding. Our source reports: “He was sitting in his favorite single soft leather sofa chair and having apple juices with rice pudding, as his favorite.”
We don’t have many details, but we have it from a good source that Steve Jobs watched the launch of the iPhone 4S from his death bed home in Palo Alto.
A special private video stream was set up for him to watch the event from home.
According to our source: “At the end of the show, he smiled as if to say ‘All things are in good hands’ but did not utter a word.”
The source declined to go into further detail. The source is well-connected and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Jobs died the following day.
Leander Kahney is the editor and publisher of Cult of Mac.
Leander is a longtime technology reporter and the author of six acclaimed books about Apple, including two New York Times bestsellers: Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple’s Greatest Products and Inside Steve’s Brain, a biography of Steve Jobs.
He’s also written a top-selling biography of Apple CEO Tim Cook and authored Cult of Mac and Cult of iPod, which both won prestigious design awards. Most recently, he was co-author of Cult of Mac, 2nd Edition.
Leander has been reporting about Apple and technology for nearly 30 years.
Before founding Cult of Mac as an independent publication, Leander was news editor at Wired.com, where he was responsible for the day-to-day running of the Wired.com website. He headed up a team of six section editors, a dozen reporters and a large pool of freelancers. Together the team produced a daily digest of stories about the impact of science and technology, and won several awards, including several Webby Awards, 2X Knight-Batten Awards for Innovation in Journalism and the 2010 MIN (Magazine Industry Newsletter) award for best blog, among others.
Before being promoted to news editor, Leander was Wired.com’s senior reporter, primarily covering Apple. During that time, Leander published a ton of scoops, including the first in-depth report about the development of the iPod. Leander attended almost every keynote speech and special product launch presented by Steve Jobs, including the historic launches of the iPhone and iPad. He also reported from almost every Macworld Expo in the late ’90s and early ‘2000s, including, sadly, the last shows in Boston, San Francisco and Tokyo. His reporting for Wired.com formed the basis of the first Cult of Mac book, and subsequently this website.
Before joining Wired, Leander was a senior reporter at the legendary MacWeek, the storied and long-running weekly that documented Apple and its community in the 1980s and ’90s.
Leander has written for Wired magazine (including the Issue 16.04 cover story about Steve Jobs’ leadership at Apple, entitled Evil/Genius), Scientific American, The Guardian, The Observer, The San Francisco Chronicle and many other publications.
Leander has a postgrad diploma in artificial intelligence from the University of Aberdeen, and a BSc (Hons) in experimental psychology from the University of Sussex.
He has a diploma in journalism from the UK’s National Council for the Training of Journalists.
Leander lives in San Francisco, California, and is married with four children. He’s an avid biker and has ridden in many long-distance bike events, including California’s legendary Death Ride.
You can find out more about Leander on LinkedIn and Facebook. You can follow him on X at @lkahney or Instagram.
132 responses to “Steve Jobs Watched iPhone 4S Launch Live From Home”
I knew at some point somebody will appear saying this. Who cares? We all know things are in good hands.
Even in death, the man was a perfectionist. He handed the keys of Apple to Tim Cook, he finished his autobiography, set Apple up with product ideas for the next 4-5 years, and then — and only then — he passed on.
wow. this just kills me.
A real man.
He shall always live in our memories.
Oh come on, this is just so saaaad ):
D’:
come on CoM, let’s not post this stuff — really, who cares. let the man have his last moments in peace without speculating and giving us this “we have it from a good source” stuff.
So this ‘good source’ not only divulges this personal information but surmises what Steve Jobs is thinking on his death bed. Keep it classy CoM.
I, for one, care. So do many others based on comments circulating here, other forums, and facebook. If you don’t, fine, but you do have the ability to skip the article then.
Thanks Steve. Commitment, Trust, Loyality, Vision, Passion, Emphaty, Leadership and Execution = you. Thanks Steve
“From his deathbed”? Wow. You just crossed the line from an interesting insight (“Despite his poor health, he still wanted to make sure everything went well for a new product launch”) to exploiting someone’s death for clicks. Simply saying that he watched the event from home would have been adequate.
Absolutely pathetic article. You should learn that sometimes writing nothing is better than writing pathetic crap like this. In fact, the decent thing to do would be to delete this and go and re-think what you decide to write about in future.
I thought of him watching, seeing the chair Reserved for him and it made my heart both sad and warm. Don’t get all the hate.
What’s the problem? It’s a nice story. A great story. It shows Steve’s dedication to his company, his products, his passion, simply and factually presented.
Are you crazy? Who cares? We care. Like I said above, it speaks volumes of Steve and his passion. It’s very fitting to learn what he did in his last hours. I think it’s a tribute to him. It was told to me. I thought it was important to make public.
Oh no, someone used the term “deathbed,” and in an accurate scenario. How dare you remind everyone that we are all marching towards death, regardless of who we are or what we have accomplished. Dang, now there is a chance for dialog about what would make our lives meaningful or what could possibly be the point of life if it ends in death. Curse you, CoM!!! ;0)
yeah, a nice bit of fiction perhaps; a “good source” is surmising what Steve Jobs was thinking on his deathbed and unless a family member wished to publicly share this information, it’s invasive tabloid journalism assuming there’s any truth to it.
Wouldn’t have a problem with the term ‘deathbed’ assuming it wasn’t used as link bait and the article concerns a private matter that was apparently exposed assuming there’s any truth to it. When the allegedly ‘good source’ surmises what Steve Jobs is thinking on his death bed, the bs flag should be raised.
Well, yes, it does in a certain way.
But you should pay more respect to him, his family and friends. This article is bad style.
Really Shame!!!
It could have written in with a better way and respect to a family.
Thus guy always write post in a very stupid way.
any way……
Kudos to Leander for writing this. I found it both nice and tasteful and I’m personally getting really sick and tired of all the weepy idiots talking about “respect” and so forth.
We all respect Steve Jobs, I’m sure Leander does as well. As a *person,* Steve had the right to privacy and received it for his entire life. Now he’s dead, he literally belongs to us all and the whole “privacy” thing and “respect” thing is just stupid to apply to a dead person.
He’s dead. He’s not a person anymore. Talking about his “privacy” is stupid.
If this article was offensive or intrusive to the privacy of the *family* (you know the people who are still alive), then I would say it went to far, but it isn’t and it doesn’t.
These reports are getting downright creepy. Next it will be that Steve Jobs is watching from heaven the next quarterly financial results. Such fabricated nonsense.
Was it your “good source” over at TMZ?
This article gives me hope for the future of apple… leander dont pay any attention to these stupid fucks… they dont get it.
I disagree. This connects with Tim Cook’s supposedly ‘weak’ and ‘uninspired’ keynote. He knew the whole time that his friend and mentor was nearing the end and yet he still wanted to be connected to the company that he built and the people who helped him build it, even if it’s just through remote video.
I thought Tim looked and sounded exceptionally poignant when he first came out and talked about how he loved Apple and how he was ever grateful for the opportunity to work there the last 14 years. We all know now that he said ‘Apple’ but he really meant ‘Steve’ and though millions of people eventually got to see the keynote, at that moment Tim was playing to an audience of one.
Contrary to the received wisdom, Tim Cook, in truth, delivered an inspired keynote.
It’s a beautiful story.
I wouldn’t be surprised if that well-connected source was Laurene (Steve’s wife) herself. Steve surrounds himself and his family with loyal, tested people. I don’t think any one of them would betray the trust placed by the Jobs family on them. More than anyone else, Laurene would want to protect and cement his husband’s legacy, and leaking the story that Steve passed away knowing that Apple is in good hands helps do that.
But this is all speculation, okay?
awe :( you can really say he passed away doing what he loved till his very last breath
I rarely comment on stories of this nature, but I feel compelled to do so if only to defend the better angels of our nature. This story is without doubt the worst example of link baiting I’ve seen in some time. No sources provided.. no corroboration of any kind. At the very least this is a failure of journalism. But I recognize it for what it truly is – a shameless effort to cash in on the high profile death of Steve Jobs. “We don’t have many details”? You have NO details… because you fabricated this bullshit story in an effort to gain traffic to your site, and I hope that you lose readers for having posted it….deservedly so. I encourage everyone who reads Cult of Mac to unfollow them on Twitter and remove their RSS feed. This site deserves the fate of the subject matter of this story.
I really don’t know what to think about it… It’s pretty weird it has no sources or details, but I just think Cult of Mac would not do such a thing, since their whole site it’s only about Apple. I think they have respect enough to Steve Jobs and Apple to not do to such a shame.
I really hope this story is true. If it is, all I can say is that this is so, so, so, so sad and at the same time comfortable.
Articles like this show just how much this site has become a total gossip rag and how much they lack any respect for Steve Jobs.
If you had a speck of integrity you would pull all the stories about Steve’s death other than the simple announcement, post a public apology to his family for acting like cheap hit whores and vow to cease posting such tasteless tripe again
They had respect. They dropped it about two years ago to become hit whores like the rest
That is utter bull. No one ‘belongs’ to anyone and death does negate the right to privacy. If nothing else this crap should stop out of respect for his family
It isn’t a ‘nice’ story at all. It is a gossip rag link baiting privacy invasion.
steve’s last days are no one’s business but him and his family. You should respect that and show some integrity.
Nice is the stories about people leaving messages outside stores or pledging to do a cancer 5k in Steve’s memory etc
If it was Laurene and she wanted to share something about Steve, she would have happily been named.
No, you care. Because you are a jerk who only wants hits and has zero respect for Steve and his family and probably never did. Which is why you posted every little rumor about him and while you will keep at it.
Time to change the name to Cult of Steve Job’s Death
:/
I believe the intent of this story was to showcase Steve’s unmatched determination and love for his work. Even on the cusps of death he was determined to support Apple. He still cared about his work. The term “death bed” isn’t a pleasant term, but death isn’t pleasant. Steve was looking at death undeterred.
If you’re mad that we try to convey something in a way that isn’t agreeable to you, you don’t have to keep coming back and reading it, but Cult of Mac will still be here reporting on the pleasant and not so pleasant aspects of a company we love founded by a man we admire.
She has always avoided the limelight. But maybe the urge to speak out to protect Steve’s legacy after the less than stirling reviews compelled her to speak out. If she had let herself be named though, then the focus would be on her rather than the message.
Neither you nor I know though. As I said, this is just me speculating.
like ‘Cult of Android’? lol
I have this feeling that Apple execs, knew of Steve’s life status and thus, thats why it was a bit subdued and underwhelming. Maybe.
I find it even more painful imagining Steve being conscious that last day and being unable to speak. I’ll just assume that he spent a lot of time preparing his team, and in retrospect, the subdued nature of the event makes sense- particularly the filming of the empty chair with the “reserved” sign.
I didn’t think it was link bait, more to show how hardcore SJ was in regards to the empire he built. Doing what he did best until his last breath. Just my take on it though.
These recent TMZ style articles are making me shy away from this site.
Prof. Peabody, you’ve said some pretty amazingly stupid things before, but you’ve officially topped yourself. Bravo.
I’m going to remember your “Now he’s dead, he literally belongs to us all and the whole “privacy” thing and “respect” thing is just stupid to apply to a dead person” line for a very long time, whether I can help it or not.
“A source” protects no one. Because it is a tabloid trash trick that generally means the writer pulled it out of the orifice they sit on.
If she wanted to protect his legacy, she’d speak out with her name on it. And end it with a plea for folks to honor his life and show some respect and dignity and stop with the articles.
And perhaps if she did actually say that folks like Leander would realize what a five star jackass he’s being and actually stop.
a little different. I don’t think Cult of Android ever had the respect or was anything but hit whores.
I think this really shows how much Steve genuinely loved Apple and making products with them. It was such a passion for him.
To all the ppl whining about the article, get off your high horse. It’s a sweet story and there’s nothing wrong with it.
According to our source: “At the end of the show, he smiled as if to say ‘All things are in good hands’ but did not utter a word.”
Wow, what else could that smile mean? I mean to say, the assumption on what he was thinking…. heck we may as all all put our own idea’s out there and write about what we think he was thinking at his last moments….
I can of course use MY SOURCE who shall remain nameless…
Sorry, pathetic article…
Hw many other writer can now feed from the dead and make things up?
you should be ashamed of this article. pathetic. you’ve just lost a regular viewer.
Steve Jobs RIP :0 U should have invented iphone10 before u died :(
Sick article, sick sick sick.
Unbelievable! I thought you touched the bottom when you published the TMZ photo, but now you have gone even further into bad, pathetic, “journalism”… shame on you, you have no respect!
Oh give it a rest, you still read it.
Ignore the uber fangirls shitting their panties. This was a touching article.
Seriously what the hell is wrong with people?!?
Why are you complaining about this article? What’s so wrong with it?
Nothing wrong with the article, please stop overreacting guys.
Let’s face it Kahney, and I give you full credit for this. You are consistent in being an undiluted, enthusiastic POS – starting with your hackjob days at Wired – or even before.
We’d know your faece anywhere, no?Who will mourn you on your death-bed?No one.You’re already dead.
Cult of Mac used to be one of my favourites, but your Steve Jobs coverage was disappointing, and this tipped it for me.
Cya.
Leander you are a fucking asshole.
you do not write touching articles by taking advantage of other’s misfortune and most of all, baseless lies.
I think this is a sweet story and for all of us who loved Steve and respected him, this is just a beautiful story of his last day where he was with his family and watching his beloved Apple pass on to his carefully chosen new CEO. No one can ever replace Steve Jobs at Apple and no one would ever try. This is a touching story and why would anyone complain. It’s not goullish at all.
I know how private Steve was, but this is just fine.
HI Chano. Haven’t heard a comment from you for a while. Hope you have been well. Leander, like Steve, has four children and a wife who love him very much.
Have a nice day.
^^^ Still doesn’t mean he’s not writing drivel.
Steve was genius. I hope apple team will follow Steve’s way step by step.
Recommendation to all please let him rest in peace. Stop discussing about not important things like how he died. All speeches of thus will never return him back. Pray people, pray for his soul.
The police department had been notified that death was imminent. Doubt seriously Steve was watching anything. You expect us to believe your source? This article insults my intelligence. It’s an insult to anyone who loves Apple and the Jobs family.
Are you certain you’re not working for TMZ?