Steve Jobs - page 9

Former president Trump’s plan to create a National Garden of American Heroes has been cancelled by the Biden Administration. It would have created an open-air space with statues of a wide variety of Americans, including Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.

Trump created the garden by executive order, and President Biden completely cancelled it Friday with another executive order. No reason was given.

Original article from January 18, 2021

Apple co-founder Steve Jobs is one of hundreds of people who’ll have a statue in the National Garden of American Heroes that President Trump ordered be created.

The list includes a wide variety of men and women from history, including politicians, generals, explorers, inventors, writers, actors and more.

Disagreements between Apple and Facebook have made headlines recently, but bad blood between the two companies dates back decades. In 2011, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs even called the social-networking service “Fecebooks.”

April 29, 1997: Steve Jobs’ friend Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle, calls off his bid to take over Apple.

Ellison’s plan is to reinstall Jobs, who is then just an adviser to Apple CEO Gil Amelio, as the company’s chief executive. He also wants to take Apple private again.

Apple came up short at Sunday night’s Oscars, losing its Best Animated Feature nomination (for the great animated movie Wolfwalkers) to Pixar’s Soul.

As brilliant as it was (and Cult of Mac‘s resident reviewer hailed it as the best animated flick of the year) Wolfwalkers was very much a long shot. This would have been Apple TV+’s first Oscar. Instead, it was scuppered by Pixar winning its 11th (!!) award in the Best Animated Feature category.

Steve Jobs didn’t turn off his phone often. But if he did, it probably meant that he was in Jony Ive’s Industrial Design department, where Jobs relaxed by scouring prototypes of future Apple products.

That’s according to Jobs’ former assistant, Naz Beheshti, in a new book titled Pause. Breathe. Choose: Become the CEO of Your Well-Being. While the book focuses mainly on Beheshti’s practice as a wellness coach, it includes a few memories of her time at Apple. Including how Apple staffers would go into meltdown when they couldn’t reach Jobs — and how they eventually figured out where this meant he was.

Today marks 45 years since a little outfit called the Apple Computer Company was founded by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne. Apple set out to build and sell personal computers. Since then, it’s risen from a hobbyist startup to a tech giant valued at more than $2 trillion.

In the last four and a half decades, Apple changed the tech world in all kinds of ways — some big, some small. Here, in no particular order, are 45 of the most notable ways Apple put a ding in the universe.

Over a platter of sushi, Steve Jobs once bragged to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos that Apple had created the greatest Windows application ever built. The Apple co-founder then suggested, in a roundabout way, that the software could kill a major stream of revenue for Amazon.

Jobs was referring to iTunes for Windows, which Apple introduced in October 2003 (and which Jobs later referred to as the equivalent of “giving a glass of ice water to somebody in hell.”) Bezos got a look at iTunes for Windows before the rest of the world did. And he also endured a typically Jobsian dig about CDs and Amazon’s future.

The fascination with Steve Jobs continues on a decade after he passed away. A handwritten job application the Apple cofounder filled out in 1973 sold on Thursday for $221,747 (£162,000). That’s far more than it went for three years ago.

OS X, the most important piece of software in Apple history, turns 20 today.

Going on sale in its full, public version on March 24, 2001, Mac OS X 10.0 — code-named Cheetah, the first of many cat-themed names — transformed Apple’s operating system forever. It brought user interface enhancements that persist to this day, as well as technological advances that form the backbone of Apple’s current operating systems. In fact, OS X paved the way for today’s post-PC devices, from the iPhone and Apple Watch to HomePod and Apple TV. If you’d like to know more about Apple’s operating system evolution, check out this deep dive into its history.

While Apple eventually ditched the “OS X” branding for “macOS,” and switched from naming Mac software after big cats to California locations in 2013, Cheetah’s impact continues to be felt two decades after its introduction.

Tim Cook has tweeted about Steve Jobs on what would have been his former boss’s 66th birthday. Jobs passed away 10 years ago this year, the same period of time that Cook has now been running Apple.

“Celebrating Steve on what would have been his 66th birthday,” Cook wrote. “Especially in a year where so much kept us apart, technology brought us together in limitless ways. That’s a testament to Steve’s life and the legacy he left, which continue to inspire me every day.”

Long before Tim Cook brought his operations wizardry to Apple, Del Yocam lent his logistical prowess to Cupertino. Apple’s first chief operating officer, he helped transform the company from a chaotic, scrappy startup into a streamlined manufacturing powerhouse.

He also served as an early mentor to Steve Jobs, the young Apple co-founder who sometimes seemed out of his depth in 1979.

“When I first got to know him, he was lost,” Yocam told Cult of Mac. “He was no longer involved in the Apple II and no one wanted him around, especially management. He didn’t care about money at that time. He was like an orphan, living away from home.”

In many ways, Yocam was the proto-Tim Cook, a manufacturing and operations specialist who helped transform a dysfunctional startup into a massive, moneymaking leader of the early PC industry. He also helped take the rapidly growing company international.

Yocam deserves more credit for helping build Apple than history has so far accorded him. He was one of the main players at a crucial point in Cupertino’s history.

Yocam, now 76, recently talked with Cult of Mac about Apple’s early days. In this exclusive interview, he discusses his friendship and working relationship with Jobs, Apple’s challenging, fascinating, and sometimes malodorous co-founder.

He also reveals new details about Jobs’ tearful ouster from Apple — and how Jobs later offered him an amazing job, only to revoke it at the last moment.

Steve Jobs didn’t have to fill in a whole lot of job applications during his life. After founding Apple Computer at 21, Jobs’ name was well enough known that he didn’t have to mail off too many resumes and cover letters. Or have reasons to send them out.

However, one of the rare applications Jobs did complete is coming up for auction. It’s a great piece of memorabilia, even if it will likely set you back a whole lot more than Steve would have ever earned in the role.

One of the things that always surprised me was how, compared to some of his Silicon Valley peers, Steve Jobs’ net worth during his life paled in comparison to some of his contemporaries.

When Jobs died in late 2011, his net worth was reported as being $10.2 billion. That’s an enormous amount of money, but it was a drop in the ocean next to Bill Gates’ $56 billion that year, and less than Google’s Sergey Brin and Larry Page’s $19.8 billion apiece, Michael Dell’s $14.6 billion, and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg’s $13.5 billion.

Had Jobs had the same share arrangement today, however, it would be a very different story.

An ultra-rare Apple-1, the first computer Apple ever produced as a company, is coming up for auction. And it’s signed by none other than designer and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak.

This Apple-1, one of only a handful of the computers thought to exist today, has been restored to an operational state. It comes in its original shipping box, making it an even less common specimen. It could be yours for no more than the price of a typical mid-priced American home.

By calling its November product-launch event “One More Thing,” Apple seems to be dropping a hint that history is about to repeat itself.

Way back at Macworld 2006, then-CEO Steve Jobs introduced a MacBook that set a new course for Apple. This came as a “one more thing” addition at the end of his keynote. Something like that might be about to happen again.

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Over the weekend, the first (and arguably best) actor to play James Bond in a movie, Sean Connery, passed away at the age of 90.

Almost immediately, a story began doing the rounds online about the time, in 1998, when Connery told Steve Jobs that he flat-out refused to participate in an Apple ad. Why? Because Jobs was “a computer salesman” and Connery was “f*cking James Bond.”

It’s a great story. It’s also totally untrue.

Tim Cook quoted poet Maya Angelou in a tweet commemorating Steve Jobs on Monday, the ninth anniversary of the Apple co-founder’s death.

“A great soul never dies,” Cook’s message reads. “It brings us together again and again.” Cook also added a personal note: “You’re always with us Steve, your memory connects and inspires us every day.”

Meanwhile, on the Apple website, admirers’ remembrances of Jobs flowed across a tribute page.

Apple and Pixar CEO Steve Jobs had some advice for director Brad Bird when he was making decisions about merchandise on the 2004 movie The Incredibles: “fewer things, better things.”

Bird recalled the advice during a recent online chat with Training Day director Antoine Fuqua (who, incidentally, just had his last movie acquired by Apple). Bird also recalled speaking with Jobs about the Apple Store, around the time the company was busy opening the first ones.

Most Apple fans have heard Steve Jobs’ introduction of the original 1984 Macintosh. But far fewer are familiar with the initial public demonstrations of the NeXT Computer, the first of two NeXT machines Jobs launched during his years outside Apple.

However, 32 years down the line, an audio recording of one such speech, from the Boston Computer Society, has shown up online. Check it out.

The companies they helped found might have been sworn enemies at times, but Steve Jobs and Bill Gates didn’t hate one another. In fact, as the former Microsoft boss admitted on a recent podcast, he was actually jealous of Steve Jobs.

Appearing on the Armchair Expert podcast, Gates told actor and podcast host Dax Shepard that Jobs was a “wizard” when it came to motivating people. “I was a minor wizard so I couldn’t fall under his spells,” Gates said. “But I could see him casting the spells, and then I would look at people and see them mesmerized … I was so jealous.”

Standing up to Steve Jobs wasn’t easy. Alternately a charmer and a tyrant, he was accustomed to winning arguments on just about everything.

But when photographer Doug Menuez found himself on the receiving end of a Jobs tirade, he stood his ground. And the result was not only the best-selling cover of Fortune magazine that year, but a newfound level of respect from Apple’s famous co-founder.

For long-time Apple fans like myself, Tuesday marked the end of an era. Phil Schiller stepped down from his role as VP of worldwide marketing.

Schiller was the last of the OG — a stalwart onstage companion to Steve Jobs, long before it was fashionable to watch Apple keynotes. Schiller was there at all the seminal moments in Apple history, including the launch of iMac, iPod, iPhone and iPad. Back in the day, he and Jobs were a remarkable double act. Jobs would announce the products, and then Schiller would stride in to perform the demos.

Fortunately, Schiller’s not gone for good. In his new role as an Apple Fellow, he will still keep an eye on the App Store and Apple Events. But I wanted to take this opportunity to remember the man, the legend, that is Phil Schiller. Here are the top 10 reasons why I’ll miss him.

Like Steve Jobs? Have approximately $11,000 as a starting bid to pick up some memorabilia to prove as much? Then you could be in the market for a Jobs-autographed October 1989 copy of Fortune magazine autographed by the Apple co-founder.

The magazine, which was signed for one of Jobs’ former chauffeur drivers, is going up for auction this week. And it comes complete with a story of Jobs being, well, Jobs.

Update July 31, 2020: The copy of Fortune that Steve Jobs reluctantly signed for his chauffeur sold for $16,638 on Thursday, significantly above the minimum bid.

As a result of coronavirus-induced lockdowns, the way we work has changed dramatically in 2020. Plenty of employees and businesses are now talking seriously about remote working and whether it represents a viable path forward for reimagining employment.

It turns out that Steve Jobs was talking about this exact topic 30 years ago. No, Jobs didn’t foresee COVID-19. But an old interview clips unearthed by journalist Jon Erlichman shares Jobs’ thoughts on the way technology can transform the way that you and I work.

Check it out.

Michael Hawley, the man who helped Steve Jobs write his famous 2005 Stanford commencement address, has died as a result of cancer at the age of 58.

Hawley, who shared a house with Jobs at one time and worked with him at NeXT, was a polymath and pioneer in his own right. At NeXT, he created one of the world’s first digital libraries. He also helped conceive of the Internet of Things, worked at MIT’s world-famous Media Lab, was scientific director for one of the first major scientific expeditions on Everest in 1998, and was an accomplished piano player and organist.