Steve Jobs - page 12

Steve Jobs sculpture will make you think twice about tech

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Steve Jobs Sebastian Errazuriz
Steve Jobs, The Prophet.
Photo: Sebastian Errazuriz

Few modern-day figures inspire art like Apple co-founder Steve Jobs. His face has been painted on canvas, tattooed on forearms, vilified on the silver screen and deified in sculpture.

Now, Jobs is the first figure in an exhibit in New York next month featuring busts and full-body statues of Silicon Valley titans by Chilean artist Sebastian Errazuriz.

Producer of canceled Steve Jobs musical faces $6 million lawsuit

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walt-mossberg-steve-jobs
Musical would have told the story of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates' rivalry.
Photo: Joi Ito/Flickr CC

An abandoned 2016 musical about the rivalry between Steve Jobs and frenemy Bill Gates has resulted in the producer being sued for $6 million.

The musical’s producer allegedly told investors he had funding from Microsoft for the project. In fact, the musical was $1 million in debt at the time. It was ultimately canceled just two weeks before it was due to open.

A brief history of Steve Jobs’ automated factory at NeXT [Cook book leftovers]

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Inside Next Factory in Fremont
In 1990, Steve Jobs built another highly-automated factory, where robots did almost all of the assembly of NeXT computers.
Photo: Terrence McCarthy, used with permission.

Tim Cook book outtakes

This post was going to be part of my new book, Tim Cook: The Genius Who Took Apple to the Next Level, but was cut for length or continuity. Over the next week or so, we will be publishing several more sections that were cut, focusing mostly on Apple’s manufacturing operations.

This is Part 2 of a two-part section on Apple’s misadventures in manufacturing. Part I is here.

Steve Jobs carried his dream of end-to-end control over manufacturing to NeXT, the company that Jobs founded after being booted out of Apple in 1985. It was here that he learned a tough lesson about manufacturing: that sometimes it’s more trouble than it is worth. Or, perhaps more kindly, that great manufacturing capabilities mean nothing if you don’t have a product people want to buy.

A brief history of Apple’s misadventures in manufacturing: Part 1 [Cook book outtakes]

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Apple Macintosh Factory of the future in Fremont
Steve Jobs built a highly automated Macintosh plant grandly called the "factory of the future."
Photo: Apple Maps

Tim Cook book outtakes This post was going to be part of my new book, Tim Cook: The Genius Who Took Apple to the Next Level, but was cut for length. Over the next week or so, we will be publishing several more sections that were cut, focusing mostly on Apple’s manufacturing operations.

Steve Jobs always had a deep fascination with automated factories. He was first exposed to them during a trip to Japan in 1983. At the time, Apple had just created a new floppy disk drive called Twiggy. During a visit to Apple’s factory in San Jose, however, Jobs became irate when he discovered the high failure rate of Twiggy drives Apple was producing. More than half of them were rejected. Jobs threatened to fire everyone who worked at the factory

Rare Steve Jobs signed plaque goes up for auction

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Plaque Steve Jobs
Would you want this hanging on your wall?
Photo: RR Auction

A 10-year Apple employment plaque signed by Steve Jobs is up for auction. The 6 x 12-inch framed plaque was given to Apple employee Suzanne Lindbergh in 2000. It is signed in black felt tip by Apple’s former CEO and co-founder, whose autograph is considered one of the most sought-after from collectors.

Online bidding is currently at $4,189. The item is expected to sell for upward of $15,000 when biding closes on April 10.

How Steve Jobs gaslighted journalist about Apple’s TV ambitions

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Why Salesforce chief gave up AppStore.com for Apple
Did Jobs second guess himself on Apple's TV potential?
Photo: Ben Stanfield/Flickr CC

Apple has been working towards its TV ambitions for more than a decade now, ever since it launched the original Apple TV in 2007. However, a new anecdote from technology journalist Nick Bilton makes clear just how unsure the company has been in the past about its goals with television.

Bilton recalls a meeting with Steve Jobs in 2010. During the encounter, Jobs backtracked on his previous claim that TV was going to be a core business for Apple. Things have certainly changed!

Elizabeth Holmes failed to copy Steve Jobs in one critical way

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Elizabeth Holmes
Now showing on HBO.
Screenshot: HBO/YouTube

Disgraced tech entrepreneur Elizabeth Holmes was known to worship the late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs and she wore a black turtle neck every day to show it.

How could someone who tried to emulate Jobs become a fraud that puts her in the company of Bernie Madoff?

Alex Gibney gave a thoughtful response to that question this week when his documentary The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley debuted on HBO.

Can Apple keep cannibalizing its core creations? [Opinion]

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Galaxy-Fold-inside
Folding smartphones could threaten both iPhone and iPad sales.
Photo: Samsung

Apple built its world-dominating status by being brave. Not only did it create hit products, but it never worried about “cannibalizing” existing products to make way for the future.

Will that same strategy hold true at a time when Apple’s dominance is faltering? If the company is going to thrive through the next wave of tech, it’s going to take a whole lot of Dutch Cupertino courage.

Rap T-shirt designer gives Steve Jobs the hip-hop fashion treatment

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Marino Morwood 2
Marino Morwood's designs have been worn by some crazy popular rappers.
Photo: Marino Morwood

Steve Jobs may have been referenced in a hip-hop track or two, but Apple’s co-founder and urban fashion aren’t exactly things you’d expect to find together.

That did not stop rap T-shirt designer Marino Morwood from picking Jobs as the subject of his latest creation. Having focused stars like Tupac Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G. for his previous designs, his Steve Jobs T-shirt could bring Apple’s late CEO to a whole new audience!

Today in Apple history: Mac creator complains about Steve Jobs

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Jobs
Young Steve Jobs wasn't exactly easy to work with!
Photo: Esther Dyson/Flickr CC

February 19 Today in Apple history: Mac creator Jef Raskin complains about Steve Jobs February 19, 1981: Jef Raskin, creator of the Macintosh project, sends a memo to Apple CEO Mike Scott, listing his many complaints about working with Steve Jobs.

He claims that Jobs, who joined the Mac team the previous month, is tardy, shows bad judgment, interrupts people, doesn’t listen and is a bad manager.

Steve Jobs opera triumphs with classical music Grammy

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Ashton Kutcher and Michael Fassbender played Steve Jobs in movies. Now Edward Parks III brings his rich baritone voice to the Steve Jobs opera, The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs.
Apple's former CEO as portrayed in The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs.
Photo: Dario Acosta/Santa Fe Opera

The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs, an opera based on the life of Apple’s late co-founder and CEO, bagged the Grammy for best opera recording last night.

The Santa Fe Opera Orchestra recording of composer Mason Bates’ opera triumphed over nominees including Doctor Atomic by John Adams, Alceste by John-Baptiste Lully, Der Rosenkavalier by Strauss and Rigoletto by Verdi.

What you need to know about Deirdre O’Brien, Apple’s new head of retail

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Deirdre O’Brien, a 30-year Apple veteran, will lead Apple’s Retail and People teams.
30-year Apple veteran Deirdre O’Brien will handle the company's retail push.
Photo: Apple

Apple tapped Deirdre O’Brien to be its new retail boss today in light of the news that Angela Ahrendts plans to leave the company.

While O’Brien may not be a household name to most Apple fans, she’s been with the company for more than three decades. From the days of Steve Jobs saving Apple from bankruptcy to watching Tim Cook leading the company to a first-ever $1 trillion valuation, O’Brien has seen huge changes during her tenure with the iPhone-maker. Now she’s set to be one of the most powerful people in Silicon Valley.

Here are six things you didn’t know about the new Apple retail boss.

Tim Cook celebrates the Mac on its 35th anniversary

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Macintosh
The very first Macintosh.
Photo: Tim Cook

Apple CEO Tim Cook took to Twitter today to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the Mac.

Steve Jobs, Apple co-founder and former CEO, unveiled the very first Macintosh on January 24, 1984. The machine had been teased in a now-famous Super Bowl commercial two days earlier.

“It changed the way we think about computers and went on to change the world,” Cook says.

Acclaimed Steve Jobs opera coming to Seattle

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Ashton Kutcher and Michael Fassbender played Steve Jobs in movies. Now Edward Parks III brings his rich baritone voice to the Steve Jobs opera, The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs.
Steve Jobs as portrayed by Edward Parks III in the original Santa Fe version of the opera, circa 2017.
Photo: Dario Acosta/Santa Fe Opera

It’s not often that a business executive’s life can be described as operatic. If that’s true for anyone, though, it may well be Apple’s late CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs — whose life saw plenty of the kind of dramatic triumphs and failures that inform the best operas.

It’s therefore appropriate that Jobs’ life forms the basis for The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs, a modern opera which is soon to make its debut in Seattle.

Handwritten Steve Jobs document fails to sell at auction

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Jobs document
A section of the Steve Jobs Apple-1 spec sheet, with two Polaroids.
Photo: Bonhams

A vintage handwritten spec sheet in which Steve Jobs called the Apple-1 motherboard a “great deal” has failed to sell at auction.

The document, written in the mid-1970s, was up for auction as part of Bonham’s “History of Science and Technology, Including Space History” collection. Its asking price was $60,000. However, the bidding “only” reached up to $28,000, thereby failing to meet its reserve. A couple of historical Apple items did sell, but for less than expected.

Apple Store creator tells how disagreeing with Steve Jobs perfected retail

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Ron Johnson when he was with Apple
Ron Johnson, with Apple co-founder Steve Jobs at the grand opening of an Apple Store.
Photo: Richard Agullar

Steve Jobs’ hands-on approach to just about every project at Apple is part of his legend.

Ron Johnson, Apple’s first head of retail, offers fascinating detail about Jobs and the work leading up to the first Apple Store during a recent episode of the Gimlet podcast Without Fail hosted by Andy Blumberg.

Jobs was demanding and described by many as often difficult to work with. But Johnson says working with Jobs was a “gift.”

Steve Jobs’ autograph could cost you $50,000

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Steve Jobs autograph
That signature lower-case-letter-style of signing.
Photo: Nate D Sanders/Paul Fraser Collectibles

Apple co-founder Steve Jobs had little time or interest in signing autographs for fans.

But if you are in possession of the rare exception, you have a signature considered the most valuable, according to a guide that tracks the values of the most sought-after autographs.

Handwritten Steve Jobs Apple-1 spec sheet up for auction

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man in the machine
Steve Jobs as a young man.
Photo: Magnolia Pictures/Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine

Steve Jobs was renowned for being hands-on when it came to overseeing Apple’s iconic ad campaigns. But if you really want an Apple ad that had Jobs’ writing all over it, you need to start scouring your personal savings.

That’s because a handwritten document describing the spec of the Apple-1 — Apple’s first ever computer — is coming up for auction this month. In it, Jobs’ describes the computer’s printed circuit board, which was being sold for $75, as a “real deal.”

Black Friday steals, MacBook Pro’s new Vega GPUs and strange Steve Jobs stories, on The CultCast

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CultCast 362 MacBook Pro
The 2018 MacBook Pro has two new GPUs, and we're pissed.

This week on The CultCast: You need to be prepared if you want to lock down the best prices on the best gadgets this Black Friday. We’ll tell you the strategies to use to grab all the good deals most shoppers miss. Plus: The new MacBook Pro GPUs are a huge upgrade, but we’re pissed. (We’ll explain.) Also: Why Apple’s stock has fallen off a cliff. And we’ll wrap up with a Steve Jobs story so mundane, the internet has become fascinated with it.

Our thanks to Squarespace for supporting this episode. It’s simple to accept Apple Pay and sell your wares with your very own Squarespace website. Enter offer code CultCast at checkout to get 10% off your first hosting plan or domain.

Woz thinks Steve Jobs would be happy with Apple today

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Wozniak
Woz talks Tesla, Tim Cook, and more.
Photo: Campus Party Bogota/Flickr CC

Steve Wozniak thinks that his Apple co-founder Steve Jobs would be very happy with Apple today. That’s because it’s still a company which puts people above technology, Woz told CNBC.

“Steve always acted that way,” Woz said. “The users should be more important than the technology itself. You should not be a victim of the technology and what it can do. You should get to live your human life in the most human way possible.”

Steve Jobs stood in the lunch line like a regular Joe

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Steve Jobs
Be careful in the cafeteria line. You never know when your boss is behind you.
Photo: Apple

Apple co-founder Steve Jobs was known to be incredibly demanding. But one retired Apple executive said when it came to standing in line in the company cafeteria, Jobs waited his turn like everyone else.

This would not be a surprising revelation about most people, but Jobs’ mercurial nature is the stuff of legend. The late Apple exec’s moods and commands have been the source material for books and movies. His character is even sung about on the opera stage.

iPhone XR makes Apple’s coolest phone the cheapest

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iPhone XR was India’s no. 1 ‘ultra premium’ smartphone in 2019
For the first time in years, Apple's best iPhone is also its cheapest.
Photo: Apple

The iPhone XR is out and, for the first time in years, Apple’s most exciting device isn’t the one that commands the really big bucks. For all the talk of an “Apple tax,” 2018’s coolest iPhone starts at just $749. That’s half the price of a top-of-the-line iPhone XS Max.

And that’s seriously great news for fans.

You could soon be the proud owner of Steve Jobs’ toilet

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Woodside
150 items come from Jobs' former home in Woodside, California.
Photo: Jonathan Haeber, Bearings

Do you want to own a chandelier that once belonged to Steve Jobs? How about a Jobs-owned thermostat, originally made in 1925? Or a silver-plated tea spoon? Or, heck, even Jobs’ old toilet? These, and roughly 146 more possessions, could soon be going up for auction.

At least, if some members of the Woodside town council, the small incorporated town in San Mateo County, where Steve Jobs once had a home, get their way.