Steve Jobs - page 31

UPDATE: Hospital spokeswoman Ruth Ann Hale declined to add any more information to hospital’s statement. She would not say when the transplant was performed (the Wall Street Journal said about two months ago); how long Steve Jobs had been on the transplant waiting list; nor where the donor organ came from. “We’re not saying anything beyond what it says in the statement,” she said by phone on Tuesday night. It’s safe to assume the donor liver came from a deceased patient — otherwise Jobs wouldn’t be on a waiting list. But the lack of a time frame for the operation is curious. Perhaps it’s to protect the identity of the donor? If the time of the operation is known, maybe it makes it easier to identify potential donors?

Methodist University Hospital in Memphis has confirmed that Steve Jobs had a liver transplant — and the disclosure was made with Jobs’s permission, the hospital says.

In a statement released on Tuesday, the hospital said Jobs was the sickest person on the waiting list at the time the donor organ became available.

The hospital’s statement is likely in response to growing questions about the transplant. On Tuesday morning, the New York Times published a high-profile story asking whether Jobs’s money and power helped him to jump to the front of the queue. “Whenever someone rich and famous receives a transplant, suspicions inevitably arise about whether that person managed to jump to the head of the waiting list and take an organ that might have saved the life of somebody just as desperate but less glamorous,” the paper said.

The hospital’s statement appears to be a flat denial that Jobs received any preferential treatment.

“He received a liver transplant because he was the patient with the highest MELD score (Model for End-Stage Liver Disease) of his blood type and, therefore, the sickest patient on the waiting list at the time a donor organ became available,” the hospital said.

The hospital said Jobs is doing well.

“Mr. Jobs is now recovering well and has an excellent prognosis.”

Full text of the statement after the jump.

Apple broke the law by lying about Steve Jobs health, says a top marketing professor.

But whether the Security and Exchange Commission has the “balls” to prosecute is unclear.

Paul Argenti, Professor of Corporate Communication at Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, says that Apple’s communications about its CEO’s health violated the SEC’s full disclosure regulations.

UPDATE: Reuters reports that Steve Jobs was seen leaving Apple’s campus on Monday. “He was seen leaving the main Apple building in Cupertino, California and getting into a black car alone that was then driven off by men in black suits with ear-pieces,” the news service reported.

CNBC’s Jim Goldman is saying that Steve Jobs returned to work at Apple on Monday.

Employees have seen Jobs around Apple’s campus, Goldman says. “Officials at Apple have yet to respond to multiple phone calls and emails seeking guidance about Jobs and his whereabouts, but employees are doing what Apple PR isn’t, and that’s confirming that he’s here at work,” says Goldman.

The information jibes with this morning’s iPhone 3G S press release,
which quoted Jobs for the first time since he took his medical leave,
implying he’s back in charge.

This is great news – if it’s true. I’d be delighted to see Jobs back in charge at Apple, but trouble is, I’m not sure I trust Goldman. He’s proven as unreliable as Apple’s own PR surrounding Jobs’ illness. Goldman last year said Steve Jobs wasn’t sick, just days before he took sick leave. For this, he was accused by NewsWeek columnist Dan Lyons (aka Fake Steve) of being “played and punked” by Apple PR.

So I’m willing to give a prize to the first reader who sends in a picture of Steve Jobs at Apple’s campus or a picture of his car (preferably parked in a handicapped spot).

Yeah, I know, it’s stalkerish. But I’d like to know if Steve Jobs is really back at work, and this is one way of getting to the bottom of it.

BTW, I’ve called and emailed Apple’s PR asking if Jobs is back at work — but I’m not holding my breath.

Show us Steve’s smiling face. Let’s cheer his return to work and good health!

“Customers are voting and the iPhone is winning,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO, in his first officially quoted statement for the company since taking a medical leave of absence in January.

Jobs’ comment came in the wake of a news release touting one million iPhone 3G S units sold in its first weekend since being released last Friday. “With over 50,000 applications available from Apple’s revolutionary App Store, iPhone momentum is stronger than ever,” continued Jobs in the release, which also noted that six million customers have downloaded the new iPhone 3.0 software since it was released last Wednesday.

The statement did not indicate whether or not Jobs would return to work at Apple headquarters in Cupertino, CA on Monday.

Jobs has blocked the FAA from officially tracking his jet’s flights (a routine request; some simple paperwork with the National Business Aviation Association). But his 15-seater Gulfstream 5 has a distinctive tail number — N2N — that makes it easy for aviation buffs to track its movements on the Internet.

And while it looks like he flew to Memphis on March 23, possibly for a liver transplant — as CNBC claims to have independently confirmed — his jet made many more flights in April.

Could this 7,500 square foot mansion at 36 Morningside Place in Memphis be Steve Jobs’s new mansion?

Jobs has reportedly bought a large residence in Memphis after receiving a liver transplant in March at one of the city’s hospitals.

Forbes reports that Jobs may have bought a mansion in Memphis close to The Methodist University Hospital Transplant Institute, a liver transplant center.

A finance reporter, Alexander Haislip, previously at Red Herring magazine, also says that Jobs has bought a mansion.

Steve Jobs has reportedly bought a mansion in Memphis. It’s not this one, but maybe he’s living near Elvis’ Graceland. CC-licensed picture by Pictophile.

Back in April, rumors swirled that Steve Jobs had bought a mansion in a swanky neighborhood of downtown Memphis while he was receiving medical treatment. The rumors didn’t gain much traction — it was just too weird — but now the WSJ says Jobs received a life-saving liver transplant at one of the city’s hospitals.

The rumor about the mansion started with Alexander Haislip, who runs a private equity site, PEHub Blog, citing a “well-connected business person in Memphis.”

Today, Haislip adds some more interesting details. It’s a 7,500 square-foot mansion located at the end of a quiet cul-de-sac in a “swank” part of downtown Memphis, Haislip says. Surrounded by old growth trees, the mansion is painted yellow with white trim and a pool in the back.

The mansion, built in 1914, has undergone substantial renovation since it was purchased last month. “I thought the house had flooded and the roof had caved in or something,” one neighborhood resident says. “There was an inordinate number of workers there. There’s been large crews preparing this house for someone.”

Among the renovations? Upgraded security. “Whoever “bought” the house installed video cameras in the trees and there is a security guard in a white jeep,” says another neighborhood resident. “It’s been very secretive.”

Haislip dug into property records hoping to find Steve Jobs on the title, but the new owner is listed as a mysterious LLC, which he says traces back to a Memphis law firm. The lawyer  in charge gave him a no comment and the realtor who sold the mansion said she didn’t know who the client was, she dealt only with the lawyers. Haislip spoke to residents and no one has actually seen Jobs, but one claims to have seen his wife, Laurene Powell.

Haislip didn’t name the street, but it may be Morningside Drive, according to a comment in a related Barron’s blog post.

The commenter also says the mansion was bought by LGHC LLC — the name of the mysterious LLC — which he says shares an address with Memphis law firm Burch,Porter & Johnson.

I did some digging myself. The law firm appears to be real, but a search for Morningside Drive in Memphis turns up only Morningside Street, which is definitely NOT a Steve Jobs kind of neighborhood judging by the Street View pictures.

I also searched local tax and property records for Steve Jobs, Laurene Powell and LGHC LLC, as well as several real estate sites and Zillow — turning up nothing.

Meanwhile, CNBC is reporting that it confirmed Jobs’ private Gulstream jet flew from San Jose to Memphis in late March, which fits the WSJ’s transplant timeframe.

Steve Jobs had a liver transplant about two months ago but is making a speedy recovery and will return to Apple in June, according to the Wall Street Journal.

“Steve continues to look forward to returning at the end of June, and there’s nothing further to say,” Apple spokeswoman Katie Cotton told the Journal.

Jobs had the transplant in Tennessee and may return to work part time, the Journal said.

In January, Bloomberg News reported that Jobs was considering a liver transplant.

Jobs took six months medical leave in January, promising to return to work in June, but many have been pessimistic about his prospects.Jobs lost weight rapidly in 2008.

The Journal said Jobs had the surgery in Tennessee because of the state’s short waiting list — 48 days compared to 306 nationally. A cancer expert told the Journal that Jobs’ pancreatic cancer may have metastasized and spread to his liver, requiring a transplant.

Five-year survival rates for liver-transplants is about 75 percent, the Journal said. The survival rate of slow-growing tumors like Jobs’ — with or without liver surgery — is usually longer than a decade, the expert said.

The Journal said Jobs has been spotted at Apple’s HQ during his leave.

It’s official — Steve Jobs will be back to work as planned at the end of June.

Speaking at WWDC, Apple’s top marketing executive, Phil Schiller, reiterated the company’s line that Jobs will be returning to Apple at the end of this month after six month’s medical leave.

“That’s still our statement,” said Schiller, who is Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide product marketing.

As one of Apple’s top executives, Schiller’s word is as good as gospel.

It’s not the first time the company has said Jobs will returning to work in June. At Apple’s annual shareholders’ meeting in late February, the company said he planned to return to work this month.

Meanwhile, Jobs has been deeply involved in the company even while on leave.

“These products have been in development for a while, so of course Steve has been very involved in them all along,” said Schiller. “You could say that Steve has stayed on top of some of the key strategic things at Apple throughout [his leave].”

Jobs unexpectedly took medical leave in January, saying his declining health was “more complex” that previously believed. He said at the time he would be returning in June, but his rapid weight loss in 2008 and various conflicting statements about his health has led many to be pessimistic about his prospects of returning to work.

Link: Daily Telegraph.

Apple fans are generally pleased with Snow Leopard and the new iPhone 3GS but are disappointed Steve Jobs didn’t make a surprise appearance at WWDC.

“Despite Snow Leopard, OS 3.0 and the new iPhone 3GS, what i really wanted to see was Steve Jobs healthy and onstage,” tweeted AppsAddicts.

“Dammmn, We miss Steve Jobs. This keynote sucked,” said mumph.

Steve Jobs’ absence prompted many to wonder about his health, and whether he would return to Apple at the end of the month as the comapny has indicated. One Apple fan compared Jobs to the elusive Osama Bin Laden.

“Where’s Steve Jobs? Keeping his death a secret like bin Laden?” tweeted brokenalice.

Fans also complained about the lack of a forward-facing camera on the new iPhone, which had been widely rumored, and no iTablet.

Steve Jobs is recovering from his mystery illness and is set to return to Apple at the end of the month, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Jobs will not however make a surprise appearance at WWDC on Monday. Instead, he’ll host a product presentation or other special event later in June, the Journal says.

“He was one real sick guy,” added this person. “Fundamentally he was starving to death over a nine-month period. He couldn’t digest protein. [But] he took corrective action.”

The story is hidden behind the Journal‘s pay wall, but is free to read on the iPhone.

(The Journal also reports that the next-gen iPhone will be unveiled during the keynote address on Monday but won’t be available until July, to coincide with the two-year anniversary of original iPhone purchases. The iPhone will have a faster processor and a better camera with video editing, the Journal says, citing someone who’s actually seen the phone).

The story also notes that Tim Cook is doing a good job in Steve’s absence — the stock is way up.

Via Tuaw.

Woz signing his book, “Woz,” in 2007. CC-licensed photo by bangdoll@flickr.

Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak on Wednesday said Steve Jobs is “healthy, energetic” and “doesn’t sound like he’s sick.”

Speaking at the Wall Street Journal’s All Things D conference in Southern California, Woz said Jobs doesn’t “seem to be in a health crisis,” according to the WSJ.

However, Woz said he’s never asked Jobs directly about his health.

Jobs is expected to return to Apple at the end of next months after taking six months medical leave to concentrate on his health. In a January letter to Apple’s employees, Jobs said his health issues “are more complex than I originally thought.” He lost an alarming amount of weight in 2008, leading to speculation his cancer had returned. Jobs was treated for pancreatic cancer in 2004.

Like everyone else, I’m dying to know if Steve Jobs will be returning to work at the end of June.

Since I haven’t got a clue, and neither does anyone else, I figured I’d ask someone who might know. Not the usual blowhard pundits, but Barbara Courtney, a corporate psychic known as the “Seer of Silicon Valley.”

Personally, I’m very skeptical of psychic predictions, but Courtney has a long and storied history as Silicon Valley’s leading clairvoyant. Indeed, she’s the only person on record who correctly predicted Steve Jobs’ return to Apple back in 1997.

Speaking by phone from her home in Redwood City, Courtney said Jobs will return to Apple in June as promised — but he won’t stay long.

“My feeling is he will come back,” said Courtney. “I’m not seeing June as too soon.”

Jobs took six months medical leave in January saying his ongoing medical problems were “more complex” than suspected and he needed time off work to concentrate on his health. The company has promised several times that Jobs will return in late June as planned, but many are pessimistic.

On Tuesday, hopes were further dashed when Apple said the WWDC keynote in early June will be given by a team of executives led by head marketer Phil Schiller. The slot has traditionally been Jobs’, and many hoped (and are still hoping) he’d put in a surprise appearance.

Remember the fantastic portrait of Steve Jobs using Apple’s classic typefaces from last week? Here’s a step-by-step guide showing exactly how designer Dylan Roscover created it in Illustrator and Photoshop. It was 24-hours of work, he says, with no sleep.

A chandelier inside Steve Jobs’ abandoned mansion. Photo by Jonathan Haeber, Bearings.

On Tuesday night, Woodside town council granted Steve Jobs a controversial demolition permit to tear down his rotting mansion in Woodside, California — one of Silicon Valley’s nicest and poshest towns.

Jobs bought the mansion in 1984, the year the Mac was released, and lived there with no furniture for almost a decade. But he hasn’t lived there for nearly 10 years, and he now wants to raze the house and build a smaller, greener dwelling on the land.

The mansion is locked up, but urban adventurer and photographer Jonathan Haeber sneaked into the house and took some rare and unbelievably beautiful pictures.

Explains Jonathan: “As far as how I obtained access, I can’t really say much, other than the fact that it was back in 2006. I found the gate open (I believe there was some landscaping work being done at the time) and the font door slightly ajar. I had my camera on me, and being substantially curious found myself inside of the mansion. I came back soon afterward for a night trip, explicitly to photograph the architecture.  It was one of the most bizarre experiences of my life and I don’t regret doing it.”

Haeber’s photographs show Jobs’ mansion in all its faded glory. Haeber’s haunting pictures include dusty copies of The Godfather videotapes; vines creeping across interior ceilings; and the front of the boarded-up mansion with its immaculately-maintained front lawn.

The pictures are poignant and lovely, and are possibly the last that will be taken of the mansion. On Tuesday, the Woodside town council approved a demolition permit.

Jonathan is an architecture buff who is working to catalog abandoned historical buildings on the West Coast.

He lives in Richmond, California, across the Bay from Woodside, and documents his adventures at his Bearings website. There’s a video explaining his project on the TBug website.

Jon has also photographed Michael Jackson’s empty Neverland Ranch and a flooded Six Flags amusement park in New Orleans.

All Photos used with kind persmission of Jonathan Haeber.

Jobs’ Woodside mansion in its glory days. Photo by Friends Of The Jackling House.

After a long legal battle, Steve Jobs has been granted permission to tear down his crumbling mansion in the posh Silicon Valley town of Woodside, California.

At a hearing of the Woodside town council on Tuesday night, councilors voted 6 to 1 to approve a demolition permit allowing Jobs to tear down his neglected, 14-bedroom Jackling mansion.

“It’s an unfortunate thing that Mr. Jobs doesn’t like the house,” Woodside’s Mayor Peter Mason told the Palo Alto Daily News. “It’s really sad that we’re going to continue to tear down historic resources in this town because they’re old.”

The mayor, who is also an architect, cast the sole dissenting vote.  

Jobs bought the mansion in 1984 and lived there for a decade with barely any furniture until he got married and started raising a family. He currently lives with his wife and children in Palo Alto. The 17,000-square-foot mansion has remained empty and neglected since.

In 2004, the Woodside town council granted a demolition permit, but it was blocked by a local preservationist group called Friends Of The Jackling House, which claimed the mansion is a national treasure. The mansion was built in 1925 for copper millionaire Daniel C. Jackling by architect George Washington Smith.

At one point, Jobs offered to give the mansion for free to anyone who would haul it away.

CC-licensed photo by Dario Melpignano.

Steve Jobs will not headline Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in June as many fans had hoped.

Instead, a team of executives led by Phil Schiller will deliver the keynote, according to an Apple press release issued Wednesday morning.

The news is a big blow to Apple fans, who were hoping Jobs would mark his return to Apple with a big splashy appearance at the conference.

Jobs took six months medical leave in January to focus on his health, which had appeared to be in serious decline during 2008. In public appearances, Jobs appeared alarmingly gaunt and thin. Jobs said he would return to work at the end of June, but many hoped he might make an earlier appearance at the week-long programmers conference, which will start on Monday, June 8.

The full press release after the jump.

Via Gizmodo.

Half way into Steve Jobs’ six month medical leave, the Wall Street Journal looked into whether Jobs still has a hand in the running of the company.

Citing “people familiar with the matter,” the paper maintains he is “keeping a grip” on Apple:

“People familiar with Apple’s operations say they still expect to see Mr. Jobs return in June. Some of these people also say members of Apple’s board of directors are monitoring the situation directly, communicating regularly with Mr. Jobs’s physicians.

People inside the company, business partners and others who are familiar with the situation say life at the Cupertino, Calif., company remains much the same as it did before.

Those at other corporations who deal with the company also say their interactions with Apple haven’t changed. Mr. Cook, who had already been handling most of Apple’s day-to-day operations, has kept tight control over the company, say business partners and those inside Apple.”
The article also speculates about the future of Apple management, stock prices and employee turnover.

Image © BasiCMYK

BasiCMYK is a talented photographer and self-described geek who was lucky enough to get one of the 300 limited edition PodBrix Young Woz and Jobs playsets when they were issued not long after the iPhone’s debut in 2007.

He’s also apparently a big Steve Wozniak fan, allowing in the description of the accompanying photo that “every time there’s a Stevenote I secretely hope The Woz will pop up on the screen.”

Something tells me there’s no limited edition Bill Gates or Steve Ballmer Lego knock-off playsets lurking out there anywhere.

The doll version of Steve Jobs wears a black turtleneck, jeans and the kind of intense gaze bound to make you feel guilty while downloading useless apps instead of masterminding something great.

Brought to you by podbrix, the same folks who created a limited-edition Young Woz and Jobs Playset in Lego (unfortunately sold out), this plush version of Jobs will cost you about the same as a pair of Apple earbuds ($32.00, shipping included).

Only 500 available, so if you want a pocket guru, now’s the time to act.

Via Macenstein

Came across the Italian edition of CoM founder Leander Kahney’s book on Steve Jobs (“Inside Steve’s Brain“) the other day in a shop in Milan.

The title in Italian has been translated as “Inside Steve’s Head.” Perhaps the idea of being in his brain was considered a little too graphic?

It looks like the Spanish edition took the same route…Curious to see if there are any other differences in title translations, if you spot any, let me know…

After a decade of being the clear leader driving market trends in computing, Apple’s influence could wane in the post-Steve Jobs era, according to a thoughtful piece posted Tuesday at TG Daily.

Industry analyst Rob Enderle describes Apple’s amazingly diverse impact on wider market trends:

* The iPhone immediately became the gold standard for mobile phone manufacturers, resulting in an explosion of new devices and innovation across every mobile software platform;

* Apple created integration between power and graphics in computer processors that would not have been possible without the company’s commitment to OpenCL, a framework for writing programs that execute across CPUs and GPUs;

* Apple’s focus on design and higher margins resulted in the introduction of products such as the recently released Dell Adamo, a PC notebook designed and marketed to emulate Apple’s attention to every detail from the packaging inward, down to the absence of stickers promoting Microsoft Windows and Intel;

* The elegance of the user experience in Mac OS X virtually doomed OEMs’ embrace of Linux to a competition not with Apple but with Windows, an outcome which will affect the introduction of Google’s Android when it comes to market next year as well.

In short, Enderle writes, “Apple is at the core” of all recent change in the computer industry, that “as a result Apple’s efforts, the products we will see from a variety of vendors will be vastly more amazing than they otherwise would have been.”

None of the above is really subject to debate. Enderle goes on to question whether Apple can keep it up in the post-Jobs era, however, and this writer disagrees. Follow the jump to find out why.

Steve Jobs missed leading an Apple shareholders’ meeting on Wednesday for the first time since his return to the company in 1997, but the founder and visionary CEO remains “remains deeply involved in strategic decisions,” according to director Art Levinson, who spoke to reporters at the company’s headquarters in Cupertino, California after the meeting.

Despite his absence from the meeting, shareholders sang Happy Birthday to Jobs, who turned 54 yesterday. Reporters were barred from taking laptops, iPhones or other communication devices into the meeting, but a few attendees were apparently able to sneak in wireless handhelds to post notes during the meeting, according to a report at Fortune.

Details on shareholder actions at the meeting after the jump.

Steve Jobs, who historically would spend hours a day logged into a chat client, has been using his computer less since taking his six-month leave of absence, according to a report by former PBS journalist Mark Stephens.

“Steve Jobs has stopped using his computer. He’s off curing himself of something he won’t name and in some manner we can’t know but I CAN tell you right now it doesn’t involve using his computer,” Stephens wrote under his pen name, Robert X Cringley.

Stephens argues in his post that because Jobs has not yet resigned from his position as CEO at Apple, his health is material to Apple and to Apple shareholders, is material to the company, and should be disclosed.

Because Jobs’ previous habit was to be available online to his coterie of personal contacts, a trend he apparently continued even after he announced he’d be taking a six month leave of absence near the beginning of this year, the apparent fact that he is no longer logging on daily is, according to Stephens, “important.”

“His condition remains squarely on the table, hot and steaming and ready to be served-up,” Stephens writes. “Who cares?

Anyone cares who actually expects Steve Jobs to return to Apple.”

Via MacNN