TIAH: Steve Jobs - page 3

Today in Apple history: Steve Jobs hands out $100 to iPhone customers

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First gen iPhone
All hail the original iPhone!
Photo: Traci Dauphin/Cult of Mac

Sept 6September 6, 2007: Apple deals with its first iPhone PR crisis, when early adopters complain about the company dropping the price of its new smartphone by $200 just two months after introducing it.

In response, Steve Jobs offers affected customers $100 credit which can be used toward the purchase of any Apple store product. “Our early customers trusted us, and we must live up to that trust with our actions in moments like these,” he writes.

Today in Apple history: OS X Jaguar roars onto Mac

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osxjaguar
How did that cat print pattern ever make it past Steve Jobs?
Photo: Apple

Aug23 August 23, 2002: Apple ships Mac OS X Jaguar, the third major release of OS X and the first to publicly adopt the cat-themed code name it had been known by inside the company.

The $129 operating system is well-received by Mac users, who correctly view it as the most stable version of OS X yet — and with a few neat features, to boot.

Today in Apple history: Happy birthday to Steve Jobs’ best friend, Larry Ellison

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Larry Ellison
Larry Ellison once offered to buy Apple for Jobs to run.
Photo: Oracle Corporate Communications

17AugAugust 17, 1944: Larry Ellison, billionaire co-founder and former CEO of Oracle, and Steve Jobs’ best friend, is born.

A later member of the Apple board of directors and the closest thing Jobs had to a confidante, in the 1990s Ellison even considered staging a hostile takeover of Apple to reinstall Jobs as CEO during his time away from the company.

Jobs’ son, Reed, reportedly referred to Ellison as, “our rich friend.”

Today in Apple history: Ashton Kutcher’s JOBS lands with a thud

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Ashton Kutcher played Steve Jobs in 2013 biopic.
Ashton Kutcher bore a striking resemblance to Steve Jobs.
Photo: Steve Jobs

Aug16August 16, 2013: JOBS, the Steve Jobs biopic starring Ashton Kutcher, lands in theaters.

The first of two competing Jobs movies (the second one was the Aaron Sorkin version, based on Walter Isaacson’s best-selling biography), the movie receives polarizing reviews from critics, but fails to make an impact at the box office — where it earns just $6.7 million in its first weekend.

Today in Apple history: G4 Cube makes its (ill-fated) debut

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Mac G4 Cube
Do you remember Apple's G4 Cube?
Photo: Apple

July 19 July 19, 2000: Apple launches its futuristic-looking Power Mac G4 Cube. The clear computer is one of the company’s most jaw-droppingly gorgeous machines, but ultimately becomes one of its biggest disappointments.

Technologically, the G4 Cube was a game-changer. Financially, it was one of Steve Jobs’ most notable failures.

Today in Apple history: App Store hits 10 million downloads

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App Store
What was the first app you downloaded on your iPhone?
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

July 14: Today in Apple history: App Store hits 10 million downloads July 14, 2008: Apple crows that its newly opened App Store hit a massive 10 million downloads in its first 72 hours.

“The App Store is a grand slam, with a staggering 10 million applications downloaded in just three days,” Steve Jobs said in a statement issued eight years ago today. “Developers have created some extraordinary applications, and the App Store can wirelessly deliver them to every iPhone and iPod touch user instantly.”

Today in Apple history: iTunes sells its 100 millionth song

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itunes_dof
This was a massive milestone for paid music downloads at the time.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

July 12 July 12, 2004: Apple boasts that the iTunes Music Store has sold its 100,000,000th song, and marks the occasion with a generous gift for the lucky downloader.

The song in question is Zero 7’s “Somersault (Dangermouse remix),” purchased by Kevin Britten from Hays, Kansas. The 20-year-old receives a personal phone call from Steve Jobs congratulating him. Britten also gets a 17-inch PowerBook, a 40GB iPod and a gift certificate for a massive 10,000 (!) iTunes songs.

Today in Apple history: Steve Jobs starts Apple’s dramatic turnaround

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The
Jobs' turnaround of Apple was one of the most dramatic in corporate history.
Photo: Steve Jobs: The Lost Interview

July 7: Today in Apple history: Steve Jobs starts Apple's dramatic turnaround July 7, 1997: Apple CEO Gil Amelio officially steps down from his role, turning the company over to the returning Steve Jobs, who immediately begins making his presence felt.

If you’re looking to pinpoint a turning point when Apple began the transition from the ailing company it was in the first half of the 1990s to the powerhouse it is today, this is it!

Today in Apple history: Apple loses exclusive rights to ‘app store’ name

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App Store icon
The App Store name used to be exclusive to Apple.
Photo: PhotoAtelier/Flickr

July 6July 6, 2011: Amazon wins a landmark verdict against Apple over its proprietary use of the term “App Store” — opening up the possibility of other rival services calling their own app stores by the phrase Apple had helped popularize.

The case highlights just how central the concept of downloadable apps had become to the mobile experience, only three years after Apple launched its iOS App Store.

Today in Apple history: Apple’s first ever computer goes on sale

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apple-1-dec-2014-auction
One of today's surviving Apple 1 computers.
Photo: Christie's

Friday 1 July 1, 1976: The Apple 1 goes on sale, becoming the first computer ever sold by the Apple Computer Company.

Arriving the same month Jimmy Carter was nominated for U.S. president, Family Feud debuted on TV, and the United States celebrated the 200th anniversary of its Declaration of Independence, the Apple 1 is only produced in small numbers, and sells for the unusual price of $666.66.

Today in Apple history: The end of Apple’s worst ever financial quarter

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Apple losses Gil Amelio
Yep, Apple wasn't always a global behemoth.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Monday 27 27 June 1997 marked the last day in the worst financial quarter in Apple history, in which Apple lost $56 million — effectively bringing an end to then-CEO Gil Amelio’s 500 days running the company.

The $56 million loss contributed to an overall Apple loss of $1.6 billion during Amelio’s reign: effectively wiping out every cent of profit Cupertino had earned since fiscal 1991. In other words — ouch!

Today in Apple history: Original Apple I sells for big bucks at auction

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Apple-1
A working Apple 1 will set you back a small fortune.
Photo: Auction Team Breker

Friday24On June 24, 2013, an Apple I — the first ever computer built by Apple Computer, Inc. — was listed for auction by international auction house Christie’s.

Thought to be one of the first 25 units to be built by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak in the late 1970s, the unit featured no Apple logo, but rather a signature from Woz, who designed the machine. It sold for an impressive $390,000, ranking it among the most expensive computers ever sold.

Today in Apple history: Power Mac G5 goes on sale

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G5 computer
Do you remember the Power Mac G5?
Photo: Apple

Thursday23Sometimes affectionately called the “cheese grater,” the original Power Mac G5 first went on sale on June 23, 2003 — offering what was then Apple’s fastest-ever machine and the world’s first 64-bit personal computer.

Check out the video of Steve Jobs introducing the computer 13 years ago today.

Today in Apple history: Steve Jobs talks to Rolling Stone

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Steve Jobs during the NeXT years.
Steve Jobs during the NeXT years.
Photo: Doug Menuez/Fearless Genius

thursday16 There was, to put it mildly, a lot that was insanely great about Steve Jobs’ return to Apple. But one thing that always struck me as less than good from an Apple fan’s perspective was that he stopped giving revealing in-depth interviews.

As his ability to command the narrative increased, Apple’s CEO understandably shifted away from playing the media hound he’d been for the first part of his career, where he’d speak with often painful honesty to seemingly any magazine that would have him. One of his last such interviews? The one that appeared in the June 16, 1994, edition of Rolling Stone.