05/25, 8:01pm
Rare working computer one of six known to exist
Auction house Sotheby's will be selling two bits of history soon -- one strongly related to Apple, the other less so -- both tied to the late Steve Jobs. On June 15, the company will be auctioning a rare working Apple I motherboard, one of only six known to exist in this state, and expected to fetch more than $180,000. Also being auctioned in a separate lot is a rare handwritten memo and typed report from Jobs from his time at Atari.
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05/22, 12:50am
Dreyfuss, Obama, Clinton, children, others
A group of notable public figures, including two US presidents and a class of schoolkids -- along with the reunited "Mac and PC" team of Justin Long and John Hodgman -- paid tribute to Apple co-founder and former CEO Steve Jobs at the Webby Awards held yesterday in New York City. As part of the ceremony, a video tribute was run featuring "five words" (and sometimes more) from various celebrities and politicians who in turn paid tribute to Jobs, who died in October.
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05/18, 9:01pm
Modifies title to 'jOBS,' now a made-for-TV feature
The independent biopic of Apple co-founder and former CEO Steve Jobs starring Ashton Kutcher that begins filming next month has modified its title to simply jOBS with the "Get Inspired" portion that was previous thought to be part of the title now identified as just a tagline. The low-budget production from Five Star Feature Films says it will commence principle photography next month, including the actual Los Altos home of Jobs' parents, including the garage that started it all.
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05/18, 1:09am
Jobs said to have worked on LTE iPhone design
Before his death, Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs allegedly worked on a redesigned, next-generation iPhone that features a larger screen and LTE compatibility, Bloomberg reports. Three sources have confirmed that the company has ordered larger screens for the next iPhone, but did not indicate exactly what size the new device would use. Current rumors have Apple favoring a four-inch (measured diagonally) screen.
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05/17, 11:12pm
Movie will not a be a full biography
Aaron Sorkin, the screenwriter behind 2010's The Social Network and the TV series The West Wing told reporters earlier today that he has little idea about what he's going to write so far in Sony's planned biographical film on the life of Apple co-creator and former CEO Steve Jobs. He did reveal that the movie won't be a "straight ahead biography" and that Steve Wozniak has been hired as an advisor.
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05/17, 5:18pm
No sign Apple working on car tech
Before his death on October 5th, one of the things Apple co-founder Steve Jobs wanted to build was a so-called "iCar," according to company board member and J. Crew CEO Mickey Drexler. "Look at the car industry; it's a tragedy in America," he said during a Fast Company conference this week. "Who is designing the cars? ... Steve's dream before he died was to design an iCar."
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05/16, 11:38pm
Video shows Jobs predicting publisher revolt
A 2010 video has surfaced of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs prognosticating that e-books would eventually wind up around the same price on most competing e-book stores. The video comes as the Justice Department pursues its e-book lawsuit against Apple and two other publishers for alleged price-collusion. Depending on one's interpretation of the video, Jobs' statement could imply foreknowledge of publisher plans or just industry canniness, and could even figure in the Justice Department's case.
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05/16, 7:54pm
Part of a series on inventors, innovators
The latest entry in the children's book series "Who Was" spotlights the life of Apple co-founder and former CEO Steve Jobs. The series, which has profiled figures like Walt Disney, Jim Henson and Dr. Seuss, illustrates Jobs' early life and eventual rise to found, lead, leave and then return to Apple. The story of Apple's mercurial CEO is obviously sanitized for younger readers, but covers the major events and Jobs' impact on the technology industry.
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05/16, 2:26pm
Social Network writer signs on for Steve Jobs film
Aaron Sorkin -- a writer for The West Wing, Sports Night, and HBO's upcoming The Newsroom -- has officially signed on to script Sony Pictures' forthcoming biopic about the late Steve Jobs. The film will be based on Walter Isaacson's bestselling biography on the Apple co-founder.
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05/14, 10:32pm
E-mail predicted bad behavior by Amazon
As the e-book lawsuit from the Justice Department against Apple and two other publishers expands, some recently-unsealed evidence shows that former Apple CEO Steve Jobs personally intervened to convince a holdout major publisher that the "agency model" -- a standard pricing model in the book industry that lets publishers set prices for books -- was the way to go, and succeeded in convincing the publisher.
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05/12, 9:15pm
Signature turtleneck, jeans, sneakers outfit
Actor Ashton Kutcher has been spotted wearing a costume similar to Steve Jobs' signature "Apple uniform" walking around LA, reports paparazzi site TMZ. Kutcher is currently playing the iconic Apple co-founder in an independent feature film on Jobs' early life.
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05/10, 9:16pm
Parody of 'Ghostbusters' shows fight against IBM
Less than a week after a previously-unreleased Apple sales force parody video surfaced on various sites (and finally on YouTube), a similar sales video from the era has also appeared on the video site. The previous film, "1944," based its satire on the company's "1984" commercial and portrayed Apple as engaged in a war with its main competitor at the time, IBM. Apple co-founder Steve Jobs appeared as President Roosevelt.
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05/04, 12:30am
Limited release shows pre-return Jobs
The first movie about Steve Jobs won't be the independent Ashton Kutcher project nor Sony's rumored big-budget biopic, but a film consisting mostly of Jobs himself talking about his life and career in 1995, on the eve of his eventual return to Apple. Magnolia Pictures will be opening Steve Jobs: The Lost Interview as a documentary feature at select Landmark theaters in 19 cities around the US beginning May 11.
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05/03, 3:37am
Exhibit of Jobs as inventor coming to Washington
A traveling exhibit featuring former Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs' patents will be on display at the S. Dillon Ripley Center, part of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC starting on May 11 and running through July 8. During his lifetime, Jobs was awarded 317 patents as inventor or co-creator, and the exhibit showcases 312 of them. Objects from the Smithsonian's collection will be on display to enhance the museum-goer's experience with the exhibit.
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05/01, 2:00pm
Zuckerberg creates organ donor listing on Facebook
Facebook has added an option to let users declare that they are an organ donor on their timeline, in order to raise awareness and help the 112,000 Americans waiting replacement organs. Mark Zuckerberg was inspired to make the change by his girlfriend and the late Steve Jobs.
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04/30, 4:15pm
Depositions by Steve Jobs, Eddy Cue at heart of controversy
Apple is fighting a discovery request in a class action lawsuit brought by musicians like Rick James and Rob Zombie against Universal Music, The Hollywood Reporter reports. Specifically the plaintiffs want access to trial exhibits, expert reports, depositions, and other material from a suit by FBT Productions against UMG subsidiary Aftermath, filed over money owed from music by rapper Eminem. During the case, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that FBT was right in saying that a contract between the parties should be read as treating digital music as "licenses" instead of "sales." The dispute is still set to go to trial in the near future.
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04/27, 9:40pm
Tony Fadell says three iPhone ideas tested
Apple had considered one of three core ideas for the iPhone, one of which included a hardware keyboard, former Apple executive and now Nest founder Tony Fadell revealed Friday. Speaking in an evening session with The Verge, he mentioned that the all-touch design that eventually shipped first had come after he wanted to try a virtual keyboard before resorting to the hardware option. The key iPod architect had understood the potential of an on-screen keyboard, which has infinite customization and can disappear when not needed, but didn't rule out physical keys at first.
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04/26, 11:00pm
Production hopes to commence next month
While Apple fans debate how well lead actor Ashton Kutcher will (or won't) do portraying Steve Jobs in the upcoming independent bio-pic Jobs, Broadway star Josh Gad from The Book of Mormon is in talks to portray Steve Wozniak, Apple's other co-founder, says The Hollywood Reporter. The movie, which is planning to start shooting next month, will cover a section of Jobs' life from his student days up to the founding of -- and subsequent 1997 return to -- Apple.
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04/20, 2:15pm
HTC thinks hardware keyboards hurt progress
HTC has kept itself in the limelight in the past day with both revelations of a shift in its attitude towards touch as well as shipping its first LTE-equipped One X. Speaking at the company's Freqs event in Seattle, creative lead Claude Zellweger told MobileBurn and others in attendance that HTC was backing away from hardware keyboards. Partly echoing what the late Steve Jobs said in 2007, he saw physical keyboards as still having some interest but ultimately being obstacles. Going all-touch let HTC have the freedom to design the way it wanted.
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04/18, 11:15am
Ouster from Apple forced Jobs to adapt
A journalist writing for Fast Company, Rob Schlender, says he has discovered hours of unreleased audio interviews with Apple co-founder Steve Jobs. In all the interviews span a period of 25 years. "Many [tapes] I had never replayed -- a couple hadn't even been transcribed before now," says Schlender. "Some were interrupted by his kids bolting into the kitchen as we talked. During others, he would hit the pause button himself before saying something he feared might come back to bite him."
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04/17, 1:00am
Computer debuted at retail later that summer
Thirty-five years ago, the public got its first look at what has since been called "the most visionary of the early personal computers -- the one based on the clearest idea what a PC should be, and where it should go," writes Harry McCracken for Time online. The machine he refers to was the Apple II, being demonstrated at the West Coast Computer Faire on April 16th and 17th, 1977 by Apple co-founders Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs.
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04/16, 6:20pm
Has not explained discrepancy in quotes
French designer Philippe Starck has finally confirmed that his initial quotes about a "revolutionary" Apple product that will come out "in eight months" were in fact about his long involvement in designing a yacht for the Jobs family, the Wall Street Journal reports. The yacht, which began life as a project for Steve Jobs during a brief break in his illness almost a decade ago, will be completed by his widow Laurene, Starck said.
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04/15, 3:55pm
First Jobs biopic to stop at year 2000
The first Steve Jobs biographical movie has had some of its initial details revealed in an interview with the producing company Five Star Institute's Mark Hulme. Tentatively titled Jobs: Get Inspired, the movie outlined to Neowin won't cover the entirety of his life, instead starting from when he began edging towards technology in 1971 and ending in 2000, just a few years after his return to Apple. Hulme characterized these as the "up and down years," before the iPod arrived and Apple's growth exploded.
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04/13, 5:00pm
Apple says no core products made with Starck
Apple in a more direct response publicly shot down Philip Starck's assertions that he was working with Apple on a product. A spokeswoman told AllThingsD that Apple wasn't working with any core products. The representative wouldn't guess on what Starck had meant.
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04/13, 10:00am
Starck would design Apple product for eight months
Well-known French product designer Philippe Starck has claimed in an interview with France's Le Figaro that he was recently working with Apple on a design. The "revolutionary" project would supposedly be due to arrive in eight months. He wouldn't say more about its nature, citing Apple's "religious cult of secrecy."
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04/13, 2:45am
Avenue is near Brazilian Foxconn factory
The mayor of a Brazilian city in Sao Paulo where Foxconn has one of its few foreign factories has renamed one of its streets near the facility "Avenida Steve Jobs" in honor of the late co-founder of Apple. The factory in Jundiai is said to be producing new iPhone 4 and iPad 2 units, and CEO Tim Cook has said in public remarks that Brazil is an area of "major growth" for the company in the coming years.
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04/10, 1:00pm
Cook gets first turn at D media event
Apple set a pair of firsts Tuesday after AllThingsD confirmed that Apple CEO Tim Cook would be the opening speaker for the D10 conference. It will represent both Cook's first guest spot at the annual Rancho Palos Verdes, California event as well as his first at a third-party event not intended for investors. The opening speaker role is rare in the industry and usually reserved for a highlighted and often extensive conversation.
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04/05, 8:15pm
Industries "need to come to an understanding"
Motion Picture Association of America chief executive Christopher Dodd is reportedly maintaining hope that the trade organization will be able to successfully promote a replacement to the SOPA legislation, which was effectively shot down amid resistance from tech companies. In an interview with Hollywood Reporter, the former senator also suggested that Steve Jobs would side with the MPAA in its fight against piracy.
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04/05, 3:30pm
Contests claim by Page that fury was 'for show'
Steve Jobs biographer Walter Isaacson is challenging comments by Google CEO Larry Page, who recently claimed that Jobs' anger at Android was "for show,", according to Macworld. Isaacson spoke at the UK's Royal Institution on Wednesday night, and drew parallels between the Android situation and Apple's conflict with Microsoft in the 1980s. Isaacson remarked during his speech that Jobs believed in a closed product ecosystem, in which software and hardware are intertwined. Jobs was allegedly upset not only at Microsoft imitating the GUI used for Macs, but also for licensing out the interface "promiscuously" to companies like Dell and IBM. This helped to make Microsoft the dominant computer platform.
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04/05, 2:05pm
Apple share price gets symbolism
Apple achieved a symbolic milestone Thursday after its stock price began outpacing Google's. Starting at about 12:30PM Eastern and continuing through the afternoon, Apple's stock price began repeatedly passing Google's at around the $632 mark. Fluctuations in prices kept the share prices trading places.
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04/05, 8:25am
Mini iPad one of Apple's experiments
Talk of a 7.85-inch iPad was revived again after historically accurate John Gruber mentioned in a podcast that it was supposedly still in testing. He told The Talk Show co-host Dan Benjamin that he had heard from numerous insiders that the smaller size was "one of the ideas they're noodling with." The design he understood had the same 1024x768 resolution as the iPad 2, just scaled down to the lower physical size.
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04/04, 1:10pm
Claims Android a useful rallying point
The differences former Apple CEO Steve Jobs had with Google over Android were "for show," according to Google CEO Larry Page. The executive made the comment in a recent interview with Bloomberg Businessweek, responding to a question about going to Jobs for advice after becoming CEO. "I think the Android differences were actually for show," said Page. "I had a relationship with Steve. I wouldn’t say I spent a lot of time with him over the years, but I saw him periodically. Curiously enough, actually, he requested that meeting. He sent me an e-mail and said: 'Hey, you want to get together and chat?' I said, 'Sure, I’ll come over.' And we had a very nice talk. We always did when we had a discussion generally.
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04/03, 6:35pm
Neil Young takes active steps on quality audio
Neil Young's plans to work on an improved digital audio format may not be waiting for Apple cooperation. Six USPTO trademarks were made public in the past few days for names implying a new audio format or a matching service, such as 21st Century Record Player, Earth Storage, Storage Shed, Studio Quality Sound (SQS), and Storage Shed. The timeframe for the full comment and approval system would clear the trademarks no earlier than the end of this year despite the trademarks having first been submitted last June.
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04/01, 7:25pm
Kutcher might play Jobs in indie movie
Despite the April Fools' Day timing, Variety has made serious claims on Sunday that Ashton Kutcher will play Steve Jobs in an independent movie. The Five Star Institute-produced title Jobs is expected to enter production in May, during Kutcher's break from Two and a Half Men. The project will reportedly focus on Jobs' early days on his way to founding Apple.
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03/29, 12:40am
Report author suggests Cook less angry than Jobs
High-level executives from Apple and Samsung have "communicated lately about potential settlement options," according to Bloomberg Businessweek, citing sources familiar with the situation. The magazine has a new cover story called "Apple's War on Android," detailing the lawsuits the company has been pursuing against corporations like Samsung and Motorola. Bloomberg's report of a possible settlement echoes recent rumors though, and could indicate that neither Apple nor Samsung are genuinely willing go to trial.
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03/28, 9:35am
Siri founder met with Jobs shortly after app debut
Former Apple CEO Steve Jobs didn't particularly like the name "Siri," but decided to use it for the iPhone 4S' voice command system anyway, according to Siri co-founder Dag Kittlaus. Kittlaus recently gave a speech in which he explained some of the origins of the app and its progression from a third-party title to a part of iOS. He mentioned, for instance, that he was told "Siri" is Norwegian for "beautiful woman who leads you to victory."
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03/27, 1:00am
Apple rep on hand to collect award
Apple's late CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs was posthumously honored with the President's Award at the Cupertino Chamber of Commerce at a banquet held over the weekend, the Palo Alto Patch reports. Apple spokesman Michael Foulkes was on hand to accept the award and was a bit choked up in thanking the chamber following a short tribute video that combined photos of Jobs with video of his last presentation to the City Council.
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03/24, 11:40am
Former Apple staff contends idea rejected
(Update: Margolis contextualizes) Former Apple TV engineer Mike Margolis has claimed that the new Apple TV interface was actually a previously rejected idea. He claimed that they had been "tossed out" five years prior in favor of the text-heavy design, as "SJ [Steve Jobs] didn't like them." Although only one designer had been directly responsible for user experience, a wider overhaul of the larger staff and a lack of Jobs' oversight led Margolis to think Apple had lost a necessary level of restraint.
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03/21, 11:35pm
Claim has Apple breaking iPhone screen size mould
A contentious rumor late Wednesday had Apple leaping to a 4.6-inch screen for the next iPhone. The Maeil Business Newspaper had Apple making its first part orders ahead of spring plans, dropping the familiar 3.5-inch size for the first time in five years in favor of a size comparable to the Galaxy Nexus. Unlike Samsung, though, Apple would keep its shorter but wider ratio, and would keep using an LCD instead of AMOLED.
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03/21, 9:00pm
Amended show still has support of debut venue
The Woolley Mammoth theater in Washington DC that premiered Mike Daisey's monologue-driven show The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs has issued an apology to its patrons while simultaneously confirming that a planned run of the show will go ahead this summer. The theatre says it now regrets calling the piece "a work of nonfiction" in light of admissions by Daisey that several incidents and claims are fabricated.
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03/19, 8:45am
Apple to offer dividend and buybacks
Apple ahead of its live event call confirmed the plans for its $97.6 billion cash balance. It now intends to start quarterly dividends of $2.65 per share starting with its summer quarter, which starts July 1. Along with the move, it plans to buy back $10 billion in shares over the course of three years, starting with its fiscal 2013 year beginning on September 30.
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03/10, 1:30am
Future Apple campus to use solar first
Further drawings of Apple's spaceship-like future campus have provided even more detail of its green focus. An updated posting from the city of Cupertino has shown the solar panel canopies that will cover most of the roof. Hopes are that the building will have so much solar power that it can rely on this first, and use the local grid only as a backup.
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03/08, 6:30pm
Apple denies Jobs admitted e-book collusion
Apple on Thursday hoped to rebut claims that its late CEO Steve Jobs had admitted to collusion with publishers as part of a class action lawsuit filed against it. It believed that the lawsuit's view that comments Jobs made on publishers being "unhappy" with Amazon and iBookstore pricing leveling costs weren't the surefire evidence the plaintiffs thought it was. The beliefs of a pact against Amazon's low prices was just "antitrust buzzwords" that belied steps Apple had taken to level the playing field, as well as the nature of the iPad itself.
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02/24, 3:45pm
Apple co-founder would have turned 57
Two New York City Apple fans are hosting a posthumous birthday party for Apple co-founder Steve Jobs outside Apple's Fifth Avenue retail store, the New York Post reports. The event is already underway, but should last until about 5PM Eastern time. People are expected to dance to music by Bob Dylan while the event's organizers hand out vegetarian birthday cake and black turtlenecks.
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02/21, 2:35pm
Steve Jobs: Secrets of Life
Ergonis Software has released a new universal conversion AppleScript that can be used with Typinator 5, its text expansion utility. The new script allows users to convert currencies based on current exchange rates, as well as other arbitrary units of measure like mass, length, and time. Conversions are instantly inserted into the current text and can be triggered with a simple text snippet. The conversion script is a free download on Ergonis' website and requires a fully licensed version of Typinator 5.0 or later to work.
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02/14, 7:30pm
Great products beget profit, popularity, CEO says
In his address at the Goldman Sachs technology conference in San Francisco earlier today, Apple CEO Tim Cook talked at length about the philosophy behind Apple's products and shared the simple secret of their success: former CEO Steve Jobs' insistence that the company focus on simply creating a select group of great products. The emphasis throughout his talk was less about profits or specific products and more on philosophy and discipline.
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02/13, 4:00pm
RIM director Martin justifies slow turnaround
RIM director Roger Martin in an unusual interview with the Globe and Mail defended RIM's decision to hold for years before bringing in a new CEO. He saw there being no option for an outside CEO until RIM had groomed one from the inside, with outsiders being "morons from the outside" who would inevitably gut the BlackBerry designer. Martin went so far as to liken the departing Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis to the late Steve Jobs, insisting that only the two were talented enough and that RIM couldn't afforded an involuntarily exodus.
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02/12, 12:30pm
Eddy Cue, Yo-Yo Ma tribute Jobs at Grammys
The Recording Academy in its annual pre-show ceremony gave Steve Jobs its promised Lifetime Achievement award. The posthumous award was accepted on behalf of Jobs and family by Apple Senior VP Eddy Cue. In the acceptance speech, Cue highlighted how music was a central part of Jobs' existence; he was an outspoken fan of The Beatles and Bob Dylan, and often made music a focus of Apple's work.
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02/10, 10:35am
Also had top secret clearance in Pixar era
The US Commerce Department has confirmed that Steve Jobs did in fact serve on the President's Export Council during the George Bush Sr. administration, according to the Associated Press. This week the FBI published a 191-page file on Jobs from 1991, dealing mainly with a background investigation for an appointment to the Council. The AP remarks that Export Council members are unpaid, and meet a minimum of twice a year.
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02/09, 11:25am
Jobs 'deceptive,' with 'questionable' character
The FBI has released a 191-page file on former Apple CEO Steve Jobs, Gawker notes. The document actually dates back to 1991, when Jobs had long left Apple, but was being considered for an appointment to the President's Export Council in the George Bush Sr. administration. It also makes reference to an earlier bomb threat against Jobs, dating back to 1985.
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