Steve Jobs

Is Google Apple’s next courtroom sparring partner?

Ed Sutherland ∙ Updated April 10, 2018

Samsung's $1 billion loss to Apple last week may have widespread repercussions, including Google's Android software. What previously was a proxy cold war with cell phone makers, the stand-in soldiers, could heat up dramatically and place the Mountain View, Calif. firm squarely in the middle of Apple's legal radar and making Steve Jobs' threatened "thermonuclear war" over Android a reality.

That legal war "is drawing closer to Google's doorstep," reports the New York Times. The court ruling that Samsung violated Apple patents related to changing a screen's view or tapping to zoom closer are all part of Android. Indeed, Google just recently removed from Android a feature that bounces your iOS screen to indicate you've reached the bottom. Dumping that feature from Android was more out of "design reasons" than Samsung's courtroom defeat, a source told the Times.

Thief also stole Steve Jobs’ wallet with his yearly salary in it

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated July 24, 2016

Yesterday's newspaper report told a story of 35-year-old Kariem McFarlin who last month burglarized the Jobs' family house in Palo Alto, stealing $60,000 worth of computers and personal items.

The house was under renovation and surrounded by a temporary construction barrier, leading the police to speculate the homeless man raided it by accident.

A new report sheds more light on the crime and lists the stolen items. Among them: valuable Tiffany jewelry and Steve's wallet with his annual salary in it...

Burglar steals $60,000 worth of computers and personal items from Steve Jobs’ home

Christian Zibreg ∙ August 14, 2012

Late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs' Palo Alto home was burglarized last month, according to a newspaper report today. The police included the crime in its weekend report log released to the media. A suspect was apprehended with $60,000 worth of stolen items, including computers and personal items.

Steve's widow Laurene Powell Jobs and her children were probably not in the house when the crime took place as the Palo Alto house was surrounded with scaffolding last month amid major renovations.

A thief apparently was unaware of the famous home owners. The police wouldn't release more details because charges had already been filed...

Internal email shows Steve Jobs was receptive to 7-inch tablet idea

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 4, 2018

Opponents of the rumored iPad mini have continued to recall Jobs' disdain for a smaller screen as evidence that it won't happen. And technically, they're right. The CEO has been quoted as saying 7-inch displays are too small.

But that doesn't mean it won't happen. And in fact, according to an internal email that just popped up in the ongoing Samsung-Apple trial, the CEO actually showed some interest in the idea as recent as January 2011.

Updated: screenshot of the actual email thread after the break...

Judge to Samsung: Photos of Steve Jobs are relevant to this litigation

Christian Zibreg ∙ July 30, 2012

Samsung made an effort to bar the jury from seeing some of Apple's opening slides ahead of the big lawsuit that kicked off earlier today in San Jose, northern California. Samsung filed as much as fourteen objections to the use of images of Steve Jobs in the opening presentation over fear they might affect the jurors emotionally and consequentially skew their judgment.

One of Apple's slides is a screenshot from the announcement of the iPad in July 2010 and the other depicts the highly publicized January 2007 iPhone introduction which Apple argues "launched the fame that the iPhone trade dress has acquired"

However, late Sunday the court overruled all of the South Korean conglomerate's objections, ruling that each of the images of Steve Jobs "is relevant to Apple’s iPhone design patent and trade dress claims and is not unduly prejudicial"...

On Wired cover: how Steve Jobs’ management style affects industry leaders

Christian Zibreg ∙ July 22, 2012

Wired in its August issue runs an interesting (albeit premature?) cover story about Apple's late co-founder titled Am I Steve Jobs which seeks to explore how the mercurial CEO's unconventional management style has affected and continues to inspire industry executives. The feature mostly draws from the authorized bio book by Walter Isaacson, but is also spiced up with interviews from today's business and tech leaders...

Early-2000 iPad prototype Steve Jobs trashed

Christian Zibreg ∙ July 18, 2012

Wouldn't you like to see what Apple's earliest iPad prototype looked like? Now you can, thanks to NetworkWorld which uncovered a deposition by Apple's design guru Jony Ive containing photos of a three dimensional mockup of a tablet that Apple produced as part of the discovery process some time between 2002 and 2004.

It's referred to as the 035 mockup and depicts a thick device made of plastic and without the physical home button. It's a far cry from today's iPad, but at the time must have been pretty futuristic. Looking at these pictures, we're happy that Steve Jobs axed the tablet project a couple times due to weight, excessive power requirements and sluggishness exhibited by the early prototypes...

Jobs biographer on his admiration for Mark Zuckerberg

Cody Lee ∙ Updated March 12, 2018

Walter Isaacson, the author of Steve Jobs' official biography, was on stage with Facebook board member Don Graham this morning at Fortune's annual Brainstorm Tech conference. And as usual, the topic turned to the Apple founder.

Graham mentioned what a big impact Steve Jobs had on Facebook's young CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, and he asked Isaacson if Jobs had ever mentioned him. As you might have guessed, the writer's response was pretty interesting...

Jobs’ advice to Yelp CEO: don’t go Google

Christian Zibreg ∙ July 16, 2012

It was one of those classic Jobs moments Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman will never forget. He was in a middle of a conference call with venture capitalists as Steve Jobs called in to offer a word of advice regarding a takeover bid from Google. In hindsight, Jobs wanted Yelp to stay independent as Apple had big plans with iOS 6 Maps and Siri that included Yelp...

How Steve Jobs really felt about carriers and why they’re still like Soviet ministries

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 9, 2018

Before wrapping up his career-defining iPhone presentation on January 9, 2007, Steve Jobs invited Stan Sigman, then the CEO of Cingular Wireless, to join him on stage and announce a partnership that would send shockwaves of fear throughout the wireless industry. For the first time in history, a telecom would work in concert with a phone vendor to make a revolutionary phone possible without messing the user experience with junkware.

Stigman even confessed publicly that he agreed to take on the iPhone without ever seeing it, "because of the confidence I have in Steve Jobs to deliver his vision". Notwithstanding, a trained eye could tell the two men were worlds apart.

One was an archaic executive stuck in the old days and the other a forward-thinking unconventional manager with uncanny ability to figure out what consumers wanted before they even knew it.

Here's a reminder of how Jobs really felt about carriers, the way they go about their business and how virtually nothing's changed...

California governor fast-tracks new Apple campus

Cody Lee ∙ Updated September 26, 2016

Apple shouldn't have any more problems meeting its 2015 deadline for the opening of its new Cupertino-based 'spaceship' campus. According to a new report, the project has just been fast-tracked by California state Governor Jerry Brown...