Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs saw shared home Wi-Fi as the future of Internet access. Utopian vision?

Christian Zibreg ∙ August 6, 2014

Would you be willing to open your home Wi-Fi network to total strangers, so that passersby and folks in your near vicinity could join it and surf the web for free?

These questions kept Apple CEO Steve Jobs up at night back in 2007 as he envisioned building an open Wi-Fi Utopia. The idea was born out of his frustration with sluggish mobile data networks at the time.

Re/code's Walt Mossberg, the famous technology reviewer and columnist who used to enjoy unparalleled access to Jobs, recounts how Jobs's intense loathing of AT&T almost gave everyone free Wi-Fi...

Retiring Bill Campbell reflects on Steve Jobs and other Apple memories

Cody Lee ∙ July 17, 2014

This afternoon, Apple announced that Susan Wagner, a founding parter of asset-managment firm BlackRock, had been elected to its board of directors. She takes the place of Bill Campbell, who is retiring after 17 years on the board.

In the press release, Campbell said that Apple today was is in "the best shape" that he's ever seen it. And in an interview with Fortune, he shared some addition thoughts on the company and memories of his time there with Steve Jobs...

Google’s Page and Brin think Apple is doing too few products

Christian Zibreg ∙ July 7, 2014

Apple's late co-founder Steve Jobs used to offer a nice word of advice to Google co-founder and boss Larry Page. "You guys are doing too much stuff," he'd tell Page.

Today, Page thinks Google's multi-pronged approach to product development is paying off big time as the search monster now has its tentacles in a number of lucrative businesses. Contrast Google's approach to Apple, which only does a few things at the time.

This is part of Apple's DNA, but Page is unimpressed.

He didn't heed his mentor's advice and think Apple's laser-sharp focus on things that matter the most is limiting its ability to compete. “It sounds stupid if you have this big company and you can only do, like, five things,” Page said during a fireside chat with venture capitalist Vinod Khosla...

Jony Ive and Tim Cook on Apple’s design process, new materials, revamping software and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 14, 2018

Apple's design guru Jonathan Ive rarely gave any interviews under the Steve Jobs regime. But this are different now, this is Tim Cook's Apple. In another sign of much-welcomed openness signaling that the Cupertino firm has changed its ways when it comes to public relations, it's increasingly making its key executives available to media.

The New York Times just published a must-read interview with Ive, following its extensive profile of Tim Cook yesterday.

The fascinating read touches upon a number of interesting topics dealing with Apple's design process, giving us valuable insight into what it was like to brainstorm products with Steve Jobs watching over your back, especially contrasted to Tim Cook's more relaxed approach which delegates much of Jobs's multi-faceted work to Ive and several new executives...

WSJ profile describes Dr. Dre as a perfectionist, compares him to Steve Jobs

Cody Lee ∙ June 7, 2014

The Wall Street Journal has written a profile on Beats co-founder Dr. Dre titled "Apple's New Beat: What Steve Jobs and Dr. Dre have in Common." That headline may sound blasphemous to die-hard Apple fans, but the comparisons they draw are interesting.

Though Jimmy Iovine has done most of the talking since Apple acquired his Beats Electronics last month, Dr. Dre played an equally important role in the company's success. He's a workaholic and a perfectionist, with a disdain for deadlines and marketing research...

Designer’s book ‘Keep it Simple’ highlights early Apple phone and tablet prototypes

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 17, 2018

In a follow-up to his 2012 book 'Design Forward,' industrial designer Hartmut Esslinger released 'Keep it Simple' late last year. The book talks about the collaboration between Esslinger and Steve Jobs during the mid-80s, which led to the creation of several iconic Apple products.

For a little context, Esslinger founded the design firm 'Frog' in 1969, which was contracted by Apple in 1982. Most notably, the firm developed the 'Snow White' design language for Cupertino company, but it was also responsible for designer a number of lesser known prototypes...

Mobile Safari creator on iPhone development and meeting Steve’s exacting standards

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 26, 2018

Francisco Tolmasky was only twenty years old back in 2006 when Apple hired him straight out of college. The whiz kid was immediately thrown into a big job at the famously secretive company that demands nothing but excellence from its employees.

Specifically, the young engineer was one of the early members of the team that created mobile Safari and Maps on the iPhone. The New York Times sat down with Tolmasky to discuss the challenges of developing desktop-class mobile software and meeting Steve's exacting standards when it comes to ease of use, here are the juiciest bits...

Aaron Sorkin talks Jobs movie at Tribeca Film Festival

Cody Lee ∙ April 22, 2014

Aaron Sorkin took a moment yesterday to speak about his upcoming Steve Jobs movie. The Academy Award-winning screenwriter was answering questions at New York City's School of Visual Arts for the Tribeca Film Festival last night when the subject of the Sony-backed Jobs film came up.

Sorkin of course avoided talking about the drama that surfaced yesterday surrounding the picture's director and cast, but he did offer up a few details about his script. Some of it we've heard before—such as his goal to do something other than a 'Jobs biography'—but there were a few new tidbits...

Sony said to be considering Danny Boyle to direct Jobs biopic, Leonardo DiCaprio could star

Jake Smith ∙ April 21, 2014

Sony Pictures is eyeing Danny Boyle as the new director of its Steve Jobs biopic titled "Jobs", after David Fincher decided not to step in the role, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Boyle nor Sony have officially confirmed the news, and the publication reports the deal is not yet done and that both parties are still in talks. Boyle is known for his work in the Slumdog Millionaire and 28 Days Later, among other films.

Furthermore, there's word Boyle has approached Leonardo DiCaprio, of The Great Gatsby and The Wolf of Wall Street fame, to star in the film as Jobs. Let's just hope he doesn't drop as many "F Bombs" as he did in The Wolf of Wall Street...

For Samsung, Steve Jobs’ death was ‘the best opportunity’ to unleash anti-iPhone ad blitz

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 16, 2014

Apple's second California trial against Samsung over smartphone patents has given us an unprecedented insight into Samsung's obsession with beating Apple and Apple's worries over losing the cool factor to Samsung due to the snarky ads that ridiculed the iPhone as an outdated and dull phone.

As you know, Samsung's campaign headlined under the 'The Next Big Thing' tagline went viral in September of 2012, thanks to a particularily scathing ad that ridiculed folks who'd wait in line for an iPhone 5.

The commercials were meant to counter the iPhone 5 "tsunami," as Samsung execs put it, and have managed to enrage Apple's marketing boss Phil Schiller so much that he proposed in an email to CEO Tim Cook that the firm fire its longtime ad agency.

According to a highly confidential email exchange between Samsung execs, we now know that the South Korean firm saw Steve Jobs's death as the “best opportunity to attack the iPhone” and tarnish the Apple brand...

David Fincher may no longer be directing Sony’s anticipated Steve Jobs biopic

Jake Smith ∙ Updated April 16, 2018

David Fincher, of The Social Network directing fame, is no longer being tapped to direct Sony Pictures' highly anticipated Steve Jobs movie, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The Jobs movie from Sony Pictures hasn't been given a title, but it's based on Walter Isaacson's official Steve Jobs biography released shortly after the Apple co-founder's death. It's expected to be a much better representation of Jobs' life than the biopic starring Ashton Kutcher released earlier this year.