Source: FoxNews.com
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/10/07/next-steve-jobs
1. Mark Pincus
Have you played Farmville? Then you already know the work of Mark Pincus, the CEO and co-founder of a San Francisco start-up called Zynga that has made a killing with Facebook apps. According to an SEC filing, about 232 million people play Zynga games routinely. This past summer, the Wall Street Journal valued the five-year-old company at a hefty $15 billion to $20 billion. Pincus is a social marketing genius with a broad smile, bright ideas and plenty of charisma.
2. Caterina Fake
Fake has a long history of innovation -- her entrepreneurial record in Silicon Valley is legendary. She helped launch the site Flickr.com in 2004, which paved the wave for other Web 2.0 services that allow user contributions, tagging (to make images easier to find) and discussion over content. (The site was sold to Yahoo! in 2005. Her latest project, called Hunch.com, goes a step further, allowing users to share their preferences and create an on-going recommendation system for books, movies, or just about anything you can find on the Web.
3. Mark Zuckerberg
Mark Zuckerberg has the same golden aura and visionary outlook of Jobs. The CEO and co-founder of Facebook said during a recent Facebook tech conference that his company stands at “the intersection of technology and social issues,” so he’s prone to make grand statements. His main contribution is building what's become a second Internet of sorts, a safe and mostly secure haven for storing your digital life: photos, conversations, news and more. The company is steadily closing in on 1 billion users on the network -- all of this, and the guy is only 27.
4. Jon Rubenstein
Born a year after Steve Jobs, in 1956, Jon Rubenstein worked at Apple up until 2006. According to Rob Enderle, a consumer analyst, Rubenstein was being groomed to replace Steve Jobs. He even has the same knack for creating a “reality distortion field” at product launches. Rubenstein helped create the original iPod but eventually left Apple for Palm. His efforts to create a new smartphone interface called WebOS fell flat: the company was eventually sold to HP. Still, there’s signs he will rise to prominence from within HP as a tech executive.
5. Marissa Meyer
Named one of the 50 most powerful woman by Fortune Magazine, Marissa Meyer has a bright tech future. A vice president at Google, this well-liked visionary is also the “face” of the company: She's said to have created the basic building blocks for the Google.com and Gmail interfaces. Meyer is well-spoken, chats easily with press and has a upbeat personality.
6. Dean Kamen
The inventor of the Segway, Kamen has the bright spark of the entrepreneur about him. And he's clearly got "that vision thing": When he invents something, it takes a while for people to realize how innovative it is. The Segway is still an uncommon sight on sidewalks, but lately he has worked with science foundations for kids, invented alternative engines and founded a research institute.
7. Larry Page and Sergey Brin
The co-founders of Google have a youthful exuberance about technology and a penchant for inventing products everyone uses. Even the mission statement at Google is far-reaching: to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. Charles King, an IT analyst at PUND-IT, says the two founders did more than just create a search engine -- they invented (or at least popularized) the idea of using the Web for data processing and storage.
8. Tony Hseih
Here’s a name you might not know, unless you've read his best-selling book about entrepreneurship, "Delivering Happiness." In the book, the founder of Zappos.com -- a shoe retailer now owned by Amazon -- makes a case for pleasing customers by making a company all about customer service. Hseih’s greatest gift is in communicating ideas, something that served Steve Jobs well throughout his career.
9. Michael Dell
A wild card pick, Michael Dell is a successful entrepreneur and visionary who started Dell in 1984. He’s older than Zuckerberg, who was born in 1984, and his contributions in tech have more to do with enterprise computing (the servers that run in a company), IT services (helping a business run efficiently) and direct marketing to consumers. His time may finally come now that HP has pulled out of the PC business.
Showing posts with label Steve Jobs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Steve Jobs. Show all posts
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Matt Groening Meets Apple
Any fan of The Simpsons should suspect the show's creator Matt Groening has a love of Apple Computers: in the episode "Bart Gets Hit by a Car", the devil is revealed using a Mac to run operations in hell. It turns out that Groening wasn't only a fan of Steve Jobs' company: in 1989, he was hired by Apple to provide artwork for a Macintosh brochure. It featured characters from his Life in Hell weekly comic strip, and came out less than a year before The Simpsons became a cultural madness. The brochure is a nice little bit of cultural history (kind of like seeing The Beatles perform in 1962) and gives some good tips on how to use a Mac. To see the whole brochure visit Comics Alliance:
http://www.comicsalliance.com/2011/06/13/matt-groening-apple-macintosh-brochure-cartoon/
Great American Garage Entrepreneurs
October 6, 2011
http://www.history.com/news/2011/10/06/great-american-garage-entrepreneurs
Setting up shop in a garage may sound like a cliché, but did you know that a number of thriving American businesses really got their start that way? One of the most famous examples is, of course, Apple Inc., founded in 1976 by Steve Jobs, who died Wednesday at age 56, and his friend Steve Wozniak. Find out about their brainchild and other major companies that trace their roots to humble birthplaces.
Apple Inc.
On April Fool’s Day in 1976, 21-year-old Steve Jobs and 25-year-old Steve Wozniak established Apple Computer, later known simply as Apple Inc. Pioneers in the burgeoning world of personal computers, the pair worked out of Jobs’ parents’ garage in Los Altos, California, in the heart of Silicon Valley. Jobs, a college dropout, became one of the great innovators of the digital age, transforming not just his original field but also music, animation and mobile communications. He died at 56 on October 5, 2011, after a long struggle with cancer. Apple’s notable products include the Macintosh computer line, the iPod, the iPhone, the iPad, iTunes, the Mac OS X operating system and Final Cut Studio.
Hewlett-Packard
Considered the first American technology business to launch behind a garage door, Hewlett-Packard was founded in 1939 by Bill Hewlett and David Packard, who had scraped together an initial capital investment of $538. At the time, Packard and his new wife Lucile lived in an apartment next door and Hewlett camped out in a shed on the property, located in Palo Alto, California. After developing a range of electronic products, the company entered the computer market in 1966 and is now one of the world’s largest technology corporations. The one-car garage where it all began is a designated California historic landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Walt Disney Company
In 1923, the Missouri-born cartoonist Walt Disney moved to Los Angeles with his brother Roy to make short films that combined animation and live action. They spent several months producing their first series, the “Alice Comedies,” out of their uncle Robert’s garage before relocating to the back of a realty office and finally to a studio. Now the world’s largest media conglomerate, the Walt Disney Company became a leader in film, television, travel, leisure, music and publishing. In 2006, it acquired Pixar Studios from another veteran of a California garage: Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple Computer. Robert Disney’s garage was saved from demolition in 1984 and donated to the Stanley Ranch Museum.
Mattel
When Ruth and Elliot Handler, who had met in an industrial design course, started making picture frames in their California garage, they probably never thought their venture—Mattel—would grow into the world’s biggest toy manufacturer. More or less by accident, they wound up crafting dollhouse furniture and later children’s playthings out of spare wood scraps. In the late 1950s, Ruth determined there was a market for dolls that looked like “grown-ups”; ignoring her husband’s objections, she designed a prototype and named it after their daughter, Barbie. (Ken, named for their son, followed soon after.) Mattel struck gold with the new line, and in 1968 Ruth became the company’s president.
Google
Long after Hewlett-Packard and Apple Computer made their unpretentious debuts, another technology powerhouse came screeching out of a Silicon Valley garage. After developing a groundbreaking search engine for a research project, Stanford University students Larry Page and Sergey Brin founded Google in a garage owned by Susan Wojcicki, a friend and future employee. The company, which has since branched out into numerous other areas, now runs the most visited websites on the Internet and boasts locations around the world. In 2006, Google bought Wojcicki’s house—and the garage where its vast empire began.
Yankee Candle Company
In 1969, 17-year-old Michael Kittredge of South Hadley, Massachusetts, couldn’t dig up enough cash to buy his mother a Christmas present. On a whim, he melted down some crayons in his parents’ garage and made her a scented candle. When neighbors began expressing interest, Kittredge, who needed a hobby since his rock band had just broken up, recruited some friends and began churning out candles. By the following year, the booming business had taken over the Kittredge home, so the young entrepreneurs moved into a dilapidated mill. Today, the Yankee Candle Company is the leading U.S. candle manufacturer, with hundreds of retail locations, international distribution and multiple product lines.
http://www.history.com/news/2011/10/06/great-american-garage-entrepreneurs
Setting up shop in a garage may sound like a cliché, but did you know that a number of thriving American businesses really got their start that way? One of the most famous examples is, of course, Apple Inc., founded in 1976 by Steve Jobs, who died Wednesday at age 56, and his friend Steve Wozniak. Find out about their brainchild and other major companies that trace their roots to humble birthplaces.
Apple Inc.
On April Fool’s Day in 1976, 21-year-old Steve Jobs and 25-year-old Steve Wozniak established Apple Computer, later known simply as Apple Inc. Pioneers in the burgeoning world of personal computers, the pair worked out of Jobs’ parents’ garage in Los Altos, California, in the heart of Silicon Valley. Jobs, a college dropout, became one of the great innovators of the digital age, transforming not just his original field but also music, animation and mobile communications. He died at 56 on October 5, 2011, after a long struggle with cancer. Apple’s notable products include the Macintosh computer line, the iPod, the iPhone, the iPad, iTunes, the Mac OS X operating system and Final Cut Studio.
Hewlett-Packard
Considered the first American technology business to launch behind a garage door, Hewlett-Packard was founded in 1939 by Bill Hewlett and David Packard, who had scraped together an initial capital investment of $538. At the time, Packard and his new wife Lucile lived in an apartment next door and Hewlett camped out in a shed on the property, located in Palo Alto, California. After developing a range of electronic products, the company entered the computer market in 1966 and is now one of the world’s largest technology corporations. The one-car garage where it all began is a designated California historic landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Walt Disney Company
In 1923, the Missouri-born cartoonist Walt Disney moved to Los Angeles with his brother Roy to make short films that combined animation and live action. They spent several months producing their first series, the “Alice Comedies,” out of their uncle Robert’s garage before relocating to the back of a realty office and finally to a studio. Now the world’s largest media conglomerate, the Walt Disney Company became a leader in film, television, travel, leisure, music and publishing. In 2006, it acquired Pixar Studios from another veteran of a California garage: Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple Computer. Robert Disney’s garage was saved from demolition in 1984 and donated to the Stanley Ranch Museum.
Mattel
When Ruth and Elliot Handler, who had met in an industrial design course, started making picture frames in their California garage, they probably never thought their venture—Mattel—would grow into the world’s biggest toy manufacturer. More or less by accident, they wound up crafting dollhouse furniture and later children’s playthings out of spare wood scraps. In the late 1950s, Ruth determined there was a market for dolls that looked like “grown-ups”; ignoring her husband’s objections, she designed a prototype and named it after their daughter, Barbie. (Ken, named for their son, followed soon after.) Mattel struck gold with the new line, and in 1968 Ruth became the company’s president.
Long after Hewlett-Packard and Apple Computer made their unpretentious debuts, another technology powerhouse came screeching out of a Silicon Valley garage. After developing a groundbreaking search engine for a research project, Stanford University students Larry Page and Sergey Brin founded Google in a garage owned by Susan Wojcicki, a friend and future employee. The company, which has since branched out into numerous other areas, now runs the most visited websites on the Internet and boasts locations around the world. In 2006, Google bought Wojcicki’s house—and the garage where its vast empire began.
Yankee Candle Company
In 1969, 17-year-old Michael Kittredge of South Hadley, Massachusetts, couldn’t dig up enough cash to buy his mother a Christmas present. On a whim, he melted down some crayons in his parents’ garage and made her a scented candle. When neighbors began expressing interest, Kittredge, who needed a hobby since his rock band had just broken up, recruited some friends and began churning out candles. By the following year, the booming business had taken over the Kittredge home, so the young entrepreneurs moved into a dilapidated mill. Today, the Yankee Candle Company is the leading U.S. candle manufacturer, with hundreds of retail locations, international distribution and multiple product lines.
Steve Jobs' greatest products
The 11 most influential computers and other gadgets that Jobs brought about
Rosa Golijan
10-6-11
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44805821
Apple co-founder Steve Jobs died on Wednesday, but he left behind a legacy full of iconic products. We've rounded up some of the most significant ones for you — along with a little bit of their history.
Mac OS X - Overhauling the operating system
The Mac OS X title encompasses a series of operating systems released by Apple under code names including Cheetah, Puma, Jaguar, Panther, Tiger, Leopard, Snow Leopard, and Lion. Mac OS X 10.0 — better known as Cheetah — was made publicly available in March 2001. The latest version of the popular operating system series, Mac OS X Lion, was released in July 2011.
NeXT - Innovation in exile
The NeXT computer was packaged in a one-foot cube-shaped case and introduced in 1988, after Jobs had been removed from Apple. It was a high-end workstation which — despite not winning over many customers — is noted as being the system on which the first Web browser was written. It is also worth mentioning that the world's first Internet-connected server was supposedly a NeXT system.
Macintosh - Computers get cute
Recognizable by its iconic beige all-in-one case, the Macintosh 128K is the first member of the Macintosh family of personal computers. It was released in January 1984 — with a dramatic Super Bowl commercial — and touted a $2,500 price tag (which was considered quite reasonable when it came to personal computers at that time).
The original Macintosh 128K would be discontinued in October 1985, but its lineage continued on — with models including the Macintosh 512K, the PowerBook Duo, the Power Macintosh, the PowerBook G3, the iMac, the Power Mac G4, the iBook, the Mac Mini, the MacBook, the MacBook Pro, the MacBook Air, and many more models in-between and after.
MacBook Air - Winning with thin
The MacBook Air was described as the "world's thinnest notebook" during its January 2008 introduction. And that was no joke — the device was an unprecedented 0.16-inches at its thinnest point. Steve Jobs presented it by pulling it out of a manila envelope. Initially Apple would only offer a 13.3-inch MacBook Air model, but in October 2010, an 11.6-inch version was announced.
The MacBook Air managed to squeeze a full-sized keyboard and display into a powerful little package which included 1.6 GHz or 1.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor (which would in later years be replaced by Intel Core i5 and Core i7 dual-core processors).
It's worth noting that — like all of Apple's notebooks since the original MacBook Pro — the MacBook Air incorporates Apple's MagSafe —a proprietary magnetically-attached power connector system.
Lisa - Ahead of its time
The Apple Lisa was a personal computer introduced in the early 1980s. Its name is supposedly either an acronym for "Local Integrated Software Architecture" or a nod to Steve Jobs' first daughter, Lisa Jobs.
While it wasn't exactly a bestseller — it is rumored that thousands of unsold units were sent to a landfill — the computer is noted for its significance in computing history. It was considered to be superior to what was coming out of the Macintosh project at that time and included a tight integration between hardware and software. Oh, and a built-in screensaver, which was uncommon at the time.
iTunes - Instant gratification via the Internet
Apple introduced the iTunes digital jukebox software in January 2001, a few months before the uveiling of the first-generation iPod. Two years later the company announced the opening of the iTunes Music Store, a place where over 200,000 songs could be purchased for 99 cents each.
In October 2005, the iTunes Store would expand to include TV shows and music videos. In September 2006, it would begin offering full-length movie downloads and by January 2008 movie rentals would be available thanks to arrangements with all major film studios.
As of October 2011, Apple has sold over 15 billion songs through the iTunes Store.
iPod - A pocket-sized revolution
When it introduced the iPod in October 2001, Apple advertised that the portable media player is a way to carry "1,000 songs in your pocket." Since then, the company has introduced — and retired — several members of the iPod product family including the iPod Mini, iPod Nano, iPod Shuffle, and iPod Touch. Each new model has offered significantly more storage capacity than the original 5GB device.
As of October 2011, Apple has sold over 320 million iPod devices and deemed it the "world's most popular music player."
iPhone - Mobile computing hits next level
In January 2007, Apple unveiled the iPhone. It described the gadget as "combining three products — a revolutionary mobile phone, a widescreen iPod with touch controls and a breakthrough Internet communications device with desktop-class email, Web browsing, searching and maps — into one small and lightweight handheld device."
The iPhone ran Apple's very own mobile operating system, which has since been dubbed iOS. The phone was initially offered in the U.S. exclusively by cellular provider AT&T.
Since the first-generation iPhone, Apple has introduced the iPhone 3G, the iPhone 3GS, the iPhone 4 and — most recently — the iPhone 4S. At this point the mobile devices are available on three major U.S. carriers — AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint — as well as a number of international cellular providers.
iPad - Challenger to the PC
When he stepped onto a stage to show off the iPad for the very first time in January 2010, Steve Jobs described the device as something "magical and revolutionary." The 9.7-inch slate-like gadget offered a high-resolution multi-touch display, Apple's A4 system-on-a-chip processor and an impressive 10-hour battery. The device was offered in a Wi-Fi-only as well as in a 3G-enabled version.
The next generation tablet, the iPad 2, was announced in March 2011. It was thinner, lighter and faster than the original device — and included front- and back-facing cameras for use with Apple's FaceTime video chat and Photo Booth apps.
iMac - End of the beige computer
Apple's iMac line of desktop computers includes several models introduced since 1998 — from the brightly colored iMac G3 all-in-one to the lamp-shaped iMac G4 to the slender iMac G5 to the latest aluminum unibody model.
The iMac line has seen a great deal of change since the first iMac G3, which was a 233-MHz CRT unit. The most recent model comes in 21.5- and 27-inch flat-panel versions and advertises processor speeds of up to 2.93 GHz.
Apple II - Homeward bound
The Apple II series of computers is considered among the first successful mass-produced personal computers. The first model was introduced in June 1977 and the line withered off in November 1993.
This particular line of PCs was significant as it was competitively priced and as a result made its way into many households, businesses, and educational institutions.
To this day, there are individuals who use Apple II applications on either carefully maintained systems — which are considered collectors' items — or by relying on emulator software.
Rosa Golijan
10-6-11
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44805821
Apple co-founder Steve Jobs died on Wednesday, but he left behind a legacy full of iconic products. We've rounded up some of the most significant ones for you — along with a little bit of their history.
Mac OS X - Overhauling the operating system
The Mac OS X title encompasses a series of operating systems released by Apple under code names including Cheetah, Puma, Jaguar, Panther, Tiger, Leopard, Snow Leopard, and Lion. Mac OS X 10.0 — better known as Cheetah — was made publicly available in March 2001. The latest version of the popular operating system series, Mac OS X Lion, was released in July 2011.
NeXT - Innovation in exile
The NeXT computer was packaged in a one-foot cube-shaped case and introduced in 1988, after Jobs had been removed from Apple. It was a high-end workstation which — despite not winning over many customers — is noted as being the system on which the first Web browser was written. It is also worth mentioning that the world's first Internet-connected server was supposedly a NeXT system.
Macintosh - Computers get cute
Recognizable by its iconic beige all-in-one case, the Macintosh 128K is the first member of the Macintosh family of personal computers. It was released in January 1984 — with a dramatic Super Bowl commercial — and touted a $2,500 price tag (which was considered quite reasonable when it came to personal computers at that time).
The original Macintosh 128K would be discontinued in October 1985, but its lineage continued on — with models including the Macintosh 512K, the PowerBook Duo, the Power Macintosh, the PowerBook G3, the iMac, the Power Mac G4, the iBook, the Mac Mini, the MacBook, the MacBook Pro, the MacBook Air, and many more models in-between and after.
MacBook Air - Winning with thin
The MacBook Air was described as the "world's thinnest notebook" during its January 2008 introduction. And that was no joke — the device was an unprecedented 0.16-inches at its thinnest point. Steve Jobs presented it by pulling it out of a manila envelope. Initially Apple would only offer a 13.3-inch MacBook Air model, but in October 2010, an 11.6-inch version was announced.
The MacBook Air managed to squeeze a full-sized keyboard and display into a powerful little package which included 1.6 GHz or 1.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor (which would in later years be replaced by Intel Core i5 and Core i7 dual-core processors).
It's worth noting that — like all of Apple's notebooks since the original MacBook Pro — the MacBook Air incorporates Apple's MagSafe —a proprietary magnetically-attached power connector system.
Lisa - Ahead of its time
The Apple Lisa was a personal computer introduced in the early 1980s. Its name is supposedly either an acronym for "Local Integrated Software Architecture" or a nod to Steve Jobs' first daughter, Lisa Jobs.
While it wasn't exactly a bestseller — it is rumored that thousands of unsold units were sent to a landfill — the computer is noted for its significance in computing history. It was considered to be superior to what was coming out of the Macintosh project at that time and included a tight integration between hardware and software. Oh, and a built-in screensaver, which was uncommon at the time.
iTunes - Instant gratification via the Internet
Apple introduced the iTunes digital jukebox software in January 2001, a few months before the uveiling of the first-generation iPod. Two years later the company announced the opening of the iTunes Music Store, a place where over 200,000 songs could be purchased for 99 cents each.
In October 2005, the iTunes Store would expand to include TV shows and music videos. In September 2006, it would begin offering full-length movie downloads and by January 2008 movie rentals would be available thanks to arrangements with all major film studios.
As of October 2011, Apple has sold over 15 billion songs through the iTunes Store.
iPod - A pocket-sized revolution
When it introduced the iPod in October 2001, Apple advertised that the portable media player is a way to carry "1,000 songs in your pocket." Since then, the company has introduced — and retired — several members of the iPod product family including the iPod Mini, iPod Nano, iPod Shuffle, and iPod Touch. Each new model has offered significantly more storage capacity than the original 5GB device.
As of October 2011, Apple has sold over 320 million iPod devices and deemed it the "world's most popular music player."
iPhone - Mobile computing hits next level
In January 2007, Apple unveiled the iPhone. It described the gadget as "combining three products — a revolutionary mobile phone, a widescreen iPod with touch controls and a breakthrough Internet communications device with desktop-class email, Web browsing, searching and maps — into one small and lightweight handheld device."
The iPhone ran Apple's very own mobile operating system, which has since been dubbed iOS. The phone was initially offered in the U.S. exclusively by cellular provider AT&T.
Since the first-generation iPhone, Apple has introduced the iPhone 3G, the iPhone 3GS, the iPhone 4 and — most recently — the iPhone 4S. At this point the mobile devices are available on three major U.S. carriers — AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint — as well as a number of international cellular providers.
iPad - Challenger to the PC
When he stepped onto a stage to show off the iPad for the very first time in January 2010, Steve Jobs described the device as something "magical and revolutionary." The 9.7-inch slate-like gadget offered a high-resolution multi-touch display, Apple's A4 system-on-a-chip processor and an impressive 10-hour battery. The device was offered in a Wi-Fi-only as well as in a 3G-enabled version.
The next generation tablet, the iPad 2, was announced in March 2011. It was thinner, lighter and faster than the original device — and included front- and back-facing cameras for use with Apple's FaceTime video chat and Photo Booth apps.
iMac - End of the beige computer
Apple's iMac line of desktop computers includes several models introduced since 1998 — from the brightly colored iMac G3 all-in-one to the lamp-shaped iMac G4 to the slender iMac G5 to the latest aluminum unibody model.
The iMac line has seen a great deal of change since the first iMac G3, which was a 233-MHz CRT unit. The most recent model comes in 21.5- and 27-inch flat-panel versions and advertises processor speeds of up to 2.93 GHz.
Apple II - Homeward bound
The Apple II series of computers is considered among the first successful mass-produced personal computers. The first model was introduced in June 1977 and the line withered off in November 1993.
This particular line of PCs was significant as it was competitively priced and as a result made its way into many households, businesses, and educational institutions.
To this day, there are individuals who use Apple II applications on either carefully maintained systems — which are considered collectors' items — or by relying on emulator software.
Saturday, October 8, 2011
The Dark Side of Apple
Robalini's Note: Great writing demands to be written at the most inconvenient of times. While many (including The Konformist) have spent the last few days gushing about the late Steve Jobs, Ryan Tate of Gawker.com has decided to do the contrarian task of pointing out some of his many flaws. And while Jobs may not have appreciated it done about him, part of him would probably admit this is the task that precisely needs to be done now...
What Everyone Is Too Polite to Say About Steve Jobs
Ryan Tate
Oct 7, 2011
http://gawker.com/5847344/what-everyone-is-too-polite-to-say-about-steve-jobs
In the days after Steve Jobs' death, friends and colleagues have, in customary fashion, been sharing their fondest memories of the Apple co-founder. He's been hailed as "a genius" and "the greatest CEO of his generation" by pundits and tech journalists. But a great man's reputation can withstand a full accounting. And, truth be told, Jobs could be terrible to people, and his impact on the world was not uniformly positive.
We mentioned much of the good Jobs did during his career earlier. His accomplishments were far-reaching and impossible to easily summarize. But here's one way of looking at the scope of his achievement: It's the dream of any entrepreneur to affect change in one industry. Jobs transformed half a dozen of them forever, from personal computers to phones to animation to music to publishing to video games. He was a polymath, a skilled motivator, a decisive judge, a farsighted tastemaker, an excellent showman, and a gifted strategist.
One thing he wasn't, though, was perfect. Indeed there were things Jobs did while at Apple that were deeply disturbing. Rude, dismissive, hostile, spiteful: Apple employees—the ones not bound by confidentiality agreements—have had a different story to tell over the years about Jobs and the bullying, manipulation and fear that followed him around Apple. Jobs contributed to global problems, too. Apple's success has been built literally on the backs of Chinese workers, many of them children and all of them enduring long shifts and the specter of brutal penalties for mistakes. And, for all his talk of enabling individual expression, Jobs imposed paranoid rules that centralized control of who could say what on his devices and in his company.
It's particularly important to take stock of Jobs' flaws right now. His successor, Tim Cook, has the opportunity to set a new course for the company, and to establish his own style of leadership. And, thanks to Apple's success, students of Jobs' approach to leadership have never been so numerous in Silicon Valley. He was worshipped and emulated plenty when he was alive; in death, Jobs will be even more of an icon.
After celebrating Jobs' achievements, we should talk freely about the dark side of Jobs and the company he co-founded. Here, then, is a catalog of lowlights:
Censorship and Authoritarianism
The internet allowed people around the world to express themselves more freely and more easily. With the App Store, Apple reversed that progress. The iPhone and iPad constitute the most popular platform for handheld computerizing in America, key venues for media and software. But to put anything on the devices, you need Apple's permission. And the company wields its power aggressively.
In the name of protecting children from the evils of erotica — "freedom from porn" — and adults from one another, Jobs has banned from being installed on his devices gay art, gay travel guides, political cartoons, sexy pictures, Congressional candidate pamphlets, political caricature, Vogue fashion spreads, systems invented by the opposition, and other things considered morally suspect.
Apple's devices have connected us to a world of information. But they don't permit a full expression of ideas. Indeed, the people Apple supposedly serves — "the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers" — have been particularly put out by Jobs' lockdown. That America's most admired company has followed such an un-American path, and imposed centralized restrictions typical of the companies it once mocked, is deeply disturbing.
But then Jobs never seemed comfortable with the idea of fully empowered workers or a truly free press. Inside Apple, there is a culture of fear and control around communication; Apple's "Worldwide Loyalty Team" specializes in hunting down leakers, confiscating mobile phones and searching computers.
Apple applies coercive tactics to the press, as well. Its first response to stories it doesn't like is typically manipulation and badgering, for example, threatening to withhold access to events and executives. Next, it might leak a contradictory story.
But Apple doesn't stop there. It has a fearsome legal team that is not above annihilating smaller prey. In 2005, for, the company sued 19-year-old blogger Nick Ciarelli for correctly reporting, prior to launch, the existence of the Mac Mini. The company did not back down until Ciarelli agreed to close his blog ThinkSecret forever. Last year, after our sister blog Gizmodo ran a video of a prototype iPhone 4, Apple complained to law enforcement, who promptly raided an editor's home.
And just last month, in the creepiest example of Apple's fascist tendencies, two of Apple's private security agents searched the home of a San Francisco man and threatened him and his family with immigration trouble as part of an scramble for a missing iPhone prototype. The man said the security agents were accompanied by plainclothes police and did not identify themselves as private citizens, lending the impression they were law enforcement officers.
Sweatshops, Child Labor and Human Rights
Apple's factories in China have regularly employed young teenagers and people below the legal work age of 16, made people work grueling hours, and have tried to cover all this up. That's according to Apple's own 2010 report about its factories in China. In 2011, Apple reported that its child labor problem had worsened.
In 2010, the Daily Mail managed to get a reporter inside a facility in China that manufactures products for Apple and the paper shared a bit about what life is like:
With the complex at peak production, operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week to meet the global demand for Apple phones and computers, a typical day begins with the Chinese national anthem being played over loudspeakers, with the words: 'Arise, arise, arise, millions of hearts with one mind.'
As part of this Orwellian control, the public address system constantly relays propaganda, such as how many products have been made; how a new basketball court has been built for the workers; and why workers should 'value efficiency every minute, every second'.
With other company slogans painted on workshop walls - including exhortations to 'achieve goals unless the sun no longer rises' and to 'gather all of the elite and Foxconn will get stronger and stronger' - the employees work up to 15-hour shifts.
Down narrow, prison-like corridors, they sleep in cramped rooms in triple-decked bunk beds to save space, with simple bamboo mats for mattresses.
Despite summer temperatures hitting 35 degrees, with 90 per cent humidity, there is no air-conditioning. Workers say some dormitories house more than 40 people and are infested with ants and cockroaches, with the noise and stench making it difficult to sleep.
A company can be judged by how it treats its lowliest workers. It sets an example for the rest of the company or in Apple's case, the world.
In Person and At Home
Before he was deposed from Apple the first time around, Jobs already had a reputation internally for acting like a tyrant. Jobs regularly belittled people, swore at them, and pressured them until they reached their breaking point. In the pursuit of greatness he cast aside politeness and empathy. His verbal abuse never stopped. Just last month Fortune reported about a half-hour "public humiliation" Jobs doled out to one Apple team:
"Can anyone tell me what MobileMe is supposed to do?" Having received a satisfactory answer, he continued, "So why the fuck doesn't it do that?"
"You've tarnished Apple's reputation," he told them. "You should hate each other for having let each other down."
Jobs ended by replacing the head of the group, on the spot.
In his book about Jobs' time at NeXT and return to Apple, The Second Coming of Steve Jobs, Alan Deutschman described Jobs' rough treatment of underlings:
He would praise and inspire them, often in very creative ways, but he would also resort to intimidating, goading, berating, belittling, and even humiliating them... When he was Bad Steve, he didn't seem to care about the severe damage he caused to egos or emotions... suddenly and unexpectedly, he would look at something they were working on say that it "sucked," it was "shit."
Jobs had his share of personal shortcomings, too. He has no public record of giving to charity over the years, despite the fact he became wealthy after Apple's 1980 IPO and had accumulated an estimated $7 billion net worth by the time of his death. After closing Apple's philanthropic programs on his return to Apple in 1997, he never reinstated them, despite the company's gusher of profits.
It's possible Jobs has given to charity anonymously, or that he will posthumously, but he has hardly embraced or encouraged philanthropy in the manner of, say, Bill Gates, who pledged $60 billion to charity and who joined with Warren Buffet to push fellow billionaires to give even more.
"He clearly didn't have the time," is what the director of Jobs' short-lived charitable foundation told the New York Times. That sounds about right. Jobs did not lead a balanced life. He was professionally relentless. He worked long hours, and remained CEO of Apple through his illness until six weeks before he died. The result was amazing products the world appreciates. But that doesn't mean Jobs' workaholic regimen is one to emulate.
There was a time when Jobs actively fought the idea of becoming a family man. He had his daughter Lisa out of wedlock at age 23 and, according to Fortune, spent two years denying paternity, even declaring in court papers "that he couldn't be Lisa's father because he was 'sterile and infertile, and as a result thereof, did not have the physical capacity to procreate a child.'" Jobs eventually acknowledged paternity, met and married his wife, now widow, Laurene Powell, and had three more children. Lisa went to Harvard and is now a writer.
Steve Jobs created many beautiful objects. He made digital devices more elegant and easier to use. He made a lot of money for Apple Inc. after people wrote it off for dead. He will undoubtedly serve as a role model for generations of entrepreneurs and business leaders. Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing depends on how honestly his life is appraised.
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