jobs

Steve Jobs' other major Friday launch

The whole world is watching as Steve Jobs' Apple launches perhaps its most-anticipated product ever, the iPhone, Friday.

But in technology circles at least, I've heard few, if any, references to the fact that Jobs' other company, Pixar--OK, Disney-Pixar--also has a major launch Friday.

And that, if you haven't been paying attention through the iPhone haze, is Ratatouille, Pixar's latest film and, if the early reviews are indicative, its latest hit.

Jobs is already noteworthy among tech titans for running two vital companies at the same time (at least when Pixar was independent), but I'm having … Read more

Steve Jobs doesn't like my jellyfish

An e-mail inquiry from Apple last month offers a glimpse into the famously secretive company's preparations for Friday's release of the iPhone.

If you want the short version, here it is: Steve Jobs is involved in making even minor decisions about the iPhone's look and feel. Oh, and Apple employees don't get a substantial discount on the Jesus Device.

The story begins on May 4, when an Apple employee I'll call Joan sent me an e-mail message asking about one of my photographs on McCullagh.org. I have a few thousand photographs on my Web … Read more

iPhone...we're all over that

As you might imagine, there is a little bit of buzz around the halls here over Mr. Jobs' latest toy. You may have seen some of our coverage of late on the much anticipated iPhone from the WWDC conference, or caught Tom Merritt's "Top 5 worst things about the iPhone". Or Tom's "Top 5 Reasons to love the iPhone" You may have caught our new daily countdown show, "Eye on the iPhone" with Veronica Belmont, Brian Cooley's ranting on the Buzz Report, or Rich DeMuro reporting on the latest in "The Queue." … Read more

Fool me once

New York magazine's John Heilemann's magnum opus on Steve Jobs is the kind of turgid, operatic flight of fancy technology and business coverage could really do without.

He saunters out onstage...

Which is to say he walked out onstage.

Well into his forties, Jobs appeared to have pulled off some kind of unholy Dorian Gray maneuver.

Huh? Here's a picture of Jobs in 1998 when he was 43.

Now, the Macalope doesn't know about you, but if Jobs traded his soul for eternal youth, he must have gotten it back for breach of contract.

The senescence … Read more

Lawyers' words are kerosene on the flaming H-1B bonfire

Much of life is timing. And in this case we have video of lawyers saying things that will only add more fuel to the already burning issues of immigration and controversial H-1B visas.

Speaking to his law firm's clients, Lawrence Lebowitz advises them, "Our goal is clearly not to find a qualified and interested U.S. worker. And that, in a sense, that sounds funny, but it's what we're trying to do here."

A lawyer working with Lebowitz outlines what employers may have to do if a qualified U.S. citizen does apply for a … Read more

Finfo shows snapshots of college costs, job earnings

After reviewing lots of personal finance applications, I still haven't found one that serves young adults well. Today's teenagers have already been raised on a diet of advertising, from soda vending machines in grammar school cafeterias to deceptive credit card offers at college ballgames. The newest grown-ups need better information, for instance, about the indentured servitude that could result from trusting the word of high-interest loan sharks.

You'd think that some software company would benefit by serving the hot 18-to-thirtysomething market, often referred to as Generation Debt. Yet Intuit, for one, has decided to start educating tots … Read more

The smartest move in iPhone prehistory

Today, during his keynote at WWDC 2007, Steve Jobs may have done the smartest thing in iPhone prehistory.

With two announcements that didn't receive any of the hype normally associated with the iPhone, Apple may have actually made good on its promise that the iPhone will be revolutionary. Much more revolutionary than pretty looks, a touch screen, a wide-screen iPod, or even visual voice mail.

So revolutionary, in fact, that it may have an impact on much more than just the mobile-phone industry. And they seemed so relatively unimportant at first glimpse...

The two smartest announcements in iPhone prehistory

1. A version of Apple's Safari browser has been released for Windows. (Download here.)

2. The "third-party iPhone apps" Steve Jobs alluded to weeks ago would be Web-based applications, not apps that run natively on the iPhone.

The second of these announcements sounded like a cop-out at first. After all, when Jobs mentioned opening the iPhone up to third-party applications, everyone got the impression he meant they'd actually run on the iPhone, not on a browser.

But here's why it looks so smart after a closer look.

… Read more

Continuous WWDC keynote coverage

At Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco, developers and press gather to get details on the upcoming Leopard operating system and possible tidbits on iPhone development.

Check back here for live updates (in reverse chronological order) from CEO Steve Jobs' keynote speech, which began at 10 a.m. PDT. Intel CEO Paul Otellini, Id Software CTO John Carmack and Scott Forstall, Apple's VP of iPhone software, have joined Jobs onstage.

11:25--Jobs appears to be wrapping up, pitching the developers on the sessions available to them this week. He exits stage right to U2's Beautiful Day, … Read more

Jobs and Gates act now a podcast

If you didn't catch the Steve and Bill show at the D5 conference in Southern California last week, Apple has posted the full hour and a half discussion on iTunes. The rare joint appearance between the Microsoft chairman and the Apple chief has risen to the top of the podcast charts on iTunes.

It's available in both audio and video, though the latter weighs in at almost a gigabyte (my copy is still downloading as I blog this). Unlike the high-end conference, the podcast is free. Of course, it doesn't come with the nifty swag bags that … Read more