Steve Jobs

The Apple-Samsung courtroom tussle is just the latest in a long line of legal battles for Apple. The company has an established history of taking competitors to court to protect the look and feel of its products. It's part of Apple's DNA. Steve Jobs always thought of Apple products as unique works of functional art with aesthetic virtues, wrapped in patents, copyrights, and licenses. He wasn't about to let anyone copy the crown jewels -- the user interface and hardware design concepts -- embodied in his creations. 

The Macintosh, introduced in January 1984, was his first … Read more

Why is Apple successful? It all starts with the quality of its products, according to Jonathan Ive. The company's senior vice president of industrial design waxed eloquent on this theme during a talk about Apple's design focus at the British Embassy's Creative Summit.

"I refute that design is important. Design is a prerequisite. Good design -- innovation -- is really hard," said Ive, according to Wired. "We say no to a lot of things that we want to do and are intrigued by so that we only work on a manageable amount of products … Read more

Steve Jobs has been named as one of the 20 most influential Americans of all time by Time magazine, placing his name with iconic historical greats such as George Washington, Alexander Graham Bell, and Albert Einstein.

The list, a chronological listing of "the trailblazers, visionaries and cultural ambassadors who defined a nation," refers to Jobs as the "high priest of the digital age." In a brief summary, Time recounts some of the career highs and lows of the late Apple co-founder.

Steve Jobs won't be heard in the Apple-Samsung patent infringement trial after all.

U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh today granted an Apple request to ban disparaging comments the late Apple CEO made about Google's Android operating system, according to a Reuters report. Apple had asked the court to exclude any statements attributed to Jobs by Walter Isaacson, Jobs' biographer, about wanting to destroy Android because it's allegedly a stolen product and his intention to go to "thermonuclear war" to achieve that goal.

The disputed comments were made during interviews with Isaacson before Jobs died … Read more

Remember when Apple co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs said he admired Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg? That's apparently what Jobs told biographer Walter Isaacson before he died. Well, it turns out Jobs' statements of respect for Zuckerberg weren't just mere rhetoric.

Jobs' appreciation for Zuckerberg was echoed once again today by Isaacson. He was speaking with Washington Post Company Chairman and CEO Donald Graham, who also happens to be a Facebook board member. Business Insider has the quotes:

"Jobs meant an enormous amount to the education of Mark," Graham told Isaacson. "Mark will talk … Read more

Casting for the upcoming Steve Jobs film starring Ashton Kutcher continues to fill out.

Per the Hollywood Reporter, the film has snagged actors J.K. Simmons and Kevin Dunn, the latter of whom recently played the father of Shia LaBeouf's character in Michael Bay's "Transformers" series. Simmons has been tapped for the role of venture capitalist Arthur Rock, with Dunn playing Gil Amelio, who was briefly Apple's CEO ahead of Jobs' return.

Other additions include actors Elden Henson, Giles Matthey, Lenny Jacobson and Victor Rasuk. Of that bunch, Henson will play early Mac team member … Read more

Those of you eager to watch "Steve Jobs: The Lost Interview" can now rent it via iTunes for $3.99.

The 70-minute Q&A with Jobs was conducted by Robert X. Cringely[*] for his 1996 PBS documentary "Triumph of the Nerds: The Rise of Accidental Empires." Only ten minutes of the original conversation were used for the documentary. But Cringely was able to able to get the rest of it from director Paul Sen, who had made a VHS copy of it that he kept in his garage.

[*] Aka tech journalist Mark Stephens. Other tech … Read more

It's time to drop dime, says the U.S. government.

The U.S. Department of Justice want three of the five book-publishing houses accused of participating in a price-fixing scheme with Apple to start turning over evidence against their alleged co-conspirators, court documents show.

In April, the U.S. Department of Justice accused five of the country's six largest book publishers of conspiring with Apple to raise prices on e-books. The government alleges that the co-conspirators forced e-book retailers, such as Amazon, to adopt a new business model, one that would enable the publishers to snatch control of … Read more

The curtain has risen and the shooting has begun on the Hollywood biopic "jOBS" starring Ashton Kutcher as Steve Jobs.

Kutcher arrived on set today at Jobs' childhood home, according to Pacific Coast News. He donned a trimmed beard and shaggy hair -- looking actually not too different than when he's not playing Jobs.

The movie will focus on the earlier years of Jobs' life, from 1971 to 2000, producer Mark Hulme said in April. And rather than being about to Walter Isaacson's best-selling biography "Steve Jobs," the movie is supposedly based on widely … Read more