Steve Jobs

Upcoming book gives look at early Apple designs

Apple fanatics may find themselves foaming at the mouth over some retro conceptual Mac computer photos featured in Hartmut Esslinger's upcoming book "Design Forward: Creative Strategies for Sustainable Change."

The book explores Esslinger's journey as a German designer who worked with Sony, Louis Vuitton, and others before moving on to Apple in 1982. Apple hired Esslinger to transform the successful yet scattered startup into a brand with a globally recognizable design mantra. … Read more

Apple's Tim Cook sees his 2012 pay fall 99 percent

Apple CEO Tim Cook received only $4.2 million in compensation this year.

A proxy statement Apple filed today with the Securities and Exchange Commission revealed Cook's base salary as $1.3 million with non-cash compensation making up the rest.

In contrast, Cook was given $378 million in overall compensation last year and $59 million the previous year. But the lower total compensation is all part of a plan.

As described by The Next Web, Apple's board gave Cook 1 million in restricted shares in August 2011 when it appointed him CEO. Worth around $376 million at that … Read more

Apple wins patent for original iPhone

The original iPhone has finally won a patent for Apple nearly six years after its debut.

Granted yesterday by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the patent is actually for the design of the phone, specifically "the ornamental design of an electronic device."

In addition to Apple design guru Jony Ive and the late Steve Jobs, other people credited for the invention are Bartley Andre, Daniel Coster, Daniele De Iuliis, Richard Howarth, Duncan Kerr, Shin Nishibori, Matthew Rohrbach, Douglas Satzger, Calvin Seid, Christopher Stringer, Eugene Whang, and Rico Zorkendorfer.

The original iPhone was unveiled by Jobs in … Read more

Latest Steve Jobs action figure remarkably detailed

You know the holidays are getting close when Steve Jobs action figures start to appear.

We've seen a few toy tributes to Jobs from Chinese companies. There was a kerfuffle in January of this year when Hong Kong toymaker In Icons bowed to pressure from Jobs' family and Apple and withdrew a 12-inch doll from the market.

That hasn't stopped a Japanese startup from trying to cash in on Jobs' popularity. Tokyo-based Legend Toys is releasing its own strikingly detailed 12-inch figure of Jobs. It was sculpted by Takao Kato, whose work includes 1:16 scale and 1:4 scale figures for the otaku market. … Read more

Andreessen explains how Steve Jobs, Tim Cook are different

Famed Silicon Valley venture capitalist Marc Andreessen believes there is one major difference between Tim Cook and Steve Jobs: a desire for market share.

Speaking last night at an event in New York City, Andreessen said that Jobs' "single playbook" was to "invent a new product category, start with 100 percent market share, and then every day that goes by, lose market share until some terminal outcome."

Andreessen pointed to the Macintosh computer, the iPod, the iPhone, and the iPad as examples of that strategy. He noted -- correctly so -- that while Apple might own … Read more

Larry Page: Steve Jobs and I were friendly 'at times'

Google CEO Larry Page was friendly with Apple co-founder Steve Jobs off and on, Page says in a new interview.

Speaking to Fortune in an interview published today, Page said that he and the late Apple co-founder were friendly "at times." He failed to elaborate on when he wasn't so friendly with Jobs. He did, however, hint that it might have had something to do with Android.

In Walter Isaacson's biography of Jobs, the Apple co-founder said that he was willing to go "thermonuclear war" over what he believed was Google's theft of … Read more

Steve Jobs biopic to premiere at Sundance next month

The first film about Apple co-founder Steve Jobs since his death last year will be the "one more thing" at the famed Sundance Film Festival next month.

The festival's organizers today announced that "jOBS" would be the closing night film on January 27, marking the film's first public showing.

The film, which is not to be confused with a separate production penned by "The Social Network" and "The West Wing" writer Aaron Sorkin, stars Ashton Kutcher as Apple co-founder Steve Jobs. The film will cover the years 1971 through 2000. … Read more

Sorkin's Steve Jobs biopic to play out in three acts

That other Steve Jobs movie, currently being written by "West Wing" and "Newsroom" creator Aaron Sorkin, will apparently be told in three acts, the screenwriter said today.

In an onstage interview at the Hero Summit (relayed by tweets from the The Daily Beast), Sorkin detailed a bit of how the story would play out, saying it would take place across three, half hour scenes and behind the curtains at three of Apple's product launches for the first Macintosh computer, NeXT computer, and the iPod.

Jobs was a well-known showman at such events, adding an air … Read more

So Steve Jobs was a normal human being

I have a suspicion that Steve Jobs is becoming more missed rather than less.

Those who revered him -- as well as those who disliked him, his brand, and even his Levi's -- realize that tech seems a little less interesting since his departure.

Though he might have appeared overbearing, arrogant, and mercurial -- as well as inspired -- in business, there was always the notion that he was in it (and in life) for something far more interesting than money.

A beautifully told story that appeared in answer to a Quora question serves as a window to that … Read more

Jony Ive's challenge: Redesigning the human-computer interface for the masses

It shouldn't be a surprise to learn that Apple suffers from political infighting, fiefdoms, and dysfunctional relationships. What company doesn't, especially a large company full of big egos, with money to burn? And so we learned from various reports this week that CEO Tim Cook made a calculated decision to remove divisive software head Scott Forstall and hand over some of his responsibilities to hardware design guru Jony Ive. 

It also shouldn't be a surprise that Ive's power base is expanding. He already had the most powerful voice among Apple executives, if you believe what … Read more