steve jobs

Acer president Jim Wong said touch-screen laptops will eventually dominate the PC market, although he also warned that Windows 8 may take a while to win over computer users.

Touch-screen laptops -- now just trickling into the market -- will eventually become the dominant laptop design, Wong said in an interview with Taipei-based Digitimes. For instance, he noted internal Acer research showing that after using a product with a touch-screen for more than 20 minutes, users naturally gravitate to touch.

"This indicates that touchscreen control is an irreversible trend," he said.

Wong also had some wry comments for … Read more

Steve Jobs' yacht, a floating goddess of a dinghy dubbed the Venus, was freed from impound in the Netherlands in time for Christmas. It's a typical feel-good holiday story, except that it involves a dispute over an extravagant boat and millions of dollars between the estate of an American icon and a renowned French designer.

Apparently when superstars of their respective industries get together to collaborate on hundred million dollar projects like the Venus, they don't necessarily sign very explicit contracts.… Read more

This just happens too often.

You spend years waiting for your yacht to finally, finally be made to your specifications, and then some ridiculous member of officialdom -- usually badly dressed and with a mustache -- prevents you from taking possession.

This appears to be the case with the yacht that was the late Steve Jobs' brainadult.

One can hardly call it a brainchild. Venus -- with Philippe Starck on board as co-designer -- is a homage to everything sleek and sophisticated.

It is something that would float every Apple fanperson's boat.

And yet, as the Associated Press reports, … Read more

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

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

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

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

Apple CEO Tim Cook said that Steve Jobs provided much-needed advice to him before he officially became chief executive.

Speaking to Bloomberg Businessweek in an interview published today, Cook said that Jobs called him one day and asked to speak with him about his plans for Apple's future. Jobs told him that he would recommend Cook as CEO and that he would serve as chairman. After Cook asked Jobs several times if he was sure about making that transition, Jobs told him to stop asking, and provided his reasoning for the decision.

Here's what Cook said about the … Read more

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- Nokia hires orchestra to create new ringtones.

- Here is the first official snap of Ashton Kutcher as Steve Jobs.

- Social networks responsible for lines in the restroom.

- "Ghostbusters 3" is a go as Billy Murray signs on.… Read more