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"Citizen journalism" apparently just failed its first significant test. A CNN iReport poster reported this morning that Steve Jobs had been rushed to the ER after a severe heart attack. Fortunately, it appears the story was false. We contacted an Apple spokeswoman, who categorically denied it. CNN's iReport kept the report up until at least 10:15 AM, about 20 minutes after we published Apple's denial. The story has since been removed. CNN's iReport, Original Story Steve Jobs was rushed to the ER just a few hours ago after suffering a major heart attack. I have an insider who tells me...

** EXCERPT ** The story, marked “Hold for release – Do not use”, was sent in error to the news service’s thousands of corporate clients. The stock obituary was published "momentarily" after a routine update by a reporter, and was "immediately deleted", Bloomberg said. Jobs was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2003, but there is no suggestion that the news wire has recent news on his health. Most media organisations regularly update their pre-prepared obituaries of newsworthy figures. The obituary contained blank spaces for Jobs’s age and cause of death to be inserted.

An obituary of very-much-alive Apple founder Steve Jobs has been accidentally published by the respected Bloomberg business news wire. The story, marked “Hold for release – Do not use”, was sent in error to the news service’s thousands of corporate clients. The stock obituary was published "momentarily" after a routine update by a reporter, and was "immediately deleted", Bloomberg said. Jobs was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2003, but there is no suggestion that the news wire has recent news on his health. Most media organisations regularly update their pre-prepared obituaries of newsworthy figures. The obituary contained blank spaces for...

Excerpt - On Thursday afternoon, several hours after I’d gotten my final “Steve’s health is a private matter” — and much to my amazement — Mr. Jobs called me. “This is Steve Jobs,” he began. “You think I’m an arrogant [expletive] who thinks he’s above the law, and I think you’re a slime bucket who gets most of his facts wrong.” After that rather arresting opening, he went on to say that he would give me some details about his recent health problems, but only if I would agree to keep them off the record. I tried to argue him...

Excerpt - ~ snip ~ The dearth of information has led investors to do their own digging over the years. In 2004, one hedge fund hired private investigators to tail Mr. Jobs to hospital appointments in the hopes figuring out how sick he was, said a portfolio manager at the fund. Eventually, he said, Mr. Jobs "seemed to catch on," and became harder to track. More recently, hedge-fund managers said Tuesday, fund managers have talked of asking doctors to closely analyze pictures of Mr. Jobs to monitor changes in his physical appearance, and have been talking about once again hiring...

Excerpt - The Justice Department has ended its criminal investigation of backdated stock options at Apple Inc., deciding not to bring charges against the company or several current and former executives it had been probing for two years, people familiar with the case said. ~ snip ~

Most CEOs don't think of business as art. But Steve Jobs always has. That's partly why whenever he unveils a new product, the event feels like a rock concert. But I think the "art" of Jobs goes so much deeper. Years ago, Charles Bukowski, my favorite drunken, dead poet, wrote: "To do a dangerous thing with style, is what I call art." Buk was talking about bullfighting, boxing, making love and, er, eating sardines. Had he been around long enough to see the iPhone 3G, he'd probably concede that what Jobs did yesterday is high art too. We'll take the...

Excerpt - Just got a nervous call from my lawyers who said they wanted to give me a "heads up" about a "situation" at Broadcom. See more about it here. Basically the feds are going after some Broadcom execs over some options backdating stuff. I'm like, So what? I don't work at Broadcom. They're like, Um, well, see, Broadcom did its own internal investigation and already cleared these guys, and the SEC isn't buying it apparently, and though the company itself has already settled the whole thing the SEC is still going after the executives as individuals. Now you do...

In October 2003, as the computer world buzzed about what cool new gadget he would introduce next, Apple CEO Steve Jobs - then presiding over the most dramatic corporate turnaround in the history of Silicon Valley - found himself confronting a life-and-death decision. During a routine abdominal scan, doctors had discovered a tumor growing in his pancreas. While a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer is often tantamount to a swiftly executed death sentence, a biopsy revealed that Jobs had a rare - and treatable - form of the disease. If the tumor were surgically removed, Jobs' prognosis would be promising: The...

On January 22, 1984 during the Super Bowl, Apple ran their famous "1984" commercial. The voice-over intoned: Today, we celebrate the first glorious anniversary of the Information Purification Directives. We have created, for the first time in all history, a garden of pure ideology. Where each worker may bloom secure from the pests of contradictory and confusing truths. Our Unification of Thoughts is more powerful a weapon than any fleet or army on earth. We are one people, with one will, one resolve, one cause. Our enemies shall talk themselves to death and we will bury them with their own...

The introduction of the iPhone and the success of the iPod may have led Apple to drop the word computer from its company name, but for Steve Jobs, the Macintosh is as important as ever. That was the message delivered last week by Apple’s co-founder and chief executive as he unveiled the company’s latest generation of Macintosh computers before a gaggle of reporters and analysts at Apple’s Cupertino, California headquarters. In a world where customers can browse the Internet on an iPhone – Apple’s new mobile handset – and upload digital photos and home videos directly to the web, Apple...

Daniel Lyons, a senior editor at Forbes magazine, wrote anonymous postings on the blog, the Secret Diary of Steve Jobs.

Excerpt - SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 5 — For the last 14 months, high-tech insiders have been eating up the work of an anonymous blogger who assumed the persona of Steven P. Jobs, Apple’s chief executive and one of the world’s most famous businessmen. The mysterious writer has used his blog, the Secret Diary of Steve Jobs, to lampoon Mr. Jobs and his reputation as a difficult and egotistical leader, as well as to skewer other high-tech companies, tech journalists, venture capitalists, open-source software fanatics and Silicon Valley’s overall aura of excess. The acerbic postings of “Fake Steve,” as he is...

Former US Vice President Al Gore appeared on BBC television today, and thanked Apple CEO Steve Jobs for proposing him as the next President of the United States. In May Jobs stated that Gore - also an Apple board member - would win the presidency if he ran for election. "If he ran, there's no question in my mind that he would be elected," Jobs told Time magazine. "But I think there's a question in his mind, perhaps because the pain of the last election runs a lot deeper than he lets most of us see." Today, appearing on the...

CALLER: Hey, I'm a huge fan of Apple and Steve Jobs, and I'm just so fascinated by this new phone. I went and tried one out, and they're fantastic. But I think what baffles me the most is to see how he aligns himself more often than not with his good buddy Algore. I just don't get that. I mean, for one, he's really a representative, the perfect example of what entrepreneurship in America and greatness is all about. RUSH: You know, it's one of the mysteries of life. It's like Warren Buffett. How can Warren Buffett be sidling up...

Excerpt - Soon the great Silicon Valley soap opera will come full circle. Not since Apple CEO Steve Jobs famously interviewed Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates as a possible suitor during the “Macintosh Dating Game” back in 1984 have the two men appeared in a joint bill. And in a few moments, the two will share a stage tonight for the first time in more than 20 years for what promises to be a historic discussion. Live coverage to follow … ~ snip ~

The chief executives of America's 500 biggest companies got a collective 38% pay raise last year, to $7.5 billion. That's an average $15.2 million apiece. Exercised stock options again account for the main component of pay, 48%. The average stock gain was $7.3 million. The highest-paid boss of the 500 companies we tracked: Apple (nasdaq: AAPL - news - people ) chief Steve Jobs. He drew a nominal $1 salary but realized $647 million from vested restricted stock last year. The next four top-paid chief executives also earned most of their pay from exercised stock options: Ray Irani of Occidental...

Months into a federal investigation of stock options backdating at Apple, prospects for a criminal case against powerhouse CEO Steve Jobs appear dim. A Mercury News examination of a massive 2001 stock-options grant to Jobs that was backdated through bogus documentation - the central focus of the federal probe - shows there is scant evidence, if any, to support criminal charges against the Silicon Valley icon. Despite Apple's disclosure that Jobs approved widespread backdating at Apple, there is no evidence he directed the backdating of his own grant or covered it up afterward, based on a review of regulatory filings...

Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs knows a few things about technology and running a business. So when he says all the computers, wiring, programs and Internet access in the world won't improve public schools as currently constituted, maybe it's time that the powers that be paid attention. Appearing in Texas this month at a conference on the technological future of education, Mr. Jobs named the No. 1 reason for public schools' manifest failures: "(T)hey have become unionized in the worst possible way." To enthusiastic applause from his audience, he added, "This unionization and lifetime employment of K-12 teachers is off-the-charts...

Numerous studies have shown that millions of Americans cannot read or write well enough to conduct basic transactions of life, according to The Washington Post: † Low health literacy affects up to 90 million Americans, according to a 2004 report by the Institute of Medicine. These adults are unable to “obtain and understand basic health information and services needed to make informed decisions.” … [A] surprisingly large number of adults were perplexed by the meaning of the term “orally,” didn't know the difference between a teaspoon and tablespoon and were unable to calculate the proper dose of medicine. † Forty-three...

If Apple CEO Steve Jobs had praised teachers unions as the backbone of public education in the U.S., it would have made the front pages. Instead, at an education conference in Austin, Texas, Mr. Jobs offered some constructive criticism of teachers unions and barely anyone noticed. Sounds like news to us. "I believe that what is wrong with our schools in this nation is that they've become unionized in the worst possible way," said Mr. Jobs during a Q-and-A session on technology in the classroom. "This unionization and lifetime employment of K-12 teachers is off-the-charts crazy." The real crisis in...

Apple CEO Steve Jobs recently provided a bracingly honest appraisal of the education system at a conference in Austin. Mr. Jobs, a registered Democrat, stated that no amount of technology in the classroom will improve public schooling until principals have the ability to fire bad teachers: "What kind of person could you get to run a small business if you told them that when they came in, they couldn't get rid of people that they thought weren't any good?" "I believe that what is wrong with our schools in this nation is that they have become unionized in the worst...

AUSTIN — Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs lambasted teacher unions today, claiming no amount of technology in the classroom would improve public schools until principals could fire bad teachers. Jobs compared schools to businesses with principals serving as CEOs. "What kind of person could you get to run a small business if you told them that when they came in they couldn't get rid of people that they thought weren't any good?" he asked to loud applause during an education reform conference. "Not really great ones because if you're really smart you go, 'I can't win.'" "This unionization and lifetime...

AUSTIN - Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs lambasted teacher unions Friday, claiming no amount of technology in the classroom would improve public schools until principals could fire bad teachers. Jobs compared schools to businesses with principals serving as CEOs. "What kind of person could you get to run a small business if you told them that when they came in they couldn't get rid of people that they thought weren't any good?" he asked to loud applause during an education reform conference. "Not really great ones because if you're really smart you go, 'I can't win.'" In a rare joint...

Excerpt - Federal authorities are actively investigating a backdated stock-option grant awarded to Steve Jobs, Apple Inc.'s chief executive, that carried a false October 2001 date, people familiar with the matter say. Apple recently disclosed that records were "improperly" created to claim that the grant was approved at a special board meeting that month. But no board meeting took place then. ~ snip ~

Pushing connected entertainment, Microsoft founder tells CES attendees that Microsoft can deliver the ultimate digital lifestyle. Microsoft chairman Bill Gates on Sunday evening hit the stage at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas determined to convince us Microsoft can connect digital content on devices, from mobile devices to the living room and into cars. The new products center on family entertainment. Mr. Gates detailed several new products and services such as Windows Vista, Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) enabled by the Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows Home Server, and a new partnership with Ford Motor. Microsoft’s IPTV announcement pits the Redmond,...

Steve Jobs is an ideas guy. He wears jeans, grows beards and orates to cheering throngs at events like this week's MacWorld conference. Jobs' biographers say evidence indicates that he's a pescetarian. He went to India. He takes only $1 a year in salary. And he leaves it up to other people to award him hugely valuable piles of stock in Apple Computer, where he's the CEO. People like Wendy Howell, the former in-house Apple lawyer responsible for option paperwork, probably won't be attending Jobs' eagerly awaited MacWorld speech Tuesday. Late last year, she became the lone person to lose...

An internal inquiry gives him a pass in Apple's backdating scandal—but raises questions about whether he's getting special treatment In Silicon Valley, Steve Jobs is admired for many things: his storybook resuscitation of Apple Computer (AAPL), his billion-dollar-plus fortune, his rock star status as the driving force behind iconic products such as the iPod. Near the top of the list is Jobs’s famed ability to spin what admiring techies refer to as a "reality distortion field" to win consumers over to the Apple view of the world. But will it work with government regulators? As Jobs prepares to wow the...

Excerpt - SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) -- Apple Computer Inc. cleared Chief Executive Steve Jobs and the rest of its current management of misconduct involving stock option grants, despite Jobs' awareness of favorable grant dates. The company said Friday it has "complete confidence" in the executive team, though it also acknowledged the backdating of thousands of option grants and restated past earnings due to the results of its probe of options practices. In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission detailing its probe, Apple said Jobs was aware of, or recommended the selection of, some favorable grant dates but...

Steve Jobs, chief executive of Apple Computer, was handed 7.5m stock options in 2001 without the required authorisation from the company’s board of directors, according to people familiar with the matter. Records that purported to show a full board meeting had taken place to approve Mr Jobs’ remuneration, as required by Apple’s procedures, were later falsified. These are now among the pieces of evidence being weighed by the Securities and Exchange Commission as it decides whether to pursue a case against the company or any individuals over the affair, according to these people.

Apple Computer announced today that Fred Anderson, the company's former chief financial officer, is stepping down from the company's board of directors after a three-month investigation raised ``serious concerns'' about the actions of two former officers. A special board committee of outside directors convened after the company disclosed in June that it had found ``irregularities'' in past stock option grants. Apple said it would turn over its investigative findings to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Jobs issued an apology for ``these problems, which happened on my watch. We will now work to resolve the remaining in issues as quickly as...

Despite being uncharacteristic of the secretive Steve Jobs we have grown to know, AppleInsider reports that the Apple CEO has been boasting about Apple's upcoming phone offering to his inner circle. Apparently, Steve's own excitement over the product has lead him to produce a few "zealous ramblings" dating back as early as this past spring. AppleInsider also offers a little more information (although cryptic) on the characteristics of the phone. One person familiar with the ongoings believes the Apple cofounder has commissioned the release of cell phone prototypes to at least two potential OEM manufacturing partners in recent months. Current...

SAN FRANCISCO--Apple Computer on Monday introduced the Mac Pro, the company's first Intel-based professional desktop, and also gave developers a preview of Leopard, the next version of Mac OS X. CEO Steve Jobs showed off the shiny metal desktop, which will start shipping immediately, as he kicked off the Worldwide Developer Conference here. The Mac Pro offers a similar casing to the Power Mac G5 that preceded it, but replaces the older PowerPC processors with two dual-core Intel Xeon chips as well as space for two optical disc drives and up to four hard drives. The standard $2,499 configuration includes...

Apple's Jobs caught up in US options scandal (Filed: 30/06/2006) Apple Computer has launched an internal investigation after admitting it may have manipulated stock-option grants to benefit executives, including chief executive Steve Jobs. The admission wraps Apple into the unfolding business scandal that is spreading to some of America's best-known companies. At least 60 have now disclosed possible stock option irregularities. Tainted: Steve Jobs may have been awarded a manipulated grant Investigators are trying to determine whether companies inflated the value of stock options awarded to senior executives by backdating or timing the grants to coincide with days when the...

The next billion is the potential PC market in the developing world. We know they won't be buying MACS because Apple's Steve Jobs has admitted it won't be worth it to his company. A lot of different companies are trying to come up with affordable PCs that businesses, families, schools, and students in developing countries can buy. But everyone is having a hard time pinning down just what it is they will want. 1. What traditional features do they keep and which are kept out? 2. Will users be offended if they feel they are getting a dumbed-down version? 3....

SAN FRANCISCO, April 19 (Reuters) - Apple Computer Inc. (AAPL.O: Quote, Profile, Research) is planning to build a new, 50-acre campus near its present headquarters in Cupertino, California, company Chief Executive Steve Jobs said. "What's happened at Apple is that our business has basically tripled in the last five or six years," Jobs said on Tuesday evening at a Cupertino city council meeting, which was recorded and viewable as an archived Webcast. He said the company "has gone from $6 billion in sales to $20 billion in sales, basically." Analysts expect Apple to post $20.3 billion in revenue for its...

Apple has posted early program information about what developers will learn at the Worldwide Developer's Conference 2006. Apple's intention to demo Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) at this year's WWDC has been no secret. Steve Jobs announced it last year at the WWDC 2005 Keynote, and Apple's BootCamp page indicated that "Developers can learn all about the sixth major release of Mac OS X [Leopard] this century at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference." WWDC takes placed between August 7-11th of this year. Join the thousands of Mac developers who will be attending WWDC 2006, and be one of the first to...

Excerpt - In a move that I'm sure is just begging for the wrath of Jobs, someone has put together a well-crafted blooper video that looks at the best quirks, mistakes and glitches of Steve Jobs' Macworld keynotes. ~snip~

NEW YORK - In an unprecedented move, Stanford University is collaborating with Apple Computer to allow public access a wide range of lectures, speeches, debates and other university content through iTunes. No need to pay the $31,200 tuition. No need to live on campus. No need even to be a student. The nearly 500 tracks that constitute “Stanford on iTunes” are available to anyone willing to spend the few minutes it takes to download them from the Internet. While a number of other universities are now using iTunes to distribute class-specific content to their students, including Duke University, Drexel University’s...

<p>Investors think there is a battle raging for control of the digital home. They're wrong -- Apple has already won.</p> <p>NEW YORK (FORTUNE) - On Wednesday night, Gene Munster was thinking about going to the movies; but he did something else instead. He spent $1.99 to watch a campy 1960s TV show on his laptop. The first season of the Munsters -- a comedy about a family of monsters and their struggles to lead an all-American life -- was available for download on iTunes. Munster, for obvious reasons, couldn't resist.</p>

It doesn't take much to touch off a wildfire of debate about what's better--Apple or Microsoft? Windows XP or OSX? Bill Gates or Steve Jobs? And truth be told, the ongoing feud between fans of each side can be tiresome, with neither side emerging unscathed. But a recent column running on Wired has taken a different tack in evaluating the two companies' leaders. Columnist Leander Kahney looks at records of charitable giving to determine which tech magnate most deserves his rock star status. Kahney argues that Gates comes out on top. Through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Gates has...

Excerpt - LONDON (Dow Jones) -- Walt Disney Co. is reported to be in serious talks to buy Pixar Animation Studios for slightly more than the $6.7 billion that Pixar already is worth. The deal between Walt Disney Co.(DIS)and Pixar Animation Studios(PIXR)would leave Pixar CEO Steve Jobs as Disney's largest individual stockholder, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday, citing anonymous sources. Jobs also is head of Apple Computer(AAPL). The report said Disney is negotiating to pay a "nominal" premium to Pixar's current $6.7 billion market capitalization. Both sides accept that Pixar's stock price has a takeover premium built in after...

Apple CEO Steve Jobs was denied the right to demolish a 17,000 square-foot mansion in Woodside, California that preservationists are calling a historical treasure. "The Jackling House" was designed in the Spanish Colonial Revival style for Utah Copper Company's magnate Daniel Jackling, and was purchased by Jobs in 1984. The CEO hasn't occupied the home for over 10 years, but said he wants to tear down the mansion to build a new, smaller dwelling for his family. Steve Jobs currently resides in Palo Alto, and his attorney, Howard Ellman, said he will likely appeal the judge's decision. Preservationists cried out...

WOODSIDE, Calif. - Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer Inc., lost his bid to demolish a 17,000-square-foot Woodside mansion that preservationists call a historical treasure. A San Mateo County Superior Court judge has tentatively ruled that the town improperly granted Jobs a demolition permit last year for "The Jackling House," which was designed in the Spanish Colonial Revival style for Utah Copper Co. magnate Daniel Jackling.Jobs bought the house in 1984 but hasn't lived there for a decade, saying he wants to tear down the home and build a new, smaller unit on the property that would be more appropriate...

Apple has not offered a live streaming feed for their Macworld Keynote addresses for a number of years. One reader forwarded an email from Apple's Investor Relations which confirms that Apple will again not be providing a live feed for Macworld. Thank you for your email. A replay will be available on http://www.apple.com/quicktime/mac.html, but there are no plans for live streaming. Macworld San Francisco kicks off next week. Steve Jobs is scheduled to provide the keynote address at 9 AM Pacific on January 10th, 2006. MacRumors, of course, will provide live coverage if at all possible. If you will be...

Keep in mind that Time's "Person of the Year" is supposed to be the person who "most affected the news and our lives, for good or for ill, and embodied what was important about the year." Given this criteria, I scratch my head over some of these nominees. Steve Jobs Pope Benedict XVI Bill and Melinda Gates The Google Guys J.K. Rowling Rick Warren Condoleezza Rice Valerie Plame Bono Mother Nature George W. Bush Lance Armstrong

Rob Glaser has made his peace with Microsoft's Bill Gates. Now, the RealNetworks chief executive is turning up the rhetoric against another technology icon: Apple Computer CEO Steve Jobs. At the Digital Living Conference here on Monday, Glaser told a packed hotel ballroom that Jobs & Co.'s refusal to make the iPod compatible with music services other than Apple's iTunes was "pig-headedness." Glaser also said that Apple's unwillingness to cooperate with other online music vendors promotes piracy of copyrighted materials and will eventually draw the wrath of consumers. These are heady times for Glaser and his Internet multimedia company, which...

This month, SAP's Shai Agassi referred to open-source software as "intellectual property socialism." In January, Bill Gates suggested that free-software developers are communists. A few years earlier, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer called the open-source operating system Linux "a cancer."

On Friday, Apple CEO Steve Jobs lashed out at an author who wrote an article about the untold story of Jobs' biological father, according to a report The New York Daily News. Biographer Fredric Alan Maxwell last week emailed Jobs a 4,000-word article he wrote for Fast Company magazine about Jobs' biological father, reportedly a Syrian immigrant and political science professor named Abdulfattah Jandali. The report says that Jobs simply replied with "Are you a nut case?" and signed the email with his traditional one-line closing "Steve." Maxwell, who says that Jobs doesn't enjoy close scrutiny, responded back "Are you?"...

This is partly a story about a company called Apple Computer. It's also partly a story about a fancy new iPod that plays videos as well as music and that could dramatically change the way people entertain themselves. But it's mostly a story about new things and where they come from, about which there are a few popular misconceptions. Stop and look at Apple for a second, since it's an odd company. It has been around long enough and has a high enough profile that it's easy to forget that. While most high-tech firms focus on one or two sectors,...