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Jobs’ Personal, Terse Reply to Developer Written on November 20, 2009 by Liam Cassidy Gotta love that Steve Jobs. He never was one to hold back, and even now, when he’s the CEO of the Universe (or something like that), he won’t be found spouting corporate speak. CrunchGear tells the story of a small software development company called The Little App Factory. It made an app for the Mac called iPodRip, one of those tools for transferring music from an iPod to a computer. A law firm representing Apple sent The Little App Factory a letter, informing the company it had...

I've got some sour news for you, Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) shareholders. It doesn't matter how many iPods you buy, iPhone apps you download, or black mock turtlenecks you wear: Steve Jobs couldn't care less about you. And that's why -- despite great products, a killer brand, and mouth-watering growth potential -- I would advise against owning shares of his company. Hey Steve, the Jerk Store called There's plenty of anecdotal evidence to suggest that Jobs is a jerk. Stories of Apple's CEO throwing temper tantrums, berating his employees, taking credit for others' ideas, and even parking his Mercedes in handicapped...

Wednesday's It's Only Rock & Roll event saw the return of Steve Jobs to the stage, a new version of iTunes with a boatload of features, more-colorful iPod shuffles, faster and higher capacity iPod touches, a video camera-equipped iPod nano, and no Beatles music. In one of our punchier podcast episodes, I discuss these issues and others with editorial director Jason Snell and senior editors Jonathan Seff and Dan Frakes. Show Notes Throughout the podcast we discuss what was announced at the event. Among them: * iTunes 9; * a slightly updated iPod touch; * barely refreshed iPod classics and...

Jobs Is Back, Apple's Still Standing, Life Goes On By Richard Adhikari at MacNewsWorld 07/01/09 4:00 AM PT Apple stock did not explode on news that Steve Jobs has indeed returned to the company following his medical leave. Indeed, shares grew at a fairly steady clip during the CEO's absence, and now they're nearly 100 percent above what they were when Jobs announced his leave. Meanwhile, the iPhone 3GS enjoyed a solid debut, but reports of excessive heat generation may spell trouble. After all the excitement about Steve Jobs' health, the market reaction to news that the Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL)...

A Memphis hospital said Saturday Jobs had never been a patient. Then they changed the story. BURLINGAME, CALIF. -- Looks like Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs' reality distortion field is portable, because it now appears to have made a trip with Jobs to Memphis, Tenn. After the Wall Street Journal broke the news Friday that Jobs had received a liver transplant in Tennessee, Forbes contacted the spokeswoman for the Methodist University Hospital Transplant Institute, Ruth Ann Hale. Forbes had been tracking a nearby property locals believed may have been purchased by Jobs for months. The nearby Methodist University Hospital Transplant...

Methodist University Hospital Transplant Institute today confirmed that Apple CEO Steve Jobs received a liver transplant. Here is the statement from Methodist Healthcare, verbatim: James D. Eason, M.D., program director at Methodist University Hospital Transplant Institute and chief of transplantation confirmed today, with the patient's permission, that Steve Jobs received a liver transplant at Methodist University Hospital Transplant Institute in partnership with the University of Tennessee in Memphis. Mr. Jobs underwent a complete transplant evaluation and was listed for transplantation for an approved indication in accordance with the Transplant Institute policies and United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) policies. He...

Got It In Tennessee Two Months Ago, WSJ Says Apple CEO Steve Jobs announces a GPS feature on the new iPhone 3G as he delivers the keynote address at the Apple Worldwide Web Developers Conference June 9, 2008, in San Francisco. Steve Jobs, who has been on medical leave from Apple for the past six months, received a liver transplant in Tennessee two months ago, according to a report Friday in the Wall Street Journal. Earlier this year, Apple's CEO was reported to be relocating from California to Tennessee, which has a shorter waiting list for patients seeking organs, the...

On Friday the Wall Street Journal reported, without indicating its source, that Apple (AAPL) CEO Steve Jobs underwent a liver transplant operation in Tennessee about two months ago. This would seem to confirm a report in mid-January that Jobs — who had a tumor removed from his pancreas in 2004 and took a medical leave earlier in January to deal with continuing health issues — was considering such an operation, as well as rumors in mid-April that he was having the surgery in Memphis. Two hospitals in Memphis are designated liver transplant centers: Le Bonheur Children’s Medical Center and Methodist...

San Francisco, CA (AHN) - Apple CEO Steve Jobs had a liver transplant, according to multiple media reports. The Wall Street Journal was first to report that Jobs had the operation two months ago and is preparing to come back to work part time. Jobs did not return requests for comment from the newspaper. Jobs has been on medical leave for months because of an undisclosed illness. Since then, Apple has released several new products, including a new iPhone. Jobs successfully battled pancreatic cancer in 2004. He looked pale and thin at a conference in January, raising concerns that the...

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JUNE 5, 2009 Jobs Ready to Return to Apple Helm As Company Prepares New iPhone, CEO Comeback on Track After Six-Month Sick Leave After months of uncertainty about Steve Jobs's health, the Apple Inc. chief executive appears on track to return from medical leave this month, said people familiar with Apple. The big question now among Apple's business partners, investors and fans: Will Mr. Jobs make his reappearance at Apple's annual software developers' conference next week in San Francisco, possibly to unveil a new iPhone? Mr. Jobs, a survivor of pancreatic cancer, went on medical leave in January. He had...

Steve Jobs Reportedly Under the Knife at Stanford Hospital Today By Owen Thomas, 2:37 PM on Mon Jan 26 2009, 26,419 views Ailing Apple CEO Steve Jobs checked into Stanford Hospital over the weekend and was scheduled for surgery this morning, we hear. At a party in Silicon Valley last night, a Stanford staffer who had just come from the hospital told friends, including our source, about the "extra special care" being afforded their famous patient. The specific procedure Jobs was checked in for wasn't relayed by the chatty Stanford employee. Bloomberg News, citing experts who had observed Jobs's condition...

It has been called the best Super Bowl commercial of all-time and certainly could rank as one of the most effective advertisements in history — for without it, the company might not even exist. Today, Apple's "1984," which introduced the Macintosh to the world is celebrating its 25th anniversary. [Video of Apple's Superbowl ad] The ad, which was produced by Chiat/Day, directed by Ridley Scott (fresh off Blade Runner) and alluded to George Orwell's "1984," has a great story behind it. For that, we went to Mike Murray, who was marketing manager of the Macintosh at the time. Darren: What...

Coverage of Steve Jobs' health issues has not been journalism's finest hour What is it about Steve Jobs that makes otherwise sensible journalists completely lose their marbles? This week’s coverage of Steve Jobs’ health woes has hit some surprising new lows in journalistic IQ. The latest example is a story on Newser.com by media reporter Michael Wolff, headlined Apple Dies. Its premise: “the logical answer to what happens at Apple without Jobs is that it dies. What you have, demonstrably, is a company without any managerial wherewithal beyond Jobs.” What is demonstrable is that Michael Wolff doesn’t know what he’s...

The controversy over Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ health could have legal implications for the company’s board of directors including former Vice President Al Gore. On Jan. 14, Jobs, in a statement released through Apple’s press division, revealed the health issues that had been plaguing him were more complex than he originally thought. “In order to take myself out of the limelight and focus on my health, and to allow everyone at Apple to focus on delivering extraordinary products, I have decided to take a medical leave of absence until the end of June,” Jobs said. Following that announcement, trading of...

SEATTLE – Apple Inc. co-founder and Chief Executive Steve Jobs said Wednesday he is taking a medical leave of absence until the end of June — just a week after the cancer survivor tried to assure investors and employees his recent weight loss was simply caused by a treatable hormone deficiency. Jobs, 53, said in a letter last week that he would remain at Apple's helm despite the hormone deficiency, and said he had already begun the "relatively simple and straightforward" treatment for the problem. But in an e-mail to employees Wednesday, Jobs backtracked. "During the past week I have...

Today Apple CEO Steve Jobs said he is relinquishing his duties until June for health-related reasons. Tom Cook, the current chief operating officer, will take over until Jobs returns. Here is the e-mail that Steve Jobs sent to Apple employees today: Team, I am sure all of you saw my letter last week sharing something very personal with the Apple community. Unfortunately, the curiosity over my personal health continues to be a distraction not only for me and my family, but everyone else at Apple as well. In addition, during the past week I have learned that my health-related issues...

Who will run Apple after its visionary CEO and product guru Steve Jobs leaves? The question has been hanging over the company since last summer when Jobs appeared onstage at a conference looking terribly ill. Jobs, 53, underwent surgery for pancreatic cancer four years ago, and now says he's suffering from a "hormone imbalance." He appears determined not to groom a successor, saying last week in an open letter that he intends to remain in charge, and if at some point he can't do his job, he'll make that known, thank you very much. He grumbled that he has "given...

Apple's Steve Jobs: "Hormone Imbalance" Has Caused Health Problems Computer executive posts statement to quell questions on his condition By Larry Greenemeier APPLE CHIEF EXECUTIVE STEVE JOBS: seen here in June 2007 at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, is suffering from a "hormone imbalance" for which the 53 year old says he has already begun treatment. Image courtesy of Acaben Apple co-founder and chief executive Steve Jobs posted an open letter to customers on his company's Web site today in which he says that he's being treated for an unspecified "hormone imbalance" that has caused severe weight loss and kept...

Dear Apple Community, For the first time in a decade, I’m getting to spend the holiday season with my family, rather than intensely preparing for a Macworld keynote. Unfortunately, my decision to have Phil deliver the Macworld keynote set off another flurry of rumors about my health, with some even publishing stories of me on my deathbed. I’ve decided to share something very personal with the Apple community so that we can all relax and enjoy the show tomorrow. As many of you know, I have been losing weight throughout 2008. The reason has been a mystery to me and...

As with all things celebrity, the media handling of Jobs’ health has gone from the ridiculous to the sublime. Blogs are buzzing about an okay health report from a worker at Job’s regular frozen yogurt shop. New York Times reporter Joe Nocera forced Steve Jobs himself to admit that his virus in June was more serious than his PR staff originally said and then devoted an entire column to the effort. Well respected blogs and CNBC are quoting anonymous sources about the state of his health. Of course, Steve Jobs could end the speculation by speaking forthrightly about his health,...

According to a previously reliable source, Apple misrepresented the reasons behind Macworld and Jobs' keynote cancellation. Allegedly, the real cause is his rapidly declining health. In fact, it may be even worse than we imagined: Steves health is rapidly declining. Apple is choosing to remove the hype factor strategically vs letting the hype destroy apple when the inevitable news comes later this spring. This strategic loss will be less of a bang with investors. This is why Macworld is a no-go anymore. No more Steve means no more hype. Saying they are no longer needing [Macworld] is the cover designed...

"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...