Skip to main content

Steve Jobs

The foundation of Apple

See All Stories

Steve Jobs was the co-founder and CEO of Apple. He also founded NeXT and was the majority shareholder of Pixar, both of which he was also CEO. Jobs is known as an icon of creativity and entrepreneurship. The prolific author Walter Isaacson released Jobs’ biography in October of 2011. Isaacson describes his major accomplishment as being a “creative entrepreneur whose passion for perfection and ferocious drive revolutionized six industries: personal computers, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing, and digital publishing.”

Jobs attended Reed College for a short period of time before dropping out in 1972. However, he continued to dabble with classes unofficially and came across a calligraphy course instructed by Robert Palladino. This course ended up being highly influential for Jobs as he attributed it to bringing multiple typefaces to the Mac.

Steve Jobs founded Apple with Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne in 1976. After a drawn out power struggle Jobs was pushed out of Apple in 1985. He then founded NeXT in 1985 and also funded the move of Lucasfilm’s Graphics Group to become its own corporation, which became Pixar in 1986. Just over a decade later in 1997, Jobs returned to Apple as they acquired NeXT. His return marked the beginning of a new era of success. He took over as CEO in July of 1997 and continued on until handing the position to Tim Cook on August 24, 2011 after increasing health problems. Jobs passed away on October 5, 2011.

Isaacson describes his major accomplishment as being a “creative entrepreneur whose passion for perfection and ferocious drive revolutionized six industries: personal computers, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing, and digital publishing.”

Apple product design engineer’s special Steve Jobs collection up for auction including hats, paperweight, mug, 1983 Macintosh

Steve Jobs collection auction

A host of interesting Apple and Steve Jobs memorabilia is up for auction from Apple product design engineer, Jerrold Manock. Available items include a Steve Jobs signed contract for the Apple II, Manock’s original 1983 Macintosh computer, an Apple Snow White Paperweight, hats, beach towels, t-shirts, and much more.


Expand
Expanding
Close

The inside story of the ‘AppStore’, Salesforce’s Marc Benioff, and a gifted URL to Steve Jobs

Marc Benioff App Store Steve Jobs

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff came up with the idea of calling the company’s software ecosystem “AppStore” after a meeting with Steve Jobs in 2003, years before the iPhone or Apple’s App Store launched. Benioff even registered the domain AppStore.com. Here’s the inside story of how he came up with the idea and why he ended up gifting the domain to Steve Jobs.


Expand
Expanding
Close

[Update: Sells for over 1000% of estimate] Signed Steve Jobs Macintosh floppy disk up for auction — the perfect $7500 stocking stuffer

Up for auction today is a neat piece of Steve Jobs signed Apple memorabilia, a Macintosh floppy disk. This is a little different than some of the items we often see up for auction like Jobs autographed Mac manuals, posters, or Apple awards, and may go for a more reasonable price, relatively speaking that is.


Expand
Expanding
Close

Ex iAd chief tells the story of how he accidentally stole Steve Jobs’ laptop from his office

Update: We have since heard from reputable source that the ‘laptop theft’ part of this story is highly unlikely to be true, or at least represents a heavily embellished version. Original post follows, but make of it what you will.

Andy Miller started Quattro Wireless in 2006. The company was acquired by Apple in 2009 and Miller led the Apple mobile advertising group that created the iAd effort which launched to much fanfare in 2010 but interest from advertisers petered out quickly and Apple as a company has distanced itself from the advertising business ever since.

Nevertheless, in a new video interview, Miller tells a never-before-reported story of how Quattro Wireless was acquired and (in retrospect) a hilarious anecdote about the stresses of working with Steve Jobs, which involved Miller accidentally stealing Jobs’ laptop from his office… and he says he still has Jobs’ mouse at his home. Watch the video after the jump…


Expand
Expanding
Close

AAPL Jony Ive Tim Cook

Upcoming book to explore Apple’s pivots and product launches under Tim Cook

The Wall Street Journal’s Tripp Mickle is working on a book that will focus on the last decade at Apple without Steve Jobs. It will dive into how some of the products like Apple Watch and more came to be that have launched under Tim Cook and Jony Ive’s leadership and the company’s shift to Services.


Expand
Expanding
Close

Mystery of rainbow stage at center of Apple Park campus is solved, as Jony Ive explains to staff

Apple Park rainbow stage mystery is solved

New drone footage of the Apple Park campus created a mystery earlier this week, when it revealed a rainbow stage at the centre of the spaceship ring.

Arranged like a concert stage, it was clearly for an event of some kind – and it turns out it’s for a pretty special one, to be held on May 17 …


Expand
Expanding
Close

Tim Cook biography out today, though perhaps with only one revealing section

Tim Cook biography is out today, with mixed reviews

The first biography of Apple CEO Tim Cook is out today. Written by Leander Kahney, who wrote a previous biography of Jony Ive, the title gives a pretty good clue to the overall tone: Tim Cook: The Genius Who Took Apple to the Next Level.

The early reviews suggests that, for those who already follow Apple coverage closely, there’s only one section that will tell you things you didn’t already know …


Expand
Expanding
Close

Steve Jobs’ criticisms could be useful even if not constructive, says former iPhone lead engineer

We’ve already had some interesting insights from Ken Kocienda, former principal engineer of iPhone software. An exclusive excerpt from his book Creative Selection back in August provided a behind-the-scenes look at the development of the iPhone keyboard.

My colleague Benjamin Mayo also shared several stories from his reading of the book earlier this month. Kocienda is celebrating making the WSJ bestseller list by sharing a new story in the paper …


Expand
Expanding
Close

‘Creative Selection’ book available now: the creation of the iPhone keyboard, Apple’s design process, and demoing to Steve Jobs

Written by the creator of the original iPhone keyboard, Creative Selection is available now (Amazon, iBooks) and explores Apple’s software development process for the iPhone, iPad and more.

Written by the engineer that made the original iPhone keyboard, this is my favourite book focused on the ‘modern’ Apple era. It covers Apple’s decision-making strategy under Steve Jobs, what it is like to demo for the man himself, a deep dive into how the iPhone keyboard came to be, and much more in between. Read on for my review of some of the book’s best bits.


Expand
Expanding
Close

Manage push notifications

notification icon
We would like to show you notifications for the latest news and updates.
notification icon
Please wait...processing
notification icon
We would like to show you notifications for the latest news and updates.
notification icon
Please wait...processing