Steve Jobs

The foundation of Apple

654 'Steve Jobs' stories February 2010 - October 2013

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.”

Tim Cook reflects on second anniversary of Steve Jobs’ passing in letter to employees

Mark Gurman Oct 4 2013 - 6:47 am PT

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On the eve of the second anniversary of the passing of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, Apple CEO Tim Cook has reflected on the moment in a company-wide email. A source has provided a copy:

Team-

Tomorrow marks the second anniversary of Steve’s death. I hope everyone will reflect on what he meant to all of us and to the world. Steve was an amazing human being and left the world a better place.I think of him often and find enormous strength in memories of his friendship, vision and leadership. He left behind a company that only he could have built and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple. We will continue to honor his memory by dedicating ourselves to the work he loved so much. There is no higher tribute to his memory. I know that he would be proud of all of you.

Best,

Tim

Last year, Apple honored Jobs with a tribute video on its homepage. The video is embedded above and it is a delightful look into the legacy of the man who changed the lives of so many people.

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Steve Jobs’ childhood home could become a protected historical site

Jordan Kahn Sep 23 2013 - 9:39 am PT

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CNN reports that the childhood home of Steve Jobs could soon become a protected historical site as a Los Altos Historical Commission is set to perform an evaluation of the property today. The property, located at 2066 Crist Drive in Los Altos, California, was Jobs’ childhood home since the seventh grade and its garage later became the location where Jobs, Steve Wozniak and other early employees would build the first Apple computers before officially forming the company in 1977.

The seven-member Los Altos Historical Commission has scheduled a “historic property evaluation” for the single-story, ranch-style house on Monday… If the designation is ultimately approved, then the house on 2066 Crist Drive in Los Altos, California, will have to be preserved…
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Xiaomi, the company run by ‘the Chinese Steve Jobs’, offers Airplay support on Smart TV

Ben Lovejoy Sep 5 2013 - 7:14 am PT

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Xiaomi, the Chinese company noted for its similarity to Apple’s marketing style, has launched a Smart TV which claims to have AirPlay support. We’re not sure if Apple licensed AirPlay or if it, like a few other things (pictured below), is a hacked version.

Xiaomi chairman and CEO Lei Jun has been described as ‘the Chinese Steve Jobs‘, dressing in blue jeans and black shirts for his Apple-like product launches.

Photo: NY Times

The company makes a range of Android handsets which closely resemble iPhones. Xiaomi recently overtook Apple in smartphone market share in China, a position Apple hopes to change with the launch of the iPhone 5C.

iPad 5 form factor examined in new video, will fit in larger hands

Seth Weintraub Sep 4 2013 - 3:29 am PT

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Unbox Therapy looks at what the iPad 5 with its significantly smaller side bezels will look and feel like in this video. There really isn’t anything new in the video as we’ve expected this form factor since January, but it is interesting to see how the new iPad will fit in one (medium/large) hand and take after the Mini in design. For instance, the speaker on the bottom will improve sound when being played laying flat.

The new iPad isn’t expected at next week’s event but instead should probably be announced in October in time for the holidays.

Using Steve Jobs email as evidence, DOJ says Apple changed in-app purchase policy to retaliate against Amazon

Jordan Kahn Aug 23 2013 - 9:16 am PT

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Steve-Jobs-Email-ebook-Amazon

As first spotted by GigaOm, the US Department of Justice has submitted a revised remedy proposal in the ongoing ebook case that previously found Apple guilty of conspiring with publishers to control ebook pricing. While much of the proposal remains the same as the proposal it first submitted at the beginning of this month, the report points out that the DOJ has added more information and a Steve Jobs email as an exhibit showing that Apple changed its in-app purchasing policies specifically “to retaliate against Amazon for competitive conduct that Apple disapproved of.”

While referencing the email above in which Steve Jobs and Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller discuss forcing Amazon to go through Apple’s payment system, the DOJ claims Apple “misrepresented the factual circumstances” since it allows other retailers to bypass its 30% cut:
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‘A lot of things wrong’ as Jobs movie opens with disappointing revenues

Ben Lovejoy Aug 19 2013 - 5:12 am PT

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The long-awaited Jobs movie opened this weekend, with Box Office Mojo reporting that it took seventh place in the weekend openings, grossing $6.7M against top-grossing movie The Butler at $25M. Distributor Open Road Films had expected Jobs to gross $8-9M.

Playing at 2,381 locations, Jobs opened in seventh place with an estimated $6.7 million. While it was never expected to match The Social Network, it’s still very disappointing to note that the Steve Jobs biopic earned less than one-third as much as the Facebook story. This is also one of star Ashton Kutcher’s lowest openings ever—among nationwide releases, it’s only ahead of 2003’s My Boss’s Daughter ($4.9 million).

Jobs had plenty of issues, including awful reviews and a comedy star playing dramatic (almost never a good idea). Most important, though, was the movie’s apparent tonal issues: while plenty of people enjoy their Apple products, the deification of Steve Jobs is a bit of a turn off. Jobs received a weak “B-” CinemaScore, and all indications are that it will disappear from theaters quickly …

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Review: ‘Jobs’ movie is an intriguing, though exaggerated, peek into Apple’s early years

Michael Steeber Aug 17 2013 - 11:17 am PT

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I’ll admit, when I first heard that Ashton Kutcher would be the star of a movie about Steve Jobs, I was less than thrilled. How could someone from That 70’s Show ever accurately portray one of the most influential figures in technology of all time? These negative thoughts in mind, I was pleasantly surprised with ‘Jobs’, which opened nationwide yesterday.

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Indiegogo project created to build a statue of Steve Jobs

Ben Lovejoy Aug 16 2013 - 12:01 am PT

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I guess it was inevitable.

Larry Ellison, long-time friend of Steve Jobs, says ‘we already know’ Apple without Jobs (updated)

Mark Gurman Aug 12 2013 - 5:25 pm PT

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUdYebAN-Fs]

Larry Ellison, the CEO of Oracle, longtime close friend of Steve Jobs, and former Apple Director, shared with CBS’s Charlie Rose what he believes post-Jobs Apple will look like. As quoted by AllThingsD:

“Well, we already know,” Ellison told Rose. “We saw — we conducted the experiment. I mean, it’s been done. We saw Apple with Steve Jobs. We saw Apple without Steve Jobs. We saw Apple with Steve Jobs. Now, we’re gonna see Apple without Steve Jobs.”

Ellison’s quote seems to be referring to Apple’s history with Steve Jobs (the time in which the company launched the iPhone, iPad, and iPod, for example) in comparison to Apple’s darker years with leadership from the likes of John Sculley and Gil Amelio.

Now, with Steve Jobs’s hand-picked successor Tim Cook and the rest of the leadership team with Jony Ive, Craig Federighi, and Eddy Cue at the helm, Ellison seems to think that the pattern of dark days under leaders other than Jobs will repeat itself.

Updated with larger embed via CBS news below, which includes his thoughts on Larry Page being evil and the quote above being put into better context:

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Pixar’s John Lasseter accepts Disney Legends award for Steve Jobs [Video]

Mark Gurman Aug 11 2013 - 11:39 am PT

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RcicFebqRE&w=640&h=360]

One of Pixar’s early employees, John Lasseter, accepted a Disney Legends award for Steve Jobs. The awarded was accepted and presented yesterday at Disney’s D23 conference. The Disney Legends award is granted to key people in the growth and success of Disney. As Pixar’s creator and a former Disney Director, Jobs certainly made a positive impact on Disney. Lasseter’s speech recounts several encounters and experiences that he shared with Jobs over the course of their time together. A video from another angle is below:

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Former Apple ad consultant Ken Segall: Steve Jobs considered killing off pro products

Scott Buscemi Aug 9 2013 - 1:19 pm PT

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Former Apple advertising consultant Ken Segall at the University of Arizona in March, 2013.

Ken Segall, author of Insanely Simple and former Apple advertising consultant, today posted a blog entry detailing his views on the evolving definition of “pro” at Apple. In it, Mr. Segall claims that Apple is working to rework the pro industry and grow a “larger audience of high-end consumers who can suddenly understand, enjoy and benefit” from the apps and hardware.

An even more interesting tidbit is what he reveals about Steve Jobs’ plans for the company’s pro products:

Could it possibly be? Would Apple ever even think about saying goodbye to the pro market?

I hope you’re sitting down for this, but Steve Jobs did in fact once consider that very option.

This was back in the days when iMac had established itself as a global bestseller. During one of the agency’s regular meetings with Steve, he shared that he was considering killing the pro products.

His rationale was as you might expect: consumer products have an unlimited upside, while pro products are aimed at a niche market that eats up major resources.

While FCP X wasn’t initially well-received by professionals, Logic Pro X has been receiving great reviews and the upcoming Mac Pro innovations display Apple’s continued commitment to developing powerful pro apps and hardware, despite the smaller market size and potential profits.

New “American Legend” trailer released for upcoming JOBS film, Ashton Kutcher hosting Reddit AMA

Jordan Kahn Aug 6 2013 - 8:07 am PT

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Update: Open Road Films just sent over another brand new clip from the upcoming JOBS film (below).

In case you missed that YouTube hangout last week with the stars of the upcoming Steve Jobs biopic, Ashton Kutcher and co-star Josh Gad debuted the latest trailer that includes several previously unreleased clips from the film. The movie will officially hit theatres later this month on August 16th, but on Thursday Ashton Kutcher and Josh Gad will be hosting a Reddit Ask Me Anything to answer questions about playing Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak in the movie.

The Reddit AMA will be taking place on Thursday, August 8th from 9:30am-10:30am PST/ 12:30pm- 1:30pm EST, and we’ll update with a link here when available.

Watch Jobs and Woz come up with the Apple name in new clip from ‘JOBS’

Jordan Kahn Aug 1 2013 - 1:47 pm PT

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Ahead of its upcoming August 16th debut in theatres, Open Road Films just released a new clip from the JOBS film starting Ashton Kutcher as Steve Jobs. In the latest clip, Jobs and and Steve Wozniak, played by Josh Gad, come up with the name “Apple Computer,” a story that we’ve heard straight from the real Jobs and Wozniak in the past.

Tomorrow Ashton Kutcher and Josh Gad will also be hosting a live YouTube Hangout at 11am PST/2pm EST to answer questions about the JOBS movie submitted using #AskJobsMovie. The event will be hosted on the JOBSthefilm YoutTube account.

If you want to hear the story of the Apple name straight from the source, the real Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs give their versions of events in the videos below:
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New JOBS featurette shows extended movie clip with commentary

Jul 31 2013 - 1:41 pm PT

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Open Road Films has posted a new JOBS ‘featurette’ which provides an extended look at the film coupled with commentary from Ashton Kutcher, Michael Stern (Director) and other supporting cast members. Check out Ashton’s in-depth interview with The Verge’s Joshua Topolsky for even more insight into his thoughts regarding the film and the general tech landscape. JOBS is slated to be released nationwide on August 16th, but posters for the movie are already popping up at theaters.
https://twitter.com/iDannyOcean/status/356863921975611392

‘Inspired by true events’: Official trailer for Ashton Kutcher’s ‘Jobs’ film goes live (9to5mac.com)
Ashton Kutcher’s Jobs movie gets an official psychedelic poster (9to5mac.com)
Ashton Kutcher’s ‘jOBS’ biopic to open nationwide on August 16th (9to5mac.com)
Ashton Kutcher on passing up the opportunity to meet Steve Jobs (9to5mac.com)
Ashton Kutcher’s thoughts on playing Steve Jobs and the wider tech landscape [Video] (9to5mac.com)
Jobs star Ashton Kutcher rumored to be close to $10M deal … to sell Windows PCs (9to5mac.com)

Ashton Kutcher on passing up the opportunity to meet Steve Jobs [video]

Ben Lovejoy Jul 25 2013 - 4:23 am PT

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http://youtu.be/ZvqIwUperU0

Ashton Kutcher, who plays Steve Jobs in the biopic due for U.S. release on August 16th, told Jay Leno that he passed up the opportunity to meet Jobs.

Kutcher described Jobs as “the Leonardo da Vinci of our generation,” and says that he will never forget the day that he died …

The movie, JOBS, got mixed reviews at its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival but should find fans in its wider release.

‘Jobs’ star Ashton Kutcher rumored to be close to $10M deal … to sell Windows PCs

Ben Lovejoy Jul 23 2013 - 7:16 am PT

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ashton-kutcher-as-steve-jobs

The New York Post claims that Ashton Kutcher, who plays Steve Jobs in the biopic Jobs, is close to signing a $10M deal to appear in a series of ads for … Windows PC maker Lenovo.

Jobs, which will apparently be promoted by a rather psychedelic poster, is due to open on August 16th.

‘There’s something wrong with those colors’

Jordan Kahn Jun 26 2013 - 11:53 am PT

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We’ve heard some stories in the past of Steve Jobs’ involvement in the construction of the Pixar campus in Emeryville, California and the main building, now named “The Steve Jobs Building” in honor of its co-founder and former CEO. In it’s recent tour of the building, senior design project manager Craig Payne, who happened to come with Steve to Pixar from NeXT, told BuzzFeed another interesting story about Jobs’ attention to detail during the project:

“So Steve loves the Hills Brothers building in San Francisco, and he wanted to replicate that [brick] palette,” says Payne. “So we found a company in Washington state that agreed to match that as best as possible. It was like five different colors of brick. So they made a 10-foot-high by 10-foot-wide panel of the brick, and Steve said, ‘I love it.’ He even said, ‘I want to eat it,’ which is a funny comment. It was done. We found our brick.”

That is, until the brick started to be applied to the walls. “Steve looked at it and said, ‘There’s something wrong with those colors,’” says Payne. “Sure enough, they took the production brick and they built another panel next to the one that he approved, and one of the colors was off. We were in a real mess because we were at the point where the brick was going to be laid on the building. We went back to the brick manufacturer, and we were like, ‘That deep brown needs to be deeper.’ They sent, like, three more samples, and after the third sample they said, ‘We’re going to do one more, but that’s it, and if you don’t like it, we’re done.’ They were just at their wits’ end. So I was the sacrificial lamb. I flew up to Spokane. The brick came out of the kiln, the guy grabbed the brick and said, ‘Do you want it or not?’ I didn’t lose my job, so I guess I made the right decision.

You can check out the rest of BuzzFeed’s tour of the Pixar building here.

Apple continues new ‘Designed by Apple in California’ campaign with full two page print ads

Jordan Kahn Jun 25 2013 - 8:04 am PT

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Update, June 29: Apple is running different full two-page ads in the Toronto Star and other Canadian newspapers today. The ads includes the same text and “Designed by Apple in California” tagline as the one above, but use alternate images that have also appeared on Apple’s “Designed by Apple” web page. Check out the other ads below.

We previously reported that Apple was starting a brand new ad campaign that focuses on its ecosystem and the people that use it rather than specific products, and today a reader notes that it has also brought the campaign to print with a full two-page ad in the Toronto Star (pictured above). We’d expect this to be the tone of its ads in the coming months, and the ad above (alongside its latest TV commercial), is also currently running on Apple’s “Designed by Apple” web page on Apple.com.
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Apple’s total device market share to grow from 10% to 14% – new forecast

Ben Lovejoy Jun 24 2013 - 7:12 am PT

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A forecast published today by market intelligence company Gartner suggests that Apple’s combined market share of mobile phones, tablets and PCs will grow from just under 10 percent to over 14 percent by 2014 – shipping almost 3m devices this year, and rising to over 3.5m next year.

Gartner is predicting that while PC sales will fall 10.6 percent year-on-year, and phones grow at a modest 4.3 percent, tablets will grow 67.9 percent …
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‘Inspired by true events’: Official trailer for Ashton Kutcher’s ‘Jobs’ film goes live

Mark Gurman Jun 21 2013 - 10:21 am PT

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[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SH1jKZwcS9Y?rel=0]

Ahead of its August 16th opening, the creators of the “Jobs” biopic starring Ashton Kutcher as Steve Jobs have released the first official trailer (via MR). The trailer gives a peak at the film, demonstrating that the movie will cover early Apple with Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak to Steve Jobs’s departure to Steve Jobs’s return in the 1990s. Earlier this year, the film premiered to a small audience which gave the movie mixed reviews. Following this, the film was delayed from its original April opening date. Below is another clip from the film (from January):

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Apple cofounders in the news: Steve Jobs on legacy, and Woz firing-up three Apple Is 35 years later

Ben Lovejoy Jun 19 2013 - 6:42 am PT

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http://youtu.be/zut2NLMVL_k

The Loop spotted that YouTube channel EverySteveJobsVideo has uploaded a previously-unseen video of Steve Jobs answering a question about what would be his legacy.

Rather ironically, one of the statements he made – that in a few years it wouldn’t even be possible to fire up an Apple I to see what it was like – was proven wrong by the other Steve yesterday doing just that. Mercury News reports that Steve Wozniak fired-up not just one but three Apple I computers at the History San Jose centre. Given that one recently sold for $671k, that’s about $2 million worth he powered-up …

Eddy Cue discusses Steve Jobs’ fascination with page curls, Winnie-the-Pooh, and Ted Kennedy at ebooks hearing

Zac Hall Jun 17 2013 - 1:10 pm PT

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While the litigious quests of Apple seem to never go away (or accomplish much in the process), AllThingsD has collected a few notable tidbits revealed by Eddy Cue, who is fresh off of his WWDC presentation, during the ‘ebooks price fixing’ hearings. Remember folks, Cue was under oath, so this is completely on the books now.

Peter Kafka, for AllThingsD:

For instance:

The “page curls” in the iBook app, which show up when you flip an iBook’s page? That’s Steve Jobs’ idea.

It was Jobs’ idea to pick ““Winnie-the-Pooh” as the freebie book that came with every iBook app. Not just because Jobs liked the book, Cue said, but because it showed off iBook’s capabilities: “It had beautiful color drawings, that had never been seen before in a digital book.”

Jobs was also specific about the book he used to show off the iBook during his initial iPad demo in January 2010. He picked Ted Kennedy’s “True Compass” memoir, because the Kennedy family “meant a lot to him”, Cue said.
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The era of unshackled Apple executives [Opinion]

Scott Buscemi Jun 14 2013 - 6:54 pm PT

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“Can’t innovate anymore, my ass.”

Over the past few months, it feels as if Apple is on a media and publicity roadshow. Tim Cook has appeared on Rock Center, testified at the Senate’s corporate tax hearing, and was interviewed at All Things D’s D11 conference. In addition, as was mentioned during today’s Happy Hour podcast, the Apple executives took many opportunities during the WWDC keynote to speak directly to recent criticisms about their design decisions and abilities to innovate in the tech industry.

This is, quite simply, the era of unshackled and vocal Apple executives.
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Despite impressive ads, Media Arts Lab execs reportedly frustrated with Phil Schiller’s lack of focus

Jordan Kahn Jun 11 2013 - 8:28 am PT

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Zr1s_B0zqX0

phil-schiller Yesterday at its WWDC keynote presentation, alongside the expected design overhaul in Apple’s upcoming iOS 7, the company briefly showed off a slightly new direction for its ad campaigns going forward. While it kicked off the presentation with a video describing its focus for the new simplified design elements in iOS 7 (below), Bloomberg reports that its latest ad (above), which just started appearing on TV last night, marks a new direction for Apple’s marketing efforts. It also claims that Apple’s meetings regarding the company’s marketing message have become less focused following Steve Jobs’ death now that Apple’s senior vice president of marketing Phillip Schiller is in charge:
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Steve Jobs

The foundation of Apple

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