HTC will be coming strong out the gates this year at Mobile World Congress with at least one contending smartphone, the HTC Endeavor, and it’s got a Siri rival. It’s also got a brand new version of HTC Sense, that being version 4.0 on top of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. Apple appears to have forced the Pentagon to dump ASUS. Apple’s also seen to be having Apple TV shortages – this likely portending a refresh of the line.

Apple’s own iPad line is being confiscated in China after it’s been found that someone else had the iPad name first. BlackBerry makers RIM feared “morons from outside” in their hunt for a new CEO. NASA is checking out the possibility and viability of a deep space outpost near the moon. Apple has brought in the Fair Labor Association to audit their parts suppliers amid reports that they’re not run as ethically as they should be.

Samsung has revealed the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 to bring Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich to the masses at an entry-level price point. Google’s big push for the @home experience is seeing them hit up a Experience Center to bring your house to one central experience point.

At the very least, it was the most noteworthy award that people in our industry took note of. At yesterday’s ceremony, accepting the award was Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services, Eddy Cue. Cue had worked closely with Jobs for 15 years and was the one responsible for carrying out many of Jobs’s dreams and visions in the digital space.

This is the second time a Grammy Award has been awarded to Apple’s achievements in music. In 2002, the entire company won a Technical Grammy. During his speech on behalf of the late Jobs, Cue said, “Accepting this award means so much to me because music meant so much to him. He told us that music shaped his life…it made him who he was.”

[via MacRumors]

Featured: Our featured stories today include a review of the Acer Aspire S3 (Core i7) as well as a review of Tweetbot for iPhone. Be sure to check them out. In addition, if you’re looking for some early analysis on this month’s upcoming Mobile World Congress, check out this column from our Chris Davies – Apple will dominate MWC and it won’t even be there.

Mobile: AT&T is doing some damage control as it tries to explain away is 2GB throttling of unlimited data plans. Meanwhile, on the rumor mill, we’ve heard a new report on the possibility of a 7-inch iPad being released this year. 2012 could finally be the year that two iPads are released; the iPad 3 is expected to come forth within the next month. Oh, and HTC fans should be please to see this scheduled of Android 4.0 ICS upgrades.

Other Stuff: Hey, here’s something we don’t get to say often – TiVo’s in the news. The company has released a new set of “DirecTiVo” boxes for DirecTV customers. And on a completely separate note, Sony has revealed everything you can expect in a PlayStation Vita First Edition bundle. And if nothing above strikes your interest, this surely will – Steve Jobs FBI file pulled with Freedom of Information Act. Well that’s all for today. Check back tomorrow at the same time for Friday’s evening wrap-up.

Those of you looking for the file do download, you can head on over to FBI.gov and grab a copy for yourself – load it on up to your reader tablet! Then check it out – with the tool known as MuckRock and some well written paragraphs addressed to the FBI, mister Michael Morisy was able to request the file in question with only one initial letter and a few follow-up letters to remind them of the request. Because of the Freedom of Information Act’s rules, the FBI was required to pull the file and send it over to Morisy in full.

Of course the PDF does have personal information knocked out of it, as it should, and there are some rather lengthy blocks whited out in what we must assume is an effort to keep the still living associates of Steve Jobs private as they were promised they’d be in the original interviews. Odd bits you can find though are the following: Steve Jobs Social Security Number, admissions by several colleagues that Jobs may very well have done his fair share of illegal substance consumption, and ideas along the lines of Jobs being satisfied only when he got his own way — these are, of course, all marks of a champion. And a champion we all knew Jobs to certainly be.

Check the file out then see if the FBI has anything else of interest you’d want to check out – there’s more files in their repository than anyone could ever possible read in a lifetime!

[via MuckRock]

“Several individuals questioned Mr. Jobs’ honesty stating that Mr. Jobs will twist the truth and distort reality in order to achieve his goals” the report concludes, while another interviewee “characterized Mr. Jobs as an honest and trustworthy individual; however, his moral character is questionable.” One said that he thought Jobs “possesses the qualities to assume a high level political position” but was of the “opinion that honesty and integrity are not required qualities to hold such a position.”

Jobs “is strongwilled, stubborn, hardworking and driven” others said, as well as “extremely health conscious now and rarely even drinks.” Several comment on his dedication and focus, stating that “he has far reaching vision and can vitalize plans and goals”; however, that dedication was also cited as a cause of issues in Jobs’ personal life, aggravated by his rising star at Apple.

Nonetheless, all deemed Jobs suitable for the role, though in the end he was not appointed. The document as a whole can be read below.

[via Gawker]

Cook told workers that Apple has so far donated $50 million to Stanford’s hospitals. The donation will split into two parts with $25 million for a new Main building an additional $25 million going to a new Children’s Hospital. Cook also mentioned that Apple is the leading contributor to Product RED and since the project kicked off Cook says Apple has donated $50 million.

According to The Verge, Cook instituted a charitable matching program within weeks of taking over the CEO role. The program sees Apple matching any charitable contributions made by employees. $100 million in charitable contributions is a huge chunk of money, but it’s pocket change when you have $97.6 billion in cash sitting around.

[via TheVerge]

Being a pioneer of music in the digital realm was what Young hoped to let us all know he’d be carrying on via Jobs spirit. The first and probably largest hurdle for this particular device right out of the box (or before the box exists, rather), is the idea that each song will be taking 30 minutes to download due to its gigantic size. In addition to bringing high-fidelity back to the world of music, as he sees it, Young hopes to do so while he makes legally downloaded music as convenient as possible.

In response to concerns that a much longer download time would lead to inconvenience and therefor a less likely download in the end, Young disagreed, saying:

“While you’re sleeping, your device is working for you.” – Young

In regards to how and why he came to speak of Jobs for this device, he noted that he’d been speaking with Jobs about the project for some time now, but that his death shut down development of the project pretty much completely.

“Steve Jobs was a pioneer of digital music, but when he went home he listened to vinyl. I have to believe if he lived long enough he would have tried to do what I’m trying to do.” – Young

Young spoke also about Piracy and the state of the record company, saying that he liked his own company, but that the industry that exists today might be going away sooner than later.

“I look at Internet as the new radio and radio as gone. Piracy is the new radio; it’s how music gets around. … What I like about record companies is that they present and nurture artists. That doesn’t exist on iTunes, it doesn’t exist on Amazon. That’s what a record company does, and that’s why I like my record company. People look at record companies like they’re obsolete, but there’s a lot of soul in there — a lot of people who care about music, and that’s very important.” – Young

We hope for music’s sake that Young can make something happen in the digital realm other than big business attempting to cut down on piracy. The way to the future is to fight the absolutely free downloads that exist right this minute widely, and if a new device which brings ultra-high-fidelity downloads after 30 minutes a song can do it, so be it!

[via AllThingsD]

The information comes from the upcoming book “Inside Apple” as written by Adam Lashinsky, coming out soon of course. In it he reveals that Stanford graduate Ng actually visited Jobs’ Palo Alto home, speaking on the technology and discussing the future with Apple. As far as we know the collaboration did not end up panning out, but you never know! Have a peek at this bit from the upcoming book:

“The company’s CEO, Ren Ng, a brilliant computer scientist with a PhD from Stanford, immediately called Jobs, who picked up the phone and quickly said, “if you’re free this afternoon maybe we would could get together.” Ng, who is thirty-two, hurried to Palo Alto, showed Jobs a demo of Lytro’s technology, discussed cameras and product design with him, and, at Jobs’s request, agreed to send him an email outlining three things he’d like Lytro to do with Apple.” – Lashinsky in “Inside Apple”

Will we see this fabulous technology inside the iPhone and the iPad in the distant future? Or better yet, will we see it in the NEAR future instead? Have a peek at the Lytro “Start of a Picture Revolution” video to see how amazing Lytro says it is, then see the timeline to go back to past Lytro announcements and get in on the fun early!

[via 9to5Mac]

In Icons first announced the Jobs action figure early this month and was quickly and inevitably slapped with threats of legal action. The company explains that it had originally set out to create the doll as a way to commemorate Jobs and was in no way attempting to overstep copyright and trademark rights.

Besides the legal threats from lawyers, In Icons says that it is the “heartfelt sensitivity to the feelings of the Jobs family” that led to the decision to cancel the action figure. The company apologizes to Jobs fans and promises to refund pre-orders.

[via AppleInsider]

As confirmed in an SEC filing last year, the shares in Cook’s renumeration package are set to vest at different times. Half of the 1m stock units – valued at $376m back in August 2011 – will vest (i.e. be passed on to Cook) in August 2016, with the remainder coming in August 2021, ten years after he assumed the role of CEO.

In contrast, Cook’s regular salary is around $900,000 per annum, while the exec is also promised a similar amount again as a performance-related bonus. The oft-quoted $1 salary Steve Jobs took was offset by the Apple founder’s huge personal holding of shares in the company: Jobs owned approximately 5.5m, which at today’s rates would be worth in the region of $2.4bn.

“In light of Mr. Cook’s experience with the Company, including his leadership during Mr. Jobs’s prior leaves of absence, the Board views his retention as CEO as critical to the Company’s success and smooth leadership transition” Apple said in an SEC filing this week. “The RSU [Restricted Stock Unit] award is intended as a long-term retention incentive for Mr. Cook, and, accordingly, should be viewed as compensation over the 10-year vesting period and not solely as compensation for 2011.”

That time has come reports The Telegraph with the Apple legal team reportedly threatening legal action if the company produces the doll. Inicons was hoping to bring the action figure to market in February. Apple is now reportedly telling the doll maker that if the product comes to market, it will sue.

The Telegraph reports that the letter sent to Inicons from Apple points to a Chinese law that makes any toy that looks like a company logo, name, appearance or likeness a criminal offense. Iniconis is a Chinese firm, and China is notorious for not always following the letter of the law when it comes to infringement and fake products. We will have to wait and see if Inicons tries to sell the doll.

[via Telegraph]

During the years Jobs was gone from Apple, he adopted Buddhism and met with an old friend Kobun who, at the Tassajara Zen Mountain Center in California, taught him some rather awesome arts. One example is the walking meditation kinhin, the other being his eventual understanding of the Japanese design concept ma. Simplicity in all things is what this all leads to — have a peek at the preview video here:

The creators of the book would prefer that you pick it up right on over at Wiley. It’ll run you a cool $20 USD and you’ll be able to get it shipped straight to your door. Interestingly enough, an Instructors evaluation copy request button exists for this novella, this meaning they’re pushing it to educators as well. Would you present this book in your class, professors? Either way, grab it now!

The company that makes the 12-inch action figure is called Inicons. The action figure is so realistic it’s a bit creepy with pores, the trademark beard, and round glasses just as Steve wore. The only catch in the face of the action figure you see in the photos is that the company that makes the figure warns the final appearance may vary.

I suspect they will sell a slew of these things, assuming along the way to production the action figure doesn’t turn into a fake and plastic version of a Ken doll in a turtleneck. Along with the action figure comes replicas of Jobs’ favorite shows, two pairs of glasses, an articulating body, three pairs of hands, and the trademark jeans and black turtleneck. I suspect Jobs’ family and legal team will kill this action figure very swiftly.

[via Forbes]

What we’re talking about here first is a video in which both Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs are speaking in an interview-style to the camera, saying how they were just rolling down the highway when it all happened. And it’s not what you think, of course, not that Jobs was inspired by Apple Records as you may have heard, nor that he got hit in the head by an Apple and decided it was fate. It’s not even that Woz was eating an apple and Jobs snatched it out of his hand – no! Instead it’s much more simple:

“I remember driving down Highway 85. We’re on the freeway, and Steve mentions, ‘I’ve got a name: Apple Computer.’ We kept thinking of other alternatives to that name, and we couldn’t think of anything better.” – Wozniak

“And also remember that I worked at Atari, and it got us ahead of Atari in the phonebook.” – Jobs

How about that? The video it seems was recorded for employees of Apple Computer back in the 1980s at some point, never to surface again until now, and only in text form. For those of you hoping to visit the archives: good luck. The Stanford Apple Computer archive has no plans to open up the collection to the public at this time.

The entirety of the collection, it should be noted, was donated to Stanford with the blueprints mentioned above in 1997, soon after Jobs came back to Apple after working with Pixar and etc for the years he was fired by his own company. One he came back, Apple officials contacted Stanford University and essentially said “hey, we’ve got the real dude back, you can have this stuff.” The entire collection is housed in hundreds of boxes taking up 600 feet of shelving in the Stanford off-campus storage facility in a climate-controlled environment on the outskirts of the San Francisco Bay area.

A few other items as listed by the AP that can be found in the archive are thus:

- An April 1976 agreement for a $5,000 loan to Apple Computer and its three co-founders: Jobs, Wozniak and Ronald Wayne, who pulled out of the company less than two weeks after its founding.

- A 1976 letter written by a printer who had just met Jobs and Wozniak and warns his colleagues about the young entrepreneurs: “This joker (Jobs) is going to be calling you … They are two guys, they build kits, operate out of a garage.”

- A company video spoofing the 1984 movie “Ghost Busters,” with Jobs and other executives playing “Blue Busters,” a reference to rival IBM.

This video seems to have made its way out of the archives before it was entered in – have a peek at it below, and note that it appears to have been part of a series for internal meetings in which the blockbuster hit of the moment was used in spoof form for training. Another example is said to be Back to the Future. Must find!

[via PCMag]

The Recording Academy stated that “As former CEO and co-founder of Apple, Steve Jobs helped create products and technology that transformed the way we consume music, TV, movies, and books. A creative visionary, Jobs’ innovations such as the iPod and its counterpart, the online iTunes store, revolutionized the industry and how music was distributed and purchased. In 2002 Apple Computer Inc. was a recipient of a Technical GRAMMY Award for contributions of outstanding technical significance to the recording field. The company continues to lead the way with new technology and in-demand products such as the iPhone and iPad.”

Jobs is one of several awardees, including Brazilian composer and arranger Antonio Carlos Jobim, soul performer Gil Scott-Heron, and audio engineer Roger Nichols, who will all be honored posthumously. The Grammy awards ceremony will be held on Saturday, February 11th, and the awardees will be acknowledged at this year’s “54th Annual Grammy Awards” telecast the day after.

[via MacRumors]

Photo credit for the shot above goes to Laszlo Balogh who took the photo for Rueter’s original story straight out of Budapest. The group spoke with Graphisoft Chairman Gabor Bojar who mentioned the work by Toth to be a dedication to the man who represented a revolution which, as he said in so many words, “can only be compared to the discovery of writing.” Bojar spoke highly of Jobs for his contributions to a then tiny firm in communist Hungary in the 1980s:

“He was one of the greatest (personalities) in our era, that’s what we wanted to express with this sculpture here. … In some ways, Apple was a religion. We have felt his spirit every day and now it is embodied. We hope that we can deserve with our entrepreneurial culture in Hungary what this sculpture expresses as a message.” – Bojar

What do you think, ladies and gentlemen? Look like a nice enough statue to encapsulate the epic nature of the man who was essentially responsible for bringing the personal computer to the market at large? What would a statue of Steve Jobs look like if you made one yourself? Would it include an iPhone or two?

[via Rueters]

That estimate was very low compared to what the docs actually went for at the auction. The buyer of the documents was Eduardo Cisneros, CEO of Cisneros corporation. He plunked down $1,594,500 for the documents, roughly ten times the price that was expected. Cisneros was very happy with his purchase as well and tweeting that he was happy to own a part of American and world history.

Among the documents that the purchase included was the document outlining perhaps the worst business decision in the tech world. The documents including the filing where Wayne pulled out of Apple for only $800 is part of the collection of documents.

[via Mashable]

The statue will be erected on December 21 and is intended to celebrate the vision and leadership of Jobs. Jobs and Graphisoft founder Gabor Bojar met in 1984 when Graphisoft had unveiled the ArchiCAD 3D design software for the Apple Lisa computer. Jobs apparently offered marketing and financial support for the company.

The statue is being made by sculptor Erno Toth and shows Jobs in his trademark clothing. The bronze Jobs is wearing the mock turtleneck, jeans, and sneakers along with the round glasses and stubbly beard Jobs sported. The stature shows Jobs with one hand out holding a device that looks like an iPhone. The US Patent Office Museum has a Steve Jobs exhibit.

[via Times of India]

The first reason is the simplicity of Apple products. The medical field is complicated enough as it is with doctors having to keep on top of the developments in disease pathology, mechanisms of illness, and treatments. On top of that, most of the equipment they use in the hospital setting, such as an ultrasound machine, may be proficient at what they do, but have horrendous user interfaces, making doctors appreciate even more the simplicity and ease of Apple devices.

Second reason is the solid build quality of Apple devices. Although some hospital equipment may have terrible user interfaces, when it comes to the hardware, especially in the surgical arena, it is especially fine tuned and precise. Doctors find this “medical grade” feel in Apple’s devices, where precision detailing and overall design and build is superior to competitors.

And lastly, the uniformity of Apple products also attract doctors. This reason overlaps with the first in that doctors already have so much on their plate to figure out, they don’t have the free time to tinker with their devices to optimize its user experience. That user experience should be optimized by the manufacturer, not the end user. Doctors believe that devices should “just work,” a mantra often heard from former Apple CEO and founder Steve Jobs, who intuitively understood and strove to deliver this need in user experience.

[via TUAW]

Check out the updated proposals of the Apple Campus 2 here:

Introduction

Site Plan & Landscaping

Floor Plans

Renderings

These newly updates plans are titanic >40MB PDF files in high-resolution detail, and thoroughly document the entirely updated campus plans of the campus. To jog your memory, the Apple Campus 2 will be an fully-integrated 21st-century corporate campus surrounded by green space (with 6000 various species of trees), and will consist of 2.8 million square feet of over four stories of floors, and accommodate up to 13,000 very glad Apple employees.

Check out the enhanced renderings of what the final Apple Campus 2 will look like in our gallery below. Simply put, they’re gorgeous. Kudos to Steve Jobs for this monumental effort for his company that he built from the ground up. It’s only appropriate that he had a major hand in designing the very building blocks of his campus, too.

[via iPhone Canada]

“This is a foundation document in terms of financial history, social history and technological history,” said Richard Austin, the head of books and manuscripts at Sotheby’s in New York.

Also included in the auction package are papers documenting Ron Wayne’s withdrawal as a partner just a dozen days after the company was founded. Wayne initially received $800 for his 10% share of the company, and later received an additional $1,500 payment, before he withdrew his part ownership of Apple. Talk about not seizing the day, eh? Opportunities like this are far and few between, and Wayne unfortunately never got to capitalize on his.

According to Sotheby’s, “Wayne sold the documents to a manuscript dealer at some point before another party acquired them in the mid-1990s as Apple appeared close to bankruptcy before Jobs returned to the company.” Now, that party has decided to auction off the documents, seeing the recent publicity about Jobs following his recent death and the well-received release of his authorized biography by regarded biographer Walter Isaacson. Readers, how much do you think Apple’s founding contract signed by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ron Wayne is worth?

[via Bloomberg]

The most impressive bit is of course the massive set of 30 iPhones displaying the front pages of the over 300 patents that include Steve Jobs’ name. Co-inventor is what he’s listed as on most of them, while other displays include a brief description of the photos, inventions, and other bits of the exhibition as a whole. Have a quick read on what they hope to express with this show:

“This exhibit commemorates the far-reaching impact of Steve Jobs’ entrepreneurship and innovation on our daily lives,” said Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO David Kappos. “His patents and trademarks provide a striking example of the importance intellectual property plays in the global marketplace.”

Located in the atrium of the Madison Building, the exhibit features more than 300 of the patents that bear the name of the iconic innovator along with many of the trademarks that have given Apple its instantly recognizable identity around the world. The display gives insight into the visionary commitment Jobs gave to each of the products and designs he influenced during his time with Apple, the company he co-founded at the age of 21 with his friend and fellow computer enthusiast Steve Wozniak.

This exhibition runs from just this past week through January 15th, 2012, so you’ve got your whole winter break to head down there and take a peek. Also for those of you wishing to know, this exhibit was both created and designed by Invent Now, Inc., an organization that is both non-profit and is dedicated to fostering invention and creativity through its many programs housed generally through the National Inventors Hall of Fame and Museum, an building which it also runs.

Look like something you’re going to go check out?

[via MacRumors]

I can see Clooney as an older Jobs, but I think Clooney would have a hard time pulling off a younger Jobs. Another actor that is said to be vying for the role is Noah Wyle. Wyle would seemingly be the better choice since he is still young enough to play a young Jobs and could pull off the older Jobs too. Wyle also has the feather in his cap of having played Jobs already.

Wyle was Jobs in the flick Pirates of Silicon Valley. Jobs even invited Wyle to Macworld in 1999 to play him in an opening keynote. Who do you think would be the best actor to play Jobs in this movie? That nerdy looking kid that played in The Social Network would be decent I think.

[via The Register]

The show focused on the computer and rise of Silicon Valley. One of the hallmark interviews of the series was one with Jobs. Apparently, only a small part of the footage shot with Jobs for the series actually made it into the program. Later when Cringely wanted to do a possible follow up series, he tried to find the rest of the footage to discover it was missing.

The director of the show had an old VHS tape copy of it stored away and a call to Landmark theaters wound up with an agreement to show the lost footage as part of a 70-minute long program called Steve Jobs: The Lost Interview. The show will air in select cities at Landmark Theaters on Wednesday and Thursday November 16 and 17. Check with your local Landmark to see if it will air in your city.

[via CNET]

Another point of differentiation reported by Vascellaro through her sources inside the company is one of charitable giving: where one person who attended an event a year ago (not the most reliable source, I’d say) has reported Jobs saying he was opposed to giving money away, Cook appears quite ready to work with those less than fortunate. The new CEO reportedly recently announced an in-company charitable match program that’d give out as much as $10,000 in donations to non-profits that employees gave to per year.

Other changes will include how Cook will work with the company, not as much how he’ll handle the same tasks as Jobs tended to. Cook being a supply chain guru and more of a manager of sales and forecasts than Jobs, Cook will tend to many of the things Jobs rarely touched. Cook has reportedly restructured Apple’s big education division which has for quite a few years operated mostly independently of the main sales unit, and the entire business has now been split into a sales arm and a marketing arm – no small move, to be sure.

Responsibilities have been increased for both vice president of worldwide product marketing Phil Shiller and vice president of overseas Apple sales John Brandon, and Apple’s education head John Couch is now reporting to Schiller instead of Cook. Following all of this? What it essentially means is that Cook isn’t exactly keeping the business as it was when Jobs was CEO. Instead he’s making it what appears to be, at least on the surface, a more friendly place to work, switching up roles of several head players as he does so. Vascellaro’s sources note that they expect Cook to continue to be more open with shareholders and customers than Jobs was, noting that he’d been much more willing to be such a friendly fellow throughout the past with investors.

Will this mean that sales will go down as well? Or will a much more heartwarming environment inspire products that lead the next generation into the future?

[via Wall Street Journal]

According to the book in the early days of the Intel partnership that saw Intel’s chips land in Apple notebooks and desktops, Jobs had planned for the Atom processor to power the iPad. Jobs was apparently set for a time on the Atom processor for the tablet even though Apple exec Tony Fadell thought that Apple should go with an ARM chip for its tablet. ARM chips power most smartphones and tablets today thanks in part to their power sipping nature whereas the Atom chips are still not as power efficient.

Eventually Fadell’s ARM point of view won Jobs over. Jobs according to the biography had a number of complaints about Intel. One of the big complaints Jobs made was that Intel was a “steamship” and Apple was used to going fast. Jobs also complained that Intel was “not very flexible” and their “graphics suck” according to the book. It seems that what might be the biggest reason that Apple didn’t team with Intel is the fact that Jobs feared they would teach Intel “everything” and then Intel would go and sell to their competitors. Ultimately, Apple purchased its own chip companies and made the A4 and A5 processors that are inside the iOS devices today.

[via PCMag]

According to the LA Times, Sony is moving forward with the Steve Jobs movie and sees Sorkin as its top choice. Besides writing the adapted screenplay for The Social Network, Sorkin also worked on other films, including Charlie Wilson’s War and Moneyball as well as TV shows such as West Wing.

Sorkin also happens to know Jobs personally as he had an opportunity to work with him in the past for a Pixar movie, which Sorkin ultimately turned down. He decided against accepting Jobs’ offer as he felt he couldn’t “make inanimate objects talk.” But surely, taking up the task to pen a biopic of the tech icon himself has got to be a much greater challenge.

[via Cult of Mac]

The interview covers everything from Jobs’ childhood and how he dealt with news that he was adopted, his job at Atari – and his questionable personal hygiene – and through to the formative days of Apple, setting up the company with Steve Wozniak. “ He could drive himself by magical thinking” Isaacson observes. “By believing something that the rest of us couldn’t possibly believe, and sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t.”

Jobs’ life included notable examples of both extremes. He was well known for demanding excellence from Apple staff while CEO at the company, an approach which Isaacson describes as having “made great products, but it didn’t make for a great management style”; on the flip side, Jobs delayed surgery on the cancer that went on to end his life by nine months, believing that holistic therapies would save him.

The clips are well worth watching, though of course they’re also promoting the Jobs’ biography, which goes on sale today; we’ve featured more excerpts from the book in the past week. This weekend, Apple shared footage of its “Celebrating Steve” memorial service, held at Cupertino last Wednesday.

[via MacRumors]

In addition to speeches and reminiscence from the high-profile participants, which included former presidential hopeful and board member Al Gore, several musicians performed at the event. Coldplay, Randy Newman and Norah Jones all made appearances.

You can watch the Celebrating Steve video at Apple here, though so far it only seems to be working in certain browsers; Safari will play it, but Chrome won’t. More details of Steve Jobs’ life have been shared over the past few days, as excerpts from a biography were revealed ahead of its general release today. In the book, by Walter Isaacson, Jobs is portrayed as dedicated and almost single-minded in his approach to product design, heaping scorn on Apple’s interim exec team who were more interested in money than creating good devices, and furious at what he saw as the “grand theft” of Google’s Android.

Biographer Walter Isaacson revealed that during an interview with Jobs, the Apple visionary told him that he wanted to create an integrated television set that would work seamlessly with other devices and the iCloud. It would be simple, elegant, and incredibly easy to use.

‘I’d like to create an integrated television set that is completely easy to use,’ he told me. ‘It would be seamlessly synced with all of your devices and with iCloud.’ No longer would users have to fiddle with complex remotes for DVD players and cable channels. ‘It will have the simplest user interface you could imagine. I finally cracked it.’”

It’s not clear whether Apple does indeed have television sets in the pipeline, although rumors have persisted that the company has been working on such a pursuit. Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster has insisted that Apple had such plans since 2009. Jobs resignation in August had ignited another round of speculation regarding an Apple “iTV.”

[via Washington Post]

Ive had “more operation power” than anybody else at Apple bar himself, Jobs told biographer Walter Isaacson the Associated Press reports. Nobody else within Apple is capable of telling Ive what to do, he explained, with the design chief’s prominence being ”the way I set it up.”

“[Steve] took great pride in cultivating the expertise and commitment to excellence and creativity in the executive team” Gore explained, though it seems Ive will keep the final say in matters of design – issues that have certainly shaped hardware and strategy decisions in the past. Back at the CDMA iPhone 4 launch in January, Apple admitted that LTE had been left out because the first-gen 4G radios demanded too many compromises on the physical design of the phone.

“I will spend my last dying breath if I need to, and I will spend every penny of Apple’s $40 billion in the bank, to right this wrong … I’m going to destroy Android, because it’s a stolen product. I’m willing to go thermonuclear war on this” Steve Jobs

“I don’t want your money” Jobs told Schmidt as the two men met in a cafe in Palo Alto early last year. “If you offer me $5 billion, I won’t want it. I’ve got plenty of money. I want you to stop using our ideas in Android, that’s all I want.” Unsurprisingly no settlement was reached, and the legal battle between Android OEMs and Apple continues to this day.

The biography also paints a picture of a man frustrated by a lack of attention to product, blasting the executive team that led Apple during the period he was away from the company as “corrupt people” with “corrupt values.” Their focus, he claimed, was on making money “for themselves mainly, and also for Apple – rather than making great products.”

One of the more controversial aspects of the book is likely to be Jobs’ attitude towards the cancer that went on to kill him, and his experimentation with alternative treatments before resorting to more traditional surgical methods. “I really didn’t want them to open up my body, so I tried to see if a few other things would work” he told biographer Walter Isaacson, the list of potential remedies including acupuncture, juice fasts and even seeing a psychic. Jobs did not go in for surgery until nine months after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, a period one specialist described as “a significant period of time to delay.”

Jobs passed on October 5, aged 56. The biography, titled “Steve Jobs”, will go on sale on Monday, October 24.

Jobs had passed away on October 5, just a day after the iPhone 4S announcement, and was laid to rest in a small private funeral on October 7. The ceremony was first announced to employees through an email from Apple CEO Tim Cook, who said that the event was meant “to take time to remember the incredible things Steve achieved in his life and the many ways he made our world a better place.”

The temporary closing of Apple retail stores, however, was not announced via an internal memo, according to the sources. Instead, some retail employees were told about the plans over the phone and one employee claims that the event could last up to three hours.

There’s one fellow by the name of Chris Thornley, aka Raid71, who claims that he conceptualized and executed the logo back in May of 2011. There’s another fellow by the name of Farzin Adeli who says that he conceptualized and executed the logo in the hours after Jobs’s passing was announced formally. Then there’s a third designer in the mix, Jonathan Mak Long, who got credit for the logo from Rueters the morning after the announcement about the passing of Jobs.

Now you’d think that these three designers would be punching each-others lights out for the rights to claim their creation of, and therefor ownership of, the mark. As it turns out, they’re all pretty calm about the matter, each of them acknowledging the idea that it’s very likely each of them came to the idea on their own without having seen the other’s original design.

The black on white logo with the “Make Your Mark” tagline below it is claimed by Chris Thornley, aka Raid71, who is selling prints of the design with all profits going to Royal Manchesters Cancer Charity.

The white on black logo with Steve’s face looking slightly more downward than the other logo is claimed by Jonathan Mak Long, who has, as you can see above, been exonerated by Thornley, whom both parties acknowledge made his logo earlier.

The third logo, one that looks rather similar to the Mak logo, has been claimed by Farzin Adeli who, claiming he created the logo on the afternoon of the day (October 5th) that Jobs passed, is also looking to raise money for a charitable cause via his eBay page, this time for Pancreatic Cancer.

Thornley and Adeli’s charity sales of the image can be found via the links on their names. Meanwhile we’ve yet to hear from the estate of Steve Jobs, a group that we’re pretty sure might have a stake in all of this when it comes down to it.

Jobs passed away last Wednesday, October 5, just a day after the iPhone 4S was unveiled. His funeral was held last Friday in a small private ceremony comprised of family and friends. There are no plans for a public service, although people all over the world have been making tributes to Jobs and expressing their condolences, including leaving messages and flowers at Apple Stores around the world.

Cook expressed in his email to employees that the week of Jobs’ passing marked the “saddest days” of his lifetime, but that he was able to find comfort from the tributes and condolences from folks around the world and in both telling and listening to stories about Jobs. The celebration on October 19 will allow employees still saddened by the loss “to take time to remember the incredible things Steve achieved in his life for and the many ways he made our world a better place.” The ceremony will only be open to employees with arrangements to be made so that Apple employees outside of Cupertino can also attend.

The full email is included below:

Team,

Like many of you, I have experienced the saddest days of my lifetime and shed many tears during the past week. But I’ve found some comfort in the extraordinary number of tributes and condolences from people all over the world who were touched by Steve and his genius. And I’ve found comfort in both telling and listening to stories about Steve.

Although many of our hearts are still heavy, we are planning a celebration of his life for Apple employees to take time to remember the incredible things Steve achieved in his life and the many ways he made our world a better place. The celebration will be held on Wednesday, October 19, at 10am in the outdoor amphitheater on the Infinite Loop campus. We’ll have more details on AppleWeb closer to the date, including arrangements for employees outside of Cupertino.

I look forward to seeing you there.

Tim

[via 9to5 Mac]

Since Jobs lived in a modest home on a public street open to pedestrians and without any gates or security, Apple contacted the police department ahead of time so that they could be prepared in case people were to gather in mass around the home upon hearing the news that Jobs had passed.

“Here’s a guy who’s a billionaire and lives in a regular neighborhood, not behind a gated estate with all the security guards,” said former Apple employee Bruce Gee, who drove up to the home. “On Halloween, people go trick or treating there like everyone else.”

Many speculate that the empty chair marked “Reserved” next to Apple execs at the Let’s Talk iPhone event was a silent tribute to Jobs. A small private funeral for Jobs is taking place today for family and close friends. There will be no public services although a separate service for Apple employees is planned.

[via 9to5 Mac]

Stephen Colbert has had the show The Colbert Report for several years now, long enough to have reported on the original iPhone and demand that Apple give him one. Since then, he’s essentially gotten every big release that he’s asked for on air – including, yes indeed, the iPad 2 before ANYONE ELSE ON EARTH that wasn’t working for Apple at the time. Colbert gives tribute and also thanks Jobs for his generosity, noting that he and Jobs were best friends, and that he knew this because Jobs had once communicated with him.

You’ll also see the time Colbert got a brand new Lime Green iMac all the way back in 1997, this taking place in a flashback that never actually happened. Thus is the generosity of Jobs, of course, and that’s why Colbert very nearly breaks character near the end of the segment. Colbert reads the “personal” email Jobs sent him the day after the Grammy appearance that contained the words Sweet! and Thanks!, then replies post-mortem to Jobs, saying as he typed:

“Right back atcha, thanks for everything, and send.”

[via Colbert Nation]

According to the L.A. Times, those familiar with the project say that Jobs himself recruited Podolny for this project, and that there’s been a plan in place for this project for some time. When asked about the project by the Times, analyst Tim Bajarin noted the following:

“One of the things that Steve Jobs understood very well is that Apple is like no other company on the planet. It became pretty clear that Apple needed a set of educational materials so that Apple employees could learn to think and make decisions as if they were Steve Jobs.” – T.Bajarin

Apparently this project formally started in 2008, when Podolny was recruited, his job at the time (and since, we must assume,) being to help Apple analyze and internalize the way Jobs thought, acted, and lived to prepare for his eventual passing from this mortal plane. According to sources speaking with the Times, Jobs drew inspiration for the project from Bill Hewlett and David Packard who famously set core values for the company in “The HP Way”. Jobs reportedly had a list of tenets that sat at the core of Apple’s success: accountability, attention to detail, perfectionism, simplicity, and secrecy.

Back in 1996, after Pixar had created Toy Story but before Jobs had been invited back to work with Apple once more, he had a bit to say about the company that turned out to be right there at the core, once more, of the future success of the company. Take a peek at the interview with PBS’ Wall $treet Week with Louis Rukeyser here:

At the moment, it still appears as though plans for the circular “spaceship” campus in Cupertino are set to move forward, with completion of the project set for sometime inside 2015. You can see floor plans for that campus as well as the town hall meeting in Cupertino where Jobs initially laid out plans.

Observers of Podolny, such as Yale business professor Doug Rae, saw their former colleague rise to prominence extremely quickly, only to leave just as fast:

“I remember scratching my head and thinking, ‘This guy is not going to last at this rate.’ Sure enough, he left sooner than we had hoped,” – Rae

Podolny was credited with helping applications to the school rise 50% during his 3½-year tenure, while his top scholar recruits increased the size of the faculty by 20%, and those around him at the time said he responded to every email he got, “frequently by 4:30 a.m.. It was all of this, of course, that caught Jobs’ eye. Observers said that Podolny “fell under Jobs’ spell” and that he “decided to leave Yale for the chance to work with a modern-day Thomas Edison.”

As if to solidify the importance of the project, Podolny wrote to his students as a final farewell in 2008: “While there are many great companies, I cannot think of one that has had as tremendous personal meaning for me as Apple.”

We look forward to the progression of this project and certainly support the ongoing execution of plans left by Jobs for the future of technology.

[via LA Times]

Microsoft co-founder and current chairman Bill Gates was for many years pitted as Jobs’ arch rival, and points out that he and the Apple founder were “colleagues, competitors and friends” for more than half their lives:

“I’m truly saddened to learn of Steve Jobs’ death. Melinda and I extend our sincere condolences to his family and friends, and to everyone Steve has touched through his work.

Steve and I first met nearly 30 years ago, and have been colleagues, competitors and friends over the course of more than half our lives.

The world rarely sees someone who has had the profound impact Steve has had, the effects of which will be felt for many generations to come.

For those of us lucky enough to get to work with him, it’s been an insanely great honor. I will miss Steve immensely.” Bill Gates, chairman, Microsoft

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak told the BBC that Jobs’ strength was in”the little details, the tiny little nuances between one product or another.” He would remember him for “knowing what made sense in a product” and Jobs’ “very quick mind”. Meanwhile, US President Barack Obama describes Jobs as “a visionary”:

“The world has lost a visionary. And there may be no greater tribute to Steve’s success than the fact that much of the world learned of his passing on a device he invented. Michelle and I send our thoughts and prayers to Steve’s wife Laurene, his family, and all those who loved him.” President Obama

Sergey Brin and Larry Paige, Google co-founders, highlight Jobs’ focus on user experience and his “passion for excellence”:

“From the earliest days of Google, whenever Larry and I sought inspiration for vision and leadership, we needed to look no farther than Cupertino. Steve, your passion for excellence is felt by anyone who has ever touched an Apple product (including the macbook I am writing this on right now). And I have witnessed it in person the few times we have met. On behalf of all of us at Google and more broadly in technology, you will be missed very much. My condolences to family, friends, and colleagues at Apple.” Sergey Brin, co-founder, Google

“I am very, very sad to hear the news about Steve. He was a great man with incredible achievements and amazing brilliance. He always seemed to be able to say in very few words what you actually should have been thinking before you thought it. His focus on the user experience above all else has always been an inspiration to me. He was very kind to reach out to me as I became CEO of Google and spend time offering his advice and knowledge even though he was not at all well. My thoughts are with his family and the whole Apple family.” Larry Paige, CEO and co-founder, Google

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder, emphasizes the potential world-changing power that technology can have, a reminder that, just because we may not all own an iPhone or other Apple product, the technology we do use inevitably bears some element of its design or concept to products Jobs had a hand in.

“Steve, thank you for being a mentor and a friend. Thanks for showing that what you build can change the world. I will miss you.” Mark Zuckerberg, CEO, Facebook

Apple and Samsung have, most recently, been locked in fierce legal battles over innovation and design, but CEO Choi Gee-sung of the Korean company put that aside to praise Jobs’ “revolutionary” input to the industry and his “innovative spirit”:

“Samsung Electronics is saddened to hear of Chairman Steve Jobs’ passing and would like to extend our deepest condolences.

Chairman Steve Jobs introduced numerous revolutionary changes to the information technology industry and was a great entrepreneur.

His innovative spirit and remarkable accomplishments will forever be remembered by people around the world. We would like to again express our sincerest condolences to Mr. Jobs’ family and his colleagues” Choi Gee-sung, CEO, Samsung Electronics

Sony was said to be Jobs’ great inspiration, with one-time Apple CEO John Sculley claiming in an interview last year that the Japanese company became “Steve’s point of reference” for the setup of the Macintosh factories and the focus on design and build quality. Sony CEO Sir Howard Stringer suggests that Jobs’ own legacy will be one of inspiration:

“The digital age has lost its leading light, but Steve’s innovation and creativity will inspire dreamers and thinkers for generations” Sir Howard Stringer, CEO, Sony

Meanwhile, popular web comic xkcd (make sure to mouseover the picture for the alt text) commemorated Jobs in its own bittersweet way, one of numerous online tributes (including the wide-spread “Thanks Steve” Apple logo at the top of the page, a design by art student Jonathan Mak). Finally, 9 to 5 Mac dug up a video of Apple’s first “Here’s to the Crazy Ones” commercial, where Steve Jobs narrates the iconic advert. It seems a fitting way to remember a man who had a huge impact on an industry we love.

The news came from Cupertino California today that “Steve’s brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives.” Of course we need no reminder of this, having sat on the edge of our seats at his every word over the past decade and more. “The world is immeasurably better because of Steve.”

The announcement of Jobs’ passing went on to note:

His greatest love was for his wife, Laurene, and his family. Our hearts go out to them and to all who were touched by his extraordinary gifts.

Apple CEO Tim Cook today sent the following email to all Apple employees:

Team,

I have some very sad news to share with all of you. Steve passed away earlier today.

Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being. Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve have lost a dear friend and an inspiring mentor. Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple.

We are planning a celebration of Steve’s extraordinary life for Apple employees that will take place soon. If you would like to share your thoughts, memories and condolences in the interim, you can simply email rememberingsteve@apple.com.

No words can adequately express our sadness at Steve’s death or our gratitude for the opportunity to work with him. We will honor his memory by dedicating ourselves to continuing the work he loved so much.

Tim

An undeniably sad day for the world at large, but also a time to reflect on the undeniably massive impact this modern marvel has had on the earth.