Following the untimely death of Apple CEO Steve Jobs, the only officially endorsed autobiography, Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography, gets its release this week and is to guaranteed to go into the top spot – we take a look at some of the excerpts that have been released during the follow-up to this week’s release.
Written by Walter Isaacson, who interviewed Jobs 40 times during his final battle with cancer, also had access to the inventor’s friends and family. It's expected to give fans of Apple a look into the mind of someone who really changed the world.
Over the last couple of weeks hundreds of people have given their thoughts on why they thought Steve Jobs was so important – from our own Steven Fry to US president Barack Obama, they have all praised the founder of Apple computers as a true visionary and one of the most important people of the last 25 years.
Steve Jobs and the “grand theft” by Google
Steve felt Apple was the victim of a “grand theft” when Google released the Android mobile operating system, to say he was wasn't happy would be an understatement, he felt Google had simply stolen their entire concept, previously Job's relationship with Google had been a good one, but when they started to compete against each in the mobile phone market, relations were less than cordial.
He said: "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 on the betrayal by Eric Schmidt
It’s obvious that Steve Jobs felt Apple were betrayed by Google's Eric Schmidt. Schmidt had previously sat on Apple's board from 2006 to 2009, but when Android came out Jobs felt it was theft, theft of Apple's ideas and they wouldn't take it lying down. Jobs met with Schmidt at a café in Palo Alto, California and told him in no uncertain terms what he felt about the Google and their Android operating system.
"I don't want your money. If you offer me $5 billion, I don't want it. I've got plenty of money. I want you to stop using our ideas in Android, that's all I want."
Steve Jobs on the “unimaginative” Microsoft Founder Bill Gates
Steve Jobs and Bill Gates relationship goes back as far as the 1970's, there's no doubt that their relationship was a complex one, but in the autobiography Steve Jobs spoke candidly about his thoughts towards Microsoft founder Bill Gates.
“He’d be a broader guy if he had dropped acid once or gone off to an ashram when he was younger.” Jobs went on to lambast Gates, “He really never knew much about technology, but he had an amazing instinct for what works.”
Jobs also had some words to say about Gates after his time with Microsoft saying: “Bill is basically unimaginative and has never invented anything, which is why I think he’s more comfortable now in philanthropy than technology. He just shamelessly ripped off other people’s ideas.”
But Steve Jobs actually might actually owe a lot to Microsoft, as it’s suggested the idea for a tablet was actually from a Microsoft employee who had boasted to Jobs over dinner that they had a revolutionary tablet in production.
‘This dinner was like the tenth time he talked to me about it, and I was so sick of it that I came home and said, “F**k this, let’s show him what a tablet can really be”,’ Jobs said.
Steve Jobs and a future Apple TV
Many tech commentators have often speculated that Apple will one day make a TV. Well, according to excerpts from the book it was on Steve’s agenda to completely revolutionise the TV.
A TV with iOS built-in and would be incredibly easy to use. Essentially it would be a 40 or 50-inch iPad, a system that understands voice commands, using Apple’s new Siri virtual assistant, and spares you the trouble of fumbling with a clunky remote that always gets lost between the sofa cushions.
If you want to watch an obscure movie, or play a game, or record the Titans game on Sunday, ask and the system will find it. No more finding the buttons to switch manually between video sources; the TV will put it on the screen for you
Jobs said, 'I'd like to create an integrated television set that is completely easy to use,' adding, '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.”
Steve Jobs on meeting Barack Obama and his can’t do attitude
Not one to mince his words it was common knowledge that Jobs could be a difficult character and would often say what he felt irrespective of what others felt.
US President Barack Obama was one person to who knew this from personal experience, Jobs told the man in the White House "You're headed for a one-term presidency," in a meeting back in 2010, when discussing Obama’s approach to big business.
The meeting between the two almost didn't happen due to the fact that the President had not personally invited him. His wife told him that Obama “was really psyched to meet with you,” and after a five-day stand off, they finally met at the Westin San Francisco Airport.
Jobs told Isaacson he was not impressed with the president after their meeting, in part because of Mr. Obama’s focus on what is not possible, rather than what is possible.
“The president is very smart. But he kept explaining to us reasons why things can’t get done,” Jobs told Isaacson. “It infuriates me.”
Jobs also slammed the U.S. educational system as “crippled by union work rules.” He proposed longer school days – until 6 p.m. – and a longer school year – 11 months.
Steve Jobs on the infamous turtleneck jumper
Everyone will recognise Steve Jobs by the famous turtle neck jumper he used to wear whenever he took to the stage to announce new Apple products, but what was the story behind the famous look Steve loved so much?
Jobs revealed, “Sony, with its appreciation for style, had gotten the famous designer Issey Miyake to create its uniform. It was a jacket made of rip-stop nylon with sleeves that could unzip to make it a vest. So Jobs called Issey Miyake and asked him to design a vest for Apple, Jobs recalled, “I came back with some samples and told everyone it would great if we would all wear these vests. Oh man, did I get booed off the stage. Everybody hated the idea.”
Jobs added, “So I asked Issey to make me some of his black turtlenecks that I liked, and he made me like a hundred of them.” Jobs noticed my surprise when he told this story, so he showed them stacked up in the closet. “That’s what I wear,” he said. “I have enough to last for the rest of my life.”
Steve Jobs autobiography is out now.