The FBI’s 191-page file on the late Steve Jobs — released Thursday — reveals that the feds were keenly interested in the Apple founder’s character, as well as his past drug use and criminal history.
Thirty-seven million iPhones. Fifteen million iPads. Fifteen million iPods. Five million Macs. A million Apple TVs. No matter how you do the math, that’s a boatload of gadgets–and it’s how many Apple sold in the final three months of 2011. The company’s profits–$13.06 billion–were the second-highest in the history of American business. But I don’t care about Apple’s bottom line. What I find fascinating about these big numbers is what they say about the size of Apple’s customer base. It’s enormous, and still growing. And the larger it becomes, the weirder it gets that some people reflexively dismiss Apple owners as empty-headed, style-obsessed cult members.
The Lemelson-MIT Invention Index is a self-proclaimed “annual survey that gauges Americans’ perceptions about invention and innovation.” The latest survey asked 1,000 respondents between the ages of 16 and 25 various questions about invention, innovation and modern technology, including this doozy: “Who’s the greatest innovator of all time?”
The man who arguably knew the Apple founder best – his biographer, Walter Isaacson – was at the 92nd Street Y on Manhattan’s Upper East Side telling a standing-room-only audience of 600 about insights gained during the two years he spent interviewing Steve Jobs.
Lytro, an upcoming camera that can snap photos instantly without even having to focus, reportedly intrigued Steve Jobs so much that he met with the camera’s creator to discuss working with Apple.
World, you can finally breathe easy: We’ve found our next Steve Jobs. In a series of tweets posted earlier this week, Kanye West announced that he was launching a company to “make products and experiences that people want and can afford,” because “we need to pick up where Steve Jobs left off.”
Well, this isn’t much of a surprise. Apple is threatening to sue the Chinese company responsible for the world’s creepiest Steve Jobs action figure.
How long should you wait to cash in on the likeness of a universally beloved and recently deceased innovator? Just a few months, apparently, because Chinese company In Icons is looking to ship a disturbingly ultra-realistic 12-inch Steve Jobs action figure for $99 starting in February.
Following his death in October, Apple co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs received a host of tributes and plaudits, but come February, he’s going to get one more: a posthumous Grammy Award.
First it was a school in Bulgaria naming a school after him. Now, a man in Hungary is commissioning a seven-foot bronze statue of Steve Jobs to be erected in a Budapest technology park.
In the movie version of Steve Jobs’ life, the role of Apple’s late CEO and co-founder may go to George Clooney. Or Noah Wyle. Or neither, because frankly this rumor seems a bit fishy.
