The Inquisitr » steve jobs

iPodRip Gets Direct Response From Steve Jobs, Immediately Changes Name

James Allen Johnson — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 03:49:32 +0000

John Devor, co-owner of the Apple software company “The Little App Factory” received an email from Apple Lawyers telling him to change the name of his iPodRip program or face trademark infringement over the iPod name. In response to that letter Mr. Devor sent a message directly to Steve Jobs pleading his case.

Here’s Johns letter to Jobs and the response he received back:

Dear Mr. Jobs,

My name is John Devor and I’m the co-owner of a small Mac shareware company named The Little App Factory and a long-term Apple customer and shareholder. I doubt you’re aware but we recently received a letter from a law firm working on Apple’s behalf instructing us that we had violated several of Apple’s trademarks in our application iPodRip and asking us to cease using the name and Apple trademarks in our icons.

We have been distributing iPodRip since 2003 with the aim of providing a method to recover music, movies and photos from iPods and iPhones in the event of a serious hardware failure on their Mac which leads to data loss. Our goal has been to provide the highest quality product coupled with the highest quality service in a bid to resolve some of the angst that is generated by such an ordeal; service befitting of an Apple product. In this department we think we have succeeded as we have approximately 6 million customers, many Apple employees, music artists and other notable people in society. In fact I’d argue that our customer service is the best of all competing applications in our niche as many of them are scams and frauds that leave Apple customers with a terrible taste in their collective mouths. We fear very much that tens of thousands of Apple customers looking to recover their own music and having heard of our product via word-of-mouth or otherwise, will instead find a product produced by one of our competitors, and will wind up the victim of a scam (one closely-named competitor charges a hidden monthly fee, for instance).

It is quite obvious that we mean Apple no harm with the use of the name iPodRip, or of the inclusion of trademarked items in our icons, and in fact I believe that we have been providing an excellent secondary service to Apple customers that has potentially caused you many repeat clients. In fact, we are quite aware that Apple support and store staff have recommended our software on numerous occasions as far back as 2004 so we have felt that we were doing something right!

With this in mind, we are in desperate need of some assistance and we beseech you to help us to protect our product and our shareware company, both of which we have put thousands upon thousands of hours of work into. Our company goal is to create Mac software of the highest quality with the best user experience possible. I myself dropped out of school recently to pursue a path in the Mac software industry, and you yourself have been a consistent inspiration for me.

If there is anything at all you can do with regards to this matter, we would be most grateful.

Best,

John Devor

After receiving the letter here’s the response Steve Jobs sent back to Denver:

Change your apps name. Not that big of a deal.

Steve

Sent from my iPhone

The App is now called iRip, just don’t read too much into the tone of Jobs response, his point was clear, concise and simple. [Gizmodo]

Apple really is a part of Steve Jobs

Steven Hodson — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 01:50:00 +0000

I thought that maybe the Apple fans would appreciate this little gem I found today. It is a mosaic by Tsevis and is based on an original photograph used in an article by Deanna Lowe at Fortune magazine (click on graphic for full view).

Steve Jobs Returns To The Stage At “It’s Only Rock And Roll” Event

James Allen Johnson — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 19:52:36 +0000

Steve Jobs was greeted with a standing ovation when he appeared at the start of Apple’s “It’s Only Rock And Roll” event today. The appearance marks the first time Jobs has graced an event stage since his hiatus from Apple due to sickness.

Here’s a video of Steve Jobs as he promised many new innovations, it’s his typical spiel, aside from urging everyone to become an organ donor, while thanking the person who saved his life thanks to their donation.

He still looks underweight and quite honestly frail compared to his past stature, but the improvement in his health is also apparent.

First photo of Steve Jobs back at Apple (Via TMZ)

Paul Short — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 02:13:14 +0000

The photo of Steve Jobs above was taken at about 3pm Wednesday afternoon as the Apple boss left the company headquarters in Cupertino, California.

Jobs took a temporary leave of absence in January of this year for a liver transplant and supposedly returned to work about a month ago. He hasn’t made any public appearances since he’s been back, but maybe it’s because he doesn’t want any of his fans seeing him in this alarmingly thin state. We all know that an extreme life threatening condition like liver disease can take a tremendous toll on a person’s physical appearance, but still, seeing him this skinny could be unsettling to many.

At any rate, he’s wearing his classic Steve Jobs attire of a black turtleneck, jeans and sneakers. He’s back at work, out walking and we’re hoping to see a lot more of him soon.

Thanks to a TMZ shutterbug for the pics, which were reportedly taken with an iPhone

Report claims Steve Jobs has had a liver transplant

Duncan Riley — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 09:48:26 +0000

Apple CEO Steve Jobs is claimed to have had a liver transplant in Tennessee about two months ago, according to the Wall Street Journal. The report claims that Jobs is recovering well and expected to return to work this month.

Reports that Jobs had been considering a liver transplant following treatment for islet cell neuroendocrine tumor in 2004 surfaced in January this year. The move to Tennessee for the transplant is believed to be due to shorter waiting lists in the state.

Apple naturally has made no comment on the report.

Jobs’ health has been the subject of speculation since he first appeared gaunt at Macworld in early 2008. An appearance later that year at the WWDC event lead to further speculation, although Jobs denied health issues at the time.

The perfect gift for Apple and Microsoft lovers alike

Steven Hodson — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 21:48:24 +0000

It’s not very often you run across something that would make a suitable gift to two totally different types of people but Podbrix may have just found that magic pill. For a limited time only you can get that computer geek in the household the perfect gift.

Just imagine the howls of joy from Apple fanbois and Microsoft kool-aid drinkers ( a small and rare breed admittedly) as they unwrap their present only to find a plush toy resembling Steve Jobs. It might only be a 17” high version but still it comes with hand stitched shoe laces and wire shaped glasses for the full effect.

Plush Jobs loves you. Cuddle up with him and pretend he’s whispering corporate secrets in your ear. Jobs enjoys hanging out with your other stuffed animals… also he adores Barbie. But please keep him away from computers running Windows, he hates those.

Source: PodBrix site

See what I mean?

Apple lovers can cuddle up to it at night and Microsoft fans can use it as a voodoo doll. Everyone wins.

[Hat tip to CTV.ca]

Apple (AAPL) Stock Dives 6% on Steve Jobs Standing Down News

Duncan Riley — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 23:02:09 +0000

Apple (AAPL) stock has dived over 6% in after hours trading following the announcement that CEO Steve Jobs was stepping down as CEO until the end of June.

AAPL shares were down 2.71% in regular trading to $85.33 as news leaked of a trading halt prior to the announcement.

At 5:55pm EST, Apple shares were trading at $79.94 or 6.32% down, just above the 52 week low of $79.14 in heavy trading.

See our earlier post: Steve Jobs stepping down for a copy of the memo.

Breaking: Steve Jobs Steps Down as Apple CEO until the End of June

Duncan Riley — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 21:46:05 +0000

Apple (APPL) has announced that Steve Jobs is stepping down temporarily as CEO due to health issues.

An advisory from Apple included a letter from Steve Jobs to staff:

I am sure all of you saw my letter last week sharing something very personal with the Apple community. Unfortunately, the curiosity over my personal health continues to be a distraction not only for me and my family, but everyone else at Apple as well. In addition, during the past week I have learned that my health-related issues are more complex than I originally thought.

In order to take myself out of the limelight and focus on my health, and to allow everyone at Apple to focus on delivering extraordinary products, I have decided to take a medical leave of absence until the end of June.

I have asked Tim Cook to be responsible for Apple’s day to day operations, and I know he and the rest of the executive management team will do a great job. As CEO, I plan to remain involved in major strategic decisions while I am out. Our board of directors fully supports this plan.

I look forward to seeing all of you this summer.

Steve

And peope are still arguing that his non-appearance at Macworld wasn’t health related. More if we have it.

Jobs owes Apple and its customers more than a hormone imbalance

Steven Hodson — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 04:35:56 +0000

Now before any of the Mac crowd or the warm and fuzzy bunch start jumping down my throat brandishing words like soulless or heartless or that’s it’s none of our business let me clarify a few points. One – I think Steve Jobs is an incredibly brilliant businessman that I have the utmost respect for. Two – as one who suffers from an condition that could see me not waking up in the morning or falling dead in the street I have a sincere compassion for whatever health problems that Jobs is suffering from. Unlike him though I don’t have a company that can lose billions of dollars based alone on what he says or does.

The fact of the matter is that during the time that Steve Jobs wasn’t a part of Apple the company was almost driven into total collapse. It is the charisma – if you can call it that – plus the incredible marketing and design acumen of Steve Jobs that saved Apple from extinction. Sure they can try and bring in a executive team to replace him but notice I said team because I don’t believe there is a single person that can drive Apple with the same vision as he does.

The marketplace knows that Apple is Steve Jobs and Steve Jobs is Apple. The very success the company is experiencing even now is due entirely to his management and ideas. Yes it would be nice to say that it’s a private matter and we have no business asking for clarification but that isn’t the case. While it may seem a silly comparison we expect full health disclosure from the President of the United States and so we should expect the same from a man who can single handily cost Apple billions if he breaths the wrong way.

I agree totally with Mathew Ingram when he said today

As John Byrne of Business Week noted on Twitter today, there is a premium of anywhere from 15 to 25 per cent built into Apple’s share price because Steve Jobs is the CEO. If he were to disappear, it would remove billions of dollars in market value overnight. If that doesn’t qualify as a “material fact,” then I don’t know what does.

If it’s material, then Apple has to disclose it. And the statement from Jobs is effectively an admission of that. By extension, when the company said he wasn’t sick — and got CNBC to repeat this assertion — it was putting itself at risk of breaching SEC disclosure rules. But now that Steve has come clean everything is settled, right? Hardly. If anything, Apple’s wishy-washy approach to this whole issue over the past few months raises more questions about the company’s credibility than it answers.

I’m sorry but when billions of dollars and a company’s reputation is at risk giving us a hormone imbalance doesn’t cut it.

Steve Jobs: Weight Loss a Result of Hormone Imbalance

JR — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 17:41:51 +0000

Steve Jobs is finally addressing the long-running rumors surrounding his weight loss and the state of his health. Jobs says he has learned a hormone imbalance has caused him to lose weight in recent months, leading to his altered appearance.

Steve Jobs’ Weight Loss and Health

Steve Jobs’ weight loss had been noticed by many media outlets and has generated countless speculative reports over the past couple of years. Some wondered whether the weight loss was related to his previous bout with pancreatic cancer, with some sites going as far as to question whether he had cancer again. Jobs’ recent decision to back out of his typical MacWorld keynote address only fueled the fire.

Steve Jobs’ Weight Loss Explanation

The following is Steve Jobs’ full explanation of his weight loss and health, as written in an open letter to the Apple community this week. Apple’s Board of Directors followed up with a short note stating its support for Jobs’ continuation as the company’s CEO during his treatment.

Dear Apple Community,

For the first time in a decade, I’m getting to spend the holiday season with my family, rather than intensely preparing for a Macworld keynote.

Unfortunately, my decision to have Phil deliver the Macworld keynote set off another flurry of rumors about my health, with some even publishing stories of me on my deathbed.

I’ve decided to share something very personal with the Apple community so that we can all relax and enjoy the show tomorrow.

As many of you know, I have been losing weight throughout 2008. The reason has been a mystery to me and my doctors. A few weeks ago, I decided that getting to the root cause of this and reversing it needed to become my #1 priority.

Fortunately, after further testing, my doctors think they have found the cause-a hormone imbalance that has been “robbing” me of the proteins my body needs to be healthy. Sophisticated blood tests have confirmed this diagnosis.

The remedy for this nutritional problem is relatively simple and straightforward, and I’ve already begun treatment. But, just like I didn’t lose this much weight and body mass in a week or a month, my doctors expect it will take me until late this Spring to regain it. I will continue as Apple’s CEO during my recovery.

I have given more than my all to Apple for the past 11 years now. I will be the first one to step up and tell our Board of Directors if I can no longer continue to fulfill my duties as Apple’s CEO. I hope the Apple community will support me in my recovery and know that I will always put what is best for Apple first.

So now I’ve said more than I wanted to say, and all that I am going to say, about this.

Steve

I’ll Believe Steve Jobs is Healthy When I See Him on Camera Looking Healthy

Duncan Riley — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 00:00:49 +0000

Another day, another round of Steve Jobs is on his death bed rumors.

The latest rumor on Apple (APPL) CEO Steve Job being sick comes from Gizmodo, quoting a “reliable source” as saying that Jobs’ health is rapidly declining. Like previous rumors, this is attributed to the no-show at Macworld for the Stevenote.

As is usual, a number of sites sprung up as against the rumors, but only after AAPL stock dived from $87.99 to $85.04 (shares closed at $86.29, down 0.37%). AllThingsD quotes CNBC against the rumors, and goes as far as thinking that it might be a stock manipulation scheme.

Apple continues to remain silent about Steve Jobs’ health as they always have, citing his health as being a “private matter.”

Apple does have a long history of secrecy, so their refusal to rebut the rumors isn’t unusual, and yet given the constant speculation, most other companies now would have at least made a statement, or better still, rolled out their CEO for the cameras. It can be argued that Apple would have a duty to say something as well: if indeed Jobs is unwell to the point that he is no longer fulfilling his job, this should be disclosed to the market, likewise if he is healthy and the stock price declines based on false information, Apple should be saying so as well. Without a full understanding of US securities law (it would arguably be required under Australian law) it may also be a legal requirement that they disclose the fact if he is indeed unwell.

It is a stretch of course to suggest that failure to counter a rumor supports that rumor, but likewise if Apple has nothing to hide, why indeed are we not seeing Jobs. Even a small public appearance from Jobs would be enough to demonstrate that the rumors are false.

I’ll believe Steve Jobs is Healthy when I see him on camera, looking heathy, and not before then. It is the only irrefutable way these rumors will be going away, and as long as Apple remains silent the rumors will continue to gather steam.

Are bloggers & social networks killing the big shows?

Robert Scoble — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 04:57:30 +0000

I’ve noticed a trend lately (actually I noticed it back when I worked at Microsoft and my bosses kept refusing to buy booths at conferences, saying they didn’t return the ROI, but that trend has grown and grown big time). Big companies are throwing their own parties to get news out inside of going to big trade shows. Last night I was at Facebook’s party, where they told everyone they had just passed 140 million users. That deserves a blog post of its own, but we’re here to discuss the trade show crunch.

Earlier in the year we attended a day-long event where Electronic Arts introduced a bunch of bloggers to Dead Space, here’s our video with the producer of that.

I’ve watched as Apple invites a few hundred bloggers and journalists into a conference room at its headquarters in Cupertino and gets the news out to the world without having to go to an expensive venue.

What changed?

Teen responsible for Job’s heart attack

Dominic Rivera — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 14:07:10 +0000

An 18-year old is now the target of a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigation for spreading the false report that Apple CEO Steve Jobs had a heart attack. The false report, posted at CNN’s iReport last October 3, sent Apple’s market value down by $4.8 billion or 5.4 percent in just an hour.

“Steve Jobs was rushed to the ER just a few hours ago after suffering a major heart attack. I have an insider who tells me that paramedics were called after Steve claimed to be suffering from severe chest pains and shortness of breath,” the false report posted by the fake citizen journalist stated.

Authorities are still examining the teen’s motives, if there’s any other than playing prank. Steve Jobs has since the incident appeared to show that he is very much alive, revealing his blood pressure reading of 110/70 on the main screen during Apple’s Notebook event.

As a matter of disclosure, I own a meager number of Apple shares that almost went to dust that day.

CNN/ Jobs Heart Attack Scandal: 100% not a failure of citizen journalism

Duncan Riley — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 23:13:42 +0000

According to report published on CNN’s iReport this morning, Apple CEO Steve Jobs suffered a heart attack, causing Apple’s stock price to plummet until Apple officially denied the report.

CNN’s iReport, for those not familiar with it, is a “citizen journalism” site that allows any registered user to submit news stories. Think forum, but with James Earl Jones doing the voice over.

We don’t know for sure why somebody posted the false story about Jobs yet, but we can guess: it may have been a simple lark, but more likely it was a stock price manipulation scheme. Schemes that seek to manipulate stock prices for greed outside of the accepted legal norms have been in existence as long as there have been stock exchanges. Emails, newsletters, fake media releases, rumor spreading…the list goes on and on.

99% chance that what occurred this morning is part of a scam, so why are some leading sites saying that citizen journalism has failed?

Sarah over at ReadWriteWeb leads with the idea in the headline: “Steve Jobs Had No Heart Attack…And Citizen Journalism Just Failed,” Silicon Alley Insider’s Henry Blodget, who should be able to see a scam a mile away, writes that “Citizen journalism apparently just failed its first significant test.”

It hasn’t. What we’ve seen here is likely a traditional stock scam, and an execution failure from a leading media company. It says absolutely nothing about citizen journalism at all.

On the execution side, CNN iReport was used as a cheap way of finding story leads and growing site traffic for CNN, with very little actual oversight. Submissions are not moderated, and while you can’t possibly moderate everything on the internet, if you’re running a respectable news outlet and people are submitting stories, you most certainly can and should moderate every single news item that hits the site. The fail card lies with CNN, and if Apple sues, they’ll be paying for their laziness and poor execution as well.

Here Lies Steve J…Wait a Minute, Nevermind

JR — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 14:36:53 +0000

Steve Jobs was dead for a short time this week — at least, if you were to believe everything you read on Bloomberg.

The network’s financial wire mistakenly published an obit of Jobs Wednesday, seemingly as it was trying to update the copy for future use. The story, of course, was pulled back moments later — but not before Gawker was able to grab a copy and give it a permanent home.

The 17-page file is a verbose account of Jobs’ life and career, though with nothing you haven’t heard before. The funniest part is Bloomberg’s retraction notice…which makes no mention of the fact that it potentially made thousands of people think a well-known man had died.

“Aug. 27 (Bloomberg) – An incomplete story referencing Apple Inc. was inadvertently published by Bloomberg News at 4:27 p.m. New York time today. The item was never meant for publication and has been retracted.”

This comes, of course, just days after the L.A. Times made a “whoops, wrong button” gaffe of its own, publishing a story saying Obama had picked Clinton as his running mate. The paper also published drafts created in case he picked any of the other likely VP candidates.

We here at The Inquisitr pre-write only our own obituaries to encourage extra care and responsibility in not mistakenly publishing them. Mine, incidentally, rocks.

No related posts.

iPhone 3G To Start At $199

JR — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 17:15:05 +0000

It’s official: The new iPhone 3G is on the way and will start as low as $199. Steve Jobs revealed the news at Monday’s Apple Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco.

The iPhone 3G will be released July 11 in 22 countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK and the United States. The black 8GB model will be marketed at $199, while the 16GB version — to be made available in either black or white — will go for $299.

The new phone will be a smaller and sleeker design with solid metal buttons and the same large display. The added 3G support will mean data downloads almost three times faster than EDGE speeds, Jobs said. The iPhone 3G is also 36 percent faster than other comparable phones like the Nokia N95 and Treo 750, according to Apple. It will also add integrated GPS support, which will allow for “tracking” — a moving dot on a real-time Google map showing your location.

The updated model is said to have 300 hours of standby battery life and double the amount of talk-time as its predecessor, with five full hours. It will offer five to six hours of high-speed browsing, seven hours of video, or 24 hours of audio without the need to recharge.

Jobs said the updated phone will include fully built-in enterprise support, third-party application support, as well as support for more countries than ever — now 70 total — thanks to the many added features in the upcoming iPhone 2.0 software package, also announced Monday along with a slew of new third-party applications.

Apple is hanging onto its goal of 10 million iPhone sales by the end of 2008 — a mark that will no doubt be made easier once the new phones hit store shelves.

Countdown To iPhone 2.0

JR — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 14:23:02 +0000

Steve Jobs is expected to announce an amped-up new iPhone later today.

Jobs’ keynote address at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, at 10 a.m. PDT, is widely anticipated to contain the news of the new 3G-capable phone. Rumor has it the cost will drop down to $199, too, and could be available as soon as the summer.

We’ll be watching and will bring you the developments as they happen right here.