The late technology magnate (read: god) Steve Jobs apparently had himself an FBI file, thrown together back in 1991 when he was being considered by Bush the elder for appointment to public office. Thanks to the Freedom of Information Act, the file has been released to the Wall Street Journal, and if you want it, the 191-page document can be found here. Otherwise, stay tuned for some highlights:

- Jobs’ known use of drugs during his formative years comes up a lot in the file, but those interviewed vouched for Stevie, unanimously agreeing that those days were well behind him.

- Jobs has always been known as an uncompromising businessman, even a tad direct and a little “mean”. One man interviewed, who called himself a former “good friend” of Jobs, said that Steve-O is “basically … honest and trustworthy,” but that “his moral character is suspect.” Jobs, the man continued, “alienated a large number of people at Apple, as a result of his ambition.” Another source who apparently didn’t understand that the interview was about Steve Jobs wished to avoid talking about him entirely, due to “questions concerning his ethics and morality.”

- An attached memo summarizes the background investigation, saying: “Several individuals questioned Mr. Jobs’ honesty stating that Mr. Jobs will twist the truth and distort reality in order to achieve his goals.”

- In a bit of a low blow, some interviewees said that Jobs hadn’t been the best dad to his born-out-of-wedlock daughter or her mother, until recently.

- One crowning piece of information, an interviewee described Jobs as “a deceptive individual who who is not completely forthright and honest.” Others said Jobs “has integrity as long as he gets his way.”

- It’s not all bad though! Two interviewees called Jobs “hardworking and driven,” and another complimented his studies in eastern religion, saying that they improved his life.

I think it’s pretty much assumed that if you’re going to make it to the top, you’ve got to step on some folks along the way. But what do you think of Steve Jobs’ FBI profile? Easy to believe or hard to swallow?

Secrets of Steve Jobs: Character Questioned in FBI File, Called “Deceptive” is a post from: The Inquisitr

Before Napster, musicians used to have their music stolen from a device even more devious than the computer. The dreaded radio. Legendary singer Neil Young says that he isn’t worried about digital piracy because it’s just a new version of the radio.

Speaking at a conference, Young addressed the issue of piracy saying:

“It doesn’t affect me because I look at the internet as the new radio. I look at the radio as gone…. Piracy is the new radio. That’s how music gets around… That’s the radio. If you really want to hear it, let’s make it available, let them hear it, let them hear the 95 percent of it.”

Neil Young: Piracy Is The New Radio is a post from: The Inquisitr

Virgin America, a popular flight choice for those in the US, has named a plan in honor of the late and great Steve Jobs. On October 5th, 2011, Steve passed away and left behind a wonderful legacy of innovation and passion.

Through his leadership, he led Apple from a failing company, to the most valuable company in the World. Richard Branson who runs Virgin, has always been inspired by Steve’s work and through an internal naming competition, one of the employees suggested one of his many famous quotes.

Via MSNBC:

“Your inner geek will smile the next time you board a Virgin America flight. After all, there’s a chance that you’ll be stepping onto a plane that is named in honor of late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.”

“Virgin America’s Abby Lunardini explained to me that one of the airline’s jets — an Airbus A320 — has “Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish” stenciled on its nose as the result of an internal plane naming competition which was run in the fall of 2011. At that time, the aircraft name was submitted ”as a tribute” to Jobs by one of Virgin America’s employees. The plane entered service late last year.”

Even with the competition in the airline industry and losses, the company is still pushing forward. Higher fuel costs are attributed to the decrease in profits. Despite that, Richard Branson’s vision for the airline is to provide a great value with style, comfort, and solid customer service.

People are apparently happy as their number of passengers recently rose 38%.

Have you ever flown Virgin America or see yourself doing so?

Virgin America Remembers Steve Jobs is a post from: The Inquisitr

Adam Lashinsky, senior editor at Fortune and the author of the upcoming book, ‘Inside Apple: How America’s Most Admired — and Secretive — Company Really Works’, talked about some of the things that Apple does when it comes to keeping secrets.

Now, it’s nothing new to know that the tech giant is very secretive about certain information and project details. They’ve been known to be like the CIA when it comes to keeping information under wraps and away from the public as well as tech bloggers’ eyes and ears.

Because of this secrecy, Apple is very much talked about and very buzz worthy in the blogging space because their secrets encourage rumors, reports, anonymous sources coming forward, and all of that jazz.

Via Fortune:

“Apple goes to great lengths to maintain discipline. “There were just these things that were kept very, very secret,” said a former senior executive. “There was a project we were working on where we put in special locks on one of the floors and put up a couple of extra doors to hide away a team that was working on stuff. You had to sign extra-special agreements acknowledging that you were working on a super-secret project and you wouldn’t talk about it to anyone — not your wife, not your kids.”

Steve Jobs was very serious when it came to keeping details locked away and was even reported as saying “Anything disclosed from this meeting will result not just in termination but in the prosecution to the fullest extent that our lawyers can.”

Another interesting story:

“For the most part, Apple counts on its employees to censor themselves. But in some cases it pays attention to what employees say when they are out of the office – even when they’ve only walked across the street for a beer. BJ’s Restaurant & Brewhouse is tucked so close to Apple’s Cupertino campus that insiders jokingly refer to it as IL‑7, for “Infinite Loop 7,” a building that doesn’t exist. Company lore holds that plainclothes Apple security agents lurk near the bar at BJ’s and that employees have been fired for loose talk there.”

Adam’s new book comes out January 25th and looks to be quite an interesting read for Apple fans and people simply interested in the company and how it operates.

Do you think Apple takes secrets too far?

Apple Almost Like The CIA When It Comes To Keeping Secrets is a post from: The Inquisitr

You can file this one under the “Well Duh!” category but a little while back after Steve Jobs had passed away toy maker In Icons announced that they were going to produce a highly detailed figurine of the Apple CEO. The figurine was reportedly set to come with a holdable apple and a chair you could use to pose the Jobs figurine on as well as a backdrop that had the famous “One more thing” catch phrase on it.

Just about everyone in the tech industry knew that this wasn’t going to fly and that there was no doubt that Apple would let loose their lawyers to stop this desecration of their dear leader.

Well it turns out that we were right, Apple has indeed let In Turn know that this wasn’t going to happen by sending them a cease-and-desist letter that state that In Icons was breaking the law by creating a product that “resembles the technology company’s logo, person’s name, appearance, or likeness of its products.”

While Tandy Cheung, head of the Honk Kong based In Icons, disagreed with the interpretation of the law he dis agree that the company would stop the offer and any production of the Steve Jobs figurine out of respect for the feelings of the Jobs family.

via CNET

Had plans to buy that cool Steve Jobs doll? Well you can forget it – it’s been cancelled is a post from: The Inquisitr

Yesterday I reported on a life like Steve Jobs action figure that was getting ready to hit the open market in February for a cost of $99 and now it looks like that action figure may never see the light of day.

According to a report from the Telegraph Apple is threatening to sue action figure makers InIcons. According to reports Apple sent a letter to InIcons in which they stated that it is illegal to use a company’s logo, a person’s name or their likeness without consent.

In the meantime InIcons continues to take pre-orders for the action figure and InIcons’ Tony Cheung made some comments to ABC News in which it appears they won’t back down.

“Apple can do anything they like. I will not stop, we already started production.”

Cheung goes on to note that his legal team advised him that the action figure is in compliance with the law because it’s not sold with any Apple product replicas. InIcon argues that because Jobs is “not an actor, he’s just a celebrity” there is no copyright protection for a “normal person.”

Cheung continues:

“Steve Jobs is not a product…so I don’t think Apple has the copyright of him.”

This isn’t the first time a Steve Jobs action figure has been created, MIC Gadget produced a life-like action figure last year but that action figure was eventually shut down by the legal team at Apple.

Do you plan to buy an InIcon Steve Jobs action figure if they actually make it to market?

Apple Fighting For Removal Of Steve Jobs Action Figure is a post from: The Inquisitr

It was only a matter of time before Apple co-founder Steve Jobs was immortalized with the help of an action figure and now that day has come thanks to a toy company that has dressed the iconic tech figure in his trademark circular rimless glasses, blue jeans and black turtle neck.

Standing at 12-inches tall the action figure sells for $99 plus shipping and will go on sale in the United States in February.

According to the toy company they created the action figure “to honor the American icon and great visionary Steve Jobs.”

While the toy is not the first we’ve seen of Steve Jobs it is one of the more realistic looking options with every little detail thought up right down to his wedding ring.

Also included with the Steve Jobs action figure are a pair of black socks, an Apple background for kids who want to play “Apple Conference Steve” and a chair for the tech mogul to sit in along with two apples, one of which has a bite out of it.

Here’s a few more photos of the action figure, let us know what you think:

Steve Jobs Action Figure Is Oddly Realistic Looking [Pics] is a post from: The Inquisitr

BUDAPEST, Hungary – The rumored statue of late Apple C.E.O. and famed technological innovator Steve Jobs was unveiled today in a Budapest science park, two months after his death.

Though many memorials have been fashioned and presented in the wake of Jobs’ death on October 5, this is the first statue. The larger-than-life piece stands at two meters, depicting Jobs wearing his trademark jeans and turtleneck, holding onto what appears to be an iPhone, with one hand raised.

Gabor Bojar, the founder of software company GRAPHISOFT is the man (or rather the wallet) behind the six-and-a-half-foot bronze statue sculpted by Hungarian artist Erno Toth. Of the late-great technological monolith, Gabor said:

“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.”

Doting on Jobs further, Gabor has said that, “Steve Jobs made technology available to the masses first over the desktop, then in our pockets,” and that Jobs “was the creator of technology with a human face.” Gabor also considers Jobs as a “mentor of sorts.”

The science park in which the statue stands is home to several technology companies including Gabor’s GRAPHISOFT which has been supported by Jobs who stumbled across it at a CEBIT international trade fair in Germany in 1984.

I feel mass pilgrimages coming on. Like photographs in the Chicago Bean or ones of tourists straining to hold up the Leaning Tower of Piza, more pictures of people snapping a photo of the statue with their iPhones and iPads are certainly on their way, says I.

What do you think of all this statue business? Is that thing horrifying or inspiring?

First Steve Jobs Statue Unveiled is a post from: The Inquisitr

In 1976 Apple was founded by Steve Wozniak, Steve Jobs and a largely unknown former investor named Ronald Wayne. Two weeks after the company was started Wayne sold his stake for $2,300, believing that the company was on shaky ground and would never take off. Now 35 years later Ronald’s original contract with the company’s more famous founders has fetched $1.6 million at a Sotheby’s auction.

While Wayne was only with the company for a very short period of time he managed to do what was requested of him by Steve Jobs, namely he convinced Steve Wozniak to leave Hewlett Packard and help invent the first Apple computers.

Ronald Wayne would be worth nearly $36 billion in 2011 dollars if he had stuck to his guns as Jobs and Wozniak did.

The buyer of the business contract was Eduardo Cisneros, CEO of Cisneros Corp. who took it off the hands of seller Wade Saadi. Wade had purchased the original business contract from Wayne for several thousand dollars in 1994.

If you want to make millions or even billions of dollars I would suggest asking Ronald Wayne what he plans to invest in and then do the opposite.

Do you think Ronald Wayne has made some of the worst business decisions in Silicon Valley history?

Original 1976 Apple Partnership Contract Sells For $1.6 Million is a post from: The Inquisitr

A recently discovered video of a previously unseen Steve Jobs interview will be shown in theaters next week. The interview dates from 1995, just before he reunited with Apple and began to turn it into the company it is today.

This lost interview was discovered in the garage of director Paul Sen, who oversaw a 1996 PBS miniseries called Triumph of the Nerds: The Rise of Accidental Empires. The full footage of Jobs’s interview was found on an unedited VHS tape.

In the interview, Jobs is said to describe his acrimonious 1985 exit from Apple (he fell out wih the CEO), his irritation with Microsoft (sounds potentially juicy) and how his love of computers began as a child.

Part of the interview has already appeared in the aforementioned PBS miniseries, but the bulk of the footage went unused.

This’ll no doubt be appearing on a DVD/YouTube at some point in the future, but if you do want to see it for yourself, the full interview will be shown Wednesday November 16 and Thursday November 17 at numerous Landmark Theater locations. This includes theaters in (no news on showtimes or exact locations yet):

Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, New York City, Philadelphia, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, St. Louis and Washington D.C.

Anybody planning to go catch this. And on a slightly different note, I’m wondering where the ticket revenue will go for this? I’d like to think a charitable cause, rather than somebody’s pocket …

‘Steve Jobs: The Lost Interview’ Hitting Theaters Next Week is a post from: The Inquisitr

Does it seem to anyone else that Steve Jobs has incurred more posthumous quasi-dissing than any other similar figure in recent memory?

The man who brought us the iPhone, iPod and iPad was revered by many as a hero and pillar of technical innovation in the days after his death, but his legacy has not been without criticism. Malcolm Gladwell- the author of influential books The Tipping Point and Blink- has weighed in on Jobs’ contribution to the world of technology, and Gladwell has used his keen eye for classification and coining to present a novel analysis of Jobs.

Gladwell maintains that Jobs’ (who he calls a “complicated and exhausting man”) biggest strength was not necessarily in innovation, but in editing. The author fleshes this out with an anecdote about Jobs’ experience in trying to decide between a faster, cheaper American washing machine and a gentler, more eco-conscious European one. He quotes Jobs:

“We spent some time in our family talking about what’s the trade-off we want to make. We ended up talking a lot about design, but also about the values of our family. Did we care most about getting our wash done in an hour versus an hour and a half? Or did we care most about our clothes feeling really soft and lasting longer? Did we care about using a quarter of the water? We spent about two weeks talking about this every night at the dinner table.”

Gladwell points to another big tweak of Jobs’- a Microsoft concept of a tablet that inspired the iPad- before launching into another about the core esthetics of Mac:

He looked at the title bars—the headers that run across the top of windows and documents—that his team of software developers had designed for the original Macintosh and decided he didn’t like them. He forced the developers to do another version, and then another, about twenty iterations in all, insisting on one tiny tweak after another, and when the developers protested that they had better things to do he shouted, “Can you imagine looking at that every day? It’s not just a little thing. It’s something we have to do right.”

You can read Gladwell’s entire piece over at the New Yorker. Do you think Steve Jobs has been over or underappreciated?

Steve Jobs More ‘Tweaker’ Than Inventor, Gladwell Says is a post from: The Inquisitr

Before Steve Jobs passed away he uttered two simple words. According to a eulogy by his sister, Mona Simpson, Steve Jobs’ last words were “Oh wow. Oh wow. Oh wow.”

Simpson writes:

“He’d looked at his sister Patty, then for a long time at his children, then at his life’s partner, Laurene, and then over their shoulders past them…. His breathing changed. It became severe, deliberate, purposeful…. Steve’s final words, hours earlier, were monosyllables, repeated three times… OH WOW. OH WOW. OH WOW.”

What do you think Steve Jobs’ meant to say when he left the world saying, “oh wow?” In her essay, “A Sister’s Eulogy for Steve Jobs,” Simpson says that Jobs’ last words had to do with his “capacity for wonderment, the artist’s belief in the ideal, the still more beautiful later.”

According to the Washington Post, Thomas Edison uttered similar words before his death. Edison’s last words, however, imply that he saw heaven shortly before his death. Edison said:

 “It is very beautiful over there.”

Walter Isaacson, Jobs’ biographer, said that in the days before Jobs death the Apple founder started talking more about God and the afterlife. Do you think Jobs and Edison shared a similar pre-death vision?

Were those the only words Steve Jobs could find as his life flashed before his eyes? Was he so overwhelmed by the love in the room that he could only utter a few syllables? Or are they meaningless?

What do you think of Steve Jobs’ last words?

Steve Jobs’ Last Words: Oh Wow is a post from: The Inquisitr

Software engineer Jeff Robbin, best known for his creation of the Apple iTunes program and help developing the iPod has been tapped to build Apple’s first standalone TV.

A source close to the project told Bloomberg on Tuesday that Apple hopes to have the project completed and ready for sale by early 2012.

The news comes after Steve Jobs told his biographer early this month that he “finally cracked” how to build a TV consumers would want while integrating all of their media into one spot. According to Jobs the TV was to have “the simplest user interface you could imagine.”

The project is said to have a search function that can search all of a users media streams including cable, Netflix, Hulu and other sources simultaneously, although some content providers have not been participating with that search initiative.

Jeff Robbin was so important to Steve Jobs that at one point he would not mention his name in the media for fear that they would jump ship when poached by another company.

Would you be willing to purchase a TV manufacturer with Apple if the search functionality and user stream information is as good as Steve Jobs has promised? One thing is for certain it will probably look amazing like all the rest of their hardware.

iTunes Creator Working On TV For Apple, Could Arrive Next Year is a post from: The Inquisitr

Apple has posted a link on its website to a video of the company’s memorial services for its employees to celebrate the life of its founder Steve Jobs.

The event, held last Wednesday in an outdoor amphitheater at Apple campus, was closed to the public. Reporters were even asked to stay away from the Apple premises during that time. The company also closed all its retail stores so that employees could view the memorial service via webcast.

The video which runs 81 minutes is Apple’s way of sharing to the public the company as they mourn the death of Jobs at the age of 56 on October 5 due to a long battle with pancreatic cancer.

Apple CEO Tim Cook said the past two weeks had been the saddest of his life:

“But I know Steve. Steve would have wanted this cloud to lift for Apple and our focus to return to the work that he loved so much.”

Cook also revealed that the last piece of advice that Jobs gave him was “to never ask what he would do, just do what’s right.”

Jobs’ wife Laurene Powell and former Vice President and Apple board member Al Gore were also present during the event.

Despite not being involved with Apple, how do you celebrate Steve’s life? Or is this just another passing of a great mind?

Apple Posts A Celebration of Steve’s Life Online is a post from: The Inquisitr

If Compaq had their way in 1999 at least some of their computers would have been installed with the Mac operating system. According to interim Compaq CEO Ben Rosen the company spoke with Steve Jobs in the middle of 1999 and while they would have liked to see the system installed on some systems. The deal would have come during the middle of the Microsoft anti-trust fiasco but its computer systems ultimately didn’t provide what Apple required.

The biggest issue was the lack of control Apple would have had over the computers that would have sported the Mac OS. Apple feared that their tight hardware and software integration would have been put in jeopardy had Compaq controlled any licensing agreement.s

Compaq entertained the notion of the Mac OS system at a time when Microsoft was demanding that computer manufacturers pay them a royalty on every computer sold, even if the Windows OS was not installed on the computer at the time of sale.

According to Electronista:

While it’s commonplace for executives from different companies to explore ideas that don’t go further than initial concepts, the talk itself is surprising as it contradicts the business model that many credited with saving Apple. Shortly after coming back as interim CEO in 1997, Jobs axed Mac clones as they weren’t gaining market share and were killing sales of Apple’s costlier but still vital hardware. A narrow selection of hardware and software was key to the iMac. Letting Compaq have access might have boosted Apple’s recognition but would also have created uncertainty in the hardware and possibly repeated Apple’s troubles from the mid-1990s.

In the meantime Apple is now the largest technology provider in the world and HP may soon be exiting the personal computing market after slumping sales and an increase in mobile phone technologies. As for Rosen? He’s the CEO of Compaq and has been using a Mac since 2007.

[via]

Mac OS Nearly Landed On Compaq Computers In the 90s [Report] is a post from: The Inquisitr

Did you know that Steve Jobs is smarter than you? Did you also know that he’s the only person to invest anything worthwhile? That’s basically the thinking of Jobs in Walter Isaacson’s  upcoming biography titled Steve Jobs.

In his biography Steve Jobs goes off on a tangent, calling the Google Android OS a “grand theft” of Apple’s ideas. According to the Huffington Post when speaking about his company’s lawsuit against HTC which named the Google Android OS he said:

“I’m willing to go thermonuclear war on this,”

Jobs then added:

“Our lawsuit is saying, ‘Google you f—ing ripped off the iPhone, wholesale ripped us off,” Jobs 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.”

In the biography Jobs also attacked Bill Gates saying he was:

“Basically unimaginative and has never invented anything” and instead “just shamelessly ripped off other people’s ideas.” Jobs went on to stay that Bill Gates would  “be a broader guy if he had dropped acid once or gone off to an ashram when he was younger.”

Jobs also went off on President Obama during a fall 2010 meeting in which he said he was “headed for a one-term presidency” because he wouldn’t make it cheap enough to build new factories in the US. After that meeting Jobs said he would help Obama create his 2012 ads.

Let’s be clear about one thing, Apple as a company has never actually “invented” any major findings for their industries. The company’s true talents comes from bettering products that already exist in one form or another. The iPhone arrived decades after cell phone technology was invented, their iPod line prettied up an already existing MP3 player market and the iPad took the idea of tablet computing and dumbed it down for the masses. Even their heralded Apple OS X interface came about after the company witnessed progress Xerox was making in the late 1970′s with graphical user interfaces (the same interface that led Microsoft to their own Windows systems).

That’s not to say I don’t appreciate the beauty found in Apple products, specifically the simplicity for which they are designed to operate, but Steve Jobs claiming that his company invented modern day technology is ignorant, less we forget it was his Apple co-founder Steve Wozniack who would come home after a full day of work for Hewlett-Packard and personally build the company’s Apple I and Apple II components by hand, both on the hardware and software front while Jobs handled the business side…then again maybe Steve Jobs invented “business” too.

Feel free to use our comments section to tell me why I’m wrong and Apple is our savior, I expect to see plenty of fanboy comments starting right…now. (I’ll be checking them on my iPhone 4s…go figure).

Biography: Steve Jobs Was Better Than Everyone Else, But We Already Knew That is a post from: The Inquisitr

During his intimate talks with Apple CEO Steve Jobs biographer Walter Isaacson has revealed that Jobs refused an early and potential life-saving surgery on his pancreatic cancer because he believed at the time it would have been too invasive.

Isaacson says Jobs told him during one of their deepest discussion that he regretted putting off the surgery in favor of alternative methods.

The full discussion about Jobs and his battle with cancer and his life at Apple will be fully disclosed in the book Steve Jobs and Isaacson reveals more information with 60 Minutes interviewer Steve Kroft on Sunday, Oct. 23 at 7 p.m. ET/PT.

In the interview Isaacson says:

“I’ve asked [Jobs why he didn't get an operation then] and he said, ‘I didn’t want my body to be opened…I didn’t want to be violated in that way.’”

During Jobs’ nine months attempt to avoid the surgery his wife was urging him to have the surgery performed.

When asked why Jobs would make such a stupid decision Isaacson says:

“I think that he kind of felt that if you ignore something, if you don’t want something to exist, you can have magical thinking…we talked about this a lot,” and “He wanted to talk about it, how he regretted it….I think he felt he should have been operated on sooner.”

In another revelation the biographer says even after Steve Jobs received the surgery and was battling his cancer with various treatments he was telling everyone the cancer had been cured and he was fine.

In any case the world lost a tech visionary and now only time will tell how Apple will fare without their head innovator.

Biographer Says Apple CEO Steve Jobs Denied Early Potentially Life Saving Surgery is a post from: The Inquisitr

AskMen.com has just released its list of the “49 Most Influential Men of 2011,” and unsurprisingly, Steve Jobs is at the top of the list. Jobs passed away earlier this month, but not before changing the way that AskMen.com readers interact with media.

Editor-in-chief James Bassil said:

“Steve Jobs led the Top 49 voting from the day that we opened it. Now that may seem poignant, but throughout the voting period, it was for very practical reasons: Jobs has had an immediate and direct influence on the ways that AskMen readers listen to their music, communicate with one another — and read AskMen.”

More than 200,000 votes were cast in the annual poll, which ranked politicians, athletes, celebrities, and businessmen in order of influence. According to Yahoo, Jobs claimed more than half of the votes.

Here are “The Most Influential Men of 2011,” according to Askmen.com.

1. Steve Jobs
2. SEAL Team Six
3. Larry Page
4. Warren Buffett
5. Kanye West
6. Mohamed Bouazizi
7. Prince William
8. Anonymous (Wiki leaks group)
9. Ryan Gosling
10. Lionel Messi

Askmen.com writes:

“The men who made the list come from different walks of life, but they’re all visionaries who completely own their respective fields. They not only challenge themselves to become better men every day, but they’re dedicated to furthering the future of mankind (even Charlie Sheen, in his own strange way). These are the men history will remember as having defined 2011.”

Jon Stewart, who was ranked number 1 on the Askmen.com list in 2010, dropped to number 12 this year. President Obama was ranked number 21 for the second year in a row. He was ranked number 3 in 2009.

Do you think Steve Jobs deserves the most influential title for 2011?

Steve Jobs is the Most Influential Man of 2011 is a post from: The Inquisitr

With the iPhone 4S already out on the market an increasing number of Apple experts and fans are beginning to turn their attention towards next summers release, the iPhone 5 and with good reason, it turns out Steve Jobs was largely responsible for the concept and final design behind the new device.

According to a financial analysis report acquired by CNET the iPhone 5:

“Was the last project that Steve Jobs was intimately involved with from concept to final design.”

That same report says the phone will likely be slimmer than the iPhone 4S while also offering a larger screen and 4G data connections.

Another source says that while the device will feature many aspects that have made the iPhone series so popular it will also feature a new design that’s sure to become a “cult classic” considering it was the last large scale project Steve Jobs intimately worked on.

According to the analysts:

“This is a very large project that Steve dedicated all of his time to,” and  ”He was not that involved in the 4S because his time was limited.”

It’s still not clear when the iPhone 5 will be released however it will likely be announced near the Apple Developer’s Conference next summer.

Do you believe that Steve Jobs’ involvement in the creation of the iPhone 5 from concept to finished product is going to make it even more popular than the iPhone 4S? Keep in mind that the iPhone 4S destroyed sales records by pre-ordering more than one million units in the first week of ordering availability.

Steve Jobs Personally Oversaw iPhone 5 Design [Report] is a post from: The Inquisitr

In a special tribute to their fallen co-founder and leader Apple may close their Apple Stores for one hour on October 19 so they can observed an hour of silence for Steve Jobs.

According to 9to5 the stores would close at 1PM Eastern and staff would be offered the chance to watch a free live broadcast from inside the company’s Cupertino headquarters before returning to work.

Recently Apple CEO Tim Cook said that in honor of Jobs’ work at Apple the company was making “arrangements for employees outside of Cupertino” and this 1-hour work stoppage would seem to align with his statement.

The 1-hour work stoppage isn’t the only tribute Apple executives have called for, a private memorial is planned for October 16 and California Governor Jerry Brown has already October 16 at “Steve Jobs Day.”

If you’ve read any biographies about his work ethic it almost seems like a bunch of employees sitting around doing nothing is the exact opposite of what he would want. Do you think Apple’s one hour work stop is the right way to honor Steve Jobs?

Apple Stores To Observe “Hour Of Silence” On October 19, Honor Fallen CEO is a post from: The Inquisitr